BIGLIST Marketing Blog Reviews Summer Edition 073109

Here in Minnesota it’s been a roller coaster summer with hot smacking up against cold in the blink of an eye. The irony of that observation is that our BIGLIST of online marketing blogs has been cold for about 4 months, but just like a Minnesota summer, we’re going smack that BIGLIST with some hot. [...]

How Dilbert Views Sales People

Yesterday, we poked fun at ourselves–marketers. Today, we get to laugh at sales people. Our thanks to Scott Adams for not sending us a “cease and desist.” So, do me a favor, go buy one of his excellent books.

Bingahoo Not a Slam Dunk for More Ad Dollars

We know that the ink from Steve Ballmer’s huge pen is barely dry on the documents that christen the new era (or error) of the online marketing industry but inquiring minds want to know whether the masses are on board. In this case, the masses are advertisers who are going to need to gather intelligence [...]

Will the Wall Street Journal Take a Real Shot at Social Media?

As I like to do when a post involves some ‘creative thinking’ I am warning you on this one. TechCrunch is ‘reporting’ the Wall Street Journal’s possible attempt at creating a social community (WSJ Connnect) that could compete with the LinkedIn set. I realize that outside of the Microsoft-Yahoo nuptials there has been little to [...]

French Mapping Company Can’t Compete With Google, So Sues Instead

What if you had a pretty good thing going with your company? You had good market share, had decent revenues, and your software company was living high on the hog? Then, then, Google has the audacity to enter the market and offer a completely free alternative. What would you do? You’d find a way to compete [...]

Wedding Video Helping Chris Brown Repair His Tattered Reputation

If you’ve not seen this awesome video, take the time now. I’ll meet you on the other side and explain why I’m embedding it on Marketing Pilgrim. OK, so why is this relevant? Well, apparently, Chris Brown–the guy singing the song Forever–is seeing a major reputation boost from the success of this viral hit. Despite the [...]

How Dilbert Views Marketers

I’m a marketer. You’re a marketer. I think we can both see that there’s some truth in this Dilbert cartoon: If you don’t see the funny side, you’ve probably not been in marketing long enough. Pilgrim’s Partners: SponsoredReviews.com – Bloggers earn cash, Advertisers build buzz!

The World According to Google

I knew I should have done something to trademark a saying I use all the time with SMB owners and marketers that  “It’s a Google world and we’re just allowed to live in it.” Ad Age today echoes a similar sentiment in a headline about the fact that Google is not only a dominant player [...]

AOL Takes Its Lumps in the Last Quarter

With all of news of the new mega Micro-bing-ahoo uber, super, partner / merger (insert your pet name here) in the past 24 hours, AOL tried to sneak one by us. Since are never ones to let someone try to skip past us with news it’s only fair that AOL get its moment in the [...]

Trackur Adds the Most Accurate Sentiment Tagging in the World!

I’m excited to announce a much sought after feature to Trackur’s social media monitoring dashboard: sentiment tagging. I’m often asked why Trackur doesn’t offer the ability to automatically measure the sentiment (positive, negative, neutral) of any discovered item. I typically reply with two reasons. a). Sentiment analysis combined with an $18 a month price point just [...]

Dear Microsoft, Thank You! Love, Barry Diller

Barry Diller: Microsoft, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. 1. Your deal with Yahoo shadowed our poor Q2 financial results. While the whole world focused on the minutiae of the search deal between Microsoft and Yahoo, Diller’s IAC released its quarterly numbers. They weren’t up to analyst estimates, so I’m sure Diller was [...]

It’s a Deal! Welcome bingahoo Into the Internet World

It just seems like yesterday that I was whining about getting some kind of a deal done already to end the ongoing drama of the Microsoft â€" Yahoo dance. Well, I know that the announcement of the deal finally happening has nothing to do with my level of frustration, I can only imagine that there [...]

It’s a Deal: Q&A from Microsoft Yahoo! Call

Amid all the speculation this week, it’s official that Microsoft and Yahoo! have made a deal:  ”Microsoft will now power Yahoo! search while Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers.” The Search Marketing Industry news sites have covered this completely and a joint web site has been setup [...]

For Fun: Microsoft/Yahoo Caption Contest

Let’s face it, the news is going to be swamped with the MSFT/YHOO deal today. So, for some light-hearted relief, let’s have a caption contest. Here’s an official photo provided courtesy of Yahoo!/Microsoft: Leave your caption in the comments below and the best one–as chosen by me–will win a $25 Amazon gift card. Please keep them [...]

Forrester Goes Deep Regarding Online Behaviors

Forrester Research has just released a study that gives a look over the past five years of the changes that have occurred in Internet usage among various groups. Much of the findings make sense but as always it’s the numbers and percentage increase / decreases that are of interest. For an executive summary of the [...]

What is Digital Asset Optimization?

It’s likely you’ve heard plenty about search engine optimization but what about “Digital Asset Optimization”? Many companies that have applied basic SEO principles to standard web site content see substantial benefits. Adding new content and attracting links help maintain search marketing performance but is that all you can do to be competitive with SEO? No. A natural [...]

Foerrester Goes Deep Regarding Online Behaviors

Forrester Research has just released a study that gives a look over the past five years of the changes that have occurred in Internet usage among various groups. Much of the findings make sense but as always it’s the numbers and percentage increase / decreases that are of interest. For an executive summary of the [...]

Twitter Launches New Homepage–A New Focus Too?

You’re looking at Twitter’s new homepage design. Nice, huh? What I don’t get is how this helps you to understand how to use Twitter. That was the goal that cofounder Biz Stone stated, right? Instead of landing on Twitter and thinking, “oh, it’s a place where I share updates about my life,” it now suggests “oh, it’s a [...]

Twitter? What’s a Twitter?

Everyone and their grandfather is at least trying to talk about Twitter these days. Or are they? While it’s not fair to use an iconic 82 year old college football coach as the pulse of nation regarding social media, Penn State coach Joe Paterno did make this statement at a press conference that should make [...]

Microhoo Cares Already!

