Archive for July, 2009

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Making Twitter Updates Searchable

July 21, 2009

I have posted over 16,000 words 140 characters at a time to Twitter since I began Tweeting in May of 2008.

Recently I became concerned about the Twitter cloud’s ability to archive my Tweets for a prolonged period of time.

I don’t have the same concern about WordPress’ ability to archive my blog posts so I thought I would mash the two together to create a searchable archive of my Twitter updates both here in my WordPress blog and ultimately in Google’s search engine results pages via the Googlebot crawl.

To create a searchable archive of your Twitter updates, Go to your Twitter Updates link @Twitter.com to scroll, scrape and copy all of your Twitter Updates into a Word document or Text editor.

Then create a new blog post in your WordPress blog and paste all of your Tweets into a post with or without each Tweets hashtag (#).

Once you have published your Tweet post in WordPress, visit your blog and search for any of your Tweets by date or keyword in your WordPress search box.

Your Twitter updates are now archived within WordPress.

Provided your blog is already in the Google index, your Twitter updates will then soon be locatable within Google search engine results pages too.

I have posted an example of searchable Twitter Updates on my personal blog @TimothyCohn.com.

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Posted in Google, Googlebot, Twitter Cloud, Twitter Updates Searchable, Wordpress Blog, Wordpress.com | 2 Comments »

Online Display Advertising Expenditures Increase Q1 2009

July 20, 2009

TNS Media Intelligence reports U.S. Advertising expenditures declined 14.2% in the first quarter of 2009.

From the TNS report:

Local media suffered most with aggregate expenditures sinking 25.4 percent in the first quarter of 2009. The rate of decline was similar across Spot TV (-27.5 percent), Local Newspapers (-25.1 percent) and Local Radio (-26.8 percent). Each of these segments was ravaged by deep spending cutbacks in core categories such as automotive, retail and local services.

For national media, combined ad spending fell 8.5 percent versus a year ago. Within this segment, performance was sharply defined along the lines of print versus television versus online.

National Newspapers (-28.5 percent), B-to-B Magazines (-25.5 percent), Consumer Magazines (-19.2 percent) and other print media were clustered on one track and their revenue declines were driven by fewer ad pages.

Network TV (-4.2 percent), Cable TV (-2.7 percent) and Syndication (+0.2 percent) occupied a middle tier and each of these saw business improve slightly at the end of the quarter, paced by Motion Picture and Restaurant category spending.  At an exclusive upper level, Internet display expenditures grew 8.2 percent as telecom, travel and local retail advertisers expanded their online marketing programs.

Q1 2009 Measured Ad Spending

Q1 2009 Measured Ad Spending

In addition to the increase in online display advertising expenditures, Dean DeBiase, CEO, TNS Media has alos identified several other noteworthy advertising industry trends:

“…some sectors and brands are approaching a depressed marketplace as an opportunity to gain share and are increasing spending accordingly.

The advertising industry, too, while struggling, is understanding this is a period for innovation and we are seeing efforts to reboot their approach through the advent of new technologies and tools such as addressable advertising, and the first steps to integrating ad measurement in a synergistic manner across all media platforms.”

Marketers who have been through the peaks and troughs of economic cycles before surely share DeBiase’s perspectve and thus have been busy taking market share through improved advertising measurement technologies and the return on investment these tools can produce.

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Posted in Advertising Industry Trends, Online Display Advertising, Return on Investment, TNS Media Intelligence | Leave a Comment »

Why People Go Online: To Pass Time?

July 19, 2009

A recent poll by Ruder Finn found 100% of respondents cited to “Pass time” as their top reason for going online.

Why People Go Online

Why People Go Online

“Educate self” and “Connect with others” were the second and third top reasons for people to go online.

These reasons along with all the others cited confirm internet media is almost exclusively populated by content consumers.

As such, the internet is now the content producer’s distribution channel of choice.

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Posted in Educate Self, Information Consumers, Information Producers, Online, Search Marketing | Leave a Comment »

Google Webmaster Tools Reviews Actually Work

July 18, 2009

Several days ago I wrote about my frustration with WordPress.

I had moved my original WordPress domain to a new url  – SearchMarketingCommunications.com via their domain mapping service January 29th of this year.

