new problem- aggregating comments across posting areas

So Marianne posted a response to the media consumption question. And that post has been syndicated through her main blog, then a group blog, and now BlogHer.

How does she aggregate the comments? How do I? I want to follow this conversation, but tracking comments on all three is silly. Even if they each have an RSS just for comments.

How do you aggregate comments for this?

(The most recent syndication is here- worth reading.)

using facebook to promote a cause

These Come From Trees organized a Facebook group to further their cause. It has 123 members.

I just got this message:

Diggs to date: 9

Smart use of facebook. +1 to Peter Kazanjy. The sticker/idea he is spreading:

it doesn’t matter what you say if you are seth

Proof that it doesn’t matter what Seth says. Because people will still talk about it.

One sentence post, 3 trackbacks so far.

my media production; response to david thulin

David Thulin responds to the Media Consumption Diet question by asking what media we produce. I will follow his format.

Email
Yesterday I sent about 40 emails, maybe half of them internal to our company, about half to clients, and a few to other people.

Blogging
I write on average once a day during the week. I leave a comment or two per day on average, though the way it really works is that once a week I use my lunchtime to read and comment on blogs. My posts are a bit on the long side, but not by much.

Video/Audio/Research
I don’t do any of this for public consumption.

Facebook
I import my blog into facebook, and I write notes and scribble on friends’ walls. This is mostly public media production.

Comparing this with my media consumption diet and my social consumption diet, it becomes clear that I take in a great deal more than I produce.

Is that good? Bad? If it were the case that I take in a lot of information and output only quality, then I would look favorably on this imbalance.

What do you think, Jeremiah and Ian?

great error messages: technorati

Hat’s off to Technorati: yes, their site is down, which is annoying, but I laughed at their error message.

Good contingency design.

UPDATE: And their title tag says “Technorati is borked right now”- brilliant.

google analytics tutorials by ian lurie

You’ve heard of Google Analytics, but chances are you are not using it as effectively as you could be.

My boss Ian has started a video tutorial series on Google Analytics. He (and I) use this tool every day, so he can tell you what parts you should be paying the most attention to.

Google Analytics Tutorial 1: Setting Up

Google Analytics Tutorial 2: Essential Stats

Google Analytics Tutorial 3: Digging Deeper

Why these are great- Ian tells you in simple language how to use Analytics to make decisions and take action. Go watch.

If you have a specific analytics subject you want Ian to cover in a future video, leave a comment after one of the videos.

social consumption diet: understanding social networks and media consumption

Marianne Richmond alerts us that, of the people responding to Jeremiah’s question about media consumption diets, few of us say we use social networks on a regular basis.

“I found it interesting that of the Media Consumption posts that I have seen thus far, only Chris Saad (MySpace) and Brian Keith (Facebook) even mention those social networks as a source of communication…the only social network receiving much attention thus far has been Twitter.”

Jeremiah asked, how do you consume media?

Here is the new question: how do you keep in touch with friends and family?

Could be online social networks like facebook and myspace, or mail, or phone, or email. Or Twitter.

I am asking the same people who answered Jeremiah’s question: Jeremiah, Martin McKeay, Chris Saad, Marianne, Ian, and Zac.

do-it-yourself internet marketing

DIY internet marketing- for when you don’t have the money to hire the experts.

3 steps:
1. Know your goals and know the room.
2. Prioritize.
3. Measure, measure, measure.

Know your goals and know the room
Answer these questions in as much depth as possible:

• Why are you doing internet marketing?
• Why are you doing it yourself, instead of hiring experts?
• Who are you selling to? (This may not be the same group as you sell to offline.)
• What constitutes success? ROI, press mentions, getting more leads?

(These questions are taken from Ian’s free internet marketing book.)

Prioritize
To start, there is pay-per-click and search engine optimization. There is also usability, contingency design, banner ads, blog ads and reviews, modifying site code, email marketing, and blogging and podcasting. If you are going to do your own internet marketing, where are you going to start?

