ZEN Fires • Digital

SEO, Social Media & a Three-Legged Elephant

admin — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 23:50:43 +0000

I was lucky enough recently for Georgia State University Robinson College of Business to request an article on today’s state of social media marketing. The article was for their solid magazine, The State of Business. I chose to write on one of my own more common themes. As both a consultant and speaker/instructor, I am often in a position to explain Chris Anderson’s “Long Tail Theory,” or even long tail keywords in search engine optimization (SEO). At this point, I usually enjoy talking to listeners about the last thing they could have guessed – three-legged elephant statues.

Why? Do I enjoy being obscure? Am I just crazy? I’ll let you judge for yourself. But the “method behind my madness” goes something like this: Somewhere in the world today someone collects three-legged elephant statues. Traditional business structures could not have profitably served such a small market. Traditional print directories would have had no way for buyers to search for such a specific oddity.

Enter today’s digital space, advanced search engines and social media. The game has changed. And market segments can be defined to a level as niche as – you guessed it – collectors of three-legged elephant statues. This allows for new business opportunities and marketing strategies and plans.

But enough for the preamble. Ready to read the real deal? See the full article on SEO, social media marketing and the long tail.

Have thoughts on what you read or want discussion? Comment & connect!

Is Local & Mobile SEO Right for You?

admin — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 17:41:01 +0000

One of the increasingly growing trends in today’s online space includes local and geo-location-targeted search (e.g., Google Maps and Yahoo! Local) and mobile apps with location-based technologies (e.g., Yelp and Foursquare). For businesses needing customers around a specific location to succeed, localized SEO can mean the world…

Let’s say a parent lives in your area and is seeking a pediatrician. In a day of her life, she may be waiting at her son’s school with an idle moment. With mobile device in hand, she can look up “childcare provider” in a mobile app like Yelp to see if a doctor or clinic is in the vicinity. Maybe she’ll bookmark the website link, or call them up directly.

So the question is – how badly do you want that customer? The truth is, even if a small company today is listed in local directories and mobile apps, its location info is often wrong and incomplete. Full local profiles can include a host of various contact info and descriptions (with industry-specific keywords and services), photos and directions.

Don’t believe that your market and customers are on tablets or smart phones? Or perhaps think the coverage is sparse in your neighborhood? Guess what – mobile local directories and apps even help drive desktop online local searches. Say there’s a new patient searching for “Greenville pediatrician” in Bing. He can see search results from Yelp or other lesser-known directories. So… customers are there… are you?

Have thoughts on what you read or want discussion? Comment & connect!

Kodak’s New Marketing Approaches

jakeaull — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 13:17:11 +0000

Last night I was pleasantly surprised at the Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association (www.atlantaima.org). Their events and discussions are always good, but I went in somewhat skeptical about a solo speaker representing traditional corporate America. Jeff Hayzlett, CMO of Eastman Kodak, turned out an enigmatic speaker with great message. Here are a few highlights I thought I’d share:

Here’s the New Elevator Pitch: You have 8 seconds to hook me, 110 seconds to sell me (this is your 118; 118 seconds is the average elevator trip in NYC).

Kodak is “emotional technology.” It’s the only technology people will run back into a burning building to save. It strengthens relationships.

A year and a half ago Kodak’s home page looked like a coupon list for Office Depot. Today – it’s a great picture – the home page is about pictures…

Read the book The Goal.

Imaging the conversations that can occur (especially in social media) when you put people in equal standing.

Use Twitter as a source for new product concepts, R&D; product revolutions coming from customer tweets…

Consider the quintessential marketing case study analogy – the buggy whip business. Buggy whip manufacturers hated the coming of the automobile – it put them out of business. Instead they should have realized they were not in the business of an outdated technology, rather, they were in the accelerant business. In this frame are the brand and business opportunities…

Thoroughbreds require more attention. Nags don’t.

Thanks for reading, Jake Aull, www.zenofbrand.com

Social Media in the Enterprise

jakeaull — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 12:05:07 +0000

I’ve been enjoying the eBook Social Media Marketing GPS, written by Toby Bloomberg, a colleague of mine in the Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association (www.divamarketingblog.com, www.atlantaima.org). An intriguing format – the text is entirely pulled from her research interviews with social media experts in Twitter.

What specifically intrigues me now are Toby’s thoughts regarding how “social media impacts the total enterprise.” She spotlights issues, challenges, and multiple points to consider regarding social media in the enterprise structure. She recommends to “include both champions and nay sayers” in the enterprise social media exploration team (p. 15). Good advise – a common issue in new technologies is bias among its champions, often resulting in a blind eye towards early warning signs.

Reading this book for format is unusual resulting from the style of tweets. But it is a natural discussion approach and one we will continue to see more of as social media grows in maturity.

