June 28, 2009 - July 4, 2009
Search and Community Track at SES San Jose: NACA's Save The Dream Tour
At SES San Jose 2009, I've been asked to make a solo presentation to kick of the Search and Community Track. The title of the session is "How to Optimize for Search & Engage the Community."
I've been working on my presentation, but it lacked a compelling case study that illustrated how a community organization had used search engine optimization and YouTube video to generate measurable results. I had planned to show examples of videos created by Barack Obama's presidential campaign, Monty Python, and Blendtec, but plans have a way of changing.
Then, I got involved with the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA), a national non-profit community advocacy and homeownership organization headquartered in Boston.
NACA is organizing a series of Save the Dream events to help homeowners avoid foreclosure, restructure home loans, and reduce mortgage rates. They have already held events in Columbia, SC, Stamford, CT, and Washington, DC. And NACA plans to hold more Save the Dream events in Cleveland, OH, July 17 - 20 at the Wolstein Center; Chicago, IL, July 24 - 27 at McCormick Place; and St. Louis, MO, July 31 - August 3 at Chaifetz Arena.
Although I don't have my case study wrapped up just yet, I do see one in the making. And it offers lots of lessons to search engine marketers, YouTube directors and entrepreneurs about how to create unique, relevant content that can quickly gain popularity in the Internet community.
For example, we issued an optimized press release yesterday announcing that NACA CEO Bruce Marks and Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge (OH-11) will hold a joint press conference on Monday, July 6, at the Wolstein Center at 11:30 am to discuss the upcoming Save the Dream event in Cleveland. You can get the gist of the news at NACA and Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge (Oh-11) Announce Same Day Solution for Homeowners with Unaffordable Mortgage.
But we also embedded a documentary video created by DigiNovations of Concord, MA, in the optimized press release. It provides background on NACA's Save the Dream program, which has helped homeowners across America restructure and renegotiate home mortgages and home loans they can no longer afford.
Documentary: NACA's "Save the Dream" - Mortgage Restructuring and Renegotiation Rescues Homeowners
Now, the press conference hasn't even been held yet -- and the Save the Dream event in Cleveland is still two weeks away. But I was stunned yesterday when one Twitter user near Memphis, TN, said "this is fantastic news" but she couldn't afford to wait, had called NACA and was "on hold" waiting to talk with someone.
I initially tweeted back that NACA will have over 500 staff and volunteers at the Wolstein Center in Cleveland, including over 250 counselors providing counseling from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. from Friday July 17 through Monday July 20. Then, I realized that this information wasn't helpful today, this minute, now. So, I sent her a direct tweet with the cell phone number of the person I was working with at NACA -- in case she needed it.
I got a direct tweet back saying, "Thanks for the info... my process is well underway - so I'm all set (I hope!)"
So, something extraordinary is happening. And as I prepare for my presentation at SES San Jose 2009, I hope you won't mind if I share the story as it unfolds. That's one of the lessons I've already learned: You can't plan a search campaign and expect the community to wait to respond when you are ready -- especially if you are offering an answer to the huge subprime and predatory lending industry.
This is bigger than a case study. This is people's homes.
Posted by Greg Jarboe on July 3, 2009, 10:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
FriendFeed Launches Real-Time Search; Includes Facebook and Twitter Submissions
Buzz has been building about real-time search. Of course, you can search real-time Tweets on Twitter, Facebook is testing search on its live Feed, and Bing just added limited Twitter search to its engine.
Now, FriendFeed is launching real-time search and it has the potential to be the mackdaddy of them all.
Here's why. FriendFeed is a social aggregator. It's a one-stop shop to check and update a bunch of different networks, blogs, etc. Now, you can search all of that in real-time.
The drawback? It only searches what people submit to FriendFeed. Whoever does that can basically say "Check" in the chess match of social real-time search.
Still, this is a tremendous step in that direction. Even better, FriendFeed has released an embeddable real-time search widget you can put on your website.
What do you think of FriendFeed real-time search? Let us know by leaving a comment.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on July 3, 2009, 9:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Trade Groups Outline New Behavioral Advertising Standards
In January, four trade groups announced that they would be developing behavioral advertising standards. The groups are The American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA), The Association of National Advertisers (ANA), The Direct Marketing Association (DMA), and The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).
The standards have now been released and are as follows:
The Education Principle calls for participation in efforts to inform individuals and businesses about online behavioral advertising. The industry intends, in a major educational campaign involving over 500 million ad impressions over the next 18 months.
