At our last Social Media Manitoba Tweetup we were lucky to have Susie Parker present to the group on the pros and cons of Google Plus. This lead to some great discussion and some surprisingly varied views on the service. Some of the group expressed feelings of being underwhelmed loving its potential but mourning its lack of innovation; they’ll never beat Facebook. Some feel the service isn’t intuitive and others just see it as another search engine tool primarily of interest to techs, geeks and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) folk. Overall I was surprised at the lack of love for Google Plus, I know I fall squarely in to that tech/geek/SEO category, but I think Google Plus offers something positive to every kind of user and as events this we prove, we have only seen the tip of the iceberg. Why do I think this? Am I just a hopeless Google Fanboi? Here’s my two cents on Google Plus: Read more...
What is a democracy? It’s a system by which people (regular, normal, everyday people) determine who or what is best for fulfilling their wants and needs. It essentially boils down to a popularity contest. This is basically how online search engines (namely Google) work as well.
For a long time now, it has been common knowledge that the biggest factor in determining a website’s position in Google’s search pages is backlinks. A back link is a hypertext link that is found anywhere on the web that points directly to your website. The more links you have, the more popular and relevant your website is considered to be. And therefore the higher (in theory) it should rank in search engines. Read more...
It happens so often; I’m discussing social media with a team member of an organization that is large, prominent, or both, and it comes out in conversation that the company in question is on social media, but does not have a social media policy. The first thing that I always reply to these people is “You need a policy, now!”
Social media presents a fantastic opportunity for organizations to become closer with their customers/leads and potential customers/leads. Conversations can be facilitated, feedback can be harnessed, and your company’s marketing efforts can be strengthened. However, in order to ensure that your social media presence is a benefit and not a liability, a social media policy is necessary. Read more...
A common question I get asked by people who are unsure of whether or not they should go into social media, (or even online marketing,) is “why should I be present on social media or online marketing when, on average, only a small portion of people are even present there?” It’s a tough question to answer from a marketing perspective, but I feel like there is a side to social media, (and online marketing,) that most people don’t consider: avoiding people that you’re not looking for. Read more...
You may or may not have watched Mark Zuckerberg’s much improved attempt at public speaking yesterday, you may subscribe to a Twitter account or RSS Feed that was posting updates on his important talk. But whether or not you were keeping up to the minute with updates coming out of the Facebook “F8″ conference, unless you are one of the now rare few who are holding out against Facebook, the updates will inevitably affect you.
A Screenshot of the Facebook Timeline Developer Preview Read more...
In this video, I speak to the opportunities available through social media such as LinkedIn and Twitter to increase referrals, and ultimately see real ROI from social media.
In my latest video blog I talk about the benefits of using social media to drive product consumption through social recommendation and guiding product development through social listening and feedback.
In his latest video blog, John talks about the phases that Online Marketing has gone through since the 90s and how businesses responded to the changes that new online technology presented. John compares these trends to the next phase of Online Marketing that we are currently experiencing with Social Media Marketing.
In this video blog John talks about the importance of change adoption within your organization and how social media can be used to differentiate your business from your competitors.
With social media being so popular right now you have to be careful when you are choosing a supplier to assist you with social media marketing. I recently read a blog on this topic by Nichole Kelly and I wanted to comment on a few of her points.
“News Flash: Not everyone who says they understand or have used social media actually knows what they are talking about.” Read more...
