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I lead teams at the intersection of strategy and design. Autodidact. Polymath. Barbecue acolyte. I start fires (the good kind).

Marketing & PR

Social Media? Why? How? When?

This began as a comment on Scott Hepburn’s post Social Media Graduates to the “How?”, but given how quickly my comment was growing, the fact that I was shifting the topic a bit and my inconsistent posting, I decided to flesh out my thoughts in a post of my own.

So here we go.

One key indicator of a shift from the “Why” to the “How” within professional social media circles is the stratification of its practitioners. As Scott, there are the charlatans and the under-informed claiming expertise, and there are the experienced teaching where they can and leading the way, but there are a few more slices in between that I’ve noticed of late:

  • Those who can explain the strategic and tactical methods for small efforts, those who can explain them for large efforts and those who understand both and know how to manage the differences between them.
  • Those who are married to one or a small set of key tools compared to those who stay on top of the industry as a whole. Niche expertise versus generalization.
  • Those who embody community and social interactions on and off line versus those who treat it as a job, turning off when they go home.
  • Those who are passionate about the opportunities social media provides, but don’t understand how to balance it against business goals.

And of course there are the shades of gray between all of these levels.

Let’s leave the conversations around “why [ insert latest tool here ] will change everything” to those discovering the possibilities social media affords. Tools are tools. We need to focus on the strategy behind the use of those tools when integrated with business needs and it is time for the experts and “social Media Mentors” as Scott phrases it, to demonstrate that the dominating force going forward is the balance between “why we use social media tools and strategies”, “how we employ those strategies” and “when we use a particular strategy”.

Missing the Point: Twitter for SEO

In my morning feed-scanning I came across Mihaela Lica’s SitePoint article touting how Twitter can impact SEO. Part of me wishes I had skipped it, but I read it and feel the need to review and correct what I believe is a faulty premise.

To make a long story short: although Twitter is a social media tool meant to create community and relationships, it does have an SEO value. For example, Twitter can affect positively your Alexa rankings by sending visitors to your pages. Usage data is a sign of quality for Google and all the other search engines. If you can make people come to your site via Twitter, then this is an SEO advantage you cannot afford to miss.

Mihaela Lica – Twitter’s Little Known SEO Value Emphasis from the original

I’m going to disassemble the article’s foundation here, but I want to note that I’m not writing this to skewer Mihaela, she took the time to write the article in order to help others, which I appreciate. Very few people give of themselves and I applaud the fact that she is contributing to our community.

The article attempts to make a case that Twitter helps SEO, even though the search engines don’t follow links in Tweets. The path follows the line of, if you tweet and include a link, someone will follow that link back to your site, which will increase your traffic and eventually Alexa and maybe Google will notice.

The exact same logic applies to those guys hired to hold furniture signs at intersections: give them a sign with a URL, and someone may visit the URL, your traffic will go up and if you’re lucky the big G in the sky will notice and bump your site up a notch.

The inclusion of Ask.com as a way to justify the argument isn’t valid. It’s not that you should ignore Ask.com – it’s whether the time and effort to focus on Twitter for SEO in the hopes of benefiting from Ask.com’s notice will be worth trading the opportunity cost of focusing elsewhere. If you’re expending effort to gain a small bump in a service that holds less than 2.5% of the market share, you’re wasting your time. Odds are good that that small bump isn’t the least bit noticeable.

SEO is not the be all and end all – it is a tool in your marketing efforts (whether you’re a giant brand or a lone blogger, you have a brand). Twitter can also be a tool in those efforts, but all too many people don’t understand how to use it properly, much less the expectations they should have and the ramifications of their efforts, both good and bad.

Twitter and Marketing

So, now that we’ve determined that you really don’t want that guy holding the furniture sign on the corner to be in charge of your advertising, let’s talk about who should be engaging your audience and prospects.

Simply put: you.

