Saturday, January 29, 2011

ifttt – Your Personal Assistant for Internet Tasks

At first glance, I was a bit overwhelmed by the possibilities of ifttt (short for If This Then That). After setting up just one task though, I was really impressed with how easy it was to get ifttt working for me. Not only does it take you step by step through the process in a clean format, but it only takes a a few minutes to complete. The concept is simple: you create tasks that follow the philosophy, “if this happens then do that.”

ifttt lets you create tasks (“triggers and actions”) by using different channels. “Channels are the unique services and devices you use everyday, activated specifically for you.” There are a number of channels already activated for you when you first sign up and you can activate even more from the channels list. Tasks can be turned on and off whenever you choose and you can have up to 20 active tasks at a time. So, I’ll take you through the process of creating a task.

Step 1

Click on “this” to choose your trigger channel.

Channels available here include: Craigslist, Delicious, email, Facebook, Google Reader, phone call, Posterous, SMS, Tumblr, Twitter, weather and more. Most channels will require some type of activation/authorization, but you only have to do this once.

Step 2

Choose your trigger type. The number of options here are dependent on the type of trigger channel that you choose. Since I choose Google Reader as my trigger, the options pictured below are what is available.

I want all of my shared items to be automatically posted to Twitter, so I will choose the “new shared item” option.

Step 3

Here is where you actually create and customize your trigger fields (if any setup is needed). For Google Reader, there is nothing required here so you can move on to the next step.

Step 4

Now you’re going to click on “that” to choose your action channel. I, of course, chose Twitter.

Channels available here include: Delicious, email, Facebook, Google Reader, Instapaper, phone call, Read it Later, SMS, Twitter and more.

Step 5

Once again you will have options here to choose from. For Twitter there is only one option and that’s to “post a new tweet.”

Sidenote: If you want to see all of the available options for each trigger you can do that by clicking on an individual item from the channels list. This will let you activate inactive channels as well as view all of the available triggers.

Step 6

Here you can customize your action fields. For Twitter, you can choose which “Add-ins” to use in your tweet. For instance, maybe you want to include the item author or a snippet of the item content or you want to include your own comment (noted in Google Reader). ifttt lets you decide just what to include and in what order.

Step 7

Lastly, you can enter a description for your task so that you can easily differentiate it from other tasks.

Once you have more tasks setup you can filter them, delete, edit, turn on/off and view when they were last triggered from your tasks list. From the number of channels and options available on ifttt, you can see just how useful of a tool it really is.

If you are a social media power user like myself, then ifttt is definitely a must use tool. Unfortunately, you will need an invite to join (the site is barely a month old), but it shouldn’t take too long to receive. Once you are able to give it a try, I hope you’ll enjoy ifttt as much as I do!

Friday, January 28, 2011

Keep Twitter Group Discussions Private with Privately

If you’ve ever wanted to have a private conversation on Twitter with just a group of people (instead of the whole world) then Privately is for you. Privately is a mixture of threaded group conversations and DMs. Conversations can only be seen by users who have been invited and replies are displayed chronological order.

Start a private Twitter conversation on Privately.

Once you sign in via your Twitter account, you’ll want to set your preferences. You can enter your email so that you can receive notifications and use your Gravatar. Using your Gravatar is optional, if not selected Privately will use your Twitter avatar instead. You can also set your notification frequency preference. If you want to know ASAP when new messages arrive, then it’s best to choose every hour.

There are no special features about the site, you simply enter the username(s) that you want to start a conversation with and enter your message. Once started, you can add replies just by entering your message (no need for @mentions). You can also mute conversations that may be getting on your nerves.

Privately is currently an invite-only beta site, but it doesn’t take long to receive an invite. Another way to get an invite is to have a registered user start a conversation with you. Once registered, you will receive 10 invites and for every unregistered user that you start a conversation with, it will use up one of your invitations. When you start a conversation, a DM is sent out from your Twitter account to the user(s) with a link to it.

I love the simplicity of Privately. It eliminates the need to join yet another site just to have private conversations with your Twitter friends. It will be nice to see how the site is improved in the future.

If you would like to give Privately a try, you can send me an @mention and I’ll start a conversation with you; currently I have 7 invites left.

Now, Who Do We Trust?

It’s time for the 2011 Edelman Trust Barometer! Trust me when I say, you’re going to want to hear this.

According to the survey, there’s been a pretty big shift in whom we trust to give us credible information. In both 2009 and in the current report, academics and experts got the biggest vote of confidence with 62% and 70% respectively. But in 2009, “Person like yourself” got 47% of the vote, but in 2011 that number dropped to 43%.

Steve Rubel of Edelman Digital wrote an excellent article about the Trust Barometer survey and I like his take on this particular drop.

I believe the reason for this is that, as more of us join social networks, there’s been a devaluation in the entire concept of “friendship.” A separate survey found that people don’t know 20 percent of their Facebook friends. Consider that “unfriend” was Oxford’s word of the year for 2009.

But here’s where it gets weird. The trust metric for CEO’s jumped up from 31% in 2009 to 50% in the new survey. Seriously? Suddenly we have trust in what the CEO’s of companies are telling us? How did that happen?

Maybe this new found trust factor comes from the fact that CEO’s appear to be more transparent these days, more accessible to the general public. Not to mention the fact that half of them look like college kids who just came from a frat party (excuse me a moment while I adjust my bifocals and shawl.)

Another related shift came in the form of this question: where do you go first for news about a company? In 2009, the top tier (29%) went to online search engine. Now the lowly search engine has dropped to 16%, bested by online news sources and print.

People saying bad things about you on the web? That’s cause to worry, because 59% of the survey respondents said they believe it if they hear it 3-5 times. No wonder those celebrity death rumors on Twitter take hold so fast.

The Trust Barometer has tons more information but they sum it up neatly with this very simple graphic that shows how companies have had to change over the years.

In the past, it was all about controlling the flow of information making sure the public only saw what you wanted them to see. These days, however, it’s transparency that precedes trust.

Who do you trust?

Can LivingSocial Really Give Groupon A Run for Its Money?

We have talked about the LivingSocial v. Groupon situation here before. It’s always interesting how readers respond. There appears to be a very misguided line of thinking that Groupon has the lead in the daily deal space that is insurmountable and all others should just fold up their tents and call it a day.

Well, Amazon didn’t just give LivingSocial $175 million because it was feeling generous. It did it because it felt like there was room to take a shot at Groupon. If the traffic chart below from Experian’s Hitwise is any indication they may be right.

The key right now is that LivingSocial has to maintain the momentum that was generated by their Amazon gift card play earlier this month. That show of strength did wonders for the brand and took a bite out of Groupon’s traffic as well. If they let it go though and don’t push to keep the interest level high this could end up just being a one time event that will be a blip rather than a trend.

I think the whole Groupon frenzy has shown just how quickly things can get out of control in this current market. Groupon apparently thumbed its nose at Google’s $6 billion offer then has recently tried to tone down IPO talk that was placing the company at a roughly $15 billion valuation. All of that seemed to happen too quickly to be real and this quote from a Crain’s Chicago Business article this week shows that Groupon may be trying to dial back the hype a bit.

Groupon Inc. hasn’t decided whether to go public, board member Eric Lefkofsky said.

“There’s no definitive answer,” Mr. Lefkofsky said Tuesday. “We’ve made no decision at the present moment whether we will or won’t. We’re talking to bankers. We do talk to bankers all the time.”

Speculation about a potential Groupon IPO has been rampant in recent weeks, but insiders are downplaying the idea. Groupon CEO Andrew Mason told reporters Monday in Europe: “We’ve met with a bunch of bankers. We’re exploring whether or not it makes sense for us.”

Now the dust is starting to settle and the hypnotic hold Groupon seemed to have on everyone is being lifted a bit by a competitor. This is the kind of thing we all had hoped for in the search space so Google would have to try harder. In an area as new and as repeatable as the daily deal space there may be some hope for at least two real players to emerge if these traffic reports are any indication. Oh and let’s not forget that Google is working on its Offers offering which may or not get traction but at least it’s being done with a huge cash war chest to support it.

What’s your take on the daily deal space? Is it being over-hyped? Is it the future? Will Groupon stay out in front or are they truly vulnerable?

What’s Your Social Profile Worth? About $4.00

If you went to the store and bought $4.00 worth of goods, that’s not going to keep the place open for business. But when 1 billion people each spend $4.00, now you’re on to something.

Deloitte has just released the 10th edition of their “Predictions for the Technology, Media and Telecommunications” report and one of the questions is “Social Network Advertising: How Big Can it Get?”

The answer, they say is about 4 billion in 2011. That’s a combination of advertising, virtual goods and social network ecommerce. When you pull out only the advertising dollar, the ARPU (average revenue per user) drops to $3.50 which is still an expected rise over the $3.00 ARPU for 2010.

Deloitte says that even though social media advertising is growing incredibly fast, it still represents less than 1% of the total worldwide advertising dollar. Where things really get interesting is in the “other” categories such as virtual goods, where the growth rate is expected to top ad growth in social media.

They also point out that even though the ARPU numbers only tell half the story when compared to traditional search and display marketing.

“Thanks to a low cost base, social networks might still achieve impressive gross margins despite their relatively low revenue per user. . . A social network’s cost of content is close to zero since it merely provides the infrastructure, while its users and third party app developers provide all the content.”

Actually, there’s a third part to the story and that is the untested nature of social media advertising. Right now, we measure success with the tools used to define the success of any non-social media campaign and that’s probably not giving us the full picture. We simply haven’t been at this long enough to know the long term benefits of social media ad spending.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Attention: Is Your Headline Getting Any?

“There’s just no quiet in Vegas.” – Barry Manilow

Same thing online, Barry.

Like driving down the strip, even at an ungodly hour, our old pal the Internet feeds us an unending spread of exactly what we want.

Between the inbox, RSS, Twitter, and name-your-social-network-of-choice, the competition for our attention is aggressive and utterly incapable of mercy.

How can your stuff get read, watched, or listened to if it’s buried alive (see: invisible) under the non-stop avalanche of an entire civilization’s most mundane and brilliant ideas?

It all starts in one place…

In this episode Brian and I discuss:

The brutal reality of how many readers you really have
What David Ogilvy said about headlines, and why it’s even more important today
The 80/20 Rule of headline writing
The four indispensable ingredients every great headline must have
What types of headlines are perennially popular with readers, and how to write them

Hit the flash player below to listen now:

Other listening options:

Twitter’s Search for Search Talent Finds Bing’s Principal Scientist

Holy Search Find, Batman! Twitter looks to be getting quite a bit more serious about making the term “Twitter Search” less of an oxymoron and more of a real resource. While Twitter has developed relationships with the major search engines to get their feeds for indexing and archiving it did so more as a recognition of its inability to do it itself. Heck, someone needed to get a grasp on the gazillion tweets and the relative small percentage of real information buried among them!

So Twitter has made the step of taking one of the top talents of Microsoft’s Bing search decision engine (someone PLEASE explain that one to me) and bringing them into nest. ReadWriteWeb reports

Alek Kołcz, Principal Scientist at Microsoft’s search engine Bing, appears to have left the company and joined Twitter this week. Kołcz’s Twitter messages are protected and he hasn’t changed any of his profiles online, but we noticed tonight that he’s been added to the list of staff members on the Twitter website. The company has yet to respond to our request for comment.

This is rather large step for Twitter since it is trying to roll out it’s self serve ad program for real now. Imagine the ability to search effectively on the Twitter site for information that is more than a few days old. What if you could run ads next to those search results? Gee, I wonder if anyone else has tried that one ………..?

Some good news about this hire comes in the knowledge that Kolcz is big on fighting spam. Hooray!

Kołcz is an info-science heavy, having published numerous research articles in publications likeThe Journal of Supercomputing, Neurocomputing and Neural Networks. He appears to have a special affinity for spam crushing, something Twitter must struggle with a whole lot. As use of the service grows, so too will the importance of its search – especially given the very public nature of Twitter’s data.

This is Twitter’s eighth hire (out of 362 total employees) from Microsoft which doesn’t represent an exodus by any means but the level of this hire appears to be a win for the 140 character at a time set.

Maybe the people that are leaving Microsoft are interested in actually doing something on the Internet rather than trying to chase a rival through $100 million ad campaigns?

Your thoughts?

Social Media … or Social Blogmarking?

This is a guest post by Devesh of Blokube.

What is “blogmarking”? Many of us already use and understand social media, but very few of us tap into the great and growing potential of social blogmarking sites.

Blogmarking is the process of you bookmarking your blog post on a blog bookmarking site. Blogmarking can also be referred to as blog bookmarking.

How blogmarking works

The blogmarking process involves you writing a post on your blog, looking for a great and active blogmarking site, and then submitting your post to the blogmarking site.

Your post will be ranked on the site based on the number of votes it gets from users. If your post has a great title there is every chance that it will get a lot of eyeballs. If it’s good, it’ll likely get a lot of votes, and moved to the front page of the blogmarking site.

While blogmarking works just like social bookmarking, the concept is different. A social bookmarking site is highly influenced by power users who determine which posts can be promoted to the homepage. Most of these power users have been on the site since its inception, and they read and work on the site rigorously. It’s not easy for just anybody to become a power user.

The concept of a social blogmarking site is different from this, as any post can be promoted to the front page on the basis of the votes it receives from site users. If you’re not familiar with blogmarking, here are a few blogmarking sites:

Blogengage.com
DesignFloat.com (focuses on design news only)
BizSugar.com
Blokube.com (disclaimer—this is my own site)

Social media … or social blogmarking?

There are many ways to spread the word about your blog while building stronger relationships online. Currently, the key most popular options are social media sites. So let’s look more closely at the pros and cons of social media sites in comparison to social blogmarking sites.

Social media sites

You’re undoubtedly familiar with social media sites and are using them to promote your blog. Social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and so on, allow users to create a profile, providing photos, website links, biography information, and a host of other personal details.

To get solid traffic from social media sites, you usually have to be very active on those sites, and that can take lot of time.

Advantages of social media sites

First, let’s look at some advantages of social media sites.

They’re open to anyone: A major advantage of social media sites is that they’re open to anyone. It doesn’t matter if you’re a new blogger or you’re already established, you can easily open an account on any social media site you love, and you can begin to interact with others immediately.

They foster community: Social media sites also encourage discussion and community interaction—that’s the main reason why they were established. Take Facebook as an example: a lot of your high school/college friends probably have a Facebook account and you can easily get in touch with them through the site. Another community-related advantage of social media sites is that they encourage personal discussions and people will be encouraged to discuss and interact with you if they know a lot about you as a person.

Disadvantages of social media sites

Even though making use of social media sites has strong advantages, it also has disadvantages.

They can help build relationships and brand loyalty, but take time and dedication: If you observe how marketing is done on social media sites you will notice that influence matters. Those with bigger audiences, greater popularity, and stronger reputations will have more success with social media sites than those of us who don’t. Social media sites also require you to spend a lot of time building your profile, especially if you’re a new blogger, and even though the results you will get will be great, this takes considerable time.

They’re littered with ads and spam: Another major problem with social media sites is that they can be havens for spammers, and many are laden with ads. Since it’s very easy to join social networks, a lot of people who are just using the site for spamming purposes join, and this can lead to a lower-quality service.

Social blogmarking sites

Social blogmarking is the process of submitting your blog content to social voting sites and blogging communities.

Many bloggers don’t utilize the power of social blogmarking yet, but it’s a great way to get traffic and connect with other bloggers.

Advantages of social blogmarking sites

They’re less time-consuming than social media sites: A major advantage of social blogmarking sites is that they tend to consume less time than social media sites. It doesn’t matter if you’re a new or established blogger, you have an equal opportunity to gain exposure. What matters most when trying to get attention for your blog is not your influence or reputation, but the title of your post and its content.

They help you connect with other bloggers in your niche: Another great advantage of social blogmarking sites is that they allow you to get in touch with other bloggers in your niche. Since these sites are mainly used by bloggers (where social media sites are used by a much broader audience) they make it easy for bloggers to get more targeted traffic. For example, I notice that I get more links to my articles when I submit them to social blogmarking sites because most people reading my content there are bloggers, and they’re more likely to share it on their blogs if they like it.

They allow users to comment and vote on their favorite articles: Another major advantage of social blogmarking sites is that they allow people to comment on blog posts through commenting systems like those we see on everyday blogs. It’s also easier for bloggers to connect with others using this feature.

They’re a great way to share favorite blog bookmarks: Social blogmarking is a great way to share your favorite blog posts with friends, family members, and your readers. Content can easily get lost in the social media space but with blogmarking it’s easy to share your content with other people who care about your blog.

They champion quality content: If your main aim as a blogger is to find quality content to link to, or you’re a reader who wants to read more about a niche subject, social blogmarking sites are highly effective because they are always moderated. The quality of the blog posts you’ll find there is usually high, and the sites are spam-free.

Disadvantages of social blogmarking sites

They’re very specific: The major disadvantage of social blogmarking sites is that they’re very specific, and they don’t yet have broad appeal among general or mass audiences. For example, most of the current blogmarking sites focus on blogging tips and making money online, so it’s often difficult for bloggers in other niches to make effective use of these sites.

They’re not well-known yet: Social blogmarking is a relatively new concept, so although social blogmarking sites are growing their audiences, the concept hasn’t yet gained the same traction that social networking sites have achieved.

Getting started with social blogmarking

Social blogmarking has its drawbacks, but it also offers a lot of advantages. You don’t have to have a high profile or a huge following to succeed at social blogmarking.

Have you tried social blogmarking? Where do you think this field is heading in future? Feel free to share your views in the comments.

Devesh is young entrepreneur and author of Blokube, a social voting site for Bloggers and Intenet Marketers. Follow him @blokube and join Blokube on Facebook.

Facebook Encourages You to Buy with Friends

It can be hard keeping up with the virtual Jonses. First your old roommate gets a new tractor for his farm, then your mom gets a missile launcher and your best friend just got a baby whale. Don’t stress it. Facebook’s new Buy with Friends program is going to help you keep up by offering you a chance to purchase everything your friends bought and you might even get a discount.

Deb Liu of Facebook Commerce Product Marketing announced the roll out of the new program at the Inside Social Apps InFocus 2011 Conference.

Buy with Friends is an attempt to make social commerce more social and it could be both a boon and a bust, depending on which side of the dollar you’re on.

The whole process is one of suggestive selling. Your roommate buys that tractor in Farmville, so you get a notice offering you the same tractor at 40% off. Facebook has now considerably upped the chances of you buying the virtual object and that’s not virtual money that is falling into their pocket.

Early reports say that players will have the option of sending or not sending notifications. Liu remarked that in testing, “more than 50 percent of users elected to share a purchase.” But being on the sharing end isn’t annoying. The trouble comes on the receiving end when you’re bombarded with notices asking you to buy, buy, buy.

In order to facilitate the shopping push, Facebook is working on a feature that will allow you to purchase more credits without leaving the game. This feature, which has been used by poker sites for ages, should lead to higher revenues as it encourages impulse buying.

In addition to the annoyance factor, there’s also the issue of games that don’t use Facebook credits as their base form of currency. As All Things Digital pointed out, having to exchange real money for in-game cash, which has to then be turned into Facebook credits is too cumbersome. For social commerce to truly take off, the majority of developers need to use the same type of currency and that’s exactly what Facebook is counting on.

What do you think of the new Buy with Friends program? Is it a nice feature that will encourage the growth of the virtual goods market, or a blatant marketing push that players will ignore rather than annoy their friends?

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Brand Mascots – Just Memorable Characters, or Social Capital?

mascots

They are an undeniable part of our culture. From “The Man in the Hathaway Shirt,” to The Most Interesting Man in the World, to the GEICO Gecko, you can’t deny that - when done right - fictional brand characters can live well beyond a campaign and become a memorable part of our lives.

And with the rise of the social web, we’ve seen a number of these characters try their hand at becoming a part of our online lives as well. The question is…can that be effective?

A brand’s authenticity and transparency are two of the most important characteristics of an effective brand presence in social media. So how do you reconcile that to effectively leverage these brand mascots…and use them right?

I took a look at a number of well known brand mascots being used online with the hope of answering two questions: (1) how are brands using these mascots as part of their social media strategy and (2) what makes it work.

I could go on and on about all kinds of brand mascots and how they are being used in social media, but I chose to look at three of my personal favorites to see how they are being used – specifically on Facebook.

The Most Interesting Man in the World (Dos Equis)

dosequis

Before I started researching, he already knew he would be on the list.

How he’s being used: When you’re the most interesting man in the world, people want to hear what you have to say – and this guy is never at a loss for words. Dos Equis has taken those memorable quotes and created a sort of ongoing quote-roll where the brand and fans alike can showcase their reasons why he’s so interesting.

What makes it work: The beer industry (mostly due to the 800 lb gorillas in St. Louis and Milwaukee) has historically been a battle of ad budgets and Super Bowl spots with few characters having the attributes necessary to extend into social media. By positioning this character with an endless number of one-liners, Dos Equis has created something for fans to congregate around – what might he say next, and can I do him one better?

Flo the Progressive Girl (Progressive Insurance)

flo

Love her or hate her, you can’t deny the value of this friendly insurance clerk.

How she’s being used: Progressive has set up Flo as a supplemental Facebook presence, having both Progressive and Flo fan pages. By doing so, fans are able to enjoy Flo’s character personality, while not sacrificing the credibility and service necessary for an insurance product. At the same time, they have integrated Flo visually across both fan pages to provide some semblance of brand consistency.

What makes it work: The most unique element of a service product compared to a CPG is the importance of service for existing customers. Not all Flo fans are going to be Progressive customers, so understanding that are being able to separate the content Flo fans are looking for from those that a customer with a policy issue might be looking has allowed Flo’s page to balloon to over 2.4 million fans.

The Roaming Gnome (Travelocity)

The Roaming Gnome

Need a deal? He’s your gnome.

How he’s being used: Travelocity has established the Roaming Gnome as the brand’s social voice and distributor of travel deals to its fan base. He delivers the deals, while also interacting with the community and encouraging fans to share their “Gnome’d selves” for a chance to be the Fan of the Week.

