So, you have a breaking news story, you blog about it, or tweet it, and your tweets could rank quite well on Bing for that event. Big news events have been tweeted before, and the tweets have been a major source of information. February I blogged about a guy using Twitter to inform the world of that plane crash in New York. This was a breaking news story, the folks at Fox News happened to see this guys’ tweets and contacted him for the story. This will potentially happen in real time, bringing the power of the web that much higher. Pretty cool, and it could mean some nice traffic and rankings for bloggers with a good following.

Google, not to be left out in the cold signed a similar deal with Twitter and will be including Tweets in search engine results.

It’s pretty cool because it describes how/why they’ll return URLS in SERPs even though a webmaster may have accidentally, or intentionally “blocked” it with the robots.txt.

I love debate!

So…

I would encourage everyone to read it, after checking out these sites where some of Nate’s work has similar footer “stamps” on their work. You’ll see “Reflect Your Site” and “Powered by Reflect CMS”, ironically even as a distraction on Nate’s own blog and websites. Mind you reflect is a CMS that Nate described as “his baby”, while interviewing for a job at TKG about a year ago.

http://www.nateklaiber.com/
http://www.nkbookreviews.com/
http://www.smerickson.com

So, is this a closely held belief?

Please also keep in mind that this is no reflection (pardon the pun) on Clear Function, the current developers of Reflect. They appear to do really nice work.

Should a web design agency place a link at the bottom of a site? Is it simply a “dark self serving” ad for the design agency? Or are there real business reasons to do it that only experience in the industry will prove out?

I can imagine how those relatively new to the web development industry may not have experienced the value that it adds to the end user, who we should all be focused on. Having been focused on the web development business for over 15 years being involved in the development and support of hundreds of sites, we have found this practice to be very useful for the visitors of our clients’ sites.

I can’t tell you how many times TKG has been contacted over the years by users seeking support that they are not able to obtain from our clients, because they do not have the infrastructure to provide 24/7 support. As a result of the nature of our industry, we have that infrastructure in place, and are able to become an extension of our clients’ customer support teams. For example; imagine a non profit who has an event coming up and announced it on their site. Of course, being a non-profit, and all that comes with that (low budgets, understaffed and over-worked work force) there are times that mis-information makes it’s way to a website via the content management system. It’s great to be a backup for our clients when they are unavailable to respond to consumers’ needs.

Is there a self serving aspect to it? Sure. Can it be a promotional tool? Yes. But if you are proud of your work, and your clients are proud of the work you have done for them, 99% of the time, they are happy to have it there. It is not all that different than building a portfolio, asking for a client referral, or including PR contact info in a professional press release for that matter.

Is it a shady link building tactic for search engine rankings? If you really understand link building, you’ll realize that the search engine ranking impact of these links would be nominal at best due to the lack of context.

These links should be appropriately positioned, and secondary to utility navigation, not the core focus of any page or part of main nav. I do agree that these links should not be placed without permission, and should always be removed at the first hint of a request by a client. It is after all their website, as Dennis Warner (Internet Director for WRL Advertising Agency) suggests. Read his point of view here.

However, if you have the resources to serve your clients to this degree, you have happy clients and you expect to be in web design business for the long term; my advice is to offer them this service.

If you do too, read this article on government run healthcare on cleveland.com.

We’re excited to be exhibiting and launching their new website on the 1st day of the show Today.

So, later this afternoon check out the new rubber.org. It’s far more usable and accessible than their current site.

So what’s the deal? Well, the deal appears to be that a lot of exchange of money and goods is going on in the social media arena. Everything from mommy bloggers recommending their “favorite” stroller, to celebrities tweeting about the best new restaurant in town. Sometimes these blogs or tweets are done in exchange for money, or many times, the item in question. I’m sure there are plenty of bloggers out there who would only recommend a product they truly liked, just as I am sure there are some who would take the money or item and say whatever the company wanted them to say. As for the celebrity endorsements, I have to be a bit more cynical. They know that whatever they lend their voice/name/tweet to can earn them some cash or other remuneration, and I’ll bet there are few who do it for free, or just for the heck of it.

The FTC is looking to make sure that people know and understand what is advertising, and what is not, as well as allowing themselves leeway to check into any social media activities such as posting a comment on a site or forum, and your tweets about the great new product you just tried could get you into trouble, especially if the FTC thinks you were paid or given the product. The proposed new rules are supposedly still in staff discussions at the FTC, but they could be in place as early as this month.

So, you, as a consumer and user of social media can tell when a product is being pushed, and when someone really likes it, I would hope. I mean, do we really need MORE government regulation, or can we manage to function as grown ups consumers in our own right? Sounds like a Freedom of Speech issue to me, just one more area where we are rapidly losing our freedom, and control over our own lives…

Possibly the best thing about most of them, is that they weren’t “staged” or created to go viral. It was natural.

By the way…for Grown-Ups only!

This measn that the use of social media must stop an hour and a half before a game, all during the game, and for 45 minutes after a game, and only after traditional media obligations have been fulfilled. So no, Lebron can’t text you back in the middle of the game. He’s too busy carrying the team on his back anyways.