Interactive - Social Media - Street Marketing. That is UniversalWit. Get the cutting edge of marketing with the bite of creative wit.

If you are looking for traditional marketing services, then we are probably not right for you. However, if you want to move your marketing into the future like social networking, online events, brand experiences through sound and video, texting, and other forward thinking for Web 2.0 then we just may be the guys.

Each week (well most weeks), we look at a social network beyond My Space, Facebook and YouTube.  IMVU qualifies as our first look at a virtual world, but we have selfish reasons.  We are very excited to see the music companies line up to create a social music network within IMVU.

For years the music companies have avoided, fought, bullied, turned a blind eye to everything that was new that would save their business.  Instead they fiercely protected their traditional business that was rapidly declining.  The IMVU deal is a great step in the right direction.

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Great chart today from Marketing Sherpa that highlights shift from traditional to online.  Speaks for itself:

In addition to Jerry Yang leaving Yahoo, which paves the way for Microsoft to somewhat catch up now, another article caught my attention from Reuters.  The headline read “Tech firms turn to social media to reach consumers”.

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UniversalWit Games and My Up Site would like to spread some holiday cheer as we bring Santa’s Magic Clock back to life.  This is an excellent opportunity to drive holiday traffic to your site.  Each one of Santa’s reindeer will hold a clue to a puzzle.  Fortunately for you, the reindeer have all dispersed to their favorite areas on the web.

Is your site, one of their favs?

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From an article titled ‘Recession Proof Your Business’ by Ron Romano:

Recession Proof Your Business – How to Avoid Business Failure & Increase Sales in a Lagging Economy

When you’re a small business owner there’s no “Golden Parachute”, no Massive Severance Package or Stock Options to cash in on and there are definitely no bailouts. The success or failure of your small business is all on your shoulders!

Here’s Are 5 Things to Do If You Want Your Business to Fail During a Recession

1.      Don’t Do Anything

2.      Don’t Do Enough

3.      Don’t Encourage Referrals From Other Clients

4.      Don’t Create a “WOW” Experience

5.      Don’t Take Massive Action Now

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We continue today with more opinions on the shift from traditional to online and handling the reduction of marketing budgets.  Let’s get right to it.

First up is Simon from Online Perception Audits.  Simon writes:

Yes (Budgets are shrinking)….. but they’re not my budgets, they are other peoples.
TV / newspapers / traditional media have been seen to losing their grip on their market share. The tide is shifting towards… different newer ways of marketing.

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We continue today with some more insights into how traditional marketing is shifting to online and how budget cuts are impacting marketing.  As with Friday’s posts, the insights and opinions shared are from others collected via a question on Linked In.

First up today is Kevin from Network Solutions.  We share the same thinking on being aggressive in down markets to out maneuver your competition:

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Seems, we are having trouble getting our posts done on the blog this week.  It has been a busy one.  Today, we finally get to our first post of “You are Not Alone”.  These posts will come fast and furious and share perspectives from others.

The original question was posted on Linked In:

Are you shifting budget towards online marketing?

With the unstable economy, are you facing budget cuts? Have you made the decision to shift from traditional programs to online marketing efforts or are you planning to stick with what has worked for you in the past? I’d like to focus on this in my blog and would like to hear some additional opinions and/or real world examples. 

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I meant to get into this post yesterday, but between all the action, I didn’t get a blog post in.  Whatever your political leanings, there was no mistake that social media made a mark in this election.  The election also made a mark on social media.

Articles flooded the web and blogs all over the world echoed this sentiment.  The Democrats used SMS, social networks, and viral video to raise money, get out the vote, and drum up support.  In fact, they used it like a well oiled marketing campaign would and sometimes more effectively than corporations have had to date.

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Each week, we take a look beyond My Space, Facebook, and YouTube, at a social network that you may not have checked out yet.  Keeping with our scary week theme, we thought it fitting to introduce you to Sinister Space.

Sinister Space is a social network devoted to horror fans.  This genre is well represented and well followed with devoted fans.

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I feel like Dr. Frankenstein today on scary week on the blog.  I’m happy to say that my monster - the Temporary Urban Space Project (TUSP) is alive.  There are pictures at the end of this post from Pulse, the initial music and art event for the project.

