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• When kids put together their lists for Santa this year, do you think they will be asking for “an MP3 player”, or will they ask for “an iPod”?
• Did Microsoft have the same impact with the Zune?
• How is the iPhone impacting competitors phone sales?
• What would you think of a search engine that did not rank Apple for the term?

When you create a powerful brand you not only gain recognition and mind share, you change the rules of the game in your favor. The whole market place has to react, you cause competitors to change strategy, the media to take notice, and prospects to change their demands.

I would argue that creating a lasting brand is your single most important goal. Everything you do, from content to answering emails works towards your brand. Do not think you can rely on tricks and short cuts. As Aaron says, even Social Media has its dangers.

To make maximum impact it is not enough to just improve on the existing status quo, you have to cause a real shift in the way prospects think. It has to be done in a way that makes your brand stand alone as a shining example of what matters. Compare the lame razor market where each year they add a blade (how, um, innovative) to the disruption Dyson caused when he launched a bag-less vacuum cleaner.

Although most consumers see iPod and MP3 player as synonymous, Apples product was not the first and nor was it particularly revolutionary in terms of technology. It had some great features and an innovative interface, but it was the whole strategy in combination that made the difference. The iPod succeeded because it combined the required features in an elegant package. As much fashion as technology, it visibly fit how the prospects thought of themselves, it practically marketed itself. If you went to market with just another MP3 player, what would customers think? Do people think Microsoft’s Zune is something new and fresh? I would argue most people think of it as “an attempt at an iPod killer”, ie. to describe the Zune people compare it to the iPod.

Now Apple is doing the same thing over again with the iPhone. It’s not the first smartphone, not even the best in many ways, but the loyal Apple customer base combined with a radical user interface has won over many USA customers and is likely to succeed in Europe eventually (once some niggles are worked out).

Once you have one success, and a growing base of happy customers, the next success becomes that bit easier. 

Another brand that fits the prospects world view is Starbucks. It isn’t just another coffee shop. The stores are decorated and planned more like a theater set than a shop. Your prospects have to think “this suits me”. Starbucks created atmosphere, pricing and product that key into a desire in the prospect for perceived quality and sophistication. Now what would people say if you wanted to open just another coffee shop?
How do you use these ideas in your own marketing and promotion?

1. Know your prospect - What are the key motivations and self-image of the people you are aiming for?
2. Know yourself - How do your own attributes overlap with those of your audience?
3. What can you do differently? - You are looking for something disruptive, not just “better”. What are the conventions and how can you break them?
4. How can your point of difference benefit? - What will prospects gain by your difference? Different for the sake of it will not work, people need to see how much better your new way is for them.
5. How can you get the idea to spread? - It is no good being different but isolated, what can you do to make your brand viral?

Look around for examples and learn from them. Who is unique? What are the conventions, how are those conventions changing?

Today I would say the most unique blog is Successful-blog, Liz has changed the rules for how a blog should be. Conventions in blogging are very different to only a few years ago. First Darren made it OK to talk about earning money as a blogger, then John Chow has taken commercialism and made it a virtue.

When we launched Performancing, multi-author blogs were unusual, as were blogs with a forum, now those ideas are so common as to not warrant noticing. That said Performancing has survived unlike some other more unfortunate sites launched at the same time. The key is the community. Being unique is not enough, you have to gain loyalty. Know what is considered radical today will be the minimum standard tomorrow, you have to keep moving forward and keep your audience with you.

Gather your prospects and have them feel part of something. Focus on giving those people the very best experience and they will reward you.

What sort of people does your brand attract and why? How can you serve those particular people better? Is there a word or phrase you can use to describe those people or that activity?

Twitter is a social site based around the idea of 140 character messages, but it has grown to be much more than that.

My relationship with Twitter has mutated over time. My opinion of the service has ranged from true believer, skeptic, objective critic, right up to now which I would describe as “cautious optimist“.

It took a while for me to see any benefit in it but now I think it could be very useful to bloggers when used correctly.

Do you use Twitter? Let me know in the comments. Follow me on Twitter now.

If you are not using Twitter yet, there is a comprehensive guide here.

The service is still developing, both technologically (it is often down or unreliable) and in the way people use it. There are three great non-social uses for Twitter that I can see:

1. Inside scoop - Follow the right industry insiders and you get the news before any other channel. I have gotten access to information and beta accounts this way, can be very useful.
2. Traffic - Drop a link with a good intro and you can see click throughs and comments as a result.
3. Networking - I have stated many times how important networking is for bloggers, Twitter is a growing venue for this.

