Web News and Blogs

Twitter is a website where friends, family, colleagues - and strangers - can catch up - in real time - using one-liners to announce what they are doing ( i.e. writing a blog post, waiting for a plane, going for coffee), ask a  question, respond to someone else’s question…basically communicate through one-liners. Think of it as a very casual public instant messaging system.

One of the great features is that you can “follow” other people. This is advantageous for me because I follow people in my industry who give presentations. Following them, I not only learn more about them as human beings, I learn when they will be presenting next.

I have been Twittering for about two months, trying to understand the value of it from a business perspective. I mean, who has the time to log into the web (or watch your phone) all day? Oh yeh, there is a feature that works with your cell phone, and you can turn that on to be notified each time one of the people you follow adds a new “tweet”. You want to think about enabling that feature if you are following a good number of people.

Are people using it?
Presumably  so. I have tried to tweet over the past 2 weeks (even this morning at 8:15 a.m. EST). Each time I have logged in, I received the message that the system is “over capacity”. Either Twitter is having technical difficulties or it is true that this new tool has become more popular than creators had imagined.

Twittering with people you would like to meet is a good ice breaker
Another feature is that you can add a photo of yourself.  I didn’t necessarily see this as a positive, but, a marketing colleague of mine explained that your photo appears next to each “tweet” you make, and this enhances your personal branding. Over time, your photo becomes synonymous with your (Twitter) name. When you get the opportunity to meet the people that you follow in person, you are already familiar to them.  Approaching them is easier because you feel like you have a relationship, and they may/will recognize you from Twitter and instantly feel that there is rapport.  If they don’t recognize you, you have common ground (previous Twitter encounters) to refer to in order to help them recall and/or to launch into a comfortable conversation.

Testing out Twitter
My Twitter name is kcalkmc. I am currently following about 7 people, and about 6 people are following me. If you would like to follow me, go to Contact Adventures Online and click on the Do You Follow Me? at the bottom of the Twitter box.  That will bring you to my Twitter page. If you have an account, log in, then return to my page and click Follow. If you do not have an account, create one, then return to my page and click Follow. 

At the least, Twitter will give you an amusing break from your day.

Last week, I attended a workshop about Personal Branding. We were asked to list 3 adjectives that describe our personal brand. Some struggled to choose the “right” three, so, the instructor guided them by asking, “Well, what do your clients say?”

This got me to thinking about the comments I have heard repeatedly over the years. The top 4 comments are: 

1. “You explain technical stuff in terms that I understand.”
      
2. “We are suprised at your abililty to interpret exactly what we want and develop a solution that melds seamlessly with our website”.
     
3. “The thing I like most about working with you is that you do what you say you are going to do when you say you are going to do it - and - if there are any changes, you contact us and let us know the situation and solution.”
     
4. “The administration modules you created make updating the information on our website so easy.” 

It was nice to recall those comments, and reflect on them then and now. In the course of the day, trying to meet deadlines, managing projects, and responding to last-minute requests, I forget about the things that I am doing “right” - that service my clients in a most satisfying and sometimes suprising way! I think I’ll sit with that for a while

BTW - The three adjectives I chose were sincere, reliable, and thorough. On another day, I will explore how those match with what my clients are saying and with the image my website portrays.

Happy Blogging!

It’s Fun Friday! Spring is on its way in Boston, and today we are having April showers.

A business colleague sent me a link to this video. Being from YouTube, I knew that I would enjoy it, so, I sat back and relaxed. Then I listened to the words. This rapper knows how to optimize a website for the search engines! So I had to listen again, then again. I was laughing my tail off, and, at the same time, applauding this young man’s talent - getting it right and putting it into a rap song. What a fun way to be reminded of what you need to do to get found on the Internet! Folks, this is filed under Best Practices

Watch…Listen…Enjoy…Do it again…

[Took the video out and replaced it with a link. ]
The Poetic Prophet (aka The SEO Rapper) tells us how. This is a must see!

… and Have a Great Weekend!

Digg is a social media website where people gather to express their opinion about Internet posts. The posts may be news items, articles, or opinions, and span all topics. There is a voting structure in place where each participant can give a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” to a post. Thumbs up is given in the form of clicking  “digg it”, and thumbs down is given in the form of clicking “bury”.  Participants can popularize a post (encouraging friends, family, and colleagues to vote) by clicking “share”, and/or they can comment on a post. In order to participate, of course, one must have a digg account.

You do not need to be at digg.com to vote. When you are reading a post that has a link to digg, you can click on the link, enter your digg login, cast your vote, enter your comment and/or share it. If yours is the first vote, the post gets listed in digg.com under the “upcoming” category. As others visit digg or the post and vote on it, the post moves through the digg categories…And so begins the process of popularizing a post.  

Posts are categorized in multiple groupings, too many to mention here, but for example:

• Upcoming (recently added to digg (i.e. 1 vote))
• Most recent (most recently voted on)
• Most popular in the past 24 hours
• Most popular in several vertical markets like Technology, World and Business, and Gaming

Posts are archived by number of days (7, 30, 365).

Alternately, you can go directly to digg.com to learn what others are thinking on any given day by viewing the most popular posts of the day.

Why should you care?
Well, you want to get found on the Internet. You want people to know that you are an expert in your field… and Digg is a word-of-mouth marketing tool;  (I prefer David Meerman Scott’s phrase ”word-of-mouse”.) 

You are in total control of getting found. You don’t need to call in your SEO experts, nor your website experts. Simply write a compelling piece. Tell everyone you know what the piece is about and where to find it. Log into digg and watch your popularity grow.

Your goal is to get listed on the first page in the 24 hour category.  It will likely take multiple attempts to reach the goal. In the meantime, you have added content to your website, raised awareness about your expertise, products and services, and people have been “digging” you…All good things!

Visit digg.com.

Today I am attending a virtual conference for B2B Marketers - Market Profs B2B-2.0 Expo. First presenter of the day, David Meerman Scott, provided an information-packed presentation called “Tuned in to Extraordinary Opportunities - New Rules for B2B Marketers”.

Some notes on that session…

David suggests that marketing on the Internet is marketing to buyer personas not to nameless, faceless prospects. He suggests that each company develop detailed persona profiles for each of its client types. Then create different content geared toward each of the personas - using their lingo and referencing things of interest to them. He even suggests dumping the copywriters and hiring journalists because journalists know how to write for different personas.

Today’s online marketing is about “idea spreading and solving problems” and not about begging and paying for attention as was done in the past.

David asserts that “You are what you publish” on the web, and suggests producing eBooks and allowing FREE downloads, creating and consistently stocking your company’s online media section (.e. what’s new, news), and providing opportunities for people to talk about you and make your content viral (viral marketing). He cautioned that with the viral marketing campaigns, expect to fail, and move on to the next campaign.

David’s message really hit home for me. I have been introducing similar ideas to my clients for a while now. David’s presentation gave me ideas about how I might be able to get the stragglers to follow. I’ve downloaded his eBook “The New Rules of VIRAL MARKETING: How word-of-mouse spreads your ideas for free” to provide inspiration, and indeed, a reminder to get clients producing more content.