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Maybe big pharma is getting the blogosphere now

March 12, 2007 By 3 Comments

As many of you know I worked for or around big pharma for close to 10 years.  I don’t blog about it much, or often comment on prescription drug issues often just because I was an insider for so long (yes, I know too much).  One thing that has been bugging a lot of us who have worked within or around pharma is how they have been very slow to embrace social media.  Back in ’96 I helped launch most of the Glaxo websites for products.  It was an extremely hard sell.  Man the battles we had with lawyers and other regulatory folks.  Man pretty heated at times.

There are some excellent reasons why pharma has shied away from social media.  Control of their message isn’t just about marketing, it’s the law.  There are things you can and cannot say.  There are things you must do if people say certain things (even a hint of an adverse reaction goes to surveillance).  So is it any wonder that pharma has been reluctant to step into the fray?  That, however might be changing…

Hi there. I am writing on behalf of Bayer Animal Health, the manufacturer of Advantage Multi. As the manufacturer of this product, we very much want to know about product reactions (preferably as the are occurring).
Source: » Flea Control for Cats Leashes to Litterboxes

That comment is from a post on my girlfriend Lorraine’s pet health blog.  The e-mail and contact information left on the post are legit (I have 100s of e-mail addresses from Bayer folks to double check against).  This is a huge step and one I congratulate Bayer for taking.  This means that pharma might just be waking up and dedicating resources to monitor the blogosphere for mentions of their product and doing something proactive about them.

Do I expect pharma blogs soon?  Not likely.  Even with my background and knowledge of blogging and pharma I would be hesitant to recommend a public blogging effort.  Now an internal blogging effort, around monitoring an surveillance, well that’s a horse of a different color.

 

Technorati tags: , pharma blogs
Filed Under: Blog Mining, Companies Needing Blogs

Link Farmer Ted Murphy Kows How To Fertilize PPP Crops

March 7, 2007 By 4 Comments

It has been irritating me all day like a piece of popcorn caught between my teeth.  No matter how much I ignore the issue it doesn’t seem to go away.  I am of course talking about the now well known email from Ted Murphy, to Gawker Media’s ever popular site Gizmodo.  At first I thought to myself that Ted must think we are all completely oblivious to what is going on at PayPerPost, but every time I see the landslide of news in my reader or links to the latest story, the same conclusion comes to mind, Ted Murphy, "The Linkbait King" or Murphy "The Link Farmer."  As my title suggests, whenever PPP needs a boost in links or whenever the news becomes stale, Murphy launches the latest linkbait scam of causing the blogosphere to buzz about the company.  No matter what is said about PPP or about the ethics of the business plan or any other derogatory statement, Ted continues in his search for links.  He continues his march to a different drum no matter what type of publicity results.

I too have been sucked into his vortex of link gathering with my own posts about the subject.  I can’t help but grab my own torch and pitchfork to join the mob that is out to bury the company and the monster it has become.  I have often said I would love to be in a panel discussion with the different types of business models of online marketing through social media, but I’m afraid a chair might get thrown and Murphy would turn it into another Geraldo Rivera publicity stunt.  It’s almost an admiration on my part to see what slick move Murphy will pull out of his bag of tricks next.  I’ll be keeping my eye out for the fertilizer Murphy is so apt to spread.

Tags: Ted Murphy, , , , , Linkbait,

Filed Under: Advertising, Blog Consulting, Blog Mining, Blog Revenue, Blog Tools, Bloggers and Blogs, Blogging News, Blogs and PR, Corporate Blogs, Findability, Marketing, Media, Professional Blogging, Search Engine Optimization

Organic Search: Is Your Business on Page 1?

March 6, 2007 By 1 Comment

I have heard Robert Scoble a couple of times this week say that at Microsoft they did research that showed that 3% of people out there went beyond page 1 of search results in their searches performed.  This can be very scary if you are a small business and want to gain customers on the Internet.  The first thing I ask customers when they ask me what we offer in the area of search engine optimization (SEO) or in search engine marketing (SEM) is "where is your company positioned in Google?"  If they don’t know, that tells me right away that they have no idea whether my answer to their question regarding search is right or wrong.  Google always seems to be used as the example because they have over 50% of the market share in search.  Companies have paid large sums of money to be on page 1 of Google search results.  Many companies also have paid exactly zero to be on page one.  Those without a page 1 marketing budget are the ones that get the position through organic search. 

"How do we get organic search results?"

