Innovating Search at Warp Speed

When I got into search and SEO a few years back, the focus was on creating a great web page or site and to build that up over time through links, conversions, improving copy and promoting the hell out of it.

Today this is the last thing that I would recommend to a new site. The reason is we are focused on the now, or rather on time. Let's take the recent Iran election as a quick example. If I typed in "Iran elections" into Google, what do you WANT it to return?

You want Google to tell you what is going on in real time over in Iran. You wan the latest news stories - even yesterday's news is really irrelevant due to how fast things develop. If a site that had been optimized over the last few years for the key phrase "Iran election" came up at the top of the rankings, you would be disappointed and would need to keep looking.

Knowing this, Google, and more than a handful of new search applications are moving to a real time web. Perform that search for Iran election (even though as I type this it is now a few days old) and you will see blended results:

(Click the image to enlarge)

(Click the image to enlarge)

The top photo shows recent Google News selections. These are time updated and crawled to show you the most up to date news on the key phrase. You can also see that organic results from Wikipedia display headlines for the 2009 election. The number one result from Boston.com is from June 15th, 2009 and #2 The Guardian is from June 14th. This gives the searcher the most relevant "new" information on the topic.

The bottom photo shows you blog posts that are being spidered for the terms and are also fresh posts. Lastly you see related searches. These terms are derived from searches that others are making in real time on Google.

Now take into consideration all the Social Media stuff and ways to search topics and keywords on these sites. A Tweet from yesterday, even if super powerful and helpful, is no longer relevant. An article that hit Digg's homepage on Monday is long forgotten by Friday.

How does search keep up?

One cool thing that Google has done is given its searches "search options." On Monday I am going to be giving you guys an awesome video that walks you through Personal and Company branding implications for these "search options." Sorry to make you wait, but the video is awesome and has some cool backend stuff.

What about other engines?

One of the most relevant search engines in today's world is Twitter Search. Josjua Odmark from Search Engine Journal wrote this about Twitter Search yesterday

We all know how important keywords are in content thanks to Google. Twitter is teaching us how important these keywords are in our Tweets. Relationships are created via the keywords that are in the Tweets and people are finding Tweets based on those keyword searches.

He also listed some problems with Twitter search, some that can even be implied into other engines:

• Punctuation - not returning results that have ! and ? at the end of words. Hopefully this will be fixed soon.
• Absolute Matches - Singular and plural forms of words are counted as not the same. Although a trick would be to search for the plural and the singular would be returned as it is part of the plural word. Thus searching for iPhone will not return iPhones but a search for iPhones will return iPhone because it is part of the root.
• Word recognition and typos - Twitter search does not make the distinction between health care and healthcare being the same. It is not getting Google smart and showing "did you mean" when you mispell a word.
• Timing - While you want relevant searches, Twitter only returns the Tweets based on phrase and time. Spammers are taking advantage of this, by putting keywords and phrases into Tweets while promoting affiliate products and the like.

Where do we go from here?

So Twitter Search is certainly not the answer (yet) as the web has so much going on outside of Twitter - videos, photos, news, products, articles, yadda, yadda, yadda.

I found a real time social search engine courtesy of my trusty old source Mashable yesterday - Collecta. This shows results in real time for stories, comments, updates and photos. This gives you a good picture of what is going on right now on the web. Here is a sample search for Gen-Y. You can see it picked up 23 results in the last 2 minutes.

(Click the image to enlarge)

What about Bing?

So I am not going to say I have played around in Bing like I live in Google, but I did a few searches and here's what I saw. I performed the search for Iran election and below is the screen shot.

(Click the image to enlarge)

You can see that the related searches on the left seem relevant. The news results at the top are very real time (indexed only between 1 and 2 hours prior to this search). The organic results show a mixed of long time trusted links and new sites. The one I find interesting is IranElection.org. They are a new Meme tracker that popped up during the election process. I think this is a great real time source for information.

Not bad Bing, not bad. (I feel like I am talking to Chandler from Friends everytime I talk about Bing).

So Where Does This Leave Us?

Honestly, for the average person - not much of this is relevant today. The search engines do a fairly good job of displaying a mix of "real time" data and highly optimized content (you know - old school organic, great content and on page stuff, incoming links and Google trust factors). For the techie and geek people, we can expect more experimentation from the Search Engines and new applications and add ons to enhance our user experience.

For SEO types and site owners, the formula is the same, but magnified. If people are looking for content in real time, you need to produce content in real time. If someone wants a video on gardening, that is less than 4 minutes long that was made in the last week, well if you are a gardening site, you need to have content to match that. It means more work if you are going for organic rankings.

