So, what exactly do I mean by Marketing 2.0?

Marketing 2.0 is a play on words on which parallels Web 2.0. As you know Web 2.0 allows for an interactive experience on a web site (blog, social network, podcast, wiki, etc.)

In Marketing 1.0 we interrupt, we intrude, we disrupt our prospective buyers through various advertisements, direct mail, email messages and cold calls. Marketers have tried for decades in 1.0 to interrupt the buyer in hope of getting a message across with a call to action. Then, if we get a 1% response to our interruptive marketing, we think we’re doing well!

Some forms of Marketing 1.0 can be effective, such as advertising on the side of a shuttle bus at a convention to a targeted audience. Or, some banner advertising can be effective in a very niche industry website. If you are a supplier in a narrow niche and there are good niche portals in your industry this can be an effective marketing strategy.

But even effective 1.0 marketing should be supported with 2.0 strategies comprised of great content on blogs, podcasts and other social web platforms where you can engage in two way conversations.

Marketing 2.0 shifts all the power to the consumer (the buyer). It’s a paradigm shift. I argue it’s even a mindset shift. The power is no longer in the hands of the marketer. The buyer has the ability to engage in conversations on the web with others who share common interests to learn, research and hear from others about products and services of interest. The buyer can learn about a company whose product is being considered, the industry trends, employees, the people of influence, etc. Before a buyer makes a purchase decision he/she has an unparalleled ability to hear from others who have made a similar purchase decision.

Then, how can marketers influence buyers in a world of social interaction on the web?

Through a Marketing 2.0 mindset!

As marketers we have to be aware of this shift of power and engage our buyers in sincere and authentic conversations. A conversation is two way. We need to speak with, not talk (shout) at them.

In the old 1.0 world marketers blasted messages out. Marketing 2.0 is speaking with your buyer in conversations, getting engaged and listening to them.

For example I heard a story about how Paul Colligan was flying somewhere on a Southwest Airlines flight and his flight was canceled. He posted a comment on Twitter (his Twitter name is @colligan) about his frustration and when he eventually landed on the other side, Southwest Airlines had contacted him through the web (on Twitter) to say “we heard you and we want to make it right.” Kudos to Southwest Airlines for listening and taking action quickly! Paul Colligan then Tweeted about the positive reaction he got from Southwest Airlines. In the end, Southwest Airlines got good exposure for their swift action, not in the media but on the social web (which I argue is the new media but that’s the subject of a future blog post).

Too many people view the web as a one way communication experience. However, social media allows us to have two way communication through engagement. For example, if you have a comment to add about this podcast/blog post you can leave comments below.

All companies of all sizes have the opportunity to get engaged and listen to their prospective buyers using Marketing 2.0 strategies.

Are you using Marketing 2.0 strategies?

Bernie Borges
@berniebay

This year there is one charitable cause on Thanksgiving I want to highlight, not because it is more special than others. All charitable causes are admirable. This one demonstrates the power of social media and the hearts of people who use social media.

Epic Change is a charitable organization using Twitter as a platform to raise funds to build a classroom in Tanzania. They created a Twitter stream using #tweetsgiving which allows anyone in the world to follow the comments of people on Twitter about this charitable cause. It also allows us avid Twitter users to spread the word to our network (following) and point them to this Twitter stream conversation about a worthy cause.

Most notable is the Tweetsgiving website which is where the fund raising takes place during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

I sincerely believe the vast majority of people generally want to help those in need. Thanksgiving is a time where that innate quality is even more pronounced.

It’s very worth noting that users of social media are passionate about using the social web as a platform for benevolant reasons as much as any other reason.

Social media users understand the power of word or mouth (WOM) online. It is second nature to us to promote good content, and good content during the Thanksgiving holiday is a worthy cause such as Tweetsgiving.

My hope is that you take two points away from this brief blog post:

1) If you haven’t contributed to Tweetsgiving, please consider it (even after Thanksgiving).

2) Social media is a world wide platform where great causes can be achieved.

I wish you a blessed Thanksgiving to you and yours!

Cheers,

Bernie Borges
http://twitter.com/berniebay

Here are some of the highlights and my take on these predictions.

