So where are you reading this blog post from? Your home in Minneapolis. Your office over the River in St. Paul? Or a coffee shop in Mexico?

You know they call it “the world wide web” for a reason. And as the infrastructure to support it expands around the globe – and as the technology to access it becomes more affordable and readily available – the Internet truly is facilitating communication across widely dispersed geo-political boundaries. So visitors to your website could be coming from anywhere on earth, really.

Lots of smart interactive marketing professionals recognize the Internet’s burgeoning capability to facilitate international transactions. Recently, 200+ members of the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association (and guests) met at W Minneapolis for our July event, featuring a presentation by Joe Kutchera an expert in online marketing and building sales in Latin American markets and founder of dotGlobal, an international e-commerce and media consultancy.

Joe spoke to the group about concepts related to localization and internationalization, using Latin American markets as an example. Here are select highlights from his full presentation.

Localization trends
Joe gave us some examples of how geographic boundaries can affect shopping behavior.

Price. According to Joe, who lives in New York City, many people in Manhattan cross the Hudson River to save on groceries and gas, because prices are less expensive and taxes are lower in New Jersey. Or compare the prices for the same products available on Dell’s U.S and Mexican online stores (both prices given in USD).
• Inspiron 13” – Dell.com: $499; Dell.com.mx: $665
• Studio Slim Desktop – Dell.com: $399; Dell.com.mx: $702
• Dell V305 Printer – Dell.com: $99; Dell.com.mx: $132
(Sources: Dell.com and Dell.com.mx, July 2009)

Availability. Joe shared several anecdotes about Latin American friends who frequently seek out U.S. sources to buy products because they often have greater selection and better quality. For a local example, who among us as creative and enterprising MIMA members have not crossed the St. Croix River on a Sunday afternoon at least once to replenish the liquor cabinet after a rollicking party the night before, because of Minnesota blue laws prohibiting alcohol sales on Sunday?

Internationalization trends
Joe provided a variety of figures verifying what we already know: the Internet is an increasingly international space. A look at the top 50 ostensibly U.S. websites shows that many are getting more traffic from abroad than from U.S. visitors. The New York Times web edition gets 42% of its readers from abroad, Twitter 51%, YouTube 81% and Facebook 82%.

Where could these visitors be browsing your website from? According to Internet World Stats, the top five most used languages on the Internet are: English (430.8 million), Mandarin (276.2 million), Spanish (124.7 million), Japanese (94.0 million) and French (68.2 million).

Indeed. For those of you who think visually — or for you verbal people like me who need context to put large numbers into perspective — try this on. The Minneapolis Star Tribune print edition reported two days after Joe’s presentation that China now has more people who are online than the entire population of the United States.

Opportunities for marketers
How are Latin Americans and Spanish-speaking people in the United States finding your website? By typing Spanish terms into their favorite search engines. Joe suggests making sure your SEO strategies include optimizing your site for Spanish (and other important international languages).

Look at your media plan. Joe said to think about your audience’s international language needs or professional interests horizontally across the vertical media channels in your strategy.

Target your messaging. Joe said there are a lot of ways to deliver messages to international audiences.
• By IP address or geographic region
• Re-target (follow up)
• Behavioral/linguistic
• Contextual (by subject)
• Profession/company/social network
• Country

Explore emerging g-commerce best practices. Joe said there is tremendous opportunity for marketers in the United States who make it easier for customers from around the world to buy their products.
• Give your visitors a choice of geographic denominations to transact in and make your offers available in multiple denominations.
• Give your visitors a choice of geographic locations to pick up products they order. If you do not have a physical presence in a foreign market where consumers are looking for your product or service, partner with a business there who can serve as a distributor for you.

Why would 280 ordinarily sensible internet marketing professionals get up at the crack of dawn and convene at the Mill City Museum? Sure, the camaraderie was great. And the breakfast wasn’t bad either. But those are only two reasons our MIMA monthly events have grown to be so popular.

The real attraction, as always, was the content – a presentation on user experience given by Nick Finck, co-founder of Seattle-based Blue Flavor, a web design company that focuses on creating great user experiences.

So what makes a great user experience? And how can you test your website? Nick described seven fundamental building blocks, and provided valuable insights about them, that you can put to use today.

Useable. This should be a top priority for page-driven design. Very simply, make sure functionality works effectively for all platforms and browsers.