- Jake Aull, www.zenofbrand.com

New Life for Online Image Advertising

jakeaull — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 11:27:15 +0000

Gone are the days of expensive AOL banner ads – today SEM text ads are reigning king (for ease of serve and reporting). Yet it’s difficult to think that image holds a weak place in the web world. As the visual powers of media channels such as Second Life seem to dwindle, image media technologies are still under experimentation for advertisers to find what “sticks.” While all doubt seems quelled regarding the need for company websites, it is the web “spokes” around these hubs that still require exploration.

I recently read an article about the rise of wallpaper advertising. Specifically, the company WeTransfer grants users free file transfer but achieves revenue from wallpaper advertising shown during file transfer (http://www.springwise.com/marketing_advertising/wetransfer/). Meanwhile services such as Google Images and Flickr continue to grow keyword indices of available image for online search results. The greater such libraries grow the more they help the cause of online visual advertising with contextual or semantic relevance to the viewer and reporting to the advertiser.

We are visual people – all integral to evolving the optical experiments of this great online world.

- Jake Aull, www.zenofbrand.com

The Hub & Spoke of Web & Social Media Marketing

jakeaull — Wed, 19 May 2010 03:20:48 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

So many use social media today, but are unsure of the marketing applications. Marketing in the Web 2.0 era means creating a content distribution network or hub and spoke (WebProNewsIn.com). The idea is simple – an online hub such as a website, blog or Facebook page – becomes the principal content and call-to-action for a brand offering. All social media “spokes” and advertisements can drive to each other, but exist foremost to drive the marketing funnel to sales in the hub space. For example President Obama achieved this in his election campaign (KatiePoplin.com).

A well-planned hub and spoke online presence capitalizes and reinforces SEO benefits. It can also be clearer when compared to the alternatives. The Web Strategist blog discusses alternative approaches such as the tire and tower. The tire is where a company’s different social media activities are conducted peripherally – unconnected and without centralization. With a tower, only one company representative or department controls the social media activity. According to the Web Strategist Jeremiah Owyang, the hub and spoke is ideal because it represents different company groups in sync with each other maximizing social media benefits – such as the support department or sales conducting their communications while referring readers back to the hub for additional information.

How good is your hub and spoke? Optimize and perfect it.

And that’s all I spoke.

Like what you read? Give it a rating or response! And connect with Jake for networking:

LinkedIn Strategies

jakeaull — Sun, 02 May 2010 02:56:56 +0000

I was fortunate enough to speak at a SCAD Alumni event “Social Media and Self Marketing” on March 25 (to watch the video, visit http://vimeo.com/10530946 or the SCAD Alumni in Atlanta Facebook page). I covered several points, but gave special recommendation to read Sean Nelson’s blog post “Are You a LION, Turtle, HoundDog, or Alley Cat? What’s Your LinkedIn Strategy?” (http://www.communitymarketing.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/12/are-you-a-lion-turtle-hounddog-or-alley-cat-whats-your-linkedin-strategy.html; unfortunately in the discussion I may have misspoken his name). Here are my takeaways of Sean’s well-structured thoughts on LinkedIn strategic communications.

All of us in LinkedIn, whether we know it or not, are operating under a strategy. The better we understand this point, the more we can use our LinkedIn communications to our advantage. For example, LIONs are “open networkers,” those who will connect to anyone, and boast thousands of connections (as if this were the greatest objective of LinkedIn). Turtles on the other hand are the opposite of LIONs. Turtle’s cautiously move forward, connecting only to those they know well and trust. Hound Dogs, yet another category, connect to those they know and wish to know, while receiving LinkedIn invitations from those who promise value potential. The Alley Cats category represents those who invite only strategic connections, but will accept connections from everyone.

By identifying our LinkedIn strategies based on the aforementioned, and asking if these work optimally for us, we can then add more planning intelligence and grow with advancing information. Whether we be marketers, consultants, business owners or creatives, we can identify and enhance our positioning for personal success. We’re all selling some piece of ourselves. LinkedIn can sell our positioning well, whether for life-long career advancement within the walls of greater establishments, or prospecting and sales-cycle build. First-, second- and third-party LinkedIn connections can grant us communications speed and visibility that traditional tactics could not. Further, strategic planning and LinkedIn optimization can give us the successes we crave. So link up!

- Jake Aull, www.zenofbrand.com

Branding – with Staying Power

jakeaull — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 20:06:09 +0000

Consumer behavior today has been tested, pushed, analyzed to the ends. This is indicative of the economic times, and nowhere are such issues as prevalent as in retail – online and brick-and-mortar. As brand promotion and multi-sensory experience have fallen to price promotions, I can’t help but question the validity of short-term thinking. Will brands still come out strong in long-term equity when washed down with fire sales and dollar stores? Can scrutinized A/B testing and shopping cart abandonment truly enrich the customer brand experience and loyalty? On a simplistic level, it seems a past focus on visual merchandising is being replaced with a left-brained pricing focus.

