Internet Marketing NYC, Home Runs, BBQs and Motorcylces; What your business can learn from Memorial Day Weekend with family & friends

Posted by Salem Global on Jun 1, 2010

There seems to be a split in the good ole US of A between people who “celebrate” Memorial Day vs. the people who actually “memorialize.” My Father served in the US Army and even was in the Korean War. (Ask me sometime what he did privately and I will be happy to share it with you. It’s a good story.) He never once mentioned to me (during the 40 years that I have known him), anything about his fallen comrades. He never really opened up to me how dangerous it was or that some guy or guys he knew in basic training or any of his friends have ever died or even suffered any casualties. On the other hand, my great uncle was actually a POW in WWII. He had been in the air force and his B17 bomber I guess went down in enemy territory. If he were alive today he would talk about his experiences in the war. 20 years ago a movie came out called “Memphis Belle” that touched upon his story. He would tell everyone to watch that movie. I don’t remember if I did or not but now that I am writing about it, maybe I will… (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gS3AQepBW-g)

I would be lying to you if I didn’t admit to personally being in the camp that leans towards celebrating. Sure, I think about Memorial Day intellectually. I think about all of the wars that the US has been involved in and the fallen soldiers who went down in them. Movies, books and media bring war, its horror and glory to the masses. TV shows like MASH give us insight into the Korean War. Movies like Born On the 4th of July with Tom Cruise and Forest Gump with Tom Hanks, Saving Private Ryan with Matt Damon (and a hundred other A-list actors); The Dirty Dozen with Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine and Charles Bronson give us insight into Vietnam and World War Two. So when you actually stop and think about it, there are plenty of people to thank during Memorial Day weekend. What did you do? Did you put a flag out in front of your house? Did you put a printout on the front door of your apartment? Did you put a candle in the window? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFP5afPweVI)

I played two games of softball (hooray for me, I got my first home run of the season… we still got blown out of the water 25-3 or something like that), had a BBQ at my sisters house, played poker with some friends and did some running. I am also looking for a new car and as you all well know, every auto dealership has a Memorial Day sale. Every supermarket has hot dogs and hamburgers on sale because it’s Memorial Day which also marks the beginning of summer. So while most people are going to the beach or having barbecues, I would say that we are not at parades celebrating our freedom here in America or honoring the fallen as much as we are at the Thanksgiving Day Parade watching float after commercial float. Kudos to my friend that actually went with her family down to Washington DC and visited the Vietnam Memorial amongst other sites. She also reported to me that she got to witness the Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Parade (here is the 2010 eyewitness report: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brX-UyrWQKU)

So we learn from this that Memorial Day actually has several meanings. Your business can benefit from the beginning of summer by attaching your name to the words “Memorial Day,” add in the year (2010) and make a special sales or “awareness” page on your website. You can say that your company “honors those who have served in the armed forces this weekend.” Whether it is sincere or not, Google and the search engines don’t really care. But regardless, if you put the correct keywords into your meta data, and also have a special graphic or text on your website, you will show up higher in the search engines when people are searching. And if you are indeed sincere, you might also be able to score a sale from patriotic Americans that want to buy from those who support the Red, White and Blue.

Want to know more? Call me at 212-993-5828, email raphis@salemglobal.com or check out www.SalemGlobal.com for more information. Let me know if you want to talk more about America, the weekend and how to promote your business through the Internet this summer. It’s gonna be a hot one!

Internet Marketing NY, Privacy & Seven Foot Basketball Giants: What your organization can learn from growing quickly

Posted by Salem Global on May 25, 2010

So Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, “sort-of” apologizes this week for the “lack of” privacy controls that basically “missed the mark.” You can read it for yourself here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ytech_gadg/20100524/tc_ytech_gadg/ytech_gadg_tc2204 …but the truth is that I agree with the camp that says that if the website is free and you choose to use it, you BETTER read the fine print… When we started commercializing the Internet back in the 90′s, it was a great marketing ploy to give stuff away for free… and then sell advertising based on traffic etc. etc. So sometimes the model worked, sometimes it didn’t. And along the way, some businesses modified their business models and some went out of business and some made money. Millions in fact.

But years ago I wrote an open letter to Zuckerberg and told him he was an idiot for not taking the 1 BILLION (that’s Billion with a “B” my friends). I said that anyone in their 20′s that can get an offer for a billion should take the money and run. Invest it and live off of it for generations and generations. But Mark wrote back and said that he thinks Facebook (and he) are worth much more than a measly ONE billion. And he has proven himself CORRECT. So much for my advice….

Do you, dear reader, have any concept of what 400 MILLION users on Facebook represents? Do you know the old saying “if I had a nickel for every time I _________?” Well basically Facebook says that 400 million multiplied by a nickel equals BILLIONS. True there are naysayers out there who don’t think there is any money behind the traffic but what they don’t realize is customization, personalization and keyword targeting. Let’s compare Facebook with 400 million users to a television event/ program that only 100 million people watch every year usually at the end of January. Yes – it’s an American Football game otherwise known as the Super Bowl. Super Bowl commercials go for around 1 million to 5 million dollars per :30 seconds. So if you add up the 90 or so commercials that get aired for the 3 hours of the game, we are talking about $500 million dollars in revenue generated from advertising alone. Now, let’s take that number and multiply it by EVERY DAY OF THE YEAR!!! (That’s 365) And what do you get? Yes. A GAZILLION dollars.

