Top Stocks 2014, Best Stock Market 2014, Hot Stocks Investing: 6/30/13

Google+ for Business: 5 Things Marketing Professionals Should Know About Google+

Google+ has been on the lips of every online marketing professional since early 2011. �With a base that has now passed 62 million users�and the integration of Google+ into Google search,�it has become clear that Google+ is here to stay.

As this new social platform continues to evolve it may be difficult to keep up with the latest trends, changes, and tactics for creating an optimized and influential Google+ profile for you and your business. �With recent events and the release of Chris Brogan�s new book �Google+ for Business: How Google�s Social Network Changes Everything� Lee and I thought it seemed a good time to compile some helpful tips of our own and some from Chris’s new book to help professionals take some of the fear and uncertainty out of using Google+.

Author Information in Search Results

I�m sure over the last couple of months you�ve noticed author information included in Google search results. �This feature displays a photo of the author as well as an opportunity to add them to your Google+ circles. �Getting Author information to appear in the search results next to content that you create can be accomplished a few ways.

Google suggests adding your name and your email address to each article or blog post and then verifying that same email address within your Google+ profile. �The other option is a good old fashioned link exchange between the content you create and your Google+ profile. Add a Google Profile button to your site or manually add the link using:�<a href=”[profile_url]?rel=author”>Google</a> and replace the [profile_url] with the long id in your Google+ profile web address. Then make sure you link to the sites that you contribute to from your Google+ Profile in the area called “Contribute to”.�Once you do that, there’s a form you need to fill out.

Google Plus for Search

Many SEO professionals and Marketers were up in arms after last weeks release of Google+ search functionality. �It appears that Google is favoring it�s own content over others. �Google does include information from some networks such as Quora or Flickr, but at this point is excluding popular social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. �What does this mean for marketers?

Take full advantage of these changes and post useufl information on your Google+ profile or company page that are relevant to your business and the business problems of your customers. Engage with others and be useful and interesting so that as many other relevant users of Google+ add you to their circles as possible. The larger your network on Google+, the more likely your content will appear prominently in their search results.

�Where Google+ Fits in the Business Ecosystem�

Outside of the obvious need to have a presence in Google+ for search visibility, there are other good reasons for professionals to leverage the social network. In his book, Chris Brogan expresses that how a company uses Google+ for business is up to them, and that there are many opportunities to consider when building a Google+ strategy. �The suggestions in the book are pretty much best practices for any kind of social network involvement and with all the attention being paid to Google+ the past few months it’s a good time to review. Some of the ways you may want to consider using Google+ for your business or professional online presence include:

CollaborationLearningDiscoveryCommunity BuildingContests & PromotionsCustomer ServiceEngagementListeningReferralsSharing

�The Most Important Part of Your Profile: The Introduction�

Building out your Google+ profile is essential for how people perceive your brand. Google+ for Business puts special emphasis on creating a stellar introduction for Google+ profiles. �The introduction field in you Google+ profile should include:

Professional Experience: �give your potential customers an idea of what it might look like to work with them.Personal Information: this will inform prospects what matters most to you outside of business.Linking: do not stuff your profile with links but be sure to link to outside resources where appropriate.

�Posting to Build Connections�

If part of your marketing strategy is to connect with interesting or influential people, Google+ this is a good way to inspire creativity in your own content. �Some helpful tips for creating content to drive connections would include:

Source information from websites that are not always sources. �Posting interesting information from a more obscure sight is likely to catch the attention of new followers.Original content that takes a different stance from the majority of users is likely to get you some attention.Curiosity drives traffic, share some interesting knowledge that you have about something you care about such as music or film.

There is a wealth of information being created each day on optimizing, creating content, and socializing using Google+. �Over the next few months Google will only continue to roll out changes to their Google+ platform and either by incentive or usefulness, Google+ will grow.

What are your most pressing questions about Google+? Has your business created a page yet? How are you getting your staff on board with Google+ profiles or are you focusing more on your brand page?

Be sure to connect with TopRank Online Marketing on Google+ here.

Steve Jobs At D8: The Search Engine Edition

Steve Jobs’ interview at the D8 conference last night was widely covered and live-blogged. He covered lots of ground, from competing with Android, to rejecting Flash, Apple TV and AT&T’s network. Below I discuss selected (mostly search-related) parts of the lengthy interview.

Putting to rest a very persistent rumor, Jobs said that notwithstanding Android and competition with Google on several fronts, the company wouldn’t be banned or removed from any of Apple’s iDevices. He also repeated a previous remark that Google decided to compete with Apple and not the other way around.

Jobs affirmed, however, that Cupertino won’t be going into the search business or building its own search engine, despite its recent acquisition of the search-like, “personal assistant” Siri.�Here’s the relevant exchange from Engadget’s live blog coverage:

Kara [Swisher]: Are you going to remove [Google] from the iPhone?

Steve [Jobs]: No . . . We want to make better products than them. What I love about the marketplace is that we do our products, we tell people about them, and if they like them, we get to come to work tomorrow . . . Just because we’re competing with someone doesn’t mean we have to be rude. Walt [Mossberg]: So last year we had a company called Siri, a search company…

Steve: I wouldn’t call them a search company…

Walt: Well you bought this search…

Steve: They’re not a search company. They’re an AI company. We have no plans to go into the search business. We don’t care about it — other people do it well.

Regarding Siri not being a search engine, Jobs is both right and wrong in a sense. Siri isn’t a search engine in the technical sense that it has no index. However people might use it like a search engine or in lieu of a search engine.

Jobs also repeated his earlier, provocative statement that people aren’t searching on the iPhone:

Steve: We discovered something — people are going into apps. They’re not just going onto to websites. And people love apps. This is an entirely new thing — they aren’t using search, they’re using apps like Yelp.

In a previous post we unpacked that statement and argued it contained both truth and inaccuracy:

The “search box” has not become the across-the-board driver of the mobile experience in the same way it is on the PC. Yet Jobs also misstates things when he says “search hasn�t happened.”

The Yelp app that Jobs mentions as the exemplar of “non-search” on the iPhone is in fact a local search engine. Many other apps on the iPhone could equally be characterized as vertical search engines; people are using them in a “directional” way to find information. This is search (the consumer behavior) though it’s not happening on traditional search engines.

Yesterday Nielsen released some very interesting survey data about app usage on the major US smartphone platforms. Here’s how the top five apps look on the iPhone, Android, RIM and Other (WinMo, Palm, Symbian):

Only on the Android platform does the Google search app appear in the top five. The more popular (pre-installed) Google Maps app is of course a local search engine. Beyond this people are using the Safari search box (default is Google) on the iPhone. So search is actually happening. But, again, Jobs is correct in saying that it’s not the same phenomenon in mobile that it is on the PC.

In response to an audience question by a Flurry analytics investor, Jobs discussed iAds, rival networks and mobile analytics on the iPhone. Many people have been wondering if Apple was intending to shut other ad networks out of the iPhone. Jobs said “no.”�Other ad networks will apparently be free to operate on the iPhone.

Regarding analytics in particular, Jobs explained that he was upset by violations of Apple’s privacy policy (the transmission of device-specific information) and the publication of details about forthcoming Apple products (namely the iPad) that were going on over at Flurry. He clarified that analytics will be permitted for advertising purposes (i.e., to track performance) but there are more specifics that remain to be determined.

Here’s a video clip of the iAds/analytics discussion:

Jobs also revealed that the concept for the iPad preceded the iPhone. Apple built a crude prototype for an iPad-like device and then decided it could become the basis for a phone:

I had this idea about having a glass display, a multitouch display you could type on. I asked our people about it. And six months later they came back with this amazing display. And I gave it to one of our really brilliant UI guys. He then got inertial scrolling working and some other things, and I thought, �my god, we can build a phone with this� and we put the tablet aside, and we went to work on the phone.

Update: comScore released data showing the top usage categories in mobile. Note the differences between app and browser users regarding search usage. In the app world, search is less often used than by those accessing the internet via a mobile browser.

Google Maps Expands European Biking Directions, Adding Hundreds Of Kilometers Worth Of Bike Paths

Originally launched in beta mode for a number of European countries last year, Google Maps has enabled biking directions for Germany, France, Poland, Ireland, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein. By working with partner organizations, as well as adding hundreds of kilometers of bike paths via Google Map Maker, Google Maps offers European cyclist a number of biking trails, lanes and recommended roads.

A simple search for directions in Google Maps provides users with suitable bike routes along with time estimates that account for the type of road, terrain and course turns. Users can also switch over to Navigation from their Android device and listen to guided directions from their earplugs while on their bike.

�

Google’s Europe blog recommends cyclist try suggested paths, like the historical stage of the Tour de France, a 206-kilometer path from Biarritz to Bordeaux that Google claims is, “…often car-free kilometers close to the Atlantic Ocean, compared to the rather boring 206 kilometers on the N10/A63 which is suggested for cars.”

By clicking on the widget at the top right of the screen, users can turn on the “Bicycling” layer in Google Maps to select trails, dedicated lanes or bicycle friendly roads. Cyclist can also suggest new trails using the “Report a problem” link at the bottom of the maps screen or add new routes to Google Maps using Google Map Maker.

