BTW Tim, if you read this, one thing- please consider get rid of Snap preview, little annoying.

As a fun exercise, below a list prepared by AdAge with Digital Predictions from 2007 to 2008 that didn’t happened

Digital Predictions That Didn’t Pan Out

1. ONLINE ADVERTISING WILL GROW 29% IN 2008

As late as November 2007, forecasters predicted a huge year for online advertising in 2008, and stuck with it even as the economy started to stumble. Their rationale: Even if the economy takes a dive, online ads won’t. In fact, online will benefit from a recession, as marketers move spending from TV to cheaper, more measurable media. Well, online advertising did grow in 2008, but just 15% in the first six months of 2008 and 11% in Q3, according to the ever-optimistic Internet Advertising Bureau.

Neither Facebook’s nor YouTube’s importance to marketers matches its scale on the web. YouTube’s challenge is to figure out how to add scale to non-scalable promotions. And Facebook’s challenge? That’s perhaps summed up best by Ted McConnell, Procter & Gamble’s interactive guru: “What in heaven’s name made you think you could monetize the real estate in which somebody is breaking up with their girlfriend?”

At the outset, the News Corp.-NBCU joint venture had only two things going for it: lots of good content and rock-bottom expectations. It was, after all, another attempt by big media to create a consumer web destination. But Hulu became the sixth-biggest video site in the U.S. and allowed skittish advertisers to put dollars against trusted TV brands — at a higher CPM than TV.

It’s no wonder it’s a perennial prediction — every year Digg does seem to do a little acquisition dance with someone. This past year it tangoed with Google but came up empty. Instead, it settled for raising a whopping $28.7 million Series C round.

Despite myriad attempts (remember the massive hype around the far-too-beta Cuil?), Google has only grown share, and no one has emerged as any sort of legitimate challenger in the search space. In fact, some would-be challengers have shifted tacks, because going up against Goliath has proved impossible. Person-assisted search site ChaCha, for example, is now pushing itself as a mobile product rather than straight web search.

This didn’t happen, but whoever made this prediction probably deserves a mulligan. That’s because a major daily newspaper did go all digital (The Christian Science Monitor), but it won’t happen until April 2009. Now, CSM is a special case with a different audience and economics than your standard daily. But there, too, it almost happened. In January, the East Valley Tribune, a 100,000-circ daily east of Phoenix, will go down to four days a week. The paper fired 40% of its staff (142) and will focus on digital.

You’ve been hearing that prediction since 1996, and every year people trot it out again. Sure, there were lots of advertising milestones this past year: Apple’s 3G iPhone and App Store changed the way people think about mobile devices; the much-anticipated Google phone debuted; and touch screens became a staple of new phones everywhere. But mobile advertising remained a blip on the total marketing radar. Maybe 2009?

There was reason to believe it would. E-book readers have been hyped since the late ’90s to less-than-middling success. Amazon’s version, the Kindle, started racking up fans so devoted that they volunteered to show off their devices as part of Amazon’s “See a Kindle in Your City.” In October, Oprah delivered Amazon a coup when she endorsed the product on her show. Since Amazon hasn’t broken out Kindle sales, it’s hard to know how successful it is, but one thing is clear: It’s far from a flop.

It was a tantalizing prediction to make: In a year when the striking writers had brought Hollywood to a halt, an explosion in web-originated content would accelerate the shift of dollars away from the tube. One problem: It didn’t happen. The networks got increases from advertisers, and online video took a pittance in advertising — perhaps $505 million if you believe eMarketer.

Nobody could have known the magnitude of the economic implosion. But few expected to see Yahoo stock fall to $11.12 from $23.72 or eBay to plummet to $13.47 from $32.49 or ValueClick to drop to $5.86 from $21.70. Back in January, J.P. Morgan’s Imran Khan predicted a 34% earnings-per-share rise for major internet stocks. Needless to say, it didn’t happen. Google didn’t hit $1,000. And it didn’t cure cancer, either.

Do you want to guess/risk a prediction for 2009? What it’d be your prediction?

I’ll start it off -

1) Twitter is going to show it can generate revenue using a mix of paid subscription, supporting advertising in their apps and API access for developers besides an integration with other social platforms. Everything based on practicality, usability and usefulness .

2) Social Media Myths will be broken

3) Danny will convince more people to start blogging

More on 2009 predictions on ReadWriteWeb, and Servant of Chaos

How about you, any 2009 prevision?

cheers

Lucio Ribeiro

Observe and learn from what it’s been said about your brand, about your product about your executives.

There are so many good articles about benefits of Social Media I could do a complete website just with arguments.

On the listening exercise you’ll realize that the location and the focus of the conversation around you is diferent.

There could be blogs, it could be Facebook, Forums or Twitter where your name is been discussed.

A strong step is to start listening and follow conversations concerning your interests, understand the perception and quality of the talk.

However when it comes to join the conversation thats the big question….Where or What to Join ?

There are 4 scenarios:

- Situation 1 - Conversations where it’s best you stay out of it.

Example: A public complaint about your company on an environment where you have big advocates and they are coming to your defense.

Apple don’t join all conversations even when they are attacked, they know they have a powerful army to come on their defence. These army are biggest fans and product evangelist that will come up any time someone attacks the brand.

- Situation 2 - Too many small talks

Understand the difference between Influence and Popular

You don’t have to have the time or the resources to respond every single blog post about your company or product.

It’s not because you had pulverized mentions you’ll create a whole team to engage on these channels. You don’t have to. You might want to take a look at: Is this blog relevant to your industry? Are other channels replicating the post?

- Situation 3 - Lies about you

If someone says something negative about you and this doesn’t reflect the reality, then you should look for a way to engage in order to get this content under control, or at least replied with your version.

You need to do it before people start believing it’s true.

-Situation 4 - Where you really want to be

As Chris Brogan says - Fish Where the Fish are.

Your audience will prefer some Web 2.0 media over others. Before investing the money and effort to bring them to your site, find out what method of communication they favor and Where they are already going to talk.

Anticipating an audience’s preferences is risky and difficult. If you’re not sure your audience wants a new medium, you may end up being a one-person parade. You wont find the Down Jones team working Social Marketing on Second Life.

My suggestion:

1) Research your audience with Surveys, Analytics and Search Tools.

2) Find your audience - or "Fish Where the Fish Are"

3) Let your customer know you’re there, answering questions, giving feedback and slowly building your authority

4) Reach out to them in a voice and channel in which they are holding the conversation

5) Understand that you don’t’ have more full control over your reputation, but you do have control over what you’ll be building, so be transparent!

Cheers

Lucio Ribeiro

To help you on your SEO, SEM and Internet Marketing campaigns I’m publishing a weekly-list with Google Top searches .

The list is based on Google Hot Trends, with raw numbers from there, I work on an approximation to the root keyword.

Example, "Britney spears songs", "Britney Spears lyrics", "Britney Spears naked", are listed as "Britney Spears".

I also have excluded porn, gambling, "How-to queries" and other subjects it might be harmful for MarketingEasy.

There you go:

Google Top search week - 30 November to 15 November/2008

1. Adams block (some violent episode in SFrancisco/US)
2. Bettie Page ( She suffered a Heart Attack)
3. Britney spears (again)
4. concurrent (definition, sentence) - ( caused by OJ Simpson sentence, people ran to Google to learn)
5. divorce360.com (divorce calculator broadly announced on US press)
6. O J Simpson (sentenced)
7. Jimmy valvano (Jimmy V classic at the Mecca, New York’s Madison Square Garden)
8. De la Hoya vs Pacquiao
9. Susan Rice (UN advisor and Hillary Clinton)
10. preston hollow dallas tx (President Bush and Laura Bush have just purchased a home in Preston Hollow, a suburb in Dallas)

Download the Complete Google Top Search List

Cheers

Lucio Ribeiro

Web 2.0 can and should be used by any brand/service; however it’s all about finding your right match/fit and space.

Web 2.0 - Social Media,

- Clients still don’t buy it

- Consumers/users still don’t understand it,

as Anthony Johnston points the first step is to lose the jargon.

How do you explain Twitter to someone who never heard about it before?

Cheers

Lucio Ribeiro

Another day I wrote about a sneak seo scam. Today I’m covering another SEO anti-linking tactic used for BlackHat(ers).

When you decide Optimize your website for Search Engines (SEO) the most logic step you need to take is to Analyze your competition; then you can find tendency to links for your area/segment.

The one I like to use is Link Diadnosis, it gives you Link per Domain, and you can sort by

• link type;
• link anchor text;
• PageRank;
• page internal+external links.

After running some reports you can have all the important information about your competitor’s links.

Then you can decide to to the right thing or to do the wrong thing.

The right inbound link strategy would be to contact potential linkers and develop any kind of relationship with them (offer to write a guest post, comment, etc) or,

you can decide the wrong thing….

It works like this:

You email a “Cease and Desist” letter to the webmasters linking to your competitor website, asking them to remove the outbound links to YOUR competitor’s website.

You present yourself as the “owner” of your competitor’s brand, asking them to remove the link.

This is how the email looks like:

_______________

Dear Sir/Madam

I am contacting you on behalf of www.Insurance.com, located in Sydney, Australia. We manage Insurance.com’s Internet monitoring function for brand identity issues on the Internet.

We’d like to discuss the use of the trademarked name of Insurance.com or one of its subsidiaries on your website.

As owner of the name, Insurance.com (and/or its subsidiaries) owns the exclusive right to reproduce and use its trademarks and authorize any reproduction and use. Insurance.com does not recognize the use of its name in the above-referenced site as authorized. Therefore, your use of this trademark is a violation of its rights.

Insurance.com demands that you cease and desist from using its name in any manner and that you remove all use of its trademark from the referenced website.

Please address these issues immediately. Please contact me with any questions.

Sincerely,

Trademark Administration
Insurance.com

—————–

I can think of many websites removing links trying to avoid legal problem. I can imagine the guy from IT panicking together with the Legal department.

I should agree is indeed a clever scheme but stupid strategy.

Cheers

Lucio Dias Ribeiro

however to be honest I’m on the sales business.

I’m contacted and hired for clients who want to work on their online marketing to sell more, to be remembered more or to be spoken more.

My role is to find them the right place online, the right strategy and the correct execution.

Sometimes is hard, sometimes clients try to push to something they don’t really need, or something they want to do just because everyone else is doing.

Few months ago I read Seth Godin

George Clooney is a movie star. He looks like one. He makes tens of millions of dollars a year, hangs out at Cannes and has starlets falling at his feet.

Danny Devito is exactly five feet tall. He was perfectly cast as the Penguin.

Can you imagine the career advice Danny got? The well-meaning people who explained to him (as if he didn’t know) that he didn’t really look like George Clooney?

That perhaps, maybe, he should consider a job as a personal trainer or short order cook…

The math, however, tells us something different.

(number of people resembling George Clooney)/(jobs for people resembling George Clooney)

is a much bigger number than the ratio available to Danny.

For the math challenged: Because everyone in Hollywood is trying to be George, there are a lot more opportunities for the few Dannys willing to show up.

Invest in Danny. The edges usually pay off.

So before embark on Web2.0 with your clients/users make sure they understand web 1.0

Cheers

Lucio Ribeiro