Jeff Woelker : Chicago SEO, SEM, and Online Marketing Consultant

So I’ve been over doing it lately with technology. Twhirling, Twittering, Vimeo-ing, Flickr-ing - it got to be a little much. For that reason, I’ve stared reading a bunch of blogs outside of those areas. Here’s some of my top 5 right now. Feel free to add your top in the comments:

1. A Hamburger Today - This is probably my favorite non-tech blog right now. Beware though, this blog is deadly if it’s before noon and you’re in need of your lunchtime fix. They have an amazing camera, which means you can almost hear the sizzle and smell the burgers every time you visit the page.
2. Shirtlog.com - This website features cool t-shirts found around the web. It’s pretty easy being here in Chicago to become a Threadless only zone, but this website provides varying coverage from around the net.
3. KEXP Song of the day - Although I have Pandora, which I use pretty much every day, it’s always nice to get some spice into my normally house music filled ears. So I have this podcast/blog coming in on a daily basis. It’s great, you should subscribe.
4. Web Urbanist - Geek art, music, graffiti, new technology. You’ll love it. Trust me.
5. Green options - For the treehugger/environmentalist/urban hippie in all of us.

So what are your top 5 non-tech blogs?

So recently I’ve been really getting into microblogging (aka lifestreaming or twittering). I briefly tried out Twitter a few months ago, but didn’t really get into it. I didn’t see the value aside from letting people know I was going to grocery store or reading a book. Since then though, I’ve seen the light. Now granted, it has a lot of uses, but be forewarned, once you put your toe into the twitter pond, it can quickly become a deluge of data, a inundation of information, a massive amount of media, a…well, you get the point.

These tools are great ways to stay on top of those conversations and still maintain some sanity and keep your job. Let’s go through some of the tools that I use every day:

Ping.fm:
First, Ping is fantastic! If you don’t already have an account, sign up today. There have been a few other status updating services, but this one is by far the best. It allows you to update as many statuses as you want, at once. The one caveat to this though is that it’s really good for saving time, but if you tailor your message to each individual community, it’s still probably best to visit each site individually. (i.e. I post stuff to Twitter and Friendfeed that I would not necessarily post to LinkedIn.)

Friendfeed
Friendfeed, if you’re not already familiar, is a social media aggregator. You supply feeds from your social media universe (Flickr, Twitter, LinkedIn, Netflix, Vimeo, YouTube, etc. etc. etc.) and it pulls in all of your activity, as well as anyone else who you want to follow on Friendfeed (ala Twitter functionality). Beyond just following, Friendfeed also has intelligent suggestions built in, whereby if I am following say Jeremiah Owyang or Adam Ostrow, it will also show me what their friends are doing as well. I’m assuming this is done based on these people I’m following, interacting with their friends in some manner, which tells Friendfeed to also suggest this content. If someone has a better idea, I’d love to know. Maybe Bret knows.

Plurk:
Plurk is another Twitter clone and there’s been much back and forth as to whether Twitter is better or whether Plurk is better. At the end of the day, Twitter is better because of two factors. First to market and lack of “karma”. Karma is a fun idea that Plurk tried to implement, but which has a divisive effect.  You either love it and stick around, or hate it and leave quickly. I was of the latter camp and didn’t bother to come back. Now, I still update Plurk as part of Ping.fm settings, but it doesn’t go beyond that. It’s again, mostly a content redistribution channel with some Friendfeed functionality. The one thing I will give them credit for is an interesting take of the time stream interface. I also like their quirky graphic design sense and built in user incentive chotchkies.

Adobe Air
Ok, so maybe this isn’t an official twitter application, but since it’s launch, I’ve seen some fantastic implementations of the Adobe Air platform which enable applications to make the jump from the web to the desktop. I’m currently running Pandora Desktop, Tweet Deck, Twhirl, and a few others currently.

Twhirl
I actually installed Tweet Deck first and then Twhirl, but I wanted to feature this one first, as it’s become my default Twitter and Friendfeed status monitors. The only thing I would like to see next is a Ping.fm feature incorporated into Twhirl, so I can update each site at once directly from the Twhirl interface. If anyone knows if or when this is coming, let me know.

