Search Results for: href

Answers From Friends Are Best

Leave a comment

… and if not directly from friends, the next best thing is answers from friends-of-friends.

If you haven’t tried it yet, take a look at Aardvark.

Being well connected just got a whole lot better. Whether you are tiptoeing into the social sphere carefully or frolicking in it like a jello wrestler, you will quickly see a benefit if you haven’t already.

While Google offers almost instant access to any information you’re looking for, Wikipedia is a mouse click away instead in multiple volumes in a library around the corner, and community forums offer a great way to learn and share problems and solutions, when it comes to social media, it’s all about your friends and conversations.

What’s better than asking Google for an answer to a question? Asking a friend. And if that friend doesn’t know, perhaps they have a referral of someone they know that may have the answer. The referral system has been around since Planet of the Apes and it’s doesn’t take Neil Armstrong to figure out why people trust their friends more than a big company.

You have ventured into sharing photos and status updates with your friends on Facebook and you may even be intrigued by Twitter, but what about search? Is there a place for the “social” part of “social media” in search?

I believe the answer is yes. With Aardvark, you can ask a question, any question, and either a friend of yours, or a friend of a friend will send you the answer. The key is that the answer is from a human, someone who cares, someone who has a very unique way of thinking about problems, likes, dislikes, the best places to go, the best ergonomic chair to buy, answers to coding questions, browser compatibility issues, the best place in San Francisco’s Union Square for a quick drink, and/or how to find demographic information about your twitter followers. (The Twitter demographics one was picked up and put on FriendFeed by Robert Scoble.)

Last week there was an article in the NY Times about Aardvark, the web service that answers questions through friends and friends-of-friends, which my friend Amy (Happy Birthday again Amy!) referred me to today on Gtalk. I am so thrilled for Aardvark and can’t wait for more people to try it. My experience so far has been very good and I’m betting we’re only at the very beginning of this adventure.

Congratulations on your successes, Aardvark, I’m not surprised. Thanks for offering a great service.

Search, Social Media , ,

What is a Browser?

Leave a comment

This is a fun inquiry into whether people really know what a browser is from Google. It’s incredible how ubiquitous the browser has become. People have the same kind of incomprehension about how the Internet really works as they do about electricity and phone service. “It works, I use it, I like it, but don’t ask me what it is.”

I also find it interesting that people love to be on video, and how few people know about Google’s Chrome.  Is this Google’s way of spreading the word?

Fun, Search, Social Media, Viral Video , , , , ,

How To Get Attention

Leave a comment
  1. Do something different, be unique.
  2. Be funny, entertain me.
  3. Shock with your talent, your _____, your downright boldness, baby!
  4. Be real, be you and really show me who you are, because until you do, you’re just like everyone else and I’m tuning out.

When I first saw a funny flight safety announcement I was in awe at the creativity and courage it took the flight attendant to put on such a show, all in the name of flight safety, but guess what, people listened.  People heard the message instead of ignoring it as usual and people took off on that plane with a good understanding of how to be safe.

Check out this example and tell me you wouldn’t listen. The fact that it is a Southwest employee is interesting and that is something for another blog post (think case study) coming soon.

Well?

Fun, Marketing, Random, Viral Video , , , ,

A Conversation Starter

Leave a comment

I often show this video in my classes as an introduction to how far we have come with the Internet and digital media. The movie is from 2007, so you could say it’s old news, but many of the concepts are still important to consider as you venture into “new” media.

As video producer, Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology Kansas State University says, “This video explores the changes in the way we find, store, create, critique, and share information. This video was created as a conversation starter, and works especially well when brainstorming with people about the near future and the skills needed in order to harness, evaluate, and create information effectively.”

It’s a favorite of mine. Enjoy!

Fun, Internet, Viral Video , ,

Top 5 Search Engine Optimization Tactics

Leave a comment

1. The Title Tag Is Your Friend
Make sure your keywords appear in the title tag and try to keep your title to seven words or less. Think billboard with keywords and make sure the keywords are relevant to the content you are displaying on the page.

2. Think Niche
The more focused each page of your site is around ONE not five, not three, not even two, but just ONE keyword term, the easier it will be to achieve a good ranking for that keyword term. Make sure the content on that page is relevant to the term and include content that is not only good for keyword-loading, but more importantly useful to your HUMAN visitor. Search engines want to offer value to the person doing the search. Remember that there is a person on the other end of the search box and your page should offer value to that person.

3. Link Love
What’s more important than a bunch of friends on Facebook? A bunch of websites linking to your site. You see, search engines look at the number of links coming to a site as a measure of popularity. Think about it. If you have more votes, you get to be president (well most of the time anyway. You get the idea.) And how do you get links? See item number 4

4. Provide Value
The sites that perform best are the ones that have the best content and that’s really what the engines are trying to their searchers. Content has always been and continues to be king, so just quit messing around with Flash, bells and whistles and gratuitous use of technology because it looks sexy. Think about what your customer is looking for and provide them with the content and value they are looking for.

5. Monitor Measure Learn and Adjust

  • Make sure you are monitoring your site’s analytics
  • Set goals that you can measure changes against,
  • Learn what worked and what didn’t and
  • Adjust your content, keywords and design if necessary to improve your results.
  • Oh, and after all of that, rinse and repeat.

Finally if you’re looking for a quick and easy way to see how well your site is optimized, head on over to the Website Grader and get a free report.

Uncategorized , , ,

Contact Susby

Where are you going? It’s about the journey and how you get there, just as much as it is about the destination. Let Susby help navigate and drive your success. Let’s Talk! Email: suse @ susby dot com Phone  (415) 305-6403 Or write to us (the good old fashioned way) at: Susby Digital Marketing, LLC 630 Thomas L Berkley Way, […]

Read more

Success Stories

Saving Our Clients Money with Facebook Apps 03/08/2013 Our customer has grown their Facebook likes from zero to over 40,000 in just over three years. Since Facebook is a constantly moving target due to continual updates to the platform, reaching over 40,000 fans is no small feat. One of the changes that Facebook implemented in 2012 was a requirement to […]

Read more

Clients

We have worked with a wide variety of clients from various industries in both B2B (business-to-business) and B2C (business-to-consumer) climates. Regardless of the type of business and who they are selling to, we believe that businesses are P2P, i.e. people to people. We think our clients are fabulous and are honored to work with them. It is truly a pleasure […]

Read more

Social Media Marketing Consultants, Search Marketing Consultant – San Francisco Bay Area and beyond

Meet Suse Barnes: Search Marketing Consultant, Social Media Marketing Author and Professor and Your Digital Marketing Partner Suse Barnes is a Digital Marketing Consultant specializing in social media marketing, social media advertising and search engine marketing. With twenty years experience in the San Francisco Bay Area, she has been optimizing websites for search engines since before Google was invented, consults with businesses […]

Read more
1 … 10 11 12