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Tune in Monday for
Search Engine Friendly Copy
October  29-November 2, 2007
GUEST: Dianna Huff, Marcom Writer Blog
TOPIC: Writing Search Engine Friendly Copy

There are rumors of Ron Paul supporters manipulating Digg. I’ve got the names and the evidence.   more »

Last week, I contacted Digg.com in an attempt to find out some demographic information about their userbase. They have yet to respond. As I await either a tasteful form letter or hell freezing over, I thought it might be fun to share what I emailed over.   more »

Explore the history of Digg from the Bury Brigade to influencing political discussions.   more »

Where do Digg articles go when they die? I track the shelf life of popular Digg.com articles and report my findings.   more »

Dianna Huff's e-book, "Turning Clicks into Leads" manages to make sense of the world of SEO copywriting without confusing jargon (or forced humor)....   more »

Dee Rambeau prompted some interesting dialog about hosted content management services while I was away on vacation. In case you hadn’t noticed, David Johnson continued his side of the argument on his blog. His blog is for Phoenix Information Services, LLC, "Speaking to the Automotive Retail World." So David may be coming from a really big and multi-layered industry perspective.

Another participant in the discussion, Dominic Jones, also commented on David’s blog. Dominic comes from IR Web Report, which bills itself as "the world's #1 source for investor relations website advice and best practices."

My own perspective is from a growing, medium-sized global company. While both David and Dominic have their points, I think they miss what is the central issue to me:

- The world is moving to outsourcing (including lots of IT jobs)
- The world is moving to hosted software services (even key business applications such as CRM and ERP)
- There is no inherent advantage for a business to do anything internally that can be done more efficiently by an outside vendor

There was a day when many large manufacturers had their own delivery trucks. Now they mostly let outside carriers do it. There also was a day when large companies had huge PR departments, and huge engineering departments, and huge IT departments. Those days are passing, too.

Corporate websites are business tools. The enabling web technology is just that: it is the carrier of the message, not the message itself. The business doesn’t care how the message is carried. They just want to get it done quickly, reliably, professionally, at the least possible cost, and in keeping with corporate graphic and stylistic standards.

You would have a hard time today finding IT people who do not embrace the Internet. But that was not the case so very long ago. Just as mainframe-oriented IT folks resisted the PC, we’ve all seen our share of IT people who were unprepared for the Internet. This certainly helped gave rise to hosted services, such as Dee Rambeu’s MediaRoom,  which is itself a CMS that is optimized for PR use.

I am a great believer in content management systems, but content management systems don’t have to be tied to internal resources. I’ve had excellent results in outsourcing web development/hosting and associated support services. When K-Tron International created its web department six years ago, the first thing we did was develop a CMS. From the beginning, our focus was on business results, not the technology. We used an outside service to develop and host our first website in 1995, and we continue to use the same service today.

Our web department is separate from IT, though I report to the CFO, as does the head of IT. Although I do not work in IT, am a great fan and supporter of the services they provide. I have excellent working relationships, indeed friendships, with our IT managers.

As K-Tron grows into new markets, or acquires new companies, our hosted CMS allows us to create new websites, or move exiting websites onto the CMS platform. In every case our new business users have enthusiastically embraced the CMS, which frees them to create and manage their content with little or no assistance from K-Tron’s web department and no dependence at all on their internal IT support.

When K-Tron acquires a company, the objective is to let the business run itself. Beyond integrating the acquired company’s financial system into K-Tron’s, one of the few things we change is to move the company’s website into our CMS. You can see examples at Jeffrey and Pennsylvania Crusher of websites that were greatly enhanced by being moved into our CMS. You can also see Penn Crusher’s Chinese website, a new website created at the same time. The results for Jeffrey and Penn Crusher are striking:

- Easy to navigate, user friendly websites that for the first time generate valuable sales leads for the companies and provide enhanced satisfaction for customers and prospects who visit the websites
- Vastly improved search engine visibility
- An exponential growth in web traffic, which has resulted in more business opportunities
- Empowered business users, who can instantly update existing pages and add new pages with no assistance from either web or IT specialists

One final thought on the “big company” CMS issue: When an IT department becomes perceived by another department as a barrier to getting its messages delivered via the web, right or wrong, the IT department has an image problem. They might want to take a look at their own internal public relations. Indeed, rather than playing power games with their PR department, they might want to ask for some help in a) understanding how they have alienated their customers and b) devising appropriate actions and communications to win back the trust and support of their customers.

