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Super Social and Search Tips Before the Big Game (Small Business E-commerce Link Digest – February 3, 2012)

by Tim on February 3, 2012

in E-commerce, Social Media, del.icio.us links, social strategy

This weekend marks one of the biggest days of the years for marketers: the annual Ad Bowl among commercials during some kind of football game or something (I kid, I kid… let’s face it: my beloved Giants are going to crush QB-turned-male-model Tom Brady). But, with props to the great Gary Vaynerchuk, here are some tips to help you crush your competition:

ProBlogger looks at a 4 point formula for developing irresistible content.
Cutting right to the chase, Smedio offers an excellent Small Business Social Media Cheat Sheet.
Speaking of big ad budgets, Business Insider reports that CPG powerhouse P&G is going to slash its marketing budget in favor of social and search. Seems that even old dogs are beginning to learn some new tricks, eh?
Mark Suster looks at balancing web and mobile in a post called “Web Second, Mobile First” that’s well worth the read as you plan your mobile strategy.
And, finally, there’s been a lot of news about the importance of social sites for driving traffic and business. First, one study suggests Pinterest drives more traffic than Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn combined. But, HubSpot offers data suggesting LinkedIn provides much greater value at driving leads. My take? Follow a “core and explore” methodology, focusing first on core initiatives, then testing new channels to see what works best for your business.

Of course, conducting successful tests requires solid measurement. If you’re not sure how to do that, take a look at our Website Analytics Fundamentals series or drop me a line and I’ll give you a hand.

Have a great weekend, Big Thinkers. Enjoy the game. And, say it with me now… Let’s go G-Men!

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Technorati Tags: Google, google, Google Plus, Google+, Google+ Pages, LinkedIn, social, social commerce, social marketing, social media, social search, social strategy, YouTube

Tagged as: content, content creation, content marketing, google plus, linkedin, links, pinterest, social, social business, social commerce, social e-commerce, social ecommerce, social marketing, social media marketing, social media metrics, social network marketing, social search, social strategy, social web, youtube

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Social Success plus a Slight Bit o’ Search (Small Business E-commerce Link Digest – January 29, 2012)

by Tim on January 27, 2012

in E-commerce, Social Media, Uncategorized, del.icio.us links, social strategy

Just a quick collection of link love to share today, Big Thinkers, all related to social success and how social changes search. Don’t worry, we’ll continue our series on website analytics fundamentals on Monday. But, for now, on with the links:

Linda Bustos shows why Google+ matters to e-commerce.
Social Media Examiner asks whether social media can actually make money—I suspect you’ll like the answer, too.
Search Engine Land picks on Google for crappy search results, questioning whether Google’s attention to Google+ and social has shifted its focus away from search. I think it’s worth asking whether Google’s shift in attention is a sign that customers increasingly care more about search than social. Something to keep an eye on going forward.
Not that social doesn’t have a dark side, The New York Times dives into the practice of paying for good reviews online.

I hope you have a great weekend, folks. See you next week!

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Tim Peter & Associates helps companies from startups to the Fortune 500 use the web to reach more customers, more effectively every day. Take a look and see how we can help you.

Technorati Tags: search, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, sem, seo, social, social commerce, social marketing, social media, social search, social strategy

Tagged as: Google, google plus, google search, search engine, search engine guide, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, search marketing, search strategy, social, social business, social commerce, social e-commerce, social ecommerce, social marketing, social search strategy

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Google is not Evil. They just appear to be.

by Tim on January 11, 2012

in SEO, Search, Social Media, social strategy

Google is making lots of news this week and not all of it is for the right reasons. First, they introduced their Search, plus Your World enhancement (hereafter referred to as Search Plus because Danny Sullivan is a genius), incorporating social results more fully into the company’s search results pages. Twitter hates it, while Matt Cutts thinks it’s magical.

Me? I’m ambivalent. This has been a long time coming and, while I don’t think it’s going away anytime soon, I also think it’s incomplete, if for no other reason that so much of the social content that makes Search Plus attractive comes only from Google+. Maybe as Google+ use grows, Search Plus will become more valuable to consumers. But it’s way too soon to suggest how it’s going to affect business (though I plan to take a couple of guesses next week).

Speaking of the business impacts of Google+ growth, Matt McGee takes a long look at the growth of [Not Provided] as a referring keyword from Google. As I noted in the comments, the more folks log into G+, the bigger potential business impact.

What these two stories have in common is both present Google in a less-than-glowing light. In the first, Google appears to promote its social service ahead of alternatives such as Twitter and Facebook. In the second, Google offers its paid search customers benefits unavailable to those who don’t pay.

But are either of these “evil”?

You could easily argue that they’re not.

Now, before you get out the torches and pitchforks to storm my castle, hear me out for a second. If you made moves that benefited your bottom line and stuck it to your competitors, do those moves make you evil? Of course not.

So why isn’t that true for Google? Shouldn’t they get the same opportunity as you? (Ignoring for a moment any antitrust issues, of which I expect Google to face plenty pending the outcome of this year’s elections).

Actually, here’s the problem. Google’s stated mission is to “…organize the world‘s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” All the world’s information, universally accessible. Not just the information available on Google’s services and not just to people who pay them.

From that perspective it sure looks like they’re compromising their core mission some. That may not be evil. But if you sacrifice your values to boost profits, eventually you’ll end up with neither.

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Technorati Tags: Google, Google +1, Google Analytics, Google antitrust, Google Plus, Google+, Google+ Pages, search, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, sem, seo, social marketing, social media predictions, social search, social strategy