Is Wikipedia's front page for sale? by Tim Sampson

As the sixth-most visited website globally, Wikipedia is a hot piece of digital real estate. The online encyclopedia is currently struggling to address the rise of publicists and marketing agents who turn a profit by generating articles on behalf of their clients.

"The fact is that Wikipedia's main page's multi-millions of pageviews per year are being turned into a commodity by the PR industry," writes Wikipedia Editor Tim Davenport, who goes by the username Carrite. "That must stop."

Davenport was referring to this website for Tony Ahn & Co., a marketing firm based out of the Philippines that offers to provide Wikipedia pages for its clients. The company boasts a flawless record of nominating pages to the highly sought after "Did You Know?" section of Wikipedia's main page.

The company launched a little over a year ago to fill, what its founder described as, "a dearth of people that could craft high quality articles that met Wikipedia's standards for inclusion." For a fee, the company will create a 600 to 800 word entry with citations, references, and two client provided photos.

Profiting from the production of Wikipedia content has been a notoriously touchy subject for Wikipedians in the past. Last year, a board member of Wikimedia U.K. (an independent, nonprofit organization that fosters the growth of Wikipedia projects in the United Kingdom) was forced out over a conflict of interest involving his work as a publicist for the British overseas territory of Gibraltar.

But Ahn told the Daily Dot that his firm remains reverent of Wikipedia's rules.

"We're very careful to respect Wikipedia's processes for both article creation and DYK nominations," Ahn said. “We neither charge extra for a main page placement, nor do we advertise it as something we can do for clients.”

It's a narrow path to walk for Ahn and his firm. To avoid Wikipedia's conflict of interest rules, he's not even directly allowed to post articles that he or his employees have written for profit. Instead the articles for Ahn's clients are written in a Wikipedia sandbox, then presented to Wikipedians for review. These unpaid editors act as the gatekeepers who decide if an article is up to snuff.

As far as main page appearances in the DYK section, Ahn is quick to point out that none of his clients can pay to have their article placed there. However, he said his firm has a perfect record of nominating pages for DYK appearances that are then independently chosen by other Wikipedians who deem the content worthy.

Ahn sees this kind of semi-sponsored content as essential for celebrities, public figures, and businesses looking to manage their online reputation.“

"If you search for Coca Cola, for example, you notice that the Wikipedia entry for Coca Cola is the first website that is not Coca Cola-owned that appears. This is important from an online reputation management standpoint, as ideally one wants every entry on the first page of search results to be about one's brand. Wikipedia occupying a high slot on page one of search results keeps something else off page."

Although Ahn's tactics are—to most—technically within the rules, his business-savvy approach to producing Wikipedia content has ruffled the feathers of many who say his company is violating the spirit of Wikipedia law.

In the discussion of these practices, Wikipedia cofounder Jimmy Wales had sharp criticism for anyone trying to manipulate Wikipedia for profit, singling out Ahn and calling his actions a "disgrace." Wales has reportedly demanded that Ahn not seek a place on the Wikimedia Philippines board—a suggestion that Ahn has not taken.

"I think you're incredibly blase about the reputation of the project," Wales said to another editor trying to defend Ahn's tactics. "This is completely and entirely unconvincing to me, and would be so to the general public—with good reason. This whole approach to Wikipedia is revolting."

Not everyone is in agreement with Wales. Ahn has many supporters, who've defended him on Wikipedia forums, claiming "he's always been open about all of his affiliations."

Some tried to move the debate away from Ahn's actions specifically, instead raising the questions of whether Wikipedia can remain completely devoid of sponsored material or if it even needs to in order to maintain its reputation.

"Wikipedia is non-commercial, true, but that doesn't mean to say that commercial interests shouldn't contribute to Wikipedia as long as content requirements are met," wrote Wikipedian Prioryman.

 

Optimize Content For Social Media Marketing by Tom Shurville

The way that marketers are approaching promotion of their products is changing. The nature of peoples’ online time has changed too, and as a result marketers are looking to social media sites to get their message across in different ways.

Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest are just a few of the social media sites that lend themselves well to use by marketers to get their products under the noses of internet users. Optimizing content for each of these sites can make the difference between a runaway hit and a complete waste of time.

