Some organizations who have not yet taken the Web 2.0 plunge worry they will “lose control” if their site visitors offer opinions, reviews or complaints. Granted social networking is not for everyone, but some companies are intentionally creating themed social networks that will help them better understand their customers’ needs.

The Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA.org) recently reported that Del Monte used customer input from its online pet owner community, I Love My Dog, to help create a new dog treat product. The Wall Street Journal reported the full story that discusses how Del Monte purposely created their 400 member community consisting of hand picked dog owners who could help them with product feedback.

If you’re looking for new ways to dialogue with your customers, consider creating a branded social network site using applications such as KickApps, Ning, or CrowdVine. Some groups use these apps for short-term events such as conferences. Or you can start a brand new social network and ask your customers to help you create your next hit product! Need more information? Download this PDF 9 Steps To A Successful Online Community or view these YouTube videos on CrowdVine’s conference networking and social networking applications.

Some email marketers might be surprised to find that their actions (or inactions) might get them classified as spammers. Vigilance and perseverance can help keep your email address off of block lists and ensure that you can get your messages to your target audience.

One important action you can take is to attend to unsubscribes quickly. If you get unsubscribe requests for newsletters or email campaigns, ensure that the email addresses are removed from your list immediately. People do get annoyed if they unsubscribe from a list only to find that they still receive messages from you. Keeping your databases and lists up to date can help reduce spam complaints against you.

Post an anti-spam policy on your site. List what you are doing to reduce spam related to your marketing activities. Show your site visitors that you genuinely are concerned that they receive only the messages they want and that you take spam issues very seriously.

Another way to protect yourself from being labeled a spammer is to not reuse your email lists for multiple campaigns. If a customer signs up for one newsletter, and you send several unrelated newsletters and messages to that address, this may be perceived as spam by users. Allow users to manually select the messages they want to receive. Providing clear ways to opt in and out and easy ways to unsubscribe can help you keep spam complaints down.

Unsubscribes Are Good For You? That’s the title of a blog post by Justin Premick at AWeber Communications. He makes the good point that an “unsubscriber” used to be interested in your messages, and they have changed their mind for a reason. By inquiring on your unsubscribe page the reason for the unsubscribe, you may glean useful data to help you improve your email marketing messages.

So you’ve launched a new website, or maybe you are looking at your current site and are wondering how you can improve it. There is a very inexpensive way to upgrade your website and increase conversions. Learn how to write compelling calls to action. Here is a very good list of example calls to action that you can study to get an idea of how to write persuasive statements. People do like to be directed on “what to do next.” They also are willing to exchange their contact information for something of value. The something of value does not have to be a physical product. You can offer your knowledge on a subject in exchange for a visitor’s email address.

You could write a few short articles or even a detailed white paper or two to offer to site visitors. Use persuasive calls to action to elicit a response and make a clear, valuable offer. For example, if you sell furniture polish, you could write this call to action: “Get free tips on how to remove scratches from wood furniture.” You can link this call to action to a contact form, letting the visitor know that their email address will not be sold or spammed, and that you will send their list of tips immediately. Give the user a chance to opt in for more marketing messages, such as email newsletters or special offers.

It all starts with making an offer. If you direct site visitors to what you want them to do (make a purchase, download a demo, request a free trial) you will be on your way to improving your conversion rate.

The Pew Internet & American Life Project recently reported that “48% of Internet users said they had visited a video-sharing site such as YouTube.” This data represents an increase over December 2006 statistics that showed 33% of Internet users had visited such sites. Online video certainly appeals to Internet users, and according to the Pew Research Center, women are the fastest growing online video viewing audience.

The proliferation of video online provides a way for some groups to produce how-to and informational videos, such as this one concerning myths about the common cold. Other groups use online videos to promote a particular viewpoint, such as storewars.org’s humorous Grocery Store Wars video, which features animated fruits and vegetables playing the familiar Luke, Darth Vader, Obi Wan, Chewbacca and Han Solo characters. The premise of the video is to inform consumers that pesticides used by non-organic farmers harm the air and water, and create a health hazard for the food supply. The video represents the viewpoint of the Organic Trade Association, which claims that organic food is healthier and more nutritious.

Even though online videos are popular and can often be entertaining, investigating their claims for truthfulness can be important. For example, one can examine facts about the benefits of pesticides such as keeping restaurants, hotels and malls free of insects and rodents, or preventing the spread of bacteria, including Staphylococcus.

The ubiquitousness of broadband makes online videos easy to enjoy. Many videos are mere entertainment while others contain marketing messages. Taking a moment to dig a bit deeper beyond what is presented on the screen can help viewers get a more balanced viewpoint. All of this said, I really appreciate the creativity of video creators who can take a boring subject and make it interesting. Why even cardboard can be entertaining on YouTube: Behold the folding cardboard chair!

I have been reading about how Word 2007 makes it easy to create professional looking documents. I am intrigued because I am sitting here using Word 2002 on my laptop, and I even still use Word 97 on my old NEC mini laptop, which I appreciate because I can carry the NEC anywhere and use Word, then beam Word documents to my laptop later. I’m thinking I should upgrade after seeing how handy this new Word 2007 looks. Here are some of the features the new Word has to offer:

The layout of Word 2007 offers an intuitive interface that brings many hidden features to the surface. Instead of the familiar file, edit, view, insert, etc. drop down menus, Word 2007 provides a new tool called the Ribbon which puts document creation tools at your fingertips. In older versions of Word many features such as headings and styles were harder to access. In this Word 2007 screenshot you can see the improved tab-based interface. In the screenshot you can see the “write” tab offers font, paragraph, headings and styles options within easy reach. The Galleries section of the Ribbon (which looks like small squares or windows containing relevant document formatting tools) allows the user to select tools that they want so they can create documents faster.

When you have created your document you can press the Office button at the top left and choose to save, print, or publish the document (in addition to other options); with the publish selection offering an option to create a blog post from the current document.

I have tried almost every word processing program out there, and often use Google Docs and Open Office. However with all the new features in Word 2007, I may have to try this newest iteration from Microsoft.

I’d love to hear from experienced Word 2007 users out there who can give me more reasons on why I should upgrade to Word 2007. Is it really as intuitive as it appears? Do you like using it? Which word processing program do you prefer? Talk about your experiences in the comments section below.