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Brand Exposure Series Part 2: PurinaCare Pet Health Insurance

lchen — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:31:55 GMT

By Lydia Chen Shah, Director Marketing Communications

It's definitely no secret the WebMetro team advocates advertising in the content networks. This form of internet marketing has proven to be an extremely effective avenue for targeted reach, increasing ROI, and lowering overall CPA. Contextual advertising also serves as a way to protect and support a brand/product whenever it is being discussed in forums, review sites, and other online publications participating in content networks.

But.many advertisers have yet to fully appreciate the opportunities from contextual advertising. Including a lot of big brands.that one might think has the resources behind its online advertising to ensure all direct response opportunities are tapped.

Last month, I began a quest to uncover big brands that have left themselves brand exposed in the content networks. First up was Mattel's Hot Wheels. This month, it's Purina. More specifically, it's PurinaCare Pet Health Insurance.

Let's paint a scenario. A real scenario. In my furry family are two dogs and a cat. Our oldest is Ichabod, a mix of Airedale Terrier and Collie. The middle child is Lola, a German Shepherd and Collie mix. The youngest of our rescues is Cupcake. While the husband likes to describe this feline as a hot mess, she is best described as a Tortie.

Caring for these pets can make a sizeable dent in one's pocketbook. The office visit fee for our veterinarian is more than the co-pay we shell out to see our doctor. Add heartworm meds, a few vaccinations, some dental care, and we're talking about a few Benjamins (100 dollar bills) per year. At least. Now multiply that by 2 dogs and a cat.

A friend of ours recommended we look into purchasing pet insurance. Naturally, I conducted a search for "pet insurance" to learn more about available options. Among the paid listings of several companies I've never heard of appeared one brand I am familiar with - Purina.

I thought, "Hmm. I recognize Purina. Our dogs and cat eat Purina One foods. Maybe we should check out Purina's pet insurance."

Next step, conduct a search on Google for "purinacare reviews" and find out what other pet owners think of the coverage and service. The 6th organic listing on the 1st SERP led me to an extremely positive review of PurinaCare's pet insurance.

Alongside the review, on both sides of the write-up, were various ads from pet insurance competitors. None of the ads belonged to PurinaCare.

Furthermore, the next organic listing on the same SERP led me to another positive article about PurinaCare.

The About.com article was an interview with the President and COO of PurinaCare. Once again, I saw contextual ads from various pet insurance competitors but nothing from PurinaCare.

Remember, contextual advertising can serve as a way to protect and support a brand/product whenever it is being discussed in forums, review sites, and other online publications participating in content networks.

Where are the PurinaCare ads? Why isn't Purina protecting and supporting the investment in its brands with a positive ad (i.e. contextual ad)?

Oops. I think Purina has been brand exposed.

Brand Exposure Series Part 1: Hot Wheels

lchen — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 09:57:28 GMT

By Lydia Chen Shah, Director Marketing Communications

If you're familiar with WebMetro, you know we're huge advocates of contextual advertising. It has proven to be an extremely effective avenue for targeted reach, increasing ROI, and lowering overall CPA. It also serves as a way to protect and support a brand/product whenever it is being discussed in forums, review sites, and other online publications participating in content networks.

However, many advertisers have yet to fully appreciate the opportunities from contextual advertising. Including a lot of big brands.that one might think has the resources behind its online advertising to ensure all direct response opportunities are tapped.

So begins my quest to uncover some big brands who are brand exposed in the content networks. Part 1 begins with Mattel.

I wonder if Mattel realizes advertisements for "Mattel Lead Toy Recall" are sabotaging positive reviews of its toys. Why doesn't Mattel have ads listed in Google's content network supporting its brands?

Let's look at Hot Wheels.

We'll pretend I'm a consumer moseying down the purchase funnel. Not only am I looking for Hot Wheels but my nephew wants Hot Wheels Color Shifters. He didn't get Color Shifters for his birthday or Christmas; these are a must for him.

I have no idea what Hot Wheel Color Shifters are.

Naturally, I conduct a search on Google for "hot wheels color shifters" hoping to learn more about the product and see if it is indeed something I should buy for my naughty little nephew.

Most of the organic listings on the 1st SERP are eCommerce plays, e.g. amazon.com, toysrus.com, etc. Scan a little further and behold, the last listing on the first page is a product review. Exactly what I'm seeking.

I'm led to a blogger review of the product. The sentiment in the review is positive. Very positive. The mommy blogger known as Classy Mommy gave a glowing review of the product sample Mattel shipped her. She gave her "Classy Mommy approved" stamp at the end of the post.

Immediately following the post, there is a "Mattel Lead Toy Recall" ad directing users to www.mattelsettlement.com. According to the recall list on that site, Hot Wheels isn't one of the recalled toys.

Where is the Mattel Shop contextual ad? Why isn't Mattel protecting and supporting the investment in its brands with a positive ad (i.e. contextual ad) that sends consumers wanting to buy Mattel's toys to the Mattel Shop's Hot Wheels page? Or more specifically, its Hot Wheels Color Shifters page?

Oops. I think Mattel has been Brand Exposed.

MarketingSherpa Case Study: Proper Attribution Paves Way for Lower CPA While Increasing Sales

lchen — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 10:45:47 GMT

By Lydia Chen Shah, Director Marketing Communications

Back in May of 2009, we submitted a session proposal about attribution for MarketingSherpa's B2B Summit. Although we weren't selected for the summit, the story was shared in a recent MarketingSherpa case study about search engine marketing - Attributing Conversions to Assisting Keywords Lowers CPA: 5 Steps to Optimize Bids.

The case study features how non-brand keywords and tail terms assist branded conversions in search engine marketing for the American Management Association. Ultimately, proper attribution and not just giving credit to the last click, helped develop a PPC strategy that reduced non-brand cost per acquisition (CPA) over 25% while increasing sales by over 15%. Not too shabby, one might say.

The 5 steps outlined in the case study include:

Implement technology to track visitors from entry search to conversion -This goes beyond Google Analytics. Our DSMM AdvantageT technology was used to track multiple touch points.
Establish groups of non-branded keywords to test - Keywords were grouped into clusters based on behavior/intent.
Track search activity to determine which keyword groups assisted conversions - Clusters were then evaluated for performance. Having insight from assist tracking and latency played a critical role.
Adjust keyword bids according to assist value - We became more aggressive in our bidding with top-performing clusters since those drove conversions and could stimulate demand.
Track impact of bidding strategy changes - All campaigns are under constant refinement. There is no set it and forget it mode.

Notice the word track appears frequently within these 5 steps. Big kudos to our DSMM Advantage team, the folks working hard at making sure our technology supports our search engine marketing strategies and our clients' tracking needs.

I digress. Back to the topic at hand. Attribution. With proper attribution, we got rid of over 20,000 non-performing keywords. Non-brand budget increased from 70% to 75%. While this doesn't seem like much of an increase, the major shift was in weight. We significantly shifted dollars from certain underperforming keywords to clusters of tail terms that were truly driving rich brand engagements that led to traceable conversions via brand terms, email and print.

