Conference Buddies

Successful Tactics for Social Media

It’s about the conversation
People like to tell their stories and interaction about your product
Sharing & Conversation
Collect wisdom of the crowd

Ancestors of Social Marketing:
Listservs, user groups, message boards, chat boards

Audience development, interactive PR, certain forms of what we named guerilla marketing, seeding

sCRM (Social Customer Relationship Management):
Surveys, polls, story telling, etc. 

Types of Social Media:
Social News
Social Sharing (Videos & Photos)
Social Networking
Social Bookmarking
And many other areas

Social Technographics (aka Demographics/Psychographics):
Creators
Critics
Collectors
Joiners
Spectators
Inactive

From the book Groundswell 

Dominate your Search Engine Result’s Pages (SERPS):
MySpace.com
Youtube video
Youtube channel
Other Social Marketing links
Links are a by product of social media.   
Each area is a potential to rank in your SERPs

Sony, Walmart, and other companies = back lash for being unethical for fake blogging.  Such as offering a fake promotion to generate buzz.

I attended the SES conference in San Jose. Here are key notes from the conference that you may find informative:

Summary: Advanced B2B Marketing

1.    Top tips

• Reach prospect early in the buying cycle
• Advertise based on phases of the buying cycle
• Create campaigns and Ad copy to speak to the buyers at certain stage in the buying cycle
• Create ad copy that pre-qualifies
• Example

CRM Consulting for Fortune 500 Companie

Best fit for company with 50+ employees

• Focus on design and ad copy
• Adjusting design and ad copy can boost conversions by 50%
• Test landing pages – Test, Test, Test
• Create Microsites to help focus the traffic with relevant information
• Give the visitor options if they are not ready to sign up or download

Download Free Trail |  Join Web Conference | Online Demo | Contact Me

2.    Measuring SEM performance

• Don’t let the client cherry pick you
• Evaluation Process
• - All registrations are conversions
• - Filter out valid inquires
• - Accept valid inquires
• - Quality sales lead
• - Close Sales
• - What is the lifetime  value of the customer

3.    Focus SEM budget on the Enterprise solution that bring in the 80% of the revenue than off the shelf low end software

• Unless the internal sales team is great a upgrading the client from the low end solution to the Enterprise solution

4.    B3B SEM is a whole different animal due to traditional marketing mindset and many CRM tools & process involved.

I attended the SES conference in San Jose. Here are key notes from the conference that you may find informative:

Summary: Omniture – 5 Things No One Will Tell You About SEM

1. Discussion on long tail keywords

• Increasing search traffic for brand keywords and 1-2 keyword phrases. People are more trained on using the web to search from brands and for navigation
• 3-4 long tail keyword phases are diminishing
• Due to Google quality score, really long tail keywords are not getting the same high quality score (panel theory)

2. Discussion on content network

• Search is people seeking for your services / Content is you seeking for that customer
• 90% content are poor traffic
• Break content network campaigns into new account so not to mix with search performance
• Use different success metric for content vs. search

3. Broad match

• Google is pushing Broad Match, Campaign Optimization, and YouTube/MySpace
• Most of this stuff is a joke / No solid return at this time
• Depend on client

4. Stay focuse

• Focus on the Search Engines and campaigns that are bring in the most return
• Before branching out to new search engines, campaigns, or doing many long tail keywords – evaluate the performance return. The time needed to optimize these additional campaigns may not be worth the value returned.
• Optimize what is working until you can not anymore

I attended the SES conference in San Jose. Here are key notes from the conference that you may find informative:

Summary: Measuring Success In a 2.0 World

1. Ask client questions – ask how, why, what if
2. Segment the segment: Slice up the data and ask more questions to understand the context / what is the story the data is telling
3. Web 2.0 is a movement from static web pages to empowering people to contribute/participate
4. Social media traffic comes mostly from other social media site and not from search
5. Do not concentrate so much on traditional analytics/numbers but the trends and what is the story or consumer behavior. When the people click on the Blog, why and what for – what is the intent?
6. Analytics = no current metric system will help you tell the story. Expert panel still has to use Excel to crunch the data and help tell the client story. Better to hire an analyst than to upgrade software at this time.

Search Engine Strategies (SES) San Jose – 2008
How Can Social Media Ignite Your Viral Marketing Campaigns

Viral Marketing Simply Put:  It’s Free “Word of Mouth” Advertising.  