This is one of the most popular questions that is asked of my company when I speak to customers about blogging and SEO.  I can talk about how great blogging is for SEO and for SEM but until they see actual results, it seems to be a skeptical look at blogging and its power.  My best example is a Daddy Blogger.  This Daddy Blogger I know started blogging back in early 2004 about his children and what it was like to be a father.  He spent exactly $0.00 on a SEO campaign and never once tweaked his site to make sure it was optimized for search.  His handle that he began with was Genuine.  That seems to be a very broad term, name, or search word.  Many companies have this in their company name or title or even in their tagline.  Some of the ones that I can think of are obvious, like Microsoft Genuine Advantage software, Genuine.com a software company, Genuine scooters, and many others.  I tell my prospective client to open their browser and type in the keyword Genuine.  After a few seconds I ask them to tell me what appears on page 1 of their search quest.  After the first three results, I would tell them to stop.  This Daddy blogger usually has always been mentioned. 

The reason I know of this example is simple.  I am that Daddy Blogger.  I never spent a dime on search engine optimization, no advertising budget, and I spent very little time each day to make sure I was on the top of the list.  This example is very effective to show that many of the companies out there are spending loads on advertising, when they need only be blogging.  Our clients are becoming more and more prevalent on the first page of Google in their genres or niche.  They are spending much less than their competition, but their results are growing at an alarming rate. You should also be vying for page 1 results on Google through organic search.  Contact me and let’s get your company out front.

Tags: , , , , , , , Daddy Blogger,

Filed Under: Advertising, Blog Consulting, Blog Mining, Blog Tools, Bloggers and Blogs, Bloggers For Hire, Blogging News, Blogs and PR, Business Blogging, Client Sites, Companies Needing Blogs, Corporate Blogs, Findability, Marketing, Media, Miscellaneous, Professional Blogging, Search Engine Optimization, Services, The Site

SEO and Social Marketing

March 5, 2007 By 2 Comments

As we discussed earlier as our client Freight and Shipping, Inc., has used their new blog marketing program to increase their organic search, more and more companies are using the new social marketing as a way to increase their SEO and the marketing campaigns they are implementing.  Jennifer Jones at Podtech.net has a great interview with Andy Beal.

We have been very successful at using a blog to increase organic search results in our client’s marketing campaigns.  This is a good interview if you are on the fence about SEO and blogs.  Now is the time to benefit from search and a blog is a perfect tool to get you on page 1 results!

Tags: Jennifer Jones, Podtech, Andy Beal, ,

Filed Under: Advertising, Blog Consulting, Blog Mining, Blog Platforms, Blog Revenue, Blog Tools, Bloggers and Blogs, Bloggers For Hire, Blogging News, Blogs and PR, Companies Needing Blogs, Corporate Blogs, Findability, Marketing, Media, Professional Blogging, Search Engine Optimization, Services, The Site

Blogging: So Easy A Caveman Can Do It

March 2, 2007 By 9 Comments

Well it looks like the caveman has signed a deal with ABC making my attempt to copy and plagiarize GIECO’s advertising campaign moot.  I wanted so badly to have the caveman tapping away at his keyboard, making fun of Robert Scoble, linkbaiting, Digging, and perhaps even signing up to work for clamshells at PayPerPost!  How cool would it have been if he would have been like Loren Feldman on 1938 media talking about the latest in tech gadgets and testing blog platforms, all while rubbing elbows with the likes of Om Malik, and Dave Winer.  He would have been perfect making a behind the scenes deal with Jason Calacanis starting the Caveman Blogging Network!  His videodcast would be picked up by John Furrier and he would be interviewing 40 second spots (rather than a Scoble 40 minute taping) of Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, and the latest in celebrity gossip like Perez Hilton.  He could write a great book like Jeremy Wright or Shel Israel or Debbie Weil.  He would be a sought after keynote at all the cool conferences like Gnomedex, Blog Business Summit, and of course Blog World Expo.  He would be sought after for his political opinions, like Instapundit, Little Green Footballs and Daily Kos.

Then I thought I might just get a variation of it and have it be "Blogging:  So easy a lawyer can do it."  Of course then I would probably be sued by litigious Mike Arrington, or I might offend for the second time people like Brian Clark.  I was soon talked out of that as a result of not wanting to offend Cavemen everywhere.

Since it seems that I am losing out here on the real wave of  "The Caveman", I have decided to do it myself and start my own campaign. Since I kind of took a beating yesterday after taking on Adobe, and since Dave Taylor believes my Bloggers For Hire operation to be similar to second class, I’m beginning the new campaign here:

"Blogging, so easy  Jim Turner can do it." 

Of course, you have my permission to actually let everyone know just how easy blogging is since nobody would possibly believe that I could actually do it successfully.  TGIF!!

