Marketing Tom - Internet Marketing

Social Capitalist Awards 2006

We always hear about the guys at major corporations who are making millions of dollars for their shareholders (and themselves). Well, why not take a look at Fast Company's list of 25 Social Entrepreneurs who are making a difference to people with serious social problems both in the USA and overseas? Here are some excerpts:

.".developed a network of microlending institutions that provide the poor with loans as small as $100 in order to start their own businesses."

"..runs after-school programs at 24 schools in 13 cities, staffed mostly by about 2,000 volunteer architects, attorneys, journalists, and other professionals who use their passions to inspire students."

"..certifies "fair trade" products--coffee, tea, cocoa, sugar, and other foods produced without exploiting growers' labor. It also connects farmers' cooperatives in Latin America, Asia, and Africa directly to U.S. distributors, eliminating middlemen who otherwise would capture a chunk of the profits."

"..provides livestock to poor families in developing nations to use for farming, food production, and fertilization. It also teaches animal husbandry and skills for flexible and sustainable rural farming."

There are some truly great and inspiring stories in here.

Robert Scoble and Shel Israel's Blogging Book - A Case of Open Source Book Writing?

Over the past week Robert Scoble and Shel Israel's book Naked Conversations has hit the bookshelves and they have been busy at book signings and the like across the States. According to the publishers:

"If you ignore the blogosphere... you won't know what people are saying about you," they write. "You can't learn from them, and they won't come to see you as a sincere human who cares about your business and its reputation." To bolster their argument, Scoble and Israel have assembled an enormous amount of information about blogging: from history and theory to comparisons among countries and industries. They also lay out the dos and don'ts of the medium and include extensive statistics, dozens of case studies and several interviews with famous bloggers. They consider the darker aspects of blogging as well—including the possibility of getting fired by an unsympathetic employer.

What's different about this book is that much of it has been out in the public domain for quite some time, in draft format. Robert and Shel have allowed drafts of each chapter of the book to be posted on their weblog - Red Couch Naked Conversations - and then allowed people to add their own comments. They have invited people to submit their own case studies and observations:

Of all the things we need from bloggers are examples of how companies have been helped or hurt by blogs.

The weblog first came into life in December, 2004, when Shel Israel pronounced:

Welcome to our book blog. This is where Shel Israel and Robert Scoble will create a book. Really. An entire book will be done interactively right in front of you and WITH you. So, subscribe to the RSS feed here. Welcome.

The final chapter was posted on the 14th August, 2005 and it went into print a short time after the pair even aired their thoughts on the selection of the publisher online.

Though not an Open Source project in its purest sense, of allowing the public to completely write the book, it still has many elements of co-creation. And why shouldn't a book about blogging have some important input from bloggers through a blog. The truly wonderful thing about the blog is that it has developed a devoted following over the past year, many of whom are well regarded in their own fields - PR, search engine optimisation, advertisng, blogging - and who are acting as unpaid evangelists for the book. Throw in the thousands of 'ordinary folk' out there who will each influence their smaller circles and you have quite a powerful marketing campaign, run on a miniscule budget. Absolutely, brilliant.

The other interesting thing to note is that even though many thousands of people have read the book online, the same thousands of people will BUY the book online and offline.

I look forward to seeing how Shel Israel and Robert Scoble develop the blog once the book launches and parties have died down. I also look forward to seeing my book arrive from Amazon UK!

Business Blog Summit Hold One-Day Seminar in Los Angeles

On the 16th March the Business Blog Summit guys will be holding a one-day Essentials of Business Blogging Seminar. Held at the Westin Los Angeles Aiprot, Anil Dash (of Six Apart) will be amongst the speakers on the day. Here's a brief overview of what you'll learn for your $295:

• What is a blog. Discover how blogs differ from a regular Web sites, and the key advantages they offer.

• Why blogs are getting so much attention. See why something that started as a system for creating online diaries has evolved into a powerful platform for business.
• How to take advantage of blogs. Get all the "how to" instruction you need to start blogging now.

Pushing the Boundaries of Podcasting

It certainly looks like companies are starting to push the boundaries of podcasting. With the new Apple iPod offering the ability to create video podcasts, the only limit to its use is your own imagination. The audience can be friends, family, colleagues, business associates or even customers. I am currently working on a project to create audio and video podcasts for my own travel blog, Mad About Madrid. Adverblog came across a weekly video podcast from cosmetics company Maybelline, which offers tips on how to get perfect make-up; in addition, you can listen to weekly audio podcasts from make-up artist Max Delorme.

