Online Share of Voice is often listed as a Key Performance Indicator especially for organizations operating in the social space as could be said of Joomla and WordPress. Interestingly WordPress claims tens of millions of users. In fact, as of this writing they claim more than 71,000,000 sites. While Joomla claims over 10,000,000 downloads as of 2010 (a couple of years ago) Trend.com reports in their database around 1,700,000.
Keeping those numbers in mind it would stand to reason the social gab about the two Content Management Systems should report at about a 40 to 1 ratio in favor of WordPress. Surprisingly, though, Omgili Buzz reports a much different result when clocking social mentions.
In the graph below Omgili actually reports there are times when Joomla receives more social mentions than WordPress. Why could this be? Is this really any indicator either organization should consider as a KPI of value? How does this make you consider social share of voice in your own KPI planning?
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It was the summer of 1994 when I was first introduced to the lighter version of Unix called Linux. At the time I did not fully understand the future for the OS and embraced it as almost a geek’s favorite dream since I was already a Unix nerd. Since that time Linux has grown into a full-blown, robust, consumer oriented OS which easily has the speed, reliability and security to topple the two behemoths from their glass perches. The news is, as a world of Linux geeks, we really don’t want normal users coming en mass. In fact I almost wish releases like Ubuntu did not make it so dadgummed simple for the average Jane and Jack to switch.
Truth be told for your small business nothing could be better than a secure installation of Linux which cuts your annual software licensing costs to almost nil. While there are a few third-party apps with a fee you can do pretty much anything you need to get done around the average office, unless you have proprietary tools developed by 3rd class developers who only know how to use MS or Mac tools to get the job done, for next to nothing.
Linux is free as are many powerful and well supported applications. You can use a choice of robust word processing tools, just about any web browser, printers, web cams, human input devices, speakers, games, chat, web development (no duh, most real developers are Linux geeks anyway), video editing, graphics … must I continue?
While I am not in IT, I am an applications and content developer, I can tell you I have been running a small business on Linux since 2001 and have logged nearly $1 billion in sales on Linux – for free. It lets me break down my security into micro bites as well as giving me the power to modify the kernel on the fly to make the system behave the way I need it to behave when I need it done. Try that with OS or MS.
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Actually no need to explore so there really is not any true discovery. Yahoo, for example, makes finding their trending image searches as simple as visiting Yahoo! Trending Image Searches. Not difficult at all. Now to capitalize on those, of course, is where skill and science come together so that you are still acquiring site relevant traffic without offending the person who is actually doing the search. If you are Harvey from over at TMZ no worries – everything is site relevant. If you are Nicco’s Plumbing and Dog Grooming, however, maybe not so much!
Speaking of images do you know there are at least two good ways to find if someone may be using your images without your permission? There are other ways I am certain and I know you will be happy to share them but these are the two I know and use:
TinEye – http://tineye.com very simple to use and often has a large database of images.
Google Reverse Images – http://images.google.com/ if you have Google Goggles on your mobile or Android device you have this already.
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One of the fastest ways to lose the attention of people for a plethora of reasons is to shout at them, tug on their shirt sleeve or kick sand in their sandwich. Metaphorically speaking anyone who uses the technique of playing any sound on a web site automatically (without the visitor’s permission or interaction) is doing just this.
Imagine your visitor works in a banking environment where things are relatively quite and sounds echo. Then envision a waiting area and offices filled with visitors just as the Social Marketing Director decides to check the local MLB schedule and stats for a blog tie in and is greeted, not quietly, with a lady in a video loudly stating, “I occasionally suffer with diarrhea.” It happened … to me.
Another scenario may be a spouse using their tablet in bed trying to finish an assignment for the morning when the click on a link taking them to a page that loads with a Flash movie with thunder and sirens blasting.
Still yet the very innocent visitation to a local chinese restaurant (which failed their most recent health inspection by a horrible 58 score) site to check the menu when a Flash video loads with the sounds of rushing water and birds chirping loudly.
Cute, but stupid. If it causes me and most of my friends to immediately click that “X” or the back button you can bet it’s happening with a majority of other visitors. You can check this for yourself by checking two statistics on your log: Time on site and bounce rate. If your bounce rate is 70% or higher and your average time on site is less than 60 seconds you can be quite sure you’re killing your own business.
