The press release from Planetary Resources includes an impressive list of investors and advisors. In addition to Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, film maker James Cameron (of Avatar fame) is involved; so is Ross Perot, Jr., son of the former presidential candidate and chairman of The Perot Group. Peter H. Diamandis, one of the leading lights behind the Ansari X-Prize competition encouraging non-governmental space flight, is also part of this venture. So is Eric Anderson, an aerospace engineer and philanthropist long involved in a variety of efforts encouraging commercial spaceflight, including th…
On April 23, 2012, In SEO, by SEO Chat - Search Engine Optimization Tutorials
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and current Google CEO (and co-founder) Larry Page are investing part of their considerable fortunes into a search operation of a very different sort. Named Planetary Resources, the new company hopes to find something worth mining on our solar system’s asteroids.
On April 23, 2012, In SEO, by SEO Chat - Search Engine Optimization Tutorials
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and current Google CEO (and co-founder) Larry Page are investing part of their considerable fortunes into a search operation of a very different sort. Named Planetary Resources, the new company hopes to find something worth mining on our solar system’s asteroids.
The press release from Planetary Resources includes an impressive list of investors and advisors. In addition to Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, film maker James Cameron (of Avatar fame) is involved; so is Ross Perot, Jr., son of the former presidential candidate and chairman of The Perot Group. Peter H. Diamandis, one of the leading lights behind the Ansari X-Prize competition encouraging non-governmental space flight, is also part of this venture. So is Eric Anderson, an aerospace engineer and philanthropist long involved in a variety of efforts encouraging commercial spaceflight, including th…
On April 23, 2012, In SEO, by Rick Kupselaitis, Jr.
This past weekend, a team of 5 Ignite Social Media employees joined over 90 other teams to pull a plane for the Special Olympics North Carolina (SONC). It was a fantastic fundraising event that helped raise awareness and money for a great cause. The SONC helps children and adults with intellectual disabilities receive year-round sports [...]
This past weekend, a team of 5 Ignite Social Media employees joined over 90 other teams to pull a plane for the Special Olympics North Carolina (SONC). It was a fantastic fundraising event that helped raise awareness and money for a great cause.
The SONC helps children and adults with intellectual disabilities receive year-round sports training and athletic competition. This helps develop their physical fitness, courage and confidence, gaining friendships and camaraderie through their experience. And thanks to the volunteers and donations from individuals, businesses, foundations and civic groups, the athletes never have to pay participate.
This is how we practiced before the real thing.
To get an idea of what is involved in a Plane Pull®, imagine a tug of war with 5 eager participants on one side and a 30,000lb plane on the other. While it sounds pretty incredible, it is doable! The challenge lies in pulling it a distance of 25ft and hopefully faster than the other teams. There are different divisions for corporate, all-female, and law enforcement (which we were thankful given the size of their team).
After the first round, the top-20 fastest teams compete for the top spots in their division, and ultimately trophies and a year’s worth of bragging rights. The event is definitely a fun outing for the whole family. They have outdoor games for kids (and adults), music and food all while the teams vie for the best times. While the Plane Pull® is fun, it’s really meant to raise money for the SONC. There are prizes for the top fundraising individual, team and even a t-shirt design contest.
Ignite didn’t take home a trophy this year for best time, but, we all feel like winners after doing our part to help this great organization. I highly recommend anyone interested in participating next year to read more about it on the SONC site and get a team together. See you next year on the tarmac!
On April 23, 2012, In SEO, by Rick Kupselaitis, Jr.
This past weekend, a team of 5 Ignite Social Media employees joined over 90 other teams to pull a plane for the Special Olympics North Carolina (SONC). It was a fantastic fundraising event that helped raise awareness and money for a great cause. The SONC helps children and adults with intellectual disabilities receive year-round sports [...]
This past weekend, a team of 5 Ignite Social Media employees joined over 90 other teams to pull a plane for the Special Olympics North Carolina (SONC). It was a fantastic fundraising event that helped raise awareness and money for a great cause.
The SONC helps children and adults with intellectual disabilities receive year-round sports training and athletic competition. This helps develop their physical fitness, courage and confidence, gaining friendships and camaraderie through their experience. And thanks to the volunteers and donations from individuals, businesses, foundations and civic groups, the athletes never have to pay participate.
This is how we practiced before the real thing.
To get an idea of what is involved in a Plane Pull®, imagine a tug of war with 5 eager participants on one side and a 30,000lb plane on the other. While it sounds pretty incredible, it is doable! The challenge lies in pulling it a distance of 25ft and hopefully faster than the other teams. There are different divisions for corporate, all-female, and law enforcement (which we were thankful given the size of their team).
After the first round, the top-20 fastest teams compete for the top spots in their division, and ultimately trophies and a year’s worth of bragging rights. The event is definitely a fun outing for the whole family. They have outdoor games for kids (and adults), music and food all while the teams vie for the best times. While the Plane Pull® is fun, it’s really meant to raise money for the SONC. There are prizes for the top fundraising individual, team and even a t-shirt design contest.
