It’s a chant that has the power to make any social media practitioner cringe – the befuddled mantra of social media naysayers echoing: “What’s so hard about Social Media? I can just get a college student to do it for free, right?”

Wrong.

Many feel that social media should be entrusted to a select few who play all day on Facebook and are fluent in the OMG LOL dialect. However, what many professionals who are new to social media don’t understand is the complex nature of social media and that building a social program is much like building a house. As it is in every marketing practice, social media has many levels, ranging from tactical execution and everyday maintenance to strategic planning and program evolution. When artfully crafted, these levels exist in a co-dependent state, creating a strong and resilient structure that is both simple and innately complex.

While students, interns and recent graduates bring fresh ideas and vigor to the mix, they lack the knowledge and experience that comes from trial and error, learning from mistakes and creating personal best practices. So why limit the social possibilities to these select few when, the richer your social media mortar, the stronger your social media foundation will be.

Since social media is a business practice that has multiple touch points within a corporation, it is necessary to entrust this integrated program to a group of individuals, who collectively can think: 

1) Holistically across all levels and verticals of the corporation
2) Analytically about quantifying, tracking and measuring social media efforts
3) Creatively to drive industry-leading practices and discoveries

While it is not impossible for one individual to house all of these qualities, social media is just that – SOCIAL. By working with others and using differing ideas to weave together a rich tapestry of content, strategy and analytics, your social media program will be all the stronger.

So whether you are a small business owner or a titan of the marketing industry, by letting one person handle your social media program, you are building a house on sand – no matter how elaborate the blueprint or beautiful the façade, a social media plan will not stand up to its potential without a solid team foundation to support it.

This weekend, the Colts and Saints will battle to determine the king of the football hill during Super Bowl XLIV. A month into 2010, there are battle lines across the search landscape that also bear watching. These battles will shape the devices, platforms and consumer experience for this year and many to come. Here’s your quick primer of the battles, the stakes and what to watch for to determine who has the upper hand.

DOJ vs. Insert Big Digital Player Name Here

Right now the Department of Justice is reviewing, among other things, both the Yahoo and Bing search partnership and the Google acquisition of AdMob in the mobile space. As the Internet continues to fragment at its edges, the core players continue to grow stronger and stronger. Everyone knows the dominance Google has in search; now the company wants it in display and may have bought it in mobile. At this point the DOJ has an enormous challenge to determine if either of these deals end broader competition in the marketplace. 

Yahoo/Bing vs. Market Share

If you assume for a second that the Yahoo + Bing marriage is going to happen, then the question is, what does it mean for advertisers and the marketplace. That answer ultimately boils down to market share gains. Right now, Yahoo is doing its best to sell any valuable assets (with HotJobs joining the list of sold assets) and retain destination status. The news on the search share front has been mixed with regards to this partnership. Yahoo’s losses have translated into Bing’s gains. Clearly, the new Bing is better than the last iteration of Microsoft Live Search, but what does Act 2 look like? We are approaching the year mark for Bing, and we’ve yet to see anything major on the ad side with formats or features. Bing’s minimal variants from Google aren’t taking traffic from the dominant #1 player in the space.

Google vs. Apple

Most expect that even with the Yahoo-Microsoft mash-up, attention will be focused on integration, and that innovation will suffer. Well, prevailing wisdom had been that Google could innovate its heart out and expand the desktop search lead. Then along came the Nexus One and a firestorm of trash talk between the powers that be at Apple and Google about what their devices are and the others are not. Suddenly, one can’t help but wonder if Google’s about to go start a Holy War for the “Cool Kids” crown with Apple, while leaving the store unmanned. Google’s trick in search advertising has been a good one, but it has yet to capture the imagination around social, mobile or even technology the way other digital pioneers have. I have to think this is a mountain the company longs to conquer, but at what cost?

Social/Real-Time Search vs. The Hype

You can’t read a blog or newsletter on the search or social space without your head exploding from all the pontification about the potential of social search. There’s no doubt that the Google mission for organizing the world’s information gets infinitely harder when you bring immediacy into the equation and the information is Web-based, in micro-formats like status updates from Facebook and tweets.

