Archive for November, 2008

Now Google users can enhanced search results for assistance with future searches by alternating search results. You can vote up, remove, comment on, or add websites to your custom search results as long as you are logged in to your Google account.

Don’t worry, your input won’t change other people’s search results; at least not for now. I would imagine Google might just want to use that data down the road, but we’ll see.

The only challenge that I see is potential for fraud by ethically challenged search engine marketing practitioners, who can now alter results and show them to a client that wouldn’t really know the difference. As a consumer advocate, I always advise clients to have some knowledge of what is going on with your search marketing campaign. That is one of the reasons I wrote The Internet Marketing Guide for Small Business. Armed with this tool that spells out the A to Z’s of Internet Marketing, you will be on a more level playing field with your search engine marketing practitioner.

In closing, here is a video put out by Google that demonstrates the new SearchWiki, although there is no teacher like experience, so if you don’t have a Google account, I’d say go register for one and check it out for yourself.

Is it just me or does anyone else have a problem with the news sites that make you register to read an article? How in the world are you supposed to send links to people and expect them to read it? I know when I get a link that requires me to register, I just think “I am sure it was a good story, but who has time for that”.

Feel free to comment.

I get lots of friend requests on the multiple Social Media Sites that I am connected with. Many people might think that is a great thing and would be quick to just add anyone to their network, but my advice is to have a goal for your Social Media involvement and also get to know those who you are giving access to your personal network before connecting.

What are your Social Networking Goals?
I use Social Networks in a variety of ways. For example, I use Facebook to connect with friends, family, and personal contacts. These are people that I have some previous connection with and I don’t always include colleagues to make sure and separate my personal life from my business life. When I get requests from people that I do not know personally, or know professionally, I send them a message before declining them to explain that I don’t use Facebook for business, then I “ignore” the request. Now, this doesn’t mean that I do not promote using FB, but my messages are just different. I use web links to my websites, as well as Groups and Pages. I have even toyed with the Facebook Ads, but I wasn’t so happy about my response. This isn’t to degrade the Facebook ad system; in fact, it is very cost effective. It just wasn’t right for my campaign.

Twitter is a site that I use to connect with those in the markets I follow. It has been helpful in getting near real time industry information as well as keeping people up to date on my work in the Internet Marketing arena.

StumbleUpon is kind of my “go to” site. I check it as much as I do any other news site, and maybe more. I find it a great source of news and hot topics and see it as a great way to get the word out to the masses.

LinkedIn is a great place to connect with people professionally. They have great features such as the Q&A where you can show what you know and you play your cards right, it could lead to generating business.

Getting to know people before connecting.
There are three factors common to most Social Networking sites which allow you to assess a persons profile:

1. The ability to see who someone is connected to (their friends).
2. The ability to see their website(s)
3. The ability to see what websites they support.

Using those factors, you should be able to gather enough information to make a decision. It’s not rocket science, but if done incorrectly, could leave you wondering why “Social Networking doesn’t work for you”.

As an specific example, I will use StumbleUpon where I get lots of friend requests. Before adding anyone as a friend, here is what I am able to gather from their profile:

1. Their Bio. I want to know if they have taken time to provide any details of who they are. If not, I will assume they are either lazy or just there to self promote and I won’t be interested in connecting.

2. Their stats. I want to know how long they have been in the StumbleUpon community. I won’t disqualify someone new, and in fact, may send them a welcome message. I also want to know that they Thumb and Review sites and see what others have said about them.

3. Their website. It will tell me a bit more about what they are interested in and what they do.

4. Their friends. Just today, I saw an interesting profile with most of this persons friends that did not have pictures (just the silhouette). They were all also from another country – one that I have no connections to, so it didn’t seem to be a good match.

5. Their interests. I usually connect with others with similar interests. For example, if someone is interested in anime, video games, or porn, we probably won’t have much in common, so that is a pretty quick decision.

In closing, I will say the key to Social Networking is no different that offline networking and that is making connections with qualify people.

Feel free to connect with me on StumbleUpon or Twitter.

I hope this has been helpful. If you want to keep up with my work, please subscribe to this blog (it’s free) using the RSS feed or email subscription box to the right.

Today I went to both the dentist and the chiropractor, so I did a lot of thinking about how local businesses generate traffic. The dentist was a new dentist to me and was literally across the street. I did a Google search to get the number by searching for dentists and my zip code. By the time I left I was talking to the dentist about online marketing and whether or not he wanted to barter for an $800+ crown He was a super guy and when I got back home, I decided to add a review to his Google Local Listing. Not only am I sure he will appreciate it, but I will print it out to give him with a copy of my new book (The Internet Marketing Guide for Small Business) and show him that I have already started to market his business for him.

As I sat at my chiropractors office, I realized I had never asked for his business although he has mine. The owner wasn’t there, but I thought how effective it would be if I could help him grow his local business by offer his existing customers a free adjustment for leaving a comment on Google Local. If he decides to do it, hopefully, I can report back with some good news.

As I drove home, I started to think about how different businesses could offer their current customers something of value that would not only keep them coming back, but help to increase their testimonials of Google Local. If you have another local review site of choice such as Yelp, it is just as applicable, but I felt that Google was a good one to use particularly because when I search, I try and find reviews to help me narrow down my decision.

I think I am on to something here and if you are willing to implement this strategy, I’d love to hear your success story.

Have a great weekend!

For those who are wondering how the candidates ended up ranking online, here are a few interesting statistics.

According to Compete.com here is an estimate of each candidates website traffic for September 2008:

barackobama.com – 5,538.460 (indicated in red below)
johnmccain.com – 3,117,691 (indicated in blue below)

I have to say, I am not sure why Compete.com used the opposite party’s color in the graph. Perhaps it was unintentional, but I do find it funny.

According to Alexa.com, here is how the two websites ranked on Election Day:

www.barackobama.com #707
www.johnmccain.com #2502

I am sure that a lot of this has to do with the demographic each one attracted. Obama attracted the younger generation, who is more inclined to use technology and Social Media (and McCain attracted the group that is more inclined to use Social Security)