John Cheese talks SEO

Cracked columnist and longtime internet comedy writer John Cheese put out a call for interviews recently, and I jumped at the chance to talk to him. Out of all the writers on Cracked, a site I have been fairly addicted to since about 2007, John Cheese has probably spent the most time eloquently weaving his own life experiences into his always funny and often moving columns.

John ended up really driving home a rather simple yet all-encompassing idea that we have adopted as a mantra at Search Influence: fresh content is king. It really doesn’t matter whether you are advertising a novel, a list-based comedy site, or a small business anywhere in the world – if you can produce quality content that people find interesting on a regular basis, everything else will fall into place. It doesn’t hurt if you are as insightful, funny, and talented as John is either.

Take a look at the results of my email interview with John Cheese:

As an Internet based writer, how important are good SEO practices to you?

Working for Cracked, I’m in a position where I don’t have to worry about optimization.  I’m in a comfortable place that many writers dream about:  I write my article, and the rest of the staff takes care of everything else.  But even back in the day where I was running my own website, I still didn’t worry much about it.  My fame and David Wong‘s fame were gained through 100% word of mouth.  Someone would read something they found funny and pass that to their friends, and the next thing you know, we’d have a massive influx of traffic.

Back then, Google wasn’t as much of a concern as writing high quality articles and letting the traffic filter in through sheer internet buzz.

How closely do you follow the ever-evolving world of SEO?

I don’t at all, actually.  Since Cracked takes care of all that on the back end, I just have to worry about content and fresh ideas.  Now, that’s not to say that I don’t think it’s important.  Quite the opposite, actually.  Good, useful SEO brings new users to the site — but without the quality content to set the hook, your site could be ranked #1 in every conceivable search term in every language, and it wouldn’t much matter.  That content trumps everything.

Do you think about how search engines will view your work as you are writing it?

Not with Cracked, but I did “aim” my writing when I was running my own sites.  When Britney Spears was first getting big, I used to do occasional fake interviews with her.  They were obviously satire and parody, but not to a search engine.  They saw “Britney Spears Interview,” and the rest of the content just didn’t matter.  That funneled in massive viewers back in my early days of writing…not all of them desirable.

As a writer and a website owner, this is where I had to be careful.  I had a site full of sexual and violent jokes.  My characters were doing drugs and talking about beating their wives… and those Britney Spears articles were bringing in 13 year old girls.

Back then, I could have used the help with not just raising my search rankings, but focusing the results to reach a specific, target audience.  Not all traffic is good traffic.  There are exceptions.

What advice would you tell someone just starting their first blog today, in terms of getting it found by Google?

The first thing I’d tell them is to not skip over the meta tags in their HTML.  It’s easy to do as a first time net writer.  Aside from that, I’d tell them to focus on their craft first — but if they’re going to get into the world of SEO, they need be true to their work.  Think about the audience they’re after first…think about the volume later.

But I’d also tell them to not just leave it in the hands of the search engines.  Yes, search engines are important.  But that article needs traffic, and the fastest way to gain it is to get people talking about it.  Nothing in the world of entertainment is as powerful as word of mouth.

How much time and energy do you spend crafting your online presence?

Before Cracked took me in, I spent around ten years writing under this name and developing a very specific character and persona.  The funny thing to me is that once I got signed as a weekly columnist for them, I dropped all that and just started being myself.  In fact, the change in tone and style was so dramatically different I considered not using the name John Cheese at all, and writing under my real name of Mack Leighty.

When people search for you online, what do you want to show up?

I want it to show some of my highest traffic articles or my columnist index, which pretty much happens right now.  Cracked has a pretty crazy team of people on the back end who know their shit inside and out.  Which is awesome for me because the less I have to worry about, the more I can just focus on content, content, content.

How has the SEO world changed since you started writing on the Internet?

When I first started, it basically didn’t exist.  Google wasn’t really a thing — I think the big one back then was Lycos.  And searches seemed to operate on reading meta tags and spidering.  I remember when web pages used to put 200 hidden links at the bottom of their pages, containing the top 200 most popular search terms, just blatantly using bullshit manipulation to trick people into clicking their sites.

What is the most effective way that you connect to your audience?

