Bing: Here’s 7 Ways Our Image Search Is Better Than Google

Microsoft’s Meenaz Merchant, Senior Program Manager at Bing, posted a behind the scenes look at why Bing is a better image search engine than Google.

Here are the seven examples on scenarios on why Bing is better than Google with image search, as described on the Bing blog.

(1) Entity Understanding – Bing says while they understand if a search is about a person, place or thing and then show images based on that understanding. Google does not. “Bing is able to understand the primary intent of the search and find relevant images,” said Bing. Then they added why Google doesn’t work to well, saying “Google has taken a different approach where they show images of the Prince and Princess as a couple and in social settings, interpreting the entity in a different way.”

(2) Big Data – Bing says they use image click data from the Web and social signals. They combine this user interaction data with visual and text features. They imply Google only uses visual and text features, not click data and social signals. They then show an example of Snow White portraits.

(3) Computer Vision Technologies – Bing says they algorithms work more like humans at interpreting images as would a human brain. Does Google’s image search algorithms work like a human?

(4) Thematic Intent Focus – Instead of using web search algorithms to be focused on the exact intent of the specific words, they often go with the broader theme unlike Google.

(5) Exact and Near Duplicates – Bing says they are better at filtering out exact or near duplicate images than Google.

(6) At A Glance Views – Bing says it is better to show “multiple images at a glance rather than dig through web pages to find the right image” and while Bing does this, Google does not.

(7) Higher Quality Images – Bing uses higher quality images as part of their algorithm, in fact they say the algorithm “prefers high quality images to low quality images.” Google, well, they show the opposite.

I should note, I am fairly certain Google can turn this around on Bing and show seven examples of how and why Google is better at image search than Bing.

Google Now Gains Car Rental, Concert Tickets, Reminders While You Search & More

More cards have come to Google’s predictive search service, Google Now, including information to alert you to your car rentals, concert tickets and a way to set reminders related to TV shows, book releases and more, when you are searching.

Car Rentals

Google posted the news to its Android page on Google+, since these are only updates for the Android version of Google Now. Google explained that car rental reservations will now show up, similar to this example:

Concert Tickets

If you have a concert ticket in your Gmail, Google Now will detect that and display it if you are near the venue at the time of the event:

TV Card Gets Smarter

Something we may explore more, Google says the TV card has been updated so that it will tell you info about news and music in what you’re viewing, if you have a smart TV (types and more info not explained) or if you let it listen to the program:

Reminders In Search

Looking for music artists, movie actors, filmmakers or TV shows on your phone? In some cases, Google Now will allow you to set reminders to be alerted to when new albums, book releases or TV episodes are out. Here’s how it worked for me, when I searched for “Breaking Bad” using Google Now:

Unfortunately, when I searched for “The World’s End,” I didn’t get any reminder of when the movie will be out.

Commute Sharing Card & More

Also added were:

Improved public transit cardsNCAA football scoresCommute sharing card

The commute sharing card�will allow others to track your movements and get a better sense of when you’ll arrive. Google says about it:

When leaving work, you can now choose to inform your loved ones that you are on your way home. Learn more at�http://goo.gl/bVUkLY

It has to be turned on and off manually.

Report: Google’s Not Provided Reached 49% & Much Higher In Technology Industry

BrightEdge has released a report showing that for the 8,400 brands they tracked over the last quarter, 49% of the queries collected did not provide (i.e. not provided) search query data due to Google’s secure search.

49% was the average, in fact, it is higher for the technology industry. BrightEdge said that “56% of traffic to computer, electronics, software and technology sites is coming from Google secure search.” On the low end, such as in the entertainment and consumer services sites, the percentage of secure searches is 46%.

Guess what, it is even worse for search sites. For my search blog, I noticed that the not provided percentage was over 70%.

To have half or more of all your query data wiped out is a devastating reality for web marketers.

For more on not provided, see our stories below:

Related Stories:Will [Not Provided] Ever Reach 100% In Web Analytics?How �Not Provided� May Make BuzzFeed Think Google�s Search Traffic To News Sites Is DownHappy Birthday �Not Provided� � One Year Since Google Began Withholding Search TermsGoogle�s (Not Provided) Impacting More Than Just SEO SitesStudy: 39% Of Google Search Referrers Now �Not Provided�How To Turn (Not Provided) Into Useful, Actionable DataKeyword �Not Provided� By Google Spikes, Now 7-14% In Cases

Google Provides FAQ About Authorship, From Blocking To No Mascots

Trying to get your head around Google authorship? The Google Webmaster Central blog has posted a new FAQ designed to provide some answers.

What Qualifies For Authorship?

What pages can have authorship applied to them? Criteria include the page actually being mostly authored by the designated author, that it carries a byline and that it’s a single article, not a compilation page of articles by the author.

No Mascots Allowed!

Think it would be funny if the Geico gecko appeared as an author in Google search results? Google doesn’t. Google “prefers to feature a human,” it says.

Pick One Google+ Profile

Think it would be cool to have multiple Google+ profiles in different languages, to link to if you write in different languages? Don’t, says Google.

One Author Only, For Now

Sorry, Google authorship still doesn’t support pieces with more than one author. Google says it’s still experimenting on how to deal with the situation of two or more.

Yes, You Can Block Authorship

Don’t want authorship to appear, which can sometimes happen even if you don’t set it up? Google reminds that you can block your profile from being used for authorship according to the instructions here.

Authorship Isn’t Publishership

Similar to the rel=author tag that Google provides, there’s a rel=publisher tag designed to help publishers identify a publication with content. But this is completely separate from authorship, Google reminds. And it doesn’t really do much, at the moment.

Authorship Isn’t For Product Listings

Sorry, even if one particular employee has worked really hard to customize a product page for retail items or perhaps for property listings, authorship is “discouraged” in these cases.

More Information

For more, see Google’s blog post today, its guideto authorship, our own�The Definitive Guide To Google Authorship Markup�and some of our other articles, below:

Author Rank, Authorship, Search Rankings & That Eric Schmidt Book QuoteNo, Publishership Isn�t Coming Soon To Google Search To Join AuthorshipGoogle Continues To Experiment & Expand AuthorshipGoogle�s Matt Cutts: Web Spam Benefits From Using Rel=�Author�Google Authorship Beyond WebpagesAdvanced Authorship: The Deep DiveGoogle: Authorship Bug Affects �Very Few Sites,� Actively Working On A FixIs Google Authorship Affecting Rankings Today?

 

Google Brings TrueView Video Ads to Online Games

Google is bringing skippable video ads to online games. Calling the TrueView ad format among its most successful to date, Google is now supporting the in-stream video ads for game publishers on the DoubleClick Ad Exchange, AdSense for games, and select publishers on AdMob.

"For advertisers, reaching users across screens and in different environments is one pain point, they want to be able to reach their audiences effectively using one platform. For publishers, they've constantly told us that they want the ability to tap into a large pool of demand from all advertisers, including video advertisers," notes Rebecca Illowsky, product manager responsible for games monetization at Google.

"We work with many advertisers who already know and like the TrueView format and want to reach a gamer audience. Now we can connect them to businesses looking to fund their game development," she says. 

Viewers can close the TrueView ads that Google sells on an auction basis after five seconds or once the ad concludes. Meanwhile, advertisers only have to pay Google after users view the ad in its entirety.

"We think this ad is not just game-friendly, but user-friendly overall since users only watch the ads that are actually of interest. The TrueView video ad format leads the way in aligning the interests of publishers, advertisers and the user," says Illowsky. "We also expect that opening up the TrueView video ad format to games will result in better monetization and fill rates for games publishers."

Indeed, the expansion of TrueView comes on the heels of a recent study from Google that concludes YouTube is a ripe and engaging platform for brands to market and reach online gamers.

"TrueView has proven to be an incredibly effective format for publishers. We're looking to make it available to as many publishers as possible. This is part of that effort," adds Illowsky. "And on the advertiser side, the audiences who play online games are very much in demand as well."

According to Google, TrueView video ads offer lower abandonment rates and greater monetization compared to typical in-stream video ads. Another research study commissioned by Google on the rise of viewer choice found that people who watch a skippable TrueView pre-roll ad are 75 percent more engaged than users who encounter a standard pre-roll video ad.

The skippable ads deliver about 50 percent more attention overall, as viewers choose not to skip an ad anywhere from 15 to 45 percent of the time, according to Google. The company also boasts that the effective cost-per-thousand impressions for skippable ads grew more than twice as fast as the rate for standard in-stream ads in 2012.

Google expects TrueView to work especially well for online games, and it expects game publishers to make their format decisions based on cost and the needs of users, advertisers and publishers alike, Illowsky says. Formats available to online game publishers now include images, text overlays, interstitial or standard video ads, and TrueView ads.

This article was originally published on ClickZ.

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned Media
Sept. 10-13, 2013: With a newly announced, completely renovated agenda,
SES San Francisco could be the most valuable online marketing conference you attend this year. Register today and save up to $200!
*Pre-show rate through September 6.

5 B2B SEO Recommendations for the Dog Days of Summer

In the New England area, the summer months bring a yearning for the beach, barbecues, and outdoors. With precious little time to enjoy warm weather and school vacations upon us, it's easy to get sidetracked from the constant pressure of the search engine marketing world sitting on your laptop and in your Internet connection.

The B2B space tends to see a bit of a slowdown in the summer, but this shouldn't preclude important SEO efforts. Late summer is the ideal time to tighten SEO strategy and put in motion preparatory steps for the fall and winter, when the conference season gets back in full swing and end of year goals draw painfully close.

Here are five recommendations designed to get B2B SEO professionals through the dog days of summer and into a position to end the year on a high note.

