Internet Marketing News

How to Get Followers on Twitter - Being Relevant is the Key to Success

2009-07-24T11:33:00.001+06:00

The popularity of Twitter has become, in a word, UNREAL. People "tweet" about waking up in the morning, what they are doing during the day, and what they just ate for breakfast. Others are "tweeting" valuable information and content, linking to articles, and sharing links to music that they enjoy.

Then you have "blatant" spammers. Like with any social media site, they are "blasting" their links in hopes of getting their next "sale". Some of them know better, some don't, and some could care less.

Either way, the majority of users are wondering how to get followers on Twitter?. It is that magical "mystique" that surrounds the average Twitter user. How is it done? How do these Top Twitterers do it? Is there some type of magical formula on how to get followers on Twitter?

Some of these so-called "Gurus" will tell you YES, there is. Follow "my secret system" and get 18,937 Followers in 30-90 Days. But the truth is, that the Top Twitterers don't do it "magically", they do it "systematically".

"Get followers instantly and on auto-pilot" seems to be the trend online marketers are using these days to "hypnotize" people into buying their systems. After all, who wouldn't want to "easily" learn how to get followers on Twitter ( completely on auto-pilot ) while making an extra $200 to $1,000? And on top of that, doing it ALL from the comfort of their living room chair while watching the latest episode of their favorite television program. Are you kidding? Sign ME up for that program NOW!

But realistically, the pure "hype" of these systems are usually enough to turn the average Twitter user off. When enough people start "over saturating" the market, it begins to become old news. People aren't "tweeting" anymore, they are just posting self-serving links. This is not the proper way to gather a large following of people, and in most cases, will get you unfollowed.

So what's the big deal with Twitter anyway? Well, Twitter can be a very valuable business tool if used properly. Dell knows it, and so does CNN. So why is it so hard for the average person to crack the code on how to get followers on Twitter?

In one word, RELEVANCY. Learn who your "customer" is. Don't just spam random links to anyone and everyone in hopes of getting "bites". Knowing your "customer" and offering them "relevant" information will get you much more Twitter followers than random "spam" techniques.

Mass Mass Media Wars

2009-07-24T11:32:00.000+06:00

Call it the ‘Social Media Revolution’. Or ‘The Fans Strike Back’. Better still the ‘Mass Mass Media Wars’!

In new unprecedented twist the people – the minions and the masses – are no longer quietly accepting the overarching power of major corporations and are making their opinions felt, rapidly and virally.

Take the case of Harry Potter. The Potter franchise is the heftiest in history making $4.5 billion in box-office revenue worldwide. Its fans are a big part of that success and although its producers, Warner Bros. have accorded the fans their respect, they vastly underestimated how quickly the tide could turn against them if the fans didn’t appreciate any decision they made.

Within hours of Warner Bros’ August 2008 decision to postpone the release of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” to July 2009, hate mail and death threats began pouring in. Warner Bros executives’ private email addresses circulated via the Web and Youtube posts of angry homemade videos flooded the Internet. The studio retreated with an apology and the promise that “Half-Blood Prince” would now open closer to the studio’s seventh planned Harry Potter film, due out in November 2010, which still didn’t appease die hard muggle fans who’re still muttering about it.

Then there’s the Twitter Effect, the make or break power of tweets, which last week broke Bruno’s poise. Sacha Baron Cohen’s offbeat comedy about an oddball Austrian stylista made $30.4 million in its opening weekend. However the sharp drop from Friday to Saturday in box office figures implied that the film’s apparently insipid comedy and bland writing didn’t wash over with most moviegoers — fans just didn’t dig it and they twittered heavily about their disappointment leading experts to speculate and conjecture about Brüno being the first movie to be defeated by the Twitter Effect.

Another brand getting browbeaten by the social media multitudes is Jamba Juice. Bliss is only being found in their blackberry shake flavour as the company fights off accusations of ripping an ad concept from cult cartoonist David Rees’ Get Your War On. The news broke on Twitter and the masses have made their angry protests, but the Jamba Juice still haven’t said a pip … nor responded on their on its Web site or Facebook page.

Its obvious that brands, corporations and entertainment juggernauts are now more vulnerable to the masses, the consumers, bloggers and growing twitter community and are either unaware of the growing influence of social media, and if they are, are unsure of how to deal with it or handle its unrestrained power.

Rohit Bhargava (Fast Company) says that launching a blog, or a Facebook page or Twitter account isn’t the hardest thing for a major corporation to do – “The hard part is deciding how to use these tools. Ironically, the thing that most brands have to worry about isn’t negativity (as they often fear), it is indifference. The most common “backlash” against company sponsored social media initiatives are the embarrassing sounds of crickets. No one visits and no one cares.”

Rohit goes further and advices corporations to understand their audiences first. To do what they first did before they launched their product – research! Then “Instead of focusing on your shiny new blog or cool new Facebook app, the place to start is to figure out who will be the people behind it. Find the individuals who will be interacting on behalf of your brand in social media, and then give them the tools and support to do it well. All the companies that get credit today for doing social media well – Zappos, Dell, Comcast – have all become comfortable with letting individuals from their company become the faces for their brand. These are the voices that I often call “accidental spokespeople.” Within them is the real secret to using social media to be a brand that actually matters: offering a real human connection.”

Social Media is here to stay so corporations can either ignore it at their own peril, misunderstand it at their own demise or approach like you would any wild animal; slowly, quietly, reassuringly and consistently and in doing so, master social media whispering for the best results. Peace Out!

Social Bookmarking Provides Handy Information

2009-07-15T17:46:00.000+06:00

Social bookmarking is the essence of efficiency. It takes a very time consuming task and pares it down into quick easy access. What it is, is the ability to save a bookmark to a website that's public, and then 'tag' it with relevant keywords.

If you're simply 'bookmarking' a site, then you save it for future reference. When you utilize 'social bookmarking', you need to register with a bookmarking site where you can store and edit your bookmarks, and not have to keep them on your computer.

The defining of keywords within your social bookmarking is called by the name - 'folksonomy'. It's the act of using a tag for searching all your resources assigned to that particular tag. Soon your whole community of users develop a 'string' or 'structure' of keywords that define the particular resources.

It opens up the doors to opportunities for like-minded people to share ideas and resources on a certain topic of mutual interest. They soon build a whole community centered around a relevant theme. This can be invaluable in research, as using the search engines could take way more time to find the same information.

The reason the search engines take so much more time, is the way that searches can return something 'similar' to what you're looking for, but not quite there. So you have to glean through your searches in order to find a resource that has exactly what you need. Whereas your social bookmarks put you a couple of clicks away from exactly what you need.

If there's any downside to social bookmarking, it's that not everyone makes proper use of their tags. You may have an interest in, say, 'deer hunting'. And one of your users uses the tag 'hunting', without specifying 'deer', then you may end up on a site for duck hunting, elk hunting, hunting equipment, or any number of things. Specificity in keywords is important.

As you can see, social bookmarking is the essence of efficiency. It saves you lots of time when you need information on subjects that are related to your bookmarked topics. And new information is added daily, as more people tag different sites. It really is a good way to get things done for the busy web surfer. There are many social bookmarking sites out there, like Facebook, del. Icio. Us, Furl it, My Space, Digg, Twitter, and many more. So get started with some bookmarking of your own. You'll soon see the efficiency factor involved.

How to get started as an event planner

2009-07-14T17:54:00.001+06:00

Event planning involves the organization of special events that may be for business purposes, education purposes, social purposes, or somewhere in between. Product launches, conferences, graduations, fashion shows, tradeshows, fairs, weddings and anniversaries, all are specializations of event planning that need to be handled with expertise and appropriate coordination.

Landing a job in the field of event planning is not as complex as it may seem. Although it requires a high degree of professionalism, many people are, in effect, event planners when they organize social gatherings for their friends and family. Planners are people who start in one particular aspect of events. They may be caterers, owners of audiovisual companies, hotel owners and so on. Often, the small events for friends and relatives are their first, cautious steps before getting professionally involved in event planning. This explains how event planners have the exceptional ability to coordinate their events by providing diverse services.

By its nature, event planning involves a risk; the risk of failing to meet clients’ expectations by holding an unsuccessful event. If this happens, clients have no return on their investment, and event planners may experience a severe decline in their reputation. To avoid all these consequences, an event planner conducts a research beforehand to make sure there is demand for the event. Research may mean collecting information about similar events or learning the etiquette of the particular type of event. It may also mean finding out about suppliers and vendors and looking for the right event venue. But, it definitely means asking clients lots of questions in order to get the full idea of their needs and keeping lots of notes. Anything that can guarantee a well-planned event without compromising its success it's a first step towards event planning business.

All the notes kept during the interview with the clients are included in a creative design. This enables an inexperienced event planner to get the feel of the event. As the notes are written down, the design becomes clearer. At this phase, event planners check the clients’ answers and, before making any suggestions, they decide on the feasibility of the event in relation to the event budget.

The next step is to think about the site selection. Even experienced event planners are aware that a trivial omission in the site selection process may cause tremendous problems in event execution. Coordinating event facilities, catering services, meeting rooms, audiovisual equipment, décor, and transportation to/from the event are extremely important in order to decide on the best venue that meets the clients’ requirements at the lowest price.

Experienced event planners admit that, more than the business approach to the profession, what plays a decisive role in becoming a successful event planner is good communication skills and exceptional coordination abilities. Clients need a committed professional, who will be available on weekends, holidays, evenings, and peak seasons. Event planning does not operate 9 to 5, neither strictly downtown. An event planner should be available 24/7 in order to coordinate and supervise the events whenever and wherever is required.

If there is a natural instinct for event planning and a good understanding of the new business arena, then with optimism, dedication and professionalism it is very likely that someone can turn from amateur into a professional event planner.

The best way to find sponsors for your event

2009-07-14T17:53:00.000+06:00

Great business ideas need to be regarded as great sponsorship opportunities. In the competitive business realities of today, enticing an organization to sponsor an event requires a harmonization of multiple factors.

One of the most common reasons that an organization would be interested in sponsoring an event is if a large audience or a particular target market could be reached. Sponsorship is, in effect, investment of time and money and sponsors trust a company and its reliability to gain exposure and promote a product to a large cluster of professionals.

To ensure that a large audience will attend a particular event, event planners need to keep an updated attendee database by avoiding inviting the same people one year over another and by asking prior attendees to refer them to potential future attendees. It is extremely important to keep expanded guest lists in order to ensure high attendance rates at events.

Besides, event planners need to think ahead and beyond of their business. This implies to involve a broader range or professionals that are indirectly related to their business and may attend the event thus increasing attendance. For instance, if event planners own a travel agency, they may invite hotel owners, employees from airlines and other professionals from the tourism industry.

Another important consideration for an organization to sponsor an event is the enthusiasm the event planners will show when presenting the event to them. Typically, event planners prepare a 20-second pitch that enables them to expose their event as a great sponsorship opportunity, while explaining to the potential sponsor the benefits of sponsorship. A very important detail is that the style of the call should be appropriate to the type and size of the organization. For instance, if the event planners contact a small, local firm, they most likely speak directly to the owner(s) of the company. In this case, the decision will be immediate. If they contact a medium or large organization, they will speak to an officer from the marketing or the human resources department. This means that the decision will take longer because larger companies construct their sponsorship budgets once a year.

Event planners contact also advertising and public relations companies for sponsorship ideas. These companies have a great cluster of clients, which can offer great exposure to the event and an interesting list of sponsors.

Written proposals are sent out to the organizations that have expressed interest in the event. Typically, this should be done well in advance of the event so that organizations have time to review the invitation and take their final decision. In a professional document, event planners include all the necessary details about the event focusing on the exposure gained through the sponsorship. If similar events have been held in the past, event planners include a track record with copies of newspaper clippings and all necessary information. This builds credibility into the event and ensures the benefits of sponsorship. Besides, invitations should include what the sponsors get in return such as advertising, speaking opportunities, distribution of promotional material, naming rights and so on.

Follow up is extremely important in the business world. Two or three weeks after the proposals have been sent out, event planners should follow up the submissions with a phone call to find out which organizations are interested in sponsoring the event.

When the final list of sponsors is prepared, details of the sponsors should be included in the advertising campaign and media releases of the event making sure that all the sponsors receive copies of the promotional materials. Sponsors should also receive any type of updates and should be included in any meeting held in regards to the event.

After the event is held, event planners should send a letter of appreciation, photos of the event, newspaper and magazine clippings and any coverage of the event by the media.

Corporate sponsorship requires encouraging the participation of the sponsors in the event by working closely with them in all stages. Sponsorship is, in effect, a way to build associations with an organization aiming to have a return on investment for all parties involved.

Ways to increase attendance at business meetings and events

2009-07-14T17:51:00.000+06:00

As a matter of fact, people do enjoy attending events. This is because they want to get informed; to come in contact with the leaders in their field; for networking; for being acknowledged for taking their time to attend; out of curiosity; for entertainment; for gossiping; or just for the free food offered, always in a warm and friendly environment for all participants.

Poor attendance at meetings and events is always your worst nightmare as hosts. You may use an online survey to determine why potential customers do not enroll. You may ask customer service representatives about the most frequent objections. You may even initiate a promotional phone call to find out about the objections with your own ears. However, no matter what you do, the event will be a disaster if you don't come up with ways to overcome these objections.

Designing a successful event aims at increasing your profitability and the potential of your attendees. In your effort to discover the needs and wants of your attendees it is advisable to ask attendee-focused questions that require attendee-centric answers. For instance, questions like 'what would drive greater success in my business?', 'what my customers need?', 'how could I satisfy my customer needs?' may help you design an event that will create interest in your attendees.

Promoting your event requires primarily creativity and persistence. High attendance is important for the success of your event and your business. Emphasizing on your attendees will allow you to generate more awareness for your cause and, ultimately, more success for your event.

Here are some guidelines you may follow to increase attendance when hosting business meetings or events:

> Target the right audience

One common factor that makes people restraining from an event is because they are not really interested. In other words, they do not belong in the right target group. If you host the event for the first time, it will take some time for finding the right target audience so as to achieve high attendance. In contrast, if you are already hosting the event for many years, you may experience a decline in attendance rates as a result of inviting the same people without expanding your guest list. You need to keep an updated attendee database and make sure that you target the right audience. This can happen by asking existing attendees to refer you to potential new attendees so that you increase your attendance rates for next year.

> Invite your audience well ahead the event

Once you start inviting people, you should continue at a constant rate. Inviting people well ahead the event is important because it gives you time to remind them about the event even if they have confirmed attendance. The point is to generate excitement and to make them enthusiastic until the date of the event is hosted. You can mention the event to your guests before sending them invitations and then send an electronic or paper initiation including agenda highlights. After one or two weeks, you may call guests and give them a personal formal invite to the event.

> Build credibility and interest in your event

To participate in your event, people need to be convinced that is worth their time and money. To achieve that, you need to choose major sponsors to advertise your happening, esteemed guest speakers to attract the audience and nicely organized promotional material to communicate the benefits of attending at your event. In doing so, you will able to build credibility into your event, convincing people that is exceptional and worth attending.

> Choose the right location to host your event

Choosing the right location may skyrocket your attendance rates. Don't forget that people enjoy attending events. So, simply offer them an opportunity to detour from their routines and enjoy your happening. When choosing the location for hosting your event, consider a venue that can be conveniently reached because people are busy and do not have too much time. Also, it makes sense to use a venue that has been previously used for other events and people are familiar with. Offer discounts for early enrollment and offer also mail enrollment for people that do not have home computers.

> Provide incentives

Providing incentives raises additional interest. Offer additional discounts for the next year's event that can be prepaid this year. Offer new activities, perhaps workshops, handouts, signed books for a famous guest speaker for the first ten people, who register; anything that can make your event unique, different than the previous years and worth attending.

As there is no magic stick that can increase attendance in your next event, you need to design your events around their needs. In that way, you will host an event that will be a memorable experience for your attendees, who consequently will drive higher attendance to your next meetings.

The Best Way To Get Fresh MLM Leads – Get Them Yourself

2009-07-10T09:47:00.000+06:00

There are hundreds and hundreds of different companies out there that say that they provide people with fresh MLM leads. But there is a challenge with these so called leads, you do not own them. Let me say that again for all of the people that have been going out there and paying thousands of dollars to buy these so called fresh MLM leads, you do not own these leads.

This industry is based around people needing new leads to talk to about their business opportunity. So companies started up with to sell leads to the industry at large. But like I said, you do not own them. Normally when you buy a fresh MLM lead, there is a time restriction on it meaning that you can only call that lead for a period of time, them after that, you have to give the lead back.

Now this is a very funny thing because people do not join a company in the network marketing industry, they join a person. Since this is the case and you buy a lead that you can call for a month, how on earth are you going to build a real relationship with this lead? It might take you 2 weeks just too finally talk to the person and how are you suppose to build any type of real relationship with someone that you have just met via telephone. Your odds are not that good.

But if you went out there and learned how to create your own fresh MLM leads, you could slowly build the relationship over time. And since you own the lead yourself, if they don’t decided to join you for 12 months, no big deal. And the bonus part of this is that by the time that they have joined you, you two will have a strong relationship, which is exactly what you need to be successful in MLM.

So take the time and learn how to create an endless amount of fresh leads for your own MLM business. Through this process of learning, you will master one of the most essential skills in network marketing and you will truly turn into a leader.

Organic Search vs. PPC?

2009-07-10T09:41:00.002+06:00

Should you invest in Pay Per Click (PPC) or organic Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)?

This is a very big question and to a lot organisations the answer will be both but all too often the wrong decision or balance is made between the two.

We will try and discuss this topic by looking at an example.

One of our customers had a large online marketing budget and they purely allocated this to PPC which did bring in good results. When we were asked to evaluate the website we discovered a whole lost market. When google displayed results you only spotted this company in the sponsored results which meant every person arriving at the website came at a click cost dependent on the keywords. They appeared out of the top 5 pages of natural results for all search terms. We also found a considerable cost in the whole process of finding keywords to bid against and allocating budgets.

What we proposed was to move 25% of the PPC budget to organic SEO for a period of 6 months. We deemed 6 months as a realistic measurement time frame to cope with natural peaks/troughs in the business.

Before starting a detailed report was created of existing success rates and website analytics. This was the marker to compare against.

After just 3 months we started to see the website appear on the top 3 pages of the search engines and our analytics started to show a considerable growth in visitors.

After the 6 months were up the findings showed that organic visitors now accounted for the majority of web site visitors. We discovered that given the same company in sponsored and organic results people tended to click on the organic results, this accounted for the reduction in PPC visitors. The actual closure ratio (visitor to sale) was equal to that in the original PPC only campaign. This meant that sales had increased due to more visitors.

Based on these findings the decision was made to reduce the online marketing budget by 40% then allocate this new reduced value 50/50 between PPC and organic SEO.

This is proving very successful in more sales and also at a lower overall cost to the business.

In conclusion we strongly believe a place for both methods of search but would recommend all website owners to first prepare a marketing plan that shows how to achieve good organic sesrch and then allocate a budget to PPC. Organic search is long term website growth whilst PPC is shorter term results driven.

The Easiest Money to Make Online - Google Ad sense

2009-07-10T09:39:00.000+06:00

It seems that Google Ad sense have already dominated the internet marketing business and is now considered the easiest way to making money online.

The key to success with Ad sense is the placing of ads on pages that are receiving high traffic for high demand keywords. The higher the cost-per-click to the advertiser, the more you will receive per click from your site. Obviously, it does not pay to target low cost-per-click keywords and place them on pages that do not receive hits.

With all the people getting online and clicking away everyday, it is no wonder why Google Ad sense has become an instant hit.

For some who are just new to this market, it would be a blow to their pride knowing that their homepage is buried somewhere in the little ads promoting other peoples services. But then, when they get the idea that they are actually earning more money that way, all doubts and skepticism is laid to rest.

There are two major, and clever, factors that some successful webmaster and publishers are learning to blend together in order to make money easier using Ad sense.

1. Targeting high traffic pages on your website. If you check on your logs, you will discover that many of your visitors are taking advantage of the free affiliate marketing resources and e-books that you are offering on your site. In simple words, your ads are working effectively and are generating more clicks. It also means more money for you.

2. Placing Ad sense links on pages that are producing little, or better yet, no profit. By placing Ad sense on a free resources page, you will reduce the amount of potential customers being lost to other sites. Tricky, but effective nonetheless.

When learned to work effectively, these two factors are actually a good source of producing a minimal amount of revenue from a high traffic page. Many people are using this strategy to pick up some extra and cash with Ad sense. This is also especially rewarding to informational sites that focus their efforts on delivering powerful affiliate link free content to their visitors. Now they can gain a monetary return on their services.

With the many techniques that people are now learning on how to make the easiest money by their Ad sense, it is not surprising that Google is trying everything to update and polish their Ad sense in order to maintain their good image.

The possibility of adding is 2nd tier in Ad sense is not impossible. With all the people spending more time in their Ad sense now and still more getting into this line of marketing, there is no doubt about the many new improvements yet to be made. Imagine the smiles on the faces of the webmasters and publishers all around the world if ever they sign up for sub-affiliates and double or even triple the amount that they are already earning.

The one particularly handy money-making feature that is available with Ad sense now is the ability to filter out up to 200 urls. These gives webmasters the option to block out low value offers from their pages as well as competitors to their websites. Talk about taking only those that are advantageous and discarding the ones that seem useless.

With Google Ad sense, the possibilities are limitless. Yet there is also the possibility of someone taking advantage of the easy money process that this internet marketing is doing. If you think more about it, these negative factors may force Google to break down and thrash Ad sense in the process. If that happens, people would have to go back to the old ways of internet marketing that does not make money online as easy as Ad sense.

For now, however, Google Ad sense is here to stay. As long as there are people wanting to earn some easy cash online just using their talents, the future ahead is looking good. Besides with all the strict guidelines that Google is enforcing over Ad sense, it will take awhile for the Ad sense privileges to be spammed and even terminated.

Social Strategies for Web Success

2009-07-09T09:44:00.001+06:00

There is no clear answer what is best way to succeed in today’s social network craze. With Facebook and Twitter in the headlines it has become apparent that no matter who you are or what you do having a strategy for your online success is an important on.

Presence

In speaking to hundreds of entrepreneurs that last few years on Network Skill for Careers Success it became clear that there was so many choices as to what to do have a concise focus on how to do it had been lost in translation.

Find a platform and try it. Everday for about ten minutes log in Facebook and check out and learn in small increments. This is what I did couple of years ago and has worked well in understand the versatility and exposure tools the social networks have. You can add articles, blogs, pictures and videos if you like.

With specific intent you can create an interesting profile and be engaged with a community of entrepreneurs, business owner and authors. It takes some getting used to but what you put you get out out. I have saying “Get Connected Make It Happen”. The connected part require some thought and realization as to who your “friends” are and making it happen how you can build a long-term online and perhaps offline relationship with.

I have very few games and other utilities on my facebook page with the reason , that no what I there to do. It goes without says that you can a few but be careful how often you play it could lead to distraction moving forward.

Utilized social playroom to promote articles and videos that I done to prospective clients and has worked well in having a profile to view and evaluate.

Attraction

It’s no secret that building a community is important in the social media. You want people to follow you whether on Twitter or Facebook. Become an expert in a field and tell and share it constantly with your group. From articles you have written online or offline to events that you attend regularly.

Have a social strategy is important resource for you in many ways from either doing research on particular subject or maintain a online relationship with people you may not see everyday.

Rather sifting through your business cards to find people having online resource where you can locate your best 20-50 contacts is crucial

Your sharing the same social space, perhaps in a different association but that doesn’t mean you can’t use it.

Resources

As you learn more about social networks you will come across various site that you may find of interest for different reasons. Do you homework and research.

Being on twenty different social website may be little overwhelming! Having you best 5 is good start. Get used to using them and before you know you will be teaching other how to do it.

There are plenty of useful online webinars of useful information on insight and how to grow and nurture your web presence. Take your time and take and gradual process in the learning and adapting to new social culture.

Trends

Its beginning to appear the social networking is on the rise and will not be going away. You are beginning to see it being use in the media on a daily basis and by business in advertising. Being part of it is staying connected with social online culture. Not being part of is okay. Face to face to conversation will never go away, and for many that is what they like.