The Transparency Principle calls for clearer and easily accessible disclosures about data collection and use practices. The result will be a new notice on the page where data is collected and will occur via links embedded in or around advertisements, or on the Web page itself.
The Consumer Control Principle expands the consumer's ability to opt-out of data collection. The opt-out will occur via a link on the page where data is collected. This principle also requires service providers such as Internet access providers and desktop application software companies to obtain consent of users before engaging in online behavioral advertising.
The Data Security Principle calls for reasonable security and limited retention of data.
The Material Changes Principle calls for the acquisition of consent for any material change to data collection and use policies as well as practices to data collected prior to any change.
The Sensitive Data Principle requires parental consent for consumers known to be under 13 on child-directed Web sites. This Principle also calls for heightened protections to certain health and financial data when attributable to a specific individual.
The Accountability Principle calls for the development of programs to monitor and report uncorrected non-compliance to appropriate government agencies. The CBBB and DMA will work cooperatively to establish accountability mechanisms under the Principles.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on July 2, 2009, 1:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Google Mobile Optimizes Search Results for 38 Languages
If you can access the mobile internet via your cell phone, then you now have access to newly optimized Google Mobile search. It reaches 38 different languages in over 60 countries.
The optimized Google mobile search experience began last December when it was rolled out to iPhone and Android phones in the US. Then in March, it was rolled out to iPhone and Android phones in over 20 countries.
The optimizes mobile search incorporates universal search when appropriate. There's also a focus on local search due to the nature of searching on the go.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on July 2, 2009, 12:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Real Estate Search Sites See Big Growth in the First Half of 2009
Real estate search sites Zillow and Trulia are seeing big growth in traffic, despite the economy and its housing woes. Zillow saw a 67% increase in unique visitors while Trulia saw a 40% increase in uniques.
Zillow averaged 8.3 million unique visitors per month so far in 2009. They're experiencing 35% more listings with a current total of 3.6 million listings. Customers submitted 265,000 loan requests which returned 3.5 million custom loan quotes during this time. Zillow is also experiencing great success with its iPhone app, which has has seen 535,000 downloads.
Trulia saw 30 million unique visitors across the six month period. Contributions to the Trulia Voices Community grew by 85% and has achieved the 5th spot in both Hitwise and comScore's real estate matrices.
These numbers are coming during an uncertain time in the economy, fueled by crises in the credit and housing markets. Taking all of that into consideration, congratulations are in order for these achievements made by Zillow and Trulia.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on July 2, 2009, 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Bing Integrates Twitter, Sometimes and If You're Important Enough
If you're a celebrity or some other figure Bing has deemed "prominent," then searches for your name plus the word Twitter will turn up a few of your Tweets above the organic results. You can also search for a person's screen name, preceded by the @ sign.
Prominence is deemed by number of followers and volume of tweets. Bing uses the Twitter API to pull in the Tweets. But the feature is inconsistent.
Of course, I assumed Ashton Kutcher, the King of Twitter, would be included since he has 2.5 million followers. But the first search for his name didn't include Tweets. The second one didn't either. The third one did.
And here's what it looks like when it happens:
What do you think of Bing integrating Twitter into the results? Share your reaction in the comments section below.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on July 2, 2009, 10:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
7 Marketing Lessons from the Late, Great Pitchman Billy Mays
Like many of you, I was saddened to learn on Sunday that Billy Mays died at the age of 50. My family has been watching the Discovery Channel series Pitchmen, featuring Mays and fellow pitchman Anthony Sullivan.
I had been planning this post for a few weeks, but there has been so much search news to cover, I haven't had the time. Now, I'm publishing it to honor the tried and true techniques Billy Mays used to sell millions of products. Mays' style may not be your cup of tea, but the foundational concepts behind his pitches are something every search marketer can learn from. His incredible success was proof of that.
So, without further ado, here are 7 marketing lessons from the late, great Billy Mays.
1. Have a solid product. On the show, Billy Mays and Anthony Sullivan saw hundreds of inventors who want their products sold through direct marketing television. Mays and Sullivan only chose the products they believed in. Even then, they tested them to make sure they worked and met safety standards.
2. Listen to consumers. When considering a new product, Mays and Sullivan often took it to the streets. They had people try out the products and give their honest response. This is one of the first indicators of whether or not a product might do well. Paying attention to what is said about your brand or product online can similarly be very informative to your marketing campaigns.
