Personal Search:

Well this was getting the rounds heavy in the dojo the other daty and well this sums up just how pervasive Personal Search is. Goes beyond Cookies is at least IP aware, specially if you have any Google account… and other than my brother I don’t know anyone who doesn’t.

Google Social Strategy:

Fails miserably because it’s now creating “the follower economy” to replace “the link economy” it created with the same reckless abandon it did with PageRank! Talk about head in the sand!

Universal Search:Real Time Search

So this was the best part for me! I get to use a song by Matthew Good, because we all know his is the epitome of rediculous Twitter following. Follows 2 and has 800,000 + followers. As I’ve said earlier Google’s decision to use followers shows just how misguided they are telling eveyone their algo is dumb as a fencepost and based on wonky Social premises dismissed years ago.

And the beauty part is the vid uses Matthew’s Last Parade as the music for a tribute to the great Mats Sundin, in my books second only to Davie Keon as the greatest to where the glorious Blue and White! So I have now scored a hat trick combining my favorite Hockey palyer, my current favorite song and as always my first love SEO or as we now call it Website positioning because SEO is Dead!

Google SEO Side Show on Video! is a post from: Cloud Mixer - Mixing New Media Ideas

The Title is somewhat true but it’s not just Twitter,  Social Media and Networking sites are affecting blog engagement and comments in particular. Social Media is partially responsible and was definitely a catalyst for change in the habits of the linkeroti (not a spelling mistake think link rot) and according to some stats and forecasts this could get worse before it gets better.

This is the second post on blog engagement with more to come! In the first Twitter: Blog Engagement Killer or Lazy Linkeratti? I discussed the phenomena of decreasing blog engagement on one of my favorite blogs. I first started to think about this seriously after reading a post on Hobo Web ( @hobo_web ) and noticing less comments on the Search Engine People blog. BTW two blogs I highly recommend and often comment on. SEP has since hidden the twitter comments and I do see more comments but it’s still not near what it was at it’s peak.

 I like to start with something positive and when I came across this video it seemed a perfect fit. For those who are wondering why… I believe  commenting is an artform!

Warning extreme geekery: tips on blog commenting

So… T what’s killing blog engagement? Have Bloggers changed the way they react to “content discovery”? Or is it the ways in which content sharing is happening? Or are visitors reluctant to comment among the ”noise” that is Twitter and Tweetmeme. ReTweets and Tweetmeme are, IMO, the blog equivalent of the much maligned “Me too” post on forums and blog comments.

Social Media has changed the Content Discovery and Sharing Habits in the Blogosphere

There are few ways to gauge the disruptive nature of  new technology. In the case of bloggers feed reader stats and provider viability are good indicators of the changes that are occuring due to technology. Bloggers/linkeratti are just starting to notice the changes in their linking and sharing habits as Steve Rubel pointed out in the excerpt below:

Now, however, slowly but surely I am moving more of my consumption out of RSS and into the Twitter stream. Twitter, not blogs, long ago became the focal point for reading and conversing around news for many.

Reading the comments on that post are very interesting in that although almost all went to bat for RSS as a content discovery method it was more because of the characteristics of the twitter stream that result in missed opportunities and posts. Another equally enlightening post I discovered in Steve’s post is a report on ReadWriteWeb indicating that most of us who were even using RSS readers to begin with have ditched them and have moved to tracking news in the stream instead.

I am not in agreement with Steve that the conversation around content has moved from blog comments to Social networks.  At least that has not been my personal experience, however, the SEO communitity is still a large part of my following and those I follow. In fact I wouldn’t be surpirised if 70% of those I follow are SEO or developers. IMO, they are less liable to engage on a blog or Twitter.

The Twitter RT or straight Tweet and other sharing have  to some extent replaced comments as a way of expressing gratitude, exchanging ideas and thanks for quality info. TweetMeMe is, misguided or not, is used as an indicator of quality. We’ll leave the ways that can be a bad indicator for another day.

Social Networking and Micrblogging Provide More Value and Opportunities than Blogs

Blogs are very susceptible to Twitter and TweetMeMe eroding the number of comments and to a lesser degree links. In the past trackbacks and posts discussing another post were common because that was one of the automated means of sharing “content discovery”.  Social networks are a more convenient and quicker means of fulfilling the sharing task.

PostRank, is a Waterloo startup that looks to be a real player in developing technology to measure blogs and Social engagement. The manner in which the technology segments Social signals is, for me, the first time I’ve seen Social signals that make the same sense as SEO analytics. i.e. I look at the numbers and can connect the dots and take action or it’s as simple as me noticing the engagement on blogs I’ve used for years is decreasing.

