Search engine optimization and social media optimization are often thought of in the online marketing world, but do they effectively define what online optimization efforts for businesses should be?
According to Lee Odden, the CEO of TopRank Online Marketing and author of new book Optimize, real optimization incorporates both SEO and SMO, but also more. As he explained to us, businesses should look at the customer and their experience.
From there, he said businesses should think about the content that they need to provide to help customers with every step of their experience. In other words, businesses should be publishing content ranging from making customers aware of them to turning them into advocates.
While traditional “checklist” optimization tactics work, Odden told us that more opportunities exist when optimization starts with the customer. Modern marketing, as he pointed out, has to look at the “totality of the customer experience.”
To learn more about Odden’s book, visit OptimizeBook.com. It is also available at all major bookstores.
Filed under Internet Marketing by on Apr 14th, 2012. 
The term “cord cutting” has gained a lot of attention over the past couple of years as more pay-TV alternatives have become available. A report from ISI Group indicates that cord cutting is becoming a trend since a growing number of people are dropping their cable subscriptions and switching to broadband or satellite TV operators.
However, information from Bernstein Research and Business Insider Intelligence suggests that pay-TV subscribers are increasing. To provide some clarity to the conflicting research, WebProNews spoke with Bryan Gonzalez, the Director of Social Entertainment Labs at the Entertainment Technology Center at USC.
According to him, there are many challenges to cutting the cord. One of the biggest challenges is the lack of bandwidth. He told us that this problem would likely increase as families grow and attempt to bring more rich content into their homes.
Another challenge is the fact that it’s difficult to get the most current content through subscription services such as Netflix and Hulu. Gonzalez believes that many consumers have tested the waters with these Internet options but are now going back to more traditional content methods.
Going forward, he told us that Internet services would “definitely” play a big role, but that cable, satellite, and broadcast options would still be prominent. He expects to see a hybrid model at some point in the future.
Have you cut the cord? Or, are challenges getting in the way? Please share.
Filed under Internet Marketing by on Mar 13th, 2012.
So, I’ve become COMPLETELY convinced that most of you think what you do online is private. Before you dig a deeper grave, I’m here to tell you… that is NOT the case. There is nothing private about your online presence. Whether you like it or not, you are transparent. And, I’m not even talking about translucent transparency (you know, where the corners are blurred).
At this point, you have two options:: 
- Get OFF-Line!!! Throw your computer away and find an old Motorola
- Listen To Me!!!!! I am about to tell you something very important
Today, I’m going to tell you a little story about a woman I know. She came to me seeking employment. We combed through her resume and LinkedIn profile, sprucing them up. Next, we went through her online image and gave it a complete overhaul. We removed photos from Facebook, cleaned up her Twitter, scanned her presence on other social media sites, etc.
Finally, she was all polished up like a new penny… ready to go. She started submitting her resume around, applying for an Executive Administrator role. She was thrilled when she started receiving phone calls. Within 5 weeks, she had 4 interviews and a fantastic job opportunity knocking at her door. SUCCESS!!
She accepted the position after a bit of compensation negotiating. During her background, they advised her that she would have to go through a social media background review. She was told that this review would be superficial and it would only scan through any public profiles she had online. She felt confident with her presence and signed the disclosure statement.
Three days later, she called me crying. The company retracted their job offer. She explained that they had found something on YELP.com that reflected an image the company did not feel ran parallel with their own image. After she and I had combed through everything, she had written a couple of harsh and accusation filled reviews; never thinking they would actually be tracked back to her.
This is absurd. EVERYTHING YOU DO ONLINE IS TRACKED!!! Her written reviews on Yelp were found by searching with her email.
A G A I N…
EVERYTHING YOU DO ONLINE IS TRACKED!!
Before you decide to let someone have it online, I want you to understand, even though you are using a Profile Nickname to authenticate your presence, you are still potentially searchable. If you REALLY need to say something vulgar, I recommend you establish a separate email address. My advice, however, praise those that deserve it and hold your tongue on everything else. Isn’t it bad enough that the company you find terrible lost your business? If you must share your opinion, SAY it… don’t TYPE it.
Filed under Internet Marketing by on Oct 21st, 2011.
