by Ana Hoffman 35 comments

Weekly Marketing Skinny: YouTube Shutting Down, Google Nose, and More



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get the skinny on marketing events of past weekIn the spotlight this week:

  • YouTube is shutting down;
  • Google’s new “innovations”;
  • Facebook Home;
  • Digg is resurrecting from the dead;
  • How to Milk Slideshare for Moo’ Traffic;
  • Content marketing song about content marketing;
  • and more…

Let’s get down to business.

Weekly Marketing Skinny

From Traffic Generation Café

There were some exceptionally good reads at Traffic Generation Café last week, if I may say so myself.

orange check5 Methods to Increase your iTunes Podcast Reviews (Without Cheating) - Ryan Hanley discusses why getting reviews for your iTunes podcast is not as easy as it sounds.

Learn what works and what doesn’t when getting more reviews on ANY website, not just iTunes.

orange checkSlideshare Traffic Case Study: From 0 to 243,000 Views in 30 Days - this is a must-read. Unless you don’t want any more traffic that is.

Slideshare.

30 days.

9 presentations.

Over 200K views.

Several first-page Google rankings.

1,400 clicks to Traffic Generation Café and my Facebook fan page.

Over 400 new Facebook fans.

My second largest referral traffic source.

Want some? I don’t blame you.

Here’s how I did it.

YouTube

orange check…is shutting down.

All user-uploaded content will be deleted and YouTube staff will spend the next ten years or so sifting through a miriad of hours of videos to choose the best one - the winner, the only one who’ll be left behind when YouTube opens back up in 2023.

Google

orange checkGmail Blue

How do you completely redesign something while keeping it the same?

This is how:

orange checkGoogle Nose

Yes another release from Google; this one is still in Beta.

Here’s what I was able to sniff out so far:

orange checkGoogle Maps

Can’t make money blogging?

This might help:

Twttr

orange checkTwitter has announced a new service - Twttr.

Twitter says:

“Starting today, we are shifting to a two-tiered service: Everyone can use our basic service, Twttr, but you only get consonants.

For $5/a month, you can use our premium “Twitter” service which also includes vowels.

We’re doing this because we believe that by eliminating vowels, we’ll encourage a more efficient and “dense” form of communication. We also see an opportunity to diversify our revenue stream.

Here’s our mockup of the most retweeted Tweet of all time as it would appear in the new Twttr:

Reactions?

Happy belated April Fool’s Day, America!

If you just can’t get enough of it, there’s more where these came from:

(hat tip to Thomas Nielsen for suggesting it in our discussion on my Facebook fan page.)

Two more for the road:

orange checkBMW stroller:

orange checkSergey Brin’s Pink Bat Tesla (source) - that’s one expensive April Fools joke, if you ask me.

Back to Reality

Facebook

orange checkNew Facebook “Home”

Facebook introduced Home - a new way to turn your Android phone into a social phone.

(Image source)

From the horse’s mouth:

We asked ourselves ­if sharing and connecting are what matter most, what would your phone be like if it put your friends first?

Our answer is Home. Home isn’t a phone or operating system, and it’s also more than just an app. Home is a completely new experience that lets you see the world through people, not apps.

Needless to say, this announcement didn’t go unnoticed.

Here’s what Frank X. Shaw, Corporate Vice President of Corporate Communications at Microsoft, had to say about it:

I tuned into the coverage of the Facebook Home event yesterday and actually had to check my calendar a few times.

Not to see if it was still April Fools Day, but to see if it was somehow still 2011.

Because the content of the presentation was remarkably similar to the launch event we did for Windows Phone two years ago.

If that’s what Facebook’s longtime partner and investor had to say about it, you can imagine what kind of fire FB is catching everywhere else.

Since I’ve recently upgraded my phone to a dumb one (top that!), I won’t be using Facebook Home anytime soon.

You?

Google vs Amazon Prime

orange checkThe gloves are off!

Google has launched Google Shopping Express - a local delivery service that’s intended to help people get items that they order online on the same day, at a low cost.

At the moment, the service is only available in San Francisco Bay area.

I requested to become a tester; waiting for a reply.

Digg

Digg is digging its way back from the dead.

Over the past 12 months, referral traffic from Digg has grown by 93%.

(source)

Digg was sold to Betaworks for $500,000 in July of last year and went through a complete makeover.

The new Digg bears little resemblance to the old Digg in that there’s less user participation and more reliance on editors to find and promote stories.

Market your marketing

Here’s a great example of creating buzz around a FREE ebook: Marketo created a fun music video to introduce its ebook, The Definitive Guide to Marketing Automation.

