Digital Brand Expressions - Official Blog

The Value of Twitter

2009-06-09T12:36:00.003-04:00

Yesterday, Marc Meyer posted a list of 20 Twitter Brands Behaving Badly on Social Media Today. Inspired by this list of the 100 most mentioned brands on Twitter, he noted that several of these highly discussed brands are choosing not to engage with their audience on Twitter. Worse, some of these brands missed their opportunity to claim their brand name on the site, and now brandjackers are controlling their Twitter presence by controlling the content posted by their brand name.

Twitter is somewhat of an anomaly within the world of social media marketing. Where brands have been quick to recognize the value of sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and even Myspace, developing and maintaining a presence on these sites, Twitter has been often overlooked as a fad. The number of blogs and articles pondering the long-term worth of Twitter is astounding. Perhaps no other social networking site has been looked at with such ongoing scrutiny. The time has come to acknowledge that Twitter is here, it’s highly utilized, it’s growing and it’s worth every marketer’s time.

While we have not been surprised to see how Twitter has grown in the past year, it has been interesting to note that the fasting growing demographic on Twitter is the 45-54 age range, offering further confirmation that not only is Twitter not a fad, but it’s full of highly influential users:

Brands of all sizes and across all industries should be paying attention to Twitter now if they have not already done so. Proactive brand username claiming and reputation monitoring are the absolute minimum activities that all brands should employ as their Twitter strategy. Stop waiting for a consensus that Twitter is a viable marketing channel – too many brands have missed the boat and we’ve all seen the repercussions.

Google Rich Snippets

2009-05-27T14:39:00.002-04:00

Does your website feature reviews of products or services? Here’s a recent development from Google that may affect the way your site appears in the search results:

Google has launched a search results enhancement called “rich snippets” that uses meta data from web pages to display additional details (both content and meaning) about pages in the results. This initial launch supports reviews (with sites such as Yelp) and people’s profiles (with sites such as LinkedIn). This provides an opportunity for the user to preview the results more clearly.

For example, for the search query [Salt Creek Grille], Google shows the average user rating, the total number of reviews, and the price range for the listings from Yelp.com.

Similarly, the search results from LinkedIn on Google show the person’s location and job title so searchers have a better sense of which result matches the person they’re looking for.

Where does Google get this data?

Google is getting this information from the meta data coded in the site. Webmasters can use two open standards (microformats and RDFa) to annotate structured data on their sites. Both standards allow markup of information on web pages.

How does it help site owners?

While the initial launch will be limited to a specific set of partners (including LinkedIn, Yelp and CNET Reviews), the intent is that soon anyone who marks their pages up with the appropriate microformat data will be able to make their information understandable by Google. This technology would allow people to explicitly search, for example, for only printers that had an average customer review of 3 stars or higher.

Once your site is marked up, you can let Google know that you’re interested in participating in Rich Snippets using this form: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/request.py?contact_type=rich_snippets_feedback

While Google will accept both microformat encoding and RDFa encoding, it also plans to work toward the development of a common vocabulary for the structured data. Google is hopeful that other web services will also adopt this standard.

At this point in time, if you have reviews about products or services on your site, DBE recommends marking up the data and informing Google about it. For other types of sites, we recommend holding off while Google develops a common vocabulary for data marking. Hopefully, there will be applications for it on a range of websites. In the meantime, other tools are being developed that will make the markup process easier.

Meet the New Boss- My Take on the New AdWords Interface

2009-04-22T12:11:00.001-04:00

I’ve had a few weeks to try out the new Google AdWords interface and I like it a lot. In fairness, it is still in beta and there are some kinks to work out, but I find it to be very effective and intuitive. Part of that may stem from my familiarity with AdWords Editor. The branching folder system for campaigns and ad groups with tabs across the screen for settings, ads, keywords, and networks seems to have been taken directly from Editor.

Numerous people have complained about the speed of the new interface based on the Twitter comments I’ve seen. That hasn’t been my experience at all. Although there now is a small load time when you begin looking at campaign information, it’s not much longer than it was in the original interface. Other sections that used to take forever to load, like the Account Access screen or Billing Summary, now come up almost immediately.

I have no doubt that for the day to day setup and management of a PPC program, the new interface is much, much faster. It goes back to that branching structure. Instead of tabbing through every ad group to see keyword performance and make changes, you can view all the keywords in your campaign on one screen, and edit them in-line. Pause keywords, change bids, even edit match types without leaving that screen. The same goes for campaign status and daily budgets; it can all be changed from one screen. Setting up new ad groups with keywords and ad copy can also be consolidated to one screen.

They’ve even added a copy function that allows you to replicate keywords and/or ads in another ad group. This is a good beginning, though it feels incomplete to me. If Google could somehow reproduce their off-line drag-and-drop, cut-and-paste, and copy-and-paste functionality, I might not even need AdWords Editor anymore.

The new interface is not perfect. Although the Search Performance Query report can now be run from the campaign management screen, without needing to go to the report center, it still results in “138 unique queries.” Rumor has it that a more detailed (read “useful”) version of this report is coming, but it sounds like it may be a slow process.

There are also some display issues. You occasionally have to scroll left and right to see all the information on screen. Some drop down menus don’t display properly in Chrome. (Explain that one to me- they work fine in IE, but not in the browser developed by Google.) For some reason, the Ad Preview Tool will not load from the Tools menu for me. These are minor complaints, and I expect them to be ironed out by the time the new interface is out of beta.