So who would like to ask me if I think social media is a worthwhile investment? I can also break down this number for you and show you how each and every one of us, whether you are in B2B or B2C can benefit from Facebook and LinkedIn and the scores of other social media websites and opportunities out there.

And speaking worthwhile investments – here are two more stories for you this week…

I was having lunch with a friend of a friend this past Sunday who owns some real estate properties as well as a building and lumber supply company. Smart guy. Anything he needs for his commercial and residential business he buys from his other business. Gotta love making money on both ends of the deal. Anyway, his son graduates from college with an accounting degree and starts interviewing around. His father then makes him an offer and says he will double his salary if he comes to work for him under two conditions. First is he lives at home and doesn’t move into the city and second is he wakes up at 5 AM and commutes with him. Son says he will do it under one more condition, that his father joins him at the gym. Long story short, father loses 30 pounds and is in the best shape of his most recent life due to his son’s motivation. Did it work out for the father professionally? Well after the son comes into the company he tells his father that they should buy all of the domain names associated with his business and industry for real estate and building supply. Within one month he rents out 60 residential and commercial units that his senior salesperson wasn’t able to do in this economy. Using Internet marketing skills, social media and domain name strategies, the green college grad turned the biggest profit his father has seen in years. Was it worth it to offer his son double anything he could find?

Last story – Growing up in India can be hard. Read or watch Slumdog Millionaire and Water. This story is straight out of fantasyland. http://highschool.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1087336 Basically, two brothers who are each seven feet tall emigrate to Canada where the family has a better life opportunity. But then the kids get into basketball and become superstars. Headed to high school in the USA and then if they don’t hurt themselves will have stellar careers in the NBA. Check out this video of them playing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1Y04AMkvdg

Final message of the week – use social media, the skills given to you and while you are growing, be smart, take it easy and don’t listen to anyone who tells you that you have limits. Oh – and read the fine print… If you want to know more about Facebook and how to market your company on the Internet and in social media, call me at 212-993-5828, email raphis@salemglobal.com or check out www.SalemGlobal.com for more information. Free website consultation to the first 5 people who read this whole post

Internet Marketing in Manhattan, LinkedIn and Sex: What organizations can learn from 65 million users and sensational topics

Posted by Salem Global on May 11, 2010

Every now and then a news headline will catch my eye and I will share it with you as to how it relates to Internet marketing NY. Usually it’s a sports piece. Sometimes political. Sometimes technology or pop culture related. But when I saw the headline about Playboy going 3-D, I OF COURSE had to share it with you.

Yes folks. Sex sells. And apparently, 3-D sex (hopefully for Playboy) will sell even more. For many years, Playboy was the #1 brand for nude magazines and the sex industry. Growing up in the 70′s, anytime someone referred to the source of something sexual, they would also refer to the Playboy brand. They were as “Kleenex” was to “tissue,” “Q-tip” was to “cotton swab,” “band-aid” was to “the thing you put on a boo boo.” The goal of every organization should be to brand themselves so well that people think of that company when the consumer wants to make a purchase. This same theory applies to B2B and B2C companies as well as whether they are local, domestic or international. It doesn’t matter what industry they are in – you ALWAYS want to be at the top of someone’s thoughts. If you are a service based company, the rule is that you will be competing with at least another two brands or companies. This is because one figures that out of three choices the consumer will get the small, medium or large choices and relate the size of company to what service, action or hours you will get by comparison. As the sayings go, just because you are the biggest (or most expensive) doesn’t mean you are the best.

Getting back to the sex selling part though, as you might already know, the publishing sector has taken a huge hit due to the Internet. (Thanks to the professionals in my industry… sorry about that. But we simply believe you get more bang for your marketing buck <puns intended> when you utilize the Internet. But let me also make this very clear that I don’t believe in shutting down ALL other marketing programs. I just believe strongly in a holistic and integrated approach to marketing that includes as many media as possible. Obviously everyone has budget constraints. That’s why companies need to really see what is the most cost effective solution for them… and of course Internet marketing is the smartest What I am really saying is that “you can go with this, or you can go with that” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9F5xcpjDMU (The Choice Is Yours) – or as Stevie Winwood says “it’s a fine line, it’s a very fine line” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CULgdX6I5X8 (Split Decision)

All media has taken a hit. TV, radio, billboard advertising, direct mail etc. So, traditional media has to fight back. Playboy is fighting back by introducing 3-D into its magazines. Hey – it worked for James Cameron’s Avatar. So why not Playboy? I happen to think that that just as traditional technology brought us film and the moving picture and then HDTV, your own personal computer will soon be hi-def, or 3-D or next generation what ever that means. Then the 3-D magazines will be stored away in your closet for your kids and grandkids to marvel at sometime in the distant future. And believe me. They will laugh but will be fascinated. (Just like a friend of mine who inherited 200 old Playboys from his neighbor before the neighbor moved. After all, realistically Of course you will store them in the basement, but you certainly wouldn’t pay someone to move them. Would you?

