First Google Wallet Customer

This really just made me laugh....

New Dodge Ad Campaign Taps in to YouTube Users

I was watching the start of football season today when a new commercial caught my eye. Dodge has unveiled a new ad campaign which taps into the use of YouTube, in which they are giving away 3 brand new 2012 Dodge Journey’s.

“Find the Hidden Journey and it’s yours!" I thought to myself, well that is really clever. The commercial directs viewers to their YouTube channel for details, then there are a series of videos one has to watch in which unlocks clues on how to find this new SUV they are referring to as, "The Search Engine for the Real World."

The contest ends on September 27th and is open to all US Citizens, one car has already been located on the West Coast, the Mid-West is next (9/16), and the East Coast will follow shortly after (9/23). Following the clues is one thing, but actually racing to the location is completely different. It is definitely a pretty cool way to give away a car.

Check out the how-to's below:

Incubus - New Approach to How Social Media Meets PR

I have seen a lot of different social media campaigns in my day but one that struck me as very clever has been what the band Incubus has done. In preparation of the launch of their 7th studio album "If Not Now, When?" and kickoff of their U.S. tour in over 3 years the band has setup what they refer to as "IncubusHQ".

IncubusHQ launched on June 30th, the campaign enabled the band to interact with their fans regularly through multiple events most of them via the web. For 7 days (6/30 – 7/06) Incubus was inviting fans in the LA area to undisclosed locations for the most unique, personal and up-close fan experience - I have to admit I was wishing to be there with them.

Incubus' official statement about the kickoff stated:

"In “Incubus HQ Live” the web meets reality; it’s where web technology combines with fan-to-band interaction complete with impromptu live sets, live web streams, instructional clinics, and full performances from the band all being captured in a real-time documentary. Basically anything is possible and anything can happen!" http://on.fb.me/rbQBAm

But that's not all IncubusHQ was focused on, they also heavily promoted the album, and US Tour via email, on PING (iTunes Social Network - awesome), Facebook and Twitter - they also had press on sites like Mashable. The emails were great because it gave any fan a step by step rundown of what the band is up to, and how to connect with them as they were approaching the first day of the US tour. All the hype was to lead up to the live feed of their 1st show at Red Rocks on August 17th.

I have always known that PR and Social Media cross paths but this particular campaign has really brought a new element for musicians and how they now can approach new ways to promote their music without the help of MTV, David Lettermen, and Jay Leno, and I have been enjoying the hype from a social media distance.

Social Media Faux Pas - E-470 Twitter Mistake

I recently spent some time in Colorado and as I was driving along highway E-470 I noticed an interesting social campaign unfolding before my eyes. On the emergency digital road sign, which is typically used for Amber Alerts, Highway Accidents, and Emergency Road Announcements, the sign said, “E-470 Live Twitter Chat - Tweet 2 Win June 15th 11AM” – while I understand the intention of a Social Media campaign, I could not help but think to myself how people can misconstrue this for a promotion to tweet while driving – can you say dangerous?? I don’t believe that signs like this should be used to advertise a sweeps or anything for that matter other than what it was intended for. With all the hype the story hit the local news, it seems many others felt the same way I did and I was not surprised. A spokesperson for the highway said the message was never intended to promote tweeting while driving at all. Well I bet they learned their lesson and I am sure they will think twice now about promoting the use of social media on their emergency road signs.

Check out the news story here, "E-470 Twitter Signs Cause Controversy"

Social Networks for Business

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Google Ad Rank Video - How Adwords Ranking Works

The Best SEO Tool is SEO Power Suite!

Everyday I go to work and find myself buried in “what ifs”. What if I had more time, what if I had more staff…

I work with a company who owns 30+ websites, and I am only one person doing the best I can to follow the best practice I know how of going after linking opportunities, creating compelling optimized copy, and monitoring all the sites to ensure we are staying on track with increasing traffic that will benefit the organization. Now granted I probably need a couple more people to help, but I also need good tools that will help streamline all strategies.

There are many free tools out there that can help with watching your rankings, help build a link strategy, analyze your on-site optimization efforts and determine if your content is relevant for keywords you wish to rank for, but many of these free tools are limited.

Lots of SEO folks find that the paid tools are worthless. Why should I pay for a tool when I can get information like that for free? I know you can get it for free but how much time do you have to invest? I am a busy person and I cannot afford to take too much time to search for links, run ranking reports and constantly keep up with what my competitors are doing. So I did some research on paid tools and I found software that has made my life SO much easier. The software is called SEO Power Suite. It is one of the best ones I have seen on the market so far. I have used Web CEO, IBP, and SEO Elite and this software by far has so much more to offer. It has several tools in one suite:

Rank Tracker - this tool allows you to customize ranking reports so you can monitor what is going on with your search results. You can automate it so that it will run when you need it to run.

Website Auditor - this tool will allow you to view what your competitors have done to their web pages to rank well in search engines. After analyzing the data you can use the same techniques and apply them to your site. Brilliant!

SEO Spyglass - this tool alone was the reason I bought the entire SEO Power Suite! The one tool I felt was a tremendous asset. You can literally spy on your top competitors and see what linking strategies they have employed. You can run customized reports easily and the tool will tell you what links they have, where they came from, what their PR is, and even if they actually purchased the link or not! Amazing!! If you are tired of doing the tedious work searching for links yourself this tool is amazing and completely assists in the time factor that is involved of doing this research.

Link Assistant - helps you find additional link partners and assists in providing you with their contact information so you can establish a relationship and hopeful earn that link partnership as well as monitor your link popularity over time.

I would recommend the entire suite of tools, but if you cannot get the entire suite then at the very least try the SEO Spyglass and Link Assistant, you won’t be sorry you did. But if you do decide on the SEO Power Suite, for a small business owner they offer a Professional license. But if you are a Search Marketing Firm or a large organization that hosts many websites then the Enterprise license is for you. Now there is a way to manage your clients or your own websites easily and stress free and gain more insight than you may have in the past as well as cut costs with effective time saving methods that work.

Feel free to leave a comment if you have purchased the tool and let me know what you think of it.