I took a rare trip to Starbucks this morning, faced with an empty fridge and hungry children who had to be fed before school. 

There was a time not so long ago when my visits to Starbucks were daily. I was a regular for many years and gladly stood in line to wait for my brew, chatting with the team behind the counter who not only knew my name but how my kids were doing in school and my plans for the weekend. What drew me back everyday? It might have been the coffee, the pastries, the people, the location, or none of these things at all. Was it the smell of fresh coffee (now gone the wayside to the automatic machines and pre-bagged beans)? Or the constantly changing, seasonal merchandise bursting off the shelves, begging me to buy something I definitely didn’t need? I honestly don’t know—it was just part of my morning ritual. It was a pleasant experience, one I looked forward to. My local Starbucks was hustling & bustling, bursting with activity and ‘newness’ everyday. It felt like a place where people cared about your experience. It was filled with that special Starbucks essence.

These days I visit one a month, if that.  Just as I don’t know what kept me going back everyday, I don’t really know what sent me away. My trips just became less and less frequent until they became rare. And now when I step into my local Starbucks everything is the same, and everything is different. The same shelves, just stocked differently. The same pastry case, just filled with a few new things. Different faces behind the bar, doing the same familiar things all the other baristas in the world are doing. Same floor, same counter, just not as sparkly clean as they used to be. While the similarities to my old Starbucks are very apparent, it’s the differences that keep me away.

When I do occasionally pop into Starbucks (usually now only prompted by my lack of breakfast for the kids) my mind wanders to these similarities and differences. I try to put my finger on the defining difference, and I can’t. This morning as my mind was pondering how & why that special ‘something’ has waned, I realized my Starbucks is a lot like an untended landing page. It might look & act like a landing page, but maybe it’s been running for a year and hasn’t been updated. Maybe it’s a formulaic replica of ever other landing page out there on the planet. Maybe it was launched in haste and never tested. Maybe it’s just lacking that special something that shows someone cares about the user’s experience.

Are the shelves a little dusty on your landing pages?

I have a lot of time to ponder these things when I visit my neighborhood Starbucks because the line is shorter and the wait is a lot longer, and I can’t for the life of me figure that one out!

Are your landing pages lacking that special something? – Post-Click Marketing Blog – ion interactive

Since our eyes and ears have gotten a well needed vacation from the Presidential Elections back in November, for some in the industry, it’s time to start thinking about the new political races and how to best leverage what was learned with regard to Paid Search Marketing in particular. This topic is not only important to talk about for those who are involved in the political world, but also millions of others who are simply fascinated by what President Barack Obama’s campaign did last cycle. Let’s discuss shall we…..

In a previous post on SemGeek entitled “McCain and Republicans Turn To Paid Search To Influence Voters“, I spoke about the power PPC has as a main “influencer” to raise money, volunteer or just to continue the conversation. One of the biggest “shining moments” of paid search marketing, came when the campaigns quickly and effectively used Google as a platform to counteract and/or react to the rest of the media.

For example, here are just some of the strategies where paid search made a difference.

• Defense against negative campaign attacks
• Defense about leaks within each of the campaigns.
• Became a online behavioral barometer of the public on specific issues.
• Constantly identified what was popular in the online community (search volumes)
• Used as a tool to advocate certain issues that were raised in campaign and media.
• Used as a AD testing tool to determine which language is best associated with public.

Paid Search and Politics: It’s all about timing:
Probably the most effective part of paid search is the ability for a quick turnaround. In the spirit of Journalism and news agencies, timing is everything, and when a candidate is in the news or attacked on the campaign trail, people are going to search about it online, the more people start seeing an PPC Ad directing them to go to the website for more information or a statement from the candidate, the better it is for everyone, especially the campaign.

Since the Internet has become the source of the continued conversation from other media such as TV and Radio, support from paid search, from a online strategy perspective is a no brainer. Now, even though we have identified that timing is key to an PPC strategy, there is one major concern and that is messaging the correct message.

Paid Search and Politics: Get the Messaging Right
It’s very easy to throw a campaign on Google and make a splash right out of the gate. However, in Political campaigns, it’s very easy to get the messages crossed where an opinion or statement can be taken out of context or is just not aligned with other statements from other staff members. In paid search, this lack of communication and/or discipline can be devastating.

