Jon DiPietro is Domesticating IT

Everything was so simple then… When search engines ruled the Internet, all we had to do was optimize our web sites to get some love and we’d turn up at the top of the results page. The most effective way to rank highly was to have high quality links pointing to our web pages. These inbound links were the coins that were deposited into our SEO piggy banks. They were the currency of Internet marketing.

Why is this conversation in the past tense?

Because of so-called “walled gardens” like Facebook and iTunes, that’s why.

Earlier this week, I wrote “Search Engine Marketing: I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means” in response to Wired magazine’s article, “The Web Is Dead. Long Live the Internet.” Their point was the Internet is simply a collection of pipes that form a content delivery system. The “Web” is essentially HTML sites that do not block search engines. iTunes is an application, not a web site. Facebook is (mostly) private and can’t be crawled by search engines. They are walled gardens.

This means that search engines aren’t as omniscient as they used to be.
…Which means they aren’t as influential in Internet marketing as they used to be.
……Which means that links aren’t as valuable as they used to be.

During JitterJam‘s weekly Creative Coffee session this morning, we were talking about how to identify influencers in social media. As we kicked around various ideas and returned from tangents, one of the ideas that crystallized was that in our brave new world of social media, the coin of the realm is changing from links to people.

In Malcolm Gladwell’s book, “The Tipping Point,” he examines the phenomenon of messages going viral. One of the main ingredients to an epidemic, he suggests, is a set of people with specific gifts:

• Mavens are “people we rely upon to connect us with new information.”
• Connectors “link us up with the world … people with a special gift for bringing the world together.” People tend to think of the Internet as a single, enormous, amorphous glob of people when, in fact, it is a series of groups. Connectors act as the information conduits between these groups.
• Salesmen are the charismatic persuaders.

As we try to establish our own influence online and spread our ideas, we still need to be doing SEO and collecting links. But we need to leave room in our piggy back for the new coins of the realm also; mavens, connectors, and salesmen. They are the ones with the keys to the walled gardens in which search engines are persona non grata.

P.S. If you’re in NH, I encourage you to stop by JitterJam on Friday mornings (8:30 – 9:30) for Creative Coffee. It’s a great forum for idea exchange. Today’s session included Ric Pratte, Marty Watts, Michael Conway, Joe Merrow, and Karen Grimmett.

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I occasionally post subjects with the subtitle, “I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means.”  The subtitle pays homage to one of my favorite sources of movie quotes, The Princess Bride (you can view this particular quote on YouTube).

I’ll be conducting an inbound marketing workshop at the ISA Marketing & Sales Summit in a couple of weeks. We’ve just launched a blogging contest that is giving away an iPod Touch. Although I’m judging and not eligible to win, I’m linking this article to help spread the word.

Browser content (i.e. HTML on port 80) now accounts for less than 25% of all Internet traffic.

Your entire Internet marketing strategy may be based on a mirage. Many companies are focused on search engine optimization and pay per click campaigns. This is all well and good as long as Google remains the gatekeeper of the Internet. But here’s the thing; there’s a new sheriff in town and the entire 18 year old ecosystem of the world wide web is in danger. This is according to Wired Magazine who today published “The Web Is Dead. Long Live the Internet.”

The premise of this article is that we are willingly giving up the freedom and openness of the traditional world wide web in favor of a more closed, less free version; apps. Wired argues that like the rail system and electrical grid before it, the Internet is entering a period of consolidation and domination by a few power brokers.

Over the past few years, one of the most important shifts in the digital world has been the move from the wide-open Web to semiclosed platforms that use the Internet for transport but not the browser for display. It’s driven primarily by the rise of the iPhone model of mobile computing, and it’s a world Google can’t crawl, one where HTML doesn’t rule. And it’s the world that consumers are increasingly choosing, not because they’re rejecting the idea of the Web but because these dedicated platforms often just work better or fit better into their lives (the screen comes to them, they don’t have to go to the screen).

Now. let’s keep in mind that Wired is not entirely unbiased in this debate. They and their publisher, Condé Nast , have put a large portion of their eggs into Steve Jobs’ basket. But to paraphrase the late Kurt Cobain, “Just because you’re biased doesn’t mean they’re not right.”

Tilting at Windmills

We laughed at Prince when he said it, but this article should make every marketer’s blood run cold. If our usage of the Internet is indeed moving from open, HTML-based web sites to the walled gardens of applications and streaming content, it means that search engines are indexing an increasingly small piece of the pie. They simply aren’t the ubiquitous arbiter they once were, since much of the Internet’s activity is happening outside of their field of view. Basing an entire Internet marketing strategy on search engines is like looking at a windmill and seeing a dragon.

That doesn’t mean that you should halt your search engine marketing tactics. It does, however, mean that it should be a shrinking share of your overall marketing strategy. The question then becomes, “What fills that vacuum?”

Gift Marketing

Moore’s Law has resulted in bandwidth and storage costs that are becoming too cheap to meter. This enabled the Web 2.0 sites we’re all using today and led to the emergence of social networking. Consequently, we’re able to scale our peer groups and get increasing amounts of information and recommendations from trusted sources instead of advertisements and algorithms. The problem for marketers is that much of this takes place inside the walled gardens of Facebook. As the old saying goes, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

And so we have brands jumping into social media. However, one of the problems they’re grappling with is the juxtaposition of norms; economic versus social. They’re not used to this whole social thing and many of them are trying to transplant the old advertising models that were based on economic norms into the world of social networking.

Think of it this way…  You’re having a dinner party and invite some close friends. Your doorbell rings and it’s a smarmy, uninvited used car salesman. He lets himself in and starts denigrating the car in your driveway and listing all of the special deals they have. While this behavior may have been tolerated on his lot, it certainly doesn’t belong at a dinner party and you kick him out. Imagine, instead, your best friends call ahead of time and ask if they can bring this really cool guy who was great fun at their last barbecue. He shows up and in the course of normal conversation finds out you’re having trouble with your headlights. He takes a look and shows you how to adjust their alignment and fixes the problem. You find out later (from your friends, not him) that he works at a car dealership and you commit to visiting him when it comes time for you to upgrade your vehicle.

In this new trust economy, companies are going to have to start thinking much more in terms of social norms. Even though the name of the game is making money, they are going to have to follow a different set of rules than they’re used to following. The first rule of inbound marketing is creating compelling content that people want to share. The secret to creating this content is thinking of it as a gift.

Is repackaging your brochure into a blog post a gift? Not so much.
Is showing up unannounced polite? Definitely not.
Do gratuitous, insincere compliments build trust? Not exactly.

Search engine optimization is certainly not dead. But as Hans and Fanz said, “Hear me now und believe me later,” that giant sucking sound you hear in your marketing strategy is the vacuum being created as search shrinks. You need to be prepared to fill it with content marketing that focuses on building new customer relationships socially.

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I’ll be hosting a free “Introduction to Inbound Marketing” workshop at the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, September 21.  The event is free for Chamber Members.

Traditional marketing approaches like advertising, trade shows, direct mail, and cold calling are becoming increasingly less effective. Peoples’ attention spans are spread thinly across a wide array of media, making them harder to target and they are getting better at avoiding interruptive messages like commercials and sales calls. Outbound marketing is getting harder and more expensive.

Conversely, inbound marketing is an approach that uses the Internet to attract quality attention to your web site, generate leads, and convert them to customers. This workshop will introduce the five steps required to implement inbound marketing:

Manchester Chamber of Commerce members can register for the session from their Calendar of Events.

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It’s very difficult to “un-know” what we know.  This makes it really challenging to communicate effectively.  Sometimes is causes us to talk over the heads of our audience when we assume they posses knowledge they don’t.  Other times, it means we talk about things that are interesting to us but not necessarily our audience.  If this happens during a presentation, you’ll start to see heads nodding or (worst case) a mass exodus.

But if your web site is guilty of this, visitors will simply leave or (worst case) become annoyed enough to share their frustrations with others.  That’s why it’s important to understand why people are coming to your site and provide them with 1) the resources they’re looking for 2) in a way that makes it easy to find.  Reviewing your website analytics every day is one way to stay on top of traffic patterns and understand where people are going on your site.

If I’m not articulating my point well enough, maybe this infographic from xkcd will get the point across.

People go to the website because they can't wait for the next alumni magazine, right? What do you mean, you want a campus map? One of our students made one as a CS class project back in '01! You can click to zoom and everything!

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Weekly High Five lists the most interesting, compelling, and/or useful links of each week.

Weekly High Five lists the most interesting, compelling, and/or useful links of each week.  This week’s High Five deals with two ends of the social media marketing spectrum; fun and failure.

I wrote about the historic influence of games last October when I predicted that the future of software is Facebook.  There have been some major business moves involving big money this week, illustrating how pervasive entertainment is in the world of Internet marketing.  But games can get a little rough and like mom used to say, “It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt!”

#5: Disney About To Acquire Playdom

Disney is obviously the 800 pound gorilla of fun and games.  They tend to be a bit conservative as a company, so it’s not a shocker that they are a little late to the social space.  But any company with the brand power and balance sheet of Disney can make big moves quickly.  Their first major move was the acquisition of the children’s game site Club Penguin.  Establishing a stronger beach head in social gaming gives them more channels to keep their brands in kids’ faces.

Link: TechCrunch

#4: The Web Means the End of Forgetting

It is said that an elephant never forgets, but neither does the Internet.  Cautionary tales of moments in which relatively minor lapses in judgement are posted online and lead to long term personal and/or professional consequences continue to pile up.  What happens at the night club not longer necessarily stays at the night club thanks to ubiquitous smart phones and social media.  This New York Times article focuses on personal reputation, but obviously brands are no less vulnerable to an ill advised Tweet or boneheaded Facebook photo.

Link: The New York Times

#3: Will Zynga Become the Google of Games?

For all its hype and media coverage, Twitter has yet to turn a profit.  The creators of FarmVille and Mafia Wars, however, are on track to eclipse $500 million this year.  Yeah, that just happened.

Link: The New York Times

#2: Expert Notes Few Marketers Do Social Media Well

It’s no longer disputed that social media is (at the very least) the most important marketing game changer since television.  And so it’s natural for marketing companies to update their service offerings to say they can implement social media marketing.  The vast majority of them are ill-prepared and simply applying old techniques to a new technology.  Anyone can slap together a Facebook page and create a Twitter account, but how are they measuring success?  Is it integrated to an inbound marketing strategy?

Link: MediaPost

#1: Older Actors Upstage Youth at Comic-Con

You can always tell when an element of pop culture jumps the shark: the old fogies start showing up.  As Hollywood increasingly goes back to the future by recycling classic comic book stories for “new” films, purists inevitably balk and rebel.  Kind of like the changing demographics on Facebook, no?

Link: The New York Times

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