1. Build Your Google+ Network

While recent Moz analysis comparing the impact of Google +1 activity and search engine ranking was debunked by Google's Matt Cutts just this week, you can't argue the significance of Google+ within the portfolio of Google's technology investments. Google+ is an important way for Google to provide what they hope will be a better search experience for their users.

To that extent, almost every search marketing professional would agree that building connections through a Google+ profile is a critical component of the social networking platform. Spend some time this summer investigating the activity of strategic partners, industry colleagues, and customers/prospects even semi-active in Google+, and seek to bring them into your Google+ circles.

Some ways to start your search:

Check out Google+ Profiles that have circled or are circled by important publications, thought leaders, and organizations within your industry.There are several Google+ profile directories in existence that can provide a good starting point for finding influential profiles and obtaining visibility for your own Google+ profile. Social media practitioner Gabriel Vasile has a nice Google+ update with a collection of good Google+ profile directories to start with.By connecting, synching, and exporting data associated to your Twitter profile through the service called contax.io, you can obtain Google+ profile information associated with your Twitter network (followers and following)2. Draft a Fall Content Marketing Schedule

Content marketing is a critical component of B2B SEO initiatives. In Holger Schulze's presentation on B2B Content Marketing Trends 2013, the most significant challenge B2B marketers surveyed face is finding the time and bandwidth to create content. That response is consistent with what CMI and MarketingProfs found in their latest content marketing survey as well.

One reason marketers struggle with content marketing productions goals is a lack of preparation on content ideas from the start. The summer months are a perfect time to reassess content marketing strategy and ensure tactics align well with keyword goals and objectives. Take the time now to define concepts and put together milestones for content delivery.

Places to start the topic identification process:

Keyword strategies that are lagging in performance year over year or in relation to other important segments.Topics heavily discussed in industry-specific social media circles.Topics found discussed in industry conferences and events this fall and toward the end of the year.

I wrote a column earlier this year discussing B2B content marketing execution in-depth and here are some other recommended resources on this topic as well.

How to Build an Agile Content Marketing TeamDitch The Silos – How to Build a Great Content Marketing TeamScaling Your Content Marketing Team: 3 Lessons From the Field3. Write a Guest Post or Article

Sticking within the content marketing theme, another area of focus can be in offsite content development, with the ultimate goal of link acquisition. One of the best opportunities is with guest blog post or third party article development. Of course these tactics have come under fire in recent months as well.

Cutts offered some perspective on Google's perspective and the abuses of guest posting in a video found in Google Webmaster Tools YouTube Channel. Eric Enge took this one step further in interviewing Cutts on the types of link acquisition that would be considered valid and how website owners (could) abuse the system.

B2B marketers should look at both resources.

When thinking more about Enge's interview and feedback from Cutts, there are a few keys to guest posting B2B marketers need to consider.

Find publications that are consistent with the objective of discussing the needs and interests of your own B2B organization's target audiences.Think beyond SEO and how the guest post will impact the individual author and representative organization's reputation and brand equity.Avoid offering very similar article content to multiple publications and resist the temptation of taking shortcuts in content development.

Where can you find good publications for your industry-specific guest post outreach? Here are some ideas to consider:

Sign up for daily HARO emails to find journalists and publishers looking for relevant contributions.Review the sponsor and exhibitor lists at industry-specific events and conferences for organizations with blogs that offer guest posting opportunities.Review social media resources like Topsy for keyword-specific discussions, resources, and influencers.4. Evaluate Your Keyword Referral History

Remember when there was no such thing as "not provided" keyword referrals? Even if your organic search performance has vastly improved since late 2011, it could be worthwhile to evaluate the top terms delivering traffic to your site and compare that information with keyword performance in recent months.

Here are steps to take in the process:

Export two sets of top keyword data from select time periods.Make note of high performing keyword searches (by way of traffic, conversions, visitor quality, etc) in time periods when "not provided" had less of an impact.Cross-reference those keywords with search visibility / ranking data to better understand impact in current SEO performance.

To evaluate the change and impact associated with "(not provided)" percentages, you have to look beyond keywords of course, and into landing page destinations and visitor page view information.

5. Scrutinize the SERP Landscape

Take stock of how the search engine results landscape has changed for your strategic keyword targets. Peter Meyers of Moz put together a tremendous set of slides detailing how search engine results (SERPs) have changed dramatically over the years.

There is no longer fixed position in SERPs (i.e., 10 standard links). With more aggressive blended search results (news, video, images, etc), there are many more opportunities for B2B marketers to leverage media and broader content marketing assets.

What does this mean for B2B marketing professionals?

Evaluate primary keyword strategies for opportunities to integrate SEO initiatives focused on blended search impact (video, images, news, etc).Take inventory of existing content strengths to determine if there are opportunities to leverage content associated with blended search results.Place greater emphasis in developing schema markup to leverage Google and Bing's interest in structured data, designed to create more visually appealing information and content found in your web pages.Don't forget how personalization can play a part in search engine results. This goes back to the first point on how building an influential network on Google+ should be a component of your SEO initiatives this summer (and moving forward)

We no longer work in a static online environment. It's important for B2B marketers to take advantage of as many opportunities as possible to gain visibility and placement in organic search results.

Final Thoughts

While it is certainly tempting to ditch the laptop and enjoy the weather we can't forget the "long game" as it pertains to success in B2B SEO. Slower months are the perfect time to catch up on new initiatives and invest in analysis meant to provide a foundation when business schedules and deadlines get more hectic.

What areas of B2B SEO are you working on this summer? I would love to read your perspective via comments below.

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned Media
Sept. 10-13, 2013: With a newly announced, completely renovated agenda,
SES San Francisco could be the most valuable online marketing conference you attend this year. Register today and save up to $200!
*Pre-show rate through September 6.

Yahoo Defeats Google: Gets More Unique Visitors in July

Yahoo dethroned Google as the top destination of U.S. web users in July, comScore reported. Yahoo had an estimated 197 million unique visitors in July, compared to Google's 192 million. However, mobile device visits aren't included in those figures.

While these aren't the most comprehensive traffic figures, comScore's July numbers show that Yahoo boosted its traffic by around 20 percent compared to last July. This is the first time Yahoo has taken the top spot on comScore's list since May 2011.

Also of note, Tumblr, which Yahoo recently acquired, didn't help pass Google on unique visitors. Tumblr ranked at 28th in the list, with roughly 38 million visitors during the month of July.

Speaking during the firm's second quarter earnings call, Mayer said that increasing traffic was one of her main focuses since taking over at the company.

"Hire and retain a great team; build inspiring products that will attract users and increased traffic; that traffic will increase advertiser interest and ultimately translate to revenue," she said. "People, then products, then traffic, then revenue."

The usual suspects – Microsoft, Facebook and AOL – took the third, fourth and fifth spots, raking in an estimated 180 million, 142 million and 117 million unique visitors last month, respectively.

This article was originally published on the Inquirer.

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned Media
Sept. 10-13, 2013: With a newly announced, completely renovated agenda,
SES San Francisco could be the most valuable online marketing conference you attend this year. Register today and save up to $200!
*Pre-show rate through September 6.

Majority Of Mobile Ad Spend To Go To Search — Forecast

In an updated digital and mobile advertising forecast, eMarketer has projected that mobile search will be worth more than $15 billion in the US by 2017. Accordingly, it will lead all other types of mobile advertising, similar to its current position online.

Display advertising will follow with $14.5 billion by the end of the forecast period. Here’s the full breakdown by ad format:

Mobile ad spending in the US was reported by the IAB to be $3.4 billion in 2012. It’s possible that the number will reach $8.5 billion this year, as the eMarketer forecast indicates; however, that figure may be a bit aggressive.

The following is eMarketer’s full digital forecast, with mobile incorporated into each ad category.

The firm says that mobile ad spending is accelerating. It will represent just over 20 percent of all digital advertising (and 5 percent of total media) this year according to the forecast.

Undoubtedly, Enhanced Campaigns is playing a role in the growth of mobile search spending. According to StatCounter, Google controls about 83 percent of mobile search, which is down from a high of roughly 94 percent in Q3 last year. However, the company controls a higher share of mobile ad spending.

On a global basis Google “owns” more than 50 percent of all mobile ad spending.

Sequencing the DNA of the Perfect Comment [Study]

Since the Internet began, user-generated content (UGC) has played an important role in engaging users and encouraging the spread of content. A recent study examined the contribution of comments to the readers' experience, and by deconstructing them down to base attributes has determined the importance of these elements. Thus determining "The Perfect Comment".

The DNA of a Comment

The study, performed by AOL's Consumer Analytics and Research team (Disclosure: the author works for AOL) with Joe Blechman as lead analyst, and Probit Research, began by breaking down the constituent parts of comments into 15 measurable attributes:

IdentityGeographyIcon PreferenceBadgesNumber of FansNumber of favorites / likes / thumbs upSuper UserGrammar levelHumorClarity of thoughtOriginal article criticismFact-based commentLinks to articleAdherence to party lineIrrelevant / off-trackComment Research

Now that the attributes had been defined, the next step was to determine the best way to measure individual comments. The study used a ratings based conjoint with a sample size of 1,351 readers (aged 18+ from a diverse range of age, geography and gender backgrounds) of eight major online news sites:

The Huffington Post (an AOL company)Fox NewsUSA TodayCNNThe New York TimesThe Washington PostMSNBCYahoo

They were asked to select one of four sample articles, whichever one they were most interested in reading, and given 16 comments from the selected article, one at a time, and asked to rate them on a 5-point scale against nine separate criteria, such as the quality of the article, the emotional response the comment generated for them, and whether the comment made them want to read more or even join the conversation.

The Results

The study showed what users care about when they look at comments on your site.

