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Tips for Marketing on the Social WebSo, all the chatter about social media and user-generated content is nothing new, right? What's new: a lot more companies of all stripes are waking to the fact that customers hang out in online gathering places and very often talk and post content about them. It's much like what happened with search a few years ago, and business executives said, "Hey, I think this is important and there's opportunity here." A lot of agencies say they know social media. In reality, they're only buying advertising and branded pages on social sites like MySpace and Facebook. Meanwhile, other firms perform social media optimization (SMO). However, both services miss the point of what social media and user-generated content is about. Social media marketing isn't about optimizing or advertising. It's about socializing! It's about weaving your content and messages into the social Web, making friends and fans. It also means talking to and listening to friends and fans and measuring the impact the social Web has on your business. It's not one campaign on MySpace or Facebook with a cool page that makes a few friends and is later abandoned when the campaign's over. Read more... Labels: ClickZ, Social Media Facebook Launches Keyword Measurement ToolGood afternoon everybody, Facebook.com, one of the first and most popular social media sites, has launched a keyword measurement tool called Lexicon. When users enter a term or phrase into the search bar, Facebook then returns a graph that counts the number of instances a word occurred on profiles, groups and walls in its network. The keyword data goes back 6 months and can be tracked to the day. By far the best feature of Lexicon is its keyword comparison functionality. Users can compare up to 5 keywords at once. In a comparison between iPod and Zune, iPod is clearly garnering more buzz, so no surprises there. Overall this will be a great tool to help companies better tailor their social media efforts to what people are talking about. The Facebook Lexicon can be found at http://www.facebook.com/lexicon/ Parts of this posting were derived from http://www.marketingvox.com/facebook-launches-lexicon-tool-for-measuring-buzz-038138/?camp=newsletter&src=mv&type=textlink - Bill Holmes Labels: Analytics, Facebook, Social Media, Social Media Marketing Universal Search Gives Small Businesses VisibilityThere are new opportunities for small business to gain valuable online exposure as Google expands universal search results (the insertion of multimedia content within the search results pages including maps, videos, images, PDF files etc...). Now, small business can get free page one exposure by optimizing for the new media Google is including in the search engine results pages. Here is one example of universal search results on Google- in this instance Google is inserting map results at the top of the results page.
Before universal search, if you owned a restaurant/lounge in Boston and wanted to show up on Google for a search for “Boston restaurant lounge”, you were in for a real uphill battle. The first page of search results for this query were likely a combination of food delivery services, restaurant reviews, a link to the chain restaurant Boston Market’s website and maybe even a Wikipedia entry on the Union Oyster House – the nation’s oldest operating restaurant. Either way, it was going to be close to impossible to get your 3 page site to pop for that search query. You would need to develop deep content that includes the high value keywords, used at the optimal frequency. You would likely need to create several pages and come up with an interlinking strategy in order to create enough content surrounding the important terms to help increase rankings. Now that you have content, you would still likely need to create some additional linking opportunities to get up on the first page. You could try using an RSS feed press release with embedded anchor text links for the high value search terms that point back to your site. After all of this work- you might be able to get on page one, but of course there are no guarantees in SEO. But, the real challenge lies in the fact that most small business owners are too busy running their business to expend resources on this scale. But- there is now hope for the small business owner thanks to universal search. One way for small business owners to get up to the top of the search results page would be to optimize their site in Google Maps. No need for content and link development; anyone with basic knowledge can simply add their location to the map, and then claim and customize their business listing in the map. Google will let you upload images, hours of operation, a description of the business and a link pointing back to your website- all without media expenses. You can also help your cause by offering incentives for your regular customers to log on and write a favorable review of your establishment. Once a business owner claims the business and uploads the information and tags based on high value keywords, the business will begin to show up in map results. And now that Google is showing map content at the top of the standard search results, that means your small business could get the top listing on the page for searches on high value terms. Now, when people search for "Boston restaurant lounge" on Google- new and existing customers have a chance to find you. Labels: Google, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Potluck! An Overdrive SmorgasbordGetting things started!  The spread...  Dig in everyone! Everett's Snapple that he brought in was CLUTCH. Michael brought the boombox so we rocked out while we ate! Bill, excellent dipping form on the chocolate fountain; I'm impressed!  Those are the smiles of satisfaction!  