I am going to tease you a little bit. TUSP will be making an announcement in the coming weeks about their December event to be held in downtown Pittsburgh, which will be a Guinness World Record attempt.  That is all I am going to say for now.  Tune in later for more or contact us if you are interested in sponsoring (Regional and National opportunities).

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Keeping with the scary week theme in this blog, we take a look at the recent comments regarding the death of blogs and try to avoid the marketing budget slashers.

Are Blogs dead?

That was a recent headline.  According to some reports blogs have been dead since 2004.  Guess that would make them a zombie them.  The argument is that blogs have become rampant with a marketing and advertising virus.  There are so many blogs in fact, they have become irrelevant.

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October 27th.  I don’t see a full moon, but apparently leading up to Halloween, we got some weird social media news.

The first came from a US Army report that terrorists could theoretically use Twitter.  There is some great alliteration in that sentence.  Search Marketing Gurus (SMG) report: According a a report by the Agence France-Presse news agency, the 304th Military Intelligence Battalion contains a chapter entitled “Potential for Terrorist Use of Twitter,” which expresses concern over the increasing use of Twitter by political and religious groups.

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Each week, we take a trip beyond My Space, Facebook and YouTube to introduce you to a different social network.  As you probably know, we are a Pittsburgh based company, yet we have not featured any of the Pittsburgh based social networks.  We remedy this oversight this week with a look at Women Drivers.

Women Drivers is a social networking site that caters exclusively to women who buy and influence the purchase of cars.  Members of the community can share their experiences at a dealership and voice their opinion to improve the dealer experience for women.

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Contextual ads are a bit different than your search ads.  So we are on the same page, contextual ads are ads that are served based on the content of a website.  For example, a website devoted to photography would carry ads for cameras.

So what makes these ads different from your search ads?  After all, are they not served up based on the criteria and keywords that you created? The main difference is the tone of the ad.  A search on a search engine constitutes the need for information.  A contextual ad on a website is more suited to  advertising philosophy.

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This is the week that was in social media…

The digital music space may become even more crowded.  Reports surfaced that Facebook is investigating some sort of music delivery service. Facebook does not want to tangle with the big record companies over licensing issues nor build a service from scratch.  As such, they are looking to partner with a service in place such as Rhapsody or ILike.com.

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Today’s blog post is actually devoted to others.  Social media is still relatively new and for certain is always changing.  It is important to stay up by reading and researching and talking to others.  You gain strength this way.  That is one of the things I like most about social media, the fact that you can learn something new everyday.

So in today’s blog, we stand on the backs of others…

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I have read a lot of info recently that said Long Tail Keywords were dead.  IT seems that experts like to kill concepts quickly these days.  Yesterday, I came upon this chart from Marketing Sherpa that proves that this strategy is still viable for SEO
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Each week we take a look beyond My Space, Facebook and YouTube to a social network that you may have not visited yet as well as uncover additional marketing opportunities.  Today we get ready for Christmas by looking at I Like Totally Love It a social network dedicated to shopping.

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We have made no secret of our appreciation for online games as a powerful marketing tool.  The segment is growing exponentially and is poised for another boos even in these turbulent economic times.

Our excitement was stoked again today with Google’s announcement that they are beta testing AdSense for games.  The service will add the ability to program advertising inside of a game.
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Reuters reported today that YouTube will look for more ways to monetize their network.  The site is in the process of building out an e-commerce module that will sell music, videos, games, books, concert tickets and other media related items.

The site has partnered with Amazon and Apple for delivery.  When you view a video you can click a button that will take you to the appropriate store site for purchase.  Revenue will be shared by the partners.

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Each week, we go beyond My Space, Facebook and YouTube to get to know another social network out there.  Normally, we say meet the network, but today’s feature is all about meeting up.

MeetUp is a social network that desires to actually get you off the computer.  Strange as that sounds, their purpose is to facilitate off-line meetings.  They bill themselves as the largest network of local groups.

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Quick Friday post on the events of this week:

The week has of course been dominated by politics.  We don’t cover that topic in this space.  However, we have been watching the explosive rise in social networks directly related to political usage.  Just sign on to Twitter and the top of the page has popular political feeds.  Twitter is heavily used by this niche.  Facebook seems to be gaining popularity as well in the niche.  I have noticed more and more politicians with
Facebook pages as opposed to My Space as well.

