Consumers More Willing To Share Brand Info On Social Networks Than Previously ThoughtExcerpted from Laurie Sullivan 11/6/2009 article
...Nearly half of people who saw a brand's name on Twitter went to a search engine to look for the product, compared with 34% on any social network. That's according to a joint study released Thursday by Performics, the marketing arm of Publicis Groupe's VivaKi Nerve Center, and ROI Research, an analytics and technology firm.
Performics Marketing Senior Vice President Michael Kahn says. "Being in a social network is like going to someone's barbecue. People are talking about the experiences of their lives. The sharing experience that happens in the physical world also happens in the social."
Among survey respondents, 30% admitted to learning about a product, service or brand on a social network site. Twenty-seven percent say they remain receptive to receiving invitations for events, special offers or promotions from advertisers through the sites, and 25% admit to going directly to an online retailer or ecommerce site after learning about a product or service on Facebook, Twitter or another social site.
The study found that 44% of people have recommended a product on Twitter, and 39% have discussed a product on Twitter. Facebook skewed a bit higher. Forty-six percent of respondents say they would talk about or recommend a product on Facebook.
"Consumers are open to asking about brands, sharing information and taking action on information they get from social networks," Kahn says.
My Take
Social media is on a fast track to be the top source of local information. Because of its power to track and mine consumers' trust levels, social media will leave other forms of advertising in the dust.
It’s a burning question on small, medium, and large business minds while considering getting started with Social Media:What use can my company make out of Social Networking?
It's as simple as "Click" and Grow!
Even a mouse can grow your "Connection Engine". So be a person - help out your community - especially now as local charities are feeling enormous budget pressure.
Remember - your network will double in size and quadruple in effectiveness if you invite one new connection today.
What are the benefits? There are several:
Are you a Consumer?:
- Find and share local experts who are trusted by your network of friends and neighbors
- Provide valuable funding for your favorite charities without costing you a dime
Are you a Business Owner?:
- Get new customers from more, highly qualified, free, word-of-mouth referrals
- Strengthen your relationships with your network of customers, neighbors and fellow business owners
-Set the amount you choose to pay - only AFTER you make a sale
Are you a Not-for-Profit?:
- Strengthen ties with your community
- Receive recurring donations
So, the only question is "Why not grow your network right now?"
It's easy - Simply tell your friends to go to YouGottaCall.com and join. They can connect with you when they register.
Or log-in and send them an invitation by clicking on "Invite a Friend or Trusted Service Provider"
And, please - if you have a tip for how you've successfully grown your network, please share it with us.
So please - take a minute to click and grow your connection engine.
Word-of-Mouth Marketing On The Upswing
by Mark Walsh, Friday, Nov 16, 2007 7:00 AM ET
WORD-OF-MOUTH MARKETING IS EXPECTED TO surpass $1 billion in 2007, making it one of the fastest-growing alternative media formats. In a new research report, PQ Media also predicts that spending on word-of-mouth marketing will grow at an annual rate of 30.4%, and will hit $3.7 billion by 2011.
Helping drive the growth of WoM marketing are Web 2.0 technologies such as social networks, blogs that allow consumers to share information, and opinions about brands and products. While 90% of WoM activity is estimated to take place offline, marketers are shifting more spending to online vehicles that can provide more measurable results. Findings of the PQ Media study were presented Thursday at the Word-of Mouth Marketing Summit 2007 in Las Vegas.
What exactly is WoM marketing? PQ Media defines it as an alternative marketing strategy that uses online and offline tactics involving peer "influencers," WoM communities and brand advocates to encourage consumer dialogue about products and services.
The category doesn't include what are considered unethical tactics such as spam, "sock puppeting," (assuming a false identity online to promote a product or company online), or paying someone to talk about a brand without disclosing that they work for the company.
Also not counted in WoM estimates were spending on activities like in-store product sampling, coupons and loyalty programs, and advertising on social networks and blogs. So Facebook's new social ads, which let marketers attach messages to the communications of members who have identified themselves as "fans" of a particular brand, would not be included.
