It's Wednesday, so it's time for the Wednesday Minute - the weekly audio tip for marketers. This week I am going to inform you about a small internet tool called a Favicon.

So what are Favicons? A Favicon is a multi-resolution image included on many professional websites. Within Internet Explorer the Favicon is displayed on the Address line and in the Favorites menu. The Favicon allows you to further promote your web site, and to create a more customized appearance within a visitor's browser. Often, the Favicon reflects the look and feel of the web site or your organization's logo.

In web design, Favicons play a somewhat similar role to your company's logo. It is displayed on every page of your website next to the address-bar among other places .

A customer favicon adds individuality to your website. If a website does not have a custom Favicon, then the default icon of the browser is displayed instead. This can be seen as missed opportunities to promote your own brand. Instead of displaying your company's icon next to its website, you are displaying the browsers icon.

This week's food for thought is here:

Favicon Tutorial

It's Wednesday, so it's time for the Wednesday Minute - the weekly audio tip for marketers. This week I am going to inform you about PC World's Review on hot new website services that will matter in 2010.

For a long time, the Web had a dearth of premium TV shows and movies to choose from. These days, video is moving online in a big way: Soon we'll have a critical mass of content, equal parts current and popular video, and the long-tail stuff that we want to be able to search for and find when we think of it. The problem is, all of this video is spread out over a billion places on the Web, much of it hard to locate.

Users need a good central directory to bring it all together, and Clicker does the best job. The site finds the locations of the video you want to watch, and links you directly to it.

The reach of Clicker's search is impressive. The site has links to current and popular videos at sites like Hulu and TV.com, but you can find less-mainstream stuff, too. I punched in "Andy Griffith," and Clicker found 125 episodes (in high quality, not YouTube) from around the Web. I think lots of people will discover this site in 2010.

This week's food for thought is here:

It's Wednesday, so it's time for the Wednesday Minute - the weekly audio tip for marketers. This week I am going to update you on the Show Us Your Goodness Campaign and tips on Facebook Fan Pages.

As many of you know we are in the final stage of the Show Us Your Goodness campaign. Nominations are in - we received over 2500 which exceeded our goal of 900 - thank you every one that submitted.

We have screened the submissions and we have now created the short list of 33 charities to receive funding. Now, we have the People's Pick award implemented where we get everyone to vote for the charity they think should win. It started on March 16th. We are looking forward to the voting - we have about an equal number of US and Canadian charities and we are not sure who will win as there are so many great options.

I have attached some notes on things we tried on our Facebook Fan page to generate buzz and now I hope voting can create more buzz for our program and riceworks. I hope you enjoy the article and voting.

This week's food for thought is here:

Vote for your charity at www.ShowUsYourGoodness.com

Tips of Facebook Fan Pages

It's Wednesday, so it's time for the Wednesday Minute - the weekly audio tip for marketers. This week I am going to tell you about a new marketing tool being developed online by tweens.

The first thing every tween or teen does right after getting home from the mall is show off her shopping spree. But now, girls are doing more than bragging about their fashion finds to their best friends. A new phenomenon called "haul videos" means they can show off their purchases to the whole world.

There are more than 110,000 haul videos currently on YouTube, and some videos are racking up tens of millions of views.

Hauls are short product review videos. The video blogger, shows off her goods, gushing about everything from lip gloss to flip-flops and gives her opinion on the quality of the products.

Haul videos are the perfect marriage of two of Generation Y's favorite things: technology and shopping.

Haul videos are not just about blowing allowance money on designer clothes. The vloggers brag about scouring sales at drug stores and bargain outlets, too. While haul videos are making one girl's shopping treasure into another's online entertainment, they're also transforming these savvy shoppers into young tycoons.

Some videos are being viewed millions of times, and the vloggers are cashing in -- scoring sponsorships, product deals and magazine spreads. Where was this opportunity when I was young?

This week's food for thought is here:

Watch The Video

It's Wednesday, so it's time for the Wednesday Minute - the weekly audio tip for marketers. This week I am going to tell you about title tags and if your company name should be part of your title tag.

As many of you have heard us say in our TMC workshops just fixing the title tags of your pages can often generate quick and appreciable differences to your rankings. And because the words in the title tag are what appear in the clickable link on the search engine results page, changing them may result in more clickthroughs.

But Does your Company Name Belong in the Title Tag?

After much discussion and research we have concluded that the answer is a resounding YES! We've found that it's fine to place your company name in the title, and even to place it at the beginning of the tag! In fact, if your company is already a well-known brand, we'd say it's essential. Even if you're not a well-known brand yet, chances are you'd like to be. The title tag gives you a great opportunity to further this cause.

This doesn't mean that you should put *just* your company name in the title tag. Even the best-known brands will benefit from a few good descriptive phrases added, because they will enhance your brand as well as your search engine traffic. The people who already know your company and seek it out by name will be able to find you in the search engines, and so will those who have never heard of you but seek the products or services you sell will also find you as well. Enjoy the article on the subject I know I did.

This week's food for thought is here: