It's like the Swiffer commercial, where an old sponge-mop is outside a window, peeking in at a housewife who has moved on to better mops, while "Love Stinks" plays in the background. The old mop is trying to win her back, even going so far as to hire a Mariachi band to court its perfidious ex-partner.

In this case, you're the sponge-mop.

We're talking about site-abandonment, and especially early abandonment -- the kind that leaves you feeling like a toddler dropped off at a nunnery, and you never know why, though you spend your life trying to find out.

Digital marketers, especially those who rely on campaigns to drive ecommerce, suffer greatly from abandonment rates, which can run as high as 80 percent for a typical landing page. All marketers are affected by it, even if their KPIs don't involve selling something online. In fact, any failure to complete a scenario -- any loss of traffic anywhere in the funnel -- is a symptom of abandonment: The target audience just didn't want to proceed. And isn't that the entire reason we perform web analytics at all? To find out why we can't get every single site visitor to do what we want them to do?

Perhaps a thousand types of measures have been devised about visitor behavior. The sheer number of report choices can nearly suffocate any search for the truth. There are so many interconnected measures that, at a certain point, it becomes like a house of mirrors -- no one can tell what's the real number or which measure can be relied upon for some type of objectivity.

In your search for objectivity, have you ever wondered if people's behavior is affected by how long they have to wait for your page to load? Have you ever abandoned because of load time?

Here are three ways, based on understanding load time, to help put abandonment in perspective -- and perhaps even decrease your abandonment rates:

Step 1: Admit you have a problem
The latest data shows that abandonment increases dramatically after a wait time of four seconds. In net time, four seconds is like four hours of driving: "Are we there yet?" becomes "Let's just pull over." And all of your marketing efforts suddenly become road-kill.

Slow load time can be caused by a number of problems, some of them obvious, some of them hidden, and all of them addressable.

The first thing you'll want to look at is content richness.

Ouch.

You may be thinking content richness is what everybody is looking for. How can you survive without Flash, without embedded video, without whirling, dancing eye-candy for a user base that seems to think a chance browser encounter should be as glittery as a stroll down the Las Vegas Strip?

Your content might be too rich, and yes, it might take too long to download. It might ask for too many plug-ins. It might be unsupported by your target user's browser.

Or, your page load problem may be caused by something that has nothing to do with over-rich content. It could turn out that your server is slower than a dinosaur in a dunce-cap; then again, you might have a peerage issue somewhere between you and Timbuktu. The hunt for KPI completion does not begin and end with earning kudos from your colleagues in a closed environment where everything runs at optimum speed and every link works just the way it ought to.

You need to get out of the conference room and into the real world. That's where the real story of page load begins and ends. And, as noted above, the trouble may not even be content richness. But how do you measure that?  Contact ICND to fix this problem now!

Step 2: Measure with the right yardstick
There are a number of tools available to measure load time: Gomez, Keynote, TeaLeaf, Atomic Labs -- these are just a few of the companies with load time measurement offerings. There are also some clever ways to tag pages for load time information, but few of these options are bundled products as yet (though they may be available from your web analytics professional services vendor).

The products mentioned above tend to work in a somewhat different way than the typical analytics tools do. In other words, they don't concentrate on click-stream data and don't need tagging or log files in order to function. In fact, they are, generally speaking, separate architectures that look at all of your traffic, all of the time, and do a variety of things with that information. Sometimes they are called "sniffers" because they sit somewhere between your server and your user and pick up all the traffic (kind of the way a bloodhound sniffs an evidentiary trail).

So for instance, where an analytics tool will know whether a particular tag loaded, a "sniffer" will know much more about how long it took for the page to be requested, how long it took the server to get it out the door, and how long it took for the various packets sent by the server to show up in the remote user's browser.

I had indicated above that some of the tools have significant other uses. TeaLeaf, in particular, has a core function that allows the marketer to play back, literally, a browsing session. Some folks call it "Tivo for web analytics." It may be a bit much to deploy all of that solely for the purpose of locating a page-load problem, but if it is taking place, TeaLeaf will probably see it.

