Fake blogs, bribing bloggers, and corp speak. Can companies think of any more ways to screw up their public image?

In an article in iMedia connection, B.L. Ochman, one of my fave PR bloggers, gives us an overview of the social media campaigns that failed, and the ones that didn’t.

She profiles campaigns by companies like Ford, Wal-Mart, Microsoft and Sony, that got brickbats from the blogosphere, and those by Dell, Netflix and Lego, that led the way to a more enlightened handling of social media campaigns.

Ultimately the message that comes through strongly is:

• Be Authentic
• Build a Community
• Think Out of the Box

Read her excellent analysis of What Kills a Social Media Campaign.

The funky guys at WebProNews have an interesting take on social marketing and your online reputation. They believe that

Social marketing is quickly becoming an integral part of generating business online. While search is the on-ramp, social networks are the destination. And just like any social setting, your rep is important.

Just in time for Mother’s Day, Jason Lee Miller writes, in his article titled, “Mom’s Guide To Social Marketing”, how following your mother’s advice can keep you out of hot water in the tricky, new Web 2.0 world.

Here’s Jason’s list of “Mom’s Top 10 Steps To A Good Online Reputation”, paraphrased for brevity.

1. Create visibility. Show up.

2. Don’t be a wallflower. Participate.

3. Do the work and keep your nose clean.

4. Use everything you’ve got, and then some more.

5. Understand your audience. Be interesting and linkable.

6. Keep your friends close.

7. Think before you speak. Words have a much longer lifespan (and greater reach) online.

8. Be real. Be authentic.

9. Mind your manners. Do unto others…

10. Stay on the ball. Stay updated.

And, last but not least, don’t forget to send your Mom that mother’s day gift.

It’s about time bloggers set a code of conduct, not only for writing, but also for tolerating what sort of comments they will tolerate on their blogs. Arecent New York Times’ article notes:

A few high-profile figures in high-tech are proposing a blogger code of conduct to clean up the quality of online discourse. Last week, Tim O’Reilly, a conference promoter and book publisher who is credited with coining the term Web 2.0, began working with Jimmy Wales, creator of the communal online encyclopedia Wikipedia, to create a set of guidelines to shape online discussion and debate. Chief among the recommendations is that bloggers consider banning anonymous comments left by visitors to their pages and be able to delete threatening or libelous comments without facing cries of censorship.

Having been at the receiving end of nasty comments myself, I think it’s is a good start to cleaning up the blogosphere. It’s not about restricting freedom of speech. It’s about making the blogosphere safer for people who want to express themselves freely without being subjected to cyber-bullying and hate attacks. Besides I believe that my blog is my home online. And it’s up to me to decide who I want to allow on my turf.

My personal policy for blogging and commenting is just that it should follow the rules of common human decency. I don’t mind the comments, just the sentiment behind them. I don’t write anything on my blogs that I would not say to someone in real life. Nor would I tolerate comments that I would not tolerate in actual conversation. And that is what blogs are - a conversation.

I do, however, make an exception for critical comments posted with good intention, and reply to these with like intention. Honest criticism is always welcome, because it’s what makes blogs so valuable as a medium for marketers to communicate with their audiences.

It’s the comments posted solely for the purpose of being nasty, that I delete, and advise you to delete them too. Not because I give a damn for what the “trolls” think, but because I simply choose not to allow negativity into my life. As the Blogger’s Code Of Conduct states,

We believe that feeding the trolls only encourages them — “I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it. (George Bernard Shaw)” Ignoring public attacks is often the best way to contain them.

The Blogger’s Code Of Conduct guidelines, that were based onTim O’Reilly’s post, are excellent and I agree with them, to a large extent.

1. We take responsibility for our own words and reserve the right to restrict comments on our blog that do not conform to basic civility standards.

2. We won’t say anything online that we wouldn’t say in person.

3. If tensions escalate, we will connect privately before we respond publicly.

4. When we believe someone is unfairly attacking another, we take action.

5. We do not allow anonymous comments.

6. We ignore the trolls.

7. We encourage blog hosts to enforce more vigorously their terms of service.

Another issue raised by the NYT article was that of vandalism and misuse of photos posted by well-read bloggers like Heather Armstrong. As a mother, I have (what I believe are) valid concerns for my family’s privacy. Because of the likelihood of photographs being copied and vandalised, morphed or misused, I avoid posting any that identify any member of my family clearly, and rarely share anything that’s very personal (except my opinions, and some travel photos) on my blogs. Email is, and will always be, my preferred medium for sharing personal photos. But that’s me.