Tags: , , GIECO, , Linkbait, , , , 1938 Media, , , , , , Brian Clark, , , , , Bloggers For Hire, Jeremy Wright, , Debbie Weil, Gnomedex, Blog Business Summit, , , ,

Filed Under: Advertising, Blog Consulting, Blog Mining, Blog Platforms, Blog Revenue, Blog Tools, Bloggers and Blogs, Bloggers For Hire, Blogging Books, Blogging News, Blogonomics Conference, Blogs and Law, Blogs and Politics, Blogs and PR, Business Blogging, Conferences/Trade Shows, Corporate Blogs, Findability, Marketing, Media, Miscellaneous, Partnerships, Professional Blogging, Search Engine Optimization, Services, The Site

Professional Bloggers Are Intelligence Gatherers

March 2, 2007 By 3 Comments

A couple of weeks back, during the Sundance Film Festival, I posted on my personal blog about the movie Hounddog, starring Dakota Fanning.  The movie entered controversy in the film world because Ms. Fanning appeared in a rape scene that was shown.  As a father of a 7 year old daughter, you can imagine I was appalled at the notion of a 12 year old girl being involved in a scene such as that, and then later saying it was no big deal and that parents should let their children see the movie to show them the "real world".  I don’t want to get off on that tangent again.  As a result of that post on my blog, a commenter took umbrage with my statement and called me "a jerk".  Not a problem, I have been called worse, and anytime you speak of religion, politics or other moral topics you are bound to have a heated discussion. In this particular instance, the commenter left no URL for me to visit his own blog.  Not knowing if his email address was actually a fake or a real address, I left a response on the blog, and a dialogue ensued.

As a blogger my job is to market my blogs, advertise them and grow my readership.  As a normal part of that process, even as a personal Daddy Blogger, my job is to gather intelligence about what is being said about my blog, who is coming to visit, who is reading what articles, and a laundry list of other things we do on a daily basis as we check our stats. After performing my normal blogging rituals, I ran across a link to my site and followed it to what then became my name caller.  He had a Live Journal Blog, and had mentioned my post again, as well as his comment so he could get the thoughts and reactions of his readers.  I was now a reader, so I left him my own message, without the name calling, extending the conversation once again.  Later in the process we began to exchange private emails, and we connected on more than just our blogging level.  He commented later that he was shocked to see that I had found him and his blog, and wondered about my secret.  I wish I could have told him it was some blogger voodoo magic, but it is merely a function we as bloggers, and more so we professional bloggers, do to stay in touch with the dynamic site we have created.  This is the same thing that I tell businesses.  This is the expertise we charge for as consultants and professional bloggers it separates us from the everyday copywriter or journalist.

The intelligence that can be gathered from a single visit to a blog, a single comment, and the information available can be an invaluable resource to companies, their marketing departments and their PR departments.  The tools available give you more intelligence about a single customer than any street window shopper, any strip mall customer, or anyone seeing an advertisement in a magazine on TV or on radio.  Blogging and social marketing online can be a whole new world of feedback and information.  This is only one example of what a business can do to shape its place online, and a way to gather and use valuable intelligence.  At One By One Media, this is called "Collaborative Intelligence".  Let us gather some for you.

Tags: , , Houndog, , Daddy Blogger, Blog Intelligence, Collaborative Intelligence, , , , , , Professional Bloggers, Bloggers For Hire

Filed Under: Advertising, Blog Consulting, Blog Mining, Blog Tools, Bloggers For Hire, Blogs and PR, Business Blogging, Corporate Blogs, Findability, Marketing, Media, Professional Blogging, Search Engine Optimization, Services

Outlook For 2007 Online Marketing Budgets

February 2, 2007 By Leave a Comment

I was looking through my email this morning and an article by eMarketer.com about what is working in online marketing.  The article goes into some details about what was done in 2005 and in 2006, but towards the end of the article, they provided an interesting graph about the results of their survey.

The ad spend for blogs and blogging is increasing over the last year and now marketers are putting in budgets for social networking.  Obviously, with the popularity now of podcasting and videocasting, these areas are also increasing in marketing budgets.

This is good news for the people like us in the business of social media marketing.  We have seen an increase in business over this time last year, and it seems to be increasing at a fast pace.  As more and more companies begin charging into the game of online marketing, these numbers will increase even further.

Tags: , , , Marketing Sherpa, ,

Filed Under: Advertising, Blog Consulting, Blog Mining, Blog Revenue, Blog Tools, Bloggers and Blogs, Bloggers For Hire, Blogging News, Blogs and PR, Business Blogging, Corporate Blogs, Findability, Marketing, Media, Professional Blogging, Services

HP Recommends Windows Vista Home Premium

February 1, 2007 By 3 Comments

As I ran through the blizzard to the mailbox to check whether any huge checks were in the mail that could allow me to vacation in a warmer climate, I was only disappointed as more bills were delivered.  The disappointment was only short lived as I chucked the invoices into the pay attention later pile and tore open a few of the cool junk mailings.  No, I don’t mean the checks you can order with Elmo on them, but junk mail like gadget catalogs! 