The dots, in the case of Blog Engagement don’t make for a pretty picture.  The PostRank blog posted Measuring Engagement of the Social Web: ‘07-’09 which indicates a paradign shift occured in the blogosphere between 2007 and 2009. The blog ”linkeratti” are seemingly using less trackbacks and blogged responses to posts. Twitter, Social Networking sites like Facebook and microblogging sites like TypePad and Tumblr have replaced the trackback. One of the reasons could be new microblogging sites like Tumblr are tailor made for that post that’s just a quick response to a post or conversation.

Moreover it seems trackbacks are also in decline degrading seconday engagement and IBLs SEO’s are seeking from blogs. In fact to some degree sites like Tumblr and TypePad are designed to keep that engagement internal using reblog and like option buttons to encourage it. Many trackbacks were the result of responses to a post or a means to share the post with their audience. The Social Networking sites have gained most of that activity.

Here are some interesting stats from the post

• In absolute terms, when we sample over the top 1000 of the most engaging feeds for the past three years, we see approximately a 30% year over year growth in engagement –- a sign that more people are participating in the social web. The “share, and like this” phenomenon, which is sweeping through Facebook, Twitter, and dozens of other social hubs, are all facilitating this trend.
• Between 2007 and 2009, the amount of on-site engagement has dropped by over 50%, while the off-site engagement has skyrocketed!
• From 2007 to 2009, the contribution of trackbacks to total engagement has dropped from 19% to 3%! In the meantime, channels such as Twitter, Friendfeed, and Facebook have gone up from less than 1% to over 29%.
• Back in 2007, we observed that over 94% of all the engagement occurred within the first day of publishing the article. Even more interestingly, the 98% of the engagement on that first day occurred within the first hour. In other words, the half-life of a story was, and still is, less than an hour! Fast forward to 2008 and 2009, and we’re seeing a steady increase in the lifespan of a story: down to 83% of total engagement for the first hour in 2008, and 64% in 2009.
• over 50% of the engagement happens in the first hour
• According to Forrester eight percent of US online adults post and read updates on Twitter at least monthly, while another 4% read but don’t post.

2010 Blog Engagement Strategies

The Forrester report also included this excerpt which indicates that going forward this Social Media phenomena will be important to your blog engagement strategy going forward

While modest, both of these groups will prove powerful for marketers to tap. They’re influential and highly active in social applications. Moreover, these Tweeters want to interact with you: 26% say they recently started to follow a company on Twitter. To tap this channel profitably, concentrate on delivering value, not just promoting your brand. Quickly engage people who mention your brand, share content worth tweeting about, recognize what tweets work, and dedicate staff to managing your Twitter presence.

eMarketer’s CEO made some prdictions and provided some good info pertinent to engagement and ad spending (usually the life blood of blogs) in the post Seven Predictions for 2010

• Looked at another way, while total US media spending will decrease by 14.6% this year, the $192 billion spent in 2008 will represent the absolute peak of media spending
  • The measurement and accountability mandate will intensify demand for lower-cost, more efficient media.
  • Media fragmentation will force marketers to target their messages to ever smaller niche audiences.
  • Digital technologies are creating new opportunities for firms to self-market, such as a company’s own Website, online videos, e-mail marketing to existing customers and so forth. These channels end up bypassing paid media such as yellow pages and direct mail.
  • There will be a continued emphasis on “earned media,” such as on social networks and other consumer-generated community platforms. This will also siphon dollars away from paid media.
• According to Forrester Research, 59% of US marketers plan to increase their budgets for digital by pulling funds from traditional outlets.
• And while ad spending on these sites will never represent a significant share of total online ad dollars, spending on non-advertising forms of social marketing will rise significantly next year and beyond.
• Advertising will support less and less of the load for content and entertainment. Fueled by the low cost of digital distribution, combined with vast amounts of consumer-generated content in the form of blogs, social networks, photo- and video-sharing sites, and rampant Twitter activity, media choices have exploded. There is no way advertising can pay all the freight for this media tonnage. In addition, marketers are clamoring for more direct contact with consumers, especially to engage with them on social networks, and this will divert ad money and attention away from third-party publishers.
• Marketers will be increasingly willing to trade off reach for deeper engagement. This goes right along with the drive toward improved targeting and increasingly efficient media buys. If a marketer is successful at the above—zeroing in on a narrow group of likely prospects—then there is a much better opportunity to engage with those consumers on a deeper, more meaningful basis.

