Free Linkbuilding Webinar

As social media solidifies its position as one of the main, well, media platforms for business, you should not lose sight of the web's other subdisciplines. Here's a promising free webinar on one of my favorite activities, linkbuilding, that includes a section on "social signals." While the title, Five Steps for Building Links that Improve Search Results" is puzzling (after all, that's the point of linkbuilding), the giveaway is more interesting: "How to Integrate Social Media with Email and SEO: 9 tactics for leveraging your brand’s social network." If you don't make it to the webinar, don't worry -- I'll try to summarize tomorrow!

John Paton’s Dec. 2 Presentation at INMA Transformation of News Summit in Cambridge, Mass. « Digital First

John Paton’s Dec. 2 Presentation at INMA Transformation of News Summit in Cambridge, Mass. « Digital First

This is a terrific case study of a business whose business model was undercut by the Internet -- yet by embracing the net, has stopped the losses and started making money.

Twitter, After Number of Users Surges, Turns to Ads - NYTimes.com

I was in Italy during Ad Week this year, but it must have been a treat to see the new advertising man/CEO of Twitter on stage with Facebook and Google. The days of dismissing the web as a time-waster (banned from offices in the early 90s), Google as a "mere" utility, Facebook as a time-waster and now Twitter as the latest to disappoint naysayers, are gone. There will be stumbles no doubt, but it's time for marketers to accept that some fads fade, but others grow and take over.

Twitter, After Number of Users Surges, Turns to Ads - NYTimes.com

Does this mean bricks and clicks can NEVER be joined?

Blockbuster, Barnes & Noble and other major retail "bricks" stores have tried repeatedly and as this NYT article reports, generally failed to beat their online-only rivals -- Netflix and Amazon, respectively.

Does this mean all bricks retailer efforts to build business online are doomed?

No, of course not, but...it does mean you have to commit to a host of changes in how you do business. All your business. What changes, exactly? I knew you were going to ask that! Good question! Next...

Okay, here are some starting points:
1. Accept that there is a new world. Begin to grapple with the implications: pricing, new definitions and ways of achieving trust, customer power, level of customer service, best practices defined not by your old competitors, but globally, online.
2. New business model, often not compatible with your well-established one.
3. Probability of losses or low profits for a while -- painful when you have an established, profitable business that you're cannibalizing...for this?
4. New metrics of success -- with the right ones hidden in a flood of new metrics, not all of them relevant.
5. Faster pace: products, customer service, changes to plan needed.

Other issues you see?

Advertising IS (local) news -- if done right

Gordon Borrell, one of the wise men (I deliberately omit "old") of media new and old, points out that a century-old saying is just as, if not even truer in our mobile, drive-by news world. And wouldn't you know it, one of the supposed dying icons of print advertising, Yellowbook, is trying a quick follow of the leader Groupon, with weforia.com. Can't help myself: when do you think newspapers will figure out that this might work?

Borrell Associates, Inc: Local Interactive & Online Advertising Research and Consulting

What We Can Learn From Alien Hunters - Advertising Age - CMO Strategy

Jonathan Salem Baskin makes a very good point: "Purpose, legitimacy and direction are core drivers of conversations, whatever the medium." Too many social media campaigns are merely clever, but not really rooted in a relationship to the product or service.

What We Can Learn From Alien Hunters - Advertising Age -

12 sites that "get" it -- good models

Lori Luechtefeld at iMediaConnection explains what makes each of these sites so good at what they're trying to do. Levi's has gone so far as to remake its site using Facebook lingo, for example.

12 killer websites worth watching - iMediaConnection.com