This legitimizes the power and success of social media and re-enforces for all businesses – it is time to get into the game. It also points to many other big companies, Canada’s major retailer The Bay is rumored to be looking at an IPO for the fall. But how are these retailers leveraging the power of social media – as they step into the future in their marketing and continue to engage  their customers?

Everywhere you turn, analysts, media guru’s and business consultants are coming out to talk about social media. The retail industry is just beginning to jump into the foray. I think what is lost on so many businesses – but vital for these retailers is the understanding and skill of linking total communications – to their digital strategy using social media. They all began and continue offline to market to their customers with flyers, magazine inserts, pop -(point of sale) signage in-store, radio and television commercials. Those retailers who have a long history – take with them their brand identity and recognition via these marketing vehicles. As more retailers look to transfer that online traffic to their stores – they need to clearly understand how their customer  wants to communicate in the digital space. Then link their traditional marketing efforts to that digital strategy – seamlessly.

Social media is about engagement. These companies began their engagement with customers offline. Where the message for execution is being lost for many businesses is – that social media communities are extensions of what has and does happen in the real world.  Social media is a way to personally engage and build a one one on one relationship with your customer. The real success and skill comes from mirroring that traditional relationship with your company and brand and moving it online. What were the positive results and transactions you had with your customers offline?

Finding influencers in your target market and creating discussions, sharing ideas, expertise and taking their ideas and expertise to be shared with others in your community is where the success is going to be greatest. Remembering where you started and having a seamless pathway for your customers to travel – using the tools that are familiar and easily available to them, is taking that total communications purpose and making sure that you are making the transition with ease and comfort.

So where to start? Almost everyone has a Facebook page and coming behind Facebook many have a Twitter account. Almost all businesses have a website and from there they can use a multitude of ways to guide their customers in the way they want to communicate. Understanding the total communications pathway and leveraging that path to engage via social media will ensure nobody gets left behind!

Best Nicole

Search in the world of technology is the main driver and source of revenue for all of us looking to build our visibility online. “As a marketing strategy, SEO is used to increase a site’s relevance. The SEO recognizes how search organics work and what people are searching for. It also initiates efforts to include unique content to a site to ensure that its content is easily indexed by search engine robots, making it more appealing to users.”

As this year winds down it is important to reflect and see what the past year’s successes, failures, tragedy’s and challenges were- in order to help plan and build enthusiasm, goals and growth for the year ahead. I came across this video via Google Zeitgeist 2010 that provides you with a great overview of the top searches in 2010 around the globe. Great way to get the juices flowing as we all plan to search on in 2011.

2010 in Review

Re-live top events and moments from 2010 from around the globe through search, images, and video.

Enjoy!

Best Nicole

Our guest blogger Blair Currie who we introduced to you last week and is working with BCAD Group on some new projects, has written a post to answer one of those questions. What will be the future for search. We feel there are some very important points to consider here – as this is one of the sure fire ways -  your can ensure your business will make money, garner new customers, improve your page ranking on search engines which in turn will help you sell more products and services.

How you are you leveraging search engine marketing in your business?

Best Nicole

There is no crystal ball to tell what the future holds; however, in the area of search engine marketing, there are a number of developments in the areas of audio search, location-based technology and personalization, that one can paint a pretty good picture of what is to come. Here are a few signs of where search appears to be headed:

1.Audio

Search by voice command will become increasingly common, especially for mobile devices. This will help speed up search and making it more personal.

In Stanley Kubrik’s classic film “2001: A Space Odyssey”, we were introduced to HAL, an intelligent computer that talked with the protagonists in the film. Speaking directly to HAL seemed much more natural and much faster than using a keyboard, trackball and/or mouse. This movie, albeit released in 1968, provides a glimpse at the future of search.

2.  Augmented

Search will continue to be augmented by both past behavior of you and “others like you” to speed up the process of delivering results. This is what Google Instant does when it shaves seconds off the search process letting you see results before you finish tying your search query.

The second form of augmented is “Augmented reality” (AR) where a real image is enhanced or augmented by digital imagery. An image captured on a mobile device can be identified with GPS technology and this image can be augmented or over-laid with search data, such as history of a building in the picture or availability and pricing of rooms in a particular hotel.  Companies that do this include Layar.

