Digg is a social news website where the user community can share blog posts and web pages.  The theory is that if you find a site you want to share, you can “digg” it by submitting the URL address and a brief description of the page. Other Digg users will see your submission and “digg” or “bury” it. Submissions that get a lot of “diggs” are displayed higher in the rankings.  Submissions that get too many “buries” see just a glimmer of life before they are snuffed out of the community for good.  If a submission makes it to the home page, though, WooHoo!  it’s like winning the lottery.  You will get tons of traffic, but only for a day or two.   You then need to submit another story and get it “dugg” by a lot of people to keep the momentum going.

Here’s how Digg describes itself on the About Digg page:

“Well, everything on Digg is submitted by the Digg user community (that would be you). After you submit content, other Digg users read your submission and digg what they like best. If your story rocks and receives enough diggs, it is promoted to the front page for the millions of Digg visitors to see.”  That says it pretty well, actually. 

So, how do you get in on the  Digg action?

First, you need to register.  It’s fast and free and relatively painless.  Well, at least it’s better than a root canal.   Then you’ll be able to start digging, or submitting, blogs, stories, articles, and even websites that you find online that you think others would be interested in.

There are two ways to submit stories to Digg:

• Submit a story: If you find something you’d like to share with the Digg community, you can navigate to the Submit a Story link and go through the process. One tip: if you want your story to get Dugg (lots of other people looking at it), write a really good description and title. Otherwise, people won’t be interested in clicking through.
• Use a bookmarklet: There are quite a few handy bookmarklets that you can use to submit a story to Digg; one of the most popular is Digg Bookmarklet.  It goes on your browser toolbar and it’s very easy to use.

What are the benefits of using Digg?

For casual users, Digg is a goldmine of great stories, hard to find tutorials, practical tips, you name it. From Technology to Sports, there’s a plethora of categories to choose from.  There’s so much information out there just waiting to be discovered.  And please, if you are out there and you see something from mywebWOW!com, “digg” us!  And invite your friends to digg us, too.  And have them tell their friends.  And so on, and so on, and so on.  That’s how it works.  Much like those bands who just want to be on the cover of Rolling Stone, we just want to be on the first page of Digg at least once. 

How do you find something on Digg?

If you’re looking for something that you submitted, just click on your profile link and start scrolling away. If you’re looking for something in the general Digg index, you can use the Digg search box (at the top of every page), you also have an advanced search available to you. If all else fails, try this in Google:

site:digg.com “the title of your story”

Digg trivia:  Don’t say “Digged.“  It’s dugg, just like your second grade teacher taught you, just spelled funny.

If you need help writing a blog or articles about your business that you can submit to Digg, let our social media marketing team help you out!

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So now we want to talk about each of those little buttons.  The first cute little icon to the left in the line at the bottom of this post is the link to Delicious.com (formerly del.icio.us and delicio.us, pronounced “delicious”).  This is one of the oldest and largest social bookmarking services on the web.  Owned by Yahoo, it claims to have more than 5.5 million users and over 180 million unique bookmarked URLs.

Delicious is simple and very user-friendly, and best of all, it’s free!  (I know how y’all love FREE!) Users of Delicious sign in to their account and “bookmark” a URL that they want to refer to again or want to share with their friends.  When other friends sign on to their Delicious accounts, they will see what URLs have been bookmarked by their friends.  You can also subscribe to certain topics, or tags, so that articles or news on certain topics will be automatically bookmarked for you. 

Delicious depends on its users and the community they create.  It does not create content of its own.  URLs are submitted by the users of Delicious.  For each submission, the user has to assign a “tag” or category for each URL.  That way the users are categorizing the content for other users.  The users then recruit their friends to also sign up for Delicious so they can share the information they find on the web and bookmark with them.

