Michael Myers

There has been a lot of great conversation about the discovery vs. search and the challenges that discovery creates. Discovery in regards to search is exactly what you would think it is. Search is looking and finding something specific while discovery is an unexpected find. People do this all the time when surfing the web. They start with a goal in mind and then end up at Zombo (make sure the volume is turned up).

Gerry Bavaro recently posted about the challenges of finding conversions in a discovery oriented world, and as I’ve talked about in the past; it would be wise to expand our concept of conversions. This is not some soft method that allows us fail to convert potential customers into active customers. It’s more representative of current nature between marketers and customers.

I’ve also been talking about businesses building their corporate social graph in order to maximize the opportunity for discovery through recommendation. What I am excited about is the concept and application of mobile discovery. Google just released an application “labeled” LCB that some consider mobile discovery or better yet searchless searching. It allows someone to easily drill down to find what they are looking for within the confines of a mobile device. This is not what I’m talking about.

I’m talking about people discovering products, services & places randomly or based on recommendations made by their peers when they are physically within range of these products, services and/or places. When this information is distributed by a business it is known as location based services. For me discovery is more of a social function (or at least it should be) with peers making recommendations or the “A HA!” moment. For example:

A friend sees a book they think you might like. They pull out their mobile phone and place a marker in that location. The marker is comprised of exact physical location (floor, aisle, section, SKU, price, etc) and a description of the book. (Mobile phone should actually scan the SKU to make it easy and that’s another post.) They then save the marker as it relates to one of their friends. (Hopefully, this friend is participating in personalized marketing.) The friend is sent an alert with the information and a notation on their mobile map. (Obviously they have the right to accept/reject the recommendation.) Once that person is within a certain physical proximity to the book store/book, an alert comes up asking them if they would like directions to get to the book.

This type of discovery is indirect and utilizes a friend’s knowledge to help someone find a product they would like. It is just to easy to imagine that someone would peruse the recommendations made by a certain social networking group on Google Maps (or eventually Google Earth) to find something worthwhile.

The question for marketers; What kind of tools do we create to allow for others to discover us?

“I recently posted about the potential future of the mobile internet and offered up an option that could resolve the issue of screen real estate. Had briefly touched on the solution for what’s some perceive as the other issue, data entry. It’s hard for some to type on a pretty keyboard and harder for those of us that need tact had a refill want to be cool and have a I phone. The puzzle answer is SpinVox, SpinVox is a voice recognition software and would help facilitate text entry while on the go. To assure that the signal is clean, an earpiece would most likely need to be utilized. I used SpinVox to create this post, it was an interesting process to setup under word press. I had to create an email address, configure it and then turn a blog from email function on within word press. Word press needs to make this much easier, I then had to send this information to SpinVox and from there they set me up with an account and a phone no. to call to record my post. So very much like spiras(?) the spy, they had to up my limit to 2 mins because the default was 20 secs and I just can’t talk that fast. What are the screen size and data entry issues are resolved assuming there are issues. The mobile internet is coming and location base services will change our everyday lives, I say assuming only because the issue of screen size and data entry maybe an age related issue in the future of mobile is definitely the teens and tweens(?). Maybe it’s important to that age group as well it’s better just released a voice to text feature called twitter phone.”

spoken through SpinVox

I pasted the original text post below for a comparison. (I also added ‘with SpinVox’ to the title.)

I recently posted about the potential future of the mobile internet and offered up an option that could resolve the issue of screen real estate. I briefly touched on the solution for what some perceive as the other issue; data entry. It is hard for some to type on a QWERTY keyboard and harder for those of us that need tactile relief but want to be cool and have an iPhone.

The possible answer is SpinVox. SpinVox is voice recognition software and would help facilitate text entry while on the go. To insure that the signal was clean an ear piece would most likely need to be utilized. I used SpinVox to create this post.