The other big news of the week is the slew of companies that have taken aim at Apple’s IPhone, IPod and ITunes services.

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This is part 2 of marketing in an unstable economy.  In this post, we will look at some tips on how you can get more for your marketing buck.  Making your marketing dollars go further in tough times will help you show more return to management, manage lower budgets, and position you well against competitors that can’t keep up.

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Part 1:

A rough economy typically takes a toll on marketing.  Good marketers weather the storm by showing realistic ROI for their programs. They shift resources when necessary and use these opportunities to win market share.  Yes, it is easier to grow in good times, but I hold firm to the belief that you win market share by positioning yourself in tough times
better than your competition can.

That being said, researchers have already seen a shift in marketing due to the current economic climate and expect it to continue.  Small and mid size companies have held relatively firm in their spending to date, but larger companies are starting to cut or refocus their resources in response to an increasing difficult climate.

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Received an interesting report from Marketing Sherpa today regarding the use of Web 2.0 tools, specifically user generated content and online advertising page views.  According to the report, page views can decline with the use of web 2.0 technology.

This has a logical explanation though as web 2.0 tools provide content that a visitor is more like to spend time with and that leads to less clicks.  Engaging content creates a better user experience and therfore a more satisfied visitor

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Think social networking is just for the teens or the college students? Then you are only scratching the surface of social networking.  This week, as we go beyond MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube, we visit the boomers social network site - Eons.

Eons was designed to give Baby Boomers their own home in the social world.  Targeted to the highly influential group of individuals born between 1946 and 1964, Eons is laid out similar to how My Space works.

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We hope to see you tonight for Pulse, sending an electricity to the Temporary Urban Space Project in Pittsburgh at 330 -332 Third Avenue downtown in between Smithfield and Wood.  Pulse features Deadly Buda, the native Pittsburgher is back and spinning vinyl that NYC, LA, and London doesn’t have yet thanks to his Internet radio station at www.deadlybuda.com.

Check out the gallery with art from Moxy and vintage concert posters.  Gallery opens at 9PM and with the generous support of Penn Brewery there is free beer while it lasts and the sounds of DJ Astral Eric.  Then come upstairs at 10PM for Deadly Buda, Terry Kicks,  and introducing Catrina Starr.  Tickets are only $10.  Over 21 and proper dress.  Space is limited so come early and stay late in a unique urban space.

See you there.

Some times, partnering with another event instead of planning your own is the right way to go with your street marketing program.  In this case study,the brand was introduced to a new demographic ans was received positively creating additional marketing opportunities in the future.

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We are going to double post today with these online advertising tips that was ready to go yesterday and we ran out of time to post and a post about street marketing.

UniversalWit acts as a news aggregator for the AMA Pittsburgh blog and we have been re-posting the Marketing Sherpa report on online advertising.  We thought it would be of interest  to our readers as well.

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UniversalWit is pleased to found Pittsburgh’s own Temporary Urban Space Project (TUSP) in conjunction with Nine Over Ninth Productions.  Our first project is in association with Urban Evergreen’s building at 330 and 332 Third Avenue downtown Pittsburgh.

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Each week (Though we missed last week), we introduce you to a social network beyond MySpace, Facebook and YouTube.  This week we turn to the entrepreneurial side and take a look at Advisor Garage.
Advisor Garage is an online directory of advisors with the mission to help entrepreneurs.  Areas of expertise include funding, getting customers, sales and marketing strategies, and staffing and personnel.

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In one of my favorite recent Broadway shows, a shaggy haired puppet sings “The Internet is for Porn”.  Well that may have been true, the recent news announcement made me sing a different tune.

It’s official social sites have taken down the king of the Internet and are now the most used sites.   Turns out that we all want to be social after all.  So raise a glass and salute the new champion.  I hope it is a long run.

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As a follow up to last week’s Online Testing chart from Marketing Sherpa, we find this one of interest as well on banner clicks by size.  According to the results, it seems that size does matter, but as in specific not necessary bigger:

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I was perusing through the daily newsletters and found this of interest and applicable to this blog from the Marketing Sherpa.  The chart of the week deals with online advertising, specifically some suggested testing options based on budget.