A tool like Gomez, on the other hand, sets up a network (around the world) of synthetic testing nodes, enabling them essentially to mimic requests from anywhere and measure your response time for anything and everything you want to measure. You can look at certain parts of your transactions and find out, for instance, how long that is taking in Albuquerque, Inchon, and Luxembourg all at once. The only drawback is that generally these tests are synthetic (in other words, not involving actual users).

A clever tagging solution will have its drawbacks too; for instance, it won't be able to know when the server request was made, or how long it took for the first tag to load. But then, the moon is not the sun, yet both have recognizable assets.

Linking load time directly to abandonment typically requires an additional integration step. For instance, if you are trying to find out how a sniffer-tracked load time problem is affecting your campaign ROI, you should be prepared to do some fancy dancing with your analytics tool -- but with the right kind of integration, the dancing can lead to marriage, and you'll see stars.

The important takeaway is this: While I'm not going to claim it's easy, you can certainly find out how long your pages take to load, and you can, with the application of some elbow grease, understand whether that is affecting abandonment and conversion overall. In all likelihood, load time is affecting abandonment. Now you'll know how much, and perhaps even why. 

Step 3: Come back armed with the facts
This part is probably the least fun, but most rewarding once it's done and accepted. Armed with load time data, your task now becomes a matter of breaking the news.

Your creatives, your developers, and/or your IT folks may all dislike your news intensely, but you've got bigger worries than that if people aren't completing scenarios.

I know from experience that creatives have a soft, mushy spot in their hearts for visual extravaganza. For them, a day without Flash is like a week in the pokey, and they will start to complain that they can't deliver value without it -- and some of that may even be correct.

I also know from experience that IT folks will defend their architecture to the bitter end -- or at least until management coughs up enough bucks for some faster servers. But even the best server jockeys must sometimes face the fact their horse is not in the money.

Developers will say it can't be fixed. The work that's been put into your current site cannot be taken apart and reassembled in a more efficient way "just like that." And they are right (but they were, perhaps, wrong for building it "like that" in the first place.)

In any case, while your developers may be architects of the best parts of your site, they are also architects of the worst; and when people are bailing before your pages load, that's the worst. As a marketer, you may need to force-feed them some facts, and hold them accountable for making sure you don't have to tell management that the site's most important pages aren't even being seen by the audience.

Conclusion
You've probably long sensed there was some "other" problem out there that was keeping users from delivering for you. You could never be sure what it was. There were fingers pointing 'round the table during your last review, and nobody seemed to be at fault. Knowing about load time will help reduce the blank stares at meeting time, and set you up for better success at conversion.

Often, it's the unturned stone in the path that hides the all-important clue. My suggestion: You should at least turn over that stone.

Andrew Edwards is managing partner of Technology Leaders. 

Is your traffic quality traffic?

Put your site and your marketing efforts to the test.

So you’ve had 2,567 visitors this month and only two sales online. What’s going on? You’re doing SEO, PPC, and other offline marketing tactics.   Your results should be more, right? Yes. They should be more. So, let’s take a look at what might be causing this slump of proportion of sales per visitor.

Back to the basics. Whether or not your site is booming or dragging, do you know who your customers are? Are you targeting the right audience? In the past couple of years, buyer’s behavior has really shifted. They have more control then ever, more information thanks to the internet, and are much more cost conscience because of the recession. So take an immediate look at your buyer from the last year and also look at their buying behavior and cycle. What’s the sex, age, average income? Where do they live? When are they buying? Here are some cool tools and analytics to find out.

Microsoft Ad Center has a great program to help you look at the demographics of your website. Check out their demographics prediction tool: http://adlab.microsoft.com/Demographics-Prediction/DPUI.aspx

Click on URL next to tool input and put in your website URL. It will bring back the results of your website based on different factors they record.

Then, put some of your top keyword phrases in the query tool and see what the results bring back.  Compare your site demographics to your keyword phrases as well as what you thought the results would be. You may be surprised on how far off you may be.

Check out some of your competitor’s sites and see where they pan out in comparison to the popular keyword phrases pertaining to your industry.

Then, pull up your Google Analytics or your analytic software and there you should be able to pull a map that shows you all of the geographical locations your traffic is coming from. Is that your target area?