My overall impression is that the new AdWords interface is faster, more intuitive, and more functional than the previous version. It’s easy to gripe about Google’s near monopoly of the search environment, but they have consistently put out a product that is far and away better than all of their competitors combined. Yahoo and Microsoft have their work cut out for them.

Social Media Know-It-Alls?

2009-04-16T18:30:00.005-04:00

Any respectable search marketer knows our industry is ever-evolving. Google’s introduction of SearchWiki late last year and their new AdWords interface are just two examples of significant changes in the optimization and paid search landscape.

General marketers seem to understand this, too, as evidenced by the fact that “It’s too hard to stay abreast of best practices” is the number one reason why they outsource to search agencies like DBE (according to SEMPO’s State of Search Annual Survey). Granted these respondents are already engaged in search marketing to some degree but their answers to other questions in the survey demonstrate they understand the complexities of search and appreciate the value of investing time and money to properly leverage it for competitive business advantage.

Unfortunately, it appears that the same understanding and appreciation for social media marketing is not yet manifest. Or so one would surmise from this Marketing Sherpa Chart-Of-The-Week:

How Knowledgeable Are Marketers With No Social Media Experience?

These are people saying they are knowledgeable about social media marketing when they have not yet used it in any form for their business. The obvious implication is that some personal use of Facebook or LinkedIn or Twitter qualifies as “knowledge.”

But knowing how to set-up a personal profile is a far cry from knowing how to effectively manage an online community or generate viral attention for your company’s brand. That’s a task that requires an in-depth knowledge of social media tool sets, familiarity with each of the communities' individual culture, and an understanding of the most effective strategies for building a following. Remember, just like it was when blogs first arrived, for every social media success story, there are a thousand campaigns that fall silent on the web, or worse, that fall flat on their face.

So I guess until we get the kind of research that helps debunk the “anyone can do it” approach to social media, it looks like we’ve got some more explaining to do in the short term (we being DBE and our fellow search/social media marketers). But maybe the learning curve won’t be too long as people see social media is evolving at an even more rapid pace than SEO and paid search.

Subdomains vs. Subfolders – which is better?

2009-04-08T14:44:00.002-04:00

A client recently asked us whether it’s better to set up their website using subdomains or subfolders? We get this question a lot, so I thought it would be helpful to provide the answer here, for all of our blog readers.

If you’re not already familiar with these terms, a subdomain is a way of structuring your site so that URLs look like this: http://widgets.abccompany.com/. The same destination using the subfolders setup would look like this: http://www.ABCcompany.com/widgets.

Our team likes to look at this from the following angles:

SEO Perspective:

Search engines used to treat subdomains as distinct domains, and used to give two additional listings in the search engine results. In essence, it was possible to get 2 rankings for the main domain, plus 2 more rankings for each subdomain. However, Google changed its policy about a year ago and now treats both subdomains and subfolders the same. So where we used to give subdomains an edge because of additional visibility potential, both are basically on level playing ground now.

It gets a bit murky here though. If Google decides that the subdomains are entirely different from each other, then it may treat them as different sites and rank them accordingly. For example, subdomains of blogspot.com like dbesem.blogspot.com and datacenterdesign.blogspot.com are treated as different sites though they are subdomains of blogspot.com. In most cases, however, Google will tend to show results from different domains to give searchers a more diverse and robust list.

Technical Perspective:

Subdomains can be a little more difficult for a novice webmaster to set up. They can be managed separately, which can be great for organization purposes, but will consume more time.
Subdomains also make visitor tracking more difficult, requiring some extra configuration in your analytics software to aggregrate results.
For subfolders, usually the code is all in the same file storage space. That can make it much easier to find/edit/change code. It can also be easier to move code from one place to another.

For these reasons, unless you have distinct products or services, we suggest going with subfolders instead of subdomains.

If you do offer multiple distinct products or services, there are some marketing benefits to using the subdomain setup. Subdomains help to tie your different offerings together by pairing specific products or service lines to your main domain name (i.e. http://sneakers.shoesrus.com/; http://sandals.shoesrus.com/; http://boots.shoesrus.com/), while creating each as its own unique brand. This is a good approach if you’re trying to build a “separate, but together” theme.

DBE 90% - SEMPO Average 54% (or less)

2009-04-01T11:36:00.003-04:00

I don’t know about you, but I found this slide from SEMPO’s 2008 State of Search Survey troubling on several levels when looked at it wearing my industry glasses.

First, what does it say about the average paid search agency if only 19% of its clients can say they are very happy with their SEA programs? And only 54% can say they are happy to some degree? With these confidence levels is it any wonder more and more advertisers are taking their campaigns in-house? Or that the ones who are still outsourcing are treating agencies more and more like vendors instead of partners?

Second, does it really make readers of this report feel better to see that these mediocre-at-best findings represent “a significant leap from” previous years? Is it going too far to compare this to the idea of a car company reporting that its crash test results improved from 2 stars to 3 stars on a 5-star rating basis?

Third, while the above covers paid search agencies (and is included in the executive summary made public), the full report includes results for SEO agencies and they did not fare better. In fact, they were actually rated a little lower in terms of the happiness quotient.