Speaking Events for Remainder of 2007

The big year of 2007 is winding down and there are more than a few conferences coming up. It’s been a busy year for TopRank speaking events with our involvement in the search, direct marketing and public relations industries. Here are our remaining speaking events this year. We hope to see you there:

Nov 1, 2007 – Bulldog Reporter’s PR University – Teleconference
“Boosting Web Traffic: Best New Ways PR Can Supercharge Websites to Drive Investors, Journalists and Customers to Visit Online”

Nov 30, 2007 – Advanced PR Technology Conference – San Francisco, CA
“Press Release Optimization” and “Corporate Site SEO”

Dec 4-7, 2007 – WebmasterWorld Pubcon – Las Vegas, NV
“Public Relations” and “SEO Blogger Panel”

Dec 12-15, 2007 – Search Insider Summit – Stein Eriksen Lodge, Park City UT
“Unified Search – Have You Responded to Capitalize on the Changing Face of Search Engines?”

Google Shopping Beats Amazon Product Ads on Costs, Traffic, Not Conversion Rate [Study]

Google Shopping's shift to paid cost per click (CPC) listings shook the ecommerce world this year, and similarly affected its performance metrics compared to the other comparison shopping engines (CSEs), most notably Amazon Product Ads.

In CPC Strategy's 2012 Ecommerce Industry Report, which analyzed more than 6 million clicks and data from more than 200 advertisers, the two rival engines are broken down based on key metrics such as CPC, traffic, conversion rate, revenue, and cost of sale.

Amazon Product Ads vs. Google Shopping: CPC Rates

Q3 2012 marked Google Shopping first recorded cost per click in the program's 10+ year history, with a $0.30 average CPC. Although Google Shopping is now paid, it's still notably cheaper than Amazon Product Ads.

During Q4, Amazon Product Ads had an average CPC of $0.41 vs. Google Shopping which had an average CPC of $0.31. Google Shopping was 32.5 percent cheaper per click than Amazon Product Ads during this period.

All of the other CSEs excluding Pricegrabber and Become also saw an increase in CPC rates. CPC rates saw a general increase cross the board during the last quarter. Just like merchants, CSEs are now paying for traffic on Google which used to be free.

Amazon Product Ads vs. Google Shopping: Traffic

PLAs drove more traffic than Amazon Product Ads for Q4 2012.

PLA dominated traffic generation for Q4 2013, about 61 percent more traffic than the second highest traffic generating engine, Pricegrabber.

Amazon Product Ads came in fifth place for traffic generation, behind Nextag and Shopping.com.

In Q4 2011 Google Shopping was sending merchants 79 percent of the traffic Amazon Product Ads was sending. In Q4 2012, Google Shopping now sends merchants nearly double the traffic that Amazon Product Ads does, 96.08 percent more.

Amazon Product Ads vs. Google Shopping: Conversion Rates

Amazon Product Ads had the best conversion rates for Q4 2012, notably even beating its own numbers for the previous quarter. As Amazon trends upward, Google Shopping conversion rates are trending downward.

In Q4 2011, Google Shopping had a conversion rate of 3.1 percent. In Q4 2012 that dropped to 2.4 percent, a decrease of 22.35 percent in a year.

Amazon Product Ads, on the other hand, saw the opposite. In Q4 2011 Amazon Product Ads had a conversion rate of 1.8 percent. In Q4 2012 it increased to 2.8 percent, an increase of 57.5 percent in a year.

Amazon Product Ads vs. Google Shopping: Cost of Sale

Amazon Product Ads and Google Shopping are back to back in terms of cost of sale (cost divided by revenue) for Q4 2012, but Google Shopping beats out Amazon for this metric.

Google Shopping was, on average, 32.77 percent more cost-effective for merchants during Q3 and Q4 2012 than Amazon Product Ads.

4 Ways to Make Video Astronomically Better

Are you obsessed with online video? Don't be ashamed, your customers are, too.

If you're like many other businesses, you've been keeping a close eye on online video, wondering how it could fit into your brand's life. You've toyed with the idea of doing a weekly video series. You've created videos of your employees to add personality and humanness your website. And you've looked at those dishwashers you're selling and thought to yourself, “I wonder if we could blow one of these up!?”

Hopefully you've stopped yourself before any large appliances were harmed...

We're all excited about video because of its ability to tell a story, capture attention, and to lead consumers down a specific path. Words can sometimes get lost. Moving messages stick.

But we don't want just any video. We want better video. Video that will set us apart. Below are some tips to help you not only get your feet wet in the world of online video, but to take it further.

1. Stop Only Doing What You've Already Done

We're all creatures of habit. We experiment for a minute, find something that mostly works and then we keep doing it to absolute nauseam.

Or we see the success our competitors have had and hop on whatever bandwagon they're currently riding without taking the time to identify if it's the best strategy for our brand.

The result is video that is absolutely boring and unwatchable to your audience.

Challenge yourself to not get into a routine of video mediocrity. Try new things to find what your audience best responds to. And then keep trying new things:

Try humor.Try straight-talking.Try higher production values.Try lower production values.Try interviews.Try demos.Try real-use situations.Try contrived and fantasy situations.Use your product to blow something up. Or put it back together.Animate your product.Use motion graphics.Build a brand character.

Experiment with the format:

Interview customers.Interview staff.Show products.Show people using your products.Show people abusing your products.Show your products abusing your customers.Put your CEO on camera.Put the intern on camera.Put the guy who empties your garbage cans on camera.

There are so many different routes your online video that you have no excuse for being boring.

2. Test Your Calls to Action

One goal for your video will be to inform or to entertain. It will be to not only attract someone's attention, but to keep it.

But once you have that attention, what are you going to do with it? What's the purpose or the call to action?

This is where so much of online video gets it wrong. They focus their creative on gaining attention and making noise, but not on how they're going to leverage the attention and where they're funneling it toward.

A great example of a brand able to entertain while delivering a powerful CTA is Rainforest Alliance and it's Follow the Frog campaign.

This video won a 2012 Webby for Best Nonprofit Video and, if you've seen it, it's not hard to see why. Sure, the video is quirky and fun, but most important is it delivers a key CTA at the end. It very clearly tells viewers how they can support a healthy planet, outlining the direct actions viewers should take.

When the video ends, you know what to do. You're not left to wonder what your next step is or how you can help. You know. Which is why the video works.

You may not want people to follow the frog, but you probably do want them to do something. You want them to share your story, to contact a service rep, to leave a question in the comments or to download a new ebook. Make sure you're telling them that.

3. Don't Just Stick It On Your Website

Does online video belong on your website? Obviously.

According to Internet Retailer, 52 percent of consumers say watching product videos makes them more confident in online videos. That means a shorter conversion time and happier customers. Two big wins.

But don't just leave the video on your site. Make it mobile and make it shareable.

Did you know that mobile shoppers are three times more likely to click and view online video than desktop or laptop users? It's true. They're also highly likely to share the videos they watch.

As marketers, we want to leverage this kind of behavior and that means creating videos that are designed for these mobile, on-the-go, dominantly social experiences. Create content that is built for being shared on a small screen.

Design for tablet and mobile viewing experiences by allowing text, graphics, and your subjects to appear larger than you might if designed for more traditional screens. Use social buttons and calls to action. Verbally encourage the share.

Add online video to email marketing newsletters to increase engagement, shareability and to drive users back to your website. As an agency, we're using this a lot right for outreach campaigns. When we want to capture attention and drive visitors to a page, we don't create text-heavy emails. We're embedding video and making that plea via more personal approach.

4. Focus On scripting

Want in on a secret? The most important part of your video isn't your production value or even the subject. It's the script.

The script sets the tone for the story. It identifies your customers' pain points, introduces the characters, delivers the WIIFM (What's In It For Me?) and presents the call to action that will solve the problem customers face. It delivers the structure everything else is based on. The script is the magic.

We put a great deal of time and energy into scripting and storyboarding videos we create because we believe that's how we'll deliver clients the best bang for their video buck. The production values don't matter if the story, the message and the structure isn't set from the very beginning. Spend a great amount of time here.

Summary

It isn't enough to incorporate video into your brand. You need great video. What steps are you taking to up your video game and to create a sticky brand?

Image credit: meddygarnet/Flickr

4 Ways to Make Video Astronomically Better

Are you obsessed with online video? Don't be ashamed, your customers are, too.

Hopefully you've stopped yourself before any large appliances were harmed...

We're all excited about video because of its ability to tell a story, capture attention, and to lead consumers down a specific path. Words can sometimes get lost. Moving messages stick.

But we don't want just any video. We want better video. Video that will set us apart. Below are some tips to help you not only get your feet wet in the world of online video, but to take it further.

1. Stop Only Doing What You've Already Done

We're all creatures of habit. We experiment for a minute, find something that mostly works and then we keep doing it to absolute nauseam.

Or we see the success our competitors have had and hop on whatever bandwagon they're currently riding without taking the time to identify if it's the best strategy for our brand.

