Never under estimate the power of your customer!

Embrace it now or embrace it later, Social Media is changing advertising and business, forever. Don’t get left behind!

It’s been said many times, but it’s worth saying again, content is the key to success on the web. With more and more untrained citizen journalists responsible for website content, many businesses are not ready for business on the web. There’s no shortage of professional writers and journalists, it’s just that most small businesses who represent the engine of growth in our society don’t bother to engage them for financial or other reasons. Derek Gordon’s post entitled, “Mourning The State Of Content“, points out this ever present problem.

If you’re a small business or a big business and you don’t have professional writers to develop compelling content for your website, take a look at Jon Wuebben’s latest book, Content Rich. It’s a must read for every marketing director with website responsibility. If you follow his guidelines, you’ll get results!

One of the best explanations of Google Adwords’ Quality Score is delivered by Hal Varian, Google’s Chief Economist, in a recent YouTube video. He describes how the Adwords auction actually works, how Quality Score affects the price paid for an ad click and why an advertiser with the highest bid doesn’t automatically achieve the top ranking position. Well worth watching!

News Corp is trying to pull together a newspaper cartel of sorts to charge for content online. They are holding meetings with the top newspapers of the world trying to get the key players to commit to an agreement to charge for their content. While they certainly should be able to charge for their content and have every right to do so, I think they are going to put the “final nail in their coffin”.

To think that they are going to get every provider of quality news content to sign-up for this pact is crazy! As long as we have access to the entire Internet, and not a walled-off proprietary community like AOL used to be, there will always be others who will play to a different business model. Have they forgotten about capitalism?

What a big waste of time and money. A smarter solution would be to explore how they can leverage their audiences to provide and charge for value added solutions. A good old-fashioned SWOT analysis would be in order. And, of course, you need some open minded, forward thinking individuals to think through solutions based on the analysis.

My business is built of finding client solutions to problems. That’s what we do for a living. Surely these well-known and once powerful newspapers can find the right people to help. Who knows, one of the big players may already be on to something. It will be interesting to see who comes up with some smart solutions first. I wouldn’t put my money on anyone who signs up for a cartel.

If only Theodore Levitt were around today to hear so many of the world’s remaining newspapers complain that they just can’t make money. Could it be that the problem with newspapers today is that they really don’t know what business they are in?

The “newspaper business” is really a misnomer. Originally, “news” as it relates to newspapers was about content (the news) as well as delivery (the paper). With the advent of the Internet, newspapers began competing with other providers of time sensitive content as well as other delivery systems: blogs and other websites, RSS, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc. The once unique benefits of content and delivery no longer apply.

Newspapers have competed with television and radio for years. But, newspapers provided a more comprehensive and detailed version of the news. In doing so they were able to differentiate their product enough to maintain a strong audience.

Newspapers offer solutions to at least two different audiences: business readers, who need information about business and industry to help them stay current and competitive. And consumers, who want information on current events, sports, products, services and anything else integral to their daily lives.

It used to be that people read newspapers more to find out about things and look for specific products and services. But, with the advent of the Internet and search engines, it’s much easier to “search” online for whatever your heart desires. Find it quick and find it easy via Google, Yahoo!, Bing, etc. Search engines take you directly to what you’re looking for.

And, while newspapers might offer a helpful review or two about a particular product or service, consumers will probably get more valuable information from social media sites. Reviewing comments from people you trust on sites like Yelp or from your personal Twitter following or Facebook friends can often provide you with better information on which to make decisions.

That brings me to entertainment. People enjoy reading newspaper articles on various topics for the same reason they enjoy listening to radio, watching TV, reading a book, watching a movie, etc. If newspapers viewed themselves in the entertainment business they might have a better perspective on the various and potentially more enticing entertainment options available to their readers. Isn’t television a more compelling entertainment option than reading a newspaper? I think broadcast news realized they were in the entertainment business years ago. Just look at CNN and Fox News.

As newspapers and news organizations struggle to find a better business model, they could look more closely at solving customer needs. Doing the same thing and expecting a different result isn’t a good strategy. People are constantly experimenting and trying new things. Look at Twitter and some of the other social media outlets. Consider what Guy Kawasaki and his associates have created in Alltop.

I think the key to success lies in finding a better delivery mechanism. People want great content. But giving it to consumers in a more useful and enjoyable way could provide the answer. The ink, paper and presses have to go. And, newspaper websites aren’t the answer. How can newspaper organizations provide solutions to business and consumer needs? The answer will no doubt be something worth paying for!

This video gives you an idea of just how much they might know…

There is more to issuing a press release than simply firing it off via an online distribution service. There are 3,000 new releases distributed everyday… that’s about one every 10 seconds. So you’ve got to do it right, or you’ll get lost in the shuffle. Here are a few simple guidelines to follow:

1. Make the release simple and straightforward. Use clear and concise language.
2. Do some keyword research to find out what people are searching for.
3. Use relevant keywords in the headline and don’t exceed 80 characters. Also, use the H1 heading tag!
4. Limit body text to 300 to 500 words.
5. Use links in the text:

• First link should appear near the beginning.
• Link to internal pages, not just the home page.
• Include no more than five links.
• Use both anchor text and page URLs.
• Include one instance of anchor text that is identical to the page title.
• Don’t repeat links.

Follow this and you’ll be off to a good start!!!

comScore released its qSearch Query Analysis for June (U.S. searches). Results: Google stays constant at 65%, and Microsoft enjoys a small gain with the introduction of Bing [at the expense of Yahoo!]…

• Google 65%
• Yahoo! 19.6%
• Microsoft Bing 8.4%
• Ask 3.9%
• AOL 3.1%

My guess is that Microsoft’s share increase won’t be sustained if they don’t continue their advertising push. Speculation continues about a Yahoo!/Microsoft deal. It may be much easier to buy market share than build it at this stage of the game.

More and more we hear metaphors for “it’s too late”, for example, “the train has left the station”,”the ship has left the dock”, “the genie is out of the bottle”, “the horse has left the barn”, etc. And, frequently, these are applied to all things “Internet”.

Most companies have recognized that their “cheese has been moved” and have made or are making adjustments to their business model or sales channels to leverage the Internet. But, more often than you would imagine, there are people and companies who really don’t believe the Internet has forever changed their business.

Gord Hotchkiss, one of smartest people in the search marketing industry, posted an article this morning entitled, “Get It or Die: Online Is Your Core Business”. His story describes what it means to fully comprehend this life changing event. Good reading for anyone who thinks making accommodations to adapt is the same as embracing and capitalizing on a new way of working.