Posts Tagged: tools

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13
Apr 10

Comment Management Tools You Should Know

What is Comment Management?  Virtually all blog software offers commenting functionality, so why would you need a 3rd party comment management service?  Many of the comments and “reactions” to content posted on a blog never make it to the blog itself – the source of the conversation. Comment Management tools provide all the expected features and also pull in mentions & citations of the post as well. That way when someone reads a post on your blog, they can see comments made directly on the post as well as mentions made of of the post on other sites like Twitter. Should you add a comment manager tool to your blog? It depends how much of your social engagement is happening off your blog and also whether you feel it will add to the user experience to see a collected list of on and off site interactions. For many blogs, citing comment and reaction counts is simply a matter of social proofing and popularity. For others, it’s an attempt to harvest all the conversation about a post at the source. To help you decide, here are the three main comment management tools to consider: ECHO from JS-Kit offers a wide array of features. It can be embedded on a blog or static web site and pull in comments from Twitter, Digg, comments from other blogs, FriendFeed and several others. Commenters can choose to promote their comments simultaneously to Twitter, Facebook or Google Friends. Sites like Technorati and Guy Kawasaki use ECHO.  We tried JS-Kit but didn’t like not being able to show comments on top of the off site citations under each post.  JS-Kit ECHO Live is $12/year and ECHO Live white label is $48/year. There is also a PRO version with many other controls and features with costs according to page views ranging from $195 to $1995 per year. Disqus , as you may have noticed, is the commenting system we are currently using on Online Marketing Blog . Disqus lets readers choose their identity, via: Facebook Connect, OpenID, or Twitter Sign-in, when they leave a comment. Comments can be threaded and the moderation dashboard is easy to use. Off site references to your content on Twitter, FriendFeed, Digg, and YouTube are pulled in as “Reactions”. You can sort comments as we do, on top, then show the reactions below. Readers can choose to cross post their comment to other social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.   You can edit comment content but not the names of commenters, which is frustrating because some spammers write really useful comment content but spam them hell out of their names and links. The base version of Disqus is free. Disqus VIP offers much hand holding support and analytics. Cost is not disclosed on the site so it must be very expensive. IntenseDebate was acquired by Automattic, the company behind WordPress and therefore, can be easily added to WordPress blogs as well as TypePad, Tumblr or Blogger blogs. There’s comment threading, notification by email, commenter profiles and points, moderation, cross posting to Twitter and several other features.  IntenseDebate is free. Which comment management tool is right for you? It depends on your use. If you have a static web site and you’d like to add comment features, then ECHO might be a fit. If you want something that offers all the basics and works natively with WordPress then maybe IntenseDebate is your pick. If you want more features and also don’t want to pay anything, then it’s possible Disqus is the choice for you. The great thing about these tools is that they are easy to install and test out. Here are other reviews you might find useful on these comment management systems. Blog Comment System Shootout: Disqus vs. Intense Debate vs. JS-Kit Echo – 40 Tech 3rd Party Comment System Roundup – Dave Mosher’s Blog Although I pinged Facebook and Twitter connections for examples of other 3rd party comment management tools that pull in off-site citations, I didn’t hear about any. I didn’t find much on Google either. There are other comment management services, tools and plug-ins, just not any (that I’ve found) that automatically pull in 3rd party mentions of your content. If you know of other comment management systems that pull in comments from other social media sites, please share in the comments. Do you use any of the the tools mentioned above? What has your experience been? What features would you like to see added? © Online Marketing Blog , 2010. | Comment Management Tools You Should Know | No comment | http://www.toprankblog.com

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Comment Management Tools You Should Know

