Google Mayhem
Jan 31, 2009 A Good Laugh, Search Marketing
Google Malware
Notice that every site in my search engine results (SERPs) say “This site may harm your computer”. So I do what any normal geek would do. I turn on Twitter. Sure, enough there is chatter about Google Mayhem and a hashtag to go with it.
Twitter Conversation Google Mayhem
Tech Crunch has also announced the story. I suspect by the time you are reading this post it will be fixed.
I wonder how Google will explain this one? What spin with the PR folks put on calling the entire world wide web Malware…How did this happen? Disgruntled employee? One Tweet suggested “Google update: – Homer Simpson has been replaced as chief technical officer and been replaced by George Bush. The world is safe once more”
Ah, well will Yahoo! for now.
Popularity: 34% [?]
Tags: google, google mayhem, malware, news, search resultes, search results, twitter
Google Analytics for Bloggers Part 4: Great Reports
Jan 28, 2009 Digital Marketing & Metrics, Search Marketing, Web Analytics
So by now you should know why you should use Analytics for your blog, how to set-up Google Analytics, and have a basic understanding of the dashboard and the terminology.
Time to see what analytics can tell you about your blog!
Note: There are some differences as far as measurement for a blog than for a standard website such as a corporate site. The biggest difference I spoke about in Part 3, and that is bounce rate. Bounce rate “represents the average percentage of initial visitors to a site who “bounce” away to a different site, rather than continue on to other pages within the same site.” (Wikipedia) Don’t be discouraged to discover that you have an incredibly high bounce rate on your blog, someone can visit your blog read the entire post, or even multiple posts should they land on your home page, not click anything and then leave. Despite the fact that they read every word – they will be counted as a bounce, simply due to the fact that they didn’t click on anything.
The stats available on Google Analytics can show you:
- What are the top posts and pages.
- Who are your referrers and what are your incoming links
- What search engine terms did people use to get to your blog.
- What links people are clicking on within your blog.
- What is the busiest day to-date for your blog.
I suggest looking at 2-3 month period to get a good look at your data the first time you do this. Once you have an idea of how your site performs, I am sure you will be checking it daily…but for now 2-3 months should give you a more meaningful look at traffic to your blog.
What are the top posts and pages?
Directions - Content: Top Content or Content by Title
Top Content: Will show you this information by URL. This may not be helpful if your posts use the standard URL system used by Wordpress where each post is given a number example = 303. Unless you have memorized your posts by numbers, you will have to go back and forth to figure out which post Analytics is referring to.
Content by Title: Will give you the same information, however it will list the content by the page Title. Page Title is what appears at the top of your browser. For example if you are visiting my blog to read this post (rather than reading it in an RSS feed reader)- the title on your browser will be Google Analtyics for Bloggers Part 4: Measuring Success: MEGO My Eyes Glaze Over. If you aren’t using an SEO Plug-in that allows you to add titles, consider doing so – titles are more than just pretty – they are important for SEO purposes.
This will give you your top content listed in descending order. It is likely that your most popular page will be your home page or “/” will be your number one page. You can sort this list by a few different metrics, I usually use Unique Pageviews to get an idea of quantity of visitors to that page. If you have goals set up sort by $ Index column ( average value for a page that a user visited before landing on the ) to get an idea of which posts are converted your visitors. Watch for more on Goals in Part 5!
Questions to consider
Do you notice any trends surrounding the topics at the top of the list? At the bottom? Are they what you expected? Are these same blogs ones you have had more comments on – or less? If you are using goals, are the top posts by Pageviews the same ones converting?
Who are your referrers and what are your incoming links?
Directions- Traffic Sources: Referring Sites
Google Analytics Referring Sites
Referring Sites: This is one of my favourite pieces to look at! I believe, it is also one of the most important factors to take into consideration when “pimping” your blog as well. It can tell you what is working, and what isn’t!
Once again you can sort this chart in a number of ways.
Visits: Number of visits the various referrers drove to your site.
Page/Visit: How deep did those visitors go? Remember if they landed on your home page, they didn’t need to go far to read multiple posts, so you might want to figure out where the referrer linked to first. You can do this by clicking on URL listed, it will show you the URL on the referring site, then pull down Dimension and choose Landing Page (see image).
Dimension: Landing Page
Average Time on Site: Sort by time and you will see which referring sites send traffic that sticks around.
Questions to consider
Which sites are sending the most engaged visitors? How did you get that referral – was it due to a shared item on Facebook? A tweet you made on Twitter? A comment on another blog? A link back on someone elses blog? Again, what was the content that attracted the visitors? You also might want to segment by Returning and New visitors by using Advanced Segments (top of dashboard).
What search engine terms did people use to get to your blog?
Directions - Traffic Sources: Keywords
There are three ways a visitor will make their way to your site: direct (type in your URL), Referring site, and Search. From your dashboard or from the Traffic Sources: Overview you can see what percentage comes from each. Search can help drive new traffic your way, or help folks who are looking for your particular blog find you. A blog, due to the content rich nature, tends to be fairly “Search Engine Optimized” to begin with, but there are ways to help it along (please refer to SEO for Marketers). The Keywords report can help you find out what words your visitors are using and clicking on to get to your blog. By looking at a three month period or more you may see words that repeatedly drive traffic to your blog. Are they indicitative of what is on your site? Are they words that fit your blog objectives and goals? Are people searching for your blog name? Your name? What keywords are missing? Is your blog about children’s books, but keyword “kids books” isn’t driving any traffic? That could be because there is a lot of competition for these words, or perhaps when you talk about books you refer to “Children’s” rather than “kid’s” more often? Looking at your keywords can help you understand your visitors, what content they are visiting for, what keywords may be trending in your niche, and where you might be losing visitors due to keywords not reflecting in your content.
Questions to consider
Are you missing traffic from a particular engine? Are you indexed by that search engine? What keywords do you want to place for in the search engines?
What links people are clicking on within your blog?
This is really important on a corporate site or E-com site, to give you an idea of how your navigation is working, give you and idea of where to place your key links, and if your visitors are not finding what they are looking for. Blogs, usually have a limited navigation, but it can still be helpful to see what your visitors are doing on your site, what outgoing links they might be visiting, and what pages within your site they are checking out.
There a few ways to get this information. I will just look at the more simple views for this post.
Directions – Content: Site Overlay
Google Analytics Site Overlay
Google Analytics Navigation Summary
What is the busiest day to-date for your blog?
Directions- Visitors: Visitor Trending: Visits / Absolute Unique Visitors
This will show a bar graph of visits by day. This is a great way to visually see your site’s traffic day by day. You can also look at Unique Visitors in this way to get an idea of how many different visitors come to your blog on a given day.
Questions to consider
Are your busy days reflective of when you added new posts? Is there a trend in most popular days of the week?
Watch for Part 5 coming soon where I will go over Goals and a few other ways to look at your success.
Popularity: 32% [?]
| 3.2 |
Tags: google analytics, reports, Web Analytics
Hope
Jan 23, 2009 Family and Friends
You may not want to read this post if you are a mom. I may not want to post it. But, I feel I must write it – I must get it out of my head onto paper – my own healing process I suppose.
I went to drop off my son at his daycare, and his teachers (old and new) were all in the hallway dressed in black. I made the mistake of asking what was going on…they were all going to a funeral. For another teacher. One of Bear’s teachers when he was in the toddler room had lost her baby. My words do no justice, I feel a mix of emotions, none good – of horror, fear, sadness, grief, longing, anxiety, and a deep pain in my heart. I don’t know the teacher well, she had left the school for another one over a year ago. I had seen her in November all plump, glowing and pregnant. She was due this month. She was overdue. In November, she was excited, swept up in baby fever. Thrilled that after looking after other kids, she was going to have her own. She ooohed and aaahed over my little baby, and we chatted about programs for the babies in town, and about another mom we both knew who had just had her second child. She was excited and scared about being a first time mom. She touched her belly as we talked, smiling. Glowing.
As I was told the news today, I saw her face as she was that day, looking towards the future with such hope and happiness, and I can’t even imagine what she is going through right now. I don’t want to imagine. But, as a mom…it is all I can imagine. The depression, the “what ifs”, the “what did I do”, the guilt, the longing, the absolute pain. How do humans get past this? How do you move on? Try again? Go back to work? I think that I couldn’t handle it. I think that I would ball up under the pressure and close up shop. But, people do move on. They find ways to cope – I just don’t know. I don’t know – how . How do you find meaning after a tragedy like this?
I am not religious but I hope and pray that she will find a way to move on, to be happy again – to hope again.
Popularity: 27% [?]
| 2.8 (1 person) |
People Carrier
Jan 22, 2009 A Good Laugh, Family and Friends, Purchases and Reviews
I am embarressed to say that we are now “Van People”. I much prefer the name the British call it – a People Carrier. Sounds less mundane than “van” doesn’t it? Seems to hold more purpose than the term Mini-van which dregs up visuals of tired moms carting kids, sporting equipment and car seats covered in cheerios, goldfish and apple juice.
