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Breaking News
Posted 30 Jun 2009
Posted 30 Jun 2009
Posted 26 Jun 2009
Posted 23 Jun 2009
Posted 23 Jun 2009
News Features
Some internet scams are easy to spot—pop-ups boasting miracle weight loss or emails claiming you've won the lottery—but other, more subtle scams aren't as easy to identify. With the rise of Web 2.0 tools, advertisers have a plethora of new opportunities to promote products and, unfortunately, dupe online users. For this reason, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has proposed new regulations regarding misleading online endorsements, which could hinder online advertisers' ability to use social networking sites and blogs to promote products.
Over the past few months, from scattered corners of the web, the sentiment "enough already" has slowly emerged. Yes, we're in a recession; friends and family members are losing jobs, retirement savings, and homes; people are scared and frustrated. But enough with apocalyptic forecasting—let's move on to the question of how we're all going to get through this.Sites such as Recessionwire, Economic TurningPoint, and the Reinventing America series of reports on MSNBC.com have launched with the goal of helping readers understand not only what is going on with the economy but what to do now.
Ross Mayfield, chairman, president, and co-founder of Socialtext—a provider of Web 2.0 solutions for the enterprise and other organizations—heard the news about massive layoffs at companies across the country. But unlike many of us, he was in a position to help.
During the inauguration of President Barack Obama, people across the country put down their political boxing gloves long enough to celebrate the historic event, but behind the scenes a debate was brewing. It started when it was reported on Wikipedia, a web-based, free-content encyclopedia project, that Sens. Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd had died during the inauguration luncheon. Both men were still alive, and within a few moments Wikipedia editors had erased the inaccurate post, but the damage was done. This latest snafu ignited talk of Wikipedia possibly changing its information verification process, angering Wikipedia users and adding more fuel to the information accuracy fire.
It's no big news that social computing is mainstream—I recently learned that my grandmother is on Facebook—but just as Grandma is unsure how to make the most of her experience, most companies entering the fray are there out of some vague notion that it's what they are "supposed" to do. A few, though, are using wikis, blogs, forums, and other tools to creatively market to potential and existing clients—particularly useful as traditional marketing costs are steep and the recession may extend into 2010.
Featured Stories
Social networking sites and online collaboration tools make it easier for employees to collaborate and share their knowledge. Add email and instant messaging (IM) to the mix and the result is a knowledge-sharing system that can bolster communication and productivity throughout an enterprise.
Social networking for the enterprise is booming. The sector is unquestionably adding revenues for new providers, adding jobs at old companies, and adding profits throughout the industry. In a wave that seemed to begin in earnest just 18 months ago, enterprises now embrace these tools to achieve better (and less expensive) results across most major business functions despite fears over losing control of company secrets.
To succeed today, content sites must amass huge content collections, yet accomplish this with tighter budgets. At the same time, content consumers need to be enabled to find exactly what meets their needs. There are several strategies that can be employed to achieve web publishing's Holy Grail: the Triangle of Content Success.
From sloppy reporting to outright libel, not to mention web-speed requirements and confusing advertising placement. Journalism faces a slow of new challenges online. Can the old rules of media be applied? And if not, what is to become of journalistic ethics online?
Take a closer look at Demand Media, Inc., one of the 12 companies that inspired the most banter among the EContent 100 judges during the voting process.
Product Reviews
LeapTag applies Web 2.0 concepts such as bookmarking, tagging, and approving or disapproving of content to an individual online organizing tool. While the tool is far from perfect, it provides a simple way to organize information online using custom tags while enabling you to approve or disapprove individual articles and even ads.
Generate G2 stands out as a tool for sales professionals and others who need to cultivate high-level contacts. With an innovative combination of users' own personal network of contacts, publicly available information, and premium news, the platform delivers the connections that drive business.
JabberNow provides an easy way—for both IT staff and end users—to include secure instant messaging in your organization’s arsenal of communication and collaboration tools. With impressive flexibility, Jabber packs potent presence-awareness and enhanced teamwork into the small form factor of its JabberNow appliance.
TypePad is a terrific tool to set up a professional-quality blog in just an hour or so. Perfect for individuals or businesses, TypePad requires no Web design or HTML skills. With the WYSIWYG editor, creating a post is as easy as using Microsoft Word. TypePad is what Web-based services are supposed to be: easy-to-use, powerful, professional, cost-effective, and fun. Many services make the claims, TypePad actually delivers. David meerman scott
Columns
I am now living through the third wave of arguments for fee-based digital content models in the decade and a half I have covered the internet publishing world. The inevitable response to the dual forces of recessionary ad decline and the more tectonic and irreversible shift to digital has been: "Make 'em pay." Almost everyone on the consumer side of the fence is talking about "hybrid" models and "pay areas." It is hard to listen to such a conversation without someone dropping "the iTunes precedent" as an argument that both micropayment mechanisms and consumer attitudes have turned the corner on this issue. People are ready to underwrite the costly content industry. They see the ugly alternative (bad or shallow content), and they are more willing to put a cash value on digital media now.
When I was invited to speak on mobile search, advertising, and SEO at ThinkMobile, a new mobile industry conference in New York this March, I expected it (like the majority of mobile events I have attended over the last months) to focus on technology issues first and the potential impact on how we live and work second.
In a January memorandum titled "Transparency and Open Government" (http://tinyurl.com/openg), President Barack Obama called for greater transparency in making information available online as well as more citizen participation in federal websites. Experience from the private sector suggests that executing on a strategy of greater transparency combined with public participation will be difficult. Technology vendors talk a good game about offering a unified solution to this challenge, but their architectures have not caught up with their marketing here.
Quality, conference-centric web content can provide an ideal confluence of on-site and online. Smart organizers create all kinds of different content that helps people to make the decision, prior to the event, to buy a ticket (or not). The content also serves as search engine fodder, driving traffic to the show site prior to the event. As I wrote in last month's column, successes such as the Singapore Tattoo Show, which used a Facebook Group called Tattoo Artistry to help drive 15,000 people to the show's debut in January 2009, are the models to emulate.
How much time do you spend worrying about your brand? Not your company's brand, yours. If you believe some marketing and new-media gurus, you need to be vigilant about your brand: You've got Kleenex brand tissue, Yardley brand soap, Degree brand deodorant—and Walt Crawford brand writer, editor, and speaker. Right? Wrong. At least it is for me, and I'd like to believe it would be wrong for some of you too.
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EContent BEST PRACTICES
Technology providers who not only recognize the necessity and difficulty of the local and global content marketplace, but are there to help: From analytics to location awareness, content management to translation management, translation services to language specific search solutions, there are a range of solutions that will enable organizations to adapt to the needs of the new consumer.
Appropriate and effective content management solutions not only enable ease of use, effective interactive communication, and dynamic marketing experiences, they deliver what all organizations seek: measurable return on investment.
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