Welcome to episode #151 of Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast. This is also Media Hacks #7 featuring C.C. Chapman and Hugh McGuire. Lots of great chatting about the new media, the old media and everything in between. It includes lots of discussion about marketing, advertising, publishing and some ideas about the future of media. Enjoy the conversation...

Here it is: Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast - Episode #151 - Host: Mitch Joel.

• Running time: 47:57.
• Audio comment line - please send in a comment and add your voice to the audio community: +1 206-666-6056.
• Please send in questions, comments, suggestions - mitch@twistimage.com.
• Hello from Beautiful Montreal.
• Subscribe over at iTunes.
• Please visit and leave comments on the Blog - Six Pixels of Separation.
• Feel free to connect to me directly on Facebook here: Mitch Joel on Facebook.
• or you can connect on LinkedIn.
• ...or on twitter.
• Facebook Group - Six Pixels of Separation Podcast Society.
• In a perfect world, connect with me, directly, through Facebook.
• BookCamp Toronto – June 6th, 2009 – MaRS Discovery District.
• The Road to Six Pixels of Separation – The Book – coming soon.
• Media Hacks – episode #7 featuring: 
• C.C. Chapman – Managing The Gray – Advance Guard.
• Hugh McGuire – LibriVox – The Book Oven.
• Not present:
• Chris Brogan – New Marketing Labs - Co-author of Trust Agents.
• Christopher S. Penn – The Financial Aid Podcast – Marketing Over Coffee.
• Julien Smith – In Over Your Head – Co-author of Trust Agents.
• Arianna Huffington on Charlie Rose: A conversation about print journalism in the digital age.
• Google and Universal Music launch Vevo: UMG, Google Team for Exclusive Music Site VEVO: MediaBytes with Shelly Palmer April 10, 2009.
• Can anyone really outgoogle Google?
• The power of good Journalism.
• Chris Brogan having to put a disclaimer on his GM Blog posts.
• The fishbowl is just yelling at one another.
• Transparency and authenticity when none of us trust any of us (sadly).
• CBSSports.com streamed more than 8.6 million hours of college basketball during March Madness.
• Why can't media companies make money in online advertising?
• Is this trading analog dollars for digital pennies?
• The tools, platforms and media are still evolving.
• Where does Citizen Journalism and Hyper-Local news fit in?
• American Journalism Review – The Morton Plan (courtesy of Jay Rosen via Twitter).
• The Borderless Media.
• Talk about innovation and transformation.
• Music:
• David Usher – 'Kill The Lights'.

Please join the conversation by sending in questions, feedback and ways to improve Six Pixels Of Separation. Please let me know what you think or leave an audio comment at: +1 206-666-6056.

Download the Podcast here: Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast - Episode #151 - Host: Mitch Joel.

Tags: advance guard advertising american journalism review arianna huffington blog blogging book oven bookcamp bookcamp toronto cbs sports cc chapman charlie rose chris brogan christopher s penn citizen journalism digital marketing facebook facebook group financial aid podcast huffington post hugh mcguire hyper local news in over your head itunes jay rosen julien smith librivox managing the gray marketing marketing over coffee mars discovery district media media hacks mediabytes new marketing labs online social network podcast podcasting shelly palmer six pixels of separation social media marketing trust agents twist image twitter universal music vevo web 20

Welcome to episode #150 of Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast. This is the ramblings of a lunatic and passionate marketing guy. I did not get the chance to record on my usual Sunday evening, so I suspect that things were brewing in my dreams last night. Here's an attempt to demonstrate how traditional conferences, unconferences, Twitter and Kevin Pollak create a new media landscape that all of us need to be experimenting a whole lot more with. Enjoy the conversation...

Here it is: Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast - Episode #150 - Host: Mitch Joel.

• Running time: 36:14.
• Audio comment line - please send in a comment and add your voice to the audio community: +1 206-666-6056.
• Please send in questions, comments, suggestions - mitch@twistimage.com.
• Hello from Beautiful Montreal.
• Subscribe over at iTunes.
• Please visit and leave comments on the Blog - Six Pixels of Separation.
• Feel free to connect to me directly on Facebook here: Mitch Joel on Facebook.
• or you can connect on LinkedIn.
• ...or on twitter.
• Facebook Group - Six Pixels of Separation Podcast Society.
• In a perfect world, connect with me, directly, through Facebook.
• BookCamp Toronto – June 6th, 2009 – MaRS Discovery District.
• The Road to Six Pixels of Separation – The Book – coming soon.
• Media Hacks – coming next week and featuring: 
• Chris Brogan – New Marketing Labs - Co-author of Trust Agents.
• C.C. Chapman – Managing The Gray – Advance Guard.
• Christopher S. Penn – The Financial Aid Podcast – Marketing Over Coffee.
• Hugh McGuire – LibriVox – The Book Oven.
• Julien Smith – In Over Your Head – Co-author of Trust Agents.
• eMetrics conference.
• Kevin Pollak – on Twitter and his own Podcast.
• Audio Comment – Brent The Closet Geek.
• FriendFeed and Serendipity.
• Audio Comment – Kevin Behringer – Fly Over Marketing.
• Twitter Squatting.
• Six Points of Separation – How Small And Medium-sized Business Can Benefit From Social Media:
• 1. Movement.
• 2. Impenetrable niche.
• 3. Connect in ways big business can’t.
• 4. Create content in the form of text, audio, video and/or images.
• 5. Respond in a cheap and effective manner.
• 6. Have that content live on – tribal knowledge.
• Music from Mark Blevis – Podcasters Across Borders:
• Robert Farrell – ‘Do You Want Me To’.

Please join the conversation by sending in questions, feedback and ways to improve Six Pixels Of Separation. Please let me know what you think or leave an audio comment at: +1 206-666-6056.

Download the Podcast here: Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast - Episode #150 - Host: Mitch Joel.

Tags: advance guard advertising blog blogging book oven bookcamp bookcamp toronto brent the closet geek cc chapman chris brogan christopher s penn digital marketing emetrics facebook facebook group financial aid podcast fly over marketing friendfeed hugh mcguire in over your head itunes julien smith kevin behringer kevin pollak librivox managing the gray mark blevis marketing marketing over coffee mars discovery district media hacks new marketing labs online social network podcast podcasters across borders podcasting robert farrell six pixels of separation social media marketing trust agents twist image twitter twitter squatting unconference web 20

Welcome to episode #152 of Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast. This could well be one of the most energized conversations about Digital Marketing I've had in ages. Avinash Kaushik (Analytics Evangelist, Google) and I were both in Orland for the Aquent CRE8 Summit this past week. We had our own little Social Media Breakfast and this is the result. Imagine, all of this and they didn't even have Red Bull for Avinash. Enjoy the conversation...

Here it is: Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast - Episode #152 - Host: Mitch Joel.

