There are countless numbers of companies that have held giveaways and contests through Twitter. From small businesses tolarge corporations, the ease of the Twitter medium has presented a quick and easy opportunity for contests. Giveaways through Twitter are effective because there’s typically no landing page where the user has to enter their information, with the fear of being stalked and spammed thereafter.

Another reason Twitter contests are beneficial, especially to small businesses, is because there are plenty of ways to go about the contest, depending on your wants and needs. For example, if your goal is to reach X amount of followers by the end of the month, creating buzz around this encourages users to follow you, as long as there’s potentially something for them to get out of it. Domino’s executed this method last year when they offered a chance to win a $100 gift card for those that helped them reach followers by noon on a Friday.

If you aren’t in the market for gaining hundreds of followers, using hashtags are a good way to generate buzz around your business. Hashtags also leave room for creativity, as you can use them in a contest however you please. For example, you can request that entries tweet a specific message containing a hashtag, such as “I love the Supplies Guys! They are the best guys in town #suppliesguys.”

Or, you can ask that tweeters use the hashtag in any way they choose, as long as they use it. Moonfruit, a website development company, used this method in which they gave away a Macbook Pro every day for 7 days. While they did give a pre- tweet to be sent out, they also offered the option of using the #moonfruit hashtag in creative, original tweets. At the end of each day, they selected someone at random that had used the hashtag #moonfruit.

What are some contests you’ve seen on Twitter? Which method would you choose when holding a contest on Twitter?

Everyone that seems to have an opinion about BP’s oil spill (either hopeful or negative) seems to be expressing those thoughts through the internet.  The world has taken to the blogosphere, Facebook, Twitter, Photobucket, YouTube and other web 2.0 channels to spread their message. There is no doubt that BP has heard them loud and clear but can they even begin to control this social media spill?

Orange8 agency posted the below Sysomos MAP which shows the general sentiment levels for “BP” throughout the blogosphere. The graph shows that in January and February the sentiment levels were generally neutral or positive.  However by the end of April you could see the growing trend of negativity. In May the negative sentiment only grew stronger, as 51% of all “BP” related blog posts were negative. An alarming trend that will probably rise or remain stable until the oil spill has been controlled.

The question is what can / should BP do? Let’s look at the raw numbers of media being produced revolving around the BP oil spill. *Current as of writing this post.

• According to Icerocket.com, there have been more than 97,00 blog posts discussing BP since mid-March, with 1,084 new posts per day.
• 2,992 links in the last 30 days were shared on Digg.com containing the words, BP Oil Spill.
• 3,940 videos have been uploaded to YouTube containing the exact match of “BP Oil Spill.”
• A fake Twitter account was created in mid-May to parody BP’s efforts in cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, BPGlobalPR. The account currently has 134,792 followers which is 1,036% greater than the official BP Twitter account, BP_America.

• BP’s official Facebook Page has been averaging over 155 comments per BP wall post. The vast majority of these comments are argumentative or negative in sentiment.
• There are 317 Facebook pages that include “BP Oil Spill” in the title. The largest five groups (all negative) cumulatively have over 57,000 supporters.
• An additional 480 Facebook pages exist that include “Boycott BP” in the title. The largest five groups cumulatively have 478,000 supporters!

So what is BP to do with all of this negative press? Is there anything they really can do? BP won’t be able to control the public’s response, the snowball of negativity, frustration and anger has gained far too much momentum to be stopped. The one thing that BP can and has started to do is be open, and to give raw transparency. Toyota was responsible with their mishap earlier this year. They addressed the problem and didn’t hide anything from the public. Running a TV ad campaign to address how committed BP is  to cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico was a horrible idea. The campaign failed because in the public’s opinion, the time and costs to produce the campaign only took resources away from the clean up effort.

I’m sure BP is leveraging every resource in their possession to clean up the oil spill, now their executives just need to stop thinking about addressing shareholders and attempting to sway the public’s opinion of BP – because at this point, they are only wasting their breath. The evidence is in both the social media trends and the free fall of BP’s common share price. BP can only eliminate the negativity by cleaning up the mess they caused in the Gulf of Mexico.

If the BP oil spill has got to you as much as it has the rest of the web, you can always download the Oil Spill Firefox Plug-in from creative agency, Jess3.com.  The plug-in bloats out any mention of “BP” in your browser.

