I’ve written previously about the need to re-evaluate search marketing by attending to how users encounter your BRAND through search as opposed to the dated approach of focusing on where your URL appears.  This week a study emerged from a the search marketing agency Slingshot, showing that the click-through-rates (CTRs) on search result pages (SERPs) are diversifying dramatically such that only 52% of Google users and 26% of Bing users are clicking on anything on page 1.  People use search in multifaceted ways so we have to stop believing in the old alchemy of the magical number 1 slot and the obsession over where our URL ranks.  It’s the total experience of the brand that matters and those who make this transition quickest stand to gain the most from their search marketing efforts.

For years, the thinking has been that the top slots produce the lion’s share of the user activity on SERPs.  Various studies in the mid 2000s indicated that the top three slots got as much as 50-60% percent of the activity.  I’m not sure that the story was ever as dramatic as those stats indicated but the present reality is certainly different.  As Google and Bing have moved to build Universal Search Result pages that include blended results from a  variety of content sources, users have begun exploring the SERPs more readily.

Depending upon their mindset, the SERP gives the user many directions to pursue.  Are you just learning about a certain product or service?  Visit manufacturer sites and read articles on the topic.  Are you narrowing down or comparing options?  Visit review sites, blogs and forums.  Sick of reading and want a simpler overview….look for videos. Need something near you……check out the local listings.  The list of options grows annually and we all benefit from the multiplicity of content that is available.

All this reinforces the idea that brands need a content marketing strategy that contributes to the proliferation of content and conversation about them.  A content marketing strategy focuses on the needs of your audience and the best ways to provide them with useful information.  Useful content leads to greater distribution of content and therefore a wider variety of ways that users can encounter your brand off any specific SERP.  This trend along with the trend towards mobile access of digital content are the two most game defining changes that marketers must embrace in the coming year.  Embrace the change!  It’s a good thing.

In the beginning there was SEO.  Then on the seventh day, Google created PPC.  Then, the creators of our acronyms realized that there was an opportunity for a new one called Search Engine Marketing (SEM).  It would combine paid and organic search techniques and the Gods would be pleased with us for being so clever.  So why the snark?  I am tired of the obsession that we seem to have for “driving”  (sounds like something we do with cattle), “traffic” (aren’t these actually people), to our site (a magic land where we ensnare traffic into the inevitable conversion act with our elegant design, crafty copy and inescapable marketing acumen).  This is not how people behave online an we all know because we are (most of us) people and we do not behave that way.  The time has long since come for us to consider more than the one url that our magic land resides at but rather all the ways that users can encounter our brands through distributed content and conversions in what I daresay I have a new acronym for.  How about Search Experience Marketing (that way you don’t have to learn a new three letter abbreviation, SEM)?  Here’s my argument for why this makes more sense and is ultimately better search engine marketing than traditional approaches.

When a user searches they are presented with a SERP that has lots of options on it.  Maybe your website is one of them, but it’s only one of them.  What other things could they encounter:

• review sites
• blogs
• forums
• videos
• maps
• images
• news sites
• vertical industry search directories
• white papers
• press releases
• everything else that the internet is made of

If you are fortunate, this user may visit your website but why should they stop there with so much more information close at hand.  Would you? The reality is that every day people either encounter (or fail to encounter) your brand through all of these areas listed above.  A content marketing strategy that creates valuable, useful stimulating and helpful content in a variety of forms that flows socially into the fabric of the layered search experience that I describe above is the best way to attract and influence your target audience.  Obsessing only about where your site sits on a specific set of SERPs seems so narrow a consideration.

How does this work in action?  I recently shopped for a refrigerator.  This falls into the category of a considered purchase.  I searched for fridges and found that a website with helpful decision-making tools on it.  I narrowed it down to a type that I preferred.  On an ecommerce site I found some options.  On their corporate site I saw some specification and sometimes a helpful product tour.  On blogs I saw discussions and reviews.  My mind changed.  I settled on a brand.  I saw other helpful videos about the product by organizations other than the brand.  I was now romanced into the state of high gadget lust that I needed to be in.  Pennies are now being saved and product will soon be purchased.  What role did traditional SEO play in that?  A very small one.

