Facebook #1, YouTube #2… Google #6 for Clicks vs Search. Why a solid Social Strategy matters even more now.

Reaching the top of search results doesn't matter if people aren’t clicking on your links. (http://torreyrussell.blogspot.com/2010/12/why-you-need-to-be-on-facebook-and.html )

New data indicates not only are people clicking on Social Media site links more than on search engines but the reason consumers are doing this is because being more “connected” is why we are all here.

Social media is about engagement. If you aren’t ready to figure out how to engage using these new tools you are missing one of the most important ways to get consumers to open their wallets to your pitch, become an advocate and do your marketing for you.

Being connected is a primal drive coming from our earliest development of motivation according to Brene Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work. Being accepted by the group, being a thought leader, being heard are all a part of this motivation. While there are many different types of people, they all desire to be connected in their way.

Brene Brown asks, “How do we learn to embrace our vulnerabilities and imperfections so that we can engage in our lives from a place of authenticity and worthiness?” This, according to the author of “The power of vulnerability” is the core to a successful Social Media strategy. That being authentic or Vulnerable provides others a way to feel they can engage and connect more deeply and more often.

Tough stuff for an Auto Dealer or a Real Estate Broker. Without sounding like a session on Orpah, we as purveyors of goods and services need to reach into our own heart centered space and deliver an authentic and believable value for our customers to buy it. This is the reality of today’s market when the consumer has more choices than they know what to do with.

Let’s deconstruct this problem. You could easily separate consumers into functional groups to create a profile of that group and then address them in a way they will find appropriate and authentic. For example if you were to create several profiles around the way certain groups engage you might break it down as follows: Streakers, Strollers and Studiers. Each of these profiles engages in different ways. Core to the end result is to turn prospects from, “I don’t know you to I can’t live without you”. You also have to run a business, so it is important to quickly create a way to build commonality among groups so you can connect to a group quickly and authentically with the bottom line in mind.

But lets stand back a little bit and realize that the person who is at the other end of your Facebook account trying to engage you is willing to be vulnerable, trying to get an authentic answer to their search. After all they clicked on your search result… now you have to perform. You have to return the favor by being authentic and appreciative of this risk taking behavior by a prospective buyer or a customer looking for more ways to stay connected to something they already paid for.

I wanted to start this dialog for you within your own organization, what resources should you be putting toward Social Media and what value (Executive level commitment) do you plan to apply to win this game. How many [your brand here] dealers are within 20 miles of your auto dealership… how many Real Estate Agents are there in your MLS? Answer: Too many! Some are getting this right. How about your business?

Watch this great 20 minute video from Brene Brown at a recent TED.com conference on The power of vulnerability. (OK, shut your door, turn your cell phone off, close your email.... try and focus on why this concept will become the most important way for you to build your business in 2011)
http://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability.html


Develop your plan to answer the phone authentically, create a social persona that is accepted as the authority on the subject and figure out how to do this in such a way as to get a greater “share of wallet” from your current customers and to get them to bring you more business from their contacts. Solid social connections start by being vulnerable to failure and 100% transparently authentic when being engaged.

Social Media is about "Building a Collaborative Brand"

A Social Media plan is really all about recognizing this new movement and how to participate in an authentic way with your customer for life... not just one sale.

In an excellent article and general life's work Rachael Botsman is helping us to see the future.  She talks about Collaborative Consumption. READ:  BRAND 'WE'

Here is a quick video telling her story in pictures and music.


WHAT'S MINE IS YOURS from rachel botsman on Vimeo.

Definitely watch this 16 Minute TED.com presentation she did recently where she makes the case for this new model.
http://www.ted.com/talks/rachel_botsman_the_case_for_collaborative_consumption.html

Here are 10 ways she says you can help your organization or company to build your collaborative brand

10 ways to start building a collaborative brand

1. Think of your users not as consumers. Embrace them as members – giving them all the traditional benefits of joining a “club”: status, identity and shared interests.
2. Interact honestly with your members versus shouting at them in one big monolithic voice.
3. Invest a lot of time greeting your first wave of core users and then, on an ongoing basis, introduce them to other members.
4. Empower the brand evangelists with simple, sticky tools and language that is easy to spread and share.
5. As your brand grows, recognize and reward evangelists for their role in your success.
6. Capitalize on the psychological social influence of “everyone’s doing it”, making your brand a popular movement worthy of joining.
7. Let go. You can’t pick and choose what gets spread or try to control the way advocates choose to advocate.
8. Criticism is helpful. In almost every critical blog post, tweet or angry complaint there’s something of value.
9. A chief marketing officer, CEO or founder is not a brand ruler but the best host and grand guardian entrusted by the community to “do the right thing”.
10. To build a collaborative, social brand, your culture must be collaborative and social, too.

For more go to her site atwww.collaborativeconsumption.com/ 

Why you need to be on Facebook and YouTube ( its about Clicks not Search)

http://searchenginewatch.com/3641604

Here is the 10 Top 10s for 2010: Search Year in Review By Eli Goodman  Searchenginewatch December 6, 2010

In the final analysis it is about potential customers that click on your presentation to see what you are offering not just getting a position high in a search engine.  I think the most surprising entrant this year was the way the Facebook has taken the lead in CLICKS... not necessarily search, but in CLICKS.  Being at the point of a search result is great but does nothing if no-one clicks on it.

