Microsoft
settled on a veteran insider as its replacement for long-time CEO
Steve Ballmer on Tuesday, ending a five-month search with a choice some
analysts called a “safe pick” for the software behemoth.
India-born Satya Nadella, 46, head of the company's cloud computing
division and enterprise business, was appointed after a team of
headhunters concluded a five-month search that included some of the most
world’s most famous executives.
Nadella is only the third person
to lead Microsoft; since the company was founded 39 years ago, only
co-founder Bill Gates and Ballmer have headed it. But in recent years
the company has looked flat-footed as rivals Apple, Google and Facebook
have dominated and innovated in hardware, online services and social
media.
In a nod to Nadella's low profile outside the company, Microsoft introduced him with a sleek web page that was heavy on biographical details including the revelation that he relaxes by reading poetry.
Ballmer
said he would step down last August amid mounting criticism of the
company’s dependence on its Windows, Microsoft Office and workplace
software, products that have generated massive profits for the company
for decades but are being increasingly challenged by online
alternatives. In a statement, Ballmer said Nadella was “the right leader
at the right time” for Microsoft.
Some were less sure. In a
note to investors, analysts at FBR Capital Markets said the appointment
of Nadella was a "safe pick" compared to choosing an outsider. Microsoft
was among the first to innovate in areas like smartphones, tablets and
cloud services. But it has seen those ideas better executed by rivals
including Apple and Amazon, the note said.
As part of the
announcement, Gates said he would step down as chairman to assume a new
role on the board as founder and technology adviser. John Thompson, the
Microsoft board member who oversaw its search for a new chief executive,
becomes chairman. “During this time of transformation, there is no
better person to lead Microsoft than Satya Nadella,” Gates said..
“Satya
is a proven leader with hardcore engineering skills, business vision
and the ability to bring people together. His vision for how technology
will be used and experienced around the world is exactly what Microsoft
needs as the company enters its next chapter of expanded product
innovation and growth,” Gates said in his statement.
Nadella may
be little known outside of Microsoft’s sprawling Redmond campus, but
inside it he is a star. Before being named as CEO he ran one of
Microsoft's fastest growing divisions, cloud services. Revenue at the
division soared 107% compared to a year ago, the company said when it
reported its fiscal second-quarter results on 23 January. Most of his
experience is in serving corporate customers – the source of two-thirds
of Microsoft profits.
He has also been unafraid to speak his mind on sensitive issues. In December, speaking at the Le Web
conference in Paris, Nadella addressed the revelations of the NSA
whistleblower Edward Snowden, saying they demonstrated that “the
surveillance system has to be reformed”.
"Businesses and users are
going to use technology only if they can trust it," said Nadella.
"Clearly now it's the responsibility, I think, of governments – the US
government included – to restore that trust. The only mechanisms that I
think we have learned is that the respect for the liberties of people
and the rule of law is the one way to have societies thrive."
Microsoft's
decision to retain Gates worried some observers. Sydney Finkelstein, a
leadership professor at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business, said there
were huge challenges ahead for Nadella. Finkelstein said making changes
within a company as large as Microsoft was difficult for any CEO, and
more so when the senior figures being replaced were, as in the case of
Gates, still playing a part.
“The next CEO needs to instil a
level of risk-taking and innovation,” said Finkelstein. He pointed to
examples of insiders shaking up big companies after the resignation of a
famous CEO – Bob Iger, for example, took over at Disney after Hollywood
legend Michael Eisner was forced out amid criticism that the the media
firm was losing its way to younger rivals. Iger went on to revitalise
Disney, buying Pixar and Marvel.
“But that’s much harder to do if the people who used to run it are still breathing over your shoulder,” said Finkelstein.
Finkelstein
also noted that before Nadella’s appointment, the top job at Microsoft
had been linked to a number of leading executives outside the company,
including Ford CEO Alan Mulally. “The fact that he is relatively unknown
outside Microsoft is interesting, especially in the light of the big
names that were associated with the job. It makes you wonder if he was
the first choice,” Finkelstein said.
