The Social Media Movement
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that social media has revolutionised the way we live.
It has changed us down to our foundations.
Though some people are blind to this stunning transformation. Let me bring it to light for you.
In 1980, the main method of communication was landline telephones, handwritten letters and then the impressive fax machine. People still wrote love letters to each other, you faxed a copy of your report to your best friend and having a telephone in your bedroom meant you were not just well off, but spoiled.
Flash forward to 2012.
You are experiencing one of modern man’s greatest marvels - the internet.
A body of media so extensive it’s almost sizeable to our galaxy, but with every single particle of it within grasp.
The previous decade has been one of expansion and uncontrollable growth in the social media sector. Early on favourite Myspace gave way to giants Facebook and Twitter, founded in 2004 and 2006 respectively. Middle sibling YouTube, bursting onto the scene in 2005, has significantly altered our access to media which we could previously only hire, buy or view for a limited time on TV.
Beyond these three big names, there are hundreds more, some generalists like Google+ and other more niche sites like LinkedIn, deviantArt and Last.fm.
Across these various sites, people from all walks of life are given the chance to connect - so long as they have an internet connection.
The New Age of Social
Social media connects one mother to another, a retiree to a forgotten highschool friend, a teenager to their favourite band, the West to the Eastern world and Hollywood to the globe.
What’s more, as the social media movement really begins to pick up the pace, founders, investors and developers are taking it in an array of new directions, from connecting consumers to businesses, to creating mass awareness of causes and building scores of public opinion, the likes of which the world has never seen.
So if you ever thought social media had nothing to offer you, think again.
Latest post provided by Taylor Pini, leading dLook Copywriter
SEO Basics: Backlinks
So you have a website, you added your keywords, your service area, your products, your contact details, a few graphics and now you sit back and watch the results … wouldn’t it be lovely if that were the case.
To gain high exposure in the major search engines, like Google and Bing, relies on a whole host of factors - the one we are focusing on today is Backlinks.
What is a backlink?
A backlink is a hyperlink from another website to yours.
This could be from your profile page in Twitter, Facebook or YouTube, or it may be a link from a suppliers or customers website.
Backlinks are a little bit like money - you never seem to have enough!
If asked for the optimal number for backlinks for a website I’d have to say how well do you want it to perform?
Google sees backlinks as one major indicator of site integrity - and it’s not just the number, it’s the quality as well.
Like the huge range of web pages found on the Internet, so too are the diversity of backlinks.
There are many forms of URL extensions such as .com, .edu, .org, .gov sites. There are OBL’s to consider, anchor text, pagerank and then the Do Follow or No Follow rule!
Sound confusing?
.GOV is a Good Surname
Let’s start with the URL extensions - every website on the web has a unique address called a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) which goes something like http://www.dlook.com.au. There can be no two website page addresses are the same – like a phone number – every page has be uniquely identified to ensure you get where you clicked.
In terms of understanding backlinks the focus is on the “.com.au” section (as shown in example) known as gTLD’s (global Top Level Domains). These consist of restricted and unrestricted domain extensions that are weighted differently by Google.
A gTLD extension denotes the type of page it is, the most common is .com (which includes .com.au as well as other country codes) and are given out for general use. More recently the .org extensions were classified unrestricted and fall into this category of general release as well.
However, .edu and .gov extensions are restricted gTLD’s and therefore less accessible. There are numerous restricted URL extensions but these two are the most common and typically are harder to get and so hold more weight in the eyes of Google.
Though backlinks are worth collecting, not all backlinks provide the same value … .gov and .edu extensions are much more desirable than the more common .com.
I Will Follow You
Websites may provide backlinks but they have the option of adding their tick of approval … or not.
Some websites choose to add the phrase “NoFollow” in their source code – which means the originating site does not endorse the link or, more specifically, it removes any search engine value from the link.
The link is still available to be clicked by real (human) viewers, but adding NoFollow has instructed the search engine that their site does not support the link.
The only way to check if a site provides Do Follow links is to check the source code of the website you are looking at.
So the best links are Do Follow backlinks … providing a full endorsement to your page.
Why Link Pages Don’t Work
Well, that’s not totally true. Though a single web page only has so much value to give out.
If we put a figure of 100 as an example … If you only have one link on the page then that link gets 100%. If there are two, 50 / 50. Five 20% each and so on.
The term that pops up often is OBL’s or other backlinks. When you run a search with a backlink checker it often includes a column denoting OBL’s. This is to highlight the number of other links that share the page with you - this could be a few to a few thousand.
So getting lots of No Follow links on pages with OBL’s numbering hundreds or more … well is possibly not the best use of your time.