Style

Some of the least important elements were humor and grammar, although no humor and a collegiate level of grammar did move the dial slightly. If your comments are generally below elementary school level, then you may as well turn your commenting features off as this was a fairly large negative.

Substance

Comments performed better if the content was factually based rather than containing abstract notions. Links within the comments also pull the score down slightly. People also much preferred comments that were written with clarity, with obfuscatory or rambling comments dragging the scores downwards quite sharply.

Community Involvement

Users like to see that a commenter is heavily involved within a community, it makes them feel as though the conversation is one that's worthwhile. However, they don't like to see that a user is too involved. In the study, the users were most likely to respond positively to a comment if the comment has 6+ likes / favorites / votes / thumbs (although if this feature doesn't exist it's neutral, as opposed to if it does exist and the comment has 0 likes as that's a negative almost equal to the positive. Users like to see badges on a site for commenters, and they are more likely to interact with a user who has multiple badges, as well as more than 1,000 fans.

The interesting finding here though, is that not having a Super User feature for commenters is seen as a negative, as is the commenter being a super user. However, if it's available and the commenter isn't a super user, then that's, mildly bizarrely, a positive.

Personal Involvement

Users like to see commenters who use their real names; nicknames are a neutral sell; anonymous commenters do deliver negativity. As for avatars, it doesn't really matter much whether you have commenters who use their real picture or some other pictures, just as long as it's not a default icon or blank. Having some form of geo-location data is also a plus, while it doesn't have to be a specific location, at least a general location will help.

Relationship to Content

Given that this study looked at news sites, with articles that had some political leaning to them, there was an element of partisanship. This was shown in negative scoring for anyone who came in with a particular political bent in their comment, but a very high plus for any comments that were deemed to be independent.

What about the tone of the comments as related to the content of the article? Users were more willing to interact with commenters that were critical of the original post, and on a slightly lesser level, those commenters that were neutral. Commenters that praised the original article were a huge turnoff. The last element was that of relevance. As you may expect, relevant comments were a plus, irrelevant comments were a turn-off.

What Does it All Mean?

With the data (see the chart at the end of this section) you can create a spreadsheet and grade the comments on your site. You can compare yourself to your competitors and see who does the better job. You can figure out what needs fine tuning on your site – what features you need to implement, how you can nudge your commenters to interact, and when you should just sit back and let things take their own direction.

For example, if you heavily moderate critical comments, perhaps you should back off doing so, as it may generate more engagement. Perhaps during the sign up process you should encourage users to use their name, to use a picture and to specify some form of location. Adding badges / super user features, and using these to actively encourage friending / liking comments can also be beneficial for your site.

A Disclaimer and a Winner

As this study was performed on the 8 news sites listed above, your community may vary in what they deem to be important. However, given that this was the first study of its kind, it's not a bad starting point for any site looking to improve their community engagement.

As for the 8 sites, when the formula was then applied to 10 comments sampled from 40 article on each of the sites, there was a clear winner. USA Today outscored the competition in each category examined, with Fox News having the most capacity for improvement.

You can download the full study (PDF) here.

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned Media
Sept. 10-13, 2013: With a newly announced, completely renovated agenda,
SES San Francisco could be the most valuable online marketing conference you attend this year. Register today and save up to $200!
*Pre-show rate through September 6.

New: View AdWords Data Trends By Time Period In The Graph View

As some sharp eyed users noticed yesterday, Google has now confirmed the roll-out of graphical time period segmentation.

A new drop down allows you to view AdWords data by day, week, month and quarter on the graph. The new feature makes it easy to view trends quickly and toggle back and forth by time period right from the drop down. So, if you’re looking at two years of data, you can opt to view longer-term trending by quarter, for example.

The feature is available in all AdWords accounts.

Google Adds Waze Traffic To Maps App, Search To Waze

The first “synergies” from Google’s Waze acquisition are being rolled out to both Google Maps and Waze users. Google announced this morning in a blog post that real-time Waze traffic updates will appear in the Google Maps app (for iOS, Android):

Users of Google Maps for Mobile will now benefit from real time incident reports from Waze users. This means when Wazers report accidents, construction, road closures and more on Waze, the updates will also appear on the Google Maps app for Android and iOS in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Germany, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Switzerland, UK and the US.�

Google also said that the Waze app has been updated with a Google search box. And the�Waze Map Editor now incorporates Google Street View and satellite imagery.

Previously xAd had been the (relatively unknown) search provider for Waze, which is being displaced following the Google purchase of the company.

Given its value the Waze deal is being given antitrust review by the US�Federal Trade Commission. Google announced the more than $1 billion acquisition of the Israeli mapping startup in June.

Google Responds To #GoogleGate: AdWords Account Manager’s Accidental Voice Mail Recording

Earlier this week, Martin MacDonald, inbound marketing director at Expedia EAN, in a post on his website titled “#GoogleGate – Can you Trust Google?,”�embedded a voice mail recording�a Google AdWords account manager unknowingly left for a client.

Presumably thinking he’d hung up, the account representative is heard cursing the fact that the client upgraded to enhanced campaigns without first speaking to him and that he’ll then have to “pitch call extensions and sitelinks” instead. He goes on to say he doesn’t care about� “those bridge pages or parked domains” the client apparently is using.

The implications are:

1) AdWords account reps are paid to upsell new products and services that may or may not be in the client’s best interest

2) The account rep is willingly ignoring Google’s advertising policies, here, about using bridge pages: “Google AdWords doesn’t allow ads that promote bridge pages.”

3) AdWords account managers are sales people first and foremost.

Asked for a statement on the matter, a Google spokesperson said:

We’ve addressed these issues with our vendor, and the person that was involved was removed from the AdWords team several weeks ago.

So, it appears the account manager wasn’t an actual Google employee, but an outside contractor. Google has outsourced some AdWords customer support and account management for some time now, but it’s not clear what percentage is contracted.

Judging by the social shares and comments, MacDonald’s post struck a chord.� Was this an extreme, isolated incident, as Google’s statement implies, or is it indicative of� a broader sales culture others have experienced as well? Many have chimed in on both sides of the debate about whether advertisers should expect more from their account managers beyond the upsell.

Average Facebook Engagement Metrics: How Does Your Brand Stack Up?

AgoraPulse has released its monthly "barometer" measuring Facebook page metrics across nearly 5,000 pages and 168 industries. The data for July showed the average engagement on posts for pages with less than 10,000 fans is 6.1 percent, while the average for pages that have 100,000 fans or more is 4.9 percent.

Looking at "storyteller" averages, this data is defined from the "talking about this" metric in Facebook. Facebook states "talking about this" is Facebook users who have created a story from a post by doing the following:

Sharing, liking, or commenting on your postAnswering a questionResponding to an eventClaiming an offer

The average percentage of storytellers for pages with less than 10,000 fans was 2 percent, according to AgoraPulse data. For pages with more than 100,000, the percentage grew 0.4 points to 2.4 percent.

So, how do name brands stack up against these metrics?

Statista released a graphic on August 19 that stated Coca-Cola was the most talked about brand on Facebook, according to real-time data that showed more than 1 million people talking about the company.

That number is down slightly as of today, but according to page averages by AgoraPulse, Coca-Cola’s storytelling metric is still below average for a fan base of that size.

Keeping in mind the average is showing at 2.4 percent, and looking at the number of people talking about Coca-Cola on Facebook on August 21 divided by the total number of fans, Coca-Cola’s storytelling comes in at about 1.4 percent. This is one percent less than the average.

However, Coca-Cola far surpassed the average number of fans per industry, according to the research, which showed food and beverage garnering an average of 282,000 Facebook fans.

The NBA was also listed as one of the most talked about brands on Facebook by Statista on August 19. When compared to AgoraPulse data, it showed the average storytelling percentage for a sports website page was about 3.5 percent.

If the NBA fell into this category (note that it’s listed as "sports league" in Facebook and the AgoraPulse data has a category for "sports websites"), it would be down slightly from the average 3.5 percent "people talking about" metric at about 2.8 percent.

So big brand or small, when it comes to the data we’re seeing here, do your Facebook page metrics come in lower, higher or just about average? Please share in the comments if you’re up for it.

Here's Statista's full top 10 list of corporate brands, based on people talking about them:

Coca-ColaAvonWalmartDisneySamsung MobileIntelBud LightGuarana AntarcticaNBAVisa

To access AgoraPulse’s July 2013 Facebook stats in their entirety, go here.

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned Media
Sept. 10-13, 2013: With a newly announced, completely renovated agenda,
SES San Francisco could be the most valuable online marketing conference you attend this year. Register today and save up to $200!
*Pre-show rate through September 6.

Google Brings TrueView Video Ads to Online Games

Google is bringing skippable video ads to online games. Calling the TrueView ad format among its most successful to date, Google is now supporting the in-stream video ads for game publishers on the DoubleClick Ad Exchange, AdSense for games, and select publishers on AdMob.

"For advertisers, reaching users across screens and in different environments is one pain point, they want to be able to reach their audiences effectively using one platform. For publishers, they've constantly told us that they want the ability to tap into a large pool of demand from all advertisers, including video advertisers," notes Rebecca Illowsky, product manager responsible for games monetization at Google.

"We work with many advertisers who already know and like the TrueView format and want to reach a gamer audience. Now we can connect them to businesses looking to fund their game development," she says. 

Viewers can close the TrueView ads that Google sells on an auction basis after five seconds or once the ad concludes. Meanwhile, advertisers only have to pay Google after users view the ad in its entirety.

"We think this ad is not just game-friendly, but user-friendly overall since users only watch the ads that are actually of interest. The TrueView video ad format leads the way in aligning the interests of publishers, advertisers and the user," says Illowsky. "We also expect that opening up the TrueView video ad format to games will result in better monetization and fill rates for games publishers."

Indeed, the expansion of TrueView comes on the heels of a recent study from Google that concludes YouTube is a ripe and engaging platform for brands to market and reach online gamers.

"TrueView has proven to be an incredibly effective format for publishers. We're looking to make it available to as many publishers as possible. This is part of that effort," adds Illowsky. "And on the advertiser side, the audiences who play online games are very much in demand as well."

According to Google, TrueView video ads offer lower abandonment rates and greater monetization compared to typical in-stream video ads. Another research study commissioned by Google on the rise of viewer choice found that people who watch a skippable TrueView pre-roll ad are 75 percent more engaged than users who encounter a standard pre-roll video ad.

The skippable ads deliver about 50 percent more attention overall, as viewers choose not to skip an ad anywhere from 15 to 45 percent of the time, according to Google. The company also boasts that the effective cost-per-thousand impressions for skippable ads grew more than twice as fast as the rate for standard in-stream ads in 2012.

Google expects TrueView to work especially well for online games, and it expects game publishers to make their format decisions based on cost and the needs of users, advertisers and publishers alike, Illowsky says. Formats available to online game publishers now include images, text overlays, interstitial or standard video ads, and TrueView ads.

This article was originally published on ClickZ.

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned Media
Sept. 10-13, 2013: With a newly announced, completely renovated agenda,
SES San Francisco could be the most valuable online marketing conference you attend this year. Register today and save up to $200!
*Pre-show rate through September 6.

Google Display Network Remarketing: Convert The Prodigal Shopper

Ninety-five percent of online browsing is spent on content, with the remaining 5 percent relegated to search, according to Google. Meanwhile, 98 percent of a website's visitors leave without converting, according to ValueClick.

Users are spending the majority of their time not on your online store, and even when they are browsing your website, there's only a 2 percent chance they will complete a purchase.

If you could increase the likelihood that those site viewers return to your site wouldn't you want to? How about if it was free?

What is Google Display Network Remarketing?

Google Display Network Remarketing is a free remarketing program which integrates with AdWords, Google Analytics, and the Google Merchant Center to serve product or product page display ads to shoppers based on site pages they visit.

Google displays ads across the Google display network for visitors who have visited your site and left, showing items which are related to what that shopper viewed, with a 450 percent higher click-through rate than traditional marketing.

How to Set Up Your Campaign in 6 Steps

Now that you're sold on getting started with a Google Display Network Remarketing campaign, here are the steps to set up your campaign:

Send your data feed to the Google merchant center. Remarketing ad images, product titles and product information are taken from your Google data feed, so make sure to optimize your data feed.Identify your remarketing campaign goals. Get your hands dirty in Google Analytics to get a good idea of what pages and products are getting visibility on your site, and what type of visitors convert.Install your remarketing tag. Set up your Google Display network campaign.Create ad groups for different user lists. Remember to modify bids based on the user list in the ad group, using lower bids for more general site viewers, and higher bids for users who are more likely to convert.Test! Mess around with the different types of lists, sites where you are displaying ads, keywords, member duration, frequency capping, ad layout, etc. A/B test, test and then test some more. Be sure to base and track all of your changes on Analytics, and establish a positive ROI before you get crazy with testing ads.

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned Media
Sept. 10-13, 2013: With a newly announced, completely renovated agenda,
SES San Francisco could be the most valuable online marketing conference you attend this year. Register today and save up to $200!
*Pre-show rate through September 6.

Google Responds To #GoogleGate: AdWords Account Manager’s Accidental Voice Mail Recording

Earlier this week, Martin MacDonald, inbound marketing director at Expedia EAN, in a post on his website titled “#GoogleGate – Can you Trust Google?,”�embedded a voice mail recording�a Google AdWords account manager unknowingly left for a client.

Presumably thinking he’d hung up, the account representative is heard cursing the fact that the client upgraded to enhanced campaigns without first speaking to him and that he’ll then have to “pitch call extensions and sitelinks” instead. He goes on to say he doesn’t care about� “those bridge pages or parked domains” the client apparently is using.

The implications are:

1) AdWords account reps are paid to upsell new products and services that may or may not be in the client’s best interest

2) The account rep is willingly ignoring Google’s advertising policies, here, about using bridge pages: “Google AdWords doesn’t allow ads that promote bridge pages.”

3) AdWords account managers are sales people first and foremost.

Asked for a statement on the matter, a Google spokesperson said:

We’ve addressed these issues with our vendor, and the person that was involved was removed from the AdWords team several weeks ago.

So, it appears the account manager wasn’t an actual Google employee, but an outside contractor. Google has outsourced some AdWords customer support and account management for some time now, but it’s not clear what percentage is contracted.

Judging by the social shares and comments, MacDonald’s post struck a chord.� Was this an extreme, isolated incident, as Google’s statement implies, or is it indicative of� a broader sales culture others have experienced as well? Many have chimed in on both sides of the debate about whether advertisers should expect more from their account managers beyond the upsell.

Google Patents Pay-Per-Gaze Advertising

Google has been granted patents for a device that could monitor users' eyes and emotional reactions in order to deliver accurate advertising campaign analytics.

The patents, which Google applied for in 2011, show images of a Google Glass-style headset, which would keep track of users' eye movements. It describes the idea as a "gaze-tracking device that communicates with a server", which in turn keeps track of what the user looks at, creating a "gazing log" for advertisers.

In addition, the patent discusses going even further with the technology, introducing the idea of a sensor that keeps track of pupil dilation in order to judge the effectiveness of ad campaigns.

"For example, if the advertiser desires to generate a shocking advertisement to get noticed or a thought-provoking advertisement, then the inferred emotional state information and/or the gazing duration may be valuable metrics to determine the success of the campaign with real-world consumers," the patent notes.

The patent document notes that privacy would be taken into account.

"Personal identifying data may be removed from the data and provided to the advertisers as anonymous analytics," it said. "In one embodiment, users may be given opt-in or opt-out privileges to control the type of data being gathered, when the data is being gathered, or how the gathered data may be used or with whom it may be shared."

A business model behind the technology was also outlined, suggesting that the price of each gaze could change depending on the level of interaction.

"[An] additional feature of a pay-per-gaze advertising scheme may include setting billing thresholds or scaling billing fees dependent upon whether the user looked directly at a given advertisement item, viewed the given advertisement item for one or more specified durations, and/or the inferred emotional state of the user while viewing a particular advertisement."

While the patent does not refer to Google's augmented reality Glass headwear, the images show head-mounted hardware, which looks remarkably similar to Glass, suggesting that future iterations of the gadget could include this technology.

"We hold patents on a variety of ideas," says a Google spokesperson. "Some of those ideas later mature into real products or services, some don't. Prospective product announcements should not necessarily be inferred from our patents."

This article was originally published on V3.

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned Media
Sept. 10-13, 2013: With a newly announced, completely renovated agenda,
SES San Francisco could be the most valuable online marketing conference you attend this year. Register today and save up to $200!
*Pre-show rate through September 6.

Sequencing the DNA of the Perfect Comment [Study]

Since the Internet began, user-generated content (UGC) has played an important role in engaging users and encouraging the spread of content. A recent study examined the contribution of comments to the readers' experience, and by deconstructing them down to base attributes has determined the importance of these elements. Thus determining "The Perfect Comment".

The DNA of a Comment

The study, performed by AOL's Consumer Analytics and Research team (Disclosure: the author works for AOL) with Joe Blechman as lead analyst, and Probit Research, began by breaking down the constituent parts of comments into 15 measurable attributes:

IdentityGeographyIcon PreferenceBadgesNumber of FansNumber of favorites / likes / thumbs upSuper UserGrammar levelHumorClarity of thoughtOriginal article criticismFact-based commentLinks to articleAdherence to party lineIrrelevant / off-trackComment Research

Now that the attributes had been defined, the next step was to determine the best way to measure individual comments. The study used a ratings based conjoint with a sample size of 1,351 readers (aged 18+ from a diverse range of age, geography and gender backgrounds) of eight major online news sites:

The Huffington Post (an AOL company)Fox NewsUSA TodayCNNThe New York TimesThe Washington PostMSNBCYahoo

They were asked to select one of four sample articles, whichever one they were most interested in reading, and given 16 comments from the selected article, one at a time, and asked to rate them on a 5-point scale against nine separate criteria, such as the quality of the article, the emotional response the comment generated for them, and whether the comment made them want to read more or even join the conversation.

The Results

The study showed what users care about when they look at comments on your site.

Style

Some of the least important elements were humor and grammar, although no humor and a collegiate level of grammar did move the dial slightly. If your comments are generally below elementary school level, then you may as well turn your commenting features off as this was a fairly large negative.

Substance

Comments performed better if the content was factually based rather than containing abstract notions. Links within the comments also pull the score down slightly. People also much preferred comments that were written with clarity, with obfuscatory or rambling comments dragging the scores downwards quite sharply.

Community Involvement

Users like to see that a commenter is heavily involved within a community, it makes them feel as though the conversation is one that's worthwhile. However, they don't like to see that a user is too involved. In the study, the users were most likely to respond positively to a comment if the comment has 6+ likes / favorites / votes / thumbs (although if this feature doesn't exist it's neutral, as opposed to if it does exist and the comment has 0 likes as that's a negative almost equal to the positive. Users like to see badges on a site for commenters, and they are more likely to interact with a user who has multiple badges, as well as more than 1,000 fans.

The interesting finding here though, is that not having a Super User feature for commenters is seen as a negative, as is the commenter being a super user. However, if it's available and the commenter isn't a super user, then that's, mildly bizarrely, a positive.

Personal Involvement

Users like to see commenters who use their real names; nicknames are a neutral sell; anonymous commenters do deliver negativity. As for avatars, it doesn't really matter much whether you have commenters who use their real picture or some other pictures, just as long as it's not a default icon or blank. Having some form of geo-location data is also a plus, while it doesn't have to be a specific location, at least a general location will help.

