Jason Falls Predicts Google Will Buy Twitter

It is clear that Twitter is a valuable tool for business. WebProNews spoke with Jason Falls, the Principal of Social Media Explorer, who believes the reasoning behind this thinking is a result of the “conversational platform” Twitter provides for business usage. It is for this very same reason that he predicts Google will acquire the microblogging service.

Earlier in the year, Falls predicted that Google would buy Twitter by the end of the year. Although it may not happen within that time frame, he hopes and believes it will happen eventually.

Twitter rose in popularity because people were no longer happy with one-way communication models. They now want the two-way communication that Twitter provides. Falls believes Twitter is evolving back to its original purpose and becoming more of a utility for communications, instead of a platform for marketing. Although Twitter can be used for conversational marketing, Falls said it is more about the actual conversation than it is about marketing a product or service.

On the Twitter home front, it doesn’t appear that the Twitter founders are working to improve the tool and they have yet to find a monetization model. Falls believes they are trying to build a large critical mass in order to sell. He hopes Google will buy it since it is a company that desires to build utilities for people to communicate on.

Government to Regulate Social Web

A growing but controversial trend on the Internet is receiving a great deal of scrutiny from the government. The trend involves paid or sponsored endorsements, testimonials, and more on blogs and various social media sites. The Federal Trade Commission began investigating these practices earlier this year and announced it would release new rules and guidelines to update the current legislation.

As a result, marketers, advertisers, and bloggers alike are all raising concern. Is it necessary for the government to intervene? A problem does exist since consumers are directly affected by paid and sponsored posts, but is government regulation the answer?

Brian Solis, the Principal of FutureWorks, conducted a study on Facebook to explore possible solutions. He found that while most everyone agreed that disclosure was the key to solving the issue, they could not agree on a standard format.

Will disclosure be included in the FTC’s new guidelines? Could these issues be resolved without government intervention?

Since the FTC is expected to release their guidelines at any time, we might not have to speculate for much longer.

Government to Regulate Social Web

The Power of Thumbnails and Images

According to Rebecca Lieb of the ClickZ Network, recent surveys show that video has a greater chance of being clicked if it has a thumbnail or image. These results are evident in the popularity of universal search. Rebecca advises marketers to take these statistics seriously and recommends posting related videos with each new video just as Greg Jarboe suggested.

The Power of Thumbnails and Images

Is SEO Dead?

The stability in the future of search has recently been put into question due to the impact of social media on search. Since people are doing more and more searches on social sites such as Facebook and Twitter, does it mean that social media will eventually replace search engines?

Both Twitter and Facebook have launched real-time search engines within their service offerings, and the major search engines are still struggling to enter the real-time search arena. Heather Dougherty, the Research Director at Hitwise, said:

“I think this [social media] will become integrated as part of search but certainly not circumvent search entirely.”

Based upon this information, it is however fair to say that social media has changed SEO permanently. According to Hitwise data, the number of visits to social networking sites exceeds the number of visits to email sites. As a result, Dougherty suggests that marketers increase their efforts with social media in order to reach their customers better.

How have your SEO efforts changed as a result of social media? What role do you see social media playing in the future of search?

Guarantee Conversions on Your Landing Pages

Given the economic environment we are all living in, businesses cannot afford to not have their landing pages convert. In this video from SES NYC, Tim Ash gives two distinct ways to ensure that they will convert.
1. Apply best practices to it2. Ask your audience
One of the biggest problems Tim sees when analyzing landing pages is a problem with clutter. The business needs to have a clear call to action. Allow the customer to focus on their current transaction and don’t confuse them with too many options. Consider basic usability tips when applying your best practices.
Businesses have to keep up with the current trends and know what their audience wants. It is vitally important to get involved and communicate with the audience. If you give your audience what they want, you will have better results, which translates into more revenue.
On the topic of tools, Tim gives 2 recommendations. The first is Google Website Optimizer. This is a free tool that Google offers which allows users to conduct both A/B split testing and multivariate testing. Tim says it is a very powerful tool that is effective for both beginners and advanced users.
The second tool that Tim recommends is OnDialog. Tim prefaced this solution in an interview with us at PubCon South. OnDialog provides landing page creation software that puts the marketer in control. Tim’s company, SiteTuners has partnered with OnDialog and incorporated its tuning engine technology into their software. The tool allows more tests in parallel and bases data on actual results.

