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Thinking of Developing a Facebook Application?You might want to read this first. Ah Facebook. Day by day, its audience and community just seems to grow larger and larger and as this audience grows, more and more businesses are looking to effectively levearge it as part of their social media marketing strategy. One obvious step is to set-up a profile, which is a key if you want to access the Facebook community in a relevant manner. Having a profile gives you a presence and a base of operations to start marketing to and leveraging the community. However, the challenge that many organizations face once they set-up a profile is what to do next, in order to actually grow their friend and fan base. Having a profile on Facebook is great, but if no one know its there or it just stagnates, then what is it really worth? In order to grow your friend and fan base, there are a number of viral tactics you can tap into as well as advertising mediums such as left-hand ad units and Social Ads. While these are all great, if you read the press and just listen to the buzz, these all seem to pale in comparison to what many see as the Holy Grail of a developing a successful Facebook presence – Application Development. Yes, in May 2007 Facebook decided to invite developers to create free software programs that Facebook members could in turn use to communicate with and entertain one another. The net effect of opening up Facebook as a development platform has played a huge role in its growing popularity and has helped to ensure that things do not become stagnant. This assertion is supported by the fact that in the past year more than 250,000 developers have requested the company’s tools for building applications and more than 24,000 applications have been launched. This equates to over 65 new applications being launched every day! Pretty impressive growth, if I say so myself. Needless to say, many developers have turned their applications into viable business models and companies have used applications to raise their profile within Facebook through increased engagement with their brand. While this is all great and I applaud everyone who has had success, it has also spawned some unrealistic views about Facebook’s application development platform. The Myth of the Facebook App This flood of application development and the associated buzz has also led to many organizations talking about developing “Facebook Apps” as part of a strategy in order to grow and evolve their presence on the site. It’s almost as if people look at Facebook as some kind of magical development platform and no matter what kind of App you develop its surely going to be viral and increase your friend and fan base 10x over. As much as I would like say this is the case, its really not and hence - “The Myth of the Facebook App”. So what do I mean by “The Myth of the Facebook App”? Well, take this recent quote from Ben Ling, director of platform marketing at Facebook, when asked why some applications are successful, but many just seem to stagnate – “The Facebook platform is not a magic platform and you can plug anything in and be successful. It does not make something that’s not useful useful.” - Wall Street Journal – June 10, 2008 Reality Bites In fact a study published in March 2008 by O’Reilly Media, Inc. regarding Facebook applications revealed some very sobering statistics:
So why is it that some applications are successful while others are not? The applications that seem to be working are those that provide a useful service, entertain users and allow users to socialize with one another. This last point is very, very key, particularly when you think about Facebook as medium. What I mean is that as a medium Facebook is about connecting and socializing with others and something that is considered to be both useful and entertaining is most often based on the premise that it enables you to connect and socialize with your friends.
While these are certainly not the only questions to be asking yourself, they can provide a baseline framework to ensure that you set foot in the right strategic direction when developing an application. As Facebook grows more and more crowded, the opportunities for successful application development are going to get more and more challenging. To simply develop an application without considering its strategic value and how it can be effectively woven into Facebook’s social fabric is a recipe for failure and frustration. Labels: Industry, POV, Social Media, web 2.0 Facebook is Changing!If you're reading this blog, you're either a) an Overdrive employee, b) an Overdrive client, c) interested in working for Overdrive/used to work for Overdrive, d) a smart person with great taste in choosing blogs, or e) a competitor who spies on our brilliant ideas. In any case, by now you are most probably already immersed in (or at least part of!) some kind of social media marketing. If you have a constantly updated profile on Facebook or MySpace, if you tweet and follow Twitter, if you've ever shared anything using one of those convenient chicklets, then I bet you're more than comfortable navigating around the social media web. Well, here's another thing to look forward to: next month, Facebook is launching a redesigned Profiles page. For the last few weeks, Facebook has been actively getting feedback from users regarding the new Profiles redesign via the Facebook Profiles Preview Page. Right now, the plan is to launch the new profile page interface with separate tabs for the Feed, Info, Photos, and Applications:  According to the Facebook Profiles Preview Page, "while some upcoming changes may take getting used to, ultimately they will lead to a better, faster, more useful Facebook." Personally, I'm glad that there is now a way to separate and organize the different sections of each profile. Professionally, I'm excited that this opens up a whole lot