Based on the information from the PostRank report and moreso the predictions by emarketer it is certain that bloggers must:

• Include 3rd party sites in their strategies
• Build both a following and system that enables them to amplify engagement on 3rd party sites
• Attention should shift to RSS feed subscribers and newsletter subs from blog comment because RSS feeds are a metric used in measuring blog engagement

In an environment of hyperSocial the audience and Social Networking opportunities of Facebook and audience that can be engaged on Twitter,  TypePad and Tumblr provide traffic and unique visitors that blogs have never been able to match. I worked with bloggers marketing a consumer product and found that many reviews and giveawys do not deliver as much traffic, brand visibility (Social network streams) and in particular unique visitors.

Social Engagement image Courtesy of Pliggs   Social Networking image Courtesy of Gary Hayes

CiYaAtdaTop!
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In 2009 Twitter Put Blog Engagement into a Death Spiral is a post from: Cloud Mixer - Mixing New Media Ideas

I am a product of the sixties so inherently think all Government and big biz is fcked beyond practical use, unfortunately, the alternatives are worse so we “play along” out of self preservation.

I literally don’t vote because I believe we shouldn’t encourage government by participating lest they think I actually support the silliness. I don’t trust big biz or “the Man” because they think they know what’s best for me, when in reality, it is they think what is best for them is best for me, hence, my trepidation around privacy and the internet being left to big biz.

Early this week Google announced that Personal Search would be on whether you are logged in to your surf history or not. Google changed search history to surf history which should be an indicator of what they may do for metrics in Personal Search. Basically they won’t be restricted to just using query history but also activity off the Google site.

This is big because with the Double Click and AdSense ad networks, Google Search partners, the Toolbar, cookies, Google DNS, and Gmail Google’s ability to track a user’s online activity is extensive and in many cases does not require cookies. I’m basically assuming if you have a gmail account what you click and read is basically “fair game”…. regardless of TOS. Why? Read on.

It’s also why I have no webmaster account or gmail. I considered Gmail until I saw the fckers did not publicly post an abuse address, cursed them and closed the browser. The day I’m required to have a Google email is the day I find another way to make a buck.

WebmasterCentral turns inspired SOSG’s into uninspired cookie cutters learning the Google way to build websites. The information you get from WMC I can get somewhere else or it is data the “SEO system” has convinced you is needed. Most of it just takes your eye off the ball!

The Toolbar, cookies and G DNS are easy services to ignore or delete. The tracking via the ad network near impossible unless you want to remove several of the nets top properties from your surfing. Also keep in mind that with many people on cable modems static IPs are more common because most routers/cable modems will keep renewing their “IP lease”.

This could be the “secret cookie” I’ve read about elsewhere. Seems SEO’s really don’t need to know how the web works… they can make up stuff like Google has “secret cookies”. Yeah it’s called tracking static IPs nitwit. I would strongly advise you learn how cookies work.

Yes, you can opt out, however, IMO, I shouldn’t have to opt out of a service that is basically invading my privacy. There was a time when people’s privacy meant something to Internet companies… seems those days are gone lately, what with Yahoo! willingly providing info about users accounts to police… and charging for it (now that is inspired monetizing of your free service!;-).

That said, I can opt out and likely will set up some kind of proxy, not because I do anything wrong, more because Google’s CEO recently said “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place”. WTF ever heard of the right to Privacy? You understand sir it is a right from birth not something I have to earn.

He basically said I have no right to expect privacy. Opt out is BS only shite services that want to dupe you use! No? Think about the services that do it? Of course the absurdity of it would mean no one with a functioning brain agrees to enable invasion of their privacy so… “we make it opt out” and then whisper it in the corner… not too loudly someone may hear!

Don’t know about you, but, that quote scares the begeezes out of me, using the patriot act as an example of the need for it is Absurd? Ludicrous? Grasping at straws?

Mr. Schmidt thinks of national security when he thinks of the Patriot Act, me I think of the degradations and atrocities the Patriot Act, to some degree, enabled to be committed at Guantanamo Bay in the name of national security. Judge for yourselves.  Please don’t punish me Mr. Google! #JusSayin

Personal Search… a Matter of Trust is a post from: Cloud Mixer - Mixing New Media Ideas

Rich snippets make a lot of sense and the new Google rich snippets have vastly improved what was served in the past. The really cool part is the rich snippet may even use a microformat if the webmaster has implemented them.

IMO, a technique worth consideration is to force Google to use the snippet. My thinking is Google have matched the snippet to the query so… I’m thinking it looks pretty relevant and “clickable” to the user.

Another bit of information I gleaned from the video was how the extra computing power which Caffiiene brings to the table could/is to be used to add features like ”rich snippets” indicating a possible rollout of caffiene has been going on even before they released the sandbox.  IMO, little refinements and improvements will be made using the increased computing power available by the recent changes.