Since the Internet has become a breeding ground for information gathering, it allows opponents or their campaigns to obtain any misconceptions or simply “misleading” statements to their advtange. Even though the majority of the campaign’s media spends is still being use for TV, Radio and Print, the Internet has become the “SUPER POWER” for more real-time influence and the ability to persuade and continue the conversation.

In conclusion:
No matter what political party you may belong to, Obama and some others set a new standard for Politics on the Internet. Whether is was clever Social Media Tactics, Text/SMS Messaging, Blogs, Emails, Donation Platforms and Paid search, the “Online Political Benchmark” has been raised and if campaigns want to compete, what we have learned this last political cycle needs to be a part of the overall strategy.

Marketing in 2008 became decidedly social — and 2009 will see the social elements of marketing accelerate. Social media went from being on the cutting edge, to approaching the mainstream. When I say “social” I mean marketing driven by word-of-mouth relationships.

As you go through each of the following small business marketing trends, you’ll see how powerful the social component is for getting and keeping your ideal customer. Just remember, your customers control your brand, so act accordingly.

1. AUTHENTICITY– In 2009, the focus is on “authenticity” and letting the real people behind your company be visible and show through — no more hiding behind a faceless website filled with the word “We.” Instead, it’s “I.” Consumers and B2B buyers expect to know who they are dealing with before hiring your company.

In the event of a problem with your products, consumers want a real person to reach out to, whether it’s AngelaAtHP or ComcastCares on Twitter, or the Web designer you want to hire who actively participates in Facebook and Plurk. Business people are connecting one-to-one through social media sites and this activity will continue.

How to take advantage of this trend:

• Set up a social media presence in your real name on sites like Twitter.com, and interact with customers and prospects, mixing in personal information as well as business information. Examples: @ShaneGoldberg (Shane Goldberg, founder of Extreme Member),  @TimBerry (Tim Berry, President of Palo Alto Software), and @pixily (Prasad Thammineni, CEO of Pixily).
• Set up profiles and groups on Facebook and start recruiting customers to join.
• Create at least one blog to keep customers educated either about your industry or your products and services.

2. DO IT YOURSELF MARKETING – A study by the Yellow Pages Association of America found that more than half of all small businesses say that getting and keeping customers is a challenge, yet nearly two-thirds say they will NOT get any outside help in marketing. The costs of traditional advertising is going up with newspaper ad rates growing 18%, while the effectiveness of traditional marketing is coming down with newspaper readership coming down. In 1992 it took three touches to reach your buyer — and today it takes more than eight!

How to take advantage of this trend:

• Do some market research. Use free online survey tools like SurveyMonkey or QuestionPro to find out what’s really important to your customers.
• Invest in direct marketing. Take the time to build your customer lists and start sending direct messages to your customers whenever possible. Use the information you learned from your surveys to target your message. If you can’t afford direct snail mail, then do email marketing, which is cheaper.
• Post videos and slide shows on your web site and/or blog. Video a demonstration or collect testimonials from customers. Google likes video content, increasing your chances of being found online. By posting slide shows on your site and on SlideShare, you can reach two audiences – those on social sites like Slideshare and those that come to your site directly. And you make your existing presentations and documents do double duty by posting them online.

3. TECH-DRIVEN WORD OF MOUTH MARKETING – 68% of your customers will leave you because they don’t see the difference between you and the other guy. This is why word-of-mouth-marketing will become even more popular in 2009. Loyal customers tell their friends and family WHY to choose you. With so much advertising around us. small businesses will have to penetrate deep “firewalls” of resistance to get to their ideal customers.

How to take advantage of this trend:

• Put a forum section on your web site and run ongoing Q&As with your customers. This will give you the REAL reasons that they choose you.
• Start a referral or affiliate program. It’s as simple as approaching those businesses who serve your customers BEFORE they get to you. A good example is car dealers can refer insurance agents. Clothing retailers can recommend dry cleaners. Look ahead of you in the supply chain and behind you in the supply chain and start referring and collecting referrals.
• Measure your Net Promoter Score. Fred Reicheld wrote a book called “The Ultimate Question” that discovered that this single greatest predictor of profitability was the answer to the question “How likely are you to refer [this company] to friends and family?”

