2009 November (2)

Archive for November, 2009

Google Social Search – The Possibilities?

Monday, November 16th, 2009

Heard of Google Social Search?

If you haven’t, you most likely will soon. That is, unless you’re one of the few who doesn’t care about your Google search traffic.

If you don’t think social media has an impact on your search engine rankings, guess again. Google Social Search was an experiment released in late October. If you’re following it, you know that in the last day or two it’s been essentially shut-down.

Still, it’s naive to think it is not coming.

There has been speculation about this for some time, going back to Business Week’s mention of a patent filing in September of 2008. Jordan Kasteler and others have been postulating its implications over the past few months.

What does this all mean? Well, from my perspective, the Google Social Search Experiment, along with the sandbox-play Google Caffeine (the much discussed algorithm update) is the first iteration of a real organic social search engine in play.

If you aren’t familiar with either, just read the links in the above paragraph.

What’s This Mean To You?
Well, essentially it solidifies what many have been saying for a long time. If you’re not actively participating in the social media sphere, you’re going to be playing catch up.

Your potential customers’ search results will be influenced by their social media connections. Your past customers’ search results will be influenced by their social media connections.

Which don’t include you (but do include your competitors).

Ready to begin building and solidifying those relationships now? Or do you want to keep barking about your awesomeness and hot deals?

Some Questions I Have
I think it remains to be seen how this all shakes out. The implications for users, businesses, and marketers is huge. I don’t think this can be overstated.

Whatever happens, it’s going to be fascinating. Google social profile optimization? Businesses afforded Google profiles? Or will it simply pull from Google Local? How good will the algorithm be at sniffing out quality vs. quantity of connections?

The answers are forthcoming. It’s just a matter of “when”. Which is a good thing- we have lots of questions.

Tags: google social search
Posted in Digital Marketing, SEO, Social Media | No Comments »

Three Things You Should Be Doing (But Probably Aren’t)

Sunday, November 15th, 2009

With all the talk about different ways to market your business, there’s not much to be seen on the simple things. Here are some easy steps that could improve your digital marketing and your bottom line.

Call Tracking
While I was at Pubcon in Las Vegas, there was plenty of talk about social media, search, paid search, and more. Marty Weintraub and Michael Dorausch both mentioned call tracking, something we hear very little talk about.

It’s a technology that we’ve experimented with for over a year, and the information that can result is all useful. You can use call tracking by simply embedding a “throw-away” phone number on your landing pages, your website, social media profiles, and print ads. Using unique numbers allows you to then track the effectiveness of that placement.

Additionally, you can write conditional code which will show different numbers depending upon how they entered your website. In other words, if someone enters via an organic search query from Yahoo!, they’ll see a different number than if had they entered from a search on Google.

And there’s the metrics. You can learn the geographic origination of the phone call. You can see how long they talked. How many times they called. More. This information not only helps understand the effectiveness of your marketing, but can also help evaluate your customer service by studying call duration and repetition.

Talk to Your Customers
When was the last time you really talked to your customers? I’m not meaning just sending off email surveys (which are good), but actually talking to folks. Ask them for a few moments of their time while they are visiting your location. Or simply give a them a quick phone call.

You can find out helpful information such as what social networks they use, and what they thought of their experience with you. Simply ask them for their time, ask the questions, and give them a little something for their effort.

Customer Service Training
Do you train your employees on how to better serve your customers? Tony Hsieh at Zappos, requires ALL new hires to go through customer service training. Everyone there can answer the phone, answer your questions, fulfill your order, and on and on.

Think that’s helpful during the holiday season? What do you think that would do for consistency of customer interaction? Hint: Satisfaction is through the roof at Zappos.

It’s easy for the big companies, right? They have the budgets. Small businesses are faced with a number of different obstacles when it comes to implementing a customer service training program. Budget, time, and know-how are all factors which no one seems to have enough of.

But putting forth the effort to create training programs can have a tremendous impact. What if you raised your conversion rate by 1%? 2%? 10%?!

Sometimes, simple is the answer. Training can help you make the most of your marketing spend. And it helps focus on conversion and customer service.