To read the full case study, visit MarketingSherpa (open access until Jan 2, 2010).

Forecasting for Maximum ROI doesn't have to be a Marketing Nightmare

lchen — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 09:29:15 GMT

By Dani Arussi, Vice President Paid Search

The direct marketer's perennial question is how to best allocate the annual marketing budget across a bewildering array of channels and tactics to yield the maximum return on investment. The bigger the company, the bigger the challenge. With some of the very largest companies spending billions of dollars each year on marketing, the challenge can be almost insurmountable.

Enterprise marketing typically presents a unique set of challenges which arise because of the complexity of a larger business. Typically, the Enterprise will invest in a number of marketing channels such as TV, print, radio, direct mail and online. Within each channel, there might also be a number of sub-channels. For example, online might consist of display, paid search, email, affiliate, social media and search engine optimization. Within sub-channels, it is also possible to find a number of different distribution networks such as Google, Yahoo and MSN, each of which have both search and contextual networks.

Solving the Headache of Budget Allocation

The problem of budget allocation can be solved with the concept of dollar cost averaging and the incremental cost of sale. Stock traders are familiar with dollar cost averaging and might adopt it as a strategy to lower the overall average price paid for a stock by buying in increments as the price falls. Conversely, in marketing, it often costs more per sale to generate each incremental sale. For example, in paid search, one might bid higher to receive better placement and consequently greater volume. In direct mail marketing, one might send more mail pieces to a less targeted audience resulting in higher cost and lower response rates.

Although the overall average cost per sale with each additional incremental sale increases marginally, the incremental cost of sale might be significantly higher than the average. For example, one might generate 10 sales at an average cost per sale of $10 for a total investment of $100. However, if the 11th sale costs $20 to generate, the overall average cost per sale will only be $10.91 (100+20/11) while the incremental cost of that last sale is much higher at $20. If another marketing channel has an incremental cost of sale lower than $20, all other things being equal, it would be more efficient to spend the extra dollars there instead.

Data Needed to Make It Work

This concept can be used to balance the budget across all marketing channels, sub-channels and distributions. Determining the correct allocation is predicated on explicit knowledge about each tactic's behavior; how much each sale costs and the incremental cost of sale which are typically represented by a yield curve that defines the relationship between sales volume and cost per sale. In order to measure each tactic's yield curve, historic tracking data is required to connect each individual sale to its corresponding marketing tactic. In the real world, especially the offline world, those connections can be very difficult if not impossible to make. Wait. Hope is not lost.

For offline channels, rudimentary knowledge and 'guesstimates' can be useful, at least directionally. Or perhaps some sort of sampling process can be adopted to measure a small fraction of the overall response activity manually, the data for which can then be extrapolated. In addition to this, a partial solution across a subset of channels and tactics can be a more realistic goal and still yield dramatic efficiency gains.

Tracking, Tracking, and More Tracking

Unlike offline channels, online channels lend themselves very well to tracking, where a click can often be tied to a unique computer (by its IP address) and thus an online sale can be connected to the originating click. This accountability factor alone is, in part, responsible for the meteoric rise of online marketing and its increasing share of total marketing activities.

Online marketing can also create tracking complexity whereby it will often generate offline sales, some of which can be accounted by telephone tracking. Furthermore, a sale is often the culmination of a number of marketing touch points and for offline marketing activities, the effect of this is almost untraceable. Online however can offer some insights in to multiple search and display activity through the use of cookies, code on the customer's computer that can link the various activities together.

Once armed with tracking data providing the relationship between cost per sale and the number of sales, the mathematical solution adopted depends on the complexity of the underlying relationship. Generally speaking, the tools adopted come from the field of operations research. In the case where the relationships are linear or a smooth power function, as they often are for paid search, a complete solution can be attained by using a non-linear programming technique such as reduced gradient descent. One such tool, known as the 'Solver', is built in to Microsoft Excel and although not installed by default, it can be installed as an 'add-in' free of charge (See Excel help on the Solver for further info).

Is All This Worth It?

Although it can be simple in theory, solving the marketing budget allocation problem is not always easy in practice. However, the typical increase in efficiency might typically be in the range of 5% to 15%. For a company spending upwards of $1M a year on media, that can translate to significant gains. It wouldn't be unusual for the typical enterprise level company to achieve efficiency gains to the tune of millions of dollars. That kind of reward certainly warrants the investment of significant expertise, time and effort.

Short answer: You bet it is.

Integrated Marketing: Time to Stop Talking about It and Do It

lchen — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:44:09 GMT

By Karen Helweg, Vice President Interactive Strategy

Integrated marketing has been a buzz phrase for years and is getting hotter in 2010. Many companies are talking about it but few are walking the walk.

The objective of integrated marketing is to create a fluent conversation with consumers across all media touch points. If a consumer goes to Google after watching a TV commercial and enters a few keywords from the commercial, she expects to find a link to a landing page - if the search is unsuccessful, the advertiser has not only lost a potential sale but decreased the value of its investment in media spend.

Few companies have managed to integrate marketing activities to harvest the ROI from integrating online and offline media. Companies often have a host of specialized marketing partners divided by brand, managed by different divisions internally. End result: the brand owners do not align marketing with the eCommerce group or the direct marketing division, retention managers and new customer acquisition marketers experience channel conflicts, and the conversation with consumers is fragmented and incoherent as a result.

As marketers enter 2010 with the slim budgets and demands to increase marketing ROI, integrated marketing will be the point of differentiation between those who succeed and those who fail. Marketers who understand how to run integrated campaigns, and lead collaboration between agency partners are uniquely positioned to capitalize on the synergy between online synergy not only produces a lift in search (from TV and mail) but also improves conversion rates, the quality of conversions, and how quickly consumers convert.

Furthermore, the most recent Black Friday and Cyber Monday proved consumers are more skilled than ever in online searches. The shopping events demonstrated "the solidification of the internet as a primary research tool, both for shopping online but also for doing research before they go into stores," said Dan Schock, Google's retail industry director.

At WebMetro, we have developed a reporting dashboard mapping weekly search results to the weight of other media. Combining search volume, keyword performance, conversion rates with offline media spend and online social media metrics empowers our clients to effectively integrate marketing activities and receive the benefit of increased ROI. Instead of optimizing PPC and SEM campaigns against the prior week's trends, we work with clients and partner agencies to effectively support campaigns from launch. And that search effectively supports investments in ALL other media channels.

Brand Managers: You Can't be a Control Freak in Social Media

lchen — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:29:11 GMT

By Lydia Chen Shah, Director Marketing Communications

Brand marketers must stop viewing the internet as a dangerous place, fearing the loss of control in messaging due to user-generated content (UGC). To succeed in social media, the control freaks are going to have to let go a little.

News flash: Consumers are on the internet and they are active in social networks. In fact, Facebook has over 350 million users. That's a lot of users!

Without being a control freak, what are you doing to reach and engage those users?

