Many people took time out of their day yesterday to take action against the passing of two proposed bills, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property  Act (PIPA). An astounding 4.5 million people signed Google’s Anti-SOPA petition, according to the LA Times. Eighteen senators pulled back their position on PIPA, including Senator Marco Rubio (co-sponsor from Florida), and SOPA co-sponsor Arizona rep. Ben Quayle also changed his stance to opposing the bill on Tuesday.

The goal of these bills is to censor your web browsing which would also potentially impose damaging effects on American business and even our very own Internet Marketing Inc. All of you last minute paper writing college students must be in for a tough week because Wikipedia is officially blacked out in an attempt to dislodge the bills from being accepted. Wikipedia is allowing you to raise awareness by putting up a fancy box that allows you to input your zip code and let your voice be heard. After submitting your zip code, information of your district officials allows you to contact them. Feel free to drop them a line, express your concern and give them your opinion on censoring your rights.

Now there is always two sides to the story. Google understands that combatting piracy is vital, but, “the most effective way to shut down pirate websites is through targeted legislation that cuts off their funding. There’s no need to make American social networks, blogs and search engines censor the Internet or undermine the existing laws that have enabled the Web to thrive, creating millions of U.S. jobs.” Also joining in is Mozilla as they changed their default home page from a blank white background to black.

What are your feelings as to how citizens have reacted to this attempt at censoring your web searches?

On  11.11.11, 92 years after the first proclaimed Veterans Day by former President Woodrow Wilson in 1919, we once again remembered and honored  all of our brave military veterans.  In these nine decades lots of things have happened, one of which is the technological boom that has brought us the likes of Facebook, Twitter and other social media applications.  Social media is a source for social interaction in an attempt to make our large world seem just that much smaller.

Social media and holidays together make a lot of buzz on the internet as there are lots of web interactions during times of holidays like Veterans Day.  This is not just by random people either, these are our veterans who are different than the previous as times have changed.  Nowadays these veterans are instead trying to get on Twitter or Facebook.

The effect of Veterans Day on social media is something you can see taking form.  Earlier this week there was a Facebook fan page launched for the US Military on Facebook to show support for members of the military, as well as both veterans and their families by sharing info and maintaining a connection.  Also, a new application on the U.S. Military Facebook page was created to give thanks to military members in your life, titled “A Nation Gives Thanks”.  We at Internet Marketing Inc. have also been able to utilize our own Facebook page for the celebration of Veteran’s Day by thanking our veterans as a whole, including one of our own.  Co-CEO Brent Gleeson served as a Navy SEAL operator at SEAL Team 5 located in Coronado, California.  Brent completed three separate tours of combat, with two tours in Iraq and one in Africa.  His job as a Navy SEAL was running Capture or Kill missions in tandem with the CIA.  So as it being Veterans Day we appreciate what our Veterans and Brent have done for our country.

Facebook is not the only social media app to see the effects of Veterans Day, Twitter has seen just as much traffic in regards to the national holiday.  Today many of the hottest stars and celebrities are taking to Twitter to honor the brave men and women that serve our country, like Toby Keith who is a notorious patriot. See what he said below:
Toby Keith (@TobyKeithMusic): Happy Veteran’s Day. To all Veterans, THANK YOU for our freedom.

Also on Twitter the tweet tag “#HappyVeteransDay” and “Happy Veterans Day” have been trending a lot as well.  The History Channel has also done it’s part for Veteran’s Day with it’s new social campaign of “Thank a Vet” through Twitter too.

Thanks to the internet we can see who and how many people are honoring their veterans and  grasp how important these men and women are in serving our country.  With our constant elevation of social media technology we are able to bring our world closer together one tweet or like at a time.

Building a great company that will last is not just about branding and of course strategic integrated online marketing solutions.  For a company to become great means many things.  You must focus on three key elements:  your employees, your clients, and your shareholders.  You must satisfy specific needs for each.  Companies that maintain steady growth do so by constantly pursuing new business opportunities (sales), providing a great service and therefore retaining clients, being a great place to work with an engaging culture, and by having a great vision and team alignment with that vision. 

So what does it mean for a company to have a Vision?  There is more to it than just getting top managers in a room and drafting some long difficult to understand Vision Statement.  Often times, that is where it ends.  The company drafts a vision statement, posts it somewhere, and then moves on to the next task.  This is not just an exercise that companies should do because they feel they have to.  Developing a great Vision involves some key elements.  A Vision framework includes:  Core Ideaology and an Envisioned Future.  Core Ideology is made up of Core Values and Core Purpose.  We will talk about the differences later in this blog.  An Envisioned Future is a combination of what is know is a Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal (BHAG) and a Vivid Description.  See the chart below to understand how these components fit together.