In a business where referrals and references are critical for new business development, you would think search agencies would do a better job of client service. And don’t think it’s just the nature of the business (like used car salesmen) because DBE’s Client Satisfaction Survey results revealed a 90% client satisfaction level. So client satisfaction can be achieved and until the rest of the paid search and SEO agencies catch up, we’ll keep using these results to differentiate DBE from the other average Joe search firms out there.

Google Improves Search Result Descriptions

2009-03-27T15:55:00.006-04:00

Google recently announced two changes in the way it shows search results – longer snippets and enhanced search refinements.

The official Google blog talks about the changes in detail, but let’s talk about the snippets here. A snippet is the few lines of text that appear under the dark blue title in the search results.

So how does Google choose the snippet for your page? The search engine chooses snippets from three sources:

- If the meta tag description of the page is relevant to the search query, Google uses the meta tag description for the snippet.
- Otherwise, Google combines the most relevant part(s) of the page and uses that text as the snippet.
- If for some reason, Google is not able to crawl your page, Google will try to use the description of your site found in the DMOZ directory.

Why does Google go through this much trouble? Well, choosing the right text to use to describe a page can be essential to how well the search engine delivers results.

Up until last week, the image below shows how Google used to display the snippets for any description. As you can see, the blurbs were limited to 155 characters.

With the new change, when you enter a longer query (one with more than three words) Google will increase the number of lines in the snippet to provide more information.

These longer snippets give more information about the sites and enable the searcher to decide which site(s) has all the information he/she is looking for.

Now that Google increases the snippet size for a page, is it better to stick with the old limitation of 155 characters when writing the meta description tag for a page or should you go beyond the limit? DBE recommends staying within the 155 character limit so that the text doesn’t get cut off when searchers use shorter queries. The objective is to create a description that would entice the searcher to click through to your site. In addition to keeping the snippet short and sweet, we recommend writing the meta description tag so it includes a mention of your targeted keyword and gives an accurate, compelling overview of what the page is about. A snippet from a well-written description tag can help you gain a higher click-through-rate and drive more conversions.

Be Aware – Brand Awareness Tops Online Sales For Search Marketing Purpose

2009-03-26T17:41:00.003-04:00

SEMPO recently released the results of its 5th Annual State of Search Survey for 2008. The survey covers a wide range of search marketing topics and provides perspective as it presents data from advertisers/companies engaged in search as well as from search marketing agencies like DBE.

One of the advantages of an annual survey is that it provides the opportunity to spot subtle yet significant shifts in trends. One of this year’s trend shifts that caught my eye was on this slide showing how advertisers responded to the question “What is your company using search engine marketing to accomplish?”

For the first time, the answer “To increase/enhance brand awareness” outscored the previous number one response “To sell directly online.” Granted the score was close (63% to 61%), and it was weighted by advertisers with over 500 staff, but still this is significant. In fact, the fact that the larger advertisers showed an even greater spread between awareness and sales (70% to 56%) just illustrates the point further – search is more and more a mainstream medium.

Reinforcing this shift is the continuing trend of search marketing poaching dollars from traditional media as reported in the survey as well as the dedication of budgets directly to search as a stand-alone line item.

I’ll let you chew on this for now and post some more observations soon.

How to Write SEO-Friendly Web Copy

2009-03-20T11:33:00.001-04:00

Optimizing the copy on your website doesn’t mean stuffing it with keywords so that it’s an unreadable mess. This is a spam technique which can harm your site’s ranking. Google encourages webmasters to “make pages primarily for users, not for search engines,” so your first goal is to write for your target audience, bearing in mind the factors valued by the search engines (in much the same way that you might follow, or sometimes ignore, the rules of grammar in order to effectively communicate a message).

Here are a few tips for integrating keywords into your copy without sacrificing the overall quality of your writing:

Use as many or as few words as you need to use to say what you need to say. However, a good rule of thumb is to shoot for copy that’s approximately 250 words in length. This gives you enough room to get your message across while naturally working in 3 to 5 mentions of the keyword.
Use keyword variations. Let’s say your keyword phrase is “big blue widgets”. Instead of repeating “big blue widgets” over and over again, switch things up so some of the mentions appear as “large blue widgets”, “full-sized widgets in blue”, and so forth. This makes your copy read more naturally and helps your website show up for related keywords.
If you’re a brick-and-mortar store that’s trying to rank for local search queries, place your address in the footer of each page, but also mention your location somewhere in the page copy. You could place your address in the footer as “700 Success Road, Princeton, NJ 08542”, then mention the areas you serve in your body copy (“serving Middlesex and Mercer counties” or “serving New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania”)
Include keyword mentions in your headers. Header tags (H1, H2, etc.) are a great way to define your page’s structure and emphasize keyword phrases. (This is also helpful because people read differently on the Internet than they do on paper. Try to keep things scannable with headers, lists, and bullet points.)
Include keyword mentions in your hyperlinks. Instead of saying “Click here for more information on our widgets” with the link embedded on “click here”, try writing “Visit our big blue widgets page for more information” so the link is embedded on “big blue widgets page”. This gets the point across to the reader while letting you work in another keyword mention. It also helps with SEO because the search engines look to link anchor text as an indication that a page should rank for a particular keyword.

By keeping these optimization tips in mind as you write, you can easily create copy that appeals to your readers and is also SEO-friendly.

False Prophets

2009-03-03T14:11:00.001-05:00

One of our clients got an “SEO Tip” from an online advertising vendor the other day. Fortunately, they called us for verification before implementing it on their own. Turns out the “tip” was more of a “trick” that could actually have devalued our client’s website in the eyes of the search engines. Imagine this outcome after everything the client has invested and we have done to improve their visibility.

