January 13, 2010

Can Linkedin Be Used As A Social Media Marketing Tool?

posted by Brett Lane in category: Social Media

I firmly believe it can be used as an effective social media marketing tool if the correct strategy is implemented. I have been an avid user of Linkedin for the last 4 plus years and know that great things can happen when connecting properly with other users of this platform. What I like most about Linkedin is that I can make great connections with people I already know from a business perspective, as well as potential clients looking to get connected via their platform.

The key to fully utilizing their system is the way in which you approach users; always maintain an extremely professional manner in communicating with potential contacts. But, first you need to ensure that your profile is professional looking so that when other business people look at you in their system they get the best depiction of "who you are" and "what you can do for them". Once this is complete, your next step is to identify "what you want to achieve" in Linkedin regarding business development and then look at "who you will need to go after". Conducting these activities is paramount to being successful in Linkedin and can make or break your entire strategy.

Now its time to conduct some research regarding reaching your target market and Linkedin's new search feature called "Faceted Search" will enable you to reach further into it's database to find just the right people. Linkedin has added some impressive features in their latest update from December 2009 and describes the benefits as:

"Faceted Search offers the following benefits to your search experience on LinkedIn:
* Enables True Guided Navigation: A list of filters are generated dynamically for every search in order to guide you through the optimal path to find the most relevant people
* Provides Intuitive Interface: Refining your search is easier than ever with an intuitive user interface that allows you to slice and dice search results by 8 facets
* Improves Precision: As LinkedIn continues to grow by the millions, increasing search space requires increased precision to help you find exactly the right people
* Increases Efficiency: Find talent, business partners, customers or a former colleague faster than ever before.
* Reduces Need for Complex Queries: It significantly reduces the need for complex Boolean queries. This was a particular need we heard from many of our power users."

Here's a video that Linkedin recommends to users to get a better feel for how the search functionality works:

After you have collected a wide variety of people to contact it is a good idea to save their profiles, which is also a new feature Linkedin rolled out recently. This will give you the ability to go back and grab any needed information about your potential connections when making contact with them.

Now is the time to start reaching out to people you found while conducting your research and once again you must remember to be professional in your communication efforts. I always make myself available as a resource first to my potential contacts because I would rather help out where possible than be a pushy salesman. I know that by giving my time to all of my contacts, whether current or potential, I can be viewed as a positive influence to their business. This kind of attitude will pay off greater dividends in the long run as it relates to gaining referrals from my network. Also, you need to be transparent to everyone all the time because people are very smart and can read between the lines, and will know if you are trying to pull one over on them.

Today's Lesson: Research, Respect, Reach, Reward!

If you follow these simple words when connecting with people in Linkedin I promise you will make more connections and create wonderful business relationships in the process!

Can Linkedin Be Used As A Social Media Marketing Tool?
Posted by Brett Lane at 06:27 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)
Printer-friendly version

January 12, 2010

eCommerce 2.0: Let Your Products Have a Voice Online Via Social Media Marketing

posted by Brett Lane in category: Social Media

If you have an eCommerce business and you want to gain extra traction for your products you need to be utilizing a platform that enables users to spread the word about your products online. I am not talking about social sharing services like AddThis, but a service that lets users send your product information to their friends and family via a customized widget (TAF4Commerce). A solution like this is currently being offered by Te!! A Friend, A Social Twist Service - http://bit.ly/6oec14. Businesses have the ability to create product-specific buzz with a context-enriched specialty word of mouth marketing solution by utilizing their customized widgets.

Their system allows users to send a referral email that includes product-specific content including images, descriptions, pricing, offers, reviews-even links to related products. I have seen many page sharing solutions but have yet to find a better product sharing widget than that offered by Te!! A Friend. Such functionality is particularly helpful for e-commerce sites that have product catalog pages dynamically constructed from database information. This means that large businesses can implement their product sharing widget with ease and give consumers the ability to share thousands of products with their friends in a few steps.

TAF4Commerce Email Example

How it works described by Te!! A Friend:

"Sign up for TAF4Commerce, then access SocialTwist’s Easy Set-up Wizard to quickly customize your button, widget and email templates. Next insert the Javascript code from the wizard on your product pages. The end result is a highly customized, word-of-mouth marketing tool that requires no additional oversight and that drives targeted, interested buyers back to your site."

