One of the first things I encourage businesses to consider as part of their Internet marketing is to take control of their listing in Google’s Local Business Center.
Just recently Google published the video below on YouTube and sums up the reasons why very well.
And it’s FREE!
If you currently spend money on Yellow Page advertising or want to test out something that is not social media that works, I would strongly suggest watching the video and signing up here.
Tags: Google, Google Local Business, Yellow Pages
I found Doug deGrood’s recent article, This Social-Media Kegger Not All It’s Cracked Up to Be, to be quite insightful and worth a read by anyone looking to start social-media and Internet marketing efforts.
Especially if you if you are considering handing money to a company to assist you with your efforts.
As one of the comments asks. “Didn’t ANYBODY pay attention to the Internet bust of 1999?”
I do remember and my business has survived it.
The absolutely outrageous ideas and services that people shelled out tens of thousands of dollars out for (on the low side) would eventually lead to the bubble bursting with only serious plans surviving.
My favorite point made in the article is:
“Marketing is no longer a one-way conversation; it’s a dialogue.”
For the record, consumers have always had “relationships” with brands. And we’ve always had means to communicate with them, and share our passion or disdain for them with others. It’s just a lot easier now. And faster. But on the other hand — THIS JUST IN — not every member of the human race wants to have a relationship with the company that manufactures his or her toothpaste. Freaky, I know, but true.
Further to the point of dialog is that in the past the relationship might actually have been stronger and consumer opinion more enduring.
Dominos recent public relations nightmare (which I am not detailing to help prove a point) is a good example. The issue spread like wildfire across the Internet and Social Networks in a very short period of time.
However a quick search today for Dominos Pizza in Google’s web and news sections returns only one result related to the incident and it’s the one result Dominos would want you to find.
In under 60 days enough new content has been published online so that unless you are looking for the incident specifically you would not readily find out about it.
A company’s online image is more fluid today than it might have been in the past and that while disasters can strike, time may in fact heal all wounds.
Tags: Social Media
A Reuters article, Twitter to launch business tools by year-end, seems to me the best way for Twitter to monetize the service.
It will be “simple stuff” such as lightweight analytics, (co-founder Biz) Stone said. He reiterated the company’s commitment to keeping the service free for everyone…
Even lightweight analytics could be a very powerful tool for those of us using the service professionally and certainly worth some fee since it would likely allow you to track ROI when combined with a complete Internet marketing strategy.
Tags: Twitter
This PCWorld article came out about a few weeks after I downloaded and tried out Google’s new browser, Chrome.
I’ve been using Chrome since.
Google’s Chrome browser has a market share that rounds down to zero. Yet Microsoft plans to argue to the European Commission that bundling Chrome into Windows — an anti-trust decree the EC wants to impose — will potentially give Google a monopoly hold on the Internet.
The claim seems laughable to anyone who hasn’t used Chrome. But those who try the largely unknown application almost unanimously rave about its speed and ease of use. Never mind the arcane software benchmark charts all over the ‘Net: Chrome is fast.
Google knows speed is addictive
I’ve made attempts to try Firefox and Safari yet have stuck with Internet Explorer since leaving Netscape in 1997.
The addiction to speed is the key here.
While Chrome is lacking in some very needed features (i.e. support for the Google toolbar and the WordPress dashboard, etc.) the main benefit is I can browse significantly faster than the other three browsers.
So fast in fact that if I need a feature rich browser for a certain website; I simply open IE, accomplish the task close IE and return to my still open Chrome window.
Here’s a promo video that illustrates how Google has simplified the browser. You can learn more and download Google Chrome here.
Tags: Google
AdCast co-hosts Carl Vervisch and Nic Lorden invited me to discuss Ad 2 Tampa Bay’s transition to interactive media that began during my term as president of the organization.
Prior to 2005 the organization’s Internet communications were limited to an obsolete website and inconsistent use of email blasts with little knowledge of the effectiveness of either.