Look at your bounce rate. If it’s high, you may need to adjust your content or your site or your marketing efforts. Look and see where your traffic may be exiting your site. Is there a disconnect somewhere? Are you able to take your visitor down the right path? Or, are they getting frustrated and leaving?

Next you look at your marketing both online and offline. It’s not necessarily the amount of traffic you send to your site, but the quality of traffic you drive to your site. The more targeted your marketing efforts are to your core audience, the more your inclined to have more sales. 

For more information about how to evaluate your marketing and traffic, contact us as info@icoastalnet.com with your questions or call 1-866-249-6095

A few months ago Google released a video demoing their revolutionary product, Google Wave. It promises to be everything Google is as a whole, all rolled up into one easy to use interface, not to mention make email obsolete. That's a pretty big promise, and if anyone can accomplish something so huge it's Google.

If you watched the entire hour and twenty minute video or read anything about Wave, you know a little about what it's capable of, but even so, you probably weren't one of the lucky folks to make it into the beta to test the software. That's where we come in.

First logging into Wave, I'll admit, was overwhelming. We had all watched the whole demo video, and I felt I understood the interface and how it worked. The good news is that the overwhelming feeling goes away pretty quickly. If you're like most and have a Gmail account, you'll notice that the interface is set up to mimic the Gmail interface.

In the center of interface is the Wave inbox. This is just like your inbox in your email, with the subject of the wave, and the icon or avatar of some of the people in the wave. On the left side of the interface will be a link to start a new wave. This will open a window to the right of the inbox one where any current wave you are interacting with will be. From here is where the magic all happens. Also note these windows are collapsible so you can maximize your screen real estate with what you are currently reading or maybe just hide your inbox during a meeting to stay focused.

Basically Google will allow you to do just about anything you could think of inside of a wave, and this is why it has the potential to be the biggest thing to happen to the Internet since...well since email. The wave combines Gmail, Gtalk, Google documents, Google maps and probably some other Google things that I can't remember.

That means if you want to send an email, instant message, directions with a map, or create an entire collaborative presentation or document that everyone can edit in real time - you can do it all with a wave. Plus, you can drag and drop photos from your PC, or Google image search and you can even embed YouTube videos straight into the wave. Sounds like a lot of content to suddenly fall into if you get added to a wave late. Google thought of that and made it possible to use what that call a playback ability to see the progression of the wave from the beginning - edit by edit.

Of course the ability to install extensions means that Google Wave has unlimited potential. Right now there are only a few basic extensions created for the beta, like a yes/no/maybe chart for decision making with your friends, a weather extension, and a couple map and trip builders. The most basic, but probably the most convenient is the Google Search extension that comes by default. Anything you search within this small window can be inserted into the wave for others to see.

The most amazing of the extensions Google has in the works though, is the universal translator. Though it's not quite complete, Google did demo it in the video, and it did allow them to translate from one language to the next in real time, and with Wave's ability to display all sorts of characters, the language possibilities are seemingly endless. Though, there are also some addons for things like prettying your code so you can share HTML/MySQL/PHP/etc. code while developing and have it look nice and be color coded. There are so many possibilities with the bots/addons that can be created we are all very excited.

We're very impressed with the ambition and the ease of use of the program. The Google design team has thought of almost everything when it comes to things like drag-and-drop, which makes the program so much easier to use. As a challenge, we tried to figure out how many different ways we could do the same action within a wave. (I'm not sure we've named a winner yet.)

It's important to mention that some news has come out suggesting that Wave will have some security issues with bots, but seeing as how it's not officially released yet, it's unfair to assume that Google won't deal with that before release.

For more information on Google updates, please see our friends at SearchEngineNews.com.

It's been awhile since I've noticed anything cool....okay okay. So I haven't had time. But this popped out at me and I had to make time. Google announced (along with Place Pages....more about that later) the launch of its newest tool called Sidewiki.

Sidewiki is browser based (there's already a plugin for IE and Firefox, Chrome is on the way. Side NOTE: Personally that's weird since Chrome is a Google product as well. But...I think that just means the plug in for Chrome will be more inclusive. Mark my words.)

