Articles

The truth about Social Network Marketing, Google Changes the Game with Caffeine

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

By Ken Mays

Is your marketing and advertising company telling you that a strong presence on social networks like Facebook and Twitter is essential to a healthy online marketing plan for your business? This statement is right on the mark. Are they also telling you that social network marketing (SNM) will build and extend your brand identity as well as bring in legions of new loyal customers? This statement is not completely accurate and if you cut your budget in traditional brand ad venues like television, trade print and pay per click advertising to finance your SNM, you may be hurting instead of helping your brand awareness. However, with the entrance of “Caffeine,” Google’s new search algorithm, you may be able to social network your way to the top of the search results page.

Social Network Marketing has become like everything new that comes along in the age of digital marketing: 20 percent reality, 80 percent perception. For a quick primer on everything SNM, the following represents some of the latest research on social networks and their influence. It is important to understand what social networking does and does not do. Contrary to the opinion of many media companies pushing for higher budgets for social network campaigns, social network marketing remains a more passive method of marketing. It does not affect brand recognition and is best used to augment and enhance existing online marketing and traditional advertising. Paid search, direct email marketing, website optimization and television advertising are the current media power players.

• Although 50 percent of social network users are still aged 18 to 34, baby boomer and Gen Xer usage is trending up as these older generations embrace the convenience of communicating through social networks. Ages 35 to 64 represent now 48.7 percent of social network users.

• With the exception of LinkedIn, women tend to be more active on the social networks than men.

• LinkedIn users boast the highest average income ($ 96,937). Facebook, Bloggers and Twitter users have average incomes of $ 69,000.

• Facebook is the top social network. Facebook traffic has increased 400 percent, giving it 58.6 percent of the U.S. market.

• Over 50 percent of all social network users login at least once a day

• Only a small percentage of social networks users turn to social media when making buying decisions. The highest percentage is for travel services where 24 percent of users say they “sometimes” turn to social media for information before making a travel decision. Other industry percentages are less than 10 percent.

• 64 percent of social network users aged 35 to 54 prefer watching videos, followed by viewing photos (55%) and reading blog entries (51%).

• In terms of brand perception, social networks are still not that important. 96 percent of social network users say their perception of a brand does not change if it does not have a presence on a social networking site.

Google changes the game with “caffeine”
Google has always been user centered with the quality of its search engine results pages (SERPs) the driving force behind its success. However, every business with great intentions has issues and Google has had its problems lately. Especially with the thriving, unethical business of selling links to get websites ranked higher in Google organic search. As most people know, the Google search engine algorithm uses the number of links a website has as a major indicator of site quality. Everyone also knows that if you have enough cash you can pay an offshore company to “link your way” to the top of the Google organic search. Now along comes Google “caffeine:” the paid link killer. With the launch of Caffeine in January, Google began using “social bookmarking” to replace traditional links as a key indicator of website relevance and quality. This is pretty smart thinking by Google. The link scammers are going to have a really tough time buying tweets, Facebook posts and Diggs. Actually, this is brilliant thinking and should get us back to fair, more equitable results on the search results page. The next time you Google your major keyword message like “Howard County widget company” expect to see more companies like yours at the top of the results page. With books on Widget production at Amazon.com and the Directory of Worldwide Widget Companies relegated far down the results list where they belong.

Social Network your way to the top of the search page
The most important takeaway from all this information on Social Network Marketing and Google Caffeine is this. SNM may not build your brand directly with your customers yet, but if Google Caffeine works the way it is designed to work, your SNM may help you get to the top of the search results page. And that’s big for every small business out there competing online for their fair share of the market.

Ken Mays is President & Creative Director of Mays & Associates, a web development and graphic design company located in Columbia, Maryland. Mays specializes in the development of Web 2.0 dynamic websites and corporate branding campaigns. An award-winning writer and designer, Ken can be reached at 410-964-9701 or by email, ken@ad-mays.com. The Mays & Associates website address is www.ad-mays.com.

Microsites: the new “fast ride” on the Internet highway

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Tech Talk for Entrepreneurs
Microsites: the new “fast ride” on the Internet highway

By Ken Mays

On the content congested Internet highway, a new clear voice has emerged, bursting through the choked wilderness of cluttered corporate websites, social network ramblings and useless twitter. We’re talking about the microsite, of course, the new darling of everything branding and beautiful. The microsite has the ability to focus on a brand image, a specific product or a single market initiative and deliver the message directly to a highly targeted audience on the Internet. Today’s dynamic corporate website tends to have a home page filled with interactive channels like news feeds, blog entries, product announcements, event calendars and so forth. It is a terrific way to position your overall corporate branding strategy with the world. However, this busy website environment doesn’t allow you to position, romance and sell your next product or service innovation directly to a targeted market. This is where the microsite shines.

