BuzzGain

“Can you roll a blog for me daddy?” asked trisha quite out of the blue! I reckon she must have overheard my conversation with my colleague about the importance of blogroll! “Well Trisha, I can certainly explain to you what a blogroll is, but I cant physically roll a blog for you?” “Dad, I am not that naïve to think that blogs are something that can be touched or felt? I am just keen to know how does a blog roll on the computer?” Realizing that I may have hit a nerve, I meekly started my explanation.

“Tell me something Trisha, last summer, you prepared several cane baskets at home as part of your hobby class activity. Weren’t you keen that your friends and relatives use the cane basket in their home? So every time, they look at the cane basket, they appreciate your talent and creativity? In the same way, if somebody likes my blog, they have the option of giving a link to my blog on their blogroll, so that people who visit their blog can link into my blog too.

In my blog , I have blogroll divided according to my topic of interest. For eg. I write extensively on social media monitoring, so I have different categories like Do-it-Yourself PR, media maps, links to blogs on social media. A blogroll is something that I control and is entirely based on my personal preference, which gives me the liberty to update it as often as I want. Here are the 3 main points of a blogroll:

1. Traffic booster- If my blog is listed on several blogs, the chances of readers clicking on my link and visiting my blog increases swiftly. Additionally, blogs with many incoming links (particularly those from high quality blogs as rated by Google page rank or Technorati authority) are usually ranked higher by search engines, which can bring additional traffic to your blog.
2. Blogroll=complement – If my blog gets listed on certain blogrolls, I definitely consider it as a great compliment and infact its very flattering to see my blogs listed on someone’s else blogroll. I am sure Brian must indeed be a proud person as most of the serious bloggers make a mention of his blogs in their blogroll. It just goes on to show, that people out there take you seriously and are appreciating your work.

As a form of etiquette, I can reciprocate by putting that blogger link in my blog roll. I say this with a silent prayer hoping that brain reads this post soon!

3. Blog-blogger relation- In the blogging world, it’s often seen that a blogroll paves way to the genesis of a mutually beneficial relationship especially for business bloggers! Cross promotion and link building alliance with other like-minded bloggers can reap benefits.

If you make your blogs interesting, informative and if it continues to provide certain value to your readers, I am sure you can see your blogs being listed on several blogrolls! So long live the blogroll!

Lately, a good part of the day is spent with my daughter in helping her understand the various terminology of the online world. One such term that we discussed today was Do it yourself PR. Let’s first look at the customary definition of PR. “Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing the flow of information between an organization and its publics. Public relations gains an organization or individual exposure to their audiences using topics of public interest and news items that do not require direct payment. Because public relations places exposure in credible third-party outlets, it offers a third-party legitimacy that advertising does not have”.

PR in today’s parlance empowers businesses to identify the previously hidden communities who are actively defining and shaping its future, including blogs, Flickr, youtube, Twitter, and traditional media. Yes, public relations is all about how and when it fits in today’s marketing and media landscape. We will also look at how you can use this information to develop your own do-it-yourself (DIY) public relations (PR) campaign.

Wow! Exclaimed my daughter. You mean I can do my own public relations without anybody’s help. Well, as they say it’s never too early for PR, but public relations is an activity, which is typically, carried out by a company- a newly established one/reputed one or sometimes by individuals. PR is a favorite tool amongst the well heeled or the celebrity fraternity. Though a wee bit disappointed, her enthusiasm to know the nitty gritty of Do-It-Yourself PR had not waned. I continued by explaining that there are three reasons to consider handling your own public relations: credibility, cost-effectiveness and coverage.

ü • Credibility achieved from media coverage can have instant and recurring benefits. When your company is mentioned on a television program or when you are mentioned in a respected blog, the coverage is viewed as objective, independent and credible.

ü • Cost effectiveness is important to any business that is balancing a marketing budget (and operating in a down economy). Your company’s public relations efforts may be another layer of your overall marketing campaign, but it is the most cost efficient of them all. For example, a PR campaign for a product launch can cost less than other marketing methods such as a direct mail campaign; this is especially true when your goal is to increase the number of leads generated or number of customers converted with your marketing efforts (as opposed to just branding).

ü • Coverage means building awareness of your company through the media—online, offline and social media. The exposure gained from mainstream and citizen media can create public esteem and action that accrues to your bottom line.

These three “C’s” of a DIY PR campaign may provide a rationale for mounting your own PR.

Buzzgain for Public Relations (PR) helps companies and individuals to build awareness for their products and offerings in a cost effective manner. Their online solution helps discover, engage, analyze and analyze their outreach efforts in an actionable fashion. This reduces costs of PR by at least 80%.

“Dad , is social media similar to social studies, the subject we study at school?” quizzed my 7 year old trisha. Well social studies involves the study of the past and current human behaviour and social media or to be specific social media concepts helps in discovering and engaging with people who will help your business thrive or share your thoughts or give opinion/suggestions on a particular topic/issue. As Wikipedia explains “Social media is content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies. At its most basic sense, social media is a shift in how people discover, read and share news, information and content. It’s a set of technologies, tools and platforms facilitating the discovery, participation and sharing of content.”

In today’s social economy - where attention is a precious commodity, it’s important to know the five social media concepts that is influencing the online world

1) Web 2.0 and 3.0 - Web 2.0 refers to a perceived second generation of web development and design, that facilitates communication, secure information sharing, interoperability, and collaboration on the World Wide Web. A main finding of an independent, global study into the state of Web 2.0 use revealed that
Ninety-five per cent of respondents currently allow employee access to some Web 2.0 sites and applications - most commonly webmail, mashups and wikis.

Web 3.0 as the name suggests is the advanced form of web 2.0 which is poised to facilitate the internet users to such an extent that it may understand the browser’s need as and when he searches the web. For eg. You are a budding script writer but are unaware of approaching the right production house or meeting the ‘right’ people, Instead of doing multiple search, you can type a complex sentence or two in your web 3.0 browser . for eg.”Which are the best production houses in this city and how should I go about approaching a producer?”

2) Blogs – Blogs are personal websites, which are created by individuals. “Once a story is on a blog, keeping a lid on it is impossible,” says Neville Hobson, an independent consultant on blogging and podcasting. Blogging just for the sake of it will undoubtedly make your blog less popular or least visited. Blogging is a serious activity, which requires dedication, time and knowledge. The best way to start a blog is to choose a topic of interest and start writing on it. Some of the popular research tools for finding blogs include technorati, blogsearch.google, ysearchblog, feedster

3) Forums – Internet forums are discussion areas where visitors or users of that particular site can discuss or share their opinions. It’s an interactive and generally a friendly medium where users may develop a social bond. For eg. A video game online forum will be typically visited by people interested to know the latest developments in the gaming world or to learn about the latest video games to hit the stores!

4) Social networking - Social networking websites function like an online community of internet users.  Depending on the website in question, many of these online community members share a common interest such as hobbies, religion, or politics or professional pursuits.  Once you are granted access to a social networking website you can begin to socialize.  Some of the popular social networking sites include orkut, linkedin, facebook etc.

5) Social news: Social News websites are communities which allow its users to submit news stories, articles and media (videos/pictures) and share them with other users or the general public. Some of these articles will be given more visibility, depending on various factors such as the number of user votes for each item. There are 100’s of social news websites that are not functional probably due to poor marketing strategy or limited inflow of news. Some of the social news websites that are thriving probably due to their unvarying news update skills and introducing user friend features. Popular social news sites are reddit, digg, mixx, I am bored etc

As I explain to you my dear about this social media concepts, I am sure there could be a gamut of emerging concepts and trends that is likely to keep the internet users awestruck and hooked to the net forever!

1. Social Media is here to stay

2. Brands have to engage with consumers

3. There is no “lets go back to brand advertising” anymore

My daughter  came back from school all excited about the next week. “It’s only a couple of days until summer break”. Nice, I thought, now I have to stress about what’ going to keep her busy for the next couple of months. “Dad”, she continued, “can you come next Monday and explain what you do to my class?” I was elated. Glad my daughter thought I was doing something interesting enough for her to want me to come and share with her eager class of 7 year olds.

