Social Media Training in Cornwall

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I’ve been asked by a few local businesses to put on some kind of social media training and I’m going to test the water for such an event. If you are interested, subscribe to the newsletter opposite and I will let you know when it happens.

Getting savvy social media training in Cornwall is a bit tricky for a number of reasons: It’s a peninsular, meaning it’s long and thin and does not have a large catchment area, and it’s a long way away from large population centres and so economics of scale are not there.

Not that there isn’t a need, there is. But, it’s all about making the event worthwhile. In the past I have presented training seminars at online marketing conferences in London where the concentration of people interested make it worth doing. Also, large companies have brought me in to personally coach employees in the art of social media marketing.

Having been involved in social media marketing for about five years now, although it really depends how you define social media, I’ve built up quite a lot of real experience and consulting with some of the biggest companies and brands in the land I have been able to see how business implements social media. Mostly they get it wrong, in fact only a tiny percentage get it right. And when I say get it right I mean it adds to their bottom line.

So, I’m dipping my toe in the water and I will access the feedback. In the meantime, sign up to the newsletter and I will keep you informed

How much will it cost? It’s going to be attractive to small businesses in Cornwall, so it wont be the usual fee of around £200 per person.
When will it be? Probably in the Autumn.
Where will it be? Possibly Truro, or a nice beachside cafe that turns out a tasty burger.

For those of you who are not residents of Cornwall (you don’t know what you are missing) I may take the show on the road and hold the seminar/presentation/workshop around the UK.

Will Google +1 Result in the End of Small Business Online?

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It’s very simple.

Either Google +1 will affect the search engine results or it will not.

What if it does?

Will the frenetic dash that Digital Media Agencies mean that they then resell their networks to Corporate big gits to help crush the small independent, just as they have on the high street?

A little emotive perhaps.

But what does Google say?

When your ad is shared, Google notes its final landing page URL. When the same URL appears in an organic search listing, the organic listing will include the same personal annotations as would an ad.

Similarly, if a user +1’s one of your organic listings, ads with the same final landing page URL will include the same personal annotations, increasing the chance of your ads getting noticed.

+1’s (whatever their source — organic search, ads, or +1 buttons on publisher sites) is a signal that affects organic search ranking, but +1’s do not change quality scores for ads and ad ranking

How will the +1 button affect my organic search listings?

I had to read it a few times before it sunk in.

Rankings are not going to be affected. It’s just that some hairy seo/social-media-manipulator is going to have their mug next to the search results. As long as you are logged into Google and you circle/follow/adore the hairy seo/social-media-manipulator who has taken the valuable seconds of his existence to +1 it.

My point is this. Is the potential buyer of a cordless power drill, when searching for a Makita 18v going to see and then be influenced by the hairy seo/social-media-manipulator? Or is it going to only other hairy seo/social-media-manipulators who see the results.

I think the latter.

As a commercial persuasion proposition, the Google +1 button will be mostly worthless. The majority of the human effort going into the +1 will stay in the goldfish bowl which the hairy seo/social-media-manipulator lives.

Sometimes the hairy seo/social-media-manipulator does stuff not because it’s going to be of great benefit to the client, but because they have something to sell and the I-don’t-want-to-be-left-behind part of the brain gets excited.

People mistake influence in the hairy seo/social-media-manipulator bubble with an increase in wealth.

I’m not anti social media/social signals/crowd sourcing etc. far from it. But, most of what you hear about it these days is garbage, people need to sell books, fill conferences and get endorsed by the latest over invested fad and so desire has to be created.

It’s as if a food is being sold to hungry people which only increases their hunger.

Stop eating the empty calories.

More like this:
+ 1 button marketing

Great WordPress Plugin of the Day

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I found this plugin a while back, it’s called the CBnet Plugin optimizer

What is does is make sure you don’t spam by pinging to much. I add a whole list of ping services to my WordPress blogs and have to make sure when uploading a bunch of posts that the services don’t get too much ping action which leads to a black.

So, I am making CBnet Plugin optimizer plugin of the day.

You really want to have this installed on all your blogs.

A Healthy Disregard for the Impossible

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Larry Page is quoted as saying, “the only true failure was not attempting the audacious.” “Even if you fail at your ambitious thing, it’s very hard to fail completely.”

I’m reading, In The Plex, How Google think, works, and shapes our lives. By Steven Levy, (I bought it on the sofa whilst watching Formula One on TV, I love my Kindle)

It strikes me odd, that on this blog – which is sometimes about how to get your website ranked in Google – that we don’t talk about the architects of the system.

Looking around it seems that most other SEO blogs do the same. One reason for this may be the sparse nature of the information about them. We mostly listen to someone who goes by the name of Matt Cutts.

But listening to the thought process and motivation of the guys who actually built the thing may help in understanding how the thing works.

After all, if you try to study the algorithm, it makes sense to study those who created the algorithm.

Indeed, it makes perfect sense to “think like an engineer“, something I now have on my wall after listening to an Ed Dale Video.

Not only think like an engineer, but get into the mindset of someone driven to an end goal that is the incredible.

And so I would say, In The Plex is mandatory reading for anyone working in SEO. If you work at an seo agency, tell the fancy car driving boss that everyone in the company should be bought a copy of the book.

If they turn to you and ask, “what’s the book about?” You should probably consider jumping ship as it can get kinda mind numbing working for the unenlightened.

I’m buying all my link building team a copy.

(it’s all tax deductible against training anyway, duh)