1) ReadWriteWeb

http://www.readwriteweb.com

ReadWriteWeb is a popular weblog that provides Web Technology news, reviews and analysis. It is the lead blog in the ReadWriteWeb Network, a growing network of blogs about web technology.

2) Conversation Agent

http://www.conversationagent.com

Conversation Agent recognizes the new marketplace as a conversation, one where content producers, delivery channels, and customers define the future of work and the creation of meaning.

3) Mashable, The Social Media Guide

http://mashable.com/

Mashable is the world’s largest blog focused exclusively on Web 2.0 and Social Networking news. With more than 5 million monthly pageviews, Mashable is the most prolific blog reviewing new Web sites and services, publishing breaking news on what’s new on the web.

4) Web Strategy by Jeremiah

http://www.web-strategist.com/blog

Discussions of web tools enable companies to connect with customers.

5) Econsultancy

http://econsultancy.com/

Reports, research and guides on digital marketing and ecommerce.

But then I started using Twitter, and now I find myself brimming with enthusiasm for it and wishing my friends and colleagues would give it a try. This isn’t a “Top Ten” article. I don’t have a specific number of reasons. These are just the best reasons I’ve found so far. And, as it happens, not one of them has to do with telling people what I’m doing right now!

As a searchable source of FRESH content
I’ve lately been bothered by the elderliness of Google search results – pages from 2005 returned in the top three. What would you say to FRESH, even REAL-TIME search results? A search on Twitter reveals things that are happening NOW: recent blog posts, discussions, conferences, even news as it’s happening. Did you know the United Airways landing in the Hudson and the attacks on Mumbai were first reported on Twitter?

Google and other search engines just aren’t cutting it when it comes to fresh, up-to-the-minute content. As reported in “Google Next Victim Of Creative Destruction?”:

Excerpt: “Imagine you are in line waiting for coffee and you hear people chattering about a plane landing on the Hudson. You go back to your desk and search Google for plane on the Hudson — today — weeks after the event, Google is replete with results — but the DAY of the incident there was nothing on the topic to be found on Google. Yet at search.twitter.com the conversations are right there in front of you.  

“… for real time questions, real time branding analysis, tracking a new product launch — on pretty much any subject if you want to know what’s happening now, search.twitter.com will come up with a superior result set.”  Read the full article

As a source of authoritative content:  recommended content, recommended by people you trust or people you can check out
You probably already have an expert network of people with whom you consult when you want to add to your knowledge base, need help making a decision, or seek information fast. And you, most likely, are part of other people’s expert network.

It works the same with Twitter. You build your own expert network and you become part of other people’s networks. You choose the people you’ll follow and people choose to follow you. You can communicate with them via broadcast message, group message, or direct (one-to-one) message.

The difference between the expert network you’ve developed over the years and the one you can build on Twitter is threefold:
1. Your Twitter expert network can become massive in a matter of days.
2. Your Twitter expert network is keyword searchable.
3. Your Twitter expert network reduces six degrees of separation to one: e.g., you can follow Stephen Hawking today if you like.

See “Twitter and Google Search. Because you can’t reply to a search engine result”
Excerpt: “Real time, trustworthy recommendations made relevant by time. People by nature trust recommendations made by people they know or respect. These recommendations factor in making decisions about the biggest purchases and actions in their lives. Think choosing a college, buying a car, shopping for baby clothes and choosing the best school. To solidify my choices I talk to people I know and read people I respect.”  Read the full article

As a way to broadcast your message, exponentially, to people who are interested in your subject
In the same way Twitter delivers knowledge and information from many individuals straight to you, Twitter delivers your knowledge and information to many individuals. Many, many individuals. Because, for each person you follow, you inherit their followers, and their followers’ followers. And so on. You have the ability to send a message that could reach millions in a matter of minutes. This, previously, was the domain of Super Bowl ads.

