@BasilPuglisi

Content & Strategy, Powered by Factics & AI, Since 2009

Visibility Marketing

How Online Customer Preferences and Feedback Has Changed

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It has only been a couple of years since integrated log-ins began to creep into our everyday tasks online. Although it began on a smaller scale, such as the 2008 integration of Yahoo and Google ID’s with Zoho, from this small test in integration preferences, an entirely new beast grew.

Logging in via third party is no longer a delightful surprise in most cases, indeed, the lack of integrated log in can actually deter visitors from signing up, or logging into your site, especially when there are like options elsewhere that have the nifty one-click integration option. This type of log in integration is referred to as a type of social log-in service. Although Google came out strongly by quickly adding early integration for all of their available applications, it seems that the wind in Google’s social log-in services sails may have shifted.

Facebook Takes the Lead

Janrain, a web company that tracks social web data, states that since the first time they began reporting on these statistics in January 2010, Google has been overtaken. During the first quarter of 2011, 35% of users chose to use Facebook as a log-in option over all others. In the last quarter of 2010, the number hung around 27%.

However, this may not be indicative of overall users. When given the option on 350,000 different sites, users will choose not to integrate their Facebook account, but will choose other methods, or manual log-in instead, at a rate of 65%.

How is This Changing the Consumer Voice for Business

It may be difficult to determine who benefits the most, even though this new aspect of social media marketing seems to have perks for all. Social log-ins are appealing to businesses as they can help to personalize content, interactions, and brand awareness. Social log-ins are an attractive option for users who seem to love the feel of interacting with those of whom they make regular, or significant purchases from.

While Urban city guide sites like Yelp give consumers the ability to review products or services of any company on site, it seems most users these days prefer to simply Facebook ‘Like’ a fan page to show their loyalty to brands they enjoy, as well as to gain benefit by keeping more up-to-date on sales, or enjoy social chatter on the latest in the industry.

A recent study showed that while 20% of people claim they prefer to click a Facebook Fan pages ‘Like’ button to show their preference for local businesses, only 13% report being willing to write a review for the same business.

Turning the Tide

Although this may indeed turn the tide a bit on how users will begin to review local businesses, this is certainly not now nor likely to be the end all spot to find all of the pertinent information that users may be searching for.

The same study also showed that 52% of adult users under 35 will still check three or more websites when researching products or services locally or online. The main site still searched is Google at 63%.

At this point, the type of business will still rank high on the users list of what sites need to be searched. While those considering larger purchases may prefer the interaction that Facebook provides, users who may just want to check out how good a restaurants’ dishes are may still prefer the detailed review style of Yelp.

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Small Business Solutions: YellowBot

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YellowBot.com, a company formed in 2006 by Erron Silverstein out of Burbank, CA., aims to connect local businesses with local shoppers. It is a form of free advertisement businesses might want to look into.

Not only can potential customers find businesses in their area, they can read customers’ feedbacks and experiences. It is a peer referral information site, that some say is a combination of Yellow Pages and Yelp.

Their idea is as follows: Let’s not forget, with all the technological advancements, that we still live in the real world. That is where our homes are, where we work and where we shop. Dry cleaner, Veterinarian, car mechanic, smog check station – we want all those to be as close to one another as possible so we can save time. The site helps you pull it all together and share it with the world. When there are enough stories about a place, a clearer picture of the business emerges.

The site is free for searchers and businesses, and it joins a crowded field of similar local web portals, but offers elegant and quick search features and enables the use of Google maps and driving directions. The site has a mobile version as well, so no information has to be written down, the address is on your phone. They have forums oir ideas, announcements and discussions.

There were rumors in May 2010 that they are about to launch a Reputation Tool. Except for one blogger who posted an article about it (including screen shots) there is not much information. They do not mention the Tool on their website and their blog went dormant in June 2010.

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Small Business Solutions: Sponsored Reviews

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Statistic shows that the first page on Google search results brings about 40% click through rate. The sponsored links bring about 50% of the remaining clicks. It is said that most people will change their keyword search rather than go to the second page of the search results.

So, it is very important to try and rank on the first page of Google. One of the methods used to get a higher ranking is the SEO, having articles and posts posted on the internet that contain the keywords you are aiming for, to create more links and rank higher.