Think about this. 46% of Facebook users would talk about or recommend a product on Facebook. 44% of people have recommended a product on Twitter.

More than ever, consumers readily share brand-related information with friends, followers, and acquaintances connected via social networks. Where are brands involved in these conversations? And what impact does this have on a brand?

What Should a Brand Marketer Do?

I've always asserted with my Loyola Marymount students, "Consumers own the brand. As brand managers, it is our responsibility to guide and shape how consumers view our brand. To communicate the positioning of our brand."

Truly, just about anyone can get online and talk about a brand. Positive or negative. It can happen on Facebook, Twitter, a blog, you name it. Rather than try to control the messaging, brands have to learn how to interact in a genuine and responsible way. It's important to acknowledge consumers are quick to determine authenticity. Try to fake out your customers and you're more likely to get caught than not.

"No comment" won't cut it when a customer with 50, 500 or 5000 followers on Twitter is screaming in 140 all capital characters how horrible your service or response time is.

On the flip side, wouldn't you embrace a glowing comment? Wouldn't you thank the consumer for his business and remarks? Have her talk about you and let the world know what she has to say?

It's not Consumers vs. Brands

Joining the online conversation in social media does not mean controlling the conversation. This isn't a power struggle between brands and consumers. It is an opportunity to engage, to interact, and as social media authority Mike Prasad shared recently - to ACTIVATE your audience.

Brands don't have to compromise a culture but they do need to adapt. For example, with complaints, brands in social media can retain customers, exceed expectations, and interact with customers based on their preferences. With positive remarks, brands can share the good word aiding new customer acquisition.

Social media is a powerful tool that cannot be subject to the old-fashioned constraints of PR approvals. Consumers are engaged in a very public, online conversation about almost any activity or business one can conceive. Brands must be interesting, helpful, and relevant. And not control freaks.

You cannot be a control freak in social media and expect a positive ROI!

Embracing the Fully Interactive Experience

Rather than force the old push or broadcast only methods, embrace the fact that consumers are talking directly to each other and brands within the fully interactive experience. Many of us advertisers have paid big bucks for focus groups and survey intelligence to gain consumer insight. Well, it's now also served to us in the form of comments, likes, retweets, and #followfriday recommendations now.

2009 was more than a test year for the power of social interactions on platforms like Facebook and Twitter. The year proved there are real business effects resulting from brands engaging and activating audiences within social media. Tools like Twitter are enablers to the fully interactive process between customers and marketers.

If you're still fearful and wanting only to broadcast, i.e. be a control freak, then ignore this in 2010 at your own risk.

(Thanks to Andrew McAfee's article "The Illusion of Brand Control" for inspiring this post)

Leave the Old School SEO Behind and Adopt Next Generation SEO

lchen — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 09:11:00 GMT

By John McCarthy, Director Search Engine Optimization

Brands wanting to improve online marketing performance in 2010 must move away from old school SEO and adopt next generation optimization strategies and techniques. Here are three key areas where brands can improve their organic marketing campaigns in 2010.

1. Drop Keyword Frequency & Keyword Density as an Optimization Technique

In the past, the accepted on-page optimization technique to demonstrate relevancy and authority was through keyword frequency and keyword density. This optimization technique served brands well in the early years of SEO as search engines were largely unsophisticated and could not understand the context of content. However optimizing content solely on keyword frequency and keyword density had many "side effects". One of the major, well-known side effects: this technique often produced unnatural usage of a keyword in the content. For example, it was not uncommon for the keyword to be integrated 5-10 times on a web page just to achieve targeted keyword frequency.

Next-Generation Optimization Technique > Adopt Latent Semantic Indexing

WebMetro has been transitioning away from keyword frequency and keyword density as an on-page optimization technique in favor of Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) for the last few years. LSI is a key component in how the search engines understand the "context" of a website's content. It is based on the co-occurrence clustering of words and the association of documents based on the occurrence data. Translation: the search engines essentially learn what a website's words mean based on the other words around them. Think back to elementary school - when you learned about context clues. This practice is particularly important in many languages as it is fairly common for words to have multiple meanings.

LSI is not a new concept to the SEO world but its practice is still limited. The focus for many brands developing quality content to support SEO campaigns still remains on keyword frequency and density rather than latent semantic indexing. We've built custom LSI tables to help get rid of unnatural keyword usage and integrate other words and phrases for context support and to build authority for a primary keyword. In addition we also leverage LSI tables as a content development and link development strategy. The LSI tables provide topics for content and link development based on the user intent of each phrase. Finally LSI tables have another important function. With the old school keyword frequency and density optimization technique, SEO campaigns quickly reached diminishing returns in terms of maximizing traffic since they only focused on one keyword. In comparison custom LSI tables maximize the traffic opportunities from the resulting keyword combinations and permutations and thereby much more targeted traffic and therefore a higher campaign ROI.

2. Drop Reliance on Rankings as Primary Campaign Management Tool

In the past, SEO campaigns were judged based on achieving rankings for targeted keywords. Each month SEOs produce ranking reports to demonstrate how their efforts have improved the campaign. The ranking reports show keywords and how rankings have improved month over month for those keywords. While ranking reports are still important as an indicator of success, they are no longer as relevant as a critical success factor due to technological advancements in search such as personalized search, universal search and now real time search.

Personalized Search - Today search engines like Google provide personalized search results based on a consumer's specific search behavior. As a result the top 10 search results one consumer sees are often different than another person's results, even if that person is the next office or cubicle. The search engines are learning how people individually search. For some time now Google has been modifying the search results based on the things an individual consumer has searched for on Google and the websites visited. Since each person's search behavior is different than his/her cubicle neighbor, the end result is personalized search results.

Universal Search - In 2007 Google introduced universal search that started blending listings from its news, video archives, images, local listings, PDFs and even books as it gathered information from crawling websites. How did this effect SEO campaigns? Even if a brand held a #1 organic listing, it could be pushed down to #5 or lower based on how Google displays the search results for that specific keyword.

Real Time Search - Since the summer of 2009, the major search engines are migrating towards real time search. Real time search is loosely defined as returning search results based on what people are searching for today - not delayed information gathered and processed from the crawling of a search engine spider. Real-time search engines like Topsy and Scoopler already provide you continuously updating real-time search results across a variety of services such as Twitter, Flickr, Digg, and Delicious. Real-time search is fascinating for both consumers and businesses because it lets you know what's happening right now on any given topic.

Next-Generation Campaign Management > Adopt Maximizing Campaign ROI

While WebMetro still generates ranking reports for clients, we place more emphasis on maximizing the return on investment (ROI) from the SEO campaign. For the past several years we've tracked the ROI using our proprietary campaign tracking and reporting platform called DSMM AdvantageT, now on its 3.0 version.

This platform tracks not only the number of leads or sales, but also the corresponding revenue, average order value and calculates ROI for each keyword. We also track and report search attribution metrics such as latency and assist metrics between SEO keywords, other online campaigns such as paid search and email, as well as offline campaigns such as direct mail and catalogs. With this kind of data we can literally see the event streams or campaign touch points within a specific conversion engagement.

3. Upgrade from Reactive to Active Brand Management

It's not the highlight of online marketing, but WebMetro has for years helped clients overcome negative reputation management issues concerning their brand. This type of campaign "pushed down" negative mentions about a client that appeared high in the organic rankings. Often the campaigns consisted of company or product names, but on occasion also included an individual's name. These campaigns were reactive forms of online brand management.

Next-Generation Strategy > Adopt Internet Presence Management

While WebMetro still works with clients that have reputation management problems, we've taken a more strategic role with clients and internet presence management. With internet presence management, brands don't wait for negative mentions to appear in search results. Instead they pro-actively build custom placements in the organic listings before a negative mention occurs. Simultaneously brand mentions are monitored 24/7 on microblogs like Twitter as well as traditional news and public relations outlets. In the event something negative appears, internet presence management acts as a proactive strategy already in place before a negative issue mushrooms.

For clients with aggressive growth goals, internet presence management also includes market and competitive intelligence. Not only is the internet monitored for a brand's market keywords; competitors' actions are also tracked.

Drop and Adopt

With 2010 upon us, brands that want to improve their online marketing performance must drop old school SEO and adopt next generation optimization strategies and techniques. If brands don't have top organic rankings today, they should consider adopting strategies like LSI and start measuring their campaigns based on ROI, not just rankings. Likewise they should look to the future of active brand management with internet presence management.

If your brand has top organic rankings today these optimization strategies and techniques need to be considered part of your plan to maintain or exceed traffic and ROI levels in 2010. Of course, failing to keep abreast of and adopt new organic strategies and techniques will result in loss of rankings, traffic and associated revenue.

Know Your eCommerce Mondays

lchen — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:28:58 GMT

By Lydia Chen Shah, Director Marketing Communications

Forrester Research forecasts online holiday retail sales to increase 8% to $44.7 billion this year. That's a lot of shopping! It's not just about Black Friday anymore. Thanks to one of our fabulous PPC managers @neilfolgate for the reminder to know our eCommerce Mondays. These Mondays come in two colors, Green and Brown plus a Cyber.

November 30: Cyber Monday
Online folklore says that when consumers go back to the cubicles the Monday after Thanksgiving weekend, shopping and spending will continue. Really, Cyber Monday is the online version of the brick-and-mortar Black Friday. Consumers will be on the hunt for the hottest deals.

December 7: Green Monday
We're talking about moolah green. Money. Not save the earth green. Green Monday was named by eBay, after the company discerned that its sales peaked on the first or second Monday in December. Essentially, the second week of December is huge. Green Monday has become an eCommerce shopping event, even garnering recognition as the heaviest online shopping day of the holiday season. Reasons for the record eCommerce day: consumers realize their holiday shopping deadlines are closing in and retailers often begin free shipping offers on this day.

December 14: Brown Monday
This is when many retailers lay out some of the biggest promos and discounts. Last-minute free shipping with guaranteed holiday delivery is a biggie. That's where the "brown" comes from, with all the packages making their way around the map.

Choreographing the Holiday Advertising Madness
Consumers turn to online shopping for savings and convenience. Online and offline, they have become more discerning and have embraced frugality.

One CMO recently tweeted very articulately (it is possible in 140 characters), "The challenge for retailers, & brands alike, is how best to leverage opportunity to differentiate created by the downturn."

eCommerce Mondays are indeed opportunities to be leveraged. Online retailers should consider what makes their products, storefronts, and offering unique and enticing to their consumers. Those attributes can be leveraged effectively in various online marketing campaigns/activities, such as paid search and contextual advertising.

Don't let the holiday madness be just that. Let it be organized chaos - where you have attacked the challenge and exploited opportunities to differentiate, and ultimately, spread a whole lot of holiday cheer amongst the eCommerce balance sheet.

Real-Time Search Changing the Game

lchen — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:42:55 GMT

By Lydia Chen Shah, Director Marketing Communications

The search marketing world fluttered with excitement last week when Bing and Google announced separately deals with the microblogging company Twitter to bring tweets, or Twitter posts, to the search engines' results.

Why is this significant?

This revolutionizes the perception of content, for marketers, consumers/users, and what the search engines value as content. Social influence, or rather human influence delivered from social platforms like Twitter and Facebook now impact directly what consumers will see and find in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Quick example:
Let's look at http://www.bing.com/twitter and search for "halloween costumes".

Search results include two main categories:

Most recent tweets about Halloween costumes
Top links shared in tweets about Halloween costumes

What may have been considered previously as buzz or hype when brands tap social media venues has now become a relevant, valuable source for search engines.

Yes, real-time search is still evolving but it is evolving quickly. And, it still has some challenges to overcome. Is recency, e.g. most recent tweets, always going to determine the top results? How will the search engines filter spam? When and how will the engines integrate real-time search into universal search?

Final thought for this post: Brands serious about growing and creating market share need to keep a close, keen eye on the social layer of information introduced, which has gained formal acknowledgment by the major search engines.

We'll be testing, staying vigilant of the quality of SERPs, and making sure we evolve too as real-time search changes the game.

Spooky Search Engine Marketing Scenario for a Brand

lchen — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:43:12 GMT

By Lydia Chen Shah, Director Marketing Communications

A couple weeks ago, one of the agencies WebMetro provides search engine marketing services for asked me how to justify to a client bidding on the client's own brand via a PPC campaign.

Even after the agency explained to the client it is imperative to utilize brand-related keywords as part of a pay per click campaign to support brand awareness promoted from other media venues if a consumer conducted a brand-related search, the client believed strongly that adding its company name as a keyword would be a total waste of marketing budget.

The agency contact explained further the competition could own branded terms if the client allowed competitors the opportunity.

This conversation reminded me of a blog written last year by Michael Behrens - I Will Save Your Brand in Five Minutes.

Michael wrote the blog in regards to contextual advertising in the search engines' content networks but the gist of the blog certainly applies to the situation.at a slightly different angle than brand awareness.

Brand Protection.

If a company has worked (non-stop and improving continuously) to build a solid brand with some legs to stand on or run with, it's enticing for competitors to bid on that brand and steal away potential and current customers.

I believe a brand needs to be present if a consumer, existing customer or potential, is looking directly for it. Especially if it's a branded search!

Including a company name as a keyword is just one more measure that keeps users focused on a brand when users search specifically for the brand. Why give the competition the opportunity to divert traffic away from your brand?

You've got the user this far down the funnel, searching for you by name. Don't waste the combination of marketing efforts (and dollars!) now by not protecting your brand.

Not Performing Market and Competitive Intelligence Can Be Costly

blog — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 13:35:40 GMT

By John McCarthy, Director Search Engine Optimization

WebMetro offers several consulting services to help clients with a variety of business needs including SEO and paid search campaign assessments. Assessments which are sometimes referred to as campaign audits, are employed by clients for a number of reasons. About 75% of the time these assessments are for clients that have full time SEO or paid search staff. While clients employ campaign assessments for many reasons, typically they fall into two major categories:

Solve a particular problem (e.g. dropping in ranking or traffic, how do I improve my quality score, how do I improve my conversion)
Confirm a strategic direction (e.g. we are thinking of doing this).