• Running time: 35:28.
• Audio comment line - please send in a comment and add your voice to the audio community: +1 206-666-6056.
• Please send in questions, comments, suggestions - mitch@twistimage.com.
• Hello from Beautiful Orlando.
• Subscribe over at iTunes.
• Please visit and leave comments on the Blog - Six Pixels of Separation.
• Feel free to connect to me directly on Facebook here: Mitch Joel on Facebook.
• or you can connect on LinkedIn.
• ...or on twitter.
• Facebook Group - Six Pixels of Separation Podcast Society.
• In a perfect world, connect with me, directly, through Facebook.
• BookCamp Toronto – June 6th, 2009 – MaRS Discovery District.
• The Road to Six Pixels of Separation – The Book – coming soon.
• Media Hacks – new episode coming soon featuring: 
• Chris Brogan – New Marketing Labs - Co-author of Trust Agents.
• C.C. Chapman – Managing The Gray – Advance Guard.
• Hugh McGuire – LibriVox – The Book Oven.
• Christopher S. Penn – The Financial Aid Podcast – Marketing Over Coffee.
• Julien Smith – In Over Your Head – Co-author of Trust Agents.
• In conversation with Avinash Kaushik
• Analytics Evangelist at Google.
• Author of Web Analytics – An Hour A Day.
• Blogger at Occam's Razor.
• Music:
• The Shakes – 'Liberty Jones'.

Please join the conversation by sending in questions, feedback and ways to improve Six Pixels Of Separation. Please let me know what you think or leave an audio comment at: +1 206-666-6056.

Download the Podcast here: Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast - Episode #152 - Host: Mitch Joel.

Tags: advance guard advertising analytics evangelist avinash kaushik blog blogging book oven bookcamp bookcamp toronto cc chapman chris brogan christopher s penn digital marketing facebook facebook group financial aid podcast hugh mcguire in over your head itunes julien smith librivox managing the gray marketing marketing over coffee mars discovery district media hacks new marketing labs occams razor online social network podcast podcasting six pixels of separation social media marketing the shakes trust agents twist image twitter web 20 web analytics web analytics an hour a day

The idea of the Digital Nomad (now, also an online community courtesy of Dell) has been lingering and pushing forward ever-more quickly with the proliferation of netbooks, wi-fi anywhere and a Starbucks on every corner.

We are quickly moving into a very interesting place where physically sitting in front of a terminal is going to look very ridiculous very soon. Some of the best iPhone apps are the ones that enable and empower you to have a terminal, screen, device or whatever you want to call it anywhere and everywhere. The ability to choose a paint color, have it come up on your iPhone and physically hold it against the wall/room/furniture you're looking to update changes the game for all of us, and forever.

Do people still buy computer desktops?

Yes, they do. Without question, the desktop computer packs a much bigger wallop than most of the laptops, ultra-portable laptops and netbooks (both on price and performance). Desktops can also be upgraded versus having to toss or hand-me-down your laptop when something faster with a bigger hard drive comes along. Recently, I was flipping through the local newspaper and caught myself analyzing some of the big-box electronic retailers' brochures, when I realized, "wow, a desktop computer… what would I do with that?"

It's all about multi-platforms (or, at least, it will be).

People are quick to laugh at themselves when they realize that they've got the TV on, their laptops on their laps, the iPod Touch by their side and a mobile device within reach. It used to be the kind of activity that our teenagers were doing, and we would laugh about it at dinner parties. Now, we're all doing it. We're using many media platforms and all of them at the same time. Many people have already expressed concern, outrage and disappointment regarding yesterday's Blog post, I Like To Watch… And So Do You,about TV viewership. There can't be that many people just sitting there and watching TV for all of those hours?

It's not just the media landscape that is shifting… society is shifting too.

Disruption does that. There were major concerns when Sony first released the Walkman that we would become a soulless society focused only on ourselves and our own little corner of the world. Some might argue that this has, indeed, taken place. Others might argue that all of the technologies and platforms have created a new breed of knowledge sharing and mass collaboration. Whatever side of the fence you care to defend, one thing is for certain: the idea of having fixed terminals in a fixed location is quickly becoming antiquated (Internet Cafe owners beware!). Media, content and access to information is available everywhere. It could well be one of the more fundamental challenges that businesses and organizations are going to have to face in terms of human resources, office space design, meeting spaces and productivity. What do we do to develop and grow in a world where the information is not just here, but it's "here, there and everywhere?"

How do you work? Are you at a fixed station or completely mobile? Do you think fixed stations are here to stay?

Tags: business computer content dell desktop computer digital nomad human resources information internet cafe internet culture iphone iphone app ipod touch knowledge sharing laptop mass collaboration media landscape media platform mobile mobile device mobility multi platform netbook office design online community productivity society sony starbucks technology teenager television terminal tv tv viewership ultra portable laptop walkman wifi

Five very interesting, very different and very scary news items just crawled across the wire (or Google Reader – depending on how "with it" you are). Independently, they are worrying, when placed against one another, they create an even bigger question mark about the present and future of media and advertising.

1. From The Wall Street Journal: New York Times Loss Widens as Ads Shrink. The gist of it: "The company, which publishes the Boston Globe as well as the New York Times, reported a 27% slide in advertising revenue and said it is exploring alternative business models for its Web site as the decline in print revenue outpaces efforts to slash expenses. Times Co. showed a loss of $74.5 million, or 52 cents a share, for the quarter."
2. From MediaWeek: Does Print Drive Online Readership? The gist of it: "The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which published its last edition on March 17, was knocked off the list of top 30 newspaper Web sites in March, according to the latest figures form Nielsen Online. Seattlepi.com fell to No. 32 with 1.4 million unique users, down 23 percent compared to March 2008. In February, the site was ahead of its then-joint operating agreement sister The Seattle Times. Seattlepi.com had 1.8 million uniques, while the Seattle Times had 1.5 million in February."
3. From Reuters: Yahoo to cut 5 percent of jobs. The gist of it: "The Internet company said economic conditions remained challenging, as revenue from advertising on Yahoo websites and its partner websites declined during the first quarter… But the company appeared to be making progress controlling costs, offsetting the decline in revenues." Along with the additional news that first-quarter profits fell 78% compared with the same period last year.
4. From BtoB: IDC predicts online advertising will decline 6% this year. The gist of it: "IDC’s Ad Report Model predicts that U.S. online advertising will decline by as much as 9% in the first quarter and by 6% for full-year 2009. The report was issued following the release of first-quarter earnings by Yahoo on April 21."
5. From AdWeek: Twitter Use Soars. The gist of it: "While there were approximately 6 million Twitter users in the U.S. in 2008 - or 3.8 percent of all Internet users - eMarketer estimates that number will jump to 18.1 million in 2010, representing 10.8 percent of Internet users."

Media, advertising and even the digital channels are all facing significant and real challenges. They're not just financial either (it's beyond the economy). The development of new and emerging business models is not keeping pace with the changes and the shifts in the advertising dollars.

If you followed the stories above, some of the most respected and trusted traditional news sources are struggling with issues of debt load (even though they like to blame the digitization of the news), while they push towards some new business models in the digital space. At the same time, some of those traditional mass media outlets that have shifted to digital-only platforms are not seeing the results that they had hoped for (granted, it's still early days). From there, the more established online portals that control a ton of traffic and advertising dollars online are struggling due to the economy (or, more specifically, because the marketers are seeing their ad budgets chopped) which is leading to an overall decline in online advertising (while it's still not as bad as some other channels, it is worrisome). Then, to top it all off, newer digital platforms (like Twitter) are seeing huge growth and usage spikes, but nothing really relevant in the form of monetization or revenue.

If this is a time of creative destruction (and it does feel that way), we're all going to have figure out what's going to get us out of this mess, and how we're going to define and validate these newer business models and advertising platforms – sooner rather than later.

Any ideas?

Tags: ad report model advertising advertising budget advertising revenue adweek boston globe btob business models creative destruction digital channel digital platform economy emarketer google reader idc internet company marketer marketing mass media media mediaweek monetization new york times news newspaper nielsen online online advertising online portal print publishing reuters seattle post intelligencer seattle times twitter wall street journal website yahoo

It's fundamental - focus on your website.