Just so you are prepared, this post is entirely speculation and conjecture based on my following the Microsoft and Yahoo “drama” that has been unfolding over the past century or so. As you may guess from the title, I have had enough. Either make it happen or don’t. Put us out of our misery here. [...]

Australian Publishers All Bark & No Bite Over Google’s Real Estate Plans

This will make you chuckle: Fairfax Media and News Ltd are independently weighing up whether to pull the millions of dollars they collectively spend on buying key search terms on Google following the latter’s decision to list properties for sale on Google Maps. So, two publishers in Australia are threatening to pull the "millions of dollars" they [...]

Google Chokes on Apple, Loses Its Voice

It appears that Google can’t get any love from Apple. Just days after the electronics company pulled rank on Google’s iPhone aspirations for Google Latitude, we learn that Google Voice has also been blackballed. According to a Google spokesperson: We work hard to bring Google applications to a number of mobile platforms, including the iPhone. Apple did [...]

Google on Short End of Current AOL Valuation

Just four years ago Google made a big splash in the Internet space by buying a 5% stake in AOL for $1 billion. Do the math and that placed the valuation of the company at around $20 billion. The fall of AOL from an Internet powerhouse to a “will they ever be influential again?” story [...]

Martha Stewart Living for Twitter Not Facebook

It’s official. Stop the presses. No longer can there be any banter back and forth about the merits of Facebook and Twitter. Your opinions are no longer valid regardless of who you are because Martha Stewart has made up your mind for you. Twitter is the way to go because Facebook is “dippy”. That’s right, [...]

4th Annual SEM Scholarship Contest Update

Our 4th Annual SEM Scholarship Contest has now finished and we’re compiling a list of our five finalists. This will be done today and we’ll then forward that list to our panel of expert judges. I know that our contest entrants are dying to know if they made the list of top five most popular articles. [...]

45 Creative, Clever And Effective Blog Taglines

Taglines are perhaps the most underrated and underused elements of personal and business blogs, yet they serve a huge function. The social web has conditioned us to move through content-based sites quickly, and if we reach a site with an unclear thesis we’re likely to click to the next thing.  You also can’t count on visitors [...]

What Do Yahoo, Microsoft & The Rolling Stones Have in Common?

You can’t always get what you wantYou can’t always get what you wantYou can’t always get what you wantBut if you try sometimes well you just might findYou get what you need… And, if we believe the latest report from AdAge, neither Microsoft or Yahoo will get exactly what they want from a potential partnership. Instead, [...]

Latest Click Fraud Report Lands on My Desk With a FUD

It’s kind of hard for me to report on Click Forensics without being biased–I’ve long maintained that click fraud will simply be one of many "costs" associated with paid search and is therefore a non-issue. So, you should keep that bias in mind, when reading the following: Click Forensics’ reports may put them out of business. Maybe [...]

Chinese Search Giant Baidu Posts Gains

Baidu is the search engine of choice for China, at least for now. PaidContent reports that the Chinese company is experiencing ‘Google-esque” success in the largest growth market online in the world. Meanwhile Google itself is in a rather unfamiliar position According to Bernstein & Co., Baidu’s share of the Chinese search market increased to 64.5 [...]

Another Epic Decline for Microsoft’s Revenue

If you were hoping Microsoft would rebound from its poor 3rd quarter earnings, you may wish to sit down. Yesterday, the software company reported its first year-over-year revenue and sales drop ever–which will compliment nicely the quarterly drop from Q3. According to the WSJ: …Microsoft said net income for the period ended in June fell to $3.05 [...]

Apple’s Irresistible Force Meets Google’s Immovable Object–Who Wins?

What happens when the irresistible force meets an immovable object? The irresistible force wins! The immovable object publicly complains. That appears to be the case as Google announces Google Latitude for the iPhone and, in the same announcement, gripes that Apple is to blame for the lack of an actual application. We worked closely with Apple to bring [...]

Twitter Tries to Bridge the Gap Between Sign Up and Engagement

Let’s try something a little different as the focus goes to Twitter (yet again) and its impact on the free world’s ability to function properly. I have said on many occasions that regular users of Twitter are not the best people to be actually examining Twitter’s success or lack thereof. Why? Mainly because there seems [...]

The Associated Press to Play Whack-A-Mole with Scrapers

I long ago gave up trying to get spammers to "cease and desist" their scraping of Marketing Pilgrim’s content–I never was much good at playing whack-a-mole. Well, it appears that The Associated Press loves carnival games as the NYT reports the news organization is determined to put an end to the scraping of its content. Each article [...]

Introducing lGoogle (The L is for Lobbyist)

We have talked on several occasions here at Marketing Pilgrim about Google’s Washington, DC connections. Some wonder if there is too much Google in the capitol while others just think it’s the normal course of big business. Either way you look at it there is no denying that Google is as much a part of [...]

Facebook Allows Username Do-Overs – Just Once!

Facebook has milked the vanity URL deal for all its worth until this point so why not try to get a little more mileage out it, right? Over the past few months Facebook has been allowing individuals to choose their username but has put the rather strict caveat on the practice that it is a [...]

50 Ways to FAIL On Twitter

Like many others, I scoffed at Twitter when I first heard of it. What use could sending short messages to people I don’t know be?  The mental leap from IM and Facebook status updates to Twitter makes it easier, but business use seemed pointless at first.  As I noticed more of my Search, Social and [...]

Intersection of Search and Social Media AdWeekMedia Connect

This afternoon I did a live chat with AdWeekMedia Connect, a social network for the ad agency set on the intersection of search and social media. Embedded below is the recorded chat stream: Lee Odden Chat Here are a few resources on the topic: Mashable: Social Media and SEO: 5 Essential Steps to Success IAB: Social Advertising Best Practices Forrester: Interactive Marketing [...]

Yahoo Looking to Sell HotJobs, Buy Xoopit

With their Q2 results out—and better than expected—Yahoo seems to think they’re now in a prime position to review their holdings. In their portfolio, and on the chopping block: HotJobs and Yahoo Small Business. But Yahoo may also be looking to invest, most likely in Xoopit. According to Reuters, Yahoo may be looking to divest itself [...]