3. Show how your product can make people's lives easier. One of Mays' most popular products was Oxyclean, allows you to wash colors and whites together. Before the ShamWow, Billy Mays hawked the Zorbeez, a shammy towel that absorbed tons of water and could save tons of money on paper towels. Even non-infomercial products are successful when they do this. Think about the Flip video camera. It's simple and easy to use. It makes capturing moments and uploading them to YouTube very easy. This should be a key element of your campaigns.
4. Include a Call-to-Action. Billy Mays knew this well. He was always "doubling the offer," urging people to act now. Give people incentive to buy your product now. A great incentive for online retailers is offering free shipping.
5. Run a small test before launching a broad campaign. When Mays developed a commercial for a new product, it was run in a few markets to see if it was something consumers would buy. The profit margins had to be there in order to expand. Many times, if the product doesn't do well, they had to stop the campaign to prevent further losses. Test a few keywords before running a broad campaign with tons of longtail keywords. You may need to adjust your campaign or product, but you'll want to preserve your marketing budget in the meantime.
6. Conduct A/B Testing on Successful Ad Campaigns. For the Awesome Auger, a product that was doing very well, Mays shot a second commercial. It looked almost exactly like the original one, but the framing of Mays in the camera was slightly different. That slight cosmetic change was a big one. An A/B test showed sales rose even higher!
7. Watch the competition. When Vince Offer began hawking the ShamWow and the SlapChop, Billy Mays was pissed. These were products he had already been advertising in the form of Zorbeez and QuickChop. Offer's products did very well, selling millions. So, Mays shot new commercials in order to gain back his market share. Pay attention to your competition. Watch your rankings and your paid search positions. Never stop optimizing and adjusting your paid search campaigns. Stay on your toes to maintain or even grow your sales.
What did you learn from Billy Mays? Share your lessons in the comments below.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on July 2, 2009, 12:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Bing, ChaCha Launch User-Generated Content Contests
Get out your cameras, it's time for a couple of search-related contests. If you enjoy the large images Bing features everday on its homepage, now you have the chance to see one of your images featured on the brand spankin' new decision engine. Bing is holding a photo contest where the winner's image will be featured on Bing.com for a 24 hour period.
Photos are submitted via Facebook. You have until July 16 to submit your photos. The winner will be determined by public voting, via the Facebook application. The winning image will appear on Bing.com on August 3 and will include "hot spots" created by the Bing team, just like you see with the daily images.
Meanwhile, ChaCha has launched a video contest. The theme of the contest is "Life with ChaCha." The deadline for submissions is August 10. Judges will pick 5 finalists and the winner will be chosen by a public vote.
There are three criteria that the judges will use to choose the 5 finalists. They are:
- Showing ChaCha to be a "smart friend" (50 percent)
- Originality (25 percent)
- Humor (25 percent)
The prizes here are worth moolah. The grand prize winner will receive $5,000 in cash as well as an Apple Final Cut Studio 2 and a Sony HDR-XR500V 120GB High Def Handycam Camcorder. The runner up gets $1,000 and third place gets $500.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on July 1, 2009, 2:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Overstock Drops Affiliates in NC, RI, HI and CA
Overstock is the next company to drop affiliate programs in states considering or having passed affiliate nexus bills. While North Carolina, Rhode Island, and Hawaii affiliates are already seeing programs dropped by Amazon and Blue Nile, this time California affiliates are also getting the boot.
"It's painful to have to terminate these relationships with affiliates, simply because they live in states where counterproductive (and likely unconstitutional) laws are being passed," said Patrick Byrne, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Overstock.com. "However, politicians have to remember that a tax is a price that government charges for a service, and when they raise their prices, we're going to buy less of their services."
Last year, Overstock was one of over 200 companies to drop their affiliate program in New York, which was the first state to enact an affiliate tax. The cancellation affected 3,400 affiliates, 200 of which were active.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on July 1, 2009, 1:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Bing Continues Microsoft Search Share Growth in June 2009, According to StatCounter
StatCounter made news fast and furious in Bing's first week when they offered up data showing Bing had surpassed Yahoo! in search. And now they're making a splash again by quickly releasing data for the whole month of June.
Overall, things are relatively steady, but there's an ever-so-slight increase in Microsoft search share.
The data shows Bing gaining .5% search share in June compared to May. But Live Search had gained about .5% in May over April.
One percent growth over the last two months may not seem significant, but it could be the beginning of momentum.
"At first sight, a 1% increase in market share does not appear to be a huge return on the investment Microsoft has made in Bing but the underlying trend appears positive," commented Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter. "Steady if not spectacular might be the best way to describe performance to date."
