kevin theese

A very interesting blog on healthcare social media
http://majka.blogspot.com/2009/06/healthcare-social-media.html

 

Content Management for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses

Being a smaller sized business brings lots of wonderful benefits to the entrepreneur. From total control of the direction the business plan takes to flexible work schedules if needed. On the flip side, owning your own business usually means extra work – as proprietor, you get to be the owner, the human resources department, the maintenance staff, sales staff, and often, the IT staff.
A Web site is a requirement in today’s business environment. It is an immediate communications channel that funnels your message to your key stakeholders: suppliers, staff, community, and the ever-important, customer. The best thing about a Web site is the dynamic nature of the medium. A Web site can be changed in quick fashion to reflect new-found realities in the ever-changing world of small business.
Content Management System (CMS) is the term commonly used to describe a Web-based application built using one or more technologies that allow a Web site owner to log-in to a back-end portal as administrator and modify or edit pre-determined dynamic area of their site. Once built and launched, the business owner has the flexibility to make changes as they need without the need for a Web site designer to make the changes for them. The result is cost savings for the business and an up-to-date Web site for the business.
Your business takes hard work and time commitment. CMS takes the cost of updating your Web site away, giving you more time to spend on your customers, and therefore, your bottom line.

Wordpress I

Real-time Search Engines Will Raise the Stakes for Marketers

We’re familiar with social networks like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and Ning. It’s seemingly endless, but no one will deny the power of these new media. “Conversation is truly king” and those people interested and empowered by these sites are lining up to take on a role.

Marketers and public relations professionals have to be involved and knowledgeable in this technology. What presents a fresh new challenge in this arena is the rising prevalence of “real-time search.” Sites like Scoopler and Tweetmeme increase the power of conversation ten-fold. Making discussion searchable instantly means that public relations issues must be addressed with urgency and honest like never before.

The “water cooler gossip” is now not only online, but searchable. Many of these new search engines also personalize data so that people can rank searches, and powerful algorithms will use that information to personalize the results.

It’s more imperative than ever that communications professionals be involved in the new media. Anyone who does not take part is simply ignoring the crowd.

Related Links:
Scoopler - http://www.scoopler.com/
Kosmix - http://www.kosmix.com/
Tweetmeme - http://tweetmeme.com/search.php

Video Production

Case Study - Olde Towne Development

Waterview LLC needed a video showcasing their new development, Town Centre. The Centre is immaculate, and includes a state-of-the-art Ambulatory Surgery Center. Horizon Communication Strategies LLC (Kevin Theese) produced a full-length video to showcase the development.

Landing pages

Landing pages are an effective way to drive traffic towards a partcular campaign. The URL is generally targeted to a specific marketing campaign. For instance, imagine your landscaping business is running a special on tree planting on Arbor Day. Your landing page URL might be 'www.mylandscapingcompany.com/arbor_deal' and that URL might be promoted specifically on your print ads, direct mail, radio, television, etc. for that special.

In addition to the targeted nature of a landing page, you can use some free tools online to measure bounce rates and conversions. A call to action on your landing page might be to ask the potential customer to print a coupon, send you an e-mail, or phone your business for additional details.

The Persuader

A major component any marketing communications effort is deciding how to reach the masses. But, in the age of the Internet, it's not reaching all listeners that is the focus. It's reaching out to the 10% of the target that is the persuading force for the remaining 90% of the target.

Citizen Journalism

Journalism was once a craft left for "professional" journalists, trained in the legacy of Edward R. Murrow. Today, every one of us is a journalist. MORE>

Word of Mouth Marketing-Communications

Word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing-communications presents a substantial challenge to strategic communications professionals, both in the realm of generating positive WOM and minimizing negative WOM. Without direct control over WOM communications or ways to necessarily anticipate it, strategic communicators are faced with challenges at actively countering it.

WOM raises a number of issues and questions for strategic communicators. How can a strategic communicator generate positive WOM? And, is it possible to communicate to consumers in a way that will foster a consumer-to-consumer, or WOM, viral marketing mechanism? Can strategic communicators close the gap in linking WOM campaigns with existing marketing-communications mixes