Ning Rings VC Bell Again

With all of the talk regarding social media it seems that the inordinate amount of the attention goes to the big 2; Facebook and Twitter. While they do tend to generate significant drama and even some real news there is more to the social media space. In fact, there are those who see the social [...]

Apple Has Best Non-Holiday Quarter Ever

While it should come as no surprise, Apple is doing very well, thank you. Amidst all of the gloom and doom, the hand wringing and the concern over the future, Apple is simply rolling along as if to say “What recession?” In what will likely be a classic case study in business schools for the [...]

Yahoo Had Some Results Too, You Know

While everyone was busy admiring the performance of Apple during the second quarter of this year, other companies were trying to do some business as well. Among those was Yahoo. While Apple seems to trip over good news Yahoo has to work hard to keep itself out of the news for the wrong reasons. Yesterday [...]

Barnes and Noble Wants Your E-book Biz

Barnes and Noble is no stranger to the eBook business. The first ‘go round’ was shelved six years ago but yesterday the retail bookseller announced it is reentering the market in a big way. As the storefront book business continues to fight for survival in the continuing move to online purchases and other formats Barnes [...]

Yahoo Unveils New Home Page

As we have talked about in the not so distant past, Yahoo is in the midst of a brand overhaul. Today we will be given the first public look at the new home page as it is rolled out to most of the US (I don’t see it as of 7:40 am EST but maybe [...]

ESPN Going Local and Newspapers Could Take a Hit

As a sports fan I don’t get to write much about sports and Internet marketing. Now that I think about it, I’m not sure why that is but I’ll work on that later. What we have covered extensively here at Marketing Pilgrim is the decline and fall of the Printed Empire; the newspaper. Today, in [...]

“Let’s Go” of the Social Web: The New Community Rules

How to be successful on the social web? Be useful and helpful to others. Few people epitomize this principle better than veteran internet marketer, Tamar Weinberg. I remember some of my first interactions with Tamar years ago, involving her making sure I had all my questions answered about a question I posted on IM.  Tamar has blogged about [...]

Google Earnings: Not All Good News?

Last week, we highlighted the good news from Google’s Q2 earnings report—they beat expectations and they expect YouTube to be profitable soon. But there was more to the full report, as Econsultancy points out today. In the paid search arena, Google’s bread and butter, the results weren’t as bright as the hope that YouTube will be [...]

AOL’s Armstrong Logs First 100 Days

As a culture, we love to try to determine how successful someone will be in a huge job based on the first 100 days. We do it regularly with the President of the US and now there is the same examination occurring with Tim Armstrong, the recently minted CEO of AOL. Much like our struggling [...]

Let’s Play “Reviews for Dollars”!

Posts for pay, reviews for cash or whatever you want to call them are a part of the blogosphere and have been for quite some time. The amount of attention that it gets is often directly related to the amount of other news that is happening in the space at the time. Well, we are [...]

YouTube Toying with 3D Video

Google is still letting its employees play with their 20% time, as evidenced by the newest YouTube project spotted: three dimensional video. Pete, the Googler behind this, confirmed this in a YouTube Help thread, saying that the project is “currently very early.” Pete says the current tags in the project are: yt3d:enable=true Enables the view mode. yt3d:aspect=3:4 Sets [...]

Web Community Building: Making It Thrive

Last week we discussed some of the reasons subscribers are vital for an online marketing growth strategy. Those reasons included: The ~11% of web users who know to use RSS include the users savvy enough to be web publishers You’ll become a go-to area to link to Subscribers are your sneezers A base of well-connected fans could very [...]

Twitter Gets Some Viral Bang for Its Buck

When it comes to Internet marketing and social media marketing one of the most important metrics of success is the return on investment (ROI). Everyone demands to see something that measures this although most can’t agree on just how to accomplish that. Twitter is one outlet that people are trying to measure as to just [...]

Twitter Takes to the Air

We are all getting comfortable with the place that social media outlets can have in the business process. Public relations, human resources, legal and sales can all benefit. At the present the most common application is customer service. While customer service is always important, the advent of social media has created customer service in ways [...]

Google Expects YouTube to be Profitable Soon

In its earnings call last night, Google says things are looking up. After a slightly disappointing Q1, Google beat expectations, although its revenue is still growing slowly. Estimates put net revenue at $4.06B, but Google posted $4.07B, up from $3.89B in Q208 (4.6% growth YOY). Net income for the second quarter was $1.48B, up from $1.25B [...]

Get Your Free Online Newspaper! While You Can

The newspaper industry is still struggling to figure out what it will be when it grows up. Ad revenue is in the toilet and the news acquisition habits of people, even those who have traditionally turned to newspapers for news, has moved online at an increasing rate. We all know that in order to survive [...]

Microsoft and Yahoo Close on Search Ad Deal

Please, please, please be warned: While there is talk of Yahoo and Microsoft getting close to coming to terms on a search ad deal this is not a done deal. People in the Internet space love to see some information then make a few assumptions and then turn it into a reality. Over at All [...]

Facebook Told to Improve Privacy Practices – Oh, Canada!

It wouldn’t be a day in business any more if the main focus wasn’t government intervention, would it? It appears that all of the freedom that the Internet was supposed to offer is maybe a little too much for the folks to our north. The Canadian government has issued a report that tells Facebook that [...]

Google Health Gets Helpful and a Little Creepy

Google is so much more than a search engine. There’s Google Apps. There’s Google Mobile. There’s Google Mail. There’s a Google for just about anything. Now with a new offering from Google Health that concept extends to your death wishes. No typo there. Google is trying to make checking out of this life as easy [...]

Google Reader: Now with More Social!

Over the last couple years, Google has pushed more and more social features in its apps. They’ve converted our contact lists into friend lists, they’ve added notes to shared items, they’ve even moved the conversation that normally takes place in the comments onto Google Reader itself. And now Google Reader is getting even more social [...]

Twitter, Hacks, Clouds, Ethics, the Law and More

So here we are a day after Twittergate broke and what is the result? Not much really. Everyone is talking about it in some way or another. Was it lax security at Twitter? Was it a security issue with Google Apps? Did TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington go too far? What are the ethical implications of obtaining [...]

