eSpire Marketing

Google Buzz. If you haven’t heard of Google Buzz yet then you’ve probably been in some sort of coma for the past few weeks. Just to recap for all of you who might be behind the curve, Google Buzz is Google’s attempt to get involved in the social media scene. There have been all sorts of complaints about it’s privacy issues which apparently they have apologized for and even taken the time to fix the problem.

While that is a great job at PR by Google, I’m not buying it. Google really messed up here for a number of reasons. One, they forced all of the users of their gmail service into Google Buzz. Two, they forced each user to auto follow all of the other gmail users in their contacts list. Three, they made the default setting post your “buzzes” publically. Hello PRIVACY ISSUES! A simple apology is just not good enough from a company of that size. They didn’t just lose email files, their server didn’t just shut down. They essentially made everyone’s private issues public. Google, the largest search engine on the face of the earth, one of the most influential companies in the history of commerce, and the single largest holder of information in the world, made a big no no.

I don’t know if you’ve been reading about the latest search battle news but I’m pulling for Bing. Besides, competition in the search engine marketing world will be good for most internet marketeers. So the next time you search, I’m encouraging everyone to Bing It!

Extra, Extra, Read all about it! Facebook changed the home pages for every user once again. The New Facebook Layout now allows people the ability to check the “News Feed” and a “Live Feed”. The News Feed is a feed of all of the most interesting posts from the previous days activity, the live feed, allows you to watch your friends Facebook activity in real time. Why is this a good thing for you?

Think of it like this, before when you made a posting on your Facebook Page, or a status update that you really wanted everyone to have a chance to see, it was quickly pushed to the bottom of the pile by other status updates from other users. Now, your page updates, (contests, blog posts, and promotions) will still be able to be seen for a much longer time. This is about the single greatest thing that Facebook could have added for business promotions.

From what I can tell their doesn’t appear to be any real algorithm for success just yet for how to make it into these news feeds, even the Facebook Blog post at the end says “Raylene, a Facebook engineer, hopes this blog post made its way into your News Feed.” I guess it is once again even more important for you to post a lot of interesting content in order to reach your audience effectively. Good luck!

Twitter or Facebook? This fight has been brewing for the past year or so since Twitter had it’s big coming out party when Dell told everyone they made $1,000,000 on their Twitter account last year. I read the article recently 5 Reasons Twitter Will Take over Facebook while they made some great points. While this image might be a bit much I’m here to give you the 5 Reasons Twitter Won’t Take over Facebook.

1. Applications: While Twitter has cool outside ways to enjoy Twitter and post pictures and all of that jazz, Facebook has many more on site applications that are more relevant to its user base. Think about it, look in your latest news feed, you’ll see that 4 or 5 of your friends just played around with a quiz application to figure out which Harry Potter character they are more likely to be. It is so much easier to connect to all of the things you love, in so many different ways, through Facebook than it is on Twitter.
2. Search for Old Friends: Twitter has a great search engine for finding other people who are interested or talking about the same things that you are. Facebook needs to integrate that type of search technology into their site. BUT, when it comes to locating old friends, Facebook takes the cake. I constantly am looking for people that I know on Twitter, and since you don’t readily have all of their information available on Twitter, those old friends are hard to locate. Both sites need to take notes from each other’s sites to improve these features. Facebook has twitter dominated in this front
3. Picture Albums: The use of picture albums on Facebook is awesome. Once you post a photo album all of your friends can go back at any time to take a look at those old photos. Twitter has the ability to share photos (and videos) but only in real time. Once a photo has moved far enough down a users timeline, the photo is virtually lost. Again Facebook is killing twitter in the photo sharing realm.
4. 140 Characters or More: Well we all know that Twitter allows you to tell a story in 140 characters or less. But Facebook gives you the opportunity to share a story in more detail without having a blog. You can write and create entire notes on Facebook. If you wanted to do that on Twitter, you’d have to have a whole series of successive tweets, and the story is likely to get lost in most of your twitter followers’ timelines. Facebook 4 Twitter 0.
5. More Brands in More Places: While Twitter allows a brand to create a twitter page, Facebook allows brands to create all sorts of fun pages, applications, and you can even connect your website directly to Facebook. I know we all like to think that Brands follow consumers, and that is true for the smaller brands, but pop-culture and big brands, drive what we do. And let’s face it, being able to design a custom t-shirt on a website, and then send it directly for all of your friends to see on Facebook, is much cooler than just telling people about it on Twitter.