To my dismay, I witnessed all of my Google search referrals vanish along with my WordPress domain from the Google search results.

To add insult to injury, my new domain went nearly six months without being re-indexed by Google even after authenticating and validating the new domain with Google Webmaster tools.

I contacted WordPress again and they said it wasn’t their fault the domain wasn’t in Google’s index.

Their response may have been intellectually sound, but it didn’t help me much.

I did however decide to take their advice and use Google Webmaster Tools message center to contact Google and ask for a review of my site.

To my surprise, in my Google Webnaster tools inbox I received the following message:

Google Webmaster Tools Reconsideration Request

Google Webmaster Tools Reconsideration Request

A Google site search for Search Marketing Communications also yielded 17 pages.

Google Index Search Marketing Communications

Google Index Search Marketing Communications

This is 17 more pages from my new site than were found in Google’s index yesterday.

Although I have several hundred pages in SearchMarketingCommunications.com – 17 pages in the Google index is better than none.

Googlebot crawl stats show its crawling two pages per average visit.

Googlebot Crawl Stats

Googlebot Crawl Stats

I expect to see the average number of pages crawled increase with each Googlebot return visit to my site.

Another way to verify whether or not a blog is receiving optimum distribution is to check whether or not its in Google’s Blog Search.

Based on the following Google blog search results, it appears a successful Google Webmaster tools reconsideration request into Google’s index also yields placement in Google blog search.

Google Blog Search Marketing Communications

Google Blog Search Marketing Communications

I am cautiously optimistic this entire site will soon be available in Google’s index.

If and when this occurs, I will be sure to report on the outcome here @SearchMarketingCommunications.com

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Posted in Google Blog Search, Google Webmaster Tools, Google Webmaster Tools Reviews, Googlebot Crawlstats, Search Marketing Communications, Wordpress.com | Leave a Comment »

Nielsen June 2009 Social Media Stats

July 17, 2009

Nielsen’s June 2009 Social Media Stats reports continued online member community unique audience size growth for the seven of the top ten largest social media sites.

Twitter posted the largest year over year growth rate of 1,928%.

From Nielsen Wire:

Among the top 10 social media sites, Twitter.com was again the fastest growing, increasing 1,928 percent year-over-year, from 1 million unique visitors in June 2008 to 21 million unique visitors in June 2009–making Twitter the fourth most visited member communities site in June. Facebook continued to lead as the No. 1 U.S. social networking site for the sixth month in a row, with 87.3 million unique visitors in June 2009.

Online Member Communities Unique Audience

Online Member Communities Unique Audience

Although Twitter’s audience reach grew the most, Facebook’s audience penetration remained the highest @ 4:39:33 spent on the site.

Both Facebook and Twitter saw increases in the average amount of time spent per person by their respective audiences.

Facebook was also the No. 1 social networking site among the top 10 when ranked by average time per person, with visitors spending an average of 4 hours and 33 minutes on the site in June. This is a 240 percent year-over-year increase. The average time per person on Twitter increased 522 percent year-over-year, from 5 minutes and 2 seconds in June 2008 to 31 minutes and 17 seconds in June 2009, making it the fastest growing by time per person among the top 10.

Average Time Per Person Facebook vs. Twitter

Average Time Per Person Facebook vs. Twitter

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Posted in Audience Reach, Facebook, Nielsen Social Media Stats, Social Media Sites, Twitter, Twitter Audience | Leave a Comment »

Newspaper Circulation Data in the Top 200 US Markets on Google Maps

July 16, 2009

Mediaspace Solutions has created a useful Google Maps mashup combining circulation and traffic data for newspapers in the top 200 US markets.

Top 200 DMAs

Top 200 DMAs

The Mediaspace Google Maps mashups provides each newspaper’s category, DMA, Circulation, Sunday Circulation, Days Published, Website address, Sites unique visitors, Daily visitors and Page views.

Newspaper Circulation by DMA

Newspaper Circulation by DMA

The Mediaspace Solutions top 200 DMA tool is great for researching and visualizing the top 200 US newspaper markets.