Let’s talk about Core Ideology.  The first element of this is Core Values.  This is another thing that many companies take too lightly, especially start-ups.  Core Values are not just for large corporations nor are they a list of attributes that you wish your company embodied but doesn’t.  Its about identifying the values that your company actually holds.  These values should be the guiding principles that mold behaviors and decision making.  You company should cease to exist without them.  Technology, business models, and opportunities will change constantly but your Values never should. 

Core Purpose is a bit different.  A company’s Core Purpose is its reason for being.  Take Tom’s Shoes for example.  What do they do?  They sell shoes.  Is that their core purpose?  No.  Their entire business model is about giving free shoes to impoverished children all over the world.  A great exercise is called the “Five Whys”.  Gather your team in a room and ask the question “What do we do?”.  To whatever answer is given ask Why?  Then to that answer ask Why again.  This helps you really drill down on understanding why you do what you do and what it means to your employees and customers.  Again, this is something that should never change.  Here at IMI our Core Purpose is to help companies grow by providing ROI focused integrated online marketing solutions.

Core Values and Core Purpose make up Core Ideology and this should be the foundation of your company’s existence and should never change. 

An Envisioned Future is the forward thinking part of developing a great Vision for your company.  It is meant to be so aggressive and exciting that it inspires people to try to accomplish things that they think are beyond grasp.  As mentioned above, the Envisioned Future is a combination of the BHAG and a Vivid Description.  The BHAG is a 10 to 30 year goal that you have a 50% to 75% probability of hitting.  Or at least that is a basic definition.  You might be thinking 10 to 30 years?!!  Yes that is a long way off and business owners who want their companies to last have to think beyond their tenure and even their generation.  Some of the great companies out there have held BHAG’s that last 100 years.  For example, Henry Ford’s big audacious goal was to democratize the automobile and make it so affordable that everyone in the world would have one.  City Bank (now Citi Corp) set their BHAG in 1915 to become the world’s largest and most serviceable financial institution.  They were just a small regional bank at the time.  Nike is another great example.  Their big audacious goal was simply to crush Adidas.  Your BHAG can be a financial goal, market share goal, competitive goal, or anything that you may want to accomplish.  It could even be how you want your company to be perceived.

The Vivid Description concept is more about creating a picture in one’s mind about how you see your business 10 to 30 years.  What does it look like?  What will it be like to work there?  What do customers and competitors say about you?  Again, it can really be anything.

All of the elements discussed make up the Vision Framework.  How can a company make strategic decisions and shape their future without having a Vision in mind?  Companies that don’t might be able to make it work for a while but eventually everyone is going to stop and say “Where are we headed and why do I come to work every day”?  That is why having engagement and alignment from everyone in the company is so important.  You want to hire people that fit your Core Values and that will embrace the overall Vision.  Those people will be your key players and most likely stick around.  And if they do, your business will continue to grow!

Assuming construction stays on schedule we will be moving into our brand new office building in the Scripps Ranch area of San Diego in one month!  The whole team is very excited about the move.  We are crawling all over each other here so having some extra space is going to be fantastic.  We actually have some new team members starting with nowhere to sit!

The new space is three times the square footage of our current office on Mission Valley and includes seven private offices, two conference rooms, full kitchen and break room, and 40 work stations.  We left some extra open space for the ping pong table!

The great part about this being a brand new building is that we were able to choose custom finishes, carpet, paint colors, tile, etc.  The main conference room will have floor to ceiling glass walls and a 60′ flat screen for presentations…and sometimes football.

We’ll keep everyone posted on progress but assuming all goes well we will be all settled by November 1st!

Cloud computing with Gmail can definitely save you money, but it also can save energy.  Results from the Carbon Disclosure Project show, “that by 2020, large U.S. companies that use cloud computing can achieve annual energy savings of $12.3 billion and annual carbon reductions equivalent to 200 million barrels of oil – enough to power 5.7 million cars for one year.”

Due to the movement of ‘going green’ and hard-working efforts to increase sustainability, Google decided to compare Gmail to locally hosted email servers in hopes to show how energy efficient cloud-based email really is. Here is an illustration of an inefficient use of email servers used by small companies in comparison to an efficient use of cloud-based email:

Source: Official Google Blog

Google then tabulated the results, “switching to Gmail can be almost 80 times more energy efficient (PDF) than running in-house email. This is because cloud-based services are typically housed in highly efficient data centers that operate at higher server utilization rates and use hardware and software that’s built specifically for the services they provide—conditions that small businesses are rarely able to create on their own.”