Since the Social Media has become a major player in influencing the ranking on Google, many have been searching for a way to increase their presence. One of the ways is to be mentioned on blogs and other social media platforms, but you can’t do it all yourself and sometimes help is available in places you haven’t thought about.

One of the newest trends are companies that will connect you with blog owners so you can pay them to write a review about your product or service, and link back to your site.

One such company is Buyblogreviews.Com which “brings advertisers and bloggers together for reviews on products and services”. They offer to connect the business owner with blog owners that specialize in that niche and get reviewed by professionals, semi-professionals and ordinary bloggers. The connection with the bloggers is done through their site and the bloggers bid for the opportunity to review the product. The site charges 30% of the deal.

Another company is Payperpost.com, which is owned by IZEA Innovation. “Think of it like eBay for sponsored blog posts” they say on their website. Advertisers offer opportunities for blog owners to connect with you, write a review and post it in their blog.

PayU2blog.com is yet another company that offers the same service. Theirs in the only site that says positive reviews are not guaranteed.

Socialspark.com offers an array of services, from connecting the advertiser with the blogger, set link the advertiser wants embedded in the post, choose which blog they want it posted on and measure the effectiveness of the campaign. They work with some Fortune 500 companies as GoDaddy.com, Overstock.com, AmericanGreetings.com and will create a whole campaign for the advertiser around the subject he want to enhance.

A new survey conducted by BlogHer and Ketchum.com found that 20% of women who used social media are motivated to try products bloggers wrote about and 53% of them have bought a product based on blog recommendation. The top three typed of products people look for personal recommendations are consumer electronics, computer hardware and software and movies. Almost half of blog readers read blogs to find new trends or ideas.

Is it legal? Yes. Is it Ethical? Yes, as long as the bloggers posts at the top of the article that this is a sponsored post and the opinions of the blogger are 100% his.

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Small Business Solutions: vSplash

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VSplash.com offers web design for small businesses so they can have an efficient website and a noticeable online presence to be able to reach their potential customers.

 

These are the issues vSplash helps small businesses tackle:

  • The look of the website – The website should be unique and contain 4-12 pages. It shouldn’t look like a template that other businesses use.
  • Some small businesses need e commerce capabilities with an online store that should reflect the kind of business they are running. They will set it up for the business.
  • The interface should be user friendly.
  • Content management system (CMS) allows the business website owner manage the page content.
  • Search Engine optimization (SEO) is important because it influences the online visibility.
  • Domain names and hosting is part of the overall offering.

They offer all those services so your business will be presented in an intuitive manner with ease and enjoyment for the user.

The sites they build are affordable and the customers can have the finished product in a relatively short period of time.

vSplash.com is recognized as one of the leading web design firms in India and is in operation in France, UK, USA, Singapore, Greece, Canada, Korea and UAE. Their customers are companies of all sizes ranging from small startups to large companies who needed a professional internet solution to generate revenue, establish communication channels and streamline business operations. The majority of their clients are from Europe and North America.

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Innovative ways Professional PR People are Using Social Media

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Social Media has become part of every serious advertising campaign, and most PR people have been using it on a daily basis; following and engaging in conversations on different media platforms, checking what the competition is doing and sharing news and information about their products.

Besides the usual advice of how to engage your followers on Twitter: use a friendly tone, answer quickly, make Twitter a place where you give prizes and announce competitions, it is interesting to see what the professionals do to take advantage of what the market has to offer.  What causes their blood pressure to go up and what can we, small business owners, learn from them?

Here are a few tips: –

  • Pay attention to the news. Events happening around the world might trigger some reaction and connection in your mind. Try to tie these events to your product or service. Examples? A celebrity (Elizabeth Taylor) passes away. Is there a way you can tie it in to your clothes line? Jewelry? Make Up? Look at what the New York Public Library is doing, which makes it the number one library on Twitter and Facebook. When JD Salinger passed away, they tweeted many of his quotes and linked them to the corresponding books in the library. Newsweek, NPR Fresh Air and other news sites used the Library tweets and mentioned them as the source.