Tweet Deck
I installed Tweet Deck to see if it was any better/worse than Twhirl. Well, it’s pretty much the same, but without the Friendfeed feature. So I still have it, but don’t use it that often.

Summize:
Summize is great in that it provides better filtering and search functionality than Twitter itself. Actually, scratch that, as those are now one in the same. Guess Twitter caught on to what was needed.

So what’s been my experience and how does it translate into professional/business use?
Well, so far, I can’t say enough good things about it. I’ve seen my attention stream steadily dwindling from email, to blogs, and now microblogging. It provides quick informational segments, which I can digest quickly and easily, while still maintaining my productivity. By installing Twhirl, Twitter and Friendfeed updates come directly to my desktop, instead of having to go back to each respective website and refresh, refresh, refresh. Now, what does that mean for a monetization model for each of these companies? Well, it’s going to come down to either subscription models or some kind of advertising either integrated into the platform itself or each feed.

Granted, there is a lot of noise that occurs on a daily basis, so you have to be cognizant of that. However, it also offers a pulse about the industry and where people’s foci’s are for any given day. Take the last few days for example, when you couldn’t take two breaths before someone was talking about 3G or iPhone apps.

If you’re looking to network with industry leaders, find additional informational resources, learn about industry opinions, or get some quick feedback - these are fantastic tools. But as always, remember to respect the community you are interacting with and interact often. Even if you are not a rockstar today, everyone has to start somewhere.

Saw this earlier today as part of Robert Scoble’s visit to Microsoft for the Pro Photo Summit. It’s a search engine called TinEye. The concept behind it is that TinEye uses a sophisticated algorithm to find “photo footprints”. I already signed up for a free trial, and the results are pretty cool. The way it works is, you upload a photo or provide a URL for an image, let’s say the Eiffel tower. TinEye takes that image and compares it to images it has already indexed and provides matches. The cool part though is that these matches don’t have to be identical copies, they can also be partials. So you might get images of the Eiffel tower that are not color matched, there is copy over the Eiffel tower, the Eiffel tower is distorted in some way, or the the Eiffel tower is only in the background, cropped, and only partially seen.

TinEye says that it’s picture index is extremely limited at this point, but I think if they can hook into the likes of some of the larger photo warehouses (Getty, iStock, Flickr, etc.) this could really become a powerful tool. If nothing else, than to enforce copyright infringement for professional photographers who are constantly having their work reused online without their consent.

Check out the video below for more info:

I’ve signed up for a number of beta invitations lately for reputation monitoring websites. These are web utilities which aggregate mentions of your favorite keywords: “chicago marketing”, “chicago seo”, “lindsey lohan”, whatever. The one feature that some of the newer sites have over previous iterations are historic records. Let’s review some of the oldies, but goodies first:

Google Alerts

Any savvy marketer should already have Google alerts set up and running on a daily basis. Google alerts is nice in that it’s first and foremost, free. It’s also reliable and very easy to set up and turn off. In case you’re not already familiar, Google alerts allows you to enter a key phrase or set of keywords and create daily, “as it happens”, and weekly alerts. The as-it-happens alerts can be both very useful, but also very overwhelming if you are in a volatile field. It’s good for product launches or PR campaigns, where instant feedback from customers/users is vital for the success of the launch For example, Company A launches a website. 100,000 people sign up instantly. The website crashes. The blogosphere goes crazy. Google alerts in a great way to head off these issues. The only issue with Google alerts is that if you have a broad keyword or huge brand (i.e. Honda), you’re going to get everything under the sun in terms of references, so make sure to be super specific when creating these alerts.

Google Trends

Similar to the volume of email you receive from Google alerts, Google trends allows you to see patterns of mentions over time. In this example of Honda versus Toyota, you can see the mentions associated with each brand over time. This is a good utility to use to see if your PR efforts have paid off over time. Google trends will even show major spikes in traffic and pull in related news materials for the time scale you select (i.e last 30 days, last 12 months, etc.). This is an excellent tool to use in conjunction with Google alerts.

