Posted by Elena del Valle on June 29, 2012
The Art of SEO book cover
Is search engine ranking an art or a science? What is the secret? Opinions vary and the answers are elusive at best. Yet, many continue to seek them because of the power they provide those who find even a fraction of success. In August 2011, people performed 158 billion online searches (comScore) and that same month 1.3 billion souls each relied on a search engine search.
Toward deciphering the ever changing secrets of search engine optimization (SEO) four experts combined years of knowledge and insights in search engine optimization to compile the second edition of The Art of SEO Mastering Search Engine Optimization (O’Reilly, $49.99), a 688-page softcover book published March of this year. Eric Enge, founder and chief executive officer, Stone Temple Consulting; Stephan Spencer, founder, Netconcepts; Jessie Stricchiola, founder, Alchemist Media, Inc.; and Rand Fishkin, chief executive officer and cofounder, SEOmoz, are the authors.
Although they identify anyone involved in the search engine optimization process at any level, especially web developers, development managers and marketers, as the target audience for the book judging by the size and complexity of some of the sections the book is not for the faint of heart or those who lack time to read. The authors promise to address updates on recent changes in search engine behavior like ranking methods requiring user engagement and social media; insights on insider SEO issues; the inner workings of search engines; the role of social media, user data, and links; how to track results and measure success; understanding how changes to a site may confuse search engines; building an SEO team; and future trends.
They point out that online searches, many on Google, reach 88 percent of people in the United States and billions internationally. They go on to outline that the dominant search engines in July 2011 were, in descending order, Google (65 percent), Yahoo (16 percent), Microsoft (14.4 percent), Ask (2.9 percent) and AOL (1.4 percent); and that in August 2011, searches were generally of one (25.8 percent) or two words (22.8 percent). Keeping abreast of search engine changes requires constant monitoring and adaptation and being an early adopter is essential, they point out. At the same time the long delay between adopting search engine optimization strategies and seeing results can be daunting; measuring results is important and can influence future budget decisions, they point out in a later chapter.
The tome is divided into 14 chapters with a very brief conclusion at the end of each: The Search Engines: Reflecting Consciousness and Connecting Commerce; Search Engine Basics; Determining Your SEO Objectives and Defining Your Site’s Audience; First Stages of SEO; Keyword Research; Developing an SEO-Friendly Website; Creating Link-Worthy Content and Link Marketing; How Social Media and User Data Play a Role in Research Results and Rankings; Optimizing for Vertical Search; Tracking Results and Measuring Success; Domain Changes, Post-SEO Redesigns, and Troubleshooting; SEO Research and Study; Build an In-House SEO Team, Outsource It, or Both? and An Evolving Art Form: The Future of SEO.
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Posted by Elena del Valle on June 15, 2012
#tweetsmart book cover
Photo: O’Reilly
As social media fever continues nationwide figuring out how to participate in social media channels may be rising on the list of priorities of marketing departments. Twitter, one of the fastest growing social media sites, has become increasingly popular in business circles. Although many believe Twitter is not to be used for self promotion users write about their products and services all the time.
For example, the Swedish Institute and Visit Sweden, the government tourist agency, on the advice of a Volontaire, an advertising company, has recruited a different volunteer to be interesting, Twitter-literate and post in English each week. They have been the voice of the nation of nine million; and ranged from a high school student in Trollhattan, a town in western Sweden, to a 60 year old. Following the Swedish lead similar projects in Ireland, New Zealand and the city of Leeds in England are sprouting. (see Swedes’ Twitter Voice: Anyone, Saying (Blush) Almost Anything in The New York Times).
“The first tendency of most marketing teams is to transplant old strategies onto this new technology, which can be fatal,” said Jesse McDougall, a programer and web strategist from Vermont. “Would-be marketers on Twitter can do more harm than good in a very short amount of time. This new approach to marketing—one based in discovery instead of interruption—is only going to grow in popularity in the coming years.”
In #tweetsmart 25 Twitter Projects to Help You Build Your Community (O’Reilly, $19.99), an 85-page softcover book published this year, McDougall, discusses Twitter as a platform to connect with interested, influential people. He explores, in 25 short chapters, ways to meet and connect with others to build a community in ways that “are strategic, measurable and fun.” He shares several contest and promotional ideas, and discusses hashtag use, doing market research by inviting Twitter followers to share input, adlib, Haiku, discussion groups, Tweet Bombs, and photo sharing.
