Tag Archives: Technorati

Just over six months ago [in April 2009], I wrote my first blog post with the announced intention to aim for “A-List status.”

Four months later I wrote an article about the “day I thought I’d died and gone to Heaven” — it was actually a report of a panel discussion headlining Steve Rubel among other social media thought leaders discussing a Roadmap for the future.

How very exciting it had been to introduce myself to Steve, who’s been a role model.

I told Steve of the lofty goal I was working towards, and he said,

“You might want to reconsider, Shari. Blogs are losing their status, and you might aim, instead, to be an A-List Thought Leader,” he advised me.

During the panel discussion Steve elaborated on this view:

I do subscribe to Steve’s Posterous stream, but that’s in addition to more than a dozen other blogs I keep up with pretty regularly. [Check my blogroll on the right hand sidebar.]

So . . . every time I read a headline like Brian Solis’ “Rumors of the Death of the Blog are Greatly Exaggerated,” I am encouraged to keep on “keepin’ on,” i.e., BLOGGING towards the A List.

Commentary on the PR 2.0 summary of Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere report

Technorati is a search engine for blogs, and it catalogs more than 112 million blogs. Every year the site comes out with a State of the Blogosphere Report and this year’s findings include information about these topics: professional blogging activities, brands in the blogosphere, monetization, twitter & micro-blogging and bloggers’ impact on US and World events.

The report also includes interviews with more than a dozen well-known, well-respected, and well-read bloggers including Steve Rubel.

Brian Solis’ blog PR 2.0 featured an indepth view of the report

This article will pick out and share pieces of the report that I found interesting and helpful to me as a fairly new blogger.

Brian’s post included color-coded charts recording responses from four categories of bloggers: (a) hobbiests; (b) part-timers; (c) corporate; and (d) self-employed.

1) About 70% of all bloggers felt that “Blogs are getting taken more seriously as sources of information” while 60% agreed that “More people will be getting their news and entertainment from blogs than from traditional media in the next three years.”

HOWEVER

2) Fewer than 40% agreed with the following two statements:

a) “Newspapers will not be able to survive in the next ten years.”

b) “Blogs are often better written than traditional media.”

Re: “Prolificness”

Brian wrote that “those bloggers who rank among the highest according to Technorati Authority post nearly 300 times more than the lower ranked bloggers.”

One Technorati survey question asked “How frequently do you update your blog?

20% post once or twice a day
27% post 2-3 times per week
33% post at least once a week
Interestingly, 3% of self-employed bloggers post 10 times a day or more! AND 7% post 5-9 times a day.

Why do bloggers blog?

“Self expression and sharing expertise are among the primary motivations for bloggers,” Brian wrote.

To measure the “success” of their blogs, survey respondents chose from the following ten factors, ranked from the most popularly selected to the least:

1) Personal satisfaction

2) Number of unique visitors

3) Number of posts or comments on the blog

4) Number of links to my blog from other blogs

5) Number of RSS subscribers

6) Accolades from other media

7) Number of people favoriting you

8) Blogger’s Technorati authority number

9) Number and quality of new business leads

10) and, finally, in last place for hobbiests/corporate bloggers was revenue; HOWEVER, 39% of part-timers admitted that revenue was an important measure of their success.

What activities do bloggers participate in to attract visitors?

The four most popular activities included (a) Listing the blog on Technorati; (b) Tagging blog posts; (c) Commenting on other blogs; (d) Listing the blog on Google.

Other activities were the following [from more popular to least popular]: (e) Getting listed on a blog directory; (f) Produce content for other blogs or websites; (g) Create a blog on a broader blog network; (h) Attend conferences for bloggers; (i) Pay for online advertising.

The future of Blogging

Here are the eleven blog ideas and tactics proposed for the coming year [from most popular to least]:

1) Blog more frequently

2) Expand some of the topics already blogged about

3) Publish a book

4) Begin using the blog to get speaking engagements

5) Add advertising

6) Begin guest blogging

7) Add video

8) Blog through mobile device

9) Start a new, independent blog

10) Start a new blog on a blog network

11) Blog less frequently.

According to Brian:

“Technorati believes that the next generation of blogs will be more action oriented, not just documenting real time happenings, but driving actual events.”

If you’re a blogger, how would you have answered any of the Technorati questions?