Don Dunnington

Yesterday Danny Sullivan announced on his blog that he is leaving Search Engine Watch. This was big news in the web developer and marketing communications community, but so far it has prompted little comment in the PR community. This is surprising, when you consider the impact PR, including the lowly news release, can have a search engine visibility. You would think that PR people might have paid more attention to the departure of the person whose name has been synonymous with search engine optimization strategies.

I first came across Sullivan's search engine work nearly 10 years ago while researching my master's thesis on website promotion. I sent him an email, which he promptly answered. Later we talked at some length on the phone. Here's an excerpt from what I wrote in June of 1997:

There are two reasons web promoters should know about Danny Sullivan. The first is that he simply offers the most complete guide to search engines and directories to be found anywhere. The second is that he is a good writer and reporter, and so his guide is readable, entertaining and comprehensible--even to the somewhat technologically challenged.

Sullivan was an English major at the University of California, Irvine. He became a reporter for the Orange County Register and later the Los Angeles Times. He went into web development, then used his web knowledge and reporting skills to become a search engine specialist.

In a telephone interview (June 10, 1997), Sullivan said his language skills and reporting know-how have been useful resources for his web enterprise. "You need to be comfortable with computers, too," he said. "The more you understand computers, the more successful you'll be on the web. On the other hand, it's not so much your educational background as your attitude that determines your success."

The most important attitude change people have to make when they move to the web, Sullivan explained, is to really accept that this is a new medium, requiring new thinking. "You've got to understand it's a different medium," he said. "It's not radio. It's not TV. It's not print. You need to be willing to look for new ways to do things. You always have to ask, ‘Is this going to work on the net?'"

I think the most important attitude that Danny Sullivan brought to the net is the willingness he demonstrated to share his knowledge, and his time. He wasn't in it just for the money, and as a result he made a lot of money. He takes time to talk with students and other neophytes about the net. To share the joy of being part of a thing so new that even to this day the experts are constantly having to learn new tricks.

I had the privilege of talking to some of those early pioneers when the web was still new even to them: Danny Sullivan, Eric Ward and IAOC's own Steve O'Keefe. They each took a different path, and focused on a different need: Sullivan on search engines, Eric Ward on links, and O'Keefe on book publicity. And to this day, they seem to continue to take pleasure in being learners and teachers.

I'm sure we'll see more of Danny Sullivan in the future. I'm betting his departure from the corporate world will lead him back to the entrepreneurial world where he so obviously thrived.

Don Dunnington

Please join us July 17-21, 2006 for a blog program: PR is Getting Personal, with discussion leaders Joost van de Loo, Clo Willaerts and Dana Gornitzki

ABOUT THE TOPIC:
In today's networked world it is no longer a winning strategy to have a safe job and to trust in the authority of your company. Positions change quickly; your manager can become a freelancer, your supplier can be your client the next month.  Commercial communication is more and more becoming the ongoing dialogue between individuals that the Cluetrain Manifesto predicted. Direct-to-consumer PR is only a small element of this pattern.

As a result, personal reputation is now one of our most precious assets. Successful professionals do everything to be seen as trusted networking hubs. How will this change PR? Will our press releases become more 'fair and balanced'? How do we need to adapt our thinking?

