My Interview with Video Journalism Pioneer and Television Producer Michael Rosenblum who now teaches regular people how to make high quality web video.If you like this leave a comment!
Google Recently purchased Zagat. The Zagat review service had mainly focused on reviewing hotels and restaurants but over the years had branched out to nightlife, zoos,theaters and even golf courses. What Google has been doing over the last two years is attempting to amass it’s own review base inside it’s business listing service Google Places.The purchase of Zagat helps it immediately establish reputation and authority in the review space. This of course hurts the review service Yelp.
Google had been posting Yelp reviews and various other review services such as City Search within it’s Google Places business listings for businesses. This was to begin the process of showing businesses how important monitoring their Google Places business listing will be in future. What Google wants to do, in my view is become the source for reviews of businesses online and to do so it must build up a review base and also build up a reputation.It started last year by encouraging users of Gmail to leave reviews inside the Google Places listings and has been able to gain some traction by doing so.
Yelp of course has complained that it does not want it’s reviews transposed inside Google Places and that battle , as far as I know continues, although Google is decreasing it’s use of Yelp reviews.
But by acquiring Zagat it gets two very nice feathers for it’s Google Places cap. First Zagat is very well respected and has been promoted over the years by the New York Times and other major magazines and news papers. Second, Zagat already has a massive data base of reviews and listings of all sorts of businesses. So these, if not already inside Google Places will soon be encouraged to claim their Google Places listing.
In my view business reviews are going to be extremely important as time passes. Using a mobile device, like a cell phone to find a product or service, look at the ratings and reviews and compare price will become the norm, even for “Joe and Jane average everyday person”. The New Yellow Pages except better because you will have the added features of being able to see pictures, videos, reviews and coupons or special offers.
(image zagatbuzz)
The list below is a few of the most helpful books I have found for both understanding and applying small business online marketing.
The first one, The New Rules of Marketing by David Meermand Scott , is probably the one best known to the general public followed by Socialnomics written by Eric Qualman. Both of these books are very informative and provide a good summary of how technology and the Internet has changed the way we do business. It is often difficult to grasp how so many things have changed so fast. Both these books cover the changes in a comprehensive way.
For any small business that are just beginning to use online marketing and wonder what new and money saving strategies maybe applicable, Rework is a short and pointed account of how one business transformed itself in the middle of what is now considered the decade of new innovation.The book provides lessons that the Author’s learned and it is all based upon events that took place in the business as it grew, changed and improved.In many instances it illustrates how doing things differently can have a massive effect on your business. It also shows how these business owners decided the traditional methods may no longer apply in many circumstances.
The final book by Seth Godin is not new but does help the causal observer understand just what has happened in the world of marketing and business since 1999.
Perhaps the most difficult part of marketing online today for the small business owner is understanding the environment and how rapidly it has changed. Some channels are less expensive , if used properly, some channels are more expensive but may deliver better results and finally today there is much more room for testing and experimenting without prohibitive costs.
The New Rules of Marketing,By David Meerman Scott
Socialnomics, By Eric Qualman
Rework, By Jason Fried and David Hansson
Permission Marketing , By Seth Godin
(photo credit rodrigo galindez )
Groupon, Living Social and many other deal websites that promote discounts and offers have been a boon to smaller communities.
This is because the big companies and larger retailers who can afford to take part in the big offers have trained consumers to look on online for deals and discounts in their own areas.
In a recent study that web marketing partners conducted in a small city in California the information provided by consumers revealed that they went online almost every week to look for discounts and deals in their own area.
These offers do not need to be expensive or elaborate. In the study a group of seven businesses setup a series of special discounts for customers who saw their Face Book ads or opted in via text from their mobile phones when they saw a sign displayed in the store windows.
The businesses decided on the deals they wanted to offer for one month and each week a different offer was sent by text message to the subscribers about that week’s discounts. The week’s deals were also available from the website that was setup to promote the offers.
Because the large companies have spent lavishly on advertising, much of it on television, the general public is now alert to the fact that they should be looking online for discounts locally.
The costs for smaller businesses to piggy back on this marketing trend easily affordable and again offer great potential.
A group of businesses forming their own deal or discount network, launching a website and or using text messaging to deliver their information would cost far less than running a series of print ads.
(photo credit Todd Barnard)
The New Search Authority Slide Out
Google has been busy for the last few weeks and now has rolled out the hidden column search reveal, as I call it, see above.What does this mean to the average business. It is good news. Because it will allow your website and your content to show up as additional search results with no additional work. That is a good thing because it builds your authority online.