Bookmarking on Delicious is easy.  Once you sign-in, you just fill out a simple form which records the URL, a title (which is usually pre-populated from the URL, but you can change it if you want), and a tag.  You can add a note that can be seen by other users explaining why you bookmarked this site, and you can immediately send a Tweet to your followers on Twitter.  You will then be asked to send a message to your friends on Delicious that you have added a new bookmark.

One of the most popular features of Delicious is the “hotlist” on its home page.  This is the listing of the URLs that are getting the most views.  This list is constantly changing and updating.  One minute, a story is there, the next it’s not, replaced by something of more interest. They also keep a catalog of recently submitted URLs, under their “recent” category, which makes it a great place to look for breaking news and trends.

Delicious trivia:  the original “del.icio..us” domain name was a well-known example of a ”domain hack,” an unconventional combination of letters to form a word or phrase. Del.icio.us and delicio.us now redirect to the new domain, delicious.com.

So if you haven’t signed up for a Delicious account, you should do so now.  Just click on the little white/blue/gray squares and get started.  Right now.  And make sure you submit this URL as your first bookmark.  And send a Tweet.  And tell all your friends.  C’mon, you know you want to.

If you want your website bookmarked dozens and dozens of times on Delicious and other social bookmarking sites, talk to us about a social media marketing strategy.  We can help you get the traffic you want.

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While they do look pretty sitting there at the bottom of my post, they really do in fact serve a purpose. How many of you have heard of Social Bookmarks? Show of hands? OK some of you have, some of you haven’t, and that’s OK. That’s why I’m here! I will be bringing you a multi-part series showcasing each one of those cute little icons down there, explaining exactly what they do and why you really need to use them. No, not just for me, but for you and your business as well.

Today I’m going to start with the basics- what the heck are social bookmarks and why do I need them?  We all love Wikipedia, so I’ll quote it. Wikipedia says “Social bookmarking is a method for Internet users to share, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web resources. Unlike file sharing, the resources themselves aren’t shared, merely bookmarks that reference them”. Social bookmarks function along the same lines as your personal internet bookmarks. When you really like a page, find it useful, want to visit again and/or want to pass it on to a friend. You go up to the top of your browser, click bookmarks, then click “bookmark this page”. And there you have it, the website page you were looking at is safely and securely tucked away in your bookmarks for easy access and sharing.

Social bookmarks work the same way. Each icon will link you to a website that is made just for sharing great content on the web. It could be a blog, a web page, a picture…anything you find amazing that you want to share with everyone! By clicking that icon, you’re taken to the Social Bookmarking website (such as Digg) where you can add that page that you love so much for the world to see.

This is an amazing strategy for marketing your business. Why? you ask. Because this is a great way to get the word out there that you really know your stuff. The purpose of a blog is to help establish yourself as an expert, showcase your product or brand, inform your customers about your brand on a more in-depth level and to connect. So what better way to establish yourself, get yourself out there and network socially then placing your content on a social bookmarking site. Plus, by encouraging your followers to bookmark your site, you’re showing that people really do like you.

We put those icons down there so that when you read my blog and you absolutely love it, you can click on the Digg, Technorati or Delicious icon, be taken directly to that site, and share the information!  Now some sites are meant for certain types of content. For example Technorati is there for really cool things that deal with technology or development or how all of that relates to the world. But don’t worry, we’ll get into that as this series goes on. For now, just go ahead and practice with those little icons, get yourself set up on these accounts and start bookmarking away! Actually try it with this blog. Over and over. Tell the world ya love it!

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There’s a lot we can learn from Mr. Dumpty when we think about how too many people start out owning their own business.  Some would-be entrepreneurs just sit there on the wall, too afraid to fall.  So they miss out on golden opportunities.  Other people take that leap of faith that everything will be alright and end up like poor Humpty, a gooey, sticky mess.  But what if we changed the story a little bit.  What if Humpty had put some thought and planning into his venture?  What if he had made arrangements to have a safety net installed beneath him?  Or, what if he had sought out advice of experts who guided him on the safest way off that wall and he ended up, not as a scrambled egg, but a happy and healthy entrepreneur.