of opportunities for online marketers. For instance, the user will also have the option to add more tabs for specific applications. This could be very beneficial to social marketers and application developers, because a tab dedicated to your brand's application equals valuable real estate on the user's profile. Imagine what a useful, engaging, and entertaining application could do: spread virally and manually, contribute greatly to the user experience, and ultimately build stronger brand affinity. The publisher box within the Wall tab also makes life easier for all Facebook users to add and share all kinds of content. It is basically a feature that allows users to directly post items on their feeds as well as their friends' feeds. This streamlines the sharing and interaction process, and makes it easier to communicate with users. It is definitely an exciting time to be part of the social media landscape, with all these updates and changes and redesigns. If you want to read more Facebook news, check out Inside Facebook. Also try Mashable - it's great resources for social media news. Labels: Facebook, Social Media Participation in the Chase Corporate ChallengeFor more information regarding the Challenge, visit this blog post: http://www.ovrdrv.com/blog/2008/05/overdrive-gets-set-for-chase-corporate_05.asp The happy team, post-race:  Those TEAM OVERDRIVE t-shirts get the thumbs-up approval from Mike!  Bill, Meryl, Shane and I met the team afterwards at Solas to celebrate their success!  Barb and Bill having a victory drink!  Labels: Campus Life Launching Multicultural Media CampaignsA specialty at our firm is helping companies target niche audiences. One of our more challenging accounts has charged us with running a multicultural campaign targeting dozens of individual ethnic groups within the United States with just the right message. This type of campaign presents a different set of challenges from huge buys on the Web's top sites. To help describe some of the challenges and tactics associated with running one of these campaigns I interviewed Barbara Wojslawowicz, one of our planners, who does a great job managing and optimizing these difficult multicultural campaigns. Barbara Wojslawowicz: I'm an online media planner in the media department at Overdrive Interactive. I'm responsible for online, and sometimes offline, media strategy, planning, buying, and management for direct-response clients, primarily focused on multicultural advertising. Prior to Overdrive, I held online marketing positions at Digitas and First Night Boston. HG: Why is multicultural advertising so important? BW: Since each ethnic group responds to messaging differently, it's important for advertisers to tailor products and subsequent advertising campaigns in culturally relevant media segments. The U.S. has always been referred to as a melting pot of ideas, religions, and cultures, and according to a recent Pew Research Center study entitled, "Immigration to Play Lead Role in Future U.S. Growth," the pot is going to get even bigger. According to the study, "the population of the United States will rise to 438 million in 2050, from 296 million in 2005, and 82% of the increase will be due to immigrants arriving from 2005 to 2050 and their U.S.-born descendants...The Latino population, already the nation's largest minority group, will triple in size." This population boom will inevitably lead to increased spending on consumer goods from ethnic Americans. This presents a huge opportunity for companies to expand their product offerings and target their ad campaigns by ethnic group. HG: In your experience, what channels have been the most successful in reaching your client's ethnic markets in the U.S.? Labels: ClickZ, Hispanic Marketing, Industry, Online Media Overdrive Interactive Sweeps Paid Search Category at New England Direct Marketing Association (NEDMA) 2008 Awards for Creative ExcellenceInteractive Marketing Agency Receives Top Honors from Direct Marketing Trade Association
The following submissions were honored in various categories:
“We are delighted to be presented with the prestigious NEDMA Awards. To be recognized by a jury of your peers is definitely validating and an acknowledgement of the great work that Overdrive is doing on behalf of our clients” commented “Sweeping the entire paid search category is a real tribute to our team members who are constantly raising the ROI of campaigns they manage” said Harry J. Gold, CEO of Overdrive. He added, “It is the combination of our applied best practices, diligent Account Management and cutting edge technology that lets us deliver the kind of results that warrant this kind of recognition.” The NEDMA Awards is a results-oriented competition based on excellence of the marketing solution, recognizing creative and strategic achievements. The awards honor direct marketing excellence in categories that include print ads, direct mail, broadcast, catalog, electronic, integrated media campaigns and direct mail. The winners of the 27th Annual NEDMA Awards for Creative Excellence, selected from more than 450 submissions, were announced by radio personality Billy Costa of KISS 108 at a ceremony earlier this month in About Overdrive Interactive Labels: Awards, Overdrive News Yahoogle – It’s HereWell folks, it’s official! On Thursday, Yahoo officially stated that under a new pact with Google it will display “some” ads sold by its rival. The deal is expected to generate an additional $800 million in annual revenue for Yahoo, through what the Wall Street Journal describes as improved monetization of certain types of searches. On top of it all, both companies also stated that they are looking for ways to now expand what is considered to be a limited partnership, possibly into the realm of display advertising. Now this would be interesting, as display is one area where Yahoo does hold a commanding lead over Google. While all of the specifics of this