Social networking, without a doubt.  It’s one thing to pull a lot of traffic, and it’s awesome to get fan mail…but the more traffic you pull, the more messages you receive.  You eventually reach a tipping point where there’s not enough time in a day to answer them all individually.

So now, I use Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr because if I can’t connect with everyone on an individual by individual basis, at least I can speak directly to my audience through a non-Cracked format.  And I believe that’s incredibly important.  People need to view me as a human above all because the second they start thinking of me as a soulless figurehead, my articles that touch on humanity become meaningless.

What would happen to your career if Google stopped indexing your work?

I’m sure I’d lose some traffic, but at this point (in my experience) the social networking sites are trumping the search engines.  My Apology to the Occupy Wall Street Generation article busted a million views in the first 24 hours, and it was all word of mouth and Facebook shares.  Now, that’s not saying that Google didn’t play a part in that, and it’s not saying that the search engines aren’t important.  But in my experience, if you’re a good writer, and you come up with a piece that people genuinely want to read, it’ll spread like wildfire.

How do you go about promoting your other projects, like the John Dies at the End novel and upcoming movie based on it? Do you depend mostly on the Internet, or do you turn to more traditional methods?

I run the social networking sites for the book, and I do monthly updates on the book’s main website (www.johndiesattheend.com).  The movie is a completely separate entity, ran by a team not related to Wong or myself.

But we’ve done a couple of different things with the book.  Simply keeping people talking about it on Facebook and Twitter is huge.  Giving actual updates — funny and interesting articles, rather than just occasional ads for the book –  on the main site is a big way to do that.  We also ran an alternate reality game a while back, and are planning another sometime this year.

The key is getting people involved and not making them feel insulted by claiming that we have a new update, only to give them an ad when they click the link.

But yes, it’s all Internet based.

What’s it like writing for Cracked?

It’s the most time-consuming job I’ve ever worked — and I wouldn’t change one millisecond of it.  Not just because I get a paycheck for writing comedy, but because I’ve gotten literally thousands of emails and private messages from people, telling me that something I wrote changed their lives for the better.  You can’t put a price on that.  I owe Cracked a lot for giving me that opportunity.  They really are an incredible bunch of people.

Special thanks to John Cheese for participating in this interview. Go read him on Cracked, like him on Facebook, and follow him on Twitter. 

A few tips for putting Pinterest to work for your brand:

• Add the “Pin It” button to your product pages or blog posts. It’s easy to do and you can add the button along with your other social media sharing buttons.
• Create a Pinterest account for the brand itself and reach out to “visual influencers” on Pinterest for help getting your images re-pinned. Pinterest allows any user to follow any other user without requiring a follow-back. You may also tag other users in your pins, comment on pins and re-pin (the Pinterest version of a retweet) others’ content.
• Create boards beyond your own products and brand, but relevant to your location and industry.
• Utilize the description fields when creating Pins by adding keywords and geo-modifiers. Not only is this SEO 101, but Pinterest addicts often use the search feature to find relevant pins.
• Keep pinning!  The search results and Pin feeds change up-to-the-minute, much like the Twitter feed and Facebook Ticker. Maintain a steady flow of Pins to ensure your products are staying top-of-mind.

For SEO linkbuilding purposes, the benefits of Pinterest are pretty self-evident. Some basic info on Pinterest links:

• Each and every Pin links back to the original source site or the file location (depending on where it was originally pinned from). Unless you’re purposely optimizing for image seach, a product page or site link is probably better.
  

  Standard pins provide links to the source site in two locations.

• A Pin provides do-follow links in multiple places. The image itself acts as a link in addition to the “From:” link in the top right-hand-corner.
• A pin comes with embed code for syndication to other sites like Facebook and Twitter, helping to develop backlinks to the Pin itself.
• Pins are editable! You can edit your own Pins with updated URLs or reach out to Pinners who may have pinned your images from an unfavorable source site. Pins are easy to edit and the new URL you provide does not need to host the image, though I don’t recommend you use a link without the original image.
• Because of the visual nature of Pinterest, it is a great way to promote infographics. Make sure they are Pinned to appropriate boards and contain relevant descriptions to ensure they are shared.
• You can even add a Pin It button to your company’s blog pages by using the WordPress plug-in.