Sadly, though the lovely white van we will pick up newly waxed and complete with new car smell, will soon have salt stains on the carpet, embedded cheese doodles on the seat, and balled up receipts throughout the cabin. And, it will carry a tired mom, a crying three year old (I want to watch mooooore TV), a squelling 6 month old, and the occasional grumbling husband. Hardly worthy of the name “People Carrier”.
We are taking back our, we only have one kid car (Nissan X-Trail), and getting a Dodge Grand Caravan. By the way, swore I would never be a “van person”, and when I started thinking we might require one I said I would never get a Dodge Caravan. The older models always seemed riddled with problems. In today’s economy (blah blah blah) we had to be reasonable (and dear husband gets a sweet deal on Dodge) so no spending 40K on a “people carrier”. Check it though…the van we are getting has amazing towing ability, spacious seating for seven, and impressive fuel efficiency.
Yeah, that is what sold me.
No.
- Stain resistant fabric. Apparently (according the sales guy) we could literally douse the car in Tide. Well that makes for easy cleaning, no?
- Stow n’ Go seats. Car camping means lots of equipment. Now we can fit it all in and should the weather be horrible…we can sleep in the van.
- There are also some neat hiding spaces…great for Christmas shopping I should think.
- 30 gig hard-drive that will store 6000 songs with a 6.5″ touch screen display (and AM/FM/CD/MP3)
- Back-up cam (if only it would beep, beep, beep too – then I would truly feel like I was driving a big ol’ beast)
- Coffee (cup) holders EVERYWHERE
- DVD player for the kiddies
- Dual media outlets and 115-volt outlet that allows me to attach video game, audio or video system to the DVD system (oh-yeah, can you say Mario Kart!!)
- AND, I can also plug in my Laptop if I so choose (I choose)!
- Silence. The DVD player is hooked up to wireless headsets. I do not need to hear the Cars movie on the ride to Grandma’s house.
Only thing is, as I was test driving it the other day with the kids in the back, and Top 40 tunes on the radio (Wayback Playback of Salt n Pepa) I thought…hmmm… maybe I can’t play this stuff in a van? It seems wrong to be pumping up the Hip Hop. So I might have to switch to Raffi or Barney or something more “mini-van” like.
Popularity: 35% [?]
| 3.2 |
Tags: buying cars, cars, cheerios, dodge, dvd, family, goldfish, grand caravan, kids, minivan, people carrier
Google Analytics for Bloggers Part 3: An Intro
Jan 21, 2009 Digital Marketing & Metrics, Web Analytics
If you missed any of this series check out:
After you have set yourself up with Google Analytics you will need to familiarize yourself with the various sections. Feel free to do that now 
Dashboard:
Time Frame: Automatically reviews past month, but you can select whichever dates you want to review. Note: You can choose today but it won’t be complete and usually not accurate to the moment.
Visits: Number of times your site was visited during the time frame given. Click to see daily numbers.
Pageviews: Total number of pages visited by all visitors. For example if I visit a site and visit the home page and two other internal pages I have 3 pageviews. If Joe visits the same site and stays on the page he lands on – he has one page view. If these were the only visitors Pageviews would be 4.
Pages/Visit: This gives an average of how many pages your guests are viewing by dividing Pageviews by Visits. I believe this is more important than total Pageviews as it gives an idea of how involved your readers are.
Bounce Rate: This represents the number of visitors who visit a site without moving beyond the initial page they started on. This can be a confusing point of data for a blog that can have many posts on the directory page. So should a visitor land on your home page, they can read multiple posts in a quick period of time, not click anywhere and be considered a “bounce”. There is also a timeout value – where a visit will be seen as a bounce if site remains idle too long. Avinash Kaushik gives this rule of thumb “It is really hard to get a bounce rate under 20%, anything over 35% is cause for concern, 50% (above) is worrying”. However, this is certainly a better measure for E-com sites then for blogs.
Avg. Time Spent on Site: I see this as more pertinant than bounce rate. This gives you an idea how long your guests are engaged on your site 2 seconds or 2 minutes makes a big difference. If you have a high bounce rate and a low average time – then it is likely time to worry about how you are connecting with your visitors.
% New Visits: This the percentage who are first time visitors. The remainder are obviously return visitors!
From the dashboard you can visit 4 Sections:
Google Analytics Dashboard 1
Visitors:
From this section you find important information such as-
- Where your visitors are from (pretty map!)