Ignite didn’t take home a trophy this year for best time, but, we all feel like winners after doing our part to help this great organization. I highly recommend anyone interested in participating next year to read more about it on the SONC site and get a team together. See you next year on the tarmac!
On April 22, 2012, In SEO, by Michael Brito
If you have been in this space for a while, you already know that moms are pretty influential online. It’s one reason why organizations like BlogHer, Social Moms and Clever Girls Collective have become very popular and widely used by fairly large brands. Here is further evidence.
According to a social media study sponsored by Performics of nearly 3,000 participants, moms are more versatile, more present, more active and more engaged users of social networking sites, than other women. Social networking and connecting with other women online rage among Moms. They use it to share their thoughts, experiences and feelings, ask for advice from other moms, look for deals and coupons, research products, communicate with brands and shop.
Here are some key findings, some of which really surprised me:
- Moms are approximately 61% more likely to own a smartphone than other women.
- They are more likely to be active on social networking sites, for example, they are 16% more likely to visit Facebook daily and 46% more likely to visit Google + daily.
- Moms are 75% more likely to trust information they receive from companies through social networking sites than other women.
Moms are also 45% more likely to make a purchase as a result of a recommendation on a social media site than other women which doesn’t surprise me much. They are broken down by vertical:
- Apparel: Moms are 54% more likely to make an apparel purchase
- Automobile: Moms are 64% more likely to make an automobile purchase
- Travel: Moms are 46% more likely to make a travel purchase
The data also shows that moms actively champion their favorite companies and brands on social media. These “mombassadors” are more likely than other women to:
- Recommend companies/brands via social sites (34%)
- Discuss companies/brands on social sites after seeing an ad elsewhere (48%)
- Talk about companies/brands they follow on Facebook (24%)
- Link to a company/brand ad (23%)
- Post a company/brand ad (53%)
- Post interesting or relevant content about a company/brand (50%)
Enjoy the slides:
Learn more about social media competitive intelligence.
On April 22, 2012, In SEO, by V3
Forget 15 minutes of fame. Google, eBay, and Berkeley University researches have concluded today’s stars don’t dim quite so quickly, thanks to sites like Twitter. They were unable to find any statistically significant decrease in fame duration.
Forget 15 minutes of fame. Google, eBay, and Berkeley University researches have concluded today’s stars don’t dim quite so quickly, thanks to sites like Twitter. They were unable to find any statistically significant decrease in fame duration.
On April 21, 2012, In SEO, Social Media Marketing, by Sida Li
Have you ever spotted a poorly designed Facebook ad? It seems like the simpler an ad platform is, the more people tend to create poor content for it. You might wonder how advertisers can mess up an ad unit so small (Facebook ads have a 110×80 pixel image limit, a 25 character title limit, and a [...]
Have you ever spotted a poorly designed Facebook ad? It seems like the simpler an ad platform is, the more people tend to create poor content for it. You might wonder how advertisers can mess up an ad unit so small (Facebook ads have a 110×80 pixel image limit, a 25 character title limit, and a 90 character body text limit), but I have seen it happen on a too-frequent basis.
As someone who runs ad campaigns for multiple brands, here are my common sense tips for creating Facebook ads:
- The end of your sentence needs punctuation. I’m sure we all learned how to do this in elementary school. Some of the ads I see committing this error are not even near the 90 character limit, which makes it all the more perplexing.
- Do not use ugly images. We can have a long conversation about what images convert the most likes or clicks, but that is not what I mean when I say ugly images. What I mean is, do not use images that look like they have been through five rounds of edits on Microsoft Paint. There is no excuse for the number of pixelated, blurry or improperly stretched out images I see, considering Facebook shows you a preview of the image immediately after you upload it.
- If you are promoting something specific, make sure you link to it in the ad. I have seen plenty of ads that promote contests or other web pages that do not link to the correct location. The most common form of this is for contest promotions that link to a page’s wall instead of the specific tab that the contest is being held on.
Facebook ads shouldn’t be rocket science. Paying attention to these little details will make your ad campaign more convincing and stronger. A little less ugly and little more sense can go a long way.
On April 21, 2012, In SEO, Social Media Marketing, by Sida Li
Have you ever spotted a poorly designed Facebook ad? It seems like the simpler an ad platform is, the more people tend to create poor content for it. You might wonder how advertisers can mess up an ad unit so small (Facebook ads have a 110×80 pixel image limit, a 25 character title limit, and a [...]
Have you ever spotted a poorly designed Facebook ad? It seems like the simpler an ad platform is, the more people tend to create poor content for it. You might wonder how advertisers can mess up an ad unit so small (Facebook ads have a 110×80 pixel image limit, a 25 character title limit, and a 90 character body text limit), but I have seen it happen on a too-frequent basis.
As someone who runs ad campaigns for multiple brands, here are my common sense tips for creating Facebook ads:
- The end of your sentence needs punctuation. I’m sure we all learned how to do this in elementary school. Some of the ads I see committing this error are not even near the 90 character limit, which makes it all the more perplexing.
- Do not use ugly images. We can have a long conversation about what images convert the most likes or clicks, but that is not what I mean when I say ugly images. What I mean is, do not use images that look like they have been through five rounds of edits on Microsoft Paint. There is no excuse for the number of pixelated, blurry or improperly stretched out images I see, considering Facebook shows you a preview of the image immediately after you upload it.
