Feeding The Mind, but Numbing The Soul

This week I have been sharing comments on ethics in technology over at Victoria Ipri's blog. In this delightful chat, Andy Havens laments that there is still too much attention being paid to an out-of-date solution called Search Engine Optimization (SEO). As Andy aptly states,

"The reason (technologies like SEO) gain popularity and then die seems simple – the marketing hogs see the trends, jump in and take over. We are all guilty to some degree."

He also shines light on a newer and far better component of many search algorithms, Linguistic (or Latent ed.) Semantic Indexing (LSI), which simply put, can read good webpage copy and tag it appropriately for optimum use in search results. In other words, it rewards well-written content, which should please web copywriters everywhere.

"LSI seems like a dream come true," says Andy, "I write good content and the search engines figure out what I’m talking about. It leaves me to focus on what I want to say instead of making sure I’ve got 2.3 keywords per 134 words or whatever."

But he also finds it frustrating that, on our journey of getting indexed by search engines, we still seem to encounter quite a few bumps in the road. This should come as no surprise to any of us. The fine-tuning of new technology has never been more apparent to the masses as it is today. Before computers and the web, fine-tuning went on as usual, but it was behind the scenes at such places as the phone companies and manufacturing labs.

Today, however, because investors are demanding that companies put their pipelines on the fast-track so they can grow share price more quickly, the fine-tuning often takes place right before our eyes. In the big picture, our problems are nothing more than the growing pains experienced by a toddler.

Cultural back-sliding doesn't help either. Ethically speaking, we have allowed ourselves to be subordinated to the often bogus quantitative promises of technology and have sacrificed the qualitative values that govern our decision-making processes.

Andy provides an excellent example of this:

"I’ve got ... software someplace that can sign up to hundreds of social marketing sites and spread my message across all of them, even though I’ve never heard of most of them."

Sounds like another lazy shortcut that some marketers use in the hopes of getting something for next to nothing.

There is no easy solution except possibly some sort of ISP punitive bandwidth rate card that changes the monthly bill to an amount so high, it stings the abuser in the pocketbook.

One other solution is to do precisely what we are doing: engaging the community at large with the notion of a higher standard of conduct. Because something that good will never be out of date.

Why EVERYONE thinks they are a Social Media Consultant

Given the steep downturn in employment, it should come as no surprise that many in transition will "try on" an industry such as SocMed consulting. And who can really blame them? It is a new field and they are trying to train themselves in it and generate business at the same time. Unfortunately, many of these folks are young boomers, X'ers, or millennials, and more than a few of whom tend to hold the self-centric attitude that they can do anything without working too hard. It seems easy to them at first, until they stumble upon (pun intended!) a rough spot in the landscape that proves to be more complex then they bargained for.

Thus, with anything tech these days, vendors must be thoroughly vetted before we will even take a meeting with them.

So, does all this circus-hype impinge on the potential benefits of SocMed? Not at all. It does offer a viable alternative to legacy ad methods. It is relatively low-cost and has very little downside risk if executed reasonably well. The top three things buyers respond to are info, info, and more info. Feature-benefit pairs play their role much later in the sales process and usually in the form of case studies.

The best lead generation tactic is to provide so much helpful information, that those who are ready to take their interest to the next level with your brand find the process seemless. SocMed is perfect for this.

To see how companies are executing SocMed fairly well, check out the big brands (i.e., Apple, Coke, NutriSystem) on Facebook.

How many people actually use online-banking?

Retail banks, in an effort to reduce costs, are promoting their online banking services now more than ever. How do you use online-banking? Take the Poll here.

The Broadcast Ad model is in intensive care

It is not etched in stone that content will (and should) remain free. I tend to agree with my former employer Rupert Murdoch that the ad model is evolving into something that barely resembles its former self.

As society becomes more technologically complex, there exists the temptation for economics to somehow match its pace, stride for stride. For a short while, people will happily come along for the ride. But, eventually, a point of saturation is reached. Yes, the brain can handle thousands of thoughts in a second, but it is not a qualitative process whereby educated and informed decisions can easily be made. Once we become too saturated with data, we need to pause, analyze the buffer, then communicate with others about our analysis. Only then can we make appropriate choices.

The ad model is suffering from implosion because there simply is too much advertising to consume. People are tuning it out. This should not only be expected, but welcome. As humankind pushes back at the breakneck pace of technology, new and innovative models for creating and distributing content will begin to emerge. Many of them will likely employ various methods for generating revenue such as advertising through product/brand insertion, and tiered pricing for different levels of access.  

The answer is not limited to mutually exclusive notions because we are in the middle of a major shift in the roles that technology & media play in society. It may take a decade or two for this shift to be complete, and in the meantime, businesses must consider employing strategies that embrace complimentary mutiple approaches in order to reach and connect with a temporarily exhausted end-user.

Announcing the Death of SEO (and not a moment too soon!)

A good deal of Web 2.0 arguably presents a far more slippery slope than any other tech trend of the century. Naturally, the herd is always the last to know about something, and SEO is no different. I have come to learn that if every third or fourth person at a cocktail party is dropping the buzz-phrase SEO in one way or other, it clearly has become a deprecated subject.

These days, people seem to always be looking for short-cuts to successful results. I believe SEO is now just another lazy man's short cut to the hard work of creating sticky, robust, vital content and then taking the time to create serious, thoughtful, and compelling linkback relationships. Most of the killer algorithms now require the above-mentioned hard work, and SEO is no longer a solution by itself. Granted, in your niche marketplace, SEO may put you on top for a short while, but if you live only by SEO, you will surely die by SEO. Eventually, your competition will beat you because they are willing to hardwire their site for success by doing the hard work.

Blogs as short-cut marketing tools have been dead for years. SocNet may well go down the same road, dying under its own useless weight or getting constrained by policy or the simple common sense business notion that spending so much time on the computer leads to productivity losses, not gains.

Over the past 15 years or so, new tech has often reminded me of the new toy given to the narcissistic child. They play with it so hard and fast that it ends up broken in pieces, only to leave the child craving the next new toy. Will ALL these new technologies go the same way? I hope not. Hard work, and the use of new technology in MODERATION, will always get you where you need to be, without all the wasted time, bandwidth, and unnecessary drama.