Google will retire its Google Reader service in July, and cites two reasons that led to such business decision: focus and declining usage.

You can imagine how, when I tried to access Reader this morning, this small and subtle notice has left me totally. Well, at least it helps hourly users like myself re-examine our over-dependance with Google or any independent services for that matter.

At best, Google Reader has been a practical productivity enhancer in my everyday workflow. Google Reader, Google Trends and Twitter is probably all you need as a content marketer. No need for expensive keyword research programs. Add Google+ to the mix and you’re set!

At worst, Google Reader is an afternoon productivity killer. I miss both aspects of it, now that it’s days are numbered.

But before you begin searching for a Google Reader substitute, you should really continue reading. Most of all other articles you’ll find on this subject links to RSS Feed Readers that, quite simply, isn’t what I was looking for. I didn’t need another front-end reading app on my mobile, and I never bought into the idea of “social magazines” apps. I needed a RSS client that handles the brokering function of feeds not application skins that are coated on top of it’s engine.

Google Reader will not be available after July 1, 2013

I honestly wish this is one of Google’s April Fool prank. Why not, it even has that wickedly smart resemblance of Google’s signature humor. Google is not full of philosophies, but they’re particular in April fool pranks. Now that I’m thinking about it, I guess I’m just gonna re-watch my all-time favorite April Joke from Google and hopefully feel less-depressed about the loss of Google Reader:

P/S: Know of a better April Fool’s joke from Google? Tell me in the comments form below. Cheer a buddy.

Back to our search for a good Google Reader replacement. I guess we both have established a certain understanding on the parameters for what constitutes a Google Reader replacement and what doesn’t. Reading applications built on top of Reader shouldn’t make the list. Social Magazine apps most probably won’t either. News aggregator and its lots should’t, too.

Upcoming Google Reader Alternatives: DIGG Reader / ZITE

DIGG Reader

That is, if you don’t mind waiting. The team at DIGG has already started building a Google Reader replacement that boast “the best of Google Reader’s features … without the overwhelming (social) signals”, explained DiGG’s Andrew McLaughlin.

Link: Digg Reader | Splash page

Zite

As for Zite, the team is busy working on performance enhancement and the overall functionality of it’s Reader replacement. As for yet, there is no folder support for your feeds, no ongoing syncing, no means to editing your feeds, and chances are, your feeds might only be partially indexed within the app — something the team is working on. There’s no web app.

With the new features and performance improvements rolling in, Zite just might fit the bill for a good feed management service.

Link: Zite

Paid Google Reader Alternative 2: Reeder, FeedDemon, NewsBlur

Okay, Reeder or FeedDemon makes decent replacement as well, but the fact they both runs exclusively on an operating system — desktop feed management applications — and the accompanying price tag (Reeder at $4.99 while the full and ad-free version of FeedDemon at $19.95) might put many off.

Don’t worry, Reeder won’t die with Google Reader.

— Reeder (@reederapp) March 14, 2013

NewsBlur operates a subscription plan, priced at $24 – $36 per year. As I was signing up for a free account, the following screen pops up.

However, if you do manage to access NewsBlur, here’s where you will be landing on. A pretty intuitive interface with big buttons and neat organization. Readers can alternate between the original view, feed view, plain text view (full text view is a premium feature) and the social sharing feature is limited and much more humbly located than you’d expect from similar services.

Link to Reeder

Link to FeedDemon

Link to NewsBlur

Best Google Reader Alternative: Feedly

I’m an avid user of Feedly. On my iDevices I made the switch to Feedly from Mobile RSS more than a year ago and the practical functionality of RSS itself is as good as any mobile RSS readers can get. It’s near perfect — near because the built-in dictionary sometimes seems buggy but all in all mobileRSS is hard to beat. So my switch from mobileRSS should tell you something about Feedly.

Feedly: A Free, Fast & Functional Replacement

What’s not to love about Feedly? The project started out as a dedicated application skin built on top of Google Reader but wooed many over with its beautiful design. Compared to the user interface of mobileRSS, Feedly seems a lot more design-centric, the kind that endorses modern web applications in recent years. I’m sure the everyday reader would appreciate the elegance of Feedly’s mobile app but I can understand if the user interface design isn’t everybody’s cup of tea. An ex-programmer friend of mine was introduced to mobileRSS by me (back when I first started using it) and despite my later persuasion, couldn’t bring himself to like Feedly. “Too flashy, not dead-simple enough”, he would say, and then adds, “Keep it simple and stay true to your product’s core offerings!”

But here’s more reasons why it’s a cut above the other contenders as a Google Reader replacement (apart from its breathtakingly beautiful design):

1. Preferences and User Options
2. Tag Management and Folder (Categories)
3. Flipboard-esque transitions and responsovity
4. Integration with Pocket, Instapaper and social sharing functionalities
5. Feedly is on the cloud: Browser-based apps, tablet apps, mobile apps

The developers behind Feedly has also anticipated the shut-down of Google Reader for a while and has worked on a project called Normandy, which they call “a feedly clone of the Google Reader API”.

When Google Reader shuts down, feedly will seamlessly transition to the Normandy back end. So if you are a Google Reader user and using feedly, you are covered: the transition will be seamless. – Feedly

For users who sign up with Feedly before July 1, the migration would be seamless.

So there, you have it: Feedly front end + Normandy back-end powered by Google App Engine. If there’s any Reader replacement that’s worth your time, Feedly is it.

Google Reader replacement: Best free alternatives to Google Reader? is a post from: Blog | Official Samuel (by Samuel Chan). Please support the author by visiting the original source.

The post Google Reader replacement: Best free alternatives to Google Reader? appeared first on Blog | Official Samuel.

Doug, as he would like to be known, blogs at ThriftyZizel.com. He is working on a series of step-by-step Thesis 2 tutorial. If, despite my objective criticism of Thesis 2, you’d like to learn about the Thesis 2 theme I recommend you start from his tutorial series.

But first, I’d like to call myself out on that “objective criticism” bullshit there. There is no objective criticism and the term itself constitutes as one of the biggest and most hated oxymoron. Criticisms should not be viewed in the light of objectiveness. It can never be objective. There can only be good and bad reviews, but never “objective” reviews. Like Doug rightly said, opinions are subjective by nature. So are criticisms.

What constitutes good criticism?

Yesterday, Doug took a stance in defense of the Thesis 2 theme and he sees his post as a counterpoint to my post.
(go read it here: Thesis 2.0 review and more)

I respect his view, and his work towards improving the lives of others. Generally, I like people with opinions.

But if I were to define Good criticism, I’ll point to one that analyzes and describes an article in relation to its surrounding systems and the operations within it. I’ll point to one that shows application of thoughtful perspective as much as facts themselves. As far as that is concerned, criticism is likely more art than science.

I think both articles, Doug’s and mine, have done justice in our review of the product. I have described Thesis 2 through a lens that is different from his. I see the incompatibilities of the theme framework as a byproduct of self-serving choices. Could Thesis 2 have offer a better user experience, congruent with how WordPress — the platform it is built on — treat its customers? The answer might very well be affirmative. But it isn’t, because of the following reasons:

• Non-conformity with conventional UX standards
• Its self-containedness in an attempt to remain proprietary has resulted in too many incompatibilities
• Unfulfilled promises (it’s been more than 4 months now)
• Releases of a product without the basic skin packages (as promised) and basic user manual
• Extending from the above, their attempt to monetize on it via pre-launch sales (on a product that should never have been released)

The list can really go on, but I’ve gone into too much detail in my previous post I’ll be brief here.

Doug’s response to these incompatibilities was that “he minimizes the use of them (plugins)” so he has “no complaint so far”. With all due respect, I can’t see how that is a fair argument to my points above.

I thank him for bringing his perspective to the table, and for introducing me to a great resource I might find handy later, if and when I decide to do a u-turn on my words and start loving Thesis 2 instead.

I’ll probably love Thesis 2 one day, why not?

Here’s his Beginner’s Guide to using Thesis 2 with WordPress: Learn Thesis 2 with ThriftyZizel (45 Chapters!).

To Doug (who I do not know, nor have I met), Well done on the step-to-step tutorial and for adding to the conversation.

Reply to: A Defense of the Thesis 2 WordPress Theme ( +What is Good Criticism) is a post from: Blog | Official Samuel (by Samuel Chan). Please support the author by visiting the original source.

The post Reply to: A Defense of the Thesis 2 WordPress Theme ( +What is Good Criticism) appeared first on Blog | Official Samuel.

A little more than a year ago, Zach Holman wrote an article criticizing the practice of introducing unnecessary features that derail your core product offerings and, in doing so, undermine user experience.

As Zach simply puts it, “Don’t give your users shit work“. In his comment to a response post, Zach further elaborates,

(As designers) we need to build simple, non-complicated systems, and giving people more s*it work to do is overall a bit detrimental to your project.

