Ishachopra's Blog

The Top Six Reasons Companies are Still Scared of Social Media

ishachopra — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 05:57:01 +0000

By (Socialmedia.com)1- Employees will waste time with social media. Many large corporations block their employees from accessing the Internet altogether. Others try to block employees from accessing personal email or social networks like Facebook during work hours. In May, 2009, according to emarketer, there were 29 million smartphones in the United States. That’s a lot of Internet access available to workers everywhere – and employers can’t stop us from accessing the Internet – on breaks, at lunch, in the bathroom, you name it. The value to workers of having Internet access – in terms of research, communication, and speed – is far greater than the threat of lost productivity. Companies have a right to make policies and rules about personal use of the Internet, but blocking it during work is just stupid. 2- Haters will damage our brand. “What about the haters?” is the first question that comes up at my corporate and conference social media workshops. “What if people say bad, mean, nasty things about our brand?” Well, there may be things you need to change about your brand, and in that case, you should thank them for letting you know what they are. Then you should make changes. If you have built an online community that includes people who don’t hate you, that community will rise to your defense and they will handle the problem for you. Bonus Link: Starbucks Social Media Monitoring & Community Help It Survive Brand Attack 3- We’ll lose control of the brand. Listen up: every person with a computer and even a tiny skill level has the tools to make their opinion about your brand heard by other people. They’re already talking about you. Message control is an illusion. Give it up. Your workers are talking about you in closed Facebook groups designed to keep you out so they can talk about you in peace. Your customers are emailing, Tweeting, Facebooking, and that old standby – calling – their friends about their experience with your brand. You don’t have control. You might as well join the conversation. At least that way you can influence what is being said. 4- Social media requires a real budget! It’s not really cheap, or free. While many social media tools are free, knowing how to use them takes experience and perspective. The boss’ friend’s high school or college kid can’t integrate social media into the company’s overall marketing. That requires experience and perspective. Having a large social network and a stellar online reputation helps too. Just as there are carpenters who can knock together a book shelf and master carpenters who can create objects of genuine and lasting beauty, there are thousands of social media gurus (of all ages) who’ve never worked for an actual client. Hire them at your own peril. Geoff Livingston said it beautifully in a recent post: “Parroting and/or reporting what you see on the Internet does not equate to actual savoir faire. Nor does it make someone fit to offer insights or counsel.” Bonus links: Brand Week: Kraft Shells Out $12 million for a Trumped up Double-Stuffed Oreo Campaign David Berkowitz: The New Pricing Model for Social Media How much does a social media campaign cost? 5- They’re scared they’ll be sued. Oh puh-lese. Next! 6- They’re scared of giving away corporate secrets or that information on social networks will affect the stock price. If you don’t already have a social media policy, you need to create one. If you don’t trust your employees to talk to customers, or to represent the brand, you need to look at 1) your hiring practices, 2) your training practices, Bonus links: Everything you need to know about corporate social media policies Does your company have a corporate social media policy? IBM and Sun Do Jeremiah Owyang The Variance of Corporate Social Media Policies

A Little Piece of the Google Algorithm – Revealed

ishachopra — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 06:20:30 +0000

From (www.seomoz.com) My post last week on the Google algorithm gave me the crazy idea to actually attempt to write out a rough outline of what the formula might look like. I’ve taken softplus’ suggestion and given it a go using a massively simplistic weight/factor expression: GoogScore = (KW Usage Score * 0.3) + (Domain Strength * 0.25) + (Inbound Link Score * 0.25) + (User Data * 0.1) + (Content Quality Score * 0.1) + (Manual Boosts) – (Automated & Manual Penalties) KW Usage Factors: KW in title tag KW in header tags KW in document text KW in internal links pointing to the page KW in domain and/or URL Domain Strength Registration history Domain age Strength of links pointing to the domain Topical neighborhood of domain based on inlinks & outlinks Historical use & links pattern to domain Inbound Link Score Age of links Quality of domains sending links Quality of pages sending links Anchor text of links Link quantity/weight metric (Pagerank or a variation) Subject matter of linking pages/sites User Data Historical CTR to page in SERPs Time users spend on page Search requests for URL/domain Historical visits/use of URL/domain by users GG can monitor (toolbar, wifi, analytics, etc.) Content Quality Score Potentially given by hand for popular queries/pages Provided by Google raters (remember Henk?) Machine-algos for rating text quality/readability/etc Obviously, this isn’t a perfect summation of the algorithm by any means, but I have a strong suspicion that if we were to see the exact algorithm in perfect form, we’d see that a lot of these factors are strongly reflected in the weighting. There would most likely also be a lot of the factors from this list, but for brevity’s sake, I figured I’d keep this post short and sweet. What do you think? Any big oversights or complete goofs in the above formula? p.s. Yes – I do think Google is using manual boosts, particularly when the query is of a navigational nature and they’d like to place the source at #1, despite the fact that it might not be strong enough to rank there by itself.