You thought this Blog post was going to tell you that you're missing the boat because your company is not on Twitter or blogging. Wrong. Maybe the problem is that you have not created an iPhone app yet, or that you don't even know if there is a Facebook page set-up for the brands, products and services that you sell. Wrong again.

All of the attention you think you should be spending on online marketing in the many digital channels and platforms will bring your company zero return if you don't have a website that is not only nice and easy-to-use, but findable through all of the search engines (yes, that includes Google, Microsoft and Yahoo!).

It's time to get back to basics. It's almost laughable to think that some companies don't have a serious, robust and up-to-date website in 2009. No matter what you do - and this include business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) - everyone, at every level of any organization, always goes online to see just who they are doing business with. This could be potential customers, clients, vendors, consultants and more. As each day passes, we're seeing just how significant a website is to the overall business strategy of all companies.

Here's a scenario: you're having lunch with a business colleague who recommends a new laptop for you to check out. Do you run down to Best Buy? Do you call your IT department and have them fax you over a spec sheet? No and no.

You do what everyone does: you check it out online.

You do a quick search, look for some reviews and empower yourself with more knowledge than any retail clerk at any major electronics retailer could ever have. In fact, when you finally do hit the stores, you are so informed about the product and features that your more advanced questions send the clerk to the exact same spot that you used: the Internet and the manufacturer's website.

Your website is becoming the primary and first connection that most people have with your company and brand.

Remember the old saying "You never get a second chance to make a first impression?" Every day, hundreds (maybe thousands) of people are thinking about your company, researching it online and checking out your website. What does your website really say to that person if it is the first impression?

Here's the good news: fixing up your website is probably one of the most cost-effective marketing solutions to multiple business challenges.

Your online presence is no longer just an interactive brochure (that's so 1998). Now, more than ever, your corporate website is the gateway to your business. It's far too easy to get caught up in the latest shiny object to come along, but never let that distract you from taking a good, serious and hard look at what everyone sees when they come to your online home. "It's not that important for us. It really isn't that big of a deal. Real people with real business opportunities are going to do more due diligence, and they're going to connect with us in person." That's the most common rebuttal to the "get your website fixed ASAP" argument. It's simple arrogance. It also demonstrates a true lack of understanding the realities of the new business landscape.

I've connected with many venture-capital types, and heard their constant refrain about how they had got interested in a particular business - be it from an investment or potential partnership - only to have the bets go off once they went to their website (or discovered there wasn't one). The simple conclusion: How could these companies make a wise investment if they can't even get a simple website together?

The big idea here is to take a step back. Analyze what your current website looks like. Use one of the many free Web analytics tools (Google Analytics or Yahoo Web Analytics) to monitor how many people are coming to your website every day, how they found you - what keywords did they use in the search engines or what links.

Once you know that, you can start building your site around what matters most to your users. You can write copy in their language (not with your business jargon) and make the site flow better. Make sure that your site is built and programmed with "clean" language that is friendly for the search engines. Review your website, frequently. Buy some friends some pizza and ask them for their candid feedback on what you're doing online.

Remember, even if your website is not perfect, great design and content will make up for shortcomings. Having a clean and well structured website will drive traffic from the search engines as well. Believe it or not, potential customers are looking for you right now. What are they finding? You or your competition?

How do you feel about the overall state of corporate websites?

The above posting is my twice-monthly column for the Montreal Gazette and Vancouver Sun newspapers called, New Business - Six Pixels of Separation. I cross-post it here with all the links and tags for your reading pleasure, but you can check out the original versions online here:

- Montreal Gazette - It's fundamental: focus on website.
- Vancouver Sun - Hold off on Twitter - fix your website first.

Tags: best buy blog blogging branding business jargon business strategy canwest corporate website digital channels facebook first impression google google analytics interactive brochure internet iphone app keyword links microsoft montreal gazette online marketing online presence research search engine twitter vancouver sun venture capital web analytics web copy web design website website development yahoo yahoo web analytics

If there's one conversation happening around the water cooler right now, it is how to figure out what's working in terms of marketing your business, how to measure it, and how to make it work even more efficiently.

This talk is taking place because, historically, all marketing and communications measurement has been, to some degree, highly subjective. Yes, volumes have been written about the true science behind measuring the effectiveness of a marketing campaign. We even use science-sounding terms like GRP. (I won't bore you with the longer definition, but it stands for Gross Rating Point and is supposed to represent the percentage of the target audience reached by an advertisement.) As accurate as some of these measurements are for traditional marketing, the real win behind doing anything online is that everything is measurable. Highly measurable.

Real measurability (the ability to not only know how many people saw an ad, but know who went to a website, clicked a link, gave some information, purchased something, or left without doing anything) makes online one of the most amazing marketing opportunities in the world - and also one of the scariest.

What could be scary about knowing the actual outcomes of all of your online marketing initiatives? Well, the truth, for one. Over the years, marketers have fed one another so much bunk about viewers and what they do in traditional mass media, that the truth behind the perceived reality can leave quite the sting.

The other scary part about understanding the real measurement surrounding your campaigns is that it sounds complex, technical, and, well ... nerdy. When I say, "web analytics," you probably think, "boring." Thankfully, it isn't. In the past couple of years there have been some very innovative developments in the arena of web analytics that has democratized the process. In fact, you don't have to have any serious level of technical know-how to use, understand and learn from web analytics. In the past, understanding what people were doing online was very complex. The information resided in data logs that had to be pulled and manipulated by people in the IT department. Companies like Omniture, WebTrends and Coremetrics then came along with better dashboards and robust technical infrastructures so that some of the bigger websites could really see what was happening with their online activity.

In the past couple of years, web analytics has really opened up to the general population.

One of the well-known ways to get this information is Google Analytics. It is totally free, and provides tons of rich data in a way that anyone can understand. Yahoo! also has a great (and free) web package called, Yahoo Web Analytics. By just adding a simple line of code to your corporate website, you can begin to see, hear and practically feel what people like, dislike, love or hate about everything you are doing online. From the business side, Google and Yahoo web analytics both provide an easy-to-navigate environment with some stunning visualizations of your data. Wouldn't you just love to know what days of the week bring your website the most traffic, or where the majority of visitors come from? What about knowing which keywords people use in search engines to find you, or which others sites send the most traffic your way?

"Web analytics is sexy," says Avinash Kaushik, who is the author of the best-selling book Web Analytics - An Hour A Day and a blogger over at Occam's Razor.

Kaushik is one of my favourite marketing minds (just take a listen to the conversation we had together this past week: SPOS #152 - Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast - +1 (206) 666-6056 – Orgasmic Digital Marketing Avinash Kaushik). While others focus on colours and creativity, Kaushik is all about letting the general public decide what types of online marketing works by voting with their mouse. One of the more important metrics to consider is something called the "bounce rate" - the percentage of your total traffic that arrived at your website, did not click on anything, and left (or, as Kaushik describes it: "I came. I puked. I left."). The sad reality is that the majority of corporate websites have a high bounce rate. This means that visitors found your site though a search engine, clicked on a search result, arrived at your website, but did not find what they were looking for. Kaushik calls this a "crime against humanity." That might sound a little dramatic, but imagine the potential business that is finding you and then leaving before you can convert it into dollars.