Search engines are intentionally trying to make the SERPs more about answering questions than just scanning the web for keywords.  Your audience is going create an experience for themselves when they search in your space.  The more deeply woven you become in that experience, the better your brand will perform.  It’s not just about keywords and rank.  It’s about the totality of the search experience.  Is that what you are seeking to influence today?  If not, could it be?  Please?

As social media content continues to find its way into search engine result pages (SERPs), interesting new data reveals just how much traffic is referred to our s facebook pages from search.  The folks at the very useful Facebook analytics engine PageLever published their analysis of over 1000 fan pages with 10,000 fans or more and found that 33.98% of the referring traffic to these pages came from one of the three major search engines.There are two things about this that I find very interesting:

Firstl, this stat means that about 9.5% of all traffic to  facebook pages comes from search on average.  That is definitely higher than what I would have anticipated.  Also it should be noted that Google is by far the largest contributor to this percentage. Almost 82% of the traffic from search to facebook pages is coming from Google.

The second thing about this that interests me is the degree to which this may impact our content strategies on Facebook.  Good SEO strategies usually begins with good content strategies.  Social media is important outlet for a content strategy.  Therefore, we can now realize how important it is to apply solid content marketing principles, with SEO underpinnings, to our Facebook fan page output whenever it is possible to do so.

I’m not recommending keyword stuffing your posts but just being mindful of the fact that the search engines, Google in particular, are crawling what you create, and they seem to be making more off an effort to make it visible through SERPs.  Well-thought out, useful, entertaining or engaging content is best path towards greater search visibility in all channels.  That’s good news for the marketer and even greater news for the consumer.

Since the widespread adoption of the tablet as the content consumption platform of choice, the industry has been eagerly anticipating the rise of the Internet TV as the next disruptive platform to change the way we thing about digital content consumption.  Is it happening?  Sort of, but not as quickly or with as much innovation as we had hoped.  With the drop in price of the Logitech Google TV set-top box and the announcement by Viewsonic that it is deep-sixing its plans to build a Boxee powered TV, there is growing evidence that the marketing for this technology is softening.  Or is it just that the right forces have not yet come together to make this technology take off?  I once saw an attempt at creating a solid-body electric guitar that was build in the early 1930s.  That was the wrong time for that technology to take off.  Musical styles (content) had not evolved, manufacturing processes (technology) had not become cost efficient enough, and the demand was not there because people did not know what to do with it (user experience).  Internet TV is that same moment where the content, technology and user experience pieces have not yet come together in a moment that will drive consumer adoption.

Sure you can buy Internet TVs but as Van Baker, Vice President of research for Gartner recently observed, “In most cases consumers are buying a television with Internet connectivity as insurance. In other words, they are buying them just in case they need it in the future.”  There are also plenty of price-accessible ways to get a non-ethernet TV connected, not the least of which is my personal favorite the Sony PS3.  The problem is once you are connected, what can you do?  Or more appropriately what can your connected TV now do better than the myriad of other devices that surround us every day.  The answer is that beyond on-demand streaming the user experience is not yet fully developed.

Do consumers want to use browsers on a TV screen?  Despite the fact that the TV screen is large it does not offer a very conducive browsing experience.  But some things do work?  Have you seen the YouTube and Netflix apps designed specifically for the TV?  They have large buttons that are easy to navigate to and click.  They have a display that is almost devoid of text (hard to read on a TV) and heavy on seductive visuals (fun to look at on a big screen).  But until there are more apps and user experiences that are built specifically for the TV, the usefulness of it as digital device is somewhat limited.

