We’ve just ordered two new books that you really must read too.

The first one is Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?, by Seth Godin, who needs no introduction. We went to listen to Seth sharing his visionary ideas in London last year and came back with our minds reeling at the sheer amount of astute revelations about business and marketing he managed to put out in such a short time.

In his new book, Set describes a linchpin as someone who is indispensable to a company – someone who makes themself so unique and valuable to the company that they cannot be replaced. “Are you a linchpin?” he asks, before adding that you absolutely have to be one unless you want to commit career suicide.

One person who reviewed Linchpin on Amazon says:

While reading Linchpin I looked around a few times to see if author Seth Godin was perhaps peering through my living room window to see my reaction. It really felt like he was talking to me, singling me out. How could he know how I rationalize things?

And that’s a perfect description of Seth Godin’s style – personal, direct, and down-to-earth. We just can’t wait for this book to arrive so we can spend some very fruitful and enjoyable moments in his company again.

The second book we’ve got in the post will tell you how to turn your marketing completely on its head and promote yourself more effectively. It’s called The New Rules of Marketing and PR by PR guru David Meerman Scott. As its full title says, this book is all about how to use news releases, blogs, podcasting, viral marketing and online media to reach buyers directly.

That’s quite a mouthful, but what it all boils down to is leveraging social media and the latest online technologies to market smarter and for less money. Buy this book today!

And as you are waiting for it to arrive, make sure to listen to David Meerman Scott explain how one lady launched a Harry Potter theme park by telling just 7 people, how a dentist boosted her business just by publishing an e-book, and how to get others to spread your ideas and tell your stories online.

Then read our tips on how to start a social media team and market more efficiently online and get started right away.

Finally, if you’re still sceptical about adopting New Rules Marketing as your main promotional strategy, you need to take a good look in that mirror and ask yourself a very serious question: Will your business survive the age of digital Darwinism?

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Back in 2008 we discussed the how social media marketing is becoming the new SEO. We predicted a radical paradigm shift to social voting, where search engines pay more and more attention to what individual Internet users are doing and saying on their blogs and social network sites.

We argued that keywords, meta tags and all the other traditional SEO techniques would still have their part to play, but they would quickly take second stage to the New Social Media, which would become the dominant force in determining which websites get to stand in the limelight.

The balance of power was shifting. And boy did it shift!

Last October, Google deployed it’s experimental Google Social Search, which aims to give users search results that are more personal and relevant. Just this week, the Intenet giant has upped the ante with the announcement of Buzz, the new social network it is building into Gmail. But more on Buzz later.

The idea behind Google Social Search (see video below), is that you can search for information and get results based on what your friends and colleagues are saying on their blogs and social networks. This has massive implications for Internet marketing, because friends are by definition the people we trust most. Your clients will pay a thousand times more attention to what their friends are saying about you, than to anything you say yourself.

This is why you absolutely have to become part of this Social Media Revolution.

Your first step is to get a Gmail account, if you don’t have one, and link your blog and all your social networks to your Google profile. Google will build your social graph based on the friends in your social networks and their friends as well, and also from your Google Chat and Google Reader contacts. This social graph will be used to customise your search results as Matt Cutts explains in this video on how Google Social Search works.

And now there is Google Buzz, which lets you automatically connect and socialize with the people you communicate with through Gmail, sharing updates, photos and more, like you do on Facebook today. In fact, Buzz is Google’s direct challenge to Facebook and as Google adds more features it could very well emerge as yet another powerful social network that you will have to take advantage of and leverage in your social media marketing.

The playingfield has changed, and if there is anything you can be sure of is that it will continue to evolve. So make sure you and your business stay at the forefront of this change and avoid getting caught in its wake. Ask us about how you can jump start your Social Media Marketing today!

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Digital Marketing and Web 2.0 Forum

Two days ago we attended the Forum on Digital Marketing & Web 2.0 organised by the Cabildo de Tenerife (through its Department for Planning & Tourism) and the FYDE-CajaCanarias Foundation. The organisers appeared to be pleasantly surprised with the turnout of over 100 people, but throughout the event we could not help but feel that as an island we are seriously missing the boat as regards online marketing.

