PardonMyFrench

The World Is Flat For Twitter, As In Global Growth Has Stalled

Twitter’s international traffic continues to flatten as the microblogging site’s number of unique visitors flattened in November. Twitter saw 60.3 million unique visitors in November compared to 58.3 million unique visitors in October. Though the site saw a rise of 2 million visits globally, this slight uptick in visitors only represents a 3.5 percent increase in traffic. Twitter’s November U.S. traffic has stalled as well; U.S. traffic rose by a little over 100,000 visitors, to 19.37 million unique visitors after seeing a 8 percent decline in traffic in October.

via www.techcrunch.com

PardonMyFrench - Love Twitter but waiting for enhancements to service. Twitter Lists is nice, but it became another number to ignore...

Twitter and Spam

Every day I get a couple of new ads to my Twitter followers which I'm thankful for; I kind of wish I had more,  but it is what it is.  What I find increasingly annoying is the lack of information Twitter provides you in the notification email.  All we really get to see is are who they are and what their follower profile is which is kind of useless.  Why not grab the last 5 Tweets, the website URL, and the bio?  Seems so easy to do.  I get the thought process of driving traffic, but does Twitter really need the short, likely quickly abandoned click generated from this email?

Perhaps you think I'm being picky but for little cost and design impact, including that in the Twitter user experience would be more helpful.  And, it will cut down on the spammers who are looking to drive traffic to the page while boosting the legitimate marketers who would be happy to get quality followers.  Seems like a no-brainer to me  - help the legitimate folks and marketers, increase usability, and cut down on the spammers.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

P.S. I did follow the above Twitter account.

Twitter Killing RSS Feeds?

While writing that post below about President Obama's email supporting Jon Corzine.I found this great attack site called The Corzine Times.  The site is well constructed and just like any good attack site has the latest anti-Corzine articles and news stories including economic statistics.  The only thing that was missing was a link to Twitter.

Yes a link to Twitter.  That's how I get a majority of my news these days.  The site did have a link to a RSS feed which I thought - well how 2007.  I can't remember the last time I added a new RSS feed and although not as long, I also can't remember when was the last time I looked at the feeds I'm receiving.

I think Twitter killed RSS feeds which is probably ok since hardly anyone knew what they were anyway and even less knew what it stood for.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

What Twitter Is and What Twitter Isn't

I read two very interesting posts today.  The first one was called Everyone an Instapundit and the second one written by a person I have a lot of respect for Roger Simon, CEO of PajamasMedia was called Top Twitter Target.  Both of them were very similar in that they tout Twitter as a political movement that the conservative political machine gets more than the liberal political machine.  Roger Simon best summarizes this feeling with the following line "It is no accident that Twitter, an extremely non-elitist form, would appeal to the right more than the left. In these times, as those of us in Hollywood know above all, it is ironically the left that is mired in elitism".

Twitter is many things, but it is not some great gift to rescue Republicans.  It is also not something that the liberal world ignores or doesn't understand.  Let's not get all giddy that Karl Rove has a lot of followers and uses it quite often and that we've successfully organized Tea Parties via Twitter.  I watched Michael Patrick Leahy co-found #TCOT (top conservatives on Twitter) and it was a brilliant move.   However, Twitter isn't a strategy, it is a tactic.

