Archive for the 'Blogging' Category

I asked 2 questions via email to a few thought leaders that specialize in the fields of Search Marketing, Social Media, Reputation Management, and Internet Marketing.

1) Should a CEO’s Blog need approval from legal before posting?
2) What if it’s his personal blog? Would the same hold true for opinions, forecasts, etc regarding his industry?

Kevin Lee - CEO of Didit:
“CEOs are constantly interviewing with analysts, press and making speeches at conferences, all of which are documented. They should be well trained in what can and can’t be said. A blog is no different and “legal” should not need to babysit the CEO online or offline. However, if the CEO has proven him/herself to be a loose cannon, perhaps some second party should advise on blog posts as well as during interviews.” Buy Kevin’s Book“The Eyes Have It”.

Andy Beal CEO of Marketing Pilgrim says, “Best not. Have legal help draft up guidelines of what CEO shouldn’t say–anything material–then let him use own due diligence.”

My preference is to not force a CEO to have each of his posts reviewed by the company’s legal department. There are many reasons to avoid such a step, with slowing down the conversation and removing personal tone of a blog post being the most important.

Instead, I would advise a CEO to sit down with his legal and public relations team and craft a general blogging policy that includes guidelines of what the CEO will and won’t discuss. This allows the legal and PR teams share their expertise and counsel, while giving the CEO freedom to post as and when he’s inspired.

How much should a CEO hold back in his blog posts? That depends on the size and status of a company. A small, privately held company CEO can raise his profile by being edgy or critical in his posts. Meanwhile, the CEO of a large, publicly traded company would be wise to be more reserved and consider the ramifications of what he has to say.

What if it’s his personal blog? Would the same hold true for opinions, forecasts, etc regarding his industry?

“Absolutely. The CEO of a company is the CEO 24/7 and even an opinion expressed on his personal blog could be construed as the official stance of the company he represents–despite any disclaimer he may have to the contrary.”

Buy Andy’s new book:Radically Transparent: Monitoring and Managing Reputations Online.

Chris Winfield -CEO of 10e20 says:
“Depends on the company…if its going to be anything worth reading - then NO, the CEO should know what he should or should not say. If he doesn’t - he shouldn’t be blogging. Noone is going to read it the other way.

Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land says:

I guess I’d say that if you’re at a company where legal clears any type of publication, then yes, a blog falls under that. But if legal doesn’t clear each and everything that the CEO says or writes, nope!

What if it’s his personal blog? Can he still write his opinions, forecasts, etc about his industry?

” I think you’d need a lawyer to say. I imagine that he could comment generally on his industry but anything deemed relevant to shareholders would need to be shared through official company channels and perhaps filed with the SEC.”

Here is a variety of CEO blogs:
Rob Norman - CEO GroupM Interaction.
Bob Parsons - CEO of GoDaddy.
Richard Edelman — CEO of Edelman
Greg Hartnett - CEO of BOTW (Best of the Web).
David Neeleman - Chairman of JetBlue Airways.
Jonathan Schwartz, “Jonathan’s Blog” — CEO of Sun Microsystems.
Mark Cuban, - Owner of the Dallas Mavericks.
Robert Lutz, “Fast Lane” — GM vice chairman
Matt Heaton - CEO of Bluehost

It’s interesting to look at the different styles, conversational tone, and strategy of each of these CEO blogs. Also, some have taken the time and resources to build out a highly interactive and usable blog platform, while others are satisfied with the the basics of Wordpress.

For example, Rob Norman who works for a large agency has not leveraged his blog to showcase the talent of his agencies. Heck, it’s not even on his own domain. He doesn’t link on his blogroll to any of his agencies. Nobody comments. No Social Media icon buttons. A little scary for the CEO of a conglomorate of interactive agencies.

As opposed to Bob Lutz’s GM Blog. The GM “Fastlane Blog” has a Twitter feed, Blogroll, prominant RSS subscribe buttons, recent entries, Digg buttons, plenty of comments, and just looks great.

In my opinion, if the CEO is going to start blogging, it might as well look great and adhere to as many of the Best Practices of Blogging as possible. Especially if the CEO is the Chief Blogger.

