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February 28, 2009

Neglecting Your Blog? Just Tweet!

A new plug-in for Wordpress bloggers will automatically import your recent Twitter and FriendFeed activity to your blog and display it in regular post fashion. Ersatz blog posts will even come embellished with Twit pics and YouTube videos. Read more on Wordpress here.

Posted by staff at 12:41 PM
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In These Current Economic Times, Use Coupons

By Nichole Mrasek

Consumers, predominately women, are looking for online sites to help them save. Rather than reaching for scissors to clip, they’re reaching for their mouse, to click.

Additionally, comScore Media Metrix found that “coupon sites were the fastest-growing online category in November 2008, up 32 percent from October to 35.6 million visitors.”

Coupons Inc. CEO reported that their network of users is 72 percent female, college-educated homeowners with kids at home.

Read more from the eMarketer feature “Coupon Sites Grow at a Fast Clip.”

Posted by staff at 12:27 PM
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February 26, 2009

FDA Launches Widget, Joins Web 2.0

The Food and Drug Administration has a salmonella widget. Exciting? Not really. But if you’re concerned about the latest products included in the nationwide peanut recall, then the FDA has created a very useful tool for safety-minded bloggers. Check out the widget here.

Posted by staff at 12:24 PM
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February 24, 2009

Unappetizing: Yelp Tampers with Online Restaurant Reviews?

By Marian Short

California based newspaper East Bay Express broke the story of allegedly fraudulent practices of Yelp.com, a popular online restaurant review site covering the San Francisco area. Several restaurateurs speaking on condition of anonymity said Yelp sales reps regularly called to inform them about negative reviews readers had posted. What could be done about them?

Well, offered one representative, “We can move them…for $299 a month." Other businesses have reported positive reviews disappearing, - or negative ones appearing - on their restaurant page, after having declined Yelp’s offer to move reviews. East Bay Express reported that several businesses likened Yelp to the mafia.

Yelp officials denied any wrongdoing, though allegations have arisen frequently enough for them to address the situation on their FAQ page. As always, (potentially) bad behavior makes for a juicy story… this item has been dugg over 1,500 times. Read more.

Posted by staff at 11:27 AM
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Are Second Life’s days coming to an end?

By Alicia Dorset

Second Life, the hyped online virtual community, is now presenting itself as an online schoolhouse, according to a post last weekend from Valleywag.

The post notes that two large supporters, Reuters and Wired, have closed up shop in Second Life. Make sure to check out the story for some candid comments on what it was like to do business in a virtual world. View feature here.

Posted by staff at 10:14 AM
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February 21, 2009

Yahoo Introduces “Rich Ads in Search”

By Marian Short

In a bid to reclaim a modicum of search advertising market share from the reigning king, Google, Yahoo is piloting its “Rich Ads in Search” to a select handful of companies, including Pepsi and Home Depot. Drawing on Yahoo’s marketing strength of display ads, the new program will incorporate visuals and video into the text-based realm of paid search advertisements. Naturally Yahoo touted the more visually engaging nature of its Rich Ads, while a Mashable post on the subject announced: “Yahoo returns to its Roots: Annoying Ads.”

The New York Times noted a wide variance in ad performance between text-only and Rich Ads: while Yahoo said click-through rates for some advertisers jumped by up to 25 percent after they adopted search ads with visuals, ad agency Razorfish reported its clients experienced a 5-10 percent jump.
Clients will be charged a monthly fee for Rich Ads, which is a departure from the pay-per-click/pay-per-impressions billing model.

Whether Rich Ads result in more conversions, or merely more visual clutter, it would take a great feat for Yahoo to catch up with Google – their search market shares are 10.5 percent and to 67.7 percent respectively. Read more from the NYT here.

Posted by staff at 12:33 PM
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February 20, 2009

Cleaning Up the Web

By Ann Stofflet

Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are cleaning up the Internet by supporting a new Web standard that will allow millions of publishers to remove duplicate pages from their sites. As a result of the effort, search engines should be able to find and index more Web pages, making their search results more comprehensive.

