Search Engine News: Saturday Yahoo rejected a proposal from Microsoft Corp which involved selling Yahoo’s Search Business. Most Yahoo shareholders want Microsoft to buy the company outright have little interest in any partial transaction that involves only Yahoo’s search advertising business.
What does this mean for Internet Marketers, probably not much. We could see an increase in the cost of Pay Per Click, at both MSN Adcenter and Yahoo Search Marketing. We’ll have to wait and see.
Carl Icahn may not have to worry about the Yahoo! severance plan as much as he originally thought. Yahoo is reorganizing and execs are bailing left and right, and they’re not even waiting for a proxy board takeover to make their moves.
Earlier this week came the news that Jeff Weiner was leaving the search company. Now, Qi Lu, Yahoo’s Executive Vice President of Search and Advertising Technology is headed out the door. So is Vish Makhijani, Senior Vice President of Search, is also exiting. Read the rest of this entry »
Well the Search Marketing Expo wrapped up with an incredible amount of participants. This event and the companies participating in the search marketing arena are growing rapidly.
SMX Advanced is a venue for the experienced search marketer who wants to enjoy sessions conducted at a high-level and continue to stay ahead in the fast changing world of search. If you’re fluent in search marketing, SMX Advanced is where you can converse with others who speak your native language.
Some of the top-tier professionals in the search marketing space, Danny Sullivan, Matt Cutts, and Kevin Johnson were among the presenting professionals iterating the changes and advancements in the art and science of search marketing. SMX Advance is offered multiple times throughout the year and in varying cities. You will not be disappointed if you have the opportunity to attend.
Some companies live and die by word of mouth marketing. The relationships the seller builds with the client is transferred to the product or solution offered by the company. Interestingly enough, when a seller parts ways with a company the client often goes with them because the glue the relationship has binding it is that strong.
A multi-level marketing organization (MLM) counts on those relationships, established and newly formed, to build a bond from person to person. But what happens when “someone heard about the product, but didn’t have anyone to buy it from and couldn’t fin the product in stores?”
I asked that question yesterday of Jus International. Jus, as the name would suggest, offers a drink with 23 berries combined into a rich tasting concoction. Based in Boise, they have created buzz that has been heard all the way over in Japan.
So I asked the question quoted above and the answer was they’d have to search for us to find us. Search. They’d have to find a distributor. “How?”, I asked. Search.
Now those not familiar with an MLM may not know this, but a distributor is running their own business much like a franchisee. Their support materials, web site, business cards, training, etc. are created by the corporation. Distributors are prohibited from creating their own web site including blogs, etc. This makes search engine optimization on the organization’s web site all the more important. Quite frankly, if it is not found then their competitor will be,
The net of this post is simple. Regardless of your organization’s construct, scale or method of marketing, getting found is critical to your success.
Disclosure: George Seybold is the interim Chief Marketing Officer of Jus International.
I’ve had the opportunity of late to work with some C-Level executives who seek to employ new media tactics to gain awareness of their products and services. Being an advocate for new media venues. I tend to lean in this direction anyway, but some of these folks are pushing into this venue like a category 5 hurricane.
The reference to a hurricane is deliberate because they effort their way into the space and do not care if they are relevant or if their target audience exists within the community they are aggressing or not.
Contextual Relevance
Communities are formed online by those of like mind. They exist to provide information, validation and entertainment. When businesses begin “efforting” to create a place for themselves in communities, where they are not a natural fit, then they are irrelevant. The product or service lacks relevance in the context of the conversation.
Here’s a scenario. A company makes ear buds targeted a teen demograpghic.. They have a great new product and they are preparing a launch. They decide it is so exciting that they are going to use lots of new media venues to create awareness. The IT department because of their personal exposure recommend Digg, YouTube, Joost.tv, Facebook, iTunes, Second Life, etc,
Immediately the marketing manager takes off like an unstoppable train creating video and audio and articles about this wonderful new technology. The efforting continues as they are actively deployed online. The traffic doesn’t come.
Why?
These communities do not want to be marketed to. They can sniff out insincerity and they will shun that which is not in context.
All is not lost.
New media can be used effectively to promote your product. It simply needs to be above board and in context.