deal have not been definitively worked out, the understanding is that Yahoo will control how Google’s ads are displayed along side its own advertising. Although it has not been 100% defined, my guess here is that Yahoo will most likely give priority to ads purchased directly through its own site, but then populate excess inventory with ads from Google. Therefore, it appears that Yahoo is entering in a pact to become part of Google’s “Expanded Search Network”. This means that while you will still be able to buy everything you would like directly via Yahoo, whenever there is a case of excess inventory on Yahoo, Google’s ads will now be displayed. It appears to be a similar arrangement that Google has with sites such as Business.com, from which you can purchase ads directly from or go through Google to do so, as Business.com is part of Google’s expanded search network. Assuming I am correct, and while this great news for the shareholders of Yahoo, there are few things that we as search engine marketers must now consider. If you did not already know, when you buy advertising from Google, you have a few options. You can go with Google Search, which means you advertise to people just searching on Google; Expanded Search, which means adverting on Google and all of its search partners (AOL, Earthlink, etc.); and then of course there are programs such as Google Content. In my experience, most people opt to go with Google’s expanded search network as they not only get access to the audience on Google, but also those on AOL, Earthlink and more. However, unlike Yahoo’s expanded search network, with Google, it’s an all or nothing proposition. This means that with Google, you can not select which search partners you advertise with and which you do not. Additionally, Google does not disclose what percentage of your searches or budget are actually being spent with their partners, versus them directly. This leads most people to believe that when they advertise with Google all traffic and clicks are coming from people directly on Google, but this is not necessarily the case at all. Why this is important is that if Yahoo does join Google’s Expanded Search Network, you could end up spending a good portion of your budget directly with Yahoo unknowingly via Google. Because Yahoo does command upwards of 20% of the Search Marketplace, they still have a very good sized audience and therefore you could soon find your Google programs spending much faster that you had previous realized, as you now have your ads being put in front of Yahoo’s still very sizeable audience. As a result, if you were previously reaping the benefits of Google’s Expanded Search Network, whether you knew it or not, with Yahoo in the fold you may have to start spending a lot more to continue to do so. Additionally, seeing that Google does not let you see the specifics behind what is happening on their Expanded Search Network, you will loose the ability to plan your budget accordingly for Yahoo. I see this as important as both Google & Yahoo perform differently under certain circumstances and therefore you want to be able to structure your campaign on many levels such as Keyword, bidding and budget to take advantage of different audience dynamics. However, under this pact you will be relegated to spending some of your budget with Yahoo, but planning based on your insights from Google. Now, you might say that with Google’s Expanded Search Network you’ve already had to do this for AOL, Earthlink, Business.com, etc., but the difference here is that none of these engines offer an audience the size of Yahoo’s and really have the potential to shift things one way or the other. Now of course you can still advertise with Yahoo directly and plan accordingly, but previously you had the advantage of knowing that you had a Google budget and a Yahoo budget. But now under this new pact you will have a Yahoogle budget and a Yahoo budget, if in fact you decide to advertise directly with Yahoo at all. This leads me to my last point, what does this mean for Yahoo in the future? In my experience, a lot of organizations like the fact that they can go through one provider and get their ads displayed on multiple engines. In the end you basically get the same result, without the headache of having to manage multiple programs and campaigns. In short, life is simpler. So, does this mean that over time, we will see more people just turning to Google to leverage the fact that they can go there and use them as a one stop shop? I guess the answer to this question relies on the definition of “some”, in terms of what the Google/Yahoo pact means when they say it means that Yahoo will display “some” ads displayed/sold by Google. Ultimately the word “some” is very ambiguous, and leaves a lot of room for this partnership to grow and expand. However, while you can at times get better cost efficiencies of going straight to the source, versus going through a partner, the challenges of managing multiple programs sometimes outweighs the cost benefits gained. Therefore, while I do believe that Yahoo will always have direct presence, I feel that the number of advertisers who opt run programs directly with them will shrink as they realize they can go to Google and manage everything from one single interface. This will be particularly true for those businesses that don’t have the ability to have a dedicated search marketing staff, but previously felt they had to run on both engines in order to access both audiences. One thing that is for sure is that by making a bid for Yahoo, Microsoft has certainly shaken-up the search marketing landscape. Who would have thought that the net result of trying to acquire Yahoo, would have the unintended effect of making Yahoo run directly in to the arms of the rival that Microsoft as trying to fend off via their intended acquisition strategy. If you think this is strange; based on the precedent set here, I can only imagine what's going to happen next. Labels: Google, Industry, Online Media, Paid Search, POV, Strategy, Yahoo NEDMA Awards 2008Harry with some industry friends from Blue Sky Factory who was the evening's sponsor.  