How To Become A Social Media Master Without Going Broke

ishachopra — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 03:42:51 +0000

By by Nick ONeill:

After three years of blogging, I’m proud to say that my blogs are able to support me but if you are looking to get rich, you may want to look elsewhere. Making money from blogging and other social media channels is extremely difficult on its own. Yes, there are plenty of ways to make money online but if you’re trying to figure out how that favorite blog of yours is managing to keep up to date with so much content, don’t jump to the conclusion that they’re making a lot of money.

Five Steps To Becoming A Professional Blogger
I use blogging as one of the most basic social media activities. While there are numerous other activities that content creators can participate in, blogging is one of the most popular. In order to generate a living from blogging there are a number of things that you have to do. Most importantly though: don’t quit your job anytime soon expecting to make a living from blogging because for most, it just doesn’t work out. However if you have the drive and are passionate enough to stay focused for long enough, you can most definitely pull it off. Below are five tips that I suggest for making it happen:

Step 1: Pick A Big Niche
This is probably the single most important step. While you can adjust your niche overtime, you don’t want to jump from topic to topic and eventually make your original readers feel left out. The niche that you select will guide you throughout the future. When I began AllFacebook, I just figured that Facebook for developers, marketers, and small businesses, was a large enough niche. It may in fact be too large of a niche but so far it appears to have done well.

Spend some time brainstorming a topic that you’ll be willing to cover for years to come. Then head on to the next step!

Step 2: Select A Good Domain
Your domain is one of the most important components of building a successful company. Not only will it help drive search traffic with a smart domain but it can help your visitors come directly to your site if you pick it right. Picking a good domain is a pretty straight forward process: brainstorm some names, see if their available, and then pick one if it is or make a bid to acquire it if it isn’t.

Step 3: Regularly Update Your Site
Now that you’ve got your site up and running the most important thing is to have a consistent frequency for your posts. Whether it’s multiple times a day, once a week, or once a month (which I don’t recommend), you need to update your site regularly. To get visitors returning to your site you need to build a reputation of being consistent. Keep in mind that if you over commit yourself to the amount of content that you’ll be pushing out you can get overwhelmed.

Commit yourself to a reasonable volume of content and focus on quality. Eventually your subscriber base will begin to grow.

Step 4: Monetize From The Beginning
It’s a good idea to start off with ads on your site if you plan on adding them later. Otherwise you could risk angering your readers once you fill up your site with advertisements. Start off with ads and even if you don’t have anyone sponsoring you, help out a friend and place their ad on the site! If you plan on attracting sponsors you need to show that you have other sponsors. As the saying goes … fake it ’til you make it!

Step 5: Pursue New Revenue Channels
Once you’ve built up a sizable audience and you’ve got sponsorship revenue coming in the door, it’s time to look for new opportunities. Whether it’s hosting conferences, selling higher end content, or promoting a new product that you develop, you need to have multiple streams of revenue. Brainstorm new ideas while you are continuing to build out your content. It may not be easy but relying on a single stream of income can be dangerous.

Build Your Brand And The Money Will Follow
Whether it’s your blog, your Facebook Page, your Twitter account, or anything else, you need to be building a consistent brand. As you build your personal brand and company’s brand, you’ll begin getting more inquiries for business. Unless of course you’ve built you brand around an “unmonetizable” topic (which is pretty difficult to do). If you picked a good niche and have successfully built an audience you have something that can be turned into plenty of money.

