Marketing Pilgrim Published: “Stick a Fork in Yahoo?” plus 4 more

Stick a Fork in Yahoo?
Majority of People Surveyed Say Online Rep is Important
Twitter Opens Advertising Opps to the Masses
Do the Big Brands Have an Advantage When it Comes to Social Media?
Trackur Gets More Klout, Adds Twitter Influence Metrics

Posted: 15 Dec 2010 12:09 AM PST

Yahoo continues to be in the news for all the wrong reasons. Yesterday the Internet company (how do you even classify them anymore?) gave pink slips to 4% of their workforce. Yahoo wants to give the impression of a company that is rising from the ashes but it still looks like one that continues to burn to the ground.

TechCrunch reports Yahoo's response about the reports

Today's personnel changes are part of our ongoing strategy to best position Yahoo! for revenue growth and margin expansion and to support our strategy to deliver differentiated products to the marketplace. We'll continue to hire on a global basis to support our key priorities.

Yahoo! is grateful for the important contributions made by the employees affected by this reduction. We are offering severance packages and outplacement services to these employees.

The reports are that the packages were generous but that's little consolation to those who are now without a job for the Christmas season.

Ever since Carol Bartz has been at the helm the only truly definitive actions that seem to be taken involve cutting expenses. There seems to be little direction for the floundering company. One day it's about search then the next it's about content then it's about (fill in the blank).

Another TechCrunch post gives some insider information about just how bad things are at Yahoo. This comes from one of the victim of the layoff.

The atmosphere here has never been worse. I have heard of dozens of current employee\'s who have provided years of service who were recently asked by their managers if they wanted to be voluntarily let go in order to save someone elses job…I expect hundreds of Yahoo\'s who will be collecting lucrative severance packages in addition to having had months to secure new jobs for themselves in 2011….Lucky me l get to enjoy an extravagant 6 week vacation abroad on Yahoo\'s dime starting just before xmas. I\'ve already booked travel and am actually going to be meeting up with several other employees who also did essentially the same as me… I have worked here for 5 years and I can say without question I have never seen this place in such shambles.

Yahoo is in a rut and it seems like one that it may never truly get out of. As the rest of the bigger names move forward to claim their portion of the Internet pie Yahoo remains mired in doubt. They have even been passed by so many newcomers in the space that one has to wonder if this company has any chance at all to succeed in the new Internet world.

Maybe Yahoo has an idea of where they are headed but the rest of us are having a tough time seeing it. It wasn't until recently that Carol Bartz herself could articulate just what Yahoo does! As a result, there seems to be little momentum around the company from industry insiders and though there is still plenty of traffic going through Yahoo properties they feel like an old horse being put out to pasture.

Maybe the 400 or so folks who were let go will look back on this as a blessing as they land in other more dynamic places that appear to be moving forward rather than just trying to stay alive.

Considering what they are facing at this time of year one can only hope for something better than what they were released from.

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Majority of People Surveyed Say Online Rep is Important

Posted: 14 Dec 2010 11:59 PM PST

78% of people surveyed in a recent poll said they believe it is very important to look up information about people and/or businesses online before deciding to interact or do business with them.

And when they look you up, what will they find? Social media is a great tool for connecting with your customers but it’s also a potential minefield for those who don’t tread carefully. Take the Chipotle restaurant manager who recently posted to Facebook that she’d run over a cat on her way to home. The company says it was the work of a hacker, but more likely it was just a bad joke on the woman’s part. It caused a flood of nasty comments on the restaurant’s Facebook page and even a retaliatory page called Chipotle Hates Cats.

It just goes to show you how little it takes to mar a good reputation online and it’s not just companies that are worried.

The new survey, which was conducted by Harris Interactive for Intelius, revealed that 90% of U.S. adults want more control over the information that is available about them online.

* 80% believe their online identity is now as important as their “offline” personal or professional reputation.

* Compared to this time last year, 43% of women said they are now more aware of the information that exists about them online, compared to only 38% of men who say the same.

* 63% said they believe they should check their online information every 6 months or more, but 27% admit they have not done this.

The biggest blow:

* 74% claimed they would most likely refuse to interact or do business with a person or company if they found negative information about them online.

That’s a scary number.

You should be aware that the numbers above were part of a press release surrounding a new website called www.truerep.com where you pay a monthly fee in order to manage your online reputation. Still, best interest or not, these numbers probably aren’t too far off the feelings of the general populace.

Reputation has always played an important part in growing a business but now it’s a whole lot trickier. With Google caching every word you’ve ever posted and Facebook fans tagging every unbecoming photo ever taken, controlling your online reputation can be a full time job.

Here are a couple of quick tips to help protect your rep.

– Never post in anger. No matter how right you are, your remarks will always come back to bite you.

– Always assume what you’re posting in private will become public. It’s simply too easy to cut, paste and email. If you wouldn’t want your customers or clients seeing it, don’t post it.

– Routinely sweep through Twitter, Facebook and Google searching for your own name and your company name. If you find complaints, address them. Stay on top of the bad buzz so you can deal with it before it gets out of control.

Do you have a tip to share? Post it in the comments below then go Google yourself. You may not like what you see, but you’ll be glad you did.

Twitter Opens Advertising Opps to the Masses

Posted: 14 Dec 2010 09:54 PM PST

For quite a while now everyone and their brother has been lobbing the "when are you going to really monetize Twitter" bombs into the micro-blogging giant's front yard. It's a popular thing to do but as of late that cry has lost a little steam (in part due to having real business people like Dick Costolo at the helm) and the latest move by Twitter could put a dent in one of the Internet industry's favorite pastimes for sure.

