The Web Uncovered

The name “Content Farm” kind of describes it perfectly. What a strange concept, isn’t it? Or maybe not. Spammers and BlackHat SEOs have been auto generating low quality content for long tail search engine rankings for a while now. The content farm technique arguably takes this a few steps further by creating better quality (note – still questionable quality), user friendly content for the exact same reason.

Essentially certain companies have hired thousands of writers and video content producers to churn out content that is determined algorithmically:

The system starts with an automated process, crunching data and running it through an algorithm to identify story ideas that have the best chance of success. The algorithm factors in audience type, ability to attract advertising and potential for traffic. Source

The whole “Why” of the situation is pretty much easy to decipher. After all, there are over tens of billions of searches every month. That traffic has some serious value, especially for Informational Queries.  After all, more than 80% of searches fall within this category.

Continue reading via Explicitly – Includes how to create your own content as well as what other professionals think…

Is Twitter Fading?  If you saw the headlines yesterday, you might be excused for thinking Twitter was in decline:  “Twitter’s growth slows dramatically,” “Twitter popularity declines, growth slows down,” and “Is Twitter ‘Traffic’ Tanking?”

Twitter was the story of 2009, growing from less than 5 million monthly users to almost 30 million in the course of six months.  People joined, brands rushed in, and words like “Tweet” entered our common vocabulary.

Yes, overall growth is slowing—how could it not after posting 1,000%-plus growth in such a short time?–but the key for marketers is not the number of Twitterers but the habits, Technographics and psychographics of Twitterers.  As Sean Corcoran and Josh Bernoff demonstrated in their December 2009 report, “Who Flocks To Twitter?,” Twitters are the connected of the connected, overindexing at all Social Media habits.  For example, Twitterers are three times more likely to be Creators (people who create and share content via blog posts and YouTube) as the general US population.  continue reading via the Forrester Blog

Is social media a fad that businesses should avoid? Think again or drown – is the message of the Social Media Pool graphic and it’s quite compelling. Facebook is growing faster than Google ever did.  Twitter might be the ultimate Networking site. Check out Oliver Blanchard’s Basics of Social Media ROI.
Would love to hear your thoughts on this subject and success/failure stories…

Part of working on the world of online marketing is  that you are straddling two very different worlds.  One on hand you have the seasoned Chief Marketing Officers, whose education and understanding of marketing predates the internet.  They often are confused by the technologies, and attempt to apply their knowledge to the new media, not realizing that a new medium requires a new strategy.  On the other side you have tech-heads, who are absolutely necessary as they hold the key to using these technologies, but often have no basis of understanding marketing principles, or best practices.  Your basic need is to be their middle man, and your endgoal should be to understand both worlds well enough that you can take over both their jobs.

When it comes to online marketing, the most elemental part of traditional marketing that I believe is missed is marketing research.  Once you have your target segment, you MUST answer these questions:

1.  What websites is my target segment patronizing

2.  How are they using the website

3.  What is important to them, and how can I reveal our value added?

If you don’t have a marketing background, think of it like fishing.  If you grab random bait and go to a random body of water, if you catch fish, it was dumb luck.  Most fishermen find out what fish they are targeting, then put together a tackle box of what they need.  The most important part is your bait or lure; without the bite, there is no fish.  Your fishing pole, bait, etc is all dependent on marketing research.

Now let’s just avoid a fishing story.  :)

For those of you who missed it, there is a new website called WolframAlpha, which was prophesized to be the Google killer, launched last Thursday.  While the hype is mostly hot air, there are some important reasons why we should take note to this new service.

WolframAlpha is a computational engine.  What this means is that it is a database of billions of pieces of information, along with thousands of formulas and models to analyze this data.  Rather than having preprogrammed answers to quiries, it can actually create answers to unposed questions on the spot.  For instance, you can type in “the weather in Bogotá on Obama’s date of birth.”  Low and behold, it was 53 degrees and overcast.  Similarly, it can complete complex calculations for engineering, physics, calculus, genetics, and more, all in less than a second.  

What it’s not:    This is not a Google Killer, it has a different business model and it is a completely different technology.  While Google helps users to find websites based on content, WolframAlpha is completely in-house, as all the computations and information is done on their super-computer clusters.  Furthermore, WolframAlpha is probably not useful to 80% of computer users, as most of use don’t have a need for indepth computation at a moment’s notice.

What it is:   WolframAlpha is the beginning of a new technology that may revolution information dissemination in the coming years.  As the technology becomes more concise with more data and better language-to-command, this is nothing short of revolutionary.  Once adapted to include information regarding items of popular culture, it would become a tool of daily use for everyone with a computer and an internet connection.

As the different technologies online become decreasing tied to the youth or the Millenials, new demographics can both be focused on in marketing research, and targetted in content generation.  Social Media Marketing guru Scott Monty shares with his blog readers about the bourgening market of moms.  He says:

There’s no question that so-called “mommy bloggers” are an interesting demographic. Recent statistics show that there are more than 36 million of them online, and they definitely wield influence in purchasing power. Which is why many companies think this community can be a key in their word of mouth efforts. 

However, he points out the fact that these broad segments also have high diversity within themselves.  Nonetheless, marketing research about the internet use of a specific demographic can also reveal how to market to them, or what advertisements will speak to them based on their values, and unmet needs.

The Takeaway:   Now that the late adaptors are joining the chorus of social networking, how you can you address their new unmet needs in the online world?  If you figure it out, you could be creating the next big thing to an underexploited niche market.