The Globe and Mail recently published a compelling case study highlighting how two sophisticated Toronto entrepreneurs – both with MBAs and Bay Street experience – leveraged the online footprint of their existing small business website by bringing in outside help to optimize the site and kickstart their own search engine optimization efforts.

The two business partners – Amy Ballon and Danielle Botterell, co-founders of Admiral Road, a manufacturer of custom fleece blankets, Tee-shirts and other designer items – had gone down the road traveled by many small business owners, utilizing Google AdWords, the pay-per-click program of the market-leading search engine giant. Like many other small entrepreneurs they found their pay-per-click results “expensive in terms of bringing actual customers to [their website].”

Ms. Ballon and Ms. Botterell had already developed key components of an organic search strategy – regularly updating the content on their website, blogging and getting involved in social media sites Facebook and Twitter – however, they found they had hit a wall as neither they, nor their website designer, had the specialized expertise and “technological know-how to optimize [their] site for search engines.”

After surveying local search engine optimization firms which they found to costly for their small business budget, the two entrpeneurs found an SEO consultant online through e-lance.com – an online site matching up clients with technology contractors. The consultant they hired optimized the back end code of their website, tagged their webpages with relevant keywords and provided the know-how they lacked in terms of keyword research and search engine analytics. With the SEO consultant’s help their existing site was updated using basic – but specialized – SEO techniques and knowledge that the two entrepreneurs otherwise did not have.

The result? For the same amount and effort they had spent on their AdWords each month, they were able to boost Admiral Road’s rankings on pertinent keywords to top spots on Google’s search results page. Like many small business owners frustrated with their pay-per-click results, they found that an investment in time and money to optimize their website for organic search resulted in an increase in the online sales at the heart of their business.

According to Sam Decker of Bazaarvoice.com, approximately 68% of adult Canadians are online and many of them use the Internet for social communications, surfing and information-seeking. A lot of the social communication and information-seeking activities are utilized when researching products and reading customer reviews. Matt McGee of Smallbusiness.com notes that although only less than 26% of retailers contain ratings and reviews on their sites, 96% of those retailers argue that whether positive or negative, reviews are highly effective and valuable features that add value to the company.

Decker argues that people should incorporate a review feature on a company website encourages loyalty among customers by building a stronger customer relationship management. David Nowell of Nowell Enterprises asserts that many people argue that they look for negative reviews to make sure they can live with some of the pitfalls of the product they are about to purchase. For example, 48% of customers read reviews before buying a product, and 91% people research projects online before making an in-store purchase, notes Decker. Reviews can communicate to your company what a manager might not be able to read or hear upfront.

People’s perceptions are important to not only other customers (since it may effect their purchasing decisions), but also to the company. McGee argues that this insider information allows the retailer to either quickly remove their product from the store shelves to reduce returns, improve satisfaction and fix problems, and encourage customer loyalty and trust. Moreover, according to a study by Jupiter on ratings and reviews, 60% of online shoppers provide feedback about shopping experiences, and they are more likely to give feedback about a positive experience than a negative one. McGee confirms that this enhances authenticity and credibility.

McGee affirms that reviews can improve a company’s search engine optimization. Negative reviews offer a “peak” about how customers are talking about your product or service. There are several key words that customers use when talking about an aspect of your product/service that can improve how people search for your company on the Internet!

As editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine Chris Anderson explains, the Long Tail illustrates the current movement from small purchases of mainstream products to larger purchases of uncommon ones. The vertical axis represents sales, which the horizontal axis represents number of products. The red shading in the curve demonstrates the area in which popular products have dominated markets. The orange shading in the curve shows the less popular products within niche markets. Anderson argues that it is within this part of the curve (hence The Long Tail), where our market is heading.

How has this changed The Long Tail? Anderson argues that retailers are now able to save more money by expanding their stock and providing ability to purchase them online. Usually, retailers stock well-sought after products that cater to the mainstream markets and dismiss the niche products to save money. However, Anderson notes that the strength that the Web provides for retailers today is the ability for stores to stock any product or service on their website, which expands the magnitude of choice for consumers. A variety of interests will be satisfied at a more microscopic level, which will hopefully reach more consumers than before.