We took laps around the track afterwards since we were so stuffed, plus it was such a nice day outside! Love the aviators Ra. Labels: Campus Life Facebook Actions on External WebsitesMost Facebook users are already familiar with the Facebook Social Ads (sponsored ads that pop up on your News Feed), but few know about Facebook's partnership with other external websites, particularly Yelp and Blockbuster. If you're like me, and you're constantly on Facebook (and really, who else is still not on Facebook?) AND you're a member of Yelp and Blockbuster, then you would know by now that every review on Yelp, and every addition to your movie queue on Blockbuster, also gets featured on your News Feed (if you allow it) and in your Profile - see screen grabs below:  (Blockbuster Feed on my News Feed) (Yelp Feed on my Profile)These are obviously great ways to incorporate actual user-generated actions into your brand or website. After all, aren't these just ways to build a stronger, more recognizable brand? As online marketers, we're all rooting for the power of social media. And as consumers, we're all participating in and growing this phenomenon. However, I'm wondering: just how much will these feeds affect my Facebook life? When my friends see that I added a movie like "Live Free or Die Hard" onto my Blockbuster queue, will I be judged? When they see that I posted a bad review for their favorite restuarant on Yelp, will I be stoned? And this is where the fun begins. The genius of Facebook is that this is yet another avenue that opens up a new window for conversations. Go ahead and discuss the movies that your friends rented. Or go ahead and put your two cents worth about the latest restaurant reviews. This is where the socializing happens. Kudos to Facebook for ultimately letting the user decide what gets published or not (tip: it's somewhere in your Privacy settings). In the end, we all need to realize that we're all part of this big interconnected social media community, where we share (almost) everything with our friends, fans, peers, and communities. Enjoy! Labels: Facebook, Social Media Overdrive's Unique Core ValuesOk, so I was being interviewed for an article and afterwards I sent over my notes to the journalist just to encapsulate some of the points I was driving home. However, these notes really summarize what Overdrive is and provides to its clients so I thought I would post it. Don't be surprised if you see this as future site copy as well. As for what publication – well the article should be out on 5/9/08 so I'll let the cat out of the bag then. What makes Overdrive Interactive unique? Harry: There are 2 major factors that make us unique. 1) First, we combine unrivaled search marketing, social media marketing and online media services with creative and conversion services designed to encourage desired behavior and measurable ROI. Let me elaborate: - Search and online marketing is not just about lots of impressions, clicks, high search rankings and traffic – it is about connecting with the right people at the right time and getting them to do what we want them to do. It is about getting them to become a lead, engage in a meaningful brand interaction that changes their perception or belief about a product or buy something online or off-line. - At the core of any successful online marketing campaign is to develop a product and audience specific Benefit and Offer Matrix that answers the following questions that a consumer is asking when they go online looking for something: How are you going to help me? What do you have for me right now? - Remember, people want to know how they are going to benefit from their association with your company or product – how they are going to make more money, have a better life, feel good – what ever it is that they are seeking. You need to address their needs very quickly to engage them online. - Then you need to think of an offer that gets them to take some kind of action that gets them closer to the point of sale and in their minds, closer to satisfying what ever need you are addressing in your benefit statement. 2) We not only deliver quantitative data to our clients reporting clicks, costs and ROI – we give them qualitative data. We give them the numbers and tell them what the numbers actually mean. It is this factor that attracts the big-name clients we have who are seeking more then standard click and cost numbers in their reports – they want to know why certain things worked or did not work and how they can use that data to the benefit of their entire businesses. Let me elaborate: - The actual process of optimizing the performance of a paid search and online media program taps the biggest real time focus group on the planet. - Buried in all the click and conversion data of your banner ads, search ads and landing pages lies the key to what you need to say to a consumer to get them to react to your messages, offer and products in a positive way that drives sales. - Rarely does the actual wisdom of the data get called out and packaged in a form that it can be escalated to the benefit of the entire company. - The Benefits and Offers that resonate with people online can often be migrated to all forms of marketing and advertising. We think successful online messages should be driving off-line advertising instead of the other way around! What makes your service better then others? Harry: 1) We are very focused creating an entire company of search and online marketing experts – not just staff members that work for a core group of experts. Overdrive is about great people who also have a great way of doing things. 2) We also are very focused on providing our clients with search engine and online marketing training. We actually provide our clients with onsite seminars on a wide range of topics including search engine marketing, online media and social media marketing. The more people in an organization we can get to embrace online and understand best practices, the more successful we are in launching their programs. Labels: Overdrive News, POV Happy Birthday Harry!  