Plus, the 1% growth has come at the expense of Google. The search mammoth saw its search engine share according to StatCounter decline by 79.07% in April to 78.48% in June.
By the way, despite that first week of traffic for Bing, Yahoo! still retained its second place status for the entire month of June. Yahoo!'s traffic has remained fairly steady over the past three months in StatCounter data.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on July 1, 2009, 1:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Google Toolbar for IE Gets Advanced Translation
Google has updated their Toolbar for the Internet Explorer browser to make language translation easier. Instead of manually copying and pasting text into Google Translate, the Toolbar now automatically detects if a language is different from the one set as your default.
Google will then serve up a message saying it has detected a language foreign to your own and asking if you would like it translated. Simply click the "Tranlate" button in order to receive the translation.
The new feature is available for all languages of the Toolbar (but again, just for Internet Explorer). The languages include: English, and the translation service supports 41 different languages: Albanian, Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian and Vietnamese.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on July 1, 2009, 10:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
YouTube Launches Call-to-Action Overlay
YouTube is now allowing advertisers to incorporate a "Call-to-Action overlay" on their videos. With the overlay, advertisers can drive traffic to their sites where they can make purchases, sign up for email newsletters or whichever action an advertiser wishes.
The Call-to-Action overlays are available for Promoted Videos only. Promoted Videos, you may remember, are essentially the paid search of YouTube. They were once called Sponsored Videos, similar to paid search listings called Sponsored Listings.
In order to set up the overlay:
1. Set up your Promoted Video campaign like you normally would in YouTube
2. Under My Videos, go to the Video Details page
3. Fill out the fields for the Call-to-Action overlay section
You're all set. Once the campaign is in full swing, you can check YouTube Insight to see how many people are clicking on the Call-to-Action overlay.
What do you think of this new option for YouTube advertisers? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on July 1, 2009, 10:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
SES San Jose Offers Conference Sessions for First Time Attendees
I've been attending SES San Jose every year since 2003. And each year a healthy proportion of attendees are attending their first search engine marketing conference ever.
This is healthy because it expands the number of marketers who "get it."
I can't tell you the number of times when prospective clients mistakenly assume that search engine marketing (SEM) isn't rocket science. Or they mistakenly believe that search engine optimization (SEO) is something their information technology (IT) department took care of years ago. Or they mistakenly think that a pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaign takes 15 minutes to set up. Or they mistakenly hope that their public relations (PR) people have a good handle on social media marketing.
So, I'm delighted to see the large number of first time attendees at Search Engine Strategies conferences -- because after they've sat in on a dozen sessions over three days they come away knowing how much more there is to learn.
Hey, if it were easy, we'd all rank #1.
So, with SES San Jose 2009 coming up August 10-14, I thought I'd highlight some of the conference sessions that I'd recommend to first time attendees. I've been doing this for several years -- and even spoke along with Matt Bailey of SiteLogic in a few "First Timer's Guide to SES and SEM" sessions at some events.
But, most marketers like to plan ahead. So, look over the SES conference agenda and check out some of the sessions that address your needs and your organization's issues.
If you want some suggestions, here are sessions specially focused on search fundamentals for first time attendees:
• Introduction to Search Engine Marketing provides a clear and concise overview of the concepts involved in search engine marketing.
• Successful Site Architecture offers a fresh look at topics on how to successfully design a site for search engines, including JavaScript, robots.txt use, frames, secure area usage and much more.
• Turn Brain Science into Bucks: Incorporating Persuasive Messaging into Your Content Strategy showcases current online content campaigns and explains the best content strategies to help persuade buyers, build trust, and get great search engine listings using Twitter, white papers, optimized web pages and more.
• SEO Tools of the Trade: What's in YOUR Toolbox? describes the tools that will help accomplish tasks, including indexing, competitive analysis, site ranking, diagnosing and remedying problems and much more.
• Search Advertising 101 describes the basic principles and applications of paid placement.
• Keywords & Content: Search Marketing Foundations presents an overview of the important keywords customers are searching for and how to target the right terms in paid and organic search marketing.
• Discover the Power of Linking: Link Building Basics focuses on the role of link analysis in search engine site rankings and how to increase site traffic by building quality links.
• The Findability Formula: The Easy, Non-Technical Approach to SEM features search engine guru Heather Lutze taking a fresh look at how search engines find content and what steps to take to ensure a successful online marketing campaign.
• Extreme Makeover is a series of four sessions held throughout day three of the conference. Volunteers are taken from the audience, their websites are examined and feedback is provided. Sessions include:
Extreme Makeover: Live Site Clinic provides general feedback about improving websites and gaining more traffic from search engines.
