Websitetology  is a seminar about using the web for successfully making new business connections. We teach how the web works, how search works, and how to use open source content management systems like WordPress, Joomla! and Drupal to help you make a successful home on the web.

Conventional advertising and branding is suffering from the effects of over-exposure and fragmentation. The key is to find a community and build relationships. This story of how a small winery employed social media to grow their business is a perfect example of what we teach:

Stormhoek was a tiny South African winery when the company began working with UK blogger Hugh MacLeod to develop a social media strategy. MacLeod started working with Stormhoek in May of 2005, and by the end of the year, the winery’s sales had doubled. Besides dipping its toes in the blogging waters, in 2005, Stormhoek also launched an interesting campaign where it gave away 100 free bottles of wine to 100 bloggers in the UK, Ireland, and France. The bloggers were under no obligation to write about the wine or Stormhoek, but many did both, and the company’s awareness among bloggers skyrocketed.

In 2006, Stormhoek expanded on the ‘give wine away to bloggers’ idea, by setting up ‘Geek Dinners’, where bloggers around the United States throw their own parties, with Stormhoek providing the wine for free. This idea just further raised Stormhoek’s presence in the blogosphere.

So what’s the end result from all this for Stormhoek? Hugh MacLeod, speaking at last year’s South by Southwest festival, stated that before Stormhoek started blogging and involving bloggers in its marketing efforts, that the winery sold around 40,000 cases of wine a year. When MacLeod spoke at SXSW in March of 2007, he stated that the company was at that point selling 40,000 cases of wine a WEEK.

via So Does Blogging Really Work? Here’s the Proof. – Search Engine Guide Blog.

Although we still believe in empowering clients to do their own blogging (who knows your business better than you) we can help get you started.

To all the Tweetheads: Twitter about the seminar on Tuesday Jan 6, 2009, and you can come for the client rate of $99- just include the link to your tweet.

To everyone who has been- send your friends- and tweet that they are coming- and they can sign up for the $99 rate this seminar only- and I’ll pay you $10 per registration that they credit you for.

http://www.websitetology.com/?page_id=247&category=2&product_id=14

This is a special for the Jan 6 session only.

This isn’t exactly a WordPress tip, but it’s a handy tool for coordinating multiple people for an event- or choosing what to do. Instead of endless e-mails, pick some dates and times, send it out to everyone to see their availability and preference- and get a response in one quick move:

Doodle
Schedule an event…

… such as a board meeting, business lunch, conference call, family reunion, movie night, or any other group event.
View example, create poll
Make a choice…

… among movies, menus, travel destinations, or among any other selection.
View example, create poll
How does Doodle work?

1. Create a poll.
2. Forward the link to the poll to the participants.
3. Follow online what the participants vote for.

It’s just another cool web 2.0 tool to stash in your toolbox.