On January 10, 2009 I jumped aboard the Digital Bus.  I felt like a child on their first day of school; filled with excitement for the new ventures I would come across and yet worried about the unknown.

The journey started with my introduction to blogging, a world I thought I could never get any use out of, and one that definitely wasn’t for me.  Little did I know it is truly a world for everyone and anyone that has something to say or share. When I was writing my first blog, I was constantly worried about what other people would think rather than focusing on what I thought and what I wanted to share.  I soon came to realize that your blog is part of your identity, as is the rest of your digital presence.  Understanding this was my key to creating this blog with a true reflection of who I am, with my thoughts and opinions.   

Although learning to develop my own blog was an accomplishment that I am still excited about, I am even more enthused about starting to follow my fellow bloggers.  In the past I considered blogs to have unreliable information in comparison to websites with prominent names, I didn’t think I could trust only the opinion of a random stranger.  Today I feel blogs give me another perspective and an insiders view on the things I am interested in.  It is truly a unique way to learn from the world at a more personal level. 

I never imagined that I could have a global network that encompasses people of all ages, locations, demographics and cultures that I can learn from.  My favorite part about this network and this digital world it lies in, is the fact that it is truly a place with no prejudice.  Each person offers a unique perspective in a digital world where everyone can provide their various levels of expertise.  This is the magic of the Digital World and the wonder that was shown to me on the digital bus.   

In addition to the eye opener to the digital world and the tips and tools on how to use it, I was taught another valuable lesson that I will keep with me from here on.  I have always been the type of person that likes to try new things but in the recent past I have generally tried new things that are only of interest and benefit to me.  For example I have always used Facebook as my social networking utility and kept a blind eye to others that are out there.  Being forced into looking at other options like LinkedIn and Twitter and actually learning to use them has opened so many them has opened a whole new network for me that I never took advantage of.  Keeping the blind eye to these networks kept me in a comfort zone I am glad to be out of.  I am now willing to get my hands dirty and try things before I estimate its worth.   This is tool I can use in every aspect of my life and I know it will make a difference.

Approaching the end of my journey on the digital bus, I have realized that it is no different than the buses I have seen on my many trips to India.  They look like regular buses we have here in North America but they are never too full for anyone even if it means sitting on the roof or hanging off the back.  Although I was never allowed to get on a bus in India and could just admire them from my car window, the digital bus is one that I am glad I got onto.  It too looks like there is an overload of information yet there is always room for more!

For the past few months I have tried to expose myself to the many facets of new media and in doing so have relied heavily on Scott’s best-selling book “The New Rules of Marketing & PR: How to use New Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing & Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly”.  I have read and re-read the book and can honestly say Scott’s unique and simple perspective on a world that seems so complex can turn any new media novice to a connoisseur! 

Using Scott’s tips on News Releases and those from my New Media Drivers License class at Michigan State Unviersity I thought I would practise releasing my very own digital press release and decided to base it on my new found Guru, Scott and his ”The New Rules of Marketing & PR” book that taught me the tricks of the trade. 

I tried to publish my press release through www.1888pressrelease.com a free platform for press release distribution that also offers services including, sample press releases, press release writing tips, and compiles the most popular press releases.  After creating an account the site offered a simple template in which to insert my press release, it was easy to use and required only a few simple steps to complete.  I found one drawback in the platform and that was the turn around time from submission to publishing when using the free service.  This took longer than I expected and I am still waiting 3 days later.  My alternative to speed things up was to pay for an account which would provide more options, I chose to stick to the free service and see where it takes me. 

Despite this drawback I also posted my press release at the eco-friendly internship blog where I am currently working.  It’s a great place to find a ton of eco-friendly digital marketing information!

I continued to bring attention to my press release by using social bookmarking tools like Digg and Delicious to link to it, when the free sites approve it I will bookmark those as well. 

I am hoping my small step to help bring attention to my New Media Guru, David Meerman Scott will encourage more advertising, public relation, and marketing students and professionals to take a look at ”The New Rules of Marketing & PR” and discover that venturing into the realm of new media is not really as scary as it may seem.

Are you a victim of the recession?
Did you lose your job?
Are you applying for jobs that a sea of people are all trying to get?
Have you sent out a hundred resumes with maybe two responses that got you nowhere? …..YES?