Don't panic or go on a content rampage, but some things to consider may be:

• Instead of releasing 10 videos in the same day, spread them over the next 2-3 weeks so you always have fresh videos.
• Properly tag, title and describe things. Tell the search engines what your stuff is about.
• Look in your analytics and see when search engine, twitter and social media traffic is coming to your site. If you see a lot of Twitter traffic coming in the early morning, it would be wise to Tweet at those times with your keywords.
• Get on a regular schedule. Makes it easy to manage.
• Build stronger brand awareness. This way they are doing branded keyword searches rather than generic searches. Much easier for someone to buy from you when they search for "your company name" vs "what your company dies."
• Give your clients/customers/web viewers ways to share your content. Even on static or product pages, let your people share your videos, content, etc and Digg it, embed it and email to a friend.

Search is getting smarter and in turn you need to get smarter too. There is much to gain from search and social media traffic and they are quickly blending together.

Question to ponder:
What do you think of the current state of search? What would you like to see? How is social media effecting your traffic from search engines?

Remember to check back on Monday where we have an awesome video on using the new Google stuff for Personal and Company branding. I think you are going to like it.

-Greg Rollett

Demand vs. Budget vs. Scale

One of our clients is making some great progress using Social Media and engaging with folks online in the local community. They are doing so good that we are having impromptu meetings with the managers almost daily for the last week or so. This is good, but is the attention both sides are giving to a small social media plan worth it?

Here is the thing.
For all the work, going back and forth, re-working policies and trying to make one influential social media person happy worth it for all parties? After all the hoopla, the links, the blog posts, the meetings and headaches, there have been 2 official orders since implementing Twitter @ orders. I think that may equal $30-40 or so.

As the agency, I think there are many things that can be done to improve the situation and use social media in their everyday business. From adding notes on their receipts to adding URL's to napkins or to-go boxes, and adding live screens to the restaurant. I do think this would make a difference in their bottom line and would love to see the impact it has so we can scale it to larger businesses and help other mom and pops out with a tight budget.

So what is the budget?
It's not huge. We're not talking McDonald's money here. We are talking about a mom and pop restaurant in which the owners pull shifts, managers work plenty of overtime and the servers could use a few extra tables to help with the bills. So how do you scale social media to increase sales without taking away integrity from regulars, shifts away from employees and focus away from management? And still be authentic.

This is something that we have struggled with. I'd love to get a 40 inch plasma displaying tweets above the bar. Is a $1,000 investment worth it to make a few sales here and there? I don't think so. Is monitoring Twitter 24/7 to take in some orders, make some folks happy and continue to learn about the tools that were a foreign language only 2 months ago? I do think so. Is continuing to engage and create great content themed around their culture, history and restaurant important? You betcha. Has searched increased since we came around. Yup. Has business increased and produced and ROI. Heck yes.

Training and upgrading
As we move forward with this and other clients, I think employee training is becoming more and more a top priority. Social Media is not a marketing strategy in itself, that much we know. But it is also something that we need to take the plastic off of and really sit in to understand. If employees don't know about your Facebook page, then its a fail. If they don't know about discounts shown on a text message, its a fail. Treating employees as part of your marketing plan and mixing that into social media habits is a large next step for us and for many companies this year. The success Zappos employees have with new media is a great start and success story. Some other clients have really grasped that hand holding is just a band aid.

Small Business Scaling
The bigger the budget the bigger the opportunity. I don't believe that statement for a second. Being small means moving faster. Could you imagine if McDonald's took orders over Twitter overnight after one person said that they should? I don't think so. Being able to have freedom and quickness is an advantage that small businesses have with social media. If this Twitter ordering thing doesn't pan out, there will be another move. No harm, no foul. And if tomorrow we produce $1,000 in sales from Twitter orders, maybe I'll push for that flat screen.

Thanks for the enlightening conversation Ted Murphy, Etan Horowitz, ElRoss and GC Koupaki (I am sure there are more of you too).

What are your thoughts on small business, social media and scaling?

-Greg Rollett

(Photo courtesy of tedmurphy)

The Restaurant Social Communication Gap

photo by Felipe Bachomo

There are some fun things happening on Twitter. People are questioning if brands have a place on the service. Superstar Chris Brogan was able to tell the tale of IZEA and clear up sponsored posts with Jeremiah Owyang through commotion on Twitter. As an agency we are looking at the brand power of Twitter and harnessing its listening and action power.

As we are steering more and more into the hospitality industry (a good thing, giving us focus), we are trying to NOT be the company that says, hey you need to Twitter just because everyone else is jumping on the bandwagon. As some agencies in the past jumped on the blog bandwagon, it is almost all but proven today that corporate blogs suck. We don't want our corporate or brand twitter accounts to SUCK. There is so much transparency, trust and education that can be wrapped in 140 characters.

The problem with the hospitality industry
It may not just be hospitality, but I can only call it as I see it. The biggest problem is a lack of communication between management, marketing and the employees who interact with a customer.

Ted Murphy has been digging into Pancheros lately due to their active partaking in Twitter. I have said before that I think Joel is awesome and their Social Media initiatives are a great example of how to get started and just listen. But...Ted alluded to a pretty powerful point,

I told both the cashier and the owner of my local Pancheros that I tweeted about Pancheros and they both had no idea what the heck I was talking about.

