Comments for Online Marketing - Marketing Don

Comment on Is Social Media Killing Social Media? by Rick Ferguson

Rick Ferguson — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 20:54:55 +0000

Dearest Al -

I agree with you almost completely. This may come from the fact that by no means am I a social media expert, and might not realize the true capabilities of it.

However, it seems to me that in order to become a reliable source for people to follow, one has to dedicate beacoups of time to sifting the gold from the silt. I’m not willing to do it, but I do rely on others to. Just like the PPC and SEO info sites I visit, I stick among the few that I know traditionally do a great job in summarizing news from a plethora of sources so I don’t have to do it myself.

I don’t think social media is necessarily on its way out, but I do think it must evolve to survive. I’ve recently been thinking how these changes will affect the marketing aspects of social media - while it may not make sense for a company to hire resources to become leaders - specifically because focusing the marketing strategy around 1 product or service isn’t likely to gain an abundance of disciples - it is likely to make sense to go out and find unaffiliated leaders who give their followers recommendations that are related to the site.

Rather than generating interest based around an extremely specific topic from a handful of sources, buying a few hundred leaders who already have followers interested in what your company is selling may make a significant difference to overall awareness, traffic and sales.

Yours,

Rick Ferguson

Comment on Is Social Media Killing Social Media? by Brian Chappell

Brian Chappell — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 19:49:05 +0000

Hey Al,

I don’t think Social Media per se is going anywhere.

There will always be a need to interactively reach out to customers online. The power of that is to great.

There is a distinct difference in time wasters and “real” social media.

I think we are at an early stage of this so called “transformation”.

Tons of these sites will not be around in 3 years, some will fall, some will rise.

I see your point though that no one body really controls social media like Google has controlled search. There are def. downsides to that.

Remember social media is simply conversation. How do you leverage conversation to obtain a positive end goal. That is the real question here.

Comment on Is Social Media Killing Social Media? by Linda Bustos (Roxyyo)

Linda Bustos (Roxyyo) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:42:10 +0000

At least some networks have a cute error page, although many people are seeing too much of the Whale…

Comment on Is Social Media Killing Social Media? by Al Scillitani

Al Scillitani — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:41:56 +0000

“Great insights, most of which you stole from our coffee conversation yesterday.”

If that was true, it would have been titled, “Wii’s at Starbucks” or “Why do Starbucks pastries have 4000 calories?” hhaha

Comment on Is Social Media Killing Social Media? by Nathania Johnson

Nathania Johnson — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:14:29 +0000

I am SO FAMOUS!

Thanks for the mention.

Great insights, most of which you stole from our coffee conversation yesterday.

Comment on Creating Unique Content For Google by Al Scillitani

Al Scillitani — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 20:45:02 +0000

Pat, Depends on the tags and content of each of those pages. If everything is the same execpt the image, then Google will most likely see it as dup content. You shouldn’t receive a penalty for this. Google will choose which page they feel is the most relevant and show that one based on the search terms used. If someone searches Horse pendants, then Google should be smart enough to show that page as long as you have title, meta tags, image names, alt tags, etc.. stating it is the horse pendant.
If there are penalties in place, it may be due to something else.
Wait! Did you say “Arabian Horse Jewelry” and animal jewelry? Where have I been? Never have seen this before. Nice niche!

Comment on Creating Unique Content For Google by Pat

Pat — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 13:54:27 +0000

in-site content problem I think — Please, what if jewelry categories are pendants, rings, etc, but customers also want to see the items presented on pages by animal breed ? It’s the same jewelry collection. Item #7 is on pendants page, then also on arabian horse page. Won’t google see this as duplicate content because product items are the same.
Question is how to do this, since it is of value to be searched by both jewelry pendants and arabian horse jewelry. Can’t figure it out, and I think there are penalties in place.
Appreaciate any input or suggestions.

Comment on Creating Unique Content For Google by Al Scillitani

Al Scillitani — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 01:05:34 +0000

Derby,

You wrote, “i assume a story from the wash post will rank higher than the same story that can be found, in total, on a news aggregator.”

That is correct. Google will take into consideration the origin of the original post and the authority of the site it is posted on. If you do not change that content, it is unlikely it will show up in the results.

Comment on Creating Unique Content For Google by derby

derby — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 22:17:30 +0000

great post. quick question: how does ‘duplicate content’ work for sites that aggregate content from a variety of sources from all over. i assume a story from the wash post will rank higher than the same story that can be found, in total, on a news aggregator.

Comment on Freaking Linkshare by Al Scillitani

Al Scillitani — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 02:05:16 +0000

Elaine, I have no idea. I know this has happened before with Linkshare and that is my bigget gripe.
Linkshare completely ignores the affiliates. No updates, no badgering of shaper image for information, nothing. We are their customers too. Without affiliates, their affiliate network is worthless.

It sounds like the “normal” process, is for Linkshare to do nothing and we (the affiliates) have to wait until bankruptcy court and IF we get anything in a few years, it will be pennies on the dollar.