Talking about social media marketing theory and ideas is all well and good, but that has to be backed up by a nice dollop of practical leading by example. You see, there is so much that could have gone on around the Digital Marketing Forum that simply didn’t.

For example, all we got in the way of an invitation was a simple e-mail. No Facebook event invite. No to and fro messages on Twitter. No “hey, tell your colleagues about this important event”.  No buzz generating. Nothing at all!

Just imagine if the Cabildo had invited all the participants to join an online group on Facebook before the event. Everybody would have been able to get to know each other in advance. Ideas would have been exchanged even before the forum itself, and the conversation and collaboration among all who participated would have continued long after the lectures were over. Wouldn’t that have been a perfect example of the kind of interaction and bringing people together that social media is all about?

We really need to pull our socks up and start social networking for real! So, what are we waiting for, Tenerife?

Well, tonight we’re off to the closing gala dinner in honour of the British Guild of Travel Writers who have been hosted by the Turismo de Tenerife branch of the Cabildo for the last couple of days. Let us, as an island, take a feather from the cap of these top UK writers and learn a thing or two before they leave.

For example, take a look at the kind of back and forth the BGTW have going on Twitter at #bgtwagm, and you’ll see what I mean. These guys are connected. They are interacting. They are sharing ideas and commenting on each other’s experiences of Tenerife. They are excited about being here! The shame is that they are doing it alone, and the Cabildo that brought them over in the first place is nowhere to be seen online.

Members of the British Guild of Travel Writers go bananas on Tenerife

What we should be doing, both as an island dependent on tourism and also as individual businesses that earn our livelihood from the same, is to join in the big online party. We need to hang out with these guys who wield so much clout in the very market we are fighting for. We need to have conversations with them, find out what they like about Tenerife and what they don’t. We need to get our opinions and ideas across to these people and also learn from what they have to tell us about ourselves and our product.

That’s exactly what Tenerife Magazine is working on. They are already off to a good start, following the blogs and Twitter feeds of writers like @mrdavewhitley, who also blogs as Grumpy Traveller. And they have also set up a Flickr Group called British Guild of Travel Writers in Tenerife 2010, where everyone can join in and share their favourite snapshots.

Tenerife needs to get together as an island and embrace New Rules Marketing. This means going out there on the Internet and getting actively involved with the people that matter – from other writers and online marketers to our cherished clients, the tourists themselves. We are an island where everybody seems to know everyone else and where clients and business contacts are found via word of mouth and through friends of friends. We are by nature a social people. Now we have to take all that online and use the new technologies available to reach out to the rest of the world!

We have to do this as part of a coordinated effort that benefits the whole island and we need, expect and sincerely hope that our government takes up the challenge to lead us into the digital marketing age that will define next decade. Go for it, Cabildo!

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Sorted Sites have been selected to help with the Internet Marketing for the prestigious Spring Hoteles group who have four hotels located in some of the best locations in Tenerife.  We are assisting them with their online presence .  Follow Spring Hoteles on  Facebook, Flickr, Stumbleupon, and Twitter as well as their blog which is in English and Spanish.

Each of the four star hotels in the Spring Hoteles group are:

1.  Hotel Vulcano 

2. Hotel Playa La Arena

3. Arona Gran Hotel

4. Hotel Bitacora

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We recently completed a new website for Asociación de Campos de Golf de Tenerife.  With the help of Beatrice and Nathalie, the site is everything and more you could wish for.  It´s packed with latest information on tournaments, golf courses and much more.  Become a fan of theirs on Facebook and follow them on Twitter and keep up to date on forthcoming events etc.

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In a funny, rapid-fire 4 minutes, Alexis Ohanian of Reddit tells the real-life fable of one humpback whale’s rise to Web stardom. The lesson of Mister Splashy Pants is a shoo-in classic for meme-makers and marketers in the Facebook age.

This is a story of how social networking has the power to change both the online world and the real one too. You’ll also see why it is OK to take yourself less seriously and vital to take advantage of the arising opportunities to achieve your ultimate goals. Enjoy:

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After months of hard work, we are pleased to announce that SupaSwap has now gone live! Great work team –  the site looks and works really well!  If you have kids between the ages of 8-18, who would be interested in buying, selling or swapping items, let them know about SupaSwap. They can also follow SupaSwap on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

SupaSwap

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How do you measure the real success of your social network marketing?

