Searching for an easier way to manage your business Twitter account (s)?  Here at WeddingWire we are big fans of HootSuite.  HootSuite is a great Twitter toolbox, in which you can manage multiple Twitter profiles, add numerous editors, track your success and even schedule tweets in advance - all from one easy-to-use interface.  It’s a great way to stay on top of your Twitter accounts, allow multiple staff members to contribute as editors, and stay up-to-date on your tweets even on your busiest days.  When using Twitter for a business, it’s important to see what captures the interest of your followers.  In using the HootSuite ow.ly URL shortener, you can track click-throughs on your tweeted links, which will help you monitor messages and see which capture the interest of your followers.

Sign-up is simple.  Create your free HootSuite account, add a profile for each Twitter account you have, and start managing.

And that’s not all…HootSuite offers users the option to add the HootSuite Hootlet to your bookmark toolbar so that you can quickly tweet the pages you are browsing.   When using the Hootlet, the page title, the name of the site, and the ow.ly shortened link is automatically created in a pop-up window for you.  From here you can submit the tweet or schedule it for later.   Its features like this that really help simplify the overall Twitter process!

Visit www.HootSuite.com today to get started!

In follow-up to yesterday’s historical Presidential Inauguration, I thought I would focus on something fun today….like word clouds!  By definition a word cloud or tag cloud is a visual depiction of the word content or user-generated tags of a site (Wikipedia). Word clouds are a great way of showcasing the words most commonly used throughout websites, blog posts, speeches, etc.

So wondering what words were used most often in President Barack Obama’s Inaugural Address compared to past Presidents? Check out these word clouds I found:

President Barack Obama’s Inaugural Address - 2009

Continue reading »

Martha Stewart Weddings has a new home! The wedding platform can now be accessed at www.MarthaStewartWeddings.com.  The site was previously located under a tab on Martha Stewart’s main site, www.MarthaStewart.com.  This move will help drive more attention to their wedding platform and make the site more searchable.  And since WeddingWire powers the network of local vendors and online wedding-planning tools for their site, this new move will make it easier for brides to find you in the vendor catalog!  Check it out today.

Yesterday Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia announced their second quarter financial results that included positive revenue news amid a weak economic environment.  They highlighted several items within their departments, but the one take away that applies to you as wedding vendors are the two highlights listed under their Internet section:

• Second quarter traffic showed solid gains, with page views increasing 23% over the prior year’s quarter. These strong traffic and engagement trends continue into the third quarter of 2008, with July page views trending up 50% year-over-year.
• The marthastewart.com website unveiled a suite of wedding planning tools, powered by WeddingWire, enabling couples to plan and manage their entire wedding experience on marthastewart.com.

The second bullet is more to show our mention in their press release, but the first bullet should resonate with you.  Why?  It means people are increasingly visiting their site, which includes their wedding section.  More and more brides start their vendor searches online and now that MarthaStewart.com is offering brides a vendor search component, as a WeddingWire vendor you need to be sure that your storefront is up to date.  Additionally, get those newlyweds reviews! After all, we give them a gift just for 5 reviews.

Martha Stewart did a recent interview on CNBC at the D Conference and mentioned WeddingWire as part of an interview on their growing web presence.  Have a look (we’re mentioned near the end)

This week we announced the completion of our integration with the MarthaStewart.com Weddings website. Engaged users planning their weddings will now be able to search our vendor catalog right on MarthaStewart.com. In addition, our robust suite of planning tools is also going to now live on their website as well.

This marks a few months of development that has gone into this integration project and we’re really excited about it. As WeddingWire vendors, your listing now will get published on both sites, which means increased visibility for you.

Find your listing on MarthaStewart.com/weddings here.

P.S. - Your reviews show up as well so be sure to continue asking your past clients for those reviews.