Posted on May 16, 2008
Google Friend Connect Didn't Connect
BY JASON CORMIER
Earlier this week, Google unveiled its Google Friend Connect functionality, inviting folks to sign up for a "pre-release" review.
In a nutshell, Google Friend Connect enables website owners to paste snippets of code into their website to leverage a wide and powerful variety of social networking applications supported by the OpenSocial development network.
The benefits are numerous when you consider the power of enabling people to include your website as part of their social networking activity. A key to effective community-based websites is actually giving people something to do… as opposed to just something to read. Google strikes at the heart of this issue by enabling people to participate, invite, share and upload all in the context of your web property. But before you think I'm singing Google's praises, just keep reading.
I thought I'd let the dust settle for a few days before dipping in myself to take a look. This morning, I spent about 30 minutes thoughtfully reviewing our web analytics and filling out the application that would hopefully qualify our early participation of this review.
Google wanted information about our daily page views, unique visitors, how we would use Friend Connect ("be very specific"). I wrote about our experience with social media and search marketing services through Room 214, our application development experience with Post Zinger for advanced blog, podcast and RSS management. Surely, we could be selected to take some first looks under the hood.
I hit the magic submit button. And now I will end this post with the same dose of reality that was served up to me. "Something bad happened. Don't worry, though." Happy Friday.
Posted on May 15, 2008
Set and Forget PPC (AKA Burning Your Cash) - 7 Ways to Stop the Burn
BY BEN CASTELLI
Cruise control was a great idea for cars, auto pilot is perfect for planes, but in terms of pay per click advertising there is no such thing as "set and forget". A lot of companies waste their money (and Google makes a lot of money) from pay per click campaigns that are not regularly optimized. Checking up on your PPC campaigns several times a week is essential and tackling some ongoing weekly action items will really stretch that budget dollar and improve ROI. Where do you start? Below is a list of 7 digestible weekly to-dos:
Posted on May 14, 2008
Tips on Merging Social Media with Tried and True Practices to Promote Your Business
BY INGRID GETZAN
You've just spent the last week learning everything you can about building your Facebook page. Your last blog post generated 27 comments. You've spent hours reading competitor blogs and commenting on the personal blogs you follow. You have been Twittering like a pro. You have tried to immerse yourself in every pertinent online conversation you can find.
In the meantime, you've forgotten to send out your overdue email newsletter and implement the list building tactics you just read about. You haven't updated the survey on your site and your inbox has 42 new messages you haven't answered.
It's easy to lose yourself in Facebook applications or spend the day searching blogs to see who you can add on Twitter, but amidst all the new social media opportunities, don't forget about the tried and true tactics that worked to promote your business initially. More importantly, don't forget to leverage your new social media skills to continue building your business the old way.
Here are a few tips for a happy marriage between old internet marketing and new opportunities:
Posted on May 12, 2008
Brand Tagging – How is Your Company Perceived?
BY JENNIFER EUBANKS
While browsing Kottke today I came across a little snippet about Brand Tags, described as "ask[ing] people what they think of in association with particular brands and then the results are displayed as tag clouds."
The concept of this site is pretty cool. While everyone by now is aware of how useful tagging can be in terms of organizing a blog or searching through del.icio.us or similar sites, Brand Tags takes the same concept but reverses it. Instead of posting entries and then tagging them and having them searched in multiple places, this site takes some of the most popular brands and asks you to apply one tag word or phrase to whatever brand it displays to you at random (though you have the option to skip a brand if you wish). You can browse by brand, guess what brand it is based on the tags, or search for brands that were tagged with a certain word.
Brand Tags still appears to be relatively small--you can't add a new brand without contacting the site creator, for instance. However, as a starting point, this is an interesting way to see how the big brands are perceived, as well as compare multiple brands that have similar offerings. Check out, for instance, the difference between Target and Walmart. Do the results on each page match up to your perceptions? As anyone in business knows, how the public perceives your company and its practices can often have a huge impact on whether they choose you or a competitor. Knowing these popular brand perceptions allows you to get in on the conversation and help address the negatives and possibly boost the positives (Jason Cormier just posted an entry the other day on staying in front of PR crises, which addresses some helpful tactics that should be used.)
If you are a savvy company, you are already tracking your brand reputation online through a variety of methods including Technorati, Twitter, Google, and of course myriad others. The downside to this method is that you are relying on many different arenas to help provide an overall picture. If a site based on something like Brand Tags caught on as more than just a fun experiment, just think of the possibilities when searching for smaller brands. Assuming rival companies are not maliciously tagging their competitors, the results would speak of what the masses think of your brand in general, which can help during times when you are not headline news and the talk of the town. The general impression gained by all of the tags inputted by hundreds or thousands of individuals will more than likely be a better reflection of long term perception of your brand by the public. Do you know how you will rank?
Posted on May 11, 2008
Why Do You Want To Be Transparant, and How That Will Help Your Business Grow
BY STEPAN MAZUROV
If you are an ecommerce business, word of mouth marketing can help you grow it beyond the boundaries of your niche. Gary Vayerchuk, a guy in wine business, said something very interesting on Tues, May 6th show CNBC's Big Idea:
- Be who you are, be as transparent as possible.
- Don't play in your own playground, be active in communities that might find what you offer attractive.
- It is imperative to be involved in the social networks on the Internet and the real world
- We live in a world where every person's word of mouth reaches a lot more people.
Lets look at some examples of these at work.
