Social media marketing | Liz Hover's Diary of a Web Gal

I love a good list.

Well I’ll be damned if the wonderful Tamar Weinberg hasn’t saved me an awful lot of work by curating the most delicious list of internet marketing posts from the past 12 months.

Apparently she makes this list every year.

It’s almost art.

If you’re looking for a diverse range of reading material (and one of my top tips for folks wishing to learn more about the social web is to READ A LOT) then this is an amazing place to start. In fact it may take you until 2011 to finish them all.

Prepare to be dazzled: The best internet marketing posts of 2009 by Tamar Weinberg

Oh God.

I was worried this might happen.

According to Jerry Bowles writing over at Social Media Today there is a war on social media.

Just look at the restrictions put upon employees at ESPN, the NFL and the US Marines.

Is the end of freedom really coming because organisations are uncomfortable about all these conversations?

Bowles says:

… social media will become one more tool in the marketing /pr / communications toolbox. An important tool, but basically one more channel to be “managed.” Official Twitterers will be designated and scripted.

There will be no Scobles starting unapproved blogs under the radar. A lot of the spontaneity and diversity will disappear.

The unfortunate thing is that the humanised content generated by brands on sites such as Facebook and Twitter are a big part of the appeal. But as Bowles writes, many organisations just aren’t ready for all that transparency.

But many folks are missing the point – all this chatter has been happening online for ages.

The difference now is that there are a number of popular websites where a lot of that chatter is sort of aggregated.

I’ve never understood this reluctance to be open and honest. Why do big brands feel the need to micro-manage everything they say? That’s a rhetorical question readers.

Paranoia is the culprit.

Micro-controlling messages only becomes essential when there’s bad news to manage. The fact is nothing is really what it appears to be. And brands can manage messages all they like but the truth will out – the salacious British tabloids are a case in point.

Celebrities far and wide try to control what we read about them but the gutter press (I use that term with affection) usually leak the gossip before an official statement is released.

So while some companies may gag their employees, word will always get around. That’s the beauty of the social web peoples.

Before I was a web manager I was a publicist and a media officer (in the UK).

Ooh, do you know how many times jargon slips its naughty way into press releases? I tried hard to keep it away. Honest.

But almost as bad as jargon are those redundant little adjectives that seem to worm their way into press releases the world over. Sometimes it’s hard to avoid.

I read a great post today by Robin Wauters writing on TechCrunch: 10 words I would love to see banned from press releases.

My personal favourite is ‘strategic partnership.’

Ouch.

I love email. And so I religiously read everything that arrives in my inbox. This includes over 20 email subscriptions from technology, web design, blogging, social media and marketing websites.

I couldn’t do my job without a lot of the information that comes my way.

One of the requirements of website management is the need to continuously nuture your knowledge base. I find these email updates are one of the best ways to stay in the loop.

So I get some of these sent to my personal email address and others go to my work account. If you’re trying to absorb this much information you’ll need to be pretty organised about how and when you read the updates.

Of course email alerts don’t work for everyone. And most if not all of the sites I list below also offer other ways to subscribe. Or you could just regularly visit these sites. But that’s a heck of a job.

Here are my picks in no particular order:

• One Degree – the inside scoop on digital marketing and social media for Canadian marketers.
• ProBlogger – created by uber blogger Darren Rowse, the site is dedicated to helping other bloggers learn the skills of blogging, share their own experiences and promote the blogging medium. Includes well over 3,500 articles, tips, tutorials and case studies.
• TwiTip – also from Darren Rowse, a tips site for Twitter users who want to improve their use of Twitter.
• Skidzopedia – a blog offering updates about the latests gadgets, softwares, news and reviews.
• MediaShift - tracks how new media – from weblogs to podcasts to citizen journalism – are changing society and culture.
• VentureBeat – Silicon Valley news about tech money and innovation.
• Mashable – the world’s largest blog focused exclusively on web 2.0 and social networking news.
• MediaPost – resources for media, marketing and advertising professionals offering news coverage, event information, a social network, and industry jobs, directories and research. Folks can subscribe to updates from over 20 blogs.
• Media in Canada – the latest news keeping media and marketing execs up to speed on the Canadian media scene.
• Micro Persuasion – a blog exploring how emerging technologies are revolutionizing marketing and communications.
• Silicon Alley Insider – news, commentary, and discussion about digital publishing, entertainment, news, music, social networking, mobile, and gaming.
• All Facebook – the unofficial Facebook blog.
• Seth Godin – Seth has several sites. I currently subscribe to Seth Godin’s Blog which offers riffs on marketing, respect, and the ways ideas spread.
• John Battelle’s Searchblog – thoughs on the intersection of search, media, technology and more.
• MakeUseOf – news about cool websites, software, and how-to articles.
• NETTUTS – a site aimed at web developers and designers offering tutorials and articles on technologies, skills and techniques to improve how you design and build websites.
• Six Revisions – a blog that shares useful information about web development and design, dedicated to people who build websites.
• ZDNet – technology news and reviews.
• Blogging Me, Blogging You – marketing, blogging, social media, PR and technology news.
• TechCrunch – a weblog dedicated to obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies.
• Daily Blog Tips – erm, I think the title speaks for itself.
• Web Design Ledger – written by web designers for web designers. Web design related knowledge and resources. Topics range from design inspiration to tips and tutorials.
• ReadWriteWeb – a blog that provides web technology news, reviews and analysis.
• Smashing Magazine – trends and techniques in web development. They don’t provide email updates so I follow them on Twitter.
• The Web Squeeze – web design articles on business and computers to web development tutorials on topics such as CSS, PHP and Javascript.
• PR 2.0 – Brian Solis’ blog covering marketing and technology.
• Blogsessive – blogging tips for bloggers.
• Six Pixels of Separation – fellow Canadian Mitch Joel blogs about marketing and communications. No email updates so I check this site manually when I remember.

Before becoming a web gal, I was a publicist. As I read more and more great stuff about marketing and the internet, I come across stuff that still appeals to the publicist in me.

In particular, I like straight talking. I try to keep things clear and simple. As far as I’m concerned it’s no different in the world of work. Yes, you might be Mr or Mrs Big and Clever Boss Person who gobbles up and spews out jargon like there’s no tomorrow but really what everyone likes is straight talking. Reading something that makes sense.

Over at David Meerman Scott’s blog Web Ink Now, I just found a beautiful post about news release goobledygook.

I appeal to all publicists when I say, ‘Please pay attention to this stuff.’ Publicists: help ban these useless phrases. Don’t perpetuate them.

The same thing applies to website copy.

Sometimes we’re fighting an uphill battle with management who argue that we have to use certain phrases because our industry will understand them. I argue the opposite. Steven Krug says in his brilliant book Don’t Make Me Think that even your grandma should be able to understand what you put on your website. While it’s hard to do, we should all try to work towards making this a reality. No one wants to read jargon.