Time Magazine has released their “50 Best Websites of 2009” list. After reading through the list, it’s clear that these sites exemplify the primary activities performed in today’s online world – sharing, learning and organizing. I’ve segmented the top 20 sites into these categories below.  However, I realized that a fourth segment is starting to emerge - sites that are replacing “old” forms of media. These sites represent a shift in behavior and provide online versions of activities that have been around for years (tv entertainment, shopping, phone calls, etc).

These online behaviors don’t really seem to be a huge surprise. We’ve all read about online holiday shopping being through the roof,  heard the news media talk on-and-on about Twitter, and watched real-time election coverage on Youtube and Facebook.  So what I find most interesting is that ....65% of these sites were NOT AROUND 5 YEARS AGO (I added some years below if you are interested). 

The rapid growth of technology coupled with the adoption by the consumers….that’s the amazing part.  Broadband has certainly played a huge part in this growth. Without a high-speed connection, sharing a video would be pretty much out of the question. To put things in perspective, take a look at this collection of screenshots from September 11, 2001. It doesn’t seem like that long ago, but sites like CNN and MSNBC look archaic. The average American is just adopting a more digital lifestyle in general. It’s become mainstream which is feeding the technology growth and vice versa (a nice happy circle of life). Nytimes did a good job covering this topic a few weeks ago when they summarized Forrester’s annual update on consumers and technology.

Time's Top 20 of 2009 (full list in chronological order can be found on Time.com)

SHARING – Consumer generated content (photos, video, thoughts/text) broadcasted out or consumed by the masses as the ultimate reality entertainment.

• Flickr – Feb 2004
• YouTube – Feb 2005
• Vimeo – Nov 2004
• Twitter – April 2007

LEARNING - Information portals. Tools that make information available and searchable online.

• Google – Sept 1997
• Wolfram|Alpha – May 2009
• Academic Earth – March 2009
• California Coastline – Oct 2002

ORGANIZING - Bookmarks, Group blogs, aggregators – Sites that help consumers organize and filter the information on the web as they please. Customizable crowd sourcing per se.

• Delicious – March 2005
• Metafilter – Nov 2004
• popurls – March 2006
• Boing Boing – Jan 2000

REPLACING OLD MEDIA/BEHAVIORS -  Tv online, reservations online, phone calls online, classifieds online, shopping online, travel agents online, etc.

• Hulu – March 2008
• Fora TV - 2005
• OpenTable - 1999
• Skype – Aug 2003
• Shop Goodwill - 2009
• Amazon - 1995
• Kayak – Jan 2005
• Craiglook – March 2009 **Really smart…Mashes Yahoo Pipes and Google Maps into an RSS browser for Craigslist.
   

#40 on the list gets my honorable mention - Mint.com.  It’s the ultimate financial planning tool. It is linked in with online resources to keep your assets (and debts) up to date and generates pretty charts for you to analyze. Did I mention it’s free? Definitely worth checking out. Since they have  access to everyone’s financial details, they’ve been publishing some  interesting stats lately too. Such as this little widget - Mint Map: America’s Most Frugal Cities

What Are The OMMAs?

OMMA Global is a two-day intensive conference, composed of several, single OMMA conferences (Online Media, Marketing, Advertising)  ... all rolled into one. 

The biannual super-conference covers trends, issues and tools -  in all sectors - that are most crucial to  professionals  in the digital and traditional realms of marketing/advertising.

And there are awards!

Who Sponsors The Expo?

Media Post.  They are an integrated publishing and content company "whose mission is to provide an array of resources to super-serve media planners and buyers." They  are the premier provider of up-do-date and relevant content in the tra-digital advertising world, IMO.

There Are Awards?

 Yes. The OMMA Awards for Online Advertising Creativity were created in 2005 to honor those advertisers that push the potential of online advertising. 

26 new categories were added this year (compared with last year's limited TWO categories) for a total of 28 in Advertising Creativity, 15 in Online Campaigns and 18 in Web Site Excellence. 61 Categories total.

The Top Tier Award Categories Include...

