If You Google Knol

So, we are all excited - Knol is here.
The official URL is http://knol.google.com
I just entered Knol in Google and the official page of Knol can not be found. Yet :)



Just a thought about Google results relevancy

How to Stay Productive With So Much Social Media

How to stay productive with SO MUCH social media by Jared Goralnick at PodCamp Boston.
Jared opened his speech with a video of Gary Vainerchuk about how to cut the noise.

Social Media Tools to save your time:
Jott.com - transcribe your thoughts to the email

Transfer your voice mail to text messages (GotVoice, PhoneTag)

Textexpander or texter - custom keyword abbreviations to insert frequent phrases

Timesnapper or RescueTime - track your activities and time with screenshots and text filters. Compare your productivity with coworkers.

Mailexpire or Mailinator - sign up with temporally email addresses

BugMeNot - if you don't feel like signing up

Stop clicking next in your Google result - increase your number to first 100

Change your contact preferences - get rid of unnecessary notifications and alerts.
Stop Email Auto-Check

Once you reach the number of people in your network that following them all and responding to their messages becomes unmanageable - jump out and turn it off.

"Get your value and then get away"

Monitor your brad with a separate account - Google Alerts, Twitter

Develop a filter habit and clean up your mailbox.

Create your own "Cone of Silence" - give yourself a time to focus and don't let anything distract you. Multitasking is not efficient.

Be responsive, not TOO available

Boston Podcamp 3

I made it to Podcamp in Boston, planning on attending Tuming Buzz into Business By Christopher Penn at 10:30 am. Also interesting sessions is SEO 101 by Greatest Living SEO Sri Nagubandi, maybe will stop by later.
Day 1
Christopher Penn opened his presentation by asking who knows what ARBITRAGE is. Two people in the auditorium actually knew the definition :)
What is MARKETING? is the next question. Very interesting audience replies. Marketing is the sharing of ideas summed it all up.
What works?
A very convincing snapshot of gmail Inbox with 25678 un-opened mail was very convincing.
Four people from the audience read a newspaper this morning. Nobody could remember what they were reading about. And thinking about all the money spent on the paper advertising.
So what is BRAND? A label? A logo?
Brand is an emotional aftertaste of a previous experience.
Brand has to be worth talked about. If product sucks nothing matters. You know you have a really good idea if you can't stop talking about it.
You need to have a STORY, not just a bunch of marketing messages.
If you can fit your marketing message in one Twitter post - you are on the right track.
Sales tunnel:
1.Audience (a crazy web 2.0 world) - sign up EVERYWHERE
Be YOU on every media vehicle
2.Get them to your website
3. Determine prospects
Start with your database, your mailing list is a first stop.
Find who already likes you and find people with similar interests.
4. Start the campaign
People communicate with you by creating UGC or CGC.
Use Google to find people. Once you found them - add them, develop a relationship with them.
5. Convert them
Networks - Website - Database.
All you need is to give people a clear call to action on your website and on any campaign you launch.
6. Customers
A problem with new media: WORD SPREADS REALLY REALLY FAST.
Don't neglect your customers.
7. Finding Evangelists
Give them tools that are easy to use. Make your URLs are super obvious. Give them widgets, graphics, free stuff, something to play with.
8. Measuring
Google Analytics rock.
CrazyEgg.com is a good way to track your visitors eyeballs.

Women Blogger Statistics

The research from BlogHer and Compass Partners showed some interesting statistics:

35% of women aged 18 to 75 participate in the blogosphere weekly.
Of women online 53% read blogs, 37% post comments to blogs and 28% write or update blogs.
Of women bloggers 58% post entries at least weekly, and of those who actively read blogs, 80% do so at least once per week.
Why women blog?
65% do it for fun
60% to express themselves
46% to get information
41% to stay up to date on family and friends
40% to connect with others
34% as a diary
28% participate in the blogosphere in order to connect with others.

Special Coupon Newsletter: When It Goes Wrong

I have to admit I don't open retailer newsletters often. But this was a first email I ever received from Roly Poly sandwiches - the popular place to grab lunch since it's practuacally accross the street from the office.
Hey, it was $5 off any sandwich, considering the regular price is $5.95! I even forwarded it to my collegue and she got pretty excited.


To my surprise about 4 hours I received another email from Roly Poly with a subject line: Special Offer Correction from Roly Poly

Puzzled I had to click:


Well, congrats to Roly Poly team on saving the situation with a creative subject line: "Special Offer Correction" sounds just irresistible :)

However, the lesson learned: PLEASE prof-reed your newsletter before hitting that send button. I have been there, done that once sending out the press release with a misspell in company's name. I would like to get stats how many people brought these $5 off coupons to the shop and actually were given a discount.

WOMMA-U Conference in Miami

I just arrived to South Beach today to attend WOMMA-U.

The list of speakers include Rohit Bhargava, Joseph Jaffe, Carla Hendra, Andrew Lark, Jordan Corredera, Jeffrey Graham, Jennifer Gulvik, Fiona Pietruski, Jason Anello and many more.
My company, Adaptive Marketing, just became a member of WOMMA and I am looking forward to learn the best practices from the industry leaders.

Do You Look Good On Google?

Forget the old fashioned business cards, these days all the information you need to put on it is simply your name. While you are introducing yourself to a prospective business partner, employer or simply somebody who caught your attention, know that your name will be typed into Google the next business day or the same night to get a scoop.
Some people speed up the process.
I remember standing in the bar waiting for my friends to show up, when a stranger approached me with an attempt to start a conversation. He actually handed me his business card, but at the same time he said "Google me" pointing at my Treo. This is something I couldn't say no to as the reputation management professional :)

The stranger had a very unique combination of First-Last name so it was quite easy task. I have to admit that my new acquittance did a good job managing his online presence. From the top ten Google results I learned about his company, his professional credentials, his book available for sale on Amazon.com, and his awards and recognitions. Not bad for a person who doesn't know about the existence of social networking sites. He turned out to be a plastic surgeon.

Interestingly enough, he never took any steps to build his digital presence or reputation, but he looked his best on Google.

So sometimes it's just good enough to be a good person I guess :)