James Staten, an analyst with
Forrester Research, was more positive. "Satya Nadella is a tough,
number-driven leader. [His appointment] will be a great thing for the
overall direction of the company," Staten said.
"Nadella is a
visionary, is making it happen, and knows what it takes to drive change
in the unique Microsoft culture. An outsider would have a hard time
accomplishing this coming in fresh. And time is of the essence."
In a statement about his hiring, Nadella called Microsoft “one of
those rare companies to have truly revolutionized the world through
technology,” and said, “I couldn’t be more honoured to have been chosen
to lead the company.
"The opportunity ahead for Microsoft is vast,
but to seize it, we must focus clearly, move faster and continue to
transform. A big part of my job is to accelerate our ability to bring
innovative products to our customers more quickly.”
Nadella joined
the company in 1992 and as well as heading cloud services, he also held
leadership roles in server software, internet search and business
applications. Born in Hyderabad, he holds a master's degree in computer
science from the University of Wisconsin, and a master's in business
administration from the University of Chicago.
Married for 22
years and with three children, he counts cricket and poetry among his
hobbies. In an email to Microsoft employees on Tuesday morning, he wrote
that he is “defined by my curiosity and thirst for learning.”
On the web page constructed for his announcement, Microsoft said:
Microsoft’s
new CEO finds relaxation by reading poetry, in all forms and by poets
who are both Indian and American. “It’s like code,” he says. “You’re
trying to take something that can be described in many, many sentences
and pages of prose, but you can convert it into a couple lines of poetry
and you still get the essence, so it’s that compression.” Indeed, he
says, the best code is poetry.
In
a video interview, Nadella said he was “honoured, humbled, excited,” by
his appointment. “We have tremendous opportunity and that’s exciting.
And I’m also grounded on our challenges. In fact that is the adventure
and the constraint that also creates, I think, the competitive zeal in
me to be able to do great work,” he said.
Keyword Research is the most important part of any well oiled (and
profitable) campaign. It is also normally the most over looked. It stands to reason that no-one will know your market like you and
that you will indeed know best. But do not let yourself become tunnel
visioned and ensure you do not skip this step by saying "I know what
keywords I need to be ranked for so don't need to do it". If you fall in
to this trap you run the risk of missing out on finding your killer
phrases and losing out on massive amounts of traffic. The first part of finding your keywords is to get a list of the
keywords you believe are going to be the keywords your prospective
clients would use to find your website. Once you have this list of
keywords you need to do 2 things. Number 1 order the phrases by
relevance (are the phrases really indicative of what you do or just
mildly on topic, if mildly get rid of them) and also search volume (the
number of times that keyword is searched for) and number 2 remove the
vanity phrases. Vanity phrases are the phrases which people go after
without thinking about it properly. For example a classic vanity phrase
for me to use would be "SEO" which I have no doubt would bring in lots
of traffic but most of it would be off target and not relevant for me so
lots of effort to try and get ranked for it for not allot of payoff.
For example they may be really searching for things such as "SEO Jobs"
and "SEO Forum" both of which would be off target for me. You now need to find out the amount of searches for your selected
keywords and for that you are going to need a little help so, follow the
link and sign up for a free trial
there are other keyword services out there but Wordtracker is renowned
as being the market leader. The link I have given you will give you a
free trial but it is one of those tools that if you are serious about
doing this you should purchase. Once signed up and logged in it is a simple as pasting in your seed
terms and letting Wordtracker do its thing. Now you can also get
Wordtracker to suggest other relevant phrases and this is normally the
part where you find a few new phrases you either hadn't thought of or
that do not have a massive amount of competing pages and so will be
easier to rank for. Either way I'm sure there will be a few "well I
never would have thought of that's". Now you need a copy of your sitemap and you need to map the relevant
phrases to the most relevant pages of your website for them to be on. Do
not clutter your pages with lots of keywords, you should be keeping
each page down to between 1 and 3 search phrases. If you use too many
phrases on each page you run the risk of missing them all. You must
ensure that you are also realistic with your keywords and stick to two
or three word search phrases to ensure you are going to be able get some
results. We will go into more detail on what to do with the keywords when we
get to the On Page Optimisation module but until then focus on putting
your keyword list together mapping them to your pages.