(photo courtesy of Ted.me)

Scary!
This happens a lot with marketing that is handled in home office and not in the field. Joel is doing a great job of interaction and being a face to his company, yet 99% of Pancheros employees have no idea that Joel is the Jared of Pancheros.

I would imagine the Corporate communication chain to look something like:
Corporate big shots --> Joel's boss --> Marketing Team --> Joel --> Regional Managers --> Store Managers --> Cooks --> Cashiers and other staff.

Local Marketing
We are working with a small sushi restaurant here in downtown Orlando (disclosure, they are a paying client, however this post is the workings of my own mind and has not been influenced by the fact that they help pay the company's rent). This small restaurant has a mean lunch crowd and some great specials. To help get the word out, we have been targeting people on Twitter in downtown Orlando who are looking to do lunch with friends. This has led to twitter coupon codes, words of the day, facts of the day, other special promotions and a decent Twitter following.

Orlando Ichiban is a small business for all intensive purposes so the communication channel probably looks something like this:
Owner --> Management --> Cooks --> Servers --> Hosts and other workers.

We deal directly with both management and the owners. So then how in this small chain can the message of their advertising campaign get lost?

Simple answer
No one knows what is going on! Management doesn't deem that their advertising is important enough to pass along to people that may not be affected by it. How many times have you been at a restaurant with a coupon, gave it to the server only to turn to their server buddy who says,

"I've never seen that"

who then proceeds to go to the day manager who says,

"I'm going to need to call the GM on this,"

who then tells you that the coupon is only valid at the "other store."

How to get the team in the game
When a sports team GM signs a new player, launches a new promo or decides to give away free tickets - everyone knows about it. The players know, the fans know, the concession people know and the ticket people know.

They know because they care.
Management and the players care about making the fan experience memorable. The fans care about the players and the team and being a part of that tradition. The food vendors care about making the best hot dog so you remember how wonderful it was so next game day you buy another one. If there is a special everyone knows, because everyone is talking. Fans talk, players talk, the commercials and print ads are talking.

Restaurants need to talk. I know you host shift meetings. Talk. What is going on? What are guests talking about? It does't matter if it is good or bad, just talk.

What do you talk about?
If your brand is on Twitter, do a Twitter search and see what the conversations are about. Did your Twitter handle have a conversation about a certain menu item? If so, that would be a good conversation for both cooks and servers to know about, so everyone is prepared. Listen on Google Blog and News Search. Did someone blog an amazing review of your food? That is super powerful. Did you put coupons online, in the local penny saver, in an entertainment guide, did you do a contest with bloggers that have coupon codes or words of the day.

The idea is to

• Inform your staff
• Create excitement that will flow into your customers and maybe they will spend more money
• Keep management at ground level - no one is above knowing what the customer is talking about
• Know what you have out there
• Continue to be creative and innovative
  

We are working hard to educate our clients on the importance of being knowledgeable and hopefully helping others do the same. In times like these, the more weapons you have over your competition the better. Budgets for eating out are trimming. Knowing how to best serve the customers you do have to give them the maximum consumer experience will help you get through these times and even thrive.

Open forum, what tools are you using to communicate with restaurants?

-Greg Rollett

Twitter Feeds 4,000 Homeless Invididuals

My wife loves Twitter. She loves the fact that instead of calling up our friends or texting them to meetup, we have a Tweetup. She loves that I Tweet about the most interesting things and my followers care enough about it to continue following.

She is bullshitting. Doesn't get it. And I'm cool with that.

When I had a bad day last week, the Twitter community was there to get me back in the swing of things in a big way. It played out like this:

The donor can be found here if you want to thank him too. (I kept his name anonymous, but I have no problem displaying, I will leave that up to him!)

I am not sure how this played out but the path that I led had at least a play in the matter. Below is the stream of events that lead to the donation and the direct feeding of 4,000 homeless Orlando area individuals, courtesy of Rock For Hunger.

1. Created a personal brand that encompassed my entire package (Rollett Marketing, Music Marketing, Rock For Hunger, Social Media, Gen-Y and so on)
2. Reached out on Social Media sites (blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc)
3. Created loose relationships with people (blog comments, Twitter replies, introduction e-mails, etc)
4. Continued past relationships and built new ones - never settle on what you have. There are so many interesting people that can teach you so many things.
   
5. Build a brand that is recognized in the community - speaking at local events, joining user groups/organizations, etc.
   
6. Don't ask, but participate - My start-ups need money, Rock For Hunger can sure use some donations, etc, yet I do not ask for anything, but I do tell the stories that are involved in the process, hoping that someone will be inspired. This can include volunteering, donating some canned foods, helping out with research, sending out some links or yes, lead to a great donation.
7. Give back - You cannot solely be a taker. Give back to your community, volunteer your time and send some links out to make someone else's day brighter.