Once again, if you are running a large eCommerce based Website I highly recommend utilizing a product sharing solution like Te!! A Friend to help give your products a voice!

eCommerce 2.0: Let Your Products Have a Voice Online Via Social Media Marketing
Posted by Brett Lane at 12:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Printer-friendly version

January 11, 2010

Creative Ways to Utilize YouTube as a Marketing Channel

posted by Brett Lane in category: Social Media

There are a variety of ways to utilize YouTube as a marketing channel and I've seen some very creative videos take social media marketing to the next level. A great example is Blendtec, they have been promoting their products on YouTube for quite some time now. The most memorable instance I can recall was them placing an iPhone 3G into a blender and it taking about 8 seconds to be completely pulverized. The thing that got me most about this video was I was expecting to see them chop up some kind of food item and instead saw them annihilate a brand-new iPhone 3G. Talk about surprising. Another crazy thing about this video is that it has only taken a little over a year to generate over 4 million views. To put it in plain English, this brand has been able to give its company 4 million pairs of eyeballs looking at its products in a new market online. If they had decided to utilize some other form of marketing medium I can guarantee it would've cost them a tremendous amount of money to generate 4 million impressions to any of their products.

The trick in their case seemed to be their creative usage as it relates to their brand since no one is expecting to see the types of things they are blending with their product. It seems primarily with Websites like YouTube that to get a users attention off the wall or crazy videos must be submitted to go viral. Not all brands have the luxury of creating wild videos to be placed on YouTube, but every company has the opportunity to make creative videos that showcase their brands doing something in a unique manner. The key thing to remember here is that if you are trying to promote a video on YouTube you have to be able to showcase your products and/or services in a way that grabs the attention of users interacting within this space. Here's where marketers make a major mistake, they try to create bland videos and showcase them to users who are really not interested in seeing every day product and service promotions. As long as you keep this in mind when creating videos to be placed within YouTube you have a much better chance of having your videos go viral. Blendtec is a great example of a company that was willing to take a risk in the social media space and that risk totally paid off.

Creative Ways to Utilize YouTube as a Marketing Channel
Posted by Brett Lane at 07:07 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (1)
Printer-friendly version

November 11, 2009

Is Social Media a Fad?

posted by Brett Lane in category: Social Media

In an ever changing industry sometimes people wonder if what we are doing will make an impact on our clients businesses for the long run. After watching this video I think its safe to say that social media isn't going anywhere. The numbers used in it are staggering in that technology has taken our communication efforts and put them into hyper drive. Reaching critical mass via our marketing efforts is a reality because of technology and I feel things will only move faster in the near future!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8

Is Social Media a Fad?
Posted by Brett Lane at 10:04 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)
Printer-friendly version

November 04, 2009

Utilize Micro-blog Technology to Find Talent or a Job

posted by Brett Lane in category: Social Media

This morning I had the opportunity to review a site that enables recruiters and job hunters to connect with one another with greater ease utilizing micro-blog technology. Tweet-A-Job, which is currently in Beta, describes its services as such, "We provide recruiters the fastest way to connect with qualified candidates - online or on-the-go." Recruiters have the ability to Tweet jobs posts via their network and job candidates can receive updates via the Tweet-A-Job platform or from directly within their existing Twitter account. The thought of receiving job information via the Twittersphere isn't new, but providing recruiters with a platform to better connect with passive job candidates is still a good idea. All you need to do is sign up for a free account, write a job tweet and pay five dollars to post the information via their system which will connect your message with a large number of recruiters. If you make multiple posts per week then you'll be eligible for a per post discount. It will be interesting to see how many recruiters interact with this new platform in the up coming months!

Utilize Micro-blog Technology to Find Talent or a Job
Posted by Brett Lane at 12:58 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)
Printer-friendly version

October 02, 2009

Sales & Recruiting Tool for Linkedin: People Toucher

posted by Brett Lane in category: Social Media

I had the chance to review a sales and recruiting tool with a funny name offered by People Toucher this morning. The layout and functionality for finding sales and recruiting opportunities is pretty professional and easy to utilize. You have the ability to use multiple search criteria when finding individuals via Linkedin's network; which makes finding the right person much easier. The only drawback to People Toucher's system is that it takes you away from their site instead of integrating the search results within its own site. This is probably something they will be integrating into their site in the distant future to keep users within their portal. This would be one of the few ways they can make money in the future. I am going to put this system to the test next week and let everyone know if it will become a part of my sales and recruiting arsenal!

Sales & Recruiting Tool for Linkedin: People Toucher
Posted by Brett Lane at 11:24 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Printer-friendly version

September 30, 2008

5 Things to Consider When Hiring a Social Media Consultant and/or Company

posted by Brett Lane in category: Social Media

Here's my take regarding the 5 things a company should look for when trying to hire a social media consultant and/or company:

1 - Company Credibility

How long has the company and/or consultant you are looking at been around? Are they new to this industry or do they have a significant, quality experience under their belts? Who are their current clients? Do they have a list of referrals for clients that have utilized their social media services in the past?

In addition to asking these important questions, you should also get acclimated to what is being said about that consultant within the social media realm to see if there are any negative connotations associated with their name. You will want to ensure you are working with a social media consultant who has a credible name online since his or her reputation will affect yours once he or she begins working on behalf of your company.

2 - Past Projects

Can you view some of their past work? This will give you a good idea as to whether or not they have the creative experience necessary to help you achieve your goals. Seeing what one has done for others will give you a very good understanding of what is possible regarding your endeavors. Has this consultant worked with small, medium, or large clientele? The answer to that question can sway your thinking because your brand may be larger and need someone who has dealt with major companies to truly create synergy for your social media objectives. Lastly, ask questions related to if this consultant has worked with other clients in your particular vertical market? Utilizing a consultant who already has knowledge about your industry can save your social media campaigns an enormous amount of time because a good deal of the learning curve on their end will already have been established.

3 - Strategy Best Practices

Have them define their strategy without asking them to give away the bank. A reputable social media consultant should have no problems letting you know how they conduct business and what they think are the best practices within the social media industry.

Additionally, you should consider the following: How will they interact with community members among social media hubs online? What approach will they take to get community members excited about your brand without looking like he or she is trying to utilize marketing tactics? How many hours will they spend in the “trenches” on your behalf each month? How are they going to measure the buzz being generated about your brand online? What are their SOP’s regarding making their clients aware of reputation management issues surrounding their brands online? Lastly, how have they handled reputation management issues for clients in the past?

4 - Guidance

A company should have the consultant they are looking at hiring give them feedback as to what type of social media campaign can be conducted with their current multi-media resources. It is also imperative to have the consultant give you a taste of what you will get from having them conduct social media consulting on your behalf. They don’t have to create a major social media strategy before starting the relationship, but it is good to see what’s under the hood before you embark on a business relationship with this person. Have them take a look at your current social media assets and walk you through a micro-strategy that could be used to enhance a small area of your business. This will give you the chance to see how this consultant thinks and really how creative they can be with your brand. It also shows that this consultant is willing to invest some energy to get your business--both parties win in this type of relationship!

5 - Like-ability

It all comes down to the amount of trust the social media consultant has created for you up to this point. Your questions have been answered and you have seen their work, now what? Do a gut check and review all of the facts that have been presented by the potential social media consultant. Generally you will have a feeling one way or the other and it’s your responsibility to ensure your company works with a consultant that can be trusted. If you have questions about the information that has been presented to you, then bring them up to the consultant for further clarification. After receiving his or her feedback you should present this information to other members of your company to see if they have questions to be answered. The main point here is to seek insight from others to be sure you are making the right decision by creating a strategic business alliance with this consultant.
Finding the right social media consultant to work with does not have to be a daunting task.

By conducting all of the activities mentioned above, you will be ready to make an educated decision as to whether or not it will benefit your company to work with this potential social media consultant.

5 Things to Consider When Hiring a Social Media Consultant and/or Company
Posted by Brett Lane at 11:28 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)
Printer-friendly version

September 12, 2008

Video Social Network Recruiting: uBoast

posted by Brett Lane in category: Social Media

For job seekers looking for work on the East Coast who have exhausted all normal online job sites there is a new recruiting platform offered by uBoast. This new recruiting platform allows account holders to create video resumes to showcase their skills to a new breed of recruiters willing to use cutting edge technology to find job candidates. uBoast is able to partner with local Universities to help students excel their careers by providing them with interview tips and best practices in order to develop confidence that will develop compelling video resumes. They reach out to recruiting agencies and employers to find out what they are looking for in an employee to better help their candidates align themselves with the right employers. uBoast also offers services related to video creation coaching, filming & editing, and hosting of account users video resumes from within their professional Web site.

uBoast describes their video resume services as a means of allowing job seekers to "show off their mannerism, energy, confidence, professionalism, and communication abilities." The company also makes its services available to recruiters and describes those services as "helping employers establish a more complete overall impression of the applicant (Applicant's personal page will include their video resume, paper resume, answers to interview questions, endorsements, references, Google links, and portfolio docs) all on one screen."

This type of service will make it easier for employees to provide a better impression to hiring companies as well as give recruiters the best depiction of each candidate looking for work. The site and services are pretty new but should look promising to individuals seeking to use technology to the fullest extent when trying to find employment. Social media is now changing the way everyone looks at finding jobs as well as candidates online. I have a feeling more sites like this will be hitting the market to meet the needs of social media adopters looking for work online.