That being said, the hype about how this will change the world of intent and search as we know it seems out of proportion to the real value it has today. This is an area where I think the hype is at Year of Mobile circa 2007/2008 levels. Someday, people will tell you they were on this bandwagon when it left the station, but will fail to mention they had to sit on that hard wood for a good two years waiting for meaning movement.

And finally, the Super Bowl. Colts and Saints. The best of 2009; two teams that started 13-0 now playing for the Lombardi trophy. The outcome? Too much Peyton, and end score of 38-20 favoring the Colts. If only these other battles were as easy to predict.

As you see, I was very fortunate to have three months. Whereas, most of the time, you’ll engage in these initiatives with a very short timeline because the brand is already under attack by a competitor or a massive recall or a negative news event regarding your brand has lawyers bidding on your branded keywords to sell their services to sue your company.

In essence, there are three routes to take:

1. Use an emotional response
2. Address it in a direct, coordinated, measured response
3. Address it in an indirect, coordinated, measured response

For the first bullet point – you’ll be surprised by how many people see competitors on their branded terms, get really worked up and then walk away because they don’t know what recourse they can take. Then there are others who want to rain down fire and brimstone upon the wicked competitors and the search engines that empowered them.  Obviously, a heightened emotional state shouldn’t be when you craft your brand’s search marketing defense strategy.

Of the two measured responses that can be taken, there’s the indirect approach, which Coke is a good example of, and the direct approach, which Mattel used during the toy recall. Both were executed very well. GroupM Search has some great POVs and studies regarding these various strategies, so don’t hesitate to reach out to me for more insight. I won’t go into them in depth here because these strategies need to be customized to your specific issue, but I will talk about some proactive steps you can take to keep things from getting to the zero barrier stage.

File for Trademark Protection

The first thing you should do, if you haven’t already, is to file for Trademark protection with the major search engines.  All three engines allow for the trademark owner to file for trademark protection of some kind. Some have editorial policies in place that theoretically should prohibit conquesting from happening. Unfortunately, people are more cunning than machines at times and can find work arounds. So the best bet is to go ahead and file for Trademark protection.

When filing with each engine, you’ll be required to provide the name of the trademark owner, address, etc… along with the registration numbers for each trademark that you’re filling. If you don’t know what the registration number is for each brand you’re filing, contact the trademark/patent lawyer for the brand. If they’re slow to respond, you can try to find the number yourself at the US Patent and Trademark Office’s website, and look under “Trademarks” for “Search Marks.”  Depending on your brand, this could be a very harrowing process.

This simple step of filing for trademark protection alleviates a lot of your headaches up front. But do keep in mind, if your brand has retailers and resellers like Walmart, Target, Amazon, etc… who sell your products, you have to make sure that their paid search ads that sell your product doesn’t get blocked. This can cause a huge issue between your brand and your distribution channels. I should caveat this with another thought. Just because you file for trademark protection doesn’t mean you’re fully protected. The engines don’t proactively monitor for trademark violations, they catch it when then can. So it’s a good idea to still monitor your branded keywords intermittently.

Once your filings are done, brainstorm the various weaknesses in your product that competitors can use to attack you and prepare responses to those.  Also, brainstorm worst-case scenarios that can happen due to risks inherent in your vertical. For instance, every brand has to worry about a recall. Do you have somewhere on your website that addresses the various issues that may result in a recall? If not, do you have that content ready to deploy in that event? Some competitors will take advantage of a recall to start a conquesting campaign, so having a plan in place prior to anything bad happening makes sense.

Also, what are your company’s standard operating procedures on addressing your competitor’s brands directly? In the event that you’re the target of a competitive conquesting campaign, can you respond in kind and surround their branded terms with your messaging? Do you have a messaging strategy ready to deploy around your competitor’s brands? Do they adhere to the search engine’s editorial guidelines? Do you have a slush fund ready for these events?