It was an interesting process to set this up under WordPress. I first had to create an email address, configure and then turn the “blog from email function” within WordPress. (WordPress needs to make this much easier.) I then had to send this information to SpinVox and from there they set me up with an account and an phone number to call and record my post. Felt very much like Spy vs. Spy. They had to up my limit to two minutes because the default is 20 seconds.

Whether the screen size and data entry issues are resolved (assuming they are issues), the mobile Internet is coming and location based services will change our everyday lives. I say assuming only because the issue of screen size and data entry may be an “age-related” issue and the future of mobile is definitely the teens and tweens. Maybe it is important to that age group as well since Twitter just released a voice to text feature called TwitterPhone.

Overall I think the service is great for text messaging. I could have spoken slower and more clearly but was concerned about my 2 minute limit. I will try this again with a shorter post to check for clarity.

Opportunities and Pitfalls in the near-term evolution of Search Engine Marketing.

In one fashion or another I’ve spent the last decade making a very good living from marketing through Search Engines. As the CEO of a venture backed startup, later as a VP of Business Development, and today as the owner and founder of a couple of businesses I have spent the last decade relying on search engines to provide the foundation for my marketing programs and lead generation. Thus far it has been a labor of love, especially for those of us who are analytically inspired so to speak. Mastering the ability to visualize the needs of my customers, developing the products to meet those needs and then casting a net wide enough to describe those needs in the form of keyword driven ads, has delivered profitable results for one business model after another.

Operating Online Marketing Network, a regional ISP/Web Development and Online Marketing Agency, we managed hundreds of clients, most of which could undoubtedly benefit from the Internet’s reach and speed of simplicity in terms of acquiring new customers. Later as a consultant, my new clients were able to achieve multi-million dollar gains in sales with sizable margins in less than a year – all from search engine marketing.

Over the last 18 months however the landscape has changed dramatically with the big 3 (Google, Yahoo and Microsoft-Live Search). As the technology began to mature within its original form and client base, Google and Yahoo both began to make changes to their ad platforms in order to maintain revenue growth. Initially the market did not understand Google’s move, the metrics looked as if the market was shrinking. While Google increased the average cost of most clicks by increasing many minimum starting bids effectively reducing the number of advertisers per click and squeezing the remaining lot into higher yielding ads, Yahoo took another route. By “normalizing” the keyword searches that individuals place and thus effectively combining the advertisers’ keyword buys into the same result set, the advertisers’ have been placed into a more highly competitive landscape and in the end, a higher cost per customer acquisition (CPA).

Under this scenario of squeezing profits out of the technology, the economy, number of searchers or absolute volume of customers does not have to grow at all to provide the search engines’ revenue growth. Bravo to the statisticians working for both companies who developed these and other ingenious ways to milk more profit growth from the first phase of search engine technology.

But where does this leave the average business? In more competitive markets I have heard a number of executives say that they are beginning to shrink the percentage of dollars spent online. At the same time, and in the same week, I have heard others say that they can’t get enough out of this channel , comparing it to a drug with the amazing multiples that they make from online marketing efforts.

Obviously if you are a reseller of anyone’s products, the search engines have you in their sites, as they believe that their service replaces the need for you as they are a more efficient method to distribute goods and services by going direct. Counter-point is the fact that many resellers of goods and services actually add value to the core product, but they feel that they are being caught up in the mix.

A good marketer knows how to focus on the differentiating factors and actually capitalize on that value added service. This comes in the form of a larger more descriptive keyword base, and ads that actually meet customer’s needs, then if the work is done properly, the CPA will actually decrease.

Today, those who have tapped into such talent will be happy to replace their competitors who have decided one of the planet’s most enabling technologies is too expensive, too complicated and just not for them. My advice is to seek out the proper expertise, after all, the trends say that search engines are continuing to update and change their algorithms while developing the largest pool of prospective customers ever assembled in one “place”. Not to mention the fact that more growth is yet to come resulting in more opportunities for marketers as search engines continue to replace the yellow pages and make advances in mobile phone advertising. I’m sure you’ve heard the cliché’, if it is worth doing, it is worth doing well. This time the cliché is right.

