I Think TheseSites Are Cool...

Tweetdeck: There are other tools out htere for managing social content. I find this one the easiest to use, perhpas because managing social media for others is not what I do. For the business person who wants to stay in touch with Twitter feeds and perhaps post a few thigns along he way, I think this is a great tool.

Wufoo: For those developers out there who are "form-phobic", Wufoo's tools are so easy to use and make it easy to implement forms within a website, or they can stand alone as well using a generic URL. My clients love the flxibility, ability to connect to outside sites like PayPal and the reporting and ability to export data from their forms.

Pandora: I know.. who doesn't think this one is cool... throwing the headphones in and letting Pandora serve me music that I want has kept me going into the wee hours, writing code and building sites.

TeacherEase: My daughter is not a fan, but being able to see her grades on a daily basis helps us stay in touch with her progress throughout the quarter, and reach out to her teachers of there is an issue. Poppa is a fan.

PopURLS: For those of you who yearn to stay in touch with news and events, but don't have the time to browse through thousands of sources online.. PopURLs is an aggregtor of newsfeeds from around the web.. I try to hit it every few days.

Woot: Gotta go by to see what the daily deal is.. before Groupon, there was Woot and I can't help but stop by each day to see what's for sale. So far I've only bitten on a pair of remote control helicopters for the kids, but once Maryland clears wine sales online, wine.woot.com will be my homepage.

What I Think...

2.27.11

I think Social Media Marketing, unless planned and managed correctly, is a colossal waste of time for most companies. I think there are misperceptions that if they have one of their interns posting quippy comments throughout the day and re-posting articles and posts from industry pubs, that prospects will beat a path to their door.

As with anything new and buzz-worthy there are early adaptors and those who are hitting right on the head… however I think those that rushed into it because they felt they needed to be there are spinning their wheels and wasting valuable resources, without much to show for it.

I think giving back to the community is one of the most fulfilling things that a business owner can do. Whether it’s building a website for a non-profit, organizing a golf tournament or walk to benefit a cause or getting involved on a board of directors level; CEOs, Presidents and Owners of businesses can make such a difference by simply getting involved.

I see leaders like Rocky Cintron from Force 3 and the work he and his company have done with Children’s Cancer Foundation.. the differences they have made in young lives.. simply by making the decision to get involved.

I think there is a huge difference in cutting edge design and what I have heard some refer to as the “bleeding edge.” Flashy intros, cool social modules, videos integrated into the structure of the site itself are cool, but if they cause the majority of your audience to lose the page due to browser conflict or they simply don’t have the bandwidth to stream your 30MB video.. then you have found yourself on the bleeding edge. Great for a nightclub or student portfolio… Not for my insurance company or chiropractor’s office.

A great way to see if your website is turning visitors away is to take a closer look at your Google Analytics results. High Bounce rates, or visitors exiting your site after seeing only the homepage, typically indicate that either something on your website is causing folks to leave, or worse nothing on your homepage is drawing them further into your site to ultimately convert.

I think that as organizations make the transition from a direct sales effort to sponsoring and hosting events and seminars, someone forgot that the key to these events is to have a speaker or panel who actually have something unique or timely to say.

It all starts with a strong and timely topic… tap into social media, blogs, industry pubs to determine the most appropriate themes or topics to be discussed. Allow attendees to generate a list of questions for the panel and if there are questions not answered, provide a URL or source for following up with your audience.