Friday, April 30, 2010

The Social CEO Part One: Most CEOs are not social

"How many CEOs are social now?

Very few, at least in the pantheon of large companies. Here's the research:

1) None of the CEOs of Fortune Magazine's top 100 global corporations have a social profile. We found six defunct Twitter accounts, and one Japanese-language blog. We could discover no obvious presence for any of the 100 CEOs on Facebook or LinkedIn.

2) The CEOs of the tech companies had negligible social presences. Eric Schmidt of Google is an infrequent Twitterer and is not a blogger; Steve Ballmer at Microsoft has no blog and no Twitter account; Michael Dell is on Twitter but is not an external blogger; Mark Hurd of HP, Sam Palmisano at IBM, Steve Jobs of Apple, and Larry Ellison of Oracle have no Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or blog presences that we could find."

The Social CEO Part One: Most CEOs are not social | Forrester Blogs

Photoshop Guide For Affiliates

"Most affiliates can be put in one of two categories:

A good coder that thinks rainbow gradients and bevel emboss are essential for every design created.

A good designer that thinks PHP, CSS, and HTML are online gangs that write encrypted letters to each other hidden behind websites.

I’m in Both, i work at Ad Agency/PR firm. So for all you coders/misinformed designers here are some Photoshop tutorials relevant to affiliate marketing."


Photoshop Guide For Affiliates�|�Mr Green

What Twitter’s New Ad Model Could Mean for Small Business

"Twitter has finally answered a big piece of the long running question of how it plans to make money. At Ad Age’s Digital Conference in New York, the company revealed “Promoted Tweets,” an advertising system that will allow businesses to have their tweets highlighted in search results, and eventually, in the Twitter stream and third-party applications."

What Twitter’s New Ad Model Could Mean for Small Business

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Google adds brands within search results | Relevant Results - CNET News

"Google is experimenting with a search results box that inserts major brands atop regular search results for product-related queries.
They're not ads, and they're not regular search results. Search Engine Land spotted the branded results, which I was able to reproduce for several queries including 'digital cameras,' 'notebook PCs,' 'cars,' and 'mobile phones.' In each case, the first line below the ads atop the search results page contains the text 'Brands for mobile phones' and hyperlinks over a company's name to another search results page that combines the original search and the brand."

Google adds brands within search results | Relevant Results - CNET News

Facebook does not erase user-deleted content

"Nearly a year on since Cambridge University researchers discovered that Facebook, along with other major social networks, doesn’t erase server-side copies of your uploaded data, the world’s biggest social network is still guilty of such a sin."

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED THERE IS NO MORE Reasonable expectation of PRIVACY online.

Facebook does not erase user-deleted content | iGeneration
| ZDNet.com


How To Use E-mail To Benefit SEO

"Most of you reading this headline will probably think I’m crazy. We all know that search engines do not crawl or index e-mail. What we forget is that you do have the option to view a copy of the e-mail you receive in a browser. Usually this is reserved for e-mails that are sent from brands to people that have registered for a newsletter, etc. This copy of the e-mail is usually just a simple HTML page that can be crawled and indexed by the search engines, and, if you play your cards right, could benefit your SEO efforts."

TIP: use anchor text on your "click here" using the subject of the email

How To Use E-mail To Benefit SEO

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

How to Create a Facebook Fan Page

"Many marketers I know tried to stay away from Facebook for business for quite a while.� There was something overly familiar about connecting everyone you know from all walks of life – past meeting present, work meeting play – that made it sort of uncomfortable for many to bring their personal/business social graph into the marketing fold.� Nowadays, many have simply accepted Facebook into their business persona…either that or maybe it was the Hitwise data crowning Facebook as the top site of the web."

How to Create a Facebook Fan Page | @NowSourcing.Com

testing google buzz

HOW TO: Secure Your WordPress Blog

"WordPress is one of the most popular platforms for self-hosted blogs and websites. It’s what we use here at Mashable, and it’s a terrific tool. While WordPress is pretty secure out of the box, there are always going to be individuals who want to make trouble by finding a way to crack into accounts or sites to cause damage or inject hidden spammy links. That’s why it’s important to make sure that your WordPress installation is as secure as possible.

Here are some of our tips for keeping your WordPress website or blog more secure and less susceptible to malicious attacks."

HOW TO: Secure Your WordPress Blog

How Europeans Engage With Social Media

"You seemingly can’t live without social media these days, or at least, that is what many in our industry believe. Why? Because “everybody” is using it. Everybody is communicating, “everybody is a publisher.” But does that mean that every European is publishing through social media? Well, not exactly. Yes, Europeans are online en masse and are using social media in big numbers. But how are they using social media?