Getting Personal

We don’t have to wait until 2009. Google launched GoogleWiki yesterday. You now have the ability to personalize your search results by editing out irrelevant search results, moving around your favorite rankings and even adding some. Google will remember this so your future search results will be more relevant. You can also comment on search results similar to commenting in a blog. You must be signed into your Google account. The idea is to get more personalized results when you search in Google. But, beware the rankings people see will no longer be exactly the same or predictable. Search engine rankings can vary from one person to another due to this personalization capability.

Google has enough history on your IP and search history that it will serve you relevant results based on your location and your search history. If you search for a bank and you’re located in Florida, you’ll get different results than the person searching for a bank who is located in Michigan.

Rich Media Content is King

Google’s Universal Search approach to presenting search results is evolving. If you provide your visitors a diversified mix of content including images, voice, video and interactive functions like RSS widgets Google will reward this mix of content. Universal search results present searchers with options to view results not limited to web pages including those shown below from SearchEngineLand.

Comparative Ranking Sources Expand & Blending No Longer Subtracts

When Universal Search launched, comparative ranking ran against these vertical or specialized search engines as well as web search:

1. Web Search
2. Book Search
3. Images
4. Local/Maps
5. News
6. Video

Since around December, Google says two more vertical search engines have been added to the list:

1. Blog Search
2. Product Search

What Does This Mean to Marketers?

Ah, this is the question of the day. First, it means that we need to be thinking about our content strategy. We need to plan to offer our audience a diversified mix of content. Text content alone will not cut it in the long run for competitive keywords. Content such as images, video, audio, widgets, PDFs, blogs, wikis, etc., offer visitors a richer experience than just plain text content. In essence Google wants to reward marketers who give their site visitors a rich media content experience.

What Does This Mean to SEO Services Firms like Find and Convert?

SEO services firms need to be marketers first and foremost and SEO geeks secondly. We need to focus on driving qualified sales traffic to your website and tracking conversions and the real business value of your overall SEO program. Rather than tracking search engine rankings, we need to track business results. Some of the metrics we’ve tracked in the past will need to change with more focus on business results.

This will force some SEO services firms to change their business model to deliver tangible value to their clients. I don’t expect this to be a major problem for most SEO firms except perhaps those whose background is very technical with limited marketing expertise.

I have a high opinion of the vast majority of my peers in the SEO industry. Whenever I attend an industry event such as Pubcon I am always impressed with the quality of people I meet. So, I am optimistic that SEO firms will generally continue to be valuable resources to their clients.

Are you ready for the evolution of SEO in 2009? It’s already started. So, the time to get ready is yesterday.

Bernie Borges

http://twitter.com/berniebay

As we spend time on social networks, blogs, Twitter, YouTube, etc., the lines are blurring between them.

As I’m sure you know there are three types of social media destination sites

Content Publishing sites - Blogs, YouTube, Twitter
Content Sharing - DIGG, Reddit, Mashable, etc.
Networking - Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo, etc.

But, most of these are starting to cross over into each other. For example, people show their updates on social networks. LinkedIn and Facebook both have a “what are you working on now?” status which you can update or you can link to your Twitter account.

The social media lines are blurring….

Is Facebook just a social networking site? What is Twitter?

Twitter is a communication tool as evidenced by how many companies and non profits are using it including Apple, Jet Blue Airways, Zappos, Tampa Bay Red Cross, ABC Action News, etc. The list of enterprise Twitter users is growing every day.

Twitter allows you to have a mini-profile similar to social networks. It’s a very brief profile, nonetheless it has a similar characteristic to a social network profile, just shorter.

What about YouTube? What is it? It’s part social networking and part content sharing. Any business can create a channel in YouTube. It’s free. Just open your channel account, select the type of account you want. I like the “guru” account type for subject matter expertise. You can aggragate video content from any source including your own and any other video in YouTube. If you sell “blue suede shoes” provide a link to Elvis singing “blue suede shoes” video.

If you aggregate interesting video content, promote it to your following in Twitter and to your Facebook friends. So, is YouTube content sharing or social networking? You decide…

If I share ten new videos with you and only one or two of them are actually my videos, you’ll still give me credit for all the relevant videos I sent to you (assuming I’m sending you relevant video content). In this example, I would be a source of good video content, even if I didn’t create all of the videos.