1. Online Advertising Creativity

 Entries are accepted from advertisers, agencies, media and suppliers who were involved in creatively outstanding single exectutions and campaigns within any of these categories.

2. Integrated Online Campaigns

Awards go to online marketing campaigns of multiple elements and multiple executions that show outstanding usage of online media in strategic and creative promotion of brands, products and services in the following vertical categories:

3. Website Excellence

Awards go to Web publishers and/or Web developers in these categories whose outstanding content, visual design and user interface create recurring value for both advertisers and end-users. 

Check out the  Winners from 2008.

Why You Should Care, Even If You Don't Attend the Conference Or Enter the Contest.

Consider what Media Post  had to say:

" The Creative Media Awards exemplify our belief that media -- the process of buying, planning and strategy -- is every bit as creative as rendering storyboards for print or TV ad campaigns. ...Some have called media the new creative. At MediaPost, we’ve always thought so! "

That's an important recognition...

...for the digital advertising industry. Why? Because the groups who concept, plan and execute successful campaigns are helping fuel the argument (with ROI-based evidence) to somehow, someway, bring the estimated $500 billion spent annually on offline brand advertising... to the Web. Yes.

Speaking of integrated campaigns and ROI ... take a look at what Congruent Media is doing to close the loop for one of our partners.

Segmentation (email and mobile marketing segmentation) is the practice of organizing and tweaking both the delivery and message of your communications based upon your various audiences' likeliness to respond favorably to it. Accordingly, the opposite of segmentation is blasting all of your leads, clients, major clients, friends, family, and any stray animals that may have stumbled into your sign-up forms with the fire hose of potentially irrelevant calls to action. Studies have shown that segmented campaigns yield better open and click rates and, generally, a correctly segmented campaign will feed your subscribers info they want to receive and are therefore more likely to act upon (favorably). So, yes, if you can segment you definitely should!

[More]

Hark, a new Internet acronym is born! What was once a facet of a solid SEO program is now being discussed as a major branch of Internet marketing in general.  Like SEO, SMO is the practice of publicizing your site and business online ... the difference is that SMO is not search engine-focused (although search engines (and other Google products) can and should play a significant role (and proper SMO could likely positively influence search engine rankings). Mainly, social media optimization requires brand and visibility-building via 3rd-party apps and content syndication. The idea is simple: Visibility yields popularity and popularity yields more visibility, so start today.

Some examples of SMO activities:

• Blogging or Journaling (You're reading one!) -- Your industry knowledge is valuable. While a spartan website can get by on an "about" page, product listings, and a contact form, going the extra mile and generating content is what end-users demand these days ... because end-users are want to talk about what you said on their blogs. In short, talk about what you know and people will follow it and spread it around.
• RSS and content syndication -- If there's any kind of content you can create on a regular basis (news, events, product listings, blog entries, etc.), syndicating that info via RSS or social tagging sites like ShareThis will allow fans to keep tabs on you (and link to you on short notice) and acquaintances to become fans.
• Embrace community -- Media sharing sites like Youtube.com, Flickr.com, and hundreds of big-name blogs can deliver traffic unlike anything you've seen before. But more than that they can help you craft your brand's personality if you can invest the time and spirit.
• Share links -- Much of blogging SMO boils down to sharing. If you have something to share, people will come to you. And people will be much more apt to pass your content around if they know you'll do the same for them.

Feel free to pick our brains on what social media opportunities might fit with your business.

Q: How can I monitor what people are saying about my brand online?

A: Good job thinking about this. Some businesses assume that a simple Google search for their company's brand name or a couple of keywords ranking well on various search engines are all they need to know about their standing in their industry. And, on the other hand, some folks are so daunted by the mere idea of the task, they ignore it all together. The truth is, if you're actively marketing yourself on the Internet, your company's profile is probably complex enough that just a few searches won't cover all your mentions. However, that does not mean you can't easily hack out a relatively simple system for occasionally monitoring news that's relevant to you and your industry.