I’ve stated before that every European country should be looked at separately when it comes to search engine optimization. Its the same with social media: Europeans cannot be “handled” equally. Let’s take a closer look."

How Europeans Engage With Social Media

Facebook’s Future In Social News

"As you probably know, Facebook has launched the newest version of their Facebook Platform last week at their third F8 conference. This new platform “puts people at the center of the web” and boosts personalization while making websites more social. On the Facebook blog, you can even see an example of how they are leveraging the new personalized Facebook tools to display the most popular news from their blog:"



Facebook’s Future In Social News

Google Expands Rich Snippet Support Internationally

"Nearly a year ago, Google announced that they had begun extracting metadata from microformat and RDFa markup on pages to display “rich snippets” in search results. They recently expanded this support to include HTML5 microdata. They now�use this markup to enhance results for people profiles, reviews, videos, events, and recipes. Rich snippets provide additional information to searchers beyond the typical title and description (such as star ratings, address information, and social network connection details).

Google has now�expanded this support internationally. (While the documentation is available in 16 languages other than English, it’s unclear if international support extends beyond these 16. We will update this post when we get clarification from Google.)"

Google Expands Rich Snippet Support Internationally

From Culos to Coolness to Racial Profiling

"A recent entertainment blog post titled 'Who Has The Best Behind In Hollywood' featured Kate Hudson as Best Butt photo No. 1. Thinking I was on to another Vanity Fair-type scandal, featuring only the thin, the white and the lovely, I made it a point to review whose behinds were actually featured. Impossible, I thought, to exclude Latinas and African Americans as darlings in the derriere department. Slide No. 2 gave me pause, as it featured Jennifer Love Hewitt's posterior of petite proportions. But then came Salma, Jessica, JLo, Eva and Penelope, the usual suspects."

From Culos to Coolness to Racial Profiling - The Big Tent - Advertising Age

Meet the Brands Hiding on Google

"If a consumer types a brand name into the Google search box, a home-page link should -- and likely will -- appear as one of the top listings.

But does the same thing happen when typing in a generic keyword relevant to that business? Say, 'home repair' for Home Depot or 'gifts' for Harry & David? That depends on how well they're optimized for Google."

Meet the Brands Hiding on Google - Advertising Age - Digital

Monday, April 26, 2010

Pervasive Intelligence for Improved Business Performance

"Businesses of all types and sizes are increasingly challenged to leverage all of the invaluable information that is stored on their IT systems and yet remains unavailable, or worse unused, by those who need it. However, by providing greater right-time insight into key performance indicators and drivers throughout the organization, stakeholders can quickly analyze, collaborate, and leverage information to make better and faster decisions that will ultimately improve the overall performance of their business. That's the power of end-to-end intelligence and the reason that so many savvy leaders are now doing everything they can to harness the information that is so important to improving the overall performance of their organizations. The only question now is where to begin and how to find the right solution for your particular business."

SEO Benchmarks and KPI

"Recently we learned that most SEOs still consider that rankings are a performance indicator, just less of a value than in the past. Or at least according to a recent poll we held. This all begged the question, what ARE the metrics of measuring SEO success?
Well, in short, there is no cookie cutter approach that is going to work in all situations. What follows are some notes that we (Dojo warriors) put together over some forum threads and chat sessions.� And the question was….
What benchmarks and key performance indicators are worth watching?
As we made our way through the various potential benchmarks and KPI metrics, it became clear; all is not at it first would seem. Right away you should understand that each website, each business model and market creates new challenges. This is where the art of SEO comes into play. What is a key metric in one situation may be of secondary value on another."

Google’s Usability Fixation Reveals Local Ranking Factors

"Google’s obsession with usability is well-established. They use human evaluators to test search results and many algorithmic methods to establish quality scores that can impact rankings, such as the recently introduced site speed value. There are a number of common usability elements of business websites which I believe could be leveraged for rankings in local search. Here are ten.

Further background: In 2005, Google began introducing various factors in calculating a Quality Score which can impact PPC ad rankings and minimum bid amounts. As details of some of the factors involved were emerging, a few of us could see that Google was likely using similar Quality Scores as part of ranking webpages for organic search rankings."

Strategy Before Tactics

"It’s a debate that’s more common than you might think. Strategy or Tactics first when it comes to social media? Many companies approach their participation on the social web tentatively, picking a popular tool like Twitter, Facebook or for the more adventuresome, a blog. The exercise of setting up and populating a profile, friending others and seeing what happens is akin to the proverbial “throw spaghetti�against wall to see if it sticks” school of marketing."

Friday, April 23, 2010

Social Moves Into Search Marketing's Space

"Search, meet social. Social, meet search. The two of you will spend much more time together as brilliant minds continue to find new possibilities to integrate marketing and technology.

