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Posted on November 29, 2007
Why People Stop Blogging
BY JASON CORMIER
We met with a marketing director today who shared that her company's web traffic has increased due to their blog contributing to higher search rankings - but then in the same breath explained that the blog was dead, nobody wanted to write anything for it anymore, and they were on the verge of shutting it down completely.
Posted on April 19, 2007
Executives Still Slow to Embrace Web 2.0
BY JENNIFER EUBANKS
According to an article recently published in BusinessWeek, a new survey indicates that top level executives are still reluctant to invest in Web 2.0 technologies. While software that allows communications were popular, other tools such as social media (Myspace, Facebook), RSS, Podcasting, Wikis, and Blogs garnered a noticeably smaller percentage of usage among interviewed execs.
Fear likely plays a large factor in why these technologies are not being adopted as quickly as one might think, given all the hype and buzz that revolves around the technologies. Despite the fact that blogs have garnered much positive attention and are being used by many Fortune 500 companies and high-level execs, a sense of fear still pervades--a fear that the company will reveal too much or somehow garner more negative press with the use of this technology.
However, as the article points out, the adoption of new technologies is likely to increase as the age gap between executives in power and employees decreases. Right now, companies are run by individuals used to using primary communication methods such as the telephone, while the newest generation of employees are used to communicating via instant message, blogging, text message, and other forms of social media. For a generation so immersed in technology and so willing and able to embrace it in its newest forms, Web 2.0 is nothing to be afraid of, and its increased usage will only help companies evolve and become more powerful in their communication. The companies that can see the benefit and are early adopters are likely to stay a step (or two) ahead of their competition.
Posted on March 30, 2007
RSS Marketing on the Rise
BY JASON CORMIER
Just a quick shout out to Brian Haven at Forrester for publishing the latest results from their interactive marketers survey. Here is the word: 40% of marketers are using or piloting RSS (up from 10% last year). Blog usage for marketing is at 34% - up 13% from the 2006 study, and 25% 0f marketers surveyed are now podcasting.
A noteworthy mention: My co-worker, Kris Smith, spoke earlier this week at the eLearning 2007 conference about using RSS and podcasting for distance education. Incidentally, he spoke with a company right after his talk that said they would have missed the mark with their new initiatives had they missed his presentation.
A company that most effectively embraces the concepts he revealed will take the lead. Eventually, however, a company that does not will simply be considered behind the times.
Posted on February 14, 2007
Link Blogs with Google Reader: Pros & Cons
BY JASON CORMIER
Link blogging (quickly posting recommended links to a weblog) can be a valuable way to keep your site findable and your online community engaged -- especially if you sometimes don't have time to write "real" posts.
As our new video tutorial Getting Started with Google Reader explains, one of the rather unique features of this popular free RSS feed reader is that it allows you to automatically publish a link blog.
In fact, Google Reader is perhaps the easiest link blogging tool I've found. On any feed item you wish to share, just click the "share" link and it will automatically appear on your link blog. No configuration required.
Of course, there are pros and cons about using Google Reader to create your link blogs. Before you decide to do this, you should consider these questions:
- Is driving traffic or improving your site ranking a key goal? If so, then realize that a link blog generated by Google Reader will not be part of your site. Rather, it will appear under a Google-related domain -- and with a long, ugly URL, to boot. For instance, the URL for my Google Reader link blog is: http://www.google.com/reader/shared/17484824062998564750 You could try declaring a subdomain (such as links.yourdomain.com) and map that to your Google reader blog. That way, it would superficially appear to be part of your site -- although it may not count that way in your site statistics or search engine rankings.
- Do you want to tell people why you're sharing items? For many people, it's not enough to see which items of content you're recommending. They prefer to know why you thought each item was worth a look. If you think this is true of the people whom you wish to engage through your link blog, then Google Reader probably is not the right link blogging tool for you. At this point, it only allows you to share items -- not to make and share your comments about those items.
It seems to me that if your link blog is intended as part of your general search visibility and public content strategy, you'll probably need a more sophisticated tool that Google reader to generate it. I'll be covering such tools in future tutorials.
What is a Google Reader link blog good for?
If you currently don't have a blog at all, a Google Reader link blog is a very simple and fast way to get started. If you make sure to set your Google Account nickname to a term you want to be easily findable (such as your company's name), then that will show up in the title for your link blog and increase your findability somewhat. Be sure to subscribe your link blog's feed in feed aggregator services such as Technorati or Icerocket, for extra findability.
Personally, I think the best use of a Google Reader link blog is to share items with people you already know, rather than trying to engage newcomers. If someone already knows you or your company, that familiarity provides context so they can probably guess why you recommended certain links -- which partially makes up for the fact that you can't post comments about items you share via Google Reader.
Therefore, if you do create a Google Reader link blog, consider publicizing it mainly to people with whom you already have an established relationship. View it as a relationship maintenance strategy, not a general publicity tool.
Tag Blogs
As covered in my video tutorial, Google Reader also allows you to create separate link blogs where you share specific tags. These "Tag blogs" are link blogs, but they tend to be more specialized.
An excellent use for a Google Reader tag blog is to share links of interest to a smaller, defined community -- such as a project team, or users of a specific product or service.
For instance, the head of a professional association's conference committee might create a link blog that shares only conference-related links, such as potential speakers, issues to address in the program, or news about the conference venue or location. Committee members could subscribe to that tag blog's feed to keep abreast of that stream of project-related content.
...Regardless of which tool you use to create them, link blogs and tag blogs should only be part of your online content strategy. Engaging effectively with customers, colleagues, and communities generally requires original content, not just pointers to what's available elsewhere. If you're trying to engage people, they expect you to have something worthwhile to say.
Posted on February 6, 2007
Google Webmaster Console Now Showing Backlinks
BY JAMES CLARK
As of yesterday, the Google webmaster console now provides backlink data. The results are vastly improved over the link: command although as Matt Cutts states "the backlink tool doesn't show 100% of the backlinks from Google yet, but I expect the number of links that are available to grow."
We get into the link building conversation quite frequently as it is still a major factor in how Google ranks a website, BUT and it's a big BUT, we don't like anything that has to do with a link exchange, buying links or any auto-generated link building programs.
Our advice is simple: get active in publishing great content (blogging, podcasting, syndicating press rooms), syndicate your content through RSS, track the conversation online, post comments on other's blogs and actively participate in discussion groups.
