Mr. Owl and a Tootsie Pop

I recently came across this discussion thread on the LinkedIn Group Content Management Professionals (CMPros) – How Long Should a CMS Implementation Take? It reminded me of the old Tootsie Pop commercial from when I was a kid – How Many Licks Does it Take to Get to the Tootsie Roll Center of a Tootsie Pop (click here for a walk down memory lane). As the little boy goes from animal to animal asking the question, they all keep pushing him to the wise Mr. Owl. Mr. Owl attempts to illustrate the answer but his own impatience causes him to bite after three licks and thus declares the answer to be three.

A CMS implementation can be like that sometimes. Maybe it’s not impatience that dictates how long the project should take – but there are certainly many factors that play into this. What is for sure is that there is no one answer – except that it all depends. Certainly there are right ways and wrong ways to implement a CMS, but within the context of “right ways” (we’ll assume for the sake of this post that we’re only dealing with the “right way”), it’s really a matter of what’s right for your organization, business needs, and yes, budget.

So, as there are such a wide range of factors that can play a role – from the research/discovery phase, where we learn exactly how the CMS needs to fit and function in your environment, all the way to the final product launch – there are some core elements that can play a huge role in project timing (whether you’re deploying a licensed or open source solution): (more…)

We hear about the many facets of Search Engine Optimization all the time (thank you, Kasy). But, what about internal site search? Getting visitors to your site is only part of the battle. Giving visitors the tools to search your site plays an important role in successfully directing conversions.

Last weekend I began searching for all inclusive trips to Mexico through expedia.com. While expedia offers some important filters (date range, departure city, arrival city, hotel star rating), there was one major filter missing: Adults Only. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been a camp counselor my entire adult life and love kids, but when I want to vacation, I want to escape everything including kids. So my frustration rose as I tried searching “Adults Only” within the hotel name and scanning the brief descriptions within my search results for the key words indicating my vacation would be kid free.

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Thanks to everyone who joined us for Tuesday’s webinar on Creating a Content Marketing Strategy. The attendance was great, Becki Dilworth and Brett Zucker did a fantastic speaking job, and the Q&A participation by the audience was stellar. We highlighted some of the most on topic and answerable questions below. If you did not get a chance to attend, you can click on the thumbnail image of the video player to the right to access the webinar archive on GoToWebinar. Additionally, the powerpoint deck is available on our SlideShare account - http://www.slideshare.net/bridgeline.

Content Rules!

We’re big fans of Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman and the recently published best-selling book they co-authored, Content Rules. And with the tenets of Content Rules so closely aligned to the philosophy of our web engagement management platform, iAPPS, as well as the core topic of this webinar, we thought that giving away some complimentary copies was the right thing to do. So without further ado, the following two groups of  webinar ATTENDEES will receive a copy of Content Rules compliments of Bridgeline: (more…)

The world of search engine optimization (SEO) is often considered a convoluted jigsaw puzzle. Search engine spiders take into account a countless number of factors when ranking websites, making it difficult for internet marketers to zone in on specific elements when optimizing a site. As the cliché goes, if you ask 10 different SEO experts the same question, you’ll get 10 different answers.

However, one thing that all SEO experts will unquestionably agree on is the importance of well-written content to a website. Content is the backbone to organic SEO, and sites that have interesting, optimized content will surely have an edge over their competitors.

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Me - presenting at MadMenYourself.com

There is something very appealing about the show Mad Men, and I’m not referring to the drinking at work part. Fifty years ago, marketers put creativity in the forefront, spending long nights brainstorming creative campaigns. The choice of medium was somewhat limited – print, broadcast, billboards – but the innovative campaigns that came out of this era still stand firmly in the American psyche.

Then this thing The Web came around. And everything changed.

David Meerman Scott put it best: “Prior to the web, organizations had only two significant choices to attract attention: buy expensive advertising or get third-party ink from the media. But the web has changed the rules.” (more…)

The staff at MITX organized another excellent event in Massachusetts. Bridgeline was happy to be a part of Future M: “the first-ever week long, collaborative multi-location conference offering participants the opportunity to tap into the freshest thinkers in marketing, media and technology. ” FutureM scattered events all around Massachusetts during the week rather than just staying in Boston. Most people don’t know, but Massachusetts has the highest venture capital investment in the world! There’s lots of innovation going on in Massachusetts and it was a great week spending time with fellow visionaries.

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