When the day is done, more times than not, you need to believe that you are doing the right thing. It is very easy to get caught up in your day-to-day and focus on the projects in front of your face. There is absolutely nothing wrong about that. But seeing the power in helping someone out, well, that is more power than going at it alone could ever be.

Thanks Twitter, not just for the act of kindness, but for the community and power that you bring. Wait, no, thanks to the community. Twitter is just the tool that we use to reach out to each other.

For those looking to know more about Rock For Hunger, please visit their Blog, which is back up and running on its regularly scheduled postings. The Fest is coming soon too, November 15th. I heard that G-Ro is bringing the Sneakers back for one more show! Just a rumor though.

-Greg Rollett

How Fast Are You?

image by josef.stuefer

Between instant messaging, Twitter, all the real time Social Media monitoring tools, mobile and even cable companies with DVR boxes and Smart remotes, how fast is your business?

• How quick can you respond?
• How fast can you engage your customer/fan/client?
• How fast till the project is done?
• How fast till you know someone is talking about you?
• How fast till you do something about it?

I saw today that Verizon is showing off some tools at movie theaters, where you text in a reply, watch a commercial or video promoting a Verizon product and then all the results of the texting show up on the movie screen. That's fast.

I mentioned that Grooveshark answers their fans near instantly.

In a recent campaign, I wanted my client to play pop culture text message trivia with patrons while the waiter or server got their drinks and put in their order. You don't have to wait. You don't have to go home and enter codes. You play at the table with your phone. If you win you get a coupon that you can use instantly. Not on your next visit. Not on certain dates in the future, instantly.

Clients are impatient. They want to know when their product is ready, but they want it ready faster than you can produce it. Show them things. Make them feel the project is getting closer to having their hands on it.

Clients also want results. They also want them today. They want traffic and conversions now. Is the content you are creating Digg worthy? Is the traffic Digg brings results worthy?

Mark Krupinski and I have been talking about Social Media Measuring tools. We did this over a conversation and then on Twitter. Within minutes, Mark had set up demos with Radian6 and Techrigy.

On my end, Radian6 started following me on Twitter before I knew they existed. They proceeded to join Doterati, a Central Florida Interactive Marketing Community I am helping to build and market. The CEO then sent a direct Tweet to me.


Let's quickly add that I got a comment on my last post from someone at Collective Intellect, another Social Media monitoring too. It's good to see all these companies using FAST as a selling point.

That's fast!

How fast are you?

-Greg Rollett

Know the Social Media Audience

photo by sadaiche

There are a lot of people jumping into Social Media. Setting up Twitter pages, Facebook groups, jumping into FriendFeed or whatever the latest gimmick or hot spot is. I like to think that they coming for the right reasons. To be a part of a community of like minded professionals, to chat with friends, to meet people that share similiar hobbies, interests, etc or even to talk about their accomplishments to people that opted in to listen.

The problem most companies, business or individuals face is that they enter the club without knowing what crowd is there.

Imagine walking into a night club expecting to see a rock band:

• You get to the parking lot (the homepage | landing page)
• You wait in line (get the super secret ALPHA or BETA invite code)
• You pay the cover charge (Fill out their sign-up paperwork)
• Walk inside and start ordering 2 for 1's, only to realize that they don't serve alcohol and play a style of music that you don't find too appealing. (SEO's on Digg, Pedafiles on Myspace, etc)
• Instead of going somewhere more suitable you start talking to the girls at the bar, they walk away, you walk back up, they walk away, you walk back up and so on and so on (SPAM, SPAM and more SPAM)

This is my problem with a lot of the marketing going on with Twitter. My latest case in point is Music Marketer David Hooper. I think most of his articles are good and offer value to his readers. I had a problem though with his latest e-book on Twitter for musicians.

I value Twitter, and the relationships that I have on the site. I agree that being an early adopter gives you an advantage and extra vision before the bandwagon comes in. Where I disagree is the fact that Hooper is not a good Twitter user. In fact, he doesn't follow anyone. He does not participate in conversation. He does not use a tracker to see conversations about his own name, let alone music marketing conversations that are happening across the platform. Oh, and the link spam is just awesome.


If you do not understand the platform, do not tell others to abuse the system. It will destroy the community that Ev Williams and Biz Stone have created and that so many of us love. You cannot "master Twitter in 10 minutes a day." If you think so, you are missing the conversations. You are not getting to know your fans, your peers or witness the beauty of the site. It's just blind, waste of time promotions.

With all Social Networks and Social Media sites, you need a 2-way conversation. Where Myspace failed was not in its crappy architecture, it was in the users who abused it for promotion, and the bigger bands who never wrote back, kept their site static and had a 1-way conversations with their fans.

They pushed out news. They pushed out shows. They NEVER listened.

