Social media roles

Competition: win a copy of @Problogger’s book on blogging

May 26, 2010 By Matthew Gain 38 Comments

A couple of months back I made a concerted effort to increase the number of posts I made on here and increase the traffic coming to my blog. That process involved me reviewing the blogging practices of my favourite bloggers (see my blog roll in the right panel) and also involved me reading Problogger: Secrets for blogging your way to a six figure income. The purpose of this post is to provide a review of that book and also to give away my copy.

Competition:

Before I get into the review, let me outline how you can win the book. Because let’s face it that’s why you’re here right.

As the book is a guide to blogging I am going to give the book away to a commenter willing to share a link to their most successful blog post and explain why they think it has been successful. If you don’t have a blog simply provide a link to a memorable post on another person’s blog and tell us why you like it. I will select the winner. The condition of entry though is that you too pass on the book when you have finished it.

Review:

The book, as the name suggests, is a guide to making a living from your blog. It is written in the first person and is authored by successful and professional bloggers Darren Rowse and Chris Garret. Written so it can be understood by people with no experience whatsoever in blogging it covers everything from selecting a blog platform, through to tips for great content creation, blog monetisation and closes by providing case study examples of successful global blogs.

I have been blogging for quite some time now (first blog launched in 2004), so for me there was nothing in the book that was all that groundbreaking, especially as I’m a reader of Problogger, but it was nice to have it all in the one place.

For me, the most important section of the book was the one focussed on creating great blog content.

Tips covered include:

Finding your niche – does the world really need another photography or social media blog
Writing succinct posts – the internet is a big place, make your content is short and to the point
Making your posts standout – headline tips, the power of lists, formatting, using pictures
Writing for search engines – tips for ensuring your content is search engine friendly
Engaging readers – writing techniques for encouraging comments or increasing subscribers
Post frequency – theories on how often should you post

What is good about the book:

Both authors have been incredibly successful with their blogs, so it was great to get such candid insights from people who absolutely know what their writing about
The book is broken up into easily understood sections, so you can skip parts you don’t need and likewise easily find the stuff you want more information on
It provides examples of lots of free tools you can use and outlines how they help with the blogging process

What is not so good about the book:

The book is written in the first person, but there are two authors. As the reader, you are not always sure which author it is you are hearing from. Perhaps this isn’t really too much of an issue, but it did trouble me a few times whilst reading
The book focused a lot on making money from your blog directly. I thought there could have been more focus on the benefits of having a blog beyond simply making money from ads and perhaps some examples of how people have benefited in other ways from their blog
I thought the book could have focussed a little more on the role of social media in driving traffic to your blog. It focussed a lot on social bookmarking sites, like Stumbleupon and Digg, but less on the importance of growing a network of like minded people on Twitter and Facebook (two major drivers of traffic to my blog)

Who should read this book

As I mentioned above, the book is well set out, so even if you are an experienced blogger like me it is easy to skip chapters and focus on the authors’ tips for driving deeper engagement and higher readership. Having said that, those with no or little experience blogging will benefit the most from reading this book.

Competition

As I said at the top I am giving my copy away and will select a comment left on this post before Friday 4 June to be the winner. So go on, drop me a comment about the most successful blog post on your blog and why you think it has been successful. For those that don’t have a blog, simply share a link to a memorable blog post you have seen and outline why you think it was so powerful. Remember a condition of entry is that if you win, the copy then needs to be handed on to somebody else when you have finished with it.

Good luck!

If you enjoyed this post why not subscribe to my blog via RSS or email by following this link. Also whilst you're at it why not follow me on Twitter.

Filed Under: Digital PR, Professional Posts, social media, Web stuff Tagged With: Blog, Blog Tips, Blogging, Chris Garrett, Darren Rowse, Problogger, social media

Chatroulette viral by Condomerie.com

May 25, 2010 By Matthew Gain Leave a Comment

Condomerie.com, an Amsterdam based specialty store (of course you say), has created a Chatroulette inspired video.

For those who are not aware, Chatroulette, is a video chat service that drops you into conversations with random strangers. Though be warned before you try it out for work, it is well lewd and crude.

Great video and clever way to get an important message about safe sex across. Well done Condomerie.

If you enjoyed this post why not subscribe to my blog via RSS or email by following this link. Also whilst you're at it why not follow me on Twitter.

Filed Under: Professional Posts, social media, Web stuff Tagged With: Australia, Chatroulette, Condomerie, Digital PR, social media, Sydney, Viral Video, Youtube

Microsoft Kin social media marketing – a case study

May 24, 2010 By Matthew Gain 13 Comments

To build buzz for the launch of its new phone, Kin, Microsoft has been undertaking a fairly large scale new media campaign involving live events, a range of social platforms including, YouTube and Facebook, and a tour of America that explores the concept of a ‘friend’ in today’s society.

The work, which I believe has been created by Exposure, is in my opinion refreshingly good and a welcome departure from previous Microsoft social media marketing attempts like the Windows 7 launch video party series (although ironically the views of these videos far outstrip the Kin ones).

The campaign launched in April and will include 15 webisodes starring Rosa, a likeable personality who is travelling across America to meet in person her friends on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.

The webisodes in my opinion are good. They are professionally created and engaging. The integration of multiple social media platforms has also been done well and two way engagement is going on across all of the ones I have viewed. The campaign has now launched another phase involving a series of live music events with bands such as The Black Keys.

Below I have embedded a couple of examples of the webisodes and also given a quick overview of the campaign elements and why I think this campaign has been successful.

This is the trailer to the series:

An example webisode:

Campaign elements (all numbers roughly accurate at time of posting):

Facebook – more than 187,000 people have liked the page and there is lively discussion going on via the wall. There are customised tabs for competitions. Videos and live events are also being publicised via the wall.
YouTube – a branded channel has been set up that has 3,130 subscribers (this isn’t huge), but has generated close to 600,000 views.
Twitter – the account has 4,487 followers and is being used to promote gigs and events happening in American cities. It is also being used for conversation and questions are being actively responded to.
MySpace – A highly customised page showcasing the webisodes as the hero content
Live events – live music events are taking place all over America, but to find out the details you have to be following the channels mentioned above to get clues and information
Microsite – this is the online hub for the campaign. Links off to all the social platforms and also provides more detailed information about the product.

What I like about this campaign:

Microsoft is everywhere its audience is. It has recognised that people interact on different platforms for different reasons and that no single platform is the answer. Refreshingly as well, Microsoft is playing on its competitors’ platforms (Youtube in particular) and not trying to confine this to their own platforms. Nice.
The videos are highly produced and engaging. The video quality is good and the talent obviously well thought out. Rosa is excellent natural talent that I found incredibly likeable. The initial trailer was obviously well promoted (165k) views, but subsequent videos were much less so – typically around the 5K mark, which must be somewhat disappointing.
The product mentions are not in your face. The Kin phone is present in each video, but where it is used it is relevant, not obtrusive and natural. Congratulations on this Microsoft.
The campaign involves online and offline elements. The offline elements give people something to engage with and offer situations for the public to generate and share content around the brand.
Microsoft is engaging in a two way dialogue. Across the Twitter and Facebook pages it is clear Microsoft is responding to questions and engaging in the conversation.

It will be interesting to see how Microsoft and its agencies continue to capitalise on the momentum they have generated thus far, but roughly a month in they appear to be off to a good start. I am not entirely sure about the phone, but I am only going on some reviews I have read and the form factor. I guess time will tell on that point.

What do you think?

If you enjoyed this post why don’t you subscribe to my blog via RSS or email by following this link. Follow me on Twitter or connect on LinkedIn.

Full disclosure, I am a former employee of Microsoft and Microsoft is a client of both Weber Shandwick and my new employer Edelman. However Microsoft or its agencies have had no involvement in this post.

