Monday, March 8, 2010
Social gaming is the new battlefield in the battle for internet supremacy
A Facebook fans page has attracted a huge online following- and is making money for it's owners.
Today, tens of millions of people around the world will log in to Facebook playing Farmville, a cute, colourful game where players take on the role of a farmer — a game whose extraordinary success is forcing many to rethink the future of the internet and social media.
Farmville is a fairly mundane idea, but one that draws heavily on the traditional world of board games for inspiration. Given the task of caring for and expanding their land and livestock, players have a certain number of action points each day, which they can spend on tending the farm. They can even trade with “neighbours” — Facebook friends who also play the game.
The numbers behind this simple concept are huge. More than 80 million people play every month with almost 30 million logging in every day to check the status of their virtual allotment. It is free to play, but consumers can spend real money on virtual goods to use on their farms.
Combined with advertising revenue — including some controversial revenue from advertising deals, which users complain are little more than marketing scams — this makes Farmville into a business worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
For years, games have lain on the periphery of the internet. Playing games online has been popular among young men for more than a decade — but this was never seen as a commercial activity that could have a significant impact on services such as Facebook or MySpace, let alone Google or Apple.
The success of Farmville, to which more than a quarter of Facebook users have signed up, challenges that assumption. Furthermore, it is leading a new wave of online games that are rewriting our most basic ideas about what videogames are, and who plays them.
The most extraordinary statistic to emerge from the research into this fast-growing phenomenon is the profile of the “average” player of social videogames — namely, 43 years old and female. Young men barely get a look in — more than 60 per cent of people playing social games on Facebook are aged between 30 and 60.
What has attracted this surprising new audience to online games? In part, it’s the subject matter of the games themselves — which ranges from Farmville’s focus on nurturing and growing to the addictive puzzles of games such as Bejeweled.
Equally important is the social aspect of Facebook. No longer is playing games a solitary pursuit — instead, it’s something you do with friends, challenging them to beat your scores or collaborating to help each other out.
Half of those who play social games such as Farmville claim that they visit Facebook each day specifically to play. Suddenly, Facebook isn’t just a tool for staying in touch with friends — it’s also a platform for games and entertainment.
While Facebook’s owners are undoubtedly delighted at the success of Farmville, there must also be a sense of unease. After all, with a game this successful now providing so much of Facebook’s traffic, to what extent, exactly, are Farmville’s creators, Zynga, beholden to Facebook — and vice versa?
It’s a sentiment that resonates across the industry. Apple, for years an online gaming ostrich whose Mac computers provided little support for game developers, was forced to publicly embrace gaming last year as it became clear that social gaming was by far the most commercially successful products on the iPhone’s App Store. Microsoft and Sony, meanwhile, have had a foot in the door of the videogames market for years.
This is the new battleground in the war for hearts, minds and wallets being fought between the world’s technology giants. The millions of acres of virtual land being ploughed by Farmville’s players each day are breathing new life into an old adage — where there’s muck, there’s brass.
Labels: Facebook, online marketing, online marketing uk, social media websites, social web marketing
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Monday, March 08, 2010
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Friday, March 5, 2010
Twitter to copy Google's advertising business
Twitter is examining whether to post adverts tied to searches of its social networking website as a means of making money from its business.
Twitter has been working on different ways to generate revenues from advertising over the last six months and intends to use the $100 million it raised in financing last summer to fund this and other potential options, which are still in the process of being developed.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the idea is that if users search under the term ‘laptop’, they could generate an advert from an advertiser such as Dell. Such adverts would only appear in search results, however, and not in regular Twitterstreams.
Adverts would also be based on the standard Twitter format of 140 or fewer characters and be distributed via the third party software and services that use the organisation’s application programming interface to connect to its platform. Participation by service providers would be optional, however, and any resultant revenues would be shared with Twitter.
The organisation intends to work with advertising agencies and buyers to seed the programme, but plans to move to a similar self-service model to Google’s over time.
The scheme is expected to be launched during the first half of this year in pilot mode, but Twitter is currently still trying to work out such details as how advertisers would buy and price adverts. It is also considering how to refine its search mechanism to make it more useful to users.
Another issue is finding ways to gather user data in order to make targeted advertising more meaningful. The model works for Google because it has a reasonable idea of consumers’ identity and intent, but Twitter does not currently require users to provide any personal information when they sign up to its services.
The online search model was pioneered by Google, which now generates 97% of its £18 billion in revenues from advertising. Twitter users currently send about 50 million tweets per day, up from 5,000 in 2007.
Labels: Google, social media websites, social web marketing, Twitter
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Friday, March 05, 2010
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Monday, March 1, 2010
Out of date social networks sites are harming brands
Eight out of ten multinationals may be using social media, but only twenty per cent are employing the multiple tools necessary to deliver a truly effective communications strategy.
Furthermore, abandoned social networking initiatives can also be damaging - with idle, out of date accounts having a detrimental impact on the brand.
These are the findings of a survey undertaken by PR and communications company Burson-Marsteller, which looked at the use of social networking sites Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and corporate blogging among the world’s largest companies.
The study called the 'Fortune Global 100 Social Media Check-up', found that most companies had dipped their toe in the water, "some with a big splash and others with a timid ripple".
But while 79% were using at least one social media platform, only 20% were using all four to try and engage with stakeholders. The report warned, however: "No single social media tool can stand on its own. For a company that wants a truly effective communications strategy, leveraging multiple social media tools for their individual strengths is required."
Another problem was that many organisations had multiple accounts, which included not only the main one controlled by corporate headquarters, but also others handled by local offices and divisions as well as accounts set up for one-off corporate events.
Of those surveyed, some 65% had Twitter accounts, 54% had Facebook fan pages, 50% had YouTube video channels and 33% corporate blogs. But of the companies that were actively engaged in communicating with customers via such channels, each had 4.2 Twitter accounts, 2.1 Facebook pages, 1.6 YouTube channels and 4.2 blogs.
Again the report warned, however, that the situation was generating challenges by "creating mixed messages and tones and by leaving abandoned Twitter accounts and Facebook fan pages, which may be detrimental to the brand".
These are the findings of a survey undertaken by PR and communications company Burson-Marsteller, which looked at the use of social networking sites Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and corporate blogging among the world’s largest companies.
The study called the 'Fortune Global 100 Social Media Check-up', found that most companies had dipped their toe in the water, "some with a big splash and others with a timid ripple".
But while 79% were using at least one social media platform, only 20% were using all four to try and engage with stakeholders. The report warned, however: "No single social media tool can stand on its own. For a company that wants a truly effective communications strategy, leveraging multiple social media tools for their individual strengths is required."
