SiteProNews

Posted: 09 Sep 2011 09:55 AM PDT

Maintaining a blog is about much more than simply presenting the latest news in the life of a person or a brand. A good blog is about conveying the writer’s personality and interests to his audience. To that end, the comments section should be one of the liveliest parts of a blog. In addition, there should be an array of links available to promote similar or interesting sites for the readers, and the content should be on-topic and creative.
One of the most interesting things about the web is the ease with which people can organize events. Flash mobs are a great example of this: A quick handful of tweets or SMS messages, and kids show up at a public school to perform an elaborate dance routine in protest against bullying. Blogging can take advantage of this same phenomenon, using the web to advocate causes or interests that appeal to their readers, increasing readership by making waves in the online pool.
Blog-a-Thon
The original signature blogging event, and likely the one that did the most work in bringing blogging to the mainstream that it now enjoys, Blog-a-Thon is an annual, 24-hour event. Bloggers sign up, then write posts continuously for 24 hours in order to raise money for charity. Rules vary, such as writing a post per hour, or having to write a guest post on another blog every third hour. Donation schemes also vary, with some readers contributing set amounts and others paying per post.
Above all, this is a charity event. But at the heart of it, Blog-a-Thon is also a significant publicity tool. People used to coming by a blog just a few times a week can check in constantly with their favorite blogger. It’s a creative challenge for the writer, as well, both physically and mentally. It can do wonderful things for a blogger’s career, allowing them to exercise their mind in unique ways and open up a kind of pressure valve that overwhelms writer’s block in a wave of pure content.
Blog-a-Thon took a hiatus in 2010, but is slated to return this summer.
Blogging Circles
A blogging circle is very similar to a writing circle. A handful of bloggers, typically at least 5 but potentially many more, get together and agree to write on a particular topic. One begins the chain, putting together the initial post on the topic, and “tags” the next blogger at the end of the post. They pick up the chain and run with it, and it goes on and on as the thought evolves.
This is a great way to develop some cross-audience interest between blogs, encouraging the readers of various blogs to look into new places and grow the audiences of each. That’s one of the interesting things about blog audiences — they aren’t like political party members, only able to help one entity. If the same 500 people read 4 blogs, each of those blogs has an audience of 500. So share those readers, and try out a blogging circle.
NaNoWriMo
National Novel Writing Month is an interesting event. For 30 days in November, participants are expected to write continuously, about 1,700 words a day, until 50,000 words are reached. Depending on the focus of your blog, taking advantage of NaNo can be an interesting change of pace for your audience. It is particularly popular among creatively minded blogs, though brands focusing on activism of some stripe may also find it enlightening to participate as the blogger crafts a story about the topic the readers are interested in.
The idea here is to post either excerpts from or the entire contents of the day’s writing output. This brings the audience along in the formation of the story, very similar to the serial format of novels Charles Dickens was so famous for.
Again, this isn’t for everyone. Nuts and bolts blogs about home repair or market analysis will probably find little overlap with NaNo’s mission.
Inside the Box, Outside the Box — Whatever You Do, Think!
The idea isn’t that all or any of these events is necessarily appropriate to any given blog. Each one has its merits, but our aforementioned market analysis blog may not find any of them particularly useful. However, most blogs will, and even those that don’t can find some manner of event to participate in that can gather the attention and promote new interest from its readers.
The key is to be willing to innovate and try new things. Blogging isn’t a hard-and-fast science; as said above, it’s largely personality-driven. Talk to other bloggers and gain their insights about such events. Consider organizing a miniature blog-off of your own, or try out the writing circle idea every Friday for a month. If someone suggests a different type of event you haven’t heard of, give it a try.
The audiences on the web have a reputation for being unforgiving, but that’s only half the picture. People like routine and will stick around for their favorite sources of information even if they try a few experiments that don’t quite work out. The key is to be honest about things, and to always try to engage your audience with any particular experiment.

