The Future of Blogging

This blog has been the result of a class assignment for my Emerging Media course.  I must admit that I’ve learned a great deal from my participation in this course.  Mostly, I’ve learned how blogs work and the impact they can create.  In the past I had considered blogs merely as “online diaries” written by wannabe writers, however, apparently I must be one of these wannabe writers as I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the blogging process. 

One of the things I’ve learned is that for a blog to be successful, one must try and post regularly.  I think that many start blogs and may post for a few weeks but then they lose interest or don’t have the time for frequent posts. Then when someone does stumble upon their blog, the visitor is likely to be disappointed to find the most recent post to be months old. 

When blogging to create interest in a product or service this could be devastating.  What customer is going to have faith in a business who can’t manage to keep their blog fresh and relevant?  It would be better to not have a blog at all than to take that risk.

During this course I’ve also learned the importance of networking through social media sites like Facebook or MySpace.  These sites are attracting more members daily and it looks as if their membership will continue to grow.   Even Oprah has jumped on board hosting Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerburg, for a recent show where all things Facebook were discussed.

I still need to figure out Facebook and MySpace–I guess I’m just a bit leary of posting something that may somehow be used against me!  The things Photoshop can do are amazing!

I think people and businesses will continue to use blogs to express themselves and to build brand relationships.  I do think that the format may change somewhat as technology seems to always be improving on the basics.  Twitter seems to be a blog spin-off in that people are sharing what they’re doing, but in 140 words or less and without the graphics.  I’m sure as digital capabilities continue to evolve, then our methods of communicating whether it be blogs or Twitterspeak will also continue to evolve.  For the IMC practitioner the challenge will be to try and stay as current and up to date as possible.

Marketing through Social Media

There’s been a lot of talk lately about social media.  First a quick definition–see if you agree with it. I like this one as it makes more sense than others I’ve read.  It was written by Joseph Thornley, CEO of Thornley Fallis a full-service communications and public relations firm.

Social media are online communications in which individuals shift fluidly and flexibly between the role of audience and author. To do this, they use social software that enables anyone without knowledge of coding, to post, comment on, share or mash up content and to form communities around shared interests.

Some examples of popular social media sites are on line discussion forums like those available at Weightwatchers.com; networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook and MySpace; and social messaging services like Twitter. 

Chris Crumhas blogged about some ways that businesses around his hometown of Lexington, Ky. have utilized social media–along with suggestions for others to jump on board.  His post can be read here–Real Life Examples: Local Social Media Marketing in Action.  Seeing how businesses are putting social media marketing techniques into use is a great way of gaining an insight into just what can be done with today’s technologies.

 Taking a look at Facebook, I’m amazed at its continued growth.  Facebook has now outpaced MySpace with a registered user base of over 180 million.  Smart businesses can use this huge community to their advantage by using just a few simple ideas.  One thing a business can do is to watch what people are saying about your business and use that to build and improve on your brand’s reputation.  By having a Facebook presence your company will increase brand awareness and chances for interacting with customers.  Facebook also has many ways of targeting ads through user profile information.  Because people can opt in to be your friend, you can target messages specifically to those who have already shown an interest in your business.

Minorities and Marketing, OK or not?

Recently we have been discussing marketing to minorities and whether or not that is truly an ethical thing to do.  First off, what is a minority?  Definitions can be somewhat ambivilant on what should be considered a minority.  According to the federal government a minority is basically  anyone who is not white–i.e. Blacks, Hispanics, Latinos, Asians,  American Indians, etc.  This definition refers then to ethnic differences.  What about those who are in same sex relationships?  Would they be considered a minority group?  And what about little people?  I ask because I just saw a television commercial starring a “little person” that was advertising Burger King Burger Shots.  It actually occurred to me to wonder if this was a politically correct thing for Burger King to do.