YOU ARE WASTING YOUR TIME!!

Why be “one of many” when you can be “One from many”?

It’s time to stop doing what everyone else is doing and hop onto the digital bus to get your new media drivers license!

The digital world holds the tools you need to set yourself apart and find the jobs hiding in places you never thought to look.  Tools like Twitter, LinkedIn, Del.ic.ous, Facebook, Digg to name a few can lead the way for you.  The new media drivers license will ensure you know which tools to use, and exactly how to use them so people notice you in a crowd.

What are you waiting for?  You have nothing to lose, hop on the digital bus and take charge of your future today!

What is search engine optimization?
Search engine optimization is a way to get a website to the top results of a search engine based on specific inputted keywords.  If you type in “bacon” as a keyword on www.Google.com,  you will notice that the first two results are Wikipedia’s definition of bacon and www.IHeartBacon.com.  This is because both of those websites have strong search engine optimization.

What is Google PageRank and how does it work?
Google uses several variables to determine which websites should have a higher PageRank than others.  Google PageRank is an algorithm that the company uses to determine how credible a website is.  The PageRank scale is zero to ten.  The higher the PageRank, the higher the chances of your website showing up based on the top of search engine results. 

The first variable to consider is how long ago your domain name was registered.  If a domain name was registered in 2002, it has a much better chance of getting a higher PageRank than a domain name that was registered several days ago.  Websites that have been around for longer tend to be given a slight advantage than recently registered domain names.  So if your website is new, don’t worry just give it some time and try to work on all other aspects of SEO.

Another variable Google considers in assigning PageRank is the number of incoming links your website has.  If a lot of websites link to you, then you will receive a higher PageRank.  The more credible the website that links to you, the higher the PageRank you should expect to receive.  For example, the Digg.com homepage has a PageRank of 8/10 so if your website lands on the homepage, not only will you receive a large burst of traffic but the chances of your PageRank increasing will be higher.

Different SEO Strategies
According to Amit Chowdhry editor of Pulse2 there are different kinds of websites that exist and each require a different SEO strategy. 

Static websites that sell products usually generate sales by buying keywords from Google’s AdWords program.  This is Google’s way of buying search engine optimization.  If your website sells bacon, then you can buy certain keywords from Google so that your website shows up in noticeable areas of the search engine results.

Bloggers usually prefer to have organic and referral traffic rather than sponsored search engine optimization.  Organic traffic is when people search for keywords and find their websites without the need for buying sponsored links.  Referral traffic is when other websites send traffic to your website.  Some of the most popular referral traffic websites that send large amounts of traffic to a website includes Delicious, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit. 

Keyword Research
To find out how many people searched for a specific keyword on Google, visit the Google AdWords: Keyword Tool.  Using this tool, I foud out that about 1.5 million people searched for the word “bacon” in January.  If I buy a sponsored link for the “bacon” keyword, that would make sure that those 1.5 million notice people notice my website link.

Site Structure
The last variable to consider in order for search engines is how you organize your website.  Google also considers the domain name and blog post story titles when people search for keywords.  If the word bacon is in my domain name and/or blog post, it has a higher chance of showing up on the top of search engine results.  A website called bacon.com would have a higher chance of being found than salad.com if someone search for “bacon” on Google. 

If someone searches for “Deepti Dewan” on Google, the chance that this website being found is high because it is part of the domain name: http://deeptidewan.wordpress.com.   

An extra step to organize your site for a search engine is through the use of meta tags.  Meta tags is a way to classify and describe what keywords are related to your website.   It is recommended to add a meta tag description of your website in order to let people know what your website is about if they happen to see the link for it in a search result.  Search Engine Watch has a pretty good tutorial about how meta tags work.

At a 101 level, you have just learned what search engine optimization is and some techniques on how to improve it.  For additional guidance, refer to the following links:

- SEO Guide Book
- SEOMoz Free SEO tools
- SEO Basics Knol by Aaron Wall
- Google Webmaster Tools
- Google SEO Starter Guide

I had an image, a brand, an identity.  I remember walking up the steps to the stage ready to be handed my undergraduate degree, confidence beside me, ready to conquer the world with a new job, and my new life that was waiting outside for me.  Being confident and aware of who I was, was knowing my brand.    