Now, if you would excuse his language, there’s some important takeaways. I stumbled upon Zach’s musing just about the same time the post was published. It didn’t resonate with me until two months ago when I was working on a web project with a personal friend and developer.

The experience was pleasant and I shouldn’t have any complaints — if only the project wasn’t powered by Thesis 2.0, the WordPress framework that can only be described as being overhyped, unjustifiably.

Anecdotally, endorsers of the Thesis are either affiliate marketers of the product, or loyal followers that has sticked with Thesis since it’s very first release. Then, I heard, Thesis was actually good.

ii. Code is Poetry — but there’s no money in poetry.

Now, the Thesis my friend and I were made to work on is just far from poetic. It breaks all the rules of basic User Experience design. In fact, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that, to quite an extent, Thesis seems like an intimidating piece of technology that actually gets in the way of even the most basic task. Granted, we were both working on the most initial release of Thesis 2, to be specific. But that two year it took for team to work on Thesis 2 just wasn’t the best of effort.

But I argue that the ugly design was not a lack of skills or expertise. It wasn’t negligence. Wasn’t shortage of time and resources, even. In many ways, Thesis 2 feels more like an exploitation.

“Hey, it’s an expectation problem. Don’t blame Thesis developers. Blame the hype, or the blinded herd.”

No it isn’t. Art cannot be objectively bad. But categorically bad UX design exist and you need only look around. Since when have we been as forgiving or as conforming as it is with Thesis 2 when we’re put through obtrusive user experience?

I shared my experience with Thesis 2.0 to a closed circle of friends on Google Plus but wasn’t really expecting any response in particular. Until a comment pointed me to this article by Rick Beckman. Then I couldn’t resist.

Rick’s post provided some of the following images while the author critically reviewed the UX (user experience) aspect of the Thesis 2 product.

iii. Thesis 2 Admin Panel

Thesis 2 Admin Panel

Sweet merciful barbecue, what happened? All pretense is gone of blending in with the WordPress aesthetic, creating a jarring experience — how long have we been conditioned to associate red boxes with errors, after all?
- Rick Beckman

Side-by-side comparison of the admin panel between WP default, Thesis 1.8.5 and Thesis 2

iv. Thesis 2 review: Undeserving of the hype

Rick Beckman commented that such visual disparity disrespects the end user’s need for consistency, a quality many value and rely upon particularly in a field as savvy as this. As Rick further explore Thesis 2, he remarked even more areas that qualify for the most blatant violations of modern UX design.

But does there need to be a huge freaking button with shaded padding on every page of the site? … when WordPress has provided an elegant location for it, as well as the means to put it there: the admin bar.

- Rick Beckman

What about regressive designs like pop-up windows, poor plugin compatibility and other usability glitches? Yeah, you got them all with the new Thesis 2.

With much frustration, the author suggested more than once that “Thesis 2.0 is not designed with the common user in mind” but as a “separate, self-contained product as much as possible”. Had Thesis 2 been more integrated to the native WordPress usability schemes or concepts that users are already familiar with, it would have see better support from the majority of the community.

For all we know about usability and UX design, systems are designed to learn from the data they already have in respect to user behavior and make informed predictions of what the general user would want or expect.

Unfortunately, Thesis 2 is anything but that.

For now, it’s undeserving of the hype.

“As it is, I just can’t look at 2.0 with the same affection as I did 1.8.5 and older. Thesis 2.0 can’t even decide on a consistent visual style for its own admin panels, with the “admin” panels and the “design” panels appearing entirely different (for no real reason), and neither of them blending in with the WordPress aesthetic”, he further commented.

What about degrading into Thesis 1.8.5 and use the more sparingly and gracefully designed Thesis? Nope. For the sake of everything that is good, OOOH and exciting, reverting back to Thesis 1.8 would end up with a locked-up interface that restricted access to anything but an Upgrade Thesis button.

v. Neither ignorance, nor impotence. It’s Arrogance.

The problem with Thesis 2 is that many benefit (deservedly or not is a separate argument) on the expense of the uninformed, misinformed, unsuspecting end users. They were over-promised on the premise of commercial greed.

That’s a big statement. Let’s break it down into smaller chunks.

The hopelessly slanted opinions of the product

Thesis’ aggressive affiliate program has “created a huge ecosystem of hungry mercenary affiliate gasbag bloggers who spew super-heated, ecstatic reviews into the Web to lure trusting buyers into pushing the BUY NOW! button,” says Douglas Putnam in his DIYThemes Thesis 2.0 User Review post here. Just for the record, a $28 commission is made from every affiliate sales. Not that we have a problem with affiliate sales, we don’t.

We have a problem with either delusional or dishonest opinions, skewed to favor the cause of those chasing the money — at the expense of others.

The calculated and commercially-driven launch of Thesis 2

See Thesis 2′s pre-launch promotional video below:

Sounds great, especially since Chris himself said how he disliked doing these price-cutting offers because of what these tactic do to people psychologically. But consider the alternative version, which some might agree is a closer resemblance to reality:

“Hey guys! We really hate giving discounts because, look, after the handsome affiliate payouts to our loyal Thesis followers it’s cutting seriously into our budget profit margin. We’re gonna do it this time anyway because, err, the launch version of Thesis 2.0 is messy and bringing it to market at normal price would probably backfire so badly and hurt our business. Consumers would switch platforms or use those sub-par frameworks we see everybody else using apart from the awesome Thesis user community. You would, you know, read one of those WordPress premium theme comparison and decided for the smarter choice. We don’t want that. We want you to pay, and we figure the best way to do it is to collect your money before you even get a taste of the end product and experience the pure ugliness behind its overhyped facade. Since you assume the launch version is pretty and all that with a complete guide or user manual, you’d gladly pay for it now. Maybe not after you actually see what Thesis 2 is really like and understand that there’s no bonus whatsoever. Not even a user manual. Nada.”

The pairing of DIY Themes and AppSumo to offer Thesis 2.0 was probably one of the biggest fleecing I have seen in a long time. Pearson was selling the Thesis Developers option through AppSumo at a discounted price of $164, which I’m sure was flying off the shelves. I’m starting to believe this was a well orchestrated plan by both Pearson and AppSumo to make an extreme amount of money for a product that shouldn’t have been released – WordPress Aficionado

Finally, back to the visual disparity.

The code structure and visual elements that make up Thesis 2 is a deliberate effort to remain as independent from the WordPress aesthetic as possible. Not just the visual appeal. Thesis 2 is programmed to use as little of WordPress’ Open Source code as the DIYThemes team thought possible, thus maintaining as much proprietary code as Chris’ business sense would dictate. Where and when using WordPress’ protocol, its built-in behaviors and the tools would make much sense, it was conveniently abandoned for a proprietary alternative that ensures its much-adored self-containedness.

A more systemic, organic and visually appealing alternative is given up because openly embracing the WordPress inherent structure (or too much of it) would concede heavily on Chris’s theory of maintaining Thesis as a wholly proprietary product. Chris obviously wasn’t a big fan of that idea. The idea that anything built on top of the GPL must be GPL itself.

Cohesiveness has no place in the prevalence of commercial exploitation and uncompromising arrogance.

vi. Final Note

For me, Thesis 2.0 feels like a huge leap backwards. Chris spent way too much time on trying to reinvent the wheel only to release an unfocused and unfinished product out into the wild. The end result feels like a purposefully obfuscated framework that is meant to alienate developers with ridiculous code and entrap users with new shinies that aren’t compliant with WordPress theme standards.
- A frustrated user

Thesis 2 is now split-GPL, whatever that means to you. The article is not to debate the practicality of different business principles or the adoption of licenses at such. The article is arguing against a culture where profitability takes precedence over good work. And I’ve defined good work at the very beginning of the post.

Monetary incentive and the notion of paid work are great part of this ecosystem that continue to fuel innovation and advancement. I’m not against the mechanism that supports and rewards hard work. Moreover, what the DIYThemes have accomplished is nothing short of remarkable work that empowers many and benefits even more.

It’s only major suckage when user experience is greatly undermined and when shit work is delivered in the pursuit of wealth.

I am against it when rewarding mechanism becomes a tool for abuse. We trust things more when they look like they were done for the love of it rather than the sheer commercial value of it. - Robert Scoble

Update (19 February 2013): In response to a criticism, I wrote the follow-up post RE: a Defense of the Thesis 2 WordPress Theme | Blog (by Samuel Chan). You will find the link to the original response in the follow-up post, why I maintained my opinion on Thesis 2, and my general views on good criticism.

Thesis 2 Review: Frustrating user experience, commercial exploitation and more. is a post from: Blog | Official Samuel (by Samuel Chan). Please support the author by visiting the original source.