Before you walk in the club, find some people who go there. Find users who use the site and get results and conversions.

Grooveshark is a company that gets Twitter. Andrew Wise, their business relations partner, has his ears glued to every mention of the work Grooveshark, and is sure that within minutes there is a response made.

I remember saying that I was looking for an oldie on Grooveshark via a Tweet, and within seconds, a message from @Grooveshark asked if I found what I was looking for.

The key to Social Media is to listen. Are you listening?

-Greg Rollett

Twitter Sucks, But I Still Run Back

I wasn't going to get into it. I'm not an A-lister or super Twitter member, like Scoble. No one writes articles saying that I am single handily breaking the damn site. Not even close. I got a head full of ideas, could use and extra 4-15 hours in a day and use Twitter to communicate with those that share similiar views.

This is my Twitter experience today:


Yup, a whale saying too many Tweets. The biggest problem with Twitter is upsetting their users. Or is it letting down their users. Either way it sucks. A service with so much potential and so much praise from so many places, can't get their act together.

They just raised another $15 mil.

The general public still doesn't get Twitter. Neither do some of its members who either:
a) only self-promote
b) don't follow people back or
c) never join the conversation (that little @ sign is actually a good thing on Twitter)

The 2 main problems for Twitter:
a) Crossing into mainstream popularity
b) Being able to support the mainstream popularity

Personally, the hype around Friend Feed as an alternate or replacement is not there for me. It took me almost a year to have "good" people to follow and "great" conversations to happen on Twitter. How long is it going to take before I can convince all the people I hyped Twitter to, to now go and join Friend Feed.

For me, I don't care what the platform is. I only care about the people on the platform. I still use Myspace daily because my people, connections and business take place on Myspace. I will continue to use Twitter as long as the conversation is happening there. Once the conversation stops, so will I.

And heck, the downtown gives me time to do productive things, like write this post about how much Twitter sucks, but is still one of the most valuable web tools there is.

Maybe they should ask Blaine Cook to come back, even remotely. I remember him speaking at FOWA in Miami and he could barely finish his talk because he was running a very in demand site. There was still downtime when he was there, but at least it got back up in a reasonable amount of time.

-Greg Rollett

Follow more of my Social Media madness on Twitter. It's like a Virtual and Geeky version of the Max (you know Kelly, Zack, Slater, Jessie, Lisa and Screech "cool" place to catch up on gossip and tasty milkshakes - mmm, if only Twitter had milkshakes then no one would care about the downtown)

Gen-Y Bloggers vs. Reality

This is almost a follow up from the post on interviewing Gen-Y candidates last week. I had 3 of my new employees in the conference room and we conducted a beginner’s training for the services Rollett Marketing offers.

After the initial welcome, greetings and introductions I jumped right into it. Problem was that I assumed my Gen-Y counterparts knew about blogging, RSS feeds, Facebook opening up its backend, even basic SEO. How wrong I was.

None had written a blog post before. Only one was on both Myspace and Facebook and they thought RSS was the acronym for “Really (that) sounds stupid.”

Being in the new Brazen Careerist Blogger community, I take for granted the things that I use everyday, from Open Social, to Google controlling my mail, calendar, search, RSS feeds and blogging platform, to opening a new Social Networking account everyday for the last 6 months (not totally true but it sure feels like it).

Then came Twitter. Am I a bad teacher or do folks in the real world just not get it? Heck, come to find out that some Gen-Y bloggers are just getting it. (Welcome to Twitter Meg Roberts)

Sometimes I think I am way ahead of the curve. At FOWA Miami I felt like I was way behind. In talking with friends, colleagues and my new co-workers I am truly finding out that Social Media has really not hit the masses despite constant attention from mainstream media.

Sure we all use Pirate’s vs. Ninja’s and get countless other requests from Facebook every morning, but we have no idea where they came from or that we can create them from our dorm room.

As people become educated or intrigued in Social Media, it is up to us, the pioneers, the daily users and kids who might just know what’s going on to help, teach and explore this medium with other users. I am confident that the 3 people that I am training will be amazed at this new world that is opening up to them. There is such a great advantage to using this technology, not only for networking and playing Scrabulous but for learning about ourselves and taking control over our careers and lifestyle. And heck, if you throw up some AdSense you can make a few bucks in the process.

So, Gen-Y bloggers, what do you think? Are you experiencing some of the same things in your career, your start-up and even from mom? I’d love to find out!

Greg Rollett - Twitter me folks, I love a good laugh

Jay-Z, Smart Move With American Gangster

Jay-Z is back, oh, but you already knew that. Man, I’m late on this breaking news thing. American Gangster came out 2 weeks ago and landed Hov with his 10^th number 1 album, tying Elvis for 2^nd all time number one albums. Not bad for a trapper turned rapper.

