Jun 17

Remember Everything with Evernote

Posted on June 17, 2011 by Scott

For years, I’ve used e-mail to transfer files from one computer to another, to from my smart phone to my computer, or otherwise make specific information and data available online. You’ve probably done the same at some point; you take a picture with your phone and then e-mail it to yourself so you can have it on your laptop or desktop.

You, like me, have also probably utilized various online bookmarking services or aggregators to organize your favorite website or specific links.

You may have even, at some point, sent yourself an e-mail like “Don’t forget the milk” or “Pick up Bobby at school”.

But with the free service Evernote, you can make that process a whole lot easier. With Evernote, you can archive links, text, voice memos, pictures, hand-written notes, and more. The software can be downloaded to any computer and most mobile devices, and all the content is automatically synched – allowing it to be accessed from any device almost instantaneously.

Let’s you’re on your laptop and you want to save the article. You could use a bookmarking site like Delicious or your could add another bookmark to your browser. Either is fine, but that means if you want to save a picture or a voice memo or a hand-written note, you have to use a different service – sometimes for each medium.

Instead, you can use Evernote for everything. Each time you add a note, you can include tags as well, which are then easily searchable. So you can easily separate and organize your notes – in addition to the ability to create different note books and different folders.

But perhaps the neatest feature of Evernote is its Optical Character Recognition. You can make a hand-written note, take a picture of it or scan it, and then add it to Evernote. Over time, Evernote will read your handwriting and make that note searchable.

A few things to note:

If you have awful handwriting (like I do) you’ll need to slow down and write legibly, or else it won’t really work.
Depending on how busy the Evernote servers are, it would take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours for the OCR to actually kick in.

I’ve only been using it for a few weeks, so I’m sure there are plenty of features I’m missing out on. And while it’s free, you can upgrade to a premium account which increases how much data usage you’re allowed and opens up other features.

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May 24

The Need (or Not) for “Social Media Experts”

Posted on May 24, 2011 by Scott

On Monday, Peter Shankman of HARO wrote an article titled “Why I Will Never, Ever Hire A ‘Social Media Expert‘”. Feel free to read the whole thing, but the crux of the article is this: most people who call themselves “Social Media Experts” are idiots and much of what they do is just common sense.

Today, SEOmoz.org wrote a rebuttal of sorts — picking apart why the article was “entirely false.” You can read that whole one as well, but his point comes down to this: while there are plenty of people who, as soon as they get a few Twitter followers, call themselves “Social Media Experts”, data shows that talented, experienced individuals can bring a tremendous amount of value to a company through social media efforts.

In essence, they agree on a lot of points — although you can argue which writer presents his argument better. While Shankman was obviously coming from an emotional standpoint (i.e. ranting), Rand defended the need for social media experts from a more empirical place. I think they both see the need and value in social media, although they obviously have different opinions about how one should go about it.

All of that being said, I want to bring attention to a very good point brought up by Shankman:

It’s also about brevity. You know what the majority of people calling themselves social media experts can’t do, among other things? THEY CAN’T WRITE. The number of “experts” out there who can’t string a simple sentence together astounds me. Guess what — if we have about three seconds to get our message across to a new customer, you know what’s going to do it?

Not Twitter followers. Not Facebook fans. Not Foursquare check-ins – NO. What’s going to do it is GOOD WRITING, END OF STORY. Good writing is brevity, and brevity is marketing. Want to lose me as a customer, forever, guaranteed? Have a grammar error on any form of outward communication.

As a writer, this really hit home for me. Content really is king, on so many levels. No only is content important from a strictly SEO perspective (what Google’s robots are reading) but also from a human perspective. Customers need to be able to understand the ideas and message you’re trying to convey. If you use Twitter, you need to be able to intelligently express yourself in fewer than 140 characters (“intelligently” meaning “without juvenile abbreviations or indecipherable spam”).

Because if you can’t, you aren’t really much of an expert at all.

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May 17

Facebook Claims High Ground, Relatively Speaking

Posted on May 17, 2011 by Scott

Last week, The Daily Beast broke the story about Facebook hiring a PR firm to smear Google. Meant to be a secret, Facebook worked with Burson-Marsteller to generate this negative buzz about Google. When the plot was discovered, a Facebook spokesman cited two reasons for the scheme:

first, [Facebook] believes Google is doing some things in social networking that raise privacy concerns

This reason would be hilarious if it weren’t so ridiculous. The idea that Facebook is going to present itself as a company that cares about privacy – especially while they concurrently fight a proposed California bill that would require online business to offer an opt-out option when it comes to tracking information – is mind-numbing.

That’s not the real issue. The real issue is:

second, and perhaps more important, Facebook resents Google’s attempts to use Facebook data in its own social-networking service.

In other words, Facebook is mad that Google has been using Facebook’s data – the data they’ve carefully and shamelessly gathered over the past seven years. It’s their own data that they’ve procured through somewhat-deceitful measures, and they’re not about to let some other online giant use that information.

Facebook doesn’t care about privacy concerns or connecting people or promoting the principles of social networking. While there are employees of the social media giant who likely feel this way, Facebook is a business and is more concerned about protecting their assets. And the biggest asset Facebook has is its users’ information.

I can’t necessarily fault Facebook for that. With a business based on user data, allowing other companies to take and use that data for their own purposes isn’t good business. It would be like a scientists doing all the research and gathering all the data, and then having some company capitalize on and use that data without properly compensating the scientist.

Of course, in this example the scientist is more like a mad scientist whose research is possible through deceptive fine print and the ignorance of his subjects, but it’s his research nonetheless.

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Apr 26

The Experiment That Backfired

Posted on April 26, 2011 by Scott

I do online experiments from time to time. I think most people who are interested in online marketing, social media, and search engine optimization do these experiments to see what happens. With some we try to push the envelope; with others we try something we think no one has ever tried before. The end goal is to develop an actionable strategy that can then be replicated and used to achieve a goal.

I thought it would be fun to mess with Twitter to see if I could gather a huge amount of followers, only to then change the accounts username to something I could actually use to promote a website, blog, or project.

So, I created a fake celebrity account in which I claimed to be that celebrity (as opposed to creating a parody account, which apparently is okay). The celebrity I pretended to be will remain nameless, and I knew full well going into it that I was breaking Twitters terms of service.

Disclaimer: PMI had no affiliation with this experiment (I did it on my own time, with my own account, at home) nor does PMI support the breaking of websites Terms of Service

I wanted to see two things:

How long I could go before being caught (strictly a time factor).
How many followers I could gather before being caught (and if that would be enough follower to make this strategy worth it).

I started with an account I had that actually had a few hundred followers already, giving me a head start. I changed the profile picture and background to match the celebrity’s current account, and claimed I had lost a bunch of followers. Some people replied, others retweeted, and I gained maybe 20 or 30 followers. But within six hours my account had been suspended, with this note:

Hello,

It has come to our attention that your Twitter account is in violation of the Twitter Rules, specifically the section on Impersonation:

http://support.twitter.com/entries/18366-impersonation-policy

Impersonation is pretending to be another person or entity in order to deceive, and is strictly prohibited. This account has been suspended.

Thank you,

Th

Twitter Trust and Safety

Not only that, it took over a week before I was able to regain access to my account, and change the username, profile picture, and background to something else.

So, the moral of the story is: don’t be afraid to try new things and get your hands dirty, but don’t bother doing what I did.

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Apr 18

What I’ve Learned About Guest Blogging

Posted on April 18, 2011 by Breanna

When our SEO team started our guest blogging initiative a couple months ago, I felt a bit like I was taking a step into the dark. We were confident that guest posting would help us to grow our blogs and give us good opportunities to reach a broader audience, but I was still a bit unsure as to what, exactly, I would be doing. And I certainly didn’t know what I needed to do to be successful.

But over the last several weeks, I’ve learned a lot about guest blogging. And when I saw that one of my guest posts was listed on the MyBlogGuest “35 Inspiring Guest Articles by MyBlogGuest Members” list, I realized I had come a long way. If you’re looking into guest blogging as a marketing possibility, here are a few things I’ve learned that might come in handy.

Be communicative.
Blog owners who accept guest posts spend a lot of time corresponding with guest authors, so do everything you can to make their job easier. Keep e-mails concise and send them promised materials before the deadline. If you have to ask a question, offer a possible solution to show you’ve thought things through before asking. Blog owners will appreciate how easy you are to work with and will be more likely to invite you to post in the future if you don’t add to their workload. If you want to be a successful guest blogger, be the solution to the blog owner’s problems, not the cause of them.

Choose great topics
If you’re writing for a well-established blog, chances are all the basic topics have already been covered. Before you contact a blog owner with ideas for your post, take time to read through recent posts to see what’s already been covered. Take a unique angle on a topic the audience will find interesting, then be sure to contact the blog owner before writing it. I’ve found that giving blog owners a short list of possible topics is generally appreciated and will give your post a better chance of being published.

Follow instructions carefully.
Every blog is different, and everyone will want their posts submitted differently. Some blog owners will ask you to include a bio while others will want nothing but the text. Some will want the file containing your guest post attached to an e-mail while others will want it included in the body of an e-mail or submitted through an online form. Be sure to pay close attention to the blog’s requirements and follow them closely. I recently wrote for a particularly picky blog, and I got an e-mail back shortly thereafter thanking me for following the instructions so well. In fact, they even invited me to write another post for them in the future. In short, put yourself in the blog owner’s shoes. When you’re choosing which posts to publish, you will be more likely to choose those that have provided everything you need in a timely way. So if you want to be a successful guest blogger, be the one who does it right.

