While advertising executives desperately search for the best ways to target audiences through Facebook and Twitter, there’s another social media format that is proving to be a highly effective tool for reaching consumers. According to a new white paper released from PostRelease, “If the Holy Grail of marketing is a band of self-motivated enthusiasts proactively recommending your product, then the Grail’s secret location could very well be the world of online forums.”

As opposed to tweets and status updates, in which they are intrusive at best, pointed product conversations are often the very forces that drive online forum discussions. Rather than sharing with the world what you had for lunch today, consumers in forums post such targeted questions as, “What should I look for in a laptop?” and “Can someone recommend the best sleeping bags?”

“In other words, forums are a communicator’s dream—the ultimate way to target,” said Justin Choi, president of PostRelease, which happens to be in the business of online forum advertising. PostRelease enables companies to insert clearly labeled sponsored posts as relevant content into targeted online forum discussions, using a unique hybrid approach to make forums useful to advertisers, marketers and public relations specialists.

The paper provides data supporting the case that forums are the most effective channel for reaching highly influential consumers. Forrester Research reports that 28 percent of U.S. consumers read online forums—making it the second most popular online activity, second only to watching video.

The paper also examines the following:

•    How forums work—their structure, and current advertising opportunities
•    What makes forum users such word-of-mouth powerhouses for a brand
•    Why participating in forum discussions can boost SEO rankings, with posts that continue to drive traffic indefinitely—increasing by an average of 100 percent one year after a paid campaign has ended
•    The importance of transparency and of following the rules and guidelines when participating in a forum community
•    How to be effective in forums by dispensing useful information, not promotional messages

“But it’s not as simple as just jumping in and starting to participate in the forum conversations,” said Choi. “There are challenges, rules and best practices that agencies and brands should be aware of. The purpose of this paper is to help demystify the world of online forums and give them their due as one of the best ways to reach consumers already predisposed to be interested in what you say.”

strong online presence is now essential for real estate professionals. It does not matter if you are a realtor or an investor, a homeowner or homebuyer; the Internet is steadily growing into the world’s largest real estate resource, with thousands of pages of listings, community information, photographs and multimedia tours. The Internet must be utilized if a real estate group wants to succeed in today’s market.

Two things have happened recently. The real estate market crashed and realtors got Web savvy. These events are not mutually exclusive. An online presence is a relatively affordable way for realtors to share their products and information with countless potential clients. It also allows them to take a proactive approach to their work while the market struggles.

It is one thing to merely transfer your current listings from print outlets to online outlets. Being online allows you to easily update and share your listings, but the real estate market is already crowded, and if you do not employ savvy techniques and rich, unique content, chances are that your properties will not have much more success than they did in print. Think of it in terms of the newspaper industry. Many major papers are struggling because they are not doing more with their content. They are not doing more for their readers. They are merely shifting their information from print to the Web. Successful newspapers — and successful real estate Web sites — are using the Web as an advantage, as a platform from which numerous ideas can take shape and redefine what it means to be informed.

Young, innovative companies run the most popular Web sites and blogs. They recognize the advantages and challenges of working online. They engage their readers with community forums and visually stimulating photographs. They collect information from outside contributors. They give advice and notify the public of investment opportunities. Most of all, they provide up-to-the-minute information that is relevant and interesting, useful and entertaining.

One of the most popular is Curbed. The site focuses on all things real estate, in New York and San Francisco, and provides readers with pages and pages of insightful content. Curbed has transformed the way users view real estate. It has turned the buying and selling, the deals and steals into enjoyable, opinionated information that is quickly consumed by a hungry market.

Apartment Therapy is another popular site. It strives to provide users with tips; advice and user-generated comments that will help to maximize what can be done with the usually confined space of apartment living. This site is at it’s most popular now, as the economy and people are looking for ways to do more with less.

Trulia is an aggregate site. It works with real estate professionals to offer the most comprehensive look at the entire United Statesmarket. Trulia offers articles and blogs, Q&A forums and maps, listings and updates from experts around the country. It is a destination site, giving readers a truly rewarding experience.

