Benefits of pay-per-click search engine marketing include, but are not limited to:

1. An immediate response. Your ads will show within minutes.

2. Great for launching time sensitive campaigns and for testing new/different offers.

3. Can find low hanging fruit in the form of “Long Tail Keywords” that are cheap and highly converting, but would otherwise be too specific to build an SEO strategy around.

4. Alternatively, pay-per-click might be the only way to rank for some of the more competitive and general keywords.  I don’t typically advocate this strategy, but there are some cases where the best keyword phrase is very popular, converts well, and is extremely difficult to rank for naturally.

5. Analyzing the effectiveness of a pay-per-click campaign (landing pages, ad copy etc.) will help determine what will be effective in a natural search campaign saving you the time and resources required in a long term SEO strategy.

What other benefits have you found from pay-per-click?

As I thoroughly enjoyed watching the NY Giants defeat the Dallas Cowboys last night, a couple of plays occurred that really bothered me.  It wasn’t the plays or the players that caused me angst.  In this case, it was the referees, their use of the whistle, and how that small, but powerful, tool can dramatically effect the outcome of a game.  It caused me to start thinking about how whistling the play dead prematurely and late whistles are not only major influencers of sporting events, but can dramatically affect your personal life as well.

Whistling the Play Dead Prematurely – In last night’s game there was a play where Dallas Cowboys’ quarterback, Tony Romo, attempted a pass to his tight-end Jason Witten.  The pass was thrown behind Witten and in his attempt to catch it, the ball bounced off his hand, down off his foot, and directly into the arms of Ny Giants’ strong safety Kenny Phillips.  Phillips could barely believe his fortune, but after quickly gathering himself, he ran the ball back the 20 something yards into the end zone for an apparent touch down.  However, the referees said that the pass was incomplete because they thought the ball had hit the ground.  The play was ultimately reviewed and video evidence clearly showed that the ball did not hit the ground and that Phillips did indeed catch the ball for an interception.  But, because the referees had PREMATURELY WHISTLED THE PLAY DEAD, Phillips was not awarded the touch down.  Instead, the Giants got the ball at the spot of the interception.  It turned out to be a moot point as the Giants threw for a 20 something yard touch down on the ensuing play.  But, as any football fan will tell you, it doesn’t always work out the way it was supposed to.

How many times in life do you “whistle the play dead” without knowing all the facts?  Have you ever made decisions based on what you perceive only to find out later that you were wrong?  I know I have, and I know NFL referees definitely have.

Late Whistles – With 4 seconds left in the game, the NY Giants lined up to kick a 37 yard, game winning field goal.  All the players lined up, snapped the ball, and kicked it through the uprights for the apparent game winner as time expired.  But wait, as it turns out, Dallas Cowboys head Coach, Wade Phillips, in an attempt to rattle the NY kicker, called a time-out right as they were starting the play.  In this case, the referees said that the time-out was called in time and that the kick had to be replayed.  Again, this turned out to be a moot point as the Giants lined up and kicked the field goal again to win the game.  One of my big problems with this play comes on the heels of the above mentioned play.  If the referees are saying that the sound of the whistle is the determining factor as to when a play starts and ends, then this seems to be a contradiction.  The whistle didn’t blow until the ball was already in the air.

Is it possible in life to call a time once things have already been put into motion?  I don’t think so.  Once you have taken certain actions or said certain things, you cannot take it back or start over.  It’s already done.  There are no do-overs…

What do you think?  What other sports rules annoy you?  What other comparisons can you make between sports and real life?

Elaine Fogel, a MarketingProfs Daily Fix blogger, has a great post today on social media rejection that features LinkedIn and social networking habits.

You can read Elaine’s post here.

There was a lot of discussion that ensued.  Someone even suggested starting a social media therapy group.  The two prominent school’s of thought took sides on how liberal one should be with allowing other’s into their professional network.  One side suggested that associating with someone in a social media community implies an endorsement of that person’s character and professionalism.