You’re publishing a long stream of blog posts, Twittering like a canary on a bright spring day, constantly posting to Facebook, and generally doing all the other things you need to do to make social network marketing work for your business. So, how can you tell if it’s really doing the trick?

That sounds like an easy question at first glance – you just check how many readers, followers, fans, etc. you’ve got. But is that what actually matters? Is that what you really want out of your social network marketing efforts?

Interaction counts, numbers don’t!

Think about it. As we’ve discussed countless times, the whole idea behind social network marketing is not just to get yourself read, but to rope in an army of people to champion your cause. What you want to see is lots of people actually talking about your business and your products online.

An impressive number of passive readers may look great on paper, and might even net you a few sales, but that simply cannot compare with people actively interacting and engaging in word-of-mouth marketing on your behalf. Remember, it’s not just the sheer amount of people you can reach when friends tell friends about you, or bloggers tell their readers. It’s the fact that, with word-of-mouth marketing, your message tends to take the form of a personal recommendation, and that’s immeasurably more effective at pulling customers!

So how can you really know how  successful your social network marketing efforts are?

What you actually need to measure is the amount of online ‘chatter’ your brand is getting, to borrow a word from the intelligence circles.

Luckily, there is little that goes on online that escapes Google’s ever-watchful eye, and running a search for your company and product names is the quickest way to find out who is talking about you on third-party sites and – more importantly – what they are saying. Yes, it’s a no-brainer, really!

Also make sure to sign up to Google Alerts to be informed whenever Google comes across new content with the search terms you specify (again, company name, brand names, and so on). If your associated keywords are getting mentioned regularly, you’re on the right track!

Get someone to keep an eye on your website’s traffic logs and find out which sites and mentions are getting you the most traffic. That way, you’ll know where to focus your online marketing in the future. Better still, set up Google Analytics and track conversions to find out where your actual sales re coming from.

As you monitor the talk going on on third-party websites, make sure you don’t forget your own! Keep track of the comments on your blog, Facebook fan pages, forums, and your other web pages where people can interact with you. Respond courteously, in a timely manner and engage the people who have bothered enough to let you know what they think.

In an online world where you can pay  so-called ‘marketing experts’ to send you a stream of traffic, or followers, or whatever, just remember what the Beatles said about money and love. The quick ‘fixes’ might inflate the figures and give you an instant ego boost, but if you really want online marketing results that will translate into increased sales in the real world, there are no short cuts. Just keep on dishing out good quality content that people will want to share around.

Yep! Once again, Content is king!

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It’s great to see a worthy cause uniting the British and Spanish communities in Tenerife, that is certainly the case with the Walk Of Life. The breast cancer campaign takes place on Sunday 13 December with a 3.5 km walk from Mediterranean Palace to Sal Y Tien – and everyone is invited.

Sorted Sites has a mix of customers from both communities and the feedback from this annual event is always positive. Cancer affects many people and their families, regardless of age, nationality or sex, so this is a chance to help raise money and awareness of the role of early diagnosis, a strong support network, and the ever improving survival rate.

More than anything, the walk is a celebration of life and all the positive things we can all do to help fight cancer. That’s why men, women and children are encouraged to join in the walk, just come along to Mediterranean Palace around 10.30am for an 11am start, and wear something pink, to show your support.

Walk for Life Tenerife

You can help to swell the funds by getting sponsorship, making a donation, or if you are a local business, sponsor the walk or the surrounding events. There will be a stage at each end of the procession, with music, raffles and commentary in English and Spanish.

For more details go to the website, or call 600821100 (English) or 629111856 (Spanish) and help to top last years 2,000 walkers and 20,000 euros raised.

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David Meerman Scott tells us that when others spread your ideas and tell your stories online, buyers are eager to do business with you and all kinds of doors begin to open. The bottom line is that in order for others to tell your story you need to get your product in shape.

Make sure you listen to the first 10 min of this video.

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