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Posted in Google Maps, Newspapers, Page Views, Unique Visitors | Leave a Comment »

Google Books on Twitter

July 15, 2009

As Joseph Addison put it, “reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body”.

And as such, Google Books has joined several other Google accounts already on Twitter to help Twitter users further exercise their minds.

Google Books on Twitter

Google Books on Twitter

According to the Inside Google Books blog, the Google Books team plans to post pithy and popular snippets each day from the Google books index.

Google Books tweets will include a link to the quotes referenced via its Popular Passages book search algorithm.

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Posted in Google Books, Popular Passages | Leave a Comment »

Google Webmaster Tools Site Review Request Process

July 14, 2009

OK!

I have now officially had enough with the WordPress domain mapping and redirection service and its causing my WordPress blog to disappear from Google search results for going on six months now.

I asked for help again from WordPress several days ago and got the following response:

Wordpress Response

Wordpress Response

As you can see from the above, WordPress doesn’t think its part of the problem but instead suggests Google is the responsible party.

Having already verified my new mapped WordPress domain with Google Webmaster Tools some time ago, I can submit a reconsideration request from Google.

There aren’t any options for just asking Google – hey why isn’t my site in the Google index?

Google Webmaster Tools Reconsideration Request

Google Webmaster Tools Reconsideration Request

The presupposition with this particular request is a site isn’t in Google’s index because of something the site owner did – not what Google may or may not have done.

Reluctantly – I submitted the Google reconsideration request.

I had previously written WordPress about my experience and frustration with their lack of  documentation and the caveats of their domain mapping service.

A WordPress staff member “Tellyworth” did provide a general answer to my question about their service in the WordPress forums:

Timothy,

WordPress.com does a 302 redirect from all of your old URLs to the new domain, to notify Google and other search engines of the new location. We’ve determined that is the safest way to do it.

Using a 301 (permanent) redirect is faster, but it usually causes both the old and new URLs to completely vanish from Google results for several weeks or more.

302 redirects will mean that Google takes longer to use the new domain – sometimes months or more – but your old URLs will usually retain their position in the search results until then. And people who click on the old URLs are obviously redirected to the correct location.

Google Webmaster Tools has the following boiler plater response to Reconsideration requests:

Google Webmaster Site Review

Google Webmaster Site Review

Below I provided my description of how I followed both WordPress and Google instructions and yet nearly six months have passed without my site appearing in Google’s search results.

Google Webmaster Site Review Request

Google Webmaster Site Review Request

At this point I have concluded, WordPress’ domain mapping service is effectively a Google search traffic death sentence.

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Posted in 301 Redirect, 302 Redirect, Google Webmaster Tools, Tellyworth | Leave a Comment »

A First? The Bit.ly, Twitter and WordPress Mashup by Email

July 13, 2009

Today while thinking about posting content in several different places, I thought I would see if I could post to my Twitter, Bit.ly and WordPress accounts simultaneously.

While not exactly simultaneous or simple, the idea shows some promise.

Tim Cohn (tcohn@marketingprinciples.com)
Google Adwords Professional
Google Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/timcohn
Blog: http://www.SearchMarketingCommunications.com
Twitter: http://Twitter.com/timcohn
(866) TimWCohn office
(415) 935-3608 cell

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Posted in Search Marketing, Twitter, Wordpress | Leave a Comment »

How Senior Citizens Spend Their Time: Not on The Internet

July 12, 2009

The Pew Research Center has released a poll showing how Senior Citizens spend their time.

“Senior Citizen” may not be the correct term to describe people over the age of 65, but its the only phrase I am familiar with.

How Senior Citizens Spend Their Time

How Senior Citizens Spend Their Time

Not surprisingly, 83% took prescription medication within 24 hours of being contacted while 77% watched more than one hour of television.

Network television has become unappealing to me for this very reason: Free TV has effectively become the advertising channel of choice for institutional Pharma.

Try watching a network television program without being interrupted by at least one pharmmercial.

How else can Pharma effectively reach its Senior Citizen target audience?

Not through the internet…

According to the Pew Research Center Less than 28% of adults over the age of 65 use the internet daily.

What will happen to the Network Television and Pharma industries prospects when their mutual audience begins tuning and or checking out?

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Posted in Target Audience | Leave a Comment »

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