Relationship to Content

Given that this study looked at news sites, with articles that had some political leaning to them, there was an element of partisanship. This was shown in negative scoring for anyone who came in with a particular political bent in their comment, but a very high plus for any comments that were deemed to be independent.

What about the tone of the comments as related to the content of the article? Users were more willing to interact with commenters that were critical of the original post, and on a slightly lesser level, those commenters that were neutral. Commenters that praised the original article were a huge turnoff. The last element was that of relevance. As you may expect, relevant comments were a plus, irrelevant comments were a turn-off.

What Does it All Mean?

With the data (see the chart at the end of this section) you can create a spreadsheet and grade the comments on your site. You can compare yourself to your competitors and see who does the better job. You can figure out what needs fine tuning on your site – what features you need to implement, how you can nudge your commenters to interact, and when you should just sit back and let things take their own direction.

For example, if you heavily moderate critical comments, perhaps you should back off doing so, as it may generate more engagement. Perhaps during the sign up process you should encourage users to use their name, to use a picture and to specify some form of location. Adding badges / super user features, and using these to actively encourage friending / liking comments can also be beneficial for your site.

A Disclaimer and a Winner

As this study was performed on the 8 news sites listed above, your community may vary in what they deem to be important. However, given that this was the first study of its kind, it's not a bad starting point for any site looking to improve their community engagement.

As for the 8 sites, when the formula was then applied to 10 comments sampled from 40 article on each of the sites, there was a clear winner. USA Today outscored the competition in each category examined, with Fox News having the most capacity for improvement.

You can download the full study (PDF) here.

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned Media
Sept. 10-13, 2013: With a newly announced, completely renovated agenda,
SES San Francisco could be the most valuable online marketing conference you attend this year. Register today and save up to $200!
*Pre-show rate through September 6.

Matt Cutts: Google +1s Don't Lead to Higher Ranking

It isn't often that Google's Distinguished Engineer Matt Cutts comes right out to debunk a highly publicized blog post regarding something to do with ranking in Google.

Everybody has their own opinions of what works and what doesn't work, and SEO in itself can be highly subjective, primarily because Google doesn't really come out and specifically admit the things that work, because they don't want people gaming the system.

Moz published a blog post "Amazing Correlation Between Google +1s and Higher Search Rankings" claiming that Google +1s had a direct correlation with higher search rankings in Google – and that it was higher than any other ranking factor. The post was written by Cyrus Shepard, the "Senior Content Astronaut" at Moz, and the data was taken from their 2013 ranking factors.

It's a pretty sensational title, and immediately sparked a lot of discussion. His post brought up a lot of points about why he feels this correlation is correct, such as posts shared on Google+ are crawled and indexed almost immediately, and that posts on the site pass "link equity". He also noted that authorship shares in the rankings as well. However, he's also stating it as fact, instead of just a possibility without any specific hard data with proof, such as specific sites where an increase in rankings can be solely attributed to Google +1's.

In addition to grabbing the attention of many in the SEO industry (many of whom trashed the post as being highly flawed), Cutts immediately stepped into debunk the claim of the correlation between rankings and +1s. Specifically, Cutts wrote:

Just trying to decide the politest way to debunk the idea that more Google +1s lead to higher Google web rankings. Let's start with correlation != causation: http://xkcd.com/552/

But it would probably be better to point to this 2011 post (also from SEOMoz/Moz) from two years ago in which a similar claim was made about Facebook shares: http://moz.com/blog/does-google-use-facebook-shares-to-influ... . From that blog post from two years ago: "One of the most interesting findings from our 2011 Ranking Factors analysis was the high correlation between Facebook shares and Google US search position."

This all came to a head at the SMX Advanced search conference in 2011 where Rand Fishkin presented his claims. I did a polite debunk of the idea that Google used Facebook shares in our web ranking at the conference, leading to this section in the 2011 blog post: "Rand pointed out that Google does have some access to Facebook data overall and set up a small-scale test to determine if Google would index content that was solely shared on Facebook. To date, that page has not been indexed, despite having quite a few shares (64 according to the OpenGraph)."

If you make compelling content, people will link to it, like it, share it on Facebook, +1 it, etc. But that doesn't mean that Google is using those signals in our ranking.

Rather than chasing +1s of content, your time is much better spent making great content.

So his belief falls in line with what a lot of SEO professionals are doing for long-term SEO success, where creating great quality content that is more likely to be shared is the best kind of strategy when it comes to content.

He does continue to reiterate that +1s and rankings are not related. "Most of the initial discussion on this thread seemed to take from the blog post the idea that more Google +1s led to higher web ranking. I wanted to preemptively tackle that perception."

Cutts also mentioned that another SEO has been doing a rigorous study on whether it +1s lead to higher rankings are not, which he suspects will be released the next month or two. If it is providing specific examples in the study, it will be good to be the most conclusive evidence SEOs will have about whether it is or isn't a ranking factor with concrete data to back it up.

Cutts made similar statements last year at SES San Francisco, when he said that Google doesn't put a lot of weight on +1's yet and advised people not to assume Google+ equates to rankings.

Below are a few reactions from Twitter. What's your take?

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned Media
Sept. 10-13, 2013: With a newly announced, completely renovated agenda,
SES San Francisco could be the most valuable online marketing conference you attend this year. Register today and save up to $200!
*Pre-show rate through September 6.

Google Provides FAQ About Authorship, From Blocking To No Mascots

Trying to get your head around Google authorship? The Google Webmaster Central blog has posted a new FAQ designed to provide some answers.

What Qualifies For Authorship?

What pages can have authorship applied to them? Criteria include the page actually being mostly authored by the designated author, that it carries a byline and that it’s a single article, not a compilation page of articles by the author.

No Mascots Allowed!

Think it would be funny if the Geico gecko appeared as an author in Google search results? Google doesn’t. Google “prefers to feature a human,” it says.

Pick One Google+ Profile

Think it would be cool to have multiple Google+ profiles in different languages, to link to if you write in different languages? Don’t, says Google.

One Author Only, For Now

Sorry, Google authorship still doesn’t support pieces with more than one author. Google says it’s still experimenting on how to deal with the situation of two or more.

Yes, You Can Block Authorship

Don’t want authorship to appear, which can sometimes happen even if you don’t set it up? Google reminds that you can block your profile from being used for authorship according to the instructions here.

Authorship Isn’t Publishership

Similar to the rel=author tag that Google provides, there’s a rel=publisher tag designed to help publishers identify a publication with content. But this is completely separate from authorship, Google reminds. And it doesn’t really do much, at the moment.

Authorship Isn’t For Product Listings

Sorry, even if one particular employee has worked really hard to customize a product page for retail items or perhaps for property listings, authorship is “discouraged” in these cases.

More Information

For more, see Google’s blog post today, its guideto authorship, our own�The Definitive Guide To Google Authorship Markup�and some of our other articles, below:

Author Rank, Authorship, Search Rankings & That Eric Schmidt Book QuoteNo, Publishership Isn�t Coming Soon To Google Search To Join AuthorshipGoogle Continues To Experiment & Expand AuthorshipGoogle�s Matt Cutts: Web Spam Benefits From Using Rel=�Author�Google Authorship Beyond WebpagesAdvanced Authorship: The Deep DiveGoogle: Authorship Bug Affects �Very Few Sites,� Actively Working On A FixIs Google Authorship Affecting Rankings Today?

 

On International Women's Day, Marketers Share Challenges & Reasons to Celebrate

Many women are helping to shape the marketing world by sharing their insights and expertise on sites like Search Engine Watch and at conferences such as the SES Conference & Expo.

To celebrate International Women’s Day, some of the smartest women in marketing reflect on the women who helped or inspired them, and share some challenges women in our industry are facing.

A Day for Reflection & Celebrating Women

So what is International Women’s Day and why does it matter? Essentially, it’s “a day where we can focus on women and their accomplishments and recognize all the amazing women in our personal and professional lives,” said Julie Joyce, Director of Operations at Link Fish Media.

Indeed, International Women’s Day is all about celebrating the achievements of women past and present. It reminds women of the possibility and empowerment they have, said Lisa Buyer, CEO of the Buyer Group. It’s also a reminder that there are talented women around the world capable of doing amazing things when pursuing their goals and passions, added Rebecca Murtagh, Founder of Karner Blue Marketing.

And it’s a day that matters a lot to Miranda Miller, Content Marketing Manager at TopRank Online Marketing.

“It's a great time to stop to see how far we've come and look ahead to where we'd like to be … and also how much is left to be done,” Miller said. “It's hard to find that time to reflect on the women who blazed trails in politics, business and technology, but without them I wouldn't have had the opportunities I've had to date, so I'm incredibly grateful. We don't often have time to reflect because as working women and moms, life is all about juggling and just trying to keep all of the balls in the air.”

Jasmine Sandler, CEO of Agent-cy Online Marketing, said today should be a reminder for women to be more cooperative and help each other succeed.

“All too often I see women being competitive towards each other and putting their emotions first in business as opposed to truly collaborating,” Sandler said. “I run a women business owner group on LinkedIn. I will be reaching out to my members to remind them that we need to help each other.”

Though it’s a good day to celebrate, it’s also important to remember that many women in other countries face much bigger challenges than women in the U.S., said Jessica Lee, Content & Media Manager at Bruce Clay Inc.

“International Women's Day reminds us of the unique challenges women face all over the world,” Lee said. “The pressures and demands women face globally vary greatly (and sometimes are unimaginable), and a day like today helps remind us of how women experience life all over the globe.”

The day is also quite significant for digital marketer Noran El-Shinnaway.

