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With it latest round of investing LinkedIn now has a valuation of about $1,000,000,000. Looks more impressive when you put all the zeroes after it.
It is rare that I go to a networking event that no one mentions LinkedIn. I still find the issue is that many do not know the best ways to use this tool. Now is that because the folks at LinkedIn have not added features that make it more useful (yes) or is it because some folks don’t understand this form of social media (yes) or is it because the tool could be made better(yes)
You win a 100% yes to all of this. It could be more useful with some added features. There should be education easily available on the use of the tool and more comfort about using this type of tool to make connections.
While all are true my feeling is that many folks are using it to obtain connections and I know more than a few who are out to make sure they get over 500 so it looks like 500+ - why I have not been able to tell. If you want to get into my network I need to be comfortable recommending you to someone else - not sure I will ever know 500 folks who I feel that strongly about.
That being said this is a great tool that has tremendous promise - I wish they would roll out a fe more things to be more helpful but they are getting there - how do you use LinkedIn?
Thanks to Richard Burkhardt I remake my commitment to blog more often. I have been involved with an onoing discussion on whether SEO will soon be dead or not. I continue to contend that there are fundamentally two distinct issues that will see SEO continue alive and well for many years to come. Then again who knows what will be happening in the future with our very own wild wild west show - we affectionately call it the Internet. www does not stand for anything but Wild Wild West - my opinion.
First - as long as folks primarily use the Internet as a reference to obtain information - there will continue to be a need for those who help the search result giver (Google or otherwise) learn when your particular site should come up for which relevant searches. The users are the determinators of the terms and the research to determine which terms make the most sense based not only on relevancy but competition and other factors then SEO research zand implementaion will be needed.
Secondly - people, computers, databases will never fully be able to tell my “intent” when I do a search - so once again the relevancy issue and the need for research will be needed.
Keep hearing the buzzwords Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) and want to know what they mean and how you can use them to increase your revenue? “Internet Marketing Beyond SEO and PPC” is a 3 hour program presented by Internet marketing guru Rick Simmons. It will explore the many opportunities available to businesses and nonprofit organizations looking to achieve success via the Internet.
To discover if this program is right for you, see how you answer the following questions:
· Do you get enough traffic to your website?
· Do your website visitors take your desired action?
· Do you know how to use the Internet to increase your ROI?
After “Internet Marketing Beyond SEO and PPC,” you will answer yes to all these and more.
The cost is $30 for Main Line Chamber of Commerce or SMEI members, and $40 for nonmembers. Location: The Main Line Chamber Conference Center
175 Strafford Avenue, Suite 130
Wayne, PA 19087 Date – Wednesday, May 21
8:00 – 8:30 Introductions and Networking
8:30 – 11:30 Main Program
Coffee and light breakfast will be provided.
Hope to see you there!
I must thank my daughter for finding one of the best examples of “they don’t get it” that I have heard about for some time.
My daughter and most of her friends will be going to the concert of the summer and were all ordering tickets online - duh!
All of them came to ask me this question:
How come it costs $2.50 if I want to print my ticket now versus they will send me the tickets in the mail for FREE?
I must admit that at first I thought they must be wrong - this did not make any sense to me at all - still doesn’t.
So the bottom line is that Ticketmaster thinks it it worth $2.50 to allow their loyal subjects to print out right away rather than making someone else print them out then put them in the envelope and send them in the mail paying ever increasing mail rates.
If someone can help me make sense of this one I would love the input - to me the have alienated a group they should be cultivating and part of that is making it easier to buy not harder (or dumber).
Earnings season for the bigs that everyone was looking at has come and gone. What have we learned?
Google continues to lead the pack and for the future will continue to do so - this is not discussable with any of your Google bashers. I have never really understood why - that as soon as there is a clear cut number 1 that the talk turns to - who will knock them off.
Clearly it does not always happen nor is it good for them to lose. It is however tremendous the amount of energy for those trying to do so. It is in those efforts we see the most innovation though not always anything that can unseat the KING.
Many of you may have seen this but I guess I am late to the party - again.
So creative props to him and his group.