- If they are a new visitor or returning (note this can misconceiving since not all visitors will use the same computer, and IPs can change)
- Total number of visits and unique visitors (again can be off if a reader comes to your site from home some times and work other times)
- Pages per visit (do they visit more than one page while on your blog)
- Time on site
- Bounce rate – people “bounce” if they drop in and then out of the site quickly – usually when they realize your site wasn’t what they were looking for.
Traffic Sources
This will tell you how visitors came to find your site
- Direct – typed in your URL, from browser bookmark
- Referring Sites – Visited by clicking a link from another web page
- Search – Used Google, MSN, Yahoo or other Search engine and found your site and what keywords they used to find you (some will be odd…believe me!)
Content
Here is where you will see what content people are looking at. For bloggers you will find the directory ( / ) will get the most traffic. This of course is your main page which changes as you add new content.
This section will give you information on:
- Top Content – top posts and the number of visits/pageviews/time spent and the % exits from that particular post.
- Navigation Summary – Including Entrance and Exit Pages, content drill down by directory.
- Site Overlay – If you want to see visually where your guest are clicking the most you can use the site overlay. This opens your blog page and shows percentage of click through on each link during the time chosen.
Goals
This is where you can set up conversion goals such as downloads, or link goals. This is a great way to measure your success. More on this in Google Analytics for Bloggers Part 4: Measure Your Success.
Once you have an idea of the different sections you can set up your dashboard by adding and removing modules. Which modules you choose will be based on what metrics you feel are most important to use a blogger. I find that the information I look at the most outside of the standard visitors graph at the top are:
- Keywords
- Map Overlay
- Content Overview
- Traffic Overview
To set up your dashboard you can simply click “Add to Dashboard” within any of the sections you want to add (that aren’t already there!)
You will see this at the top of each section-
You can also move around the modules by dragging and dropping, until you have them in the order you prefer.
Now it is time to use Google Analytics to Grow Your Blog and Measure Your Success (Part 4 – Coming Soon!).
As always – connect on Twitter and Google Friend Connetc (right hand side)
Popularity: 26% [?]
| 3.2 |
Tags: google analytics, how to, roi, Web Analytics
Google Analytics for Bloggers Part 2: Set-up
Jan 19, 2009 Digital Marketing & Metrics, Web Analytics
Once you have determined that you want to learn more about your blog visitors (Part 1 of this series) you need to set up Google Analytics. Just like Blogging – it doesn’t take a tech wizard to set-up Google Analytics. Here is a quick guide to getting started!
Step 1: Sign-in to Google
If you already use Google for anything else (Google Talk, Gmail, or Blogger) you already have a Google account – so just head to Google Analytics and sign in. If you don’t have one…also go to Google Analytics and get yourself one (free and easy!).
Step 2: Set-up a new Website Profile
Essentially enter information for your URL, location, time zone.
Here is a screen shot:
Google Analytics Setup
Step 3: Here is the code part
Don’t freak out…you don’t need to know any code…you just need to put a piece of already written code onto your blog. AND, if you are using Wordpress there is a plug-in (go figure!) to do it for you.
Once you have filled out the above form, Google will give you a piece of script that looks like this:
<script type=”text/javascript”>
var gaJsHost = ((“https:” == document.location.protocol) ? “https://ssl.” : “http://www.”);
document.write(unescape(“%3Cscript src=’” + gaJsHost + “google-analytics.com/ga.js’ type=’text/javascript’%3E%3C/script%3E”));
</script>
<script type=”text/javascript”>
try {
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker(“UA-XXXXXXX-X”);
pageTracker._trackPageview();
} catch(err) {}</script>
The UA-XXXXXXX-X part will be your account number.
On Blogger
Go to Layout>Add a Page Element then select HTML/Javascript. Paste tracking code into body of this box (don’t include a title to the box).
On Wordpress
Go to Appearance>Themes>Editor then select Footer.php. Paste tracking code here.
Alternatively you can use a Plug-in such as Google Analyticator by Ronald Heft Jr. or Google Analytics for Wordpress by Joost de Valk – both of these will input the code for you. All you need to know is the UA-XXXXXXX-X number!