Anchor Text Explained
Another key factor in integral backlinks is anchor text - this is literally the words that are used in the hyperlink. This text is given more value than the surrounding text - you’ve considered this important enough to use as your key words.
The text you use as anchor text should be the phrases or keywords that are most relevant to your page. Just writing “Click Here” doesn’t identify anything about the content. If your page is about shiny widgets then your link should be “shiny widgets”.
All Links Are Not Equal
Backlinks are not all weighted the same, we’ve already discovered that there are various extensions like .gov or .edu, there are Do Follow and No Follow and that OBL’s play a part … the final piece of the pie is Pagerank.
Pagerank is a Google patented algorithm that provides their view of a website’s integrity. The Pagerank (PR) score ranges from 0 through 10, with the majority of sites either unranked or achieving a PR of 1 or 2.
The higher the PR the less web sites with that score. At the top are behemoths like Google, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter then cascading down to the millions of websites that pop up each and every day.
A backlink from a PR4+ site is quite a coup … Add to that .gov and Do Follow and a few hundred of those would do me just nicely!
Reciprocal Links
Finally there are reciprocal links, where each site links to each other.
If you scratch my back then I’ll scratch yours!
If you close the loop on a backlink, providing an equivalent link from yours then this is also a good indicator of integrity.
Group Hug!
Well there you have it, an intro to forming a backlink strategy - like a giant virtual group hug.
The intricacy of linking and backlinking, reciprocal links forms a mosaic that all helps create relevance and site integrity.
The Backlink Shortlist:
- Create a lot of them
- Variety counts (.com, .edu, .org, .gov)
- Relevance counts too (anchor text, Do Follow)
- Be a backlink VIP (check the OBL’s)
- Look for the premium seats (Pagerank counts)
There are lots of ways to generate backlinks, hopefully this gives you a start on what to look for.
Trials of the Entrepreneur
Whether it’s Steve Jobs or yours truly, every entrepreneur has committed many mistakes and been victim to rejection and letdowns along their entrepreneurial journey. These arrows of misfortune, though agonizing, will teach you more about business than any coach, or guru ever could.
I’m no exception, I have learned a lot from my failures, and they have yet to kill me. This is an opportunity to share some knowledge I gained from my experiences. Without further ado, here are 5 tips (read as lessons) to survive the “entrepreneur fail test” that were worth confessing, once I survived them.
1. Success isn’t final
Despite how booming you are, understand that you may fall short again. ‘Loser’ tag is just fine as long as you’re ready to learn. It will motivate you to make wiser, enhanced assessments. The sooner you understand that your business has some beautiful and ugly parts, and there is such a thing as the “God Complex”, you’ll raise your stakes as a leader.
2. Keep in mind: No returns, no business
It’s as simple as that! Initiate a viable business for yourself, and not the one rooted in future skills or unreal investment. If your real business can make it, you will learn how to acquire other firms in the future or raise funding sources. But, relying on the latter path as a surefire tactic is just dumb and can easily backfire on your dreams. Upshot: Quit guessing about coming days from now, and laser-focus on present-day. Adopt, or perish.
3. Keep It Simple
As your business gets underway, and you think you can do more than a few things perfectly at once, well you’re probably not going anywhere. From PayPal to Google, everything stands out like a beacon today. These companies were developed by clear-cut plans, balanced budgets, and only then, did they expand. Keep your business/start up plan uncomplicated; because if it’s not easy, you’re doomed.
4. Be practical
You are an ordinary person attempting extraordinary things, As you are human, the mistake easily made is to believe your own nonsense, so be alert, stop conceiving you as a champion imagining your thought is brainy, and go motivate yourself better.
5. Think outside the box
Murphy’s Law in business is the likely scenario. If you predict 500 clients, you might get around 100. If you project a contract to seal within 10 weeks, it might creep up to 20. What I’m trying to say here is you invariably need to be prepared for these kinds of worst-case scenarios and have fitting backup plans for every circumstances. Don’t look at the problems with one solution in mind, commit yourself to think creatively. Extend yourself by brainstorming about options for every uncertainty and you’ll turn into a better business person.
The Future of Employment
Article by Corri Byrne, dLook General Manager - Like dLook on Facebook
What are your plans for team expansion? Are you employing full time or on a project basis? In-sourced or outsourced? How is the employment landscape changing with technology?
Worldwide Changes in Employment
Government argues that we need more stimuli and the opposition argues that we need more tax cuts to increase demand. There is some truth in both arguments, but that’s not the whole story.