Here are some podcasting ideas:

• Flyover view of the next fairway on a golf course
• Mountain bike trails
• 2-minute recipes
• Wine Tasting
• Museum Guides
• DIY Tips
• Walking Tour video and audio podcasts
• Chat up Lines!!

Technorati Tags: podcasting | ipod

Google Programme on BBC

Last night the BBC's Money Programme broadcast a very interesting half-hour special on Google. It featured a brief history of the company, including old interviews with Sergey Brin and Larry Page, a glimpse of the Googleplex, how the company went public and made many of its employees millionaires. It showed the Google employees having fun at work and the estate agent who sells them $5 milllion houses in Silicon Valley.

It was quite a balanced report and also looked at the issues of privacy, click fraud within the company, how the company is moving into video and its implications on the media and even the private detective who uses Google to do his "research". The programme also featured Marissa Mayer, vice president of Search products and John Battelle, "Google Watcher".

The whole programme can be viewed from the BBC's Money Programme site. You can also see additional interviews with John Battelle, Campaigner Adam Price MP and Google Europe's Nikesh Arora.

Video: The World According to Google

It's Friday! - So, Why Not?

Well, seeing as it's Friday, I thought I'd post this one from Hugh over at Gaping Void. It certainly put a smile on my face when I first saw it!

Some Pearls of Wisdom from Guy Kawasaki

Guy Kawasaki's blog has some very sound advice on the Art of Branding. I particularly like this one, which John Winsor also quotes:

Focus on PR, not advertising. Many companies waste away millions of dollars trying to establish brands with advertising. When it comes to branding, too much money is worse than too little because when you have a lot of money, you spend a lot of money on stupid things like Super Bowl commercials. Brands are built on what people are saying about you, not what you're saying about yourself. People say good things about you when (a) you have a great product and (b) you get people to spread the word about it.

I think he's spot on here and so many companies are missing the opportunity, especially with the advent of the latest technology - blogs, RSS, podcasts, etc - to engage their clients. Co-creation, the partnership of customer and marketer, will certainly gain momentum over the coming year and marketers had better pay attention.

I like the way that Hugh Macleod puts it:

Whatever business you're in, your product's success or failure is going to become more and more dependant on "sneezers" like me. We are not going away. We are getting more viral by the day, while other ways of spreading ideas- TV, newspapers etc- are becoming less effective by the day.

v7ndotcom elursrebmem - The New SEO Challenge

If you're not aware, there is a new Search Engine Optimisation competition going on. It is being run by John Scott over at the V7 Network and its first prize is $4,000 plus an iPod.

The objective of the competiton is simple:

Get your site listed Number 1 on Google for the term: v7ndotcom elursrebmem by May 15th, 2006

This competition will obviously attract a lot of interest but I will be supporting Wolf Howl, who has promised to donate all money to the St Jude Center of Children - to help children with cancer. if you'd like to help to just copy this link into your website:

<a href='http://www.wolf-howl.com/v7n/' >About v7ndotcom elursrebmem</a><br>
Using the web to help kids with cancer.

All the best Greg!

Technorati Tags: v7ndotcom elursrebmem

Fast Company Debate on Whether Print is Doomed

Fast Company have an interesting one-to-one between a blogger (former print editor) and a magazine executive (National Geographic Magazine) on the subject: Is Print Doomed?

Here's a taste of the article:

The wild, wild west of the Internet will evolve to more consolidation of the biggest brands at the top and an infinite number of tiny fragments at the bottom. The public will have neither the time nor interest to consider all of the options available to them--so the role of editor, both human and electronic, will increase in importance as people look for experts to help sift, validate and organize the infinite sources of content. In any case, the need for information, entertainment and motivation will be as strong as ever.

John Griffin President of the National Geographic Society's magazine group

But the economics of the industry must change. Kleiner Perkins VC Vinod Khosla said at the Web 2.0 conference that the model of "top-down content is no longer relevant." It's a bottoms-up world where, he predicted, the winning media companies will be "the most adaptable, not the biggest or the one with the most content." The winners will be "aggregating audiences in interesting ways."

So take that as advice from the bottom up: Find ways to aggregate people and capture the wisdom of that crowd. When the public edits that "infinite number of tiny fragments at the bottom," as you put it, they do it well: The best photos at Flickr.com/explore rival even those in National Geographic. The people have intelligence and taste – or they wouldn’t be buying your magazines, would they?

