Eco-Friendly Digital Marketing Internship

Social Media, Twitter, Blog, RSS, many words and phrases used today to describe components of digital marketing. But maybe you are wondering what these words and phrases mean, or maybe you are having a hard time explaining it to someone else.

If that is the case, I introduce you to, Common Craft, a company based out of Seattle, Washington that produces simple, short and informational videos “in plain english.” Each video features paper cut outs, increasing the ease of comprehension.

Simply put,  Common Craft, is a simple company, that gives perfect explanations, and that is all there is to it. This video is one of the many technology related videos on the website, and will explain “Blogs in Plain English:”

Now that you have see the Common Craft explanation of a blog,  visit other Ingenex blog pots:

• The Digital Bus, to learn about digital marketing from the professionals at Ingenex
• Eco-Friendly Internship Blog, to find out what is new in digital marketing and eco-friendly from the interns at Ingenex
• New Media Drivers License, will feature posts by students as they learn about new media in the course instructed by Derek Mehraban, Ingenex CEO

It’s restaurant week here in Ann Arbor! That means gourmet food at phenomenal prices. Megan and Lauren are both on vacation, so Eric Rodriguez (our Client Services Manager) and I decided to take on A Taste of Ann Arbor.

Seva is nestled into the heart of downtown on E. Liberty St. As a fully vegetarian restaurant, Seva takes pride in creating new, tasty, and organic dishes. Eric chose the Burrito con Elote stuffed with butternut squash, corn, beans, and cheese (which can be modified into a Vegan dish) while I munched on a Quinoa-Spinach Salad. Both were served by friendly staff that smiled as they passed and never let our water glasses go dry. 

Seva offers as many organic and local products as possible. In keeping with the eco-friendly theme, the restaurant offers biodegradable items, such as little paper cups of salsa and guacamole instead of plastic. If you are looking for a natural pep, try one of their juiced drinks. I decided to order a Ginger Shot. The ingredients are simple: ginger, which is known for its healing properties.

The vegetarian hot spot offers reasonable prices, but during Ann Arbor’s Restaurant Week, Eric and I enjoyed our entrees for $12 and found a new place to frequent.

A couple days ago I found an interesting discussion in Flickr. In the wedding photographers group some of the members were discussing about how to get business through social networks. The idea is simple, but effective: Post the pictures you take for a senior portraits session, engagement or a wedding on your Facebook and tag your customers. If your privacy options are set up so everyone can see those pictures, allow comments, and you will be the guy who took those cool senior portraits or those cute engagement shots, and that will surely bring you business.

The same idea applies to many different businesses. If you do a good job in whatever you do, you can probably ask that customer to left a recommendation for you on any of the social networking sites, or ask him to refer your site to other potential customers.

If you are writing a blog, write about what you have done for that customer and put pictures of up it if possible. Then let your customer know and he will surely show your blog entry to colleagues and friends, spreading the word about whatever service or product you do and how well you do it.

Word of mouth is proven to work well, and social networking is a powerful tool for keep spreading the word about your business.

Twitter is a great tool for networking, by using its 140 characters messages you can connect with many people around the globe that can be potentially interesting for your career or even your business. The following ones are some guidelines that will help you to get the most of each tweet:

• Use every word to make an impact (you only have 140 characters, don’t waste them)
• Use your real name or last name, your WoW name may be popular among the other dwarfs or orcs, but maybe not so well known for anyone else.
• Link, link and link again to your site or blog.
• Use tinyurl, this will allow you to introduce longer web addresses. Also try to use the custom URL option if possible.
• Be selective with your contacts, you don’t need to be antisocial but there is no need to follow back everyone who adds you, especially if their profile pictures are kind of suspicious (half naked women, etc…).
• Share anything you think is useful, it may be useful for others and it adds interest to your twitter account.
• Pimp your twitter account.
• Keep your profile update, link to your blog.
• Interact with your followers, comment on their tweets.
• Try to tweet everyday, don’t let people forget about you!

Hope this little advice help. I’ll see you on Twitter.

The Author

For the last seven days I have been following Your Search Advisor’s corporate blog. The blog’s author, Andrew Miller, is the founder of Your Search Advisor, an Ann Arbor based company that offers SEO (Search Engine Optimization) services and is located, as Ingenex Digital Marketing, in the Brickyard. In addition to his entrepreneurial efforts with Your Search Advisor, Andrew is also the co-founder of RichmondWiki, a Wiki site about Richmond, VA, where he went to college at the University of Richmond, graduating with a double degree in Computer Science and Spanish.

The Blog

As an addition to corporate websites, corporate blogs have become a great tool for companies, not only to promote their business, but also to be closer to their customers. Andrew does both things very well, in his corporate blog; he has some very interesting SEO analysis, analyzes digital marketing news and trends, and also has time for some more personal posts. Examples of this are the different topics in his last posts, which are very broad; from the very recent challenges and opportunities of an in-house SEO to the Yahoo Mash failure, passing through the analysis of the current state of the mobile web or the more personal post of how his old laptop “went nuclear”.

I think Your Search Advisor’s blog is a very interesting and enjoyable read. It is not only entertaining and written using very clear language (you don’t have to be a digital marketing guru for understanding its articles), but also very informative about the latest digital marketing trends and SEO news. I will definitely be following this blog in the future, its feed has made it to my Google Reader and I look forward to reading the upcoming post on how to be a successful in-house SEO.