andydidyk.com

Well, I’m writing this blog while sitting at a Starbucks (fortunately, it hasn’t been closed yet and isn’t slated to be). It’s a great place to write, but I couldn’t help but chuckle at how cliche it is to be blogging at Starbucks.

As an update, it turns out that my blog was, in fact, dropped from Google. It hasn’t yet been reinstated, despite repeated attempts to contact Google and the filing of a formal complaint. A good friend and former co-worker, Peter Cook, did a little digging for me and discovered that I was a victim of a “splog,” or a “spam blog,” that basically installed a WordPress plugin that scours the web for recent blog posts with certain keywords and then downloads the post and automatically posts it on the splog.

Because this guy, who for ethical purposes will remain nameless as will his URL, was doing this with thousands of advertising and marketing blog posts per day, his traffic went through the roof, and it made it seem as if every blog from whom he stole content (because of my more modest traffic rankings) was stealing it from the splog! Google’s algorithms know no mercy, and thus it looked like I was the thief from the more “established” site and that I was duplicating his content. Not fun. Or cool at all.

I’ve learned a lot from this experience, and I want to share some excellent resources with all of you in case you find yourself a victim of a splog, or of anyone who steals your content. I want to give credit where credit is due, because without this specific online resource, I would have been lost.

If you suspect that someone has stolen your content, go to Lorelle’s blog on WordPress. It’s the most comprehensive, one-step-at-a-time approach to dealing with content theft I was able to find. The cut-and-paste letters and forms really helped me as I escalated steps in order to get my content removed.

I’m still not entirely sure why I don’t have any post content showing up in Google, but I’m going to keep posting, do some reading on SEO for blogs, and hopefully everything will work itself out.

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UPDATE: one or two of my blog posts have started resurfacing on Google, but I haven’t received a notice from them as to why. I guess that’s pretty good though. The really good news is that the splog has been vanquished! The deceitful practice has been replaced with a simple site stating that the domain is for sale. Ahh, vindication.

UPDATE AGAIN: Also, the guy posted my emails to him on his blog stating that it was a “one sided conversation” accusing him of content theft. Lovely, eh? He stole it, whether intentionally or through a plugin, and I’m glad he took it down. And someone else bought the URL, so at least I don’t have to worry about that guy anymore.

According to a recent Prospectiv survey and Brandweek article, 56% of survey respondents stated that their social networking experience would be better if they were served ads targeted to their interests, and 62% said they would be interested in offers from their “preferred brands”.

While research is certainly important to our business, I’m not quite sure why anyone had any doubts about this issue. Ask anyone involved in sales at any level, and they’ll tell you: it’s much easier to sell to someone you’ve already sold to then to try to sell to someone new.

“But what about getting new prospects?” one may ask. Surely there is some value in the scattered, “shotgun” approach to buying online media, but it is much more valuable to create brand evangelists that are absolutely in love with your product or service. They’ll do the best job of creating new customers for you.

Someone on LinkedIn asked the question, “What are the top 5 things you are thinking about in eMarketing? I responded to her, and I thought I’d share with you the top 5 things on my mind:

1. Valuation of Social Media users – how can you determine their worth to an organization?
2. Engagement – how can you ensure online audiences are genuinely engaged with the brand, both on- and offline?
3. Analytics – eMarketing is unique in that with the proper analytics one can easily measure true ROI on a campaign, rather than nebulous “impressions”
4. Permission-based mobile marketing – mobile marketing is great, but without gaining the permission of the users, it’s just expensive spam and an ineffective marketing tool.
5. Convergence – no, not the buzzword of the late 1990′s, but the idea that people’s lives and technology are becoming increasingly inseparable and in some cases, wholly integrated. A marketer can take advantage of this by facilitating conversations and interactions the user is already interested in.

David Armano of “Logic + Emotion,” the quintessential web 2.0 blog, has a great post today about what he calls reducing the “signal to noise” ratio in his life for 2008. He cites an example of someone leaving Facebook due to the unwanted complexity it has added to his life. The burden of the “noise” outweighed the value of the “signal” he was able (or willing) to consume.

This is precisely why I do not have a MySpace, Facebook, or Twitter account. I love how the social and information revolutions have dramatically impacted the way in which people can communicate with each other, but the information and relational overload that I experience at times leaves me wanting to unplug my life from the constant din of information and to return to a slower pace. I did this last weekend while camping with some very close friends; it was wonderful.

Here’s the deal: human beings were never designed, whether you believe they evolved or were created, to maintain so many relationships as are possible in our current situation. Excluding the past 90-100 years of the history of humanity, people more or less could only maintain relationships within their geographical boundaries. Then the telegraph, telephone, radio, and television allowed individuals to maintain their social networks over distances, but with the exception of some uber-geek Ham Radio operators, no one could create a new social network that didn’t directly correlate with their geographical location.

I have a hard enough time keeping up with the people in my life that I can actually see and touch, let alone maintaining meaningful relationships with those I care about the most. I like LinkedIn’s signal to noise ratio, because it’s a less intrusive networking tool and not something that really encumbers me with too much data.

Is this approach right for everyone? No way. But we each have to choose what is most important us, and use our “bandwidth” for information appropriately. I’m a pretty outgoing guy, but I’d much rather have 10 real relationships with people I can truly connect with than to waste my time trading micro-bits of information with 100 people.

What works for you?

