Posts Tagged ‘Google’

They Say Imitation Is The Highest Form Of Flattery

Sep
29

Written by: Guest Blogger

Note: The following is a guest post from Desiree Mahr, an intern at Jackson Spalding’s Atlanta office. You can connect with her on Twitter, @DesireeMahr, or read more at her blog, Desiree Writes.

 

“Are social networks losing their distinction?”

That’s the question I asked when I first noticed the new Subscriptions feature on Facebook.

If you aren’t familiar with Subscriptions, here’s a quick rundown from Facebook’s “Introducing the Subscribe Button” page:

  • You now have the option to control what updates appear on your News Feed. “For each person, you could hide all game stories, see just photos, limit updates to life events and more.”
  • You can now pull updates from people who aren’t on your Friend List into your News Feed. “You’ve always been subscribed to friends. Now you can hear from journalists, celebrities, political figures and other people too. Click the Subscribe button on someone’s profile to get their public updates in your News Feed.”
  • You can lock your profile so that others are unable to subscribe to your updates. “Only people who allow subscribers will have a Subscribe button on their profile. If you don’t see the button, you can’t subscribe. Subscribers can see only the things you share publicly.”

 

That sounds familiar, right? In essence, this feature mirrors Twitter. This ZDNet article by Emil Protalinski calls Subscriptions a clear “answer to Twitter,” and I couldn’t agree more. Sure, Subscriptions offers more flexibility since you can select only the most important information from your friends to appear on your News Feed. That isn’t something you can do on Twitter. However, as Protalinski mentions in his article, most users don’t turn to Facebook for a subscription/following experience — they click over to Twitter.

I’m one of those users. If I’m looking for an exclusive, private experience that helps me keep in touch with my friends and family, I turn to Facebook. For a public and more open experience that gives me the opportunity to interact with friends, family, acquaintances and even people I’ve never met, I turn to Twitter.

But now more than ever, it seems like social networks are beginning to offer “more of the same,” whether it’s on a larger scale like Facebook’s Subscriptions or on a smaller scale like Twitter’s Recent Images/User Galleries. Social networks like Facebook and Twitter are not nearly as different from each other as before. And with the launch of Google+ earlier on this summer, it’s obvious that fully integrating some of the most popular social media features into one network is becoming a more appealing option for developers.

But here’s the real question: Is that full integration as appealing to social media users as it is to developers? Or will new features like these alienate a good portion of each social network’s users?

As social media have continued to evolve over time, it’s become apparent that social networks may be losing their distinction. Again, what was only offered by Twitter is now offered by Facebook, and what was only offered by Skype is now offered by Google+. Keep in mind that I’m not saying these scenarios are necessarily negative — some social media users may actually prefer these changes. I’m just pointing out that social networks seem less inclined to stand on their own and stick to their initial unique offerings.

So what will be the end result? Only time will tell.

Until then, let us know what you predict. Do you think social networks are headed in a direction that will cause each to lose its distinction? Do you prefer a more integrated social experience, or do you prefer to use different social networks for different things?

**On another note, check out this free ebook from PR Newswire if you (or a client) are in the beginning stages of learning how to integrate social media into your public relations efforts!**

 

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4 steps to find quality blogs to pitch

Jul
1

Written by: Bryan Long

While leading a recent training session with the marketing team at Chick-fil-A, a client raised his hand and asked what seemed to be a very simple question: How do you find the best blogs?

It seemed simple until I tried to answer it. Well, uh, you search for them. Right?

While it’s not complicated, searching for blogs that are relevant to your business, hobbies, customers or trends requires more thought than that. Any business should think through the process like any other marketing tactic, especially with the intention of building relationships with specific bloggers.

Feeling that I shortchanged my answer in person, and hoping that others may benefit from a more thoughtful answer, I present The Best Way To Find The Best BlogsTM.

There are four simple steps.

Use a blog search engine.

Using a basic Google search can help you find a blog, but it will also generate about 3 million other results that may or may not be relevant. A search for blogs requires a special tool. While there are dozens of websites that claim to search for blogs, there are just three that I recommend:

I’ve seen consistently good results from all three search engines. Many sites that claim to be search engines for blogs are merely RSS scrapers that bring back anything that can be found on feeds, including lots of junk and articles that aren’t safe for work.

