Unfortunately, for many companies and organizations, paying attention to SEO is still only treated as an added bonus to simply having a website to point people to. It is true that SEO makes a good website great, but could NOT paying attention to it actually cause harm to your brand?

Rozerem learned the hard way.

This is a Google screenshot of the search result for Rozerem. Apparently, in addition to helping your insomnia, Rozerem may also cause “worsening of depression, including suicidal thoughts and completed suicides, hallucinations, and nightmares.”

Unfortunately, the company did not include a meta description in their HTML code, and when Google could not find it to display during search results, nor could it find any other sensible write-up thanks to its obsolete and previously un-indexable Flash site, it grabbed the only text it could find: the fine print at the bottom of the site.

Where this poor SEO example probably did give the folks over at Rozerem nightmares, it goes up on my list as one of the greatest things I could ever dream about.

Well, it is now safe to say that you and I are apparently not the only ones.

By the way, the final count is 266.

Now let’s say you don’t want to reach consumers, but rather you want to promote yourself. How about dem apples?

To help with his job search, Alec Brownstein targeted top advertising executives using just that, Google AdWords.

As a social media professional, an active member of the job search community, and a former Google AdWords Halloween costume, and I am appaled that I myself did not come up with a tactic so clever. Let the brainstorming for best-idea-ever-2.0 begin.

On an unrelated note, anyone hiring?

Still today, I find myself fighting the social media battle. Why should companies use it? Why is it relevant? What is in it for me? If you are a consumer-based organization, then yes, the benefits are generally apparent. But what if you are targeting a different audience? The advantages aren’t so clear.

Every organization is different. Because social media is a very consumer-focused media, many groups are skeptical and have difficulty in validating its use. In response to these concerns, I found that there is always at least one reason to engage in social media that applies to everyone: Brand management.

Facebook and Twitter are both social networks on which people spend a lot of time. A presence on these sites will increase the probability of people coming across your content. If they cannot find you on these networks, or if they find a page that is out-dated or abandoned, it reflects poorly on the parent organization. These days, people are expecting a certain level of information from these pages. If it is not received, credibility can be lost.

By entering social networks, companies would benefit from their high online visibility. Facebook is currently only 1 of 12 sites on the internet to have a Page Rank of 10. As opposed to “groups” on Facebook, “pages” are searchable. Creating a page on such a high-ranking site as Facebook would allow your content to become more visible.

At a Page Rank of 9, Twitter is also relevant. In recent news, major search engines Google and Bing announced a deal with Twitter allowing them to index tweets directly from the Twitter stream. This makes content created with Twitter much more searchable, and in the end, more valuable.

In a quick search for any topic or organization, it is very often that both Facebook and Twitter accounts show up as first page results. Since these pages have impressive Page Ranks and are highly indexable, they will be more likely to show up in searches for your company and your issues. Creating these pages and managing them, even if only on a minimal level, is crucial for any company’s online brand.

In light of Glee‘s epic return to primetime television, I decided to revive one of my previous posts about the show’s outstanding marketing ploy in releasing songs for download on iTunes after each episode. During the first half of the season, as the show grew in fan base, I noticed that each of the songs performed cracked the Top 100 downloads within minutes of the show’s end. Now, after its 5-month break, is it possible for Glee to continue this impressive track record?

Rather than divulging into one of my lengthy-and-usually-alcohol-induced obsessive over-analysis on the unparalleled success of Glee (much of which you are free to read here), I will just give you the straight facts.

This week’s show’s numbers, only one hour after the episode ended:
#15 Like a Prayer (Madonna cover)
#62 4 Minutes (Madonna cover)
#69 Borderline / Open Your Heart (Madonna cover)
#92 Like a Virgin (Madonna cover)

And if you think this instant-reaction to download these songs is just a one-hit-wonder, take a look at the songs from last week’s show that are still holding strong in the Top 100, a full seven days later:
#35 Gives You Hell (All-American Rejects cover)
#50 Hello (Lionel Richie cover)
#63 Hello Goodbye (Beatles cover)
#84 Hello, I Love You (The Doors cover)

The ability to download songs on sites like iTunes has given the show the power to market its content it venues outside the television world and spread the word to potential new followers. I am gleeful to find that apparently the show hasn’t lost any of its luster during its 5-month hiatus.

=============UPDATE 4/21 9:30 A.M.=============

And why not give my mandatory update of where the songs lie 12 hours later? I rest my case.