- If you are promoting something specific, make sure you link to it in the ad. I have seen plenty of ads that promote contests or other web pages that do not link to the correct location. The most common form of this is for contest promotions that link to a page’s wall instead of the specific tab that the contest is being held on.
Facebook ads shouldn’t be rocket science. Paying attention to these little details will make your ad campaign more convincing and stronger. A little less ugly and little more sense can go a long way.
On April 21, 2012, In SEO, by V3
Forget data mining. Google CEO Larry Page and Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt seem to have set their sights on far loftier goals: asteroid mining. Well, that at least, is the assumption, as Planetary Resources has yet to reveal its purpose.
Forget data mining. Google CEO Larry Page and Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt seem to have set their sights on far loftier goals: asteroid mining. Well, that at least, is the assumption, as Planetary Resources has yet to reveal its purpose.
On April 19, 2012, In SEO, by Michael Brito
There has been a lot of discussion about online influence lately so I thought I would offer my quick two cents. I wrote a little about how a few influencers have impacted my life back in 2009 and I still feel the same way today.
I am normally a positive person but based on my experience, I hold some negative sentiment towards the concept. Influencers, the way its defined by many on the social web, are overrated. Most have an ego (thank you Peter Kim) and they offer ZERO value to any business or brand. Truth is, I have been called an influencer in the past and it makes me feel uncomfortable. No one outside of my social media circle and family really knows who the heck I am and I am completely okay with that.
Last night I was chatting with Olivier Blanchard (yes, the infamous Brand Builder) on Facebook and asked him about the topic of influence. He is someone I hold in high regard because of his smarts on the topic and he’s generally a nice guy. I asked him to send me a few quick thoughts and of course he sent me a dissertation. Here is a quick excerpt which reminded me of a book I read over a decade ago – Permission Marketing by Seth Godin:
Influence isn’t a Jedi mind trick. And there’s the rub: influence isn’t just contextual, impermanent and relative to timing, topics, channels and a whole bucket of persuasive traits and actions, it’s also as much about the influencee as it is about the influencer. The influencee has to give you permission to influence him on a certain topic. He has to be receptive to that influence. And that’s the piece you can’t control.
Influence is definitely a complex issue and there are certainly some fallacies with the way it’s defined today. In fact, just a few days ago, my friend Lee Odden wrote about the fallacy of influence. It reminded me of Klout’s Agency Insanity initiative last month whereby several “online influencers” were asked to participate in influencer “stand off” that turned into a voting/spamming frenzy. Yes, I participated and yes, I lost in the 3rd round. It became very competitive with many of the participants begging for votes (and being completely truthful, I did DM a few people asking for votes.)
But true influence of others shouldn’t require outright begging, right? Just because someone get hundreds of votes, does that make him or her influential? If so, influential about what? I could be wrong and maybe I am looking at it the wrong way, I don’t know.
Going back to Lee’s post … in it, he wrote “Pursuing the “big influencers” alone, is probably one of the biggest fallacies on the web.” This is such a true statement and very powerful. I often try and talk my clients out of focusing to heavily on an “influencer engagement” strategy and instead focusing on those customers that already have a natural love for the brand. They are not hard to find. They have zero expectations and there are no incentives needed. They don’t care if you send them the latest products or send them to the latest trade show either. And the truth is, they probably don’t care whether you are “listening” to the conversation. They just love your product; love your brand and the way it makes them feel.
While I am not a fan of the term “influencer”, I believe that everyone on planet earth has some degree of influence, regardless of community size (friends, fans and followers). How many times have we been influenced to fly on a particular airline based on someone else sharing his or her positive experience with us? Or better yet, how often have we NOT booked a reservation on an airline because of a friend’s negative experience? It happens all the time. It’s in our DNA.
About two and a half years ago, I first met Jason Aplin. He was just a random guy, nothing special. I liked him from the get-go mainly because of his sense of humor. One of the first things we talked about was his new android phone. He was flashing it in front everyone at dinner bragging about how big the screen was and that it was slightly bigger than an iPhone blah blah blah. And then he started showing me all the multi-tasking features. He loved the product so much and I distinctly remember the passion in his voice. I was certainly impressed and two weeks later what did I do? I bought one.
Now to be completely honest, it was one of the worst purchase decisions I have ever made but that’s a different story.
The point is that Jason is not an influencer (the way most define it) yet he influenced me to make a purchase decision. Situations like this happen ALL THE TIME. Jason was an advocate of the phone and through organic, real life conversations, he was aiding and influencing others through the purchase funnel. Since then Jason has become a dear friend. He’s a great guy and we often joke about the first time we met.
The second point is this. Advocates drive real business value to the brand. They indirectly sell your products and services without you even asking. They are trusted among their micro-communities because of their authentic voice. The relationship between a brand and an advocate is not build on incentives, but rather an emotional attachment.
In my book I have a chapter exclusively on this topic. Here is a sneak peak in case you are interested.
Image: Big Stock Business Profit Growing