See how YouTube still holds the number 2 spot - video is a very compelling format when it comes to getting people to click on your presentation... now how do they become a buyer is an entirely different kettle of fish!

  

Top 10 Most Popular Search Clicks

 Just one year ago, MySpace was No. 1 on this list. Some food for thought.

1.  Facebook
2.  YouTube
3.  Yahoo
4.  Yahoo Mail
5.  Craigslist
6.   Google
7.   Myspace
8.  Gmail
9.  Yahoo.com
10.  Hotmail

Most of the time we see top "searches" put out by the engines (see this year's lists for Bing, Yahoo, Ask, and AOL), but being that clicks are a better proxy for relevance (they were terms that got searchers to the destinations they were seeking), this will give you a slightly different version of lists to work through. All these lists are based on United States searchers and exclude Adult/XXX websites (just to keep it family oriented).

Note: Google #6 on the list... again, its about clicks not searches

Groupon reaches tipping point for Google

My Quote:
Groupon reaches tipping point for company that does no evil to purchase company that tricks it's customers... seems like a marriage made in heaven!
see wired article
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/11/ff_hackingretail/

Interesting that these two are seemingly a good fit.

What does it mean?

I think it is just a fade.. how many mani-pedis can a girl buy at a discount... rather how many times can her local shop offers such incredible deals before they just can't afford to do it.

Novelty is a fleeting thing

Our consumers may jump once but not a thousand times.
How long before people turn this off and call it spam? It is spam... well email offers are something you want and spam is something you no longer want.

What is the way for Auto Dealers and Real Estate Professionals to get in on this sort of thing. My advice is to work with your traditional media, to get them to help you create an incredible deal. Look at the Conversion Driver industry like our partner who offers where you give a $250 gift card to a consumer to take a test drive that costs you only $25.00. ( see http://techmediamarketing.com/digitalmarketing-conversion-drivers.php?page=digitalmarketing )

Even Groupon is groaning under its own success... now they ship out a catalog of offers ... not just one. How special is that? My Costco has been doing that for years?

What is next... targeting on smartphones, Re-targeting (see http://torreyrussell.blogspot.com/2010/08/remarketing-101-follow-your-future.html ) ads on the Internet - that is ads that follow the consumer around.

Keeping ahead of this curve... so Groupon is "trick people into getting out of the house and doing the things they always wanted to do." As Andrew Mason, Groupon’s 30-year-old founder and CEO, sees it in a recent Wired Article. (see link above) Really? How long will the consumer allow themselves to be "Tricked"? Or is the price so low this ONE TIME that they feel compelled to buy it... just like Costco as you walk by that new fangled gadget that is priced almost too low to believe. How many times will this work for a retailer?

Think this is very fadish.

My advice is to focus on your own ability to be found locally, don't give away your inventory/listings to 3rd party sites that will use your inventory to steal your front page position on Google. (see: http://torreyrussell.blogspot.com/2010/08/3rd-party-sites-are-stealing-your-front.html )
Try Google's new BOOST service on their Places
(see http://www.google.com/support/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1040967 )

"With Google Boost, simply set up a monthly budget for your ad, and we’ll determine what search keywords trigger your ad based on the categories that you select. You’ll only pay for the clicks that your ad actually receives."

This of course melds with Groupon I guess so Googlepon will probably add permission based email marketing to PUSH deals to consumers... OK I get that now.
Still 6 billion is a lot for a 2 year old company.
That is since its inception (Groupon) 2 years ago, an increase of value of 20 million dollars per day - WOW.

Do you "LIKE" everything about Facebook?

You might have your facebook page, even a FAN page for your dealership... but did you know that by adding a "Like" button to every page on your web site can greatly increase your SEO of your site especially with BING? http://tinyurl.com/facebookbingsocial

Watch out if you change your Website - dont kill your SEO ranking

While it is true that we all grow tired of our web sites and think we need to change them. The search engines are very suspicious of a few things you might do and not realize how this impacts the way they rank you in search results.
Here is a great article on the subject by Eric Enge he posted on Search Engine Watch on Oct 19, 2010
5 Website Changes That Will Hurt Your SEO
Significant modifications to your website can impact your short-term SEO efforts. Here's how to properly handle changes to the domain, URL structure, content, Whois record, and theme....more

video thumbnails have a 41 percent higher CTR than plain text results

According to search engine optimization (SEO) firm, RankAbove, search results with video thumbnails have a 41 percent higher CTR than plain text results.

Introducing trafficircle - A new way to use Social Media to point customers to your brand and your brand to your web site.

(Authors note: While this is absolutely a plug for our new service, I hope you will find it helpful, using less jargon, than many of the articles I post on this site to describe the simple process of creating a Social Media Hub or what we are calling a "trafficircle") 

Many clients both auto dealers and real estate brokers give their inventory away to 3rd party sites to get their listings on as many web sites as they can. Fact is what they are really doing is giving away their inventory so another company (3rd party site) can steal the advertiser's rightful position on the front page of search engines. trafficircle provides a simple way to harness the power of social media to capture and point car and home shoppers looking for your brands and listings to your web site - instead of some 3rd party site.