Thanks to the intuitive nature of Pinterest’s interface, I think the best way to get going is to request an invite and just dive in. Remember, sign-up is currently via invitation-only, so ask a friend to invite you or request one from the site (it doesn’t take long). Let me know what you think about these tips in the comments, and if my screenshots piqued your interest, follow me on Pinterest!

Are we not men?

The new kid on the block has opened itself to businesses in two principal ways. Unlike Facebook, which focuses on admin-managed pages, and Twitter, which couldn’t care less if a person, place, or animal is represented in a feed, Google initially maintained its focus on people in its business-level implementation of its social network, not announcing any kind of branded pages. Then Monday’s announcement of Facebook-style business pages opened a new avenue for marketers, if only those in selected niches. Both new tools allow for the implementation of the “authority” metrics hinted at in numerous Google quality documents.

But should a business even have a Google+ presence? Facebook of course is ubiquitous, and Twitter has proven itself to be a direct customer relations tool. Google+, however, has languished as Robert Scoble’s main soapbox and Android users’ photo repository. Google+ isn’t a lead generator, lacking the customization of Facebook tabs, and it isn’t a customer service tool, lacking the plurality userbase (8% of the US) Twitter enjoys.

Applications of Google+ for Business

But it’s not just those on the social network who will benefit from business applications of Google+. Integration with search and the use of the network as an authority metric seem to be major advantages of Google+ for businesses. Once set up correctly, a robust Google+ profile can give authority to local ranking and regular integrated SERP rank depending on page type. Unsurprisingly, this leaves the active maintenance lacking; however, even that aspect can be worthwhile in the right niches.

Internally, Hangouts combined with Google Docs allows decentralized businesses a face-to-face online collaboration tool. Users can avoid the loss of communication from short text comments in edits, enriching group writing and design. This use of Docs can help a variety of businesses, both for internal meetings and for work with clients. The possibilities previously hinted at are relatively endless, and make Google+ a must-have for remote businesses, some design firms, and any company needing to build something in front of a customer or each other without being in the same room.

But most companies don’t need that kind of ability for real-time document editing. For them, Hangouts provide a simple way to start webinars, live shows, and other almost TV-styled content. Something like SEOmoz’s Whiteboard Friday could be live broadcast with question-and-answer, recorded locally, and quickly uploaded to YouTube or another video site, then added to a website for further life out of the content. If live videos would take too much effort, even a simple video exclusive to Google+ can help drive uses both to your Plus Page and create user interaction. This kind of direct, personal, and instant communication with users and the ease of creating something for all visitors is nearly unprecedented in social media.

How Your Employees

Keeping with the focus on both users and non-users of the network, Google+ offers ways to interact with customers outside of the realm of the social network — being the only outlet for rel=”author” and introducing rel=”publisher”, the best way to get your personal face and name ad your company’s image in the SERPs. Reinforcing the authority metrics hinted at in Panda and the related effects, Google+ is the gatekeeper for bridging the gap between semantic and visible authorship in the SERPs, and the exposure and connection of a face and name to a business can humanize and connect with customers in a way that couldn’t be done for someone who isn’t just signed into Facebook. “The face in the SERPs” is perfect for any company with a regularly maintained blog or article section. Similarly, a company might see its logo next to its web site when rel=”publisher” is implemented.

Using Google+ to Put Your Face in the SERPs

Happily, WordPress sites have a relatively simple solution for implementing a multi-person rel=”author”. It does the first step for you, linking to the author page with rel=”author”. Then, add your canonical Plus account url to the Website field in Your Profile under Users:

Place your canonical Google+ url in this field under User > Your profile

Then, you need to edit the theme, adding this to the body of either your main template, or the author template, author.php, omitting the if-statement:

<?php if (is_author()) {
$curauth = (isset($_GET['author_name'])) ? get_user_by('slug', $author_name) :
get_userdata(intval($author));
?>
<a rel="me" href="<?php echo $curauth->user_url; ?>">
Visit me on Google+
</a>
<?php } ?>

This will get the author name if it’s set, then get all of the user data, then display the url from that author in a link with the all-important rel=”me”.

Oops! Not what you'd like to see...