This morning I was at my regular networking meeting in Westchester and I was surprised to discover that some people STILL are not on LinkedIn. If you are reading my blog regularly or just happened to have stumbled upon it, or are looking for marketing advice or networking advice to increase your business or sales, you MUST have a LinkedIn profile. You should be using linked in regularly – which means at least 1 hour per week. You need to fill out your complete profile to at least 95%. Then you need to join up to 50 groups for free and promote yourself. Not for your health, but actually for business. So Raphi – does this social networking stuff REALLY work? My professional answer is YES YES YES. And I am not suggesting spending 50% of your time on LinkedIn or Facebook or any other social networking site. I am suggesting that you give 2% (1 hour out of 40 in a week) to your marketing. And if you can’t do it, hire someone else to do it for you. I guarantee it will give you business or, at the very least, your money back!

Want to know more about sensational ways to promote yourself or just smart ways to get your name out there? Call me at 212-993-5828, email raphis@salemglobal.com or check out www.SalemGlobal.com for more information. It’s the second quarter of 2010. I bet your competitors are doing all this stuff. What are you waiting for?

Internet Marketing NYC, Times Square Car Bomb Scare and April Showers: What businesses can learn from panic, news and the changing seasons

Posted by Salem Global on May 4, 2010

Usually I write about sports since that gives me an ear from the most relevant demographic I want to reach for my own marketing. I actually wonder how many women out there are on this email list and read my blog. Usually I only hear from the men. But maybe more women search for NYC website marketing companies than their male counterparts. So maybe I am going about this all wrong. Maybe I need to re-think my own marketing plan. On the panel that I was on two weeks ago we discussed how businesses need to have a 1-year, 3-year and 5-year marketing plan. And in addition, you always need to be modifying and tweaking and testing to see what works. But the truth is that I haven’t been hit with anything interesting regarding sports or the New York Yankees or NY Mets even though baseball season is well under way. March Madness is over (for two months now), I don’t know anyone that follows hockey. I think Football is on hiatus until September… so that leaves me with the news and a joke.

If April showers bring May flowers then what do May Flowers bring? Pilgrims! (My son taught me that one lol!)

Not a joke though is something that I call “seed planting.” In business, we all need to do our own marketing. Marketing should lead directly to sales but there is a time delay in that some marketing programs take longer than others and certainly some sales cycles are longer than others. For instance, if you need milk or bread to feed your family, you go out to the market and pick it up. No marketing necessary. Food and essentials have different cycles than other consumer goods like electronics and cars. Services have different sales cycles completely. No one NEEDS website or Internet marketing, but it CAN help your business expand and grow. Everyone NEEDS food. And even for food and consumer items, there is a major battle between brands that goes on right in front of our eyes that 99.9% of the population does not realize. Coupons in your weekly printed circular and shelf placement are all part of the game. And with the changing seasons, so too, does the marketing change. When you walk into your supermarket, bottled water and watermelon are going to be front and center. More people are outside, going to barbeques and traveling. Grills will now go on sale at your local retailer and watch out for those fans and air conditioning unit sales.

If you want to be a part of the game and /or if you want to go so far as to win it, you have to plant your seeds early. You have to get together with your partners earlier than your competitors. The early bird does indeed catch the worm. The classic case in marketing is Coke vs. Pepsi. Whoever can get more coupons into your hand and get placed on the shelf at eye level or have a whole entire display in your face as you check out is going to win. This relates to each and every business out there. In the service sector, the more your network, the more people you know, the more reach you are going to have. Expert salespeople are able to target their audience and don’t waste as much time as the rest of us talking to the wrong people. In my professional life I network with hundreds of people. On the one hand, business can come from anyone at anytime any where in the US or the online world (and it has, from New York to California to London, India and Tel Aviv.) We all have to find that balance between marketing at the right time to the right people. It’s not easy but when you have an expert on your side it isn’t as challenging.

Ok – back to the news. I find it hard to believe that nine years after 9/11 something like a car bomb can find its way into Times Square in New York City. But my point of bringing it up here today in my writing is that the Internet frenzy that followed the whole story is just incredible. Hopefully you will glean from this that sensational media will always get the spotlight – whether good or bad – positive or negative… Just some quick statistics on the story as it unfolded, I didn’t start counting until now how many stories there are about the “times square bomb scare,” but if you Google these words, you will get a whopping 21,600,000 results. And the search engines now direct us towards those keywords as well. When you start typing into Google and Yahoo the word “times” then “times square” then “bomb,” you will get different suggested potential matches that come up. Before “bomb” you will get:
time square map
times square restaurants
times square shopping
times square address
times square hotels
times square bomb scare
times square bomber
times square church

And in addition to the search engine search, you can do the same thing on YouTube and see what videos come up. What we can learn from this exercise is how to word and prioritize your own website, content, blogs and writings.