#7 Like a Prayer (+7)
#29 Borderline / Open Your Heart (+40)
#32 Gives You Hell (+3)
#34 4 Minutes (+28)
#92 Like a Virgin (+54)
#40 Hello (+10)
#57 Hello Goodbye (+6)
#62 Espress Yourself (new)
#67 Hello, I Love You (+17)
#83 What it feels like for a girl (new)
#95 Vogue (new)

But you know what? I won’t. I will just let Grooveshark show you themselves why they are so awesome. This time, it has nothing to do with their music playing ability; it has to do with their brilliant sense of humor (and maybe also their Where’s-Waldo-hidden ‘that’s what she said’ reference).

Nooooo Pickles, not the coder!

(And since this is a social media-centric blog, I will also give props to their clever functional use of Twitter to update their maintenance status, essentially accessible from anywhere regardless of the website’s status.)

As much as I can personally advocate the merits of Twitter, some people will just never listen. However, when reputable businesses start using Twitter to produce and manage their own content, people start to pay attention. Twitter then becomes less of a nuisance and more of a necessary tool, even for those who don’t already use it. Yes, everyone now has a Twitter feed where they re-post content from their website, but what about repositioning other users’ content in order to tell your own story? Many highly regarded groups have begun building their own tailored Twitter aggregators, and through their usability and necessity, successfully diminished negative connotations Twitter has created.

Bravo Television’s Real Housewives of New York City Viewing Party

Bravo has always been a pioneer in terms of merging television with the interactive online world (insert shameless plug for a past post of mine on Bravo’s blogs). Adding to their most recent partnership with foursquare, Bravo built their own Twitter aggregator to host “Real Housewives of New York City” virtual viewing parties. Every week, Bravo encourages viewers to join a live online chat on Bravo.com where they can connect with the shows’ stars and fans alike to talk about what is happening on the show in real-time. Through Twitter and Facebook, users can post their own thoughts about the show, and have them appear on the virtual party page. The aggregator allows you to filter through the posts based on “Bravolebrities” only, Twitter only, Facebook only, or all posts simultaneously.

This Twitter aggregator furthers diminishes the gap between the real world and the online world. It allows viewers to gather in one location and celebrate the show, no matter where they are actually located.

The viewing party also allows people to be apart of a Twitter world without actually signing up for an account. If you want to submit a comment, yes you will still need to do so via Twitter or Facebook. However, if you just want to be a fly on the wall at the hippest online party around, the aggregator allows you to read through everyone’s conversations without joining (what some still consider) the taboo Twitter network.

NBC’s Olympic Pulse Tweet Sheet

Bravo is not the only company around to utilize Twitter in this manner. Back in February, NBC provided a comprehensive coverage of the Winter Olympics. In addition to countless hours of television footage on 7 different networks, this exposure included in depth social media endeavors, notably online video cast, an intuitive iPhone app, featured blogs, and of course, a Twitter aggregator.

This Twitter aggregator allowed the user to sort tweets based on specific athlete/consultant, by sport, by NBC Olympic tweets, or by seeing tweets from all categories at once. Similar to the Bravo viewing party aggregator, this device allowed all web users to follow people on Twitter without actually creating a Twitter account. This raised the accessibility of Twitter, demonstrating its usefulness in seamlessly compiling information from topic-relevant people and sorting them in a user-friendly manner.

WashingtonPost.com’s NFL Twitter Aggregator

Though this aggregator was built a few months ago, it still remains active and relevant today, and was the first I had ever seen of its kind. At the beginning of last NFL season, the Washington Post wanted to create one location where users could read tweets from NFL players, and naturally with all the hype around some NFL players’ posts, they created an aggregator.

As the two previous case studies demonstrated, this aggregator allowed site visitors to follow players on Twitter without having to themselves sign up for an account.  It also allowed them to filter based on their favorite team or position, and displayed the athletes’ real names, instead of their Twitter handles.

The Washington Post also designed two other Twitter aggregators: one to follow latest updates on the Ft. Hood shooting, and one to follow the last Virginia election.

I agree with many of people’s woes on inappropriate use of Twitter, and I too get annoyed with constant monotonous updates. But Twitter has become so much more than that, and this new fad of building aggregators demonstrates this. More and more, companies and organizations are finding their best practices in how to run their own Twitter accounts. However, from what we have seen, the next steps will be to see how well we utilize other people’s content within Twitter – and monetize it.