 

  • Find Freelancers to Tweet for you. Use social Media to find the right people. Example: the tourism department of Rwanda wanted people to tweet for them to increase their visibility as a vacation destination. They started a contest on Twitter for people to get an all-paid visit to Rwanda in exchange for tweets about their visit. More than 80 people joined the contest and 3 won. They posted 448 tweets which were visible to 1.5 million people.

 

  • Create an influencer network. Some PR agencies are using social media to deliver a complete network of influencers as a package deal to their clients – A group of bloggers, opinionated and media savvy who use the product and write about it. They can also be used as a test group for new products. Look at what Child’s Play PR did with a network of Moms.

 

  • The immediacy of social media offers PR people an opportunity to insert themselves when news somehow related to them is posted, just like it happened in SXSW Interactive Festival. They secured coverage on behalf of their clients by showing up at events via Twitter. They have abandoned e mail or phone calls as a favorite means of communication.

 

  • Use mainstay advertisement to increase twitter visibility. Freed Maxick, an accounting firm, used billboards in late 2009 to display updates from the company’s tweets in real time. In 2010 they did it with Facebook as well. That drove many people to follow them on Twitter and made them a reputable company that gives up to date, accurate information.

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Small Business Solutions: Marchex

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Marchex, a company out of Seattle Washington, is a call advertising and analyzing company, which caters to small businesses to help them in marketing and sales. Where are you listed? Have you optimized your listing exposure? How accurate is the information?  Those are questions Marchex helps answer. They provide analytics that can compare your business to that of your competitors and give you a quick sentiment view.

Call Analytics

Unlock the DNA of your incoming calls – that is what Marchex is offering their clients. Since those who call a company are more likely to be interested in the products or services they offer, than those who just go to the website, it is an important step in understanding who are the callers and what they are after. Call Mining, using speech transcription and data mining technology, enables business owners analyze those phone conversations to detect caller intent, needs and pain points.

All this so the business owner can optimize his/her marketing campaigns and turn calls into sales. Marchex will watch for keywords and phrases and will show the business owner which ones converted to sales and those who didn’t. By comparing this information, the business owner can determine the channels and ads that are driving the highest number of calls, it can give him/her insight into what the customers really want, how they reacted to certain words and adjust the campaign or sale pitch accordingly.

Marchex customers create a list of topics they want to follow. The data they get from the company shows them how those keywords were used; what topics were discussed, who said what, etc.

Local Leads

Marchex creates, manage sand optimizes advertisement and presence in the major search engines and other online and mobile sources, including their own local websites and directories.

Pay-For-Call/ Pay-Per-click

Another service that Marchex offers to small and medium business owners is called Pay-for-Call Exchange, a performance based call advertising products. The business owner pays only for those calls that ended in a sale. Marchex customers can get expert’s advice, help with strategy, site selection, ad creating, bid pricing and optimization.

Reputation management

Marchex gives small businesses a simple way to manage and improve their online reputation. From over 8,000 online sources, including blogs, microblogs, forums and local searches, they deliver analysis that helps the business owner see and maintain good reputation.

Marchex is even being used by ATT, for more see the following blog.

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Demand Studios and the Impact from Google’s Algorithm Change

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There seems to be some serious back-and-forth about the state of Demand Studios since the Google algorithm alteration. Initial impact indicated that they may have lost ground on the search driven traffic of some of their sites. Citing eHow.com as one of the locations where the change may have triggered a down-turn, Demand Studios initial statement indeed, indicated that even they knew that the new algorithm may have relatively lasting impact on their page views.

Demand Relies on SEO

Demand Media does rely heavily on search engine optimization to boost traffic to their content which is created by over 13,000 freelancers worldwide. So Google’s announcement that its change would impact almost 12 percent of search engine queries, was definitely destined to negatively affect Demands current page views by sheer numbers alone.

With sites like eHow being a large part of their company’s content, often ranking high on search engine queries before the change, and afterwards, there can be little doubt that the effect was in fact, a minor one for them. However, falling stock values are also a cause for concern for Demand. Some searches even provide Demand Studios content ranking higher than before the change.

Google Panda

Continued updates, codenamed Panda, have provided a different viewpoint altogether. Just over a week ago Google enacted the Pandora update worldwide. This time stating that two percent of Google queries in the U.S. would be affected.