McDougall, who has 12 years of experience as a web designer, programmer, and web strategist, is author of eight books about conducting business on the web.
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Posted by Elena del Valle on June 8, 2012
The News and Public Opinion book cover
Photos:R. Lance Holbert, Wayne Wanta, Spiro Kiousis
Four academics, Max McCombs, R. Lance Holbert, Spiro Kiousis* and Wayne Wanta, discuss the effects of news media (print, television and radio) on public opinion in The News and Public Opinion Media Effects on Civic Life (Polity Books, $22.95). In the 210-page softcover book published in 2011, they address the public’s attention to news media, effects of media exposure on the gathering of information and forming of attitudes and opinions, and how these elements affect public life or how the process affects public opinion.
R. Lance Holbert, co-author, The News and Public Opinion
The authors point out that some media are suffering financially. In relation to news they refer to how the television networks news programs have decreasing audience numbers which have led to a loss of profitability and power. Soft news programs are more profitable and the networks remain focused on making a profit; also, older men are the most likely to watch network news programs and a young demographic is not following in their footsteps, they say.
Wayne Wanta, co-author, The News and Public Opinion
Cable news networks like CNN and Fox News have a role as well. Fox News viewers, according to a study by Jonathan Morris, were not was well informed as the viewers of other television news programs, followed specific voting patters, held specific political views and had a political perspective distinct from viewers of other news networks.
Public trust of news media is very low and entertainment content within public affairs has become popular because “the present practice of journalism is so poor,” the authors say in the first chapter. Citizen involvement in journalism has been greatly enhanced, and continues through the internet; the audience of news media is decreasing and to reach them segmentation, including by ethnicity and language, has become increasingly necessary, the authors say. In the Audiences for News chapter, they indicate their belief that ethnic-based news media will continue to grow.
Spiro Kiousis, co-author, The News and Public Opinion
Education plays a role in learning from the media and people with high levels of education learn more and at a faster rate than their counterparts with low educational levels, according to the authors who discovered that newspaper readers learn more than television audiences. Gender also plays a role, they believe, with men favoring hard news and women favoring soft news. The authors also discuss media selectivity and the importance of form versus content.
*Elena del Valle and Spiro Kiousis serve on the University of Florida Public Relations Advisory Council.
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Posted by Elena del Valle on June 1, 2012
Running Lean book cover
Photos: Newman Communications
Ash Maurya, who has launched several start up companies, is convinced that most new products fail because those that launch them waste energy and resources on the wrong product. Figuring out what products to introduce into the market and how can be done by developing a plan, identifying the high risk parts of the plan and repeatedly testing the plan, he believes. In the second edition of Running Lean: Iterate from Plan A to A Plan That Works (O’Reilly, $24.99), published March 2012 as part of The Lean Series, he explains his thinking on the topic.
The book, written for entrepreneurs, business managers, senior executives, small business owners and anyone seeking to start a business project, presents a process he thinks optimizes the way to quickly outline and define good product ideas, maximizing the chances of success. Most product launches that succeed are ones that adjust their plans before they run out of resources, according to the book.
In the book, Maurya sets out to provide detailed tactics on ways to figure out what potential customers want, how to conduct a good customer interview, addressing issues such as finding the prospects and overcoming mental blocks when speaking to them. Talking to people is important, according to the author who thinks that running surveys and focus groups may seem more efficient than interviewing customers, but isn’t the best approach.
Ash Maurya, author, Running Lean
The 206-page hardcover book is divided into four parts: Roadmap, Document Your Plan A, Identify the Riskiest Parts of Your Plan, and Systematically Test Your Plan; and 15 chapters. Maurya, founder, Spark59, has worked closely with entrepreneurs, assisting them to test and fine tune their vision.
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Posted by Elena del Valle on May 25, 2012
All Business Is Local book cover
Photos: Portfolio/Penguin, John Quelch and Katherine Jocz
I first heard about a chain of healthy fast food restaurants through a colleague across the country. Because of her high endorsement I tried the one nearest to me and liked it. Over time the food and service declined noticeably. I, and many others who used to stand in line there, stopped going. It doesn’t matter how popular the chain remains at the national level I no longer patronize it because the local restaurant is not to my liking. This might be what experts refer to when they say location matters.