Enzo F. Cesario is an online branding specialist and co-founder of Brandsplat, a digital content agency. Brandsplat creates blogs, articles, videos and social media in the “voice” of our client’s brand. It makes sites more findable and brands more recognizable. For the free Brandcasting Report go to http://www.BrandSplat.com/ or visit our blog at http://www.iBrandCasting.com/
Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Blog Management – Go Blog Wild

The Era of the Social Media Snob

Posted: 09 Sep 2011 09:46 AM PDT

What is this new type of snob?
What is a social media snob? Well I have a feeling you already know, but here is an example.
This is the person that has spent the last 3-7 years making “lots” of money using social media marketing or blogging and teaching others how to do it. And while they are selling you marketing products off their blogs or websites, they tell you that you must engage with your customers in order to make money. They instruct us to make money by doing what they did, which is to listen to your customers, know them, give them value, understand their needs, blah, blah, blah…..
Then what you see with this new type of snob is that once they have made the money, or sold the book, or gotten that high profile job with multi-mil corporation, they appear to be done with us (us – being the customers that got them there.)
This became prevalent to me during the roll out of Google+ with the numerous posts about the “Pluserati” and “Google Plus recommended users.” As I happily went about adding people that I thought would add value to my social networking experience, I noticed that I was only going to be allowed a status of social media groupie to these established snobs.
Since it is obvious then that we were not going to be social media buddies, then at the very least I would hope that by following you I would gain some value from your status updates, but this is not what is happening. Instead we get to see pictures of what they ate, their favorite art, who they are hanging out with (usually more social media snobs), their deep thoughts and musings, and gallingly, more pitches for their products. The best example of this so far is one that gushed on their profile about this new sharing experience on Google Plus and how excited they were to participate in this growing community. Know how many people this person is following? 3!
Really? It appears that now that they have a captive audience to “share” their information, which diminishes in value by the post, they do not appear to be very interested in what I have to share. Yes, I realize that the new social royalty cannot pander to their entire kingdom, but including a few thousand of their “customers” to be able to do exactly what they preach would probably add a bit of credibility to their profession. These people are not celebrities who gained their money and fame in ticket sales and TV appearances. “Those” celebrities never promised us anything other than a good performance, so if we choose to follow them without their attention, that’s on us. But to have the very people that evangelized a social media society where you “connect” with your base for growth and money making snub us?
Now I’m not going to call any one specific person out on the carpet here, but let me give you a few examples of the imbalances of the social media pundits that have elevated themselves to snobbery. Remember, these are all people that have made their money off of the social media machine by either selling products directly off their blogs or by promoting the strategies on their websites. I will show you the following to follower ratio. These ratios are taken from both Google+ and Twitter. You tell me if you think any of these people are listening to their audience anymore.
Followers | Following
164027 137
53,550 3
52,208 74
53,614 94
19,459 20
I did find one good example of a recent social media mogul/author of 35,031/12,018. Now that is a decent ratio of followers to following. I will be paying attention to this social media expert more often. It is noteworthy to mention that not every successful social media expert falls into this new snob category. You get a sense from many of them that a sincere effort is made to share information that continues to grow the relationships with their connections. This is the person you may want to take note of and continue following as a trusted resource for future products and knowledge.
I do not begrudge anyone their rise to fame or wealth, in fact, I applaud them and I am happy for them. What irritates me with this specific group of people is the hypocrisy of their message. They have made their money from a platform of “social sharing” but they really only want to perform “social pushing.” To me, this mentality is nothing less than a high profile snake oil salesmanship and I caution the new social networking enthusiast – buyer beware.
What will you do?
Does this mean I won’t follow them anymore? I don’t know yet. I’m thinking about it. I know one thing for sure – their credibility has gone way down with me. I will think twice before buying any more of their products and I look forward to a new generation of social media celebs that get into this industry for more than an ego platform. I caution new social media enthusiasts to try it before you buy it. Research the products and services offered by the so called experts. Having a large amount of followers or writing a book does not equate to authority. It is the quality of your followers and their engagement with each other that is truly valuable in this industry. Do your social media experts engage with social media other than to “push” products? Do you get value from information shared? Do they appear to be connecting to their customer base?
As you go forward in your quest to social networking greatness, keep these thoughts in mind when you lean into others for learning and growing. You cannot truly be considered an “expert” in social media unless you practice it. Using social media as a platform to push products is certainly not against social media law or anything, but it is much less appealing than those that share their expertise based on real experiences. The social networking and internet explosion was bound to create this beast, but the wise social media novice will take their time to discern the gold from the gold plated. And, if you run across a true social media snob – just giggle, then push the “unfollow” button.

Joleen Halloran is the owner of ZoomIT Marketing, a Social Media and Internet Marketing Coaching and Training company. Joleen has extensive business experience in project management, leadership, marketing, and specializes in motivational techniques and corporate culture. Visit ZoomIT at http://zoomitmarketing.com.
Joleen is an avid reader of books and other materials related to her profession, but also to her special passion, which is metaphysical and spirituality topics. Ms. Halloran has read over 100 books related to metaphysics, spirituality, Western and Eastern religion, and law of attraction. Joleen is currently working on her how book, Finding Home – Breaking Free from Limits, which she hopes to have finished later this summer. Joleen blogs about books at http://beyondbookreviews.com.
Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

The Era of the Social Media Snob

Captcha Is Hard

Posted: 09 Sep 2011 09:30 AM PDT

I am a judgment matchmaking specialist (Judgment Broker) who writes a lot. This article is my opinion about how Captcha and other challenge systems may have gone too far, far further than they should.
Captcha stands for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart”. The words were first used around 2000 by Luis von Ahn, Manuel Blum, Nicholas Hopper, and John Langford of the Carnegie Mellon University.
Turing is the name of a repeatable test of a computer’s ability to behave with human-like intelligence. If a computer can fool a person into believing they are communicating with another human, the machine passes the test. The test was introduced by Alan Turing in his 1950 paper, “Computing Machinery and Intelligence”.
A Captcha or a challenge system, is a test to see if you are human. It is usually text, pictures, or sounds, that automated computers and robots cannot understand. In the beginning, such tests screened out people with vision problems, hearing problems, small children, and those with mental challenges.
Now, most Captcha or challenge systems only allow those with perfect vision, perfect hearing, and people who can solve a specific computer puzzle. In the old (pre-2007) days, the tests were usually simple.
Back in 2007, estimates (seen at TechCrunch.com) were that 160,000 human hours per day were spent solving these puzzles, at 10 seconds per try. I would guess that number is closer to a million human hours per day by now, when you factor in the number of times some must retry to get the puzzles solved.
Simple is what is needed. When one visits Captcha.net, one sees a simple example that almost anyone can solve. The problem is, now, the actual tests are designed to defeat optical character readers (OCRs). The words or numbers are garbled so much that the average person has to retry a few times.
When I say garbled, I mean not even the average teenager can figure out what it says most of the time. It is time to move back to simple Turing tests for instance adding two numbers, or a simple distortion of some text, or asking someone to pick all the names from a list of words.
To make matters worse, great effort went into making an alternative for people with vision problems. There is usually an “audio” button where you can listen instead of read. Try it sometime, and test how “understandable” the audio is to you. And of course, you cannot be on the phone, on Skype, watching TV, or listening to anyone or anything else while taking audio tests on web sites.
One benefit of the many web sites using Captcha or other challenge systems, is that at least one company, reCaptcha, used test results to help improve OCR on computer systems that scan and read old books and text.
Google purchased reCaptcha in 2009. Good for them, let’s try and make it is good for the rest of us.
When Captcha or challenge systems are too difficult, most people must try several times, and people with vision problems – forget about it. That is not right.

Mark Shapiro – Judgment Broker – Free leads for Judgment Enforcers and contingency collection attorneys. http://www.JudgmentBuy.com – is the best and fastest judgment solution, where Judgments quickly get Purchased or Enforced by the best!
Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Captcha Is Hard