What makes it work: With a recent study showing that the highest percentage of consumers (40%) are motivated to like a brand on Facebook by discounts and promotions, Trevelocity has one of the easier tasks for finding a way to integrate a brand mascot into social media. The integration of the character as the brand’s social voice – coupled with fun sharable content like “Gnoming Yourself” – allows Travelocity to take advantage of the character’s unique attributes, while not sacrificing the ultimate value that it provides…deals.

So what have I learned? You mean other than that I want to hang out with The Most Interesting Man in the World? Here are three key takeaways:

Understand what you fans “want” from your brand in social media. If your brand involves an element of customer service (e.g., insurance), you will need to develop a strategic approach to leveraging your brand mascot, while not sacrificing the value you can provide to your fan community.
Be selective about the characteristics you choose to leverage. Dos Equis found an opportunity in the now-famous list of reasons why their character is so darn interesting. Rather than simply recreating an ad on Facebook, look for those unique attributes that make people talk, and use it.
Brand mascots come and go…but the brand will always be there. Campaigns change. Brands move on. It’s the nature of advertising. You need to keep in mind that these brand mascots might not be there for you to hang your hat on, so look for ways to get the most out of them while also maintaining the integrity of the brand’s ultimate personality.

Stay social, my friends…

Twitter’s Promoted Tweets Roll Out; A Make or Break for the Social Network?

Well, they’ve been a long time coming, but Twitter ads are finally ready to go mainstream…almost!

MediaPost reports that the self-service version of Twitter’s promoted tweets are being rolled out to advertisers–albeit a select few. So far, Clix Marketing’s David Szetela is the only one talking about it and he’s landed Guy Kawasaki as a Twitter ads client.

As part of the roll out, we’re starting to learn a few more details of how they work…

…Twitter’s self-serve platform requires the advertiser to enter a name, and date and time to run the campaign. It also asks for “interests” and “search keywords,” as well as a maximum bid and daily budget…the backend technology crawls tweets and user bios looking for the frequency of repeated words. The platform determines where to insert tweets in the user’s timeline, but it’s not clear if the algorithm takes into account Twitter followers. Nor is it understood how Twitter will rank the Promoted Tweets in Twitter streams.

What’s not confirmed is whether Twitter will score the ads based on how often they are clicked, RT’d, etc, though many suspect this will be the case. Otherwise, you’d end up with a system that’s easily gamed.

Right now, advertisers must commit to a 3-month campaign–presumably so Twitter can collect enough information about any changes that may be needed–and they can select from different types of ad payment options.

This really is Twitter’s revenue tipping point. Remember before Google has AdWords? Sure it was popular, but it wasn’t making any money. It wasn’t until Google figured out how to monetize its search results, that the company saw an explosion in growth.

The same’s about to happen for Twitter. It’s no wonder that the company has taken almost a year to roll out self service ads. Twitter’s entire future rests on the success of this program.

Next stop? A $4 billion valuation and a couple hundred million in revenue! Then? My bet would be an IPO in 2012.

The 6 Essential Steps to Writing a Killer Press Release

image of newspaper

Think the press release is dead in the age of social media?

No way. A powerful press release can tell a story, report news, or help a cause. Smart online writers know that a great press release can take your message to new channels and reach thousands or even millions of new readers. And a terrific press release has great SEO benefits as well.

Writing a press release takes time, research and some skill. And writing a killer press release, which catapults visibility of the message and drives results, requires adding a few more ingredients to the mix.

To get the results you want, follow these six steps: 

1. Craft a hook

If you’ve ever had a song stuck in your head, you know what a great hook is. It’s that chorus or beat that you just can’t shake.

Just like in pop music, a great hook is key to success in writing a killer press release.

To find your hook, spend time before you start writing your release researching the press releases and blog posts of industry competitors, gathering information about which releases and posts have received significant coverage. Use these successes as a guideline for your own release, with an eye toward what types of content your audience is reacting to and/or sharing.

Great hooks pull us into a remarkable story. They engage our curiosity and make us crazy to find out more.

Remember the primary audience for a press release — a journalist. Reduce the basics of your message down to one sentence that answers the 5W’s of reporting – who, what, when, where and why — and find that story hook that will help them write a story their readers won’t forget.

2. Add a great headline

If you’re a Copyblogger reader, you already know the importance of a compelling headline.

You only have a few seconds to grab a reader’s attention, so be sure to craft a headline with the following elements:

Lead with a concept, not your brand name — your audience (both readers and reporters) probably don’t care about your brand or company name, but they do care about finding a good story. Lead with a compelling concept to draw them in
Be creative — don’t confine yourself to the headlines you see in other press releases. Use all your Copyblogger-inspired skills to create a headline that stands out.
Test — test your headlines just like you would any other content. Find the headline that grabs attention and makes the reader want to learn more. You can repurpose a headline that’s worked particularly well for you in blog content or a special report, for example.

3. Avoid jargon

When writing killer press releases remember to minimize technical or industry jargon. Although relevant for certain professionals or groups, jargon may confuse your audience and turn them off to your message.

To engage new readers who may not be as skilled in industry language, write for a broader audience and increase the likelihood the content is shared. Keep it simple, and don’t be afraid to offer explanatory resources if some industry or brand-specific names or words are needed.

4. Provide resources

We don’t live in a one-dimensional world, and your press release shouldn’t look one-dimensional either. Provide added value to your killer press release by including photos, videos, links to source material and any other in-depth resources, giving your readers the assets they need to fully report the news you’re providing them.

A complete “package” of supporting resources makes your story that much more appealing to a reporter looking for something great to cover.