The result is video that is absolutely boring and unwatchable to your audience.

Challenge yourself to not get into a routine of video mediocrity. Try new things to find what your audience best responds to. And then keep trying new things:

Experiment with the format:

There are so many different routes your online video that you have no excuse for being boring.

2. Test Your Calls to Action

One goal for your video will be to inform or to entertain. It will be to not only attract someone's attention, but to keep it.

But once you have that attention, what are you going to do with it? What's the purpose or the call to action?

A great example of a brand able to entertain while delivering a powerful CTA is Rainforest Alliance and it's Follow the Frog campaign.

When the video ends, you know what to do. You're not left to wonder what your next step is or how you can help. You know. Which is why the video works.

3. Don't Just Stick It On Your Website

Does online video belong on your website? Obviously.

But don't just leave the video on your site. Make it mobile and make it shareable.

Did you know that mobile shoppers are three times more likely to click and view online video than desktop or laptop users? It's true. They're also highly likely to share the videos they watch.

4. Focus On scripting

Want in on a secret? The most important part of your video isn't your production value or even the subject. It's the script.

Summary

It isn't enough to incorporate video into your brand. You need great video. What steps are you taking to up your video game and to create a sticky brand?

Image credit: meddygarnet/Flickr

4 Ways to Make Video Astronomically Better

Are you obsessed with online video? Don't be ashamed, your customers are, too.

Hopefully you've stopped yourself before any large appliances were harmed...

We're all excited about video because of its ability to tell a story, capture attention, and to lead consumers down a specific path. Words can sometimes get lost. Moving messages stick.

But we don't want just any video. We want better video. Video that will set us apart. Below are some tips to help you not only get your feet wet in the world of online video, but to take it further.

1. Stop Only Doing What You've Already Done

We're all creatures of habit. We experiment for a minute, find something that mostly works and then we keep doing it to absolute nauseam.

Or we see the success our competitors have had and hop on whatever bandwagon they're currently riding without taking the time to identify if it's the best strategy for our brand.

The result is video that is absolutely boring and unwatchable to your audience.

Challenge yourself to not get into a routine of video mediocrity. Try new things to find what your audience best responds to. And then keep trying new things:

Experiment with the format:

There are so many different routes your online video that you have no excuse for being boring.

2. Test Your Calls to Action

One goal for your video will be to inform or to entertain. It will be to not only attract someone's attention, but to keep it.

But once you have that attention, what are you going to do with it? What's the purpose or the call to action?

A great example of a brand able to entertain while delivering a powerful CTA is Rainforest Alliance and it's Follow the Frog campaign.

When the video ends, you know what to do. You're not left to wonder what your next step is or how you can help. You know. Which is why the video works.

3. Don't Just Stick It On Your Website

Does online video belong on your website? Obviously.

But don't just leave the video on your site. Make it mobile and make it shareable.

Did you know that mobile shoppers are three times more likely to click and view online video than desktop or laptop users? It's true. They're also highly likely to share the videos they watch.

4. Focus On scripting

Want in on a secret? The most important part of your video isn't your production value or even the subject. It's the script.

Summary

It isn't enough to incorporate video into your brand. You need great video. What steps are you taking to up your video game and to create a sticky brand?

Image credit: meddygarnet/Flickr

Bing Discovers Searches Made During July 4th Holiday Week Same As Any Other Day

What were Bing users searching for leading up to this July 4th holiday? It appears the same as any other day.

Based on Bing’s search records from earlier this week, celebrities remained more popular than American historical figures and Independence Day topics.

After reviewing search logs, Bing found that:

More searches were performed for Kanye West and Kim Kardashian’s new baby girl North West and the upcoming birth of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s child than the birth of our nation.There were more searches for Kate Middleton, Rebecca Black, and, “…even Honey Boo Boo” than the 4th of July.Popular literature titles like Hunger Games, Harry Potter and Twilight received more searches than the Declaration of Independence.

More people searched for George Clooney than George Washington; more for Ben Affleck than Ben Franklin; more for John Mayer than John Adams; and, more for Samuel Adams Beer than American statesman Samuel Adams.

Bing did discover that more people searched for the lyrics to The Star Spangled Banner than less reverent patriotic pop classics like Born in the USA and Proud to be an American, but that’s probably because everyone already knows the words to Born in the USA.

Twitter 'Embedded on These Websites' Test Curates Links Under Tweets

With Twitter being a source of news for so many people, a new feature it’s testing that essentially curates the content behind the topic seems like a logical fit. “Embedded on these websites” is the header for the new functionality that is showing links to articles online that have embedded the tweet.

The Verge cited this is as one step towards a recent announcement by Twitter to cut through all the noise on Twitter, especially when it came to live events or breaking news.

No word on when this feature might roll out officially from Twitter. No doubt Twitter will use some sort of filter to feature only the most trusted sources for curated content.

With this, embeddable tweets offer a new way for certain publishers to gain more exposure on a topic.

Embedded Tweets: Are You Using Them?

Embedding tweets is easier than ever since the announcement of several enhancements to the functionality in January. Embedded tweets allow users to insert interactive tweets within their articles that feature media like photos and video, show real-time retweets and favorites, and give the ability to engage with the tweet right within the article.

Using them is simple. If you see a tweet you like, click on the “more” link and choose “embed”:

Google Alerts Drops RSS Delivery Option

Google has quietly dropped the support to deliver your Google Alerts via RSS.

A warning at the top of the page, for those who had RSS delivery previous set up for Alerts reads:

Google Reader is no longer available. To continue receiving Google Alerts, change to email delivery.

Here is a screen shot:

In October 2008, Google added RSS support for Google Alerts of wWeb search results. Since then it worked very well, that is until Google Alerts in general started to break earlier this year.

For me, losing RSS as an option for delivery of Google Alerts is a big problem. I use it as a method of discovering news on topics otherwise hard to find.

The only alternative is to have all these alerts, which in my case can be hundreds per day, emailed to me. For me, that is not an option. I need the alerts immediately but I also cannot have them in my inbox.

Russia's Mail.Ru Drops Google Search, Launches Own Search Engine

There is a new international search engine on the scene. Mail.Ru, which is also known as My.com, has been serving Google search results for several years but has now dropped Google in order to serve search results with their own new search engine, The Next Web reported.

Rumors abounded last year that the company planned to cancel their Google contract in favor of their own search engine they’ve been reportedly developing for several years. It is believed they recently began serving about 40 percent of Mail.Ru’s search results, while using Google for the remaining 60 percent.

This is definitely a loss for Google since Mail.Ru reaches approximately 86 percent of Russian Internet users every month, although currently it serves only 9 percent of all Russian search queries. Russia also has another search engine, Yandex, which is currently Russia’s biggest search engine.

There are also rumors that Mail.Ru plans to expand to more countries, under their My.com domain, to make inroads in international search markets.

Attention Digital Marketing Director: Read This for Your Social Media Success

You're tasked with launching a social initiative or making social media marketing work. You're given the keys with strong expectations that social will just work for your organization and drive brand awareness and ultimately, sales.

The question: is there really a social ROI? And what can you do about it as the master of the keys to your social media marketing success?

Too often social media is handed off to digital marketing directors or marketing managers who are just too busy to focus on creating and managing an optimal social media brand experience. What happens then is that those social media keys are generally passed on and on to people in the marketing department that seem to have this time to make social work. The handoff is troublesome.

Further, the final person tasked to manage social media most often is not equipped with the knowledge and experience to do it right.

How can you ensure a positive ROI from social media marketing activity with the complexities of resources and related responsibilities? The following steps will help you to solve the social media marketing assignment challenge.

Step 1: Talk to Your Executives About Social Before They Make a Poor Hand-Off

During my recent presentation at SES Toronto, I shared the ways in which executives need to start thinking about social to see the big picture of investing and reaping its rewards. Executives who pay attention to the bottom line need to take the time to plan for social media marketing to ensure positive ROI.

If you're one of the lucky few with a CEO who appreciates the time, thought, and money that goes into social, the conversation should be simple. Once you've shared the insights as to how social media can benefit all areas of an organization and visualize to the executives how this works, then they will be in a better position to hand-off to the right people with instructions to make it work.

Step 2: Prep a Team Before the Hand-Off

Assuming that you're a digital marketing manager, marketing manager, or VP of marketing reading this article, you probably have a team of underlings and a peer team from IT at your disposal. If that is indeed the case, you will want to review these resources and define appropriate roles, support levels, and decision trees.

The key in making a social media marketing team work well is to have buy-in from the right resources. Social media marketing is a huge time investment.

Further, it needs to be done by people with the skills, experience and knowledge to do it well. Make sure you're interviewing people for the team well before a launch.

Step 3: Have a Weekly Content Plan Ready to Roll

In those planning meetings with your future social media marketing team, start to brainstorm first and then write out a weekly content plan. Note that the success of this plan will be measured by the success of the content plan and related engagement, target growth and online brand sentiment.

When thinking about your content plan, think how the content you will create and publish will fit the mission and culture of your organization and the value of the products and services you provide. Think how the content will engage the audience by what type of content they prefer and where, in social media, they digest this content.

Step 4: Carefully Measure the Success of Your Social Media Team

Like any other marketing initiative and related vehicle, measurement is of the utmost importance. It isn't enough to measure success metrics in social, such as likes, fans, followers, connects, subscribers and the like.

Each team member who contributes to your social media program must be audited on a frequent basis. This includes your graphic designer, developer, PR person, publicist, online media manager, web analytics person, social media manager, subject matter experts and bloggers.

If social media marketing isn't your core business, you'll need to do this often. If you do invest heavily in these types of programs, many times it makes sense to bring in a social media consultant to help in the beginning to get things rolling and team aligned appropriately.

Step 5: Ensure Your ROI When Investing Your Money and Time in Social Media Marketing

The question executives always ask about social media marketing is how to measure an effective ROI from related efforts. As a digital marketing director, you need to be constantly aware and measuring success in social.

During the social media set-up phase, you want to make sure that your analytics are set up to measure traffic coming from each social channel. You will also want to make sure that your social media monitoring tools such as Viralheat, Hootsuite, and others are set up to track groups of traffic-driving keywords, just as you would a PPC campaign.

Besides measurement of social analytics, you also need to test your return on investment in your people and outside sources continually.

Summary

The role of the digital marketing director today is more complex than it has ever been and it's only getting more so due to the nature of social media being a 24/7 job. That's why it's crucial for digital marketing directors to plan ahead and constantly have someone qualified on their team to measure the results of related programs and campaigns against the time, effort and spend dedicated to social media marketing.

If you're a digital marketing director, and utilize any of the five steps above, I would love to know your results. To your social media marketing success!

Embedded Video Schema Markup: A 7-Step Checklist for Great Results

Video is hot, hot, hot! This isn't news. Everyone and their brother, mother, and aunt Sally's cousin's sister are shooting and embedding video on their own website.

The entry level to decent video content has dropped drastically in the last few years. I can remember seeing people walking around conferences with Flip cams - now they're just using their iPhone or Android device – and shooting pretty nice video with them.

My passion for Schema markup isn't a quiet one. I've been talking about it for months now, and to be honest, I'm even more passionate than I was when I started.

I see such great results from marking up data in a web page, and I'm excited to see the barrier to entry lower even further. It's becoming simple for even a novice webmaster to add semantic markup to their pages.

So we move forward – and combine these two brilliant marketing methods into a beautiful love story that can help you dominate the search engine results. The "how" is pretty straightforward. Adding Schema.org for embedded videos is pretty simple – just follow this easy tutorial. Be sure you use every piece of the markup you can, including the thumbnail, and be 100 percent sure every line validates by using the Rich Snippet Testing Tool.

Now we get to the beauty part of why this works so well for search. A little case study, if you will.

My partner and I launched our own agency just a few weeks ago. Our website was opened to search engines on June 11. On June 19, I added a video to our blog that was a simple ~3 minute tutorial for small business owners to learn how to add and remove a user from webmaster tools.

On June 30, just 11 days after we published the post and the video, that video is ranking 11th, with a link to our website, not to YouTube. That's a pretty nice coup d'etat! If we look in YouTube, the video ranks third of 9,590 results for the query "Add Users in Webmaster Tools."

The YouTube results rank just below our video page. You can attribute some of this success to the authorship associated with my Google+ and our website being connected correctly. That's an achievable result for any webmaster. Couple solid authorship with good semantic markup best practices, and you achieve solid results.

Here's a checklist of steps to follow to achieve similar results with your embedded videos.

Research a keyword phrase associated with your video's subject. Rule #1: make the phase fit the video – don't mislead a viewer with poor or irrelevant keywords on your videos. Use that phrase in the YouTube title, the file name, the description, and in the same on the post/page where you embed it on your website.Use the Google suggested markup format. Outlined in the tutorial referenced above or in Google's Webmaster Help section. I literally copy and paste the code from this Google page and replace the pertinent information with my own every time I do this!Upload your video to YouTube using every feature available, including the description to showcase what your video is about, why the searcher should choose it, and what they'll learn from it.Embed the video on your page with the semantic markup in place.Test it using the rich snippets testing tool.Log into Google Webmaster Tools and fetch your new page or post as Googlebot, then submit it to the index.Share your new post/page on social networks and with customers and any other relevant audiences.

Has our video received a huge amount of views yet? No. The target audience for this keyword phrase is small, it doesn't get many searches per day, and we really need to break the first page to see significant traffic.

What you can see is the way this video was fast-tracked ahead of 9,500+ possible choices from YouTube – displayed as a result with a link to our website and has given us a fighting chance to gain some qualified traffic from the exercise.

We haven't added our video sitemap to the website yet. That will be the second step in our test to see if that's the piece we need to boost to the first page. We have decided to wait another week to see if markup alone can achieve those results.

Let us know about your semantic video markup success stories in the comments below! I'd love to hear of others achieving solid results using this method!

A Prerequisite for Content Marketing Success – Book Review: Managing Content Marketing

Managing Content Marketing by Robert Rose & Joe Pulizzi

There are certain books that I find myself recommending to folks on our team and to people I meet at conferences over and over again. These are books I purchase multiple copies of (I give them away and they also seem to disappear).

One book in particular that fits this situation is Managing Content Marketing: The Real-World Guide for Creating Passionate Subscribers to Your Brand�by Robert Rose and Joe Pulizzi.

Sure, Robert and Joe are two of the smartest and nicest people I know, but this book really does deserve to be required reading for any organization investing in content to grow their business.

Here’s why:

Simply getting good at creating more content isn’t a strategy. It’s not scalable in a qualitative way nor is it particularly accountable to your customers or your brand. Creating content without building better connections with customers, growing community and inspiring more “subscribers” to your brand is like filling a bucket of sand with a hole in the bottom.

It’s meaningful (not mechanical), scalable and continuously optimized content that wins hearts, minds and wallets on the search and social web.

Without a customer-centric content marketing strategy and plan for organizational structure, responsibilities, process and measurement – investing in content marketing is pure speculation. Managing Content Marketing provides the framework for developing a strategy and the processes needed to be successful at growing community and revenue.

What you can expect to get from this book:

Build a business case for content marketing �- Before you build a business case for content marketing, build a case for innovation in your organization. Get answers to: What’s the need for content marketing and how big is it? What’s the business model for content and what is your differentiating value? What are the risks? ROI is an objective for once you put the business case in action, not the business case itself.>Develop a content marketing strategy – Putting your business case in action means defining brand objectives, customer segments mapped to the buying journey and the content plan that pulls it all together.Create a consistent, engaging and customer centric story��- As I like to say, Facts Tell, Stories Sell, and it’s essential for effective content marketing to tell stories that matter to your specific customer segments in a way that is meaningful for reaching brand objectives.Match the right marketing channels with your message and audience��- Determining the right channels depends on 7 key considerations: situational analysis, channel objectives, the plan for how you’ll be telling your story, metrics, personas, content management process and editorial calendar.Develop an internal and external content marketing workflow��- �Process, tools, logistics, operational considerations and a model that pulls it all together are essential for scalable, meaningful content marketing.Measure and report the results of your content marketing investment��- Measuring the “what” is as important as the “why” with content marketing. A solid framework for measurement will help identify the right measurement approach for your situation. By using an Analytics Pyramid with your content marketing efforts, you’ll be able to provide an array of metrics and insight for your organization, whether it’s awareness, brand engagement, growth in revenue or all of the above.

Managing Content Marketing is under 200 pages making it an easy reference tool that is sure to get dog eared. In addition to the practical and instructional advice, there are case studies and examples to be found�throughout�the book – a testament to Robert and Joe “walking the talk” about storytelling in content marketing.

Other books in this category that complement MCM really well include: Content Rules by Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman, Content Marketing by Rebecca Lieb, Youtility by Jay Baer, The New Rules of Marketing and PR (4th Edition) by David Meerman Scott and of course, Optimize: How to Attract and Engage More Customers by Integrating SEO, Social Media and Content Marketing.

Soon Joe will be releasing yet another book,�Epic Content Marketing: How to Tell a Different Story, Break through the Clutter, & Win More Customers by Marketing Less, so be sure to get it pre-ordered.

Once you consume this and related books, I highly recommend that you check out the Content Marketing World conference coming up in September. Make no mistake: whether you’re working overall digital, interactive, social media, PR, or search marketing – content makes the marketing world go ’round.

Content Marketing World is the largest and most significant event focused specifically on content marketing – chock full of advice from major brand practitioners including Coca-Cola, Hershey, Cisco, Intel, SAP, Kelly Services and many others. I will be there with at least 3 of my team soaking up unique knowledge, best practices and first class networking. �In fact, TopRank is hosting the entire social media and socia/search track with great speakers ranging from Copyblogger’s Brian Clark to content marketer of the year in 2012. Joe Chernov of Kinvey. I hope to see you there as well.

How to Make Money on YouTube: 'Elementary'

YouTube has made a number of recent announcements aimed at helping more than a million YouTube Partners from over 30 countries around the world earn more money from thousands of advertisers who are placing TrueView in-stream ads inside Partner videos. And you don't need to be a member of the Baker Street Irregulars to know, "The game's afoot."

Two weeks ago, YouTube said it will bring advertisers into its Partner Program, which provides video content creators with resources and opportunities to improve their skills, build fan bases, and earn more money. YouTube has already invited American Express, General Electric, Johnson & Johnson, and PepsiCo to participate in the initial pilot program for this new partnership endeavor. The program will kick off in September with a week-long workshop in Los Angeles and the plan is to have 100 brand content partners by the end of 2014.

Lucas Watson, YouTube's VP of Video Online Global Sales, told Anthony Ha of TechCrunch, "By inviting advertisers into our partner program, we hope to give them access to resources and expertise that will help them develop even more compelling and authentic content on YouTube."

A week ago, YouTube released a short trailer announcing the launch of the YouTube Pro Series for emerging content creators. It provides the latest advice from top YouTube Partners on building a sustainable career on YouTube and beyond.

Carla Marshall of ReelSEO observed, "YouTube has previously offered creators guidance via the Creator Playbook and through their online Creator Academy but the new venture looks like it might be more business orientated, offering suggestions how to best monetize a growing audience and cope with the demands and challenges that a successful channel makes on a creator."

And this week, the YouTube Creator Blog shared a playlist from the first YouTube Pro Series. In four videos, Dane Boedigheimer of Annoying Orange, Spencer Griffin of College Humor, Kurt Hugo Schneider, and Elle Walker of WhatsUpELLE talk about "Working with Advertisers." They give advice on pitching an idea, what to include in a contract, how to price a deal, as well as staying true to your audience through the process.

What deductions can we make from what we've observed?

If Dr. John H. Watson asked Sherlock Holmes to draw large conclusions about the YouTube Partner Program from small observations about these recent announcements, the consulting detective would probably reply, "Elementary."

In April 2012, YouTube had more than 30,000 partners in 27 countries around the world. And hundreds of partners were making six figures a year.

Then, the YouTube team updated its partner eligibility requirements across 20 countries where the Partner Program had been launched. Content creators in these countries could quickly become YouTube Partners simply by enabling their YouTube accounts, and monetizing at least one of their videos.

Today, YouTube has more than a million partners from over 30 countries around the world earning money from their YouTube videos. And thousands of channels are making six figures a year.

But, the significant growth in the number of top YouTube Partners who are making six figures a year masks the dramatic growth in the number of YouTube Partners who aren't making that kind of money. There are now close to a million partners who are still trying to build a sustainable career on YouTube and beyond.

That is a large population – larger than the population of Detroit, Liverpool, or Vancouver.

So, the number of advertisers who are using TrueView in-stream ads needs to increase significantly and/or the amount of money they spend on YouTube advertising needs to increase dramatically, or an awful lot of poor YouTube Partners are going to face a hard decision this winter: remain starving artists or look for another day job.

Now, in the long run, this current storm and/or tempestuous season will pass.

The number of video ad views on Google Sites, driven primarily by video viewing at YouTube.com, reached 2,553,208,000 in May 2013, according to comScore Video Metrix. That's up significantly from 1,385,273,000 in May 2012.

So, in the short run, YouTube is providing video content creators with as many resources and opportunities to improve their skills, build fan bases, and earn more money as it can muster.

Now, imagine that Inspector Gregory of Scotland Yard asked Holmes, "Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?" The consulting detective would probably reply, "To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time."

But, Gregory would probably observe, "The dog did nothing in the night-time." And Holmes would probably point out, "That was the curious incident."

So, what is the dog that didn't bark in this current storm and/or tempestuous season?

There are more than a million advertisers using Google ad platforms, the majority of which are small businesses. And there is already a program, Google Engage for Agencies, that helps search engine marketing agencies, web development firms, and online marketing companies master the art of online marketing so they can help their small and medium-sized business clients succeed online.

Eligibility for the program is currently limited to agencies and clients based in the U.S. and Canada. And most of the program's online training courses, webinars, and events are focused on AdWords.

So, why hasn't Google updated its partner eligibility requirements in over 30 countries around the world and/or added more online training courses, webinars, and events focused on what Google calls AdWords for video and/or what YouTube calls TrueView ads?

That is the curious incident. That is the dog that hasn't barked ... yet.

So, what will Google and/or YouTube probably announce next? The answer is: "Elementary."

Facebook Restricts Some Ad Placement to Protect Brand Reputation

In an effort to help advertisers protect their brands, Facebook bid adieu to free-for-all ad placement in groups and pages that might compromise the advertiser's image. Facebook has begun a new review process for ads.

"This process will expand the scope of Pages and Groups that should be ad-restricted. By the end of the week, we will remove ads from all Pages and Groups that fall into this new, more expansive restricted list.

For example, we will now seek to restrict ads from appearing next to Pages and Groups that contain any violent, graphic or sexual content (content that does not violate our community standards).

Prior to this change, a Page selling adult products was eligible to have ads appear on its right-hand side; now there will not be ads displayed next to this type of content."

Facebook said the review will be manual at first, with a more automated process in the future. So, why the sudden change? Facebook made it clear that while these changes "won't have a meaningful impact on Facebook's business, they will result in benefits to people and marketers."

Its blog post read more like an apology than anything else. This is likely due to what we know about significant advertisers suspending their accounts when their ads were shown alongside content the brands didn't like, according to BBC.

"Like any digital platform, we're not going to be perfect but we will be much better," Facebook said. "We'll continue to work aggressively on this issue with advertisers. We are confident the immediate steps we're taking will result in a significantly improved approach to preventing these instances from occurring, and we are committed to making this process work for everyone who uses Facebook."

Google Testing Smartphone Optimized Icons In Mobile Results

Bryson Meunier spotted new mobile icons in his mobile search experience on Google.

He was searching Google on his Galaxy Nexus running Jelly Bean and noticed a new smartphone icon labeled on some of the search results. The icon symbolizes if the web site you are about to click on is smartphone-optimized or not.

Google told us this is a test they are experimenting with to try to “optimize the mobile search experience.” A Google spokesperson said:

We’re experimenting with ways to optimize the mobile search experience, including helping users identify smartphone-optimized sites. We don’t have any more details to share at the moment, but thank you for checking in.

Here is an image captured by Bryson of the new smartphone-optimized icon:

If you are able to reproduce this on your device, please do share with us a better looking and more detailed image of this Google mobile experiment.

Update: Here is a clearer screen shot of the smartphone optimized icon via kagua.biz:

Google: We’re Unlikely To Confirm Current Or Future Panda Updates

What’s that, a Panda Update you just felt? Some believe so. But Google says it is unlikely to confirm that or any future Panda Update, as it has done in the past, because of the new “gradual” rollout infrastructure it is using for Panda Update changes.

Earlier this week at SMX West, Google’s Matt Cutts said a new Panda Update might hit this week, then later said that the update � and future updates � would no longer be apparent as an abrupt change. Rather, Panda changes would roll out over a series of days.

Because of this, Google now says it’s unlikely it will confirm officially if a Panda Update has hit. We were told from a Google spokesperson.

“I don’t expect us to tweet about or confirm current or future Panda updates because they’ll be incorporated into our indexing process and thus be more gradual.”

Until now, Google has confirmed all 24 Panda Updates that have happened, which were:

Panda Update 1, Feb. 24, 2011 (11.8% of queries; announced; English in US only)Panda Update 2, April 11, 2011 (2% of queries; announced; rolled out in English internationally)Panda Update 3, May 10, 2011 (no change given; confirmed, not announced)Panda Update 4, June 16, 2011 (no change given; confirmed, not announced)Panda Update 5, July 23, 2011 (no change given; confirmed, not announced)Panda Update 6, Aug. 12, 2011 (6-9% of queries in many non-English languages; announced)Panda Update 7, Sept. 28, 2011 (no change given; confirmed, not announced)Panda Update 8, Oct. 19, 2011 (about 2% of queries; belatedly confirmed)Panda Update 9, Nov. 18, 2011: (less than 1% of queries; announced)Panda Update 10, Jan. 18, 2012 (no change given; confirmed, not announced)Panda Update 11, Feb. 27, 2012 (no change given; announced)Panda Update 12, March 23, 2012 (about 1.6% of queries impacted; announced)Panda Update 13, April 19, 2012 (no change given; belatedly revealed)Panda Update 14, April 27, 2012: (no change given; confirmed; first update within days of another)Panda Update 15, June 9, 2012: (1% of queries; belatedly announced)Panda Update 16, June 25, 2012: (about 1% of queries; announced)Panda Update 17, July 24, 2012:(about 1% of queries; announced)Panda Update 18, Aug. 20, 2012: (about 1% of queries; belatedly announced)Panda Update 19, Sept. 18, 2012: (less than 0.7% of queries; announced)Panda Update 20, Sept. 27, 2012 (2.4% English queries, impacted, belatedly announcedPanda Update 21, Nov. 5, 2012 (1.1% of English-language queries in US; 0.4% worldwide; confirmed, not announced)Panda Update 22, Nov. 21, 2012 (0.8% of English queries were affected; confirmed, not announced)Panda Update 23, Dec. 21, 2012 (1.3% of English queries were affected; confirmed, announced)Panda Update 24, Jan. 22, 2013 (1.2% of English queries were affected; confirmed, announced)Panda Update 25, March 15, 2013 (confirmed as coming; not confirmed as having happened)

Going forward, we’ll have to make our own call if a Panda update has hit. We’re doing that with the last on the list, Panda Update 25, which we believe has hit.

Comprehensive Guide to Social Media Marketing from Marketingsherpa

Review of the 2009 Social Media Marketing & PR Benchmark Guide from Marketingsherpa

A new�report�on social media has been released�from Marketingsherpa with�Senior Analyst, Sergio Balegno, as lead author. �Over 1,800 marketing and PR professionals responded to the survey resulting in one of the most complete, data supported guides on social media published to date.

There are numerous�books, seminars and “experts” touting social media advice for marketing and PR professionals. Much of that advice is based on experience and even more is based on wishful thinking. This report takes a structured approach to data collection and analysis offering readers the advantage of understanding what works and what doesn’t when it comes to social media marketing and PR.

The guide is unique in that it provides insight for both marketing and public relations and is divided into 5 sections:

Emerging state of social media marketing & PRPlanning for social media with strategic goals and tacticsSocial media and public relationsSocial media metrics and budgetsWeb 2.0 and social media

The guide also includes a special section, “Nine Steps to Social Marketing Success” giving a specific sequence of tasks for marketers and PR professionals to follow, much like a social media blueprint. What’s not to like about practical, “act on it now” advice?

As an Internet marketing agency that has been providing companies with advice on social media advice (starting with business blogs in 2004), there is a particular appreciation for good information sources, especially those driven by data more than theory. An informed customer gets more value from experienced consulting and can often do a better job of implementation.

Social media isn’t something companies “do”, it’s something they “are”.

Speaking of data, the survey results showed that 76% of respondents agreed that social media is changing the way their companies communicate. �Marketers are backing up that perspective with budgets, even during the economic downturn.�In fact, for 2009, social media and email marketing were the only 2 tactics where companies planned on increasing spending.

With social media a hot topic in every major business publication, blog and conference, companies are motivated yet mystified about where the social web fits within their marketing communications strategies. �They’re also wondering whether their companies are a fit for social media engagement. The Marketingsherpa survey revealed that the biggest barriers to social media adoption by companies are a lack of knowledgable staff and the ability to measure ROI.

“Know it alls”, know very little. Interestingly, 2/3 of respondents that have not used social media marketing or PR indicated that they were very or somewhat knowledgeable. Clearly, there’s a disconnect between being familiar with a concept and having expertise to execute effectively.

There’s no such thing as a free lunch. There is a common perception that social media is “free” but the reality is that it’s time consuming, carrying substantial costs for learning curve and labor. �Fixing your own car is free too, but how much sense does it make to figure that out compared to using a manual/guide or better yet, a mechanic?

Many, but not all, situations involving social media are not that different. Effective adoption can be facilitated by companies or consultants that have actual experience and expertise, especially when it comes to developing a social media roadmap.

This notion was supported by the survey which reported that social media specialists are more likely to accomplish goals than in-house teams.��Specifically, social media specialists implement effectively 69% of the time vs in-house marketing PR team 58% of the time.

Easier to measure, harder to get results. Another particularly surprising result from the Marketingsherpa suvey was that the most measurable social media tactics tend to be the least effective. Social media advertising is an example of a highly measurable tactic that has yet to result in substantial ROI. Marketers that are obsessed with tracking social media results quantitatively, often miss the point. They may find themselves using less effective social media tactics simply because they are more measurable in way they are familiar with, instead of emphasizing the relationship, influence and word of mouth capabilities.

Branding loves social media. Survey respondents indicated that achieving branding goals was the most effective use of social media. Reputation, awareness and improving search engine rankings and web site traffic were also rated highly. �Building networks and promoting content within social media channels can certainly result in search engine optimization benefits, but focusing on those outcomes specifically are difficult to sustain.

These insights are the tip of the iceberg in the report and I’d recommend the investment. Between social web participation, research based resources like this report and practical, outside consultants and hands on training like SocialMediaSmarts.com (a workshop offered by TopRank and the national DMA), companies can improve their ability to effectively participate in and gain business results from the social web.

Future Forward - Shifts in the Digital Revolution at #SESLON

In the opening keynote of SES London on Tuesday, "Future Forward - Shifts in the Digital Revolution," Dave Coplin, chief envisioning officer of advertising and online at Microsoft UK, focused on the changing web and the importance of context and identity.

Coplin spoke of the evolution of a digital society. The world used to use search as a gateway to documents kind of like a library, but now it's what he calls a "web of the world" that revolves around the context of a user's people, places, and things. In other words, search is becoming the way of how a user does things rather than find things.

Instead of revealing just the closest sushi places to a user on a mobile device, search should help tap into a user's social networks to provide more granular information, such as a friend's reviews. Or if a disabled user is looking at a map, she should be able to access information useful to her journey, Coplin explains.

We hear a lot about the "Year of the Mobile," Coplin said. While 2013 may once again be called the Year of the Mobile, wonderful things have happened since circa 1998, which was also the Year of the Mobile.

That includes the development of truly personal devices with apps and contacts that are representative of users and that give users the capability to reach into the digital world. In the next five to 10 years, Coplin said he expects the experience to be further transformed, such as the example of a visually impaired man planning a train trip to a museum with his family who is able to access information that makes his journey easier and more efficient.

That means the web of the world should curate an experience based on a user and her schedule, Coplin said.

What's more, the web of the world is powered more by big data. A service like Bing Translator can help a father accommodate his son's nut allergy in a foreign country, which leads Coplin to pose the question, "Why learn a language?" when a user can let technology do the heavy lifting.

When moving beyond the World Wide Web, Coplin said we see what Americans call appification, but apps are all about context. An app enables a Jamie Oliver fan who wants to cook like Jamie Oliver to stay within the context of the kitchen rather than leave to use a search engine on a computer in another part of the home.

But that begs the question of how to serve ads now, Coplin said.

Amazon's welcome back messaging and recommendations for its users are an example of bad personalization. (Although Coplin is quick to add that this less-than-optimal way of doing things is as good as it gets today.) It's bad because identity is important. We all have multiple personalities that are reflected on multiple networks - LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. - to do different things. The brands that understand this can offer better services, Coplin said.

In other words, context is everything. That includes social and environmental context. A search for "sushi" on a mobile device at lunchtime should yield different results than a search from a computer at home at another time of day. The lunchtime search is probably from a user looking for a meal. The latter could be for research or reviews or any number of other reasons. It's all about using context to figure out what users are trying to do, Coplin said. Stitching together the context gives brands a leg up.

We also tend to get stuck on what Coplin calls the "Plateau of Mediocrity." An office worker's memos in 1950 have turned into email today. A personal computer in 1984 still operates in the same basic way in 2013. We still use QWERTY, which was designed to slow down typists to prevent key jams 142 years ago.

That's because we tend to forget about the potential of technology, Coplin said. It's the same thing with banner ads - not much has changed from the banner ads of 1994 and the banner ads of today. Plus, smartphones aren't really smart - they may know where you are, but they don't use that information, Coplin said.

Brands tend to forget the consumer in the middle.

And while sometimes information-gathering can feel intrusive to consumers, expectations change over time. Five years ago, someone who mentioned your tweets in person might have seemed voyeuristic. Today, it's much more common to meet someone who knows you from Twitter and not feel violated. In other words, people change their views on privacy when value is delivered, Coplin said.

What brands must do is reimagine the way they work and embrace natural expectations - like Coplin said his son wanted to do with a microwave to make tea after using voice recognition to operate an Xbox. Adults tend to get jaded and forget to embrace possibility.

Coplin calls marketing a context sport. When thinking about mobile, brands need to look at why a person would be walking around and wanting to interact with a brand, he said.

Brands must also make value explicit and think in more human terms. Marketers who want to make a difference should inject an element of humanity and think about why anyone would want to interact with the brand, Coplin said.

SES London 2013: Day 1

Here's a recap of more live coverage of SES London 2013 Day 1:

SES London: Shifts in the Digital Revolution - Andrew GirdwoodSES London Day 1 – Future Forward – Shifts in the Digital Revolution - Bing Ads BlogSES London Keynote: Future Forward - Linkdex BlogLink Building in a Post Penguin World #seslon #seslondon - State of SearchSES London Take Away “Beyond Engagement: Harnessing The Power Of Social Media” - Linkdex BlogCreative Content Marketing – Winning Hearts, Minds & Wallets - Linkdex BlogKeyword Modelling Analysis with Bill Hunt #seslondon #seslon - State of SearchHow to Earn Visibility & Links Through Killer Content Strategy #seslon #seslondon - State of SearchSES London Take Away “How to Earn Visibility & Links Through Killer Content Strategy” - Linkdex BlogMore than 60 tips and takeaways from SES London, day 1 - Andrew GirdwoodSES London 2013 – Day One - Verve Search

This article was originally published on ClickZ.