“I grew up and spent most of my life (so far) in Egypt, where we didn't recognize, let alone celebrate International Women's Day,” El-Shinnaway said. “In fact, I didn't even know about it until a few years ago when I got on a bus in Montreal, only to find out that all public transportation in the city was free that day in celebration of women. What a treat that was!”

For all these reasons and more, it’s important to celebrate the women who fought for women’s equality on International Women’s Day, said Ashley Zeckman, Marketing Manager at TopRank. “They helped pave the way for women today to hold virtually any job in any industry that interests them,” Zeckman said.

“I love having a day to celebrate women across the globe,” said Melissa Mackey, Search Supervisor at gyro. “It's a good opportunity to pat ourselves on the back and reflect on everything we've accomplished personally and professionally.”

The Inspirational Women

So who has helped these women get to where they are today? For some it was a co-worker.

Lisa Barone, Vice President of Strategy at Overit, said she's been fortunate to have several women to look up to, starting when she entered the industry and lasting all the way through today.

“I remember attending my first few SEO conferences and listening to women like Anne Kennedy, Christine Churchill, Jill Whalen, and Dana Todd school the men on SEO. Women like Rae Hoffman showed me it was OK to have a voice and to not always agree with whatever b.s. the so-called ‘A List’ was spewing," Barone said. "And I had a pack of women around my age like Rebecca Kelley who I really got to come up with this in this industry. There are a lot of powerful women here and getting to work alongside them and learn from them has certainly influenced how my career has been shaped.”

Joyce has also found inspiration from many colleagues and friends.

“All the SEO Chicks, Debra Mastaler and Jane Copland. They're all good friends and all very inspirational to me and they've all been instrumental in encouraging me no matter what I'm doing,” Joyce said.

Buyer also credited two women for helping her in different ways.

“Julie Silver Talenfeld, who owns Boardroom Communication PR Agency. I was her first employee and it was one of my first jobs out of college," Buyer said. "Today Boardroom Communications is rated on of the top PR agencies in Florida. Julie inspired me to see how rewarding it is to own a business and that it is possible for women to think out of the corporate box, and break through some glass ceilings. Julie also taught me how important it is to be resourceful."

Like Barone, Buyer also credited marketing expert Dana Todd.

“She inspired me with her leadership and expertise in the search industry,” Buyer said. “Dana helped open doors for me and thanks to her I am part of this awesome community.”

Zeckman is another who credits a co-worker as one of her inspirations.

“I worked with a woman named Jennifer Lefor that taught me what it was to be a strong, fair, and confident woman in the workplace,” Zeckman said. “She didn't put up with excuses and expected excellence. She earned the respect of colleagues and clients by displaying intellect and remaining steadfast in what she knew to be true.”

Lee said she’s “grateful for what the women have done before me to bring us to where we are today” but in particular noted the inspiration from one co-worker.

“In one of my first marketing career moves, my team was led by a vibrant, creative, energetic woman who had no fear. She was an ex-Disney exec and she was an exceptional leader – supportive, enabling and she always had our backs, no matter what,” Lee said. “She let us explore our ideas and creativity to no end, and that was one of the most efficient and collaborative teams I'd ever been a part of, and we produced some amazing results.”

One mentor was very special to Christina Zila, Director of Communications at Textbroker.

“When I graduated college, my first step was a doozy: an internship in a foreign country, namely Germany,” she recalled. “A student-run internship swap organization arranged the contracts and even the lodging. However, when I arrived, the apartment they had for me wasn't available.

"My boss, who I hadn't met yet, stepped up and welcomed me into her home with her husband and dog. While the living situation was only temporary, we developed a close bond that helped guide my career, from creating a German resume to starting my own business. Without Maren Kroeske and her patience and encouragement, I wouldn't be the success I am.

Kroeske told Zila that when she got in her position that she was expecting Zila to do the same, which has led Zila to working with WIMMI to encourage and mentor other women in media and marketing.

Others, such as Sandler and Miller, credit their mother for helping them get to where they are.

“She always had two or three jobs to make sure me and my sisters were taken care of and was a natural entrepreneur,” Miller said. “I started working for one of her businesses at eight years old. By 13, I had my first "real" job and at 15 I was kicked out of the house and out of school (I was a bit of a wild child) but looking back now, those were all things that needed to happen in order for me to be who I am today. When I finally came around, she was there to help me get back on track, finish school and go on to better things.”

“Later in life, she ran a homeless men's shelter and I learned then just how tough and compassionate she really is. They absolutely appreciated and respected her; she treated them with dignity but didn't take any crap. Definitely someone to look up to in my life!”

Laura Roth, Senior Conference Manager for the SES Conference & Expo series, also credited her mother.

“She’s always encouraged me to put my mind to whatever I want to do and not believe there are any ceilings as to what you can achieve. I’ve never felt that I couldn’t do something just because I’m female,” Roth said. “There are also women in more male dominated industries who are constantly pushing the boundaries and achieving things that others have not done before them which acts as good inspiration for all women – [Yahoo CEO] Marissa Mayer would be a great example of this in our industry.”

El-Shinnaway had a family full of strong, exceptional women who defied all cultural boundaries and went on to have remarkable careers, she said.

“My great grandmother, the first female to hold office in the Egyptian Ministry of Education, my grandmother, one of the first female judges in Egypt, and my mother, an outstanding restoration archaeologist. So you see, there was absolutely no pressure on me,” she said.

For some, such as Mackey, it’s impossible to name just one.

“Powerful women are a source of constant inspiration to me,” Mackey said.

Challenges For Women

Marketing is still a male dominated industry. No doubt about it.

One of the recurring themes women brought up when asked about the biggest challenges seemed to revolve around marketing conferences – with many noting that men far outnumber women as speakers, and many women have endured harassment or worse.

Recent articles, such as this one on aimClear’s blog stirred up some interesting debate about equality in the industry and how there are still issues that need addressing.

“I spoke out recently about sexism in tech and changes I'd like to see in regard to how women are physically treated at events,” Barone said. “That is something I believe needs to be seriously addressed to protect the safety of women.”

Miller agreed that sexual harassment and even assault are issues at conferences, but noted that those aren’t unique to the marketing industry.

“For every sexist man with antiquated views and entitlement issues in marketing or SEO, there are dozens more who are genuinely good people and fight back against sexism as hard as we do, because it's not even in their realm to think that way,” Miller said. “I never felt while working for SEW, for example, that my input was any less valuable or my work less appreciated because I don't have an Adam's apple. On an individual level, we can address sexism by flat out rejecting it. As an industry, we need to support those people who expose it for what it is: unacceptable.”

Joyce also said women being made to feel unwelcome at conferences is a huge issue.

“I think we all need to just stay aware of the issues women face, but I think they vary. Some women may never feel like they have to deal with any drama, while some may encounter it constantly,” Joyce said. “Being aware of it and talking about it can only help.”

Roth noted that even though this is an issue, the comments by men and women in posts discussing these issues have shown that efforts are being made across the board to open up more avenues for women in this industry.

“However the fact still remains that this industry is dominated by males – you only have to look around the networking events at most of the conferences to see the ratio of men to women at events – there are other factors to remember such as women having children and not being as flexible as men to attend such events,” Roth said.

As for those women attending SES events, Roth notes that “a female speaker at SES New York is looking into arranging a girls night out for female speakers – so hey we could be getting somewhere in making the female marketers a powerful force!”

Mackey said women must encourage each other and keep pushing to make their voices heard. Murtagh echoed this point.

“Women may sometimes feel as though they have to do it better, longer and shout about it louder, to get the same recognition that men may with much less effort. However, when you are doing the work for the right reasons, you can, and will earn the respect, support and recognition deserved,” she said.

Another challenge for women: finding the right balance, Mackey said.

“As women we all need to continue fighting for flexible workplaces and work/life balance,” Mackey said. “The recent uproar over Yahoo disallowing working from home is a step back for women, and we need to keep pushing against family-unfriendly policies in the workplace.”

Another issue is that women still have to work harder to prove their worth, said Zeckman.

“Finding that balance between being feminine and authoritative is not always easy (just ask me, I'll tell you). If we want other people to take us seriously, then we need to display confidence in what we know and show we are just as competent as the next ‘guy’.”

Stereotyping is still an issue but getting better, Buyer said.

“Some of the best qualities of women unfortunately can be the worst qualities,” Buyer said. “So balancing that in business and marketing is key. The more balance, the more power, for both men and women.

Another issue, though not unique to marketing, is the issue of pay, Sandler said.

“I am not sure about marketing, but women certainly still work harder than men for less or equal pay,” she said. “This, I strongly believe, women do to themselves. It takes a strong woman to stand on her own and get what she deserves.”

Where to Now?

So what does the future hold for women in marketing? Barone said that the barriers for entry (and having their voices be heard) are pretty much equal for men and women.

“I've never felt held back or like I was dismissed because I was a woman,” Barone said. “One of the greatest things about our industry is that we truly care about what people are capable of doing, not their gender.

El-Shinnaway agreed, noting the number of female entrepreneurs and CEOs is on the rise, which is “both inspirational and empowering.”

“I think the industry is still very much dominated by men, but I see that as more of an opportunity than a challenge,” she said. “I've been working a lot with Big Data and Predictive Analytics recently, so you can imagine I've been mostly working with men. Which is great! We're creating a gender-neutral environment of collaboration where everyone's work matters and different skill sets complement each other.”

Murtagh said she looks forward to a day when women don’t need a dedicated day to elevate appreciation and awareness for the valid and significant contributions they make every day.

“Women want to be measured by the contributions they make, not on a separate scale, but on the same level playing field as men,” she said.

With so many bright women already in marketing, Lee is confident that we'll see more and more female voices as time goes on.

