Archive for September, 2008
In parts one and two of my online reputation management series, I wrote about a couple of great tools that marketers can utilize to monitor online brand reputation. The two tools I wrote about were Google Alerts and Technorati. Today, I want to discuss a third tool that can yield interesting results, Twitter.
What is Twitter?
Twitter is an interesting social networking platform that allows individuals to communicate short thoughts about activities they are participating in at any given moment. The appeal for most users is that Twitter provides a good way for friends to keep each other up to date with what everyone in the group is doing at any one time. In a way, Twitter is like a mini-blog post, no more than 140 characters in length.
A typical Tweet (what you call it when a user posts to Twitter) may say something like, “On my way to work,” or “At the dentist, can’t wait to get cavities filled.” Of course, the Twitter platform is used many other ways, but this is the basic purpose.
Using Twitter for reputation management
Because Twitter has become such an important medium of communication for real people, you can expect to find all types of conversations. You may even notice that Twitter users utilize the platform to talk about consumer issues like restaurants they’ve been to, products they are using, likes and dislikes, etc. For this reason, Twitter is a good resource to monitor what real people are saying about your brand.
Here how you do it:
Start by going to http://search.twitter.com/advanced. This is Twitter’s advanced search tool which allows you to search through each and every public Twitter post.
Using this tool, you can do create specific criteria to search through the millions of Tweets on the network. You can add keyword terms, locations, date ranges and more which will help the search engine to display relevant results. In the previous example, I searched for all occurrences of the term iPhone where the post was written in English in with a negative attitude. Here were the results:
As you can see, there have been several recent Tweets where users wrote about the iPhone in a negative way. You’ll notice that the results are never perfect, but they do give you a good idea about what’s being said. Also notice in the top right hand corner that you can subscribe to an RSS for this particular search query. This makes it easy to keep on top of the conversation without having to come back to Twitter.com all the time.
Well there you go- another free, useful tool that can help help you stay on top of your brand reputation by keeping watch on how real people are talking about you.
Tags: reputation management, twitter
On Tuesday, Google revealed it’s newest product…G1. Eerily similar in style to Apple’s iPhone, T-Mobile showcased the G1, calling attention to it’s large touch screen, trackball, slide-out keyboard, Wi-Fi connection ability and quick access to Google’s email and mapping programs.
The phone is set to be sold in T-Mobile stores only in the U.S. cities where the company has rolled out its faster, third generation wireless data network. On the planned device launch date, of October 22nd, that will include 21 cities. Included in those cities are New York, Los Angeles, Houston and Miami. The phone will be available in other areas for purchase, and does run on T-Mobile’s slower data network, but it is optimized for the faster networks.
The G1 will retail for $179, which is conveniently $20 less than Apple’s iPhone!
Google believes that in the future, they could potentially bring in more revenue on the mobile front, rather than on PCs, a channel that will generate about $20 billion in revenue this year. Because of this, the G1 features “Android”, a free software, that is a crucial building block in Google’s efforts to extend their search reach and other services to the mobile platform.
In an effort to keep up and prevent Google from extending it’s dominance, both Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are also investing heavily into the mobile market.
On the surface, there doesn’t seem to be anything all that remarkable when compared to other phones out on the market. But Google is banking on the device to unleash the creativity of the software developing community, who are free to write applications for it. Developers will be able to submit applciation to an online store, run by Google, which will apply minimal testing and inspections. Apple has a similar online store for their iPhone, but they keep a much tighter grip as to what applications are available to users. Any program that is similar to it’s own, gets blocked.
Similar to how software programmers can write and create programs for their PC, they will be able to manipulate their phone in the same way, allowing them to modify and innovate.
What will Google think of next?!