Don’t try to do all of the above at once. Instead, choose one, and get to work on that. For example, read up on search engine optimization (you can find a For Dummies book that covers the basics). Once you have your site to a basic level of optimization (title tags are targeted towards correct keywords, as are headers and page content, there is no duplicate content, and your site is fully crawlable), then go on to the next area, which may be PPC.

Know what kind of results you are looking for in each area. SEO can take months to have a serious impact on search rankings. So doing it yourself means you put a lot of work in, and then see little or no results for months. Understand this before you begin optimizing your site.

Measure, measure, measure
You should be using Google Analytics as your primary analytics tool. Not familiar? Check out Google Analytics Video Tutorial 1: Setup and Google Analytics Video Tutorial 2: Essential Stats which will show you the basics. The main thing is to get in the mindset of measuring everything and to learn the basics of Google Analytics so you can track what you are doing.

At a more advanced level with Google Analytics, if you are selling a product directly online, it can show you how much money you are getting for each click you bring to your site. That means you can spend up to that amount and still be making money. Measure this kind of data whenever you can.

Conclusion
For your first step, read Ian’s primer, Conversation Marketing. Then think about your goals for internet marketing, prioritize those goals and what tactics you are going to use to get them accomplished, and measure everything.

Or, if you want a leg up, consider hiring Ian as a short-term internet marketing consultant. Cheaper than a longer-term contract, while you still get the broad perspective and experience you want in an advisor. $7500, and you end up with a Playbook that helps you understand your priorities and the steps you should take to accomplish your goals. Read more here.

fight bad press: what an internet marketing agency can do for you

A person called asking about if we could help his company fight some bad press they were getting. Let me share with you what I told him.

Here’s what an internet marketing agency can do for you to fight bad press:

1. Help you assess the damage. There are many freely available tools (from Technorati to Google Alerts to Socialmeter) that can help you find out what people are saying about you. All of these tools you could use yourself: our value added is helping you understand them and integrating them into your response.

2. Craft a response. Step 1 is dealing with the specific bad press- do you say you are sorry, do you accept responsibility, etc. Step 2 is crafting how this response will go out- what forms, in what media. Our value added is that we market in a wide variety of media, so we can bring you the big picture.

3. Distribute the response. Start blogging, commenting on others’ blogs, talking with the leaders in the area you are dealing with, communicating to customers, putting ads on google.

4. Continue the conversation/keep up-to-date. We can help you define progress as measurable goals. We’ll use analytics tools to see who is listening, through which media. And we’ll help you evolve how you are responding to the situation as it evolves.

The price depends on the problem, and what other kinds of marketing. Frankly, fighting bad press for you and then going home is not appealing. Fighting bad press as a start to doing regular search engine optimization and marketing for you is appealing.

BEFORE you hire an agency to help you fight bad press, check their record. Do they have experience in PR? Do they blog? Do they get high rankings for search terms important to their focus? Due diligence is as important as always, especially while you are dealing with PR problems.

If you are having to fight bad press right now, give me a call and let’s talk about your situation.

usability: make your address plain text, for the love of god

Whatever you do, please, please make your address plain text so I can copy and paste it. That mapquest map? I don’t want to use that. I use Google Maps. I need to copy your address so I can find out how to get to your business. There is NO EXCUSE for using an image file for your address. You could at least show me the address lower on the page in plain text.

Also bad, though not worse, is that your directions are also in the image file. So I can’t copy and paste them either.

You went out of your way to make it hard for me to use your site. Shame on you. I can fix the problem in less than 5 minutes, and when I go by your place of business tonight, I may offer, because your Directions page is criminal.

(I would show you the page I am describing, but I think you get the picture. Usability and design are NOT separate, never have been, never will be. Code accordingly.)

UPDATE: Now I am even more in pain. You have a Contact Us page. And you have your email address. And I can’t email you by clicking on it, which is annoying, but it is an image text, so I can’t even cut and paste. You just wasted another 15 seconds of my life.