To ensure it is working, head over to Google Analytics and go to Profile Settings and click “Check Status”. If there is a problem a warning sign with exclamation mark will show up under “Status” as seen here:
That is it! You are done, in 24 hours or so you will see some lovely data! Next, you need to figure out what it all means…
Google Analytics for Bloggers Part 3: An Intro
Popularity: 26% [?]
| 3.2 |
Tags: google analytics, how to, set-up, Web Analytics
Down with Twitter Authority: Up with Influence
Jan 18, 2009 Digital Marketing & Metrics, Microblogging, Social Media
Twitter “Authority”
A lot has been written recently on so-called “Twitter Authority”. Apparently a few Social Media “A-Listers” thought it would be great to be able to rank the people on Twitter by authority. Why? Because, more companies are searching the web, including Twitter – to find brand and product mentions. This is done to monitor brand reputation and to facilitate customer service. Even a few years ago, when people talked about our brands, it was behind our backs and we only found out about it if they contacted us through 1-800 numbers, letters, or e-mails. Today, those dialogues are online and can be accessible through a variety of search processes. It is not an easy task by any means and certainly not a 9-5 job! There are innumerable ways to search the web for your brand name, for example I have used Tweetscan, Twitter Search for Twitter (more on using Corporate Tweeting), Technorati and Google Alerts for Blogs and News, and BackType for Blog Comments. But, there is also Social Mention, AlertThingy and some great paid Services such as home-grown Radian6. With so many ways to search, and even more possible “mentions” – it makes sense, to find ways to narrow the search, evaluate the comments that we should tackle, and find a way to rate and analyze the messages coming through. At first glance it may seem logical to assume that number of friends, followers, or potential eyeballs would be the best way to do this. This is how we have measured traditional media for years. With publicity we say an article about our product had X number of impressions, or an ad on TV or in print had X number of potential eyeballs. In these traditional forms of media there wasn’t much more we could do to measure one against another or to give meaning to our marketing efforts to the big wigs, and the sales force.
But the web is different. We can do so much more, then measuring Twitter authority by how many followers you might have. And, is authority truly what we want to measure? Virginia Miracle makes a great point on her blog Marketing Environmentalism when she says it is “less about authority and more about influence.”
Authority vs Influence
Check out the definitions:
authority: an expert whose views are taken as definitive; or a person accepted as a source of reliable information …
influence: The power to affect, control or manipulate something or someone; the ability to change the development of fluctuating things such as conduct …
We might say that Martha Stewart Living Magazine is an authority in ribbon and paper crafts, however does it influence its readers to start paper crafting? Hard to say without doing some market research on the subject! Online however, including Twitter we can get an idea of a person’s influence, but unless we can nail down the parameters of what having authority means – and it doesn’t mean how many followers you have (Mack Collier has some great points on why) – then we won’t actually have a clue who has it. In a vlog post by Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell they question- if someone has written a book do they have authority – and the decision – yes. Therefore, being an author can make you an authority (on that subject) – but what other factors make you an “authority”? Who decides?
So perhaps we forget this concept of “authority”. Go beyond numbers of followers – this eyeball/impression mentality is best left to television and print. Examine who has the influence to effect change, make someone else take action.
TwitterRank
Huba and McConnell suggest that perhaps what we are looking for is a complex algorithm, and that one factor may be the “retweet”. How often are you submitting content worth “retweeting”, how many people are “retweeting” it? In this case it is more about the quality of what you are sending into cyber-space then the quantity of your followers. It also has more to say about the quality of your followers than the quantity. An active base of similarly interested followers is more likely to “re-tweet” your tweets, than followers who have simply followed for the numbers, who are robot tweeters (here’s a blog post, here’s a sales promotion….), or who set up an account and have since moved on. Once “retweeted” your tweet can be seen by innumerable others outside of your followers, so having 50 or 5000 followers will not matter.
As (authority – he has written a few books so clearly he is that!) Guy Kawasaki said in a recent interview “I’m sure people will figure out a way to game retweeting too but until they do, there is no better measure of the quality of a person’s tweets than retweeting.”
There are a growing number of tools to follow “retweets”
- Retweetist
- Tweetbacks (brings RT to blog posts)
- Retweet Mapper (which has a “Most Retweeted List“)
Beyond the retweet I think there are a few other factors that indicate someone’s influence. Certainly the numbers game should count to a certain extent, but they would count even more if we could look at it based on their rank as far as influence. We know that Google’s PageRank is a complicated (unknown) algorithm that is based on over 200+ factors (or so the experts say), perhaps something like this could be created around Twitter users. It could include factors such as the retweet, but also include the @ replies to and from the twitter user (interaction with others has to count for something), number of updates, number and quality of followers, and number we follow (can’t just talk to ourselves!) and if possible click-through on links shared (this one is likely technically impossible since we all use different URL shortening services). What other factors might indicate influence?
Is it possible? I don’t have the technical background to know. But, if someone can create “Most Retweeted Lists” and create aps that follow Twitter conversations by programs like TweeTree, perhaps it is feasible. It is likely easier to find these influencers online than it is finding them offline which of course marketers have tried often to do in order to facilitate WOM.
