Happy Friday, MetaFans! We’re starting up a new segment on the MetaBlog that we’re calling “The Friday MetaBits.” We’re planning on keeping this as a quick, weekly post where we’ll share a few of the great links that we’ve been collecting over the course of the week. So let’s round em up!

1. Do You Want To Succeed At Social Media Or Social Media Marketing?

   It’s not such a simple question if you don’t understand the difference. Thanks to Chris Poterala for this one!

2. New Digg: Tips for Marketers

   If you haven’t heard yet, significant updates were recently pushed to Digg that digital marketers will definitely want to take note of.

3. 5 Web Design and Development Tools I Simply Can’t Live Without (and Why)

   My old MSU web professor put this post together! Great picks, Ethan! :)

4. Eye Tracking Study Shows Importance Of Search Snippets

   So it turns out that search result snippets are fixated over more than the result title and URL combined. So don’t forget to write your meta descriptions!!

5. The 4 Hardest Things About Conversion Optimization For Local Search

   Conversion Optimization is becoming the “industry benchmark” but there are still a lot of problems with tracking and optimizing conversions. This post gets the discussion going by reviewing some of the more difficult issues that arise.

6. How to Bluff Your Way Through Every Conversation About Which Programming Language is Best [Comic]

   And here’s a fun one for all you programming junkies! This comic involves dinosaurs AND Ruby On Rails – what more could you ask for?!?

7. The MetaSpring Blog Carnival: Issue 8 – Web Marketing

   And now it’s time for a little shameless self-promotion, if you didn’t check it out already – please head over to our most recent Blog Carnival for the a run down on some of the biggest news in Web Marketing for the month of August.

Well that’s all we have for you this week. Keep checking our Twitter and Facebook feeds for more daily news and updates!

Have a great weekend!

Well, there’s definitely no shortage of Web Marketing-related articles floating around the net. In getting ready for this month’s carnival, we had a heck of a time just narrowing down our options! There were a ton of great marketing posts and a fair amount of game-changing news articles to choose from, but we think we’ve captured a well rounded bunch. So check ‘em out!

The 17 Commandments of Setting Expectations in SEO

In SEO, we frequently come up against people whose expectations are WAY out of line, but handling those misguided expectations can be a challenge. That’s why Wil Reynolds of the Seer Interactive blog decided to poll the experts on how they do it, which led to the creation of this awesome post and PDF.

Official: Google Now Lets One Domain Dominate Search Results

Earlier this month, Google launched a significant change to the way they display search results from a single site. Previously, only two results from a single domain would appear on a single search result page. Now, Google is allowing more results for a single domain if the query indicates a “strong user interest in a particular domain.” Google hopes that these improvements, “will help users find deeper results from a single site, while still providing diversity on the results page.” A lot of people are skeptical though, claiming this new algorithm creates an even large brand bias – what do you think? Has Google turned to the dark side?

The Predictive Power of Social Media

An interesting post from Dan Woods, of Forbes.com, discusses how cluster analysis of social media content can help us find the “unknown unknowns,” i.e., questions we wouldn’t think to ask.

Visualize this type of analysis as a display of circles that get larger and brighter red as the relationships get stronger and as the cluster is found in more and more documents. The circle gets bigger as the strength of the relationships grow; a brighter shade of red indicates the amount of documents involved. [...] The predictive payoff comes from seeing when the circles start to get bigger and redder faster and begin to provide clues to future trends.

Niche Analysis: Where to Start?

SEO campaigns typically begin with some sort of website analysis or audit, but depending on the nature of the site, it could be harder to get answers than you think. Dmitry Gushchin, guest blogger for the Daily SEO Tip blog, suggests a few nifty tools and techniques for analyzing these niche websites.

New SEOmoz Web App Now in Beta for PRO Members

If you’re not already an SEOmoz Pro subscriber, we highly recommend it as a great resource for some very powerful SEO tools and uber-informative pro-webinars. As if those features weren’t enough – they just launched the Beta version of their SEOmoz Web App, an automatic data tracking and recommendation tool with multiple campaign tracking abilities. We set up a few of our campaigns and have already discovered some great areas for improvement. Check out the post for a complete overview of how the app works.

