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Let’s ask Klout: How do you measure and calculate online influence?

Posted: Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:16:44 +0000
Just over a month ago, Marketwire created a weekly Twitter chat called #smmeasure with the help of Sysomos as co-host. The purpose of the chat is to discuss best practices and provide tips on social media measurement and analytics. Hopefully, the chat will enable participants to network with other social media professionals and develop a relationship beyond chatting.

Every week, since the beginning of our weekly chats, the topic of online influence and popularity has surfaced. So, for the next #smmeasure chat on Thursday, September 9th, Klout will be the week’s guest host to delve deeper into this subject matter. Based in San Francisco, Klout created its own metric – the “Klout Score” – that measures online influence and has worked with Tweetup (now PostUp), Hootsuite and Flowtown, to name a few. We’re excited to have them and hope you are able to participate.

Measuring influence is subjective, but many have tried to make it as objective as possible. Some of the basic factors that may or may not impact one’s online influence include:
- Number of followers/fans
- Type of followers
- How active and engaged you are
- How often people take action based on what you say
- Number of retweets and mentions
Many will argue that popularity has very little to do with influence while others will have the opposite opinion. There are arguments for both sides. On the one hand, you might not care if a celebrity with four million followers recommends a particular product, but you might seriously consider a recommendation from a close friend that doesn’t even know what Twitter is. On the flip side, if a celebrity you admire mentions a new product, you might Google it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is influence – when someone inspires you to take action.

The debate about how one measures influence can go on for days. But one thing is for sure: Companies like Klout are getting closer and closer to perfecting the calculations that measure online influence. If anything, Klout’s process of measuring online influence is worth applauding because of the simplicity and user-friendliness of its scoring system.

For this upcoming chat, challenge the guys at Klout with your toughest questions. Even if you’re unable to participate, you can follow the conversation in the following day’s recap or via #smmeasure on Twitter. To submit your questions, tweet them @marketwire, comment below, post them on our Facebook page or email them directly to nshin[at]marketwire[dot].com.

Questions that come to mind:
- How do you define online influence?
- How do you calculate online influence?
- What’s the correlation between influence and popularity?
- What is the end-goal of being an influencer? Is it ultimately getting the end-user to take some sort of action?
- In addition to measuring online influence, what about measuring those that have been influenced, i.e., those that have changed their behavior due to the influencer?
Let’s make this chat the biggest, baddest and best #smmeasure chat yet. If I don’t see you this Thursday, I hope to receive the questions you have for the guys at Klout.

Until next time,
Nick
How to measure blog comments and forum discussions

Posted: Fri, 03 Sep 2010 18:44:38 +0000
After taking a week off, I forgot how quickly the chat goes by during the short hour. Props to Garry Przyklenk, Marketwire’s online marketing manager, for taking the reins during last week’s #smmeasure chat and to thank everyone who participated and helped spread the word. A big thanks to Sysomos’ Community Manager Sheldon Levine @sysomos for co-hosting the chat.

#smmeasure chat #6 recap

Last week’s chat covered first-glance metrics, rules of engagement, privacy and disclosure. This week we talked about comments and discussions. Below is just a small taste of the great conversation we had, but this recap will not do the chat justice. I recommend that you take a look at the full transcript for a more thorough account of what went down.

Q1: What are your top etiquette rules for commenting?
- @nmorganhowell: “The golden rule? Treat others as you would like to be treated. If you don”t agree, be critical, but don”t be rude “
- @inspiredtrain: “Reply to every comment, good or bad. This invites further comment or even new discuss.”
- @miketempleton: “Remember to add value when leaving a comment. No value? Don”t comment.”
- @miketempleton: “When filling in the “Name” field, use your real name – not a brand name or the name of your blog. A person is commenting.”
- @40deuce: “by adding to the conversation you can be seen as someone with their own thoughts and that will lead people back to your own site”
- @jgombita: “Top etiquette rules for commenting — really reading item plus all comments first, then adding value, not just personal plug”
- @JPedde: “Think before you comment. Don”t be a jerk – be constructive.”
- @bikespoke: “remember to separate your emotions/personal thought + professional thought”
- @karimacatherine: “you can leave a comment, even if you disagree with the author. It”s important to get the conversation going”
- @DavidSpinks: “If someone takes the time to write a thoughtful and insightful comment, don”t stiff them with a “thanks bro!”.”
- @DavidSpinks: “My rule of thumb: put in at least as much effort into responding to a comment, as the commenter put in.”
Q2: Do you leave a link to an article or links to your social media profiles when you comment?
- @TsarKasim: “If there”s a text box for it, you bet I”m leaving a link!”
- @brightmatrix: “Yes, I offer links to either my blog or Twitter. Again, to help bridge the connection I”m making by commenting.”
- @40deuce: “If I can I put our website in the “your site” field, but I always make sure to at least leave my company name somewhere”
- @iamChuckHarris: “I like to leave links to my profiles so people can connect with me off the blog.”
- @ambercleveland: “only if they are relevant. Never link just to link. But it’s ok if someone uses comment luv or something similar.”
- @marketwire: “When I comment, I stay away from the personal plug, but I include relevant links as well as links to my SM profiles.”
- @buona_vita: “Leave a link ONLY if it pertains to what the blogger wrote about, not just to backlink.”
Q3: What tools do you use to find blogs/articles to comment on?
- @JPedde: “Google Reader/Alerts”
- @brightmatrix: “Twitter. For me, all roads lead to/from Twitter. ”
- @40deuce: “(plug) I use our Sysomos software to find blogs relevant to our area to comment on”
- @nmorganhowell: “MY RSS feed has all the blogs I read regularly, but IceRocket.com is great for finding new ones”
- @buona_vita: “I like looking at Blogrolls of blogs I currently read, and Google came out with a search yesterday which is neat!”
Others include Wikio, Google Blog Search, Scribnia, and socialmention.com. The most popular “tool” to find blogs/articles to comment on was Twitter.