Do your best work.
When you’re writing for your own blog, you can afford to let a less-than-ideal post sneak onto the screen once in a while. But when you’re guest posting, take your job seriously. Someone else is allowing you access to their hard-earned readers, so write a post that they will be proud to have on their blog. Give readers something interesting to think about and make sure your post is free of grammatical and spelling errors (even if you use a casual tone). This will set you apart from other guest bloggers and help you drive traffic to your blog or website as people come appreciate your valuable content.

Obviously, there is no secret to perfect guest blogging. For the most part, it takes a lot of trial and error to find exactly what works for you. But as is the case in any field, hard work, communication and excellent content will always be rewarded. As you venture into the world of guest blogging, I say, “Good luck!”

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Mar 22

You Can Be Facebook Friends with The Vatican

Posted on March 22, 2011 by Scott

Sort of.

The Catholic Church has established a Facebook page for the beatification of John Paul II, which will officially take place May 11, 2011. Although perhaps the page is just to honor the late Pope. It’s really unclear.

First of all, from a technical perspective, the URL ends with /vatican.johnpaul2. This is fine if the page will always be about John Paul II, but if the Vatican decides to make another page for another Pope, or event, or cause, they’ll have to start from scratch.

Secondly, from a message perspective, all of the information on the page discusses the event of the actual beatification – dates, times, links to watch, etc. There’s even a tab labeled “The Event,” even though – at least in Facebook lingo – it’s not actually an event. So is it a page or is it an event?

Lastly, from an overall perspective, I’m not really sure what the point is. Is the Vatican just trying to get people to watch the online stream of the Pope’s beatification? Are they trying to build an homage to a former leader? Are they trying to build an online reputation and presence which they can then utilize in the future?

The answer may actually be none of the above. Perhaps they just heard about social media and how everyone should have a Facebook page and just signed up. It’s possible they don’t really care about capitalizing on what social networking has to offer and just thought they’d put it out there and see what happens.

Now, if you have the sort of loyalty and following the Vatican already has, you can do that. You can try a lot of different stuff out and see what sticks, knowing there will likely be several thousands of people who will support it no matter what.

However, if you’re a small business, or even a large business without a prominent brand, you can’t take those kinds of risks. It’s better to take a more calculated approach to your social media strategy in order to capitalize on what’s out there.

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Mar 08

Charlie Sheen’s Social Media Strategy is #Winning

Posted on March 8, 2011 by Scott

Charlie Sheen and his Twitter account are certifiably crazy, and genius.

Image by ssoosay

Whether your loyalties are with Team Sheen or with Team Reality, and regardless of whether his ramblings are because he simply loves life or are based in some sort of psychosis, Charlie Sheen has championed social media.

A few weeks ago, Charlie Sheen had some sort of meltdown which apparently included large amounts of drugs. The details are irrelevant – although you can read about them here – but currently, he is no longer part of the (awful) Two and a Half Men television series which he has starred in for the past several years. Unemployed, he went on a traditional media blitz, appearing on various talk shows defending his actions and promoting his lifestyle.

Since then, he’s also gone on a social media blitz – specifically with his Twitter account. All of this action resulted in a tremendous amount of Internet discussion and a broken world record. Now, armed with his 2.5 million Twitter followers, Mr. Sheen is seeking a summer intern to help maintain his social media presence which, at least in part, appears to consist of selling tweets. I don’t know how much a tweet is selling for, or how long this new-found fervor will last, but any 140-character snippets that man puts out are currently spreading like wildfire.

So let’s recap. An actor melts down, refuses to change his lifestyle, and then utilizes social media to self-promote and re-brand.

Ten years ago, this would have been impossible and unthinkable. Ten years ago, this sort of chaos could only have resulted in shame and solitude. (Think about the meltdowns of Mel Gibson in recent years, and how those situations turned out.)

Sheen has decided to take advantage of the situation. And even though the vast majority of those 2.5 million Twitter followers are probably more interested in watching a train wreck than they are in seeing Mr. Sheen get his act together, the fact is they’re watching. They’re reading, they’re listening, and they’re sharing with anyone else who will listen.

So if anyone doubted the power of social media before, it’s time to reevaluate. As the old saying goes, any press is good press.

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Jan 26

Finicky Twitter

Posted on January 26, 2011 by Scott

Getting more followers on Twitter may be as simple as following more people.

Image by Pandemia

I started my first Twitter account way back in September of 2008. I used it sporadically, tweeting only about 500 times in the next two and half years. I went back and forth between loving and hating it, using it and ignoring it. In a moment of frustration I deleted it altogether.