Buzz Kill

TWiT‘s Leo Laporte recently had a falling out with the “vast echo chamber” that we call Social Media after he discovered that none of his Google Buzz posts from the last month had been seen by anyone – not even by himself. “No one noticed,” he said, continuing with:

It makes me feel like everything I’ve posted over the past four years on Twitter, Jaiku, Friendfeed, Plurk, Pownce, and, yes, Google Buzz, has been an immense waste of time. I was shouting into a vast echo chamber where no one could hear me because they were too busy shouting themselves.

While Leo’s given up on social media, we’re pretty sure that it’s here to stay, and that there is now and always has been significant value in keeping a presence. So what do you think? Is social media worth it??

Next Month’s Issue: Ruby On Rails

Thanks to all of you who submitted posts this month! We appreciate hearing from you and hope you’ll tune in next time as well. Our next carnival will focus on our favorite web framework: Ruby On Rails! Ruby On Rails is a powerful open-source framework, “optimized for programmer happiness” – and we sure do love it! If you’d like to submit a post for next month’s Rails carnival, please send it to media@metaspring.com.

Our first MetaSpring blog post in February of 2008 promised that our blog would act as a hub for communications between our company and the rest of the world. Since then, we’ve tried to stayed true to that commitment while also implementing some changes improve this communication.

The majority of these improvements have been pretty abstract, in terms of how we approach blog posts and what content is discussed. Well, we’ve recently launched a physical evolution of the blog in order to help our readers find the information that’s most relevant to them.

Our Creative Director, Ian Wilson, who oversaw most of the changes, explains:

We do a lot of different things for our clients and we like to share our knowledge and experiences in those fields with our readers through the blog. As our readership grew and we began to dedicate more energy to keeping the blog up to date, we quickly realized that breaking our blog out into more discrete categories would help our readers to more easily get to the content they want. On top of that we were also itching to update the design of our blog, so with that in mind we put together the three sections to focus on their specific topics and give our readers a little more eye candy.”

As Ian mentioned, the MetaSpring blog will now be broken up into four distinct categories, each with its own RSS feed (we’ll still have the cumulative feed available on the blog home page – so make sure to update your subscriptions):

• 

  Design

  The design process involves a lot of hard work and dedication in a constantly evolving industry. In this section, we’ll share advice on overcoming obstacles and keeping up with trends in the design world.

• 

  Development

  New trends in web and application development are constantly popping up, so in this section, you’ll find posts on new trends and technologies, code snippets, industry news, and a lot of Ruby-related goodness.

• 

  SEO & Marketing

  We are constantly exploring the marketing aspects of the web, and this is the home of our ruminations. Posts in this section will illustrate ways to capitalize on new methods to market your website or yourself on the web.

• 

  Company

  Are you a MetaFan? One of the best parts of a company blog are the conversations that spark up between the public and the organization. This portion of our blog will highlight some of the great things happening at MetaSpring, such as new job postings and site launches.

This new layout is designed to facilitate better discussion so if you are having any difficulties, please let us know. As we continue to adjust the style of the blog, you can look forward to the same high quality content. We’re happy that you’re here and look forward to many great conversations. Talk to you soon!

“Your website is an amazing branding tool!”

How many times have you heard that? Hundreds, if not thousands of blog posts, start off this way, but often trail off when it comes to the details. It’s true though, a successful business is fueled by a great web presence. Unfortunately, the brand of a company website or personal profile is often times lost in the clutter of the web. In today’s Web 2.0 world, your message must balance informational web pages with a viable and exciting social media identity.

The Office: A Case Study

Although there are only around 23 episodes of NBC’s The Office per year, the show has become far more than just 30 minutes of weekly airtime. In fact, these half-hour installments have proven to be the axis for a very extensive and enthusiastic leap into new media.

The Office’s years of sustained success stems from its documentary-style format, taken from Ricky Gervais’ original version of the show running from 2001-2003 in the United Kingdom. This hand-held camera angle makes the characters come alive in an authentic way and makes them perfectly transferable to social media.

Even though I know Michael Scott is a fictional boss of a fictional branch for a fictional company, there’s a lingering feeling that I could drive over to Scranton, Pennsylvania and ring his doorbell. As mentioned earlier, much of this “realness” comes from the way the show is filmed, but it is reinforced by the bevy of blogs, Flickr accounts, character Twitter handles and many other media devices associated with the show.