If you don’t blog yet, has any of this information convinced you to “dive in” and start expressing yourself?

FURTHER READING:

Blogging Basics

Blogging, Twitter

With 100’s of social media platforms, which do you choose to use?

August 9, 2009 Shari Weiss 25 Comments

Every day we hear of “new” or “new-to-us” social media tools and platforms. How is a person, or a company, to choose what to use?

The Top Three: Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter are “no-brainers,” i.e. you really do need to sign up and start experimenting and/or incorporate your participation into your daily routine.

But what about the rest of the dozens and dozens and dozens [100’s] of sites?

We ask this question a lot in PR class, so the students worked in teams to examine 15 online sites: Google Reader, Zemanta, Flickr, Technorati, Squidoo, Ezine Articles, Del.ici.ous, Stumbleupon, Friendfeed, Digg, RSS, BlipTV, Hub Pages, Truveo, and Vimeo.

After brief team reports, the class as a whole voted on one of three options; (a) They would definitely check out the site for personal use; (b) They “might” check it out; or (c) They had NO intention of seeking out more details about the site.

The most popular platform by far was Flickr, followed by Delicious and RSS, with Technorati and Google Reader also scoring high in the (a) option. The lowest scoring sites included Ezine Articles, Truveo, and Vimeo.

Below [in the order seen by the students] is a brief description of each site, with a student comment, and the reported “scores”:

Google Reader: Helps you follow all your favorite sites by managing RSS feeds on one page. Free and easy to use: “Google Reader is a great site with sharing capabilities. You can subscribe to blogs and other sites on a regular basis, which reduces search time considerably” – Jason Khorge.

Class vote on Google Reader: (a) 13 will definitely check it out. (b) 31 said they may check it out; (c) 4 voted against.

Zemanta: This free Firefox add-on download that offers related web content — both text and visuals — that can help bloggers link and use valuable online information. “Zemanta is a great assistant for bloggers because it is easy to use, cuts down research time and enables content producers to enrich their publications with just a few clicks.” — Alisa Guan “I’m interested in checking out Zemanta to help me upgrade my blog. The suggested articles could help me give a more informed and useful opinion.” — Angelica Maduell

Class vote on Zemanta: (a) 14; (b) 24; (c) 13

Flickr: Online photo management and sharing web community. “”In my eyes, Flickr has garnered a lot of attention from reputable photographers and amateurs alike. It’s definitely a haven for people who want to share their passion for picture-taking and connecting with others of similar interests.” — Sarah Awang Razali “I personally thing that Flickr is really useful because of the quality of content provided on it. There are personal pages and professional pages, and all users are equally respected within the community. A lot of the photos are also the basis for much online content. They say, ‘a picture is worth a thousand words,’ so thousands of pictures must be worth a lifetime of endless content.: — Frank Lin

Class vote on Flickr: (a) 31; (b) 18; (c) 2

Technorati: Top rated blog search engine that indexes more than 1.5 million blog posts in real time. “I’m always looking for new blogs to follow and I think Technorati can really help me enlarge my collection.” — Petya Somleva

Class vote on Technorati: (a) 17; (b) 15; (c) 18

Squidoo: Content publishing on steroids: Free community website that allows users to publish pages [lenses] on line in a wide range of topics, virtually anythinhereg a person is passionate about. “Squidoo appealed to me the most, and I believe it has the greatest opportunity to grow. Providing such a diverse collection of material means it can reach a wide variety of interests.” — Liz Looney “I like the free Squidoo community website where content you’re interested in is easy to find. It is easy to use, simple to post comments, and you can earn money for charity.” — Brandon Wong

Class vote on Squidoo: (a) 13; (b) 31; (c) 4

Ezine Articles: Publishing site for original articles including tips, strategies, techniques, analysis, and case studies. Great for sending links back to a website. Sadly, no students chose to write an opinion about this site.