Technology Blog’s Is Bricks and Clicks the Winning Online Strategy? illustrates research from Hitwise that shows retailers with a bricks and clicks marketing strategy have more market share over the “pure play” online-only retailers. This is what we also discussed previously with regards to consumers utilizing more than one channel to purchase products. Twenty-two percent of consumers who visit a website go on to purchase the product at a physical store. As David Nowell of Nowell Enterprises asserts, 91% of consumers research products online before making an in-store purchase, and the overall shopping experience in a bricks and mortar place is even greater than the 80% satisfaction that consumers experiences online!

So how does this relate to a bricks and clicks strategy? Stores are saving both time and money with their consumers and expanding their borders to cater to those niche markets that have been neglected for so long!

One popular trend that advertisers implement into their marketing strategy during a recession period is to transfer their offline advertising to the Internet. Hoag Levins of AdAge writes,

“Many analysts now agree that when marketing budgets come under pressure in a stressed economy, those sectors that can best document their connection to ROI, such as search-engine advertising, are far more attractive to corporate chiefs than other kinds of less-trackable traditional advertising.”

Tessa Wergert of ClickZ.com observes that several businesses, including the newspaper industry, have managed to flourish in the business by prioritizing online ads through displays and classifieds. What is even more interesting is that these newspaper companies have managed to collaborate with their competitors by advertising online!

According to blogger Andrew Chen, there are several businesses that continue to thrive with online advertising:

• Search
• Ecommerce
• Classifieds
• Shopping comparison
• Remnant ad networks
• Lead generation
• Product reviews

The competition between these businesses creates pressure among the industries that will encourage search results to become stronger within search engines. Chen elaborates and asserts that they prove to be more helpful than direct mail, yellow pages and newspapers.

Video, social networks communication forums are also considered “some of the most brand-dependent companies out there,” notes Chen. Although there is some difficulty in capitalizing on these applications (since users are not in the mood to buy when using the products), these trends offer an opportunity for new companies to partner with more established media businesses to increase profit.

Just like the title reads, Hollywood is bringing Facebook to the big screen; Zuckerberg should be even more proud.

David Fincher’s “The Social Network,” opening October 1, 2010, will be giving Facebook users a telescopic view into the creation of the world’s most fascinating social media phenomena. But my question is – is it really that necessary?

From talking to several Gen Yers, the idea of creating a movie about Facebook seems, well, odd. Facebook is so embedded and entrenched in our culture that it seems a little superfluous to be making a movie about it. It also seems a little too early to be creating a movie about something no nascent and is currently exploding in the social media realm. Hopefully Justin Timberlake can add some marvel to the film.

But what about MySpace? MySpace was around way before Facebook was even thought about. Why is Facebook dubbed “The Social Network”? Freelance blogger and writer Kathryn Vercillo notes that it is perhaps the level of professionalism of users on Facebook, as MySpace seems to be more of a place for the creatively inclined with the plethora of musicians, singers, actors, or amateurs trying to make it in the show-biz.

When Facebook was on the rise of bursting onto the online social scene, Zuckerberg stated, “We don’t know what it can be, we don’t know what it will be, but we know that it is cool.” Hopefully the movie plays up to those words too. Thoughts? Watch the trailer.

What constitutes a trusted brand? A well-presented brand maintains credibility with its customers in new and old markets and promises to deliver consistent performance to its customers. According to David Nowell of Nowell Enterprises, a trusted brand also symbolizes something that customers desire to belong to and maintain loyalty with. A trusted brand is unique and innovative and can adapt to local needs, wants and tastes in the market. In Gaining Trust Online, Jack Aaronson of ClickZ.com says brands must also speak a language that your audience understands without intimidating them.

Brands help to build loyalty by identifying their customers and building their profiles in great detail in order to cater to them better in the future. Knowing and understanding your customers will encourage visitors to register and learn more about what your brand represents and delivers, Nowell argues. The information collected on your individual customers helps to customize and personalize web pages for your individual customers to reflect their various tastes and interests. But remember – state loud and clear what your objectives to your customers. Nowell notes that we need to be explicit about how you will or will not use customer information in order to protect their privacy.

The NBC news site, for example, contains a mix of local and national news to appeal and cater to its various customers and provide up-to-date coverage based on the information that they provide on the Web site. Aaronson asserts that people are actually six times more likely to feel an ad is more relevant to them when it appears on an Internet Broadcasting Web site since the content is more relevant to them, which also makes them twice as likely to click on the ad. News organizations must be both personal and relevant while maintaining their professional status.

According to Nowell, the most important aspect of successful trusted brands is that they listen to what their customers have to save, not just focusing on the masses. Interacting with and involving your customers in your company’s projects provide great opportunities for your company to learn what is and is not working for them on your web site. It’s important to motivate customers to collaborate with you instead of simply watching on the sidelines.