The strategies implemented then have allowed the organization to achieve the following in the years since:
These achievements can be attributed to the implementation of Internet marketing strategies and development of subsequent leadership.
The complete Case Study is available via Google Docs.
Workshops
Vinny Tafuro offers workshops on Internet marketing that target local business and non-profit leaders in an effort to help others develop similarly successful strategies for themselves. The first of these workshops will be held Friday May 15, 2009 at the Hilton Garden Inn located in Ybor City.
More information and registration are available online.
Ad Insight Segment on YouTube
Tags: AdCast, Advertising Insight, Ybor City
This is a final follow up on my recent critique of newspapers and journalism. I hope my opinions on this subject have been valuable and constructive, as I truly value what good journalism provides for a free democracy.
In his closing remarks to the NAA, Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google expressed an exciting optimism for journalism that no longer seems present within the newspaper industry.
Beginning at 36:16 in the video (embedded below) he paraphrased Tocqueville’s America from 1831:
America will do well because of its sunny optimism, abundance of land and absence of a king.
He follows with his own interpretation applied to the current situation:
When I think today, I think same thing is still true; the political dynamic, the enormous resources that we have, the ingenuity of our people; the sum of all that I think creates a next set of opportunities.
For us to seize, for us to take, for us to build businesses on top of.
From my perspective we have to embrace what users want together, and by doing that I think we can win big.
Newspaper executives remind me a lot of the music industry, Netscape and Microsoft and run a great risk of being doomed not by Google, but instead by a new innovative idea for distributing quality journalism.
The following quote from Thomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington in 1787 is used by many newspapers as a shield of entitlement (or endowment if some get their way).
“The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”
Based on some of the quotes below, my opinion is that Jefferson was not tied to the medium itself, and if he was alive today, might have replaced the word newspapers with the Internet in the above statement.
“Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day.” –Thomas Jefferson to John Norvell, 1807. ME 11:224
“As for what is not true, you will always find abundance in the newspapers.” –Thomas Jefferson to Barnabas Bidwell, 1806. ME 11:118
“From forty years’ experience of the wretched guess-work of the newspapers of what is not done in open daylight, and of their falsehood even as to that, I rarely think them worth reading, and almost never worth notice.” –Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 1816. ME 14:430
“Advertisements… contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper.” –Thomas Jefferson to Nathaniel Macon, 1819. ME 15:179
These statements illustrate Jefferson’s displeasure with the quality of journalism found in newspapers over just a short period of time in American History
What would his opinion be today?
What would Jefferson think of Schmidt’s comment about a next set of opportunities being created?
This is a follow up to Friday’s post and addresses the use of the Internet by newspapers and provides some opinions as to why that usage has not been financially successful.
Currently newspapers are using a “see what sticks” approach to social media and the Internet in general. Friday’s post on Twitter was just one example.
A recent article quoted Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google:
Schmidt commended newspapers for staking claim on the Internet in the 1990s but said there wasn’t a second act. He says news Web sites take too long to read, even slower than flipping through a newspaper or magazine, a shortcoming that can be addressed by improving technology.
Consider now the constantly changing format and out of date stories on the websites of Tampa Bay’s dailies and you can see how some basic problems make the above statement true.
A screen shot of the Time’s Opinion section on Monday highlight a column by Tim Nickens, Editor of Editorials titled “Clinton supporters still hanging back” which upon review is from August 27, 2008.
A screen shot of the Trib’s homepage on the same day shows a column by Steve Otto titled “All The News Fit To Twist” which upon review was published March 15, 2009. Otto has since then written 12 columns according to his profile page.
These two columns are over six months and one month out of date respectively and yet appear alongside current editorial and news, and in the case of the Tribune, on the website home page.
Another article covering Schmidt’s address to the Newspaper Association of America’s (NAA) annual conference in San Diego further gives more insight for the industry’s need to reevaluate how they operate online.