Okay, so lots of people are talking about presidential candidate Ron Paul. I’ve read about him quite a bit, and can’t say I agree with everything, but one thing I really appreciate about his campaign is that he is easily the most forthright and defined candidate when it comes to national issues. Again, not saying I agree with all of them, but you won’t find a lot of wishy-washy political speak on his site, and that’s something that a generation of people who are seeking genuine experiences can appreciate, whether you agree with Ron Paul or not.

At any rate, what I found most interesting recently about his campaign occurred when I viewed his LinkedIn profile (and yes, you too can be LinkedIn with the likes Ron Paul, Hillary Clinton, or Dick Cheney (although poor Dick is currently listed at 0 connections)). This caught my eye, so I copied and pasted it directly from Ron Paul’s “Experience” section on his public LinkedIn profile:

“I have stronger Internet support than any other candidate of either party (as of 11/24):
• Most campaign website internet traffic (Alexa.com)
• Meetup: 67,000 Ron Paul Supporters in 1,230 Groups from 958 Cities
• MySpace: 87,000 friends
• Facebook: 46,000 friends & 40,000 supporters
• YouTube: 6+ million views, 38,000 subscribers
• Technorati: consistently a top blog-search term ”

This is amazing. I’m reminded of Sally Field’s oscar acceptance speech, “You like me, you really like me!” Let’s be honest…achieving this kind of internet notoriety is an admirable feat, especially for a political candidate. Communities in social media tend to err more on the side of being genuine than not in their interactions and support of one another, so this could be a really good indicator for Ron Paul. His polls are rising nation-wide, and his single-day fund raising record had everything to do with online support.

But shouldn’t it strike us as at least a little odd that a qualification for President of the United States is that you have 87,000 “friends” on MySpace? I mean, if that’s really a qualification, then the venerable “Tom“, with over 214 million friends, should rule the world for sure. And if 6 million+ YouTube views are important, the candidates better move out of the way for this guy, with over 68 million views. I think that touting statistics like Ron’s are just another example of the world not quite understanding the true impact of the social and information age. We’re still not sure what to do with all of our new toys, and it’s only by experimenting and living with them that we’ll eventually settle down a bit into a new status quo. I hope.

Until then, I’m going to keep Linking In, although probably not with Ron Paul. And who knows, if this blog gets popular enough, maybe I’ll run for local office. I can see it now, “Andy Didyk. Strength. Leadership. 87 LinkedIn connections. Zero MySpace friends. A blog with moderate readership. For America.” Look out Ron and Hillary…here I come!

Okay, so this is an interesting idea, and the new frontier for social media/social rating networks: employers. RateMyEmployer.ca is a new, Canada-based web site that allows registered and non-registered users alike to rate their employers on a variety of scales, including pay, work/home balance, stress, and others. Boasting a tagline of “Who said background checks and Pre-Employment Screenings should be reserved to employers only?”, this site stands in a great position to further empower the average employee.

I recently attended the 2007 Forrester Research Consumer Forum, and social media, along with rating systems, was at the forefront of everyone’s minds. It’s the future of online marketing, because it works: 67% of purchases made online cite a direct referral from someone who had experience with the product or service as the main reason they felt comfortable with the purchase (source: WOM report, 2006).

Huge companies like Dell are paying a lot of attention to the way that customers have rated their products, and Dell’s head-on approach to meeting the challenges that were revealed has resulted in a true success story for both the consumer and the company. But I’d bet my lunch that employers, particularly large employers, are not nearly as comfortable with having their performance reviewed in a public setting as employers.

To some degree, the risks are the same to the employer as a product review: some people will post negative reviews, plain and simple. However, with good, retainable talent already at a premium, and the astronomical costs of fixing a dysfunctional work environment, this move could really have employers on the fence. No one likes to have their dirty laundry aired, especially big companies. I would suspect that a movement towards increased transparency and true reviews of a work place should ultimately result in a better work environment for employees and more honest companies, who will be motivated to fix glaring issues pro-actively before their reputation is slandered.

Of course, it could also result in a lot of libel lawsuits as well. Only time will tell. Until then, I say keep the ratings coming, and for your own protection, your username very, very private.

Arresting headline, isn’t it? This was taken directly from a LinkedIn question by someone far-flung in my “3rd degree of separation” network. For those of you not yet in the know, LinkedIn is a social networking site for professionals (which, by the way, seems largely dominated by those in the ad/marketing industry), and it features an “Answers” section where people can ask personal or professional questions of those in their network. I like to answer questions from time to time and to read what others have posted, although I have yet to ask a question of my network.

This question, however, threw me for a loop. Three quick things:

1. This question was listed under the “Personal Debt Management” category. Weird. I would think there was a better place for it, although getting a divorce involves answering a lot of personal finance questions.

2. Interesting that a freelance journalist would choose such an open forum for asking a question that would become the basis for an article about relationships. I guess anyone who has been in a relationship has something relevant to say, but this is also another facet of the social media revolution…we’re all experts about something. What will mark the capabilities of a true journalist, as well as the successful consumer, in the coming age, is how capable she/he is of sorting through and filtering everyone’s “expertise” that is becoming available.

3. Here’s my tip for the LinkedIn user: don’t separate from your spouse if you can avoid it. Measures for not separating from your spouse can include, but are not limited to, honoring your commitment to him/her, swallowing your pride, being the first to say “I’m sorry”, getting some counseling, stop being selfish, and work on your marriage actively before things get bad. Separation is devastating, and sadly at times unavoidable. However, a great cause of the rampant divorce rates in our country is selfishness.

Alright…off the soapbox, on to more questions.