Newer services such as Compete.com allow you to even see the analytics on other people's sites (including your competitors). While some of the basic functionality is free, there is a paid model that offers a much deeper experience.

Ultimately, you are responsible for how your clients (or potential clients) engage with you online. You can choose to ignore your web analytics, or you can embrace the information that is available to you to not only look at how many people are coming through, but what they are doing and how you can better adjust your website to meet their needs and make things click.

That doesn't sound very nerdy all. In fact, it sounds like smart business.

The above posting is my twice-monthly column for the Montreal Gazette and Vancouver Sun newspapers called, New Business - Six Pixels of Separation. I cross-post it here with all the links and tags for your reading pleasure, but you can check out the original versions online here:

- Vancouver Sun - What's working and what isn't is right at your fingertips.
- Montreal Gazette - Everything online is highly measurable - so much so it's scary.

Tags: advertising avinash kaushik bounce rate business business column canwest communications compete coremetrics corporate website data data logs digital marketing google analytics grp marketing marketing campaign mass media measurement montreal gazette newspaper occams razor omniture online advertising online marketing search engine smart business target audience vancouver sun web analytics web analytics an hour a day website measurement website traffic webtrends yahoo yahoo web analytics

Having several thousand people following you on Twitter is not going to save your business.

It's also going to be extremely hard to monetize that traffic. Also, by the time you are finally able to build any kind of substantial following, odds are we'll probably have moved on to the next greater, shinier object. If that's the case, then what is the point? Do you find that traditional media channels are looking at Social Media, Web 2.0, Facebook, Twitter and more as their future? They're still screaming about trading analog dollars for digital pennies, but that is not stopping them from doing anything and everything to – at the very least – appear to be current, hip and "with it".

Is there really a point in them trying to be relevant in some of these newer channels and platforms?

Absolutely.

Let's first state the obvious: if you have a television show that gets millions of viewers and you're suffering because the recession has severely limited your ability to profit from advertising, then getting several thousand people connected to your brand by tweeting about what is going on behind the scenes is not going to replace those dollars.

Or is it?

David Gregory is the host of the NBC TV show, Meet The Press. At this moment, he has well over 340,000 followers. It might seem like a huge amount when compared to how many followers the average person on Twitter has, but it's a very small number when compared to the total viewership of a show like Meet The Press. So, if all else fails and the television show fades away, can Gregory monetize his Twitter feed, or get the same amount of attention and salary as he's pulling from his current gig? Does being on Twitter really add value to the Meet The Press empire?

It's not a numbers game (but it is a numbers game).

It's the many little things that all add up to a greater sum. Having a Twitter feed, Blogging, posting extra footage on YouTube, interviewing guests and having the full audio available as a Podcast on iTunes, etc… does work to build audience, and it does increase revenues. Here's how: the people who connect on the extra stuff, the behind-the-scenes and more are – without question – your real evangelists. These people will tell others. They will bring you ideas. They will help you. They will support you. The culmination of these little things are the exact things that every business needs to be focusing in on much more than they presently are. Yes, you still have to have great content (or a great product or service), and yes, some of the energy you focus on the product might have to shift to these online channels for connecting as well. The hope is that by doing so, it makes the product better because you're not only broadcasting into them, but listening, reacting and friending the people who care most about you. Those same people who can make your ideas really spread and introduce them to newer and bigger groups of people.

Business and media companies that ignore this new reality of our inter-connectedness are trying to link dollars directly to these channels when – in fact – they should be looking at the indirect dollars and how those will grow their business.

Tags: advertising audience blog brand brand evangelist broadcasting business content david gregory facebook itunes media media channel media company meet the press monetize nbc online channel podcast recession shiny object social media television traditional media twitter web 20 web traffic youtube

There's no way around it, when it comes to thinking about what needs to be measured for online success, no one is smarter than Avinash Kaushik.

Kaushik is the author of Web Analytics – An Hour A Day, Blogger over at Occam's Razor, and a full-time Analytics Evangelist for Google. On top of that, he is one of the best speakers on the topics of web analytics and online optimization out there. Watching him speak today at the CRE8 summit in Orlando (held by the good people at Aquent) was a total treat (he also happens to be a frequent guest on Six Pixels of Separation – The Twist Image Podcast). During breakfast we got into a discussion about the power of data and the amazing third-party applications that have been coming out of Twitter and their open API.

Twitter is an amazing place to really understand what people are saying about your brand.

That concept is not new, but if you think about the sheer number of people on Twitter and the powerful amount of content that is being spit out into the open, we have probably never had this amazing of an opportunity to really know what people think about brands… in a real, pure and unfiltered way. It's not difficult to do a quick Twitter search for your brands, products, services and the industry you serve to get a fairly detailed perspective on how people feel. You can also know if there's absolutely nothing being said at all. Couple that with your ability to see and compare that with your competitors, and the voice of customer is suddenly very real and very measurable.

So, what does it take to really be successful in the online channels?

If brands can wrap their heads around why they should be on Twitter (hint: it should have a direct tie to your overall business strategy) and are creating compelling content, they'll quickly learn this dirty little secret about Twitter: it's not about how many people are following you. That's a traditional media measurement. What really counts is how often and frequently people are passing your content along to their trusted networks through the retweet.

The Retweet in the ultimate metric.

If you only have a handful of followers and you are serious about providing value (i.e. tweeting from the heart), great content will spread. People will take your tweets and retweet it to their connections (followers). From there, you will start adding people (followers) to your network who are really connecting with you because what you do is important and relevant to them.

It's not just about being there for customer service. 

A retweet is one of the best metrics we currently have for really seeing and understanding how human and how real your interactions are with your consumers and customers. It's not just for Twitter – but for overall brand perception. It's high praise because you can't really ask for a retweet, it just happens. Someone sees your content and considers it so valuable that it's worth re-mentioning to their entire network.

Traditional companies will still keep chasing after the "how many hits" to their website and "how many followers" (on Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, etc…) metrics. It strokes the corporate ego to know that people are "there". That being said, how much more valuable is it to see how people pass that content on to their peers (and what they say)?

Check out Retweetist to see how your brand is really performing online.

What do you think? Are retweets one of the best metrics we have to measure a brand's success?

Tags: aquent avinash kaushik blog business strategy content cre8 customer service evangelist facebook followers friendfeed google marketing occams razor online measurement online social network online strategy open api optimization publishing retweet retweetist traditional media twitter twitter search voice of customer web analytics web analytics an hour a day

Do you like reading the news online, or do you prefer to read the news, copy and paste the link into a recommendation engine and vote other news items up or down?

Is Digg still a little too nerdy for the every day person? Digg is one of the most popular recommendation engines on the Internet (and one of the biggest websites, overall). It's been around forever and Kevin Rose is – without a doubt – one of the true Internet celebrities. Another amazing recommendation engine that I have been giving a ton of attention to lately has been Reddit (special thanks to Julien Smith for the re-introduction). It's also worth noting that Reddit is owned by Conde Nast. It's been an interesting personal experiment into my own online behaviours.

For some reason, finding a news item, logging into a recommendation engine, submitting it and then following its progress seems like a ton of work that does not interest me in the least bit.

This is surprising if you consider how big of a news nerd I consider myself (and how much of a proponent I am for online social bookmarking). On top of that, millions of people will say that it's one of the many things that makes these digital channels that much more interesting. The ability for all of us to crowdsource the news and decide what should make it to the top of the heap is – without doubt – one of the coolest things about the many changes that are happening in the new media (and they are 100% right).

