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My Analysis on Social Media and Technological Trends

Social Media Educators, Teaching Social Media, Tech Trends and Analysis

The Link Schemes Change by Google: Why I Am Not Afraid!

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I recently posted on the impact the change to Google’s link schemes is having on what we should teach students about writing press releases for the web. But what does this change mean? There are some concern around the web that this is going to have a very negative impact on PR. There again, some seem to be completely ignoring this issue.

Here is my reaction.

(Note: I should have more clearly emphasized in my original post that this lesson extends beyond press releases into other online articles distributed on other websites – like online article marketing campaigns and widespread guest blog campaigns).

Is Google’s update to its link schemes the beginning of the end of PR as Foremski warns?

Clearly this update places greater importance on creating compelling content that folks want to share organically, or to use Google’s terminology “naturally.”

Will this change devalue the press release? From my standpoint as an educator: Honestly, I’m not too worried about it. I don’t think you should be either.

I like Jason Kintzler’s view on the subject in 5 Ways Google Just Helped the PR Industry (And I like what his team is doing at PitchEngine. Maybe that’s why we are using PitchEngine for our social media release assignment). Particularly, I like his point on engagement – that relevant content is content that meets what an audience is looking for which increases the likelihood that it will get shared. But he also warns that unless folks “wake up” (his terms) “they will be replaced by other seemingly unthreatening parts of marketing and communications.”

So why am I not worried?

Because the savvy strategic communicators you and I are seeking to educate are storytellers, not press release machines. They are creating content for an interactive and interconnected multimediascape that users will find, enjoy, and want to share, naturally.

Wherever communication industries are going or not is fine with me. And I think it should be with other educators as well.

That’s because I believe If someone is going to come along and lead communication and relationship building online, it is going to be the type of student I and many others want to teach. That is what excites me about students. They aren’t afraid. They learn, adapt, innovate, and are not confined by “how something has always been done.”

I believe our goals as educators should be to strive to prepare ourselves and to help our fellow educators prepare our students to be the ones with the skill sets to lead that wave, whatever it is going to be.  I don’t know everything, things keep changing, and I’ve got a ton to learn! Isn’t that empowering and motivating?

I am not one for “how it has always been done.” And I know of a ton of educators who are they same. They are the folks bravely driving innovation and new ideas, experimenting, thinking about what’s around the corner, and not afraid to take risks and learn from them. The dozens of educators I have met, follow online, or otherwise observed (such as wonderful Promising Professor presentations at AEJMC!) are not stagnant. They are passionate about change.

Whether this or any future change by Google or some other entity means the press release has less value than ever or not, it shouldn’t matter if we 1) are adaptable and innovative educators, and 2) are teaching our students to be strong writers for the web with an eye for engaging content.

Maybe what I’m trying to say is, what an exciting time it is to be an educator!

I hope you all have an amazing semester! Today is our first day. I look forward to learning from you and growing over the coming months!

Next week I will share how I am teaching writing press releases for the web as part of my Writing Across Platforms course.

photo credit: jonrawlinson via photopin cc

Classes, Teaching Social Media, Tech Trends and Analysis, Writing Across Platforms

Teach PR Writing? You Need to Know about Google’s Updated Link Schemes

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This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for details.

Google recently updated its link schemes and it means an important change to how we teach students to write press releases for the web. This is because the change directly targets articles or press releases distributed on other websites, like an online wire service.

I’ve written a lot on this blog about teaching students to write for the web. And this is the biggest change I’ve seen to what we should teach since starting this blog.

Google wants links to your site to emerge naturally, that is organically via its popularity on the web because others like it and link to it via Tweets, blog posts, etc. That doesn’t include a press release, because essentially a press release is seen by Google as an advertisement you are putting out to drive traffic to your site. Google calls this “unnatural.”

“Lots of links, lots of repeated key words, and multiple postings of a press release to different sites, are all red flags to Google under the new rules. Such actions are viewed by Google as blatant attempts to trick its algorithm into ranking a site higher than its allotted position,” writes Tom Foremski.

When Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Roundtable asked Google Switzerland’s john Mueller “Why were press releases called out?” during the July 29 Webmaster Central Google Hangout, Mueller replied: “It is something that a lot of people are doing to try to promote the website. That’s something that we want to make clear, that we essentially see this as an unnatural link…” Later in the hangout, Mueller likened a press release to an advertisement. He is saying this in the sense, again, that the purpose of the press release distributed on the web is to drive traffic to a client’s site, the way an online advertisement does. I.e., an “unnatural” link. Of course, the purpose of a press release is to do more than drive traffic to your site, but not in Google’s eyes.

You can see this exchange by watching the first 10 minutes or so of the below video:

So what to do?

Having keywords be linked has been Best Practices for press releases over the past several years (in fact, if you have old press releases up it is best to go change them to the new format or risk hurting your client’s PageRank). I was planning to go into my Writing Across Platforms class (See syllabus. See other blog posts about the class) this fall with the advice to optimize keywords with links in the Social Media News Release assignment. As a result of this change by Google, this is what I’ll be telling my students:

Be safe:

Link Sparingly

nofollow all URLs in press releases and distributed articles on web.

Code for no-following:
nofollow-google-linkschemes
Why I’m telling them this:

I spent a great deal of time researching this new change and reading through varying opinions and reactions to the new link scheme update. While opinions differed slightly, Mueller’s own advice seems to be to no-follow all URLs just to be safe.

The penalty for upsetting Google? Possibly having your client’s site drop in ranking on Google search results – and no one wants that! In fact, in an article with the alarmist title “Did Google just kill PR agencies?” Tom Foremski warns ” PR agencies could be held liable for the damage they caused to the online reputation of client businesses through the execution of normal practices. It could lead to legal action and compensation claims on millions of dollars in lost sales. ”

So it seems best to me to not risk it.

Some great articles to learn more about this change and see what others are advising (note: I got many of these from a great podcast on For Immediate Release last week – listed below):

image CC Schmector

Tech Trends and Analysis

Web Roundup: Social Media rocks AEJMC 2013; Hot articles impacting

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This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for details.

After a great trip to Washington DC and a wonderful #AEJMC2013 conference, I am back in West Virginia enjoying the last few days before classes start. Though I didn’t get to do all the things I had hoped nor meet all the great people I’ve gotten to know on social media at the conference, I came away from AEJMC having learned a lot.

Two quick observations:

1) As a field, our understanding of social media is growing exponentially! –  When I started researching YouTube and the 2006 election, not many scholars were looking into the new medium. Walking around the conference, I saw tons of very interesting and exciting studies and had a great time talking to folks with great research questions and findings.

2) Coverage of #AEJMC2013  on social media was robust, insightful, and engaging – Here are a few cool stats:

A visual display of #AEJMC2013 Tweets 

And:

The PR division of AEJMC was a clear leader when it came to coverage across platforms including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Storify.

Though my own access to the Internet was limited by poor to nonexistent cell phone coverage, I was able to follow along via my tablet. At the 2008 NCA conference in San Diego, I met one person using Twitter via an iPhone at the conference (it wasn’t me) and we later connected online. This year, I’ve met a number of great people either in person or via the #AEJMC2013 hashtag. I’m excited to learn from them! In fact, the difference between people Tweeting about the conference and “thinking social media” to express their experiences was noticeably up from just two years ago in St. Louis, a great deal in part due to the proliferation of smart phones I imagine.

A few articles with big implications for Education this week:

  • Majoring in a Professor – Insight Higher Ed – This study finds that a student’s choice of major is most influenced by the quality of introductory professor” This article explores the role that a student’s first experience with a major via a professor teaching an introductory course has in whether that student will major in that field. As the article states: “Maybe it’s much more simple: Undergraduates are significantly more likely to major in a field if they have an inspiring and caring faculty member in their introduction to the field. And they are equally likely to write off a field based on a single negative experience with a professor.” Read more on the potential implications of this finding. —
  • A letter from a high school teacher warns college professors about the incoming group of students went viral – The author, retired teacher Kenneth Beirnstein, argues that mandating testing and the No Child Left Behind program have hurt critical thinking and writing among the burgeoning student population and asks professors not to hold high school teachers who have little control over these matters responsible. But not many people have seen the follow-up. After I tweeted this article, he Tweeted me back stating he was returning to the classroom, and here is why. The piece is moving and motivational, as Kenneth proclaims “because even with the restrictions that exist I believe I can make a difference for my students” and ” because public schools are too important for me to abandon the field of conflict on their behalf.”