A third form of augmented is what can be referred to as  “Augmented humanity”. In this case an engine will search for things without being asked to. For example if you are walking down a street Google will use GPS data to search for history of the area as an example. This requires that your computing device continuously search and anticipate your questions – augmenting humanity in a way.

3.) Broader – will include the Internet of Things.

Everyday objects in the physical world will become searchable with the help of radio frequency identifications chips (RFID). Physical objects are being increasingly embedded with tiny identifying chips with valuable data including country of origin, component parts, manufacturing dates etc.. These chips are decreasing in prices so that more and more objects can be “connected” to the Internet.  Alternately put, there will be an “Internet of things”.

With the ability to search, identify and track physical goods, companies and individuals can manage inventories more effectively and consumers or customers can find and products more readily and compare prices at different vendors.  Individuals can also find lost objects – to mention a couple of functions related to the Internet of things, which is sometimes referred to as “Ambient intelligence”.

4.) Customizable

Search companies will include more tools to allow users to set priorities in what they are looking for and what they want to screen from their searches.

For example an individual may want to exclude social media or video searches and concentrate only on blogs. This will be possible because the search engines will allow us to set these filters.

5.) Future oriented

Major search trends will increasingly be used as “Future data now” that will be used to create new products and services. As such, Search will be used more proactively than reactively and become a more important tool for companies.

While in the past companies produced products and services and then figured out the best way to market them, search will accelerate the use of insights to develop products.

6.) Global

Language barriers to finding search results will decrease, as translation software will permit multiple language searches. The world’s data is not all recorded in one common language making it difficult to find Arabic results using a Japanese search engine. To help overcome this problem technology is being developed that will allow search in many languages.

7.) Location based applications

Location and mobile are really the “Third Wave” of the Internet following “Pages and Search” in the First Wave and “Social and Interactive” in the Second Wave. As mobile e-commerce develops, location based search will become more important.

When consumers are mobile they are generally interested in location based search. By combining search with GPS technology many services are developing that facilitate local navigation and marketing.

8.) Mobile

Mobile search will take an increasing share over the overall search market as mobile penetration overtakes PC penetration and as mobile devices – smart phones, computers in automobiles and wearable devices gain acceptance. .

This is a key reason why all the major search companies Google (including YouTube), Microsoft, Yahoo! and Facebook are all competing in the mobile space many of them developing operating systems and/or telephones of their own.

Audio search will greatly help out the spread of mobile search because of the difficulty of using keyboards and touch-screens for sending text.

9.) Personalized

Search will become more personalized and tailored to the individual as the search engine learns and knows more about an individual’s tastes and preferences. For example a search engine should be able to determine whether an individual  is looking for Seal the Musical performer vs. Seal the mammal based on his or her history.

As search gets more personalized search engines will need to increasingly need to better deal with privacy issues through opt-in agreements, full disclosure etc..

10.) Private

The Search Engines will ultimately need to develop a Bill of Rights to deal with the privacy of information and legal access rights by government bodies and the length of time information can be retained.

11.) Specialized

While some search engines will remain focused on mass search there will be niche search engines. For example, Wolfram Alpha, which is a fact based search engine. The user interfaces of specialized search engines may be better equipped to display the results of searched items, just as YouTube has evolved to best present video search results.

12.) Universal and more

Search will become increasing “Universal” in that it will continue to expand in scope moving from websites, books, news, images and videos to video and television as are now being introduced by Google and Apple.

Everything you do to market your product and or services - is ultimately to drive people to your website and have them convert to a buying customer that comes back many times. This can also be said of the visitor who comes to your bricks and mortar business. Leveraging your website or social networking community to drive sales - not only via your website but also to your retail store is the goal for most.

One of the long standing difficulties and reasons for skeptics in the digital world - is the lack of success with attaining those sales conversions. Finding the right ways to connect with your target market as well as understanding the strategy - behind search words and phrases -will you get that customer to your site - so you can show them you have what they need.  When that visitor gets to your site - via the high ranking - that you have attained through strategic and well planned search word and phrases via Google – you need to keep them on your site. You want to excite them so that they want to stay – and be able to easily and quickly, show them that you have what they need or are looking for. 