These are the newer Web sites. But what about the companies that have been around for a while? What about the real estate groups that worked for years to succeed and become trusted as the most knowledgeable professionals in the field? Well, they have to work just as hard to succeed online, often times reshaping their approach and technique…

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Original Article:  http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/how-to-succeed-in-the-online-real-estate-market-796539.html

Hitwise is reporting that Facebook surpassed Google in the U.S. to become the most visited website last week.

This is big and very important news for Web professionals (and timely as our next issue is tentatively titled (SEO in a Social Media world) who are increasingly turning to social networks for consumer traffic and brand traction.

The market share of visits to Facebook.com increased 185% last week as compared to the same week in 2009, while visits to Google.com increased 9% during the same time frame. Together Facebook.com and Google.com accounted for 14% of all US Internet visits last week.

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Original Post:  http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2010/03/15/facebook-beats-google.aspx

As an enterprise-class web analytics solution, Google Analytics not only provides site owners with information on their website traffic and marketing effectiveness, it also does so with high regard for protecting user data privacy. Over the past year, we have been exploring ways to offer users more choice on how their data is collected by Google Analytics. We concluded that the best approach would be to develop a global browser based plug-in to allow users to opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics. Our engineers are now hard at work finalizing and testing this opt-out functionality. We look forward to make it globally available to our users in the coming weeks.

Pretty good post about some of the really big sites on the web dumping the big, flashy, complicated designs and instead opting for simple, clean, easy to navigate designs.  Gee.  Something Fotan has ALWAYS done.  :)

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Several major media properties have undergone redesigns within the past year or so; including a handful of Tribune properties, CNN.com and ESPN.com. Now you can officially add MSN to the mix. And all of these redesigns share some commonalities; including simplicity, clean design, bright and large imagery, and a focus on the user and their evolving Web savvy.

Let’s take a look at some of the changes. The top image is the old MSN.com and the bottom image is the new redesign. What you will notice first is the addition of white space, or the removal of MSN’s trademark blue, depending on your view. Immediately, the site feels much more relaxing and easier to scan, much like the redesign of the LA Time’s website. “MSN blue” has not disappeared entirely, however. You can still see it above the Bing search bar, between page sections, and outlining tabs. And speaking of tabs, many redesigns are switching from simple links to a tabbed browsing style. This makes it much easier for the reader to understand where they are on the page. It also limits downward scrolling — something of which advertisers should take notice, when considering ad placement above or below the fold.

A few more observations:

Images are huge — figuratively and literally. Every redesign these days includes large, bright images to capture the user’s attention and entice a click. MSN even uses a slider, something traditionally reserved for blogs. However, MSN is known much more for entertainment than news, so the slider is appropriate. Either way, websites are evolving to reach out to the user, instead of forcing the user to dig for what they want. On that note …

Links are fewer. Again, like the LA Times, the amount of links has been drastically reduced. Above the fold, the new MSN design has about 37 different places to click. The old design featured more than 60 clickable links. Fewer links not only makes the page easier to read and digest, but also focuses user attention on important parts of the page.

Blue links are dying. We saw this trend with the LA Times’ redesign. On many websites, traditional blue links are being phased out. Web readers already know that just about every headline is clickable. Instead, text is now being formatted to better fit the look of the website and to not distract readers from their scanning behavior.

Online video is ubiquitous. On the old MSN.com, you will notice a section to the left titled “Video Highlights.” There is direction for the user (‘click to play’) and the video is framed in a video player. Today’s Web user is intimately familiar with online video. Now, the only indication of video is a simple “play” button – either on an image or next to a link itself. You will also notice that video highlights are integrated with regular, text links. There’s no stronger indication that video is expected and demanded by users. It is no longer a luxury item.

Airing it out. As mentioned previously, MSN now has much more white space. And they are not the only ones. Most redesigns are headed in this direction. The focus is (as it should be) on the user. Web pages are becoming easier to read and less chaotic. The availability of information online is forcing websites to rethink how they deliver that information and to make the user experience comfortable and inviting. When you look at the old MSN, it resembles search engine results. The new site is a destination.

Thinking about a redesign? Don’t miss Website Magazine’s upcoming May edition, where we address the criteria and strategies of a website redesign.

Read about CNN’s redesign (where we talk about some below-the-fold issues) and the LA Times’ redesign.

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Original article can be read here: http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2010/03/12/msn-jumps-aboard-the-redesign-bandwagon.aspx