I like to watch.

So, while I'm not that interested in Digging an item or joining in for the online social networking features (in fact, I don't even subscribe to any of the recommendation engines through RSS), they are still a major part of my daily routine and filled to the brim with amazing content that you will probably not see on any of the more generic news sites owned by the more traditional media companies.

It's those two different and divergent perspectives that gives us more power and perspective.

As a Marketer, the occasional glance at Digg and Reddit provides a plethora of new ideas. Beyond that, it's interesting to see how news will spread and become valuable to individuals as both the traditional media continues to populate the online channel with their content, and how it is intermingled with Blogs and the millions of people who take it, submit and rank it. At one point, Netscape tried a Digg-like model on their homepage (it didn't work out). For some people it's a game to post and rate, for others it provides a unique perspective into what gets people excited in the news. For others, it opens up a whole new can of questions surrounding editors and what, exactly, they decide to publish in a world where everyone can be an editor.

What are you feelings about recommendation engines and the news?

Tags: blog conde nast content crowdsource digg editing editor future of news internet celebrity internet culture julien smith kevin rose marketer mass media netscape new media news online behaviour online news online social network recommendation engines reddit rss traditional media

Maybe all of those Bloggers taking $500 per Blog post from advertisers to post about their brands, products and services is paying off. That's the word from The Wall Street Journal today. It turns out that Blogging is becoming serious business and a full-time job for many.

"In America today, there are almost as many people making their living as bloggers as there are lawyers. Already more Americans are making their primary income from posting their opinions than Americans working as computer programmers or firefighters. Paid bloggers fit just about every definition of a microtrend: Their ranks have grown dramatically over the years, blogging is an important social and cultural movement that people care passionately about, and the number of people doing it for at least some income is approaching 1% of American adults."

That's the opening paragraph of the news item, America's Newest Profession: Bloggers for Hire, by Mark Penn (author of Microtrends) in the April 21st edition of The Wall Street Journal. Without giving away the whole story, here are just some of the very interesting statistics about what Blogging - as a professional vocation - looks like:

• There are over 20 million bloggers in the United States.
• 1.7 million of them are profiting from Blogging.
• About 450,000 of them use their Blog as their primary source of income.
• Blogger who do it for a living only account for 2% of all the Bloggers.
• If you wanted to make $75,000 a year as a Blogger, you need to be generating about 100,000 unique visitors per month.
• Some Bloggers make between $75 to $200 per post.
• The majority of Bloggers only make a few hundred dollars.
• Professional corporate Bloggers get paid between $45,000 to $90,000 per year and work between 50 to 60 hours per week.

The article continues: "The Information Age has spawned many new professions, but blogging could well be the one with the most profound effect on our culture. If journalists were the Fourth Estate, bloggers are becoming the Fifth Estate."

This also goes well beyond the standard (and false) comparison of Blogging to the publishing industry (i.e. how many journalists have been let go from newspapers and magazines over the past little while?) versus the new digital channels (i.e. blogging is thriving because print is dying?). The real interest and opportunity to make money comes in the type of content that these winning Blogs are producing. The majority of Blogs that seem to be scoring in terms of advertising and sponsorship revenues are those with a very deep and specific niche topic. It's usually about content that is not being covered in the mainstream mass media, but still has wide appeal to a specific group.

And with that comes the challenges:

"It is hard to think of another job category that has grown so quickly and become such a force in society without having any tests, degrees, or regulation of virtually any kind. Courses on blogging are now cropping up, and we can't be far away from the Columbia School of Bloggerism. There is a lot of interest now in Twittering and Facebooking - but those venues don't offer the career opportunities of blogging. Not since eBay opened its doors have so many been able to sit at their computer screens and make some money, or even make a whole living."

All of this poses a bigger question: what will journalism and publishing look like if Blogs do generate significant revenue and start stealing advertising dollars away from the traditional publishers who are diving head-first into the digital channels?

(hat tip Bryan Eisenberg – GrokDotCom)

Tags: advertising blog blogger blogging bryan eisenberg business computer digital channel ebay facebook fourth estate grokdotcom information age journalism journalist mark penn mass media microtrend newspapers paid blogger profession publishing sponsorship twitter wall street journal work from home

It's not just traditional mass media advertising that is being affected by the economy. It turns out that Web advertising is beginning to show signs of economic woes as well, but make no mistake about it, Digital Marketing is still growing and people are still spending money getting their brands online.

Does that confuse you? It should not.

Advertising is only one sub-set of Marketing. It's not the entire Marketing sector (at all).

AdWeek reported a couple of days ago that even though Internet advertising is still going to grow this year, it is showing signs of slowing down:

"The Interactive Advertising Bureau released its fourth-quarter and full-year U.S. online ad spending report for 2008, which showed the overall industry growing 11 percent for the year to reach $23.4 billion. The effect of the economy, however, was clear in Q4, when the $6.1 billion of ad spending, while marking the highest level yet recorded, represented a year-over-year increase of 2.6 percent. The 4.6 percent sequential quarterly spending growth was the lowest since 2002."

The keywords in this quote from the news item titled, Web Ad Growth Deteriorates, are "ad spending." Brands are definitely watching their ad spends with much more scrutiny, but it's very important to remember that advertising and media buys are only a small portion of the overall Digital Marketing industry. According to this report, "search revenue accounted for 46 percent of 2008 fourth-quarter revenues, up from the 42 percent reported in 2007. Display Banner advertising, the second largest format, accounted for 21 percent, followed by Classifieds (13 percent), Lead Generation (7 percent) and Rich Media (7 percent) of 2008 fourth-quarter revenues."

The report does not account for email marketing, affiliate marketing, the ROI of creating (or being engaged in) some of the more conversational (or Social Media) channels, etc… It also does not include what companies are putting into their websites, micro-sites or even more experimental channels like iPhone apps, contest, etc… It is only about the online advertising spend.

If traditional advertising is taking a hit (and it is), it's only natural that online advertising feels some of that pain, because – for the most part – those big, massive media buys are being managed by the same media companies or their interactive arms.

To really see what's happening in the Digital Marketing space, it would be interesting to know if companies are also slowing down in their overall online initiatives, and not just the advertising dollars.

Tags: advertising adweek affiliate marketing brand classifieds digital marketing display banner advertising email marketing iab interactive advertising bureau iphone app marketing mass media media buy microsite online advertising rich media search engine marketing social media traditional advertising web ad web advertising website

What does a real fan love? A real fan loves it when they can find (and share) an Easter Egg.

An Easter Egg is a hidden message or inside joke usually found in movies, books, CDs, video games, websites, etc… created by the producer of the content. The consumer either knows where it is, how to uncover it or the precise time where you can spot it. Yes, the entirety of the program can be enjoyed without it, but for those who are really into it, it's the secret handshake and that little extra something to surprise and delight.

From Wikipedia…

"The term draws a parallel with the custom of the Easter egg hunt observed in many Western nations, but actually is derived by the practice of the last Russian imperial family's tradition of giving elaborately jeweled egg-shaped creations by Fabergé which usually contained hidden gifts themselves… This practice is similar in some respects to hidden signature motifs such as Diego Rivera including himself in his murals, Alfred Hitchcock's legendary cameo appearances, and various 'Hidden Mickeys' that can be found throughout Disneyland."

Have you ever watched kids during an Easter Egg hunt? Have you ever been with someone who said something like, "yeah, I know this movie is cool, but did you ever notice THIS!"