Q4: How do you measure relevant comments on blogs, forums and other discussion areas?
- @DavidSpinks: “Do you guys focus on being the first to comment on really popular blogs? It”s actually pretty effective…”
- @nmorganhowell: “Look at sentiment, then research the commenter. Reply to almost all comments, but decide which to give more time to”
- @40deuce: “I look for number of comments, sentiment in each comment and then value of said comment”
- @accuconference: “Isn”t every comment, as long as it”s not spam, considered relevant? Just a thought. Comments = readers.”
- @jgombita: “If youre blog doesnt have a “subscribe to comments” feature, you are missing out on return visitors/commenters.”
Q5: What action do you take after you”ve collected the measurement data? What are your next steps?
- @inspiredtrain: “My dentist told me to brush only the teeth I want to keep. Same applies to tracking. Measure everything.”
- @CelciusMI: “Re-Evaluate Interaction… What works? What Does NOT?”
- @BrandEngineers: “Data is only as good as the insights you can derive from it. Think about it in the context of everything else you know.”
- @inspiredtrain: “Measurement data is v. useful, esp. over time, Guides you to what subjects create most engagement. future subjects”
- @iamChuckHarris: “I like to use the data to for future conversations and posts. Use comments to better the blog.”
- @nmorganhowell: “Analyse data, see what tactics work, what needs tweaking, create more content & repeat! Also good to set benchmarks for msrmnt”
Funniest Tweets of the Chat

We have a nomination for Twitter’s theme music:
- @iamChuckHarris (responding to Q2 on tools used to find posts to comment on): “I trust my Twitter community for great articles. They never let me down.”
  - @bikespoke responds: “Never Let Me Down; Depeche Mode, sorry song just popped in my head”
In addition to creative minds, we have comedians. What a fun group!
- @CelciusMI responding to a comment about users who leave anonymous comments
  - @brightmatrix responds: “Yeah, that dude Anonymous Coward is everywhere these days. ”
On Thursday, September 9th, Klout, the company that measures and scores online influence, will join us to discuss their platform and online influence. You can send questions to me by tweeting @marketwire, posting on our Facebook page or emailing me at nshin[at]marketwire[dot]com.

Check back here every week for #smmeasure chat recaps and transcripts. Join the Marketwire Facebook page to get #smmeasure weekly discussion topics. If you have any questions or specific topics that you would like us to discuss in the future, please tweet @smmeasure or @marketwire. Keep track of all the #smmeasure chat recaps.

Join the #smmeasure LinkedIn Group to connect with others interested in social media and measurement. See you next week at 9:00 am PST, 11:00 am CST, 12:00 pm EST.

Until next time,
Nick
September already? Think back-to-school

Posted: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:37:32 +0000
Back to school. It’s a “season” typically greeted with dread and anxiety by students; joy and pride by parents. But if you’re a marketer, the dawning of a new semester is the perfect time to think about how your products and services can benefit college and university students.

Tap Into a Lucrative Market

The college population offers marketers a wealth of opportunities, especially because this year, student discretionary purchasing power is on the rise. The college years are also a great time to gain trust, because choices made during this stage of life tend to influence purchasing decisions for years to come.