Each of the search engines recommended above use a unique algorithm to return relevant and ranked results.

Search like your customers.

Think about your core audience and imagine what terms they may search for today.

Sure, go ahead and search for your products and services, but don’t stop there. What else motivates your customers? What are they searching for when they aren’t eating a Spicy Chicken Sandwich?

You should search for your competitors by name and by product. You may want to search for terms that merely compete for time or mindspace with your customers. If you know that a portion of your fans also likes a non-competing product or service, search for those terms, too.

After repeating multiple searches, you’re likely to find some repetition or a few headlines that stand out from the rest of the pack.

These will guide you as you explore further.

Read the blog, read the About page.

At this point you may be overwhelmed with blogs. It’s time to pan for gold.

Despite the large number of results you’ve seen so far, you’re only looking for one or two blogs now. And quality counts.

Click through the search results to evaluate each site. Does the site make a good first impression? How is the writing? Does the blogger write about topics that interest your customers? Do readers respond in comments? Is there an active Facebook Page or Twitter Feed?

If you don’t like the site as a marketing professional, chances are your customers aren’t spending much time there.

You should beware of automated sites and keyword monsters. Some web publishers create sites to trick search engines for traffic. They will pull RSS feeds from other sites or write articles that read like gibberish. A string of related keywords may fool a robot but it won’t fool human readers.

If first impressions are good, go to the About page and read what the blogger has to say about themselves and their website.

Your goal is to find at least one site that you feel comfortable contacting.

Visit the Blogroll.

Once you’ve discovered that one shining example of a quality blog that may interest your readers, the rest is easy. Find the blogroll on the homepage or visit a page labeled Links. These are the sites that the blogger you’ve  found cares enough about to share with his or her readers. There’s a good chance that you’ll find them useful, too.

After that, treat the blogger as you would any journalist. Give them a call and say how much you like their work. You can honestly say that you’ve been looking for a blog just like theirs.

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Talk of brands always misses two of the biggest

May
19

Written by: Randall Kirsch

Whenever the topic of branding comes up – and it obviously comes up a lot in the marketing communications business – big consumer brands tend to be the default topic. Let’s face it, most people outside our industry don’t understand branding that well. I’m not saying they should, I’m just pointing out that non-marketing people tend to correlate brands with logos or brand names, when brands are much more than that.

That said, pretty much every U.S. consumer would agree that Nike, Google, Amazon, Oprah (and even [shameless plug] JS clients like Delta, Orkin and Chick-fil-A) are brands. But no one inside or outside our industry ever seems to talk about what I would argue are two of the – if not the two – biggest brands in the United States.

Let’s test it. Can you name these two organizations?

Difference and emotion – the twin engines of a great brand

I’ll bet you can do more than name them. I would guess you could outline, at least broadly, what each of the organizations stands for, and more importantly, how they are different from each other. That’s the first and most important element of a good brand – clear difference from the competition.

The other element of a great brand is the set of emotions it conjures up. I think we can all agree that, like all good brands, both parties have invested a lot in stoking strong emotional reactions from us. Raise your hand if you saw otherwise close friends get all bent out of shape at each other during last year’s presidential election cycle (or found yourself getting ticked at friends and family).

Don’t buy it. Apply it.

How does this happen? It’s the power of branding. And I would argue that few if any brands possess even a fraction of the same influence. Can you imagine Nike and Reebok manipulating consumers who actually agree on most things into believing they’re fundamentally different at the core?

Sample argument:

“If you don’t understand why the ‘air’ in the sole matters, you’re obviously a Communist.”

OK, I’ll admit that the political parties have the massive advantage of daily “earned media” coverage to work their magic on us that no other corporate brands can claim. But still.

As the November election cycle winds up to fever pitch in the next few months, let’s respect the power of branding. Let’s watch in awe at how much both parties invest in the two prongs of the branding fork – difference and emotion. And finally, let’s agree not to let it blind us, but instead figure out how to put the same principles to work for our own businesses.

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