Search and social marketing began that long journey years ago, but became stronger partners when Google, Microsoft and Yahoo announced last year that their respective search engines would integrate Twitter streams in search queries. The two media cemented a tighter bond when Twitter announced the long-awaited rollout of its Promoted Tweets search advertising platform earlier this month."

I Like You, I Just Don't Love You

"By now you've seen the latest update to Facebook Pages. It's out with the 'Fans' and in with the 'Likes.' Facebook Pages are no longer using the term 'fan' to define the connection between a user and the brand/Page owner. The more accepted term 'like' is being used in it's place. Here's a couple of reasons this makes sense, and what marketers need to do."

The Hidden Dangers Of 'Life Gaming'

"Foursquare motivated people to check in at their locations by making it into a game, while the founder's game-less predecessor (Dodgeball) failed. 'FarmVille' is the fastest growing media property to 50 million users, reaching that benchmark four and a half months since it's release. Virtual goods ( buying 'nothing') was a billion dollar industry in 2009. Despite these points and the ones brought up in the video, there's a serious danger to the prospect of life as a game."

MediaPost Publications The Hidden Dangers Of 'Life Gaming' 04/23/2010

Google even knows what you're thinking

"Privacy advocate Moxie Marlinspike used the spotlight of the SOURCE conference here to call attention to Google’s data�harvesting practices, warning that the search engine giant can mine information to�figure out�even what Web surfers are thinking about."

'Google even knows what you're thinking' | Zero Day | ZDNet.com

Russian Hacker Selling 1.5 Million Facebook Accounts

"A hacker who calls himself Kirllos has obtained and is now offering to sell 1.5 million Facebook IDs at astonishingly low prices — $25 per 100 IDs for users with fewer than 10 friends and $45 per 1000 IDs for users with more than 10 friends — according to researchers at VeriSign’s iDefense. Looking at the numbers, Kirllos has stolen the IDs of one out of every 300 Facebook users."

Russian Hacker Selling 1.5 Million Facebook Accounts

Social Media Identity Theft Hits Facebook; Stolen Identities Up For Sale

"Identity Theft isn’t just something that impacts your bank account or credit card.� Your brand or trademark can be hijacked in social media and on the web as well, and we’ve seen it thousands of times here at KnowEm.� Most recently, according to PCWorld, a hacker named Kirllos has offered up for sale 1.5 million Facebook user accounts.� Facebook hasn’t confirmed that this is a verified hack or if Kirllos’ claims are actually legitimate, but the fact that there is a market at all for claimed usernames should give you an idea what their value is worth."

Social Media Identity Theft Hits Facebook; Stolen Identities Up For Sale | KnowEm.com

Thursday, April 22, 2010

How Facebook won the web

: "Facebook this week announced a new way to express your interests -- a 'Like' button that's set to appear all around the web. Click the button, and the Web page is shared with your friends.
What's more, every 'Like' you submit ensures Facebook (and its partner sites) can deliver a more personalized experience to you."

Should CEOs be social?

"This blog post comes to you live from the Forrester Marketing Forum 2010, where the theme is the need for marketers to adapt constantly.� During a lively presentation, Forrester Research CEO George Colony asks a simple but provocative question: should CEOs embrace social media?"

PubCon Social Media and Search Marketing Conferences 2010

"PubCon South at Dallas brought social media and search professionals together last week for a highly successful conference and day-long program of training workshops. The Richardson Civic Convention Center was filled with enthusiastic crowds that enjoyed insightful keynote speeches by Scott Stratten and Rob Snell along with dozens of sessions exploring the latest trends in online marketing, search, and social media."

Dow Jones Sues Briefing.Com For 'Free Riding'

"In what appears to be a shot across the bow to online aggregators, News Corp.'s Dow Jones has sued the Web site Briefing.com for allegedly lifting Dow Jones' articles and headlines.

'Without permission from Dow Jones to do so and without compensating Dow Jones, Briefing.com systematically copies verbatim or nearly verbatim substantial portions of Dow Jones' copyrighted articles ... and distributes them in competition with Dow Jones to Briefing.com subscribers,' Dow Jones alleges in the complaint, filed this week in U.S. District Court in New York."

Monday, April 19, 2010

META KEYWORDS TAG - SEO

Twitter for Android

"Seesmic for Android - Widget, Geotagging, Native Retweet

We’re happy to announce new features for Seesmic’s Android application. This app includes three new features that you’ll find useful: Widget, Geotagging and support for Native Retweet. We think you’ll find these new enhancements useful to managing your timeline.

Download Seesmic from Android Market and share your feedback with us and with your friends."