Video Social Network Recruiting: uBoast
Posted by Brett Lane at 03:26 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (0)
Printer-friendly version

September 08, 2008

iWidgets Soon to Syndicate Full CBS Episodes Online

posted by Brett Lane in category: Social Media

iWidgets, a Social Syndication Platform has announced that it will soon be distributing its first major client's (CBS Interactive) video content tomorrow September 9th, 2008 at 3pm PST at the Sheraton Hotel in San Diego, CA. The demo will showcase iWidgets Social Syndication Platform that will enable CBS’ audience to watch full episodes of television programming directly within popular social networks, and to socially engage the viewers with engaging such features as sharing, polls, ratings, and contests. iWidgets Social Syndication Platform makes it easy for widget creators to build and syndicate their applications with ease in a user friendly widget environment. There are plenty of widget building Web sites (Sprout Builder) that offer site users a general ability to build widgets but rarely offer the customization features of iWidgets. Now that iWidgets has a large client like CBS Interactive to showcase its widget syndication services I wouldn't be surprised to see other major content providers take their system for a test drive.

iWidgets Soon to Syndicate Full CBS Episodes Online
Posted by Brett Lane at 10:37 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Printer-friendly version

September 05, 2008

Micro-blogging Tracker with Eye Candy

posted by Brett Lane in category: Social Media

I had the opportunity to check out a neat micro-blogging tracker site today called Dipity. It offers users a pretty cool way to keep track of what's being said about many topics, as well as what others are following via the Social Media space in a very nice visual layout. There are many ways to follow others in their system whether you use RSS, Twitter, Flickr, and a host of other ways to integrate mainstream Social Media platforms into their system. The main premise behind Dipity is to present information about users of multiple Social Media applications from a visually stunning platform. The concept of bringing together many Social Media sources into one location isn't new but the idea of enhancing the visual display of such content in the manner they have chosen is pretty impressive.

Micro-blogging Tracker with Eye Candy
Posted by Brett Lane at 04:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Printer-friendly version

July 18, 2008

Reputation Management Tool: Omgili

posted by Brett Lane in category: Social Media

Another cool tool (Omgili) to aid reputation management specialists in finding a plethora of sites that are potentially influencing their clients brands online. I took the site for a test drive today and found a good number of sites that represented one of my clients. You can now monitor a large number of discussion/review sites in one fail swoop and look like a champ to your clients. Omgili describes itself as "a way to find "subjective information". As opposed to traditional search engines, which search for sites and pages, Omgili finds consumer opinions, debates, discussions, personal experiences, answers and solutions." This site looks very promising and could be a major player in relation to its quasi competitors Twing, BoardTracker, BoardReader, and Twingly.

Reputation Management Tool: Omgili
Posted by Brett Lane at 05:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Printer-friendly version

July 14, 2008

Track Corporate Blog Activities Online

posted by Brett Lane in category: Blogging

There are a variety of paid tools available to marketers regarding what bloggers are saying about their clients. For people looking for a free alternative to seeing what's being said about their clients in the blogging world I would recommend checking out Trendpedia. It is currently in Beta but offers some basic information to help marketers create a benchmark before they conduct social media marketing activities. Trendpedia is a good starting point if you don't have a large amount of money to put into social media monitoring services and need basic data related to your campaigns.

The only major downside to this site is that users can't download the data that's presented when search queries are conducted. Other than that I think this site can be a good resource for people who looking for a snapshot regarding their social media monitoring campaigns. This can be a good to tool to use initially while you are looking for a professional social media monitoring solution.

Track Corporate Blog Activities Online
Posted by Brett Lane at 10:18 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)
Printer-friendly version

July 01, 2008

Micro-blogging Submission Tool: Brabblr.com

posted by Brett Lane in category: Social Media

Trying to keep up with friends across the myriad of micro-blogging communities can be quite difficult if you have many profiles created in this space. Rather than trying to go to each one on a daily basis to keep your followers updated wouldn't it be cool if you could log into one location and zip your messages to all of them. Well, Brabblr is now making that possible through its "Alpha" platform, where users can make submissions to the following micro-blogging communities with one submission:

- Twitter
- Pownce
- Jaiku
- tumblr
- Jabber
- Frazr
- Wamadu
- Mambler
- Boomloop
- Wevent
- gmail
- Roundhousekick

Brabblr calls itself a mashUp for the micro-services and looks like a promising solution for people who are on the go and have little time to keep their friends up to date with the changes taking place in their lives. Here's another interesting way to make sense of our busy lives!

Micro-blogging Submission Tool: Brabblr.com
Posted by Brett Lane at 11:34 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
Printer-friendly version

June 09, 2008

Monitoring Viral Videos Across Multiple Platforms Online

posted by Brett Lane in category: Social Media

Over the past few months there have been many video submission sites popping up like weeds across the Web. One of the major challenges as a social media marketer is to keep track of where viral videos are appearing online. No longer does this have to be a major pain in the neck. A site called VideoFetcher is making it easy to search for videos across 100 video submission sites. Go here to download their tool bar to search for videos from your browser at anytime. Hopefully this new search tool will help some of you video junkies out there. Happy hunting!

