Recent rumors suggest that Google is moving towards real-time search which would include indexing Tweets.  That means that NOW is the time to look at your Twitter presence.

Google is already indexing tweets just not in real-time, but pages and individual tweets are appearing in search results.

Here's an example:




Here are a few tips to improve search engine optimization with your twitter posts:

1. Choose a good handle
2. Select an account name wisely
3. Make your bio count
4. Spread the word
5. Remember your URL
6. Select the initial characters of each tweet carefully (the first 42 or so become your title tag)
7. Create keyword-rich tweets when possible
8. Optimize for RT (aka retweetability)
9. Shorten those links (and track them)
10. Cut the fat - take the reader to the information they want, don't make them search for it after clicking your link

At Definition 6 we work with businesses and companies to help develop social media strategy and improve social media marketing for our client.  If you are looking for interactive solutions that deliver let us know and we'll be happy to help you take your business to the next level.

Portions of this post have been adapted from an article by Mike Dobbs, read the original post that inspired me here.

Lori Willard, Online Media Specialist here at Def 6, passed along a MediaPost Research Brief that shows that reduced advertising during a recession negatively impacts consumer perception.

According to a new Ad-ology Research study, "Advertising's Impact in a Soft Economy," more than 48% of U.S. adults believe that a lack of advertising by a retail store, bank or auto dealership during a recession indicates the business must be struggling.

Conversly, a vast majority perceives businesses that continue to advertise as being competitive or committed to doing business.
 
Other key findings include:

• 40% of consumers use coupons more now than a year ago

• Most consumers are as willing or more willing to pay more for ‘healthy' or ‘organic' products than they were a year ago

• A ‘deeply discounted price' was the number one factor that would make consumers more likely to purchase a big-ticket item (+$1,000)

• Store websites ranked second only to search engines as the way consumers research products and shop online

Ad-ology summarizes the research by saying:  “It is critical to advertise in the current economic climate, to maintain long-term positive consumer perception of your brand.  Advertising not only assures consumers of a business’ reliability in a soft economy, but it can influence where and what they buy, especially when the ads address concerns about value.”

Definition 6 offers strategy consulting services to help you with your advertising initiatives for the following disciplines: email, SEO, SEM, online media, social media, and mobile.  Don't let your advertising negatively impact consumer perception.

In my continuing research into marketing to the Hispanic consumer, I'm finding great articles from MediaPost that provide good information on why and how to reach this particular audience.  So here is an article by Joseph Kutchera (Why Does Google Send U.S. Hispanics To Foreign Web Sites?) that talks about what Google is doing with search results for the Spanish speaking community and how you can apply similar ideas to your marketing campaigns.

The first thing he points out is that if you search in Google using Spanish words, 50% or more of your responses are going to be for sites outside of the U.S. borders.  So why does this happen and why do marketers miss this target audience?  Kutchera provides the answer.  "Google and other search engines index sites globally while we marketers, agencies and media sellers work within the economic and political borders of the U.S."  When people search using Spanish words and terms, Google is going to return sites that have Spanish content on them.  Does your website have Spanish content?  If you do, you may still be missing out on this audience for a few different reasons.  Kutchera points out the following.  1) Your Spanish site may not be optimized for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) like your English site.  2) Many Spanish speaking Hispanics like to go to sites of their country of origin. 3) Spanish language markets are more likely to spend time on their content, making it more relevant than someone from an English language market who is updating a Spanish language website. 4) U.S. advertisers have been slow to move budgets toward online marketing and therefore not providing the resources necessary to provide the content that is necessary.

So what can you do to reach the Hispanic population:

- Purchase non-U.S. targeted inventory on your search buys along with your U.S. targeted inventory.
- Reach out to Hispanic country-of-origin web sites through ad networks.
- Apply behavioral, contextual, and language targeting to further segment and understand your Hispanic audience.

As a Senior Consultant at Definition 6, an interactive marketing agency with expertise in Web Search Engine Optimization and Search Marketing Consulting, I'm seeing lots of evidence for companies to shift some marketing dollars to specifically target Hispanics in the U.S.  This growing population is getting online at a very fast pace.  There are millions and millions of them out there that could be buying your products or services if they could find you.  Are you willing to let them go to your competitors?  We can help you target them.  We can help you get ahead of the curve.
 

