Monday, August 24, 2009

Maryland Retailers Association and Local Roll Call Form Strategic Partnership to Promote Local Online Marketing

Annapolis and Baltimore, MD (PRWEB) August 23, 2009 -- The Maryland Retailers Association (MRA) and Local Roll Call, announced a multi-year strategic partnership designed to mutually benefit both organizations by better serving their merchant, and advertising communities in the Maryland Region. The agreement consists of several components in the areas of local search marketing, search engine optimization, Video Solutions, Social Networking and a branded MRA.org business portal.

"Our members will benefit from the services and experience Local Roll Call will provide," said Tom Saquella, President of the Maryland Retailers Association. "This partnership with Local Roll Call provides us with a great opportunity to further extend our message to Maryland's retail community through social media and provides our members additional online exposure on the www.LocalRollCall.com portal. Hardly a day goes by where there is not some mention in the trade press about how online marketing and social networks are changing the face of retailing."

"We are thrilled to be working closely with the Maryland Retailers Association to provide guidance to the members with our services and offerings and help grow our businesses," said David Carberry, president and founder, Local Roll Call. "The Maryland Retailers Association offers a strong community of Maryland businesses that can be utilizing a lot more the Internet has to offer. Working together, we can create more exposure for our properties, which in turn makes our directory more valuable to our users."

The Maryland Retailers Association will begin to roll out the initiatives outlined in the agreement this year. This will also include a testing phase that will take place over the next several months, with a plan to achieve full implementation by 2010.

David Carberry will be speaking at the Maryland Retailers Annual Conference in Ocean City Maryland next month, to discuss the partnership and do a morning workshop on social media marketing, local business listings, and pay per click strategies.

Further details of the agreement include:
Local Roll Call (www.localrollcall.com) will be providing the Maryland Retailers Association an online directory tool to manage and maintain their members data. This dashboard tool will allow Maryland Retailers Association members to modify not only their main listing, but will also include additional retail locations if desired.

The Maryland Retailers Association gets an exclusive association sponsorship of the Local Roll Call, Maryland section and updated monthly listings of their member's business locations.

Maryland Retailers Association members receive exclusive discount pricing from Local Roll Call.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Search Engine Strategies San Jose 09 Keynote

The Search Engine Strategies convention kicked off yesterday in San Jose, and the Opening Keynote was Clay Shirky. Shirky gives an overview of his book “Here Comes Everybody,” and delves into the details of how Media has evolved over the years.

According to Shirky, “Group action just easier, people can come together share and get things done.” This change in user behavior has changed the landscape of communication. He went into an example about a promotion HSBC had for students. The program was a penalty free checking program, not forcing students to pay penalty fees. HSBC felt they had a great promotion, too great actually and they began to lose money. So HSBC pulled back the offer and gave the students 30 days to get out or fees would be in tact.

HSBC was not expecting Facebook and someone started the Great HSBC ripoff. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2371122959. Other students wrote about how to get your money out of the bank and get it to another bank. There were multiple media complaints and HSBC was getting negative publicity. Online protests were occurring and the group against HSBC kept growing.Then people organized to plan on going to London and have a protest in the Street at HSBC headquarters.
Needless to say HSBC pulled back and changed the policy because the customers were coordinated and not in an individual scramble.
Shirky states, “Facebook and other social media sites are sites of coordination not just information. That makes the Internet medium different, every URL is a latent community. You can put people in contact with one another. We are living in the largest expansion of expressive capability.”

He goes on to explain that Prior to now there were four great periods with media expansion; The Inventions of: Movable type and the printing press, The Telegraph/Phone, Recorded Media, harnessing of sending electronic waves through television and radio.

The major difference is that none of these could create groups. It produced the same message center to the edge. Communication was one to many, or one to one, and not many to many. Internet is the broadcast pattern of reaching large groups. It provides Organizations without organizations. That’s what HSBC ran into.

Computers and phones are symmetrical and give the option to the user, do you want to consume or share? Every time a new consumer is added to Facebook a new media producer is created, it’s one media to another without changing.

Technology does not cause the change, it’s not the shiny new tool that arrives and people just adopt it. Tools are shiny and new but are wasting assets…nothing can last forever. Internet access has been around 20 years but it has been the last five years that have had the greatest impact. We have new tools with apps and the social media networks but tools only change society when they society is motivated to make a change.

I'll be attending more sessions and posting updates - so stay tuned.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Papa John's Needs a Better Online Ingredient!

If you have watched your television over the past few months, you have seen Papa John's Founder John Schnatter delivering his pizza's all over the country. In Papa John's latest press stunt they were in Chicago setting a world record for the world's highest pizza delivery at more than 1,300 feet. Schnatter planned on delivering more than 100 slices of pizza to the ledge at the Skydeck Chicago.

This is truly a great promotion. They have blended radio appearances, press releases, a well crafted television campaign, @PJsidekicks tweet their upcoming locations, and a great story that is on every Papa John's Box Top.
Papa John's is out and about, but they are missing a key online marketing ingredient... LOCAL MARKETING! Papa John's set up is similar to many existing companies that look for expanded growth in the food industry. They have corporate owned locations and franchised locations all across the country. When you try to take a national product and spread it across corporate budgets and then down to the franchise level some pieces get lost.

