Think eBiz; thoughts on Online Marketing

SEO Basics: lessons for the Bill Gates Blog

2010-01-26T13:29:17-05:00

Bill Gates, of Microsoft fame and fortune, has boldly entered the social networking scene with his blog The Gates Notes and a twitter account. Leave it to Danny Sullivan to gently poke fun at Mr. Gates and yet provide a good lesson on the basics of search engine optimization (SEO). Even the rich and famous could use online help.

With his blog, The Gates Notes comes challenges we all might face - fakes and other pretenders that in fact could out-rank your blog or website. In fact, there are a number of fakes that are outpacing Bill Gates blog; all the more reason to focus energy on SEO.

Danny Sullivan makes it clear; there are basic elements that anyone can do to enhance their blog or website in terms of ranking. And for what appears when your site is displayed after a search. We have educated many of our clients that the title and meta description tags are your most important and easiest changes you can make.

The title tag, which displays content at the head of the browser is read first my the spider - but equally as important - can be the actual display on the search result. In Danny's example -Mr. Gates blog original title tag: "The Gates Notes" and recommends a change to : "The Gates Notes – Official Bill Gates Blog".

In The Gates Note example, there was no identified meta descriptions, so the search engine took any content it could find. Instead, by adding this tag, in most cases you are providing the sentences that will help your searcher decide to click on your site.

SEO contains many elements, yet there are a few basic constructs that can provide immediate benefits. Read Danny Sullivan's educational and fun article : "Some SEO Advice for Bill Gates".

Post Note: Bill Gates acknowledged Danny's advice on twitter:

"@dannysullivan, thanks for the advice - the people who work on the site are on this now, should see improvements tonight.."

Crush-It: Gary VayNerChuk's Social Marketing Motivation Book

2009-12-02T18:26:00-05:00

If you never heard the name Gary Vaynerchuk, you have not been on Twitter, Facebook, Podcasts, YouTube or, for that matter, anywhere online. Gary is a high energy way over-the-top social marketing show man, business owner and now author. He is loud (his words).

His genesis is Wine Library, a wine store in Springfield New Jersey - and then an engaging Podcast called Wine library TV. In his episodes, he discusses wine but with an entertainment flair. He truly brought wine to the every-man/woman. He is passionate about all things wine and it shows. His podcasts are must-see and infectious. You want to try these wines; do the "sniffy sniff" and so on.

However; today we are talking about his book: Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion

Crush-it is a motivational book; where Gary implores you to drive your passion hard into real cash, using all the social media tools available. His point - these tools are mostly free and there is nothing stopping you from achieving your goals; except yourself. The book is a quick read and although he doesn't go into details on how to use Facebook or Twitter, he gives you a feeling of empowerment. That yes - you can!

Yet this isn't a book just for make hiking (my passion) a lucrative business. It's a great read for any business owner and entrepreneur. In the coming weeks we will be leveraging Gary's ideas and strategies for a client in that promotes PowerPoint Presentation templates - and for our own... hiking. We will document are steps, strategies, successes and learnings. Stay tuned as we try our own hand at Crushing It!

Facebook: Privacy and 350 Million Connected People; a real challenge

2009-12-01T21:14:00-05:00

Mark Zuckerberg announced yesterday that "It has been a great year for making the world more open and connected. Thanks to your help, more than 350 million people around the world are using Facebook to share their lives online.". He does on to discuss privacy, a real challenge when you manage a community of this size. How to you maintain an "open and connected" society yet place rules to protect ones privacy?

One thing is for sure, Facebook need to implement the ability to control privacy in an easy to understand - intuitive manner. This is not as easy as it may sound, as this community has highly advance technology people - and those far less so. Yet online privacy is critical to the success of this and other social platforms. failure to secure personal data could be crushing to a social platform.

Currently, we can control who has access to our Facebook page and we restrict access to the content and images from 3rd party entities. The question; is it working? How do we know if the security structure we setup is actually what we intended and is correctly in place. To this; we suggest a privacy wizard that, after making your selections - it provides an easy to understand report and analysis. Further , we suggest the use of a graphical representation of your privacy settings; so it is clear who is in - who is outside.

We personally use Facebook for fun and pleasure (which is why we don't publish our Facebook page here); and yet we believe this is a highly strategic social media platform for B2B and B2C organizations. We will explore this aspect further in the coming days. Add your comments and concerns about privacy n Facebook; we'd like to hear from you.

Blogs: Should they be incorporated within your company web site?

2009-11-30T14:46:13-05:00

We are advising a B2B company about their social media marketing strategy and the question came up: "Should we integrate our blog with the web site, including navigation and look 'n feel, or should it be a stand alone entity?". A great question, so we asked the experts on LinkedIn for their advice.

Background: The company sells PowerPoint templates to business professionals. We advised them to create a blog, and leverage other channels, to establish thought-leadership in creating and giving effective presentations. A natural tie-in for their product, yet useful information that business professionals can value (without an obligation for making any purchase).

Results: The over whelming response was to maintain integration, including branding to the B2B eCommerce site. The blog should not be sales oriented however - the content should be neutral to the templates and related offerings provided by the company. This follows the business networking notion of give and give, and returns will follow. Provide good useful information and establish trust and credibility - sales will follow. Of course, other blogging rules apply including frequent and fresh content, staying on topic and allowing people to comment and add to the conversation and wisdom.

Why would a company not integrate their blog? We aren't sure - please add your comments if you have a compelling reason to dis-associate your web site from your blog.

Selected quotes from the LinkedIn response (we could not have said it better):

“Staking out a thought leadership position in the market for our products is an integral part of establishing your value proposition, and something customers would expect to see from a supplier charging premium pricing. Said another way, if you want to charge premium pricing, you better have a blog site with your subject matter experts providing non-proprietary information on how customers can solve problems.“ (David Wick)

“Rather than the commerce side devaluing the blog, I think a useful and well-written blog enhances the reputation and trust in the company and its products. If visitors come to value the information on the blog, then they will turn to your clients company for templates, before searching out another source, because they already trust them for being an authority in this area.” and

“…if the content is good, it will build credibility and that will support sales. My clients tell me that they find my blog helpful, and new clients tend to contact me after first exploring my blog entries.” (Heidi Cool)

“I feel blogs add a personal side to a company and help the (potential) customer to relate to the company and get a feel for their level of passion and enthusiasm.” (Carl Wilson)

"I think that incorporating the blog is a great idea. Why make it stand alone? They are experts, the blog is the place to make their expertise known and have them shine.” (Melissa Galt)

“The best case for not adopting the same look at the "mothership" site is when the blog is a sponsored blog, rather than the company blog” (Michael Martine)

Social Media Marketing: Big Opportunity for Small Business

2009-11-24T13:05:11-05:00

Do small businesses leverage social marketing for their lead generation? A Citibank Small Business survey reports that most do not use or find social media marketing effective. In an eMarketing article "Does Social Media Work for S mall Biz?" (Oct 27, 2009), only 12% reported any effectiveness for their business. The vast majority, 63 % said it was not.

It would be helpful to determine the product/service breakdown of these businesses and more on their experiences (what vehicle did they try, for how long etc). We believe that social marketing can work - and may be vital for SMB's (small and mid-sized businesses), especially if they are in a competitive environment. A simple Facebook Fan page could help increase awareness and drive sales - or a blog that positions the business owner as a thought leader. Would this work for a dry cleaner...why not? For an auto dealer - you bet. A funeral home... a local computer repair center... a landscaper... yes yes yes. It just takes the right strategy.

We see this survey with a glass half full - in presenting opportunities for SMB's to successfully leverage social media marketing. In future think-ebiz social media articles, we will show-case strategies for social marketing for different businesses and verticals.

Search Engine Wars: The Murdoch Gambit

2009-11-23T15:10:39-05:00

Haven't we learned that online wars do not achieve value. Browser wars - mobile fragmentation, and now the Murdoch gambit. We will come out and say this is a bad thing for the internet-sphere.

Rupert Murdoch, News Corporation, has stated that he wants to pull his content off of Google. Naturally, this makes Microsoft's Steve Balmer salivate. An interesting strategy unfolds; if you can't beat Google - bribe the content providers to block their material from Google. Pay Murdoch to shut off the Wall Street Journal content from Google and anyone else. Then of course, Google would counter by having the New York Times remove their content from Bing - and on and on. And who loses - You Do as you content with content fragmentation.

Two articles that state the pro/con case:

Forbes Magazine' Velocity "How Murdock can kill Google"
New York Times Opinionator "Murdochs Google Gambit"

with interesting comments by:

John Battelle, “Just give Google summary text and headlines to index (like the W.S.J. does now). Then do your best to convert would be readers to your paid model. That’s it. What’s the big deal? The rest is bluster." Yes yes, provide great content found no where else that consumers will want to buy...

Mark Cuban, "I love to tweak all the internet information must be free bigots. They get so damn religious about information on the net that they lose what little objectivity and awareness of the real world they had in the first place." Sounds like he enjoys stirring the pot..."

Mr.Cuban goes on... "TWITTER AND FACEBOOK are platforms that allow the news sources, like newscorp to post breaking news and gain value from their brand." We agree, Twitter could be the best source of breaking news and quick ready access to the content... Leverage these platforms instead of rattling swords at Google.

Jason Calacanis, however, says "Murdoch is savvy." and goes on to imagine Bing advertising that states,

"Want to search the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today and 3,894 other newspapers and magazine?" "Well, then don't go to Google because they don't have them!"
"Go to Bing, home of quality content you can trust!" We can't imagine a worse case -- trust? More likely it is content that we paid for... which does not lend credibility to content.

We believe that any means of blocking content from one search engine, in favor of another will ultimately backfire. Google won't die from this gambit and Microsoft won't win. Some savvy entrepreneur will develop a super-search engine that sits above the others helping us - the consumer of information to access content...without having to play favorites. And this gambit will not sell login access either. And if Murdoch thinks this will help save his "pulp" based product... and although we think this is sad... it won't. Newspaper subscriptions are declining (as are magazines) - so let's find better ways to monetize the content online... no one really wins a war.

Potential #Twitter Advertising: SuperTweets

2009-11-22T18:52:20-05:00

As reported by Robert Scoble in his blog, Scobleizer, the COO of Twitter Dick Costolo said that Twitter was "going to turn on an advertising model". The challenge of course; how will advertising be presented and accepted on this 140 character social platform? Twitter culturally, has been free of advertising - a change might not be well received.

Mr. Scoble suggested the "Super Tweet", which is contextual advertising that is linked to a "tweet", yet is viewable ONLY when the reader clicks or hovers over the content. We had two reactions - wow, great idea... and yet be careful how this is executed and implemented.

First, the idea would have advertising that relates to the tweet content. Scoble uses the example of a tweet telling us what is happening - "I am going to see the movie 2012". An advertisement or link could be presented to Fandango or Coca-Cola (ie giving a coupon for a soda at participating theaters). And the ad would NOT be viewed unless the reader clicks or hovers over the tweet. Otherwise, we assume that the tweet looks like it does today (and we mean no hypertext or coloration to change the look of the tweet).

Where we have concerns: Tweet content is - we believe - owned by the author. Twitter owns the platform, but the writer owns the content - and represents what he/she writes. Therefore, does Twitter have the "right" to present an ad placed on "my" content. We don't think so - unless, by agreement, we share in the ad revenue. If we agree to accept revenue, then we are deferring our content rights to Twitter. That is not a bad idea - sharing revenue ala Google Adsense - if it is the authors choice.

Besides the revenue option, the Tweet owner should have a say in what ads are presented with their content. The rationale is easy - an ad that resides with "my" content could be construed to be an endorsement by me. For instance, we don't drink soda, so why would we allow a Coca-Cola ad on our content? And what about political ads? Liquor ads? What if we are employed for Ford, and a Honda ad is presented on our tweet?

Another idea is to present the author with the option of opting out of specific ad categories.

The SuperTweet would be primarily on the twitter.com web site (which is seeing a dramatic drop off of users - so other platforms would have to access the advertising API - and presumable also share in the revenue. Thus once again - the 3rd party Twitter product companies are further enriched at Twitter's expense.

Our conclusion: We believe the idea of SuperTweets could be very powerful and finally give a monetization model for Twitter - yet it would only gain acceptance with revenue sharing and/or opt-out options for the content owner.

