22 Mar 2010
I often encounter this issue: Brands have a multi-million dollar campaign running across multiple platforms (print, T.V., web) and a Facebook page that was started then abandoned months ago. Just today I stumbled across some numbers from Emarketer on social media integration in ad campaigns, and it got me thinking about this issue. As you can see, the numbers are so-so, with just 41% of campaigns integrating third party social networking sites. Compare that with the fact that 55.6 million adults in the U.S. visit social networking sites monthly, and you realize there is a serious disconnect going on here.
Fear of the Social
We constantly hear from people who think that getting into the world of social media is a terrifying leap from the traditional media they are used to.
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12 Mar 2010
I had the pleasure of talking with Charlene Li from the Altimeter Group last night – and she brought up the point of how search engine optimization is completely changing.
At the risk of paraphrasing, she basically indicated the importance of optimizing web pages is going away. If you consider how referral traffic is migrating from search engines to social networks, I’d say it’s easy to agree.
Of course, what we are seeing is search engines staying relevant by indexing social content. Case and point: I do a quick search on Google for “iPad” – and what do you know: My friend and business partner, James Clark, shows up on the first page of the search results.
Wow, over 48 million results, and his mug comes up on the first page? Yes, because Google is now recognizing and leveraging the relevance of social connections.
And although the optimization of web pages may be bearing less weight,…
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15 Oct 2009
**This article outlines a personal experience with a client, leading them from search marketing success into social media and word of mouth marketing. To respect their privacy, I will only refer to them as ‘The Client’.**
Five years ago, search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising were only beginning to take shape as legitimate lead generation and marketing strategies. At the time, SEO and PPC were cutting edge marketing strategies – many brands and companies had heard the buzz surrounding SEO and PPC, but were unable to pinpoint strategy or purpose behind it.
Today, SEO and PPC have evolved into common marketing strategies for brands to place their marketing budget. Companies understand the huge opportunities that exist within search marketing for return on investment. Social media, conversely, exists much like SEO and PPC did five years ago. Companies and brands are keen to explore the social media space, but are often…
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01 Apr 2009
Kudos to Peter Hershberg regarding his insight on what social media means to search, along with his explanation on the three evolutionary waves of search.
It seems not that long ago (middle of this decade), I was writing quite a bit about how relevant search results had evolved through Google’s PageRank concept – what Peter refers to as Search 2.0.
And now here we are talking about Search 3.0 – relevance based on personal networks and the filtering of data through online social graphs, ultimately strengthened as more people connect with each other via the web.
When you consider the technology (RSS) supporting the distribution of information or updates within online social networks like Facebook and Twitter – I think we actually began seeing the infancy of Search 3.0 nearly two years ago through Google’s Universal Search algorithm update (see basics of how Google’s indexing changed in image below).
Another glimpse of Search 3.0 could be…
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