Hewlett Packard didn’t wait too long before Microsoft’s  new launch of the Vista system.  Right there on the cover is:

INTRODUCING, Windows Vista  Experience the breakthrough operating system that puts everything at your fingertips.  Included on every PC in this catalog!

Talk about your leap of faith.  I’m glad that the people at HP were so sure that Vista would be a hit, not that Microsoft would unleash a system that didn’t work.  Then I began to think about all of the stock that HP must have with other operating systems already loaded on them.  My wife was actually endorsing the idea of going to my local electronics store and price some of the stock they have now that they will be blowing out that do not have Vista on them.  I quickly checked for fever.  So far only Circuit City is on this wagon and others like Office Depot and Best Buy have yet to join.

My partner Tris, the technical ramrod of the group, was on the horn with me the day that Vista was launched, and I allowed the purchase of Vista instead of looking over at the "bills to pay" pile.  I look forward to his complete review of the system.    For those people looking to be paid this month, read Tris’ exciting and in depth look at Windows Vista!

[Disclosure:  I have family that works at HP. Maybe I can work my way into getting a statement!  Hey Scoble, where's my 40 minute video of HP getting in bed with Microsoft?  What do they do with all those cool toys with old systems?]

Tags: , , , , Circuit City, , , , , 

Filed Under: Advertising, Blog Mining, Blog Revenue, Blog Tools, Blogging News, Marketing, Media, Partnerships

One By One Media Goes Global

February 1, 2007 By Leave a Comment

No, this is not intended to be the title of a new social media press release, it merely goes to show how I felt today a I carried on three Skype chats with people from different corners of the globe.  It amazes me how the use of the Internet can grow a business from my small den in my home to a global consulting business.  As I sent my last email to a company in the UK while chatting with a client in Germany, and chatting with a company in Australia, all the while communicating with my partner in Vancouver, I began to get the real breadth of the situation.  Here are  people talking to each other in real time, and tied together by only an Internet connection.  It can boggle the mind if you try to grasp the enormity of that feat.  To that end, yes we are open for business, and we take all forms of currency!  If you are trading in clamshells however, please try to convert that before paying for our services.  What part of the world or you from? 

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Filed Under: Advertising, Blog Consulting, Blog Mining, Blog Revenue, Blog Tools, Bloggers and Blogs, Bloggers For Hire, Blogging News, Blogs and PR, Business Blogging, Client Sites, Corporate Blogs, Findability, Marketing, Media, Miscellaneous, Partnerships, Professional Blogging, Services, The Site

Technorati Helps Ogilvy In The Blogosphere

January 31, 2007 By Leave a Comment

In a PRNewswire release, it was announced that Technorati will be helping Ogilvy and its clients follow the conversation in the blogosphere  The release states:

Working with Technorati, Ogilvy will bring together a variety of tools and strategies that will enable agency clients to syndicate content, engage in online conversations and build relationships with online communities relevant to their brands.

It seems that at least some of the ad agencies are moving forward with trying to understand the social media.  I applaud Ogilvy.  Of interest however is whether Technorati is offering Ogilvy something more than what is already available for free to the ret of the people in the blogosphere.  I was curious about the "partnership".  Does this mean that Ogilvy has an employee sitting behind a desk with a Technorati feed for each client name?  Perhaps Dave Sifry could explain to us exactly what this partnership means.  I guess since I have been following along with the conversations about our own clients using the Technorati service, it could be said that we partnered with Technorati long before Ogilvy.  I love being ahead of the competition.

Peter Hirshberg on the Technorati blog states:

In a period where marketing is daring to shift from traditional to social media, and from one-way communication to relationships, we are extremely excited about helping Ogilvy’s clients to innovate on the Live Web. A genuine conversation beats mass communication any day– and thats (sic) an arena Ogivly (sic) and Technorati are working together to advance.

I guess it means more when a large fish in the pond begins to help the shift from traditional to social media.  Us little fish have been shouting this as loud as we can.  Welcome to the show Ogilvy.

Tags: , , , David Sifry,

Filed Under: Advertising, Blog Consulting, Blog Mining, Blog Tools, Bloggers and Blogs, Blogging News, Blogs and PR, Business Blogging, Client Sites, Corporate Blogs, Findability, Marketing, Media, Partnerships, Services
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