Here's another tidy little list of general guidelines and specific tools:

• There be tools: Google Alerts is free. Use it to catch any keyword's appearances on Google News, Youtube, blogs, non-blog sites, and Google Groups. You can have it deliver updates to your email or create RSS feeds so that it doesn't buzz you absolutely crazy (we know this can happen from experience). Other services include "social" search engines such as www.socialmention.com (narrow down your blog searches), samepoint.com (social search with keyword analysis), www.serph.com (special attention to blogs), and Pipl (the definitive people search engine).
• Know thy terms: Whether you have products, models, actions, press release titles, ISBN numbers, public figures, partners, competitors, or your kids to keep track of, make use of keyword lists. Use synonyms. Get plural. Think hard.
• Set up reminders: If you set up alerts to shoot you emails, they'll let you know when you need to know. Otherwise, you should probably set up some calendar alarms so you check things out once a month. Handy with Excel? Track your progress. Make some goals; this week, two attaboys … next week, the World.
• Don't get crazy: Hey, it's just your identity, right?! But, whatever you hear, use common sense when dealing with it. If you find good things, share those links! If you find not-so-good things, learn from them and bury them with good press. And we were kidding about your kids. Don't search your kids. You probably don't want to know. Seriously, would you have wanted your parents to search you?

If you're lucky and you've put in a bit of effort, people are talking about your company. And, whether they're leaving happy notes, constructive criticism, or big, flaming bags of [woof] around the Internet, you need to know and you can find out. Enjoy! And, you know … if you want us to do all this for you and draft it up in pretty reports, we can do that.

Check out this presentation video from TechCrunch 50 on the Sekai Camera  .

Its an iPhone app (prototype for the moment) that tags “the real world”. For example, if you are at a certain spot (say the corner of Pratt and Charles Streets), you can point your iPhone at a restaurant which will show a tag with a link to the menu. Still don't know what I mean? Its kind of like the glasses Rowdy Roddy Piper wore in “They Live”, but instead of seeing aliens you’re seeing information balloons and tags.

Or you can see tags specifically from your friends eg-“You gotta try the burgers here”. If you point at a subway station sign you can see the subway schedule. It works by finding your location (presumably using the iPhones GPS), then uses image recognition to find and display the tags (which can be visual or audio).

Imagine visiting a historic spot or museum, holding up your iPhone and getting visual and audio information on the area/artwork you’re looking at. Or possibly going to another country (say, Japan) holding up your iPhone to the street corner you’re at and having everything your looking at translated- or at least recommendations (in English) for tourist spots/restaurants/etc. You would think spots could potentially become jumbled with tags which is why they have series of filters so you can just see certain types of tags.

In addition to general information and tags from friends, it can be used by companies for the next generation of Mobile Marketing. Greenbean 2.0 perhaps? The Sekai Camera is still in the prototype stage but could be an extremely cool app once its released. Its just another example of people finding creative ways to use the features available in the iPhone.

While watching Sci-Fi channel tonight, I saw this shocking message scroll across the bottom of the screen: "Sign up for Twitter and Follow Sarah at www.Twitter.com/_s_a_r_a_h_" 

There are two main thoughts I'd like to share, but first let's fill in some pieces for those unfamiliar with Twitter or Eureka.

Twitter is a social media service that letsusers share what they are doing in 140 character text updates. Think Instant Messaging with all your contacts at once. Users "follow" other users, and will then receive all of those users updates. (A.K.A. 'Tweets') Twitter has gained an incredible amount of popularity over the past year, but Sci-Fi channel? 

Eureka is a Sci-Fi channel show set in a top-secret town inhabited by the brightest scientists and thinkers, whose skills come in handy when making the community futuristic. One of the minor characters is Sarah, a super computer who runs one of the main characters' house: cooking, cleaning and carrying on thoughtful conversations. This is the character represented at www.Twitter.com/_s_a_r_a_h_

This is the first time I've ever seen a Twitter site advertised in commericals. Sci-Fi's "follow Sarah on Twitter" message reminded me of the many advertisements you see today encouraging viewers to text "madlib" to '456321" for mobile updates. Twitter's not text messaging though.

