Marketing Pilgrim

Tomorrow, April 16, is Foursquare Day and it’s not just the workers at the busiest location-based check-in service who say so. Mayor Bloomberg of New York City says so, as does the Mayor of Indianapolis and apparently dozens of other cities across the US.

Here’s the skinny from the Foursquare Day home page.

Foursquare Day is April 16th – because it is the 4th month, and the 4-squared day! (4/16) It’s also the first “Social Media holiday” and was officially endorsed by Foursquare.com.

Foursquare Day is all about celebrating social media, but personally, I think they may be giving people the wrong impression. If it’s a “social media holiday,” doesn’t that mean you should take a break (aka a “holiday”) from social media. This whole thing could backfire on them. Imagine if everyone stopped Tweeting, updating their Facebook and checking-in for 24 hours! What a lonely planet this would be.

One of the irrefutable rules of reputation management is that, in the absence of any official statement by a company, rumor and conjecture will rule your reputation.

Apparently Twitter co-founder Biz Stone subscribes to this philosphy because after Fortune wrote an article about the “Trouble@Twitter”, Stone has come out fighting.

First, Stone undermines Fortune’s credibility with some examples of its previous sensationalistic writing:

Historically, posts about Google’s earnings call has received little to no interest from our readers. Less people read the posts. I suspect that is because people want to use Google rather than know how much they are making. Oh and unless said they lost money it’s assumed that Google is fine even if ‘The Street’ gets jittery.

Two numbers, however, stuck out for me from the call aside from the $2.3 billion in quarterly profited reported.

First was the rise in operating expenses from $1.84 billion one year ago to $2.84 billion this quarter. Much of that jump is being attributed to the rising cost of keeping employees around and hiring new ones.

From the Wall Street Journal

AMC’s series “The Walking Dead” is making quite a splash in the UK but for all the wrong reasons. A billboard, advertising the zombie-themed series appeared next to a funeral home and people are not happy.

(Photo: North News)

A ClearChannel spokesman said that it was an “unfortunate juxtaposition.” He apologized and said the sign would be removed. The funeralcare owner expressed his displeasure saying that when the space was leased, he was assured that nothing “inappropriate” would be featured there.

It’s unlikely that anyone at ClearChannel made the connection between the sign placement and the next-door neighbor. If they did, then it was a person with a wicked sense of humor who signed off on it. Or maybe it was an advertising genius. Obviously, the people who put up the sign weren’t concerned or maybe they simply didn’t walk around to the other side of the building.

It’s no secret that Twitter has more registered users than actual users. There are stats that say that almost half of the accounts are no longer active. Stats that show how 90% of the Tweets come from 25% of the people and that Twitter’s growth has begun to level off. Add to that, all the internal squabbling and a recent move to block third-party developers and Twitter’s star isn’t shining quite as bright as it used to.

Why? And what now? Fortune has the “why” covered. They’ve just published an extensive article that looks at the history of the company and the roadblocks they’ve faced. If you want all the gory details, it’s a good read.

Here’s what caught my eye;

The recent 2011 annual report from SEMPO (Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization) and Econsultancy gives some data that can make one wonder a bit. The survey is of mostly North American companies and agencies in the search game.

The question I have is about the use (or dare I say popularity) of the in-house SEO model. In-house SEO’s are just that: staffers on a company payroll that have the job of search engine optimization for an organization’s particular needs. SEO agencies ran the show for the start of the SEO era but as more and more people became skilled in the SEO arts more companies decided to bring that function in house. The chart below, however, shows the cycle might be possibly changing again.