Beyond product-focus, retail has traditionally held a unique place by capitalizing on the emotional engagement of consumers. Certainly we can say that Americans are extremely price-conscious today, but it’s just possible that marketers are forcing customers into that box. Brand loyalty and brand communities are still important. Apple, often cited as an enviable brand with raving fans, has been accused of abandoning its traditional Mac user groups and brand communities to focus on new, churning peripherals’ sales instead.

They say desperate times call for desperate measures. But who wants to fan a brand acting out of desperation? Retail products and brand images at large need to weather this storm by standing tall, deepening the emotional ties between customer and brand – not building the story of the brand that caved under pressure and price promotions.

Have thoughts on what you read? Wish to discuss with me? Comment & connect with me!

Retail Promotions Top-of-Mind

jakeaull — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 10:48:19 +0000

It should come as no surprise that for food retail in recent years, discount stores have been king. While grocers have traditionally been recession-proof, this recession has been a bit of a game-changer. While traditional grocers have suffered, Wal-Mart, Aldi and other discounters have seen gains. Likewise, cross-selling has enabled profitability for the likes of Kroger gas stations (http://www.stores.org/stores-magazine-july-2009/top-100-retailers).

Two major drivers in retail business today include IT and logistics. This is not exclusive to food sellers; such issues pervade retail in general. Ed Stone of Continuum discusses retail’s drive towards CIO leadership (http://www.nrf.com/modules.php?name=News&op=viewlive&sp_id=864&parent_id=948&peer_rev=0&nrf_or=0). Retail has become so numbers-focused, and IT has grown so comprehensive in reporting, that technology can often be the driving voice of decision-making in retail today. This focus on technology and numbers has marketers playing a reactive numbers game themselves. It should come as no surprise in this economy that promotions have focused on price – seemingly driven by customer value. Yet Stone claims marketing is bypassing its honored role; it bypasses brand image value and consequently forces the customer into an analytic, price-driven decision. In this left-brained sterility, emotionally-driven purchasing is gone. Stone asks that we recapture the feeling, the brand essence, and communicate real passion to the marketplace again. After all, if all retail focuses on price, where is the differentiated benefit – are marketers doing their brands justice? Why kill the customer’s mood? At the end of the day – there’s always someone willing to go cheaper…

Fortunately, opportunities may grow for retail emotional promotions and purchasing. According to Troy Carroll (CEO of Intava retail technology; http://www.retailcustomerexperience.com/article/2868/Six-trends-for-in-store-media-in-2010), 2010 trends grow with larger electronic, and interactive, signage in-store. Likewise, mobile in-store interaction becomes more popular. That is, physical stores are providing shopping experience mobile apps, and customers are accessing these while in-store. Now if retailers can just focus on improving the emotional, multi-sensory brand experience with this interactivity as opposed to killing the sale with pricing wars, maybe retail can see real gains again.

- Jake Aull

For additional reading on in-store digital promotions,
http://www.zenofbrand.com/creative_extras/RetailsAroundWorld.htm

Atlanta Integrated Marketing Summit

jakeaull — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 03:19:13 +0000

The other day I attended the Atlanta Integrated Marketing Summit (sponsored in part by the Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association). Here are some takeaways:

If you want to do more with less (increase efficiencies) in Web marketing, add automation.
If you want more effectiveness in Web marketing, add integration.
The traditional marketing model of the 4 Ps assumes information scarcity, and therefore this model is no longer fully applicable.
Web searches are continuously growing for business-to-business.
Search results are continuously listing blogs today because they often capture the long tail.
78% of business decision makers today are reporting less time spent with sales reps. This can be attributed to capabilities of Web search. That is, companies can quickly and easily search for product information without requiring a sales person.
Consumer Web behavior (for example, interests in profiles or demonstrated by search) can show a truer representation of consumer interests than web forms (i.e., how many people are completely honest and thoughtful in web surveys?).
There are more and more disruptive technology tools today enabling marketers to comprehensively profile customers and gather data in databases, coalescing traditional list tools, modern social media profiling and data from crowd sourcing (e.g., Jigsaw).
To sell expertise in B2B, make your website a living, breathing, thought-leadership tool. You can “sell” (or at least require form fill-out for lead generation) some content, but for optimal SEO ranking, you should often change content and give some away free (Michelle McMahon of Ariba).
For good, current theories on Web 2.0, read the book Socialnomics.
Chick-Fil-A provides good, current (award-winning) examples using Facebook and email marketing.
AirTran recently conducted a good, integrated and viral PR campaign (www.markonairtran.com) cross-linking major social media channels (and received a surprisingly high amount of hits on its Flickr account).

Tools to look at: TweetDeck (for syncing social media messages), Foursquare, ringLead (for Web lead gen capture).

Overall I give the summit a good score; it was a success. If you missed it check out the next one.

Want more on what you read? Comment and connect with me!

Image via CrunchBase