Poll: Levels of Corporate Social Media Engagement

The notion of social web and how companies can engage is as multi-faceted as anything I’ve seen in my 12+years of marketing online. The many ways for companies to involve themselves using social technologies are as varied as the reasons they may do so. Whether it’s to better connect with customers, attract more media attention [...]

Bing Month One: Bit of a Bonus

Compete has already weighed in on traffic to Microsoft’s new Bing for its first month. Now comScore is joining the big Bing parade: the new search engine has seen some traffic increases over Microsoft’s last month. But before we strike up the band, comScore notes that the traffic increases aren’t much. In May, Microsoft garnered 8% [...]

Google Calendar Gets Labs

A year ago, Gmail added a “lab” to introduce optional and experimental features. If you were worried about the future of Gmail Labs when Gmail finally came out of beta last week, I think we don’t have to worry anymore. This week, another app that lost its beta status premieres a new Labs feature—Google Calendar. Google [...]

Direct Marketing Getting Social

In a past career of mine where the nature of the business required educating and evangelizing as a sales process, a colleague related a “vintage” story to me about phases in which new ideas or concepts are adopted by mass markets. It involved the introduction of the refrigerator in a time when ice boxes were [...]

Facebook Working to Amp Up Ad Opps

Facebook has been a little quiet as of late. Apparently if you aren’t a search engine moving in on the flagship product of your sworn enemy or you’re not the media darling with apparently little or no security in your fiefdom it’s just not news. Well, it looks like Facebook has been keeping their heads down [...]

Microsoft: And Now a Word from Our Founder

The OS wars are running pretty hot and heavy these days. Whether it’s Microsoft trying to fend off the European Commission as to the rights to package their products as they see fit or it’s Microsoft responding to the early buzz around Google’s entry into the desktop OS space, it’s a busy time. Since Microsoft [...]

Confidential Twitter Docs Fly Into Inboxes

While this may fall into the “too early to tell” category it certainly is of interest, especially considering the pace of Internet ‘news’ these days. TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington has had a ‘gift’ fall into his lap and a lot of folks are interested to see if he is going to share with the rest of [...]

15 Year Old Gets Morgan Stanley’s Attention

Honestly, I am not sure what to make of this. Bloomberg has reported that Morgan Stanley, at least its European arm, has produced a report with insights into the mind of one Matthew Robson. He is a 15 year old intern at the securities firm (doing what I might ask?). Apparently this young man has [...]

15 Year Old Gets Morgan Stanley’s Attenion

Honestly, I am not sure what to make of this. Bloomberg has reported that Morgan Stanley, at least its European arm, has produced a report with insights into the mind of one Matthew Robson. He is a 15 year old intern at the securities firm (doing what I might ask?). Apparently this young man has [...]

Google Loses Yet More Top Line Talent

Just within the last month there have been reports of the number of defections from Google and the steps that Google has been taking to stop the activity. They may need to ratchet up their efforts however. Hot on the heels of the news that one of their biggest legal eagles has nested elsewhere we [...]

Twitter Beefs Up Legal Team

It wouldn’t be the Internet if there wasn’t just as much talk of legal action as there is of innovation. Google knows this better than anyone as they fend off lawsuits on a regular basis that are related (at least loosely in some cases) to their offerings and the apparent lines that are crossed by [...]

Mike Grehan & Stewart Quealy Interview: Co-Chairs Search Engine Strategies

If you’ve exhibited, presented or moderated a Search Engine Strategies conference, it’s more than likely that you’ve had the opportunity to meet Stewart Quealy, VP, Content Development at Incisive Media, parent company to Search Engine Strategies, Search Engine Watch and ClickZ. Stewart (L), along with Mike Grehan (R) were recently named co-chairs of the SES Advisory Board, [...]

Free Webinar: Tap Into the Hidden Economic Stimulus

Thanks to a long-running business partnership with Social Media Today, we’re able to offer Marketing Pilgrim readers yet another FREE webinar! The free webinar is hosted by SAP and will take place at 1:00pm ET/ 10:00am PT on the topic of "The Stimulus Package: What Does it Mean for Your Business?" Before you dismiss the webinar, thinking [...]

Subscribers Are Vital For An Online Marketing Growth Strategy

MySpace Taking Up Some of Our Space

In all honesty, there is not much to talk about at the start of a week that truly moving toward the dog days of summer. Let’s take one more look at the Sun Valley meeting of last week to see if a gathering of the most influential media executives can garner something of interest. Errr…..not [...]

Only 33% of Us Trust Our “Online” Friends; Barely More Than Trust in Banner Ads!

It seems like a new report on social media marketing is released weekly. Today, we see a new report from Razorfish–which surely must help with its attempts to find a knight in shining armor. Aside from Razorfish’s creation of a new Social Influence Marketing (SIM) Score–which measures the reach and sentiment of your brand in social [...]

Rosetta Stone Uses Plain English to Sue Google

Rosetta Stone, the company that makes the software that can help you learn any language (according to their advertising that is) is joining the line of companies who are suing Google over trademark infringement in AdWords campaigns. The Washington Post reports says that the company has filed their suit in the U.S. District [...]

Careers at TopRank: SEM Account Manager

Use A Creative Commons License As An Online Marketing Tool

Happy 4th of July!

It’s a Saturday, so I know you’re not going to work hard today anyway. For those in the US, I hope you enjoy your hot dogs and fireworks!

The Young Bail on Facebook, but Over 55s Soar 500% and Bring Their Checkbooks!

The demographic has shifted dramatically over at Facebook and that change could lead to billions in revenue, according to one prominent board member. iStrategyLabs spent the last six months collecting user demographic data and discovered the number of users over the age of 55 soared from 1 million to nearly 6 million. During the same 6 [...]

Online Ad Spending Going Up; The Rest Not So Much

Online ad spending is not resilient. That would be the wrong description since it has not really needed to come back from anything yet. Even in this economy that continues to keep many mired in the muck, online spending is going up in ’09 and thru 2011. Sounds like a guarantee, right? Well, of course [...]

Google Cracking Down on AdWords Scams

You’ve probably seen the “Make Money on Google” ads floating around the Internet these days. (Or maybe not. . . .) The banner ads are one thing (I think most of us know to take them with a grain of salt). But when you see the same scam advertised on Google, even intelligent users might [...]