I came across this excellent article that speaks to 2 ways to do that. DMN News posted an article that provides 2 ways, that you can ensure you make those conversions of visitors to your site - into customers that purchase and return to purchase regularly. Author Pam Foster explains what conversion means and lets you know in a quick and simple read - that you can have the highest ranking in the world and send visitors to your site – BUT- if you are not converting them into a buying customer then all your search efforts are for not.

STRATEGY is always the name of the game in all of the digital marketing and advertsing planning. The end result is always the sale – getting that person to convert from a visitor to a paying customer. So what is your strategy going to be in 2010 – 2011?

Best Nicole

What exactly is a Web site conversion, and why does clear, customer-focused Web content make such a difference?

First, a definition of web conversions:

Let’s say target prospects arrive at your Web site via a Google search result, an email or other means of driving traffic. If they’re delighted with your site and they find exactly what they’re looking for, they’ll take the next step to make a purchase, subscribe to your service, download a free trial, become a qualified sales lead, etc.

Through these actions, they are converting from a prospect to an active customer in some way.

The goal of most business Web sites is to convert as many site visitors as possible into paying customers and ideally improve conversion rates over time.

Now for the second part of the question: Why does clear, customer-focused web content make such a difference regarding conversions?

Many companies know it’s critical to use keywords in their content to drive great results in search engines. Sadly, many of these companies achieve top Google rankings without considering what happens next.

Top search rankings do not equal conversion success.

Here’s a hypothetical example. Let’s say you search for “narrow tap shoes” in Google. The top result includes “narrow tap shoes” in its page title and description.

Then you click on the Google display, land on the company’s Web site, and find “narrow tap shoes,” simply repeated several times throughout the banner, headline, main text, footer, etc. The copy itself is practically unreadable.

Unfortunately, this keyword-stuffing strategy is focused on traffic, but it doesn’t help you find what you need; narrow tap shoes.

In addition, the company’s messages are all about how great they are. “We’re the world’s leading tap shoe company … we’re number one, we we we” (you get the picture). There’s very little content about solving the visitors’ need.

You can bet that prospects find no value in this kind of web content and they abandon the site as quickly as possible, looking for someone who can truly help them. It might be the company that shows up #3 or even #7 in Google results.

Therefore, it’s important to keep this approach in mind if you’re focused on developing web content that converts:

1.     Make sure your web content weaves in the 1-3 most relevant key phrases on any given page in an ethical, helpful manner, and

2.     Make sure your web content includes information that’s 100% focused on solving your visitors’ needs. Make it easy for them to convert into customers!

Yes, Google and other search engine results are very important. But they really only matter if your web content converts visitors into customers.

Mashable.com posts an article by Adam Ostrow, that outlines some of the Gates Foundation issues in a chart format. When asked why he was using Twitter, he said he likes and wants feedback.

The time is now to find ways to get feedback and start that conversation. One of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs is in the game. Are you? As mentioned before, you can find us at www.twitter.com/bcadgroup! We look forward to hearing your feedback Bill Gates!

Best Nicole

It’s been less than a week since Bill Gates joined Twitter, but the Microsoft founder has already accumulated more than 300,000 followers and used the platform to launch a new site – Gates Notes.

Today, Gates is using his new outlet to promote his second annual letter, which discusses the many philanthropic issues that he’s involved in through the Gates Foundation. This chart provides an overview:

He also talked about Twitter() and a range of other technology and world issues on Good Morning America. Asked why he joined the microblogging service, Gates said that he likes to get feedback on how his foundation — which includes much of his personal fortune plus that of Warren Buffett — is using its resources. In other words, he’s tracking your replies.

Gates also weighed in on the current situation in China, where Google() is threatening to pull out of the country if they do not relax their censorship requirements. The world’s richest man seems to side with Microsoft’s current CEO, Steve Ballmer, who called Google’s decision “irrational.” Gates’s position is that if a company wants to do business in a certain country, it needs to consider and obey that country’s laws.