The craziest part is just how easy it is to add that little extra something into everything you do. It doesn't have to be something costly or extravagant. In fact, those who have developed some of the best Easter Eggs would probably argue that it's the simple and little things that really got the most attention and appreciation. If you have no idea how to develop that kind of culture within your business or marketing department, you should check out these two books:

1. Pow! Right Between the Eyes - Profiting from the Power of Surprise by Andy Nulman.
2. Made to Stick - Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath and Dan Heath.

Nulman will walk you through the importance of putting the element of surprise into all of your business and marketing initiatives, while the Heath brothers have brilliantly constructed a book about how to tell stories, how to make them spread and – most importantly – why great stories grow a business.

Why don't Marketers spend more time putting Easter Eggs into everything they do? What is the real extra effort or cost in doing this?

Tags: alfred hitchcock andy nulman business business book chip heath consumer content dan heath diego rivera disneyland easter easter egg faberge inside joke made to stick marketing mickey mouse pow right between the eyes private message producer raving fan surprise wikipedia

Without a doubt, the number one question asked about these new Digital Marketing channels is this: do people really care and want brands to participate in online social networks? Most brand managers have a hard time believing that anyone cares that much about their brands and what they do.

They may be right.

Not many people cared deeply about the environment until Al Gore put together his presentation and the movie, An Inconvenient Truth, came out. Many people were not thinking about the digitization of music until Steve Jobs and the good folks at Apple introduced the iPod and iTunes. Nobody thought twice about selling their used junk online until eBay came along.

More importantly, none of these initiatives are really about the individual, the company or the product/service they peddle. What makes these instances (and many more) very exciting is how they all started a movement.

That movement may sound like a joke to you. It might not make any sense in terms of how your business operates. You might even question if anybody would care to be a part of your movement. The reality is that it's not a joke, it makes total sense and there are always some semblance of a group interested in the most obscure things.

You're all freaks and weirdoes (and so am I).

This is a movement. Six Pixels of Separation is not about Twist Image, it's not about Mitch Joel  and it's not about just you. It's about all of us. This is a place where people connect, learn, build, share and grow on the topics of Digital Marketing, New Media, Publishing and Personal Branding. And while it may not attract the same mass amount of people as those interested in Lady Gaga, it's still – definitely - a movement. These online tools, channels and platforms allow everyone (including you and I) to have our own little space to organize, think, learn and push new ideas to the edge.

If your company has one challenge, it will be to uncover what your movement is all about.

Remember this:

Starting a Blog is boring. Staring a movement is exciting.

Dig deep, focus and figure out what movement your company can get behind. The more unique, the more interesting, the more likelihood it will have of catching people's attention and getting them engaged and active. It's not easy. It won't happen overnight, and you have to do it because it's the right thing to do and because it matters – to you, your employees, the clients you serve and the greater community.

What are you waiting for?

Tags: al gore an inconvenient truth apple blog brand brand manager business community digital marketing ebay ipod itunes lady gaga movement new media online social network online tool personal brand platform publishing steve jobs

Not enough people come to our website. No one comments on this Blog. There are not enough people following us on Twitter. We need to find a way to get more people to our Facebook Page.

All of those (and there are many more where those came from) are common complaints, gripes and general worries you hear every day from Marketers. It's easy to look at what the competition is doing and think that you're failing when you compare the two. The truth is, you can only fail if you had an initial strategy and defined goals and metrics prior to doing anything at all.

The real truth is that most brands don't really have any set definition for what, exactly, failure is. Marketers panic by simply comparing themselves to others instead of benchmarking themselves against their own key performance indicators.

Yes, there are many times when our own KPIs are a little off, or the market shifts, or we were simply a little too enthusiastic when we created our goals in the first place. All of those are easy to adjust and navigate. The real problems and stresses are compounded when things are being done with no rhyme or reason. Before today, having several thousand people following you on Twitter with a significant amount of people retweeting your content and engaged in both community and conversation was enough. But now, Ashton Kutcher has one million followers.

If Twitter was always just a numbers game to see how many people you can get to follow you, all bets are off. Monday is going to roll around and you're going to get a phone call from the CEO asking why Ashton Kutcher can get one million people to follow him and why your brilliant brand can't.

The real way to to fail at anything and everything in the online channels is to base what you're doing on the sheer volume of traffic. That's one of the fundamental issues with everything that happened on Oprah today as she introduced Twitter to the rest of the world.

Success is looking at who is taking part in your conversation, and what the engagement is based on what the overall strategy was for getting involved in the first place. Failure is not ignoring these platforms. Failure is not having a solid strategy in place, and then falling victim to the "how come there aren't that many people following us?" traditional mass media mindset.

Tags: ashton kutcher benchmarking blog brand business strategy conversation facebook failure key performance indicators kpi marketer marketing metrics online community online strategy oprah retweet traffic twitter web analytics website

Online social networking is not just good in terms of connecting and growing your personal network and business. It's also becoming a great form of entertainment.

There was more great news out of Marketing Charts yesterday with the news item, Social Networking Grows 93%; Communication Becomes Entertainment:

"Social networking among US broadband users has grown an impressive 93% since 2006, and has increased the amount of time people spend communicating online 18%, to 32% of total online time, according to a new report from Netpop Research, LLC that delves into social networking trends and habits. The 'Netpop Connect: Social Networkers US' report also reveals that at the same time as online communications has increased, the time spent on traditional forms of online entertainment has declined 29%, and is now down to 19% of total online time: This, Netpop said, is changing the face of how entertainment is defined, and giving rise to a new form of leisure built around talking, sharing, and providing opinions and perspectives."

Diving beyond the stats, this is another fascinating tell as to where the world of entertainment is headed. Instead of sitting mindlessly drooling in front of the television, people now see connecting, creating content and communicating with one another in non-traditional forms as a type of entertainment.

The report also illustrates that even within the new media channels and platforms, people are doing much more than one thing…

"The research estimates that 105 million American broadband users (76%) now contribute to social media… Moreover, though many types of social media are used by less than 10% of broadband users, seven million users are 'heavy' social media contributors, who do at least six activities - such as blogging, microblogging, social networking and photo/video sharing - and connect with 248 people on a one-to-many basis in a typical week. This small but powerful proportion of social media contributors are fuelling Web 2.0 activity, Netpop said."

This is good news for brands who think they may be too late to the party to start engaging in some of the more social media channels online.

While that seven million figure is significant, it is just the beginning if you take into account the 1.5 billion people online. As Social Media matures, it is interesting to see it (or think of it) as a new form entertainment for people. Be it simply adding friends and uploading photos, or Blogging and creating and posting videos. Media entertainment is no longer about viewers, but active participants.

Thinking about how brands, companies and services can be better integrated here as people use these channels and platforms for both communications and entertainment might just be one of the more interesting avenues for companies to start strategizing about and exploring.

Tags: blog brand broadband business communication connecting entertainment internet culture marketing charts microblog netpop connect netpop research new media online entertainment online social networking personal brand social media television trend web 20

How do you think the traditional media is reacting and growing their business? Are they keeping pace, falling behind or simply stuck with their heads in the sand?

Following is an amazing roundtable discussion titled, A conversation about print journalism in the digital age, from Charlie Rose. It features Thomas Curley (President and Chief Executive Officer of the Associated Press) along with Arianna Huffington (from The Huffington Post). This is a great 18 minute conversation:

Tags: ap arianna huffington associated press business charlie rose citizen journalism digital media google huffington post journalism newspaper print journalism publishing industry thomas curley traditional media

There is one thing that Journalists do that Bloggers could learn a lot from: checking facts and sources.