And in the category of “It is about time you listened to your customers” WD-40 comes out with a new delivery system
Any company who takes this long to respond to an obvious issue with their customers needs to decide whether they can continue in the 21st century. You need to move faster with better solutions - if you are not surewhat the solutions are - ask your clients or prospects - they will know much faster than you will.
Come on open conversation with your clients they use your “stuff” more than you do and they know better how to change it than you do. Are you set up to listen to them?
On LinkedIn over the weekend an interesting question with even more interesting answers. The question: “What is the best method to distribute a press release? ”
Excerpts from some of the answers:
From a PR professional: ” The best method for distributing press releases would be through snail mail with the option to “opt- out” of it. ”
From a “content maven”: ” I’ve had the most success by contacting relevant online magazines and sites and proposing two or three article ideas.”
From an Internet marketing expert: “I can e-mail to about 500 reporters if the release is within what they are looking for and I often do that selectively and then distribute via PRWeb or PRLeap. If a client is publicly traded I usually use BusinessWire. ”
A marketing strategist: “…the best way to distribute a press release is PERSONALLY.”
Not one of the answers included any discussion on who the target audience is, how do they get information, what is the message, what are your objectives in doing th release in the first place?
If you don’t ask questions first how can you advise someone on the right approach to take? The Internet opens up a whole new wardrobe of possibilities. For some it might be just over the Internet, for others you might need online and offline. The biggest question to ask first - is your message newsworthy? Too many times I see “news releases” with not a whole lot to say just trying to get their name in my face. I don’t have statistics but my guess is that you cause more bad will than you create. It is not that difficult to find something of note. If it is then you need to work harder.
One option not used often enough is the whole notion of optimized press releases you can find a very good explanation of them here.
I have seen tremendous success with these OPR’s. I suggest you do your homework; find the right keywords for the content of the release, learn how to embed back links into the release and pay to have them accepted to 15 - 20 release points. Do you have any stories about using online releases you would like to share ?
Stephan Spencer has a great post over at CNET about making the most of Google’s Universal search(where video, image, news and blog results are displayed along with regular search results instead of being only in their respective specialized search engines.)
What this really means for site owners is that there are new opportunities to gain placement or additional placement in the search engine results pages. By adding a blog, releasing online press releases to authoritative wire services, uploading video to sites like YouTube, and adding a local.google.com listing, businesses increase the chances of having search result listings that may directly or indirectly drive traffic to their sites.
Watching universal search unfold will give site owners a view into where they need to focus their efforts beyond their own site, especially as these types of blended search results continue to make their way across all the engines.
Amen. Now blog posting are more likely to be found in the main search engine, so even Google is treating blogs as mainstream. When are you going to add one to your site?
How do you staying up to date with blogs and websites? Using RSS feeds is a easy method anyone can learn. There’s only so many websites you can visit in one day and web feeds will allow you access more material and knowledge at a more efficient pace. This video by CommonCraft explains it all in a very simple way.
Time to call out a few companies for doing the wrong thing and I see I am not alone. Chris Silver Smith , Barry Schwartz, and Gabriel Goldenberg all agree with me or should I say I agree with them. It is about time the community spoke out more about these charlatans.
Gives the whole industry a bad name. Not to mention idiots like this one, taken from an actual proposal for a new website:
“The site will appear on the first page of each of the three major search engines, Google, Yahoo, and MSN for at least one of the words from the above list as mutually agreed between us within twelve months time of starting work after the website has been published with a domain nam”
What crap. As many have mentioned before - if someone is willing to give a guarantee like the one above you can be assured they will be spending more of their time fulfilling this promise and less time actully helping your business.
Lets say it again - It is not about being number 1. It is not about driving traffic. It is not about a great click thru rate. It is not about many other things typically mentioned by purveyors of our services. It is about the visitor to the website taking appropriate action - as identified and agreed upon by you and your client - period.
If the industry is going to survive we must bring more of these scoundrels to light. If too many potential clients end up with the likes of these they will back off the Internet and not only will many of us Internet marketing professionals feel it but more importantly it will hurt the client.
So the question becomes how do we police ourselves - my approach is for more education to the public - We all need to be out there doing the grunt work. I speak in front of any group that will ahve me because I think it is that important- where have you spoken lately?