Many sites, such as e-commerce companies, have multiple URLs pointing to the same page, so the search engines end up indexing the same page multiple times. Some estimate that 20 percent of URLs on the Web are likely duplicates. Google has now made it easy for Web publishers to indicate when a URL is a duplicate, and if so, which should be looked at as the principal (“canonical”) URL for search engine indexing. Yahoo and Microsoft plan to support the same standard.

Read more here.

Posted by staff at 12:19 PM
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February 19, 2009

Portrait of a Twitterer: GenY, Diverse, Urban, Wired

By Laurie Mayers

In December , 11% of online American adults said they had used Twitter or micro blogging services to share information about themselves or to see information about others, according to a new memo from the Pew Internet Project. That was nearly double the number who said they used “Twitter or another micro-blogging service” just seven months earlier.

Pew researcher Amanda Lenhart noted that while Twitter users are young, they aren’t as young as other social networkers: “Indeed, the median age of a Twitter user is 31. In comparison, the median age of a MySpace user is 27, Facebook user is 26 and LinkedIn user is 40.”

She also noted that:

* Twitter users are slightly more racially and ethnically diverse than is the full U.S. population, most likely because they are younger – and younger Americans are a more ethnically and racially diverse group than is the full population.
* Twitter users are also slightly more likely to live in urban areas, with 35% of Twitter users living in urban areas (compared to 29% of all Internet users) and just 9% of Twitterers and status updaters living in rural areas, compared to 17% of Internet users.
* Twitter users are more mobile in their communication and consumption of information. Twitter users and status updaters are a mobile bunch; as a group they are much more likely to be using wireless technologies – laptops, handhelds and cell phones — for Internet access, or cell phones for text messaging.

Twitter users are also more likely to come from lower-income households than high-income households, likely because they are young and young people as a whole make less money than older adults.

More about the Pew report can be found here.

Posted by staff at 12:12 PM
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February 18, 2009

Facebook Terms of Service Irritates Users

By Alicia Dorset

Everyone was talking about Facebook last Friday and it wasn’t good. A recent update to the site’s terms of service stated Facebook can do anything with the content you post on the site (everything from licensing your image to using your spring break photos in an ad campaign), even if you TERMINATE your account. Immediately blogs and Twitter accounts buzzed with unhappy members debating whether or not to terminate their accounts.

Mashable’s Stan Schroeder said it best: “Sure, most users don’t really care (or think they don’t care) about all this, but the idea that you now cannot stop Facebook from using your content should you ever want to is frightening to say the least.” Read more here.

Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg responded to the controversy in a blog post Sunday evening. In his post, Zuckerberg gave a half-hearted explanation of what the new TOS was really all about: “In reality, we wouldn’t share your information in a way you wouldn’t want. The trust you place in us as a safe place to share information is the most important part of what makes Facebook work. Our goal is to build great products and to communicate clearly to help people share more information in this trusted environment.” Full blog post here.

As the debate continued, Zuckerberg posted another entry to the Facebook blog Wednesday morning with an update on the TOS. Until Facebook finds a solution, they’re returning to their previous TOS agreement. Read more about the change back to original guidelines here.

Posted by staff at 12:19 PM
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February 16, 2009

Best Buy Connect

By Ann Stofflet

When Best Buy was looking to humanize its brand and leverage the talent of its nationwide work force using social media, it realized it didn’t have to reinvent the wheel, it just had to create a site that centralized all the content employees were creating because they were passionate about the products Best Buy sold.

Best Buy Connect aggregates employee blogs, Twitter and YouTube accounts in one location and stands as a testament to what thinking differently about social media can do for an organization of any size. Read more on “Aggregating Social Media: Best Buy Connect” here.

