Each month we will highlight some of our favorite sites on the web and show how they can help you run your business more efficiently. This month we feature Animoto, Issuu and Mint.

• Animoto: Animoto is one of our favorite new sites on the internet. It is the easiest way to make professionally produced videos from your existing images, and it does it automatically. Simply upload some of your photos, add some copy, and pick a song. Animoto does the rest! Within a couple minutes the site will create a professional quality video for your business using ‘Cinematic Artificial Intelligence.’ Animoto videos have “the visual energy of a music video and the emotional impact of a movie trailer.” We love the quality of the videos, they look great on your WeddingWire storefront, and you can get started for free!

• Issuu: Do you have a presentation coming up? Looking to create a wow factor with your next client? Issuu is an online publisher that allows you to publish your presentations, documents, sales kits, brochures, magazines and more online. You can send a link to potential clients and they can flip through the contents just like reading a book. Issuu allows you to create a free account and is a great way to showcase your portfolio. Simply add a link to your work in your email footers.

• Mint: Mint claims to be ‘the best Free way to manage your money,’ and so far we think they may be right. The site allows you to link all your accounts in one place, from checking and savings accounts, to credit cards, mortgages, auto loans and more. Mint makes it easy to track your spending and provides detailed breakdowns by various categories. Even better, the site sends a notice any time an upcoming payment is coming up or if any of your accounts are hit with unwanted fees. Mint is like having a personal money manager on your staff that doesn’t get paid!

WeddingWire has teamed up with Meebo, one of the largest social media companies on the web, to provide a new real-time vendor to vendor chat feature within your WeddingWire account. Now you can ask questions, get feedback, or simply communicate with vendors you know from anywhere across the country. Whether you are updating your Storefront or perusing the Vendor Education Center, the chat feature will be visible in the lower right hand corner of your account so that you can easily connect with other vendors.

Don’t see any buddies on your list? Simply connect with other vendors through the Vendors I Know tool, located in the “My Community” section.  Once the connection is approved by the other vendors, their names will show up on your buddy list.

The new Meebo feature also allows you to gather all of your friends on a single buddy list from within your WeddingWire account, so you can communicate in real-time across different IM platforms and social networks, including AIM, Twitter, and Facebook Chat.   All you have to do is log-in to your Meebo account from within the new vendor chat bar to access your accounts.  And if you don’t have a Meebo account, you can easily register for an account and then connect with your various IM and social network accounts straight from the new vendor chat bar.

Log-in to your WeddingWire account and check it out today!

There are millions of sites on the web, and hundreds of new ones popping up each day.  Which sites should you care about?  Which can help you grow your business?  Each month we will highlight some of our favorite sites on the web and show how they can help you run your business more efficiently.  This month we feature Mashable, iStock Photo and Wufoo.

• Mashable: Wondering how Twitter appeared out of nowhere?  Or maybe what new online sites can help you grow your business? Are you looking to keep up with the latest trends on the internet?  Mashable is one of the largest blogs dedicated to social media and it is one of our favorite sites to stay on top of today’s online trends.  You’ll find the latest news about Facebook, Twitter, Google, YouTube, the iPhone and much more.  Mashable allows you to easily become a tech guru!

• iStock Photo: Are you looking to find high quality wedding photos?  Want to make sure you own the rights to the photos? iStock Photo is the largest royalty-free stock photo destination on the internet.  The site boasts over 4 million different images, and each file can be purchased for as little as $1 and then used as often as you’d like.  If you’re looking to update marketing materials or any of your bridal images, take a look at the variety of images iStock Photo has to offer.

• WuFoo: Don’t let the funny name fool you, Wufoo is one of the easiest ways to collect information over the internet.  The site allows you to easily create contact forms, online surveys and invitations so that you can collect data, registrations and even online payments.  What’s best, is that you don’t need to be a web developer to create the forms!   So whether you have an upcoming event or want to do some market research, Wufoo allows you to create forms easily and the first 3 are free.

