CWI Media

Digg Just Hijacked Your Twitter Links

It's as Simple as Being Indexed by Google and Yahoo

By Gary Cope

What a difference being indexed makes! I’m speaking, of course, about a Web site being indexed by Google, Yahoo, Ask and MSN, the big four search engines. I manage several Web sites, but the biggest one in terms of traffic was not indexed and was actually blocking search engine robots from indexing the site via the robots.txt.

I’m not entirely sure why someone would do that, but my theory is that they developed the site on a live server and set up the robots.txt file (the file that tells the robots what they can and cannot look at on the site) to block the search engines because the site wasn’t ready. Then, when the site was ready to launch, they copied the site to another folder and forgot to ammend the robots.txt file.

Anyhow, since I “unlocked” the site and allowed the robots to crawl and index the site, (I also submitted an xml sitemap to Google) search engine traffic has increased nearly 500 percent! While that sounds really good (and it is relatively speaking), you have to put it in perspective. The site was only getting less than 2 percent of its traffic from search engines prior to my modifications and that’s because only the home page was visible to the search engines. Now the site is getting about 12 percent of its traffic from search engines and my goal is to have it reach 30 percent by the fall.

Fingers crossed and I’ll keep you posted!

Google Including Ads at the Top of News Result Pages

By Gary Cope

I’ve been using Google News for quite some time and earlier this year, Google - the dominant search engine - began including ads on the right column of its news search results pages. But today, I noticed something new … at least it was new to me.

My girlfriend will be the first (of many) to tell you that I am not exactly the most observant person in the world when it comes to certain things. So, perhaps I simply overlooked the fact that Google is now including paid ads, or “sponsored links,” at the top of its news search results pages. Check out the screen capture below:

I’m not sure how I feel about this. My initial reaction is that it dilutes the credibility of the results being returned. Having worked in news (TV, radio and print) for more than 10 years, I cannot help but compare the new revenue strategy to a TV station leading a newscast with a story that was “sponsored” and produced by an advertiser.

Yes, TV is saturated with commercials, but the advertisers do not mandate, much less produce the content. They pay for ads based on the ratings of the newscast, but assuming the news director and station manager are standup news people, they won’t bend to the pressure from advertisers.

News is meant to be unbiased and while I can accept the unobtrusive ads in the right column, I think Google has crossed the line by adding ads to the top of the news search results pages. If I’m looking for news, I’m looking for trusted sources, not sources that paid to get their content at the top. If your news is relevant to my search parameters, it should show up in the results and if it isn’t, then call me and I’ll give you a quote for my SEO consulting services.

Track Clicks of Shared Links with Bit.ly

By Gary Cope

Remember Tiny URL? I do. I remember it like it was yesterday … well, it was about six months ago, but in the world of social media six months feels more like decade. I discovered a new URL-shortening tool called bit.ly. I have seen it before and even used it because it’s shortened URL structure was slightly smaller than Tiny URL, but it wasn’t until recently that I discovered additional features that allow you to track how many people click on the links you share and even add a sidebar to make sharing even easier.

Both Tiny URL and bit.ly have browser bar tools that allow you to shorten a URL (Web site) by simply clickling a button in your browser. Bit.ly, however, takes it step further by allowing you to create an account and adding a sidebar that slides out when you click on the browser bar button. From this sidebar, you can send the automatically shortened link via Twitter, Facebook, Gmail or e-mail. Or, you can copy and paste it manually if you are leery about linking your Twitter account.

Once you have an account and are logged in, you can start seeing stats for how many times your followers and/or friends are clicking on the links you share via Facebook, Twitter and e-mail. Cool, I know … but how does this help me?

For starters, it appeases general curiosity. How many people find what I share interesting enough to click on the link? If you aren’t getting any clicks then perhaps you should consider a couple of things:

1) Maybe your followers are not interested in what you have to say.
2) Consider rewording your anchor text (text describing the link) to make it more appealing.

You’ve probably seen the Twitter posts that reads something like…

“OMG! You HAVE to check this out! http://clickhere.dufus”

No way I am clicking on that link. I have no idea what it is and I don’t like surprises (at least not on the Web). I want a heads up about the link I am about to follow. Be more descriptive about the link you are sharing. For example:

“Check out The Lyric theatre in Blacksburg for a cheap movie date! Two tix, large soda & free popcorn (Mondays) for $11! http://bit.ly/uUHYO”

My followers know exactly what they are getting and if they like the “headline” that I have provided, they are more likely to click on the bit.ly link.