4. ECO AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY – “Green” has gone mainstream. It’s not just a trendy thing to say anymore. In 2009, letting your customers know that your product or service is eco-and socially responsible is literally a feature you want to communicate. A BBDO (Ad Agency) study recently showed that younger consumers made purchasing decisions based on how what “difference you made in the world.” Whether you’re into this trend or not — many consumers have put this on their criteria list.

How to take advantage of this trend:

• Promote whatever community programs or ecologically friendly projects or practices that you have. Don’t think that any effort at environmental-friendly activity is too small. If you are replacing all your light bulbs in your offices to the new fluorescent — then say so. If you are recycling paper — say so.
• If you’re a local business that does business locally — show your customers how you re-cycle and grow the money they spend with you back into the community.

5. BOOTSTRAPPING AND SIMPLICITY – We’ve been moving away from excess for a few years now. But in 2009, being resourceful and bootstrapping is officially cool. This year brings a terrific opportunity to cut out products and services that have little value. Simplifying your offerings gives you the opportunity to differentiate yourself and maintain (if not increase) your price points for products or services that you do best.

How to take advantage of this trend:

• Run a report of your products and services sold to each customer and check out the margins. Highlight the low-margin offerings and see if you can move your customers to a more profitable alternative.
• Look at your bills and statements and ask yourself the question ‘In what ways does this expense get and keep my ideal customers?’ If you don’t come up with a good answer — it may be time to cut that expense out.

6. MARKETING TO THE “BUY BUTTON” – Neuromarketing is the study of how our brains respond to messages. Neuromarketing is becoming the standard baseline for copywriting and advertising. Learning how your customers’ “buy button” works will save you time effort and money.

How to take advantage of this trend:

• Read the books Buyology and Neuromarketing to understand exactly how your brain is influenced to choose one product over another.
• Find ways to attach positive emotions to your product or service.
• Show your customer that you trust THEM by making a trial period available or quickly approving credit.

7. PAID MEMBERSHIPS — Membership sites are a new trend that make the Internet a terrific money-making opportunity for all kinds of entrepreneurs. Combine the trend of creating a niche, and a membership site, and you will have yourself a winning formula in 2009.

Offering memberships is not restricted to the Internet alone. Restaurants have used memberships successfully to even out cash flow and consistently bring in customers. Financial service providers have used memberships to educate their clients and provide special events and services.

How to take advantage of this trend:

• Think of ways to offer a regular benefit to members: product or service of the month, research, e-books, designs and templates. If you have a niche, you have the makings of a membership opportunity.
• Can you call your customers members? What could you offer them on a regular basis as a benefit of membership?
• Some examples of membership sites: Artella Words and Art, Artistic Thread Works, The Biz Web Coach.

8. MOBILITY — Accessing the Internet via mobile device or smart phone is a given. The sites that are mobile friendly will be the sites of choice for consumers looking for information on the go. Another common occurrence is receiving updates on your order or any information that you request via text message.

How to take advantage of this trend:

• Check out these services for sending text messages to customers from the Web: ClearSMS.com, Group2Call.com
• Talk to your technical expert to see what it would take to convert your web site or blog to be viewed easily on the web.

9. WISDOM OF CROWDS — Your customers will want more say in how you improve your product or service. Internet tools like UserVoice, Get Satisfaction and IdeaScale will gain more popularity in 2009 and will be common platforms for gathering customer feedback and ideas on product improvements. Using these feedback tools helps to build customer community and loyalty.

How to take advantage of this trend:

• Sign up for a free version of UserVoice, GetSatisfaction or IdeaScale and put a Feedback widget on your web site or blog. Tell your customers to contribute ideas.
• Be sure to monitor (or have your employees monitor) the feedback on such sites and participate in it. Then as you implement suggestions – communicate that to your customers.

10. PERSONAL BRANDING– Personal Branding will become more important than a killer resume or bio. Your personal brand is your public identity. It’s what you are known for within and outside your network. It has never been more important to differentiate yourself and focus on what sets you apart from the crowd.