Becoming a published author and public speaker that last two years it has become clear that social networking is powerful tool that can be used to promote and market yourself easily and effortlessly to create value and powerful returns using the resources that are around you either online or offline

Tweet Like a Pro - How to Use Twitter Tools

2009-07-09T09:43:00.000+06:00

Twitter has tons of Twitter tools, which aim at helping you tweet like a pro. Not all these tools will be useful to you, but you can choose the ones that you might like to use. To find exciting things on Twitter, visit http://twitter.pbwiki.com/

Tweetburner: You can use this tool not only to shrink your links, but also to check your link stats.

Foamee: This is a great place for beer.

Finding a User’s Conversation Threads: Use the url http://search.twitter.com/search?q=twittername. When the page loads, you will be requested to provide the twittername of the user whose conversation threads you would like to track.

FeedBlitz: This tool permits you to cross-post articles into Twitter straight from a blog. Type the feed url into the subscribe box and choose Twitter as your subscription option.

TwitterGram: Use this tool to associate your Twitter account with your Flickr account. All you have to do is assign a tag to all your Flickr pictures that you would like to post on Twitter as well.

Twitter "TrackThis": This option enables you to track your FedEx, UPS, DHL, and USPS shipments.

Twittercal: Want to add events to your Google calendar from Twitter? Go to Twittercal and add gCal as your virtual Twitter friend. To add events, you only have to send the event as a direct message to gCal, and it will be added automatically to your Google calendar.

Report Spam: If you have caught a spammer using your tweets and pictures, you can report him/her by sending a message to Twitter's spam watch team.

Get Gmail Notification: You can also use Twitter to get gmail notification. Create a new account at Twitter and set the update status as "Protected." This ensures that the updated don't get public. All you have to do now is to subscribe to your RSS Feed at Gmail using FeedBlitz.

Twitter Alarm: Twitter can alert you at a particular time. Follow Twitter user "timer" and send this user a direct message stating the time at which you would like to be alerted. You will get a ping at that particular time.

TweetBeep: Want to know whenever you are mentioned on Cyberspace? This could really boost your ego, make you feel good, and motivate you. Visit tweetbeep and create alerts for your set of keywords and web addresses. An alert will be dispatched to your inbox whenever someone tweets about your blog post or brand name.

StrawPoll: You can use Twitter to conduct polls by visiting StrawPoll. Your followers can participate by just responding to you.

TweetStats: Would you like to have the complete statistics for your account? Use TweetStats to get the number of tweets your account gets per hour or per month, in addition to the number of responses you get and information about the commonly used interface.

TwitterFriends: To know more about TwitterFriends, check out Darren's review of the same: "TwitterFriends - A Useful Twitter Metrics Tool." Input your twittername and get impressive statistics regarding your followers. In fact, TwitterFriends is the most comprehensive of all Twitter tools.

TwitterGrader: Want to find out how Twitter will rank your account? Use TwitterGrader to find out where you figure in a rank of 0 – 100. This gives you an idea of your influence on Twitter space. Twitter ranks its users on the basis of the number of followers, the following, and the number of tweets. This Twitter tool will also help you find out if you are a Twitter elite member in your country.

ReTweetRank: Get a rank for your account as per the number of tweeters who retweet you.

NearbyTweets: Want to find the people who are tweeting close to you? This tool will help uncover some great potential followers.

Twitoria: Old Twitter users usally face the problem of long following lists, as a result of which they get plenty of spam messages. Twitoria will identify outdated, unwanted, and unused accounts for you. This tool will help you unfollow Twitter users who haven’t tweeted for ages.

Qwitter: Want an alert whenever someone unfollows you? Input your twittername and email address on Qwitter and get an alert whenever such as thing happens. Qwitter, however, has a bad reputation. Users have complained that Qwitter doesn’t alert you immediately. It remains quiet for weeks and months and then suddenly sends 30 alerts for followers who unfollowed you long back.

FriendOrFollow: This tool helps Twitter users find out who is following them and who isn't.

Tweetwasters: Want to know how much time you spend tweeting? This tool will let you know this in exchange for your twittername.

TweetWheel: Use TweetWheel to find out which of your followers are on good terms with each other and are planning a date or a party. This will help you avoid awkward moments.

TwitThis: Do you remember spotting social bookmarking buttons such as Digg and del.i.ciou.s beneath people blog posts? The idea is to encourage people to bookmark the articles if they like them. TwitThis is something similar. Request your readers to tweet the link of your blog post along with a brief summary of it to their followers.

Fail Whale: This sign can annoy you initially, but you have to learn to take it in your stride. It simply means that Twitter is occupied elsewhere and cannot deal with your requirements right now. You can just try again later.

Earning Money On Twitter – 4 Great Places To Find Advertisements

2009-07-09T09:41:00.000+06:00

You can use the following to earn money on Twitter.

1. Be-A-Magpie.com

Advertisers conglomerate at this site and decide whether they would like to pay per view, per click, or per sale. Sign up at this site, supply your twitter details, and choose the ads you would like to tweet. The company will post these ads under your twittername.

Stay away from ads that look as if the advertiser is desperate to boost his/her sales. Remember that Twitter is not the place for aggressive campaigning and hard selling. You could pick a line that strongly resembles one of your tweets. For example, I would pick an ad that says, “I played around with this new insert picture feature on Gmail and found it to be awesome. You can check it out here.” This hardly sounds like an ad; it looks like me tweeting. None of my followers will suspect that I am posting an ad

Be-A-Magpie permits you to choose the time and frequency of ad posting. The site offers many other cool features too, which you can check out once you are there.

2. Twittad.com

Twittad, a social media affinity network
, connects Tweeps and advertisers. While Tweeps can use it to make money out of their Twitter profile pages, advertisers can use it to reach every nook and corner of Twitter, third-party apps, and mobile phones.

How does Twittad work? Tweeps and advertisers meet on Twittad so that the Tweeps can permit advertisers post ads on their profile pages. The payment depends on how long the ad stays on the profile background.

Tweeps can use Twittad to monetize their profile pages in 2 ways:

* They can offer their profile pages for sale on Twittad. This method gives Tweeps the freedom to set their own rate. As soon as the Tweep approves of the advertisement, it appears on the background of the profile page.

* Advertisers announce their requirement for a Twitter profile page and agree to pay a certain amount. Tweeps can apply for the same. If the advertiser approves of the Tweep’s profile page, the ad appears on it and the Tweep earns money.

You start earning as soon as you register your Twitter profile page on Twittad and register for one of the above-mentioned methods or both. Twittad logs into your profile page and places the ad on your profile background. Twittad’s sophisticated technology keeps track of how well the ad is doing on your profile page background. If the ad captures your followers’ attention, you will get paid. The payout is $30.

You might find it a bit difficult to find ads that suit your unique style of tweeting. Still, if you search hard, you will find an ad or two that will fit the background of your profile perfectly. As far as possible, stay away from long-duration ads and stick to short-duration ads.

You must, however, retain the ad for a particular period of time. If you remove it before the expiry date, the advertiser will get alerted and give you a black mark. You don’t want this to happen as it might affect your chances of getting ads in the future.

3. HootSuite.com

HootSuite is a Twitter user’s one-stop shop and serves 2 important functions. First, it shrinks the links you post in your tweets. Second, it helps you earn some extra Google Adsense cash.

When HootSuite shrinks links, it also creates a new webpage that contains a HootSuite banner in addition to the original page whose link it has shrunk. This banner contains your Twitter details, a HootSuite ad, and a small space for a Google ad of your choice. Now, any page you recommend to your followers has your Google ad on it. If your followers click on it, you will earn money.

4. RevTwt.com

RevTwt.com allows you to monetize your tweets. Twitter users who want to make use of it must first register at RevTwt.com with all their Twitter details and PayPal id. Once they have done this, they are free to choose the ads to post as tweets. These tweets will contain the advertiser’s link. Whenever your followers or anybody else clicks on it, you will get paid.

Once again, choose your ads with care. They should look as if you are tweeting. The Twitter community will block you or report you for spamming if they suspect that you are forcing ads on them.

Here are some step-by-step instructions to use your RevTwt.com account.

1. Get a genuine Twitter account; many people sign up for RevTwt without a Twitter account.

2. Sign up at Twtad by providing your Twitter details and PayPal address.

3. Log into RevTwt.com and click on the "Post Ads" tab to start posting ads. Choose ads that look as if you are tweeting. Once you select an appropriate ad, post it as a tweet. Whenever someone clicks on it, you will get paid. Payout is $20.

A Word of Warning

You may post as many ads as you like on Twitter in order to make money; but take care that you don’t spam. Twitter users hate spammers. Posting ads all day and earning money from clicks sounds like a great idea; but in the long run, you might lose your valuable followers. So, tweet a lot about your life, your careers, your vacation, your coffee breaks, and so on. Insert an ad or two in the midst of these tweets. Then, nobody will accuse you of spamming.

How To Find Friends On Twitter – 2 Secrets Revealed

2009-07-07T10:48:00.000+06:00

Twitter allows you to make find friends in any number of ways. First, you can inform your friends, family members, and colleagues that you are on Twitter and request them to join you there. You can also add your Twitter page link to your email signature, enabling the recipients of your emails to find and join you on Twitter.

Alternatively, you can search through the endless list of Twitter users to find people who share your interests and become friends with them. Twitter also presents tools that will help you find and follow other Twitter users.

1. Twellow and JustTweetIt

Twellow and JustTweetIt are sites that can introduce you to other Twitter users who share your interests and goals. Look up their profiles and study the ways in which they use Twitter. Before you decide to follow them, study their blogs and read their bios. Follow them only if they share similar interests with you. You will be wasting your time if you follow people who are interested in a niche that has nothing to do with you.

2. Twitter Search

Twitter Search is another great way to find like-minded people. Twitter Search is Twitter’s special search engine that is not only easy to use, but also gives great results. Use it to find profiles that might interest you.

Once you decide to follow another Twitter user, you will gain access to the network of Twitter users they are following. You will find that it is humanly impossible to read every tweet that is posted on Twitter. But you can glance through them and browse various profiles to find something that interests you. Check the tweets every now and then for a message that might be related to your niche or interests.

Don’t be in a hurry to build your network. Following other Twitter users means opening yourself up to the rest of the Twitter community. When you follow other Twitter users, you make it easy for them to find you. Therefore, follow only those who might be of some use to you.

Learning Tweet Terms – How to Make Yourself Understood on Twitter

2009-07-06T10:09:00.000+06:00

When you first step into Twitter space, you will wonder what everybody is tweeting about. New users can be totally confused with Twitter terms; but you will soon get the hang of it. Most Twitter terms begin with the letters 'tw.' For example, "tweet" means a twitter message. tweetup means a Twitter meetup. Before you tweet to other Twitter users, you ought to know the following basic Twitter terms in order to make yourself understood.

* Direct Message: A direct message is a personal message sent to a particular Twitter user. It does not appear on the public timeline.

* @twittername: ‘@’ followed by username of a particular Twitter user means that it is a response to that Twitter user’s tweet. It appears on the public timeline—one the home page of that Twitter user.

* Leave twittername: This indicates a desire on the part of a Twitter user to stop following someone.

* On: This command turns on phone, IM, and mobile phone notifications.

* Off: This command is to turn off notification.

* RT or Retweet: You are retweeting if you are reposting something interesting posted by a Twitter user.

* PRT: This means “please retweet” or “partial retweet.”
* OH: Overheard
* FTL: For the loss
* BTW: By the way
* FTW: For the win
* YMMV: Your mileage may vary
* IMHO: In my honest opinion
* LMK: Let me know
* b/c: Because
* JV: Joint Venture

* Hashtags: Many Tweeters use hashtags (a hash preceding a tag) in order to make it easier for readers to follow that particular tag or tract it. Use the tag on Twitter Search, and you will find other Twitter users tweeting on the same subject—posting events, tips, conference, and so on about the same subject. If you want to track many hashtags, visit Twemes.

WeFollow, Twellow, and Justtweetit are some Twitter directories that can also give you plenty of information on hashtags and tag tracking. While tracking other hashtags, it pays to add your own to the directory, especially if you specialize in a particular niche.

To learn more exciting Twitter terms, visit: http://twitter.com/help/lingo

You might be wondering why Twitter has a different language. The reason for this is simple. Like all Web 2.0 sites, the prosperity of Twitter depends entirely on the quality of the material posted by its users. Twitter is of value today because of the valuable tweets of its users. Twitter will flourish only if the Twitter community flourishes. And, for any community to flourish there must be a basic set of rules and regulations pertaining to language. The guidelines are not to curb the freedom of the users, but only to enable the smooth functioning of Twitter. As you continue using Twitter, you will observe that using Twitter language will actually enrich your Twitter experience.

Build Your Network

2009-07-06T10:08:00.001+06:00

One of the biggest questions when someone new comes online trying to earn money online is where do I find people to build my network. Usually after the quick and sometimes crushing realization that their marketing campaign relies on the help of other people they want to begin participating within the world of Web 2.0. Now Web 2.0 is no specific type of website marketing, but the conglomeration of any web platform which provides user side feedback. This means any website out there that accepts visitors to interact in a way that gives them the ability to speak is considered Web 2.0. Good examples of websites within the Web 2.0 world are blogs, Twitter, Myspace, Digg, Forums, and other ways that people may transmit info while increasing their network of friends or business partners. Personally I thrive in the social web and use it constantly to not only build friendships that will potentially lead to cross promotion such as three way linking and guest posting, but also learn what is new throughout the online marketing world.

When you begin building your network it will seem like a very daunting task. There will be millions of potential contacts and you are to decide which will be the most productive and useful to your goals. The biggest tip that I can give anyone trying to build a network is start slow and remember etiquette is everything. Never think that anyone owes you or should have your link on their website or blog. It sounds quite simple, but after spending some of your valuable time helping someone out on a social medium to find that they did nothing for you in return may seem irritating to say the least, but in fact is quite common in the webmaster world. Example I personally gave a shout out to a few of the “top dogs” in my niche giving them free backlinks and while reading of course I saw nothing. Should I have taken the links down or placed the rel=”nofollow” tag on them stopping the flow of link juice from my blog to theirs? The simple answer is no, but there are many reasons for this. The biggest one is when you give a link to someone deserving and Google notices who you are linking to they will not consider your site linking to crap and place you in the category of online crap.

Building a network consists of not only personal relationships, but also technical ones. The example above when sharing links is a relationship of technicality rather than personal. These are the relationships that drive the web and should be a consideration when you decide to build a network in the Web 2.0 world. If you run into someone that runs crap (link farm, ffa page, or other “bad neighborhood”) even though they may be the nicest person online do not place them in your network it will only lead to poor placement within the SERPs and this can damage the income of a website dramatically. It is ok to stray from your niche somewhat, but usually when building a network the best relationships will be within your niche. Remember start slow and build your network brick by brick don’t give up.

6 Ways to Integrate Twitter and Facebook

2009-07-06T10:07:00.001+06:00

Twitter and Facebook are not the only social media sites out there-not by a long shot. But they are of course two of the most well known and widely used. They are also very similar in that they both essentially function as "status updates." Because of this similarity, some really great tools and applications have come out which allow users to integrate the two. Here are six of the tools I have used and like:

Twitter clients like Seesmic or Tweetdeck: These are two Twitter desktop clients that allow you to browse your friends' Facebook status updates and update your own status right from their interface-no need to have a web browser open or be logged into the Twitter or Facebook sites.

Twitter or Selective Twitter Status applications: These two Facebook applications allow your tweets to automatically be posted to your profile. Selective Twitter Status is great because you decide which specific tweets go to update your Facebook status by adding #fb after them. This way your friends who aren't familiar with Twitter lingo aren't confused by your frequent status updates.

Vlingo application: Vlingo is a free application for the Blackberry, Nokia and iPhone. It allows you to update your Facebook or Twitter status using your voice right from your phone!

FriendFeed application: If you use FriendFeed, which consolidates all of your social media activities across different networks in one place, you can add the Facebook FriendFeed application. If you are importing your Twitter feed, every time you tweet it will post to your Facebook wall. This may be preferable to updating your status with every tweet such as with the Twitter for Facebook application.

Tweetpo.st: Tweetpo.st is a very cool site which allows you to post tweets as Facebook status updates, post links you tweet on your Facebook wall (so your friends can watch videos and see pictures right in their News Feed), ignore @replies, change @mentions to real names and more. It does all of this by using Facebook Connect.

Custom Profile Box or Extended Info applications: Finally, if you are just looking for a way to let your Facebook friends know that you tweet and encourage them to follow you, you can add one of these Facebook applications. They both allow you to insert a graphic or text, which you can then easily link to your Twitter profile. For example, I added a clickable Twitter bird logo that reads "follow me on Twitter."

Now you can save time and expend less effort on the two most popular social sites by using these helpful (and free!) social networking tools.

Understanding Brand Loyalty and Its Relation to Customer Satisfaction

2009-07-06T10:05:00.000+06:00

Brand is a product or service, which relates a firm’s products or services and reputation with consumer needs and shareholders expectations. Typically being distinctive and authentic, a brand name reflects an organization’s positioning relative to its competitors as well as the organization’s personality in the context of the target market. In the minds of consumers, Lexus is known for pursuit of perfection, Apple for innovation and design and PepsiCo for its appeal to younger generations. Therefore, a strong brand is more than just a name; it is a promise that can be trusted.

Consumers enter into a purchase with certain expectations about a product or a service and satisfaction is the hoped-for-outcome. Those expectations are based on (1) past buying experience, (2) brand connotations, (3) word-of-mouth, (4) the firm’s promotional material and communication, (5) the competitors’ promises, (6) individual persuasibility and perceptual distortion, and (7) price. In this context, brand loyalty occurs as a result of customer satisfaction because consumers commit to a certain brand based on favorable attitudes and behavioral responses.

Brand loyalty can be classified into two broad categories.

Behavioral brand loyalty is measured by the ratio of the times that a repeated purchase occurs over total purchases. This measurement of proportion of purchases includes cognitive, affective and conative features, which imply an indirect relationship between brand loyalty and customer satisfaction. In other words, considerations of customers' perceptions about a brand can make or break a firm’s branding strategy in the context of repetitive purchases when measuring brand loyalty levels.

Attitudinal brand loyalty holds that brand loyalty involves a favorable attitude which reflects a preference or commitment expressed over time. This argument implies that consumers like the particular firm more than its competitors and therefore they express a favorable preference over the firm’s products or services.

Both behavioral and attitudinal brand loyalty consider that consumer have developed a feeling of favorable attitudes towards the organization and therefore they engage in repeat purchases. However, marketing studies hold that, often, repeat purchases occur as a result of convenience or lack of alternatives bearing no intentional component.

The benefits of customer loyalty for a firm are numerous. First of all, loyal customers are less price- sensitive, which means that they are ready to pay a higher price, if required, in order to acquire the product or service. As a result, apart from higher profitability for the firm, the cost incurred for pursuing new customers is reduced. Loyal customers are also strong advocates of the firm playing a powerful role in the decision making process of other people. The word-of-mouth advertisement is a strong marketing tool that improves the firm’s reputation and brings certainty to the firm by enlarging its customer base. In addition, loyal customer expose higher tolerance for mistakes, are willing to provide feedback for any unfulfilled needs, to try additional products and to offer a higher share of wallet.

In conclusion, brand loyalty is highly affected by customer satisfaction and commitment. Loyal customers trust the company and function as reference groups increasing the firm’s reputation and profitability.

Reasons To Retweet - 3 Great Benefits of Retweeting

2009-06-30T16:53:00.001+06:00

1. Retweeting Gives Something Valuable to Followers

Twitter users have different reasons for following you. One of those reasons could be that your tweets are of great value to them. When you retweet informative and interesting posts, you are automatically providing something valuable to your followers, who obviously share your tastes and preferences. When you give something valuable to your followers, they are going to remain loyal to you. You might also attract more followers.

On Twitter, there are 2 great ways to provide something of value to followers.

Create a blog post and tweet a link to it.
Retweet links to valuable content posted by other Twitter users.

2. Retweeting Benefits Personal Brands

Retweeting is a very effective method of promoting personal brands and winning followers’ loyalty. If you retweet valuable posts, your followers will trust you more than ever. They will then click the links to your products simply because they trust you to provide something of value to them.

3. Retweeting Creates a Bond with Original Posters

If you retweet others’ posts, they will respond by retweeting your posts. Retweeting is actually an act of kindness, and bloggers love repaying such acts of kindness. However, refrain from retweeting simply because you want the favor to be returned. The primary purpose of retweeting is to share valuable content with your followers. Besides, Twitter users don’t just retweet posts. Someone will retweet your link only if you provide top-quality content that is of great use to them.

Does retweeting drive your followers away? Many people are worried that it would. Actually, no such thing will happen. Nobody will unfollow you simply because you retweet someone else’s posts. You might get blocked if you show yourself to be a spammer. However, nobody will stop following your tweets or visiting your blog just because you point out some good content to them. You must remember that readers are kind-hearted and intelligent people.

Retweeting enhances your Twitter experience. At the same time, ineffective retweeting can wreck your traffic and brand reputation. If you retweet in the proper manner, you will succeed in driving more traffic to your websites/blogs and getting connected with other content creators and bloggers in your niche.

Social Media Marketing through Facebook

2009-06-30T16:24:00.000+06:00

If you want to make the most of social media marketing today, you better sign up with Facebook. According to a recent report from the Orlando Business Journal, Facebook has far outpaced its competitors in the first quarter of 2009, garnering 78 percent of US social network participants against MySpace’s 42 percent, LinkedIn’s 17 percent and Twitter’s 10 percent.

Worldwide, Facebook was reported to have 307.1 million unique visitors in May 2009 while MySpace had less than half with a mere 123.2 million unique visitors. According to Facebook, its members are sending each other one billion chat messages each day.

As early as 2008, a study done by Internet Retailer and Vovici showed that most online retailers in the US chose to use Facebook as a social media network to help boost sales. A separate study done by Rosetta among the top 100 US online retailers showed that 59% had set up a Facebook fan page. Among these retailers were Best Buy, Kohl’s, Wal-Mart and Toys “R” Us.

In order to make the most of your company’s Facebook fan page, though, you should familiarize yourself thoroughly with social media marketing as a whole, and with the way Facebook itself works in particular. It would be wholly counterproductive to make an online faux pas and earn ill will. Each social media network has its own temperament, after all, and its own set of rules and online etiquette. Members and users also have certain expectations from other members and users.

Perhaps it would be best for a company not to risk experimentation by assigning this task to a newbie. Learn from the mistake of the New York Times whose new social media editor had no extensive knowledge of Twitter before diving in. As a result, her repost meant to point other Tweeter users to an online article ended up taking them to Ebay instead. Do not make the same mistake in Facebook or you will get a lot of negative comments instead of the favorable ones you need. It would be best to leave the task of handling your company’s social media marketing efforts to the experts.

Social media marketing is one of the services offered by Web Dot Com Website Development Philippines, Inc. as a full service web site developer and a web hosting provider with domain name registration services. Web Dot Com recognizes that social media marketing, along with search engine optimization and search engine marketing, is now a necessity in the online marketplace. Having a good website with good landing pages are no longer enough.

twitter to help build your social network

2009-06-30T16:19:00.000+06:00

Twitter is quickly becoming a staple for internet marketing and news agencies around the world, with the ability for people to share stories at lightening speed, often faster than most government agencies know about them.

The first step in building your social network empire is of-course to add as many friends as possible. Obviously if your social network is a niched product it is wise to use the “find people” function and to target individuals of whom you think would best suit your social network. For example my social network is called The Cleavage Club and its aim to is to help women express themselves in a non traditional manner. From this I would type into search “lingerie” or even dare I say it “sex toys” this way I am able to attract the type of girl whom is already interested in the field that I am marketing.

Do remember that there are limits on the number of people you are able to add, so once you reach your limit it is advised to go through the people you are following and delete those whom are not following you back. This frees up room to add new followers.