My head is spinning with ideas now; can’t believe I never thought of this before!

(Not that you want to hear me sing, mind you…)

Personally, I’d be much more likely to opt in after being serenaded.

Thoughts?

Marketing Events

Here’s a scoop on upcoming marketing events, courtesy Laura Crest of SEOCopywriting.com.

Content Marketing

  • The Neilsen Norman Group’s Usability Week 2013 conferences will be held in Dallas from April 8th thru the 12th, San Francisco from April 28th thru May 3rd, London from May 12ththru the 17th, and Toronto from June 3rd thru the 7th.
  • The Ad Age Digital Conference 2013 is scheduled for April 16thand 17th in New York City.
  • Lee Odden shares his April/early May presentation schedule with “Content Marketing & Optimization 6 Ways – Upcoming Speaking Events” at TopRank.
  • Content Marketing World 2013 returns to Cleveland, OH, September 9th thru the 12th.

SEO

Social Media

  • Social Media Marketing World is scheduled to take place in San Diego from April 7th thru the 9th.
  • Social Fresh East 2013 will be held April 18th & 19th in Tampa Bay, FL.
  • BlueGlassX 2013 will be happening May 21st & 22nd in Los Angeles. As of today (April 3rd), there are only 15 spots left!
  • (For an all-in-one listing and description of social media, content & inbound marketing events, check out Neal Schaffer’s “The 12 Best Social Media Conferences to Attend in 2013” at Social Media Today.)

Thank You

I am absolutely honored that you choose to read Traffic Generation Café; I am even more honored when you choose to share it with your readers/followers.

To my great Twitter followers (sorry I can’t include everyone, but I appreciate your RTs!):

 

 

 

Here are just some of the mentions of TGC I saw in the past week - THANK YOU:

Also, many of you are enjoying my brand new free Bite-Size Traffic Hacks email series.

So much so that I had several requests to republish some of the hacks, particularly the one about driving more traffic from Twitter.

Here are a couple of posts featuring my Twitter hack:

If you are not getting my Bite-Size Traffic Hacks email series yet, you are going to love it - concise, actionable traffic generating hacks you can implement today and start seeing almost immediate traffic increase.

Plus, you’ll get my super-awesome value-packed “Mommy, Where Does My Traffic Come From?” traffic report for the rock-bottom price of FREE.

Just add your email to the form below and click “Yes, Send Me My Traffic Hacks”.

"Ana has a unique insight into running an internet business."
- Yaro Starak, Entrepreneurs-Journey.com

 

See you on the “in”side,

traffic generation cafe


traffic generation cafe comment below

{ 35 comments… read them below or add one }

Tony Nguyen April 20, 2013 at 8:29 pm

Hi Ana,

I see the introduction of Gmail Blue, I was trying to get it set up but seems like this function is not released to the public yet.

I definitely need to try the Slideshare traffic, I just couldn’t believe the amount of traffic you could get from Slideshare, are there any way to optimize your Slideshares?

Thanks Ana

Reply

Ana Hoffman April 21, 2013 at 9:20 pm

Gmail Blue, as most of the videos in this post, was April Fool’s joke, Tony. :)

You can learn more about Slideshare here: https://trafficgenerationcafe.online/slideshare-traffic/

Reply

Thomas April 9, 2013 at 9:43 am

Hi Ana
Thank you very much for mentioning me in this post. Nothing like a good April fool’s joke right? :-D

Reply

Ana Hoffman April 9, 2013 at 9:56 am

Too bad it’s only once a year. :)

And thanks for that link again, Thomas!

Reply

Evan April 9, 2013 at 1:21 am

Oh yeah, April Fool from Google with Google Nose was something that I’ll never forget. My GF called all her friends telling the advantage of Google. Was sad to upset her and tell that it is joke)

Reply

Ana Hoffman April 9, 2013 at 6:25 am

You played Google’s April Fool’s joke on your girlfriend??? :)

Reply

William April 8, 2013 at 6:35 am

I like the weekly marketing summer and the blog is real good thanks

Reply

ilia April 8, 2013 at 1:15 am

you nicely making all this, you are my friend Ana.

Reply

Dan Norris April 7, 2013 at 2:43 pm

Thanks for the mention Ana, great results on Slideshare, I’ve been playing with it too. I think I need to be a bit more consistent though.

Reply

Ana Hoffman April 9, 2013 at 6:11 am

Thanks for mentioning me in your guest post, Dan!