Microsites are really mini websites complete with their own domain name and visual identity. This visual identity, of course, properly leverages the corporate brand while it isolates and delivers information on a specific market initiative. Generally a microsite is geared to soliciting a response from the market segment it assails. This “call to action” strategy is especially powerful on the Internet where tracking and conversion software can be used to turn clicks into sales. Because the microsite is geared to a single product or service message, it is easier for web developers to optimize the site for the search engines and glean top search page rankings. With the Google search engine algorithm getting more and more complex, simplified key word messaging is a real boon to the search engine optimization (SEO) professional.

The small scope of the microsite also means that they are much less expensive to create. This allows companies to affordably deliver online messages to vertical markets. The failure to deliver targeted messages directly to specific market segments is one of the major mistakes consistently made on websites. Too many web developers bury content deep in the bowels of the dynamic, content rich corporate website, believing that this content will be discovered by all those interested in it. This notion of “post it and they will read” is just wrong. Remember what we learned in communication 101: the best sales model is direct one-to-one communication. Burying an important sales or marketing message on a cluttered corporate website won’t get you anywhere fast. Creating an easy to find microsite with a message that resonates immediately is extremely effective and can perform wonders for your bottom line.

Best of all, if your microsite does its job in extending overall brand awareness and recognition, your company is rewarded with increased customer satisfaction with the corporate brand, resulting from the positive user experience with the microsite.

Social Networking Roundup

Hitwise, the company that tracks and reports on everything Internet, has released its ranking of the major players in the social networking world. Facebook traffic has increased 400 percent, giving it 58.6 percent of the U.S. market. MySpace, the other major social networking player, saw its fortunes tumble to only 30.3 percent of the market, losing over half of its market share. And what about Twitter, the text burst bastion of the Internet. Twitter now has a whopping 1.84 percent share of the social networking pie. Still more hype than beef for Twitter. In addition, HItwise noted that Twitter’s growth has stalled with new user growth going downhill instead of steadily climbing the social networking mountain. Our advice: if you’re going to focus on marketing your wares via social networking, a steady diet of Facebook, YouTube and Linkedin is still the perfect meal.

Is Email Dead To You?

Major traditional media outlets, including the prestigious Wall Street Journal, have been reporting the death of email as the primary online communication tool. But like Mark Twain’s once proclaimed death in print, the reports of email’s death “have been greatly exaggerated.” A new study just released shows that email use has not waned. In fact, the increased use of smart phones, Blackberrys and iPhones have made email easier, more accessible and valuable to those communicating online. The recent surge in email obituaries can probably be attributed to the folks who prefer spending their online time using social networks to communicate. This “email is dead” position is built on the false premise that people “switch” from one communication tool to another instead of just adding the new tool. Truth be told, Facebook can’t replace email because it isn’t email. It is just another great online method of staying in touch. Like email, Facebook has its own unique advantages and disadvantages. Our view: there is room for both methods of communication. More technology is usually a good thing.

Bing Slip Slides Away

It is slick and entertaining but you shouldn’t believe the new Bing advertising campaign and its claim to being the superior search engine. The jury of public opinion has already rendered a verdict and Bing has been found guilty of over promising and under delivering. Its search market share slipped to 8.5 percent, a drop of over a percentage point from the previous month (Source: Hitwise). Meanwhile, Google’s search dominance just keeps growing with a 71.08 percent share of the market, up nearly a percentage point from last month. It seems no one can gain on Google, including Number two Yahoo, who slipped from 16.96 percent to 16.38. All this only goes to prove the age old marketing axiom that you can hire an ad agency to deliver eye catching creative with a great claim, but if you can’t back it up, you’re just burning cash.

Ken Mays is President & Creative Director of Mays & Associates, Inc., a web development and graphic design firm located in Columbia, Maryland. Mays specializes in the development of Web 2.0 portal websites. An award-winning writer and designer, Ken can be reached at 410-964-9701 or by email, ken@ad-mays.com. The Mays & Associates website address is www.ad-mays.com.

