Cowell Turns to SEO to Change His “Mean” Image

Simon Cowell’s new gig as one of the judges (and executive producers) of the U.S. version of his hit British TV show “X Factor” means that his reputation as the “King of Mean” judges on “American Idol” might not suit him so well. The New York Daily News reports that many observers are suggesting that Cowell has turned to search engine optimization tactics such as negative suppression to turn around his public persona.

Judges on “X Factor” mentor certain performers and help them gain favor with the voting audience. This means that Cowell will want people at home to like him in order to get behind the acts he is mentoring. One way that Cowell might be doing this is to push negative articles about him on online sites down in search engine results while promoting articles that feature him in a positive light.

Although his spokesperson denies that this is happening, several experts believe that an SEO firm like Reputation Management Consultants - which has a strong UK presence - could be behind the sudden rise of positive Simon Cowell webpages as Web site results.

Former Universal Music and EMI executive and blogger Hans Ebert has also accused SEO firms working on behalf of Cowell of doing more sinister activities. A blog post he made that was critical of Cowell’s stint on “American Idol” was pulled for 12 hours after Wordpress received a complaint that it violated its Terms of Service. The blog was restored and Ebert traced the source of the problems to a firm in Bangladesh which has been hired by a London SEO firm in the past to monitor Web activities relating to certain celebrities.

The Affiliate Summit Can Increase Your Marketing Knowledge

There’s a session for everyone at the Affiliate Summit 2010 East on August 15-17 at the Hilton New York. It’s the number one place for marketers, vendors, bloggers and agencies to learn tips and tricks from the leading experts in the affiliate marketing industry. It’s also a great chance to network with other people in the field and make connections which could help you make the perfect partnership. The show-opening Meet Market gives you a great chance to do just that.

In addition, there are plenty of exciting sessions, classes and other learning opportunities for everyone. Learn about how to kick start your search marketing campaign from some of the leading SEM, SEO and PPC experts in the field. Top bloggers will discuss the tips and tricks they use to get readers and earn money from their writing. Social media experts will discuss the SEO implications of social media. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

To learn more about the different educational activities available at the Affiliate Summit, visit http://www.affiliatesummit.com. Keep an eye out for Submit Express’ Vice President of Operations Victor Edinian while you are at the show: he’ll be there and would love to talk to you!

Discover Social Media Marketing Tips at SES San Francisco

Are you a marketing executive or advertising agency professional looking for greater insight into the changing world of social media marketing? If you are interested in learning more about how to utilize the latest trends, tools and technology to your advantage while creating viral campaigns through social media, you need to attend SES San Francisco from August 16-20 in San Francisco.

Professionals who go to the show at the Moscone West Convention Center gain exposure to the thoughts of the major players in the social media world. Executives from leading search engines, agencies and major corporations will explain the hottest trends in social media usage and explain how marketers can leverage this information to their advantage. You can also learn about key tools such as content optimization and analytics which can help you build a successful social media campaign.

Along with the ability to sit in on powerful sessions, seminars and special events, attendees can visit the exhibit hall where more than 100 companies will be showcasing their social media and search engine marketing tools and services. For more information on SES San Francisco, visit http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/sanfrancisco/index.php. In addition, Submit Express president and CEO Pierre Zarokian will be attending the show as well. Make sure you say hi to him at the show.

Tips for Managing Your Social Media Identity

Whether you are an individual looking to extend your personal brand or a company who wants to leverage the latest online communication tools to reach new audiences, it’s important to have a well thought out social media plan. Blindly signing up for accounts on every social media network you can find is not the way to attract new followers (and potential customers). As with any marketing strategy, it’s important to approach social media as a tactical promotional tool.

In order to get the most from your social media campaign, it’s important to maintain consistency across the different platforms you use. Not only does this make it easier for people to find you whether they are on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or another social media site, but it also creates incentives for people to follow you on multiple platforms. Taking control of your social media brand can pay major dividends for you down the road.

Many people don’t give enough thought to the handles they create when they sign up for social media networks. Sometimes they create usernames that are too cute or complex (often with seemingly random numbers added to the end). This makes it tough for people to remember who you are. In other cases, people create different usernames on different sites, either because their Facebook username is taken on Twitter or because they want to “keep it different.”

You want to make it easy for potential followers and customers to find you. If you own a business and start a website, you understand that it’s important to have a web address which is easy to remember and explains what the site is about. So why not apply the same concepts to your social media sites? Research the availability of different usernames on the social media sites you plan on using and don’t sign up until you find a username that is brief, easy to remember and is available on each site.

It’s also important to understand what you are hoping to accomplish with the various social media networks available to use during a campaign. Each social media site has its own unique strengths and reaches different audiences. Instead of just blindly posting the same content on each site, spend some time researching the various platforms and create a plan of action for each. You might use Twitter to spread breaking news about a sale on your company’s site that lasts one day and your Facebook account to set up a contest to attract new customers.