Post Note: In an article that included an interview with the founder of Twitter, Biz Stone and Linkedin's Reid Hoffman, Biz dispells the notion of advertsing on Twitter. In this article, 3News "Twitter to Follow Google's lead", it was reported:

"But following a new round of funding, Stone seems in no rush to go down the advertising route which has been so successful for the search company Google."

So - is "Supertweet" or any other kind of advertising on Twitter really coming - or is there a major disconnect between Biz and his COO, Costolo?

Web 3.0 : really - are we past Web 2.0 already

2009-11-20T19:28:00-05:00

Web 3.0 has crept into the conversation - what is Web 3.0? We will ponder this and report back to you soon. However - we believe Web 2.0 (which is a bit of an overused and worn out term) still has some life left .... viva la Social Media.

#Twitter now asks "What's Happening?" (#w2e, #hashtag)

2009-11-19T15:56:05-05:00

Are you sitting? Twitter made a change... in some ways a big change. No longer do you Tweet about "What are you doing?", now the question posed is : "What's Happening?".
Tweeters (those that Tweet on Twitter) have been bypassing the previous question, so it just makes sense to change the question to match how the massive number of users use this social media platform. The people have spoken- er tweeted.
Does it really make a difference? In the old version (as of yesterday), you might Tweet (answer):
"I am enjoying a nice cup of coffee at Starbucks".
Yet now when asked, What's Happening? You might reply...

"I am enjoying a nice cup of coffee at Starbucks".
We might have suggested "Write what you want, but keep it brief please".
Ok, you may now resume your life and be sure to tell us all... "What's happening?". If you want to know what is happening in my humble world, i am @sph001. I'll keep it brief.

#hashtags: Creating a Viral Buzz on Twitter (#w2e, #hashtag #viralmarketing)

2009-11-18T22:15:30-05:00

One of the funniest keynotes at the NYC Web 2.0 conference was by Baratunde Thurston: "Everything I need to know about social marketing, I Learned From Being @the_swine_flu". Baratunde demonstrates the incredible power that could be leveraged on Twitter, all done 140 characters at a time. He is profane and perhaps politically incorrect, but look past this - and you will see a highly effective campaign.
View Baratunde's - being @the_swine_flue presentation at the Ignite NYC session. Baratunde' Swine Flu Viral Marketing Experiment - he begins the hashtag talk at the 2:50 time mark>
More to the point, Baratunde's experiment prove that Twitter can be applied to business to create a viral marketing buzz - a digital word-of-mouth. Another Twitter'r brought to my attention that Kodak did just this in April, to name a new camera. Unfortunately I could not locate the actual tweets onTwitter: the hashtag was #nameakodak (view one Twitter's entries). Another B2C viral #hashtag campaign was with Moon Fruit (#moonfruit). In both cases, the winner in these campaign's won a prize.
Viewing Baratunde's YouTube video will give you a sense of the depth of thinking that is required to make this campaign work. In the case of a B2B/B2C campaign - the rules that exist for bloggers and other social media programs must be kept in mind. Keep it real. Be honest and upfront and try to make it fun. Of course you are advertising your company's product, however make it engaging, and where possible, informative to the participate. A blatant Twitter viral "advertisement' will fail and may in fact be a detriment to your brand.
Think Ebiz will try to duplicate Baratunde' campaign and we will report the results. Please Tweet me or comment if you know of other Viral Twitter campaigns. I am @sph001.

Think eBiz; thoughts on Online Marketing

SEO Basics: lessons for the Bill Gates Blog

Crush-It: Gary Vay*Ner*Chuk's Social Marketing Motivation Book

Facebook: Privacy and 350 Million Connected People; a real challenge

Blogs: Should they be incorporated within your company web site?

Social Media Marketing: Big Opportunity for Small Business

Search Engine Wars: The Murdoch Gambit

Potential #Twitter Advertising: SuperTweets

Web 3.0 : really - are we past Web 2.0 already

#Twitter now asks "What's Happening?" (#w2e, #hashtag)

#hashtags: Creating a Viral Buzz on Twitter (#w2e, #hashtag #viralmarketing)

Crush-It: Gary VayNerChuk's Social Marketing Motivation Book