Today, almost 5 years later ready to walk onto another stage to get my Masters Degree my brand isn’t all that clear anymore.  Trying to move onto the next step in my life I am told I have to be able to sell myself , I have to know my brand, I have to have an elevator speech, and I think to myself, if I don’t know my brand how am I going to sell it to the world.

This confusion has been haunting me through the last year, and I was never able to find an answer or any direction to even come close to one.  That is until I attended a lecture at the University of Michigan last week where the guest speaker, Rishad Tobaccowala (CIO of Publicis, Starcom and Digitas, and CEO of Denuo) shone some light on the matter.  Tobaccowala stated your personal brand is all about three things: your story, your niche, and your voice.  The words had just touched my ears and my mind was going haywire, here I was trying to build a brilliant, perplexing branding strategy for myself when I really just had to focus on a few smaller things. 

I guess sometimes when you have your whole life to work with it is nice for someone to give you some guidance on how to steer it all in the right direction.  This is what Rishad Tobaccowala’s words did for me, and I am running with it. 

So who is Deepti and what is her story?  Well, I can honestly say I am one of those people you don’t meet everyday, and I couldn’t possibly sum up my story in one blog post.  But even for the shortcut version I have to start at the beginning.  I was born and raised in Hong Kong till I was 14 and then moved to Mississauga, Canada.  Finished high school there, started college and soon transferred to Eastern Michigan University halfway through my undergraduate degree.  After graduation I moved back home to Canada only to realize I was still in love with my Michigan boyfriend and ended up back here and married a few years later.  Travelling has not only been my lifestyle it has also been a big part of my life as I have also travelled to over 15 countries around the world not including those I have lived in.  I believe the experience of seeing the world first hand has a lot to do with who I am today. 

To add to all this I haven’t exactly had a smooth transition from school to work and back to school like most people have had either.  After I graduated with a bachelor’s degree I worked as a marketing analyst for a financial consulting firm, I then did marketing for a trading company based out of Hong Kong and Canada.  I taught English as a second language to students at a not-for profit organization in Canada, as well as the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.  I then working as a marketing analyst once again for an international automotive supplier in Southfield, MI while I finished my master’s degree.  That is until I got layed off while on medical leave.  Only to find myself today as an eco-friendly digital marketing intern.  Quite the array don’t you think?  The circumstances in my life from moving, getting married, and having to surgically remove a 13 pound cyst in my ovary didn’t allow me to have anything that was constant and I found myself bouncing from one place to another trying to find where I belonged.  Fortunately for me having experienced so much in such a short time has taught me more than sitting behind the same desk for 4 years ever could. 

I am at the point in my life where I am ready for that constant, but the piece of paper that is supposed to sell me, my so called resume, that will get me this constant isn’t designed for people like me who have no constant.  There is no room for explanations on the gaps of time between my jobs, or the disconnectedness of going from a marketing professional, to a teacher, to a public relations student. 

All I have left is my brand.  This, I hope, is what I can develop and slap in front of my resume so people know who I really am, and of course want to know more about me at an interview J 

But first, my niche which includes: cultivation, communication, and change.  Cultivation because I am in constantly feeding my mind with the nutrients the world provides to grow into a better person everyday, communication because without this it is impossible to share and learn or in my mind even live, and last but not least ambition because this is what drives me to keep trying no matter what comes in my way.

The last piece of my puzzle to help me develop my brand is my voice which is authentic, unconventional, and positive.  I believe the most important quality of any voice is authenticity, and I am glad to say at this stage in my life I am confident enough to be authentic and real to myself and the world around me.  My voice is also unconventional because with all the voices out there who is going to hear you if you simply blend in with the crowd, I am not afraid to be the one that is different and unique.  Having a positive voice is a quality I think everyone should posses because it resonates happiness and movement towards the right direction.  There is almost always a positive side to anything; you just have to look at the situation from the right direction to see it. 

These are the foundations to Deepti‘s brand.

Social Bookmarking platforms allow you to save your favorite sites and organize them using tags (keywords).  These lists are then saved on the platform itself and can be accessed anywhere you have access to the internet.  You can then share your lists with other users of the same platform.  Other users can add your bookmarks to their own collection, or share them with even more users.  Thus creating viral marketing for the sites being bookmarked.  On top of all this the top ranked bookmarks are then posted on the front page of the bookmarking site, or on one of their top lists.

