Website Building Biz

Does every business and brand need its own army of social media profiles and Twitter accounts? They sure seem to think so!

Social media can be a powerful way to promote a popular product, but if that product is no good it is an advertising strategy that is likely to backfire in a big way.

If you thought that being outed as a marketer would be enough of a conflicting interest to cause moderators to be banned or at least demoted, then you’re wrong! Despite the backlash and fallout, Reddit’s most infamous mod is still trying to use her authority position to promote links and ban complaints. Does it all work out in the end? Of course not!

Taking on a powerful moderation position in a popular social website might seem like a dream gig for an online marketer, but the consequences of such conflicting interests can also backfire in a really crushing way.

Is Identi.ca the superior micro-blogging service? For web publishers, I would say the answer is a resounding yes.

The internet’s social media sphere is moving fast, and there’s no way you can realistically keep up with the sheer volume of links and content fighting for space on the front pages. There are though, some other ways to make sure that your contributions are still visible to people and search engines.

The rise of new media will not be without problems and obstacles – from logistical and financial concerns to deliberate road blocks in the way of a social mode of sharing information, the future of journalism is far from clear-cut.

Google SideWiki has been hailed as everything from a revolutionary approach to web democracy or an evil scheme to maximize pageviews. In reality, its a bunch of noise and nearly useless comments that doesn’t seem to attract much activity.

Digg’s latest move to make upcoming story links set to “nofollow” won’t do much to address the problems with the site. It certainly hasn’t done anything to improve the quality of upcoming links… Instead, the front page is controlled by a few users and a few domains – and if you happen to become popular with submissions from outside of the white listed sites you may be at risk for a ban.

Digg is trying to fight spam the laziest way ever invented – by slapping a nofollow attribute on all upcoming stories, profile pages, and comment links. In the meantime, they will continue to frame your content and encourage users to link toward the framed version of your website.

Content writers have increasingly threatened legal action against aggregators, and nofollow is a significant part of the widening rift. How does a legitimate social bookmarking site differ from a content scraping system? How is the traffic faring for those who balance the interests of content writers versus those who don’t?

Not all promotion strategies work for every type of website – for example, niche marketing and social media don’t tend to get along in the long run.

I mentioned in the last post about Digg’s adventures in content framing, and specifically about how these changes were affecting search engine indexing. After just a few weeks of publisher outrage, Digg finds a way to keep their frame while keeping publishers placated.

Digg goes beyond link sharing to outright content theft. Will the new toolbar help generate revenue or alienate users and force publishers to get their pitchforks out? I vote for pitchforks!

Twitter Enters the eternal September – even CNN is talking about it. Can you get more mainstream than that? There is an odd relationship between early adoption and mainstream online services, and the tension there helps promote the evolution of the internet.

First Furl, now SezWho – I got this email last night and I’m going to share it here..

Furl bites the dust and is absorbed whole by Diigo – a once rival social bookmarking community. What does this mean for webmasters – how do the two compare in terms of SEO? Is the fate of Furl soon to follow other social media sites – especially ones for bookmarking?

When you’ve got some interesting content on your site, you’re going to want to promote it. One of the most effective ways to do so is to submit your link to a social bookmarking site – but be careful, you could be shouted out of the room if you bring nothing to the conversation other than self-promotion.

Web directories are obsolete, and they have been replaced by the social bookmarking site. Bookmarking provides value to surfers and democratic quality signals for the search engines that directories just don’t deliver

Social Media Rockstar has an interesting post that could cause any blogger a moment of introspection. Are you an internet rockstar? A self-absorbed narcissist? I realized I’m more like a small gas station owner on the side of the information super-highway, and maybe this isn’t such a bad place to be..

A history of media from mass media to the internet era. Insights into the nature of modern social media in the context of internet technology and improvements in the means of communication and broadcasting.