Kind of ironic that the same day that TechCrunch announced that Google took its AdWords for TV out of beta, CNN posted a story asking if the future of future of TV is the web.

I’ve posted about this before and the answer is; yes.

On March 6th, KPCB announced the creation of a $100 million dollar fund, aptly named iFund which is aimed at funding the development of applications for the iPhone. KPCB is the also the firm that funded Google, which coincidentally launched the Android project several months ago with the goal of creating an open platform so that developers could create applications for the mobile phone.

The race to create the mobile Internet is on and KPCB is betting on the success of the iPhone to be the delivery mechanism for a much coveted target audience. (AT&T has also announced that they are cutting the price of the new 3G iPhone, which will of course stimulate adoption.) In theory the iPhone SDK will be released in June and developers will be allowed to create their own applications for the iPhone.

This all comes at a time when, Verizon has won the 700 mhz C-Block spectrum and will surely do what all large companies do to protect their core business; send the lawyers in to prolong the inevitable transition to an open platform. (Steve Jobs has always thought of carriers as an “orifice” and did in fact completely dictate the nature of the partnership with AT&T for the iPhone negotiation.)

Another sign of the mobile Internet evolution is the impending closure of Mowser whose business model was converting web sites to mobile phone ready versions. I’ve posted about what I believe the future of the mobile Internet could be and believe that the iPhone does a great job of resolving the biggest issue of the mobile web which is screen real estate. However, I did not speak to such things as mCommerce (mobile commerce) and location based services, which KPCB mentions, only because those are complete no-brainers.

Either way the mobile Internet is about to get much more interesting.

I recently posted about the impending rise of the niche social network. This has already begun and does not get much press due the shear number of MySpace and Facebook users. The Data Portability Project (DPP) is a collection of businesses that are working to create standards that allow users to update their profile, media, etc in one location (Twitter, Facebook, etc) and have that information shared between those entities. This means that a user would be able to “stay in one location” and manage the elements of their social graph.

This also means that it will be easier than ever before to create and stay loyal to one social network as long as they are participants in the DPP. (It also means that the niche social network could be one of the primary places personalized marketing could take place.) It’s to be seen if MySpace/Facebook groups can offer the same level of niche-ness that an independent niche network can. I don’t think they can do it unless developers create niche specific tools for their platform. As more people join these networks, they are increasingly seen as monolithic. Why go to Walmart when you can go to Marczyks? Not only do I think that MySpace and Facebook won’t be able to keep up, I think the move off of their network will be much faster than people leaving AOL as social networks are a much more personal thing. (It is important to note that AOL recently posted some great earnings from advertising. In my opinion, the issue for AOL is that they are the largest yet most irrelevant web property.)

I’m excited to see how specific these niche social networks/micro-markets get. Two things are for sure; 1) they will make great focus groups and 2) the mobile marketing opportunities will be enormous.

This video explains the concept of data portability.

CNN is one of the resources that I keep open during the day and today I saw a new icon next to some of the latest news stories; highlighted below.

I clicked on the icon and apparently CNN now sells t-shirts featuring news headlines. I selected the Sinkhole gulps entire lane of highway and the next screen came up.

I really like this idea and think of it as kind of an extension of reality as entertainment. CNN over the last several years has created one of the best news sites. When their redesign was still in beta, they were smartly collecting feedback from users and implemented changes that made sense. (They allowed users to toggle back and forth between the new design and the old design.)

When you select CNN hosted news stories you can get most of them via the medium of your choice (text, video) with the option of an editorial on some stories. This is a great way to communicate news.

Also, taking a page from sites like Fark, CNN has links to new stories on other sites. (Actually Fark headlines were featured on CNN at one point but I have not seen this recently.) This is a fantastic way to position yourself as the trusted source.

Obviously their adoption of blogs for interaction with columnists and the use of localization widget (enter your zip code and you get the latest local news/weather in that module) is a great way to personalize the CNN experience.

