» 2009 » November

In October of last year Getty Images, one of the largest stock photo agencies on the planet, began sifting through the millions of images on Flickr in search of new photos to add to their collection. Since they began their search they’ve added 60,000 images to their stock collection.

In early November Getty Images created the Getty Images Artists group so that Flickr users could more easily submit their work for consideration. Each month users can submit 10 photos and the staff at Getty Images search through the entries to see if your image will add anything to their collection.

Like Getty Images, I search Flickr endlessly looking for great images and great photographers. (It’s a bit of an obsession.) However, my searches are simply to find great artists, for which Flickr is overflowing.

I wanted to highlight three photographers that I found during some of my late night searches. All of them are true artists and I always look forward to their new images.

Their Evening Banter by Miss Aniela

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The news today is full of stories about the dangerous side of social media. Facebook is being linked to two disturbing stories.

The first is a story about a 12 year-old boy who was beaten because he was a redhead. Investigators are researching a link between the beating and a Facebook group encouraging people that Friday was “Kick a Ginger Day.” The post is thought to have been inspired by an episode of South Park.

The other story comes from Canada. Nathalie Blanchard is claiming that her insurance benefits were cut because of photos of her on Facebook. Blanchard had been on medical leave because of depression. Her Facebook profile photos showed Blanchard smiling, leading her insurance company to conclude that she was no longer depressed.

Facebook is growing in such leaps and bounds that it is important for people to realize the power of Facebook and other social networking sites. Privacy and safety are of the utmost importance to everyone on social media networks. But there are things you have to do yourself to make sure you’re protected:

1. Read the Terms of Service for every site you join. Understand what information will be available to the public and how it will be used.
2. Think before you post. You might have a great photo of youself doing a keg stand at a party over the weekend. Who’s going to see that photo? Your boss? College recruiters? Your insurance company? Or worse yet, your mom? Do you really think these people need to see that?
3. Be aware of consequences. A lot of people do silly things online. And most of those people don’t assess the consequences before they take action. It’s easier to rethink before posting than it is to clean it up after you’ve already posted.
4. This may be redundant but I think it is important to be very clear: DON’T DO STUPID SHIT! Telling someone to beat up redheads falls under the category of stupid shit. Don’t do that or anything like it. It may seem funny at the time but someone out there might think it’s a good idea and beat up a redhead.

Social media is supposed to be fun. It’s about creating a community for people to connect. Not to connect to commit violence. It’s also not designed as a way to spy on people. Sadly, it appears as if some people don’t understand either of those statements. Unfortunately it’s harder to get idiots like these away from social media sites than it is for us to be a little more vigilant. Sorry, but the smart people like us have to pick up the slack.

Pay-per-click is the most effective way to direct traffic to a particular website. BOALT has created many successful pay-per-click campaigns for our clients and from our many years working in pay-per-click we’ve learned a few things about creating a successful campaign. I’m going to share the five most important:

1. Keyword Analysis: Make a comprehensive list of keywords and phrases that best represent your product or service. This list will grow and change daily. Constantly monitor the success and failure of a particular keyword. Ad words to describe your product or service but know the keywords your customer will use to find what you’re offering.
2. Curb the Creativity: A lot of people might disagree but given the space restrictions for pay-per-click ads it is best to tailor your copywriting to more specifics and less abstract creative copy. Tell your customer what you are selling and for how much. Don’t try to wow them with creativity.
3. Place Ads Everywhere: Google provides the most successful platform for pay-per-click advertising with Google AdWords but don’t forget about Bing and Yahoo and especially LinkedIn. All target a specific taste and market. You would be doing a disservice to yourself if you focused only on one platform.
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Today as I write this it is Friday 13th.

Seems a good day to talk about leaving things to chance, right?

What do I mean when I say “leaving marketing to chance”?

Let’s take a look at your process. When you put out a message to your customers or audience, what do you do?

• Do you have a system that you follow?
• Do you measure your response?
• How do you improve the process for next time?

