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Moving at the Speed of Social Media...

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The folks at Socialnomics have outdone themselves again. Their popular video Social Media Revolution has recorded nearly 2 millon views since it was in July of 2009. They just released an update (view video below) packed with new information like:

• Facebook tops Google for weekly traffic in U.S.
• 1 in 8 couples married in the U.S. met via Social Media
• If Facebook were a country it would be the world's 3rd largest
• 50% of mobile Internet trasffic in the UK is for Facebook

Have a look at the (updated) video and let us know where you think Social Media is headed next!

What do you think? Where is Social Media headed next?

Who Does Search and Social Media Data Say Will Go Home Tonight?

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American Idol Season 9 is quickly coming to a close. With only 3 contestants left, the competition is growing in intensity. On last night's show the final 3 contestants sang 2 solos a piece, one of which the contestants chose and one that the judges chose for them.

Lee DeWyze sang "Simple Man" and "Hallelujah"

Crystal Bowersox sang "Maybe I'm Amazed" and "Come to My Window"

Casey James sang "Daughters" and "OK, It's Alright With Me"

The judges praised Lee's performance of "Simple Man" and gave Crystal mostly positive remarks for her performance of "Come to My Window," but they were not impressed with Casey's rendition of "OK, It's Alright With Me."

Again this week we looked at social media and search data to determine who we believe will be going home tonight. Who do you think will make it to the finale?

If you have been keeping up with Season 9 please share your thoughts by commenting below. But before you do, check out the facts from search and social media data that we have gathered below.

 It looks like though Crystal was the clear front runner in the beginning of the season, Lee has been gaining momentum in recent weeks. Casey is clearly falling behind in popularity and will likely be the contestant to go home tonight.

According to a Tweet from Access Hollywood, Lee and Crystal are taking the lead:

 **If you are a new reader to ymarketing's American Idol Prediction Project, check out our past blogs to understand how our Idol Prediction Project works, and how it led to the correct upset prediction of Kris Allen over Adam Lambert in 2009.

American Idol: Who Will Be Eliminated Tonight? Let’s Ask Twitter and YouTube

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With only 4 contestants remaining we’re nearing the end of American Idol Season 9.  On last night’s episode (5.11.2010), Grammy and Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx returned as a guest mentor to help the final four prepare to sing hit songs from popular movies.  Each contestant sang a solo and a duet.  The judges were unimpressed with the solos but gave rave reviews for the duets.

The four finalists include: Crystal Bowersox, Lee DeWyze, Casey James, and Michael Lynche.

Who do you think will be eliminated tonight? We want to hear from you!  If you have been following American Idol Season 9, please comment below and tell us who you think is going to be the next American Idol. But before you do, check out the facts we have gathered from our search engine and social media data.

Celebrity Twitter Endorsements:

Justin Bieber recently tweeted about how amazing one of Crystal’s performances was.

Alex Lambert, a former contestant, showed his support for Lee calling him the “next idol.”

Lindsey Lohan showed her support for Casey by simply calling him “American Idol.”

Momentum is building in Twitter and YouTube

The most compelling numbers lay within Twitter and YouTube.  While Crystal was the front runner for weeks, Lee seems to be catching momentum; making this somewhat of a 2 horse race.  Casey comes in behind both in sheer search and social media numbers but Michael seems to be trailing them all.  If the momentum continues Lee DeWyze just may take the coveted title of American Idol over season-long frontrunner Crystal Bowersox.
What do you think?  Will our actually predict the outcome of American Idol Season 9? 

**If you are a new reader to ymarketing's American Idol Prediction Project, check out our past blogs to understand how our Idol Prediction Project works, and how it led to the correct upset prediction of Kris Allen over Adam Lambert in 2009. 

Can Google & Twitter Continue to Predict Who Will Be Voted Off American Idol?

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And then there were 6...

As the 2010 Season of American Idol comes to a close there is no shortage of speculation as to who will take the coveted title of American Idol 2010. On Tuesday night's episode (4/27/2010), the contestants each sang a Shania Twain song and America then voted for their favorite performers. The votes are now in and the top 5 will be revealed tonight.

If you have been keeping up with American Idol Season 9, please tell us who you think will be eliminated this week by commenting below. But before you do, check out the facts we gathered below.

