• Facebook “likes” are starting to show up in searches.  Before you know it, Facebook will unleash it’s search engine and “likes” will be the new pagerank.
• Cleaver ways to use Dropbox.  Even use it to host your website.
• Pepsi is launching a location-based loyalty program in mid-May called Pepsi Loot.  Check-in at a restaurant or establishment that serves Pepsi through their mobile app and earn rewards towards free music, behind-the-scenes content and special offers.
• How to add a retweet anywhere button to your WordPress site. *See an example of this below this post.
• RUMOR:  Google could reveal details about their TV project during their I/O conference on May 18.

I Read These Articles, You Should Too is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

@Lifehacker – Google Docs Updates with a Drawing Editor, Real-Time Collaboration, and Speed http://lifehacker.com/5513760/

@Biz – Hello World http://bit.ly/bpHYWH

@adamcahill - The iAd team visited @hillholliday yesterday and briefed us. @vedrashko wrote up a great summary of what we heard: http://bit.ly/bBYx9N

@steph38103 – I reckon I wanna go to @tribecamp

@louisgray -  Twazzup Opens Up Rich Twitter Web Client, Launches Insights http://goo.gl/fb/15nJE

@Alex – The Twitter Development Roadmap – Where Twitter Is Heading http://tnw.to/15xac

@RavenPratt - Really cool fan page poll application created by @nfusion – love seeing ways like this to encourage interaction http://kl.am/axRI

Overheard on Twitter This Past Week is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

I apologize for being away for a while, lots of new and exciting things going on in my personal life including an upcoming wedding as well as a new job.  I’ll do my best to get new and fresh content on the site in the coming weeks, but it could be pretty sparse.  In the meantime, why not check out my shared article feed or find me on twitter?

Here are a few article that have caught my eye recently.

• Do Mobile Coupons Matter? – Forrester breaks down which consumers are using mobile coupons, what technologies are on the forefront and if your company should begin to support mobile coupons.
• Rapportive – a simple CRM tool built right into GMail (Firefox add-on)
• How to Create a Text Marketing Campaign – Straight-forward advice for small businesses along with some great tools to help you get started with your first SMS campaign.
• Landing Page Makeover Clinic from CopyBlogger
• Best Keyword Ranking Tools for SEO (video) – paid and free versions
• Keep your website up to date with these SEO Health Checks
• AlertRank is like Google Alerts on Steroids -  each site in your alert will be rated based on an algorithm that takes into account the overall value and influence of the source

Online Marketing Articles I’m Reading This Week is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

Waiting on the NFL playoff games to start and need to kill a little time?  Here are the articles I’m reading this weekend.

• 35 Beautiful and Effective E-commerce Sites. One of my predictions for 2010 is that “experience” will be the big web buzzword.  Smashing Magazine has put together a set of attractive online stores that try to do just that by creating an eye-catching look and also focusing on usability.
• Google SEO Resource for Beginners.  Straight from the mouth of the 800lb gorilla, Google hands out SEO bananas for you to make your site leaner and meaner in 2010.
• Posterous taps Post.ly to help share your media via Twitter. Attach photos, music, videos and docs to your tweets.  Post.ly takes care of the rest.
• Chris Guillebeau over at The Art of Non-Conformity kicks off his $100 business forum.  The premise being to teach individuals to start small businesses on a budget of less than $100.  I was lucky enough to get into the first class beginning in February.  I’ll keep you updated on how it works out.
• Microsoft makes learning Office fun (yes, you read that right).  Microsoft turns learning Office into a game where participants score points for unlocking challenges and achievements. Badges can then be shown off via Facebook.
• How to create custom YouTube, Twitter and MySpace backgrounds

If you’re interested in seeing more, check out my Google Reader Shared Items.

What are you reading this weekend? Let me know in the comments below.

Here’s What I’m Reading This Weekend is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

Here are some interesting posts that I’m catching up on this weekend.