Jay is a marketing genius; there is no doubt about it. He has a plan before it becomes a plan and sometimes the public doesn’t even notice it. Shawn Corey Carter’s last album, Kingdom Come was released with a video paid for by Budweiser. Remember the car chase with Dale Jr? Yea, Jay didn’t cough up a penny for that. He got sponsors, big ones.

New album, American Gangster. Do you think it is any coincidence that it dropped only a week 3-4 days after the movie of the same name dropped and landed at number 1 in the box office? I think not. Yea, Jay says it is loosely based around the movie, the movie inspired him, blah, blah. Jay worked around a deadline made by himself to get the album shelved at the height of marketing paid for by the major movie studios. Everytime the film was mentioned, a tag line about the unofficial soundtrack was mentioned. Jay was everywhere the movie was. Every interview with Denzel had a question about the Jay-Z album and their thoughts on it. More free press.

This is the ultimate hustler. He not only runs the baddest label in town, Def Jam, but has refueled Roc-A-Fella with a position to succeed just in time to make the 4^th quarter king a few bucks and keep his name in that elite John Elway staple. Freeway just dropped Tuesday. Beanie Siegel is next. Kanye is still the king and making headlines through tragedy and triumph.

You want to know what is even funnier from a new media standpoint? This was all done without a Myspace or Facebook campaign. No YouTube battles. No Twittering necessary. It was done through old media and the big corporations pulling the big bucks. Late night TV shows, TRL, MTV and BET. Movie studios, XXL, Rolling Stone.

I don't surf the net
No i never been on myspace
Too busy letting my voice vibrate
Carving out my space

-Jay-Z “Beach Chair” from ‘Kingdom Come’

Myspace joins Google’s OpenSocial. So what?

It has been driving me crazy with the amount of words being poured into this Myspace vs. Facebook, Microsoft vs. Google and whatever other rivalries you want to throw out there. All that matters at the end of the day is the users and their experience on the site.

With Google’s new evil empire that includes Myspace, LinkedIn, Six Apart, Orkut, Salesforce, Ning, Hi5, Plaxo, Friendster, Viadeo and Oracle, all these networks are going to have the same Apps made by the same developers that are competing for the same poor kids who could care less. Where is the user uniqueness? Facebook almost has it, Myspace should have had it but would rather be a Video network than a social network. Myspace's improvements have been lame and still don’t address the major problems like bad servers, SPAM, and realistic advertising that doesn’t involve….shoot Paris Hilton in the face and win a prize.

Facebook has received all the press in the last few months and received a hefty sum based on a bogus $150 billion evaluation. Google on the other hand has had their stock hit $700 a pop and bought every social site they can get their hands on. Their announcement of the OpenSocial platform comes on the heels of a losing battle to get a stake in Facebook.

This is bringing the tech media to hype up a Don King style “Only in the Internet” match up between Facebook (the 0-8 Dolphins) and Google (Tom Brady leading the Patriots). Only problem is, no matter what season it is and the records of the teams, its going to be a battle and both teams will live to play another day.

Remember, this is only the beginning, but the user needs to be Google’s major focus or they will lose. Myspace still has the numbers and is making changes, albeit a little late. I think that they remain relevant in the entertainment market until Facebook jumps on the band bandwagon. Google is going to do what Google does and unfortunately everyone will follow. Why do we have to play be their rules? Who gives a rat’s ass about page rank?

I know I’ve made the switch like many others to GoodSearch and while the results aren’t always quite as good as Google, at least I’m playing by my own rules. (If you don’t have a charity in mind, how about Rock For Hunger?)

So go ahead app builders, make you app on 100 different platforms, I would. Get that advertising and VC money while they continue to throw it at ya like rats after a hat trick. And Social Networks go ahead and clone each other and still do numbers like fans at a Florida Marlins game. Just remember the major players and why they are the major players; community and communication. Myspace, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, etc are running things because of the community and the people that interact within the community. The best network platform in the world doesn’t do anyone any good if there are only 100 people in the social graph.

And Facebook, give Scoble some more friend requests. That way he can stop ranting about it every other post. (I’ll still keep up on Scoble even with his ranting, I get his Tweets every 20 minutes.)

That’s all for today. Maybe I’ll start writing some real posts again soon, but right now I’m going to get ready for Gym Class Heroes in Orlando, FL at UCF tonight. BTW, they are doing an amazing marketing campaign with Verizon Wireless and are hosting an in store at the Waterford Lakes location as we speak. Pretty smart marketing there! Somebody get that up on Flickr or Twitter for me.

-G-Ro

Optimizing my Social Network Participation

I was an addict. Morning, lunch, night and every 15 minutes throughout the day I was checking Myspace. Getting updates, reading bulletins, friend requesting anyone that looked cool or might like my music was my daily regimen. I loved it. I still even have a soft spot for it. But what happened?

SPAM.

I was part of the problem. At the peak of my band’s popularity on Myspace, we were using FriendAdded religiously. We had a schedule. I had Tuesdays and Fridays and was responsible for friending 500 people, with a tag along 500 emails with a bland introduction of our band that I’m sure no one read. It also contained a link to buy our CD (which people did actually buy!).

