Call it fate, but I happened to come across a BBC Queen video on the web last night, made to celebrate the group’s 40^th anniversary. It contained a lot of old footage that I’d not seen before, from early TV appearances to interviews and recording sessions. I surfed the web and noticed that today was the 25^th anniversary of the Queen Live at Wembley concert…

I discovered Queen in 1981, late by many standards, but I was only 12 at the time. Their album Greatest Hits had just been released and I heard it at a friend’s house. Perhaps there was a mix of pre-teen hormones and emotional instability, but it seemed to me that nearly every song stuck a chord.

I was hooked.

Over the next couple of years my relationship with the group and the music developed into an obsession. I owned every album and knew everything there was to know. These were pre-Internet days, so learning meant reading and researching, and the more I knew, the more I wanted to know.

The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long.

In 1985 there was Live Aid, an event that propelled Queen back into the international spotlight where they would stay until the end. I remember watching the concert on TV, rushing home from my Saturday job in order to catch Freddy, Brian, John and Roger as they took the world by storm. The following Monday all my schoolmates agreed that they’d been the highlight of the event. In a little way I was elevated to cult status along with my heroes.

Then came 1986 and an ad in the London Evening Standard. Queen Live at Wembley, July 11^th and 12^th. Supporting acts were Status Quo, INXS and The Alarm. I begged my Mum to let me borrow her Mastercard so I could call the ticket office when it opened and I spent hours dialing and redialing that number (no “redial” on our old rotary phone). When I got through I was so excited that the guy on the other end had to tell me to calm down…

The day came and I was among the first in line, along with my friend Colin. It was a warm summer day and time stood still. When the gates opened it was a free-for-all, especially in front of the stage where it was standing room only. We ended up about 30 feet from the front.

The opening acts ran for about 5 hours. It was a long day. It was a hot day. The crowd was amazing. Beach balls and inflated condoms were bounced around in the air. There were Mexican waves, shared drinks and a feeling of tension and anticipation that I can only describe as “incredible”.

Evening came and the lights went on. In a shower of light and smoke and cheers my heroes came on stage and I screamed myself hoarse. Opening with “One Vision” and playing everything classic, and some newer tracks (Highlander had just been released and Queen had performed the soundtrack), the concert was too short it seemed. Freddy had us in the palm of his hand. I don’t know how many tens of thousands of us there were, but it didn’t matter; he was singing with and to me. His command of the crowd was legendary and he lived up to it that night. From “Love of My Life” to the acapella impromptu back-and-forth, we were all Queen that night. We clapped through “Radio Gaga” and cheered through “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”. We gasped at “Bohemian Rhapsody” and we all sang “We Are the Champions”.

The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long, and that evening was over in the blink of an eye. Little did we know but it was the penultimate Queen appearance. There would be just one more concert on that tour, but that night would be immortalized on DVD as the “definitive” Queen concert.

The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long – it wasn’t too long afterwards that rumors about Freddy’s health decline started circulating. For me, there was school and work, so I paid little attention. The music still came. There was queen and there was that amazing concert.

Then I heard “The Show Must Go On” on the radio and felt that something was wrong. Perhaps I was that overzealous fan who hears meaning in everything, but this time there really was.

The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long. When Freddy passed away in 1991 he took a big piece of many of us with him. It’s been 25 years since that concert, but it’s still as fresh as it was yesterday and I still get goosebumps when I remember it.

Queen is as big now as they have ever been. Freddy will live forever. But for one night I was part of history in the making and that remains one of the high points of my life.

What has this got to do with marketing? Absolutely nothing. This stuff sells itself.

Miss ya Freddy!

STEP1 – GET THE MAP

Google Maps is brilliant. It’s also very easy. Simply point your browser to Google.com and type in the address in question. Usually you need the street address and ZIP, although Google Maps is getting better at realizing where things are locally, so your results may vary. Once you’ve entered your address, your search should end up displaying a map like the one above. If it doesn’t, no worries, because either way you should click the “Maps” button at the top to get the full screen map like the one below.

