2010 January

Archive for January, 2010

Best Ideas Of The Week (Jan 25-Jan 29)

Friday, January 29th, 2010

Hi everyone.

Once again, it’s time to close things up for this week with the best ideas that we’ve seen around the internet. It’s not just digital marketing stuff, but it is a look into everything that can go into digital marketing. Hope you enjoy…

-More good stuff on change. Here’s a short stop motion movie about ideas and how they change the world. Well worth three minutes of your time. Did I mention it’s done in Lego?

-What do you know about Cross-Promotional Deal Mechanics? What about Synergistic Revenue Paradigms? Me neither. But I know one thing: These are Weasel Words. If you end up hearing a lot of this stuff at your next meeting, run-don’t-walk to this site and post it. It’s in Australian, but weasel words cross all language barriers.

-Interested in seeing a website completely deconstructed? Go to Internet Online Website and check out some of the thinking that goes into what we do. The site’s not only smart and funny; It’s an educational tool to get ideas about the parts and pieces that go into online experiences.

-If all of a sudden you need to completely blow your own mind, here’s a recording of ice sheets cracking. I guarantee you will not hear what you expect to hear. Bookmark the page and keep it around for that moment when you need to think of something completely out of the ordinary. Listen with headphones, and listen until the end.

-Do you like to eat Crap? There’s a hilarious video by Pump restaurant in NYC (never been, but it looks pretty good) that riffs on all the different ways crappy food gets marketed. The music and language in the fake ads is dead on. I especially like the attention to detail on the typography. It’s scary what marketers can do sometimes.

-We talk a lot about transparency and being yourself in your digital marketing. This is what we mean. Imagine the conviction it took to hit publish on this post, an open letter to a business partner (a publisher) that wasn’t doing his job. Here is what I predict the results of this post will be: Publishers who are afraid to have their authority questioned and are dedicated to preserving the status quo will be outraged, and publishers that are looking for the best way to do their jobs will immediately try to hire the post’s author, Barry Eisler.

Have a great weekend, and feel free to post links to things you found that you consider to be a great ideas.

Tags: blogs, content, content marketing, marketing mindset, Social Media, writing
Posted in Digital Marketing | No Comments »

How To Introduce Yourself With Social Media

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

We talk a lot about the conversation.

But one question a lot of business owners have is, “How do I join?” That makes sense. Business owners usually sell things to the people they’re talking to.

Or at least, they did. Now, it’s not up to the business owners to sell as much as it’s up to the consumer who to buy from. I can buy a $200 import guitar from anywhere. Everyone has a sale, everyone can ship to my door. What makes you so special?

What makes you special is I know you. You came to where I was and introduced yourself.

There are more than a few good ways to find conversations about what you do. But once you find them, it’s best to spend some time reading up on what people are talking about there.

If it’s a message board, read the notes from the moderators. Check out the people who post a lot. If it’s a comments section on a blog, read past entries. Try to get an idea of the audience. Take some time to hear what people are saying.

Why? Because it’s possible you’ll be stepping all over the conversation if you don’t.

You’ve been listening, so you should get an idea of how to best introduce yourself. It doesn’t have to be a formal “Hello”. And this isn’t a post about etiquette, necessarily. But there should be a few cues you can take from the people already taking part in the conversation.

And if you can’t, it might not be somewhere that’s worth your time. In general, places online where the conversation is “noisy” isn’t a good place to make a suggestion, say hi, offer something, etc.

It’s a rule that the more anonymous a conversation is, the less helpful it tends to be. In other words, stick to conversations where people are who they say they are.

That’s who you want as a customer.

Also, be humble. Acknowledge that people have been contributing to the conversation for a while before you showed up.

Along that same line, be honest. Tell people who you are, and what interest you have in being there. One caveat: Don’t sell. Ever. Almost. We hammer this point here pretty regularly, so I won’t go over the finer points in this post. But instead of selling, just be helpful. Okay? Great.

That’s what you showed up to do in the first place, right?

Tags: content, getting started in social media, relatonships, Social Media
Posted in Social Media | No Comments »

What Does “Internet Famous” Really Mean?

Monday, January 18th, 2010

It means there are a lot of people out there willing to help you, because you’re being yourself.

That’s my take away from my brush with the internet famous. It’s strange. Personal meetings back up exactly what I had gotten from my online interaction with the internet famous.

What does that mean?

First, the story…

We had grabbed a cab from the Austin airport to head to Pubcon, where Pat was speaking on a panel. This was going to be one of the first internet marketing conferences for me. I was a web writer, going to find out what all these developers were doing with the content I made.

That part? Fascinating. Edifying. A different story altogether.

But back to the internet famous. I was already interested and a little nervous about the conference. When the cab pulled into the hotel, I jumped out, grabbed my bag, and prepared to check in as fast as I could so I could try to bone up on the conversations I could expect in the following days.

Which is exactly when I turned to see Chris Brogan walking into the hotel. I did my best to quickly match a 30×30 jpeg to a real human, figured out who it was, and said, “Hey, Chris!”