Social Marketing: A giant conversation online!

Blogs:
Find blogs in your niche:  technorati.com/blogs/directory/

Look for verticles, more than just Facebook, Myspace, etc. 
i.e. MyArtSpace.com

Online Video:
Video sharing websites.
YouTube, Metacafe, BREAK, etc. 

Forums & Groups:
Discussion takes place among the members about various  topics.
rankings.big-boards.com

PbNation, vvvvortex, bodybuilding.com, etc. 
Social News & Bookmarking
Communities which allow users to submit newws, stories, articles, and meida and share them with others.
del.icio.us, Stumble Upon, Digg, etc. 

Digg ->  TechCrunch, Daily KDS, LifeHaceker, Gothamist, TMZ.com -> Reddit, del.icio.us, SU, Blinklist, Facebook -> IM, Email, etc.  -> Gov, Mainstream Press, Forums, Non-profits, Aggregators 

What is “good” content?

Lists:
How-To’s (How to tip like a gentleman sent to you by your parents)
Surveys (The 25 best colleges for Nerds)
Comprehensive (Introduction to 20 investments)
Strong Opinion  (Howard Stern, but be careful)
Best Of’s (Music, etc.)
Calculators / Tools
Video (will it blend)
Widget
Quizzes / Badges 

Tips:
Have clear goals / objectives (what will you get out of it)
Promote great content
Contribute to the communities
Make the sites work together
Have good hosting
Igniting Viral Cmpaigns:

Objectives:
Branding, Product launch, customer acquisition, link marketing
Strategy: People of Influence
Who influences the space, who always gets attention, where do people get their news?

The Approach:
You could launch and then conteact these people of influence
Be Proactive:
Dev relationships, build team, collaboration
Hire Bloggers, etc.
Contest, you could run a contest
Interviews: Experts, Bloggers, Jounalist, CEO’s, VPs, etc.
Research: White papers, Reports, Surveys (team of with organizations, experts, etc.)
Brand Advocates (develop relationships)
Recruiting Influencers 
 
Hire Consultants: Experts, Bloggers, Jounalist, Forum owners/moderators.

Customer Promotional Strategies:  Outgoing communication, Customer service cener, Brick-n-mortar locations.   (promote to bloggers, and give coupon)
 

Spread the Buzz:
Sponsor newsletters, forums, community sites, industry sites, pay bloggers, pay experts, banners, ppc, etc.
People of influence, engage customers, promoting the buzz 
7 out of 10 Americans use Internet for news
TV news losing 1M viewers per year
Newspaper circulation down ~10% since 2001
 

Basic Elements:
Gives away products or services (FREE is good)
Provides for effortless transfer to others (Make it easy to spread)
Scales easily from small to very large 
Exploits common motivations and behaviors (most people like to be social)
Utilizes existing communication networks (sydicate)
Takes advantage of other’ resources  (use YouTube’s server/bandwidth)

Strategies:
RSS Feeds, Podcasts, etc.

Techniques:
Fwd to a friend
bookmark
news alert
tell your clients your friend
optimize your channel
link from your website
flip video camera (easy to create videos)

Some Tools Include:
addthis.com (tool) (chicklets)
tubemogul.com (distribute your video to many video channels)

Measuring Success:
RSS/Newsletter subscribers
Social bookmarks
Comments to your blog
Links to your website by Social Media
What blogs, forums are talking about you
Monitor referring links
Tracking e-mail usage
Other Ideas:   How to create ideas that spread:

1. Thou Shalt know Thy Customer
All about delivering the goods
Can’t deliver, if you don’t know the desire (passion point)

2. Thou Shalt Be Remarkable
Amazing marketing message
Amazing company (zappos, great customer service, returns)

3. Thou Shalt Try , Try Again
Most viral efforts don’t take off
Every try improves your marketing

Customer Questions (from Jennifer Laycock):
What do customers love about you?
What do customers not like about you?
What is your biggest challenge?
What sparks online conversation?

Can you do something outrageous?
Can you do something hilarious?
Do you have a holiday/event connection?
Can you make the “mostest” something?

What do you wish people said about you?
Can you create/embrace controversy?
Do you have an underdog story?
Are you connected to a news story?
What type of site sends the best visitors?
What motivate your cusomter base?

