A (relatively) recent update to the ubiquitous "Did You Know" video sheds some very interesting light on convergence and how social media is changing the media landscape. 

So what, you might ask? Watch this 4 minute video and see for yourself.

A few key highlights:

• Newspaper circulation is down 7 million over the last 25 years, but unique readers of online newspapers are up 30 million in the past 5 years.
• In 2009, traditional advertising is in steep decline
  • Newspaper down 18.7%
  • T.V. down 10.1%
  • Radio down 11.7%
  • Magazine readership down 14.8%
• Digital advertising however is growing rapidly.

• 10,000,000 - The number of unique visitors ABC, NBC, and CBS get every month, collectively.
  • These businesses have been around for a combined 200 years.
• 250,000,000 - The number of unique visitors Myspace, YouTube, and Facebook get every month, collectively.
  • None of these properties existed 6 years ago.

• 93% of American adults have a cell phone.

• In February 2008, John McCain raised $11 Million via traditional methods (fundraisers, etc).
• That same month, Barack Obama attended NO campaign fundraisers... and raised $55 Million through leveraging online social networks in 29 days.

• The mobile device will be the world's primary connection tool to the Internet by 2020.

This is a video that's been going around based on the book Socialnomics by Eric Qualmann. It's a shocking realization to the growing ubiquity of social media, connectivity, and power of the people. If you're not defining or executing your social media strategy, regardless of your organization, let me encourage you to watch this and contact us if you need guidance.

Google search options allows web searchers to narrow their results to information most relevant to them.  For example, anyone can now refine their search results by geographic location.  Someone looking for tire stores near their home can click "Show Options" on the Google search results page and then "Custom Location" to enter their address.  Search results specific to the search query and geographic location will now be displayed.  

Webmasters, organization leaders and business should focus on optimizing their local listings for the products and services that they offer to their regional customers.  For more information on how to do that, contact an Immerseme representative. 

Google announced last week that Facebook content is now available in Google's real-time search.  To use real-time search from Google.com, Click "Show Options" then "Latest" or "Updates".  

Good SEO strategy should also include social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.  Having a strong presence in social networking gives your business or organization website more doorways to the web community and more opportunities to be found and indexed by search engines. 

Here it is straight from the horses mouth: Google ignores keyword meta tags.  This has been the case for many years, but some search engine optimizers still use keyword meta tags for smaller search engines.  Using keyword meta tags is in no way harmful, but they won't help you with Google.  Here is a video clip of Matt Cutts from the Google Quality team saying it in his own words:

Google is going to start providing links to relevant page sections intheir search results.  These are going to be done algorithmically sothere is no way to manipulate them.  However, Google recommends thatpages with lots of content should have a table of contents that linksto various sections of the page.  This along with a descriptive anchorat the beginning of the section will help to increase the likelihoodthat a page's sections will get listed below the main search result forthat page.  The section anchor will likely provide thecontent for the link on the Google search result page. 

The benefit to searcher is that they can find content relevant to theirsearch query without having to scroll down the page. The benefit to thewebsite publisher is that searchers will be more likely to click to apage if the link appears to be more relevant.

When we consult and talk about "Branding" to our clients we do so in the context of what we call "Big B" and "small B" branding or the difference between "Branding" and "branding."

Branding refers to the emotional feeling as a result in the complete experience and interaction with that organization. It encompasses everything from how your receptionist answers your phone, the cleanliness (or lack thereof) of your facilities, the professionalism and excellence of your work product and on and on and on.

branding refers to the visual representation through your communication with your audience. Your logo, design style, photographic styling, font choice, tagline, et al.

branding is all about how you represent your Branding.

Once your Branding is defined and you define your branding the next step is to extend that brand and build equity through remaining consistently consistent in how you represent your brand identity.

A Case Study - Karen McConaughey Photography

Karen McConaughey Photography (KMP) is an Immerseme client who we helped define both the Brand and brand. KMP is all about capturing authentic memories through photography. You can read how Karen presents her intangible Brand at KarenMPhotos.com.

One of the recent projects we did for Karen was to extend her brand across multiple communication platforms. First we obviously began with her brand where we extended it to her primary website. Our recent addition was integrating social networking via her facebook pages as well as integrating her twitter feed. This is also the primary location where Karen utilizes solid Search Engine Optimization practices.

As a photographer, Karen wants to illustrate what she's doing along with large format client photographs. While ImmerseEdit CMS incorporates blogging tools, RSS feeds and more in to the CMS, it is not a blogging platform like Blogger, Typepad, or Wordpress.