History has proven that from recessions grow great businesses, and now is, in fact, a good time to take a leap into building your own business.  Business started in challenging times tend to be more solid because they start with a stronger foundation.  Entrepreneurs looking to start out in an economic downturn usually develop really good business plans.  They are are forced to look at both the type of business they want to start or maintain, as well as their formulations on how to get there a little bit harder. Instead of getting into debt while starting a small business, entrepreneurs in this type of economy keep a tight rein on their budget.  They actively seek out new forms of marketing, advertising and branding (like social media marketing) that cost only fractions of what traditional marketing and advertising costs.  Also, because of lay-offs in larger corporate America, now is a great time to scoop up exceptional talent who may have been let go. The stronger the core of your business is, the stronger and more credible you become. 

Also, because so many are looking for work, “co-workers” become “work families”. Everyone is in the journey together and genuinely wants to see the business succeed. If the business fails, then they’re out of a job too, and back at square one.  There may be more opportunity to start up and dominate a niche market before things pick up and competition gets steep. Of course, you don’t want an outcome like Egg Man’s but, he jumped without planning. He should have thought things through, talked to a professional, bought a bungee cord and strong harness and then jumped. That, my friends, will be the difference between you and good ole’ Humpty.

So, now that you’re thinking that I make pretty good sense and that I’m not completely crazy for suggesting you start a small business now, and you’re also thinking that social media marketing sounds like a pretty darn good idea, let me tell you how we can help.

If you’re in the Columbus, Ohio area (and even if you’re not), we are hosting our First Annual “How to WOW! Now” Spring Seminar on April 29th from 6-9pm at the Courtyard Marriott Downtown Columbus. We’ve got a whole host of goodies in store, such as speed networking to meet other fellow entrepreneurs, open panel discussions with experts to answer your questions, and great advice from keynote speakers and local celebrities Gabe Spiegel, Ryan Bauer, Shelley Moore, Bruce Heinemann, and Andrew Catapano. Each speaker will be focusing on different areas to master when starting or energizing a business, offering both advice on how to get started and how to stay relevant! By the end of the seminar, you will walk away with a strong knowledge of how to incorporate the WOW! factor in every aspect of your business.

You can find more information at www.howtoWOWnow.eventbrite.com and register yourself or your whole team! I know that right now, if Humpty Dumpty wasn’t the world’s largest omelete, he’d be there. Front and center, talking about what a rush it was to open his eyes and jump.

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Oh- the Superbowl! The SUPERBOWL! After the ratings from this past soiree of football elites, it’s safe to say that it is vastly more popular than even the Catalina Wine Mixer. I have a soft spot in my heart (Yes, I really do have one!) for the Superbowl for a bunch of reasons, but mostly because A: My Browns, the team I was born to have a masochistic relationship with, will never get there, but still I hope, and B: The Colts, with whom I have smartly developed a healthy relationship were just there, and won a few years ago and C: the commercials!  I mean really, is there nothing more funny than Betty White playing tackle football, or a kid slapping the heck out of some guy for touching his Doritos? Nope. Not in my book!

The Superbowl has traditionally been the Holy Grail of corporate advertisers, and for good reason. Seasonally the Superbowl pulls in a pretty decent amount of viewers (more than the World Series and The NBA Finals), and some might even be tuning in for just the commercials like the vast majority of women in my family. To get a Superbowl spot means you’ve really made it. You can afford the 5 million dollar bill for 30 seconds of notoriety! And traditionally advertisers have been glad to pay it because everyone knows the Superbowl is the top dog of advertising space. The Head Honcho. The El Capitan! The Maestro! The Jim Tressel (O-H!)! The Big Gun!     But……

There’s a new sheriff in town!