I recently performed an assessment of an SEO campaign for a client in the medical field. As luck would have it, I worked with this client's largest competitor about 3 years earlier and developed that SEO strategy. Although I had hands-on experience in this market, as a best practice we begin all assessments as if we don't have any experience whatsoever. We assume this position so we don't make unfounded assumptions or worse yet - decisions. In addition, strategies need to evolve to address the marketplace changes, particularly in search.

As we began the Discovery session of assessment, the client stated that he is only concerned about Google. He does not care about Yahoo or Bing. He said they have been performing both SEO and paid search campaigns on Google, Yahoo and Bing and have found that Google dominates the traffic according to his analytics data. As a result the client wants the strategy to focus on increasing traffic and conversions from Google. Based on my experience with their largest competitor and our experience with most clients, I responded that chances are Google would likely be the focus - but as a best practice we would perform both market and competitive intelligence to guides us.

Following the Discovery session, I jumped immediately into researching the data and first tackled keyword research. After reviewing the keywords in the buy funnel we found the assessment will focus on two major keywords "bioidentical hormones" and "testosterone replacement therapy". As documented by Google, the search volume ranges from 9,900 to 60,500 and cost per clicks ranging from $2 to $3.

Next, I launched one of my favorite market and competitive analysis tools Hitwise. Albeit an expensive investment for certain, Hitwise is awesome and perhaps a mandatory set of research tools for those involved with search engine marketing.
Hitwise market intelligence showed that for the past 12 weeks Google dominated the search landscape with 90.27% market share for the keyword "bioidentical hormones". This definitely supported the clients belief that Google is the dominate search engine in this market.

I then continued my market research and looked at the keyword "testosterone replacement therapy". To my surprise, Hitwise showed that Google was not the dominant search engine for this keyword. Instead it was Yahoo with 58.11% of the traffic.

Next I performed competitive analysis and discovered some interesting data as well. For the primary competitor, Hitwise reported that Google was the largest search engine with 63.5% over the past 12 weeks. Yahoo had 18.63% and Bing 11.7%. While overall Google was still the major traffic source, to focus all of their efforts on Google would not be a best practice as it would leave traffic and revenue opportunities from Yahoo and Bing.

In the end, performing market and competitive research provided invaluable business intelligence for this client as it does with all WebMetro clients. By only relying on assumptions and perceptions could prove to be very costly in search engine marketing. Instead it is a best practice to regularly perform market and competitive research to confirm beliefs and identify new opportunities.

Still Not Ready to Take Contextual Advertising Seriously?

lchen — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 08:51:50 GMT

By Lydia Chen Shah, Director Marketing Communications

Are you a contextual advertising naysayer? Or perhaps you've dabbled in contextual advertising, haven't found the secret sauce to making it work and are now thinking about giving up. And, I can't forget those toying with the idea of contextual but aren't ready to embrace it. Whatever the case, this blog is for you.

Myth: Contextual advertising also known as content advertising stinks, will never work, and is not something a competent direct marketer would consider including in a marketing strategy.

Fact: Contextual advertising in the content networks is a powerful way for you to profitably acquire new customers and gain market share.

Do I have your attention?

Why Internet Marketers Have Shied From Contextual Advertising

When WebMetro started promoting contextual advertising in early 2008, the online marketing industry wasn't so receptive to our message. Most of the marketers who had tried contextual advertising felt burned by the content networks and were in no way ready to allocate more money to an initiative they believed was fruitless. Internet marketers and eCommerce directors who had never heard of contextual advertising in the content networks were reticent to experiment with something new when tried and true tactics like paid search and search engine optimization performed as expected.

But wait. The content networks cranked out major enhancements. The kind of stuff that makes a desirably dangerous impact on contextual advertising campaigns and ROI. For example, the Google Content Network launched placement performance reports, smart pricing, and site exclusions, to name a few. These improvements provided (still do) the transparency internet marketers expect and require to effectively drive conversions. Nice.

What's the Big Deal?

So, what are we really looking at when it comes to contextual advertising in a content network?

Massive Reach - The Google Content Network consists of 80%+ of global internet users and serves more than 6 billion ad impressions each day across hundreds of thousands of websites (comScore, Key Measures, Oct 2008)
Crazy Segmentation and Targeting Abilities - Ads can be matched to relevant page content based on the theme of a page such as blogs, forums, and review sites; specific sites and categories can be selected to display ads
Direct Return on Investment - Besides new customers gained from campaigns in content networks, contextual advertising can provide a lower overall cost-per-acquisition when optimized properly
Competitive Advantage - With its unparalleled flexibility, contextual advertising as a highly accountable and measurable media can give insight into what a consumer will buy and when a consumer will buy

Not too shabby. For us marketing geeks, it's pretty cool.

I haven't even got to the part about search and display - the integration, "sum is greater than the parts" spiel, between contextual advertising and search engine marketing. Perhaps next time.

Now What?

Hopefully, this has given you a little kick (or internet marketing love tap) to put contextual advertising in your marketing strategy. What are you waiting for? If you need more info, we have a contextual (aka content) advertising white paper available for download. And of course, we'd love to chat with you about contextual and what it can do specifically for your business.

Situation Wanted: Quality Content for SEO Success

lchen — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:07:34 GMT

By Marc Baumann, eMarketing Analyst, and Lydia Chen Shah, Director Marketing Communications

I Need More SEO Content

Time and time again, we hear clients and prospects say, "I need more SEO content." Heck, maybe you've heard an SEO say it.

The truth: It's not "SEO content" a brand or website needs.

So, what do we need?

Rich, informative, compelling content brings users to a website and keeps users responding. It also provides the search engines with value when that content is SEO-friendly. Rather than needing SEO content, we really need quality content that engages users but we cannot forget about what the search engines want, how the engines view content, and the techniques plus finesse required to optimize content.

How Quality Content Can Make an SEO Difference

Look at the New York Times. The publication, known as one of the best newspapers in the world, once turned down the opportunity to buy Google for $1 million because it didn't consider the internet a part of its business. In 2005, the paper acknowledged the importance of the web, hired a team of SEO experts, trained editorial staff and marketing teams in SEO and started to optimize its entire website for better search engine performance.

Since the inception of the SEO program, the NYT's referral traffic from the search engines has grown 300%. The site has experienced an average of 60% traffic growth per year and a significant increase in user engagement and time spent on the site.

Want some of that? Keep reading for some how-to tips.

Keyword Research and Intelligence

Developing quality content requires research and analysis of keywords that should be included in your content. There are several free tools for keyword suggestions and research that give considerably less depth than subscription-based services but can still be a helpful starting point. For example, there are free versions of Keyword Discovery and Wordtracker.