Search Engine Strategies (SES) San Jose – 2008
Everywhere but Google 

 
Pay Per Post = Only for broad campaigns (not good for SEO) (not good for B2B or niche)
ASK = Good, cheap traffic
SuperPages.com = only localized campaign 
Facebook Business Solutions = Target based on demographics  (www.facebook.com/business)24M members  (over 18?)
Quigo = Pay Per Click (Network of news)
LookSmart = Good potential (low CPA, but low volume)

Tip #1:  Buy alternative advertising through referral (ask around, agencies, peers, experts, etc.)
Tip #2:  Be absolutely clear about your goals and timeframe (know what you will get out of it)
Tip #3:  Allocate 10% – 25% of your online budget to Testing  (other forms of media)

Demand Generation vs. Demand Fulfillment
Content is different from search
Content = Go Wide = Implicit
Search = Direct 

Keywords are Wrong for Content/Contextual Advertising (Red Sox vs. baseball, or Toyota Sienna vs. family minivans).   Content Advertising requires broader terms to be successful.   Search Advertising requires exact terms (long tail) to be more successful.

Portals:

$10B+ Battle for Display

Portals:
Yahoo buys Rght Media ($850M), BluLithimum ($300M)

Google buys DoubleClick ($3.1B)

Microsoft buys aQuantive ($6.1B)

AOL buys Tacoda ($275M), Quito ($300M) to create Plantform A 
Branded Sites create Extended networks:
Martha Steware creates Martha’s Circle

Reader’s Digest, Forbes, Waner Brothers, Blam Media

Ad Neworks:

Category specialty i.e. Travel Ad Net, etc.

Technology specialty -> Behavioral, Contextual

Blogosphere growth remains strong with over120K new blogs being created  every day.
Over 70M weblogs tracked.   

TRENDS:

Display/Content Advertising is the next battleground
Innovation in Self Service
Buyers and Sellers become traders

ADSDAQ Advertiser PPC Self-Serve

Looksmart (Beyond Google):
Search Advertising In an Evolving Marketplace (Jonathan Ewert)
History: Thesis (text based search tools) –> Antithesis (15 search engines / directories), one search adv network (info seek) –> Synthesis (Three “major” SE’s, many search engine networks)

Advertising Networks

Search Advertising Ecosystem:

Consumer Search Engines ->  Search Advertising Networks -> Niche/Vertical Search Engines

What Advertisers Want

EASY: Simple to buy
FAST: Hourly updates and rapid response time (answer the phones)
FLEXIBLE: Planty of targeting, tracking, reporting options
COMPETITIVE: Broad reach at a low price
EFFECTIVE: Solid results and ROI

Ask.com
#4 largest Search Engine
55M unique US users 30% of all US users

70% don’t use MSN
51% don’t use Yahoo
31% don’t use Google

CPC 74% lower than Google
CPA is 60% lower than Google 
Improve Performance Through Targeting & Optimization Tools
   Dynamic Insertion Codes
   Keyword Prospecting Reports
   Run of Category Targeting
38 Targetable Categories
5 cent minimum bid (when used with run of category)

CYCLE OF TRUST
Advertiser & and Pbulisher Engagement, Dynamic/Robust

Microsoft Advertising (adCenter/Live Search)
Led overall conversion rates (3.8%)
Best for:
mass merchants, dept stores, specialty apparel, speciaty home, and cosumer electronics advertisers

Great for targeting by Audience Type

Other Ad Tools:
AdReady.com 

Search Engine Strategies (SES) San Jose – 2008
Panel: Search Economy and Trends 

Secular Growth Trends in Internet Advertising.  Advertising is a $700B industry, Internet advertising is a  $45B industry.    Of which Search Advertising is the faster growing format.
Sean Walsh, VP, Online Marketing, LuxuryLink.com:

Health of the US Economy / Travel Industry as one example (using google insight):
Keyword vacation: peak in 2004, with 20% decline to now.   For the last couple quarters, up to 12% vacancies for luxury hotel bookings i.e. Phoenix 12%, Virginia Beach 9%, except for some places like San Francisco is up by less than 1%.

