Internet marketing

Microsoft Word’s biggest usability problem, in my opinion

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You might think I’ll pick on the functions, look & feel. No, I’ll go somewhere simpler – if I type something in Word, I work for 2 hours, I close the document and don’t save, I’ve lost everything. There’s no option to prevent this. A document I write in 30 days, a thesis paper, takes, if only words, less than a MB of data. If compressed, we’re talking peanuts. Why wouldn’t Word create back-up copies of everything I work on, automatically save them and then let me recover the data? Beats me. Solution: When installing Word, ask me about saving everything I type (for privacy issues). Put the autosave function to work at 30 seconds interval, not 10 minutes by default. Autosave even the “don’t save” files. Even if you don’t make the above options standard, they should be as option. I’d also love such a function for Notepad. There is a race between mankind and the universe. Mankind is trying to build bigger, better, faster, and more foolproof machines. The universe is trying to build bigger, better, and faster fools. So far the universe is winning.

SEO tip: Blogspot.ro.com? A “slight” change

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SEO tip: Blogspot.ro.com? A "slight" change

Recently, blogspot.com started redirecting all users which enter from a certain country to a specific URL. So, if you visit http://grupuridediscutii.blogspot.ro/ you are redirected to: http://grupuridediscutii.blogspot.de/ if you come from Germany, to: http://grupuridediscutii.blogspot.ro/ if Google suspects your IP is in Romania and so on. It does a 302 redirect: Details.

Tip for reputation management: best tools for RM is Google, closely followed by Facebook and YouTube

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Tip for reputation management: best tools for RM is Google, closely followed by Facebook and YouTube

At SEM Days 2012, Lucian DESPOIU (Kondiment) suggested these tools to for great reputation management: Google should be the main channel. Facebook and YouTube should also be taken into account. Why is this? Google is the most visited web site on the planet. Google is the most known brand on the Internet. Google is the most used search engine. Facebook is the place where people spend most time on the Internet. Facebook is the biggest social network. YouTube is the second search engine. YouTube is the largest channel for video. Sure, there are other channels to take into account: Less important general channels (there are other search engines than Google, there are other places where people spend their time online) – LinkedIn, Twitter, Yahoo!, Bing, the list can go on. Local channels (country-specific, zone-specific, area-specific) – Trilulilu, Xing, hi5. Niche channels (channels which appeal only to a specific set of people in your community) – Pinterest, Last FM, SlideShare, Instagram, Flickr.

Tip for reputation management: keep it positive!

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At SEM Days 2012, Lucian DESPOIU (Kondiment) gave this idea on an approach on how to do reputation management: when you do reputation management (RM), focus on the positive things. So: When you endorse / like / appreciate something online, do it for a positive reason. Rather than “I hate it that there are so many bad roads in Romania”, say it like “We appreciate those who strive to make the roads better in Romania”. Rather than “stray dogs are bad thing in major cities”, say it like “what solutions can we find for the stray dogs problem?”. Be constructive and focus on the positive when you associate with a cause which isn’t yours. Keep the same rule (be positive) for messages which are yours. So, if you have a message, formulate it and make it a positive one. Fight for win, avoid fighting to prevent a loss. Aim to get somewhere, rather than avoiding getting in bad place. Quite nice. :)

Tip for reputation management: solve online problems offline

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At SEM Days 2012, Lucian DESPOIU (Kondiment) gave this idea on an approach on how to do reputation management: rather than openly talk about a subject online, take the discussion outside. The argument goes like this: Avoid chatting in public about the problem. People will only remember “Oh, there was a fight / argument between the brand and the customer”. People will not remember who won the fight. It’s irrelevant who wins the fight. On the other hand, do try and give a basic solution online. Something like “Sure, we’ll solve this problem by … I suggest we continue the discussion via …”. As a side note, it’s usually great if you handle the situation yourself. Avoid having other people talk about your brand online.

ROI of marketing acquisition – do you take it into account?

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At SEM Days 2012, Paul ROUKE, Head of Usability & Conversion, PRWD emphasized that most marketers ignore this: ROI of marketing acquisition. This should be, in his opinion, a very important aspect of a marketing campaign. Think about it – is PPC expensive? Is SEO expensive? Is banner advertising expensive? The only way to measure this is to compare “how much we invested” with “how much profit did we make after using this media”. That’s the whole business. Does it have a good return of investment? Well, it should!