Alloy Media + Marketing’s “10th Annual ‘College Explorer’ Survey” analyzed the spending habits of college students, ages 18 to 34. Conducted in conjunction with market research firm Harris Interactive, the survey polled 1,575 students enrolled in two-year, four-year and graduate programs during April 2010:
- This fall, 16 million college students will hit the classrooms. Their combined 2010 spending power is up 13 percent, compared with last year.
- Males and females ages 18 to 34 are spending 10 percent more on discretionary items like gaming, technology and beauty products. (Males are spending “slightly more”–$25 versus $22 per month for females–on personal care products.)
- Overall, college students are spending 3 percent more per month on discretionary purchases compared with last year, or $361 per person.
- Two percent of college students currently own an e-reader and another 50 percent say they plan to buy one in the next year.
- Smartphone ownership is expected to rise 26 percent. And, 73 percent of males expect to purchase a portable gaming console this year, versus 67 percent who plan to buy a non-portable version.
- Forty-eight percent of this year’s respondents said social responsibility is important, versus 43 percent last year. In fact, consumers have come to expect social and environmental traits from brands. If you are a non-profit organization that wants to inspire young adults to contribute in time and resources, read “How to Engage 20-Somethings in Your Cause” for more specific advice.
It’s Time to Get Social

Because of the average age of the college crowd, social media is, hands-down, the No. 1 way to get their attention. It’s surpassed search engines as the research vehicle of choice for students contemplating a purchase or a commitment (such as, to a charity). But before you jump in, be wary. Young adults check out everything extensively, and that includes getting recommendations from people just like them. Do you want to build brand affinity? Then you must do your homework — and think creatively.

Remember, students trust each other, not brands. If they like your product or service, they will share it with their peers on social sites such as Facebook, blogs and Twitter flash polls. But don’t think you can get away with simply creating a Facebook page or a Twitter feed. They won’t come. If you want success in reaching this audience, follow these rules of thumb:
1. Tap into student conversations to get the lay of the land. Just listen. Find out where the conversations are taking place, what they’re about, what interests the participants and what type of content they find valuable enough to pass on. There are free tools to do this, such as Ice Rocket and BlogPulse. FeedDemon is a free Windows RSS reader that will help you stay informed. For deep insight into buzz taking place among your target audience, Sysomos, a Marketwire company, is a social media monitoring system that enables you to find and track influencers, analyze sentiment and establish and manage relationships.
2. Once you understand the conversations, develop a content strategy that educates and informs, amuses, engages and entertains. Include stories and messages that young adults will want to spread. But make sure your stories are authentic, interesting and useful – insincerity or fake stories and content will backfire. Be sure to incorporate videos, photos and audio whenever possible. Be sure to incorporate videos, photos and audio whenever possible. Learn how big brands such as McDonald’s and Whirlpool use creative storytelling to drive home their social media messages.
3. Give your efforts enough time to take hold. If students don’t find third-party recommendations (usually blog posts) for your brand in the first two or three pages of their search results, then you don’t exist. While September is considered official “back to school” month, there are other times in the calendar year – like January and late-February/early-March (spring break) – that might also be considered good opportunities to deliver your message to an attentive crowd.
4. Target your messages only to the college-age demographic. Broad-reach sites don’t speak to them. As soon as they read “workplace” or something else non-college in a review, ad or webpage, they tune out and move on.
5. When promoting a product or service, don’t just think “cheap.” Yes, students are typically on a tight budget, but they appreciate products that will meet their needs and last.
Once you get your messages down, consider sending a social media press release. But remember to follow the rules of thumb discussed above.

Tune into College Media

Campus newspapers and broadcast media are an often-overlooked path to reaching today’s college student. True, young adults don’t read traditional print newspapers, but college students do read their campus newspapers, and they tune into their campus radio and TV stations.

A single press release sent via Marketwire’s Collegiate Presswire newsline can get your message to a potential audience of one million students. Collegiate Presswire also distributes your news to college media websites and user-generated online forums like Digg, Delicious, Newsvine and Technorati. Through September 17, Collegiate Presswire is offering a summer special that sends your stories to campus newspapers that publish during the summer months so you don’t miss the valuable early-September timeframe.

Combine Social and Campus Media for the Biggest Bang

Consider taking advantage of both social and college media – use the same approach and multiply your efforts. It’s an ideal way to reinforce your brand. If you play by the rules, you can start building trust and brand equity among the lucrative college market.