Tags: google
Over the past 3 years I have made a transition from using photoshop to design websites to fireworks. Photoshop and fireworks are equally capable of creating anything you can imagine onscreen. However photoshop is more geared toward publishing, graphic design and high end photo retouching while fireworks has become adobes web specific design application. It now has features that allow you to share elements across frames (now called scenes). essentially this is a way to create a navigation structure then allow this navigation to be shared across all frames. If you decide to edit the navigation , your changes automatically reflect cross all frames. Previously in photoshop or fireworks you would have to do this manually or frame by frame. Fireworks has also created a library of common elements you can drop onto your page, items such as radio buttons , scroll bars, check boxes and buttons. Prior to the common library designers would either recreate things like scroll bars or literally take a picture of a scroll bar then place it on the page. Like the share across frames feature, you use these items throughout your design, and if you decide to edit a common item, the changes will reflect globally across the site similar to using a style sheet. All of these enhancements accelerate the process of dealing with client revisions and let you turn projects faster. In a fast paced agency environment – this is a good thing.
Recently I had the chance to demo Fireworks CS4 and enjoyed some of its new features like direct .pdf export and the new pages feature which allows you to create multi scene (formerly called frames) documents with various canvas sizes. I like the new release and it seems to run faster than the CS3 version. Is it worth purchasing the new version ? I guess it depends on how often you use it – but I don’t see version CS4 making your designs any better. Is it Faster? A little bit.
Do you ever wonder why adobe doesn’t create one monster application that accomplishes all design needs across print and web. A super application that could be used to create logos , edit photos, layout magazine articles, create all your web graphics and then wrap it all together by being a fully capable web development tool. This would be a huge task but definitely something adobe is capable of. At some point Im sure its been discussed or maybe its already in the works. Creative suite X? I guess until then, well be using all of adobes products however we see fit to get the job done.
Tags: fireworks
Posted on Sep 23, 2008 by Rick to Social Media
In part one of my Simple Ways to Monitor your Online Reputation series, I wrote about how you can use Google Alerts to monitor your reputation. Today, I’m going to introduce you to another free tool that will also give you visibility into the blogosphere to see who is writing what about your company.
Using Technorati for Reputation Management
In short, Technorati is a blog search engine. Technorati indexes content from over 1 million blogs in real time. It’s probably the best resource to use when trying to track global blogger conversations. You can use Technorati’s massive database and tools to your advantage by tracking conversation related to your business or industry in just a few simple steps.
Once you’ve started a Technorati account (it’s free), search for your brand name or a specific industry term using the search box provided. Take a look at the results that are returned. Are these results relevant for your business? That is, does Technorati return sample blog posts that people wrote about your company or industry? If not, try searching for your brand name using quotation marks. For example, we would search ”that agency”. Other search options allow you to determine where to search and what levels of authority results have to have. See below:
The goal in this first step is to refine the search results so that the results actually show posts that are at least partially about you. Once you’re happy with the results, click the subscribe button as shown below:
This will allow you to receive an RSS update each time something new about your company comes across Technorati. When subscribing to the RSS feed, you’ll have a choice of several options for receiving the feed. Once you’ve set this up, all you need to do is periodically check your RSS feed for updates. As updates come through, you’ll receive a link that will give you information on the blog posting content about you so you can check it out. Hopefully, most of the updates that you get will be relevant to whatever you’re trying to monitor. Of course, there will always be a little ‘noise’ in the results.
Stay tuned for more tips on managing your online reputation.
Tags: reputation management
Maps, remember what an Atlas was? Remember pulling out the 5’ x 5’ map in your car and trying to find where you were on one red thin line with hundreds of streets, highways, parks and shopping centers? I do and it wasn’t so long ago. Nowadays you can find your exact location at point A and a detailed description of where point B is, at your finger tips. It started with the internet, sites such as Map Quest and Google Maps started popping up in conversations of how to get somewhere. Now it’s a house hold tool for us to find the shortest route to the new restaurant that opened…
Map Quest is a basic site; all you need is the business name and zip code of where you want to go. The maps are easy to understand and block out what you don’t need to see. Google earth is a neat program that takes maps to a different level. You can explore the world in such detail, it shows satellite images of actual landscapes, roads, houses and buildings. They also have Google Space that shows you stars and planets, but who needs that.
Well having a great map on your site affects you. Users like to know how to get to your business directly from your site and just about every company that has a website has a map on it. Some are good some not so good. If you don’t have the proper tools to create a map you can drop Map Quest on your page no problem. It’s a plus for Map Quest and an equal plus for the company. If you want to have your own custom map that matches the tone and feel of your site then having a flash integrated map gives you that ability.
