Archive for September, 2010

Facebook + Twitter + iTunes + Potential = Ping

Posted on: September 8th, 2010 by Erin Butler 3 Comments

Apple’s latest brainchild is the musical social network feature packed into the new iTunes 10. Serving as a music-related newsfeed and a vast suggestion source for discovering artists and tunes, Ping has captured immediate attention, good and skeptical alike. While some think it is the last nail in MySpace’s coffin, others believe it is solely a trial period, and a ploy for more iTunes business. In the spirit of avoiding a premature opinion, I will share what I have found so far, within the first week of its birth, with an open mind.

Beez Kneez
When I first heard of Ping’s concept, I geekily moo-ed, “Cooool.” The network has such potential, being directly connected to iTunes, which already has 160 million users. Talk about a populated platform to launch from!

Being able to follow all of your favorite artists in one place, from concert listings to daily updates, is super convenient. Only problem is that if you aren’t a fan of mainstream maestros, good luck finding anyone you care to follow in their database. Hopefully, the small catalog of artists is just a growing pain, and it will appeal to a wider variety of artists soon. (Like really soon, or sianara.)

But what artist wouldn’t want to take advantage of this opportunity to grow their band and brand? With the iTunes store tightly knit within the social frame, users become listeners, who become fans, who become buyers…all within a couple clicks. This one-stop system can take purchasing to a more personal level.

Ping Shming
A few aspects threw me for a loop, however. It definitely takes a little getting used to having the Ping app within a desktop app. Everything is conveniently in one window, but slowness and confusion can be issues. Besides the inevitable lack of artist profile participation, I also find it irking that you are directed toward the iTunes store rather than the profile page when searching an artist. Perhaps it’d be more convenient to have two search buttons: Store and Ping, because I’m not digging having to wait for the puny redirect tab to pop up.

Another weakness is the 30-second preview for listening. People may eventually use this network to find new music (if it expands its catalog), but to get to know a band, usually we listen to more than a couple of little baby clips of their songs. That’s the point when I’d scroll over to Grooveshark, Last.FM or even MySpace, who is now in hospice care.

What’s in Store?
Time can only tell what the future holds for Ping and its competitors. I really think it is a marketable initiative, but the network has a lot of maturing to do before users just give up. In only a couple of days, over 1 million people have registered and explored, but soon the wave of curiosity will wane, and time will shine a light on the true benefits of the model, or lack thereof.

My first blog post

Posted on: September 8th, 2010 by adam

Hooray! I’m blogging! But seriously, I haven’t completely decided the direction most of my posts will go on this blog. I think a good mix of business and pleasure would suit my page nicely and hopefully keep you readers coming back for more. Since this is my first foray into blogs, I hope my tech savvy co-workers will keep me from 404ing every link and image I post, but only time will tell. I also never claim to be a grammar expert and I also believe spell checker to be one of the greatest inventions ever, hopefully all of these will at least be coherent enough to get through from start to finish. So until I prepare a proper first blog post, thanks for stopping by and I hope to thrill you all with my upcoming posts. Your mind = blown!

Maybe If You Hit It

Posted on: September 8th, 2010 by Jason Williams 2 Comments

So my band “Maybe If You Hit It” has just wrapped recording our debut ep with producer/engineer Brett Hestla (Framing Hanley, Transmit Now). We’re currently continuing to write new music and fine tune our live show and shooting for our first performance sometime this November. The band is compromised of Barton and Scott formerly of Heroes of the Storm, Garrett from Irrational and myself formerly of In Violent Times and Goodbye She Said.

Cayman Islands at the 2006 Commonwealth Game

Posted on: September 8th, 2010 by Tim

So, I was told I had to write a blog post. Since I’ve never been much of a blogger, I had zero idea what to write about. Naturally, I went to the source of all things credible on these interwebz in search of a pertinent topic: Wikipedia. Hitting the best button on that website–the little used “Random Article” feature–I intend to tell you how whatever topic comes up has changed my life, for better or worse.

Drumroll please….