A relatively new and less known tool for research is Google's Wonder Wheel. You'll find it by doing a Google search for any keyword, clicking on the "Show options" link in the top blue bar of the search results page. A left side bar full of additional search options will open and near the bottom you'll find a link for the Wonder Wheel. It's a fantastic tool which allows you to discover a wide range of relevant keywords or extensions which are related to your business and industry.

Too Many Keywords and You Might Get Rejected

Your content should be keyword-rich. It should include targeted keywords that match the theme of your website. But don't overdo it. Like eating too much at Thanksgiving, you'll regret stuffing your content with keywords. The search engines will view your content as spammy and potentially block your website from appearing in results.

Furthermore, your readers will notice too. They might not realize content has been keyword-stuffed but they'll notice your content is not appealing.

Making Your Content Stand Out

While you don't want your website to stand out for being stuffed with keywords, your site can stand out in other ways and in a positive manner. One of those ways is for your website to have unique, fresh, and informative content. This helps keep clients and/or prospects on your site (stickiness factor) and also increases the likelihood of getting quality links from other relevant and topic-related sites.

Posting fresh topic-related content gets users coming back to your website. It also helps bait the search engines' spiders to crawl your site.

Theming and Latent Semantic Indexing

You also have to make sure you create content that helps the search engines understand the theme of your website. If your website is about financial advice for small businesses, it should be well-structured around this topic. Include content and pages with relevant keywords and steer clear from off-topic articles about surfing or middle-eastern cuisine (even if you're a surfing zealot and a known foodie).

The search engines have a sophisticated method called latent semantic indexing (LSI) for indexing and retrieving your web pages. With this technology, they are able to look beyond the direct matches between content and search query text to understand the context of a website's content. As a result, littering your content with a particular target keyword is not enough and may affect your search engine rankings poorly.

Need Help?

Creating and optimizing quality content which is appealing to both internet users and search engines requires skills and takes time. If you would like to rely on experts who can help you achieve the online success you want, check out our search engine optimization services. We can audit your website content and get you on the right path for SEO success.

Getting Out of Google Jail

lchen — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:37:55 GMT

By Sam Khwaja, Director Web Strategy

If you or your SEO firm have experimented with rankings or implemented techniques that are out of Google's webmaster guidelines (e.g. questionable link building practices), your website's organic rankings may have dropped recently or completely disappeared.why? Because you might be in Google Jail.

Now what? How do you get Google to reverse or shorten your jail sentence?

Not long ago, a company asked us to do just that.

What Caused Your SEO Jail Sentence?

In this blasted scenario or Internet marketer's nightmare, the first step is to do an in-depth analysis of your website. Check for funny business - anything outside of Google's webmaster guidelines - such as text or links whose font color is the same as the background color. Check any cloaking issues, especially on the home and top category pages. Check to see if your website has doorway pages, such as those that redirect to other top pages on the website. Does your website use a software or script that crawls Google (without using an API) or use Google's bandwidth to calculate results for your own website? Once you find the culprit.or culprits, fix them.

What about your back links? Got any funny business happening there? Anything Google might deem unnatural or suspicious? Have a reputable SEO firm audit your back links. Make sure you're in compliance with Webmaster guidelines and your links aren't from a "bad neighborhood."

Requesting Reinclusion

Now request for reinclusion a.k.a reconsideration. It takes a minimum of two weeks to get reincluded into Google; the most severe spam penalties can take up to a year to get reincluded.

If you manage multiple websites and all the websites have the same issues, we recommend you submit one website at a time with the most important one first. A penalty for a single website will be viewed as less severe than a penalty for an entire network of websites.

While submitting for reinclusion, do not mention how much you spend on AdWords or how much you make on AdSense. A business relationship with Google does not help you get reincluded into Google any faster. You certainly don't want Google to delay your inclusion further, just to make a point they do not favor those with AdWords/AdSense relationships.

You should mention that the act you think resulted in the penalty has been removed, assure it will not happen again, and that you are in compliance with Google's webmaster guidelines. Here is a quote from the head of Google's spam team Matt Cutts on reinclusion:

"Fundamentally, Google wants to know two things: 1) that any spam on the site is gone or fixed, and 2) that it's not going to happen again."

Now What? Just Wait?

Rather than sit around and wonder if it will take two weeks or one year to get reincluded, there are some actions that may influence Google's review process. Remember, Google wants to satisfy user intent. Our hypothesis: If you can prove to Google that your website satisfies user intent, you can speed up your website's reinclusion.

If users search for your brand but can't find your company's website in Google's results, they will likely be dissatisfied. This goes against what Google wants to accomplish as a search engine. If your company can demonstrate it has a significant amount of what we call brand value to search engine users, you can strengthen the likelihood of getting reincluded faster.

Google looks at several different elements or signals to see if your website has brand value. Three signals we focus on include:

People searching for your brand in Google
Online news/media outlets talking about your brand
Social media talking about your brand

The more people search about you in Google, the more people talk about you in news and social media, the faster you will get out of the penalty box. Google cares about your brand value because Google's primary purpose as a search engine is to satisfy user intent. If someone searches for "example inc." in Google and does not see "example inc.," on the first page of results, they may assume Google is not capable of showing quality results and they will switch to another search engine (.or decision engine).

Current affairs and recency are very important factors in Google's algorithm. Google wants to show freshness in its search results, so if news and social media talk about a brand, Google wants to display that website in its results.

This know-how can help you decrease a penalty by creating buzz in news and social media. For some companies, creating buzz around a brand in news and social media can be quite expensive. But if it's done properly it should not cost an arm and a leg. You need to develop a strategy in a way that satisfies the Google robots and helps them understand the buzz about your brand. You don't need a gargantuan branding campaign that requires a gigantic budget.

Maybe It's Time to Stop Experimenting with SEO

You need to be very careful that you don't exploit the robots in a way that whatever you do is regarded as spam. Your implementation of the strategy should be 100% natural and white hat. Otherwise, you will send wrong signals to Google and increase your jail time. If you don't know exactly what you are doing please do not experiment. Hire a professional SEO who can implement this with precision.

WebMetro's DSMM Advantage Advertising Reporting System Gets a New Look with Enhanced Features

blog — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 17:35:00 GMT

Our DSMM Advantage system is a cornerstone to the success of our clients advertising strategies. As such, we've recently given it a facelift and enhanced many of its features. This system is used for both reporting and managing our client's advertising accounts but in this post I'll be focusing on the reporting side of things. Overall, the new look and enhancements makes it a very inviting and easy to use reporting platform.

The first thing our users notice is an extensive list of reports on the left navigation. Everything from higher level Client Account and Venue reports down to very granular Keyword and Creative reports are readily available as standard reports. Each section of reports on the left will fly-out a menu of available reports.

A custom report creation system allows us to create the most usable reports to manage and optimize any client's advertising strategy. In addition to creating new custom reports, any one of our standard reports from the left navigation can be customized and then saved under the Custom Reports section. Because many reports are usually created, our system allows for organization of all custom reports under custom categories (i.e. Client, Optimization and SEO are custom categories).