Say cheese, Overdrive Team!  Barb and Ra - front and center! Meryl was a trooper blowing up the table's beach balls which were tossed around as the night went on. Impressive! Bianca looking very proud of the Harley-Davidson award. Laura and David enjoying the evening. Labels: Awards, Campus Life, Overdrive News A Primer on Social Media Marketing Components and TacticsWhen it comes to social media marketing, there's one three-letter abbreviation that I can't stand: SMO (social media optimization). Why don't I like that term? SMO implies that leveraging social media in your marketing efforts is a cousin of SEO or, even worse, an adjunct that is simply about getting more inbound links to build your search engine prominence. Marketing your site with social media is much more than optimization. Social media marketing (SMM) is an entire channel that allows marketers to build communities of "friends" and then socialize with those friends in their chosen online environments. It's about leveraging a whole new platform and environment to galvanize and communicate with your customers (and potential customers) and to let them communicate with you. Read more... Labels: ClickZ, Social Media Overdrive Partners with Aquent Healthcare Consulting to Launch SEO Compliant WebsiteOverdrive is happy to announce the launch of a new website for Aquent Healthcare Consulting. Overdrive worked with Aquent to develop an information architecture that allows the healthcare organization and professionals to easily learn about the large-scale international recruitment services that Aquent Healthcare Consulting provides. The design has a friendly, welcoming feel to help reinforce the fact that Aquent Healthcare Consulting understands the healthcare industry and has the experience to help healthcare organizations address their workforce planning needs. All of the architecture, design, and copy components consider SEO best practices. View the new Aquent Healthcare Consulting website at http://health.aquent.com/.
Aquent Healthcare Consulting is one of the largest premier healthcare workforce planning consultants in the world, helping healthcare organizations attract, procure and retain skilled, experienced nurses and physical therapists. Aquent Healthcare Consulting's large-scale international recruitment program allows healthcare organizations to open physical therapist and nurse recruitment efforts as far as London/U.K. and Dubai/UAE. Get comprehensive, strategic workforce solutions for your organization, and build winning workforce strategies for the future. Labels: Overdrive News, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Website Development Landing Page Whitepaper Offers With Sub-Par Landing Pages?Over the last few days, I have been served ads for a couple of different landing page guides. In order to get the landing page whitepapers, the user is directed to what else- a landing page. Logically, you would assume that an ad or email for a landing page best practice whitepaper would point to a pretty well designed landing page, but don’t make assumptions too quickly. I do not have access to the conversion data for either of the pages to be discussed, so the following observations are based solely on my experiences of landing page elements that enhance or detract from conversion rates. One example of a questionable landing page design is for an Omniture landing page guide entitled “Does Your Landing Page Smell Like Your Keywords”. I use the term “questionable” because many design elements on this page are pretty good , but there are some design elements on this page that are extremely frustrating, especially in the context of downloading a whitepaper about landing pages. See the page below. The red line represents the “fold”; the portion of the page above the red line is visible without scrolling.
The next design element that is frustrating as an end user is the functionality of the form. Keep in mind, I was served the ad for the landing page in an email newsletter for online marketers- the primary subscriber base is most likely comprised of folks working at interactive agencies, which brings me to my concerns surrounding the form functionality. The first several fields are the standard fill-ins like name, email, but when you get to the drop down menus, things get a bit strange. One design element that seemed particularly odd was the industry selector. As I mentioned previously, the ad for this page was served to a group that is likely comprised on online advertising agency types, but neither “Advertising” or “Marketing” were available as drop down selections. Instead, the form has a selection for “Healthcare” which seems strange as I could not imagine many people in healthcare are developing custom lead generation landing pages in-house. Similarly, peculiar selections were available for other fields, especially considering the ad for this offer was served in an online marketing industry newsletter. Assuming the majority of folks that see this ad work at online ad agencies, it is odd that the most common job titles in the industry are not available in the drop down menu. There are no fields for “Account Executive” or “Account Director” although these are very common titles for the people that are seeing the ad impressions. Another unique component of this page that I find frustrating relates to “form growth”. If you select “Other” from the drop down, a new fill-in field appears below the drop down box. I personally find this very frustrating as I feel deceived by the advertiser as the form gets larger and larger as I complete fields. Look at the difference between the original impression of the form, and the expanded form that “grows” based on your selection.