Here is how it works: Currently, any one domain (your web site) has the ability to rank for only two URLs (seen in 2 ways by search engines) on any given search query. Engaging in our trafficircle tools to generate universal search optimization for your dealership (one of our techniques) greatly expands the number of locations your listings  can be found by on the web.

•  By every auto brand or property type you sell - both new and used vehicles or all kinds of real estate.

•  In cities you may be near and service but not physically located in.

•  Every listing points back to your web site... not some 3rd party site.

Part of our process is to take your inventory and create videos or what is called a virtual tour in the real estate industry from the still pictures uploaded to your site. We use a natural voice software engine to say the listing  information provided in the data feed. Then we take those videos and post them in such a away as to create an entire Social Media Circle, a trafficircle of listings, multiplying your presence of your auto dealership or the listings you have as an agent on the web 4 or 5 times the number of items you have in inventory.

Each of these new listing videos now has a link back to your website thus increasing the number of valid inbound links (cross links) to your website. Your rank on search engines for the type of brand of cars a dealer sells and the type of properties an agent has listed soars!
Multiply your presence on the web by hundreds of recognized locations with links to your web site for a fraction of what other systems cost you to implement.

trafficircle utilizes a number of techniques which are now standard ways in which search engines index web listings.

1. Universal Search.  Google now indexes all kinds of media types in addition to regular HTML web pages.  Video has a 50x advantage over HTML pages according to post by Forrester Research.
2. Instant Search.  Google recently announced their new instant search results feature which helps to identify a wide range of results which in the past were dominated by the large 3rd party companies and now give more local, smaller groups of listings a fighting chance to get on the front page.
3. Real Time Search.  Again, Google the leader in all search technology has recently introduced a way to bring in the results for searches for Social Media sites like Twitter and Facebook into their results.
4. New Social Media sites to grow the circle.  Recently Google introduced Google Buzz.  Google Buzz is their answer to Facebook and provides yet another way to build the growing Social Media Circle.
5. Focus on Google.  We focus on Google because they represent over 75% of all searches.  When a consumer sits down at a computer and they turn on their PC or MAC.  The starting point is at a search engine 80% of the time and 75% of that is at Google. 
6. Social Media cross tagging.  Creating a Social Media Circle is a lot of work to do by hand but thanks to innovative computer software you can set it and forget it.  Creating a Social Media Circle for your Agency or Dealership is a critical cornerstone to anything else you do on the web.

If you want more about our services please go to http://offersnetwork.com and click on the appropriate link for Real Estate or Auto Dealers along the bottom.

Remarketing 101 - Follow your (future) customer around the Internet until they are ready to buy.

Remarketing is a process whereby you put a little code on your web site... buy a program with Google Ads or another ad network and then whenever that shopper is surfing the web your ad keeps reappearing.

What's more the Analytics are all built in.   Google has the easiest program
Here is an article showing a step by step approach to how to do this with a simple Google Adwords account
http://tinyurl.com/remarketing101

Here is another simple article giving you the simple story on this very powerful technique of being in front of the customer when they are ready to buy your type of product.
http://tinyurl.com/Remarketing102


First

Then



Thanks to 


Ron Jones  |  August 23, 2010 article in .clickz.com

Google Places - The best place for a business to start with social media

Go here... http://google.com/places Any questions?

Your local business, discovered on Google Be found. Communicate with customers. Get insights to make decisions.
	Make sure your business information is correct Post coupons & live updates Use a performance dashboard to see how you're doing	Add new business Upload a data file
New! Stand out from the competition with Google Tags Advertise for less than $1 a day. Try for 30 days FREE! Get more customers by promoting features that make your business unique Save time advertising with our easy tag builder, ready in minutes Control your budget with a $25/month flat fee

© 2010 Google - Google Home - Google Maps Home - Google Places Help - Privacy Policy

100 hours of video will be posted to YouTube by the time you read this!

The impact of Social Media is sometimes hard to accept.
Here is a video that you should watch created in association with the HULT International Business School giving you some of the numbers relating to just how important this new phenomenon is.
The data is drawn from http://www.socialnomics.com
Here is the Video link to

Social Media Revolution 2

3rd Party sites are stealing your front page position on google

Its true. when you allow your inventory or listings to be posted on third party sites like Oodle or VAST your are in effect giving them your most important asset... your inventory to get their site posted high on search engines.
Recently on DeaerRefresh (a great blog site for auto dealers) Brian Pasch wrote about this problem
Go here:
http://www.dealerrefresh.com/inventory-free-sites-brian-pasch/

Understand what is going on here.  When you take your inventory and post it to all those free sites what you are doing in effect is giving them your name, what you have listed for sale, and your location and letting them create THEIR OWN SEO.  This is instead of you spending time building your own site, investing in Social Media Marketing techniques that will raise YOUR WEB SITE'S SEO.