Similarly, to set up rel=”publisher”, just a link tag on all pages without rel=”author” on it will connect your site with your company Google+ Page. Why only on those pages? Because as Search Engine Land’s rich snippet test shows, Google will prioritize author over publisher.

<?php if (!is_single()) { ?>
<link href="https://plus.google.com/113323125805722144061/" rel="publisher" />
<?php } ?>

Once it’s all set up, check your url in that same Rich Snippet Tester tool, making sure it shows your face and name. The wait time on recognition from Google is inconsistent, but such connections are key to establishing authority.

Google+ Establishes Thought Leaders

A secondary effect of individual commercial Google+ profiles is that giving a face to a URL can create a sense of thought leadership, pulling in longer-term researchers with high quality informative articles and blogs. Having one author connected to your name will heavily associate the one person with the site; having multiple writers will strengthen the authority of each writer as an individual source of quality knowledge. A logo, if well-chosen, transforms the SERPs into display ads. Through either, one positions their employees as experts and their company as prominent: certainly an admirable position.

Google+ might not be for every business, even businesses that rely on their current Apps as the underpinning for their online productivity. However, for businesses with the specific needs for which Google+ provides killer apps, Google+ is a perfect addition to the social media profile of your business. Furthermore, it’s ease of setup provides deep support beyond social interaction, leaving much utility even for more straightforward businesses.

…And hey, maybe one of your employees can criticize you while still garnering support for the company in a precarious time…

Image Courtesy Cambodia4KidsOrg.

It’s obvious that my attention span on the Internet can be severely limited at times. And why not? There’s barely any reason for one to even type in words, just a lot of pretty pictures to click on. Heaven forbid I forgot the name of some obscure reality television star, but if I do the answer is instantaneously at my fingertips. The Internet experience of today is different than it’s ever been before. Websites create a far more intimate and immersive experience than just 2 years ago, and are in a completely different arena than 10 years ago. Pictures are worth a thousand words, and they need to be when one only has 140 characters to elaborate on major personal news and global current events.

While many years of information are archived in cyberspace, much of its utility is focused on the right now. Breaking news happens and a network of millions set to debate, coming to instantaneous conclusions. The people unite and use their freedom of speech to make a stand, but is this a good thing? Can the immediate evaluations made by web junkies actually be harmful?

In the case of Netflix, popular web opinions have been shown to have a powerful influence over the productivity of the company. In July, the California-based company raised the prices for their various streaming and DVD rental plans. Since the price increase went into effect, July 13th, Netflix’s stock (NFLX) has decreased 36% and has lost 800,000 of their nearly 24 million customers. Aside from the tangible effects, Netflix has suffered far worse in the court of public opinion. Users across the net threw their arms up in a rage when Netflix announced that it would be dividing its business into two entities, one specifically for streaming and the other, Qwickster, for DVD’s by mail. The plan to split the company has since been scrapped due to the public outcry.

Is what has happened to Netflix in the last four months a good thing? Netflix is a tech company and should rightfully be judged by its tech savvy clientele, but technological Darwinism is a shaky field to venture into as a for-profit company. Is the customer always right? Sorry America, but the answer is no. While the almighty dollar may empower individuals to sway decisions of major companies, it does not mean that consumer pressure always leads to the right outcome. In the case of Netflix it is entirely possible that a month from now the once-glorified media company could be trading for pennies on the dollar and begging Hulu or Amazon to buy them, and everyone could dub Netflix a failure. This is all possible, but it would not necessarily make the actions of Netflix wrong. The immediate conclusions of the Internet-savvy can severely hinder companies’ ability to make improvements to their product, because one or two of those alterations rubs consumers the wrong way. My advice to consumers: take a breath, don’t jump to conclusions, quit sweating the technique and just give products wiggle room to evolve. Who knows — you might even like it.

You may recall that we were mulling over the whole Netflix situation only a few weeks ago, which has seemed to be getting more ridiculous ever since the company announced pricing changes in July that made users choke on their dinners. Twice the price for what they were getting before? Streaming-only services? People were just starting to recover, but Netflix had clearly spent a lot of time sitting alone in the dark listening to sad music; they knew they hadn’t pleased their audience. And so they decided to try to make it better (which as, many men can attest to, never works).

