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WebHostingBuzz believes that tomorrow’s leading thinkers and innovators are currently being developed in higher education institutions and in high schools around the world. It only makes sense to allow these future business owners, engineers, and developers a chance to develop and deploy their ideas at a significant discount while they are still in school.

By investing in tomorrow’s leaders, we hope to build ongoing relationships with young business owners, who can rely on WebHostingBuzz to deliver their premium web content and e-services to customers around the world.

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Competitors of Apple should take note of Verizon’s marketing campaign against the iPhone, a hard-hitting commercial that uses the iPhone as a punching bag. This marketing effort does something that no other campaign against Apple does to date: it hits back.

I saw this for the first time last night while I was watching a special on the JFK assassination and thought “This is brilliant!” It sure takes the “cool” out of the iPhone in very blunt terms.

PS: Until the “Droid” is released, the Blackberry is still superior to any iPhone. It has been proven.

As I previously mentioned in our customer newsletter, I attended an international marketing conference in Anahiem, California to network with industry professionals and listen to speakers from the L.A. area.  The trip was fantastic and I learned quite a bit about some new trends.

Those of you who follow us on Twitter probably saw my updates as I heard interesting thoughts and relayed them to our customers (those of you who don’t follow us on Twitter should consider it!)

The most surprising thing was what almost every presentation I saw mentioned: social marketing.  It is a topic I have discussed on the blog before, as it is really a booming means of communication to current and potential clients.  Every speaker mentioned it at least once, but some gave entire presentations on it – some of their companies are basing their entire business model off of social marketing.  There was some very interesting theory behind this.

Case 1 – Park the Van / Rocket Science

Park the Van is a digital production studio for independent artists which is located in the Florida area.  They focus on getting artists names out to a wider audience.  How do they do it?  They provide as much as they can to their followers for free.  This includes quite a bit (but not all) of the music.

Aside from lining up “Free downloads” on iTunes, their focus has been on using social mediums to build a community of followers who join together to support their favorite artists, share music from other independent artists, and really promote the overall market.

Their model allows for a “connection” to be made between numerous groups who may like similar music.  The social networks allow them to interact in ways that were simply not possible on the global scale it is today.

Even some of their talent acquisition was done via social mediums – they pick up recommendations or videos from their customers and, if they like it, go to check it out.

In the independent market, they have found that social marketing (free marketing) is often the most effective way to build and maintain a customer base.

Case 2 – ValPak

Even a traditional direct mail marketing company, ValPak, sees the power of social networking in marketing. While they develop more than just direct mail campaigns, that is their main focus. In speaking with some of the company’s management, they were both amazed and very much pleased with the way social media has taken off in advertising. They say they use it in a variety of campaigns for customers, and use it quite effectively.

Potentially gone are the days of pay-for banner advertising. They have become so saturated on some sites that users actually leave because of them. Instead, we are moving into a direct advertising channel between the company and those who are interested in their product.

The model is shifting from a company-driven effort to bring people in to a customer-driven effort to bring their friends on-board.

It is simply amazing to me that of all the talks and keynotes I went to, every one had some sort of focus on social media in marketing. This is one of those industries exploding with involvement from everyone from professors Tweeting homework assignments to major enterprises announcing product lineups.

Social media is definitely the buzz. How do you better utilize it across your organization?

In today’s market, someone can find quality web hosting with a large company that offers $5 per month with all kinds of space and bandwidth allocated toward an account, and that person may never have any trouble with it.  If you are in the hosting business, though, this creates a problem:  how do you compete with the common $5 per month plan?  How do you attract clients to your business over someone else?

It comes down to several elements that go well beyond a simple space and bandwidth question.  What you most focus on as a small host is what you can do that the larger businesses can not.

In marketing, we call this type of analysis a SWOT diagram.

SWOT

A SWOT diagram is a simple four-square chart that analyzes the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of a business.  It is used for strategic direction and determining how to best position your business against your competition.

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There are said to be four P’s at the core of marketing: Product, Price, Promotion, and Place. Together, these elements can allow a business to be competitive in the global marketplace of today’s economy. Businesses stretch their marketing budget thin trying to achieve these objectives, but often times overlook a growing – and free – trend of marketing via social networking.

The four P’s are elements of an expanded definition of marketing: putting your product in front of a potential customer at a time when they are most likely to buy that product, in a place where they are willing to buy it, and at a price they are willing to pay for your product. By properly leveraging these elements, a business can capitalize on their potential market and compete on a global scale.

When you are considering a marketing campaign, you look at the cost-to-benefit ratio, reach, relevancy, and return on investment of a particular advertisement. Let’s consider for a moment social networking as it relates to advertising:

1. Cost-to-Benefit Ratio

Social networking is a method of connecting people, a way to “shake hands” with anyone, anywhere in the world. The cost is typically minimal – if not free – which fits well in any budget. The benefit can vary from one customer to thousands depending on the effectiveness of your campaign, but at no cost, any benefit is a positive return for your business. Not to mention it allows your business to craft a positive public image, which can be invaluable if it helps create return customers.

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