Class vote on Ezine: (a) 2; (b) 14; (c) 27

Del.ici.ous: A social bookmarking service that allows uses to save websites online, share them with other people, and see what other people are bookmarking. “You can build a mountain of information before ever adding a single bookmark. You find Del.ici.ous users who have saved articles you enjoy reading. Add their names to your network and with a single click, you can save all their bookmarks. That was amazing to me.” — Sarah Awang Razali

Stumbleupon: An Internet community that allows users to find, share, and rate favorite websites. “I was really impressed by Stumbleupon, particularly when someone said it was ‘a good site to waste a lot of time on the Internet.’ That being said lightly, it did strike me as the kind of site you could go on and be entertained by by topical content. I could see this website becoming part of my daily routine.” — Anna Rahnvonih

Class vote on Stumbleupon: (a) 5; (b) 20; (c) 16

Friendfeed: This microblogging site offers users a stream of updates which, unlike Twitter but similar to Facebook, allows comments and conversations to attach to updates. “With the decreasing popularity of MySpace and the growth of Twitter and Facebook, I think Friendfeed may just be the next best platform, using features from all three of these social networking sites.” — Sheena Diaz “I like the added Friendfeed feature of receiving feedback underneath your post.” — Ashley Dordan

Class vote on Friendfeed: (a) 12; (b) 27; (c) 5

Digg: A user-driven sharing site that is divided into categories for easy search. It also allows you to connect with Facebook and Twitter to share sites. “I am considering Digg because it filters news and other topics by what is important to other people.” — Caroll Vongsouthi

Class vote on Digg: (a) 6; (b) 35; (c) 7

RSS: Stands for “Really Simple syndication” and simplifies the process of getting information. It is a data format used for supplying frequently updated content. “RSS feeds allow you to easily get the latest information that you are interested in and they build Google Juice for shared sites.” — Bo Zhang

Class vote on RSS: (a) 22; (b) 21; (c) 3

BlipTV: Website for video distribution intended for anyone who wants to create a webshow to share with the world. “This site offers free hosting in any video format and tells you who is looking at your page and how they found you. I will definitely check it out.” — Ashley Hall “It’s interesting that you can find sponsors and earn revenue.: — Diedre Moseley

Class vote on BlipTV: (a) 10; (b) 28; (c) 4

Hub Pages: Website is designed for sharing advertising revenue for high quality, user-generated content. Members create individual pages on narrow topics based on the users interest. Not as popular with students as Squidoo.

Class vote on Hub Pages: (a) 3; (b) 25; (c) 18

Truveo: Video search engine that allows users to embed videos through a third party site like YouTube. It has a rating feature, and you can save favorites. “Truveo has many ways to search, e.g., by categories like business or comedy, by TV stations, by name of show. You need to become a member if you want to rate videos and add them to your favorites.” — McKenzie Hanson

Vimeo: Video file sharing and uploading site specifically for noncommercial content.Caters to a high-end artistic crowd. “Users can share or embed. Other options include title, byline, and portrait of the video listing beofre it starts playing. Videos can be enhanced with site tools.” — Riciaig Panlaqui

Class vote on Truveo & Vimeo: (a) 11; (b) 11; (c) 23

Student comments after the two-day experience:

I’ll be honest, I’m not a blogger. I don’t use Twitter and at times I don’t understand all the hype about these forms of social media. However, after seeing these presentations, there is no doubt in my mind the importance of these new media platforms. It’s plain and simple — if you want to spread the word, you MUST use these forms of social media. — Liz Looney

It was interesting to see how social media has exploded in recent years. Seeing all the sites — big and small — showed how each has its unique features. A lot of people do not realize that a small not very well known site today might in fact be the most popular six months from now. Anyone starting to use social media for business needs to check out many of these sites. — Eddie Neyman

From these presentations, I learned a lot of useful tools that will come in handy when I start looking for a job. Some of my favorites were the ones that help you find related articles on certain topics. Too often, I have the hardest time finding good information. — McKensie Hanson

With all the information presented, I feel like I’m already falling behind in the online social media world. To really be able to participate in all the social media sites, I will have to invest an outrageous amount of time. I plan to get involved by signing up for a handful of sites that I can keep up with. This was a great opportunity to learn that many sites can bring news and articles I like, rather than for me always having to search. — Caroll Vongsouthi

Next post: I evaluate my Online Presence Management

Sharisax Is Out There

When Communication Adds Up to a Big Fat Zero

April 27, 2009 Shari Weiss 16 Comments

All the latest and greatest tools mean nothing — if you aren’t listening

I read several great blogs today — and would still be reading — if I didn’t want to share my own understanding of one important topic:

Effective social media marketing — aka REAL CONVERSATION — cannot happen without someone to LISTEN.