What are you doing to boost conversion rate?

Tags: Digital Marketing, marketing strategy, Pat Strader
Posted in Digital Marketing, Marketing | No Comments »

Crafting Your Social Media Policy

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

Do you have a social media policy?

If you said, yes, I applaud you, here is a list of others like you for comparison. If you’re like most of us, you made one of those, “I know I should say yes, but I can’t” faces.

Don’t worry. If you don’t have one, you aren’t alone. Not by a long shot.

However, as social media becomes a bigger and more important part of your overall marketing efforts, you’ll need one. It’s required, got it?

Why A Social Media Policy?
One of the big concerns of brands that use social media marketing is the fact that there’s “no control”.

The fact is, you can’t ever control what others say about your brand. And you never have. You can however, manage what you say about your brand. Surprisingly, that’s a problem for some.

Creating your social media policy doesn’t need to be an exercise in formality. It’s simply a guide, with parameters. Not micro-management on paper.

What Can A Social Media Policy Do?
There are tons of positives from creating and adhering to a social media marketing policy:

Identify the basic questions of who, what, where and when
Identify hot-button topics and create appropriate plans of action
Establish a planned response for emergencies, anticipated or otherwise
Eliminate the inaction that is often caused by uncertainty
Establish training protocol

Let’s use sports as an example. Success in sports is predicated by proper evaluation, planning, and execution. If you are leading your social team, think like a coach. Evaluate your personnel, game plan, teach the fundamentals, and prepare for anything.

Then teach your team. It’s going to establish the who, what, and when of your organization, and provide a guide for everyone to refer to. And you’ll have a plan for when all hell breaks loose.

Examples, Links and Reading

Dave Fleet on Social Media Policy
Working example – Intel Social Media Policy
PR Squared – Guidelines and Templates
107 Working Examples

Mistakes can and will happen. However, if you have the fundamentals ingrained, you’ll be much more apt for consistent success.

Tags: Social Media
Posted in Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »

5 Books You Need For Digital Marketing 101

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

Not everyone is a fan of business books. No problem. There are ways to get around that.

But there are some new (or new-ish) titles that everyone should read. Here’s why: Together, they are primer on how digital marketing is done.

That means if read these and you can start to create digital marketing strategy with just about anyone who lives and works on the digital side of life. That includes web developers, content strategists, graphic designers, and on and on.

Enjoy…

1. Letting Go Of The Words by Ginny Reddish First of all, this isn’t a narrative. It’s a textbook. And there’s no better work on the nuts and bolts of writing for the web. If you want to know how to make your written content useful, this book explains all.

2. Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff This is the book that identifies what social media is, who will be using it, and how it’s taken over the online world. There are a fair number of statistics, which can make it seem dry. But for anyone that works with a team that needs to be convinced about social media, this is the book to do it.

3. Made To Stick by Chip and Dan Heath This one isn’t digital-specific. But it does explain how to translate your ideas in interesting ways. And “interesting” is exactly what’s needed in an environment where attention spans (even yours) are measured in fractions of parts of bits of seconds.

4. Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith If Groundswell explains the what, who, and how of social media, Trust Agents is the “why”. This book explains the power of influence, reputation, and relationships in the world of the social web.

5. The Back Of The Napkin by Dan Roam Draw stick figures. Be understood. Repeat. It’s the communication tool that those of us without the gift of graphics have always looked for. Especially now. Information has gone far, far beyond simple text. This book explains how to get there yourself.

Tags: books, content, content marketing, Digital Marketing, marketing strategy
Posted in Digital Marketing | No Comments »

Stop For A Moment

Sunday, November 8th, 2009

One of the most touching things I’ve ever read is right here. It’s the story of Elena Desserich, a five year old girl with brain cancer.

How she died is terrible, tragic, and all too common in the world of children with cancer. What she left behind for her family, and for all of us, is remarkable.

Read it, watch the video, and go tell someone you love them.

Tags: content, Pat Strader, writing
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

The Burden of Trust

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

Do your customers trust you?

The Burden of Trust

If they’re spending so much as a penny with you, they do.