scout

That’s all for now!  Hope you are relaxing before the semester starts! Kelin and I are so excited to be picking up our new puppy, Scout, on Wednesday.   Scout (pictured above) is a Bergamasco, an Italian Sheepherding dog! I’ll admit, as a first time dog owner I am a bit nervous! Advice gladly accepted!

-Cheers!

Matt

Tech Trends and Analysis

Web Roundup: Social Media Education Infographic; Zimmerman juror book deal sabotaged; Cool Professors; More!

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This week flew by! Today’s Web Roundup contains a variety of articles.

 Search:

This week’s subject has been search, as on Monday I published a post on Snickers use of search in a very creative campaign – if you haven’t seen it, check it out!  In an article “Why search is much bigger than you can measure,” Chris Penn talks about some of the ways in which web traffic from search is being masked, preventing us from realizing the true volume of people who are being referred to our site from search.

Social Media and Education:

Recently, Karen Freberg (@kfreberg) Tweeted a great article with Infographics from MediaBistro on social media and education. Of course I agree with the article that: “Social media has revolutionised many industries, but it’s perhaps its impact on the classroom, and the education system as a whole, that is the most striking.” There is a lot of interesting data here. A few things that stuck out to me:

59% of students who use social networks talk about education topics online

50% of those who talk about education online talk specifically about schoolwork.

Also, there is a great infographic exploring just some of the benefits of using social media in school for teachers, students, and parents. There is also another infographic showing the uses of a variety of social media tools to enhance the classroom.

Current Events and Social Media

“Twitter user swiftly sabotages Zimmerman juror’s book deal“ on Yahoo news – With the outpouring of emotion and opinion regarding the verdict in the George Zimmerman case, one person turned to Twitter in an attempt to block a juror in the case from getting the book deal. She succeeded. Here again we see the power of social media to rally support for/against an event. I’m not so sure such the effort could have succeeded in the pre-social media age, or at least so quickly (The article claims she succeeded in 6 hours!) The decision by the Martin Literary Agency to seek to publish a book on the controversial trial has certainly left many people shaking their head. The agency was forced to respond to social pressure and did so quickly, releasing a statement. What do you think about how the Martin Literary Agency responded to this situation?

Friday Fun!

Lastly, just for fun:

I’ve seen a lot of creative professors over the years. This photo album of “18 clues that your professor is cooler than you” shows just how witty professors can be!

If you’re an old school Internet nerd like me, you’ll appreciate this list of “Things that will make you miss the old days of the Internet” from the masters of the web list, BuzzFeed Rewind. Take a walk down memory lane with classic screen savers, AOL, the comforting sounds of dialup, and much more!

Dr. K Roundup

In personal news, my wife Kelin and I will be getting our very first puppy later this month, a bergamasco! My wife grew up with dogs but this is all new to me! I’ve been reading a lot of Cesar Millan books! I’m considering joining Instagram or another photo-sharing social site to share photos of our new dog experience. My Instagram knowledge is rather limited, so this may be a fun way to get up to date on this burgeoning social network. If you’ve got any thoughts on what the best photo apps are, or have any tips and tools, I’d love your input.

Hope to see you at #AEJMC next week! Have a great weekend.

Cheers!
-Matt

photo: CC opensourceway.

Tech Trends and Analysis

Snickers Understands the Opportunity in Search

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Snickers used search engines to target customers who were making misspellings during search. This cost-effective campaign reached over 500,000 people in 2 days.

How did it work? As explained on a Google article, “Each time someone misspelled a word, they were given a tailored message to “Grab yourself a Snikkers” as “Yu cant spel properlie wen hungrie.” Clicking the ad brought the customer to YoureNotYouWhenYoureHungry.com.