Do you have stories or best practices to share about how you’ve successfully reached the college-age market? If so, we’d love to hear from you. And if you’re a member of the college-age group, please let us know if we’re on the mark and if there’s anything you’d like to add to our tips and advice.
25 Random Things About Marketwire

Posted: Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:00:41 +0000
You might know Marketwire as an all-inclusive communications tool for public relations, investor relations and marketing communications professionals. But, what you don’t know might surprise you. Below are a few facts — some more serious than others — about the company and the individuals who make up the company:
1. We have a former beauty queen working in the Dallas office.
2. Marketwire is owned by OMERS Private Equity with global headquarters in Toronto and US headquarters in Los Angeles.
3. About 30 Marketwire employees have been with the company for 10 years or more.
4. Since January 2010, approximately 4,500 people have joined our Social Media Fitness Program — dubbed SM 10X30 — to learn the ins and outs of social media. Ten workouts, 30 minutes a day is all it takes.
5. Every Thursday, our social media guru, Nick Shin, hosts weekly Twitter chats on topics concerning social media, SEO, measurement and everything in between. Join the discussion at #smmeasure. This first foray may lead to others down the road — stay tuned!
6. Marketwire employees are culturally diverse, having roots in Finland, Puerto Rico, Italy, India, Quebec, Korea, Japan, China, Cambodia and many other foreign lands.
7. One of the London team won a massive £5 prize for eating tarantula eggs on a game-show whilst the real live tarantula was held up in front of them as they ate (and no, it wasn’t served on a crumpet).
8. Previous jobs of current Marketwire employees include: wedding planner, cartoon artist, baker, actor and published author, to name a few.
9. The vending machine in our L.A. office sells soda for $0.25 a can – Cactus Cooler being a California favorite.
10. In July 2010, Marketwire acquired Sysomos, a social media monitoring and sentiment analysis company based in Toronto
11. One of our Senior Client Relations Managers is related to a former prime minister of Canada.
12. One of our VPs has lived in New York, Miami, Colombia, Mexico and Hong Kong.
13. A few Marketwire employees write their own blog: PPC-Advice, Marketing Shindig, GrillGrrrl and Insert Clever Pun Here.
14. We once gave away Marketwire-branded flip-flops at a conference that took place in sunny San Diego.
15. One person in Marketing is the former president of her Toastmaster’s club.
16. Because of one regionally distributed release, one non-profit client went from being virtually unknown to being offered a regular gig as TV show host!
17. Marketwire’s Vancouver office supports the PMC Sierra Science Fair Fun Run, which promotes and develops science fair programs throughout the province.
18. Marketwire’s global headquarters is located on Yonge Street, the world’s longest street spanning 1,896 kilometres (1,178 mi), and sits atop the PATH, the largest underground shopping complex in the world. According to Guinness World Records, the PATH is the largest underground shopping complex with 28 km (17 miles) of amenities, and more than 50 buildings/office towers are connected through PATH.
19. Walking through the hallways of our New York office, you’ll find an entire “artwork” series of laboratory vials that hold suspicious content and strange anatomically shaped objects.
20. Several colleagues in the London office are currently involved in an inter-team cook-off. Five people cook the same dish and the originator of the recipe declares the winner.
21. Marketwire employees have a taste for adventure! One of our sales reps is a world traveler and has been to more than 25 countries, including: Belgium, Czech Republic, Marshall Islands, New Zealand, Turkey and the Bahamas!
22. The Miami Heat’s newest — and most controversial — member LeBron James was recently spotted in the same parking lot that Marketwire’s Miami employees park in.
23. The London office is based in St Helen’s Place in a building constructed in 1543 before being redeveloped five times over the past 450 years, with the latest facade being constructed in 1925. It also stands in the shadow of the famous futuristic-looking “Gherkin” skyscraper that is a big feature of London’s modern skyline.
24. In the Emerging Markets Division, based in Miami, all employees are either bilingual or trilingual.
25. Our resident social media guru has lived in Chicago for the past 10 years, but is moving back to his LA roots, come September.
There you have it — some insightful tidbits into Marketwire’s past and present.
Media Relations Minute: A crash course in net neutrality

Posted: Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:02:02 +0000
In the last few weeks, there has been a lot of buzz surrounding the phrase “net neutrality.” If you haven’t heard, there has been a heated debate on the true intentions of a recent joint proposal by Google and Verizon about how net neutrality should be enforced. So much has been said and written canvassing this issue that maybe it is a good idea to provide a crash course on net neutrality so you can form your own opinion about this multifaceted debate.

Net neutrality fundamentally means that all traffic on the Internet is to be treated equally. In other words, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) should not discriminate against users or sites. For example, Internet users are guaranteed the ability to connect to some obscure site out of Sweden just as easily as they would be able to connect to Google. Essentially, net neutrality proponents are looking to ensure that the Internet remains free and open for everyone. In doing so, this promotes innovation from anyone, anywhere in the world.

In their proposal, Google and Verizon suggest that even if net neutrality becomes law, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) would allow companies to create a second privatized Internet that would enable users to pay a premium for faster browsing speed and other yet-to-be-developed technologies.

Another point of contention in this proposal is that net neutrality should not apply to the wireless industry. Many argue that Google and Verizon’s position of excluding wireless from this proposal could conveniently result in some very large money-making loopholes for these two giants.

