At KME (a DC SEO Company and Digital Technology Agency ), we cover a lot of ground among client types, industry segments and technology services, with a heavy emphasis on area DC SEO business requirements for online, interactive marketing and advertising. As a local or regional small business near Washington DC, including Northern Virginia, Suburban and Southern Maryland, there's an almost bewildering array of online marketing services, tools, channels and opportunities to sift through - plenty to buy, try and use, but not nearly enough time and expertise to properly leverage. Plus, the online research or purchasing habits of your constantly changing customer segments (and their technologies) are really hard to keep up with - whether for marketing or simple communications purposes. Our insight comes from many places, though primarily from the experiences of our long list of DC area clients - ranging from IT and B2B service companies, to retail, B2C and startup businesses. We'...

Colocation of business IT assets (servers, storage, networking) at Washington DC regional and local Datacenters in the Northern Virginia area is big business – and entirely appropriate to consider for small to mid-sized businesses of all shapes and sizes. What do you need to know, where to start? (Reprinted from  KME Internet Marketing  - Northern Virginia and Loudoun Datacenter CoLocation Retail Providers – please send your updated contact information to us if we don’t already have it, for more information about leads and demand generation, and to participate in our local datacenter colocation marketing and outreach activities). Your Business Depends on IT You’re a small to medium-sized business in Northern Virginia, the Washington DC metro region – maybe even a larger, regional business, nonprofit or government entity. You operate and maintain, yourself, a growing, aging, critical inventory of information technology (IT) assets, that run the computer programs an...

In light of this week's LexisNexis Data Breach report, it's worthwhile to explore the true value and usefulness of this kind of data that might be stolen from you. Sensitive, personal data (PII, or "Personally Identifiable Data") is usually protected, but no protection is guaranteed if outside your complete control in any way – most people should assume their most-used data reflecting their personal identity (like SSNs, tel #s, DOB) is already public , if not already being used illegimately.  Where you drive, what you buy, who you meet with, your outwardly-visible or audible physical characteristics – this information is already public in many ways, as well as captured through commercial or government systems to some degree. This is particularly true the older you are, or the more active you are using this information on the Internet (regardless of standard firewall, encryption, VPN, password or other security and privacy protections leveraged). However, a...

This is some professional perspective and analysis regarding a recent campaign to raise donation capital through crowdsourced funding tools available on KickStarter.  At the end of the day, the campaign was not funded, and didn't reach its goals (From $100K to $1M).  Not that it didn't have a chance, and wasn't backed by some very savvy and knowledgeable product designers/developers - the failure was all about Marketing 101. Note – this is actually a prediction, halfway through the initial campaign – as measured by the stats and trends so far, and the very predictable performance (albeit from the always-easier armchair quarterback seat). We’ll eat our shorts and donate if it actually turns around… Update 9/24 - the campaign has been pulled from Kickstarter, citing availability of operating funds now no longer necessitating crowdsourced funding....a lukewarm "save" in the face of pending campaign failure.  If you’d prefer not to read further, here’s the simpl...

The Chief Marketing Technology Officer (CMTO) is recently an often-proposed role, that combines the interactive marketing savvy and experience of a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and the traditional information technology operations, management and investment knowledge of a CIO or CTO. More and more often, digital marketing requirements of an organization need a healthy integration of both marketing and IT skills. A good deal of the CMTO/CMO's "enterprise" scope to address is actually outside of their organization, i.e. dealing with Internet-based services, tools or 3rd-party sourced data and information. Per this Oracle Enterprise Architecture for Government Blog entry, the typical Enterprise Architect is well-suited to be helpful and useful to the CMTO's domain, even outside the home organization. Below is an image of the CMTO Domain Reference Architecture.

How to evaluate your digital, interactive marketing partner, for local and regional businesses - particularly in the Washington DC and Northern Virginia marketing and advertising area. We'll put it out there – as you evaluate prospective partners like KME Internet Marketing to help with web marketing initiatives, gaining exposure for your business and driving new sales from the Internet, this is exactly what you should seek . Research and ask about ALL of these skills and expertise domains, either directly, or as part of your Solicitation or Request for Proposal/Information (RFP/RFI): 1.    Is the firm accessible , with local, hands-on, in-person availability of subject matter experts?  Professional, personal service and communications are critical. 2.    Who exactly will you be working with ; are these professionals accessible?  The firm's website should include leadership profiles and pictures, and these individuals should be well-k...