I am a disciple of the Lefsetz Letter. Bob Lefsetz, the author of these daily letters for those that do not know him, is an American music industry figure and author of the email newsletter and blog, the Lefsetz Letter. Based in Santa Monica, California, Lefsetz worked previously as an entertainment business attorney, majordomo of Sanctuary Music’s American division, and as a consultant to major record labels. Lefsetz deals with issues at the core of the music industry. One of the ongoing themes in his daily letters is the diminishing role of the major record labels in current recorded music and the corresponding increasing influence and importance of grassroots artist activities such as live performances and direct online relationships with fans.

Besides my love and passion for music, what I love about Bob’s letters is his insight and knowledge in the marketing world. The letter I am going to post is from a few days ago and it is a great example of how an old world (Bon Jovi) and a new world artist (John Mayer) are using social media to connect to their fans. We all know that this connection helps to keep those record sales alive.

I love both artists and I want to give a shout out to Bon Jovi for their continued and wonderful work giving back to the community via their Soul Foundation. I think this letter clearly demonstrates the differences between leveraging new world marketing and social media and the old world—showing how a commitment and dedication to leveraging social media, and its abilty to reach and connect, could make what is old, new again! Bob’s marketng insight and parallels are brilliant!

Happy Thanksgiving to our American readers!

Best Nicole

If older folk still buy music and younger people steal it, why did John Mayer sell almost twice as many albums the first week out as Bon Jovi? http://m.twitter.com/backstagejbj a page that doesn’t exist. The second result is http://twitter.com/bonjovimerch

Yes, according to hitsdailydouble.com, John Mayer sold 301,204 copies of his new album, “Battle Studies”, this week. Whereas last week, Bon Jovi moved 165,871 copies of “The Circle”.

Ready for some truly horrifying news? This week “The Circle” fell all the way to number 19, selling 50,153 copies, a whopping drop of 70%. Whew!

What’s the difference between John and Jon?

One is living in 2009 and the other is living in the last century.

Jon Bon Jovi was positively old media, tying in with NBC.

John Mayer was new media, appearing in concert on Fuse and tweeting up a storm.

It doesn’t matter the total reach, it matters who actually watches and what the perception is.

Fuse would be canceled, the entire channel, if its programming was on NBC. To say the ratings are anemic would be charitable. But Fuse airs music, unlike MTV. And most people watching the shows featuring Bon Jovi on NBC don’t give a shit about the man’s music. In other words, Jon’s shoving it down the wrong people’s throats.

Jon Bon Jovi has a fawning documentary on Showtime.

John Mayer is all over Twitter.

Did you watch any of the Bon Jovi doc? Shot like it was footage for “America’s Next Top Model”, everyone looked beautiful and spouted humble platitudes, like we were still living in the eighties and rock stars were established on MTV and made a fucking fortune. Whereas the truth is everybody’s scrambling, giving concert tickets away in some instances. Bon Jovi reflecting is like Lloyd Blankfein saying Goldman Sachs is doing “God’s work”. Huh?

Laughable.

If you Google “Bon Jovi Twitter”, the first result is:

Wow, someone in JBJ’s camp doesn’t understand Twitter. It’s not for selling, its for CONNECTING! http://twitter.com/jOhnCmAYer

Meanwhile, the Bon Jovi merch page has 1,540 followers.

Google “John Mayer Twitter” and you get the following page:

John Mayer has 2,657,425 Twitter followers. Furthermore, he’s following 72 people, so you get an idea of what he’s into. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZwVjys2bQI

Bon Jovi’s old school, playing behind a wall, just like Doug Morris and Jimmy Iovine, rarely coming out to play and only in circumstances they can control.

John Mayer is new school. Putting it all out there unfiltered, getting into arguments with Perez Hilton, never backing down, not afraid to look like a tool.

It’s the honesty that grabs you. That’s why people are following John Mayer, that’s why they care about him. Furthermore, in an era where album sales represent only a fraction of your fan base, you want to get attention where you can. Not by batting people over the head, telling them they must endure you, but being so provocative, so interesting that they want to tune in.