Monitoring Viral Videos Across Multiple Platforms Online
Posted by Brett Lane at 05:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Printer-friendly version

May 07, 2008

Social Media News: Socially-networked Friend Requests Via SMS

posted by Brett Lane in category: Mobile SEO

There's a new company online who is looking to make it easier for mobile users to create connections via their Facebook, Myspace, Linkedin profiles. rmbrME is an innovative solution helping people connect via mobile phone on the fly. With our busy lifestyles we need to be able to make connections easily as well as keep our social network profiles updated from day to day. rmbrME describes itself by stating the following: rmbrME gives you the power to send a socially-networked friend request to anyone you meet in real life using just SMS. Simply text their phone number or email address to RMBRME (762763) and we’ll send along a convenient link that unlocks your Facebook, Myspace, Linkedin or other profile. In a couple of clicks, they add you as a friend, and you stay connected. We even keep track of when and where you meet people so that you can remember them more easily than ever.

This system has the potential to make it easier to bridge the gap between mobile phones and social network connections by helping end users stay connected from one platform.

Social Media News: Socially-networked Friend Requests Via SMS
Posted by Brett Lane at 10:12 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
Printer-friendly version

April 04, 2008

Social Media News: Sprout Review

posted by Brett Lane in category: Social Media

Here's a site for those of you looking to create widgets that combine many forms of multi-media content: Sprout. They describe their site as "a quick and easy way for beginner and pro users to create living content including websites, banners, videos, music, photos, RSS feeds, calendars and more."

Here are a few examples of recently created Sprouts:

Sprouts can be promotional, personal, or informational and allow creators to integrate RSS, videos, images, podcasts, etc. into their widgets to make them come alive. Sprouts have also been described as "interactive and portable chunks of web content, widgets, mashups or mini-sites."

Sprouts are a great way to get your interactive content into the hands consumers looking for multimedia to consume. Sprouts have many cool features including:

Pre-built Templates-

Easy Asset Management-

Flexible Components-

Functional Publishing Platform-

Advanced Tracking Options-

I have a feeling this site will make major headway in the coming months as corporations and consumers get word of their highly functional widget offering.

Social Media News: Sprout Review
Posted by Brett Lane at 10:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Printer-friendly version

March 07, 2008

Social Media: Why Some AD/PR Agencies Don't Get It

posted by Brett Lane in category: Social Media

I have seen a tremendous amount of hoopla online over the last couple of months related to social media marketing strategies being implemented by AD and PR agencies. Unfortunately, many of these types of agencies seem to be trying to make a square peg fit into a round hole. Rather than spending time researching for portals to have their clients generate buzz related to their products and/or services, they are taking a shotgun approach to social media marketing.

At the beginning of each social media campaign there should be a great deal of research conducted to find a needle in a hay stack; being a niche marketing opportunity. After a good deal of social media portal candidates are selected then the next step in the process is finding out what type of content the active users will find interesting. This way you can be sure that the most active members within these portals will positively interact with your clients brands, products, services, etc. Building a presence within each social media portal will take time and should be looked at as one of the most important activities one can conduct on behalf of a client.

If you are actively engaged in social media portals and constantly creating content that users can find meaningful, then you will ensure your clients have the greatest impact when they introduce new material to active bloggers, and social media participants. Then your biggest challenge will be monitoring how much buzz you are generating for your clients and not whether or not you are reaching the right target market.

Social Media: Why Some AD/PR Agencies Don't Get It
Posted by Brett Lane at 05:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Printer-friendly version

March 04, 2008

Mobile Phones & Social Media Integration: Yahoo's oneConnect

posted by Brett Lane in category: Mobile SEO

In Q2 of 2008 Yahoo expects to introduce a platform called "oneConnect" that will allow users to integrate many forms of communication into their mobile phones. Yahoo describes this new platform as as way to "use all your favorite communications tools and services to connect with anyone, at anytime. From IM or text, email or social networks; Yahoo! oneConnect intends to integrate all the ways you communicate into a unique, mobile experience."

Yahoo's oneConnect mobile platform will allow users to view new postings on Facebook®, photos on MySpace or a connection on LinkedIn®. This mobile platform will support a good number of social media sites and make it easier for people to stay connected to their friends. Yahoo! oneConnect describes its new service as a way of keeping a pulse on its users networks and delivering the most current action right to their phones.