Both of these sites have a lot they can learn from each other. But for the foreseeable future, Facebook is King. And until it’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg decides to sell it and take the money, it’s going to continue to grow at a great pace. He and everyone at Facebook are cutting edge. Twitter relies on everyone else to come up with their ideas and try and implement them. I’ll leave the comment board for all of you to debate this further.

Recently I purchased a Canon Vixia HSF10 for the extremely high price of $1299 at a local Best Buy. I was extremely excited to get the opportunity to use the brand new 1080P high definition camera. The camera is sleek and very easy to use…if you have a Windows Machine that is. I am a mac user. I love mac, they are in my and millions of other people’s opinions the best computing machine that money can buy. Apparently Canon missed the memo. I opened the box to find out that they only have exporting software available for windows computers!

Now I do believe that this is the 21st century; am I right? I guess maybe it was wrong of me to assume that a big company as large as Canon would have the common sense to send out cross compatible software, as not to pigeon hole a large portion of their potential buyers. I use Final Cut Pro for all of my video editing needs, as do hundreds of thousands of other users, large marketing firms, and big businesses alike. Let me tell you what I have to do in order to actually even begin to edit the hours of footage I’ve shot in the past days.

WARNING: If their are children in the room you might want to read this later, the anger level could cause you to want to swear loudly

Step 1
After searching for two hours to see if Canon had gotten with the times and posted any sort of software to fix their compatability nightmare, I found only one feasable solution, import the live footage into iMovie then export it to Final Cut. Now that does sound like a pretty easy solution right? WRONG!

Step 2
After you have waited for 1.5 hours for your video footage to actually import to iMovie, the next step is to spend another hour or so “pre-editing” the video footage to be exported to final cut. This is an HD camera, if you don’t have the money to spend on a supercomputer like the big dogs have, this process will take FOREVER to do.

Step 3
FINALLY you are ready to export the pre-edited video from iMovie to send for the final editing in Final Cut. The next step is to wait 5 hours for your footage to export from iMovie into a compatible version you will be able to actually edit in Final Cut. I suggest going to the bar and getting a beer or two while you wait, maybe run some errands, by the time you get back your video might actually be ready to be imported to Final Cut for final editing. (NOT SURE HOW LONG THAT TAKES. I’m still waiting for this step to complete as I’m writing this article. It’s been 2.5 hours and iMovie still says I have 235 more minutes until I can edit the video.

Step 4
Go to Canon support once more just to double check that you didn’t miss something and there actually might be a better solution for the millions upon millions of Mac users. Fail miserably. Call Canon support to realize that they aren’t open again until Monday. Go get more beer or run more errands to settle your nerves.

Step 5
Tell all of your friends about this article and possibly even link to it. Post it on all of the major social networking and social media devices you can find.

Step 6
After you have finally spent however long you have spent finishing the final product, go back to where you bought the camera and return it. Purchase a Sony, they have better cameras, with better features, and have the common sense to have cross compatible software included with most of their cameras.

I don’t know that I have ever been so dissatisfied by a $1300 investment in my entire life. I expected to be able to use my brand new camera efficiently and with no problems. I WAS WRONG! DO NOT BUY THIS CAMERA MAC USERS! That is all. Have a better day than Canon or this camera are allowing me to have.

First off let me preface this article by saying this: I am a huge fan of Google and everything that they do but they need to be watched closely they are almost getting too big. Tech Crunch posted that Google Gobbled up 90 Percent of Search Growth in 2008. If you’ll also look further into those numbers Google was the place that people searched the internet 63.5 percent of the time. Next, they came out with their own mobile operating system, then they came out with Google Chrome their internet web browser. Now they want to come out with their own operating system?