We understand that these FREE 3rd party sites are addictive but if you were to spend a little time tracking what these sites are really doing for you in terms of generating traffic to your site and then converting that traffic into sales you will quickly see that what they are really doing is stealing your customer who is searching in your market for your inventory - and selling it to the highest bidder.

This is true for auto dealers and real estate agents.  Everyone in both industries pushes to get their listings on as many sites as they can - the thinking is - more sites means more visibility.  Fact is, what is really happening is you are simply giving these sites the best way to push YOUR web site off the front page of the search engines.

Take back the keys to your own inventory and spend more time posting on sites like YouTube, Twitter,  Facebook... and now Google Buzz and direct that traffic back to your own site.  Get back on the front page of Google by fighting the urge to give your inventory (and your SEO) away

Social Media - More links the better the search results

When it comes to why we do social media - its all about links... "Links act like votes for a given piece of content, and as a result content with the best link profile usually does extremely well in the rankings for related terms.", according to Eric Enge in a Search Engine Watch post on Jul 13, 2010 he has labeled "The Death of Natural Linking". Eric identifies that when you use Social Media sites to create back links to your web site it greatly increases your SEO in a way that is not only great from an SEO perspective, it may in fact be the MOST effective way to do this.

Fact is, using automated Social Media Hub publishing tools such as our partners sites do; http://AutoDealerMLS.com, http://Youtubecarsandtrucks.com or http://Techmediamarketing.com which create automated process of taking auto or real estate listings and post them to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and now Google Buzz create a tremendous "white hat" [define] linking process that is hard to beat for creating a strong Internet Profile and visibility with search engines (get on first page).

Read his entire post and be sure to click on his links at
http://searchenginewatch.com/3640951

Smartphones - Social Networking Ranks as Fastest-Growing Mobile Content Category

Here is more evidence of Smartphone use for shopping skyrocketing which really goes 180 degrees from what most people understand. Until you own a Smartphone... and then you get it.

in April, comScore (Social Networking Ranks as Fastest-Growing Mobile Content Category) reported that mobile searches had skyrocketed by 90%. This time, Compete's first-quarter 2010 study finds that consumers rely more and more on their smartphone devices to search for retailers and other such local businesses. According the research firm, one out of three smartphone users have been led to a local business after finding in through local mobile search. Local business discovery rate is quite high, with almost one third of Android and iPhone users finding new places thanks to local mobile search.

http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/100707-090847

Another report just released by PEW Internet:
“Six in ten Americans go online wirelessly using a laptop or cell phone”

When you look at the profile study released in this study last week it shows a 52% increase this year over last year for number of people who now access the internet on their cell phones… for people 30-49 (prime buying years) it was 43% (see below) of all cell phone users..

This is absolutely just the beginning of this trend…. You almost cannot buy a phone today that doesn’t access the web…

Here is the study:
Mobile Access 2010 | Pew Research Center

The surprising truth about what motivates us

We often try to bring to light great resources for entreprenuers and managers to find current thinking and innovative approaches to how to build and run their empires. The RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) is one of these organizations that is constantly putting out great ideas and has been a cradle of enlightenment thinking and a force for social progress for over 250 years.

Here is an RSA presentation on one of the best talks about how motivation works by radical sociologist David Harve. The talk is called, "The surprising truth about what motivates us" and is available in a quick to watch YouTube video (link ). His talk really describes the principals of how, when building your social media hub ( define ), you have to pay attention to the core issues of how people are motivated. In fact, the most surprising thing is that people it turns out are often negatively motivated by money. So just throwing coupons and other discounts at your customer to buy can actually cause them not to shop at your location. How can this be? Watch it here for a few minutes and see his very creative way (cool stop animation) to teach us all about motivation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc

To learn more about the RSA, visit: http://www.thersa.org/

Social Media Hubs feed into the Universal Search scheme to increase SEO

Universal search [define] is providing many opportunities for search engine marketers to strategically gain competitive positioning and drive highly-targeted traffic to their content, says Crispin Sheridan in a recent Clickz article.


Specifically,  
1. Currently, any one domain has the ability to rank for only two URLs on any given search query. Engaging in universal search optimization grants you the potential to greatly expand upon that limit.  


For example taking your inventory of automobiles or property listings and creating videos of them and the posting them to YouTube, Twitter and Facebook provides individual indexable valid assets posted on the web thus you now have hundreds of search-results out there on the web instead of just one website.


2. Each of these assets (cars, houses... whatever) can link back to your web site for increasing valid inbound links (cross links).


Read more about how you should use Social Media to build your hub of links which, due to the design of Universal Search, you can increase your SEO in an automated way... (yes of course see auto dealers: http://autodealermls.com and Real Estate Brokers look at http://techmediamarketing.com )


Hey, we have been doing this for more than 3 years now.  Its nice to see it in print.  So lets talk about your smartphone marketing program...


Here is that link

Universal Search: Are Your Marketing Efforts Evolving With the Times?