• Let's debunk the theory that says conservatives get it but liberals don't.  Google is in discussions to work a deal with Twitter.  Google is run by Eric Schmidt.  Eric Schmidt is an adviser to President Obama. Liberals get Twitter.
• The liberal blogosphere has HuffingtonPost, DailyKos, MyDD and thousands of other sites hanging off these big three.  That generates tons of comments where the action really is.  As an extended member of McCain's campaign (digital strategy, online advertising, search marketing) I tracked how these folks organized and they do quite well with using more than 140 characters.  They don't need Twitter in the same fashion as Republicans.  Sure you can call the liberal blogosphere elitist, but the people involved don't care.
• As much as conservatives and Republicans have tried, sites like Townhall, Michelle Malkin, Instapundit, and Redstate don't generate the same enthusiasm from everyday folks that are not focused 24/7 on politics.  Those people (unfortunately) gravitate towards a site like HuffingtonPost.  I'm not saying that's right, but look at this Alexa ranking.  It isn't even close.
• Twitter is a vehicle to deliver news and organize thought streams.  Uninterested thought streams means no utility.  I'm a huge fan of Eli Manning, but his Twitter stream with almost 9K followers is useless.
• Twitter is an echo chamber of other thoughts, brand messages, and communications.  When it grows up and starts to make money, it will most likely look like Facebook.  Facebook is a place where content is generated and where real utility can be delivered.  Twitter isn't Facebook.
• The cloud imagery of Twitter is perfect.  People Tweet and if you aren't tuned into them you miss them.  Just like clouds float by in interesting shapes that you miss if you don't take the time to look up once in a while.  Twitter gets people involved who are watching that minute and once those Tweets are missed, they are hard to find again.
• Yes you can organize via Twitter.  You can organize meetings and organize messages.  It is a great utility, but to have a political movement you need to get everyday people involved.   There are 200 million worldwide users of Facebook, where do you think everyday, non-politicos are located today?
• Like mobile text messages, Twitter is not a branding tool.  It is a tool of direct action.  Sure Obama announced Biden via a text message but in the corporate marketing world, that was about as noteworthy event as a new price promotion from Vonage.

I'm a huge fan of Twitter, but without content it is SPAM.  Without a Republican message that will deliver better ideas than the Obama administration Twitter won't rescue us in 2010 or 2012.  Tea Parties work because they are a great idea and the message delivered any non-politico can relate to.  Let's not sing about our political Twitter prowess, let's try and come up with messages that will win the non-Twitter masses.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

I'm Down to My Last (Paper) Newspaper

Any day now my wife will call into The Star Ledger and cancel my daily subscription.  That will end my subscriptions to paper editions of daily publications leaving only my once per week local newspaper The Observer Tribune.  Yes - no more daily Ledgers, Wall Street Journals or Daily Records (unless of course I'm interviewed in them). 

Will I miss the paper versions?  I don't think so and here's why:

Twitter + iPhone + RSS Feeds = Faster and More Interesting News

Yes the iPhone-Twitter combination killed any chance I had as a continuing paper subscriber.  Why?  Simple I used to love to read the newspaper on the couch or in the men's room or just waiting around.  Now, I have my iPhone and sure it gets flagged, but now I have all my news, books (via Kindle 2), email, and etc at my palm and it easily replaced my Star Ledger.  So where am I getting my news without the newspaper?

• WSJ Twitter feeds for national and business news
• ESPN Radio via XM and ESPN Tweets for national sports news and commentary
• Daily Record for New Jersey and local NJ news (ht to one of my favorite Twitters @meghanvandyk)
• I get Yankees news from @MLBYankees and of course ESPN
• The Star Ledger Twitter feeds gives me breaking news, NY Giants news, and NJ breaking news
• I subscribe to Paul Mulshine's RSS feed because Paul doesn't have a Twitter feed yet
• The iPhone besides providing me with Google Reader and Twitter, I've also downloaded Apps for The New York Times (yes I wrote that - see below) and AP News.  BTW - Star Ledger gets a LOT of their stories via AP so why pay for the paper edition
• Heck, the iPhone has Suduko Apps so that paper addiction is no longer necessary
• Fox News first thing in the morning and CNBC in the afternoon for business/stock information

With all of this electronic news, why would I subject myself to wrapping up newspapers every weekend?  No more.  The iPhone with Twitter has helped me to kick the paper newspaper habit.  Unfortunately, I'm not the only person as paper newspapers are slowly going out of business. 

Join the electronic revolution and ditch your paper newspapers.  I did.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

NY Times Note - Yes I still think the NY Times is biased towards the liberal left.  However, I do enjoy it when they take the Democrats to task when that occurs on the rare occasion.  Plus, I did miss their Business, Science, NY Food, and Sports stories but now I'm back thanks to my free iPhone App.