Oh – and for you conspiracy theorists out there, I just read on one of these searches how this is all a government trick to take our thoughts off of the oil spill that happened last week – because terrorism trumps environmentalism and global warming…

If you want to know more about conspiracy theories, keyword prioritization and increasing your business in 2010 please call me at 212-993-5828, email raphis@salemglobal.com or check out www.SalemGlobal.com for more information. Lot’s of exciting things are happening this month in terms of networking, lead generation and business development. Let’s talk about it!

Internet Marketing New York, NFL Draft Picks, Archie, Veronica, Jughead and the New Guy: What businesses can learn from old companies adapting to new times

Posted by Salem Global on Apr 27, 2010

Last week the NFL held its annual draft. In the past when the NFL held their draft most American men would spend those three days in front of their TV sets, calling in sick from work, lying to their wives, etc. But now football fans can get all that information (who their team drafted, who got picked first, etc) online, through social media and even Tweeted straight to your cellphone. So if you are a business that is targeting the American male ages 18-65 this is one place online where you can reach that demographic. On football related sites, where football fans are active and commenting on their team’s selections and even on Fantasy Football sites where the picks are being talked about by not only the fans of the team that drafted them but by all Fantasy Football fans who might selected these new NFL players on their fantasy teams next season.

On a very unrelated note, Riverdale, USA is no longer a straight town. Archie Comics has introduced a new gay character named Kevin and it has only helped their presence on the web, increasing sales and readership throughout the world. Last week I was on a panel of experts along with my associates Lena West of Xyno Media and Kevin Daum, Author of “Roar! Get Heard in The Sales and Marketing Jungle” where we discussed marketing strategies for the new generation. Coordinated by the Ad Club of Westchester and Sponsored by Archie Comics, a local Westchester based concern, the evening was off with a bang when the CEO of Archie Comics proceeded to tell the audience that they were very late in coming to the Internet game.

As a matter of fact when the new CEO of Archie Comics was talking, he himself who has only been in the business for under two years, completely recognized that the company had started their internet strategy very late. But with that knowledge it didn’t put them into a state of paralysis; it put them into a state of adapter. So recently Archie Comics went beyond what most companies are doing and developed an app for the iPhone, which even early adapters have not started doing and I think they reported that I was in the top 5 of app downloads in Apple’s iTunes App Store for iPads and iPhones in the past few weeks. So as we can learn from this lesson, never be paralyzed by the lack of work you’ve done in the past, just get on the bandwagon now.

A relevant event that happened last week was Earth Day/Week and it’s kind of funny/ironic that Archie Comics, who obviously is a hard paper publisher, will probably make more money in the long run by being online and cutting down their publishing on paper due to trends and reading on iPads, Kindles and Nooks and websites. And if you want to see the online clip of the discussion (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roU5AQ42Hkg), which only goes to prove further that having a gay character not only keeps them relevant to today’s world, we can also see that the social media millage is also being taken advantage of because it is being talked about online as well as through traditional media.

If you want to know more about the NFL Draft online, Archie Comics and old companies adopting new internet marketing strategies give us a call at 212-993-5828, email raphis@salemglobal.com or check out www.SalemGlobal.com for more information.

Internet Marketing New York City, Golf Masters Tiger vs. Mickelson: What organizations can learn from world sports, winners and hype

Posted by Salem Global on Apr 13, 2010

More people have been following the Tiger Woods saga in the US and around the world than actually understand and follow the world of golf. I will never forget the first time I learned that soccer or “futbol” is actually the most popular sport in the world. According to Answers.com, golf ranks #8 according to this list:

1) Football/Soccer: 3.3-3.5 billion fans (Europe, Africa, Asia, Americas, etc.)
2) Cricket: 2-3 billion fans (India, UK, Pakistan, Asia, Australia, etc.)
3) Field hockey: 2-2.2 billion fans (Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia)
4) Tennis: Around 1 billion fans (Europe, Americas, Asia)
5) Volleyball: Around 900 million fans (Asia, Europe, Americas, Australia)
6) Table tennis: Around 900 million fans (Asia, Europe, Africa, Americas)
7) Baseball: Around 500 million fans (US, Japan, Cuba, Dominican Republic)
8 ) Golf: Around 400 million fans (US, Canada, Europe)
9) Gridiron (American football): 390-410 million fans (US mainly)
10) Basketball: Not more than 400 million fans (US, Canada mainly)

You have to put things into perspective. Golf is a rich person’s sport. Football (not the American Gridiron kind but the global kick a ball around kind) is the sport of the masses. Think about it. You basically take a ball, any ball, (and sometimes even a can or a plastic bottle if you are that poor), and kick it with your leg. That’s it. No other equipment necessary. Maybe you get a few more players and set up teams. Maybe you even make up goals. Between that tree and that rock. Or just throw down four shirts or pieces of cardboard in a large rectangle on any surface, dirt, grass, Astroturf, and BAM, you’ve got yourself a soccer field. Oh – and the rules are… um, kick the ball into the other sides goal. Now that’s a sport!

On the other hand, golf requires acres and acres of land. But not just any land. Land with 18 holes drilled in. But not just drilled in randomly, but designed behind wood, rough, dirt, grass and water. Golf courses cost millions of dollars to design and then millions more to landscape and construct. Then of course you need to buy golf clubs and golf balls. Golf tees, golf clothing and accessories. So only the wealthy are playing golf. And only the wealthy are really watching and following the sport. It’s the sport of kings because only kings had the money, time and land to make it all happen.

Joel Osteen (who I have been reading and listening to lately because he is an incredibly positive attitude preacher and not an over the top evangelist) tells the story of the king who invited a famous golfer to his country for a few days to play with him. The golfer accepted and they played and had a great time for a few days. When the golfer was about to leave, the king told him he would like to give him a gift. This was in addition to the healthy fee that he had already paid him. He said no thank you but the king insisted. So the golfer says that he collects golf clubs. After a few weeks, the golfer gets a letter in the mail. The king sent him a deed to a 500 acre golf club.

Ok – back to Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. As I understand it, Phil Mickelson is a great golfer. Though he will not win as many green jackets as Jack Nicklaus or Tiger Woods, he is known to be an all around swell guy. So when Tiger made his return to golf after five months of scandal to this seasons Masters at Augusta National, Tiger was the celebrity everyone was talking about, not Phil. Unfortunately, Tiger temporarily ruined his reputation by succumbing to his vices. As did Pete Rose, the baseball great, and his gambling and betting habit. As did the immature decision of Michael Phelps to hang out at college parties and get caught smoking from a bong. (See Will Ferrell as President Bush referring to the tiger Woods guy. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/23/will-ferrell-back-as-bush_n_137399.html)

The point is, you can be the best and get credit from it. But the challenge is to make it to the top and then stay there. The hype is only part of the equation. You need to put in the time and the effort and keep it clean.

The same applies to businesses and organizations that get to the top of the search engines. You have to make sure you don’t do anything to upset the powers that be. Too many pages and too many links created all at once throws red flags at the Google chief scientist. SalemGlobal took a hit recently because we started building our http://www.MarketingDirectories.comperhaps too fast and with too many links back to our homepage. Whereas we used to be #1 for “website marketing,” now we are in the #4 position. As for “internet marketing,” we have fallen off the charts completely. On a positive note, we have remained in the #1 position for all keywords related to Internet and website marketing “NY” and “New York.” So the message is to keep it slow and steady. In this game, consistency wins the race, not the sprint.

If you would like to know more about NYC website or NY Internet marketing, sports, linking strategies and getting higher up and staying on the top of the search engines, please call me at 212-993-5828, email me at raphis@salemglobal.comor check out www.SalemGlobal.comfor more information. Oh and a final note and plug for #1 in local search for Dr. John Frank of http://HairClinicUSA.com. Do a Google search for “hair transplant ny” and you will see what I mean.

Internet Marketing in Manhattan, April Fools, $100 Million and Spring Cleaning

Posted by Salem Global on Apr 1, 2010

A good friend of mine was born on April 1st. For the past 20 years since I have known him each year I try to come up with a joke, scam or lie that will catch him off guard. Sadly (for him) but creatively (for me), I am successful much of the time. He of course knows to expect such nonsense from me. I am that type of guy. He knows I like to have fun and knows that his birthday is more fodder for my personal humor.

Last year I posted this to my FaceBook profile: “Incredibly excited to announce that after 12 years in business my company just received $20 million dollars in funding for Internet related projects http://www.salemglobal.com. Yes I am hiring! Woo Hoo! Even in this terrible economy…”

I just looked back on this and can confirm that I received 24 comments related to my post. So many people so happy for me; wishing me congratulations and best of luck and can they have a job etc. etc. They knew I have been working my butt off for years trying to make money from this Internet thing. 24 hours later I posted this: Wondering how long does one milk an April Fool’s joke? Where is the line between “funny” & “not funny”? No, I didn’t get $20mil in funding but thanks for the positive and negative responses. As an Internet Marketer, I actually re-connected with a bunch of people who I had been out of touch with. (Fyi, this year I ramped it up to $100 million. Maybe next year I will increase to $200 million.)

From an Internet Marketing perspective and from a public relations perspective, any news, whether good or bad, is still news that promotes your brand. So this year let’s see what comes from it. (So far two people have accused me of doing what I did last year. But they don’t realize my ulterior motive is to get people to remember I do Internet marketing in New York – not the fact that I am actually making a joke.) And I recommend you do it too. If you think about it some more – that is the fact about WOMM – Word Of Mouth Marketing. It’s getting your friends and your friend’s friends talking about you. You don’t have to lie about something that hurts anyone, just make up something fun that is in the spirit of the day. For more April Fool’s stuff: http://www.pcworld.com/article/193113/top_10_april_fools_day_fake_news_items_for_2010.html. Oh and don’t forget my favorite quote from Abraham Lincoln: “On Twitter you can honestly make up anything you want!”

On another note, one is supposed to be happy when the sun peeks out of its winter hibernation and the earth (at least in this hemisphere) gets warmer. So even though I miss winter and snow and skiing, I am happy to run and bike outdoors. One thing I am mixed about though is spring cleaning. I hate to clean but love my clean apartment. So I suffered and cleaned and wow! My recommendation to you this week is to do some “spring cleaning” on your website as well. Maybe your pictures or information are out of date. Maybe your keywords and meta data need to be revised or modified. Give me a call at 212-993-5828 or email me at raphis@salemglobal.com if you would like a quick spring review over the phone or set up an appointment or check out www.SalemGlobal.com for more information. Its 2nd quarter 2010. Its time you started paying more attention to your online marketing. Oh – and for all you Lady Gaga fans, check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEiXdOOTaFs.

Internet Marketing in NY, Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers and Olympic Hockey: What your business can learn from 10,000 hours of practice makes perfect

Posted by Salem Global on Mar 2, 2010

SalemGlobal has been in business for over 13 years. We started out very small in an Upper West Side two-Bedroom apartment, moved to a loft in the Garment District on 36th Street West of 8th Avenue and now have an amazing office on 40th Street across from Bryant Park with a view that only a few are privileged to have in a small crowded concrete jungle like New York City. We also have achieved something that I am very proud of and wasn’t even going after. True we have been in the number one position for “Website Marketing NY” and backwards “NY Website Marketing.” And also New York Website Marketing etc. etc. And let’s not forget “Internet Marketing NY and NYC.” But last week we reached the #2 position right behind Wikipedia for “Internet Marketing.” Here is the proof: http://websitestrategymarketing.com/salemglobal-number-2-for-internet-marketing (“Internet Marketing” is searched more often than “website marketing.”)

By the way, you will get the same results if you live in Brooklyn or on the Upper East Side. But what is frustrating is that in Westchester we are no where to be found… So the question is: why does Google show us different results in different locations? Why don’t they have the same results across the board; locally, across the country and all around the world? Is it because part of their algorithm is to show results based on traffic coming from your own IP address? Is it because they want us to see ourselves in a high position so that we can feel good about ourselves? Where do you see us for those keywords? Where do you stand for your own keywords?

Lately I have been writing about “consistency.” Keeping your name consistently in the Internet spotlight. Day after day, week after week, month after month. Each week and month, we create content for ourselves and our clients and then promote it out to the various new media. Corporate websites, press release distribution websites, article distribution websites, blogs, video sharing services, social media like Facebook and LinkedIn and much much more.

In his latest book “Outliers,” Malcolm Gladwell writes about how some of the most successful people in the world have devoted and invested at least 10,000 hours towards their desired profession or hobby. Some examples: Bill Joy, the programmer behind Sun Microsystems and UNIX. Bill Gates of Microsoft. The Beatles. You might not know this if you didn’t read the book but each of these people (and of course the band), put in thousands and thousands of hours into what they did before they became famous (and of course rich beyond anyone’s dreams). Bill Joy and Bill Gates had access to huge IBM mainframe computers in their schools, neighborhoods and universities in the late 60′s and early 70s before anyone knew what they were. The Beatles actually played in Hamburg Germany for hours and hours and more hours because the musical sets in that particular party scene called on bands to play for 8 hours a night. If you go to downtown NYC or any club in NY or LA, a new band is LUCKY to get a 15 minute set. The Beatles were on stage for so many hours, the needed to learn how to play every single genre of sound, cover every band and artist AND make up their own material in order to stay on stage. They weren’t getting paid a lot but they were absolutely perfecting their skills.

And what do I tell my kids every day (if and when) they have a complaint that “this is too hard” or “I can’t do this!” PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT!!! (Of course I have banned the word “can’t” from their vocabulary because I am a positive thinker and think that mostly anything is possible). Nothing is too hard and nothing is out of reach when you are disciplined and motivated. (Which is what I actually worked on in my military service as an organizational behaviorist and advisor. Though I had a BA in Psychology at the time, I still was working with soldiers that didn’t believe in themselves “enough.” And if the military can help change or modify behavior through motivation and/or discipline, a defense force will be that much more effective).

And that is why I believe the Canadians are the best Hockey players in the world. It’s not a matter of fact that they just won the Gold (after edging out the USA in overtime); it is most probably because they have more ice time than anyone else. From an early age, Canadians are on the ice, stay on the ice, continue on the ice and practice practice practice. It’s also colder up in Canada so they have more access to an ice rink. Which also is related to Joy and Gates having access to computers before anyone else. (Of course we can also debate this since according to Gladwell at some point their is a saturation point or “enough” ice time to make a team or a player great – but that is for another time)

So in conclusion for this week, your business can benefit from these lessons of hours and hours makes one perfect. Ok, maybe not “perfect” but certainly higher up on the search engines. We have been in business and writing and blogging and linking and building websites for over 13 years. Day after day, week after week, month after month. We haven’t given up. We do the same thing for our clients. If your business follows in our footsteps or let us create a path for you, you will most probably enjoy the same benefits we do.