Google Makes One Change Per Day To Search Algorithm

Google’s Matt Cutts just posted a video on YouTube answering the question, “how many search algorithm changes were made in 2009?” In response to that question, Matt said Google likely makes a change per day to the search algorithm. They don’t necessarily release those changes each day, but they will release them in batches. But overall, he hopes to average at least one change per day to the algorithm. He said in 2009, they probably had between 350 to 400 or so changed to the search algorithm.

A few months ago we covered a Wired story on Google’s algorithm where Udi Manber, Google’s head of search said Google has introduced 550 “improvements” to the search algorithm in the past year alone. So I guess Matt was being conservative with his math?

Here is the video:

How to Win in the Google Stock Market

The Google search engine has a hidden side. Because it sells ad space based on a keyword auction, it's actually a stock market for words.

If you bid on "donate your car Sacramento" or "DUI Attorney Houston", you'll find that the market for those words is very robust. Advertisers are willing to pay a lot of money for those words because they expect their return to be commensurately high.

On the other hand, keyword phrases like "depressed Russian novelists" or "refillable travel toothpaste" cost – and may be worth – practically nothing.

Every word and phrase now has a value in the marketplace, so bidding on keywords is like buying stocks or commodities or futures.

The Google Stock Market Difference

In a real stock or commodities market, the value of the thing you buy is independent of your efforts and your work. It's determined by the market's perception of how much that stock is worth.

If you and I and Warren Buffett each buy 10 shares of Apple, it doesn't matter that you're a good upstanding citizen, I'm a scoundrel, and Warren Buffett is a genius. At the end of the day, our shares are going to be worth the same amount.

The value of a keyword, on the other hand, depends on what kind of value you can extract from it.

If you can split test your way to doubling your click-through rate (CTR), all of a sudden that keyword could be worth almost twice as much as it was before. But just to you. Thanks to the quality score algorithm, you now pay less per click than your competitors with less appealing ads.

If you split test landing pages and double your conversion rate, the keyword has become twice as valuable again. But you're still bidding in the same auction as everyone else.

Optimizing your AdWords-driven sales funnel is like buying 10 shares of Apple and having the ability to perform a personal stock split every time you find a new winner.

Increasing the Value of Your Keyword Portfolio

Generally, the place to begin is with your ads, seeking to convert more qualified impressions into clicks.

For example, if you provide fresh healthy vegan meals anywhere in the U.S., one of your keywords would likely be the exact match term [vegan meals].

Here's what Google shows me for that search term:

The market value for [vegan meals] in the US is $1.52, according to the AdWords Keyword Tool. Let's see how to increase its value for your business.

Let's say this is your control ad:

You might be tempted to boost your CTR by writing a more attractive and attention-getting ad: "Fresh Vegan Awesomeness" or something like that.

Simply increasing your CTR does come with two benefits. First, your quality score would increase, thus potentially lowering your average cost per click. And second, you'd get more traffic to your landing page, which means faster conversion rate testing and improvement.

But you don't want to increase CTR by attracting non-buyers to your site; you aren't looking for "clicks at any cost." To the contrary, you only want clicks from searchers likely to resonate with your value proposition.

Get clear on who you want your ad to attract, and who you want to repel.

Most of the people searching for vegan meals are looking for recipes and ideas, not prepared food. So you aren't trying to beat your control ad by fooling those people into clicking. Rather, you're looking to actively discourage home cooks from clicking, and instead appeal solely to people who want to buy a ready-made meal.

The big circle below represents the entire universe of people searching for [vegan meals], and each dot represents an individual searcher. The dots in the larger circle represent people looking for recipes, ideas, videos, shopping lists, downloadable meal plans, nutritional information, etc.

Only the dots within the small green center circle represent folks who want to purchase ready-to-eat vegan meals. And those are the only searchers you want to attract with your ad.

Your ad to attract those people might look something like this:

The headline immediately disqualifies anyone who wants help with their cooking, and speaks directly and powerfully to anyone who doesn't, in fact, think they have time to prepare their own vegan fare.

Additionally, the strongly worded question may "convert" a few people who are half-heartedly dabbling in recipe-land (say, the parent or spouse of a vegan who has no idea how to support their family member's eating preference) but would jump at a more convenient option.

Assuming this new ad performs well, repelling unqualified leads and attracting qualified ones, you've just increased the value of that keyword in your portfolio. The effect may be modest, but constant testing produces a powerful compounding effect.

Summary

Through slow and steady improvement, you can achieve market domination in one, and then an entire family, of keywords.

Warren Buffet would be proud.

RIP Google Reader, External Keyword Tool is Next

Click to open full infographic – Wordstream

Today Google has retired Google Reader joining a long list of other Google products that have been discontinued. See a full list by clicking the Wordstream infographic to the right.

The reason offered by Google: “usage of Google Reader has declined, and as a company we�re pouring all of our energy into fewer products.”

I suppose it’s to be expected when you have an organizational culture where 20% of your time can be spent experimenting on new projects. Of those that make it to market as betas, many will not become viable as contributions to the business. �Luckily, in the case of Google Reader there are plenty of alternatives like Feedly.

Of the many services and tools listed in the “Google Graveyard” image, I can’t say I miss any of them. But I will miss the familiar External Keyword Tool�which is next on the Google chopping block.

Like many other sources of useful information for webmasters, such as the referring organic keywords in analytics, Google is removing a public service but continuing to make it available for advertisers.

The message from Google: “In the coming months, the external Keyword Tool will no longer be available. To get keyword ideas, sign in to your AdWords account and try Keyword Planner.” �directs users to the Keyword Planner page which says, “Now you can research keywords even easier with Keyword Planner, a new tool that combines Keyword Tool and Traffic Estimator”.�

External Keyword Tool

Google’s Keyword Tool users will need to create a Google AdWords account, which is more of a momentary inconvenience if not a proxy to becoming a Google advertiser. At the moment, you don’t need to be spending money with Google advertising in order to have a Google AdWords account. Getting keyword ideas for free is still available – for now.

Keyword Planner

The tools don’t work the same, but website owners will still be able to conduct keyword research in order to anticipate demand for topics related to their products and services. Additionally, Keyword Planner offers the promise of researching keyword ideas and the ability to estimate traffic.

Beyond supplying a PPC advertising campaign with keyword targets, such keyword insight is valuable for optimizing existing website, blog and social content as well as inspiring new content topics to better meet the needs of customers looking for solutions. There are other free keyword research tools available including Wordstream�and�Wordtracker�(both free tools are very limited) and Bing (which like Google, also requires a login).

One keyword research tool in particular that’s handy without any barriers to access is Ubersuggest.�This tool provides lists of the suggested words Google offers as you type in virtually any language and for searches�on the web, images, news, shopping and video.

It might be argued that Google has the right to “gate” (require login, exclusion) a free tool like the External Keyword Tool for use by its paying customers. Of course they do.

At the same time, it’s worth noting that virtually ALL of the content Google hosts is copied from other companies like yours and mine. Google copies our content, organizes it and runs ads next to our content. �This is a useful service for which Google has made billions. �And yet, tools that webmasters find useful for optimizing that content are being changed so direct access is only available for those with an advertising connection.

For companies that have enjoyed visibility on Google in the organic listings without paying Google for advertising, the options for useful information directly from Google seem to be diminishing.�Sure,�Google Webmaster Tools provide many useful data points for optimization, but many of the more useful tools like organic referring keywords that drive clicks to your website and the ability to easily research keyword ideas have become less accessible or “not provided”, pun intended.�

Besides the External Keyword Tool, which Google service do you think will be discontinued next? Feedburner? Blogger?

Top 5 SEO Leading Indicators: The Best Way to Enhance Your Monthly Client Reports

Economists regularly use leading indicators — the measurable economic factors that change before the economy as a whole changes — in order to analyze and predict future performance. Lagging indicators, on the other hand, are factors that change after the economy as a whole does.

Since SEO is typically a long-term strategy, clients tend to gauge success based on what would be more of a lagging indicator (i.e., profits). Proving the worth of a campaign on this sole lagging indicator can be inadequate, as profits will only come in after the SEO channel as a whole has changed sufficiently.

Clients can get antsy as they wait for their goals to be reached, and though a link building campaign may be going spectacularly well from an SEO professional’s vantage point, the time it takes for links to mature may be something many non-SEO folk have difficulty fully grasping.

By borrowing the economist’s mindset and identifying a core set of SEO leading indicators, we can better showcase how things are progressing to clients or senior management. This allows small wins to be celebrated or problems to be identified and understood by the client throughout the life of the campaign.

More valuably, these quick reports will build the client’s understanding of the different KPIs we SEO professionals monitor, and will be great for assuaging impatient clients and sparking a very productive dialogue each month.