Findable. Lots of developers work really hard to make search functionality as robust as possible. However information architecture and navigation design is equally important. Or even more so. Remember: if you can’t find something, it might as well not exist on your site.

Credible. Give website users an emotional reason to believe in you, as well as a rational one. A clean, professional visual design that provides clear, simple content can go a long ways toward creating a sense of trust.

Accessible. This is not just about avoiding unnecessary java script or burying content in Flash modules. Give users the option to explore your site content without advanced functionality. This includes making sure your site is accessible by people with disabilities.

(The Web Accessibility Initiative is a global volunteer organization dedicated to sharing strategies, guidelines and resources to help make the web accessible to all.)

And there is a strong business case for paying attention to accessibility. Not only can poor website accessibility lead to expensive, protracted litigation, it can lead to lost revenue opportunities when users are denied access to your site.

Desirable. It is important to think about holistic user experience. Do you really know what your users desire? Do focus groups. Then make functionality easier for users and create positive (not painful) emotional experiences for them.

Useful. This is another big issue in user experience. Lots of technologies exist that allow designers to develop cool effects, but make sure they serve a purpose greater than just serving up some eye candy. That means no gratuitous animation or delays to load graphics.

Put another way: don’t make users endure your site and don’t go overboard with the gimmicks. Make your site fast to load and make it easy for users to find the content they are looking for. Web users are trying to find information and solve problems, so they are not looking for a CD-ROM experience with your site.

Bottom line: Nick wonders how many dollars are lost in missed sales opportunities and how many customers are lost because excessive features and functionality get in the way. Not to mention the dollars wasted on developing them.

Valuable. Focus on providing features that make your site easy to use. Focus on developing content and processes that allow users to find the information they need or complete a transaction in as few steps as possible. Don’t treat users as a source of qualified leads to bombard with marketing messages and touch points. Limit the level of commitment you expect users to give to you and let them choose how deep a relationship they would like to have with you.

Three other gold nuggets Nick shared.

1) We need to think, “device agnostic.” We are no longer designing just for the desktop. With new technologies and new applications – and many more advancements on the horizon, we need to serve up information and experiences based on the context of the device/application the user is using and what they are trying to accomplish by using it.

2) We need to fail more. Because we are not pushing ourselves hard enough. And critical feedback is important too. The more we vet usability and experience, the better it gets. Always remember: “Failure is not falling down. Failure is not getting back up.”

3) We need to come together on behalf of our users. Information architects, interaction designers, visual designers, usability experts, accessibility specialists, content developers and marketing professionals would be wise to keep our audience in mind at all times. It’s not about us – it’s about the people who visit our websites.

The key take away. The one most important thing Nick wants you to remember:

By creating good experiences for our website users, regardless of what they are doing or how they do it, we can successfully accomplish our business goals. And that’s what we all get paid for.

Chances are you have a number of different inboxes, all competing for your attention. Professional and personal e-mail accounts. Voicemail and instant messaging at the office, your mobile device and at home. And now there’s all the social media inboxes – Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Yammer, YouTube, Flickr – the list goes on and on.

Talk about your inbox insanity.

While many internet marketing professionals thrive on exploring ways to use these tools to generate and share content, we are a clear minority. Indeed, a vast majority of our customers and prospective customers are finding the proliferation of inboxes overwhelming. And as a result, 1:1 social media networks are beginning to fragment in the same way traditional media did before.

These are all insights Jeffrey Rohrs, Vice President of Marketing for ExactTarget, shared with about 150 MIMA members and guests at our February workshop. Speaking to us on a snowy morning at the Depot in downtown Minneapolis he also shared these observations on the current state of email marketing, some tips for successful practice and a vision for the future.

Observation one – Marketers are not in control. Consumers now scan and delete messages that do not appear relevant to them to manage their busy inboxes. Plus, they appreciate the greater control over the source of messaging they receive offered by social media inboxes. So email marketing messages must become more personal and less promotional to be opened, read and acted upon.

Observation two – Marketing communications increasingly exist by invitation. This is especially true for Millennials.

Observation three – Invitations are easily revoked. Remember the recent Burger King “angry Whopper®” offer for a free burger to anyone who got rid of ten Facebook friends? Demand was so high, they had to shut down the application.

Observations one, two and three demonstrate that permission and relevance matter. Fail to heed this simple rule and risk being deleted from the inbox or dropped by the consumer.

Tips for implementing a successful email marketing program
• Create conversations, deliver meaningful offers and don’t push for the sale
• Give consumers the information THEY want and the respect THEY deserve
• Don’t “pollute” the inbox with irrelevant communications
• Position your communications as customer service opportunities
• Create “subscribers” who opt-in and look forward to your communications

Based on these observations and tips, Rohrs said to be effective email marketing programs must be built on smart use of market data. Shockingly, he cited research from the CMO Council 2008 that reveals that few of us are prepared to succeed.

• Only 6% of CMOs surveyed said they have excellent knowledge of their customers.
• More than 50% of CMOs surveyed said they had little or no knowledge of their customers’ demographic, behavioral, psychographic or transactional data.

Clearly, these numbers need to change. Rohrs suggests marketers strive to transform from thinking like siloed businesses to thinking like publishers. Based on this concept, he and his firm, ExactTarget, believe that the future of email marketing will belong to those who take an agnostic approach where subscribers rule.

Key take aways
• Serve individuals
• Honor their unique preferences regarding communication, content, frequency and channel
• Deliver timely, relevant content that improves their lives (always send value)

Over the past year, Twitter seems to have hit its tipping point and truly entered popular consciousness. (@idpkbrian called it when he saw a reference to Twitter in a Wal-Mart ad in a movie theatre this summer.)

Just to be contrarian, I think it’s time I shared my Twitter peeves. Let the Twitter scroogin’ begin!

Twitter != IM
If more than half your tweets start with @, you might want to consider downloading an instant messaging client. Of course, if all those @ replies are interesting to your followers, more power to you. But, more often than not, @ replies consist of stuff like, “@ so-and-so, what are you doing tonight? I’m washing my hair!”

Know what I say to that? #annoying! Pick up the phone, send an email or use instant messenger.

Watch the re-tweets, Mister.
RT, or re-tweeting, is repeating what someone else said because you thought it was funny or interesting. That’s fine, but if more than half your tweets are RTs, what the hell are you doing? Add something interesting to the conversation, or don’t talk. (This from the girl who tweets pictures of her kid. Who do I think I am?)

Twitter is also not RSS
If all that you or your company are tweeting about is your latest blog post, please stop. If we want to read your blog, we’ll subscribe to your RSS feed. (If you sprinkle your blog notices among other interesting tweets, no worries.)

On a related note, if all you’re doing is @replying to people who mention you or your competitor, please stop. You’re killing me.

Quantity vs. Quality
This goes for tweets and followers alike. If you’ve been on Twitter for six months and you have thousands of tweets, you are either:
a) incredibly interesting and knowledgable
b) self-obsessed
c) in need of an IM client (see: Twitter != IM)

The answer is most likely b or c. Sorry.

Low or No-Value Tweets
When it comes to followers, I’m glad you have X-hundred or thousand. Good for you! Seriously, good for you. But, you don’t have to tweet every time another 5 people start following you. “I have 100 followers!” “I have 110 followers!” gets old very fast. As someone who’s following you, I obviously think you have something to say. Rattling off your number of followers is not that interesting. If I want to see how many followers you have, I can look at your profile anytime I want. On a related note, it’s really not necessary to publicly thank all your followers.

I am Not a Snob.
I saw a video last month decrying Twitter “snobbery.” The basic message was that if you have a ton of followers and don’t follow all of them back, you’re not social media, you’re solo media.

Um, no. I certainly don’t expect every blog that I read to also read my blog. Similarly, I don’t expect everyone I follow on Twitter to follow me back. I’m busy, they’re busy, we’re all busy, and keeping up with 2,000 tweeters may not be high on my list, or theirs. There are certainly people with thousands of Followers and Followees, and God bless them (see: @stephenfry). But, I have a full-time job, a blog, a husband, a house and two kids. I use Twitter to follow some friends and some industry people that I think are interesting. That’s it. And it doesn’t make me a snob, it just means I’m smart enough to know my own limits.

The Elite
It bugged me when bloggers did it years ago and it bugs me now that tweeters are doing it: lists of who is “elite” based on number of followers or number of tweets or other wacky methods. What bugs me is the “I’m more popluar than you” mentality that smacks of junior high school. The beauty of where technology is right now (Web 2.0, if you will) is that we all have a voice. Not everyone can start a radio or TV station, or start printing a newspaper, but anyone can set up a Twitter account, a web site, a blog, or a Facebook page — and if they have something interesting to say, they’ll find an audience.

If anyone has this kind of right, it seems like Mr. Tweet does. He looks at it in terms of influence and relevance, which seems right on the mark. Trying to calculate who is elite based on followers or tweets just seems silly to me. I’ve seen people who have made thousands of low-value tweets. That ain’t elite. Where Mr. Tweet gets it right is in understanding that it’s in the eye of the follower: what’s relevant to me may not be relevant to someone else. This is not high school. There is no “in crowd.”

The Echo Chamber
Just like in real life, there are clusters of Twitter users. Many of us follow many of the same people. The result is that I might get the same article tweeted 5 times in 5 minutes. (related: my RT gripe). @jongordon noted a few weeks ago that it seemed like Twitter was made up of 90% PR people and “social media experts” and sometimes, it sure seems like he’s right.

Everyone was all a-buzz about the Motrin Moms a couple of months ago, but only ONE DAY after the whole thing happened there were so many tweets ABOUT it that it was impossible to find the tweets that actually WERE it. Echo….echo…echo…

Ego-Tweeting
I got a lot of Amens this week when I tweeted, “the more people use twitter, the more it becomes a place for ego-tripping and butt-kissing. i’m ready for that to stop now.”

Here’s what I’m talking about: the ego-tweet (made by what @JenKaneCo refers to as “twarcissists”) is the standard annoying bragadocious comment. This was brilliantly parodied by @lolife who said, “Having lunch with @god, then a meeting with @obama and then drinks with @bono before my date with @superhotchick.” Ego-tweets are all a variation on that theme. #snore

The butt-kiss tweet is usually a reaction. It goes something like this: powerful client-type person tweets about their business. The bajillion vendor-type people who follow this person go into a tweeting frenzy, each one trying to prove their smarts and derring-do. “Why yes, @powerfulclient-typeperson, we are incredibly strategic and smart!” And then we’re all subjected to the equivalent of a group capabilities presentation in 140 character bites. Which makes me, and all the kittens in the world, weep.

The Circle of Life
Don’t get me wrong, I love Twitter. It’s changed my life, cleared up my acne and I have lost 15 pounds since November. It’s just going through an interesting phase.

If you think about the arc that blogs have followed, it’s easy to draw parallels: began life as geek-only tool, gained popularity, users started defining crietria which make them “elite” to set them apart from all the newcomers, companies thought they were a golden ticket, blog ad networks developed and PR companies actively wooed bloggers, some bloggers were outed as shills and some managed to make a living at it, “real” journalists bristled but grudgingly started accepting blogs, blogs pronounced dead.

This same arc applies to Twitter. When I joined almost two years ago, there weren’t a whole lot of other people tweeting. Now that it’s hit the mass consciousness, the elite lists have started popping up, more and more companies are tweeting (and just like with blogs, a few are getting it right and the rest don’t know what to do), Twitter ad services have started popping up and will soon start to infiltrate. When I was watching CNN last month they were scrolling tweets across the bottom of the screen which means that sometime later this year, you can expect the “Twitter is Dead” headline to hit Wired.

Of course, blogs aren’t really dead — they’re just not the Next Best Thing anymore. Now, that mantle is carried by Twitter. We’ll see how long it lasts. In the meantime, happy tweeting. Follows or rotten tomatoes can be directed @irishgirl.

[cross-posted on the Geek Girls Guide]

Today I spammed everyone on my AIM contact list with an invitation to join Facebook. I was searching for co-workers on the social network, trying to understand the more useful apps and plugins available to the average user, when I inadvertently clicked yes and authorized Facebook to contact everyone on my buddy list. I was distracted. I was multitasking. I was not as careful as I should have been. And, with one click, I was totally humiliated. My heart stopped for what seemed like an entire minute while I prayed for a confirmation screen that never came. I had misread a question, given my permission, and there was no going back. I just sat there and wondered how I’d explain to my colleagues, friends, peers, and, of course, the random total strangers I’d added to my list along the way, that I was a complete idiot who’d let Facebook hijack my buddy list to solicit memberships. I was one more unsuspecting pawn in the Facebook battle for world domination.

There is value in centralizing data. So many of us are out devouring and contributing to content-rich websites and social networks, connecting with long-lost friends, classmates, colleagues. We’re finally in a position to leverage ‘who we know’. Because, what have we always heard? It’s not what you know, but who. And the who has never been more accessible. We’re separated by miles and years and jobs, but we’re just a click away thanks to networks like Facebook and MySpace and LinkedIn. There are new social and professional network sites trying to get in on the action every day. Today alone I had two colleagues try to get me to join Plaxo Pulse. I couldn’t help but wonder if they even knew they’d asked me to join. Recently a friend’s contact list had been hijacked by Spock (I refuse to link to this evil entity) to invite 2500 of his closest friends to join him there. I felt better about my 125 AIM messages when I compared it to 2500. But the sting was still there.

As more and more of these networks fight for our information, who’s going to prove the front runner? Clearly he (or she) who owns the most data wins. And Facebook’s shift from social network to ‘platform’ seems to suggest they believe they can connect all of this decentralized data floating around on the web and make it accessible via their single, simple, interface. So while the data might be scattered amongst iTunes, flickr, Amazon, AIM and other lesser known entities, a series of simple web applications can integrate all of it into the Facebook platform. What’s more, Facebook turns it around and provides an aggregate snapshot of your contacts’ data. It’s really a win-win. Or is it?

Recently Facebook has taken some heat for invasive marketing tactics via it’s Beacon system. Beacon takes data from external websites and makes it available to your contact list with the intention of promoting product through passive endorsements. If you bought something on Amazon, and you’re my friend, the thinking is I might be interested in that product as well. Because you, my friend, are just so darn influential in my life. The problem with this theory is you might be my friend, but I might not want you to know I just bought zit cream from my favorite zit cream website. Its an invasion of privacy and Facebook is still working that one out. Beyond that though, Facebook is starting to look like the Borg. Resistance is clearly futile. If you want to be in touch with anyone in this 21st century the easiest and most practical way to do it is through the web/Facebook, and peer pressure is unavoidable. Come on, everybody’s doing it. There’s a suggestion of youthful trendiness that we all fall victim to. Once you make the leap, though, you’ve sold your soul to the internet’s equivalent of the devil. Because once you create that profile, there’s (allegedly) no getting that data back. You can’t quit Facebook. Not really, anyway.

What does it all mean? To those of us working in technology? And those of us consuming it? These are tough questions to answer. But it seems clear that one of the most valuable assets of our time is our data. Our information. Yet, in spite of that reality, our data is clouded by a mix of fear (identity theft) and ignorance (my dog’s name is my password!).

What’s our responsibility as creators of content, and websites and systems and as participants of networks? What is our contribution? How can we influence how all of this unfolds? I believe that how we interact with, and collect data from users, needs to reflect truth and authenticity. Sure, we publish privacy statements and terms of use policies. We won’t store data or we won’t sell it or give it away or use it without permission. But it’s more than that. We need to help users understand what it is they’re providing and how easy it is to exploit. We need to give them an opportunity to change their minds, or confirm their understanding of an interaction. In my case for instance, a simple ‘confirmation’ page would have saved me the embarrassment of having to apologize to 125 friends and colleagues for that unwanted IM spam. Facebook knew exactly what it was doing when it required only a single click to access my list. I think it’s a cheap tactic in the race for the most data. The downside is, I’m no longer as enthusiastic about the value of Facebook as a networking tool. I see it as suspect now. The upside is I’ll be more careful when I use little web apps like that.

But our standards for collecting this data aren’t set in stone. We’ve only just begun, so what more can we do to extend real value for the user, and tap into the thing that’s most valuable to our clients? We can consider a user’s understanding of their valuable points of data as part of our commitment to simple, usable web experiences. We should see how we collect data as part of usability. We should only collect what is absolutely critical to the experience and we should make certain the user understands the cost of sharing their data and the return on their investment of trust. Finally, we need to keep our promises. Sharing data should have some reward for the user, in terms of access to content, or connections or something of value. We should treat our user’s data as sacred. If we expect to foster a long-term customer relationship, we need to respect what we know about a user and what we continue to discover. It’s common sense, really. Any of us, even presumed ‘experts’ can fall victim to guerilla data collection tactics. It’s embarrassing. It’s painful. It’s avoidable. The difference, though, is we have the ability to influence change. We have the option of applying some code of conduct to how websites interact with users. We’re not done. We’ve only just begun. Facebook doesn’t get to decide. We do.

Google’s Jim Lecinski closed the MIMA Summit with an excellent session on the 10 Trends Shaping the Digital Landscape.

#1 Be always on
Since your consumer can be online 24/7, so should you.

#2 Be ready online for what’s happening offline
Offline is driving online searches so you need to anticipate the type of information that your prospect is going to be looking for. Today, when consumers want information, they go online.

#3 Don’t build it and hope they come
Think about how people will get to your web site and the types of promotions you can leverage.

#4 Don’t discount niche sites for advertising
People’s favorite sites tend to be niche sites. For example, a site like seatguru.com tells you about any seat on a given airplane. Due to the nature of niche sites, the deeper you go in the site, the more engaged the user.

#5 Make video the centerpiece of your online strategy
YouTube is the 8th largest site on the Internet. Enough said.

#6 Give the consumer the opportunity to choose you
In addition to effective search engine marketing, make sure your content is available via RSS so that your consumers can keep coming back to your site when they want to.

#7 Tap into the “Wisdom of the Crowds”
User-generated content is becoming more and more prevalent. Invite users to submit content in a creative way. For example, Mastercard’s “Priceless” campaign asked users to submit their “priceless” moments online.

#8 Be where consumers are at the moment of relevance
Leverage computer and contextual targeting tools to automatically place your ad at the moment of most relevance for your consumer.

#9 Keep an eye on how computer architecture is changing
Once upon a time, data was stored on computer hard drives and floppy disks. Nowadays, there is a tendency to email files to yourself to store them in that “cloud” that lives somewhere on the Web. Photo sites such as Picasa are taking advantage of this trend.

#10 Digital is no longer a sideshow
There were over 600 attendees at this year’s MIMA Summit. Digital is definitely not a sideshow.

Jim Lecinski is a Director for Google, leading the advertising business for Google’s Midwest clients and media agency partners.

Did you know that 62% of Internet users do not look any further than the first page of search engine results?

Lance Loveday’s breakout session on SEO reconfirmed the need for high search engine rankings and provided tips on how to get there.

Traditional SEO (keyword research, on-site optimization and link building) is still as important as ever, but with the evolution of the digital landscape, there is an increasing need to think about search engine optimization in terms of video, images, blogs and RSS Feeds.

Video Optimization

In today’s YouTube age, optimizing video is crucial. Here are some tips.

• Keyword optimize video meta data
• Include the word “video” in the file name so that search engines recognize that the file is a video
• Make sure you allocate one URL per video

Image Optimization

• Embed keywords in the file name, directory and alt text
• Make sure images are not blocked by the robots.txt file

Blog Optimization

Just like optimizing a web site, blogs need to have keyword optimized meta data and on-page content.

• Make sure your blog has tags and categories created with keywords in mind
• Set up your blog to notify (ping) search engines when you add new content. You can use services such as pingomatic. Note: You still have to ping Google separately.
• “Claim your blog” in Technorati, the leading blog search engine

From a usability standpoint:

• Make sure users can easily subscribe to your RSS Feed by adding popular feed reader chiclets
• Offer email-based subscriptions as well as RSS
• Add links to popular social bookmarking sites

RSS Feed Optimization

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a great way to maximize distribution of content and subsequently, also maximize your online visibility.

• Optimize your RSS Feeds with unique titles
• Use a full text feed for the best user experience
• Validate your feed using a service such as feedvalidator.org
• Enable “auto-discovery” so that the user can see that an RSS Feed is available (indicated by the presence of the orange RSS chiclet in the web address bar)

Lance Loveday is the Founder and CEO of Closed Loop Marketing, an online marketing company that helps companies maximize return on their web investments.

MIMA is home to quite the variety of interactive marketers. Even on the board, the mix includes some folks with blogophobia and some very diligent bloggers.

To keep giving you the MIMA content you’re craving, we’ve added three guest bloggers to the roster for your reading enjoyment. Keep coming back to the MIMA blog for more entries from the board and these contributing writers:

Chris Dohman is self-employed with North Rock Publishing …
* Favorite blog: SEOmoz
* Also contributes to: A new blog at North Rock Publishing that focuses on helping Minnesota small business owners with web development and Internet marketing tips.
* Quick tip for aspiring bloggers: Figure out who your target audience is and remain focused on them. It’s OK to go off track occasionally but the bulk of your content should be on-topic and written for this target audience so they can get the most out of it.

Gwyneth Dwyer is the director of writing services with Larsen …
* Favorite blog: Michael Beirut’s Design Observer
* Also contributes to: Marketing Profs Daily Fix, the top 25 marketing blog connected with MarketingProfs.com and LarsenIdealog, the Larsen blog on design, writing, marketing, and digital media.
* Quick tip for aspiring bloggers: Find your niche, keep it fresh, start a conversation.

Karen Sams is an interactive marketing manager with Ameriprise Financial …
* Favorite blog: Search Engine Land
* Also contributes to: Her own interactive marketing blog
* Quick tip for aspiring bloggers: Make sure you blog on a regular basis to keep visitors coming back.

This past summer, three MIMA board members (Jason Kleckner, Julie Vollenweider and I) joined 25 other interactive marketing association board members from across the U.S. to discuss best practices, membership benefits, programming, organizational structure and operations. We’re not talking about starting a national interactive marketing association, but we wanted to compare notes and see how we can offer members more and strengthen the interactive community in each region. In addition to sharing some innovative ideas, the associations agreed to keep the conversation going via a message board and teleconferencing, and we’re also establishing a speakers bureau to share resources.

So…are you curious about what’s happening with interactive marketing in other parts of the country? Check out these IMA websites. Sign up for their email newsletters or just see what they’re up to. And if you’re traveling to these cities, why not attend one of their events? We’re reaching out to these organizations to make MIMA even better, but we encourage you to network with them, too. Other IMAs can be great resources for job searches, recruiting, making connections and building your business.

Atlanta
Boston
Chicago
Dallas-Fort Worth
Houston
NY
Philadelphia
Portland
North Carolina
San Francisco

These IMAs weren’t able to join us in Atlanta, but they are going strong in their regions:
Milwaukee
South Florida

If you’re aware of others, let us know. Email Jason Kleckner, our National Partnerships Chair.

As a side note, did you know that MIMA is the only interactive marketing association in the country to hold a full-day interactive marketing conference? If you haven’t registered for the MIMA Summit yet, don’t miss it. It’s your chance to hear amazing speakers, find out what’s hot in interactive marketing and network with over 400 MIMA friends! Sign up today.

If an online marketing agency promises you number 1 ranking in Google, don’t be deceived. Achieving high ranking is a long process that depends on the keyword phrases targeted and the website in question. Remember, there are no guarantees.

Here are 6 tips for gaining high ranking in Google:

#1 Perform Keyword Analysis
Be wise about the keyword phrases you target. Use a keyword popularity tool to analyze the popularity of a given keyword phrase. However, don’t rely solely on popularity in your selection; the most popular keyword phrases will more than likely also be the most competitive. Weigh popularity against the number of competitors for a given keyword phrase, along with your ability to provide dedicated and detailed content in support of that phrase.

#2 Choose One Theme
Make sure that your website is focused on one specific subject and does not attempt to include several unrelated threads. Google is looking for websites that are authorities in their subject area and the best way to become an authority is to focus your web copy on one specific topic. Just as a website about deep sea fishing would not come up in the results of a search on “Toyota cars”, a website that doesn’t appear to have one common theme will not be perceived as an authority in a particular subject and will not rank highly in searches.

#3 Regularly Update Your Content
The best way to become a subject matter expert (SME) is to regularly add new and relevant content to your website. Attaching a blog to your website is a great way to add fresh detailed content on a regular basis. In order to get the most out of a blog, you need to post to it at least once a week. Also make sure that your blog lives under your website’s domain, otherwise, you will not gain credit for the new content.

#4 Optimize Press Releases
Press releases are another way of generating fresh content. Optimizing press releases with relevant keyword phrases and distributing over a number of newswires also help you achieve high ranking for those keyword phrases. Aim to distribute an optimized press release at least once a month. Gain credit for the fresh content by posting each new release to your website or blog.

#5 Link Building
Just as Google looks at the type of content your website provides to assess whether you are an authority in your subject, the search engine spiders also look at which websites are linking to you and how many. Just like content, incoming links must be relevant to the your website and are intended to confirm your position as a subject matter expert.

#6 Add ALT Tags to Images
Search engines read text, not images. If you use graphics for buttons and use images on your website, it’s a good idea to attach text to those images so that the search engine spiders can read the tags.