Only marketing through fully disclosed brand advocates on blogs or other online outlets would be included. "The brand advocates or agents have to state that 'We are hired by this particular company,' or 'we were given a sample of a product,'" explained Leo Kivijarv, vice president of research for PQ Media.
Wal-Mart and Sony both ran into trouble last year when they used paid writers to create authentic-seeming blogs evangelizing their brands.
Kivijarv says 2006 was a turning point for WoM marketing, when it went from being an experimental media buy to becoming "increasingly included in fully integrated marketing campaigns." Marketers are no longer just monitoring WoM efforts, but expecting to see a return on investment in increased sales or buzz surrounding a product.
That trend is expected to continue in 2007, when WoM will grow an estimated 37.7% to $1.35 billion. Overall, however, WoM remains the smallest marketing segment, capturing less than 1% of industry dollars. Direct marketing, branded entertainment, and business-to-business promotions garner the lion's share of spending.
Kivijarv estimates that there are about 200 agencies and technology companies that either specialize in WoM marketing or have units dedicated to it.
While no specific data is yet available on WoM spending by product category, food and beverage, media and entertainment, and sports and recreation are among the most active in employing WoM strategies.
Mark Walsh can be reached at walsh@mediapost.com
Every few years major changes take place on the internet and often times this is driven by the way the internet is used. A major shift in the use of the internet has been taking place. The shift is one of transformation from finding information through search engines and buying things through portals to one where people turn to other people for their recent in depth knowledge of an issue or experience buying a product.
Google actually finds itself in a precarious position as a company attempting to protect old revenue streams resulting from search, while simultaneously moving into new social media territories that make Google Search as we know it obsolete.
If you had a good experience with a realtor, and a friend asks you, "Do you know a good realtor?" Odds are you might tell them about your experience and the name of the realtor. Offline this is as old as money, possibly as old as bartering, its called word of mouth. Online when a person shares their experience about a good or even a bad experience, its called social media marketing.
Google Search relies on an old derivative of word of mouth marketing online. That derivative is powered by the ability of a person or company to put together a website and take the time to mention the value or non-value of a product or service or even a subject. It used to be technically somewhat difficult to launch a website. Not everyone knew how to do it, nor had the money to hire a pro.
My Take
Social Media Marketing is happening. It will heavily impact the local market where millions of small business owners and professionals serve the needs of consumers and other businesses.
But these business people won't engage an ad agency to energize their social marketing. They need an effective, simple tool that captures the word-of-mouth that is already happening.
Can this model be monetized? (The crucial question.)
The answer depends on whether or not the model can demonstrate to these business owners that paying for advertising after it's already made them money beats the old way of thinking. Whether it's valuable to stay close to their loyal neighbors and customers vs. to essentially ignore them with their ad $ and to spend their budget on the Yellow Pages.
My prediction - a revolutionary model - a "Connect-gine"TM will come along.
Local search products from online pure-plays eventually hit a wall. Ad models rely on self-service. Advertisers sign up and manage search-based ad campaigns on their own. The vast majority of doctors, restaurant owners and bricklayers are simply too busy being doctors, restaurant owners and bricklayers to become search engine marketers.
On the other hand, yellow pages publishers with fleets of eager young sales reps knock on every small business' door in town to sell, launch and optimize their online ad campaigns. If only that were the case.
The truth: yellow pages companies have this capability, but haven't yet fully executed. Why? They're staring at the potential loss of core offline revenues. Undermine a model that brings in 40 percent plus margins? Not the lesson taught in B-school.
More to the point, yellow pages publishers have what online pure plays are missing (physical sales channel), but lack what they do have (better search-based products).
The fact remains: local search players have an edge from a product development standpoint. The natural tendency to cram an offline model into an online product doesn't work.
Worlds Collide
So, local search players lack sales channels, while yellow pages publishers lack the Web 2.0 gene. Can't we breed them to create some kind of mutant super local search monster? (I call him Yattoogle.)
As for building from scratch, we're also seeing a lot of action. Citysearch announced the launch of a 150 person Atlanta-based sales center in January. Online marketing firm ReachLocal received a $55 million investment to continue building out its own feet on the street earlier this month, while Weblistic continues to staff local sales reps.