This experience reminds me of the frustrating multi-stage forms in which users keep getting directed to new pages with new form fields, and there is no indication of when the form will be complete. Keep in mind, this page design could have been the result of extensive testing that indicated this design would lead to the highest possible conversion rates for this channel; however, it is undoubtedly counterintuitive to many thoroughly tested best practices, as well as my own experience in landing pages testing and design. Nevertheless, I won’t be reading Omniture’s landing page whitepaper- I bailed out of the conversion process before I could make it through the frustrating landing page and form. Labels: Industry, Landing Pages, Strategy, web 2.0 Supplementing Social Media Marketing is Crucial to Success (Part 2.)For the first part of this series, please see Supplementing Social Media Marketing is Crucial to Success (Part 1.) In order to maximize return on any social media investment, it is critical to supplement the social campaign with alternative forms of media. Social media marketing campaigns can include a variety of components and platforms, but it is important to remember you can’t simply launch a social marketing campaign and assume your core audience will find you and engage in a conversation. This sentiment was reiterated in a recent article in the Summer 2008 edition of Search Marketing Standard entitled Marketing on Facebook. In the article, SMS correspondent Grant Crowell interviewed Rodney Rumford- CEO/founder of FaceReviews & Gravitational Media. When asked about common mistakes of marketing on Facebook, Rumford cited a problem in the perception of marketers that “if I build it they will come”. Yes, there is a huge viral component involved with social media marketing; however, marketers still need to take steps to ensure their social campaigns are supplemented with other forms of media in order to fully capitalize on the social marketing opportunity. Getting back to BMW’s social campaign surrounding a car customizer application, it is clear that supplemental marketing efforts were not a well thought out component of the social campaign, and this detracted from the overall performance of the campaign. BMW clearly fell into the common trap of thinking “we built it- they will come”, but this is not the case. So what specific supplemental tactics could BMW have utilized to maximize the return on their social campaign? Here are a few ideas.
After reading about this campaign in the press, I attempted to find the custom application, but I was not successful. For a very modest fee, BMW could have developed a small paid search campaign with terms like “BMW customizer”, “BMW Facebook page”, “BMW MySpace profile” etc… This would be very inexpensive as there would be virtually no advertiser competition on these terms. Ad copy should include calls to action such as “add us to your friends/become our fan” or “check out our new application” to encourage users to interact with the social profile and/or social campaign.
The same keyword list running in the PPC search campaign should also be launched on the Google Content network. This will generate tons of free impressions, and more importantly, MySpace pages fall under the Google Content network, so text ads running within MySpace could direct users BMW’s MySpace profile (assuming this was one of the networks utilized). Click costs on the content network would likely be even cheaper than search clicks, and the high level of relevance related to seeing ads for BMW’s MySpace page when already in MySpace should help drive comparatively high click through rates for the Content Network.
It also makes sense to invest in online media to drive additional traffic to a social profile, campaign, or application. It is unclear if BMW supplemented their social campaigns with display, but it is certainly a good idea. In addition to standard media buys with various targeting options, it is also worth investigating media buys that would run on the social sites themselves, which would also increase relevance, and therefore would hopefully also increase performance. Social sites are constantly coming up with new advertising solutions as well. Case in point- Facebook’s new Social Ads which utilize the Facebook News Feed to serve hyper-targeted ads to relevant users. One unique targeting example would be the ability serve ads to users whose friends have recently engaged with the advertiser's Facebook profile.
BMW had an opportunity to develop a short press release describing the campaign/custom social application that could be distributed to targeted audiences via RSS. The release should have several anchor text links pointing back to the profile page where the application resides. The anchor text should include copy like “BMW customizer application” or “BMW virtual joyride”. The RSS feed should also include a screen grab or short video of the application to maximize performance in terms of press release reads and the number of times the story is republished on blogs, forums, etc… The RSS component is very cost-effective as well, and there are multiple benefits to this specific tactic. The RSS feed will drive traffic to the profile page, but in addition, there will now be several links out on the web that will point back to the profile page. The additional links will help gain SEO traction in the natural search results in the search engines, but the links will also help the profile pages show up higher in search results within social sites like MySpace and Facebook.