However, the promise is still there.  As companies like Adobe help hash out digital rights access with its Adobe Pass offering and as more of these devices continue to end up in consumers’ homes, if for no other reason than the current crop of product is coming equipped with the technology whether consumers demand it or not, the groundwork is being laid for enterprising content providers to realize that there is a new opportunity to wrap bigger and bolder user experiences around their content and make it accessible in ways that best suit the TV as an interface.  I’m still bullish on the technology and anxious to see how this next wave of digital user experiences will evolve.  In fact, I think this is the time for publishers and media companies to take the lead and prove what this technology can be good for.

As I have had the opportunity to experiment with an increasing number of Facebook ad campaigns, I feel like I’m starting to get a feel for how to use the platform to best effect.  I’m sure that we could get some great input from all of you as well but the approach I’d like to talk about has to do with taking a layered approach that includes fan page enhancements, regular facebook ads and sponsored story ads used in combinations.  I think this layered approach is the best way to address the issues of new fan acquisition, engagement and leveraging a fan base in one concerted effort.1.  Develop a content marketing strategy: This can be as simple or as complex as the project demands but take some time to figure out what you can say and do with your audience(s) that is likely to have value to them while also serving the needs of allowing you to communicate what you need to communicate.

2.  Use fan page enhancements and apps to offer higher levels of engagement to the audience(s): There are wide range of great apps and a variety of price points that can create whole new user experiences for your facebook fan page.  Some of the functionality you can add include contests, coupons, like gates, custom landing pages, sign up forms, galleries, downloads and a whole variety of other experiences.  Don’t just rely on the wall and the like button.  Give people more ways to interact with you.

3.  Use Facebook ads as a fan acquisition tool: Facebook ads suffer from high impressions at low CTRs.  However, they are also not terribly costly so that even at low CTRs you can generate enough impressions to create some activity.  I think this makes them useful for acquiring new fans and building out a base of awareness but read on….

4.  Use Sponsored Stories to leverage fans: Don’t let your facebook advertising stop at fan acquisition.  Sponsored stories based on the actions that the fans take on your newly enhanced fan page is the secret sauce that makes all the rest of this work worthwhile.  In the most basic sense, they offer you the ability to leverage your fans to reach their friends in generally more impactful ways than simple post liking achieves. Here’s a link to a PDF from facebook on the subject.

So how have you been combining these tactics together?  Anyone have any additional thoughts or examples of recent projects that showcase how this all works?

We are moving rapidly toward a version of the internet in which a large portion of the user experiences exist outside the web browser.  A recent article by EMarketer cites research by the Boston Consulting Group suggesting we are on the edge of a big leap forward in tablet purchases.  Most interestingly is that the impetus driving this consumer lust for tablets is its emergence as the platform of choice for consumers when it comes to accessing digital content in all its forms. In the U.S. 34% of the audience surveyed indicated an intent to purchase a tablet device in the coming year while 54% indicated a willingness to purchase within three years.  In reviewing the analytics across the many sites that I manage I can confirm that tablet access of websites has quadrupled since the same time last year.  However what interests me is that websites are not really want consumers want to access on tablets.  According to the study, the driver is that consumers prefer the tablet for consuming content like articles, videos, galleries, audio etc.  We need to understand that the tablet allows us to create non-browser user experiences around this content that elevate it, make it more accessible, more enjoyable, and more engaging.

This does not mean that everyone should race to build an app.  In fact, it opens up many more opportunities than apps alone.  But is an app is on your mind, now may the time to look into the recently released Adobe Digital Publishing Suite that allows for the creation of tablet apps from within Adobe InDesign for CS5.  No programming knowledge outside InDesign is required to create highly immersive experiences and load them into a variety of app stores.

Regardless of what technology you choose, the key is to generate content that is ideally suited to the advantages of the tablet.  Think in terms of experiences that unfold or collapse based on the users input.  Think about rich media.  Think about how people browse publication as opposed to the very self-directed way they use websites.  Create experiences that enrich the content rather than just making at accessible. Very shortly your consumers will be wandering the earth clutching their little storytelling devices and spending hours a day diving into them.  What stories do you want to tell?  What will they want from you?