There was a time when using a URL condensing tool didn’t really make much sense because in some cases, it actually made the link longer and added more characters to your 140-character limit with Twitter. For example:

http://thelyric.com has 19 characters as does the bit.ly version - http://bit.ly/uUHYO. So, what’s the benefit? Tracking! That’s where bit.ly does a great job of providing incentive to shorten a link even when it doesn’t actually shorten a link.

For SEO folks (search engine optimization) there is the question of whether TIny URL and other link shortener tools pass “link juice” or anchor text value on to the link URL that was condensed. According to some SEOs Google has started following the Tiny URLs and passing anchor text value.

My other concern is that some of these services will eventually shut down and then you are stuck with a plethora of broken links and subsequently an error 404 hell for a Webmaster. Eventually a front runner will emerge from the URL shortener race and will hopefully stick around for awhile so that all our itsy bitsy URLs will remain intact.

For a more thorough explanation of URL shorteners and the various services available, check out Jane Copland’s post at SEOMoz.com. The post is from last September and Jane is no longer at SEOMoz in Seattle, but it’s still a valuable and informative resource.

To Follow or Not to Follow ... on Twitter

By Gary Cope

Since joining Twitter in January 2008, I have posted more than 4,100 Tweets, received more than 500 “follow” notification e-mails and currently have 360 followers. At first, I did my best to weed out (i.e. block) the accounts using Twitter for the wrong reasons such as spamming, shameless self promotion or agressively pushing an agenda. But, with about 10 new follows a day, it became a bit time consuming to go through and block all the bots and jokers that started following me.

So, with so many new followers every day, why isn’t my “followers” list a little bigger? Well, that’s because Twitter appears to be doing a great job at suspending the suspicious accounts. For example, yesterday I got hit with four new followers whose user names all followed a similar pattern - a woman’s first name, a middle initial and a year. (See the image on the right.)

Though I have no information or research to back it up, my theory is that these Twitter spammers (Twammers) are targeting males by using women’s names and years - presumably birth years - to appeal to an age group that I might consider potential dating material. I believe these accounts are automatically generated using some API script to search for a specific demographic within the Twitterverse.

What I cannot understand is how anyone with half a brain could consider these accounts to be credible and return the follow. Any time you have a Twitter account with a disproportionate ratio of following/followers, that should be a red flag. If very few people are following a user, but they are following several hundred, be cautious. There are some accounts, such as CNN, that have a million-plus followers, but don’t follow very many in return. That’s acceptable in my book. Not ideal, but acceptable.

What other signs should you look for before you follow someone that has followed you on Twitter? Excellent question! Assuming you aren’t one of those people that likes to rack up the “followers” total on your profile, and you actually care about credibility and your online reputation; just using a little common sense will point you in the right direction. Here are just a few things that I look for:

Do they have a picture?

If the picture is of some busty woman in a bikini or provacative pose, that’s a huge red flag and grounds for immediate blockage. I prefer to see a face so that I at least feel like I might have the opportunity to communicate with a human and not some corporate mouthpiece. I do follow some Twitter accounts with logos or other non-personal images, but those are generally trusted accounts like CNET, CNN, LighterFootstep, etc.

What does their bio say about them?

This is probably the third thing I look at, right after their user name and profile picture. I want to know if they are real. If their profile is related to my interests and seems genuine, then I am more likely to reciprocate the follow. If there is no bio, 99 percent of the time I will not follow them. Take the time and tell me about yourself (in 160 characters or less) and you will more likely get more followers.

What do they Tweet about?

Content, content, content. It’s the Twitter equivalent to real estate’s location, location, location. What are they Tweeting about? Are they pushing links all the time with masked URLs from tinyurl.com, snurl.com and digg.com? If so, that’s a red flag for me. I get enough e-mail spam - I don’t want it showing up on my Twitter stream. Are they interesting, funny or posting informational content? If so, I am more likely to follow. If every other post is “People are dumb,” I would likely include that person in the aforementioned generalization and not follow them.