Would this change how we follow? Would it change how we interact? In a good way? Maybe it wouldn’t be friendly Twitter anymore?
Update:
Thanks to Amber and Matthew for reminding me about another key issue and that is if the “influencer” is directly related to the business. If a company is monitoring brand mentions for reputation analysis a person who may be seen as an “expert” (or in this case we could also say “authority”) then they will hold more weight than someone who has little connection to the category or is not part of the target demographic. I use “expert” and “authority”, but in this case an expert is not one in a traditional sense of a talking head on the news.
An example perhaps? I will use what I know – small appliances. Lets say that a Silicon Valley tech geek tells their followers that he just loves his “X Brand Blender because it makes the smoothest drinks in the morning getting him off to a great start in the morning. ” This particular tech geek has an enormous and engaged following. But, is the tech geek an influencer in the realm of blenders? Will he influence his tech geek followers to run out and buy X Brand Blender next time? What if on the other hand cooking blogger, also with an large and involved following tweets that she used “X Brand Blender to make Butternut Squash soup and it was so lovely and smooth, yummy!” Will she influence her followers to buy X Brand Blender next time?
When I did some brand monitoring online I would pay far more attention to the cooking blogger than the tech geek in this situation. That is not to say that the popular tech geek wouldn’t matter, but I see these mentions as potential eyeballs, possible points for brand awareness. They aren’t authorities on the subject, but neither are the celebrities we use to sell make-up, cereal, vacuum cleaners, and other consumer products. The tech geek will likely get his followers to test the latest web tool, but unless they are in the search for a new blender the mention will not mean much (sort of like TV and Print ads!) The cooking blogger on the other hand is an “authority” on cooking to her followers – what she says holds a lot of weight. Even if the followers aren’t looking for a blender at the moment, they may recall this statement down the road when they are.
So while we can perhaps come up with a ranking on Twitter, but how do we differentiate between the different influencer circles? Unfortunately, Twitter doesn’t have a whole lot of information on us in fields we fill out (compared to Facebook!). We tell Twitter our location (and here we could say anything from country to town), and a brief bio which could say almost anything or nothing. However, Twitter is information rich when it comes to our Tweets. If we could harness the information in the tweets we might be able to determine interests and determine “authority” to the influencers. Twitscoop gives us clouds of popular words, what if something could pull these for individual Tweeters? Sort of a Keyword ranking for Twitter users? The cooking blogger might Tweet more often about cooking, recipes and such while the tech geek might tweet about web tools, social networking and Apple. A company could then choose a plethora of keywords that they want to locate the influencers for within Twitter. As a small appliance company I might choose Tweeters that talk frequently about “recipes, cooking, mixing, cups, food prep…”
Is this possible? No idea. I also want to mention, I don’t like the idea of ranking for regular use (for example I only follow people who rank number “1″) but for business purposes this could be helpful IF done correctly.
Remember to connect on Google Connect (right hand bar!) And, of course follow me on Twitter!
Popularity: 34% [?]
| 3.2 |
Tags: alertthingy, authority, backtype, ben mcconnell, church of the customer, google alerts, guy kawasaki, influence, jackie huba, mack collier, monitoring, pageRank, radian6, retweet, retweet mapper, retweetist, social mention, tweetbacks, twitter, viral garden, virginia miracle
10 Things You Should Be Doing Now to Prepare for Future Job Search (Web 2.0 Style!)
Jan 16, 2009 Digital Marketing & Metrics, Social Media, social networks
I wonder how Social Media and Web 2.0 will change the way we present ourselves to potential employers. Will the resume be enough to make you stand out in the future?
A few months ago I had the task of going through applications for a Marketing Coordinator who would be working with me until I went on mat leave. I was shocked at the quality of résumé and the lack of personal websites, or participation in social networks. This may be understandable if I were looking to hire a accountant or a trades person – but I expect a marketing professional (junior or senior) to be able to sell themselves – and what better way then using the Internet. Just a LinkedIn account would be a start. In the future, I believe this will be the bare minimum for many positions in the workforce – not just those that work in Creative or Marketing.
Given that the news is sadly filled with layoffs, downsizing, and economic ugliness – what are you doing to ensure that you are “recession proof”? If you were to lose your job tomorrow – what would you do? Would you immediately start furiously writing a new résumé, applying for any and all jobs that you might be qualified for – posted on Workopolis and Monster and then wait, wait, wait for the darn phone to ring.
I was laid off once, and I implore you be prepared. Be ready 2009 style.