“I think one of the ways we can overcome some of the challenges women face in marketing or any field is to celebrate the unique differences and attributes women bring to their field and the workplace, and take care not to force the same standards men hold for one another,” she said. “Women define success in different ways, and the best thing we can do is to evolve with those definitions of success.

Lisa Raehsler, Founder of Big Click Co., said that in the past, it was difficult and discouraging for women to get into search marketing because they were more likely to face male-oriented tech-like teams and lack of female mentors and leaders. But she has noticed an upward trend of more women getting into the field than 5 years ago, and is now seeing many teams equally men and women.

“With the wild growth of the search marketing and so many exciting opportunities, more woman have been attracted to the field to lead – and excel – in search,” Raehsler said. “I personally strive every day to make a positive impact on the search industry by practicing SEM ethically, knowledge sharing, and examining the bigger picture trends. International Women’s Day is a good opportunity for all of us to reflect on how we impact the world as women search leaders.”

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned Media
Sept. 10-13, 2013: With a newly announced, completely renovated agenda,
SES San Francisco could be the most valuable online marketing conference you attend this year. Register today and save up to $200!
*Pre-show rate through September 6.

At One Month, Bing Says Unique Users Up; Compete Says Barely Any Gain In Searches

A second major ratings service, Compete, has now released search engine share figures for June 2009 showing Microsoft’s new Bing service making a tiny gain. That, following Hitwise’s mixed stats from last week, keeps Bing in “it’s too early to say” territory. Meanwhile, Bing itself says at one month old, unique users up 8%.

Here are the figures showing share of searches each search engine handled in the United States, for June 2009 from Compete:

Normally, I’m loathe to do month-to-month comparisons, because they can be so easily skewed by many factors and not be indicative of a trend. But given Bing’s massive launch, it makes sense to look closely at the May to June 2009 change.

Bing was up — barely — from 6.2% to 6.5%, a tiny 0.3% gain. Did that hurt Google? Nope. Google rose from 73.3% to 73.9%, a 0.6% gain. Down were Yahoo and Ask, both losing 0.4% in share. AOL was unchanged (and barely registers at 0.8%).

So Bing hurt Yahoo and Ask? Hard to say. There’s often a seasonal downturn in summer, when students are out of school, so searching declines.

In terms of search volume — the actual number of searches performed — EVERYONE but Bing was down. That suggests the new marketing helped drive additional queries rather than necessarily pulled from the other players.

Google dropped from 9.145 billion searches in May to 9.065 billion searches in June, an 80 million searches drop. Yahoo lost about the same, 83 million searches. Ask lost 55 million and AOL lost 5 million. That’s 223 million searches lost. Did Bing get them all? No. Bing was up only 1 million searches.

What happened is the overall search “pie” of searches got smaller. Bing’s marketing helped it keep a larger slice of pie than likely would have happened, but the decline of the others isn’t because it “stole” from them.

And how’s Google up on a percentage basis when it’s also lost 80 million searches? That’s because on a percentage basis, Google actually got a bigger slice of the smaller pie compared to May 2009.

If searches from Bing’s “Club Bing” gaming service are included, the service does much better, gaining nearly 1% in share (0.9%). But Google also gains even more share, 1.4%. That’s because in May 2009, when Club Bing (then Club Live) figures were counted, that gave it less of a slice compared to June:

In terms of ads, Bing has more to trumpet. The percentage of “sponsored referrals,” that is the percentage of people clicking on ads compared to free results, nearly doubled from 3.1% in May to 5.6% in June, a 2.5% gain:

That comes along with news from Efficient Frontier’s research that Bing has gained click share along with advertiser spend share (see Report: Search Ad Spending Stabilizes While Bing Gains On Google, Yahoo).

Of course, both Ask and AOL saw similar gains. Ask gained 2.2% month-to-month in sponsored clicks and AOL got a 1.9% gain. Neither had major redesigns or marketing pushes.

Where’s this leave us? Hitwise: Bing Both Grows & Drops In June; Google Still Tops covers how stats last week from Hitwise were hardly conclusive. On a monthly basis, Bing lost share. On a week-by-week basis, it gained over 2% from the beginning of the month to the end.

So, it remains watch-and-see. NetRatings and comScore will be out later this month with their own figures for June. Still, we really want to see what happens around October and November, when people are back from school and the marketing barrage has ended or ramped down. How has the service done then? Bing: comScore sees Gains; Compete Sees Same Old, Same Old has more perspective about that.

Meanwhile, over at the Bing blog, Microsoft has posted some stats of its own in Bing At Month One:

Bing said it saw an 8 percent growth in unique users (note this is users, not actual searches, if you’re trying to compare to Compete or other figures)Bing said its estimate of “people likely to recommend” visitors to Bing doubledShopping’s said to have had a 3 times increase in visits and 5.42% increase in Cashback transactionsTravel’s said to have had a 90% increase in traffic

No, Publishership Isn’t Coming Soon To Google Search To Join Authorship

There are expectations in some quarters that publishers will soon be able to have their logos showing up in Google in the way that authors can have their pictures appear. But, Google says there are “no plans” for some type of “publishership” to go live similar to the way it handles authorship.

Expectations were raised after Kahena Digital and Standing Dog noted that publishers using rel=publisher can see how their logos would look in Google’s Rich Snippets testing tool.

However, Google told us generally that this has been working that way in the testing tool for months and that there are no plans to announce regarding authorship for publishers. Google is looking at ways to clarify this in the tool for the future.

For example, the rich snippet testing tool shows for Search Engine Land, the company logo in the preview:

But, if you search for [search engine land] in Google, Google does not show the company logo in the search snippet, as it would with authorship.

Here is a screen shot of the result snippet for searchengineland.com in Google:

As you can see, there is no image or graphic of the company logo in the snippet, as you would see for authorship.

Here is how authorship snippets look in Google’s search results for our very own Danny Sullivan.

Again, Google said publishers should not expect to see the company logo show up as they do for authorship pictures in the search results.

Related Stories:Google Downplays Google+ With Updated Authorship Snippet?Author Rank, Authorship, Search Rankings & That Eric Schmidt Book QuoteIs Bing Testing �Subjectship� Rather Than Authorship In Its Search Results?Google Confirms Hidden Benefit Of Authorship: Bonus Links After A Back-Button ClickGoogle Emails Authorship Confirmations To BloggersWant Your Picture In The Google Search Results? Add A Google+ ProfileOnly 9% Of Tech Blogs Implement Google Authorship Properly

Is a Rush to Revenue Hurting Your Marketing Innovation & Domination?

Here’s a familiar scenario with many companies that have tactically approached social media marketing: �”Let’s stop wasting time with this social media mumbo jumbo. We need to increase sales, grow revenue and sign up more customers!”.

On the other end of the spectrum you might hear, “Social media marketing is too difficult to measure, it’s early days. So let’s keep investing and eventually we’ll be able to see our return.” �Neither attitude has the best long term interests of the business in mind.

Clearly there are few businesses that don’t want to increase sales and conversions, but is a singular focus on revenue, especially in today’s world of connected consumers, actually helping bottom line business results or creating a longer term disadvantage? �Alternatively, is the absence of focus on revenue with social media marketing a responsible and accountable approach to the investment?

Winning battles without also winning hearts and minds can lose the war.

Increased transactions and revenue alone are not enough to scale competitive advantage. Investment in prospect, community and customer engagement are also essential, even if they don’t directly generate sales. �Investment in digital marketing innovation that keeps pace with shifts in technology and how consumers use digital communication channels to discover, consume and engage with content is essential to achieve and maintain a competitive advantage, especially when both the direct and indirect impact on revenue is being optimized.

Some revenue-only driven marketers will see the progress their social media savvy competitors are making with industry buzz and move towards a social media marketing effort, but it’s often superficial or more mechanical than meaningful. Increasing fans, friends and followers does not automatically equate to more sales or qualitative engagement.

Meaningful social engagement between companies and the communities of prospects, customers, partners, employees and industry media can act as a force multiplier towards gaining market share and improving business outcomes all along the customer lifecycle of engagement from attention to transaction to advocacy.

There are a number of obstacles to qualitative social media adoption within organizations and a recent study by the�Economist Intelligence Unit and PulsePoint Group reveals the most common barriers include the inability to prove ROI. I think John Bell from Social@Ogilvy offers a great response�to that:

“Don’t let ROI hunger kill innovation.�ROI and budget are also a leadership issue. �While arriving at ROI measures are important to managing business, they are hard to do in a space where we are all still innovating and proving models valid. Leaders need to guide organizations to be responsible about value without being too ruthless on ROI in the near term lest they kill innovation.”

There is no question marketing needs to be accountable to sales and revenue. At the same time, the direct and indirect impact of effective, meaningful and scalable social media marketing efforts must be considered in that accountability, not just the short term wins. �Limiting investment solely to those activities that directly impact customer acquisition and sales leaves a lot of mindshare, awareness and collective brand equity on the table for competitors to take and turn into scalable revenue in the future.

What are your roadblocks to broader and more meaningful social media adoption within your company? �Which end of the spectrum do you fall? Pure ROI or Pure Engagement? Somewhere in between?

Google Goes Down Briefly

Google down, as verified by Down For Everyone Or Just Me?

It wasn’t you. It was Google. Specifically, Google.com went down around 3:50pm PT for about five minutes, a very rare occurrence. Other Google services also appear to have had issues.

We’ll update if we hear more, but it appears back now. It certainly sparked brief panic on Twitter. Twitter search service Topsy tweeted a chart showing the sudden spike in tweets:

The last time something even close to this happened was probably in January 2009, when for about 40 minutes, Google labeled every site in its results as malware, due to a human error.

There were some reports on Twitter that Google Drive, Gmail and other Google services also went down briefly, though the Google App Status Dashboard didn’t list any problems.