What is the significant of Sidewiki being browser based? It means know every web page in the world, no matter how outdated, will be instantly updated with Web 2.0 functionality.

What is Web 2.0?

Web 2.0 is a fancy way of saying a web page, web site, blog, web element...whatever...has the ability for user interaction. Whether it's through comments, review, ratings...etc.

What does Sidewiki do?

Easy. It gives you the ability to read and post comments on any page you visit via your web browser. What to say how useful a certain article is? Do it. What to tell the webmaster their use of primary colors is distracting? Do it. Want to say, "Don't buy this from them? Buy it from me...Go to [insert link]". Do it.

Think of the possibilities. It's scary.

Some lingering questions are...won't Sidewiki possibly promote liable or pitched trench wars between companies big and small. I mean, all it will take is one "hurtful" comment like "Coke makes you fat" and Coke could come down on the user for hurting their brand.

Not that I'm saying I'm against the free flowing information. This is the Age of Opinion after all and everyone has an opinion, because you know, opinions are like....well you get the idea.

So what are you waiting for? Download Sidewiki now and leave me some comments on how you think mass opinions and help or hurt the world at large (or your business for that matter).

Happy posting.

Review Courtsey of DoshDosh.com 

50 Social News Websites: A List of General and Niche Social Media Communities

General Social News Websites

1. Reddit: Popular social news website with a large user base. Covers a wide range of news. Includes several topical sections called subreddits, which focus on specific topics like programming, science, politics and business.

2. Digg: The largest and most popular social news website on the internet. Covers all topics including politics, entertainment, technology and general news. Includes a separate video and image section.

3. Propeller: A social news site that covers all topics from technology to politics and entertainment. Operates in a similar fashion to Digg.

4. Fark: A community news site which allows users to comment on news articles. User submitted links will be posted on the main page once they are approved by the administrators.

5. Slashdot: Primarily a tech news site, Slashdot also covers topics like books, games, politics and entertainment. Users can submit stories and they may be published after editors approve it. A popular site that can send a large amount of traffic.

6. Metafilter: A community weblog which allows users to share links and discuss interesting websites/topics. Moderation is done through editors as well as peer pressure in order to prevent gaming.

7. I am bored: Covers general topics with a strong focus on weird and offbeat news. You can submit a link which may be posted after the editors approve it.

8. Mixx: A general social news sites which has a category for all types of news. Topics covered include business, entertainment, sports, health and tech. Includes the ability to create groups to share news with other users.

9. Shoutwire: General news site that is well populated with a loyal group of users. Topics covered include technology, politics, entertainment, lifestyle and sports.

10. Newsvine: A website consisting of community-driven news stories and opinions. Users have their own blogs and can write articles, save links to external content and vote/comment on other user stories.

11. IndianPad: A general social news site that with a large indian userbase. Topics covered include entertainment, sports, videos and tamil news.

12. Linkfilter: Covers all sorts of news. All links are posted and moderated by users. Links can be ranked on several levels: clicks, votes, age, or a combination of all three called points.

13. NewsCloud: A general social site with a focus on news in all topics. Similar to Newsvine, each user has their own blogs and can publish content to be voted up by other users.

14. Hugg: Hugg is a social news site with a strong focus on environmental issues. Also includes other categories like politics, science, fashion and technology.

15. Plime: A general news site which features a wide variety of topics ranging from religion and sports to technology or business. Odd news performs best in this community.

16. C2NN: An active social news site with a variety of topics including environment issues, business, politics, animals and offbeat. Similar to Hugg in focus but much more populated and active.

17. Kirsty: A general news site with a focus on fashion, entertainment and design on top of other topics like technology and food. Has a strong female user base.

18. Nowpublic: A participatory news network which focuses on citizen journalism. Each user has their own individual profile blog/page and can upload videos, images and news stories.

19. Stirrdup: General social news site with four broad categories: politics, technology, news and entertainment.

20. Searchles: A hybrid social news sites which covers all topics. Includes a video section and offers personalized filtering features and the option of joining groups made up of other users with similar interests.