A sample of the discourse The Office characters exchange on Twitter,
adding to their character development and reinforcing the brand overall.

Brand Loyalty

By giving each of the show’s most beloved characters a blog or social media account, The Office is able to interact with their audience and provide additional mediums to create a fanatic connection. It’s a marketing tactic focused on building brand loyalty through an emotional connection. Viewers tune in because they care about the characters, and understand the essence of who they are.

Traffic Boosters

The Office and the NBC fat-cats didn’t setup all this content for their health though. No sir. The Office homepage on NBC.com is both a forum and a billboard. The new media devices act as a magnet, bringing devoted fans to the site. Even though Season 6 wrapped up last month, fans are still getting engaged with the show through the website. Advertisers spend great amounts to acquire the coveted ad space on this site. It’s a win-win for everyone.

But I’m Not In Entertainment…

So where does your business fit in? This case study on The Office’s new media usage is an example that businesses of all types can follow. Even though The Office is a hit network TV show, the themes of the show and the social media campaigns tied to it are modeled around the personnel within the the fictional company. Your social media campaign should try to do the same. Of course, your company (probably) shouldn’t name their blogs The Diabolical Plan or The Halpert Baby Blog, but the point is that you can make fans out of your customers by providing insight into the things that make your company tick.

Where to Get Started

Tweeting for Fun

During our latest round of networking and public events, we heard the same question over and over – how do I get started? If you’re getting into social media for personal use, I always recommend starting with friends and then moving on to your passions. Connecting with friends will help you learn the ins-and-outs of networks like Twitter and Facebook. If you make a mistake, who cares! Only your friends will see. Then start following your passions by following major brands and important people within your area of interest. I found the following instructions to be helpful as I built my Twitter account (@MetaCase):

1. Start with what you know…or what you want to know
2. Stick to it! Devote between 15-45 minutes a day to building connections and posting content.
3. Show, don’t tell. Make sure you keep credibility in mind when Tweeting. It may be therapeutic to complain, but you won’t win followers that way.

Tweeting for a Company

Starting a Twitter or Facebook account for your company is a bit trickier. Although social media accounts are generally operated by the marketing/PR teams, corporate social media usually start with the Legal Department. Work with your legal department to see what kind of interactions you can perform without getting sued. Then, start listening and providing customers with interesting content that starts a conversation.

Sharpie, the permanent marker giant, is pretty nimble when it comes to using social media to increase brand loyalty and advocacy. Their campaign entitled, Sharpie Uncapped, focuses on the thousands of ways Sharpie customers use their markers to express themselves. Need new detailing on your motorcycle? How about some new sneakers? These ideas and many more are chronicled across their blog, YouTube, and Flickr.

Choices, Choices: Twitter or Facebook?

Some companies, like Sharpie, like to use all forms of social media as they attempt to canvas the web and fill every niche. But there are still other companies that choose to focus on one network. Jerry Kozak, Owner & Marketing Director at the Ann Arbor T-Shirt Company, explained why his organization devotes much of their marketing energy on their Facebook page for products like Screen Printing & Custom Shirt Design:

When we get a Facebook fan page to adopt one of our designs, it is presumably there forever. New members see the design indefinitely. Twitter is more like someone standing on a corner announcing something…If you weren’t there to hear it, it’s unlikely you’ll get the message at all.

He goes on to explain the disconnect between Twitter and his image-based designs. All Twit-pics aside, Twitter is mostly text based. Additionally, Twitter is more-or-less a publishing platform, whereas Facebook is a sharing platform. “If your goal is to get your product to go viral, the path is much more fluid on Facebook,” Kozak explains. Whether your company chooses Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc., make sure the network represents your brand effectively.

Get Going!

We’ve talked enough about what other people are doing. It’s time to make sure your company is branding effectively through its online presence. So get out there and make sure to let us know how you’re doing!

You’ve probably heard the old saying, “if you build it, they will come,” but as many web startups know – this is very often not the case. The vast and saturated state of the web just doesn’t allow for it – content either can’t be found or doesn’t rank high enough over the competition. So, web startups must turn to various forms of web marketing in order to get their brand out to the target audience. A savvy web marketer will combine concepts from a few different fields such as branding, search engine optimization, social media marketing and advertising to create a complete marketing package.