Businesses, regardless of their size, must be local and global in order to thrive, according to John Quelch, dean, China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), and Katherine Jocz, a marketing consultant. In their book, All Business Is Local: Why Place Matters More Than Ever in a Global, Virtual World (Portfolio/Penguin Group USA, $25.95), published this year, John Quelch and Jocz explain their reasoning.
Katherine Jocz, coauthor, All Business Is Local
Too often companies focus on a global market and neglect local aspects, they say. The authors believe people shop at the stores that make sense to them regardless of the global efforts or reputation of the company that owns them or the brand. Location matters now more than ever, according to them. Place, they say in the Introduction, is “one of the most reliable bases for targeting and positioning decisions.” They stress that the more connected we become worldwide the more we will want to focus on local rather than global.
John Quelch, coauthor, All Business Is Local
Global brands like Real Madrid, Starbucks and McDonald’s are often local favorites because of their ties to the communities where they are located; adapting selections and menus to local tastes, buying locally, and employing locally are some of the strategies successful companies rely on, the authors say in the book.
The 248-page book is divided into one Introduction and five chapters: Managing Psychological Place, Managing Physical Place, Managing Virtual Place, Marketing Geographic Place, and Marketing Locally and Globally. Quelch was formerly associate dean of the Harvard Business School and dean of the London Business School. Jocz was formerly a research associate of the Harvard Business School and a director of networks and relationships at Marketspace.
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Posted by Elena del Valle on May 18, 2012
The Power of Self-Healing book cover
Photo: Teszler PR
Half of ill people if left alone will heal on their own. So believes a chiropractic and book author on the topic. Because traditional western medicine has focused on external healing most people are unaware of the power of their own bodies, he says.
Fabrizio Mancini, president, Parker College of Chiropractic, is convinced from personal experience and experience with patients that the human body has a built-in capacity to heal itself and that improving the body’s ability to heal can be controlled by each individual.
In The Power of Self-healing: Unlock Your Natural Healing Potential in 21 Days (Hay House, $24.95), published in 2012, the bi-lingual speaker explains his health theories and outlines his ideas on how readers can tap into their body’s own healing powers through: simple substitutions of daily diet-foods that he believes can contribute to a body’s ability to self-heal, the latest supplements he thinks can strengthen the body’s self-healing capacities, new insights into how physical activity floods the body with natural healing substances, the latest non-drug, non-invasive technologies he thinks can contribute to health, the power of the mind and spirit to heal the body, self healing case studies and his suggestions for a 21-day self-healing program.
The 280-page hardcover book is divided into four main parts Physical Self-Healing, Emotional Self-Healing, Spiritual Self-Healing and 21 Days to Self-Healing and 14 chapters. At the beginning of the book, Mancini, an immigrant from Colombia, shares a little about his arrival in the United States and why he decided on his path as a chiropractic and educator in life. In his opinion there is a basic difference between healing and curing; and there are three types of healing: physical, emotional and spiritual.
Exercise and diet can be good first steps toward self healing, according to the Texas resident. He dedicated the first chapter of the book to foods and the second chapter to things that he considered to have a detrimental effect or Anti-Healers. He discusses nutritional supplements, exercise and other forms of healing in the following chapters. Next he discusses the power of thoughts, emotions and in self-healing. He then addresses the role of creativity, forgiveness, gratitude, love including the importance of hugs and spirituality. The book ends with his recommendations for a 21-day healing program that includes a menu, supplements, exercise and a positive suggestion for each day.
A graduate of Parker College himself he is the co-author of Chicken Soup for the Chiropractic Soul and The Well Adjusted Soul; and author of Four Steps for Living a Fabulous Life.
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Posted by Elena del Valle on May 11, 2012
Plenitude book cover
Photos: Julietschor.org
Does owning things bring happiness? Does having the latest technological gadget and consumer goods satisfy us? Many of us think they do, at least in part. Juliet Schor, a sociology professor at Boston College, is convinced having time, information, creativity and community in abundance can be more rewarding than the conventional goods we have focused on to date. She proposes a change in attitude and behavior away from consumerism that she hopes will lead to an improvement in social, economic and environmental conditions nationally.
In Plenitude The New Economics of True Wealth (The Penguin Press, $25.95), her third book, she explores the concept of living a life scarce in conventional consumer goods and rich in other resources that emphasize nature, community, intelligence and time as a few pockets of people across the country were striving to do when she wrote her book.
