dotCommunity aims to educate and enlighten on the benefits of building your business through online efforts. You'll find a collection of informing articles and tidbits to help you navigate the frontier of new media, links to helpful sites and tools to help you move ahead, and updates on how Louisville.com is using the tools we have available to increase your online visibility.

Advertising In Uncertain Times
by Dan Vonderheide, General Manager

The mood this past week has been pretty negative around the country.  As an optimist, I tend to look for a silver lining in every cloud.  I have to admit that it's tough to see when listening to media reports about a possible economic depression.  Being in the advertising business, it's fairly common to find people that decide that the easiest way to save money when it gets tight is to cut their ad budgets.  Of course, being the in the advertising business, that approach always seems counterintuitive to me.  

The first thing a business should do when money gets tight is examine where they are placing their ad money and investigate new methods of reaching their audience.  With the advent of "new media" in the form of blogs, social media outlets (facebook, myspace, YouTube and many more), online video, and search, there are almost more options than it's possible to explore.  But the time you invest in these outlets could not only save you money from your traditional ad budget, it could completely change the way you market and grow your business. 

Even when the sky seems to be falling, there are thousands of consumers with dollars to spend...they're just getting smarter about the way they spend them.  More and more consumers are turning to web search as their primary method of searching for business so they can do the research it takes to feel good about the money they're spending. 

What's the good news?  The sky is NOT falling.  It's a little cloudy.  When it's cloudy outside, you have an umbrella nearby just in case it starts raining.   The other good news is that getting online is easy and inexpensive (even free if you know what you're doing).  So, start looking for your umbrella.  The time for a plan is now, not when you're soaked to the bone.  Keep your eye on the silver lining and you'll come out nice and dry IF the storm clouds take over.

ONLINE VIDEO FINDS LOCAL SEARCH
Local search and advertising options continue to explode. Ad options
include keywords, category or heading buys, and now online video. So
how should local business and national advertisers selling locally
think about incorporating video and video search into their ad arsenals?

WHY SOME VIDEO ADS WHEN VIRAL AND OTHERS DIDN'T
It should come as a surprise to no one that Web users shared the Jerry Seinfeld/Bill Gates Microsoft commercials with one another at a much higher rate than the subsequent "I'm a PC" spots. For one thing, the first spots were funny (or at least tried to be) and they featured Jerry Seinfeld, who rarely makes marketing appearances--or appearances of any kind any more. Whereas the "I'm a PC" spots made no attempt to be funny; they were simply making a point.

BRANDS/AGENCIES STILL STUMPED BY LOCAL ONLINE ADVERTISING
Just over 40% of companies are spending at
least a quarter of their online ad budgets on geotargeted campaigns,
according to new research from Sterling Market Intelligence. But brands
and their agencies are still stumped when it comes to figuring out how
to use those local online advertising dollars most effectively.

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