Company Develops Great Promotional and Link-Baiting Idea

By Pierre Zarokian, CEO of Submit Express/iClimber

How do you get the most for your promotional dollar? Online gift basket company GourmetGiftBaskets.com is a prime example of how to take an eye-catching stunt and turn it into a long-term tactic to increase publicity and links to their site. I was on hand at Blog World 2010 in Las Vegas when they rolled out the first part of their plan, and I can tell you that it was pretty ingenious.

On October 15, they set a Guinness World Record by brewing the world’s largest cup of coffee. It took eight hours to make the coffee and fill the specially-designed eight-foot by eight-foot cup, but when it was done they had filled a cup with 2,010 gallons of Colombian Arabica coffee provided by the Kerry/X Café of Princeton, MA – the equivalent of 32,160 regular cups of coffee. GourmetGiftBaskets.com shattered the previous record set in 2007 of 911.5 gallons – they more than doubled it!

They then turned around and set a second world record the next day for the largest cup of iced coffee ever made, successfully cooling the coffee to 45 degrees just before the show closed. It was two world records in two days for GourmetGiftBaskets.com.

I was at the show and saw the coffee firsthand, and I can tell you that it was amazing. It really was a feat of modern engineering – it required two 60-amp, 208-volt three-phase power supplies, two directly plumbed water lines providing three gallons per minute and the equivalent of 89,305 times the amount of coffee needed to brew your standard eight ounce cup of coffee. The cup was created for the world record effort by Chisel Productions Inc. of Georgia while the hard, polyurethane cup with a storage tank that served as a foundation was designed by Terracon Corporation of Boston. In order to break the world record, coffee baristas were up at 4 a.m. in order to finish filling the coffee cup by noon.

I spoke to show personal again at the end of the show about plans for the cup. My thought was that with something that big, it might be cheaper to destroy it than to ship it. However, the staff told me that they planned to ship it back to the company’s offices. Perhaps they want to try to break the record another time.

Obviously the main purpose of breaking such records is for publicity. I spoke to some of the booth staff about how much it cost to put on this stunt. They told me that it cost them about $70,000 to build the cup and ship it to the show. It also took them about one and a half months to build the cup and about eight hours to fill the cup with coffee using two high-volume coffee dispensers, which were donated by Bunn-O-Matic of Springfield, IL and produce 225 gallons of coffee per hour. After it was done, they drained the coffee in seven hours.

Since this was done at the show floor, it attracted a lot of attention and was the talk of the show. Logo Loc LTD of New Hampshire handed out t-shirts to commemorate the world record while the California company Marich Confectionary handed out samples of chocolate-covered coffee beans to keep the crowd buzzing.

It also was a great PR opportunity and the pictures and videos from the event showed up at blogs and online news sites throughout the world. They were even mentioned on ABC-TV’s “Good Morning America.” It was a great PR stunt no matter how you cut it.

However, GourmetGiftBaskets.com was very smart and found a way to extend the usefulness of the stunt. They’ve put together a contest where they are offering prizes of free gift baskets for bloggers who mention their world record in a blog post. It’s a sneaky way to encourage people to write about the stunt after the fact, along with providing valuable link bait which will help in the site’s overall SEO campaign.

This is a perfect example of how SEO tactics, public relations, marketing and advertising can all work together in a synergistic campaign. By combining different elements, GourmetGiftBaskets.com was able to create a program that extended a one-off event well beyond its original date and maximize its value. It’s something that all companies should consider when putting together marketing campaigns.

At the end of the show, the staff was nice enough to give me and one of our own booth staff two free gift baskets, which you can see in the picture below.

Facebook Snags Fastest Social Network Spot Second Time in a Row

Even with several outages last month, Facebook was once again the fastest social network with an average response time of 1.00 seconds, according to the latest results of the Web Performance Index for Social Networks by AlertSite.

LinkedIn came in at second place with an average response time of 1.33 seconds, followed by YouTube and Twitter with 1.60 and 2.93, respectively. Although in third place, Twitter received the “most improved” award this time around, improving more than 35 percent since last quarter.

Compared to last quarter’s results, Facebook has improved its average response time by .02 seconds bringing it to a record response time of one second flat. YouTube’s 1.60 second response time was also its lowest response time yet.