Tomorrow
Tomorrow we will be looking at website analysis and competition research.
The Astronaut, the Rock Star, and Your Content Strategy
20 million views … and counting.
I remember the first time I saw it. Canadian astronaut Chris
Hadfield, then commander of the International Space station, had taken
his guitar into space. He posted a simple but powerful video of himself performing David Bowie’s classic “Space Oddity” — in space.
As far as I’m concerned, this pretty well cemented his position as coolest dude there has ever been. I mean, Canadian plus astronaut plus Bowie? That’s the trifecta of cool right there.
(Plus he juggles. In space.)
Like a lot of people, I assumed that Hadfield had an amazing innate
understanding of what worked and didn’t work as content. He had been
posting neat and interesting content to the web for months —- great
tweets and YouTube videos on funny, everyday aspects of life in space.
They were memorable, they were highly shareable, and they paved the way for that 20-million view bombshell.
So imagine how surprised I was when I read Hadfield’s biography — and
found out that when he was getting started, he was actually sort of an
idiot about content.
But he knew where to go for help … the kind of help that you might benefit from as well.
Enter the entreproducer
Hadfield was on Twitter fairly early on … but (by his own admission) his content was pretty bad.
It was boring. It was dry. It wasn’t well suited to the medium.
Fortunately for us, Hadfield’s son Evan
is really smart about content. He helped his dad understand what kind
of content was worth posting — and would get people talking.
It isn’t so much teaching him how to use it, as teaching him how to use it properly.
And the lessons continue even today. There is a difference between
tweeting and tweeting in a way that people can respond to and enjoy
properly. ~Evan Hadfield
Evan continued to work with his dad on how to make his content more
remarkable — up to and including suggesting the Space Oddities cover,
and working on securing the rights and getting the video edited.
Chris Hadfield is arguably the most effective promoter for space
travel since human beings first landed on the moon. But he couldn’t have
done it without his behind-the-scenes help — the “entreproducer” who
understood how to make it rain.
In other words, Evan was the one in charge of guiding his dad’s presence and keeping the Seriously Cool factor cranked up to 11.
This is the role a professional content strategist or new breed copywriter can play for you.
You might have amazing abilities. Maybe you’re the equivalent of a space station commander in their field.
But that doesn’t mean you understand anything about what makes content memorable.
It’s possible you’ll still be the one who writes at least some of the words. (It was Chris Hadfield who actually wrote all of the tweets; Evan just provided the guidance and took care of a lot of housekeeping tasks.)
The words matter, but the strategy matters even more.
Understanding what the audience wants.
Understanding how different formats work together.
Understanding what makes content shareable.
Understanding how content creates the overarching message you want.
Understanding how to drive the behavior you need, whether it’s a
sale, an email opt-in, or international support for the planet’s
patchwork of space programs.
When you hire a copywriter or content strategist, you may be paying
for their wonderful words (or video and audio skills, as the case may
be). But remember — you’re also paying for their rainmaker hat.
Keep the world’s coolest person in mind when you’re looking for a
writer for your website. What you need is someone who knows how to make
you remarkable and memorable. Image by NASA [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
About the author
Sonia Simone
Sonia Simone is co-founder and Chief Content Officer of Copyblogger Media. Get more from Sonia on Twitter and Google+.
I've been involved in IT and web development for more than 20
years. I love analysing data, drinking good coffee, listening to heavy
metal and practicing karate.
I’ve
had a frustrating time trying to find the original ‘Content is King’
article written by Bill Gates back in 1996. There’s a few sites that
have a copy of the essay, but nothing on the Microsoft site (it has been
removed from the Bill Gates Published Writing page). Wayback Machine seems to be the only other option (thanks to Andrew Heenan for the link). If you can find a Microsoft link could you please let me know. For
now, I am adding the essay in it’s entirety here (as I will be referring
to it in a future post).
