Your new post is loading...
Our Voltage Search Media review shares fifteen years of positive return on ad spend, assistance, and help from Mark Brown and the Voltage Search Media team.
Five Reasons to Hire Voltage Search Media. - SEM = Too Fast Now.
- PPC is your captain.
- Guides and Teachers are RARE.
- SEM Honesty is even rarer.
- Life is short.
Read more about Voltage, SEM and how to make money online at Curagami: https://www.curagami.com/voltage-search-media-review/
Reputations, to alter Henry Fonda's quote, aren't built on what you plan to accomplish. Your marketing, ideas, products, or content don't make your online reputation. Customers, stakeholders, and partners create your brand's reputation. Reputations are built out there away from your office, intentions, campaigns, and plans. Reputation Economics shares five ways to protect, enhance, and extend your online reputation. - Friends and Fans.
- Stakeholders and Partners.
- Reviews, Comments, and Social Media.
- Visitors, Customers, Advocates.
- What You’re Doing NOW.
User engagement is at the heart of any design philosophy. With the user-centered approach, designers are always on the lookout for new techniques to enhance user engagement with products, websites, and programs like online games. The objective is to make a product easy and enjoyable for users to use. Making a product easy to use and enjoyable enhances user experience (UX) leading to increased user engagement. Even traditional online card games like pool rummy have enhanced user experience. The secret lies in gamification in the UX design, which has assumed high importance in recent years. Although a very modern concept, it does have a far-reaching impact on the understanding of user preferences and increasing user engagement.
100 Techie Content Marketing Tools - This is a post curated from the Content Marketing Institute. Curated with three of my five favorite content marketing tools - Feedly, Zapier and Wordpress. Feedly finds and organizes content into easy to digest magazines. Zapier automates posting curated content over to Wordpress and Wordpress is the best blogging publishing tool. i'I'ddd Flipboard and Scoop.it to round out my top five marketing tools list.
Martin's Top 5 Marketing Tools
Find 100 more CM tools from the CMI on Curagami.
SEO Hobgoblin Consistency shares tips and resources to help write better meta-data, body copy and image alt-text.Google's search spiders hate dissonance and confusion. Want your page to appear when customers search important keywords? Follow these SEO Hobgoblin tips on Curagami.
Marketing Crossroads Yes, we agree. with this Hubspot post - Marketing is ahead of itself. The post outlines one side of the crossroads, the consumer revolution side well:
The sharp uptake in consumer use of messaging apps, the shift in content consumption from text to video and audio, and the finally consumer-ready advancements in artificial intelligence augmented reality, and voice recognition all signal that marketers and consumers alike are in radically new times. Everytime consumer behavior evolves, marketers have new opportunities that were never before available.
Next author Kipp Bodnar discusses the "scorched earth" desperate marketers have been using as traditional market making tactics wither and die. The insanity of doubling down on tactics that are clearly dead or dying is "scorching the earth" and throwing good money after bad.
The post is smart about how we marketers have messed up most good things by piling on to exhaustion. We like the solution too - focus on people more and channels and marketing less. Good, smart marketing read.
Block Chain Disruption A "blockchain" is a distributed digital transaction ledger. Bitcoin is one example of a "block chain", but it doesn't require much creativity to imagine others.
Everything from how we fund startups to personal identity could be impacted by blockchains. This post shares several current examples of how everyone from car companies to education is using blockchains already.
Imagine what will happen when the next generation of entrepreneurs really start thinking about what block chains can do?
Thinking NEW Is Hard We noticed none of the riders in the Tour de France have adjusted to having 3K grace in the run up to a finish line. Falls within 3K don't hurt times, but riders continue to operate with the old idea in mind bunching up at the finish increasing the chances for dramatic falls and season-ending injuries.
Change is hard and change takes time. Few marketers have reacted to the new marketing either. Platforms, collaborations, and curation are critical success factors in the new marketing. Yet many marketers and site developers continue to insist on doing it all themselves. Good luck with that.
We share ten "new marketing" tips to convert your thinking including:
- Not “YOU” or even “US” but “WE”
- Movements not Sales (Warby Parker, Tom’s, One Million Lights)
- Incomplete and Early beats Late and Perfect
- When in doubt ASK FOR HELP
- How did you collaborate today
- Who did you coach, encourage, or recommend today
- The 1:9:90 Rule
- How we modify the 1:9:90 Rule
- Profiles, Profiles, and Profiles
- The Communication Pyramid
Let us know your "new marketing" tips and we'll add to the post. http://www.curagami.com/platform-thinking-new-marketing/
Animations Rock Storytelling & Engagement Watching Annie Leonard's The Story of Stuff we realized an important idea - animations can tell hard stories better than humans. If Leonard were to lecture for 9 minutes on the devasting impact of products we love such as iPhones on the planet we'd tune out.