As an Interactive Ad Agency executive I get questions all the time from various people about eMail Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Website Design, Social Media Marketing, and Online Advertising. Often times it is from a frustrated marketing manager who says something like: "My boss doesn't get digital marketing and it is frustrating", so one of the things I try to do is help map digital marketing back to a deep seated belief in the executive mind.

Let's take banking and social media marketing, this conversation came up at Mashable Atlanta, "how can I convince my banking boss that social media is something we should use?"  I asked the marketing manager if her boss believed that banking was based on relationships? And of course, the answer was "yes", then I asked if he was one of those bankers that thought it was important to be a member of the right country club, right business club and school alumni network; And of course, the answer was "yes". Well, then it is very clear to me that the banker was the perfect candidate for social media marketing, because social marketing is about "RELATIONSHIPS" and the banker clearly believes that you need to have a relationship with your customer and prospects. So I pointed out that we should talk to the boss about joinning the best new club in town, "the social media networks" - be it Facebook, LinkedIn, or Affluence, it was the new club where RELATIONSHIPS were made and strengthened.

We will see how the conversation ultimately goes with her boss, but I wanted to share that the technique to selling Interactive Marketing to management is to start where they are and move from there to the digital world. Check out our thoughts at twitter.com/Defintion6 or my personal tweats at twitter.com/mkogon.

I just got a call from a strategic business partner, and as an Interactive Advertising Agency we stay up to speed on most things in the marketplace, and he was calling me from a break at a conference for his company.  As he said hello, I congratulated him on their company raising another round of VC dollars.  He said "Wow, how did you know that?!"  I told him simple; Twitter!  I was a follower of his company's partner account and at the same time they told the company they tweeted about it.  Interactive communications is so fast, that in less than 5 minutes the word was out!  Now this is a great story because they are an eMail marketing partner of ours, he is a long time friend and the news was good.  We talked about what the investment meant to his company and our partnership, we discussed how online ad agency business was continuing to see good growth this year and that 2010 was going to be a great year, and hung up smiling.

Now what if the news had been bad?  What if they had a meeting that was altering the relationship with partners and it was negative?  And someone had tweeted about it? I suspect our call wouldn't have been the same. 

Let's talk about your online interactive marketing and message management.  Do you have a twitter monitoring policy?  Do you have an account?  Do you follow your partners, customers, employees, competitors?  I do, you should too. Website Development is a very small part of being digital, search engine optimization is only a part as is eMail or even PPC. The big parts are listening, monitoring, and watching the ecosystem and being informed as quickly as possible to make decisions as rapidly as possible.  So next time you are with your Interactive Ad Agency, ask them what they know and when they learned it.  You will be amazed at how fast Digital has become.

Here is an article I found about targeting Hispanics with mobile ads and apps.  Why you should target them specifically?  Well, it turns out that many younger generation Hispanics in the US will get their first internet experience on their cell phone, not on a computer.  And some recent surveys have shown that Hispanics are more likely to view mobile advertisements and respond to them than other groups.  One company mentioned in the article is targeting Hispanics by offering English training on their cell phones in exchange for them watching a short 2 - 3 second advertisement.  With the responses offered up by Hispanics, it can become quite easy to figure out what different demographics are doing and what they respond best to.  Given that Hispanics will be in a better spending position once the recession settles, it seems like a great opportunity now to start planning your mobile campaigns that are directed toward Hispanics.

Definition 6 is an Interactive Marketing company in Atlanta that can help you with your mobile marketing strategies and help you tie them in with application development consulting, web 2.0 applications, email marketing and search engine optimization.  Contact us and let us help you market to this growing community of consumers.

 

At our Interactive Ad Agency we continually help our clients make good decisions regarding their online media usage. Social Media, eMail Marketing, PPC/Paid Search, Search Engine Optimization, Display, Mobile and Video are just the headers of the variety of options available to us. But recently Twitter has been owning the headlines.

 

David Martin, vice president, primary research, Nielsen Online, wrote in a blog post: "People are signing up in droves, and Twitter's unique audience is up over 100% in March."