In today’s wired world, engaging in social media is a powerful way to help increase your brand awareness and reach potential clients.  Just take a look at the recent results of surveys conducted by Nielsen Online:

• Over 67 percent of online users are engaging in “Member Communities”, which includes social networks and blogs, making it more popular than personal email.
• Twitter continues as the fastest growing social networking site, growing in popularity as not only a means of communication between friends, but as an essential part of brand marketing.
• While topping the charts for the number of unique visitors, Facebook also leads the way for stickiness, with the average user spending 3 hours and 16 minutes on the site. The average Twitter user sticks around for about 12 minutes.

Top 5 Social Networking Sites

It is evident in these results that social networking has become an essential part of today’s online experience.  At WeddingWire, we are committed to educating and connecting you with numerous social networks in order to extend your reach to today’s wired brides.

Facebook fan Page is a public profile you can create and personalize to showcase your business and services to Facebook users. With over 200 million registered users, creating a Facebook Page is one way to help reach your customers and potential clients. The best part is it’s completely free!

Creating a Page is easy. Simply visit Facebook Pages, click on “Create a Page” and let the fun begin.

• Step 1: Pick Category & Name
  Choose a category that best fits the services you provide. Please note that you will not be able to change your category once you choose, so pick the closest match. Next, choose a name for your Page. Since this Page is for your business, you should use your business name. This will help extend your brand awareness. Click “Create Page.”

• Step 2: Picture Time
  Click “Upload a Picture” at the top of your Page and upload a photo. A logo or a picture that represents your business is the best choice.

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Do you have a Digg account? If so, add me as a friend (megcolek) so I can follow what you Digg! If not, I highly recommend that you join (it’s free!).

Digg is a great place to discover and share content from around the Web, from the smallest blog entries to major news sources.  All articles are submitted and voted on by individuals like you!

With your account you can:

• Submit and share content you create (press releases, blog entries, papers, etc.)
• Search for the latest and top rated news, images, videos from a variety of industries
• Share your opinion in the comments section
• Personalize your Digg account
• Follow what your friends are Digging

It’s also easy to Digg (i.e. submit) content.  Just locate and click the Digg icon ( ) on the post or article you are reading and easily submit the link. You can find the Digg icon at the bottom of this post!

Become a member today!

Digg anything lately? Share in the comments section!

How do you generate new business? This is very good question to ask yourself.  Through surveys and discussions, we have found that a significant amount of vendors in the industry rely on referrals from their happy customers (”word of mouth”) and networking groups for business growth.  Relying solely on these two ways of generating new business can make it very challenging for vendors to sometimes predict and control business growth.  This is where the internet can play in.

I found a good post that highlights some key things to consider when looking to use the internet to get more referrals.  Here is a quick summary:

• Great product and service = happy customer. Word spreads fast online so having happy and satisfied customers will help your business (subscribing to your blog, connecting with you on LinkedIn, following you on Twitter, etc.). On the other hand, unhappy customers can easily cause harm to your online reputation. So make sure to maintain a high level of your product and service!

• Be committed! Your clients have to be willing to refer you, so you have to be committed to making sure they see success and are please with your product and service. To do this, you have to know your client and develop a level of understanding and trust. Look for ways to always maintain and improve this relationship to make sure expectations are being met.

• Give good reason. Find ways to connect with your clients online by engaging in inbound marketing – create good, educational content on your website (that is easy to understand), blog about yourself and your business, engage in social interaction with your clients (via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.). All of these ways will help you connect with your clients and in return give them a good reason to refer you.

So I turn the question over to you, how do you generate more business?  Share in the comments section!

In order to maximize on what Twitter has to offer, it’s important to build your community. To do this you have to start by figuring out what your objective is. Do you want to keep your followers up-to-date on your business? Do you want to share dialogue with followers, maybe potential clients? Do you want to stay ahead of the social media curve? Whatever your objective is, it is important to determine it first and then dive right in!

I found a great list of 10 tips to guide you in establishing your community. Here is a quick summary:

• DO - create a user-friendly ID. Your Twitter ID is part of your personal brand, so use your name or business name. If neither of these are available, blend them or stay as close to them as you can (ex: MegWW). Also, the shorter the name the better!