This article appears in the November 2009 issue of the Maryland Entrepreneur Quarterly

All that twitters is not marketing gold; SEO is new Internet marketing hero

Sat, 01 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Tech Talk for Entrepreneurs
All that twitters is not marketing gold; SEO is new Internet marketing hero

By Ken Mays

News Flash: all that twitters is not marketing gold. In fact, a new study by the Harvard Business School shows that 10 percent of Twitter users generate over 90 percent of Twitter content. What about the other 90 percent of Twitter accounts? The Harvard study indicates that most folks who sign up with Twitter only “tweet” once and then fly away, never to be heard from again. To survive, Twitter needs to find a way to turn this “loved by few, abandoned by many” business model upside down. The good news for Twitter: their brand name keeps growing. Celebrities and the news media just love saying their name out loud. Now they just need to add something substantive and sustainable to their service. And they’d better be quick about it. After all, Harvard has already called them out. They better hurry up before Clara Peller rises from her grave and shouts “Where’s the beef?” When that happens, Twitter’s done.

SEO: our new Internet marketing hero
Driving qualified visitors to your website to generate sales leads from serious businesses instead of “tire-kickers” looking for the lowest price can be a complex undertaking. A recent study by Forbes says that all businesses, regardless of size, need to start with search marketing. Before you groan about those extra pay per click dollars you’re going to need to pump into your marketing budget, the news gets interesting. SEO, the science of optimizing your website for organic search results, has climbed to the top of the search marketing list. Pay per click search ads (like Google AdWords) and email marketing using a list manager have been the powerful one-two punch of Internet marketing for a long time. Now, instead of the dynamic duo, we now have the triumvirate of pay per click search, email marketing and SEO. Additionally, a lot of marketing experts are now saying that SEO should be your first choice. I’m not ready to climb on that band wagon yet. Too many marketing eggs in one basket is always dangerous. A balanced approach is usually the best.

Other Pay Per Click News
While pay per click (PPC) search campaigns on major search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN remain the darling of the Internet marketing industry, “click-through” has fallen on hard times in other areas of Internet adverting. According the the IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau), “the click is an overused metric.” In fact, a recent article in OMMA (The Magazine of Online Media, Marketing & Advertising), said that impressions are far better at building online brand image. It seems like only yesterday when the online marketing gurus touted clicks as the prime indicator of a successful online display ad campaign. Now, clicks are “just a hint that someone may be interested,” according to OMMA. I guess it’s time for the industry to find some better metrics for measuring online success.

Who’s Your Daddy? Maybe it shouldn’t be GoDaddy.
In the world of website domain registration, when people ask the question “Who’s Your Daddy?” some are beginning to think twice before they say GoDaddy. More and more domain registrars, including the ever popular GoDaddy, seem intent on setting new standards for confusing their customers and fooling them into spending money on domain services they really don’t need. Everyone knows that domain registration is the dark side of the web development industry, filled with schemers, scammers and companies out to make a quick buck at someone else’s expense. Early in its career, GoDaddy was busy paving the way for lower domain registration costs and a user friendly registration dashboard. Lately, however, GoDaddy has been taking more of a “smoke and mirrors” approach to domain registration, often confusing customers into signing up for services they don’t understand and don’t need. A good case in point is the “first year free” private registration service offered by Go Daddy through their wholly-owned subsidiary Domains By Proxy. When renewal time comes around, GoDaddy starts charging the customer an extra $25 per domain per year for this first year free “Protection.” Since it can’t be removed from the shopping cart at renewal time, customers can’t renew their domain registration unless they sign up (and pay) for the next year of this private registration “protection.” In addition, the GoDaddy dashboard won’t remove the “auto renewal” option. A phone call to GoDaddy will get this changed. After all, there are laws that govern how credit card information is stored and used. However, a phone call will definitely not get the private registration removed. Instead, customers are faxed a form that requires them to “authenticate” their identification before GoDaddy will remove the private registration. (Three forms of identification and the thumbprint of your first born child. Not quite that ridiculous but close to it and a waste of time and darned inconvenient by anyone’s standards). By then, the customer has burned way too much time and effort on a simple domain renewal. GoDaddy reps advise customers to just pay the extra $25 and the remove the protection later to receive a refund (We say good luck with that). The takeaway here: Too many domain registration services (now including GoDaddy, the onetime customer-friendly darling of the industry) are confusing customers into purchasing services they don’t need and then locking them into an endless cycle of auto renewal. Our advice to the business customer: use your web development or information technology company to handle domain maintenance and registration. After all, you’re paying them to look out for your best interests. Our advice to GoDaddy: stop angling for the fast buck and return to your earlier model of good pricing and great service.