Lodging demand/trend graph from:  calculatedrisk.blogspot.com
Annual consumer Inflation – CI vs SGS trend graph from: Shadowstats.com

The American economy is worse shape than many would have you believe
American consumer demand is entering a decline
70% of GDP is made up of US consumer.   We’re dependent on US consumer to continue purchasing trends.
Heather Dougherty from Hitwise – Market stats (release search volume monthly):
Google has 70% share of searches, 10% of last year. (87 percent globally).
Auto manufacturers = 37.60% traffic from search
Banks = 8.52%

Paid search by industry = Top is retailers (28%), Auto Manuf (26%), Banks & FI’s (15%), Food & Bev Brands(14%)
 
Kevin Lee, Did-It, Click Z editor:
Spending based on marginal profit

Paid PPC Bid Budgets:
Google 74%
Yahoo 24%
MSN 5%
Other 1%

Factors:
Monetization
Click Share
CPC Escalation

Trends:

Contextual Adv.
Mobile? CPC, CPCall, CPM, CPA, CPSMS? (no clear winner but possibilities)”
Real time advertising (cookie/profile driven)

Singh from Spock.com (People Search):
36 people, $8M venture capital from clearstone and Opus Capital
25% growth month over month (powering search)

Market Share / Monthly Volume of Search:
Search Engines = 7B per month
Social Networks = 7B per month
Address Books = 30 B
Content = 1 B
Directories = 2B

People Search is Name + Keyword Driven

People Search Market Share:
Name + Keyword = 35%
Keyword Only = 25% (i.e. Dentist)
Name Only = 45% 

Open Discussion:

Re-targeting + Search Advertising:
Using Search to target people who are ready to buy or who are actively interested (but only limited space to catch attention).   Then using display advertising to target those people with a more robust creative and messaging.   Brand Advertising is experiential.   Search Ads are not conducive to the experience by itself.  It’s hard to attribute to sales for Brand Advertisers / Manufacturers.  Combined/integrated campaign is necessary (Display Ads, with Sponsorships, with Contents, with Search Keywords). 

Brand Advertisers Adopting Search:
Corporate is perplexed what to do with Search?  Will coke advertise on keyword Thirsty???   Search requires creativity, such as buying American Idol or Olympic Athlete names for areas they advertise or sponsor other display Ads.

Spending Trends in Spending:
Competition still has reserved spending for PPC
Travel spending = CPC coming down
Mortgage/Financial space =  CPC up, land grab from banks looking for depositors
Overall search volume and spending growing dramatically
More volitility on search volume and client side decision
Some clients spend based % of sales, some are raising based on directly with Search performance
Search efficiencies rising higher than macro economic decline affects (search advertising and performance growing)

 
What if Google bought Yahoo, what is the effect?
CPC prices will go up, because Yahoo’s CPC traffic will be routed through Google engine.    The open market of bidding will erode when you combine both market spaces together.

Yahoo and MSN will be innovating:
Increase search features and different from Google
Start searches from the applications i.e. email, news, other apps.

Shopping Search Engines:
Target different type of users
Discount / price sensitive user more so than regular search
Some are in discovery shopping (awareness/finding/browsing)
Different ROI on these users (bargain hunters with lower life time value of the customer)
Advertisers can find the long tail and use CSEs for research and real-time trends (added benefit)

 
Agency Tips / Find Trends by:
Client by Client Trends
Industry by Industry Trends

Speakers:
Sean Walsh, VP, Online Marketing, LuxuryLink.com (Discount Luxury Hotels).  Priceline vs eBay for luxury travel. 
Heather Dougherty from Hit Wise
Kevin Lee, Did-It, Click Z editor
Singh from Spock.com
 

Search Engine Strategies (SES 2008)
August 18-21
San Jose Convention Center
San Jose, CA 

 
This is a great conference for beginner marketers wanting to learn more about Search Engine Marketing and Strategies.   This is  NOT geared toward advanced search marketers as much as SMX Advanced does.   However, there are a wide breadth of workshops and sessions as well as several networking opportunities that meet to the need of most marketers and search marketers at many levels.

This is the first and original “Search Engine” marketing conference.   However the founder, Danny Sullivan, has left to focus on more advanced Search Engine conferences (SMX and SMX Advanced).

The SES is a great place to begin your learning of Search Engine Marketing and the industry as a whole.

You can sign up here:

http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/sanjose/

And don’t forget to go to the Google Dance on Tuesday after the show:
http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/sanjose/google.html (this requires you pick up your SES badge first from SJ)

Good luck and have fun!