Another problem was that many organisations had multiple accounts, which included not only the main one controlled by corporate headquarters, but also others handled by local offices and divisions as well as accounts set up for one-off corporate events.
Of those surveyed, some 65% had Twitter accounts, 54% had Facebook fan pages, 50% had YouTube video channels and 33% corporate blogs. But of the companies that were actively engaged in communicating with customers via such channels, each had 4.2 Twitter accounts, 2.1 Facebook pages, 1.6 YouTube channels and 4.2 blogs.
Again the report warned, however, that the situation was generating challenges by "creating mixed messages and tones and by leaving abandoned Twitter accounts and Facebook fan pages, which may be detrimental to the brand".
Labels: blogs, Facebook, social media websites, social web marketing, Twitter, YouTube
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Monday, March 01, 2010
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Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Buzz caused a storm on privacy fears
Google has caused a lot of anger since the catch up launch of Buzz it's social networking service.
Launched on February 10 2010, it is meant to give Google a stronger foothold in the booming social networking business, where it is rapidly losing ground to Facebook and Twitter.
Its main effect in the short term, however, has been to stir up an outcry over privacy that the internet giant could have done without.
It has also served to reinforce a bigger narrative about Google that has surfaced in other ways this week. This holds that the company is prepared to use its growing market power as a blunt instrument to muscle its way into new markets – and is not too concerned about whose feet it treads on in the process.
In one sign of these growing fears, even Vittorio Colao, chief executive of Vodafone – nominally one of Google’s business partners – raised a red flag over the potential spread of its search dominance into the mobile world. Regulators should take a close look at Google’s massive market share in search, he said, “before it is too late”.
The outcry included an official complaint to US regulators and left Google scrambling to stem the anger, with a public apology and two changes to the service announced within its first four days. In the aftermath of its recent decision to abandon censorship of its search results in China, this looked like another case of testing the limits of the “Don’t be evil” motto, only to later back down.
At the root of the problem is Google’s decision to use Gmail, with its 175m active users, as a launchpad for its latest push into social networking. All users were enrolled as soon as they clicked a link to look at the service, and many found the names of those they corresponded with most frequently by e-mail – usually a private list – became the basis for a public “social network” of contacts on Buzz.
It has also served to reinforce a bigger narrative about Google that has surfaced in other ways this week. This holds that the company is prepared to use its growing market power as a blunt instrument to muscle its way into new markets – and is not too concerned about whose feet it treads on in the process.
In one sign of these growing fears, even Vittorio Colao, chief executive of Vodafone – nominally one of Google’s business partners – raised a red flag over the potential spread of its search dominance into the mobile world. Regulators should take a close look at Google’s massive market share in search, he said, “before it is too late”.
The outcry included an official complaint to US regulators and left Google scrambling to stem the anger, with a public apology and two changes to the service announced within its first four days. In the aftermath of its recent decision to abandon censorship of its search results in China, this looked like another case of testing the limits of the “Don’t be evil” motto, only to later back down.
At the root of the problem is Google’s decision to use Gmail, with its 175m active users, as a launchpad for its latest push into social networking. All users were enrolled as soon as they clicked a link to look at the service, and many found the names of those they corresponded with most frequently by e-mail – usually a private list – became the basis for a public “social network” of contacts on Buzz.
That risked exposing the details of “estranged spouses, current lovers, attorneys and doctors”, according to the complaint to the US Federal Trade Commission from the Electronic Privacy Information Center (Epic), a privacy advocacy group in Washington.
Google executives concede that they did not do enough to warn users that their private contacts would be disclosed publicly. But they put this down to a mistake made in good faith and characterise it as one of the inevitable teething problems of a new online service.
“You can’t incubate these kinds of products in a Petri dish and pull back the covers on a fully baked opus,” says Bradley Horowitz, vice-president of product management for Google’s applications business. “If you look at any company that’s been successful in this space it’s because they have been able to iterate, refine, listen, stumble, dust themselves off, get up.”
However, Marc Rotenberg, executive director of Epic, says that Buzz’s privacy settings were in fact the product of a deep corporate agenda. “The way they could compete was to enlist all their Gmail subscribers. That’s a very clear corporate decision.”
Google executives concede that they did not do enough to warn users that their private contacts would be disclosed publicly. But they put this down to a mistake made in good faith and characterise it as one of the inevitable teething problems of a new online service.
“You can’t incubate these kinds of products in a Petri dish and pull back the covers on a fully baked opus,” says Bradley Horowitz, vice-president of product management for Google’s applications business. “If you look at any company that’s been successful in this space it’s because they have been able to iterate, refine, listen, stumble, dust themselves off, get up.”
However, Marc Rotenberg, executive director of Epic, says that Buzz’s privacy settings were in fact the product of a deep corporate agenda. “The way they could compete was to enlist all their Gmail subscribers. That’s a very clear corporate decision.”
Dr Search will continue my review of Buzz in my next blog posting.
Labels: Buzz, Facebook, Google, social media websites, social web marketing, Twitter
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Wednesday, February 24, 2010
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Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Evil let loose after Google's buzz breaches email privacy
Once again Google has breached millions of peoples' personal privacy- this time with the launch of it's new social networking site Buzz.
The launch of the Buzz networking site has backfired badly
On Tuesday Feb 16th Eva Hibnick, a Harvard law student, opened her Gmail account and saw an offer for Buzz, a new service from Gmail’s owner, Google. She wasn’t interested. “I just clicked ‘No, go to my inbox’,” she said. Within hours she and millions of others realised that sometimes no means yes.
Now Hibnick is taking Google to court, and the search giant is left fighting a rearguard action in the latest skirmish over privacy on the internet.
Hibnick, 24, is the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit filed against Google over the launch of Buzz, a social networking service that lets people bring their online connections together to share status updates, videos and photos.
With 146m users, the sheer size of Gmail instantly catapulted Buzz into the top ranks of social networking sites alongside Facebook and Twitter.
As Gmail users were quick to point out, though, they chose to join those networks, while Buzz’s new army was conscripted. The service raided a Gmail user’s contacts book to set up the social network.
The people we contact most frequently are not necessarily those with whom we have the closest relationship. Within hours of the Buzz launch, angry tales were being told of people’s contact details and other information being passed on to the “psychotic” and “abusive ex-husbands”.
Actress Felicia Day, Vi in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, found herself deluged with messages from strangers after posting one message on Buzz. “Buzz things turn up as a message in your inbox? Disabling now. Heart attack,” she wrote. Before Google changed Buzz, some fans would also have been able to see who Day emailed most frequently.
Hibnick and her lawyer claim that information she had a right to consider private had been shared among her Gmail contacts. “I signed up for a private email account, not for a social networking site. They can’t just opt you in,” she said.