Chris stops walking into the hotel and proceeds to have a really nice short conversation with me about what it is Matterhorn does and what I’m hoping to learn from the conference.

Now, his was one of the first social media blogs I read, and it was interesting to find that he was exactly as he came across in his blog. One minute in, and I’ve talked to the person I consider to be the goto guy for learning about social media. And he’s not in a rush, or condescending, or anything other than interested and helpful.

Next day, on my way to the conference, we share a cab with Guy Kawasaki. Now, how many entrepreneurs would kill for that opportunity? And sure enough, we talk pretty much the whole way about what businesses that are new to social media (there was a self-admitted newbie also sharing the cab with us). And Guy was full of ideas, even when our cab got lost.

Two days, two brushes with the internet famous.

Here’s what it means: People who are internet famous are very much like who they are online.

That tells me that I need to be online very much like who I am in real life. And businesses, partners we work with, should be very much who they are (not just what they’re selling). Transparency isn’t just a BS marketing term that the get-rich-quick-on-the-net folks throw around.

And it’s not even “transparency”, necessarily. The internet famous don’t have anything to gain by conning you into helping them. It’s a genuine case of things being better when you give than receive. Internet fame is best leveraged when it’s not leveraged at all.

But I would trust Chris or Guy if they told me something, or asked me for something. Especially if it lined up with my goals. And I can make a reasonable expectation that the same is true for them. And I’m not talking necessarily about just making money. I’m talking about goals.

And those entities that are just regular, plain old famous, like McDonald’s or NBC? I’m way, way more skeptical.

At least, that’s how I’ll interpret it. What about you?

Tags: business relationships, content, motivation, online reputation management, Social Media
Posted in Social Media | No Comments »

A Brief Post About Content Brief Contents

Friday, January 15th, 2010

Content should be central to your projects.

The cool thing is, that’s happening more and more.

And I have to say that I really, really like that. Thinking about marketing strategies from a content POV has always been important. It’s how I got started working with Matterhorn in the first place. I’m saying that the focus is changing.

Not just around here. Out there.

Why is that? One reason is search. Google is rolling out new SERPS that are heavily influenced by content quality. And quantity. Well, one begets the other. Creating a lot of quality content is going to help your ranking, plain and simple.

That’s not news. But the fact that that content can come from anywhere, like facebook or twitter or urbanspoon or yelp, is. Or at least, the extent to which social content matters is news. It’s becoming more important every day.

Another reason to focus on content, and we’re mainly talking written content here, is because text is messy as hell (a direct quote from Content Strategy For The Web).

Meaning, if you leave content out of your plan, or think that you’re including it by writing the word “content” somewhere on a mindmap, you’re going to wind up a week away from the day you launch your site saying something like, “Man, we need to put some content up, quick.”

If no one “owns” the content you’re creating, you’re looking at no content. Or crappy content. That’s a terrific way to fail.

And this means that your (content) briefs need to contain more than just deliverables. They need to contain plans. They have to identify why you’re writing what you’re writing. There has to be a measurable element to your work that tells the rest of the team how this piece of content fits.

There are a lot of good reasons to focus on content. What are yours?

Tags: content, content marketing, content strategy, google social search
Posted in Content Creation | No Comments »

If Twitter Had A Fairy Godmother…

Wednesday, January 13th, 2010

It would be nice if there was a Twitter intervention service.

I’m thinking of something like a fairy godmother that would step in and gently correct those misguided businesses that are out there shouting.

Alright, cue bad sitcom dream sequence…

—–

@newtosocialmedia: Right Now! 50% off every single thing from our summer stock! Check it out http://snip.li/026a07 #michaeljackson

@therealfairygodmother: @newtosocialmedia you’re doing it wrong, dear.

@newtosocialmedia: @therealfairgodmother Thanks for the RT love! 50% off every single thing from our summer stock! Check it out #britney

@therealfairygodmother: @newtosocialmedia I’ve cut you off. ur tweets aren’t going anywhere right now.

@newtosocialmedia: @therealfairygodmother what? #haiti #google

@therealfairygodmother: ur tweets aren’t going anywhere. except to me. and stop using those hashtags.

@therealfairygodmother: that’s the first lesson : – )

@newtosocialmedia: I don’t understand #tcot

@therealfairgodmother: exactly.

@newtosocialmedia: ?

@therealfairygodmother: You ran in and started shouting before you had a chance to understand what it is ur doing.

@newtosocialmedia: I’m marketing my business.

@therealfairygodmother: You’re making an ass of yourself. And your business.

@newtosocialmedia: But how do I sell things to people using Twitter if I don’t, you know, sell things to people. Using Twitter. ?

@therealfairygodmother: That’s just it. You don’t.

@newtosocialmedia: Then why the hell am I doing this?

@therealfairygodmother: Good ?

@therealfairygodmother: Social media isn’t for direct sales. Or, it is if u want to spam. r u a spammer?

@newtosocialmedia: No. I just want people to know about my business.

@therealfairygodmother: Awesome. That’s a great place to start. What’s the best way to talk about your business?

@newtosocialmedia:
Radio?