So here are the things you need to do, just in case:
Social Network
1 . Network online and offline. Extend your network by connecting with like-minded individuals. Don’t underestimate the power of social networks including Facebook, and Twitter.
2. LinkedIn of course is the obvious choice for business networking. Keep your profile up-to-date, and of course add colleagues, friends and connections to your LinkedIn network.
3. With all social networks share, collaborate and help followers and friends. Post interesting articles (including, but not exclusive to your own), answer questions, and comment on tweets, status’ and posts. Get involved and check-in regularly.
4. Don’t forget social networking started off-line – and despite our dependence on computers you can still get out there and meet new people! Attend community events, professional meetups, conferences, classes and Tweetups!
Create an online résumé and portfolio
5. The problem with a résumé is that it is just a piece of paper. There are no hyperlinks (oh sure you can add them but once it is printed out, or placed in a text only application form…poof it’s gone), there are no pictures, no graphs, no presentations, no videos and no personality. An online portfolio however can be all of that.
Take a look at mine – (a work in progress) at MichelleKostya.com
Be an expert in your field
6. Start a blog. Why not – everyone is doing it! Write about what you love, what you know, and what you wish you knew! Be passionate and personal (eventually people WILL read your blog!)
7. Perhaps you are more of a talker then a writer. Start a podcast and broadcast your expertise. Equipment can be relatively inexpensive and there are a plethora of places you can post your podcast out into the world.
8. Create Videos, E-books, Host Webinars or Guest Post – all are ways to get your name out in your field.
9. Even if you aren’t a blogger consider commenting on blogs (with all the bloggers commenting it is a bit of a echo chamber!). This will help you expand your network, encourage you to read and learn more, and maybe even enhance your confidence and writing skills! Consider using FriendFeed so you can “lifestream” your comments and share your expertise!
10. Get active on industry forums and discussion groups. Help out others…and they may reciprocate when you need it. Ah…Karma.
Added bonus…you could also do this:
job offer t-shirt
Image from Flickr Creative Commons- SocialisBetter
In Summary…
Don’t rely on a piece of paper when and if the time comes that you need to get out there and find a new job. As Dan Udey (@danudey) said in a Tweet to me when I asked Twitterland about the relvence of résumé: “resumes are becoming less interesting than who you are and what you’ve done”.
And, never assume you are safe. When it comes down to it – only you will look after YOU. During a recession – a company will just look at numbers – so sympathy, years, experience, or passion may not help you keep your job. Don’t wait until it is too late to update your résumé, skills and portfolio.
What do you think – are résumés still enough? What else are you doing?
Popularity: 34% [?]
| 3.5 (1 person) |
Tags: blogging, career, facebook, Internet, job hunting, jobs, linkedin, online portfolio, podcasting, resume, social media, social network, top 10, twitter, web 2.0
Isn’t this so 1982? Shopping Old – School
Jan 15, 2009 A Good Laugh, Advertising, Consumer Brands, Digital Marketing & Metrics, Environment, Marketing & Communication, Retail Marketing
- Sears Catalog
I was going to make this a Wordless Wednesday but I had to talk about this weight that arrived on the doorstep.
Things that make you go hmmmm….
To me this is on the WTF side of the spectrum. First of all, with the Internet available for an infinite number of product listings and information – doesn’t a catalog seem like a colossal waste of money and resources? This doorstop of a book has got to cost a fortune to produce, and while I am sure a selection of folks still peruse and buy via catalog – this number has likely diminished a lot since the 80s. So, it begs the question – what is the return on the investment? Even if a few people still enjoy the feeling of paper and glossy ink between their fingers, there are equally a few people who will be offended by the waste and environmental negligence on the part of Sears for distributing this beast to a vast number of homes who will dump this in the blue bin without even a thumb through. At the very least could they not give these out “by request”!
It is no wonder other retailers have decided to dump their glossy catalogues for greener pastures online. Is it possible that the cost of the printing (mailing, production, creation etc), and anger of some foolish environmentalists is outweighed by catalog sales? Perhaps I am wrong. If so, it will only be a matter of time before this catalog beast is extinct. Sears, be watchful – the time is approaching to get rid of this tomb tome ; )
Popularity: 42% [?]
| 3.2 |
Tags: catalog, Environment, green, internet shopping, online, Retail Marketing, sears, shopping
Twitter: The Friendly Social Network
Jan 14, 2009 Digital Marketing & Metrics, Social Media, Vacations, social networks
I just got back from the East Coast. My two boys and I spent a week and a half in the friendly Halifax Regional Municipality. By two boys I mean my baby and three year old. Husband was working.