Within a few weeks I came crawling back, begging Twitter’s forgiveness. I started fresh, promising to be a better user. I did all those things the Internet told me to do – contribute to the conversation, add value what was going on. I tweeted regularly and creatively; I retweeted and replied and used hashtags and all that other stuff. Still, after a few months I hadn’t seen the growth I wanted – i.e. I wasn’t getting followers as rapidly as I expected. I even got a #FF (Follow Friday) from an account with over 150,000 followers, which brought me exactly zero followers over the next few days.

As arbitrary or juvenile as it may sound, the value of Twitter is the number of followers you have. Ignoring that obvious similarity to the depressing high school mindset of false popularity, the number of followers you have is what really makes or breaks a Twitter account. It’s about who is potentially seeing your message.

So I tried something different.

Previous to about a week ago, I didn’t follow too many people – at least not officially. By creating lists and utilizing Tweetdeck, I was able to “follow” hundreds of users without officially following them. It helped me stay organized. I still commented and replied and RT’d, but I suppose because I wasn’t following any of them, they didn’t follow me back either. So I started following people – some random, others suggested, and those I interacted with. Since I started actually following people, I’ve seen a 15 percent increase in the number of followers I have (and not just from the people I’ve interacted with).

This was interesting to me. I’m not adding any more or less value than I was before. I’m not commenting, replying, or RTing less or more. All I’ve done is follow more people. What that says exactly – about me, about Twitter, about our culture – I’m not sure; mut maybe I’ll start following more people so that, in turn, more people will be exposed to my hilarious musings like:

“Now that I’m an adult, I’ve realized my parents were, in fact, completely wrong about the importance of making your bed.”

If that’s what it takes to get my important message out there, so be it.

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Jan 12

My Password Is …

Posted on January 12, 2011 by Scott

Someone is always watching, so be sure to keep your private information private.

Image by Jermaine Justice

Every time you put personal information about yourself online, you’re getting closer and closer to finishing the title of this post. And I’m not just talking about private information (social security number, PIN, etc.); I’m talking about personal information (mother’s maiden name, pet’s name, city you were born, etc.) that could eventually help a clever online criminal get exactly what they’re looking for.

This isn’t intended to incite paranoia or to encourage anyone to delete their entire online presence. This is simply a cautionary tale.

Think about those “Security Questions” various websites require you to answer in case you forget your password; is there any way someone – perhaps, if they looked through all your Facebook updates – might be able to guess the answers to those questions?

Or do you post information as common as your phone number, address, or birthday – each of which is commonly asked over the phone to verify identity.

Or do you talk about your upcoming vacation or even your current trip to the grocery store – letting potential analog (as opposed to digital) thief know that you’re not home and giving them a window of opportunity to break into your house.

The vast majority of information shared on social networking sites, blogs, and other online ventures is probably harmless. Unless your password is “ilovebacon,” it’s probably okay to mention your obsession with the glorious meat as you stuff your gullet each morning (although why you think it interesting to post the mundane details of your life is beyond me).

But that habit of oversharing is what can lead to potentially compromising situation. So which each and every nugget of information you share, think about potential consequences. What would happen if this information were to fall into the hands of your worst enemy? If you can think of one or two possible negative scenarios, then it’s probably best to keep it to yourself – or, if you absolutely have to share it with someone, call them and tell them over the phone.

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Jan 03

Using Social Media in Your Business

Posted on January 3, 2011 by Scott

Social media is a way to promote your business and connect with people.

Image by Vacant Fever

It’s becoming more common for businesses to use various social media websites – Facebook, Twitter, etc. – to help promote their business and their brand. These sites help to build a community and allow an open communication that would have been impossible in years past.

For instance, the Utah Food Bank (last September, PMI hosted a food drive for them) utilizes their Facebook page as a way to share information and photos. But more recently, they used it to promote Walmart’s Fighting Hunger Together campaign in which Walmart would donate a total of $1.5 million to six cities around the country. (The results will be posted January 5th, so we’ll have to wait until then to see if Utah gets donations.)

That’s just one example of using social media to promote an organization. There are plenty of other ways to use social media:

Even if your organization isn’t a charity or a non-profit, use social media to promote your charitable work (and if you’re not doing any charitable work, you should start).
Use it to network with other organizations which could, ultimately, develop into valuable partnerships.
Use it to increase offline activity. Get people involved in their communities or local activities.
Use it to build relationships. Interact with people and show the personal side of your organization.
Use it to add value by either contributing to the discussion or providing products or services that will enrich peoples’ lives.
Seek input from customers. Social media can be a great forum to discuss various ways your organization can improve.
Empower others to do some of your marketing for you. Encourage those you connect with to share the good things about your business.

Business, marketing, and advertising is changing; and social media is at the forefront of that change. So do what you can to utilize it and promote your business.

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