Driving Traffic with Twitter

Twitter is more and more being used as both a social medium and also as a way to drive traffic. You can see this in action by observing users who do it so well, people like Tamar, Chris Pirillo, Scoble and Steve Rubel.

The key is to paste your link after a compelling headline. I find titles that either announce something intriguing or beg a response to work best, things people will have an opinion on. You can use Twitterfeed to post your RSS content to twitter automatically, or various plugins to Tweet as you post. Another traffic technique is to post Digg URLs to get your followers to vote!

It is no good thinking you can drive loads of traffic to your blog if you only have five followers, you have to get out there and make some friends. See “networking” below.

Twitter as a Back Channel

Originally when I signed up I did the usual thing of following my friends. Thing is, I talk to my friends anyway. What I missed out on was what I find really beneficial now, finding stuff out as it happens and getting insights that I would miss otherwise.

The key is to follow the right people. This can only be worked out through trial and error; follow people for a while and see what they produce.

On a basic level I have been able to follow the key points from conferences I would not have been able to access, but at best there have been quotes and links that have kept me informed better than following 1000 feeds.

Twitter Networking

You don’t just post and read on Twitter, you can discuss and make connections too.

Be careful that you do not follow more Twitter users than you can handle, this kind of thing can really leach on your time. The way I have gathered contacts is by gradually following other peoples conversations and following who they reference. You will find a lot will follow you in return or if you reply to one of their comments.

It is very important when replying to remember that your conversation is public, keep it interesting for those outside the conversation too by making it inclusive. Be clear in each “tweet” what it is you are talking about, don’t expect people to follow the whole thread, do not post too much in quick succession and don’t use shorthand or private jokes.

To reply to another Twitter user you just include their @name in your Tweet. To see who replied to you there is a “replies” link.

Who Uses Twitter and How?

I asked on Twitter if people find the service useful, here are a few replies:

• @Marshall finds it sends a fair amount of traffic and has an excellent post on how Twitter helps pay his rent
• @Sylvainbriant gets good blog traffic from Tweets (approximately 3%)
• @Reese says she gets exposure but knows she doesn’t leverage it enough
• @cmiddlebrook has seen a lot of traffic from Twitter, particularly since she posted her guide

Over to you, do you use twitter? How do you use it? What do you love or hate about it? I want to know your opinions, please share in the comments …

A couple of times this week I have seen great stories get buried on Digg. It happens and it sucks.

The thing is we all tend to think our own story is worthy of getting votes. But in many cases I think the people who complain about getting buried the most secretly know they were trying to game the system. If you have to ask every person online you know for a vote that is probably a good sign that you are pushing quite hard.

Digg is actually a lot fairer than people might believe, lousy stories get the same treatment but the authors still complain about the bury-brigade or auto-bury or whatever.

Ask yourself this; if you had never seen the article before, would you voluntarily vote for it?

If the answer to that question is a firm “no” then why should anyone else Digg it, stumble it or del.icio.us it?

Here is the secret to Social Media success …

… Social Media is a popularity contest. It’s a lot like high school really. Being nice is great, but being popular and having lots of friends is far more important. 

I know some of you will disagree with me but I see “evidence”, or what I regard as evidence, might be just a misfiring of neurons, all the time.

To even get a story seen you need votes. Hardly anyone looks in the dark and hidden corners of social media sites where new and unnoticed stories live. The popular pages get all the attention, followed by “about to become popular with a little push”. Who hangs out with the “brand new and unlikely to become popular unless a miracle happens” pages?

So you need a bunch of friends to give you a kick start. The more the better.

That’s ok because Digg and such give you tools to allow you to send a story to your friends to get them to vote on it.

Even better if some of your friends are really popular and successful. If you hang out with the cool crowd your stuff will get far more attention.

So through your friends and adoring fans you get your stuff noticed. Most of the work is done. In fact that can be all that is required. Sometimes though people see through the charade and point out that the Emperor has no clothes and buries it.

The thing is we really shouldn’t be at all surprised when that happens if the article really doesn’t have any substance.

Unfortunately, just like high school, there is a ruling class clique with their own likes, dislikes and prejudices. Being popular is not enough if you break the unwritten rules.  

