Is it just here that it seems a bit odd that the Google Toolbar is not available with Google’s own browser, Chrome?! What do others think? How often do you use Chrome vs Firefox or Internet Explorer?Do you use the Google Toolbar?
As more of us become reliant on social media, not just for marketing campaigns but as a means to find out news, engage with peers, and so on, the need for search engines which specifically bring blog posts, Tweets, Diggs, social bookmarks etc to us has increased.
So, we set off to find some of the social media and real-time search engines that are already in existence. Get away from Google for a few hours and explore the many discussions and conversations on topics of interest to you!
LeapFish – this is a great little engine. Blogs, Youtube, Facebook, tweets, diggs, autosuggestion tool for searches, and much more. Definitely worth using.
SocialMention – interesting ranking system, plus regular users, sources, social media alerts, trending topics, and a blog widget.
Whostalking – search by category eg news, blogs, forums, images, videos, networks and tweets.
Samepoint – offers a wide range of searches across wikis, news, blogs, tweets, bookmarks, networks, podcasts, videos, news and so on.
OneRiot uses social networks to influence the results you receive. One Riot basically looks at what is being shared and trending at the moment, so that it is bringing you the most popular items.
AardVark is an interesting example in that you submit a question and the search engine finds the best person to answer for you across your social networks of friends and FOAFs (Friend of a Friend). An interesting idea, but one wonders if it implies that you can’t know your friends very well if you don’t know who to ask for yourself!
Fluther works in a similar way to aardvark, although it also shows all questions recently asked, and you can discuss your questions and answers in real time with other users and experts.
So, there’s a few to start with. Please let us know more – these are great fun as well as providing fascinating insights into what people are looking for from the social media they adopt.
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Metcalfe’s Law, which is mainly applied to telecoms networks, but can seemingly equally be applied to social networks, states:
the value of a (telecommunications) network is proportional to the square of the number of connected users
Therefore, if you know 2 people, the value of your network is 4. If you need 10 people, the value of your network is 100.
As social networking has taken off, both online and offline (breakfast networking events, niche networks events and so on), those who have the largest followings are often lauded as great networkers, which seems to instil feelings of jealousy and inadequacy in others.
Obviously, applying Metcalfe’s Law to the size of the networks would infer that their networks are more valuable than our own poor attempts! However, there has to be some consideration in valuing your network of: quality.
In telecoms networks, the value of the network is not affected by the quality of the user, so Metcalfe’s Law needs to now include a quality score. I am not the first to state this, and discussions on this subject have been ongoing for quite some time with even Bob Metcalfe himself getting involved, but maybe it bears consideration again as you go for the World record for new Twitter followers in a week!
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Imagine a large corporate, looking to increase links to their site and also raise brand awareness amongst potential customers, and demonstrate the expertise within their company.
Forum marketing is an ideal tool at this juncture, so let’s wheel out an in-house expert to post to a variety of fora and help out those communities with technical problems. Thus clearly exhibiting the knowledge within the business, plus reinforcing the image of a caring company.
However, due to company policy and a culture of fear about online damage to reputation, this expert can only post after getting permission from the PR department. Generally, most PR and Marcomms department are specialists in press releases, marketing communications, crisis management and so on.
Now, they are expected to be able to judge the value of a response made to a question in a forum on a subject in which the expert has spent 25 years becoming so knowledgeable. It may well be that they do not understand the question. After all, it is being asked for a reason ie the answer can’t readily be found elsewhere.
The expert then needs to educate the PR department as to why he has given said answer, and why the question is being asked, and how this fits into the overall marketing strategy of the company (not the expert’s forte, of course).
This all takes time, and therefore costs money. And is also utterly pointless.
If you employ your staff because they are GOOD at what they do, then trust them. Sure, monitor their excursions into fora to start with to ensure they are fully au fait with the brand and are on message, but don’t involve the PR department. Leave them to get press releases out, deal with the media, develop marketing strategies on and offline; don’t expect them to suddenly become experts in the minutiae of your technical department’s expertise.
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Interestingly, I was just penning a post for another blog on the subject of Rupert Murdoch etc when Seth’s latest article landed in my inbox – Rupert Murdoch has it backwards
I think Seth, and potentially many others, may have it wrong. I include myself on this as I am now re-writing my post for the other blog!