In Digg
Submitting a great product within Digg is fine, but playing the popularity game by notifying all your friends to “Digg it up” is not. Diggers do not like those who will game the system and they will penalize these efforts. Let your product gain ground based on its own merits.
In Facebook and MySpace and ..
Social Networks are great for staying in touch with people. Advertising on these platforms has not been all that successful primarily because the ad units are not placed in context to the subject matter of the page. Think about it this way, if you created a page in MySpace for the product and then sought to “friend” as many people as you could find would you get much response. Look at it form the reverse angle. Would you want to be the friend of an ear bud?
YouTube and Joost.tv and ..
Creating a commercial spot for these venues is expensive. Repurposing a commercial that will be aired on TV for these venues is cheap. If your commercial is “buzz worthy”, by the way you don’t get to decide if it is, but if it is buzz worthy then it will become viral on its own and be distributed beyond your imagination.
Twitter and Pownce and …
It has become very common to announce a new blog post or media spot posted online. One announcement is fine in that you are announcing to your friends so they can go learn more about you. More than one tweet is not acceptable so be respectful of the sheer volume of info these folks are consuming.
Enough on venues, I’ll close on context.
When a consumer is seeking the ear buds or your product, whatever that might be, they will likely begin their search for information within a search engine. Immediately after a product launch the likelihood you will have natural positioning within the search engines is nil. So advertising on the engines is your next best bet. You will get immediate positioning and it offers a means of getting found in context to an active search.
But what about joining the conversation? Well the reality is that you can successfully use the new media spaces to continue telling your story. Use the tools in parallel and allow entry at any singular point. This may look like [search ad > landing page > YouTube video > web site > transaction]. The key is to be visible (search engines), be on point (landing page > YouTube video > web site) and finally make it easy to transact with you. Use new media to tell the story .. perhaps I could have said it all with this one line.
Shoppers actively use the search engines like Google, Yahoo! and MSN Live to find and buy products and services. That is why we offer a wide range of turn-key and cooperative full-service online solutions
Did you hear that thud? That was my head hitting the desk when I stumbled upon xRank. Microsoft has launched xRank into Beta recently. xRank is a celebrity search engine that shows the volume of search activity on celebrities.
So here is my spin.
A young professional knows how to create online buzz for celebrities. This happens on fan sites, MySpace, FaceBook, wherever, and virtually everywhere conversation happens. He / she is solely measured by the gain and the sustainability of the placement on xRank. The downfall to this job is you have to make deals with the filth that is Hollywood. The upside – wealth! This symbiotic business relationship could siphon of loads of cash from the celebrities that are lacking the skills required to own this space.
My advice – go get that money, Microsoft opened a new market just for you!
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer expounded on “Technology – transforming the Marketing Landscape” before the Association of National Advertisers annual meeting last week. But as Microsoft embarks on a journey to cast itself as an ad giant
(the company hopes that in the next decade advertising will account for as much as 25% of its business), he also spoke about the increasingly blurry lines between software and media and advertising and how Microsoft itself is a huge marketer, spending $3 billion on advertising. Mr. Ballmer offered some thoughts on those subjects to Ad Age Digital Editor Abbey Klaassen.
Shares in Google hit a new benchmark of $600, fueled by investor confidence that the Web search leader’s advertising technology will capitalize on new areas of the media industry.
…. From its place as the leading site for conducting Internet searches, Google has branched into Web video with its purchase of YouTube, trod on Microsoft’s turf with e-mail and other Web-based applications, and taken aim at Yahoo’s stronghold in graphical display advertising.
Google has indicted its intention to expand on the type of ads it uses for its search results page.
The ads could include image or video ads in a variety of ways, offering more options to advertisers. Google insists that whatever image and video ads are shown, they will match the type of content you?re searching. So you?re more likely to see an image ad if you?re conducting an image search. The same goes for video. Remaining relevant with these types of targeted ads is a self-proclaimed objective for Google.
Another way in which more rich ads have already been in use is the placement of a Google Checkout icon beside an ad, indicating it as an accepted form of payment. Additionally, Google has displayed a map with an option for directions alongside some text ads. In other recent Google news, the company?s book search options have increased, layering in personal and social options for queries.