“Basically all my email contacts were accessible. Everyone is so shocked that Google would do this.”
Fellow Harvard law student Benjamin Osborn, who is assisting on the case, said the initial problem was that it was not clear what information was being shared and with whom.
Hibnick’s lawyer said Google could face statutory damages of $1,000 per occurrence — a potentially huge sum given Gmail’s size. But he added that the real aim was to force Google to put better checks and balances in place over privacy.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center, the watchdog based in Washington DC, has now asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether consumers were harmed and has asked the commission to demand that Google ask Gmail users to sign up for Buzz instead of enrolling them automatically.
Google moved swiftly to contain the crisis last week, dropping the automatic sign-up and offering clearer instructions on how to opt out of the service and keep messages private.
“We made some mistakes and we accept that,” said Peter Barron, Google’s head of communications. “But if you look at the way we responded, I hope people will see that we reacted quickly to those criticisms and made significant improvements.
“These days everyone leaves a data trail, whether it’s from shopping online, using your mobile phone or doing a search. When you use a credit card you are exposing far more about yourself than in an online search but people generally trust credit-card companies not to misuse their data. At Google, users’ trust is all we have. We take privacy very seriously and build privacy features into all our products based on the principles of transparency, choice and user control.
“Those features were and are present in Buzz, but we accept they could have been clearer. Buzz is not about making private information public unless you choose to.”
Don Cruse, a Houston based lawyer, said that what disturbed him most about Buzz was that it was automatic. In a blog he warned clients, and journalists, that they could end up sharing confidential contacts if they used the service. He said Google was “repurposing old data in a way that flouts our expectations of privacy”.
“People have an expectation of privacy with email. There are lots of famous examples of emails making it to people they shouldn’t have reached. But this was not an accident, it was a deliberate change in structure,” he said.
“The big story is that they wanted to set up a social network, something they have failed to do well in the past. The downside is that they have hurt the Gmail brand.”
The Buzz controversy is unlikely to end in epic fines for Google. Last year Facebook paid $9.5m (£6.2m) to settle a similar class-action lawsuit over Beacon, an advertising system that tracked Facebook users’ online activity outside the site and told other users what they had been up to.
Perhaps more damaging is the damage Buzz has done to Google’s image. John Quelch, a Harvard Business School professor, said it faces two problems in any new venture. “First, Google is a hostage to its publicly stated aim to ‘Do no evil’. That definition of evil is open to considerable interpretation. They have to be very careful that this aim isn’t viewed with cynicism rather than respect.”
Second, Quelch said the execution of Google’s search business is so far ahead of its rivals that people had high expectations of any new service. “They rather missed it on Buzz,” he said.
Dr Search suggests that if the financial penalty is a grand apiece that equates to a worst case scenario of a whopping $146,000,000,000 fine. That's equivalent to roughly it's entire shareholder value.
However even greater reputational damage has been done by reminding everyone that despite it's "does no bad" stance Google has past form on the rough and ready treatment of people's data privacy.
And a wake up call to those of you thinking of joining the GoogleWave- where all of your documents and files sit on their servers. Not just your emails.
Interview with Eva Hibnick on Times Online at:
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article7034912.eceLabels: Buzz, Dr Search, Facebook, Google, Google Wave, Search Clinic, social media websites, social web marketing, Twitter
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Tuesday, February 23, 2010
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Monday, February 22, 2010
Apple removes 5,000 apps from App Store
Apple has banned thousands of apps from the App Store, blaming inappropriate content for it's censorship.
Apple has removed around 5,000 apps from its App Store, including some that it claims feature "overtly sexual" content.
Dozens of developers received a message from Apple stating that the company was refining the guidelines under which the App Store operates, and that content that it had "originally believed to be suitable for distribution" were now no longer deemed appropriate, following "numerous complaints from customers about this type of content".
Jon Atherton, the creator of Wobble iBoobs, said he had received a letter saying his app was being removed from the store. The letter, from Apple's iPhone App Review team, said that if Atherton made changes to the app so that it complied with the recent changes to Apple's terms and conditions, he could resubmit iBoobs for review.
However, Apple has not confirmed whether it has made specific changes to its App Store rules. Instead, it said it reviews problems on a case-by-case basis.
"Whenever we receive customer complaints about objectionable content we review them," said Apple in a statement. "If we find these apps contain inappropriate material we remove them and request the developer make any necessary changes in order to be distributed by Apple."
According to AppShopper, which monitors App Store activity, the number of applications being removed each day grew sharply on Feb 17, with a higher-than-average number of removals taking place over the following days.
Industry insiders believe Apple is cleaning up the App Store ahead of the launch of its iPad tablet, which Apple is hoping to promote as a device for families and schools.
But the move has sparked renewed criticism of Apple's already confusing App Store approval process. Last year, the company was criticised for banning the Eucalyptus ebook application, because it allowed users to download the Kama Sutra to read on their iPhone.
Apple has removed around 5,000 apps from its App Store, including some that it claims feature "overtly sexual" content.
Dozens of developers received a message from Apple stating that the company was refining the guidelines under which the App Store operates, and that content that it had "originally believed to be suitable for distribution" were now no longer deemed appropriate, following "numerous complaints from customers about this type of content".
Jon Atherton, the creator of Wobble iBoobs, said he had received a letter saying his app was being removed from the store. The letter, from Apple's iPhone App Review team, said that if Atherton made changes to the app so that it complied with the recent changes to Apple's terms and conditions, he could resubmit iBoobs for review.
However, Apple has not confirmed whether it has made specific changes to its App Store rules. Instead, it said it reviews problems on a case-by-case basis.
"Whenever we receive customer complaints about objectionable content we review them," said Apple in a statement. "If we find these apps contain inappropriate material we remove them and request the developer make any necessary changes in order to be distributed by Apple."
According to AppShopper, which monitors App Store activity, the number of applications being removed each day grew sharply on Feb 17, with a higher-than-average number of removals taking place over the following days.
Industry insiders believe Apple is cleaning up the App Store ahead of the launch of its iPad tablet, which Apple is hoping to promote as a device for families and schools.
But the move has sparked renewed criticism of Apple's already confusing App Store approval process. Last year, the company was criticised for banning the Eucalyptus ebook application, because it allowed users to download the Kama Sutra to read on their iPhone.
However, it allowed Baby Shaker, an app in which players violently shook a virtual baby to stop it crying, to go on sale before hastily withdrawing it.
In the latest round of deletions, Daisy Mae's Alien Buffet, a game for the iPhone and iPod touch, has also been removed from the store, allegedly because the cartoon heroine wears a bikini.