Why? Because I read this, literally seconds before Seth’s post landed, on The Register – Murdoch: Google is mortal and together we can kill it
Have some of us in the industry possibly become innured and accustomed to Google’s presence in our world? Do we fight it or argue about Google being the ‘main man’? Or have we given in? It isn’t that long (only 15 years) since I started in the industry, but there was no Google then. I don’t remember suffering to be honest.
The whole purpose of setting up an Internet Marketing business was to help companies to be found online. There were plenty of places where they could be found in the pre-Google days, but the SMEs didn’t know how to be featured in those places. For some, the costs vs rewards of internet marketing were infinitely better than now back then.And far less stressful!
Have we given Google an infinite rein to run around on like a demanding, spoilt brat? Or is it just “let the best man win” and Google are, indeed, winning?
I have just looked at the last 5 email newsletters from the industry which have landed today. I will choose one, at random, to illustrate how deeply ingrained our reliance on Google has become.
Today’s SearchEngine Land: SearchCap, the day in search for November 23rd. First 4 stories: Google + one ad for SMX. Look further down that email, 34 mentions of Google. Just to give you a clue as to its prevalence, there are precisely half that number of instances of the word “and”.
I urge people to read the somewhat controversial, possibly, article in El Reg and then comment. But only after you have paused for thought.
Forget you are American and so is Google, forget you earn your living from SERPs, and Google, adwords etc. First and foremost you are an internet marketer and should be using every channel and avenue for your clients.
What exactly does this alt.thinking mean to you?
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I know you won’t believe me, but it’s true.
Recently, we wrote about phone call tracking. The point being that it gives very strong data about conversions from landing pages when the call to action is to ‘p.p.p.p.pick up the phone’.
Interestingly, this has now cropped up again as a subject for discussion on SearchEngineLand.
Let’s ask why consumers might call a number, rather than send an email or complete a form. The article above fails to address the issue from a consumer point of view, instead looking at all the reasons why the industry has ignored phone calls to date and why there is now a resurgence of the humble call.
As a consumer, how many times have you emailed an enquiry to a company and then not received a response? Not received a timely response? Or not received *any* response? Ditto with forms on websites. You complete the form, which is often far more lengthy than it need be, and you hit ‘submit’. You get an error and are thrown back to the previous page, yet now all the fields are blank. UGH!
Having cursed all coders under the sun for that last primary school error, which are you most likely to do:
a) just return to a search engine and seek another company offering a similar deal?
b) start all over again completing the form and pray that this time it will actually be delivered and that there isn’t another bug in the system that has failed without informing you?
Now, let’s look at it a different way, but still from the consumer’s point of view.
You are looking for a particular item, to be delivered by the weekend, and the first website you fall over clearly has the item in stock (great landing page, BTW, it took you straight to what you were looking for!), they can deliver in 2-3 days guaranteed (force majeure excepted), and have the item at a price you are prepared to pay.
You have Skype or similar installed, and the only call to action on that page is “Call this number and order today”. No alternatives. Just call. No email address, no online web form, although there is obviously clear navigation to the rest of the site.
You click and the phone call is initiated. Within moments you are through to a lovely receptionist who, within literally moments, has taken down and double checked your address, your order and removed a reasonably substantial amount of your money from your account on your instructions.
Two days later, the item you wished for is on your doorstep and is precisely what you had anticipated.
Next time you try online shopping, having been more than happy with your last purchase, and less than happy with other companies’ failures to answer emails, respond to forms etc, will you be:
a) More confident using the phone to order
b) Less confident
Each time a company gets it right by having well-trained staff to answer the phones, a back-end system that confirms the product is in stock, processes the order, and ensures that is sent out to the customer’s spec, that customer will use the phone.
Any company who starts ensuring that their phone answering process is up to scratch, and PROMOTING THAT FACT publicly, will begin to win out as customers feel let down by technology and revert to the one thing that they can rely on – the goold old telephone.
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Email marketing methods should be specifically targeted towards millenials – those aged between 18 and 25 – as a new report has revealed them to be the most receptive age group to discounts and free products in subject lines.
According to the study by Epsilon, 66 per cent of millennials in the UK respond to this, while just 33 per cent react to breaking news, announcements and general information.
This suggests that those involved in online marketing services may profit from using offers in email subject lines when sending them out to this demographic.
