People judge books by the cover, and other people by their looks.

Take a look at these two men:

Now answer these questions (you can’t choose “neither”):

• Which one would you rather ask investment advice from?
• Which one would you rather have babysit your children?
• Which one would you rather have cook your dinner?

… and so on. You don’t know anything about these men. Yet you make assumptions and can even take decisions based on their looks.

What does that have to do with your blog? Everything! – Principles of Effective Blog Design

The value of a website or blog, or any other business for that matter, is derived from its earnings or free cash flows before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization—a term referred to as EBITDA in the professional sector.

Therefore a web property’s value is predicated on its earnings, multiplied by a factor X called an earnings multiplier that is derived from similar transactions in the recent past. 

For example, if a similar blog sold for four times its earnings couple months ago, there is a good chance you can count on a similar multiple when putting a value on your web property.

The best way to boost value

If valuations are based on earnings, it is obvious that earnings must increase if the value of your web property is to increase. Many online entrepreneurs take their time growing their web property organically, often on their own due to funding restrictions. – A Practical Strategy to Increase the Value of Your Blog

Social media go hand in hand with public relations and marketing. Teams in both areas need to be closely aligned to help ensure success and avoid costly missteps. How does a chief marketing officer go about generating smooth interplay between these two groups? Below are three steps to keep in mind:

Find a social-media “point person” and cultivate that person’s reach and influence so it extends to both the marketing and public-relations teams.

This individual is typically an employee in the marketing or public-relations team who really understands the company and the business. A good example is Ford’s social-media maven, Scott Monty, who created a robust social-media presence for Ford by giving the brand a personality and engaging with users.

How do you find a point person? First, look around — do you have a marketing rock star with an interest in social media who knows your business and, more importantly, can talk about it? If so, give that person the proper training to assume this role. It’s easier to teach an insider about social media than it is to teach a new employee the nuances of your business. Look at your investment in social media as a long-term marketing commitment and not something you want to use as a transition to other resources. – Three Ways to Maximize Return on Your Investment in Social Media

A growing number of companies talk about the benefits of adopting web 2.0 tools inside the organization, but the list is short for companies that are using them for increased business results.

Unisys, the 138-year old tech firm, has quickly made “going social” part of its culture. Here’s how they did it, and how they’re using social media tools to become more agile, to share knowledge, and to increase the speed of innovation.

One of the biggest barriers to social collaboration is a disconnect between aspirations to become collaborative and the reality of being a closed organization. Unisys CEO Ed Coleman addressed this through leading by example. He became an early adopter of social computing tools to communicate with employees, and in the process became a role model for adoption among his senior executive team, as well as the employee population. – Increase Your Company’s Productivity With Social Media

Changing the world, one person at a time. I first heard this expression back in the eighties as the tagline for Apple Computers. Since then, it’s been borrowed my thousands of causes and brands. It’s that good.

But still, people are appealing to market segments, stakeholders and other big-box groups. Bloggers are often advised to know their niches. Though smaller, a niche is still an impersonal group.

Flip your model

If you’re not getting the results you deserve, try flipping your relationship model from many to one. After all, that’s how you make friends.

This individual should be the person you most want to connect with. Not your happy fans, customers or followers, nor the people whose minds are firmly shut to you. Pick the people who are sitting on the fence, just waiting for a gentle push to your side. – How the Power of One Can Take Your Blog to Many

Here are the top Internet strategy, marketing and technology links for the week of September 25, 2011… [Read more...]

There’s been a lot of kafuffle (yes, kafuffle) about Facebook’s new changes that rolled in this week. At least on my own news feed, there was a lot of hostility on view and many complained about how Facebook has been ruined and that it’ll never be the same again.

This happens all the time any sort of change is made, I’m not entirely sure why everyone is so resistant to it but it’s reached the point where this reaction is as routine as the changes that occur with any social media site. So much so that it can be easily summarised through the Kübler-Ross model which breaks up the process into five easy steps.

Denial

Catching wind that Facebook (or any social media site that even dares to make any kind of change) normally results in a ‘why are they doing this?’ reaction. The changes that come under scrutiny includes the status bar, Facebook chat, that news ticker up at the top right hand corner, the actual news feed, how photos are presented and so on and so forth.

Each new change is branded the worst idea ever and signals the moment Facebook destroys everything and becomes an abysmal failure. It’d never happen and if Facebook are listening, they wouldn’t be stupid enough to alienate its userbase and actually introduce these changes, would they? – How People React to Changes In Social Media; the Five Stages