THINKing

Technorati Is Dead To Me

Photo Courtesy of Morguefile

Start digging, Technorati is dead. I’m sure, like the old man in Spamalot, Technorati is protesting that “I’m not dead yet.” But trust me, the corpse is quickly reaching room temperature. Bring out your dead.

I rarely get any traffic from Technorati anymore. It’s been weeks since any traffic was referred to THINKing from Technorati. Do you get any traffic from them? Do you gain any value at all from Technorati?

Many bloggers agree with me that it’s time for Technorati to turn off the servers and the lights. Once they descended into the pit by accepting spammy ads, Technorati was dead to a lot of people.

The final straw for me was when they turned off the WTF function. This was the last in a long line of missteps by Technorati. It was useful for a time, but it’s time has passed. So, what’s next?

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Connections Revisited

I asked what social networks you are a part of and several of you have waded in. Let’s see what’s working for our readers:

Ashleigh Hunter of Bank of America wrote:

I am a part of linkedin and facebook actively. I have an account on jigsaw but have not figured out how to effectively use it. I typically end up X-raying linkedin for the right folks as opposed to going through my network. This is the one I find the most useful.

Your PR Guy Blogger Rodger Johnson wrote:

I’m in 5 social networks: Facebook, Linkedin, MyRagan, Smaller Indiana, and Twitter. I’m finding that Facebook is meeting my business objectives the least — but connecting with other professionals has been more fruitful in MyRagan, SMIN, Linkedin and Twitter. I must say, however, Twitter is still new to me.

WebMarketCentral Blogger Tom Pick wrote:

About 40. For standard websites: StumbleUpon (by far – better than all others combined). Then, in order best to least, Bibsonomy, Mister Wong, BeeTooBee.com, Ma.gnolia, del.icio.us and Netvous. For blogs: Technorati (again, by far — as valuable as the next four combined). Then, in descending order, StumbleUpon, Searchles, Facebook, Digg, del.icio.us, Zimbio, IceRocket, BeeTooBee.com, Clipmarks and Sphinn

Social Media Explorer Blogger Jason Falls wrote.

I’m involved in too many to name, but because I’m supposed to know and understand them for my job. (Advising people on how to use them.) But I’m primarily active on the following, all of which have business implications: SocialMediaExplorer.com – My own blog and mini community, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo Groups, StumbleUpon, del.icio.us.
A number of niche forums/message boards and communities connected to my clients (like RobbysUprising.com, a Ning community for fans of Robby Gordon, Jim Beam’s NASCAR driver.)

Blogger Joe Pulizzi wrote:

LinkedIn is most effective (outside of Junta42 of course). Other network I’m involved in is Facebook. I’ve tried others as experiments, but they are so unimportant at this point that I can’t remember the names.

Sandy Vasseur of Little Architecture wrote:
LinkedIn gives me the best opener a person can have, regardless of whether or not I am personally acquainted with someone. I can say, “We’re linked in via John Doe.” Or, “I’m two-times removed from you on LinkedIn.” Most of us are online for the same purpose, and those opening lines always get me a response.

Blogger Carter Langston, ABC wrote:
I incorporate LinkedIn as one element of my larger email database for my ‘connected’ networking. While I think I understand what you mean by ‘social,’ my offline social networking is much more extensive and diverse. Some very important people in my sphere of influence just aren’t part of the Internet Social Revolution, so my networking takes place online, offline, face-to-face, etc.  Within the greater LinkedIn population, there are sub-groups that I find personally beneficial. For instance, there is the ExecuNet Group, IABC Group, CEO Exchange and more that refine the target audience a bit.  In terms of business objectives: Have I received business directly from those in my network? No. But I interact with people, share information, help other professionals address their issues and concerns. In the process, I learn from others, sharpen my own counsel, build relationships and earn referrals.  In terms of sales objectives: There is nothing more effective than face-to-face networking and talking to people about meeting thei tangible business needs.

