Monthly Archives: September 2009

See You at Search Engine Bootcamp!

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In case you notice the blog being a little neglected this week, it’s because I’m currently on the road on my way up to Auckland to present at Search Engine Bootcamp.

My topic is Twitter Marketing Essentials but I found that a little boring, so have asked the Twitterverse to help me decide on a new presentation heading via online poll. Please vote for the title that you find most appealing ?

Regardless of the title, the preso will be about how businesses can use Twitter as an effective marketing tool and have a lot of fun doing it.

If you’re coming along on Friday, be sure to stop by our Search Engine College sponsor table in the Exhibition foyer and say hi. You can even grab one of our free LOL cat tees while you’re there. (Yes, we’ve got several mens and ladies sizes and not just one ridiculously large size fits all).

Oh and if you need a little more incentive to come along, as a sponsor of the event, we can arrange a 20% discount on your conference pass. Simply press the big red button at the top right or @ me on Twitter.

See you there!

Play Monopoly Worldwide With Google Maps

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Google has teamed up with the Hasbro, the makers of board game sensation Monopoly to launch an online, multiplayer version of the game called Monopoly City Streets.

The game, which launched earlier this month, uses Google Maps as the game board and allows players to compete in a real time, worldwide version of the game, effectively creating the largest Monopoly tournament ever held. From the web site:

“The goal is simple. Play to beat your friends and the world to become the richest property magnate in existence. Own any street in the world. Build humble houses, crazy castles and stupendous skyscrapers to collect rent. Use MONOPOLY Chance Cards to sabotage your mates by building Hazards on their streets.”

Although very little advertising was done leading up to it, the Twitter Effect on launch day brought the site to a standstill due to the sheer volume of buzz it created as players began tweeting their progress in the game.

It seems that Twitter isn’t the only hiccup to hit the venture. According to the Monopoly City Streets blog, there has been widespread cheating and foul play reported, forcing the site administrators to take the game offline for 3 hours this week while they manually addressed the issues.

Still, the game looks like a lot of fun for those with the time to invest.

Twitter Confirms Your Tweets Belong to You

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Twitter tweak

If you’re a Twitter user you might have received an email from Twitter founder Biz Stone last week about a change to their Terms of Service (TOS).

It’s highly unusual for Twitter to email their users directly, so it definitely got my attention. Turns out they’ve made a major update to their TOS, with key changes to the way Twitter addresses:

  • Advertising
  • Ownership
  • APIs
  • Spam

The biggest change has to do with ownership. There’s been some controversy since the micro-blogging service launched about who actually owns the content of your tweets. A few power Twitter users have profited from the compilation of various tweets into published formats and there’s been some confusion as to their legal rights to do so.

Well it’s now been confirmed that YOU actually own the content of your tweets, while Twitter reserves the right to “use, copy, reproduce, process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display and distribute” them.

A summary of the major changes to the TOS can be found in Twitter’s official blog post about the subject.

Twitter are also welcoming feedback from users about the new TOS, via the “feedback” link on the Terms of Service page.

September Search Light Newsletter: The “let’s pretend it’s August” edition

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Search LightSo we skipped an entire month of the Search Light and hoped you wouldn’t notice. Our last issue of the newsletter came out in July and somehow the whole of August escaped us before we could issue another one. Whoops!

But to make up for it, our September edition of the Search Light is a bumper one. It includes an article about how Twitter is flipping traditional business marketing on it’s head. It also includes some of the more interesting FAQs answered in this blog.

If you’re not yet a subscriber, (the shame!), you can catch it here.

Q and A: What is social media optimization (SMO)?

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QuestionDear Kalena,

I was just wondering if you could provide me with any information regarding SMO (Social media optimization). I have been researching and yet to find anything I could use.

Thank you

Amanda

Dear Amanda,

The answer to your question is quite expansive and I can not possibly fit every thing into a single post. I would therefore try to give you an overview of social media optimization/marketing and leave you with a couple of pointers, and you can take the lead from there.

The year 2009 saw a lot of buzz about social media and was heralded as the year of social media marketing. Social media marketing dominated the list of digital marketing tactics and I can not foresee any reason why the trend would not continue. A lot of big names have jumped into the social media foray and many businesses have added social media optimization/marketing into their marketing mix.

As the name suggests, social media is basically communicating online or socializing as you would say in the real world. But it is not as easy it sounds and can be very overwhelming. So before you a take a dive into social media, here’s social media in plain English for you and why you need social media marketing.

It is common for people who are unaware of the intricacies of social media to label it a fad and showcase it as a sheer waste of time. It only holds true when you don’t know “what you want out of social mediaâ€?. It is therefore quintessential to set the right expectations at the beginning of any social media campaign. Here’s a great rundown of what results you can expect from your social media campaign.

Going further, Shana Albert (the social media star) wrote a great guide on How to get started in social media. It may be a bit old but most of the information provided therein still holds true and will make for a good start. I would also like to point you to posts written by Jordan Kasteler and Lee Odden as they would answer most of your questions related to social media.

Common Questions with Social Media Campaigns
Answers to Social Media Questions You Should Know

And before I wrap up the post I would like to say that “Social media is here, now and it’s big – Don’t miss the boat!â€?

Further Reading:

16 Rules For Social Media Optimization Revisited

Hope it helps.

Saurav Verma
Kneoteric eSolutions