NOTE: If you are a new reader to ymarketing's American Idol Prediction Project please check out our past blogs to understand our Idol Prediction Project works, and how it led to the correct upset prediction of Kris Allen over Adam Lambert in 2009.

What the data tells us about tonight:

After reviewing our search and social media indicators it appears that tonight Crystal and Lee will safely make it into the top 5. Michael and Aaron, on the other hand, are most likely to be in the bottom three; leaving a toss-up between Casey and Siobhan for the remaining spot in the bottom 3.

What is Twitter telling us?

AC Television said:
@AC_TV: People Get Ready Crystal Bowersox; Best American Idol Performance of All Time: Review on... http://bit.ly/9bNJZR

According to the Adam Lambert fan site:
@_adam_lambert_ Why Lee Dewyze Will Win 'American Idol': Crystal Bowersox might be the front-runner, but so was Adam Lambert... http://bit.ly/c25LgE

What do you think?

Agree or disagree with our data? What other data points would you like us to explore? Post your comment below and together we'll track how American Idol Season 10 plays out.

Put the Prediction Team to work for you

If we can use search and social media data to predict the results of American Idol, imagine what we can do to predict trends in your industry. Contact us today to find out how we can help you improve your presence online through search and social media.  

Favorite FREE Social Media Tools for 2010

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It seems that there are more Social Media Tools on the market today than there are Starbucks, so it's more important now than ever to save time (and money) to find the tools that excite even most experienced Social Mediaphiles.

That's why ymarketing would like to share some of our favorite (and free!) Social Media Tools for 2010, in no particular order. Some of these tools have been out for some time, while others are brand spanking new. The purpose of this blog is to promote Social Media tools that will make your life easier and more fun, thus the categories will be somewhat random, but their effectiveness will not. Enjoy!

Great all-in-one comprehensive browser for real-time and social web. Tweetdeck allows users to open their Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace accounts all in one directory.

  Productivity enhancement service for Social Media users. Hootsuite Helps organize, schedule, and deliver content through Facebook and Twitter.

  bit.ly is one of the first, and still our favorite, URL shortener for tracking and analytics.

  Voice interface technology that let's you instantly acces your Facebook and Twitter accounts simply by speaking into your phone. Vlingo is a great hands free option for mobile tweeting on the go.

Allows multiple people to communicate through corporate Twitter accounts and stay in sync while doing so. No dropped balls with CoTweet, no stepping on each other's toes.

flickr creative commons search is a great place to find free photos (under a creative commons license) that you can use in blog posts, presentations, etc.

Great competitive intelligence for twitter is what Topsy gives you. Keep your social media ear to the ground with this excellent tracking tool. 

Want to see how popular you are on twitter? Wefollow allows you to view categorical rankings of who's hot on Twitter. 

For those of you who are interested in everything social media tools, and want a few suggestions of some great paid tools, here you go:

  Flowtown is a super cool tool allows you to take a random person's email address and quickly determine what social networks that person is on, as well as name, age, gender, and occupation. (I believe it costs $15 a month)

Dashboard program for your Social Media account, Swix promote it as Google Analytics for Social Media. We love the scorecard aspect of it. ($10 a month)

American Idol Influentials: Adam Lambert Impacts Google News

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American Idol Season 9? February 2010? Sorry, we had to question that ourselves when we looked at the search and social media data following American Idol's Guys Top 12 show. Why?

Show contestant Todrick Hall is running neck and neck with pre-show favorite Andrew (don't call him Andy) Garcia in Google News results. Garcia earned that popularity with a bold, acoustic version of Paula Abdul's "Straight Up" during the Hollywood Auditions. But Hall? We didn't see that coming.

That's the beauty of this American Idol Prediction Project, we never know what we'll find in the data. Turns out Adam Lambert tabbed Hall as his "favorite", on a day when the man that beat him out for American Idol Season 8, Kris Allen, headlines the performances on the results show.

Twitter & Blog Data Predict First Guys to Leave Show

If you read our prior post noting the American Idol Top 12 Girls we think are in trouble in tonight's elimination, you'll know that we wanted to use social media and news data early on this year while the search trend data builds. We narrowed down the list of the two girls that will leave tonight to the three most likely, with another two on the fence. With the guys, it's more difficult to discerne which two will leave American Idol this week.