21. Linkinn: A social news site that specializes in pictures and video. Covers a broad range of topics, particular offbeat and weird content.

22. Earthfrisk: Covers topics like humor, politics, entertainment and business. Combines a social network and group features with digg-style news voting.

23. Truemors: A social rumor news site which focuses on the publication of “true rumors that are relevant, informative, and interesting.” Users can post links anonymously via text, voicemail, web or email. Editors moderate content.

24. StumbleUpon: A social network and browser toolbar which allows users to channel surf the internet. Technically not 100% a social news site, although users can submit webpages to be rated by other users. Here is a guide to StumbleUpon.

25. Linkswarm: Covers a wide range of topics from celebrity gossip to funny media, science and politics. Focuses on pop culture and bizarre news as well.

Niche Social News Websites

Here are social websites which focus on a specific niche. For best results, only submit to them when your site falls within the same niche or covers the same topics. Or else you’re likely to be marked as spam.

26. Sphinn: Sphinn is a social site for search and interactive marketers. It’s designed to allow you to share and discover news stories, read and take part in discussions, discover events of interest and network with others.

27. Dzone: DZone is a free link-sharing community for developers. Other topics commonly featured include web design and programming.

28. Tweako: A user-powered site and social network with a focus on guides and tutorials in all categories like computing, technology, and the Internet.

29. Autospies: A social site that focuses on automotive news, car reviews, auto show photos and videos.

30. Design Float: A social news site for design-related content. Topics covered include business, freelancing, advertising, digital art and branding.

31. Ball Hype: A site that aggregates content from thousands of sports blogs. Users can submit stories and votes will determine if they make it to home page.

32. YCombinator Hacker News: A news site that focuses on technology, startups, business and entrepreneurship.

33. SWiK: A community driven resource for people who use open source software.

34. Buzzflash: A user driven progressive political news website that allows you to submit political stories.

35. DNHour: DNHour.com is a user-powered news portal built specially for the domain name industry. Most members are generally from the domain name industry, which includes domain name owners, companies or professionals.

36. PlugIM: PlugIM is a user driven internet marketing community. Topics covered include search engine optimization, products, business and marketing.

37.Showhype: Operates in a similar way to Ballhype. Stories come from two sources — users and aggregated content. Users can also submit a link to a story that they’ve found or write their own article on ShowHype.

38. Small Business Brief: A niche social site which focuses on small business news. Topics covered include marketing and sales, website development, management and entrepreneurship.

39. Hypediss: Social news site with a focus on design, fashion, urban culture and art.

40. Chictini: Product-oriented social site which a focus on new trends and styles. It’s possible to submit news stories although most of the submissions feature products from online retailers.

41. DotNetKicks: DotNetKicks.com is a community based news site that focuses on topics like NET development techniques, technologies and tools including ASP.NET, C#, VB.NET, C++ and Visual Studio.

42. Lipstick: Reddit-style social news site for celebrity gossip.

43. Hubspot: Social news site for marketers, entrepreneurs and business professionals.

44. Winelifetoday: A niche social site for wine lovers. Topics covered included news and opinion articles to do with wine.

45. iliketotallyloveit.com: Allows users to publish and share products with the broader public which they find cool, innovative, exceptionally beautiful, or just weird. Included with every item is a link to an online shop where it can be purchased.

46. Wordsy: A niche social news site for people who love reading and books. Topics covered include small presses, fiction writing, authors, book awards and poetry. (Note: Wordsy has suspended its site since Dec 2008)

47. Value Investing News: A niche social news site that covers stocks and investment news. A small but active community.

48. Teenwag: Focus on celebrity gossip. A hybrid social network with digg-style voting. Users can submit links to be voted up by other users.

49. Muti: Muti is a social bookmarking site inspired by reddit and Digg but dedicated to content of interest to Africans or those interested in Africa.

50. Tip’d: A social media site for finance, investing, and business topics. Tip’d users vote on stories they like by clicking the ‘Tip it’ button that appears next to each story, and then can comment by pressing the ‘Discuss’ link below the story.

End DoshDosh reviews.

That about covers every subject and category any business or aficionado could ever possibly want to blog, microblog, or bookmark. Join them and then sign up for Digsby or Ping.fm to handle all the posts from one place.