Twitter Can Be Good for Business

There are rumors out there. There are rumors of rumors of how people are using Twitter to drive awareness and new business. What has started to happen though is that the rumors tend to stick with the same names like Dell, who attributes some $3 mil plus in revenue to its Twitter presence and Comcast [...]

E-Mail Marketing Still Open to Improvement

I have to admit that any story about e-mail marketing and an increase in open rates is a bit baffling. Why? I know how I handle e-mail these days. A quick scan and if the sender or subject doesn’t ring a bell I have developed the Internet equivalent of a quick trigger finger â€" check [...]

90% of Consumers Trust Opinions of Friends; Brand Trust Shows Improvement Too!

One of the core messages in my book Radically Transparent came courtesy of Edelman data which demonstrated that consumers overwhelmingly trusted recommendations from "a person like yourself." Two years after that data was released, new numbers from Nielsen suggest that trust in others has increased dramatically. In fact, 90% of consumers now trust recommendations from people [...]

Bing’s Got Some Zing

Just last week the earliest of the early reports claimed that Bing had made some impact in the search engine arms race. Those numbers were met with a fair amount of skepticism due to the timing etc. Now Mashable reports that Compete.com has released US traffic stats that shows Bing is making some progress in [...]

The Future for Media Moguls: Twitter?

What do you get when you put Liberty Media Chairman John Malone, IAC Chairman Barry Diller, and Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger on a panel together? The three were on a panel at the annual navel-gazing Sun Valley press-free media and technology conference talking about the digital future. As you can imagine, they weren’t exactly [...]

Of CMOs Cutting Ad Budgets: 67% Reduce Traditional, 47% Increase Social Media Spend

A new Forrester report (Marketing Budgets Suffer Significant Cuts) suggests 71% of CMOs have seen their marketing budgets reduced–of those, 51% saw a reduction of at least 20%! It’s enough to send any marketer running for the hills, but really it’s only those knee-deep in old school channels that need to worry. As the chart below [...]

Google Search Results for Places Gets Better

Google is still going about its search business despite the flurry of activity around its Chrome OS and all other things Google. Today, on the Official Google Blog, they announced the introduction of better, more comprehensive search results for places. Using our Universal Search technology, we have provided maps in our search results for more than [...]

Some Microsoft Thoughts on Chrome OS

As was widely reported this week Google is venturing into the world of operating systems, which is kind of like walking into Microsoft’s living room and saying “We’re here!”. Microsoft has been trying to for years to make a dent in the complete dominance of the search space that Google has. The introduction of Bing [...]

Facebook Sued for Stifling Competition, Click Fraud

It’s a saga we’re all familiar with by now: create a pretty awesome web service, start a trend, become a media sweetheart, make lots of money (VC or acquisition), get slapped with a lawsuit. Or two. Or fifty billion. Facebook added two more lawsuits to its heap recently: a countersuit from Power.com and a click [...]

The Best Online Reputation Attack I Have Ever Seen!

I’d imagine a lot of us can relate to the nightmare that surrounds having to complain to any airline–especially when it comes to lost or damaged luggage. So, you can imagine the frustration endured by singer/songwriter Dave Carroll as he tried to get United Airlines to pay for $1200 of damages to his guitar. After eight [...]

Navel Observatory: Snippets from Sun Valley

The Sun Valley media and technology conference opened Wednesday. We like to make fun of the confab of media moguls and owners as “navel gazing” (hence the pun in the post title!)—I mean, a media conference that’s closed to the press?—but since the press seems to be swarming around outside the conference and lots of [...]

Is Google Deliberately Sabotaging Bing’s Search Listing?

Despite the millions of dollars Microsoft is spending in an attempt to get us to use Bing, it’s apparently still well aware of the hand that feeds it. A lot of searchers are still conditioned to begin all web browsing at Google, and Microsoft knows that it’s crucial that Bing is easily found. So, you can [...]

New Twitter “Ads” Appear? My Conspiracy Theory

Remember when Twitter first launched its sidebar ads? Only, Twitter told us all that they weren’t actually ads? Then, guess what, they magically started turning into real ads. OK, so explain this mysterious “public service tweet” that’s started showing up on Twitter: Actually, Biz Stone has explained it and he says it’s not an ad, just a [...]

ICANN’t Believe It’s .butter

Let me guess. YourCompanyName.com, Your-Company-Name.com, Your-Company-Name-Industry.com (and all their .net counterparts) were all taken when you came to register your site. It’s understandable that you’re excited about ICANN’s new policy on TLDs—you’ll be able to register justabout.anything. Yeah, well, I hate it. I’ve always hated the idea and I had a really hard time understanding how [...]

The Best Online Reputation Attack I Have Ever Seen!

I’d imagine a lot of us can relate to the nightmare that surrounds having to complain to any airline–especially when it comes to lost or damaged luggage. So, you can imagine the frustration endured by singer/songwriter Dave Carroll as he tried to get United Airlines to pay for $1200 of damages to his guitar. After eight [...]

Stop Obsessing over Number of Blog Comments

I am obsessed with blog comments. I count them and recount them. I see their number as a sign that people are genuinely interested in my content.

Comments, however, are not necessarily an objective indicator of engagement. Their number, big or small, can be misleading. But is shutting down comments a way to avoid getting misled?

Internet marketer Dan Ronken recently started an InboundMarketing.com forum discussion about whether "closing off comments until a decent amount of readership is built" is a good approach. An extensive blog without comments, he suggested, "feels less engaging."

"Leave them open," advised him forum participant Brian Rogers. "I wouldn't shut off comments as that would delay when people start commenting!" Brian wrote. Here are five other tips that emerged from the forum.

Give Readers Rights

Give your readers the rights they deserve. Readers want to know that they have certain rights even though they might not actually use them. Blogging is about expressing opinions and enabling free speech. This can be achieved only if you leave the communication channels open. As Rick Burnes wrote, "For users, the ability to comment is far more apparent than the ratio comments/posts."