The social media lines are blurring…

As marketers we need to harness all the content and all the platforms that are relevant to our communities. The social web platforms overlap with each other, but that’s ok. Let them. We can use them all.

I predict that in Web 3.0 the lines will be less blurry. We’ll be able to create a common profile that travels with us from platform to platform. This movement is already in progress called OpenSocial led by Google but it’s not ready for prime time yet. Just stay tuned on that…

In the meantime let’s enjoy the fact we can use Twitter as a social networking tool and a communication tool. Ditto for other social web platforms.

One of my favorite examples is the Twitter stream. By using a hashmark with your Tweets, e.g., #rays for Tampa Bay Rays, you can communicate in a real time stream to anyone (anywhere) that wants to follow that stream. I just returned from my favorite Internet marketing conference - Pubcon. People around the world who didn’t attend the conference were following along the comments made by more than half the attendees using the #pubcon Twitter stream.

The BusinessWeek cover story in May 2005 was focused on blogs in business. In the follow up story May 2008 the article discussed all the social platforms and said “the new resume is 140 characters” in a reference to how Twitter is a communication tool.

As marketers we can use all the social web tools to engage our buyers, our community, listen to them and build relationships with them without concern over whether you’re in a blog, social networking site, a media outlet or wherever you may be online.

The market place is busy and crowded. And, the social web opens up doors for conversations. Just get engaged in the conversations even if the lines are blurred. Let them…

Bernie Borges
http://twitter.com/berniebay

Blendtec is a Utah Manufacturer of commercial high performance blending products for restaurants. They also have a retail product called the Total blender that uses the same technology as their commercial products.

George joined the company less than three years ago. He quickly learned that Blendtec has great products but didn’t have brand recognition. Great products with a weak brand equals weak sales.

He recommended to Tom Dickson, Blentec’s CEO they do a brand campaign. Tom, said sure go ahead. And btw, your budget is $50. Not $50 per month. Just $50.

George turned lemon into lemonade….

With his $50 he bought:
The URL www.willitblend.com
A lab coat
McDonalds Happy Meal

One day George was walking through the warehouse and saw a lot of sawdust on the floor. When he looked into it, he learned the engineers were running 2 x 4 chunks of wood through the blenders for testing purposes. That’s when a light bulb went on for George!

He came up with the idea to build a separate website called WillitBlend?

The strategy is to provide videos that answer the question “will it blend?” On this website, Tom Dickson their CEO, very casually (no script) answers the question “will it blend?” and puts odd objects into their industrial strength Total Blender (for consumers) while wearing a lab coat and sporting protective eye wear. He blends things like golf balls, marbles, a Happy Meal and one of the most popular is a video blending an iPhone.

Did this strategy work?

Here are some of the results…
- The Total Blender retail sales grew 700% in the past two years.
- The videos have more than 5 million views on YouTube and more than 7 million views on their website.
- They’ve received national media coverage that is equivalent to millions of dollars in advertising.
- The brand strength of the consumer product has increased pull through in their commercial products.
- The SEO value from their videos drives more traffic to their website.

BTW, Blendtec auctioned the blended iPhone on Ebay which sold for about $1,000. Those proceeds were donated to a children’s hospital. That’s awesome!

Blendtec’s viral video strategy is nothing short of brilliant. George says: “using viral video even a small company can have a big presence.”

Using some creativity and a willingness to experiment on the social web, the Willitblend website and YouTube strategy has paid great dividends for Blendtec.

If you’ve never seen their popular iPhone video, here it is:

I was struck by some key points they made. Most of their challenges in managing SEO and SEM for large website, typically with more than 1 million pages, are organizational issues, not best practice issues.

For example, Simmons gave the example that one of the first actions he took when he assumed the role of Chief Search Strategist at the N.Y. Times was to move “N.Y. Times” from the beginning of the title tag to the end of it so the primary keywords were presented first to the engines. He said orchestrating that change with their IT folks took some selling and some time. He also shared that working with long tenured journalists and asking their collaboration in writing content that is search engine friendly is challenging. He said he views a part of his job to educate staff, including veterans and new hires, on how to think in ways that will benefit their SEO efforts. Often it can come down to internal communication about new deals, announcements, ventures, etc., that can be leveraged in their search strategy. He referenced a situation where he heard about a new deal that was done that could have been leveraged in his SEO efforts had it been communicated to him in advance.