I think it’s the well-read and/or controversial bloggers who are more likely to be targeted by vandals and cyber-bullies (Ah, the price of fame and book deals!). So the ordinary blogger, like you and me, will, hopefully, not have to worry about being targets, except for the occasional troll who wanders along.

The NYT article also mentions attempts to get bloggers to adhere more strictly to a journalistic code of conduct, which I believe, will go a long way in making blogs a more credible source of information and eliminate the objections that some critics have to the “dark side of blogs.”

Talk about creating several sets of guidelines for conduct and seals of approval represented by logos. For example, anonymous writing might be acceptable in one set; in another, it would be discouraged. Under a third set of guidelines, bloggers would pledge to get a second source for any gossip or breaking news they write about.

I think anonymous blogging might be valid in countries where political freedom is suppressed, or where certain views might be considered to go against religious sentiment. Bloggers weild wield a great deal of power in the wired world, and increasingly, in the mainstream media. It would be wise for the blogging community to remember that “with great power, comes great responsibility” and weild wield their pens with humility and respect for others.

Now will someone please come up with a solution to zap those spam comment posters?!!

Via WebProNews I learned that the guys at SEOmoz interviewed 37 leaders in the world of organic search engine optimization (SEO) on the various factors that are estimated to comprise Google’s ranking algorithm, and came up with an awesome summary representing “90-95% of the knowledge required about Google’s algorithm”.

Personally, although I keep up with the search engines’ changing algorithms, I never build sites solely around these factors. I’d rather focus on creating authority sites with unique content, using a mix of both, online and offline marketing and PR tactics. Unique content ensures that your Pagerank doesn’t fall, and is more likely to attract inbound, one-way links. It’s worth spending good money on creating unique content. On the other hand, the PLR content and article mashers that everyone is using, are a huge waste of time and money.

Keep in mind that websites that are user-friendly, easy to navigate, and provide the user with relevant and useful information, are also likely to be bookmarked more often by users. All the experts agree that social bookmarking is going to become even more important to your rankings in 2008.

I also think that repeat traffic will become more important (given that Google most likely has access to your user’s cache), so having a subscriber database, to which you can email updates and newsletters that bring visitors back to your site regularly, should always be part of your marketing mix. Despite the inroads made by RSS, email is still one of the most important ways of sending out updates.

It’s important to keep building links slowly and consistently, using press releases and article marketing, with some blogging and social marketing thrown into the mix. If you’re into video and podcasting, they can be valuable tools to build traffic, too.

I’m currently reviewing Mike Cheney’s Traffic Videos, and they’re an excellent resource that cover a wide range of marketing techniques - which really, is the best way to build consistent and repeat traffic to your website. Though there’s something in there for everyone, white-hat and black-hat, I’d avoid the black-hat if I were you.

But if you’re a serious search marketing expert, the SEO Report on Google’s Search EngineRanking Factors is available here and is essential reading.

Happy New Year, folks! I’m back from Goa and I’ll soon be posting some photos of my vacation on my Goa Beach site. This time I just visited my family so that my daughter could meet her cousins and be pampered by all my aunts. Also pigged out on Goan food so much that I HAD to make a New Year’s resolution to join the gym and work off all the holiday pounds.

I came back to this nice, insightful article by Rohit Bhargava of Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, in which he take a stab at predicting the Top 7 Marketing Trends for 2007. I’ve paraphrased his points to reflect my own take on these predictions.

1. Corporates become more human: We’ll continue to see more “corporate bloggers” and more touch points for customers to interact with the true personality of a brand. Social media will play a bigger part in overall marketing strategy of corporates. The launch of sites like Sunsilk Gang Of Girls by HLL, clearly targeting their female audience, is evidence that the trend is even catching on in India in a big way.

2. Marketing with Widgets: Offering a free tool or widget has bcome an accepted marketing technique for marketers looking to offer a quick introduction to their service, or those seeking to create an online connection with customers.

3. SEO Is Dead! Long Live SMO!: It’s official, people. SEO is dead! Even hard-core black-hat SEOs now admit that their SEO practices are earning diminishing returns, and that SEO must evolve into what is being described as Social Media Optimization. SMO involves building traffic through blogs, tagging, social bookmarking and creating buzz online, moving far beyond linking strategy and smart SEO into the marketing mainstream. Hooks to allow site visitors to easily share and bookmark content may become more commonplace than those ubiquitous “email a friend” links, notes Bhargava.

4. AutoTagging and AutoSorting: In 2007, we will see more solutions like this that offer autotagging, autosorting and the next extension of this technology … auto recommendations, where new content of any format can be recommended and people can find new content more easily.

5. Social Bookmarking or Human Filtered Search: The exponential increase in the amount of content online, thanks to blogs and video sharing sites will continue to lead online users to search beyond the algorithm for new ways of finding information. Social bookmarking involves people sorting content on the web, creating their own groupings and sharing that with others.

6. Contentcasting via RSS feed: Contentcasting, spurred on by the now ubiquitous use of RSS, and the growing number of online users that have taken to RSS feeds in a big way. This includes videoblogs, audio podcasts, and frequently updated content in any area of the site - from a blog to a newsroom.

7. Online Identity Shifting: Having and sharing your identity online is hot right now. The appeal of sharing our lives with those we care about - through blogs, photos, videos, podcasts - will continue to represent a force in driving more people towards social media.

Within these online representations of self, brands and products will continue to play a large role. People will talk about products they like and don’t like - they will share brand experiences, and they will even become brand ambassadors for products and services that they care about. In this world where individual lives are shared online, there will be huge oopportunities for marketers in 2007, concludes Bhargava. I concur.

Tags: online marketing; seo; search engine optimization; blog; blogging; social-media; web 2.0; podcasting; public relations; social media optimization; tags; tagging; folksonomy; RSS

In this WebProNews video from the SES on capitalising on social media, Converseon CEO talks about how search engines give social media significant weight, which means that negative feedback in blogs and other social media about your company or product could make up 60% of the top ten search results.

Monitoring the social media for brand reputation can help you “find the ripple on the water before it becomes a tidal wave.” The number of journalists reading blogs is phenomena, says the interviewl. I know this from personal experience because I’ve been interviewed twice by journalists who found me through my blogs.

The panel also discusses the ethics of incentivized word of mouth marketing and how flogs (fake blogs) are not the way to go for companies looking to include social media in their public relations strategy.

I wanted to share a brand new site to help you leverage the power of Web 2.0 (social networks, bookmarking sites) to bring new traffic to your websites.

Web 2.0 Secrets is a 6-week teleseminar series detailing every single trick, tactic and technique the experts use to drive a massive amount of free visitors to their sites every single day… and how you can do the same.

In it you’ll learn how to capitalize on the blazing fast growth of Web 2.0 companies like Myspace, Technorati, Digg and others to instantly attract an unlimited supply of new prospects and customers to your websites for free.

Listen to this audio interview on Web2Secrets.

Writing articles for the internet is not the same as writing for print media. There are some common mistakes that writers make online that are likely to lose them potential readers and traffic.

Writers need to understand that people have very short attention spans while reading online. If your article doesn’t address their immediate concerns or is difficult to read, all they have to do is click away - and you end up losing a reader.

If you’re a writer who wants to leverage your articles to get maximum traffic and ensure that your readers enjoy reading it online, here are some guidelines you should follow.

1. Find Out What Your Readers Want

The best way to boost your visibility online is to provide specific information that people are searching for. While researching topics for your article, input your root keyword into the keyword research tool here to find out what keywords people enter into search engines while researching your topic. Keep a list of these keywords handy when writing your article and use them in creative ways.

http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/

Search for information using keywords related to the topic you plan to write about on the sites below, and see what other people are writing about it.

http://www.ezinearticles.com
http://www.technorati.com

Get familiar with these resources. They will help you focus your writing around the needs and interests of potential readers. Write articles that address those specific needs and your traffic and visibility will skyrocket.

2. Give Your Keywords Prominence

I recommend that you never stuff your article with keywords. It doesn’t work anyway, and it will make your article unreadable and useless. Always write your articles with the reader in mind.

However, do remember that search engines give more weight to keywords that are included in specific locations in your article (a concept known as keyword prominence). So while writing your article, it’s good practice to include your keywords in the following locations in order to leverage them for maximum visibility.

Article Title: Try to include your primary keywords in the first half of your title.

Article Sub-head: Use a catchy subheading for your article and try to include synonyms for your keywords.

Paragraph titles: Include specific keywords related to your topic in your paragraph titles

3. Get More Readers With A Catchy Title

A catchy, topical or provocative title will always attract more attention and get you more click-throughs and readers, but always en sure that it corresponds with the theme of your article. Titles that are catchy but misleading are not appreciated by either publishers or readers.

4. Boost Readability For All Your Readers

There are two kinds of readers online those who read an article in detail, and those who scan through it. For the sake of the latter, break up your articles into paragraphs, each of which makes a point, and use a title for the paragraph that effectively sums up the points you made in the text.

Write a catchy title for each paragraph. Keep your paragraphs short. Long riffs are difficult to read online. I usually prefer a maximum of 2 to 3 sentences per paragraph, but longer is acceptable. The use of bulleted points and numbered lists also boosts readability.

