Falling in “Link Love”

It’s February … the month of love!  So, we thought we’d share some thoughts on “link love” for those still in the hunt.

If SEO (search engine optimization) is important to your Web site’s success – AND IT IS! – then falling in ”link love” is why you need to get all prettied-up for the party.

Of course, to fall in “link love” you need a little “link bait.”  What’s a player to do? 

Well, here’s a few ideas:

• Pick a killer title: Like that little black dress on Saturday night, a good title will lure “link lovers” as Google crawls through and ranks your Web site.  Watch out, though, you can’t be disingenuous.  Make sure your killer title is relevant to your content or you’ll be cast-aside.
• Develop good content:  Make sure that you provide interesting and relevant content.  You may set the hook with a killer title, but to reel them in you need serious game.
• Looks really do matter:  Hard to read fonts, spelling errors, overly-digitized photos, and more, can turn suitors away.
• Leverage social networks:  Curling up at home on Saturday with a book or a movie is no way to make new friends … you have to be out there.  Post to sites like Digg and StumbleUpon and share with your Facebook, Twitter and YouTube networks.
• “Link Love” is a two-way street: You have to give in order to get.  So, make sure you give a nod to the sites you find interesting and resourceful.

Remember, February is for lovers.  Apply a little of that passion to your online presence and maybe you’ll find true happiness.

Post by Nick Vehr – 2.1.10

Social Media Ethical Dilemmas

Ghost-tweeting.  Ghost-blogging.  What’s a social media player to do?

One of my favorite bloggers for professional communicators (PR-Squared) has just offered his 2nd installment of 7 exploring social media dilemmas for PR firms and their clients.

It is a very thoughtful, revealing and honest online discussion and I encourage you to follow it directly.  Here’s the link: PR-Squared.

Just consider:

• If your client’s CEO is a full-on Twitter participant, and assuming tweet-frequency is a critical element of Twitter success, is it OK for someone else to tweet for the boss when he’s busy?
• Is it necessary for “ghost-tweeters” to identify themselves as such in the spirit of transparency and honesty?
• If a PR professional can ghost-write articles for the client’s monthly newsletter, is it OK for that same PR pro to ghost-blog?
• Do ghost-bloggers need to identify themselves as such in the spirit of transparency and honesty?

These are great questions and real life  case studies (names have been changed to protect the innocent) are being shared openly by Todd Defren on his blog.  Special thanks to he and his team for these posts!

Please connect and follow these directly.  I find them to be very helpful and incredibly interesting.

Post by Nick Vehr – 1.28.10

“Buzzwords” – Kind of Cute and Clever

Get it? ... "Buzz" (Just trying to stay with the "cute and clever" theme.)

I have to admit that I thought some of these new social media buzzwords shared by Pete Blackshaw were clever and kind of cute.

We all know Pete in Cincinnati.  He’s also quite the social media expert with a column in AdAge.  Here’s the link to his blog post, and his recent article in AdAge, “Top 20 Labels, Buzzwords to Describe Our Curious Stampede to the Social-Media and Mobile Future.”

But, on to the fun stuff.  See if you can connect Pete’s buzzwords with their definitions that follow.  For the answers, go to Pete’s blog post:

• Mobilenecking
• Jack Ripper
• Wiki Wart
• Oedipost Complex
• Apptosterone
• Twitstop

1. The curious neurosis that compels folks to sleep with their Blackberry or iPhone. The afflicted can’t stop checking — even in late hours — for responses to tweets or blog and Facebook posts.
2. The alarming tendency to have our necks titled down or shifted sideways — ever glued to our mobile device. This anywhere, anyplace epidemic is increasingly common in cars, airplanes and crosswalks. Closely related to term “Eyevoidance,” where no one looks at anyone anymore.
3. The device warriors who hog outlets anywhere they can find them — in the airport, via the USB port of a colleague’s computer, even a restaurant reservation desk. They get a charge from a charge.
4. A bathroom detour from a meeting or conversation in order to check e-mail, Twitter or the latest and greatest via an app. (Swear on the Bible, I don’t do this … but I’m told lots of others do.)
5. A bad piece of news or an embarrassing brand episode (e.g., an activist protest or a social-media campaign that backfired) that just won’t go away in a brand’s Wikipedia description. PR pros often give false hope to brands of removing the warts, but relentless Wikipedia editors put them right back.
6. The mojo that fuels intense “mine’s bigger/better” conversation about mobile apps. “Dude, you got Bump, but I’ve got FourSquare.” Marketing techies are loaded with Apptosterone.

Of course, here’s the gimme … the one we all need from time-to-time!

• Digital Detox: What we all need — at least in doses. As we’ve learned, total digital immersion has side effects. Let’s all pursue a roadmap for balance in 2010. 

Thanks, Pete.  Happy New Year.

Post by Nick Vehr – 1.14.10

“Bad Apples in PR”

I am very happy to paraphrase and pass on a great blog post regarding bad apples in PR. (Note: the headline is in quotes because I am sharing it directly from PR Squared.

