Like a refreshing jolt to the system, Google released Google Caffeine back in June of 2010. Apart from its cool name, its purpose is to help find and index fresh content. This is a big change from Google “unleaded,” which sometimes seemed more concerned with just finding content. And making SEO consultants crazy by always changing their algorithms.
The primary motivation is to help users to we can get the most current content that is relevant.
So why did we build a new search indexing system? Content on the web is blossoming. It’s growing not just in size and numbers but with the advent of video, images, news and real-time updates, the average webpage is richer and more complex. In addition, people’s expectations for search are higher than they used to be. Searchers want to find the latest relevant content and publishers expect to be found the instant they publish.
For several years now, Google has been preaching the virtues of Fresh Hot Content. They have been talking about “recency” and “frequency” as their two biggest buzzwords when it came to search. That’s why blogging has become so important in recent years (and why Pro Blog Service exists at all).
It appears that Google Caffeine was developed specifically to track the freshest, hottest content, to deliver to their users. Does your website contain content from two years ago? Or are you developing new content on a regular basis to engage your prospects in conversation?
If not, you need to consider rethinking your content strategies. It’s no longer enough to just to optimize a page, create a bunch of backlinks, and then leave everything alone. Google wants new stuff, fresh stuff. Otherwise, they believe you’re not committed to providing the best content to their users. And they’ll spit you out like 6-hour coffee.
Google Caffeine is redefining the definition of fresh hot content to mean, what have you done today?
About the Author: Paul Lorinczi Paul Lorinczi is the President of Professional Blog Service. The goal of the company is the help clients use Blogging and Social Media to expand their business online through planning, execution, and measurement.
There has been a lot of news lately on how companies are really not hiring right now. A recent report talks about how a companies are hiring temp workers, but they are not hiring them to stay. In the past, a common practice was to test drive a worker then offer them a position. Hiring them as full-time employees is not happening right now.
So, who is getting the work done?
When I joined ATA Airlines back in 1997, George Michelsons brought in Bain and Company to basically prepare the company for sale. The process was to get rid of a lot of people and put more jobs onto fewer people. While this strategy worked around the country for Bain, it usually preceded an upgrade in office automation to ensure the work could still get done.
The office automation phase did not occur at ATA Airlines.
The result was a lot of stressed out people carrying around their imaginary trays trying to figure out how they were going to fit one more item onto an already heavy load. No longer were people interested in teamwork, they were more interested in self-preservation. It created a lot of ill-tempered people in the process.
As some of my clients reveal their corporate cultures, I am finding similarities to what I experienced at ATA Airlines. No one has time to commit to anything above and beyond what their core responsibilities are. According to the Wall Street Journal, it is not projected to get much better – CEO’s are reluctant to hire.
What are the solutions?
The easiest is what is being done by some today. Hire temp workers to get things done. They may cost a little more in the short-term, but allow you to avoid the headaches of hiring employees and their costs over the long-term. There are a lot of companies providing these services.
Sometimes, just hiring a grunt worker is not enough. Sometimes you need a professional person to do the work, you don’t have time to do. There are companies being set up that can act as your Marketing Department, your Accounting Department, or your HR Department. They can do it at a cost that is far cheaper than hiring full-time employees, but are focused solely on getting work done for you.
So, look around and ask yourself, are you and your colleagues a bunch of stressed out grumpy people not really accomplishing much because there is too much to do? There is help out there that can help your company meet its strategic goals for the year.
We actually put together a white paper on the ROI of outsourcing blogging and social media. You can download it here, if you want to take a look.
About the Author: Paul Lorinczi Paul Lorinczi is the President of Professional Blog Service. The goal of the company is the help clients use Blogging and Social Media to expand their business online through planning, execution, and measurement.
Professional Blog Service started a year ago out of Indy Associates to assist companies in generating content they need for most of their Internet marketing activity.
While at Indy Associates, we always recommended blogging as a good Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy. With the popularity of social media sites like Linkedin, Facebook and micro-blogging service Twitter, the strategy has become even more important. The challenge for most of our customers was the blog content generation. Most companies do not have trained content writers that are able to develop conversational blog content, while writing for the search engines. Most important, many of clients have great ideas with no time to share them.
So, what have we learned in 2009?
Most companies still do not have the resources, or the time to write their own content.
2009 saw the unemployment rate hit 10% in November. It was reported that many companies laid off many in their workforce leaving those left behind with more work to do and little time to get it done. The last thing on anyone’s mind is getting blog content written, even though everyone agrees that marketing is still important in a down economy.
Blogging and Social Media continue to evolve from AOL of the 90s to Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter heading into a new decade.