Blog Marketing / Social Media — No Comments
8
Apr 10

Setting and Measuring Goals for Business Blogging

As companies that realize the value of online marketing understand the need to publish engaging content, one of the most common considerations is a company blog.  Blog software is fundamentally one of the easiest content management software systems to install and use. Of course the software isn’t magic. The content and ability to reach and engage with customers is a big part of what makes a business blog successful. For those companies that are thinking of starting a blog or reinvesting resources into a company blogging effort that has gone stale, some of the most important questions to ask are:  Have you identified specific goals for the blog? How will you measure success? In sports you can’t score if there isn’t a goal and it’s no different with business blogging.  There are a variety of reasons why publishing ongoing communications that allow readers to interact adds value to a business. Add to that the distribution via RSS that extends the reach of your message and  it’s easy to see why so many companies start blogging. The failure for many business blogs is centered around not making a connection between business goals, blog specific objectives and most importantly, how meeting customer needs leads to the first two. Here are three key questions to consider as you design your plan for business blogging success: Why start a business blog? What end goals or outcomes can you reasonably expect? There are many good reasons to start a blog. But are those reasons good enough to start and stay blogging for the long haul? Our survey on blogging and SEO showed 90% citing blogging as important, significantly important or a primary SEO tactic. 94% of bloggers reported seeing measurable SEO benefits from blogging within 12 months. Initiate and foster customer engagement Improve coverage by media and bloggers Improve search engine visibility Increase mentions on other blogs, social networking, news, bookmarking and media sites Build thought leadership Provide an informative communication channel Recognize employees, clients, marketing partners and especially brand evangelists How will you know your blogging efforts are successful according to those goals? How are you measuring blogging success? We ran a poll last year with our readers that ranked their most important measures of blogging success. Here is the distribution: Engagement: comments, links 36% Improved brand recognition 31% Build thought leadership 31% Search engine rankings 31% Better communicate with customers 30% Traffic to the blog 27% Coverage by media and other blogs 18% Traffic to the corporate web site 16% Sales leads 16% Industry Recognition 13% Sell products 2% Improved customer satisfaction 11% Page views 9% Time on Site 6% Ad revenue on the blog 5% What tools are you using to measure blog performance? Goals for business and the blog are great but it’s essential to have the right tools in place for analytics. One of the biggest mistakes is to rely on things like Google Alerts. Web analytics (Google Analytics, Woopra, Clicky, etc) Feedburner Social media monitoring tools Link analysis tools Comment tracking tools Clipping services Forum conversation tracking tools It’s fundamental, this notion of setting goals, understanding outcomes and the tools needed to measure. But you know the saying, “Common sense is the least common thing on Earth.”  Companies can achieve great return on investment with the right plan and leadership in a blogging effort. The key is to do the baseline work to build a foundation upon which it can grow and succeed.  Stay the course and leverage both listening and engagement tools to guide content. Develop networks and distribution channels to grow readership and reach. Take the time to really understand the impact of data provided by reporting tools and create reports for executives that highlight business goals. What are some of the challenges you’ve faced with setting, measuring and reaching business goals through corporate blogging? Have you started a business blog only to shut it down? Have your company blogging efforts been successful beyond expectations? © Online Marketing Blog , 2010. | Setting and Measuring Goals for Business Blogging | No comment | http://toprankweb2.mn2.visi.com

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Setting and Measuring Goals for Business Blogging

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6
Apr 10

Ross Macpherson Explains Top 5 Critical Executive Marketing Tools in Experts … – PRLog.Org (press release)

Ross Macpherson Explains Top 5 Critical Executive Marketing Tools in Experts ... PRLog.Org (press release) You also need an executive bio, a brag sheet, and online profile on LinkedIn , and a brand statement. • What constitutes an integrated marketing approach to ...

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Ross Macpherson Explains Top 5 Critical Executive Marketing Tools in Experts ... - PRLog.Org (press release)

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30
Mar 10

What are the roadblocks to establishing a mobile strategy?

Every new technology has a learning curve — and sometimes it feels like this goes double for social technologies. First, you need to learn how to use the tools, then you have learn how to use them to engage others. It can seem like an awfully long road to walk, as Dave Curry explains in today’s lead story in SmartBrief on Social Media . It might even be tempting to wait until there are more case studies and best practices for these new services. But waiting for a blueprint to magically appear has its own dangers. Three reasons to jump in now: No one can teach you but you. Social-media marketing case studies can be valuable teaching tools, but that abstract learning can only take you so far. The most memorable lessons don’t come from the triumphs of one brand or the blunders of another. They come from personal experience. You’ll never learn as much by watching as you will by doing. Your mobile strategy needs to be tailored to your company’s needs, not taken off the rack. Starting small keeps your risks low. Keep your expectations in check and your ambitions modest — at first. Fail early and often, but do it in front of a select audience. That way, you can learn in a controlled environment, where very few people will notice if your earliest efforts aren’t as strong as they could be. Once you understand what works for your brand, you can expand your efforts. If you don’t, someone else will. While you’re waiting for the technology to be perfected, for the rulebook to be written, for the blueprint to appear, your competitors are on the ground and figuring it out for themselves. The extra experience and the additional opportunities to establish a community will be difficult obstacles to surmount. Of course, not every company will end up embracing mobile — and some of the holdouts may have great reasons for doing so. But apprehension over the learning curve shouldn’t be one of them. Are location-aware networks part of your social strategy right now? What are the biggest challenges these services present? Anyone want to make the case for waiting? Image credit, HelleM , via Shutterstock

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What are the roadblocks to establishing a mobile strategy?

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19
Mar 10

Social Media: Inc 500 versus Fortune 500 – Formtek Blog (blog)

East African Social Media: Inc 500 versus Fortune 500 Formtek Blog (blog) Blogging and Social Media sites like FaceBook, LinkedIn and Twitter have grown dramatically. Twitter's growth has been the most explosive, increasing in ... The Importance of Using Social Networking for Business; Part I – Facebook IPWatchdog.com Radian6 caps off first year in the black, as social media becomes profitable VentureBeat E-mail Firms Latch on to Market for Social Campaign Tools ClickZ News Smart Company (blog)

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