@therealfairygodmother: lol no. If you went to a party, and someone asked you what you did, would you tell them everything they could get for 50% off?

@newtosocialmedia:
No. I’d tell them what I did.

@therealfairygodmother: Right. And what if they asked you where the best coffee was near you?

@newtosocialmedia:
I’d tell them.

@therealfairygodmother: Right again. And what if they told you about the bad day they were having? Would you give them your specials?

@newtosocialmedia:
No, I’d probably tell them that joke about the mother-in-law who dies and she’s talking to St. Peter and he asks her to name her sins.

@therealfairygodmother: Okaaaaaay.

@therealfairygodmother: What I mean is, you’d have a conversation, right?

@newtosocialmedia:
Right.

@therealfairygodmother: Well, that’s what Twitter is. A way to have conversations. Some of those conversations will be about what you do. Some won’t.

@therealfairygodmother: But you can’t choose all the time. That’s selling. And selling isn’t having a conversation. It’s selling.

@newtosocialmedia:
And Twitter isn’t about selling. It’s about having conversations, meeting people who have some interest in me, and vice-versa.

@therealfairygodmother: Now you’re getting it! Nice job. I’m going to put you back in the stream now. Go use what you’ve leaned.

@newtosocialmedia:
Cool. #superbowl

@therealfairygodmother: : – ( alright, let’s talk about hashtags first…

Tags: content, Digital Marketing, Social Media, twitter
Posted in Social Media | No Comments »

Social Media Stragglers Get Skewered

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

It’s January. 2010. Time to step things up.

If you’re a small business, a destination, an event, you’ve got to get on the ball. You need a social media plan.

Because you can’t be one of those people that says, “We need to be on Facebook,” or, “Better start Twittering,” or, “We need to ‘do’ social media.”

You really can’t. It wasn’t okay before, either. But now it’s totally out of the question. You must change.

There are more reasons why than I could even go into. But I will say that everything about digital marketing has changed, and it will never go back. Keep up or get left behind.

And before you start, you have to plan.

Here are four quick ways to start planning for digital marketing today, pokey…

-Learn Jumping into social media without learning about how to use it it is a lot like every single item here. You can do some pretty serious damage to your brand just screwing around. So learn a little about the parts and pieces before you run in shouting about your company.

-Plan Here’s how you end up with an online billboard instead of a communication engine: don’t plan. Can you imagine going through the whole process of building your online marketing, only to have something completely useless at the end of it? Wait. A lot of you don’t have to imagine it.

-Prepare Not the same as planning. Preparation comes when your plans are in the works. What will you do when your plan for digital marketing is launched? That’s what you’re preparing for. One big preparation tip: Put one person in charge. Nothing suffers as much from committee creep as social media.

-Listen So you’re ready to jump in and start friending and poking and tweeting the crap out of the place. Great. The best way to start is to shut up and listen. Social media is a big cocktail party. Get a feel for the conversation. Hell, find the conversation. It’s worth taking the time to listen before you go around shouting; it might encourage you to actually use social media in a way people appreciate.

Which is to say, being social.

Tags: content, Digital Marketing, marketing strategy, Social Media
Posted in Social Media | No Comments »

Why Audit Your Online Content?

Monday, January 11th, 2010

Because you can.

Meaning, digital content is easier to manipulate than other forms of content. So use that to your advantage when you work on your digital marketing by going through an audit.

That doesn’t mean it’s easy to do. A content audit can be a bear of a project to tackle. Some people even recommend a continual audit, if your assets are big enough to demand it.

And just for clarification, we’re defining an audit as building a spreadsheet that lists your assets by going through everything you’ve got, and IDing it all. You inventory the category, the keywords, the meta data, the traffic, the strength of the writing, the consistency of the writing, and on and on. The more info you account for, the better you’ve audited.

A content audit can be like a bit of light housekeeping, or a spring clean where you have to rent a dumpster. It all depends on the kind of maintenance you do, and what condition your content was in when you moved it in.

Why (Really)

So, a bit beyond “because you can”, here are some reasons to audit:

-You’re getting a new site. Don’t take all your junk with you; audit before the move, and only take what’s useful. Same goes for a site overhaul, where reasons for an audit don’t need much explaining.

-You’re looking at your analytics. Amazingly, very few small businesspeople are actually paying attention to where their traffic comes from, where it goes, and what it does while it’s there. If you’re one that does, do an audit to see what people are actually doing on your site. Then, make more content like that.

-You’re organized. It’s one thing to have a site map, and quite another to have an audit. It’s the difference between the TV you have now and something like this. It’s easier to see what you’ve got.

-You want to find out what you need. An audit is just as good at showing you the holes in your content strategy as it is at showing you where your strengths are, especially if…

-You’re doing keyword research. It sure will be nice to have an at-a-glance reference at where you can put your research to work. Tweaking keywords can be tedious, but usually because there’s not a good enough map to follow. Your audit will take care of that.

It’s about time for an audit of the Matterhorn site. I’ll let you know what we find.

Tags: content, content marketing, content strategy, marketing strategy
Posted in Content Creation | No Comments »

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Archive for January, 2010

Why Audit Your Online Content?