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Join The Planet Pulse at these upcoming events:

Sept. 13, 2008 - Kool Aid 4

The Planet Pulse joins Phoenix Management Productions in bringing Richard Vission, Pittsburgh’s own Product 19 and others to Gravity Nightclub, 1216 Pittsburgh Street, Cheswick PA 15024.  Hit the dance floor and look for The Planet Pulse crew for some special swag.  More info at www.phoenixmanagementproductions.com.

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Every week, we go beyond MySpace, Facebook and YouTube to introduce you to a social network.  Today our post goes to the dogs - literally.  We take a peek at MyDogSpace.com.

MyDogSpace describes itself as an interactive space for all dogs and dog lovers.  I am guessing that it is mainly the latter.  I tested the site with my dog, Cole, and he just isn’t into social networks as much as belly rubs.

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It is the first day after a long weekend and the news wire was dominated by Google as well as some other social media news.  Here are some of the topics that made it into the UniversalWit research library today.

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Busy day today for social media.  Many user accounts were suspended on Twitter because AMC threw up the red flag with users impersonating characters from the popular ‘Mad Men’ series.

Many users on Twitter are actually fake characters.  The Mad Men impersonators though were able to use sound in the character voices. AMC argued that this could mislead followers into thinking it was AMC approved.

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Link building is a key tactic in search engine optimization.  There are good tactics to link building that will deliver results and there are some tactics that will just plain land you in hot water with the search engines and you may not be able to recover.

In this blog, we often write about how content is king.  With SEO it is no different.  Creating engaging content is a good tactic for SEO and a foundation of link building activities.

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Each week on this blog, we take a look at social networking opportunities beyond MySpace, Facebook or YouTube.  This week we share Multiply with you.

Multiply is a sharing network.  I was first introduced to it in my search for mash ups, songs mixed together by a talented DJ.  I was able to check out some selections on the artist’s Multiply profile.

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I have been sitting on this news for about a week, but I am really excited about this announcement and what it means for social networks in the future.

Matt Mullenweg of WordPress (Disclaimer: This site was built on a WordPress platform and I am a big fan) announced that WordPress Multi-User will have the ability to create a social network in the next release later this year.

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With something as new and exciting as social media, it is often easy to forget that you do not want to receive an ROI from your efforts.  Marketing metrics do apply to social media.  To increase effectiveness and justify your expenditure to management, metrics should be regularly evaluated.

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Each week on this blog, we take a look at social networking opportunities beyond MySpace, Facebook or YouTube.  This week we go from moms to motors as we feature Motortopia, a social network site for your car, bike, boat or plane.
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Facebook has been all over the news this week. The site has taken over as the world’s leading social network site even if it is still behind MySpace here in the US. Facebook’s approach to using the local native language has fueled their march overseas.

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This blog often covers AdverGaming topics.  Casual Gaming offers a lot of opportunities for AdverGaming.  Better yet, some lessons being learned by casual game providers are lessons that apply to most Web 2.0 marketing tools.  It is all about finding your audience and engaging them on their preferred level.

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In our continuing look beyond MySpace, FaceBook and YouTube, today we look at a social network dedicated to moms.  I was watching the Olympics and I noticed the commercials featuring athletes talking about their moms, and it inspired me to write about CafeMom.

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Google is giving you a glimpse inside the “database of intentions”. This is the mysterious inner sanctum that stores the secrets of Google. It reminds me of something out of Harry Potter - ‘The Room of Requirement’ or something magical like that.

Insights for Search is a new service released by Google, that allows a marketer to compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, and time frames.  This service builds on the Google Trends application release a couple years ago.

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Join our friends at The Planet Pulse in their search for Pittsburgh’s Hottest Male Model on August 28th, 2008. Find out more about this exciting new retailer set to hit the Pittsburgh area next month.

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Social Media may be coming of age as a reliable and cost effective addition to a marketing program.  The factors that are leading more and more companies to add social media to the marketing mix include:

• More email marketing is landing into spam folders decreasing the ROI for these programs

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Google is throwing its weight into advergaming.  The company recently launched Lively, a virtual world which is an excellent platform for games.  Along with this platform, the company that is the leader in online advertising and has made in-roads into radio and other traditional advertising outlets announced that it will look to serve up ads inside of games.