Skittles.com Revamp - Genius or Did Mars Spend too Much Time at Hot Dog Johnny's?

Twitter was all the rage this morning with the revamp of Skittles.com because it seems the folks in Mars' marketing division revamped the site so it is a 300x250 ad unit with a picture and links.  When you roll over the boxes it can either expands into landing pages or pops up a Twitter search results page or even Skittles's Facebook page. 

Unfortunately for Skittles I didn't see too many flattering posts.  Most people thought the revamp of the site was a hoax to drive traffic.  A lot of people thought that their marketing division spent too much time at Hot Dog Johnny's because they are relying on Twitter for consumer generated content or Facebook.  The Twitter ones could be particularly damaging because people  can post (or did post) unflattering comments that can appear on their homepage.  Or even worse, the frequent downtime of Twitter could display a Twitter apology.  Of course the classic web designers think it is an awful execution.  Me?  I think it is brilliant for a product just like it.

5 REASONS WHY SKITTLE'S REDESIGN IS BRILLIANT MARKETING

1. How much site utility did they have to start, none?  Yes that's right.  Why would anyone go back to this type of site?  Sure if there was a promotion, it would generate traffic, but this is candy.  How many times are you going back to look up the calorie value?  Sure if they had recipes, you'd get better traffic, but for candy? Zero.
2. Twitter Provides Sporadic Customer Updates.  Again this is a low involvement product.  How often are you going to Tweet how great the greens are?  Sure they could be taking a beating today from so called marketing gurus, but after the first few days blow over, they'll have Twitters world wide generating content for them.
3. Facebook Tells You Which of Your Friends Are Fans Too.  Yes.  When you look at the Fans on their Facebook page, you'll more likely than not see some of your Facebook friends who are also fans reinforcing for you that they like Skittles too.  That's an awesome feature because they just turned your Facebook friends into product ambassadors for Skittles.
4. No More Website Content.  No need to figure out how to update the content often.  Let Twitter and Facebook do it for you.  The rest of the site is media information, product information, and contact links - basically low involvement stuff that changes infrequently.
5. Websites Can Be Subservient to CGC.  People will spend a lot more time on their Facebook and Twitter pages (Google too) than they will ever spend on a CPG site like Skittles.com.  So instead of trying to pull people away from pages they'd rather visit, Skittles figured out how to keep their website front and center by making it a DHTML overlay.

I wrote a post a while back asking if you really need a website and it appears the good folks at Mars read a fellow Warren County/Morris County's blog post (Long Valley is about 10 minutes from Hackettstown).  Sites that won't update their content often or don't provide utility to bring people back on a regular basis should pay close attention to Skittles.com. 

Do you always need a website or should you just rely on Facebook and Twitter for your content?  Very interesting question and I wish Skittles.com a lot of success.  I think it is brilliant.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

Seriously, Your Business Needs Twitter

(FYI - My fellow Jersey neighbor and favorite ClickZ reporter Kate Kaye was kind enough to text me a reminder link to a story she wrote at the end of December called Despite Debate, Brands Find Value on Twitter.  Check it out too)

I've had a lot of meetings in the past few weeks (before my vacation) with companies, large and small, where Twitter has been a topic of conversation.  I'm a little surprised by the lack of understanding of Twitter and how it can help companies.  So, I thought I'd give some free advice that I normally charge money for to all of you marketers and agency folks who think Twitter is a flash in the pan and not useful for business.  However, before I give my five free business tips, I'd like to issue this challenge....

If you work in an agency, profess to be an internet guru, build websites, or are in marketing and you don't have an active Twitter account (>100 updates and following at least 50), YOU HAVE NO REFERENCE FOR WHETHER TWITTER IS VALUABLE OR NOT.  That's right your opinion doesn't count for a Tweet.  You have no valuable reference to comment. 

Get an account, load up a picture, find some friends, look at the people your friends are following, and load on an add-on like Twitbin to make your Twitter experience better.  Give it a shot.