The Next Web first reported the new Twitter for Business section and reported

The new version of business.twitter.com will provide business owners with twitter success stores, ideas, tips, tools and resources. Some of the tools included are information on promoted products and tutorials one how to communicate with customers using mobile.

Twitter's business tools range from basic tips "What is Twitter" to more in-depth information on analytics, case studies, API integration etc.

The main page looks like this and the big attention getter is on the right side, which might as well read "Give Us Your Wallet"

Twitter is no longer just giving advertising a try with a few select folks. Now it's official that Twitter is really open for business. It's kind of sad to watch the old "Twitter is cool but hasn't made a red cent" days go away. Now we have to look at Twitter as a legitimate business. Now whether what they do is meaningful is whole other story.

Along with this new way to get into advertisers pocketbooks, Twitter has updated its Twitter 101 offering with a new presentation of its old material and additional updates.

It appears now that Twitter is moving into the next phase of its development. How well it will work remains to be seen. Does advertising on Twitter give advertisers the best bang for their buck? Will more advertising be a positive or negative influence on the overall experience? To listen to Jason Falls tell it to ReadWriteWeb you certainly get one possible side of the argument clearly.

“Selling trending topics is like gaming Digg,” Falls said.

“Twitter is inviting marketing money bags to completely ruin the organic nature of the tool. When I look at something like that, I tell clients, ‘They’re just whores for your money.’ It’s obvious they’re making Facebook-like errors to try and compensate for the fact they never had a business model in mind when they built this thing.”

Yikes.

It's too early to tell anything at this point but it does appear as if 2011 will be the Year of Real Revenue Generation for Twitter. If it isn't then how much longer will investors put up with the excuses / reasons for not making much to this point?

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Do the Big Brands Have an Advantage When it Comes to Social Media?

Posted: 14 Dec 2010 04:11 PM PST

Social media is the great equalizer; Lady Gaga (VEGAS tonight, gambling and inappropriate attire to ensue ) Tweeting alongside Taylyr, the junior high school student with a band (:/ im in QUIET the awful state. im pretty sure i dont want to go to school in the morning). Facebook, where you can have updates from TV vampires right next to reminders from your mom. Age, race, socio-economic status, celeb or regular Joe — there are no barriers in social media.

So why is it that the big brands are dominating when it comes to social media marketing? That’s the question Brian Sheehan is asking over at AdAge.

“The dominance of big marketers is in many ways a straightforward matter of resources. For example, Pepsico’s Gatorade has a group of full-time staff who man their “Mission Control” room, monitoring and participating in social media 24 hours a day. Smaller brands may not be able to afford that.”

Resources are good. Money, creative teams, access to software and tools others don’t have. But how important are all of those things when it comes to writing a daily Tweet. Does Nabisco really have an advantage over the Incredibly Edible Cookie Company? I say it’s not about the resources, so much as it’s about brand recognition. If I were to ask 100 people to follow only one of these two companies, most people would pick Nabisco simply because they know the name.

How do you get around big dog? By being creative. Look at Old Spice. They made a terrific video that went viral, but there are thousands of no-cost, homemade videos on YouTube that go viral, too.

You don’t need an expensive ad agency to create a social media campaign. Just look around. Check with your staff, your family and your friends. I’ll bet someone in that group has a good idea. That’s what social media marketing is really about, a good idea. An idea that hooks the people in and makes them want to share it with their friends.

Social media marketing is the one area where money and resources shouldn’t matter. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube are all free to use and let me tell you something, brand loyalty only goes so far. If you become known as the DVD seller who has the funniest movie reviews, consumers will be hitting your Facebook page every week before they head over to Netflix.

What do you think? Do big brands have the social media advantage or can the little guy hit it big on Facebook and Twitter?

Trackur Gets More Klout, Adds Twitter Influence Metrics

Posted: 14 Dec 2010 11:04 AM PST

One of the cool features about Trackur’s social media monitoring is our InfluenceRank scoring system. For every web site, blog, or Twitter user, we’ve always shown you just how influential they are–with a simple score out of 100.

With news sites and blogs, we provided further analysis with screenshots, traffic details, backlink numbers and more. Today, we’ve added a similar dashboard for Twitter users influence.

As you can see, we have all the info you need to make a quickly decide if this person is someone that is exerting an influence on your brand.

The Trackur dashboard includes:

InfluenceRank score out of 100. As with our InfluenceRank for web sites, the higher the number, the more influence they have! For this score we've partnered with Klout–the leader in tracking Twitter influencers. Click on the Klout logo in the dash and you'll be taken to their site for even more insights on the Twitter profile.
Avatar and profile information. Who are they? What do they look like?
How many followers? How many are they following? How vocal are they?
Klout is also providing us details of the topics they are most influential. So, if you are tracking the keyword "iPhone" and you see they are influential in "Mobile" you'd probably want to sit up and take notice.
Lastly, we have the comments box. This is where you can keep private notes of any contact or notes about the user.

How do you find the new Twitter influence metrics? Easy…

We’re not standing still, either! Look for many new features in the New Year as we strive to ensure Trackur remains a social media monitoring dashboard that is cheaper, faster, and more accurate than any other!

Not using Trackur? Get you free social media monitoring dashboard today!