In the latest round of deletions, Daisy Mae's Alien Buffet, a game for the iPhone and iPod touch, has also been removed from the store, allegedly because the cartoon heroine wears a bikini.
Yet the official Playboy app, featuring pictures of scantily clad "playmates", remains on sale, as do dozens of other applications that could be considered to feature "overtly sexual" content.
Labels: mobile marketing, social media websites, social web marketing
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Monday, February 22, 2010
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Friday, February 19, 2010
HootSuite adds social media CRM functionality
Social media dashboard HootSuite has released an upgraded version boasting social CRM tools for marketers and customer support teams.
Already popular for enabling users to distribute messages across multiple social networks, including Twitter and Facebook, the latest iteration features tools to gather intelligence, manage audiences and track campaigns.
Designed to appeal to marketing departments and customer support teams, HootSuite has announced it will enable users to:
* Know your audience by learning who follows you, and who they are via a ‘Friends and Followers’ chart, and by viewing profiles, influence and activity levels.
* Gather intelligence and discover what outreach tactics work best with customer URL parameters which allow deep analysis in Google Analytics and Omniture
* Answer efficiently by building an archive of stock responses to common customer support queries
* Track success by examining click-through rates on messages, examining time and region breakdowns and reporting as CSV for custom reports or PDF for printing
"In the last update, we added Wordpress, URL previews, and trending topic details, but we didn't rest in the nest," said HootSuite President Ryan Holmes. "With the new version, marketers can hone tactics with deep campaign tracking and reporting tools.
Further, the friends and followers charting features will help everyone build the relationships which make social networking tools so useful."
Dr Search handles a growing number of Twitter, Facebook as well as Google accounts. So the growing idea of one contrilling panel appeals to us.
Labels: Dr Search, Facebook, Search Clinic, social media websites, social web marketing, Twitter
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Friday, February 19, 2010
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Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Few online shops have social networks media, but the majority of UK shoppers buy from them
More than two thirds of all UK online shoppers use social media, with Facebook being by far the most popular but half of top online retailers have a minimal or non existent presence social media presence.
These are the findings of a poll among 10,000 visitors to the UK’s top 40 e-commerce undertaken by ForeSee Results, an organisation that measures online customer satisfaction.
The study indicated that of the 69% of online consumers who use social networking sites, about 37% opted to ‘friend’, ‘follow’ or ‘subscribe’ to retailers, with more than half of such respondents doing so in order to learn about their products.
A further 40% did so to learn about special deals, while only 6% used social media primarily to obtain customer support.
About 56% of all online shoppers used Facebook, however, with the figure jumping to a huge 80% if the focus was narrowed to regular social media users.
This would appear to imply that the site is the best place to reach shoppers in both categories, not only because they are there already, but also because it appears that many are keen to hear from chosen brands.
Despite such findings, an unofficial look at the Facebook pages of the top 100 online retailers indicated that a quarter had no official presence and a further quarter had less than 10,000 followers.
In a further note of caution, nearly three quarters of social media fans chose to ‘friend’ or ‘follow’ less than five organisations, with only 4% interacting with more than 20. This means that the majority of online shoppers give very few retailers any air time.
Kevin Entell, vice president of retail strategy at ForSee, said: "Site visitors who also interact with a company on a social media site are more satisfied, more committed to the brand, and more likely to make future purchases from that company."
But there was a chicken and egg situation taking place, he added. "It is likely that customers who are more satisfied and loyal to begin with are the ones who will friend us on Facebook or subscribe to our YouTube channels," Entell said. "However, research shows that when retailers provide rewarding social media experiences, our customers become even more satisfied and loyal."
The results were backed up by another poll from digital marketing agency dotCommerce among 100 UK retailers. It indicated that a mere 42% of UK retailers had a social media presence, with only 12% using more than one site.
Of the retailers using such sites, only 24% had a Facebook presence, while 26% preferred Twitter. They preferred to employ the latter to keep consumers aware of product updates (73%), push out marketing messages (63%) and company news (58%).
Dr Search asks if you one of the three quarters being left behind by the social web marketing growth? If so and you would like some help- please just ask here now!
Labels: Dr Search, Facebook, online marketing, online marketing uk, Search Clinic, social media websites, social web marketing, Twitter, YouTube
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Wednesday, February 17, 2010
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Friday, February 12, 2010
Dr Search lectures at University of Gloucestershire
Dr Search the Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic yesterday gave a talk to MBA students at the University of Gloucestershire on the subject of Managing Online Customer Relationships for social media marketing.
Dr Search commented- "It's amazing the lack of online marketing knowledge of really intelligent people."
Over a century ago Lord Leverhulme the founder of Unilever worked out that he wasting half of his marketing budget.
The Search Clinic has saved one of our clients over 93% of his pay per click budet- and still get the smae amount of traffic.
If you would like some help with your online marketing, please just click here now- online marketing.
Labels: Dr Search, Search Clinic, social media websites, social web marketing
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Friday, February 12, 2010
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Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Facebook is the new threat to Google
Facebook is now sending more traffic to US news sites than Google- as the proportion of traffic from Facebook has tripled while that of Google News stayed static.
More people are coming to US news sites via Facebook and other social networking sites such as Twitter – supplanting Google News, which had been one of the primary sources of readers, according to research by the metrics company Hitwise.
During the past year, the proportion of traffic that Facebook sends to US media sites has tripled from around 1.2% to 3.52%, while that sent by Google News has remained roughly static, at around 1.4%, says Heather Hopkins, North America analyst for Hitwise.
The growing power of Facebook also means that publishers which want to demand money from – or alternatively to lock out – Google News because of claims that it "leeches" on their content could do so without fearing a dramatic impact on their reader figures.
With more than 400m users, Facebook forms the newest – and most unexpected – threat to Google, say some analysts.
Last weekend the search engine spent $5m on a TV advert during the Superbowl, puzzling many who do not see a threat from rival search engines such as Microsoft's Bing, which has less than half of its proportion of search queries.
But Hopkins notes in a blogpost for Hitwise that: "Facebook could be a major disruptor to the News and Media category. And with the Wall Street Journal already publishing content to Facebook, perhaps the social network can avoid the run-ins that Google has suffered recently with Rupert Murdoch. We will continue to watch this space."
Murdoch's editors and executives have repeatedly criticised aggregators such Google News, claiming it is leeching off their content by displaying snippets of their work. In the UK, the Murdoch-owned titles have gone as far as blocking access to their sites by Newsnow, a smaller news aggregator.
Eric Schmidt, chief executive of Google, has argued that publishers should take advantage of the traffic that it sends them – pointing out that it sends about 4bn such links per year.
But Facebook provides the perfect counterweight, where publishers can choose how much of their content they display and view how well it is followed. Sites such as Facebook and increasingly Twitter contribute hundreds of thousands of visits every month to UK sites, according to analysis by the Guardian.
John Minnihan, the founder of the software code respository Freepository, warns that Facebook poses one of the biggest threats to Google on the web. "With recent data showing a large uptick in 'Facebook as home page', [Google] may well indeed need to remind emerging generation who/what it is."
"In that case, the [Superbowl] ad makes some business sense. Whatever the real reason, it has nothing to do with 'sharing video more widely'. If FB dev'ed an integrated web-wide search engine, think about how much traffic would evaporate [from Google] overnite. That's nightmare stuff."
Tellingly, Minnihan's comments were made on Twitter — which Google is rumoured to be trying to compete with in a "social version" of its Gmail webmail product.
Google has already tried – and failed – to create a world-scale social network with its Orkut product, but been obliged instead to purchase access to Twitter's search results to provide real-time insight into what people are talking about.
Facebook's content however lies beyond its reach – and that could be crucial in the forthcoming months as news publishers in the US and UK consider putting up higher paywalls or demanding money from aggregators.
Dr Search found the social media news story on the Guardian's website at:
Labels: bing, Dr Search, Facebook, Google, Search Clinic, social media websites, social web marketing, Twitter
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Wednesday, February 10, 2010
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Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Return On Investment (ROI) for social media marketing
Only 22% of UK organisations use social media marketing as a core part of their communications strategy because they are unsure how to prove return on investment cases, measure value or even how to use it.
These are the findings of a survey among 80 UK senior marketers undertaken by researchers Opinion Matters on behalf of the Internet Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) Social Media Council (SCM).
The study found that social media played a key role in the marketing campaigns of a mere 22% of companies, although a further 20% indicated that it currently played some role in most of their activities. Another 23.5% said that they tended to use such services on an ad hoc basis, while 27% of respondents had undertaken trials.
Although about a third planned to allocate between six and 20% of their digital marketing budgets to social media over the year compared with only 14% last year, 7% said that they had not touched such technology at all.
The main challenge in the social media context, according to almost three quarters of respondents, was in proving that it could generate a ROI. Another 64% said that measuring value was a problem, while 57% felt that they needed more education on how best to use such offerings.
These are the findings of a survey among 80 UK senior marketers undertaken by researchers Opinion Matters on behalf of the Internet Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) Social Media Council (SCM).
The study found that social media played a key role in the marketing campaigns of a mere 22% of companies, although a further 20% indicated that it currently played some role in most of their activities. Another 23.5% said that they tended to use such services on an ad hoc basis, while 27% of respondents had undertaken trials.
Although about a third planned to allocate between six and 20% of their digital marketing budgets to social media over the year compared with only 14% last year, 7% said that they had not touched such technology at all.
The main challenge in the social media context, according to almost three quarters of respondents, was in proving that it could generate a ROI. Another 64% said that measuring value was a problem, while 57% felt that they needed more education on how best to use such offerings.
There was also uncertainty as to where social media activity should sit within the business. While three quarters of those questioned felt it should reside within the marketing department, a third felt it fitted best within the PR function. Some 12% felt that researchers should have responsibility for it, 16% customer services and 7%, IT.
It would differ from organisation to organisation as to whether they should set up a new dedicated team or re-skill staff but keep them in individual departments. But it was important to clarify current strengths wherever they were located and map them to requirements, not least in order to establish skills gaps so that expertise could be hired in from outside, he added.
Among those organisations currently using social media, meanwhile, the most popular application was as a tool to help boost brand awareness (77%). Three quarters had used such services to drive engagement or for advocacy purposes, while 60% had employed them to undertake market research. About half had also used the technology to try and increase product sales.
Twitter and social media monitoring tools were the most popular offerings, however, with just over half of brands citing them as very important. Other appealing services included Facebook (47%) and own branded communities (39%), but 27% of respondents were unaware of what such terms as crowd sourcing actually meant.
It would differ from organisation to organisation as to whether they should set up a new dedicated team or re-skill staff but keep them in individual departments. But it was important to clarify current strengths wherever they were located and map them to requirements, not least in order to establish skills gaps so that expertise could be hired in from outside, he added.
Among those organisations currently using social media, meanwhile, the most popular application was as a tool to help boost brand awareness (77%). Three quarters had used such services to drive engagement or for advocacy purposes, while 60% had employed them to undertake market research. About half had also used the technology to try and increase product sales.
Twitter and social media monitoring tools were the most popular offerings, however, with just over half of brands citing them as very important. Other appealing services included Facebook (47%) and own branded communities (39%), but 27% of respondents were unaware of what such terms as crowd sourcing actually meant.
Labels: Facebook, ROI, social media websites, social web marketing, Twitter
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Tuesday, February 09, 2010
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Monday, February 8, 2010
Google closes Blogger support- to save money
So much for Google's vaunted promise to “do good”. Dr Search has recently learnt that in order to cut costs Google will no longer offer support to it's Blogger clients who have the cheek to host their own content on their own servers, like the Search Clinic Blog.
Dr Search wasn't terribly chuffed last year when google's blogger usurped the Search Clinic favicon with their own favicon.
When questioned about this doubtful behaviour by Dr Search google claimed that it was solvable. However blogger's template doesn't actually allow for google's suggested changes.
As a result we started to question google's motives for trying to stealing third party blog content.
This lie has proved the unprofessionalism of google as their latest plans now attest. The balance of the communication with google is reproduced below:
http://blogger-ftp.blogspot.com/
The full text of the announcement at Blogger Buzz follows:
Last May, we discussed a number of challenges facing Blogger users who relied on FTP to publish their blogs. FTP remains a significant drain on our ability to improve Blogger: only .5% of active blogs are published via FTP — yet the percentage of our engineering resources devoted to supporting FTP vastly exceeds that. On top of this, critical infrastructure that our FTP support relies on at Google will soon become unavailable, which would require that we completely rewrite the code that handles our FTP processing.
Three years ago we launched Custom Domains to give users the simplicity of Blogger, the scalability of Google hosting, and the flexibility of hosting your blog at your own URL. Last year's post discussed the advantages of custom domains over FTP and addressed a number of reasons users have continued to use FTP publishing.
For that reason, we are announcing today that we will no longer support FTP publishing in Blogger after March 26, 2010. We realize that this will not necessarily be welcome news for some users, and we are committed to making the transition as seamless as possible. To that end:
* We are building a migration tool that will walk users through a migration from their current URL to a Blogger-managed URL (either a Custom Domain or a Blogspot URL) that will be available to all users the week of February 22. This tool will handle redirecting traffic from the old URL to the new URL, and will handle the vast majority of situations.