Clusters allow us to segment granular data into more organized groups of data to align with client's businesses and help analyze and manage their advertising campaigns. Once clusters are created, they can be used to create new cluster oriented reports or used to drill-down into from any other appropriate reports.

Primary links for customize report are clearly located at the top middle and right of every report. These include actions (save, export, delete), setting report details, setting filters, creating graphs, changing dates and customizing columns.

The actual reports are listed in the middle section to the right of the left navigation. All reports allow for the drill-down into more granular details for any particular row (i.e. when viewing the above Venue report, clicking on the magnifying glass allows you to drill into items like campaigns, ad groups, creative ,etc.).

For those that enjoy custom data mining or need to tie DSMM campaign data to backend system data, all reports can be downloaded to excel. Great for database integrations and Excel pivot table report analyses.

Overall, our DSMM Advantage reporting platform is a very robust and easy to use system that allows our account managers and executives to keep growing and maintaining our client accounts. If you're not already working with us or would like more information about DSMM Advantage, please contact us.

Will You Go to Google Jail for Buying Links?

lchen — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 09:12:19 GMT

Links: the bane of many Internet marketers' and SEOs' existence.amongst other things. Why do we care about links? They connect all the sites in cyberspace - and in case you haven't noticed, there are quite a few. According to Google, there are over 1 trillion unique and indexed URLs. As many SEOs know, links are one of the most important components used by search engines to rank a website as demonstrated by Google's emphasis on PageRank technology.

If a website links to your website, the other website is essentially giving yours a "vote" as perceived by search engines. From the ideal perspective, your website receives a link because it has some relevant, unique, and hopefully interesting content another website wishes to share with its audience. The more votes/links you have in the eyes of the search engines, the better rank you will receive. However, unlike democracy, all votes are not equal in the Internet world. A vote from an authority PageRank 7 website has more value than 1000 votes from websites with zero PageRank.

This is why link building is such a crucial part of a search engine optimization campaign. SEO experts rely on a wide range of tactics to obtain links for their clients: e.g., link exchange, buying text link ads, free giveaways to web developers, free tools to attract links, directory submissions, press releases, blog articles, guest posts on other sites, and comments in forums.

The big three search engines, ahem, or two search engines and one "decision engine" - Google, Yahoo and Bing (formerly known as MSN) - have toughened their rules several times over the last couple of years in order to prevent webmasters from excessive and aggressive link building practices. And, Google does not approve of you manipulating its search results by running an artificial link generation campaign.

As people started tampering with Google's algorithms, Google's punishment became harsher. You, meaning your website, can even get banned from Google for buying links. You can get thrown it its deep, dark jail if you buy or sell links (rumor is that it's the small and stinky basement of Google co-founder Sergey Brin's first apartment in Silicon Valley). You will get excommunicated from the Big G's search results. And you can get stripped of your PageRank, Google's infamous index which determines your website's relevance.

But it's not easy for Google to determine quickly and simply who engages in link buying practices and then punish those who do purchase links. Otherwise, you would be able to buy links for your competitors' websites and Google would punish your competition. While Google works to streamline and expedite the process of nailing link buying culprits, we have seen Google become increasingly aggressive in sentencing. There has been a rising assertiveness in how the search engine exercises its authority and ability to penalize a website if the search engine believes a site is manufacturing links via purchase transactions.

Wait a minute. Good, solid link bait, press/media exposure, social networking, quality directory submission, website reviews and citations from relevant websites are some of the organic ways of getting quality links. And.some of those activities considered as appropriate methods of generating quality links would be sponsored content meaning a purchase was involved, e.g. a press release with hyperlinks. You see, this is a fine line we're dealing with when it comes to link development and the definition of link buying.

With all of this said, it is very important you do not buy links unless you really know what you are doing. Links from a bad neighborhood of websites, site wide links and links from websites completely unrelated to your site can get you penalized by Google. Furthermore, if Google sees a whole horde of links pointing to your website with no gradual evolution making it look like instantaneous link love, you may be on your way to Google jail.

A quality link campaign can give you top rankings in Google, but if it is not executed properly you will end up in Google jail. So, please do not try this at home.

PPC and SEO Sittin' in a Tree...

lchen — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 08:40:05 GMT

This blog post has been approved for the following audiences:

�� 1. Those who have a natural search (SEO) campaign and do not employ Pay Per Click marketing services as part
�� of their marketing strategy.
�� 2. Those who have Paid Search campaigns and do not currently use SEO in their Internet marketing.
�� 3. Those who have Paid Search and SEO campaigns but do not have clarity on how the two types of search engine
�� marketing interact.
�� 4. All marketing professionals wanting to learn more about the effect PPC and SEO have on each other and
�� conversion rates.

As marketers, we know there is exponential value in interdependent media as a user is exposed to additional events within a stream or funnel. But how much value exists? Does 1 + 1 = 3 when pay per click advertising and search engine optimization work together as part of an integrated online marketing strategy? Let's check it out.

Excerpted from our white paper Proper Attribution: Looking Beyond the Last Click:
The following table shows actual conversion rates for a handful of our clients for PPC and SEO only and from users who responded to paid and organic search. This type of attribution reporting enables Internet marketers to make tremendously smarter decisions when the value and interaction between channels can be assigned. In all 5 client examples when a user responded to PPC and SEO but converted on SEO, the conversion rate was notably higher than PPC or SEO alone.

So, we guess the answer is simple: Does 1 + 1 = 3? NO, it is even better. As you can see from the chart above there is as high as a 9x increase in conversion rate for those who clicked on both Organic and Paid links.

Ask yourself: How much clarity do you have about how your PPC marketing and�Search Engine Optimization�campaign interact with each other? What about the lift they generate in conversions? Let's throw on another layer while we're at it. Latency. How long does it take for prospects to convert once they are exposed to an ad or a natural listing and what impacts that amount of time? That's some of the fun stuff our team is tracking and analyzing now (can't tell you everything!).

Lately, I have had way too much fun running PPC/SEO Attribution reports in our DSMMT technology, comparing industries, established vs. emerging brands, lead generation vs. eCommerce websites...I can go on and on. The insight provided is a powerful demonstration of the appreciable and exponential value of the relationship between paid and natural search. It not only reinforces the fact that the two in conjunction can yield some serious damage (the good kind of damage) but helps marketers make much better decisions about investing in a marketing budget's highest and best use.

PPC and SEO sittin' in a tree.K-I-S-S-I-N-G.

Cash Strapped States are Targeting Affiliate Campaigns

editor — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 08:36:42 GMT

Recently lawmakers in seven states - California, Connecticut, New York, Hawaii, North Carolina, Maryland and Rhode Island have passed or are preparing to pass legislation that would require companies to collect sales tax if they have marketing affiliates in the state.� Unfortunately other states are considering similar laws to collect sales tax for online purchases.

Last year New York passed an Internet-sales-tax law last year.� This was challenged in court by both Overstock and Amazon, but both lost.� Both companies are appealing the decision.� Overstock dropped its affiliate program in New York but Amazon has begun collecting sales tax.