In addition to being uber-useful, the five SEO leading indicators outlined below are quick and easy to pull together and review. While SEO professionals might be very familiar with some of these, and may review them in depth, the trick here is to boil them down into the bare essentials (i.e., the top-level view that clients can quickly read and easily understand).

1. SEO Visibility (with Competitive Intelligence)

Want to be able to monitor progress over time, not just for your site, but for your competitors as well? What if you could see this data in a single graph with just the push of a button?

Co-founded by the noted SEO analyst Marcus Tober, SearchMetrics is a phenomenal SEO analytics tool that tracks a vast amount of actionable data and presents it in concise and easy-to-read formats.

Use their SEO Visibility report to track the current trend and historical development of a domain's visibility in search engines. Essentially, the index reflects how often a website shows up in the search results. You can even add in up to four competitors to track against as well.

As per SearchMetrics, SEO visibility is composed of search volume and the position of ranking keywords, wherein each position is individually measured by a specially calculated factor based on their formulae.

Why use this as a leading indicator?

Looking at this historical, top-level view of the site’s visibility in the search engines allows for both problems as well as improvements to be quickly identified.

Additionally, comparing the SEO visibility of thematically similar websites or competitors will provide the most value as industry-wide developments will be factored in and market trends easily identified.

It’s also a great way to benchmark the client against their competitors and show how the campaign has been growing.

2. Links Acquired

Showing how content-based outreach or link building efforts have grown the link profile of a company validates the effort put in and can succinctly convey the success of these efforts.

Here we’ve quickly pulled the report of backlinks discovered from Majestic SEO, which can showcase the progress of link building in a simple graph.

Why use this as a leading indicator?

If link building is done well, there is often a correlation between the growth of incoming links and an increase in the search visibility metric that can make a case for causation to the client, that essentially the improvement in the link building campaign is showing improvements in search visibility.

This can often help make the case for increased budgets for content or outreach efforts to the clients, since they can tie it back to actual numbers and see the trend.

3. Domain Authority

Domain Authority represents Moz’s best prediction about how a website will perform in the search engine rankings. It is a good indicator of trust of the site, quality of the link profile, user behavior and likelihood of a domain ranking higher up in the SERPs.

Note that since domain authority can sometimes fluctuate, it’s not a precise historical measure to use, but snapshots of the score over time can be a good indicator, especially if the score changes by several points.

Why use this as a leading indicator?

Essentially, the higher the domain authority, the better the chances for overtaking competitors who rank higher and the better trust signal in the eyes of the search engines.

Use this to explain to clients the quality of the SEO work being done, since a well-executed campaign that builds trusted, high-quality links while emphasizing a better user experience on site, will typically yield higher domain authority scores.

A higher domain authority site will be more competitive in the rankings and have a higher chance of moving up in the rankings.

4. Search Traffic

A simple snapshot of organic search traffic trends pulled from Google Analytics provides a useful graph to see how SEO efforts have grown traffic over time.

Why use this as a leading indicator?

Comparing monthly visits at the start of the campaign to the present time is a simple and easy-to-digest metric to showcase the progress and success of the campaign.

As keywords move up in the SERPs to reach the tipping point for click-through rate and outreach efforts create more searches for the brand, the organic search traffic is bound to improve, and will show the growth created simply as a result of SEO efforts alone.

5. Core Rankings

Often we share with clients large lists of keyword rankings. Especially for clients with very large volumes of keywords to monitor, these reports can get cumbersome and thus ignored far too often. On a twice monthly basis, take the top 10 highest value keywords for the client and run manual rank checks to track progress over time.

Why use this as a leading indicator?

A shortlist of the highest value keywords will be of the most interest to the clients and will show how close to the tipping point they are; thus clients can see how much closer they are to their ultimate goal of large volume increases in profit. Use an easy-to-read key, such as a highlight for keywords on page 1, green to show improvements and red to show declines in rankings.

Your Top SEO Leading Indicators?

Are there other SEO leading indicators that you use? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

With Death of AdWords Keyword Tool Near, Google Pushes Users to Keyword Planner

The Google AdWords Keyword Tool has long been in the toolkit of most search engine marketers, regardless of whether they used Google AdWords. In fact, it was one of the first keyword tools available freely to webmasters in order to find keyword suggestions and build keyword list.

But users using this free tool are now seeing a notice stating that in the coming months the external Keyword Tool will no longer be available. Instead, they are steering users to their new Keyword Planner that they launched earlier this year.

The keyword planner is actually a combination of the Keyword Tool plus the Traffic Estimator, so pay per click advertisers on Google can see not only the suggested keywords but traffic estimates at the same time, along with some other relevant data Google includes.

Unfortunately, a lot of the data that we are used to seeing from the Keyword Tool hasn't been integrated into the Keyword Planner, such as the ad share statistics. Google says they are working on adding a new column to give insight into ad impression share data.

The local search trends and search share columns of also been removed. However, some of the other data has been changed to only be available when you search for specific data or access your historical statistics.

The new Keyword Planner tool is still free for use. However you must have a Google AdWords account, and be logged into that account, in order to use it.

Google launched the new keyword planner tool May 20 and their blog post stated that the sun would be setting on the keyword tool and the traffic estimator in about 60 days. That means the tool could be vanishing in as little as 2 to 3 weeks.

If you aren't signed into Google AdWords, the tool page itself now states: “In the coming months, the external Keyword Tool will no longer be available. To get keyword ideas, sign in to your AdWords account and try Keyword Planner.” So there could be a couple more months before it officially retires.

It's sad to see yet another valuable Google tool go by the wayside. However, since most search marketers have an AdWords account anyway, it shouldn’t be much of an issue for those wanting the data the new Keyword Planner still provides.

Obama Beats Romney Early in Digital Marketing Race

Advertising matters in politics. As much as we’d all like to believe that we vote based solely on our principles and a careful weighing of candidates’ policy positions, media and marketing messages cast enormous influence on the defining narratives of an election and can ultimately tip an election one way or the other.

The 2008 election helped usher in the era of digital marketing in presidential elections, with online advertising, online fundraising, and social media all helping to redefine the political landscape. These digital media vehicles will become even more important and loom even larger in influencing the 2012 campaign.

Search Activity as a Proxy for Candidate Interest?

Search volume can be a good starting point for gauging the public’s appetite for information on a new contending candidate – in this case, Romney. (The number of searches for a sitting president will heavily reflect the news of the day in addition to election-based interest.)

If we look at the number of searches for “Obama” in April 2008 and compare them to “Romney” searches in April 2012, we see the Obama searches outdistance Romney searches by almost a factor of 5x (5.14 million vs. 1.16 million). However, we might also note that in April 2008 Obama was still locked in a fierce primary battle with Senator Hillary Clinton and he was a newcomer on the national scene, whereas Romney is coming off his own 2008 run for President and the public may have more familiarity with him already.

Interestingly, Obama searchers in 2008 skewed under age 35, while Romney searchers tend to skew age 45 plus.

Paid Search Marketing Can Attract Swing Voters

Paid search offers an excellent way to deliver targeted messages to potential voters and donors. People who search on a candidate’s name just may be a swing voter actively pursuing information on their November ballot choices.

Both the Obama and Romney campaigns are investing in paid search, but the Obama camp maintains a healthy lead in both historical volume and current impression levels.

BarackObama.com is delivering 3x the number of paid search ads as MittRomney.com (7.5 million vs. 2.4 million). The Romney campaign has gradually been stepping up its investment since late last year, but Obama’s consistent past investment combined with the clear increase in 2012 investment demonstrates a strong belief in the power and influence of paid search marketing as a campaign tool.

Display Advertising Reaching High Volumes in 2012 Election

Display advertising has also emerged as an important media vehicle in the digital battleground. Well-crafted ad copy combined with effective audience targeting can help the campaigns disseminate their campaign messages, get incremental reach, brand-build, engage supporters and attract online fundraising.

While both Obama and Romney are investing in paid search, their 3x differential isn't that staggering. Display advertising, however, has been a different story.

ComScore Ad Metrix data shows that the Romney campaign delivered 26 million impressions, mostly on Facebook, in April 2012. In the ad below, the Romney campaign also appears to be trying to fuel their social media operation by attracting Facebook fans (“Click Like to stand with Mitt.”)

While 26 million impressions in one month is certainly notable, it pales in comparison to the Obama campaign’s 865 million impressions delivered across hundreds of sites – a difference of 33x.

Among the Obama campaign’s most popular use of creative features Michelle, which is understandable given her overall high approval ratings and popularity among women – sure to be a key voter bloc in this year’s election.

Digital Campaign Operations Will Continue to Evolve

Political candidates have campaigned and advertised since the outset of organized elections, but with the emergence of each new medium comes an evolving set of opportunities for communicating with the voting public. Digital is providing a fast, dynamic, and increasingly influential battleground for political campaigns, and in many ways both sides are still figuring a lot of it out.

It will be interesting to see how sophisticated the respective campaign operations become as election season progresses, and whether their effective – or ineffective – use of the medium ends up making a difference in the outcome of the election. We’ll be sure to know more by November.

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