The post Thesis 2 Review: Frustrating user experience, commercial exploitation and more. appeared first on Blog | Official Samuel.

When it comes to website optimization, search and social do share a complementary relationship. While the two facets of digital marketing are often independently managed, the lines are increasingly blurred as both disciplines work together in delivering a common goal: information discovery.

While SEO and social media calls for two distinctive sets of skills and expertise, the integration of search and social has made it possible to attain two objectives in a single effort.

An article on Forbes defines the unofficial term “social SEO” as such,

Social SEO encompasses the idea that social media links and interaction play a huge part in a website’s search rankings.

Now this is especially the case with Google, where social metrics are significantly more influential in its ranking algorithm. The social component, in a way, has become a reliable indicator that search engines increasingly rely upon in their ranking algorithm.

ii. 10 Social SEO actions that reap reward on both fronts

I’ve compiled the following list of Social SEO steps any digital marketing can work to execute on, and the results of these actions would have a significant impact on both a brand’s social media presence as well as it’s SEO performance. The social seo strategies below are actionable items and can (should!) be employed in your business model.

PS: I don’t truly believe that social SEO will completely replace link-building or other SEO techniques as the primary ranking factor. What I do believe, is that social and search are sharing more common grounds than in the past, and I’ve written about that extensively in another post here: The Evolving Search and Social Model.

Here are the 10 social SEO steps you should be considering for your online marketing strategy this year, whether you are running a blog, an online business, or a digital marketing professional:

1. Register your Company/Business with Google Places

Social SEO impact: 3/5
It’s astonishing how many businesses are paying for lesser platforms and local directories only to conveniently miss out on Google Places — the free local platform that serves 97% of consumers online. Arguably, outside the realm of B2B services, Google Places qualify as the only one directory consumers actually care enough to use.

With Google Places, you can share updates for your local business, respond to reviews, post offers to entice customers, among many other things. Here’s a screenshot of my Google Places account, for one of the local businesses I currently manage:

Click here to get started on Google Places for businesses.

2. Create a Company/Brand Page on Facebook AND Google Plus

Social SEO impact: 4/5
Beyond the obvious benefits of social SEO and community building, this also adds to your business credibility — search engine loves credibility. If you have yet to try Google Plus on a business level, you’re missing out a great deal (more on that in a further post!).

Create a Facebook page for your business, or/and claim your business on Google Plus here!

3. Establish your Brand presence on Google+

Social SEO impact: 5/5
No matter which industry or niche your business operate in, there are groups or communities that are closely related to what you do. Participating in Google+ Communities, join interest groups and initiate discussions are a great way to demonstrate thought leadership, and the added benefit of these is a socially active backlink profile that helps shapes the perception of search engines (positively).
A case example is Dwell, a magazine publication about architectural design and modern home-decor. It’s official business page on Google Plus has a little more than 700 followers, but the community it has created, named Design For The Modern World, has accumulated more than 12,000 members.

Such is the power of community-enabled businesses.
Discover great communities on Google plus or create your own here: Google Communities and keep the conversation going!

4. Add Google’s Plus One (+1) button on your site’s important pages

Social SEO impact: 4/5

Social recommendation is an increasingly important indicator search engine relies on to deduce a webpage’s popularity. While popularity does not always equate to relevancy, it definitely correlates to authority — and authority is a ranking factor that Google embraces much more than its other search engine counterparts.

In fact, the implications of Google’s plus one buttons on search results are actually deeper than pure search visibility. In analyzing the effect of social recommendation on website traffic, SEO Effect has this to say,

Social recommendations from a circle of friends are often even more convincing than expert reviews. It’s an equivalent of word of mouth, directly in the search results presented at the moment that the searcher needs it. Also the annotations are a visual clue that will make a result stick out and that will also increase traffic to your site from that search result.

Any visual clue that makes an object stick out, would dramatically improve conversion (Read more: Copywriting Tips: The sore thumb rule).

To grab and customize the +1 button for your website, click here.

5. Add other social sharing options (Google+ Share, Like, Tweet etc.)

Social SEO impact: 3/5

Similarly to the above, Facebook ‘Likes’ and Tweets also play a role in Google’s ever-so-complex search algorithm. Although to date, the impact ‘Facebook Likes’ or ‘Tweets’ have on search engine ranking are less definitive (and personally, I believe are less effective than Google’s +1′s), such content endorsement do adds to the authority of the creator / publisher. Admittedly, both Bing and Google do take into account the authority of social influencers and assign more weight to, say, public figures and publishers each time they ‘tweet’ a content.

Supercharge your content strategy by implementing the Like Button and the Tweet button today!

6. Add a Google+ Badge and Page Badge

Social SEO impact: 3/5

Apart from the many social seo benefits mention in earlier points, displaying the social face of your brand or business also adds a layer of “social proof” to your brand’s authority in its industry.

Creating a Facebook Badge is as easy as it can get: click here. To add a Google+ page badge, grab it from the official Google+ Platform.

7. Promote social actions on two of your best-written content

Social SEO impact: 4/5

From a strictly social SEO perspective, our primary goal with every piece of shared content is to get click-throughs and re-shares (Facebook shares), followed by comments, likes, and Tweets &mdash in that particular order. Consider the following study by Searchmetrics on Google’s ranking factors:

Social media signals are clear sign of authority and search engines see them as “votes of trust” on their quest to rewarding (and weeding out the weak). Right now, pick one or two popular post(s) you have written in the past, repackage it and distribute it to your fans and subscribers.

8. Integrate social payment systems into your content strategy

Social SEO impact: 2/5

The introduction of social payment systems enable brands and businesses to further capitalize on the potential of viral marketing. Services like Pay with a Tweet allows your engaged fans or followers to endorse your product or brand in exchange of access to the content.

10. Recycle past contents in the form of video marketing

Social SEO impact: 3/5

Video Marketing is one largely overlooked aspect of online marketing that can be tremendously effective with the right execution. Partly due to the concentration of social networks in general, written content is easily overwhelmed and thus ignored by the social mass.

Video platforms, on the other hand, offers a much greater leverage that is not less-saturated and interactive in nature. Depending on the brand’s customer demographic, one might even add pinterest to its list of social video marketing channels (in addition to the second largest search engine YouTube and the pro-social Vimeo).

As a side note, Pinterest is already the fourth largest source of online traffic, after Google, direct traffic and social media giant Facebook. If you think you’ll pass on Pinterest for other, more established social networks, consider this:

Pinterest alone sends more referral traffic than YouTube, LinkedIn, and Google+ combined.

Also, considering that Google now index videos from Pinterest and that Pinterest itself has alleviate the ban on commercial accounts, taking a more pro-business stance altogether, I say it’s worth the effort.

You can pin a video directly from your Pinterest account (create one here) by clicking on the “Add” button.

This article is also an original contribution to Business 2 Community.

10 Social SEO steps you can implement right NOW. is a post from: Blog | Official Samuel (by Samuel Chan). Please support the author by visiting the original source.

The post 10 Social SEO steps you can implement right NOW. appeared first on Blog | Official Samuel.

Singapore’s population has reached a significant turning point in 2012: the first cohort of baby-boomers – those born between 1947 and 1965 – will turn 65 and start retiring, leaving the workforce to shrink. The Singapore government projected the ratio of citizen in the working ages to each citizen to fall from the current 5.9 (in 2012) to 2.1 as the most business-friendly country in the world headed towards 2030.

Perhaps the silver lining is the pro-talent policies its Government has always preserved, the capital efficiency and the pro-enterprise landscape that makes it an attractive choice for startups.

But since among local startups, hiring budgets are typically constrained and that, along with the shrinking workforce problem, will lead to an increasingly pronounced trend in hiring decision. More businesses would be looking at all rounded professions. In hiring speak, both generalist and an incredible specialist.

Here are 13 skills that would greatly enhance your professional value as a marketer in this coming year of 2013.

i. General skill set

1. Research skills

As with any profession in today’s competitive business environment, resourcefulness is pivotal to long-term success. Speed to information is key especially to the digital marketing profession, as ability to execute on insight-driven campaigns become an ingredient of success is highly dependent on it.
The digital marketer of 2013 keeps a keen eye on local trends, and is able to extract and act on insightful data. His/her research tools are varied and complementary to each other.

2. Strategy development

Strategy development is a core asset for an all-rounded digital marketer, and this area of his/her profession skills will help the marketer devise a fitting framework for his/her organization’s digital marketing activities.
With this the marketer will then be able to build a sustainable and duplicable formula to inbound marketing success, generating higher returns on investment and a loyal base of brand ambassadors.