There is a restructuring going on in economies worldwide, jobs are moving to contracted people on value / relevance based terms; that are reviewed by project rather than traditional annual arrangements. Individuals are becoming more like actors / directors / producers and crew on movie sets.
The internet economy is ushering in a new wave of networked project based people working in enterprises with staggering capital values. Facebook is now valued near $100 billion, Twitter at $8 billion, Groupon at $30 billion, Zynga at $20 billion and LinkedIn at $8 billion. These are classed as US companies, when in reality they are becoming stateless organizations that are global in their reach.
While the company capital valuations are huge, they cumulatively employ less than 20,000 people. That’s not a lot of people, relative to their valuations, and while they’re all hiring today, they are largely looking for specific skill sets, suited to needs of “the movie” being made today.
The people resume of the future will call for people who have the critical thinking skills to do the value-adding jobs that technology can’t do, as well as people who can invent, adapt and reinvent their jobs (value) every day, in a market that changes @ NetSpeed.
Today’s college grads need to be aware that the rising trend in Silicon Valley is to evaluate employees every quarter, not annually. Because the merger of globalization and the I.T. revolution means new products are being phased in and out so fast that companies cannot afford to wait until the end of the year to figure out whether a team leader is doing a good job.
Employers or should I say Prime Contracting parties are asking of contract candidates: Can this contactor add value every hour, every day — more than a contractor in China, India, Poland or Russia? Can they add significant value to my prime contract position in the market place, can they adapt to my evolving role in the current project; and can they reinvent themselves for the projects of tomorrow? And can they become continuous self learning organisms that adapt to continuous market place change, so that as a federated group we can adapt and export more into the fastest-growing global markets?
In today’s interrelated, interconnected and intelligent networked world, more and more enterprises will evolve into these federated networks that will not hire sub contracting people who don’t fulfill those criteria.
This will require a new mind-set and skill set to compete. The uncertain, rapidly changing conditions in which entrepreneurs start companies is what it’s now like for all of us planning careers in a world filled by dynamic points of stability. Each point of dynamic stability has the potential to have a catalytic affect on all other points of the federated networks that we may become part of.
In accordance with the Chinese proverb “we do indeed live in interesting time”
Built to Adapt
Article by Corri Byrne, dLook General Manager - Like dLook on Facebook
Is your business ready for disruption? Upheaval? What are the things you can do to future proof your business? This article explores business models that are built to adapt.
Business Models need to be Built to Adapt
In every market there are industry captains that excel at executing their current business model, that’s what makes them industry leaders.
However most of them slowly become hostages of the status quo - “the way we do things round here slowly morphs into the way we think round here.”
History is littered with industry captains that lose out to start-up companies who appear from nowhere, and in a few short years overtake the established leader.
Disrupting the Landscape
Cloud computing is bringing in a new disruptive economic environment that will make these transitions occur @ NetSpeed.
This speed of change and market volatility challenges the sustainability of “business as usual” in many markets, placing enormous pressure on any individual enterprise’s ability to respond to market disruption in a timely manner, as most enterprises are now heavily reliant on a multiplicity of external supply partner relationships to produce and deliver their products and services to market.
Looking back at history, IBM in the 1960’s and 70’s dominated the mainframe computer market, and it did so very successfully against competitors like ICL (UK), Bull (France), Univac, Honeywell, Fujitsu and CDC.
IBM quickly achieved value keystone status within the ecosystems it competed in.
IBM’s technology capability, capacity, service level availabilities, integrated sales channels and associated high cost structures were sustained by burgeoning mainframe margins. IBM’s cost base expanded as their enterprise structure grew to manage and support the strategic relationships they forged with their customers.
Their customers (usually large enterprises) were generally value keystone players in their respective ecosystems and also on the trail of sustaining their existing capabilities and capacities.
This capability and value sustaining model utilised by customer and supplier resulted in creating incremental innovations that maintained and improved the business as usual approach in the computer industry.
Consequently IBM largely missed out on the minicomputer market to new competitors such as DEC, Prime, Data General Etc. Subsequent to the minicomputer market, IBM misread the PC market by seeing the value opportunity in the production of PC’s rather than the associated operating systems and software services that supported them. In the case of DEC and Prime, who had successfully led IBM in the minicomputer business, they completely missed out on the PC market.
The IBM PC division has since been sold to Lenovo (China).
Death is Part of the Cycle
The list of market failure examples is endless and applicable to any industry.
All of the above quoted enterprises had the capabilities, resources and capacities to test the relevance of their strategy and value assumptions within their ecosystems; and respond to the disruptive challenges they faced. Yet none of them did so, they lacked the insight to recognise and adapt to change in their business ecosystems.