A major concern within these aforementioned privatized networks is that if certain content does not favor the interest of the ISP, it could be blocked or be made very slow to access. Amazon.com could, in theory, have an agreement in place with AT&T that would allow greater bandwidth to Amazon.com than to the sites of their competitors.

However, a common argument exists against net neutrality: Because cable and telephone companies have spent vast sums of money creating these networks, why should the FCC be able to tell them how to run their businesses? In fact, many argue that by allowing cable and telephone companies to sell their own private high-speed “pipeline,” it would encourage them to invest in more advanced Internet-accessing technologies. Thus, competition amongst providers would bring about more benefits and opportunities for consumers.

It is an interesting paradox to consider that net neutrality advocates wish to ensure a free and open Internet, but in doing so, they would be inhibiting these corporations and their customers to operate in a free and open marketplace.

During a recent speech, Democratic Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota said, “Net neutrality is the First Amendment issue of our time.” Though no longer in its infancy (depending on who you ask), the Internet is definitely still in its developing stages and maybe it’s meant to forever be in a state of dynamic change. What is certain is that the future decisions made about net neutrality could impact how we all use and engage with the most powerful communication tool on the planet.

Read other recent Media Relations Minute articles:
Important first-glance metrics, rules of engagement, privacy and disclosure

Posted: Fri, 27 Aug 2010 17:39:52 +0000
While Nick Shin takes the week off, Sheldon Levine, community manager at Sysomos, compiled the weekly #smmeasure chat recap.

It was another great week for our #smmeasure chat. We’re always blown away by the number of people and level of participation we see each week. I just want to start by thanking everyone who joins in and everyone who has passed along the word of our chat. Each week we’re growing and it’s all thanks to you!

A special thanks this week to Garry Przyklenk who was filling in for Nick Shin. Garry was a little nervous and felt like a n00b, but he did a great job.

#smmeasure chat #5 recap

This week we sort of had a mixed bag of questions, but they all generated some good conversation.

Q1: What things do you give the most attention when monitoring social media channels?
- @karimkanji: “I look for interaction between people/brands.”
- @taylorgraves: “unique visitors and amount of time spent on the site.”
- @meighanislander: “engagement w/ content and user activity (uploads etc..) and the tone of the user – it is positive? negative? neutral?”
- @seanward: “I think it’s still so wild west out here that there is no standard for how to correlate SM activity to revenue.”
- @JPedde: “I pay attention to how it all works together. Is there cross traffic from all platforms? That’s ideal to me for engagement”
- @casiestewart: “most attention to Twitter for sure”
Q2: What are the most important social media measurements you want to see first?
- @gprzyklenk: “ personally, I look to referrals per post, what hit a nerve in SM”
- @40deuce: “the first thing I look for is how much my company is being talked about, so number of mentions across SM”
- @SunnyinSyracuse: “Looking for folks passing on the information we bring them. Recommending us as a trusted source.”
- @HDI_Mining: “Isn’t the most important social media measurement the number of people who have chosen to follow you?”
- @40deuce: “@HDI_Mining I look more for how many people are talking about us than how many are following us. U don’t need to follow to talk”
- @toddysm: “@40deuce Do you try to identify whether the mentions of your company are positive or negative? Or just buzz?”
- @40deuce: “firstly I look at buzz, but the next thing I do is look at those mentions for sentiment”
- @djwald: “Remember, # followers only proves successful if they’re talking about you.”
- @mongoosemetrics: “Followers, RT’s Mentions, Likes, Website hits all contribute to the delta of “community engagement”
Q3: If something negative shows up on your radar, how do you determine whether to engage or not?
- @seanward: “I say engage by default. So often they’re just shocked enough that you spoke up that it ends it.”
- @ellerich: “If something neg- but constructive shows up it’s an opportunity to use that feedback to engage, improve & show clients you’re listening”
- @SunnyinSyracuse: “An initial engagement should give clues as to whether they are habitual complainers or someone open to you”
- @JPedde: “I’d like to think that if there’s something negative out there, you respond to help. Don’t let that negativity grow.”
- @jgombita: “look at the source, first. Credibility? Subject expert? A history of negative blogs or tweets? Evaluate impact”
- @ellerich: “IMHO engaging w/ all neg- feedback isn’t worth it. Some people just want to complain & ‘feeding the trolls’ just fuels them on”
- @JPedde: “If it’s a legit problem, and not someone whining, engage. Ask how to make it better, what you can do? Good CS”
- @toddysm: “Even if somebody is whining you should show that you are paing attention. Doesn’t mean that you should start calming him”
- @meighanislander: “Best to engage always – important to determine though if a constructive outcome can be had as well”
Q4: Do you think there is an expectation of privacy on social platforms? If so, how do you break the ice?
- @inspiredtrain: “I think many conversations are put out there to cause a reaction, not be kept quiet. Treat w. respect.”
- @djwald: “Not really. Esp. if they’ve agreed to converse with the brand. That’s why it’s called ‘social’”
- @toddysm: “If the messages are intended to be private then Twitter is not the right media (or at least should use DM)”
- @inspiredtrain: “Acknowledge in public, then if necessary, private resolution or conversation. A DM carries more weight than reg. post.”
Q5: How important is disclosure from a brand perspective versus a user’s perspective?
- @inspiredtrain: “Disclosure is v. important. Transparency, honesty are cornerstones of online Brand and Standing.”
- @inspiredtrain: “Declaration of self interest, association etc. is v. important too. If you try and hide it, the backlash is negative”
- @jgombita: “let’s put it this way – if you don’t disclose first, you are going to get found out and called on it”
- @accuconference: “Disclosure is very important. Disclosure breeds trust which is the most important.”
- @gprzykelnk: “personally, i’m split, i think disclosure is necessary, but to me, it makes opinion look spammy”
Check back here every week for #smmeasure chat recaps and transcripts. Join the Marketwire Facebook page to get #smmeasure weekly discussion topics. If you have any questions or specific topics that you would like us to discuss in the future, please tweet @smmeasure, @marketwire, @sysomos or @40deuce. Keep track of all of the #smmeasure chat recaps.