Remember, we live in a digital world, so be sure these resources are web-ready and in the correct formats for web publication. The easiest way to do this is to use accessible cloud-based services like YouTube, Flickr and others that allow visitors to download content.   The easier you make it for a reporter or editor to publish your story, the more likely they are to pick up on your message.

5. Proofread

Errors in grammar and spelling can kill your credibility and take away from your overall message.

Write your release in word processing document instead of a text file or online submission form. When you’ve got it drafted, print it out and proofread your writing. Correct and rewrite, then proofread again.

Investing additional time before submission is what separates a professional press release from a clumsy, amateurish effort.

6. Share your news

A good news release distribution service will syndicate your news on relevant publisher sites, and it will also attract readers through search (be sure to be strategic about keywords, as with any other kind of content marketing).

And if you’ve done the legwork to build relationships with influencers in your space, don’t shy from sharing your news release by emailing a link or posting a link to your social media outposts.

Keep your audience in mind when creating your message and stick to these 6 tips to help craft your press release. When you put the thought and time into creating a truly killer press release, you’ll find it can drive traffic to your business and help promote your message.

LinkedIn Ads Now Out of Beta and More Targeted

LinkedIn has finally taken the beta tag off of their self-serve ad platform. The beta tag has been in place since 2008. So rather than looking like Google in keeping a beta tag on an offering until it rusted the time has come for LinkedIn Ads to be ‘official’. Of course, the talk of a first quarter IPO can help a company to ‘clean up shop’ a bit as well but who’s counting.

As reported by MediaPost

LinkedIn Wednesday formally launched its pay-per-click, self-serve ad system after being in beta since 2008. Rebranded as LinkedIn Ads, the text-advertising service formerly known as DirectAds mainly expands audience targeting options to include job title, LinkedIn groups and companies. Previously, the platform offered several targeting choices such as age, gender, geography, job function and seniority.

Below is a good look at the options for targeting ads that can be utilized.

LinkedIn is in a very unique position because its audience defines itself very specifically on purpose and leaves little room for guessing who someone can potentially be based on title, location etc, etc. To take advantage of this information that is given freely and readily by LinkedIn users advertisers can target ads for up to 100 job titles and the drill down potential is very interesting indeed.

With the new options, the company aims to capitalize on the wealth of professional and work-related data it has from its 90 million members. “We’re really focused on helping advertisers reach exactly the audience they’re looking for,” said Jack Chou, senior product manager at LinkedIn. “No one else has the type of professional data we have and the ability to marry that with the type of targeting capability we offer.”

One concern is whether this targeting will be too much’ for some users who will not like the fine tuning that could single them out. While I think this is an issue in the real world I suspect it won’t be as much so in a ‘closed’ environment like LinkedIn. Most people who use LinkedIn are very open with information and open to suggestion. As a result, seeing a targeted ad based on information that you show to most people anyway there should be little push back. Heck, if there is anywhere on the Internet where fine-tuned targeting makes sense it’s here.

LinkedIn is being smart, however, and doing a CYA in their approach to the potential concerns of a likely loud few about being too targeted.

Advertisers may welcome deeper targeting, but what about users? If an ad hits too close to home, could that be jarring for members? Chou said the company’s ad service uses only non-personally identifiable information for targeting purposes. He also said that if a targeted campaign has too narrowly tailored an audience, LinkedIn won’t allow it to run. He did not say what that threshold was, however. “It’s certainly a way for us to make sure that no single piece of targeted data is personally identifiable with the new targeting features,” he said.

So how do you use LinkedIn? Is it important to you and your social networking efforts? Could your company benefit from being able to zero in on very specific professionals? Does this kind of targeting capability creep you out or is it just another day at the online office?

Give us your thoughts in the comment section today. We would love to hear from you.

Latinos and Teens: Cracking the Social Media Codes

If I say “Pudding!” to my closest friends, they’ll crack up laughing because they know exactly what I mean. It’s an in-joke, a kind of secret language that defines us as a group. Widen that circle to my fandom friends and we truly have a language all our own. A language we use so commonly that we often forget that outsiders can’t figure out what we’re talking about. Then again, maybe that’s part of why we developed the language in the first place, so we can talk in front of the whole world but only those clued-in will know the truth.

Teens have a language all their own and they’re taking it to new heights through social media. According to an article in MediaShift, teens have developed their own form of “social coding” that allows them to be public while still keeping their conversations private. From the type of profile picture you use, to which brands you follow, there’s a hidden message in everything teens say or do.

Peter Swanson, a college-aged intern at ad agency, Engauge, said:

“I know it sounds superficial, but if I see a girl likes three or four brands, I pretty much know who she is — or at least, I can tell if we’re going to click, if we’ve got a chance. If she likes J. Crew, right? Or, like, Old Navy? That says a lot.”

What that means for marketers, is that unlike moms whose loyalty can be bought with a discount code, teens are pickier about who they do and do not follow. It also means that to engage this audience you have to speak their language and that might mean hiring someone from that age-group to translate for you.

The concept of coded social media messages, also plays out in the Latino community, where Twitter hashtags are more than just a form of organization.

Giovanni Rodriguez of ClickZ wrote an interesting article called “Latinos in #Twitterlandia” which looks at hashtags as the modern equivalent of a secret handshake.

For many Twitter diehards today, the hashtag denotes not a thing but a group of people with similar interests. Many Latinos have openly embraced the hashtag for this kind of socialization. . . And while the use of the hashtag at one time may have been confined to a small class of insiders . . . it’s now used to openly invite all comers. You, too, can join a Latino “gang” on Twitter. And you don’t have to be Latino.