* We will be providing a dedicated blog and help documentation
* Blogger team members will also be available to answer questions on the forum, comments on the blog, and in a few scheduled conference calls once the tool is released.
We have a number of big releases planned in 2010. While we recognize that this decision will frustrate some users, we look forward to showing you the many great things on the way. Thanks for using Blogger.
Regards,
Rick Klau
Blogger Product Manager
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
Labels: Dr Search, Google, Search Clinic, social media websites, social web marketing
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Monday, February 08, 2010
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Monday, January 25, 2010
Facebook campaign puts the boot into First Capital Connect
Disaffected commuters on the Bedford to Brighton train line have started employing Facebook social media to apply pressure on government transport chiefs to strip the operator of its franchise.
First Capital Connect (FCC) has come under criticism since last year, but anger has mounted over the last two months following severe timetable disruption, cancelled and delayed trains and customer misinformation on the Thameslink line.
The problems have been blamed on drivers working to rule and the cold snap. However it is the management which is supposed to be in charge of the system.
But increasing levels of frustration among commuters have led them to set up a grassroots campaign that appears to be gaining political weight. An ‘I hate FCC’ group has been set up on Facebook, which now numbers over 2,000 members.
An online Downing Street petition has also been signed by 4,758 people, while a spoof website has been created - First Crapital Connect - "We've Got You Over A Barrel" - leading thousands of commuters to register their fury at the company. Local newspapers along the route have also been inundated with letters of complaint.
As a result, Paul Burstow, Liberal Democrat MP for Sutton and Cheam, lodged an early day motion last week calling for FCC’s franchise to be withdrawn. If the move were to come to pass, it would be the second route to be taken back into public ownership, following the nationalisation of National Express’ East Coast route in November last year.
Labels: Facebook, social media websites, social web marketing
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Monday, January 25, 2010
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Friday, January 22, 2010
The importance of Twitter
Dr Search has been fairly reserved over our coverage of Twitter this year. However, Ricky Gervais's recent experience of the social media has raised both his and Twitter's profile.
Ricky Gervais, who, after just 6 tweets, anounced that he was quitting the service:
"I just don’t get it I’m afraid. I’m sure it’s fun as a networking device for teenagers but there’s something a bit undignified about adults using it. Particularly celebrities who seem to be showing off by talking to each other in public."
"If I want to tell a friend, famous or otherwise what I had to eat this morning, I’ll text them. And since I don’t need to make new virtual friends, it seemed a bit pointless to be honest."
Dr Search agrees with his point about celebrities, and feel that the way many have jumped on the Twitter-wagon, building their own profiles in the process, can be slightly nauseating.
Especially when so many of them simply bring their broadcast mindset to a dialogue based communications tool.
But his suggestion that Twitter is simply somewhere for teenagers to share what they had for breakfast is so very wide of the mark that it demands consideration.
The idea that Twitter is simply a glorified version of Facebook’s updates, used for nothing other than posting inane titbits from people’s lives, is not an uncommon one, and one that many share. But it also betrays a complete lack of understanding of what Twitter offers. As Gervais himself says, he just doesn’t get it.
In essence, Twitter is just a tool for communicating with others, nothing more, nothing less.
But then again, so is a phone. Would people say “I’m not going to use a phone, if I want to talk to my mates, I’ll do it in person”? Of course they wouldn’t. Because a phone is only as interesting as the things it’s being used for.
Need to check whether a store has an item in stock? Use a phone. Need to connect with friends and relatives on the other side of the world? Use a phone. Now swap the word phone for Twitter and you start to see quite how wrong Gervais is.
For just as a phone is an endlessly versatile tool, one that made distance a thing of the past- and which is now driving the Internet into previously impenetrable areas, such as rural India and Sub-Saharan Africa. Twitter is only limited by its users’ inventiveness.
It can be used to source information, crowdsource investigative journalism, raise money for charity, connect with like-minded peers and, yes, occasionally tell people what you had for breakfast. It’s proving to be a valuable tool for individuals, entrepreneurs, businesses, both small and large, politicians, charities and even historical buildings.
Of course this doesn’t mean that Twitter will be right for everyone or even every brand. But writing it off as a waste of time is like throwing away your phone because you don’t like being cold-called.
Like a phone Twitter allows one to one conversation. However you also have the opportunity to use a speaker phone to reachmany more poeple.
Additionally Twitter's focused niche role allows one to find the target market so accurately by segmenting one message directly.
All in all Mr Grevais's observations about Twitter have a certain semblance to his "dancing". Unusual and excruciating, but also entertaining.
Labels: Dr Search, Search Clinic, social media websites, social web marketing, Twitter
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Friday, January 22, 2010
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Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Website Marketing budget guide- the real costs of online marketing
Online Marketing cost guide by Dr Search. Although we at the Search Clinic are pretty open about our services- both what we offer and how much it's going to cost you, when we found this recent post at INeedHits we thought that we would repeat it as a third party independent guide for your benefit.
Whether you’re just starting out, or re-evaluating your website strategy, it’s important for you to get your plan and budget right.
The rule “Build it and they will come” rarely works in the online space. For you to be successful with your website marketing strategy – you need to have a solid plan and be realistic about the real costs of doing it properly.
Too many business owners spend £1000’s on getting a fancy website developed, only to find they have no money left to promote it.
One of our sales guys uses this analogy
“It’s like building a shopping mall in the desert. Without the budget to promote it – who’s going to find it?”
“It’s like building a shopping mall in the desert. Without the budget to promote it – who’s going to find it?”
So to help you get your website design and marketing budget right – here’s a quick guide to what you need and the approximate costs to do it properly.
- 1. The website: Development/Design & Maintenance
The development of a website has many variables. Accordingly the costs can vary significantly depending on factors such as whether its static or dynamic, whether it includes a shopping cart, is the design bespoke or templated etc, etc, etc.
The reality is that websites can vary from £1000 – £50,000, and 90% of the time, you get what you pay for.
If it’s really cheap, it’s likely that there won’t be much functionality and it’ll use a template. The flip side of that is that if it’s too expensive – ask yourself whether you “really” need all the bells and whistles.
And most importantly – shop around. Draft a detailed requirements document and then check with a few website designers/developers to get the best price.
Also, don’t forget to budget for hosting and maintenance. Websites need to be updated in terms of content and systems (e.g. cms) regularly, and without hosting - you wont appear anywhere.
- 2. SEO – Search Engine Optimization
The simple truth is that the majority of website traffic comes from search engines and directories. Most of our clients see upwards of 60% of traffic coming from search engines like Google, Yahoo! and Bing. While the organic search engine traffic is free (no click costs), you do need to invest in a professional SEO program to ensure you’re maximizing this free search engine traffic.