Another important tactic involves continuing the conversation with your core audience in the social space. If BMW is hosting their application on Facebook or MySpace, then a blast should be sent out to the fans/friends of the brand. In addition to telling fans and friends about the new customizer application and “virtual joyride”, the content on the profiles should be updated on a regular basis to encourage users to return. Every time an update is made, friends and fans should be notified. Some social sites will automatically inform users when profiles are updated, but this is likely not enough in most cases.
The blogosphere also offers a huge opportunity in relation to supplementing a social media marketing campaign. BMW had an opportunity to launch a blog outreach campaign in conjunction with the social media campaign/customizer application. Putting your ear to the ground to find out what bloggers think of your brand is helpful, but it isn’t enough. Bloggers can significantly influence thought, feeling, and general perception of a brand, particularly in the automotive category in which emotion plays such a large role in the perception of a brand. Cars could be considered more of an extension of an individual’s personality than a preference in transportation. So if listening is not enough, what should BMW do? Reach out and initiate a conversation with the influential brand ambassadors in the blogosphere. Find out who is talking, select the most active and influential blogs, initiate a conversation, and provide something of value- even if it is just the right to use images of a new model on their site. BMW should also make sure that the conversation includes a quick pitch of the social app that BMW is promoting, as this will create awareness, drive traffic to the application, and will likely result in additional links back to the campaign which provides additional SEO benefits. The list of supplemental tactics above is by no means all-inclusive. Each campaign has a unique set of goals and challenges. The most effective may to maximize the return on a social campaign is to develop a well planned, multi-faceted, integrated promotional strategy to supplement the efforts of the core social campaign. BMW clearly missed a big opportunity to maximize the return on their social campaign- so be sure not to make the same mistake. Labels: Blog Outreach, Integration, Paid Search, RSS, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media Marketing, Strategy Born to Have Good Search RankingsWhen my older sister announced that she was pregnant with twins last year, as her younger sister I was thrilled to be a first time aunt. As an online media professional, I was thrilled to (jokingly) offer her advice on how to optimize the babies’ names. From what my sister has told me, competition among expectant parents for baby names is just as fierce as getting accepted into a nursery school in Manhattan. Remember that Seinfeld episode where Susan’s cousin took George’s favorite baby name, Seven? Well here are some ways to beat out the competition by using search engine optimization techniques to enhance the ranking of your baby’s name. These tips were taken from a MediaPost article written by David Berkowitz entitled Baby Name Optimization. 1) Write a press release the day your baby’s born with the baby’s name in the headline, and optimize the entire release. As soon as the little one takes its first breath, he or she can even appear in the body of Google’s natural search results thanks to universal search. 2) Buy all potential domain name misspellings of your baby’s name. If you’re blessed with ample foresight or come from an ages-old tradition of arranged marriages, buy versions of the last name of any potential suitor you have in mind. Redirect the names to your baby’s main dot-com domain. 3) Film the birth and syndicate it to dozens of video sites. One of those sites will have to be around by the time of your kid’s communion or bar mitzvah, right? On your primary domain, optimize the video by tagging every second of it so those clips are accessible to search engine spiders. 4) Blog as if you’re the baby. Then, when your kid is old enough to blog, you can hand it over to your child, or you can go on blogging as if you’re his or her therapist. 5) Tag your baby. Don’t forget that you can use these search engine optimization tips for your business as well. It doesn’t matter if your business has been established for a long time or is just getting underway, these tips and tricks will help build your company's brand for years to come. To read the rest of Mr. Berkowitz’s tips and the full article please click here Labels: Online Media, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Social Media Marketing: A Marriage Made in HeavenAs an online media planner, I receive dozens of online marketing newsletters each day, so it takes a catchy headline and a pertinent topic to really pique my interest. Today I came across an article on ClickZ, written by Heidi Cohen entitled Online Marketing: Wedding Bells Meet Content, Community which talks about the three major C’s of online marketing: content, community and commerce and how it relates to planning a wedding. As newly engaged to be married, this article was certainly something that I can relate to not only in my professional life but also in my personal life. As soon as my fiancé proposed I was amazed at how many questions we got from friends and family wanting to know everything from when and where we were going to get married, to what color the bridesmaid dresses would