Survey says Online Marketing is Key to Success

Written by Resources for Entrepreneurs Staff – www.gaebler.com

Published: 11/18/2009

SMBs plan to increase use of internet marketing in 2010.

It may not come as surprising news for small business owners that most entrepreneurs report internet marketing will dominate future sales campaigns. A new survey from Vertical Response reveals that 74.1 percent of SMB owners plan to increase their use of email marketing in 2010.

The low-cost social media and online marketing is proving its worth to small businesses in these economic times as 96.2 percent of respondents say they will be using internet marketing in 2010. SMBs will increasingly rely on search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing next year as 86.2 percent will continue to use or implement search engine marketing.

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Job Vacancy: Marketing & Communications Executive

The London Internet Exchange (LINX) is a mutually owned membership association for operators of Internet Protocol networks. It provides a neutral interconnection facility and peering platform, known as an Internet Exchange Point (IXP), and represent the interests of its members on matters of public policy.

LINX currently has a vacancy for a Marketing & Communications Executive. This position offers the opportunity to work at the heart of the Internet Industry in a dynamic team-motivated environment. LINX can offer you – in addition to an attractive remuneration package with benefits that include private health cover – life insurance, pension and income protection.

For more information please visit: https://www.linx.net/job/markcom.html

Please note: No agencies! Unsolicited emails or phone calls are not welcome.

Internet history and future the focus in special anniversary edition of the LINX magazine, HotLINX

HotLINX20 - 15th Anniversary Issue

The London Internet Exchange (LINX) has announced the publication of its Internet magazine, HotLINX, which is available for download now from the LINX website.

HotLINX20: https://www.linx.net/files/hotlinx/hotlinx-20.pdf

In this special LINX 15th Anniversary issue we take a comprehensive look at the history of LINX and how it came to be the organisation it is today. LINX CEO John Souter gives his take on the milestone and this is backed by archive content and interviews with those who has seen LINX develop from the very beginning.

Elsewhere there’s a special report on LINX’s work to meet increase bandwidth demands plus a round up of all the latest public affairs information. In the membership section we have three new member stories plus all the latest member news and stats.

In a comprehensive industry events section we look back at the fourth European Peering Forum in Copenhagen while previewing the upcoming LINX member meeting in London.

You can download a PDF copy of HotLINX20 today at www.linx.net/files/hotlinx/hotlinx-20.pdf. Printed copies can be ordered by emailing: hotlinx@linx.net

Internet History in the Making

Regular readers of this blog will remember that my day job involves the production of membership magazine for the London Internet Exchange. The publication in question is called HotLINX and I have been working on it one capacity or another since 2004. It has, in fact, been around a good deal longer with the first edition published as long ago as the Summer of 2000.

The Internet industry at that time was very different to what it is now. Just take a moment to consider your personal circumstances and how much you differently now compared to those early days. For me, I used the Internet for the first time in 1996 at work but I didn’t go online at home until as late as 2002. I had a PC before that but it was used purely as word processor and for games.

One of the reasons I mention early issues of HotLINX today is that for the first time in many years those early editions are back available online. In fact, some have never been available to download or view at all. With LINX celebrating its 15th anniversary in November I wanted to give the people the opportunity to see just how far the Internet has come in the last decade.

Using material from other websites in your blog

OrbellComms (OC) is here to provide a marketing and communications resource which interests and informs its readers. This why I include not only my own articles but material from other sites which I think should have a wider audience. On an earlier blog post I was asked in the comments section about permission to quote content on their own site. Personally I don’t have a problem with people doing that with copy that I have written myself just as long I’m given a name check and a back link to this blog but what if it isn’t mine?

To be clear as to what is and isn’t OC written copy, look at the top and bottom of any blog post – if it lists a persons name or the title of a website this is material I have reproduced from elsewhere. I have given credit to the authors and/or websites in every instance and provide links back to the original material. It is very important that the people who have done the work do get that acknowledgement.