We would assume that any Guy with both good Twitter mentions and news result lift (over baseline, lowest news results by Michael Lynche) would be safe. While any American Idol Top 12 Guy with low numbers on both would be in trouble. But what do you do with the Guys who have mixed data? Please, look at the chart below and tell us what you think. Here's what we see:

Safe: Andrew Garcia, John Park, Tim Urban, Alex Lambert, Casey James.

Bottom 3 Bound:  Jermaine Sellers and Lee Dewyze.

Mixed Data:  The rest of them, who knows. To us Tyler Grady and Joe Munoz seem most at risk, followed by Aaron Kelly and Michael Lynche (although their Twitter pull should keep them safe this week).

Our Prediction: Of the two Guys leaving, they'll come from the group of Sellers, Dewyze, Grady and Munoz. 

Google & Twitter Predict Who'll Be Voted Off American Idol | ymarketing.com

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Finally! That's about all you can say if you're a fan of American Idol. Finally, there's more to talk about than Ellen and Simon. Finally, we get to Hollywood, get on with the competition, and get to vote some contestants off the show.

On Tuesday night American Idol showcased the Top 12 Girls, followed by the Top 12 Guys on Wednesday and a Thursday night elimination show where two from each group will be headed home. If you watched the show, tell us who you think is leaving this week with your comments below. But before you do, check out these facts.

NOTE: If you are a new reader to ymarketing's American Idol Prediction Project please check out our past blogs to understand our Idol Prediction work, and how it led to the correct upset prediction of Kris Allen over Adam Lambright last year.

Tweet Volume

We like to use TweetVolume as one quick and easy measure of popularity. The only drawbacks are you can't customize date ranges and you can't distinguish positive Tweets from negative ones. Still, it's a great tool for the pulse of the masses.

Looking at Tweet Volume following the American Idol Girls Top 12 show, we see some clear winners and losers. Ashley Rodriguez owns Twitter with 132,000 micro blog mentions, outpacing her nearest challenger, Janell Wheeler, by 3-to-1. (No surprise, as Randy Jackson called her "Simon's girl" on the show, in reference to his comments thus far in the competition.)

Besides Rodriguez and Wheeler, the only other Idol Girls showing Twitter strength are the young teenagers, Haeley Vaughn and Katie Stevens. Some Twitter activity centers on Lacey Brown, Lilly Scott and Didi Benami but the rest are off the RT radar.

News & Google News

This year we'll be taking a look at how the media can shape public opinion and influence who becomes the next American Idol. Case in point, Crystal Bowersox. This wholesome, natural musician from Ohio has one of the lowest Twitter mentions and appears to be the contrarian; perhaps the most anti pop-idol of the group. However, her guitar-harmonica rendition of "Hand in My Pocket" by Alanis Morissette struck a note with the press, placing Bowersox in headlines and lead images on USA Today, Newsday and more. (Perhaps no surprise, as her interaction with her young son has been one of the heart-warming stories of Season 9 to date.)

The net result of Bowersox's media coverage? She's safe. Looking at all News mentions and then again at just Google News articles within 24 hours of the show, Bowersox leads the news coverage. For our data chart below, we took the lowest number of news mentions as a baseline and noted incremental mentions. Our theory was there is some amount of press that all the Top 12 girls get, regardless of popularity, and we prefer to measure lift.

Who's in trouble? Google News Predicts the Bottom 3 Girls

Take a look at our Tweet Volume and News Heatmap. It clearly shows that Michelle Delamor, Paige Miles and Katelyn Epperly should plan on wearing comfortable shoes Thursday night, as they may never see the safety of the couch. The only other two that could slip into this bottom 3 appear to be Lacey Brown and Siobhan Magnus.

What do you think?

Agree or disagree with our data? What other data points would you like us to explore? Post your comment below and together we'll track how American Idol Season 9 plays out.