Now, Matt claims that when Google changes a title it’s because they believe in some way that they can write a better Title than I,  someone who has been writing headlines for a few decades.

Later I’ll give you an example of this problem using SeoPros. Note the case on SeoPros. That’s kind of a branding thang… since abandoned because… naw, no whining!

So, in the video Matt provided a few examples for why they felt it necessary to re-write my well thought out title to provide this beauty:

Is this a Title #Fail

Note the case in that image? SEOpros which is the same as ODP title… so being the logical guy I am I have used every known way to control it including what Micheal Wilson said was a special ODP title tag. Nope! So I’ve been trying for over two years to tame it… nope this is a big hairy Googley beasty… but alas.. Is Google right? SEOpros.org is a better title than my title: Search Engine Optimization Professionals Organization and SEO consultant directory

I’ll let you judge that for yourselves, but,  for me in this case, Google’s ridin’ the #FailWhale with the Title re-writing! #jussayin

CiYaAtdaTop
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Rich Snippets are Mega Cool! Google Writes Better Titles? NOT! is a post from: Cloud Mixer - Mixing New Media Ideas

This post was started right after the ReTweet changes were made… alas before I could finish the RT was rolled back and releases out of Beta! Believe it or not I was continuing with the 3 Stooges theme from the Twitter Lists post for the dev team… in fact the video is a Stooges Classic “The Plumbers”!

Twitter Tries To Change Retweets, Doesn’t Get The Social In Social Media was pretty condemning of “the boys” basically saying they didn’t know their audience. MilwaukeeSEO did consider both sides of the story and did defend “the boys” to some extent.

I think Twitter do in fact know their users all too well. When researchers came to the conclusions they did on the RT changes then Twitter’s dev team with even more data anticipated we’d skirt the new rule. The structure of the new RT is basically to facilitate something new which I’ll go into more later.

Why Change the RT?

Below are excerpts from a blog post by E.V. Williams explaining  the RT changes. I’ve added commentary after some, others, I felt either didn’t require comment or don’t deserve a comment cuz they are just smoke and mirrors intended to deflect criticism!

Attribution: Agreed! Authors deserve recognition for writing and RTers deserve recognition for their part in the sharing. The most important outcome is credit for authors of posts. I agree there is still a negative for the RTer who may gain new followers based on quality of their shares.

Mangled and Messy: The only part that made real sense here is that people are faking recommendations. This is not good but… it still doesn’t ensure this stops it does provide an indication of what may be a forged recommendation.

Redundancy:of the first three most of it is semi true this is just asn addition that makes no sense. It may be a problem for Twitter search but it is an indicator of buzz and I don’t know a marketer who does not want to see it. If you want to do something constructive fcking ban #FF or allow me to stop that shite!

Noisiness:

Let’s face it: Some people over-retweet. You may be interested in what they personally say, but you don’t need to know about every link and charity cause they pull their RT-happy trigger finger on. The only choice you have today is deciding if the benefit of getting their occasional gems is worth the cost of their retweetarrhea.

“retweetarrhea”,  could have come out better, but,  what the other posts have missed is that it’s not “one of the boys” deciding for everyone how to deal with the problem.  IMO, the Twitter Dev team are trying to kill two or three birds with one stone.

Untrackable:

Retweets potentially reveal very interesting data. After all, if something’s worth repeating out to all your followers, that’s a signal that it’s more interesting than something that’s not (over-retweeters aside). If something retweeted by a bunch of people, relative to how many are following the original author, that’s valuable data that may help people discover interesting news more quickly. Third-party developers have recognized this and built sites to try and track this information. But it’s fundamentally hard because the data isn’t structured.

Yes a lot of data is lost through the editing of Tweets and ReTweets. Agreed the meta data is useful to 3rd party apps… but… for me it’s more like “so what I lose more data then they gain”. I lose the ability to see what my followers are RTing, what those I follow are RTing and are interested in, and who else is intrested in that topic.

Since many of these people are people I know or know about that gives me info that I can’t get from a 3rd party app. As to the 3rd party apps the ones I use seem to be able to work fine with the old RT. The rest that are complaining are just nosy and want to sell our data or use it to calculate the Influence a person has!

The Positives Provided by a Changed RT

1. Protect authors tweets, not a total solution unless the author tweets it first.  For blog posts co-ordination between publishing and initial tweet will be important.
2. More user control of the stream i.e. those who don’t want a lot of RTs in their stream.  I have never minded it because it shows me who is interested in what, to some degree it indicates who has influence and the amount of influence they have over their followers.
3. Segregates the RT signal and protects them from edits. This is necessary for the next big step for Twitter i.e. monetization.
4. Finally an easy way to RT on the web!

