Foursquare Retail Checkins Up During Holiday

I will say that one of the hardest things to do when writing a post is to get all of the pertinent information in the headline. There are some days where I feel like I am feeding the machine with headlines like this since there are many people who don’t read these posts but just shuttle them on with retweets (Can you believe that people would do that in this day and age of such reliable information? ).

Well today’s data comes from AdAge and Foursquare by way of the SAI Chart of the Day. Here’s the information.

So why was I wondering if this may not be monumental as it appears? That’s because my question on any data showing percentage changes is always what was the original number? How many people were checking in? Early stage companies love to show percentages because it could hide the fact that when you go from 48 of something happening to 60 of something happening that is a 25% increase in overall activity but the numbers aren’t big enough to get excited about. However, you are perfectly within your rights to show a 25% increase because, well, it is just that. Unfortunately, it tells a bad story.

I ask these things because I experiment with checkins from time to time. Overall, they don’t do much for me because I am just not the right market. I understand these tools but I am not out on the town all the time. So when I am out I like to see just how many people have checked in and I am usually underwhelmed.

A case in point. I was recently at a Carolina Hurricanes hockey game in Raleigh, NC. While a small market, Raleigh is considered to be one of the more tech savvy markets around so you would think that out of about 15,000 fans there would be some “checking in” going on. Well, there were about 20 people who checked in at the RBC Center which represents .0013 (thanks to Eric Anderson catching my earlier poor math) percent of those people at the event who used Foursquare and were interested enough to check in. Better than zero but not much (and admittedly not very scientific but you get the point). I would suspect those numbers would go up at a San Jose Sharks game. Anybody know? I have read that the Washington Redskins used Foursquare this year and they had about a 2.6% checkin rate but there are a lot of questions in that number as well (which I will address in another post – see update below).

The bottom line is this. Foursquare has about 5 million users right now. It is under some serious pressure from Facebook who can muscle in on their territory at scale because of their massive user base. Of course, how many people in that user base actually use new services is a big question I have for Facebook. In fact, I’ll ask here – Has anyone signed up to use the Facebook messaging service? Let us know in the comments.

The bottom line here is that, as always, how we see numbers often skews the importance we place on products and services. If we allow the service provider or the industry to give us the ‘rosy’ picture without questioning just how real the information is then we, as marketers, run the risk of rabbit-trailing and wasting valuable resources on things that may have very limited returns.

Used in the right places with the right businesses who have the right customers and prospects there is no telling where this could go. There is certainIy a market for location based services like Foursqaure. I caution, however, to not let the numbers you see persuade you to do anything until you have done a thorough examination as to whether location based services can do anything at all for your business. Just doing a cannon ball into the deep end without looking may just leave you all wet.

UPDATE: Rather than write a post about how the Washington Redskins used Froursquare and the numbers they generated it looks like a better move to read the post over at the Social Media Examiner. I have a ton of questions about the numbers as you might as well.

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7 Powerful Ways to Get Your Blog Post Noticed

Stanford obsesses about how to get passionate people’s blogs noticed and promoted at Pushing Social.

Great posts often get ignored.

It shouldn’t happen. Literary masterpieces should be revered but that just isn’t the case in the blogosphere.

On a blog, a post has a few seconds to capture and pull in a reader. The writer needs to state their idea and immediately begin to persuade, entertain, and motivate.

For many, writing a successful post is a game of chance. They write hundreds of posts only to see a few do well. On the other hand, some seem to have a gift a supernatural ability to publish one blockbuster after another.

What’s their secret?

After spending more hours than I can count analyzing popular posts on top blogs, I’ve been unable to unearth a pattern. I saw that the best writers consistently followed a blueprint for increasing their post’s chance for success.

After studying this blueprint, I found seven factors that can immediately pump more power into your posts. Take a look…

1. “I” focus instead of “you” focus

One unsavory quirk about human beings is that we instinctively focus on ourselves first. This means that your visitors immediately start scouring your blog for posts that mean something to them. If you start your post with:

“I just spent the day washing my kitchen floor.”

…your readers will ignore it. After all, the post is about YOU and YOUR kitchen floor and not about them.

Try this instead: Start your posts with a statement or question that uses the second-person perspective:

“Do you hate washing your kitchen floor? Is a mop the last thing on Earth you want to hold in your hand?”

See what I mean?

2. A focus on solving problems

Human beings are natural-born problem solvers. From the moment we wake-up to when we lay down to sleep we are finding answers to problems. Your readers will adore you if you can solve a problem that has been haunting them. Work hard to find these solutions and offer them often.

