Monthly Archives: February 2010

Of Interest

What’s the Buzz?

Drew Hannush by Drew Hannush (9 Feb 2010)  |  Leave a comment

As if it weren’t confusing enough for a business trying to figure out how to use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.  Now Google introduces Google Buzz. Unfortunately the only way I can view Buzz to give you the lowdown is to install Apple’s Safari 4 browser and trick it into thinking I’m a smartphone…because I am not one of the lucky first Google Mail users to get it.  (Someone finally found a way to get me to download the horrible Safari browser…something I even avoid on my Mac). 

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Of Interest

Google to Take On Facebook / Twitter with Gmail

Drew Hannush by Drew Hannush (8 Feb 2010)  |  Leave a comment

A very interesting story. Google and Apple are acting more like Microsoft used to. Now that there are many companies looking to cut competition out…can anyone be singled out anymore? http://bit.ly/cX5ytP

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Case Studies

At One Time It Was Ask Jeeves. Now Social Takes Over.

Drew Hannush by Drew Hannush (7 Feb 2010)  |  Leave a comment

Some of the best inventions are ideas that evolve from the original brainstorm. In the past, Ask.com (originally known as Ask Jeeves…what did they do with Jeeves by the way?) came up with the idea of a search engine that would let you ask a question. It stripped all the words out that were irrelevant and returned results of static pages that had your answer.

Aardvark (found at vark.com) is taking this one step further. They send out your question via social networks. They try to find the most appropriate answers and send them to you. The only drawback is they send them to you via IM. I don’t know about you, but my Yahoo! Messenger account hasn’t gained much use in the last year or so. Plus, you have to wait for an answer. Its like letting others do the research for you.

It will be interesting to see if it catches on, how successful the feedback is, and if people are willing to wait for answers in a world of instant gratification.

UPDATE: I found Aardvark difficult to get a response from. It doesn’t really let you know easily. It would be better if it emailed you the answer.  Also, Google recently bought Aardvark, so it will be interesting to see how the Goliath handles making it better.

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Social Marketing Tips

If You Use a Link Shortener Can You Measure In Google Analytics?

Drew Hannush by Drew Hannush (7 Feb 2010)  |  Leave a comment

For those of you that need to know how much traffic your Blog links in Twitter and Facebook bring back to your site, it is important that your Google Analytics software is catching every link you provide to your Twitter/Facebook feeds. But, what if you use bit.ly or one of the other Link Shorteners? Now your addresses are taking a bounce to a different address before coming to your site.  This is actually shown in Google Analytics as Direct Traffic.

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Social Marketing Tips

Is Following Someone’s Twitter an Endorsement?

Drew Hannush by Drew Hannush (6 Feb 2010)  |  Leave a comment

Usually I try to post thoughts and suggestions for clients and the web in general, but after a weekend of getting caught up on Twitter, I came up with a very interesting question. Is following someones Twitter feed seen by some as an endorsement of their product or service?

There are a couple of strategies to using Twitter. You can take the celebrity / large business direction where you don’t follow anyone unless you are an advocate of their product or cause…or you can take the friendly direction (or for some the spike marketing route) and follow anyone that follows you.  But is that dangerous to your business’ reputation?

Lets say you are a Bible salesperson and someone from the Anton Lavey fan club follows you. Do you follow them back?  Extreme example, I know, but its to get the brain cells moving on etiquette versus protecting your reputation.  What strategy will you (or do you) employ?

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Social Marketing Tips

Want to Get Started On Twitter?

Drew Hannush by Drew Hannush (6 Feb 2010)  |  Leave a comment

Okay, so some may feel like they have missed the boat…and some may be thinking, should I get started with Twitter for my business?  Knowledge is power.  Here is a Newbie Guide to Twitter from CNet.com.  This is a 3 year old article but it still holds true.

http://news.cnet.com/newbies-guide-to-twitter/

For my own part, I say don’t get into anything for your business unless you’re willing to keep up with it. If you decide Twitter is for you…make a commitment not just to jump in and then ignore it.

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Of Interest

New Facebook Home Page Design Explained

Drew Hannush by Drew Hannush (5 Feb 2010)  |  Leave a comment

As always, there is controversy in the redesign of any website…and none meets with more public scrutiny than Facebook’s.  Here you get a behind the scenes talk on what Facebook was thinking in terms of redesigning the site.

For my own part, I wish Chat was a little less glitchy. And I haven’t figured out how to hide myself yet (maybe someone can pass me the deets in comments). Also, notifications are still in my Facebook, they are just at the top…which is fine.  I actually rely on this and like it in the higher exposure area.

Thanks to Ben Parr at Mashable.com for the video.

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