• DO - search for people. It’s complete normal and accepted to follow people you don’t know (a huge part of what Twitter is all about). So search for people in the wedding industry or even people from an industry you don’t know much about! Try Twitter Search or Twellow to find people to follow.

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Facebook reached a big milestone yesterday.  There are now 150 million people around the world actively using Facebook and almost half of them are using the site every day, according to a post on the official Facebook Blog yesterday.  Back in August 2008, the site hit 100 million active users, which means the number of active users has grown 50% in a matter of 4 months! And not to mention, the site is less than 5 years old.

What started off as a platform utilized mostly by college students, Facebook is now being used by people of all ages, including grandparents, parents, and children.  The site is also available in more than 35 different languages and 170 countries and territories.

As mentioned in a previous post, Facebook can be used as great online resource to help you reach today’s wired brides!

New to Facebook?  Set up your free account today and get started!

Do you have any predictions on how the site will continue to evolve in 2009?  Share them in the comments section!

Personally, I scan a lot of blogs every morning to stay on top of the trends and to see what people are up to.  Given the amount of content out there, my morning ritual was simplified when a friend referred me to Google Reader.  Now I can easily scan my own personalized online newspaper every morning!

Google Reader is a great tool and has definitely made the scanning process more efficient and has helped me discover many new blogs.   I found a great detailed Google Reader how-to guide that should offer a little something for everyone - whether you are new to Google Reader or a veteran user.

Here is my quick summary to help you get started.

• Setup - It’s simple and no downloading is needed! Just visit the Google Reader main page and sign in using your Google account or create a new one.  Once complete, it’s time to find some content to read!

• Find Content- If you are new to the world of blogs or just looking to add more, there are a few ways to add content:
  • Click the “Browse for stuff” link and go to the “Browse” tab.  Let the searching begin.
  • Manually enter the URL of a blog into the “Add Subscription” area and Google Reader will usually find the feed and automatically add it for you (thanks Google!).
  • Locate the “Subscribe To This Feed” button on the blog of the site you want to follow (should be easy to find).
• Organize- As soon as you start subscribing to a lot of feeds, you will want to keep track of them in the same way you would your emails or files on your computer - create folders.
  • To create folders simply click on any one of your subscriptions in the left navigation bar until it opens up in the main reading pane.  Click on the button “Feed Settings” at the top of the page and select “New Folder”.  Assign a useful name to it and click “Ok”.  And voila - folder created!

After this you can sit back, relax, and enjoy your personalized online newspaper!  For more details, definitely check out the how-to-guide.

What blogs do you like to follow?

You can now use Twitter People Search to track them down! Twitter is much more useful when you can find the accounts of your friends, colleagues, competitors or companies that interest you.  So whether you are searching for a friend or for WeddingWire, just click the “Find People” in the navigation bar at the top of your Twitter homepage and search away!

Not into Twitter yet?   Sign up for your free account today and let the fun begin!

Follow us on Twitter!

With the current state of our economy, many companies are turning their efforts to Inbound Marketing because it is a more efficient way to market their business than traditional, Outbound Marketing.

Let’s take a look at the difference between the two types:

• Outbound Marketing: Main goal is to find customers.
• Inbound Marketing: Main goal is getting found by customers.

So why are companies now using more Inbound Marketing tactics? Here are a few reasons I found:

• It costs less. Inbound Marketing is all about creating good content and talking about it. This can be done by starting a blog, creating a Facebook fan page, posting videos on YouTube, or using Twitter. All of these examples are free and can draw a significant amount of attention.
• Better targeting. With Inbound Marketing you can be more selective when choosing your audience instead of targeting the masses.
• It’s an investment, not an ongoing expense. If you invest money in creating content that puts you in the high rank of Google’s organic results (which is free), you will be there until someone else displaces you.

With the New Year only weeks away, it might be helpful to take a look at your own marketing plan and see if you can incorporate any of these Inbound Marketing tactics!

For more details on Inbound vs. Outbound Marketing, check out this great blog post from HubSpot.