For more information about costs, venue, topics, etc., please contact us at (02) 5660297 or via email at info@illuminea.com.

Agenda

Sept. 23: What exactly is social media, and how do I use it effectively?

Part 1: What is social media marketing? (1 hour)

• What makes something social? What is Web 2.0? We’ll look at the most important elements of social media today: RSS, Video, Widgets, Tagging, and more to get everyone on the same page.
• The importance of social media in your marketing activity
• Case studies: companies and organizations that have successfully and unsuccessfully used social media

Part 2: Planning effective strategies for social media activity (3 hours)

• Elements of an effective social media strategy
• Setting goals
• Important considerations before starting
• Research your space
• Implementation
• Monitoring & engaging – how, what
• DO NOT neglect the other “boring” stuff: SEO, email, advertising, etc.

Sept. 30: Practical techniques for implementing your social media strategy

Part 1: Overview of important social networks – what they are, how to best use them for marketing (3 hours)

• How to use twitter for marketing: setting up profiles that work for business, building up community, promoting your profile, what and how to write, monitoring, measuring, the best tools, etc.
• Using facebook for business: profiles, Pages, applications, events, etc.: critical differences between each of them, how to choose the right ones for your purposes, setting up a facebook presence that works for marketing and promotion.
• YouTube and other video sites: why video is the next generation of web marketing, what to keep in mind when working with video, ideal length and content, how to promote your video to achieve your marketing goals
• Blogs – “old fashioned” but crucial: blogs are the hubs of an effective social media presence. What to keep in mind, how to set it up, how to integrate it with your other social media activity, ideal frequency for updates, what to write, how to write, how to promote.

Part 2: Personal branding (1 hour)

• What is personal branding?
• Why everyone should work on their online personal brand today
• How to create a successful personal brand with social media

Summing up: Where to go from here (0.5 hours)

• Key points to keep in mind when branching out into social media
• Putting it all together
• Working with (skeptical) upper management

About the speaker – me, Miriam Schwab

Miriam is the Friendly CEO of illuminea, and has been speaking and teaching about social media and blogging for business for over two years.

illuminea is a marketing firm dedicated to helping businesses and organizations use the social web effectively as an integrated part of their marketing mix. illuminea has extensive expertise in designing, developing and strategizing business blogs, and using these blogs as the hub for launching successful social media marketing activities. Part of illuminea’s day-to-day activities involve keeping up with the latest developments in the social web so that we are always able to offer our clients the best solutions for their needs.

Among illuminea’s clients are some of Israel’s leading companies and personalities, including Comverse, Commtouch, Natan Sharansky, and more. Click here to view testimonials from illuminea’s clients.

Here is a list of the conferences and events that Miriam has spoken at:

Wordcamp 2007 – moderator http://english.wordcamp-israel.info/ and the schedule

WordCamp 2008

Elephant

Techshoret 2007

Affilicon 2008

Affilicon 2009

Marchshoret, Nov. 2, 2008. Presentation is here

Partnership 2000, Nov. 12, 2008

Pradler Institute

SSVN, hosted by IBM on July 8, 2009. Read reviews. Presentation.

ISOC Israel:How to create a personal brand by using online tools- MP3 of lecture; presentation; article on The Com (Hebrew).

MEET Alumni Conference, August 4-5, 2009 Istanbul Turkey: “Blogging Secrets: Tips for marketing your business online.”

For more information about costs, venue, topics, etc., please contact us at (02) 5660297 or via email at info@illuminea.com. Hope to see you there!

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… C: wait…

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The challenge of talking to a large group about social media is trying to make sure that the information is not too overwhelming for the newbies, but at the same time is not too boring for the seasoned users. The feedback from the audience was pretty enthusiastic, so I hope I managed to reach that happy medium.

The talk covers recent landmark events on twitter, such as Dell reaching $3m in sales via twitter, the success of the Iran Election protesters who used twitter to bring their cause to the world, and some other events. We looked at strategies, tips and tools for creating an effective online presence.

Without further ado, here’s the presentation:

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• Background Tracking
• Conversation Tracking

One of the best social media monitoring tools  is Google Alerts. With Google Alerts, you can receive weekly, daily, or even “as it happens” alerts whenever your search term is mentioned on the web.

Don’t be afraid to enter multiple phrases that mention your brand; this can only yield more and diverse results. In addition to delivering relevant links to articles, blogs, video, etc., Google Alerts is also a great spring board for learning more about where your brand is being spoken about.

Probably the best feature of this service is that you don’t have to keep checking for the most recent mentions on search engines. Having the alerts delivered directly into your inbox allows you to keep tabs on where you might want to comment on a blog post or follow the development of a news story.

The major drawback about Google Alerts is that it doesn’t cover social media sites, such as facebook. To become a part of the “conversation,” you must use monitoring tools that focus on discussions, media (such as video, audio, photos, etc.), and just about anything else. If you are conducting a social media campaign, you absolutely must know if people are already talking about your brand. Sites like Twitter, Digg, and YouTube are the some of the many featured sites on Addict-o-matic, which is the site to find “the latest buzz on any topic.”

Addictomatic screenshot via flickr from Maestro Alberto's photostream

Other sites such as Daylife and Silobreaker are also great for processing recent quotes, graphs, trends, and lists of recent articles or blogs that mentions your topic.

Long gone are the days of missing what someone said about you behind your back. Utilizing effective monitoring tools will help you to truly be part of the conversation in every corner of the web.

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So marketers are desperately searching for new ways to advertise to customers, one of which is the strategy of authenticity. This is when marketers create a video, or some other marketing piece, that looks real but has actually been carefully staged.

In most cases, the marketer lets the user in on the secret by telling them that the ad is fake, either directly or with hints. However, one marketer recently was so successful that he duped the entire internet into believing that his piece was real, to the embarrassment of almost everybody involved.

13 year olds steals Dad’s credit card to buy hookers – NOT!