But how many others who got this so-called tip, who don’t have the benefit of expert advise and counsel, actually went ahead and did themselves a disservice while thinking the opposite to be true?

And this is the problem with an industry that lacks clear guidelines or standards or a one-stop resource that can help separate best practice from malpractice.

SEMPO is doing its best (and as Circle Members we at DBE are doing our part to help) but I sometimes worry that this is in effect preaching to the choir; the ones who already know the right way from the wrong way. How do we reach the myriad of vendors who, hopefully, honestly believe they are passing on some good advice and the equally myriad of webmasters who are willing to take this advice on good faith alone?

One can only hope the ROI mindset that has seen a revival in these economic times will drive more to avoid the snake oil promise of miracles and see the light of true search marketing tactics that lead to accountable success.

Facebook Pages vs. Facebook Groups

2009-02-17T14:30:00.005-05:00

What is the difference between a Facebook Page and a Facebook Group? Is one better than the other?

According to Facebook:

Pages can only be created to represent a real public figure, artist, brand or organization, and may only be created by an official representative of that entity. Groups can be created by any user and about any topic, as a space for users to share their opinions and interest in that subject.

For artists, businesses, and brands looking to establish a presence on Facebook, both Pages and Groups offer similar levels of user interactivity via features such as the Discussion Board and the Wall. However, Facebook Pages offer several distinct advantages including greater visibility, customization and measurability.

Here are some of the benefits of launching a Facebook Page versus a Group...

Facebook Pages:

Your logo appears in each member’s profile with a link to the Page
Customizable and will work with Facebook apps (add a blog, video, etc.)
Provide detailed statistics about visitor traffic and demographics
Can be promoted via Social Ads
Messages are sent to each members' Notifications page
Pages never display their admins' names (so you can maintain a personal/professional distinction)
Unlimited ability to send messages to members

Facebook Groups:

Your logo does NOT appear in members’ profiles, only a single text link to the Group
Not very customizable and do not work with Facebook apps
Facebook doesn't provide you with traffic or demographic information
Cannot be promoted via Social Ads
Messages are sent to each members' Inbox
Admins’ names are posted publicly in the Group
Admins can't send messages to all members once the Group exceeds 5,000 members

Facebook Groups tend to be related to common interests, such as "Support New Jersey State Troopers" and "1,000,000 Strong For Stephen T Colbert," whereas Facebook Pages are specially designed for business use. Barack Obama and Coca-Cola use Pages to connect with fans on Facebook. Guess who else uses Facebook Pages to promote themselves? Facebook does.

Facebook will also launch a new design for Pages in the next few weeks. Pages will look much more like user profiles. The new design will not only make the Pages look less cluttered and more dynamic, it will also work to make sharing more prominent and viral.

What if you've already created a Facebook Group and want to switch to a Facebook Page? No worries. You don't have to start from scratch. Fill out this form and Facebook will transfer over the group members and any discussion board posts, reviews, posted items, and Wall posts to your new Page. (Unfortunately, any videos and photos will need to be manually transferred.)

[ Update 02/24/09: Jon Newman of The Hodges Partnership, a public relations firm in Virginia, shares his company’s reasons for switching from a Facebook Group to a Fan Page. Click here to read his blog post. ]

Search Marketing and Casual Games Connect

2009-02-17T11:35:00.006-05:00

If you asked me a week ago what the connection was between the search marketing and casual games industries my answer would have been simply that SEO and paid search are highly effective traffic-driving tools for online game portals and that Slingo, a leading developer and publisher of casual games, is a client of ours. Of course, that was before travelling to Hamburg, Germany to present at the Casual Games Association’s (CGA) aptly named Casual Connect Conference. Now I see that the connections run far deeper:

Search marketing and casual games are young industries. Both have seen rapid growth over the past ten years and are continuing to evolve and mature at the same time.
Acquisitions, mergers and consolidation are happening as both industries struggle with revenue models, metrics and market expectations. Rumors are commonplace.
In spite of this intra-industry volatility, each is well situated to not only survive but thrive in these lean economic times as each offers marketers effective and efficient means of reaching target audiences.
Both search and casual games need to deal with emerging platforms like mobile and social media networks like Facebook. And how far off is the prospect of your TV becoming your portal to searching the Internet and game downloads instead of your computer?
There is no dearth of people looking to get a piece of the action in these “hot” industries. Unfortunately, the really good practitioners are few and far between and the rising level of mediocrity hurts each industry as a whole.
Organizations like the CGA and SEMPO (Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization) are important as outward-facing evangelists for their industries as well as inward-facing catalysts for improvement and sharing of best practices.
Finally, both industries are filled with fun, friendly and smart people. And that’s why it was my pleasure to make connections with some of the casual gamers at the conference and I hope to keep in touch with them.

January Travelogue

2009-02-13T14:36:00.003-05:00

Dear DBE Blog –

Been on the road a lot but thinking of you all the while. Time to recap some January highlights:

January 21, New York City: Judging for the 2009 Effie Awards for the New York American Marketing Association. I like the Effies because they put emphasis on results over creative; marketing integration over a single execution. Reviewed many name brands that integrated their campaigns with a dedicated website (good), some had social media marketing aspects (better) but none of them integrated SEO/SEA keyword tactics (bad – especially as these campaigns were not lacking for budget). The closest anyone came to search was the presentation of a Google Trends chart showing increased searches on the product name as evidence of results of other marketing efforts. Bottom line, search marketing is still not part of the mainstream integration mix. This means there is still tremendous opportunity for smart marketers to not only win on the Web, but to beat the pants off their better known brand competition.

