Feb
23rd

Oneupweb : Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics Get Social

Posted by Adam D on February 23, 2010 at 9:53 am

The 2010 winter Olympic Games have been full of exciting ups and downs. From Shaun White’s snowboard run for the gold, to the interesting outfits of male figure skater Johnny Weir to Apolo Ohno’s near crash with the Chinese, there have been plenty of exciting moments for fans to dig into. And this year, the Olympics have become more integrated with social media than ever before, resulting in the creation of some pretty cool new social tools.

Meet the Olympic Pulse.

Here you’ll find many different ways to stay updated on all things “Vancouver 2010″. You can view the “Tweet Sheet”, where tweets from athletes and NBCOlympics.com are posted.

Or you can try something a little more abstract like the Olympic Tracker. This neat tool uses images of a topic to sort tweets by popularity. The larger the image is, the more tweets it has received. You can also choose the time period you want to view. So you can view popular topics by adjusting the slider on the right side.

You can also see what’s being dug up on the Olympic Games from Digg.com, embed a widget into your social profile or use RSS to get your proverbial IV drip of “Vancouver 2010″ if you prefer. There are also some pretty slick photo and video interfaces where you can view celebrity sighting photos at the games and receive email and mobile alerts.

You can also just use Vancouver Olympic Games official Twitter and Facebook pages to keep up with the games. Are you an Olympic enthusiast? If so, let us know how you like to use social media for the 2010 Olympic Games!

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Jan
4th

Are You Offering Your Blog As A Kindle Subscription?

Posted by Ashley on January 4, 2010 at 4:50 pm

Well if you’re not, then you should be! According to Amazon Founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, the Kindle was “the most gifted item ever in our history,” with an estimated 1.5 million sold during the 2009 holiday season. Additionally, Christmas day of 2009 marked the first time ever in which Kindle books actually outsold physical books. Of course, Amazon’s latter accomplishment can probably be attributed to the fact that Kindle gift receivers wanted to play with their new toy after the holiday mayhem wore down, but we’ll still give Amazon credit where credit is due.

When you offer your blog as a Kindle subscription, you’ve got a lot to gain—including the opportunity to reach 1.5 million potential new readers as well as the possibility to make a commission from new subscriptions sold. However, don’t expect to get rich from your subscription commissions—most blogs are offered at either $0.99 or $1.99, and come with a 30 percent commission structure. But nonetheless, it’s an opportunity to give your blog a little extra exposure while earning some pocket change at the same time.

So how do you go about it?

Step 1: Visit Kindle publishing for blogs (currently in beta) to sign up for an account. Unfortunately, your current Amazon or Kindle accounts won’t suffice as a means for publishing your blog. Therefore, you will need to sign up for a separate account and provide financial information, including bank account information and tax ID numbers. Additionally, you will need a 500×500 pixel screenshot (I recommend a homepage shot), an RSS feed URL and a description of your blog.

Step 2: Once your blog passes Amazon’s approval process, you can download a badge (note the badge in the right hand sidebar of StraightUpSearch) from Newstex to help promote it as a Kindle subscription. Simply select the badge design of your choice, enter your Kindle blog URL and copy and paste the code where you want the badge to appear.

Step 3: Watch your reader base and wallets grow!

Although the Kindle is technically an e-book reader, it definitely makes sense to offer blogs as a subscription option. And although the cost might deter some potential subscribers, it’s definitely a great alternative for those who want the portability but don’t have wireless access through their mobile phones.

From blogs to bestsellers, the Kindle is changing the way consumers digest information. And it’s critical that your business keeps up with this ever-evolving marketing landscape. To learn more about the changes your business needs to be making to ensure success in 2010, contact Oneupweb. We’d be happy to help.

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Nov
23rd

Wonderful World of Widgets

Posted by Bob on November 23, 2009 at 1:57 pm

Do you remember that feeling of exhilaration when your circa 1962 statistics book would pose with a quandary like this?

There are two companies that sell widgets. Both companies sell the widgets to the general public for the same price. Company A offers a 25% discount on each order. Company B offers a 35% discount when blah, blah, blah…

Okay, these story problems weren’t exciting (at least not to me), and I became cold and jaded towards “widgets” since they brought me nothing but headaches and inconvenience. Times have changed, however, and I’ve warmed up to the thought of widgets. Actually, I like them for a couple of reasons. First of all, I found out that they actually exist, and secondly, they can be really cool, especially in their shiny new web 2.0 forms.

So then, what is a widget?

The widgets that I am referring to are web or desktop widgets. These widgets are little pieces of embeddable code that can be shared on one site, and embedded on another. Once embedded these widgets take the form of little programs or tools. I’m sure that you’ve seen them; Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and many more all utilize widgets. They often take the form of mini site feeds, picture albums, or programs. They also provide advantages to both the end user and the host, as they allow the end user to enhance the functionality of their site, while the host controls the content of the widget which points back to their site.

Another great aspect of widgets is they can be shared easily. If a person can perform a basic copy/paste, they possess the necessary skill set to install a widget on their website, social profile, or blog.

How do these “widgets” fit into web marketing?