Perceived Negatives of a Changed RT

Strangers in the stream seems to be one of the reasons this RT lead balloon isn’t flying. This one I don’t get… yes there is a strange picture but it is the person who “owns” the tweet and/or is  likely the author of the material.

I see it as an introduction and maybe we can stop the #FollowFriday nonsense! That is far more annoying then someone who RTs a lot. Do I really give a damn about some list of people to follow. Give me a reason to follow. I have unfollowed more for #FF BS then RTing too much!

The RTer is named, the only difference is there is no ability to add a comment if the RTer wanted to comment. Personally I often use the web interface and only about 1/3 of my Tweets contain a comment.

This feature is perfect for that the only real downside is RTer will get less benefit from the activity since the small print notation in the RT is harder to pick up. That in itself might decrease the RT volume, though, I doubt it.

What are the ReTweet changes Really About?

I think  Twitter assumed their users would adapt to using the Via or just continue doing RTs as they have done in the past. The “untouchable” RT is perfect for ads as I alluded to in Twitter and the Agents of Influence and Measuring Social Media Success which was a series on Twitter Metrics in guest posts on the Firehorse trail.

The excerpt below was posted by Nathania Johnson on November 11, 2009 on SearchEngineWatch and indicates they also thought there is something else at play:

Unfortunately, this seems like creating 2 solutions for 1 problem. If you have a problem with someone Retweeting too much, why not *just* create the ability to turn off their Retweets? Additionally, if these Retweets are so unwanted, then isn’t displaying them as organic Tweets from strangers making the problem worse?

The quote above is something I noticed as well. I agree it was like two new pieces instead of  just implementing what users figured out themselves. In particular the segregation of the RT signal is significant because IMO, it’s the most obvious choice for ads with the bonus of protecting authors.

In the previously mentioned Twitter Metrics articles I mentioned that Agents of Influence would be Tweeting paid links… for instance through www.ad.ly. This signal has to be segregated because there is a danger of running afoul of FTC recent guidelines for disclosure.

This piece in the NY Times explains how there are likely already ads being clicked on without proper disclosure. In fact a well known member of the SEO community started tweeting messages I am positive were ads. I immediately unfollowed. Fine if you are making a few bucks,  just frickin tell me before! Don’t try and sneak it into my stream. That’s just being an ungrateful a$$ehole. :-)

Ads don’t work on any level if people can edit them. These fledgling ad networks are either going to pay Twitter for space or Twitter is watching and will buy the best one.

Robert Scoble did two great posts on the ad situation but I’m not so sure it’s a SuperTweet because AIUI the meta Data is already in every tweet! The posts are Twitter to turn on advertising “you will love” (here’s how: SuperTweet) and More thoughts on in-Tweet advertising.

Persanally don’t see any reason not to use the RT for ads… definitely don’t need a another signal to deal with in managing the Twitter stream! Either way investors put up $100M a few months ago, IMO, they did that knowing this was coming, not that Bing and Google were going to pay for access.

ReTweet Conclusions

For me, to some degree the RT changes looked like the dreaded hammer syndrome” (not that one, this is a carpenters joke) i.e. when all you have is a hammer… everything looks like a nail!

I think it is a little of that, moreover, like the plumbers below we don’t call the Twitter dev team “Larry, Curly and Moe” for nothing! Overcapacity… occasionally is acceptable, when it’s weekly and systematic or the result of a DOS attack… well, in the end $Billions will/are being invested in addons and commercialization… not sure that is a sound investment… yet.

Truly this is another of those moments where you wonder what the hack are Larry, Curly and Moe thinking! Remember the one where the boys do the plumbing job on the judges house… classic Curly! Kinda reminds me of the way the DOS attacks were handled by the Twitter team.

Enjoy “the Boys” it’s a classic and one of my favorites!

CiYaAtdaTop!
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Twitter Ads or Forced ReTweet Etiquette? is a post from: Cloud Mixer - Mixing New Media Ideas

Chances are we have never met because I seldom go to seminars and other SEO networking events, forums or discussion. I was thrilled to be given a chance to work with so many talented copy writers, bloggers, innovative web developers, Social Media consultants and marketers!

What the mind of man can conceive and believe, It can achieve.
Napoleon Hill~ Think and Grow Rich

My Passions!

Let me tell you a little  about my experience and what you can expect from me. I am an internet technology enthusist, passionate marketer with an opinion on most topics related to these fields. For around 15 years I’ve read about 2-4 hrs a day mainly SEO posts and articles which became just the same BS I’ve been reading for a decade and a half.