But when she hands her story over to animation we tune in. We built this Curagmai post after reading Why Rich Animations Are Crucial for Design sharing our reasons for why your online communication should include animation now: http://www.curagami.com/how-animation-will-make-your-website-fun/
Digital Marketing Tips To Steal Today The experience of buying new Robert Rauschenberg inspired eyeglasses frames was so inspirational we wrote a post on five tips every online merchant should steal today: - Create Limited Editions
- Keep Content Even After Events Are Over
- Have and Share VALUES
- Start with WHY not HOW
- Tie Purchases To A Related Cause
Have you purchased frames from WarbyParker.com? What was your experience? Share and we'll add to the post: http://www.curagami.com/warby-parker-5-digital-marketing-tips-to-steal-today/
Deeplearning AI Andrew Ng is a "deeplearning" and AI expert. He'd probably tell you there is little difference between those two "new to us" ideas, but "deep" describes his thinking and makes this Digital Trends post a must read.
Crowdfunding Isn't Dead Despite congress's attempt, crowdfunding isn't dead. Equity crowdfunding is a non-starter killed under the weight of a thousand paper cuts.
But, as this Curagami post shares, there is much to be said for creating a Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaign: http://www.curagami.com/crowdfunding-congress-didnt-kill-it/
Most Advanced Yet Acceptable Reading Hitmakers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction helped me see five inescapable web marketing trends including:
- Simple Works
- Known beats Unknown
- Know your Network
- Find Blue Oceans
- Why then How
Highly recommend Derek Thompson's book and hope you'll visit Curagami to read about five inescapable trends.
http://www.curagami.com/maya-five-inescapable-web-marketing-trends/
|
CES 2018 promised us robot dogs, air taxis and laundry-folding robots. Nearly a year later, these products remain out of reach for most of us, but it was still a productive year in tech—and one that will likely be remembered for being jam-packed with as much drama as a Shonda Rhimes script. Here’s a look back at 2018’s tech highlight reel. - Blockchain
- Data
- GDPR
- Decentralized Web
Find more tech trends on Adweek: https://www.adweek.com/digital/the-10-most-important-tech-stories-of-2018/
My note about this Harvard case study is in blue at the bottom. Martin This fictionalized case study will appear in a forthcoming issue of Harvard Business Review, along with commentary from experts and readers. If you’d like your comment to be considered for publication, please be sure to include your full name, company or university affiliation, and email address.
So let's say you decided to update the content on a page on your web site, the content is super out dated and needs a major revamp. When you update the content, it doesn't mean you need to put that new content on a new URL, you can just update the content on the existing URL. In fact, Google recommends it.
Via THE OFFICIAL ANDREASCY, massimo facchinetti
The New SEO This Curagami post takes issue with the priority and emphasis of two "old world" SEO posts. When Jeff Bullas suggests, important tweaks could result in top rank he over reaches. When Forbes worries about content length, they ask the wrong question in the wrong way. Here's a thought experiment to prove the point - does Oprah need to worry about technical SEO tweaks or content length?
Answer: No Oprah does not. When your tribe is as loyal, eager to consume and collaborate as Oprah's SEO is moot and adds little. Think Oprah achieved her position of trust and created such a loyal tribe by tweaking or manipulating content? Neither do we. Do we miss the days when a tweak here or there meant rank? You bet. Life was easier then, but marketing is so much better now, and it will become better still. The rub is Jeff and Forbes are right and wrong at the same time. Technically every tip Jeff shares is correct, but the emphasis is backward. Jeff starts with keywords. In this Curagami post we suggest starting with your story, your "why": http://www.curagami.com/seo-loves-ya-baby/
Australian Joel Rae's New Surrealism Trippy Beautiful Art by Australian Joel Rae celebrates a working surrealist. Rae's art collides Fischl, Katz, and Bleckner creating a unique look & feel. I love painting that is intelligent, not preachy, wise not snarky, and well planned and executed.
AI Report from McKinsey 2017 is arguably artificial intelligence's tipping point making this trending trends report from McKinsey an important must read. AI is poised to invade every aspect of digital marketing and communications. The hottest startups are math and AI companies. The hottest online merchants are finding ways to use AI to penetrate the big data having a successful commercial website provides. If your new to AI or an old hand at web marketing McKinsey's report is a must read.
Five Marketing Lessons From Kaws Brian Donnelly, the artists known as Kaws, has a lot to teach online merchants including:
- Products beat website
- Brands beat products
- Create Limited Editions
- Develop a community and a tribe
- SEO doesn’t matter when you do the four tips above insanely well
Are you familiar with Brain's work? Do you own a Kaws figurine? Share your reactions, thoughts, and ideas here or on Curagami: http://www.curagami.com/marketing-lessons-kaws/
When AI Becomes Your Brand Between keychains, chatbots and a sentient search engine via RankBrain the future is all about AI as this HBR post shares.
SEO for Writers Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is crucial to online content marketing success. No Google listing means no traffic and no traffic means no money. This post shares 7 "on-page" SEO tips for non-technical.
I don't really think of SEO as "technical" since very coder I've ever attempted to educate about SEO could care less. Coders think about efficiency and SEO is often the least efficient way to markup your content.