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Beyond MySpace, FaceBook and YouTube:

In our continuing series of looking beyond the big social networks, we take a look at Decorati a focused social network for interior design.

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I came across an excellent study regarding online video.  Some great take aways like keep your programs short (3 minutes or less) and make them funny, music oriented or user generated content for max appeal.  This article came from Marketing Charts.

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The holidays are right around the corner.  Is your online marketing strategy ready?  Now is the time to take stock of your programs in advance of the season.  Consider these external factors that may play an important role in a successful holiday season:

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UniversalWit is currently assembling a Street Promotional Team in the Pittsburgh area for events in August and September.  Interested candidates should contact us for details.  Must be fun and outgoing and be able to get to each event.

We also searching for Free Runners that would like to run, jump, tumble, etc.  in a promotional event in the Pittsburgh area.  No prior experience is necessary, but you must understand the concept.  Check Wikipedia or YouTube for details.

Both projects are compensated.  Contact us for more details.

I read an interesting post on Mashable today titled ‘Corporations are driving social media growth’.  It made some excellent points that as more corporations dip their toes in the water that social media is becoming less of a niche of early adopters and more of a full fledge marketing outlet.

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UniversalWit would like to install a new recurring feature into this blog that takes a look at the many social network options that you have to promote your business.  Some will be business specific and some will be more general options.  We will try and give you a picture as to who are using the sites and why.  We have titled these segments:

Beyond MySpace, Facebook & YouTube
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The 12th edition of Pittsburgh’s Social Media Marketing Buzz is now available at http://pghsocialmedia.blogspot.com The buzz has the latest development in social networking programs around Pittsburgh as well as information and stats from around the country. Check out the issue and email us your news at blog@universalwit.com.

This summer has been a busy one for new developments in social media and online marketing.  The past 2 weeks, we have been devoting Mondays to reporting on recent announcements and today is no different.

Cuil (Pronounced Cool) announced that they are bringing a competitive search engine to rival Google.  The distinction for Cuil is that they are former Google employees who claim to have built an even better mousetrap with more pages indexed and a more secure search environment.  They plan to offer advertising in the future as well.

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Change is often feared, yet change is inevitable and all around us. New Media such as social networks, blogs, and other user generated content is big change to many marketing folks. It is often more comfortable to continue a marketing strategy because of its familiarity. After all, to make a change, you must justify it to management and that could put your position in jeopardy and that is sometime the most uncomfortable change of all.

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The best blogs are not always the most read, but show the passion that a person or company has for the topics they cover.  We have been neglectful about updating our recent work section, but I’d like to introduce you to two of our recent projects.

Both are small, but both have a passion for what they are doing.  Both also enjoy helping other people.  UniversalWit shares their passion.   The company began out of a love for new media and all of the wonderful new tools available.  We never get bored helping others realize their goals, dreams, or missions with the aid of social media and other web 2.0 tools.

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The Field of Dreams quote is so over used it’s a cliché now and I hate to use it again.  ‘If You Build It - They Will Come’ only works for baseball fields in Iowa.  It does not work on the web and it certainly does not work with Web 2.0 tools such as social networks.

Web 2.0 is about interaction and engagement.  Those two words are not passive in nature.  As such, your social network campaigns should not be either.  Do you wonder why no one is visiting your social network?  Did you just hang the sign and nothing else?

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The 11th edition of Pittsburgh’s Social Media Marketing Buzz is now available at http://pghsocialmedia.blogspot.com The buzz has the latest development in social networking programs around Pittsburgh as well as information and stats from around the country. Check out the issue and email us your news at blog@universalwit.com.

In the news for Monday July, 21, 2008 is the compromise from Yahoo and dissident shareholder Carl Icahn. Facebook also made an announcement today.

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Online video continues to chisel into to normal tv watching habits.  According to the venerable reporting agency Neilsen, Some 162 million went online in May. Video posted some strong numbers with 119 million unique viewers and  7.5 billion video streams viewed in May 2008.

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Finishing up our discussion on Long Tail, particularly how it applies in SEO and SEM, we have two basic examples to illustrate the thinking.  If you would like more detailed examples of long tail keywords or an analysis of your particular needs, please contact us.