Good personal brands give people an immediate sense of knowing you and the experience your business offers. What do these names conjure up for you? Donald Trump, Oprah, Richard Branson? Each of these individuals have focused on a defining idea or element of who they are that is immediately recognizable. For example “You’re Fired” would not be Oprah and “Live your best life” would not be Donald Trump

How to take advantage of this trend:

• Make sure you are using a photo on the web. It doesn’t need to be professional, in fact, a candid and authentically-you shot is best. Use the same pictures everywhere until your brand is established. @GuyKawasaki has his standard picture – but he also changes it around now and then. @JenniferLaycock from SearchEngine Guide uses her company’s puppy logo as her brand.
• Register your name as your domain name. Also register extensions of your name on popular social media sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Slideshare, and others. This serves a defensive purpose, too, as it prevent squatters from profiting off of your personal brand.

About the Author: Ivana Taylor is CEO of Third Force, a strategic firm that helps small businesses get and keep their ideal customer.  She’s the co-author of the book “Excel for Marketing Managers” and proprietor of DIYMarketers, a subscription site for in-house marketers.  Her blog is Strategy Stew.

Hulu, Veoh Among Companies Following Feedback on Microblogging Site

By Daisy Whitney

When a Hulu user posted a message on Twitter earlier this month about “terrible performance problems” on the Fox-NBC online video site, a Hulu executive replied with an e-mail address and an offer to fix the problem.

That’s because Hulu’s employees conduct daily Internet searches to learn what’s being said about Hulu on Twitter, the popular microblogging service.

Twitter is quickly emerging as an important social media channel that lets companies listen to and interact with users. A handful of television networks and shows have experimented with the service, and online video destinations such as Veoh and Hulu are actively leaning on Twitter to communicate with their viewers. Other sites, including Crackle, say they plan to devote more resources to monitoring Twitter “chatter” in the coming year.

As social media becomes a more powerful communication vehicle for consumers, savvy brands are tracking online buzz to learn what they’re doing right and wrong. For online video sites, the practice is crucial—they live and die by the Internet and need to know whether their sites are working well or not.

“If anyone has an issue with latency or streaming and they talk out to the Twitter universe, we will reach out to them,” said Jason Kilar, CEO of Hulu. “Someone said recently they were getting ready to watch Hulu and they had some trouble, so I e-mailed them [and] said, ‘I’d love to hear more about it,’ and connected them to our chief technology officer. That’s something you couldn’t do without Twitter.”

Hulu also uses the microblogging service to post occasional updates on new features and content. In addition, Mr. Kilar tracks Hulu mentions on Twitter via the Twitter search service Summize.com. He said Hulu now generates about 30 mentions on Twitter every hour compared to 30 per day earlier this year.

That sort of heady word-of-mouth uptick is one of the reasons Hulu usage shot up in October, when the site delivered 206 million streams of video to 9 million unique users, up from 142 million streams to 6.3 million unique users in September, according to Nielsen Online.

Veoh executives also chat with users via Twitter, blogs and forums. Earlier this month the site’s founder, Dmitry Shapiro, posted a Twitter update asking for feedback on the redesigned site.

“Our executives and employees frequently follow the conversations about Veoh on social media services like Twitter,” said Gaude Paez, a spokeswoman for the company. “We encourage all Veoh employees to share new Veoh content and features with their friends through their Facebook and MySpace networks.”

Advertising executive Scott Lackey has informally tracked the Twitter usage of several TV network and online video sites, such as CBS News, HBO, NBC, Hulu and Web-to-TV software service Boxee, and found that Hulu and Boxee were among the most interactive of the group. “What impresses me is how they are tracking comments and they pick stuff up and message you back with practical, pragmatic, helpful advice. It’s great customer service, it’s proactive and it builds tremendous trust and goodwill,” said Mr. Lackey, co-founder and strategic director of Jugular Advertising.

Traditional TV networks haven’t harnessed the back-and-forth of Twitter, with a few exceptions, he said. Some shows, such as Showtime’s “Californication,” have created Twitter accounts for characters, and the host of MSNBC’s popular prime-time news show “The Rachel Maddow Show” interacts with followers via Twitter, posting updates about the show and her personal life.

Other industries are increasingly monitoring discussions that take place on Twitter, said Andy Beal, founder of Trackur.com, a social media monitoring service. “Comcast, Dell and Zappos are all examples of businesses that are actively listening to conversations on Twitter and using corporate-branded Twitter accounts to interact with their target audience,” he said.

