Archive for July, 2007
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, July 31st, 2007
I see long tails all over the place these days. Its probably something to do with the book The Long Tail by Chris Anderson that I finished reading a while ago. A long tail market is one where the diverse needs of every consumer are met regardless of what makes them tick. I got to thinking about social networking and what happens once it goes beyond the masses. Will there eventually be social networks for every possible interest and segment of the population? Why not? the technology is there to do it and likely the demand too. I decided to do some research….
First everyone flocked to Facebook and MySpace – these are the popular “hit” services today with millions joining and interacting daily but change is afoot. I began to notice long tail applications within MS and FB such as the facebook dog club a social network for pooches (that incedentaly has over 270,ooo users) then I began to receive invites from other social networking applications aimed at niche segments such as Melcrum the social network for communicators, O’jeez the social network for entrepreneurs , and Naymz for professionals. Looking on Wikipedia for a list of social network I found 90 in categories ranging from football to gothic industrial culture.
Social networking is the perfect application to reach long tail maturity rapidly and I predict that today’s 90 social network sites will grow quickly to encompass corporate networking requirements as well as the networking needs of individuals no matter how diverse.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, July 27th, 2007
Outsmart Sales and Marking is going through a transition to focus on new marketing methods rather than traditional ones and during this time of change we’ve had 2 websites mirroring each other www.outsmartsales.com and www.out-smarts.com. We did this to give us the chance to tweak the new site until its right for launching (it’s still a work in progress – watch for a new look really soon). We thought that if we didn’t register the site with the search engines, didn’t promote links or use ads then no one would find it. How wrong this assumption has proven to be. I can safely say that the new Out-Smarts site is getting almost 75% of the traffic that the Outsmartsales one gets with no promotion at all, none, nada.
The reason for all this traffic is the blog itself. By blogging regularly and adding value the site is being noticed and gaining loyalty in the blogosphere which means increased traffic. Not only that but the Google juice is really flowing – when Googled the site has strong positioning and regularly appears high in the rankings. Not quite what you’d expect from a site that’s supposed to be flying under the radar until the launch in September. Just goes to prove that blogging regularly has true tangible benefits and measurable impact on the traffic to your site.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, July 25th, 2007
Worried that your good work could be plagiarised or that someone’s going to steal your thunder on the Internet and not reference your writing appropriately? There’s a solution to every problem and this one comes in the form of Creative Commons. An offshoot of a US non profit organisation , Creative Commons was founded in 2003 with the help of the University of Ottawa Law and Technology Program and the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic.
The service allows you to license your work easily and at no cost. With various different license offerings based on how much freedom you want to give people to use your writing and in which forums, Creative Commons steps you through an easy process to find the right license and then you simply download some HTML to your web-site and your covered like so:
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License
People using the works are then morally and legally obliged to use them accordingly (or not at all if you so choose). Whether or not people act appropriately remains to be seen and there’s also the issue of the global reach of the Internet with different laws governing different jurisdictions but if this plagiarism is a concern for you then Creative Commons is definately a step in the right direction to protecting your work.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, July 24th, 2007
There are many reasons to be cheerful right now, it’s summer in Vancouver the sun is out and all is well with this part of the world (we’ll it is if you don’t count the municipal strike). Reasons to be cheerful indeed but these aren’t enough to justify a serious blog article are they? My warm fuzzies are thanks to developments in technology and I see these improving business processes in the near future and making my life better in general:
1. There’s finally a real alternative to cable TV in the form of Joost. Joost is a new application that allows you to watch TV shows over the Internet (sign up to try out the beta if you can). Hopefully in the near future I will be able to watch what I want when I want without being bombarded with unwanted ads.
2. My pbwiki environment just got better – they’re incorporating spreadsheet capabilities not to mention voice and IM. We use wiki technology to map out and share processes internally and to track services provided so the easier it is to communicate in different media in one application, the more streamlined our business becomes, the better the service we provide.
3. For a while now its been driving me crazy that I have multiple different logins for every social network I track. Thankfully the Facebook people have recognised my pain and incorporated Twitter so that I can have a Twitter with my Facebook friends. Its nice to see the convergence of these Web 2.0 technologies and I am hoping there will be more integration in the coming months.
Reasons to be cheerful indeed – what a wonderful world!
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, July 19th, 2007
I thought I’d give you an update on the viral marketing book I am reviewing as part of the mini book expo for bloggers. The audio book came in the mail today – yippee! Unfortunately, I am not quite in the position to review the book “Guerilla PR Wired” yet. It comes in Iofy SD format but the SD doesn’t fit in my phone (mine takes a mini), I have an MP3 and not the supported iPod so I’m going to have to “listen” on my MAC – not exactly conducive for summertime beach listening is it? The blurb claims that Iofy chips and downloads are more convenient than CDs and cassettes but so far I’m not convinced: plain old paper is winning hands down right now in my view. More to follow in review when I get the chance to plant my bum at the MAC for 11 hours…..
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, July 18th, 2007
If you write a regular blog then you’ve no doubt suffered from blog writers fatigue. It gets us all from time to time: you wake up one morning and you have no inspiration – can’t think of what to write and can’t be bothered. Here are a few ideas that you can use to counter this symptom of blogging:
1. Read, read, read – open the newspaper, read articles in magazines and on-line publications and books: you’re sure to find inspiration for a post.
2. Share the responsibility – get other members of staff, partners and even customers to contribute to your blog thus providing a fresh viewpoint for readers.
3. Think outside the box – cover a topic that is peripheral to your business – one that you wouldn’t normally cover in a typical blog post but that is still relevant to your central subject.
4. Just do it – stop making excuses: you’ve started a blog and you see the benefit in terms of increased traffic – its takes discipline and commitment to have a successful blog so just quit the complaining and get it done – its worth it.
5. Take inspiration from every day experiences – Have you had an experience in your every day existence that strikes a cord? Share these experience in your blog. It could be as simple as a positive customer service experience or a negative one that made your blood boil.
6. Ask friends – this is my favorite one and one I use it often. If I am stuck for an idea for a blog post subject, I’ll ask friends and colleagues for suggestions. You will be amazed by the ideas a fresh mind can come up with. I have my husband to thank for this one!
7. Attended and event, trade-show, presentation or movie? – review it in your blog.
8. Been on vacation? – I like to use travel as an inspiration as it gives me the chance to review how things are done differently in other places and to share these new innovations with you.
9. Learned something new? – if there have been new developments pertinent to an old blog post there’s no reason why you can’t write an new post based on a previous one giving your audience an update on developments.
10. Reward yourself! – if your having a day when you’d rather have teeth pulled than write a post, then give yourself and incentive and reward yourself when its done. I have a penchant for chocolate so Green and Blacks here I come.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, July 13th, 2007
If you’ve been hanging around the blogosphere for any length of time you’ll probably have heard about Robert Scoble co-author of this book. I picked up the book because I had heard that he was a prolific blogger by night and a Microsoft employee by day. I new that he would have a story or two to relate about his blogging experiences and I was right.
Naked Conversations is a book that is written and structured well. It was easy to enjoy and doesn’t bog you down in technical jargon. It covers everything bus blog related from: what corporate blogging is all about and how to approach it (which companies should and shouldn’t blog); what types of blogs are out there; which companies do it well and which have failed miserably (and why). The book gives interesting anecdotes on companies that have harnessed blogging in different forums. It also looks at adoption rates across different parts of the world and considers why people have been fired for their blog posts.
This was a good read for me because its so pertinent to what I do. Much of the information contained therein wasn’t new to me but there were many nuggets of inspiration and anecdotes that I can draw on in my own business blog evangelism. I really appreciated the fact that it took on blogging from an alternative perspective from my own – that of the blogging well for blogging’s sake and the resulting positive business impact.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, July 09th, 2007
Of the 20.4m Canadians online, only 22 percent of these (according to a recent Ipsos Reid Poll) consider themselves to be technically savvy and one third of these rank themselves as not well skilled when it comes to new technology. If these numbers are mirrored in the business community then there’s a lot of people out there who simply don’t have a clue how to take advantage of the wave of new technologies out there that can help them grow their business. Blogging, social networking, podcasting and video broadcast technologies all offer new effective ways to help you spread the word and in so doing improve search engine ranking and positioning. Wiki’s are helping improve the communication flow within organisations as more and more companies recognise the collaborative value of these technologies.
If your company isn’t considering its social medai strategy it should be. Read The Importance of a Web Strategy by Gavin Heaton to find out more.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, July 06th, 2007
I don’t know about you but I am constantly bombarded by unwanted information and intrusions into my privacy in the form of TV ads, promotional inserts in magazines and newspapers as well as unsolicited mail. I’ve had quite enough of old ineffective marketing techniques thank you!
It would appear that I am not the only one. Lisa Barone writes an interesting article voicing her own frustrations with traditional marketing techniques and their inadequacies in Why Social Media Belongs In your Internet marketing campaign. She hones in on her favourite social media examples and raises the question “Your competition has already begun testing social media optimisation, have you?”.
Thankfuly Web 2.0 and the evolution of the Internet in general is putting control back in the hands of the audience. Collaborative Internet technologies are allowing consumers to become active in the marketing process rather than passive. We finally have a choice. Companies must take note of this and develop strategies to take advantage of social networks, blogging and blog forums, video and podcast campaigns so as to effectively market to a new tech savvy audience that has been jaded by old marketing techniques and wants control over the marketing it is subjected to.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, July 04th, 2007
I was recently lucky enough to be selected to receive a free book on guerilla P.R. tactics. In true viral marketing fashion word spread to me of a mini book expo for bloggers via a blog I read regularly called My Name Is Kate (thanks for the tip Kate!).
Turns out (much to my glee) that I’m not even getting a book but an audiobook chip that I can listen to on my Mac or MP3 or phone – just perfect for those days when the beach beckons.
Nothing’s truly free I hear you say and you’re right, it does come with a catch. I get the book for free on condition that I review it in my blog. So watch this space for a review of the audiobook itself called Guerilla P.R. by Michael Levine as well as a description of my user experience with the tiny memory card I am anxiously watching for the postman to deliver.