Let’s get personal for a moment.

Stop and think about the last time you thought you were having a conversation with a friend or significant other . . . and words later, the other person said something that clearly showed you she wasn’t really listening – no how, no way.

Frustrating, maddening, really.

Want to listen?
Stop Talking . . . both aloud

. . . and in your head

So now step ahead to someone in a business setting who says he or she wants to be of service, and you say, “Great, here’s what I want” and then that person just keeps on talking — and keeps on ignoring you.

Frustrating, maddening, really.

Businesses today want employees with Great Communication Skills. But many times they don’t even consider Listening to be one of the most important communication skills. Too bad. Without these critical skills, “the best laid plans of mice and men . . .” are all for naught.

In my Business Communication class, we actually have a few lessons on Active Listening. In addition to a great videotape where participants engage in activities like (a) continuing dialogues with the last words spoken and (b) carrying on conversations without using the word I, we discuss some important tips for becoming an Active Listener.

Some of these include the following:

1. STOP TALKING: Forget about what you want to get across and focus on the person speaking to you.

2. KEEP AN OPEN MIND: One sign of a critical thinker is being able to remain objective so that you neither hear what you want to hear nor dismiss the remarks of someone because you don’t like him.

3. LISTEN BETWEEN THE LINES: I love this one. As a former reporter, I got used to hearing propaganda; you really need to dig deep sometimes. Additionally, in our global society, the words of one culture may have different meanings than we are used to.

4. HOLD YOUR FIRE: This is a particular problem in a classroom where some people are always feeling the need to take the stage. You can’t listen to someone else when you are preparing your next lines.

5. PROVIDE FEEDBACK: This is KEY in business communication. It shows your degree of understanding of a problem or situation. This is the stimulus for the back-and-forth conversations that build relationships and communities.

So your job now is to Provide Some Feedback.

I know I’ve left out dozens of other Good Listening Tips. Have at me. I’m listening.

Next post: Robert Scoble discusses social media tools with SFSU students

Archive, Blogging, Facebook, Sharisax Is Out There, Twitter

Follow Me Along Revolutionary Road

April 23, 2009 Shari Weiss

To: My friends in the Blogosphere

From: Shari Weiss @sharisax on Twitter

Date: Thursday Sharisax is Out There , April 23, 2009

Re: My First Ten Things Memo Blog Post

FOLLOW ME . . . ALONG REVOLUTIONARY ROAD: Ten of the 1000’s of things I’ve learned in two months studying the Social Media Revolution/Evolution

How does one tell a story from the middle of a raging river [i.e., in medias res]? You just jump in the boat, I suspect, and start paddling.

As a journalist for more than thirty years and a marketing instructor for more than a decade, I’ve had a variety of valuable experiences learning to write, to sell, and to teach. But nothing has so excited and energized me as what is happening TODAY in what I refer to as the Social Media Revolution/Evolution.

The following is merely a place to start:

1. Social Media: After two months of talking about this social media phenomenon in my classes, one student was brave enough to ask, “So what is this thing, Social Media, that we’ve been spending so much time discussing?” Of course, anyone can go look up the phrase on Wikipedia and learn the consumer-generated definitions that are shaping how many of us are understanding the world.

My simplistic, starting-place answer is to take the word “media,” i.e., the vehicles we use to send a message from a sender to a receiver AND combine it with “social,” i.e., the environment in which people are living and working together. This is a New phrase/label, so what I believe we are talking about includes the New Methods being used and developed to have enhanced conversations with one another via enhanced technology, most specifically the Internet. Examples would include Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Digg, StumbledUpon, Flickr, Yelp, and a whole host of others. Check out Brian Solis’ Conversation Prism: http://www.briansolis.com/2008/08/introducing-conversation-prism.html

2. Web 2.0 vs. Web 1.0: The term Web 2.0 was coined to describe all those extensions and further uses we have found for our technological connections via our computers. Where Web 1.0 allowed us to search for information and begin communicating via email, Web 2.0 has become a platform for community building and business growth. Web 2.0 marks the start of Social Media. So what will Web 3.0 look like?

3. Blogging: According to recent statistics, Technorati [Internet search engine for blogs], tracks 133 million blogs, and more are being produced each second – just as I’m doing here. Blogging has flattened the communication landscape. No longer do a few publishers, editors, and journalists control the flow of information to the public. Any one with an Internet connection can post his or her thoughts, opinions, and activities “out there” for everyone to read and comment upon.