At the top right of the screen you should see a little icon that looks like a chain (link icon). It it doesn’t appear, press Ctrl and 0 (zero). Once the link icon appears, click it. You want to highlight the top box (“Paste link in email or IM”) and press Ctrl-C to copy.

STEP 2 – WRITE THE AD

If you’re using Craigslist, go ahead and write your ad. Other classified ad systems may or may not allow you to use links that you add yourself. Right now, Craigslist does. When you’re done writing your ad, put some text along the lines of “Here’s a map with directions” or something. This is your link text.

STEP 3 – ADD THE MAP

Okay – you’re going to do a tiny bit of HTML editing. All you need to do is move to the START of your link text and type:

<a href=”[paste your map link in here]“>

Where I have written “[paste your map link in here]“, you need to put the link you copied from Google Maps. To paste, simply press Ctrl-V. The text will be quite long, but don’t worry about that. Now, at the END of your link text, type:

</a>

You should end up with something that looks a bit like this:

<a href=”http://maps.google.com/maps?q=stree-numberandadress6&hl=en&z=16″>Click here for directions</a>

That’s it!

STEP 4 – SAVE THE AD AND TEST

Go ahead and save the ad. You can now test the link. Please note that on Craigslist, if you decide to re-edit the ad, you will lose any links when you save, so you’ll have to go through the process again. It may be different on other systems.

Good luck!

WELCOME TO THE WEB!

We love announcing new websites and we have three that have been launched this month:

Hockey’s Resource (center) at www.HockeysResource.com is a new website that provides hockey news and information from both amateur and professional leagues around the world. Aimed at the hockey industry, articles vary from general interest to game reviews, scouting reports, camps, tournaments, drafts and more.

Desert Security (right) is a home and business security monitoring and installation company. They also provide home wiring, automation systems, networking and audio-video services. Desert Security has been protecting Arizona home and business owners for over 17 years. They’re service is top-notch and price is hard to beat. Checking out the JDE-designed website at www.DesertSecurityMonitoring.com.

www.AllHomesArizona.com (left) is home to HUD Home specialists Alex and Matt, a team of REALTORS here in the Valley who primarily serve the HUD home buyers. Their new website provides up-to-the-minute listings of HUD homes around the Phoenix area. They have a questions-answers page with a ton of useful information on it, and they also provide comprehensive real estate services for non-HUD clients.

WELCOME TO THE WEB!

The above is a  link to very interesting article from the UK Telegraph newspaper regarding some of the “most dangerous” words that can get web surfers into trouble. By “trouble”, they mean ending up on websites where there’s a very good chance that something nasty, better known as “malware” might end up being downloaded onto the visitor’s PC.

The list that they provide is a little UK-centric, but there’s a link to a McAfee (here it is – it’s a PDF file) study from 2008 which shows the most dangerous keywords from around the world, many of which one could imagine still being in use today.

Web surfing has always been a somewhat risky proposition. In most cases, surfers are going to be okay, because most of their surfing is done on “safe” sites, but the growth of search engine browsing has been accompanied by a huge growth in sites that exist simply to respond to the latest online trends in order to infect computers with spyware, keystroke loggers, trojan horses…you name it.

The “top 10” from 2008 include some very run-of-the-mill keywords:

1. Lyrics
2. Free
3. Web
4. Gear, Gadgets and Games
5. Olympics
6. Videos
7. Celebrities
8. Music
9. News
10. Miscellaneous

From a personal perspective, the scary thing is that having security software installed doesn’t mean automatic protection any more. A recent piece of malware pops up a box in the lower right part of the screen that looks a lot like anti-virus software and tells the user to “click to scan”. That click, in essence, gives the software the permission to access the computer, circumventing (in most cases) the security and then disabling it.

Security is a game of cat-and-mouse. Anyway, the above are interesting articles and worth a read. If you don’t have security software installed then all I can say is “wow”. I would consider supplementing the traditional security suite type of application with a malware checker such as MalwareBytes’ Anti Malware or something along those lines (Spysweeper etc). As far as I’m concerned, you can’t get enough protection.

Safe surfing!

There are dozens of social media platforms out there. From micro-blogging sites such as twitter to connect-with-everyone-you-ever-knew sites such as Facebook to social bookmarking sites such as Digg or Reddit, there’s something for everyone. Blog are also social media applications, as are message boards, chat rooms and even comment section of news, sports and other sites.