ERIC'S 5 FREE TIPS FOR USING TWITTER FOR YOUR BUSINESS - LARGE OR SMALL

1.  Communicating with Co-Workers:  Yes a simple one.  Setup your own private account for your workgroup and share ideas.  Use # hashtags for setting up keywords so you can easily retrieve Tweets on subjects.  Take notes on what people say in meetings or conference calls.  You know why you should do this for your business? Quicker communications and more efficient modes of sharing data.
2. Customer Contact:  Setup a professional account especially if you are at least a mid-sized business.  All of those email communications? Make them Tweets.  Special offers? Tweets.  Customer complaints? Direct messages to you.  Services outages? Tweets with regular status updates.  You get the idea.
3. Website Traffic:  Yes you know you still want some and need some.  Why else are you wasting money on say direct mail.  Twitter is cheap (free right now for business but that will probably change) and if you don't want to engage in customer service, at least realize that social media on the web is moving towards status updates and short messaging bursts.  Whether that is Twitter, Facebook or Mobile, you need to learn to market in 140 characters or less and generate enough interest to have people go to your website for more information.
4. Customer Research:  Not the scientific kind, but have you ever wanted to get a massive amount of customer feedback quickly for little fees?  Getting ready for a focus group and need to fine tune some concepts?  Post a question.  How about trying to get help with a software problem or hardware problem?  How about a new offer idea or potential sale dates?  There's one thing that I've learned on Twitter is that people love to give you feedback.  How about seeing what people in your local area are concerned about?
5. Monitoring Your Brand:  This one is so simple that you have to do it and you are crazy if you don't.  Go to Twitter Search and type in your brand name.  On the Twitter search results page, setup a RSS feed of the results and then see what people are saying about your brand in real time.   Here's a sample search on AT&T.  Wouldn't you like to know what users are saying about your product now?

Oh and here's a bonus one for you.  Setup a Twitter API so that when someone purchases one of your products a Tweet can be sent from their Twitter account telling their followers that they just made a purchase.  In order to do this put a few optional feeds on your checkout confirmation page that allows a user to self report their purchase, Twitter account name, and password so they can opt in to have that Tweet posted.

That's it.  Five reasons plus a bonus reason why your business should be on Twitter now.  All of it virtually free for the moment and the only "cost" is some time, permission, and a little coordination with PR.  What's stopping you?  Oh yeah.  That's that voice in your head telling you Twitter is a waste because you haven't figured out how to use it yet.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

Other Local News Cos Should Follow The Daily Record into Twitter

I regularly read up to four newspapers during the week.  The Observer Tribune for local Long Valley news, The Daily Record for Morris County and NJ news, The Star Ledger, and The Wall Street Journal.  These companies all have the same problem which is dwindling newspaper subscriptions, advertisers that have become more sophisticated and realize that newspaper advertising is awful (exception is if it is really local advertising), and faster news stories available via blogs and Twitter.  What they've also probably have figured out is that online advertising, though the wave of the now, can't possibly make up for the shortfall in offline advertising.  Hence the cutbacks in staff and for papers like the LA Times, Washington Post, and The New York Times cutbacks in integrity.

Yes that's right, newspapers are figuring out that while the web is really their only future, the future probably won't be filled with as much ad revenue.  In order to get the ad revenue, they need to compete with finicky readers who demand instant news and with local blogs who can get stories out quickly.  This fracturing of the web means less traffic, but that's why I love that The Daily Record took the plunge into Twitter.

Yes Twitter.  The Wall Street Journal gets it, but The Observer Tribune doesn't.  So what does The Daily Record know that other local papers don't...

WHAT LOCAL PAPERS CAN GET FROM TWITTER

1. People demand instant notification when important stories come out
2. People don't hang out on local newspaper sites all day long, so you need to continually drive traffic
3. RSS feeds, believe it or not, are not the desired communication vehicle.  Heck, even if you knew what they are, you'd have realized that you need to visit a page or your outlook to get an alert.  This is so impersonal, yet a Tweet is personal
4. Tweets can actually drive traffic to your website.  I've found I get way more traffic from Tweets than I do from email/RSS subscribers.
5. Eventually there will be a revenue model so the more Twitter subscribers a paper has, the better it will be.
6. The Tweets and re-Tweets have huge pass on value and word can spread quickly and virtually for free

The Daily Records gets it.   Perhaps some day other local newspapers will wake up a realize that just having a website and hoping people show up is not to way to monetize websites or increase traffic.  Embracing new technologies like Twitter, Facebook, and the iPhone will help lead the way to more revenue.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

Do You Really Need a Website for Your Business?