Now if we could only find a way to write content without having to think or spend time doing so.

For all your social media marketing needs, contact InterCoastal Net Designs today - A North Carolina marketing company.

As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. When you're trying to convey something about a particular website and can't simply explain it using the URL (because the design/website isn't live yet, because their is an error in the flash or java script rotation/imagery and can't be captured by sending the URL) then you'll need to send a screen shot. For PC users, here's how you do it.

1) Open the particular page you want to capture by browsing to it using your favorite Internet Browswer (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, etc).

2) Make sure you can actually SEE the portion of the web page you want to capture. This rudimentary way to do a screenshot does not capture anything out of the window of your browser, so no scrolling areas. Just what you can see. So scroll down, left, right, which ever.

3) If you are trying to capture an issue in something that is in a rotation or flash movie, then wait until that particular FRAME or image comes up.

4) Push the PRINT SCREEN (Prnt Scrn) button on your keyboard as soon as you SEE what you want to capture. The Prnt Scrn button is located at the top right of your keyboard. Specific locations differ according to the make and model of your keyboard and/or laptop.

What PRINT SCREEN does is not actually PRINT, but it COPIES the image on the screen (similar to the CTRL + C funtion does to text and images).

5) Open one of the following:

- Microsoft Windows file

- Windows Paint program (under your Accessories)

- Photoshop File (PSD)

- Gimp File

Or any other program that allows you to display an IMAGE (so NOT Notepad).

6) Paste the selection into the open/blank file by pushing the CTRL and V keys AT THE SAME TIME, or by right clicking on the blank screen and clicking "Paste".

7) Save the file (will usually default it as a .jpg).

EXTRA

8) If you're using a image editing program similar to photoshop, you can actually put in text notes over areas you're really trying to point out.

If you want an easier way of capturing a screen shot, considering using a speciality program like Snag It. Snag it has a free trial period and is extremely useful. In fact, you can embed a Snag it button into your browser and email client (such as Outlook) where all you have to do is click the button and it captures the screen. And the best part of Snag it is, that you can capture an entire web page scrolling or not in one click. Useful for long web pages with column issues.

For more helpful tips, visit our Internet Marketing blog or contact Intercoastal Net Design, a web development company, today! 1-866-249-6095.

Squidoo. It's been around awhile. But it keeps getting better.

For those of you who don't know, Squidoo is like a wiki, allowing you to post and write about your "expertise", though they don't use that terminology any more because it turns out...most people don't believe themselves to be experts. Unlike a wiki, however, users aren't allowed to edit your work (but in some cases, they're allowed to comment). Your page (or as they call it a lens because it brings a particular topic into focus) can be fleshed out similar to a microsite. Squidoo allows you to pull in content via a RSS, so first and foremost, you can give your Blog content legs by syndicating it here.

Other syndication tools include pulling in your clipmark's content.

And that's just the beginning. There's roughly 80 "modules" you can choose from, including many of the same apps you can intergrate into your LinkedIn page (like SlideShow), WordPress blog, and many other popular social media outlets.

The other cool thing about Squidoo (which makes it unlike Wikipedia and other wikis) is that it allows you to monetize your content. After all, content is king after all, and Squidoo uses your content to run Google Adsense as well as Amazon product boxes  (and intextual pop up ads...hate to tell them that people and Google hate those things). Once you reach a certain penetration or traffic (not really sure about this) Squidoo will share the money it earns off your content with you. Wherein, you can decide to keep it for yourself, donate it to charity, or a mix of both. Cool.

Check out InterCoastal Net Designs' lens on Social Media Marketing, and get a taste of what you can do with Squidoo.

It's a very rare occurrence that you have the number of followers on your website, blog, or social media outlet that really gives your content (your comments, posts, pictures, videos, whatever) the reach it deserves. After all, the whole point of this stuff (Internet Marketing) is to get MORE and MORE people finding, reading, and BUYING your wares (services or products). Right? So even if you get 10,000 unique visitors a day, you could always use more.

