The Latest Web Waves Are Worth Surfing

It's an exciting time for ComBridges as: The wonderful Web continues to morph in fascinating ways. You are invited to experience Jon's keynote "Winning with Ease: Life Lessons Learned from Golf." We share new YouTube client videos and the promise of a new website, with much more to come. Please read on to learn more...

Tuning Into Leading Edge Trends

Attending Search Engine Expo (SMX) West in Santa Clara last week provided perspective on the rising tides that continue to make the world of internet marketing more powerful, fascinating, and challenging. Bottom line, companies and clients who want to leverage the power of organic SEO, pay-per-click SEM, and social media marketing (the new acronym du jour is SMM) will have to step up to more rigorous strategies. At the same time our view is that rich opportunities, even for finely-targeted modest budget campaigns, are there, especially when these interactive channels are approached with an open mind and the flexibility of a "launch & learn" attitude.

Recent internet marketing industry milestones worth mentioning include:

• YouTube has now passed Yahoo and MSN as the #2 search engine. The NYTimes explains YouTube as a search engine, although Google continues to dominate with 63% of the searches in December.
• FaceBook has passed MySpace as the leading social networking platform: Read detailed research.
• LinkedIn is still growing rapidly, from 6.3 to 7.7 million unique visits just between December and January. As Marketing Pilgrim reiterates, ”when times are tough, networking is a survival skill.”
• For an overview perspecitive on internet marketing, read Jon Leland's interview in Lee Doyles' Credible Communications e-newletter.

Invitation: Winning with Ease, A Special Evening

Jon Leland's inspiring keynote, Winning With Ease: Life Lessons Learned from Golf uses discoveries made on the golf course to provide a surprisingly resonant metaphor for the inner mental challenges that all of us face every day. This delightful, experiential keynote weaves together practical techniques and an entertaining animated presentation to create an engaging and uplifting experience.

Now, whether you are a golfer or a non-golfer, you can experience this exciting presentation for yourself. You are invited to a very special evening which will benefit the Hoffman Institute Foundation.

When: Wednesday, March 18, 2009 at 6:30 pm
Where:  StoneTree Golf Club, 9 StoneTree Lane, Novato, CA 94945

$10 optional donation is requested.

Please RSVP at www.WinningwithEase.com where you can download a PDF invitation to forward to friends (everyone is welcome!) as well as a 1-sheet description of the Winning with Ease keynote which is available to enhance your organization or association's meeting.

We hope to see you there!
 

Client Spotlight: Viral Videos Promo Green Building

We are delighted to have launched a new series of viral videos for green building consultant Jerry Yudelson of Yudelson Associates. Initially, these 2 to 3-minute videos will be distributed via a "GreenBuildConsult" YouTube "channel" which ComBridges has created for this client, as well as on GreenBuildConsult.com. The first video in the series asks, "How Will Obama Impact Green Building?"

ComBridges' New Web Portal: Coming Soon

We are rapidly building out a brand new ComBridges website that will unify up-to-date information about our services and Jon's Media Mall blog, all under the ComBridges banner. The new site also will have a "goodies" section with lots of free educational resources. Stay tuned.

And for those of you on Facebook, there is now a ComBridges group page. Please visit this page on Facebook, and show your support by clicking the "Become a Fan" link on the right. This will enable us to provide you with special news, insights and valuable links that don't make it into this newsletter.

Likewise, for more of all kinds of insights and links from Jon Leland, please follow him @joncombridges on Twitter.

Thanks for reading. Lots more good stuff is on the way.