When it comes to protecting your brand equity on search engines, it is imperative that you have a coordinated and measured initiative in place prior to anything happening. Trying to play catch-up in the age of the Internet is like being late to a baseball game and trying to swing the bat more often to make up for lost innings. It just won’t work.

But before I jump into the implications of the smartphone war, let’s quickly recap life before the iPhone. 

The chart below shows us that search access from the mobile browser was pretty flat until the inception of the iPhone in June of 2007. And for the most part, it has been on a steady incline since.

Before the iPhone, there were plenty of smartphones available on the market from Palm, Blackberry and Windows Mobile; however, they were primarily used on an enterprise level.  Smartphones possessed web browsers, but the devices had slow processors and the networks lacked the speeds of 3G we see today.  To put things into perspective, the Palm Treo 750 (Cingular, Sprint and Verizon) touted a WAP browser with a 300 mHZ processor and 60 MB of internal memory; the newly released Nexus One from Google touts a 1 GHZ processor and a much powerful web browser.

At the time, one could have assumed that the big names in smartphones were somewhat complacent. We saw new devices every year, but they only seemed to be a slightly upgraded operating system in a different shell.  To the defense of manufacturers, smartphones did meet the needs of the enterprise user by providing access to email, text and basic web browsing, and there were some useful, but hard to find apps.  Consumers as a whole were either oblivious to these features or simply were not impressed enough to covert to smartphone users until the ads below:

At this point, consumers were shown the possibilities of a device they had historically only beckoned for the basic phone conversation or text message.

And this brings to us today. Consumers today are excessively interested in doing more with their ”cell phones,” as illustrated in the chart above.  Consumer demand for high-end smartphones has forced the enterprise phone kings to satisfy the desires of consumers created by iPhone frenzy.  This also created choice to those hesitant to switch carriers for the iPhone. 

A recent study from ChangeWave Research shows the steady increase in smartphone adoption since Oct 2006 below:

This remarkable shift in the history of innovation and human behavior cannot go ignored by advertisers, especially those seeking to capture relevant engagement and put their brands literally in the hands of consumers.

So why is it important to advertisers that consumers are using better quality phones today?

1.  Phones/network speeds have, and continue to increase, allowing faster and easier access to information online while away from the PC. Imagine the impact this has on the ability to interact with your content and brand asset, further becoming a part of your consumer’s lifestyle.

2.  *Currently 40% of smartphone users access search, compared to the 7% of non-smartphone users accessing search. There’s a 33% jump in channel activity, and with this audience bears one question – what are you doing to capitalize on that?

3.  The growth of the mobile space is greatly dependant on smartphone adoption.  Do you know anyone that searches for recipes on their flip phone? Smartphones make it simple and possible to search, access and browse the web (mobile and non-mobile) which is the first step required for consumers to reach and engage with your brand on their device.

Smartphones and their related apps and tools are becoming a natural part of the consumer’s lifestyle and this creates the opportunity for advertisers to capitalize on this behavior.  Companies in the top verticals accessed through mobile browsers – including Finance, Weather, Entertainment and Business Directories, are missing opportunities if they’re not in the space or exploring how to get their brands there. It’s no longer about what the top, quick-find, quick-answer needs are. Smartphone capabilities and usage have created a pathway for brand engagement to happen anywhere with virtually any experience. And this puts a new responsibility on marketers and media planners to factor this channel in when addressing content development, targeting and media buys.

One sector out there doing it right is Automotive. Our mobile practice is also seeing a lot of activity and positive performance from advertisers in the Auto space – a vertical which normally is not on the list of top verticals accessed through mobile.  Many brands in the Auto vertical have developed mobile optimized sites to showcase new models, provide dealer locators and general information pages that are being used in successful campaigns that include mobile search, display and more. 

Making your brand “mobile” doesn’t take a major overhaul, but does take strategy and, when done best, some creativity. (And who doesn’t welcome the opportunity to add creativity to our day to day tasks.) A simple first step is optimizing your website with compelling content for the iPhone or other smartphones. You can then take your reach further and deliver the best possible experience to mobile users through well-built search, display, or SMS campaigns. These few steps of adoption help you to learn the space with regards to your vertical, reach consumers at a sometimes lower cost than traditional interactive media, test and trial, and ultimately, give you an early competitive advantage in this growing space.