Filed Under: Advertising/Marketing, Digital PR, Microsoft, PR, Professional Posts, social media Tagged With: Australia, black keys, Case study, Digital PR, Facebook, Kin, microsite, Microsoft, myspace, rosa, social media, Sydney, Twitter, Youtube

Tips for improving your LinkedIn SEO

May 24, 2010 By Matthew Gain 36 Comments

This is the third in a series of posts I have published on improving the SEO around your personal brand. In this post I wanted to share some tips on improving the SEO of your LinkedIn Profile.

Before I start, I want to be clear that even if you follow these tips it is unlikely you will be screaming to the top of the Google search results. Having a blog that you update regularly is by far and away a more effective medium for improving your personal search rankings. However, if you are not that way inclined, or are already blogging, these things will not do you any harm and are worth trying out – even if it is just so you will have a completed LinkeIn profile.

Tips for improving the SEO of your LinkedIn Profile:

Complete your LinkedIn profile. Before doing anything else, make sure your LinkedIn profile is complete and up to date. There is absolutely no point in improving your search engine rank if the end destination does not represent you accurately. I wouldn’t go too overboard trying to game the system, but search engines do scan the information in your profile, so make sure you are including the keywords you want associated with your name.
Customise your URL. You can customise the URL associated with your profile to include your name, rather than the random sequence of numbers LinkedIn generates for you. URLs are incredibly important component of SEO, so this is a no brainer. (learn how to do this by watching the video below tip 7).
Pay special attention to your job title and location. Your location and job title are the only personalised pieces of information provided on a generic search for your name on LinkedIn. There is not often a lot of flexibility in job roles, but perhaps think about how you can present your title in the most effective way to include desired keywords.
Search result showing job title
Include your entire job history.People may be looking for you by searching for previous companies you have worked for. If these are not included in your profile then you may not be found. This is particularly important for people with more common names.
The result when you search Matthew Gain Howorth (an old employer)
Specialities. Make sure you fill out all the sections. A particularly good section for including keywords is the Specialities section. Google does index this section, so make good use of it.
Join related groups. There is an enormous value in joining LinkedIn groups beyond SEO. From an SEO perspective they help by associating the name of the group with your search profile. Search for Groups that are aligned with your professional interests. The Group names will typically include relevant keywords for you.
Customise your links. Rather than the generic, blog, company website or Twitter links that LinkedIn generates you can customise your personal URLs to generate more potential Google Juice. This is a little bit involved, so check out this handy video created by Mike Volpe of HubSpot.

Answer questions. I have heard it suggested that you can improve your search rankings by responding to questions on LinkedIn, thus creating link backs to your profile. I would imagine Google is clever enough to ignore this, but perhaps I am wrong? Irrespective, answering questions does raise your profile generally and is a good idea, so I have included.

As I stated above by following these you are unlikely to dramatically shift your search engine rankings, but they won’t hurt. Well worth an hour or so of your time in my opinion.

Are there any suggestions that I have missed? Do you disagree with any of the above? I am no SEO expert, so would love to update this post with additional suggestions or improvements.

This post of a series of posts I am making on SEO tips to improve your personal search brands. Other posts you can view are:

If you enjoyed this post why don’t you subscribe to my blog via RSS or email by following this link. Follow me on Twitter or connect on LinkedIn.

Full disclosure, LinkedIn is a client of my future employer Edelman, but they have had no involvement with this post.

If you enjoyed this post why not subscribe to my blog via RSS or email by following this link. Also whilst you're at it why not follow me on Twitter.

Filed Under: Featured, Personal Brand SEO, Professional Posts, SEO, social media Tagged With: Australia, Digital PR, LinkedIn, Search Engine Optimisation, SEO, Serch Engine Optimization, social media, Sydney

Forget #PRFail, what about #Journofail?

May 17, 2010 By Matthew Gain 20 Comments

Image by Greekadman - http://bit.ly/aqw05t

The title of this post was a bit of a link bait exercise, I don’t advocate the use of a #journofail hash tag, but I do think those of us in the PR industry need to end our fear of criticising journalists.

Tiffany Farrington, an Australian PR veteran and someone I respect a lot, recently published a post listing things that PRs dislike about journalists. The post contained a collection of anonymous irks PR people had sent in and was a good read. The post was not a rant, came on the back of a post which asked journalists what they disliked about PRs and was created with the desire of creating harmony amongst the community of PRs and journalists.

I loved the post and left a comment stating:

Thanks Tiff, refreshing to see the PRs’ side of this story told.

Whilst we may not work for the same side, our industries are undeniably intertwined. Over the years I have learnt lots about what to do and what not to do by paying attention to journalists in their articles, blog posts and presentations about how PRs should interact with them.

I hope journalists can benefit in a similar way from this post.

Frustratingly however, this was the only comment from someone in the PR industry on the post. Based on her high profile I assume Tiff’s blog is well visited, the blog was linked to from Mumbrella driving even more traffic, there were journalists that commented on it, so surely PRs were also reading it. Why then had none of my colleagues felt compelled to comment? My only assumption is that PR people are so concerned about the implications of criticising a journalist that it kept them silent.

The non willingness of my colleagues to speak up is not healthy in my mind. As I stated in my comment on Tiffany’s blog, whilst we have different drivers and objectives in our roles, the PR and journalism industries across many sectors (note I am not saying all) are undeniably intertwined. If those of us on the PR side are too scared to provide constructive criticism on how our industries can work better together then we rightly deserve to be treated in a subservient manner by journalists and continue to be frustrated by their actions.

I am not suggesting that en mass PRs should start airing their gripes with their journalist contacts, but when we experience mistakes, or poor practice (and this does happen), these should be addressed in a constructive manner. If we don’t, we risk a gap forming between our industries and a growing frustration on both sides.

In this spirit, my advice to journalists is to keep the mistakes us PR people make in perspective. PR agencies on the whole are filled with really smart, passionate and hard working people. PRs, like you, often work long hours in stressful environments with many demands. Sometimes this results in mistakes that frustrate you. Rather than launching into a tirade on Twitter, or elsewhere, when this happens, why not contact the person in question, or one of their colleagues you have a relationship with. Outline why their actions are causing you frustration and how they can avoid doing that again. I know you’re busy, we all are, but you might be surprised at how this small investment saves wasted time down the track and may even help you better achieve your objectives.

Of course I realise that in many cases what I am advocating above is the norm and there are countless examples of good relationships built on mutual respect between the PR and journalism industries. I am simply writing this post in the hope that we can increase these types of relationships and decrease the negatives ones.

I’d love to hear from PRs or journalists on reactions to this post.

If you enjoyed this post why don’t you subscribe to my blog via RSS or email by following this link. Or alternatively follow me on Twitter.

Filed Under: Media, PR, Professional Posts Tagged With: #journofail, #PRFail, Australia, Digital PR, journalism, journalist, PR, PRs, Public Relations, vs

The Google job experiment

May 14, 2010 By Matthew Gain 4 Comments

What a brilliant idea.

HT – Jack Schofield

Filed Under: Advertising/Marketing, Professional Posts, Web stuff Tagged With: Google, google adwords

The role for the CMO in Social

May 13, 2010 By Matthew Gain Leave a Comment

Forrester Analyst Mary Beth Kemp, has posted on her blog the graphic below outlining ways CMOs can be leading the integration of social across an entire organisation.

The role for the CMO in social

Following from the graphic I posted earlier in the week, I thought this was an excellent tool to break down the complex area of social into bite size chunks that are understandable and actionable.

It is worth noting that Mary points out in her post that whilst the CMO should be ultimately responsible for driving social, activity should be split across the entire organisation, which I couldn’t agree with more.

The only problem for me with this graphic, as commenters pointed out in my last post, is that this only looks at social from an external marketing point of view. Of course I understand that this has been created with CMOs in mind, but there is enormous benefit for using social from an internal point of view as well. Your employees can be amazing external advocates for your organisation if they are happy and given the right education.

Thus the addition I would make is an internal comms component. I think this would fall in the embrace section and should be in the form of an internal only community for discussion and education. Do you agree?

Filed Under: Advertising/Marketing, PR, Professional Posts, social media Tagged With: Chief Marketing Officer, CMO, forrester, Forrester Resarch, Internal Comms, Mary Beth Kemp, social, social media

What is Web 3.0 and how will it impact PR?

May 12, 2010 By Matthew Gain 9 Comments

If like me you have heard the term Web 3.0 and the semantic web, but aren’t really sure what it means then watch the video I have embedded below. It is around 15 minutes, but is well worth the time investment. If you can’t spare the time I have attempted a summary below it.

The mini doco is by Kate Ray, a NYU Psychology and Journalism major student. It is incredibly interesting and got me thinking about the impact of Web 3.0 on the PR industry.

As I note below, the impact and potential of the semantic web is difficult for even the experts in the field to get their head around, so this post is a fairly large act of hubris by me, but hopefully it is a conversation starter. I would love to hear your thoughts as well, even if they are to tell me I don’t have a clue.

Web 3.0 from Kate Ray on Vimeo.

My summation/major take outs:

It has never been easier to create content for the web. Every single Tweet is a new page that is created for the web. A pretty scary concept when you consider how often some people tweet. The outcome is that Google and the current tools we use to navigate and sort information on the web will soon no longer be able to cope.
The rise in choice and access to information is confronting for people. People want simplicity, not more access to choice.
The semantic web creates relationships between separate pieces of data to provide context and meaning. For example the semantic web may know that a CD review of Kanye West despite being given a five star rating by the reviewer may be of no interest to me because I have previously posted on Twitter how I dislike Kanye.
The majority of thinking is that ontologies (a sort of agreed system for labeling the web) are required for the semantic web to work. I personally can’t see how it will work otherwise, but also think any labeling system will have many issues and flaws.
Even the experts in this field have trouble imagining what is possible in terms of applications for the semantic web.

Watching this I tried to think about the impact web 3.0 will have on the PR industry.

The old way of doing business where managers look after the media in a given market will become redundant. How people make decisions or are impacted by influence will become more personalised than ever. The information people receive will be more about their past interactions, others they engage with online and the products they purchase and less about where they live.
The prioritisation of media will become more difficult than ever. In a world where information will be delivered in a niche manner on demand, the old PR economies of reach and influence matter considerably less.
PR and customer service will move closer together. As the importance of mass media declines and the importance of the individual rises, the separation between journalist and everyday individual will become pointless.
Everybody will become a company spokesperson. Building on the point above it will be impossible for traditional spokespeople to devote time to the growing number of on the record statements required. Rather corporate affairs and PR departments will need to train the entire organisation for influencer engagements.
The tools for monitoring sentiment will be dizzyingly complicated. Monitoring your PR reputation simply by looking at the major news outlets outlets will seem archaic (if it isn’t already). Instead, PR departments will employ specially trained analysers to make sense of the wealth of data required to understand the public sentiment towards an organisation.
PR will be even more important to an organisation. When everybody’s opinion matters, PR will be a paramount consideration in every decision a business makes.

You could argue the above points are where PR is headed now whilst we are still getting to grips with Web 2.0. Irrespective, I would love your thoughts on how you think the semantic web will impact PR. Do you agree? Am I way off the mark? What other impacts will Web 3.0 have on how organisations do PR?

If you enjoyed this post why don’t you subscribe to my blog via RSS or email by following this link. Or alternatively follow me on Twitter.

If you enjoyed this post why not subscribe to my blog via RSS or email by following this link. Also whilst you're at it why not follow me on Twitter.