Media
Monday, May 12th, 2008
I have to say that I have been missing out on a great place here in Denver. With several Indigians volunteering for this weekend’s plant sale @DBG, I decided it was a good opportunity to chip in and take some pictures for the current social media campaign we have rolled out for the gardens.
I was blown away.
For those who don’t know me, I attended Oregon State University and received my B.S. degree in Botany. I also have dabbled in, and continue to show interest in graffiti art. And as you may know, Denver Botanic Gardens has put the two together to develop a unique and outstanding meduim in their current exhibit Urban Nature.
It’s amazing, when I ask myself ‘why did I spend all that time and money in college and do nothing with it?’ Then, I find myself working for a great company in downtown Denver and going on-site to one of the top-ranked botanical gardens in the US to shoot pictures for the benefit of their website. I guess I can’t say it didn’t work out for me, because even though i’m not in a lab testing Phytophthora infestans’ resistance to fungicide- I get to stroll around a beautiful venue and snap picutres of two things I love for a good cause.
So, I feel somewhat lucky to be so involved with this campaign. I would highly recommend giving the gardens a visit sometime soon. Different species will be coming into bloom over the next few weeks, and the plantlife will certainly compliment the artist’s work as time elapses over the summer.
Monday, May 12th, 2008
After a few months of hearing nothing but bad things about search engine optimization (thanks Calacanis, but SEO is NOT bullshit), an article in Slate praising its talents:
http://www.slate.com/id/2190387/
Monday, May 5th, 2008
First of all, great work to the decorating crew for making our tent look so blue and pretty! The gold ribbon was well deserved for the appearance of the tent, but the team inside the tent rocked too! Even though it was early on a Saturday morning, everyone had a smile on their face ready to walk the walk. I just want to say good work team Indigio, for raising more money then we planned, and for having such a great attitude on Saturday!
Monday, March 31st, 2008
Alright, this blog is for the ladies. We have been dreaming about a place to get all the wonderful guidance and tips from the love goddesses and geniuses around the world all in one place. Well, guess what?! We finally have it. The only catch is that everything from love tips to dating advice is all manufactured by the geniuses at Yahoo!. (We will take what we can get right?)
So yes, Yahoo has a search engine specifically targeting women. You can find anything from healthy living to steamy celebrity relationships. Its the Cosmopolitan of the internet. Finally a search engine that has all the pertinent and important news that women want to know and read about. Not only just gossip but also tips relating to women and the work place, money and finance all centered around a women’s world. Fancy that!
Get inspired ladies because Yahoo! Shine has our back. Check it out: http://shine.yahoo.com/
*Note: I hope that you catch my intense sarcasm in this post.
Monday, March 31st, 2008
No, I’m not talking about fishing, (although I wouldn’t mind being there right now.) I’m talking about social media marketing. All advertisers have bait or subliminal messages right? They need to grab your attention so you look at their product and hopefully they get a sell out of you. Ever wonder why you have to lean down to see what cereal you want? That is if you don’t eat the healthy stuff like Fruit Loops, Lucky Charms etc. The delectable cereal is at the average height of a child. The children see it, bug their parents to get it, and you don’t want your kid kicking and screaming on the floor, so…caught ya! You end up purchasing it. (You know you like those colorful marshmallows too!)
Here’s a little tid-bit/reminder regarding Social Media and the importance of “baiting” from doshdosh.com. “All social media funnels are fueled by your proposition, your bait, your attention magnet; things that captivate interest and pull visitors into the heart of your site. You are responsible for the evolution of visitors from a mere prospect to an engaged opportunity (interested reader) and possibly a closed sale (loyal supporter).” Sometimes your target may need a little nibble before you snag them up, but make sure that nibble is delicious, and remember if you want to reel ‘em in, don’t forget the bait! Here fishy, fishy!!!