Dan, Mel, Patrick and Katie getting ready to belt out the Bday song! Labels: Campus Life Questions to Ask Your ClientsSo often people say, "In sales, listening is as important as talking." I couldn't agree more. While media planning isn't selling in the traditional sense, it's very much still sales. We all must actively pitch our services, ideas, and ultimately our plans to clients; we truly need to sell the merits of our recommendations. But more important, we need to make them want to buy. Even with the best fact-based decision-making methodology, we need to make the client very comfortable with a plan or strategy. To do this, the client must feel like you're providing them with exactly what they need. And to give them what they need, you must get them to tell you what their needs are. You must ask the right questions. Sometimes you can determine what you'll get from a vendor based on the questions she asks rather than the presentation she eventually gives you. Many times, asking the right questions early in a relationship not only arms you with information to create a successful marketing strategy or media plan but also gets the client thinking along the same lines as you. It helps the client look at success in the same way you do and aligns your priorities. It gets a client thinking about things you think are important early in the process. Labels: ClickZ, Industry, Strategy Database Driven Website Have Duplicate Content? Here's A WorkaroundSometimes despite the best efforts of webmasters, database driven sites fall prey to duplicate content issues. One of the more common ways duplicate content can occur on database powered sites happens when more than one URL results in the dynamic creation of webpages with identical code. To search engines, this represents duplicate content - and having large amounts of it can negatively impact your site's indexing and ranking. But the good news is there is a workaround. Technically, it doesn't matter that there is more than one way to call the same page from a database driven site. So as long as the page is linked to from other site pages using a consistent URL, the search engines will not detect the "duplicate content". In other words, search engine bots would have no way to discover the alternative URL of the page (assuming it is not linked to from an external site using the unfavorable URL). Therefore, a temporary workaround maybe to consistently link to a duplicated page using a single preferred URL. If you have massive amounts of duplicate content, you may find there is a pattern to the URLs of duplicated pages. For example, let's say you have the following URL problem:  In this example, both the Services Page and Product Page have two URLs that can call them from the database. However, the structure of many database driven content management systems (CMS) will often produce duplicate content in easily decipherable patterns - such as the one in the simplified example above. The next steps are to select a preferred URL nomenclature (In the example above, this would likely be the URL that uses letters to call pages) and ensure that only this naming convention is used throughout the site. However, this should only be a temporary solution. Ideally, you want to completely remove any way identical pages can be called from your database. Depending on the length of time it is estimated to find a permanent fix for the issue (more than 2 months), you may want to go into Google Webmaster Tools and go to --> Tools --> Remove URLs. Next, input the URLs that you wish Google to delete from its index into the tool. Only do this after the above recommendations have been implemented. Hope this helps. Labels: Google, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Wordpress SEO Plugins and Other Quick Blog TipsIf you are going to use Wordpress as your blog platform, here are a few plugins I would recommend for SEO: AllinOne SEO Pack - use this plugins to quickly insert the Meta description tag and Meta keyword tag into your post. Also, you can use it to set a search compliant URL scheme, and eliminate duplicate content by adding "no index" tags where applicable. You can download it from http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/#post-753. Google Sitemaps Plugin - install this plugin to automatically generate XML sitemaps and ping Google when a new page is added to your blog. This is a must-have for any blog. You can download it at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-sitemap-generator/#post-766. Google Analytics for Wordpress - will help you to easily connect your blog to your Google Analytics account. I would recommend treating your blog as another website as far as Google Analytics goes. Downloadable from http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-analytics-for-wordpress/#post-2316. ShareThis - use this plugin so that visitors to your blog can send your articles to a friend or submit them to the social web. Downloadable from http://sharethis.com/. Don't forget to register with Feedburner, so you can grab metrics about your RSS subscribers. I would also strongly recommend registering your blog with blog aggregation sites, such as Technorati, to increase your web traffic and inbound links to your blog. Generally, the more you participate in Web 2.0 communities the more traffic you'll drive to your site. Labels: Blog Outreach, Industry, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), web 2.0 Boosting Your Media Buy's PerformanceOK, the online media guy is commenting again on creative. Over the last few weeks, we've received several rounds of banners from a few of our clients' "creative" agencies (or agencies of record). These banners were consistently missing applied best practices, inspiring me to offer these tips. Remember, and I've said this many times before, well-planned media will only put your creative in front of your target audience. It won't get people to do what you want them to do. Only good creative can encourage desired behavior or emotion. It doesn't matter if what you want the consumer to do is on- or offline. It's your messaging, offerings, and imagery that get people to do what you want them to do. If you're trying to encourage an immediate online conversion, direct is best. Get right to the point and be pragmatic. When we launch different banner concepts online, we always have a group we actually call the pragmatic concepts. Nine times out of 10, they're the best performers. If you have the best price, lowest rate, a great coupon, free sample, or informative whitepaper or free guide, make that the point of the banner. Labels: ClickZ, Online Media |
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