“Two-thirds of the world’s Internet population visit social networking or blogging sites, accounting for almost 10% of all Internet time, according to a Nielsen report published in March of this year, “Global Faces and Networked Places.” These numbers keep rising as the year progresses. By 2012, IBM predicts that globally, a quarter of the global population will be using social media in some form.
Results still matter to most companies.
Learning how to play in social media is one thing. Getting people to interact with you is another. Your clients may or may not interact with you through social media. The challenge for all companies is finding out which ones they should engage. You may be able to sell like Dell, or respond to customer complaints like Southwest Airlines and Jet Blue Airlines have done. (Note to my former colleagues at American Airlines – take note!). Either way, Social Media and Blogging is measurable in some way depending on the strategic approach you take with it.
There are great tools like Yahoo Analytics (shameless plug as we are a Yahoo Analytics consultant). Radian6 and Scoutlabs can track who’s talking about you, and help you decide whether to act on the positive or negative media being generated.
We predict that 2010 will be the year of results with blogging and social media. In a nutshell, you are doing it to build your marketing list, or to generate interest in your products or services. To succeed, you will need:
An understanding of how your market uses blogging and social media, if at all
A plan to participate
Execution and commitment to the plan
Measurement of the results over the course of the year, not a month
If you can learn how to do it before your competition, you win. It will take them 12 months just to figure out what you have done.
Happy New Year from Professional Blog Service
About the Author: Paul Lorinczi Paul Lorinczi is the President of Professional Blog Service. The goal of the company is the help clients use Blogging and Social Media to expand their business online through planning, execution, and measurement.
Ron Sukenick approached me several weeks ago and described a new networking event he was putting together called “At the Top”. As he his idea, it had a familiar sound to it. It sounded a lot like the old Entrepreneurs Alliance of indiana.
I thought, “Man, I miss the old Entrepreneur’s Alliance.” I miss seeing everyone on the 3rd Thursday of every month to have drinks and learn about how business started, failed and succeeded.
So, Ron asked if Professional Blog Service would like to be a co-sponsor of the event. I said, “Absolutely.”
Here is why, I would not have co-started Professional Blog Service, if not for the Entrepreneurs Alliance. It was there that I heard many stories from many different Indianapolis business people who were just like me. My all-time favorites were:
Ray Compton – “You don’t need a lot of money to market, you need to be creative.”
Harley Davidson – “There are three things needed to be a successful manager – knowledge, experience, and emotional competency.” With the emphasis on emotional competency.
Jeff Smulyan – Great story about how he got started
And the other companies:
Ritters Ice Cream
JD Byrider
Scott Jones
Ontario Systems
The list really goes on and on. There were a lot of great companies and speakers that participated at the Entrepreneurs Alliance of Indiana.
So, Ron has resurrected this idea with his “At the Top” program. The venue is the excellent Skyline Club downtown. (Get it? “At the Top” on top of Indianapolis?) The format is going to be similar to what we did at EAI. There will be cocktails and appetizers with a guest speaker for each meeting.
So, if you are an Entrepreneur seeking inspiration from other Entrepreneurs that have gone through what you are experiencing, go to the “At the Top” meeting November 18, 2009.
What: At the Top When: November 18, 2009 Time: 5:30p Where: Skyline Club – Downtown Indianapolis
Professional Blog Service is very happy to be a co-sponsor of this important series of meetings. Without entrepreneurs, there is no economy. And we’re happy to help contribute our efforts to this event.
About the Author: Paul Lorinczi Paul Lorinczi is the President of Professional Blog Service. The goal of the company is the help clients use Blogging and Social Media to expand their business online through planning, execution, and measurement.
Traditional cold calling seems to be a thing in the past. How many of us like an interruption in our day of someone trying to sell us something? I particularly like the ones that do not even ask, “Is this a good time to talk?” Or, I had one recently where the guy made it sound like he was representing the firm that put on a trade show I participated in. After I realized I was being sold, it kind of pissed me off. I decided not to do business with him anyway, because he had been deceitful.
I hired an expert in cold calling several years ago. She had built a successful IT Staffing business before cold calling had become so widespread. She got frustrated because it had become much harder to get people to even want to talk. Cold calling in her mind was dead.
Those are my anecdotes.
What are the statistics?
Proponents of cold calls will tell you, it depends on the industry. But the fact of the matter is it is about numbers. On one site I found, the sales manager did the math to figure out how his people could make the $100k the owner says they could. He found his folks would need to make 510 calls a day. He already knew that he needed to “speak” to 100 people in order to get three buying customers (a .0058 percent close rate from calls to closes). He presented the numbers to the owner and suggested the following:
Purchase a bigger list to support the increased numbers needed.
Or, increase commissions so reps can earn the 100k
Or, find new ways to work smarter.
The owner’s response: “The reps might do better than those statistics.”
I am not suggesting that the phone is dead. It just needs to be used differently. Prospects need to be warmed up before calls are made. And at a .0058% close rate, there has got to be a better way.
How can social media help?
In B2B, social media can play an important role. It is a list building exercise, only it’s a list you build. The ROI in social media is building the list of possible customers, and industry contacts. An organic list is more valuable to you than a rented or purchased list. If you are generating conversation through social with your marketplace, they are more likely to do business with you.
With social media, it won’t take 100 conversations to get three clients. You can start getting one client in about eight phone conversations — which happens after you’ve laid the groundwork through a social network. Your sales pipeline becomes more predictable.
Cold calling in the traditional sense is dead. But, warm calling is alive and well. Social Media can help warm those folks up.
About the Author: Paul Lorinczi Paul Lorinczi is the President of Professional Blog Service. The goal of the company is the help clients use Blogging and Social Media to expand their business online through planning, execution, and measurement.
The 5 Categories and the the types of sites that were measured were:
Content (Sites like NYTimes.com, ESPN.com and Edmunds.com (Content sites)
Communications (websites offering email, and Instant messaging)
Community (Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn)
Commerce (such as Ebay, Amazon)
Search (Google, Yahoo, Bing etc)
Here is Jeff’s interpretation:
The study on online activity titled the “Internet Activity Index” released by the Online Publishers Association shows the trends of the types of activity that have occurred on the Internet over the past 6 years. The study’s findings has important implications for online marketers and how they should be focusing their time, resources and strategies in 2009 and beyond.
Five key findings of the study?
Internet users continue to spend a majority of their “time” with Content sites, up from 34 percent of total time spent in 2003 to 42 percent in 2009.
Emergence of Community (it wasn’t measured in 2003 as it wasn’t statistically significant enough and not on the radar)
Content is still king; the content rich sites continue to be a place where consumers spend the majority of their online time and provide an environment for brand marketers to reach and engage with consumers despite the emergence of community sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace.
Community sites are reducing the share of online time by communications sites due to community sites ability to offer the same activities such as email and instant messaging more efficiently.
*Notes: Excludes .gov and .edu Web sites, as well as pornographic domains. Percentage change indicates the percentage increase or decrease from the previous month’s value (June 2009 % change not shown due to introduction of Nielsen’s NetView RDD//Online data). Share of Time data based on Total Time values. Source: OPA and Nielsen Online
For years now, the principals here have been preaching that content is king. Not only for search engine optimization (SEO), but also for it being the hub of a social media campaign. A colleague of mine, who is the Chief Marketing Officer of a large travel company has validated these findings with their strategy. Quote: “Blogging is the hub of a social media campaign. Social Media alone is not a strategy for corporations wishing to participate.”
The numbers Jeff shared this morning kind of validates this approach. From a hub, there are spokes to other platforms through sharing. The valuable asset is the content generated.
About the Author: Paul Lorinczi Paul Lorinczi is the President of Professional Blog Service. The goal of the company is the help clients use Blogging and Social Media to expand their business online through planning, execution, and measurement.
When it comes to the economy, I think we’re missing the point.
The old system is broken. Let’s talk about that.
There are arguments about what to do to help ease the burden of the current recession. The Democrats got their big stimulus package, the Republicans want more tax cuts. It’s the same debate we’ve heard for the last 30 years. Yet, it seems to me that something much bigger is really happening right now. There is a change that is much bigger than stimulus spending or tax cuts. It’s the Internet.
The Internet has totally disrupted our traditional economy. It has wreaked havoc on traditional industries. Having worked in the travel industry back in the ’90s, the change started immediately with the introduction of the Internet. Travel Agencies started going out of business. Now one can argue it was the loss of commissions on sales of tickets that started it, but as soon as on-line agencies began to replace the corner travel agent, the final nail in the coffin was in place.
Travel is not the only industry where this disruption has occurred:
1. Newspapers – going out of business
2. Music Industry – total disruption of music distribution
3. YouTube – you can watch anything and everything and be entertained for free
4. Airlines – who wants to fly when you have webex or gotomeeting
5. Automobiles – who needs a $30,000 car when you can work from home now.
6. Retail – why fight traffic at the mall, when you can shop online?
7. News – traditional 1/2 hour news has never been the same
8. Microsoft – Open Source is killing their business
There is a lot more going on in the world economy. The stimulus packages and tax cuts are not the solution to our problems right now. I think first, we need to understand that we are going through a major change in the global economy that is being driven by the Internet. Traditional industries are under pressure because they want to continue to be faceless corporations in the age of information. Customers may know more about their products or services than they know about themselves because people are talking about them.
Take the case of the automotive industry. On the whole, the majority of Americans do not have much sympathy for US automakers. They have watched as the industry has not really done much over the past 30 years to change its ways. The unions are unwilling to change their behavior, and neither is management. They should ask themselves why their competitors have fewer labor-management problems.
The big nameless corporation is dying. The age of the Entrepreneur is here today. The Internet is driving this new age. People have to change their ambitions from getting jobs to creating jobs. Or, understanding that they have to take a more proactive role in their employment. The age of hiding behind your job is over. People need to understand we live in a global economy, not a local economy. Education needs to be part of the culture, not the pariah it has now become. Everyone needs to participate in education, not just teachers and students.
Throwing money to treat a mortal wound, or cutting taxes without cleaning the wound before it is treated, will not save us. We need real change. We need a radical approach. First, we need to recognize that we are entering a new economy. Let the old one die.
About the Author: Paul Lorinczi Paul Lorinczi is the President of Professional Blog Service. The goal of the company is the help clients use Blogging and Social Media to expand their business online through planning, execution, and measurement.
No, social media and online marketing is not going to replace salespeople.
Okay, you can breathe now, but that doesn’t mean your job or your revenue stream is automatically safe. However, it can make your sales life a whole lot easier, if you use it right.
Social media is a great way to connect with people and develop leads. It’s low-cost, free to implement on a low-scale, personal and it’s the preferred communication channel for a growing number of people.
You’re safe, right? Not so fast.
Problem is, most salespeople aren’t equipped to sell on social media platforms (like Twitter or Facebook). They’re stuck in their old-school, 8-step sales process, and they can’t get out. You know how it goes: call lots of people, develop a relationship with the client, take them out, and then listen to their needs just long enough to know what to propose.
These people are obsessed with stats, and will try to play social networking like a numbers game, thinking the number of contacts equates to a similar number of cold calls.
It doesn’t work like that.
Social Media ≠ Cold Calling, It’s Better
Better? Yes. Every call can be warm, if you take a few moments and make the connection the right way.
First, read up on your potential prospect. Read their LinkedIn profile and then read their status changes. Look for them on Twitter and Facebook. You will get a good indication of personal interests.
Second, break the ice. Don’t go in and do your best Daffy Duck impersonation. Since you know a lot about the prospect, start with a question that will start a conversation. Better yet, if you’re already connected online, build on the relationship you’ve already started.
Social media can replace cold calling. As you begin to find people in your target market who may be interested in what you’re selling, you’ll see the need to cold call dwindle. Better yet, as your new customers refer a few of their friends to you, you’ll begin to find you’re not making a single cold call at all.
If you are calling a social network referral, remember that’s even better than a cold call. You are further along in the cycle. You’ve got the prospect’s background and history in hand from their LinkedIn profile, you’ve read over some of their recent posts. It’s like making every call into a referral call – it’s hard to lose, but you have to change you game.
One of the best people I’ve met at connecting with prospects online is Vincent Wright. You can learn from Vincent for free on MyLinkingPowerForum.com. You’ll quickly get to see what works, how to start a conversation and how to avoid looking like Daffy Duck.
About the Author: Paul Lorinczi Paul Lorinczi is the President of Professional Blog Service. The goal of the company is the help clients use Blogging and Social Media to expand their business online through planning, execution, and measurement.
There’s a bit of debate about whether or not to hire ghost writers for a business blog or, as I like to call them, “phost writers“. And while I understand the arguments against it, especially those focusing on transparency and sincerity, I think the people making them don’t have a firm understanding of the amount of time that goes into writing a good blog post.
They also don’t have a firm grasp on a simple economic concept: Some people’s time is worth lots of money. If you or your potential blogger bills or earns over about $50 per hour, you are probably not making a wise decision to strictly blog in house.
Here’s another important point. Ghost writing is an accepted practice.
Take a look at speech writers. President Obama’s speeches are crafted by Jon Favreau, a 27-year-old whiz kid from Massachusetts. McCain’s were written by long-time friend and adviser Mark Salter. It’s an accepted (and expected) practice in both the political and corporate world.
I would not expect Bob Crandall, the former CEO of American Airlines to always sit down and type out his own blog posts, but I would like to hear what he has to say. In his New England fashion, he really tells it like it is. If it takes someone else to get those thoughts into a post then please, Mr. Crandall, have them do it.