Ok now to the new fun stuff…

Trackur

Trackur bills themselves as “Google alerts on steroids”, which is a pretty bold claim, as Google alerts already does a pretty good job. So what does Trackur do that alerts doesn’t? Well, first off I have to say, I’ve never actually used Trackur, so I’m only relating what their websites says. Anyone who has actually used it, let me know if it’s worth $18/month to start. Trackur says that it searches all media, not just Google (which is what Google alerts searches - but on a sidenote, Google seems to have a pretty good handle on the world’s information, so what else is Trackur searching?). Trackur also allows for more in depth filtering than Google alerts along with saving mentions of your keywords for later review and sharing them with colleagues. Overall, I’m still a bit skeptical without being able to a direct comparison to Google alerts. They do have a free 14 day trial, so if you sign up and find it’s a good fit, let me know in the comments.

Addict-o-Matic

Addict-o-matic is egosurfing on steroids. You can quote me on that, addict-o-matic marketing department. Addict-o-matic is nice in that it pulls in search queries from many different websites in one easy-to-view search interface. Looking up a popular brand, Facebook, yields some pretty fun results from numerous sites without actually having to run out to those sites. This tool can be useful as a daily checkup on any brand doing social media optimization for videos images, blog posts, twitter, etc. A great future feature would be to provide updates to users if anything changes on these pages, so I don’t have to continually come back. Ah well, it’s free and it works.

FiltrBox

I’ve been using Filtrbox for the last few days to monitor some of my clients mentions on the web. It’s got a really slick interface, and again, it’s free. Like Google alerts, you enter search criteria and it sends you daily alerts as to the status of the keyword mentions it finds. You can also chart mentions over time, similar to Google Trends. You can also add direct plugins for source material from mainstream media, the blogosphere, Twitter, and Twitter’s nemesis, Friendfeed. It also provides some really nice login structuring to allow for deep filtering. So I can create a filter that says “honda AND (toyota OR chrysler) AND EXCLUDE hybrid AND SUV”. It also allows for direct importing from Google alerts, which is the mark of someone who knows who their competitors are and embraces it. Nicely done Filtrbox!

With the increasing emphasis on geo-aware applications and the rise in local search, it seems like local business optimization will be a hot market for 2008 and 2009. Here’s 9 quick tips that any local business can use to get a leg up on their neighbors.

1. Put your address on your website - It seems like an obvious thing, but many businesses either assume customers will know where they are (I mean, they have a huge sign out front) or that search engines will be able to read the image on their website that says “123 Main Street”. The fact is, search engines are not that smart…yet. So make it easy for them and put it in straight forward, obvious text. Users and search engines alike will appreciate it.
2. Microformats - If you want to get really sophisticated, you could put your address on your website using an hCard. An hCard indicates to search engines and other spiders as to the exact format of your address. Instead of “123 Main Street, Chicago, IL” you tell the search engine the exact syntax as to what is the street address, the city, the state and any other information you want to provide. You can create your own at the hCard creator.
3. Google and Yahoo business submissions - Even though you’ve now put your address on your website, with or without an hCard, you should also submit it to Google and Yahoo’s local business listings. Although they will most likely find your business eventually, they may list it incorrectly or not as optimally as you want. So be proactive and structure the listing as you’d like.
   