Expand Into Other Channels Slowly
It’s smart to be on Facebook, Twitter, all while creating a blog but doing that on its own won’t attract a large audience. Instead you need to spend time on each new channel that you enter and invest in building an audience through each channel. If you just set up a page and post links to subscribe there, you aren’t doing all you can to maximize the impact of each channel. By interacting with your fans on each site, you will be able to build relationships and mini sub-communities around your brand rather than simply building extensions of your web site.

Learn About Traditional Online Marketing
The last thing that is critical to success in social media is learning about traditional digital marketing techniques. Whether it’s pay per click ads, search engine optimization, landing page optimization, sales copywriting, or any other form of online marketing, you need to understand all aspects. Social media is an amazing channel for promoting a brand and getting customers, but to be a true online marketing ninja, you need to sharpen all swords!

Don’t get overwhelmed with all the skill that you need to learn. Take your time to learn each one and eventually you will have a great business on your hand. Just don’t quit your job before you’ve started making enough money to support yourself!

Web Search Partnership! Yahoo! & MS

ishachopra — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 06:19:31 +0000

Yahoo.com! Microsoft Corp and Yahoo Inc inked a 10-year Web search deal to challenge market leader Google Inc but stopped short of combining their display advertising businesses.

The long-expected deal effectively means Microsoft’s new Bing search engine will be combined with Yahoo!’s experience attracting advertisers to pose the first serious threat to Google, if the companies get regulatory approval and can make the partnership work.

Yahoo shares fell 11 percent as some investors were disappointed by the limited scope of the deal, which did not include upfront payments for Yahoo, which could have been $1.5 billion or more, according to a Sanford Bernstein research report last week.

“Microsoft will be able to report a greater share in terms of search… And Yahoo! doesn’t have to spend any more money on search,” said Barry Diller, chief executive of IAC/InterActiveCorp, which owns rival search engine Ask.com.

Shares of Microsoft were flat, while Google shares fell 1.2 percent.

Microsoft and Yahoo still face antitrust and privacy issues and likely opposition from Google, which dropped its plans for an advertising partnership with Yahoo last year under pressure from the U.S. Justice Department.

The companies said they expect the deal to be “closely reviewed” by regulators, but were “hopeful” it can close in early 2010.

Google said on Wednesday only that it was “interested” in the Microsoft/Yahoo partnership, while the chairman of the U.S. Senate antitrust panel said the deal warrants “careful scrutiny.”

The deal culminates a lengthy, and at times contentious, dance between the two companies. They have been in on-and-off-again talks on a search partnership since Yahoo rebuffed Microsoft’s $47.5 billion takeover bid last year.

Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer clashed last year with former Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, who was strongly opposed to an all-out acquisition. Relations between the two companies improved under new Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz, who took the reins in January and started to shake up Yahoo’s top management.

Ballmer and Bartz met “three or four times” over the past six months as they hammered out a deal, according to Ballmer.

HOW THE DEAL WORKS

Under the deal announced on Wednesday, Microsoft’s Bing search engine will power search queries on Yahoo’s sites. Yahoo’s sales force will be responsible for selling premium advertising based on search terms for both companies.

Microsoft’s AdCenter technology will serve the standard sponsored links that appear alongside search results.

While Yahoo CEO Bartz had previously said that any deal would require a partner with “boatloads of money,” she said on Wednesday that the agreement provided “boatloads of value”, saying the revenue share agreement in the Microsoft deal was more valuable to Yahoo than a one-time payment.

“Having a big up-front cash payment doesn’t really help us from an operating standpoint,” Bartz said in a conference call with Microsoft CEO Ballmer.

Microsoft will compensate Yahoo through a revenue-sharing agreement that pays Yahoo at an initial rate of 88 percent of search revenue generated on Yahoo sites in the first five years.

Each company will maintain its own separate display advertising business and sales force, they said.

Analysts said it will be tough for the two companies to make a significant dent in Google’s dominance in search, but it was a step in the right direction.

According to comScore, Google has a 65 percent share of the U.S. search market, compared to Yahoo’s 19.6 percent and Microsoft’s 8.4 percent.

“Overall, it’s a big positive for two companies that have been struggling to keep up with Google. This consolidates their resources and allows them to make a more concerted push as the No. 2 entity,” said RBC Capital Markets analyst Ross Sandler.

Yahoo estimated the deal will boost its annual operating income by about $500 million and yield capital expenditure savings of $200 million. Yahoo also expects the deal to boost annual operating cash flow by about $275 million.