Twitter and Facebook aid small firms

From www.bbc.co.uk

By Claire Prentice
New York

It is the 21st century equivalent of word of mouth.

From mom and pop diners to cupcake shops to technology start-ups, small business owners across America have been thrown an unexpected lifeline in the midst of the recession by social networking sites.

Companies that have jumped on the Twitter and Facebook bandwagon are reporting a surge in customers while others struggle. With minimal marketing budgets available to many small businesses, social networking sites offer a quick and, more importantly, free means of promoting their wares to a global audience. In the face of stiff competition and a global economic downturn, it is a route more and more companies are going down.

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Blogging Small Businesses have 55% More Traffic, 97% More Inbound Links

By Mack Collier, Search Engine Guide

A recent study by Hubspot found that among their small business customers, those that blogged had 55% more traffic and 97% more incoming links than non-blogging small businesses.

The study confirms what most of us that are active in the social media space have known for a while.  Blogs generate more traffic and links than static websites, on average.

Which is great, but more traffic and links alone does not make your blog successful, right?  And neither does more comments.

What your business needs to do is correlate these metrics back to larger business goals for your blog.  For example, if you are wanting to use your blog as a tool to increase sales on your website, does sending more traffic to your site from your blog really matter, if sales don’t increase?

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My First Business Public Speaking engagement

I’ve been away these past few days hence a break from these pages but I wanted to recap on my first experience of public speaking beyond best man speeches and a few words to work colleagues at staff meetings.

I was speaking on the topic of social networking at LINX66, the quarterly membership meeting for the London Internet Exchange. This is an event for up to 130 Internet industry professionals notably operators of Internet Protocol networks. What’s more there were dozens more watching on the webcast. This made for a tough first gig as the Internet community have tended to be fairly unforgiving towards marketing people talking on non-technical subjects in my experience.

100 Gigabit Ethernet a top story in LINX magazine, HotLINX

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PRLog (Press Release) – Aug 13, 2009 – There are two cover stories in this issue of HotLINX: The developments with 100 Gigabit Ethernet and the joint IXP co-operation project between LINX, the Milan Internet Exchange (MIX) and Netnod from Sweden.

Comprehensive membership and engineering sections focus on router technolgy, new datacentre launches and Intersite Private Interconnect services while public and regulatory affairs are covered with articles on data monitoring, Phorm and the recent Digital Britain report.

There is a review of the recent LINX member outreach day held in Paris plus previews for the upcoming LINX66 member meeting and EPF4. The EPF is the European Peering Forum which is taking place on 14 and 15 September in Copenhagen, Denmark. Please visit www.peering-forum.eu for further details.

Other stories feature the progress in the Kenyan IXP market and the launch of a new IPv6 deployment website (www.ipv6actnow.org).

You can download a PDF copy of HotLINX19 today at https://www.linx.net/files/hotlinx/hotlinx-19.pdf. Printed copies can be ordered by emailing: hotlinx@linx.net

Twitter CEO, Evan Williams, to appear on BBC Newsnight tonight

The BBC are to interview Evan Williams on Newsnight this evening. With the massive growth of Twitter over recent months it will be interesting to hear how he feels the micro-blogging site will develop over the next few months and years.

I will post links to video content on this page when they become available. It should make for interesting viewing.

Send your questions for the Twitter CEO

From BBC Newsnight Blog

We’re interviewing the CEO of Twitter, Evan Williams, tonight at 10.30pm on BBC Two and we’re keen to gather any questions you’d like to put to him.

If you’re a ‘micro-blogging’ pro, you can send us a tweet here .

If, on the other hand, you find the whole thing a bit baffling, please send us your ‘Twitter-style’ question (ie in 140 characters or less) by adding it [to the BBC's blog comments].

Article source: Send your questions for the Twitter CEO

UPDATE (06/08/2009)

Here is the link to the BBC iPlayer page featuring the Newsnight episode in question. The relevant section is between 12:40 and 22:32. This will remain online for seven days in UK so if I can find a YouTube clip to replace it, I well.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00m0g9t/Newsnight_05_08_2009/