Maps are coming a long ways on the internet and I believe they will become even more high tech, this is just the beginning. I have yet to see a map on the internet that blows me away, except for Google earth. I’m excited to see the future of maps; they are about making your life easier.
As more and more news on Google’s new Chrome browser comes online I find myself wondering what the future of the “Browser” is going to be and which ones will remain after the dust settles. Google’s Chrome promises to give Internet Explorer a run for it’s money but there are so many large companies with overbearing and controlling IT departments who have yet to upgrade to IE7 from the dreadful IE6, I wonder how many will actually take the leap to browsers like Chrome of my favorite FireFox 3.1.
There’s no doubt IE6 should be put out of it’s (and our) misery. My concern is not that browsers are getting better, but that we as designers and developers now have more to code for than ever and an even stronger suite for web standards (and browsers that support all of them!).
Here’s my take on the whole situation:
IE7 will more than likely remain at the top of the heap, though not one of my favorites it does support all or most of the most recent CSS rendering techniques.
Google Chrome will give IE a good challenger but will probably never have the market penetration that IE has. Currently there’s no native Mac support but I have a feeling it’s a short wait for this to happen. I’ve also heard through the grapevine that Chrome very soon will have the ability to use plug-ins and addons the same way Firefox does.
FireFox will more than likely remain my favorite browser for it’s addon’s alone, as well as it’s open source community and it’s action to kill IE. The browser runs like it should and renders all CSS properly. It’s easy to develop for, especially with addons like Firebug and Developers Toolbar.
Safari, in my opinion, probably will remain one of the top Mac browsers but it’s penetration into the PC market will remain relatively small especially with the introduction of Chrome and Firefox’s ever growing popularity.
In the end it’s all speculation, only time will tell who will go the way of Netscape Navigator and who’s here to stay.
Tags: browsers
Posted on Sep 15, 2008 by Rick to Social Media
The increasingly socially-responsive Web has made it more important to continually monitor your business or brand’s reputation online. As your customers, potential customers and the media increasing use the web to talk about and learn more about your business, you need to be proactive in monitoring what’s being said. Knowing how your brand is perceived is critical in improving your product/service and customer relations. On the Web, there are a number of great tools available that can help webmasters gain a view of who’s out there linking to and talking about their website and brand. Google Alerts is just one basic tool that you should be using.
Google Alerts
As you may already know, the Google search bots are constantly running around the internet in search of information to index. You can use this to your advantage by having Google notify you every time it finds something related to your brand or business. The easiest way to do this is to setup a Google Alert. This can be done by creating a free account with Google and clicking on ‘Alerts’.
With Google Alerts, you can setup automated notifications to be sent to your inbox each time Google comes across any given keyword phrase, such as your business name or product(s). When you receive a notification, you’ll also receive a link to the location where your keyword phrase was found. Once you set this up, you’ll receive immediate, daily or weekly notifications which make it easy to review instances where other websites talk about you.
What You Can Expect to Find
Most of the time, businesses are shocked to see the frequency and types of places that there brand name appears. Expect to find bloggers, customer review websites and press releases that mention your brand. While Google won’t find anywhere near every occurrence of your alert, you will get a taster of what’s out there.
What You’ll Learn:
* If you’re trying to get the buzz out about your brand or a new product, you’ll get a feel for how successful your campaigns have been by seeing who’s talking about it based on how many places Google finds it.
* If you’re monitoring customer reaction toward a new product, you may see reviews and blog posts written about it.
* If you find no mention of your brand or products, you may want to consider a stronger online marketing campaign.
Tags: reputation management
Posted on Sep 11, 2008 by Rich to Web Development
I recently went to one of my favorite blogs and saw that the author had posted up a neat little trick to help prevent spammers and bots from crawling your site to gain those oh so valuable emails and begin to send you and everyone else who has an email on your site – spam. It’s a spammy spam world of emails and we as programmers need to try to prevent this.
We all know some clients want their emails on their websites.