The band broke up. That Myspace page is useless. All the hard work is gone. I still have my personal page though and most of my better connections are there. The problem with that page? SPAM! No bragging rights here but 3,000 friends on a personal page is absurd. All the bulletins are promoting products or are some form of a survey that no one really cares about.

So I moved on. Still conduct my business on Myspace. My calendar, contacts, venues, studios, marketing companies, radio personalities, bands, and some close friends hang out there relatively often. I book clients through that page still. I sell my beats and studio time through Myspace. So, no, it is not a complete waste. It is just not helping me network any further. I a no longer building relationships, personal relationships, through Myspace any longer.

Enter Facebook. I never believed the hype. I still do not see the $15 billion dollars being put to amazing use but it does things better and more efficiently than Myspace or any other social network that is currently at market.

First thing is that I can actually find my friends, colleagues, and people that I want to network with. I type in their name. Wow, revolutionary. Second, is the news feeds. I no longer need to visit every person’s slow loading page to see what they are up to. I have it all on my home page. Wow, revolutionary.

I can go on and on, but you have Facebook so you know its boring features. Next is Twitter. You ca read all my thoughts on it at my Twitter love tale. For this I will say that as soon as my peeps jump on the Twitter trail the world will be a better place. Pick and choose who you want to follow (stalk) and get their info, instantly. Better yet, a business can send me updates before the paper comes out or the emails get read. A conference can send tweets on room changes, panel speakers, and parking arrangements as they happen. Restaurants can throw out their daily specials. Job boards can post their new positions before they go live on their site. Shipping companies can notify of your package information. News is breaking on Twitter before RSS feeds.

This now brings me to Flock. Read about it on Mashable last week. Now it’s on. A little bar that runs on the sidebar that updates my Twitter feeds, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr. Wow, revolutionary. Move over Firefox. Has a built in RSS Reader. Siyanara Google. A media bar to see any of my pics and insert them into my blog postings in less time than it takes to Tivo the new iTouch commercial.

What this means is less time for wasting around the social network sphere and more time working, getting the information you need right now, before it breaks and faster than you could at any point in human history(or maybe actually and physically networking and building with the people you have stalked during your social networking).

Who cares about Google? Who cares about Viacom and Newscorp? I can receive any information that I want, on my own time from the people that I want to hear it from. And in turn, I can tell the world what I know, how I feel about it and join the conversation about it online on my own time.

But what do I know. I’m just a punk musician that stumbled into this world and ran with it. Oh and be sure to add me as a friend on Myspace (http://www.myspace.com/grobreakn). I will appreciate the company and will gladly ignore all of your survey bulletins and vote for me crap.

-G-Ro

Moe's = Terrible Customer Service - Post Lunch Thoughts

(Read Pre-Lunch Moe's Post Here)

So we got to Moe's a few minutes after 12 to get in the back of a long line, many with cell phones in hands. Sweet, the free burrito thing is going down. Our turn to order, I flip out the Sidekick and show the Burrito making lady the text. Not only were they not accepting this virtual coupon but she had an attitude to boost. My group of 5 was very disappointed and apparently we weren't the only ones. We stayed. Sweet tea sucked. Chicken was cold. Staff was rude. Oh, and no FREE burritos.

Many people waited in the 10-15 minute line during rush (lunch) hour to get their free burrito and were told at the counter that it was a no go. Why? This franchise was not partaking.

So not only did they not counter this spark in customers but honoring the coupon, they couldn't even give out a free soda, chips or something else of small value. Worst of all they did it with an attitude.

So yea, you won't see me and my crew at Moe's anymore! Moe's boycott in full effect. Way to ruin a perfectly good promotion. To the Moe's that did honor the coupon I applaud you, but your franchisees need a swick kick in the ass and maybe a course in customer service 101. Moe's lost out in the opportunity to gain new REPEAT customers, you know the best kind.

So siyanara Moe's. Chipotle has cheaper and better food anyways!

-G-Ro

(and no I won't even help you get your localized Twitter going, learn it your damn self)

Viral Marketing With Moe's Southwest Grill - Pre Lunch

Well, last night was not my best choices in having a few (read: a lot) of beers. Now it was in celebration of a co-workers 50th birthday (which is quite awesome, because she rocks harder than most of my 20 something friends). Why is this important? I needed some greasy food for lunch today.

What happened next was, "Yo Greg text Moe's to 22700 and get a free burrito."

Sweet.

Now, in less than 10 minutes this message had been forwarded to my Sidekick phone book, my Twitter Tweets, Facebook profile and office IM. The outcome, a little lunch party at Moe's, all because of their little text message campaign.