We seem to be always wondering if we’re offending someone–whether it’s little people, African-Americans, American Indians, people with pink hair and nose rings–where does it stop?  How does today’s marketing professional avoid accidentally stereotyping a minority?  Probably the best way of avoiding a faux pas when it comes to minorities and marketing is to ask the opinions of either a focus group or a consultant before any campaign is initiated.  By doing this  if there is some overlooked offense, it can be corrected before a costly and probably unforgettable, error is made.   Check out these ads from the past–what trouble these would cause today!

Here’s an old TV commercial that would never make it in today’s politically correct culture.

This 2006 ad shows just how hard it is to be politically correct these days.

Just what is New Media?

This semester my class has revolved around types of new media and how IMC (integrated marketing communications) can use these media to connect with consumers.  But what exactly is new media?  A simple definition is that new media is a general term for all forms of communication that are a result of the use of computer technologies.  This is contrary to old media which is represented by print, magazines and any other communications that are static in their presentation.  The main identifying element of new media is that it has the capability of being interactive.  So what are some examples of new media?  Here’s a few of the more popular, but of course, this list grows almost daily. 

Web sites

streaming audio and video

chat rooms

e-mail

online communities

Web advertising

DVD and CD-ROM media

virtual reality environments

integration of digital data with the telephone, such as Internet telephony

digital cameras

mobile computing

Naturally, all of these new technologies have put a serious crimp in the print business.  I’ve posted before about the demise of the newspaper business and it doesn’t seem like its going to get any better.

 So of these, which is the most important to those who practice IMC?  The actual question is which of these is of no value to IMC practitioners?  The answer is none.  All of these methods of communication are important and useful to interact and build a relationship with consumers.  As more and more become plugged in and logged on, the importance of staying digitally fresh and up to date becomes apparent. 

The most valued consumer relationship is one that is interactive.  This means that the consumer knows they can communicate with a business and be heard.  Whether this is through a corporate blog where consumers can post their product opinions or through twittering with representatives of Barack Obama, people want to interact and they want to do it digitally.

Continuing to Chum

After my last post, I realized I hadn’t delved into the many other ways to increase blog traffic.  Besides the contest angle, some of the other ways to attract visitors to your blog include posting regularly.  And of course, if you are a witty, inventive writer all the better.  By posting regularly and passionately you are more likely to have regulars who will return again and again to hear what you’re saying.  However, if they’ve visited once and then a week later, visit again only to find no updates, then they’ll be disappointed and not likely to return.

You can also discuss controversial issues.  Nothing stirs up interest like a good controversy. When the following cartoon appeared in the New York Post, bloggers everywhere found excellent blog fodder.

 

Inviting guest speakers to post on your blog is another excellent way of increasing traffic.  For example, if your blog is a place where you discuss trends in make up, inviting a professional make up artist to blog about a new technique should inspire those with similar interests to stop by and visit.  This works best when you and the guest blogger post about the upcoming visit.  Then, those who have never heard of you but do follow your guest speaker will be led to your blog and become enamoured with your witty writing skills.

Another skill you need to develop when trying to increase blog traffic is that of creating a visually attractive post.  It is absolutely necessary to include pictures, charts, bullets, color etc. to keep your blog visually appealing.

This fascinating tip from SEOmoz on the importance of brand building with your blog

Possibly one of the most important aspects of all in blogging is brand-building. As Zefrank noted, to be a great brand, you need to be a brand that people want to associate themselves with and a brand that people feel they derive value from being a member. Exclusivity, insider jokes, emails with regulars, the occasional cat post and references to your previous experiences can be off putting for new readers, but they’re solid gold for keeping your loyal base feeling good about their brand experience with you. Be careful to stick to your brand – once you have a definition that people like and are comfortable with, it’s very hard to break that mold without severe repercussions. If you’re building a new blog, or building a low-traffic one, I highly recommend writing down the goals of your brand and the attributes of its identity to help remind you as you write.

Another important factor to remember when trying to increase traffic, is to write simple, but catchy title tags so that those who subscribe to your blog will be curious but not overwhelmed. Making sure to use the right tag words both in your title and throughout your blog is essential for search engines to find you, also.  Running your title through a couple of search engines may help you find a way to improve your wording in order to receive more hits.