Extreme Makeover: Live Twitter & Blogging Clinic provides general feedback about how to improve your website's use of Twitter and blogging.
Extreme Makeover: Live Landing Page Clinic provides feedback on how to improve landing pages.
Extreme Makeover Live! Why Am I Not Making Enough Sales? covers the most common reasons many sites have low conversion rates and gives tips on how to turn more site visitors into paying customers.
I think you can see from the suggestions above that there is more to SEM, SEO, PPC and social media than a handful of tricks that you can pick up by reading a blog post. Oh, and if the folks over in finance are still cutting travel budgets these days, ask them this rhetorical question: "If I don't learn how to improve our search engine marketing, search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, or social media marketing, then how will the company be able to pay your salaries next year?"
Okay, so maybe you don't want to actually say that to their faces. And you don't want to start calling finance the "department of sales prevention." They are just doing their job.
But you can show them the SES conference agenda and let them know that you've picked out sessions to attend that will provide your company with a return on its investment (ROI) in marketing. Finance folks love it when you talk about ROI. Your talking their language.
Or, ask them to watch the video below. Yes, yes, it makes the case for going to Search Engine Strategies. But it also demonstrates visually that SES San Jose, which is the largest search engine marketing expo on the West Coast, will be packed with more than 70 sessions, multiple keynotes, and Orion panels, over 150 exhibitors, networking events, and more.
Search Engine Strategies Conference & Expo
Posted by Greg Jarboe on July 1, 2009, 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Want Twitter publicity? Just enough so you won't go hungry?
If you are searching for a good current "real-time" example of how twitter can help publicize your cause celebre, look no further than the latest being tweeted out today by the likes of such "twitterers" as @wholefoods
@WholeFoods - tomorrow, July 1st, is the monthly Twitter for Food event - it would be great for you to join in again! http://tr.im/m1Pq
And what are your instructions once you click on the link?
Post this message to your twitter account on June 30th and July 1st:
#twitterforfood Skip a meal July 1st and fund local or global hunger relief. http://tr.im/m1Pq
Now imagine that. Skip one meal and donate to any one of the great organizations listed on the landing page featured.
Want a snapshot of how many people have so far been tweeting #twitterforfood?
And this is only page 6 of a Twitter search on #twitterfood.
@WholeFoods grabbed hold of this contest and tweeted it to their nearly 800,000 followers! But the idea for skipping a meal and donating money to an organization which serves the hungry came from Tim Blair.
Tim had this to say to me about using Twitter to promote a cause:
"This is a personal passion of mine, so I am absolutely thrilled with the response. I started it last month and plan to run it once a month until it is no longer getting traction. My plan was that it would grow over the next few months as word got out. Humanitarians and philanthropists are a large demographic on Twitter from my experience.
I run twitter accounts for people and have 6 of my own for different causes. I find that it is easy to connect with locals and with specific demographics if you know what you're doing. I have accounts in green, religious, personal security, books, social marketing and have been able to connect well with people - especially people at high levels in organizations.
Results for some of the promos I have done have been good. Nothing earth shattering yet, but certainly worth the effort and growing. I am definitely sold on the value of using Twitter for promotions and will continue to refine how it is done."
It will be interesting to see how much $$$ is indeed donated to food organizations from this Twitter campaign. But no one can deny the immediate impact Twitter can have to promote a cause or campaign.
Posted by Byron Gordon on June 30, 2009, 5:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Facebook adding payment platform?
Chris Crum at WebProNews.com has pieced together some very interesting pieces of information regarding Facebook, a former Googler and a new payment system.
Facebook in May announced that it was testing a new payments system that would deal in real money, rather than virtual currencies that it had been using for any number of applications. This might work fine for Mafia Wars and other light games that Facebook has increasingly added, but if you were to want to move into, say, storefronts or product comparisons, you'd clearly want to be able to deal in real currency.
Enter announcement two: Facebook has hired an ex-Google Checkout director to develop these payment systems. Given Facebook's immense and growing popularity, its standing as place for sharing opinions and favorites, its open platform and an army of marketers desperate to monetize work on Facebook, it could wind up being an absolute perfect storm.
Imagine classified ads or, bigger yet, entire storefronts integrated directly into a social networking site a la A Small World - except instead of a half million very exclusive members considering five and six-digit purchases in between their social networking activities, it's 200 million+ people worldwide who could have their friends' opinions of a product just a click away from being able to purchase it.