One of my favorite thinkers concerning things web-related is Avinash Kaushik.  His most recent blog post contains the text of a speech he gave to a gathering of Canadian marketing executives. The point of it is that we fail to take advantage of the promise of Internet marketing because most of us find “shout” marketing and interruption advertising to be more comfortable.  It is brilliant.  It is controversial. It challenges us all.  I just really like it.  Take the time to read it here.  Send your comments.

Spinning off this recent article that lists the Top Eight Social Media Campaign Management Tools I thought I’d add two more that I like and make it an even 10 tools that can really help social media marketers better engage their audiences and track results. There is a always a great deal of movement in the industry as new services launch and existing ones change hands or get acquired. My hope is that this list will still be accurate at least 17 seconds after I publish it.

1. WildFire
Wildfire allows you to create quizzes, contests, coupons, virtual gifts etc and distribute them to social networking sites. It also allows user to send multiple updates to different and multiple social networking sites.

2. Awareness Social marketing software
Awareness Social marketing software is a enterprise class tool which has wider perspective of social media marketing. It integrates all the social networking sites control like updating on multiple account and engaging with people. Further, it also has comprehensive ROI measuring features embedded in the system. It is mainly targeted to bigger enterprise (meaning that is on the more expensive side).

3. Buddy Media
Buddy Media also allows multiple account management from twitter and facebook . In addition, they have included lots of case studies from large brands. They allow users to manage and monitor campaign as well.

4. CoTweet
CoTweet gives more like a dashboard experience where you can view all the updates and schedule tweets. User can even track keywords and monitor the brands. It recently was acquired by ExactTarget so it will be interesting to see how that integration plays out.

5. Hootsuite
Along with CoTweet, Hootsuite is one of the more popular tools for managing accounts from one dashboard. Users can integrate multiple account from different sites (like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin ), view their streams, track their statistics and schedule to multiple accounts. Recently, they have even included the people management part where different person can be given different roles.

6. ObjectiveMarketer
ObjectiveMarketers has the inclusion of almost all the important sites from Twitter to YouTube. It also allows easy status updates to multiple account, branding the landing page, tracking click statistics and managing users role. It has also recently added some brand monitoring part to it. The most interesting feature of it is the ability to brand landing pages using customizable frames. Their tracking goes farther than most at helping to generate ROI statistics.

7. Socialtalk
Similar to all the above services, Socialtalk integrates Twitter, Facebook, WordPress and MoveableType. Allows multiple channel updates and work-flow management, scheduling and other features. SocialTalk is geared towards businesses where there is a matrixed approval process that posting activity has to pass through before it can go live.

8. Buzzom Premium
Buzzom Premium is also one of the most useful tool in social media management. It has comprehensive twitter activity monitoring dashboard, integration of sites like (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Fan Page and MySpace). User can easily schedule messages to these sites and even plan the whole campaign in an excel sheet and just upload. Recently, it has added a brand tracking facility which allows user to track keywords and engage with people. I like their Twitter follower management features that seem better thought out than most others.

9. Involver
Involver offers dozens of off-the-shelf but customizable Facebook apps that can really increase the types of interactions that you can offer through your Facebook fan pages. The have a basic free level and then two additional levels of paid access. I particularly like their photo gallery tool and the app for creating and sharing coupons.

10. ScoutLabs
Scoutlabs is my preferred tool for social media monitoring. The key to Scoutlabs is that it is not trying to do too much but what it does do it actually does very well and it is easy to use. It makes it easy to create searches that weed out all the irrrelevant results. It also has work-flow management tools so that a team of people can collaborate on engaging the online conversation around a brand.

Hope these help you out. Let me know of others that you think belong on this list. 10 does not have to be the magic number.

