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Digital Consultant links for May 9th through May 16th

These are my links for May 9th through May 16th:

How to create compelling content that ranks well in search engines – A great 29 page e-book by Copyblogger author Brian Clark on how to make great web writing copy that also pushes all the SEO buttons. Some very useful tips, as a long pre-amble to promote his Scribe software which I admit has my interest: you enter your copy and the software gives you tips on how to improve it better for your chosen keywords.
The Internet Conference: Powerpoint Presentations – Susan Hallam organised the Internet Conference last week in Nottingham, an impressive collection of speakers and presentations from major e-marketing, e-commerce and SEO experts. Here's are some presentations from the day.
Matrix: How Facebook’s ‘Community Pages’ and Privacy Changes Impact Brands – Jeremiah Owyang's review of how Facebook's latest raft of changes are affecting brands: mostly as a negative effect. Facebook strategy is to aggregate the web, including wikipedia style aggregation, which negatively affects brands as well as personal privacy. In other news, web people vote overwhelmingly to say they prefer Facebook's 'fan' to 'like' status – which seems to have had the affect already of diluting loyalty to a Facebook Page. http://polldaddy.com/poll/3183296/ Overall, Facebook's endless tweaking and twisting seems to be having a negative affect on it's community. It's international gathering of staff to discuss privacy issues this week may signal a sea-change in their steam-roller approach to aggregating and connect all user data.
Is Your Social Media Strategy Just Digital Flyering? – Good article by Andrew Girvan on lessons from theatre producers on the digital equivalent of flyering – Twitter broadcasting. Some good tips on doing it better: running special promotions, targetting groups of interest, and of course making your Twitter presence be conversational.
From Realities to Values: A Strategy Framework for Digital Natives – No great answers here but a useful framework for understanding how to define and consider the needs of 'digital natives' (or the under 28s as this article defines them) when planning a digital strategy including content creation, engagement and advocacy.

Digital Consultant links for April 16th through April 18th

These are my links for April 16th through April 18th:

(Infographic) What Musicians Get Paid In The Digital Age – This is seriously depressing stuff. It shows how much a musicians needs to sell if relying on online physical sales and digital distribution alone to earn their keep just to the minimum wage. The greatest gap is the multi-million streams needed on services such as Spotify to achieve less than a few pence in revenue – clearly not achievable if you do not have some trigger from 'mass media' to generate it. Further evidence that musicians need to develop a mix economy of live, work-for-hire, licensing to survive.
Near2Home – The local business finder – Here's a new service that may be interesting to hyper local businesses: it's a link you put on your site so if businesses are far away from the areas you serve, you can route them to the Near2Home network. For every three you send, you get two referrals back. May work for more generic types of businesses.
Healthcare Engagement Strategy Awards 2010 – Case studies and presentation from yesterday's healthcare engagement strategy awards organised by Creation Healthcare – great examples of how the healthcare and pharmaceutical sector are finding imaginative new ways to communicate important public health and marketing messages to patients and customers.

Digital Consultant links for February 9th through February 11th

These are my links for February 9th through February 11th:

New BBC Director Mandates Journalists Use Social Media – Look like BBC, along with other news rooms, are insisting that journalists 'get with da programme' and get connected with Twitter, RSS etc as a news gathering and feedback reponse. Hoorah.
Cross platform storytelling links – Some links I will soon be checking out to interactive storytelling projects from an Indie Training Fund event I recently attended.
Big brands see mixed results on Twitter – US stats showing many big brands are achieving more success on Facebook than Twitter, where even Apple don't have a presence (is this REALLY true?). Article suggests Twitter is waning in popularity, but actually for me it's maybe taking up on more specific niches which attract special interest group and a more connected community (and big brands, that probably doesn't include you).

Today’s Digital Consultant Links for January 13th

These are my links for January 13th from 09:54 to 13:34:

Digital Strategy: It’s Not About The Tools – Hear hear! Ace article by Digalicious that speaks to me: marketing teams are under pressure to dive into social media, but they need to think about the strategy, not the tools. Resist the allure to dive in and plan, the results can be unforgiving: "The difference is that if you try a test in the cable TV channel and it doesn't work, nobody notices. (If a TV ad runs on cable, and no one sees it, is it still an ad?) Social media and the Web are not so forgiving. If you jump into social media, and don't give it the proper attention, people may notice for a long time."
Can businesses monetise social networks in 2010? – The question everyone is asking me lately: it's still looking tough, but Dell and Debenhams have monetized social media presences, but on the flip side Facebook is dropping banner ads as they don't work for 'user experience'. So social network involvement is proving 'exciting' for cash-strapped brands, but with limited effectiveness.
Coca Cola: Online Social Media Principles – I was talking at a CMI event yesterday and asked the group what their business's social media policy was: 'we can't use it at all, or will be disciplined' several said (including Barclay employees). How very sad. However, this document on guiding employees as to how to use social media when representing the company or refering to it by Coca Cola is a little more enlightened: it acknowledges people will be talking in these spaces, and advises what they expect of their relationship with employees. I like the idea of people being 'scouts' to pass up both good and bad conversations to experts internally.

Digital Consultant links for January 8th through January 9th

These are my links for January 8th through January 9th:

Meaningful Digital Strategy e-book – Interesting 12 page e-book on 'marketing with meaning' and the failures of online marketing aping the failing of traditional marketing. Interesting case studies here on digital services that create both social and personal value and strong marketing messages, e.g. a Diabetic diet planning tool by a pharm company, and Kraft's best-selling recipe iphone app.
How should we use Twitter at tech events? – This has been appearing in several discussion of late: Twitter is a useful backchannel at conferences and events to get the audience to connect and discuss, and be aware of each other, but frequently sniping, fragmented comments, in-jokes are runing the Twitter back channel and putting off speakers and event organisers. Chris Pirillo 'drive-by' video blog rants on this inappropriateness. I'm tempted to agree: if you're not feedback to your own network, avoid negatives in Twitter back channels, and events organisers should seriously consider either just using the backchannel at key moments, ambiently (e.g. in the foyer, not behind the speaker) or moderating comments.
Are You Getting Dangerous Feedback from Your Readers and Prospects? – Interesting article applicable to just about any kind of business, which turns on its head the idea of using feedback channels to make your product or service better. Instead of leaping on all criticism to change, think 'is this customer a good fit for me?', or it's like selling The Blue Man Group to a fan of Siegfied and Roy. Particularly applicable to a small, personality driven business.

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