Reply

sudha April 7, 2013 at 11:09 am

Hi Ana,

I like reading your weekly marketing summary. Its a shock that youtube is shutting down and then I realised the truth. :) Its amusing to see twitter remove vowels and I also intend to try that version. Nice reading.

Reply

Juan Castillo April 7, 2013 at 3:01 am

As always, great article, Ana. I am preparing my presentations for SlideShare, too . I’m programming to submit a pesentación per day, I’ll tell you about the results.

Big hug!!!

Reply

Ana Hoffman April 9, 2013 at 6:01 am

One presentation per day? Wow, that’s ambitious! Let me know how it goes, Juan.

Reply

Stacy April 6, 2013 at 5:13 pm

This year has been full of some really amusing April Fool’s jokes! One of my favorites was Vimeow - all cat videos. Also, a couple of authors who write dark fiction, made a blog post about how they were turning away from that to family-friendly titles. It was hilarious, and really freaked out some of their followers.

Reply

Ana Hoffman April 6, 2013 at 5:41 pm

This year everyone seemed to have gone way out of their way to outdo each other, Stacy. I had nothing creative popping into my head, so reporting on what everyone else did was the next best thing. :)

Reply

Gerald Weber April 6, 2013 at 3:35 pm

Digg is resurrecting must have been an April fools joke eh?

Reply

Ana Hoffman April 6, 2013 at 5:38 pm

Nope - that was listed under the “serious” news.

Reply

Gerald Weber April 6, 2013 at 5:40 pm

I was being a bit facetious. ;-)

Reply

Ana Hoffman April 6, 2013 at 5:42 pm

I thought so… :)

Reply

Marty April 6, 2013 at 11:46 am

Hey, Anna, is there any info on the “server response time” issue in Google’s page speed analytics this week? All of a sudden, page speed tests are showing lower scores across the board (yours, for example, used to be in the mid 90′s and now it’s in the 80′s) with “improve server response time” leading the blame for the slow down (I’ve never seen this before). Is Google getting ready to sell hosting and using this lower score to bring in sales? I can’t think why else this is happening. It’s not just U.S. sites either…
Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Reply

Ana Hoffman April 6, 2013 at 5:28 pm

Just double-checked, Marty, and no, no reports of bugs in page load reports. Will keep my ears to the ground.

Reply

Mark Trueman April 6, 2013 at 11:04 am

That Google Nose video was hilarious. I love their explanation of how they make it work.

Reply

Ana Hoffman April 6, 2013 at 1:39 pm

Which reminds me, Mark - I completely inexcusably forgot to include your awesome post in the Thank You section; fixed it now.

Reply

Justin Young April 6, 2013 at 10:54 am

If the people at Google have enough time on their hands where they can make these pointless videos then they really should look into re-organizing their priorities. I don’t know, maybe Google Reader… Off the soap box.

Reply

Ana Hoffman April 6, 2013 at 5:20 pm

It’s good to be the king…

Reply

Howard Lee Harkness April 6, 2013 at 9:57 am

You had me going for a second. The “YouTube is shutting down” headline is what grabbed me, but only because I let my guard down now that that it’s April 6th.

Sneaky…

Reply

Allison@neversaydiebeauty April 6, 2013 at 1:16 pm

me, too! that headline about Youtube shutting down was the best attention grabber I’ve seen in a long time ;)

Reply

Lawrence Grodecki April 6, 2013 at 9:52 am

Well Ann, I’ll forgive you this time…blogging isn’t always a piece of cake…still, this one’s pretty tasty when it comes to “Fooling April”…and that’s an adjective as well as a verb!

http://lawrencegrodecki.wordpress.com/2013/04/01/piece-of-cake/

Enjoy! :)

Reply

Ana Hoffman April 6, 2013 at 1:38 pm

Thank you for forgiving me, Lawrence (even though not sure what I did).

Reply

Lawrence Grodecki April 6, 2013 at 1:44 pm

Perhaps ‘forgiving’ isn’t the right term…more like sorry you missed a good April fool’s joke! By the way, thanks for some light-hearted social networking posts - much needed.

Reply

Ana Hoffman April 6, 2013 at 5:32 pm

lol, Lawrence; you are very welcome.

Reply

lisa April 6, 2013 at 9:45 am

I actually want one of those BMW strollers!

Reply

Liz April 6, 2013 at 11:25 am

So do I Lisa. For my dog though.

Reply

Ana Hoffman April 6, 2013 at 1:40 pm

That’s one lucky pooch!

Reply

Ana Hoffman April 6, 2013 at 1:36 pm

(Almost) makes me want another child… :)

Reply

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