A popular story ran on May 9, 2008 on money.co.uk about a 13 year old boy who stole his Dad’s credit card and ordered two hookers with it, only to be convicted of fraud and given a three year community order. This story was so popular, it reached the front page of Digg. It was also covered in other leading social media sites, as well as several online publications, resulting in 6,000 links to the article.

Well, it turns out the story was a fake. The writer, Lyndon Antcliff, says that he tried to make it as ludicrous as possible so its fakeness would be obvious. The story is indeed ludicrous; here are some excerpts:

• The credit card company involved said it was regular practice to send extra credit cards out as long as all security questions are answered.
• The escort girls who were released without charge, told the arresting officers something was up when the kids said they would rather play Xbox than get down to business.
• Police said they were alerted to the motel by a concerned delivery clerk…delivering supplies of Dr Pepper, Fritos and Oreos…
• Ralph had reportedly told police that his father wouldn’t mind, as it was his birthday last week and he had forgot to get him a present. The father, a lawyer, said he had been too busy, but would take him on a surprise trip to Disneyland instead. [my bold]

The goal of the story was to get attention from social media sites, generate backlinks and increase rankings on search engines for keyword phrases like “Credit Card,” and draw in hundreds of thousands of visitors.

Now that we know it was fake, you can’t help but wonder how people bought the story. But anyone who follows the top stories on digg can tell you that this story is actually mild compared to some of the other true stuff posted there.

lonelygirl15 – the fake/real video blogger

This episode is similar to that of lonelygirl15, a series of video blogs by a 16 year old girl named Bree, that became extremely popular on YouTube. Bree even had a MySpace page:

At first, the videos covered normal, everyday subject matter, as the title character dealt with typical teenage angst (and the ridicule she received from her deformed cheekbones), but quickly morphed into a bizarre narrative that portrayed her dealings with secret occult practices within her family and included the mysterious disappearance of her parents after she refused to attend a “secret” ceremony prescribed by the leaders of the family’s cult. (from Wikipedia)

Fans began to wonder if Bree was real in August 2006, pointing to small inconsistencies within the videos as evidence that the story might not be genuine. Eventually it was revealed that the whole thing was staged.

Lying in advertising is not allowed – you cannot claim your product will do something that it cannot. The same should go for online reality advertising – ethical guidelines should be developed for “reality” marketing that ensure that users are informed that what they are viewing is not real.

But of course, what is real anymore? If France 2 TV can stage the al-Dura shooting and get away with it, then who’s to say what’s real and what’s not?

Here’s another example of “reality” marketing:

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=QWeNyT66IqI[/youtube]

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Techshoret holds an annual conference in Jerusalem, and I was invited to speak on the topic of Blogging and Social Media as Marketing Tools for Hi-Tech Companies since they decided to add some non-technical writing lectures to the mix.

My lecture covered case studies of businesses and their successes and failures in the blogosphere, and how the world of marketing is changing to the point where blogs and social media are a necessary part of today’s marketing strategy.

I promised the participants that I would upload my presentation, and here it is (finally)!

Hollywood on a Shoestring Budget

I am also including the great presentation given by Benjy Caplan who works at ECI Telecom. Benjy spoke about how to create great videos without being a professional videographer. His presentation was interesting because he explained how his company uses video as part of their user manuals. I think this is brilliant, because so many Israeli companies have overseas customers who don’t really speak English, and the best way to communicate in that situation is visually. In addition, his company saves the costs of sending technicians overseas to help clients by sending them help videos instead.

Benjy gave us one real example of how his company used a video to help clients in India install one of their products. The clients sent ECI a picture of their installation, which was a jumble of wires. Instead of sending technicians over to fix things up, Benjy produced an Oscar-worthy video with step-by-step visual instructions of where to put which wire.

With so many Israeli companies exporting overseas, I think many should learn from Benjy’s example and save themselves a lot of time and money by adding videos to their customer support services.

Enjoy!

| View | Upload your own

| View | Upload your own

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I know this is way overdue, but I actually have to work sometimes. So apologies.I already wrote a general overview of SphinnCon Israel. The next four posts will cover the sessions, and the information that I thought was most interesting and useful.

Barry Schwartz from Rusty Brick and Search Engine Roundtable kicked off the event with an introductory presentation. He explained that he was here for his nephew’s bar mitzvah, and the event was planned around that. So a big thanks to his nephew for being born 13 years ago. Also, as I mentioned in my previous post on SphinnCon Israel, he is hoping to hold a much bigger event, on the scale of SMX, in Tel Aviv.

Here is a summary of Barry’s introduction. Scroll down to see it in video:

Google’s secret for good SEO: good content

As I mentioned in my previous post, an Israeli Google representative in Dublin sent a little video to us to wish us luck at the conference. He gave us the official Google “secret” for getting good search engine results

• Good content
• Use Google Webmaster Tools to make sure your site is running properly.

The people on the panels seemed to think there’s a bit more one can do to rank better in the SERPs.

Paid Text Links

Matt Cutts went on record for the first time in September 2005 saying that he doesn’t like text links. In October 2006, he warned about a possible penalty for text links. The penalty came in Oct. 2007, when many bloggers and sites saw their PageRank drop.

Google PageRank

Barry said that the Google toolbar shows a different page rank than Google actually uses in their algorithms. So it’s possible that you see a public PageRank of 4, but in fact your value according to Google may be higher or lower. So in fact, we could just ignore PageRank, and go along doing our best to build up our sites with good content.

PPC and Adwords

PPC is seeing steady inflation. The cost per keyword increased 25% over the past six months. Why?

• Click fraud, which is increasing. Click fraud in content networks is higher.
• More competition, which means more people don’t know what they’re doing and are bidding too high.
• General economic factors – things cost more.
• New PPC algorithms

Virality

Barry spoke a bit about things going viral, and said that the first ever viral success was the The Hamster Dance, a little video of dancing hamsters that was sent around via email. This brought to mind the most watched video on YouTube: The Evolution of Dance, which currently has been viewed over 74 million times. I think these two examples of what humans are attracted to is an interesting (worrying?) commentary on human nature.

That’s all for now. I hope I’ll get the next part up next week. Here are the videos:

Part 1

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ed0HmdHUMo[/youtube]

Part 2

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XokOe8qS2Yw[/youtube]

And…The Evolution of Dance (I couldn’t resist)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMH0bHeiRNg[/youtube]

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As I wrote a few days ago, SphinnCon came to Israel this week on February 5 in the form of SphinnCon Israel. It turns out that this wasn’t only the first SphinnCon in Israel, but it was the first SphinnCon ever! So, this is yet another example of a first for Israel, kind of like how the first WordPress conference, WordCamp, to take place outside of the US took place in Israel.

I took extensive notes at each session, which I had planned to live-blog but couldn’t due to a minor technical difficulty: no wireless internet. I will post the summaries over the next few days, but in the meantime, here is a summary of the entire event, and some related links:

Sphinn is pronounced Spin

One of the most important lessons from this conference was that Sphinn is actually not pronounced Sfin, but Spin. Go figure.

Google sent greeting video from Dublin

After Barry Schwartz’s introductions, we got to see a video sent specially to us from Google in Dublin. Alon, the Google rep in the video, tells us how excited he is that SphinnCon has come to Israel, and he gave us an SEO tip straight from the Google guidebook: write good content. I can see how that tip is in Google’s interest, since they would love the web to be a big database of useful information that users are searching for, but after this conference it seems that there are a few other things you can do to promote your site too.

Anyways, here’s the video (Hebrew):

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=-vw3Q2XOGFg[/youtube]

The food was delicious

I don’t know who the caterer was, but the food was great and plentiful. Did I hear you scoff? Food is important, excuse me.

This was a test event for something bigger next year

SphinnCon Israel was an attempt to test the waters to get an idea of the potential interest in a bigger SEO conference on the scale of SMX next year in Tel Aviv. From what I could see and from what the organizers told me, SphinnCon Israel was a huge success. The registration for the 165 spots quickly filled up, and they added another 15 seats, and were still getting requests from people to join! They barely advertised, and yet word-of-mouth spread the news quite quickly and widely.

In addition, the event succeeded despite the fact that it took place in Jerusalem. Don’t get me wrong – I love Jerusalem. But most technology-related events take place in Tel Aviv, which is the heart of Israel’s hi-tech sector. Tel Avivians aren’t big fans of coming to Jerusalem, and yet they came in droves, and more would have come if there had been room.

So hopefully this all means that we can look forward to a really great event next year!

The panels were excellent

There were three panels:

1. SEO Panel: Paid Links & Penalties
2. PPC Panel: Will the PPC Model Hold Up as Click Prices Rise?
3. Social Panel: Should You Social?

I thought that the panels were done really well. Each panel began with a short presentation by one panelist, and then the rest of the session was made up of Q&A. This was a great format since it kept people’s attention, and ensured that the audience learned about issues that really interested them. I learned a lot, and the panels helped me take my jumble of knowledge on SEO and make some order of it, which I appreciated.

I didn’t go to the After Hours Party in Tel Aviv, but I’m sure it was nice too.

We got free t-shirts that said “The First SphinnCon Evar”

Yes, “Evar.” I think someone forgot to do a spell-check.

There were women in the audience…

Yes, the “no women on the panels” issue again. The organizers explained to me that they really tried to get women on the panels. I really don’t blame them for this. It seems to be a global problem: Jeremiah Owyang wrote about it recently on his blog, and the comments reflect the depth of the problem. See, for example, Lena West who says:

I simply DO NOT BUY the story that conference organizers give when they say there are no women available. I know how the game works. These ‘organizers’ ask the other speakers for recommendations and men refer other men. That’s the deal. I just spoke at an event in Miami and I recommended three of the speakers. Heck, it makes a very busy job easier to just go on recommendations…why wouldn’t they?

Ok, nuf about that.

Related Links and Resources:

These links will help you get a picture of what the conference was like:

Panel Presentations (available for download in PDF format on the SphinnCon Israel page)

SphinnCon Israel 2008 Recap – this post has links to most of the blogs that wrote about the conference, and most of the flickr photos.

Photos:

British Yosef’s photos (really professional)

SMO.co.il’s photos

RustyBrick’s photos

Sponsors:

Compucall

eToro

Jerusalem College of Technology

K.co.il

Play65

The event organizers:

Nekuda.co.il

RankAbove

Rusty Brick

Tens Technology

Third Door Media

Videos (from YBO Interactive):

(Top photo from British Yosef’s photos.)

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SphinnCon Israel is sold out! SphinnCon Israel is a SphinnCon networking event focused on search and internet marketing, and is taking place this coming Tuesday, February 5 at the Jerusalem College of Technology (also known as Machon Lev). This event is exciting thanks to the incredible lineup, with representatives from well-known international companies like Google, TechCrunch, Kenshoo and Yedda (see my previous interview with Yedda’s Lior Haner, who will be speaking at the conference), and thanks to the location: Jerusalem! For once I don’t have to schlep to Tel Aviv for a great event, and I am thrilled.

There are also some really interesting reps from lesser-known but really professional Israeli companies: Tzvika Avnery will be there from Tagadam; Tzvika is a pro in the social media sphere and his company develops apps for social networks, among other things. Eli Feldblum from RankAbove will be there too; Eli is actually pretty well-known in the SEO world for his expertise, and his company services clients from all over the world. I’m mentioning these guys because I know them, but I hope I’ll get to meet the others on the panels too.

The main guy behind the whole thing is Barry Schwartz, the Executive Editor at Search Engine Roundtable, and President of RustyBrick, “a Web services firm specializing in customized online technology that helps companies decrease costs and increase sales.”

Here is the speaker list as from Barry’s latest post on the event at Search Engine Roundtable:

SEO Panel

• Branko Rihtman, SEO Specialist at Tens Technology (Presenter)
• Ophir Cohen, CEO of Compucall
• Sam Michelson, CEO of Five Blocks
• Gilad Sasson, Search Marketing Analyst at Nekuda.co.il

PPC Panel

• Avi Wilensky, CEO of Promedia Corp (Presenter)
• Itai Levitan, Managing Partner at EasyNet
• Alon Sheafer, Founder of Kenshoo
• Tal Cohen, Finance and Technology Industry Manager at Google Israel
• Michael G. Samet, Ph.D., CEO, Referral Technology, Inc.

Social Panel

• Eli Feldblum, CEO of RankAbove (Presenter)
• Tzvika Avnery, Partner at Tagadam
• Roi Carthy, TechCrunch
• Lior Haner, Yedda

Cool, eh?

Here’s what’s not cool: not a woman in sight on the speaker list. Not one. It’s a celebration of testosterone. I’m not against testosterone, but it would be nice if it was toned down a bit by at least one representative from the other 51% of the human race. And it’s not like there aren’t impressive women in the industry: how about Tamar Weinberg, who works at Rusty Brick and writes the amazing Techipedia blog? Or Tzvika Avnery’s partner at Tagadam, Orly Izhaki, who has a really impressive background in web-related ventures, and writes at smo.co.il (Hebrew)? Don’t tell me they were unavailable as an excuse. I’m sure there’s at least one woman in the web industry who could have been available.

Anyways, I’m really looking forward to this event, and I’ll hopefully fill you all in on how it goes. If they have internet access, I may even Twitter and live-blog the event like a good lil’ social media geek should.

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Commtouch, one of the world’s leading email spam fighters, has now officially launched their new corporate blog, Commtouch Cafe, which was built by none other than…illuminea (i.e. us)!

Founded in 1991 in Israel and publicly traded on the NASDAQ (CTCH), Commtouch’s technologies help companies avoid the rising costs of email spam by constantly monitoring, identifying and blocking new malware attacks. To accomplish this, the company analyzes the distribution patterns of billions of email messages per month. That’s quite a job.

The new blog, called Commtouch Cafe, aims to “show the face & voice of the people behind Commtouch’s technology; share the type of informal information that [they] are exposed to daily just wandering the halls here, that might also interest our partner community or other spam/virus fighters; and have some fun.” This blog is the place to go if you want to keep up on the latest reports, figures and developments in the world of spam and malware.

Now I know they are my clients, so you probably should take what I have to say with a grain of salt, but this move by Commtouch into the world of social media marketing is very impressive for the following reasons:

• Commtouch is publicly traded. Many publicly traded companies cite the complicated compliance issues of stock exchanges as reasons not to have a blog. Commtouch saw the value of becoming part of the online conversation, and overcame any obstacles that they may have faced in order to do this.
• They also launched with a new viral video. Not only did Commtouch launch a blog, but they combined it with the launch of a cute animated video they made that is now on YouTube. (The video is below.)
• The content is written with a web audience in mind. Big corporations often speak in long expanses of corporate speak. The posts on Commtouch Cafe are short and contain a lot of visuals, like video and images.
• They are an Israeli company. Big Israeli companies in particular are still staying away from blogging. A notable exception is Answers.com, a large publicly traded company with an obscure and hard-to-find corporate blog (if you look up Answers.com blog, you won’t find it): no.stupid.answers. This blog is also pretty good – short, useful posts about questions and answers.

Congratulations to Commtouch on their entry into the world of social media, and may this signal the start of a new trend among Israeli companies!

Here’s the Commtouch video:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnD50mSvLPk[/youtube]

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Burger King has hit viral video payday with their new Whopper Freakout viral video. In the video, customers at Burger King in Las Vegas are told that the Whopper has been discontinued. They are shocked and even outraged, or as the website puts it – they “freaked out.”Viral video success is basically about getting lots of people to talk about your thing, whatever it is. In this case, Burger King has succeeded since their videos on YouTube have been viewed thousands of times, and many people, myself now included, have written about their stunt.However, it’s one thing to get people to talk about your viral thing; it’s another to leave them with a good taste in their mouth (no pun intended!). I personally found this video hard to watch and offensive, but I’ve never been a fan of blooper-type videos where we all get to laugh at the expense of someone else. I personally think this video’s success is precisely because it allows the viewer to feel so smart that he or she knows the truth, while the person in the video is the butt of a good joke, and I’m not sure that this is the most effective way to achieve viral fame.But maybe it is. And anyways, there is one really good marketing lesson here that was pointed out by Easy Street Marketing: If you want to create buzz for your product, don’t let anyone have it.Robert Gorell at Future Now says that the Whopper Freakout was one the best TV + Web viral campaigns for the following reasons:

• The reactions.
• It’s “flame broiled,” not fried.
• The Whopper isn’t a new product or promotion.
• The King is a man of few words; he’s a prankster, but ultimately, he saves the day.
• A short TV commercial serves as a teaser, while the real payoff happens online.
• Their custom video player is grainy, making it feel voyeuristic and, somehow, more trustworthy.
• Even though they built their own site, they still put it on YouTube.
• It’s brilliantly filmed and choreographed.
• You can share it (email it, embed it).
• They didn’t have to do it.
• They did it.
• Unless you’re vegan, it kinda makes you crave a Whopper.
• “From what I understand, they were too popular.”
• It’s actually not a ridiculous stunt, unlike this.

In any case, it’s an interesting study in viral marketing, and the efforts by big corporations to spread the word via the web and with social media.

Read an interview with the video’s director Henry-Alex Rubin to get a look at the inside story, and how they set the whole thing up.

And of course, in the tradition of all things viral, here is yet another embedded instance of the video:

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=mMOPj6-4nDU[/youtube]

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Here is the ultimate example of the value of good marketing and packaging: bling H2O, which is basically glorified water in a really pretty bottle, that costs as much as some people in the world make in a year.