In this carnival, we’ve collected posts from around the web that reflect this concept in fresh and unique ways. Much thanks to all those who participated!

Crisis Planning: Prepare Your Company for Social Media Attacks

A lot of people spent some time this week monitoring the deforestation and sustainability debates taking place on Nestle’s Facebook fan page. Whether you participated or not, this situation has plenty of lessons to offer the web marketing community.

Jeremiah Owyang, notable Customer Strategy guru, pointed out that any web marketer must be ready for attacks on their brand through social media. By adding transparency to your brand (via Facebook & Twitter accounts), you’re inviting the consumer into your world, but don’t be surprised if a few critics show up too. As the post suggests: “Prepare for the worst, live for the best“, a task best accomplished with a documented community response strategy.

Seven Golden Link Building Strategies

Link building is no small part of web marketing. Getting your links in the right place and seen by the right people can help your site rank better for keyword searches, and can also drive valuable traffic to your site.

The folks over at Cemper.com posted a great guide to building links recently. And with the millions of “Best Link Building Guide Ever” posts out there, that’s saying something. Link building is hard work and even harder to get started. These 7 strategies help you do both. I find #3 (Compare Competitor’s Backlink) and #6 (Build Trust) the most important to follow. How about you?

How to Best Measure Social Media Marketing ROI

At this time last year, marketing managers were asking for, nay, demanding a way to measure their return on investment (ROI) for social media marketing. Well, ask and you shall receive. There are many tools online these days that can help you to measure the ROI of your social media presence. But it all depends on how you plan to turn Tweets to dollars, so to speak.

The Web Marketing Group of North Yorkshire, England, posted some interesting data recently – revealing that only 16% of those engaged in Social Media Marketing worldwide measure their ROI. The survey also points out that these marketers only measure the “vanity metrics” like traffic, page views and click through rates. Try taking it a step further to see if these metrics turned into sales.

Your Social Media Success Will Be Defined By What You Ignore

Social Media is a field of intense noise and clutter. As a web marketer, it’s very beneficial to implement a social media strategy into your campaigns, but your success will depend on how well you can organize the noise.

Our friends at Simply Zesty, an Online PR & Social Media firm, are at the forefront of web marketing, dealing with social media services every day. If there’s a new strategy or web tool out there, they’ve heard about it – but that doesn’t mean they hop on the early adopter bandwagon. Author Niall Harbison proves why it’s important to say no to the latest social media fads in favor of paying attention to the audience you’ve spent hours and hours building on Facebook , Youtube, or Twitter, etc.

Notes from a Newbie: From PR to SEO

SEOmoz posts great web marketing content to their blog daily, but some of the most fascinating posts come from their YOUmoz blog. YOUmoz is a creative way of adding user generated content to SEOmoz that facilitates discussion and allows for users to promote themselves.

A recent post from Tom Mcloughlin chronicles a very important lesson learned as he transitioned from the traditional Public Relations world into the realm of Search Engine Optimization. He expected a harsh learning curve and tons of nerdy data crunching, but what he got was a field that wasn’t all that far off from his roots in PR. The fundamentals of SEO aren’t that different from PR, again reminding us that web marketing has many elements that blur together the traditional fields of advertising, branding and marketing.

Are You Sending Your Clicks to the Right Place?

Another important part of web marketing, and one we’ve dealt with in the past at MetaSpring, is Affiliate Marketing. Many of our projects involve a focus on Ecommerce, so we understand the importance of presenting the consumer with a call to action that works.

As this post by Ion Interactive clearly points out, there are two important questions you should answer in any pay-per-click campaign: “Where should I send the clicks, and are the clicks ‘ready to buy?’” In order to help you sift through the various options, Ion Interactive presents five places you should consider sending these clicks right off the bat.

Next Month’s Issue: Web Design

Thanks again for joining us and reading the great posts from this month’s Carnival. A special thanks to all those that put the posts together. We enjoyed connecting with you and discussing some of the Web Marketing trends out there today.

For next month’s Carnival, we’re going to revisit the our first topic: Web Design! Designers are always coming up with new and interesting ideas, so we’re sure to have some great posts. If you have a Web Design post or a suggestion for a topic that you’d like to see discussed, make sure to let us know at media@metaspring.com.