This article appears in the August 2009 issue of the Maryland Entrepreneur Quarterly

Protecting your privacy and intellectual property in a digital world

Thu, 14 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Tech Talk for Entrepreneurs
Social Media Networks are not always our friends:
Protecting your privacy and intellectual property in a digital world

By Ken Mays

If you’re online frequently posting your opinions, ideas and brainstorms in the blogosphere or on the major social networks, make sure you read the privacy policies and terms of service of the sites on which you opine, whine and pontificate. That great idea of yours may become theirs after you post it. Remember those contests of the last century where all entries became the property of the company holding the contest. Well, similar schemes are now happening online. A few months ago, Facebook decided to claim perpetual ownership of all photos, posts and other material uploaded by users. Facebook, of course, did not announce this in screaming headlines on their homepage for all to see. They just changed the wording in their terms of service buried on a secondary page of their website. It probably won’t surprise anyone that “terms of service” agreements don’t get a lot of page views. Unfortunately for Facebook, some folks do read the “terms of service” on websites and the blogosphere was soon ablaze with posts railing against Facebook’s latest invasion of user privacy. That’s right, this isn’t the first time Facebook has tried to pull a fast one on its users. Like it has on earlier occasions, once outed by angry users, Facebook immediately backed off its new policy and reverted back to the old one. Will it happen again? Maybe not. Mark Zuckerman, Facebook’s new CEO, says the site will now seek “user input” before it makes any major changes. The “how to” of seeking this user input is still uncertain. However, Zuckerman’s philosophy is a refreshing change. Kudos (at least temporarily) to Facebook.

Just what does this all mean in the ultimate scheme of things to the struggling entrepreneur trying to sell and protect his original ideas while marketing them on the wild, wild web (where 87 percent of people now go first to seek information about everything)? It means that we all need to work diligently to protect our intellectual property rights online. Having experienced firsthand the often confusing and counter-intuitive rules of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, I can say with a degree of certainty that they are still in the dark ages when it comes to protecting intellectual property rights in a dominantly digital world. My best advice is to find an attorney or law firm with real experience in trademark and patent law as it relates to the online branding and marketing of your products and services. Seek their counsel and listen to it.

Tech Bytes and Bits
Will the real journalists please stand up? In wrestling with the issue of a journalist’s right to keep his or her sources confidential, the U. S. Congress may exclude bloggers, freelancers, independents and nonprofit journalists from this basic fourth estate protection. The “citizen journalists” plying their trade online may not be given the same protection as those employed by The Washington Post and The New York Times, giving the government the right to demand the identity of whistleblowers. And that’s very bad news for online news organizations like The Huffington Post.

Twitter just isn’t for the birds anymore. Posting fresh content every day is still the best way to get your message out over the Internet. Search engines like Google gobble it up and give you props every time it caches something new and relevant on your website. However, social networks like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter also get the word out and can drive major traffic to your site. In fact, Twitter now ranks near the top of the leader board for driving traffic to business websites. That’s great news. However, its difficult enough for a small business to find the time to write a weekly blog. Who’s got time to twitter every day?

Blogs aren’t press releases, they’re emotional releases. A lot of companies ask their PR firms to write blog entries for them and post them on major industry blog sites. Then they get disappointed when the folks going to those blog sites don’t break down their door trying to buy their products and services. These companies fail to understand the essence of the blogging experience. It is all about personal observation and interacting with other bloggers. Instead of pushing your product or service, push your personal viewpoint about the issues under discussion on the blog site. If you get accepted as an active and engaged member of the blogging community, they will eventually follow you to your website. And they will buy from you and recommend you because of the positive blogging relationship they’ve established with you. When blogging, just remember to put your sales pitch and elevator speech in your back pocket. And then opine passionately about the things that interest you.

Ken Mays is President & Creative Director of Mays & Associates, Inc., a web development and graphic design firm located in Columbia, Maryland. Mays specializes in the development of Web 2.0 portal websites. An award-winning writer and designer, Ken can be reached at 410-964-9701 or by email, ken@ad-mays.com. The Mays & Associates website address is www.ad-mays.com.

This article appears in the May 2009 issue of the Maryland Entrepreneur Quarterly