Social media is a major force not only amongst marketers and their peers who find the topic fascinating but amongst our actual audiences too. Nielsen’s Q1 2010 Consumer Confidence Survey, Q1 2010 @Plan reports and Audience Measurement tools are citing some striking facts that paint an even more dramatic picture of our immersion into social media than we might have thought.  I was particularly surprised by stats such as 21% of U.S. adults own or publish a blog or that 2/3 of global consumers refer to online product reviews when making a purchasing decision.  The complete excerpt is below:

• More than two-thirds of global consumers seek online product reviews, recommendations from discussion forums or social media sites when making a purchase decision.
• 40% of global consumers would not buy Consumer Electronics, 22% would not buy Telecommunications Services and 19% would not buy Gaming Devices without consulting online reviews.
• 21% of U.S. adults online publish or own a blog.
• 55% of U.S. adults online have 1 or more social networking profiles.
• 75% of the active U.S. Internet households visit a social networking site (May 2010). Globally, it’s 74% (April 2010).
• Social media websites had a unique audience in the U.S. of 148.2 million visitors (May 2010).
• U.S. consumers spent an average of 6 hours, 13 minutes a month using social networking websites (May 2010). Globally consumers spend an average of almost 6 hours (April 2010).
• Facebook is the #1 social networking site in the U.S., with a unique audience of 125.2 million visitors (May 2010).
• The average U.S. worker spends nearly 5.5 hours a month visiting social networking sites at the office (May 2010) and much of that time is spent visiting Facebook.
• Twitter has a unique U.S. audience of 19.1 million visitors (May 2010), growing more than 1,520% in the last two years (May 2010 v. May 2008).

Consumers are contributing and sharing online:

• 20% of U.S. adults online provide frequent advice on Movies
• 18% of U.S. adults online provide frequent advice on Television Programs
• 16% of U.S. adults online provide frequent advice on Music
• 14% of U.S. adults online provide frequent advice on Books
• 13% of U.S. adults online provide frequent advice on Websites / Internet Content & Services
• 12% of U.S. adults online provide frequent advice on Household Products (food and beverage)
• 12% of U.S. adults online provide frequent advice on Restaurants or Bars
• 11% of U.S. adults online provide frequent advice on Computer Hardware/Software
• 11% of U.S. adults online provide frequent advice on Electronics
• 9% of U.S. adults online provide frequent advice on Online Shopping
• 8% of U.S. adults online provide frequent advice on Video Games
• 8% of U.S. adults online provide frequent advice on Household Products (non-food)

I am most surprised by the propensity of our consuming audience to contribute to and create content online.  I did not think the numbers would have climbed this substantially over the last time I had seen a similar report.  Which of these observations do you find most interesting?

Foursquare, a location-based micro-blogging service that launched in 2009 seems to be on the verge of relevance. In preparation for their marketing push at SXSW they announced that they have added 500,000 new members bringing their total to somewhere in the 1 million area. Additionally, they are launching a free analytics service for business owners so that could create interesting marketing opportunities for businesses that are based on foot traffic. I’m rooting for them because this could become a very interesting marketing medium. This recent article in the NYTimes explains the new analytics service in some detail with examples of how some of the beta-testing businesses have been using it.Foursquare users use mobile apps to tell the foursquare community where they are and what they are doing.  However, from the business perspective, users are checking in when they come to your location which gives you some information that you can leverage.  For instance, some businesses have found that is interesting to be able to message formally frequent visitors to get them back.  Others have been able to learn more about what messages have been driving their customers to them.  In a nutshell, any business can see the registered customers and prospects around them and look for ways to reel them in or make their experience more enjoyable.

Here’s a screenshot of the kind of stats that they are planning to share with businesses:

Foursquare recently beta-tested this tool with 30 businesses and is planning to expand the beta round to 500 in the coming weeks.  If the user-base grows, this could become useful resource for marketers.  As it is right now, it’s just on the verge of  earning our attention.  Stay tuned and share any information you learn about this service or any of its near-competitors.