The second step to find relevant followers is to find a person whom is in your niche and has already amassed a number of followers in that field, then simply go to their friend list and add them all. Yes all of this is time consuming, but if you have a cool/ weird enough pitch people will start tweeting about you, exposing you to a larger number of people and the domino effect starts.

Don’t Advertise Your Business - Market It!

2009-06-30T16:18:00.001+06:00

Too many clients have come to us only after they have wasted large sums of money by copying their competitors with “me too” advertising. And the media and advertising agencies love it. When you approach an advertising agency, their mission will be to convince you to spend your entire marketing budget with them, not to help you devise a marketing strategy for your business which will look at all available marketing options, not just advertising.

When developing a marketing strategy for your business, you must consider a number of aspects of your marketplace, before even thinking of your business. You need to answer the following questions:

=> Who are your competitors?
=> Who are your customers?
=> Can you segment your marketplace?
=> How do your customers make a buying decision?
=> Who else has customers who could be your customers?

Once you understand your marketplace you should then consider your business. At this point of the marketing process you would ask the following questions:

=> What is the ultimate benefit of my products and services for my customers?
=> Why should people buy from me?
=> What is my offer? (Product / Service / Price / Support / Guarantee etc.)
=> How do I define My Marketplace? (Who / What / Where / When and How)

And only once you have answered these questions, ask the one that most businesses ask first rather than last:

=> How will I promote my business?

When answering this question, consider all the promotional options, not just advertising. Some of the marketing options available to you are:
Networking, newsletters, cold calls, special offers, public relations, referrals, joint ventures, trade shows, seminars, workshops, website, sponsorship, media advertising, yellow pages, direct mail and brochures.

All of these methods are, in one form or another, lead generation strategies. You are buying customers, and the bottom line for everyone of them is the cost per qualified lead. And that’s how you decide how to spend your promotional dollar. When you approach an advertising agency, you must already know how much want to spend on that marketing channel. While they may give you good advice on how to spend your money in their channel, they will not consider alternatives which may be better for your business. It is also essential to consider whether the selected channel is capable of generating qualified leads at a reasonable price. For example, if your product is upmarket, generating leads from the budget market is of no value to you. And there is also false economy in choosing low rating media which often generate no leads at all!

Whichever marketing channel you choose, it is absolutely essential you measure the results from each promotion. Over a period of time, you will learn which ones work best for you. However, this can be a lengthy experience. Using a marketing consultant can greatly reduce the painful and often costly learning curve, and can save you many thousands of dollars in your marketing costs, and even more importantly, in the opportunity cost of lost time.

I'm officially dropping out of the Twitter gab fest

2009-04-19T07:49:00.001+06:00

Back from vacation and it's grand to see that the blabosphere's obsession du jour with all things Twitter remains as rabid as ever. For a while, at least, I suppose it elbows aside the other obsession du jour--the truly distressing state of newspaperdom--at least until word of the inevitable next bankruptcy hits the wire.

But with all due respect to the armchair commentariat, I'm sure there's something more interesting to write about in the wider world of technology. You wouldn't get that impression after randomly scanning headlines on the tech news aggregation sites. That's where the usual suspects are again cluttering up the transom with their latest random brain farts about what Twitter co-founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone ought to do with their amazing little toy.

And I'm not letting us off the hook, either. At one point on Friday, CNET had five--count 'em, five--posts on Twitter (and unfortunately, I'm No. 6).

I can understand why certain folks might be drawn to Twitter--even to the point of pondering the existential import of Oprah's tweets, but come on already. Twitter's a terrific conversational and research tool. Still, can we get a grip?

I'm so thoroughly bored by the mandatory wide-eyed wonder that now accompanies any news event where the story is that people actually post updates on Twitter. "Wow, they're tweeting about the earthquake;" "they're tweeting about the airplane in the East River;" "they're tweeting about the bunion on the president's left toe." Blah, blah, blah.

Despite the outpouring of attention, not everyone is so enamored. I was recently at a dinner hosted by venture capitalist Bill Gurley, whose company, Benchmark Capital, is an investor in Twitter. The person sitting next to me that evening was only a few weeks into her Twitterhood. She didn't get what all the fuss was about. I did my best to convince her that Twitter was a game-changer but she wasn't buying.

Maybe in time her opinion will change, but her lukewarm response offered a reminder. A lot of serious, smart people take a more sober view of Twitter, viewing it as one (possibly useful) technology tool among others in their daily routine. They're not close to drinking the Kool-Aid, and that's something the media forgets.

Well, if Ev & Biz ever do figure out how to harness Twitter's financial potential, wonderful, that would rate as news, and at that point, I'll give a damn. Until then, I'm leaving the daily hand-wringing to others.

What's up, bot? Google tries new Captcha method

2009-04-19T07:47:00.003+06:00

Google has released research results about a new test to foil computers pretending to be humans by requiring them to orient an image so it's upright.

A persistent problem on the Internet is screening out automated computer systems that can be used, for example, to sign up for spam-sending e-mail accounts or post comments designed to improve a site's search results. Google, which already devotes a lot of resources to block e-mail and Web spam, has tried a new test to keep the bots at bay.

The test is the latest variation on a screening technique called a Captcha (completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart). The idea is that people can often tell which way is up in a photo, but computers have a harder time.

Captchas are in widespread use today, usually in the form of obscured or distorted text that people can still read. But there's a lot of work in the area, including identifying 3D images and distinguishing between cats and dogs.

Here's how Google authors Rich Gossweiler, Maryam Kamvar, and Shumeet Baluja described the image-orientation technique in their paper (click for PDF):

This task requires analysis of the often complex contents of an image, a task which humans usually perform well and machines generally do not.

Given a large repository of images, such as those from a web search result, we use a suite of automated orientation detectors to prune those images that can be automatically set upright easily. We then apply a social feedback mechanism to verify that the remaining images have a human-recognizable upright orientation.

The main advantages of our Captcha technique over the traditional text recognition techniques are that it is language-independent, does not require text-entry (e.g. for a mobile device), and employs another domain for Captcha generation beyond character obfuscation. This Captcha lends itself to rapid implementation and has an almost limitless supply of images.

We conducted extensive experiments to measure the viability of this technique...Our Captcha technique achieves high success rates for humans and low success rates for bots, does not require text entry, and is more enjoyable for the user than text-based Captcha.

Images can be hard for people to orient upright, too. One 500-person test showed wide disparities in the opinion of which way was up for the left image but not the right image.
(Credit: Google)

The tricky part is finding the right balance between too easy and too confusing. Some images are hard for people to orient correctly, and some have cues--faces, text, blue skies, and green grass--that computers can use to figure out which way is up.

To get around this issue, while being able to draw from the large number of images on the Web, the technique presents people with new images as well as those known to perform well. If people have trouble consistently telling which way is up, that image isn't included in the library.

The researchers like their system in part because the image doesn't have to be obscured or distorted, as in text-based Captchas such as those Google currently employs. But image-based Captchas aren't immune from the bot vs. Web site arms race.

"As advances are made in orientation detection systems, these advances will be incorporated in our filters so that those images that can be automatically oriented are not presented to the user," the researchers said. "The use of distortions may eventually be required."

The city where every arrest gets Twittered

2009-04-19T07:45:00.002+06:00

For a short time, it seemed as if the Denton Police Department outside Dallas had been inspired by great communicators such as Ashton Kutcher and CNN.

A Twitter page, headlined "Denton Police," fed details of every arrest the department had performed, coupled with TwitPic mugshots.

This remarkable, real-time communication between the police and outside world surely was a futuristic forerunner to Texas' progression towards secession.

Until it was revealed to be the work of University of North Texas senior, Brian Baugh.

Mr. Baugh studies photography and is clearly fascinated by the plethora of things that can be seen online. One of them is the Denton City Jail Custody Report, which Mr. Baugh happily transposed to the unofficial Denton Police Twitter page.

"I just thought it would be a thing between me and my friends," he told the Dallas Observer.

Perhaps you might be thinking that he is to be awarded a commendation from the Denton Police for his ingenuity. And perhaps you might be thinking that all humans should have three feet, two noses, and hair made of recyclable plastic.

Yes, the Denton city attorneys are trying to get the feed shut down, which seems a little peculiar as it isn't as if Mr. Baugh is tweeting anything other than perfectly public information.

"The only way they might shut it down is if they wanted to use the account for themselves," he sagely declared.

But would they use it well?

You see, the Denton police has a MySpace page. It could, perhaps, be this one. However, according to Denton police spokesperson, Ryan Grelle: "It hasn't been updated for months."

Facebook vs. Twitter: How will you stream your world?

2009-04-19T07:41:00.004+06:00

The future will be streamed. And streamed some more.

Earlier this week, Facebook unveiled a few notable product revamps: "fan pages" for brands that look and act more like regular member profiles, and a redesigned home page that emphasizes a real-time version of the site's iconic news feed. The keyword here is "streaming," encouraging an even more extensive flow of information with a status update prompt that asks, "What's on your mind?"

Needless to say, "What's on your mind"--which also allows the posting of links, videos, and other content to news feeds--bears quite a bit of resemblance to Twitter's "What are you doing?" prompt. So, especially in light of more rumors and reports about Facebook's spurned attempt to acquire Twitter, expect comparisons between the two services as means of ultra-customized media consumption to escalate.

When Facebook unveiled its redesign I predicted that we'd hear a lot more about the news feed as the new personal portal. That's sort of what many prolific Twitter users have turned the microblogging service into, too. Our Twitter feeds, after all, deliver a whole lot more than updates about what kind of beers our friends just ordered at happy hour: Depending on what you subscribe to, you can get ski reports, links to news headlines and blog feeds, mini-recipes, and celebrity-stalking intel.

But for all the talk about brands building presences on Twitter, Facebook may have gained a slight lead here. I spoke on Thursday to Dan Hart, senior vice president and general manager of MTV Digital, about how the Viacom-owned entertainment brand is using the new Pages to push out more content to members' news feeds. For the first time, brands using Fan Pages can set "status" messages, too, which MTV plans to use for news and updates.

"The status update function is effectively becoming a publish function, and that publish function is text, photos, video, a variety of media," Hart said, "and that media is experienced more as a real-time stream by a Facebook user, and the Facebook user has more control over what occurs in that stream."

That's basically what media companies do with Twitter accounts. And Hart said that MTV has no plans to abandon its presence on Twitter. "I don't think it's a zero-sum choice at all," he said. "We've done really interesting things on Twitter."

But Facebook's advantage is that the revamped news feed can handle different types of content, too: it'll have actual photos and event listings instead of TwitPic and TinyURL links. Filtering controls won't require a third-party app like TweetDeck. On the other hand, Twitter is obviously more open-ended. The messages on it are public and accessible, rather than hidden behind a log-in wall. As useful and innovative as the Facebook news feed may be, it's not searchable--and Twitter clearly hopes that its search feature, which it built in with the acquisition of Summize last year, will be a sort of secret sauce. (Maybe it'll even make money with it.)

Honestly, though, with the amount of buzz about both Facebook and Twitter as the future of real-time information, I give the advantage to whichever one can make all this content less of a mess.

On a related note, this gives aggregation services like FriendFeed a run for their money--why join an external "all-in-one-place" service when the same content is available on Facebook? FriendFeed is better optimized for longer discussion threads, true, but you don't hear a whole lot about marketers jumping on the feed-aggregator bandwagon. If anything, I see FriendFeed moving more toward a message-board role rather than another player in "the stream." But that's a tale for a different day.

Amazon’s Affiliate Program Ends PPC Arbitrage

2009-04-08T22:01:00.001+05:00

Maybe I’m not the best qualified to make assumptions about why Amazon Associates–the online retailers affiliate program–just pulled the plug on allowing affiliates to send referrals via paid search, but that doesn’t stop me from making an educated guess.

PPC Arbitrage.

I suspect that Amazon finally realized that it could do its own keyword bidding and cut out the middle-man–those bidding pennies on long-tail keywords and making dollars in affiliate commissions. Here’s the email that Amazon just sent out to its affiliates:

Dear Amazon Associate:

We’re writing to let you know about a change to the Amazon Associates Program. After careful review of how we are investing our advertising resources, we have made the decision to no longer pay referral fees to Associates who send users to www.amazon.com, www.amazon.ca, or www.endless.com through keyword bidding and other paid search on Google, Yahoo, MSN, and other search engines, and their extended search networks. If you’re not sure if this change affects you, please visit this page for FAQs.

As of May 1, 2009, Associates will not be paid referral fees for paid search traffic. Also, in connection with this change, as of May 1, 2009, Amazon will no longer make data feeds available to Associates for the purpose of sending users to the Amazon websites in the US or Canada via paid search.

This change applies only to the Associates programs in North America. If you are conducting paid search activities in connection with one of Amazon’s Associates Programs outside of the US and Canada, please refer to the applicable country’s Associates Program Operating Agreement for relevant terms and conditions.

We appreciate your continued support and participation in this advertising Program. If you have questions or concerns, please write to us by using the Contact Us form available on Associates Central.

Sincerely,

The Amazon Associates Program

Is this the end of search marketing for Amazon affiliates? Yes, and no. While you can no longer send traffic directly to Amazon via paid search, I’m assuming you can still send searchers to a landing page and THEN send them to Amazon.com. Also, there doesn’t appear to be any restrictions on using search engine optimization (SEO) to send referarals, but good luck trying to get your own affiliate link to rank in Google.

OK, time to hand this over to the Pilgrims that live for affiliate marketing. What’s your take on this move by Amazon?

Google’s Voice Recognition Improves; Please Keep Some Searches to Yourself!

2009-04-08T22:00:00.002+05:00

I’ve not had a lot of luck with voice recognition technology. My Acura MDX tempts me to use the built-in voice commands, but my request for "Nearest Mexican restaurant" ends up with the mind-boggling confirmation that my "Air conditioning is set to 74F."

So, you can imagine just how easy it had been for me to resist using the voice command feature of the Google search application on my iPhone. I simply didn’t have the time to make a fool of myself repeating the same search query over and over again. However, just last week I ended my Google voice virginity and finally used a voice command, instead of typing. The result? A surprising–and satisfying–success!

Apparently I’m not the only one switching from typed searches to voice ones. According to Vic Gundotra, VP of engineering for Google:

"We launched it on the iPhone and have seen a 15% jump in accuracy because, as more people use it, we collect more data and our accuracy gets better."

He also went on to tell San Francisco’s Web 2.0 Expo audience that Google sees a bright future for voice search:

"We believe voice search is a new form of search and that it is core to our business," said Vic Gundotra.

Some people are not so optimistic though. Take the BBC’s technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones. He tried the service last year and claimed the results were "pure gibberish."

For example, his query about the next train, West Ealing to Paddington "delivered some useful information about ‘neck strain’ - but no train times".

The misunderstanding came due to Google struggling to understand non-American accents–in this case the Queen’s English–but those issues have since mostly gone away. (Heck, if it can understand my American/British mongrel accent, it can understand anyone’s!)

The big question is, just how many of us will switch to voice recognition for our search queries? And, do we really want to stand next to some guy at a train station while he asks Google: "How do I treat my hemorrhoids?"

Google Hate Is in the Air

2009-04-08T21:59:00.001+05:00

We live a world that talks about winners and losers all the time. Trouble is it’s OK to lose big because “Hey, we’re only human and we love to give second chances. Here, have a boatload of taxpayer money to pay your executives who don’t deserve it and have a nice day!” Meanwhile, when a company actually does well there are those to who simply can’t stand a winner that has earned its power. We citizens of the Internet world know that the biggest winner, and as a result the biggest target of haters, is Google.

I read a bit of a rant from a journalist over in the UK and I encourage you to do the same. It is likely to polarize readers pretty quickly. The author uses the following terms to describe the search giant:

WWM – World Wide Monopoly

A threat to the livelihood of individuals and the future of commercial institutions important to the community

A classic monopoly that destroys industries and individual enterprise in its bid for ever greater profits

Delinquent and sociopathic, perhaps the character of a nightmarish 11-year-old

Having a brattish, clever amorality

Well, you get the picture. He is apparently upset about how Google uses its weight to get things done. I can see how that is annoying in many cases but the name calling bit is kind of over the top don’t you think? In North Carolina where I live, if you said those kind of things about anyone you might hear a good ol’ fashioned “Them thar is fightin’ words!” I’m sure Google considers these kind of evaluations like that of a gnat and ignores them or swats them away. What’s interesting to me is that in this world, you can be successful but don’t you dare go past whatever standard of “enough is enough” that some group somewhere has established to fit their own agenda. We want success but if someone else gets it in a way that we don’t like we whine. You can only be as successful as I think you should be. Huh?

I see Google differently. Sure they’re the 900 pound gorilla. Sure there is a bit of bully in them. This bully however is created in many cases just from sheer size. Oh and by the way, they have competition. I look at search like the Big 3 for automobiles in the US. There are huge barriers to entry and the competition is not large in number due to the very nature of the business. Google, however, unlike the automakers who apparently have adopted the Three Stooges as their mascots, has simply done a better job at search than Yahoo, Microsoft, Wikia Search, Lycos, Alta Vista etc etc. by creating a product that helps people get more done at the time that it was needed. They have simply done a better job. Because of that they have won big.

Honestly, I wouldn’t have a business if Google hadn’t done what it has done. So as for the destruction of industries that is called progress. It’s called change. If there was nothing created as a result of the destruction then there is a problem. That’s not the case with the Internet though. The world economy is shifting and Google is helping it happen.

In this world of business, if you create a better mousetrap then you catch more mice. Google catches a lot of mice but they do a lot of good too. Last year, Google’s gift to me for the business I did with them was the chance to help out a local school through DonorsChoose.org. I have an incredible book of letters from kids who benefited from them “forcing me” to help. I would not have done this on my own. They could have sent me a box of t-shirts but no. They helped me to help someone. I am grateful and the kids were ecstatic. No mention of these kinds of things from Google haters is there?

I am not a Google apologist. They are far from perfect. We all are. I just don’t see the point in sitting around and wringing our hands about fairness. Nothing is completely fair. Why do we want it or expect it? Google does a pretty good job in making sense of the Internet for a lot of people. That is actually a good thing. Are they not supposed to make money along the way?

So where are you? Google hater, supporter or do you just tolerate them? Is Google a bully, an enabler or amoral? I bet you have an opinion so please join the discussion.

Twitter Wouldn’t Sell for $1B—Better Make Sure It’s Worth It!

2009-04-08T21:58:00.004+05:00

It looks like the biggest April Fool’s Joke was on all of us. Despite persistent rumors that Google was in talks to acquire Twitter (the coolest thing since the last coolest thing since sliced bread), no deal is forthcoming. On its blog, Twitter explains that sometimes they tease talk.

While all this may be protesting too much from both parties, sources are now saying that Twitter CEO Evan Williams wouldn’t sell for a billion dollars, four times what Google is rumored to have placed the microblogging service’s value at.

When it comes to Internet businesses, though, Twitter needs to remember that timing is everything. If their endgame is acquisition, there are a few points they might want to keep in mind:

the economy is down

the mainstream (and less mainstream) media hasn’t yet turned on Twitter (as it has with previous darlings, including MySpace and Facebook)

Twitter doesn’t have a (publicly-discussed) business model

Google has, of course, paid top-dollar for big-ticket properties before. But although its biggest purchase, the $1.65B YouTube, continues to dominate its niche, Google is still struggling to monetize the most popular video site in the world. Are they prepared to take a chance on another service that doesn’t have a concrete way to turn a profit?

BoomTown’s Kara Swisher points out that Twitter could well be worth the price tag—with one caveat:

It is clear that it is onto something significant and perhaps even something quite profitable someday.

That is, providing its execs focus on what’s important—building Twitter’s business and audience—and trying as hard as they can to ignore all the noisy and pointless tweeting from and about its many suitors.

If they can’t, though—and it would be a crying shame—they should just start responding to all those pretty swains and sell out to the highest and most attractive bidder.

Personally, I am hoping they pick the former, as Twitter is turning out to be yet another of Silicon Valley’s great stories of possibility and promise.

Personally, I think it’s a bit soon to say that about Twitter (I Tweet, but I haven’t drunk the Kool aid yet—I could take it or leave it). I think the company’s hype is influencing this (ahem, timing). Back in February, she made a bit more evenhanded assessment:

Twitter—while it says it is poised on the verge of announcing its grand plan to make money—is operating in an arena I have seen many other shooting stars in, traversing a very dangerous crevasse of hype and expectation.

Due to that, it has a very big red target on its back, one that a competitor in the status space—such as the spurned Facebook, whose update business is much bigger—will not ignore.

Right now, Twitter could ask for a lot, as one of the only Web 2.0 companies that everyone is uniformly excited about.

That’s one I can agreement. Right now, Twitter could ask for a lot. But I hope they’ve seen examples of other media-sweetheart social companies holding out for top dollar—only to end up losing their valuation momentum.

What do you think? Should Twitter hold out for either a higher price tag or a viable business model (which would probably garner a higher price tag anyway), or should they take what they can get now?

Pay Your Fake Friends with Fake Money on Facebook

2009-04-08T21:58:00.002+05:00

Facebook is really stretching the boundaries of a lot of things lately. The newest ‘deal’ they are offering their users is, how do I say this, pretty stupid. TechCrunch goes into some detail regarding this new opportunity for someone to part with their money for no real good reason.

Facebook is offering a virtual gift product that revolves around credits that you toss to your ‘friends’ in lieu of simply liking something they do. Kind of a pay for performance model of friendship. Talk about taking relationships to a new low. For just $1 you can purchase 100 credits that you can give to your ‘friends’ when they do something you like. I don’t know about you but I think that throwing money at my ‘friends’ when they do something I like is not something I consider regularly. I guess my ‘friends’ would like it but it seems pretty ridiculous to me. It’s like treating your ‘friends’ like performing seals. When they honk the horn on the stage by the pool you can throw them a fish and a sincere “Nice job. Atta boy!”

Well, it’s no more ridiculous when done on Facebook. In a not so transparent play to generate some revenue it looks as if the folks at “the ‘book” are thinking that if just a small percentage of their 200 million users are empty headed enough to spend a buck a month to throw credits at their buddies then they can generate some dollars. As TechCrunch put it

And it’s far better than having to return to the capital markets to raise money at what’s likely to be an embarrassing large discount from that ridiculous $15 billion valuation that Microsoft gave them in 2007. Maybe if enough users buy credits that can never be redeemed back for cash they can stretch their runway a little farther.

From a business perspective these are the kind of ideas that makes one wonder if Facebook’s management hasn’t jumped the shark. There has to be another way to pry a dollar out of the pockets of their users. I don’t have one personally but you have to figure that if a few smart people sat in a room over lunch they can come up with something that doesn’t require giving your ‘friends’ the equivalent of an online tip for their efforts.

Hey, if you comment here I’ll give you some credit. Doesn’t that feel good?

AP May Now Mean “All Paid”

2009-04-08T21:57:00.002+05:00

The Associated Press is angry at bloggers and the rest of the Internet for that matter. It appears as if the AP is so enamored with their ability to come up with completely original material 24/7 that keeps the Internet news machine going that they think we should all pay for the privilege to read it and spread the word. Now, there was more than a little sarcasm there because as many folks in other outlets like AllThingsD, Daggle and more have pointed out that this vision the AP has of being the creator of all things printed is a little overdone.

The AP is of the belief that the repackaging of their stories and the use of their stories by news aggregators online is something that needs to be paid for. I am not against anyone trying to make money on their business. We are a capitalistic society for now at least. It’s the vilifying of people who use these stories that is the trouble here. The Internet is an open forum of sorts and the ability to have so many more people see your work is part of the appeal. By closing the door to those who will not pay for the right to use AP ‘stories’ they are certainly drawing a line in the sand.

I like Larry Dignan’s take over at ZDNet. He contends that the AP is actually running the risk of exposing their shortcomings rather than solidifying their perceived leadership position in the journalistic food chain. Dignan says

So the Associated Press is mad and isn’t going to take it anymore. It’s eyeing news aggregators who are stealing a few paragraphs and failing to link to it as an authoritative source.

Be careful what you wish for AP. Bloggers and news aggregators are a smart bunch and if AP isn’t careful the whole world will soon know about its dirty little secret: Much of it is rehash from statements of some sort.