Karen chose to use Wordpress as her blogging platform of choice where we extended her brand by customizing it to match her main website.

Finally, Karen utilizes Twitter and Facebook as social networking tools to communicate and build her online community. So her Twitter page got a facelift to match her brand as well. 

All of these small details serve to create a consistent brand experience for Karen McConaughey Photography that helps reinforce her Brand.

How can we help you?

One of the questions we get asked every now and then is to see a portfolio of our design work, which we're certainly obliged to do. As we interview one another (yes, we interview prospective clients as much as we're being interviewed) we tend to ask what the purpose of that inquiry is. Generally speaking the prospective client is looking to see our design chops, which leads to an interesting discussion.

You see, We believe each organization has a brand, whether it's been defined visually or not. As such, each of our designs are unique to ourclients. Your business or organization isn't cookie cutter, and neither are our designs.

This was so visually evident as I was celebrating a few recent client launches here on our blog.

Mission Church in Helotes, TX is a new (and very successful) church plant in the San Antonio area. The church and leadership tend to be more rough around the edges (and I mean that in a positive way!), gritty and generally true to life... and their design and brand tell that story.  

First Baptist Church in Spartanburg, SC is a church with 170 years of tradition and history. The DNA of FBS is unique to their local context and much different from Mission Church, as reflected in their design.

Now, truth be told, we want all of our clients to represent their brands and uniqueness in their design to truly build a brand identity (and then market the fire of that brand through social media, SEO, et al!), but we also realize that in today's economy, not everyone is ready to take the proverbial plunge of a professionally designed website. 

For those we've created a few Templates (that are easily customizable) in the hopes that this is a step in the right direction and that ultimately we'll get to help each organization we partner with realize their uniqueness! Now, you won't find our Templates in our menu structure here at Immerseme.com, but if you're looking for a low cost option to use ImmerseEdit CMS, this may be an option for you (but hopefully a short term option!). 

A recent report from Nielsen continues to speak to the increased validation of Facebook Advertising.  "Online advertising remains strong, even as ad spending has decreased across other media, and MySpace has benefited from this trend with several large-scale campaigns from auto makers. But in recent months, Facebook has surpassed MySpace in terms of monthly unique audience and stickiness: its monthly unique audience grew 177 percent in the last year compared to a 9 percent decrease for MySpace and time per person on Facebook went from 1 hour 8 minutes in March 2008 to 3 hours 16 minutes in March 2009." (more).

Part of Immerseme's Search Engine Optimization services includes creating and managing Facebook advertising campaigns. The MET Church in Houston, TX, one of our current clients has generated tremendous success with Facebook Advertising:

From period 02/09/2009 to 04/16/2009

Impressions: 3,509,617
Cost: 745.03
Clicks: 1,522
Average Cost Per Click: 0.49
Average Cost Per Thousand Impressions: 0.21

Contact us to discuss your traffic needs!

Mission Church in Helotes, TX, just outside of San Antonio isn't your mama's church. Focused on inviting people in to life with Jesus, Mission Church values:

• Wow. Everyone likes the Wow Factor. We are highly motivated by the Wow of God’s character, nature, and work, and so is He. Attention on Him benefits everyone and is the catalyst to life with Jesus.

• Access. We enjoy ultimate Access. We take advantage of the ultimate access God provides to Himself and to His people. You can begin enjoying ultimate Access by connecting to God directly through our Growth Groups, building a wise mind through prayer and the study of God's Word.

• Change. Change is growth. Jesus is inviting you to choose a journey that will change your heart, your mind, and your actions for life. Life with Jesus changes people. And this church reproduces and changes with them.

•  Journey. It's all about the Journey. We are thrilled by the process of coming to Jesus and being sent out by Him.  Responding to His invitation begins a journey of life with Jesus that gives you bold feet that go. You will be invited to begin your own Journey to Jesus through our Invitational Culture, see others’ Journeys through our Celebration of Stories, and start your Journey into the lives of others through F.U.N. Teams.

Immerseme has worked with Mission Church for over a year helping MC launch a "hold over website" while they completed their branding process. At that point, Immerseme took their new look and incorporated it in to their website that certainly communicates the Wow factor present at Mission Church.

MC was looking for something a little more rough around the edges that communicates their "come as you are" or ultimate access environment.

We also added some custom development adding AJAX animations to the site to create four different content areas, all without having the user leave the homepage or have to wait to reload a new page, plus incorporated simple but effective links to social networking tools key for any church.

How can we help you communicate your vision better?