Lately my reading has been almost exclusively on Social Media marketing and developing metrics for measuring campaign success. The technology is also intriguing as I have some advertising and Twitter services projects in development under the CaSEM Technologies banner. Currently my development and venture company International Website Builders is working on a few Social and ecommerce projects.

My Peeves!

You should expect contrarian views and lots of rants from me because I think many of the old SEO techniques have been less effective and have been in constant decline for a few years.

It started with the Florida Update which introduced topic sensitivity to the algorithm which means it is now tougher for me to get in the top ten for search engine optimization, the crawling changes brought on by Big Daddy/Vince updates and Caffeine bringing improved computing power (speed/page load times) to add features like Social/Real Time Search (It will be spamalicious!).

Many of my rants will be on the state of the SEO and development communities. I started writing again because I think most of what’s in the SEO blogosphere (WODS, Waste of Disk Space) is regurgitated “content and links” advice that for the most part are becoming less effective techniques.

I am passionate about standards for the industry, as an OS (Original SEO), I am qualified to do this. I feel that the industry has gone from being about improving websites visibility to rankings at any cost or risk with little regard for conversion.

Often my rants will take the form of a Smackdown i.e. if you’re writing shite… I will call you on it! Same as I expect to be called on it if I write conjecture and present it as fact!

I am also a believer that to just cover Search Engine news without questioning the premise and all the repercussions for webmasters and marketers i.e. Google NoFollow paid link FUD is a total waste of time with little value. Might just as well read the Google Press release.

The Internet Marketer!

The only form of internet marketing I haven’t done for any amount of time is affiliate. That said, I’m planning to do more affiliate marketing now. I did newsletter marketing for years and from that came Webmaster T’s World of Design one of the oldest resources for SEO content on the net.  I also dabbled in article marketing but… stopped in 98 realizing site owners often removed credits etc making monitoring it a necessity therefore a drain on time resources, especially in 98.

To some extent TsWorld was a blog where I kept track of references I found on topics that interested me or were needed for web development.  Much of what I wrote between 95 and 97 is still the foundation for onpage optimization today.

In 2003 I moved my posting from Tsworld I founded SeoPros which later funded and continues to fund OSEOP an Ontario registered NFP Organization. From 2005 to 2007 I primarily ran a very large PPC Financial Services campaign for an offshore company.

In 2007 I retired choosing to day trade just in time for the Trust debacle in Canada and the greatest depression in a generation. Deciding my chances of emulating the Kennedy’s was low I found myself back in web development and marketing.

The Social Media Convert!

In July of 2009 I opened a Twitter account and my and I august wrote an article proclaiming my belief in Social Media Marketing. Four months later I broke an oath to never have a Facebook page. We figured at some point we could claim to be the only two Ca. not on it!

Sorry folks still a meat and potatoes guy…
*best Soup Nazi impression* – No images for you! *best Soup Nazi impression*

CyaAtdaTop!
T

Terry Van Horne, Internet Marketing Master, Social Media Consultant and Cloudmixer Author is a post from: Cloud Mixer - Mixing New Media Ideas

Generally I’m not a big fanboy of the Twitter development team, management’s business capabilities/acumen, or a believer that twitter is much more than the future property of one of the big boys!
Twitter lists are the first truly great development to come from this team in a while. They are bringing the functionality of  Tweetdeck groups to Twitter. 
Anne Smarty did a post on the uses for twitter lists. Although these are useful for promotion (nothing wrong with that) the benefit of lists to users are many fold. As a developer I can think of 1/2 doz. things on the promotion side but I’d have to kill ya’ if I shared those.

Ways to Use Twitter Lists

1. The obvious… for categorizing those you follow making it less likely tweets are missed.
2. In a busy timeline it’s easy to miss tweets, so put new followers into a list before following them. Then if you decide to block or pass on following they were never followed so no excuse or embarassment for unfollowing them is incurred. Personally, I block, seldom unfollow… only Eddie…
3. Again using the ability to follow anonymously, follow competitors! One of the things I don’t get is how people are making it super easy to know more about what they are doing then they do.
4. Move undesirables to a list and unfollow this way if they talk smack you have sources for collecting, in the words of MR. Hainey,  ”legal like documents”.
5. Identifying bots by the  number of lists they are on
6. Mass DM like a mailing list (Not positive)
7. Segregating RT addicts
8. Creating useful lists will increase your visibility
9. List will be used in determining the true influence of a Follower
10. Myself and peeps I Follow sometimes use cuss language, obviously that doesn’t bother me but I sometimes wonder about the users reading the timeline, I enjoy these personal tweets… others may not.