By Crispin Sheridan, ClickZ, Jun 30, 2010

http://www.clickz.com/3640802

Google now offers Keyword Tool to all for free

Google has taken its keyword tool and externalized it for your use
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Also another great tool to explore keywords usage by region is Google Insights for Search tool

http://www.google.com/insights/search/#

Social Media Networks (SMO) are becoming the new Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Everyday people are taking to social networks to discover new content in and around their social graph. According to a recent Nielsen study, [ref: 18 percent of all searches start on Social Media sites not search engines ) social media sites such as Wikipedia, blogs, and social networks account for 18% of where searches begin, outperforming sites that are dedicated to publishing information specifically to help individuals find deeper analysis and details. This is a trend that’s only now gaining momentum; as Nielsen observes, “Social Media is becoming a core product research channel.”


"...the social web is your new distribution channel as well as your portfolio for intellectual assets. Whether you’re in the business of creating, marketing, selling, or distributing media, the social Web is an incredible medium that can create a brand, establish visibility, and build demand, all without active promotion. It’s about letting your expertise or work market itself through the practice of a socialized form of inbound marketing that helps make content discoverable when people search."  Says Brian Solis (see link at bottom)


It is all about trust..."who you gonna call?"



Read the entire blog by Brian Soilis here
http://www.briansolis.com/2010/02/social-media-optimization-smo-is-the-new-seo-part-1/

How great leaders inspire action - getting people to join your social media hub

If you haven't looked in on the TED videos you are really missing the leading edge of so many subjects.

The TED conferences discuss technology and management at its best.

One of the reasons I am posting this link is that I believe that to have GREAT followers you need inspiration to inspire them. To have a large number of followers you need to have a killer "inspirational" proposition.  Using a simple model of "Why, How and What" Simon Sinek offers his observations of this model and how it works.  To inspire is to start with what you believe not what you do.  By this I mean, solve this problem - what we/it does is uninspiring. People buy not what you do but why you do it.  Why are you passionate about something.  That is what you use as your platform for discussion.  Not What you do.

This quick 8 minute video helps to explain that process. So as with all things in this Blog, this helps to discuss the ways you get people to join your social media hub.
Listen and watch:  Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action.
Click Here

Interestingly enough, this same model is exactly what drives the video below... How to Start a Movement.

Another great video on the TED sight is How to Start a Movement by Derek Sivers.

Click Here

Both of these videos explore the process of getting people motivated to do something like follow you and drink your cool-aid.  These are core concepts for creating a Social Media Hub with dedicated followers. 

Enjoy

10 things you should do in an email to your prospects

 What are the the 10 things you should put in an emal

1.  Put URLs in the subject line!
2. Use YouTube for e-mail promos.
3. Test auto-updates of content for older e-mails.
4. Make your e-mails 3D (QR codes, digital catalogs).
5. Make "exclusive e-mail" offers a priority.
6. Format with images that are the same size as those on your site and HTML.
7. Ask for feedback and respond to it.
8. Use control groups to determine full impact of e-mails.
9. Use an offer in order confirmation e-mail.
10. Send a full early engagement stream instead of a single welcome e-mail.

FYI - do not put flash in your email, a large number (like 50%) are read on mobile devices and they do not use flash - yet!

There you have it! Now you can print this out and use it as a checklist for success.

Reference  What Not To Do in E-Mail

83% of the US population watched a video online in April 2010

178 Million U.S. Internet Users Watched Online Video During April

3Share

comScore Video Metrix today announced that 178 million American Internet users watched online video during April 2010. In other words, 83.5 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed online video that month.

Why is that important.  Because there are a lot of Real Estate Agents and Auto Dealers (Offers Network's customers) who think only 17-year-olds are using Social Media sites like YouTube.  Consumers are now using Video more than ever before.  YouTube, which is owned by Google, is the #2 search engine [ref: http://techcrunch.com/2008/12/18/comscore-youtube-now-25-percent-of-all-google-searches ] when you break out the numbers from their parent firm. 

"450 million people worldwide view more 60 billion videos each month on YouTube.com. If YouTube were a nation, it would be the 3rd most populous country in the world -- behind the People's Republic of China and India, but ahead of the United States and Indonesia." (1)

Video is also a compelling way for people to view information on smartphones, our Social Media Hub building services that start with a YouTube posting of a video display of a car or house for Auto Dealers: UTUBEautos.com and AutoDEALERMLS.com and our Real Estate services through Techmediamarketing.com show that on average we are seeing 10+% of our total viewers coming threw a mobile device... wait till Tablets become the norm around the house and office (iPads).

Location Based Services [REF: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Location-based_service ] are an integral part of this Social Media trend and are the hottest thing coming now on Smartphones.  Augmented Realty systems like LAYAR or TAGWHAT are now creating significant numbers of users that can no longer be ignored.  What is your Mobile strategy?

How are you positioned to build your Social Media Hub?  Video is a core component of this strategy.  Creating free postings on Youtube, Twitter and Faceboook for hundreds of your assets (cars, property listings) linking to your web site - a web of backlinks [ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backlinks ].  Create a cloud of listings that the consumer can find and then click to you not some 3rd party marketplace site.   

YouTube, Twitter, Facebook... they are free.  Now there is Google Buzz.  Get involved with programs offering Augmented Reality services on smartphones.    

These are simple tactics... even if you do them by hand... Start today!