Meanwhile, hyper-local site Smalltown has built up a small but successful local ad sales strategy in the San Francisco Bay area. The company brings local businesses online with low barrier "Webcards," a de facto Web presence that is easier and cheaper than starting a Web site. Webcards also have the portability, functionality and social elements of being easily e-mailed, shared and embedded with pictures and video.
To put the local ad sales opportunity further into perspective, it comes down to the wide swath of local advertisers -- representing billions in untapped ad dollars -- who aren't advertising in the yellow pages. Local advertising in the print yellow pages is a $16 billion industry, according to The Kelsey Group.
"In the century or so that the yellow pages has been around, the industry only has about a 30 percent penetration of the small-business marketplace," said Marc Barach, CMO of Ingenio. "There is an opportunity to grow this with new products."
Given that many of these businesses don't have Web sites to begin with, low barrier ways to get online such as landing page or microsite offerings (i.e. Smalltown's Webcards), could complement this product bundle.
Throw in hosting and other services, and this could represent the opportunity to be the trusted source that provides the training wheels for SMBs to get online and advertising. Develop this hand-holding relationship early in a company's transition to the Internet, and you could have an advertiser for life.
My TakeFriday October 19, 2007 - 11:50am (EDT)
Online search drives offline sales
In March 2006, comScore conducted a study for Google that showed 63% of purchases by consumers who conducted online searches were made offline. This means consumers called or went to their local stores rather than purchasing an item from a web site.
With the holiday season fast approaching, small and local businesses should sit up and take notice. History repeats itself in marketing, just as in life, so there's a good chance this upcoming holiday season will produce similar statistics as previous years.
Local search behavior dictates purchase method
A Neilsen//NetRatings and WebVisible local search study revealed some interesting insights on local search behavior. The study found that consumers using a search engine to find a local service shopped very differently from a searcher on Amazon or eBay where the transaction occurred online.
According to the study, the local searcher would find a local business via search, but then use the phone 68% of the time to make contact with and/or purchase from the business.
The results of this study send two loud and clear messages: if you're a local company that is not advertising online, you should. And secondly, if you are advertising online and your company completes much of its transactions offline, you need to track offline conversions to get a complete picture of your marketing performance. And just which methods are proven to offer accurate offline tracking?
Methods of tracking offline conversions
Here are a few methods used to track conversions offline.
1. Simple Methods for Offline Conversion Tracking
3. Advanced Offline Conversion Tracking Techniques
4. Graduate level offline conversion tracking
Offline conversion tracking gives you the information you need to make better marketing decisions and to better allocate your advertising resources.
Christine Churchill is President of KeyRelevance.com, a full service search engine marketing firm. The Small Is Beautiful column appears on Thursdays at Search Engine Land.
My Take- .. -- - .. -- - .. -- - .. -- - .. --
Thursday October 18, 2007 - 02:32pm (EDT)
For the most part, small businesses have been slower than big businesses in shifting marketing dollars to the internet, and it's not hard to see why: many small business owners don't have the time or expertise to learn about the new medium, and ad purveyors don't have the time or expertise to create the products and services that will work in small local markets.
Both of those things will undoubtedly change over the next decade or so. That's why a start-up company like ReachLocal can raise an incredible $68 million (£33.5 million) to position itself as the ad sales force for local online advertising.
The sleeping giants in the local ad business are the Yellow Pages companies, and they are rushing to build out their online offerings. But it's not obvious that they'll be able to translate their one-time stranglehold over sectors like plumbers and injury lawyers into similar dominance on the internet. In fact, Google and Yahoo!, with their local initiatives, are a big challenge, and lots of new players are rushing to get involved.
A new survey sponsored by a company called Webvisible shows a great deal of variety in how people do "local search." They use search engines, they use local directories, they use local newspapers, they use consumer review sites. There's a whole sector of companies - Yelp is probably the leader – whose premise is that getting a community to post reviews of businesses is the key to effective local search.