In addition to the knowledge, work and experience she has collected over the years, writing the book required 16 months. The 258-page hardcover book published in 2010 is divided into five chapters: Introduction, From Consumer Boom to Ecological Bust, Economics Confronts the Earth, Living Rich on A Troubled Planet, and the Economics of Plenitude. In the book, she explains that the concept is not one of sacrifice.
Juliet Schor, author, Plenitude
Instead she believes the proposed paradigm that focuses on innovation, macroeconomic balance and multiple sources of wealth will lead to greater well-being than the previous approach which, in her opinion, has led to the decline of economic and natural environments.
“My thinking has evolved in this way: The long term stagnation, high unemployment that I predicted is being borne out. What I didn’t expect was how difficult it is to get the mainstream conversation around to shorter working hours,” said Schor by email when asked about her reflections on the subject after the publication of the book. “I suppose I am also feeling more pessimistic about a government response to climate change.”
The author believes that there is growing interest among Hispanics and African-Americans to the ideas in the book. Some of the community innovations are happening in places like the inner-cities of Cleveland and Detroit, she pointed out via email. At the international level she is aware of interest among Indians in India in some of the lifestyle changes she favors such as organic food and low-impact lifestyles.
Schor is studying the concept of working environmental sustainability and its relation to Americans’ lifestyles and the economy as well as the rise of a conscious consumption movement. She has been a consultant to the United Nations, the World Institute for Development Economics Research, and the United Nations Development Program. She is a co-founder and co-chair of the Board of the Center for a New American Dream, a national sustainability organization.
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Posted by Elena del Valle on May 4, 2012
The American Marketplace book cover
Television is the source of news for almost half of Americans, 22 percent of Americans rely on the internet for news and 18 percent of the population looks to print media for news, according to the 10 edition of The American Marketplace: Demographics and Spending Patterns (New Strategist, $89.95). The editors of the book used government sources to outline a population profile of the United States in one volume. The book’s main sources of information are: Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Center for Education Statistics, National Center for Health Statistics, and Federal Reserve Board.
The 611-page softcover book published in 2011 features hundreds of tables in 11 chapters covering attitudes, education, health, housing, income, labor force, living arrangements, population, spending, time use, and wealth. Accompanying the tables is analysis on the meaning of the data and summary conclusions reached by the publisher’s staff. For example, at the beginning of the book it says that in recent years overall happiness (though not marital happiness) has declined and many people are distrustful of others.
People believe hard work leads to success although fewer people identify with the middle class, the publisher’s analysts concluded in the book. The Housing Trends section indicates most people live in single family homes and many people live near open space and woodlands. In the Income Trends analysis it says nationwide there is more income inequality, all racial and ethnic groups have lost ground, homeowners between 45 and 54 years of age have the highest incomes, while income peaks in middle age.
The book includes the latest attitudinal data from the 2010 General Social Survey and the chapter on time use examines data from the 2009 American Time Use Survey. There is new data on the changing housing market and demographic profiles of those who own or rent their home; and up-to-date income and labor force data and 2010 census data of the Asian, black, and Hispanic populations. The spending chapter examines how spending patterns may be changing.
New Strategist Publications publishes other demographic data titles about consumers (for a recent example, see Book outlines Hispanic population major characteristics)
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Posted by Elena del Valle on April 27, 2012
Government Control of News book cover
Photos: News & Experts
Many people think there is complete freedom of expression for media in the United States. A former executive at the NBC legal department is concerned about what he describes as a “looming threat to free speech in the United States.
Corydon B. Dunham, who was NBC-TV’s legal counsel for 25 years, believes the proposed new Localism, Balance and Diversity Doctrine could eventually also affect news on the internet. According to him, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is reportedly planning to transfer the broadcast spectrum used by local television to the Internet hoping to convert it into our country’s main communications platform, and the agency has started to regulate the internet.
In his 282-page softcover book, Government Control of News: A Constitutional Challenge (iUniverse, $21.95), Dunham discusses the evolution of government control of television news and the Fairness Doctrine. The book, published in 2011 and the result of a study initiated at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars at the Smithsonian Institute, examines the history of the Fairness Doctrine, the rules by which the federal government regulated TV journalism. Similar rules had governed radio news since 1934 and were applied to TV in 1949 by the Federal Communications Commission.