This is what I mean by leaving things to chance. If you do not monitor, track, test, and analyze, then you are shooting from the hip.

That’s fine if you are doing things that way intentionally. If your “gut” has served you well, then fair play, who am I to tell you otherwise.

Face it though, if you do not know how successful a message has been, and you do not know why, then one day it could come back and bite you.

I test everything. Even when I can not use sophisticated tools, I still test as best as I can.

My list of 102 headline formulas is called “proven” for a reason. When I told people if they should use a popup email box or not, I had data to back up my arguments. Even my tweets are split tested to the best of my ability.

It’s not enough to get results, you have to know exactly the results, and work out why. Otherwise there is no system, no consistancy, and no improvement.

Is McDonalds the fast food power house it became because of their burger recipes? Probably not, we have all eaten better food. It is their systems that made them the success they are. Systems in production, management, marketing, even real estate.

You have to have a similar attitude in your marketing.

Do you know why your last campaign worked or didn’t work? Take a look, and learn, starting now

Best Buy & Twitter

As Twitter grows everyday, more and more businesses are starting to understand the customer service implications of such an active and open community where everything is discussed and very little is off limits.

As a business you will find that your brand just might be part of that conversation. If it’s not, it should be.

Comcast, Dell, Best Buy and several other large corporations have stepped up and made sure that they are active in the conversation about their brand by creating active customer service response teams on Twitter.

Dell has attributed millions of dollars in sales to their Twitter efforts.

So how can you have a successful customer service on Twitter?

• Listen to Your Customers: There are several ways to monitor Twitter: TweetScan, Twitter Search and TweetBeep are just a few. Use them to find out what is being said about your brand.
• Respond: If the talk is bad, then reply and ask what you can do to help. If the response is good, say thank you. Businesses often respond only when they want to correct a problem but a personal reply to a happy customer goes much further.
• Be Active: Just because you’re customer service doesn’t mean you can’t lead the conversation. Pose questions to your followers or to the community. Being on Twitter gives you the opportunity to correct problems as they arise but you can also stop them before they happen by finding out how your product or service is performing. You can conduct impromptu research to get into the minds of your customers.
• Bulk Up All Customer Support: It’s important to never forget that everyone isn’t on Twitter. So while you’re building your Twitter support, don’t forget that the traditional customer service still needs some work also.

If you’re still unsure then check out Best Buy and ComcastCares on Twitter. See how they’re doing it.

What has been your customer service experience on Twitter? Good or bad, we’d love to know.

Any good social media evangelist will tell you that you have to give, give and give.

It’s true. Social media is about sharing.

• Sharing what you know
• Sharing free stuff
• Sharing links
• Sharing connections
• Sharing your time and attention

Heck, the web was built on sharing. Right from the start we shared information, friendship and bookmarking links.

There are times though when “sharing” will not work out for the best:

1. When it is not good value – You might think that free is free, but in fact your reader normally has to supply an email address or at least their attention. We all know the phrase “that’s ten minutes of my life I am never getting back” – don’t be the cause of wasted time. Not a good way to build a brand.
2. When it is impersonal – Giving is great, when it is yours to give and has some relevance to your audience!
3. When it is expected – This is one where I have made a mistake too. If you give away too much then certain parts of your audience start to see you as the freebie guy, and get huffy when you put something up for sale. Free works best when it is seen as a valuable gift or resource and not as “freebie of the day”.
4. When it is confusing – Even free needs to be sold. You need to describe at least the key benefit. Too many people think free sells itself. Confused contacts do not consume your content and they do not come back for more.
5. When it is a bait and switch – If you are giving something away make sure that is what you do and if there are any conditions or requirements make sure they are clearly articulated. When someone signs up then finds their credit card statement contains items they didn’t anticipate they do not see it as a cost of business, they see you as a scam artist. Even some gurus have tried to pull this trick and bad word spreads at lightning speed.

The best way to give something away is to value it yourself so that your reader will value it. Give it the attention, description and processes that it deserves, and deliver it well.