Thursday, March 27th, 2008
Social Media is all the rage right now. Everyone is talking about it and using it for that matter. I am more or less new to all of it and I am still finding my way around different sites like Digg and Stumble. The list of Social Media sites could go on for quite some time. Well even after spending a few weeks browsing and discovering articles in Digg a thought occurred to me, “Who manages and controls the quality of stories, articles and or events that end up on the front page?” I mean do we want quality and credibility in the things that are on the top Digg list every day? Or do we merely want to enjoy and share things with others regardless of what it is. Maybe thats the point of Social Media. Maybe Digg or Stumble or Del.icio.us would not be the same if someone was controlling or in a sense censoring the type of things people share. Digg is even getting to the point where there are items on the front page that only have 26-30 Diggs and really have no reason to be up there. Tell me if I am wrong, but I believe people would rather be reading something that got over 100 Diggs than something that only got 20-30. Who controls what goes up there? Who says this is worthy of being notices. We do, us Social Mediaites. So the final questions arises. Being that we are the ones doing the Digging and controlling what is good should we take more of an active role in censoring what is Digged or not? What do you think? Would censorship completely go against everything that Social Media stands for?
What do you think?
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008
Online relationship management. That’s what I think about it. More so your relationship with yourself than anything else. Social media today makes me assess how I differentiate what is online and offline, so let’s just separate the two and take a look. I had a bit of an experience on Twitter earlier this evening, and I wanted to share how the results of the experiment can support how online relationships can be just as important as those offline and vice versa.
How many people know you, or follow your life stream? How many people do you know, and follow their life stream? And at some point, who cares–what are you getting out of it compared with the amount of time you spend messing with it? Right? Tonight, I got all emo and threatened to quit Twitter. 4 out of 80 people following me replied and said, “dude, why?” I defended my stance by saying:
”What happens when you supposedly create your own community and feel you’re not accepted? Are you not contributing enough? The only reason I’m asking is because I haven’t felt the Twitter love lately, and it makes me feel as if I HAVE to do something. Screw that…it may be a consequence of what I’ve made my experience to be, but the people I care about don’t seem to give a *&%# about what I say…seriously considering quitting Twitter tonight.”
I know at heart we all value the whole Twitter because it IS great. Like @garyvee says, we are damn lucky to be worried about using things like Twitter. Such a privilege to be living like this, and just GETTING (I mean understanding) it.” But the point of my test was to see how people value their online relationships vs. their offline ones. Obviously many of the people that were following me wouldn’t care if I fell of the face of Twitter. “Who cares, if I need to find him there are other vessels (MySpace, Facebook, uh email?)” But how would that type of message translate to the real world? Would I seem suicidal? Would more “friends” (term to be used loosely–no offense, but that term should be used loosely in web communities”) step in and intervene? I value my online relationships. Someone said to me after the whole fiasco: “You should expect less of everyone.” That’s fine, I can deal with that. But what if I expect MORE of everyone? I think that would only contribute to a better community. Not such a bad thing.
Wednesday, March 19th, 2008
Tuesday, March 18th, 2008
Pretty simple concept… Follow these people and learn.
Darren Rouse @problogger
Jeremiah Owyang @jowyang
Jason Calacanis @JasonCalacanis
Adam Glickman @aglick35
Kevin Cawley @kcbigring
Chris Brogan @chrisbrogan
Jeremy Wright @jeremywright
Emily Chang @emilychang
Guy Kawasaki @guykawasaki
Betsy Weber @betsyweber
Tuesday, March 18th, 2008
Today as I was working on some meta tags for one of our clients, it hit me. It was SEO in its most simple form- but it sparked some thought about what was to come of the internet. What we do as ‘search engine’ optimizers is based on an old system of trying to fool the Googlebot into thinking it likes us and our friends. We study the algorithm. We test. We test more. We do all these things with the search engine in mind because that is the deliverer of our business. This system is due for a shift, and it is happening now (and fast).
Many sites you visit these days require a login, and have the capability for you to personalize your experience and/or make friends. It engages the user and establishes a sense of trust. Because that’s what this is all about, right? Trust. Up until now, the internet was a vessel for information. It has now become selective to many users based on how much information is out there, mainly because how much a lot of it sucks. People who don’t know how to use Google wind up in the wrong place, and they have poor experiences as consumers. I struggle with trying to find what I want sometimes, clicking through to 8 or 9 results. And this is not to be mistaken with paid advertising, which is even more rampant with trust issues. The bottom line is that when a user can become engaged without distrust, good things begin to happen.
The basics of SEO are still effective in today’s world. We wouldn’t be doing it if it didn’t help our clients reach their goals. However, marketing requires trust and companies need communities to belong to. So- keep a close eye on what happens next, because anyone who has an audience on the web will have to adapt to a new school of thought in capturing it. We very well may become, ‘online community’ optimizers.