Widgets can help companies to reach-out to online consumers in a cost effective manner. They provide visitors to your website or social page with a medium to promote your product on their own pages or profiles. An interesting, engaging, and functional widget can become a viral sensation as your customer base spreads content that you designed across various social pages, blogs, and sites. As the widget’s popularity increases, the number of free inbound site links can increase as well, helping overall SEO initiatives.

Companies should use every opportunity to remind loyal users and customers to get their shiny new widget by placing it prominently on their web page, pushing it through e-mail blasts, and enabling it on social platforms.

Want to know more about widgets or need some help getting started? Reach out to a professional digital marketing company like Oneupweb, and someone will be happy to get you started.

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Oct
12th

FTC to Regulate Blogger Endorsements

Posted by Natalie on October 12, 2009 at 5:01 pm

(Note: I was not paid to write this.)

Being a new mother, the term “all-nighter” has taken on a whole new meaning for me. One that consists of endless diaper changes, round-the-clock feedings and endless bouts of screaming and wailing (the baby, not me. I promise). One would assume that after being awake for what seemed like days on end, when offered a break, a logical person would head straight to bed for some much needed rest. “Sleep when the baby sleeps,” is what the doctors recommend. However, in my zombie-like state I found myself trudging up my stairs straight towards the computer room whenever I had a moment to spare.

Why? Honestly, I went online to find help and answers from women who had been there, done that. One answer I was seeking was to why my baby screams like I’m setting him on a bed of needles when I put him in his bassinet to sleep at night. I’d warmed the mattress with a heating pad and swaddled him as tightly as I could. Heck, I even brushed the mattress with my hand one night just to be sure no needles had magically sprouted out of it. (Hey, sleep deprivation does strange things to you…)

Anyway, I visited one mommy blog (my first one ever) and there was a product recommendation that I immediately sprang on. I sent Dad to Target right away to pick up what was going to be our life-saver: The Sassy Vented Sleep Wedge. Hey, cut me a break! I was tired. I was vulnerable. I was lacking my usual mental capacity. I work in marketing. I know that some of these women get paid to make product recommendations—but in that very moment of complete disparity, I wanted to believe that perhaps this was an exception to the rule.

It probably wasn’t. Which brings me to the moral of this blog post. Bloggers, mommies or not, have an extremely strong influence when it comes to word of mouth marketing. In fact, the FTC has recently announced that as part of its review of its advertising guidelines, word-of-mouth marketers and bloggers, as well as people on social-media sites such as Facebook, will be held liable for any false statements they make about a product they’re promoting, along with the product’s marketer.

Are those people blogging about a product they’ve been paid to review, or sent for free, truly credible? From personal experience, the Sassy Vented Sleep Wedge was a dream come true (literally) for us, but undoubtedly there are those people making false claims about products because they are being paid to so. Is it fair for the FTC to force bloggers to disclose if they are being paid or received a product for free in exchange for a few nice words? Aren’t consumers smart and savy enough to detect paid product endorsements?

While some feel that the government is sticking its fingers where they don’t belong, others are in full agreement with the feds on this one. Be sure to let us know where you fall!

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Jan
13th

Bringing Online Print Offline

Posted by admin on January 13, 2009 at 5:05 pm

Newspapers and physical forms of reading material have been around for centuries, and I am sure that there are many people that still base their morning routine on a cup of coffee accompanied with the local newspaper.

However, with more and more people logging on to the web from virtually anywhere (I actually logged on at my local laundromat last week) and more and more newspaper and print companies striving to convert to online versions and cut their age old print deliveries, are the days of daily printed newspapers and magazines moving behind us?

Image: Honey, You’re Always Reading that Paper by Randy Son of Robert

Well, there is one company that is trying to do just the opposite, and still finds the thought of reading a physical form of reading material pleasurable. Therefore, they are trying to bring interesting, user-generated content offline.

The Printed Blog is an independent media outlet, founded by Joshua Karp, that plans to publish twice daily via print. Content is entirely based on reader’s votes and their geographic location.

The Printed Blog’s plan is to, as opposed to the “one-size-fits-all” newsprint model, print hundreds, and eventually thousands of decidedly localized editions that are based on what a community decides is the most important to them.

The papers will be distributed to neighborhood pickup points in A.M. and P.M. editions, in hopes to create reader comments with a rapid turnaround and a paper that functions like a news or web feed. They have tapped into the world of social media networking and web-based syndications to obtain “brilliant bloggers that have revolutionized collective media” as their editorial department.

You can submit content right online at their site, or sign up to advertise in the free publication. The Printed Blog hopes to reach advertisers who may need to, or can spend less in order to reach their targeted local audience. Advertisements run from about ($15-$25), and they plan to also host classified ads.

Debut for The Printed Blog is scheduled for January 27, 2009, at two locations in Chicago at Lincoln and Wicker Parks, in addition to one location in San Francisco. A New York edition is also due out in the near future.

Will this “little-engine-that-could” form of print stay afloat among the sea of online newspapers and magazines? We shall see, but I do find it refreshing, as a former newspaper employee, that someone is fighting to hold on to the paper tradition.

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