It appears as if incumbent market leaders throughout history spent their time gathering evidence to support the belief that their strategies, business models and supporting value assumptions were permanently relevant and sustainable.
Lessons to be Learnt
So what can be gleaned from these cyclical trends:
- All enterprises and their capabilities, strategies, value assumptions, capacities and availabilities within an ecosystem are dynamically interlinked with their ecosystem partners.
- Existing capabilities, capacities and business models, are not permanent and profitable belief systems to be defended at all costs.
Whether you are dominating your market or a new entrant, it is important to maintain an adaptable business model, focused on the rapidly changing market conditions. Maintain an appreciation that your business is completely reliant on numerous external factors - all of which could significantly impact your market position, long term strategy plans or entire industry relevance.
Life Without Facebook
Article by Simone Cooper, dLook Account Manager - Like dLook on Facebook
Simone looks at the ramifications of increasing Facebook use - is it just a great social networking tool or a modern addiction?
Millions and millions of hearts stop around the world.
Loud gasps of shock …
A life without Facebook!
Is Facebook really … all that?
Facebook has been embraced by millions as a way to keep up to date with friends and families, or to connect with all sorts of different people, but is it really the best thing since sliced bread? Or the best thing since John Logie Baird invented the first operational television?
People use Facebook everywhere, at home, at work, on public transport; on their mobiles, on their laptops, their iPads. To suddenly have a life without Facebook would it really leave people without a sense of meaning?
Okay, maybe I’m being dramatic here, but many people would find it hard to cope without Facebook. While I’m at it, speaking of people’s fickleness, I can never understand all the Apple “freaks” – those who line up for hours and hours outside the Apple store just to be the first to get their hands on the next iPhone or iPad … but that is a whole other topic.
Back to Facebook … it’s an addiction for a lot of people. I know of a friend who as soon as she gets into work in the morning has to log onto her Facebook account to see what messages are waiting for her and then spends fifteen minutes or so responding before she starts her working day. I also know many of you are thinking … is that wrong?
Influence on a mighty scale
I would have to be one of only a few people who don’t embrace Facebook. I was on a crowded train with a friend recently who’d just signed up to Facebook. I remarked to her with a laugh, “You know, I must be the only person in the world who’s not on Facebook!” This man standing near us turned to me and gave me a big, beaming smile. He obviously thought I was right!
Now obviously I’m not the only person in the world who’s not on Facebook, and doesn’t need to use it, but it seems I’m becoming the minority.
Following the masses?
Do people join Facebook because they genuinely want to? Or because they don’t want to feel like they’re missing out on something? Maybe there’s some peer pressure or media pressure to join Facebook because most people have a Facebook account and you don’t want to feel left out.
To me Facebook seems like a waste of time. Okay, it has its benefits if you have friends overseas, but locally, what is so wrong with face in a book, or catching up, meeting up with friends and family for coffee, for lunch, for dinner? Talking on the phone, or – staying up to date - through VOIP on Skype?
Okay, so some people may argue they do that as well, but do people spend so much time on Facebook that it has become an addiction? That they can’t get by without their Facebook fix?
Personal Facebook Review
If I were to give my take on Facebook, then I’d have say the functionality is great. As a tool Facebook plays a role but should not be the central form of connecting.
Too many people spend too many hours on Facebook; airing their views, their vents and putting in their 10 cents worth. Appears quite often that the comments and content are trivial and probably their use and input is linked to boredom or, worse, a need for social contact that is missing due to Facebook addiction!
If this is a reflection of our modern “social networking” society (that we would prefer Facebook to meet up) well I’ll stick with the “old ways” and catch up for coffee!
If Facebook, online gaming or gambling is a problem please seek help.
Facebook: Effective Advertising?
Article by Mande Crnjak, dLook Account Manager - Like dLook on Facebook
Mande poses the question corporate Facebook pages - are they effective advertising or just another “like”
With more than over 500 million active users, Facebook has quickly become the most influential social network in the world.
But who’s on Facebook? And how effective is it?
Let’s face it, who’s not on Facebook or at least looking at something off a friend’s iPhone during a lunch break?
All people, young and old are “connecting” with people and places from around the world.
An average user has 130 friends and will connect or ‘like’ at least 80 pages.
Facebook has created so many outlets for you (over 900 million) to express how you’re feeling, what you’re doing, where and who you’re with and what you like, that you just can’t help but “update your status” or ‘like’ something, for everyone to see.
No matter what age group you’re in, everyone “likes” everything!