The argument, or statement, was made yesterday on Social Media Edge Radio by our own Mike Mueller that it makes a difference if you know you’re going to be presented with automated audio yet as I pondered that I further believe, for me, it does not matter. Even if I visit Hulu or Netflix with the intent of watching a video with audio I still do not want *any* selection to begin playing automatically with sound.
http://www.intheboxproduction.com/how-autoplay-is-hurting-your-conversion-rate/ A roommate, spouse, significant other, child, or other sleeping individual just woke up to your music BLASTING through the house or apartment. Congratulations, you just put your potential fan into a situation.
http://www.onethousandamonth.com/2011/05/24/if-you-have-auto-play-audio-or-video-on-your-site-im-leaving-immediately-or-the-golden-rule-of-blogging/
It’s hard to imagine that these sites with the auto play videos have owners who appreciate, respect, and care about their customers.
http://theinkblog.net/2011/07/04/top-10-mistakes-in-small-business-web-design/
#7 Auto playing music, sounds or videos
Image: David Castillo Dominici / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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Graphical memory allocation app for Linux.
I won’t take the time here to list all of the reasons to use Linux and in reality most Linux users prefer the wimps and cry-babies to stay away from Linux. But, since you’re neither a wimp nor a cry-baby and just have not stepped up to the operating system of real geeks and developers, here’s just another reason to try Linux now: memory management and ease of managing how much memory is used where.
The screenshot shows how well presented memory allocation and use is on Linux. Are there apps like this for Mac and Windows? Sort of. For both Mac and Windows they look more like this. One of the beautiful aspects of the Linux world is the open source community provides amazing tools just like this one.
The Disk Usage Analyzer pictured here is included in Ubuntu distributions. If you just want to try Ubuntu, one of the easier for newbies distributions, you can create a USB drive boot and run the entire operating system and several plugins from a 16 gig thumb drive.
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So you’ve finally broken the chains and are ready to soar with your superior operating system. Yes, it’s a little more involved to do a few things you can expose yourself to with a click on the two behemoths but it’s worth the extra few minutes. In reality it’s usually just as simple as knowing how to use Google to find the solution – like many readers have done just now!
First let me say that you can run your business computers with Linux. Some installs are easier to use and others are more secure and powerful. For the beginner I currently recommend Ubuntu. Previously I may have recommended Mandrake or RedHat but currently (Winter 2012) I recommend Ubuntu. The current release is 11x and it’s quite simple even for the person just starting with Linux. Be smart and start with a single computer, learn a few tips and then delete your Windows and Mac OS partitions!
Now the meat: Spotify doesn’t make a big deal about their Linux version but it exists – and you can get it. Although the documentation says it is only available to Premium users (as of this date) that’s not exactly accurate. It should be told that Spotify is in a large part developed on Linux as is most of the web and many other applications the world uses every day. The Spotify version for Linux originally existed only for the developers but they continue to tweak it and now, because they finally got it to stream ads, it is available to you, too. Available to you if you know a few tips like this one from http://www.spotify.com/us/download/previews/:
So how do you get it? We’ve packaged it for Debian Squeeze/Ubuntu 10.04 package and for Fedora 13, i386 and x86_64.
Debian
# 1. Add this line to your list of repositories by # editing your /etc/apt/sources.list deb http://repository.spotify.com stable non-free # 2. If you want to verify the downloaded packages, # you will need to add our public key sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 4E9CFF4E # 3. Run apt-get update sudo apt-get update # 4. Install spotify! sudo apt-get install spotify-client-qt
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Almost every day the question is asked why some old school technique doesn’t work anymore. The answer is some actually do work – they just don’t work on new buyers like they work on old buyers for the most part. Don’t throw away decades of sales psychology just take a look at the mechanism and process by which you are delivering. The buy decision is still a function of the human mind – it’s the form of engagement that has changed.
Here are just a few examples which come to mind – please add to the list in the comments. I know you have more!