On the other hand, if your blog posts are getting ignored, it’s likely that you are solving your own problems and not your readers.

Give this a try: take out a sheet of paper and write down 11 big problems that keep your readers up at night. Now think of five posts that you can write for each of those problems. Sit back and look at your list of 55 blog posts. That looks like a solid editorial calendar for 2011, doesn’t it?

3. One idea per post

Research has shown that most people can’t hold more than one or two ideas in their head at one time. The more ideas you try to stuff in, the more likely you are going to get ignored.

Focusing on one idea is a sure-fire way to immediately boost the punching power of your post. If you have more than one then consider writing a series of posts. But, whatever you do, don’t shoehorn a thesis into your post. That’s a certain recipe for obscurity.

4. Excellent packaging

You know what? Blogging is a visual game. If your post is packaged well, it will get read. I’m sure you’ve found yourself reading a poorly written post wrapped in a great package! So, at least spend a little extra time to clean up look and feel.

A few pointers: use short paragraphs and one-line sentences to make your paragraphs visually interesting. Add mini-headlines throughout your post to help people who skim before they read. Last, find a picture (preferably of people) that grabs attention and helps tell your post’s story.

5. Down-to-earth practicality

Blog readers are a practical bunch. Like you, they want to be able to use what they learn. That means, they absolutely hate Ph.D. dissertations in blog-post clothing. Dense, fact-laden, verbose, diatribes repel readers and get ignored. Save this document for the place where it belongs: in an academic journal.

On the other hand, work to place relevant and practical information in each post. Your goal should be to illustrate your point in simple how-to pieces. Not only will people thank you in the comments, but they will also share your content.

6. Careful research

I’ve made the mistake of thinking that my readers shared my interests. I was wrong. The ghost town around my blog post provided all the proof I needed.

Research is the process of pinpointing what interests your readers. These days, research is pretty simple to do. You can simply ask for topics on Twitter, do a Google search with your topic and the word “help”, hang out in online forums, or survey your own readers.

Once you get the research right, you’ll soon be perceived as the go-to person in your niche. You’ll have the answers and your posts will attract eager readers by the bushel. Trust me. (By the way, if you are competing in a competitive niche, research is the number one way to get an advantage)

7. Rapport

When I started writing professionally, a mentor told me to write as if my reader was sitting on the bar stool beside me. That advice has been worth a fortune to me.

The best way to build this type rapport is to write with your natural voice. You know, the voice you use when you talk to yourself in the shower. The voice you use when you want to say something snarky but think better of it. Yep, that voice.

Once you start using it, your posts will stick in the minds of your readers. Lurkers start commenting and people start sharing. Got it?

Can you do this?

Did you put your finger on a few things your can improve in your next post? Which one of these “pitfalls” causes you the most problems? Comment below and we’ll chat about it.

Stanford obsesses about how to get passionate people’s blogs noticed and promoted at Pushing Social… except when he’s fishing for monster bass. Follow him to get the latest about his new ebook “Get Noticed.”

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4 Great Tips to Build More Links to Your Blog Posts…Based on Scientific Analysis

This is a guest post by HubSpot’s social media scientist, Dan Zarrella. It contains data from his upcoming webinar “The Science of Blogging” taking place on December 9th.

Many marketers and small business owners see blogging, rightly, as an important aspect of their SEO efforts because of their ability to attract inbound links. And even beyond SEO, getting lots of links for your blog posts is key to establishing yourself as an expert and building traffic.

I’ve spent the past few months analyzing data on over 150,000 blog posts and I’ve identified several ways you can optimize your blogging efforts to drive more incoming links.

Day of Week

I found that blog post published in the early and mid business week tended to attract more links than articles published on other days. This is likely because the “linkerati” (people who control and create links, like bloggers) tend to spend the most time working on their sites during the week, as opposed to on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Time of Day

When I turned my analysis towards the hour of publishing, I found that blog posts published very early in the morning (like, 7AM early) attracted many more links than articles posted at other times during the day. This is because most linkerati are looking at their inboxes and feedreaders in the morning to find interesting content to write about and link to.

Most Linked-To Words

When I studied the words that occured in blog post and how they correlated with incoming links, I found words like “recent” and “soon” that indicated linkers were interested in writing about timely content. I also found many words like “insights,” “analysis,” and “review” that told me people were interested in linking to content that expressed a blogger’s personal and unique point-of-view.

Least Linked-To Words

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Fanning the Social Media Flame for Viral Exposure

Are you a content marketer? If so, you have a choice to make.

You can sit around and wait for your content to go viral.

