Healthy Blog Reviews

As I noted in my other post today, Twitter is reporting some serious numbers . 145 million registered users and 300,000 registered apps for those users just to name a few. In the end though it’s just noise unless people are actually using the service. According to research from Royal Pingdom the increase in number of accounts is translating to usage rates climbing as well. About the numbers the Pingdom people state Twitter processed 2.64 billion tweets this August, an increase of 33% over May. Not a bad increase over just a summer. In August, an average of 85 million tweets passed through Twitter every day. And if you look at the whole year so far, the increase is even more impressive. Activity on Twitter has already more than doubled this year (August had 115% more tweets than January). As always raw aggregate numbers are interesting but the real need is to understand the how’s and why’s related to that usage. As marketers it’s important not to get into the same game that TV did for years talking about how many eyeballs they delivered but then when pressed for specifics the dance started. The details of the reasons for using the service are much more important than the big numbers. What if most of that usage came from people who are in the social media industry and were not people who would be prospects or potential retail buyers of a product or service? A lot of activity but no real value, right? I often wonder if Twitter isn’t going to just become a holding pen of sorts for PR players who put out information to the social media hangers on that use the service the most. Sure they buy things too but that becomes a niche market for actual buyers because their total numbers are completely disproportionate to their use of the service. What it does become is a great place to get the word out to people who are desperate to stand out and will promote virtually anything to feel important. Who says feeding on people’s insecurities isn’t a viable strategy? So go ahead and tell us your opinion of Twitter with regard to how effective it is for marketers. Forget the big numbers just talk about the potential bottom line impact. Is it real or do the big numbers prove to be all show and no go? Have a happy and safe Labor Day break.

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Twitter Usage on the Rise

Tags: dance, forget-the-big, increase, labor, numbers, opinion, pingdom, pingdom-twitter, royal-pingdom, Social, Social Media, Twitter, viable-strategy
Posted September 3, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media

I used to be a keyword research freak. Seriously! If you found me at one of the big conferences in the early 2000s you would have likely heard me discussing the importance of keyword research. “Keyword research is the most important aspect of SEO,” I would say. “Target the wrong keywords and it won’t matter if you are #1 on Google or not.” Yeah, I took it seriously. I still do, and that’s why I’m sharing this experience from the WebmasterWorld forums. WMW member vivalasvegas follows-up on a report he submitted previously about the sudden loss of almost 5,000 visitors a day for one keyword combination. My conclusion after doing some more research: the apparently popular 3 word phrase was made popular by the Search suggestions feature. It seems that people were typing in the first 2 words (or even just one word and a half) and the first suggestion was my phrase. Combined with the fact that the first 2 words make a very popular phrase with several million searches reported per month – the result was some nice traffic spilled in my direction. Needless to say – the 3 word phrase is no longer a favorite suggestion. Bottom line. Google stopped using the keyword combination in Google Suggest and vivalasvegas lost 5k visitors a day. Ouch! My point? When you do your keyword research, you absoluteley need to ensure you are checking Google Suggest as part of that research. Start typing in the keywords that Google “suggests” and see what other phrases Google will likely be presented to your target audience. For example, if you are targeting SEO related queries, try this: Some queries will throw up local intent suggestions, but you’ll get a good feel for the keywords you should be adding to your mix. For bonus points clicks, don’t stop with Google Suggest. Take a look at the bottom of the results page and see what Google says are related searches: Hey, you never know when these suggestions might result in an extra 5,000 visitors a day for your web site!

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This Keyword Research Tip Could Add 5,000 Visitors a Day to Your Site!

Tags: advice, apparently, direction, google-suggest, importance, Search, seo, several-million, suggest-as-part, webmasterworld
Posted September 3, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media

Twitter has made some strides to get the mobile experience working better as of late. They have been very successful in this area which is critical since the geo-location movement promises to make mobile even more important in the not so distant future. Evan Williams, co-founder of Twitter, gave some telling stats on the Twitter blog Mobile users have jumped 62% since mid-April 16% of all new users to Twitter now start on mobile (it was 5% before Twitter started doing branded mobile clients) 46% of active users use some sort of mobile Twitter experience 78% of people who interact with Twitter still do so through twitter.com — though that number includes people who use more than one app m.twitter.com is the second most-used Twitter interface at 14% SMS and Twitter for iPhone are tied at 8% Here is a chart showing the most used ways to access Twitter. One thing I will note that while the post started out concentrating on mobile numbers it becomes less and less clear which numbers are about overall Twitter usage and which are about Twitter use overall (at least for me that is). Of note as well, there are now more than 145 million registered Twitter users that use some 300,000 registered applications to get the most from the service. Remember the days of being excited about hitting 20 million users? Those are getting smaller and smaller in the rearview mirror for sure. Twitter keeps rolling along but there was no talk about making money. That might ruin the mood of the celebration. Join the Marketing Pilgrim Facebook Community