So the solution to marketing to either of these groups would appear to be learning their secret language. But is it? Sure it’s good to know as much about your audience as you can, but there’s nothing more embarrassing than wannabe trying to fit in.

The real trick is finding a middle ground, a way to get your message across to a particular group without pretending to be something you’re not. As noted above, you don’t have to Latino to join the conversation, but you do have to be respectful of their beliefs and what they stand for, or you and your product will be the subject of their next “in” joke.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

The Trendy New Startup Called “Hipster”

There is this new startup on the block aptly named Hipster. You probably have not even heard of it yet, but that’s okay because once it has gone mainstream it may be obsolete to its audience anyway. Even so I think this one actually has a chance.

This social networking site is currently creating quite a buzz, while still catering to a young audience that revels in irony, rejecting mainstream culture, listening to noise rock, wearing cardigans from American Apparel, and generally being edgy in all the same ways. Just dropping this term creates a lot of differing opinions and loyalties. But this new site is coming onto the scene with confidence and may well be the talk of the town at SXSW this year. The site boasts itself saying, “hipster is the best resource for anything and everything in your city.”

hipster-the-coolest-new-underground-social-network-31829-1294853934-1611

We already know young people these days LOVE social media. Amongst these throngs of internet-savvy teenagers with smart phones and twenty-somethings who can’t pay their rent (but can pay for a new ipad) are some elitists that we all jokingly name-call “hipsters”. In February of this year this group of fashionable elitists, to which I somewhat grudgingly belong, will have a social networking site that is all their own. Hipster will first be released in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, and Austin, along with smaller cities on the west coast. It is scheduled to soon showcase dozens of the United State’s metropolitan centers and smaller cities.

Usehipster.com is truly remarkable already because it received 10,000 user sign ups in two days without even releasing the purpose of the site. The site ran on private beta in Boulder, Colorado for awhile before the rest of the world and internet found out about it. Now that their treasured secrets have been leaked we know that Hipster is somewhat along the lines of a combination of Quora meets FourSquare and looks similar to Twitter. It would give us someplace to figure out the best Thai food in the city, any fun house shows that are coming up, or basically anything its users think is hip and cool. The function of the site as a location-based Q&A, as well as its look, give us nothing drastically different. But I would be willing to bet that the name already got Hipster’s foot far enough in the door.

I discovered Hipster when another “hipster” sent me the invite along with a chart from Paste Magazine detailing the evolution of “the hipster” and a message aggressively telling me I am “so 2008″. I then sent on the invite to other comic book readers and music festival goers in true viral fashion. You can jump on my personal bandwagon too if you want here.

This kitchy startup is important because it is packaging up services already offered and creating something new out of them. While we are all able to use Foursquare or Yelp already, Hipster will give a space for everything at once, plus a little social commentary. The strong early adopter base and its focus on young trendy users give it the ability to hit the ground running when fully released. I would also bet that it is only a matter of time before this site becomes closely linked with social selling. Finding deals like on Groupon via Hipster would be absurdly easy.

Still unconvinced of the possibilities behind this vague introduction? Still unsure of what Hipster can do? Well so are its users, and we just can’t wait to find out. So go ahead and sign up so you can be on the cutting edge as well.

Will You “Like” Facebook’s New Ad Format?

If you’re not a fan of Twitter’s new sponsored tweets ads, then you’re going to be somewhat grumpy by the time you get through reading this post.

You see, Facebook’s decided that it too would like to turn status updates into sponsored ads and is launching something similar. According to AdAge, advertisers will be able to convert a “like” or check-in–and some other kinds of brand interaction–into a Facebook ad.

How does that work? Here’s an example…

…if Starbucks buys a “sponsored story” ad, the status of a user’s friends who check into or “like” Starbucks will run twice: once in the user’s news feed, and again as a paid ad for Starbucks. Though clearly marked with the words “sponsored story,” the ad — which will includes a user’s name, just like the news feed — is not optional for Facebook users.

And another…

An application play works like this: If a user goes to the Coca-Cola page, and Coke has an app for users to upload photos, the sponsored story that shows up as an ad will read “John Smith used the Coke app to upload a photo.”

Advertisers will also be able to take one of its page updates and increase its distribution by converting it to an ad. If you were wondering how Facebook was going to achieve the estimated ad revenue goal of $4 billion, then here’s your answer.

I guess we’ll have to wait and see if this new ad unit becomes annoying for Facebook users. Based on my (limited) experiences with Facebook ads, I’m gonna bet that these will be a hit. Unlike Twitter, Facebook users seem to be surprisingly willing to accept ads that have connections to their network or their interests. Perhaps the key here is that Twitter’s ads have less personalization than Facebook’s.

What’s your take? A winner or a stinker?

5 Fast Tips to Improve Internal Links

This guest post was written by James Hay, Social Media Coordinator for Fasthosts Internet Ltd.

Playing to your strengths is an important part of SEO, and before going out and spending all day endlessly pursuing external links, it is important to look at your own site.

You control what is displayed on your site and the SEO tips below provide a number of ways to increase your rank strength and improve your blog’s internal link architecture.

Just in case you’ve not come across the phrase “Internal Linking” before, here’s a quick definition from SearchPath:

The process whereby words or phrases within a web page are linked to other pages in the site. Internal links are considered important in SEO terms, as they are often spidered and displayed by Google.

So here are my top five tips to help you improve your internal link architecture.

1. Use keyword-relevant anchor text

Ensure that the keyword(s) you’re trying to get ranked for is used as your anchor text (the text within the link). For example, if the phrase you are trying to get ranked for is “Internal Links”, and the page you want people to find for that phrase is your article “Guide to Internal Linking”, then use that phrase as the anchor text for your link. The search engine spiders will then understand what your target page is about, and it will increase the content’s ranking strength for that phrase.