(1) Reference Links used to create this posting: http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/100601-155022

Is your message Location Based Aware? New Smartphones are here

Mobile search is the next big thing.  To search for stuff around you using your Smartphone is called Location Based Search.  This is going to take over as one of the major ways in which people will access information which used to sit in Search Engines.  This becomes the new platform for consumers to find your business and your stuff. 
Augmented Reality systems such as LAYAR.com, Google Goggles and TagWhat are fast becoming the standards by which we will judge the next waive of information overload.  To hold up your phone and view through the viewfinder to see what is listed around you.  And, better yet, see what others have said about those businesses and to pickup information from others that were there before you.  This is the new Space and Time continuum for the consumer.  Real time Search that is Location Aware.  Now your shopper wants to BE somewhere.  What is being called Geo-Aware.  it is already happening on GPS systems in your car, you have it on iPhones, Android and Blackberry phones.  Microsoft is talking about a system for their Windows platform.  Of course we have seen this for a long time on our PCs but now this translates into our daily travels on our mobile devices at every step.  Read more about this here [Mobile Marketing and Your Digital Geo-relevance] by Brian Massey at Clickz, May 26th 2010

Video: The Next Digital Marketing Frontier

The numbers to quantify the shift speak for themselves.

• YouTube receives more than 100 million unique visitors and streams more than 6 billion videos monthly, according to Nielsen.
  
• Users viewed 33.2 billion videos during the month of December 2009, according to comScore.
  
• 86.5 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed online video in December 2009, according to comScore.

Manny Rivas, Search Engine Watch, Apr 8, 2010

Read the Article [Click Here]

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U.S. Internet users watched 32.4 billion videos in January with Google Sites ranking as the top U.S. video property with 12.8 billion videos. YouTube.com accounted for nearly 99 percent of all videos viewed at the property.

Wow these are incredible numbers

Comscore Report [see here]

So why is having a Social Media presence important?

According to a recent post by By Tessa Wegert, ClickZ, Apr 8, 2010

New Reports Underscore Benefits of Social Marketing


1.Trusting Brands more when they use Social Networks too.
The first is a study executed by custom market research firm Chadwick Martin Bailey >>CONSUMERS ENGAGED VIA SOCIAL MEDIA ARE MORE LIKELY TO BUY, RECOMMEND<< [read here] and iModerate Research Technologies that reveals consumers are considerably more likely to make a purchase from a brand they follow on Facebook and Twitter, as well as to recommend that brand to friends. Among consumers polled, 51 percent of Facebook users and 67 percent of Twitter users said they are more likely to buy from the brands they "friend" or follow, while 60 percent of Facebook users and 79 percent of Twitter users are more likely to recommend those brands to others.

2. Second: Digital Face = Authentic!
Consumers found that Internet users now expect businesses to have "some digital face - whether it's on FB or Twitter," otherwise the opinion may be that they are "not really with it or in tune with the new ways to communicate with customers." REPORT>>Comparing User Engagement across Seven Interactive and Social-Media Ad Types.<< [read here]

Finding>> "respondents indicated that they would be most likely to buy products from a brand with a corporate profile with fans, as well as recommend that brand to friends."

Read more of Teresa's missives at [Tessa Wegert on ClickZ]

Time Spent on Social Media Sites up 82% Year over Year

What are you doing to be part of this revolution?
Look at these numbers by Nelisen (respected survey and media use advocate)

...consumers spent more than five and half hours on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter in December 2009, an 82% increase from the same time last year

Neilsen Report [read here]

SEO: Key words and other considerations: by Mark Jackson ClickZ March 31 2010

Here are some basics that all web sites should have... I have taken some of the most salient points from a recent article by Mark Jackson and reproduced them here...he is very succinct in a couple of paragraphs.
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Search Engines are simple creatures that are simply trying to deliver the most relevant results for the searcher. So, if you're trying to make your Web site show up for keywords which do not accurately describe what it is you do or sell, please try again.

Step One: Keywords

Before you even get into writing a bunch of copy or changing your title tags, research the keywords you want to target. There are many, many tools that can help you with keyword research (and a lot of SEOs use more than one). One free tool is Google Keyword Tool [try it here]. Keep things very basic; let's be sure that we find two to three keywords/phrases that accurately describe each page of your Web site. Let's be sure that these are words which aren't merely important to the CEO, but that there is actually search volume behind these selections. If you want to take things to the next level, also look at things like Google Trends [go here] to make sure that you are selecting keywords which are perhaps growing in popularity rather than on their way down.

Step Two: Competitive Analysis

Again, keeping things simple (you can really get into the weeds here), get your spreadsheet open and make a list of the top 10 or so Web sites that you often see ranking for keywords that you are interested in targeting. Do what you can to remove personalization from your search results. Once you've created your list of targeted competitors, let's at least check a couple of things to see if we can compete for these keywords. The simplest thing to do is a site:www.nameofsite.com query on Yahoo Site Explorer. To do this, go to yahoo.com, type in (without the quotes; obviously replacing "nameofthesite" with the actual URL of the competitor) "site:www.nameofthesite.com," and hit "Web Search." When you do this, you will get a list of the pages that are shown in Yahoo's index. You will also see the number of "inlinks," as well. To check the inlinks, you'll want to use the drop down to select "except from this domain" so that you are not counting links from that domain, but rather links from other domains.