January 26, Philadelphia: Marketing Executive Networking Groug (MENG) Chapter Event with Tierney presenting how to handle media interviews. Good line about how you control interactions with the press because you control what comes out of your mouth. Think it also applies to reputation management on the Web as you control your Facebook and other digital outpost profile content.

January 27, Basking Ridge NJ: Perfect segue to presenting to the New Jersey AMA on how to leverage your personal brand online via search marketing tactics. (Visit our Facebook Page to check out some pics and video from the event.) Most attendees are on LinkedIn, but are not using it fully. Some are on Facebook, but aren’t sure how to use it for professional advantage and/or how not to use it for professional disadvantage. We ended the presentation with the announcement of DBE’s new consulting service for executives, Jump Start Social Media.

I just realized that I completed an AMA trifecta in less than a week – NY, NJ and PA (seeing as the President-Elect of the Philadelphia Chapter attended the MENG event at my invitation and has since joined the network).

Enough for now. I need to gather my thoughts on my trip to the 2009 Casual Connect CGA show in Hamburg, Germany. The casual gaming and search industries have more in common than you might think.

What is Search Engine Marketing?

2009-02-11T13:25:00.000-05:00

"What is search engine marketing, and how is it used?"

If you and your team are new to search marketing, it can be a little unnerving. So many terms to absorb, so many strategies and options. Questions about technologies, techniques, 'black hat' versus 'white hat' optimization, bid management approaches, Flash and SEO, social media, and so much more.

Our team has heard it all before, so don’t feel overwhelmed or intimidated. In fact our president and CEO, Niki Fielding, was recently interviewed by Love To Know's Business section for an article on search engine marketing. It's a great overview of SEO, paid search, and social media marketing for anyone who's just learning the ropes.

We've helped many companies sort it all out to arrive at solutions that work for them. Just contact us and we’ll help you get up to speed. You’ll be tossing around jargon in no time!

To Tweet, or Not to Tweet

2009-02-09T17:17:00.005-05:00

What is Twitter? Why should I use it? Why would anyone want to know what I’m doing, and vice versa? Isn’t Twitter too time-consuming? I bet only teenagers use Twitter, right?

Whether I’m talking with friends or business associates, I hear these questions pretty often. To be honest, I asked them too – but then I gave Twitter a try and quickly moved through the 5 stages of Twitter acceptance. Now I adore Twitter. In fact, I posted my 400th update this week (see image at top). I use the micro-blogging service to communicate with friends and colleagues, to share articles that I’ve found interesting, to gather info for new projects, and to learn from and talk with people in the industry.

I’m not Twitter’s only admirer. Many business people swear by Twitter as an invaluable tool for professional networking. Dozens of brands, including Zappos, Comcast, JetBlue, Marriott International, HR Block, and Rubbermaid (as well as several of our own clients) have jumped at the chance to use Twitter as a platform for interacting with customers.

Still have your doubts about Twitter’s value? I recommend reading “Ending The Twitter Mystery: What People Think About Twitter—And How They Use It,” by Scott Abel, CEO of The Content Wrangler. In the article, Abel explores why and how people use Twitter by talking with members of The Content Wrangler Community (myself included).

Of course, the best way to develop an appreciation for Twitter is to try it out. Sign up for your own account and try following a few friends and brands that you love. You’re also welcome to follow me @PamAbbazia – I’d love to hear how Twitter works for you.

#BrandMonitoringFAIL

2009-02-02T17:10:00.002-05:00

Society Needs to Catch Up to Social Media, Part 3 (The SuperBowl Edition)

While watching SuperBowl XLIII last night, I decided I would live tweet my opinions on the commercials as they came up. Nothing out of the ordinary – I liked some and disliked others.

Looking back now though, something happened right before halftime that has me thinking. (Yes, I do occasionally think.) I tweeted that I had my 3D glasses ready for the Monsters vs. Aliens trailer and the Sobe Lifewater commercial. Within minutes I had an @reply from “Lee the Lizard” (@sobeworld). At first I thought, “Hey, that’s kind of cool. They’re monitoring for mentions of their name and they’re playing along in character.” This is exactly what companies should be doing. I sent them an atta-boy tweet later.

Now that I’m thinking about it a little more though, I’m disappointed. I sent 15 tweets mentioning 11 specific brands or products. I had also sent a tweet last weekend expressing my feelings about a product made by another of last night’s advertisers. So out of 12 mentions, I got 1 response. One response?! Clearly companies still aren’t getting it. They have to be active and involved. Last night, eleven companies got it wrong. Congratulations to Sobe for getting it right.

This is an ongoing series of blog posts about the effects of social media in corporate culture and society in general. Part 3 was supposed to explore the business applications of social media and discuss why IT departments need to be less restrictive with those tools. I promise you that will be Part 4.

Why don’t we just call it “Customer Engagement and Conversion?”

