If you’re anything like me, you read Chris Brogan’s blog religiously and hope that one day you will have an insight into the new media world that comes even close to being as profound as some of his thought provoking posts. But, what does the rest of the world, those who aren’t drooling at the mouth over this week’s top social network, think about Chris Brogan? Or Robert Scoble for that matter? Or Connie Bensen? What does the average person on the street think about me and would they ever even bother reading through my blog?
Under most circumstances, the answer would be that they think we’re all nerds and no, they wouldn’t read my blog. That is, until I discovered the most addictive free service on the planet that I can control via SMS. What is this magical service? It’s called ChaCha. My name is Jon Ray and I’m a ChaCha addict.
What is ChaCha?
ChaCha’s human guides search the web to answer questions that you call in or text. ChaCha is free and makes money via advertising. It is a service that allows you to get the answer to any question, no matter how drunk or lazy you are feeling. ChaCha’s 70 employees are based in Indiana, but their thousands of Guides work from all over the country. Human guides are paid $0.20 for each question they answer and they must provide a credible link on the internet to back up their answers.
A ChaCha Sample Q&A
The following are real questions that I texted into ChaCha and the answers that their live guides gave me.
Q: On average, how much money do you spend every month on electricity to run an HDTV?
A: Electricity to run an HDTV is anywhere from $2-$14 a month depending on what model you have. http://chacha.com/u/iwq480ceQ: How much does it cost to advertise on the screen at Studio Movie Grill?
A: It costs about 27 cents per time your ad runs (usually about 500 times/week). Have a great night and thanks for using ChaCha! http://chacha.com/u/5jdrch91
Alright, so far so good. But, I wondered what a ChaCha guide would do if I asked a question that required they give me their opinion?
Q: Are you allowed to express opinions of your own or do you just have to reference someone else?
A: If our opinion is asked, we’re allowed to express it, however we must reference a site that involves our opinion in some way. Thx! http://chacha.com/u/20631552
This should be fun! ;)
Q: Is the president doing a good job?
A: I think he is doing a very poor job, but doesn’t want to admit that he failed the country miserably. Thanks for using ChaCha! http://chacha.com/u/20630806
Oh, my! I’m assuming that ChaCha has not rolled out their advertising model, yet, as I have not received an advertisement, but I’m curious what corporation would have tagged their ad onto that last answer? Let’s lighten the mood a little and have some fun!
Q: Is Robert Scoble talented?
A: Some nerds read his blog, so I guess he might be a tolerable writer. He doesn’t seem to have many talents other than that, though. http://chacha.com/u/iwq423ci
Hahaha! I guess that put us all in our places because I know that I read Robert’s blog every day and often times find myself enjoying it. Why does ChaCha have to pick on you Robert? Who will they offend next? ;)
Q: Is Chris Brogan dreamy?
A: Chris Brogan uses social media & technology to build digital relationships for businesses, organizations/individuals. He’s a cutie. http://chacha.com/u/1b1fvbp3
Okay, so ChaCha doesn’t like Robert Scoble, but they think Chris Brogan is dreamy? Well, you see, that’s the thing. ChaCha has thousands of guides and every question you send in is redirected to someone different. So, while one Guide might hate nerds, the next could have a pretty solid crush on anyone who is an expert on community building. This got me thinking. If there are thousands and thousands of ChaCha guides, each getting paid $0.20 to answer my question, could ChaCha be used as a kind of promotional tool to give your material exposure to a new audience? Let’s find out!
Can you use ChaCha to boost your web traffic?
We all want to beef up our Google Analytics numbers, not necessarily because anyone else is monitoring the traffic to our blogs, but because a spike in numbers on any given day means we’re doing something right and the hours upon hours we spend putting our thoughts out there has actually meant something, whatever that something might be. So, I decided to see if I could pick up a few new readers using ChaCha. Between the hours of 4am-5am, I asked a series of questions that required a ChaCha Guide visit my blog.
Q: What is the most popular post at whoisjonray.com?
A: After searching 10 pages, this post had the most comments Would you hire this guy for your marketing…campaign. It had 10 comments http://chacha.com/u/q4ycc6si
Not too shabby! After the first question, I already got someone to go through my last ten blog posts. Now, I’ve got a built in audience that will read anything I ask them to read for $0.20. How nice of ChaCha to pick up the tab! Over the course of an hour, I asked questions specific to my blog about 15 times and when I checked back today in Google Analytics, sure enough, there is a spike in traffic just around the time I was asking ChaCha to look me up.
So, what does this mean? The odds are that none of those guides are going to return to my blog again, so is it really even worth the effort? I mean my ramblings about social media, PR and marketing don’t, exactly, have universal appeal. But, what if you were a band, or had a viral video that you were trying to promote. Both would benefit much more from a spike in traffic. Bands are constantly trying to raise their play numbers on MySpace, as this is one of the first numbers A&R scouts look at when scouting a band. And it, obviously, doesn’t hurt to have a video on YouTube with a large number of views. Can you use ChaCha to raise your view count?
The My Charms for Charity Case Study
I decided to take my ChaCha promotion theory and put it to the test. I’m currently working with fashion designer, Ashley Heathcock on one of her projects, My Charms for Charity. She has a new video blog post that I was going to upload tonight and post around the web, so I decided to use her video (with her permission) as my guinea pig.
This was a brand new upload to YouTube, so when I started this experiment, there were zero views on the video. What would happen if I got ChaCha guides to go and watch the video as many times as possible in 10 minutes? I asked this question to ChaCha for 10 minutes:
Q: What is the website Ashley mentions towards the middle to end of this video, I think it is Casa something? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhWWdNm62wM
A: The website is www.casamarianella.org. Thanks for using ChaCha :) http://chacha.com/u/kys6zorl
The results? After 10 minutes, the video had already logged 35 views at 4:30am in the morning! Meaning if I continued, I could generate over 200 unique views an hour! So, should I run out and hire someone at $6.00 an hour to ask ChaCha questions about me all day long? Well, probably not, (1) There are much better ways to use your interns and (2) After my 10 minute spam session, I received this message from ChaCha:
Sorry. Your question violates our acceptable use policy. For terms and conditions visit http://chacha.com/m or call 800-820-0827. Please ask a new question.
After reviewing ChaCha’s Terms of Service, the only thing I could find that my question might have violated was this paragraph:
You may not use the Site or the Services for commercial purposes.
So, maybe ChaCha isn’t the best way to drive traffic to your blog after all, or maybe it is. The fact remains that it is a great service that allows you to ask plenty of legitimate questions, which are then researched and answered by a loyal army of super Googlers. To use ChaCha, you can call 800-424-2242 (800-4-ChaCha) or TEXT your questions to 242242 (ChaCha).
And if you’re wondering what ChaCha thinks about me:
Q: Is Jon Ray smart?
A: It looks like Jon Ray is pretty smart! He creates compelling marketing, PR, social media and video content. And he’s a cutie too! http://chacha.com/u/08rlv6qg
Yeah, I think ChaCha just has the hots for us social media types. ChaCha on! ;)
Just trying out some new types of writing to those who read this far. Apparently, I’m a writer now, so that means I have to find a voice, supposedly. Feel free to tell me exactly how you felt about this style, story, content, etc. Hurt my feelings if you want, I just need the feedback or the people who pay me money will beat me with a bone whip. And if you're enjoying this blog, consider commenting or subscribing for free.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Hey there,
Well Cha Cha definitely has their facts right - you are cute! and so is Chris Brogan. :) I may have to give them a call to see where I fit into the scheme of things!
Connie