Have you considered attending an internet marketing seminar this year? The benefits of attending such a seminar can be limitless – as you will typically hear from internet marketing thought leaders, discuss the latest trends in internet marketing and have the opportunity to interact with other professionals. The goal of most internet marketing seminars is to improve  competency levels by providing its guests with theories and tools that can ultimately make an impact on their organization’s bottom line. Typical attendees of internet marketing seminars are search marketing professionals, webmasters, IT professionals, small business owners and other marketing managers seeking best practices tips, professional networking and even career advice .

Now once you factor in the cost of attendance, travel and living expenses for a few days – expenses add up rather quickly. It is important to identify what it is you hope to accomplish from attending an internet marketing seminar because it can get costly once you factor in the cost of attendance, travel and living expenses. That said we took some time to highlight a few of the upcoming 2010 internet marketing seminars and what you can expect if you choose to attend. Please note that prices are subject to change and for most internet marketing seminars, prices vary depending on registration date.

Follow our Internet Marketing Seminars Twitter list to receive updates from twenty-three of the world’s best seminars!

SES New York 2010 – http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/newyork/
When – March 23, 24, 25
Location – New York City, NY
What – Expo (featuring 100+ vendors), paid search / SEO training workshops, 70+ internet marketing sessions lead by respected web professionals from around the world.
How Much – Free to attend expo ($25 on-site); up to $2,000 for 3-day full access. Check the site for details as prices fluctuate by date of registration, so sign-up early!
Keynote Speakers – David Meerman Scott, author of World Wide Rave;  Avinash Kaushik, author of Web Analytics: An Hour A Day; and Yusuf Mehdi, VP of Online Audience Business at Bing.

ad:tech San Francisco 2010 – http://www.ad-tech.com/sf/
When – April 19, 20, 21
Location – San Francisco, CA
What – hosted networking mixers and attendee party, Expo (200+ vendors), Marketing Masters Series (covering social media, e-mail marketing, mobile marketing & search), Digital Demographics Series (how to market to a particular demographic online), Bruce Clay SEO training session.
How Much - Conference Pass ($1,195 – $1,595); Exhibit Hall Pass ($50 or $100 depending on date of purchase); SEO training ($1,295), Conference Pass + SEO training ($2,060). Check the site for details as prices fluctuate by date of registration, so sign-up early!
Keynote Speakers – Jaime Cohen Szulc, CMO of Levi Strauss & Co.; Geoff Ramsey, CEO and co-founder of eMarketer; Kristi VandenBosch, CEO of Publicis & Hal Riney.

PubCon 2010 – http://www.pubcon.com/dallas2010/
When - April 13, 14, 15
Location – Dallas, TX
What – Expo (50+ exhibitors), 60+ sessions covering SEO, SEM, Social Media, PPC / Internet Advertising, and Interactive Site Reviews; PubCon Search Training (1-day crash course on SEO or PPC),
How Much – Full Access Conference Pass ($499 – $799); Professional Search Training ($399 – $599); Training + Full Access Pass ($799 – $999). Check the site for details as prices fluctuate by date of registration, so sign-up early!
Keynote Speakers – TBD

Web 2.0 Expo – http://www.web2expo.com/webexsf2010
When – May 3, 4, 5, 6
Location – San Francisco, CA
What – Expo; Sessions (Cloud Computing, Design, Social Media Marketing, Business Models & Strategy, Analytics, Enterprise, Mobile, Real-Time); Workshops (Designing Social Interfaces, Hands on HTML-5, Laws for User Experience, Data Visualization); Web2Open (open panel discussion lead by expo attendees).
How Much – Expo Hall Only ($100); Expo Hall Plus ($350); Workshops Only ($595 – $1045); Conferences Only ($1095 – $1645); Conferences + Workshops ($1395 – $1945). Check the site for details as prices fluctuate by date of registration, so sign-up early!
Keynote Speakers  – Kevin Lynch of Adobe Systems, June Coehn of TED.com, Josh Silverman of Skype, Hilary Mason of bit.ly, Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land, Paul Buccheit of Facebook and a few others!