Here’s the deal.  The author (Todd Defren) of this post re-shares his frustration (which we all feel as PR professionals) about having to justify/rationalize our existence. 

He laments the few, but way too many, PR bad apples as much as reputable and respectable lawyers disdain the ambulance-chasing, bottom-feeders that led Shakespeare to write, “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.”

The author also has interesting things to say about ROI and its misapplication to our industry. 

My perspective here:  It’s not that we want to be unaccountable or that meeting business objectives is not central to what we do.  It’s more that it is difficult, if not impossible or appropriate, to attempt to place a monetary, bookable value on retained trust or reputation, the crisis that never disrupts the business, or the lead that expresses initial interest while the actual sale is closed by other trained professionals.

It is easy to place lost value on such things (e.g., the value of Tiger Woods lost endorsement deals or Domino’s Pizza sales drop immediately after the online video event, etc.).   

So, please read an enjoy some thoughtful and seasoned perspective.  Any insights you have to add here or with PR-Squared are appreciated.

Post by Nick Vehr – 1.12.10

2010 Marketing Trends

First, happy new year to everyone and what a year past for professional communicators.  Shoot, what a year, period!

I wish I had my own top 10 list for 2010, or even for 2009.  Instead, I just feel like I get smarter reading certain lists of others.

I am glad to share this exceptional “10 Things Changing Marketing in 2010” list provided yesterday by Joe Marchese in his “OnlineSpin” blog. 

My high level take-away is that things are still evolving, but people are really beginning to understand real value in the integration old and new media to achieve client objectives.

So, here’s Marchese’s list and I really encourage you to click through to read the details:

“1.     Rise of Mobile - Mobile is going to be huge in 2010, especially if marketers can build digital campaigns with mobile extensions. Digital provides reach, and mobile can provide increased depth of interaction. For more on why 2010 is FINALLY the year of mobile, check out last week’s post on “Why Mobile In 2010.”

2.     Facebook Connect – It’s hard to overstate the implications of Facebook Connect for marketers. The ability to create more rewarding experiences for consumers, and simply be more creative, by using Facebook Connect will change all digital marketing efforts — and, I believe, take “social media” out of its silo. For more on Facebook Connect’s implications, check out “The End of Social Media” and “Secret Race For Permission.”

3.     Cause Marketing – I don’t know what digital rock you’ve been under if you haven’t heard that Pepsi has pulled out of the Super Bowl to focus more on marketing  for the social good. The key will be, can Pepsi activate people to spread its message because of the social good they are doing? Social media makes this a very possible outcome with the right programs put in place. Put simply, Pepsi is hoping, as I wrote earlier, that “Corporate Social Responsibility = Profitability.”

4.     Engagement Pricing – Digital media — heck, all media — needs new metrics that do a better job at measuring the value publishers deliver to marketers. These metrics  should be harder to “fake” – and should be able to be standardized across media outlets for media buyers and planners. No, engagement won’t be the only metric, but I’d put my money (and have) on it being one that stands out in 2010.

5.     Social Media Agencies – I know, it’s crazy, right? How can I claim the “end of social media” is coming and that social media agencies will take off in 2010? Well, for those who read the entire post, I say what actually will end is considering social media a marketing silo. Instead, the skills that make a marketing firm good at executing “social media campaigns” from concept, to execution, to management, will be the skill set required by ALL digital agencies. Most likely, we  will see something like what the marketing industry saw with the growth of search engine marketing: a rise of specialty agencies in the social media space, and the subsequent acquisitions of said agencies by holding companies and larger digital shops to help provide scale. 

6.     Local – See mobile. If you’re working on a national brand, what’s your local mobile and digital strategy extension?

7.     Brand Dollars Go Digital – It can be argued very easily that we are witnessing a “direct response bubble” in digital marketing. This is because of a near obsession in closing the loop on ROI measurement. More and more marketers are expanding their definitions of digital ROI outside of direct response and looking at how digital can help achieve brand objectives. And as I argued before, it’s just a question of scale and efficacy before digital media can compared to more traditional forms of marketing initiatives. See: “$1 Million Social Media Marketing Challenge.”

8.     Social Media Campaigns Grow Up – Will we stop hearing the word “viral” in 2010? I doubt it, but we can hope to hear it a whole lot less. I think the social media landscape is littered with enough failed viral efforts that most sane marketers and agencies will stop thinking  that social media as “free.” There is a formula and a science to making social media efforts work. Dedicated resources, measurement of the right things, and adapting to what is learned will make social efforts more stable.

9.     Real-Time Search – This is perhaps the most “bleeding edge” of any of the trends/issues facing marketers in 2010, but I do believe it is one that can have a major impact — and very quickly. The simple fact is that as real-time search improves, so does people’s ability to get real-time, unfiltered feedback from peers on products and services. It will be much harder for brands to control or manage their reputation, as with review sites. Instead, brands will need to turn to strategies that encourage positive conversations to balance out the inevitable bad.