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Building on yesterday’s report on the buzz surrounding Long Tail, today we will take a look at Long Tail keywords for search engine optimization.  Checking your analytics, you probably find 3 or 4 keywords that direct the majority of traffic from a search engine to
your site.
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Chris Anderson set the world on fire with his book ‘The Long Tail’ (I recommend it for reading).  Now it seems the Long Tail has been applied to strategy all over the marketing universe from product to SEO.

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One million was the key phrase today.  The US announced that it had one million names on its Anti-terrorism list.  The bigger news was that Apple sold one million of its latest version IPhone.  The company announced 10 million downloads from its apps store as well.  This means that you as a marketer are already in the mobile marketing platform.

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The 10th edition of Pittsburgh’s Social Media Marketing Buzz is now available at http://pghsocialmedia.blogspot.comThe buzz has the latest development in social networking programs around Pittsburgh as well as information and stats from around the country. Check out the issue and email us your news at blog@universalwit.com.

Earlier in the week, we reported on the social media initiative from Google called Lively, a virtual entertainment site.  Several responded with some excellent insight that I would like to share with you today.

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Yesterday in social media marketing news, we reported on Google’s introduction of “Lively”, a new virtual experience website.  Yesterday, on LinkedIn, we posted a question asking for thoughts and experiences on Lively.

We’d like to hear from you as well.  Feel free to submit comments as an answer to ‘What are your thoughts and experiences with Google’s new Lively?’ We will hopefully share others thoughts in this space later in the week.

The 9th edition of Pittsburgh’s Social Media Marketing Buzz is now available at http://pghsocialmedia.blogspot.comThe buzz has the latest development in social networking programs around Pittsburgh as well as information and stats from around the country.  Check out the issue and email us your news at blog@universalwit.com.

No topic today.  Instead, there has been a flurry of activity after the holiday in announcements of new social media marketing activities.  We will use the space today to report on some of these recent developments.

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Texting is growing rapidly as a form of communication in the US, which is catching up to Europe and Asia for the technology. Today’s blog post gives a basic understanding of the new marketing tool as well as some interesting data from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

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Time to wrap the short week with one more post regarding search engine optimization.  This article came across my desk on Monday as well.  SEO seems to have a magical quality to it, call it Google Mystique.  Some think of it as a game.  Some think of it as an impossible task.  In this article, we look at some common SEO myths.

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In Part 2 we continue with Marketing Sherpa’s ‘Special Report: Online Keyword Research Guide: 5 Tips & 9 Useful Tools’.  Today comes the 9 tools that you can use to help you with Search Engine Optimization.

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There have been several excellent articles on Search Engine Optimization that came across my desk over the past couple of days.  As part of our mission to deliver the most appropriate and useful information possible in this blog, I plan to devote the rest of the week to sharing this insightful news.  I’ll add insight where appropriate as well.
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The 8th edition of Pittsburgh’s Social Media Marketing Buzz is now available at http://pghsocialmedia.blogspot.comThe buzz has the latest development in social networking programs around Pittsburgh as well as information and stats from around the country.  Check out the issue and email us your news at blog@universalwit.com.

You may be feeling uneasy about adapting new media as part of your marketing programs.  Sure, the stats show us that traditional marketing is declining and new media is growing.  However, we know that there is still uneasiness over a customer base that is empowered and a communications explosion.

A recent study of CMOs shows that you are not alone.

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People I speak with seem to always have SEO on their minds. That’s good. SEO is a marathon not a sprint. I am apt to quote movie lines so to borrow from Willy Wonka with a few updates: SEO is 73% perspiration, 27% creativity, and 5% luck. Yes, you must give 105% and it might even help to throw in a little butterscotch ripple.

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Social Media and PR go hand in hand.  There are so many new outlets for your news items.  Today, we are going to look at the blogosphere and the opportunities that are available there.

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We have been running at top speed with this blog in an attempt to keep up with the dizzying amount of info that comes out daily. Today, we take a breath.

Many of our clients are just getting exposed to what Web 2.0 can do. As part of getting comfortable with these new technologies and new marketing, we have begun to put together a Web 2.0 boot camp. As part of this program we would like to provide a glossary of terms that will serve as a reference.