I guess the Qwikster debacle was more than they could handle, what with people getting more upset than ever (not to mention the stoner squatting on the Qwikster Twitter account and all that jazz). Netflix has updated their blog yet again and emailed all their users to let us know that Qwikster is not going forward after all, which looks about as professional as taking off your shirt at an office party. There was also no word about the aforementioned video game rental plan that Qwikster was going to include, so I suppose we can assume that has been scrapped as well. Oh, the hoopla.

What does this mean for Netflix now? Well, their stock has suffered dramatically since the original price change announcement. As of today their shares are still down 4.4%, which means this whole Qwikster cancellation thing has not eased anyone’s mind yet. Maybe Netflix didn’t go ahead with the crazy plan, but they announced the crazy plan and then reneged on it, which kind of makes them look even more nutty and unstable even if it was the right thing to do. It’s no surprise that investors don’t feel comfortable. It is commendable that Netflix has paid attention to the social media buzz surrounding the unpopular decision and realized that they’ve made a dumb move, but it also signifies that they aren’t thinking through major decisions enough — which is not a great sign for a company their size.

What do you think — are you relieved there will be no Qwikster, or are you disappointed in the parent company for caving to the negative social media hubbub?

The traditional delivery of a book from author’s pen to reader’s hand is long, complex and prone to errors in translation. The author-agent-publisher-printer-wholesaler-retailer-reader chain has failed in a significant way because it by its very nature promotes isolation between the reader and the writer. With that in mind, Nash and his business partner Mark Warholak have launched a new project called Cursor, designed to apply the concepts of social media and successful crowdsourcing to the creative writing world. In his Publisher’s Weekly article, Nash elucidates many of his problems with the industry as it stands today and how the diversification of Cursor’s services are key to promoting success both financial and artistic. Its first imprint Red Lemonade is just one of the many “self-organizing, self-selected, self-perpetuating communities [created] around a reading-writing platform” that are to come. Red Lemonade is “pop-lit-alt-cult” operation with charmQuark, a science fiction-fantasy genre community, soon to follow.

Each of these subgroups will publish approximately one or two books a month using the Cursor software platform in both digital and trade paperback format, staggering the release dates in order to maximize profits. Importantly, though, Cursor’s source of revenue isn’t just from pure sales of its product. There are paid membership options available to widen the availability of tools and services, for example peer-to-peer writing groups, recommendation engines, access to established authors from within the Cursor system and beyond, and professional editing and marketing assistance. Other sources of income are available via advertising (this is social media, after all), connecting writers with providers of publishing services, agent fees and more. All of this will be balanced with the social component that allows writers and readers to interact and comment on each others’ works and postings. With the ability of the Internet to disseminate quality material and enable discussion thereof from commentators all over the world, this network hopes to create a thriving series of sensitive feedback loops that allow the showrunners to quickly identify and implement the features writers want, not to mention publishing the works that have gained the most reader support. “Book publishing doesn’t work with top down advertising,” says Nash. “It’s always done its best when one person says to another person: ‘You should read this book.’” The sharing and viral campaign potential for this kind of system seems self-evident, as the community, not the marketing department, is responsible for deciding what is ultimately rewarded with publication.

Perhaps the most daring move that Cursor is taking is the eschewing of the traditional author copyright agreements. Contracts are limited to three-year terms with an option to renew as opposed to the old “seventy years after author’s death” chestnut. This is such a significant move because the latter type of agreement was largely what kept traditional publishing houses in business — the acquisition of intellectual property rights for, say, a movie adaptation or the backlist of a previously-obscure author who’s now selling like hotcakes because a prestigious award. With Cursor, authors will have the option to simply walk or renegotiate at the end of their three-year period. The philosophy of simple business tends toward the “maximize the profit from the property” mode. Nash’s viewpoint that authors deserve the benefit of renegotiation if and when the underlying value of their contribution increases. Quid pro quo, however; in exchange for this freedom to walk or adjust the terms of the deal, Cursor-owned properties will be licensed under “a fairly broad basket” of rights, including audio, English-language foreign publication, translation, and magazine republication, among others. It’s a bold move, and one that’s very indicative of the hyper-flexible approach Cursor is taking to publication instead of the narrow but powerful beam of traditional retail book-selling and marketing.