SEO campaigns again vary significantly. To hire an industry leading SEO consultant can cost as much as $1000 per hour.
Here’s a guide on SEO pricing that Rand Fishkin from SEOmoz posted 2 years ago. As you can imagine – prices have grown since then…but it serves as a guide for the premium end of the scale:
| Service | Low End | Mid Range | High End |
| Site Review + Consulting | $500 | $2,500 | $10,000 |
| Hands-On Editing of Pages/Code | $2,000 | $10,000 | $50,000 |
| Manual Link Building Campaign | $500 | $5,000 | $20,000 |
| Keyword Research Package | $100 | $500 | $2,000 |
| Monthly Retainer for Ongoing SEO | $2,500 | $7,500 | $20,000+ |
Professional SEO is an investment. If you’re in business for the long haul, you’d be crazy not to allocate a decent proportion of your initial online budget on SEO – (or if your budget is tight, then study hard and invest the many hours needed to do it yourself).
To get started with an SEO campaign (fully managed by an experienced SEO professional) that’s going to generate serious ranking and traffic results – you should be looking to pay at least £500 per month - minimum.
- 3. PPC – Google AdWords and Other Search Advertising
As with all things, you’re probably looking for some quick wins in terms of traffic and results from your website. This is where PPC (pay per click) Search Engine Advertising (e.g. Google AdWords) helps.
With a well setup Google AdWords campaign, you can have highly targeted visitors delivered to your website almost instantly. It’s a great way to ensure you’re still getting a return on your website investment while your SEO and other strategies take effect.
Professional PPC campaigns, depending on your industry and how much traffic you need, can cost as little as $200 per month and the sky is the limit. But be aware that with cheaper campaigns, you’ll find most of your investment is going into the setup and management – rather than the media (click costs) – which makes it hard to generate decent ROI.
A serious PPC campaign for a small business should start at approx £500…and depending on your goals – go up from there.
- 4. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a very cost effective way of generating traffic for your website. With most affiliate networks offering CPA models (cost per acquisition) – it allows you to generate traffic that you only pay for when the visitor converts (makes a purchase, signs up for a newsletter, submits a query).
The challenge with affiliate networks is that they take time to be effective and the best networks are often very selective as to who they promote.
Most decent networks will charge a small set up fee ($500-1000 upwards) and then take a commission on every sale or acquisition. Some of the larger ones will also charge a monthly management fees to help you optimize your campaigns.
Most publishers will be looking for between 10% - 30% commission on sales, or a decent bonus for lead/enquiry based programs.
- 5. Social media, Email marketing & Ad Networks
There’s a range of other website promotion opportunities such as Social Media, Email marketing and Ad Networks.
With Social Media, it’s definitely an area that small businesses should be getting involved with, but remember; it’s not a fit for every business and Social media is like SEO - it’s an investment and normally takes a while to generate good results.
There are plenty of other ways to drive more traffic to your site, but in reality – the areas mentioned above will be your main traffic sources.
So with that in mind – you can now get a much clearer and more realistic picture of what it costs to get serious results online. Even if we use the lower end of these costs as a guide, small business owners should be looking at
| Cost Guide | |
| Website Development | £1000+ |
| Hosting & Maintenance | £120+ |
| SEO - 6mth program | £3000 |
| Search Advertising (PPC) - 6mths | £1200 |
| Affiliate Marketing | Depends on Program |
| Others | Depends on Tactics |
| TOTAL | £5000+ |
Now that’s only a starting guide, and as I’ve mentioned previously - the cheapest options aren’t always the best in terms of results and generating good ROI.
So if you’re starting a new website project - you can see there’s more to consider than just the website design costs. If you want your new website in 2010 to be a success - be realistic when doing your planning and budgeting!
Labels: Adwords, Dr Search, online marketing, online marketing uk, Search Clinic, Search Engine Optimisation, SEO Services, social media websites, social web marketing
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Wednesday, January 20, 2010
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Monday, January 18, 2010
Top tips to make your social marketing produce profits
The Search Clinic outlines 7 tips to help your make money from social media marketing.
1. Plan your social media strategy for 2010.
Set your 2010 social media goals. Then map out the projects that you’ll need to undertake to achieve your goals. Throughout this process, you will need to start listening to determine which online communities are most important to your business. Your observations will help guide your decisions on how to engage each community most effectively.
2. Offer exceptional products and services.
Social media is simply another tool. If your products and services aren’t great, it’ll be an uphill battle to win. You’ll find yourself firefighting against a tide of negative comments. In social media, you can’t buy reach. You can’t buy market share. You can’t buy advocacy and customer evangelists.
If you want to win, create exceptional products and services that add value and delight customers. That is the fastest and most cost-effective way to get people talking positively about your brand!
3. Focus.
Prioritize to focus your time and energy on the social networks that really matter. Don’t try to be everywhere, do everything and respond to every single discussion – instead, focus on the discussions that will influence other conversations for maximum impact.
4. Create synergy to amplify your marketing messages.
Social media participants are getting savvier by the second. Treat consumers with respect and add value to the communities that you play in. When you add value, your messages will be shared. Take stock of how relevant communities are interconnected, and build your strategy to amplify communication and marketing efforts.
As you contribute content and participate in conversations, link all the disparate sites together to optimize your results.
5. Build your brand using location based social networks.
In 2010, expect to see location based social networks take off, as more customers access the mobile web through their smartphones. This will present a major opportunity for retailers to make their mark on the 'local' social web to promote and engage conversations about their brands online.
Smart businesses will get on the bandwagon first with innovative promotions which will not only capture the attention of community members but also the media.
6. Allocate a budget for social media.
Take a step back and rethink how participating in social media will be funded in your organisation. Look at your total mix of marketing spend within traditional activities such as advertising, PR and lead generation. Is social media currently an integrated part of your existing campaigns? Or does it make more sense to bypass the 'traditional' marketing outlets and create a separate social media programme? Will you be creating content internally or using external resources and agencies to produce high-quality, engaging content?
7. Reach within your organisation for social networking talent.
As tempting as it is to hire new social marketing specialists to drive and influence online conversations about your brand, don’t overlook the talent that already exists within your company – people who are already in your organisation who are passionate about your product, services and culture.
1. Plan your social media strategy for 2010.
Set your 2010 social media goals. Then map out the projects that you’ll need to undertake to achieve your goals. Throughout this process, you will need to start listening to determine which online communities are most important to your business. Your observations will help guide your decisions on how to engage each community most effectively.
2. Offer exceptional products and services.
Social media is simply another tool. If your products and services aren’t great, it’ll be an uphill battle to win. You’ll find yourself firefighting against a tide of negative comments. In social media, you can’t buy reach. You can’t buy market share. You can’t buy advocacy and customer evangelists.
