Issue campaign outreach ~ Writing your own blog ~ Social networks, microcontent & virtual worlds
I was fortunate enough to be interviewed by new media guru Geoff Livingston at PodCamp last weekend. The Now is Gone author caught me off the cuff, green tea latte in hand, asking the eternal new media questions. Check me out here...
You've heard of Twitter and tweets. What about Twitpitching and tweetups? Read all about it on ReadWriteWeb.
Have a few minutes to explore? Spend some time at Presidential Watch 2008 (I know, not the best name). This site tracks the 292 most influential blogs and web sites covering the election. Use the mapping tool to find out which sites have the most influence. And, the trend charts will show you the relative popularity of the candidates (as topics of discussion) over time. Warning: You will spend more than a few minutes on this site if you aren't careful.
(Thanks to Trend Central for highlighting this.)
- Kevin
YouTube, which has since September had a program that assists nonprofits to get the most out of their videos, and which runs a special channel for the US presidential election, is now giving its help to sitting legislators as well. On Friday, the Washington Post reported that YouTube will be creating a special commercial-free area for Congress to post video.
It's against House rules to link to commercial sites, but many offices have been ignoring that - their in-house system doesn't deal well with the bandwidth requirements of video. YouTube's cooperation will mean they can do what everyone else does: outsource this problem to Google.
We'll have to see whether lawmakers will pay attention to privacy questions around online advertising if their offices are insulated from the ads - and whether the videos they post are viewed enough for anyone to notice they're now playing by the rules.
Here are some compelling facts from Yvonne Divita's recent blog post, "What DO Women Do Online?" Do you know who your reader is? Consider these statistics the next time you post to your blog...
For some more insight and advice, see Yvonne's recap of the Blogher conference in NYC earlier this month:
"Engage your women customers. Don't treat all of us alike. Know what you want to accomplish up front and create trackable content. Which is way easier online, btw. While this isn't new...I've talked about it before, it bears repeating. Women like to talk to each other - we communicate. We complain loudly, and we praise profusely. Find out how to get us to do the right one."
Good advice!
- Kevin
In 2002, Heather Armstrong wrote about her job on her blog, dooce.com, and was fired for it. Since then, being "dooced" has been slang for being fired (or otherwise getting into trouble) for your blog. Last week, possibly for the first time, being dooced spread to microcontent.
A week ago, John McCain's campaign suspended staffer Soren Dayton for posting a link to an inflammatory video about Obama on his Twitter microblog. I first saw the story mentioned on Twitter itself and started paying attention when someone mentioned the name of the staffer in question, since I've met Soren but didn't know he was working for the campaign. Then I read the Politico story and the NPR news blog story and started thinking about "private" spaces on the Internet and how closely organizations are associated with their employees or their members.
Continue reading "Updating your blogging policy - you have one, right?" »
Sprout Builder is a new WYSIWYG drag and drop Flash builder that easily integrates with most major content and distribution services. In about 20 minutes, I was able to make the widget above promoting a new, short video created by Disney Channel's Playhouse Disney for the Smart Television Alliance.
Once you have created your widget with Sprout Builder, the tools allows you to easily add it to 18 different social media sites including Facebook, MySpace, Blogger and of course, Typepad (our blog runs on Typepad).
Give it a try. It's free.
- Kevin
Continue reading "Using Sprout Builder: Super Bunny Reads a Book " »
Search engine optimization (sometimes called search engine marketing) is a key component to generating new and increased traffic to your blog. Plus, you‘re reaching your audience when they’re most thirsty for information – when they’re searching. Quite ideal!
Some tips to get started:
• Think about which keywords are the most relevant to your blog, as your search engine rank is based on relevance (well, technically a Google algorithm).
• Try out different terms and see which generate the most traffic and then optimize accordingly.
• Put yourself in the shoes of the searcher. Which search terms would someone who is less familiar with your subject or issues use?
• Use tools like Google AdWords Keyword Tool to find popular words or phrases that relate to your topic
What about search engine ads?
If you really want to kick-start traffic to your blog, consider purchasing some “sponsored links” on Google. Also known as AdWords, these prime search engine results are pretty inexpensive when it comes to getting a return on your investment. And you only pay when people actually click through. I got some interesting factoids from Google’s Adwords Evangelist Frederick Vallaeys (yes, that’s his real title) at the session he presented yesterday at NTEN:
• The keyword phrase sweet spot for Adwords is 2-5 words. Less is too general and more is too specific.
• One key to picking an effective ad headline (after all, you want that click through!) is to make sure the headline matches the search terms.
• Use multiple ads to test messages and optimize
Oh, and NTEN membership has its privileges -- the latest of which is a new partnership with Google to give priority processing of Google Grants applications for NTEN organizations to run ads on Google.
If you're at NTEN's 2008 Nonprofit Technology Conference, be sure to stop by the ice cream social, sponsored by Amplify. My colleagues Kevin and Shana will be there to talk about New Orleans, ice cream, and cutting-edge technology. Don't miss our handout for a link to best practices tips about blogging, podcasting, and virtual worlds.
Of course, the first step in getting more Twitter followers is to follow more people yourself. And not cewebrities (web celebrities) who are unlikely to reciprocate, although, those are good too. But see who your favorite Twitterites are following and grab some of their friends. Most folks will reciprocate the follow.
And if that doesn't work, I think my friend Jeff Hibbard has found a great way to promote himself on Twitter...