Engage Known People First

Get your friends and personal connections involved in your blog. This will create the foundations of your reading and commenting culture. In addition, it will give you valuable feedback for improvement. "If you're worried about no comments," Brian noted, "once you get the blog going, email some of your good friends to go in there and leave some comments to spur the conversation."

Reward Loyal Readers

Reward your loyal readers by allowing them to comment on your posts and participate in your conversations. They might be a small crowd but they are on your blog and are there to learn and interact. By not nurturing your existing relationships, you might lose your most loyal readership.

Pursue What's Authentic

Comments are important as long as they are authentic. Often times, no comments can be more authentic than lots of comments. Anne-Marie McReynolds suggested that we should be aware of the different motives behind commenting. "Is commenting really about building authentic relationships or about SEO (i.e. backlinks)?" she asked.

Stop Anticipating Comments

Don't blog in anticipation of the commenters' feedback. Keep your focus on what got you started on the blog post. Seth Godin explains that expectations for responses permanently change the writing style. "Instead of writing for everyone, I find myself writing in anticipation of the commenters," he noticed.

In other words, obsessing over the number of your blog comments is like every other obsession--it leads to unproductivity.

Photo Credit: earnest70six

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Is Google Deliberately Sabotaging Bing’s Search Listing?

Despite the millions of dollars Microsoft is spending in an attempt to get us to use Bing, it’s apparently still well aware of the hand that feeds it. A lot of searchers are still conditioned to begin all web browsing at Google, and Microsoft knows that it’s crucial that Bing is easily found. So, you can [...]

5 Marketing Lessons from the Godfather

The Godfather is an iconic film and novel that everyone remembers and quotes. There are so many remarkable lessons -- from Michael Corleone's hero's journey to his succession of leadership from his ailing father during a tumultuous gang war. Here are 5 valuable marketing lessons from the Corleone family that will help you take on the Tattaglias, Barzinis and Sollozzos that you face!

1. Keep Your Friends Close, Your Influencers Closer

In our social media life it is important to keep in touch with your friends, but make sure you are engaging your influencers. Identify experts and analysts in your industry and build relationships with them. However, as Don Corleone justly scoffs Amerigo Bonasera on the day of his daughter's wedding to "Ask with Respect" and "Come to me with friendship," your motive for engaging the experts should be to build a lifelong friendship!

2. Give Your Audience Offers They Can't Refuse

I couldn't say it any better. Great offers reduce barriers to generating leads. How could anyone refuse to read an eBook that has valuable content or attend a thought leadership webinar that keeps them on top of their game? Especially, if it's free! When it comes to social media and lead generation, great content makes the best offer.  Share it so your audience will spread it!

3. Don't Hesitate to Go to the Mattresses

If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything.  Thought leadership is the key to influencing your audience. It will help you to reason with them. Take your strong convictions to the mattresses and build up expertise in your industry. A good example at HubSpot is how we have taken on traditional marketing with our stance on inbound marketing.

4. It's All Personal, Every Bit of Business

Throughout most of the book (and movie), you are led to believe that every action, every move, is all business. However at the very end, Michael Corleone reveals with this outburst that he alone understood his father the best:

"Tom, don't let anyone kid you. It's all personal, every bit of business. Every piece of sh*t every man has to eat every day of his life is personal. They call it business. OK. But it's personal as hell." 

Businesses are comprised of people, and using social media is a great way to bring that personal touch to your business and marketing.  It also gives your brand personality!

5. If You Can't Change, You'll be Sleeping With the Fishes

There is a huge shift in how marketing is working and being done on the web. Just as Michael Corleone realized he needed to move from New York to Las Vegas to protect his business interests, you need to adjust with the times or find yourself obsolete. If not, your business could end up like Luca Brassi -- sleeping with the fishes! 

So in summary: Learn about inbound marketing and use social media to build up thought leadership. Share remarkable content and engage your influencers.  Go to the mattresses with your thoughts, ideas and convictions. But when its over, drop your guns and take the canolis.  In then end, it's always personal!

Are there any other lessons you took away from the Corleone family?  As always I look forward to your thoughts in the comments!

Photo Credit: Amazon.com

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Some Microsoft Thoughts on Chrome OS

As was widely reported this week Google is venturing into the world of operating systems, which is kind of like walking into Microsoft’s living room and saying “We’re here!”. Microsoft has been trying to for years to make a dent in the complete dominance of the search space that Google has. The introduction of Bing [...]

Gmail and Google Apps Leave Beta

Yes, it’s true. Just five short years after its launch, and just months after they caught the most recent round of flak for the extended “testing” period, Gmail is finally losing the Beta label today, as are all of Google Apps, including Calendar, Docs, and Talk. Oddly enough, the list of unbetaed apps coincides exactly [...]

Yahoo Search Pad Launched

Yahoo and search seem to be synonymous with news of whether it is going to be bought or sold. Well, today in an attempt to rise above the bing vs. Google talk that has dominated the news as of late, Yahoo has launched its Search Pad service. The WSJ’s Digits blog reports on the service [...]

7 Ways To Develop A Unique Brand For Your Blog

With the blogosphere churning out nearly 1 million posts every 24 hours, an unstoppable river of content flows over the web daily. It’s daunting, especially if you’re new to online publishing.  The good news is it’s still very possible to succeed, even if you’re just starting out today. Developing affinity with a group of readers [...]

Twitter Gets Real Ads

Back in March, Twitter gave us all a head-fake when they started posting “sponsored definitions,” definitions in a the sidebar of Twitter homepages that looked like ads. Twitter was quick to correct the assumption that they were, in fact, ads—they were only definitions, just like you get free from dictionaries. Then, the boxes began carrying info [...]

Google Getting in on Real Estate

Real estate sites like Zillow and Trulia have been hard at work for the last few years, offering social features to house hunters and homeowners. And now real estate sites are getting more competition from a rather prominent Internet company: Google. Yep, Google’s making a land grab with Google Maps, as SEL cleverly puts it. You [...]

Amazon to Re-Kindle Ad Revenue?

Amazon apparently has some big plans for their Kindle e-reader and it involves advertising. That’s right, advertising. After all, what would a good book be without advertising, right? cnet news reports about some patents that Amazon has filed in the not so distant past that point to a way or them to deliver an e-book with [...]

