Bookmark Your Websites Like You Bookmark Your Last Page.

this post was ORIGINALLY written January 19, 2010...


You know how you’re reading this realllly good article or website and you just want to shout its praises to the mountaintops? Well, in a way, you can. Through Social Bookmarking websites (including Del.ic.ious, Faves and Blinklist), readers are able to create descriptions of their favorite websites to share with the world. Along with these descriptions are tags that serve as “keywords” that can pull a desired topic up for researchers even quicker. For example, I created a description for Loco’s Bar and Grill, a delicious local Tex-Mex restaurant, with a few tags including “ Detroit, downtown, greektown, restaurant, bar, authentic Tex-Mex, food.”

Easy and SUPER necessary. Remember my post about how certain websites get their listing order in Google? Well, this is one of the ways. If there are enough websites creating a buzz about your website, your relevance (and list order) will certainly jump. 

Oh yeah--when you visit websites, blogs and forums...leave a comment. The owners of your fave websites need them. They gotta get their member and comment numbers up so their social capital (a social network’s usefulness) can increase. I’m guilty of being a “lurker” myself...but, hey, now we know. 

Moral of today’s story: Social bookmarking is great for the continued growth and relevance of your favorite website. 
Become an active website viewer and commenter. Use those fingers and pay them for their blog with your "2 cents."


--Lisa

I'm From "The D".

this post was ORIGINALLY written January 14, 2010...

I have so much pride in Detroit. My city. My home.

Seriously. 

For the first 18 years of my life, until my freshman year at Michigan State (Go Green!), I was Detroit-born and bred. There is so much character in this city that it’s ridiculous. Outsiders will never understand why there are people like me (my own mother doesn’t understand and she grew up here). We are the “Detroit Die-Hards.” Those of us who rep our city no matter WHERE we are. Besides, when you go out of town, you don’t say “Oh yeah, I live in Ferndale.” You say, “I’m from Detroit” (which is usually accompanied by the “side eye” which can almost be perceived as a look of pity or fear...If it’s fear, good. Make ‘em think you’re tough. Then offer them a Faygo Redpop and some Hot Better Made chips). All people see is the negative. Violence, murder, drugs, failing economy, failing school system, no jobs (or lack thereof)....

I can understand.

However, where there is an abundance of bad....there is an abundance of good not too far behind. I bet people don’t know about the highly intelligent and outstanding world-changers that are products of our public school system (*ahem*), our beautiful homes and communities that have not been affected by the foreclosure crisis or the great opportunities to take part in the blossoming entrepreneurship in the city. Slowly but surely, Detroit is once again taking its place as “the place to be.” 

One website that showcases all of the cool things happening in our city is doDetroit.com. This is one of the websites that real Detroiters are looking for. From dining and nightlife to shopping and visitor attractions, every listing on this website is located in Detroit. It goes to show how the Suburbs of Detroit aren’t the only areas that have something to offer. If you live here or nearby, or are planning to visit, check it out. It is your one-stop-shop for EVERYTHING Detroit. Being the die-hard Detroiter that I am, it’s so exciting to be able to invest my time with doDetroit being that it is working for a cause that is near and dear to me--showcasing what makes me love this place the way that I do and what will make you love this city too.  

Oh yeah, one more thing. There’s this hidden gem right at the cross-section of I-94 and I-75 that is located within the Russell Industrial Center named the Russell Bazaar. We took a tour of this massive warehouse that is the home to this fun, eclectic marketplace. This "world of shops" has a little bit of everything for everybody. From clothing and jewelry to hair salons and collectibles, there is SOMETHING that you will have to have from Russell Bazaar. There is even the opportunity for entrepreneurship to open up your own specialty booth or host your own art showing in one of their 7 galleries. This is a HUMONGOUS space just waiting to be occupied. Get there this weekend to see what you've been missing out on!!

Moral of today’s story: Venture South of 8 mile (and check out doDetroit.com to see what to visit). Get some good food. Have a good time. Shop. Meet some great people. Overall--just don’t believe ALL the hype.


--Lisa

Hello!

this post was ORIGINALLY written on January 12, 2010...

I’m Lisa, Gill's co-Social Media & Marketing intern with doDetroit.com!

When I was first informed that I would not be an Event Management intern, I didn’t know if Social Media & Marketing was really something that I would be interested in. I do have a degree in Advertising (with a PR specialization), but I did not know much about it. I was set on being an Event Management intern because I was looking to obtain first-hand experience in this field. However, when we had an information session about “Social Networking Theory & Sociology,” my mind completely changed. At the risk of sounding like a geek...Social Media & Marketing is super interesting!  

With the millions of websites on the Internet, there is no possible way that we will ever be able to view ALL of the great websites and blogs that have been created for our resource (be it recreational, social or informational). So, social marketing is almost like a “go-between” for websites and their publics. In short, it is what gets websites their listing order on Google (along with a “few dollars”, I’m sure). It helps websites, blogs and forums get word out about the awesome thoughts, ideas and services they offer. Most importantly, social marketing allows a way for the world to interact with each other while providing one another with resources (and a few guilty pleasures) that inform and entertain us everyday.

I’m excited about this internship and even more ready to learn. Are you? I hope so, because you’ll be coming with me on my journey. Make sure to follow our blog for reviews, articles, and special tidbits about Detroit. You’ll love it.