If you aren’t seeing what I’m getting at here it’s that Google already controls the market of search, making us rely on them for pay per click, and search engine marketing both on computer and online. If Google’s operating system takes off and they really get a significant market share in the PC world we will have to rely on Google for just about all of our online advertising. With control over so much of the online advertising world they can spike the prices as high as they want.

Think about it, how would you like your target keywords in your pay per click campaigns to shoot from $1.50 per click to $15 a click? I’m not saying that it is necessarily going to happen but it could happen and the situation does need to be watched closely. The article Why We should Root for Bing is pretty much on the same page as I am with all of this. Google, I love you but you need some good solid competition to keep you in check.

For those of you who aren’t yet convinced that Twitter is the real deal, that it can help grow your online presence, and can help you network, easier than any other social networking site on the web. This is my attempt to give the extra push you need to become an avid Twitter user.

1. Instant News Feeds- Twitter has instant feeds into anything that is happening in the real world. For instance, when the United Airlines flight landed in the Hudson river a few months ago, it was a Twitter User that sent the news out into the world first. He took an eyewitness photo of the scene, and he was the source that the media was using at first.
2. Constant Entertainment- Twitter is big pretty much all over the world. For all of you insomniacs out there, twitter is your social networking haven. No matter what time day or night, Twitter constantly has thousands of users updating their twitter accounts 24/7 365.
3. Get to Know your Favorite Bloggers- Some of Twitter’s most avid users are some of the internet’s best bloggers and writers. With Twitter you get to find out what your favorite blogger is up to in between each blog post. Their updates give you a glance into the person behind the blog. Twitter makes it easier than any other social networking site.
4. Get Other People’s Opinions- So you just read a story that you can’t quite figure out? Hit up search.twitter.com or check Twitter’s top trending topics to get great candid advice from the twitterverse. A lot of times on a blog you will get a watered down opinion from someone but on Twitter, users will tell you what they really think.
5. Find New Sources for Info- With the power of retweeting through twitter, people are spreading new sources and new great information, from all over the internet. Sometimes even the big time bloggers and media miss out on some great information. Why not use Twitter to introduce you to some other great minds.
6. Get Connected to People in Your field- Again Twitter is probably the easiest social networking tool for looking to network with people in your profession. For example, I have made countless numbers of strong connections with people in my field (internet marketing) or a related field, that I have been able to work directly with in order to achieve a common goal.
7. Get Fresh Ideas- Twitter gives you access to some of the worlds most creative minds. Whether it be a new recipe for dinner, a new contest idea, or a new way to organize your life, Twitterer’s are coming up with new creative ideas on a daily basis that you have at your disposal right at your fingertips. Cool huh?
8. Stay Connected with Your Community- By following people in your local communities you can have better access to more opportunities to participate in your community than ever before. Take this scenario for instance; It’s Saturday afternoon and you’re sitting around being lazy and bored. So you get on Twitter and check out what some of your local twitter friends are tweeting about and you see that there is an Arts Festival in town that you didn’t know about with free entry for the first 500 people. You hop in your car and head to the participate in the festivities; Problem solved!
9. Get Closer to Your Friends and Family- Let’s face it, life is busy, we’d love to be able to keep in touch with our friends and family more but simply don’t have the time. With Twitter, that problem is solved as well. You can log on and see that your friend Suzy’s daughter just got accepted to Harvard, or that your brother just started putting up a new fence at his house, Twitter makes getting closer with your family and friends easier than any other social networking service.
10. Share your knowledge with the world- Most of us don’t consider ourselves experts in everything we do. But just like you look to others for cool new ideas and advice, others will look to you. Share some of your ideas and advice with the world, while you might not think it’s that big of a deal, others might.

Twitter is a great tool for many reasons. From staying connected to friends and family, to coming up with your next fun project, Twitter is a social tool that is more powerful than any other social networking tool on the internet. It is the most powerful because it has broken down the barriers of the friend request. You don’t have to ask permission to read someone’s updates, you can do that by simply choosing to follow someone you find interesting. Check it out. I promise you will not be disappointed.

Until next time….