When you are looking to use Social Media, hang out and observe. Look at what gets popular, what hangs around long term and what gets to the front page then disappears just as fast.

Most people will tell you what works on Digg tends to have some relationship with Apple, Linux, Ron Paul, etc. Things that probably won’t do well are anything that seems to be third hand (submit the original not a livejournal writeup of a copy and pasted story), overly commercial or overly self promotional.

Basically, unlike high school, it is the young male geeks who rule the roost. Remember the AV club? Yup, they control what gets to the front page, and they have a lifetime of bitterness to get out of their system.

The same old advice applies here as much as anyone else; consider the audience first over what you want. What will they enjoy and get value from? How best to deliver it? What do you need to do to appeal?

If getting on Digg is so important to you and it means sexing up your story and making Star Wars references, so be it. Personally, I am still happy when I get the ego boost from a front page digg story but now I focus on my actual audience rather than trying to please everyone.

Probably why I was never that popular in school

Aaron has a great post about PR agencies in the social media / web 2.o space. Worth a read, if only for the Office Space inspired giggle.  Reading this made my brain connect what Aaron had written with a thought I had been having all morning about authenticity.

The attraction of blogging and social marketing for companies is strong. There is a feeling that with a little bit of cunning you can siphon off some of this juicy traffic and pump up your product. A lot of tips and advice out there reinforces this belief. Added to this, look at all these tools that are available now allowing you to “submit your content to hundreds of social media sites simultaneously”. Um, submit a lame story all you like, you ain’t going to get voted on!

Reality fortunately shows that this is not true. It is a lot harder to profitably game the system for your own commercial benefit than it appears.

It’s a real shame that many of these companies are going to try a half-hearted approach at gaming social media then decide that social media “doesn’t work”. If they would only truly engage the audience, take time to truly participate and create value, they might see a whole lot of benefit for both their company and their customers.

I have said this before but it is worth repeating. You have to start with the audience, what they need.  But saying the right things is not enough, you have to show with your behavior that you really get it.

Attracting an audience with the right words in the right places will only work so long, sooner or later you have to truly deliver what your audience came to find. If you attract people with one story but tell another with the way you act then those people who were once attracted and favorable will feel cheated. Consider Apple, they have a huge fan-base and now pundits are squawking about their percentage of the PC market but Mac customers don’t see Apple as a PC company. If they started selling generic beige boxes would the customers stick around?

Social media and blog marketing are not throwaway tactics, attracting an audience this way is setting up a promise that you are going to make yourself an authentic part of the conversation. Don’t waste the opportunity by only putting on an act, really take part and you will be rewarded.

Often clients assume I am always going to recommend blogging but that is simply not the case. I am not going to push blogs as the magic bullet solution because as you know, blogging does not suit every company or individual.

In most cases the decision is down to:

1. Will a blog provide significant benefit compared to other tactics? - There are a number of ways a company can market, build an audience, attract search visibility without blogging. While for some companies a blog will be ideal, this is not always the case.
2. Does the benefit outweigh the cost? - There are costs to blogging, from having the initial blog set up through to the staff time or paid cost in having it maintained.
3. Can you as a company create a worthwhile blog? - Not all companies have people on staff or the budget for good, consistent writing. Also you need to know there are enough article ideas to see you through long term.

Now all that said, the risk of “getting it wrong” is small in most cases. People do worry though if there is a greater risk doing a blog badly compared to doing nothing at all.Let’s take a look at ways a blog could conceivably damage your brand:

• Saying something damaging - This is the worst thing you can do through your blog, and it could well be much more damaging than saying something bad in person because as you know, internet news travels at light speed, provides its own evidence, and is hard to erase. If you have staff members with controversial views or who tend to run off their mouth then keep them away from the blog. Do not let anything go live without being checked for legalities, accuracy, intellectual property and good sense. My advice would be to avoid any form of snark or dark humor in a company blog. This is kind of the internet equivalent of letting the company big-mouth talk to the press. Just don’t.
• Not responding to an issue - Not posting can be as damaging. If there is an issue building and you have a blog but do not address it then it looks like you are being evasive.
• Over-prioritizing the blog - A blog is one thread in a multi-tactic strategy. Relying on your blog alone, to the expense of other marketing tactics, would be a mistake. Take me for example, I am a blog and marketing consultant but even I have to get out from my own blog, market myself and network.
• Using the blog as distraction from work - Sometimes people get caught up with the thrill of blogging or just would rather tinker with a blog than get on with their real job. Blogging is fun, much more fun than many chores you might have in a business, so be careful that hours are not wastefully spent “blogging” rather than being productive.
• Starting then abandoning a popular blog - This is not quite as damaging as people believe, but still can be a mistake when you have a lot of people who have subscribed only to find the posts dry up. Raising and dashing expectations is not the best business move. For this reason it is best to start a blog in “stealth mode” to see if it is possible for you to maintain a blog long term. Also do not think you have to post multiple times a day or even week. Once a week might be sufficient providing what you post is valuable. Far better to set expectations low and exceed them than the other way round.