People pay more for water already when it’s in the form of mineral water. But in that case, there are qualitative arguments that are made about the taste and quality of water. Whether these arguments are right or wrong is anybody’s guess, but at least people are paying for quality.

With Bling H2O, it’s all about the bottle and the brand. Yes, bling H2O touts their nine-step purification process and their gold medal for best tasting water, but it really comes down to the Swarovski crystals:

Bling H2O is the inspiration of Kevin G. Boyd, Hollywood writer-producer….he noticed that you could tell a lot about a person by the bottled water they carried. In Hollywood, it seemed as if people flaunted their bottled water like it was part of their presentation….[Bling H2O is] couture water that makes an announcement like a Rolls Royce Phantom…the “Cristal” of bottled water….Bling H2O is pop-culture in a bottle. But it’s not for everyone, just those that Bling. So the question is: Do You Bling?

Fancy H2O is as crazy as fancy MP3 

If you think that people who are willing to sacrifice their children’s college funds for a water bottle are crazy, then I invite you to examine one of the world’s hottest gadgets: the iPod. The iPod is pretty much just a glorified MP3 player. But people refuse to believe it.

Yesterday while on the elliptical machine at my gym (don’t get excited, I’ve been there all of three times), the women on either side of me began discussing iPods. The woman without the iPod asked the woman with the iPod if she liked it, and if she should get one herself. Woman-with-iPod said that it’s amazing, she loves it, and she should definitely get one. They decided that woman-without-iPod should get an iPod shuffle, since it’s less expensive but also great.

The iPod shuffle to me is a like a blind iPod. You can’t see anything in it or on it, and you’re at its mercy. So I butted in (as I tend to do), and suggested to woman-without-iPod that she buy a regular MP3 player. “What?” said woman-with-iPod. “Yeah,” I said. “I bought one at Office Depot for 150 NIS, and it’s great. “Does it work?” she asked incredulously. “Of course,” said I, “it’s a Sandisk so it’s pretty sturdy, and it does what I need it to do.”

People LOVE their Apple gadgets. They take it personally if you talk against them. They’ll claim that the reason that they love them is because they are so superior to any other gadgets out there. But the real reason that they love them is because they love the brand, the design, and the packaging. They love being part of the Apple experience. They love feeling like they have bling.

If you Bling it, they will come 

I guess people want to feel Blingy all the time, and in the US those with excess amounts of disposable income (i.e. rolling in the dough) are running out of ways. So Kevin has come along and given them a way to feel Blingy even while drinking water, which is something they probably do pretty often. And so, people will shell out cash for the privilege of holding a Limited Edition, corked, 750 ml, reusable frosted glass bottle of Bling, handcrafted with Swarovski Crystals. For thirty seconds until they finish drinking. But it’s 30 seconds of Bling heaven, which is apparently worth a fortune.

To sum up: Bling sells. Make people feel like they have Bling, and they’ll pay you a lot of money. And then you can finally buy that iPhone you’ve been coveting.

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More and more professionals are starting their own blogs. There is a growing realization that blogging can help advance a person professionally, or market a business. It helps establish them as thought leaders, create relationships with people they wouldn’t normally connect to, and increase search engine rankings for their corporate sites.

But it’s hard to know where to start. Here are some tips that can help you start off on the right foot, so that you can grow as a blogger and head in the direction of becoming a “really professional blogger” (RPB):

1. Really professional bloggers have self-hosted blogs. A self-hosted blog is a blog that is hosted on a person’s own hosting account, as opposed to a blog that is hosted for free on WordPress.com or Google’s Blogger. To self-host your own blog, you need to install one of the blogging platforms on your hosting. This means an investment of about $10 a year for a domain name, and about $8 a month for hosting. So when I say investing, we’re not talking thousands. But it shows that they’re taking their blogging seriously. This also means that they are not at the mercy of WordPress.com and Google’s Terms of Service, and they also avoid the risk of being blocked in certain countries that block entire social networks like WordPress.com.
2. Really professional bloggers have their own domain name. This means that the domain name of their blog is not something like miriam.blogspot.com, but is www.miriam.com, or www.company.com/blog. If the idea of hosting your own blog makes you nervous, but you do want to have your own domain name, sign up for a blog at www.wordpress.com, and then upgrade to their paid service that allows you to have your own domain name. This will also make it easier for you to move to your own self-hosted blog with that domain name in the future. (We just did that for a client and the move went really smoothly. All their URLs were preserved.) But just note that people will still know that you are using the WordPress.com hosted blogging service because their favicon appears next to your URL in browsers. That just means you can’t personalize your favicon, but it’s not the end of the world.
3. Really professional bloggers use WordPress as their blogging platform of choice. Some may argue with me, but many if not most of the leading bloggers (except Seth, maybe) use WordPress for their blogs. Bloggers love WordPress because: 1. It has a large user community; 2. It is really flexible and many cool and wonderful things can be done with WordPress; 3. It is pretty optimized for search engines out of the box, and can be optimized even more by WordPress designers and developers. If you don’t want to invest right now in your blog, and you’re just getting your feet wet, it’s a good idea to get started with a free blog at WordPress.com. This gives you a few advantages: 1. You can easily migrate (move) your blog over to a self-hosted WordPress blog when you feel ready; 2. You will be used to the WordPress user interface and features, since the admin is basically the same for the hosted and self-hosted versions of WordPress; 3. You look much savvier than a blogspot blogger. (Ok, that’s very subjective, but at least I’ll think you’re cooler!)
4. Really professional bloggers have customized blog designs. This is a serious investment in your blogging career, but in a world of millions of blogs, it’s important to find a way to differentiate yourself and show people you are serious about what you are doing. But you don’t have to worry about that right now – WordPress makes it easy to change your blog’s appearance at any time. It’s like putting a different dress on your content: the content all stays the same, but it’s now wearing its fall wardrobe.