I'm back home after spending the past 2.5 days in Atlantic City's Borgata Hotel for some meetings and one of the more interesting comments mentioned was whether businesses (and to an extension campaigns) need websites.  This isn't the first time this has come up so that's why I decided to write a post on it. 

Before I put some thoughts down, if you are an eCommerce site you need a website.  Sure you can use Google Shopping/Checkout but that really isn't an online store for you.  Yes you can go the Amazon-eBay route which will work in the beginning, but eventually you'll need an eCommerce site.  Personally, I'm leaning towards not having my own corporate website and just go the blog route.

10 THOUGHTS YOU SHOULD HAVE BEFORE YOU SPEND BIG $ FOR A WEBSITE

1. Website are often just static pages that tries hard to get you to return over and over again via SEO, bookmarks, emails, etc.  Sure you can add blog components to keep content fresh, but if your site is not primarily about being a blog-news generating site, you are probably better off with other options
2. Now if you have a blog, you probably notice that a lot of your readers get your content off-site via email or more likely a feed readers.  You can still make money in the blog feeds with advertising and then if they want to make a comment they can click over to your site.  However, notice that you can get your message out and brand yourself as effectively offsite as you can onsite.
3. I don't know about you, but my traffic on my site has plateaued in the 150 daily page view range.  Granted I've focused less on traffic in the past 6 months, but I get the majority of my traffic now to my blogs from Twitter links and SEO results.
4. Twitter has changed the way you promote yourself and push information out.  People subscribe to your brand to receive quick, pithy messages and then decided whether to dive in or not.  Basically Twitter can act like your Outlook Preview Pane and once again remember people are primarily interacting with your brand offsite. Also, I personally have way more Twitter followers (560+) then I've ever had on my RSS subscribers or average unique website visitors.
5. Social Network sites like  Facebook have way more utility and way quicker updates then you can possibly have unless you are the king of spending like President Obama.  Your brand in Facebook is more powerful because of the embedded tools, linking, widgets, and commenting functions embedded within Facebook's basic functionality.
6. Have I told you that you can build a great looking website in about 1 hour of work by using Typepad or WordPress?  Now it would be blog based which helps quickly generate content but the ease of use and price (basically cheap + consulting/design fees if you need help) makes it invaluable. 
7. You can even add in Google Checkout to process your eCommerce activity if it isn't too large of a store on your blog site.
8. A combination of landing pages, YouTube channel pages, and Facebook profiles can deliver a cost effective and efficient marketing campaign.  For example, here is the Captain Morgan for President page on YouTube which links over to the key page at Facebook.  I can't go into the marketing details but this combination was very cost efficient at getting 20K+ Facebook supporters.  Think of what you would know about your supporters with this efficient combination.
9. A static website takes resources to keep running including an agency to host and build pages, plus some content management tools.  The cost doesn't just stop once the site is built.
10. Finally, think about how you are going to get traffic coming back and the tools you need to measure what people are doing on your site.  That probably means Google for SEO and advertising and Analytics for your tracking.  Big sites require big expenses for tracking while the blog-Analytics costs you around a cup of coffee.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

Lessons Learned In Web Marketing While I've Been Gone

So I starting blogging today after being on a vacation since my Dad died.  To be perfectly honest I didn't really feel like writing anything.  I had no ideas in my head and ignored reading a lot of my news feeds. 

It gave me a chance to figure out why I've been writing this blog for the past few years.  It definitely isn't due to the ton of traffic or the cup of coffee I generated every few days in advertising revenue.  Anyway before I answer that question, I thought you'd like to see some numbers and what I think of them.