I recently wrote a piece about Foursquare and their brand partnerships and advertising potential. It elaborated on Foursquare’s current location-based capabilities – and its potential for permanently changing the online/offline corporate advertising relationships.

My digital media professor commented on my work, saying that she herself hadn’t joined Foursquare (yet) but that she also couldn’t imagine adding another social network to her repertoire.

That got me thinking. We are living in a world saturated with social networking sites and online entertainment, consuming our everyday lives. How can we afford to add one more? Why did I first join Foursquare, and continue to use it on a regular basis? Where did I find the time? What makes it so different? As Ferris Bueller’s sister would ask, what makes him so god damn special?

Well Jeanie, I think I have an answer for you.

1. Foursquare is a primarily mobile-centric network

Foursquare revolves around the ability to upload status check-ins and tips on the fly via your mobile phone. For all of us tech-savvy folks, they offer tailored apps for the iPhone, Blackberry, Android, and Palm phones. In case the Big 4 don’t cover your mobile-friendly lifestyle, they also have an easily accessibly mobile site from any smartphone. And even then, if I dare to suggest you do not have a smartphone, you always have the option to text in your status update.

The bottom line is this network is predominantly used on the go when people are not busy with anything else, making it a seamless addition to your social media catalog. Apart from the 18 seconds it takes to locate yourself, participating in the Foursquare network does not take time away from any other network, or from any other aspect of your life.

2. Foursquare functions on a need-only basis

How many hours do you spend quantum leaping from one Facebook profile to the next? Or skimming your 450-following Twitter feed to absorb every last element of real-time thoughts? How many “related videos” can you click on YouTube before that wolf-eating-a-mammoth-eating-a-snake viral turns into you watching the next Twilight trailor? Ok, maybe that’s just me.

Foursquare is not a network where you expend unlimited amounts of time browsing users’ profiles. It runs on a need-to-know platform. You’re at a restaurant and you want some recommendations on what to order? You’re out on the town and you want to know where you can grab the cheapest drinks? Foursquare is your immediate gratification resource for these questions, and since your location is so eloquently pinpointed, it takes away from the time-consuming Google research in which you would normally need to divulge.

3. Foursquare is a game

Who doesn’t like playing games? With every check-in, you receive a specific amount of points which are tallied on a weekly and yearly basis, and compared on a leaderboard with the rest of your friends. By checking in to certain venues at different times, you also earn badges acknowledging your accomplishments. If you check-in to a location enough times, you can become the “mayor” of the venue, which at the very least gives you bragging right.

You can’t redeem these points for anything valuable, and the badges don’t transfer into tangible medals. So why do we Foursquare users love it? Because it’s fun.  Because they offer some form of immediate gratification which rewards you for using their product. On a bad day when nothing goes your way, you can always check-in to a location, look down at your screen, and have Foursquare tell you that you did something good. As Jason would say, it’s all about the points (seventeen of them, to be specific).

So will Foursquare survive the social networking boom? Only time will tell. But with all that it has going for it, it has a better chance than most.

Social media is taking over the world…

and Texts From Last Night

Google has recently put out some new products in their tech family, two notable ones being Wave and Buzz. I will admit I was the first one to sell myself out for a Wave invite, and though I was never excited about Buzz, I did link to it every social media account I managed.

I think these products have good potential, but they are missing one key element which will mark any product’s success: mobile technology. It’s great that Wave can be a home-base for a coherent conversation between a dozen people, but how do these participants know when changes have been made so they can approve? There is no email or push notification alerting of this. And for people who are on-the-go, how do they use Wave in a mobile savvy environment?

The same goes for Buzz. Luckily, many professionals these days use Gmail to read their email. This makes the Buzz product more relevant. But what happens when you’re not at your computer, which is, umm, a lot? Why would someone log onto a Web browser to update a Buzz status when Twitter has made it so easy to text in a status update? When Facebook has developed an app for every smartphone platform? When even YouTube has capabilities of uploading videos on the fly? When foursquare is quickly climbing the location-based update ladder? When most smartphones already have a Google Talk application that will allow them to keep up a status without actively being online?

Google, which at one time lead the Silicone Valley innovation, seems to be getting lazy. Buying-out a company and slapping an ad on it? The model is dying.

If you’re going to pioneer anything these days, it needs to be mobile friendly. Either Google will need to figure out how to integrate these new products into our mobile-obsessed world, or they will fail.