Next week we will talk more about branding, identity and what to write for your business. If you want to know more about Gladwell, Hockey or Internet Marketing Manhattan (after all, we are #2 after Wikipedia and you can’t get them on the phone), Give me a call at 212-993-5828, send me an email at raphis@salemglobal.com or visit www.SalemGlobal.com for more information.

Internet Marketing in NYC, The Olympics and Fashion Week: What Your Business Can Learn From 97 Million TV Viewers, Doritos and Your Own Events

Posted by Salem Global on Feb 16, 2010

Its snowing in New York City and it is beautiful. As I write this week’s piece, there is a heavy downfall over Bryant Park outside my office window. And of course, it’s February. We shouldn’t be getting this much snow. But whether you believe in global warming or just the universe and weather, its here. And it leads me to talk about the Winter Olympics.

97 million US viewers tuned in to watch the first 2 days of the Olympics this year. That’s close to the 100 million that tuned in in 1994 when U.S. figure skater Tonya Harding’s ex-husband and bodyguard attacked Nancy Kerrigan. I also read that if every Chinese household watches the Olympics, that’s over 1 billion viewers right there.

But no matter how many people watch the Olympics on TV, it still will never compare to the amount of people who will tune in via the Internet on home and office computers. Sad thing is, according to Bloomberg (businessweek.com), Fairfield, Connecticut-based GE has said NBC will lose $250 million airing the Vancouver Winter Olympics (ok – not really THAT sad). Darn it. Why hasn’t NBC called me yet to help them with Internet strategy! HOPEFULLY they make that money back by airing things on YouTube and Hulu and on their own site. Interestingly enough, 183,000 views have been recorded just to the commercial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUlJahUtm04 for the Vancouver, BC, Canadian 2010 Winter Olympics. I predict that for actual content and clips of various events and happenings, the true number will far exceed a measly 100 million. I would say at least a billion for US and then billions more worldwide. And if the various media vehicles monetize correctly, it should spell out to gross much more than the $250million lost on the antiquated boob-tube.

And just to keep things in perspective, 2 weeks ago I reported on Super Bowl commercials. It appears that the winner in this race is the spot for Doritos named “House Rules” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0EVSP_6XZA). But wait, there’s more. Doritos didn’t even create the commercial. If you check out the site crashthesuperbowl.com, you will see that these commercials were created for free. All user-generated content. Doritos paid for it with a $25,000 contest for the 6 finalists. Then one of them gets an additional $1m, $600k and $400k. Basically, instead of paying an advertising agency millions of dollars, they are throwing it back to the work out of your house creative geniuses who don’t work for corporate America 9-5. (On the other hand, maybe they DO work in a corporate job and did this in their spare time and made a cool $25k – $1mm in their spare time.

My point is that the Internet keeps on winning out as the best way to market your product. Get fans of your product to sell your product for you. And reward the people who make it happen. There are plenty of terrible commercials (and websites) out there, created, written and produced by huge advertising agencies for millions of dollars. If advertisers want to get the biggest bang for their buck, they will listen to me and rely on the web to sell their product with smart Internet marketing managers (hopefully me and my company And as my new sales guru Jeffrey Gitomer says, “you need poll your own audience.” He suggests creating a seminar and inviting all of your customers. And whether they can come or not, ask your customers why they buy from you. You will be very happily surprised to get these answers. Then obviously use this information to get new customers and buyers of your products and services.

It’s also the 2010 Mercedes Benz Fashion Week here in New York, NY in Bryant Park. As I watch model after supermodel get in and out of taxis on my block, I realize that they have a pretty good thing going on. Each year, fashion designers from all over the world come to my house (ok, across the street from my office) and strut their stuff on the runway. Once again, if you think that it’s about the event, think again. When I searched for “2010 Mercedes Benz Fashion Week,” Marc Bouwer comes up with the #1 video with over 40,000 views. I guarantee you that Marc is having a great show this year!

So my message this week is to think about the short term with the long term marketing in mind. Photograph your events. Video them. Write about them. Blog about them. Oh. Did you say that you don’t have any events going on? Well then, CREATE them! Can’t think of an event to create, borrow one from the newspaper, current events, the sports section or the calendar. In addition to the Olympics and Fashion week, this week is the beginning of Baseball Spring Training. And it was also Valentine’s Day and President’s Day and the Daytona 500.

Need help figuring out a long term, short term or event driven NYC Internet Marketing strategy, give me a call at 212-993-5828, send me an email at raphis@salemglobal.com or visit www.SalemGlobal.com. I will guarantee we will come up with something in 5 minutes of having a conversation. Next week we will talk more about the Olympics, content and Internet strategy. Oh and my latest book, Slackonomics by Lisa Chamberlain.

Internet Marketing in New York, NY, NFL Football’s Super Bowl 44 and TV Commercials: What Businesses Can Learn From 106.5 Million TV Viewers

Posted by Salem Global on Feb 9, 2010

This week there is a lot going on. First, we (as in, the USA) had the Super Bowl. (Congratulations to the New Orleans Saints with their 31-17 win over the Indianapolis Colts.) Then we (as in SalemGlobal) have a breakfast Wednesday morning, a Poker Networking event Wednesday evening, and finally an Internet Marketing Seminar Thursday morning. Oh. And possible snow!