The whole idea, IMHO, of social networking is to form authentic relationships. As such, I give people the benefit of the doubt. The relationship has to start somewhere.

Just by joining someone’s network, or friending them, or following them doesn’t imply a full fledged endorsement of their character or professional ability. If someone asks for a recommendation or reference or introduction, I can assess the degree to which I will accomodate this by how well I know the person and can always add that disclaimer (in not so many words) in the recommendation etc. Some companies, when asked for a background reference, will only acknowledge the dates which a former employee worked. The same mentality can be applied to personal references.

As I love the comparison between online and offline behavior, I wonder if this would be the same at a party or other in-person social event wherein I was only willing to talk to, or associate with, people that I already knew? I can’t imagine how many relationships that I have today (including my marriage) that would have never occured if I had employed this line of thinking.

What are your thoughts?

I have been doing a lot of talking, writing and thinking about authenticity lately. With all the hype around social media networking, and really any attempt at building/developing a relationship, being authentic is one of the main ingredients.

Authenticity is essential for building meaningful and lasting relationships.  When you are truly authentic you do not cater to what everyone else wants you to be.  You are yourself and that comes across in all that you do.  It frees you up and eliminates the stress of having to be “on” at certain times.  It makes you dependable.  It is the true meaning of having integrity.

Of course, another main ingredient in relationships is trust.  The In Over Your Head Blog recently posted a list of 5 books (6 if you count their book Trust Agents) that are great at explaining the concepts behind marketing terms like “social capital” and “social proof”.

These are not new concepts.  They just seem to have resurfaced with all the hype and excitement surrounding social media marketing.  These ideas have been around for a long time and should be incorporated into any attempt at building, developing and maintaining relationships.

Do you know of any good books, videos, podcasts etc on this subject?

Dunkin Donuts recently started a new television advertising campaign featuring football coach Barry Switzer.  Although these ads do very little in the way of really promoting or selling Dunkin Donuts products, they do contain some key qualities that make them effective.

1. They use a well-known (to their taregt demo anyway) celebrity.

2.  They are entertaining.

3.  They are viral and are being shared and commented on through YouTube.

4.  They contain some clasic and memorable one-liners that will help stimulate further discussion.

Watch all five spots here:

 

My favorite one liners are:

“Who are you to ask who are you?” (tapping his head with coffee swishing in cup)

“Fair? Nothings fair in chess. It’s a brain war.”

“There is no can’t in ladies lacrosse gentelmen.”

“Downward doggies, downward doggies. You can do it.  I’m doing it.”

What are your favorites?

As a follow up to my earlier post on relationship building via social media, I have decided to add this little tidbit.

When explaining to someone the value that social media marketing and social networking can add to their business (and maybe even lives in general) I often hear “I just don’t have the time to keep up with all of that stuff”, or something to that effect. Well, maintaining a social networking presence and building relationships through social media outlets isn’t as daunting of a task as it may seem.

Chris Brogan recently posted a blog outlining 19 Presence Management Chores You COULD Do Every Day. I would say that these are 19 things you should do everyday to develop and maintain quality relationships via the social-sphere. I have printed this list out and have also added it to my daily tasks list. I typically spend the last hour of the day making sure that I have checked off all of these items.

I am also a big proponent, for the sake of personal branding, of creating and updating profiles on every single social networking site that I can find. When I tell people this, they say, how do you keep up with all of that, that’s impossible. Well, there are a few tools that I use that make it all more manageable.

I use Tweetdeck to keep track of all of my Twitter connections. It is a pretty robust tool that allows me to keep track of tweets, send and receive direct messages, and retweet/reply to tweets all on one screen. It also has a URL shortener built in for quick tweeting of blog posts, articles etc.

I use FriendFeed to aggregate the feeds of my friends on all the various networks that I am on so that I don’t have to switch from site to site to keep track of what everyone is doing.

Finally, I use Ping.fm to send status updates (often from my Blackberry) to all of the social networks that I belong to.