One of the best things about New Media is that anyone who has a thought can publish it to the world. One of the worst things about New Media is that anyone who has a thought that may not be accurate can publish it to the world.

Thoughts spread… right or wrong.

It's easy to see how a little news item or a thought (or even a rumour) can brew up to be a lot more than a storm in a teacup. Tools like Twitter and Facebook make it even easier to publish something. The truth is that a lot of the times issues or news items that brew up to the top of the trending topics turn out to be a misunderstanding, or a mistake, or just plain wrong.

Sadly, people don't like admitting that they are wrong.

So, what happens? They beat that dead horse. They start in with the conspiracy theories, or how the person/company being accused is white-washing the scenario, or blatantly lying to cover it up. It's easy to keep on your thought (even if you're wrong). It's hard to actually admit your wrong, and it's even harder to go out and actually get a quote from the original source.

We also tend to slap and bash those that don't respond right away. The truth is – on many occasions – it takes a little bit of time to analyze the situation, figure out where the fault lies (if at all), and to formulate a plan of communication and reaction. Not everyone has the luxury of being solely responsible to their keyboard and armchair. In the past couple of weeks, there have been multiple instances where major "fails" were promoted, published and provoked through channels like Twitter that were – in the end – not fully accurate.

If you owe it to your community to share your raw feelings and thoughts without all of the facts, don't you also owe that same audience and community the truth (and maybe an apology)?

Tags: blog blogger conspiracy theory facebook fact check fail firestarter journalism journalist new media news publish rumour sources trending topic twitter white washing

What's on your mind today? What three URLs have you been looking at more than usual today? I wish I remembered where I saw this question asked (or who asked it) over the weekend (it must have been on Twitter).

Here are the three URLs that are my mind today:

1. MarketingVox – whether it's great stats or interesting/breaking news items in the online marketing world, nothing beats MarketingVox. I was just reading an amazing article they published today called, Online Journalists Pin Hopes on Ads, Fret about Values. It's actually astonishing how often they have relevant news items and articles.

2. Google News – through the personalization to the global perspective, Google News has quickly become one of the only tabs I always keep open and frequently refresh in my browser. Some of the more "breaking news" I tweet about usually comes from something on Google News. Today, it's been used mostly to keep up on the earthquake in Italy and the North Korea rocket launch.

3. Online Journalism Blog – This is one of those Blogs that is so rich with content on a constant and consistent basis that it's almost overwhelming. Almost. Today, I was catching up on the post, What’s the future for local and regional media? If you like this one, Journalism 2.0 is also amazing. That one had a post today titled, The future of journalism depends on the future of the Internet. Great stuff.

What three URLs are on your mind today?

Tags: article blog breaking news content earthquake google news internet italy journalism journalism 20 marketing marketingvox north korea online journalism blog online journalist rocket launch twitter url website

There was some fascinating data and statistics released on Tuesday from Nielsen Online according to the Marketing Charts news item, Average American Surfed 2,554 Pages in March, on the Internet habits and usage of Americans.

Here's a breakdown of what's really happening online:

• The average American visited 111 internet domains in March 2009.
• They surfed an average of 2,554 web pages in that one month.
• The duration of time spent on a web page was about 56 seconds.
• The top three parent companies (divisions) for the month were Google, Microsoft and Yahoo.
• More than 137 million users visited at least one Google-owned site (or launched a Google application).
• AOL was the 4th largest, but had the longest amount of time spent per person (3 hours and 45 minutes).
• Facebook users spent an average of 3 hours and 16 minutes on the site during the month of March.

With Google announcing their numbers today and these statistics, it looks like the overall health of the online channel continues to grow, morph and develop.

Do you find it weird that some companies still question the audience and strength of the online channel?

Tags: aol data facebook google internet marketing marketing charts microsoft nielsen online online online channel statistics website yahoo

When having to get up in front of a group to present, it's always important to remember, know and master the basics of what makes a presentation great (those include structure, knowing your content, making eye contact, hand gestures, etc…).

There is no doubt about it, the big things that will take a presentation from good to great are critical at every level in your professional development. While you're at it, it's also important to remember the little things that make even bigger differences. Sometimes fixing up and focusing on a few of the little things can also take your presentations to the next level.

Here are six common (but often overlooked) speaking mistakes: 

1. Hands in the pockets. Speakers tend to think that keeping their hands in their pockets helps make them looked relax. From an audience perspective it doesn't. In fact, hands in the pockets registers in the audience's mind as someone who is hiding something or is not that interested in being there.
2. Leaning on the podium. This one if very similar to #1. Again, the speaker feels like if they lean on the podium it's demonstrating a level of comfort, when in reality it gives off the aura that the speaker is tired, bored or just plain lazy. I've never seen a great speaker who leans on a podium.
3. Crossing your arms. Even if it's freezing on stage or you're just trying to demonstrate your presence, crossing your arms closes you off from the audience. It's amazing what open arms and keeping your heart open and in the direction of your audience can do for your presentation presence. Crossing your arms is almost as bad as turning your back to the audience.
4. Repeating content you already discussed because it's on another slide. This is one of the reasons many people are calling for the death of PowerPoint presentations. A presentation is a time to tell a story and share information you have with an audience. If you've already covered off a point, but that same point shows up later in the PowerPoint presentation, feel free to skip over that point entirely. Some speakers will say things like, "even though, I have covered this before…" and then proceed to repeat themselves. The audience is smart. If you make a point and it shows up later in the presentation again, please skip it. The audience will appreciate you more for not belabouring a finished thought.
5. Speaking to the slide. Some speakers love their slides just a little too much. Don't ever say things like, "this is an interesting slide," or "I really like the content on this slide." You're in the middle of presenting valuable content. No one cares about what you think about the slide, they care about your content, you and the story.
6. Using the slide as the content and not as the visual support. Always remember that the slide is not the content. You are. The slide is there as a visual support to your content and stories. It's there to enhance your voice and presence through graphics, images and words. Better yet, consider your slide visual anchors that will help people to remember the content that is coming out of your mouth.

Do you have any additional common (but overlooked) speaking mistakes to add?

Tags: audience content eye contact graphics images podium powerpoint presence presentation skills presenting professional development slide speaker speaking story structure text visual support

With over 1.5 billion people online (and more coming online each and everyday), the search results that show-up when you do a simple search on your own name can be confusing.

What do you do if there are other people with the same name as you? as you What do you do if the majority (or even some) of the content is old, outdated or, simply, wrong? Not everyone can be fortunate enough to have their own and constantly updated Wikipedia entry. Well, Google has something for you.

Have you created your own Google Profile yet? You should (here's a peek at mine: Google Profiles – Mitch Joel).

According to The Official Google Blog yesterday on the post, Search for "me" on Google, you can fill out your own personal profile and have it actually rank on the first page of search results for your own, personal, name:

"To give you greater control over what people find when they search for your name, we've begun to show Google profile results at the bottom of U.S. name-query search pages. These results offer abbreviated information from user-created Google profiles and a link to the full profiles. We've also added links so it's easy to search for the same name on MySpace, Facebook, Classmates and LinkedIn."

You get quite a bit of functionality when filling out your profile, including the ability to add as many professional links, your photo, it seems to be pulling a mini-photo stream from Flickr as well, and you can even connect to those that may be interesting to you. No, it's not quite as robust as LinkedIn. The point is not for this to be J.A.O.S.N. (Just Another Online Social Network). The point is to make people more searchable and findable in the Google engine.