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A Vote For Me Is A Vote For Me

Photo By ldcross (Flickr)

Election season has me in its grip, so I am shamelessly campaigning for votes. Now, you will have to register to vote for me, just as you should to vote in any campaign. Here are the links for you to visit to vote:

Best Marketing Blog (we’re leading in this Bloggers’ Choice category. Keep us there!)

Junta42 Top Content Marketing Blogs (we’re number 38 currently)

Technorati Favorite

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You Want Fries With That?

Some talk percolating in the blogosphere about customer service being the new marketing.  PRSquared riffs on it, as does Common Sense PR.

Well, duh. Customer service was the old marketing, too. No matter how much media weight you threw against something, if you didn’t deliver, at the end of the day you were toast.

Now, I understand their points. In today’s socially interconnected digital world, it is harder to get away with a bad product or service for very long. Agreed.  But humans haven’t changed in oh, about 200,000 years. We may no longer knock you out with a club due to bad service or bad behavior but we’ll take it out on you some way.

And, no matter what you do, you are in customer service in some way, shape or fashion. Just because you don’t ask directly for the order doesn’t mean you are not serving someone.

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Links – 10/10/2007

Everyone always thinks about the brand first. Sometimes you should consider your category first.

What are the Top 25 Marketing Blogs, according to Technorati?

Who doesn’t love an advertising mascot?

How do you develop killer web content? The answer.

Who doesn’t love Israeli girls in bikinis? Some pundits, who say the new tourism ads just aren’t kosher.

Want to build your blog readership? 37 viral post ideas to help.

Expand your audience through social media.

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Press Release Evolution

According to Barks & Bites,

the news release is one of the oldest tools in the PR professionals’ toolkit and also one of the newest. Once you begin using it as your principal “conversation-starter” with audiences who find you online, you will see the dialogue and the positive results of your marketing and communications programs take on a life of their own.

Very true. The release has morphed and has a new life thanks to the digital milieu. Here’s a piece I wrote on the evolution of the news release.

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Does Your Agency Really Understand Web 2.0?

The Logic + Emotion blog throws down the gauntlet for agencies claiming to understand the new digital world in a recent post:

Emerging technologies are nearly always part of the equation—and the equation shifts like the desert sands. And digital isn’t even an option—it’s mandatory.

No longer will agencies be able to tack on the “interactive” label as an afterthought or service-line extension. It’s becoming the price of admission to the ballgame.

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Technorati Experiment

I’m participating in an experiment to try to break into the most favorited category on Technorati.

Dosh Dosh, an internet marketing blog, started the whole thing, saying

The goal of this experiment is simple, to break into the Technorati Top 100 and determine the exposure and traffic benefits of being included in the Top 100 list.

Like my article on WTF, this is purely to measure the value of such a ranking system and to determine how it affects an individual blog. This experiment will result in a detailed statistical report on the amount of traffic received from being listed as one of the Top 100 and possibly, one of the Top 5 (Yes, I’m serious) most favorited blogs.

The idea is to trade most favorited links.

How can you help? Make THINKing one of your most favorited blogs by clicking on the link at the bottom of this post. Please leave your Technorati username as well as a similar link to your blog in a comment. I’ll come back and favorite your blog in return. My Technorati name is hhoover, so you’ll know I lived up to the bargain. Let’s get favorite.

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Social Media Is Transforming Business

According to a recent report in Inc. Magazine, social media is transforming business. More than 51 percent of the companies on the Inc. 500 list are tracking social media.

And in a new online study by IBM, more than 26 percent of US online consumers have contributed to a social media site.

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RSS Resources

BNET is a great source for business information of all types. I read it regularly. Here is a link to BNET’s RSS tagged information.

RSS Resources on BNET

In other RSS news, here is an excellent list of RSS and Blog directories, and here is some additional RSS information from Search Engine Watch.

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