It turns out that consumers are technically supposed to pay a so-called use-tax for online purchases on their own.� Purchases made over the internet and out-of-state are the most common type of transactions subject to a use tax.

For example, if you are a resident of State A which has a five percent "sales and use tax" on certain goods and services and you purchase a product or service in State B for use, storage or other consumption in State A.

Under most state laws, the State B vendor collects no sales taxes on the goods but the purchaser/user must still pay five percent of the sales price directly to the Department of Revenue in State A as a use tax.� To the best of my knowledge, nobody follows this obscure law which is why the state governments are targeting the online merchants and their affiliates.��

If you are an affiliate, manage an affiliate campaign or are an online business with an affiliate program, now is the time to use your voice to oppose certain harmful bills in your state before it is too late.�

Tweet, Tweet. Are You Tweeting Yet? No? Well, Listen Up.

lchen — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:39:31 GMT

Still pondering whether or not you should set up a Twitter account for your business? Perhaps you've heard yourself say, "I don't see the value in Twitter for my organization."

That was me at the beginning of this year. Then I decided to listen. To who? To other people twittering, or tweeting. I wanted to see how people and businesses interacted on Twitter.

I set up a personal account @LCShah, found a few friends, actual friends that I knew before joining Twitter, and followed them. (Yes, I know "following" someone sounds stalker-ish to some.) I found some WebMetro team members already on Twitter (like one of our SEOs @SamKhwaja) and followed them. By following these people, I was able to view their tweets, reply, and retweet or RT to my followers if desired. I viewed who they followed...and started following people I had never met before but enjoyed what they had to tweet. Then I started searching for companies I like to see if they were on Twitter. After all, I want to make sure I'm on the up-and-up when it comes to deals or promos.

Then I noticed emails in my inbox "Jane Smith is now following you on Twitter"...how did they find me? Why are they following me? Maybe they searched a keyword or topic at http://search.twitter.com/ and I appeared with my tweets. Some people auto-follow if you follow them. Like me, a few of them probably viewed who their friend/followers followed. Do you follow? - No pun intended.

I learned very quickly that Twitter offers a powerful platform for one-to-one interactions and quickly, no, instantaneously disseminating information, opinions, and more. Twitter's exponential reach is impressive. I could interact, influence, learn from and engage with brands, individuals, and groups I might not otherwise have access to. Pretty cool. So, if you can do this in a personal capacity...what about for business? Next step, get @WebMetro started.

Initial findings: Twitter has been very powerful for us. We don't have a cajillion followers like @THE_REAL_SHAQ but that was never the goal of getting WebMetro on Twitter. We wanted to, and continue to , interact with our audience - clients, prospects, industry, partners, etc. - and be more external than we have in the past. It has also given us tremendous insight. We learn a whole heck of a LOT from being on Twitter about customers, competitors, and the Internet marketing industry. In fact, of 3400 companies surveyed including half of the Fortune 100 list by DMA's Social Media Council (May 2009), direct marketers believe that capturing customer insights is where social networking can have the highest impact.

Have we received any new business as a result of Twitter? Twitter has assist value. There is no doubt that Twitter can be a significant touch point in the digital purchase funnel which can push a candidate closer to conversion. I can vouch for this as a consumer and as a marketer, from both sides of the coin. I'm saving the deets on this topic for another blog post, including which brands or categories Twitter seems to enable a higher propensity for engagement.

Note: For a business, Twitter may mean dedication and time. It is an INTERACTIVE tool. Just because there is a little work involved when you're tweeting for a business doesn't mean it can't be fun. If you're a true marketer at heart, I think you'll love it. And you might even get addicted to the darn thing. It's meaningful. It's insightful. It's conversational.

If I had to guesstimate...75% of my tweets (personal not for WebMetro) are about food. The remainder is a hodgepodge of pets, reasons why I love L.A., marketing, travel, and a whole lot of other mishmash (like the Lakers!). If you're interested in that kind of stuff, follow me @LCShah. If you want to connect with a team of Internet marketers who are fanatical about ROI, follow the agency @WebMetro.

Now, do you think Twitter will replace email? @ or DM me.

BING Travel - Not Quite There Yet

blog — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:26:24 GMT

There been a lot of talk about BING in the search industry and a key category they focus on is Travel.� Having worked as the Director of Internet Marketing at Hawaiian Airlines for almost 5 years, I wanted to test planning a trip to Hawaii from Los Angeles however, my experience was a little less than satisfactory.

I first started doing a very general search for "flights to Hawaii" and got the following results:

Seeing the "$235 from Los Angeles (LAX>HNL)." was very enticing for a roundtrip flight.� However, I really didn't care about New York or Boston since I live in the Metro Area of Los Angeles and my general search should have been a good indicator that I am looking for travel from airports where I live based on my IP Address.� Results should have been more focused on airports in my area.

After clicking on the $235 link, I was taken to following jumble of information and forms making it somewhat confusing to understand what my next step should be to book this price.

Once you get passed the usability confusion of this page and start searching for flights, you are then taken to a page listing all available flight options available for the supposed $235 price.� This is where I and probably many other consumers would get very disappointed as the price now changes from $235 to $276.

Running Internet Marketing and Advertising for Hawaiian Airlines, I've learned that displaying prices like $235 which DON'T include taxes and fees and having no disclaimer stating that taxes and fees are not included is considered misleading (bait and switch).� This can be penalized with fines from the Department of Transportation (DOT).� That is probably a big reason why many paid search advertisers don't advertise prices in Search Ads (as shown above) because it can be a nightmare to manage and make sure they are always DOT compliant.

On another note, comparing BING to a Trusted and Well Established company like Orbitz shows they have some ways to go before they can really get a good foothold in the travel industry.� Running similar searches on Orbitz and using their Matrix Technology to find flights before and after my target dates made it very easy to find the best available prices.� In addition, the prices listed include taxes and fees so there are very little or no surprises when you actually start booking your flights as you can see in the below examples with $255 roundtrip prices.

Clicking the Yellow Highlighted box from the Orbitz Matrix above returned the following flight option results with prices as seen and expected from the matrix:

What's troubling is that Orbitz shows better fares than what BING shows for the same date ranges (Leave 8/27/09, Return 9/3/09).� It appears that BING does not offer Northwest Airline flights and as such makes me question how trustworthy the pricing info really is if they are missing data from large air carriers like Northwest Airlines.

In summary, BING does have some ways to go and some issues to overcome before they can be seen as trusted source for travel pricing and information.� Unfortunately until then, consumers such as myself will probably use the same travel comparison websites and will probably never try BING again due to this unpleasant experience.

A Little Travel Tip:� When using comparison sites like Orbitz, Travelocity and Expedia and once you've identified an air carrier with the best price, you should also go to that air carrier's website to see if they offer even better deals when booking directly with the air carrier or possibly through the air carrier's frequent flyer program. I.e. Northwest appears to be the best price on Orbitz so I would normally go to their website (http://www.nwa.com/) and check to see if there are any better deals.

Happy Travels!