Pink Banana Media & LGBTBrandVoice.com

How Plaxo, Friendfeed and even Facebook utilize 3rd party programs such as Picasa, YouTube and Flickr to keep you up-to-date in this even more fast-paced Information Age By Matt Skallerud If you're like many of us out there, you've been using Plaxo for a few years now. It's been a great tool, primarily used by the business community, in keeping one's Outlook up-to-date when your friends and other contacts change jobs, move or even get a new cell phone number. Change jobs and all you had to do was update your Plaxo information in order to get that job update out there to hundreds of your Outlook contacts simultaneously, and vice versa… one of your Outlook contacts moves to a new city, and voila, your Outlook information is automatically updated. Over the past year, however, Plaxo has expanded its offerings to include a new addition, Plaxo Pulse , found at http://pulse.plaxo.com . What's unique about Plaxo Pulse is that it has started out as a relative

Marketing to the Gay Community on the Internet? Looking for valuable insights? A competitive edge? Attend This Gay Market Seminar ONLINE Gay Marketing and Web 2.0 LOCATION Long Beach, CA Thursday, August 21, 2008 - 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm Hilton Long Beach 701 W. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach, CA 90831 Snacks included Miami, FL Tuesday, September 2, 2008 - 9:00 am to 11:00 am Wyndham Miami Airport Hotel 3900 NW 21st Street, Miami, FL 33142 Breakfast included! Ft. Lauderdale, FL Thursday, September 4, 2008 - 9:00 am to 11:00 am Embassy Suites Ft. Lauderdale 1100 Southeast 17th Street, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33316 Breakfast included! COST: $75 Certainly, everyone is aware of the gay market. You're likely already involved. But how can you "think outside of the triangle" and advance your positioning in this increasingly competitive space? We will be showing you some of the current trends in making outreach to consu

Each year, one of the highlights of my life is to update this document to reflect the changes that have taken place in the world of online marketing to the GLBT community, both in the US and worldwide. Some aspects of online marketing have really matured and come of age at this time, while others have leapt seemingly out of nowhere to become major players this year. What I’ll do here is start with the basics and work our way up to some of the new and exciting, more guerilla-style marketing techniques one can employ when trying to reach gays & lesbians on the Internet. Some of these suggestions may only apply to a smaller business, such as online directory advertising, but for most businesses large and small, the majority of the opportunities are quite consistent for each. Natural Search I believe this is the first and foremost area any business, large and small, should focus on first. You want to maximize your opportunities for Natural [translated as FREE] Search results, puttin

Las Vegas has long been known as "The Entertainment Capital of the World," but these days the desert destination boasts much more than strippers and Cher concerts - especially for its growing LGBT community. While there are no hard and fast numbers on how many LGBT residents live in and around Clark County - in which Las Vegas is located - it's estimated that 10 percent of the area's 1.7 million residents call the desert paradise home. The region is also one of the fastest growing in the United States according to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2006 study (500-600 new gay residents are reportedly moving to the area every month), which ranked Las Vegas proper as the 28th most populous city in the nation. Driving Las Vegas' steady economy is the confluence of tourism, gaming and conventions, which in turn feed the retail and dining industries - industries that employ much of the city's residents and keep tourists busy. Among travelers, Sin City is c

For many years, traditional marketing was in the form of one-way communication. Through public relations and advertising campaigns, companies put forth value propositions to generate market appeal, attract and retain customers, and drive sales by talking “to” their potential customers. However, with the rise of social media such as blogs, online forums, and social networks like MySpace and Facebook, the voice of the consumer is quickly drowning out those carefully crafted company messages. With 3.5 million brand-related conversations taking place online daily in the United States, companies are realizing that marketing to today’s technology-driven consumers means engaging in two-way communication and talking “with” their potential customers. With the rise of social media, the transparency of information is increasing and companies are not able to hide behind their branding experts any longer. The successful companies of the future are going to have to establish a sense of

Example: Pride Posters I would select say Famous African-American LGBT posters ( http://www.survivorposters.com/shop/item.php?item_id=225&category_id=48 ). I would then create a blog specifically for this topic only, and populate the blog with a mix of highlights of key LGBT African Americans that are on the poster, as well as grabbing current news items for this topic. The blog can use information from sources such as Wikipedia for the individuals. I would then create one story per month that was written about either one of the LGBT African Americans and/or a story that is more in-depth that comes from news related to LGBT African American key figures (something they do, a death, etc.). This story would be posted on your site, the blog and gaylinkcontent.com and made available for free, with a link and logo to your site. After a few weeks, you would then look at how your search engine placement (natural search) is doing for search terms based upon those LGBT African Americans.

Known throughout as the home of Hollywood , entertainment capitol of the world, Los Angeles also plays host to one of the largest urban gay and lesbian populations in the world. With a population of over 15 million, Los Angeles’ gay community is as diverse as its various local regions. From the city style lofts of Downtown to the relaxed beaches of Santa Monica , each segment of this sprawling city seems to have its own unique gay subculture. Today, however, West Hollywood stands as the central gay region of Los Angeles, bordered by Robertson Blvd. and La Brea Ave. on Santa Monica Blvd. Locally known as WeHo , this gay friendliest of cities offers a haven of gay owned, operated, and friendly businesses catering to the GLBT community. Since becoming incorporated in 1984, the city of West Hollywood and its local government have been committed to preserving and uplifting its vibrant gay culture. Annual city events such as Gay Pride and the huge Halloween stre

In This Issue Advanced Online Marketing Integrating banner advertising with blogs & editorial, social networking, and search engine optimization Illustrating how all of these components can now fit together into one complete online marketing solution, using some of the most advanced concepts in online marketing today and designed to maximize a campaign's online reach, its effectiveness and its bottom line.... PressPassQ.com Feature Story California’s marriage gold rush: GLBT media in the Golden State just might strike it rich as couples legally wed The numbers from California are staggering. More than 51,000 same-sex couples are expected to marry there over the next three years, according to a recent UCLA Williams Institute report. Add to that number an additional 67,000 marriages from out-of-state couples. Altogether, California's wedding industry will grow by approximately $684 million in direct spending and perhaps create 2,100 new jobs. At the same time, marriage equal