*Traditional Media Vs. Digital Media *

Although we consider ourselves on board and moving with the digital age, there are some areas that are taking longer to evolve. One such area is the transition of traditional media metrics online. Most marketers realize the need to integrate online, but struggle with the actual process.

In many cases, traditional media forms such as television are the easiest option for marketers and advertisers, even if it’s not the best choice. Some may argue that the proper measurement tools are not available, but Erin Hunter of comScore says they do exist. comScore even has a media planning suite for marketers and advertisers that goes beyond traditional measures.

One significant problem with choosing that “easy” form of media is the consumers that could be missed. Many consumers are now fully reliant on the Web. If marketers and advertisers aren’t taking this into consideration, a large part of their demographic is probably being neglected.

What challenges have you encountered in your online efforts? Have you discovered that you were missing out on consumers before you integrated online?

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Truth About Search Engine Optimization

Rebecca Lieb’s The Truth About Search Engine Optimization

Rebecca Lieb’s new book was briefly mentioned in our interview with Kevin Lee. In this video however, we have the entire rundown on her book, The Truth About Search Engine Optimization.

Rebecca describes her book as being “conceptual” as opposed to “geeky.” It contains 51 short chapters with information marketers need to know in order to effectively do SEO.

The book is geared toward marketing managers and chief marketing officers, but Rebecca says that it contains usable information for anyone wanting to be found on the Internet. Rebecca included all the recent hot topics such as social media, video, online PR, and blogs and how they interact with search engine optimization.

Also in the video above, Rebecca discusses the importance of building online communities. Your business not only needs to have a consistent presence on Web, but it also needs to have a consistent presence in the area of social.

Social media has been a running theme at recent shows and it is not going to go away. Leveraging social media and online communities provide more value to your business now than they ever did, due to the economic downturn and marketing budget cuts.

For more information on social and search engine optimization, check out Rebecca Lieb’s book.

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Twitter Exclusively As A Marketing Tool?

The SEO/SEM community loves Twitter. The term “loves” in this sense is used in the strongest possible manner. Guy Kawasaki loves Twitter also, but views it strictly as a marketing tool. His strong stance in this area brought about a large response from attendees of SES New York.

Sage Lewis was among the attendees at the event and expressed some concern about Guy’s position. As he shares in this video, Sage was very excited to attend the keynote address from Guy Kawasaki and hear what he had to say. Even so, he admits that he was surprised by Guy’s message.

As mentioned above, Guy actively advocates Twitter as a marketing tool. His marketing philosophy is to obtain as many followers as possible and to measure success based on retweets.

While Sage respects Guy’s openness and the extremeness of his position, at the same time, he has mixed feelings about it. He does not like that Guy has up to 3 other people tweeting on his behalf and calls it “provocative.” Although there is no concrete measurement model for social media yet, Sage doesn’t know if Guy’s methodology is the correct solution. At this point, the measurement model has to be “home-grown” and based on individual business goals.

Sage isn’t the only one who has mixed feelings about Guy’s use of Twitter. Lisa Barone over at Outspoken Media live blogged Guy’s keynote and expressed some strong feelings toward Guy’s position on Twitter. She also received a large amount of feedback from her readers, some in her favor and others siding with Guy.

Li Evans of KeyRelevance also voiced her opinion on the issue over on SEM ClubHouse. What’s your take on the issue? Do you agree with Guy Kawasaki and his Twitter habits or do you have different feelings?

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SEO Alphabet Soup

A Cup of SEO Alphabet Soup

Often times, the topics at conferences are almost too narrow and the C-level attendees struggle to see the big picture. SES New York tried to solve that problem by dedicating an entire track of sessions to C-level executives and their understanding of the industry.

Amanda Watlington presided over one of those sessions and as she explains in this video, told the attendees how to manage their search efforts strategically. Approximately half of all online marketing spending is being used on search. As a result, Amanda says that conferences within the SEO industry are seeing more attendance from C-level executives and entrepreneurs.

Amanda began her session by differentiating between SEO and SEM. SEO is search engine optimization and is a long-term effort. SEM is search engine marketing and usually refers to short-term campaign efforts. Also, SEM is sometimes used in reference to the industry as a whole.

As if executives and managers didn’t have enough on their plate already, the advent of universal/blended search complicated matters even more. Also, since the search industry is expected to grow even in the down economy, it is more important now than ever for executives to understand how to manage their search efforts.