3. Project management skills

The “lean business model” and “agile project management” are systems designed to accommodate dynamic teams, one that the digital marketers of 2013 shouldn’t be unfamiliar of. If the organization isn’t lucky enough to boast a diverse team of digital marketers, each of varied roles, he/she would be the go-to person for anything between copywriting to PPC campaigns. Sound project management skills will keep the digital marketer’s sanity intact while he/she rotates between the different roles.

ii. Content Creation skill set

4. Photoshop skills

Digital marketers are communicators by default, and the greaters communicators have what it takes to pitch an idea, win eyeballs, and keep even the most easily distracted audience engaged.
From branded content to complex inforgraphics and interactive video, the savvy marketer of tomorrow has them covered.

5. Copywriting skills

The irony of this list building frenzy is that many do nothing with the list. Not that the digital marketer wasn’t trying. He just doesn’t see it as his role (or hers) to churn out copy. In 2013, the creative aspect of digital marketers will play a much significant role, and this new hybrid of digital content marketers will find themselves central to the organization’s inbound marketing strategy.

6. Video marketing and editing skills

Video marketing is the biggest trend in digital marketing 2012, with 76% of marketers reportedly cited video marketing as their top areas of investment this year — a spot they had held on for a second straight year. It shouldn’t be any surprise to see this avenue growing in 2013, as more digital marketers hop on the bandwagon.

7. Content Management System

If the digital marketer is responsible for the development of content on organization’s blog, knowing the ins and outs of a CMS platform would be a huge advantage. Even more so if the organization is actively pursuing guest-blogging opportunities as part of its inbound marketing mix.

iii. Internet marketing skill set

8. Search Engine Marketing

On-page optimization, link building, paid advertising and other means to garnering more organic leads are all part of the digital marketer’s expertise. Since the largest source of commercial intent is still the search engine, where consumers most immediately thought of, or most intuitively go after, every time the intent radar is at its strongest, rock-solid SEM is still a remarkable contribution to any digital marketing team in 2013.

9. Social Media Marketing

The (possible) launch of Facebook Exchange in 2013 would introduce a new chapter into the way social media marketing has always work. Social leads, blogger outreach and other social avenues will find bigger platforms and a more reliable attribution system for tracking social conversions.

10. Email Marketing

Email marketing is still the most powerful tool is any sensible digital marketer’s toolbox. It harvest $40 – $43 in revenue for every $1 dollar invested, a return of investment that puts search engine marketing ($22.24), internet display marketing ($19.72), social media marketing ($12.90) mobile marketing ($10.51) and catalog marketing ($7.30) to shame. If there ever is one way to quantify a digital marketer’s worth — there isn’t — email marketing performance will have to be it.

Oh, and 2013 would see deeper social integration in email marketing, and social sharing options will increasingly become a standard feature among email marketing providers. The ones that claim to have found the secret behind a 55% increase in click-through rates are the email-savvy marketers that have taken advantage of this rising trend.

11. Web Analytics

The golden rule in online marketing is to test anything and everything that can possibly break. The measurability nature of digital media means a wealth of data an information that would make for better judgement and refinement of techniques. In fact, one can argue that data and web analytics are the prerequisite to all notions of “optimization” techniques and attribution system for multi-channel funnels.

Other valuable skills

12. Crisis management skills

The all-rounded marketer of 2013 has a complete sense of an online business. In the event of a social media crisis, the digital marketer would spring into action and uphold the brand’s character on all fronts.

13. E-commerce optimization

E-commerce used to be a niche and is still widely regarded as such but in reality, e-commerce is everywhere and everything we(brands) do online. As e-commerce progress into a more frictionless future in 2013, cart abandonment rate and other e-commerce metrics will find greater attention among the marketing community.

Bonus content: Social SEO

Social SEO strategies will be an incredible leverage for many brands and digital marketers that incorporate social SEO techniques into their marketing playbook will be well in demand. Read more here: http://www.officialsamuel.com/blog/social-seo-steps/

13 Professional Skills For The Digital Marketers of 2013 is a post from: Blog | Official Samuel (by Samuel Chan). Please support the author by visiting the original source.

The post 13 Professional Skills For The Digital Marketers of 2013 appeared first on Blog | Official Samuel.

Cyber Monday is a marketing term for the Monday after Black Friday, and the term “Cyber Monday” was coined by marketing folks trying to persuade people to shop online. In fact, these folks (hate or love ‘em) were so successful they have turned Cyber Monday into the biggest spending day ever in online sales.

Given its significance in online shopping, Cyber Monday is often cited in quantitative studies whenever a (historical) perspective on digital consumer behavior is called for.

Cyber Mondays also present great learning opportunities for e-retailers because it reflects, to a certain extent, the overall growth trend of the e-commerce space.

This year, IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark has released a report that, among many things, includes a comparison of the figures between this year’s Cyber Monday and last year’s.

Looking into the findings of the Cyber Monday Report 2012, there’s plenty of takeaways. Above everything else, I’d like to bring your attention to what these statistics can potentially be signalling at for e-commerce 2013.

Here are 5 things that can happen to e-commerce in 2013:

i. BIGGER growth in e-commerce sales

Online sales in this year’s Cyber Monday has grown by 30.25 percent over the same period in 2011. If there’s one Stat of the Year on this subject, this has got to be it. The reason it hasn’t been such a great deal because Cyber Monday 2013 will be even bigger when it arrives. And that is not too bold a prediction to say the least.

e-Commerce sales will occupy an even greater proportion of sales come 2013, with more household getting comfortable to the idea of shopping online. In fact, new visitor conversion rate for Cyber Monday 2012 (4.74%) has also shown a modest improvement over its previous year (4.39%), which might prove that the acceptance of e-commerce as a shopping medium is still as as steady as ever, if not more.

As the inflated perception of risk associated with online shopping (typically in its early days) are being ironed out — and these goes for privacy concerns as well — the acceptance of such medium will see more transactions, the same way Online consumers are buying more items per order on Cyber Monday 2012 (8.34 as compared to 7.31). In 2013, e-commerce will garner even wider acceptance and trust me when I say that width doesn’t fully characterized the sort of growth for the e-commerce space we’re about to see. The growth we’re about to witness is equally accountable to depth as well, by which we mean more frequent purchases and bigger lifetime value per customer.

ii. Mobile shopping in 2013: Nearly One-Fifth of traffic to shopping sites

As it stands, one fifth of all European mobile users are already using Mobile Banking; One out of five U.S. subscribers used their mobile phone to access their bank account, credit card or other financial account in the 12-month period ending in January 2012, and an additional one out of five respondents said they would likely leverage mobile banking services at some point in the future (source: Federal Reserve Board, March 2012).

In 2013, one fifth of all banking transactions will be made using mobile devices (now that pick-up rate is surprising!) but whenever the same level growth has been predicted for mobile traffic in e-commerce, it has mostly been dismissed as an “inflated” overvaluation. Well, there might be some truth in it but in 2013, mobile traffic to shopping sites should find itself reasonably close to making the 20% mark.

Where in its previous year mobile traffic has only accounted slightly more than 10% of the total, in Cyber Monday 2012, mobile traffic has contributed to more than 18%. This represents more than 70 percent of increase. It is difficult not to see how mobile shopping will mature in its present role in e-commerce as we move into year 2013. On that note, mobile sales (e-commerce sales transacted on a mobile device) has also seen an increase of more than 96 percent in Cyber Monday 2012 compared to the last’s, making up 13 percent of total sales that day.

iii. The Apple demographic as early adopters for mobile shopping platforms

In 2013, smartphones and tablets like the iPad will see even frequent consumer usage for e-commerce. What is curiously interesting with the findings is that iPad has dominated tablet traffic on Cyber Monday 2012 at 90.5 percent, followed by Amazon Kindle at 2.6 percent.

Read that again. The iPad account for a whooping 90.5 percent of tablet traffic and the closest competitor isn’t exactly what you call a threat to such dominance at only 2.6 percent. Who’s the second largest contributor in mobile traffic? The iPhone (followed by Android smartphones).

It’s hard to see the iPad losing its leadership status in the tablet market, and the Apple’s demographic as a whole would be a key growth area for e-commerce in 2013. In view of this, retailers and brands are more inclined to invest in- and develop for the iOS platform, rolling out branded content. e-catalogue and shopping apps on Apple’s App Store. This would in turn encourage purchasing intent and give way to a self-fulfilling cycle.

Statistically, the Apple demographic (which, I’m aware, is a very loosely defined term) will by large and far be the early adopters of new mobile shopping platforms and technologies that are lined up for 2013.

iv. Savvy consumers and multiscreen shopping the norm in 2013

Multiscreen shopping used to be a thing of only the most savvy of consumers but in 2013, smartphone applications that reinforce the bargain-hunting mentality will find even widespread popularity. This year, 58.1 percent of consumers used smartphones as compared to 41.9 who surf for bargains on a tablet. The added convenience and portability of a pocket device puts multiscreen shopping so much at ease it would be a crime not to take advantage of retailer deals.