Mobile Phones & Social Media Integration: Yahoo's oneConnect
Posted by Brett Lane at 05:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Printer-friendly version

February 27, 2008

A Global Perspective of Social Networking Usage

posted by Brett Lane in category: Social Media

A newspaper in France called "Le Monde" recently published a pretty sweet map that describes the usage of social networking portals across the globe, which was originally created by the research firm Datamonitor. The social networking usage graph depicts the number of hours (in millions) users spend at major portals across 5 world wide regions and sheds some light on the diversity of social networking participants around the globe.

In North America it shows that MySpace has a slight lead on FaceBook regarding social networking usage within the states. The users in Brazil and India seem to migrate towards Orkut, whereas in Asia-Pacific Cyworld and Mixi are the top dogs chosen by users. Africa social networking users gravitate towards sites like Netlog, Yonja, and Skyblog, while users in Latin America and Mongolia prefer to use hi5 to get their social networking fulfillment each day.

Considering Myspace and FaceBook has spent a considerable amount of time in the last few months working on expanding into other markets, its only a matter of time until these US focused giants gain proportional existence in other foreign regions. It will be interesting to to see who dominates the foreign social networking landscape in the near future. Time to place your bets folks....

A Global Perspective of Social Networking Usage
Posted by Brett Lane at 06:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Printer-friendly version

February 19, 2008

Social Media News Aggregator: newspond

posted by Brett Lane in category: Social Media

Newspond is a clean news site that is now being described as a tireless electronic brain that is an ultimate hub for the latest news stories related to technology, science, and gaming. It has a clean look and is matched by the sites ability to parse stories across news sites and blog hubs online. Once a story starts showing up online Newspond notes all details about the story such as the rate at which people click on or bookmark the article and the size of each of the sites reporting that story. It utilizes a rating system called "Rating Buoyancy" which is described by Newspond as a "measure of the exact upward force exerted on a news story by the internet, in real-time."

I have a feeling we are going to see some really cool things coming from Newspond in the near future.

Social Media News Aggregator: newspond
Posted by Brett Lane at 08:59 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
Printer-friendly version

February 18, 2008

comScore and Media Contacts Study Depicts Variances Among Online Video Viewer Segments

posted by Brett Lane in category: Social Media

A study by comScore and Media Contacts was conducted to understand the consumption habits and mindsets of Internet video users as they relate to online video, TV, and advertising plus content across both media. The findings were very interesting in that the top 20% of viewers averaged 841 minutes of online viewing per month, moderate viewers (next 30%) spent 77 minutes, and the bottom 50% spent just 6 minutes a month conducting the same activities online.

The heaviest users spent most of their time online visiting niche video sites that catered to individual topics with less general videos being displayed.

Moderate viewers sent most of their time visiting specific video content on broadcast TV sites, including WorldNow (ABC), CBS TV Local, ABC Daytime, Scripps TV, and CMT, rather than frequenting more general video-sharing sites.

The study found that light online video viewers are actually heavier TV consumers, with 46 percent of this group indicating they watch more than 13 hours of TV per week. In comparison, 39 percent of moderate video viewers and 30 percent of heavy video viewers watched the same amount of TV.

Although there is a great deal of variance between the types of videos, content, and media sources being accessed online it is imperative to gain a better understanding of what consumers are actively watching to better meet their needs from a marketing perspective. This type of research will lay the foundation for how search marketing companies target online video consumers from a strategy standpoint.

comScore and Media Contacts Study Depicts Variances Among Online Video Viewer Segments
Posted by Brett Lane at 11:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Printer-friendly version

February 08, 2008

FaceBook Now Targeting Spanish Users

posted by Brett Lane in category: Social Media

FaceBook is now targeting users outside the US by unveiling a Spanish-language version of its popular online social network, in an attempt to catch up with its rival MySpace. This new platform has been created because FaceBook currently has about 60% of its users reside outside of the US. Facebook plans to add French and German versions before April, according to Matt Cohler, the Palo Alto-based company's vice president of strategy and operations. Out of its 64 million active users, 2.8 million are in Latin America and Spain, which is a great incentive for FaceBook to cater to this Spanish speaking population. As of next week, anyone accessing FaceBook from a Spanish speaking country will be routed to the Spanish version of their Web site. There were 1,500 FaceBook users who translated the sites vernacular and applications into Spanish using tools provided by the company. The same approach is currently being used to translate the site into French and German versions of this popular social networking platform.

FaceBook Now Targeting Spanish Users
Posted by Brett Lane at 10:56 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)
Printer-friendly version

Tracking Local Press Release Syndication Performance

posted by Brett Lane in category: Online Publicity

If you are a PR professional and looking for a way to track your newly syndicated press releases across a local platform then you've got to check out "Google's News" new local search feature. Now you have the ability to look up your news via zip code, city, or state and see what's showing up in your local market. You can use this information to see how well your local PR campaigns are doing online and get a better feel for other places to possibly syndicate your news.