This is the most brilliant example of search engine marketing I’ve seen in quite a while. And the lessons here extend beyond search engine marketing to search generally, and understanding audience and opportunity. What makes this campaign so great?

Integration across mediums – Integrated Marketing is not new, but this is clever integration of an offline campaign that many of us already know to the online world: Snickers’ “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry.” You’ve probably seen the “diva” commercials of someone being hungry and acting moody, then returning to themselves after being given a Snickers. With that familiarity, I know what Snickers is referring to when the campaign ad comes up in search.

Seizing Opportunity– This year, a big trend has been ‘real-time marketing‘ on Twitter. We saw it with Oreo and Audi in the Super Bowl when the lights went out.This week, we saw it with the birth of the royal baby. What is real-time marketing other than taking advantage of an OPPORTUNITY to reach out to an audience and connect with them on a common event or cultural experience? Of course, this type of strategy has been around for ages. Find someone when they’re in need of your product and they’re more likely to buy. But this is a particularly clever way of engaging an audience in that situation and frame of mind.

The search campaign here comes off as an almost secret finding for the searcher, like a treasure hunt they didn’t know they were a part of. There you are browsing for something – like business -, you make a misspelling, are probably frustrated by it, and out of left field comes this funny little find. Hence, an OPPORTUNITY for the target audience to interact with Snickers is created. Who wouldn’t chuckle at someone joking that “Yu cant spel properlie wen hungrie.” at a time like this? It feels like the ad was targeted specifically to you. That’s what I mean when I mention the ‘situation’ and ‘frame of mind’ below.

The video below quickly gives a sense of how Snickers identified an opportunity to target an audience (in this case, young adults who are likely bored, hungry for a snack, and appreciate creativity and humor from a brand), and used search as a creative way of connecting. Though I’m not sure what level of competition they had for the misspelled words, I imagine it wasn’t too great when compared to trying to bid on real spellings for a targeted keyword.

Understanding search behavior – Snickers identified common misspellings of key words. As the video claims, people ‘make spelling mistakes when they’re hungry.’ Though I don’t know about the research on that, I can say that people make spelling mistakes all the time in search. And aren’t we all always hungry for a snack, particularly something sweet?

Meeting Your target demographic on their turf – Snickers targets their audience WHERE their audience is, in the situation and frame of mind that makes them ready to purchase. Let me explain. Who eats Snickers? Well, just about everybody (though I’m a Charleston Chew guy myself). But the campaign uses an odd sense of humor to appeal to younger folks and that busy lifestyle we all experience that makes quick snacks like candy bars an easy option. The video indicates the real target is the bored person at work who is stuck at a computer. And what office doesn’t have a vending machine nearby, or a convenient store around the corner? We’ve seen this sort of targeting in other chocolate bar ads, a la “Gimmie a break” indicating the snack as a quick escape from the drudgery of everyday life.

The resulting experience for the searcher? I didn’t mean to show up at this misspelled search result but, behold, I’m not here alone… Snickers is here too, they’ve made this mistake, and they understand WHY I’m here.

Bringing this all together, I love this example because it shows how one brand cleverly reached an audience on a small budget using something we often talk about, search engines, but don’t always quite realize their full potential.

This is a great example I plan to show in my class to emphasize the importance of search engines, and how they can be used to target audiences (I introduce targeting via search in Writing Across Platforms). I’m sure it will spark discussion and some creativity!

Tech Trends and Analysis

Bizarre Chipotle Twitter Behavior and Social Media Brand Identity

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Current Events and Social Media

What were those Chipotle Tweets all about? – That’s the question some are asking after a series of bizarre Tweets by the restaurant chain. In a boldly titled article, “How to alienate your Twitter followers: Chipotle staged hack falls flat,” Hayley Tsukayama indicates that Chipotle was trying to ride the tide of other brands that found surprising success (i.e., increases in followers – if #s = success on social media) after being hacked. According to the article, a spokesperson for Chipotle claimed the Tweets were related to a treasure hunt promo the company was working on. To see some of the Tweets, check out this post by BuzzFeed jokingly titled “Either Chipotle doesn’t know how to use Twitter, or they know exactly how to use Twitter” in reference to the 3700 RTs the brand received.