Friday, April 16, 2010

Google Search Allows 105K Twitter Users To Return Back To The Future

"It was announced at the Chirp Developers' Conference in San Francisco that Twitter now has over 105,779,710 registered users, and their adding 300K additional per day. In tandem with that announcement Google posted to their official Google Blog that the Twitterverse will be able to telescope back to any point in time and 'reply' what people said on Twitter dating back to Day One."

Thursday, April 15, 2010

PubCon South Conference Speakers

"M/C/C’s Director, Search, Steve Plunkett, is responsible for all aspects of search engine optimization (SEO) and Internet user behavior. Plunkett’s competitive personality makes him a perfect fit in the competitive world of SEO. As a child and a gamer, he worked hard ensuring that it was his initials at the top of every arcade game unit in his neighborhood. Today, he uses SEO to ensure his clients appear at the top of the search engine results – scoring big for those clients. At M/C/C, he offers clients a wide array of results-oriented services including keyword research, website development, blog strategy and planning and social networking consulting in addition to organic SEO."

Conference Speaker Biographies Steve Plunkett

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Is Your Bounce Rate Killing Your Blog? | John Chow dot Com

"What is bounce rate?
Bounce Rate is the total number of visitors that view one page divided by the total number of page visits. If you have Google Analytics installed then I’m sure you’ve looked at this number before, but if you’re like me you may have paid little attention to it at first. I suggest that you reconsider the importance of bounce rate as an indicator of your blog’s health."
Is Your Bounce Rate Killing Your Blog? | John Chow dot Com

Tuesday, April 06, 2010

FCC Loses Key Ruling On Internet 'Neutrality'

"WASHINGTON -- A federal court threw the future of Internet regulations into doubt Tuesday with a far-reaching decision that went against the Federal Communications Commission and could even hamper the government's plans to expand broadband access in the United States.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the FCC lacks authority to require broadband providers to give equal treatment to all Internet traffic flowing over their networks. That was a big victory for Comcast Corp., the nation's largest cable company, which had challenged the FCC's authority to impose such 'network neutrality' obligations on broadband providers."

Chrome Growing in Popularity Faster Than Rival Browsers

"Chrome’s share of the browser market is growing at a breakneck pace, according to data from Net Applications. Between February and March, Google’s browser rose to capture a full 6.1% share of the market, maintaining its lead over browsers such as Safari and Opera and closing the gap between Firefox, which currently holds a 24.5% share."

Monday, April 05, 2010

Google Ad Innovations: where ads are going next - Inside AdWords

"In the past year, Google's advertising tools have moved in some exciting directions. We've introduced more data-driven and efficient campaign management with the new AdWords interface, easier account optimization with the Opportunities tab, and new ad formats like Ad Sitelinks and Product Extensions that provide more context and value to those who see them, to name a few.

But where is advertising with Google headed next? Which new tools, formats and features will make it possible for you to communicate with your customers in more meaningful, creative ways?"

Google Ad Innovations: where ads are going next - Inside AdWords


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Friday, April 02, 2010

Blogger Widgets - Blogger Gadgets

"Newsletter is a good option when you want to send custom mails to your blog readers. It lets you send content rich HTML emails to your readers.Its not like the Feedburner Email Subscription(which just sends post updates via email at regular intervals) .You will be able to compose and send the newsletter at any time. Here are the steps to enable and send Newsletters."

Blogger Widgets | Blogger Gadgets

Thursday, April 01, 2010

Group Sues 20,000 Web Users For Downloading Indie Films

"In 2003, the Recording Industry Association of America embarked on an expensive, ultimately futile campaign to end piracy by suing individuals who allegedly shared music files on peer-to-peer services.
The RIAA famously brought cases against single mothers, children as young as 12 and, in at least one case, someone who was deceased. Many of the 18,000-plus people who were sued paid four figures to settle the charges. But even with the settlements, the litigation initiative cost the RIAA far more than it took in, generated enormous bad publicity, and did nothing to stem the record industry's losses."

Group Sues 20,000 Web Users For Downloading Indie Films

Microsites Not Complete Waste Of Money

"Despite all their fancy Flash graphics and creative investment, less than 1 in 10 consumers are at all impacted after visiting a branded microsite, according to new research from Dynamic Logic. On average, the firm found that microsites impact 7.8% of site visitors with respect to conveying 'key brand messages.' In other words, after visiting a microsite, 7.8% of people become aware of a campaign's message.

To be fair, that figure is nearly double the percentage of consumers who are impacted by typical online display and video ads, according to Dynamic Logic."

MediaPost Publications Study: Microsites Not Complete Waste Of Money 04/01/2010


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