Today more than ever the complexities of the local space can also play a large role in how a company manages listings across all of their stores. Let's start off with the first piece.

Papa John's corporate headquarters is located in Louisville Kentucky. If you search for pizza delivery in Google you will see that Papa John's is nowhere to be found in the Google One Box. You can find Boombozz Pizza and their big rival Pizza Hut. Before @PJSidekicks writes another tweet they should jump onto Google and claim their free listing. Miriam Ellis posted a great article on "How to Claim Your Google Maps Listing". Adding your listing to Google Maps isn't that complex, especially utilizing a data file or bulk uploads. The complexity comes when the listing has already been claimed.

Franchisee's take pride in their stores and want to spread the word. Aside from Google having a "claim your listing" so does every other online directory out there. A franchisee might claim a listing on Yelp, Merchantcircle.com, Yellowpages.com, superpages.com and a slew of other locally driven sites. This adds to the complexity and the confusion of the brand. If a franchisee accidently adds a listing that says Papa John Pizza, or Papa John's of Maryland LLC. and then you multiply this mistake by hundreds of owners then you have a local oil spill to clean up! Papa John's needs to implement a top down system to ensure each franchisee is providing the correct corporate branding or let the franchisor take control.
In Papa John's case you can find
Papa John's Pizza
Papa John
Papa John's
Papa John S Pizza
Papa Johns
Papa John's Pizza
Papa John S

Keyword insertion and messaging are extremely important - of the over 3,000 listings for Papa John's only about one third are populated with keyword information. If someone is searching for a thin crust or specialty pizza Papa John's might not be found in the local directories.
Hours of operation, parking and credit cards accepted should all be listed direct from the Franchisee or the corporation. Too often Google is crawling a third party provider site and displaying wrong information.

Last on the list is tying the search campaign into their current promotional "papasroadtrip.com" campaign. At the time of writing this article I searched for keywords like "papa's camaro contest" and "papasroadtrip.com". They are displaying top organically, but it wouldn't hurt them to bid on promotional terms for extra emphasis on the campaign.
It doesn't look like Papa John Schnatter has made it to Baltimore but, if and when he does, he is more than welcome to visit my home and I'll do a little local marketing for a Papa's Thin Crust Hawaiian Pizza. Better online ingredients makes a better online search experience.

Also available on Search Engine Guide - http://www.searchengineguide.com/

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Alan Rimm-Kaufman

The Rimm-Kaufman Group was the name that kept me up at night. On several occasions, I presented to clients that were utilizing the services of RKG. They were happy with the fees and the services and we couldn't pry them away.

I was sorry to hear about the loss of Alan and his battle with leukemia. A good friend of mine has been going through that same struggle for the last few years.

During Alan's battle the team at RKG continued to rise, in the national search arena they were winning. RKG - Keep fighting the battle for Alan and much continued success.

My prayers go out to Alan's family we have lost a courageous fighter in the Search Industry.

http://www.rimmkaufman.com/rkgblog/2009/07/20/alan-rimm-kaufman-tribute/

Thursday, June 25, 2009

U.S. Justice Department is investigating Google

The U.S. Justice Department is reportedly investigating Google's digital books settlement with publishers, which Google claims will make millions of volumes accessible to all but which has critics crying antitrust issues. Google's books project has run into opposition from a number of groups arguing that it gives the search engine company too much control over content with little oversight.

read more

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Social Media - Maryland Style

A few weeks ago I attended the Maryland Chamber of Commerce session on Social Media and Online Marketing with guest host Mario Armstrong from XM radio. The panel consisted of Greg Cangialosi, CEO of Blue Sky Factory, Matt Goddard, CEO of r2integrated and Leah Messina, CEO of Sinuate Media.

The panelists spoke about various topics such as; online tools, social marketing and challenges their clients face. Some good points were made throughout the session however, as most panels go, they were all intertwined and scattered. I have highlighted some of the main items that are beneficial to all businesses either as a refresher or as new information.

Communities

How are your customers currently buying items or services? Social media outlets such as Twitter don’t work for everyone or every business. Let’s take a business such as a local plumber or heating specialist. When do you need a plumber? Typically when something is wrong! Most people will more than likely pick up a phone book or do an online directory search. It’s doubtful that anyone will follow a plumber’s business on Twitter. On the other hand, if you are looking for a recommendation for a plumber, Twitter or Facebook might be the perfect place for you. According to Goddard, “Social media is really about reducing a risk by reaching out to like-minded peers. It’s our way of saying, how do I not make a bad decision?” We go get advice and it’s sitting inside these communities, we are getting the information when the conversation is happening and it’s all about reducing the risk. The social tools that exist are about streamlining the process.

LinkedIn.com has been around longer than Twitter and it isn’t getting as much hype. LinkedIn is a risk reduction and helps members make better decisions on how to build relationships. It’s Quality over Quantity. Your business should be tied to your area of expertise, local community or industry specialty. If you are a local business in a specific trade industry try to focus on what you do and important topics that are relevant.