Sistrix, a site that had previously released the results of impact on content farms after the first update, also released new information on the Panda change and how it has definitely affected the page views of eHow content. Although in general, the second update was not as search engine query altering as the second, or Panda update, it did land on eHow this time, even though it is rumored that it was actually one of the targets of the first update in February 2011.

Demand Demands Acknowledgement

While admitting a slight decline in search engine traffic on eHow sites due to the recent changed, Demand still insists that the Sistrix numbers are way off. Citing a predicted 2/3rds decline in eHow traffic, Demand reps responded that the numbers were greatly so grossly overstated that they must comment.

Demand CEO Richard Rosenblatt shared with MediaMemo that the relationship it shared with Google was a highly valued and mutually generous one.

They stated their relationship with Google made much sense for many reasons.

  • That they help to fill gaps in Google’s content when other high quality content is not available.
  • That they are the largest suppliers of YouTube videos.
  • That they are a huge Google Adsense partner.

Stating that the current losses are projected to cause them to suffer around 10 million dollars in lost revenue, they are assured that with projected sales this year reaching around $311 million, they do not consider it a substantial, nor a 2/3rds percent loss.

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Did Google Panda Change the Playing Field?

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From time to time, when Google identifies a ‘gaming’ of their search engine results, its engineers open up the algorithms and tweak them, sending shudders in the world of e commerce and Internet advertising. Speculations run rampart until Google launches it to the world.

One such tweak happened lately; in February 2011, Google launched such a change and named it Panda. They called the tweak “A High Quality Sites Algorithms”. It came in reaction to what they call “Content Farms” and the blogosphere immediately filled in the name of one of the biggest player – Demand Media, who was gaining top listings with copied content.

In order to cut on the clutter of results you get from a query, Google is trying to root out the low quality sites either by checking content, enabling users (through a Chrome extension) to block sites from their searches, or by lowering the ranking of copies material. “The net effect is that searchers are more likely to see the sites that wrote the original content rather than a site that scraped or copied the original site’s content.” Said Google’s Matt Cutts.

This changed impacted US sites only until April 11, 2011, when Google rolled this change to all English language queries and made a few changes. Their statistics show the change has impacted 12% of the queries in the United States. Most impacted were Mahalo.com, Wisegeek.com followed by Ezinearticles.com, Hubpages.com, Suite101.com, Superpages.com and spike.com. The gainers were news sources like Reuters.com, LATimes.com, CBSnews.com and information sites like Techcrunch.com, Blogpost.com, Mashable.com and even YouTube.

The new adjustment was meant to take care of a gap in their program that enables a site like eHow.com not only slide down but gain in ranking. Demand Media, the owner of eHow, was immediately impacted.

Some small businesses might have seen a change in their ranking. Google is said to be open to complaints that will be implemented, if found correct.

Online Publisher Association estimated that $1 Billion will be redistributed across the online publishing industry as a result of this change.

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Google Tags Calls it Quits

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It seems as if April 29th will be the last day of existence for Google Tags. If you have ever used Google Maps or Places, you have likely seen the red tags that represent an ad campaign launched by Google in a testing phase about a year ago. This marketing attempt was created to allow business owners to enhance the representation of their businesses on any Google Maps or Places searches. If a viewer was browsing areas near the businesses location, this handy tag not only designated a landmark, but also provided a more detailed look at that business.

What Are Google Tags?

Once clicked on the tag can display a variety of information including:

  • Directions to and from
  • Zoom in and out
  • Street view
  • Save to map options

And even the options to send the tag information via email, GPS, and other car systems. In addition, when viewing Google Maps or Places in full screen, other options on the left-side panel also provide another great looking manner of business advertising by showing users:

  • Thumbnail photos of the location
  • Other nearby landmarks
  • Related Ads to nearby options that directly support the advertised business. I.E. resort sites are likely to show ads for lodging and travel nearby.

While some users appear to be feeling let down by Google for eliminating this advertising option, others are not so sure that they truly benefitted from it in relation to its cost per month of $25 USD to maintain.

Success Stories More Localized

Google had previously provided a video extolling all of the virtues, benefits, and advertising opportunities within their Tag system. Users, most especially those who live in extremely urban areas report that in a very competitive local war with other businesses offering the same services, Google Tags has helped to direct those most locally to their business once users locate their Google Tag on the map.