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The 7th edition of Pittsburgh’s Social Media Marketing Buzz is now available at http://pghsocialmedia.blogspot.com The buzz has the latest development in social networking programs around Pittsburgh as well as information and stats from around the country.  Check out the issue and email us your news at blog@universalwit.com.

This was not originally planned to be the post for today, but I got information for the new CAN-SPAM provisions for the AMA Pittsburgh blog.  As they go into effect July 7, 2008, I thought it would be prudent to share them here as well.

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The Seeker & The Hidden Skulls Online Game

In honor of Indiana Jones, UniversalWit brings you a Seek and Scramble game for the Summer. It is free to play. You don’t have to sign up either. All you have to do is find the 13 skulls we hid on UniversalWit, The Seeker of Strange News and 1129 Ridge. Each skull has a letter on it. Unscramble the letters to make a word. Send that word as the subject line to games@universalWit.com from a valid email and you will be entered into our weekly drawings for gas gift cards.
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Search Engine Optimization is something we here every day and with good reason.  Search engines are the number one place people turn to when searching for information about a company.  We’d like to share with you a recent survey of marketers just like yourself and what they had to say about SEO ROI.

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Today’s post is for the HR professional, specifically recruiting of candidates.  We know your company is more than its job description.  We also know that a candidate is more than a few keywords on a piece of paper.  Online video can bridge the gap between employer and prospective employee.

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Now that you are convinced that you can afford video and you are excited about what it can deliver.  It is time that you sold it to upper management and they want to see results right.

So, how do you explain the ROI of video?  You can grasp the intangibles of what it will do for your brand, how it can educate, and how it will reach new customers.   Management is going to want numbers though.  Here are some ways to measure video’s impact on your marketing programs.

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Hopefully, yesterday we convinced you that video was within your budgetary reach. Now, we can look at the benefits that are possible for your brand by deploying video as part of your marketing mix.

Online Publisher’s Association reports that 69% of online users have watched a video online. 24% do so at least once a week. I am going to surmise that these numbers could have seen a growth during the writer’s strike which propelled people to the web for new content.
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The 6th edition of Pittsburgh’s Social Media Marketing Buzz is now available at http://pghsocialmedia.blogspot.comThe buzz has the latest development in social networking programs around Pittsburgh as well as information and stats from around the country.  Check out the issue and email us your news at blog@universalwit.com.

Video is our subject this week, because it is extremely popular, very
effective, and also misunderstood by many marketers.  In fact this first
post of our video discussion series deals with the myth that video is
too expensive for most companies to utilize.
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After watching Jessica’s use of video yesterday and heading into the weekend, I thought we’d have some weekend homework before we talk video next week.  Don’t worry it is not that difficult.

On Monday, we start a multi-post series on using video as part of your marketing programs.  I came across two really good articles today on the subject, so we might have most of the blog next week devoted to video.

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It is nice an sunny and warm here in Pittsburgh, and I am in a cheerful mood.  We were going to get started on a 2-part blog series on video.  However, rather than end the week with it, I think we will start the week with it next week.

Instead for today and tomorrow, we will post to primers for video.  The first came to us from Jessica as an excellent example of using social media marketing to get what you want or what you need.

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My clients often ask me about Email Marketing as part of their online marketing programs. I came across this article from Marketing Sherpa and it outlines some great opportunities so I wanted to share it in this space. UniversalWit monitors many blogs and eNewsletters for pertinent information. Check this space or contact us if you are looking for something in particular

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In most cases when you see a definition of Web 2.0, you see the words User Generated Content or UGC. UGC has become the foundation of Web 2.0 with the empowerment of formally passive web surfing.

You likely want to increase traffic to your company’s website. UGC can help you rapidly accomplish this goal. In fact one company reported a 300%+ jump in traffic when they opened up their site for writers to post pertinent information.

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The 5th edition of Pittsburgh’s Social Media Marketing Buzz is now available at http://pghsocialmedia.blogspot.comThe buzz has the latest development in social networking programs around Pittsburgh as well as information and stats from around the country.  Check out issue to and email us your news at blog@universalwit.com.

It may be the $20 million dollar trivia question right now - how do I make my campaign viral. Viral is the online version of word-of-mouth, compelling content that gets passed from one inbox to the next.

Here are a few  general attributes that virals share at their root, bearing in mind that people online can tell an ad right away and shut it down quickly.

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