The way I see it, ghost writing for a blog is no different than a speech writer save one thing. A speech writer writes the words that a person will say. A professional “phost writer” writes the words a person has said.
How do we do it?
Simple, we interview the would-be post author, take their spoken words and turn them into written words. However, we don’t transcribe. We cull the best points from each recorded interview and craft posts using their expressions, their “way of speaking”.
Just like speech writers, we provide a personalized service to those who may not have the time, resources or blogging skills needed to do it themselves.
So, tell me, what’s all this ghost writing fuss really about?
About the Author: Paul Lorinczi Paul Lorinczi is the President of Professional Blog Service. The goal of the company is the help clients use Blogging and Social Media to expand their business online through planning, execution, and measurement.
We live in a buzzword world. Everything that even smells of something new gets a buzzword. I have visions of smartly dressed people with stylish glasses and fancy haircuts going, “let’s give it a name.” Then come up with something like this:
3-6-3 Rule
A Ton Of Money
Accounting Noise
Acquisition Indigestion
Across The Board
Active Box
Activity Based Budgeting – ABB
Affluenza
After The Bell
Agency Cross
Agflation
Air Pocket Stock
Alligator Property
Alligator Spread
Alternative Energy ETF
Alternative Investment
And Interest
Angel Bond
Angelina Jolie Stock Index
Ankle Biter
Anonymous Trading
Antitrust
Arbitrageur
Aspirin Count Theory
What usually happens is a small segment of the population actually understands what it means. People in the know sound really smart because they can repeat the buzzword and sound really intelligent. The real genius’ use lots of buzzwords in every sentence. (Wow, he’s smart, he is buzzword compliant). And people buy it all the time. (I guess that’s why they work).
I will be the first to admit that I loved buzzwords too. I used to sit around with my colleagues who dressed ever so nicely and play the buzzword game too. Yes, I was a buzzword expert with everyone, clients included.
No Buzzword For This
There is one constant in human evolution. Human interactions have not really changed. Despite all this technology introduced into our lives, we as a species still function pretty much the same way. While we may not feed each other to lions, we find new ways to be cruel just the same. And our fears and desires are pretty simple too. We can still be made to fear and sex still sells.
So, how does tie into the hype surrounding social media? What’s all this new Internet marketing stuff about? Well, the reality is human evolution in buying has gone from the bazaar to the store, to the electronic store. Buying and selling is still done on emotions. Doing it on the Internet is no different. Now we have to either visually or through words impact people’s emotional reaction to get them to buy from us. Just like we did when people stood in front of our table at the bazaar. There is no buzzword to describe this. Businesses just need to learn how to sell in this new market.
This is a absolute fact not lost on us or our social marketing efforts. Whther we are blogging for a business or promoting a post on Facebook, we seek to impact people’s emotions.
If You Are Still Cold Calling…
Cold calling is dead. People no longer pick up the phone and talk because caller ID says I don’t have time for people I do not know. So, they are changing from having the world come to them to opting into the world of their choosing. People are quorom sensing beings. They will naturally gravitate towards those people that have similar interest and become part of a community. Instead of going down to the Church Hall, they may now choose to join the forum on under water basket weaving.
Business professionals globally are also trying to connect with potential colleagues with like interests. They no longer pick up the phone and listen to sales people. Instead they pick and choose what information interests them or could help them. The challenge today is learning how to generate the information they would be interested in reading. Or, creating an environments that gives them the option to participate.
In the end, humans have not changed. We are still creatures of habit. We still gravitate towards shared interest. The only difference is that we do it in a different environment today. So, if you peal off all the buzzwords and narrow down the basic human behavior we see today, success is simply watching how humans behave in their new environments. If you observe the Internet from this perspective, you will see that nothing has really changed, only the location where people congregate has.
About the Author: Paul Lorinczi Paul Lorinczi is the President of Professional Blog Service. The goal of the company is the help clients use Blogging and Social Media to expand their business online through planning, execution, and measurement.
This is a big change from Google “unleaded,” which sometimes seemed more concerned with just finding content. And making SEO consultants crazy by always changing their algorithms.
3.4
11.7
There’s a bit of debate about whether or not to hire ghost writers for a business blog or, as I like to call them, “phost writers“. And while I understand the arguments against it, especially those focusing on transparency and sincerity, I think the people making them don’t have a firm understanding of the amount of time that goes into writing a good blog post. 
We live in a buzzword world. Everything that even smells of something new gets a buzzword. I have visions of smartly dressed people with stylish glasses and fancy haircuts going, “let’s give it a name.” Then come up with something like this:
