Marketing Pilgrim Published: "Cup of Joe: You Are Scared And Don't Even Know It" plus 4 more |
- Cup of Joe: You Are Scared And Don't Even Know It
- Shopzilla Says iPads Are the New It Bag
- We Interrupt This Twitter Stream for an Important Message
- Google Responds To FTC With "You're Looking For What, Exactly?"
- The Changing Face of Local Search
| Cup of Joe: You Are Scared And Don't Even Know It Posted: 24 Jun 2011 09:22 PM PDT The video above is titled "People Are Awesome". To be completely honest with you, it should be titled "These People Are Awesome". Because let's face it not all of us are as amazing. But, that doesn't matter because each one of us has extraordinary potential. That's right, each one of us has the potential to do amazing things. The problem is that most of us never reach our full potential to truly realize what we're capable of doing. Now don't get me wrong, this doesn't mean that we aren't happy. The vast majority ofpeople have positive and productive lifestyles but still never grasp their full potential. One of the glaring reasons that we never get close to our true potential is our innate fear. Fear is a natural part of the human experience. But so is nausea. To reach your full potential you must learn to squelch your fears and take risk. It's only common sense that the bigger the risk the greater the reward. Take for example a recent posting on Quora where an anonymous user details his experience of becoming a drug trafficker. Here someone took extraordinary risk and for a brief period of time reaped the benefits. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that we need to break the law or put ourselves in danger, but most of us aren't even willing to take small risk that could have substantial impact on our future. The funny thing about this is that most of us in technology and entrepreneurship fool ourselves into believing that we take a risk on a regular basis but the truth is trying something new such as new technology or social media isn't risk-taking, but rather continuing to do something that we are already comfortable with. Real risk-taking involves confronting obstacles that are both challenging and uncertain. Julien Smith blogged about this:
I think its real important for everyone to realize what Julien is saying above. We need to start being mindful of our own boundaries before we can attempt to break free of them. Because just on the other side of our boundaries, is where real risk occur, and just beyond that, are the rewards.
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| Shopzilla Says iPads Are the New It Bag Posted: 24 Jun 2011 02:04 PM PDT
According to shopping search engine Shopzilla, the iPad is the new "it bag." In other words, it's the trendy, fashionable item that every shopper wants to own. In their recent survey, they found that 6% of shoppers already had a table and 20% were thinking about buying one this year. Here in the US, 12% of consumers already have a device and 25% plan on buying this year. (Count me in that 25%!) When it comes to online shopping with a tablet, 61% said it was as easy to use as their personal computer. That ease of use and the portability is the reason 53% of respondents said they use the device to shop and browse with a friend. Only 27% report co-shopping with a smartphone. We already know how important peer recommendations are in retail, so the fact that people are co-shopping on their tablets is amazing. Another interesting fact to come out of this survey is that 80% of tablet owners see it as added technology, not a replacement for their computer, laptop or smartphone. Rachel Smith, Business Services Senior Director at Shopzilla says:
So while you're developing that app for the iPhone, make sure you have an iPad edition, too. You can download the entire "Trends in Online Shopping: iPads" report for free when you click here. Pilgrim's Partners: SponsoredReviews.com – Bloggers earn cash, Advertisers build buzz!
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| We Interrupt This Twitter Stream for an Important Message Posted: 24 Jun 2011 12:23 PM PDT
Now, rumor has it, that Twitter is looking to insert ad messages into the Twitter stream. Twitter says it's them being bold and where that will lead them is anyone's guess. TechCrunch did an informal survey on the idea and the results weren't as negative as you might expect. Some would like the option of paying for the service in return for having ads shut off, while others see it as a necessary evil. There are, after all, not many free lunches. My feeling? It's okay with me because I probably won't see the ads anyway. Like many people, my Twitter stream already moves too fast for me to keep up with it, so the majority of ads that pop mid-stream will probably go unnoticed. I use HootSuite and the promoted Tweets appear at the top of my stream and I still couldn't tell you what I saw up there this morning. Of course, this is based on the idea that the ad Tweets will be formatted to match the rest of my stream. If they pop-up or blink or do anything wild. . . well, honestly, I still probably won't notice. If Twitter manages to deliver targeted ads on a regular, without being overkill, basis, they could be successful for everyone involved. As a Twitter user, if you don't like the ads, just wait 30 seconds and chances are they'll be pushed off your page by the tenth retweet of a funny thing someone said yesterday.
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| Google Responds To FTC With "You're Looking For What, Exactly?" Posted: 24 Jun 2011 10:13 AM PDT
From the official Google blog:
I particularly like the part about being unclear about the FTC's concerns because the FTC is probably trying to cut as wide a swath as possible to cover as much ground as they want. Why? Maybe it's because they don't want to be shown up by the European Commission and its Google There are several things that this announcement has brought to light. People don't really love a winner – We preach the American Dream all the time but we often look to bring down those who have done the best job of achieving it. There is no real logic to this so I won't try to find any. It just happens that way and it's really too bad. Politics, not common sense, drives all activity from Washington – We are headed into a potentially volatile political cycle in the states. Any activity that can be created to make someone politically look like they are riding in on a white stallion to save the pathetic masses from the big bad corporation will be attempted. There might a stampede of white stallions on this one. I suspect that the likes of Chuck Schumer and Al Franken will be stepping up to the mike about Google's evil empire any day now. Oh joy. Google gets vilified when it should be canonized – I have said this on many occasions in the past and I still firmly believe that the incredible economic crap storm that we are in right now would be much, much worse if it wasn't for Google. The company is not perfect. No company is because it involves human beings (although there are suspicions about that regarding Google but that's for another post). However, the Internet economy has been enabled and has flourished despite the complete incompetence of politicians on both sides of the aisle which has run this economy completely into the ground. If you think it's bad now, imagine if Google had not created this alternate economic model for people to latch onto and be hopeful about. Imagine the steaming pile of dung that this economic climate would be if Google hadn't gotten as big and important as it is? Supporting a candidate doesn't ensure anything – Google was decidedly pro-Democrat in its support during the last election. Appears that the favor bank is looking like the rest of the banks these days; flush with potential but unwilling to give. Monopolies are actually legal – Did you know that? It's not illegal to be a monopoly. It's just how that power is used that is scrutinized under very subjective eyes that want to be re-elected. Google's trouble is that it built the best mousetrap that created incredibly high barriers to entry. Even they struggle with their success. An article today noted how Google struggles with everything breaking at scale. Also, it appears that much of Google's programming is antiquated. That's likely due to the fact that it had to get to scale to be as useful as it is and making changes to the latest and greatest technology mid-stream could bring everything to a grinding halt. they couldn't afford to do that. If you look at from that perspective alone it could very well be that Google is vulnerable even without an FTC probe hanging over their head. There are others behind this – You can't possibly think that Microsoft (or other Google wannabes) hasn't been trying to pull some strings in back room dealings inside the Beltway to get something like this probe off the ground. I have no evidence of that but it makes a lot of sense. So there is so much more to discuss but there will be plenty of time in the interim between this announcement and any findings or charges (if that even happens at all) that are brought against Google. In the meantime, I would suggest we all just go about our business and climb on the back of Google to hopefully ride out this miserable economy. It's obvious that the traditional institutions aren't going to get it done. But hey, what better time to go after one of the few bright spots and try to bring them down a notch? Good thinking FTC! What's your take on the targeting of Google at this point in time? Join the Marketing Pilgrim Facebook Community
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| The Changing Face of Local Search Posted: 24 Jun 2011 08:15 AM PDT
The Evolution Time Warner ran a series of commercials a while back where a nerdy know-it-all sits in his basement and claims to have thought of all of Time Warner's products first. We've all had this experience, but in most cases it's more likely that our idea is the natural evolution of established thought rather than some revolutionary new approach. Chances are someone had already thought of the idea or was thinking of it at the exact same time you were. This has been shown over and over again with inventors creating nearly identical products without any contact with each other (read this funny example of Dennis the Menace). As most inventions are the product of technology and thought which preceded the inventor, so too is the new face of local search a product of that which came before. In the early days of the World Wide Web, most search engines were content with figuring out what pages best matched the intent of the visitor using on-page content and off-page factors like back links. Just creating that core functionality was enough of a challenge and competitive advantage that layering in complex location based results pages didn't really matter. As the search engine industry started to mature and companies like Google, MSN and Yahoo began to take clear leads in the search engine wars, their coffers filled and their ability to use location for search results and advertising also increased. During this period the word "relevancy" was being redefined to include a visitor's geographic location.