The Clutter

There’s really no need to tweet about the peanut butter and jelly sandwich you just ate. According to Cangialosi , “THERE’S A LOT OF A LOT! “ There is no way we are paying attention to everything you have written. There is so much white noise that it is crucial for businesses to stay focused. Try to use important keywords or tags that can be searched for easily.
Blue Sky Factory leverages social media technology by using Hubspot. The Hubspot tool looks at web analytics and takes all the keywords you want to optimize and ranks the conversations that are really important. Blue Sky’s goal is to engage the community, cut through the clutter, and sharpen the focus.

Tools and Tracking

Messina recommended several different tools which keep a watchful eye on what people are saying about your product or who might be interested. Search.twitter.com – Twitter’s basic search toolGoogle alerts – a great way to have information pushed instead of searching with the other tools icerocket.com - a social and search tool radian6 - a monitoring source for your brand across the webChi.mp – helps steam line across multiple accountsDragon Search - social media calculator

One tool that was not mentioned was Twitter Analyzer, which is a tool that is fun to explore.

Rule of Thumb to Execute Social Media

Mario’s last question to the panel was, “How much time do you have for all of your social responsibilities? We all know that owning a dog can be free, but don’t you have to nurture it?”

Leah recommends before you update your Twitter account to spend 2 hours researching and compile a list of daily social media updates. Update once in the morning and at the end of the day. Leah typically puts aside 1 hour a day for updates.

Greg doesn’t use Twitter to update his Facebook account. The Twitter stream is primarily used for business and he separates his personal account from corporate account. He does his tweets in spurts. He recommends that your conversations grow into one on one dialog. You should pick and choose from one platform to another because it is not relevant between the two socials. Try not to use hash marks in your Facebook account – it may be Greek to many of your friends.

Final Words

Matt states, “The Internet is a buying engine – not a selling engine. You have to be a part of the buying process.” You can’t force the buying moment. Experiment with the tools available to you and evaluate the outcome.

Leah – “When you reach out you can tease out the most important people that are the influencers. They can help you be a bridge to the community. Be genuine and use it methodically.”

Greg – “The influencer in today’s social world has a very wide footprint so you need to be very authentic, transparent and methodical.” The long term strategy for social messaging is making sure your messaging is exact. What’s the right story to tell your audience; is it compelling and why?

Monday, June 1, 2009

Bounce Rates and What They Mean to Your Business

In my past life at Advertising.com/Platform-A, I worked with large retailers and big businesses that watched their web analytics religiously. They looked at everything from conversions to keywords and in particular, the bounce rate. My assumption was that most businesses were keeping an eye on what is actually happening, if not daily, at least weekly on their website. But, in speaking with many small to mid-size companies, I discovered that really is not the case.

Your website, in its most basic format, is an intelligent interactive brochure for your business ,no matter how a potential customer found you. A semi-social networking conduit. As we all know, analytics is a key part to understanding what is happening with your business and having analytics connected is simple and easy. It astounds me that so many businesses are not looking at data that is right at their fingertips.

Let’s start with the home page. If a customer finds your website with a search engine query and they don’t stick around that’s an issue! This is called a “bounce” – Someone who visited your website and left for an undefined reason. You should try to determine WHY?
Bounce Rate measurement determines the visit quality. A high bounce rate generally indicates that an entrance page/home page may be not relevant to the visitor. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bounce_Rate

Is your site content useful enough to capture that visitor and keep them? If not, there could be multiple reasons why.
1.) Poor design - Your site may be poorly designed and not captivating or compelling enough to make them want to stay. You have limited time to get a visitor to take a walk through!
2.) Improper SEO – So a visitor got to your site by using a highly ranked keyword/phrase in a search engine and when they arrive they feel your site was not what they were looking for. Maybe your site messaging and content, title tags, and meta information are optimized with the wrong goal in mind. You need to eliminate the stranglers and focus the page content to hit those searchers meant to make a conversion.
3.) Paid Search – Change your paid search campaign to eliminate those 100% bounce rate terms. Obviously you don’t want to overspend and waste money in this economy. Focus on exact match and limit broad terms to improve overall bounce rate.

Bounce rates typically are not determined by length of time spent on the site with Google Analytics. So, if a site visit occurs and that visitor stays on the entry page for 10 minutes and does not go to any other part of the site; That technically is a bounce. Someone that might have come in and stayed on that page for 10 seconds and went to another page will not be categorized as a bounce. http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=81986

Your business needs to determine why a bounce occurs, and evaluate that rate on a page by page basis and a keyword by keyword basis. You need to direct them from start to finish and provide an easy to use solution for why they entered your site in the first place.

You should also be mindful of the entry points that are driving traffic. If it is a social networking site or link then don’t worry about the bounce rate and be thankful that other sources are driving traffic. On the other hand, if you can determine the bounce is coming from a paid search campaign, especially in the content network, you should try to analyze whether that site should be part of your paid strategy.

Last but not least, if you are a business owner, CEO or CMO and you have marketing people on your staff be sure to set monthly site analytics review meeting! You can learn a lot about your business based on what is driving people to your website or in the case of the bounce rate scenario - what's driving them away.