Categories
Blogging

Dumbest Press Release Of the Year Nominee

This was at the bottom of a press release I received today (I was looking for the unsubscribe link which wasn’t there). Emphasis mine:

this email and any attachment hereof may contain proprietary information which is privileged, confidential or subject to copyright belonging to xxxxxxxxx. this email is intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed. if you are not the intended recipient of this email, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, copying, or action taken in relation to the contents of and attachments to this email is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. if you have received this email in error, please notify the sender immediately and permanently delete the original as well as any copy of this e-mail and any printout thereof. thank you for your cooperation.

So, if I can’t take any action regarding this press release, what exactly was the point of sending it?

Why in the world would a public relations company want to prevent people from distributing and disseminating information about their client?

Categories
Blogging Travel

Everything you need to know about Klout and the Travel Industry

This was taken from a recent article in Wired. It is from Klout product director Chris Makarsky:

It became clear that if I wanted more Klout, I’d need to game the system harder. I could glom on to influential Twitterati and connive to get retweeted by them. I could dramatically accelerate the frequency of my tweets, posting late into the night. And I could commit myself to never taking a break: Makarsky made it clear that a two-week vacation from social media might cause my score to nose-dive.

So, going on vacation will cause your Klout score to drop?

Allow me get to all Aristotelian on this:

1) People who travel will, all things being equal, have lower Klout scores than people who do not travel.
2) People with higher Klout scores are more “influential”.

Ergo

3) People who do not travel will be more influential about travel than people who travel.

QED

If you got a bloody nose thinking about this, I apologize.

Categories
Blogging

Your Site’s Social Media Profile

With the additions to Google+ and Pinterest to the world of social media, there are now officially too many things to worry about. Maybe if you are a company with a staff of people who can monitor everything everyday you can handle it, but for one person it has reached a point where it is impossible.

We are also now at a point where it is becoming obvious that not every site is going to attract the same audience. I’m seeing this more and more as sites in different niches are getting an overwhelming amount of engagement on some networks but not others.

For the purposes of illustration I’ll look at several posts from popular blogs in different niches. The goal here isn’t to look at the absolute number of likes, tweets or shares, but rather the relative number between the various services.

The selection of the posts I”m using is pretty arbitrary, but I think it illustrates the point I’m trying to make.

Here are some examples:

Brian Solis: Engagement ain’t nothing but a number – why 1% isn’t good enough

Facebook Likes: 129
Facebook Shares: NA
Tweets: 586
LinkedIn Shares: 202
Google +1’s: 55
Comments: 15

Brian’s site is business marketing site that focuses on social media. Twitter is popular as is LinkedIn. Facebook comes in third even though Facebook is the largest social network.

Gary Arndt: The Top 10 Reasons to Travel Condensed Down Into 1

Facebook Likes: 918
Facebook Shares: 2,891
Tweets: 363
LinkedIn Shares: 25
Google +1’s: 20
Comments: 53

This was a recent post on my site. I’m getting far more engagement on Facebook than Brian, but much less on Twitter or Google+. My LinkedIn engagement is so abysmally low I don’t even track it anymore.

Chris Brogan: Earning Attention

Facebook Likes: 80
Facebook Shares: NA
Tweets: 705
LinkedIn Shares: 415
Google +1’s: 77
Comments: 162

An even larger percentage of engagement is coming from Twitter and LinkedIn with a very high number from Google+. The is one of the few places I’ve seen where Google+ numbers almost equal Facebook numbers.

Wired: What your Klout score really means

Facebook Likes: 901
Facebook Shares: NA
Tweets: 956
LinkedIn Shares: 219
Google +1’s: 165
Comments: 15

A consumer orientated publication with a very tech/business orientated article. Still a lot of Facebook but high numbers in Twitter and LinkedIn.

The point of this is that sites, or even individual articles, will have very different social media profiles depending on what type of site you run.

To make some very broad sweeping generalizations, the more consumer orientated the site, the better you will do on Facebook. The more business orientated the site, the better you will do on LinkedIn. The more technical orientated the audience, the better you will do on Google+.

There isn’t a one size fits all for social media. I think if you are a consumer site, worrying about LinkedIn is a waste of time. Likewise, if you are a B2B site, I wouldn’t worry so much about your Facebook interactions.

Put your efforts where you will get the biggest bang for your buck.

Categories
Blogging

Travel Magazine Ad Revenue Drops in Q1 2012

First quarter numbers are in for magazine advertising revenue. It doesn’t look very good for travel magazines (all magazines for that matter).

Outside of Conde Nast Traveler, pretty much every travel magazine saw marginal or substantial decreases in advertising revenue compared to the same time period in 2011.

Having seen a recent issue Conde Nast Traveler, I think their increase is mostly coming from non-travel advertisers. It probably also doesn’t hurt that they are part of a large publishing empire that can do large advertising deals with big brands across multiple publications.

Revenue Pages
Conde Nast Traveler +8.7 +5.5
Southwest Airlines Spirit +2.7 -3.1
Endless Vacation -2.9 -5.4
National Geographic Traveler -3.8 -7.6
Travel + Leisure -5.1 -8.7
Executive Travel Skyguide -6.7 -12.7
US Airways Magazine -14.3 +6.2
American Way -14.6 -14.9
Destination Weddings and Honeymoons -15.7 -20.3
National Geographic -26.9 -27.0
Caribbean Travel & Life -32.0 -36.2
Arthur Frommer’s Budget Traveler -54.8 -56.1

Source: http://www.magazine.org/advertising/revenue/by_mag_title_qtr/pib-1q-2012.aspx

Categories
Blogging

Work With Me 1-on-1 Before TBEX

I have an idea I was kicking around with Amy last week in Texas…

I’m thinking working with 5-10 people who would be willing to show up 2 days early to TBEX to work 1-on-1 or in small groups to improve their blog and their business.

This isn’t wouldn’t just be “make your blog better”. That will be a part of it, but the idea is to get bloggers to star thinking of their blog as a business and to start thinking beyond their blog.

The goal would be to have a plan of attack for the upcoming year which will include:

  • Creating marketing straetgy
  • Establishing traffic goals
  • Developing a monetization plan and goals
  • A plan to improve blog design and performance.

I can only do this with a small number of people, because everyone is going to have different things they are bringing to the table. Everyone’s plan is going to be different.

The cost would be $150 per person, which I think is pretty cheap. I’m not looking to make a fortune on this. It will cover my costs for the week, and that’s about it.

Once we are done, I’ll be checking in with everyone throughout the year.

I tried doing something like this last year, but working with a large number of people, from a long distance and at no cost, didn’t prove sustainable.

If you are interested, send me an email at [email protected].