You can hope you’ll get sudden bursts of traffic, hope your readers will spread the word, hope your content will catch fire.

Or you can bring your own matches and lighter fluid to set the dang thing aflame yourself.

As bloggers and content marketers, which will you choose?

Sure, sometimes the passion you have for a subject will be enough to ignite a spark and compel your audience to share your content with their network. Being able to unleash something with such conviction and power that it combusts on its own is great.

Over at my SEO consulting firm Outspoken Media, we’ve been able to do it several times.

Sometimes we post something like The Power of the Unexpected, something that goes hot without us lifting a finger. As content writers, we live for these moments.

However, they almost never happen.

What is more common is that marketers need to fan their content to help it ignite and go viral. And sometimes that means stepping in when an accidental hit shows signs of life. How do you recognize those signs to take advantage? Here are some methods we use at Outspoken Media.

Identifying the spark

You know what’s normal for your community. You know how many comments an average post gets, how many tweets, how many shares, etc.

When you start to see activity that is double/triple what you’re used to seeing, act.

For example, early on we published a post called It’s Not The Recession, You Just Suck. Almost immediately after hitting the publish button I noticed the post being retweeted and passed through social media at a velocity that dwarfed anything we had seen prior.

Once we noticed we had a spark, we jumped in to add fuel and fan it.

Adding fuel to the fire

As soon as you notice a post showing signs of life, it’s up to you to keep the momentum going.

On the social Web, that means keeping the conversation alive. Find people who are talking about your post and encourage them. Respond to comments, engage, fan the debate, and keep the conversation on a healthy note.

When we called out Robert Scoble last year for spreading misinformation, he was the first person to come and engage on our post, and he did so negatively and aggressively.

The tone he set could have killed the conversation right there and caused people to be fearful of jumping in. But we weren’t going to let that happen. Instead, we went in there to engage Robert and show the community this was just the beginning of the conversation that would ultimately take place. We made it obvious that we were still in the post listening, and that everyone who commented would be heard and responded to.

No one wants to hang out at a party that’s dead or on its way out. Its important people see you’re still there.

Another way to add fuel is to allow readers to subscribe to comments so that they’re alerted each time a new voice enters the fray. This will keep them in conversation mode. It’s good for debate, but it’s also good in terms of SEO. The more page views the post receives, the more time people spend reading comments, the more it’s going to give off positive toolbar data to the search engines and help the post appear on an Alexa hotlist.

Fanning a positive flame

So, let me fill you in on something you already know — it’s really hard to have an intelligent conversation on the Internet.

Things always start out okay. Someone chimes in to offer an intelligent opinion and then, almost before your eyes, it devolves into threats, accusations and commentary about who still lives with their mother.

While it’s 100 percent entertaining to watch people have emotional breakdowns in public, conversations that get too far off track hurt your chances of going viral.

As the owner of that community, you’re responsible for fanning the flame in the right direction. When you see personal attacks being made, it’s up to you to steer the conversation back. If you think people are going too far, moderate.

Be careful, though. Viral conversations are typically rooted in debate. So you don’t want to discourage or squash it, but do keep things productive. You need to be the adult in the room, regardless of how good it feels to throw things.

Hitting the social streets

Once you’ve helped fan the flame, hit the streets!

Make sure your piece has been properly submitted to all the right social media sites, that it’s been Stumbled, that it’s on Reddit, that niche social sites are aware of it, and that it’s hit all of the communities and blogs you know are friendly to you.

Once you complete that, look outside your bubble to find other networks that may find your content interesting. What you’re trying to do here is pull people in from other networks so they’ll go out and talk about it with their community, one that doesn’t currently follow you.

It’s great that your own readers are passionate and involved in the conversation, but you want to use the natural sparks to pick up on other readers to help grow your blog and authority.

Tipping off mainstream media

You’ve covered your bases on the social networks, now look toward news sites and blog aggregators that may be interested in the conversation happening around your post.

If you’re part of the marketing community, you want to watch aggregators like TechMeme and TweetMeme. If you have a hot social media story, you want to tip off someone at Mashable. If it’s Google or heavily tech-related, tip off TechCrunch. If it’s a broader tech story, tip off more mainstream outlets, as well.

For example, our post about what we perceived to be brandjacking by Seth Godin received coverage from Business Week. My partner Rae Hoffman’s post on Google’s Real Time Spam Problem was noted in USA Today. And my other partner Rhea Drysdale is often featured on CNN.

These don’t happen by accident. They were opportunities created by tipping off the right people at the right time. This is where having a linkerati list comes into play. It helps you know who to contact for what type of story.

