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I’m not sure I can!
OK, where do we start for this weekend’s update?
Google added +1 last week – you knew that, I’m sure, and already there are a rake of articles about how to add +1 to your blog, as well as whether this is Quality vs Quantity again, undermining Google’s relevancy scores.
Would you like to guess how many more hours it is before the spammers take this on and put a farm on to adding +1 to every site they believe should rise in the SERPs? Is it included in the algorithm or just in personal results? Either way, how will these social signals affect your search results?
Then, hot on the heels of Google’s +1, comes +K. If you don’t know what Klout is yet, start checking the CVs that come in to your recruitment department. The “standard for influence” is this year’s hot topic right now. Although, I would like to say that putting a log in pop up box on your site without a Close button is about the most irritating part of Klout; however, I am about to reveal other irritations with it.
+K (and +1) appears to be an opportunity for 1000s of people to leap out of the woodwork and ingratiate themselves to others because ‘Klout matters’. Says who? Read this about “The Emperor’s New Klout” by Anni Bricca
Twitter this morning is ripe with +K on this and +1 on that. It may be the fastest way to lose Twitter followers yet invented ;o) Or it could be that those who have established themselves amongst their following ride this storm whilst they discover the effects….we shall see.
I need to write a Part 2 for this update.
Coming up….Empire Avenue and WWDC – Apple’s Dev conference. And a few other bits and bats!
On an average day, you may spend time on Twitter, aggregated news sites, dedicated news sites (eg BBC, CNN, NHK), Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, Digg, delicious etc.
What generally happens at the end of the day is you have anywhere up to 100 tabs open that you mean to come back to. But, tomorrow is another day. And the whole round starts again…..open a tab, read a little, click a link, watch a video, tweet, new tab, follow a link, new tab, download a white paper, new tab. ETC.
So, how do you stand out in this endless round of websites and social media impact?
Somewhere, in the recent 1,000 sites I have visited, (ie in the last 3-4 days) is a site that caught my eye. Sadly, because of the insufficiencies of the search engines to revisit the sites I have been to in the last day or two, I cannot lay my hands on it. But it stood out.
Which, you have to admit is rare for a website. Why did it stand out?
Because it behaved exactly the same as an app that I use on the phone – FourSquare. Little pop up saying I’d earned the New Visitor (or similar) badge as I entered and scrolled through the article I had found on one of the major news aggregation sites. It also linked me to others who had found that interesting. Some of whom I know and respect.
Enough to stay? Nope. But the article was good and had links to other related material. So, I clicked within the site links and started reading more. (Good sign – we like sticky sites that help you find other content of interest).
A couple of pages later, I got a new badge and was encouraged to register to the site to keep my badges. And return. By then, I was actually quite interested in the site and knew I would return. So, Sign up- easy, email plus first name.
I kept reading, bookmarked a few items as relevant for my research, and inevitably, eventually, moved on.
No-one from that website has been in touch. My life and requirements for writing have moved on so I haven’t searched for them. I can’t remember where that site is for the life of me. I could go through each day’s bookmarks but I simply don’t have time.
That website has a willing visitor, if I could only remember where it is. I don’t have time to look, but a single email reminder saying:
1 week ago, you looked at the following articles…….. Since then we have added all this related news….
and I’d be there in a flash.
If you create sticky content, add funky functionality, and set up CRM systems that allow you to keep in touch with those who fall over your website….please, please, please use them!!!
LinkedIn have decided to make the most of their 90+ million members and have created a LinkedIn News section which highlights the stories referenced by their members on the website.
These are split into categories such as Marketing & Advertising Industry, IT, Online Media, Telecommunications etc, allowing users to quickly find the top stories of the day being shared across the LinkedIn network.
This complements the Signal service which brings together all the news from those within your own network on LinkedIn, and both services offer a great opportunity for companies to disseminate news about their own businesses across a wide audience. Stories are picked up by the number of “Shares” and tweets so it is worth building your network of followers across both Twitter and LinkedIn to encourage promotion of your items.
Once again, this is a reminder that you need to be constantly creating content which can be shared amongst and beyond your followers.
Google Farmer Update
There are, as always, loud cries of foul play from some whose sites and pages have vanished down the rankings. “Too reactionary” “Not well thought out” “Where has my site/business gone?”
Is the noise any louder this time than after MayDay, NoFollow, or any of the other Google updates? The growth of Twitter means that it feels louder, but whether it necessarily is would be difficult to measure.
However, there do seem to be some well-established sites which got caught in the crossfire this time. As the Farmer update occurred just as Apple prepared to launch the iPad2, sites such as Cult of Mac seemed to get penalised. Others with almost wholly user-generated content – no spam or scraping – also suffered.
Google have claimed that no significant changes have been made to the Farmer update i.e it has not been tweaked in response to the noise, although it appears that Matt Cutts briefly appeared on Twitter to pacify the Cult of Mac webmasters. And Cult of Mac is back in its rightful place in the SERPs, or so it seems.
The moral of this story is, of course: do not put all your eggs in one basket. In other words, do not rely wholly on the search engines for your traffic. Last weekend, Google the Infallible accidentally deleted 150,000 Gmail accounts. The majority are now back, but it is a salutory lesson to all that problems with technology can occur, and if your business relies on the Internet to succeed, you need to be investigating as many ways as possible to bring in the sales.
(Oh, and have you backed up all your data stored in the cloud recently?!)
For some people, creating new content is a struggle. It really needn’t be. There is fresh content to inspire you all over the Web. However, you should always create unique content, rather than copying someone else’s work. Internet marketing, whether it is SEO, SEM, PPC, Web PR, all relies on informative, keyword rich content to work properly.
Use the resources below to find exciting content to get your creative juices flowing in no time.
Squidoo – so many people maintain their lenses (or mini websites) regularly, and there are thousands of people who follow specific lenses and encourage the authors to post more often. Look for the top ranked lenses on your keyword, or most recently updated.
Delicious – is one of the many social bookmarking sites and offers a wide variety of search mechanisms which will open up thousands of new sites for you to investigate for inspiration. Others include Digg and Stumbleupon – feel free to add more in your comment below.
Twitter – it’s really quite staggering how many Tweets are now sent each day, and the search feature is becoming ever more useful for finding latest news for particular niches. When it is working, that is!
Alltop – is a funky news site (but be warned: you can get lost in here easily, so use the eggtimer to prevent that!)
That should keep your pen busy scribbling on the paper for a while with all the news and views that are available.
Which sites help you to develop new content, write blog posts, or just get into heated debates with colleagues?! Let us know.
From today, readers of Google news items will find their access limited to 5 items per day from certain sources – the majority of which are those who have been vociferous about search engines carrying their news for free. Announcements by the likes of Rupert Murdoch that Google is profiting from their work, and giving it away for free to people who then avoid paying subscription rates etc have been headlines for several weeks.
Some media groups have already made the shift to charging for online news content eg Johnston Press, who are charging £5 for a 3 month access to news on their website. It has to be seen how this will succeed in light of the speed that news now breaks on Twitter and so on, from citizen journalists as well as professional sources.
Is a new model required now that the internet has brought instant news access rather than yesterday’s news in tomorrow’s chip papers? Or will the major media groups find a way of extending the paid model yet further? Only time will tell.
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Two worthwhile reads for the day. Firstly, some sound business advice from the BBC, and secondly, some research from Pew about the importance of the internet for news items.
The first piece highlights the importance of the 360 degree view of your business and the opportunities right now to re-structure for the long term. The second highlights the need to include your business in the news.