Moral of today’s story: Keep an open mind...You’ll never know what you can learn. Take every situation and use it for professional (and personal) growth.


--Lisa

Cool Things Happening with doDetroit TV

Last week, I found out about a user-generated content show doDetroit TV is launching this spring. This program hopes to showcase Detroit bands’ music videos and any filmmakers’ shorts about city.

Personally, I am really geeked about this upcoming show. I have done some extremely amateur video production in the past and I am excited to see what my peers have created to promote the city. Who knows, I might even break out the camcorder and shoot something about a few of my favorite places.

Anyone interested about submitting videos or needing more information about this project check out the contact page on doDetroit.com or just click this link.

--Gill

New Week, New Task, New Intern

This entry was originally written on January 20, 2010
Well, it is week two of my internship and I spent the majority of my week continuing to research Detroit-based blogs and learning about the importance of social bookmarking for search engine optimization (SEO).

Monday, I continued to struggle to find blogs on family or youth. I added a few more blogs to the list but still only have a handful of contacts. It is frustrating but I continue to seek out interesting blogs. Luckily Tuesday produced a breakthrough with the discovery of blogrolls (a roll call of blogs the poster follows).  Next week I plan on going back to the Web site’s I already visited and checking their blogrolls to see if I can garner any leads that way.

Tuesday was crowed at our offices. Not only were Lisa, Bill, Nick, and I there, but we also have a new intern, Monique. Since Jodie was in Lansing that day, we had just enough desks for everyone to be in the same room as opposed to having the interns work in the conference room. Our day began with Bill assigning me to help Lisa find Detroit Food & Wine blogs. After a couple hours and about a dozen contacts to our networking list, we broke for lunch.

Returning from lunch, Bill gave us a lesson on social bookmarking and how it relates to SEO. Having used delicious before I was familiar with the concept and got straight to work setting up accounts on various social bookmarking sites and crafting descriptions and tags for doDetroit. I left that day with about half the work completed and a richer understanding of SEO.

Finishing up my social bookmarking task by lunch, I spent the rest of the day researching social news Web sites. While I had heard of sites like Digg and StumbleUpon prior to my internship, I never truly understood how they worked and the import role they play in directing Web site traffic to various Web sites. After spending a few hours discovering the a few of these types of sites I got a feel for how each one accepts submissions, ranks, and sorts each page suggestion.

So far I am enjoying my internship. While Bill jokes that some of our tasks are tedious—researching, social bookmarking, etc.—I actually am learning a lot about marketing in a real world setting. The tasks the other interns and I are accomplishing going to help publicize doDetroit as well as gather a wide range of content that we want to add to the Web site and the soon to be launched doDetroit TV.

Tune in next week for the ongoing saga of Gill v. Active Detroit Family and Youth Blogs.

--Gill

Welcome!

This entry was originally written on January 13, 2010.
Hello everyone reading the doDetroit.com interns’ blog, I’m Gill, one of two social media marketing interns that doDetroit.com has hired for the Winter Semester.  I am a Michigan State University graduate and have lived in Livonia my entire life. I will be updating this blog along with my fellow intern Lisa. I am in the office Mondays-Wednesdays, while Lisa is here Tuesdays and Thursdays.  I expect that whereas the work we will be doing will be similar, our insights into our experience at doDetroit.com will be unique.

The first week of our internship has consisted of an introduction of social media marketing by our intern coordinators Jodie and Bill, a tour of some of Detroit properties, researching Detroit stakeholders in a variety of professions, and of course getting to know our colleagues.

After our lesson on social media marketing, Jodie, Lisa, and I headed down to Greektown to enjoy lunch at Niki’s. The Greek salad the three of us shared was amazing, as was my gyro. Over lunch we discussed our strategy for tackling the various areas doDetroit.com covers. I chose to cover the areas of art, culture, and entertainment (ACE) and family and youth.

Following lunch, Lisa and I began to organize our desk, filing system, and online database. Jodie, Lisa, and my last task of the day—outlining our goals through the end of February.

My next day on the job, I was mostly on my own researching potential ACE contacts and imputing it into our database. After checking in with Bill and Jodie, I was instructed to change my focus to family and youth, because a lot of the ACE contacts would overlap with the contacts Jodie and Bill already had. Around 1:30, the staff decided to break for lunch and I joined Bill and Nick (who serves as the Web site's developer/graphic designer) at Buffalo Wild Wings.

Upon returning from lunch I continued with my researching duties. Unfortunately, finding family and youth blogs based in Detroit was much harder than finding blogs that centered on culture.  A lot of the times, the blogs that I had found were focused on the suburbs or “dead” (not updated in the past six months).

However just before leaving I managed to find an active blog, Detroit Moxie. Finally I had something to show for the day! Before leaving I left a note to Lisa included links that I stumbled upon in my search that would better fit under her research jurisdiction.

Overall, I think I will enjoy working at the doDetroit. The staff is laid-back but dedicated, my fellow intern is also a fellow Spartan (Go Green!), and the project I have been assigned will help me grow professionally in a manner that the classroom just cannot compete.

Come back and check out us out next week to see if I finally find another active family and youth blog!

---Gill