But back to you. Where is your time going to be spent? As I mentioned in the last post, there’s no silver bullet. Social media is going to take resources (time, effort, money etc) of some kind. If you’re fortunate enough to be able to pay someone to do it for you, great, otherwise it’s all you, and your time is precious.

Pick a platform to look at.

Take Twitter for example. You can tweet to your “peeps” all day long. It’s easy to connect to “follow” and, quite often, it’s easy to get followers. Trouble is, what kind of followers are they, and are they just following you to get their own numbers up? My person opinion is that Twitter is great if you’ve got something that a lot of people want to know about. I hate to be the one to say it, but there’s a good chance you’re not a professional athlete, movie star or other celebrity – if you are, please send me an email If you’re going to consider Twitter, I urge you to ask yourself how you plan on using it. As with much in our celebrity-obsessed world, there are a few news makers and most of the rest of us listen. Sometimes a tweet can lead to a sudden rush of followers, just don’t bet the farm on it.

Look at the people you’re trying to connect with. What are they going to be using? Perhaps it’s Twitter after all, but then you should ask, what they’re using it for.

The same goes for Facebook to some degree, although I think the evolution of Facebook pages is changing that paradigm dramatically. If you plan on using, or already are using Facebook for business, please have a Facebook page set up for that reason. A Facebook page is much like your Facebook wall, except you have a lot more control over what goes on it, and you can keep your personal and professional lives separate (Separation of Church and State).

Sites such as LinkedIn are also growing in popularity, especially in the business-to-business realm.

So, pick an audience, and pick a couple of platforms. There’s a great Wikipedia page (here’s the link) on some of the different social media sites out there.

In the next section, we’ll look at finding the right audience to work with.

Wow. According to Internet World Stats we’ve hit 2 billion users. The Last time I wrote about this was just over two years ago (link below) and the number of Internet users had just hit 1.5 Billion.

These are incredible numbers. As one might expect, the biggest growth has been in Asia where they’ve added almost 400 million users in the past couple of years. Everyone else has been growing at a less rapid, yet still impressive rate with Europe adding 100 million and the use a mere (!) 30 million.

Percentage wise, Latin America and Africa are showing the biggest growth, almost doubling in population of web users.

So, with a third of the world online in some way, shape, or form, there’s certainly a lot of potential website visitors for anyone looking.

The top 10 list of most popular sites on the web include Google at number 1, Facebook at number 2 and YouTube at number 3. Twitter, Wikipedia, Yahoo and Live are also up there. So, as the web continues to explode, it seems as though searching for information coupled with socialization and entertainment are the “big use“ areas.

Now, all you have to do is find a way to connect what you do with what they’re looking for. Let me know when you find it, and I’ll do the same

Link to my previous article
Link to World Internet Stats
Link to Most Popular Websites

To many people, there’s still confusion when it comes to how to integrate social media into your overall strategy. Last time I checked, there were still 24 hours in a day. Work has to be done and there’s little enough time as it is. Adding to the problem is how to go about it. It’s one thing to be a proactive Tweeter…if you’re Oprah or Ashton…but what about you? By now, you’ve probably set up that Twitter account. You may have set up your Facebook page too (if you’re using your personal Facebook account for your business change it now). Got a blog? When was the last time you updated it? What about the website?

Still there?

Deep breath.

The first thing to remember about Social Media is that it’s “social”. That means interactive. It’s unfortunate, but as SM has developed, it’s remained a very one-way street for many people. It’s often treated like TV or Radio, where one side speaks and everyone else listens – if there is anyone else out there.

Consider a business meet-n-greet. A big room. No one knows each other. Someone breaks the ice and talks to you. They ask you a question. You answer. Normally you ask a question back. They answer. Dialogue initiated. Social media works the same way. Sure, for some people, the ability to speak and be heard seems to be natural. For nearly everyone else it’ll take work.

