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Social media sending less traffic, less clicks?

While analyzing website analytics on this blog and on other sites, I’ve noticed that, in year-on-year comparisons, website links within social media streams on Facebook and Twitter are getting less clicks. Despite more followers and more content activity.

Reasons?

I think many of us are nearing saturation point.

Sharing and liking functions are everywhere. More networks. More info. On top of all of the other to do lists and requirements and optimizations and check lists and productivity methods. The time I spend on browsing and exploring has decreased. Meanwhile, the supply of web content is infinite.

Gone are the days where I was in social media discovery mode. I haven’t downloaded Vine. Or tried Highlight. I didn’t even visit Pinterest since the re-design.

In addition, Facebook decides where to display posts, based on some secret algorithm based on some secret mixture of likes and previous behaviour. Maybe nobody sees my posts to start with cos i don’t have any fans/likes?

Another reason is that very often I no longer need to click the link to go to the site. I can read the article in my preferred app or reading environment.

A surfeit of social media?

Maybe. But IMHO there is also less interaction and engagement. The excitement of interacting online is no longer new. It’s pervasive. Ubiquitous.

And there’s the very real fear of losing privacy. And trolls. And spam. And corporations owning and reselling our data.

Free and open

Let’s not take our connected world for granted. Let’s not forget the benefits of connecting and linking with others.

Let’s acknowledge and thank our sources. Simple things like leaving a comment or adding a backlink. Creating and adapting rather than consuming.

What does it mean for communications at your day job?

First and foremost, do not assume that anybody is interested in your press releases, product announcements, emails or company fan page. We’re not. Remember, everybody has a tight schedule.

If you want to fail, assume they’re interested.

Give more than you take.

Make it easy to find and read your message. You need to be aware of best practises for good content, usability, on-page SEO, online advertising.

Be flexible. Try different distribution channels. If you think your potential audience is on Linkedin or on Pinterest, try it. Try new things. IMHO, you’ll need a mixed strategy of traditional, email-based and social media channels.

Keep playing. Keep testing. Keep iterating.

Related articles:
http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/b2b-social-traffic_b35539

http://blog.kissmetrics.com/email-crushes-social-media/

All The Marketing Statistics You Need To Know

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Moving from Google Reader to WordPress.com

Even though Google Reader showed up prominently in yesterday’s SERPs for “best free RSS reader”, someone at Google has decided to end the product life of Google Reader.

Heh Google Search! Google Reader is closing

It’s time to move on to a new RSS reader.

Several RSS readers managed to survive despite Google Reader’s dominance. And some new ones emerged. These tools are getting frequent mentions:

  • Feedly
  • NewsBlur
  • RSSOwl
  • Zite
  • The old reader

Digg decided to build a new reader the day Google announced the end of its Reader. In some ways, that’s the silver lining. RSS readers are getting more attention than in the past years combined.

WordPress.com

This is how you can import your RSS subscriptions into WordPress.com.

First, go to Google Takeout to download your Google Reader data:

google-takeout

The process is fairly straightforward.

Google Takeout

Click Download and save the zip file on your computer.

Google Takeout

Voilà. Saved the data for future use. Who knew! I’ve got 6.5 MB of shared Google Reader articles.

WordPress.com offers an RSS reader. I don’t know if I’ll make WordPress.com my RSS Reader, but there’s one advantage. I already have a login for WordPress.com. And it’s easy to try out. This is what I did to add my RSS subscriptions (not my past shared articles!) to WordPress.com:

Wordpress Reader

Click Import your subscriptions.

Wordpress Reader

I used the special service: Import your Google Reader sunscriptions directly.

I allowed WordPress.com to access Google Reader.

That’s it. Done.

Wordpress Reader

The challenge: so far WordPress.com isn’t in my regular flow of news sites that I visit. I use it for special photo projects, Akismet and Jetpack.

Article

e-bike rage, i haz it

velo toeff

I think i am developing a bad case of e-bike rage. Two days in a row, the same two e-bikes (bicycles powered by an electric engine) overtook me (cycling on a regular, muscle-powered bicycle) so closely, I thought they’d hit my bicycle handlebar.

This morning I was waiting at a red light. A car was standing in the lane next to me. Just when the robot lights changed to green, and i started to pedal away, an e-bike hurtled thru from behind between my bicycle and the car.

Next, just 2 minutes later, another e-biker on a black and white Cannondale had to overtake me in a small roundabout; while I was entering and exiting a roundabout. Kind of risky. Cos if i had taken the next exit, we would have collided.

And I am pretty certain I saw the same two e-bikers yesterday….

E-bikes are very popular here.

Please don’t overtake at junctions, robots or in roundabouts.

OK, thx bai.

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How to spend more time on the important tasks?

Multi-tasking between several assigned projects can lead to situations where project team members can’t spend enough on their prio 1 tasks. Obviously the best remedy is to assign enough time resources for a project. But in reality, lots of big and small tasks pile on. Urgent. Last minute. And your strategically important project gets sidelined.

prio-1-tasks

The question is:
How do you allocate enough time to your prio 1 tasks? Some things that work for me:

  1. Schedule and block time in your calendar for important projects
  2. Start your work day with the important tasks
  3. Set yourself reminders
  4. Seek active collaboration with other project members

Your tips?

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WP Jetpack comments blocked

If you get a message like this on your WordPress site:

Error 403

We’re sorry, but we could not fulfill your request for /wordpress/wp-comments-post.php?for=jetpack on this server.

You do not have permission to access this server. Data may not be posted from offsite forms.

Your technical support key is:

The security plugin Bad Behavior is preventing the comment from being published.

You can either 1) go to Settings > Bad Behavior and select this option:
Allow form postings from other web sites (required for OpenID; increases spam received)

Or 2) you can simply deactivate Jetpack Comments.

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