Social Bookmarking is a tool to keep track of where you have been and see where others that share your interests are going.  The viral exposure is a great way to market your business, your website, your blog, or simply your opinion on what’s out there.  The problem is choosing from the many social bookmarking sites that are out there.  Digg, Technorati, del.icio.us, propeller, StumbleUpon, Reddit, MyBlogLog, Fark, Furl, Ma.gnolia, Blinklist are only a scratch on teh surface of endless options there are out there to choose from. 

There are numerous top ten lists out there talking about which ones to use, one that I found most useful is on www.social-media-optimization.com that has a list of the “main players in the social bookmarking space”  It then breaks down the main players by explaining who each site reaches out to by including the number of visitors/users of the site, the demographic of the visitor/user, and what type of information does well on the site.

The top ten list includes:

1. Digg.com
2. Propeller.com
3. StumbleUpon
4. Reddit.com
5. Del.icio.us
6. Newsvine.com
7. Fark.com
8. Blinklist.com
9. Clipmarks.com
10. Shoutwire.com

Being new to social bookmarking myself I am currently trying to work with Digg.com, StumbleUpon, and Del.icio.us.  All of which I hope to report on real soon!

So let’s start with one that I think everyone has heard of: Facebook.  The social network was created for college students to keep in touch with each other and their faculty.  It has now erupted into a friend finding, photo sharing, status updating, wall posting ….. and the list goes on, platform for everyone and anyone.  Once you find your friends you can add them to your friend list and if they accept you, you have then opened this little window of your lives to each other.  My Facebook account has been active for over 3 years now.  Having lived all over the world it has been the greatest tool for me to find long lost friends that I left even before e-mail was around, and also for them to find me.  It gives me the ability to see and share pictures and updates with them in the easiest way possible, it’s so easy and interesting that it can get addictive!  I am sure all Facebook users have spent prolonged periods of time digging into the lives of their friends without even realizing how much time has gone by.  Facebook was great until I realised people were starting to know a lot more about me than I thought was necessary.  Having a brother in-law addicted to his account, that I also happen to hang out with all the time (because he really is the best bro in-law ever!), I found every moment I spent with him was soon broadcasted to all of his and my friends.  I would then hear that I went places or did certain things and forgot to invite, or tell other people about.  This is when I decided to limit everyones profile on my account, something Facebook makes easy to do to!!! 

Coming up right behind Facebook is LinkedIn.  My LinkedIn account hasn’t been active for very long but since I started, I definitely see a benefit in it (thus I have made sure it is a 100% complete, success as of my last recomendation yesterday Woot! Woot!).  In my eyes, LinkedIn is a professional version of Facebook, and is your resume online.  LinkedIn allows you to put everything you would put on your resume online.  You can then connect to groups or individuals just as you would on Facebook, and if they accept you they become part of your network.  This network is extremely important because these are the people that can provide recommendations for you through the site.  Its a great asset to have handy, especially for people like myself currently on the job market.  You never know who you will meet, LinkedIn allows you to be able to give your resume, including recommendations, to anyone on demand!  What more could you ask for? 

Last, but not least I bring you Twitter.  My Twitter account is one of my newest ventures and I have to say this has been the most complicated platform for me to get a grasp of.  Twitter basically allows it’s users to write a status, which they call “tweeting” in 140 text characters or less.  You create lists of people that you follow, and people will follow you.  There is no authorization needed to follow anyone, and they don’t need to be your friend or colleague either, it could just be strangers following strangers.  “Great, well who cares?” was my reaction when I started tweeting.  You can update your status on msn, on facebook, on iGoogle, why add another one to your list?  Well there is a method to this madness, twitter allows you to follow the people in the world that share an interest with you, that you could otherwise never reach at such a social level.  For example I follow people at certain PR firms that I would like to be a part of  in the future, to see what they are interested in, or what they talk about, and which usually relates to what’s hot in the PR field.  It allows me to stay up to date with what they are talking about so if I do happen to get the chance to interview at one of their firms, I will already be ahead of my game rather than cramming everything in the night before an interview.

In a nut shell these platforms aren’t as confusing as they may seem, once you figure out what your goal is, it is easy to judge which one will provide you the best value.  Personally I am using all of them for their individual benefits, as well as using them together to build my social media presence.

No luck until, today!  I played around with the settings of my adwords account …. and finally by uping my offering to Google to $50/month did the trick.  After only 3 searches of (“Deepti Dewan Chowdhry“ + “New Media Drivers License“) I got a hit, and wanted nothing more but to share it with you = )

HERE IT IS…

It works and it’s great…….now before I attract too much attention to myself I must go back and change my settings to stay within my student freindly budget = )

3 weeks into the New Media Drivers License class and I feel like I have learnt something new everyday since the start.  No matter what the assignment there is more information out there on it than I can possibly grasp in a week so the learning never ends.  My target for today: AdWords!

Google AdWords, everyones heard of them, everyones seen them, yet not everyone really knows how they work.  Well this week I tried to attract attention to “Deepti’s Blog” through AdWords, it might even be how you landed here and started reading it = ) .  I started with great fear of filling out endless forms, learning new terminology and having to do a lot of research before I could ever have an “ad” out for public viewing.  Little did I know along with everything else they have thought of the solution for this too!!!

Creating your own personalized Google Ad and have it up and running takes no more than 15 minutes!  You need to enter basic personal information which ofcourse includes a credit card number…feel some hesitation already…don’t worry Google let’s you manage how much money you wish to allocate to your “advertising budget”  there are recommendations out there that a good start should be around $50 but hey I’m a student doing some exploration so mine was $5.  You choose how much you are willing to pay per person that clicks on your add, in my case I chose $0.10, and when you get enough clicks to reach your monthly max they will stop posting your add until the new month starts.  WOW!  A pricing plan that I could control, this impressed me in the first 10 minutes of using their system. 
The next big step was writing the ad that would attract people.  Google allocates 3 lines for every AdWord with room for 25 words on the first line, 35 on the second, 35 on the third, and lastly the url to your site.  This is where I thought I would have to use my Masters Degree and expertise in Advertising and Public Relations, EH! WRONG!  Google yet again made this extremely easy.  There is a tool that scans your website for key words, these words are then shown to you in a list and you can add them to the words you want your add found for.  Each word they find then comes with an expanded list of related words which you can also add.  It is from this list that you can create your AdWords lingo.  It is genius, Google takes the guessing out of the game, they help you maximize your output without you having to be an expert.  The following are the keywords Google helped me compile:

You can change these keywords, your actual ad, your budget, your per-click amount at any time through your AdWords login (which is the same as your Google login for any of their other tools out there G-Mail, Google Calendar, iGoogle etc). 

I spent the week changing all of the above and playing around with different combinations of words etc.  Although through many searches I was unable to find my add pop-up I am happy to announce that the stats through my AdWords account showed me that I got one hit on my add, so I know it’s out there, and the excitement it brought me is definitely worth the $0.10 I owe Google for it = )

The downside to all this is simply that you can do more with a larger budget.  A larger budget gives your ad preference over others with lower budgets thus shows up more and leads to more hits.  But isn’t that the reality of the advertising world!  Google has still found a way for a girl like me with a $5 budget create her own personal ad campaign and actually have one stranger in the world stop by her little blog world and take a peek! 

It’s a fantastic tool that is easy to use with endless possibilities, I am definitely going to keep at it and hopefully find the key (from my fellow bloggers out there) to getting the most hits from a minimal budget.  You’ve done it again Google, you’ve done it again!!!

So have I become a Social Media Rockstar from all of this?  Well not quite yet, but I do have a million questions swimming in my head.  The most recent in my mind is why blog? why blog when there are endless blogs out there that everyone is looking at, who is ever going to stumble across my feeble attempt at joining the pros? who is going to be interested in what I am saying.  Then one blog that I came across hit the nail write on the head, the FutureBuzz blogger Adam Singer said “Blogging is like going to the gym…for your brain”.  I couldn’t have chosen better words as this week felt like one big long workout for my brain!  Blogging is painstakingly hard to start and get used to, but as one perseveres it becomes a habit and an easy way to share your opinion with the world.

I believe this is true for all social media, it is an opening to tell the world whatever it is you want, those that want to hear it will, and the others, well they aren’t relevant anyways.  What am I taking away from these words from my fellow blogger?  Well it’s to keep at it, continue to share what I know with the world, and learn from what others are sharing.  Isn’t social media just making us one big happy family