Making sure the post is optimized for SEO

The final thing you want to do is properly SEO your post to capitalize on search.

Going back to our Robert Scoble example, when we saw that taking off, we went back and edited the title tag to include Robert Scoble’s name. It was a small tweak that allowed us to take advantage of Google’s freshness factor and appear in his News results.

It’s a temporary rank, but it made sure that anyone who searched for Robert Scoble that day found our post. Sometimes that’s all you’re looking to do, to help keep the momentum going and get eyes to the page. You have to build awareness.

Content marketers don’t have the luxury of sitting back and hoping something goes hot. It’s up to you to help things take on a life of their own, whether it was planned from the start or you picked up on early signs of success.

Savvy content marketers always have the matches and lighter fluid ready for when a spark presents itself.

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Washington Post Says “No Twitter For You!” To Its Journalists

Whenever there is a great controversy or conflict regarding the appropriate use of social media by the traditional media (in this case the journalists for the Washington Post) it’s important to look at several things. First, what is the subject matter that triggered the ‘discussion’ (which in this case is one of the one of the most volatile you can imagine: homosexuality). Second, where it was printed in the paper (in this case it was a column on faith so you can connect the dots there) and third is it about social media or about the subject matter itself?

Over at Mashable, the claim is that the Washington Post is making a mistake by shutting down interaction by its journalists on Twitter.

The Washington Post sent a memo to its staffers telling journalists not to answer critics from Post-branded Twitter accounts or to use their personal accounts to “speak on behalf of the Post.”

The memo comes after the Post published a controversial guest article online, “Christian compassion requires the truth about harms of sexuality,” by Tony Perkins.

Here are some of the contents of the memo:

This week, some Post staffers responded to outside critics via our main
Twitter account. At issue was a controversial piece we’d published online. The intent in replying was to defend the decision to publish the piece, but it was misguided both in describing our rationale for publishing the piece and as a matter of practice. It shouldn’t have been sent.

Even as we encourage everyone in the newsroom to embrace social media and relevant tools, it is absolutely vital to remember that the purpose of these Post branded accounts is to use them as a platform to promote news, bring in user generated content and increase audience engagement with Post content. No branded Post accounts should be used to answer critics and speak on behalf of the Post, just as you should follow our normal journalistic guidelines in not using your personal social media accounts to speak on behalf of the Post.

Perhaps it would be useful to think of the issue this way: when we write a story, our readers are free to respond and we provide them a venue to do so. We sometimes engage them in a private verbal conversation, but once we enter a debate personally through social media, this would be equivalent to allowing a reader to write a letter to the editor–and then publishing a rebuttal by the reporter. It’s something we don’t do. Please feel free to flag Marcus, Liz and me when you see something out there that you think deserves a response from the Post. As we routinely do, we will work with Kris Coratti and her team to respond when appropriate.

The argument from Mashable reporter Vadim Lavrusik is that this response is archaic and spells doom for this kind of system because by not allowing dialogue through social media by reporters is ‘old school’ and doesn’t reflect the current social nature of news.

Of course, this varies from news organization to news organization, but this model is broken. It only reaffirms the old model of “we publish and you listen,” and a model that had a disconnect from the news process and the former audience. It is not a model of conversation and dialogue around news that has become increasingly social. Why not encourage reporters to have a dialogue around the news? Around the stories they cover, producing and giving more transparency to the process?

Mr. Lavrusik has a lot more credentials than little old me but I would like to say that just because news is becoming more social it doesn’t mean it is getting better. In fact, there are those who might argue that because anybody can say anything to anyone about anything that the truth may never actually be known.

It’s because of the need for impartial reporting which is fact based that this distance should be there. If reporters had to constantly engage and defend their positions when would they actually write more stories? We live in a society that won’t let arguments die so they become pissing matches and wars of verbal attrition where the person who gets the last word wins whether they are right or not. I don’t think that’s so good do you?

There is no easy answer for this one but I think that it is important for true news reporters to keep some distance. They write stories to present news with the ideal being that there is no bias. As a fellow human being I simply say that this is an impossible task and one we need to shelve immediately but that’s just my opinion.

How that news is then debated and hashed out in the public forum is up to the readers and there are avenues for this to occur. I say the reporters need to steer clear of the public debate because they will then inevitably be swayed or tore up or whatever and their desire to be a true reporter of news will be replaced by their feeling that each day will be a battle to defend their reporting.

Oh and by the way. This whole debate was sparked by an opinion piece. Get it, opinion. I think the Washington Post was pretty courageous to present this view in their paper. It’s not their view per se, but it is a view. That’s what good journalism is about isn’t it? Present different sides then let the reader decide whether they agree or not. The reader can then act according to their belief and desire to pursue it further. I would hope there is a rebuttal of sorts from the other side of the ledger at some point. That would be a good thing.