In 2008, more than 275,000 new titles were published through a variety of sources. Data suggests that more recent numbers will be even higher. The music industry has gone almost completely digital, and sociality is being emphasized even further with Facebook’s recent seamless inclusion of Spotify plays into home page feeds. With the ubiquity of high-speed Internet becoming more and more a fact of daily life and the communication and sharing potential of the social web continuing to evolve, books still have a long way to go to catch up with their other media counterparts — but Cursor promises big things in the way of making up for lost time. As Nash himself says, “technology has emphasized a simple truth at the heart of my new enterprise: we are what we read, we are what we write, and we organize ourselves around and connect with one another through what we read and write.” Red Lemonade already has a number of titles in its store in both paperback and ebook format, and the word of mouth around them has been ebullient. Broadening the way readers and writers interface, Cursor isn’t designed to “save publishing” — it’s designed to bring it into its new form.

That's some brand love.

A few weeks ago, Facebook Marketing Solutions, the advertising side of the social media giant, released its new education portal for small businesses just starting out online, titled Facebook for Business.

The Facebook page for the group is nothing more than a simple sales pitch for businesses becoming involved on the site. It’s tips for publishing, appeals to outmoded user statistics, and overall tone is clearly directed at the first-time Facebook advertisers. Promoting Sponsored Stories seems to be the main goal, though the ability for a small business to achieve such a close relationship with the company behind the site is not clear at first glance: Nike, American Express, and a page that can get 100 answers to the question “Blue or purple?” are featured, but no one just starting out with limited brand awareness. However, as you delve deeper into the videos, a number of case studies can be heard by the part-time Internet marketer to help understand the basics of the varied services Facebook offers, explained in a way that focuses on what makes social media advertising different from traditional venues.

But July 27th brought a new arena for the first-time marketer. The Facebook for Business site offers a set of introductory slides more like what one would expect on the Facebook page. The Best Practice Guide and other tips take the unedited rambling of the taped live webinars from the Facebook page and put them into clear slideshows (though inexplicably as unsharable and minimally-graphable PDFs). Discussing Pages, Ads, Sponsored Stories, and the “Platform,” Facebook lays out its basic services in an all-too-simple way.

The site is clearly for someone who doesn’t muck with websites, as just one tab describing the Open Graph protocol for a new marketer would show a whole new world, integrating on-site tagging with a need to contact a Preferred Developer to best take advantage of the depth of information one can provide, shape, and offer to their clients.

It’s easy, at least for the somewhat experienced marketer, to come up with counterexamples, glossed-over topics that are the core of Facebook advertising such as effective demographic targeting, and the just-seething disdain for squares who just haven’t gotten how cool Social Media is. But I applaud Facebook for their efforts; the only other major social media outlet for business is Twitter, which starts its Promoted links at $5,000 per month and provides little information for its non-paid business partners. Google+ recently purged business accounts, asking creators of those accounts to “hold off,” and have been “focusing on the consumer experience” — words that are hardly music to marketers’ ears.

What the shortcomings of the Facebook for Business and Facebook Marketing Solutions pages really show off is that a business needs dedicated social media management, whether through an SEO firm or internally. The waters are murky and best handled by someone who knows not just the sales pitch for getting involved, but also the mechanics of the process and what little stuff can greatly improve the social footprint of the small business. It’s too hard to sum up everything that should and could be done to optimally advertise using social media just on a few webpages or through a few taped webinars — the best thing is to call Ghostbusters and let Peter and Ray and Egon worry about the ghosts so business owners can get back to directly helping their customers.

Retailer and clothing designer Kenneth Cole found himself joining in on the social media coverage of the issue by posting a tweet that read: “Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online at http://bit.ly/KCairo-KC”. Almost immediately Kenneth Cole found himself in a firestorm of controversy, with those criticizing him for his tasteless tweet in an effort to promote his business and attaching it to a controversial issue. Just a few hours after the tweet, he issued an apology, admitting that it was inappropriate and insensitive.      

Businesses are increasingly finding it more challenging to promote their products and services in social media, all while catching the consumer’s attention within a barrage of other competing businesses with Twitter handles and the same, if not better promotion tactics. With trending topics and hashtags changing every few hours, particularly on Twitter it is tempting for a business to attach themselves to a “topic of the moment” in order to gain consumers’ attention. Not to mention, the message has to be in 140 characters or less.