According to NFL.com – the official website of the National Football League, this years Super Bowl was “seen by an average of 106.5 million people, …the most-watched program in U.S. television history.” So immediately my marketing side of my brain starts thinking, “Wow! What if I had a commercial air during Super Bowl XLIV?” So then the analytical side of my brain says “Ok. Here is my $3.1 million dollars… lets see what happens.” And then I do the math. First I take a look at the demographics and say football is usually mostly watched by men ages 18 – 49. But certainly if this is the 44th Super Bowl, older men are going to be watching too. Then I also account for the fact that with the women’s liberation movement and overall change in our egalitarian world, more and more women are going to be watching too. So technically the demographics are going to remain the same and I am only going to advertise my products to that segment of the population. And I can say that as an added bonus, I will get some women and older men to watch my commercials also.

So now lets analyze the types of companies that did indeed pay the $3.1mm for a :30 second spot and see if you can spot the trend. First, click on this link and you will get to nfl.com’s page that lists (mostly) all of the 60 commercials that were aired during the Superbowl. http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-super-bowl-commercials?icampaign=SB_HP_SBTVComm#orderBy:allTimeViews. Note however, this is the NFL’s site and not YouTube which might give us a more accurate view of the most popular commercials. Regardless, NFL might show a smaller subset of the true number.

As you can see, here are the top 10 commercials ranked by “most viewed” according to company and industry, with added values:
By the way – just for full disclosure, there must be some politics going on with this since they don’t have my favorite commercial with Betty White and Abe Vigoda for Snickers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rauK4fBjkI
Doritos – snack food (sex + comedy)
Hyundai – car (celebrity + comedy)
Volkswagon – car (comedy)
Monster.com – job search (comedy)
Bud Light – beer (comedy)
Doritos – snack food (comedy)
TruTV – online TV (celebrity + comedy)
Honda – car (? Creative but not great IMHO)
Teleflora – flowers (sex + comedy. Hey Valentine’s Day is this coming Sunday)
Focus on the Family (pro-life (celebrity + some comedy)
Then comes more Bud Light, more Doritos, Dodge, eTrade (my 2nd favorite btw http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-super-bowl-commercials/09000d5d81644636/eTrade-commercial – milkaholic – milkaWHAT?)

A full analysis of all of the commercials would take up too much time for me. I personally fit right into the center of the demographic. I am 40 years old. Male. Two Kids. My interest SHOULD be in sports and football (they aren’t my top but are for many 40 year olds). I also personally like to watch the Super Bowl for the commercials but now with the Internet, I don’t have to waste my time with the actual game. OTOH, I like to get together with my friends, eat and drink and banter. So it’s usually a good party. I also like beer, I drive a car, I don’t need a job, I like to snack, I am online all day, every day and I love comedy – ok – the sex thing works for me as well but as you can see, most companies go for comedy because that is the value that goes viral. So the commercials are pretty much in line with what they should be doing. And now because of the Internet, when a video is good, it gets passed on from computer to computer just like a virus, thus achieving “viral” video.

So you want to learn how to take advantage of the lessons learned at the Super Bowl and you don’t have $3.1 million? Well, easier now than it ever used to be.

Step 1 – buy yourself a flip cam or any competitor (a client of ours found a Kodak that had similar features).
2 – Think of topic to “vlog” about (video log).
3 – Stand camera on tripod or position yourself correctly with an appropriate background
4 – Turn on the camera
5 – Record
6 – Upload
7 – When uploading, make sure you post the correct URLs and descriptions that will brand you and get links back to your main website.
The main thing you want to do is be able to shoot the video and use the software that comes with it, then quickly upload it to YouTube and TubeMogul. In this race, the rabbit always wins when it’s the same video as in the case where people steal commercials and post them. Advertisers though sometimes don’t mind about copyrights because the general public is helping their brand sell more product. This is different from TV shows that don’t get paid because people watch TV for free and broadcasting companies rely on the advertisers to give them cash.

Now that you have successfully written, directed, filmed, starred in and uploaded your own commercial for your own company or practice, repeat the process. Be inspired by Super Bowl commercials and know that someday, if you have a product that warrants it, maybe you too will have a Super Bowl commercial. But if you are just like the rest of us, then you need to implement your video strategy and integrate it into a larger marketing program.

And of course, I might as well plug here that my Internet Marketing New York City Seminar is coming up this Thursday. So if you want to know more about Internet marketing, video marketing and the 21 things you need to know to succeed online, come on down to my office across from Bryant Park (sign up at www.TheSeminarSeries.com) at 8AM and you will be on your way.

Next week we will get back to our regularly scheduled schedule teaching you how to marketing your company, brand, practice and products over the Internet. And of course, if you don’t want to wait until then, give me a call at 212-993-5828, send me an email at raphis@salemglobal.com or visit www.SalemGlobal.com and let’s set up a meeting by phone or in person.