5. Follow Good Language Guidelines

Unless your audience comprises other writers and poets, few readers appreciate long-winded and pretentious prose online. Remember that the average visitor online reads at the level of a sixth-grader. So keep your sentences short. Use words that are simple and easy to comprehend.

Write complete sentences, but keep your tone conversational. Write as though you were talking to a friend. Avoid the use of slang, colloquialisms (unless necessary to make a point) and swear words.

Always check for blatant grammar and spelling errors using a spellchecker. If possible, get a second and third opinion on your article before sending it out to publishers and article directories.

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Copyright © Priya Shah

Priya Shah is a partner in the blog publishing company, Connect10 and writes an internet marketing blog. Visit Article Writing Tips for more article marketing tips and tools.

This article may be reprinted as long as the resource box is left intact and all links are hyperlinked.

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Adotas has a nice article by veteran PR executive,David Parmet, on why advertisers should bet their money on social media, as opposed to traditional media.

Besides the usual reason that the internet, and social media in particular, provide you with a targeted and engaged audience, one that you know is relevant and paying attention, he also discusses some interesting ways to pitch bloggers, and how you can support a traditional media campaign by targeted social media outreach.

Especially, if you have a limited advertising budget, you might want to try diving into social media to spread your message, he notes. Check out the article “Sock it to ˜Em Socially” here.

Methinks the easiest way to build a list nowadays is to write up a report and name it “The Death Of”, followed by whatever-it-is they’re talking about.

A while ago, it was Scott Boulch’s Death of Adsense report and now Mike Filsame’s written a new report titled, The Death Of Internet Marketing. Yawwwn!! I can just see another one on it’s way titled “The Death of Google Adwords.”

So what do I think about the latest report? Well, though well-written, you’ll find it says little that’s new. Especially if you’ve been keeping your ear to the ground and are aware of the changes that have been taking place online. And you don’t do that by confining your reading to newsletters from your favourite IM gurus.

No, you gotta read the mainstream marketing newsletters, like Marketing Vox, IAB Smartbrief, and if you live in India, Agencyfaqs and Aloo Techie. These are essential reading for smart internet marketers.

So what does the latest report state that we already know?

1. Internet marketing is saturated

Yeah, duh-uh!! I mean, aren’t we just soooo sick of getting the same old mails from all the lists we’re subscribed to? Too many gurus, too many products, too many JVs, too few clickthroughs. Little surprise then that I’ve unsubscribed from most of them. And opted out of doing JVs altogether.

2. The NICHE is where the money is

And that’s supposed to be news? At least he gives due credit to the book that started it, The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More, in which Chris Anderson revealed how “countless niches” are market opportunities for those who cast a wide net and de-emphasize the search for blockbusters. As I said in a previous post, the reason I got out of the IM niche is that I prefer to work in a few good niches that I’m passionate about, creating a great resource around that niche. I hope you have the good sense to do the same.

3. Web 2.0 is the new internet

User-generated content created by online communities (blogs, wikis, social networks, forums) is crucial for a business to grow online . These websites pull in loads of repeat traffic through unique content and viral marketing. YouTube is the most cited example. (While you’re there check out the video my brother made of my 2-year old nephew, Shane, banging away on his Dad’s drum kit. Ain’t he adorable?!)

Few people have the vision to understand how important it is to create an online community around you or your business. I hope you’re not one of them. I recommended this strategy to a client of mine almost a year ago, advising him to create a social networking site around his niche. We started with great enthusiasm but other priorities killed the initiative.

However, I did end up learning a lot about how social networks function and got the opportunity to test out some scripts. If you do want to start your own social networking site, the software I recommend is the AlstraSoft E-Friends online social networking software. It’s one of the best scripts I’ve tried. Of course, you’ll need a programmer to customise it for your site. And don’t start another “me-too” network. Try something new. Create a community around a niche no one has discovered.

As for me, I’ve spent the better part of the last six months nurturing a lively community of single women on the Ryze business nework, since I didn’t have the time or resources to start my own networking site. I’ve also started a blogging portal where I share revenue with bloggers whose blogs I help promote. I also share my take on spiritual and relationship issues with readers on my Soul Kadee blog.

And you know what? I LOVE what I do! Because it allows me to help people in so many ways. And for me, being of service is what my life is all about.

Going back to Mike’s report, he does go on to give some good ideas for creating businesses that will generate loyalty with customers and affiliates, as well as some important tips for keeping your business out of trouble with the authorities. And since the Death Of Internet Marketing report is free, I suggest you read it (and help Mike build his list while you’re at it ;-), of course).

Tags: the long tail, web 2.0, user generated content, Online Community, YouTube