Klout is a social media tool that measures your online influence by evaluating your activity on a variety of social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, LinkedIn, Foursquare, YouTube, and others. It doesn’t just take into account your actions but also how your fans/followers/friends react to what you share.
According to Klout’s website: “The Klout Score measures influence based on your ability to drive action. Every time you create content or
engage you influence others.” The Klout Score uses data from social networks in order to measure:
- How many people you influence (after filtering out spam and bots — how many people are you really connected to).
- How much you influence them (what action do they take based on what you share).
- How influential they are (the reach and influence of the people that you inspire to take action — the ripple effect).
All of that data is crunched together and you’re issued a score from 0-100, with 100 being the most influential. To give you some sense of scope — the average score is about 20. The score becomes harder to increase as you move up the scale. David Armano has a score of 82. Joe Pulizzi has a 71, Arianna Huffington is a 75, and Chris Brogan has a 77. All four would be considered mega stars in the world of Klout.
I can hear you now…it’s just about ego and popularity contests. And if it was just about a magic number — I might agree. But the real value of Klout isn’t really the score. It’s the label.
Klout has divided and defined influence into a 16 grid scale. (see visual above) So it doesn’t just measure volume and reach — but it measures HOW you influence. Based on your behaviors and what people do with what you share — you are given a label. Looking at our examples again — David Armano’s behaviors and interactions make him a tastemaker. Joe Pulizzi is a pundit, Arianna is a celebrity, and Chris Brogan is a curator.
I think it’s the grid that makes Klout worthy of our attention. There are a wealth of tools that count what you do. The number of tweets, how many comments your Facebook status update receives, and the quantity of thumbs up you get on your YouTube videos. But there are very few that allow us to see how the sum total of our interactions are perceived and what actions they inspire.
You may see yourself as a thought leader but discover that the world sees you as a dabbler or activist. Your Klout score refreshes every day – so you can experiment with different blends of content on the various social media tools to see how your new behaviors are perceived. This allows you to learn and change.
Based on your own marketing and social media goals — you can keep tweaking until your label (and to a lesser extent — your score) matches your intentions. Being able to see how you are perceived and then being able to make adjustments to that perception are what makes Klout a very unique and valuable tool worthy of your attention.
Guest Author:
Drew McLellan is Top Dog at McLellan Marketing Group and the author of AdAge’s Top 150 blog, Drew’s Marketing Minute. Wall Street Journal called it “one of the ten blogs all entrepreneurs should read.” Drew wrote 99.3 Random Acts of Marketing and is co-creator/editor of the ground-breaking Age of Conversation book series. He is also a Marketing Profs Daily Fix blogger and can be followed at @drewmclellan on Twitter.
Filed under Internet Marketing by on Oct 4th, 2011.
I’m not sure which came first, the idea that social media is killing blogs or social media is killing email. Both arguments are brought up every so often, and both are equally ludicrous if you ask me. Earlier this week, we examined the former, and interestingly enough, the latter was also brought up by recent data from comScore and the Pew Internet Project.
Actually, it was The Discovery Channel, who looked at the data and asked, "Is email dead?"
Is Email dying at the hands of social networks and texting? Tell us what you think.
"Overall, when you look at how many teens have ever sent an e-mail, it’s most of them, so it’s still being used," said Amanda Lenhart, senior research specialist with the Pew Internet Project. "It just isn’t used for communicating with people you’re primarily communicating with in your life, namely your friends, and it’s absolutely true that text messaging and messaging through social networks has supplanted e-mail messaging to friends."
People might turn more and more to social networks for casual conversations, link sharing, and things like that, but call me when your banking and all your professional communicating are done through Facebook. In fact, call me when you receive notifications from all the social media sites you participate on are sent to your Facebook account (unless you count Facebook’s new email service). The jury’s still out on Facebook’s new messaging system, but let’s not forget, it launched with Facebook.com email addresses.
Is mobile killing email? Not so much. Recent data, also from comScore finds that mobile email usage is seeing significant growth.
Email will continue to evolve, but it’s not going away – at least not in the foreseeable future. If social media’s going to kill email, it’s going to have to do a lot better than what it does so far.
If anything, social (along with mobile) is helping email.
Filed under Internet Technology by on Feb 26th, 2011.