American Idol Judges Heat Up Google & Twitter | ymarketing.com

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Will Ellen or Simon Emerge as the Leader in Web Searches & Tweets

• Simon Cowell - Will he leave after this season? What about that contract?
• Ellen DeGeneres - Will she bring value to the viewers and How much will her Twitter Army affect this year's outcome?
• Paula Abdul - Will America miss her? Did she get a raw deal?
• Randy Jackson and Kara Dioguardi - How much attention can they attract amongst these dynamic personalities?

American Idol Trend & Research Methodology

Readers that followed this ymarketing Predicting Idol Winners blog series last year are familiar with our approach; we use online research tools that measure the impact and scale of searches, comments and buzz around an individual (or a brand) and assess their relative popularity online. While some of our much larger competitors used only search engine data to compile their predictions last season - and got it all WRONG, picking Adam Lambert as the winner - we focused instead on a much broader picture of online interest, factoring in data from Digg, Facebook, Twitter, iTunes, blogs and other social media.... and arrived at the documented CORRECT prediction that Kris Allen would win Idol.

Who's the Judge On Fire?

As USA Today's recent article and Idol Chatter Blog noted, the buzz this season is "all about the judges as Ellen arrives" and "Simon Cowell's exit." You might think that Simon Cowell would lead all judges in terms of popularity and buzz - especially with all the contract talk of late - but by Google and Twitter standards it's all Ellen. Worldwide interest in Ellen appears to have its epicenter in Canada, followed by the US, Singapore, Australia and South Africa.

The Most Tweets?

Ellen DeGeneres is by far and away the leader on Twitter as well. Hmmm, with three Twitter accounts of her own including @TheEllenShow (4 million followers), @Ellen_DeGeneres (85K) and this fan site @EllenFans (34K), I guess this Twitter thing actually works, huh? Simon, in contrast, appears to have just 21K followers @Scowell1 and four tweets to his name (lame, come on Simon!).

Twitter volume with the first names of the judges

Twitter volume with the full names of the judges

Digg

Digg - with a large following of over 40MM unique visitors - is another quality measure of online popularity. And the Idol Heatmap for Digg clearly shows Simon out front, followed by Ellen and Paula, with Randy and Kara bringing up the rear. 

Paula Interest Still High

Paula Abdul pulls in the 3rd place rank overall in interest in search and social media with relatively strong showings in both Twitter and Digg, while Randy and Kara are nearly non-existent.

Idol Interest

So what do you think? Will Simon and Ellen continue to dominate headlines throughout the year or will the contestant chatter takeover in coming weeks? Did anyone emerge in the debut show you think can draw significant interest?

If you are keeping score at home, for now it's:

• Simon Cowell - Digg #1
• Ellen DeGeneres - Google #1, Twitter #1
• Paula Abdul, Randy Jackson & Kara Dioguardi - So far in a clear trailing position
  

The New ROI of SEO and Social Media | ymarketing

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In poll and after poll of marketers and business decision makers alike, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) comes out on top or near the top in terms of ROI. But how do we really know? How does an organization measure the ROI of an SEO initiative? And with mounting evidence of the impact Social Media has on Search Marketing, how do we measure the ROI of Social Media initiatives?

ymarketing conducted extensive research on the web from July to October of 2009 looking for the definitive answer for Return On Investment from SEO and Social Media (looking for ROI calculators, case studies and other research) and, aside from a bevy of polls citing the high ROI value of SEO, were surprised to find that there seem to be no great standards or agreed upon methodologies.

TopRank poll on the top digital marketing tactics in 2009

Your Input Sought

In the first of a series on the topic, we'll share some of the evidence we uncovered and invite readers to contribute their own innovative ideas, experience and evidence that they've found. If you'd like to participate, leave a comment below and add it to the discussion.

What's Coming Up

In part 2 of the series we'll cover the traditional methods that SEO practitioners use - ranked keyword lists and other forms of measurements that, by today's real-time web standards, look pretty crude and unscientific. We'll also de-mystify the confusion around ROI and ROAS (Return on Advertising Spend) and evaluate if there is a meaningful distinction between the two.

SEMPO Study on top three marketing tactics for 2009

In part 3 of the series we'll delve into solutions: new methodologies, tools and solutions companies are using to track, measure and quantify the value of their SEO initiatives, including exploring a topic we like to call organic keyword monetization.

