This Yahoo presentation about marketing to Canadians, Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing and obviously grabbed my attention. They have provided some statistics to support thier strategies and have succeeded in grabbing my attention…and I have been a Google advocate for years.
“The morning Keynote session started with Yahoo! Canada’s Maor Daniel’s fact-filled presentation discussing the opportunities for Canadians to market better online…..”
I know that these statitics will help me convince my Senior Management team about the direction of marketing on the web and how to effectively market to our audience. What about you?
How will this information impact how you market to Canadians?
The Twitter phenomenon swept through my workplace like wildfire.
In adopting Twitter I discovered, like everyone else, I have mundane, every day commentary on my life and times and then I have moments of greatness when my wit shines through. I know that all of my copy writing skills come in handy as I write my engaging, humour laden, 140 character “elevator pitch” size comments.
It is always top-of-mind that I am trackable, and everything I say can be indexed by search engines and it will be online, attached to me, forever. Be witty, but watch your mouth!
Twitter + Networking = Amazing Contacts.
Give me a “slice of your life” in 140 characters. One of my twitter friends, Chris Brogan, was at the “Gnomedex” conference twittering about how incredible this presentation was that he was attending. He was inspired by this presenter and wanted to Twitter about him and how he was planning on changing his own presentation style and shared all of this in 140 characters.
I responded and made a comment to him about how rare it is to be inspired by a quality presenter and he responded to me about how the presentation was different and what an impact it made on him, as well as the fact that it is very difficult to teach someone to speak effectively.
Here I am, sitting here on my couch on a Saturday morning, eavesdropping into a conference hundreds of miles away, across the border and into the USA (Seattle to be precise!). In that moment, I was there. Absorbing the inspiration style of a presenter that I otherwise would never have known about. Talk about reach…that is stretching your influence a long way.
Twitter Follow Up
So I went to the Twitterer’s Chris Brogan’s blog and learned about what he was trying to accomplish on the web and what his passions are, he inspired me with his commentary!
Now I look out for his tweets, and I have his blog in my RSS feeds now. He has a great post on Personal Branding too. I have already adopted some of his suggestions.
Twitter introduced us. Now I have a contact that I can discuss “Presentation Greatness” with. Twitter hooked me up! It is a great source of inspiration.
If you do pursue Twitter, make as many friends as you can it is amazing what you can learn in 140 Characters or less.
Stemming from my “short” conversation with Chris Brogan, I thought I would share some inspiration of my own. This video clip shows Dick Hardt (who had presented at a past O’Reilly Web 2.0 Conference) who is a skilled and seasoned presenter.
Passionate Presentations
When doing research for Web Marketing Post Grad courses last year. I was teaching in the Georgian College Web Design and Development program , I discovered an outstanding presenter while prepping on of my lectures - I want to share this with you here.
When making presentations, I always want to teach my students to deliver the information precisely and effectively, and in the most entertaining way possible. This presenter takes the bull by the horns and runs with it.
This presenter knows how to brand himself too.
Until you have watched this, you don’t know “Dick”…
So how old are you?
How much do you use the internet?
Do you participate in social networking?
If so, how active are you?
Do you have a Blog?
Do you comment on other’s blogs?
…and so it goes. These are the questions that shape the personas we use to design and develop for the web. Demographics and Psychographics profiling needs to expand its’ core and include the habits and behaviours of those that use the internet for work, for research, for play, and for commerce.
I tend to rely on personas in the planning stages of design and development on ANY project I do…online or offline, creative and artistic. I can SEE the person I am designing for and if I have done my homework, then I know what their main goals are and how I can best service them with a unique, customized solution.
Technographic Profiling should be a major part of your personas. Realistically, you are building a more robust picture of who your audience is, and moreover, how to meet their needs in the most effective way.
Check out this chart from Forrester Research - the source for audience profiling.