Utilizing these three tools throughout the day and making sure to spend at least an hour a day checking off Chris’ list is very manageable for me.

Is an hour a day too much time to spend building, developing and maintaining relationships with people that can enrich your life and bolster your business? You tell me…

The word “relationship” as it pertains to business-to-consumer dealings is often over-used and loosely interpreted. By definition, if someone purchases something from you, you have a relationship. Albeit, a business relationship.

The way that many people use the word relationship in business today, and the 7 characteristics of a good relationship that Lee-Ann Bedford laid out in a recent blog post, speaks of a different sort of relationship. One that is more personal and patterned after the type of relationship that one might have with close friends and family. I am skeptical as to whether or not that can truly exist in a business relationship.

Lee-Ann brings up the idea of mutual interests which I would rename “complimentary agendas”. In a business relationship, each side has at least one agenda. To make a profit, get the best price etc. In my most valued personal relationships, hidden agendas don’t exist. We simply “relate” to each other in ways that make being with or around each other worthwhile.

In order to achieve this level of relationship between a customer and a business would require removing the agendas. It would have to start with relating to each other in a way that brings value to spending time with or conversing with that individual.

That is where the true value in the social media sphere comes into play. By allowing individuals within organizations, and customers, and other consumers to engage in a dialogue and share ideas, stories and information that ultimately evolve into a deeper more meaningful relationship that may or may not lead to direct revenue.

Building this type of relationship goes much deeper than remembering somebody’s name, what they bought last time and commenting on whether or not they are wearing a new outfit.  It requires transparency and a true desire to add value.

What do you think?  Can this type of relationship really exist between organizations and consumers?

Last week, Beth Harte started a discussion on LinkedIn called “Drive-by blog pimping and other shameless self-promotion“.  Drive-by blog pimping and other shameless self-promotion”.  I have been thinking about this topic quite a bit since this discussion started. It really has me stopping and questioning any post or comment I make before I click the submit button, and for that I thank you Beth.

What I find interesting is the comparison that is often made between in-person social/networking events and online social networking. Eric said “Blog pimping is no different than walking in to your neighbor’s party and telling everyone to come over to your place because the drinks are better”. And I have heard people say, “You wouldn’t just walk up to a group of people at a netwroking event and just start handing out your business cards and pushing your products, would you”?

Well, I wouldn’t do either of those things, but I have been to enough social events to know that there are plenty of people out there that do. So, I don’t imagine that people who behave that way in person would behave any differently online.

It would be an interesting socio/psychological study to analyze the way people express themselves online both personally and professionally and how that relates to their “true personality”.

I know you all have those “friends” on Facebook and have come across this type of behavior many times both online and off.

Let’s share some stories…

Microsoft and Yahoo signed a 10 year deal this week which has many people asking, how will the search engine landscape change over the duration of their agreement.

10 years is an extremely long time in Internet years.  10 years ago, Google was in its infancy and the PPC game was just taking shape with GoTo.com (which eventually became Overture, which eventually was bought by Yahoo).

We all know that Microsoft is notoriously late to the game when it comes to the Internet.  We also know that, with their abundant resources, they can certainly make an impact once they do decide to start playing.  We saw that first hand with Netscape and Internet Explorer in 1995 (or so).  Albeit, Google is probably better positioned for a full frontal attack than Netscape was.

I think that the immediate opportunity for Microsoft/Yahoo will be on the paid search side of the equation.  They have been working on this deal for quite some time now.

Who dominates the natural search side in the next 10 years will be the company that best embraces the convergence of social media and search.  Search relevancy will be more and more determined by users’ preferences and the search engine’s ability to personalize search results to an individual’s location, interests, values etc.

What do you think of the Microsoft & Yahoo deal? 

How will this change the search engine landscape over the next 10 years?

Brent Csutoras recently posted a link to an article on investintech.com that outlines a bunch of free tools that can help you with your SEO, social media and web development. 

Check it out. 

Are there any other free tools that you use that aren’t on this list?