“TV was a powerful new medium and there were only a few broadcast stations in many communities. It was thought that this gave unusual power to station and network owners,” Dunham explains. “The government justified the Fairness Doctrine as a way to ensure stations aired opposing viewpoints on issues.”
He explains in the book that in 1987, the FCC unanimously revoked the Fairness Doctrine, with court approval, after determining the doctrine had deterred news reporting on controversial issues, and had been used on multiple occasions to suppress viewpoints and help officials pursue their own political objectives. It took Congress two decades but it seems legislators are ready to revive the Fairness Doctrine in the form of the Localism, Balance and Diversity Doctrine, proposed in 2008.
“It has many of the same characteristics of the old Fairness Doctrine and can be expected to have similar results,” said Dunham. “News broadcast by television stations would have to meet government criteria for ‘localism’ – local news production and coverage – as well as a regulatory balance and diversity of viewpoints. A three-vote majority of five FCC commissioners at a central government agency would make local news judgments and override those of thousands of independent, local TV reporters and editors.”
Corydon Dunham, author, Government Control of News
A local board at each station would monitor programming, including news, and recommend against license renewal if the station did not comply with FCC policy; in 2011, the FCC-sponsored Future of Media Study recommended the localism doctrine proceeding be ended; and the present chief of the White House regulatory office recommended that the government regulate news to advance its political and social objectives, according to Dunham.
“The president, Congress and the FCC have also agreed to transfer the entire broadcast spectrum (currently used by TV stations) to the Internet over the next 10 years. If the localism doctrine is adopted, it could apply to the Internet and its participants as users of the FCC-controlled spectrum.”
Dunham is convinced that requiring journalists to comply with a central government agency’s policy on how to report the news will impede those journalists from being free and independent.
“As the Fairness Doctrine broadcast history shows, the threat of loss of license will deter station news coverage, particularly of controversy, and the public will lose news and information. If the broadcast press is not free and independent of government, it cannot act as a watchdog for the public, which is its constitutional role.”
The book is divided into seven chapters: Television Journalism Begins, Regulation of Television News Content Upheld by the Supreme Court, How FCC Regulations Suppressed News and Speech, Congressional Investigations and Censorship, Executive Branch Censorship, The FCC Revokes the Fairness Doctrine, and New Government Threats; and four appendices.
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Posted by Elena del Valle on April 20, 2012
Giving 2.0 book cover
Giving can be challenging I discovered last year when searching for a home for a small grant. Potential recipients often balked when asked to share basic information about their organization’s mission and leadership. Those who were willing to respond to initial vetting queries required one year or longer before they were able to apply the monies and others still wanted to receive funding with no strings or almost no strings or reporting requirements attached. What is an individual wishing to donate to a good cause while ensuring the monies reach a responsible recipient matching the giving goals to do?
Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen, author, Giving 2.0: Transform Your Giving and Our World (Wiley’s Jossey-Bass, $25.95) offers some answers in her book. As a young adult she was inspired to devote much of her time to philanthropy by her parents. Although she felt “frustrated and isolated” following the death of her mother at the beginning of her journey of giving she pressed forward to a solution by creating an organization to assist individual donors.
Eventually her efforts led her to write the book published October 2011. Her main goal in writing the book was to assist readers who already had decided to give on how to do so effectively. She defines giving as a donation of any amount of money, skills, networks, expertise or time. Anyone who gives anything is a philanthropist, she says in the book.
In the book, Arrillaga-Andreessen refers to a website related to the book in which she promises additional information about the issues she discusses in Giving 2.0 and updates on the topic. She identifies the sections of the book for which she has information on the website with a “Giving 2.0” icon. According to the information in the book, the author plans to donate all the royalties resulting from the sale of the book to philanthropic organizations.
The 312-page hardcover book is divided into nine chapters: Giving Yourself, Connecting the Drops, Charting A Course, Determining A Destination, Game Changers, Something Ventured, Changing Minds, Family Matters, and In the Trenches; and four appendices.
Arrillaga-Andreessen, president, Marc and Laura Andreessen Foundation is a director of the Arrillaga Foundation and a board member of Sand Hill Foundation, Stanford University School of Education, SIEPR (Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research), Women’s Health at Stanford Medical Center, and an Advisory Council Member of the Global Philanthropy Forum, according to her biography. She is also a contributing author of Local Mission, Global Vision – Community Foundations in the 21st Century.
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