JAZD Markets, Inc.

That is the question.

Ever tried to use a hammer to tighten a screw? No? Then I would stay away from using Twitter as a push marketing tool.

Confused? Well, I bet if you did use a hammer to slam in a screw you wouldn’t be irate at the hammer manufacturer for the dents and cracks its product left behind. You’d know those marks were left because you used a great tool for the wrong purpose.

This is how I approach the Great Twitter Debate. Is it a huge Marketing Time Suck or is it an Innovative Marketing Tool?

Now, I’m by no means a Twitter fan girl. Its frequent crashes are frustrating and finding the right platform with which to access your stream can be annoying. I mean, come on. Why isn’t the Twitter platform the best platform?

That aside, I believe Twitter is an Innovative Marketing Tool . . .  When used correctly.

I’ve found it to be a very useful to listen in on conversations about my company’s brand.

Twitter allows us to be the flies on the wall in our customers’ and in industry experts’ closed-door meetings. Think your latest product launch went off without a hitch? Well, before you give you and your team the proverbial pat-on-the-back, head to twitter and search your company name. What was your customers’ experience? Did the industry have a reaction to your incredible new product or service? If they did, was it positive or negative?

In the positive and negative scenario, creating and keeping up a corporate Twitter account allows you to react to customer feedback and industry feedback in real-time.

Find an unhappy customer? Reply to their Twitter handle and offer your personal assistance. Find a brand evangelist? Reply to their Twitter feed with a heartfelt “Thank You,” or better yet, a tangible reward. Doesn’t need to be big reward – ask them to Direct Message you their address and send them a tchotchke you keep on hand. The people at TechSmith do this very well. Tweet something positive about their screen capture tool Snagit and they’ll send you a titanium spork!

My advice to you is, if you haven’t set up a twitter account for your brand yet, do so soon. Use it as a tool to engage your customers and to network with like-minded businesses in your industry.

Just stay away from hammering your products home. You’ll only wind up bruising your brand.

Video adds immediate value to any marketing campaign. It’s an engaging means of communication and if done well can enjoy a life long after its initial marketing campaign is completed.

Here a few suggestions where to use a video after its campaign has run its course.

• Social Media: Don’t forget to update your corporate Facebook or Twitter status to include a link to your video and a quick sentence telling your fans what they’ll get out of watching it. Include it on your company’s LinkedIn page. You could add a link and a call to action in your status or you could create a discussion forum for your customers based on the subject of your video.

• Newsletters/Emails: What benefit to customers does your video spotlight?  Create a newsletter or an email campaign around this topic and send it to your customers and prospects down the line.

• Blog: Embed your video in a blog on the same topic. Including video to a blog not only adds content value, it also adds value from a visual standpoint.

• Other People’s Blogs: Add a google alert on the subject of your video and see if you can find people writing about a similar subject. Leave a thoughtful comment – no dry marketing speak allowed – along with a link to your video.

• Press Releases:Don’t forget to include your video in a press release! Studies have shown press releases with video included see more views. It’s great for SEO purposes as well.

Have other ideas on where to post video? Let us know in the comment field below – we always love feedback!

I was an early adopter of Facebook.

Actually – to date myself in Internet terms – I was an early adopter of Friendster. And then MySpace. And then, finally, once it opened up to more than just college students, Facebook.

Now, I’m not bragging about my Social Media savvy here. Rather, I’m admitting that I am an Internet Addict. And because of my addiction I’ve noticed a few things . . . a few things about how companies use Facebook to engage a wider client audience.

Here are a few practices I suggest avoiding.

Posting a Zillion Times a Day

No one is that interested in your company’s goings-on. Not even your mother.

For the most part people don’t use Facebook to find out what’s new with the corporate sites they’ve trusted enough to “Like.” In fact, they have little tolerance for too much interaction with companies.

It’s a personal tool, so when you use it for your company you’ve got to keep that in mind and respect that your fans have let your company into their inner circle.