Contests through Twitter. They are something that not everyone takes advantage of but something that I believe everyone should take full advantage of. With times being tough in the financial markets and everyone looking for ways to save, it’s a good thing we have places like Tweetcontest to turn to brighten up our day with free stuff.
Rusty and Ryan the founders of Tweetcontest, started with twitter when they created tweetbomb. A fun thing that happens once a day in the twitterverse in which everyone following tweetbomb sends out an @ reply to the person of their choice at precisely 3:33 PM EST. I have been an avid tweetbomber for a couple of months now and I must say it is a lot of fun to see the reactions people give when they find out they’ve been bombed.
Somewhere along the way they decided to start a new service known as CustomizedGirl and Total Assault, and the prizes range from Gift Cards, to Guitar Hero, to DVD sets.

If you haven’t checked them out yet make sure you do. Follow them @tweetcontest and get in the game. You’ve got nothing to lose. It costs you nothing, and you have the chance to win some really cool prizes and for businesses it could be a great way to drive traffic to your site and generate some strong brand awareness. Thanks Ryan and Rusty for starting tweetcontest and keep up the good work. And for businesses it could be a great way to drive traffic to your site and generate some strong brand awareness.

There are many different Twitter Applications with which you can tweet your heart out and keep up with your followers and people you are following. This week I am going to go through a few of them and determine which is the absolute best program for your twitter account management needs. Today we are going to take a look at TwitterFox.

Twitterfox is an optional add-on to those of you who are using the ever so popular web browser Mozilla Firefox. Mozilla has become somewhat of the all-in-one browser that attempts at allowing you to control as much of your online life directly from their browser.

Click on this link if you would like to install Twitterfox to your browser. Installation instructions will follow after the install. After you have installed Twitterfox click on the “tools” drop down menu and then go to “add-ons”. Click on the extensions tab and then this Box should pop up for you.

Click enable and then restart Firefox. Upon Restart the Twitterfox icon will show up in the bottom right hand corner.

Right click and then choose preferences to set up Twitterfox to your Twitter account. This is the preferences box.

Add in your account information and then you are ready to start. Click on the Twitterfox icon to pull up your Twitterfox Application.

Now you will notice 5 Key areas. The text bar is used to type in your update. Twitterfox does count down the amount of characters you have left in your update before you get past the 140 character limit set by Twitter. To send a tweet simply type and press enter to send it.

By clicking on the Recent Tab it will bring up the latest updates from both the people you are following and your personal updates. If you haven’t visited that tab in awhile it will put a number on the tab to let you know how many of your friends updates have been submitted since the last time you checked it out. If you want to check out one of your friends profiles simply click on their image icon and it will take you directly to their Twitter page.

By Clicking on the Replies tab it will show you how many people have sent you an @reply since the last time you checked you @replies. It will also show you the number of @replies you’ve had since the last time you clicked on that tab.

By Clicking on the Messages tab it will show you how many direct messages have been sent to your Twitter account. Just like the other two tabs it also counts the number of direct messages you have received.

Perhaps the coolest feature that Twitterfox has to offer is the option to click on the link button which is located directly to the left of the Recent Tab. If you are reading a blog article that you would like to tweet about simply click on that links tab and it will paste the link to that article directly into your update bar.

Limitations of Twitterfox

• No ability to search through Twitterfox. One of my personal favorite things to do is to use search.twitter.com and search for what people are saying about the topics I care about i.e. google, twitter, or (my favorite sports team) the Cleveland Cavaliers. There are other Twitter applications out there that allow you to use Twitter Search and it is very helpful such as Tweetdeck
• It is difficult to find new friends to follow. The only real way to add friends to your Twitterfox account is to visit a friends page on Twitter and find people that you would like to add directly from there. To really be able to use a Twitter application I think that is a necessity and Twitterfox does not have it.
• There is no way to shorten a URL when you are trying to tweet about one. Again I think that is a MUST for a twitter application, and unfortunately Twitterfox does not have that either.

All in all I would have to say that Twitterfox as a twitter application ranks right around the middle. There is a lot of room for improvement but it is a good first effort by Mozilla to come up with an application for its users to use Twitter directly from their browser.

Until next time…Happy Tweeting!