Certainly, the current experience when searching for small businesses online is often quite disappointing, with strange aggregations of generic directory listings leading to an unhelpful maze of links. A lot of money is being spent trying to do this better, but the smaller and more local the geography, the more difficult it will be for big national directory platforms to provide a good experience.
This online market, more than most, is still very much up for grabs.
by Jonathan Weber (founder and editor in chief of NewWest.Net a regional news service focused on the Rocky Mountain West in the United States; previously the co-founder and editor in chief of the Industry Standard)
My Take
The local ad market is primed for a major upgrade. Social networks will soon alter the way major consumer purchasing decisions are made.
Like Facebook and MySpace changed the social lives of high school and college students; like Craigslist introduced online/offline community shopping; soon the selection by homeowners and families of merchants, contractors and professional services will be influenced by their network of trusted friends and neighbors.
Monday October 15, 2007 - 08:14pm (EDT)
From The Local Onliner
A new survey of 2,000 consumers by Nielsen/Netratings for WebVisible found that 86 percent of those surveyed used the Internet to find a local business from which to shop, a dramatic rise from a similar survey from last year where it was 70 percent.
Most of the respondents — 74 percent – said they use a search engine when they are looking for a local retail or service business. For these consumers, local search isn’t just synonymous with search engines such as Google or Yahoo. It includes all the different flavors of local media, directories and city guides online. Sixty-five percent use Yellow Pages, 50 percent use Internet Yellow Pages, 44 percent use local newspapers, 33 percent use white pages, 29 percent use TV and 18 percent use consumer review Websites.
Indeed, users have a hard time pinpointing the one source that triggered a “local search” buying decision. Traditionally, this has been an ace-in-the-hole for Yellow Pages, which are thought to be among the best media for getting consumers when they are actually ready to buy.
Carey Ransom, WebVisible VP of Sales and Marketing, says that the findings reinforce the idea that it is not a one player game for local advertisers. While search engines are very important in today’s market, traditional media “complements their core,” he says. “Their share is eroding, but they are still very valid players.”
Other revealing findings come of the study, which has not yet been posted by WebVisible. For instance, 67 percent would prefer using an Internet Yellow Pages over a print book, with most of these saying IYP is “much faster;” 63 percent saying the online listings are “more current;” and 45 percent citing the advantages of online search tools. But print is still considered to have a leg up when it comes to comprehensiveness. Just 27 percent felt that the online version is more comprehensive.
The survey also found a real discrepancy in local search use between downtown, urban and suburban use. Downtown areas saw the highest rate of growth as a local business finder, surging 88 percent over the last two years. Local use also surged for those with household incomes over $75K. Among those users, the rise in local online search coincided with a drop in telephone directory use, which fell by 62 percent.
Website quality also played a significant factor in attracting local commerce. Eighty-five percent of respondents agreed that the quality of a business owner’s website is an important factor in earning the consumer’s trust. Over 75 percent of respondents said they were more likely to make a purchase from “an unfamiliar business with a quality website,” than “a poor website from a known business.” The survey also found that favorable reviews in blogs play a key role in local purchase decisions – but only if the review comes from credible sources.
My Take
Consumers now expect that they can find answers - even local ones - on the Web. This article mentions that many prefer certain advantages of traditional media. Yet it does not mention the oldest - and most effective form of advertising: word-of-mouth.
This writer states that media users cannot determine the one key factor in triggering their buying decision. Yet other studies show that a word-of-mouth referral is the most trusted and most likely to result in a sale.
A model that leverages the best of the of the newest technologies along with the most effective form of sales leads; one taking an entirely different approach from 'search engine' marketing and broadcast advertising- that would be something. "Trusted local experts. Word of mouth referrals."TM "Better than free."TM
In development...
Tuesday October 9, 2007 - 04:50pm (EDT)
“What the? Who threw a bag of trash onto the end of the driveway?,” I wondered. “The nerve!”
Upon closer inspection – it’s the new Yellow Pages. "Wonderful."
“Now what do I do with this klunky thing? Hmm, let’s see. Where did I put the old Yellow Pages? There they are! Right where I left them - the day of their unceremonious arrival.”
“‘Could it be I never even cracked the old volume? ‘Yep, sure enough. It’s never been opened.”
Guiltily I lug the 2006 tome to the garage and hoist it into the trash. Thud!
Replacing the lid, I think of the wasted advertising dollars spent by local small business owners. I picture the thousands of sales calls by smiling, suited Yellow Page sales reps and the reluctant checks handed over by struggling merchants.
Shouldn’t I have at least looked up a Chinese restaurant before discarding this? Would that have helped?
I console myself with the thought that I have patronized the trustworthy, local establishments. But now I use my cell phone speed dial to order pizza or call the dentist. Now I use Google to look up a number for placing my order of heating oil, doing product research or finding an infrequently used number. Usually I find new vendors through word-of-mouth referrals.
The Yellow Pages? They’re heading for the scrap heap of history – which is fitting since they have filled more than a few landfills themselves.
Saturday October 6, 2007 - 07:23pm (EDT)
Monday October 1, 2007 - 08:46pm (EDT)
My Take
Lots of questions ...
Isn't this labor intensive?
Monday September 24, 2007 - 09:32am (EDT)
Excerpts from: Greg Sterling's
Local Search Is About Products Too, Not Just Restaurants And Plumbers
Whenever I discuss products and retail as part of the definition of local search people are often a little skeptical. Yet again and again studies show that consumers are using the Internet to do research before buying locally in stores. This is especially true for "considered purchases" (bigger ticket items), but it's generally true for products across the board.
The Internet has not emerged predominantly as a transactions platform, as many had predicted several years ago, but instead as a marketing platform driving offline transactions.
Jupiter and Forrester Research-- have more recently come around and said that the growth of online commerce is "flattening," while the Internet's influence on offline consumer purchases continues to grow almost unabated.
Here's what Jupiter's most recent e-commerce forecast had to say: Despite the slowing of growth in online buying, web influenced off-line sales will grow at a slightly faster pace over the next five years, reinforcing the vast advertising and marketing value retailer websites present.
To look out into the future a couple of years, the three most interesting trends in "online shopping" are local, social and mobile:
Many other studies, including a recent one from Yahoo and comScore, have similarly documented the Internet's (and search's) impact on offline transactions. While conventional comparison engines leave "money on the table" by failing to capture or extract value from this dominant consumer behavior pattern, Internet-influenced local shopping has its challenges as well.
The "inventory infrastructure" is developing but has yet to be fully built out. Sites like ShopLocal, Krillion and NearbyNow, among others, are working diligently on this challenge. Once substantially accomplished, that inventory information will transfer into mobile with relative ease.
Another challenge is tracking: showing the online-offline connection. Right now offline conversion tracking is limited to after-the-fact consumer surveys, coupon redemption and phone tracking, as a kind of proxy for purchase intent. Phone tracking arguably doesn't work well for products because people many not call stores in the way they call service businesses (e.g., doctors, plumbers) for appointments.
My Take
The online shopping/overnight delivery model has revolutionized the retail industry for some products and services. But the big dollar items in our household budget can't be ordered on a Web site or delivered in a brown truck.
How do I make those big buying decisions? How do I find just the right local business? Probably the same way you do. And it is a process that's remained unchanged since the first word of mouth referral occured with the words, "You gotta call _____________."
Now, how will this process be facilitated by the Web?
Wednesday September 19, 2007 - pm (EDT)
Google’s recently announced Business Referral Program, where it pays individuals to submit information about local businesses, is important less for what it is than what it will be. It is a signpost not only of Google’s intent, but of their understanding of how the Internet will develop.
For while Google doesn’t make trends, they do have a keen eye for discerning them. Their patient execution of a plan based on their reading of the road ahead is nowhere more apparent than in local search. These trends have been remarked upon before, and at least some of Google’s advantage is that while others watch Google, Google’s attention is straight ahead. These trends include:
Some Google competitors might take comfort in the apparently haphazard and unfinished feel of various Google offerings. A more appropriate response would be alarm. Google’s fledgling projects are part of an encompassing architecture measured not in a year or two but five or more.