What is a local search? Before you can tackle the local search problem, you must first define what local search is. In the early days, local search meant that a visitor had included a city, country or state name in their search phrase. For example, "pool cleaning Austin" would give Austin specific results and "pool cleaning" would give more general information on pool cleaning. As search engines evolved their local search algorithms, they began to classify certain search phrases as local searches even if there were no location based qualifiers in the phrase. For example, most people searching for "tire repair" are probably looking for a nearby business and not a Wikipedia article on tire repair. Armed with this simple concept on relevancy, search engines were equipped to provide a proactive approach to serving quality search results based on locality. What is a local search result? The definition of a local search result has changed quite a bit over the years. In the initial phases of local search, a local search result might have meant something similar to the A, B, C, D, etc. map listings as seen in some Google search results. These local listings were independent of the web sites shown in the organic web results and in Google's case, was tied to a completely separate system of business listings called Google Local (eventually Google Places). This seemed simple enough. Marketers could just optimize their website for old-school search algorithms and optimize their local directory listings with keyword rich titles and descriptions. Optimizing your local listings was so effective; you could be the first search result on a local search phrase in under a day (wish that still worked). As the search engines became more sophisticated with local search so did their results pages. Using Google as an example, the search phrase "pool cleaning" currently returns 4 different types of local search results as illustrated below.
1. Google Places listing tied to an Adwords ad using the "Ad extensions" tab.
What factors influence local search rankings? Okay, let me start with the compulsory "no one really knows all the factors search engines use to rank websites" disclaimer. That being said, there are few key factors that drive rankings across a variety of search engines serving local search results. Generally speaking, all the normal on-page and off-page factors affecting SEO apply to local search. Create good meta titles and descriptions, write compelling content, attract lots of links and make sure you have good penetration on social media linking, sharing and liking. Additionally, you want to optimize the description, categories and other editable text in your local business profiles (e.g. Google Places) to include keyword rich descriptions. Keyword stuff at your own peril. You'll also want to pay close attention to your reviews as the quality of your reviews will affect your ranking. While all the typical warnings about gaming these systems apply, black hat local search optimizers should take note that it is actually illegal to write fake reviews about your own company. Deals, coupons and offers are also a great way to get your local listings noticed and can help you rank higher if only for the benefit of an increased click through rate on your listing; however, the mere presence of offers can arguably have an impact as well. How do search engines know where I'm at? This is the most common question I'm asked about local search and the answer is a combination of ambiguity and Orwellian nightmares. The first method search engines can use to determine your location is through GeoIP. Every IP address in the US is registered through The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN). Each registration includes information about the company who owns the IP address. In some cases this could be your company name and address, but in most cases it's the name and address of your ISP. If you're in the same town as your ISP, search engines can determine your city this way; however, in rural areas the IP address of the local ISPs are actually registered to their upstream Internet providers in nearby cities. I have a client with an office 25 miles north of Austin but Google thinks they're in San Antonio which is 80 miles to the south of Austin. On my iPad 3G Google thinks I'm in Houston. GeoIP is far from perfect. Don't remove your tin foil hat just yet. It's about to get a little creepier. Remember when the AOL search data came out in 2006 and it was supposed to be anonymous? Well it turned out that with a little reverse engineering of the phrases people searched for, you could tell who they were. Guess what? Search engines can do the same thing to you by using things like the statistical patterns of driving direction searches in map applications. Of course they know where you are, you tell them all the time. And while this practice has supposedly been suspended, Google at one point used WIFI sniffers on their StreetView cars. This basically gave them precise longitude and latitude coordinates of hundreds of thousands of networks around the world. #glancing around office looking for hidden cameras# Want to learn more? If you're in Austin on Monday June 27th, catch me at trendy Enzo as I speak about 10 Ways to Attract Local Customers Online.
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