Vanity URL, do you have one?

A vanity URL, or vanity domain name, is an easy-to-remember URL often used to promote a particular product or service or even an advertising campaign. In theory, vanity URLs are creatively linked to something making them easier to remember than a more random link.

Vanity URLs are about you, or your brand, or your product and therefore important for your brand identity, visibility and SEO.

With the rapid rise of the social network, it’s become equally as important to claim your name on every major social media site, or at least the ones you use, and you’d better do it fast too before someone else claims the name. So in a way URLs will also be protecting your name.

Using a consistent name across channels allows for multilayer branding reinforcement that creates strong name recognition.

If for instance your website is called google.com then you’ll have:

www.google.com
	www.facebook.com/google
	www.twitter.com/google
	www.youtube.com/google

So if you're looking at refining your online presence then claim your name, whether business or personal, on the following:

Social media

Twitter
Facebook
LinkedIn
YouTube
Google+

Social sharing

Digg
Delicious
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Scribd

Publishing platforms

Tumblr
Blogger
WordPress

Other profiles

Google Places     

Slideshare

Picasa
Flickr
Vimeo

Hope this helps...:)

Fastest growing Facebook pages in Oman

Facebook continues to grow in Oman (currently 277.480 users) and so are the fans of many pages.

Getting fans seems to be the priority of many, how do you get fans though? Usually rule N.1 would be providing valuable content; as they say content is king.

More and more companies are slowly, and some of them not carefully, getting on FB doing promotions and offers for their fans (a good friend of mine would call them bribes…;)) while some others are just good at providing great content and do not need to find other ways to reward their loyal fans.

Let’s have a look at the fastest growing pages in Oman in the past 4/6 weeks:

Muscat City Centre – they came up with the “Shopping Spree” contest where they invite their shoppers to upload a picture of a mystical location in Oman. They have been literally inundated with pics and in a few weeks the number of fans rose to 6790. They also supported this promotion with FB adverts. Well done (also in terms of building a nice FB app).

Merge 104.8 – the recently launched radio station have had the “Win 104.8 Rials” promotion and the still ongoing “Send your Pic” contest which helped to quickly build a solid fan base. Of course the station presenters are also adding valuable content and lots of interaction takes place on the page every day. Number of fans 1640. 

Bank Muscat Direct – they also came up with a photo competition and also have been inundated with photos. The strange thing is that they decided to announce the winners on Twitter. Good move though to build a fan base, can they now keep it entertained? Number of fans 1691.

Nando's Oman – the peri-peri people are also growing quite fast also due to the launch of their new restaurant a couple of weeks ago; very good at providing health and cooking tips which people seem to like. Their marketing comms mix also included some brilliant ambient marketing, a graffiti done near-by the new restaurant, and a creative and funny print advertising campaign. Well done. Number of fans 1160.

Hi Fm – as they had both a FB personal profile and a page they realised that it would have been smart to direct all ‘friends’ to the page. The personal profile is not longer active and all action takes place on the page. All loyal fans are now in one happy place, and as for Merge 104.8, here too the presenters, and sponsors, are doing a great job. Number of fans 3673.

Humocracy – an entertainer, not a company, behind this page. Lots of jokes, funny pics and videos. Fans love the page for what it really is, for bringing them a smile. Great. Number of fans 1096.

Muscat Gems – I’m not a big fan of stones but they seem to be doing right on this page. Regularly updated, a vast range of products, lots of interactions; both men and women seem to like the page. Number of fans 1222.

Shayma Al-Mughairy – I could not include Shayma in the Top 10 Omani Talents however in the past month her number of fans rapidly increased. I like Shayma a lot, a very talented girl with a bright future. Number of fans 935.

Muscat Buy or Sell Cars – sister of Muscat Buy or Sell this page was always meant to become popular as the car industry is very active and fast moving here. People also exchange opinions and advice on what to buy. Number of fans 798.

Oman Ministry of Tourism – good to see the government on social media although I’m not sure it is handled by them. The page has plenty of videos and photos, ideal for someone who’s looking at coming to Oman for a trip. People also share experiences and tips. Nice page. Number of fans 1901.