According to AlertSite, “It’s clear that these sites recognize the importance of speed and reliability and are making improvements along the way to deliver a positive user experience.”

Facebook Advertising Chief Mike Murphy to Leave in December

The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that Mike Murphy is stepping down as head of advertising sales at Facebook, leaving a major position vacant in the company at a time when it is facing increased competition for social media advertising dollars from Twitter and other sites.

Murphy joined the company five years ago, and is responsible for Facebook’s media strategy and advertising sales, as well as managing accounts with the social network’s customers. The company announced that Murphy will be leaving in December to spend more time with his family. In an interview with BoomTown that was referenced by All Things D, Murphy said the grind of doing sales non-stop was a heavy burden.

“For the last five years of hyper-growth here, I have been focused on Facebook,” said Murphy. “Now, I felt it was time to shift that focus to my family.”

Social Network Users Feel Connected, But Not Face-to-Face

The majority of American social network users feel more connected to people, although they say they are not seeing people more, according to the new Harris Poll.

The study, which was conducted in September among 2,258 adults aged 18 and over, reveals that social networks are bringing people together, just not face-to-face. Nearly three in five online adults (57 percent) say they feel more connected to friends and family now than they previously did, and 56 percent say they stay in contact more now than in the past.

While Americans may feel more connected to friends and family, they’re not visiting with people face-to-face. Nearly 58 percent of the respondents say they are up-to-date with news about family and friends but don’t interact with them personally or individually. A majority (54 percent) agree that they have had less face-to-face contact with friends.

The study also revealed that social media users have preferences for how they want to keep in touch with people. Nearly 44 percent rather interact with acquaintances using social media instead of face-to-face, 23 percent say the same about friends, and 19 percent say the same about interacting with family.

Facebook Files Suit Against Spammers

PC Magazine reports that Facebook has filed three lawsuits against men they claim tricked Facebook users into signing up for mobile subscription through fraudulent means and spammed their friends with unwanted messages. The lawsuits were filed in a federal court in San Jose, California this week against Steven Richter, Jason Swan and Max Bounty.

In a blog post announcing the filings, Facebook alleges that the three “used Facebook to offer enticing, but non-existent products and services. According to our complaints, the defendants, among other things, represented that in order to qualify for certain fake or deceptive offers, people had to spam their friends, sign up for automatic mobile phone subscription services, or provide other information.”

In the lawsuits, Facebook is alleging that the three men broke the U.S. Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM) along with other federal and state laws. Facebook has recently won cases totaling more than $1.5 billion against other spammers who abused Facebook’s privacy settings.

Congressmen Send Letter on Privacy Breach to Facebook CEO

The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that Congress is getting involved in the privacy breach involving popular Facebook games and other applications which was reported earlier this week. According to the report, House Bipartisan Privacy Caucus co-chairs Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Joe Barton (R-Texas) sent a joint letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg expressing their concerns about the situation.

“Given the number of current users, the rate at which that number grows worldwide, and the age range of Facebook users, combined with the amount and the nature of information these users place in Facebook’s trust, this series of breaches of consumer privacy is a cause for concern,” the representatives wrote.

The problem was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, which investigated popular games like Farmville and Texas HoldEm and found that the user IDs of players had been sent to advertising and Internet-tracking companies. The Washington Post’s Rob Pegoraro echoed the sentiment of many online critics that the breach was a minor issue; however, it is another embarrassing glitch for Facebook, which has been plagued by privacy issues over the past year.

Twitter Cancels Deal with Celebrity Stalking Site JustSpotted

Twitter has said “thanks but no thanks” to a new site which some critics say is a tool for stalking celebrities. CNET.com reports that Twitter has canceled a licensing deal with start-up site JustSpotted, which is planning to launch a service which combs through millions of Tweets to collect and share information on people who have recently spotted celebrities and posted updates on their Twitter accounts.

In a story in the October 13 edition of The Hollywood Reporter, JustSpotted CEO AJ Asver touted the company’s close relationship with Twitter, including being “one of a handful of companies” with a deal to license Twitter’s tools to facilitate its service. However, a Twitter representative said that the company has backed out of its deal with JustSpotted and suggested that the nature of the service the start-up provides was different than originally promised to Twitter.