4. Yelp it up - Yelp is a fantastic local business listing website with a truly passionate following. One of my friends recent away messages said “Yelp is the best website ever”. I know there are certainly days I feel like that. Along with business listings, you can, again, reach out to the community and promote your business listing as well as your products and services. I recently posted on Yelp, “I need a sexy restaurant to go on Friday night.” Now what if you’re the owner or manager of a restaurant in Chicago. Don’t you want to jump in on that conversation and say “Hey, come on by tonight and we’ll give you a free appetizer or something?” You’d be hitting me along with anyone else who reads that conversation, right at the point of interest and most likely purchase.
5. Optimize your website for a few keywords - Although this is becoming more difficult as local markets get competitive for limited search terms, it’s still worth the effort and will benefit your local website listing. Here’s a great list of free keyword research tools.
6. Find local bloggers - It’s always good to get to know your neighbors and beyond a basic Google search, there are now geotargeted blog listings, where you can discover local bloggers and reach out to them to promote your business. There are some niche market blog listings like NYC Bloggers and Chicago Bloggers, but there is also a global listing called Globe of Blogs for a little more exploration.
   Update: And now Best of the Web has a local component.
7. Keep an eye on your competitors - There’s a great website called EveryBlock (previously ChicagoCrime.org), which details local happenings. A quick look lets you see who’s applying for liquor licenses or who passed their last restaurant inspection. It also shows a listing of local crimes, which is obviously beneficial to know prior to moving into an area.
8. Get involved - Beyond business listings, you should also allow people to interact with your business through other avenues, specifically social media. If you’re an art studio, set up a Flickr page with your latest exhibits. If you’re a restaurant, set up a Twitter account with your latest restaurant specials and make it timely so people have a sense of urgency. “For the next 30 minutes, appetizers are free with the purchase of an entree” or whatever. Or get people to sign up for a newsletter just to stay on top of what you’re doing. I subscribe to a local organic grocery store’s newsletter for many reasons, one of which is that I really like the owner as well as their emphasis on community involvement. Just make sure to follow the social graces of each online community before jumping in too deep.
9. Keep in touch - Once you establish these relationships, make sure to follow up and say Thanks! If a blogger features you on their website, say thanks and offer them something in return. If someone comments on your Flickr photo, let them know it’s appreciated. These relationships once established, don’t last very long if they are not nurtured or appreciated.

Anything I’m missing or glossed over, let me know if the comments. The photo above is of one of my favorite sushi places in Chicago.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I love zombies. I randomly found this today while doing some research for social networking and thought it was delightful. Enjoy!

Check these lyrics out:

I saw an interesting video from Lifehacker and TechCrunch today about a possible Mozilla/Firefox interface. Overall, it’s a really interesting concept. It’s hard to evaluate as the touchscreen phone market is in its infancy right now and everything these days starts with whomever is first to market. So if most users become familiar with an iPhone interface, they are going to expect that other browsers behave this way. That is until another platform can come along and do it faster, easier, cheaper, or just make the whole experience better for the user. Regardless, I think it’s definitely a viable option for mobile browsing and applaud Aza Raskin for his efforts so far. Full video is below.

Firefox Mobile Concept Video from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

I discovered a site today called CrowdSpring, which is a fantastic community based design site based right here in Chicago. The concept behind Crowdspring is this:

1. I have a project I want designed (logo, website, t-shirt, etc.)
2. I post it to Crowdspring with some information about my project and a prize. Most of the prizes I saw were around a few hundred dollars.
3. Designers submit their designs and the community and myself (the buyer) choose the winner.

The designs that I saw were pretty amazing for $150. I really like the site and wish them well. I think they have enough of a first to market advantage to get some steam.

No, I don’t actually agree with the title of this post, but apparently that is the idea that Fred Wilson has put forth in regards to the future of social media:

every single human being posting their thoughts and experiences in any number of ways to the Internet.

Arrington rebuts that the future of social media is tying all of this disparate information together using data portability and integrating sites with each other via API’s and SaaS in order to enhance user interaction and integration.

The future of social media, I hope, isn’t in more tools to help us spew more content. Instead, we need ideas and technology that can leverage all this available online content (including status and activity streams) to enhance real world social interactions.

I wholeheartedly agree. There will always be a need for additional content on the web. The key to the future of social media is sharing this information across platforms simultaneously and unlocking the interface so that users don’t have to switch between platforms in order to perform a single task, or eliminating the need to duplicate content across platforms.

He also mentions mobile devices as the center of this content universe to both publish as well as consume content, which again, I totally agree. And again, much like social media, we need to get the big boys (Sprint, Verizon, AT&T, etc.) to come to a consensus on operating systems, user interfaces, and how they integrate with the web in order to provide easy-to-use, reliable, and consistent experiences.

It’s a painfully slow and frustrating process, but it’ll get there sooner or later.