Blog Writing Tips: Keeping Content Fresh

Posted: 09 Sep 2011 09:19 AM PDT

Content may be king, but to torture a metaphor somewhat, even the most brilliant crown can grow tarnished. Generating good content isn’t always an easy thing, and it requires a great deal of effort to avoid getting into rote postings and halfhearted content that isn’t of the quality a blog and its audience deserve.
A lot already has been written about the common mistakes bloggers can make. Text walls, keyword cipher content, bland posts on stuff that’s been covered before — these things are not good. But simply pointing out what not to do isn’t very helpful. After all, anyone can “not do” certain things. But as any fiction writer worth the name will say, listing and focusing on all the things one isn’t going to do results in one not doing anything at all. There has to be a positive focus and some manner of a goal. To that end, what are some of the things bloggers can do to keep their content fresh and interesting?
Step 1 — Alternate Angles
Keeping content interesting doesn’t necessarily always involve doing something completely and utterly unrelated. It can, instead, involve taking a new approach to the tried-and-true material at hand, and coming at it from a new direction that brings together previous posts in a different way.
For example, consider a blog focused on consumer advocacy and customers’ rights. The main focus of the blog could be on specific instances of consumer abuse, such as dangerous products or other examples of corporate irresponsibility. This is an example of a highly-specialized blog with a narrow intent.
However, posting all the time about corporate abuses might get disheartening — both to the writer and the reader — so the blogger should try introducing a post series on corporate hijinks that are more hilarious than harmful. A practical example of this is the Cake Wrecks blog; while the main content is specifically focused on truly terrible cake designs, the blog also features a “Sunday Sweets” post series focusing on cakes done particularly well.
Step 2 — Fresh Faces
There is a lot of debate in the blogging community about the value of guest posters. Without going into all the assorted arguments, the fact is that if a blogger trusts someone enough to let them submit a post for publication, it can be a valuable tool for a number of reasons.
Guest posters offer several opportunities for the experienced blogger. They can establish networking options between the audiences of the respective writers, particularly if drawn between blogs. If drawn from the comments section, they can give the blog audience something to aspire to and more reason to become active with the blog. In the special event that a blogger can get a big name in the field to write a post, the credibility and prestige of the blog generally benefits as well.
Step 3 — Cause Crusades
Many of the more successful blogs touch on some manner of major social issues. Consumer advocacy, personal rights, political freedoms — each of these topics is the subject of major discourse in the world at large. Many people in a blogger’s audience probably want to do something to help out with a cause, but they aren’t sure how. They might not know how to check out a nonprofit’s credentials the way a savvy fundraising blogger might, or might not know specific organizations related to their personal cause of choice.
Blogs are a great force in the field of micro-transaction fundraising. If a blog has even 5,000 followers and can convince them to donate 50 cents apiece on average, that translates to $2,500 in real dollars raised. That money can pay for quite a few things, be it advertising space, medical procedures or even a research grant for a small lab doing vital inquiry. As an example, consider the success of Penny Arcade, which leveraged its extensive comic and blog audience’s goodwill to create a charity dedicated to giving sick children as many games and reading materials as they could. It’s one of the fastest growing charities in history, and started as “just an idea.”
Step 4 — Evading Ennui
Sometimes there isn’t any way to get around the fact that a specific topic is played out. Be it the activities of a certain politician, a specific corporate scandal or even a general topic such as free speech, people eventually get tired of writing and reading the same material. Sometimes no new news stories come up, or there isn’t any fresh information to cover.
In such cases, it’s perfectly acceptable to switch topics. Perhaps the topic change need not be exceptionally drastic. Consider the earlier example of a consumer advocacy blog. Perhaps there simply are no new or funny stories to cover that won’t seem boring or rehashed. This might be the time to discuss the theory of the blog, the “why” angle behind the matter. Our blogger could write a post explaining his or her personal experiences with corporate indifference, or discuss the good that consumer advocacy has done for people in the past.
Other times, the change could be as drastic as can be. Maybe a blogger just enjoys a particular band or bit of music, and writes an entirely personal post sharing the music and how they came to love it. The readers get a personal connection, and the blogger can let his mind work on the big problems again.

Is Your Brand Worth Professional Treatment?

Posted: 08 Sep 2011 10:00 PM PDT

You may not remember the 1950s but the so-called “Golden Age” of television was in general pretty bad. Yes, there were some great, groundbreaking programs, but there was also a lot of crap, especially the commercials that for the most part were emotionally and psychologically clumsy despite their pseudo-innocence.
We may be nostalgic for Speedy Alka Seltzer but it hardly stacks up to the Evian Baby T-Shirt videos that to my mind were even better than the more famous Roller Babies, a campaign where technical gimmickry overpowered the message. Of course in the 50s, the medium was new and the technology was rudimentary, especially by today’s standards.
With an audience raised on radio, TV producers could get away with almost anything, but today’s audience brought up on television and big budget movies expect and demand a far greater level of presentation sophistication.
If you want to communicate to today’s Web audience, you have to understand the techniques used to make your message understood and memorable. And just as importantly, you have to understand the negative impact of video presentation inadequacies. When we speak of ineffective communication, we are not just talking about technical issues like poor lighting and audio room tone, but more importantly poor messaging and mediocre performance.

Audiences Demand Quality Marketing Presentations
The days of face-to-face meetings are all but gone; even the telephone has become a worthless marketing tool thanks to the auto-call-robots harassing everyone with pitches for duct cleaning and cheap windows and doors. Today people rely on email, text messaging, and social media. These venues have their place for couponing, contests and discounting: promotional tactics that work for nationally advertised brands that have the budgets and built-in demand to take advantage of every marketing platform. Unfortunately these venues are not conducive to delivering a branded marketing message with the style, sophistication and nuance needed to convince an audience to buy a non-nationally advertised product or service. If you’re an entrepreneurial company, you have to think like one, not like Procter and Gamble.
Websites Are Still The Most Valuable Venue
Websites are still the most important marketing resource for prospects trying to find information about a product, service, or brand. Websites are the new phone directory, encyclopedia, catalogue, news magazine and shopping mall all wrapped into one customizable, brandable, multimedia resource. And when it comes to engaging a media savvy audience, video on your website has the potential to deliver the impact, immediacy, and the mind-altering persuasion needed to increase sales – if you know how to use it.
With easy access to relatively inexpensive hardware and software it’s easy to become a “shooter”. Just about everyone owns a video camera and with a little practice, anyone can become proficient in using it; but that is not the same as producing a commercial message. It’s your business, and if you want it to prosper, you better find someone who knows how to tell your story in a way that will make your audience care.
Hiring an outside professional video communication firm to develop your video presentation may seem like an extravagance but you have to ask yourself, how much is your reputation worth?
What Professionals Bring To The Table
No one has more pride in what they do than owner-managers of small and medium size businesses, and one could argue that running a SME is far more difficult than running a major corporation. SME executives are so involved in running the day-to-day operations of their businesses it is not surprising they don’t have the time to develop the cutting-edge skills required to implement a Web video campaign in-house.
In the long-run, quality video marketing will bring in more business, expand your market penetration, and enhance your image and reputation. And isn’t that worth investing in an expert who can get it done.
Multi Function Creative and Technical Skills
In order for a video to communicate a marketing message effectively it requires a variety of creative and technical skills including scripting, lighting, audio, videography, photography, editing, special effects, and sound design. Getting by with hackneyed images, stock music, templates, and amateur shooters and presenters will ultimately reflect on your image and cripple your ability to convert visitors into customers.
Conceptual Brand Understanding
There are times when it’s difficult for everyone to see the forests-for-the-trees, and working from dawn to dusk on day-to-day problems leaves little time to think about your business from a conceptual point-of-view, but that’s just what professional marketing companies do.
Every experienced marketer understands that campaigns based on features alone are not the way to move product and grow businesses. Promotional campaigns based on discounting, sales, and contests are nothing more than short-term fixes with little long-term payback and the danger of turning regular clients into discount junkies.
There has to be something more behind a marketing campaign; you need a conceptual basis for audience acceptance. Developing an effective video campaign requires someone who can turn your product, service, or brand into an emotional aspiration. Marketing success requires going beyond the “need” into the realm of “desire.”
Creative Courtship
Marketing is like romance; you have to woo your audience with style and substance. It’s one thing to take a date or your spouse to dinner at some fast-food joint, it’s quite another to take her to a five-star restaurant. Both may fill the need but only the gourmet dinner will light the fire of desire. Marketing is no different. If your video presentations are nothing more than a burger and fries, it’s time to start thinking of filet mignon, but even an expensive meal can cause indigestion if the chef doesn’t really know what he’s doing.
Experience
Professional video marketing firms produce material for a variety of companies in many different industries. That kind of experience can be a valuable asset in developing a campaign approach that works for your business.
An experienced producer will not only know what works and what doesn’t, but he or she will also know how to save you money by not allowing you to waste your budget on costly ineffective concepts, stunts and production techniques.
It’s An Investment Not A Cost
Web video production must be viewed as an investment not a cost. Doing it right means hiring the right company who knows how to develop a presentation that enhances your image and attracts attention. Homemade or semi-pro efforts may seem like a bargain at the time, but they will ultimately turn out to be a costly waste of resources that can do more damage than good; then again if you sew your suits, act as your own doctor, and grow your own food, perhaps you don’t need a professional.

Jerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design and marketing firm that specializes in Web-video Marketing Campaigns and Video Websites. Visit www.mrpwebmedia.com, www.136words.com, and www.sonicpersonality.com. Contact at info@mrpwebmedia.com or telephone (905) 764-1246.
Post from:
SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Is Your Brand Worth Professional Treatment?