Ten years ago I was only 13 years old and primarily went online to instant message my friends. Now, I spend hours on the Internet doing just about everything. I do research, catch up with friends on Facebook and MySpace, check my email and the weather, and order things online. The options of the Internet are almost endless.

Everywhere I go there are advertisements and countless websites for the same topic. Just finding the definition of marketing gave me pages of results. People my age and younger don’t even use the “old fashioned” way of researching using books, we go online instead. It is amazing how much the Internet has evolved.

With that being said, this gives companies an entire new outlet for their marketing. You can do so much online and bring in even more customers. In the past, companies relied on direct marketing, TV and radio advertisements, billboards, and word of mouth. Just adding a website can bring in more traffic to your company, but you also need to have the right kind of website to turn those people into customers instead of visitors.

Websites used to be something you could just create yourself. The information generally consisted of contact information and a company description. Now a company needs to have a professionally created website to increase traffic. There have been so many advances in technology that this is a necessary tool for your business to grow. From personal experience, I have left a website because it was not done very well and went somewhere else with my business. I’m sure I am not the only person who has done this. Your website is a reflection of you and what your company does. If it looks like a child made it, then potential customers simply won’t do business with you. This is a sad, but true fact that businesses should really look into.

Libby
Internet Marketing Group

What if I told you there is a tool that stops spamming, digitizes old fading text, and is easy to add to your website? You might say that you have seen this being used on websites before. The tool is called reCAPTCHA and was developed at Carnegie Mellon University. reCAPTCHA is not a new service, but is steadily gaining in the number of websites that use their service. We at Internet Marketing Group have added reCAPTCHA to our blog for registration and posting comments.

The advantage using reCAPTCHA has over other CAPTCHA tools is that it converts old text from the Internet Archive and old New York Times when someone fills out the form. One might be quick to say that there are methods to digitize text already in use. They would be correct, but OCR isn’t perfect. OCR isn’t 100% accurate and a person is required to correct the misspelled words. The result is that the university receives approximately 3,000 man hours per day of free labor to help in the preservation of old literature. I’m sure you’re wondering, if a computer can’t read the word then how does it know if a user enters the correct word? reCAPTCHA provides the user with two separate words and already knows one of the words. Using that method prevents spam and incorrect entries.

reCAPTCHA provides other benefits that other CAPTCHA tools might lack. Each form generates an audio playback for the seeing impaired. The tool also allows the user to change the current words for new ones without refreshing the page and potentially losing data if they can’t determine what the current words are. This tool also offers the ability to hide email addresses from spammers. This is very useful considering all a “spam bot” needs to do is crawl websites looking for email addresses. If you use reCAPTCHA the “spam bot” will not be able to see the email address unless it types in the words, and this is one thing that spam bots can’t do.

This service is incredibly useful and provides an incentive for the user so they don’t feel like they’re wasting their time filling out yet another CAPTCHA. You can check their website out at http://www.recaptcha.net/ for more information.

Kurt
Internet Marketing Group

I am Mary Simpson, and I am a Certified Google Adwords Professional. Sounds impressive doesn’t it. What does it mean? It means that if you asked my family and friends what I do for a living they would say something to the effect of, “I don’t know … something on the computer.” Some of them would throw the word Google in there. Does that mean that I am related to and hang out with a bunch of ignorant people? Of course not. It just means that my work has no place in their life, and therefore they don’t really understand it. If they had money invested in what I do, I am sure they would suddenly be quite interested! Many of you reading this do have money invested in what I do, so it will be my goal through weekly blogs to explain Google Adwords to you one step at a time.

When I talk to someone who is genuinely interested in my occupation, I start with advertising basics. You don’t see commercials for golf clubs during a football game. That’s because it would be a waste of money. Commercials reflect the probable demographic of the viewership, but they cannot be exact. I love watching golf but I don’t play, so all of those commercials for golf products are wasted on me. With the Internet, it is much easier to go after only those people interested in what you have to sell.

If you are selling widgets, then your ads will appear only when someone is looking for widgets. You are not interrupting their favorite show, or their superset of music, to tell them about widgets … they come looking for you! That is the beauty of marketing on the Internet.

The only trouble is it’s the Internet! The rules are always changing and it’s just plain intimidating. My friends think because I “work on the computer” I know it all. There is so much out there that I find intimidating and I just wish someone would explain it in plain terms. Blogging for example … I never understood it or cared about it until yesterday when I was asked to do it. I was very intimidated. I didn’t even know what questions to ask. One conversation with Jeff and I was ready. He broke it down for me.

There is no risk to blogging, it’s free. I could have just done minimal research and gone for it without my mini-class from Jeff. Not so with Internet Marketing – you can easily waste a lot of money if you don’t know what you’re doing. Frankly, it is wise to use experts at least to get you started. There are rules, tricks, trends and then when you start to figure it out … there are changes! This does not mean it’s impossible to learn. It just means that you need to take some real time to learn it so that you at least know the questions to ask.

Once you understand some of the basics, you can follow the progress of your campaigns and either discuss your ideas, or voice concerns with your marketing team. As someone who is spending your money, I appreciate your input. You know your product and potential customers better than I do. Consequently, if you know the basics of what I am trying to do for you, then you can assist the entire process.

The bottom line … I am not going to try to explain it all, and what I do explain I will explain a little at a time. My goal, stated more simply, is to make all of this less intimidating so you can understand how your money is being spent.

Mary Jo
Internet Marketing Group

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a micro-blogging website where you can share updates on what’s going on in your life in short statements. For instance, you can update people on what you’re doing throughout the day, talk about your week, or keep up with the news.

Twitter pages look a little bit like blogs, but the entries are short (no longer than 140 characters).  You can make an entry via the Twitter website, software on your browser, mobile phone, or instant messages.

In Cedar Rapids the following have Twitter accounts you can “follow” (subscribe to), and their updates can be sent to your computer, instant messaging service, or your mobile phone:

• Rockwell Collins (http://twitter.com/RockwellCollins) Updated Regularly
• Gazette Online (http://twitter.com/gazetteonline) Updated Regularly until August 13th and nothing since… (I need to talk to them!)
• KGAN CBS Channel 2 (http://twitter.com/KGAN_CBS2) Not updated (I really need to talk to them)

If you have an account, you can click on “follow” and you’ll start receiving their updates. Very cool.

How can Twitter help you as a Social Media Marketing tool?

Just like most social media sources, you can open an account for free. When you open your account, you can enter your website URL into your profile. This creates a backward link to your website that the search engines will crawl. Just like any other link, this constitutes a “vote” for your website and will raise you in the rankings. Even better is the posts. When you write a “micro-post”, you can enter a URL linking back to a page on your website.

Caution: Don’t SPAM the search engines by entering a bunch of links just for the sake of linking. They will catch you and boot your website right out of the rankings.

Like any other Social Media tool, this can be used and shared to keep your customers informed. It only takes a few minutes a day to make an entry, and I’m sure there are people who would appreciate it. Some uses:

• Announce specials
• Announce when something new happens to your organization (hiring, promotions, new services, etc.)
• Announce updates to your website
• and Anything else you can think of

My advice is to use the tool the way it was intended (in moderation). Build up a following by asking people to subscribe. Everyone who follows you will link to your profile. Your profile links to your website. Your website will receive better search engine rankings and more visitors! Do it right and everyone wins.

Jeff
Internet Marketing Group