Top Internet Strategy, Marketing & Technology Links – Jan 14, 2010

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The U.S. IT market will grow by 6.6% as high-tech spending rebounds in 2010, according to Forrester Research’s latest estimates. – Forrester: Tech Downturn ‘Unofficially Over’ (CIO)

The news is good to hear. Interestingly enough, any news or information about the state of the economy is popular in terms of people wanting to hear about it.

While going through the comments on the How to Get Followed on Twitter |Twitter 101 article, a reader posted an interesting question. She asked me if there was a way to get feedback on Twitter. As per her comment, there were occasions where she posted a question and non of her followers gave her any feedback and I believe it has already happened a lot of times. – How to: Get Feedback on Twitter (BitRebels)

You may have a decent amount of followers, but when you ask a question, no one answers. What’s going on? Well, like any relationship, it takes time for people to be comfortable with who you are. You need to work on building relationships with your followers (and those you follow). Once you’ve had some conversations with people, they’ll be more likely to offer you answers and feedback.

Google, earlier today made a bold decision — it stopped censoring results on Google.cn, its Chinese destination. The decision, was a direct consequence of a sophisticated attack on its infrastructure as attempts were made to penetrate Gmail accounts of human rights activists. This will most certainly get the company banned from China and it is going to cost it hundreds of millions of dollars. – How Much Will It Cost Google to Exit China? (GigaOM)

NPR covered this story today as well. One point they made is that pulling out of China is unlikely to stop attacks on them. It looks like specific gmail accounts were targeted who were human rights activists. It’s unlikely that people will stop using gmail accounts just because Google pulls out of China. What is interesting is whether Google is taking a stand for human rights – as well as how much not pulling out of China might cost them.

By now, you probably already know that I love discussing landing pages. From landing page design to the copy, every facet of the process is fascinating to me. In the past, I’ve offered tips for improving conversion rate, and today, I’m going to add to that list. – Yet Another Post on Increasing Your Landing Page Conversion Rate (SEO Hosting)

Landing pages are key to most advertising strategies (so you can measure how well they’re working and also so you market appropriately to whoever you’re targeting). Getting a landing page right can make quite a difference in conversions and sales. While many businesses will use Google AdWords to send traffic to their site, fewer will send those people to a landing page targeted to the same keywords and message as the ad. Just sending people to your homepage is really a waste of advertising money – you’re expecting people to figure out what you want to sell them and then buy it. Landing pages allow you to put all the information for a sale on the page where they come into your site.

While many social media consultants like to sing Kum Bay Ya over the ways the web Democratizes everything from content to business processes, there’s a side effect that’s difficult to ignore when everyone shows up: crap content and crap sites. Some might even argue that so much crowdsourcing paves a straight path to mediocrity, but that’s another post altogether. – The Ugly Side of Social Media Part 2: Crap (Shannon Paul)

The easier it is to use a technology, the more crap that accumulates around the diamonds. People figure out how to use the technology for their own ends (remember when you used to have to avoid answering the phone around dinner time because it was going to be an automated machine with a marketing message?) Shannon has a nice post about all the crap that may be floating around your measurement of social media. There may be times when your brand or product is getting mentions – but from sites or methods that are crap. Shannon has a good explanation of the different types of crap and what you should look for to see if a mention is good or crap.

What do you think? How are these stories important to you?

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