Content Is King – Bill Gates (1/3/1996)
Content is where I expect much of the real money will be made on the Internet, just as it was in broadcasting. The television revolution that began half a century ago spawned a
number of industries, including the manufacturing of TV sets, but the
long-term winners were those who used the medium to deliver information
and entertainment. When it comes to an interactive network such as the Internet, the
definition of “content” becomes very wide. For example, computer
software is a form of content-an extremely important one, and the one
that for Microsoft will remain by far the most important. But the broad opportunities for most companies involve supplying
information or entertainment. No company is too small to participate. One of the exciting things about the Internet is that anyone with a
PC and a modem can publish whatever content they can create. In a sense,
the Internet is the multimedia equivalent of the photocopier. It allows
material to be duplicated at low cost, no matter the size of the
audience. The Internet also allows information to be distributed worldwide at
basically zero marginal cost to the publisher. Opportunities are
remarkable, and many companies are laying plans to create content for
the Internet. For example, the television network NBC and Microsoft recently agreed
to enter the interactive news business together. Our companies will
jointly own a cable news network, MSNBC, and an interactive news service
on the Internet. NBC will maintain editorial control over the joint
venture. I expect societies will see intense competition-and ample failure as
well as success-in all categories of popular content-not just software
and news, but also games, entertainment, sports programming,
directories, classified advertising, and on-line communities devoted to
major interests. Printed magazines have readerships that share common interests. It’s
easy to imagine these communities being served by electronic online
editions. But to be successful online, a magazine can’t just take what it has
in print and move it to the electronic realm. There isn’t enough depth
or interactivity in print content to overcome the drawbacks of the
online medium. If people are to be expected to put up with turning on a computer to
read a screen, they must be rewarded with deep and extremely up-to-date
information that they can explore at will. They need to have audio, and
possibly video. They need an opportunity for personal involvement that
goes far beyond that offered through the letters-to-the-editor pages of
print magazines. A question on many minds is how often the same company that serves an
interest group in print will succeed in serving it online. Even the
very future of certain printed magazines is called into question by the
Internet. For example, the Internet is already revolutionizing the exchange of
specialized scientific information. Printed scientific journals tend to
have small circulations, making them high-priced. University libraries
are a big part of the market. It’s been an awkward, slow, expensive way
to distribute information to a specialized audience, but there hasn’t
been an alternative. Now some researchers are beginning to use the Internet to publish
scientific findings. The practice challenges the future of some
venerable printed journals. Over time, the breadth of information on the Internet will be
enormous, which will make it compelling. Although the gold rush
atmosphere today is primarily confined to the United States, I expect it
to sweep the world as communications costs come down and a critical
mass of localized content becomes available in different countries. For the Internet to thrive, content providers must be paid for their
work. The long-term prospects are good, but I expect a lot of
disappointment in the short-term as content companies struggle to make
money through advertising or subscriptions. It isn’t working yet, and it
may not for some time. So far, at least, most of the money and effort put into interactive
publishing is little more than a labor of love, or an effort to help
promote products sold in the non-electronic world. Often these efforts
are based on the belief that over time someone will figure out how to
get revenue. In the long run, advertising is promising. An advantage of
interactive advertising is that an initial message needs only to attract
attention rather than convey much information. A user can click on the
ad to get additional information-and an advertiser can measure whether
people are doing so. But today the amount of subscription revenue or advertising revenue
realized on the Internet is near zero-maybe $20 million or $30 million
in total. Advertisers are always a little reluctant about a new medium,
and the Internet is certainly new and different. Some reluctance on the part of advertisers may be justified, because
many Internet users are less-than-thrilled about seeing advertising. One
reason is that many advertisers use big images that take a long time to
download across a telephone dial-up connection. A magazine ad takes up
space too, but a reader can flip a printed page rapidly. As connections to the Internet get faster, the annoyance of waiting
for an advertisement to load will diminish and then disappear. But
that’s a few years off. Some content companies are experimenting with subscriptions, often
with the lure of some free content. It’s tricky, though, because as soon
as an electronic community charges a subscription, the number of people
who visit the site drops dramatically, reducing the value proposition
to advertisers. A major reason paying for content doesn’t work very well yet is that
it’s not practical to charge small amounts. The cost and hassle of
electronic transactions makes it impractical to charge less than a
fairly high subscription rate. But within a year the mechanisms will be in place that allow content
providers to charge just a cent or a few cents for information. If you
decide to visit a page that costs a nickel, you won’t be writing a check
or getting a bill in the mail for a nickel. You’ll just click on what
you want, knowing you’ll be charged a nickel on an aggregated basis. This technology will liberate publishers to charge small amounts of money, in the hope of attracting wide audiences. Those who succeed will propel the Internet forward as a marketplace
of ideas, experiences, and products-a marketplace of content.
