Changes in Google for 2012 – Good or bad?

I read an interesting blog post on Harvard Business Review this morning about how ‘Google will change web marketing in 2012‘. To me, this seems to be quite a divisive topic among critics out there. On the one hand, these changes seem good for the average user (not having to click through irrelevant sites to find answers they require) but on the other hand could be bad since Google will now be directing users to their deals, above all else, especially where travel is concerned. This means that it could actually take more searching for consumers to find that special deal they are looking for. Is Google maybe stepping into becoming a monopoly? It’s motto was always ‘don’t be evil’ but are they now coming round to the realities of corporate culture? Further headaches to marketers trying to use Google will be that they plan to ramp up their efforts to move people into using paid services such as Adwords to attain keyword date that was previously free on Analytics. But isn’t Google just like any other business? How many times have you been hooked in by the ‘free trail’ period? Or maybe you are a user and are sick of marketing tricks that divert you away from your search goal and see this as a move in the right direction by Google?  Read the full article here and let us know what you think.

Google Will Change Web Marketing in 2012

4:48 PM Thursday December 22, 2011
by Brian Whalley | Comments (62)

Google is poised to completely alter how websites market themselves over the next year. While easing users into changing search results pages, Google has also designed a new method for websites to structure data so that its crawler can better pull information. This is a tremendous strategy. Google doesn’t need to own all of the information in the world, but does own the methods of accessing that information — as well as the ability to advertise to people who use that access.

Search results will include more direct information. Early in 2012, Google will expand how it incorporates data into its search results. For search queries that are direct questions, it will no longer be necessary to click through to a website. In Google’s parlance, it’s like getting both the search results and the immediate result of the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button at once. It’s not hard to see how this is better for the average Google user. Questions will be answered faster and more simply. No parsing of information will be required. This change, however, will take value away from marketers who rely on visitors clicking through to deeper pages.

To read the rest of this article, click here

7 Reasons to Rethink Your Blog Strategy

Some interesting insights from Phil Mershon at Social Media Examiner this week regarding new research around the importance of blogging for your business.

To view the full article click here

7 Reasons to Rethink Your Blogging Strategy: New Research

By Phil Mershon
Published December 22, 2011

Is your business working with bloggers?

Do you blog?

This article examines new research that shows blogging is here to stay.

Like many social media tools, blogs have seen a steady increase in numbers and influence over the last several years.

Note the growth charted by Invesp. On Dec. 2, 2011, that number was 178,637,835 (according to BlogPulse).

Number of Blogs Grows

14 million blogs were added since July 2011 (as of 12/2/2011).

If people are adding nearly 3 million blogs per month, surely this is a tool worth understanding and maximizing…..to read the rest of this blog click here

SEO: All just a sham? What would King Arthur say?

SEO. SEO. Ahhhh..SEO. What the heck is it? Well, most people would say that it is the practice of doing something called ‘optimizing’ your website for the best results in search engines. There are many different ways to do this but some basic principles apply – make sure your website is in a search engine friendly format such as HTML, ensure you have the best keywords in the headings and most of all – provide great, relevant content.

Anyway, that is a whole other debate in itself but what I’m going to try and tackle here is, is SEO a real and an attractive opportunity that can help enhance your business or is it something that sounds really cool but isn’t actually true. Kind of like King Arthur and Camelot.  I mean, yeah, who wouldn’t want a lady to emerge from a lake and give you an awesome sword that brings you ultimate power?

Let’s start with that. Let us imagine that SEO is King Arthur and his awesome sword (and no, that’s not a euphemism). Much like how people would attest to the mythical man himself, there are thousands of people out there who will do the same for SEO and will happily take your money to use their service. You are promised riches beyond your wildest dreams and all of a sudden you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Don’t worry – King Arthur is here to fight for your business!

Then you ask – ok, so how long will this take and what kind of results should I expect? All of a sudden, King Arthur turns to you and, looking like he’s about to lead you into a stirring battle speech but then disappoints and says.. errmmm…well…not quite sure..could be 6 months..could be a year and nothing is guaranteed. Wow, thanks Arthur. You have just crushed my spirit.

But anyway, all loosely fitting analogies aside, why is that? Everyone says SEO works but try and pin down the exact science and timescale and it’s like nailing jelly to the wall.  Followed all the online advice and 3 months down the road, still not seeing more visitors come in from Google? And that SEO guy who you paid all that money to told you this was a sure thing! Swine.

Well, not necessarily. Yes, there are a whole bunch of people out there selling snake oil but here is a good way to determine who is the fibber and who isn’t: ask them how long it will take and if can they guarantee it. The fibbers will tell you: almost immediately and they can absolutely guarantee it, hand on heart.