With the above calculation it’s safe to say Google continues to act as the ringleader not only in a technological perspective, but now serving to help sustain our environment, one energy molecule at a time.

Come join us at Dick’s Last Resort on Wednesday Novemeber 10th in downtown San Diego for the annual Naval Special Warfare Foundation fundraiser!

On November 10, 2010, Dick’s Last Resort will host a fundraising event for the Naval Special Warfare Foundation.  Funds raised will be used to support our active duty Naval Special Warfare troops and their families.  The NSW Foundation steps in during times of need and provides support in areas where the government cannot.  Additionally, the NSW Foundation provides college grants to active duty members of the Naval Special Warfare community and scholarships for the wives, and children of our men killed in combat or training for combat.  The Naval Special Warfare community has lost 48 men in combat since 9-11-2001 and we have had over 180 men seriously wounded while fighting enemy forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.   On 13 September, 2009 LT Dan Cnossen lost both legs below the knee during a combat operation in Afghanistan.  We have lost six men in 2010 conducting combat operations in Afghanistan.  Our most recent losses occurred on September 21, 2010 when four of our NSW troops were killed in a helicopter crash during a combat mission is Zabul Province, Afghanistan.  The families of these brave men are receiving direct support from the Naval Special Warfare Foundation thanks to the generosity of our donors. 

We hope that you will join us at Dick’s Last Resort for a memorable evening.  In addition to joining us, we are asking you to make a contribution or donate an item or two for the raffle and auctions that will be held at this event.  Your support to our SEAL’s and their families is greatly appreciated.

Naval Special Warfare Foundation:  Mission and Accomplishments

Under the three pillars of the mission, The Naval Special Warfare (NSW) Foundation provides the following support.

Education and Motivation

• Grants through the NSW Foundation Scholarship program.
• NSW Scholarships
• Leadership Scholarships
• Harvey Pollak SEAL Scholarship
• UDT-SEAL Scholarships
• NOLS-NSW Scholarship
• Had Richards UDT-SEAL Scholarships
• Computers for the children of NSW warriors killed in combat or training.
• Annually donation to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation to pay for the college education of children whose Special Operations Forces fathers were killed in combat or training.
• Tuition assistance for active duty NSW personnel to defray the cost of books and supplies.
• Special case scholarships for surviving family member of SEALs killed in combat or training.
• Sailor of the Year financial awards for all NSW Commands recipients.
• Support for the SEAL Qualification Training (SQT) and SWCC Qualification Training (CQT) graduation ceremonies.
• Sponsorship of the NSCC Trident Team.

Health and Welfare

• Reimbursement for travel, lodging, and other specific costs for family members to attend memorial services and other events involving the death of SEALs or other
• NSW personnel killed in combat or training.
• Reimbursement for travel, lodging, and other support for family members of SEALs or other NSW personnel wounded or injured in combat or training.
• Reimbursement for dental insurance for widows and children of SEALs and NSW personnel killed in combat or training.
• Assistance in paying NSW command expenses connected with the death of an active duty member that is not combat or training related.
• Financial planning to immediate family members of SEALs and NSW personnel killed in combat or training.
• Funds for active duty family events, command functions, Family Readiness Groups, and ceremonies honoring NSW warriors.
• Assistance to NSW personnel affected by California wildfires, Virginia tornados, Hurricane Katrina, and other natural disasters.
• Assistance to NSW personnel affected by personal and family tragedies.
• Christmas financial gifts to NSW families in need.
• Tailored financial assistance to NSW families with special and unique needs.
• Support for NSW ceremonies honoring Medal of Honor recipients and other heroes.

History and Heritage

• Co-publishes the quarterly magazine, “The BLAST, Journal of Naval Special Warfare.”
• Financial assistance for monuments, exhibits, bricks, and plaques honoring Naval Commandos at veterans memorial parks, Special Operations commands, and museums
• NSW art program – “Rock Portage” and “Hunting Al Qaeda.”
• NSW command projects honoring fallen warriors – mural and monument at SEAL Team 10, SEAL Team 3 quarterdeck; monument at NSW Development Group, and other memorials.
• Maintains a database of the names of combat swimmers who served our country.

When writing content on the web, a good rule of thumb is to use the inverted pyramid technique, also known as Bottom Line Up Front.  This entails putting your most important point as the title and first paragraph of text in your article, and the supporting details towards the end.  Be sure to capture the attention of your users’ right at the beginning of your page, so that way they don’t need to scroll down to get the main points of your article. On the web, people tend to jump from page to page on websites, so you want to catch their attention right away.