Chris has screenshots and more details - worth checking out.
What do you think? Would you purchase or shop on Facebook? Would your customers?
Posted by Herndon Hasty on June 30, 2009, 5:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Amazon Cuts Rhode Island, Hawaii Affiliates; Is California Next?
We've been tracking the affiliate tax debacle involving Amazon and the state of North Carolina. Now, affiliates in more states are being affected.
Associates in Rhode Island and Hawaii are receiving emails notifying them of the cancellation of their affiliate accounts. Rhode Island passed a bill making affiliates consist of a physical location for web retailers, which forces them to pay sales tax in the state. Hawaii is considering a similar bill.
Blue Nile, a diamond company has also shut down its program to Rhode Island residents.
On the horizon is the state of California, another state considering an affililate tax bill, sometimes referred to as affiliate nexus.
New York was the first state to pass such a bill, which went into effect last summer. 200 affiliate programs were canceled for New York residents as a result.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on June 30, 2009, 2:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Penny Baldwin to Yahoo!; David Ebersman Named CFO of Facebook
This week, there are a couple of executive hirings in Silion Valley related to the search and social networking industries. First up, Penny Baldwin has been tapped as senior vice president, global integrated marketing and brand management for Yahoo! Is there any room left on her business card? That's quite a long title!
Previously, Baldwin served as Managing Partner of Young & Rubicam Brands, Y&R Advertising and Wunderman Direct Marketing.
"One of Yahoo!'s greatest assets is its brand," said Yahoo!'s chief marketing officer, Elisa Steele. "Our integrated, global approach is critical to our success and we have a deep business commitment to fulfill our promise to our users, customers and partners. Penny is uniquely qualified to lead the effort and her leadership, experiences, knowledge and skills are excellent additions to the Yahoo! marketing team."
Meanwhile, Facebook has selected David Ebersman as the social network's new chief financial officer. Ebersman was formerly the vice president and chief financial officer at Genentech.
"We received a lot of interest in the CFO position and had the opportunity to meet with many impressive candidates," said Mark Zuckerberg. "We quickly recognized that David was the right person for Facebook. He was Genentech's CFO while revenue tripled, and his success in scaling the finance organization of a fast growing company will be important to Facebook."
What do you think of these hirings? Let us know by leaving a comment.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on June 30, 2009, 1:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Enter the Search Engine Watch Awards by July 17, 2009
You only have a couple of weeks left to submit an entry to this year's Search Engine Watch Awards. The deadline is July 17, 2009.
The objective of the SEW Awards is to recognize excellence, as well as inspire innovation and encourage new ideas in search marketing. The SEW Awards will honor 14 outstanding search marketers, search engines and technology providers, as judged by a panel of industry experts and the Search Engine Watch editorial staff.
The categories are:
* Search Engine with Most Relevant Results
* Most Innovative New Search Engine
* Best Search Engine Ad Platform
* Technology Platform Search Marketers Can't Live Without
* Best SEM Technology Platform for SMBs
* Best Social Media Platform for Marketers
* Best Web Analytics Platform
* Most Innovative Use of Search Engine Optimization
* Most Innovative Paid Search Campaign
* Best Social Media Marketing Campaign
* Best Business-to-Business Search Marketing Campaign
* Best Use of Local Search
* Best Integration of Search with Other Media
* Most Effective Use of Web Analytics
And who are the judges? They are:
* Chris Boggs, Director, SEO, Rosetta
* Jessica Bowman, SEO Strategist and in-house SEO Expert, SEMinhouse.com
* Eric Enge, President, Stone Temple Consulting
* PJ Fusco, Natural Search Director, Netconcepts
* Bill Hunt, President, Back Azimuth Consulting
* Mark Jackson, SEW Expert & President/CEO, VIZION Interactive
* Ron Jones, President/CEO, Symetri Internet Marketing
* Cindy Krum, Chief Executive Officer, Rank-Mobile, LLC
* Sage Lewis, President, SageRock.com
* Melissa Mackey, Online Marketing Manager, Fluency Media
* John Marshall, SES Advisory Board & CTO, Market Motive
* Lee Odden, SES Advisory Board & CEO, TopRank Online Marketing
* David Szetela, CEO, Clix Marketing
* Brian Ussery, Director of SEO, Search Discovery
* Matt Van Wagner, President, Find Me Faster
By the way, in case you think I'm sucking up to the judges by listing their names, my firm can't enter because SES is one of our clients. This wasn't in the rules a year ago, but now that it has, I am free to comment on the process and the outcome.
