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Fetch, Google! Fetch!

posted on August 5, 2011

There’s a saying that goes, “if Google can’t find you, then your customers can’t find you” and it’s very true. Google finds your site through a process called indexing. The simplified version is this: Google sends smart cyber-spiders out to crawl all over the web and these spiders bring back news of all the new sites and site changes. Google updates its database to include all these news bits and voila, you’re indexed. Now, when Hubert searches Google for neon-green, 80′s rapper pants, he’ll find them at your Ultimate 80′s online store.

That’s the perfect world. In the real world, some sites, blogs in particular, get indexed faster than other sites. Some sites get indexed late or badly due to issues with keywords or graphics that block the text. (Here’s a tip: Google can’t read a graphic, so make sure the name of your site is in the text or meta text.)

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Ashes to Ashes, Bits to Bytes: QR Codes on Headstones?

posted on August 5, 2011

This story falls into the “I don’t know how I feel about this one” category. Why? First it’s about a subject that most people don’t readily discuss which is death. Second, it’s the introduction of technology into an area that seems very weird but also very helpful all at once.

The Seattle Times has published a report of a cemetery that offers a unique service. That service is putting QR codes on headstones in their cemetery so that visitors to the gravesite can be more ‘engaged’ with their visit.

Wave a smartphone over the bench-style headstone of Edouard Garneau at Holyrood Cemetery in Shoreline and you’ll learn he was a collision-repair specialist and successful businessman who loved to barbecue, fly his airplane and travel.

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LinkedIn’s First Public Quarter A Success

posted on August 5, 2011

The social media marketing world is an interesting place. Just take a quick look at the top players and their business.

Facebook – Everyone wonders when the IPO will occur while the privately held company’s revenue numbers are talked and speculated about more than most public companies. Secondary market ‘trading’ of Facebook shares is the norm amongst the privileged. In the end, most people don’t know the truth about Facebook other than the warm fuzzy way that it handles its users’ privacy :-) .

Twitter – It is still unclear just how and exactly how much money Twitter is making, can make or will make. Despite all the moves to look like an actual company it still gives off the feeling that it wouldn’t know a plan to generate revenue if one came up to it and kicked it in the shins.

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Google News Adds Editor’s Picks

posted on August 5, 2011

Publishers love to have some control over what people see when it comes to their content. That’s natural. Google News is run by an algorithm and not human editors so as with most things in an algorithmic setting, the end user settles on what they are given and, in most cases, probably don’t know how the information was chosen, just that it was.

Google News has experimented with a feature called Editor’s Picks but have now made it an official part of the offering. In short, publishers can now put together an RSS feed of the content of their choice to be featured in Google News along the right side of the page. It looks like this.

The Google blog reports

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Google Realtime Search Without Twitter?

posted on August 4, 2011

From devastating disasters to celebrity slips, a single mention on Twitter can turn into a trend in a matter of minutes. That’s why the micro-blogging site has been credited as the source for major breaking news stories and hundreds of high-profile rumors. Like it or love it, Twitter is a force to be reckoned with, so how is Google going to provide real-time news without it?

Last month, Google removed their Realtime search option after failing to come to an agreement with Twitter. They were still able to pull in posts from Facebook, but let’s be frank and say that Facebook isn’t exactly a bastion of breaking news.

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Facebook Thinks of Opening the News Feed Flood Gates

posted on August 4, 2011

For marketers, the news is too good to be true. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Facebook is thinking about removing the filters on user news feeds. So, instead of Facebook deciding what information a user sees, the user will decide. How radical is that?

This change would mean an open line of communication between a brand or business and every person who “liked” their page. You post a message and everyone who follows your fan page sees it in real time in their news feed.

I hear you saying, isn’t that how it’s supposed to work? Supposed to, but that’s not how it does work.

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MP Welcomes New Sponsor: Full Sail University

posted on August 4, 2011

Our Channels program has been running for a few short months now and it continues to attract some of the best advertisers around.

Today we get to announce the addition of Full Sail University to our Channels program. They will be sponsoring our Social Channel.

As with all of our sponsors we encourage our readers to please visit them and see what they have to offer you, the best readers in the Internet and social media marketing world.

Thank you again to Full Sail University as well as all of our sponsors and advertisers! We couldn’t do this without you!

Marketing Pilgrim’s Social Channel is proudly sponsored by Full Sail University, where you can earn your Masters of Science Degree in Internet Marketing in less than 2 years. Visit FullSail.edu for more information.