This is a great tool for the Holidays – Giftag.  It’s brought to us by the same team that developed Best Buy’s internal employee social network Blue Shirt Nation.  Giftag is a wish list on steroids, an add-on for your browser that allows you to add any product to your wish list while browsing the internet with minimal clicks.

Since a lot of the things I usually put on my own wish lists don’t just come from Amazon and other popular mega online retailers, I’ve been using a different third-party website to collaborate my wish lists for Christmas and my birthday for a couple years now.  While it was a good free option, it was sort of a hassle because you have to enter in the manufacturer, website URL, retailer, price, category, and a description to get a well organized list.  And you had to have multiple windows or tabs open to do so, entering in these details on their website while looking at the product in another.

Sure it was easy enough to share via email, and easy for anyone to see it.  But it was very plain.

Not Giftag.  The added benefit of it being a browser add-on is phenomenally convenient.  As I’m browsing, should I click on a link randomly and be taken to a product I desire to add to my wish list, I simply click the icon in my Firefox toolbar and a window pops up, allowing me to select what part of the image I want to include on my wish list.  In essence, what the add-on is doing is taking a screen shot.  Now, in the demo video on the Giftag website, they show the user dragging a square over the entire item picture and description, but for my tastes I just drag the box over the picture of the item.  A footer bar expands in the browser window to allow the user to edit the name of the product, add tags, and add a description.

I’m a bit anal-retentive about how organized my lists are, so I usually copy the description from the website before I click the Giftag button and paste it into this area, along with any specifics to my gift, such as what size or color I want. And remember, I can add products from any site; no Best Buy embargo here.  The best thing about Giftag is that you can share the list using the ShareThis service, so sharing it through e-mail, MySpace, SMS texts, AIM, blog posts, and other social networks is all available!  From the home page you can also see recent items that other users have added to their wish lists, and friend up users with similar tastes or friends to share wish lists directly through the Giftag site.  This truly is the wishlist of web 2.0!

The demo videos they’ve put up are the best seller to this amazing free service, just in time for the holidays, so check it out at www.Giftag.com!

 Powered by Max Banner Ads 

By writers that kill!  But it’s important to remember, as noted in my notes below, that content isn’t just the written word.  It’s pictures, videos, widgets, everything. The panel consisted of:

• Lisa Picarille, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief, Revenue Magazine (Moderator)
• Angel Djambazov, OPM, Custom Tailored Marketing
• Kim Rowley, Founder, Key Internet Internet Marketing, Inc.

Overall it was a great panel, and Lisa did really well as a moderator despite unfortunately loosing her voice between last night & this morning.

Bullet Point Review!

• People want to write but they’re generally intimidated when they don’t have the “education” to do so.
• Passion & a unique voice are key.
• Ask yourself: how am I going to constantly update the readers & provide something new?
• Know your audience and craft your message.
• Ask your users for submissions.
• Contests are great – sometimes merchants will give you freebies to give away for the exposure & talking them up.
• Readers can tell the difference between reviews that are genuine and reviews that are written just to make a buck (hint: usually they’re overly talkin’ them up).
• Content isn’t just the written word, it’s also pictures, UGC, videos.
• Engage your audience & it will create content & ideas.
• Ask questions to engage readers.
• Be sure your ads contribute to your overall message – example given was a site for memorials for loved ones who’ve passed on with a banner ad for a popular dating service.  Message FAIL.
• Design does contribute to the content, and can make it “seem” better.
• The design sets the tone for the content – a good example is TheDailyCandy.com – the design is fun & so is the content.
• Have some content that’s controversial…sometimes it gets more hits.
• Ping.fm is a great aggregate that lets you post across MANY social networks at once.
• Create an affinity with your audience.
• How do you get help?  Ask knowledgeable family members, friends, users, and a professional outsource if necessary.
• What makes content the most compelling?  Angel says be organic & open, be yourself, have some humor, & give a takeaway.  Overall, be consistent!  His example was Chrisbrogan.com.

Points brought up during the Q&A

• Keep video to 2-3 minutes max to keep attention – unless you’re damn compelling.
• Stories are better than iteration of tech knowledge.
• You need to get specific with your niche.
• Promote new blogs to the readers of your current blog.
• Passion resonates.
• Archives need to be accessible and easy – if I just found you & really like your blog, I’ll want to see what you’ve written about before.
• Effective to use analytics to understand how your audience interacts with you.  It helps narrow down the sweet spot of your topic.
• Use Wordpress plugins to your advantage to highlight the most popular posts.
• ShareThis is a great tool.

It was totally great!

 Powered by Max Banner Ads