2009-01-07T17:35:00.004-05:00

I’ve spent some more time looking at the Marketing Executive Networking Group (MENG) 2009 Annual Survey released Monday – particularly at the marketing concepts that were grouped under the umbrella “Marketing Basics.” Here they are in order as ranked by respondents:

Customer satisfaction
Customer retention
Marketing ROI
Brand loyalty
Segmentation
Quality

Marketing ROI is the one mentioned in my previous blog that has a direct correlation with the measurable value of search marketing as a medium (and the one in the group that jumped the most over 2008 results).

Now, looking at the grouping as a whole, I think I also need to expand and expound on the impact of search across all these basics.

Regarding customer satisfaction and retention, I was reminded of a presentation by Peter Blackshaw, Executive Vice-President of Nielsen Online Digital Strategic Services and author of the book Satisfied Customers Tell 3 Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000. The title pretty much says it all about the growing power of consumer-generated media and the importance of proactively managing your brand’s reputation across social media and other digital outposts. And, in case you weren’t aware, DBE added social media marketing and management to our search umbrella several years ago.

You could say that social media also covers brand loyalty and quality to an extent but I’ll go further because of the proven impact on brand awareness and positive perceptions created from high rankings on search engine results pages. As reported in our December newsletter, several studies have shown the combined power of top natural positions gained from search engine optimization and paid search advertising listings.

Now as for segmentation, all forms of search marketing naturally segment/personalize results based on keyword phrases chosen by the searcher. In this sense, the searcher is already prequalified and predisposed to your brand based on its relevance to his/her search. What other medium offers segmentation that gets you so close to customer action?

So rather than looking at these concepts as Marketing Basics, look at them as “Customer Engagement and Conversion” concepts or, better yet, as “Search Marketing” concepts.

Who Gets the Credit?

2009-01-06T15:30:00.000-05:00

The path from click to conversion can be a winding one. Not every click-through from the search results leads directly to a conversion. Visitors come back to your site several times before making a purchase or may complete the transaction via a phone call or in-store visit. Where does the process begin? Who gets the credit? Let’s look at a few scenarios:

Scenario 1: Your potential customer found your site through your organic search results on Google or another search engine. After checking your site out, he or she bookmarked it, came back at a later date through the bookmark, and made a transaction in your site. Will the organic search result be credited for the conversion, or will this appear as direct traffic?

Scenario 2: While searching for the product or service that you provide, your potential customer found your site through your paid search campaign. This person checked out your site, went to compare against a competitor, then decided to revisit your site a day later. This time he forgot your site address, so searched for your company’s name, clicked on your organic search listing, and bought your product. Would your paid search campaign or the organic search result be given credit for this conversion?

Scenario 3: Same as scenario 2, but this time he found you through the organic search results first, and later come to your site through the paid search results and completes the transaction. Which one – organic or paid search results, will get the credit?

By default, the referrer information gets updated to reflect the latest referral information when a visitor returns to your site, and your analytics program gives credit for a conversion to the last referrer a visitor used. This is the case except when the last referrer is direct- that is, the visitor uses their bookmarks or types your URL directly into their browser’s address bar.

So for scenario 1, your organic search results are credited for the conversion. For scenario 2, your organic search result is given the credit, since this is the last referrer. For scenario 3, your paid search result is given the credit.

What can you do if you want to give credit to the original referrer? For example, in scenario 2, it is actually the paid search result that introduced your site to your prospect and made him to convert, but the organic listing is the one getting the credit. Shouldn’t your paid search be given credit for the conversion? How will you be able to measure the effectiveness of your various campaigns if you do SEO (optimize your site to appear in your organic result), SEA (paid search campaigns), and/or Social media campaigns?

Well, if you use Google Analytics to track your site’s results, you can achieve this with some advanced coding and setup. You just need to modify the Google Analytics tracking code in your site, and then apply an advanced filter in your Google Analytics setup.

Your Google Analytics consultant or your webmaster should be able to help with this advanced coding setup.

With the code, you need to simply check if the visitor is a first time visitor by looking for the presence of _utma cookie in the visitor’s computer. (This is always set for a visitor and its presence indicates a returning visitor.) If the visitor is a new visitor, then grab the referral information, and store the referral information as a visitor label by calling __setVar(). With this code, you are saving the first referrer information before it gets updated at the subsequent visits. Then, use the advanced filter in your Google Analytics setup to overwrite the referral info to include both the referral info (current referrer) and the visitor label you saved (first referrer).

With this setup, you will be able to track the very first referrer that drove your prospect to your site, and will be able to measure the effectiveness of your various campaigns accurately. This will help you gauge the true value of your search marketing programs and ensure that you get the greatest ROI.

MENG 2009 Annual Survey Confirms Trends Shifting to Search Marketing Concepts

2009-01-05T15:43:00.004-05:00

The Marketing Executive Networking Group (MENG) just released its Second Annual Survey on Top Marketing Trends. The survey respondents were 89% senior level executives (vp and up) evenly split between B2B and B2C marketing arenas. And here is what they said were the Top 5 Main Trends heading into 2009:

As it did last year, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) comes in solidly as the Number 2 marketing trend with a statistically significant increase over 2008. The Viral/WOM grouping (consisting of Word of Mouth, Viral Marketing and Blogging) jumped into the Top 5 from Number 8 last year with its own significant increase. While these both have obvious connections with the search marketing concepts we advocate here at DBE, a closer look at the other top trends shows how search concepts continue to become integrated with marketing thinking.