Aaronson insists that instead of trying to appear as a large corporate conglomerate, companies should appeal to their customers more by being more approachable. Charles Schwab, for example, launched a “Talk to Chuck” campaign with an “Ask Carrie” column in order to appear more accessible to customers. This was created in order to start conversation with customers and engage them on a more personal level. This will help your company appear more authoritative, personally relevant and trustworthy.

The thing about Facebook is that it always seems to be doing something new. We all know about the latest updates to security, the newest features, and the deals being made with other companies to integrate Facebook into other applications. It’s like that old saying about moss not gathering on the rolling stone, except here the rolling stone is Facebook and there is no moss, dust, or complacency growing on that company.

Just this morning, I noticed three articles on Facebook’s activities: Vonage users can now call their Facebook friends for free, there has been an update to their Android app, and there is an increase in Advertiser spending on Facebook.

A friend of mine, who is a stay at home mom, will be pleased with the Vonage change. She just said to me today, “In the past, stay at home moms watched soap operas and called each other, now we text and use Facebook and message boards.” The new deal with Vonage is a step to integrating telephone usage and general internet usage. Vonage Holdings CEO Marc Lefar describes it this way: “The Vonage Mobile app for Facebook is a tangible example of our commitment to deliver extraordinary value and a better communications experience for individuals and their social networks, across broadband-enabled devices, around the world. This is just the start. In the future we will expand on this service to include a wide range of integrated voice and messaging services that change the way people communicate.” The new Facebook app is free and available for iPhone, iPod Touch and Android devices; it also works over Wi-Fi and 3G/4G networks, all of which makes Facebook and your friends list even more usable.

The Android app has also been . updated recentlyThe updates include a homescreen that allows users to post their status updates or search for friends with a single click, easier viewing of photos and videos from friends on your News Feed, and a Notifications drawer to allow users to see if a friend has posted a note on your wall, commented or liked a post, or tagged you in photos. The Android app update includes video playback, support for events, and the ability to respond to friend requests without leaving the application. A Facebook spokesperson said, “Facebook Mobile is always looking to bring new and innovative ways for people to stay up-to-date and connected with their friends and family. The latest version of the Facebook for Android application was updated to include popular features, as well as new ways to browse and explore multimedia content.”

With new updates to the main site, updates to mobile interaction with Facebook, and partnerships with other large communications groups, it is no wonder that Facebook finds itself with a lot of advertising money. As Doug Caverly reports, “COO Sheryl Sandberg indicated in an interview that some large organizations have increased their spending ten- or twentyfold in the last year.” Advertising money is a good indication that Facebook is doing something right.

Search Engine Marketing, according to Didit cofounder and executive chairman Kevin Lee, is dead. The point is, consumers who are driven by desire are seeking out and browsing for information. Lee argues that consumers are not using just search engines (i.e. Google, YouTube, Yahoo!, etc.) as their main source for seeking information; consumers are searching for specific and highly-targeted consumer-oriented information in other search functions, including Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook.

The best way to capture a desired target audience, Lee suggests, is through keywords, as they describe both consumer and content interest. As consumers spend less time on search engines and more time on social networking sites, marketers are beginning to grasp a better understanding of their audience and the types of words their consumers like to search for in order to have their brands situated in the appropriate online environment.

Another reason marketers may be thinking about ‘find’ and ‘influence’ marketing is that massive search engines cannot find up to 30% of the sites consumers are searching for. Lee asserts that this is one of the main causes of consumer frustration when they retrieve an irrelevant website. Lee illustrates that this is where the Long Tail enters in, where websites reveal words that people actually search for and use, rather than the industry jargon marketers think they are looking for. The most commonly used search terms will direct customers to their desired web page.

So, what is the benefit to all of this? The idea is to encourage positive information (and word of mouth!) about your website, company and brand. According to Rob Fugetta of social media marketing company, Zuberance, 30% of frequent social networkers trust their peers’ opinions when making a major purchase decision. On the contrary, David Nowell of Nowell Enterprises argues that a mere 10% trust advertisers. Fugetta argues that consumers that are communicating through these social networks act as brand advocates that can positively influence their friends and family about your company. As consumers become informed and trust your company, consumers will positively influence others to seek out information on your website as well.

Sources

Fugetta, Rob. (2010). “Zuberance Data Sheet.”