Nobody plays the new media game better than Mr. Mayer.

He makes a deal with BlackBerry and it looks cool. Kind of like a rapper, ripping off the man, because you know he uses a BlackBerry anyway! Whereas U2 makes a deal with BlackBerry and you see dollar signs, you see promotion, you see a deal. If you endorse a product you truly use is it a sell-out?

The classic rock acts would probably say yes, you don’t want to tarnish your image.

But Mr. Mayer is at the bleeding edge of a new paradigm, where the rules are being made up as we go. He’s so overexposed that he’s establishing a new way of doing it, you almost feel like he’s a guy at your high school, that you know him. Does anybody really know Jon Bon Jovi? Who never has a bad word to say about anyone?

Old school: You’re afraid of pissing anybody off, you’re Justin Timberlake at the Super Bowl, apologizing.

New school: Dixie Chicks. Fuck with me and I’ll give you the middle finger.

In other words, it’s been a long strange trip, but we’re suddenly back in the sixties. It’s about artistry, it’s about music, it’s about honesty. You don’t triangulate, construct a phony identity for public consumption. You’re better off being your real self. Hell, the Internet will tease out your flaws anyway, why not admit them?

Jon Bon Jovi utters irrelevant platitudes and John Mayer sings “Who says I can’t get stoned?”

Politicians have to lie about doing dope. But artists are supposed to speak the truth, and the public has to deal with it. Which is why we love our artists more than any political figure.

“Who says I can’t get stoned

Call up a girl that I used to know

Fake love for an hour or so

Who says I can’t get stoned?”

A weird variation on drunk-dialing. Maybe her number is still in your cell. Maybe you’ve got to IM her, maybe you’ve got to pull up her Facebook page. But you’re sitting at home, thinking about what used to be. Can you act on it?

That’s a question confronting everyone online. Do you make contact or let the sleeping dogs of the past lie?

Bon Jovi, Mimi, all the stars of the MTV era are still living in it, oblivious to the fact that the nineties were ten years ago, and that in Internet time, a decade is equivalent to a century. It’s not a three year cycle, you’re on a day to day regimen.

“Any tweet that takes more than 90 seconds to write is not a tweet worth sending.”

John Mayer

Yes, we used to make records in an afternoon and get them on the radio in a week. Now, TV and movies are more topical than music. Let it out, go knee-jerk, don’t massage, don’t focus on the marketing plan, focus on the music.

And stay in touch with your audience CONSTANTLY!

“Who Says”:

Posted on a blog called Small Business Trends, I came across some useful information to ensure that your website does just that. Chris Finkin, who wrote this post, provides some excellent tips that are sure to keep you focused on the purpose of your website.

Best Nicole

Whether the goal is a lead, a product sale, a coupon download or a newsletter sign up, each page of your website should fulfill that purpose.

Focusing on the Purpose of Your Website

If you don’t know the primary goal of your website or you have a variety of goals, objectives and ideals for your website than you may be suffering from what I like to call, “MPNS” or “Multi-Purpose No Success” syndrome.

Every website needs a single purpose and each page of the site must then reflect that purpose. When you go to Google you can see that the primary purpose of that site is to “Search”. When you go to Twitter you can see that the primary purpose is to “See what people are saying about ….” Even when you go to PapaJohns.com you can see that the primary purpose of the site is to get you to order a pizza online, not to call the local Papa John’s pizza restaurant.

Whether you have one user or 1 million visitors to your site, your site needs a purpose. Ecommerce sites are meant to sell a product which means the Buy Now button, Toll-free Order Line and the Free Shipping offer should be highlighted on every page of the website.

Even sites that don’t sell a product must have a specific call to action on every page of the website. A services business needs the phone number and contact form to be emphasized on every page of its site. Even the contact us page needs a call to action.

It’s popular today to overwhelm yourself or your site with the latest social media must-have buttons or the most up-to-date video technology. But if you haven’t identified the single greatest purpose of your website, these items could simply confuse the potential customer or visitor. Even high quality pictures of your product are only good if they include a call to action.