I'm sure this isn't the first time they have done something like this, but I am certain that it isn't the last. The reply I received from Moe's was

Glad ur in the neighborhood. Stop by for ur free Moes Burrito. Simply show this text at the register. 4 future offers rply MOR

Brilliant! The fact that I can now reply with MOR and get more free burritos will ensure that I become a repeat customer.

I will do the post lunch wrap-up to see if anyone else there used this viral tactic as well as how the bill still added up with the free burrito.

(Do you think I can get them on Twitter? Seems like this would be right up there ally-I'm on it, business cards in hand)

-G-Ro

It’s a Twitterific World

I’ve had an up and down relationship with Twitter for the 3 months that we have been seeing each other. It started our great, high ambitions, we were talking multiple times a day and the conversations were soooooo meaningful. What a blast we had together. Twitter never talked back and I could always count on lil Tweets to share my every whereabouts with and never got a “really hunny, you’re doing that,” that my wife always yaps about.

Then came the harsh reality that Twitter wasn’t right for my friends. Nobody got Twitter. All the band kids, the jocks, and my college grad friends couldn’t grasp Twitter’s beauty. My Tweets were no longer blossoming. Instead they were ignored and lost amongst the 1,000s of RSS Feeds in my Google Reader. There needed to be a bigger purpose, a light at the end of the tunnel. Then along came a little luncheon at Wackadoos. They were interested in my Twitter. Oh yes they were!

They wanted little Tweets sent out for every occasion, and oh it would be glorious. Then came the one million Twitter add-ons that were could be put on my Twitter like Mr. Potato Head parts. My good friend Mashable even started reporting that the Government had cloned Twiiter and made her into more compact and higher powered, more features like an Ashley Simpson nose job. No bother, my Twit wouldn’t go down without a Lindsay Lohan ‘Mean Girls’ fight scene.

No back and better than ever is G-Ro on Twitter. And I have followers and followees who are ready for my every move. We were destined to make history together, one stupid Twit at a time.

Back to reality, I had to get some craziness out of my overstressed mind. For real people, Twiiter is an awesome marketing and networking tool that is gaining in popularity everyday. With some really cool open-sourced tools, Twitter can be accessed from your Firefox browser, your desktop, or your iPhone (or Sidekick, the iPhone before the iPhone for kool kids like us). Even your Facebook Status can now be updated via Twitter!

Do you have some interesting ways of using Twitter for your personal, business or networking options? If so, I’d love to start sharing some here. I’ll go first, Wackadoos is currently sending out their daily specials via Twitter and a Twitter badge on their Myspace profile. Since they are located on the University of Central Florida campus, there is above average internet access and the students and faculty are eating it up, both on Twitter and the ports Bar.

So open up and show the power of Twitter. Before the world gets to it!

-G-Ro

5 Reasons Tattoo Shops Need to Blog

Jumping into Web 2.0 strategies can be as easy or as difficult as you make it. For the technology stumped individual, a blog may be one of the easier ways to get your tattoo shop online. You can set up a generic blog for free, with free hosting. In the beginning, it is very easy to just write up posts and keep it current. As your strengths and comfort online get better, there is a world of opportunity to get great traffic to see your shop and more importantly your artwork!

So here goes 5 quick tips or reasons your tattoo shop should enter the blog world!

1. To create an online journal or portfolio of your work. Blogs do not have to be super long, boring rants about a break-up or bad service. A post can be as simple as a picture of a finished piece, or maybe a new addition to your shop, or before and after work. Maybe you have a unique story about how the artwork came about or a client’s personal situation. If done regularly, you can create a huge online portfolio and time line of your work.

2. Using 3rd party widgets like Twitter, you can post instant updates about openings in time slots, or maybe a party your shop is having in real time, from your computer or your mobile phone.

3. Build relationships and create a network. Use your blog to advertise other businesses that have helped you out, write posts on other blogs and get people to guest post on yours. Musicians that have gotten ink from your shop are great people to network with and almost always are willing to trade banner links or general links. It’s free publicity! Building a network of people and readers has never been easier.

4. Money: Can’t beat that right! Sign-up for advertisements like Google’s Adsense or Kontera’s in-text advertising. This won’t help you quit your day job, but could give you an extra $100 every month or two. E-mail me for more information on how to set this up and who some of the better companies are and how they pay out!

5. New traffic. The more you post, and the more keywords you use, (location, styles, etc) the more frequent your blog will show up in search engine results (google, yahoo, ask, etc). Search engines love blogs for their fresh content and the amount of quality link trading. The more traffic your site receives, the more clients you have an opportunity to meet up with. Also, more traffic results in more individuals seeing your advertising, which equals more money!

There you have it. Putting together a blog for a tattoo shop is easy and makes you an even better expert in your field. Talk about your work, what separates you from your competition, your clients, etc. Have fun with it and it will become fun for you to write and keep current.

If you have any questions or would like our assistance is setting up your blog, please contact us at rollettmarketing@hotmail.com. Keep up the great artful expressions!