If you want to win, create exceptional products and services that add value and delight customers. That is the fastest and most cost-effective way to get people talking positively about your brand!
3. Focus.
Prioritize to focus your time and energy on the social networks that really matter. Don’t try to be everywhere, do everything and respond to every single discussion – instead, focus on the discussions that will influence other conversations for maximum impact.
4. Create synergy to amplify your marketing messages.
Social media participants are getting savvier by the second. Treat consumers with respect and add value to the communities that you play in. When you add value, your messages will be shared. Take stock of how relevant communities are interconnected, and build your strategy to amplify communication and marketing efforts.
As you contribute content and participate in conversations, link all the disparate sites together to optimize your results.
5. Build your brand using location based social networks.
In 2010, expect to see location based social networks take off, as more customers access the mobile web through their smartphones. This will present a major opportunity for retailers to make their mark on the 'local' social web to promote and engage conversations about their brands online.
Smart businesses will get on the bandwagon first with innovative promotions which will not only capture the attention of community members but also the media.
6. Allocate a budget for social media.
Take a step back and rethink how participating in social media will be funded in your organisation. Look at your total mix of marketing spend within traditional activities such as advertising, PR and lead generation. Is social media currently an integrated part of your existing campaigns? Or does it make more sense to bypass the 'traditional' marketing outlets and create a separate social media programme? Will you be creating content internally or using external resources and agencies to produce high-quality, engaging content?
7. Reach within your organisation for social networking talent.
As tempting as it is to hire new social marketing specialists to drive and influence online conversations about your brand, don’t overlook the talent that already exists within your company – people who are already in your organisation who are passionate about your product, services and culture.
There may be a learning curve in terms of how to best engage with social media, but the advantage they have is that they already live and breathe your company culture, adding authenticity which will humanise your brand.
Labels: Dr Search, social media websites, social web marketing
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Monday, January 18, 2010
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Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Social media marketing spreading across the whole business function
2009 was the year for testing out social computing concepts such as blogs and communities, now 2010 will see their transformation into a more mature channel for interacting with customers, believes Forrester Research.
As a result, such tools will start to be adopted beyond simply marketing departments and some organisations will start providing budgets to enable the implementation of actionable strategies. Others will even set up separate units in order to exploit them to the full.
According to a report entitled ‘Top Social Computing Predictions for 2010’ recently published by the research firm, the forthcoming year will see enterprises view such tools less as an end in themselves and more as a means to an end.
This means that they will realise that the value of social media tools lies less as simply a means of acquiring lots of followers and more in turning such followers into business assets. Therefore, there will be an increased focus on measuring the performance of such offerings and in understanding their impact.
A growing appreciation that what is said on one platform such as Twitter will be picked up on another, thereby informing consumers’ overall view of the brand, will likewise mean that interest in such tools is no longer confined to just the social or interactive arm of the marketing department.
As a result, such tools will start to be adopted beyond simply marketing departments and some organisations will start providing budgets to enable the implementation of actionable strategies. Others will even set up separate units in order to exploit them to the full.
According to a report entitled ‘Top Social Computing Predictions for 2010’ recently published by the research firm, the forthcoming year will see enterprises view such tools less as an end in themselves and more as a means to an end.
This means that they will realise that the value of social media tools lies less as simply a means of acquiring lots of followers and more in turning such followers into business assets. Therefore, there will be an increased focus on measuring the performance of such offerings and in understanding their impact.
A growing appreciation that what is said on one platform such as Twitter will be picked up on another, thereby informing consumers’ overall view of the brand, will likewise mean that interest in such tools is no longer confined to just the social or interactive arm of the marketing department.
This situation will manifest itself in the growing appeal of such offerings to customer service and product development departments.
Firms will also start work on improving mobile device support and cross-channel integration to ensure that mobile technology can be used to share information and learn about brands as easily as other modes of access.
But as the adoption of social computing activities moves more into the mainstream so will advocates come under increasing pressure to both use them to turn a profit and ensure that the privacy of customer data is safeguarded.
Firms will also start work on improving mobile device support and cross-channel integration to ensure that mobile technology can be used to share information and learn about brands as easily as other modes of access.
But as the adoption of social computing activities moves more into the mainstream so will advocates come under increasing pressure to both use them to turn a profit and ensure that the privacy of customer data is safeguarded.
Labels: mobile marketing, Search Clinic, social media websites, social web marketing, Twitter
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Wednesday, January 13, 2010
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Friday, January 8, 2010
More small businesses move online to reduce costs
The recession is prompting small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to increase their online presence as they seek to cut running costs and use marketing budgets more efficiently, a new survey has revealed.
According to the Kleinwort Benson UK Entrepreneurs Survey 2009, 76 per cent of approximately 100 respondents said they intended to increase the use of e-marketing in 2010 and 53 per cent said an online presence was critical.
“When making choices to cut costs and determine future strategies, businesses are focusing on online channels,” said Joe White, chief operating officer of Gandi.net, an online service provider.
“It is cheaper to set up and distribute via the internet, so companies may well choose to close the shop. The recession has bought forward some of those decisions to focus on online channels.”
Social media are also being used more extensively, the survey revealed. Forty two per cent said LinkedIn and Twitter, two forms of online networking, would be used to expand their businesses in 2010. Thirty eight per cent and 36 per cent, respectively, said they would employ Facebook and YouTube.
Dominic Davenport, chief executive of Escape Studios, which trains computer graphic artists, said: “We have found that social media deliver very quick, tangible returns in terms of building awareness of our brand, and also identifying new customers.”
Glyn Heath, chief executive of Centiq, an IT consulting and services company, said the interest in social media and web marketing was striking.
“However, smaller businesses are still getting to grips with tools such as Twitter and LinkedIn,” added Heath. “Executives recognise that the web offers exciting engagement possibilities, but they are finding that social media are resource-heavy marketing channels, so increased spending will have lasting implications for workload.”
Julie Hall, founder of Women Unlimited, an online community for female entrepreneurs, said she was surprised that only 53 per cent of respondents thought an online presence was critical.
“The 47 per cent that don’t believe an online presence is critical to their business, don’t get it,” she said. “If they aren’t online, positioning themselves as the ‘go-to company’ in their field, one of their competitors will be.”
The Search Clinic is amazed that more than half of entrepreneurs are still not recognising the benefits of online marketing. Agreed online marketing can waste huge amounts of time and money- but if you get it right, you can acheive up to 500% ROI.
Labels: Dr Search, Facebook, online marketing, online marketing uk, Search Clinic, social media websites, social web marketing, Twitter
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Friday, January 08, 2010
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