One point made that resonates with me is the importance of communicating successes. In SEO often results can take months to fully realize. So, where there is a success it should be communicated throughout the organization to fuel the education process and the inspiration process.

Another point worth mentioning is that other teams in the organization can implement marketing programs which should be communicated to the SEO team. For example, an offline advertising campaign should be orchestrated to ensure continuity of SEO strategy especially if there are landing pages involved. You wouldn’t want advertising driving traffic to an outdated landing page. This is important not just to maintain consistency in messaging, but in technical architecture.

Sometimes advertising campaigns use tracking codes, which can be “the kiss of death” in SEO. Orchestrating such details can have a big impact on SEO success in a large website.

Another point mentioned is the importance of standardizing on the CMS architecture so it is friendly and consistent to the SEO strategy. Details such as the global size and font of the header tags, and allowing the SEO team full control over the meta data of each web page so that each page is unique. When IT maintains control over such details, that’s a “worst practice.”

These are just a few of the key points presented during this session. I was struck by the commonality of these issues with SMB SEO (small, medium businesses). The only difference really is the magnitude of the issues.

In the end SEO best practices are SEO best practices.

Everyone involved in creating content or in marketing in any organization no matter the size, needs to have an understanding of SEO best practices. Just like a football team needs 11 guys working together on the field so does a business need to have all relevant members of the team understanding their respective roles in SEO success and cooperating.

Bernie Borges

@berniebay

I began by explaining how search engines work. I explained that search engines attempt to crawl a website starting on the home page and seek to “find” as much of the website’s content as possible. As marketers our goal is to make it as easy as possible for search engines to find (and index) our content.

When we describe search engine optimization we refer to optimizing the chance that search engines will list our web pages high for our most desired keyword phrases.

I explained Google’s explanation of their search technology which boils down to two factors: 1) PageRank which is an analysis of your website’s link structure (external and internal), 2) Text matching.

Google explains how their patented PageRank technology looks at the complex link structure on the web to determine the extent to which others link to your website and the extent to which your website pages link to each other. BUT, Google also considers the text matching that takes place among all those links.

For example, say you want your website to be found for the keyword phrase “accounting software,” your website would need to have a lot of incoming links from this phrase and a lot of text within the website matching this phrase as well internal links from this phrase. The truth is there are a lot of websites that have text and links for “accounting software.” So, often it’s wise to optimize for more targeted keyword phrases which are less competitive. For example, “project accounting software,” is more specific to a particular type of accounting software and is less competitive. This SEO strategy is known as a long tail keyword strategy.

Sometimes a short tail keyword strategy (accounting software) is realistic but only when the competition factor is not exceedingly high and you have the ability to produce enough of a link structure (both external and internal) to win that SEO strategy.

When we deliver SEO services to our clients we discuss both long tail and short tail strategies to explore the trade offs and the realities of both approaches.

Another factor when considering basic SEO strategies is the URL structure of each web page. Optimizing for a keyword phrase should ideally be done for a web page that contains the search phrase in it, such as ….project-accounting-software.com. Note the keywords are separated by a dash, not an underscore.

The simple rule of thumb in basic SEO strategies is to remember that we want to make it as easy as possible for search engines to find and rank our website content.

Bernie Borges

http://twitter.com/berniebay

During the last two games of the ALCS (American League Championship Series) there were hundreds of Rays fans watching the game and Tweeting with other Rays fans. I used the Rays hash tag #rays during this time.

This concept is known as a Twitter feed under a specific name, also known as a Twebinar. Here’s how it works. Someone makes up a name for a feed and precedes the name with the “#” (the hash mark). In this case the Twitter feed name is #rays. This allows you to create Twitter posts and see anyone who is posting Twitter comments in the #rays feed.

You have to use the Twitter search function to find a feed. Just go here: http://search.twitter.com/. Then search for a feed by entering the feed name such as #rays or #redsox or #worldseries.

This allows you to see anyone, anywhere in the world who is following the same Twitter feed. I was actively posting Twits in the #rays feed and the #redsox feed. These Twitter feeds acts as a mashup of Twitter accounts under a single feed name.