Trust is one of the fundamental building blocks of the process which moves us from prospect to customer; Without trust, we don’t buy. Simple as that.

There are always a series of steps in the buying cycle, and every company has a slightly different cycle. The cycle contains attention, interest, desire etc. Each step represents a “micro-conversion” which must take place to reach the ultimate goal – “the sale”.

Trust is one of the hardest micro-conversions to check off the list. People, now more than ever, are increasingly distrustful of brands. This is substantiated by a variety of sources, include PEW Research which tells us that 7 people in 10 say they consult online reviews when purchasing. I would go as far as to say that the “consulting” they’re doing is a large portion of the decision-making process of simply whether or not to trust a brand.

People gain trust in brands in a variety of ways. Were you helpful, honest, sincere… nice? And beyond even how to gain that trust, what to do with it once you’ve earned it?

Earning trust is just a portion of the proverbial battle. Truth is, the real work begins after trust is earned. That’s where the real responsibility is.

It’s your responsibility, once you’ve earned trust, to keep your customers’ best interest at the core of everything you do within the relationship. The old saying, “the customer is always right” is fundamentally flawed; you are often the customer… and you’re also sometimes wrong. But when it’s your business, it’s still your duty as the trust-bearer to ensure those customers are right.

Make them smarter. Make them understand. Teach them. Lead them in the right direction. After all, they’re TRUSTING YOU to do that very thing. Trust, once obtained, is the basis of all of your business relationships. Now that you’ve earned it, it’s your burden to prove the decision to give it was wise.

Tags: business relationships, business trust, marketing strategy
Posted in Digital Marketing, Marketing, Partnership | 2 Comments »

A Sweet Business Blog

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

A secret about me? I’m not a huge fan of candy.

I know, I know. I’m a freak. A pariah. People look at me like I’ve got six heads. But I’m used to it. I eat candy every once in a while, I enjoy it, but I’ve never, ever had a sweet tooth. Go figure.

Still, I can’t say enough how much I like the Candy Dish Blog. Good writing, interesting topics, nice design. The style of the blog is very distinct, meaning it helps brand them, and it’s a great example of good business blogging (in this case, for the National Confectioners Association).

Here’s what’s cool about the writing: it’s light, personal, sometimes funny, doesn’t try too hard, and it’s topical. The “authors” tab lets you know exactly who’s saying what, which is especially near and dear to me. I haven’t read tons of posts, but it seems like they mix it up fairly well, topic-wise, between industry news and personal takes on the candy experience.

There are some blog elements that new business bloggers should pay attention to. Photos, for instance, are front and center, and there’s a flickr roll in the sidebar. Also in the sidebar is a big ol’ blogroll to promote their subject.

And, if you like candy, well, there’s a lot to make you salivate. It’s a great example of how to take your subject and run with it. In blog form.

If you’re thinking of starting or re-doing your business blog, there’s a lot here you should check out for ideas.

Posted in Content Creation | No Comments »

One Really Cool Thing About Digital Marketing

Monday, November 2nd, 2009

As a wise man once said, we’re living in the future.

Big parts of marketing budgets past used to go toward one thing: production. Paper and distribution. Stamps. They were fixed costs, and the companies with big resources could easily outproduce small business.

Not so now. There are still costs, but those two things- production and distribution- are essentially free.

Think about creating a direct mail piece focused solely on how great your customers are. As far as I know, that never happened. But digitally, you’re free to devote as much space to that as you like.

People can choose you. If you’re content is good, you get read. People will talk to you. It’s distribution on its head.

What you don’t have to do is spam, or do the pre-digital version of spamming. There’s a lot of that going on still and yet. There always will be.

But it’s a pretty nice time to be doing what we’re doing.

Tags: business relationships, Digital Marketing, marketing strategy, writing
Posted in Digital Marketing | No Comments »

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Archive for November, 2009

Three Things You Should Be Doing (But Probably Aren’t)

5 Books You Need For Digital Marketing 101

Stop For A Moment

The Burden of Trust

A Sweet Business Blog

One Really Cool Thing About Digital Marketing