OS: I speak you listen
NB: You address our concerns and acknowledge us or we’re done – and by done I mean I’ll tweet about my experience with you, Facebook about my experience with you, Yelp about my experience with you, blog about my experience with you, make a YouTube video about my experience with you …
OS: Our product tests and focus groups are all the information you need to make an informed decision
NB: I’ll Google everything you print and check some trusted blogs to see what they say about you and alternatives to you
OS: We focus on the positive and squelch the negative
NB: If your service isn’t mentioned on any ratings or feedback sites it’s a gamble – I may give that to you if I can find you on Foursquare or Yelp
OS: Order our brochure by calling our toll-free number
NB: Where’s your QR code? I want video content now on my mobile device while I’m standing in front of your product at the store
OS: We have toll-free phone support during normal business hours
NB: If you don’t have 24/7 live chat support with someone who actually speaks and understands my language and lingo you’re not the right company for me to deal with
OS: Our service contracts are designed to be flexible so that you can change your service levels during the contract period
NB: Contract? I want to walk away or change providers on the drop of a hat – I hate cell phone contracts and feel prisoner to them and we’re working to change that
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I had a message this morning asking how a small business owner who uses Facebook for marketing can see all of the groups to which they are a member – or have “liked”. It used to be very simple and still is but there is an even easier way if you care to know. The first thing I did was to create a bookmark. You won’t even have to do that because I am going to give it to you in just a moment. Whenever I need to see my “memberships” I simply make sure I am logged in to Facebook and click the link to show all of the groups.
Why join Facebook groups?
Facebook groups are a great way to find people who are focused on one topic or at least a smaller range of topics. If you are a hair stylist, for example, you may want to join a group that talks about everything from new hair care products, progressive ways to make more profit from your chair(s) or just vent about how customers act and do so in a private setting. Find a CLOSED group that does not offer access to the public if you want to vent! There is nothing wrong with venting but bashing in public is a no-no.
Groups give the members the opportunity to learn and teach. Find a group you fit in with and be pro-active in your membership there. If you don’t like to group it’ s simple enough to leave and you can do so from the link I’m giving you – or just click the image. Click here to see all of your Facebook groups when logged in to Facebook.
You can find a Facebook group about any topic you can think of. If you don’t find one you can create a group – which leads to another article on another day about “Why Create a Facebook Group”.
Don’t forget to listen to Social Media Edge Radio every Tuesday at Noon EST which is 9AM PST!
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Twitter is still very powerful and doesn’t seem to be changing course except to pick up speed. With the announcement that Twitter dot com is planning on rolling out some deeper analytics tools with an upcoming upgrade I’m really kind of stoked about it. For me Twitter is still the better engagement tool for live online conversation. Certainly it is not the only but it is very powerful and has led to some great relationships over the years. Many of you reading (or listening) now I first met on Twitter.
One of the most frequently asked questions I take whether in person, at a session or online regarding Twitter is “how should I follow people”? Truly it is, to a degree, a very personal or corporate-centric answer. While I love data to back up answers and constantly challenge people who “just say stuff that sounds good” I have no data to back up the fact that it is personal. There is, however, a science to following just like there is a science to tweeting. That said here is my policy in a nutshell:
I use auto-follow tools to follow people when they tweet specific key words. I manually cull that list of people I know I will not benefit or will not be likely to engage (people who tweet only in Japanese for example). I do not follow people who do not follow me back – it doesn’t matter who they are, how cool or popular they are or how successful they are. Those people may or may not go into a list. The list they go in may or may not be public. Here’s a short audio bit about it:
What is YOUR Twitter follow policy? We want to know!
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“Some manufacturers (including Apple) have claimed that jailbreaking violates a section of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)” states the article at Geek.com in no uncertain terms. Of course we have long known Apple to be brutal in keeping users in line and behind the line. It seemed everything was okay about users having the choice of what they wanted to install on their PC or laptop but when mobile came along things changed. Manufacturers decided they would take control of your nappy ass and tell you where to stand and how to hold their device. Just another in the long list of reasons I enjoy using Linux and Android … mostly Linux but when it comes to mobile it’s Android or a string and two tin cans.
Your thoughts? Should jail-breaking your iPhone be punishable as a crime like producing illegal copies of software and distributing them? Read the Geek.com article here.
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