Back a few months ago Google did what, is called in the search world an algorithm update, which means an update to the way it ranks websites in the search results. In the public statements that were made at the time Google mentioned that they wanted to weed out website search results that were basically spam or re worked content that had no real depth or value.
One of the ways Google set about doing this was to reward individuals and brands that were putting a face to their content. By having a Google profile with a picture, and some information and by taking part in Google plus, as well as having your self associated with your own blog, or business website or other online profile, such as Facebook or Twitter.
This helped Google establish that you are a real person and creating content for whatever or whoever your market or followers are. This is not to say that you being you are exempt from creating absolute garbage content of no value. You could call it identity recognition. It definitely is one part of Google’s new search ranking formula. Again for small businesses this is great because they want to be known in their geographic area or market, they want to deliver good information and content to their markets and they generally want to have one or more of their major personalities become known to their market.
The term now being used to describe this new formula is author authority. There will be more about this I guarantee as time goes on. But for the average business use this new focus to your advantage, Let the world know who you are and what you have to offer your market and Google will reward you.
This past week Google has released it’s Google Plus service to the general public. Earlier in the year it had invited a select group of testers to try it out. These were people who are involved in online marketing, promotion and business. Most of the New Media outlets had one or more of their staff trying it.
The initial news reports were about how this was Google’s answer to Face Book, an attempt to create a community within a platform. This, in my view, is partially right. What I see as a serious flaw in Face Book, is the aspect of businesses using it. Of course it was not created for that it was created for regular people to inter- act socially mainly with friends and family. Then it decided to accommodate Brands and business.
Again in my view that is just not what Facebook is really about. Paid ads for business yes, the constant changes in the way Fan pages and Business pages can be setup and how they can be used is not business friendly, unless you are a big brand.
Google on the other hand has one of the best services for small business. It is Google Places. Google Places is essentially a free ,mini website for a business which is linked to Google maps and carries with it reviews for the business. Did I mention that this service is free? It displays perfectly on all mobile devices what more could a budget minded small business ask for. It also allows a business to post photos, videos and special coupons and offers. It also has a QR code that the business can create and display.
Let’s compare to Face Book. What do people do when they want a product or service? search Face Book? no they search the internet using Bing, Yahoo or Google and sometimes YouTube. And what do they want to know? usually what the price is, where the business is located and if there are competing products or services. Well Google delivers all of those things and more. It let’s you see reviews of the business.
To my mind that is much more valuable to a business than a Face Book Fan Page or business page. Yes you can have fans , yes you can have likes, yes they can share. But I would propose that the way a Fan page should be used is as a communication device. This is what Face Book does best. Updates, status and so on, so use it that way.Put news and announcements there and or on Twitter.
I am predicting that Google will be further enhancing the “Places” service in fact I will go out on a limb and predict that down the road PLACES may well become the new phone book only better. The old phone book gave you a way to communicate with a business or see and add. Google Places gives you communication, reviews, location, directions, images, videos, coupons, special offers. Oh and one last thing Google Places goes with you everywhere on every device 24/7/365 .
What do you love is Google’s new mega search mashup tool. If used correctly it is interesting. In one entry a ton of information flows on a page. Videos blogs photos groups and more. I wonder how this will be used with the Google plus service? Hmmm. Give it a try enter your hobby or sport and watch the flood take over your page.
In one entry a ton of information flows on a page. Videos blogs photos groups and more. I wonder how this will be used with the Google plus service? Hmmm. Give it a try enter your hobby or sport and watch the flood take over your page.
Yes I am going to crow a bit about Google tags. It was introduced about a year and a half ago to the wide market of businesses in Google Places. In fact just about one year ago this month our office received a call from….yes Google!. “What you say I though they never called anyone?” They don’t unless they want to know what’s really going on at street level. What did they want to know?Well they wanted to know about tags the online adverting service that they launched which could be used inside Google Places for businesses.
I told them that I thought is was not what most small businesses were looking for. It did not really deliver much except cost. You see that sticky problem about search results kept coming up. Will it help the business in search ? Of course Google can not say it will because that will violate their own rules. So then why would a small business spend on a yellow icon to get noticed?. I told them what small businesses really wanted was a way to get coupons and special offers out to their market without spending a ton of money. “But there is Groupon , you say” Yes there is Groupon but for many businesses it is still to expensive and to restrictive to benefit them. To participate would break them, They cannot comply with all the rues. I here this everyday from small local shops.
So with Google dropping tags I feel very vindicated in my opinion and I will be waiting for a call from Sergey and Larry to offer me a position on their advisory board. A few shares of stock will be fine I don’t need a very big salary, of course use of a small jet to get up to Google HQ would be nice.
The real future for the small local business market is mobile and Google is now coming around on that with their “wallet” application.