Our scenario scene begins in the middle of an email conversation:
> Open scene
Us: “What about a contact form?”
Client: “No. I want people to be able to click on it and open up outlook.”
Us: “But some users may not have outlook. what if the user users gmail for example?”
Client: “Well I just want my email on there.” “well then ok.”
> End scene
So although we would try to persuade our clients not to list e-mails on the site, the old saying goes, “the client is always right.”
Well maybe with this little script, we can possibly come to an arrangement and help prevent this spamtrocity (Yes, I just made this word up) from occurring. I used jQuery to do the magic and I offered two different pieces, because to be honest, I just wanted to.
See it live
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 | <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.js"></script>
<script>
$(document).ready(function(){
// First type see comment for example #1
el = $('#email_one');
el.each(function(){
el.attr('href','mailto:' + el.attr('href').replace('|','@').replace('/','').replace(':','.'));
el.attr('title',el.attr('href').replace('|','@').replace('/','').replace(':','.').replace('mailto.','Email: '));
});
// Second type see comment for example #2
$('#email_two').html('<a href="mailto:'+$('#email_two').html().replace('|','@').replace('/','').replace(':','.')+'" title="Email: '+$('#email_two').html().replace('|','@').replace('/','')+'">'+$('#email_two').html().replace('|','[at]').replace('/','')+'</a>');
});
</script>
</head>
<body>
<p>Example 1</p>
<!-- Example 1 :: Just a simple link with the class of email -->
<a href="/yourname|yourcompany:com" id="email_one" title="email me">safer email link</a>
<br/><br/><br/>
<p>Example 2</p>
<!-- Example 2 :: Inside a span with jut some simple info that will get converted to the email -->
<span id="email_two">/yourname2|yourcompany2:net</span>
</body>
</html> |
Tags: jQuery, jQuery examples, jQuery HTML, jQuery tutorial, spam
If you know me, then you know that I love me some PHP. Well in the course of all the years I have been coding, there were and are a bunch of websites that I often reference for a “how to” or to grab a class here and there. Grab a class? you may ask. Of course, why wouldn’t I. That’s like saying “Hey the transmission in my car broke, but I’m not going to go to find another one, I am going to build one from scratch.” Sounds silly in those terms right? well that’s probably because it is. So anyway, Here are a couple of websites that I often go to the see whats happening in my coding world.
1. PHP.net – Obviously this is a no-brainer. This IS the site for PHP. So any function or term used in PHP is probably; wait no its in there!
2. phpclasses.org – Looking for a class? Well here you go. Not too much to explain since its pretty obvious as to what the site is about and if you don’t know, then stop right here, back away from your keyboard and mouse, and escort yourself from your job.
3. phpbuilder.com – PHP Builder is one of those sites that you can pretty much read a bunch of articles on “how to’s” in PHP.
4. hotscripts.com – Don’t want to reinvent the wheel? then here you go. I can honestly say that since my I have always looked at this site to see what they had in the php world.
5. w3schools.com – The W3C is one of the best sites out in the world of Web Development period! with some step-by-step lessons and actual testing environments, this is a really cool site to look into if your starting out or looking to check something out. Everyone cannot know everything.
Well that’s it for now folks. Hope some or all of these sites are useful in your PHP Development.
Look out for Part 2.
Since link building is such a critical process, it’s no surprise that there is so much hoopla over what the ‘best’ and ‘worst’ strategies are. I’ve put together some link building resources below that can help SEOs of all skill levels. Every time I get stuck for link building ideas I take a look trough some of these lists and always get something new. There’s always a fresh approach and I’m sure that at least one of these resources will give you some fresh ideas.
* 131 (Legitimate) Link Building Strategies from Search Engine Watch
* 101 Link Building Tips to Market Your Website from SEOBook.com
* 17 Creative Link Building Ideas from Search Engine Journal
* 5 Rare & Valuable Link Building Tactics
* The Link Building Rap from YouTube.
When all else fails, research where you most successful competitors are getting links from and go after those links. It’s a tedious process but will pay off. Link building can be a tedious process but unfortunately, it’s also one of the most important processes in SEO. Happy hunting…
Tags: link building
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