What else can you say to that? Sounds to me as if the AP may be crying wolf to some degree. If they are literally doing what they accuse bloggers and the search engines of doing then it may be best to let sleeping dogs lie. Of course, if you are a blogger and you are not linking to your sources please stop it. While I realize that my sources rarely if ever go to the AP I always include the story source for my posts. It’s a courtesy that is part of the Internet culture. You would want the same from someone else.

Are All of Your Eggs in One Social Media Basket?

2009-04-08T21:55:00.001+05:00

So your company has stumbled upon the next big thing (no reference to StumbleUpon intended, necessarily). Twitter. There is a gigantic scramble to jump on the newest ‘it-girl’ of the social media world and make money, be a presence, play in the pond so to speak. “This is going to revolutionize how we manage [insert subject matter here ranging from: customer service, customer engagement, branding, marketing, advertising, etc.]” is something we may have all heard from our clients or management.

Haven’t we heard this before? Isn’t there a pattern forming here? The ‘curve of cool’ that dominates the product marketing sphere is starting to resonate in social media.

The curve of cool represents the pattern a product or brand faces in the market place. It slowly builds traction. Before long it has an underground following, leading into the early adopters. Eventually the product is the new must-have for everyone. At this point however, the early adopters are already beginning to familiarize themselves with what will be the next ‘must have.’ The product or service becomes completely mainstream to the point where it eventually burns itself out. Now it is so cool, that it is no longer . . . cool.

So that’s not to say that a social media effort should be abandoned once it goes mainstream. Far from it. MySpace is still earning revenue and some might argue that that shark has been jumped. Facebook is still earning revenue and it’s fairly mainstream at this point. Twitter. The T-word. Twitter has yet to earn any revenue, but its popularity is sky-rocketing. Once, only individuals living in the tech-o-sphere and online marketing communities knew about this little gem. Now you can fine everyone from my mom, yes my mother, to Shaquille O’Neal and President Barack Obama. Twitter is all over the mainstream media for its new found popularity. Speculation over how this social media pop princess will turn a profit doesn’t hurt its media popularity either.

What’s next for Twitter? A Google buy-out? Selling ads? Who knows? They’re talking, they’ve admitted that. The real question is “What’s next for social media?”

Diversification is a common practice in strategic business thinking. Diversification also has a place in planning out a social media strategy for an organization. If your organization is aware of and has a presence in as many social networking sites as possible then it will be poised and prepared for the ‘next big thing.’ Social media isn’t all about Facebook, MySpace and Twitter though. During his keynote at IM Spring Break, as covered by Shana Albert, Chris Winfield outlined the types of social media businesses should be involved in. Not just Twitter, but blogging, bookmarking sites, online reviews and others.

The point is, no one knows where social media/marketing/networking will take us. The key is to be ready and by all means, do not put all of your eggs in one basket. Be ready to leverage your presence wherever possible (and appropriate for your audience), engage, and dominate.

Kristy Bolsinger is a full-time MBA Candidate at Willamette University in Salem, OR, set to graduate in May 2009. She currently works part time as a social media and online marketing consultant.

Facebook Does the TOS Dance

2009-04-08T21:54:00.001+05:00

This year April 16th is no longer just the day after your taxes must be done (or extensions filed depending on what’s going on). This day is now a new Opening Day of sorts. It is the day the Facebook’s new terms of service (TOS) will be unveiled after the 30 day public comment period. The new document called the Facebook Principles and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities will be open for a vote through April 23rd. The whole process is starting to have a game show kind of feel to it as the entire process is being audited by Ernst & Young. I wonder if the envelopes will be hermetically sealed as well. So much suspense!

Over at MediaPost the entire process and all the specifics are outlined. Of course, going to the source at Facebook’s blog would be a good idea as well. While this sounds all nice and democratic, one needs to drill only a little below the surface to see where all of this positive PR that Facebook has garnered after making their terms of service gaffe back in February could wind up with literally no change occurring.

To review, Facebook’s TOS’s were reworded ever so slightly and gave the distinct impression that content on Facebook was actually Facebook’s content even after a user closed their account. The following maelstrom of outrage caused Facebook to do a quick about face and go back to business as usual under the old TOS. Shortly thereafter, Facebook’s mea culpa led up to the new matter of putting these brand new terms to a vote among Facebookians around the globe. (I doubt I just coined a phrase there but what else do you call a Facebook user?)

Here’s where everything gets very Facebookey, meaning that things are never as they appear with this bunch. Simon Axten, a privacy and public policy associate at Facebook, stated last week

“On April 16, we’ll be posting revised versions of the documents based on the feedback we’ve received. We’ll also be sharing a written response to the main concerns people have expressed. This will explain in clear language why we did — or did not — make certain changes. This is similar to how U.S. federal agencies create regulations.”

These proposed changes are actually the result of speaking with only about 3,000 members. Not exactly an avalanche of response to match the outcry. Once again it may be that just social media industry types are concerned about any of this and even that concern is superficial at best. If approved the new number of folks involved for future changes to be considered jumps to 7,000.

The MediaPost article then said

He (Axten) added that if at least 30% of active users (people who have logged into Facebook at least once in the previous 30 days) vote, and the agreements are not approved, the current terms of use (last revised on Sept. 23, 2008) will remain in effect. If less than 30% vote, the outcome would be advisory rather than binding, and “we’ll take the results into consideration as we determine next steps,” said Axten.

So here’s the kicker.

That means that more than 52 million of Facebook’s 175 million active users would have to vote next week on the new terms for them to be binding.

So in plain English it seems that Facebook is simply looking to be able to say that they are a democracy knowing full well that their voter base will respond like most people do to mid- term elections by saying “Oh, those were today? Oh well”. In the case where changes are made that pass this test and are then complained about by the rest of the Facebook rank and file Facebook can say “Hey, you had your chance. Sorry”

Same Facebook, different day.

Twitter Traffic Older Than Many Think

2009-04-08T21:52:00.001+05:00

The folks at comScore put some numbers to what everyone already suspects. Twitter traffic is growing at a very rapid rate. What may surprise some are the people that are leading the charge. They also say that the March numbers to be released in the next week will raise some eyebrows as well.

Twitter has grown in legend and lore as of late. It is being used by Shaquille O’Neal, Ashton and Mrs. Kutcher, big business like Dell and Southwest Airlines and President Obama. You can’t seem to turn around without bumping into someone either blubbering over the importance of Twitter or another person bemoaning the decline and fall of Western civilization as a result of it. One thing is for sure, people read, write and talk about it a lot and as the talk grows so does the usage.

A look at the age demographics of Twitter users may be a surprise to some.

A Reuters blog post takes a look at this pattern and discusses the move toward older demographics using social media in general more.

Why this is a surprise to many is a surprise to me. Most users of social media are being attracted by the business applications of social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook. Many of the youngest people who have grown up squarely in the Internet Age are probably not that excited about these things anymore simply because their parents are now involved! I know that when I talk to my kids about something that they think is cool it immediately takes a lot of the cool out of it for them. Their logic is that it can’t be that cool if Dad is into it (welcome to my life).

Another driver for this business application by an older demographic is the economy. Twitter probably benefits greatly from the fact that everyone is scrambling to survive in this economic mess. As the old saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention. Since it doesn’t cost anything other than time to be on these social media outlets and people don’t need to leave their house or office to do it the option becomes more attractive particularly to those who have to pay the bills.

Now, did the people at Twitter predict this type of usage pattern from the start? They will say yes I suppose but who knows. The reality of social media though is that no one can truly predict how any one avenue will be adopted by any particular group. It’s the newness and the Wild West aspect of all of this that keeps it interesting.

As things are shaping up though it appears that the money for social media will ultimately be from those who want to apply it for commercial use and not for those who want to simply share the incredibly ridiculous and inane details of their otherwise empty lives. Was that too harsh?

Google Exec Exodus Continues

2009-04-08T21:49:00.001+05:00

Ok, so exodus may be a bit strong but it got your attention right? What is certain though is Google is leaking some big executives. If you have ever worked in a corporate environment, be it large or small, these kind of changes can indicate either concerns with how the company is going or opportunity for new ideas and new spirit to be injected. Regardless of the real reasons which may never be known anyway it does cause disruptions in the course of normal business that more often hurt than help.

The latest big name to leave is Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, Google’s president for Asia-Pacific (APAC) & Latin American Operations. She has departed for Accel Partners, a Silicon Valley VC that has invested in the likes of Facebook. As reported at VentureBeat

Singh Cassidy will join Accel in a position known as “CEO-in-Residence,” where she’ll help Accel’s portfolio companies and have the option to study to become a chief executive of one of Accel’s future companies.

Sounds like a pretty neat opportunity when you get to choose which company you may eventually lead.

So why the parade of executives exiting the Googleplex for the last time? If there was ever a chance for wild eyed speculation this is it. Just a few weeks ago Tim Armstrong, left Google’s top sales position to lead the good ship AOL. Also, VentureBeat reported that yesterday Google’s director of Latin America, Gonzalo Alonso left for greener pastures.

So Google has recently lost top talent in major positions around the world, with the Latin America operations bleeding a little more than the others. What does it mean for the company that many are looking to help pull this economy out of the ditch? In the short term, you would expect business as usual. It’s the next generation of the company’s expansion and ability to innovate that is really in flux.

While Google hating is popular around the globe there may be some discord within the walls of the company itself. The reality is that Google has been dealing with these defections for as long as they have been as powerful as they are. With so many alpha dogs running around the company it seems natural that not everyone will be satisfied and want to move on. What the Google watchers of the world need to pay close attention to is how many times it happens and if the powers that remain at Google can replace these defections with equal or better talent.

YouTube Could Lose $470 Million

2009-04-05T11:02:00.001+05:00

First, the good news. YouTube is the most popular video site on the Internet. They’ill make $240 million in revenue. They just signed a deal with Disney to help bring in that money. But the bad news is pretty bad—$711 million in expenses, according to Credit Suisse.

About half of that bill is bandwidth alone, $360 million. Don’t worry, Credit Suisse showed its work:

To arrive at the estimated $360 million bandwidth tab for YouTube, the analysts assumed the site will receive 375 million unique visitors in 2009 and that a maximum of 20% of those users are on the site at any given time. Credit Suisse’s analysis then assumed each user downloads a video at 400 kilobits per second, to yield a peak bit run-rate for YouTube of 30 million megabits per second.

Other reports have placed YouTube’s revenue this year anywhere from $120 million to $500 million.

Of course, bandwidth costs aren’t new: Facebook has been battling rising costs and falling revenue-per-users for some time. On the other hand, YouTube has been searching for effective monetization basically since Google acquired the company.

What do you think? Can YouTube make money to sustain itself long enough to find a business model that really works?

Spammers Show Resilience

2009-04-04T08:42:00.002+05:00

Spammers are stepping up their efforts as the “industry” recovers from the loss of McColo, a web hosting company whose clients generated some 75% of the spam e-mail we get to enjoy on a daily basis. It seems that these folks are back up to their old levels again according to a report from Postini, which provides the security for the approximately 15 million users of Google’s enterprise e-mail offering.

The rate of growth for spam is higher than ever

Overall spam growth is the highest it’s ever been, increasing 1.2 percent a day in the first quarter of 2009 (compared with 1 percent a day in the first quarter of 2008, which was a record at the time).

Clickz tells us that immediately following the shut down of McColo the average number of spam e-mails went from 100 per day for the average Google Enterprise user to around 25. Those numbers are already back up in the low 60’s. All of this goes to show that like with most negative aspects of the Internet most ‘fixes’ are at best temporary. Maybe the folks on the dark side just try harder?

“It’s difficult to ascertain exactly how spammers have rebuilt in the wake of McColo, but data suggests they’re adopting new strategies to avoid a McColo-type takedown from occurring again,” commented Amanda Kleha, of the Google security and archiving team, in the report. “Specifically, the recent upward trajectory of spam could indicate that spammers are building botnets that are more robust but send less volume — or at least that they haven’t enabled their botnets to run at full capacity because they’re wary of exposing a new ISP as a target.”

In the wake of the Conficker concerns the other side of this issue is the concern that the number of spam e-mails containing viruses is also on the rise. The numbers between February and March of this year showed an increase of nine times the e-mails with viruses.

It may be that spammers have just reworked their thinking to avoid getting shut down to the degree they did around the McColo incident. The techniques being used now include spam based on location. By saying that there is some news event of local importance people are opening these e-mails then clicking on videos that set the virus. Basically, whatever plays on the emotions of an inexperienced Internet user (or less discerning one) is what works for now. These attacks are now being spread evenly across the week as well when before Sunday used to be the busy day for spammers.

As hyperactive users of the Internet this may sound silly to us but once again as with other areas we need to remember that it’s a big internet and our behavior is , for the most part, abnormal as compared to the vast majority of Internet users.

Twitter Redesign Includes Search & Trends

2009-04-04T08:40:00.003+05:00

Reason #253 why you should subscribe to Marketing Pilgrim: Back in October we had the exclusive on the new user interface for Twitter. Today we learn that selected Twitter users will indeed start seeing this new layout.

Twitter admits its recent test of the search box at the top of the interface was a flop, so instead, it’s going back to the drawing board. Well, actually its original redesign drawing:

A subset of users will start seeing the above interface soon. In addition, Twitter is testing a feature that should be welcomed by many:

If there’s a search you want to do on a regular basis, you can “save” the search. That will place the word or term permanently in your sidebar for easy access. So if you want to know what people are saying about the city you live in, the products you use, or just something weird, it becomes a link on your home page.

Lastly, “Trends” will also be added to Twitter–which we suspect will work much like the “Trending topics” you can currently view at Search.Twitter.com.

I’m excited about the new features, what about you? Anything else you wish Twitter would add?

Google uncloaks once-secret server

2009-04-04T08:37:00.003+05:00

Updated at 4:08 p.m. PDT April 1 with further details about Google's data center efficiency and shipping containers modules and 6:30 a.m. April 2 to correct the time frame of efficiency statistics.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--Google is tight-lipped about its computing operations, but the company for the first time on Wednesday revealed the hardware at the core of its Internet might at a conference here about the increasingly prominent issue of data center efficiency.

Most companies buy servers from the likes of Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, or Sun Microsystems. But Google, which has hundreds of thousands of servers and considers running them part of its core expertise, designs and builds its own. Ben Jai, who designed many of Google's servers, unveiled a modern Google server before the hungry eyes of a technically sophisticated audience.

Google's big surprise: each server has its own 12-volt battery to supply power if there's a problem with the main source of electricity. The company also revealed for the first time that since 2005, its data centers have been composed of standard shipping containers--each with 1,160 servers and a power consumption that can reach 250 kilowatts.

It may sound geeky, but a number of attendees--the kind of folks who run data centers packed with thousands of servers for a living--were surprised not only by Google's built-in battery approach, but by the fact that the company has kept it secret for years. Jai said in an interview that Google has been using the design since 2005 and now is in its sixth or seventh generation of design.

"It was our Manhattan Project," Jai said of the design.

Google has an obsessive focus on energy efficiency and now is sharing more of its experience with the world. With the recession pressuring operations budgets, environmental concerns waxing, and energy prices and constraints increasing, the time is ripe for Google to do more efficiency evangelism, said Urs Hoelzle, Google's vice president of operations.

"There wasn't much benefit in trying to preach if people weren't interested in it," said Hoelzle, but now attitudes have changed.

The company also focuses on data center issues such as power distribution, cooling, and ensuring hot and cool air don't intermingle, said Chris Malone, who's involved in the data center design and efficiency measurement. Google's data centers now have reached efficiency levels that the Environmental Protection Agency hopes will be attainable in 2011 using advanced technology.

"We've achieved this now by application of best practices and some innovations--nothing really inaccessible to the rest of the market," Malone said.

Why built-in batteries?
Why is the battery approach significant? Money.

Typical data centers rely on large, centralized machines called uninterruptible power supplies (UPS)--essentially giant batteries that kick in when the main supply fails and before generators have time to kick in. Building the power supply into the server is cheaper and means costs are matched directly to the number of servers, Jai said.

"This is much cheaper than huge centralized UPS," he said. "Therefore no wasted capacity."

Efficiency is another financial factor. Large UPSs can reach 92 to 95 percent efficiency, meaning that a large amount of power is squandered. The server-mounted batteries do better, Jai said: "We were able to measure our actual usage to greater than 99.9 percent efficiency."

Urs Hoelzle, Google's vice president of operations
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)

The Google server was 3.5 inches thick--2U, or 2 rack units, in data center parlance. It had two processors, two hard drives, and eight memory slots mounted on a motherboard built by Gigabyte. Google uses x86 processors from both AMD and Intel, Jai said, and Google uses the battery design on its network equipment, too.

Efficiency is important not just because improving it cuts power consumption costs, but also because inefficiencies typically produce waste heat that requires yet more expense in cooling.

Costs add up
Google operates servers at a tremendous scale, and these costs add up quickly.

Jai has borne a lot of the burden himself. He was the only electrical engineer on the server design job from 2003 to 2005, he said. "I worked 14-hour days for two and a half years," he said, before more employees were hired to share the work.

Google has patents on the built-in battery design, "but I think we'd be willing to license them to vendors," Hoelzle said.

Another illustration of Google's obsession with efficiency comes through power supply design. Power supplies convert conventional AC (alternating current--what you get from a wall socket) electricity into the DC (direct current--what you get from a battery) electricity, and typical power supplies provide computers with both 5-volt and 12-volt DC power. Google's designs supply only 12-volt power, with the necessary conversions taking place on the motherboard.

Google's data center efficiency has been improving gradually.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)

That adds $1 or $2 to the cost of the motherboard, but it's worth it not just because the power supply is cheaper, but because the power supply can be run closer to its peak capacity, which means it runs much more efficiently. Google even pays attention to the greater efficiency of transmitting power over copper wires at 12 volts compared to 5 volts.

Google also revealed new performance results for data center energy efficiency measured by a standard called power usage effectiveness. PUE, developed by a consortium called the Green Grid, measures how much power goes directly to computing compared to ancillary services such as lighting and cooling. A perfect score of 1 means no power goes to the extra costs; 1.5 means that ancillary services consume half the power devoted to computing.

Google's PUE scores are enviably low, but the company is working to lower them further. In the third quarter of 2008, Google's PUE was 1.21, but it dropped to 1.20 for the fourth quarter and to 1.19 for the first quarter of 2009 through March 15, Malone said.

Older Google facilities generally have higher PUEs, he said; the best has a score of 1.12. When the weather gets warmer, Google notices is that it's harder to keep servers cool.

An excerpt from a video tour Google presented of its data center containers. Like conventional data centers, Google's shipping containers have raised floors.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)

Shipping containers
Most people buy computers one at a time, but Google thinks on a very different scale. Jimmy Clidaras revealed that the core of the company's data centers are composed of standard 1AAA shipping containers packed with 1,160 servers each, with many containers in each data center.

Modular data centers are not unique to Google; Sun Microsystems and Rackable Systems both sell them. But Google started using them in 2005.

Google's first experiments had some rough patches, though, Clidaras said--for example when they found the first crane they used wasn't big enough to actually lift one.

Overall, Google's choices have been driven by a broad analysis on cost that encompasses software, hardware, and facilities.

"Early on, there was an emphasis on the dollar per (search) query," Hoelzle said. "We were forced to focus. Revenue per query is very low."

Mainstream servers with x86 processors were the only option, he added. "Ten years ago...it was clear the only way to make (search) work as free product was to run on relatively cheap hardware. You can't run it on a mainframe. The margins just don't work out," he said.

Operating at Google's scale has its challenges, but it also has its silver linings. For example, a given investment on research can be applied to a larger amount of infrastructure, yielding return faster, Hoelzle said.

Internet Marketing on the Go

2009-04-04T08:35:00.002+05:00

Mobile Internet connectivity improvements through upgraded networks, smart phones, better data plans and more content are the main reasons why mobile advertising is starting to shift from “What’s all the hype about?” to “Finally, it’s catching up to the hype” mode. eMarketer reports that 2008 was where hype and reality crossed paths and now the future of the mobile advertising industry is poised to explode.

Regular readers of Marketing Pilgrim may be familiar with my disdain for predictions of how an industry will grow 5 years from now. These prognostications are educated guesses at best and wild eyed speculation at worst. Though they can be fun to gawk over they often times look ridiculous when seen through the rear view mirror of reality. The following chart shows just eMarketer sees the growth of US mobile advertising spend for the foreseeable future.

The numbers offered in this study contend that the big jump in adoption of mobile advertising will occur between 2010 and 2012. Of course, this is anyone’s guess as to real numbers but the growth should be significant even if it falls short of these predictions.

In this case, I have to lean toward thinking that this part of the Internet industry really does have potential v. just good PR. I know how my mobile usage has gone up exponentially since I got my first Blackberry in 2007. Add the iPhone into the mix at about that same time and the platform has been created for real opportunity with mobile everything. The report points out that the convergence of smart phones, network upgrades and richer content are a perfect storm of sorts to give this industry real momentum.

Other questions broached are:
How will mobile advertising fare in a down economy?
Can marketers count on smart phones to expand mobile’s reach?
How will changes in mobile usage patterns affect marketers?
What will be the affect of mobile video?
Which ad-funded business models will take off?

So what’s your take on mobile advertising? Hype or reality?

English Mob Stops Google Car

2009-04-04T08:33:00.001+05:00

No, this power-to-the-people headline isn’t a belated April Fools’ joke. A Buckinghamshire neighborhood barred a Google Street View car from photographing its homes and streets with an impromptu mob.

The Times reports that after a string of robberies recently, residents had been on the watch for suspicious vehicles. Unsurprisingly, a car with a sphere of cameras mounted on its roof fit that bill.

Resident Paul Jacobs first saw the car. Jacobs went door to door alerting his neighbors, who gathered in the road. They blocked the Google car from passing and called the police. Eventually the driver turned around and left. Jacobs told the Times:

My immediate reaction was anger; how dare anyone take a photograph of my home without my consent? I ran outside to flag the car down and told the driver he was not only invading our privacy but also facilitating crime.

Personally, I had no idea Google was so powerful. I mean, I’ve seen The Googling, but apparently Google just considering taking photos of a neighborhood makes burglars target it. Because guess what? That crime wave they claim Google was “facilitating” took place without any help from Street View.

Naturally, UK law is quite different from to US law in the area of privacy. In the US, it’s well established that anyone can take a picture of your home without your consent (as long as they’re standing on public property to do so). Indeed, it’s only by actually entering your property that an action may be considered an invasion of privacy, and actionable by law.

The UK subscribes to the European Convention on Human Rights, including Article 8: “Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence.” However, I’m willing to bet that “his home” doesn’t mean that we all have to pluck out our eyes if we walk down the street. If you can see it from the street, it may not be considered “private.”

To make things even more complex, there is no UK law legislating a right to privacy. Even in the US the “right to privacy” emanates from a penumbra from other rights guaranteed by the Constitution. However, the UK doesn’t even have that. According to Wikipedia, “An action may be brought under another tort and privacy must then be considered under EC law. In the UK, it is sometimes a defense that disclosure of private information was in the public interest.”

I’m not going to opine whether an image the exterior of one’s house is in the public interest (though, apparently, the details of the Beckhams’ marriage are…). But the fact of the matter remains: if you want real privacy, plant a hedgerow.

Or, y’know, form a mob to forcibly stop one car with cameras one time. Because that’s totally the proper, legal, mature way to behave.

More Google/Twitter Rumors to Drive You Crazy!

2009-04-04T08:32:00.000+05:00

Rumors that Google is in negotiations to buy Twitter have been running rife for the past few months. TechCrunch kicks things up a notch by passing on a new rumor that “Google is in late stage negotiations to acquire Twitter.”

But, before you either jump for joy, or abandon ship, AllThingsD pulls a Lee Corso’eque “not so fast!”

While the “news” that Google was in “late-stage” talks to acquire Twitter, which TechCrunch reported last night, certainly sounds exciting, it isn’t accurate in any way, according to a number of sources BoomTown spoke to close to the situation.

In fact, Twitter and Google have simply been engaged in “some product-related discussions,” according to one source, around real-time search and the search giant better crawling the microblogging service.