As well, on September 9th we will be having some people from Klout joining us to talk about their platform and online influence, so start getting your questions ready.
Resources for Journalists: Tips from Google

Posted: Fri, 27 Aug 2010 14:29:11 +0000
This article originally appeared in the Wednesday, August 25th edition of the Asian American Journalists Association’s newsletter.

At the recent AAJA conference in Los Angeles, a few members of Google’s communications team held impromptu presentations on how Google can help journalists, beyond the basic searches, email and directions we all use it for. Here are a few lesser-known tools that might make your information-gathering and research easier, faster and more targeted.

Smarter Searches
- Site searches
  Looking for keyword references on a particular site? For example, do you want to find all the mentions of “journalists” on the Marketwire site? If so, use this format: journalists site: www.marketwire.com. The results will provide those pages within that site that include the word “journalists.”
- US government searches
  Google has a specific search function that searches across governmental websites. Go to: www.google.com/unclesam and type in your keyword.
- Academic searches
  If you’re looking for an impartial expert in a certain field, Google Scholar can help you locate sources or academic articles.
Trends and Insights
- Public Data Explorer
  Google provides links to datasets that can help you visualize complicated statistics. Go to: www.google.com/publicdata.
- Trends
  Google Trends shows you the hottest search terms and topics that are trending in the US, which can help journalists optimize their articles for their audiences and identify news behind those searches.
- Insights for Search
  Although the future is hard to predict, Google’s Insights for Search can make it easier. You can compare search terms, locations and time ranges and apply different filters to determine what’s trending.
YouTube Do’s and Don’ts
- Mid-video
  When forwarding YouTube video links, help people cut to the chase. Note the timestamp of the part you want them to see and paste it at the end of the link. Use the following code, replacing the minute and second with the timestamp in your video: #t=0m29s. For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXIi-Hqy1kk/#t=1m31s.
- Contacting users
  No, Google won’t release that information. The best you can do is to create an account for yourself and read users’ profiles. Sorry — privacy issue.
- Using content on air
  Google’s only stipulation for using YouTube content is to credit both YouTube and the user who posted the video.
Google News

There are various ways to keep up with what Google’s doing and how it’s moving and shaking the worlds of business and journalism:
- Google Blog: http://googleblog.blogspot.com
- Google on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/google
- Press Center: http://www.google.com/press
These tips and links only cover a few of the helpful Google resources that journalists can take advantage of. Dozens more can be found at http://www.google.com/options/. For a recap of the conference, visit the Marketwire blog.
What Frank Sinatra teaches us about marketing

Posted: Thu, 26 Aug 2010 13:13:20 +0000

He hasn’t been with us for over a decade, but Frank Sinatra left behind his legendary music and a timeless set of oh-so-smooth rules to live by. The icon had many mantras, and a handful of them are most apropos for those of us who make marketing our profession. Yep, you read that right: Ol’ Blue Eyes can teach us a lot about image management, audience engagement and brand longevity. Before you dismiss the idea, remember that Sinatra’s success spanned 60 years, despite ever-changing cultural trends and musical tastes, so he must have done something right. Here are five great lessons.