Twitter allows brands to talk directly to customers, which is why it should be part of a social media monitoring strategy, said Raquel Krouse, practice lead for social media for the IPG Emerging Media Lab. “Monitoring social media allows marketers to determine how positively or negatively people are currently talking about a brand, and to identify issues and opportunities,” she said.

by Michael Pinto

Nearly a day goes by on Twitter without yet another social media “expert” choosing to stalk me. At first it started innocently — back in the day (about a year ago) various techie friends started to declare themselves social media gurus because they decided to hang out on Twitter and Facebook all day. And now an army of their offspring monitor Summize in search of human flesh.

Now the first symptom of this disease was what I call “social media deafness”, a state that occurs when a person’s social graph exceeds 500+ virtual friends. The result is that the person is a mile wide, but an inch deep. Suddenly the friend you use to know develops amnesia like symptoms and starts ignoring your direct messages — what was first simple Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder becomes full blown zombie like state.

The zombies then seek each other: You’ll always notice that of the 5,000 followers that a social media expert has that all 5,000 of them are also social media “experts”. Their only form of conversation is to quote each other and live tweet conferences where they gather. Like any good Ponzi scheme the lead zombies can make a good living feeding the hopes and aspirations of the worker level drones who parrot their every blog entry.

But that’s where the problem starts with us civilians: The drone level zombies then start to stalk any innocent Twitter user they can find. They don’t care who it is or what that person is interested in because their first prize is the “auto-follow”. By finding enough folks who don’t have auto-follow turned off they artificially inflate their number of followers which inflates their “expertise” in the field. Most start out by doing this to each other, but before long they need to prey on the flesh of the living.

If you’re unlucky enough to be followed that’s when the real problems begin: Before long every little quip you put out is met with a useless unsolicited recommendation. At first you might tease the zombie about their hard sell technique, but alas zombies have no sense of humor. Worst yet is that zombies don’t know how to take a hint — and that when my little buddy “the Block button” comes in handy!

Above: Social media and SEO “experts” aren’t human anymore (i.e. they’re undead) so you should feel no guilt at all in shooting them — in fact it can be an act of pleasure once your get use to it.

Now I know what you’re all thinking: Can’t these pitiful creatures be saved? The answer is NO!

My proof of my concept: Recently on a News Gang podcast I witnessed an attempt at zombie intervention and the result was a huge sad failure. Sweet Robert Scoble (now known by his borg name “teh Scobleizer”) had been sucked into some sort of fringe aspect of this cult called Friend Feed. So industry vet Steve Gillmor and action hero Mike Arrington tried to lead a brave (but futile) effort to lead an intervention to save poor Robert, but alas their rational pleas for sanity were ignored. Within minutes Scobleizer was back on the tweets, and this time he was disseminating Amazon affiliate links into his chirps in order to monetize his affliction.

Above: Robert Scoble is the second zombie on the left.

Like drugs, social media can be a good thing in the right hands. But there are too many people out there who don’t know what they’re doing and just get carried away. Sadly most people just lack the good old fashioned discipline to keep their worse instincts in check.

On a related note there’s also a related clan of zombies which are the SEO “experts” — these creatures are a blue collar variation of the social media experts and usually have the term “web master” in their bio. Sometimes the social media and SEO zombies can mate to produce a marketing strategy monster, but most of these are harmless as they don’t use the auto-follow technique.

In closing I’ve given this problem a great deal of thought trying to come up with a solution. At first I had a great idea about trying to have an automated script that would detect the zombies and block them as soon as they spot you. But like Spam I realized that any software solution was useless as the flesh eaters always manage to stay one step ahead of you. But then it hit me! Being a fanboy and having watched too many monster movies I realized that the only solution is to lure the entire population of social media and SEO experts to an island and for President Obama to authorize the dropping of a nuclear weapon.

Above: I know one is tempted to be cheap and just use an atomic bomb, but having watched so many of these movies I know that it won’t be strong enough.

The end?

Research is always challenging, I’m required to stay objective, follow a consistent methodology, and inform the market who is strong and who’s not. Believe me, I’ve gotten my share of angry calls, emails, blogposts, comments, and conversations with brands and vendors as a result of my reports. I’ve found that one thing that really helps everyone to understand is to be open and transparent about the process.