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Twitter Gives A Peak Under the Mobile Nest

Tags: celebration, mobile, ruin-the-mood, since-the-geo, Social, start-on-mobile, Twitter, very-successful
Posted September 3, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media

Consumer Watchdog’s InsideGoogle.com has something to say about Google’s disrespect for people’s privacy and they’re saying it at one of the busiest intersections in the world. The group has purchased advertising space on a 540 sq ft Jumbotron in Times Square and they’re using it to blast Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt. The animated feature is called “Don’t be Evil?” and shows cartoon Schmidt spying on children from the innocent trappings of an ice cream truck. In a press release, Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog said; “We’re satirizing Schmidt in the most highly trafficked public square in the nation to make the public aware of how out of touch Schmidt and Google are when it comes to our privacy rights.” The ad asks people to text the word Evil to 69866 to show their support. I guess “666″ wasn’t available. “Don’t be evil” is Google’s unofficial corporate motto, but Consumer Watchdog says that Google isn’t doing a good job keeping the mounds of personal data they collect private. Court says that Schmidt himself is clueless when it comes to privacy and quotes him as saying, “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.” Then there’s this, from a recent Wall Street Journal interview; “[Schmidt] predicts, apparently seriously, that every young person one day will be entitled automatically to change his or her name on reaching adulthood in order to disown youthful hijinks stored on their friends’ social media sites. “I mean we really have to think about these things as a society,” he adds. “I’m not even talking about the really terrible stuff, terrorism and access to evil things.” Really? When I started writing about this sign in Times Square I thought it was overkill. Now, I’ve now changed my mind. John M. Simpson, director of the group’s Inside Google Project, suggests a “Do Not Track Me” list that would keep Google, or anyone from tracking your moves online. According to a poll conducted on behalf of InsideGoogle.com, 80% of people in the US supported such a list. They also like the idea of an “anonymous button” that allows individuals to stop anyone from tracking their online searches or purchases and a ban on collecting data on minors. All good ideas, but implementation and enforcement would be very difficult. The trouble is, it’s not just Google who is collecting and / or spreading private data. Schmidt was right about one thing when he mentioned the “youthful hijinks stored on their friends’ social media sites,” and then there are the drunken Facebook updates and the obscenity-filled blog post aimed at your ex. Maybe, before we go throwing stones at Google, we should be looking at how much information we ourselves put online for all to see. Not passing by Times Square anytime soon? You can watch the ad on YouTube.

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Watchdog Group Takes Google to Task in Times Square

Tags: consumer-watchdog, facebook, inside-google, make-the-public, mind, press-release, project, really-terrible, reputation, schmidt, Social, Social Media, street, street-journal
Posted September 3, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media

At least once a week, my husband laments the loss of a mom & pop record store we had near our home. They carried mostly used albums and rock and roll memorabilia and a visit there was like hunting for treasure on the beach. If we go to eBay, we can find all those same albums and more but it simply isn’t the same as flipping through stacks of worn cardboard and finding a gem you didn’t even know existed. It’s a sad fact that the small business is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. comScore is reporting that small business is down 5.6% over last year with those dollars going to the big box retailers we drive by every day. Usually we blame it on the economy, but the big boys are seeing a rise in profits, so why aren’t the mom and pop stores seeing it, too? The National Federation of Small Businesses (NFIB) says that a poor economy forces prices down and small retailers simply can’t afford to take the same cuts as a Walmart or Target. The Gap can put a 50% off deal on Groupon but what’s a pet shop owner in Sheboygan to do? Since small businesses can’t compete on price point, they need to compete in other ways such as service and community. Cake companies that create one of a kind masterpieces stand head and shoulders over anything you can buy at Costco. I have a clothing store that I return to again and again because the staff there takes the time to help me put together a look and they’re honest about what works and doesn’t. Try getting that kind of service at Walmart. Creating a sense of community is also important for the small business. Sponsoring a local sports team, donating to local charities, participating in community fairs and events all help sway customers your way. We have a small chocolate shop that offers free candy making classes for kids once a month. The kids may burn through a few dollars in supplies but while they wait, moms consume coffee and snacks at full price. When it comes to advertising, social media is the great leveler. Twitter and Facebook are virtually free to use and small companies don’t have to worry about jumping through legal hoops before making a statement online. Now that everyone is going “local” with Foursquare and Facebook Places, it’s the perfect time for small businesses to step up and get customers. Do you have a favorite small business that is no more? Tell us about it.

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Is There Any Room in Retail for the Small Business?

Tags: beach, deal-on-groupon, facebook, facebook-places, nfib, Research, shopping, small-business, snacks-at-full, Social, Social Media, such-as-service, time, walmart
Posted September 2, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media