In fact, when entitled to free shipping or other promotional deals, it is observed that online consumers will transact at greater frequency, albeit at a lesser average value per order. As 2013 approach, it will be interesting to watch if such trend would persist and its implication on e-commerce and mobile shopping. At any rate, deal sites or curating platforms would be an indispensable element of mobile-driven commerce in 2013.

v.Stronger emphasis on social commerce attribution in 2013

IBM’s report defines social sales as ‘shoppers referred from Social Networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube’. If you’re familiar with Google Analytics, the ideology isn’t a whole lot different from assisted social conversion.

We’ve been generally bullish on the e-commerce landscape in 2013 but here’s a piece of stat that would dampen the mood.

Social Networks, according to the Cyber Monday Report, has only managed to generate 0.41 percent of all online sales on Cyber Monday, and that represents a decrease of more than 26 percent from it’s previous year.

Yes. Less than half of 1 percent. Twice of what Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube combined couldn’t manage even 1 percent of all online sales on the biggest shopping day of the year. Things are made worse when Twitter, the social network that supposedly drives the most traffic, is reported to have driven 0% of referral traffic (Facebook at 0.69%) on Cyber Monday 2012. Altogether, social traffic only accounts for 0.80% of site traffic.

Given what we know about social commerce this just doesn’t sounds right. It probably isn’t, after all, and the reason is what Josh Costine called a social commerce attribution problem. What he meant by that is a lack of trackability in assisted social conversion, or a flaw in the methodology — the way analysts interpret collected data, qualifies these raw data, or regards conversion attribution for each sales transaction.

In 2013, however, we can expect the respective social networks to roll out improvement that enable better accountability and conversion attribution across the e-commerce industry. Facebook has a cookie-powered platform and a User ID matching system while the rest has yet to make any remarkable headway.

Twitter has confirmed with me that it doesn’t have any downstream conversion tracking right now, which means it isn’t getting the credit it deserves. I think correcting that will be a big focus for Twitter in 2013. -Josh Costine

The trends signalled favorably towards a bigger, better e-commerce ecosystem in 2013. As innovations make their way into the mobile space and deal aggregating platforms continue to mature, what has been a thing of the savvy consumers will find greater breakthrough.

Predicting e-commerce in 2013 (+Lessons from Cyber Monday Report 2012) is a post from: Blog | Official Samuel (by Samuel Chan). Please support the author by visiting the original source.

The post Predicting e-commerce in 2013 (+Lessons from Cyber Monday Report 2012) appeared first on Blog | Official Samuel.

Google Trends is one of the more underrated Google products, which in my opinion, doesn’t do justice to its ease of practicality. Since Google first launched its Google Insights for Search in 2008 (which the search engine giant later merged with Google Trends), savvy marketers have use the service in conjunction with Google Trends (then a separated service) and Google’s Keyword Research Tool to identify potential search trends and advertise or market accordingly.

Today, Keyword Research Tool is still a wildly popular tool many search engine marketers would swear they could not live without. Paling in comparison, Google Trends were rarely, if ever, mentioned.

Truth it, anybody can use Google Trends to great effect and it’s so simple business owners without any technical skills would feel perfectly comfortable with the tool. Unlike the Keyword Research Tool, users do not need an Adwords account. How does it help business owners, then?

Several answers surface, and one of the most common is its contribution in helping businesses choosing an advertising message that fits and resonates.

ii. Google Trends: Comparing search terms and interests

To illustrate how Google Trends can help businesses market better, we’ll use MJM Yachts as a case example (Disclosure: I am in no way affiliated to the company!) below.

MJM Yachts call themselves the World Leader in Fuel-efficient powerboats and many of their builds were marketed as boats that “burn as little as half the fuel necessary” for boats their size while crusing at 25+ knots. MJM’s mantra is crisp and to-the-point: TWICE THE FUN, HALF THE FUEL.

MJM’s fuel efficient powerboats

Assuming we’re back in 2004, a year after MJM Yachts was founded. As MJM looks to expand its business, the company decided to run a branding and advertising campaign to promote these fuel-efficient yachts it makes. To ensure its core competitive advantage is most relevant to the ongoing search trend, MJM has to make a strategic decision – whether to wrap its advertising message around the ‘eco-friendly’ keyword, or to focus on the keyword ‘bio-diesel’, or just bank on it’s ‘fuel efficiency’ to market and re-brand itself.

I know what you’re thinking. Google’s Keyword Research Tool can do the job just fine. To some extent, yes. But you’ll quickly find out why Google Trends will do the job more efficiently. Prettier even.

iii. What Google Trends tell us about web interests over time

Here’s the web search interest of fuel efficiency, eco friendly, and bio diesel in the United States, April 2004 – May 2005

Note that the number 100 represents the peak search volume. Thanks to Google Trends, we can almost draw some pretty conclusive findings from the chart alone.

MJM would do better with their branding and advertising message wrapped around the “fuel efficiency” theme, and maybe tap on the growing search trend for the “bio diesel” term. MJM could of course, devise a tagline surrounding the “eco-friendly” term but would that would mean a lot more work (and a lot more inefficiencies).

iv. What Google Trends tell us about regional interests

To further optimize our branding message, we want to factor in the regional interest shown for each search term and see if that matches our intended demographic or audience group. Apparently Google Trends has a neat way to present this column of data as well.

I’ve said that Google Trends is an incredible tool for insight-based research. Here, we’d see that MJM would prefer to use the “fuel efficiency” search term in their advertising message supposed most of their customers or leads are from California or New York. If the business is largely based, or is planning to expand into the Washington market, it might find “bio diesel” a more attractive term.

Google Trends does the job, and does it simply enough.

v. What Google Trends tell us about forward-looking research

What we’ve learned till is mainly concerned with the present. The current web search interest (assuming we’re still in 2004 with this MJM Yachts case study). This probably violates what we’re told about a forward-looking marketing plan. But I’ll show you why this is not the case with the Google Trends — the tool that packs in a Forecast engine.

You’d be surprised and how handy this all turned out to be, because as we move into February 2007, what has been the most unpopular search term skyrocketed in search volume and consistently become the industry’s standard term.

Yes. Eco-friendly is the industry standard term after February 2007, and MJM Yachts will be glad their brand has created a strong case by planting strong associations to this attribute it wants to be known for.

Fuel Efficient, Or Eco-friendly?

Fortunately enough, toggling Forecast and News Headline in Google Trends are simple and straight-forward to perform.

vi. Final words

Google Trends is nowhere near as technical as the arguably more powerful keyword research tools that are available out there. That should not discount its appeal to the mainstream users and non-technical business owners out there. Google markets the new Google Trends as providing “insights into what the world is searching for” and helpfully pointed out four key areas it can help advertisers and business owners with.

• Choosing advertising messages
• Examining seasonality
• Creating brand associations
• Entering new market

Share your thoughts, or dive into Google Trends and experiment it here.

This article is also an original contribution to Business 2 Community and is featured on Social Media Today.

How to use Google Trends to complement your keyword research (examples + screenshots) is a post from: Blog | Official Samuel (by Samuel Chan). Please support the author by visiting the original source.

The post How to use Google Trends to complement your keyword research (examples + screenshots) appeared first on Blog | Official Samuel.

Nothing spells excitement more clearly than a closed, invite-only beta that comes out straight from the Google Lab.

Yes, we’re talking about Ingress, the Augmented Reality Game (ARG) that isn’t the first of its kind, but arguably one of the most immersive and anticipated. Now, with the abundance of apps and games making an appearance on the iOS and Android platform, the level of excitement, vibe and anticipation it has generated certainly has shown some promise.

Watch the trailer: Ingress – It’s time to move.

Did I already mentioned the Google engineers behind the creation of Ingress?

Or, more precisely, the engineers from Niantic Labs helmed by John Hanke. Since, to fully understand the genius of Ingress, it’s worth a bit of effort to begin with the visionary behind this Google-branded invention.

The visionary: John Hanke

John Hanke is an industry thinker whom introduced himself as a man interested in “the use of ubiquitous mobile computing in ways that move society forward”. He was the former CEO of Keyhole. When Keyhole was acquired by Google is 2004, John was appointed head of Google’s Geo division, known for Google Maps, Local, StreetView and Google Earth.

Fittingly so, since Google Earth is essentially Hanke-founded Keyhole’s flagship product, known as Earth Viewer before the re-branding accompanying the acquisition.

Hanke, however, was not about to settle with his area of specialization — read, Geo technology — and with a little support from Google’s top management he started a new business unit that would focus on developing cutting edge mobile apps with local and social elements being an integral part of them.

So when John Hanke and his team at Niantic Labs release something that combines Geo, Social and Mobile technology it immediately qualifies as headline materials on The Nerd’s Radar. Or Singles Weekly. Or The Geek’s Guide to Manliness.