be. Not only that, every time I email someone with the words “engaged” or “wedding,” banners for tuxedos, wedding invites and supplies seem to pop up on websites that have nothing to with the topic. Only two weeks into the engagement and I already feel behind the 8 ball, so after two blissful weeks of no planning, I started my wedding research. Since I can’t seem to escape the madness that follows when you get engaged, I might as well embrace all the tools that marketers, like myself, use to hit their target audience to my advantage. The community section in Ms. Cohen’s article I found particularly interesting. Many of Overdrive’s clients are interested in social media marketing so it’s become a hot topic around the office. When building a client’s website, landing page or social media campaign, it’s important for marketers to keep in mind who their customer is and how information is communicated. With a product that requires a long decision marketing process, marketers need to keep in mind that consumers will use the internet to conduct pre-purchase research. Even though company websites are helpful to explain a product, what really hits home when making a big decision are customer reviews and feedback on social media communities. Facebook email chats with my friends, viewer polls on the Weddingchannel.com, message boards on Theknot.com, and venue reviews on Tripadvisor.com have helped to narrow my search. Peer to peer reviews and suggestions hold a strong stake in my decision making process, as this information comes from people who have been there and done that. As Ms. Cohen writes, “Given the one-time nature of a wedding, one negative comment, which may be taken out of context, could be sufficient to eliminate an option.” This can apply to any product or service, not just for a wedding. To sum this entry up, marketers need to listen to their customers and monitor message boards and forums to find out what people are saying about their products. In addition, considering how important peer comments and suggestions are in making decisions, marketers need to build their online community and fan base to let customers know that their feedback is important. One bad review and you’re out the door, but one good review can spread like wild fire. To read Ms. Cohen’s article on ClickZ, please click here Labels: Online Media, Social Media, Strategy Maximize Return By Supplementing Social Media Marketing Campaigns (Part 1.)Social media marketing is all the buzz today- you can't read any online marketing newsletter or industry publication without coming across an article about the next frontier in the world of interactive marketing- social media.
The lack of integrated efforts to promote the social campaign has certainly impacted the return on investment for BMW. Even though the majority of traffic hitting the social campaign is viral, a huge opportunity was wasted by not driving additional traffic through integrated marketing efforts. So, what should BMW have done? Stay tuned for Part 2 of this series to find out. Labels: Integration, Online Media, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Strategy, web 2.0 Google CEO Shares His Secrets to SuccessFortune magazine recently spoke to Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, to discuss why Google continues to achieve impressive financial results in a slow economy. I began reading the article expecting to learn some groundbreaking business philosophies, but found Schmidt’s insights to be rather obvious. Don’t Lose Sight of What’s Working Schmidt expresses the importance of keeping priority on your core products and services while developing new ones to grow and diversify your business. He refers to this as the ‘threat of distraction.’ In Google’s case, 90% of focus remains on their core services such as SEM and allows 10% to new product development. While this ‘don’t put all your eggs in one basket’ philosophy seems fairly intuitive, many large corporations have fallen prey to the allure of new initiatives. Remember New Coke? McDonald’s Arch Delux? Levi’s Type 1 jeans? Nintendo’s Virtual Boy? Many of these companies have yet to regain the market status they held prior to these failed product launches. Rise to The Challenge Schmidt argues that most growing corporations either don’t recognize or address growth-related issues. Schmidt believes it’s important to recognize challenges and do what it takes to overcome them. He feels the biggest threat is internal vs. market based, specifically highlighting the threat of bad leadership. The list of organizations that saw leadership-related failure is long. Some high-profile examples include Enron, Tyco, and WorldCom. Provide an Integrated Experience Schmidt discusses how Google is consciously working to keep all Google-related products and services within the Google brand vs. having a divisionalized business structure. This includes focusing on ensuring that Google products and services are integrated to provide a cohesive experience for their customers. In my experience, Google is doing a fairly successful job of this. As an online marketing firm, Overdrive has leveraged Google’s SEM, Online Media, and Analytics products (to name a few) and has realized the management, data correlation and optimization benefits of their integration. I encourage you all to click here to read Schmidt’s full interview with Fortune Magazine. You’ll also find a link to a Fortune video discussion that provides another take on the growth-related threats Google is facing. |
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