Competitive analysis is important because you want to spend your time focused on optimizing for keywords that you have any chance - at all - to rank for/get traffic from.

If your Web site is a meek 10 pages deep, and the competitors are averaging 500 pages of content, more than likely, you are going to need to create a lot more pages of content or select keywords that aren't as competitive. If the competitors that you are targeting have over 1,000 links from other Web sites (not that quantity is everything), and you have five, chances are you are going to have to select some less competitive keywords or find creative methods for generating some link love.

Step 3: Title Tags

In our "E-Commerce Site Clinic," there were many, many Web sites that shared a common issue. Horrible title tags.

So, what makes for a good title tag? SEOs will debate this, but in my opinion, you want to write a title tag that has your most important/competitive keyword (phrase) listed first. You want to limit the title tag to around 66 characters (including spaces). Some SEOs practice writing title tags that read very naturally. More often than not, I recommend writing title tags which look a little something like this: "Keyword Phrase 1 | Keyword Phrase 2 | Keyword Phrase 3." Sometimes there's only one keyword phrase targeted to a page and sometimes I will recommend three.

I don't recommend having a home page title tag that reads something like "Company A - Home Page." You would be surprised by how many title tags actually do say "home page."

Make sure that every page of your Web site has a unique title tag which is actually descriptive of the content on that page.

This brings me to my final point...

Step 4: Content

When you review e-commerce Web sites, you will see a lot of Web sites that are strong in images and weak in text. Every company will say the same thing, "images are what tell our story." Well, the truth is, text can tell a story too. Your product pages should have some descriptive copy to accompany that image. Try to write at least 200 to 250 words of copy for each page of your Web site. Perhaps, even more for your home page. Don't get spammy. Just write something that is descriptive of what you do, what your product does, what your product is made of, etc. You never know when someone is going to search by color, size, or other descriptive terms.

[read more]
Author: SEO: Dynamic Field, for Sure...But Some Things Never Change
By Mark Jackson, ClickZ, Mar 31, 2010

Social Media Marketing Rules (by Harry Gold - ClickZ March 30, 2010)

I have yet to find a better statement about what a company should be doing regarding Social Media and why it is important. Long live the social networks... down with Marketplace sites!

… you can't run a social media marketing program without a strong knowledge of SEO (define). Without SEO expertise, you lose the extra benefit of universal search [Defined] and inbound links [define backlink]…

Social content development: SEO or social media marketing? Both. Video production, tweeting, and Facebook posts are not just for SEO - that is a huge amount of effort just to get links. We do it to create a powerful standalone social channel. However, that does not mean it should not be infused with keywords, links, and content that drive the search rankings [define Page Rank] of your site and help that content to pop in Google Universal Search [Google Press Release], like video and image results. You want your socially distributed content to help your site pop and you want it to pop in the engines on its own!

Go to article [click here]
(click on the link to read all of Harry's rules)

Search and Rescue: How to Become Findable and Shareable in Social Media ~ by Brian Solis of Searchengine Watch March 2010

As many of you know I read a lot of newsletters about how to market on the Internet… probably too many.

This article I have attached, “Search and Rescue: How to Become Findable and Shareable in Social Media” By Brian Solis, one of the leading authors on the subject, reviews relevant trends that show why and how our program is the most effective way and the way of the future to get a message (listing) in front of a consumer (prospect).
1. Consumers are relying less on “marketplace sites” like AutoTrader, cars.com, Zillow or Trulia to find their information
2. Social Networks (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter…) are more relevant than Google
3. The interconnectivity of a program is key to success.. you need to be posting to all of these to be effective and create the “Hub effect”

Core Quote:
“As social networks gain in prominence, the amount of relevant information within each ecosystem increases in value and, as such, we deliberately seek content within the networks in which we engage…Destination sites (Zillow Trulia) across the board are losing traffic and ultimately favor, simply because destinations are obsolete as intended or designed. The days of the traditional "start page" are coming to an end, only to be replaced with the "attention dashboard" -- a dedicated application that aggregates the activity of those we follow in social networks into a series of digestible streams.

Don’t miss the side bar in the link provided below about “Competing for Attention”

While this article gets a bit technical it offers the core insight and validation about an approach many of us are taking to help our clients and now exposes it as a MAJOR trend in the marketplace.. of which we were ahead about 18 months… nice to see it coming out in print.

Go to article [click here]

Video to convert lookers into buyers for Real Estate and Auto Dealers

“If you want to convert more listings into signed business in 2010, video is one tool that shouldn't be overlooked.

After Google, YouTube is the most-used search engine in the world. Also, Google's algorithm appears to rank videos higher than podcasts, blogs or static Web sites. In other words, using video helps you increase your search-engine ranking.

[Read More]

Why post to YouTube Videos... and share with Twitter and Facebook?

We are always being asked WHY do we also post to Facebook… Twitter and now Google Buzz….