Some names are really synonymous with the Superbowl- perennial powerhouses of the advertisement biz. Budweiser, GoDaddy, Doritos- They were all there this year competing for the most lolz (as our intern Trelawny would say). But someone didn’t come to play this year. Who you may ask? Pepsi. Why? Because the smart people at Pepsi finally figured out that instead of blowing their $20 million on approximately 2 minutes of fame for Superbowl ads, they’d reinvest their money into something inevitably more productive- Social Media. Pepsi released a statement that instead of their usual barrage of Superbowl ads, they would invest in a full blown Social Media front. For $20 million they could create one heck of a web presence, really hear what their customers are saying and reach new audiences in a daily basis. With the record breaking viewership the Saints vs. Colts brought in, Pepsi might be kicking themselves a little for not having a greater presence, but their social media efforts will pay off more in the long run.

$20 million might seem like too steep of an amount for your budget, but luckily that’s why there are people like moi out there who offer a great service for the tiniest fraction of the cost- check out our website to learn more.  I’m not here to plug shamelessly, but seriously, if Pepsi is investing that much money into social media and relinquishing some of it’s Superbowl Ad gusto, shouldn’t that tell you something about what social media can do (if done right, I can’t stress that enough!) for your business?

It’s fourth and goal and a blitz is a’comin’. What are you going to do?

Happy Beer Friday!

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Jerry Maguire: Yeah, yeah, no, no, no. Show you the money.
Rod Tidwell: No! Not show you! Show me the money!
Jerry Maguire: Show me the money!
Rod Tidwell: Yeah! Louder!
Jerry Maguire: Show me the money!

Ah, Jerry Maguire. One of the most entertaining movies ever, and in my opinion, some very powerful words. I mean really, Tom Cruise had me at hello too.

Once upon a time, when we were a spry start up business with a full belly of dreams and lofty goals, ‘Show Me the Money!’ was our motto for every day living.  We wanted to see it in every corner and we wanted to know how everything we did was going to show us the money. Some things didn’t show the money quite like we wanted them to, like our genius 15 second advertising bit on AM Talk Radio but eh, you live and you learn. Andrew (the bossman) is a very ’show me the money’ kind of guy. He’s a numbers guy and wants to see an ROI on just about everything.  Imagine my dismay when I was hired here to do social media marketing and he kept saying ‘what’s my ROI?’. I thought I was two steps out the door before my chair with no arm rests got warm. He was reluctant to hire me from the beginning because he just didn’t think social media was worth it’s weight in salt. He wanted to see the results from social media RIGHT NOW. I had to explain to him that social media really doesn’t work that way all the time. It’s about brand awareness. It’s about relationships. It’s about having your clients at hello.

Being a business, I’m sure you have a constant eye on the money too. Most people who sit down at the table with me to discuss a social media marketing strategy say the same thing to me- ‘Show me the money!’. Just like I did with Andrew (who very quickly came around and trusted what I was doing because, well, it worked!) I explain that it’s not really about seeing an ROI immediately. Social media marketing is brand awareness in a whole new way. Social media is a great way to get your name, your brand, your service out there into the world for people to see and become familiar with. I know it’s hard to really get behind a form of advertising when it’s brand new and you’re not sure how it will work for you,  but look at traditional marketing methods- how do you really know a billboard is driving traffic to your business? Sure people see it, but that’s about all they do. The design may stick in their heads but rarely will someone pull a U-ey on the freeway to high-tail it to your business. Still, people will pay a boatload for a billboard, not really sure what they’re going to get out of it or if it’s doing anything for their business. Plus it’s outdated and B-O-R-I-N-G. Seriously, I think I just fell asleep writing that paragraph.

Social media offers you so much more than a one way picture on the side of the road- for a fraction of the price. A social media campaign is necessary for any business to build a solid brand in this day and age. Instead of thinking of social media part of your marketing budget, and a vital part at that. Going back to the billboard example, instead of reaching only drivers going west on Route 33, you can reach anyone in the world with a Facebook account (if you do it right, of course). You can interact with your clients- find out what they want, what they care about, how they feel about your brand, and really hone in on a better customer experience. You can create a strong and well recognized brand through social media by connecting to your market directly- let them get a feel for who you are and what you stand for. With the right social media campaign and the right tools, social media efforts will pay off. It takes time to build a solid campaign but when it’s developed you’ll be able to say to it “Show me the money!” and it will. I don’t think it’ll have any googly eyes though, but you never know.

Ps- Please join our LinkedIn group! There’s even more good Social Media stuff there: tips, talk of the trade, idea sharing and networking! http://ow.ly/163JE

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Applying this “Beer Friday” notion to social media is just as important. When you run a good social media campaign you want to make sure you’re establishing meaningful relationships with your audience. Your fans should feel as if they know you, that you’re easily accessible, and that you’re not just a suit or a scam. Social media is a great way to get to know your clients on a more personal level, and the best part about getting to know your clients in this manner is getting to know their needs better. When you’re one on one with your clients and they’re free to comment and post about your product, you can get a better understanding of just how your product or service affects them. If they think your product, well, sucks, you can tweak a few things here and there to better meet demands. You can talk to your clients about why they think your product or service stinks and try to make it right (Think Domino’s recent campaign but a lot cooler. I had to take a jab at them- they’re located in Ann Arbor).

When you really know how your client base is reacting to your business or your product, you can tailor your advertising, marketing and duh! social media campaigns to fit their needs and give you more bang for your buck. And everyone knows that when the customers are happy, the company is happy. Having a good customer satisfaction reputation is imperative to staying in business and social media allows you to take it one step further and hear from your customers directly.

A great way to create such a connection is by hiring a social media guru, and creating a simple survey or survey question and distributing it throughout your network. Ask your customers their feelings on things and really listen to what they have to say. A simple three question poll can really open a lot of doors and let you see inside the windows of your customers souls. Peter Gabriel’s song from a few years back describes the kind of power real insight can have. 

So I say institute your own virtual round table discussions. It’s like doing focus groups, but way cooler. Time to get hip with the kiddo’s and the way to do it is social media. Of course.

Please drink responsibly

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We’re going to be participating in Columbus Hope for Haiti, a fundraiser here in Columbus uniting Columbus leaders, media and the Red Cross. The event is happening tomorrow, Thursday January 21st from 7am to 7pm at the Ohio Historical Society.

According the the offical website for Columbus Hope for Haiti “The events are free and open to the public. Residents are encouraged to stop by any
time on January 21 to meet personalities from these TV, radio and print companies:
 WBNS 10TV, NBC 4 WCMH, ABC 6 WSYX, FOX 28 WTTE, WOSU, Clear Channel
 Columbus, Columbus Radio Group, Radio One, Wilks Broadcasting, 97.1 The Fan, The 
Columbus Dispatch, Alive!, ThisWeek Newspapers and Fronteras.”

We’re urging everyone in the Columbus area to stop by, retweet, repost blog, and donate to the Red Cross to benefit the people of Haiti. If you didn’t know, a strong aftershock rocked Haiti again this morning, furthering the desperate need for essentials.

We hope to see you there.

For more information please visit:

http://bit.ly/4tWikI

There is also a Facebook fanpage established and you can visit their page here:

http://bit.ly/4UUZgU

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By now (especially if you are a Social Media enthusiast), you know about the earthquake that rocked the nation of Haiti to it’s very core. The pictures that swept Twitter alone were enough to make you want to get on a plane and fly down there to help. Unfortunately most of us don’t have the opportunity to do so, so we’ve forced to just sit back and watch the aftermath of the destruction feeling helpless. Until now.

In the past, the only thing that you could do in a reasonable amount of time was gather around the T.V. with your family and watch stars like Dean Martin and Johnny Carson host telethons where people pledged donations to help whatever cause was being addressed. While telethons were great and helped a vast number of people, they are becoming a thing of the past. Social Media has once again proven triumphant in the ongoing battle for digital world domination.