10.  Whatcha Got? I figured I’d leave the 10^th open and hear what you all think. Drop me a line on Twitter at www.twitter.com/joemarchese and/or add your thoughts to the comments on the Spin board below.”

My best wishes to everyone for a very happy new year.

Post by Nick Vehr – 12.23.09

Old (media) and New (media)

Out with the old and in with the new.  Popular and populist, especially as it pertains to media.

The truth, though, is that many “internetistas” who think a whole new world was created with the internet are beginning to realize that knowledge of how it used to be done is quite helpful.

Some rules don’t – and, perhaps, never will – change.  Be informed and be prepared – do your homework.  Be responsive and respectful.  Be actively engaged. 

Strategic communications is about developing and maintaining relationships that are important to the enterprise. 

It’s about protecting and strengthening a brand (corporate) reputation. 

Importantly, it’s about enabling or delivering results that move the business forward.

Without question, social media (new media) has created new and faster opportunities (channels) by which to engage and interact with the relationships that matter.

Knowledge of these new and faster channels is vitally important in our Web 2.0 world. 

Of equal importance is understanding what action you desire from your target audience, what message will move your audience to action, and what you need to do to enable the action in the most deliberate, intuitive (read: easy) way.

Check out this case study on Alice.com provided by the folks at Shift Communications.  Old media facilitated the launch of a new online company because everyone involved understood that the two can’t, and really shouldn’t, be viewed separately.

So, old school meets new school and strategic communications still works the way it always has – just a whole lot faster.

Post by Nick Vehr – 12.21.09

The Future of Mainstream Media?

I’ve already retweeted this blog post by Todd Defren (PR Squared), but I also just had to blog about it as well.

Defren comments on the impact of the new electronic tablet readers on mainstream media.  He shares a Time Inc. video that demos how Sports Illustrated can be read in the future. 

Please go to the link above for the video (I had trouble inserting a video link – sorry!).

This is incredible stuff.  As someone who still likes to read newspapers, books and magazines, I can imagine that the experience shown on the video could change this habit, and quickly.

For those who claim newspapers are dead or dying, think of the experience of reading your daily newspaper in the format on the video and, perhaps, the proclamation of the death of newspapers is premature.

Anyway, I just had to share this video as quickly as I got my hands on it and hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Post by Nick Vehr – 12.4.09

Different opinions inform your decision

In my experience, the true leaders are those who do not assume they have all the answers.  People may expect them to have them all, but they know better.

What does that mean for your business?  Well, it’s pretty straight forward.

A good boss will assume that his or her team have important and diverse insights and experiences that can enhance relationships with key stakeholders … customers, vendors, clients, etc.

That’s right – you have a team of good people working together, so see what they think.  Their different opinions will inform your decision, if you value and embrace them.

Face it, it’s been a while since the boss “owned” each and every customer relationship.  Chances are, someone else knows what’s really going on in that vendor’s head.  What “they’re” thinking may surprise you.

You pay your employees a lot of money to do what they do, so talk with them, listen to them, ask for their advice and help.  They’ll respond, especially if they trust you and know you trust them.

So many answers to business challenges can be solved by asking employees what they think and what they know.  Too few bosses bother to ask.

Post by Nick Vehr – 11.28.09

Happy Thanksgiving

Best wishes to all during this special holiday. 

So much for which to give thanks!

Wikipedia slows … new media matures

The front page of this morning’s Wall Street Journal (11.23.09) shares an article titled, “Volunteers Log Off As Wikipedia Ages.”

Is it, perhaps, really an article about the settling, or maturation, of new media? 

For cave dwellers, Wikipedia began as an, “online free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.”  It began nine years ago and now has about 325 million monthly visitors, according to the article.  I use it regularly for this blog and as a general resource.

The focus of the article is the fact that Wikipedia, in the first three months of 2009, experienced a loss of 49,000 online volunteer editors.  During the same period the previous year, the comparable number was 4,900.

To me, the article represents what I and others think is occuring with new media in general … a settling or maturation.  Here’s what I mean.

We all know the pendulum for hot new products swings way wide before it settles back in.  So, too, for social media. We are witnessing it with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and countless others.  How long ago was it that MySpace was going to take over the world?  Who do you know that is actively using it now?

Does that mean social media – or Wikipedia – is dying?  Of course not.  I think it does mean that it is finding its place, it is settling in, it is maturing as most products and services always do.

There is little question that social media (new media, the internet, Web 2.0 – whatever you want to call it)  has forever changed the way many people communicate.  At some level, it may have even profoundly influenced the way many people manage their personal and professional relationships. 

There is little question that it has forever changed our professional - strategic communications or, what many call, public relations.

But, the pendulum is swinging back towards a point of equilibrium, or at least to a more measureable , natural and sustainable sway.

That’s what I thought when I read this a.m.’s article about Wikipedia?  What did you think?

Post by Nick Vehr – 11.23.09