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Get Empowered by Social Media

We often find ourselves reading new books, and attending advanced courses and seminars in SEO, Social Media and online marketing by today’s most influential thought-leaders. This is all part of our continuing education process so that we can stay current and in front of the current trends, tools and new services offered in the world of online marketing.

A week ago I read the book EMPOWERED – Unleash your Employees, Energize your Customers, Transform your Business. And I have to say that I haven’t stopped thinking about it! This book really got under my skin (in a good way).

Written by Josh Bernoff (co-author of Groundswell) and Ted Schadler, this book is a Social Media and brand case study dream come true. The theories and examples clearly illustrate and support:
• Exactly what the customer service groundswell is all about
• How to cultivate a loyal fan base, and utilize peer influence and fan marketing programs
• How to “have your customers create customers for you.”  (Quote from the book pg. 55)

Its all about this: Where traditional marketing once ended at” the sale,” the new marketer realizes that the groundswell relationship between customer and company, and then communicated out via peer influence BEGINS immediately following the sale.

But there is so much more to this book. Empowered explains their concept of empowering your employee HEROs, and what management needs to do to support and properly manage the HERO mentality within an organization.

If you own a company, or you are a marketer, or you need to consult with a web-based marketing company, or you need to embrace Social Media more for your business — then you really need to read this book.

Google+ is coming soon, but do you know what it is?

There’s alot of chatter about Google+ and Google+1 right now, so we thought that you might like some quick summary and a few  links to follow to learn more…

Google+ is Google’s big picture answer to Social Networking. They say its “Real life sharing, rethought for the web.”


In Google+ you’ll see features like “Circles,” ‘Sparks,” “Hangouts” and “Huddles” – it has a very collegiate feel to it. When you read more about each feature though, you do find that is goes beyond Facebook in many ways. Its kind of hybrid of a micro-social space with Facebook and instant messaging features – throw some cool YouTube and Flickr elements and you’ve got Google+.

Here are some links to give you more information:
Google+ Project
Mashable: Google+; The Pros & Cons
Soshable: 7 Reasons Why Google+ Will Succeed (and 1 reason why it will very likely fail)

Hopefully Google+ will show true value instead of becoming just another social space you have to try and manage.
We’ll keep you posted on what we think…

The Facebook iFrames Buzz

In the past couple of months there has been a big buzz about the new new, more innovative way that Facebook allows developers  to create multiple “pages” within your business Page.

It used to be that FBML (Facebook Markup Language) was the way to develop unique content and applications within your Page – but now Facebook integrated a much easier way to customize your presence and expand on your Social Network – iFrames Pages.

Now, iFrames have been around for years, and is a cleaner way to “frame in” content to a specific area on a website. PC Mag defines an iFrame as: (Inline FRAME) An HTML structure that allows another HTML document to be inserted into an HTML page. The iFrame is set up as a window frame of a specified size that scrolls along with the rest of the page, but the iFrame’s content can itself be scrolled if it is larger than the iFrame window.

So being able to easily create unique iFrame pages that can be flowed into your Facebook page as a tab is a brilliant way to create and present your own little microsite/special event or promotion board/In The News feature.

To read more about Facebook iFrames, check out these recent articles that we’ve been reading:
• From Social Media Examiner:
3 Social Plugins for Customizing Facebook iFrame Tabs

• From TechCrunch:
Facebook Rolls Out Overhauled Comments System (Try Them Now On TechCrunch)
By the way, TechCrunch has an entire channel devoted to Facebook. Its AWESOME!

• From Mashable:
What the New Facebook Pages Mean For Users & Owners

There are dozens of articles and blog posts on this topic, and its worth becoming familiar with this new feature in Facebook.

We here at Mission Web Marketing are always testing and working with new features in Facebook and the Social Media spectrum. If you’d like help with integrating a richer Social Media experience into your online marketing plan, call us.

Fill your RSS Reader for Instant Gratification

Do you follow any blogs? How much time each day do you spend hopping around those blogs to read the posts? It can be time consuming and frustrating jumping around to blogs that might not have a new post.

Now some people might say that reading blogs can be a huge time suck and a total waste of time. That may be true in some instances [depending on the blogs you're following], but if you use blogs to gain knowledge, follow trends, get inspired, or enhance your work, then how can blog-following be so bad?

Most everyone is familiar with RSS Readers, and I’m here to remind you to USE IT! I use Google Reader, but there are dozens of readers out there that are quick and easy to fill up with your favorite blogs’ RSS feeds.

A short list of reasons why an RSS Reader can be a huge time-saver:
1. You can quickly see a list of new blog posts by date/time, and only read the posts that interest you
2. You don’t waste time hopping around to blogs that don’t have a new post
3. You can access your Reader quickly from many mobile devices and read during small bits of time
4. As you visit new blogs you can quickly add them into your Reader, or remove blogs that aren’t inspiring you
5. You can organize the blogs you follow into categories, and focus on specific topics when time permits

A few popular RSS Readers to try:



Give your Reader a try. Or try out a new one. Download a Mobile RSS Reader app to your mobile device or laptop. You’ll soon wonder how you lived without one!