Make Your Website Searchable
One of the main reasons for emphasizing a single purpose across each individual page of your website is the fact that a search engine looks at your website as a group of pages. Search engines don’t rank sites in search results, they rank pages in search results. You may hope that every new customer goes to your homepage first but that is not usually the case.

A great example of this is a children’s DVD site I manage whose most popular page (based on most unique visitors) is the free coloring pictures download page. Luckily, each coloring picture also has a special offer next to it which sells the products and now the non-revenue generating coloring picture pages help sell a lot of DVDs.

The point is this: It’s often the simplest things in business that have the greatest impact on your success. Take a minute and walk through your site and look at your analytics to make sure every page of your website is taking advantage of emphasizing the purpose of your business, and that it’s helping guide your site and business to success. And if you have a friend that suffers from MPNS please send them this article.

Twitter is quick, easy to use and a great way for people to keep up—not only with their social networking, but with the news and other information that is valuable and interesting to the user. Brand evangelism for many can start here. Who doesn’t want their customers following their daily feeds about their company, products and services? What better way to connect, engage and cultivate your customer relationships!

Best Nicole

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Twitter’s been the toast of TV news programs, daytime talk shows, magazine editors and newspaper reporters. But what’s all that chatter worth?

According to news-monitoring service VMS, a cool $48 million over the past 30 days. (That’s half of what Microsoft plans to spend marketing its biggest product launch of the year, Bing.)

Twitter received almost 3 billion impressions — 2.73 billion, to be exact — in the past month, a time period that doesn’t even include the frenzied weeks in April in which Oprah and Ellen weighed in on the micro-blogging service. TV contributed to 57% of the PR value, newspapers 37% and magazines 5%. Incidentally, Fox News bested CNN in terms of total PR value delivered by its Twitter mentions, although CNN dropped the name more often.

In reality, said VMS CEO Peter Wengryn, the number of impressions over the past 30 days could be as much as double that, considering the company doesn’t measure mentions in all the smaller newspapers around the country.

“This is huge. It’s very, very high,” said Gary Getto, VP-integrated media intelligence at VMS. “In fact, we looked at online coverage of Twitter vs. Google. Twitter is running significantly higher than Google and I didn’t think anything was more popular than Google.”

In contrast, the media value of the coverage given to Microsoft’s Bing was just $573,834, and the reach of its free media came in at just 63 million impressions.

Twitter’s unique visitors in June totaled almost 21 million as it grew 14% over May traffic. In May it grew 7%, a slowdown from the furious growth the site experienced in January through April, according to Nielsen Online.

Twitter does seem to have more sizzle in the press than it does in real life. Whether or not it can maintain the level of media buzz that helped turn it into a mainstream term is unclear. History portends that hot social-media properties, once the darlings of talking heads everywhere, tend to level off.

“As we source some of the other phrases like LinkedIn and Facebook, they were hot and the ‘in’ thing at the time and certainly they don’t have the same sizzle they did today as they did in the first two or three months,” said Mr. Wengryn. “Twitter seems to have a higher sizzle today than any of its peers. But for long term, we don’t know if this will be sustainable or whether there will be another that comes to displace it.”

I came across this article from Media Post’s Search Insider, written by Gord Hotchkiss, President of Search Marketing firm Enquiro. With the infinate options for measurement through the web, we now can track and measure our own fame. He provides some of the many ways that you can track how you’re doing in the quest to create and build your own 15 minutes. I am sure that many are quietly tracking their own status web based metrics as they watch their profile, and much anticipated celebrity, rise to the top!

Way before the internet, Michael Jackson learned as a child the skills of managing the growth of one of the largest celebrity profiles in the world. As they honor him and lay him to rest, his profile and celebrity is sure to continue to lead the way into the next century. May he rest in peace!