Because the Internet is splintering into thousands of different ways in which people are searching for stuff…. Every day a new player comes on the scene…
And now smartphones are doing even more.

Watch how these graphs collide (does not include YouTube numbers)

[Read More]

General Internet use by Real Estate Shoppers

a December 2009 National Association of Realtors report, 90% of consumers begin their real estate search online. However, according to the Brandeis/inSegment report, a disproportionate percentage of marketing dollars continues to be allocated to traditional marketing campaigns rather than to more successful and cost-efficient programs such as search engine marketing.

[Read More]

Recent Stats for the Real Estate Industry using Search

* The Internet has become an essential and indispensable tool in the home search process with 90 percent of home buyers using it to search for homes, up 30 percentage points during the past six years.
* Additionally, among buyers who reported using the Internet, 76 percent reported using it frequently, an increase of 7 percentage points from 2008.
* Furthermore, as a result of searching online, buyers frequently request additional information or find an agent.
* Around 60 percent of buyers were also likely to walk through home viewed online.
December 02, 2009
By Sophia Stuart, Research Economist (NAR Research)

[read here]

Google says 83% of Vehicle Shoppers use YouTube

CONSIDER THIS RECENT MARKET RESEARCH FROM GOOGLE:

Google study reveals 83% of new vehicle buyers visit video focused Web sites prior to purchasing a car.

Read it here [read article]

Visual Media Searches using Video

We are developing through our different partnerships in the auto and real estate fields a new platform that currently provides car and home Shoppers access to the #2 way in which people use the Internet - YouTube.

YouTube provides a brand new platform; much like a web site is a text way to present data on the Internet… YouTube provides a “visual” way to present data.

This is not another web site or a service that is “posting” to Marketing web sites like Ooodle or VAST. YouTube has become the central way to present visual information on the Internet. And now the 68 million Blackberries, iPhones and Google Android phones are able to access this visual format too!

How does this work.
“In-market” consumers use Search Engines to find vehicle inventories. Google and other search engines are presenting what is called Blended Search. This is where the search result is both traditional web pages and also other mediums such as MP3 files and Video files, and other formats based on the search request. The consumer then clicks on one of these and is taken to that link to read, view or listen to the result. We represent the branch of the evolutionary search path that is Visual - Visual Search Results.

Graphic for Auto Dealer Example in Google Search:

(Click Image to see Larger)

This is different than a WEB page.

Our partner sites include AutoDealerMLS.com, uTUBEautos.com, LocalPropertyMLS.com and Techmediamarketing.com. These sites are about building a “channel” for Dealers and Agents. Providing a “visual” way to present their inventory on these new platforms like Smartphone devices and tablet Computers - not a web site. Our services gives a shopper the ability to search for vehicles or properties on the device of choice: a computer, phone, whatever. And when they find one such vehicle or property they “view” that Dealer or Agent’s “Channel” of vehicle or property inventories.

Channels not Websites!
[Reference]

Get your vehicles on the front page of Google.

What we do in the Auto Industry for Auto Dealers and also for Real Estate Agents:
If it is true that most car and truck shoppers start their Internet search process at a Search Engine (now 90%). And, if Google nets 70% of those searches, doesn't it make sense to find a way to get your inventory right there on that front page as soon as is humanly possible?

Example:
Look at this graph of a Florida dealership's web traffic with the results of their YouTube video traffic we delivered starting in July overlaid in green. We delivered a 40% increase in web traffic to this dealership.

(Green line = YouTube Viewings, Blue Line = Compete.com chart of web traffic)

Page rank sores!
autoDEALERmls has perfected the process of taking vehicle inventory and posting it in such a way that it appears high on the Google Search Index.

How do we do this?
Each day we take a feed of your vehicle inventory from your lot management company and stitch together the still pictures into a virtual tour of the vehicle. We marry that slide show with a computer “Spoken Text” program that reads the VIN information. We then apply proper search tagging and post the video on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Google Reader and now Google Buzz.

This is more than just creating video from still pictures. In fact, it really isn't about video at all. Yes Video is compelling. Video is the most compelling way to engage someone with vehicle information whether it is on a desktop computer or a smartphone small screen (currently 8% of our traffic and growing). What we focus on is that since Google owns YouTube, and YouTube is the number two search engine right now, this is the best method to achieve high search engine results quickly! But this too will change and we will be there and other vendors will be following us again.

So why else should you be doing this ~ Back Links!
The Internet is like a giant ocean with billions of web sites and trillions of web pages. Your web site is but one island in this vast ocean. What if we could take every vehicle on your lot and create a way to give it a “searchable” and “indexable” [define] presence – thus allowing it to be found by the search engines. And, what if each one of these searchable and indexable dealer assets pointed back to your primary web site. Your page rank sores!

More information at our Auto Dealer site
http://autodealermls.com

Review of our 5 minute video:
http://autodealermls.com/dealerprogram
Or call 1(234) 567-9006 and/or email at info@autodealermls.com
autoDEALERmls is a service of the Offers Network, Inc. to provide SEO [define] services by automating the posting of vehicle inventory to YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and other social media for their clients.


For our Real Estate partners you can go to http://techmediamarketing.com