DATA OBSERVATIONS AND MARKETING TACTICS LEARNED FROM A BLOGGING VACATION

1. The number of RSS subscribers increased from 81 to 99 even though I made no new posts.  This means that more people are using RSS feeds to get their news rather than email or cruising by websites.  You need to stay focused on RSS as your outbound communication platform and not email.
2. My site visits averaged out to about 100 per day.  While this is low for me, I didn't have any new posts.  The vast majority of this traffic came from articles that I wrote that appear very high in search results.  These include politics, online advertising, AT&T, and Ballistic Coins.  Don't forget when you write your headlines that catchy titles may be creatively cool, but direct search engine friendly ones help you with traffic.
3. My number of Twitter followers has grown to 234.  In fact I get one or two new subscribers everyday now.  You can't run a blog now without cross posting and directing traffic to it via Twitter.
4. I started playing around with FriendFeed but forgot all about it.
5. Understanding what people do on your site, where they come from, and what they click on are very important.  For example, I found it interesting to know that someone decided to look to see when I mentioned Barack Obama in posts on my site.
6. Whatever happened to my del.icio.us link posts?
7. Does anyone use technorati any more?

Basically in the end I write this blog as what it was originally intended for.  A web log of what's going on with me.  I do get a kick out of when people come up to me at events and call me out as PardonMyFrench.  It does help me demonstrate that I do know a lot more about online marketing than just online media buys and search marketing.  People can easily find me on the internet and it helps me control my own spin and build Google Credibility.  Seriously it is fun for me and is my voice.  That's all it ever was and it feels like I can speak again.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric 

Twitter Forcing Me To Use New Tactics to Get My Message Out

Back in the day (circa 2 years ago) after you wrote your post you needed a way to let your readers know that you have new content.  A co-worker of mine at Harrisdirect named Lisa Perez told me, just send out an email blast whenever you have a new post.  That was solid advice, but I'm too lazy to email my personal list. 

I focused on search results rankings from day 1 and that pays off for me all the time but that attracts new readers.  I subscribed to FeedBlitz for free which still works, but sadly I'm down to 28 subscribers now (I think I topped out at 150).  Feedburner for RSS feeds is still a must have and I have 100+ subscribers, but in a Twitter world, you have to change your tactics.  Here's why.

Right now I have over 185 followers and it grows every day. I get new requests all of the time and when I post a lot on Twitter I get a ton of new followers.  I use Twitbin so it posts new Tweets from the people I follow and it makes it very easy for me to Tweet.  I post work related meetings, personal events, but what is a must do for every blogger now is to post links to you blog articles.  It is just basic good CRM now and you can't live without it.

Believe it or not, I think more Corporations should be using Twitter for short message updates too.  Sure you can't put a lot of content in your Tweets, but at least you can write a quick summary with a link to your new content.  I've had a love hate relationship with Twitter in the past, but I've worked out my own differences and I've been in the love category for a while now.  Bloggers and corporations shouldn't ignore it anymore.  Otherwise you might wake up one day and realize that your email list doesn't perform like it did in the past.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

Using Tweetscan to Monitor Your Brand Online

I've had a rocky relationship with Twitter.  These days I'm on the useful side of the discussion and mostly because I can ask people for help and get answers pretty quickly.  Plus, it is interesting to see what people are posting on Twitter.  Using Twitbin as an ad on to Firefox definitely has enhanced my user experience.  However, from a pure work standpoint, you can't live without Tweetscan.

Tweetscan allows you to search Twitter for certain keywords which at first perhaps doesn't seem like a big deal.  However, if you create an RSS feed of your Tweetscan search results you now have a way of monitoring what is being said about your brand.  Now you get real-time monitoring of what people are saying about your brand in 140 characters or less.

I set one up for a certain Presidential Candidate that I'm working for, not that I have that much to do with the brand, but I like to see what is being written in Twitter.  So far, I haven't uncovered much that would surprise you, but Tweetscan is a piece of cake to use for monitoring the chatter of a brand.

If you are involved with a brand, setting up Tweetscans via RSS feed is a quick way to monitor what is being written online via Tweets.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric