blog Tag

The Olympics & Social Media

We are one day away from the start of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver.  And although social media has been around for a few years, this will be the most Tweeted, Facebooked, YouTubed Olympic games ever.

Soon we could see well-known American speedskater Apollo Ohno or skier Lindsey Vonn breaking world records.  Both athletes have Twitter accounts that they actually run themselves.  However there is a bit of confusion on if the athletes will be able to tweet or use any social media for that matter.  (more…)

Even The Pope Knows To Blog

I think, no matter your religion, if Pope Benedict XVI says something important, everyone listens.  Over the weekend And the 82 year old shockingly sent out a message to most specifically Catholic priests over the weekend saying they must no longer just have a website sharing the word of God, but they also need to blog and use social media. 

A few years ago, the 265th Pope of the Catholic Church started to embrass social media with his own YouTube channel, and most recently released both a Facebook and iPhone app.  (more…)

The Most Tweeted Words of 2009

This has been quite the year for Twitter.  Becoming the most popular word of the year, according to the Global Language Monitor, and even a source for breaking news, Twitter is just getting started.  

It’s hard to imagine Twitter without a checking out the current trending topics, but the feature was just released in April along with the Twitter search tool, allowing you to type a certain word or phrase and tweets with those keywords will appear.  Using the trending topics has become a great way to stay up-to-date in pop culture, and news headlines from around the world.  In fact, many Twitter users found out that Michael Jackson had died about 45 minutes before those watching the developments on television.  Twitter was also great to watch during the American Idol finale, as it was the first time American Idol winner, Kris Allen, took the top spot beating out Adam Lambert, who was the number one trending topic every week until that night.  As we near 2010, Twitter has decided to take a look at some of the most interesting trending topics of the year.  (more…)

17% of Facebook Users Use Facebook Connect

Facebook seems to have yet another statistic which will amaze us once again.  Last week on December 4, Facebook’s feature, Facebook Connect celebrated its one year anniversary since joining the site.  Late Wednesday, the company announced some pretty amazing statistics.

“Today, we are celebrating the first anniversary of Facebook Connect from the LeWeb conference in France,” said Ethan Beard, director of the Facebook Developer Network. “Facebook Connect is now available on more than 80,000 websites, and more than 60 million people are using the service to connect with their friends everywhere.” (more…)

Blogging Drives 55 Percent More Traffic to Sites

Blogging on your company website could help you bring in more traffic. At least that’s what HubSpot is saying after a recent survey. The company sampled 1,531 HubSpot customers, most of which were small- to mid-sized businesses.  Roughly 52 percent, or 795 businesses, had blogs on their sites, while the remaining 736 did not. 

The study shows that companies with blogs received 55 percent more traffic than with those without. If you are wondering why it is so important to have more visitors to your site, HubSpot says it’s “because more visitors mean more people to convert to leads and sales.” (more…)

Social Media The New Search Engine?

It seems that social media sites have become a search engine of sorts. A recent report released by the Nielsen Group has search engines such as Google, wondering if their days maybe coming to an end. However search engines are still the favorite option when it comes to searching at 37 percent, but social media sites are climbing up the chart. 

Jon Gibs, VP Media Analytics for Nielsen, said, “roughly 18 percent of users see [social media] as core to finding new information. While still a smaller percentage than those who use search engines or portals like Yahoo! or MSN, it is a significant figure. And as social media usage continues to increase, I can only expect this figure to grow.” (more…)

Worst Blog Offenders

Blogs have finally reached that point where they are practically a staple in our daily internet cruising. With such diversity available, blogs end up serving many different purposes. Whether you’re surfing the extensive repertoire of blogs for fashion, celebrity gossip, sports, or metaphysical enlightenment, the basic goal of any good blog is to inform and entertain.

But with blogs being free and easy to set up, there are sure to be many that fail to meet this simple goal. Today we salute some of the most atrociously awful blogs. In fact, these blogs don’t just fail—they represent the absolute dregs of the blogosphere.

Worst Marketing Blog

Jack in the Box has always had slightly different advertising tactics (why exactly is their mascot a half man/half antenna ball, and why isn’t that feat of genetic science being studied?) But their blog takes the talking car accessory a bit too seriously. In fact, this forum is supposed to be the official MySpace page of one “Jack Box.” Displaying fabricated interests, place of birth, and children (you guessed it, Jack Jr.), I can’t help but feeling bad for the intern who had to spend an afternoon coming up with these inane pieces of fake trivia.
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Stop (Blogging), In the Name of the Law

In the world of printed writing, there are many established laws concerning what can and can’t be done. The boundaries are generally clear, and these laws are widely known by those who take up a pen. But once those written blurbs move online, the law becomes a little bit fuzzier. Just ask Stephen Hogge, owner and operator of the blog HogOnIce.com.

Hogge found himself the center of a sticky legal situation after posting a blog that labeled an (allegedly) ex-girlfriend “a mentally ill alcoholic prostitute.” Apparently them’s more than fightin’ words. Them’s grounds for a lawsuit.

The woman in question, California resident Fatima dos Santos Fahmy, took issue with the maligning remarks. A graduate of Miami School of Law, Fahmy hauled Hogge into court. But the question quickly presented itself—where does one file a lawsuit of this kind?
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Learning From Blog Predecessors

If you’re looking to start a successful blog, you might find yourself a bit discouraged. Confronted with so many established blogs, an internet presence can seem like a difficult thing to establish among such stiff competition.

But before you get too down on yourself, let’s remember that there are a lot of ways to gauge the success of a blog. You can label yourself a success when you’ve secured an impressive list of subscriptions, a healthy amount of inlinks, or perhaps even the ability to follow trends within your niche topic.

Whatever benchmark you’re using to gauge success, don’t forget that every established blog has piggybacked and improved upon the blogs that have come before. With that in mind, here are a few tips and pointers to glean from trends among today’s most successful blogs.
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Blogging Killed the Newspaper Star

In 1979, the Buggles informed the world that video killed the radio star. Now, the question facing our generation is whether blogging will kill the newspaper star. As the catchy pop song taught us, the golden age of technology past is inevitably swept away for the glitz and glamour of the new.

In terms of print newspapers, this is beginning to ring eerily true. Even some of the most established newspaper conglomerates aren’t immune to the effects of online news sources. The New York Times, for example, has experienced a series of layoffs, increased prices at the newsstand, decreased readership, and stock market woes.
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