Also, if someone posts inflammatory or offensive content, I will “unfollow” them. I actually stopped following someone for their derrogatory and ignorant comments about President Barack Obama. I respect people’s right to free speech and the fact that everyone has their own opinion, but I also value my right to not listen. That being said, I don’t unfollow people for posting opinions with which I disagree, but if there is a pattern of offensive posts, you are going to get the unfollow.

How many posts?

This criteria is related to the previous two items in that I want to see how many Tweets this person has under their belt. If I visit a new follower’s profile and they’re following 500+ people, have two followers and only 1 update, that’s a pretty good sign that this is not a legit account. I have had legit newbies follow me and when I see their profile I see they are following 20 people, have 12 followers and a few posts. I will give that Twitterer the benefit of the doubt and see how they do. I am all about encouraging the use of social media, but only for the purposes of good, silliness, frivolity, tomfoolery and of course networking and knowledge sharing.

I think just using a little common sense will make your Twitter experience a little more enjoyable. And don’t be afraid to not follow or unfollow someone or something that you don’t feel comfortable with.

Without Direction, We’d All Get Lost – Especially in Marketing

By Donna Cope

Can you imagine getting ready to take a several-day long road trip and not taking along a map or GPS? You may eventually get there, but without direction, the trip is going to take much longer and you may never even reach your destination.

Now imagine you are going to buy a house. You find a real estate agent and tell them you want to buy a three bedroom house, but that’s it. Without giving the agent further direction (i.e. location, lot size, type of home, etc.), the agent is going to have a hard time finding what you are looking for (if they will be able to at all) and it will take much longer. Most people understand this and wouldn’t send an agent out without giving them direction.

The same principle applies when creating marketing materials, graphic design projects and web sites. The project can take several days, even weeks, but without direction from the client; the project will take much longer and may not end up being exactly what the client had envisioned. Just as directions are important when you are traveling, important to give to your real estate agent and important to give to any other person you hire to assist you in your personal life or business, directions are vital when hiring someone to assist you with your marketing projects. Directions save you time and money.

It’s not realistic to tell your graphic or web designer, “I sell cookies, please make me a cookie logo and a web site about cookies.” Then expect to have a fabulous logo and web site three days later. To get exactly what you are looking for, you’ll need to supply some direction. For example, how many pages do you need your web site to be? Will you need hosting? Are you planning to sell your cookies from your web site? Do you want your logo to have a more contemporary look or something more traditional? Are there any colors you want to use or avoid using?

No matter how talented or qualified your marketing professional is, no one can create your perfect marketing materials without a little direction from you. Try to have an idea of what you want to accomplish with your marketing project, what you like or don’t like, what your budget is, etc. prior to hiring someone. It will definitely save you time and money in the long run!

Time Changes Everything - Even Marketing

By Donna Cope

I was just thinking about how much time changes things. We all know the effects time has on us in everyday life. Be it your memory, that extra little ache you may feel in the morning that you didn’t feel a few years ago, or that (gasp!) gray hair that has seemed to pop up overnight.

Time doesn’t just effect how we feel or look. It also has effects on how we think and get things accomplished. Take the phone book, for example. Ten years ago, if I needed anything from a plumber to a doctor to someone to bring me a hot meal, I’d go right to the phone book. Today, I looked under my phone table and found two phone books from the last two years that are still in their plastic wrap and have never even been opened. At first I started thinking about what a waste of paper. Think about all the poor trees that were cut down so that my phone books could collect dust (which made me realize that ten years ago, I never would have thought that much about the environment, either). Then I realized that, like me, phone books are suffering the effects of time. I wonder how long it will be until they no longer exist in paper format? Most people today just look things up on their computer or cell phone. I know I do. I hope that everyone who has an ad in the phone book has also invested advertising in other mediums. If you haven’t, I can just about guarantee you are not getting the most from your advertising dollars. I’m not saying don’t advertise in the phone book, I’m saying make sure you advertise in several different places in order to get the most bang for your buck. By just sticking to print, you are missing all of those who do research online and vice-versa.

Another advertising medium that has suffered the effects of time is newspaper advertising. In today’s online and environmentally friendly world, most forms of print advertising are on the decline. Again, if you only do print advertising, you are missing a large number of potential clients. Review your marketing, make sure you are keeping up with the times and spread your marketing out among several different mediums such as the web, television and radio. Just think, 10 or so years ago many small businesses and professionals couldn’t have imagined the importance of having a web site or blog and now they couldn’t imagine going without it. Stay on top of the trends, only time will tell what the best advertising medium will be for you 10 years from now.

