From the desk (and BlackBerry) of Keith Parnell

Below is the slidedeck from my presentation to the Williamsburg Internet Marketing group yesterday. We had a great couple of hours discussing blogging for business on many different levels.

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On Twitter? Follow me at @parnellk63.

Listening to Caldonia by Albert Collins.

Are you wondering aloud where I’m going with that title? I know, this could go in a thousand different directions.

Truth is, the title is about ‘titles that catch your attention’. Specifically, blog article titles that catch your attention. In the wonderful world of inbound marketing, strategically crafted titles are invaluable for SEO (search engine optimization), which leads to great organic search results, which leads to website / blog traffic, which leads to (we hope) lead generation from your efforts.

While scanning the RSS feeds in my Google Reader this morning, I ran across an article that Chris wrote titled, “How Do You Stack Up“. He wrote about just this topic. He wondered how his blog article titles stacked up against the world for attraction by scanning eyeballs. Chris’ list of most recent titles are below -

• The Location Game – Over on OPENForum
• Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 Review
• How Social Media Can Power Your Business – Kitchen Table Talks
• Points of Contact
• The Social Media Pie – over on OPEN Forum
• How I Use Mindmapping to Write
• Cubicle Farming
• New Job New You – a Book Review
• The Writing Practice
• Switch- A Book Review
• The Beginning – Kitchen Table Talks
• How NOT to Help Haiti
• How Systems Thwart Service
• Your Farmer List
• Living In Google Wave
• What is Your Pop-Up Store
• Get Seen- Do It Now
• Represented by the APB Speaker’s Bureau
• More Fun Than Competition
• Business Stripped Bare – Book Review
• Do One Thing Very Well
• How Heartfelt Marketing Delivers
• The Future Is Evidently Blurry
• A Customer Aware World
• Experiment- 30 Days of Bing
• Deepen Your Networks
• New Sponsor – Search Engine Strategies NYC
• Are You Ready for Fun

What do you think? Did his blog article titles catch your eye?

Well, now I need to go look at my last few blog article titles. I wonder how mine stack up?

• February Schedule for Coffee with the CEO #cwtc
• Weather in Hampton Roads is so jacked!
• Our kids are connected - Are you?
• God will give Wisdom, just ask
• February IMG Session : Blogging for Business : You’re invited!
• I’ll help, we’ll do it together.
• Blogging gives you a Rockstar Voice. Use it!
• Top 10 Posts of 2009
• Social Media for Business comes to Norfolk
• Local #hrva Live Jams at Starbucks
• Agency’s Pitch requires the Right Brain and Left Brain
• Testing of Your Faith Develops Perseverance
• This is what I’m doing to you -
• NPR says the Phonebook’s Days are Numbered. Do you?
• What the heck is Inbound Marketing?
• Late Night Chillin
• Join Me at @gbvabeach at Town Center
• Can you remember Doody Calls?
• Prank Phone Call - Dublin School Demolition - Hilarious video!
• Why blogging will (still) change the world
• Twitter Updates for 2010-01-14

Hmm, I think I need work. Some are ideal for SEO. Some are ideal for eye-catching. But I need to get better. What about you? Do you stack up? Could you do better with your blog article titles?

Photo credit: Sister72

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Listening to Luck Be a Lady by Frank Sinatra.

I get this question quite a bit. What is inbound marketing and why should I care?

Simply, inbound marketing is the opposite of outbound marketing. Remember the old days of setting up outbound call centers (telemarketing), creating television and radio commercials, and pushing out email blasts to get your word out? Well, that inefficient and expensive method of advertising and marketing is no longer a necessity.

Think smart website design and development.
Think online call-to-actions.
Think strategic blog content.
Think SEO (search engine optimization).
Think social media marketing.
Think audio and video marketing.
Think efficient online lead generation.

All of these strategies and methods are important pieces of the concept, inbound marketing.

What inbound marketing methods most interest you? What larger internet marketing methods do you already have in place?

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On Twitter? Follow me at @parnellk63.

Listening to Blame It On Me by Barenaked Ladies.

This week I sat down with several business professionals in Virginia Beach and talked social media, blogging, holiday shopping online, business strategies, marketing concepts, advertising traditions, SEO, return on investment (ROI) measurement methods and economic spending.

Coffee with the CEO attendees: Mike Key, Jeremy Bailey, Anne Bailey, Gerald Briscoe, Bill Boyer, Jaime Krapf, Chris Faircloth, Scott Janney, Cedrick Harris, Anthony Gartner, Rose Thornton, Alison Creamer, Naoma Doriguzzi, Sonya Schweitzer, Keith Parnell

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Related information:
http://alisoncreamer.com
http://call1234.com
http://ceofocustidewater.com
http://chrisfaircloth.com
http://coffeewiththeceo.com
http://computer-netsolutions.com
http://gbriscoe.ordermygift.com
http://jasegroup.com
http://jsk-interiors.com
http://keithparnell.com
http://mikekey.com
http://needlocalhelp.com
http://skytelecom.acnrep.com
http://uglywomansguide.com
http://virginiamortgageinformation.com
http://wavemarketing.biz

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On Twitter? Follow me at @parnellk63.

Listening to Sunday Morning by Maroon 5.

Thanks, Hubspot for this funny cartoon.

cartoon credit: hubspot.com

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On Twitter? Follow me at @parnellk63.

A group of business professionals from Hampton Roads gathered at Panera Bread in Ghent, Norfolk, VA to talk social media, new media, SEO, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, website designs, Southside Hampton Roads & Peninsula meetups, New Media Conventions, business strategies, video sharing, photo sharing, social bookmarking, marketing strategies, internet advertising, inbound marketing, email marketing and many other intriguing topics.