Google Maps Gives Your Visitors Direction(s)

Okay, Google isn’t going to help your website visitors find their direction in life. But now the fastest-growing maps website is bringing directions to your website visitors—on your site. Google Maps unveils a new directions widget (okay, okay, Google calls them “gadgets.” Whatever.) you can embed on your site to add door-to-door driving directions for [...]

Technorati: Desperate to be a Twit Relevant Again

How long has it been since we’ve heard about Technorati? When did you last visit the erstwhile-preeminent blog tracking site? And even then, didn’t you get the sense they were going downhill? While that may just be what happens to every media (or blog) sweetheart, Technorati has seen a decline. Many have attributed this to [...]

Smaller Newspapers Have Fared Better Than The Big Boys

If you work for a smaller paper or you have a favorite local paper that you simply don’t want to see fade into the sunset this is OK news. I can’t honestly say that there is real good news. It’s about the newspaper business after all. TechCrunch reports that statistics gathered by the Inland Press [...]

California, Hawaii Veto “Amazon Tax”; NC & RI Still Plan Affiliate Nexus

It’s somewhat hard to keep up with which state is passing the so called "Amazon Tax," which have vetoed it, and which retailers have pulled the plug on their program–just in anticipation of it. Let’s start with the good news. Both California and Hawaii look set eject the planned affiliate nexus, with vetoes from their respective [...]

The Spy Who Loved…to Wear Speedos!

Not so much as a security alert–but certainly a reminder of how easy it is for any of us to post something to Facebook that could come back to haunt us–news broke over the weekend that the wife of Britain’s top spy posted far too much info on the social networking site. The spouse of new [...]

Google to Enter the OS Arena

Google certainly doesn’t rest on its laurels, that’s for sure. They are, first and foremost a search engine, but the success of their search business has fathered so many products that aren’t search related at all it’s amazing at times. Of course, now that everything is losing its beta status Google needs to get something [...]

Search Marketing Spend to Double & Take 59% Share of Online Marketing Budgets!

As a follow-up to yesterday’s gloomy prediction for traditional advertising spend, I have some salt to pour on the wounds: "…cannibalization of traditional media will bring about a decline in overall advertising budgets, death to obsolete agencies, [and] a publisher awakening…" So says Forrester analyst Shar VanBoskirk in a new five year interactive marketing forecast. In fact, a [...]

What Happens When an Aardvark & Twitter Bird Mate?

While we’re tapping our feet–waiting for Twitter to come to our search results page–Aardvark has been busy bringing its answer engine to Twitter. As you may (or may not), know, Aardvark allows you to ask questions and receive answers back from real people in your network. Well, TechCrunch is reporting that  ‘vark now lets you ask [...]

Intersection of Search and Social Media

Earlier this week I gave a presentation on the intersection of SEO, online PR and social media to a great mix of people (mostly agencies) at a SEMPO Arizona event. The SEO/PR/Social topic is an interesting mix due to the convergence that’s been happening over the past 2-3 years and of course, because it’s the essence [...]

5 Tips on Hiring and Getting the Most Value from SEO Consultants

While Google offers advice on hiring SEO consultants, there’s not much information about how to get the most value afterwards.  There’s an impressive amount of information and resources for webmasters on SEO related topics, but I’m pretty sure Google as a company has never hired a SEO agency and therefore isn’t in the client/vendor relationship [...]

18 Questions to Assess Readiness of Content SEO

A big part of helping companies with Search Engine Optimization and content based marketing efforts is to assess the assets available. Digital Asset Optimization (DAO) involving multiple media, file types and distribution/search channels isn’t going to be efficient or effective unless there’s a firm grasp of a company’s available media and content production processes. When TopRank works [...]

E-Mail Marketing Still Open to Improvement

I have to admit that any story about e-mail marketing and an increase in open rates is a bit baffling. Why? I know how I handle e-mail these days. A quick scan and if the sender or subject doesn’t ring a bell I have developed the Internet equivalent of a quick trigger finger â€" check [...]

How to Make Sure Ex-Customers Don't Destroy Your Marketing

One of the most important aspects of marketing is turning your customers into advocates for your brand and product.

Unfortunately, the reality of business is that every company has customers that leave its service. These customers can turn into thorns in your company's side if they're not treated right, so it's important to ensure that even your ex-customers are happy with their experience.

Here at HubSpot we don't have a ton of ex-customers, but those customers that do chose to cancel their HubSpot subscription typically don't turn into angry excustomers.

To find out how we achieve this, I interviewed Ben Smith (@TheRealBenSmith) from the HubSpot customer support team. Ben explained how marketers and support people everywhere can learn from our off-boarding process.

How to Generate Leads for Small Business

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The Future for Media Moguls: Twitter?

What do you get when you put Liberty Media Chairman John Malone, IAC Chairman Barry Diller, and Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger on a panel together? The three were on a panel at the annual navel-gazing Sun Valley press-free media and technology conference talking about the digital future. As you can imagine, they weren’t exactly [...]

Seth Godin: What Does Your Company Want For Its Birthday?

I just got back from a long drive, after a long weekend with my parents (who are visiting from India).  Geek that I am, as soon as I got home, I started checking email and getting caught up on my reading.  That’s when I came across a thought-provoking recent article from Seth Godin:  What Should I Do On Your Birthday?  (Yes, I’m a big Seth Godin fan.  His stuff makes me think). 

This article had a particular resonance for me because my startup, HubSpot (the company behind this blog) celebrated its third birthday recently.  Hard to believe it’s already been three years â€" they grow up so quickly!

In any case, in Seth’s article, he writes:  “With all due respect to Hallmark, the idea of sending people cards and presents on their birthday seems both selfish and small-minded. It seems to me that we could think bigger. On the birthday of your company or brand, what would you like your customers to do?”

Here’s my request:  For HubSpot’s birthday, what we’d love from you, more than anything else, is the following:

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HubSpot Birthday Wish

Spend a day without pushing your product or service.  Instead, spend that time saying something useful and interesting.  Write a blog article.  Tweet an insight.  Produce a video.  Anything.  Just make your market smarter.