Yahoo reported income from operations of $13 million in 2008, hurt by $487.5 million in goodwill impairment charge and $107 million in restructuring charges. In 2007, operating income was $695 million.

Yahoo’s Bartz said that the deal will result in “redundancies” in Yahoo’s staff, though she declined to be specific. She stressed that any changes would not occur until after approval by antitrust authorities in the U.S. and Europe and full implementation of the partnership.

Shares of Yahoo were down $1.89 at $15.33 on Nasdaq, while shares of Microsoft were flat at $23.47. Google shares were down $5.13 at $434.72.

(Additional reporting by Tiffany Wu, Paul Thomasch, Robert MacMillan and Diane Bartz)

RIL can’t sell gas to RNRL; asks SC not to stop 3rd party sale

ishachopra — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 06:32:39 +0000

Mukesh Ambani-led RIL on Friday said it would not be possible to supply gas to Anil Ambani group firm RNRL without the government’s nod and requested the Supreme Court not to restrain it from selling gas to others.

http://www.zopag.com/news/ril-cant-sell-gas-to-rnrl-asks-sc-not-to-stop-3rd-party-sale/4960/

Be careful while posting on twitter

ishachopra — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:27:22 +0000

Twitter has now removed the delete option for sometime. So, be careful while posting any msg on twitter, it will not be deleted.

Twitter has shown great results in internet market industry. It is micro blogging website but the strategy which they adopted has worked for billions & millions of users.

Twitter is working for marketers?

ishachopra — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 07:25:58 +0000

It was only a few days ago that I noted how Twitter is working for marketers. I mean, we view those posts which interest to us but how any company can publish itself on twitter. Isn’t it spamming, i never click on link in which ads are enclosed.

People are mostly focusing on social bookmarking & social media websites through which they could interact with users. It is good source of getting users but messages should be according to users interest not related to your company promotions…

Budget Highlights

ishachopra — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 07:10:07 +0000

Budget speech highlights:

State-owned banks and insurance firms to remain in public sector

Work on National Food Security scheme for providing food at cheaper rates to the poor has begun

Increase allocation for Prime Minister Gram Sadak Yojana by 59 pc

Allocation of Rs 39,100 crore for NREGA for 2009-10

Govt to provide real wage of Rs 100 per day under NREGA

IT Return forms to be made simple and user friendly<

Allocation for national highways development stepped up by 23 pc

Allocation for schemes for the urban poor to be raised to Rs.39,730 cr in 2009-10

75 per cent increase for Accelerated Irrigation Programme

Extension of stimulus package for print media to be extended till December 2009

Indian Infrastructure Financial Corporation Limited (IIFCL) to evolve financing mechanism for giving increased support to in frastructure projects

Target for agricultu re credit raised to Rs 3,25,000 cr in 2009-10 from Rs 2,87,000 cr

Enhancing allocation from Rs 200 crore to Rs 500 crore for flood management project in Mumbai

Funds for Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission increased by 87 pc to Rs 12,887 cr

Funds for housing for urban poor to be raised to Rs 3,973 crore

Pranab forecasts GDP growth at 6.7 per cent for 2008-09

Growth rate in 2008-09 dipped to 6.7 pc from average 9 pc growth

Govt says its will broaden the agenda for inclusive development

Significant inflow of foreign capital is important

Govt moving towards providing energy security and integrated energy policy

Single Budget cannot solve all our problems. It is a means to share the vision of the government with all

Fiscal deficit grew from 2.7 per cent to 6.8 per cent of GDP

Total fiscal stimulus during 2008-09 amounts to Rs 1,86,000 crore

Govt plans to return economy to high GDP growth rate of 9 pc

India’s budget rivals monsoon for nailbiting expectations

ishachopra — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 06:56:56 +0000

ft.com: The arrival of the monsoon and the national budget are famed to move India’s financial market like no other annual events. Delayed rains have caused much nailbiting this summer. So has today’s budget .

Use SMM to aquire customers

ishachopra — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 07:25:37 +0000

Social media marketing has two important aspects:

(1) Adding links to services such as Digg, Reddit and Del.icio.us so that their pages can be easily ‘saved and submitted’ to and for these services.

(2) Building ways that fans of a brand or company can promote it themselves in multiple online social media venues.