Archive for the 'Techy Stuff' Category

Web contest invites Eaton partners to upload tales of efficiency and compete for prize.

Published June 29, 2010 News & Press , Techy Stuff Leave a Comment

Everyone wants to do more with less, particularly in this economy. One way of achieving that is by being more efficient: cutting out waste, running lean, employing talented, versatile individuals who can self-motivate and multi-task. Strategic Insights has long been familiar with this type of efficiency.

Therefore, it was only fitting when client Eaton Corporation, known worldwide for their power management solutions, asked the agency to develop a contest website to promote the concept of “Efficient Uptime” to its partners. Efficient Uptime has been a theme of Eaton’s for a while now—this was the next step in engaging the partners to become part of the message.

“The goal is two-fold,” says Eaton Global IT Manager Brooke Lang. “The Efficient Uptime contest not only reinforces our campaign message, it also encourages partners to share best practices with one another by documenting their success stories for everyone to see. We’re extremely excited about it.”

To enter the contest, a partner must describe what Efficient Uptime means to them and how they have delivered it for a customer, including the environmental and cost savings achieved. Not surprisingly, bonus points are given for stories that include Eaton Solutions. Stories may consist of documents, presentations, pictures and videos. Eaton will choose two winners who will receive $2500 each.

“It’s really more of a microsite,” explains Associate Creative Director Chris Griffin, “which is not to diminish its importance, but better describes its focus: it’s a website with one purpose. Over the course of three tabs, which serve as sub-pages, visitors can get an overview of the contest, its rules and can upload their materials right then and there.” Partners can then choose to direct judges to a URL or upload content, or a combination of both.

Eaton plans on promoting the contest through email blasts, through its distributors, an online campaign conducted by Everything Channel and through its partner portal, also created by Strategic Insights.

Of the portal, Lang comments, “We’ve seen great results so far. Since its launch, we’ve grabbed an additional share and a half, and have outgrown the rest of the market pretty significantly.”

Analysis of Google Buzz

Published February 11, 2010 New Media Alert , Techy Stuff Leave a Comment

It is about federating large amounts of information but still making it understandable in large quantities.

I think most people aren’t getting the point of Google Buzz. Yes, right now it may seem annoying because everything is just popping up. People are asking “Doesn’t _______ already do this?”

The answer is yes, but what Buzz does do that nothing else does is aggregate everything together AND allow you to pick what you see.

With Twitter and Facebook, you get everything with no filters (aside from Twitter Lists). Google Buzz learns what you like and don’t like. After a while, even though everyone’s posts are constantly updated, you only get things you find relevant. So, Twitter, RSS, and other posts are made visible to you ONLY if you actually find them relevant.

Furthermore, the innovation of Google Buzz will drive other social networks to better organize content within their platforms. I believe that it is still overwhelming right now. That’s why “non-techies” view it as a time waster. Once there is an easier way to sift through the noise, I believe social networking and content sharing will boom with other audiences.

Will Google Buzz stick around? Probably not or at least not in its current state. Will it make a difference? At the very least, we will know what NOT to do.

What are your thoughts on Google Buzz?

jkgibbs-avatar Josh Gibbs (@jkgibbs) // Social Media Consultant // Strategic Insights

Search Engine Friendliness vs. Search Engine Optimization

Published September 28, 2009 Techy Stuff Leave a Comment

SEO-SEF

Often times clients come to us and say they want their website to be "search engine optimized". The site in question may have a lot of flash elements or image based text or bad markup. Which usually prompts me to give my long-winded spiel about how they might want to make their site "search engine friendly" first. This almost always raises the question, aren’t they the same thing? No, making a site SEF is not the same thing as optimizing a site for search engine performance.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results. SEO is typically a long-term task that normally involves an ongoing commitment or contract carried out in the form of an "SEO Campaign".

A site is Search Engine Friendly (SEF) when its design, coding, menus/links, images, and other elements have been geared towards the express purpose of search engine exposure and/or indexing. Making a site SEF should be included in the cost of initially designing and building a site. For an existing site, it should be quoted as a one time project fee. As long as SEF guidelines are followed with regards to any subsequent general maintenance to a site, no other tasks or fees should be required.

Think of making a site SEF as the preparation before running a long race. Then the race itself would be the SEO campaign.

So despite being different they are obviously tied together. Many of the features which make a website SEF (using clean markup, using the proper tags for optimal indexing etc.) make a site more accessible to search engine bots which will then ultimately enhance any long term SEO undertaking.

At Strategic Insights we build all our sites to be SEF from inception and have no problem retrofitting older sites with more SEF technology. If your site is currently behaving unfriendly toward search engines… come see us and we’ll sort it out! Once it is SEF, then we’ll discuss SEO.

Strategic Insights Brand Marketing

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