Work your mojo and remember, style counts.
Sinatra’s trademark black fedora was stylish indeed, and part of his bigger brand and persona. It was tough to think of one without the other. Similarly, marketers strive to develop and bring out the best in an organization’s image and brand. Think of companies with great style: Apple, Emma, Lexus, Ray-Ban. These companies know who they are and what they stand for, and, based on that, they have developed cool personalities. Heck, just by associating with these brands, we feel cool, too. When companies are confident in what they are doing, selling and saying to their customers, it shows. Remember that, as a marketer, you are often your organization’s best brand ambassador and a very public face, so whether you are crafting employee communications or speaking to a crowd of 500, always be classy, confident and cool. What personifies your organization?

Think multi-channel and diversify your talents.
Sinatra was a tireless entertainer, and because he was everywhere – TV, radio, stage, movies, records - he left no stone unturned, no talent undiscovered and no audience untapped. Your company is probably “multi-talented,” too. take a good look at it. Look again. Chances are very good that your organization excels at more than one thing, and appeals to a varied audience and diverse consumer base.

As marketing continues its transition from traditional forms to digital, mobile and social practices, it’s more important than ever to take your multi-channel brand and align your online and offline marketing efforts. Diversification exposes your organization to new and different audiences, and spreads your messages across potentially untapped markets. It also challenges you to dig deeper into the human assets of your organization, uncovering hidden talents and untapped skills. Find thought leaders and evangelists in your company who can showcase the organization in different ways, by guest-writing a series of blog posts, hosting a webinar, speaking on an expert panel, etc.

Sing ballads and jingles.
Sinatra was no less himself crooning “One For My Baby” than he was while letting loose in “A Marshmallow World” with Dean Martin — he just presented his brand in two very different ways. Every organization has a different story to tell about their people, products and brand, and fortunately, marketers are great storytellers, just like Sinatra was. While your primary goal is to bring out the best in your company and build relationships with your stakeholders, the way you communicate can, and should, vary greatly. Determining the appropriate tone of your marketing efforts is important; you can successfully maintain a strong, singular brand persona while mixing up the way you tell the story of your brand. There is a time and place for more formal and structured communications (ballads) just as there is a time for playful, informal communications (jingles). Once you determine what you need to say, and who you need to say it to, you can set the tone, take centre stage and sing to your audience.

Remember, you don’t have to write the song to sing it.
“My Way,” a signature Sinatra song, was penned by Paul Anka. Although Sinatra merely sang the song – without having written it — was its quality affected? Did he change the way he communicated to his audience? Absolutely not. He made it his own and stood his ground – and so should you. What’s right for one company may not be right for another. If you’re a marketer today without a rabid Facebook following who doesn’t speak in bursts of 140 characters you’re dead-in-the water, right? WRONG. There is a common misperception that, at every turn and for every campaign, marketers must immerse themselves in social media. That’s not altogether true.

What is important is a solid grasp of what social media is, how it functions, and why it might be important to your organization, your brand and your stakeholders. If you understand how it could affect your company and how you can integrate the best parts of social media into your overall marketing strategy if you choose to do so, that’s aces, my friend.

Do more than just watch the charts, LISTEN to your audience.
Sinatra didn’t just measure his success against the Billboard top 10, but he also listened to his audience, and understood what he meant to them. Are we, as marketers, doing the same?

In a recent Mediaweek opinion piece, author Denise Lee Yohn ponders whether Marketing is losing its mojo, and suggests that while social media and analytics are important tools for marketers, they are no substitute for big ideas:

“All this focus on social media and analytics seems to be sucking the creativity out of marketing. This is a serious threat to marketing’s ability to drive business growth. While there’s no question that social media includes some very powerful new communications platforms, we must not confuse tools with content. At the end of the day, the effectiveness of marketing is based on representing well the brand identity and positioning.”

Don’t get me wrong: Marketers who ignore social media and the conversations within are missing a huge opportunity for brand management and business growth. But it’s critical for us to do more than rely on the quantitative aspect of social media measurement, and it’s important for those numbers to tell a story and be more than, well, numbers. We must infuse them with emotion, context, sentiment and relativity and extract true business intelligence from social media, or those numbers are simply heaps of data and useless pie charts.

There you have it. Words of wisdom and some smart strategies for today’s marketer from none other than the Chairman of the Board. We’d love to hear your stories of integrated marketing strategies.
The future of news from experts in the industry

Posted: Tue, 24 Aug 2010 19:30:06 +0000
The show was immense and the experts were out in full force, so I’m going to go out on a limb to state that the best, most informative session at Search Engine Strategies San Francisco 2010 was “News Search Optimization.” Moderated by Newsforce CMO Dana Todd, the panel included Brent Payne, SEO director at Tribune; Topher Kohan, SEO manager at CNN; Eleanor Hong, lead editor, SEO at ABCNews.com; and Allison Fabella, SEO and social media manager at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. News, as we know, is changing and agile communications companies are recognizing the need to optimize their content for search and social, local reach and mobile platforms.