As you can see, there are risks, but knowing risks before hand allows you to mitigate against them. I have in the past recommended companies go with an “articles” section and an email list over a blog when I didn’t feel they could keep up a blog. There are always options and ways around these issues.

Can you think of any other ways a company could harm their brand with bad blogging?

So you will do-doubt have noticed Darren Gave Away $60,000 of Prizes in a Week. You can already see Darrens conclusions, but after reading his list I had a thought I want to share and get your opinion on.

The Problogger give-away was a big success I am sure, and Darren has learned a great deal that will make the next much better, but what struck me about the prize bonanza makes me wonder about doing competitions at all.

Could competitions be a turn-off?

I don’t for a minute think Darren lost any subscribers, in fact he gained some. But for me, watching the blog, seeing all the competition-related posts fill up the RSS, made me think about the nature of competitions.

Say you have 10k subscribers and 1,000 people enter a competition with 5 prizes. That is 955 disappointed people and 9,000 people who were not interested in the first place.

Yes, you gain attention, links and some new subscribers, but how loyal will those people be longer-term when the prizes stop coming.

Perhaps the key is to combine the competition with lots of other great content at the same time so your main topic gets equal billing?

As I say, this is not a criticism of Darrens or any other competition, I just wonder if competitions in general could be damaging as well as great publicity?

What do you think?

Last night I was chatting with Brian about his recent article. We were talking about how when people get into online marketing they suddenly become enamored with the technology. Have you noticed that?

There is one key to success online and let me tell you now, technology is not it.

Yes, the technical side is important and has a very key role to play. Get the technology right without another critical ingredient and failure is guaranteed.

What is this magic sauce? People.

“People” are the key to your success, online or off.

What a bizarre thing to say! But it is true. Let me explain.

Take a look at this list and tell me what they all have in common …

• Subscribers
• Traffic
• Links
• Social Media Votes
• Comments
• Search Engine Results
• Advertisers
• Sales

Got it? They all rely on other people!

You might think that SEO is all about technical tweaks and tricks. Black arts, keyword stuffing, getting the right number of keywords in the right places. But I would argue the best Search Engine Optimizers are actually masters of psychology - Social Optimizers if you will.

Your best links come from other bloggers. Links and anchor text are key to search results. Social Media is partly about phrasing headlines and descriptions, but it is mostly about getting votes. Votes come from people.

Get the people side right and you have won over half the battle.

Focus on people first, when your audience is happy you will find the rest a whole lot easier!

User djinferno asked a question over at the Authority Blogger Forum that I know is on the minds of many bloggers.

It is a question I see a lot, expressed in many ways

• “How do I promote my blog”
• “What can I do to get more visitors?”
• “How do you increase traffic?”

In the thread already there is some great comprehensive advice from glblbuy that I totally agree with. Do read the whole thing but here are a couple of the main points.

1. Have great content - everyone knows content is a pre-requisite but it is always surprising how many people put one post up on their blog then ask how to get more visitors right away!
2. Make yourself known - Fellow bloggers are your best quality source of free traffic and subscribers. Participate in forums and carnivals. Comment. Make friends and partnerships and get them to link and Stumble your posts.
3. Guest post - Once people know you a bit build on it by guest posting. By writing on other peoples blogs you build contacts, raise your profile and can help other people while helping yourself - win-win
4. Be easy to help - Make your content easy to skim and quote. Use bullets, bold areas, quotes. Provide easy to use social media buttons. When it comes to Digging you up, linking to you or stumbling your stuff if it seems like too much work nobody will do it!
5. Take advantage of the traffic when it comes - make sure your subscription options are prominent, welcome people, respond to comments, follow up with more good stuff

Added: I was reminded of another good thread at the forum on the same topic

I’m sure you have your own advice, what has worked for you? Sign up to the forum and join the conversation or leave a comment here

One of the great things about the internet is the fact you can connect with people from all around the world with diverse backgrounds and interests. In fact I think technology has followed a very human drive for connecting, when techies connected computers together they were really connecting people.