So, don't make your readers have to come to your website (or your blog, or your social media outlet) to review your content. Allow your users to pick up and share your content to their friends where their friends are.

This post itself, from this blog, has over 30 ways to easily broadcast our ICND content. From the "retweet" box in the top left corner, to the "share this" button (which as numerous broadcast opportunities) on the bottom right hand corner. To the Technorati, Delicious, and Reddit badges. And don't forget the RSS feeds.

This blog, through the RSS feed, is pulled into our company LinkedIn group, as well as on our Squidoo Lens, among other places. And, with the aid of the RSS, our loyal readers can also pull in our content on their own blogs, pages, lenses, iGoogle page, where ever.

So give your content legs. But always make sure you're driving that interest back to your core (usually your website). And if you care anything about SEO along with your brand, make sure you embed keyword rich links. Because along with getting more impressions and readers, you can also get some killer backlinks.

Here's an example of keyword rich backlinks...

Want more information on social media marketing? Then contact InterCoastal Net Designs, an interactive marketing company and let us help you with giving your content legs.

Remember it's not the size of your tool, but how you use it. Web tools and apps are great ways to save time and money, and to get more bang for your effort. Want the ReTweet Code, or the Share This code? Give me a shout on the Digsby Chat box (another great tool) that's embedded in the right hand corner of this page (if you're on our website...wink, wink.)

Subtitle:

Smart Phone: Consumer Segment of the Year.

Yeah, I know...I make up the titles as I go.

Helpful tools, that's the name of the game. I've been talking a lot about segmentation, and here's another great tool to combat that - the smart phone (the most popular being iPhone, Blackberrys, and the Google Android). But, a bit differently than the previous web tools I've listed in this Internet Marketing blog. For one, it's not a web tool...it's a device. Smart phones (defined as handheld devices that have PC/Mac like functionality (email, IM, web browser, Internet access, desktop file applications, etc) are very versatile tools when it comes to doing business and being a consumer. In fact, they're game changers. Talk about segmentation...smart phones are one of the major causes of the issue.

But, they can also help you pull it all together. Smart phones allow you to access all your communication channels (email, IM, SMS, MMS and phone) as well as media files (text, music, video, powerpoint, and spreadsheets) as well as your favorite social networks. You can take pictures and videos of your own, book travel and flights, check on package delivery statuses, check the weather, and shop. And, probably the most popular element of smart phones, they also allow you to access hunderds of apps (making it the Swiss Army knife of web tools).

Because of the popularity of smart phones (dropping prices, increased bandwith speeds, more inclusive functionality), many national companies have created their own branded apps specifically for their smart phones customers. They've even put their apps in their commercials, like Nationwide, USPS, Dominos, and Expedia (or was it Travelocity?). This is clear evidence that one) smart phone users are growing in relevancy when it comes to marketing and two) cool apps sell products. Hell, iPhone almost exclusive advertises its phone by only advertising its app store (see any recent iPhone commercial). As a result, many other smart phone makers have followed the same tack in their commercials. Other than coverage area and speed, apps are the biggest selling points for smart phones.

How many times has an iPhone owner waved their Carpenter Level app or Tip Calculator app in your face? Oh, don't get me started. 

Hundreds of third party web development companies also churn out apps every day (because selling a successful app can make you millions) - one of the coolest being ShopSavvy's newest barcode reader app just to name ONE.

But I digress as usual.

Smart phones keep you plugged in (a blessing and a curse), which allows for you to keep doing business no matter (virtually) where you are. And yes, I'm a Smart Phone owner myself (Blackberry Curve 8900) - but I'm new to it. Before that, I had a Nokia from 2001. No kidding.

So I'm writing all this as a newly addicted smart phone owner (both from a new marketer's perspective and a consumer). You can definitely stay on top of things, but when you start sleeping beside your smart phone - you need to seek professional help.

Need more info? Here's a recent iPhone versus gPhone article by WebProNews.

Sweet Lord...some one has done it (I think). Segmentation be damned. Much like Digsby, Ping.fm gives you access to your favorite social media outlets from one dashboard, but unlike Digsby, Ping.fm allows you to POST and review from multiple social media accounts, including but not limited to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, MySpace, Flickr, Blogger, WordPress, FriendFeed, Vox, TypePad, and dozens of others. Plus, you can pull in your IM accounts, like Aim and Gtalk.