This is the second time I have traveled alone with the two of them, and each time I think – I need to have my head examined. This is how it goes:
Husband drops me off at the airport with two 60 lb suitcases, 1 giant Graco SUV stroller, 1 baby car seat and base, 1 diaper bag, 1 laptop bag (can’t leave it behind), and 1 small suitcase that my three year old is supposed to look after.
Note – he drops me off because in Toronto he isn’t allowed to leave the car unless he goes to short-term parking (which costs a small fortune). So, we balance everything precariously on a $2 cart.
I carry baby in sling (can’t push cart and stroller) and drag three year old with one hand while attempting to move cart with the other. All the way to the ticket desk. Where I can finally drop off the excess bags.
In Halifax, things are a bit easier as my parents meet me at arrivals and get my bags with me. Also, the airline felt I had too much stuff so they lost a piece for me (the base to the car seat).
On the return home my family drops me off at the front and then goes to park the car. They helped carry the bags inside- but couldn’t leave the car for long – so after getting my boarding pass I struggle to find a way to get the bags to the desk (all of the free carts are gone). Some wonderful East Coasters offer to help. In fact I had about five people offer in a matter of minutes.
I manage to get my brood up to the gate and onto the plane. We were given seats where there wasn’t an additional mask for the baby so the flight attendant had to ask a lady to switch seats. This woman was not inclined to give up her seat for an identical seat. Eventually the attendant convinced her that it had to be done, but I couldn’t help thinking to myself – this woman cannot be an East Coaster.
When we arrive in Toronto we grab a cart at the luggage carousel. I am trying to watch three -year old who is running around and around, look after baby AND grab suitcases. I struggle with supper heavy (Christmas gift laden) suitcases, then put baby in sling and attempt to put stroller on top of luggage. People walk by, look at me and move on. One person said watch the the babies head – as the monkey was staring up at the lights (note he has use of his neck…it was not flopping around!) But, not one person offered to help me.
Twitter is the East Coast
I know, get to the point: What does this have to do with Twitter?
I got to thinking Twitter is such a nice place. Ask a question and followers will answer, share a link and they will thank you, tweet a story and they will laugh with you. Say a simple “good morning” and get five back. It is a social network where we can talk with the famous, the literati, the news makers, companies we love (and hate) and social media gurus – on an even playing field. It is a place where anyone can connect, without the limits of geography and time, to find people with similar passions.
In a small city people offer to help, they stop and share a hello or a story with a perfect stranger, they smile as they walk by actually looking you in the eye. I recall a friends first visit to Halifax, we were walking along the waterfront and a man walked by and said ” Morning, how are you today? Lovely isn’t it”. After the short chat, my friend from Toronto says “who was that?”. I answered ” Just a guy out for a walk, like us!”
Sure, there are people who are jerks out east. Those who butt in front of you in line, or complain about everything, who drive to fast in a school zone, and double park on a narrow street. On Twitter, there are the spammers, the folks who just blast self-promotion, and the occasional individual who just wants to push-buttons to start an arguments. But, they are few and far between. Plus, on Twitter you can “block” them if you want, something you can’t do in life.
I wonder though, what will happen as Twitter grows? Already, Mashable reports incredible growth on Twitter in 2008 – 752%, with 4.43 Million Unique visitors in December. There are no studies that I know of that link population with cranky humans – but my experience having lived in various sized cities is that there is something to say for small cities being “friendlier”. In the big cities people rarely look you in the eye, they walk head down avoiding having to be a helping hand, and rarely start a conversation with a stranger. Perhaps, it is due to the fact that we rarely run into the same people? No need to be nice, if we never see them again? In a small city, chances are you will run into the same people at the grocery store, at the public school, in the mall or at your workplace. I have nothing against big cities, heck I live in the GTA – but they are certainly less personable than cities I have lived in previously Ottawa, and Halifax. Perhaps I wrongly correlate this with the populations (Toronto 6 million, Ottawa 1.5 million, Halifax 400,000) but from my experience it seems to work.
So, what happens to Twitter as it grows? Will it go the way of a big city? Will we eventually only help only our closest connections? Avoiding others? While we can block followers, and not follow others – what can we do about those Twitter users who abuse the system by using #hashtags to get involved in Twitter chats such as #GNO and #journchat? With growth, does Twitter become more susceptible to spam? Will the spammers and pains in the butts find more ways to annoy?
What do you think? Will Twitter sustain the friendliness simply because we choose to be there?
Popularity: 26% [?]
| 3.5 (1 person) |
Tags: east coast, friendly, growth, halifax, kids, social network, toronto, travel, twitter