At this point it’s hard to determine which is the more likely scenario. It seems pretty clear that Twitter will continue to grow in stature, so Google would be wise to buy the company now–before its valuation skyrockets.

However, Google also once tried making a go of the microblogging space–and failed miserably–so perhaps simply doing a partnership with Twitter is the better option.

What’s your take?

Alexa Wants Bloggers’ Attention Again; Gives Back Inflated Rankings

2009-04-04T08:30:00.002+05:00

Spotted by Daily Blog Tips, Alexa.com has made a dramatic change to the way it calculates the traffic rank of certain sites. It appears that sites that were recently penalized for having too much of their traffic from social media are once again finding favor with Alexa’s algorithm. And I think I know why.

At the exact time that Alexa cut back the rank of sites like MarketingPilgrim.com and other blogs, us internet marketers stopped talking about, and using, the service. We quietly decided that any metric that didn’t give us the credit due, was not one we wanted to tell our readers and clients about.

Now, this is just my speculation–after all, I doubt many marketers would admit to this or even be consciously aware that they had turned their back on Alexa for this reason, but trust me, we all did it. So, what is Alexa to do? How can it win back our attention? Attention that has since been focused on competitive solutions such as Compete and Quantcast? Simple! Gradually increase the Alexa rank of influential bloggers, get them bragging about their Alexa rank again, and hopefully ride the wave of free publicity that comes with it.

Or you can skip the whole "gradually increase their Alexa rank" stage and jump straight to the "OMG my Alexa rank just jumped 120,000 points overnight" stage.

Expect to see Alexa slowly make its way back into blogging conversations again.

RIM’s App Mall Opens at BlackBerry AppWorld

2009-04-04T08:29:00.000+05:00

On Wednesday, Research In Motion (RIM), threw the doors open on its much anticipated AppWorld. Thisstorefront is their response to the hugely popular iPhone App Store that provides access to over 25,000 applications for iPhone users to choose from. While not nearly as robust (according to MediaPost there were only 500 apps available upon launch out of a promised 1000) it’s a start for BlackBerry users. Honestly, who has the time to sift through 25,000 apps anyway?

Mobile advertising spend is heating up and poised for serious growth in the near future so BlackBerry’s move in this direction is a good one. Other companies aiming to follow Apple’s lead by launching their own app stores include Microsoft, Palm, Nokia and Google.

While one wonders just how many iPhone converts there would be in the world if the AT&T issue was out of the picture, the BlackBerry is still the corporate smart phone of choice. They had better make sure their offering is as attractive as possible for as long as possible as the prospect of the iPhone being more widely available sits at the end of the initial 5 year AT&T agreement.

BlackBerry’s AppWorld is doing its best to make the experience a good one

I

n addition to offering user ratings, screenshots and app descriptions, App World also lets BlackBerry owners make recommendations via email and other messaging options. A section called My World also lets users keep track of apps they have downloaded and to uninstall any they no longer want.

Downloading applications from App World requires a PayPal account, and users can access the store via cellular and WiFi networks.

One big difference between the BB’s AppWorld and Apple’s App Store is price. There is a $2.99 minimum price on the BB apps and just 99 cents at Apple. That combined with the limited number of apps currently offered by AppWorld constitutes the biggest differences in the offerings.

There are many more apps in the market for the BlackBerry that are not part of the store. The expectation is that most of these will migrate to the store over time since the distribution power will be significant as BB users catch on.

Avi Greengart, research director for consumer devices at Current Analysis , says that AppWorld rates favorably when compared with the App Store.

“Both are well-organized and offer reviews and app purchases over the air,” he said, while noting that it was still “premature” to do a side-by-side comparison.

It should be interesting to see how the more traditional business user responds to this concept and just what business apps start to become available. Expect some of these apps to be much pricier as well. The BizTrackit app from Shrunken Head Software for professionals with billable clients, for instance, costs $39.99 via App World.

As always we want your feedback. Have you been there? Do you care? Do you dare say that you have a Blackberry rather than the “cool” iPhone at all? Comment at your own risk. For total disclosure, I am a BlackBerry Storm user. Pretty happy with it but now interested to see what else I might be able to do with it in the future.

It’s the Weekend! Have a 10 Pack!

2009-04-04T08:28:00.002+05:00

In what could open up a whole new set of search lingo like “head of local search” terms etc. Google is now giving local results in their SERP’s without needing the searcher to ID a local qualifier. Now when you have the emergency need for a lawyer you can save yourself a few seconds by not having to type your city or town name to find one. Well, that is really oversimplified but sounds cool.

As reported by Mike Blumenthal, Search Engine Watch and Cathy Rhulloda, Google is now using your IP address and other location qualifiers to give its local “10 pack” of results as local solutions to your one word request. If I now need a lawyer in Raleigh, NC I can just search “lawyer” and on the first page, usually around the fourth or fifth result, I will see the 10 pack.
These same results will show up at the top of the SERP if you use a local geographic qualifier so Google is not quite committing whole heartedly to saying local is the absolute best result for these types of searches. They are however ratcheting up the level of prominence of a company’s Google Maps profile since the sheer number of searches that it can appear in has gone up considerably in many cases.

Results initially are spotty. In other words, it doesn’t work for all terms. This is a pretty strong development, though, as it relates to local search. All the more reason to make sure you small business types claim and optimize your listings.

Will You Miss Newspapers When They’re Gone?

2009-04-01T23:01:00.001+05:00

I don’t read the Raleigh News & Observer during the week, but I do enjoy reading it at the weekend. There’s something relaxing and familiar about reading printed news with my coffee and breakfast. As much as I enjoy the experience, I’ve noticed that more and more ads are filling up the pages–with less articles, and in some cases, complete sections being retired. I knew the newspaper industry was hurting, but I didn’t realize just how bad it had gotten, until I read this report from TechCrunch.

According to the latest industry figures, newspaper advertising is free-falling:

■Print advertising declined 17.7% in 2008
■Classifieds fell 29.7%
■Online advertising–which most newspapers a focusing on–was down 1.8%
Overall, total newpaper advertising revenues were down 16.6% to $37.85 billion. When you look at the quarterly trends, you can quickly see that things are not likely to get better:

3Q07: -7.4%
4Q07: -10.3%
1Q08: -12.85%
2Q08: -15.11% 3
3Q08: -18.11%
4Q08: -19.74%

Why I’m so stunned by the huge numbers is because newspapers have aggressively added more advertising per page. I’ve sometimes flipped through 4 pages of nothing but ads, before finally getting to the next story.

Now, I’m not about to suggest the Obama administration send over a government bailout, but what would our world be like without printed newspapers? I, for one, I hope I’ll always be able to pick up a newspaper at the weekend, but it’s not looking like that will be an option 10 years from now.

How about you? Do you still read a printed newspaper? Will you miss them if the all close down?

PS? Below is the soundtrack for the newspaper industry.

Google Hasn’t Stopped Hiring

2009-04-01T22:59:00.001+05:00

Last week’s news of Google letting 200 sales and marketing employees go certainly raised eyebrows. Many are wondering whether the search giant is getting leaner and meaner or if they are being dinged by the current state of the economy. If the 360 jobs listed on their website are any indication one has to think that their main reason for the actions of last week were to, like they said, eliminate redundancy and unnecessary layers. Having that many jobs posted certainly is encouraging for those that fit the profiles of these openings.

Of the jobs offered only 30 or so are in the sales and marketing area. There appears to be a rather international flair to the openings as well. If you are looking for that account management position in Cairo that you always wanted this may be your chance. Sales not your thing? How about an engineering position in Krakow?

Other opportunities include being part of the food services group (weren’t they cutting back on that?) or being a Transportation Program Manager which would require overseeing the bike program at the Mountain View campus. A Reuters article notes that while this does seem like a lot of opportunity there is definitely a change occurring at Google.

Google’s headcount has swelled in recent years, reaching 20,222 employees at the end of 2008 compared with 10,674 at the end of 2006.

But the company has slowed hiring in recent quarters as new finance chief Patrick Pichette made controlling costs a bigger priority. In the fourth quarter, Google’s headcount grew less than 100 employees after jumping by between 400 and more than 2,000 employees per quarter during the past couple of years.

So what’s an analyst’s take on this? Robert Haley of Gabelli & Co. gives Google a buy rating.

Haley said he expects Google’s revenue to continue to grow this year. And as long as Google’s revenue growth outpaced its growth in operating expenses, Haley said he was not worried the continued hiring would work against preserving profit margins.

Overall, it is unlikely that Google is hurting like the rest of the world. As we have alluded to here before they just seem to be getting older and wiser. This doesn’t bode so well for those other guys who still have aspirations of making a dent in Google’s dominant search position. If Google keeps acting responsibly who knows what might happen. That kind of behavior sure would be a change of pace in this world.

Does Social Media Really Have the Pulse of the People?

2009-04-01T22:58:00.001+05:00

Advertising Age has an interesting position in the business world these days. The publication is sometimes representative of the old guard. I remember at PubCon in Las Vegas where that point was made in a video that Rance Crain, AdAge’s editor-in-chief, was shown saying that Blendtec simply needed to take out print ads to accomplish what was done with its “Will It Blend” campaign. Ouch. He didn’t appear to be on top the one of more impressive stories of the social media marketing age.

In a story from Ad Age today, however, there are some interesting thoughts to consider regarding the real power of social media and how marketers should react to it. For those of us who hang around the industry it may seem like we are really on top of everything that is going on. Apparently we are but in a much smaller universe than we may like to think. In other words, if the Twitterati and all the other social media “leaders” screamed at once at the top of their keyboards about anything the sound wouldn’t reach oh, about 90% of the world.

For instance, it was reported that when the mommy blogger army was upset about ads run for Johnson and Johnson’s Motrin they brought J & J to its knees. In a way they did because the ads were pulled. Further research from Lightspeed Research shows however that 90% of women had never seen the ad and once viewed:

■45% liked the video
■41% had no feelings about it
■15% didn’t like it.
■8%, said it negatively affected their feelings of the brand
■32% who said it made them like the brand more
Not exactly the kind of numbers you might expect given the “outrage” of the social media world. So was J & J premature in its actions to pull the ads? Did they give too much power to too few voices? These are the kinds of questions that marketers will be faced with when making decisions about the real impact of social media “buzz”.

Remember the whole hubbub about Skittles and their daring campaign? Well, it seems like that may have looked big to some of us but most of the world didn’t know or even cared if it happened. At Communispace which has a pretty tech savvy group for its make up, only 6% of 300 people surveyed knew about the Skittles deal.

“The data is a really compelling reminder that a lot of our target consumers are not the people who are sitting on Twitter freaking out over a packaging design that they don’t like,” said Diane Hessan, CEO of Communispace. She added, “These are people online, having conversations, and yet they are totally out of the loop on stuff us marketing junkies love to obsess over.”

The article does go on to say that it is not a good idea to ignore small groups of impassioned people but it may not be in a marketer’s best interest to scream “How high?!” when someone in the Twitterverse yells “Jump!”.

Ms. Hessan summed it up well by saying

“Listening doesn’t mean getting one small piece of data and taking action,” Ms. Hessan said. “Sometimes it means getting a piece of data and probing further.”

So what is Pilgrims? Is this social media thing more important to those who work in it directly or indirectly than it is to the vast majority of the world? What is the real impact of the social media movement? Most importantly, as marketers how do you measure and respond to the voices? How do you tell who they really are and how many of them are really out there and what influence they have at this early stage?

I’m sure there are more than a few opinions out there. But will we hear you?

A Higher Education in Social Media

2009-04-01T22:56:00.000+05:00

Forget spending years in grad school toiling away on an advanced marketing degree. Birmingham City University in the UK is going to begin offering a MA course in Social Media. All you social media junkies out there, grab your backpacks and passports!

Jon Hickman, the course convener, had this to say about the year-long program:

It’s not for freaks or IT geeks, the tools learnt on this course will be accessible to many people.

During the course we will consider what people can do on Facebook and Twitter, and how they can be used for communication and marketing purposes.

There has been significant interest in the course already, and it will definitely appeal to students looking to go into professions including journalism and PR.

While the university has expressed that there’s lots of support and interest already, students are voicing criticism that the course is too simple and could be self-taught.

I have to agree that this seems like it’s enough for a course at a community college, but not enough for an entire Masters program to orbit around. Most social media is self-taught, and fairly simple to grasp and master. Programs like this lend credence to the “social media experts” out there that charge $5000 just to set up a Facebook profile for the uninitiated.

Should we give credence to these experts? I don’t think so, but I’m sure others would disagree with me. It’s a great thing to see social media gain such widespread acceptance as to add it to college-level curricula. I’m all for that. But does it really require its own masters degree? What do you think?

Trisha Lyn Fawver is the Director of Affiliate Marketing with New Edge Media, where she manages affiliate programs, blogs, and explores the world of social media.

Google Ventures Launches with “We May Steal Your Idea” Caveat

2009-04-01T22:55:00.002+05:00

If you’re a start-up that’s making moves despite the recession, Google wants to hear from you. Specifically, Google Ventures–the newly launched venture capital arm of the search giant–wants to hear from you.

Google Ventures has around $100 million to invest and is interested in "early stage investments across a diverse range of industries, including consumer Internet, software, clean-tech, bio-tech, health care"–basically any hot company seeking seed finance.

According to the NYT, Google Ventures has already made two investments:

Silver Spring Networks, a company that makes technology to help manage electric grids, and Pixazza, which links online images with related products that can be purchased. Google declined to say how much it invested in those companies.

Now, before you go sending big brother your killer business plan, keep in mind that–like most VC firms–you’re practically giving Google Ventures the right to steal your idea and not pay you a penny.

Note the disclaimer language on the site (emphasis added):

We welcome new ideas. However, please do not send us information that you consider to be confidential or proprietary. Because of what we do, we receive a high volume of business plans, presentations, pitches, memos - you get the picture - and because these materials are often similar, because they come to us in a variety of forms, and because we read a ton of stuff, we cannot and do not accept responsibility for protecting against the misuse or disclosure of any information unless we have expressly agreed (in writing) to do so.

In other words, send us your business plan but if we don’t invest and instead launch a competing service, you’re, er, SOL buddy.

Online Ad Spending Grows 10%; Video Ads Strong (Just Not at Google)

2009-04-01T22:54:00.000+05:00

In yesterday’s report, we informed you of the dramatic decline the newspaper industry is seeing in advertising revenue. Perhaps the most shocking revelation was that newspapers saw a 1.8% decline in online advertising revenues. You might have downplayed that decline due to the overall decline of online spending. However, new data from the Interactive Advertising Bureau, in conjunction with PriceWaterhouseCoopers, reveals growth of just over 10% in online ad spending.

Web ad spending hit $23.4 billion in 2008, up 10.6 percent over 2007. Fourth quarter 2008 revenue growth was more conservative at 2.6 percent; total online ad spending for the quarter was $6.1 billion.

While that 10.6% growth is down from the whopping 26% growth seen in 2007, it’s still pretty darn good–and shines a bright spotlight on just how badly the newspaper business is doing with its migration to online formats.

Breaking down online ad growth, we see that search grew 20% and performance-based ads rocked the house with an impressive 57% share of all ad spending.

I’ll leave you with one stat that left me scratching my head

[David Silverman, partner at PriceWaterhouseCoopers] cited video ad spending as a significant growth category. Video advertising revenue rose from 2 percent in 2007 to 3 percent of overall online ad spending in 2008.

So why did Google just shut down its video ad units?

YouTube/Disney Deal: Clips & In-Stream Ads

2009-04-01T22:52:00.002+05:00

Google seems to be going back and forth over the video advertising business lately. First they mention Google TV Ads Online, then they pull AdSense video units, despite growth in aggregate online video ad revenue. And now they’re announcing a deal between YouTube and Disney/ABC to show clips and in-stream commercials on the most popular video site on the Internet.

The deal includes several ad-supported YouTube channels with professional content from Disney, including teasers and recaps for popular sitcoms from its child company ABC. Part of the revenue is slated to come from in-stream ads on this content sold by ABC. In addition to YouTube’s InVideo overlay ads and banners, Disney will also test pre-rolls with their content.

ClickZ reports that a pending YouTube redesign will highlight the professional content from Disney and other studios:

the current homepage tabs “videos,” “channels,” and “community” will be replaced with tabs for “shows,” “movies,” “music,” and “videos.” The first three tabs will display premium shows, clips, and movies from Google’s network and studio partners, all of which will be monetized with in-stream advertising. Meanwhile the “videos” channel will house amateur and semi-pro content of the sort major brand advertisers have shied away from.

The move toward professional content may show that YouTube is a little concerned about the up-and-coming Hulu.com, now number #2 in the overall video site standings. Hulu features premium television content, and has seen amazing growth since its premiere only eighteen months ago.

However, a deal with Disney may not be enough for YouTube, since, as YouTube points out,

Disney/ABC is rumored to be in talks to buy an equity stake in Hulu, the rapidly growing video entertainment portal jointly owned by News Corp. and NBC Universal. If that rumored deal takes place, ABC shows would likely become available in their entirety on Hulu — leaving YouTube out in the cold for the foreseeable future.

Should YouTube leap on this deal to try to entice Disney to get full episodes? Or is YouTube’s place set as the clip capital of the web?

MySpace and Citysearch Join Forces

2009-04-01T22:49:00.002+05:00

MySpace is still huge despite not getting the degree of attention that other social media outlets get. According to Compete.com from January ’09 it slipped to second behind Facebook when ranked by number of monthly visits. Despite the huge numbers (810 million visits in Jan. ’09) there is little talk about the business applications beyond the music world and products that skew very young. With as much talk as there is about Twitter, you would think it’s getting just as big as MySpace but in January Twitter is getting just 7% of the monthly visits that MySpace does.

In a similar position is Citysearch. As we have discussed here in the recent past Citysearch is working to update and expand its offerings to a much larger audience. The competition that is coming up in the rear view mirror for these guys are the likes of Yelp!.

So what makes sense for two long time players in their respective verticals who are maybe starting to show their age? Combine forces of course. As reported by cnet, the new MySpace Local will

be rooted in existing listings from Citysearch (restricted to major U.S. cities) that are souped up with social features like the ones that you might see on a band or celebrity’s MySpace page (photos, videos, comments, and the like). It’s launching with just “restaurants,” “bars,” and “nightlife” categories, but will eventually expand–and it’ll only be available to a select number of users this week before rolling out to the rest of MySpace’s U.S. users.

One feature is seeing reviews of these places from actual friends. The contention is that anonymous reviews carry less meaning than those that come from a trusted and known source. Can’t say I can argue that point.

Down the line is the possibility of seeing reviews from celebrities, influencers and all around cool people. Considering the age of most MySpace users this could be interesting to them. Will it attract new users to MySpace? No way to tell but who wouldn’t be interested in having someone like Plaxico Burress tell us where the best nightclub to shoot yourself in the leg is in New York City?

Jeff Berman, president of sales and marketing at MySpace, said that

research showed about 50 percent of active Citysearch users have MySpace profiles that they check at least once a month. “There is healthy overlap, but there is also a healthy new audience to be reached”

That’s an interesting statistic but even with our jaded view of what is actually social it seems that using the benchmark of viewing a site at least once a month is not exactly setting a high bar. If you visit any site just once a month do you really care what’s going on there?

As with all pairings like these, only time will tell if there will be benefit for either party. One thing is certain though. Neither one of these Internet stalwarts are standing still but can they overcome the new breed of social media sites that can afford to be very selective on who they partner with? The likes of Facebook and Twitter are growing despite themselves at times. That’s hard to compete with for sure.

Wikia Search Bows Out for Now

2009-04-01T22:48:00.001+05:00

It’s hard enough to go up against the like of Google when the economy is humming along. Add in the fact that Google is so far in the lead in search it may just be downright discouraging to potential competitors due to the mountain they need to climb to compete. Giving a nod to the economy, it was announced today that Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia fame was shutting the effort down for now.

Designed to be a search engine of the people the Wikia Search service was developed with the idea of allowing users to determine the rankings of sites and pages for all other users. As reported at cnet, Wales was prepared to look at this as a long term project but usability for the public was one or two years away from reality. Considering the state of the economy it was decided to put the project to rest but Wales said that he would return to it when the economy got better.

Wales summed it up like this

In a different economy, we would continue to fund Wikia Search indefinitely. It’s something I care about deeply. I will return to again and again in my career to search, either as an investor, a contributor, a donor, or a cheerleader.

But for now, we will be closing the doors on the Wikia Search project (as of March 31, 2009) and will be re-directing and refocusing resources on other Wikia.com properties, especially on Wikianswers. Join me there to help provide freely licensed answers to all the world’s questions.

Google has somewhat tipped its cap to the idea of giving searchers some control over search results with its SearchWiki service. Unlike Wikia Search, the reach of the searchers adjustments are not used to influence overall rankings. They are just used to further “personalize” search results for the user. Is anyone using this by the way?

Trackur Rebrands to Twackur, Emphasizes Twitter Monitoring

2009-04-01T22:46:00.001+05:00

Trackur Rebrands to Twackur, Emphasizes Twitter Monitoring
You might have noticed that one sure way to get mentioned in the media is to launch anything connected with Twitter. Well, a few weeks back we added Twitter monitoring support to Trackur and today we’re announcing a major re-branding to reflect our commitment to reputation monitoring on Twitter.

Trackur has become Twackur!
We’ve moved the site to the new domain and have extensively updated the content of the site to reflect our extensive Twitter tracking capabilities.

Anyway, I don’t want to take up more of your time today–that would be foolish–so head over to Twackur and check it out for yourself!

Update: Yes, it should be obvious this is an April Fools joke. However, Trackur does offer Twitter monitoring so check it out.

Google Friend Data Goes Portable

2009-03-28T23:24:00.001+05:00

Google is getting really adamant about the whole “not not not building a social network” thing. So adamant that they’re letting you take all that shared information among your peer group—including your list of contacts—all over the web now.

That’s right, folks—Google has enough social network-like information on your friends and contacts to roll out the data portability, or at least for just your friend list.

The reasoning behind the new open standard, Portable Contacts, is that many websites like to invite your friends to come participate. (Hey, it’s a party!) But when you give them your Gmail login and password (WHY?), they can scrape your whole contacts list (and, um, lots of other stuff).

So to protect your data, Google’s making it possible for sites to access Google contact lists securely and with your permission. Portable Contacts is built on Open Social’s REST data format and OAuth authorization.

So between Google Friend Connect, Google Social Bar and Google’s Portable Contacts, you can turn your static website into a Google-sponsored, Google-branded social network. Where do I sign up?

On the plus side, Google’s not determined to be a walled garden with your friend network. On the other hand, do we really have to give them access to everything?

Google Sheds More Staff

2009-03-28T23:23:00.001+05:00

Google continues to make itself leaner and meaner as we trudge through this economic mess. In only the second large layoff in its history (the first coming back in January of this year when they let 100 recruiters go) the target this time is sales and marketing.

As reported by ClickZ about 200 Googlers from these areas will be let go. Most of this is coming from internal auditing that has shown some significant redundancy in positions and functions. SVP of Global Sales and Business Development Omid Kordestani wrote in a blog post today

“In some areas we’ve created overlapping organizations which not only duplicate effort but also complicate the decision-making process,” Kordestani said. “That makes our teams less effective and efficient than they should be. In addition, we over-invested in some areas in preparation for the growth trends we were experiencing at the time.”

While many will want to say that Google is struggling it seems unlikely that it is actually the case. What they appear to be doing however is continuing to evolve as a company and mature in their approach to business. In addition to these cuts there have been products shed in recent months that also signify Google’s shorter fuse on making changes. Admittedly it sounds odd to hear the word layoff and Google used in the same breath.

Mr. Kordestani said it best though with the statement that “For companies in hyper-growth such as Google has experienced it’s almost impossible to get everything right”. That statement in and of itself is evidence of growth for Google. Just like the words layoff and Google seemed like an unlikely pairing so did the terms humility and Google. These days though it appears that no one will be immune to the change that this downturn has forced.

Imagine what it must be like at a search engine that actually has problems. Can you help us out with some info on that if you work at Yahoo, Live Search or Ask.com?

“New” Findings on Mobile Web Living

2009-03-28T23:22:00.001+05:00

The Pew Research Center has released a report that gives some form to what many of us already know throughexperience; mobile web use takes web users deeper into their digital existence. As noted over at MediaPost the study takes a stab at coining some new phrases to describe the various types of people using the mobile web as part of their lives including “digital collaborator”, “ambivalent networker” and “drifting surfer”. While creating names for groups of people can be fun that particular set of names isn’t very flattering aside from the collaboration concept. Let’s look a little closer.

First, I will approach this a little differently than the MediaPost article because when I was done reading it I was pretty disappointed. Here’s why. This great study that gives us the ‘latest and greatest’ updates on our mobile lifestyle was based on phone interviews that were conducted in December of 2007! Of the total 3,500 people contacted over 1,500 of those were part of following up on research that was conducted in early 2006. This detail was reserved for the last paragraph which took the shine off these “new” findings for sure. We live in an era where our economy can shed millions of jobs in just a few short months so I personally think that unless this was a typo we can assume this data is already very different.

Back to the findings. While still in the minority the percentage of people finding themselves more dependent on their mobile connection to the net (40%) is a pretty intense group. At the time the other 60% were tethered to their desktop access but not real ready to make the jump to a 24/7 mobile connection lifestyle. We’ll highlight the groups back in the day that were the largest percentages.

For mobile users
Digital Collaborators: (8% of the population) Very much about continual information exchange with others, as they frequently interact with others to create and share content or express themselves.
Ambivalent Networkers: (7%) Extremely active in using social networking sites and accessing digital resources “on the go,” yet aren’t always thrilled to be contacted by others.
Roving Nodes: (9%) Active managers of their social lives via basic applications–texting and emailing–to connect with others, pass along information, and improve personal productivity.

Stationary media users include:
Desktop Veterans: (13%) Tech-oriented, but in a “year 2004″ kind of way. They consume online information and connect with others through traditional means such as email on a high-speed home connection.
Tech Indifferent: (10%) Have limited online access at home, and while most have cell phones, they bristle at their intrusiveness.
Off the Network: (14%) Lack the tools for connecting digitally, with neither online access or cell phones.

So while interesting, this “new” study seems dated already. What is your view from a totally unscientific perspective on what percentage of the population OVERALL is more dependent on mobile web usage? How do you categorize yourself? Is your mobile web usage a dependency or a fun diversion? How long will it take for everyone to have a computer hanging off their ear when they leave their home in the morning? Oh yea, and what will it all mean to we Internet marketers?

Facebook Grays: Over-35 Users Double in 60 Days

2009-03-28T23:19:00.003+05:00

Inside Facebook regularly examines user demographics on the world’s most popular social network. The graying of Facebook trend continues, they report, with women over 55 constituting the fastest-growing demographic, while the number of active users over the age of 35 nearly doubled in the last two months.

However, despite this growth, the largest single demographic on Facebook is still the 18-25 age bracket (where I fall for one more week. Sigh.), which constitutes 35% of Facebook’s overall membership.
However, this graph obviously shows positive skew: just over half of Facebook members are past the college years (at least, I hope you’re done with your undergrad by the time you’re 26).

The graph of growth over the last 6 months (by percentage), however, is skewed almost exactly opposite. (Of course, since this is shown as a percentage, it may not be all that surprising: it’s a lot easier for a group of 50 to see 400% growth than it is for a group of 500: the group of 50 needs 200 new members, versus 2000 for the group of 500.)
[PSA: I'm not implying that people over the age of 55 or even 35 are, in fact, "gray" or "gray-haired." Thank you.]

What trends have you seen in Facebook membership? Have you noticed any changes in the last six months? Will this affect how you see or use the social network, either as a member or as a marketer?

Google to Become One-Stop Video Ad Shop

2009-03-28T23:16:00.001+05:00

Google began its foray into television advertising just under two years ago. Last May, they took the program out of beta. And now they’re taking their commercials to YouTube and a website near you!

The new Google TV Ads Online program is rumored to be in testing, according to the Wall Street Journal and CNET. The WSJ reports that:

Google’s director of television ads, Michael Steib, said in an interview that the company is working on technology that allows advertisers to buy ads across Google TV, which sells on-air commercials; YouTube; and video on other Web sites through the the same interface. Google is testing the service, called Google TV Ads Online, with a small group of advertisers, he said. People familiar with the matter say the service — which would leverage Google TV’s targeting technology — is likely to be introduced in the coming months.

Woohoo! Just we need here on MP: commercials!

We interrupt this wonderfully entertaining blog post for a message from our sponsors.

Okay, seriously now. Greg Sterling sees wide appeal for the program—but only for short-short spots (10 seconds). While the program would face technically challenges, Greg points out “conceptually this is the right approach and it should be desirable to marketers who want both reach and targeting.”

What do you think? Are you ready to get into video advertising online with Google?

Google: Too Big for Its Britches?

2009-03-27T07:02:00.007+05:00

I think the moral of this story will end up being something about stones and glass houses. Apparently, Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently criticized the lack of transparency in the banking industry to the BBC. So what, you ask? Well, he concludes his point by saying “Things that are too big to fail, we want to know everything about them, so we don’t have to deal with this in the future.”

“Things that are too big to fail,” eh? I feel a flashback coming on.

You really want the government and the American public to know everything about businesses that are “too big to fail”? Really?

After the Yahoo deal was dragged out for months and finally killed over the DoJ’s scrutiny, after Google is pretty much one deal away from being sued as a monopoly and broken up, are you really advocating increased governmental involvement and oversight for large businesses? Really?

When the BBC calls you a “captain of industry,” you’re really going to call out other companies for being “too big”? Really, Schmidt?!

Valleywag asks the biggest question here: “Is Google too big to fail?” And if so, what exactly is Schmidt proposing the government do? (VW jumps to say that Schmidt proposed breaking up banks, and Google might get the same treatment, but I just don’t see that in the BBC interview, which they have video of on VW.)

What do you think? Is Google too big to fail? Should they start cowering in fear of a summons daily? Or has the recent recession proved that, although Google’s big, they’re not the kind of business we need to fear?

Corporate Responsibility? Who Woulda Thunk?

2009-03-27T07:02:00.002+05:00

AIG bonuses are paid with taxpayer money from government bailout funds. Much is “recovered” but the damage has been done for the image of big business. Questions are raised about Merrill Lynch bonuses and pay while the embattled investment giant crumbles before the world’s eyes. Needless to say big business and executive pay get a lot of attention these days.

Tired of the bad news? How about a little corporate restraint and responsibility for a change? While not in the investment business Google still deals with a lot of money. In fine American fashion you would expect that the rich simply get richer but at Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt aren’t like most corporate gluttons. As reported in the Courier Mail from Down Under, a proxy statement filed with the SEC shows the three are taking just $1 each per year as their compensation.

Sure these guys aren’t going broke for sure.

Mr Page owns about 29.2 million shares of Google stock while Brin holds 28.6 million shares, making them the firm’s biggest stock holders and giving the duo controlling interest, according to the filing.

Coming in a distant third is that pauper, Schmidt, with a meager 9.4 million shares. How’s a guy to create a legacy on this mere pittance?

I realize that we don’t need to go overboard and make these gentlemen seem like saints but you have to hand it to them for not taking $1 million per year for their troubles and some spending cash. These guys may actually realize that their wealth is so astronomical compared to 99.999% of the rest of the planet and they probably can’t spend even a portion of their wealth in their lifetime. Do you suspect that they actually get that getting another several million per year won’t make any difference to them but could make a difference to the company and its employees? Wow, now that would be different.

Now for those of you that would like to check up on this, Mr. Schmidt was compensated about $720,000 last year but that related to some travel and security costs. His salary however was just $1. In this day and age where greed is at unprecedented levels and acting irresponsibly regarding money this is rule rather than the exception it’s kind of nice to see these kinds of things can still happen.

One last note, Google closed at $344 per share today. How will they make it?!

Browsers Under Attack More and More

2009-03-27T07:01:00.002+05:00

There has been a lot of talk recently about browsers and the maneuvering that is occurring in that spacedue to new releases and expiring agreements and more. While most of us would like to just talk about social media and search marketing all day it’s hard to ignore problems when they are browser related because they can affect literally everything we do as Internet marketers.

So the latest security bug in Firefox as reported by PC World seems more urgent than most. We all understand that nothing is truly secure on the Internet but we also like to think that there are not glaring vulnerabilities in the tools we use on a daily basis. As the PC World article states:

The attack code, written by security researcher Guido Landi was published on several security sites Wednesday, sending Firefox developers scrambling to patch the issue. Until the flaw is patched, this code could be modified by attackers and used to sneak unauthorized software onto a Firefox user’s machine.

Mozilla’s Director of Security Engineering is calling this a critical issue and a fix is scheduled to be rolled out with a version update at the start of next week. These developers are calling this fix and the release of this update a “high priority firedrill security update”. Not sure about you but that kind of language sounds a little creepy.

No operating system that runs Firefox is spared on this one either including Mac OS and Linux users. Essentially the bug allows someone to plant a “drive-by download” of software by tricking a user into viewing an XML file that starts the process. This was also a public release of the hack so it makes it even more uncommon.

The PC World article doesn’t wrap up with any words to make us feel any more secure though.

While the public release of browser attack code doesn’t happen all that often, security researchers don’t seem to have much trouble finding bugs in browser software. Last week, two hackers at the CanSecWest security conference dug up four separate bugs in the Firefox, IE and Safari browsers.

Maybe these things seem bigger in light of the bad economy because these types of concerns are every day events on the Internet. When times get bad, however, crime goes up historically and now there are more avenues for a new breed of criminal using technology to carry out their plans. Something tells me this may get a lot worse before it gets better.

China and That Freedom of Speech Thingy

2009-03-27T06:59:00.000+05:00

Remember all the discussion of China and its approach to the Internet that was heard around the Beijing Olympics? It seems that a lot of that type of coverage has slid into the background until recently. Apparently once Google gets involved these items become news again.

At this moment China’s Internet users cannot view YouTube. The Chinese government claims that it had nothing to do with the outage but its timing with the airing of footage on YouTube of detained Tibetan protesters being beaten seems a bit more than a coincidence to the rest of the thinking world.

Google’s take on this is

Google spokesman Scott Rubin told InternetNews.com that it is still working to bring its video-sharing site back online and identify the cause of the outage.

The Internet News article goes into the specifics of this incident very well. Some highlights include:
According to the Global Network Initiative at least a dozen countries with less than pristine human rights records have blocked YouTube access since 2007
The Chinese government calls the videos fraudulent and does not say that the outage is due to government activity
The CTA (Central Tibetan Administration) is accused of a propaganda campaign that coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan national uprising

All of this interesting in the context of how most of us view the Internet. With Internet access comes the freedom to do and please with it however you want. I can watch videos and interviews that are anti US government all day long if I choose to waste my time doing that. How many more police brutality videos can you see as well. No one is stopping us from doing any of this. What’s China afraid of? Is it fearful that the rest of the world will discover their human rights violations? News alert – That cat’s been out of the bag for a long time.

So back to the Internet marketing part of this. It ties back to us ever being able to truly engage in Internet commerce with a country that will shut down access to whatever it is threatened by. Do we want to do business with them? Of course, for many the allure of a billion or so potential customers may override any human rights concerns. Many companies (US government included) still do business with countries that are blatantly in violation of human rights.

So does this even mean anything at all to the rest of the world? If Google and YouTube can’t work in China will Google just abandon their efforts there? Not likely. There are too many people there.

Why Facebook’s Conceding the Redesign Battle to Win the War

2009-03-25T21:26:00.004+05:00

Ever since Facebook rolled out its new design, we’ve heard how millions of users hate the decision, but founder Mark Zuckerberg apparently didn’t care what they thought.

Now Facebook is responding to the vocal minority–yes a few million is a minority among 175 million total users–and will look at making changes to the new layout. I won’t go into all of the changes Facebook has agreed to make because that’s not what I won’t to focus on in this post. Instead, I’d love to hear your thoughts on my theory:

Did Facebook users win the war, or is the social network merely conceding territory it’s apathetic about in order to give the appearance that its users have a say in the company’s future?

Let me explain. In Radically Transparent we discuss the importance of ensuring your vocal detractors are brought inside. We explain that you don’t have to hand over the keys to your business, just let your detractors steer the car for a while and they’ll feel like they played a part in getting to the company’s destination. You might argue that it’s not very transparent, but your detractors don’t always have the better solution, they were just pissed that you made the changes without consulting them first.

I believe that’s what is happening here. Unlike Scoble or Arrington, I don’t believe Facebook has handed over control to “volvo” or “camel” designers. Instead, it appears that Facebook is extremely smart in the way it’s handling this. It’s rolled out massive changes–ones that it knows will help fill the bank account in the long run–waited to see just how much of a push-back it met, then agreed to some minor tweaks so that the complainers feel they’ve had their voices heard. They go back to being Facebook brandvangelists and Facebook get’s to push on.

What do you think? Am I talking out of my rear, or does this make sense to you?

Social Media Industry Report Proves Interesting

2009-03-25T21:26:00.002+05:00

Michael Stelzner at the WhitePaperSource has produced a pretty in depth report on the social media marketing industry. The industry now has enough years on it that this research is becoming more valuable to help make sense of this fast growing and often unwieldy area of the marketing mix.

The report is based on interviews of over 900 social media users of varying degrees. The findings are interesting in some areas and not so surprising in others. Some highlights include:
The Top 10 social media questions that marketers want answered
Experience levels are low with 72% of the marketers questioned having just started or only being involved in social media for a few months
As a surprise to me, owners of 2- to 100-employee businesses were the most experienced (29.3% reporting doing social media marketing for years)
Another startling finding was people aged 60 to 69 were significantly more likely to be just getting started with social media marketing than other age groups. In all honesty, I can’t imagine my parents on Facebook or Twitter!
After only a few months and with as few as 6 hours a week, more than half of marketers have generated qualified leads with social media marketing
The top 4 social media tools were Twitter (81%), blogs (79%), LinkedIn (78%) and Facebook (77%) topping the list of the Top 10. Owners preferred LinkedIn.
The least understood outlet are social bookmarking sites

As it is with all research it is important to see how it measures up to your particular situation. These are interesting bits of data and can be convincing to the many new users that are currently just feeling their way around. It’s probably fair to say that almost everyone is feeling their way around social media though because the rules are being written and rewritten even as you read this.

Any advice for social media success?

Google Rolls Out Longer Snippets and New Search Refinements

2009-03-25T21:20:00.002+05:00

In a move that will surprise few within the industry Google have announced two new features within the Google search results, first an expanded list of related searches and second the rollout of extended snippets—both of which could affect search behaviour quite significantly.

Firstly, Google have announced the deployment of a ‘new technology’ that better understands concepts and relationships associated with a query. This technology will allow Google to offer a greater number of related searches to users via the search results (found at the bottom/top of certain searches).

For example, if you search for [principles of physics], our algorithms understand that “angular momentum,” “special relativity,” “big bang” and “quantum mechanic” are related terms that could help you find what you need. Here’s an example (click on the images in the post to view them larger):

These improvements are not merely restricted to English-based searches, searches in other languages/countries will also incorporate the new technology moving forward. In total around 37 languages should be affected by the changes.

As well as the extended related search functionality, Google have also announced the rollout of the extended snippets. Extended snippets have been spotted fairly extensively in the past, and it is largely unsurprising that these have now passed the testing phase.

In searches of more than three words, the usual length snippet may not be enough for you to judge the result’s relevance. In these situations, Google will now look at extending the number of lines for the description to allow greater opportunity to see the result in context. This in my opinion will have two main effects.

The description tag becomes ‘less important’. Reading between the lines this would suggest that the snippet is likely to be taken from the body of the page, rather than the site description.
Site structure and content becomes key. Given that Google is using the main body for retrieving this context—allowing Google to find the content becomes more and more important. Providing the essential signals to Google thus is essential.

The extended snippets do not appear on all results; however, there is certainly a far wider range of searches affected by the new improvements

It will be interesting to see how the new improvements affect search behaviour, particularly with reference to the extended snippets. Given the greater amount of SERP real estate taken up by the extended snippets, and the fact that many of these snippets are returned in context, I would suggest this could significantly affect organic vs paid clickthrough.

What effects do you foresee from these changes?

Yahoo CEO Appoints Fellow NetApps/Sun Alumna as CMO

2009-03-24T23:18:00.002+05:00

Yahoo has announced the official appointment of Elisa Steele as Chief Marketing Officer, raising the question: Is Yahoo looking to run another company’s playbook?

Yahoo hadn’t seen fit to fill the CMO role since Cammie Dunaway left the company in 2007, and now not only has CEO Carol Bartz appointed one, but she’s appointed someone cut from the same cloth. You see, Steele was poached from NetApp–where Bartz serves on the BoD–and the CMO’s resume includes a stint at Sun Microsystems–where Bartz also previously worked.

What does this all mean for Yahoo? Either it’s coincidental and the company is simply hiring the best people for the job, or Bartz plans on running the same plays called by Sun and/or NetApp. The latter, is not necessarily a bad thing, but it makes you wonder why Bartz didn’t appoint someone that contrasted her own management experience.

Bartz certainly sounds convinced Steele can get the job done, saying, "The Yahoo! brand is one of our most valuable and strategic assets, and Elisa is charged with unlocking its potential globally. Elisa has an outstanding track record in leading global marketing, branding, and communications teams, and we’re excited to welcome her to Yahoo!’s executive staff."

And the CEO also appears to pre-empt any talk that the CMO position was resurrected simply to bring in an old friend. "Yahoo!’s marketing strategy and teams have become decentralized over time - hiring Elisa in the CMO role will quickly mobilize our plan to integrate the function globally and more effectively represent the Yahoo! brand," said Bartz in a statement.

Other questions to ponder. Will Bartz appoint a NetApp/Sun alumni to the vacant CFO position? Will NetApp kick Bartz from its board for swiping its top marketing exec?

Twitter Serves More “Ads”

2009-03-24T23:17:00.003+05:00

So why the quotation marks around the word ads in the title? It’s like that age old question of if a tree fallsin the forest but there is no one there to hear it does it make a sound? This version however reads like, “If you place and “ad” on a website and nobody paid for it is it an “ad”?

In a continuation of the ExecTweets post of earlier TechCrunch reports that more and more third party apps are appearing as ads on the Twitter site. The only difference is that they did not need to pay to be there. In fact, Twitter is doing the courting.

Tweetie developer Loren Brichter says that he actually isn’t paying Twitter a cent to get featured on the site. Twitter came to him, explaining that it wants to promote projects like Tweetie which promote “variety, relevance, and value” (apparently a number of Twitter employees use the app).

Twitter is starting to show some business savvy and brilliance here. Rather than waiting too long to introduce exactly how they intend to make money to survive they are taking advantage of the new wave of Twitter users that are still relatively new to the service and maybe more willing to grow with it. There is less likely to be a hissy fit from someone who sees the service as useful regardless of a few ads vs. the longtime “purists” who will certainly decry the end of Twitter Nation as they know it.

By helping users get more use from the application through promotion of third party apps that further engrain the use of Twitter into the lives of its users, the folks at Twitter are in effect creating a very powerful ad network of sorts. You think the folks at Tweet Deck would be cool with rev share ad agreements to support their business? They don’t exist if Twitter ceases to exist so why not? Would Tweet Deck users revolt? This one wouldn’t but who knows.

It will come down to the people who adamantly oppose the commercialization of the Internet (which are fewer and fewer and are starting to look like elitists who don’t get that the world is bigger than just them) v. those who like the service regardless of ads or not. Actually it will come down to Twitter and its investors making smart business decisions that are about a service making money. Sure they look like Internet hippies right now because of their sharing attitude but do you think that investors are concerned about the Internet’s ethos or the Internet’s profit?

So where do you land? Ads or no ads? The end of Twitter or the start of a real company?

Twitter and Revenue Make a Tweet Sound

2009-03-24T23:16:00.002+05:00

Well, Twitter is making more noise by getting Microsoft to spend money with them for a sponsored page called ExecTweets according to Peter Kafka at All Things Digital. Because I personally don’t get why this is even attractive I’ll just give you the verbatim from the post to describe it:

Microsoft (MSFT), via its Federated Media ad network/platform/agency, is sponsoring a page that collects Tweets from various executives. Twitter will get an undisclosed payment for giving the site its stamp of approval and for promoting the site on Twitter itself. Federated says it plans on launching similar programs on Twitter with other clients.

Kafka explains that the little box on the Twitter home page that showed up lately was just as suspected. It will soon turn into an ad for this particular offering. Seems innocent enough. Of course, there will be Twitter purists who rail against the commercialization of the Twitterverse and the end of tweets as we know them. Probably a little overdone but everyone is entitled to an opinion.

What seems most curious is the fact that it is Microsoft that is putting the money into Twitter but as an advertiser. With Facebook they anted up for an ownership stake. Now they advertise with the service that has been making Facebook jump around a little as of late. Seems that Microsoft is in the “If you can’t beat’em, join’em’” phase of their Internet strategy. We could speculate all day long about what Microsoft is doing with their Internet strategy and come away with a Grade A migraine and little more for the effort.

There are a couple of good points that are raised by Kafka as well. One is the question of how many people will actually see the ads since most heavier Twitter users are using mobile applications or desktop apps like Tweet Deck to manage the information Twitter-storm that occurs 24/7. Personally my use of the Twitter.com site is for search related needs. If it wasn’t for the search.twitter.com/advanced page I may never actually need to go to my Twitter.com page. Come to think of it I still don’t since I go directly to the search page. Of course these ads will likely be on the search results page as well so I am sure I will get an eyeful.

The other point is that most people are just not going to be that excited about a page of tweets from executives. Most people like to poke fun at these people and call them twits rather than seek out what the latest thought on their mind is. As with all of these efforts to try something new, though, I reserve the right to be completely wrong because no one really knows what will and will not work in this brave new social media world. I have to say though that this one doesn’t really intrigue me. What about you?

So what’s your feeling about advertising and Twitter? Should the purists be more forgiving so that at least the service can make some money so it can stay around? Or should it just be there for the service of the Internet elite and not be soiled by that nasty capitalism thingy?

Funny Cartoon: The Twouble with Twitters

2009-03-24T23:12:00.003+05:00

If you’re addicted to Twitter you’ll laugh at this video (and yourself).

If you’re not using Twitter you’ll laugh at how sad us Twitter users are!

Enjoy!

Facebook Can’t Do Anything Right—Or Can It?

2009-03-24T23:12:00.001+05:00

The most popular social network in the world just can’t get a break. They try to be new and innovative (okay, or they’re trying to rip off Twitter), and users hate it. HATE it. And Facebook basically says, “Tough.”

But anyone who’s been on Facebook for a couple years has seen this all before: almost every redesign and tweak has been met with virulent “I HATE THE NEW FACEBOOK” groups and discussions. They hated the news feed and mini feed years ago, they hated Beacon, they hated last year’s redesign, and they hate this one, too. Let’s face it: people hate change. But so far, Facebook has stuck to its guns about half the time—and even when they’ve made changes, they’ve modified, but never fully rescinded anything (other than the TOS changes)—and FB continues to flourish through all the fracas.

So will Facebook yield this time, or do they really not care what their users (not “customers,” as Frank rightly points out) are saying? Robert Scoble opines that Facebook can’t care what its users think—they’ve got to start thinking about the businesses entering the social graph. According to Scoble, this is:

when Facebook is really going to find its business model. This is why Mark Zuckerberg is absolutely correct to say he can’t listen to people who wants Facebook to get stuck in Phase Four [without businesses]. It was a nice phase, yes, when Facebook only had people in the social graph, but those days are over.

Don’t get distracted by the current design that looks sort of like Twitter. Twitter showed that businesses can co-exist on the social graph along with people. Zuckerberg is smart. He saw that Twitter was going to make a crapload of money (that’s why he tried to buy Twitter) and instead of being depressed by being turned down by @ev he decided to phase shift Facebook. . . .

Anyway, all those who are saying the new design sucks should NOT be listened to. Yeah, I know a lot of people are going to get mad at me for saying that. After all, how can a blogger say to not listen to the masses? Easy: I’ve seen the advice the masses are giving and most of it isn’t very good for Facebook’s business interests. (emphasis added)

Let’s face it: by and large, Facebook’s users aren’t its real customers—the businesses advertising and using Facebook are the “customers,” the ones who are paying FB’s bills. Yes, the users are vital to FB and its customers, but we users like to pretend that the actual customers are not only superfluous but ruining our private community (when really, they’re the only things keeping it running. Well, them and VCs.). Facebook has to cater to its real customers to stay alive.

So a lot of this outrage is probably going to pan out to be all talk. Scoble also points out that though his wife, an avid Facebooker, didn’t care for the redesign, her usage hasn’t lessened at all. People make a lot of noise about canceling accounts and leaving Facebook forever, but I think time will show that very few are so enraged as to make this move.

What do you think? Will this move end up being the death of Facebook, or will it mark its shift to a real business plan?

Big Media Publishers Want More from Google

2009-03-24T23:11:00.002+05:00

In Advertising Age there is a reportof the rumblings of the media giants and their apparent slighting at the hands of Google. The attitude of the article, which comes from one of the standards of the traditional media industry, is certainly protective of its turf since it refers to Google’s “undifferentiated slush of results”.

Wow, way to stay unbiased right out of the gate. The gist of this story is that the big boys of big media are complaining that Google is not giving them their due. Of course, with advertising being in the crapper they now have decided that they need to get traffic somehow and their “Oh look! There’s a search engine over there that people seem to use! Maybe we should get involved!” attitude just further validates that they are way behind the curve with new media.

So how do these big players get in the game? They get a private audience with Google through the Google’s Publisher’s Advisory Council to air their grievances with the engine in an invitation only environment. One has to wonder that if you get this level of face time with the engine that you may have figured out something by now but I digress. Members include ESPN, BusinessWeek, New York Times, The Wall Street Journal etc. You get the picture.

They also hold meetings that are closed to the press and apparently complain to each other.

Then in January, Martin Nisenholtz, New York Times Co. senior VP-digital operations, got up at the annual Online Publishers Association summit in Florida, an event closed to the press, to blast both the algorithm and the results presentation on the screen.

They complain that their brands are not given any special notice since every result looks the same. They are concerned that bloggers, which are affectionately referred to as parasites, get some kind of special treatment through their tactics. They say the results are not relevant as well with their news not getting the attention over Wikipedia entries etc. Admittedly, they may have a point there. Then they try to sound a bit more diplomatic as well.

Publishers said they’re not asking for a leg up over amateurs and link-happy bloggers. “This would in no way mean that only professional content publishers would get an advantage,” one said. “It really just says that the original source, and the source with real access, should somehow be recognized as the most important in the delivery of results.”

At the end of April they will reconvene with Google in hopes that Google will give them details of their plans to help. That should be an interesting meeting since details for any plans these days are hard to come by I suspect the publishers may walk away dissatisfied regardless of what Google says to them.

While this is happening they are concentrating on creating some leverage with the engines by adopting the Automated Content Access Protocol whish will tell the engines what they can and cannot use in the SERP’s and protects copyrights. How restricting what the engines can use will endear them to the likes of Google is not real clear since the Internet and restrictions have never played well together in the past.

There are big publishers though who do not subscribe wholly to this thinking. To sum up:

Some publishers concede, however, they could help themselves more too. “Google has designed an algorithm,” one said. “They don’t owe us that we show up a particular way. They do publish a whole lot about how to make your site show up as much as possible. If people haven’t taken action on it, that’s their own damn fault.”

Wow! How logical and reasonable of that one unnamed executive. Maybe he should get a bit of time in one of these conferences and inform everyone that there are ways to do this stuff that requires more than just an attitude. So all you SEO experts get on the phone today to big media. Maybe now they’ll listen.

Salesforce.com Adds Twitter Analytics to CRM Offering

2009-03-24T23:10:00.002+05:00

I think we can all agree that collecting customer feedback is a good thing, right?

What we may not all agree on is whether we should go out and collect that feedback in the places where our customers hang-out, or if we should serve coffee and donuts and entice them to come to us.

There are pros and cons to each approach and if you like the idea of building a customer feedback “mousetrap” then SuggestionBox.com or GetSatisfaction.com are just two of the many providers willing to provide the blueprint.

If you’re more inclined to strap on your boots, grab your flashlight, and go looking for your client’s feedback then CRM provider SalesForce is happy to be your sherpa on the journey. Back in January, the company launched its Service Cloud offering and today it’s announced the addition of Twitter support.

We’ll let VentureBeat explain how it works:

Let’s say you’re a mobile phone manufacturer, for example. Within Salesforce, you’ll be able to search for any relevant “tweets” — for example, complaints about a broken phone — track any responses, and then use the company’s Twitter account to respond yourself. Of course, you can already do all of those things within Twitter, but this makes the process more convenient, and, more importantly, allows you to capture that information and respond, all within a single application, one that lets you perform similar tasks on Facebook and elsewhere.

SalesForce doesn’t come cheap and it would be overkill to get a license just for Service Cloud, especially when there are plenty of other social media monitoring options, but if you’re a Salesforce.com user then this video demo suggests it might be worth your consideration.

PS. Forrester analyst Jeremiah Owyang suggests Twitter should get in on the analytics game instead of leaving it up to companies like Salesforce.

Citysearch Reviews Itself and Upgrades

2009-03-23T18:10:00.002+05:00

Local search is an interesting animal to say the least. There are seemingly a million different directories and resources to help bring search to the street level but it is so scattered that it frustrates more often than is helps. Citysearch has been around the scene virtually since the beginning of the commercial Internet. In fact, it’s hard to do a local search without seeing a Citysearch result come up.

In an article from Internet News the discussion is about some changes to Citysearch that have been asked for by its users for quite some time. These changes now incorporate social media and mobile opportunities to bring this Internet standard up to speed. CEO Jay Herrati says that these changes have been a long time coming.

In an interview with the New York Times, Herratti admitted the changes were overdue. “We got a little bit stale. Our consumers were telling us to get modern,” he told the Times. “We need to become the next-generation local guide.”

The biggest upgrade is the ability to for users to connect to their Facebook profiles using Facebook Connnect. This will enable users to write and share reviews with their Facebook friends. The weight of getting a review from a friend in “real time” will be even more powerful than one that is done from a source that is completely unknown to the searcher. Robert Scoble discusses how Facebook is really headed in the right direction despite the backlash of users regarding its redesign and he discusses the power of this “friend review” concept. Citysearch could take advantage of this connection more than most.

In addition to the Facebook connection the service is expanding from its current 150 local city guides to over 75,000 local communities and neighborhoods. This could get interesting. Most agree that local search is still relatively untapped because of the amount of work it requires to provide the details that local destinations have to offer. That amount of locations makes one wonder just how detailed the new locations will be.

With mobile search growing in popularity and people looking for more information in a “just in time” delivery mode maybe Citysearch will breathe new life into its offering that will put them on the edge of the next wave. Whatever the result these changes should at least take care of the request for the service to be more modern.

Zuckerberg and Customers: Oil Meets Water

2009-03-22T00:14:00.002+05:00

Over at Gawker.com there is some insider dirt being dished regarding internal correspondence from Facebook that shows its founder Mark Zuckerberg in a pretty unflattering light. In between appearances on Oprah and redesigning Facebook he has been letting the employees know how he really feels about customers.

Apparently he didn’t stick around Harvard long enough to learn that you use the term customers when someone pays for a service. Since accounts receivable is the smallest department at Facebook with little work to do, he may want to be a little more endearing to his users.

Now let’s make one thing perfectly clear here. The Valleywag report comes from a “tipster” so there needs to a degree of restraint as to the true factual nature. It looks as if they have placed an open invitation to any Facebook employee who is less than enamored with the latest direction of the company to send along the complete correspondence that allegedly addresses the subject of customers with the following:

“He said something like ‘the most disruptive companies don’t listen to their customers.’” Another tipster who has seen the email says Zuckerberg implied that companies were “stupid” for “listening to their customers.”

Is the term ‘disruptive’ some Silicon Valley code word for profitable? I don’t think so. I thought people stopped rewarding businesses that didn’t make money back at the turn of the century. Oh wait, we have the government to do that now so maybe Facebook can get a stimulus bump! How about AIG become their first advertiser? They’ve got our the money!

The whole thing with Facebook has reached near silly proportions. There are 175 million people who use it and many seem willing to pack up their Facebook pages over a redesign so it’s fair to say that most would never pay to be part of it. Would you? Users also are not too keen on seeing advertisers there. Maybe Zuckerberg is angry because his ‘customers’ actually do know something which is that if it’s free it’s cool and if it’s commercial it’s disposable. There’s that pesky revenue problem again. Maybe he just doesn’t care because he is convinced he is always right and will do whatever he wants regardless of what anyone says. Who knows?

Wow, if only he had stuck around for that great Harvard case study about pride going before the fall! The lesson here is: Stay in school kids!

Take this Twitter Survey So We Can All Understand Corporate Use

2009-03-21T00:26:00.001+05:00

Paul Bennett is an honorary Pilgrim and his company is currently conducting a survey to learn more about how companies are using Twitter.

His hope is to collect enough data to put together a report on how brands can leverage Twitter, and share it with Marketing Pilgrim readers.

This is one of those deals where the more people that take the survey, the more value we’ll all get out of the results.

It’s Friday, so while you’re goofing off this afternoon, take 2 minutes to complete this quick survey. The deadline is March 31st, in case you don’t have time today.

Cheers!

SpiralFrog Croaks; a Warning to Other Ad-Supported Sites?

2009-03-21T00:25:00.003+05:00

SpiralFrog, the music download service supported by ads, has finally croaked. The service publicly launched with a bang back in 2007 but needed $9 million in funding just to keep the lights on in 2008, and now CNET is reporting the web site is no more.

In SpiralFrog’s situation, the company couldn’t overcome “a macro-economic perfect storm” says a source close to the company. The sagging global economy, combined with “the collapse of the capital markets” and rapid compression of the ad markets,” led to the company’s demise, said the source.

Part of me feels vindicated that the freemium model isn’t the holy grail that everyone predicted. After all, if a service offers free music downloads–with the user only having to endure a few ads–and still can’t survive, what comfort does that give to other ad-supported consumer sites?

The other part of me is now concerned for related services, such as YouTube. It’s a well known fact that YouTube is hardly making buckets of money from its user-created videos and the demise of SpiralFrog doesn’t offer much in the way of comfort that the Google owned site can earn its keep from displaying ads alongside videos.

Of course, YouTube has the benefit of displaying ads from the world’s most sophisticated ad network, and SpiralFrog had more issues to contend with than just ad-revenue, but it does make you think about the future of businesses that rely on ad revenue to survive. It seems that we have those that charge for their offering–Amazon downloads, iTunes, etc–and those that are still burning through VC cash because they have yet to decide on a revenue model.

There’s not much in between. It’s hard to find a company that provides music or videos and is actually raking in the cash from their ad revenue. Know of any?

Is Social Networking Slowing Down the Generational Lines of Communication?

2009-03-21T00:23:00.001+05:00

By Nick Stamoulis

Lately it seems like the social communication behavior and methods people use to interact are more like tangled-up power lines. Years ago there were traditionally only a small handful of ways to communicate; at work, phone, fax and face-to-face. For the last ten years or so many generations have been able to adopt email as a crucial form of communication, but now there are many newer social networking methods of communication between consumers, businesses, friends and families.

How many people do you know across different generations that actually have Facebook accounts? The numbers are staggering, but to a marketer and business owner it is crucial to understand that one size does not fit all. Even though these generations tend to actively use social networks such as Facebook or LinkedIn they are still VERY different overall in the way they communicate.

Let’s start by discussing the three vastly different generations, GEN Y, GEN X and Baby Boomers. All three have very different styles of communication they prefer. Baby boomers generally rely on face-to-face and phone communication. GEN X use email, cell phones and some instant messaging (IM), and GEN Y like to text and IM primarily. These three communication differences create serious ripples in the lines of communication for many businesses and social marketers alike.

The March 2009 issue of Entrepreneur Magazine has an excellent overview of this social generation communication broken down:

Many people complain that they just can’t keep up with the evolution of technology and how quickly things are moving. All three generations use all forms of social interaction and social online networking but the way the three interact on these sites is very different.

Many baby boomers will launch a Facebook page or Myspace profile but the way each use them is fundamentally different. Many GEN Y’ers will use the online social networks to conduct all their social interaction with other peers while a 55 year old baby boomer might launch a profile and visit it once every 6 months, often times not even having an uploaded photo in the profile.

Many new technologies are adopted by GEN Y’ers very quickly leaving many baby boomers scratching their heads trying to figure out just what is the best way to reach out to this generation that sometimes feels out of reach. One generation will reach out to someone through Facebook and the other with a phone. The rapid pace of social online marketing evolvement unfortunately leaves baby boomers in the dust sometimes.

Years ago, when the baby boomer generation was 25, technological advancements occurred at a snail’s pace. Today it is quite the opposite leaving it challenging for some generations to keep up with the rate of social networking communication growth.

About Nick Stamoulis

Nick Stamoulis is a search marketing veteran who is the President of Search Engine Marketing Firm, Brick Marketing and Publisher of the Search Engine Optimization Journal.

Growth Is Not an Issue for Twitter

2009-03-21T00:21:00.005+05:00

Most of us would be happy in this economy for any growth that occurred between Feb of 2008 and Feb of 2009. 10 percent would be fine. 50% would be amazing. 100% growth gets you rock star status. So if you are Twitter and Nielsen gave you the news that your subscriber base grew 1,392% in that period you may need to change your shorts. Ok, so maybe that’s a little too graphic but that is a pretty ridiculous number even if you don’t make one red cent while doing it (had to throw that in there;-)).

From a report on cnet, here are the results of the Top 5 fastest growing, as Nielsen refers to them, ‘member community destinations’ for the February to February time period.

As with most data there may be questions raised. For instance a common number thrown around about how many Facebook users there are is 175 million but in the US it apparently is 65 million. You don’t see that number quite as often although it is still impressive. The members of the top 5 are quite a bit smaller than even Twitter and 2 of them are not even social media sites. That’s just minor stuff though.

One area I would like to see more detail on is the age ranges that Twitter has their greatest success. I was admittedly surprised at Twitter’s claim that the largest user group of Twitter is aged 34-49. That would appear to be at least an indication that the reason for Twitter’s success is business related. No evidence of that one just an educated guess.

The other element of growth that is making Twitter investors twiddy (that’s giddy in Twitter speak) is the use of mobile phones and devices to access the application. 735,000 unique visitors did so in January of this year. In addition, on just AT&T and Verizon alone there were 812,000 users accessing Twitter via text message.

While some people have even said that Twitter has jumped the shark it appears that even if they did there are a lot people following them despite that prediction. What will happen over the next year is going to be interesting to watch when you consider that even the mighty Facebook has made recent changes that have tipped a hat to the Twitter model. Since imitation is the greatest form of flattery that should be enough to motivate Twitter to have another year of quadruple digit growth. Tweet that!

Microsoft, Viacom Still Holding Out

2009-03-21T00:21:00.001+05:00

Some people just don’t know when to give up. It’s almost sad, really, watching them doggedly pursue something or someone past the point of all reason. And sometimes CEOs are just like that, y’know? Take Steve Ballmer or Philippe Dauman, for example. Months—years—after beginning one of those things that might have “seemed like a good idea at the time,” they’re still pushing that boulder up the hill.

Philippe Dauman, CEO of Viacom, faces such a Sisyphean task in his lawsuit against Google. First filed just over two years ago, the copyright suit against YouTube has continued to drag on—but Dauman isn’t giving up hope! Yes, never mind Google’s copyright detection software, or the fact that 57% of copyright takedown notices are bogus, or that YouTube is by far the most popular destination for professional and original video on the Internet (and thus a good place to own and place your content in the first place)—he wants his datgum content off YouTube.

Dauman reports to Business Week (as covered by All Things D) that the billion-dollar lawsuit is still in its discovery phase. (That’s the pretrial part where you collect evidence, in case you’re not familiar with it.)

Dauman assures us that there will be “a resolution.” In case you were wondering. (I guess he means this isn’t all just going to fade away like a bad dream.) Meanwhile, Dauman’s son really enjoys working for Google.

Steve Ballmer, if you haven’t guessed it already, is still holding out for a hero deal with Yahoo. Yes, looks like it’s time for the monthly update from Steve—can’t you just picture him phoning Bartz at home? She checks the caller ID, sees it’s him, lets it go to voice mail.

Ballmer takes a deep breath when the line connects, but sighs when he hears the now-familiar greeting. “Hi, this is Carol. Tell me why I shouldn’t fire you after the beep!”

“Hi Carol.” He rubs a sweaty palm against his jeans. “It’s me, Steve. Just . . . calling to let you know . . . if you ever wanted to do something . . . you know . . . I’m still up for it. kthxbai.” And Steve returns to execrating himself, this time for reverting into lolspeak on the phone. Think he can call back and erase that last message to try again?

Okay, so that’s not really what he would say. All Thing D (again) reports that he’s totally chill about the sitch (that’s “sitch,” short for “situation,” not a typo where I meant some other word):

Principles first: “Whether or not there’s a partnership to be had with Yahoo, we think our own innovation… it’s not about Yahoo’s technology. It’s really about getting the pooled volume, because you actually can improve your product faster if you have more users.” If you have more advertisers, you can improve the product as well. “There are returns to scale. And putting the scale together is valuable.

“With that as context, we’re largely on the same strategy, with or without a partnership with Yahoo.” I’ve talked with Carol briefly, over the phone. “I’m sure when it’s appropriate, we’ll have a chance to sit down and talk.” I’ve known her for years. She’s straightforward and friendly “and when she’s ready, we’ll have that type of discussion. Whether a deal gets done or not, who knows.” People at our two companies talk all the time.

Like I said, totally chill. And he didn’t follow that with “So, um, Carol, if you’re out there, in case you lost my number, it’s . . .” (but don’t you think he wanted to?).

So, who’s getting more desperate—Viacom or Microsoft?

Can Facebook Kill Google?

2009-03-21T00:18:00.005+05:00

So far this week, we’ve wondered if Google cares about social, after an analyst said that Google is ignoring social search because they’re jealous of social networks. But now they may have something new to fear from Facebook, the most popular social network worldwide: imminent death.

Or at least that’s what Henry Blodget says after a presentation by Ross Sandler of RBC. Although Facebook’s traffic to Google has more than doubled in the last year (19% of Google sessions come from FB, up from 9% last year), Facebook’s worldwide traffic is growing at an alarming rate—one that could surpass Google in another two to three years (in terms of unique visitors).

It’s the end of the world as we search marketers know it! It’s like when the hula hoop came out, everyone immediately stopped drinking Kool-Aid—and just look where the powdered soft drink industry is now!

(What? You can still buy Kool-Aid, Tang and generic products at every grocery store on the planet? Oh…)

I know it’s really easy to forget this sometimes, but Google and Facebook are two different things. For now, as Sandler rightly points out, they even complement one another. And even if Facebook becomes every single person on earth’s start page, somehow I don’t think that’s going to sound a death knell for Google. (Or is it really difficult to remember to type in “Google.com” in the address bar? Oh, wait, nm—I guess it is.)

As I’ve said more than once over the past couple weeks, we have to remember that social and search simply aren’t the same thing. They may have some big overlap: sometimes, yes, it’s better to rely on actual humans whose judgment you trust when you’re searching for something. But by and large, social and search serve two different purposes. I don’t expect Google to tell me what my 200 closest friends are doing right now, and I don’t expect Facebook to find me the time of sunset for March 13, 2010 in Chicago.

What do you think? Even assuming Facebook can sustain its growth, can Facebook “kill” Google?

Does Google Care About Social?

2009-03-19T23:24:00.003+05:00

Pali Research analyst Richard Greenfield issued a report yesterday about the MySpace/Google ad deal concluding that “Google doesn’t care about social networking. But perhaps it should, since social-networking platforms are gradually making search less relevant,” according to AdWeek.

Sounds pretty harsh, no? It’s well-established that ads on social networks don’t perform as well as other types ads. We’ve always liked to think that it’s because social network users aren’t there for advertising or product info. Not so, says Greenfield: “Rather, . . . Google’s algorithm isn’t well-suited to social-networking sites — and that’s something Google isn’t necessarily concerned with.”

And there’s a good reason for that. And no, it has nothing to do with clicks from social networks being less valuable than clicks from elsewhere on the net. It’s jealousy:

The reason the company [Google] doesn’t care, said Greenfield, is that the basic functionality of social platforms like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter is “diminishing the importance of search.” He points to users’ growing inclination to search for specific information by tapping into friends’ and colleague’s knowledge through platforms like Twitter’s own search product, as well Facebook’s status update tool.

Okay, let’s get this straight. So because people are using the Internet to talk to their friends and browse what their friends are doing right at this moment (in 140 characters or less in some cases), they don’t need Google anymore (How did he know I used to spend my free time Googling “What is Kim Habermann doing right now?”).

Therefore, petulant toddler that it is, Google isn’t doing all it can to work on its one and only algorithm that serves search results and ad results to make it cater to these social networks.

Let’s look at this seriously now. Never mind the fact that Google has been saying for more than a year that they’re not doing social search because it “doesn’t show much promise.” Some searches on social networks aren’t going to win clicks. Some social search involves looking for product reviews from people you trust, finding old friends, making plans.

There are still going to be searches on social networks that do yield paid clicks for Google, but in general, even if you’re already on MySpace, why use their search product to conduct those searches? It’s not that hard to hop over from your social site to Google proper to type in your query.

So do searches on social networks simply not make as much money? Probably. And is it Google’s fault? Probably—if they hadn’t gone and created such a powerful brand, people would probably be content to use search anywhere for anything.

What do you think: does Google care about social? Should it?

Google Will Always Have a Target on It

2009-03-19T23:23:00.002+05:00

News alert! According to ZDNet apparently Google has been less than perfect and it has drawn the ire of an online privacy group, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). At the heart of this petition is the request to have the Federal Trade Commission open an investigation into Google’s cloud computing services which includes Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar etc etc.

Last month’s incident where some documents of Google Docs clients were made public is the focal point of this request. The most recent cited event prior to this in the request is January 2007. No typo there. 2007.
Some of the concern is directed at the language in the terms of service that Google claims that one can “rest assured that your documents, spreadsheets and presentations will remain private unless you publish them to the Web or invite collaborators and/or viewers.”

This is really about cloud computing services which are gaining in popularity. Since more consumers and businesses are turning to this type of service I guess they need to be defenders of the users and the potential privacy breaches that can occur. This last Google ’event’ affected one half of one percent of Google Docs users. The company explained the event as occurring when collaborators shared multiple documents and were inadvertently given permission to see docs other than those shared.

OK. I am not a Google apologist by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, I would like to see some more competition in the marketplace. The fact of the matter is though that considering the ridiculous amount of data they handle they do a pretty good job. This petition couldn’t dredge up another issue in between now and January of 2007. Not exactly an epidemic of privacy violations in my opinion.

How many of us actually believe that there is true, infallible security on the Internet anyway? Of course, it is something to aspire to but even hosting companies that have gotten better over the years will only go to 99.999 or 99.9999 % uptime guarantees because stuff happens on the Internet. If you put your information with Google, which I do on many occasions, you want security and to some degree expect it but is it reasonable to expect perfection? If someone wants your stuff there is a decent chance they’ll get it one way or another. It’s a fact of the Internet space.

So my thought is why is there a need to take up a government agency’s time with something that is not even close to a regular occurrence? Why couldn’t the folks at EPIC just do some press releases around this and look to address it with Google directly? I don’t know the answer but I have to believe that there are more egregious issues for the FTC to tackle. Your take?

Nit Twit Juror Fuels Appeal with Tweets

2009-03-19T23:20:00.003+05:00

Well you know you’ve hit the big time when your service is used by some crafty lawyer to file an appeal. Ok, so maybe it’s not hitting the big time but it is certainly evidence that not everyone on Twitter is a rocket scientist. Shocking I know but hey welcome to the new world order.