So, I have done a blogging first! I’ve done a “List Post” and I won’t include that in the title… simply because I think some people do list posts because they’ve run out of ideas.  My excuse is it was part of another post that was monstrous.#jussayin

Why the three Stooges pic? Cuz Curly is the coolest! Twitter dev and management reminds of the “best of the boys”. Chaos and mayhem everywhere.

CiYaAtdaTop!
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Twitter Dev: Rockin’ da Lists Hard! is a post from: Cloud Mixer - Mixing New Media Ideas

Today Google announced the release of Google Commerce Search. Ordinarily I yawn and move along but for whatever reason I decided to read this closely. When the news broke on Twitter I thought it was just an improvement to the Search API and with that there was still the issue of getting the site fully indexed.

A few hours later I got a chance and had a gander at the video below. Watch it because it gives you a great overview of the Google Commerce API at work!

I have been managing and optimizing Feeds for 4 or 5 years. I was early to the game as my ownership of Frooglefeeds.com not once but twice attests to! Not active I just like collecting stuff like that.

IMO, this could be a strategy to monetize GBase beyond the sponsor ads. It’s also a replacement for Yahoo! stores and if these somehow replaced the products one box well… some lawyers make a few bucks I bet… lol.

They aren’t saying it but it looks to me that you don’t really need a site because with GoogleCheckout you got the processing covered. Send an email to the company Ala’ Amazon and what do you have?

T dons the foily and proceeds Into the API documentation.

After watching the video I was both amazed and… concerned! See for most of my career I’ve built shopping carts from scratch. Not opensource but real customized Carts with real CMS and back end order processing.

So when I saw the configurable of the search page it started looking more like a hosted shopping cart solution. Hmmm not looking good my brother! I also remember seeing in a Twitter search I did where someone had called it something along the lines of a hosted cart at $50,000. Actually that’s why I went to the site to check it out.

Google by the way has pulled a faux paus. Please don’t make me call you to get a pitch for a price! I won’t call I’ll assume the $50,000/yr.  is true  and … “move along nothing to see here!” (it was the program starts at $50,000).

Of course a hosted solution also means that the traffic could stay on Google. And guess who benefits from that? Shite they could throw in the processing fees and cut the credit card companies out as well. #Jusayin

Very sweet interface and such with the benefit of running on a number of feeds not just Google. It does explain why they suddenly dropped feed aggregator suport for some huge platforms i.e. Yahoo! Stores, Amazon, ebay and Miva. All would be direct competitors of this product so it makes sense to take away a huge traffic stream… evil? Fckit #jusbiz!

As someone with a client running many stores on these platforms we were already in the process of figuring out a data aggregation strategy… all current providers suck the bag big time! Note Google Base can be used by several different comaparison engines. I was in the process of writing a big piece on Gbase something I’ve actually been taking notes and organizing for a few years. They’ll be published soon folks.

CiYaAtdaTop!
T

Google Commerce Search or Just Gbase Monetized! is a post from: Cloud Mixer - Mixing New Media Ideas

Social media as I understand it is about engaging your audience to learn their concerns, needs and wants through human discourse and interaction. To start this post I pose this question:

after reading a post if your visitor leaves a tweet instead of a comment has the goal above been achieved?

The other day, Shaun over at Hobo Web posted a great piece on his feeling that the “linkerati” are linking less with more discretion and how twitter is affecting comments on blogs. It was that post that started me on the path to considering the ramifications of adding twitter to comments of blogs.

I had been noticing less engagement at the Search Engine People Blog after twitter was added to comments as part of a re-design of the blog (quite nice by the way) so I mentioned it in my comments on Shaun’s post. I comment on the Hobo Web blog because I like Shaun’s no holds barred style  and the fact he engages his audience.

I posted comments on SEP regularly partly because Jeff Quipp is one of my favorite people in search and also because the posts are high quality with real dialog in the comments and little link dropping (delete them, me too is not a comment, it’s a link drop).

SEP often has good discussion around posts and it was looking like tweets had begun to replace comments as a way of registering approval/commenting on posts.

A few hours later I received a message from Ruud Heine in Tweetdeck saying that SEP were discussing my comment. This is testament to the degree of professionalism and striving for excellence that drives the success that SEP has achieved in the last few years.

Before my comment at HoboWeb the SEP blog had an excellent piece that  did not have a single comment only tweets. I actaully was going to comment on it and seeing all the tweets thought “naw no one reads that shite”.

After they adjusted the blog for both tweets and comments engagement has increased partially due to the rocking post and today is still getting comments. I even joined in the discussion.