Why are Google Tags Going Extinct?

Google execs cite the extinction of Tags due in large part to the fact that it was mostly an advertising experiment to begin with. Back in September 2010, it was reported that Google was aggressively pushing their Tag system for advertising. However, in October, they then pulled their ability to utilize the website URL tag option, which suddenly rendered the system a lot less useful. So, in this past week, Google has announced an end to the Tag system.

Google developers then stated ,”We’ve made a decision to shift our efforts toward other present and future product offerings for local businesses, and will be discontinuing this trial. To that end, we’ve now halted new signups and will be working with existing participating businesses over the coming weeks to help them meet their marketing needs with other Google products where possible.”

They also acknowledged that they had learned quite a bit from the Tags trial and that knowledge and understanding would be carried on with them as they strive to find the most accommodating ways to server their users as well as small and local businesses.

We’ve learned a lot from our Tags trial and will take that knowledge into account as we continue to find the best ways to serve users and local businesses alike. Lastly, we want to thank all of the businesses that were part of our Tags trial, and we hope we can meet their advertising needs with one of our existing products.

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Can Virtual Salespeople Increase the Bottom Line?

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With the rise of digital media communications such as video advertising and remote access viewing, another element that has been showing promise for small and large businesses alike is the use of speaking avatars, or virtual spokes models.

SitePal is one of the websites taking advantage of the benefits of speaking avatars for business and education. Their features allow for detailed personalization such as the ability to upload your own photo in which to create the website avatar, as well as over two-hundred and fifty customizable pre-made examples to choose from or build upon.

Users can use their own voices or take advantage of the built-in version. The good news is that voice synthesis, or artificially produced human voices, have greatly improved since the early days of the internet. Instead of the droning monotone of old, voices now include fairly realistic inflections and the highs and lows of natural speech.

This fun and powerful tool has become more common and beneficial as seen on many of the sites that now use SitePal.

Global ranking for Sitepal is at #34,425. While around one-third of the site’s visitors are from the U.S., it is also very popular in Mexico.

LiveFaceOnWeb also offers an element of employing digital salespersons but with a bit of a more realistic slant than the average creatively constructed speaking avatars. LiveFaceOnWeb stands behind their belief that people relate better to real people, so that providing human models for their digital avatars can help to enrich the interactivity of any website.

LiveFaceOnWeb allows users to choose from a selection of live models to represent their services, products or other online opportunities. Creating the finished product gives the individual purchasing the service the ability to customize video length, shot parameters and the type of presentation.

Users will then create a script and submit it, and within a few days they will have a completed advertisement made with, and by, live professionals in their industries. They also offer packages with complete services for those who have little to no experience.

Whether due to these web sites’ ages or because users prefer the animated avatars to the human versions, may still be undetermined but global rankings show LiveFaceOnWeb at #58,595. The sites viewers are predominantly males between the ages of forty-five to sixty-five and older with some college education. 

The Bottom Line

So how can this form of advertising offer any benefits to your business or services website?

  • Results show that placing an avatar or live human communication element on your website’s landing page can greatly reduce bounce rates.
  • Beyond the aesthetic and the ability to keep readers on your page longer, avatars can also supply a marketing nudge by delivering short, precise sales pitches to the visitor while they are simultaneously browsing the text aspect of your site.
  • Digital advertising in this format has also shown to be effective in announcing discounts, specials and bonuses on your products or services that can lead visitors deeper into browsing your product or service line, as well as closer to becoming a new customer.
  • Custom avatars can also be used to help site visitors navigate your site. This can help users who may be interested in your products and services, but are not net savvy enough to navigate other sites that may be more confusing.
  • Personalized Avatars can also be configured to collect contact information from prospective customers before they exit your website. Attaching interactive contact forms help to make this an easy and flexible format for data collection.
  • Call-to-action buttons or prompts can be reinforced by a speaking avatar that makes the visitor aware  them.

A study conducted by Dr. Ralph Wilson, the CEO of WebMarketingToday, analyzed the influence of the speaking avatar against how long visitors spent on his website. The results showed that the speaking character had enormous impact. The average time spent on his site increased by an average of 33% with a 17% increase in page views for each visitor.

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