Win a Free One hour Social Media Consultation as Part of My One Year Anniversary Celebration

So here is a contest for you….

Guess how many blog page views I have had in the last year to win.

Winner gets a free one hour review and recommendation of either your linkedin profile, or your own social media sites. Closest the the exact number of page views wins. Post your answer to the comments below to win. Contest ends 11/30/09.

How to Easily and Cost Effectively Add Video to Your Marketing Arsenal

What Can Video Do for You?
Video is a perfect social media marketing channel for engagement. Here are some tips on WHAT to shoot:

Beyond…

Three years and 75,000 words later…

Note from Jim. This week marks my 3 year anniversary of my column for All About ROI (formerly Catalog Success) magazine. Here is the anniversary article. Hope you enjoy my favorites “best of” articles referenced. But before moving forward, I wanted to take a look back at some of my more memorable columns of the past three years with some thoughts sprinkled here and there on how they relate to today’s environment.

My very first column was

We’re on a mission to create the best direct marketing education forum on Linkedin

3 weeks, 540 members strong. Join us: http://www.linkedin.com/e/vgh/2080726/ We have members from all area’s of direct marketing ready to share their expertise with you. We also have international members.
Want to know more about search, blogs, direct mail, telemarketing, lists, social media, and all direct marketing disciplines, then join us.
If you are an expert in direct marketing, please join us too.

Guest Blogger, Kevin Hillstrom: Build and Reap the Benefits of Social Media Databases

t’s really hard these days to find a marketing discussion that doesn’t include the phrase “social media.” But it’s also really hard to find a case study of someone who created a social media database and then measured return on investment based on the data in that database. A social media database…

Attention S. Florida Marketers, This months event in Ft. Lauderdale: Going Green and Getting Digital with Paper & Print

Attention S. Florida Marketers, This months event in Ft. Lauderdale: Going Green and Getting Digital with Paper & Print

You Lost Me There, Part 4: “Badges? We don’t need no stinking badges!!!”

“Badges? We don’t need no stinking badges!!!”

Quick, somebody tell me what movie that line came from?

In internet speak, “badges” are small icons with social media logos that can be put on your website to drive traffic to those same social media sites. Sites like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, YouTube, Vimeo, etc. Places where you can extend your brand. In the fourth part of my “you lost me there” series, I’ll discuss…

You lost me there part 3 (losing customers in the call center)

If you believe — and many of the purest of pure-play Internet marketers do — that you don’t need a call center, think again. I’ve seen this debate lost over and over again. People still want, and sometimes need, a human voice to help with their orders, especially if you offer products that are complicated and/or higher in cost.

It’s not that difficult to add a call center these days…

Grand opening of new Linkedin Group – Direct Marketing Questions & Answers

Linkedin members can join by clicking here: http://www.linkedin.com/e/vgh/2080726/.

This is the place to get all of your direct marketing questions answered.

And if you are a direct marketing expert, this is the place to help gain notoriety.

You lost me there part 2 (your website doesn’t do enough to capture leads)

This week, let’s look at the many ways you can lose prospects who visit your Web site without even knowing who they are. This “phantom demand” can be captured and added to your contact strategy, and these leads can be nurtured until they’re ready to buy. To capture them and begin a sales dialogue, however, you must get them to identify themselves, right? So without further preamble, here are some more tips for you: