Recently, numerous political groups have been quite up front about their intent to exert authority over different parts of the online world. It seems everybody want to rule the Web.
The set of government initiatives to control the web appears far more organized and comprehensive than the users and industry groups these regulations would effect. In short, there’s a boom in government’s aspiration to run the Web. And that boom feels like a power grab to claim turf that today mostly belongs to individuals.
It’s been six months since my post that 2010 investment in digital marketing would occupy an increasing share of marketing dollars. Since then, Oracle, CDC, and Hearst Media have taken the leap.
And now, social business software company Jive has taken a $30M series C investment round from Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers (KPCB). Here’s the press release announcing the investment.
This milestone will allow Jive to move into a new category. Imagine Jive going up against other new social entrants (ie. Salesforce) or providing social tools as an enterprise social platform.
As they ramp this new capability for revenue growth, expect investment in the brand and talk of a 2011 IPO to fuel them way up the hype-cycle.
Yesterday I tweeted about a technique for using images to get traffic statistics on Facebook fan pages. While sizing traffic on social sites is fascinating, the playbook for many businesses is to acquire awareness on social sites and then drive qualified leads to the corporate site for deeper engagement.
If you can segment social traffic, then you can measure its behavior. And if you can record the touch points, you can attribute a portion of your demand generation to social media.
But how do you segment social media traffic in order to study it?
There are two ways you can break “social traffic” out from everything happening on your corporate site.
Use link tagging. This lets you mark the source of traffic (such as “medium = social media”; source = “twitter”; campaign = “account name”), by using very long links. Then you can create an advanced segment to watch how visitors marked with these different variables behave. In fact, Webshare Design has a free toolthat codes these tags in long URLs, then shrinks them for use in your posts and tweets.
Segment the traffic based on the referring domain. Simply create advanced segments that recognize the domain “source” of traffic. Anything arriving from Facebook, Twitter, bit.ly and so on can be made into a social segment.
As your list of referring domains grows, it’s a good idea to make multiple segments, so you can compare all the domains related to Twitter, to Facebook, and even sites where you’ve commented about your corporate pages. This lets you see all inbound social traffic and then compare various sources.
Again, this measures only a small portion of your firm’s social interaction and benefit. Some people won’t visit your corporate site, but you have increased awareness and perhaps preference. Others may return repeatedly and be seen as “direct” visitors. But these two free and easy first steps will start to show how social sources are driving traffic to your corporate site. And you’ll get an idea, based on comparing these sources through advanced segments in Google Analytics, if they are more or less qualified than your corporate site’s average visitor.
And even if you only have a modest budget, a lead management system (such a Eloqua or Marketo) can help report on and credit all the campaigns and properties that transform anonymous visitors into leads.
A friend of the blog emailed this question last week. He’s new on Twitter and wants advice on getting going. What would you say?
Q: How does anyone know I’m on Twitter? Spam?!
A: People know you’re on Twitter because you use it
Okay, let me put some meat on that bone.
Why do you want to tweet?
You ask how does “anyone” know. You probably don’t have enthusiasm to communication with just anyone though. So think some about groups you care about. Are there shared topics, experiences, businesses, or geographies that connect the people you want to talk to? Would these audiences prefer your personal and professional comments separately, or mixed together?
Think in terms of what groups matter to you; where you have something to say. Where do you want to be part of the buzz?
At some point the number of followers is meaningless. There are studies that show little difference in impact between people with thousands vs. tens of thousands of followers. So, think about what audience matters to you, and what you can do that matters to them.
People often first find out about you because you follow them
Anyone who is seriously using Twitter has a nose for “follower spam.” Here’s what a few Twitter friends said they look for before returning a follow:
I took about 10 days off from blogging, and I noticed a few things changed in my life. First up was vacation, both for me and the fantastic copyeditor who is the first reader of most this blog’s posts. This was also a chance to start work on some related web projects that I’ll share with you just as soon as they’re ready for human eyes.
There was definitely more time for running in the mornings, and I put more in to the blog’s Twitter feed. If you haven’t checked out the usefularts twitter feed, please take a look. It’s another way to visit about what interests you and find interesting topics that aren’t quite right for a full UsefulArts blog post:
There is always more I’d like to write about, and too little time. As in life; so in blog. I appreciate your emails, and expect to be answering some starting tomorrow. There’s a ton happening in digital marketing and the law, and I’m working on some events and new tools I hope you’ll find useful.
In the mid-’90s, Quark was the leading tool for print publishing. It was a generation ahead of Adobe’s PageMaker, which in those days I called the “publishing tool of Satan.”
But Adobe launched the more economical InDesign, connected to Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and Flash. Soon, Quark was in Adobe’s digital rear-view mirror.
Last week, Quark announced a series of partnerships to win back glossy-publication developers trying to move onto digital platforms. The idea is that elements can still be created with Adobe products, but Quark will be the layout tool that gives designers control on the presentation layer. And it will do this in Ray Kurzweil’s free Blio eReader platform.
Quark could have made a big deal out of this with user endorsements and an effort to differentiate themselves significantly from Adobe. Instead, the official video does little to sell viewers on Blio, and the campaign feels like a feature upgrade, not a revolution.
It’s true that small changes can start a tidal wave, but Quark has to do more to be earth-shaking. And without that, Adobe will not be moved from its dominant position.
We’ve learned that vampires are apparently obsessed with copyright. Now consider the official Twilight t-shirt contest. Fans are invited to make a shirt to promote the new film. Of course, entries must comply with a few rules. (In case you haven’t noticed, vampires are also rather controlling.)
Here are some select rules to keep mortals on the right side of the undead:
No use of images or depictions of the actors in the movie <Hey, wait: The official contest image (above) uses the actors’ images, so why can we?
Oh, we’re not vampires.>
No blood, fangs, stakes thru the heart, coffins or bats
<Those would be passé.>
No pictures of apples (!)
<Because only Apple could be more copyright obsessed than a vampire.>
No undergarments (you cannot create a Twilight thong, boxer shorts or boxer briefs)
<Vampires prefer going “commando”.>
Vampire stories are a genre. They are built on examples and conventions from previous, similar stories. Perhaps vampires are sensitive about copyright because their claims to originality may be compromised. After a few lawsuits [1] [2], the undead are especially aware of their weakness.
Some days it feels like I work in a 90’s start-up. Its high growth, which is a polite way to say it often feels like a slow motion riot. I like it that way. Really.
There’s the free beverage machine, team building, even the occasional massage. But by far the most interesting benefit, has been team coaching for a bunch of our marketing team’s senior managers.
How to Throw and Catch the Knife of Wit “Unicorns, as we all know, frolic all over the world, pooping rainbows and marshmallows wherever they go.” So begins a send-up product pitch for Unicorn – the new white meat. The illustration on the right shows the parts of the unicorn can rendered into rainbows (or stewed into superglue).
Launched on April 1 by the brainy gift catalog ThinkGeek, the joke provoked a 12-page cease and desist demand by the National Pork Board. This may have led to an awkward pause at Pork Board HQ when ThinkGeek called to explain that “unicorn meat doesn’t really exist.” Nonetheless, Pork Board officials insisted that even though the product wasn’t real, the infringement was.
With tongue still in cheek, ThinkGeek apologized for creating confusion between pigs and mythical creatures, and quickly offered a discount to bemused readers.
“It was never our intention to cause a national crisis and misguide American citizens regarding the differences between the pig and the unicorn,” said Scott Kauffman, President and CEO of Geeknet. “In fact, ThinkGeek’s canned unicorn meat is sparkly, a bit red, and not approved by any government entity.”
We’d also like to extend a special discount to everyone we offended with our portrayal of Unicorn Meat as “the new white meat.” For a limited time, take $10 off any order of $40 or more by using the code PORKBOARD at checkout, good until 6/30/2010 at 11:59PM ET.
Happy shopping and happy Friday, my geeky friends!
It’s been six months since 
Yesterday I 
Why do you want to tweet?
“Unicorns, as we all know, frolic all over the world, pooping rainbows and marshmallows wherever they go.” So begins a send-up product pitch for