Pulaski County Chamber of Commerce 2008 Awards

By Donna Cope

CWI attended the Pulaski County Chamber of Commerce annual meeting and awards banquet on Jan. 15, 2009. The event was held at Baker’s Best in Fairlawn and was attended by a record number of local businesses.

In addition to the installation of the 2009 Board of Directors, the event highlighted many of the successes of the past year, recognized individual and community accomplishments and was successful at underlining the unity of Pulaski County, even in the current economic times.

One of CWI’s customers, Coffee Buy the Book, was recognized as Small Business of the Year. We send our congratulations to Tracey Harriman, Owner of Coffee Buy the Book. Other award recipients included Beulah House for Business Excellence, Lora Brown was presented the Student Leadership Award and Thomas “Bud” Walsh was awarded Business Executive of the Year. Congratulations to this year’s winners.

Donna Cope (Vice President – Sales & Marketing) was recognized along with other committee members for her work on the Small Business Focus Group and the Economic Development Committee.

CWI was honored to attend and be recognized. We are proud of the award recipients and look forward to another successful year with the Chamber.

Don’t be the Itsy-Bitsy Spider

By Donna Cope

So, I’m wearing my marketing hat again. I know what you’re thinking; what does the itsy-bitsy spider have to do with marketing? Glad you asked. I was thinking about this children’s song yesterday when I found a frozen spider on my deck. No kidding, he was frozen solid inside of his web. This spider didn’t make it back up the water spout. I’m sure you all know the song about a very small spider that climbs up the water spout, until the rain comes. The rain washed the spider away, but when the sun came back out, so did the spider. Great, the spider was persistent, but only persistent when it was comfortable for him. He was only persistent when the conditions were perfect.

Let’s pretend the rain is our current economic times and the water spout is your company’s marketing. Don’t wait until the rain (current economic times) ends to start back up that water spout (marketing your company)! Studies have shown that once you cut your marketing budget, it takes an enormous effort to get your marketing back up to snuff and your branding back on track. Branding yourself is like tending to a garden. If you consistently take care of it, it will provide you with sustenance. This sustenance will save you money, since you won’t need to go to they grocery store to buy it. But, if you stop watering your garden (especially during a drought), it won’t produce. Now you are stuck spending more money in the long run and getting produce from the grocery store that may not be as good as if you had continued taking care of the garden, even during the dry spell.

Don’t be the itsy-bitsy spider. Don’t wait until the weather is better to climb back up that water spout. Be consistent with your marketing, even during these economic times so you don’t lose all the hard work you have already put into branding your company.

Good Customer Service Can Win Customers Away from Competitors

By Gary Cope

Sunday was a big day for football fans as the NFL’s AFC and NFC championship games were played. Both games were incredibly exciting and like so many football fans, I chose to watch the games with a pizza. But what delivery place should I order from? Pizza Hut? Papa John’s? Domino’s? I love Papa John’s and Pizza Hut has the stuffed crust pizza, but I thought I’d give Domino’s a shot, even though they’re not my favorite.

Not wanting to miss any of the game, I decided to order online. I had done so successfully with Papa John’s, so I felt comfortable with the process. Little did I know just how cool, easy and dare I say “fun” the process was! Domino’s online ordering technology is called “Pizza Tracker” and will show you the entire process of your order from the time it is placed.

There are five steps to the process:

1. Order Placed
2. Prep
3. Bake
4. Box
5. Delivery

The online ordering process was far easier than any other pizza joint on the Web. Domino’s even let’s you choose cash or charge, which isn’t always an option with other restaurants. Once my order was placed, the progress bar you see above glows red to show you what stage your order is at. Way cool!

Then, once your order is delivered the Pizza Tracker page will give you a series of survey questions that ask about your experience. It will even tell you the name of the cook who prepared your food and will ask you how it tasted. And then, you can leave additional comments about the experience.

So, what lesson can we learn from this? Well, even though Domino’s is not my favorite pizza, they do offer a very cool and unique online experience and they really do seem to value my input, so I will definitely order from Domino’s again the next time I want a pizza, or their new oven-baked sandwiches, which by they way are actually better than Subway.

Give you customers top notch customer service, a unique buying experience and show them that you value their feedback and they may just choose your over your competitor. Customer service really is that important.

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