Ingress: Alternate Reality Gaming takes a new spin

Ingress is an alternate reality where players join one of Ingress’ two factions and would have to travel to portals that might be anywhere on a physical map. Ingress players, carrying their Android device (yet to be announced on Apple’s iOS and other mobile platforms), would wander out into the physical world, either attempting a “hack”, undergoing missions, or to pick up virtual units that are all crucial for the gameplay.

Players would have to travel physical walking paths, possibly underground terrains and less-known alleys to achieve these gameplay objectives. Players from all over the world can play wherever they are, and travelling from one location to another “portal” makes the mission-based game all the more interactive.

You see, in a way, Ingress is the summation of massive social gaming, augmented reality, geo-location technology and an incredibly immersive story plot.

But beyond the social interactivity, physical activity and all the entertainment Niantic Labs have generated, Ingress is a bigger testimonial to Google’s values and philosophy.

Ingress: The device for Google’s geo-location advertising.

I recently read an article on AllThingsD prior to this writing, and in the article the author noted, from conversations with Hanke earlier, how Ingress will be good for Google “because of advertising”.

But Hanke contended that the game will be good for Google’s business from the beginning. That’s because of advertising. Ingress incorporates real physical stores and products in the game, and has brokered relationships with Hint Water, Zipcar, Jamba Juice and Chrome apparel and messenger bags.
And eventually, Google plans to make these real-world game tools available as a platform for developers to make their own.

I do partially agree that Ingress has a role to play in Google’s ambitions in the realm of geo-location advertising, although I very much doubt that such is the only agenda of the California-based company.

Past instruments for Google’s data-collection scheme

I’m not exactly a fan of conspiracy theories, although I won’t deny that I do find amusement in a large number of them. The same amusement on a kid’s lighten expression as his nimble fingers search and scatter the puzzle pieces laid in front of him.

The puzzle pieces might never find one another. Nevertheless we see it, or so we thought. The picture makes sense, despite the missing pieces, and that’s perfectly OK because this is an opinionated piece of writing.

But first let’s look at the puzzle pieces, then we can do some matching and apply better sense to it.

On August 31 2006, Google launched the Image Labeler, which takes the form of a game and allows user to label random images Google threw at them. In the game, players are randomly paired with another player and both will try to provide as many labels as possible to each image over a period of 2 minutes. The player will receive points when a label matches his randomly selected partner.

Sounds a lot of potential for The Nerd’s Radar. Or Singles Weekend. Or The Geek’s Guide to Manliness.

What is the greater significance of the invention? Astoundingly simple. The goal is to help Google improve the relevance of its Image search results, by indirectly “teaching” the search engine how to associate each images with the most relevant search terms.

What about 1-800-GOOG-411, the free and automated telephone-based directory search that handles directory searches via a toll-free number through speech recognition technology? Since, at that time (now discontinued) GOOG-411 was a free alternative to similar services, except without the premium charges users would expect to pay otherwise, many questioned its business viability. Even more so when Google has reportedly spent money to promoting the product. Yes, a company that traditionally do not advertise, actually advertise on something that has clearly no revenue potential whatsoever.
.

But if we take a close look into the ulterior motive of GOOG-411, it’s hard not to be impressed by the resourcefulness of Google’s creativity and bold philosophy.

Quoting Marrisa Mayer (ex-Googler, present CEO of Yahoo!),

The speech recognition experts that we have say: If you want us to build a really robust speech model, we need a lot of phonemes, which is a syllable as spoken by a particular voice with a particular intonation. So we need a lot of people talking, saying things so that we can ultimately train off of that. … So 1-800-GOOG-411 is about that: Getting a bunch of different speech samples so that when you call up or we’re trying to get the voice out of video, we can do it with high accuracy.

What did they do when Google decided that the data mining has sufficiently met its founding objective? They discountinued it and “put all their resources into speech-enabling the next generation of Google products and services across a multitude of languages”.

Now, if you’re unfamiliar with any of the two data-collection schemes I’ve mentioned above, what about Google’s free reCAPTCHA service you probably have come across on Facebook, Twitter, and other popular sites?

Yes, the program that generates jumbled, distorted word tests that computers will not be able to decipher, thus serving as an anti-bot gateway. In fact, the abbreviation CAPTCHA stands for “completely automated public Turing tests to tell computers and humans apart”

Wonder how many CAPTCHAs are solved every day? 200 million. That’s equivalent to 200 human feedback to Google, every day. Collectively, that translates to 150,000 hours of human work each day. What did Google accomplish with this free service and its huge resulting (huge) pool of human knowledge?

Digitization of physical books. These books, written before the digital era are photographically scanned into image and lend on the strength of Optical Character Recognition(OCR) to be transformed into legitimate text. OCR is the function where Google’s reCAPTCHA program works its magic into fine-tuning the transformation of scanned images into text.

Now you wonder if anybody else could have digitize a good twenty years of The New York Times more efficiently than Google has been able to do so in months.

Apart from the obvious benefit on Google Books, this undertaking has also echoed Google’s very fundamental vision of making information more accessible to the world.

Ingress: Google’s latest data-mining instrument

With Ingress, Google can expect to collate enormous data on walking paths and pedestrian routes, all over the world in a real-time, two-way feedback manner. The human knowledge gathered can then be used to inform the data curator of where, what, and how of each locations. Mind you, we left out the who. Which, if we were to touch on geo-targeting and other tailored advertising(targeting) techniques, were to be an entirely new post on its own.

But as it stands, the collective effort to voluntarily build Google this massive database via GPS-enabled personal devices (millions of them, even!) in exchange of a little fun, is proof of Google’s genius philosophy at work.

Another Google-branded product that made it to The Nerd’s Radar. Or Singles Weekly. Maybe not The Geek’s Guide to Manliness this time.

Another tremendous infrastructure on which there’s a lot to build on. Google Maps and other navigation apps that has yet to make its way from the Geo Division Lab. Google’s big bet on Geo-targeting, micro-targeting or location-aware advertising platforms (why not? They know where you are, which park you frequent, and which route you take from home to work now, right?)

Oh, did I forget to mention how the massive data-mining might accelerate the development of Google’s Project Glass program making it location-aware. To see what the human sees.

So the next time you were on your way to Starbucks to pick up coffee, a real-time ad bidding system can run in the background and a cleverly designed Mc Cafe advertising can be served right in front of you, telling you how it’s 200m nearer and having a 2 for 1 promotion this very hour. Heck, it even gives you direction.

Ingress Invitation

I got my Ingress invitation but if you haven’t and would like to, try one of the two ways.

1. Visit http://www.ingress.com and exchange your email for an invitation
2. Add Brandon Badger on Google Plus (product manager of Niantic Labs), create something to prove why you’re worth an Ingress invitation, and share the post with him by using the hashtag #ingressinvite.

Ingress: The embodiment of Google’s business philosophy is a post from: Blog | Official Samuel (by Samuel Chan). Please support the author by visiting the original source.

The post Ingress: The embodiment of Google’s business philosophy appeared first on Blog | Official Samuel.

Since, in determining the effectivness of a PPC campaign, one typically measures the click-through rates (CTR) of a particular ad, what contributes to a click-through becomes fundamental to the effectiveness of the given ad campaign.

i. Search Engine Marketing: Keyword Targeting

Search engine marketing is most effectively employed at the hands of a digital marketer whom understand the principles of keyword targeting and the platform’s ad bidding mechanism. There really isn’t much variables and most search engine marketers get pretty comfortable at it after a while.

First of all, the data necessary for search engine marketing is reasonably reliable, measurable, and quantifiable.
For little or no cost at all, those data is made accessible to any marketers, assisting them in the process of ad copywriting and bidding.

Supposed you’re running an ad campaign for a hypothetical Music Learning Centre (MLC) based in Singapore, offering free trial lessons for every new enrollment, your first task is to create a compelling, conversion-proof copy for MLC’s ad campaign. For once, deprogram what you’ve been taught by SEO gurus about writing search-engine proof copy. You’re doing everybody, not just yourself, a huge disservice if your ad copywriting is centered on the search engine you’re trying to rank.

Write for human, not (search engine) robots.

So when I said “compelling, conversion-proof” copy, I mean compelling in its most literal form. I mean well-researched copy that matches the search customer’s expectation, so much so that he or she is compelled to click through for hopes of achieving a specific goal.

That goal might be any of the following:

• Researching a specific product
• Locating a nearby outlet
• Making a purchase
• Looking up for online support
• Comparison of alternatives

Back to your advertising campaign for MLC centre. You’ve identified the objectives of this campaign, you’ve been allocated a certain budget, and you’re ready to roll out your first ad on Google’s AdWords platform.

ii. Intent-based Keyword Targeting

Because search engine marketing is necessarily data-driven, it also means a highly methodical approach in the way advertisers identify “opportunities”, which really is “hints of intent”.