Benefits for Readers

If a user likes what they see in your article from the beginning, they are more likely to bookmark it and read the rest of the article later. Or, if they are using a mobile phone, they can see the main point of the article and email it to themselves to read later on. (more…)

Over the last decade, the Internet has become increasingly more interactive for its users by the year, by the month and even, by the day.  New innovations are happening constantly and it would be impossible to stay updated on them all on a regular basis (another good reason to read the IMI blog everyday!).  Today, I want to mention a relatively new phenomenon that is taking off like wildfire- website applications that allow user personalization.  And I don’t just mean custom forms that allow people to search the value of their old cars like on KelleyBlueBook.com or something; I mean true personalization with digital imagery upload- something that really hits close to home for our population’s more visual users.

So let’s start with something seasonal: Has anyone ever checked out ElfYourself.com?  On this website, users are allowed to upload pictures of themselves and four additional friends.  After the upload is complete, each of the head shots are inserted onto elf bodies, which then sing and dance to holiday themed songs.  Whereas two years you could only select one standard song, this holiday season, users have the option to select from country, disco, hip hop and more.  And now, when you’re done, you can embarrass yourself and your friends by sharing with Facebook!  It’s truly phenomenal.

But, if you’re already over the holidays and you’d prefer a blast from the past, check out YearbookYourself.com.  This website allows you to upload a head shot and after you’re done, it will place you in a persona from yearbooks of the past.  For some reason, whenever I try it, it has an uncanny ability to make me look identical to my mom.  Anyone else getting the same results?

My latest find in the interactive web arena is a site called MorphThing.com.  It would probably behoove you to check it out everyday for a good laugh when you’re in need of a smile because you never know what new morphs will be featured.  Today’s best morph was a cross of Marilyn Manson and Barack Obama.  Other featured morphs include: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie entitled “Brangelina,” Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez entitled “Bennifer,” Jessica Simpson and Dane Cook, Ashley Olsen and Mary Kate Olsen, and the list goes on.  Users can also make custom morphs and even baby morphs, which could be a very useful tool in marriage preparation (and might send some people to counseling).  Use these tools wisely!  Enjoy.

Last Saturday, on December 12th 2009, Internet Marketing Inc.’s New York City office launched its first holiday party ever.  With little under a year of existence, IMI NY has won a strong book of business and surpassed many milestones these last few months.  Partner and President, Todd Soiefer, invited the team to a holiday party to celebrate this success and ring in the new year “Internet Marketing” style.

The party was a huge success, with the attendance of several staff members- interns, developers and all.  A surprising guest appearance was made by the CEO of Internet Marketing Inc., Brent Gleeson, who is based in the San Diego office.  His arrival not only added an element of surprise, but also much entertainment as well.

The party involved a champagne toast and then a sushi dinner at New Ashiya in downtown Manhattan.  It was hard to even hear normal conversation over the continuous ruckus of laughter that practically usurped the night.  I am honestly surprised anyone had time to eat.

So you may ask: what’s my point?  It’s the small things that count.  Having a holiday party for your employees really inspires good cheer and let’s them know how much they truly are appreciated when it really counts.  If you don’t already do it, I suggest you make it your next New Years resolution- not only will good memories be shared but the team bonding is priceless.

A week ago ended the last SES Chicago scheduled to occur in December as it will move to October 18 in 2010.

Although mid December is not technically Winter it was wintry enough especially compared to a much more Fall like mid October date starting next year.

The 2009 SES Chicago started on December 7th with a dusting of snow outside as Jeff Jarvis kicked it off with his interesting keynote on the link economy being part of the greater Google economy the online space is currently in.

The sessions that followed had a predominant SEO theme versus the growing social media focus of Pubcon & SMX conferences in my opinion.

Although the Google Real Time Search did evolve into a hot topic near the closing of SES as Rae Hoffman was furiously writing a great post in the speaker lounge on the real time search spamming potential.

I was particularly surprised there wasn’t much focus to online mobile marketing, beyond one session, which is sure to be a greater focus in all of the major Internet Marketing conferences in 2010.

Matt McGowan & Mike Grehan were generous enough to have me speak on a site clinic with Tony Wright & Elisabeth Osmeloski before I had to quickly take the shuttle through the snow to Midway Airway where my flight back to San Diego encountered chronic delays.

The wet snow & flight delays at this recent SES Chicago will be a distant memory when SES comes back to the United States here in San Diego February 2010.

Also this is my last post here on the Internet Marketing Inc Blog as I will be joining Resource Nation as the SEO Director there going into 2010 but be sure to check back here for the latest Internet Marketing news as well on Android at my personal site GoogleAndBlog.