But a single line--and phrase--stuck with me most:  There was also a clear architecture for it [our social media efforts], with the blog as a hub, and all of the spokes, including our corporate site, relating coherently to the hub and to each other. "With the blog as a hub..." For readers at small companies or consulting on their own, the idea of the blog as hub is nothing special. You want to demonstrate expertise, regularly refresh content to drive better search performance, and minimize site maintenance workload. David Berkowitz  ( @dberkowitz) from the digital marketing agency 360i had a nice article today about building your brand with social media He used the example of launching the agency's new Social Marketing Playbook  earlier this month (which is well worth a look). The

We get asked how much a website should cost at least once a week. When they learn what we do for a living , they invariably ask us "what should my website cost?" If only it were easy to give a good answer. Web design projects can also vary, beginning at a few simple pages in a "brochure" website to complex websites that have a content management system, e-commerce, and interactive features. It can be by friends, friends of friends, business connections, anyone really. The fields of web design and web development are filled with a wide spectrum of professionals,

Based on two months of testing across a half-dozen B2B websites and blogs, these Web 2.0 social bookmarking sites produced the best results, in terms of driving direct traffic and having active, engaged discussion communities. sites didn't drive a large amount of direct traffic (depending on the B2B site, Web 2.0 Overall, Web 2.0 sites added 1% to 3% to total traffic—but had larger indirect benefits on traffic, such as through blog exposure and SEO).

social tagging sites, according to Alexa. Although Alexa is notorious for its lack of precision, as documented by GigaOM , SEO Book , BloggingStocks and others, it's still useful as a rough guide to website popularity. site ranked at 20,000 may not really be more popular than the site at spot 25,000, but it certainly gets more traffic than a site ranked at 200,000. Here are the rankings for 42 Web 2.0 A

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recently checked out one of their presentations from about a year ago titled "The ROI of Web Site Redesigns Made Simple" by Harley Manning and Jeffrey North . Like any presentation from one of the big analyst firms, the research focuses on very large companies, and is vertically unfocused (in this webcast, they divided websites into three groups: e-commerce, manufacturing [including B2B] and financial services), but still provides some nuggets of value for smaller organizations. Forrester Research makes a collection of its past webcasts on various online marketing topics freely available (registration required).

The day the glossary web page was launched, I tagged it on 40 social bookmarking sites. By the end of the first week, the glossary was the fourth-most-visited page on their site. Three weeks after tagging a thought-leadership piece from the site on 40+ Web 2.0 sites, the company achieved first-page position on Does Web 2.0 social tagging help drive B2B web traffic?

Note: the following is a guest post from expert researcher and freelance writer Heather Johnson on how businesses can effectively use social media as a component of PR efforts, and efficiently focus their efforts on the most productive sites. Social media sites, no longer relegated to just teens and college students, are now the most cost-effective way for a company to drum up international attention. In fact, social networking serves as a great equalizer for small businesses, as anyone with an Internet connection can now launch a successful, global marketing campaign. With so

According to a recent survey done by Forrester Research with Marketing Profs, "94% of respondents consider corporate Web sites a key element in the marketing marketing toolbox and 84% of buyers say Web sites matter in purchase decision quot; That said, Laura Ramos also points out that most B2B corporate websites "lack the basic building blocks to build customer relationships." decision making." quot; It's time for B2B companies to regard their corporate websites with a more flexible mindset.

B2B companies say that improving their websites is a priority for 2010. I'm not sure exactly what they're thinking, but I do know that — before they do anything — they need to evaluate the website they have now in order to create a renovation plan. suggest that an audit be conducted for each web page, or at least your main pages if your site is really intense. I The benefit of doing this audit will help to position your web pages to generate more responsiveness from your prospects and customers.