Want to use Twitter as a good Marketing tool? One that will have an impact? Here are some key tips to keep in mind:

  • You or someone as passionate about your work needs to be the voice behind each tweet. It matters
  • Tweet with the same level of excitement you have when you’re explaining what you do at a party to someone who actually appears to care. If you aren’t excited about talking about your company, blog or product, then why the hell are you trying to market it? Seriously – you’re in or you’re out. Half-assed attempts are quickly ignored on Twitter or even worse publicly ridiculed.
  • People expect you to communicate – posting links to your own blog or site without any other content is a quick way to fail. Twitter users expect a conversation – follow your fans back and reply to their questions, praise and anger
  • Promote other people and services that you use and like. Tell me when you’ve had a good experience with a company or been ignored. Provide value by being a good citizen within our community. You’ll quickly find that others will do the same for you.
  • When you have news – real news – post about it. You added a blog post, hey cool, lemme know. A New product release? Sweet, I’d love to hear about it. But don’t spam me with it. Reruns suck.
  • Like a marketing campaign, your effort will take time
  • Find a good URL shortener that will give you click-through metrics. I use Tr.im and have heard great things about BudURL. Then use that service for all of your links. You aren’t getting SEO love no matter what, but at least this way you’ll get some data.
  • Once you have metrics, take a look at what people actually found interesting and post more about that.

Disagree or Have More to Add?

Speak up in the comments or hit me back on Twitter: @BaldMan.

Drop the Lorem Ipsum – Have fun with Placeholder Text

“Lorem ipsum dolor…”

If you’re a design, build wireframes or prototypes, odds are good that you are all too familiar with the de facto standard for placeholder text. It works, especially if you want to ensure that people don’t focus their attention on the text itself. But it quickly gets old.

Sometimes you just need to shake things up and add some personality to your work, and there are some great resources for interesting text that serves the same purpose – it fills up the space, but isn’t the least bit related to the purpose of the page itself.

Here are a couple of my favorite resources for alternatives to Lorem ipsum:

The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913

As noted in the site’s description, this is a searchable collection “detailing the lives of non-elite people…containing 197,745 criminal trials held at London’s central criminal court.” Here’s one of my favorites, from the case of John Harris, tried for Seditious Words on September 8th, 1714:

John Harris , was indicted for speaking scandalous Words relating to her late Majesty, viz. God d – n the Queen, she may kiss my A – se . The Evidence was a Constable, who swore, That the Prisoner came raving and swearing along the Street late at Night; and among others, us’d the Words in the Indictment; whereupon he thought it his Duty to secure him. It appear’d upon his Trial, that he was somewhat Lunatick, and had been under Cure for the same; whereupon he was acquitted.

And another case from May 10th, 1676:

Three women of Stepney were indicted (one as principal the other two as accessaries) for stealing Hemp enough to make Halters for all the Rogues in Christendome, that is to say, no less than four thousand weight in one Indictment, and three thousand in another. It being suggested that they had got a Key to a Rope-makers Warehouse, whence at several times they purloyned those vast quantities. But no direct proof appearing, they were all acquitted

Movie Descriptions and Commentary

The worse the description the better. A bit of time on IMDB or Amazon can net you some jewels (typos, poor grammar and all), such as these:

C.H.U.D. 2 – Bud the Chud

From IMDB comes this plot summary:

A couple of teenagers break into a secret government science lab and steal a frozen corpse for a high school prank and accidently awaken the corpes which turns out to be a CHUD, ironically named Bud, who goes on a killing spree and making his victims also canabalistic CHUD’s and its up to the teens to stop him.

The Brain from Planet Arous

Another one from IMDB:

A powerful criminal brain from the planet Arous, Gor, assumes the body of scientist Steve March. Thru March he begins to control the world by threatening destruction to any country challenging his domination. Another brain, Val, works with Marchs future wife Sally to defeat Gor. Val explains that Gor will be vulnerable when he is forced to leave March at intervals to re-energize. Gors vulnerable spot, the Fissure of Orlando, is described in a note left by Sally in Steve’s lab.

A Scathing Review of “Shadow of God”

And should you need a longer passage, check out this review posted to Amazon. Here’s an excerpt:

And the dialogue. Oh dear, the dialogue.

“That’s probably the fiercest dragon known to man,” Craig tells Todd toward the end. Because, you know, we have so many different kinds of dragons in the world with which to compare.

Okay, so he uses the wrong word and his characters are morons. You can overlook a misused word here and LOTS of writers are horrible with characters. Hell, I’m guilty of this myself. But sometimes he just
plain gets his facts WRONG:

“The stranger was beastly in size with thick, bushy eyebrows, a prominent protruding forehead, and a thick, black coarse beard. His gait was that of a mammal–a Neanderthal.”

I know I never went to college, but um . . . do you think Rayburn knows HUMAN BEINGS are mammals as well?

And later we learn that Cain and Abel were Neanderthals who lived in the stone age, feared dinosaurs, and that Cain was kicked out of the Garden of Eden for slaying his brother. Dude, Cain and Abel weren’t born until a LONG time after Adam and Eve–the only two people who ever lived in the Garden of Eden–were kicked out.

Other Sources

Do you have any interesting sources for good placeholder text? Please leave a comment below.

This Ain't Right: Fight the Orphan Works Act

Jeffrey Zeldman pointed out the dangerous Orphan Works Acts making their way through Congress. This act has far-reaching implications for everyone, but the impact is even larger for those who work or publish on the ‘Net. Ultimately Congress is attempting to reduce your rights as a creator (whether you write, draw, design Web sites or sing), by allowing the infringer to make the distinction as to whether or not they tried hard enough to find the owner of the work and reducing the rights of the artist, designer or author.

As noted by Mr. Zeldman, so called “orphaned” content “will be made legally available for use by commercial interests, even when the copyright holder is alive, in business, and licensing the work.”

That strikes the very heart of our society. You work hard to create something, you have every right to maintain ownership and be compensated for that work. If someone steals from you, you have recourse.

It’s Easy to Fight this Law

Luckily there is an easy way to contact our representatives in Congress to educate them on the dangers of this law and to inform them that we expect each and every one to oppose the bad legislation: Go to the Legislative Action Center tell them where you live (so they can match you with your representatives) and choose a letter that you want to send – click and go.

Here’s a snippet of the letter I sent to Senators John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison and Representative Lloyd Doggett:

I am told that the Copyright Office conducted a study of Orphan Works and that these bills are based on that study. I understand that an orphan work is a work whose owner can’t be located. I am alive, working and managing my copyrights. I can be located. My clients locate me all the time. But that does not mean that anyone anywhere can find me. And frankly, why should the failure of any one person to find me be the measure of whether or not I can be found?

What if 10 people can find me but one can’t? Why should that one person get a free pass to use my work? Won’t that give infringers an incentive not to find me? And why should I be obligated to go into court to prove anything about the diligence of the searcher or the value of my work? What if the same work is found an orphan in one legal proceeding and not in another?

Join the list of groups opposing this bill, spend three minutes to protect the basic rights of those who create what you enjoy.

Non-linear Scheduling

Muji Chronotebook Non-linear Day Planner
Photo from the Muji Web site

LifeHacker points to the yet-to-be-released Muji Chronotebook Non-linear Day Planner, which provides an interesting way to plan your day. Gone are the normal grids and standard sequence of hours and dates. They have been replaced by pages that display “time on an axis, like an analog clock.” One page is dedicated to the morning and the other to the evening. So you add your events to the AM or PM page, writing your “plans like spokes on a bicycle wheel.”

I don’t think it would work for me (I’m not a heavy user of day planners anyway), but I really love that they are forging a different solution to the problem of planning one’s schedule.