Twitter

Twitter, for folks who haven’t used it, is a micro-blogging site that focuses on short messages of 140 characters or less. It has become an art form in its own right, and regular tweeters pride themselves on carefully crafting short and punchy messages they can share with their followers to get across views that are to the point.

One of the main ways in which Twitter is used by its many devotees is to share interesting content with followers in the form of links to other sites posted in the form of a tweet.

Funny photographs, interesting articles and entertaining videos can spread like wildfire on the site as users pick them up from others and share them onwards to their own followers. Signing up for a service such as Twitpic, which integrates seamlessly with Twitter to show images as part of tweets, gives marketers the opportunity to share content that users can pick up, enjoy and share to increase awareness of a product or brand.

Facebook

Facebook has become a ubiquitous part of most people’s online experience and as such presents marketers with a valuable opportunity. For many, Facebook is the front page of the internet and the first place they look when they log in, meaning that marketers have an ideal opportunity to get exposure provided they can get the right kind of content to be shared.

Users of Facebook often engage in discussions and debates in comment threads on each other’s posts and status updates. This can be a great opportunity for marketers to get conversations going and find out what their users think of their company and their products. Making videos and pictures on websites with quick links to post to Facebook allows people to share what they see on their profiles and gives the opportunity to track links and shares.

Pinterest

Unlike Twitter and Facebook, Pinterest is not the most social of social networks. Rather than inviting discussion, Pinterest instead focuses on the visual and gives users the chance to find things they like the look of and collect them all in one place.

The biggest opportunity with Pinterest is in having pictures of a product shared with a link back to the company’s website. Pinterest have also included a feature where quoting a price in the description will add a price tag to the photograph to make it easy for users to see what they could be getting and how much it would cost.

In order to get the most out of Pinterest, the most important thing marketers need to do is to ensure a plentiful supply of attractive, high-quality photographs of products. Sharing these on Pinterest and tagging them with common or popular search terms will increase the chances of users

 
Conclusion
The use of social media as a means for communicating marketing messages is growing. In order to take advantage of the desire of individuals to share interesting and worthwhile content with their peers, marketers need to ensure that they’re making their marketing messages engaging and compatible with the various social media outlets to get the best out of the social networking opportunities available.
 

By: Bloggertone LLC.--Tom Shurville – Managing Director of Distinctly Digital shares his latest insights on the current hot topics and trends in the search marketing world. Google+http://distinctly.co  

 

Need help with Optimizing YOUR social media marketing?

Contact us and visit: http://www.janetpennconsulting.com/social_mediamarketing.html

How To Really Use Twitter Hashtags by Jessica Davis

Twitter users originally used hashtags to categorize and identify their tweets. It became so popular that Twitter decided to integrate it into their platform and improve upon it.

Hashtags are now used to categorize tweets, to help twitter users find tweets on certain topics, and to identify trending themes. They are also a great way to get your tweets noticed.

If you didn't know yet, a hashtag is a word or phrase that is written without any spaces and prefixed with a '#' symbol. Like so: #example

With hashtags used in almost every tweet how do you make sure your tweets stand out? Here are a few tips on using hashtags in your tweets to catch fellow tweeters attention.

Follow Basic Hashtag Etiquettes

Don't use more than two, maybe three, hashtags per tweet as it can make your tweet seem spammy.

It is understandable that you want your tweet to show up in as many search results as possible on Twitter but your tweet will have little value if you use up most of the 140 characters for hashtags.

Also, you need to use hashtags that are relevant to your tweet. There may be trending hashtags and you may want to use them badly in your tweet but you will end up annoying your followers and other Twitter users with unrelated tweets.

Use Hashtags That Are Obvious

Sometimes Twitter users end up abbreviating names and using them as hashtags but the abbreviation may not always be understandable. As a result, numerous tweets often get published on the same topic but the hashtags never trend as people end up using variations of the hashtag in their tweets.

Create and use hashtags that are easy to understand so that anyone else tweeting on the same topic can understand and use your hashtag easily.

To make your hashtags more comprehensible avoid writing the whole hashtag in lower case. Use upper case characters to give more sense to your hashtag. Example: #BigEvent

Find The Right Hashtags

Sometimes it is best to use an existing hashtag instead of creating your own hashtag and waiting for it to trend. Finding trending topics is a difficult task even for long-time Twitter users.