The pace of comments during the event was astonishing. I refreshed my browser every few seconds and found dozens of new posts every few seconds.

Marketers should consider setting up a Twitter feed for events or private customer conversations. Events are very common allowing people to post Twitter comment on activities during an event. The social networking potential during events of common interest is very powerful.

The Tampa Bay Rays have a Twitter profile @raysbaseball. But, they were noticeably absent in game 7 of the ALCS. They missed an opportunity to engage with a vibrant social media community of Rays on Twitter.

The reach through social media marketing is too important for the Rays to have missed this window of opportunity to help promote the Rays brand. I hope to see them on Twitter in the future.

This podcast was recorded before the World Series ended. The Rays lost to the Phillies in the World Series but they gave us Rays fans a thrilling 2008 season. Way to go Rays!

Anyone who is actively involved in social media knows that it’s all about what you give to your online community. You can give ideas, thoughts, tips, opinions and of course you can give links to content.

The best of the best in social media do a great job of sharing good content with their community. Links to news, events, interesting articles as well as new survey results, trends and anything the giver feels is interesting to their community.

Many who are active in social media often share their own content with their community. People often share links to their blog posts, podcasts, videos, samples of their work, etc. People also encourage their friends to share those links of their content with their friends on the web.

Essentially, we are promoting our own content on the social web, hence my metaphor of social media promiscuity. I’ve also heard the half-joking reference to “pimping content.”

How do you feel about that?

One attribute of the social web is we are free to follow whomever we want. And, we are free to “unfollow” anyone we want. In the vast majority of the cases when people I follow through Twitter or Facebook send me links to their own content I’m way okay with that. The primary reason I’m okay with is because I follow interesting people. Their content is usually pretty interesting and relevant to me.

The social web is “social.” If being social on the web is sometimes a little promiscuous with content, I’m okay with that as long as the promiscuity isn’t offensive. If I receive content that either isn’t interesting or from someone that I don’t find interesting I have two choices. I can not consume their content, and/or I can choose to no longer follow this person.

The essence of social media marketing is to share good content with your community. If the content you share with me is someone else’s or yours, that doesn’t matter as long as it’s interesting to me.

So, go ahead and share your content with me. If I like it, I’ll share it with others. If I don’t I won’t. Either way, I may still learn something. And, if you find my content interesting go ahead and share it with others. if you don’t find it interesting, don’t share it. Either way, feel free to comment.

How you do you feel about social media promiscuity?

Twitter name: @berniebay
Bernie

While watching the series on television, I was actively Tweeting during game 6 and game 7 on two Twitter sessions for #redsox and #rays. The hash mark preceding each team name indicates a dedicated Twitter feed for each. Anyone Tweeting using either of these two identifiers were displayed on the feed.

The result is an ongoing conversation among hundreds of people actively Tweeting commentary throughout the game.

I noticed there is an official Raysbaseball Twitter account called @raysbaseball but it was not active during any of the playoffs. I suppose the Rays’ front office staff had their hands full managing the unexpected race through the post season. They apparently didn’t plan to staff social media marketing activities like Twitter. But, it’s a missed opportunity to spread the viral brand of the Rays during a time when they’ve never been hotter.

The Rays have become popular in a short time this season. Everyone loves a success story. But, the viral opportunity for the Rays organization to expand the Rays brand is huge, especially during the playoffs.

The Facebook Group for Rays Baseball is a closed group. I requested to join it. I will monitor how quickly they respond to my request.

My family and I have been huge Rays fans for years (long before they dropped “Devil” from their name). This year has been unbelievably exciting.

But, I am disappointed the Rays haven’t once promoted their online presence in Facebook, Twitter or their fan forum on their website. I’ve never heard any of the television or radio announcers mention any of these fan web destinations. Isn’t offline marketing supposed to coexist with online marketing?

With so many Rays fans coming on board around the U.S. the Rays marketing department should be actively promoting their online community during this time as they enter the World Series.

During each upcoming World Series game, @raysbaseball should actively participate in the #rays Twitter discussions. I estimate there were several hundred people Sunday night during game 7 Tweeting with #rays. During the World Series there will no doubt be more.

Congratulations Rays for American League East and American League Champion titles!

Let’s go Rays! Let’s Tweet Rays!

Bernie

http://twitter.com/berniebay