We had an interesting variety of stories that were hot last week on our sister site, Sphinn. A discussion that was started by Sphinn member marketingmyinternet asked if Twitter will be the first of the major social networks to die. That question was our most-discussed story over the past week, and included our Comment Of The Week from Sphinn member JMagary of Boomient Consulting:
I think there is way too much talk of ‘THIS’ is going to beat out ‘THAT’ on the web, as if the web isn’t still rapidly expanding, and as if it’s going to run out of room to hold a vast array of interesting sites and ways to communicate.The most likely scenario for Twitter is that they’ll get acquired, which would be a smart move for them, because their underlying premise (microblogging) is pretty simple and can be easily replicated by FB and others. Twitter was just the one that got it right, first. What they offer is cool and will last, especially since they keep adding functionality, and since the public consciousness keeps finding new uses for it (like keeping tabs on breaking news).
Meanwhile, an article about Daily Kos’ plans to Googlebomb next month’s elections also drew several comments, and an article about Google’s search URL parameters was the most tweeted story from Sphinn last week.
Here’s this week’s recap of hot stories on Sphinn.
Most Comments
- Does anybody else think that out of all of the major social media networks Twitter will be the first to die out? – Being in the internet marketing industry, I have a pretty extensive knowledge on the subject and a wide of array of tools I use for my internet marketing arsenal. The thing is, I was extremely reluctant to get a Twitter account for my works because I think micro blogging networks are almost useless. Although I do agree micro blogging sites like Twitter can greatly help businesses or advance a celebrity's agenda, I think it will be the first thing to fizzle out of all the social media avenues out there. Any thoughts?
- Yahoo! Closing UK & Ireland Directory – From the Help section of Yahoo! UK Directory: The Yahoo! UK & Ireland Directory will be shutting down on 18th of November 2010.
- Top 10 Most Frightening Mistakes SEOs Will Make This Halloween – Link building mistakes, what not to do!
- Gap's Failure Wasn't the Logo – This article is good, but fails to reveal the truth. Gap got a crappy logo for $12.99 at some cheap design shop, put it online, and waited for the outcry. Suddenly 17% of their customers saw GAP all over their screens. What an awesome SM campaign! Costs: $12.99 + maybe $1,000.00 for handling the communication. I bet they'll see the opposite of a drop in their sales stats, and acquired lots of new customers who felt comfy with their handling of the reactions.
- Social Media & ROI – Are we ever going to “get it?” – Peter Shankman brings us back to the basics of why any marketing is done – ROI. And why focusing on followers and likes is the wrong approach in social media. From the article: "If you walked into your boss's office with a marketing plan that involved spending twenty million dollars on advertising, two Superbowl ads, a bunch of events, and fourteen different venue advertisements in nine cities, and the goal of the plan was “to make people like us,” you’d be kicked out on your *ss so fast, it’d make your head spin. So WHY IS IT OK to do the same thing by changing “marketing” to “social media?” It’s NOT!"
- Daily Kos Launches Googlebomb Against GOP Candidates – Daily Kos has launched a grassroots-based search engine optimization campaign called "Grassroots SEO" for short. "The goal of Grassroots SEO is to get as many undecided voters as possible to read the most damaging news article about the Republican candidate for Congress in their district."
Most Tweeted
- The Anatomy Of Google Search URL Parameters – Know your PWS from your NUM, as a way to make Google Search do what you want right from the address bar? Learn your query parameters alphabet, and you'll be a "command line" whiz plus learn about what Google's tracking.
- New: Submit News Tips via Twitter – Starting today, you can now submit news tips to Sphinn via Twitter. It's easy: just add "tip @sphinn" into your tweet. This makes Sphinn even easier to use, and opens up Sphinn to all Internet marketers — not just our registered users.
- How to get Additional characters in Google Ad Copy – Nice little loophole in a recent Google AdWords update that allows advertisers to get 30 characters in their headlines and 38 characters in their description lines.
- Top 10 Myths About Domain Names – If you only pay tangential attention to the domain name industry (or pay it none at all), I think you'll find this to be a good read. Mark Fulton shares his thoughts on domain availability, benefits of .com over other TLDs, buying and selling domains, and more.
- 10 foolproof ways to promote your app in the App Store – The App Store houses over 250,00 apps. Even if users know exactly what they’re searching for, it can be difficult to find a certain app. Nothing is more frustrating than designing something like an awesome RSS reader for the iPhone only to end up buried on the fourth page of the search results for “rss readers.” Here are 10 tips to conquer the App Store and make your app stand out.
- Google News SEO Tips & Ranking Factors – Andrew Shotland provides a detailed and comprehensive list of things to do and avoid when trying to rank in Google News.
Hot On Sphinn: October 11 to October 17, 2010
- Why Twitter Is Massively Undervalued Compared To Facebook – In-depth comparison and analysis at TechCrunch on the differences in how people interact with both Twitter and Facebook and how their interaction relates to each medium's commercial viability.
- Crafting an SEO Budget to Maximise ROI – Excellent post from Rishil – looking at how to establish a budget for SEO.
- Could Facebook Be Bluffing On Search Engine Plans? – Pete Cashmore speculates on comments made by Mark Zuckerberg who claims Facebook has no interest in building a "truly personalized search engine" Really?
- Thoughts on Business Titles (for Local Search) – David Mihm cautions against submitting "spammy" business titles for local search, but also argues that sometimes adding geographical modifiers to the titles would actually help searchers even though Google doesn't allow it.
- How To Help Clients Through Link Building Confusion – There’s no doubt people are confused about link building. They are confused about what to believe. They are confused about which advice to follow, about which tools to use, how much money to spend. They are confused about what tactic will work, and what tactic will get them in trouble. And, as much as I wanted to speak in a deep Linkmoses baritone and calm all their fears with a brilliant link building sermon, the truth, from my perspective, is that there is no right or wrong way to build links.
- 7 Difficult Client Expectations You WILL Encounter in SEO (And How to Fix Them) – Scott Cowley details the most common issues affecting the successful outcome of an SEO campaign and recommends SEO's and their clients agree on goals and expectations before a campaign is launched.
- Updates to AdWords Search Funnels Reports – Michael Harrison asks: Are you using Adwords Search Funnel yet? If not you should, Google recently added features to the reports such as an increase in the conversion history window and a way to sanitize conversions that were potentially affected by cookie deletion bias.
- Ranking for Keyword + Cityname in Multiple Geographies – Local search information from SEOmoz designed to help those of who are aiming for better rankings for keyword + cityname combinations in cities across the country (or around the world).
- Google May Be Smart, But SEMs Aren't Stupid Either – Rob Garner shares his views on the controversial Adwords session: "Inner View: Google's Keyword Research Tools" from SMX East last week,
- How Google May Use Categories as a Search Ranking Factor – Bill Slawski discusses the question "Does Google determine categories for pages and for queries, and can those play a role in how it ranks pages in search results?" based on a patent filed in 2004.
- Google's Marissa Mayer Promotion Signals Future of Search – Why was Google's highly visible Marissa Mayer moved to Local Services this week? Was she punished or being pushed to the next "BIG" thing at Google? Louis Gray thinks the latter and weighs in with his thoughts.
- Tons Of Usability Resources To Win Arguments – A goldmine: This collection of awesome UX resources is most definitely one for your bookmarks menu, because from time to time when speaking with clients it becomes necessary to have material to backup the statements which you are making. Sometimes clients will suggest things such as forcing all users to register with a six page long form before they can even access the site. They aren’t web professionals, it’s not their fault for not knowing that this isn’t a good idea from a usability perspective. Read on.
- Greek Coffee Fused with SEO Twitter Streams – Lyndon Antcliff reflects how Twitter can be a great BS detector and how stepping away from the computer to experience life ultimately aids in building your online empire.
- Bruce Clay asks Avinash Kaushik 4 Questions: Kick-Ass Web Analytics! – Jessica Lee did this great interview. Please read it! Excerpt: "Bounce rate is just a diagnostic metric. From a website visitor’s perspective, it reports on this phenomenon: 'I came. I ped. I left.'"
- Bing, Now With Extra Facebook: See What Your Friends Like & People Search Results – Danny Sullivan provides one of the first reviews of the big Bing/Facebook news that Bing has a deal to show what your Facebook Friends like directly in the Bing search results.
- What Is User Experience Design? Overview, Tools And Resources – A great overview of Usability along with useful tools and additional resources.
- Google’s Reasonable Surfer Model: A Scalable Solution to Paid Links? – Ross Hudgens shares his thoughts on how the "Reasonable Surfer" patent and model from Google may negate the large majority of paid links. An interesting point of view on the subject of paid linking.
- Do SEO’s Bear the Burden of a Company’s Conversions? – Let me guess. That “specific goal” is a 70 – 100% increase in conversion rates in about 2 months of a mix of organic SEO and PPC. Without needing to read any farther, I know what’s being asked for. It’s a combination of high page rank, high position in SERPS, a sharp increase in traffic and a miraculous leap from that to increased sales. It’s that miraculous leap that CEO’s and management are asking for, without having any clue what it means. They just want it. And, they want it in writing and guaranteed. Or the SEO is banished from the kingdom
- Are We Getting Mixed SEO Ranking Signals? – Speculation time! In this week’s post I review scenarios where I believe that Google’s alleged ranking signals might not be what we accept or even conform to guidelines published in Webmaster Central help files.
- When Networking Falls Short, Your [Lack of] Success Will Follow – Tamar makes a compelling argument that people need to build relationships before asking for favors in social media (and everywhere else). Social media etiquette is necessary for social media success.
- Sales Psychology: Why People Won’t Pay Your Rates – Pricing your services is always a tricky thing. This post by Peter Shallard provides some of the psychology behind it in hope that you will not be afraid to charge what you're worth.
- How To Fight The Social Media Stigma – This is the argument for why you should use social media marketing, and includes useful statistics as to why it's important.
- Blame One Of Calacanis’s Own 5,000 Facebook 'Friends' For Putting Him In The NAMBLA Group – Danny Sullivan's explains how only people who you've accepted as a Facebook Friend can add you to a group, but that it would be preferable to be invited and have to accept the invite.
- Mt. Everest Getting Not So Rave Reviews on Google Maps – Mt Everest may survive a few fraudulent reviews, no starbucks, no bathroom facilities, Yeti's?! In local search monitoring and managing reviews becomes of utmost importance.
- Google's Marissa Mayer Takes New Role in Location, Local Services – Bloomberg reports: Marissa Mayer, Google Inc.’s vice president of search products, is taking a new role overseeing location and local services — markets the company is counting on to boost sales. She's being replaced by Udi Manber
- How Retargeting Can HURT Sales – Some fraction of buyers will place an order on the first visit to an advertiser’s site. Some fraction will leave and come back later. If all the people who leave before buying are shown re-targeting ads, re-targeting will get credit for a big slug of orders that would have happened anyway in addition to order legitimately inspired by re-targeting.
- SEO (Usually) Does Not Create Demand – Aaron Wall explains how getting a specific brand to rank for terms as well as location is less about refining SEO efforts and more about building demand.
- Twitter shortens the six degrees of separation to five – Interesting study by Sysomos which found that the most common friendship distance on Twitter was five steps which is down from the old six degrees of separation that we had in the 'old days.'
- CNN Says Shared News Leads to Advertising Engagement – At Marketing Pilgrim, Cynthia Boris recaps a CNN study called POWNAR which stands for “power of news and recommendation.” For the study they tracked the sharing of news through social networks and they also used eye-tracking and biometrics to study engagement.
- How To Impersonate Eric Schmidt On Facebook (and get away with it) – Here's how Michael Arrington of TechCrunch impersonated Google CEO Eric Schmidt on Facebook. Anyone else wondering why he'd want to?
- Consequences Of Going Rogue On Twitter – What happens when an employee goes rogue on a social networking site? Great case study by David Meerman Scott of what happened and how H&R Block handled a touchy situation on Twitter.
- Internet Marketers, Tear Down That Wall! – Frank Reed talks about how insular the search marketing and social media industries are and provides some suggestions for reaching more than just the same old same old.
This is the latest in a weekly look at the stories that were “hot” on Sphinn in the past week. We’ll post these recaps every week.
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