Posted by staff at 12:27 PM
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February 15, 2009

The Dangers of Astroturfing

By Ann Stofflet

Last month, a Belkin employee wrote a blog post offering $0.65 to those willing to write positive Belkin reviews on Amazon.com. When people took him up on the offer and started gushing about products they had never used, a blogger exposed the scam.

Of course, the media ran with the story, and the offer was not only taken down from the blog, but the president of Belkin was quick to apologize for the “Astroturfing.” Astroturfing is the naughty marketing practice of companies who orchestrate phony grassroots enthusiasm for products or services, sometimes resulting in a public relations nightmare.

Read the full story here.

Posted by staff at 12:36 PM
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February 14, 2009

Would Marketers Pay for Twitter?

Twitter has indicated that it might start charging companies that use the micro-blogging site for marketing. How will Twitter define “commercial use” and will businesses be willing to pay? Read the full story from TechCrunch here.

Posted by staff at 01:08 PM
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February 13, 2009

Resources for Selling in Social Media to Cynics & Skeptics

By Nichole Mrasek

Interactive Insights Group has an entire bank of helpful articles to drive points for social media inclusion with brands. From “The Top 10 Reasons Brands Should Listen to Social Media” to “Ten Common Objections to Social Media Adoption and How You Can Respond,” these are important resources to justify social media’s impact and ROI for companies.

Top viewpoints include:

* Social media marketing creates brand ambassadors who market for free
* Note that social media is here to stay—the proven effectiveness of social media and consumer dependence on it indicate it is here to stay, and failure to partake will result in missed opportunities (becoming actively involved in social media will give your company a chance to influence what’s being said about your brand, as well as a chance to listen and respond to the current conversation.)
* Step off your enthusiasm about how “cool” all this stuff is and cut straight to the value
* Provide a different take on ROI for social media, gaining perspective on what the return is when social media is ignored

I encourage you to view the full feature and the resourceful articles here.

Posted by staff at 02:31 AM
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February 12, 2009

The Internet is Amazing

This video of the Internet’s humble beginnings back in 1981 will have many reminiscing. Check out reporter Steve Newman’s story about the early experiments with online news delivery, originally broadcast on KRON San Francisco in 1981. View the video here.

Posted by staff at 09:17 AM
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February 11, 2009

Where are you? Google knows.

By Eden Litt

Curious about where your daughter is? Want to know how far away your husband is from home? Can’t find your study group at the library?

Google Latitude has the answer. This new software allows mobile phone users to share their location with friends and family. For those concerned with privacy, users must register online to activate the service, and have the option to share, set or hide their current location.

This technology opens up a whole new set of doors for location-based advertising. Read more about the product and some of its competitors here.

Posted by staff at 09:41 AM
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February 10, 2009

Denny’s Servers Go Down, Awareness Goes Up

By Alicia Dorset

The lines at Denny’s restaurants across the country were long last week, thanks to Tuesday’s Free Grand Slam Day. But, the wait to check out the restaurant chain’s Web site were even longer, according to the L.A. Times, as servers went down along the west coast due that day to the high traffic volumes. While Dennys.com was having problems, Denny’s was a hot search on Google that morning, as well as holding spots one and seven in Twitter’s trending topics. Check out the article here.

Posted by staff at 09:50 AM
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February 08, 2009

When HOPE Turns Virulent

By Eden Litt

In 2006, AP photographer Mannie Garcia snapped a photo of then Senator Barack Obama at the National Press Club.

Two years later, contemporary Shepard Fairey created a hand-drawn Barack Obama portrait—the ‘HOPE’ portrait. This symbol became a critical piece in the 2008 presidential campaign. The web version of the masterpiece went viral, and ended up on blogs, web homepages, Twitter profiles and Facebook photos. A Web site was even created so that people could “Obama icon” themselves.

Flash forward to January 2009, when these two stories intertwine: Fairey notified Garcia that it was his cropped photo of Senator Obama that inspired his iconic drawing. Upon hearing this, the AP - owner of the copyright for Garcia’s photograph - decided they want their piece of the pie. A legal battle ensued. For more on the case, visit here.