See, you generally try to achieve a few things with your CPC advertising campaign. But you were told to be specific with your campaign objective. So instead of driving massive traffic, you decided to take a more selective approach through strategic, intent-based keyword targeting. In other words, you’re willing to spend on acquiring only the most likely buyers. The most appropriate prospects for your FREE Trial Music Lessons: New Subscribers Only advertisement.

Not more traffic, but traffic that is analytically measured to be the most likely to convert.

But how do you know that your intent-based keyword targeting strategy is attracting the right prospect?
Because search customers signal strong hints about their preference, behavior, wants, and needs. In short, intent.

The better an advertiser is at identifying the search customer’s intent through research-based keyword targeting, the better likelihood of him outperforming their industry peers in its overall advertising performance (as evidenced by higher click-through rates and conversion rates).

iii. Social Media Marketing: Personal Interests

Intent-based advertising has its place in social media marketing, and its utilization of data isn’t a lot different from search advertising. Well, at least traditionally.

It is different, however, in the way that advertisers identify customer’s intent. Social advertising traditionally analyzes customer’s intent through his/her social activities and perceived interests. Facebook’s advertising platform, for example, assumes personal interests and intent through its user’s personal details (marriage status etc.), engagement with similar brand pages, and Interest (Pages).

At the very basic, Facebook advertising platform allows an advertiser to serve advertisements to customers filtered through socio- and geo-demographic parameters. Facebook customers, unlike Search customers, do not express intent through specific search queries. Facebook users expressed intent, at least implicitly, through the pages they Liked and the connection around each individual. Quoting directly from my Facebook Ad Manager’s account, the advertising platform “pulls information from what people have included in their personal timelines and will help (social advertisers) reach their ideal audience”.

As advertisers, we then should be aware that the effectiveness of our advertising campaign should depend on a carefully distinguished set of variables — determined by the nature of the platform, whether it is based of a social platform or on keyword-based search queries.

Sure, enticing copy and the fundamental understanding of intent-based advertising still matters, but on social media platforms the advertiser is required to analyze human interests, behavior, and social interaction. An advertiser might be really efficient at targeting a one-time PPC campaign through Google’s AdWords platform. By any odds, his targeting techniques might not be equally compatible when applied on social advertising platforms.

Especially if you consider how the click-through rate of Facebook Ad campaigns are often remarkably lower than that of say, Google’s PPC campaigns. Should you be surprised?

No, if you’d pay attention in Marketing Conversion Funnel Lesson 1: Buyer’s Readiness.

Facebook averaged at 0.05% of CTR while the average CTR of an ad on Google’s Display Network is 0.4%. If the targeting options are optimally used, CTR on Google’s Display Network has the potential to increase by up to 36 times.

The bottom line is this. Targeting options and techniques should be tailored to fit the advertising platforms.

iv. The social extension of intent-based targeting, and vice versa.

When social signals began appearing on search engines, we saw a glimpse of what would become of the new digital advertising reality. Yes, the convergence of search and social extensions isn’t a trend. It’s a reality.

If you already have an active Google AdWords account, you probably already notice how the search giant is already tapping on the sheer amount of user information social network contains to improvise targeting and interest relevancy. In fact, it even hinted so in it’s official documentation:

Google may use information that people provide to websites on the Display Network — such as social networking sites — about their gender, age, and other demographics in showing contextually relevant ads to search customers

We got it. We’re seeing a confluence of social data and search query mining.

Google, for one, is determined to refine its contextual targeting tools and audience targeting tools over its own Display Network by embracing social.

Look at the image above. Guess how much of an impact social extensions have on search advertising? A massive 22% increase in click-through rates.

What does Google say about social extensions?

On average, search ads with social annotations have a 5-10% uplift in click through rate and the AdWords Social Extension helps you show more of them.

What about vice versa, if there even is one?

There is one. It’s exact counterpart. Team Zuckerberg introduces it as the Facebook Exchange platform.

What better way to learn a new advertising platform than dive right into it’s official documentation?
I know, we’re getting pretty uninventive here but here’s the example provided by Facebook itself about when brands should consider using Facebook Exchange:

For example, say I’m an e-commerce company looking to drive purchases on my site. In this case, people browsing on my website or searching for products that I sell on a search engine are expressing meaningful intent. Facebook Exchange would be a great fit because it enables me to use those signals to remarket to this valuable audience on Facebook, and at the right time … Facebook Exchange is perfect when the objective is a conversion outside Facebook and the data used to drive that objective exists outside Facebook.

Three points:

1. Tapping on the power of intent-based keywords, as in “searching for products that I sell on a search engine”
2. Usage of intent-based search signals “to remarket to these audience”
3. Extension of search and demand-based targeting by using “objective-driven data that exists outside Facebook”

Sounds like Google and Facebook are crossing each other’s territory?

Yes and No. And I’ll explain.

v. DSPs: Bigger, better data for intent-based targeting

A little earlier I mentioned how we’re seeing a convergence of social data and search query mining.

If we weren’t reading carefully it’s tempting to arrive at a misinterpretation. Don’t blame the buzzword convergence for this.

Advertising platforms are going to evolve and social network’s inherent democratizing function is not relieving its grip any time soon.

But because ad platforms are evolving and are getting better at picking up “intent” signals from across the social web it doesn’t mean that ad platforms are heading towards a common point.

So until we can really substantiate our arguments, we should stop using the buzzword because:

1. Convergence of advertising platforms is just as shallow a statement as it can be.
2. It’s dumb to begin a conversation when you have little to offer, intellectually, on the subject

Let’s make this clear, in case it isn’t obvious enough.

If the correlation between user’s intent and his/her behavior across the web can be expressed the way mathematical formula are usually expressed, until recently the algorithm has been pretty single-dimensional and platform-specific.

Now, with the emergence of demand-side platforms (DSPs) and real-time demand-based advertising, the algorithm is looking more comprehensive than ever accounting for a user’s behavior across the full spectrum of the web experience.

Right. Had to clear that bit before we get back on track to demand-side platforms and all the fuss about bigger, better data for intent-based targeting.

When Facebook Exchange is unveiled, advertisers and digital marketers are presented with new opportunities of leveraging consumer insight data. Pamela Vaughan wrote an article titled Facebook Tests Real-time Ad Targeting Based on Web Browsing Activity less than 6 months ago, in which she attempted to illustrate how Facebook Exchange work. Modifying her version to suit our earlier illustration, I’ll briefly explain the mechanics of this new bidding-based advertising system.

1. Julie, a Singapore citizen is researching on part-time music classes on the net and stumbled upon Music for Beginners Blog, a blog owned and run by MLC, the hypothetical music centre we used in earlier examples.
2. MLC, at that time, has already hired a third-party DSP that is working with Facebook Exchange.
3. During the time of her browsing session on Music for Beginners Blog, a cookie is dropped by the DSP on Julie’s computer typically when Julie’s browsing behavior implies purchase intent.
4. Suppose Julie, at the end of her visit on Music for Beginners Blog, did not make a conversion (signing up for free trial lessons, purchase a course etc.), MLC can retarget to prospective clients like Julie through pre-loaded Facebook ads specifically designed for such purpose.
5. Julie leaves Music for Beginners Blog and visits Facebook, which recognizes the cookie dropped by the DSP, and in turn notified the DSP of the opportunity for retargeting.
6. Through it’s hired DSP, Music Learning Centre is then presented with the chance to make a real-time bid, so as to display the pre-loaded, highly targeted ad to Julie.

Of course, cookie-powered advertising has been here for a while now but the appeal of Facebook Exchange’s lies in its evolution — not transformation — from Facebook’s traditional targeting model towards a richly layered “intent-based” targeting model.
If its previous advertisng model is too often being criticized as “interruptive and obtrusive”, this new design seeks to fill the void by attempting to match web users’ intent at a much greater, and broader level.

While Google’s keyword-based search advertising has been the gold standard in demand fulfillment marketing, Facebook is looking to be the first platform to offer real-time demand-based marketing with demographic targeting capabilities!
– Neil James

Just when we thought that the craze about inbound marketing is cooling down, it looks like it’s set to make a tremendous leap.

Or, more specifically, an insight-driven leap powered by the raw power of data.

vi. To hell with privacy.

Your favorite social media has more than 85% of its revenue generated from internet advertising already, so go figure.

Intent-based Targeting and the evolving Search & Social Advertising Model is a post from: Blog | Official Samuel (by Samuel Chan). Please support the author by visiting the original source.

The post Intent-based Targeting and the evolving Search & Social Advertising Model appeared first on Blog | Official Samuel.

Led by CEO Howard Schultz, Starbucks launched a series of advertisements targeted at their rivaling competitor they consider inferior to themselves. What was the message? Right, “Beware of cheaper coffee.”

