Webbed Marketing Recognized For Digital, Interactive Talent at Ohio Interactive Awards

Receives Award for Best Use of Twitter

Central Ohio online marketing agency recognized at the 2011 Ohio Interactive Awards for Best Use of Twitter.

Webbed Marketing, a leading Internet marketing agency in Columbus, Ohio, was recognized as one of the state’s top digital and interactive talents at the 2011 Ohio Interactive Awards.

Webbed Marketing’s social media team earned the award for Best Use of Twitter.  Bill Balderaz, Webbed Marketing’s founder and CEO, was also a presenter at the recognition ceremony, which was held at the Ohio Union at the Ohio State University, in Columbus.  

A total of 15 awards were presented in the following categories: Advertising, Sectors/Industry, Social Web, Best Integrated Campaign, Best Use of New Technology, and Interactive Agency of the Year. Winners were chosen by a panel of marketing industry leaders who work with and represent some of the world’s most recognizable brands and Fortune 500 companies. Entries were judged on a 5-point scale in four areas: Challenges, Strategy, Objectives, and Results.

Webbed Marketing earned the award for Best Use of Twitter for their campaign with the City of Columbus.  Webbed Marketing assisted the City of Columbus with the promotion and coverage of the 2011 State of the City Address. This was the first time the City used social media to promote an event or speech. Leading up to the event, Webbed Marketing used Twitter to promote attendance and raise awareness of the event, and encouraged those who could not attend to follow Twitter and the hashtag #SOTCbus for live updates throughout the address. In the days leading up to the address, Webbed Marketing asked the general public to submit their questions for Mayor Coleman via Twitter and Facebook, and the top three would be answered on these outlets following the event.

Additionally, the campaign reached out to local bloggers who regularly covered key issues that would be mentioned in the Mayor’s address, such as downtown development and the environment. In total, more than 50 people tweeted live from the State of the City Address using the #SOTCbus hashtag.

Webbed Marketing also sat in the press room with Mayor Coleman after the event to answer questions that came in on social networks, and the answers were tweeted the following day.  Mayor Coleman appreciated that social media channels are just as important as the mainstream media outlets, and he was enthusiastic to participate in the Q&A. 

And by answering the general public’s questions for Mayor Coleman on Twitter the days following the event, Webbed Marketing was able to keep the buzz around the State of the City Address going long after the speech was over.

“Ohio is home to some of the best and brightest digital and interactive professionals in the world, who do incredible work for both major and emerging brands,” said Bryan Huber, a founding member of the awards program. “The Ohio Interactive Awards were created to showcase and recognize that tremendous talent.”

Sponsors of the 2011 Ohio Interactive Awards include Website sponsor, Sync Creative; Promotional sponsor, Kessel Communications; and Event sponsors, Columbus Interactive, Dynamit, Ozone Studios, Talktainment Radio, Webbed Marketing, Exact Target and Resource Interactive. Founding sponsors of the awards are TeamBuilder Search, Bryan and Leigh Huber, and 247 INTERACTIVE.

About the Ohio Interactive Awards

Created in 2009, the Ohio Interactive Awards celebrate and recognize Ohio’s creative talent and the exceptional work produced by the interactive marketing community.  For more information on the awards, visit http://ohiointeractiveawards.com. 

About Webbed Marketing

Webbed Marketing is a team of experts in the Internet marketing field. Their goal is to grow businesses through the application of Internet resources. The firm specializes in search engine optimization and marketing, as well as viral marketing services, word of mouth and buzz measurement and social media strategies. Visit www.webbedmarketing.com for more information.

Look for two types of people, those everyone is talking to, and those no one is talking to. The one everyone is talking to is likely to be outgoing, social and well connected. When you strike up a conversation, look for common connections. The person by themselves presents a great opportunity too. First, he or she probably feels awkward alone and would welcome the conversation. Also, people feel more comfortable approaching groups than individuals. -Bill Balderaz, Webbed Marketing

It can be difficult for entrepreneurs to find resources that really are “free” these days.

Speakersite.com for speaking engagements to promote your business

Social media sites to promote your business, gather customer feedback and connect with customers. And also to connect with other entrepreneurs.

Local SBA office (small business association)

Thanks to Amy Marshall!
http://www.webbedmarketing.com/

Courtney Cooper, a PR specialist for Columbus, Ohio-based Webbed Marketing, expressed a similar sentiment, noting she wouldn’t be comfortable communicating with a journalist for a client via Facebook. “LinkedIn, yes. Twitter, yes. It’s something about Facebook that, for me, seems more personal and less professional.”

We want to help you save money. Really, it’s that simple. Who couldn’t use a few extra dollars in their pocket, especially in this economy?

So we’ve enlisted the help of several small business owners who know a thing or two about cutting costs and increasing profits. (You can thank us later.) This round of advice comes from Bill Balderaz, founder of Webbed Marketing in Columbus.

Many provisions of the massive Affordable Care Act won’t take effect until 2014, but business owners and health-care experts are already apprehensive.

Article features Webbed Marketing partners Bill Balderaz and Amy Marshall.

10. 3 Things Ultimately Measure The Success Of A Business

No matter how you look at it, a business can’t be successful without financial stability. Financial stability allows a business to attract and retain the best employees. While the best employees care about more than money, you need to provide great benefits, training and compensation to have the best team.

The next step is to offer great products or services. When a great team is armed with the right tools, you can do this. Our “smell test” for services is simple and consists of two parts: 1) Can we be the best in this category? 2) Is there a high demand? If so, we pursue.

Then, we look to have the best clients. What makes a great client? Someone who is as dedicated to the success of a program as we are. Someone who puts the people and budget into a program to make sure it works.

Thanks to Bill Balderaz of Webbed Marketing.

The updates, teasers and reminders Webbed Marketing posts on our social networks about our monthly webinars/events really pays off for us. Using social media to update our audience, and interact, increases registration for our events and webinars. This, in turn, helps position Webbed Marketing as a thought leader in the industry. This reputation allows us to maintain clients we’ve had for years, and gain new business on a regular basis.

“We started researching/using check-in type location services (Foursquare) in late 2009, early 2010. We haven’t used it a lot because most of our clients aren’t a great fit for this service. When Facebook Places started, that was a bit more interesting because Facebook was already such a large network (especially for a lot of our healthcare and technology clients).  Most of our clients aren’t consumer/retail businesses, and there isn’t a lot of opportunity for location-based tools, unless you have “specials” to offer. For us, it was worth creating the profiles/locations for some clients, but only because it tied in with link building and local SEO efforts.” Rebecca Roebuck, Webbed Marketing

Our own Karen Schneider was recently featured in an article about how to get the most out of Facebook ads.  Karen talked about how Facebook ads helped Webbed Marketing grow The Olive Orchard Facebook page.  “During the four months they ran, visitors who clicked on the ads that directed them to the website converted at 1.15%, while those who came from the Facebook page converted at 3.29%. During this time period, the Facebook page received 768 new ‘likes.’”

Read more about The Olive Orchard campaign and other tips for a successful Facebook ad campaign here.