That’s because SEO is a slow process and with large search engines such as Google constantly tweaking, updating and changing their algorithms, there is always a possibility it’ll change again and not to your benefit. But here is the thing – Google, Yahoo, Bing and all other search engines goal is to provide their users with the best and most relevant content for their search. So, if your website provides the best and most relevant content for someone’s search, it stands to reason that you’ll be listed higher, as opposed to lower in the page rankings. That isn’t to say, you’ll definitely appear top though. After all, isn’t there always SOMEONE in life just a bit luckier, with a bit more money and a few more doors of opportunity open to them than you? Well, it’s the same in the great wide world of SEO. If you have a million dollars to throw at it, chances are, sooner or later, there will be someone with a million and one dollars to throw at it to knock you off. Like life, that’s just the way it goes sometimes.

Now, you may be thinking why bother then? Well, it’s still a worthwhile cause. Because, while it’s not always assured and it takes a while, you can bet that if you made a website using flash and didn’t put any content into it and named it something totally absurd, it wouldn’t get very far. In fact I would totally, 100% guarantee that for you, as would anyone else that knows anything about SEO. Maybe even the always-elusive-on-these-things Google would too. So, in a way, this is proof that it does work, even if not always to the desired level.

Listen, SEO is best used as part of a wider array of marketing services and when it does come off, it can be your best friend. But just don’t expect it to happen quickly. Realistically, it does take at least 6 months to a year, but as a long term strategy, it can have tremendous pay off, just not always. Use it alongside your social media marketing and PPC and all your other online marketing techniques. Hope for the best, but be prepared for the worst.  A wise man once said (well, some guy I read on a blog post the other day) that the best SEO technique is just to create the best content. Don’t drive yourself mad trying to understand the machine.

Tell us what you think – vote in the poll below!

Six Social Media Trends for 2012

This blog post comes courtesy of David Armano who is the EVP, Global Innovation and Integration, at Edelman Digital and was originally featured on Harvard Business Reveiw .

You can view the full post here

10:25 AM Monday December 12, 2011
by David Armano

Each year at this time, I look forward and predict trends in social media for the coming year. But first, I look back at my predictions from last year. How’d I do? Not bad.

Social media continues to move forward toward business integration, a trend that I identified last year. In a joint study from Booz Allen and social platform developer Buddy Media, 57 percent of businesses surveyed plan to increase social media spending, while 38 percent of CEO’s label social as a high priority.

I was also partially accurate in predicting that Google would “strike back” in 2011. They did, with Google Plus, a formidable initiative that acts as Google’s “social layer” to the Web. Part social network and part social search, Google Plus has industry observers scratching their heads, wondering if Facebook will be given a run for their money or if the service evolves into something complimentary in a highly social Web.

Read the rest of this article here

Why email isn’t dead but is mostly a complete waste of your time

So, it’s been a bit of a hot topic recently, first with some guy called Mark Zuckerberg declaring ‘the email is dead’ and then with more news coverage of the technology giant, Atos, banning all internal email between employees completely by 2014.

In the latter’s case, the decision to ban internal email came after Atos did a study of its 80,000 employees and found that out of all the email they receive daily, only 15% of it they actually found useful and the rest a waste of time. The study went further and uncovered that on average, each employee received 100 internal emails a day and was spending about 15-20 hours a week dealing with the deluge.

This story resonated with me as it reminded me of a former employer whose lifelong crackberry, I mean blackberry, addiction affected everyone working for him. This particular employer demanded an instant reply whenever an email was sent, and boy, would he let you know about it if he didn’t get it. This alongside his insatiable appetite for speculative information and the tendency for erratic outbursts of frustration, led to a culture of constant nervousness amongst employees. Soon enough, you’d find yourself making sure you didn’t miss an email and covering your back by cc’ing colleagues, so that you’d have some evidence to exonerate yourself. Coupled alongside this, was also the landmines laid by others that you’d have to regularly defuse so that you couldn’t be thrown in front of the train when their time for reprimanding came. I probably spent about 25% of my time managing this side of the job rather than doing my actual job.

Then there was the other former employer whose grammar skills rivaled that of an 8 year old. She was lovely, but whenever anyone would receive an email from her, it was like trying to decipher binary from the page. Over time, this led to hours upon hours being wasted just on trying to understand what was being communicated and of course, she was never available by phone or in person to explain.

My personal stance is that email isn’t dead. It’s just been abused by people that don’t really understand how to use it properly. It’s easy to start saying it’s on its way out because of the rise of social media and because fewer people are using email, but the truth is those none-users account for those yet to enter the work force.

Video didn’t kill the radio star. It made a significant impact for about 10 or so years, then MTV decided to start showing Teen Mom instead. It’ll take more than just 2 currently popular social networks to make a difference to a medium that has been in use since Ray Tomlinson invented it in 1971. We just all have to try a little harder – ask yourself, do you REALLY need to send THAT email?