Managing director at Epsilon Iinternational EMEA Ian Hitt noted that ensuring segmented marketing campaigns are in place is important as "there’s a clear difference in behaviour among age groups".
This comes after a recent report from Marketing Sherpa indicated that email marketing practices have profited from the recession as one of the few advertising areas that was "spared the axe" of budget cuts.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – experts in SEO, Pay Per Click Services, Multilingual Search Marketing and Website Conversion Enhancement services
I’ve just been reading through the comments submitted to this blog, which are currently under moderation rather than open.I don’t think I am particularly heavy handed with the delete button, but the majority of the comments submitted break all netiquette whilst achieving nothing for your Web PR….
Commenting on blogs is an excellent way to attract traffic to your site, build relationships and get involved in constructive dialogue. Unless you are spamming. In which case, it is a waste of time.
Here are 10 things NOT to do when using comments as a blog marketing tool.
1. Don’t just write “Nice blog”. That is not a positive contribution to any discussion!
2. Don’t write about something totally irrelevant. eg much as I may care that Aaron has pimples all over his body (which I don’t), it is severely off-topic. And spam.
3. Don’t include a blatant link to your website in the comment unless it will lead readers of that blog to VALUABLE information about the subject of the post.
4. Don’t link to affiliate sites.Many bloggers are trying to earn money and stay alive too.
5. Don’t forget that comments are for ..um…COMMENTING on the post. Not to promote your site, sell drugs, or any other similar activity.
6. Don’t fill the name field with every keyword you can think of pertaining to your own product/service. Think of a name. Yes, use your company name or twitter handle if you wish, but keep it sensible.
7. Don’t cut and paste and repeat comments on multiple blogs. Many blogs are interlinked because of subject area and any users who visit multiple sites and read the exact same comment from you over and over again will give you negative PR rather than positive.
8. “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than speak out and remove all doubt.” Abraham Lincoln
9. Don’t be offensive, disrespectful or abusive. Be polite. You are writing on someone else’s blog.
10. Don’t forget where you have posted a comment. Duplicate postings on a comment thread are unnecessary.
It should be simple, but judging by all the comments I have deleted today, for some it is more taxing than it should be.
Do you get exasperated with callers who insist on making you spell every word in your address, even really obvious ones?
So do we. This has just happened in the office. We were listening to a colleague in precisely that situation being asked to spell her address “Garden Lane”.
None of this alpha, beta, charlie standard phonetic alphabet for our staff. Oh no….
” G….for gnome.”
The huge grin indicated confusion had successfully been achieved at the other end.
So, we are coming up with a new, call centre confusing alphabet so you too can smile when they struggle to work out which letter you mean.
We need your help though as we aren’t doing very well yet!!
A is for aardvark
B is for
C is for chaos
D is for djibouti
E is for effort, ewe
F is for
G is for gnome
H is for hors d’oeuvre, heir
I is for
J is for jojoba
K is for knife, knacker
L is for Llewellyn (in Welsh, pronounced Thlu-welyn)
M is for mnemonic
N is for
O is for ouija,
P is for phishing, philistine, psychic, psychologist, phew and many, many more!
Q is for Qu’ran, Quebec
R is for
S is for
T is for tsunami
U is for
V is for
W is for why, wrench
X is for xylophone
Y is for Yves San Laurent
Z is for
Your contributions please!!!
(And we wonder why people struggle to learn English!)
Brands have been advised to consider implementing strategies involving search engine optimisation (SEO) and social media, rather than focusing solely on online banner advertising.
PR agency Punch Communications observed that the promotional campaigns of those in the online marketing services industry include a "far broader range" of techniques, as social media has "evolved significantly", alongside search marketing.
Referring to the social internet, the company observed that by concentrating on this, brands are able to engage with consumers and improve customer relations, as well as enhance understanding.
And people appear to enjoy using search engines, with an increasing number turning to them for information, suggesting that firms may profit from higher rankings in organic search results.
"Many people now prefer to use organic search results to help solve their problems and this is where SEO has worked best, with social media complementing the activity," managing director of Punch Communications Pete Goold observed.
His comments come after a recent TechRadar report revealed that webmasters are increasingly finding search engine marketing to be important, in light of the fact that, in July, over 113 billion queries were logged on sites such as Google.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a best practice Internet Marketing Agency.
