http://www.willmarlow.com Will Marlow, LLC -- AdWords, SEO, Google Analytics, and Digital Reputation Management. posterous.com WillMarlowbloghttp://feedburner.google.com Sun, 26 Aug 2012 21:58:00 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WillMarlowblog/~3/tfXuGn5gcV4/heres-an-easy-long-tail-seo-mistake-to-avoid http://www.willmarlow.com/heres-an-easy-long-tail-seo-mistake-to-avoid <p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile2.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/willmarlow/rzR1JVMqNwEyENPEK2FCM2M9jnnzoAZU7ESHOyuqCMUKiWdT78XlG6SKJ0K0/7867626970_c2b4425b7d_b_1.jpg.scaled.1000.jpg"><img alt="7867626970_c2b4425b7d_b_1" height="331" src="http://getfile9.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/willmarlow/e68x20MlBoCgHAdWTZwcNZyt1NqO4zpw7b70MdQte37YObsSWqkDZI8hpRzp/7867626970_c2b4425b7d_b_1.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p><span style="color: #000000;">If you read this short blog post, I'll tell you (a) what the term "long-tail" refers to when it is discussed in the context of SEO, (b) how to drive long-tail traffic to your website, and (c) I'll share an amateur mistake I made yesterday that hurt my long-tail search engine optimization for this blog.</span></p> <div><span style="color: #000000;">When search marketing consultants use the term "long-tail" they generally are talking about one of two things: (a) any search query that is three characters or longer, or (b) any search query that registers "low volume" of daily searches. &nbsp;(Most people are not search marketing consultants, and for those folks you can have <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_tail">this definition</a> of "long-tail" which describes a scenario where a large number of statistical occurrences fall outside of where you would normally expect them to occur.)</span><br /> <p /> <div><span style="color: #000000;">But back to search marketing. &nbsp;As regular readers of this blog know, I'm both a marketer and also a photographer, but you may not know that my photography helps drive lots of traffic to my website from social networks like <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/114313615710604492651/about">Google+</a> and <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/williammarlow">Flickr</a>.</span></div> <p /> <div><span style="color: #000000;">Here's how: I have built relatively large followings on social networks like Flickr (where I'm followed by 1,500+ people) and Google+ (6,000+ people) where I post my favorite photos that I've recently taken. &nbsp;In addition to posting the photos, I organize the photos carefully by date, time, and location, carefully tag the photos by topic, and whenever possible I write a description in text underneath the photo to describe where the photo was taken in more detail. &nbsp;(I also make my photos available to anyone who wants to use them via <a href="http://creativecommons.org/">Creative Commons</a>, provided that they credit me with a link back to my website if they use my photography on the Web -- this has led to my work being used in a wide range of publications.)</span></div> <p /> <div><span style="color: #000000;">From an SEO perspective, when I took this photo of&nbsp;<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/williammarlow/7707628526/in/set-72157630455751722">lavender&nbsp;fields in France</a>, I pulled in lots of traffic from Google because people care about, and are searching online for, the Cistercian abbey where I took the photo, called the&nbsp;"Notre-Dame de Senanque." &nbsp;The term "Notre-Dame de Senanque" does NOT have high search volume -- in fact, there are only about 390 searches for it every month worldwide, according to <a href="https://adwords.google.com/o/Targeting/Explorer?__c=1000000000&amp;__u=1000000000&amp;__o=cues&amp;ideaRequestType=KEYWORD_IDEAS">Google's keyword tool</a>&nbsp;-- making the term solidly long-tail.&nbsp;&nbsp;But with a highly relevant photograph, and solid explanatory text for Notre-Dame de Senanque, I'm able to pull in a good amount of U.S. website traffic from wealthy people worldwide who are planning vacations to the French countryside. &nbsp;&nbsp;That is not the worst quality of traffic to get for free.</span></div> <p /> <div><span style="color: #000000;">But that brings me to the mistake I made today. &nbsp;I went to the National Aquarium and shot some photos that I really, really like, and I can't wait to share all of them &nbsp;on my blog (especially after I launch my new website). &nbsp;But I was too focused on the photography yesterday, and not enough on SEO, because I took photos of interesting fish like the one pictured above, but I didn't take the two seconds to snap a photo of the TYPE of fish it was, which was written down next to each exhibit. &nbsp;So, I have cool photos of fish from the aquarium, but I don't have any information on what type of fish they are. &nbsp;This isn't the end of the world, but it's also a missed opportunity. &nbsp;Now, instead of pulling in traffic from aspiring Marine Biologists and tourists visiting the U.S. national aquariums in Baltimore and DC, all I have is a good looking picture that will hopefully be enjoyable for my readers to look at, because, as my hero <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Cartier-Bresson">Henri Cartier Bresson</a> said about photography, "your first duty is to please your eye," and that's also helpful for website owners to remember.</span></div> </div> <p /> <div><em>Will Marlow certified in Google AdWords and Google Analytics, and helps companies run digital advertising and marketing campaigns. &nbsp;He is also the founder of <a href="http://www.willmarlowphotography.com">Will Marlow Photography</a>, which is one of the only certified Google Business Photography partners worldwide. &nbsp;<a href="http://www.twitter.com/willmarlow">Follow Will Marlow on Twitter here</a>. &nbsp;Or email him <a href="mailto:will@willmarlow.com">here</a>.</em></div> </p> <p><a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/heres-an-easy-long-tail-seo-mistake-to-avoid">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/heres-an-easy-long-tail-seo-mistake-to-avoid#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=tfXuGn5gcV4:ao53cLPV7HA:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=tfXuGn5gcV4:ao53cLPV7HA:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=tfXuGn5gcV4:ao53cLPV7HA:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=tfXuGn5gcV4:ao53cLPV7HA:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=tfXuGn5gcV4:ao53cLPV7HA:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=tfXuGn5gcV4:ao53cLPV7HA:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=tfXuGn5gcV4:ao53cLPV7HA:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=tfXuGn5gcV4:ao53cLPV7HA:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=tfXuGn5gcV4:ao53cLPV7HA:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/WillMarlowblog/~4/tfXuGn5gcV4" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1495132/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4aGlPyGzYqf7 Will Marlow Will Will Marlow http://www.willmarlow.com/heres-an-easy-long-tail-seo-mistake-to-avoid Thu, 23 Aug 2012 20:55:07 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WillMarlowblog/~3/uNjOUJcraz0/facebook-advertising-vs-linkedin-advertising http://www.willmarlow.com/facebook-advertising-vs-linkedin-advertising <p> <div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile1.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/willmarlow/7wJTJoxKjoNShlcbWSXrkXzCkIKDEplvKHIFkru56pHWzMSsFTU2Sbaymwdi/7797666110_e03423e62f_b.jpg.scaled.1000.jpg"><img alt="7797666110_e03423e62f_b" height="331" src="http://getfile9.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/willmarlow/MTDyKHvHgv9hrgnijDivgHg3DFSjj5oDbtlZkLviCBSlym4dV8dFEPkIhd1K/7797666110_e03423e62f_b.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> <p></p><div><b>Facebook Advertising vs. LinkedIn Advertising -- Which Is Better?</b></div><p /><div>I just created a LinkedIn advertising for the first time in about a year today, and I have to say, I&#39;m very impressed with their targeting capabilities.  They have come a long way, and even if the ROI doesn&#39;t prove to be staggering, I can see investing in additional LinkedIn advertisements purely because it is so difficult to target with such precision using any other tools.</div> <div> <p>Since LinkedIn is often compared to Facebook, and since I&#39;ve run ad campaigns on both social networks recently, I thought I would do a quick blog post comparing the two experiences.</p> <p><b>Facebook and LinkedIn Advertising vs. Google Search Advertising</b></p> <p>The first thing you need to realize about advertising on either social network is that they are both huge <b>display ad networks.  </b>This is in contrast to Google&#39;s <b>search advertising</b> network.    The difference between search and display is simple: with search advertising, your ads are triggered based on keywords that someone actually types in, and ideally, those keywords signal some type of <i>intent </i>or <i>interest</i> in whatever it is your advertising.  This makes Google&#39;s search network an unbelievably powerful advertising tool.</p> <p>Facebook and LinkedIn don&#39;t have this capability <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/facebook-pushing-further-search-ads-143005" target="_blank">yet</a>, and may never have it in a meaningful way.  Instead, Facebook and LinkedIn let you target users based on their characteristics, demographics, interests, etc.  So, on both social networks, you are targeting based on factors other than <b>the state of mind of your audience.  </b> </p> <p><b>LinkedIn Advertising vs. Facebook Advertising</b></p> <p>With LinkedIn, you have an audience of <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2012/02/12/linkedin-is-disrupting-the-corporate-recruiting-market/." target="_blank">175 million people</a>.  This seems somewhat paltry compared to Facebook&#39;s 900+ million users, but the real point is that both networks are massive, and can hit lots of folks.</p> <p>With both Facebook and LinkedIn, you can target with the following criteria: </p><p> </p><ul> <li>Geography</li> <li>Gender</li> <li>Age</li><li>Company (one of my favorite options)</li> </ul> <p>With LinkedIn, you can also target in these additional ways: </p> <ul> <li>Title (awesome!)</li> <li>Function (pretty cool)</li><li>Company category (pretty cool)</li> <li>School (I assume this should be helpful for planning class reunions…?)</li> <li>Group membership (helpful in some cases)</li> <li>Skills (close to worthless, in my opinion)</li></ul><div>With Facebook, you can target in the following unique ways: </div> <ul> <li>Language</li><li>Level of education attained (but not a specific <i>school</i>, like with LinkedIn)</li><li>Something called &quot;Precise Interests,&quot; which Facebook identifies as information pulled from your Timeline posts, activities, education, job titles, Fan Pages you &#39;Like,&quot; or Groups you are a member of.</li> <li>Something called &quot;Broad Categories,&quot; which Facebook again pulls primarily from your personal Timeline posts, and which includes family status, mobile phone platform, movies you like, etc.</li> <li>You can use &quot;Advanced Targeting&quot; to target people who are &quot;connected to your Fan Page, App, or Event,&quot; OR you can target people who are specifically NOT already connected to any of those things.  This obviously helps you avoid marketing to people who are already in your sphere.  And finally, you can target &quot;Friends of Connections,&quot; to hit people whose &quot;friends are connected to your page, app or event.&quot;</li> </ul><div>So, with either Facebook or LinkedIn, you can run a campaign that targets only employees of the Washington Post, but according to LinkedIn you can reach 1,953 Washington Post employees with your ad, and on Facebook you can only reach 1,250 Washington Post employees.  </div> <p /><div><b>The Advantage of LinkedIn</b></div><div>Most advertisers I&#39;ve spoken with have highlighted a bad experience with LinkedIn advertising.  In fact, most people I know who have run a lot of money through LinkedIn have eventually ended up pulling their budget way back due to a lack of ROI.  </div> <p /><div>But LinkedIn has a big advantage over Facebook, in that people don&#39;t use LinkedIn for lots of different time-wasting activities.  This means that there is a natural expectation that advertisements on LinkedIn will probably lead away from LinkedIn, which is helpful for companies who need to drive traffic to their website for conversions.</div> <p /><div>In this way, LinkedIn is a true &quot;display network&quot; advertising environment, and if that is what you need, you&#39;re golden.  For instance, I love the ability to target only C-level officers of specific companies.  I&#39;m not ready to predict a specific ROI, but I&#39;m willing to put time and money into LinkedIn advertising in order to reach those coveted individuals in a display ad environment.</div> <p /><div><b>The Facebook Advantage -- Long Term Relationships</b></div><div>Facebook advertising is not an end in itself, because it is much more than a display network like LinkedIn.  With LinkedIn, I&#39;m running ads that are designed to hit a coveted group of people (or many, many coveted groups), and I&#39;m using those ads to direct to a landing page that is mostly buy-or-die -- they either become a client or I lose them forever.</div> <p /><div>But Facebook Advertising is much more than that.  If you spend money on Facebook driving traffic to &quot;buy or die&quot; landing pages, then you are going to end up wasting a lot of money.  I&#39;ve done that before out of necessity, and hope to never need to do that again.</div> <p /><div>Instead, Facebook Ads are most effective when they are driving traffic to other Facebook properties, like Fan Pages, which then engage a visitor to &quot;Like&quot; a Page, and which then gives the company <b>permission</b> to talk to the consumer on a regular basis through Facebook Fan Page posts, which are free.</div> <p /><div><b>So Which Is Better?</b></div><div>I&#39;m sure there are plenty of people who want me to declare a winner and a loser, but you can&#39;t do that here.  You need to decide which platform is most appropriate for your needs based on your marketing objectives.  </div> <div><br />But I will say this: <b>LinkedIn is more forgiving for short-term advertising than Facebook is.</b>  With LinkedIn, you can follow these three steps and succeed: (1) pick a focused target audience; (2) write killer ad copy to entice people to click; and (3) create a great landing page to encourage people to take some meaningful action that will ultimately create business value for you.  That&#39;s all you need to do.  But with Facebook, you need to do all of those things, and THEN you need to include a great strategy for engaging your audience in a fun way in the weeks/months/years after your advertising campaign ends. If you can&#39;t do that, you&#39;re going to get burned by Facebook ads.</div> <p /><div><i>Will Marlow certified in Google AdWords and Google Analytics, and helps companies run digital advertising and marketing campaigns.  He is also the founder of Will Marlow Photography, which is one of the only <a href="http://www.willmarlowphotography.com/blog">certified Google Business Photography</a> partners worldwide.  <a href="http://www.twitter.com/willmarlow">Follow Will Marlow on Twitter here</a>.  </i><i>Or <a href="mailto:will@willmarlow.com">email</a> him here.</i></div> </div><p /><div><i>PS - I&#39;m hoping that this is one of the last posts I write before I re-launch (!) this blog with a new design, and a new purpose.</i></div> </p> <p><a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/facebook-advertising-vs-linkedin-advertising">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/facebook-advertising-vs-linkedin-advertising#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=uNjOUJcraz0:J1XxxA-bRH8:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=uNjOUJcraz0:J1XxxA-bRH8:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=uNjOUJcraz0:J1XxxA-bRH8:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=uNjOUJcraz0:J1XxxA-bRH8:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=uNjOUJcraz0:J1XxxA-bRH8:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=uNjOUJcraz0:J1XxxA-bRH8:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=uNjOUJcraz0:J1XxxA-bRH8:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=uNjOUJcraz0:J1XxxA-bRH8:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=uNjOUJcraz0:J1XxxA-bRH8:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/WillMarlowblog/~4/uNjOUJcraz0" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1495132/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4aGlPyGzYqf7 Will Marlow Will Will Marlow http://www.willmarlow.com/facebook-advertising-vs-linkedin-advertising Wed, 23 May 2012 11:54:00 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WillMarlowblog/~3/0FJvTTxlnS0/digital-marketing-isnt-all-about-digital http://www.willmarlow.com/digital-marketing-isnt-all-about-digital <p> <p><span style="color: #000000;">As a digital media consultant, I spend most of my time on digital marketing issues. &nbsp;And ever since I received my <a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/private/pwzggouuyf" target="_self">Google AdWords certification</a> from Google, I've been spending an increasing amount of time on paid search advertising. &nbsp;But it's important to know that the number one factor that influences search behavior is television. &nbsp;Which is why for some campaigns, TV commercials are incredibly important.</span></p> <p><span style="color: #000000;">For example, I'm working on a campaign to promote a new website (<a href="http://www.sortmymeds.com">Sort My Meds</a>) that is revolutioning medicine distribution. &nbsp;One of the biggest challenges in health care is the question of how to help people understand how to take multiple medications on a daily basis. &nbsp;Sort My Meds, created by <a href="http://www.medicine-on-time.com">Medicine-on-Time</a>, works with pharmacies to package your medicine daily, along with dosage instructions baked right into the packaging, and delivers the medicine to your home. &nbsp;This is an awesome product, and in my opinion, a TV commercial is one of the most effective ways to carry the message.</span></p> <p><span style="color: #000000;">Meanwhile, SEO and PPC ads help make sure that the people who see the TV commercials are able to find the website and get their free trial of the product.</span></p> <p><span style="color: #000000;">I'd love to know what you think of the commercial, embedded below. &nbsp;If you watch the whole video, you can see that this agency knows how to have a good time</span>.</p> <p><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/_kZ_pA8BwJ4?rel=0" frameborder="0" height="315" width="560"></iframe></p> <p><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: #424037; font-size: 12px; line-height: 21px; text-align: left;">Will Marlow is a digital marketing consultant who specializes in search engine optimization, Google AdWords (certified), Google Analytics (certified), social media, and blogging.&nbsp; He is also a Google Trusted Photographer who creates virtual tours of businesses. Follow him on&nbsp;<a href="http://www.twitter.com/willmarlow" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: #bc7134; text-decoration: none;">Twitter here</a>.</em></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> </p> <p><a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/digital-marketing-isnt-all-about-digital">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/digital-marketing-isnt-all-about-digital#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=0FJvTTxlnS0:2u0bSKgSmkw:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=0FJvTTxlnS0:2u0bSKgSmkw:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=0FJvTTxlnS0:2u0bSKgSmkw:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=0FJvTTxlnS0:2u0bSKgSmkw:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=0FJvTTxlnS0:2u0bSKgSmkw:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=0FJvTTxlnS0:2u0bSKgSmkw:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=0FJvTTxlnS0:2u0bSKgSmkw:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=0FJvTTxlnS0:2u0bSKgSmkw:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=0FJvTTxlnS0:2u0bSKgSmkw:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/WillMarlowblog/~4/0FJvTTxlnS0" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1495132/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4aGlPyGzYqf7 Will Marlow Will Will Marlow http://www.willmarlow.com/digital-marketing-isnt-all-about-digital Tue, 01 May 2012 03:01:00 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WillMarlowblog/~3/XwsDf9hC_zk/why-im-not-using-posterous-for-my-new-blog http://www.willmarlow.com/why-im-not-using-posterous-for-my-new-blog <p> <p>As most of you know, I'm a huge fan of Posterous. I think it's a great blogging platform.&nbsp; And for photo sharing it's top notch.&nbsp; So, you might be wondering why I'm not using Posterous for <a href="http://www.willmarlowphotography.com/blog" target="_self"><strong>my new photography blog</strong></a>, since I'm such a big fan.</p> <p>Here's why.&nbsp; I'm certified by <strong><a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/private/ABpAGIanEm" target="_self">Google in Google Analytics</a></strong>, because a big part of my marketing work involves analyzing website behavior and marketing campaigns.&nbsp; I need to be able to use Google Analytics in order to evaluate the effectiveness of advertising, social media, and other campaigns that generate website traffic.&nbsp; This helps me better advise someone on whether they should put more money/time into different marketing channels.&nbsp; And, long story short, Posterous doesn't allow me to customize the JavaScript snippets in Google Analytics the way I need to.</p> <p>Basically, with Posterous, you can install Google Analytics (which is a big step up from some other blogging platforms), but you can't get fancy with it.&nbsp; I need to be able to do e-commerce tracking, event tracking, and other fun things that aren't possible with Posterous.&nbsp; To be sure, 90% of bloggers don't need to get fancy with Google Analytics.&nbsp; But I do, because I enjoy it, and also because my clients need it from me, which means I should be using Google Analytics as much as possible on my own.&nbsp; Google Analytics is a constantly evolving product, so it helps me to use my own websites as sandboxes to test new ideas, and to refine my strategies.&nbsp;</p> <p>It is also a tradeoff between speed and flexibility.&nbsp; At one time in my life, speed was the priority.&nbsp; (For new bloggers, speed should almost always be the priority.)&nbsp; When it comes to speed, Posterous wins hands down.&nbsp; You can launch and maintain a beautiful website/blog in a fraction of the time that WordPress consumes.&nbsp; But now, I need flexibility, because I am going deep on Google Analytics, as well as on some other things, and that means I need a self-hosted WordPress website.&nbsp;</p> <p>Here's a virtual tour I released this week:</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><iframe scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/maps?q=&amp;layer=c&amp;sll=38.895883,-77.140256&amp;cid=14899630194472146932&amp;panoid=SMv5KvPWJ4ol_Inpjhtqtg&amp;cbp=13,165,,0,0&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;hq=+loc:+&amp;hnear=&amp;t=m&amp;cbll=38.895974,-77.140366&amp;ll=38.893375,-77.138958&amp;spn=0.005244,0.012059&amp;z=16&amp;source=embed&amp;output=svembed" frameborder="0" height="314" width="562"></iframe></p> <div><span style="color: #000000;"><em>Will Marlow wears two hats: first, he is a marketing/communications consultant for high growth companies. &nbsp;Secondly, he is a &nbsp;<a href="http://willmarlowphotography.com/google-trusted-photography/" target="_blank" style="color: #1155cc;">Google Trusted Photographer</a>&nbsp;who creates virtual tours of businesses and venues for Google Street View. &nbsp;</em></span></div> <p /> <div><em><span style="color: #000000;">Follow&nbsp;<a href="http://www.twitter.com/WillMarlow" target="_blank" style="color: #1155cc;">Will on Twitter here</a></span>.</em></div> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> </p> <p><a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/why-im-not-using-posterous-for-my-new-blog">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/why-im-not-using-posterous-for-my-new-blog#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=XwsDf9hC_zk:8S96ibt9PUc:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=XwsDf9hC_zk:8S96ibt9PUc:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=XwsDf9hC_zk:8S96ibt9PUc:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=XwsDf9hC_zk:8S96ibt9PUc:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=XwsDf9hC_zk:8S96ibt9PUc:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=XwsDf9hC_zk:8S96ibt9PUc:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=XwsDf9hC_zk:8S96ibt9PUc:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=XwsDf9hC_zk:8S96ibt9PUc:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=XwsDf9hC_zk:8S96ibt9PUc:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/WillMarlowblog/~4/XwsDf9hC_zk" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1495132/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4aGlPyGzYqf7 Will Marlow Will Will Marlow http://www.willmarlow.com/why-im-not-using-posterous-for-my-new-blog Mon, 30 Apr 2012 02:59:00 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WillMarlowblog/~3/oCN8d1VEISE/my-next-big-photography-project-and-my-new-bl http://www.willmarlow.com/my-next-big-photography-project-and-my-new-bl <p> <p>April was a big month for me. I launched a new blog, and started a new business project.&nbsp; The new blog is all about photography, and so is my new project. Specifically, I became a <strong><a href="http://maps.google.com/help/maps/businessphotos/get-started.html" target="_blank">Google Trusted Photographer</a></strong> in April, which means I am now creating virtual tours of businesses for Google Maps and Google Places.</p> <p>Essentially, I visit a wide variety of businesses in Virginia, Maryland and DC (and I'm willing to travel, although there are other Google photographers in other places), and I take hundreds of photographs in each location. Then, I use Google software to turn the photoshoot into a virtual tour that gets added to Google Maps. It's fascinating work, lots of fun, and it means I get to spend a lot of time talking to business owners, which I love doing.</p> <p>I'm continuing to spend at least 50% of my time as a marketing consultant with several clients. For example, I recently started working with a great advertising agency in Virginia, where I'm running digital advertising campaigns, including AdWords campaigns, social media campaigns, as well as advising and contributing on other projects. I'm also advising a number of startups currently.</p> <p>I will continue to update this blog.&nbsp; But I'm also going to be writing for <strong><a href="http://www.willmarlowphotography.com" target="_self">WillMarlowPhotography.com</a></strong>, which is where I'm sharing my photography and tours.&nbsp; I'd love it if you'd</p> <p>I hope you'll check out my new blog, navigate one of the virtual tours, and consider subscribing.&nbsp; I'll be sharing all my new completed tours (three new ones are coming this week), and I'll offer discounts on photography services to subscribers periodically.&nbsp;</p> <p>I hope you like the new blog, and don't hesitate to ask me any questions about the program.&nbsp; You can see one of the tours embedded below.&nbsp;</p> <p>Also, if you are familiar with any businesses in DC, Maryland, or Virginia that you think would benefit from having a virtual tour, I would love an introduction.&nbsp;</p> <p><iframe scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/maps?q=&amp;layer=c&amp;sll=38.896440,-77.096729&amp;cid=6303606499320445091&amp;panoid=57vnjO9oOSBlYaoyC1p7GQ&amp;cbp=13,343.68,,0,9.98&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;hq=+loc:+&amp;hnear=&amp;t=m&amp;cbll=38.896434,-77.096722&amp;source=embed&amp;ll=38.894941,-77.09674&amp;spn=0.005211,0.012038&amp;z=16&amp;output=svembed" frameborder="0" height="314" width="562"></iframe></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><em>Will Marlow is a digital marketing consultant who specializes in search engine optimization, Google AdWords (certified), Google Analytics (certified), social media, and blogging.&nbsp; He is also a Google Trusted Photographer who creates virtual tours of businesses. Follow him on <a href="http://www.twitter.com/willmarlow">Twitter here</a>. </em></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> </p> <p><a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/my-next-big-photography-project-and-my-new-bl">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/my-next-big-photography-project-and-my-new-bl#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=oCN8d1VEISE:h2jjccN-Cfk:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=oCN8d1VEISE:h2jjccN-Cfk:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=oCN8d1VEISE:h2jjccN-Cfk:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=oCN8d1VEISE:h2jjccN-Cfk:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=oCN8d1VEISE:h2jjccN-Cfk:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=oCN8d1VEISE:h2jjccN-Cfk:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=oCN8d1VEISE:h2jjccN-Cfk:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=oCN8d1VEISE:h2jjccN-Cfk:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=oCN8d1VEISE:h2jjccN-Cfk:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/WillMarlowblog/~4/oCN8d1VEISE" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1495132/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4aGlPyGzYqf7 Will Marlow Will Will Marlow http://www.willmarlow.com/my-next-big-photography-project-and-my-new-bl Tue, 17 Apr 2012 06:38:00 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WillMarlowblog/~3/84Zx03mAjtI/how-to-manage-multiple-facebook-administrator http://www.willmarlow.com/how-to-manage-multiple-facebook-administrator <p> <div class="ii gt adP adO"> <div> <div><span style="color: #000000;"><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile3.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-04-16/fjovhnijdfBqoIxipprnyHGlEsEInhHxuJdqnoJqFzhqsEoijmmisldgalbE/original_pillars_of_the_capitol.jpg.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="Original_pillars_of_the_capitol" height="331" src="http://getfile0.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-04-16/fjovhnijdfBqoIxipprnyHGlEsEInhHxuJdqnoJqFzhqsEoijmmisldgalbE/original_pillars_of_the_capitol.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> Creating a social media content team within your company is one of the best ways to generate a high volume of posts for Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks. &nbsp;Most of the time, you won't be successful if one person alone is supposed to create 100% of the content.</span></div> <p /> <div><span style="color: #000000;">But if you have ten Facebook administrators on your team, sometimes it's best for those administrators to leave a comment under their own name in response to something someone else wrote, or to "Like" a post under their own name. &nbsp;(It looks a bit silly when a fan page "likes" something it wrote itself.)</span></div> <p /> <div><span style="color: #000000;">Here's how you solve the problem of multiple admins posting under the name of a Facebook fan page:</span></div> <div><ol> <li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="color: #000000;">Each admin needs to login to Facebook</span></li> <li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="color: #000000;">Visit the Facebook fan page</span></li> <li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="color: #000000;">Select "Manage"</span></li> <li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="color: #000000;">Select "Edit Page"</span></li> <li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="color: #000000;">Select "Your Settings"</span></li> <li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="color: #000000;">UN-select "Posting Preferences," -- this will have the effect of changing the default that currently forces you to post under the name of your Facebook fan page. &nbsp;</span></li> </ol> <div><span style="color: #000000;">This allows admins to "Like" posts, comment under their own voice, etc. &nbsp;</span></div> <p /> <div><span style="color: #000000;">You should send these instructions to anyone who is an admin of your page. &nbsp;</span></div> </div> <p /> <div><span style="color: #000000;"><em>Will Marlow wears two hats: first, he is a marketing/communications consultant for high growth companies. &nbsp;Secondly, he is a &nbsp;<a href="http://willmarlowphotography.com/google-trusted-photography/" target="_blank" style="color: #1155cc;">Google Trusted Photographer</a>&nbsp;who creates virtual tours of businesses and venues for Google Street View. &nbsp;</em></span></div> <p /> <div><em><span style="color: #000000;">Follow&nbsp;<a href="http://www.twitter.com/WillMarlow" target="_blank" style="color: #1155cc;">Will on Twitter here</a></span>.</em></div> </div> </div> <p>&nbsp;</p> </p> <p><a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/how-to-manage-multiple-facebook-administrator">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/how-to-manage-multiple-facebook-administrator#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=84Zx03mAjtI:yLq3wtgPHgg:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=84Zx03mAjtI:yLq3wtgPHgg:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=84Zx03mAjtI:yLq3wtgPHgg:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a 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http://posterous.com/users/4aGlPyGzYqf7 Will Marlow Will Will Marlow http://www.willmarlow.com/how-to-manage-multiple-facebook-administrator Mon, 10 Oct 2011 09:22:00 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WillMarlowblog/~3/tCR6pN_yrhw/get-more-out-of-social-media-by-using-simple http://www.willmarlow.com/get-more-out-of-social-media-by-using-simple <p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile6.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/willmarlow/GENasa2t8OMiZw8TaEwnDhJcuJGXO73MHdpHGhcYKnyUxeEBxpc2gwBEYQMh/reston_oktoberfest_carnival.jpg.scaled.1000.jpg"><img alt="Reston_oktoberfest_carnival" height="331" src="http://getfile4.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/willmarlow/jovEJZmsa3mmxVg30A9WRQOB3B04DuojOrXN86fbNjh2DWG8uxo6rJfnmk45/reston_oktoberfest_carnival.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p><span style="color: #000000;"><em>"Give me enough medals, and I'll win any war."</em></span></p> <div><span style="color: #000000;"><em>"A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon." &nbsp;</em></span></div> <p /> <div><span style="color: #000000;"><em>-Napoleon Bonaparte&nbsp;</em></span></div> <p /> <div><span style="color: #000000;">If you want to know why some people are able to achieve their marketing goals using social media, and other people are <em>not</em>, you should spend some time thinking about incentives. &nbsp;You can pay an army of bloggers to write about you, but once you stop paying them, they'll stop writing. &nbsp;But if you survey your company / nonprofit / association, you'll find employees / board members / customers who are willing to share their expertise in exchange for something <em>other </em>than money: recognition and respect. &nbsp;As long as you show sincere appreciation and offer public recognition to these volunteer writers, they'll keep writing. &nbsp;</span></div> <p /> <div><span style="color: #000000;">On a related note: over the weekend I volunteered as a "Beer Captain" at the Reston (Virginia) Oktoberfest, put on by the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/RestonChamber"><strong>Reston Chamber of Commerce</strong></a>, where my wife is the Director of Communications.&nbsp; You may need to get creative, but you should apply this lesson to your social media strategy. &nbsp;Give people fun titles (like "Beer Captain"), ask them to join expert panels, and be sure to publicly acknowledge their accomplishments. &nbsp;If you do this in a thoughtful way, they'll not only contribute more often, but they'll push themselves to live up to your standards. &nbsp;</span></div> <p /> <div><em><span style="color: #424037; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; line-height: 21px; background-color: #ffffff;"><em style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Will Marlow is a PR specialist, marketer, and social media consultant. &nbsp;He took the above photograph at Reston's Oktoberfest. &nbsp;You should&nbsp;<a href="http://www.twitter.com/WillMarlow" target="_blank" style="color: #bc7134; text-decoration: none; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">follow Will Marlow on Twitter</a>&nbsp;or <a href="https://plus.google.com/114313615710604492651/posts">Google+</a>.</em></span></em></div> </p> <p><a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/get-more-out-of-social-media-by-using-simple">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/get-more-out-of-social-media-by-using-simple#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=tCR6pN_yrhw:rUefCm1yrvQ:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=tCR6pN_yrhw:rUefCm1yrvQ:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=tCR6pN_yrhw:rUefCm1yrvQ:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a 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http://posterous.com/users/4aGlPyGzYqf7 Will Marlow Will Will Marlow http://www.willmarlow.com/get-more-out-of-social-media-by-using-simple Thu, 22 Sep 2011 15:48:00 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WillMarlowblog/~3/Kv-GadHYJLk/how-to-use-religion-to-create-a-great-brand-e http://www.willmarlow.com/how-to-use-religion-to-create-a-great-brand-e <p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile8.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/willmarlow/eJRVrInq5KEQmnNUut8PapIVmP0cE2AOA83vgi5kJO4tDtvr2YZLGC6kGtF4/lincoln_two_lights.jpg.scaled.1000.jpg"><img alt="Lincoln_two_lights" height="331" src="http://getfile6.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/willmarlow/PiLpvP6l3CkNF8bF7bNbD2PXbOy4MPoDswT3baACCTc0VJrtRVduD60EKfKy/lincoln_two_lights.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p>Marketers can learn from ancient mythology.<p />For example, we learn from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Joseph-Campbell-Power-Myth-III/dp/B00005MEVQ">Joseph Campbell</a>&nbsp;that in just about every culture, a God cannot be reduced through multiplicity.&nbsp; The God can show up in thousands of places, and in thousands of forms, simultaneously without diluting its power.&nbsp; This means that whether a God appears in a burning bush, a bowl of cereal, or descends from a cloud, the God always carries the same meaning and power.<p /> This should be the aspiration of every great brand.&nbsp; Whether your brand appears on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, fliers, in print ads, on TV, or elsewhere, it should carry the same standards of excellence. &nbsp;This also means that one of the biggest threats to brands these days is the pressure to do too much (and to be too many places) in the social media space. &nbsp;<p /> But you can look at one of the 21st century's greatest marketers, Seth Godin, for an example of how you can successfully resist the pressure to overextend yourself.&nbsp; Seth Godin didn't get on Twitter until <em>last year.&nbsp; </em>He didn't get on Facebook until <em>last year</em>.&nbsp; And once he finally adopted those platforms, his first order of business was managing his fans expectations.&nbsp; He makes it very clear that he <em>only </em>uses Twitter and Facebook to post his new blog entries, which is where he spends his time. &nbsp;He doesn't try to halfheartedly interact with people, to respond to comments, or to post interesting observations. &nbsp;This ensures that when people experience the Seth Godin brand, <strong>they never get a diluted version.</strong>&nbsp; Whether they experience him on Facebook, Twitter, or anywhere else, they always get the same thing.&nbsp; This means he may miss some opportunities by not using Twitter or Facebook to their full potential, but it also means that he doesn't diminish his own message, just like one of the Gods in Joseph Campbell's books.</p> <p><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 21px; color: #424037; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><em style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Will Marlow is a PR specialist, marketer, and amateur photographer who lives in Northern Virginia. You should&nbsp;<a href="http://www.twitter.com/WillMarlow" target="_blank" style="color: #bc7134; text-decoration: none; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">follow Will Marlow on Twitter</a>.</em></span></p> </p> <p><a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/how-to-use-religion-to-create-a-great-brand-e">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/how-to-use-religion-to-create-a-great-brand-e#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=Kv-GadHYJLk:jte5-3hgigs:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=Kv-GadHYJLk:jte5-3hgigs:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=Kv-GadHYJLk:jte5-3hgigs:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=Kv-GadHYJLk:jte5-3hgigs:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=Kv-GadHYJLk:jte5-3hgigs:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=Kv-GadHYJLk:jte5-3hgigs:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=Kv-GadHYJLk:jte5-3hgigs:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=Kv-GadHYJLk:jte5-3hgigs:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=Kv-GadHYJLk:jte5-3hgigs:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/WillMarlowblog/~4/Kv-GadHYJLk" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1495132/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4aGlPyGzYqf7 Will Marlow Will Will Marlow http://www.willmarlow.com/how-to-use-religion-to-create-a-great-brand-e Wed, 24 Aug 2011 11:29:00 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WillMarlowblog/~3/MJ0Ue1vzNUg/this-is-the-only-thing-thats-free-about-socia http://www.willmarlow.com/this-is-the-only-thing-thats-free-about-socia <p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile3.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/willmarlow/5EdvdYnoxvbacK6kscbu1SUQspihjx3IAqvs4qFuDvSRNjQ25ztWrABCoDV1/border_collie.jpg.scaled.1000.jpg"><img alt="Border_collie" height="419" src="http://getfile1.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/willmarlow/hSHN5hYi2TSdr8Ney9h9jw8U9xXTB6LfpnHNIMRxiZ8zjcewVDGUrAfjHfM2/border_collie.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p><span style="color: #000000;">People often think that social media is attractive because it's free.&nbsp; But this is a simple misconception.&nbsp; Social media isn't free.&nbsp; Social media <em>simply scales for free</em>, but it won't scale at all without an upfront investment.</span><p /> <span style="color: #000000;">Just look at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_Black">Rebecca Black</a>, who is famous for performing what many people think is the worst song ever written, and the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfVsfOSbJY0">worst music video ever produced</a>.&nbsp; Her mother <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/exclusive-rebecca-black-fighting-ark-music-factory-over-friday-20110401">invested $4,000</a> in making the video, and now it has made more than enough money for her to pay for college.</span><p /> <span style="color: #000000;">If you want sensational results with social media, you need to invest whatever is necessary for your particular social media program to begin to scale, because <strong>scaling happens for free</strong>, which means you can reach far more people than you'd be able to pay to reach through advertising.&nbsp; </span><p /> <span style="color: #000000;">The key question on everyone's mind at this point should be: how much does it cost for content to scale?&nbsp; The answer depends entirely on who you want to reach with your content, and the nature of the content itself.&nbsp; Proctor &amp; Gamble has probably spent millions of dollars by now on its successful <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/OldSpice">Old Spice Guy campaign</a>, and they will probably continue to spend, because even though it may not be as successful as Rebecca Black's $4,000 video, it is no doubt generating more exposure than they could have paid the same amount of money to get.</span><p /> <span style="color: #000000;">At the other end of the spectrum, many people choose to go with a content only marketing approach on social media.&nbsp; This is similar to Seth Godin's "drip marketing," where you create new, valuable content on a daily basis for your audience, eventually building an online portfolio of compelling content that draws your customers into your universe and earns their trust.&nbsp; <a href="http://www.copyblogger.com/content-marketing/">CopyBlogger</a> is hands down the best source of information on content marketing, and despite never having spent a dime on advertising, the CopyBlogger Media company is generating seven figures in revenue with well-over 50% margins.&nbsp; Their upfront investment was in the form of design, hosting, travel, and conference costs.&nbsp; At this point, however, after six years CopyBlogger is now built on a solid foundation, and they benefit tremendously from free scaling.</span><p /> <span style="color: #000000;">For those of you who choose to pay for advertising in addition to having a social media program, one of the biggest mistakes you can make is treating those two programs as completely separate.&nbsp; I've worked with a number of clients who started by separating the two programs completely.&nbsp; But your goal should always be to bring in only NEW people through paid advertising, and once they know you, you should be able to interact with them freely via your preferred social media channels.&nbsp; If this isn't a part of your marketing strategy, then you're going to pay too much for your advertising over time, and your social media program will probably never scale.</span><p /> <span style="color: #000000;">I think that some people have resisted social media marketing all along because they instinctively believe that there is no such thing as free ice cream.&nbsp; For those of you who feel that way, I'm on your side.&nbsp; Social media marketing is fantastic, but only if you're willing to make the investment in time and resources to start to scale. </span><p /> <span style="color: #000000;"><em>Will Marlow is a Public Relations and digital marketing specialist. The photograph of the salivating dog above was also featured in this week's issue of the <a href="http://www.arlingtondogparks.posterous.com" target="_blank">A-Town Dog Blog</a>. <br /></em></span></p> </p> <p><a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/this-is-the-only-thing-thats-free-about-socia">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/this-is-the-only-thing-thats-free-about-socia#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=MJ0Ue1vzNUg:1w9NLMGwxcw:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=MJ0Ue1vzNUg:1w9NLMGwxcw:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=MJ0Ue1vzNUg:1w9NLMGwxcw:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=MJ0Ue1vzNUg:1w9NLMGwxcw:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=MJ0Ue1vzNUg:1w9NLMGwxcw:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=MJ0Ue1vzNUg:1w9NLMGwxcw:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=MJ0Ue1vzNUg:1w9NLMGwxcw:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=MJ0Ue1vzNUg:1w9NLMGwxcw:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=MJ0Ue1vzNUg:1w9NLMGwxcw:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/WillMarlowblog/~4/MJ0Ue1vzNUg" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1495132/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4aGlPyGzYqf7 Will Marlow Will Will Marlow http://www.willmarlow.com/this-is-the-only-thing-thats-free-about-socia Tue, 09 Aug 2011 11:15:00 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WillMarlowblog/~3/aAspkIu-Jww/three-reasons-why-twitter-is-better-than-goog http://www.willmarlow.com/three-reasons-why-twitter-is-better-than-goog <p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile8.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/willmarlow/YQMMzNsNjoewB6b01ETkIJo6ZYkETgrFm3Xivc4nfVGEvZUqj4KtQ3U4BCtA/winston_and_paw.jpg.scaled.1000.jpg"><img alt="Winston_and_paw" height="333" src="http://getfile6.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/willmarlow/MRmMdkhaHbhArEiM4WC8IoqrdmkHtPbYElo4hBqes2Sz5xAlFjMhndaPbXWL/winston_and_paw.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p><span style="color: #000000;">This post could also have been named, "Why Twitter is the Ultimate Tool for Personal Branding."&nbsp; </span><p /><span style="color: #000000;">I've been on Google+ since it's early beta days, and I like the social network very much.&nbsp; It's a fantastic system for sharing information, and connecting with people.&nbsp; I am being followed by <a href="https://plus.google.com/114313615710604492651/posts" target="_blank">2,400 people</a><a href="https://plus.google.com/114313615710604492651/posts" target="_blank"> on G+</a>, and although I'm being followed by <a href="http://www.twitter.com/WillMarlow" target="_blank">7,200+ on Twitter</a>, it took me a lot longer to reach that level of influence on Twitter (I've been on Twitter since 2006). </span><p /> <span style="color: #000000;">In my opinion, Twitter is enormously valuable for personal branding <strong>because it is optimized for delivering crucial information after a brief glance, in under ten seconds.</strong>&nbsp; This is why Twitter can serve as a "living resume" that constantly keeps people updated on your real priorities.&nbsp; Google+ fails at this.&nbsp; And it fails badly.&nbsp; But all hope isn't lost.&nbsp; G+ is still useful, and if you're interested in this topic, you should read this to the end, and I'll make sure to explain why Google+ can help you accomplish some key branding and communications goals in the last paragraph.</span><p /> <span style="color: #000000;">Here are the three reasons why Twitter is better than Google Plus for personal branding: </span></p> <ol> <li><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>Twitter allows only one type of posting.&nbsp; </strong>You post to your timeline on Twitter, and it doesn't matter if you're responding to someone else's post, or if you want to make a comment on something you've already posted.&nbsp; You can only post to YOUR timeline on Twitter, and you can only do so in reverse chronological order.&nbsp; On Google+ it is <em>very</em> different.&nbsp; You can post on your feed, or you can make a comment on a post that you've already made, or you can make a comment on someone else's feed.&nbsp; This means that a quick glance at your Google Plus profile doesn't reveal much about you.&nbsp; It doesn't tell someone how often you post, or how often you interact with others, and it doesn't reveal what's most important to you.&nbsp; Twitter, due to its rigid, top-line posting format, immediately reveals what you care about.&nbsp; <a href="http://www.twitter.com/chrisbrogan" target="_blank">Chris Brogan cares about talking to people</a>.&nbsp; <a href="http://www.twitter.com/guykawasaki" target="_blank">Guy Kawasaki cares about posting interesting things</a>.</span></li> <li><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>Google+ let's you hide key information about third party validation.</strong>&nbsp; On Google+, you can hide how many people you've added to circles.&nbsp; You can also hide how many people have added <em>you</em> to circles.&nbsp; You can't do either of those things on Twitter, which means that a quick glance at&nbsp; a Twitter profile will reveal how much third-party validation the person has, based on how many people are following them.&nbsp; **In fact, the only third party validation that is automatically available on G+ is the number of times people have +1'd your posts, and the number of times people have commented on your posts.&nbsp; Coupled with the first point I made above about the ability to make non-top-level comments on G+, this actually creates a perverse incentive for people on Google+ to prolong stupid conversations to boost the number of comments that are made on their posts.&nbsp; This incentive is absent on Twitter.</span></li> <li><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>On Google+, you can selectively hide your posts.&nbsp; </strong>This creates a huge amount of uncertainty for anyone who takes a quick glance at your profile.&nbsp; Unlike on Twitter, Google+ reveals nothing about a person's priorities after a quick glance.&nbsp; On Twitter, you can make ALL your posts private, or ALL your posts public, but there is no uncertainty about a users posting habits, because private accounts are clearly marked.</span></li> </ol> <p><span style="color: #000000;">The power of Twitter is that you can get a lot of value out of it in a short amount of time, and by spending more time, you can get more and more value out of it.&nbsp; This means that people have an incentive to find and follow new people on Twitter, because they feel like they can rapidly AND accurately assess a new Twitter user.&nbsp; (Contrast this to the pre-Twitter world: no one wanted to sign up for E-Newsletters because they were afraid that they would be inundated by spam from the company.&nbsp; The perceived cost of taking a chance on receiving information from an unknown company was much higher.)</span><p /> <span style="color: #000000;"><strong>So what's so good about Google+?&nbsp; </strong>Google+ is optimized for allowing you to share rich experiences with people, like photographs and videos, and long-format comments.&nbsp; This means that Google+ can be a great supplementary social media profile.&nbsp; After people get to know you elsewhere, like on Twitter, you may benefit tremendously from giving them the option to engage with you on G+, just like photographers often give people the option to engage with them on Flickr. </span><p /> <span style="color: #000000;">But don't expect G+ to perform the revolutionary role that Twitter has performed since its creation, which is its role as the ultimate tool in personal branding.</span><p /><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 21px; color: #424037; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><em style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Will Marlow is a PR specialist, blogger, and amateur photographer who lives in Northern Virginia. The dog in the photograph above does not need your pillow, just his paw.&nbsp; You should&nbsp;<a href="http://www.twitter.com/WillMarlow" target="_blank" style="color: #bc7134; text-decoration: none; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">follow Will Marlow on Twitter</a>.&nbsp; </em></span></p> </p> <p><a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/three-reasons-why-twitter-is-better-than-goog">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/three-reasons-why-twitter-is-better-than-goog#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=aAspkIu-Jww:GcaQGwcaILY:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=aAspkIu-Jww:GcaQGwcaILY:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=aAspkIu-Jww:GcaQGwcaILY:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=aAspkIu-Jww:GcaQGwcaILY:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=aAspkIu-Jww:GcaQGwcaILY:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=aAspkIu-Jww:GcaQGwcaILY:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=aAspkIu-Jww:GcaQGwcaILY:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=aAspkIu-Jww:GcaQGwcaILY:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=aAspkIu-Jww:GcaQGwcaILY:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/WillMarlowblog/~4/aAspkIu-Jww" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1495132/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4aGlPyGzYqf7 Will Marlow Will Will Marlow http://www.willmarlow.com/three-reasons-why-twitter-is-better-than-goog Mon, 01 Aug 2011 08:36:00 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WillMarlowblog/~3/wgco3CoBlMQ/when-should-a-startup-invest-in-pr http://www.willmarlow.com/when-should-a-startup-invest-in-pr <p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile2.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-08-01/HlEqttIlxDrsBwmGCErxCdlnewzghhGgwsfyBtjAGnlptizxnCkvnElgrCtt/winston_belly_up.jpg.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="Winston_belly_up" height="331" src="http://getfile9.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-08-01/HlEqttIlxDrsBwmGCErxCdlnewzghhGgwsfyBtjAGnlptizxnCkvnElgrCtt/winston_belly_up.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p><span style="color: #000000;">A big mistake that startups make is thinking that a company needs to be a certain (specific) size before it should begin investing seriously in public relations. <strong>That's the wrong way to look at it.</strong></span></p> <p><span style="color: #000000;">Instead, you should ask yourself: <strong>what does our company care about?&nbsp;</strong> What do we need to accomplish, and how does PR fit in?&nbsp; For example, most startups care about three things: (1) finding new customers, (2) retaining more current customers, and (3) shortening sales cycles.&nbsp; PR can help with all of those things, but you need to know what you care about most before you pick a strategy, and certainly before you pick tactics.</span></p> <p><span style="color: #000000;">Public relations is never a one-size-fits-all discipline.&nbsp; Some companies need to invest in PR before they earn their first dollar in revenue.&nbsp; Other companies are better off spending their resources elsewhere until they're ready to scale their operations.&nbsp; So don't wait until you hit some magic revenue number.&nbsp; </span></p> <p><span style="color: #000000;">Invest in PR at the moment when you're ready to benefit from shining a spotlight on your website / product / company / idea.</span>&nbsp; (By the way, asking the question, "What do we care about" is a good idea no matter what type of organization you work for, and it'll help you avoid making lots of bad decisions, with PR or anything else.)</p> <p><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 21px; color: #424037; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><em style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Will Marlow is a PR specialist, blogger, and amateur photographer who lives in Northern Virginia. The dog in the photograph above would like you to rub his tummy.&nbsp; You should&nbsp;<a href="http://www.twitter.com/WillMarlow" target="_blank" style="color: #bc7134; text-decoration: none; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">follow Will Marlow on Twitter</a>.&nbsp; <br /></em></span></p> </p> <p><a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/when-should-a-startup-invest-in-pr">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/when-should-a-startup-invest-in-pr#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=wgco3CoBlMQ:lyOi8Wgbhq8:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=wgco3CoBlMQ:lyOi8Wgbhq8:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=wgco3CoBlMQ:lyOi8Wgbhq8:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=wgco3CoBlMQ:lyOi8Wgbhq8:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=wgco3CoBlMQ:lyOi8Wgbhq8:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=wgco3CoBlMQ:lyOi8Wgbhq8:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=wgco3CoBlMQ:lyOi8Wgbhq8:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=wgco3CoBlMQ:lyOi8Wgbhq8:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=wgco3CoBlMQ:lyOi8Wgbhq8:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/WillMarlowblog/~4/wgco3CoBlMQ" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1495132/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4aGlPyGzYqf7 Will Marlow Will Will Marlow http://www.willmarlow.com/when-should-a-startup-invest-in-pr Mon, 18 Jul 2011 11:56:00 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WillMarlowblog/~3/097ROkHLbBs/the-eight-things-you-need-to-know-about-googl http://www.willmarlow.com/the-eight-things-you-need-to-know-about-googl <p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile9.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/willmarlow/qgbSOrY1POA3ZkGUAVg2zboyUj2FDU9aWEI4ltTfySWyyRKqxu4DseEEzNEK/5770546332_0553e3885f_b-1.jpg.scaled.1000.jpg"><img alt="5770546332_0553e3885f_b-1" height="331" src="http://getfile7.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/willmarlow/IRfDSmM44ecUgAIjrCq06VQIdZVrVLrTbXE50pp9jHvmROst6OsBARTDIQdk/5770546332_0553e3885f_b-1.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p><span style="color: #000000;">Most people have heard about Google+ by now, which is Google's latest attempt at launching a social network.&nbsp; Whenever a major new social media product is launched, I publish a guide explaining the most important eight things you need to know about it.&nbsp; I did this for <a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/eight-things-you-need-to-know-about-google-bu" target="_blank">Google Buzz</a>, and I did it for <a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/8-things-you-need-to-know-about-facebooks-pla" target="_blank">Facebook's Open Graph</a>, and those were two of my most popular posts.&nbsp; Now that I've had about a month to get to know G+, I wanted to share the&nbsp;<strong>Eight Things You Need to Know About Google Plus</strong>, and I hope it's helpful to you.</span></p> <ol> <li><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>Why is Google Plus important?&nbsp; </strong>It's important for lots of reasons, but here's the most significant: Google is directly tying its new social media platform to its search results, and Google search is the most important search engine in the world.&nbsp; Google Plus influences search results in two important ways: (1) it lets Google deliver more personalized results to people who use G+, and (2) it influences aggregate search results delivered to users everywhere by helping Google understand which websites are spammy and which ones are popular and relevant.&nbsp; If you have NOT created a Google Plus account, you can see an example of the first point right now.&nbsp; When you are logged into Google (not Google Plus, but just regular Google), you'll see a +1 next to all search results in the Google results page.&nbsp; When you click the plus one, this is basically like casting a vote in favor of the page, and Google will use that vote as part of its famous algorithm for delivering search results and advertisements.&nbsp; So right off the bat, forget the significance of Google+ as a social network.&nbsp; Think of Google+ as a key component of the Google search product that drives $20 billion a year in advertising revenue.</span></li> <li><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>Is Google Plus REALLY that important, or is it just marketing hype?&nbsp; </strong>As a trained marketer myself, I DO admire the <a href="http://prbreakfastclub.com/2011/06/29/google-plus-launch/" target="_blank">excellent job that the Google team has done in selling this social network</a> to the public. But don't be cynical: it IS important.&nbsp; Here is the proof: Google is like Warren Buffett, <a href="http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/10/billionaires-2010_Warren-Buffett_C0R3.html" target="_blank">the third wealthiest person in the world</a>, with $50 billion in personal wealth.&nbsp;&nbsp; Warren Buffett's biggest challenge at this point is identifying opportunities that are worth his time.&nbsp; This is also Google's biggest challenge.&nbsp; A $100 million opportunity isn't worth his sweat, and it's not worth Google's sweat either.&nbsp; They can't waste their time on small potatoes.&nbsp; And Google Plus is driving A LOT of energy of Googlers.&nbsp; It's huge.&nbsp; They are investing their brand, their engineering talent and time, and their marketing dollars in pushing this product.&nbsp; That means that they see a big opportunity.&nbsp; Now, they might be wrong, like they were <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Buzz" target="_blank">with Google Buzz</a>, which is probably NOT a multi-billion dollar asset, but for now, marketers and PR folks like you and me need to take this seriously, because Google is taking it seriously.&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></li> <li><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>So how do you use Google Plus?&nbsp; </strong>This is where Google Plus is winning a lot of praise.&nbsp; Using Google Plus is pretty easy.&nbsp; You create an account, and you add people to different circles that you want to receive information from, and you can easily switch between multiple streams to see information on different topics.&nbsp; G+ provides very few restrictions on how you share content and information.&nbsp; This post is NOT a tutorial on using Google Plus, so look elsewhere for that -- the focus here is on WHY Google Plus is important.&nbsp; Point number three is simply that Google Plus is important because it's intuitive, easy and fairly enjoyable to use, and this is driving a lot of its usage right now.</span></li> <li><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>How Is Google Plus Different from Facebook?&nbsp; </strong>I love this topic, but I know a lot of people disagree with me here.&nbsp; In <a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/why-google-will-not-kill-facebook">my last post I wrote that Google Plus is an <em>information-centric </em>social network</a>, whereas Facebook is a <em>relationship-centric </em>social network.&nbsp; Think about it: with Facebook, you get <strong>zero value until someone acknowledges</strong> and agrees to have a relationship with you.&nbsp; You need reciprocal friendships on Facebook. But on Google Plus, you can get value without a relationship with someone.&nbsp; I can add people to circles without their approval.&nbsp; To me, this is the <strong>defining difference between Facebook and Google Plus</strong>, and I think it's the reason that Google Plus doesn't compete directly with Facebook.&nbsp; I think that this difference is Facebook's defining attribute, and key strength.&nbsp; The growth of a reciprocal network like Facebook is going to be slowed by the very fact that connections are made in two steps: (step 1 = friend request and step 2 = friend acceptance).&nbsp; Google Plus grows through a <strong>one-step process</strong>: friend request.&nbsp;&nbsp; Asynchronous networks like Twitter and Google Plus are trying to compete on different terms: <strong>they want to be the best places to curate useful information</strong>, and to deliver useful information to tribes of followers (my <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Tribes-We-Need-You-Lead/dp/1591842336" target="_blank">apologies to Seth Godin</a>, for borrowing his term).&nbsp; </span></li> <li><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>So w</strong><strong>ho does Google Plus compete with?&nbsp; </strong>See point #4, but I think that Google Plus competes directly with any asynchronous social network, primarily Twitter.&nbsp; Google Plus is in the information business, and I am surprised that so many people disagree with me on this, because <a href="http://www.google.com/about/corporate/company/">Google itself has a global mission of organizing the world's information</a>.&nbsp; So why wouldn't they create an information-centric social network?&nbsp; Google Plus sees a multi-billion dollar opportunity to do two things: (a) create a great social network that people spend lots of time on, and (b) protect the integrity and value of their search engine results.&nbsp; Both of these goals are key to Google's motivation here.&nbsp; Killing Facebook is not on Google's mind, and if it were to happen it would be a secondary benefit.</span></li> <li><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>Why do people want to USE Google Plus?&nbsp; </strong>This is a complicated question.&nbsp; Different people want to use it for different things. A professional "search engine optimizer" wants to use it to influence search results for clients.&nbsp; Most PR pros want to use it the same way they use Twitter, to share information with their personal network, and to expand their personal network.&nbsp; (On that note, <a href="https://plus.google.com/114313615710604492651/about" target="_blank">you should add me to your circles on G+</a>.) Casual users want to share photos, videos, and long-form writing.&nbsp; The casual user is the greatest mystery in the world to me, because I am not one of them.&nbsp; I use social media platforms for targeted purposes, like driving traffic to websites, creating sales leads, establishing new relationships, strengthening existing relationships, and for deepening my understanding of best practices when creating new web experiences on my own.&nbsp; </span></li> <li><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>How is Google Plus different from LinkedIn?&nbsp; </strong>Simple: LinkedIn (and Facebook) requires a reciprocal relationships before you get ANY value.&nbsp; Stop right there.&nbsp; This is the only difference that really matters, because it defines how you use LinkedIn, as well as Facebook, and thus it also defines how you use Google Plus.</span></li> <li><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>How is Google Plus different from Twitter?&nbsp; </strong>Both Twitter and Google Plus are asynchronous social networks, which means you don't need a reciprocal relationship to follow someone on Twitter or Google Plus.&nbsp; To me, this is the <strong>defining similarity between Google Plus and Twitter</strong>.&nbsp; Following this similarity, there is <strong>ONE</strong> <strong>KEY DIFFERENCE</strong> between Google Plus and Twitter, which is that with Twitter, everything you say is chronological, and all posts on Twitter are equal.&nbsp; If I want to make a comment on someone else's Tweet, I need to make a new Tweet myself.&nbsp; That is to say, <strong>the concept of a sub-level comment or a second-tier comment does not exist in Twitter</strong>.&nbsp; There is a <strong>democracy of posting in Twitter,</strong> because before I post anything I need to ask myself whether it is something that I want EVERYONE to see.&nbsp; Google Plus, on the other hand, let's you comment on someone else's post without adding anything to your own G+ stream.&nbsp; <em>Huge difference there.&nbsp; </em>Following this key difference, you need to look at differences at the <em>feature </em>level, like this: Twitter has follow limits, which Google Plus currently does NOT.&nbsp; Twitter has character limitations of 140 characters, which Google Plus does not. Twitter has much more severe limitations on how "rich media" like videos and images are displayed, and Google Plus tries to outdo Twitter here by presenting media in a more intuitive, richer way.&nbsp; I'm not here to make predictions about whether G+ will last or not, but I will say that people CLAIM that they don't like limitations on social media, but I think the built-in limitations of Twitter are a strength, and help explain why it has been such a powerful communications tool.</span></li> </ol> <p><span style="color: #000000;">This is my early analysis of Google Plus, and I hope you found it useful as you try to get value from Google's new social network.</span><p /> <span style="color: #000000;"> By the way, as a bonus tidbit, if I were smarter about SEO, I would have formatted this post differently.&nbsp; You see, the web "likes" short content for <strong>s</strong>earch <strong>e</strong>ngine <strong>o</strong>ptimization purposes.&nbsp; The reason why academic websites and newspapers get killed in SEO by websites like <strong>About.com </strong>and <strong>Wikipedia</strong>, is that Google wants to deliver the EXACT answer to a searcher's question, it doesn't want to give someone a ten page article that may or may not contain the right information buried inside for the individual to sift through and discover.&nbsp; </span><p /> <span style="color: #000000;">So, if I were trying to optimize my blog for search engine optimization, it would have been a better choice for me to publish eight different posts that each focused on eight different things you need to know about Google Plus, instead of firing off all eight in a single post.&nbsp; My outlook on this, however, is that you can break the SEO rules as long as you KNOW the rules.&nbsp; In this case, I'm breaking the rules because I think this topic holds together much more strongly as a single, cohesive post, rather than eight separate posts.&nbsp; In this case, I choose to "write for humans" rather than writing for Google, which is important to do, even if you care about SEO</span>.<p /> <span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 21px; color: #424037; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Will Marlow is a PR specialist, blogger, and amateur photographer who lives in Northern Virginia. The photograph above is a hand-held shot at the WWII Memorial in DC, and it's part of a series he's doing on the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/williammarlow/sets/72157626892785086/">monuments, memorials, buildings, and historic places in and around the District of Columbia.</a> You should&nbsp;<a href="http://www.twitter.com/WillMarlow" target="_blank" style="color: #bc7134; text-decoration: none; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">follow Will Marlow on Twitter</a>.</em></span></p> </p> <p><a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/the-eight-things-you-need-to-know-about-googl">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/the-eight-things-you-need-to-know-about-googl#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=097ROkHLbBs:WEF7c_HHw6c:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=097ROkHLbBs:WEF7c_HHw6c:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=097ROkHLbBs:WEF7c_HHw6c:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=097ROkHLbBs:WEF7c_HHw6c:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=097ROkHLbBs:WEF7c_HHw6c:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=097ROkHLbBs:WEF7c_HHw6c:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=097ROkHLbBs:WEF7c_HHw6c:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=097ROkHLbBs:WEF7c_HHw6c:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=097ROkHLbBs:WEF7c_HHw6c:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/WillMarlowblog/~4/097ROkHLbBs" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1495132/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4aGlPyGzYqf7 Will Marlow Will Will Marlow http://www.willmarlow.com/the-eight-things-you-need-to-know-about-googl Tue, 12 Jul 2011 15:46:00 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WillMarlowblog/~3/gHhfS8pRPcM/why-google-will-not-kill-facebook http://www.willmarlow.com/why-google-will-not-kill-facebook <p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile1.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/willmarlow/zxYgCRvQoO3FDhw5LF7YXsbojQIWFPgiqI5niy3tyAu4Y8yBUUUfvVNWMDRR/flower.jpg.scaled.1000.jpg"><img alt="Flower" height="331" src="http://getfile9.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/willmarlow/vVWSYoEUv8eLK5KRIGd9i8rb1tcVVMGHmX1M5u7qPLoFRGjEoHTTbosqqxfa/flower.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p><span style="color: #000000;">Whenever a new social networking product is launched, the question of whether it will KILL its rivals always comes up.&nbsp; </span><p /><span style="color: #000000;">But for those of you who are loyal to Facebook, never fear.&nbsp; Google+ will NOT kill Facebook.</span><p /> <span style="color: #000000;">Here's why.&nbsp; Google+ is not in the business of being the virtual glue that holds together your real world relationships.&nbsp; <strong>That's Facebook's mission.&nbsp; </strong>Facebook wants to make your real world relationships <em>richer</em> by letting you share, chat, and interact in a safe place online. </span><p /> <span style="color: #000000;"><strong>Google+</strong> doesn't do that.&nbsp; It doesn't even TRY to do that.&nbsp; Instead, <strong>Google+ wants to be the catapult that helps you launch your message/product/company/idea to greater and greater numbers of people more effectively.&nbsp; </strong>It also wants to be the net that you use to pull in the best information from the people you respect.&nbsp; That is Twitter's business, and my guess is that Google <a href="http://adage.com/article/digital/biz-stone-departure-leaves-full-time-founder-twitter/228487/">has a weakened Twitter</a> (there are no full-time founders left at Twitter day-to-day) in its crosshairs right now, but most people are missing that story.</span><p /> <span style="color: #000000;">Just look at the reviews of Google+.&nbsp; My hero Thomas Hawk wrote a <a href="http://thomashawk.com/2011/07/top-10-tips-on-google-for-photographers.html/comment-page-1#comment-616236">great analysis of why Google+ is great for promoting photography</a>.&nbsp; He's mostly correct in what he says, but the very fact that Google+ is great for photographers is evidence that it is NOT competing in an area that Facebook cares about.</span><br /><span style="color: #000000;"> <strong><br />By the way, if anyone wants an invite to Google+</strong>, just let me know in the comments below, by email, or send up smoke signals</span>.</p> <div><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 21px; color: #424037; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Will Marlow is a PR specialist, blogger, and photographer who lives in Northern Virginia. &nbsp;You should&nbsp;<a href="http://www.twitter.com/WillMarlow" style="color: #bc7134; text-decoration: none; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">follow Will Marlow on Twitter</a>.</em></span></div> </p> <p><a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/why-google-will-not-kill-facebook">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/why-google-will-not-kill-facebook#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=gHhfS8pRPcM:0Hl3LzmSb3w:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=gHhfS8pRPcM:0Hl3LzmSb3w:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=gHhfS8pRPcM:0Hl3LzmSb3w:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=gHhfS8pRPcM:0Hl3LzmSb3w:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=gHhfS8pRPcM:0Hl3LzmSb3w:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=gHhfS8pRPcM:0Hl3LzmSb3w:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=gHhfS8pRPcM:0Hl3LzmSb3w:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=gHhfS8pRPcM:0Hl3LzmSb3w:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=gHhfS8pRPcM:0Hl3LzmSb3w:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/WillMarlowblog/~4/gHhfS8pRPcM" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1495132/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4aGlPyGzYqf7 Will Marlow Will Will Marlow http://www.willmarlow.com/why-google-will-not-kill-facebook Wed, 06 Jul 2011 14:26:00 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WillMarlowblog/~3/RqewDKcSXQU/how-to-get-attention-for-your-content-on-soci http://www.willmarlow.com/how-to-get-attention-for-your-content-on-soci <p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile6.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/willmarlow/TADCMpfZjCkI2RSk0A9aRvaBrSjyyTDcwlTwgl5EVW3SMkm8ZsCV0X0E8bKR/5903971444_a988b7db85_b.jpg.scaled.1000.jpg"><img alt="5903971444_a988b7db85_b" height="331" src="http://getfile4.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/willmarlow/v38rGvIZFocLUEdeqP4iWhBDUDYBnkkWmTR33OiZ5k1eDyiZ1KFc1qqpzr0J/5903971444_a988b7db85_b.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p><span style="color: #000000;">A lot of people say that <a href="http://searchengineland.com/from-seo-to-social-media-content-is-still-king-13461#">content is king</a> in social media marketing. &nbsp;I've been guilty of saying this myself. &nbsp;But the problem is, it's <em>not </em>true. &nbsp; </span></p> <div><span style="color: #000000;">Content (even <em>great </em>content) is a <em>commodity</em>. &nbsp;Having outstanding content is merely <em>table stakes</em> for success in social media. &nbsp;What is <em>not </em>a commodity is <em>engagement </em>with key influencers.</span></div> <p /> <div><span style="color: #000000;">Here's an example. &nbsp;I took the photo above on Monday night. &nbsp;It is now Wednesday, and in the last two days over <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/williammarlow/5903971444/">100 people have commented</a> on this photograph, <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/williammarlow/5903971444/favorites/">86 people have "favorited" it</a>, and it was featured on <a href="http://dcist.com/2011/07/photo_booth_kapow.php#photo-18">DCist here</a>. &nbsp;There are lots of better photographs of the July 4th fireworks in DC, but this one has been seen by more people than many of them, and I am <em>not </em>a professional photographer. &nbsp;The reason that this photograph has generated more <em>engagement </em>than a lot of the other July 4th fireworks photographs,&nbsp;is that I enjoy connecting with people who care about DC, and I regularly engage with them in lots of different ways, on <a href="http://www.twitter.com/WillMarlow">Twitter</a>, Facebook, and <a href="http://www.flickr.com/WilliamMarlow">Flickr</a>. &nbsp;</span></div> <p /> <div><span style="color: #000000;">To reiterate, you will NOT succeed without high quality content. &nbsp;If that picture was terrible, it would have generated zero comments and favorites. &nbsp;Low quality content is probably the most common cause of failure in social media campaigns. &nbsp;But saying that you need great content for social media is like saying you need copper to make a penny. &nbsp;True, but not particularly insightful. &nbsp;</span></div> <p /> <div><span style="color: #000000;">So from now on, when you see an outstanding social media campaign, don't just analyze the content. &nbsp;Think about the <em>engaged network </em>that pushed the content to the top. &nbsp;When you see content that gets thousands of Likes, Tweets, Comments, Shares, Faves, etc., you can bet that the buzz got started with lots of emails, InMails, phone calls, Direct Messages, gchats, and other one on one&nbsp;communications&nbsp;between influencers</span>. &nbsp;</div> <p /> <div><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 21px; color: #424037; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Will Marlow is a PR specialist, blogger, and photographer who lives in Northern Virginia. &nbsp;You should&nbsp;<a href="http://www.twitter.com/WillMarlow" style="color: #bc7134; text-decoration: none; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">follow Will Marlow on Twitter</a>.</em></span></div> </p> <p><a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/how-to-get-attention-for-your-content-on-soci">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/how-to-get-attention-for-your-content-on-soci#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=RqewDKcSXQU:2yJwKWLVt8w:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=RqewDKcSXQU:2yJwKWLVt8w:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=RqewDKcSXQU:2yJwKWLVt8w:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=RqewDKcSXQU:2yJwKWLVt8w:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=RqewDKcSXQU:2yJwKWLVt8w:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=RqewDKcSXQU:2yJwKWLVt8w:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=RqewDKcSXQU:2yJwKWLVt8w:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=RqewDKcSXQU:2yJwKWLVt8w:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=RqewDKcSXQU:2yJwKWLVt8w:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/WillMarlowblog/~4/RqewDKcSXQU" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1495132/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4aGlPyGzYqf7 Will Marlow Will Will Marlow http://www.willmarlow.com/how-to-get-attention-for-your-content-on-soci Fri, 01 Jul 2011 12:44:00 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WillMarlowblog/~3/kA--5JsuSDQ/why-social-media-managers-are-like-janitors http://www.willmarlow.com/why-social-media-managers-are-like-janitors <p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile5.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/willmarlow/P8B941OUgjq945zm7x6qex39c1rS3BJs66opLU6v5UExkC0ugIAW8G0sVGay/A_muddy_Golden_Retriever_--_Fe.jpg.scaled.1000.jpg"><img alt="A_muddy_golden_retriever_--_fe" height="317" src="http://getfile3.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/willmarlow/zaRsogZnkw7ZHg2rmMnoyuh6n2NAQQSc6zalg92yyuBzBcuYrQiUHATXu6bF/A_muddy_Golden_Retriever_--_Fe.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p><span style="color: #000000;">The social media landscape is a pretty messy place.&nbsp; Your job, as a social media manager or digital PR pro (or whatever you call yourself) is to <em>organize things, </em>and <em>clean them up.&nbsp; </em>How do you do that?&nbsp; You make <strong>lists, lists, lists,</strong> and more lists.&nbsp; </span><p /> <span style="color: #000000;"><a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/the-second-step-to-getting-your-institution-q">Lists are something that come naturally to PR pros</a>, and they need to start coming naturally to social media marketers.&nbsp; Think of it like this: if there are 50 million people who <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flickr">post 5 million photos every day</a> on Flickr, only 250,000 of them leave comments, write testimonials, or Fave the photos that they like.&nbsp; And, of those 250,000, there are probably just a few thousand that care about the same things that you care about.&nbsp; Just by realizing <em>that</em>, you have cleaned up the Flickr universe tremendously, reducing it from 50 million people to 250,000, to a few thousand, or preferably a number small enough to fit on your list.</span><p /> <span style="color: #000000;">Your job is to <strong>edit, edit, edit</strong>, until your lists are small, manageable, CLEAN, and powerful.&nbsp; Before you can accomplish anything as a social media manager, you need to clean things up first.</span><p /><em>Will Marlow is a PR specialist, blogger, and photographer who lives in Northern Virginia. The photograph of the Golden Retriever above will be featured as the lead photograph on the July 18th edition of the <a href="http://www.arlingtondogparks.posterous.com">A-Town Dog Blog</a>.&nbsp; You should <a href="http://www.twitter.com/WillMarlow">follow Will Marlow on Twitter</a>. </em></p> </p> <p><a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/why-social-media-managers-are-like-janitors">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/why-social-media-managers-are-like-janitors#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=kA--5JsuSDQ:NiA3sEVfE8I:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=kA--5JsuSDQ:NiA3sEVfE8I:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=kA--5JsuSDQ:NiA3sEVfE8I:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=kA--5JsuSDQ:NiA3sEVfE8I:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=kA--5JsuSDQ:NiA3sEVfE8I:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=kA--5JsuSDQ:NiA3sEVfE8I:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=kA--5JsuSDQ:NiA3sEVfE8I:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=kA--5JsuSDQ:NiA3sEVfE8I:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=kA--5JsuSDQ:NiA3sEVfE8I:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/WillMarlowblog/~4/kA--5JsuSDQ" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1495132/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4aGlPyGzYqf7 Will Marlow Will Will Marlow http://www.willmarlow.com/why-social-media-managers-are-like-janitors Mon, 27 Jun 2011 11:44:00 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WillMarlowblog/~3/U-rOL0FoJ8Y/how-a-big-hairy-audacious-goal-can-make-your http://www.willmarlow.com/how-a-big-hairy-audacious-goal-can-make-your <p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile5.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/willmarlow/BohXFeTRDqNwYteWVdKnAOXDBkX0HXnYLccfRmamm1IwuqZEtpxjM2soJ9iL/themostdramaticviewofdcatnight.jpg"><img alt="Themostdramaticviewofdcatnight" height="312" src="http://getfile6.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/willmarlow/3TTwMVnZ4upGkDmpUUxJKwte6bAR9NelDjzWv5CGfKEJqDKQrnnHwR5KGpMN/themostdramaticviewofdcatnight.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p><span style="color: #000000;">One thing that bloggers struggle with is the challenge of making their blog more memorable to first-time visitors.&nbsp; One of the most useful metrics you should be tracking in Google Analytics is how many<strong> "return visitors" </strong>you are getting.&nbsp; If you aren't getting many return visitors, you're probably also failing to grow your blog.&nbsp; </span><p /> <span style="color: #000000;">Most people focus on making their blog STICKIER, and this is generally a good thing.&nbsp; You can make your blog <em>stickier </em>by <strong>optimizing the structure of your blog</strong>, and having strong, well-placed calls to action that lead visitors to provide you with their contact information, or by offering multiple convenient ways for people to subscribe to get updates from the blog (RSS, email subscription, Twitter links, newsletter options, etc).&nbsp; <strong>Don't get me wrong: stickiness is important</strong>, and you need to nail down all of these things in order to make sure you convert a good percentage of visitors into repeat visitors/subscribers/customers.</span><p /> <span style="color: #000000;">But making a blog <em>stickier </em>isn't the <em>only </em>thing you should do.&nbsp; You should also try to make your blog more <strong>memorable</strong>.&nbsp; This takes <em>creativity, </em>and it requires you to think like a marketing pro.&nbsp; Here's what you do: you need to identify some <strong>key messages and metaphors that crystallize the reason that your blog exists in the first place.&nbsp; </strong>It's not easy -- this is how marketers make their money. </span><p /> <span style="color: #000000;">Here's a great example.&nbsp; A few weeks ago I did research to identify the best photography blogs, and I looked at about 20 different photoblogs.&nbsp; The next day, without consulting my notes, the only two blogs that I was able recall were <a href="http://www.digital-photography-school.com/">Digital Photography School</a>, which I was already familiar with due to its connection with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darren_Rowse">Darren Rowse</a>, and <a href="http://thomashawk.com/">Thomas Hawk's photography blog</a>.&nbsp; </span><p /> <span style="color: #000000;">Why did I remember Thomas Hawk's blog?&nbsp; Because on his <a href="http://thomashawk.com/about-thomas-hawk">About Thomas Hawk page</a>, he says that he has an obsessive compulsive goal of <strong>publishing 1 million photographs before he dies</strong>.&nbsp; That qualifies as a BHAG, or Big Hairy Audacious Goal, which Jim Collins talks about in <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Built-Last-Successful-Visionary-Companies/dp/0887307396" target="_blank">Built to Last</a>.&nbsp; </em></span><p /> <span style="color: #000000;">According to Jim Collins, almost all of the world's best companies embrace BHAGs that seem impossible at first, but that serve to push the company to greater and greater levels of success.&nbsp; In the case of blogging, however, a BHAG can also be like a "handle" that a first-time visitor can get her hands around to pick up the blog, and carry it with her.&nbsp; In a world of 150 million blogs, you need to find lots of ways to crystallize for your readers exactly <em>why </em>your blog exists, otherwise you'll be forgettable, even if you have high quality content.</span><p /> <span style="color: #000000;">A <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Hairy_Audacious_Goal">Big Hairy Audacious Goal</a> is just one way you can make your blog more memorable, but it's something that has probably never occurred to most bloggers like it did to Thomas Hawk, and hopefully it will get you thinking about all the different ways you can differentiate your blog, like a marketer works to differentiate any product or company.</span><p /> <em>Will Marlow is a PR specialist, blogger, and photographer who lives in Northern Virginia.&nbsp; One of his BHAGs is to take at least one high quality photograph of every monument, memorial, statue, and iconic building in Washington, DC.&nbsp; <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/williammarlow/sets/72157626892785086/">Here </a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/williammarlow/sets/72157626892785086/">are some of those photographs</a>.&nbsp; You should <a href="http://www.twitter.com/WillMarlow">follow him on Twitter</a>. </em></p> </p> <p><a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/how-a-big-hairy-audacious-goal-can-make-your">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/how-a-big-hairy-audacious-goal-can-make-your#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=U-rOL0FoJ8Y:3JJCgqycshw:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=U-rOL0FoJ8Y:3JJCgqycshw:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=U-rOL0FoJ8Y:3JJCgqycshw:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=U-rOL0FoJ8Y:3JJCgqycshw:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=U-rOL0FoJ8Y:3JJCgqycshw:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=U-rOL0FoJ8Y:3JJCgqycshw:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=U-rOL0FoJ8Y:3JJCgqycshw:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=U-rOL0FoJ8Y:3JJCgqycshw:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=U-rOL0FoJ8Y:3JJCgqycshw:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/WillMarlowblog/~4/U-rOL0FoJ8Y" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1495132/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4aGlPyGzYqf7 Will Marlow Will Will Marlow http://www.willmarlow.com/how-a-big-hairy-audacious-goal-can-make-your Fri, 24 Dec 2010 11:17:00 -0800 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WillMarlowblog/~3/gF1t0j39xMg/how-to-avoid-an-e-newsletter-fail http://www.willmarlow.com/how-to-avoid-an-e-newsletter-fail <p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile8.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/willmarlow/oFEurfvRqAtYpkopFQ2cXAFFsmXJZEkAwHqBBmd5F9t2gjUKCXCXFezjOcw5/e-newsletterfail.jpg"><img alt="E-newsletterfail" height="179" src="http://getfile9.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/willmarlow/l1FAxqM9w3y34XYnaxiut4RR9sortgsrziZDBdwcPrXnm60HQygZuoDOJoNV/e-newsletterfail.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p><span style="color: #000000;">Lots of people like to send out E-Newsletters that have a big pretty image and zero text. &nbsp;If you like to send out E-Newsletters like that, a lot of people will see nothing but a blank email, like this one. &nbsp;(It's a <em>very </em>successful E-Newsletter if you have anywhere near 50% of recipients clicking "display images.")&nbsp; You should always include at least enough text in an E-Newsletter that anyone who doesn't want (or know how) to download the images can still take something away from it, otherwise a lot of people are going to see nothing but whitewash.</span></p> <p><span style="color: #000000;"><strong><em>Will Marlow is a blogger in DC.&nbsp; Follow him <a href="http://www.twitter.com/willmarlow" target="_self">on Twitter here</a>.&nbsp; </em></strong></span></p> </p> <p><a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/how-to-avoid-an-e-newsletter-fail">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/how-to-avoid-an-e-newsletter-fail#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=gF1t0j39xMg:UzhN-auoqg0:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=gF1t0j39xMg:UzhN-auoqg0:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=gF1t0j39xMg:UzhN-auoqg0:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=gF1t0j39xMg:UzhN-auoqg0:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=gF1t0j39xMg:UzhN-auoqg0:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=gF1t0j39xMg:UzhN-auoqg0:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=gF1t0j39xMg:UzhN-auoqg0:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=gF1t0j39xMg:UzhN-auoqg0:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=gF1t0j39xMg:UzhN-auoqg0:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/WillMarlowblog/~4/gF1t0j39xMg" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1495132/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4aGlPyGzYqf7 Will Marlow Will Will Marlow http://www.willmarlow.com/how-to-avoid-an-e-newsletter-fail Mon, 13 Dec 2010 20:00:00 -0800 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WillMarlowblog/~3/uRfT6S6fts4/measure-everything http://www.willmarlow.com/measure-everything <p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile8.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/willmarlow/RtHeHelJFoHXHI3yX8JGMmVKKnfylky4BThVh0BRf4HbZAqDl06SwBafgamm/marketingactivities.jpg"><img alt="Marketingactivities" height="383" src="http://getfile0.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/willmarlow/hWYtqOKNSsra9G4MJ4FmVOKJD79rF9SiPngosM4DOjZAQpvC1okvEOU8iTHF/marketingactivities.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p><span style="color: #000000;">This is pretty much how I feel about marketing.</span><p /><span style="color: #000000;">Soon, I'll explain why I've sent this blog into temporary hibernation recently.</span><p /><span style="color: #000000;"><strong><em>Will Marlow is a blogger in DC.&nbsp; Follow him <a href="http://www.twitter.com/willmarlow" target="_self">on Twitter here</a>.&nbsp; </em></strong></span></p> </p> <p><a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/measure-everything">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/measure-everything#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=uRfT6S6fts4:UMrUXtrJ3BY:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=uRfT6S6fts4:UMrUXtrJ3BY:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=uRfT6S6fts4:UMrUXtrJ3BY:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=uRfT6S6fts4:UMrUXtrJ3BY:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=uRfT6S6fts4:UMrUXtrJ3BY:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=uRfT6S6fts4:UMrUXtrJ3BY:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=uRfT6S6fts4:UMrUXtrJ3BY:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=uRfT6S6fts4:UMrUXtrJ3BY:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=uRfT6S6fts4:UMrUXtrJ3BY:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/WillMarlowblog/~4/uRfT6S6fts4" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1495132/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4aGlPyGzYqf7 Will Marlow Will Will Marlow http://www.willmarlow.com/measure-everything Thu, 04 Nov 2010 07:14:00 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WillMarlowblog/~3/apCaa-cPUO8/the-importance-of-understanding-technology http://www.willmarlow.com/the-importance-of-understanding-technology <p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile5.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/willmarlow/rzkOGiUTKqN8DKDarjxDWeI8Nyv5UFIgKB01nKLPhFfkBOPbDzasnTD6QeBL/pumpkin_row.jpg"><img alt="Pumpkin_row" height="192" src="http://getfile6.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/willmarlow/eHu63M5xqhFDPiX4BImmPlAqhJHfl7BTughlucW4sfmM84fzcVZRI6tgzKIA/pumpkin_row.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p><span style="color: #000000;">If you're responsible for handling online communications and marketing for any organization, you need to understand both marketing <em>and </em>technology.</span><p /><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>Case in point:</strong> an election was held on Tuesday.&nbsp; Some of the races in Virginia were very close, including one near where I live.&nbsp; I just received an email from one of the candidates (two days after the final votes were cast) urging me to vote.&nbsp; The first sentence of the email was: "Have you voted yet?"&nbsp; I can tell that the people who sent me the email clicked the "send" button on time.&nbsp; I'm sure they <em>hoped </em>the email was going to hit me on Tuesday, when I still had time to vote.&nbsp;&nbsp; But it didn't get to me until today.&nbsp; <em>Thursday</em>. &nbsp; Two days too late. </span><p /> <span style="color: #000000;">If you have an important message, like "Don't forget to vote in the next eight hours!" it won't do any good if your email hits peoples' inboxes 48 hours after the polls close.&nbsp; </span><br /><span style="color: #000000;"> <strong><br /></strong>From the outside looking in, it's impossible for me to tell if the campaign team should blame the company that provides their E-Newsletter software, or if they should blame themselves for being too aggressive in sending out emails over the course of the campaign.&nbsp; (My hunch is that they should blame the E-Newsletter company, because the company probably did not have a good plan in place to schedule E-Newsletter requests on election day, when the load on their servers was guaranteed to be far higher than normal.&nbsp; But if that's the case, the fault <em>still </em>lies with the campaign, because the campaign needs to insist that the E-Newsletter provider develop a plan and stick to it on a critical day like that.&nbsp; You can't leave anything to chance when things are that important.)</span><p /> <span style="font-size: 12px; color: #424037; line-height: 21px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: #424037; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; line-height: 21px;">Will Marlow is an online marketing consultant.&nbsp; He can help you <a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/private/egkmFomEuE">send out an E-Newsletter</a> that not only reaches your prospects on time, but also wins more people over to your point of view.&nbsp; He's also the co-founder of&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="http://www.alumnifidelity.com/" target="_blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: #bc7134; text-decoration: none;">AlumniFidelity</a>, which you should check out if you care about fundraising for schools and nonprofits.&nbsp; Email him at <a href="mailto:w.b.marlow@gmail.com">w.b.marlow@gmail.com</a>.</span></strong></span></p> </p> <p><a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/the-importance-of-understanding-technology">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/the-importance-of-understanding-technology#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=apCaa-cPUO8:CiM_PaHKgA0:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=apCaa-cPUO8:CiM_PaHKgA0:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=apCaa-cPUO8:CiM_PaHKgA0:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=apCaa-cPUO8:CiM_PaHKgA0:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=apCaa-cPUO8:CiM_PaHKgA0:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=apCaa-cPUO8:CiM_PaHKgA0:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=apCaa-cPUO8:CiM_PaHKgA0:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=apCaa-cPUO8:CiM_PaHKgA0:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=apCaa-cPUO8:CiM_PaHKgA0:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/WillMarlowblog/~4/apCaa-cPUO8" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1495132/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4aGlPyGzYqf7 Will Marlow Will Will Marlow http://www.willmarlow.com/the-importance-of-understanding-technology Thu, 28 Oct 2010 11:47:41 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WillMarlowblog/~3/GeX-FQprjFY/your-website-will-reflect-your-personality http://www.willmarlow.com/your-website-will-reflect-your-personality <p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="Desserts_at_facets" height="326" src="http://getfile3.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/willmarlow/XsFCh8nTg6JwjH9mDe42abLhTFj6w0vWEcH3fEui2ZaRhwN5PggnNERzhzgN/desserts_at_facets.jpg" width="493" /> </div> </p> <p><span style="color: #000000;">Your website will reflect your personality.&nbsp; (Whether you want it to or not.)</span></p> <ul> <li><span style="color: #000000;">If you are a careless person, your website will be sloppy. &nbsp;</span></li> <li><span style="color: #000000;">If you're an artistic person, your website will be unique.</span></li> <li><span style="color: #000000;">If you're an angry person, your website will be confrontational.</span></li> <li><span style="color: #000000;">If you're a meticulous person, your website will be <em>consistent </em>throughout.</span></li> <li><span style="color: #000000;">If you're a disorganized person, your website will be hard to navigate.</span></li> <li><span style="color: #000000;">If you're an arrogant person, your website will be abrasive.</span></li> <li><span style="color: #000000;">If you're a thoughtful person, your website will informative and easy to use.&nbsp; </span></li> </ul> <p><span style="color: #000000;">I just finished helping my friend and business associate finish a website for his excellent company, and I look forward to linking to it soon in this space. &nbsp;I'll take care to highlight the areas of the project that I contributed to, but I'll do that primarily to emphasize how talented he is.&nbsp; </span><p /> <span style="color: #000000;">His new website does a wonderful job of reflecting the personality of the business that it represents: it is high-quality, meticulous, unique, balanced, thoughtful, direct, clear, and beautifully designed.&nbsp; It communicates key things about the business's brand to visitors, and I look forward to seeing the reaction that people have to the final product.</span><p /> <strong><span style="color: #000000;">PS - I took the picture above last Saturday when I was the official (volunteer) photographer at FACETS charity auction.&nbsp; <a href="http://www.facetscares.org/">FACETS is a great nonprofit</a> that provides support/assistance to the homeless in Fairfax, Virginia.&nbsp; (The dessert in the photo was donated to the event by Natalia's Elegant Creations, <a href="http://www.nataliaselegantcreations.com/" target="_self">a fantastic bakery</a> in Falls Church, Virginia.&nbsp; <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/williammarlow/sets/72157625105069173/">More photos here</a></span>.</strong><p /> <span style="font-size: 12px; color: #424037; line-height: 21px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: #424037; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; line-height: 21px;">Will Marlow is an online marketing consultant.&nbsp; He can help you <a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/private/egkmFomEuE">build an awesome</a> website.&nbsp; He's also the co-founder of&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="http://www.alumnifidelity.com/" target="_blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: #bc7134; text-decoration: none;">AlumniFidelity</a>, which you should check out if you care about fundraising for schools and nonprofits.&nbsp; Email him at <a href="mailto:w.b.marlow@gmail.com">w.b.marlow@gmail.com</a>.</span></strong></span></p> </p> <p><a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/your-website-will-reflect-your-personality">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.willmarlow.com/your-website-will-reflect-your-personality#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=GeX-FQprjFY:DgpoZYU9sYI:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=GeX-FQprjFY:DgpoZYU9sYI:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=GeX-FQprjFY:DgpoZYU9sYI:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=GeX-FQprjFY:DgpoZYU9sYI:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=GeX-FQprjFY:DgpoZYU9sYI:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=GeX-FQprjFY:DgpoZYU9sYI:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=GeX-FQprjFY:DgpoZYU9sYI:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?a=GeX-FQprjFY:DgpoZYU9sYI:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/WillMarlowblog?i=GeX-FQprjFY:DgpoZYU9sYI:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/WillMarlowblog/~4/GeX-FQprjFY" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1495132/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4aGlPyGzYqf7 Will Marlow Will Will Marlow http://www.willmarlow.com/your-website-will-reflect-your-personality