The top things to remember when encouraging blog visits would be to keep it simple, witty, visually interesting, tag worthy, interesting (through contest, guest bloggers, etc) and mostly remember to write passionately.

Blah, Blah, Blah, Blog! or how to chum them in.

There are sure alot of blogs out in cyber world now.   But do you know what a blog is?  I know some people don’t because when I tell them I’m writing a blog, they ask what in the world is a blog and why am I writing one.  My quickest explanation is that a blog is an online diary where you write whatever happens to be on your mind and then invite others to read your thoughts and post comments.  For some, this is a matter of self-expression–the need to write down and share their thoughts on anything from daily homesteading activites to political ramblings and ravings.  For others, writing a blog is part of their effort to further their brand’s recognition and awareness.  Many corporate blogs are designed for this purpose.  And there are some that are really good at getting their message across without sounding like they’re trying to shove advertising down your throat.  I’ve written about corporate blogs before and I still feel that two of the best are Dell’s and Kodak’s.

What is apparent about these two blogs is the passion for the products the bloggers are discussing.  They are not just raving about computers or cameras, they are sharing their interests and product expectations with others who do the same.  Because their products encourage lots of consumer interest, drawing these folks into reading the blogs and commenting is fairly easy.  However, what do you do when you have a product that doesn’t necessary have a huge following yet?  Or how do you encourage communication with those people who may be interested in what you have to say about your product?  In other words, how do you chum in readers to your blog?

I like to read–alot.  Some of my favorite authors have created blogs to discuss what they are currently working on.  This helps to create interest for their upcoming books and hopefully aid in sales.  Some of the ways that these authors encourage readers to visit again and again is to hold contests.  One of my favorite authors, Gena Showalter, not only posts regularly on her blog  (also a way to chum in visitors), but she routinely holds contests for her readers to win books.  And what serious reader doesn’t want to win a book?  When looking at ways to increase traffic to my blog, I posted on two forums where I’m a regular visitor, Backyardchickens.com and Paperbackswap.com.  I asked for people to visit and comment on my blog and at the end of 3 weeks I would choose a prize winner.  For backyardchickens.com visitors I offered either $15 to be used in the BYC store or a $15 Amazon gift card.  For Paperbackswap.com I offered a choice of several popular hardback books, $15 Amazon gift card or 4 credits to be used at PBS.  Both of these posts led to many new visitors to my blog.  The amount of traffic increased tremendously with some  very nice comments made.  Just check out the stats below.  You can easily see how much the traffic jumped in response to my posts announcing my contest.

PPC, Google AdWords and Frog Feeders

I’ve got my product, my web site and my keywords.  Now how to use them to drive the most business in my direction?  One way to go is to advertise by using Google’s AdWords service.   Adwords is Google’s money-making service that ties together your keywords with your advertisement.  So if you’ve got your keywords linked with AdWords, then each time someone searches using those keywords, your advertising link will appear in the search results.  You will only pay, though, when someone actually clicks on your link.  Mostly.

It is a bit more involved than this, really.  Where you show up on the list has a lot to do with how much you “bid” on popular keywords, how your web site is linked from other sites and even on how old your domain name is.  Some pay per click is flat rate, too.  Here’s a quick definition of the difference between bid based and flat rate from Google’s own Wikipedia.

There are two primary models for determining cost per click: flat-rate and bid-based. In both cases the advertiser must consider the potential value of a click from a given source. This value is based on the type of individual the advertiser is expecting to receive as a visitor to his or her website, and what the advertiser can gain from that visit, usually revenue, both in the short term as well as in the long term. As with other forms of advertising targeting is key, and factors that often play into PPC campaigns include the target’s interest (often defined by a search term they have entered into search engine, or the content of a page that they are browsing), intent (e.g. to purchase or not), location (for geo targeting), and the day and time that they are browsing.