Best Nicole

The New Metrics of Fame
by Gord Hotchkiss , Thursday, July 2, 2009

 In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes” — Andy Warhol, 1968

When Warhol made his oft-quoted prediction, he was referring to the ability of media to push anyone into the bright glare of the spotlight for a fleeting brush with celebrity. What he couldn’t have anticipated was the strange twist the Web would throw on this issue. The Web democratized media and accelerated Warhol’s prediction. Viral fame doesn’t depend on tightly controlled channels like newspapers and TV networks; it seeps, oozes and sometimes gushes, propelled by users. All of us, including middle-aged guys from New Jersey lip-synching to pop songs, kung-fu-fighting bears and teen-aged “Star Wars”-obsessed wannabes, can now be famous.

But it’s not just the opportunities for fame that have undergone drastic Web modification. It’s also the ways we measure fame. Humans are obsessed with status. We are mesmerized by social rankings, and thanks to the infinitely measurable nature of the Web, we have a legion of new status metrics available to see how we stack up against the world at large. And I’m just as big a sucker for this as everyone else. It’s not something I’m proud of, but I regularly check my status on various Web-based metrics. Here are a few of them.

Googling One’s Self
I think everyone’s guilty of this one at one time or another. You check to see what ranks for your name, who else of the same name shows up (my doppelganger is a photographer and musician in Scotland), and how many mentions Google finds of you out in the Web wilderness (22,900).

As your digital fame grows, you broaden your search parameters. For example, do you break the top 10 for just your last name? This is admittedly dependent on how common your name is. Hotchkiss is not a household word, but I am competing with a prep school in Connecticut, a town in Colorado, a civil war cartographer, a precursor to the Jeep, the owner of the Calgary Flames and a ballroom dancing instructor. Or how about your first name? Gordon Lightfoot, a video game storeowner and a comic book about ultra bondage offer stiff competition for “Gord.”

Here’s a new variation: Search Suggestion Wheel of Fortune. With the search suggestions feature now available on all the major engines, see how many letters you have to type in for your name before you appear on the list of suggested searches. I come up in 5 letters (on Google.com — my home country is a little less kind. I need to go to 7 letters on Google.ca).

Techno-Rate-i
If you’ve joined the blogosphere, a number of destinations offer updated stats on how you stack up against the Seth Godins, Guy Kawasakis, Michael Arringtons and Arianna Huffingtons of the world. I have been tremendously delinquent here. I was once in the top 100,000 on Technorati, but have slipped back to the lowly 200,000s, due mainly to posting neglect. Still, with somewhere over 100 million blogs in existence (exact numbers seem hard to find) that still puts me in the top 0.2%, so my ego can live with that.

Twitterholics
The newest addiction for those seeking digital attention is Twitter. Now that the celebrities have glommed onto tweeting (come on, Kutcher, DeGeneres and Spears, can’t you share a little love?), it’s not as easy to gain top tweet status, but Twitterholics can get their fix of ranking reporting at Twitterholic. I do better here than on Technorati, once again breaking top 100,000 status. 1,649, 378 more followers and I beat Oprah (@outofmygord if you care).

Fame is Fleeting
In the new wired world, we are constantly reminded of our own notoriety, or lack of same, compared to everyone else in the world. In the pre-Web world, not only were we not famous, we were also blissfully ignorant of the fact. Today, it seems that everyone should strive to have some small sliver of fame. Keeping up with the neighbors isn’t about what’s parked in your driveway, it’s how many hits your blog gets. Social status is now measured in backlinks, hits and followers. My brother-in-law dealt my ego a devastating blow when he gave me a T-shirt that said “More people have read this T-shirt than my blog.” But I’ll get even. He won’t be getting any link love in this column.

Jennifer Openshaw writes an excellent article in the Wall Street Journal, that outlines how using social media tools such as blogs and twitter can lead you to success. There is no time for you as a business to put this key marketing strategy on hold. Dive in—success awaits!

Best Nicole

Twitter. Facebook. Blogs. Let’s face it: It’s nearly a full-time job just to keep up with these new media tools, never mind to learn them well. But how can you use them to strengthen your current career or, even better, to build yourself into a brand?

Think about online shoe retailer Zappos, which, thanks to its Internet-savvy CEO Tony Hsieh, has grown to $1 billion in revenue in about eight years. OK, the service is great everyone says, but that’s not the only thing going for it. Hsieh – and many others from Ellen DeGeneres to up-and-coming politicians, home-based business owners and concerned employees – have embraced online social media tools to take their names, companies and aspirations to the next level.