In Summary:
The components that make for a great CEO blog:
1) Prep from legal and corporate communications.
2) Development team ( Project Mgr, Graphic Designer, Programmer).
3) Sticking to the same Best Practices of Blogging as everyone else.
4) The drive, desire, and passion to be a blogger.

I thought that perhaps I’d write a post where I write what I like to do when I’m NOT doing SEO, and tag 3 other bloggers to do the same. Kinda like hobbies, sports, etc.

I thought this would be a nice way to getting to know our fellow bloggers, it’s a social game, and each player is guaranteed at least 3 links.

RULES of the BLOG TAG game:
1) Tell who tagged you, and link to them.
2) Tag 3 other bloggers.

Anyone can play. Just please follow those 2 simple rules.

So, here goes…
When I’m NOT doing SEO I like to go to the gun range and engage in competitive target shooting. One of my favorite toys is the Smith & Wesson Model 625 .45 caliber revolver (pictured).

It’s not just “point and shoot”. Here’s a few quick pointers on shooting technique:

First and foremost…Gun Safety: Finger always off trigger. Never point muzzle at anyone. Pretend it is a light saber that extends out forever. Never look into muzzle.

Breathing: Take deep breath. Exhale 50%. Hold.
Stance: Feet shoulder breadth apart. Lean slightly forward. Slightly bend knees.
Draw - Without finger on trigger. Point like child. More accurate shot. Lock arms out.
Sighting: Target should be blurry. Focus on your sight at the tip of the barrel.
Trigger pull: Gun shouldn’t move during the entire trigger pull. Squeeze trigger straight back. Kinda like you’re holding & squeezing a 2×4.
Holding the gun: Push your right hand into your left hand, while your left hand is pulling your right hand (if that makes sense).

Here’s a video of Smith & Wesson’s champion revolver shooter, Jerry Miculek:

I’m tagging:
Barry Schwartz
Andy Beard
Tamar Weinberg

According to Forrester Research, User-generated content (UGC) is being created by approximately one-quarter of online consumers. In my opinion, UGC can be used as an SEO tactic, and can take the form of product reviews, discussion boards, comments on blogs, etc.

Besides being a way for big brands to engage with their consumers, UGC can also add relevant content to a webpage, thereby optimizing the content for Search. There are several methods that User Generated Content can boost SEO. Did you ever wonder which type of UGC carries the most trust?

The trust factor of UGC can be seen by the chart below. Interestingly, an online review by a blogger has the lowest trust rank.

Methods that User Generated Content can boost SEO:

Onsite optimization:
1. Product reviews will definitely add relevant content to your webpages.
2. However, uploading video (Butterfinger UGC campaign) will not.
3. JetBlue enables travelers to share their story.
4. Ebay has a wiki.
5. Media sites like CNET and NYTimes.com enable comments on articles to solicit feedback from readers.
6. Companies have initiated corporate blogs, like General Motors’ FastLane blog, and Wells Fargo started their own mini blog network.
7. And, let’s not forget blog comments. They are great. I love’m. Whether they disagree, agree, or just have something to add to the conversation ( except of course for spam).

Offsite optimization:
1. Review Sites like ReviewMe, Sponsored Reviews, and PayPerPost are useful for generating buzz, and links.
2. Other sites like CurrentTV add branding value, but do nothing for SEO.
3. Just recruit bloggers like Vespa did.
4. Some advertisers are getting their own MySpace profile like Honda.
5. Leverage your own UGC community. Reward participation, even if they say things you don’t like. Respond with appropriate product and service changes — and thank them for the advice.
6. Consider social networking sites like Digg.

For companies concerned about brand or reputation management there are services and/or software that allows for monitoring consumer generated content regarding your brand. Nielsen BuzzMetrics, and Cymfony collect and analyze data. Or, Netpinions can be used to monitor over 35,000 discussion boards and forums. Alternately, you can use a simple tactic such as Technorati, or an automated Google Alert.

Well, I’ve been tagged by Gordon Choi & Tamar Weinberg in a viral blog tag game.

Here are 5 things you didn’t know about me.

1) I love Jazz Fusion and guitar jams. Lately, I can’t seem to take el grupo out of my car CD player. Those dudes are unfreakin believable.