My two thoughts:

1. While I knew that Twitter had gained lots of users, I had no idea it was big enough to be on the radar screen for the Sci-Fi Channel. After seeing McDonald's Big Mac Myspace page advertised on their commercials, it's apparent large companies are integrating TV ads and social media campaigns. We're all used to seeing landing pages on advertisements, will we soon be used to seeing social media "landing pages" instead?

2. I checked out the Sarah Twitter account. I half expected to see a bunch of random Tweets, but instead saw lots of conversational replies. This means "Sarah" was talking with fans, not just spamming out messages. I usually hate fictional social media accounts, but in this case, giving a fictional tv character a voice on Twitter works. (Particularly since Sarah is artificial intelligence) Instead of making a Twitter site for the most popular character, Sci-Fi channel put thought into it and chose a character that made more sense. Kudos to Sci-Fi for this, and for using Twitter to have actual conversations with fans. (Instead of simply spamming!)

What are your thoughts on how Sci-Fi is using Twitter? Leave a comment below!

Last Thursday, the Congruent Media team of Emily, Brian and Sean took an opportunity to pour wine at one of Greater Baltimore Technology Council's regular wine tasting events. It was a great night of networking. Of course, what networking event centered around wine (and a few unusual beers) wouldn't be?

Between telling tasters about Congruent Media, and the Australian wine we poured, we also managed to get people to fill out a short survey. (We enticed them with a Starbucks giftcard for their troubles.) The survey was simple: "Rate your company's activity level in the following areas: email marketing, SEO, PPC, banner advertising, lead generation, lead nurturing, social media, mobile marketing and overall internet strategy." The results were interesting. Remember, this was a tech crowd. 

SEO

27% of the respondents replied "none" to Search Engine Optimization activity.  Another 27% replied with "Beginner." So 54% of the companies surveyed replied with beginner or none? Wow. Remember, this is a tech crowd. Effective SEO should be instituted at ALL companies, if for nothing else than reputation management.

Email Marketing

1 in 5 respondents said they do not do any type of email marketing. Another 1 in 5 declared their company at the beginner's level. Email marketing is a very cost efficient way of beginning and maintaining client relationships, yet almost 50% of the companies surveyed were at the beginning stages or not using it at all. Again, this was a tech crowd too.

This is just a sample of the data. Watch out for the full report, hitting your Congruent Media website shortly. Disclaimer: this data is the farthest thing possible from scientific, it was collected at a wine tasting afterall. Still, the responses are interesting.

How would you rate your company's activity level in the above areas? Is your company taking advantage of the internet's cost-efficient and effective marketing power?

Oh, and if you'd like to see the rest of the pics from that night, check them out here.

Dave Balter, founder of BzzAgent, is spreading the word about his new book, Word of Mouth Manual Volume II by giving away free copies as PDFs.

I like it. This cat knows a ton about generating buzz and the book is a great read.

I'm interested in hearing how it drives sales of the printed book where he'll make coin. I'm sure he'll follow-up at some point.

Anyway, it's a great read. You can download it by clicking the [Download] button below, for free. Spread the word.

Today's Wall Street Journal has an article announcing the results of Yahoo's trial-run of Google's ad platform. The results? "Positive."

Despite Google's ad network having a smaller reach than Yahoo, Google's ads bring in "significantly" more money. Should a Google-Yahoo partnership shape up, that additional revenue could add up to $1 billion a year to Yahoo's coffers.

Granted, a partnership between the two search giants (Google's market share: 67%; Yahoo's market share: 20%; source: Hitwise) would likely be difficult impossible to get by regulators, it gives Yahoo more leverage against Microsoft's hostile takeover attempts. Redmond's April 7th ultimatum might hold a little less weight now that Google may be sniffing around. And even if they're not, Yahoo would probably be wise to play that card ;)

If a Google-Yahoo partnership were to emerge from this, what would that mean for your SEO/SEM campaigns? Would a singular entity in the market make it easier and cheaper to reach your audience? Would the new search behemoth be able to mold internet marketing practices to it's own terms, at the expense of current SEO techniques? Or is any merger/acquisition/partnership destined to fail simply because "GooHoo" is a ridiculous name?

Give me your thoughts in the comments.