RSS and Facebook readers: click here to watch the video.

Related Information:
http://www.coffeewiththeceo.com
http://www.jasegroup.com/advertising
http://www.jasegroup.com/design
http://www.jasegroup.com/email_marketing
http://www.jasegroup.com/inbound_marketing
http://www.jasegroup.com/internet_marketing
http://www.jasegroup.com/marketing
http://www.jasegroup.com/search_engine_marketing
http://www.jasegroup.com/social_media
http://blog.keithparnell.com
http://www.keithparnell.com
http://www.newmediaconventions.com

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I will be speaking on Wednesday (10/28/2009)  next week in Chesapeake (VA) for the team at Real Estate-XChange. Real Estate-XChange is an exciting company that is just beginning their ventures into the social media marketing world.

During the presentation, Social Media Business Strategies, we will discuss social media as part of an online marketing plan falling under the umbrella of a comprehensive marketing plan for the real estate industry, and our (JASE) experiences in using social media initiatives with our clients.

Other points of interest that will be covered are blogging for business, inbound marketing, internet marketing, lead generation, online marketing, search engine marketing and SEO.

2009 Oct 28: Social Media Business Strategies

Location:
The Real Estate-XChange
517 Baylor Court
Chesapeake, VA 23320

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Sascha (saschaeh in Cre8asite Forums) has written a very in-depth article on guidelines for following the SEO process. Here are a couple of excerpts but head over and read the ~~ Starting The Seo Process ~~, An SEO Forward article in full for yourself. You’ll be glad you did.

SEO is marketing and what is marketing without direction. Very often strategic planning and execution are synonymous with each other as we will see later in this post. There are couple variables which will have influence on how we go about finding direction for SEO. The mix of those different variables will have an effect on the depth of planning and style of execution.

5 considerations before strategy and execution:
1. Are you working on an existing site?
2. Will it be a new site?
3. What is the budget? (not always immediately available but try sus it out best you can)
4. How competitive is the arena you are entering?
5. What is the size of the company you are dealing with?

Overall Business Objectives:
1. What are the business objectives?
2. What marketing strategies do you currently have in place?
2.1 How does the online aspect of it fit into your current marketing strategy?
3. What are your core products or services?
4. Who are the different audiences that the site can appeal to, and provide goods or services or information for?
5. What are your primary & secondary key phrases?
6. How do you currently measure performance?
7. How might conversions be defined for the site? Purchases? Leads generated? Newsletter or service subscriptions? Downloading of specific whitepapers or pages or software?

Online Marketing Objectives and Considerations:
1. General, Short term and Long term goals for SEO.
2. Who do you consider to be your competitors?
3. Do you already have an “image” or “brand” in place that can be pushed.
4. Any specific ideas about the type of marking you want to do? (viral, advertising etc.)
5. What skills do you currently already have available in terms of web development?
5.1 If yes; What is the development or change process like, when you want to make changes, including the time that it typically takes to make changes?
6. Have there been any SEO efforts recently or in the past?
7. How are you driving traffic to your site now?
8. Are you willing to change varies elements on your website? (Content, Structure, technologies, etc)
9. Are there any design, infrastructure or development considerations?
10. Are you equipped to handle an increase in business?
11. Whats the budget either monthly or total?

New Media Conventions

Agenda

Here’s a quick definition of Internet Marketing from the JASE website:

Internet marketing focuses on creating powerful content that will lead potential customers to your brand, product or service line through online methods like searching, referrals, and links from other web entities such as blogs, video and social communities.

If you are not investing in and actively participating in Internet Marketing, you are certainly missing an audience that is looking for you.

I talked a while back during the Coffee with the CEO series about aligning your business to attract Inbound Marketing traffic. See the video here. A quick overview of the video: social media fits into an inbound marketing campaign, inbound marketing fits into an internet marketing campaign, and internet marketing (along with traditional marketing) fits into an overall marketing plan.

Read that again if you didn’t understand. Internet Marketing can be, should be, and (if you talk to us) will be a vital aspect of solid sales leads generation for your sales staff.

Don’t miss out on Internet Marketing. Let’s talk.

New Media Conventions

Agenda

Do you social media? Even more important, do you let people know that you social media?

FRONT:

BACK:

Keith Parnell
Founder & CEO
JASE Group, LLC dba JASE Group Marketing & Advertising
http://www.jasegroup.com
(757) 715-4595
keith.parnell@jasegroup.com

Google: Keith Parnell

My Social Media Life:
* http://jasezone.keithparnell.com
* http://twitter.keithparnell.com
* http://linkedin.keithparnell.com
* http://facebook.keithparnell.com

Stay tuned for the excitement! New Media Conventions is coming to Virginia Beach this fall. Check the New Media Conventions website for more details. Make sure to sign up for the email list to get details as they are unveiled.

JASE Group is featured in the current Inside Business, The Hampton Roads [VA] Business Journal, March 30th print edition.

Recognized for being named marketing and advertising agency of record for a local Virginia Beach business, JASE is a full-service advertising, marketing and information technology agency specializing in social media, branding, advertising, marketing and next generation engineering.

Norfolk-based JASE Group, an advertising and marketing agency, has been name the agency of record for Ballyhoo Home Improvement in Virginia Beach. JASE will be responsible for all creative and strategic brand development, traditional and online advertising, collateral design, public relations and marketing initiatives with emphasis on inbound marketing, search engine optimization, web and blog development, and online social media presences for Ballyhoo.

See the full press release here.