While businesses use social media tools even more to increase their business and platform, it’s important to keep a fine line of staying away from controversial topics that might offend potential customers.

Social media is a powerful tool that one can use for good or bad. Since its inception I’ve seen several celebrities “killed off” on Twitter more than I care to admit. I have also seen plenty of hashtags that made its way to trending topics that one might find very off-putting and offensive.

Still, with these challenges that businesses might face to “keep up,” it forces them to become even more creative with their tweets to consumers and keep them engaged with future sales and upcoming events.

Another byproduct of a business or individuals receiving negative feedback from a tweet is the creation of mock accounts, which usually spoofs the original account and its owner. Of course, Kenneth Cole wasn’t an exception. An account named @FakeKennethCole. was created and sent out a series of tweets which poked fun at the situation. Surely, businesses would not want to see themselves being made fun of. They probably would also not want consumers to get confused about a mock account being one that was part of the actual business.        

Overall, businesses learned an important lesson using social media and the actions and words that should be carefully reviewed before clicking the post button.

These twitter accounts, along with those of their fans, were an epicenter of activity last week. On Monday, February 14th, Radiohead posted via Twitter: “Thank you for waiting…”, which was followed by a link to www.thekingoflimbs.com, a website designed for the release of “The King of Limbs,” their new album slated to become available for download the following Saturday. Four days later, on Friday the 18th, Radiohead tweeted again: “It’s Friday…It’s almost the weekend…You can download ‘The King of Limbs’ now if you so wish!”

Fond of doing things differently, Radiohead are known for their innovative and genre-bending music. While the quintet could be cited as one of the most influential bands in modern music, it’s also clear that they are also exploring the marketing of their music in a way that no other mainstream band has attempted before.

Anyone who followed the most recent album releases by Radiohead already knows that they’re changing the way music can be released to the public, especially by a major artist. After completing “Hail to the Thief” in 2003, they had fulfilled their recording contract with EMI, and they chose to remain independent rather than signing with another label. They recorded 2007’s “In Rainbows” on their own and released it on their website as a direct download with the asking price of “pay what you want.”

This alone posed numerous questions to musicians, music lovers, and music industry professionals, causing a minor existential crisis in the recording industry. It called into question the value of music, especially considering the widespread piracy of music. It questioned whether musicians really need major record labels to market their work. But most importantly, it bridged the gap between the band and their fans. Radiohead offered an immediate and direct transaction, so one would know that the money they paid for the music (if they chose to pay at all) was going directly to the artists and producers responsible for creating it.

By default, Radiohead relied on their previous successes, fan base, and name to market their new music, so their achievements with “In Rainbows” cannot be applied to unknown artists. However, the way “The King of Limbs” was released last Friday redefines the relationship between musicians and their fans. The band chose to use Twitter as the medium for announcing the album, and they again utilized their own web servers to facilitate the release. While the “pay what you want” aspect was ditched for a $9 price tag on a set of eight mp3s, fans could still remain happy knowing that their money was going directly to the artists that they want to support.

Already on very short notice, the instantaneous “early” release of “The King of Limbs” caused Twitter and other social media sites to flood with reactions to the album, and it nearly caused Radiohead’s download site to crash. Music critics, eager to get the official first review, listened to the album hastily on their laptops that morning and posted track-by-track assessments merely an hour or two after the album was released–to much criticism by fans, claiming that new music cannot be properly reviewed so quickly. Regardless, the social media world was rocked by this new release, providing an open channel of communication between the band, their critics, and their fans. Whether you like the new music or not, it doesn’t take much to think that Radiohead might be up to something.

Six days prior to the announcement of “The King of Limbs,” Ed O’Brien, guitarist and back-up vocalist, posted a blog entry on the band’s web site entitled “The Dignity Revolution.” (Also coupled with a tweet–they’ve connected their blog and Twitter account, a sign that they’re aware if the importance of social media.) It reads as follows:

What have twitter and facebook ever done for us?