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That’s all we at HubSpot wish for our birthday.  Really it is.  Wish granted?  Thanks!

If you do end up granting the HubSpot birthday wish, tweet it with #hubspotwish (or link to this article) and I’ll come check it out.

What’s your wish for your company or brand?

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Careers at TopRank: SEM Account Manager

Client focused, dynamic, challenging, rewarding, did I say fast paced? Those are some of the words I would use to describe our agency at TopRank Online Marketing. TopRank has continuously evolved over the past 8+ years to become a well known and authoritative brand in the Search, Social and Online Public Relations space.  Our clients include [...]

Eight Social Media Tips from Artist Natasha Wescoat

Making a living as an artist is hard. Somewhere between establishing a market and promoting your art, you have to stay inspired. 

Artist Natasha Wescoat has done just fine online with all three. She uses blogging and social media to promote and sell her creative work online. "If I can do it, anyone can," she said in a telephone interview yesterday about her social media usage. Here are eight tips that emerged from our conversation:

1) Experiment, experiment, experiment Natasha got started with experimentation. In 2005, she began video blogging and saw that people responded to her content. Afterward, she got interested in MySpace and Facebook. With almost 5,000 followers, she has now become an avid Twitter user.

Experimentation helps you keep up with changing industry landscapes. As Ben Rowe commented on Natasha's Mashable post, "Twitter mightn't be the silver bullet for all artists. A blog, Flickr or Etsy page might not be either. But the artists who are out there trying these new tools are already miles ahead of the artists who aren't."

2) Set time for social media Make sure you are not overusing the social networking sites. "I try to set a time everyday to check all my different networks," said Natasha. Twice a day, after waking up and before going to bed, she checks her Twitter replies. That helps her avoid habitually overusing the tool.

3) Patience is a virtue If you are just getting started with social media, be patient. "It takes a lot of patience and research," Natasha said. You won't see instant results because developing relationships takes time. Natasha suggested that social media rookies focus on "building their networks and relationships because that will be their most powerful tool."

4) Train Your Brain Train your brain to regularly read other people's blogs and tweets. They provide good examples of the interaction that you are looking for. When she first started using Twitter, Natasha found herself at a loss. "I didn't have any idea what to say. But I read other people's discussions, trained my mind and got started on new ideas," she said.

5) Build friendships The importance of real interaction and conversation versus scalejacking can't be emphasized enough. "Work on the friendships, most of all," said Natasha. "Don't think about numbers." If you are not working on the conversations, you will eventually lose your existing connections. Social media requires not only networking across different channels, but also engaging in those networks.

6) Add personality If you feel comfortable revealing details about your personal life on Twitter, do it! The nature of social media is to express your personality. Many companies encourage employees to represent their brand on Twitter without fear of getting sabotaged. As a successful example of this practice Natasha mentioned Scott Monty, the head of social media at Ford Motor Company.

7) Bring target audiences in Bringing your target audience to Twitter is an enormous step toward achieving your goal as a marketer. For instance, Natasha uses her blog and newsletters to attract her readership to Twitter. You too should use widely known tools to draw connections to your Twitter page.

8) Consistency + Conversation = Success Although there is no fixed success formula for social media interactions, a certain pattern repeats for the successful Twitter users. "Even though social media is intuitive and fluid, there is a main theme--consistency and delving into the conversation," said Natasha. By adopting these two features, you can network more effectively.


Photo Credit: Natasha Wescoat

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ICANN’t Believe It’s .butter

Let me guess. YourCompanyName.com, Your-Company-Name.com, Your-Company-Name-Industry.com (and all their .net counterparts) were all taken when you came to register your site. It’s understandable that you’re excited about ICANN’s new policy on TLDs—you’ll be able to register justabout.anything. Yeah, well, I hate it. I’ve always hated the idea and I had a really hard time understanding how [...]

The Inbound Marketing Race: Where Do I Start?

Where do I start? Many marketers standing at the starting line of inbound marketing ask themselves this question. So did Laura Neufelder in a forum thread on InboundMarketing.com.

One of the best pieces of advice Laura received came from Alyce Lindquist, another inbound marketing rookie. "I recommend learning by immersion! Start small, but just start," wrote Alyce.

Here are some of the other insights I found in the forum:

Focus on Buyer Personas

Create a mental picture of your target audience and its interests, hobbies and activities. Where does this persona live? What does she or he like to read? Such questions will guide you in creating the right content for your readership. As David Meerman Scott wrote, targeting the right buyer persona is a determining factor in your online marketing initiatives.

"Developing a good understanding of the customer will do a lot to help you refine and focus your re-design to appeal to things they might like or would be looking for," commented on the forum thread Steve Early. In the end, identifying buyer personas will define not only your website redesign and content creation, but also your product promotion strategy.

Analyze Existing Pages

Website analytics is one of the first factors marketers should consider when starting their online marketing campaigns. Before you change anything, Simon Mason wrote, check the inbound links on your existing pages. "Otherwise you could lose all the linkjuice you are already getting," he noted.

By monitoring the analytics for your existing pages you will know what has worked for you in the past and how to expand it. This is especially helpful in determining a successful keyword strategy. Thus, you can optimize your site for the low-hanging fruit and produce great ROI.

Blog Consistently

Get your employees passionate about blogging and have them start writing remarkable and regular content. In order to engage with potential leads, industry leaders and other bloggers you need have a blog that encourages conversations. "Without interesting content to link to, you'll just be sharing other people's content on your network which is important for growing it, but it won't get you traffic," wrote Brian Rogers.

What will get you traffic, however, is the quality and consistency of your blog posts. Create a regular blogging schedule and make sure authors are following it. This will create a sense of anticipation in your readers and encourage other thought leaders to interact with you.

Follow Best Practices

In order to become a good leader, you have to first be a good follower. There are different industry-specific successes that you can learn from. Adapt best practices to your marketing initiatives but make sure you keep your own voice.

Companies such as the Roger Smith Hotel and Whole Foods are great examples, and demonstrate different approach to successful inbound marketing. Observe their strategies and decide if they can work for you, too.

Photo Credit: Jon_Marshall

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