Entrants may submit nominations for multiple categories, but each submission must focus on the four key areas of consideration:
1. Overall approach and category relevance
2. Innovation in methodology and execution
3. Excellence in tactical execution
4. Achieving success goals
Submissions will be accepted through July 17, 2009. There is an application fee of $145 per entry. Up to four award finalists will be determined for each category. Finalists will be notified by July 27, 2009, and will receive 1-day passes (limit 3) to the SES San Jose sessions and Orion panels on the day the winner in their category is announced. Winners will be announced during Search Engine Strategies San Jose, August 10-14, 2009.
Submitting companies will be recognized at the event, as well as in the SES Magazine and on Search Engine Watch. I also plan to interview as many winners as possible for SESConferenceExpo's Channel on YouTube.
Oh, there is one other thing you should know about the Search Engine Watch Awards. The winner of the 2000 SEW Award in the "Outstanding Search Service" category was a little known start-up named Google. And Google was also the winner in the "Most Webmaster Friendly" category, as well.
Not bad for a company that had just announced a $25 million round from Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins a year earlier. Where are they now, I wonder?
Posted by Greg Jarboe on June 30, 2009, 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
AOL Canada Relaunches Homepage, Makes You Thirsty for Pepsi
AOL Canada has relaunched their homepage and in case you couldn't tell, Pepsi has bought some advertising (Click on image to enlarge):
The relaunch is based on the update of the AOL.com homepage in the U.S last fall. That relaunch has been good to AOL, with increases of 23% in unique visitors, 34% in total page views and 61% in total minutes consumed year over year, according to comScore's Media Matrix for May 2009.
"The launch of the new AOL Canada portal follows the tremendous successes we've experienced in both the U.S. and the UK, enabling exciting new opportunities for the Canadian market," said Edward Kwan, Senior Director of AOL Canada. "In terms of advertising, Platform-A Canada will now have the capability to expand its reach across more relevant and media-rich content and channels."
The new AOL.ca features the ability to check mail from a variety of providers (AOL, GMail, Yahoo, Hotmail) as well as the opportunity to update social networks including Facebook, Twitter, AOL-owned Bebo, and MySpace. AOL's popular instant messaging client, AIM, is also included.
"With today's Internet ever-expanding and consumers engaging in multiple social networking platforms, it is essential that their experience on the Web is both personalized and integrated," said Kwan.
Additional AOL.ca features include:
- Customized backgrounds with multiple new designs from which to choose;
- Ability to add any customized links to the homepage so users can more easily access their most frequently visited sites;
- Users can drag and drop to reorder channel navigation to suit personal preferences;
- Users can add RSS feeds and personalized categories to get content from their preferred external sites.
What do you think of the new AOL.ca? Share your first impressions in the comments below.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on June 30, 2009, 10:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
CareerBuilder Taps Bing API for New Candidate Search Tool
At the Society for Human Resource Management Conference, CareerBuilder announced a new recruiting tool built with the Bing API. It's called Applicant Explorer and it uses the API to integrate online results such as social networking sites, blogs, and corporate websites with CareerBuilder's results.
"One of our key goals with Bing is to simplify search and make it easier for people to find what they are looking for online; searching for the ideal job candidate is no exception," said Alessandro Catorcini, senior program manager, Bing. "By combining Bing functionality with the extensive CareerBuilder database, Applicant Explorer helps recruiters and employers customize their search criteria and dynamically sort through and display hundreds of data sources in one easy to use interface, cutting the manual search time substantially."
The idea was to streamline the candidate search process for human resources professionals. Instead of sifting through CareerBuilder results and then conducting the same search on a separate search engine, now recruiters can do it all in one place.
"With so many employers already utilizing the Internet to research candidates, Applicant Explorer was created to help employers do that necessary research in the most efficient and simple way possible - helping them go beyond the resume," said Greg Brass, director of profile search at CareerBuilder. "In addition, job seekers can benefit from the clearer picture employers can gather of their qualifications and background."
Applicant Explorer is free for those using CareerBuilder's resume database.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on June 30, 2009, 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Google Launches Adwords API v2009
Thanks to Thomas Bindl at Refined Labs for pointing out the launch of a new Adwords API - v2009. Seems they have created an entirely new API that offers some interesting new services.
* We've created new web services for managing campaign targeting options and campaign-level criteria.
* All web services share a consistent, data-centric interface with two operations: get and mutate.
* A secure authentication token replaces the login credentials required in v13 request headers.
The information about the new Google Adwords API can be found here.