Just as she mentioned in our interview from PubCon South regarding universal search, Amanda says that SEO must be the visibility manager and not a soloist. It requires that companies broaden their online efforts and embrace video, images, news, maps, local, and mobile.

SEO managers must collaborate with videographers, the public relations team, and content creators to ensure that their SEO efforts are achieving the best results. They need to be aware of current trends and make sure they are capitalizing in those areas.

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SEO Alphabet Soup

Finding SEO Metrics That Matter

Most companies track rankings, traffic, backlinks, conversions, sales, repeat visitors, etc. While those metrics are important, do they honestly reflect your business’s marketing opportunities?

In this video, Mike McDonald interviews Seth Besmertnik of Conductor who shares some important information regarding metrics. He explains that businesses need to look at their overall marketing opportunities in order to understand which metrics they should focus their efforts on.

According to Seth, many businesses are investing a lot of time and money in areas that are not bringing in a great deal of return. He recommends looking at all your keywords, search volumes, potential click-thru-rates, your site’s conversion rates, and your potential average sale price if you’re a retailer. As you examine these metrics closely, your overall marketing opportunity should become apparent.

Seth emphasizes the significance of sharing all the data with the entire company. Successful SEO efforts require involvement from all members of the company. Also, use your data in every way possible. For example, Seth suggests using your paid search data to help with your organic search efforts.

Ultimately, companies need to be able to foresee their full potential, which sometimes requires looking from the outside in.

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Finding SEO Metrics That Matter

Online Video Mysteries Revealed

Why is video so hot right now? According to Greg Jarboe of SEO-PR, the reason people are creating videos right now is because so many other people are as well. It is simply a chain reaction.

In this video from SES NY, Greg discusses several topics and questions regarding video. Monetization is a hot topic surrounding video since many people struggle with it. On the positive side, initial startup costs are feasible for most users and are only going to get better. Remember the Blendtec campaign? They started with $50 dollars and produced 5 videos, which gave them a 700 percent increase in revenue.

Video can be done on a small budget, but ongoing video campaigns can become expensive. Greg says that each video needs to have its own marketing objective and also be monetized individually. He goes on to say that “every video doesn’t have to go viral to be a success.” Whether or not your business meets your objective is the factor that determines success.

Marketing video is another hot area of interest right now. According to Greg, marketers have to realize that video marketing doesn’t follow traditional marketing standards. He also says marketers need to understand video segmentation. The whole world is not your audience. Businesses do not need to attract a mass audience to meet their goals. Instead, they need to determine who their target market is, and then act accordingly.

Advertising and video have had their fair share of differences from the beginning of the online video boom. Greg says the ad’s placement isn’t the challenging issue. However, the relevancy of the ad’s placement is what really matters. Video advertising will get easier and better and Greg indicates that that time is not too far down the road.

All this information and more is featured in Greg Jarboe’s upcoming book, YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day that is set to be published in August.

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Guarantee Conversions on Your Landing Pages

Given the economic environment we are all living in, businesses cannot afford to not have their landing pages convert. In this video from SES NYC, Tim Ash gives two distinct ways to ensure that they will convert.

1. Apply best practices to it
2. Ask your audience

One of the biggest problems Tim sees when analyzing landing pages is a problem with clutter. The business needs to have a clear call to action. Allow the customer to focus on their current transaction and don’t confuse them with too many options. Consider basic usability tips when applying your best practices.

Businesses have to keep up with the current trends and know what their audience wants. It is vitally important to get involved and communicate with the audience. If you give your audience what they want, you will have better results, which translates into more revenue.

On the topic of tools, Tim gives 2 recommendations. The first is Google Website Optimizer. This is a free tool that Google offers which allows users to conduct both A/B split testing and multivariate testing. Tim says it is a very powerful tool that is effective for both beginners and advanced users.

The second tool that Tim recommends is OnDialog. Tim prefaced this solution in an interview with us at PubCon South. OnDialog provides landing page creation software that puts the marketer in control. Tim’s company, SiteTuners has partnered with OnDialog and incorporated its tuning engine technology into their software. The tool allows more tests in parallel and bases data on actual results.

In the above video, Tim indicated that an official announcement regarding OnDialog may take place at SES, so be sure to stay tuned to WPN for an update.

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Speed Up Your Landing Page Testing

Tim Ash always shares the latest landing page optimization news with us, and he didn’t leave us out when he made a big announcement at PubCon South. In this video, Tim reveals a partnership that will make a marketer’s job a lot easier.