Having your professional links and a full-on profile on a Google page can't be a bad thing for your search engine optimization. 

If some of the smarter search engine folks have an issue with this content being on Google, please do share your thoughts in the comment below. Other than that, what are you waiting for… go fill in your Google Profile!

Tags: classmates facebook flickr google google profile internet culture linkedin myspace official google blog online profile online social network personal profile search engine search engine optimization search results user generated content wikipedia

Design your site for traffic :

What better way to start the new year than with more traffic to your web site. Web traffic is a critical part of your internet business and it is imperative that you design it to bring you the most amount of traffic possible.

Designing your site for traffic includes offering good content, easy navigation and a logical flow. Additionally you must also build your site to draw traffic from the search engines because if you can obtain high search engine ranking, you can enjoy free traffic.

It's important to note, however that good ranking won't do you much good without a well designed site and a well designed site can't bring you visitors if no one knows it's there. Both high ranking and good design need to work together.

How do we pull all this together? Let's take a look.

Design your site for traffic : A word about Design

A huge mistake I see many website owners make is that they get caught up in making their site cute. They love the little animations, buttons and dramatic backgrounds. What they fail to consider is that these things are worthless if you
don't offer good content, easy navigation and a logical flow.

First of all don't try to be everything to everyone. Design your site around a theme, preferably a niche theme. Don't confuse your readers with links all over the page. Design a logical flow.
Lead your viewers to where you would like them to go. Leave plenty of white space and keep your pages organized. Clearly state at the top of your pages what you are about and what you would like your viewers to do.

Secondly, I don't recommend pop-ups. I find that the majority of internet users find them annoying. The demand for pop-up blockers is a good indication that viewers don't want to see them.

Thirdly, offer good content. Provide information on your site that will help viewers solve a problem. Offer information that they might not get elsewhere. Write reviews regarding your products. Write newsletters and articles and most importantly offer something of value for free. Give your viewers a reason to come back. It will also build trust in you.

Design your site for traffic : Traffic builders

Good search engine ranking can bring lots of visitors to your site. It often takes a few months to rank well but the payoff is lots of qualified traffic. While it's not practical to depend solely on search engines for traffic it can complement your other advertising campaigns nicely. Aiming for high search engine placement is always a plus. Keep these in mind when developing your site for the search engines:

Design your site for traffic -Domain names

Choose a domain name that has your site keywords in it. For example, if you're a site about pet care, try to include the words "pet care" or words related to pet care in your domain name if you can.

Design your site for traffic -Keywords

Keywords require research and there are several tools to help you out in this area. Here are my favorites:

http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/

I suggest focusing on only one keyword or keyword phrase per page of your website. This may not seem like a lot but if your site has 20 pages you can focus on 20 keywords. Each page should be considered a landing page for your site.
If you have proper navigation on your pages it will easily allow viewers to see everything you have to offer.

Include your keyword or keyword phrase at the top of your page as well as in at least one header phrase. Also work the keywords into the body of your text as often as you can without sounding redundant.

Your keywords should be in the Title tag as well as in your page description tag. Many search engines no longer look at the keyword tags but I recommend using them and including the plural forms as well.

Design your site for traffic - Alt Tags

Search engines don't index images, therefore any text on your site that is presented in image format won't get indexed. To solve this problem, you can enter the image description in the ALT tag. To be sure that the search engines recognize all the content on your site, fill in your ALT tags with
your keywords. This will boost your keyword frequency and help your site achieve better ranking.

Design your site for traffic - Linking

Search engines will rate your site by who is linking to your site, so it's important to establish quality, related links. This can be accomplished in a few ways. One way is to establish reciprocal links with other like sites. When exchanging links be sure to include your keywords in your site title.

Review the page you are exchanging links with. Be sure it is a site that you find easy to navigate and informative. I also recommend that the site's index page have a Google PR rating of at least one. This ensures that the site is not being penalized by Google. If it is a penalized site then you could be penalized as well for linking to it.
Include a 'tell a friend' and 'bookmark' script on your site. This gives viewers an easy way to bookmark you and most of all return to your site.

- Include a Site Map

Site Maps let visitors know what information you have, how it's organized, where it is located with respect to other information, and how to get to that information with the least amount of clicks possible.

Site maps also provide spider food for search engine robots. This can increase your chances of becoming indexed because a site map allows the search engines to easily visit every page of your site.

A site map works best if you include a link to your site map in the navigation of every page on your site.

Finally, don't let your site become stale. I have found that my search engine rankings improve when I periodically add new pages to my site and keep the content new and fresh. Follow these tips and 2005 may be your year for traffic.

website optimisation rankings Search engine optimisation services are designed specially to make sure that your web site reaches both its target audience and creates massive return on investment (ROI). We work hard to reach the highest ranking possible using the latest search engine algorithms.
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Web site analysis and recommendations.

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If you never really took two seconds to think about privacy and what all of our lives now look like because of these online channels and platforms, here's a fictional story that may ring true for you…

Warren is the Vice President of marketing for a major corporation. He never cared much for online social networks. He joined Facebook to follow his kids, and LinkedIn because someone who worked on his team told him he should - at the very least - have his profile posted there. For the most part, he ignores the invitations, pokes and questions. For his professional development he recognizes the power in these channels, and is well-aware of their capabilities and how it is evolving his day-to-day business. That being said, he still doesn't get why everybody is so crazy over Twitter, even though a growing component of his business line is engaged in some level of customer care using Twitter. Warren would prefer that his professional (and private) life have limited exposure online.

You have to believe that most people are like this. You also have to believe that things are changing too fast for anyone to control the content that is out there and being published online.

It's 4:00 pm on a Tuesday, and Warren gets a call from an old college friend who happens to be in town with a set of great seats to the baseball game. Warren had already committed to another business function, but figured there would be no harm in blowing it off to hang with an old friend. On the way to his seats, he runs into a client and they have a casual chat. The next day at work, Warren's boss comes into his office and asks how he is feeling. Before Warren can respond, his boss asks, "how was the baseball game?"

Without thinking he was doing anything wrong, Warren's client tweeted about how happy he was to run into Warren at the baseball game.

These types of incidents are happening more and more with every passing day and as these platforms become more ubiquitous and easier to use. The point of this Blog post was to highlight that while we're all paying attention to what we post (and how we post it), we can't control what others are doing. We all can't walk around with signs around our necks saying, "this in-person experience is not for Blogs, Facebook or Twitter unless we both agree otherwise." And, as funny as that may sound, we are getting closer to a point in time, where everything that we do in public is going to be recorded and published. We might be needing those signs sooner than we think.

Privacy is scary when you can't control your own online persona.

Whether it's skipping work to grab a flick with friends, or being seen at a party when you told people you would be somewhere else, all of us are going to have to be more self-aware of this shift and change. We're all getting to the point where there may need to be some kind of law or agreement as to what, exactly, is publishable about our lives. For more on this, just take a read through some of the sentiments about Google Maps and their plans for street views.

Privacy has always been a huge concern to Marketers and people publishing content online. There may be a bigger question around what we can all do in a world where even if you're not active and online, everything you are doing is online and highly searchable through the stories and publishing of others.

Does that scare you?

Tags: facebook google maps linkedin marketer marketing online online channel online persona online social network personal brand privacy public record publishing recorded street view twitter

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