“I told them you spend a lot of time on Facebook and Twitter” she continued, adding “my teacher said that’s not a job, its what you do for fun”. I ought to speak to her teacher I thought. First, I had to explain to my daughter what I did though. This query made me realize that my 7-year-olds inquisitiveness ran deeper than merely cracking the meaning of social media monitoring! Skipping the inanity, I plunged straight into giving into 3 main points.

1. First what is it? - “Just like the way a teacher monitors the class and keep tabs on each student’s performance, social media monitoring tools can help you track and keep you informed about what the world is thinking on a particular issue/topic matter a product (in this case read her toy).
2. Second why do it? Brian explains it best. Its because its what customers are doing now. They are talking about products, brands, what they like, what they don’t. Ahh she says – like we all talk about the new teacher during lunch”. “Something like that” I countered, “So if you like the teacher, she will tell others, and if there’s something you think she needs to change it will help her do that”.
3. Finally how do you do it? Blog, twitter, YouTube, Facebook etc. are where people are talking about companies, so you should monitor them and find out what they are saying.

A newly established company ought to make social media monitoring an essential part of their overall communication strategy. The traditional media tools will no wonder help them announce their arrival to the outside world but if the company needs to connect or ‘make conversations’ with his key influencers- a blog, twitter or Facebook can do the trick. Applications such as ours which transcend beyond the traditional media tools will help you connect with your target audience in a much more effective way.

We spoke about the echo chamber that retweeting on Twitter does a while ago. Well, on the same topic but a totally different reason Retweet is stupid argues Dave. Because its a vote of confidence on that particular tweet.

The problem I want to address is one when you get a Retweet gets taken out of context or “shortened” because it needs to fit into 140 characters.

I had a couple of instances of when this happened to me last week. My tweets were long (close to 140 characters), but when they were ReTweeted, the twitter user that did the RT “eliminated” a few characters so it could fit the 140 character limit.

Result - “Tweet taken out of context”.

Solution: Until there is a technical solution I recommend you plan on your tweets being 130 characters or less (if you have a long twitter handle, plan on 120 characters). That gives enough room for the word RT followed by your handle.

I really cannot believe I have put a post together for this, but getting “tweet quoted” out of context can be embarassing.

Business Publications

The top 3 business publications in the US are Business Week, Fortune and Forbes.

A quick comparison of their circulation, unique visitors, online revenue and editorial staff is below. The interesting question raised by 247Wall Street is when do these publication die? Their models seem doomed if you consider cost of printing, editorial payroll costs and the steep decline in advertising.

Leaving aside whether they survive for a minute, lets focus on how you as a business can get a mention or get written up in these publications.

1. Pick the right reporter based on topic of interest: Notice the editorial staff on each of these publications. You can use BuzzGain to get the exact writer / reporter / journalist to cover your story or you can go to their editorial pages and get the entire editorial staff and contact them directly. The important thing is there are over 200 to 400+ reporters on staff. Just because they are a business magazine does not mean everyone cares about startups in the Web 2.0 space.

2. Focus on obtaining an online mention versus a print mention: Clearly the total circulation of these publications is individually about a million and readership about 2-3 million. Compare that to the total number of unique visitors on a monthly basis which is anywhere between 3-5 million. Why is this important? An online mention is more easily actionable - they can search and visit your website. In addition if the article provides a link to your website your chances of Search Engine Optimization improves.

3. Learn more about the reporters past writing style, story angle and suggest follow up pieces to previously written articles. The total number of links to articles written by other writers in this publication compared to the number of outgoing links is very high. This means most business reporters are linking to their own pieces instead of referring to other blogs, web sources. The more you can “link” stories they have previously written about to the story you are trying to pitch them, the better chance you have of getting your story written.

What’s worked for you with business press? Have you got a mention? What tip would you suggest?

Iphone app promotion

Iphone developers responded to a survey by App Store HQ blog on the most effective marketing for their applications. Here are some of the results:

• Soliciting user reviews - 2.01 / 7 responses
• Making frequent updates to increase App Store visibility - 2.3 / 10 responses
• Paid PR - rating 3 / 2 responses
• Offering a Lite version - 2.58 / 12 responses
• Submitting to app review blogs - 2.4 / 10 responses

Developers gave 3/3 rating for Paid Public Relations. But more people tried offering a lite version and making frequent updates to the product to increase Apple Store visiblity.