So instead of creating multiple accounts (we you need to do to really get mileage out of your social media marketing efforts) and then logging in and out of each one every day, set up an account at Ping.fm and pull in  your accounts to one place. It even let's you post to Facebook Fan pages that you're already and ADMIN for.

So, read, review, and post from one place and give your fingers (and your staff) a break.

If you're a business or organizaiton that hasn't yet taken the plunge in the realm of social media, or have started something and can't quite get it off the ground, make sure you contact a social media marketing company that has the expertise to consult and direct you to the next level. Read more about social media marketing.

Barring the inuendo, it's all about how you use your tool(s)...your web tools.

So, everyone (mostly...there are some nay sayers) see the benefit of social networking and social media. But tapping into Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Delicious, Digg, Reddit, StumpleUpon, Friendster, ClipMarks, Ning, Wikis, blogs,...you get the idea - can be exactly as it sounds. Time consuming.

Really, when you take it down to brass tacks...you create a profile, and post, respond, gather, and repeat. [let's just set the what, when, and how aside for the moment]. And every new outlet you tap into means just that much more time.

And that's where the tools come in.

There are hundreds of "border town" apps and browser tools that have sprung up in the wake of the Social Media phenomenom. Twitter does a good job of advertising those that are Twitter-centric - like Twitmatic, Twazzler, Twellow, and Topsy. And Mozilla Firefox browser is great for putting the best toolbar apps at users disposal. And of course, Facebook, Apple (iPhone), and Google (iGoogle) also do a great job of distributing and shopping apps to their users.

To really get the most mileage out of your social media, you need to increase the exposure of your posts, and cut out the monitoring time with tools that really pull it all in and tie it all together. From time to time I'll post a Cool Tool of the Day, like Digsby (still one of my favorites) and Technorati (a standard) and even Topsy (a new kid on the block, even for social media).

Keep checking back in to see my random picks. Or feel free to send my your picks.

Or, if you're a business that want's to cut right through the suspsense, give drop us a line about or social media package and get every you need the knowledge and the know how to kick start your marketing with social medial.

Some guy from Microsoft put this little browser app together. It's more playful than useful...but it does illstrate the vapidness that sometimes lurks behind a million dollar brand.  

What BlindSearch.fejus does is it pulls the results from Google, Yahoo, and Bing and puts the first page results side by side in a easy column view. However the search engine is not revealed (thus blind search) and you are invited to VOTE on which one you think pulled the most relevant results. Go ahead, try it. You'd be surprise what you find.

So, a common thread I have throughout my many discussions on Social Networking and the "conversations" that ensue is out segemented everything is, and how difficult it is to keep it all together. I mean, wouldn't it be nice to be able to view your emails, IMs, and all your social networking activity, all from one friendly interface? Well, Digsby gets the job done (see previous post), but it isn't nearly inclusive enough to handle all the niche communities popping up all over the web.

Well, Google has put something together to address that very issue of segmented conversations across the Web. It's called Google Wave and quite frankly, it looks very intriguing. First of all, Google Wave is an open source development. That means you can customize it to pull in the conversations that matter most to you (and your business).

Watch the Google Wave video to find out more.

Move over Google...well not quite. But Topsy, a new search engine that pulls in Tweets (from Twitter of course), parses out irrelevant minutia (I'm so hungry, I'm driving to the beach, etc) and hands out results based on relevancy of search term AND the reliability/popularity of the Twitter.

What's this mean? Well, it means if and when Topsy becomes relevant to the masses, those who have built an authorative presence on Twitter (ahem) will come up in the SERPs of Topsy. And...for those of you who see the big picture. IF Topsy becomes relevant enough, Google will copy or gobble it up, making a Twitter presence EVEN more significant. So...how's that for a quick answer to your clients question...Why Social Media?

Be on the look out for more Internet Marketing and Social Media insights from InterCoastal Net Designs, a Web Development, Design, and Marketing company based between Myrtle Beach, SC, and Wilmington, NC.