It seems like every site on the web now has some form of “Web 2.0″ or social features integrated with them. Whether that’s an official Twitter account, company blog, a Ning group or Facebook fan page, social media has created a new channel for businesses to use for customer service, marketing, and community building.

This past week Google launched a new product as part of their Google Toolbar that every website owner should be aware of.  Google SideWiki is a huge way to annotate the web. Think of it as seeing comments, additional links, and Wikipedia style annotations alongside every webpage you visit. According to Google’s Video, you can link up additional text on the page to point to your annotation, or leave a comment on the page as a whole. Don’t want to leave your mark? You can still view everyone else’s comments and rate whether they’re useful or not, or share a comment via Twitter or Facebook. (more…)

When local news station WKTV was working on a story about how non-profits are using social networks, they also contacted our agency and talked with Ryan Miller who is our Online Strategist. We’re believers in the power of community and are helping businesses and organizations connect with customers and participate in the conversations that are happening online through social media. Here’s an embed of the story.

Bernie’s back – guest blogging again for Karen-Goldfarb.com about our campaigns with JAY-K, a local home improvement retailer.  We’ve been helping them take on the big box stores successfully for several years now by highlighting the expertise of their employees as well as using some very unconventional branding in the form of Jack O’ Trade.

You can read the full post at Karen’s site by clicking here.  Don’t forget to check out our latest campaign with Jack and JAY-K at www.BetterAskJack.com, where anyone can write in with questions about anything from home improvement to life improvement.

Anyone can submit questions, as many as they’d like, online at BetterAskJack.com, a landing page created by the agency just for this promotion. Jack responds with an individual email answer to each one. A number of them will even be published on JAY-K’s website, along with Jack’s answers. As an added bonus, JAY-K will be giving out free “BetterAskJack” t-shirts, each with a custom printed message about how Jack helped solve that person’s problem, every week to five randomly-chosen questioners. The conversation, and the fun, have grown with Jack, and JAY-K, at the center of attention.

We’ve always prided ourselves on embracing the latest in communications tools and strategies, and finding ways to reach more people more effectively for our clients. We’ve been helping them market themselves for over 35 years, and online since 1996, back when the only profitable websites featured gambling or pornography. Fortunately things have changed, and we’re also reaching larger audiences by engaging them interactively through social media like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and more. Customers spend more time online (poker players notwithstanding) and put more of their trust in the information they find there, and we’re guiding our clients to control the conversation more effectively as active participants. As we continue to grow our clients’ and our own online business, we are proud to welcome Ryan Miller, an experienced social media specialist, to our team. (more…)