Posts Tagged ‘online marketing’

To Buzz or To Tweet: Google and Twitter Go Head-to-Head

Friday, April 2nd, 2010

koeppel_headshotWith the launch of Buzz, Google’s new social media offering, the search engine giant appears to be directly challenging Twitter and taking advantage of the social media sensation’s many admitted weaknesses.

Twitter has long struggled with both uptime and search-ability, two areas in which Google is the acknowledged champion. The question is whether Twitter is really doomed in the face of Google’s clear attempt to take over their turf.

While it’s not clear at the moment, it doesn’t look good for Twitter.

While Google Buzz got off to a rocky start by automatically enrolling anyone with a Gmail account into Buzz and connecting them with everyone else in their contact list, the blunder still proved that Google has the power to make this kind of social media tool far more easy to use than Twitter ever has.

Twitter’s search ability is limited. Google’s search engine can be put to excellent use in helping people find who and what they’re looking for. 

On the other hand, Twitter already has a thriving culture and traditions, with its own cadre of words, lots of offline spin-offs like Tweetups and live-Tweeting, and the use of the hashtag, which Google Buzz hasn’t yet incorporated.

Finally, there’s also the question of whether people are even interested in learning how to use a new social media tool, when they already have so many to handle. The groundwork has been laid by an evolution of social sites, and Google’s Buzz will more than likely build upon what has already been successful. Tying this in with their other powerful tools for example; Google Maps, Picasa, Trends, and Product Search, certainly can be a convincing way to make people want to give Buzz a try.

Peter Koepell is the President of Koeppel Direct and has over 25 years of advertising, marketing and media experience. You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/drtvbuyer.

Tier 2 Networks – How To Ensure You Are Getting Quality Traffic

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

New ad networks are popping up all the time. Some of them have earned a negative reputation as providers who deliver poor quality traffic.  Unfortunately, these networks have not operated with advertisers’ best interests in mind, and as a result, Tier 2 networks in general have received a bad rap. It’s important to remember, however, that not all networks are created equal. Before initiating a partnership with a Tier 2 network, you need to ensure they can deliver the quality traffic you are seeking. Here’s a helpful checklist of issues to address while you are vetting search networks, along with some specific questions to ask to help determine if the network is a fit to help you reach your PPC campaign goals:

1. Experience – it’s important to work with a tried-and-tested network with a proven track record.

How long have you been in business?
Can you share client case studies and/or testimonials as validation of your achievements?

2. 3rd Party Partnerships – some networks employ partnerships with 3rd parties to help ensure click quality and safeguard against invalid traffic. For instance, Anchor Intelligence and Click Forensics are two traffic quality solution companies that many networks work with to serve as a kind of check and balance to their internal traffic controls.

Do you have any 3rd party traffic quality partnerships in place?
How do you determine how to filter invalid traffic?

3. Targeting and Tracking Capabilities – you need to assess whether the tier 2 network you are evaluating operates on a platform with the necessary capabilities/abilities to meet your targeting needs.

Do you offer any/all of the following?

  • Geo-targeting –focus your ads in the location of your desired customers
  • Ad Scheduling/Day Parting –schedule your ads to only appear at certain times of day
  • Conversion Tracking –see what traffic sources are converting for you and which ones aren’t, so that you can adjust campaigns accordingly
  • 4. Customer Service – make sure the network you are considering has the customer support to help you optimize your campaigns and reach your goals.

    Will I have a dedicated account manager?
    Who will be held accountable for helping me ensure my campaigns are running smoothly?

    Asking these basic questions are the first step towards broadening your PPC campaigns to include valued and trusted tier 2 networks. Leverage these questions as a starting point when looking to expand your reach beyond your existing PPC campaigns with complementary campaigns on Tier 2 networks. Let us know if the comment section if you have any questions, or feel we’ve left anything pertinent off our list.

    Kaley Dobson is the Marketing Manager at LookSmart

    How Brands Are Vulnerable on the Internet

    Thursday, August 7th, 2008

    kevin_62.jpg Brand loyalty is the Holy Grail of marketing. It creates a world of consumer allegiance that encourages repeat buying of favorite products and services, and it casts loyalists as willing brand evangelists who proudly don logos and spread passionate word of mouth to all within earshot. Luxury brands in particular are precious entities that are estimated to have billions of dollars in value, thanks in part to brand loyal customers. Millward Brown, for example, has valued the Louis Vuitton brand at $22.6 billion. But what happens when a brand, regardless of stature, is breached or abused?

    With the power of social media/Web 2.0, companies are exposed to a multitude of online threats that have the potential to impact corporate reputation. These threats could include broken links that lead to lost revenue; porn sites that use misspelled keywords to pull customers away from a legitimate site; and the rise of Blogstorms that are often the tipping point to a damaged reputation. In fact, it is estimated that 4 percent of all brand mentions online are associated with traffic diversion or misrepresentation schemes; and an estimated 7 percent of the world’s GDP is related to the sale of counterfeit goods—a high proportion of which is sold through online auctions.

    Whether intentionally malicious or innocuous in nature, any exposure to an online threat can impact corporate reputation and ultimately affect revenue, profitability and brand loyalty. It’s no surprise then that even Gartner has identified reputation as one of the biggest threat to enterprises in 2008. The bottom line is that retailers and brand owners need to make it a priority to protect themselves from the online threats that quickly erode precious brand equity and corporate reputations. That means taking the time to understand which threats could impact their business (and there are more than one might realize), making it a priority to continuously monitor for potential breaches, analyzing and measuring the magnitude of each threat, and taking the appropriate actions to mitigate them.

    Kevin Joy is vice president of BrandProtect.

    It’s Hard to Know Where to Spend Your Money

    Thursday, March 27th, 2008

    aaron.png “It’s hard to know where to spend your money.” This is a quote from Mat Zucker at Agency.com, an Omnicom Shop from Adweek.

    I circled that quote three times over because it optimized the confusion and quandary most agencies have today. They really don’t know. They are not sure whether they should ethically advise their clients to shift major budget to the web or protect their existing bread and butter in print and TV. They don’t know whether to build a microsite, re-build the existing corporate site or build landing pages within social networks like Facebook. They simply are more confused, conflicted and truthfully unable to make good strategic recommendations going forward. So, they guess and pontificate and recommend using old school “push” methods and creative mentality that does not work on the web, costing corporations billions in lost marketing dollars.

    There is no reason for confusion. It just takes a little guts to do something new for your client, or if you are the client, new for your company. Find out what your target audience does, where they go, what they like and then use those channels and information to market to them.

    Aaron Kahlow is managing partner of BusinessOnLine and chairman of the Online Marketing Summit. He is a regular columnist for Electronic Retailer magazine.