Twitter does display the most popular hashtags but how do you find the hashtags that are just beginning to trend?

Some of the most popular tools to identify trending hashtags:

Twubs

What the Trend

Hashtags.org

Track Hashtags

Tracking hashtags can help you find and choose which hashtag to use in your tweet.

Tracking a hashtag can give you an idea of how popular the hashtag will be and there are various tools that help track hashtags.

Real time tracking is offered by these tools:

Twitterfall

Monitter

Be Consistent

Hashtags are best used when promoting events, conferences, etc. Many events take place every month or year; using the same hashtag for every instance of the event is a great way to build a buzz around events. Take for example #SXSW, which represents South by Southwest Interactive, Film and Music Festival that takes place every year. The organizers use the same hashtag every year and it creates a lot of buzz almost instantly.

Use the hashtag that you have chosen for your event on other social media platforms too. Although hashtags may not mean much on every site it will help people identify your hashtag when they log into Twitter.

Remind followers about your event by using the hashtag frequently in your tweets.

Use Hashtags Offline

Hashtags are universally recognizable and smart companies are using them off the web too.

Using hashtags in print advertising will make people want to get on Twitter and find the hashtag.

Some hashtags have even been painted on the pitch by sports teams so that even people watching the sporting event on their televisions will be aware of the hashtag.

Create Q&A Sessions

Hashtags are a great way for users to ask you questions and it is one of the easiest ways to build a buzz around your brand. Many celebrities and famous personalities have used hashtags to answer questions from fans and answering questions hardly takes any effort or time. Users can ask you questions by using the designated hashtag in their tweets and you can use the hashtag to find their questions.

Jessica Davis is a Senior Copywriter with Godot Media – a leading content writing services company. She works closely with other article writers at Godot, creating engaging content for the company's clients. Her other interests, besides content and social media marketing, are technology, sports and fashion.http://www.searchenginepeople.com

Need help with Optimizing YOUR social media marketing?

Contact us and visit: http://www.janetpennconsulting.com/social_mediamarketing.html

The Breakthrough of B2B Video Marketing by Erica Bell

Nearly every business and every marketer are looking for ways to create compelling content that’s fresh, eye-catching and engaging. From customer acquisition to increasing customer retention, content is how businesses are looking to boost their bottom lines. Because of this, businesses are expanding their content libraries with blog posts, infographics and case studies. B2B marketers are increasingly becoming more visual to appeal to buyers. However, they aren’t limiting themselves to images or white papers.  Videos are becoming more popular among both B2B marketers and buyers.

 

The Rise of Video Marketing

Video marketing and digital video ad spend are on the rise. We’re all aware that visuals tend to make a greater, lasting impact on consumers than text alone. Video provides businesses with an opportunity to really tell a story in ways that single pictures can’t. With all the opportunities provided by video, it makes sense that this arena is growing. 55.8% percent of B2B marketers plan to increase their video budget in 2013 (Tweet this!), according to one recent study, “BtoB’s 2013 Outlook: Marketing Priorities and Plans,”  and estimates from eMarketer indicate that US digital video ad spending will nearly double in only four years, climbing from $4.14 billion this year to $8.04 billion in 2016. With video marketing, businesses are able to reach targeted audiences and provide highly relevant content that showcases their business, brand, and often the people behind it.
Content marketing is a hot topic for B2B marketers. Research reports, videos, mobile content and virtual conferences are all on the rise. According to the CMI and Marketing Profs “2013 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks-North America” report, B2B videos as a content marketing tactic increased from 52% in 2011 to 70% in 2012 (Tweet this!). Content is king and videos are on their way to throne room.

The Case of B2B Tech Buyers

IDG Research Services conducted a study to see how tech buyers are leveraging video to advance their decision making process when it comes to new purchases. The study and resulting infographic indicate that 95% of B2B tech buyers watch tech-related videos and that this correlates with purchase behaviors (Tweet this!).  But, why are tech buyers actually watching these videos? They want to:

•Learn how to use particular products (61%)

•Find information on products they’re interested in buying (58%)

•Find how-to content (57%)

•Get product reviews (54%)

•Stay on the leading edge of technology (52%)

Tech buyers want to be able to stay on top of the current products in their industry, while discovering how to make the most of what they currently have at their disposal.  If you want to reach tech buyers, consider how you can position your business as an expert to provide your viewers with the information they’re after. Expert instruction, how-to tips and product reviews are a great place to start. As marketers, we want to know what action is taken after watching a video. As it turns out, 66% then researched a product and 46% visited a vendor website or contacted a vendor for more info. Perhaps the biggest surprise to many is that after watching a video, 42% of buyers then purchased a product (Tweet this!).

Creating a Bold B2B Marketing Video

Creating a B2B marketing video doesn’t require as much budget or time as you may initially think. Easy ways to get started are turning slideshows, presentations and in-person demos into videos. If your business doesn’t have the budget of bigger brands such as GE and UPS, turn to your employees to see what their ideas are in the types of video content that will most appeal to your customers. User generated content, such as video contest submissions, are another route you can take. No matter your budget or resources, you’ll want to ask yourself the following questions.

•Why are we creating this video? Why are we investing time, budget and additional resources into video marketing?

•Who are we trying to reach? Who is your target audience with each video?

•What types of videos will interest this audience? Is it how-to’s and tutorials, new product announcements, or an explanation of data?

•Where is our audience going to come across these videos? Where can we promote each new video – a newsletter, through display advertising, on social media, and/or on-site?

B2B video marketing is on the rise as businesses look for ways to create and repurpose content that engages their audience on multiple platforms and networks. Many have plans to increase their budget in video content creation and digital video ad spend in an effort to continue providing their customers with fresh, compelling content that leads to conversions.

Posted By Erica Bell to B2B Content Marketing, B2B Video Marketing

Need help with Optimizing YOUR videos? Contact us and visit: http://www.janetpennconsulting.com/video-optimization.html

5 Things Customers Need To Hear You Say In Your Email Newsletter by Miranda Paquet

When it comes to connecting with your customers, engagement is the language you need to know.

 

So, how can you become fluent in engagement quickly to get your emails opened and acted upon?

Following language school, Fluent City’s, tips on creating an engaged audience is a great place to start!

In addition to offering fun after-work language classes for adults in New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington DC, Fluent City keeps their fans engaged across all four cities with their informative and fun email newsletters.
Practice these five phrases in your business’s email newsletter, and you’ll be communicating with your audience effectively, all while having some fun along the way:

1. “Hi, are you busy? We are too!”

If you want your email to stand a chance in a bustling inbox, you have to get your audience’s attention quickly. And you have to explain why your customers should act quickly as well.

Luckily, Fluent City’s Marketing Director, Mandy Menaker has a plan.
“We make sure that every time we send a newsletter out, we have something new to share,” Mandy explains. “Every newsletter should have some kind of new theme, whether it’s new classes, an event, or a survey. We want to make sure the newsletter is engaging and not just filling up someone’s inbox. ”
Let’s take a look at two of Fluent City’s recent subject lines:

1. “New Spring Classes Announced – Spots Filling Up Quickly”
2. “The Slang Workshop Giveaway Winner Is…”

With either of these email subject lines, Fluent City’s contacts know exactly what information will be shared and they can easily decide if it’s worth an open for them.

2. “We’re serious about you.”

Once you have your readers’ attention, it’s time to deliver quality content.
With so much information available online, your readers want to know that you’ve put the time in to send something useful to them.

“An email newsletter allows you to pick what the most important message is for your customers. We’re serious about our information being clear and straightforward. And we always double check to make sure that everything is accurate and without spelling errors,” Mandy says.

After you consistently show customers the value of reading your emails, they’ll start to become more loyal to you and your business.

In Mandy’s words: “Once people start to read your newsletters and know that they’re engaging, they’ll begin to look forward to opening them up because they know what to expect from you. They learn to trust you and the information you’re providing.”

3. “…but not too serious.”

Just because you’re serious about your information, doesn’t mean your newsletter has to have a serious tone.

“When it comes to the tone of our newsletters, we try to make it as casual as possible,” Mandy explains. “People like that we don’t take ourselves too seriously.”

