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I often spend my days battling against machines, and unfortunately not in a cool John Connor v Terminator way. No, my battle is more a battle of the mind as apposed to big things exploding in the background whilst I drive off on a Harley spouting witty one liners under my breath. Having software designed to uncover specific triggers in the vast world of the Internet usually puts me into competitive mode. Determined that I can find exactly the same things the software can I'll pit myself in a one V one contest to see who can find relevant material first. In a rather depressing twist, this morning I realised I was in a race I can simply never win. My defeat was confirmed by an innocent looking article in a local paper I was scanning for news. I was put off the story by it's title, it's opening paragraph and the companies involved in the piece (so not a great looking item really). Shortly after I discovered that the automated software had picked the story up. Ready to gloat in it's face triumphantly it was then I realised that right in the middle of the article, completely unrelated to anything proceeding it, was a sales trigger for the particular company in question. Automation is not put off by hunches. It is not distracted by irrelevances. It effortlessly seeks out exactly what it's looking for no matter the circumstance. I hear people say with automation you risk missing things. In fact, it is completely the opposite scenario.
Saw a great quote from salesforce.com spokesperson Bruce Francis on crmbuyer.com the other day referring to what businesses are looking to get out of the social media buzz (can I call it that now without sounding to Google messing up personal info specific?).Francis said that "Enterprises aren't looking for more internal social networking, they're looking (for) smarter ways to be more productive and stay on top of the overload of information that is out there," and he is absolutely spot on. The business priority is to improve the business, of course it is. Make no mistake, the ability to speed up internal communication is important but only because of the necessity to improve speed-to-contact in the sales process (A recent MIT study found that leads contacted in five minutes convert 22x more often than after 30 minutes.) So the key is finding ways to stay ahead of the game. If that involves using social media techniques to speed up the process, then so be it.
Being an Internet Researcher means spending a lot of time on the Internet (unless you're a really bad Internet researcher)... For the reasons of SEO, you stumble across a lot of 'top 5 ways to...' articles - in fact I'm fairly sure I've had a couple on this very blog - and being in the sales field I often read over columns that start with 'top 5 sales tips' or 'best ways to make a successful sale' etc etc. But when you read over them it becomes very clear that were it not for search engine optimization there would only ever be one tip. *Solve a problem that needs solving*. Your prospective client is probably not looking to improve their sales targets if they work in finance. Likewise a sales person probably doesn't want a tool that simplifies spread sheets. With all the information that is publicly available now, mixed with the semantic technologies and platforms allowing you to filter and sort this data, there should never be the need to call on a whim and plug the benefits of your product. With your sales trigger ready to roll at exactly the right time there is simply no need. So, whilst this may not be SEO popular, here is my 'top 1 sales tip':1) Monitor your market so you can call when the time is right.
A recent survey has revealed that there are far too many daily surveys to keep track of new surveys. But here's a good one that may not come as huge surprise to some. According to research conducted by Cision and Don Bates of The George Washington University 89% of journalists now source stories from social media. That probably isn't the best of news for journalists really who are increasingly worried about user generated content but it's certainly interesting from a semantic web point of view. It proves that those hunting for news no longer really need to rely on print media, or even online publishers. It's the blogs, the tweets and the social updates that are the direct source of information. Yes, the publications are still useful to an extent. In a massive reverse they are now the ones that evaluate and analyse the the content (ironically what social media was designed for in the first place) but providing you have a suitable way of scanning the vast content, i.e automation, cutting out the middle man is now very possible.
Forgive me here if my figures are somewhat wayward (I've been reliably informed that an American billion is different to an English one and, quite frankly, that many zeros is just plain confusing) but the fact that 15 billion web searches occurred in the US during December means that daily, 483,870,967 were made...Insert corrections here. It's always nice to be involved in a market which sees 483 million of something happening in one day - in one country, and what's even more staggering is that with automation, these searches could happen more regularly, more successfully and probably come close to timings that figure by many more thousands (which I think would be quite a large amount...) Interesting to see Google losing further market share throughout the month, albeit a 0.3% fraction but despite Yahoo claiming to be in search for the long haul it was Facebook that showed the most progress with a 13% gain in search queries. Safe to say who Google will be fearing most.
Having been asked to research a specific company the other day I was (as you can imagine) delighted to be presented with stories 1-10 of 649,000 results. Fantastic. Whilst I'm sure looking at all 649,000 documents in all their glory would certainly make me an expert, I'm also fairly sure by the time I was finished I may no longer own my own set of teeth.And that's just the first place to look. Let's not forget the wonderful world of social media which can be a rich source of information and insight (as well as providing some great gossip). It's no wonder then, that sales cycles are apparently getting longer. The fact that anyone closes them at all using this format should be seen as a minor miracle. That's why it's so important to be tracking the news now, rather than just dipping into it when you have to. Using sales intelligence data in this way can mean calling at just the right time, knowing exactly what your triggers are and having a perfect solution ready and waiting. There is more to research than there ever has been before, but the good thing is, using media monitoring tools has made research easier than ever before. Incidentally the term media monitoring brings back 31,000,000 results in your average search engine...Makes 649,000 look like a stroll in the park.
So Google have launched 'Buzz' and it's official, using real words is officially no longer cool. Social networkers would be forgiven for not knowing if they're buzzing, binging, zazzing, tweeting, oooing or arrring' as yet another tool tries to storm the market (that's not like Google at all is it?).How about dealing with issues that social networkers actually care about? Improving relevance, filtering better results and providing users with a far more personal experience? No? Is it more fun just to say noises? Ok fair enough.Social networking has the same issues that the entire web shares, ordering chaos. Another platform to share info does nothing to help this. The focus should be on sorting the mess that already exists to provide consumers with much more relevant material then they currently get. If we call it something like 'kazzzaaming' will you at least consider it?
2.2 billion minutes is quite a long time when you think about it. I mean, to give that some kind of perspective, that's nearly double the length of average injury time added on at Manchester United matches and at least two sittings of a Lord of the Rings film. But apparently that's how long the UK spent browsing Facebook using -just their mobile phone- in December alone. And that's only taking into account 3 out of 5 major networks...Wow. That really is a staggering statistic.16 million people in the UK accessed the Internet via their mobile phone in December. They viewed a total of 6.7 billion pages. One can only assume the NHS is spending billions on lamp post related injuries going into 2010.These figures really are mind blowing though. And surely they are still just at the beginning. As usability and adoption continue to grow, the stats will only increase. When you consider these huge numbers it's worth noting that a survey by Aberdeen group of 505 companies revealed that those using sales intelligence apps reported an average saving of 9% in search time. That's quite a lot of minutes right there...Probably only three quarters of a Lord of the Rings film.
On the day Steve Jobs was caught walking into dinner with New York Times executives disguised under a funny hat, it's no surprise that Google's wish to create a 'vast digital library' have been rejected by the US department of Justice. If I was a betting man I would say Google now has absolutely no chance whatsoever of getting their wish (it should be noted here that I've never won any money from gambling...).The rumours surrounding the New York Times and Steve Jobs are mounting and it can't be a coincidence that these secret meetings keep being discovered so close to the IPad release. Publishers have finally found a way to make money online and the chances of book publishers not jumping on the bandwagon eventually are slim to none. They will fight to the death to make sure Google don't cripple their plans. Google need to offer an incentive quickly as they're already swimming against an almighty tide. Perhaps outlining how they would help publishers exploit e-readers might be a good start.
Today's certainly a tough day for your average Internet researcher after a recent study revealed that considerable time spent on the web is linked with high levels of depression...Great. These nine cups of empty coffee sat next to me suggest otherwise, so ha science, stick that in your pipe and smoke it!As if that wasn't bad enough I saw head of HDnet Mark Cuban calling news aggregation providers 'vampires' referring to the sucking of all that blood and leaving publishers bone dry. How many more times do we have to hear this ridiculous argument? Yes content is key, and yes publishers provide the content but aggregation is a service. It's not stealing the information, it's using it. Rather than vampires, aggregators are like bees. They take the pollen from the plant and use it effectively. You don't see plants building big old pay walls next to their stems do you?Publishers are frustrated because they haven't found a way to monetize. But don't take your anger out on the delivery boy. They are bringing your content to the people that want it. It's the web equivalent of a paper round. Building a fort around content and demanding people say the magic password before they can enter is not going to solve anything. Now, if you'll excuse me I must go drink more coffee and cry myself to sleep.
Readwriteweb.com posted an interesting article yesterday concluding that Facebook has the numbers advantage when it comes to subscribing to news feeds. It also commented on the favourable way it encourages people to 'become a fan' of the feed as apposed to subscribing to an RSS which they rightly claimed sounds costly and more confusing than a simple click of a Facebook button. News publishers of course prefer Facebook as well due to the way it lends itself to the idea of sharing and linking with very smooth methods. So will Facebook's live feed eventually becoming nothing more than a glorified, diverse RSS feed tailored to the users favourite sources? It's certainly very possible. I've noticed a growing tendency amongst friends to link to stories, videos and photos they like and I almost always click through and see what the fuss is about. What I found really enlightening about the argument though was this friendly way of using news that Facebook has so successfully adopted. It's so funny how just the word 'subscribe' can instantly turn a users nose up. Once upon a time news was news, consumers consumed it and that was that. But the web has changed that. The need for interaction has changed that. Subscribing to an RSS feed is for the professional who wants information. Becoming a fan of a news publisher is for those who want to shape the news, comment, be part of a community around a certain topic or theme. There is a very obvious difference and whilst I agree with Readwriteweb that Facebook is in a very strong position for the future I can't help but feel like the need for business news has again been missed from the argument.
Having spilt cereal, dropped the rubbish bin on my foot and rubbed ice off the car with my bare hand this morning I was looking for something of a pick me up and thankfully the powers that be decided to grant me one. It's always nice when people are on the same wavelength as you and it was great to see an article on Social Media B2B describing the importance of tracking sales leads and aggregating triggers.That's exactly what we do! I love it when a plan comes together. The need is out there and what the article describes as 'not easy to implement' (the art of using useful sources to monitor major events), actually is using semantic technologies. The long, tedious process of searching through endless data is done for you, thus pinpointing the exact information you need without the hassle.Admittedly that may have sounded like a sales pitch... But give me a break, I dropped rubbish on my foot this morning.