SiteTuners.com is partnering with OnDialog in an effort to break down many barriers marketers face. OnDialog offers landing page creation software, which gives marketers complete control. Entirely on their own, marketers can “design, develop, and deploy” landing pages directly from their desktop. The landing pages are then available for immediate use.

SiteTuners has incorporated its very powerful and fully automated tuning engine technology into OnDialog’s software to produce even better results. Marketers can include images, headlines, and remove and update their landing pages. It eliminates any barriers with IT since marketers manage it on their own.

Tim says the product will be in Beta within the next couple of weeks and we can expect a full announcement in a month or so. Stay tuned to WebProNews this week because Mike McDonald will be interviewing Tim at SES New York and we may have an update to the announcement.

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What’s Happening with Social Media and Businesses?

Chris Brogan and Lee Odden have been teased about their striking resemblance to each other, so WebProNews decided to feed to the humor and interviewed them together. Both Lee and Chris are a lot of fun, and they are also very knowledgeable in the Internet marketing industry.

In this video from PubCon South, the two discuss social media and where it fits into marketing. Chris says that we are seeing more and more larger companies embracing social media. There are also many people using social sites because they think they can “get rich quick.” As companies determine how to effectively use social media, Chris predicts the number of “get rich quick” people will rapidly decline.

Lee agrees with Chris’s outlook and points out that companies are now discovering exactly where they are getting the most return and capitalizing in those areas. He says social media has now become a natural part of marketing.

There are however, risks involved in social marketing if companies don’t have a solid plan in place when they start their social efforts. Lee’s company, TopRank Marketing, suggests that companies construct a social media road map, which requires them to identify their audience, behaviors, and specific objectives.

After these factors are determined, companies can decide on what their social strategy is, whether it be blogging or social networks. From there, companies need to choose what tools they are going to use and decide how they will track their success. When measuring progress, Lee says it is important to measure goals in actual conversions and not simply by the number of friends or followers the company acquires.

Chris follows up on that point by explaining the importance of putting the “physical connector” back into social media. The overall marketing plan should contain traditional marketing tactics, which includes a physical side, as well as Internet marketing strategies and social media.

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Getting Top-Rated Content With Blogs and Feeds

As search has evolved, so have searchers. They are no longer looking at corporate websites as the authority, but they are instead looking at their peers and other searchers who have had similar situations to theirs. Searchers want reviews, blogs, and social interaction. So why not take advantage of these free digital assets?

In this video, Sally Falkow of Expansion Plus Inc. explains how the use of blogs and feeds is a very smart strategy for businesses to adopt in this economy because it is inexpensive and gets search results. Also, universal and blended search allows the first page of search results to display all these digital assets. It’s not just ten blue links on the first SERP but blogs, feeds, images, video, news, and so much more.

Research shows that a searcher’s eyes are naturally drawn to an image or video before they look at a regular blue link. In other words, if you are not utilizing these assets then “you are missing an enormous opportunity.”

Sally suggests creating a content strategy that allows you to use digital assets that match your brand image. One method for doing this is storyteller marketing. Sally says, “Every brand has a story.”

Determine what your brand stands for, find out how people perceive your brand, and realize whether or not your brand keeps what it promises to keep. You will find a story somewhere among those answers. Strengthen your story using digital assets and you will be amazed at how your content and brand will rise.

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Profitable Opportunities for CPG Marketers

Although search is more “mainstream” than it has ever been, consumer-packaged-goods marketers aren’t fully taking advantage of their excessive opportunities. Clicks used to be about branded search and paid search, but recent ComScore research shows a tremendous growth in organic search thus emphasizing organic as the best strategy for CPG marketers.

As search engines become more sophisticated, so do the searchers. In the above video from SES Chicago, Eli Goodman, Search Evangelist for ComScore, says 73 percent of searchers are now becoming more specific with their search queries and are looking for information and help. Although these observations strengthen a paid strategy, ComScore is seeing a shift in traffic to social media enhancers such as Yahoo! Answers, Google Blogger, and About.com.

To make the search experience more sophisticated for the user, the CPG sites need to cater to those early on in the purchase process instead of only focusing on product details and where to buy. Users want and need the opportunity to ask questions and have those questions answered.

If searchers have a positive user experience, then they will become repeat customers. Another perk with a producing a positive user experience is getting effective word-of-mouth promotion in return.

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