 

But today I was sent a great article from MediaPost about an online / microblogging / SMS option to reach the masses that might not be the techno elite, but make up the mainstay of consumer America. More spending power and more of the participants in creating UGC for all our social media sites. The company is called Predicto and it is very focused on the celebrity world, think People, US, The View, TMZ, etc. http://www.predicto.com/

 

Between October and December 2008, Twitter had approximately 812,000 unique SMS users, but Predicto Mobile interacted with more than 2.3 million unique users. "We have a mainstream audience, which can help us grow faster," Kathein said. "Our members aren't necessarily the early adopters. Our customer base isn't made up of heavy iPhone users."  The full article can be found at http://bit.ly/M1QQy

 

I think this a great example of how Interactive Marketing is very niche and how you shouldn't fall in love with one channel, because your users might be better served with another channel.

Social Media Strategy is one of the most interesting things we do here at Definition 6, Atlanta Interactive Agency.  The rise of Web 2.0 Applications as commonplace within our daily lives has made Socail Media mainstream.  Sometimes we are asked how can we use social medai to improve search engine optimization and other times we are asked how can make social media fit into an integrated online marketing plan.  But it is a daily topic of conversation and I've found a really good report from destinationCRM.com that talks about a 5 year forecast for social media. The key points from the author, Jessica Tsai citing Jeremiah Owyang, are:

The report breaks down the past, present, and future state of the social Web into five overlapping eras:

1. The era of social relationships: Beginning in the mid-1990s, people signed up for online profiles and connected with their friends to share information.
2. The era of social functionality: As it exists today, social networking is more than just a platform for "friending," but one that can support a broader array of what Owyang calls "social interactive applications." However, identities are essentially disconnected silos within individual sites.
3. The era of social colonization: By late 2009, technologies such as OpenID and Facebook Connect will begin to break down the barriers of social networks and allow individuals to integrate their social connections as part of their online experience, blurring the lines between networks and traditional sites.
4. The era of social context: In 2010, sites will begin to recognize personal identities and social relationships to deliver customized online experiences. Social networks will become the "base of operation for everyone's online experiences."
5. The era of social commerce: In approximately two years, social networks will be more powerful than corporate Web sites and CRM systems, as individual identities and relationships are built on this platform. Brands will serve community interests and grow based on community advocacy as users continue to drive innovation in this direction.

So if we are doing a good job of being Interactive Marketing Strategists to help prepare our clients for the "era of social context" and upgrading our customer's sites to incorporate OpenID and Facebook Connect today. This will help them meet their customers where they are and with what they are doing online today.  I'll talk more about being ready for your customer in some future posts.

A client sent me two articles to react to about online advertising.  The title that I chose for this posting states my position:  I'm not sure why people think that advertising alone should support a website.

The first article is from The Economist and is entitled The demise of a popular but unsustainable business model for the Internet now seems inevitable.  This is one of the best articles I've read that explains the reality of Internet business models, whether realistic or not.  Read the entire article at www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13326158.

Great explanation of the dotcom crash…
Firms sprang up to offer content and services online, in the hope that they would eventually be able to “monetise” the resulting millions of “eyeballs” by selling advertising. Things did not work out that way, though, and the result was the dotcom crash.

…and of the Web 2.0 bubble…
Google’s ability to place small, targeted text advertisements next to Internet-search results, and on other websites, meant that many of the business models thought to have been killed by the dotcom bust now rose from the grave.

….and economical realities.
The idea that you can give things away online, and hope that advertising revenue will somehow materialize later on, undoubtedly appeals to users, who enjoy free services as a result.  Ultimately, though, every business needs revenues—and advertising is not going to provide enough.

The second article is a provocative one entitled Why Advertising Is Failing On The Internet and states that advertising cannot fully support the Internet.  Read it at www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/22/why-advertising-is-failing-on-the-internet/.

Websites need to sell real products, services, information or 'access' to information like TripAdvisor.com.  Or, offer an 'experience' like LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, or World of Warcraft.

It's true that most people don't trust ads, online or offline.  They don't 'want' them or 'need' them.  The Internet allows users to get information from a variety of sources and from sources they trust.

But, no company expecting to maintain market share in today's economic environment is going to say "Stop telling potential customers about us." 