"We empower people and businesses to realize their potential" The most interesting part of this interview with Steve Ballmer is his answers to the following two questions from Jason Pontin: “ I understand Google’s vision for the future of computing....
"We empower people and businesses to realize their potential"
The most interesting part of this interview with Steve Ballmer is his answers to the following two questions from Jason Pontin:
I understand Google’s vision for the future of computing. I know what Apple stands for. I used to understand what Microsoft stood for. I no longer know. What’s your vision for the company?
This question quintessentially is a question of altitude. So, in this context tell me what Google and Apple stand for, and I’ll give you the equivalent.
Google stands for indexing the world’s information in a useful fashion. That’s their claim to planetary utility. Steve Jobs said Apple made insanely great devices for consumers. That altitude.
At that level of altitude, I’ll give you the slogan, and then I’ll sort of put just a little meat on it. We empower people and businesses to realize their potential. And to expand, I would simply say we’re about defining the future of productivity, entertainment, and communication. In the new world, software is going to have to come in kind of an integrated form—or at least a well-designed form that includes cloud services and devices.
Ballmer says “we’re about defining the future of productivity, entertainment, and communication”. I think that’s a good goal, but I don’t think Microsoft are really understanding the needs of the user. Windows 8 for example, has been a productivity killer for me and many others.
Day 1 - Introduction to Search Engine Optimisation and Course Schedule.
Search engine marketing is one of the most effective forms of
advertising available today. The reason for its effectiveness is down to
the unique way in which you are able to interact with your audience.
You are able to get in front of them at the exact moment that they are
looking for your product and or service. This makes for a very powerful and highly converting advertising
tool. What's even better is compared with other forms of advertising it
is also very cost effective. Instead of having to find your customers
you can have them finding you! Search engine optimisation is not a dark art as commonly believed it
is much more straight forward than that and boils down to pure
relevance. This is why we put in as much relative information in every
place we can. The sites at the top of the search engines natural listings are there
because the search engines believe them to be the most relevant for
their particular search query. Relevance is decided over many different
factors but if we break it down to its 2 highest level factors they are:
On page optimisation - Keyword weight and prominence, site structure, internal linking etc
Off page optimisation - Inward links to a website
Each part is very important and demands a level of skill and
knowledge which over the next 7 days I hope to be able to arm you with
so you can help your website achieve its place at the top of the search
engines. Also, if you don't already, I recommend getting Google Analytics
activated for your website so you can track your progress as you will
want to make sure that everything you do not only increases your
rankings but also increases your website's traffic and conversions. To
Get Google Analytics just follow the link and sign up, you will need to
put a small amount of JavaScript on the bottom of your pages and that's
it. Course Schedule: Tomorrow - Keyword research and how to find your killer keywords
Day 3 - Website analysis and Competition research, how well are they doing
Day 4 - Optimising your website's on page factors
Day 5 - Link Building for your website and ensuring the off page factors add up
Day 6 - Email marketing how you should be using it and why it is
normally the most under-utilised tool in your marketing arsenal
Day 7 - The Blog and RSS Feeds
Tomorrow
Tomorrow we will be looking at keyword research and how to find your killer keywords so be sure to check your inbox.
At 10 years old, Facebook copes with growing pains. AFP A man is silhouetted against a video screen with an Facebook logo as he
poses with an Dell laptop in this photo illustration taken in the
central Bosnian town of Zenica, August 14, 2013. — Reuters Photo Updated 2014-02-03 18:02:01.
As Facebook celebrates its 10th anniversary, the world's biggest social
network is finding its path as a maturing company, adapting to an aging
user base.
The company created in a Harvard dorm room in 2004
has established itself as a phenomenon, securing its place in the world
of the technology giants.
“Facebook has made the world much smaller, much more interactive,”
said Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry.
“Facebook started the social revolution but it may not be able to
control it.” In its short history, Facebook has become a part of daily
life for more than a billion people around the globe.
Co-founder Mark Zuckerberg described the mission as “making the world
more open and connected,” and some say he has accomplished just that.
“More than 20 percent of all time spent on the Internet is spent on
Facebook,” says Lou Kerner, founder of the Social Internet Fund.
Yet in some ways, Facebook could be the victim of its own success.
Its initial core base of teens and university students has expanded,
and Facebook is now widely used by people in all age groups.
Facebook says it has a global total of 1.23 billion monthly active
users, including 945 million who use the social network on a mobile
device. But some analysts note that Facebook has to shift strategy for
an aging user base.
An iStrategyLabs study of US Facebook users
found a 25 percent drop in the number of users in the 13-17 age group,
along with an 80 percent jump in the number of users over 55.
“People joke that for the teen, Facebook isn't cool when your mom is on
it,” Kerner said. “I think it's not even your mom any more, now it's
also your grandmother.” The research firm Social Bakers says its data
shows teens are a big and still-growing part of Facebook.
“The
18-24 year-old age group is still the largest,” said the group's Ben
Harper. “Our data shows the growth of audience and interactions on
Facebook, and while teens are undoubtedly using multiple platforms (as
we all are), they are also sticking with Facebook.”
In the
United States, Facebook is used by 71 percent of all adults who are on
the Internet, or 57 percent of the adult population, according to the
Pew Research Center. Pew found that while Facebook is used by 89 percent
of online adults in the 18-29 age group, it is also used by 60 percent
in the 50-64 age category and 45 percent of those over 65.
Facebook is maturing as a company as well. It had a calamitous initial
public offering in May 2012 plagued by technical glitches, and saw its
share price slump by half, but has been on a roll for the past year,
with its stock hitting record highs.
Facebook has reassured its
investors it can generate advertising revenue, particularly in the
mobile segment used by an increasing number of members.
Facebook reported its profit for the full year 2013 jumped to $1.5
billion from just $53 million in 2012, and revenues increased to $7.87
billion from $5.1 billion.
According to the research firm
eMarketer, Facebook has become the second-largest recipient of digital
advertising spending behind Google, and is particularly strong in mobile
ads.
“Facebook appears the best way to play the social
Internet,” Morgan Stanley analysts said in a note to clients, preferring
Facebook to the up-and-coming network Twitter.
Some analysts
point out that Facebook's appeal to grownups is a big part of
maturation, and represents the key to generating revenue and profit.
“Advertisers place promotional content on Facebook for one reason only
-- to generate sales,” said analysts at the research firm Trefis.
“The vast majority of purchases made online come from users of ages 25
and above. One study suggests it is as high as 85 percent. With these
figures in mind, the decline in users ages 13-24 becomes almost
irrelevant.” Kerner note that being “cool” is not necessarily Facebook's
long-term goal.
“You can't be the cool place forever,” he told
AFP. “One of two things happen to companies when they're done being
cool. They either go away, or they transition to becoming more of a
utility. And Facebook is very successfully doing the latter.”
Ben Norman's SEO Made Easy Range 
