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Posted on January 24, 2007
5 Tips for Smarter Digging
BY JASON CORMIER
The social media site Digg has become tremendously popular -- which gives it considerable power to enhance your search visibility.
If you're not already using Digg, it's worth checking out to learn how it works. Even if you never become a regular Digg user, it's helpful to know what to do if some of your online content (or someone else's content that mentions or links to you) gets "Dugg," becomes popular, and sends a sudden spike of traffic your way.
I recently created a video tutorial called Digg Basics. If you're brand new to Digg, this 12-minute tutorial explains how Digg works and shows you how to register with Digg, how to Digg and get Dugg, and more.
Of course, there's much more to Digg -- and to all social media services (there are so many similar ones) -- than I could possibly fit into a short basic tutorial. So here are five tips to help you make the most out of Digg and avoid common pitfalls...
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Posted on September 20, 2006
Conversational Relevance: John Cass Nails It
BY JASON CORMIER
Here's what PR blogger John Cass had to say on the role of conversational media in marketing. I couldn't have said it better.
"Effective blogging is about joining an existing conversation, rather than interrupting your audiences' conversation. What that means in practicality is that a corporate blogger does not pitch their articles to other bloggers, or ask for links directly. Rather a blogger should look for opportunities to join in an existing conversation. Make comments with relevant statements on another blog or write a follow up post on your own blog."
So true, so true.
I think that's the core of what's irked most people about traditional marketing for decades: It interrupts their conversations. It tries to foist messages (or, more accurately, "messaging" -- ugh) on them. It's attempted attention hijacking. It's like someone who shows up at a party, walks up to strangers, and blurts, "Enough about you, let's talk about me."
Way to go, John.
(Thanks to David Wilson for the tip.)
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Beyond Blogs: Moleskine Goes Where the Conversation Happens
BY JASON CORMIER
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| My Moleskine reporter's notebook -- which is holding up well, despite frequent abuse. |
Moleskine notebooks aren't fancy. In fact, this brand's reputation hinges almost entirely on quality, and on a vocal, dedicated community of customer evangelists -- such as Merlin Mann of the popular productivity site 43 Folders.
Therefore, when sharply worded complaints about Moleskin's quality and service erupted on the 43 Folders Google Groups forum on Aug. 15, Modo & Modo (manufacturer of Moleskine notebooks) had a pretty big problem.
Apparently, some Moleskine notebooks started falling apart after just a few weeks or months of use. Some owners of these defective notebooks tried contacting Moleskine US, but got no response. Later, it turned out that Moleskin US is not the US distributor for this brand. The official US distributor is Kikkerland Design Inc. But in the meantime, these customers believed Moleskine was ignoring them. Not good.
Clued in by e-mails, Moleskine maker Modo & Modo began checking out the online complaints. On Aug. 30, the company posted a sincere apology on its blog. They offered an explanation of their late response: they're a small company, and in Italy everyone's on vacation in August -- not a great answer, but an honest one. They also offered clear instructions on how owners of defective notebooks could get their problem addressed.
Even smarter, Modo & Modo posted the full text of this statement onto the 43 Folders forum where the complaints arose. It's interesting to note that, despite earlier frustrations aired in that forum, all the responses to the company's apology were positive and supportive.
This story demonstrates the importance of three lessons for all organizations who understand how conversational media can help make or break your reputation...
Posted on September 14, 2006
Be Transparent – Or Else!
BY JASON CORMIER
Today in Scatterbox, Steven Silvers spelled out two crucial rules for using conversational media:
"More and more, corporations find themselves in the headlines because they ignore two realities of the information age:
- A company's attempt to covertly influence opinion is only as effective as the reaction people have when they find out who's behind it and why.
- Yes, they will find out."
He's right. Transparency has become the currency of online reputation. Simple oversights can make your company look clueless, and attempts to conceal, misdirect, or misinform often generate outright scorn -- causing lasting damage to your reputation and your business.
Here are my tips for transparency in conversational media. These apply to PR/marketing pros as well as news organizations, bloggers, citizen journalists, and, well, anyone...
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Posted on September 13, 2006
Tip: Organize Your Feeds by Task
BY JASON CORMIER
Last weekend, I realized that the way I had been using feeds (RSS) had become unworkable. When I first got into feeds a few years ago, I thought the best way to organize them was by topic. Since I have very wide-ranging interests, I ended up with a sprawling collection comprised of more than 25 topic-based folders (science, media, environment, etc.) -- some of which contained 30 or more feeds.
The result? I rarely checked my feeds. What was meant to save me time ended up creating drastic information overload.
The nasty side effect of this was that I wasn't keeping up with online conversations as well as I like. To me, online conversations are very important. They're the lifeblood of my networking, R&D, and marketing. They're also important to my personal life.
So I took the drastic step of reorganizing my feeds by task, switching to a new feed reader, and dumping about 80% of my feed subscriptions.
And I'm so much happier! Especially because I once again am comfortably in the flow of conversations that intrigue and inspire me. Also, it's now so much easier to follow and participate in conversations on behalf of my clients.
So here's the quick version of how I did it...
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