To find the right tone for your newsletter, you have to have your audience in mind. For Fluent City, which caters to a younger crowd looking for a fun and laidback approach to learning, this means their emails have to be fun as well.
This can include a “Romance Language” themed newsletter for Valentine’s Day or a link to a hilarious video of a German professor’s improv rap in an event follow-up email.

“Our goal is always to get people to sign up for classes, but we don’t hesitate to put jokes in our emails,” says Mandy. “We want our newsletter to read like it’s coming from a friend and not just a sales ad.”

4) “You can find more here:”

You don’t have to try to include every piece of valuable information in your newsletter.

By including links to your website or buttons to your social media accounts, you will drive traffic to your other outlets and encourage customers to engage with you in more ways than one.

This is what Mandy has in mind each time she creates an email newsletter. “A newsletter is the perfect place to streamline all your channels into one place. We always feature recent blog posts, links to our class offerings, and buttons to all our social media sites. And we always see a giant jump in traffic after sending the newsletter out.”

5) “Now take the next step!”

An engaging email is a powerful tool to inspire action.
If you’ve provided readers with the right information and built up their trust with quality content that speaks to them, they’ll be ready to give back to you. Be sure you make it easy for them, by providing a clear call to action for each newsletter.

Of course, a little incentive never hurt either:

“This fall, we promoted a survey in our newsletter and kept the details really clear by saying ‘Fall Survey: One lucky winner will receive a free class. It only takes 5 minutes to fill out,’” Mandy recalls. “We received over 500 responses in a weekend. The feedback was so valuable to us and the positive responses are great for recruiting new customers.”

Combine these five tips in your next email to get your customers engaged long after the email is sent out. Becoming fluent in engagement means you’ll be building a strong community to speak your praises to communities of their own.

This comes to you courtesy of http://www.Business2Community.com (by Miranda Paquet)

Need help with Managing YOUR email marketing?

Contact us and visit: http://www.janetpennconsulting.com/email_marketing.html

 

The 10 Commandments of Twitter by Jeff Bullas

When I stumbled upon Twitter 54 months ago I was bemused, flummoxed and even curious. What is this social network that keeps me to 140 characters, sounds like a bird and seemed…well…. pointless?

I tweeted here and there and collected 31 followers in 90 days of meandering. Even followed people with large Twitter tribes on topics as diverse as food, photography and politics. Malcolm Turnbull, the local senator must have thought I was a Twitter groupie.

Luckily he didn’t report me for stalking.

My progress on Twitter was slow, confused but persistent. Despite this I continued to tweet, retweet and play. My curiosity was undiminished.

Some people such as Jennifer Aniston’s boyfriend at the time tweeted so much that she decided that he loved Twitter more than her.

She moved onto boyfriend number twenty seven.

Twitter is more powerful than you think

Twitter’s sometimes chaotic nature does make management of the torrent of tweets seem like herding cats. It is essential that you plug your Twitter account into a management tools such as Hootsuite and Tweetdeck. This will help you manage your stream with lists of people and hashtags that categorize on topics.

The real power of Twitter is that you can build a follower base that allows you to share a focused stream of content that adds value to your followers daily lives.

There are no fancy Facebook “Edgerank” algorithms to throttle your tweets and choke your content distribution.

Its pure and wild. I like that.

So what are some fundamental principles that you should embrace if you want Twitter to work for you?

The 10 Commandments of Twitter

Here are 10 commandments that may guide you to the Twitter promised land of a large and loyal following. That engages with you and shares your content with speed and velocity.

Thou shalt

Moses used this term so I thought that I couldn’t go wrong if I borrowed the term “Thou shalt”

1. Write a meaningful “bio” description

If you are using Twitter for purely personal reasons then go crazy and knock yourself out with a crazy and cute bio. If you are serious then make sure that when they read it they know in a heartbeat what you are about.

2. Have a link

I don’t know how many times I have looked for a link to take a deeper dive into a Tweeter to see what they do and where they have come from but get stymied. If you don’t have a blog then take them to your Linked account or Facebook page.

Let them discover the real you. The bio is just the start

3. Be focused

Build a tribe of Twitter followers who are passionate and interested in your topic of interest. That can be done with tools such as Tweepi or Twellow.