So if you’ve been bitten by the blogging bug, and want to get started on the right foot, I think the above tips can help you start a blogging career that lets your blog grow with you, and vice versa.

Happy blogging!

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The Oct. 30 meeting of the Yokneam Forum of Technical Writers (Elephant) will feature a workshop on “Using Blogging as a Marketing Tool“. Meetings of the Forum are free and open to the public (most are technical or marcom writers, but others are welcome). The standard for presentations and workshops at the Forum is very high because many of the participants come to meetings with a lot of technical and practical experience. The informal atmosphere leads to a discussion format rather than frontal presentations. Meetings always begin with AA style introductions and announcements. Networking is always an important part of the meetings, especially at the start and during breaks.

Location: Yokneam City Hall

Date: Oct. 30

Time: 18:00-19:15

Cost: Free, but you are expected to bring a refreshment to share (New England style potluck) and registration is required

Registration: www.elephant.org.il/headlines/oct_30_workshop_on_using_blogging_as_a_m.html

Join us to learn how blogs can help you take your company’s marketing to the next level. We will cover:

• What makes a blog a blog?
• What are all these things we’ve heard about: RSS feeds, trackbacks, pingbacks?
• What system should we use to blog: we’ll look at blogger, typepad, wordpress.com and self-hosted WordPress.
• How blogs benefit your business: increase search engine rankings, control your online brand, strengthen customer loyalty, and more.
• Blog writing strategies: how often should we post, what should we write about, how long do the posts need to be, how do we find new material?

I know Yokneam isn’t the most convenient location, but it’s not impossible, so I really hope I’ll see you there!

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I wrote him back, and I thought my answers might help others, so here they are (slightly modified):

• Study English Literature. I don’t know about all English Lit departments, but in Bar Ilan we had to write a million papers proving ideas. We had to explain our hypothesis, prove it, and summarize it at the end. That’s basic marketing writing! “Our widget can help you become a better cook [intro]. Its advanced fast-forwardizer streamlines the cooking process [proof] so you will enjoy your newfound ability to create foolproof muffins in half the time! [summary]” See – Shakespeare at his best!
• If English Lit is not your thing, you have to at least have a basic knack for writing, plus attention to detail. It doesn’t matter what style you can write in: as long as you can write a decent, persuasive paragraph that has no grammatical errors in it, you’re already on the right path. What you’ll need to do is learn to match your writing to different goals, but the basics are…basic.
• Take a course in copywriting or marketing writing.
  I never took a course. But some people learn better in a classroom setting, so it might be a good way to start.
• Read up about it on the web. Buy some books. I highly recommend this route. Keep reading on the web. Copyblogger is an amazing source of useful tips for good writing. Don’t let the name fool you – what this guys has to say applies to all writing, not just blogging
• Get an entry level job, get experience, use that experience to get a better job, get better experience, get an even better job, etc. That’s the route I took.
  Focus your career path on copywriting, so even if you get a job that’s not 100% writing, if you did some writing, focus on that on your resume.
  (Writing a persuasive resume is also marketing writing…)
  For example, in one of my first jobs I started taking care of client communications and worked on their brochure content. So even though that wasn’t my job, I focused on that on my resume, and got my next better job.
• Move to Israel. There is a huge demand for good English copywriters in Israel right now from hi-tech companies and other companies that export their services. Many writers will tell you it’s not easy to make a living writing in Israel. It’s true. But if you really become a good copywriter or marketing writer, than you can apply those skills to market yourself and build up a good clientele, or get a really good job in marcom.

I hope that helps!

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It’s that time of year again: the next Entrepreneur Breakfast meeting is coming up, and we’ve got an amazing speaker lined up for you.

Ruth Shlossman, Principal at the Washington DC-based negotiation consulting firm, Watershed Associates, will be the guest speaker at the upcoming Entrepreneur Breakfast meeting on Monday, September 17, 2007. Ruth will be talking about “Best Negotiating Practices…Learn the basic, universal, key negotiating practices that create a win-win outcome.”

Watershed Associates provides consultative training in negotiation skills worldwide, and has served global corporations such as Coca-Cola, General Electric, NASA, and Rolls Royce, to name just a few on their impressive client list. Ruth Shlossman has over 20 years experience in leadership, sales and consulting. She has trained thousands of people in the art of innovation, negotiation, sales negotiation, and bargaining with emotional intelligence.

In my opinion, this is an opportunity not to be missed! To find out more details, and how to RSVP, read on!

Date: Monday, September 17, 2007.

Time: 9 am – sharp!

Venue: Probably the Begin Center in Jerusalem. We haven’t finalized yet, but this seems like our best bet. It is conveniently located across from Jerusalem’s Cinemateque and near Emek Refaim.

Cost: About 50 NIS per person. This will only be finalized once we close on the venue and we see the number of people who RSVP, but we estimate that it will be around this amount.

Please note that we do not have the facilities to provide receipts, since we are not a registered amuta. All proceeds go directly to cover the costs incurred in planning the event.

The meeting will include a light breakfast of coffee, juice, baked goods and fresh fruit.

To find out more about the meeting, go the Entrepreneur Breakfast site, and click here to RSVP.

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Facebook is on everybody’s minds these days (or blogs). It’s the latest killer app/site/web 2.0/social/community thingy. Well, it’s not really the latest, since it’s been around for a few years, but since they opened up registration to non-college people, it really took off.

Since I joined Facebook, I’ve been able to create a continuous connection with family and friends who are overseas, and rediscover friends from days of yore. I’ve had people contact me who I haven’t seen or spoken to for 15 years!

Cons of Facebooking for business

But is Facebook a good business tool? I’m not sure. A number of bloggers believe that Facebook is a good business tool, and that it can help you promote yourself professionally. But I think there is a major problem with Facebooking (can it be a verb?) for business: there is too much blending of personal and business.