It happened in Arkansas as reported by Techdirt when a building company had a judgment against them for $12.6 million. That’s gonna leave a mark for sure. Unless of course one of your jurors tells his Tweeps the following:

“I just gave away TWELVE MILLION DOLLARS of somebody else’s money”

“oh and nobody buy Stoam. Its bad mojo and they’ll probably cease to Exist, now that their wallet is 12m lighter”

Who knows what this person’s intent was and with the law that is often not even important. How it is being presented by the lawyers that represent the building company is that this juror was predisposed to a verdict that would “impress his audience”. I have to think that the leap from reaching a verdict to a predisposition to a verdict for Twitter recognition is a big one but anything is possible.

Let’s not focus on just one event like this though. In Philadelphia, there are accusations that a juror’s Twitter habit broke rules about disclosing deliberations. In a different twist there have been instances where jurors are accessing information on their phones during a trial that led to a mistrial in Florida. This wasn’t some minor case either; it was a federal drug trial.

So what’s the takeaway here? There are a million of them depending on your point of view. From where I sit though I have to say that if you can’t curb your desire to tell everyone about everything you are doing when it comes to a lawsuit you should probably have your social media membership card revoked. Even in a world where everyone knows everything about everyone else there are times that it’s not about us. We may think that what we are doing and thinking is important all the time but it’s not required that we tell everything all the time especially if other people are profoundly impacted by our narcissism. Think before you tweet!

Spring Is In the Air and Browsers Are Refreshed

2009-03-19T23:17:00.004+05:00

In the past two days both Google and Microsoft have announced either changes or a new releases for their browser. Both are obviously touting improvements with speed being the main focus of Google and features being that of Microsoft.

As reported in PC Advisor, Google Chrome’s blog announces the latest beta of Chrome. Google had dropped the beta tag back in December but it is back as well as the beta channel that is designed for feedback. No indication why that happened but they are Google after all and they can do what they want. The greatest change according to Google is its increase in speed.

“The best thing about this new beta is speed - it’s 25 percent faster on our V8 benchmark and 35 percent faster on the Sunspider benchmark than the current stable channel version (of Chrome) and almost twice as fast compared to our original beta version,” said Brian Rakowski, Google product manager.

Google’s philosophy is to give users the changes as they go rather than save them up for a big release. Other features to look for are autofill, autoscroll and the ability to drag tabs for side by side views.

While Google’s blog gave its point of view, the new IE 8 from Microsoft, which will be available at noon today, was reviewed in the WSJ today by Walter S. Mossberg. From a 30,000 foot fly over point of view, the review was that the new features are fantastic but the trouble is speed. On that note he did not let the new IE 8 unseat Mozilla as his favorite browser for Windows but it appears as if the latest version of the most widely used browser has made strides to be better.

Some of these features can’t be matched out of the box by its main rival browsers. For instance, related tabs are color-coded, the search field can show images along with text, you can get instant fly-out maps of place names in Web pages, and you can easily hide your tracks online from the prying eyes of advertisers.

The review is very detailed and looks at improvements in search functions, privacy features and compatibility, which appears to be pretty strong for the most part which will help ease the nerves of designers and developers who wonder what the impact may be on existing sites.

In a kind of informal survey tell us what browser you currently use and if it isn’t one of these two would you be willing to switch for any reason? Also, which is a bigger event today; the release of IE8 or the start of the NCAA tournament?

Classic Battle for eBook Reader Market

2009-03-19T23:17:00.001+05:00

While Amazon makes the big splash with Kindle 2 and fends off potential lawsuit regarding its technology, Sony has cut a deal with Google that is a classic.

As reported at cnet, in a partnership with Sony, Google will provide over 500,000 titles whose copyrights have expired which include literary classics like “Sense and Sensibility” and “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court”. This move takes the number of titles to that the Sony offering has to 600,000 vs. the 250,000 for the Amazon offering. These include German, French, Spanish, Italian and other language translations as well.

Of course, if you don’t care about the classics then this is a moot point. In this economy though it’s hard to beat the fact that users will now be able to access the free book downloads through Sony’s eBook Store. I know these are all titles that were written prior to 1923 for the most part but a good book is a good book regardless of when it was written. Maybe studying the classics would be helpful to a nation that has spent more time looking over the past 80 plus years of economic activity more than ever before. Maybe looking back is a good way to move forward. I don’t know but for many it beats trekking to the library to get a beat up copy of these books that has been dog eared and written in over the past 20 years.

Google is taking advantage of all the work it has done with its Google book search project. While the books are free to the Sony Reader users there is little doubt that Sony ponied up a fair amount of cash for the opportunity although the details have not been disclosed.

I have not made the e Book switch yet and I am not sure I will. There are a lot of folks out there that really enjoy this option and apparently the big players are raising the stakes. Should be interesting to track.

Half of Corporate “Risk Managers” Ignore Reputation Risks

2009-03-19T23:16:00.002+05:00

I don’t know about you, but if my job function included “risk management” I’d more than likely make sure that risks to the company’s reputation were taken into consideration–wouldn’t you?

Well, according to The Conference Board Reputation Risk Research Working Group and a survey of 148 risk management executives of major corporations, only 49% said that the management of reputation risk was highly integrated with their enterprise risk management (ERM) function.

Maybe the lack of concern is because the role of “reputation risk management” isn’t really something you want your typical risk management guy worrying about–let him worry about the liability insurance and employee identity-cards.

Instead, let the chief PR guy or head of marketing take responsibility for managing and monitoring the company’s reputation management because right now, only 34% of risk managers give a hoot about monitoring social media and a mere 10% actively participate. Can you imagine if your VP of communications informed you that he wasn’t too worried about social media?

The report isn’t all bad news. While risk managers may not quite “get it” they are at least making an effort to better understand reputation management with 81% saying they’ve increased their focus on reputation management over the past 3 years.

Which leads me to a question. Who do you think should be responsible for a company’s reputation management? A risk manager, marketing, PR, or all of the above?

Where You Link Could Cost you $7,000 a Day in Fines!

2009-03-19T00:04:00.003+05:00

It’s been a little over 2 years since Australia announced it would move forward with plans to start censoring the internet. Now there’s a mini-uproar down-under because Australian regulators plan to impose AU$11,000-day-fines (about $7,200 US) to anyone that links to banned content.

While most of the banned sites are publishing illegal content new action by the Australian Communications and Media Authority has raised concerns that the regulator could add to the lists sites that it objects to, but are not actually illegal.

For example:

The Australian communications regulator says it will fine people who hyperlink to sites on its blacklist, which has been further expanded to include several pages on the anonymous whistleblower site Wikileaks.

Wikileaks was added to the blacklist for publishing a leaked document containing Denmark’s list of banned websites.

The blacklist includes 1370 sites but the government is pushing to expand that list to more than 10,000 sites.

There’s a lot of really nasty content online, but is imposing $7k-a-day fines really the way a modern western democracy wants to go? What if the US followed suit? Could it even happen in a country that prides itself of a citizen’s freedom of speech?

This kind of government censorship sends shivers down my spine, how about you?

Google Brings Woodside Stateside; Brittin Takes Over Britain

2009-03-19T00:00:00.004+05:00

Just days after Tim Armstrong left his head of sales position to become AOL’s new CEO, Google is doing the executive shuffle.

Leaving his 3 year role as Vice President for the UK, Ireland and Benelux, Dennis Woodside will take over Armstrong’s role–though he won’t get the same "Senior VP and President" title.

Woodside will report to Omid Kordestani who gushes about Woodside in an internal memo:

In the five and a half years that Dennis has been at Google (that’s over half our company’s lifetime) he’s brought incredible integrity and entrepreneurialism to everything he’s done. I remember Dennis setting off from Mountain View in 2005, a year and a half after he joined, to start our direct sales operations in Eastern Europe, which he quickly transformed into a substantial part of our business. He also set up our Inside Sales Operations in Dublin - again building it from scratch. In September 2006, he became our Vice President for the UK, Ireland and Benelux where he’s helped to create a first class team as well as establish very positive relationships with our big partners on both the advertiser and agency side, including 02, Marks & Spencer, Amazon and Omnicom.

Why is it these internal memos always read as though the real audience were us media? Anyway, BusinessWeek has the full memo if you care to read it.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond, Matt Brittin will take over Woodside’s head of UK operations role. Which leaves me concerned for the people of Ireland and Benelux–just who will they be their dark overlord fearless leader?

Google Reveals 57% of DMCA Takedown Notices are Bogus

2009-03-18T23:59:00.002+05:00

New Zealand could soon have its own version of the DMCA, something Google is trying to block.

In its filing to Kiwi regulators, Google reveals just how widely DMCA takedown notices are abused:

In its submission, Google notes that more than half (57%) of the takedown notices it has received under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act 1998, were sent by business targeting competitors and over one third (37%) of notices were not valid copyright claims.

Wow! I knew there were some crafty SEOs out there, but more than half of all DMCA takedown notices were an attempt to scuttle a rival company? Who knew?

Facebook Adds New Privacy Access Level: Everyone

2009-03-18T23:56:00.001+05:00

I know why you joined Facebook: to share everything with everyone. Well, good news—this week, Facebook adds a new level of privacy access: everyone.

The new “Everyone” level is in addition to previous levels of “Only Friends,” “Friends of Friends” and “My Networks and Friends.” You still have the option to customize who can and can’t see your profile information, too, as well as selecting exactly what categories of profile information “Everyone” can see.

Facebook explains the benefits of this feature:

By changing your Profile setting to “Everyone”, anyone who finds you through a search on Facebook or sees a post or comment you make can now click on your content and view the elements of your profile you’ve opted to make open. While some special rules remain in place about who can see your profile if you are a minor, people generally won’t need to be friends with you or share a common network in order to view your content if you choose the new “Everyone” setting.

In the past, searching for friends you haven’t seen in a while or someone who has a common name may have been difficult. You may have only been able to see their search listing and a small thumbnail version of a photo, if that. With this change, people can use the “Everyone” option and make it easier for you to find and connect to all the people you know.

I’m pretty sure you still have to be logged in to be able to see someone’s profile set to “Everyone,” and the public search results listing setting they already have will remain the same.

Almost a year ago, less than half of Facebook users were willing to share their profile with current or prospective employers, but we all know our bosses (or potential bosses) are checking us out online these days. Perhaps this level of access is a good place to create a “sanitized” version of your FB profile—one without access to your pictures or status updates, perhaps only with stuff you’d put on your résumé. Or is that what LinkedIn is for?

Will you be changing your info to give “Everyone” access? If so, what will you let “Everyone” see—and what will you keep hidden?

Robert Scoble’s New Job? Working for Me!

2009-03-17T22:43:00.001+05:00

The news is out about Robert Scoble’s new job: he’s working for me!

Ahem, OK, so not exactly. But, the infamous tech journalist is taking a new job with the hosting company Rackspace and I am a long-time Rackspace client–hence he’s kinda working for me. ;-)

Scoble will head up a new effort called Building 43 which he explains "is not a place. It’s not even a website. It’s a decentralized community for people fanatical about the Internet. You’ll find us on Facebook, on Twitter, on friendfeed, on Ning, and lots of other places too."

At first glance, you wonder why a hosting company would make the foray into social media, but in a way it makes a lot of sense for Rackspace. The company hosts many prominent social media sites, is heavily invested in "cloud computing" and Scoble will likely do for Rackspace what he did for his previous employers Microsoft, PodTech and FastCompany–give them a face/voice in the tech community.

Expect Scoble to start appearing on the doorstep of many of Rackspace’s clients soon. If he turns up at the Marketing Pilgrim HQ, I’ll let you know. ;-)

Forrester Report Suggests Marketers Still Spend Peanuts on Social Media, But Increases Planned

2009-03-17T22:42:00.001+05:00

Forrester Research just released a report that suggests the tough economy will be the catalyst for more spending on social media marketing.

The survey of 145 interactive marketing professionals snuggles-up nicely with cScape’s research published in December that suggested companies will focus more on customer engagement in 2009.

Highlights from the report authored by Jeremiah Owyang include:

* 53% of interactive marketers expect their budgets for social media marketing to increase as a response to the recession.
* Social media budgets remain miniscule compared to the rest of interactive marketing. Three-quarters of marketers say their social media spend is $100,000 or less over 12 months.
* Social media is not yet a marketing line item. 45-percent of marketers say their social budgets are determined as needed and 23-percent say they scrape together funds from wherever they can find them.

Only 25% of companies are spending more than $100k a year on social media and it’s not yet a line item? Reminds me a lot of search engine marketing circa 1999. If you spend peanuts on social media, you’ll get…peanut butter–not filet mignon–when it comes to seeing results. Something Owyang agrees with:

“If you continue to fund social applications only as experiments, you’re unlikely to be able to do enough to make an impact, or to have a secure source of funding for the future. One way to put these efforts on a firmer footing is to concentrate on objectives and measure progress… rather than just experimenting to see what happens.”

Win Pete Blackshaw’s “Satisfied Customers Tell 3 Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000″

2009-03-17T22:41:00.001+05:00

Pete Blackshaw wants to help you find your customers’ “love spot” and his new book will help you do just that–on page 97, to be precise!

No, he didn’t just author a sex manual, but he did recently publish the excellent Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000: Running a Business in Today’s Consumer-Driven World and he’s given us 3 copies to give away in a contest!

Blackshaw’s book is a great compliment to my own Radically Transparent and we share similar advice–and even explore some of the same case studies. If you’re looking to broaden your online reputation management knowledge, then this book will be a good addition to your library!

How to enter this contest? As usual, this contest is about rewarding you–our dear reader–so it’s not hard to enter. Simply leave a comment below and we’ll randomly pick 3 winners (deadline for entry is 6pm ET this Tuesday).

That’s all you need to do! And, if you don’t win, you can grab a copy from your favorite bookstore or online.

Understanding Natural Language Processing for SEO

2009-03-17T22:39:00.001+05:00

Not long ago we got word that a new search engine will launch in May that will rely heavily on Natural Language Processing (NLP). And we have even heard Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, hint that the search giant would be implementing a greater emphasis on NLP:

Wouldn’t it be nice if Google understood the meaning of your phrase rather than just the words that are in that phrase? We have a lot of discoveries in that area that are going to roll out in the next little while. (via)

Marie-Claire JenkinsAs search marketers it’s important that we stay on top of the world of search technologies and trends. Therefore I thought it would be a good idea to learn the basis of NLP. For this I have turned to a true expert in the field. Marie-Claire Jenkins (a.k.a CJ) is completing a PhD in Natural Language Processing and Artificial Intelligence at the University of East Anglia. She is an extremely seasoned SEO who has worked with corporate clients on all things related to search. You can learn more about CJ by visiting her web site Science for SEO.

What follows is my interview with CJ about Natural Language Processing:

Joe: Can you define Natural Language Processing for the layman?

CJ: It is the area of computing that deals with words. Words form texts, texts form collections of many texts, leading to an awful lot of words. This “bag of words” needs to be analyzed so that a machine can make sense of them. If it can’t, there is no way of retrieving information from the texts and so they are in effect useless.

Linguistic analysis is used to analyze and represent the texts. Once the computer can represent the language in some way (patterns, reoccurring words, synonymy…) the information in the texts can be manipulated. This mimics the human understanding of language. NLP is a sub field of artificial intelligence and computational linguistics.

A little history…

NLP was first used in 1948 for use in a look-up dictionary at Birkbeck College in London. The code-breakers from the 2nd World War were highly interested as this was a new thing to work on now the war was over. Machine translation was actually the 1st research area involving NLP in the 1950’s, a problem that has still not been solved today. NLP uses a wealth of research done by linguists such as Noam Chomsky, John Fillmore who revolutionized the way we search for patterns in language which is what NLP is all about. Research has since continued and improvements have been made.

It is a very old area of research, and an extremely difficult one. The double helix has been discovered, quantum mechanics, the radar, kidney dialysis machines, man has walked on the moon…but the problem of NLP has not yet been solved, although there have been some breakthroughs. This how hard it is.

Joe: Are there any examples of NLP in our daily life, online or off, that can help us understand this technology a bit more?

CJ: NLP is used in a great many areas of our lives. A simple example is the spell checker and grammar checker in your word processing software. When you call the bank and get an auto responder, that also uses NLP. All search engines, mobile phones (predictive text and speech recognition for example), digital encyclopedias, dictionaries, washing machines, software for sign language for the deaf, databases, computer games, and there are many many more applications of the technology.

Joe: We have heard rumors for sometime now that Google and some other smaller search engines are developing NLP in their search platforms. Is this a credible theory? If so, will NLP become a trend in search development?

CJ: All search engines have been using NLP since the 50’s. A search engine is not necessarily Google, it can also be a part of machine translation technology for example and many others. In order to make sense of words on web pages, if we take the example of a web search engine, it needs to process them so it can use them to find patterns which allow it to classify everything. As well as that, it enables the engine to analyze your query also, and feed the results into the search engine which then uses them to provide you with an answer.

It is not a credible theory, it is a certainty. NLP is definitely set to develop in the future. There are major issues with it at the moment. Finding patterns between the words, and analyzing which grammatical group they belong to for example, does not tell us much about the topic of the text. To achieve this we need to do some context analysis which also uses NLP. All computer programs which deal with language use NLP.

A small list of examples:

* Machine translation
* Natural language understanding
* Automatic summarization
* Information retrieval
* Natural language generation
* Topic detection
* Optical character recognition (OCR—as used for Google books)

Joe: Is there a relationship between SEO and NLP? If so, what is it?

CJ: There is indeed a relationship. The search engines use words to assess what a web page is about, using NLP amongst other techniques. The content on a web page will help determine what the topic of the page is.

Understanding the techniques used in NLP allows us to provide the best format and patterns for the search engine. In fact I think that the entire site is affected because analysing a whole site, each page, helps to determine exactly what a site is about. Seeing as NLP seeks to mimic human language understanding, using common sense is a good idea. This is why search engines always recommend writing good relevant content.

NLP is a complex area of research, requiring a solid understanding of grammars (not just grammar), and a good grounding in computational linguists (in order to apply the techniques to machine, which is not always easy). For the purpose of SEO learning all about this would be overkill, and a waste of time, although very interesting! I recommend understanding the basic way that the technology functions and having a good idea of how to write clearly, using the correct vocabulary, in a focused context is enough.

Joe: What area of NLP are you working in? And, can you share with us any interesting aspects of your research?

CJ: My early research was on machine translation systems and naturally search engines and natural language processing. After a few years working in that area I took a detour.

My current research is in natural language understanding and generation. My current test application is on conversational agents for customer service providers. It cuts down on costs and allows the customers to always have access to information and data easily. They ask natural language questions, make statements, ask for advice. It uses natural language processing techniques all over.

I also use a lot of artificial intelligence methods, information retrieval, web 3.0 things like the OWL language for example. I use a huge amount of linguistic research, information extraction, different programming languages, cluster analysis and all sorts of other things. The challenges are monumental but it is fascinating.

Twitter Ads Make an Appearance

2009-03-17T22:37:00.002+05:00

We’re all waiting to see the business model Twitter will roll out and, putting 2 and 2 together, it looks like sidebar ads will be the first to arrive.

Sneaking into the sidebar of Twitter’s homepage are what appear to be small text ads like this:
Right now the "ads" point back to various Twitter pages, but I suspect the micro-blogging service is softening us up for the launch of targeted advertising.

Have you seen the ads? What are you thoughts on Twitter adding text ads to your homepage?

Mobile Internet Usage Doubles for Some Groups

2009-03-17T22:34:00.004+05:00

While it is no surprise that mobile Internet access and usage is one the rise here in the US some of the percentage increase numbers start to get eye popping pretty quickly. comScore reports that of the people who access news and information the Internet via mobile devices daily has doubled in size from January of 2008 to January of 2009. As with the early days of Internet adoption rates the percentage increases are large because of the smaller sets of users but it’s hard to ignore that kind of growth regardless of where we are on the growth curve.

The shift that is most apparent is the frequency of use. It appears that what was once a more infrequent use of mobile devices to access the web is turning into a daily activity. So what’s driving this? You guessed it; social media. Take a look at the chart below and you’ll see where this is most prevalent.
Over the course of the past year, we have seen use of mobile Internet evolve from an occasional activity to being a daily part of people’s lives,” observed Mark Donovan, senior vice president, mobile, comScore. “This underscores the growing importance of the mobile medium as consumers become more reliant on their mobile devices to access time-sensitive and utilitarian information.”

The demographic group most involved in this trend is males between the ages of 18-34 years old with a 50% engagement rate at least monthly. That should surprise no one. The apparent gender imbalance of SXSW would bear that out I suppose. Among the ladies it is most utilized by the 18-24 year old group with 40 percent of this group utilizing mobile devices to access the web at least monthly. Ok, I am no social scientist but I think I can see the appeal here. Maybe these two groups should get a chat room.

What’s your mobile device usage for Internet access? Is it a critical part of your existence or is it more of an up and coming habit? What’s your favorite activity? Where’s this heading? Inquisitive Pilgrims want to know!

Adobe Introduces Flash Info Site for SEO’s

2009-03-17T22:32:00.001+05:00

SEO’s and Flash just can’t seem to get along. For years there has been the clash of the great looking site flashwith all the cool stuff on it and that stodgy old search engine crawler that acts like it doesn’t exist. Designers and clients have had more than a few ‘conversations’ following the development of a site that looks great when you’re there but the only way to get there is through a link or a direct type in. The search engines have not been able to do anything with Flash in forever but there are active attempts from both sides of the fence to change this.

Adobe has rolled out their Search Engine Optimization Technology Center. The introduction to the site explains its purpose very well

Ensuring that search engines can crawl and index your rich Internet applications (RIAs)—so that your content can be found by others—is of critical importance to building and maintaining an online presence. While Adobe and the leading search engines are making significant strides in making SWF content more searchable, you can take additional steps now to improve your search ranking positions further.

The SEO Technology Center helps explain what the challenges are and provides practical steps, examples, and best practices that you can follow to overcome them.

This is certainly an olive branch of sorts. The real work is going on behind the scenes though as Adobe and the major search engines try to come to grips with this issue. While most in the industry are well aware of the search impediments that Flash sites have, the problem becomes really troubling at the SMB (small and medium business) level. There is often much less sophistication as it relates to all things web as you get into smaller companies. Since most people need to wear several hats in a smaller organization there is less chance of finding people with true specialization because they have to develop competencies across many different areas and can’t always keep up with the industry latest and greatest information. What often happens is a business owner or high level executive will then be sold a bill of goods regarding a web site redesign that will look awesome but hamper marketing efforts through the search engines. Now comes the hurdle of having to undo what has already been done usually at great expense. Never a good situation and one that every SEO dreads.

Hopefully great strides can be made to put these types of scenarios to bed and my guess is that since Adobe is now reaching out and looking to be proactive that there may be something on the horizon. Maybe this will happen in a flash. Sorry about that one. It’s late.

Google’s YouTube Rickrolling the Music Industry?

2009-03-17T22:29:00.002+05:00

I’ve never been much of a BitTorrent user–I’d have to pull up Wikipedia to give you a decent explanation–but I do know that the music industry has long hated the practice of downloading music without a single royalty being paid.

Enter Google; the owner of YouTube, the world’s largest BitTorrent host.

I know, I know, YouTube’s not exactly a BitTorrent, but it’s annoying the heck out of the music industry by allowing music to be downloaded for free–with little making it back to the music companies in the form of royalties.

How little? Consider the juvenile web practice of RickRolling. Users post links to what appear to be legitimate web sites but instead the user winds up on YouTube watching Rick Astley croon “Never Gonna Give You Up!” Oh, the fun factor is way up there with wedgies and prank calls that start “Is your refrigerator running?”

But I digress. Of the 40 million times the music video has been viewed on YouTube, Pete Waterman, the man who co-wrote the ’80s hit, has earned…wait for it…$16!!!

Now the UK’s PRS is raising cane that Google is using its muscle to avoid having to pay the royalties songwriters and artists are entitled.

So, at $0.0000004 royalty paid per view of Astley’s video, what can we learn from this. Either YouTube is really, really, REALLY bad at generating revenue, or Google is really, really, REALLY tight with its royalty payments.