For example, the Marketing Basics grouping includes Marketing ROI which had the third biggest individual concept increase from 2008 with a jump of 12 points. (The first two concepts with bigger jumps were Credit Availability and Housing Markets.) Of course, the metrics of search make it one of the most measurable media in terms of Marketing ROI.

The Personalization grouping has a number of terms that we include in our search marketing umbrella – Competitive Intelligence, Data Mining, Lead Generation, and E-commerce. Plus the Innovative Branding group includes Leading through Analytics so I could make the case that aspects of search marketing can be found in all five of the leading marketing trends for 2009.

Oh, and by the way, mentions of New Media also increased in the 2009 study moving it to Number 8 behind Green Marketing and Multicultural/Ethnic Issues. New Media includes Mobile Communications, Electronic Media, SNS (Social Networking Sites), Web 2.0, CGM (Consumer Generated Media) and Long Tail – all search-related terms, too.

Oddly enough, the MENG survey also reports that the Top 5 buzzwords marketers are “most tired of hearing” are (in order) Web 2.0, Social Networking, Social Media, Blog and Viral Marketing. Even the MENG release on the study finds this anachronistic as many of these same marketers previously said they don’t yet know enough about these new media.

My thought is that if senior executives are tired of hearing about these trends now, they better buy some ear plugs because the buzz around these and all search marketing concepts is only going to continue to rise in 2009.

Intention Deficit Disorder

2008-12-31T11:09:00.001-05:00

If you are a regular reader of the DBE Blog, you have seen our coverage on how Google is constantly trying to improve the search user experience. Deepa’s most recent post covered how Google is using your IP address and recent search history to customize the results it provides. These techniques, along with the previously covered universal search and personalized search, are Google’s attempts at using data it has captured (wittingly or unwittingly) to infer/divine your search “intentions” so as to deliver more relevant search results.

Deepa’s example of a “previous query” application by Google is a good one. If you first search “Chicago” and then follow that with “hotels”, Google might now automatically assume you are looking for “Chicago hotels” and provide search results accordingly by default. I say “might” because Google doesn’t always apply the previous query modification but when it does, if that was not your intention, you have to tell Google to ignore previous searches and redo the search to get the results you wanted in the first place.

Is it me, or do others cringe at the idea of an assuming algorithm? Or should I say presuming algorithm? Does Google really think it’s better to automatically generate an interpretation of my intention because I must be too stupid or lazy to string a two-word query myself?

Don’t get me wrong. I appreciate the power of the algorithm to deliver relevant results based on my intention as expressed through my keyword queries. And when Google asks did I really mean something else when I mistyped the keyword, I say, “Thank you.” But assuming I really meant something else when I correctly type the keyword(s) I want to search, I say, “No thank you.”

Holiday Greetings from DBE

2008-12-24T09:55:00.005-05:00

I’ve been following Harvard Business Publishing on Twitter (@HarvardBiz). In one of their recent posts, titled “A Christmas Wish for Business: Selflessness”, blogger Susan Cramm said something that jumped out at me:

“During these difficult times, I need a lot more ‘we’ and a lot less ‘me.’”

Looking at our team, I’m proud to say that DBE tries every day to focus on the “we”. Whether that means stepping up when a coworker needs a helping hand, posting a public ‘thank you’ or ‘congratulations’ on our message board in the lobby, or just getting together to catch up on a personal level. Much like Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Voltron, or the Super Friends, we’re happier and more successful when our powers combine.

In the broader sense, DBE focuses on the “we” both by treating our clients as partners and by giving back to the community. Our team members and DBE as a company are active supporters of a variety of national and regional charities.

This spirit carries over into our annual Secret Santa exchange. Each year, the DBE team contributes to charities that are important to our team members instead of buying gifts for each other. We start by each making a list of our 3 favorite charities and/or causes and putting our lists into a box. Each person chooses a Secret Santa recipient from the box and makes a financial contribution to one of the organizations listed.

At our holiday lunch last week, we shared with each other which organizations we donated to and taught each other a little about their charitable missions. Some of the organizations we contributed to include:

We hope you will join us this holiday season by supporting your favorite charity.

To all our blog readers, DBE wishes you the very best during the holidays and throughout the New Year. See you in 2009!

Does Google Show the Same Results for Everyone?

2008-12-23T13:28:00.004-05:00

Starting in February 2007, Google begin personalizing its search results for users who entered a search query while logged into their Google accounts. We wrote our take on Google’s personalized search and its impact on SEO in our blog.

However, that’s not the only way that Google adjusts its search results to fit the individual user. Do you know Google changes your search results even when you are not signed into the account?

Google personalizes your search results by using two additional parameters, your geographic location and your recent search history, when applicable.

Location

For some queries, Google may try to alter your results based on your geographic location. Google identifies your approximate city location based on your computer's IP address and uses it to customize your search results. When Google does this, you will see a note on the top right hand side of your search results that Google has customized your results.

In cases when Google doesn’t get it right, or if you’re looking for local information but outside the area you’re interested in, you might want to override Google’s customization. If so, then you need to click on the “More details” link and click to run the search without the customization.

On a side note, if you are logged in to your Google account, Google will use the location you’ve saved as your default in Google Maps. (By default, Google automatically saves the last 100 addresses you search for into a "Saved Locations" list)

Recent searches

Called Previous Query, it’s where Google might see that you first searched for [hotels] then did another search for [Chicago] and so will effectively combine the first search to the second to make [Chicago hotels]. You’re searching for all two words even though you only put in one — hotels — on your most current query. Another example is, a search for [jordan] showing Jordan’s furniture store rather than Michael Jordan if the immediately preceding search was for [ethan allen].