However, with the 140-character-limit on Twitter messages, you don’t get a 30-second TV spot. You need to encourage your “Twitterati” to visit the locale of your BIG message. Fortunately, there are many wonderful destinations you can create, including your blog article, web page, YouTube video, SlideShare presentation, or wiki, and Twitter is the perfect portal to your personalized content. Twitter is especially well suited to small devices because of its economy of message. You can use Twitter to reach out across devices to pull (attract) people to your more substantial content.

As a way to listen to your potential audience
Use Twitter to obtain essential intelligence about your target audience directly from the audience members themselves. What do they want? What keywords do they use to describe it? What’s missing that you could potentially provide?

Twitter underscores the shift from what Hubspot calls “sledgehammer marketing” to “attraction marketing.” (see “Twitter for Marketing and PR”)

Social media and Web 2.0 tools have changed the dynamic from one of hitting the consumer over the head with a jingle, tagline, logo, or interruptive ad, to one based on attracting consumers using their keywords, content relevant  to them, knowledge they seek, the ability to connect with others like them – anything that supports their “opt-in” behavior.

In “Your Context Here,” Amber Naslund comments, “We characterize our brands in the terms in which we’d like others to see us. We craft a vision, or an idealized perspective of our brand, hoping that others might be influenced or intrigued by that viewpoint. Maybe see things our way. We even give them things like taglines, or brand attributes, or magic marketing terms.

“But social communication and the power that companies now hold to capture the conversations around their brands changes all of that. Brands aren’t viewed from a singular viewpoint (they really never have been), and now that brand is a composite of everything. As David Alston is fond of saying, a brand is now the sum of *all* of the conversations that take place around it. Branding isn’t myopic any longer. And that multi-faceted perspective is searchable, shareable, and visible to the world at large.”  Read the full article

As the perfect portal to your content
If you still think that Twitter and other social media is still purely the domain of 15-year-olds, the findings of this study will surprise you. According to “Shifting Content: A young peoples’ game?,”
people were asked what consumer electronics products they own, and identified some of these as likely content shifting devices: laptop computer, MP3/Portable media player, Digital Video Recorder (DVR), Apple iPhone, and other Smartphones.

They found device ownership on the rise across age groups. Adults 18-24 were the most likely to own four or more of these shifting devices, but not much more than those aged 25-44. The study authors observe: “our increasing ability to shift content across time, place and device is bringing about major changes in how we interact with media.”

Accordingly, content owners are taking advantage of this trend. Netflix, which now offers movie download to your computer, Xbox, or Blu-Ray device, recently announced that one million people, more than 10% of their membership, have downloaded their Xbox Live application since it was introduced in November. Hulu offers streaming video of new and old movies and TV shows from more than 130 content providers – for FREE! As Amazon is shipping the new version of its e-book reader, Kindle 2, CEO and founder, Jeff Bezos, announced on the Today Show, “more than 10% of Amazon’s book sales are in Kindle format.”

As a way to monitor your brand
If you’ve read the first five reasons I’ve offered for using Twitter, think about how they come together to work for – or against – your brand. Up-to-the-minute opinions about a brand, recommended or vilified, exponentially distributed in minutes, and placed directly into the device your target audience is holding at that particular moment. That’s powerful stuff, and worth a listen. Monitor your organization, products or services you offer, or even yourself by name and see what people are saying.

Still not convinced? Take a look at some real stories of organizations that blundered spectacularly or succeeded wildly in “How Social Media has Changed Word of Mouth Marketing” (Slides 25 – 39).

What are people saying about your brand?

Lifecycle of an E-learning Product

E-learning, also called online learning and web-based instruction, has long been a great solution for keeping the workforce trained at a low cost per pupil cost. Companies, government agencies, and higher education institutions, which are now facing very strained budgets, are looking to e-learning to train and educate workers. Recently, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty and Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) announced a goal to have 25 percent of all MnSCU credits earned through online courses by 2015. The initiative is meant to expand access, increase technology skills, provide excellent course content, and maximize efficiency and use of taxpayer resources.