2) I grew up in a heavily wooded area. So, I spent a lot of time in the woods. Even, at nighttime. I remember some good keg parties.

3) I rode dirt bikes alot in my teen years. Both motorcycles & mountain bikes. Always very competitive with my buddies. When I got older I got into stand-up jetskis, and motor boats.

4) I hate crowds.

5) I don’t own a television. This is a deliberate decision to keep out bad morals, behaviors, and ethics of my home. We do own a DVD player and a large screen. But, no TV. This way we can censor what we want to watch. All the news is available via the internet & radio so I don’t feel like I’m missing anything.

I’m tagging Stephan Spencer, Greg Sterling, Derrick Daye, Justilien, and John Battelle.

A few people have asked me which plugins I use. So, I thought I’d just post them. It’s a short list, and if anyone thinks I should use a different, or new plugin, I’d appreciate the advice.

The plugins I use are:
1) Sociable to display the Social bookmarking icons below each post. There are options for your preferences as well.

2) Adsense-Deluxe wp plugin v0.7 is a plugin for WordPress (1.5 or later) which simplies the addition of Google or Yahoo! ads to your WordPress blogs within posts, allowing for use of multiple ad styles and controlling when and where ads are displayed.

3) add meta tags plugin adds the “description” and “keywords” META tags to the front page and to single post view.

4) Did you pass math plugin is a comment spam prevention tool which asks the person making the comment to answer a simple math question. This is intended to prove they are a human being and not some kind of robot. It’s a simple type of CAPTCHA.

5) The wordpress database backup plugin is self explainatory. It backs up your database.

Wordpress has a listing of a bunch of other Spam Prevention plugins. I was thinking of installing one of those CAPTCHA’s that scramble some numbers and letters, and ask you to type it into a box. The reason why I’m thinking of installing another captcha is because surprisingly I’m still getting what seem like automated spam bots…even with the “Did you pass Math?” plugin.

I’m just not sure which is the best CAPTCHA.

Did you know that if you use mod rewrite you have to 301 redirect the old url? If you’re using the URL rewrite feature on Wordpress then you have a problem. You have a duplicate content issue! The reason is because you now have 2 urls to the same page. Fortunately, there is a plugin on wordpress called the ” Angsuman’s Permanent Redirector Plugin - WordPress Plugin for Permanent Redirection of Posts“.

If the URL’s never get 301 redirected from the natural url to the rewritten url, then there will be a duplicate content issue, and a vulnerablity to a Black Hat SEO attack.

This is not as big a problem for linkjuice. Even though there’s a dynamic url, and a static URL, people will only see the static url. Hence, the static url will get all the linkjuice.

First of all, I want to thank everyone who contributed to the comments and great advice of the previous post about my blogging frustration.

My previous post had two purposes.
1) To express some real frustration.
2) To see if it would work as linkbait.

Something unexpected happened: Some of the “A-list�? bloggers offered some great advice in the comments section.

Here are the results:

Traffic:

Before the post, my blog traffic was averaging around 45 unique visitors/day. Pretty miserable, huh? After this post, it soared to 190 unique visitors. So, that’s got to be good for something. Hopefully, I’ve attracted at least a few more readers, regardless whether I got more links or not. Below is the chart from Statcounter. Click to enlarge the picture.

Links:

Before the experiment, according to Technorati, I had a Technorati Rank: 347,456 (12 links from 8 sites).

I’m not sure how frequently Technorati updates this information, so to post the results today for the increased amount of links is probably premature.

Question: Was this experiment a failure or not?

I’m still not sure, since it is premature to quantify the amount of links gained. In a few more days I’ll probably have a better idea. Interestingly, I didn’t use one of Nick Wilson’s Linkbaiting Methods listed below:

1) News hook
2) Contrary Hook
3) Attack Hook
4) Resource Hook
5) Humor Hook

I think I just created a new method…the “Whiney Hook�?.

Anyway, it was fun watching the traffic, and experimenting with a new linkbaiting method.

And, really, that’s the whole gist of online marketing anyway…everything is a test. If it works: Great! If not, try something else.