Tell those bitches! March 4, 2008
Posted by Ryan in : Markteting, Blogging, Music, MySpace, Public Relations, Friends , 8 commentsDon’t you love all those form letters you get about “We can get you to the top of search engines”, and “I’d like to buy text links from you”? I know I do, and I’m not alone…
My friend Marc, otherwise known as “marc with a c” to the music community of Orlando, has recently decided to let ‘em have it. He was contacted by a chain-lettering, canvassing, music rep from Hitt Music Group.
Here’s a sample of Marc’s reply from his MySpace blog:
You mean that THE Hitt Music Group is interested in me? Oh my God. Here I was thinking that MySpace was just A Place For Friends, but no… you really do make dreams come true.
Of course, you must be joking, right? This CANNOT be the same Hitt Music Group that brought us such unmitigated talents as Friday Night Gunfight and the Lords Of Conversation, can it?
OH MY GOD, I JUST CHECKED OUT YOUR WEBSITE. You guys TOTALLY are *that* Hitt Music Group.
One of the modern conveniences technology affords us - the ability to spam thousands of independent musicians on MySpace… yes!
This is good for a laugh, and probably an indicator that no matter how much transparency and genuineness gain value in the marketplace, there will always be a Hitt Music Group.
Cookie cutter PR is bad PR - but I’m no expert.
The Second Click and Lijit Search Wijits February 11, 2008
Posted by Ryan in : Tech, Site News, Blogging, Links, Video, Wikipedia, Trends, Liberatr, statistics, Public Relations, OrlandoScene, interface, Second Click, Web Services, Google , add a commentIf you haven’t noticed the lovely Lijit search wijit on the left sidebar here, please leave your feed reader and come check it out. This is a very interesting concept to me - they’re taking the Google Personalized Search tools and providing a very user-friendly (and statistical) interface to the tool. A mash-up with a business model? Amazing. I’ve also read on their blog that they’re going to start tracking comments on your sites as well and I suppose integrating that with the other statistics and search metrics you’re already getting. Good times.
Also on the Lijit blog, I read about a new coined phrase, or meme, or whatever - The Second Click.
At Lijit we know from watching reader behavior on our publishers’ sites that a huge percentage (33%-50%) of readers come from horizontal search…
We also know that the normal behavior of one of these readers is to read the article that Google referenced and then hit the back button. Reader gone, moment lost, second click wasted.
This is precisely why the Lijit Re-Search feature was added to the Lijit Search Wijit. When you have this feature turned on, Lijit hooks the reader into staying for a third click and beyond. Bottom line, you only get one click to keep to your readers around – do the most you can to mine that opportunity.
The easiest way to see this re-search capability in action is to perform a search. Search for “Second Click” - you should come right back to this article. Also, there’s a fun tag-cloud view of the most popular search terms. This really helps - according to my stats, I’ve had 173 re-searches in the last week, and I the fact that the commonly searched links are right there is responsible.
In the “real world”, the Second Click has been coming up because of an announcement by Google to compete with Wikipedia. In the fallout from this announcement, there was some speculation and dot-connecting going on specifically about “The Fight For The Second Click”.
Wikipedia is clearly dominating Second Click traffic right now. There are also plenty of folks chasing down second click property - social networks, Mahalo, review sites, anything with the word “social” in the description, really. We’ve certainly reached the point to start developing the second click strategy at Petentials. Even my two biggest and most sellable ideas right now are all about the second click, but that’s not how I would have characterized them until I knew about this meme.
It’s not enough to just have the blog anymore - I’ve made a point to actively attract second clicks on sites like OrlandoScene.TV (home page, also on posts) and Orlando Video (also see a post), for example. The “most recent” only really helps if you’re on the 11th or earlier post, but there’s a nice wordpress plugin called related posts I’ve installed all over the place. It requires one line of database massaging, but it’s easy and worth it. I’m not positive of how often it works, but as i have several blogs to track, throwing in some click-tracking would be very much worth it.
(side note) For Lijit, I’ve suggested that instead of most popular searches, they should have options for most recent or recently popular, and I think they’re rolling it out soon. Lijit’s customer relations are amazing. I was personally greeted by Kevin Hawkins, who actually took a few minutes to read my blog and personalise my welcome letter. This was a huge ego boost, especially from a blogger’s perspective. I’m always saying - simply acknowledging someone’s work is the biggest compliment you can pay a media producer.
