360DigitalInfluence

Last week Google announced it’s real time search feature, which I believe is set to forever change the way we think about and use search.

If you haven’t seen it in action yet I recommend you go to the Google home page and search for something topical like climate change.

In the results some movement should catch your eye and there they’ll be - real time search results. Take a moment to just sit back, relax and let the strangely compelling waterfall of information wash over you.

Once you wake from the dull, Google-induced trance you’ll have hopefully experienced an epiphany similar to mine:

Right at this moment people all over the world are talking about you, your business, your brand, your event, whatever it may be, and now as soon as they say it - Google will display it.

So how are we going to influence the conversation and harness the power of real time in 2010?

We have been fooling around with “What does the internet think?” a little bit in here for a bit of fun. And with the big news of the day being the Microsoft Windows 7 launch I thought I would see what the internet thought about Windows 7. Little did I know I would uncover a massive conspiracy.

My first search I used the fastest method, and asked the Internet to use Google only, and here is the result (click for a full size):

I thought to myself, “Gee, I didn’t think that the internet was that apathetic about Windows 7!”

So I thought I’d rerun the search based on Microsoft’s own search engine, Bing:

I smelt a rat. So the final search I took the slowest option and checked against ALL search engines:

Is there something fishy going on at Googleplex?

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Disclosure: Microsoft is an Ogilvy client, however they haven’t paid for or endorsed this post, but this blogger thought the results were extremely amusing. This blogger doesn’t really believe that Google is tampering with the scores… or are they?

While it originated half a world away, the H1N1 outbreak has spread internationally and in so doing has gripped the attention of people across the globe, including here in Asia and Australia.

Our Hong Kong team, lead by Chris Graves, President of Ogilvy PR in Asia, has put together a helpful and simple resource for getting the latest news and facts about the Swine Flu outbreak. What’s great about the Managing Through Flu dashboard is that it’s one place where everyone within Ogilvy - as well as the public - can find clear, official and fresh facts about Swine Flu from credible organizations, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO).  In a public health emergency, cutting through the clutter of 91,000+ mainstream press articles and more than 120,000+ blog posts to get the simple facts is important.

Here in Australia and across the Asia Pacific region, the Swine Flu is top of mind and a growing concern. I did a quick check of Google Trends, and here in Sydney specifically, the number of people searching for swine flu on Google now far outpaces searches for topics such as the economy - issues that have dominated the airwaves and conversation here for some time.  Check out the spike in searches here in Sydney specifically:

Here are a sampling of other Ogilvy bloggers from around the world who’ve posted about the Swine Flu outbreak:

Swine Flu “Dashboard” is Very Useful

Getting the Official Swine Flu News

The Federal Government, Politics and Swine Flu

Colleagues at Ogilvy just put together a swine flu page filled with links and RSS feeds

Whether you’re gearing up to launch a brand new blog, or you’ve been posting religiously over the past few years and have amassed a sizable audience, it’s always a good idea to take stock of the various ways to drive traffic and increase engagement on your blog.

I’ve created a list of 28 blog traffic and engagement driving tips that you can use to ensure you’re doing everything possible to generate ROI against the time and energy you’re investing by blogging. While this list is by no means comprehensive, it’s hopefully a good starting point and may spark some new thinking about how to get more people reading and engaging with your content.

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I’ve actually got quite a fair bit to share, but i suppose the details can be further articulated in later posts. What i want to share is perhaps key takeaways that i got from Your Blog™ as a blogger from each of the presenters.

Overall
i know the session was about marketing your blog, but a great sense i got from each presenter, was that they actually don’t make money from their blog, but rather, their blog was both personal branding and a marketing tool for who they are as people, as personalities.

My suspicion (correct me if i’m wrong) is that earning a living from blog advertising for personally owned blogs is a bit of a myth. Whether it’s a question of eyeballs or sustainability, all three bloggers who shared use their blogs as pieces of thought leadership, reputation and authority. Only Arti, who was an ex-journalist was paid for her professional writing skills.

Yongfook: 8 profound and live changing things that happened because of my blog
Yongfook was one of my original heroes when i first started blogging in 2003. Back then, he was still writing his crazy Japanese food blog posts, talking about dealing with isolation in a rural Japanese village, and i thought “I want that! I want a really fun blog!” And so that’s my key takeaway, even as Yongfook matured and evolved to his current lifestream, he’s always maintained that unique Yongfook personality.

Arti Mulchand: Write Right
Key takeaway: You don’t have to use long flowery language to be a good writer. A good writer communicates clearly, gives readers content that is easily understood and makes a point. One good method to sustain reader interest, is by ’scattering gold coins’. Give them a good reason to read the next paragraph. Always.

Design Sojourn: How to be a __________ superstar
Key Takeaway: Managing your blog’s branding / personality so that you’re not an expert, but an authority on your given subject. My personal take on Brian Ling’s insight, is that it’s hard to be considered an expert in the field without actual accreditation, but being an authority is more feasible, valuable even perhaps. It allows you to share your opinions confidently, while always being open enough for discussion. Sometimes it’s not always about having the final say in things and have your words treated as ‘gold’, but being regarded in your area of interest / field of expertise. And you can play your cards right, is to share knowledge, share good things, invite different opinions, distill for further insights and maintaining both online and offline relationships. So those Technorati links that add to your authority? There’s some truth to that system!

Toysrevil: Eh, You Singaporean Meh?
Key takeaway: Original content. Toysrevil is the embodiment of passion when it comes to sharing knowledge, opinions on all things toys. But what really struck me, was how he puts his personal stamp on each picture he takes of a toy. In some sense, there is only one such picture in the world, they each tell a story, and convey important information for those in the toy scene. Each picture is uniquely his, and i believe that has helped add fans to his growing fan-base.

All’s well that ends well
And those were the key takeaways i got from the speakers! I’m sure everyone’s got an opinion and some key takeaways! May i invite you to share what yours were if you were here at Your Blog™ with us?