In every Wave, like the Community Platform Wave I recently published, there are vendors that are elated and those that are disappointed, this is a normal outcome of reports that make the tough decisions to help brands make decisions. I’m empathetic to some of the vendors who were not in the Wave and want to make some clear explinations as they have to answer their colleagues, customers, and investors.

To start with, in a market of now 100 vendors, it’s very important that vendors take the onus to respond to the call for submission to the Vendor Product Catalog (free after registration). We used this information to filter out which vendors would be appropriate for the Wave report. I made a few public calls on my blog, twitter, indicating my intent as a result over 50 vendors submitted. We generally do not follow up unless we’ve heard client demand from inquiry calls, and I turned to 3 analyst peers for their inclusion of any additional vendors.

You can understand the challenges in filtering a large market to just a few vendors, given the amount of hours required to spend on each vendor, Forrester limits the number of candidates involved in the Wave, for this one, nine was a manageable size and we capped it at that number.

Next, we filtered vendors to meet the needs of external communities used for customers (I serve the Interactive Marketer) as well as vendors were primarily serving enterprise class companies.

Some vendors chose not to participate as being involved in a research report takes time of the vendors and perhaps precious time away from clients. Vendors have to participate in meetings, plan travel to meet me in lab, and be involved in several communications throughout the process. In fact, a multi billion dollar company who owns a community platform chose not to participate despite my offer.

I’m required to be objective, without this, I lose credibility and then everything else will fall apart. Several vendors who are in the community space who are Forrester clients were not included in the Wave, in fact, some were livid and gave me an loud earful and I actually suspect they may leave us as a client. Despite this, I’m supported by my management, and our CEO to stay objective.

Now for the good news, while there is no immediate plans, Forrester is known for updating Wave’s in the space after a few years. Secondly, if you’re in this space, you know I publish a weekly digest giving updates to buyers about what’s happening in the market. I know for a fact the digest is read by senior decision makers at large corporations. If you are a vendor in this space, you can schedule a briefing with me and we can discuss your situation, I speak to clients, press, and media frequently and will always match market needs with vendors as deemed appropriate.

I believe in the open conversation, and will support the right for every vendor and customer to voice an opinion. I hope this helps provide insight to why some vendors did –and did not make the Wave, we tried every effort to be fair in our first report in a very large market.

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Go to Source

A few months ago my colleague Josh Bernoff visited Walmart HQ and wrote how he believes the company is going to understand social –I was skeptical. Last night I had dinner with some of the Wal-Mart digital team invited by John Andrews, Emerging Media Sr. Manager at Wal-Mart Stores, along with other colleagues and some other vendors.

If you’re not aware of their checkered past, Walmart is a case study for doing social media wrong. They created the myspace clone community called “Hub” and shut it down after a mere 10 weeks, then they were caught “astroturfing” (fake blogging) along with their PR agency Edelman. They’ve launched the “Checkout Blog” which I give mixed ratings, while it’s certainly an authentic piece from Walmart buyers, there’s only a mere 6 comments on the 10 most recent posts. If conversation rate is a measure of success –they’re borderline.

But what gets me thinking that Walmart may become a case study of success? They’re allowing for customer opinions by using Bazaarvoice for the last few years, this give customers the chance to rate –and rank the products they think are good. Secondly they’ve created a platform for the 11 moms bloggers (now beyond 20, with men too) that allow bloggers to discuss their opinions about products, Walmart and lifestyle. The difference between the Walmart blogging program and Kmart Izea deployment? The Walmart bloggers are not paid, and not-sponsored, and can write anything they want, with the caveat it’s non-disparaging (rather than saying “Walmart sucks” they should discuss what could be improved and why. I’ve spoken with a few of them, such as Lucretia Pruitt, (aka Geekmommy on twitter, follow her) who can share insight to why the program is working.

So why is this a change for Walmart? It’s pretty simple. Rather than Walmart trying to tell the story themselves with a community, and blogs. They’ve now figured out how to let their customers tell the story on their behalf –and that’s the difference. At Forrester, we call this ‘energizing’ which is commonly known as word of mouth, rather than “talking” which is the company speaking directly with the market, learn more about the five objectives. Given that corporate blogs aren’t trusted –and people that you know are –this is the way to go for Walmart.

Sometimes, the companies that have the roughest start (like Dell) with social end up being the case studies of success, I have a suspicion Walmart could fall into that category.

Go to Source