Though most experts agree there’s no substitute for face-to-face networking, using social media tools can help you become a thought leader in your space and even drive customers to your business.

“Let’s say you’re an insurance salesman and you’re really passionate about what you do,” says Jason Falls, vice president of interactive media at Doe-Anderson, a Louisville-based brand building firm, and author of the SocialMediaExplorer. “If you blog about it, then people searching the Web looking for third-party recommendations or information about insurance are apt to find your blog because you’re posting frequently and it’s relevant to those keywords.”

In essence, Google Inc. (GOOG), through its search engine, will crawl for information based on a person’s search terms and suggest this as a place you might go to learn about insurance, Falls notes.

“You start to develop a following not only as a thought leader or expert in the field but also as the preferred place to purchase that particular product or service,” he adds.

As an entrepreneur myself in the online world, I’ve been fascinated with how these tools are taking off. I’ve also been concerned about how ordinary people can increase their value on the job. Here’s a look at how you can use these tools to boost your career or maybe even save your job:

-First, pick your niche. Today, it’s all about niche specialties. What’s your forte? Whether it’s shoes [Zappos], humor [DeGeneres], or even topics you’d think not even your mother would care about like customer service or bowling, it’s all about knowing something that others will find valuable. And if you’re worried your expertise won’t attract others, think again. Did you ever think you’d see a cable show “At Home on the Range?”

-Know what you want. If you’re going to spend time using social media tools, then know why you’re doing it in advance. Do you want to become an expert to get into the media? Do you want to generate customers for your company? Do you want to help build your product’s brand? Are you looking for another job? Remember, companies – just like you – want to keep up with these tools. So why not turn yourself into a voice or knowledgeable expert for your company by taking what you know to the social media world? (Before going too far with this, check your company policies and with your management team to find the “win-win” for everyone.)

-Blog about it. Take your expertise to the Internet. While you could certainly write for other outlets – whether it’s your industry newsletter or magazine – the blog benefits you because you are building a relationship directly with your readers and can respond and manage content. You might even leverage others to join you as writers for your cause. And most blogging platforms today are free and easy to use, like wordpress, LiveJournal or Blogger, owned by Google. Others, such as TypePad, offer additional services for a nominal fee. Either way, be sure to take advantage of RSS feeds to allow others to get your blog postings automatically.

-Get linked. So you can’t keep up with all those social networking sites? Join the club. But probably the most important is Linked-In because of its high concentration of people searching for professional contacts or services. Falls recommends not only the basics of building a profile, but also joining groups. Remember that insurance expert? That expert can now jump into the “Answers section” and answer questions (check the directory organized by topics or search for key words), further positioning himself/herself as an expert. The more active you are, the more credibility you build.

-All the talk About “T.” Everyone, including Oprah, is now getting into the Twitter action. Sure, you can create your Twitter account and handle (mine is @jopenshaw) so others can follow you and your “tweets” of 140 characters or less (no kidding!). You can also send tweets out from your phone (just activate your mobile device from your Twitter profile) so that when you spill that Coke onto your jeans – as Hsieh did – you might send out a humorous tweet that you’ve just spilled it on the other leg to even-out your blue jeans!

If you really want to use Twitter to build your brand, check out search.twitter.com where our insurance expert once again can show what he knows: he can search for relevant terms like “car insurance” and start monitoring the conversation. When someone posts a question, he’ll be alerted and can respond to that person. Falls points out recent changes to Twitter that allow your answers to be seen by anyone monitoring the conversation, not just by those following you.

Are you guaranteed to build your brand, business or job with these social media moves? No, not at all. But you can avoid common mistakes and even use these new tools to land a better job in your organization.

Just remember: Face-to-face communication still has much more impact. As Falls notes: “That offline action of truly networking with people at events or conferences is very powerful in building your personal brand.” So don’t fall to the temptation of replacing your normal networking with new online tools. Remember, too, the tools are tools – you need to do the right things with them.

That said, it’s all about getting an edge, and the new social networking tools make that easier than ever.