• Do-it-yourself iPhone applications – Great article covering a services such as Swebapps and GameSalad that help you get your iPhone app or game off the ground with little investment.  ReadWriteWeb also published 13 tools to build your own iPhone app.
• 100 Social Media and Content Marketing Predictions for 2010 and 10 Must-Do Marketing Tips for 2010
• Scobleizer’s challenge to start a 15-min Twitter business for $100
• 2010: The Year Marketing (as we know it) Dies – Forrester contemplates the next year being a time in which big brands will be forced to be transparent, open and focus on smaller niches. Campaigns will become relationships, impressions transform into experiences and you’ll be required to earn the trust of your customers.  If you’re short on time, just read the bottom 1/3 of the article.
• Screenshots of Facebook’s redesign
• 20 examples of creative WordPress sites

Weekend Reading List is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

It’s a Small URL After All takes you through the process of using open-source Yourls to create your own personalized URL shortening service similar to tinyurl.com and bit.ly. This deck was presented at BarCamp Memphis by Bob Hazlett of www.onehalfamazing.com and Daniel Pritchett of www.sharingatwork.com.

How-to Make Your Own URL Shortening Service is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

Facebook let it all hang out to a select group of members to test their new search interface.  The system would allow members to search their news feed for recent updates, photos, links, videos and notes being shared on friends’ profiles and fan Pages. Users who have made their profile and content available to anyone will also be searchable.

SEOMoz yammers it up during Whiteboard Friday to talk about visualization.  I think visualization is one of those new and sexy fields that you’ll hear more and more about in the near future.

SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday – Visualization from Scott Willoughby on Vimeo.

12seconds is updating their iPhone app to take advantage of the new OS 3.0.  The app, which should be available soon, will allow you to send short video messages directly to your friends via twitter.

Back ‘dat thing up and pick up some great tips about landing page design through CopyBlogger’s Landing Page Makeover.  Their most recent tutorial covers CarsHelpingAmerica.org.

If you’re a fan of Indie Rock, I highly recommend The Veils – Sun Gangs. Rock out this weekend.

Facebook Universal Search, Visualization, 12Seconds and Landing Page Design is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

Here are the interesting posts at the top of my reading list this week.

The fine folks at the Red Cross are working diligently on crafting a Social Media Policy Handbook.  They’ve got a great start and are light years ahead of even most for-profit businesses. As it should, its available online for your viewing pleasure.

Staying with the non-profit side of things, NPR has a great feature of The Extraordinaries.  Its a micro volunteering iPhone app that allows people to give small blocks of time (< 5 min) and knowledge to a non-profit. Some of the first tasks available are tagging images for the Brooklyn Museum building a map of childhood playgrounds.  It’s a beautiful concept.

SEOMoz updated their SEO Best Practices to account for new industry data.  They clear the air and a lot of confusion in regards to new search engine optimization standards.  The synopsis is H1 tags are not all that necessary anymore, stop trying to sculpt PageRank with nofollow, use footer links, java and flash sparingly, traffic to a site doesn’t determine its ranking and quite a bit more.

Smashing Magazine compiled a great list of web design checklists and resources that will help improve your writing skills.

Rumor has it that Google is experimenting with product ads that would would work very similar to AdWords, but display an image ad along the right hand side of the SERP when the user searches on a particular term.  These ads would run on a pay-per-action basis rather than a pay-per-click (PPC) basis.

Non-Profits Kicking Butt, New SEO Best Practices, Web Design Checklists and Google Advertising Rumors is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

Google releases geo-performance reporting feature

10 Web Applications for FriendFeed

Social Media Breakfast #6 Memphis and an update from Sharing at Work

Will it Matter in 5 Years?

On Demand WordPress Theme and a nice Thesis Update

The Most Brilliant Outdoor Campaign Ever

How Simple Web Design Helps Your Business and 40 Creative Design Layouts from Smashing Magazine

I also ordered two books: The Leader of the Future 2 and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There

What I’m Reading this Week is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

• Smashing Magazine – 100 of the best free WordPress themes
• 9 Benefits of Twitter for Bloggers – Also see my free trade idea post on using Twitter for your business
• The New Rules of Viral Marketing – free ebook
• How to Sneak Social Media into the Enterprise
• Best of Adobe Flash Tutorials
• How To: Effectively Talk to Execs and Clients about Social Media
• You Suck at Photoshop

Ink-a-dink a bucket of Links is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

I’ve just added a new section to my site called “Where I Go.” It’s very similar to the old Links page that many sites used to contain. Within it I’ve added a list of blogs, podcasts and sites I love. These sites are the community and the people who share ideas, push the world forward and make the story better in the end. If you’d like to be part of One Half Amazing, then you should be on this page. Email me and give me your URL, and your RSS feed.