“I would encourage everybody to think in terms of what your reader wants,” Mr Schmidt told newspaper bosses.
“These are ultimately consumer businesses and if you [annoy] enough of them, you will not have any more,” he warned the Newspaper Association of America’s (NAA) annual conference in San Diego.
Currently the industry is focused on trying to save the newspaper instead of focusing on bringing a renaissance in journalism. Two examples in the evolution of the Internet come to mind when evaluating the newspaper industries approach to the dilemma.
Browser Wars
In the late nineties Microsoft was under fire from the Department of Justice for antitrust violations stemming from the integration of Internet Explorer into Windows 95. One of the largest catalysts of this was the declining use of Netscape Navigator which was losing market share and blaming the IE integration.
I commented online at the time (I can no longer find the posting however) that it was not the IE integration but lack of improvement on the part of Netscape that was the true culprit in the browser’s demise. Netscape had become comfortable and complacent.
Microsoft rightfully prevailed… became complacent (in my opinion) and while Netscape died, new browsers like Firefox and Google’s Chrome have become viable threats to IE’s domination.
Music Sharing
The next big shift was in online music that erupted with software like Napster allowing music to be shared freely across the Internet. The industry focused on intellectual property rights instead of innovation allowing Apple to release iTunes which now dominates the online music purchasing market.
The music industry is still chasing pirated music users to recoup lost revenue instead of reaping the rewards of innovation that Apple secured.
As we continue to bail out private industries and prepare to file our taxes (or extensions) next week, I am reminded by the following two quotes that this is probably not how the founders (or at least Jefferson) intended it to be.
The first relates to the lessons we can learn from our founder as we are continually pressured to dip into the people’s pockets to bail out private for profit industries.
“I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.”
Thomas Jefferson in a letter to John Taylor Monticello, May 28, 1816
Source: University of Virginia Library Charlottesville, Va.
His first inaugural address can also be a lesson for today about making private industry pay its own way and to lower taxes on the income of our employees.
“A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.”
Thomas Jefferson’s First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801
Source: University of Virginia Library Charlottesville, Va.
Are the income taxes we pay today not completely in defiance of this?
Tags: Thomas Jefferson
I received a press release today from friend Michelle Todd with Governor Charlie Crist’s office announcing his support of this grass roots effort to boost Florida’s economy.
From the release:
Surrounded by a coalition representing Florida businesses, media and city leaders, Governor Charlie Crist today announced a new incentive for Floridians to spend their money locally. The “Florida Backyard Card,” unveiled today, rewards consumers who spend their money with hundreds of participating businesses across the state. The State of Florida has joined the grassroots campaign to support Florida-based businesses.
“I am pleased to stand here today with businesses rewarding Floridians who are shopping right here in the Sunshine State,” said Governor Crist. “When Floridians spend with local businesses, their dollars go to employee wages, building rent and state and local taxes, which support schools and emergency services. I’m urging Floridians to get their Florida Backyard Card and use it.”
The Florida Backyard Card is part of the “Backyard Economics” campaign launched last month by the business coalition championed by the Florida Retail Federation and the Florida Chamber, along with associations representing media outlets. The growing partnership includes VISIT FLORIDA, the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association, the Florida Automobile Dealers Association and many more, making local spending a win-win for consumers.
Visit www.FloridaBackyardCard.com to search for participating businesses and savings on apparel, restaurants, grocery stores, home improvement, vacation rentals and many more categories.
According to the Times, State Senators were not pleased to find that VisitFlorida outsourced marketing services to a company outside of the state.
VisitFlorida budgeted about $600,000 for one year to USA800, a Kansas City telemarketing firm, to field calls from and send brochures to tourists interested in vacationing in Florida.
A Senate panel overseeing tourism spending discovered the expenditure while reviewing spending by state funded agencies. The Kansas agency won as the lowest bidder while a consideration should have been made to secure a Florida firm.