Other quotes:

• “The single most effective one-time sales promotion for one of our apps was an in-house PR campaign… The app was innovative and the story was picked up at wired.com and subsequently at many other leading tech/music online outlets. I had been very careful to put links into the release copy, most of which were pasted into stories intact. This PR blast drove thousands of sales within a few days. But then sales fell off a cliff as the stories fell away from tech blog home pages. We have tried all the other tricks. We find that nothing succeeds like success. Get in the top 10 or top 20 and you’re likely to stay there indefinitely.
• “Our PR team got us placement on tech news sites, which led to articles on Wired.com and BoingBoing the first week of the app’s launch. After that, WOM has led to a remarkably consistent download rate, with small spikes during future press coverage.”

Two things come to mind immediately:

1. Developers (most other folks included) do things that they can control and in their comfort zone - making changes to the application and offering a lite version - they can control.

2. Those that used PR found it to be awesome. But too few people tried PR to get awareness for their applications.

Question for PR folks - If you know the value proposition of what you sell has a GREAT return on investment, how do you go about making sure your customer buys or “tries” your product before they buy?

Integrated Marketing Campaigns

Integrated Media Measurement Inc. did a survey, to understand the viewing habits of people who also surf the Internet at the same time. First some key takeaways:

1. TV watchers spent an average of 9.3% of their time online and simultaneously watching the tube.

2. Among viewers watching broadcast TV, 11% also are surfing the Web. For cable viewers, it’s 8.2%.

3. The survey also found that women, who do the bulk of the shopping, do the most simultaneous viewing.

Most marketers and advertising agencies who are trying to advice clients on an integrated Television and Internet camapaign fail to convince their clients about the ROI in that model.

Agencies found that in addition to the lack of metrics, the biggest impediment to effectively adopting digital media was that key people at a company, including senior management, simply don’t have a deep understanding of digital media.

Compare this to Century 21 Real Estate which has been using social media strategies to make lead generation more efficient.

Its not that the marketers at Century 21 are more “in the know” than others.

“This is very much Century 21 beginning the conversation, and a great forum for a radio talk show, with great queries and a very open conversation for that to be a two-way dialogue,” Ms. Thorne said.

Its about the specific marketing goal they want to achieve and how they measure it.

Finding effectiveness of “engagement” and “share of voice” is difficult.

Reducing cost of lead generation is not.

Its one of those things you’d hope no one does, but you get it anyway. Voicemail. In fact, most “knowledge workers” (read desk job folks), get between 4-5 voicemails daily.

Most early adopters now use Google voice or SimulScribe (PhoneTag) for converting their voicemails into text. These systems use voice recognition software to transcribe voice into text that’s emailed or SMS’ed to the user.

Leaving a voicemail now has some obvious and some not so simple to follow tips:

1. Speak slowly (but not too slow). This is an obvious one, but most people forget that the recognition software is still mostly in “beta”. They have some ways and a few years to go before they can get it to 100% recognition.

2. Clearly mention your name if you have never called the person before.This is absolutely important. Do this part slowly, since most translation software gets the simple names (John, Mike, etc.) right, but the last names wrong. Slow down.

3. Not more than 5 sentences or 45 seconds long.

a) Introduce yourself and your affiliation (if the person does not know you).

b) Ask one question. If you question is for a call back, then make sure you let them know what you want to talk about.

c) End with your phone number (mention it twice, since if you are speaking fast the recognition software might not get it the first time)

4. Dont pause too long between sentences. Or dont be distracted when calling. If you are multi-tasking (i.e checking email, responding to your chat, and leaving a voicemail), stop. Leaving the voicemail will take you 30 seconds. You can afford to do one thing at a time.

5. If you dont have a question: Spell out your email. When I get my Google voice transcribed voicemail, if the person has an email they have mentioned, I can immediately forward them an email with the transcription of their voicemail as an answer to their question.