Search Exchange - http://www.searchexchange.org/
When – May 17, 18, 19
Location – Charlotte, NC
What - 30 Sessions covering: (Link building, How social interacts with search, Getting links through social media, latest SEO tools, Building SEO dashboards for accountability, Optimizing WordPress for SEO, Digital asset optimization, In-house SEM, Using Analytics for Landing Page Optimization, Measuring PPC campaigns, Location based marketing, Creating viral traffic and more!
How Much - Single Day Pass ($395); Conference & Expo ($695 or $895). Check the site for details as prices fluctuate by date of registration, so sign-up early!
Keynote Speakers – David Szetela of Clix Marketing; Chris Brogan author; Chris Winfield of 10e20; Lee Odden of TopRank Online Marketing; Rhea Drysdale of Outspoken Media; and Rae Hoffman of Outspoken Media.

Search Marketing Expo – SMX Advanced 2010 – http://searchmarketingexpo.com/advanced
When – June 8, 9
Location – Seattle, WA
What -Expo, Bruce Clay SEO training, In-House SEM training
How Much – Expo (free); in-house SEM training workshop ($695 – $895); all-access pass ($1,195 – $1,595); all-access pass + workshop ($1,795 – $2,195). Check the site for details as prices fluctuate by date of registration, so sign-up early!
Keynote Speakers – Matt Cutts, Google Software Engineer and search marketing guru.

Internet Retailer Conference & Expo - http://www.internetretailer.com/IRCE2010/
When - June 8, 9, 10, 11
Location – Chicago, IL
What – Expo (375+ exhibitors); Sessions lead by 175+ E-retailing experts (tracks for: e-commerce executives, global selling, advanced e-marketing strategies, small e-retailers, sourcing products, e-commerce technology, customer service, search marketing, e-mail marketing, social media, taxation, merchandising & design and corporate management) ; 5 Intensive Workshops (e-commerce technology, beginning search marketing, advanced search marketing, social media & e-retailing, and mobile commerce).
How Much – Expo ($165 – $210); Day Long Workshops (per workshop cost – $295 – $495); Main Conference Only ($595 – $795); Main Conference & Day Long Workshops ($845 – $1395). Check the site for details as prices fluctuate by date of registration, so sign-up early!
Keynote Speakers - Imran Jooma, Senior VP and General Manager of E-Commerce for Sears Holding Corp.

SES San Francisco 2010 – http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/sanfrancisco/
When – August 16, 17, 18, 19, 20
Location – San Francisco, CA
What – Expo (featuring internet marketing vendors), sessions to reach each audience: internet marketing for beginners (introduction to SEO / SEM, search advertising basics) , intermediate internet marketing sessions (social media optimization, blended & universal search), and advanced internet marketing sessions (b2b marketing, duplicate content, black hat seo).
How Much – Varies. Free to attend expo ($25 on-site); up to $2,000 for 3-day full access. Check the site for details as prices fluctuate by date of registration, so sign-up early!
Keynote Speakers – Jeffrey Hayzlett, Vice President of the Eastman Kodak Company.

At the launch of Google Buzz, Sergey Brin, one of Google’s co-founders, highlighted an example of using their new social network within a business. Brin explained that when writing an op-ed for the New York Times, he posted a draft of his article on Google Buzz and invited his network to respond with their own ideas and edits. Shortly after posting, Brin says he received around 50 comments. With the ability to obtain all of that feedback in such a short amount of time, Brin introduces the idea of real-time collaboration in Google Buzz.

Here are some ideas on how businesses can take advantage of Google Buzz:

With the option to post privately to a small group of users, Buzz can be implemented among employees. They can use Buzz to toss ideas around with one another, schedule meetings (or lunch dates) and share informational articles through Google Reader.

Buzz can also be used externally, to reach out to customers, using the public settings. Unlike Twitter, Google Buzz does not limit users to 140 characters, which is an advantage for businesses looking to utilize the social network.

With Buzz, customers can interact with the company, as well as with one another. In this format, customers can address the company with product reviews and concerns. Then other customers can jump in with solutions or discussions, creating a forum-like atmosphere.

Companies can also use Buzz to update customers with current specials, upcoming promotions, product reviews and news updates pertaining to the company or their products.

What other ways do you think companies can utilize Google Buzz for business – have you seen any doing so? Or, do you think it will be too noisy and just not a fan of Google Buzz?

Let us know in the comments!