Organic search, paid search and display banners can increase awareness and conversions even in today's climate.  Display banner advertising works because it reaches users where they are on the Internet.  You don't advertise just with your name on the building.  You advertise in high traffic areas, too.

How does Definition 6 ensure that online advertising succeeds for our clients?   First, we're big into collaborative strategy.  How can you differentiate yourself?  How can we build synergy with your other initiatives?  Who should you target with banners?  What should the messaging be?

Bottom line:  Appropriate targeting and messaging still works online.  We go beyond traditional banners; we use rich media to make the experience engaging and interactive.

Business Development Exec, Rhonda Vincent, shares with us the 7 top online marketing trends for 2009…

For online marketers 2009 will be a challenging year, they’ll need to build the basis for future expansion, leveraging social media, emerging technologies and vendor partners who are thinking about their business and find ways to maximize their budgets.  Here are 7 online marketing trends for 2009 that I came across on a ClickZ report:

• Increase customer retention efforts by marketing to your existing customer base – it’s cheaper and more effective because you know who they are and you understand their behavior.
• Create more attractive content – it will engage your customers and will help with your search engine optimization marketing
• Develop targeted marketing campaigns across a variety of mediums…e-mail, text messages, instant messages.
• Leverage online communities such as LinkedIn, FaceBook, Twitter…
• Increase your Web Analytics efforts
• Enhance search marketing advertising to expand across social media, mobile, and local search.
• Continue to integrate distribution channels despite higher cost

Interactive Ad Agencies like Definition 6 can leverage this insight to maximize your spends with the best ROI to get you through this year and still plan for 2010 initiatives.
 

PointRoll hands out nifty little notebooks with the first page filled with Best Practices for Display Banners.  Here's a summary:

1.  Keep the campaign objective and key metrics in mind when designing banners.   Use more than one panel for displaying a lot of info or you want user interaction and engagement.  If direct response is desired, one action-focused panel is most effective.

2.  Banner animation should not be too slow or too fast; the call to action should appear immediately.

3.  Give the user a compelling reason to rollover with a clear, prominent, and relative call to action.

4.  Rollover hot spots should be as large as possible and easy to see.  On most sites, the rollover max spec is 33% of the banner.

5.  All panels should be accessible from any other panel.  Use horizontal hot spots on horizontal ads and vertical hot spots on vertical skyscraper ads.

6.  Ideally, the entire panel should be clickable, and also use a well-defined click button.

7.  Include a "loading" message that appears as the video streams in.  Users with slower connections will know the video is coming.

8.  Use video player controls for optimum usability - pause, play, and volume.

9.  Video should auto play upon user rollover.  Requiring users to "click to play" reduces video plays.

10. After video completes, include compelling, relevant call to action.

More Best Practices for display banner ads are listed at http://www.pointroll.com/best-practices.aspx.

Definition 6 can help you craft your online advertising strategy, whether it is banner ads, organic or paid search, or email marketing.  We negotiate with vendors to maximize your media spend when developing Media Plans that meet your objectives.  We design and build ads and deploy them, working with partners, such as, the search engines and PointRoll.  We do it all!

I have found that the Interactive Ad Agency community and the Online Ad Agency segment is having a good time with this economy.  I say this not because they are immune to economic downturn, but because in a tough economy measuring the ROI is more important than every.

I recently was in a meeting with a client about their SEO results and the focus had come down to "what 5 words matter most?"  That is pretty focused and very on point for a client. We went through with them the top 20 words in terms of search queries, traffic, conversions, and competitiveness. Ultimately we decided 7 words mattered most to their SEO performance and overall ROI for their Search Engine Optimization Marketing plans.
 
What was nice was that the web analytics combined with a detailed SEO approach gave us the tools to make a certain business decision in uncertain times.

Our society has become accustomed to instant access to relevant information within moments of thinking of a question.  Even the slightest curiosity can easily be satiated by launching a web browser and typing a word that seems to represent what you're looking for.  Search engines have been around for ages-- and the way search results appear on a web page hasn't changed a great deal in the last 10 years.   It's still just a page with small paragraphs, underlined links and bolded keywords.  But dramatic improvements in search result relevance have changed the landscape of information pursuit.  What used to be considered "resourcefulness" in the ability to dig up obscure yet valuable information has become the norm, completely accessible to the average computer user.
 