My Facebook profile is simultaneously communicating with my 20-something cousins and business contacts. I have pictures of my kids there plus announcements of business events. There are probably people on Facebook who maintain a purely professional profile, but I can’t/won’t do that since I need to use Facebook for personal communication too.

Pros of Facebooking for business

If we compare Facebook to the current standard in business networking, LinkedIn, Facebook has a definite advantage in that it helps you look alive; it brings color to your online face. With Facebook, you can post notes, change your status, send messages, build groups, etc. You also get to see what’s going on with your friends: who they’re friends with, what they’re doing, new pictures they’ve posted, etc.

LinkedIn is the most boring site on the planet. My profile just sits there and does nothing. It is not dynamic, it rarely changes, and has no personality whatsoever. The same for the profiles of my LinkedIn contacts – boring, static and cold.

As a website developer, I’ve found another major advantage of Facebook: it drives traffic to your sites. I have been working on a new site for many months, and now that it’s getting closer to official launch, I decided to put a link to it on my profile. Surprisingly, the stats show that a high number of visits are coming from Facebook. (If you want to see the site, go find me on Facebook and look at the sites listed in my profile…)

Conclusion

Facebook is a great way to stay in touch with people around the world. It’s easy to use and dynamic. Although it can begin to consume way too much time if you’re not careful (read about Jason Calacanis’ Facebook melt-down) I do suggest that if you haven’t yet set up a Facebook profile, you do so immediately. People are looking for people over there, and you don’t want to miss an opportunity.

Update: Rebecca, illuminea’s Account Manager, pointed out this video which is a must see for anyone involved (obsessed) with Facebook:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PH4aElf6CU[/youtube]

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Small businesses have small marketing budgets. In a previous post, I listed 5 low-cost ways to market your business. Two of the methods mentioned were advertising on Google Adwords and Dapei Zahav. Since bootstrapping businesses need to ensure that every advertising dollar is justified, I decided to conduct an unofficial study comparing Google Adwords and Dapei Zahav (the Israeli version of the Yellow Pages).

The winner with no holds-barred: Google Adwords.

Here is a comparison of the features of both advertisers:

Dapei Zahav:

• For a relatively low monthly fee, you can have your business appear on their site at the top of the classification of your choice. I put illuminea at the top of the copywriter classification, and wrote a blurb in Hebrew about what we do.
• The features of the package that I selected included the option to add an image, and provide a discount coupon for those who order via Dapei Zahav. The salesperson was very unclear about many things, such as selling me the option to add a button which links to my site. What I didn’t understand is that there is no need for such a button, since a link to the site appears under the blurb.
• They offer you other additions, like a map of where you are and a contact form. A map is mostly useless since if someone wants to come to your office, they can either look up your address or call and get directions, and if they want to contact you, they can send you an email to your listed email address or call you.
• Your listing can appear under other classifications too.
• I also was given a listing in the print edition of the Tel Aviv directory.

The Results: Not one phone call or email from my Dapei Zahav listing, even with all its prominence. No one even tried to use the coupon to get a discount. I got better results when I had a tiny free listing on Dapei Zahav.

Google Adwords:

• You can choose as many search words and phrases under which your ad will appear. You can also select the countries in which your ad will appear. This is a good way for Israeli advertisers to save on advertising costs.
• You only pay when someone clicks. If you are selective with your keywords, this means that only people who are interested in your type of services are clicking. Even if they don’t order, this increases exposure of your site and business to the right people.
• You can set the maximum you are willing to pay for clicks on different keywords. This is also a good way to manage your budget.

The Results: Many phone calls and emails from interested prospects, and quite a few orders that more than made up for my investment.

Apparently, when my clients in Israel are searching for service providers, they use Google. Maybe it’s because they are more web-savvy, while businesses in other sectors could benefit from a Yellow Pages ad. I don’t know.

Once I realized how innefective my Dapei Zahav ad was, I called to cancel my order and reduce my listing to a minimum. It turns out that they were also not clear at all when I ordered, and when they said I could reduce my listing after four months, they were only referring to certain parts of it. So now I’m stuck paying for it until the end of the year, and I can’t even find my own listing there anymore!

When I told the Dapei Zahav saleswoman that I was cancelling because I had recieved no orders from them, and many from Google Adwords, she said to me “But we’re working very hard on raising our rankings in Google!” I asked her why I would advertise with them if all they were trying to do is use Google to get better results – why not just pay Google directly?

So, if you are looking for a low-cost and effective way to advertise your business – Google Adwords is the way to go!

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Recent conversations with other entrepreneurs and small business owners have made me realize that the problems and challenges I face as a small business owner are not unique. While in the past I have felt like I must be the only one in the world to face these issues, it seems that no matter what business one is in, we all face similar challenges in the management, development and growth of our businesses.

For a while I had thought about setting up some kind of forum where entrepreneurs can meet and give each other advice and discuss how they have solved issues or overcome difficulties, and support each other in our decisions to leave the security of employment. Small businesses are in important part of Israel’s economy, and statistics indicate that small businesses account for something like 90% of employment in Israel (if I remember correctly). Therefore, it is important not just on a personal level, but also on a national level, that we help each other…well…survive. (See my previous post on the difficulties of self-employment in Israel to see what I’m talking about.)

Now I am finally doing it.

Launching: Entrepreneur Breakfast

Having said that, I’d like to announce the launch of a new initiative – Entrepreneur Breakfast. This will be a monthly breakfast meeting of entrepreneurs, small business owners, and freelancers to discuss entrepreneurship. The format will include food (yay!), an opportunity for everyone to introduce themselves, a guest lecture, and a discussion about the Entrepreneur Question of the month (this is a question that will be distributed before the meeting, and everyone will be requested to send in their answers before the meeting for discussion at the meeting).

This is an opportunity to learn from each other, and network. The first meeting will be held in Jerusalem on Wednesday May 9, 2007. For information about the venue, costs, and itinerary, go to the Entrepreneur Breakfast site. To attend, you must RSVP, and preferably by Sunday May 6. If you have any questions, you can send them to eb@illuminea.com, or submit the contact form on this blog, or on the Entrepreneur Breakfast site.

Also, if you have any suggestions as to how we can improve this thing, I’d love to hear from you!

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Last night I attended my first speed networking event. It was organized by Digital Eve, who has held two such events in Tel Aviv, and last night’s was the first one in Jerusalem.

Where?
The venue, the Pera e Mela (Apple and Pear) restaurant in Safra Square, was great – good Italian-style food, nice ambience, and an opera-singing owner who did a short piece for us (I’m not kidding!). The women in attendance were of all types and professions, and it was inspiring to meet such a talented, varied and creative group. About 20 women attended, including a handful that schlepped from Tel Aviv. Most of the women were self-employed and business owners, but we had employees as well.

Who?
Women of all types were in attendance; religious, secular and in between; a wide range of ages; and native Israelis and olim from England, the US, Canada (me!), Australia, and probably women from other countries that I missed. Based on the business cards I collected and what I remember, here is a sampling of the professions that were represented: 2 life coaches, an organizing consultant, a whole bunch of women involved in marketing of various kinds (including yours truly), a business and project management consultant, event planner, VIP tour planner, the owner of an executive search firm, graphic artist, training manager, and an expert in translation tools!

How?
How speed-networking works: we all sat down, ate (very important at any Jewish/Israeli event) and schmoozed (also Jewishly important!) with the people around us. Leemor Machnai and Susan Fisher then spoke to us about the importance of networking, and how to overcome barriers that we create in our head to networking. Then came the speed-networking part (which I guess is based on the speed-dating idea, or vice versa): we all stood up, and had a few minutes to talk to another woman about what they do, and what they are looking for. Then the whistles would blow (at first loudly but when the proprietor of the restaurant complained the whistling became almost inaudible) and we would move to the next woman. I didn’t have time to meet everyone, but it was great meeting whomever I could.

Nu?
So we schlepped, schmoozed, and conspired to take over the world after eating some good pasta. All in all, I had a great time. Of course, I don’t get out much these days due to baby and work-overload, so any opportunity to get dressed and meet other adults gets a high ranking from me. But I think that the fact that the event was supposed to end at 10, and at 10:50 Leemor had to gently point out to our surprise that it was almost 11, shows what a great time we were having.

Kol hakavod to Leemor, Susan, and Susie Kaufman (who played a big role in organizing the event but couldn’t come) for putting together such an interesting, inspiring and enjoyable evening. It was nice putting faces to the names I see on the email list, and I’m looking forward to the next Digital Eve event in Jerusalem!

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When I began blogging at the end of November, I asked a few questions about whether all the blogging evangelicals were right, and blogging really is good for business. I asked the following questions:

1. Would I be able to keep up with the demands of blogging?
2. Would I find that results from my site will have improved?
3. Is blogging in Israel as effective as in other parts of the world?

Here’s what I’ve found in the almost three months that I’ve been blogging:

1. I started off blogging much more frequently than I do now, but that is not because my motivation levels have dropped. The reason is that I have recently had a baby, plus my workload is heavier than ever. However, it seems that my initial momentum has helped sustain the number of visits to my site and blog even during these “lean” blogging times. I have read in a number of places that the minimum blog posts per week necessary to keep up a blog is 2-3, which is pretty doable.
2. I compared my site stats from a date range of 30 days from before I began blogging, to a 30 day range once my blog had been up for two months. The number of unique visitors to my site tripled! In addition, the number of visitors to our site referred from organic search now outdoes those from our CPC campaign. As a result, we have refined our CPC campaign and are now getting a better ROI.
3. The Israeli business blogosphere is not really well-developed, as far as I can see. Everyone and their uncle blogs about the political situation, but business is apparently a lot less sexy. But recently I discovered the Israeli VC blogs. I don’t know if most of them were there and I just hadn’t found them, but one of them launched recently and is really great: Blogiza. Their main writer is Shai Tsur, and he has a great blogging style, and the content is really interesting. Another good business blog by someone in the VC world is Six Kids and a Full Time Job. However, the whole linking/networking aspect of blogging, which is really what it’s all about, is very weak here. Blogs don’t link or refer to each other very much.

Blogging Successes

Now on to the fun stuff: cool people we’ve connected with and exposure we’ve gotten thanks to our blog:

1. I won a prize in a blogging contest.
2. Seth Godin referred to me in his blog! Ok, he didn’t link to my blog or mention my last name, but I know that it’s me he’s talking about. I wrote to him about this post, and he wrote back explaining why he said what he did. But apparently my question got him thinking, and as a result he wrote this post, in which I get a mention. Yay!
3. After I gave birth to said baby, I began to write about the challenges that face women business owners with regards to maternity leave. Bill Dueease, a business coach in Florida, found my articles and left a few comments. He said that my articles have inspired him to “to create a special area on my web site for mothers who wish to work, whether owning their own business or getting a job.” There is a serious shortage of information out there for business owners who have babies and how to prepare their business and themselves for it. I am excited that I will have had some part in Bill’s new effort to help others.
4. One of the things I love about WordPress is the user community. WordPress is such an amazing application because there are thousands of people out there providing tips, tutorials, and creating themes and plugins. I came across a pretty handy looking plugin at Dagon Design, but it was designed for categories and I thought it would be useful if it applied to the blogroll too. I posted a comment saying so, and within two days the plugin creator wrote to tell me that he had implemented my idea! What a cool guy!
5. I signed up for a Google Alert for the words “business Israel” which usually has up to ten links to articles and blogs. Well, guess who appeared in the blog section in the last alert I received? illuminea blog!

So there you go folks, our first blogging report.

To sum up: if you do it right, blogging is fun and effective.

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