To check out the new Google News local search feature go to news.google.com and scroll down the page, look for the "Local News Category", and enter your pertinent information into the search box. You will then be presented with the latest local news that reflects whatever region you are searching for online.

Your news results will look like:

Then to monitor your local news with ease on a daily or weekly basis create a Google Alert with your local news preferences are you are good to go!

Tracking Local Press Release Syndication Performance
Posted by Brett Lane at 09:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Printer-friendly version

February 05, 2008

Reputation Management: How to Track Corporate Buzz Online

posted by Brett Lane in category: Social Media

Tracking corporate buzz can be easy if you know the right Web sites to monitor online. Companies wishing to track their corporate buzz online should utilize blog and social media Web sites that have active users who are engaged on a daily basis with a variety of brands from companies across the Web. In an attempt to make this easier for you marketing professionals out there I have compiled a list of the sites you should monitor along with brief descriptions about each site.

Serph - A search engine that crawls online social media sites to find the latest buzz about a company, product, etc.

Technorati - Allows users to search for user-generated media (including weblogs) by tag or keyword.

Digg - A great place to monitor if your clients are in the technology industry.

Reddit - A social news site that was launched in June 2005 and is a competitor to Digg.

ShoutWire - Provides discussion of news, entertainment and videos every day, as well as a provides a free blogging platform with image and video hosting.

Propellor - Owned and operated by AOL LLC, a Time-Warner company and provides news and video online.

NewsVine - Site built with the purpose of allowing users an efficient way to read, write, and interact with the news.

A great way to monitor these types of sites is to set up Google Alerts that use your company name, products and services, or corporate professionals plus the name of the social media/blog news sites as your search query. This way you will be notified via email if Google's search results are displaying any information about your brand at any of the sites mentioned above.

Reputation Management: How to Track Corporate Buzz Online
Posted by Brett Lane at 10:41 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Printer-friendly version

October 13, 2007

Web 2.0 and Social Media Optimization Trends: Memetrackers

posted by Brett Lane in category: Social Media

I have been scoring the Internet the last few days trying to find resources related to Web 2.0 and/or Social Media Optimization and I came across the idea of “Memetracker Web Sites.” From a Web 2.0 perspective these sites are geared towards collecting information about “hot topics” or things that create a “buzz” in the news or Blogging communities and make this information readily available to the masses. Wikipedia defines the word “Memetracker” as “a tool for studying the migration of memes across a group of people. The term is typically used to describe Web sites that either: A) Analyze blog posts to determine what Web pages are being discussed or cited most often on the World Wide Web, or B) Allow users to vote for links to Web pages that they find of interest.”

The first Memetracker site was most likely Gabe Rivera’s news and politics site called “Memeorandum.com,” which used an algorithm to collect top stories from a plethora of news Web sites and Blogs.

Here’s a list of the top old school Memetracker sites online:

1) Blogniscient
2) BlogRovr
3) Blogrunner
4) Blogsnow
5) Buzzfeed
6) Chuquet
7) Daily Rotation
8) Feedable
9) Megite
10) Newroo
11) Slashdot
12) StrategicBoard
13) Tailrank
14) Techmeme
15) Technorati Kitchen
16) Tinfinger
17) Topix.net
18) TruthLaidBear

How do I benefit from visiting these sites?

Although these sites are viewed as old school Blog news aggregators, they can still be utilized from a “Reputation Management” standpoint. These Blog sites will enable you to see exactly what is being said about your company products, services, complaints, etc. Use these sites as monitoring resources and be proactive in terms of reputation management – don’t get caught being reactive!

Web 2.0 and Social Media Optimization Trends: Memetrackers
Posted by Brett Lane at 12:24 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
Printer-friendly version

October 09, 2007

Online Video Social Bookmarking Anyone?

posted by Brett Lane in category: Social Media

Online video submission sites have been popping up everywhere online for the last year or so. Due to this increase, online marketers are utilizing this form of marketing to get their clients’ Web sites greater exposure in the search engines. Video marketing is becoming a power force for companies seeking to distribute branding content online in a viral fashion. Syndicating video content through social bookmarking sites is a great opportunity to aid a company’s Universal Search Engine Optimization efforts. As we know, Google has changed the way it is displaying its search results (Universal Search) to give users more content options in one interface.

There are many types of video submission Web sites that exist online, the primary difference being the quality of the videos being displayed on these sites. If you have clients who are creating videos to describe their products, services, etc., then I would recommend creating a video submission strategy to get this type of media found in various places online. By utilizing social bookmarking sites you can ensure that your clients’ videos will be displayed in Google’s search results as well as other media hubs online.