Maybe a little distance is a good thing as well. At the time of this post, the audience was split at 50% thinking that journalists should be engaged in social media and the rest having some form of restriction on their interaction as the preference.

What do you think? After all, I am not a journalist so I can talk to you .

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5 Clever Ways to Make A Sticky

A Guest post from Stanford from Pushing Social.

No doubt about it – Content is King. However, the formula for successful blogging doesn’t end there. In fact, content is just the beginning. If you want to make money, create a loyal readership, or attract new clients, you need to keep your readers ON your blog.

In a word, your blog needs to be sticky.

A sticky blog compels readers to read more than one post. A sticky blog immerses readers in an experience that results in comments and retweets. Sticky blogs are more profitable than regular run-of-the-mill ones because they put more offers in front of the same reader.

Got your attention?

Let’s talk about how to create a sticky blog by studying the 500 million-member juggernaut – Facebook.

The Facebook Trance

In 2005 Facebook was catching fire in the US. It had just passed the 5 million member mark after just being in existence for 18 months. Although Facebook’s growth was incredible, what made its college-dropout founders excited was something they called – The Facebook Trance.

If you watched a person interacting with Facebook, you would see them almost hypnotically clicking screen by screen. Every click sucked the visitor deeper into Facebook. Every “engagement” deepened the trance.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and CEO, soon insisted that every new feature should enhance the “Trance”.

It worked. Even today people religiously visit Facebook and get lost in a trance for hours at a time.

You want to create something similar for your blog

5 Ways to Stick Your Readers to Your Blog Like Glue

#1: Interlinked Posts

As you write, look for opportunities to link to other posts that add value to your current topic. Go ahead and note these posts in your editorial calendar along with the topic you are planning to write. Be frugal with these links, only pick one or two of your most relevant posts; too many links can become a distraction (and obnoxious).

#2: Tell the Story in Different Ways

People learn in different ways. Up to this point, blogging has favored visual learners who like reading and viewing charts. Now you can use video and audio to create a great experience for your auditory learners too.

It’s simple to read your post and offer as a podcast, or turn your post’s main points into a PowerPoint slide and offer it as video. You can take this one step further by adding a video commentary or introduction to your post.

The point is to appeal to your reader in the way that gets them to “lean forward” and gobble up your content. Video, audio, and visual slideshows are can’t fail tools that should be in your toolbox.

#3: Comment Responses

Have you noticed that a post’s comments can be more interesting than the post itself? This is actually a good thing. You’ve made your blog sticky when your readers actively respond to your posts.

You can encourage this interaction by quickly responding and following up with an “open-ended” question. Your commenters will get pulled deeper into the experience and “stick around”.

Try this: Take your most provocative comments and republish excerpts of them on Twitter. This will draw in a wider audience who can add reach and appeal of your post.

#4: Mini-Email Courses

Most blog posts are filled with “Why” and “What” information, but many fall short of offering excellent “how to” advice. This means that many readers are left feeling cheated out of the good stuff.

You can make your blog sticky and build a list by creating a “How To” email mini-course focusing on a specific post. Select a popular post and turn it into an email course or even an ebook. You’ll build a list that you can monetize with follow-up products. Bonus!

#5: Extend The Experience

Gary Vaynerchuk is a social media high-roller because he understands how to use multiple platforms to create an experience. He uses Viddler for video, Facebook for community shout-outs, DailyBooth for photos, and Twitter to tap into real-time conversation. Once you get pulled into the Gary V’s world it’s hard to leave.

You can replicate the same experience. Think of each post as a “show” that can be supported by other social media outposts. Ask yourself how you can use still-photos, video, Facebook updates, and tweets to surround your reader in an immersive trance.

How to Get Started

You might be wondering if all of this is a bit over-the-top. It isn’t. In fact, turning your blog into a “Sticky Blog” will soon be the price of entry. Anyone can write a post, but readers will flock to the author that takes it one step further.

With that being said, you can start slowly. Take a popular post and use the tips to make it sticky. Pay close attention to your stats and comments to see if your readers like what they see. I’m confident you’ll be impressed with the results.

Tell me, have are you making your blog sticky? How can your sticky blog be a competitive advantage and make you stand out?

Stanford obsesses about how to get passionate people’s blogs noticed and promoted at Pushing Social… except when he’s fishing for monster bass. Follow him to get the latest about his new ebook “Get Noticed.”

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