Mediaboss Marketing

Much like in the console vs PC, iOS vs Android, and Mac vs Windows battles, there are social network fanboys. There are Facebook fans who scoff at Twitter, Twitter fans who think Google+ is a ghost town, and G+ fans who think the other social networks are for less evolved creatures. In fact, it gets so bad sometimes that members of the media have cheekily referred to these conversations as battles in the Social Networking War. Graphic Designer Aaron Wood is no stranger to social networks, but seeing these verbal and literal skirmishes over social networks drove him to put together a collection of fantastically amusing social propaganda posters in a book.

The book, titled They Wanted a War, So I Made it a War is a collection of 26 posters with a page explaining the inspiration behind each. These posters look like propaganda posters, with each social network as a warring faction. Its brilliant in a satirical, social commentary sort of way.

Each of the posters has an original design that incorporates highly recognizable themes from each of the social networks, like Googles +1 and Facebooks thumbs up. Wood doesnt just focus just on Twitter/Google/Facebook, the book also shows love to sites like Pinterest and some extra love for pop culture items like Doctor Who. Each of the images in the book offers a great laugh, and a sobering realization that whether or not someone likes your social network really isnt that important.

They Wanted a War, So I Made it a War is available in his Etsy store for $40, and each image in the book can also be bought from his store in 11 x 14-inch poster size.

Pick it up at Etsy.

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Social networking propaganda posters were designed to win likes and minds

Summary: Search Exchange is an Internet marketing conference you dont want to miss! Mark your calendars, because its coming up soon.

If youre an Internet marketer, then youre going to want to mark your calendar for July 23-25. For the third year in a row, Search Exchange will be taking place right here in Charlotte, NC. This year, there will be speakers from Microsoft and Google, as well as a whole slew of industry heavyweights, such as Wil Reynolds, Neal Rodriguez, Jim Boykin, Steve Plunkett, and many more.

Check out the following excerpt from Wil Reynoldss presentation last year regarding link-building:

Besides the fact that the conference is held in my home town, one of the reasons I prefer it over others is because of the intimate setting its held in. The primary benefit of that is the openness of dialogue that transpires and the juicy bits of info you get from it. For instance, last year, Rand Fishkin shared a really great tip about getting videos to rank in Google but he asked the room to promise not to tweet about it (and we didnt). In that regard, Search Exchange is somewhat akin to a well-kept secret, but I dont think thats going to last much longer.

If youd like to attend, then head on over to the Search Exchange Web site where you can register. Ticket prices are as follows:

3-day event ticket: $500 1-day event ticket: $250

As for the agenda, here are the topics that will be covered each day (click to see who will be speaking on each day):

Day 1: SEO Day 2: Social Media Day 3: Analytics and PPC

And last of note, yours truly will be presenting this year (day 1, in the 10:00-10:45AM time slot)! The kind folks running Search Exchange were gracious enough to allow me to discuss a topic that should blow the minds of those attending. If youve kept up with any of my past coverage, in relation to the types of information Im capable of digging up with search engines, then you have at least some idea of what Ill be discussing. If not, however, then prepare to be shown a completely different side of Google, Bing, and the world of search in general.

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Search Exchange 2012: SEO, social media, and more

20-06-2012 13:54 MJ Gottlieb from N2ITIV SOLUTIONS talks about what he calls "the myth of Internet Marketing." Many people believe that to enter into Internet Marketing means they must know about SEO, Keyword Research, Building Backlinks, and the other various technical aspects of the digital platform. In this video MJ talks about what Internet Marketing really is which is, quite simply, "Marketing On The Internet." More specifically, taking your product, your service, your skill and/or your knowledge and bringing it in front of the largest viewing audience we have available on Earth... The Internet.

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MJ Gottlieb - The Internet Marketing Myth - Video

20-06-2012 22:01 (3BL Media) June 15, 2012 - Michelle Sullivan, Senior Director, Corporate and External Relations of The Boston Beer Company sat down for an interview at the 2012 Cause Marketing Forum Conference, which took place May 30th and 31st in Chicago, IL. The annual Cause Marketing Forum is the must-attend conference of the year focusing solely on this increasingly important marketing approach and subset of corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts. Appropriate for both novice and seasoned cause marketers, the annual Cause Marketing Forum covers a wide range of topics featuring expert cause marketing speakers and discussion group leaders. More than 500 attendees gained insight from marketing and corporate social responsibility professionals from Zynga, Procter & Gamble, Campbell's Soup Company, Whirlpool, ANN Inc., Yum! Brands, The Coca-Cola Company, AOL/Huffington Post Media Group and other companies. Nonprofit speakers included representatives from US Fund for UNICEF, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, KaBOOM!, ACCION, World Wildlife Fund, DoSomething.org, March of Dimes, Adopt a Clasroom and others. Cause Marketing Forum, Inc., producer of the Cause Marketing Forum conference and Cause Marketing Halo Awards, helps business and nonprofit executives succeed together by providing access to practical information and inspiration, opportunities to build valuable relationships and recognition for outstanding work. A wealth of information on cause marketing and CMF's offerings can be ...

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2012 Cause Marketing Forum Conference - An Interview with Michelle Sullivan, Senior Director - Video

Could be GI Green there on the other side of the planet

There's plenty of it in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave as well

For Westerners who enjoy living in democracies, its easy to answer the question of whether or not censorship is desirable. It is not. But in China, which doesnt respect free speech, thats not an especially useful question. A more uncomfortable question would be: Just how different is Chinas censorship from ours?

New data released by Google as part of its Transparency Report shows that government agencies in many Western democracies have asked the company to remove political content that users had posted to its services. Its alarming not only because free expression is at risk, but because some of these requests come from countries you might not suspect Western democracies not typically associated with censorship, wrote Google policy analyst Dorothy Chou in a blog post yesterday.

In the second half of last year, for example, US agencies asked Google to remove 6,192 individual pieces of content from its search results, blog posts, or archives of online videos a 718 percent increase from the first half of the year. During the same time period, US law enforcement agencies lodged 187 take-down requests, including one related to a blog post that allegedly defamed a law enforcement official in a personal capacity.

Google received numerous similar requests from Spain, Italy, Australia, Germany, Poland, Canada, and others. It did not comply with most of them, but the company did act in response to 42 percent of removal requests from the US in the second half of 2011.

Google was also at the center of the highest-profile censorship debate related to China. In 2010, much was made of the companys partial withdrawal from the country in response to what it said was a sophisticated cyber attack that targeted the Gmail accounts of dozens of China-connected human rights activists. No sane person would contend that such hacking was justified. But few could feign surprise. Government surveillance of its citizens is an unfortunate fact of life not just in China, but also in other, supposedly free countries. The Bush Administrations warrantless wiretapping program, a huge breach of privacy and human rights conducted with the cooperation of major telecommunications companies, is the most obvious example of that.

Supporters of that wiretapping program, carried out as part of that embarrassment to freedom known as the Patriot Act, might protest that it was conducted in the name of stamping out terrorism, and that casting such a wide net monitoring thousands of innocent Americans was justified for the good of the country. The CCP would argue, too, that their surveillance is also for the good of the country. That is particularly true when it comes to the sensitive topic of spreading online rumors.

Just last weekend, it demonstrated how seriously it takes that by arresting two people for spreading rumors that a cloud of pollution over the city of Wuhan was caused by an explosion at a chemical plant that leaked toxic gases. Spreading rumors falls into one of the nine categories of information that the government deems harmful and therefore bans. As we all know, it also has no qualms about blocking specific news sites and thwarting searches for key terms (three of which begin with the letter T).

Originally posted here:
Internet Censorship Isn't Just for China