Maybe inefficient, but marketers have to worry about traffic and money, not just code, so follow these 7 tips or teach them to your writers and coders for more traffic and money.
Branding Partnerships These days anyone with following can be coupled with brands big and small so the whole is greater than the sum of the parts as Steven Harrington's partnership with Ikea proves.
Oprah and Flash Boys How do Oprah's Super Soul Sunday and Michael Lewis' book Flash Boys connect? In the strange landscape of digital marketing, they are closer than you think.
- Internet Time Is Always NOW
- Networks Are Different
- Movement Marketing = Biggest Digital Marketing Trend NO ONE Understands
- Influencers & Force Multipliers – Do You Know Yours
- WHY not HOW
Join the conversation and share your ideas, comments, and experiences from the wild west of digital marketing on Curagami: http://www.curagami.com/digital-marketing-gravity/
|
After writing this response to Snow's article and Guillaume's response I realized it finishes a group of 3 pieces on SEO:
A. SEO and Data Got A THING Going On.
B. Etropy Is Creating Web 3.0 Under Our Noses
C. Google and Data Got A Thing Going On (Below)
Google and Data Got A Thing Going On
I agree that we've moved close to a more true meritocracy, but I'm not as far as Snow or Guillaume. Google's influence remains very significant in who sees what in search, and search still controls the purse strings.
If Google didn't float their index they would have rapidly become irrelevant. By floating, by removing the absolute TRUTH of the game so well described, the game changed in ways ONLY Google can understand.
Look at the Not Provided numbers now climbing close to 50%. While Google says they made this move based on security it is clear to anyone with a brain that Google's desire is to float more than their index. If you can't find absolute reference in your own Google Analytics then something fundamental has changed.
In fact many things have changed including:
* We live floating on a Sargasso sea now never reaching shore.
* Algorithms and predictive models will rule our future.
* Algorithms and predictive models were always going to rule.
* Google controls LESS and makes MORE.
* Mobile is DISRUPTIVE in the short run.
* The longer the web is alive the more local it becomes.
These last two bullets are the engine of the current discontent. Google's brilliant move to float the index would seem to be a direct response to the chilling amount of User Generated Content (UGC) being created, but, in reality, the float was in the works well before it was clear social would rule.
Floating the index allows control to be harvested by Google and Google alone AND potential ad inventory moved from X to infinity. Now you can see why Not Provided was so necessary. Without the obstruction any website could model the float. The more advanced websites such as Amazon will model the float and continue to create larger and larger continents within the Sargasso sea.
Finally, let's discuss Snow assertions. Yes the world is undeniably more popular and populous. There is MORE and it is being organized, at least to some significant degree, by social signals. The thing you don't get from Snow's graphics is the flocking and emergent behavior of those signals.
Read Bursts by Barabasi and you come away with an understanding that a. we are not as unique as we think and b. we tend to flock or tribe into packs and clusters. What happens when you are playing in a field and it starts to rain? Everyone who was playing runs for cover (flocking behavior in response to specific stimuli).
The web only SEEMS massively random. In fact, for those "psycho-historians" to borrow a term from Isaac Asimov capable of seeing and patterning the BIG DATA being produced the world quickly smooths into patterns.
This is why Amazon has 1.4B pages in Google's index. At that level, many times even CNN.com one of the sites that must have the highest amount of unique content, there is clearly a new game being played. Snow and Guillaume are discussing the cosmetic layer we have influenced with out UGC social signals.
Behind the cosmetic layer there is still flocking behavior-herding traffic into huge divots created by Facebook, Amazon and Twitter. Zuckerberg correctly and foolishly identified the game as a play for infrastructure.
Mobile is disrupting the massive investment in status quo infrastructure by the web's biggest players AND it is eroding margins. Margins ARE ALWAYS slim in the beginning. I remember when Amazon was new they were everywhere, would give you free shipping, wash your car and bring you a pizza for an order. AND Amazon was buying just about at retail for about the first year.
I was a wholesale distributor then (1993 - 1999) and we couldn't figure out what Amazon was doing. What we didn't realize was Amazon wasn't playing the same game we were. Amazon could have cared if they made a dime then. They wanted the NAMES on their FILE. NAMES = POWER. NAMES = MONEY.
Snow and Guillaume are both RIGHT and WRONG. They are right that our rebellious use of social signals has wobbled the web's surface and mobile is creating a wobble in infrastructure. They are wrong because, in the end, the math always wins, the patterns will emerge and scale will harvest the crop.
As we eat we will feel more HEARD and IN CONTROL when in actual fact that feeling may be mostly an illusion. At the infrastructure level what was once 3 players may expand to 8 to 10 as the telcos elbow their way in, but the principle is the same just the players are a tad different.
The good news is the unrelated game for artifice does feel over with Panda. I think of Panda a little like my mom. My mom knew how reluctant I was, as a teenager, to clean my room. She knew the pattern so well she didn't have to actually see the room to know its state. Google's Panda is an algorithmic mom. They have power distributions on every element of your website (including expected UGC). Violate those means and you will be sent to Siberia. Why?
Because the math always wins.