I also like the way they handle ads. They treat them as a part of their site with their own wrapper instead of free floating randomness.

As for the new t-shirt offering; I just have to wait for the right headline. I really wish Fark had this service. My favorite Drew Curtis headline on Fark is; Tokyo has world’s highest cost of living, analysts blame skyrocketing cost of Godzilla insurance.

A couple of months ago, Hayden Sutherland of Ideal Interface contacted me in regards to the potential of the corporate social graph; a concept we had come up separately and had been thinking about. After several emails, Hayden presented me with some questions to get my opinion on the details surrounding the corporate social graph. He posted the Q&A on his site and I wanted to share them on mine.

Q. What are the challenges a company could face in initially creating its Corporate Social Graph?

A. The biggest challenges I see are:

• Ability to create and maintain a consistent brand message across multiple branding channels (YouTube, flickr, Facebook, mobile). I’m of the opinion that the best brands are the most simple and this is a real challenge to build brand equity with the inherent differences between the mediums that live within those brand channels (blogs, photos, videos, etc.
• Knowledge of the medium. Each medium has a set of rules that require a Subject Matter Expert. That SME is hard to find, harder to keep needs to be passionate about the medium and the rules for that brand channel will change over time. Many of the mediums have just come into existence and we are trying to figure what can and more importantly, should be done with them. Next week Toyota will launch a $4 million dollar campaign on YouTube. This is a safer bet given the traffic and the “lack of interactivity”. Comments are the extent to which one can interact with Toyota through YouTube. We will see if Toyota responds to comments left.
• Allowing for real interactivity as if someone was talking to a person and not a company. People want to hear a human voice and giving someone the authority to create that voice is risky and requires a tremendous amount of trust. If the guidelines are too strict, the response can sound canned and no one will listen.

Q. What do you see is the biggest difference between the Personal Social Graph and the Corporate Social Graph?

A. The biggest difference is that a brand identity needs to be kept intact. Although I will say that I believe there are things to be learned from individual social graphs with respect to identity. My LinkedIn account is very different from my Facebook account which is very different from my web site. Each serves a different purpose and is used to connect with different types of people in different ways. Sounds a bit schizophrenic but people behave differently in a variety of social situations, just as companies do. We have to remember that businesses are comprised of people. They just need to be conscious of what other team members are doing within other brand channels/mediums. The goal is the interactivity; communicate and share information and the real trick is how to get customers to expand the corporate social graph.

Q. How should a company identify, track and measure its CSG? (especially over time)

A. Identify, track and measure:

• Identify - Research is needed to identify the right brand channels/mediums to reach their customer base. Primary research to find existing customers and targeted demographics/psychographics. Also using internal team members for information as to where they have seen customers online is also good idea. (This is also a good way to find your SME.)
• Track – Each brand channel has its own metrics and we always need to keep in mind that little thing we call acquisition
  • Tracking which medium leads to the most acquisitions (YouTube).
  • Tracking which medium leads to the highest level of interaction (customer service).
    • Measuring the quality of that interaction on a scale that the business has created (1-10).
  • Tracking which medium creates the most traffic overall (Facebook application).
  • Tracking which medium the user spends the most time with (casual gaming).
  • Tracking which medium brings the highest level of complaints (blogs, forums) and more importantly how they were dealt with and the end result.

• Measurement – Many of these technologies/methodologies are really in their infancy and measurement should start with ROI. Overtime, as these mediums mature and converge (i.e. interactive TV) it will become clearer as to how well something is working. Measurement is always going to need to be a daily thing with the potential for change in direction (updated tactics) built in. That is what the Internet provides and as we move towards a CPA model it will become more and more important. I also want to be clear that if something does a great job of building repoire (as evidenced by feedback) but does not pan out in regards to ROI, it should not necessarily be abandoned. The internet and the brand channels/mediums that is contains are evolving and will be for quite some time. Marketers will need to be vigilant to insure they are doing what they need to successfully create a fluid corporate social graph.