A powerful thing coming from all the buzz around the smartphone war is smartphone adoption. And adoption equals increased opportunity. The time has come for advertisers and media planners to leap beyond testing the waters as we did when they first hit the market, and dive in for the full experience with a mobile strategy as smart as the phone.

*Source – M:Metrics Browser Access Report, 11/2009

1. Market Share

2. Improved Metrics

3. Revenue

Market Share

For small service-oriented or e-Commerce businesses, click-through-rate and conversions are paramount. However, for large companies, brand recognition is an equally important component of search marketing. Combining organic search with paid campaigns increases exposure for important branded and non-branded key phrases, ensuring that you are in front of your target audience at critical times. It’s pretty simple math – more listings means more chances someone will see one of your listings and associate your company with the search term. When presented with a viable opportunity to increase exposure and position your company as the industry leader, why wouldn’t you?

Improved Metrics

For those that want a metric-driven reason, I have that covered too. It’s common knowledge that Google uses something called Quality Score as a major factor in their AdWords platform. Quality Score is a numerical gauge of an ad’s relevancy. A low quality score can result in higher cost-per-click, lower positioning, or an ad not being displayed at all. In a nutshell, Google rewards relevant, high-quality ads.

A major factor in determining quality score is the relevancy of an ad’s landing page. For example, Company Z has an AdWords ad for the term “quality aerobic shoes.” When a user clicks on the ad, they are taken to a page that contains very little content and no mention of the phrase “quality aerobic shoes.” Google checks the landing page content against the ad’s content to look for relevancy. The absence of important key phrases from the landing results in a lower quality score. The lower quality score results in higher cost-per-click and/or lower ad positioning. And the merry-go-round continues. Adding keyword rich content that takes into account paid campaign efforts can improve organic visibility and quality scores.

In addition to improved quality score, evidence suggests an increase in click-through-rate when both organic and paid listings are present. A recent study by Sha Yang and Anindya Ghose at New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business found that “combined click-through rates are 5.1% higher when paid and organic listings are present simultaneously than when only the organic listings are present.”

Revenue

Ultimately, all business goals end at the bottom line. So, perhaps the strongest argument for participating in both organic optimization (SEO) and paid search is an increase in conversion rates. Yang and Ghose’s study also demonstrates an increased conversion rate when both organic listings and paid listings are present. In fact, according to Yang and Ghose, “the combined conversion rate increases 11.7% when paid and organic listings are present simultaneously than when organic listings alone are present.”

If that’s not evidence enough, the study also found that “on an average, this positive interdependence leads to an increase in expected profits for [their study subject] ranging from 4.2 % to 6.15% when compared to profits in the absence of either of these.”

So, there you have it; pertinent reasons why your company must be engaged in both organic optimization and paid search strategies include: reaching more people, lowering your costs, getting more people to your web properties and improving revenue. Best of all, this is all measurable. If that’s not enough to convince you, then I’m not sure what will.

Potentially on the horizon, there could be digital “outdoor” ads available on Google Maps, as Google was recently granted a patent for placing virtual billboard ads in their Google Maps Street View. Inevitably, the Google vans that drove around recording routes for their Street View tool also captured billboards along the way. However, these ads become outdated over time, as they exist within Google Maps (Which leads to, oh heavens, no, wasted ad space?!).

The patent details how advertisers can update the billboard ad within Google Maps with a new ad, or that even, alternatively, a bidding system could be put in place for advertisers to bid for the ad spot on unclaimed properties. The patent also extends beyond billboards, mentioning other features such as “signs, posters and banners,” which could potentially mean any type of promotional features that are visible within a street view.

So what does this mean for Google and advertisers? It provides advertisers with another opportunity to reach consumers and another revenue stream for Google. Actually, I think I should rephrase that to another “relevant” opportunity. In my mind, this would be like combining outdoor advertising with the relevance of search, where a consumer is actively seeking out information about a topic or a brand, in this case, a location, and advertisers are then presenting an advertisement that is relevant to that search. For example, a business could post an advertisement near their location for a sale; if a consumer is searching for their business or maybe the plaza that business is located in, they’ve now reached out to a pre-qualified consumer and provided additional incentive to visit the physical location.

Now, I should emphasize, the news is simply on the patent getting approved, but it seems pretty likely an initiative would be at the top of the Google pipeline for applying this within their maps tool. Overall, I don’t think this would surprise many of us, as this seems like a natural advertising opportunity for Google Maps, but what will this mean for owners of billboards in the real world? Or even the advertisers that are paying for those billboards already? Is Google entitled to simply resell that space because they’ve captured it through their Street View technology?

Additionally, it’s not a big leap to think more advertisements could be added in virtually by Google within Google Maps, beyond the billboards that get recorded from the real world, so the ownership questions could be moot. Either way, it should be interesting to see how this shakes out if, or when it moves forward, and what sort of advertising model gets put in place.

The image of this post displays the new real estate on Google Maps.

This stance taken by Google is a bold move. 

Google has been in China since around 2006.  China has always been a challenge to penetrate for Google.  Unlike the U.S. and U.K. and many other parts of the world, Google only reaches about 30% of the Chinese market; in China, Baidu is the dominant player. All indications were that business from Google was moving forward in China, all be it perhaps more slowly.

A pull out of China would have great implications on Google’s long-term business plans as China is still a growth market for them — and potentially a very lucrative one.  To consider pulling out of one of the largest potential-growth markets in the world must have required a decision made at the highest level.  Even if Google only reaches 30% of the market, it still translates to more than 100 million users and a tremendous revenue growth opportunity.  The search engine market in China was worth more than $1 billion in 2009, with analysts expecting Google to make about $600 million from China in 2010 (Source: BBC).

A pull out by Google would also mean a less-competitive search marketplace from a media perspective, with really only 1 key player – Baidu.  The need for healthy competition is always important to deliver product innovation and provide a choice for advertisers. 

How talks will go with the Chinese government? We’ll need to wait and see. 

The official announcement from the engine can be found on the Google Blog.

Rosemary Lising is Managing Director, GroupM Search – Asia Pacific

Both Google and Yahoo are constantly enhancing their paid search offerings, and this time, they are turning to images, although in two completely different ways. Google’s feature is called Promote Your Image (PYI), and will be used to test run an image with a text ad in its Global image search section results. Yahoo will focus more on the main search engine results and will also offer videos, quick links, etc (Yahoo Image Search).

Sounds complicated? It’s actually pretty simple.

Here is a brief overview of the two features:
 
What Is It?:
 
PYI – First image in an image results page that includes a text ad; however, only one spot is available to advertisers.

Yahoo Rich Ads in Search – Incorporated into regular paid search ads that appear on top of a results page, and can have an image, video, and/or a link deeper in the site.

Text Ad Availability:
 
PYI – Availability has been delayed to early 2010.

Yahoo Rich Ads – Currently available on a limited basis but should be expanded in Q1 of 2010.
 
Budget Needed:

Google Image Search – Currently still going through testing, but doesn’t appear to start off with a minimum spend.

Yahoo Rich Ads – A minimum threshold of $15,000/mo per campaign does exist, so unless you are working for eBay or Amazon, you can most likely only opt in with the highest volume keywords.
 
Competition Level:

PYI – Since this is a brand new program, competition is low, however, only the top left image is available; once more advertisers opt in, CPC could potentially rise due to the limited space.

Yahoo Rich Ads – Competition is average since this is simply an addition to the existing paid search platform. Given that, at this point, only brand terms can be used for the program, competition should be somewhat low, however, once Yahoo opens this up to all keywords (without minimum spend), more advertisers may opt in.
 
Types of Campaigns to Use this for:

PYI – Since this is a static image, it may be best for a specific product or model, bidding on category keywords such as “netbooks.”

