Fresh Chat

Wondering how much you know about social media? well find out here.

It is the Business Week Social Media Quiz - and Good Luck!

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/05/0515_socialmedia_quiz/index_01.htm

Far be it for me to suggest that Rupert Murdoch has thrown a tanty over Facebook toppling his own MySpace as the leading social networking site, but comments from the media supremo that Facebook is simply the “flavour of the month” and little more than a “directory” seem to reflect more sour grapes than reality. While there is undoubtedly an element of Facebook being the newer and more popular kid on the block since opening up beyond university networks a little while ago, I think it’s also more the case that the site simply looks better than MySpace. I can’t think of a single businessperson I know, for example, who uses MySpace to promote themselves. When I think of Facebook, meanwhile, I can think of dozens upon dozens of people I know who promote themselves and/or their businesses with the tool. Facebook wins its users by appealing to school-age children through to the elderly through its sheer simplicity, while MySpace seems to rapidly lose touch with people beyond the age of 20 who have gotten over the need to be imaginary best friends with their favourite band and who desire an entry for themselves on the Internet that doesn’t look like it was put together by someone with absolutely no sense of design.

An old boss of mine - a senior and visionary advertising type - said that the average consumer is bombarded by 3,000 messages a day.  The point was that to stand out from the clutter you need to do or say something special, or different or in an unexpected way.

Fast forward ten years,  today we spoke with a client about people becoming overwhelmed with social network chatter.  A colleague now tweets less to spend more time in nature.

So I googled ‘social network fatigue’ on a whim and saw lots on it last year, with this one from the Communication Overtones blog: [Read more →]

A US pest control company showed how choosing a cause with a natural link to the company’s products can make marketing sense and create extra opportunities for leverage.   

Recently Orkin Pest Control launched a cause campaign, ‘Fight the Bite’, with a goal of raising $100,000 for 10,000 insecticide-treated mosquito nets for use in Africa.

Orkin partnered with the United Nations Foundation and the Centers for Disease Control on the project, which seeks to cut down on the number of malaria-related deaths in Africa.

The idea came out of a brain-storming session after Orkin’s Chairman had challenged staff to come up with a big idea.

The five-month campaign is targeting consumers with a Web site (nets.orkin.com), an e-mail blast, and city tours in conjunction with the UN’s sister campaign, Nothing but Nets.

It also promoted the campaign at World Malaria Day in New York April 25. Customers can contribute $10 online to help purchase a net and teach its recipient how to effectively use it. Additionally, Orkin committed to donating one net for every mosquito service it sells this season.

Orkin internal campaign launch included a closed-circuit television announcement, an event at the company’s headquarters in Atlanta, and a special section on their intranet for employees.

Source: www.prweekus.com

Google recently undertook another of its regular major algorithm updates. This means it has made changes and modifications to the criteria by which it evaluates and ranks material.

As normally happens when such changes are made, it can have the temporary effect of throwing havoc into the marketplace resulting in rankings on search engines suddenly changing. 

This means that keywords that were working fine one week may not work at all the next. Some US commentators reported that for those organisations using SEM (i.e. buying ad words) traffic dropped by as much as 75 percent for a period, which in turn impacted on the revenue they were able to generate through web-based selling.

As the Google algorithm is secret, and Google never makes comment on this subject, market observers have been left speculating why the changes are being made and what they mean. Is some form of SEO or SEM being punished?  Will new types of content rank better in Google in the future?

The answer is that no-one knows.  The best advice is to sit-tight for a period of a few weeks while the changes work their way through the system. Then go back in and re-examine all keyword strategies to see if they will still be effective.

Should you blog or should you not?  How to do you address the issue of getting into blogging? These are questions that are taxing the minds of communicators and marketers.

However, theory is one thing. What’s often most helpful is to see what others are doing and how they are doing it.

That’s why this link, to a wiki which enables you from the one source to view all (or most) of the blogs being run by Fortune 500 companies, is worth a look if you are serious about blogging.

The list includes Starbucks, Yahoo, Coca-Cola and many more.

http://www.socialtext.net/bizblogs/index.cgi?fortune_500_business_blogging_wiki

We all love lists and this week we were thrilled to find we made the Top 50 Australian Marketing Blogs.