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Launch of “Where I Go” Page is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

Social Media Marketing Essentials
A few ways to be successful with social media are to interact with participatory communities, create and promote viral (and beneficial) content and research the key influencers in a certain industry. When you or your company successfully incorporates these tactics into your social media marketing plan, you can increase brand awareness and increase traffic to your site or subscribers to your blog. These can also lead to increased conversions and sales for your company. SMX NY Session: Social Media Marketing Essentials

What’s Your Social Media Strategy?
Chris Brogan has a great way of taking complex social media theory and breaking it down into digestible chunks. In this article he gives you some overall thoughts on what you should consider while developing your social media strategy. What are you doing with it all? What is your plan? How are you tying this all together to make it meaningufl, useful, and/or otherwise impactful conversations with your community?

Is Your Social Media Marketing Strategy Passive or Active?

Measuring Your Social Media Efforts
I firmly believe that when talking to a CEO or any other high level decision maker who doesn’t understand Social Media, you must be able to show the value first and foremost. Chris takes on this issue. Wouldn’t it be great if someone could actually make a system to measure all of your social media efforts?

How to write a Social Media Press Release

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Links – Social Media Edition is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

• You understand social media and the benefits it can bring to your personal life, your company or a client’s business, but not everyone is on the same boat. Chris Brogan breaks down the high level points to introducing a social media adoption strategy. I couldn’t agree with him more on (1) Show the Reward, Not the Tools, (2) Consider Head Count and (3) Start Simple and Lay it Out.
• SearchMarketingGurus.com give a great overview to Optimizing your Press Release for Search Engines and People
• On September 15, 1997 Larry Page and Sergey Brin registered the domain name Google.com. Their market value today sits at $164 billion. Excuse me while I go cry myself to sleep.
• Ogilvy’s Blogger Outreach Code of Ethics which should be offset somewhere by the Blogger’s Guide to Publicity.
• The Business Blogging Toolset – 100 Resources for Entrepreneur Writers. Feel free to also check out my earlier post on What is a Blog and How Can It Help Your Small Business.

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Link Manifesto is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

Yes, I’ve only been blogging for a couple weeks now and I’m going on vacation. Life and work has been stressing me out. Enjoy the following links and articles.

BarCamp Nashville
What is the BarCamp Nashville Vision? “We will create the greatest digital festival in the history of Nashville. We will bring together entrepreneurs, technology visionaries, digital creators, music revolutionaries and marketing gurus under one roof for twelve hours of education, innovation and recreation.”

I’ve actually considered starting/looked for similar groups here in Memphis. Maybe beginning a BarCamp Memphis will be the ticket. Any interest?

How to Reduce Banner Blindness and Use Effective Ads that Work – DoshDosh
This post reminds me of an ad campaign Symantec ran recently which featured an RSS feed of content that updated daily within the actual ad. They claim the ads featured RSS did not experience ‘fatigue’ and saw a 300% spike in response several weeks into the campaign.

As the landscape becomes more and more complex, the difficulty in finding the perfect set of ads changes. Why not just be upfront with your users and let them know your stance. You’ll be be much better off showing your hand early then being deceptive in the long run.

Personal MBA
I’ve been following the PMBA since 2005 and they’ve just recently released their newest version. Have a look.

The Personal MBA (PMBA) is a project designed to help you educate yourself about advanced business concepts. This manifesto will show you how to substantially increase your knowledge of business on your own time and with little cost, all without setting foot inside a classroom.

The PMBA is more flexible than a traditional MBA program, doesn’t involve going into massive debt, and won’t interrupt your income stream for two years. Just set aside some dedicated reading time, pick up one of these books, learn as much as you can, discuss what you learn with others, and go out into the real world and make great things happen.

If you’re interested in educating yourself about business, the Personal MBA is the best place to start.

100 of the Best Small Business Audio Podcasts
Most of the podcasts specifically target a small business audience. Others have a broader business focus. All, however, are relevant to business owners and entrepreneurs. Explore and listen, and see what you think of this list.

Additional Resources:
The Old Carpet and Drapes courtesy of DoctorBalls

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Everybody’s Working for the Weekend Links is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!