Jeff Jarvis, Consltant and Blogger at Buzzmachine.com

Coke Blog Gets Rumbled

Adrants has an interesting, entitled Coke Lies, Misleads with  Fake 'Zero' Blog article about how Coca Cola created a fake blog promoting the Zero Movement:

"which a guy rants about why life is so full of stuff to do and how it would be so much nicer if there was, well, zero to do."

The blog, which they say is written in typical creative style, initially, had no mention of Coke at all and even had fake, supportive comments. What's more:

"While the blog's archives indicate the site's been up since June, 2005, Whois information tells a very different story. Not only does the information reveal the site is a product of Coke, it clearly states the domain for the site was registered November 21, 2005, a full five months after the site, according to its archives, launched.

Just to make sure, Adrants checked both Technorati and BlogPulse and found no record of earlier postings. It would appear that to counter neagitive reaction they have placed a Coke Zero bottle on the home page. Adrants states what many of us think about this form of cynical advertising:

"In creating The Zero Movement, Coke has lied, misled and misrepresented. Some would call this reprehensible and irresponsible. We'll just call it stupid."

Related Links
The Zero Coke Movement

Identifying Just Where Your Clicks Go

Back in October I signed up for a cool, analytics service called MyBlogLog. Written by Eric Marcoullier, MyBlogLog allows site owners, and if you want visitors, the ability to see what people are clicking to leave your site. Prior to this I had no idea what the most popular links were on my Mad About Madrid site and really wanted to know where people were going. I could see, from my StatCounter package, the most popular keywords but had no idea whether people were clicking on any, or none, of the links within blog articles.

MyBlogLog shows me not just where people have come from but the top links. It displays on my website (for all to see), the top 50 outgoing links from the site. Hover over a link and it will display the ranking (out of 50) for that particular link.

This tool can give you an insight into what exactly appeals, or doesn't appeal to visitors.

Here's what I could do with the information on my Mad About Madrid website. Say I knew that a high percentage of visitors were clicking on a link to a well-known restaurant, I could use this information to approach the restaurant and ask them if they would be interested in sponsoring part of the site or even adding a banner. This could make sense to the restaurant as they would potentially be able to reach far more of their target audience through more visible placement on the site.

MyBlogLog also allows me to get into the minds of my visitors and see what really interests them. By knowing this I can create more articles which they will find of interest. I found that for December the most popular links were for "Air Madrid", a Spanish band called "Las Niñas", a "Madrid Restaurant Guide", "Madrid Metro" and "Tapas in Madrid". From this I can either look to approach people for revenue, write more articles on tapas or even think about creating an online Restaurant Guide for Madrid in English!

Here are the Top 5 Links Across the site:

Danny Sullivan Rounds Up the Search Industry in 2005

In an article on Clickz - 2005 in Review: The Top Search Industry Stories of the Year - Danny Sullivan reviews some of the main Search trends and news stories of the past year. Most of the articles come from his own Search Engine Watch site or Clickz articles. Here are a few of them:

Click Fraud Suit Names Google, Yahoo and Other Search Companies
Proposed Search Engine Standard For Titles and Descriptions
Yahoo's Jeremy Zawodny Caught In Link Selling Debate
NYT On Yahoo's US Gains and Google's Endless Betas

Tony Blair Podcast - the First by British Prime Minister

Tony Blair has become the first British Prime Minister to do a Podcast. In an interview with the Sun's Political Editor, George Pascoe-Watson, Mr Blair talks about new measures to tackle the growing tide of anti-social behaviour in the UK.

Tony Blair Podcast

Matt Cutts on Google Bombing

If you think you've had problems with Google ditching you, or even if you're about to engage in some 'black hat' SEO tricks, then you better read Matt Cutts' post - SEO Mistakes: Not checking your site. He writes about how one site owner felt particularly aggrieved that Google had dropped her site from it's index because of link bombing. However, as Matt explains in the post the real reason for being dropped lay in her use of hidden text, duplicate content (on different site pages) and keyword stuffing.

One thing he points out which is quite interesting is Google's "life cycle of a spam penalty", which has 5 phases:

1. Spam
2. Get caught
3. Fix the spam.
4. File a reinclusion request.
5. Possibly get reincluded in our index. You need to convince us that we won’t see any spam in the future.

And Matt Cutts' moral of the story:

"The SEO mistake I want to communicate here is to check your own site before assuming that someone else is hurting your site or that Google is making a mistake."