The Red Cross got proactive and began to launch a national campaign urging people to pick up what was probably already in their hands- a cell phone. By texting “Haiti” to 90999, participants were able to donate $10 to the Red Cross campaign. By creating a portal that was not only convenient but affordable, the Red Cross was able to raise $20 million by last night (Sunday), according to an article on mashable.com, found here. Also, by creating a campaign that was around the clock, the Red Cross was able to continually raise money for Haiti. Suddenly it wasn’t necessary to wait until the news gave relief effort information or for some gorgeous actor to do a song and dance across your T.V. screen (bummer).

While the idea of texting for donations was incredibly fresh and progressive, the campaign was spread around the world thanks to Social Media campaigns. As soon as the announcement for the $10 donations was made, Social Media networks were flooded with retweets and reposts of the effort, and awareness was raised quickly. We’re talking $20 million dollars in a matter of 6 days….in $10 increments. Really, it’s just astounding.

If this recent campaign isn’t proof of the power of Social Media, then I just don’t know what is. I do though have to thank everyone who has taken the time to donate to the Red Cross and in other forms around the country. It’s important to take the time to help those in need, and strength really does come in numbers.

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Let’s all sing together to make Whitney Houston proud- “And Iiiiiiiiiiiii will alllllwwways love youuuuuuu”. Ok, maybe not so much.  But I and my fellow Social Media comrades are really you and your business’s personal bodyguard. How you might ask? Because while Social Media is fast becoming a popular option for marketing and branding, it is also becoming a hot spot for criminal activity. Like email phishers that preceeded them, low life cyber crooks are headed to SM networks in hopes of getting more than an accepted friend request- they want your information. And Social Media professionals, we know how to launch an all out grenade and machine gun, slash and burn attack against them! (Oo, that was heavy!)

With constantly emerging technology, it’s easier for these slackers to target their prey. When someone is unaware of these practices, it’s easier to get them to give up more information from passwords and usernames to credit card information. You might ask yourself why people, in this day and age, would allow themselves to be conned like that? It’s because these Ninnyhammers (real word, I swear!) are getting smarter and wising up to the fact that there’s a whole market of people out there who are A) Trusting and B) Unaware that people who are asking them to take a survey to win a new iPod are really phishing for info.

By handing the Social Media reigns over to someone who  is inexperienced (ie- the kid next door, your daughter, the owners of the Social Media Marketing firm that sent the clever email exclaiming ‘For only $199 a week, you too can use Social Media to make a million dollars a month!’) you’re leaving your company, your employees, your CONFIDENTIAL information out there for the taking. It’s like leaving your car unlocked with the keys on the seat in an area where car thefts are prevalent. Information about your company- especially financial and personal information about your employees, is just too important and too personal to leave in the hands of someone who really isn’t trained to beware of such schemes and ploys. Now you might be getting a little bothered thinking ‘But my hard working, freckled face neighbor would never fall for that!’, but the truth is they probably will. How many times have you seen a friend of yours post some sort of spammy status update and you’re tempted to see if you can see who’s viewed your profile too, like they say they have? (You might be saying never, but I guarantee at some point you’ve clicked on spam or opened a spamaliscious email. If you still say ‘No way’ then let me be the first to congratulate you on being Omnipotent and Omnipresent).

All it takes is one click on those links to make all of your information vulnerable. That’s why it’s a smart idea to take the time to research and employ professionals to run your Social Media campaigns. Sure the price might be right, but do your research- how credible are they? What is their track record? Can you speak to former clients about their experiences? What is their education and training in the field (believe it or not, true professionals seek out some sort of higher learning when it comes to Social Media- college campuses are even implementing coursework on the very subject).

There are those of us out there who fulfill these job positions for a reason. We know what we’re doing. We know what to look for. We know what’s junk. We’re your personal Anti Social-Media-Scumbag-Spineless-Trash-Hacking Army. We can protect your assets, your information, your lively hood. And really, can you put a $199 price tag on that?

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