Because of the tight partnership between Social Media and Organic Search, a part of this discussion will be focused on exploring a topic raised by David Spark in an article "Social media success doesn't start with ROI" which highlights the troubles in using old media metrics in a new media world.

There is consensus about the value of SEO... but how do we measure it in our own businesses?

6 Ways Businesses Must Leverage LinkedIn | ymarketing

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LinkedIn has quietly posted some very impressive numbers once again.

Sure, Twitter gets all the media attention, but it's warranted given its explosive 802% year-over-year growth. But LinkedIn's 89% YOY numbers look remarkable when compared to anything but Twitter or Facebook. But look deeper at the numbers and you'll find that LinkedIn actually grew 6Xs faster than Twitter in August, and 4.5Xs faster in July, according to compete.com

Consider LinkedIn's vitals (as of August 2009):

• 27 million total users
• 14.2 million users in August 2009
• Representing all 500 of the Fortune 500 (how many companies can say that?)
• Average stay: Over 7.3 minutes per visit
• Visits per person, per month: Over 3.7
• Pages per visit: Over 13

• Rank: #67 among all websites (ahead of USA Today, Southwest Airlines, HP, Wells Fargo, TicketMaster, Priceline and MLB.com mid-summer)

But this isn't meant to be one more blog raving about LinkedIn's interconnected networking prowess. What we're looking at is LinkedIn's power to elevate your business for free; specifically to lend search equity from LinkedIn's mighty vault into your company website's SEO account.

Here are six (6) ideas you can implement to improve your website's search equity leveraging LinkedIn:

1. Company Page

Within LinkedIn your company page serves as a "cliff notes" version of your website and as a valuable "peek inside your company" as it will contain links to the individual LinkedIn profiles of each of your team members who has associated their individual profile with the company's. This serves you well as long as the page is kept up-to-date and as long as individual members keep their profiles in good shape. We recommend businesses ask all key employees to setup profiles, keep them up to date, and associate them with company page.

2. Anchor Text

Nearly every LinkedIn user knows they can include their company website (example shown), but the common setting does not give your company's site as much value as it can. By selecting "Other" instead of "My Company" you can use descriptive text, keywords that describe your business. After all, you don't want your website to be found for the term "My Company", do you?

The way to really leverage this idea is to get everyone in your company using the same keywords, the same descriptive text. This works because of the inherent Search Equity that LinkedIn has earned (and passes each time it links to your site) and because of the extra value search engines place on keywords placed within anchor text (the descriptive text that contains a hyper link).

3. Join a group, Create a Group

As our good friend from Hubspot Pete Caputa says so well, "LinkedIn Groups are an amazing opportunity to build an opt-in email list quickly. (Almost like the early days - late 90s - of email list building.) If you're into internet marketing... you should join the HubSpot Pro Marketers list." (nice plug, Pete!)

"You should also start your own group about a topic related to your business, which would interest your target prospects," Caputa notes. "LinkedIn Groups spread quite virally throughout LinkedIn because group badges automatically display on members' profiles. Once your list is built, you can gently promote your educational content, blog, etc. For example, if you sell software to accountants, create an 'All Star Accountants' group or something along those lines."

4. LinkedIn Answers

Answer a question and your connections will see it in their Network Updates feed. LinkedIn rewards quality; you will gain expertise points when the person asking the question votes your answer as the "best answer".

5. Network Updates

These are the LinkedIn equivalent of your Facebook Status update, or your latest update on Twitter, and they tell your entire network what you're up to. This is a great place to let people know of your latest blog post.

6. Direct Advertising

While the minimum advertising level used to be $50,000 a month, LinkedIn has followed Facebook's lead and rolled out an innovative new advertising platform they call "Direct Ads" that, at a $50 minimum and a pay-per-action / pay-per-click model, is affordable to a much broader array of businesses.


Ads are simple to create, targeting is powerful and relatively simple, and the scale and access to high profile decision makers is unparalleled on any network.

We've been running these paid campaigns on LinkedIn and Facebook for our clients and have developed a testing strategy that works. With the right strategy and attention, you should be able to recognize results from your paid social network efforts as well.

Feedback
What do you think? How are you utilizing LinkedIn in your business? Do you have some great ideas we missed? We'd love to hear from you and add to this list...