4. Bloggers: Bloggers are the new influencers . . . or they can be. Many online writers simply post diary narratives on the Web for a host of reasons, which likely include the human need to be acknowledged. But hundreds, if not thousands, of bloggers are posting online content that gets read and spread – and what they say matters. Business organizations, both profit and nonprofit, have recognized the power of bloggers to market messages about products and services.

5. Micro-blogging and Twitter: Twitter has changed my life. Two months ago, a business acquaintance asked me to follow him on Twitter. Initially I didn’t get it. What did I care about what someone had for breakfast or what the traffic was like on the freeway. Then I discovered that “there are no rules” and that Twitter can be a host of different experiences, depending on how one chooses to use the technology.

During my first fumblings, I decided to use Twitter as a platform for my English students to send me substantive messages in only 140 characters – to teach lessons of clarity and conciseness. I was soon pleased to see a link to 100 Tips, Apps, and Resources for Teachers on Twitter: http://onlinecollegedegree.org/2009/03/19/100-tips-apps-and-resources-for-teachers-on-twitter/

Where did I find that link? On Twitter, of course, after I learned to use Twitter in a way that works well for me: I follow “Tweeple” [i.e. people with Twitter accounts] who are interested in topics of interest to me, e.g., future of marketing, future of PR, future of journalism, future of advertising, etc. My husband now calls me Tweetie Bird, since I’m so often online reading the blogs that offer more indepth facts, observations, and opinions on these subjects and more.

6. The New Rules of Marketing: It was on Twitter, of course, that I first learned of David Meerman Scott’s book The New Rules of Marketing & PR. As a marketing lecturer at San Francisco State University, I have felt compelled to address, acknowledge, and learn about Why? there need to be New Rules and Why? The Old Ones do not work any more.

One quote from DMS’s book: “Marketers must shift their thinking from the short head of mainstream marketing to the masses to a strategy targeting vast numbers of underserved audiences via the Web.” Brian Solis and Deidre Breakenridge expand on this in their recent book Putting the Public Back in Public Relations: “PR has begun to look less like a typical broadcast machine and more like a living, breathing entity capable of also participating in conversations with publics.”

7. The Future of Advertising: The death knell for newspapers has been sounded; young people don’t read them, and advertisers are pulling away. And that is only one medium suffering. Selling radio spots is not getting easier although radio listenership may be expanding because of Internet and satellite radio. The biggest changes are likely to be on Network TV. There is no longer a need for “mass marketing” on a “mass medium.” Large advertisers like Pepsi have admitted to misspending hundreds of millions of marketing dollars, and that probably indicates too much expense for TV commercials that are zapped via channel changing or TIVO fast-forwarding. Traditional forms of advertising will still be necessary to reach the large numbers of people who aren’t yet online [or not online very often], but figuring out how to successfully advertise online is where future strategies must be aimed.

8. Reverse-Engineering: This is a fascinating process to contemplate. Think about your goal and work backwards to make it happen. I’m reminded of the Silicon Valley slogan of the ‘90s: “You imagine it and we will build it.” I read a recent post by noted blogger Seth Godin whose paragraph for the day was titled “Imminent” and he began with this quote: “The one thing that will allow your business to get funded, or to get a business to business buyer to buy from you or a college to admit you is the sense that your success is imminent.” This is my understanding of the theory of “intention” in which you focus on the result you want – and it will come about.

9. Creativity: Amidst sea tides of change, the need for creative thinking remains constant. That requires recognizing that new ideas are healthy and need to be encouraged and embraced, not feared and dismissed. What has worked in the past can be twisted and turned and looked at in new ways, while brainstormers stay open to totally different thoughts that emerge and can provide exciting new solutions. Picasso said, “I am always doing that which I do not know how to do in order to learn how to do it.”

10. We do not go out to find ourselves; rather, we go out creating ourselves: Why am I starting this blog? Let me count the ways. First of all, I have learned so much in the last few months that I am compelled to share that knowledge and hear what others have to say. Second, I believe in the power of the individual to make significant contributions to the betterment of society. And third, as I’ve told some of my students and my new blogging buddies, my “intention” is to join the A-list bloggers.

Next post: Future of marketing