Consider that the results of a typical Internet Yellow Pages search have barely improved in the last ten years.) It is inevitable that the Internet will displace other mediums as the starting point of practically all local advertising – including advertising destined for print, television and radio.
It will also take time for Google and others to demonstrate the value of local search in a way that makes sense to Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs), and other actors in the local search community. There’s still a lot of spadework to be done, and combined with the sheer size of the local search market, the extended adolescence of Google Base, Google Coop, the Business Referral Program, and other projects is closer to necessity than profligacy. The current value of the content in Google Base is of no consequence. Its function is to help Google build the next generation of Google Base, when content will matter.
Google’s ability to monetize local search doesn’t require they “own” business data and keep it behind a walled garden.
Google could easily decide the effort to build a direct relationship with businesses is more of a burden than an opportunity. They could leave that job to others, opting rather to provide tools and incentives that ensure the road for content between businesses and Google is easy to traverse.
Tuesday September 11, 2007 - 11:52am (EDT)
The step of forming a corporation is the result of our combined research, planning and dreaming over the past two years. It is also an expression of our commitment to create an entirely new medium for local business advertising that benefits the consumer, the business owner and the community.
TEAM MEMBERS
Please meet our co-founders:
Wayne FeigenbaumWayne has been a business founder and owner for over 20 years. His Fortune 500 background was the foundation for his success in the commercial printing industry.
As President of Preferred Printing Services, Inc, he has in-depth knowledge of managing growth through aggressive sales, strategic planning and acquisitions. Preferred Printing was recognized by Inc Magazine as one of the 500 fastest growing privately held companies in America. Strong client and vendor relationships have been the hallmark of Wayne’s businesses.
Wayne graduated from the University of Maine with a Bachelors degree in Marketing.
Bill Hoff
Bill has over 20 years experience in operations management and business ownership. He has used his rare balance of entrepreneurship and analytical skills to grow consumer products ventures in the bottled water and beverage markets.
As Operations Director at Preferred Printing, Bill has overseen the logistical and financial aspects of the business in its growth and acquisition phase.
After earning his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Duke University Bill received his Masters in Business Administration concentrating in operations from Carnegie Mellon University.
Tim Tracey
Tim manages sales and marketing for the Pinnacle Network of Simsbury, CT. He has over 20 years experience in the sales and marketing of software and financial services.
His sales experience highlighted the value of referring relationships which resulted in highly qualified sales leads. Through his management of Internet based, lead generation and database marketing campaigns, Tim conceived of leveraging technological tools to facilitate and incentivize ‘word of mouth’, spurring the concept for a local business-to-consumer and B-to-B lead referral engine - YouGottaCall.com.
Tim earned his Bachelors in Marketing from Boston College, graduating from its School of Management (now the Carroll SOM) and its Honors Program.
Saturday September 8, 2007 - 06:29pm (EDT)
"... The chart on the left, courtesy of The Washington Post, shows just how dramatic the shift has been, and will continue to be...
"Billions of dollars from small advertisers -Consider that Google generated over $10 Billion in online ad revenues last year, while Yahoo, Microsoft, and others raked in another $10B or more. The vast majority of this revenue came from small advertisers, not the Fortune 500.
"... Most of Google's billions in revenue comes from small advertisers paying 50 cents to $5 per click for a text ad.
"The Next Big Thing - Online classified ads, local search, and mobile search are huge markets, with no dominant leader, and lots of opportunity for innovation. New business models will emerge and a new set of leaders will reap billions in profits...pennies at a time."
My Take
The stats cited by Mr. Dodge tell the recent history. His observation that there is no dominant leader in the huge market for local search (into which I lump mobile search and classified ads) points toward the next revolution in advertising.
Sunday September 2, 2007 - 10:02am (EDT)
Release Date: 26 July 2007
Vertical Leap, pioneer of managed search engine marketing, has launched Local Leap, a new search optimisation service specifically for businesses whose market is local, rather than global.Friday July 27, 2007 - 07:23am (EDT)
Wednesday January 4, 2006 - 03:12pm (EST)
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