The list has been put together by Julian Cole from Adspace Pioneers using collated data from the following rankings:

• Google PageRank
• Technorati Authority
• Technorati Blog Reactions
• Alexa Traffic Rank
• Bloglines
• Pioneers Score

								Total
1	Banner Blog	6	6	8	6	8	9	43
2	Servant of Chaos	9	5	8	6	6	5	39
3	Duncans Tv Adland	6	5	7	6	8	5	37
4	Corporate Engagement	8	5	5	4	5	8	35
5	Better Communication Results	8	3	6	5	6	6	34
6	Young PR	7	5	6	5	5	6	34
7	Small Business Branding	7	3	0	8	7	8	33
8	Get Shouty	8	5	7	5	4	4	33
9	Personlize Media	8	5	4	4	4	5	30
10	Brand DNA	6	4	6	5	5	4	30
11	PR Disasters	7	5	4	4	4	5	29
12	Ettf.net	6	5	5	4	4	3	27
13	Oneplusoneequalsthree	5	3	5	4	5	5	27
14	Business of Marketing & Branding	6	5	6	4	4	1	26
15	Media Hunter	7	2	6	4	3	3	25
16	Australian SEO Blog	4	4	5	4	6	1	24
17	Wide Open Spaces	8	5	4	3	3	1	24
18	The Marketer	7	3	6	4	3	0	23
19	Three Billion	6	4	0	4	4	5	23
20	Innovation Feeder	6	5	3	3	3	2	22
21	Campaign Brief	6	4	0	3	5	3	21
22	EcioLab	7	5	2	3	3	0	20
23	Adspace-Pioneers	7	3	3	3	2	2	20
24	Publicity Queen	8	4	1	1	2	3	19
25	Filter Media	6	4	0	2	3	3	18
26	Marketing Easy	6	3	0	3	5	1	18
27	Hothouse	6	4	1	2	4	1	18
28	Mark Neely’s Blog	7	3	2	2	3	0	17
29	Lexy Klain	7	3	1	3	2	1	17
30	Peter Sheahan	6	4	0	1	4	2	17
31	In my atmosphere	6	4	0	3	2	1	16
32	Elbow Grease	4	4	0	3	2	3	16
33	Falkayn	5	4	2	0	2	1	14
34	Pigs Don’t Fly	6	4	1	1	2	0	14
35	Diffusion	7	4	0	1	1	1	14
36	Australian Small Business	6	3	0	0	4	0	13
37	The Jason Recliner	4	4	1	2	1	1	13
38	The Wayfarer	7	3	0	1	1	1	13
39	Adnotes	6	3	1	1	2	0	13
40	Ryan’s View	6	4	0	2	1	0	13
41	B&T	7	4	0	1	1	0	13
42	Zero Budget Marketing Ideas	6	3	1	1	1	0	12
43	Blackwatch	5	3	0	0	0	3	11
44	Fresh Chat	5	2	1	1	1	1	11
45	Latin Ocean	5	2	1	1	1	1	11
46	Arrow Internet SEO	7	2	0	0	1	1	11
47	The Sticky Report	7	0	1	2	0	0	10
48	Naked Communications-The Flasher	8	0	0	1	0	1	10
49	Pixel Paddock	5	1	0	1	0	1	8
50	Send up a larger room	7	0	0	1	0	0	8

View more information on the methodology here

This weekend, I’ll tune into bloggers and video from around the world in the global phenomena known as Pangea Day.

If you are interested in amazing stories that you would never see or hear otherwise it’s: http://www.pangeaday.org  What an exciting time we live in! 

Ten years ago a book called The Cluetrain Manifesto was written by, Chris Locke, Rick Levine, Doc Searls, and David Weinberger.

They challenged what we knew about marketing.

At the time I read the Manifesto I had no idea it would transform the industry, the roles within it and the skillset but more importantly mindset it required.

Of the 95 Theses they wrote I have selected 10 of my favourites:

1. Markets are conversations.

2. The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media.

3. There are no secrets. The networked market knows more than companies do about their own products. And whether the news is good or bad, they tell everyone

4.Corporations do not speak in the same voice as these new networked conversations. To their intended online audiences, companies sound hollow, flat, literally inhuman

5.Companies can now communicate with their markets directly. If they blow it, it could be their last chance.

6.Companies attempting to “position” themselves need to take a position. Optimally, it should relate to something their market actually cares about.

7.Elvis said it best: “We can’t go on together with suspicious minds.”

8.The community of discourse is the market.

9.There are two conversations going on. One inside the company. One with the market.

10.We want access to your corporate information, to your plans and strategies, your best thinking, your genuine knowledge. We will not settle for the 4-color brochure,
for web sites chock-a-block with eye candy but lacking any substance.

What is your favourite Theses?

At Network PR we love innovation.

With that in mind we bring you the Sneaker Vending Machine.
Onitsuka Tiger has launched the world’s first sneaker vending machine and placed it in
Carnaby Street, London.

The machine can vend 24 pairs in 6 sizes and its rollout is expected across the UK

Hat tip to  Scott Goodson