What was the true motive for the Tweets? We’ll never know. The larger question is, was it good for Chipotle? I’m not as critical of Chipotle here as others may be. Clearly, awareness of Chipotle’s treasure hunt promo is lacking and cross-media tie in was ineffective. The “stunt,” executed differently, could have worked very well as part of the promo. To me, the question here is one of social media identity.

What seems to bother people here is that Chipotle acted in a way inconsistent with its brand identity, specifically its social media identity. Chiptole comes across as lighthearted and a little strange (there are talking pigs and chickens on their website) – but it was acting a bit erratic on Twitter.

Let’s keep in mind that those following your brand on Twitter are not going to be aware of what you’re doing in other spaces unless you clearly tell them. Seeing as that can be a difficult thing to do (our attention span is short and we’re not always listening when the Tweets go out) a separate Twitter account for the promo may have been another option. Though this option carries with it some serious limitations, it presents a great opportunity to explore how social media identity is tied up into this.

Remember, your identity is wrapped up in your social profile. And your identity is what others think you are. Your Twitter followers expect you to behave in a way that is consistent with how they perceive your Twitter identity. That is why building that identity – playful, serious, etc., is at the core of the success of a social account. It is easier to create a separate identity (separate Twitter account) that can behave differently than it is to acclimate existing Twitter acquaintances to an aberration or long-term change in personality.  Consider your interactions with others every day. If your good friend who was mild-mannered and easy-going suddenly became the life of the party, you’d wonder if something was wrong. You might say, “I like the old Sally.” It is not to say you don’t like having a friend who is the life of the party. But that role is something you associate with a different friend (personality). It is always much easier to introduce people to someone new than a new you. In this instance, Chipotle could have remained consistent with their existing account.

Of course, why have to try and bring followers to a new account when you’ve done the hard work of building your existing followers? And that is a serious limitation to this alternative and a very good reason why you may not want to build a separate account in a situation like this.

Separate account or no, cryptic and erratic may not be the best way to go on social. At any rate, it gives us a great opportunity to think about social media, identity, audience expectations, and that ever-growing need to stand out in our attention economy.

Experimentation and bravery are needed. And I applaud Chipotle for that. You can’t know until you try. Is the whole thing quite strange? Yes. Is it going to have any real negative impact on the brand? I doubt it. (next week I’ll have a post about another brand who did a great job of doing something different and having great success!)

What do you think about the Chipotle Twitter situation? Is it an inconsistent social media identity that has people talking about this , or is it something else?

Tech Trends and Analysis

Web Roundup: Content Marketing: Does it matter?, Big Data and Politics (7/12/13)

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coffee

Happy Friday! Here are some great articles from around the web that caught my attention this week.

For the politics and social media lovers:

  • Election 2016: How Big Data + Social Data Will Determine the Next President – A must read for an interesting perspective on the future of social data and micro-targeting! I find big data and predictive analytics both fascinating and scary. It seems things have shifted. It used to be campaigns took their cues from business tactics. With the costs of presidential campaigns skyrocketing, it seems the tables have turned. This article discusses the innovations of 2008 and 2012 and what they may mean for the 2016 election.

But the big theme this week is something I’ve talked a lot about on this blog content marketing:

  • Gary Schirr asks “Is content marketing the NEW new thing?” with some thought-provoking Google trend graphs showing the exponential growth in search volume for “content marketing” versus other popular marketing trends. As the data shows, there is no question – content marketing is as popular a term as ever.
  • Mark Schaefer proclaims “Why Content Marketing is a ‘do-over’ for social media – arguing that content marketing offers a new and exciting opportunity for online marketing in response to what Mark sees as a failure of social media marketing. The upside, according to Mark, is that content marketing represents a maturation of the field. To me, the failure is the ‘out-the-box’ approach to social media, or as Mark describes it: checking it off the list. Still, it is interesting to hear someone call social media marketing a failure. I’d say the failure sounds more like a failure of social media marketers.
  • And Robert Wynne offers the “real story” of content marketing – where he examines whether content marketing is something new or a buzzword for something that’s been with us for a long time.

Have a great weekend!

– Cheers, Matt