Google has ushered us into this world of information access.  They've trained us to expect to find what we're looking for within the first page of results.  I find it frustrating to even have to read beyond the first few results.  Once you have to click beyond the first page of search results, you are considering whether you might have made a bad choice in what keywords you chose to search for. 
 
So how can you leverage this Google phenomenon in your business?    It's about leveraging the fact that everyone now knows how to use the Google user interface.  What if you were to offer that same familiar user interface to your employees?  They're already trained to form the appropriate "question" to type into the form, you just need to point them to your companies own Google.  Imagine giving users access to SharePoint sites, internal wiki's, company documents or even purchase orders without needing to publish another document explaining how?  How much do you spend on putting together documentation specifically geared to the "lowest common denominator" users?  Thanks to Google's enterprise technologies, you don't have to any more.  You can hook it up, turn it on and turn them loose.

And, people don't just search for web pages containing information.  They even use Google as an internet "quick-launch."   I was perplexed the first time I saw someone Google (yes, it's a verb too) "facebook.com" and click the first link.  Why not type it into the URL field of Firefox?  Because if you Google it, you don't even have to type it correctly.  You can completely botch the spelling and still find exactly what you want.  Furthermore, you don't have to guess on whether it's .NET or .COM or .BIZ and risk accidentally ending up on some unpleasant website that has nothing to do with what you're looking for.

There's another plethora of value and excitement in the Google OneBox features.  Although this isn't quite as well known as Google itself, most people have experienced it before.  You Google "MSFT" and you get the current stock quote for Microsoft Inc.  Or you Google "Weather 30306" and you see the Atlanta weather appear in a small comic-strip form across the top of the search results.  These aren't web pages so how is that information getting up there above the search results?  This is the Google OneBox.  It allows you to connect your enterprise Google Search Appliance to other sources of real-time information - SAP, CRM, ERP, Sales Force, etc.  You can add a connection between your Google Search Appliance and Sales Force to enable you to find contact information that is stored in SalesForce.com, by simply typing in the person’s name or some other associated information.  There are lots of things going on behind the scenes-- XML moving between these systems,   but that doesn't really matter.  The point is that you get your information without having to go into Sales Force.  Read our detailed document on the Onebox to dive into the details.
 
This is starting to sound pretty compelling, right?  For the accounting types, it's not a hard sale as it's going to deliver improved operational efficiency, reduced cost of infrastructure, and reduced complexity of internal data access.  The other half of your organization will be benefiting from the value of information that previously was just not accessible without substantial and cost prohibitive efforts.      Your newest client will find your most recent proposal was right "on the mark"…all because the business development executive was able to find previous RFP responses that your agency has delivered over the last 5 years.     
 
It's hard to imagine areas of your business that wouldn't be affected by implementing such a game changing device.  Definition 6 can work with you to implement Enterprise Search Solutions, helping your company leverage the power of Google Search.    We're certified Google Search Enterprise Partners, trained at Google Headquarters in Mountain view, California.  We have a team of top solutionists that are among the most experienced in enterprise search field.

Sales Marketing Specialist, Dana Long, shares an article on how QSR's and fast-casual restaurants have adopted their own social media strategies...

Giving away freebies in today's economic climate resonates well with consumers -- and huge gains are being made within the restuarant industry by brands who are reaching out to consumers through the use of social media marketing.

There is a recent article on Media Post explaining how restaurant brands can benefit from a social media strategy by incorporating freebies, surveys, polling and even a restaurant locator.  And with the right tools, franchisees can tap into their online social circles in order to market local events through email marketing and other search engine optimization solutions.  Bottom line, online tactics employed at minimal expense lead to massive revenue gains and brand awareness.

Contact online ad agency Definition 6 today to learn how we can help you implement your next social media, SEO or email marketing campaign.
 

An Interactive Media Agency has to pay a lot of attention to a lot of things. So we tend to read, digest, synthesize and retransmit a ton of information. As a result, we get pretty good at dissecting information and applying it against our own customers, lessons learned and next assignments. I found that Matt Cutt's makes some good points and I agree with everything he said with the exception of point 1 about natural search. I think SEO will be something of critical importance and in growing importance in the years to come. Aside from that, I think he is spot on with his comments.

Google's Matt Cutts cited the decreasing importance of rank for any given phrase and other implications. To be successful in 2009, marketers must strive for relevance in paid and natural search. Marketers should also keep these points in mind:

• Natural search ranking reports will tell less of the story and become less important
• Relevancy in PPC ads becomes more important than ever: keywords, ad copy and landing pages should match to boost quality scores and attract attention
• Other ways to instantly boost relevance on the SERPs include:
• Geotargeting for multichannel and local advertisers
• Natural search landing pages, targeting specific people with specific keywords

Key recommendation: Improve relevance in PPC advertising, keyword research and other efforts to dominate SERPs.

As interactive marketing continues to grow in importance, the recommendations above will grow in impact and your interactive ad agency will need to focus on making the dollars you spend, more effective and revenue supporting. I particularly love the recommendations about " keywords, ad copy and landing pages should match to boost quality scores and attract attention" - I think this is a great point of reference for everyone to think about - what happens, before, during and after the click.

There's a good, quick read from Kelly Spors I found online at the Wall Street Journal  called 'Tough Times Call for New Ideas'.  She explains how in the current tough business environment, firms need to develop new ideas, approaches, products and services to stay competitive and stay in business.  There are a few key take-aways from the article:

1. search for new outlets
2. expand your services, offer a wide range of services
3. hit a wider audience

Given the current economic situation, firms need to be proactive to maintain and even grow market share.  "Waiting it out" is not a strategy for success.  Instead, implement new marketing tactics and promotions using rich media advertising, social media marketing and search engine optimization marketing.  Read through our blogs to find out leading interactive agency Definition 6 leverages our experience and expertise to deliver digital solutions to clients in a turbulant economy.

Definition 6 Business Development Exec, Ken Brantley, points out what search engine marketers should know about sorting through social media strategy fads and laying the groundwork for leveraging media and advertisting in the interactive space...

Jennifer Winners, Chief Operating Officer and Social Media Specialist of DISC, Inc., sums it up well in a recent article on VisibilityMagazine.com.  She explains that, up until the era of Social Media,” the internet was largely impersonal, random, and largely intimidating.   It was difficult to know which businesses were legitimate, which sources of information were accurate, and generally who could be trusted.”

There were some key points that I took from the article:
1. Social Media offers tools for people to behave online much as they do offline
2. It’s important to understand which social media tools are the best fit for communicating with your customers
3. Social Media is a loose term for all things “social” on the internet for example: blogs, wikis, video sharing, podcasts, social networking sites, picture sharing, social bookmarking. Social refers to the ability to interact, and Media refers to the tools.
4. Behave with your customers online as you would offline

At Definition 6 we certainly understand that in today’s world, marketing and technology strategies are interconnected.  We leverage expertise in all interactive areas including social media marketing and strategy.  Contact us today or check out some of our additional blog posts on social media to find out how we can help implement and manage your next digital business solution.

As an Interactive Advertising Agency executive one of the things that we have learned is to talk about how "things are different" on the internet.  Certianly interactions in the social medai space are different and web analtics allows us to track differently than traditional advertising.



And from a cost perspective email marketing is very different than direct mail. But it isn't about us, it is about the users. I found these stats interesting.

Generation X (ages 33-44) continues to lead in online shopping:

• 80% of Generation X (33-44) internet users buy products online
• 71% of internet users ages 18- 32 buy products online
• 38% of online teens buy products online
• 56% of internet users ages 64-72 do  
• 47% of internet users age 73 and older buy online

This is According to surveys through 2008 by the Pew Internet and American Life Project and can be found at: www.pewinternet.org

I find these nubmers to indicate that if you are 18 or older you are always more than 50% likely to buy on-line than not and in your peak earning years 80% likely to buy on-line. That to me says that the consumer will buy on line if you make it avaliable - at least better than half the time. Think about that, is a consumer likely to buy from your retail store 50% time if you are in one mall, town, or corner?  Probably, if they see your store, it has things they want and the price is decent (a good reputation helps).

So if you have good search engine optimization, ppc plans, the right amount of online information to engage a buyer and a good reputation witin the social sphere - then you have a 50/50 shot or better. Digital doesn't seem so different at all.