If Previous Query kicks in, a message saying "Customized based on recent search activity" will appear at the top right of the results. Clicking on "More Details" link from that message will take you to the search customizations page, where you can then discover what previous query was used. Via that page, you can also reissue the query without the previous query being involved.

Despite some privacy concerns and the fact that customized searches may not always generate the results the user wanted, Google stands by personalization as the future of search. Since personalized search is here to stay, let us focus on how this Google customization affects SEO.

SEO Impact

As we said before, if you have a website with good content, your site is not going to be negatively impacted by these changes. As a matter of fact, you’ll benefit as people who are looking for your service will be able to more easily find you. The key, as always, is to ensure that your website is optimized for relevant keywords and, if applicable, for your business’ geographic location.

The only place where personalized search impacts the SEO world is the metrics. Since these personalized searches do not yield the same search results for all users, you can’t rely on your site’s rankings alone to measure your SEO success. You will need to use additional measures, such as the search engines’ traffic delivery to your site, to measure your optimization results. Also, while the rankings you see may not be same as other users the differences in ranking will not be that great.

So, focus on having compelling and interesting content on your site – it will please both your users and the search engines, and you will have a Win-Win scenario irrespective of these personalization changes.

AdSense for Domains – Does Google Care About the User Community?

2008-12-12T15:55:00.001-05:00

Have you ever had misspelled a domain name, and went to a site to find out that the site only showed the sponsored ads with little or no other content? I have stumbled across these sites multiple times, and got annoyed by them, especially when I clicked on those pages from search engine results!

These sites do what is called “Domain Parking” – site owners simply register these domain names which are often misspellings of other popular domain names, and work with intermediate companies such as Traffic parking and sedo. These intermediate companies in turn partner with Google to run AdSense ads on those sites. When people visit the pages with the ads and click on those ads, site owners get a share of that revenue.

There has already been a lot of griping about this service in the industry because these sites offer a poor search experience to the searcher, and the quality of the traffic that comes from these sites is very poor and doesn’t give good ROI to those who advertise with Google’s content network. Mind you, to avoid this kind of low quality traffic, DBE recommends targeting your content network advertising, rather than haphazardly running content match ads.

But yesterday, Google has announced that it is extending AdSense of Domains to all publishers! Now, more and more publishers will try to take advantage of this offer. Search advertisers who opt in for “content network” will get even more of the lower quality traffic. And the searchers, who believe Google’s mission of presenting the world's information in a useful way, will find more garbage results because some of these domains will get indexed by Google and will end up in Google’s organic search results.

This and Google’s recent announcement on allowing bidding on hard liquor and beer show that Google is preparing well to capitalize on this poor economy. Google, please don’t pollute the Internet and at least prevent these Made for AdSense domains from appearing in search results!

Partnership 2.0

2008-12-12T13:14:00.002-05:00

As expected via my tweet yesterday afternoon, the Gala for The Partnership for Drug-Free America last night was stellar. The event was noteworthy for several reasons, not the least of which is that it raised nearly $2.0 million for The Partnership. Quite an achievement during these tough economic times though, as mentioned several times over the course of the evening, all the more needed as these current conditions often lead to increased instances of substance abuse.

The evening certainly delivered resonant messages but it was also the way these were presented that made them all the more powerful. With Charles Osgood as Master of Ceremonies, opening entertainment by the Pilobolus Dance Company, video segments, lively speakers and honorees, and a compelling death and life story from parent spokesperson Gary Neal, the event was in a word – engaging. And, in that sense, it perfectly captured how The Partnership has integrated today’s Web 2.0 world with its traditional media outlets to get the word out about the wealth of resources it offers to families in need.

Sitting there with our client, The Partnership’s head of Digital Product Development, and the President of their interactive agency Something Digital, it was personally rewarding to hear and see the acknowledgement of the numerous engagement assets they have deployed with our two agency’s help – blogs, videos, stand-alone digital outposts, community outreach, parent tool kits, etc. We look forward to working with The Partnership in 2009 and continuing to help more people find the answers they are searching for related to prevention and intervention with drug and alcohol abuse.

Ringing The Bell In Three Different Ways

2008-12-01T15:09:00.003-05:00

I had the pleasure and the honor to be one of the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) representatives at this morning’s NASDAQ Opening Bell ceremony. Dana Todd, SEMPO’s Chair, spoke about how the organization has grown in its five years and how significant it was to be ringing the bell on this day – Cyber Monday. Then we got to join Dana for the countdown to the opening and, as I cheered for SEMPO, I felt pride not just for the organization but also for DBE as one of its Circle Members (and one of its oldest members, too, as DBE was founded several years before SEMPO existed).

It also struck me that DBE “rings the bell” every day for our clients as we deliver quantifiable results in all forms of search marketing – optimization, paid search, reputation management and social media management. This, plus the 100% Client Satisfaction rating we received is testament to the team at DBE not just ringing the bell, but answering it as well.

Finally, on a more personal note, the streets of New York chimed this morning with the sound of Salvation Army volunteers ringing their bells. It was a pleasant reminder of the holiday season that I also heard as a call to action. And so I pass on to you the idea that we can all be bell-ringers in our own way this year and every year.