Lee, Kevin. (May 28, 2010). “SEM is Dead – Long Live ‘Find’ and ‘Influence’ Marketing.”

Nowell, David. (2008). “Marketing on the Web.” Nowell Enterprises.

Tough economic times call for innovative solutions. I’ve heard it said that some of the strongest companies are started and flourish in economic recessions or depressions. Our current economic climate is no different: the companies that thrive right now are the ones that are approaching their problems with original solutions that allow them to develop greater ways to bring their products to their consumers.

In his article “Local Merchants Utilizing Social Media More as Confidence Remains Flat”, Chris Crum talks about how companies are using today’s internet marketing tools to increase their business profiles, while still keeping an eye on their finances. He points to MerchantCircle’s “Merchant Confidence Index”, which shows that the levels of confidence a group of 10,000 merchants have in the current economy is pretty flat, but that these same merchants are “more prominently using social media as a free online marketing tool to increase their customer base and revenue.”

And why not use social networking? Social networking will cost your company manpower hours to set up and monitor it on a regular basis, but not much more. Large audiences are available to your company through a variety of social media offerings. And with cost to benefit ratio on the side of the merchant, it makes sense to direct your limited marketing budget towards modern solutions. As the vice president of marketing for MerchantCircle, notes “we were pleased to see that most aren’t planning for layoffs or pay cuts for employees. Small business owners are continuing to become web savvy in their marketing by increasingly augmenting traditional advertising with free methods like social networking to generate additional business.”

With growing options in social media tools, it is interesting to watch which ones are growing and which ones have matured over the last few years. It seems like most people know about Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, and Twitter these days, but merchants are reaching out for even newer solutions. Location-based services are reaching higher levels of familiarity with merchants. “For example, MerchantCircle says today, 16% of merchants are familiar with Foursquare, whereas in Q1 of 2010, the number was only 8%. Likewise, 32% of merchants that are aware of Foursquare are using it to promote their business, compared to 25% in Q1.

It seems that the key in uncertain economic times is to be creative and take a few risks. Merchants are doing just that, as proven by Crum’s observation that “It is worth noting that this is the first time social networking has eclipsed all other marketing channels to become the most popular among survey participants since MerchantCircle has been doing the survey.” So, as a merchant, your can be part of the past or create new solutions with the growing tools of the present.

As a writer, I have been plagued with friends and family who say things like “Oh, you write…I could do that.” I’ve observed on a few occasions that people don’t say this kind of thing to doctors or engineers, but as a writer I am regularly told that what I do isn’t special. That anyone can write. Except that I have read the email messages, letters, and notes from these very same friends and family members, and I can assure you that most of them cannot write professionally. It is a skill set, and just like learning to read the signs of illness in a patient, it takes time to develop these skills to a professional level. Anyone can learn, but not everyone has put the time and effort into honing these skills.

It seems that there is some discussion in the world of website writing and online marketing over the quality of writing and whether it matters to Google now or will matter in the near future. This week, Chris Silver Smith wrote an article called “Google Penalty for Low-Quality Writing?” about just this issue. Chris has been writing about Google’s tools, including their usability testing and page speed diagnostics, and their ranking factors, including page speed and “shifting some ranking factor weighting from keyword relevancy to quality criteria”. It’s no surprise that he is interested in the quality of web writing and how that can affect rankings.

There are ways to cheap out on web writing. In this industry, we all know about those ways. Many of them are primarily relegated to spammers, who often steal content and insert random keywords into text. If you’ve stumbled upon a site that sounds like pure nonsense, likely it falls into this category. However, some business owners want fast, cheap labour and are either not willing to pay for quality writing or just do not see the value in it. Chris Silver Smith points out that some of these companies “resort to copy writing companies that outsource article assignments to third-world countries. Poorly-educated writers result in terrible grammar and bad spelling. And, foreign companies sometimes hire bad translators to convert their pages for English readers.” It’s clear that there is an abundance of poor writing on the web.

However, we still wonder whether or not Google is ranking or will rank based on the quality of website writing. At the moment, we just don’t know, but considering the ongoing development of Google’s ranking strategy, it isn’t a big leap to see writing quality becoming a ranking criteria in the near future.

Beyond ranking factors, I’ve written before about how certain factors can alienate prospective clients from your site: including writing for the wrong audience, having broken links, and utilizing a poor search solution. The harder it is to get your message across, the harder it is to keep your clients on your site. Good writing will engage your clients, impress them, and get them the information they need quickly. Good writing makes good business sense.