So the trick is to figure out the best use of these techniques to make my product show up in enough searches to keep my business going.  Naturally the best way to do this is by simply keeping very good records of the number of hits you receive using one method or another.  Also, experimenting with the way your keywords are phrased could also lead to different search results.  Google your own keywords and see what the results are and then tweak to improve.  Keep tweaking and updating to encourage those visitors that will bring in the bucks.

Frog Feeders for sale, now how will Google find me?

I’ve always had this goofy idea of creating some kind of product that fills a need where no other product can.  I’ve come up with the idea of a frog feeder.  Now don’t laugh and don’t rip off my idea!   I’m sure you’ve seen on the gardening and DIY shows how popular water gardening has become.  Nearly every home shown now has a water feature.  When I built my water garden several years ago we soon found that one of the most enjoyable creatures to visit were frogs.  Since we spent so much time working around the pond, these frogs got used to us and we eventually had them eating  worms right from our hands.

Now most frogs won’t do this, so I thought why not invent a frog feeder?  I knew I could toss worms onto lily pads where most of the time the frogs would see them, but occasionally the worms would slide into the water and end up as fish food.  What a waste of worm!   I decided that a floating platform with shallow sides would be a perfect frog feeder. Make it colorful and landscape friendly and voila!  The product you never thought you needed!   Now that I have my great idea, I need to know how to market my frog feeder on my web site.

One of the first things one needs to do when going online with their business venture is  to make their web site  search-engine friendly.  This is referred to as search engine optimization or SEO and means that you want your web site to rank high in the list of returns when a search is performed.   An article  from Allbusiness.com offers these tips to get started–

* Links from other sites: Search engine spiders move from site to site across the Internet by following hyperlinks. The more high quality and high trafficked sites you have pointing to your site, the more important the search engine will think you are. Make sure to register your site with directories such as Yahoo and the Open Directory Project.
* Internal links: Make sure your site is well-organized and easy to navigate. A site map will help visitors – and spiders – navigate your site.

* Meta tags: Meta tags are hidden HTML directions for Web browsers or search engines. They include important information such as the title of each page, relevant keywords describing site content, and the description of the site that shows up when a search engine returns a search. Make sure your meta tags accurately describe your content.
* Keywords: Consider likely words or phrases that users might type into search engines to find your site. Make sure your content contains those words or phrases, and include them in your title portions of your site and in relevant content.

I think for a start that a web site should very carefully prepare any copy used to make sure that they have used keywords that will lead search engines to the site.  So for Frog Feeders, Inc. the web site copy should contain words that are relevant to Frog Feeders–like frogs, feeders, worms, water gardens, ponds, hobby, fun, etc.  Using these words effectively within the web site’s copy will lead more people to the site.  Some may come for pond information and discover that they really need a frog feeder!  And that’s what we want!

GOOGLE GETS PAID?

The topic in my  new media class this week was search engines and advertising by using web search services like Google, Yahoo or Ask.   Some were surprised that search engine sites  get paid to place search results at the top of the list.   As part of our research for this topic, we were to read an article from 2002 titled Straight Story Search Engines by Laurianne Mclaughlin about search engines and advertising.  I have to admit, I really can’t remember what Google looked like in 2002 or if I could tell the sponsored ad results from those considered “real.“

It seems very easy now to identify search engine results as being either paid for or real.  Google identifies sponsored ads by highlighting and isolating paid results on the right side of the page.  Yahoo.com includes actual shopping results when an item such as digital cameras is queried.  When searching for digital cameras on Ask.com the top of the page yields Amazon.com search results for digital cameras.  Obviously these are sponsored links.

So the question is:  Did you know that advertisers pay to have their products placed strategically in search result lists?  Do you think there is anything wrong with that?

I don’t see anything wrong with sponsored links–as a matter of fact, if I’m researching an item like digital cameras, I want the top results to also include links to places I can buy a digital camera.  That way my comparison shopping is easier and I know that these companies are up to date enough to understand the importance of marketing well in this digital era.