Posted by staff at 10:00 AM
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February 07, 2009

Twitter Bowl

New York Times has a detailed timeline of Tweets during the Super Bowl. The map also outlines the locale and frequency of the catch phrases used in big game messages. View the play-by-play here.

Posted by staff at 09:26 AM
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February 06, 2009

Happy Birthday Facebook!

The social network turned five this month. See just how far Facebook has come here.

Posted by staff at 09:23 AM
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February 05, 2009

Year of the Netbook?

With iPhone and BlackBerry dominating the business arena, the Netbook now provides consumers with a lightweight and relatively inexpensive competitive option to smartphones. The Netbook is a laptop designed to excel in Web-based computing performance, and its seven- to 10-inch display is quite portable. If you’re still in the dark about Netbooks check out this great 101 from CNet.

ABI Research has been keeping a pulse on the Netbook trend since its introduction in 2007. Sales have started to rise, as the Netbook represented 12% of all laptop sales in December 2008.

ABI practice director Kevin Burden explains, “Rather than buying a new computer or upgrading to a next-generation smartphone, consumers may opt to find a middle-of-the road solution with a Netbook. While the NPD Group forecasts that Netbook sales will eat into laptop sales, they could also take a bite out of the smartphone market.”

Will this year mark a trend in Netbooks? Read more on what MediaPost has to say on the topic here.

Posted by staff at 12:25 PM
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February 03, 2009

Timelines Take on a Cool Twist

Flowdata has a new, visual approach to plotting a company’s growth. Take a look at how Target stores have expanded since 1962 with this digital chart.

Posted by staff at 12:43 PM
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Social Media Affects Customer Loyalty

Marketing Trends had an interesting post last week about how a company’s presence on social media sites can improve customer loyalty and word-of-mouth promotion. Aaron Strout points to Dell, Sears and Ford as top players in the field. Thanks to their efforts on sites like Twitter, forums and branded social networking sites, customer perception of these well-known brands is drastically changing.

Read more about Strout’s thoughts here.

Posted by staff at 12:40 PM
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CNN Reporter Criticized for Twitter Usage

By Alicia Dorset

CNN’s Rick Sanchez is a big fan of Twitter. As @ricksanchezcnn, he takes to the CNN desk daily at 3 p.m. to bring viewers the news with opinions and questions from Twitter followers. However, when Sanchez went in for arthroscopic knee surgery last week, his use of Twitter all the way to the operating room drew both ridicule and criticism from fellow journalists. Tweets like “Just met anesthesiologist watches show loves twitter she’s young beautiful and about to put me under” left many people wondering if Sanchez should lay off the Twitter when he’s not in the newsroom. See for yourself with this New York Post story.

Posted by staff at 12:17 PM
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February 01, 2009

White House Online Revamp

By Nichole Mrasek

President Barack Obama ushered in his term with an overhaul to WhiteHouse.gov, the official Web site for the White House and the President. To better engage the masses, the new site was designed to focus on communication, transparency and participation.

WhiteHouse.gov, now offers a greater focus on new media and the ability for users to receive current updates from the administration in Washington, D.C.

The Briefing Room: View the President’s latest events and public statements. Check out photos, video, and blogs, as well as proclamations, executive orders, and press releases.

The Agenda: Find out more about the administration’s positions on everything, from health care and the economy, to alternative energy and foreign policy.

Many are buzzing about the blog, although some seem to be scratching their heads over the lack of an open comment function on the blog, or elsewhere. To post a question or comment, users must enter their submissions via a contact page.

"Citizen participation will be a priority for the administration, and the Internet will play an important role in that," the site says. "One significant addition to WhiteHouse.gov reflects a campaign promise from the president: we will publish all non-emergency legislation to the website for five days, and allow the public to review and comment before the president signs it."

Read more “Obama Debuts News WhiteHouse.gov” site from PC World here.

Posted by staff at 12:12 PM
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