“JustSpotted, then known as Scoopler, had previously licensed Twitter’s ‘firehose’ data feed of all public tweets for its real-time search engine, Scoopler.com,” the Twitter representative wrote. “JustSpotted.com is not the product we licensed, and we have terminated their agreement.”

In an email to CNET on Thursday, Asver said that “JustSpotted continues to aggregate updates from lots of sources, including Twitter, where we have always been using their publicly available APIs.”

JustSpotted plans to launch on October 19.

San Fernando Valley Business Journal Names Submit Express as Top Firm

This week’s edition of the San Fernando Valley Business Journal brings with it more proof that Burbank, California-based Submit Express is one of the top search engine marketing firms in the industry. The paper has ranked the company at No. 6 in its 2010 Advertising, Public Relations and Marketing Firms List. It’s validation that the cutting-edge services provided by the company to clients all over the world resonates with return business.

Submit Express provides search engine marketing services ranging from PPC campaigns to search engine optimization. The company’s iClimber brand also provides social media marketing services along with content writing. Submit Express also is a leader in reputation management, using a variety of tactics to help brands counteract negative online postings.

The recognition from the San Fernando Valley Business Journal validates the hard work we’ve put into every one of our clients. We are continually striving to bring new tactics to help our clients improve their online marketing campaigns, and we look forward to continuing our growth.

Don’t Miss Your Chance to Attend ad:tech New York

Have you signed up for ad:tech New York yet? If you haven’t, you are missing out on one of the biggest online marketing events of the year. Learn about all aspects of digital marketing including social media, interactive content and SEO marketing from the top movers and shakers in the industry. Keynote speakers such as Lauren Zalaznick of NBC Universal and Outside.in co-founder Steven Berlin Johnson will give expert insight into the trends that are shaping the digital marketing landscape.

Along with top-level overviews of the competitive landscape, ad:tech New York gives you plenty of opportunities to get detailed information on the latest marketing strategies and tactics being used in the industry. Sessions with marketing executives from FourSquare, MTV.com, Crocs and more will give you in-depth information about the latest online marketing and advertising strategies which can inspire and invigorate your campaigns.

ad:tech New York is taking place on November 3-4 at the Javits Convention Center. Time is running out to take advantage of early registration and save on your attendance fees. Go to https://www.xpressreg.net/register/adte110/lookup.asp to register for the show and book your spot at one of the hottest shows of the year.

Many WordPress Blogs and Websites Attacked by Muslim Hacker

BURBANK, CA – October 11, 2010 – Leading search engine marketing company Submit Express reported on that the web server hosting their website submitexpress.com, iclimber.com and several other websites was hacked on October 4. Some of the other sites affected were armenian.com, autocrust.com, michaeljacksonforum.com and realestateandmortgageinfo.net.

“Our remote backup server was able to come online once the hack was automatically detected, limiting the impact to our home page to five minutes,” said Submit Express President and CEO Pierre Zarokian. “However, other sites that were impacted had to be restored manually by their owners after notification. Judging by the message left by the hacker, he or she appears to be Muslim, and we aren’t sure if the sites were specifically targeted or if this was a random attack.”

The hacker was able to re-enter the sites four times after they were originally fixed, either through his original method of entry or through a script he installed during his original attack. While the IP address used in the attack is from the Gulf state of Qatar, it’s not known if the attack originated from there or if proxy servers were used.

“The good news is that the hacker failed to remove our databases and the majority of our site files,” Zarokian said. “Instead, it appears that the index page within each folder was removed, with any files containing names starting with the words “index,” “home,” “main” or “default” being impacted. These files were replaced with a graphic image shown below. Any file starting with word “log” was also completely removed.

“We suspect the hacker access our server through a security hole in WordPress, but we are still investigating the exact method of the attack.”

Known for his the handle “BOFAISAL” with the email address of bofaisal2@hotmail.com, the hacker has claimed responsibility for many website attacked in recent months. A Google search shows more than 1,000 results for the phrase “BOFAISAL hacked” and 700 results for his email address. Please contact Submit Express through our contact page if you have any information on these attacks.

“We are updating all older and potentially vulnerable versions of WordPress blogs on our server,” Zarokian said. “We recommend that all WordPress blog owners do the same and upgrade their blogs to the latest version.”

Below are the two different messages and images he posted during the recent attacks:

First Message:

Second Message:

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