After further research I discovered that despite investing time and money into the commercials for Flo, Progressive was not at the top of the Search Engines for those terms.  Neither Progressive’s web site nor the youtube videos were optimized for the most popular terms.  I thought this was odd considering that the natural step for me was to google Flo and find out more about her.  What was even more surprising was that www.progressivesflo.com was available.

As a little SEO experiment, I decided to buy the domain name and set up “the unofficial fan site” of Flo.  What was I going to write about?  I went to the Progressive youtube channel and wrote a blog post about each of the commercials.  I made sure to optimize the posts for search engines.  Since launching in July of 2009, the site has gotten over 4,000 visits and 7,500 page views.  In the last thirty days it’s received over 800 visits.  I haven’t promoted it beyond tweeting it (at launch).

That’s about 500 potential leads a month that are hitting my site all because of search engine optimization.  The next time you plan a marketing campaign you may want to think about how people will search for your campaign on the web.   Will they google the slogan, the character’s name, the celebrity you have starring in the commercial?  These are all opportunities to get visits to your web site.

Recently, Progressive has done a better job in ranking for the high volume terms related to Flo.  They now have two listings on the front page for “Progressive Flo.”   However, with the SEO value of their web site, they could easily dominate the google rankings for these terms if they optimized their web site and social media campaigns for them.

Back in the day there was a show on NBC called Blossom.  One of the character’s played by Joey Lawrence had this trademark saying “WHOA!”  I immediately wanted this packaged and at my disposal like sad trumpet.  After a few hours of research, photoshop design, flash work, and html coding I created http://www.joeywhoa.com.  I didn’t want to spend too much time on the design but I wanted to have a little 90’s flare to it.  So I used some old Saved by the Bell promo materials to inspire the logo and background.  I also threw up an old school hit counter for fun.  Check it out and make sure to follow up a outrageous, moronic, or ordinary tweet or fb status with a Joey Whoa.

It’s a very cool interactive application.  The techology itself has all kinds of potential.  I got really excited because I’ve build interactive flash applications that plug in user information and make it completely unique.  I would highly encourage you to check it out.  This combined with learning how to build custom facebook pages leaves all kinds of potential for interactive and customizable contests and trailers even more viral.   In the meantime, check out http://www.flashforwardexperience.com.

I just tried to use whatever was on his homepage.  The result is pretty cool.  If you look at the design I’ve added to the post, you can see that I have incorporated his contact us form and also his youtube video.  So if you find him on facebook or just by googling him, you can contact him from facebook. I think the youtube video (which I shot and edited) helps bring out his personality and allows him to demonstrate his expertise.  After all, if you are going to ship him your priceless glass item, you would want to trust him.

A custom facebook fan page can help you stand out among your competitors and impress your customers.  If you would like to know more about the process, please leave a comment or contact me.  In the meantime, I’m looking forward to more expermenting with facebook fan pages.  Please check out the Bruening Glass Facebook Page.

However, because of the youtube wedding dance video, the song makes me think of this great dance and the amazing things that come with marriage and love. It makes me wonder if the millions of other people who have viewed the video feel the same way. In a time where Brown has attempted to rebuild his career by publicly apologizing, this could potentially help him out tremendously.

Given that, will we see this tactic used by marketers in the future trying to rebuild a client’s reputation? Do you think this helps or hurts Chris Brown?

UPDATE:
As of the last few days, the song “Forever” has been in the 10 ten on the itunes top songs. Before the video came out, it was nowhere to be found in the top 100. You now wonder if it becomes a staple song at weddings going forward along with the Electric Slide, YMCA, and Shout.

There are many resources you can look at when trying to evaluate who the top PR firms on twitter are. Here are a few tips on evaluating PR firms:

• Check out their web site. See if they have a blog and if they publish it regularly.
• View their youtube, twitter and facebook accounts to see how active they are.
• Give them a call and talk to them about how they can help you with your twitter account.
• Your twitter activity should be an extension of your overall marketing strategy. So take that into account as well.
• Start up a twitter account. Get an understanding of how it works before you talk to the pr firm.

Overall, twitter can be a great asset to your marketing strategy. Social media marketing should be apart in your overall marketing strategy and finding out who the top PR Firms on twitter are is important. And of course I may be biased but I highly recommend Cement Marketing.

• http://www.couponland.org – formerly carlscoupondiscounts.com
• http://www.athensohiohotels.net
• http://www.progressivesflo.com
• http://www.wordpresshosting1.com
• Bowling Green Ohio Hotels

They are all in production so please don’t judge them too harshly. I’m showing them not only to you but also to google (so google will start indexing them). I’ll have more for you soon. Feel free to contact me with questions.

Here’s the link to the blog post about it – http://developers.facebook.com/news.php?blog=1&story=258. I’m actually testing it out in this post: see below and feel free to roast me .

Here’s the video:

• The importance of google local listings
• How to set up a blog under your own domain name
• Newspapers and the internet
• Setting up a forum on your web site

Look for video to accompany my web site posts. You also may have noticed a redesign of my web site. Since I’m planning on blogging more, I wanted to change up the look so that my posts are more readable.

Thanks!