Another important tip is to keep your personal and business social media lives separate. Make sure the social media accounts you create to promote your business do just that. While you can use humor and personality to make your posts and Tweets interesting, they should all have the purpose of helping to drive your business forward. This isn’t to say that you can’t have personal social media accounts and link those to your business accounts - people like to hear about the personalities behind the companies they use. Just keep in mind if you link the two accounts, you are posting as a representative of the company. Don’t post any embarrassing personal details that might reflect poorly on your business.

Google Invests $100-200 Million in Zynga

The Internet world was buzzing this weekend with news that Google had secretly invested $100 to $200 million in popular social media gaming company Zynga, which makes such popular Facebook games as Farmville. The investments were first reported by Tech Crunch, which said that Google completed the investment last month.

Several sources told Tech Crunch that Google is making a strategic investment in Zynga as it prepares to roll out its own Google Games feature later this year. This could be done in conjunction with the rumored new Google Me social media site. It’s currently unclear about whether Google Games will be available as a standalone site or if it will follow the Facebook model and require that users create a new social graph and access it through the social networking site.

The San Francisco Chronicle speculated that the deal with Zynga was also meant to weaken Facebook as Google prepares to enter the social media market with a major rollout. It also could provide a boost to the Google Checkout online payment model if Zynga switches its payments to that from PayPal.

Kraft Food Brands Increase Social Media Marketing Efforts

The New York Times reports that two brands of Kraft Foods, Oreo Cookies and Wheat Thins crackers, are planning to increase their social media marketing efforts through sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

According to the NY Times blog post, Oreo Cookies plans to reveal on Monday a revamped Facebook page featuring a mix of global and local content. The new page will also feature a “world’s fan of the week” as it celebrates the brand’s five million Facebook fans outside the United States.

In a similar social media marketing effort, Wheat Thins is starting a campaign to reward consumers of the brand who mention it on Twitter. The Wheat Thins campaign will also include a YouTube channel with clips of a traveling team that gives prizes to brand fans.

Email CTR Improved by Social Media Links

Marketing Charts reports that according to a new study released by GetResponse, social media links in promotional emails improves their click-through rate (CTR).

The new study — which analyzed nearly 500 million emails sent by 19,149 GetResponse customers — reveals that promotional emails by small-to-mid-sized business marketers that include links to at least one social network have a 9.4 percent CTR. However, promotional emails without links have a 7.2 percent CTR.

The study also revealed that messages with three or more social sharing links produced an 11.2 percent CTR, accounting for 20 percent higher than messages with two links, 28 percent higher than messages with one link and 55 percent more than messages without links.

Regardless of these figures, the report indicates that only a small portion of small-to-mid-sized business marketers take advantage of this marketing approach. Only 18.7 percent of small-to-mid-sized business marketers linked promotional emails to messages on their Twitter accounts and only 13.5 percent featured clickable sharing links to other social media networks.

Updated Bing App Goes Social

Microsoft Bing yesterday announced an updated version of the Bing app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Among its many new features, the new version of the app allows users to connect their Facebook and Twitter accounts and view combined status updates from within the app.

In addition, the updated Bing app will include relevant social network results along with traditional web results. When searching for a movie, for example, the results will feature official movie show times along with comments from social networking sites that friends may have said about the movie. The updated Bing app for the iPhone and iPod Touch also features visual scanning, the ability to scan barcodes and cover art to view descriptions, reviews, prices and links to merchant websites.

People can download the update today using iTunes.

Salesforce.com Debuts New Social Media-Derived Business Collaboration Tool

CNET News reports that Salesforce.com has released its new social media-based collaboration product, which has been in beta testing since February. The new Chatter product is described as a “sort of Facebook for business” by Salesforce.com and is meant to compete with business collaboration offering such as IBM’s Lotus Notes and Microsoft’s SharePoint.

Chatter lets people follow the update of co-workers along with tracking individual business documents and pieces of data. For example, a sales rep could follow the details of a pending new client contract or a customer support manager could track a bug report until a solution is found. Information shared on Chatter will remain safe because it runs behind a firewall, protecting it from people outside of the company.

“We feel very excited that we have a killer app on our hands with Chatter,” said Salesforce.com Senior Vice President Kraig Swensrud. “Facebook has really trained the entire Internet on how to collaborate. No one has to go to a training class to figure out how to use Chatter.”

Military Intelligence Utilizes Social Networking Skills

While social networking is more commonly used to stay connected with friends and family, the U.S. military uses it for communicating vital information during American wars. The New York Times reports that U.S. intelligence officers are using social networking skills to locate insurgents and save American lives in Afghanistan. According to the article, although more than 7,000 miles away, analysts are able to sign in and out of military chat rooms to inform Marines about possible dangers such as roadside bombs and Taliban gunfire. Earlier this month, for example, analysts helped guide Marines into Marja in southern Afghanistan with minimal causalities by utilizing data about nearly 300 possible roadside bombs.

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