Here are 55 video sharing Web sites I would recommend as a starting point for creating a viral video submission strategy:

AOL Uncut, Blip, Blinkz, Break, Brightcove, Clesh, Cuts, Dabble, Daily Motion, Dave.tv, DivX Stage 6, eefoof, Eyeka, Eyespot, Fliqz, FlixYa, Forscene, Google Video, Gotuit, Grouper, iFilm, JayCut, Jumpcut, Kewego, LiveVideo, Lycos Mix, Metacafe, Mojiti, MotionBox, MyHeavy, MyNumo, MySpaceTV, Ning, OneTrueMedia, Photobucket, Revver, SevenLoad, Soapbox, StashSpace, Sumo, Twango, Veoh, Viddler, Vidilife, Vimeo, Vmix, VodPod, Vsocial, Webshots, Yahoo Video, YouAreTV, YouTube, Yurth, Zeec and Ziddio.

Video submission and/or social bookmarking Web sites have a variety of guidelines for making submissions, so play by the rules and you will see your videos show up all over the place online. You don’t have to go overboard when making submissions, as long as you can get your video to show up on the top video submissions sites like Google and Yahoo video, Metacafe, Blinkz, etc., you will be fine from a distribution standpoint.

Online Video Social Bookmarking Anyone?
Posted by Brett Lane at 09:40 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)
Printer-friendly version

September 28, 2007

The Emergence of Universal Search Engine Optimization

posted by Brett Lane in category: Universal SEO

In May of this year, Google announced its new Universal Search System which blended traditional search results with news, video, music, images, local and book search engine portals, as well as Blogs on a single page to help users find information with greater ease. Universal Search, a new platform which represents a major shift in information display and retrieval, is causing search engine optimization companies to rethink how they conduct service offerings. So what does this mean for SEO professionals?

For those who conduct Search Engine Optimization services for clients, “Universal Search” is yet another marketing opportunity worth considering. Our industry is already known for dealing with extreme change on a monthly basis, and as a result of being able to adapt to this ever-changing market, this has enabled us to thrive in the industry. With these changes, we must re-invent or enhance our offering to meet the growing changes presented by Google in order to stay ahead of the curve. The emergence of Google’s Universal Search now forces SEO professionals to look outside the box for providing their customers with bleeding edge Internet marketing solutions.

To be able to help our clients rank in the top Google search results, we now have to look towards creating effective SEO strategies that involve RSS, news, videos, audio files, images, local and book search engine portals, and Blogs. With so many new things being displayed in Google’s search results it will be much harder to attain a top ten search engine listings for clients. However, this doesn’t mean that the world is coming to an end for SEO’ers. Nevertheless, it means that we must look towards existing Google search platforms and integrate them into a new strategy called “Universal Search Engine Optimization.”

Universal Search Engine Optimization encompasses traditional SEO (on-site & off-site) methodologies as well as combines Web 2.0 marketing tactics, i.e., RSS, Online Optimized Press Releases, Podcasts, Vodcasts, Blogs, Social Bookmarking, Social News sites, Image and Book listing optimization, as well as Local Search, that aids clients in gaining a greater market share within Google’s Universal Search results.

The following Internet marketing activities make up a large part of Universal SEO:

"Definitions in parenthesis taken from Wikipedia"

RSS -- “RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines or podcasts.”

Online Optimized Press Releases -- Tailoring a company’s news in such a manner to gain greater visibility online through optimizing elements within the press release.

Podcasts -- “A podcast is a digital media file, or a series of such files, that is distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and personal computers.”

Vodcasts -- "Video podcast (sometimes shortened to vidcast or vodcast) is a term used for the online delivery of video on demand or video clip content via Atom or RSS enclosures.”

Blogs -- “Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject such as food, politics, or local news; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic.”

Social Bookmarking -- “A way for Internet users to store, organize, share, and search bookmarks of web pages. In a social bookmarking system, users save links to web pages that they want to remember and/or share.”

Social News Sites -- News aggregation (social network) sites that gain stories from community members online.

Image Optimization -- Effectively optimizing image file names, alternate text, and the utilization of photo sharing sites such as Flickr, Picasa, Photobucket, etc.

Book Listing Optimization -- Optimize Book company Web site pages to enhance placement in search engines for the titles of books for sale.

Local Search Listings -- Create local business listings and optimize Web sites to better perform amongst local search engine (Google Local, Yahoo Local, etc) listings.

To stay competitive in the ever-changing SEO industry, we need to create strategies for our clients that focus on all aspects of Universal Search. I believe this new form of search results presented by Google will open many doors for companies seeking to embrace the evolution of search.

The Emergence of Universal Search Engine Optimization
Posted by Brett Lane at 03:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Printer-friendly version