4. Automate where appropriate

This may seem evil to some but as you grow your follower base things like following back become time consuming and unmanageable. Automate the boring tasks such as content distribution and follow back but not the conversation and engagement

5. Not neglect Twitter

Keep the stream of Tweets rolling out so that followers see activity and content. Keep that activity going. Do this at a level that you are comfortable with.

It is different for everyone. Remember it is a tool not a religion.

6. Use Hashtags

Hashtags allow you to put content into followers accounts that are topic driven and organized. If you are interested in blogging then include a tweet with the hashtag #blogging.

It will lead to increased awareness and sharing of your tweets.

7. Manage with a tool

The Twitter eco-system of tools and apps evolved because Twitter kept its network simple. It has been effective and been part of its charm. To manage and monitor both the tweets and the people you interact with on Twitter and organized like your mum would be proud of then Hootsuite and Tweetdeck should be used.

8. Brand your Twitter account

Ensure that when people trip up on your Twitter account that they recognize your brand that is on Facebook, Pinterest and YouTube. My caricature works for me.

Consistent branding is good.

9. Use Twitter sharing and subscribe buttons on your blog

Make it is easy and obvious for people to share your content on your blog with obvious Twitter buttons at the top of your article. Make sure they can follow you on Twitter with buttons that don’t confuse and again are in a position that is prominent..

10. Write the best headline you can

As Twitter has only 140 characters your tweets should be written with the beast headlines you can muster. Learn and practice this skill until your fingers hurt and your mind burns.

You only have 2 seconds to capture their attention until they click away.

This comes to you courtesy of http://www.Business2Community.com (by Jeff Bullas)

Need help with Managing YOUR Social Media Campaign?

Contact us and visit: http://www.janetpennconsulting.com/social_mediamarketing.html

 

YouTube It: How To Promote Your Video Effectively Online by Nancy Perkins

Marketing strategies come in different forms like billboards, posters, posts on social networking sites and a lot more. Videos are also a popular form of effective marketing campaigns. One of the most popular video websites existing today is YouTube. It is a video-sharing website where millions of people visit to watch and upload videos every day. In fact, YouTube has recently announced that it reached 1 billion active users in a month. Now that is a lot of YouTubers right there.

Nowadays, companies use YouTube as an alternative means to market their services and products knowing the amount of traffic the website gets each day. But before you start creating videos and posting them on your channel, take time to go over some guidelines that can be useful in promoting your video:

When creating videos for your marketing campaign on YouTube, it helps if you think like a customer. Think what kind of video you would like to watch over and over again, and videos that can simply get your attention. This will help you come up with great ideas for your videos. The key is to make your videos exciting and informative so that people will watch your videos from start to finish.

It also helps if you make an effort to promote your video. Keep in mind that there are over 2 billion videos on YouTube which means you have to push your video to compete with others. It is not enough that you upload a video and just let the users visit your channel and view it. You have to market your video for it to get a huge number of views. You have the option to share your YouTube videos on social networking sites like Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter and others. If you have accounts on these social media platforms, your video can easily gather more views and those who have viewed it can also share the video as well.

Most probably, your competitors have their own YouTube channel as well and they have a lot of followers on their lists. What you can do is go to their channel and add those accounts under their followers list especially if they are clients. This will give the consumers more choices. If you have something good to offer that their current company does not have, you just might have a good chance to get yourself a new client.

When posting videos on the channel, make sure that you use the correct tags and categories. Most of the time, people add random tags on their videos even if they are not related to their video. Tags are important so that the viewers will be able to easily identify what your video is about. This works similar to keywords. The same goes for choosing a category. If your business is a clothing and makeup company, you can post videos under the “How to & Style” category, if it is a telephone or a computer company like Apple and Ring Central, there is the ”Gaming & Technology,” and the list continues.

YouTube is not only available in the United States. It is also available in the United Kingdom, Australia and other countries all over the world. Think of how much audience you can target in YouTube. These tips can help you market your business using this popular video sharing and hosting website. Make sure that you make the most out of your videos and YouTube channel.

This post comes to you courtesy of www.Business2Community.by Nancy Perkins

Need help with Optimizing YOUR videos? Contact us and visit: http://www.janetpennconsulting.com/video-optimization.html