As usual if i missed any pages I'd be more than happy to include them in the post.

Saving lion Ariel

In most cases Facebook is used to keep in touch with friends and relatives, to follow the latest developments from companies we like, to play games, etc.  There are also instances where social media, Facebook in particular, is being used to make a positive social and global impact. These days, there are plenty of charities and social causes that are benefiting from the use of modern technology.

Ariel is a three-year-old lion that he hurt himself still very young when playing with balloons. Today Ariel's symptoms are similar to those of multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease and Guillain-Barre syndrome, an autoimmune disorder that can cause paralysis.

Raquel Borges, the owner, said the $11,500 needed every month to pay for Ariel's treatment comes from donations. When the Facebook page was set up in May, they had less than five followers, because it was designed to inform people of Ariel's case not to ask for help, but then Raquel started asking for donations and the number of people following Ariel's case soared. Today nearly 43,000 people have clicked the "like" button and are contributing to keep Ariel in a good shape.

Once again Facebook is used towards a good cause, well done to all the ones who are keeping Ariel alive. More info, as well as ways to make donations, can be found on the website.

How to find a super Community Manager

Been in social media long enough to realise the importance of having the right person to handle and supervise all operations, the so called Community Manager. Social media seems like an easy game to play to some but in fact some particular traits and skills are needed in order to succeed.

But who is the Community Manager? The CM is a super-admin of your social media platform(s) that is ultimately responsible for managing them all and making sure they’re all running smoothly.  The CM develops strategies and scenarios, and trains and manages the other admins.

What does the right Community Manager need to have in order to make your company 'likeable' and your content 'viral'? I’d say personal traits and skills, let’s see them:

Personality traits:

•  Natural chatterbox
•  Sociable 
•  Good listener 
•  Problem solver
•  Positive attitude and enthusiastic
•  Professional

Skills:

•  Solid understanding of social networking 
•  Up to date with latest developments 
•  Committed to helping people in social channels 
•  Multi-tasking 
•  Quick thinker 
•  Ability to align social media activities with business goals 
•  Experienced

IT knowledge would be a plus. To be fair I’m not really sure this person exists, and if so it wouldn’t be easy to find or afford. In the case you can’t find one a good way would be creating a team where everyone brings in the various skills and traits. Some time it might work even better however you’d still need to elect a team member as leader.

The Community Manager will be interacting with your fans daily therefore it is paramount that you take the time to choose this person wisely. Before you go and look for one check your internal team as the right person might be there with the strong advantages of knowing your brand and your clients better than an outside source.

15 years of Hotmail

Hotmail was launched fifteen years ago on 4th of July, marking the independence from generic emailing services, and was promptly acquired by Microsoft which improved it over the years and made it the most popular e-mail service worldwide.

Hotmail today serves 360 million users. I remember creating my first Hotmail account in 1998...or 1999? 

Remember all those logos? I never saw the first two really.

A lot of people are saying that email usage is in decline but Microsoft recently said that Hotmail users share 1.5 billion photos a month, and that is a huge number of photos! E-mails will be with us for a long while.

How to get more readers for your blog

Alltop.com, created by Guy Kawasaki in 2008, has become a very popular tool where anyone can submit a blog/news site to. In simple words it is a mix between a blog search engine and blog/headline aggregator. 

The internet is a really useful resource, however staying up to date and sifting through it all can be very difficult and time consuming; that’s when Alltop comes to the rescue. It has been designed to make it easy to find out exactly what’s going on in any specific topic and it is automatically updated every hour.

To register is very simple and fast; the one page submission form allows you to request which section to be listed on, and both your URL and RSS feed. Within a day, they'll advise of acceptance or refusal. If accepted, your blog is opened to a huge audience.

I highly recommend Alltop for three main reasons:
1) it is a great resource
2) you’ll  be opening your blog up to a global audience and 
3) it is free. 

However getting listed can be a little tough I read.

As you might have noticed from the badge Oman Collective Intelligence has been recognised and accepted as one of the BEST BLOGS IN THE WORLD, if not the universe...;). In fact if you check this link, where all the big boys are, at the bottom of the list (and i mean the very bottom) you'll find O.C.I.