I’m also hoping that Shaun (@Hobo_Web ) will drop by and tell us a bit about the plugins he’s using to get around the muzzling of engagement while still allowing tweets. Yes there is no law that says you can’t do both! That goes for users too! You should be engaging on your blog and tweeting to raise your visibility even further. Cuz, quite simply, the Socialization of Search means visibility is todays link!

Here are three questions you should be asking yourself before adding Twitter to comments.

• If user engagement is curtailed is it possible the visitor isn’t seeing the monetization components and therefore is twitter actually affecting the potential for profit on the blog.
• Can you build a community around a blog that everyone just reads and takes off clicking the ReTweet on the way out.
• What % that RT… don’t even read the post. Looks like you got something but actually all you got was a low value, pissy nofollowed link.

My own experience with including a twitter plugin in a blog (I’m still mucken’ with the blog)  is Twitter took over the whole Blog. No posts just my 10-15 tweets a day were starting to over run the site. I’m thinking more and more people seeing these low quality Tweeted comments will be thinking… why bother to comment among that! For me, it could be you just lost me as a commentor and possibly as a reader of your blog… likely a few bloggers installing twitter in their comments immediately after reading this. So… there’s another bullet point to consider!

CYa’ at The Top!
Da’ Tmeister

Twitter: Blog Engagement Killer or Lazy Linkeratti? is a post from: Cloud Mixer - Mixing New Media Ideas

Seems Mr. Obama’s socialization of healthcare and banks has the search engines joining the fray. Thursday my Tweetdeck was lit up with the buzz of deals between Twitter and Bing and Google. Bing also signed a deal with the monstrous Facebook Social Networking mega site. These social networks will be sharing their feeds with these search behemoths’.

Not unlike Mr. Obama’s tentative foray into social medicine and banking, the major search engine, that’d be Google, the lesser Bing, who it seems has  jumped in the deep end, only to find, it is actually the shallow end of the twitter pool.  I’ll explain that shortly.

My first social post. How I became a Social Media Convert mentioned that I felt the search engines were lusting after real time search. Thing is I don’t think it is going to pan out the way people think. I think the data will be used as a freshness and breaking news signal i.e. a freshness and content discovery mechanism… in the end it will look more like OneRiot than Bing’s /Twitter search.

I’m sure search engines and especially Google were taken aback by how late they were on the Michael Jackson news and the Iran election.  Twitter and Social Media in general were well ahead of traditional “lets check this source til the news is old” media. Google is/was fairly dependent on these sources  for news.

The Social streams that these Search Engines have rented give them access to the buzz but my feeling is Google is also going to combine that with OpenSocial project to further personalize your SERP. The Gypsy has a great post and will have more as the SEO Dojo has been talking about this well before the Thursday announcements.

The strategy is simple… don’t change a thing you are doing with Social for SEO, nothing has changed but may. The Gypsy’s advice to start looking at your Friend Connect and especially your Google profile and deciding how you want to pass your social profiles will possibly be a key to the use of Social to Personalize the SERPs.

The other good part of that strategy is it will give you a strong starting point to pass the link juice around your “personal social network”. Well, likely til Google just reduces it to a trickle.

Bing is a testament to what I thought Real Time Search would be. Spamalicous, reviewing the bing twitter search some of us in the SEO Dojo found that just a few peeps needed to post simultaneously in order to dominate keywords such as SEO and others. In fact #SEO is already seeing spam/ads (guess it depends why you are there) as it is and not many people have even looked closely at Bing Twitter search yet!

Another problem they’ll find is using followers in the calculation of results. They are seeing it as a quality or influence metric which it is not. IMO, Followers is a metric for reach! Other than that to use it as a value for a search is not to really get how the networks work organically or how some spambots have been used to take advantage of auto-follow. IMO, if you are auto-following get ready cause you’re going to be at the top of the hit list for spambots looking to exploit social search.

What really surprised me is that there is not a hint of OneRiot who are partners of Microsoft (will be social search in IE ). Looking at the space of realtime and Social Search my opinion is there is WhosTalkin and OneRiot. The rest to date have been laggards by a wide margin! One Riot indexes pointers from RTs and tweets which IMO, improves the signal implicitly! When I say this I mean as the degree to which they are catching the signals from a ll Social networks and sites.

IMO, look at OneRiot closely because that’s likely what Google’s Social search will be closer to than anything else. I see them using it for content discovery which many of the new patents and changes to Google seem to be about crawling and content discovery rather than the filters and spam combat of the past.

The Socialization of Search! is a post from: Cloud Mixer - Mixing New Media Ideas