The resounding opinion of the panel was to address any SEO issues you may have so that you leverage the full potential of your historical content. That means reviewing analytics to see what worked in the past, checking free tools such as Google Analytics or Yahoo! Web Analytics, or paid tools such as Omniture or Webtrends. Depending on how content is created, it may also mean working with editorial teams to ensure steps are being taken in the workflow of content-authoring to strategically formulate titles, embed links and optimize multimedia. Everyone on the panel agreed that involving editorial team members in monitoring is a great way to foster a strong workflow that includes SEO.

Success in SEO comes down to popularity, authority and relevancy. That said, there are several ways to rank news stories in search engines:
- Local to source: search engines prefer to serve local search results
- Freshness: timely news is becoming increasingly important
- Quality or trustworthiness: authority of your company or website
- Reader preference: search engines consider user behavior when serving personalized results
- Citation: original source attribution (which sometimes is not 100% accurate)
The key to building long-term SEO success is through content creation and backlinking. But how do you create quality backlinks that pass authority to your website’s relevant pages?
- Send press releases for your news and embed links to relevant content on your website.
- Start a corporate blog and link to internal pages on your website.
- Share your news on sites and encourage others to share as well.
The results can be phenomenal:
- Digg.com can generate more than 19,000 links in less than an hour for popular stories, even a less impactful story can create up to 57 links in 24 hours.
- Getting celebrities like Alyssa Milano to share content on Twitter resulted in 512 inbound links in 24 hours for a story Brent Payne posted
But all of the best practice advice up to this point is common knowledge. What about the future? Topher Kohan from CNN broke down his own SEO strategy into the following:

Things to try now:
- User experience optimization: Apply across your website and with each piece of content you create. Search engines use web analytics metrics, such as bounce rate, to gauge relative content quality.
- Video content: Insert within a standalone video player or, better yet, wrapped in the context of an article for better indexing across content types. Article-embedded videos that rank on search results pages will yield higher article views.
- Multimedia sitemaps: They’re not just for web pages anymore. Include news articles in news sitemaps, include images in your sitemaps and video in video sitemaps.
Things to try soon (4-8 months):
- Semantic markup: Microformats will set you free.
- User-generated content: Example: ireport.com outranked all the major news networks for the first 90 minutes after a plane crash occurred in Texas.
Try later (1 year):
- HTML5: This enhanced version of HTML should unite video formats across the board within the next year, provided all browser developers get on board.
- Yahoo and Bing are merging and will represent between 10-12% of online traffic
- Testing: You must test to ensure you (at minimum) keep up with your competitors
Search Engine Strategies San Francisco was a great show, with lots of great actionable insight. Stay tuned to the Marketwire blog for more in the coming weeks.

Related Articles:
- Google algorithm changes and what they mean to news
- 10 reasons why you need to blog
Media Relations Minute: Media industry expected to outgrow the US economy through 2014

Posted: Mon, 23 Aug 2010 13:17:03 +0000

According to a recent report, investments made in media and communications, especially pertaining to mobile devices and the Internet, will increase faster than the US economy through 2014.

The report, compiled by media-focused private equity firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson, indicates that the media and communications industries are expected to grow to $1.42 trillion by 2014 at an average annual increase of 6.1 percent. This is a 0.3 percent difference from the estimated 5.8 percent increase in US gross domestic product during that same time frame. In 2010 alone, US media and communications are expected to gain 3.5 percent and bounce back from the “recession-induced advertising dip.”

What is spearheading this development? The business and professional information division is leading the charge with an expected annual growth of 8.2 percent, or a total of $249 billion by 2014. The surge will be fueled by new applications and software technology that are dependent on new media streams and outlets.

“Business information services and professional information services, like Reed Elsevier, are growing faster and did not suffer the same downturn effect that advertising and marketing businesses did,” John Suhler, partner and co-founder of Veronis Suhler Stevenson, the firm that released this report, told Bloomberg News.

Although consumer online spending and mobile services might appear to be the fastest-growing segment (15 percent annually), entertainment and leisure media will continue to be the largest segment, with an average increase of 6.3 percent to a total of $353.9 billion by the end of 2014. This is mostly due to the rising demand for subscription television. The report also discovered unexpected areas of growth in educational media, direct mail and B2B media.

Unfortunately, broadcast radio, magazines and other traditional advertising streams are forecasted to have a slow-growth average of only 2.2 percent. Consumer promotions and reward programs will experience the least amount of growth at 1.8 percent.