Google is making plans to turn its +1 button into a crowdsourcing tool that helps it re-order search results and fight web spam.
While not surprising, the move would bring Google’s search engine into the social networking era, while simultaneously creating a new avenue for blackhats to manipulate search results and potentially incurring the wrath of trust-busting authorities.
via Google Explores Re-Ranking Search Results Using +1 Button Data | Epicenter | Wired.com.
I wrote these 25 commandments as a panic response 15 or more years ago to an invitation to do some media training for a group of Elsevier editors. I began compiling them because I had just asked myself what was the most important thing to remember about writing a story, and the answer came back loud and clear: “To make somebody read it.”
The Knight-Mozilla News Technology Partnership (also known as MoJo), recently completed their inaugural Knight-Mozilla Learning Lab on August 5, 2011. The 60+ participants each worked on a final project and submitted a short video pitch to describe how their project works. These end result is the production of a software product which could be integrated into a news organization.
You may think you’re defending your favorite platform, because it’s just that good. But, according to a recently published study out of the University of Illinois, you may instead be defending yourself because you view criticisms of your favorite brand as a threat to your self image. The study, which will be published in the next issue of the Journal of Consumer Psychology, examines the strength of consumer-brand relationships, concluding that those who have more knowledge of and experience with a brand are more personally impacted by incidents of brand “failure.”
via Consumer Fanboys Confuse Brand Identity With Their Own | Wired Science | Wired.com.
There is more information out there than ever before, but thanks to shifts in the media world there are fewer reporters. This means that it can be increasingly difficult to attract the attention a story deserves (or that you think it deserves).
Based on my experience as a network television news producer and my years on the other side of the fence in strategic marketing and communications, I have compiled 10 commandments of media outreach.
A great infographic from elisaDBI offering a guide to tracking social media as part of your online marketing mix.
The ROI is always a hot topic and one of the key questions marketers are are asking before giving the go ahead for campaigns. Some of the topline numbers are surprising. For instacne 50% of companies are unsure of the value of being on LinkedIn and 53% are unsure of the Twitter’s ROI. This gives a step by step guide beginning with defining the key performance indicators (KPIs should be measureable) through to checking your strategy.
via The guide to measuring the results of your social media strategy [infographic] | The Wall Blog.
In a recent report from Exact Target (a global Software as a Service leader that connects customers with organizations through marketing), it’s been found that daily active Twitter users — AKA, the consumers who actually reach out to or follow brands via Twitter — are 3x more likely to amplify the influence of that brand than, say, a Facebook user would.
Who are Twitter users and why are they so important to your brand?
Of the users who are active on Twitter daily:
72% publish blog posts at least once a month
70% comment on others’ blog posts
61% write at least one product review a month
61% comment on news sites
56% write articles for third-party sites
53% post videos online
50% make contributions to wiki sites
48% share deals found through coupon forums
In essence: What happens on Twitter doesn’t stay on Twitter.
via Twitter users are more likely to impact your brand than any other social network.
News organizations that have turned to Facebook to power their website comments say they are seeing a higher quality of discussion and a significant increase in referral traffic.
How does Facebook Comments reduce the endemic name-calling and invective of unrestrained online forums? By tying a real name to every comment.
“Trolls don’t like their friends to know that they’re trolls,” explained Jimmy Orr, online managing editor of the Los Angeles Times. “By using Facebook, it has made a difference.”
via News sites using Facebook Comments see higher quality discussion, more referrals | Poynter..
Plenty of newspapers and other mainstream media entities are happy to use social tools like Twitter and Facebook to promote their content, host comments on their news stories in order to build traffic, and otherwise try and take advantage of the web. But while some are making strides in actually connecting with their readers — including Forbes magazine, which just launched a new “social news” design — few are taking the steps they need to in order to really engage with their readers. That’s partly because they don’t really know what to do, according to Joy Mayer, who just finished a Reynolds Journalism Institute fellowship looking at media engagement and has released a practical guide for newsrooms.
via Memo to newspapers: The future of media is a two-way street — Tech News and Analysis.
The number of Facebook users in the US will increase 13.4% this year, eMarketer estimates, after 38.6% growth in 2010 and a whopping 90.3% rise the year before. The rate of adult Twitter user adoption has similarly begun to plateau, dropping from 293.1% growth in 2009 to 26.3% this year and still slowing. In many developing countries, these and other networks are seeing their audience growth taper off as most new users come from other countries such as the BRIC nations and Indonesia.
via What Changing Social Media Usage Means for Marketers – eMarketer.