I suggest updating once or twice a day in pre-determined and thoughtfully spaced out intervals. What does that mean? That means don’t post twice, right in row, at lunch time. It means post once around lunch and a second time as you’re leaving for the day.

Think about how you check your own personal Facebook and take your own habits into consideration. I check mine around lunch and then when I leave for the day. If your corporate Facebook follows suit then I’ll see both of your posts before they’re buried in my news stream. And I won’t be frustrated that I saw your company’s posts when I snuck on to Facebook on my iPhone around 10 a.m., and then again at 3 p.m. You get the idea.

Including a Link and Only a Link in Your Status Updates

Think about it. If you were in a business meeting and someone asked you about what your company has been up to lately, you wouldn’t write down a link to a recent Press Release and mutely pass it over to them, would you? If you would, then we’ve got more to discuss than Facebook practices.

When given a chance to show personality, passion and enthusiasm for your company, TAKE IT.

Sounds like a no-brainer, right? But you have no idea how many corporate Facebook pages I’ve seen that just throw links up, SMACK! in their status updates. No explanations, no engaging text. Just the ugly URL to whatever it is on which they want to direct their audience to click. Avoid this.

No Logo

Now I know internally everyone thinks the picture of a seedling depicts the potential growth your clients companies could see if they just sought out your services. But I can guarantee these potential clients with whom you’d like to engage – as well as a fair share of your current clients with whom you already engage – will have no idea who your company is or what it is your company does.

If you think your logo needs a bit of dressing up to attract Facebook fans, by all means (after discussing it with your marketing team) dress it up a bit. Just don’t forget it.

What are some Facebook tips you suggest?

Enter any online-online marketing help forum or discussion group and you’re guaranteed to see a myriad of posts about the subject.

“SEO Help!” “Long-Tail Terms, Worth It?” “Five SEO Tips to Drive Traffic.” You get the idea.

Well for those of you who swear by the Three-Word-Rule you can give yourself a big ol’ pat on the back for being right . . . for the most part.

Chitika, an ad network (you may know them from their iPad tracker), recently published results showing that there is a “SEO Sweet Spot.” And according to their findings, most organic search traffic was the result of three-word searches.

Chitika came to this conclusion after looking at a sample of 41,103,403 impressions of search engine traffic coming into their network between June 13th and 19th.

“Within the sample, 10,710,579 impressions – some 26% of all search traffic – came from three-word searches,” Chitika posted. “The next top word counts were two-word (19%), four-word (17%), and finally one-word (14%). “

And if your query is longer than five words you can forget about it being effective. According to Chitika “Any query beyond five words will see dramatically lower traffic, throwing into perspective just how fragmented traffic from long queries really is.”

Chitika also took a deeper look into whether there was a correlation between the word count of a query and a visitor’s intent when it comes to advertising click rates.

Turns out there is.

In the case of advertising click rates; having 5, 6, and 4 word search terms is best.

The conclusion? There is a definitive window for success in search optimization and it lives between three and five word long queries.

Will this change how you about the way you approach SEO terms?

JAZD Supplier’s Space: Information and News Addressing the Supplier’s Point of View.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a real buzz word right now. Are you trying to navigate your way through this confusing maze of finding the right mix of online exposure and web advertising to make your marketing dollars return a better than average ROI?  How do you measure your success? It is increased traffic? Or does get down to certain number of qualified leads to make this investment worthwhile?

Most companies in the life sciences and healthcare industries are using online product catalogs to drive traffic to their website. Some companies find this to be an insufficient way to get to the desired goal of getting real buyers to purchase product. Marketers are now tasked with providing metrics to prove the value of listing their company in an industry directory.

JAZD markets’ team of SEO professionals have spent the last year researching this problem and how it directly affects these markets. Based on their findings, they have begun to build a comprehensive program that will extend the value of the online product catalog. Using cutting edge technology, they will be able to attract qualified buyers in both the JAZD life sciences and healthcare product catalogs by fall 2009.