Postscript (5pm PT): Google sent us this:

We have received reports of an issue affecting some Google services. The issue is now resolved. Please follow our dashboard for more information:�http://www.google.com/appsstatus

The dashboard now has small red dots in the 8/16/13 column to indicate a problem happened today for major Google services:

When you select a service, you get virtually the same message like this one for Gmail:

We’re aware of a problem with Gmail affecting a significant subset of users. The affected users are able to access Gmail, but are seeing error messages and/or other unexpected behavior. We will provide an update by 8/16/13 5:37 PM detailing when we expect to resolve the problem. Please note that this resolution time is an estimate and may change.�The incident lasted 1-5 minutes.

Stay tuned for more.

Yelp Outs More Businesses With Another Batch Of Paid Review Alerts

Yelp’s battle against phony reviews and unacceptable tactics to earn reviews continues today with the company posting another batch of “Consumer Alert” messages on business profile pages.

This is the second time Yelp has announced that some businesses will be outed for trying to game its system. Back in October, Yelp put a message on eight business profile pages saying that those companies were “caught … red-handed trying to buy fake reviews.”

The alert being posted today is slightly different. It tells consumers that Yelp “caught someone offering up cash, discounts, gift certificates or other incentives in exchange for reviews about this business.”

Yelp says this message will show on the affected business profiles for the next 90 days. A Yelp spokesperson declined to say exactly how many businesses are getting this alert, but said it’s a “similar number” to the eight that were hit in October.

Among the major local search and directory sites, Yelp has historically been the most strict when it comes to what it will let businesses do to gain reviews. In short, almost nothing. Buying reviews via cash, discounts or gifts is a no-no on other sites, too, but Yelp discourages business owners from even inviting customers to write a review.

Local Search Marketers Guesstimate 2013 Google Ranking Factors

Despite the annual changes in the local search ecosystem, the ranking factors that Google uses to determine its local search results haven’t changed much over the past year.

So say the 35 local search marketers that contributed to the 2013 Local Search Ranking Factors — organized again this year by David Mihm, and published this year on Moz.com (his employer’s website).

The survey looks at general local ranking factors first, then dives into a long list of specifics (more than 100 in all) and negative ranking factors — local search no-nos, you could call them.

The most influential general ranking factors, according to the survey experts, are

Place Page Signals (proximity, having a keyword in the business name, etc.)On-Page Signals (keyword in title tags, domain authority, etc.)External Location Signals (citations from other sites, name/address/phone consistency, etc.)Link Signals (quality of inbound links, anchor text, etc.)Review Signals (how many, how frequent they are, etc.)

And getting more specific, the top local factors were some of the same that they’ve been in past years: using the correct categories, being physically located in the city being searched, high-quality citations and clear/consistent Name/Address/Phone information.

There’s much more to review in the full survey results, but that should give you a taste of what to expect. If you do local search marketing for yourself or for clients, it’s a must read (as it is every year).

Online Marketing News: Video Trends Map, Content Recommendation Engine & New Google+ Layout

New Google+ Layout: Hangouts, Photos and Stream Reminiscent of Pinterest

Google announced a major update to their social network this week that changes the way Hangouts, photos and the Google+ stream are viewed by users. The decidedly Pinterest-esque layout was just one of many announcements this week out of Google I/O, the totality of which Jeremiah Owyang and Chris Silva dubbed a “wreck.”

“The end result, we hope, is an app that looks and feels great across a family of devices,” Senior VP Vic Gundotra wrote of the Google+ changes. This is in line with Google’s mantra of late: Technology works best when it gets out of the way, and lets people do what makes them happiest: living, learning and loving.

With the announcements of more interconnection of services, Google Maps as a virtual world, Google All Access music streaming and more, Owyang and Silva remind consumers to�expect the tools and products to get better, but to know you�re the product. If brands want to play in Google�s sandbox, they�ll ultimately need to pay, they said in summary.

Visit Web-Strategist.com to see the rest of Owyang and Silva’s commentary on what they called a “patchwork set of announcements from a fragmented company,” live from Google I/O.

Online Marketing News Briefs

It’s no surprise much of this week’s news pertains to Google and their products, given their I/O event and a myriad of changes announced this week. However, Facebook also made headlines through their retail social/mobile partnership with Target, as did insightful reports for online marketers from Google and GlobalWebIndex.

Content Recommendation Engine for Mobile Sites Launched by Google

Google has rolled out a content recommendation engine, which makes content recommendations for users at the bottom of the screen on news sites with the service enabled. Sites need just one snippet of code to add this functionality to their site. See more at TechCrunch.

Over Half of Global Internet Users Signed In to Facebook in Q1 2013

Facebook continues to dominate as the most popular social network on the planet, with just over half the world’s online population logging in on the site in the first quarter of 2013. Google+ came in a distant second, with 26% of global internet users, followed by YouTube, Twitter and Sina Weibo. See further analysis of GlobalWebIndex’s report at eMarketer.com.

Target and Facebook Join Forces in Cartwheel Mobile/Social/Retail Partnership

Cartwheel, a new site from a Target/Facebook partnership, has launched in beta and will begin rolling out their mobile/social program for retailers to a select group of participants shortly.�The program allows users to browse exclusive deals and sales, with additional savings for social sharing. Learn more about Cartwheel at MediaPost.

Google+ Launches Auto-Hashtagging

As part of the Google+ design makeover, a new feature enables automatic hashtagging in posts. Google will use data from their social graph and analysis to identify hashtagging opportunities and add them to content. Users can remove hashtags they feel are inappropriate. Read more about this new feature at Fast Company.

Mobile Search an Influencing Factor for 84% of In-Store Shoppers with Smartphones

The majority of consumers shopping in-store are using smartphones to help them make purchasing decisions, according to new research from Google. Of those, the vast majority – 82% – are using mobile search, rather than apps or direct navigation to company websites – to access shopping information. Search Engine Watch has additional insights from Google’s�Mobile In-Store Research: How in-store shoppers are using mobile devices report.

New YouTube Trends Map Shows Viral Videos Across the US

People in search of a visual way to see which videos are trending across the United States have a new tool, courtesy of YouTube. The�YouTube Trends�map displays the most popular videos across the country, with the option to drill down by gender, age, location and type of activity on the video.

This Week in the @TopRank Community

Our community – whether at Online Marketing Blog, on Twitter or elsewhere on the web – is a group of insightful, generous marketers always willing to share their experience with other members!

Check out these great tips, comments and quirky news from the @TopRank community this week:

It is very true that we need to be SHOWN how things work. It always makes me laugh when people tell me “I’m a visual person”, as if having a drawing in front of them is the only way they would see it. What they don’t realise is that EVERYONE is a visual person.�On the other hand, if you were truly ‘visual’ you wouldn’t need it shown to you – you could see it in your head anyway. That’s what visual creatives do.”

~ from Suffolk Graphic Designer in response to�The Power of Visual Content Marketing and Brand Visuals in Action�on how your audience learns through content.

Stay tuned to the�@TopRank�Twitter channel this week for the latest online marketing, social and content headlines!

5 Reports on B2B Social Media Marketing & New Media Trends

Staying on top of social media and networking trends is essential for B2B marketers. Forrester Research predicts, “B2B companies will spend $54 million on social media marketing in 2014, up from just $11 million in 2009.” via eMarketer. �Data and research are key to forecasting and strategy development but not many B2B companies invest the time and effort into such initiatives outside of link-baity Infographics.

Luckily, there are many analysts and agencies that serve the B2B Marketing industry that do conduct regular research into topics like social media marketing.

Here are 5 meaty reports published in 2011 that can help B2B marketers understand the direction new media and social media is taking in terms of overall strategy, industry trends, unique audience and application differences between social media platforms and measurement.

B2B Tech Marketing and Social Media: Which Social Media Channels Reach Tech Buyers? Schwartz Communications. This report focuses on B2B tech marketing and which social channels do tech buyers engage. There’s a lack of strategy in most B2B social media efforts and understanding of unique focus and appropriate use for each distinct social channel. This report covers specific social media platforms for B2B including: Blogs, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.�Report link (Slideshare) Updated link 01/23/12 – old source was disabled.

The Infinite Dial 2011: Navigating Digital Platforms. One of the keys to approaching social media strategy for B2B marketing programs is to understand industry trends. Since 1998 Arbitron and Edison Research have conducted a nationally representative survey�focusing on trends in digital platforms exploring the expanding digital media and communications landscape. This new report includes data from 2011 and covers numerous platforms used in B2B social media marketing from Smartphones to iPads to Facebook. Report link (pdf)

2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report - How marketers are using social media to grow their business by Michael A. Stelzner of Social Media Examiner. This report looks at both B2B and B2C social media and how they differ including time of use (B2B have used social media longer than B2C), which tools are used (LinkedIn, Video & Blogs) and even SEO (B2B marketers are more likely to use SEO).�Report Link (pdf).

Social Media for B2B Marketing from B2Bento (Asuthosh Nair & Jaspreet Sidhu). This report covers why social media matters for B2B, tips on planning strategy, conducting research and establishing guidelines. It also proves b2b social media marketing examples including a product launch, demand generation & customer retention. Of course there’s also advice on monitoring and measuring results. Overall a good B2B Social Media primer. Report link (pdf).

Emerging Trends In B-to-B Social Media Marketing: Insights From the Field from BtoB Intelligence Center. This report is not free ($149) but chock full of charts (sample pdf) and insights into the current state of Social Media Marketing for B2B by answering questions about budgeting, strategies, tactics, metrics and integration. Specific attention is paid to dominant social channels such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, Customer Communities and YouTube plus the all-important ROI. �Report landing page link.

What new reports on B2B social media marketing have you found to be useful? (paid or free). What sub-topics would you like to see covered?