I found this nice little article about how blogs are an excellent and effective way to meet all of your branding goals.
Click here to read the article.
I think a lot of people are still a little in the dark about WIKIs and SEO so I thought I'd kill 2 birds with 1 stone in this article by discussing WIKIs and then showing you info about SEO that I found on a WIKI (look how that works :).
WIKIs
In a nutshell, a WIKI is a collection of content about something, with a twist. That content could be volcanoes, physics, a company's offerings, or anything at all people want to share information about. The twist is that anyone who has access to a WIKI can edit or add the content. For example, say I wanted to start a site on volcanoes. Normally, me as the expert would post my information and people on the web can read it. But if I set up a WIKI, I could post my info, but anybody else can add to it or even edit the existing content. So it basically puts the control of the content into the public's hands. This may sound risky, because you risk an uninformed person posting incorrect information. But WIKIs have actually been used to great success. Wikipedia.org is a HUGE online encylopedia and the entire thing is a WIKI. If you haven't been there, check it out! Seriously. You can find/edit/add information on anything you want.
This leads me to the second topic: SEO. I was going to discuss SEO a little, but the introduction on Wikipedia is pretty good so I thought I'd just post it here and if you like it, you can go read some more at Wikipedia.org. So without further ado, here ya go:
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results.
Usually, the earlier a site is presented in the search results, or the
higher it "ranks," the more searchers will visit that site. SEO can
also target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.
As a marketing strategy for increasing a site's relevancy, SEO considers how search algorithms
work and what people search for. SEO efforts may involve a site's
coding, presentation, and structure, as well as fixing problems that
could prevent search engine indexing programs from fully spidering a site. Other, more noticeable efforts may include adding unique content to a site, and making sure that the content is easily indexed by search engines and also appeals to human visitors.
The acronym "SEO" can also refer to "search engine optimizers," a term adopted by an industry of consultants
who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by
employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers
may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader
marketing campaign. Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site, SEO tactics may be incorporated into web site development and design. The term "search engine friendly" may be used to describe web site designs, menus, content management systems and shopping carts that are easy to optimize.
Someone sent out an e-mail about the image you see below. It's the logo for the 2012 Olympics in London and apparently, it cost like 800 grand to create! Now people are boycotting it because it looks like a toilet monkey or broken swastica (people can see anything if they look hard enough).
Well, we e-mailed about it for hours, like our very own little viral thing, and people kept saying things they thought it looked like. For example, Stanton said it looked like his sister's 1990 Umbro shorts. So some of the ideas were pretty funny.
Anyway, this whole thing reminded me of the Photoshop contests at fark.com. If you've never checked them out, go there now! They are so funny! What is a Photoshop contest at fark.com, do you ask? Well, a few times a day, they'll post a popular image and then people use Photoshop to alter/enhance the image into something as funny as possible. And some of the entries are brilliant!
That whole thing got me thinking that there's got to be a viral idea or something there about a Photoshop contest. I should offer a prize for someone who can Photoshop the coolest thing out of the Olympics logo. Any takers?
Artist Julius Popp creates text from water in an art instalation in St. Louis.
See The Video
Keye found this online today and we thought it was absolutely hilarious. I'm sure it will spread through the Internet in only a few days.
Sometimes it seems like if you think of the weirdest, most random thing, it will be come viral. Or maybe the key is to throw in a ton of subtle things. For example, one person may love this because of the noises the guys make (I sure did).. But someone else may love it because they are in their skivvies. Maybe that's the key to viral: Throw in a ton of stuff that someone is bound to like :) OK maybe not...
Has anybody hear of or been to Lynda.com? It's an AMAZING training site with video instructions on virtually everything you could ever want to know about computers and the web. Want to learn HTML? There is a 3 hour course titled "HTML Essential Training". Want to brush up on your PowerPoint skills? There's a 7.5 hour course on this as well. Many of these courses are broken into individual topics so if you don't have the full 7 hours to spend, just watch a couple sections of interest.
Many of the courses you'll find are geared towards creatives and non-technical types. And the best part is, we have an account so feel free to e-mail Keye or Cody for more info.