2. Use absolute URLs

Although there is no empirical evidence to say that search engines spiders prefer absolute URLs (i.e. http://yourdomain.com/pagetitle.html) over relative URLs (i.e. /pagetitle.html), it is good practice to use absolute URLs. It help spiders determine exactly where the page is located on your site, and if your content gets copied, then at least the links will point back to your website.

3. Improve your site’s speed

The speed at which your pages load certainly affects your page rank. I recommend using Google Webmaster Tools and adding a sitemap to your blog. You can then look at your site performance and how quickly your pages load. Google seems to regard 1.5 seconds or less as a good load time. Compress any large images and refine unnecessary code to help speed up your site.

4. Use text menus

Although search engines are improving all the time, the search engine spiders still have difficulty crawling non-text navigation menus. It is advisable to use text menus rather than those that require Flash or JavaScript.

5. Clean up your links

It’s important to keep in mind that search engine spiders love to move freely and quickly through your site, which is why I’ve provided the tips above. But one thing that spiders really dislike is hitting a dead-end, and broken links are the cause of this. The Google Webmaster Tools can also identify broken links on your blog. Go through those links and either remove them, or change the anchor text and redirect the link to a valid page.

These are my top tips for improving internal links on your blog. What others can you add?

This article was written by James Hay, Social Media Coordinator at Fasthosts Internet Ltd and the main contributor to the Fasthosts Blog which provides advice on everything from B2B Marketing to Social Networking.

The 4 Social Media Trends All Marketers Should Look Out For In 2011

How has social media affected our daily lives? What have you been using social media for? Checking out what George Bush is having for brunch? Posting comments on some photos of your best friend’s latest Milan shopping trip (with a tinge of jealousy)? Instant messaging your colleagues on where to go for booze tonight when you have tons of work to clear in office? Sharing a seriously hilarious video on YouTube that you cannot stop laughing at all day long? The list just goes on and on but you see that social media has often been thought of something used to pass the time or to have a bit of fun in it.

No doubt about that, businesses in 2010 have started to notice the massive audience present in the social media platforms and realize that it is time to capitalize on this market share to gain a competitive advantage. Soon, those who really wish to reach out to their online publics will have to start treating social seriously as the social aspects of the Web are about to become a whole lot more important.

GAME ON!

The real shift - that has started in 2010 - will develop and mature in 2011 and most certainly, we will see a move from social media marketing to social business. There is definitely a need for businesses to realize the benefits of the social platforms and the impact of how the social game is going to change their daily operations. The task in 2011 is clear now: adapt or you are out of the game ... Here are four trends that we have seen so far in social media marketing and trust me … we will see more of that in 2011.

Social Media Marketing Budget On The Rise

Studies have shown that businesses generally plan to increase their marketing budgets as the global economy picks up. This is hardly surprising though as new forms of media consumption grow, so too are the marketing dollars being poured into them. Furthermore, there is an increase in the number of brands which are prioritizing this expenditure on social media marketing over other forms of media. Businesses have changed their stance on this expense by treating it more as a regular (or integral) spending item rather than being experimental. With budgets for social media marketing clearly on the rise, those who are currently remaining tepid about the medium may jump in once the best practices of the social game are established and in general, the spending should continue to grow.

Rethinking The Value Of Social Media

As businesses allocate more budget for social media marketing, they will be asked to justify the performance and value that they will be deriving from this spending. No longer are we measuring the number of Twitter followers, the number of Facebook likes or the amount of web traffic that they can get. It has to be something even more concrete as businesses need to work out how implementing social media has enabled them to realize their business benefits. It can be the increase in revenue derived from these customers that you have connected with online … it can be the reduction in the resources that your helpdesk call centre requires as a result of customers contacting you online instead. 2011 will see brands building models to evaluate their social media metrics and conversions. We will see a shift from measuring what can be measured using a tape to showing value.

There’s More To Location-Based Marketing Than Just 70% Discount Vouchers

Social networking has finally gotten ever more important for the brick-and-mortar businesses. Location-based social networks (with enabling tools such as smart phones or iPads) allow users to interact, discuss, share and recommend places based on their physical geographical coordinates. This real-world social media connectivity can mean more foot traffic and profits for businesses. If 2010 was the year that these were developed and used by more people, 2011 will be the year that more brands embrace them to add value to their business operations. It is just going to become even more prevalent with more innovation with these tools.

It’s Not Just About Marketing … It’s Way Beyond That!

Finally, social media has always been much more than just about marketing and sales.
“It’s greater than marketing,” as Sandy Carter put it. She is the Vice President, SOA & WebSphere Marketing, Strategy and Channels for IBM Corporation. “Social media can transform everything from service and support to inventory management. It can even be part of your commitment to corporate social responsibility. For example, holding virtual events in Second Life was one way we chose to implement our green strategy.” Social media is about public relations, communications, customer service, insight and new product development. Social media is all about engagement … engaging your customers and prospects. Sandy has also learnt the most basic lesson of social media success: Listen. “50% of social media is about listening,” she said, “So the ultimate question you need to ask is, ‘Have you listened?’” Such is how businesses have transformed and we will definitely see more of that in 2011 and future.

As CEO of Affiliate Home Business, Jack Harold is an experienced Internet marketer and has helped thousands of his students to apply Internet marketing strategies to succeed online. If you will like to know how to make money online, you can grab a free copy of his exclusive “The Rags To Riches Blueprint” at his website, Affiliate Home Business.

[Image Credit]

Blogger Insight - Social Media

Saturday, January 29, 2011

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Wednesday, January 26, 2011

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Tuesday, January 25, 2011

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