Like your business or personal network, social media takes effort and communication. Otherwise are you really any different from that annoying tele- or door-to-door salesperson? You’re not going to be able to (unless you are very lucky or have a gift of some kind) to just start shouting out your message in various forums and expect people to come running. Isn’t that what SPAM is all about?

So, consider the kind of person you want to ultimately deal with (sell to). What common ground (other than what you’re selling) do you have in common? What can you do to get to know them? A REALTOR I know set up a blog (365phx.com). In it she talks about things to do in Phoenix. When she has time she posts odds and ends, events and that sort of thing. There are some links to her website and she has a Facebook page. She actually enjoys writing about things to do in the area, and she’s attracted quite a following, including write-ups in local media. Oh, and she’s got a high search engine ranking, averages 1,500 visitors a month…and sells homes.

She found something of interest to all people concerned. It’s a more gentle approach. It takes time. It takes effort, but it’s a seed that will grow, with a little care and nurturing.

In the next post I’ll talk about integrating your various Social Media programs and working up a plan.

So what’s this got to do with marketing?

Well, at the risk of sound smug, I think there’s good chance you’re reading this because something in the headline grabbed your attention. Perhaps you arrived at this post because one of the search terms you were looking for brought you to it. On the other hand, you may just have wondered what sort of stupid question was being asked.

My point is that connecting your business or personal blog, press release, social media post, or whatever to a current event can attract a greater readership.

 
But isn’t it dishonest?

I’m not advocating that you write a headline that implies something completely different. Heck, you might as well  start putting up those annoying fake banner ads that tell you you’re the “1,000,000th visitor”. What I am suggesting is that you can often find some sort of relationship between things that are going on in the world at large, and your chosen subject of interest.

I’m the first to admit that this sort of approach to generating search results or attracting visitors may be questionable to some. As I said, and I repeat, I’m not advocating dishonest headlines that have nothing to do with content, but when you consider what’s going on “out there”, and you look at your business, is there not something that you share?

To prove that I’m not full of it, I will start – the current unrest in places such as Tunisia, Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries has largely been possible because of social media. No matter how hard governments seem to try and lock it down, social media is a very hard genie to put back in the bottle. It’s allowed for the word to get out, for both organizers and those observing on the international scene. Would something like this have been possible a decade ago? I doubt it.

What’s that got to do with marketing? Well, consider the power of social media. It’s been able to change countries and appears to be able to topple governments. I haven’t even said “Wikileaks” yet…

I think it goes to show what a little technology in the right hands can do, and if you’re not using it, perhaps it’s time to rethink the strategy?

That all said, I hope you found something of interest in this post and you don’t consider yourself short-changed.

• Update your website :Not only is this a good mental exercise, it helps your search engine interaction. Editing your site content is a good way of taking a fresh look at what your marketing message is and how you’re putting it across. Updating the content lets search engines know that your site is being updated, and to come back and re-index it.
• Update your blog / Start a blog :If you don’t already have a blog, START ONE. They are free. You can link them back to your website, helping your search engine exposure. You do not have to be a best-selling writer. Everyone has an opinion about something in their industry, even if that opinion is the opposite of everyone elses. Share advice and express yourself. Take a few minutes once a week or every couple of weeks, and put the word out.
• Email Signature :Is your email signature up-to-date? Is your website/blog and contact information in it? No? Then what are you waiting for?
• Social Media : Do you have a Facebook page for your business? This is different from your personal FB page – it’s one that is for PROFESSIONAL purposes only. Seriously consider having one of these, even if all your do is post links to your site/blog in it. It’s a good SEO tool and a free marketing tool. Take a look at Twitter and other social media tools. They may not be for you, but taking a look won’t hurt….
• Online Ads : Use free services such as Craiglsist to place free ads, with links to your website. Don’t put contact information in them, just links to your site/blog. In addition to search engine exposure, you can drive traffic to your website. Make the ads eye-catching and interesting. Just keep them honest. If you have products to sell, consider an eBay auction. You can set a reserve price, and put links back to your website, giving you instant access to a global audience.

Coming up with free / low cost marketing ideas can take a little imagination, but they are out there. Your investment won’t necessarily be financial, but you will need to invest something, even if that "something" is a bit of time.

I’d love to hear about any others. Until next time!