Since when did bloggers become capitalists?

A detailed look at the alarming trend in bloggers charging PRs for exposure.

We recently undertook an online PR campaign for a prominent fashion brand, the task to seed a movie teaser around a new collection being launched. The movie was good, inspiring and on the whole, better than the vast majority you typically find in YouTube’s vaults!

Over the past 3 years we’ve been responsible for successfully promoting over 30 viral movies and have been noticing an increasingly alarming trend when it comes to around 50% of bloggers reaction to seeding…!

Comments (0)

5 reasons employees shouldn’t manage your corporate blog

So… you’ve decided to embrace social media for all it is, starting with your own corporate blog that’s going to drive you tons more traffic, increase conversions/enquiries, and catapult the company firmly into the future of communications.

BUT you need to decide who’s going to write the thing… your time as a business owner or marketer is too valuable to spend on something with mid-longer term ROI so you have to consider handing over the reins to a colleague (who is just as busy) or outsourcing to a professional agency who can generate the best possible returns for you.

Well, if you are considering getting the troops in the office to do it you may want to read the below, then consider why it’s really not such a great idea to keep it in house:

Too much personality

Expressing personality on your blog is a good thing right? Yes, but too much of it can actually damage your brand. Consider for a moment why you decided to set up a blog in the first place – engage with your prospects, suppliers, clients… and anyone else who happens to come across your brand. If they read something that is potentially a little too friendly, edgy or uneducated then it will reflect on your brand, NOT the individual who wrote it. Without guidelines and rules you’re in danger of wasting your time, money and risking your brand name.

Comments (0)

How to write linkbait blog titles

Great post here about linkbaiting titles for blog posts.

Some of the articles suggestions include:

  1. 10 Things You Didn’t Know about _______
  2. 10 Reasons to Hate _________
  3. 10 Amazing Blogs about ________
  4. 10 Secrets about __________
  5. How Does ______ Work?
  6. How to be Great at _______
  7. 10 _________ Myths Exposed
  8. ______ Myths vs. the Facts
  9. 10 Deadly _______Mistakes You Might Be Making
  10. 10 Shocking Facts about _________
  11. 10 Questions to Ask about _________
  12. Everything You Know about _________ is Wrong
  13. 10 Amazing ________ Videos
  14. The Truth about _________
  15. The Science behind _________
  16. 10 Inspiring Quotes on _________
  17. 10 _______ Experts to Follow on Twitter
  18. 10 Funny Tweets about __________
  19. 10 _______ Rules You Should Follow
  20. How I Increased My _________ Success by 200%
  21. 10 Cool ________Tricks You Aren’t Using
  22. What (insert celebrity name here) can Teach You about _______

Comments (0)

Why it just became suicide for businesses to ignore social media

Recent data from Hitwise shows that Facebook has overtaken Google as the most viewed site in the US. 

For those businesses who have thus far done the proverbial “head in the sand job” re social media - now is the time to sit up and smell the coffee. The power and influence of social networks has reached a totemic and potentially seismic juncture. So what does this actually mean going forward:

1. Businesses are gonna have to take social media more seriously as an online marketing arena.

2. This data further magnifies the already important social media integration changes to Google’s much heralded index - Google Caffeine.

3. If social networks are handling more traffic, where does that leave the humble SEO. Potentially extinct (in the medium term) or at least needing to reinvent themselves as a Social SEO.

4. Given the choice, businesses are almost certainly going to migrate significant amounts of their Google PPC spend to the demographic specificity of Facebook ads. This is great news for anybody who feels uncomfortable with the virtual hegemony that Google currently holds.

5. Finally, those early adopter businesses who have assiduously built up their social media presence over the last few years will be feeling vindicated by the portentous signs of where this social media revolution is all heading.

To add a little bit of extra info into the mix it’s also interesting to note that Facebook is massively outstripping Google as the most searched for web site.

Check out these stats from Google trends:

I concede that if you’re on Google you’re not going to be that inclined to search for it! Nonetheless, I think it adds to the general trend suggested by the recent Hitwise figures.

This post was written by Peter Brady of Orbital Media one of the UK’s top Social Media Agencys. For more info and advice on social media marketing give us a call or send us an email via our contact page here.

Comments (0)

Budget Decision – Printing Glossy Brochures V Social Media Marketing spend

It’s budget time again and if you’re a business owner or marketer you’ve probably got a tough decision to make shortly: Put your money into the ‘classic’ glossy brochure OR alternatively look to reappoint the budget into online marketing (in particular Social Media Marketing & SEO) in the effort to gain more space and business online. Here’s the arguments for investing in social media marketing over more traditional mediums.

An overview
For years many years (we’re talking 10+ years ago) the glossy brochure was an absolute necessity in order to compete. But consider for a moment how things have changed, especially over the past 5 years – in particular how the average consumer digests information today and the sheer choice of information at their fingertips. Thanks to the likes of Google and other search engines, we can access whatever we want when we want – surely this has to be the biggest communication revolution since the drum was invented!

Comments (0)