From their favourite movie to their local gym, if you recognise that page, you’re “liking” it!
The Facebook Virus: Like
These ‘likes’ are like a virus!
Whether you’re looking at a friend’s profile or just skimming through your Newsfeed, you’re bound to come across a funny quote, brand, or business you know, and without even thinking, you’ve clicked the button to ‘like’ it.
Maybe even clicking into it and sharing it!
Or suggesting more friends!
And then that’s it!
Within minutes, a few others have clicked ‘like” and that business is getting further exposure by spreading through peoples newsfeeds all over the world.
Or is it?
More and more businesses are creating not only their own websites and directory listings, but are turning to Facebook for extra exposure.
If you don’t already have a Facebook page about your business, or didn’t even know it existed, you will!
It is now rare to find a SEM/SEO professional that isn’t recommending you sign up!
What about those businesses that are already well known? Like Gucci.
If you search “Gucci” in Google, you’ll find their website, a Wikipedia site and of course, their Facebook page.
That’s what’s happening for a lot of other small, medium and large businesses too.
You find a personal site, followed by a directory advertisement and closely followed by a Facebook page.
But which would you choose?
Would you really click on a plumber’s Facebook page? Would you trust him or her?
Say you do click in. Wow, what about those comments on the front page?
The first one says “Highly recommend, fast and reliable service”.
You think great until you see below, “Hunni I locked my keys in the house, can you pick up the kids from school lol”.
Would you use this guy?
Or you’ve clicked onto a page, for example a kitchen renovator’s Facebook, where beautiful photos have been ‘recently added’, displaying examples of the work you’re looking for.
Do you automatically ‘like’ the page and you haven’t even called the guy yet?
How do you know those photos aren’t copied from some other website?
Or are you a business owner with a Facebook page?
You’re wasting all your time adding on videos and photos and testimonials to your Facebook page and forgetting about your website or directory advertisement.
People only find your Facebook page if they know your business name, so how much exposure is your page really giving you?
However, what if you link your website or directory listing to your Facebook page?
We Found You
So people have finally found your business on Facebook.
Are these potential customers taking the extra step to look at your extra (more professional) website or directory listing to get more information?
And if so, how do you know that they found you via Facebook?
The same route applies for directory listings, which create so many links for customers to find more information, directing them to websites, that by the time you get an enquiry, the person calling tells you they found you “on Google mate” or “on your website”.
This leads to the closing question … is a business on Facebook, with information, photos and ‘likes’ providing actual exposure and potential business, or just another page for you, your friends and family to ‘like’?
Farming the Google Plot
Increasingly we are becoming an urbanised culture - a culture driven by speed, increased productivity, greater efficiency, culminating in an expectation of higher profits. This urban mentality has seeped into our economic, social and environmental behaviours … always seeking short term solutions but expecting long term wins.
Urban Expectations
The famous mantra from Field of Dreams, “If you build it, they will come” too often typifies expectations of a successful web strategy.
Like the mega constructions of empty high rise apartments littered throughout the city, many spend $1,000’s of dollars (and more) on mega websites that have a fantastic facade, an awesome interior, flashy graphics and tons of content yet rarely an eyeball doth fall!
As keen as I am to name and shame some websites that fit this category, obviously this is politically incorrect. Instead the focus of this article is to change the approach to online web strategy, encouraging a change of view from an urban, get rich quick mentality to an agrarian, farming mentality.
Google Keyword Seeds
The seeds of any good Internet campaign is keywords. Before you start “growing” your website you must appreciate the environment, your “Internet landscape”. Choosing the right keywords is like choosing the right seeds for a particular soil within a specific climate. Just try growing bananas in Tasmania!
Understanding the best keywords that represent your business is about knowing your customers. There are tons of resources available on this topic, but as a guide:
- Create 3 to 5 phrases a potential customer would type in to find someone in your line of business - this does not include your company name! If I already know who dLook Business directory are then I can easily find them. However, if I type in “business directory” will dLook still appear.
- Understand long tail and short tail keywords - a phrase of 4 - 5 words is easier to attain than a 1 or 2 word phrase. This should be obvious - but with urban thinking all too often its lost.
- Define your geographic market - launching a website doesn’t necessarily lead to global domination. Be realistic about your service radius - if you wouldn’t normally travel there don’t try to optimise for it. Better focusing local and then growing.
My Google Plot
Having created your keyword strategy next you can start to focus on deployment … next article will cover preparing your land, planting the seeds and tending the patch.
Article submitted by Corri Byrne, General Manager, dLook Pty Limited Images courtesy of EA and Simon Howden / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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