Posted by Frank Watson on June 30, 2009, 5:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Google Testing Logo Sizes in Search Results?
Philip Lenssen over at Google Blogoscoped noticed a variance in the size of Google logos in the search results from browser to browser.
I did a little experimenting and noticed the same thing. On Firefox and Safari, the Google logo is proportionately smaller than on IE and Chrome for me. Check out the images below.
Anyone else seeing the same thing?
Firefox
Safari
Internet Explorer
Chrome
Posted by Nathania Johnson on June 29, 2009, 5:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
CSI, Simpsons Ad Rates Now Higher for Online than TV
For the first time in history, some television programming is demanding higher ad rates online than it is for tv. Popular shows such as CSI and Simpsons are among those seeing the higher ad rates at such sites as Hulu.com and TV.com, according to Bloomberg.
For a prime time ad, advertisers generally pay $20 - $40 per thousand viewers. But on Hulu.com, the Simpsons recently garnered $60 per thousand.
Advertisers are willing to shell out the dough because internet viewers are more committed to the shows, generally seeking them out instead of channel surfing.
Additionally, there is less advertising on the online version of the shows and viewers are more likely to remember the web ads.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on June 29, 2009, 5:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Microsoft, Publicis Form Ad Partnership; Is Sale of Razorfish Involved?
Microsoft and advertising agency Publicis have formed a advertising alliance, according to ClickZ. The partnership involves online advertising as well as a TV ad exchange. This could put a damper on Google's inititave to create a tv ad exchange. Google is also a partner with Publicis, with the companies having staff working out of each other's offices.
But another interesting tidbit of the Microsoft-Publicis partnership is breaking today. Rumor is that Razorfish, ad interactive advertising agency arm owned by Microsoft, is for sale. Razorfish was part of the $6 billion aQuantive acquisition in 2007. Microsoft has contacted Morgan Stanley to arrange the sale. The even bigger rumor is that Publicis is poised to buy.
This all comes on the heels of comments by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer that traditional media is heading to its grave.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on June 29, 2009, 11:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Google Invites News Partners to Share Video
Google is inviting the more than 25,000 news sources that partner with them for Google News to share professional news videos to YouTube. They'll be able to host videos on YouTube for free once being approved as a YouTube Partner.
YouTube's news partners get featured placement on the YouTube news page and have opportunities to generate revenue via advertising, something traditional news organizations are struggling to do. But this program can generate a bigger audience for newspapers by sharing videos on a site that reaches millions.
The videos will also be visible through Google News. In May, Google News began adding YouTube videos to its results and homepage.
If you're a news organization that's interested in becoming a Google News partner, you can click here to apply. After approval, then you can apply for the YouTube partner program.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on June 29, 2009, 10:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Koogle: The Kosher Search Engine
There is now an Israeli search engine - Koogle, developed for Jewish searchers that keeps kosher - well it shuts down on the Sabbath.
USAToday reported: "In their mission statement, Koogle administrators said the site's goal is to "filter the appropriate information from different websites that are relevant to our target audience in a way that does not contradict the values of our traditional Jewish audience."
Posted by Frank Watson on June 28, 2009, 10:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Did Email Hacker Bring About Gov. Sanford's Fall?
Seems the emails from the Argentine mistress of South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford were distributed by a hacker, or so Sanford's mistress claims according to a report by FoxNews.
The emails were obtained by The State - the South Carolina newspaper - in December, the Huffington Post reported. The State said they did not inially publish the emails as they could not authenticate them.
Sanford went missing last week and initial reports said he "had gone hiking" until he admitted thr affair a few days ago.
People are now calling for Sanford to resign, news reports are stating.
Posted by Frank Watson on June 28, 2009, 10:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Gmail Increases Attachment Size To Entice Signups?
Last weekend Gmail increased the size of allowable attachments from 20 MG to 25 MG. One has to wonder if this was done mainly to garner more people to sign up for Google email service since they suggest changing from any service that will not accept attachments of that size.
"With Gmail, you can send and receive messages up to 25 megabytes (MB) in size.
Please note that you may not be able to send larger attachments to contacts who use other email services with smaller attachment limits. If your attachment bounces, you should invite them to Gmail," the mail FAQ recommends.
Gmail is a dsitant third to Yhaoo Mail and Microsoft Mail/Hotmail, but by offering bigger attachments they can entice people to change. Given they monetize their email through ads inside the interface and that Google wants to monopolize as many aspects of the web this current move is a clever one.
Posted by Frank Watson on June 28, 2009, 9:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