Obviously, keeping in touch with everyone but I have to say I have become increasingly excited over the last 3 months about the possibilities of this form of communication.Yes I am very slow out of the blocks. It’s in the arena of public protest that it seems twitter and facebook are increasingly the means by which popular movements throughout the world are able to come together and mobilise.

In some ways, one could argue that Radiohead are leading a popular movement, and Mr. O’Brien has an extremely valid point. Their use of social media, like Twitter, allowed for a direct and instantaneous connection between the artists and their audience, just as the release of “In Rainbows” allowed for a direct and open transaction. Thom Yorke, lead singer, once remarked in an interview: “If people want to play it for themselves, why don’t we just give it to them to listen to?”

Aware of their massive fan base, the band decided that they can conduct business as they so please, using the high-speed connectivity of social media to do so. And while lesser-known artists may not have the audience that Radiohead has, thus being more vulnerable to reviews, it’s also clear that those musicians also use social networks as a way to market themselves on their own terms. That trend can only increase in the future, and that is what I believe Yorke and Co. are trying to prove.

Is Radiohead leading a music industry revolution? It’s hard to say. With highly successful performers such as Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift, who are promoted and made famous through the marketing strategies of major recording labels, Radiohead’s business model might not be for everyone. Either way, social media provides an effective channel to promote their music, and Radiohead have become a successful example of a group of artists marketing and releasing their own work, instantly and directly, as they see fit.

Facebook Ads. Are You Doing it Right?

Recently a slew of articles have been popping up about the ineffectiveness of Facebook advertising. While we recently touched on this subject in a previous blog post, I thought I would explain why this statement has little credence when Facebook ads are done properly. If you’ve read any of our previous FB blog posts, you are aware that for Search Influence, Facebook yields a low cost per lead making it one of our most effective ways to drive leads to clients’ sites. With that being stated, I can proceed to explain (in a Clarissa-esque manner) why Facebook is effective and ineffective for some online marketers and industries.

Are You a Facebook Friendly Business?
I’ve mentioned this before but Facebook ads follow the same methodology that magazine and television ads follow.  While choosing images for your ads is important, determining whether your business is right for Facebook is the key to success. You would never hire a fertility specialist, carpal tunnel expert, or babysitter from a 30 second TV spot (well maybe you would. I would never trust my semen, wrist, or subsequent children in the hands of a stranger on TV, but I was raised right). I think that is the fundamental problem some advertisers have with Facebook. They’ve read a few cleverly written articles on online advertising on Facebook and they think they can create those successes for all their clients. However industries such as elective surgery, social causes, and the entertainment service industry fair considerably well for local businesses.

Facebook Ad Demographic

Is the Facebook Demographic Right for You?
Why do these previous mentioned industries succeed? Before I address that let me just get this out of the way – Facebook is not for everybody. If your business is a retirement home and a certified social media specialist tells you he can increase you fan base and leads from Facebook by some unthinkable number, he’s lying. Certain demographics just do not exist on Facebook, blame social media and technological darwinism. The largest demographic using Facebook are between ages of 18 – 34. They are the beauty obsessed, socially aware, fun-loving Youth of America. This is the age group your business must pander to in order to be truly effective.  From an ROI perspective, the subgroup of the young professionals between the ages of 25 – 34 are where the disposable income is the ripest. By targeting this age group with the correct interests and properly crafted ads you can increase your leads stream significantly.

Are Facebook Ads Ineffective Because of Bad Advertising?
We have all seen these ads. The married man being shown dating site ads despite his status being “married”, the teenage boy being shown breast augmentation ads because he has “breast” as a interest.  And my personal favorite, the work from home search marketing ads (as seen in the image below). I see these ads and I am filled with laughter, sorrow, and disdain. Is it such a surprise that Facebook is deemed ineffective with such a large percentage of ads misspelled, using irrelevant images, and just down right offensive ads running? I mean, get high on Jesus? Really?

Bad Facebook Ads are BAD

At the end of the day, the performance of Facebook advertising is directly tied to your business, the demographic you are targeting, and how well you compose your ads.  People assume this is an ad space issue marketers and industries have dealt with since commercialization of goods. So instead of questioning whether Facebook is effective, social media marketers should be questioning whether Facebook fits their clients business model.

Thanks to Salvo Vaccarella for the image.