Power 150: http://adage.com/power150/

I have been awarded the Power 150 Badge and my blog is now published in the Advertising Age Power 150 Blog Rankings.

If you don’t know what the Power 150 is here is an excerpt from the site..

“The Power 150 is a ranking of the top English-language media and marketing blogs in the world, as developed by marketing executive and blogger, Todd Andrlik. It’s really as simple as that, except that the name isn’t strictly accurate: It currently ranks more than 500 blogs written about all types of media and pretty much every imaginable marketing discipline. ”

Social Media Vision is a fairly new blog and in the short time span it has been live, I already recieved great success with a PR rank 3, over 105 GFCS, High Alexa & Technorati ranking but I have been having trouble in getting in the Power 150 ranking.

The Power 150 submission is very strict in accepting new Blogs.  Todd came up with a measurement and point system in order to rank blogs accordingly.  It uses a basic multimetric algorithm to obtain a final ranking based on the sum of eight sources, seven of which come from Google, Bloglines, Alexa, Yahoo! and Technorati.

On Wednesday, I received an e-mail stating I got accepted and I am so excited to display my Power Age 150 badge!!

This Java Scripted Badge below should update my Current Rank out of 998 (At the time of this post)

Post from: Social Media Vision

Social Media Vision has been accepted in AdAge Power 150 Ranking

If your a new Blog owner and wishing to explore ways to find Blog Sponsors you might want to try this neat little marketing approach in finding a sponsor.

Before I venture into this marketing tip you might want to brush up on some great sage advice on finding a sponsor for your blog by problogger.  Darren Rowse has created a short starter list on how to find a blog sponsor.

Now that you have been briefed on Blog Sponsors

I was thinking of a creative way in reaching out to my local market in finding a niche sponsor to help out my new blog.  I was relating it to my Finance Business and when I wanted to find Free and Fast traffic I posted to ad markets like Craigslist to find new clients and get instant exposure.

I thought hey why don’t I just create a FREE ad and find a local sponsor to help find my last ad spot on my blog.  Well wouldn’t you know when searching Google if anyone else does this marketing technique, I ran across this ad below.

 (click on Image to enlarge)

This is a great starter technique in finding a local sponsor

• It’s Free
• Less intimadating
• Provides Exposure
• Develop a local presence and audience

Post from: Social Media Vision

Creative Blog Sponsor Tip Using Craigslist Marketing

Myspace and Facebook and Twitter Oh My!

We live in the day in age of “Whats the next hottest thing to hit the web” its surprising that almost 2 decades ago there was no such phrase.

With the unstable economy we now face and the tough times we run into, we are inclined to find ways to help increase our marketing and boost our exposure in business.

From Web 1.0, Web 2.0, Social Media, Social Marketing, Social Networking, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, Blogging,Podcasts, Video Marketing, Wikis,Forums,Classifieds, Single Site Websites….Ok you get the idea.

The whole concept of keeping up is a work in itself and not to mention can cause dizziness and nausea

So the Golden Question is … ” What works” and “Which one should I do?”
Expensive Marketing

The boot camp of marketing and branding in the real world was no small picnic before the age of computers.

A rough game plan is outlined below:

• Marketing consisted of big bucks to Newspaper Ads, Radio Ads, TV Ads, Magazine Ads, you name it, there was no cheap way of advertising to what was “perceived” as the must advertise avenues. This costs Money and tons of it to get your return of investment.

• You wanted exposure, you hit the streets, talking to everyone and anyone, getting your name out there,because lets face it there was no such thing as a worldwide connection resource built on data and Ips at your disposal at the time, guess what this costs Money too. Gas, Air travel, flyers, signs etc….

• You wanted to join a networking group, wanted to sponsor a local team, wanted to have your ideas/thoughts exposed on print media….Great!!, it costs Money

Take a look at the bolded words above, they all cost “Money”

The Answer to “What Works?”

To answer the question, “What Works?” the answer is…..”EVERYTHING”

Yes, many of the online presence websites out there is “Free” and what is the old saying “Exposure is Exposure and nothing beats free exposure”

We are so privileged that most consumers are hooked up online now, that getting your name out there in the cyberworld is gold.

Think about it, so what if you signed up to a million sites and have created a profile or that you advertised millions of ads on craigslist.

What have you lost? Time maybe but what have you gained from getting your name out there to those million websites?

FREE Exposure, you can’t beat that.

Which one should I do?

Everyone out there usually has 2 responses to the many of sites/services out there.  Success and No luck.

Think about it, has every real world marketing worked for you 100% of the time as well? Has every colleague you known all had the same success stories from every marketing out there?

You betcha bottom dollar that every marketing has different results for everyone.

So here’s my concept, what does it hurt, to throw as much about yourself out there in the online world and see’s what sticks, What could it hurt?

The Verdict

So the moral of the story ladies and gentleman, don’t worry about what works and deciding which one to take a test drive in.

Dive right in to this wonderful free world of online presence, you will only be helping your exposure more regardless if you spend time on it or not, you signed up, you posted your profile and now your presence is added more to your portfolio.

Last but not least, Have fun, Find a niche site you like, there are many addictive tweeters out there, myspace fans, Facebook heads…go find your own selfish pleasure in these sites and make it your own.

Post from: Social Media Vision

Which Social Media Marketing Works Best?

Online Identity

Your online identity or brand is the representation of yourself in the online world.  The easiest way to establish your online identity is first by establishing a username or handle.  Your username is vital in leaving digital footprints in the online world.

A great way to check the availabilty of a username is by going to www.usernamecheck.com here you can just plug in a username you would like to use to see what is available.  With over hundreds of social media websites out there it can be very difficult to keep up and I think that usernamecheck is a great tool to check for this.

Securing an online brand

If you are not careful you can lose your online identity or have your identity tarnished in a blink of an eye.  You must secure your online identity or brand.  Claim your name everywhere.  

Many people love to domain park or online id park.  What this means is a person would simply buy a domain name or register at a social networking site simply as a place holder so the original host will buy the name.  Some people have cashed in big time this way like when pizza.com sold for 2.6 million 

Harmless claims can happen too.  This happened to Darren Rowse a.k.a the problogger.  He recently created a new site called twitip.com.  Well he registered the domain name but didn’t register the twitter name.  Having an online identity in part is being recognized everywhere in every avenue.  You don’t want false misrepresentations or misleading avenues.  So Darren was on a mission to secure the twitter name and eventually did. (Article)

Mark your territory

There is no wrong way or certain way about going about this concept.  The idea is to claim your online presence everywhere and the next step is to have a lasting memorable presence.

You can create an online brand by having:

• Slogan/Motto – having a catchy, unique or memorable slogan can increase your presence.  What stands you out from the rest?  There are millions of users out there and why should I remember your name/company/website etc.  For example. My name is Justin and there are tons of Justin’s out there.   When I was trying to get Realtors to send me business I wanted a catchy name to stand out and hence the logo of “Just-In-Time-Loans” came out

• Logo/Trademark – Along those same lines having a great logo or trademark can also stand you out from the rest of the crowd.  Think about how many people use the same theme on websites, or blogs or any other platform.  The real difference in many platforms is the logo.  Once you have created a unique logo it doesn’t matter if plenty of people have the same product or platform you will be different just by your logo.
• Unique Username – Don’t just assume that by using your real name is going to be your username.  First of all its not that unique and if you are going to do this then you will need a unique name like Guy Kawasaki. Second of all, if you have a common name then its no use.  For instance if your name is John Doe then chances are you will not be able to secure any of the websites out there.  Try variations.

Post from: Social Media Vision

Secure A Powerful Online Presence By Claiming Your Online Identity