Research indicates that this initiative is on the right track—well-designed, web-based instruction is just as effective, and often more effective, than classroom instruction. A Department of Defense report found that web-based instruction is 19% more effective than classroom instruction for teaching declarative knowledge when web-based trainees are provided with control, in long courses, and when trainees practice the training material and receive feedback during training.

With this renewed focus on e-learning as a solution to education needs in a tight economy, I thought it would be useful to share information about the e-learning development process and how it contributes to a well-designed product. I first presented a development model—Lifecycle of an E-learning Product—in my book A Quick Guide to E-learning. I created this model to provide guidance to organizations wanting to develop high-quality e-learning and online instruction. The lifecycle consists of seven stages, grouped into three phases, and has tasks associated with each stage. Often organizations focus all of their energies on the development of e-learning.  They assume that once the product is completed everything else will take care of itself—an unwise path. Educating organizations about the lifecycle is part of every e-learning project Seward Inc. undertakes.

I want to share with you the three general phases of development and how the seven stages fit into them.

The Lifecycle of an E-learning Product: Phases of Creation, Delivery, and Support

E-learning costs money—and nobody likes to see money wasted, especially in this tough business climate. So, with rare exception, e-learning products are developed for long-term use. However, based on my observations, organizations that fund e-learning development seldom have a clear idea of what a product’s expected life span will be. Further, they are even less likely to understand the stages of its lifecycle and how their efforts at various stages can extend the life span of an e-learning program.The lifecycle of an e-learning product is comprised of three general phases, with seven stages that involve specific tasks. Each stage represents an essential part of the product’s natural evolution. Neglecting to address any of these seven stages could negatively impact the success and quality of your e-learning.

The three phases of the lifecycle are:

Creation
This is the first phase. It consists of Analysis, Design, and Development. The creation phase has one primary goal: the creation of the most effective and useful product for the given situation.

Delivery
This is the second phase. It consists of Marketing and Dissemination. The delivery phase has two primary goals: to get the intended audience interested in the e-learning product and to get the product distributed to the learners.

Support

This is the final phase. It consists of Implementation and Revision/Retirement. The support phase has one goal: to keep the e-learning product in use, and optimally effective, for as long as possible.

In my next four blog posts, I will share insights about each stage in the lifecycle and the tasks that go into creating the e-learning product.

First of all, online advertising is too broad in describing the many ways one can advertise online. There are different pricing models: cost-per-click, cost-per- impression, and flat rate pricing.

There are different targeting models. Keyword-targeted ads are aligned with keywords chosen by the advertiser and are displayed as a result of keyword searches or keyword-related content on a web page. Consumer-targeted ads are displayed on websites that are attracting people with certain demographic, geographic, and/or psychographic characteristics that match the advertiser’s target audience. Behavioral-targeted ads are displayed as a result of a web site visitor’s action on the site(s) – e.g., pages they’ve visited or searches they’ve made.

Of course, just like traditional media, online ads do not have to be targeted at all; they can just take up residence on a web page as a display ad. Display ads, however, are struggling in this economy.

With this many models (and there are more!), it is easy to see why ROI is not that clear-cut. Further complicating things is the fact that a lot of advertising – both online and traditional – is not designed to result in a direct sale. Traditional ROI depends on a direct sale in order to show a “return”.

So how do you evaluate online advertising with different pricing models, different targeting models, and a non-sale outcome?

In the next installments, we will look at the three types of targeted online advertising in terms of ROI for the non-sale outcome.

Welcome to Seward Incorporated’s official blog! This will be a place for us to share news, developments, and observations about the worlds of E-learning, Digital Marketing, and International Development of Education Systems. We will also provide practical information that will help you understand these topics, such as best practices and how to’s.

To learn more about E-learning, Digital Marketing, and International Development, check out our “About” section.

Through our blog, we will share relevant perspectives on these three fields—whether it is information on a specific project or product we’ve created; or just an interesting tidbit about a technology you might find useful or enjoyable!