Image by HOY! SUSHI via Flickr
I find content often boring and frankly misleading. Often dis-informing. The fun is discovering the process. Jumping into a marketers campaign can be fun and often more useful that the "how to" product they are selling.
In our world today what is, is not so real as what the underlying process is. To quote and ex-President, "It all depends on what the meaning of is, is".
We all follow content. All of the below news topics are meant to focus attention somewhere. I want to know the answer to where? and why?:
- Google vows to clean up spam from their SERPS and thus penalizes J.C Penny, and Overstock.
- Facebook has 500,000 users.
- Charlie Sheen is Bi Polar.
- Lady Gaga Arrives in an Egg to the Grammys.
- Kim Kardashian dates another athlete. Reggie is pissed!
In the political arena, often what is going on behind the scenes reveal the agenda.
- The President will not defend the Marriage Act.
- In the 1990's President Clinton was being investigated about the Monica Lewinski scandal. In the middle of the investigation he gave a speech very similar to the one GW Bush gave a few years later on the dangers of Iraq. He then bombed an aspirin factory.
Now, if any of these invoked an emotion in you - negative or positive-then you can instantly recognize the potency of their ability to get the masses attention. Advertising 101. Attention Interest Desire Action (AIDA).
Let's tackle these one at a time.
Fear Spreads Memes
Google: I call the process they are invoking Googleganda. You will recall that they first accused Bing of scraping their results. (God forbid a scraper which is what a search engine does, actually scrapes). Then they penalized JC Penny and Overstock. Both stories went out through the proper PR channels and then through the final spokesman for Google talk, Matt Cutts.
Now that was the short version of the content. In reality this is a familiar story that has repeated itself over the years. Punish a big known site like Mercedes Benz of a few years ago. Then magically their results returned about a month or two later. I imagine a few lawyers were involved.
This was most likely done not by their algo, but by hand. Otherwise, how do they or we know it was those two sites? That just so happen to be well known name brands?
Sure their is something going on. But the target is really Facebook. Google has managed to steal away a months worth of internet talk focused on Google.
The result is fear behavior. Which often leads to irrational behavior.
From an email that is similar to many other emails I have received from vendors looking to piggy back the headlines to induce fear not just for Google. But also that they know the way to doing it right.
Google has just shaken up the U.S. with what may be the BIGGEST update in the past ever. ..Some of the most popular sites have lost 35% of their traffic literally in 48 hours. ....it's way deeper than that as my investigation reveals."
Man I gotta read it! And then the author goes onto reveal the same stuff he would have said a year ago. Folks good SEO is good SEO.
And the truth gets lost in the details because we remember the headlines. And the truth gets sullied as it spreads much like a story gets changed in the child's game "whisper down the lane".
Google says 12% of their SERPS have changed
Of course the implication of this headline is whatever you want it to mean. And that is the point. 12% of what? 12% of the crappy sites? Good sites? Will you define a crappy site? The answer is no they won't and theirein is the reason this game can continue. Sort of like a good conspiracy theory.
The Government will always keep most of the 9/11 disaster a secret. Leaving the theorists to come up with any cockamamy answer to the story they want.
Any good search engine optimizer worth her salt knows that if serps have changed to not panic. And wait it out a bit to systematically implement needed changes. So hang in there if you have seen a shift. Never throw the baby out with the bath water. What happened may not be because of a Google change but a change you made at some point near the shift.
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Facebook: Facebook having 500,000 members is interesting. I like to dig deeper though.Is this from Facebook? OK fine. But if I may just play devils advocate for a moment:
- How many are aliases?
- How many are active?
- How many are really active?
According to the company :"50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day."
And this brings me to headlines. Twitter is a great metaphor for our news and information consumption. We read in headlines. Often, skipping the details where of course the devil lives.
As in misinterpretation and dare I say outright disinformation. Purposeful or not as it spreads across the web. So is logging in the same as active? I have been logged on since the last time I rebooted my computer about three days ago. That does not mean I am active.
So give this the B.S. test and go see how many of your own "friends" have posted anything in the last day. Maybe its true maybe its not. But do not go build a business around that statement until you check it yourself.
On the link above Facebook say that 200, 000 users are on cellphones. I heard a higher number from other sources. So perhaps this is more of the whisper down the lane effect. But what is useful is that these mobil users are the most active.
In any of these scenarios I am not here to influence you to judge the efficacy of Facebook or Google, or to love or hate Charlie or Kim. I am just adding some process, some behind the scenes texture to perhaps to appreciate the real story and the real reason for the story.
A Reality TV Nation
.......................Bi-Polar is Good For Business
Charlie Sheen: One of the great publicity ploys is to piggy back stories. You might have heard it put another way. That is to enter into the conversation already going on in your prospects mind. When I did the Lady Gaga publicity piece. My traffic from the social media skyrocketed.
So the media is letting Sheen onto their court to plead his case. While they also then bring on analysts, therapists, "experts" to say why Charlie is a train wreck. (the piece no one is stating is that he has always been a train wreck.
We cannot get enough. Yet, saying the real truth is not at all salacious enough for a culture that breathes and lives for the sensual. The dramatic and the erratic. All making Stings 80's satirical mockery of our pop culture, "I want my MTV" almost comical in its criticism by today's standards.
We Know How The Story Ends
If I may play Dr. Phil for a sentence or two, Sheen is actually a poster child of how not to raise a child. When, a human being goes almost 50 years doing what he wants, how he wants, allegedly hurting anyone and any "her" in his path with nothing but a mere hand slap by society. Narcissism is pretty much guaranteed. Charlie's life has been one long party with strippers. Interrupted only by the need to finance the festivities and an occasional scolding by a judge or two.
The man is simply bored as he said Friday night on CNN and in my opinion he is enjoying messing with everyone. He gets to be the center of attention more so than ever. At worst he will have a Tiger Woods moment of contrition followed by a sweet contract.
The Media, their so called therapists and analysts are all profiting off Charlie, playing a perfect piggyback. (as I am by the way).
As they say all publicity is good publicity. In the Back Room I have some of Charlies numbers now that he is "Bi Polar".
If you have ever watched Celebrity Rehab. Realize that there is a reason some of these "names" have agreed to come onto the show. They aren't going there because Dr. Drew is the best. Even though maybe he could be. They are there for the publicity.
Politics and the Art of Distraction:
Often times the politician is like the magician. Look here as my other hand is really where the slight of hand action occurs.
Currently the President is overseeing dismal employment numbers and economic growth. Not to mention a major mess overseas in Libya et al. When it came time for him to uphold the marriage act he did not. Many would say this is unconstitutional. This is the kind of stuff that pisses off the Right. Which is the point.
Why do I know that? Because the President is not defending an agenda or policy. Which is what you would do if you object to the law. Instead he is merely sitting idle. So the Right Wing is now taking action to keep the law in action, meanwhile forcing them to take the ball off of their main agenda the economy and cost cutting. The President has effectively changed the conversation.
So I think I have covered plenty situations here. The point is to not buy into spin. And then to understand what you have learned here, and how it might help you in your SEO, your marketing and social media.
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