It’s a bit lengthy, but there’s two lessons at the end of this article so make sure you keep reading. I’m not sure if I’d still be writing about the challenger brand strategy in future but if it ended here, it’d make a good ending to the case.

Here’s the backstory.

In 2008, Starbucks were dealt their first blow when McDonald’s decided to poke its nose into the gourmet coffee business. Being the challenger brand, their positioning strategy has got to be about “challenging” the leader brand. But what is it about Starbucks that fueled the basis of this challenger proposition?

See, if a challenger brand fails to address a weak spot (or any spot, but finding the weak spot makes the challenger brand strategy all the easier) in the target brand there would be no solid ground for a “challenger” proposition.

McDonald’s knew, or thought they knew, which spot to hit when they ventured into the gourmet coffee business. Who’s a more obvious target than the market dominant Starbucks?

So, back to the question. Which spot to hit?

The snobbiness of Starbucks Coffee.

The what of Starbucks Coffee?

Yes. Snobbiness.

The Challenger Proposition: End Snobbery.

Just to make sure that its challenger proposition is clear enough, McDonald’s built is marketing campaign on a very focused premise — to remove the snobbiness from coffee.

What they really mean is, “to remove the Starbuckesque snobbiness from coffee”. You didn’t thought I were joking, did you? Here’s McDonald’s www.UnsnobbyCoffee.com.

Scroll back up and take a closer look. The message is specific and unmistakable. Why? Because there’s only one message. There’s no explanatory copy, descriptive text or navigational headings anywhere on the page. What it does have is a bold headline that says, “now serving espresso” beneath which a block of text. The only descriptive block of text that can be vaguely termed as the website’s slogan.

That exclusivity means a heightened level of emphasis toward the campaign’s message, the challenger’s message:
“No crazy names or sizes. No second language required. So hang out and have some fun.”

What Starbucks qualities are we talking about here? Pretentiousness.

By the way, if you think the yellow button that leads to its Drink Menu has its colour poorly chosen, argue your thoughts here: Unmatched colors for CTA buttons

Now one can argue that the whole UnsnobbyCoffee campaign is coming off too strong as a challenger brand setup to the gourmet coffee market. But wait till we see more of it in action. This challenger has not done sizing up the big brother, because they have also launched a “snobby coffee intervention” project as part of the campaign. “To do what?” You ask.

To tell the friends around them how they’re stupid, snobby, and wasting a lot of their hard-earned money for putting up with Starbucks.

The challenger brand strategy: We’re a challenger, not a follower.

But what is it that McDonald’s is really challenging with its Unsnobby Coffee campaign?

See, if Starbucks have been spicing up its top of the line specialty range and McDonald’s, desperately trying to get a foot into the same market, would follow suit in terms of product offerings and pricing, the resulting outcome would have been more predictable.

Why? Because McDonald’s would not last the distance. McDonald’s would be a “follower” brand, like the billions of undifferentiated brands that were out day today. That’s not the idea because McDonald’s wanted to be the “challenger”.

Could they have resort to crafting a unique target audience, and become a “niche” brand instead? Yes, except that the niche brand strategy wouldn’t make sense to McDonald’s during that time of the gourmet coffee industry. That certainly isn’t the idea.

McDonald’s have got to be smarter than that. It decided that it would target the very same audience that Starbucks is after, and it will pitch on the premise of a mildly risky challenger brand strategy.

Has it drawn inspiration from Avis’ success against market leader Hertz?

Most likely not, but McDonald’s Unsnobby Coffee campaign was in many parts similar to Avis’ “We’re only second” campaign in their brand positioning. Both of them were the nearest competitor to their respective market leaders. Both of them were in full understanding of their market position, and more importantly, they knew a niche market would have no place in the business they’re in, whether that means the car rental industry or the gourmet coffee industry at that time. They were also cheaper, which is all very logical.

But where Avis’ challenges the market leader on the ground of service excellence and challenger’s effort (we try harder!), McDonald’s took a different approach. It wraps its core message not around itself but on the market leader, Starbucks.

See, when Avis adopted the challenger brand strategy, the promise was all about Avis. Better service, hygienic cars, shorter queue, and friendlier staffs.
When McDonald’s applied the challenger brand strategy, it was an all-out (or all-in, if we’re on poker instead of a competitive sport game), two-footed challenge on the market leader, Starbucks. It mocks the competitor’s value proposition, it ridicules its overpaying customers, it pokes fun at the snobbiness of Starbucks naming conventions and pretentiousness, calling them “crazy names and second language”.

Albeit the differences in approach, both were extending an invitation to their competitor’s consumers in comparably similar fashion. Both Avis and McDonald’s were making clear of their invitation,

“Since you deserve better, you should try us. Because we’re not a follower, we’re a challenger.”

Back to Unsnobby Coffee

Here’s a less-than-2-minute video that basically sums up all we’ve gone through so far. You got to watch the full clip to believe me when I said challenger brands are usually interesting to watch, more so when they’re down to a no-nonsense all out challenge.

You think it was entertaining? It was anything but entertaining when you’re on the receiving end.

Reacting to the challenger brand strategy: Starbucks hit back

“I think the way we deal with that is not to respond to something that’s that frivolous,” - Howard Schultz, CEO

Remember at the start of the article, we mentioned how Starbucks launches a series of provocative advertising targeted at their direct rival, one of which famously featuring the punchline, “Beware of cheaper coffee”?

First of all yes, these advertisements are mean and, maybe, just a little too gutsy for our taste.

I said our taste, but it wasn’t our taste that matters. When Starbucks snaps back, the company knew who the primary consumers of these advertisements would be. The series of advertisement, which began running on May 3 2009, were defensive and reactive. What McDonald’s, the challenger brand, has sought to destroy, it sought to restore.

That which Starbucks sought to restore, is the faith in an implicit guarantee about the Starbucks brand.

Suppose there are implicit benefits for paying more on a cup of espresso, and these benefits are justly priced, that would leave McDonald’s claims of its snobbiness and vulnerable.

By the same token, suppose these implicit benefits were obscure, the basis for Starbucks’ snobbiness will become just too apparent for any challenger brand not to have a shot at.

The vulnerability is a lack of substantive ground for Starbucks self-anchored, self-assumed standards. The shallow facade of brand image, which, by the way, is very likely the by-product of a surprisingly cultivated marketing farce.

The lack of substance, the pretentiousness, the over-promising coffee elitism, and the skin-deep brand equity are precisely what McDonald’s are banking on with their unsnobby coffee campaign. How did the campaign do? It was wildly successful and exceedingly satisfying.

“(The challenger brand strategy) taps into unpretentiousness, a core value of Washingtonians, to create a backlash against coffee elitism. It got Seattle buying McCafe, over-delivering trial goal by 173%.” - Winners Showcase, Effie Worldwide

Oh, have I already mentioned? it was also one of the five finalist for the Grand Effie and won the gold Effie award in 2009.

We wandered off a bit there. Back to that which Starbucks sought to restore, which is, as we were saying, the faith in an implicit guarantee about the Starbucks brand. That’s only the first lesson.

The second lesson.

If you read a little deeper into the core message, you’d also probably notice how the campaign is carefully selecting its target audience.

Wait, what? An advertising campaign selecting its target audience?

You didn’t read that wrong. The campaign speaks in a fashion not unfamiliar to that of a shopkeeper to a regular local. When the shopkeeper says, “beware of a cheaper coffee”, you listen. You are his regular, and you are warned of a cheaper coffee, something you never really knew what it’s like.

When the shopkeeper further warns you that “compromise leaves a really bad aftertaste”, you are further reminded never to compromise. You made a mental note that anything lesser than, or different from (hence Starbucks or nothing), your regular cup of gourmet coffee is a compromise.

Think.

If you are a usual coffee addict with a fair judgement of Seattle’s coffeehouses, picking a different brand from Starbucks isn’t, and shouldn’t be a compromise at all.

The chances are, you’re not any usual coffee addict. You selected Starbucks and only trusted Starbucks for your daily dose of caffeine. To pick anything else has now become a compromise.

Starbucks’ “beware of cheap coffee” assumes its target audience.
It assumes that Starbucks is the standard, and any derivation from the standard is a compromise.

Sounds oddly familiar? That’s what leadership brands like Starbucks are good at. They are iconic figures of the industry. They are representative. Anything else around them is just an embarrassing compromise.

I’ll end with a direct quote. Howard Schultz.

Are you going to say to your friend, ‘Let’s go meet at Dunkin’ Donuts?’ Are you going to say that? - Howard Schultz

Challenger Brand strategy (Part III – Beware of cheaper coffee) is a post from: Blog | Official Samuel (by Samuel Chan). Please support the author by visiting the original source.

The post Challenger Brand strategy (Part III – Beware of cheaper coffee) appeared first on Blog | Official Samuel.