 

Web Site Pizazz

We all visit web sites;  most of us on a daily basis.  So what makes one web site stand out over another?  Why do we continue to go back to one site rather than another?  I think that most of us visit some web sites again and again because they deal with a subject we’re interested in.  Maybe this subject is rare or unique and so the web sites where the topic is discussed are limited.

An example of this would be the Backyard Chickens web site that I visit almost daily.  Backyardchickens.com has taken a subject that is specific in its focus and has created a very active, interesting and informative site where people can meet, buy, sell and chat anything poultry related.  While there are other sites that also deal with keeping poultry, Backyardchickens.com, (BYC) is the most active and most visited.

From BYC’s “About Us” page

The site was originally just a simple chicken coop design . Over time more useful information was added. With more chicken information came more site visitors, some of which submitted their own coop designs.

As the content grew so did visits to the site and with visitors came questions… lots of questions. Everything from hatching eggs to how to raise chickens. We tried to answer as many questions as we could by adding information to the site but we realized there were too many different variables to create content for every situation. So, back in 2000 we started the first BYC Chicken Message Board. Over the years this forum has grown, moved, changed and moved again. Fortunately even when the forum had some very significant changes and moves (servers, software, etc.) the community has remained strong. At the time of updating this page, January 2009, we’ve got a vibrant community of more than 20,000 chicken owners who add about 4,000 new posts per DAY (on average 3 new posts every minute of every day)!

That’s an incredible record for such a niche subject area.  So why is BYC more popular than some of the other poultry sites?  From a personal point of view, I would say that the people behind BYC have been diligent in creating a place for poultry enthusiasts to share information, ideas and resources in a family friendly atmosphere.  They step in and edit posts when needed but primarily allow the BYC family to monitor themselves.  People that visit this forum to ask questions are provided the answers or are guided to the right place to find their answer.  Many share new ideas, equipment sources and daily life stories with their fellow BYCers.  I posted that I wanted some pictures to use in this post and within just a few moments, my BYC buddies have shared some great shots.  Here’s a few pictures of the kinds of things you’ll see on BYC.

This from Wifezilla:

Who can resit a baby duck?

And this from Bil who shared his picture comparison of day old chicks to week old.

This little peeper is being shared with us by Miss_Jayne.

And how’s this for paying the rent?  Look at those eggs!–from Steve

An example of what you can learn at BYC–how to help a struggling chick to complete their hatch.  (from Hangin wit my peeps!)  See how the chick is still wrapped in the membrane.

Here’s that same chick!

And this picture shows how our feathered friends tend to look out for each other.  What a sweet picture!  And did you catch those names!  (credit goes to BYC member “Hangin wit my peeps”!)

BYC has also managed to keep their advertisers consistent with the theme of the website.  It is unobtrusive, not irritating and is marketing those products that poultry fanciers are interested in learning about.  The web site is easy to navigate with links that work and justifable pages.  In other words, any additional pages on the web site are all warranted.  Some web sites seem to have additional pages that are nothing more than a re-do of another page.  BYC includes only those pages necessary for an informative, easy to navigate, user friendly interface.

When looking at some of BYC’s competition, I find that while the sites don’t pull me in like BYC, they do offer the same types of information.  Why is it then that I prefer one over another?  I choose BYC because of the layout, design, colors, easy navigation and overall friendly feeling I get when visiting.  The bright colors and simple animations are appealing and the navigation bars are set up well.  The pages are not overloaded with animations and are consistent throughout the site.

So what makes a site truly bad?  I visited webpagesthatsuck.com to find out.  (Yes, that’s really the name of the site!)

What the top five winners (losers) from 2008 have in common is an insane amount of color!   Color and animations and so much minutia it almost makes your head hurt!  Check out this example http://www.havenworks.com/

and this one

http://www.fabricland.co.uk/

I think when creating a web presence they should really test it on a focus group of some kind before unleashing it on the public.  I just don’t see how Fabric Land has earned any profit from that web site.

What do you think is needed to make a web site attractive and inviting?  Do you have a favorite site that you return to again and again?