Cayman Islands at the 2006 Commonwealth Games

Sad day for the british colony, leaving the Commonwealth Games without a single medal. Now, before approximately 2 minutes ago I had never heard of the Commonwealth Games. However, I have been to the Cayman Islands once, in 2001. While that might not be 2006, it is still important to note that 2001 was a foundational year for me not just because of my trip to the Cayman Islands. It was my freshman year of highschool. That might date me as a youngin, but I’m okay with that. I entered the big world. Sporting a new haircut and a fresh backpack I took a step up from my lowly middle school, ready to mix and mingle with all the new faces that accompanied a new school, especially with the ladies. In that vein, my freshman year was similar to the performance of the Cayman Islands at the Commonwealth Games. I never scored.

I hope this has enriched your life.

Good day.

Caleb Owen Everitt – Inspiration

Posted on: September 8th, 2010 by Drew Smith

Caleb Owen Everitt (http://ceveritt.com/) is an immensely skilled in design. He’s based in Austin, TX and works with PTARMAK (http://www.ptarmak.com/). He’s a graphic designer specializing in product design. He creates some really amazing brands too. His work has a very contemporary feel to it. A lot of his work seems to almost have a history to it. He deserves to be checked out and bookmarked.

The Social Network Movie Review – The Facebook Movie review

Posted on: September 8th, 2010 by Kristina Doyle

What do Trent Reznor, Justin Timblerlake and “the other Michael Cera” have in common? Nothing besides all having a hand in The Social Network and this is my review.

Last night I was lucky enough to catch a pre-release screening of The Social Network, a film based on the turbulent events and relationships surrounding the birth and rise of Facebook. The movie is based on The Accidental Billionaires, a (reportedly loose) nonfiction book by Ben Mezrich.

For those expecting a point for point re-enactment of Facebook’s conception, I advise to take this film with a grain of salt. Like all things Hollywood, there is a considerable amount of embellishment and an added layer of gloss (The creator of Napster is no Justin Timberlake in real life). But if you’re willing to accept the movie’s instances as sort of “near-fact,” you’re likely to enjoy it thoroughly. David Fincher’s direction is on par with his previous works (notably Fight Club and Se7en), and Trent Reznor’s stylistic yet simple musical score keeps the films emotions securely fastened to the scenes that evoke them.

The only caveat to this adequate depiction is that Mark Zuckerberg as a character is too ambiguous. The films depiction of Mark Zuckerberg is not far from many peoples love hate relationship of Facebook. Viewers may find it difficult to decide whether Zuckerberg is supposed to be the honorable hero or the notorious villain. He comes off as having the sarcasm and whit of the techie-Harvard grad to make him likable, but at the same time is also that jerk in High School who cheats off your test and gloats about their “A+”. Today with over 500 million users, Facebook is still going strong and this film will garner a successful outcome as well.

Ultimately, I can’t say this is a movie that I love but it is definitely one that I “Like” (Yup. Totally had to throw that in somewhere) and a film worth seeing.

Keyword Research 1 Oh 1

Posted on: September 8th, 2010 by EJ

Only using automated tools to generate keyword lists? If so, you are missing a lot.

Don’t trust the tools. The fact is: searchers are human, keyword tools (and search engines) are computer programs.

Good keyword research combines the logic and vocabulary of the human mind, with the semantic structure and order of a computer program.

Unfortunately keyword research tools, including Google Adwords KW tool, only report high volume “broad match” keywords and ignore punctuation, plurals, and grammar. The keywords returned by these tools are high volume and are usually obvious suggestions related to your search topic. But do they directly related to your product? service offering? or place of business? (most likely not)

If you only copy and paste what comes out of any one single keyword research tool your search strategy will be filled with holes.

Humans search as they think, and Geo-targeted, action based, and proximity modifiers are all a part of the common searcher’s vocabulary. Pin-point your audience by optimizing your search campaign for the variations of your core-keyword, which are most directly related to your business, not just the most searched variation of the keyword.

Build comprehensive keyword list(s) by combining your list of broad core-keyword list(s) with modifier tokens such as

Examples:
Proximity modifiers
“near the”
“around the”
“by the”
“near a”

Action Modifiers
“make a”
“build a”
“get a”
“buy a”
“find a”

Location Modifiers
in Orlando
in Florida
in Tampa

How do you find out which modifiers are used more often than others? Stayed tuned to keyword research 1 oh 1 to learn more.

This post is part of a series related to keyword research and advanced keyword research.