Orlando Travel & Visitors Bureau Knows Podcasting? October 11, 2007
Posted by Ryan in : Tech, Markteting, Orlando, Links, Quotes, Video, Reviews, Trends, Travel, Web Sites, Public Relations, OrlandoScene , 5 commentsNo, they don’t. Honestly, this thing doesn’t even deserve any Google juice I might be inadvertently throwing at them by linking to them. Orlando Travel & Visitors Bureau - Orlando Florida Vacation - Podcasts
After checking out what they had to offer (I listened to one episode out of 3), I sent this email through their ONE contact form - no comments, no email addresses, just this dinky little form where you type a subject line, your email and a very small message box. I think it’s designed that way so you feel insignificant and to give you the feeling that nobody will ever read or respond to your message. If it’s not, you should work on that, guys.
Here’s my first message:
This is not a podcast. Your RSS feed doesn’t work. The first and only requirement of a podcast is the ability to SUBSCRIBE to it. Also, any podcast with a transcript defeats the point of it being audio or video. Give them bullet points and links to rich media or other guides (particularly those written by local bloggers, newspapers, etc.)
I’ve been participating in podcasting for 2 years now, and I’d love to talk to someone from TVB about the production and release of these.
A huge point is the difference in production and sound quality between your intro/exit and the rest of the show - I realise you guys must have paid some money for that Orlando theme song, but it doesn’t get me excited about taking a vacation.
If you want to talk, come down to the Crooked Bayou on Monday the 15th for Florida Creatives Happy Hour. There you will meet a group of passionate independent people who really love this town and all it has to offer. A number of us have our own podcasts, blogs, and videoblogs and we have great conversations about what’s happening in Orlando right now. Your podcast is almost 2 years old now - has Orlando stayed the same in the last 2 years? Really.
I would very much like to interview someone from your office for my video podcast, OrlandoScene.TV - if we can arrange something like this, give me a call or email.
P.S. That comment about transcripts was mostly a heat-of-the-moment statement. My commenters have let me know that transcripts can be useful, but I think in this case they still didn’t have any forethought applied to them.
Then I watched the video they had available, which was produced a whole year after the first two episodes, thinking maybe they learned something… they didn’t. Here’s my second message:
I’m now watching the video you made, and this is so clearly scripted, but the interviewer is on a phone line for some reason, and she keeps saying “um” while she looks at her script. If you’re going to create an audio brochure and not provide an RSS feed, don’t call it a podcast.
A HUGE point I have here - where is the feedback channel? if I want to ask a question about a podcast I just listened to or watched, I have to use this contact form. For all I know there is a person in India reading all of these. What’s the deal with that? Give us some space to comment and discuss what we just saw. You’ll be amazed when you see the visitors to your site actually coming back to check the comments.
I don’t care if they never contact me. This whole experience does not assume any intelligence on the part of the person doing the “Vacation Planning”. If they’re thinking about it before they go, give them a little credit. The entire podcast is just a brochure for their OrlandoInfo.com website and nothing else. Really. I know I said that already, but it’s so true.
If you’re reading this and you’d like to produce something real, email me - rprice AT ryanpricemedia DOT com and we’ll show these jokers what it means to podcast.
Fringe Discussion Drama June 12, 2007
Posted by Ryan in : Tech, Site News, Blogging, Podcasts, Orlando, Music, Links, Quotes, Events, Video, Reviews, Trends, Fringe, Liberatr, Web Sites, Contributors, Public Relations , add a commentMichael Black, a blogger/webmaster with over a decade of history writing about Montreal Fringe online has decided to lay a verbal smackdown on us at BloggingFringe.com - and I respond in a big way.
Please go read and comment yourself, but for bulletin’s sake, here’s part I of the transcript:
Read and reply on the original post
Caling out Vocus PR June 7, 2007
Posted by Ryan in : Tech, Site News, Blogging, Links, Fringe, Web Sites, statistics, Public Relations , add a commentHello Vocus, On-Demand Software for Public Relations and Government Relations, who are you? You guys have me on some sort of an internal news reader or some such, because I keep getting hits from your site! I don’t want to be removed, I’d just like to know who my admirer is so I can shake their hand (physically or virtually). It always seems to be something to do with Fringe, so a Fringe fan, perhaps?
Hello? Anybody home?
Love ya, mean it!