Yahoo Rich Ads – Can be used for a variety of things. The picture option can showcase anything from a brand logo to a specific product or model. The video option may be used for TV spots. Also, the zip code search feature is perfect for advertisers in the retail or service industries, which brings a user a step closer to converting.

Take a step back and consider the options. As of now, only Yahoo image ads are available to advertisers, so this is the obvious option to try out first. It’s worth to give each initiative a try once they become available, especially if you have some room for testing in your budget. Chances are though, either one will improve overall performance since they enhance the search experience.

Go out there, give each a shot and voice your opinion in the comments.

So, what is important?  Traffic volume and conversions are now the two most important data points of interest.  We continue to build trust and value with our clients by proving to them, through data, how our efforts are impacting these metrics.  This puts visibility in the area of “inference.”  One can infer that if traffic and conversions are increasing in Google, then one has a pretty good ranking in the results.  Along with traffic volume and conversions, we should also focus on engagement (time spent on site), bounce rate and link popularity. This is a more streamlined approach to reporting which highlights activity that is relevant to the client.

There is a real advantage for those of us who choose to see the silver lining in this major industry adjustment.  We always knew that the activity in the socialsphere had an impact on organic search; now we’re tasked with how to make that work to our benefit.  And how we, as SEO’ers, do that is by educating our clients on how social media and SEO complement each other and develop campaigns to support and prove that.  We will need to be proactive in understanding how the different social platforms can be optimized and build this into our SEO best practices. Making these adjustments and continuing to see success as a trifecta; SEO, Paid and Social is what will keep us as strong players in the game. 

With that said, I don’t think real-time results present a negative vs. positive impact on SEO. They’ve become a catalyst for change and an advocate for what has become the essence of GroupM Search’s “Propulsion” search strategy — looking at your paid, owned and earned media holistically — in this case paid search, SEO and social media — to achieve optimal performance in the online market.  So, I say we do away with the thinking of positive versus negative, and view it with the optimism of opportunity.

For more information on Google’s real-time search, and to read some of the opinions of SEO experts please visit the following sites: iMEDIA Connection, MediaPost, SEO Chat and Mashable.

Let’s take a look at how the Nexus One sizes up to the iPhone 3Gs:

The sales of the phone will take place through Google’s site which is an unprecedented move in the mobile space. Until this week, mobile devices were only sold through the respective carriers’ websites and stores.  Many speculated that this move would allow Google to offer the Nexus One at a low, unsubsidized cost; however, we found the pricing to be very similar to the competition.  The Nexus One is available without a contract for $529 and $179 with a two-year agreement with T-Mobile.  The minimum plan required with the T-Mobile two-year agreement runs $79.99 for 500 minutes unlimited T-Mobile to T-Mobile minutes, unlimited domestic messaging, including SMS, MMS, IM and unlimited web.   A similar AT&T plan for the iPhone runs $89.99 with 50 fewer anytime minutes.

When comparing the Nexus One to the iPhone, one could say that there isn’t much in terms of technology to call it an “iPhone Killer.”  During the press conference Q&A, Google’s Vice President of Engineering (aka Mobile Chief), Andy Rubin, mentioned that Google did not set out to create a phone to send a message to Apple, but rather to provide choice to the consumer.  If that was the initial goal, then Google and HTC meet it very well.  I believe there is a common desire to see a device push the limits far beyond what Apple has done with the iPhone, but it may take some time until it comes into fruition.  On the flip side, any new device on the market that can create enough demand to get users to upgrade to a smartphone, whether it be the iPhone, Palm Pre, Nexus One, or Blackberry, is great for advertisers.  It has been proven that smartphone users are much more active on the web and in mobile search engines than users of standard feature phones, such as a Motorola RAZR.  The more users that search from their phones, the more opportunities advertisers have to address the needs and desires of those that raise their hands. 

So in the end, the goal really isn’t to see an iPhone killer, but a phone that stimulates the desire to surf the web, search, and text as Apple has done since the iPhone’s inception three years ago.

Image Source: Google.com