ABOUT THE DISCUSSION LEADERS:
Joost van de Loo is a Marketing Strategist, who joined communication consultancy ZN following a career in journalism and marketing. He has a Master of Arts degree in International Journalism from the City University of London, and a Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Delft University of Technology. In addition to work at ZN he currently sets up Distinct News International, a company that produces multi-media packaged television news features from India and China. He also consults for ETV and writes for UK-based Diplo magazine. Joost has worked for BBC Four television, the Amsterdam Weekly, Dynamic Zone, and KPN Mobile.

Clo Willaerts is marketing manager of Belgacom Skynet and an avid blogger.

Dana Gornitzki is a Canadian transplant currently living in London, England. A journalist and media expert, Dana's experience has covered the world of print, online and broadcast. From working with film festivals and inside a major public broadcaster to working with emerging brands, Dana's work has a focus of social interactions and its impact on the here and now. Currently, she is exploring the mobile space and is interested in that medium's far-reaching effects from social communities to advertising and consumption habits.

All the copywriting experts warn: Don't use humor in advertising! "People don't buy products from clowns," thundered the grandfather of modern advertising...   more »

The battle goes on.... At the end of my last entry, I wrote, "Perhaps the best model for this type of flawed thinking is a military one....   more »

Ever notice how many blogs are about blogs?!   more »

Too much has already been written about blogs. And many of you know far more about blogs than I ever ...   more »

Now that you’ve invested the time and creativity to perfect your Web site, take the opportunity to earn recognition for your efforts! The Web Marketing Association is now accepting entries for its 10th annual WebAward competition.   more »

I found a great resource for those in the marketing community that are looking for current information on various award programs for advertising, marketing and Web site development - it' the Award Winning Awards Blog.

Here you can scan listings by categories or by date posted.  It has an RSS feed so you can add it to your favorite reader.

I have found two new programs that I have already entered because of the blog.

I had hoped to have IAOC’s design complete before re-emerging on the IAOC blog. But I have too much news to share that can’t wait. First, a quick update on the web and blog designs.

E-Site Marketing has done an admirable job in developing handsome and functional designs that will serve our current needs and allow for future growth. These thumbnails give a hint of what’s in store. We’re making a few minor tweaks, which will be done this month, and then the fun part comes: filling web and blog with useful content. Rather than launch a finished product, the build-out of the new website will be done in public view, where members and interested observers can follow our progress and offer their thoughts or suggest improvements.

In addition to Felix Laboy and Brooke Lew at E-Site Marketing, we’ve had considerable support from Cliff Allen of Coravue who has volunteered to host the new website. Dee Rambeau, managing partner of DVCO Technology will be hosting IAOC’s online newsroom. DVCO is the provider of PRNewswire’s MediaRoom.

Our objective is to provide the tools and the support to give members (and visitors) the ability to learn, discuss, experiment, share, and grow their skills and knowledge as online communicators and teachers. In the spirit of freely sharing knowledge and support on the Internet, we have sought to use volunteers and donated resources so we can make the things we offer free or as low-cost as possible. We don’t want to become another organization accessible mainly to those whose company or institution will pay their membership dues and seminar fees.

One of the things you have told us you want is a forum where online communicators and educators can meet and share their knowledge. Thanks to Rowan University’s Suzanne FitzGerald and Philippe Borremans, Public Relations Manager at IBM Belgium & Luxembourg we are providing you two such opportunities this year, with seminars in the US and Europe. There is still time to submit a paper for either Valley Forge (March 23-24) or Brussels (June 15-16). If you are interested in presenting at Valley Forge, contact us right away. A few more spots have been added for paper presentations but they will go soon. If you are thinking about attending the conference, make your reservation online today and save. Those who reserve early pay just $199 (169€), which includes a year’s membership in IAOC.

With the help of the people I’ve mentioned here, and many more whose stories you will hear about in the future, we’re gaining the support of the online communication community. As your support grows, we are able to add the tools we need to carry out our mission.

Don Dunnington
President, IAOC

Darren Guarnaccia of RedDot Solutions suggests in an article at CIOupdate.com that Stephen Covey's principles can make for better websites. Perhaps applying the "7 Habits" to your web can bring more customer satisfaction and greater success to your organization.