Only yesterday I was telling someone how networking got me to where I am. It’s true success is as much about who you know as what you know. I owe a huge part of my career to online communities and I can not imagine ever having achieved anything without what I learned from participating in them.

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Since I wrote about how bloggers make money I have had three different people asking about the controversial topic of paid links. I know from past experience when one or two people ask there are usually many more people who are interested, so here are my thoughts and a small poll to see how you stand on the issue

It seems to me the various positions can be summarized as follows. Let me know in the comments if I have missed any.

1. Against - It’s bad for the web - This is the position of Google. Their opinion is that links count as votes and they find it hard to tell if a vote has been bought or given freely. They don’t want to rank sites highly that have bought the position (unless the site in question is buying Googles own Adwords advertising).
2. Moderate - It predates Google so they should butt out - Many people who actually don’t take part in the practice of buying or selling links nevertheless do not think it is Googles job to tell webmasters what they can and can not do where linking is concerned.
3. For - It is good for webmasters, good for buyers, and good for audiences, do it! - It is easy to like this form of monetization. Text Link Ads pay well even to the average webmaster, particularly when compared to the most common Adsense payout, without forcing the inventory in your face, and reward webmasters regardless of traffic. Buying links has been a proven traffic method for a while now, in fact there are some niches where the practice is so common place I am told you can not compete without taking part.
4. Depends - Sell ‘em by all means but be careful buying - The buying side of the equation poses more risks than the selling side though I am told the key is to make your link patterns look natural by mixing up where you get your links from.

Where do I stand?

My opinion is closest to #4. Full disclosure, I worked with Patrick from TLA for a long time and think he is a thoroughly good bloke so am perhaps more sympathetic to the company than I would otherwise be That said, if you are having a hard time making money off your blog I think Text Link Ads is a great scheme.

I don’t really care for Googles position and I believe if there is going to be a Policeman of the Interwebs it shouldn’t really be a monopoly that makes millions from monetizing spam like they do. Google incentivise splogs and click arbitrage with Adsense money so isn’t it a bit hypocritical? They even get users to out sites that are selling links. I am by no means an expert on all the nuances of this debate but is there only me that thinks what you will get is competitors playing dirty rather than honest search users filling those out? Perhaps I am opening myself up for a search penalty now saying that

Don’t think for a minute it is just the little guys who sell links. Huge properties do it. No, I am not going to out individuals, but many of the biggest household names and organisations on the web have sold links.

I do agree with one point that Matt Cutts makes, it is better for all parties if the links are relevant. The best approach is that put forward by Jeremy Zawodny (who happens to work for a big search engine, hmmm).

I rejected the on-line casino, drug sales, cheap hotels, and really offensive stuff–basically, anything the reminded me of blog comment spam I’ve bit hit with or that sends me to a sleazy feeling site. No need to encourage ‘em.

If you can earn a couple of hundred dollars a month selling links, is a penalty so bad? If Google decides your site no longer passes “juice” I don’t think most people would notice, but if your site loses rankings there could be more pain. I would actually advise people to build up non-Google traffic sources so one monster company can not arbitrarily hold you to ransom in this way. Fact is, most of the people who look to Text Link Ads as their major source of income isn’t getting much love from Google in the first place.

While I know bloggers with small blogs who are making hundreds of dollars a month with TLA, I also know there are also webmasters who look down on the practice. Everyone has their own thoughts and it is nowhere near a clear issue. My advice is to look around your niche and ask around. If you would like to check out more information about selling links on your blog, visit the Text Link Ads site here. While there is no commitment required to investigate further, that is an affiliate link and demonstrates another way you can earn from the system, you can make $25 if your click leads to a sign up

Am I wrong? Is this bad advice? 

Do not think from what I have said my mind is made up. While I didn’t want to sway the poll, as I say above, I have given advice on the topic already so I thought the honest thing was to let you know my thoughts. I am still completely open to persuasion on this. If you have thoughts or links that show a good argument in any direction, please share in the comments.

Now click your vote in the poll, I am looking forward to seeing how you guys think about this issue