Franchise Update Brings Optimism to Tough Economic Times
Posted by duncan on September 30, 2008 at 10:33 AM
Last week I had the pleasure of spending a couple of days with some of the world's franchising thought leaders. The Franchise Update Conference took place at the Drake Hotel in downtown Chicago. The event featured invigorating speakers, valuable breakout sessions, and worthwhile networking opportunities. Everything went off smoothly thanks to the great staff at Franchise Update Media Group.
Thursday morning kicked off with an optimistic keynote delivered by FOX News Channel's Stuart Varney. Stuart spent a few minutes recapping the current financial situation in the United States. He brought a sense of hope into the long term view and surprised the audience by framing future economic opportunity in terms of current international fertility rates. Stuart pointed out that most developed nations are actually experiencing population decline due in large part to low birth rates. This is a problem because as these populations age there will be a heavier burden placed on the younger generations.
Stuart explained how the United States does not follow this pattern. Due to immigration and a healthy birth rate (Stuart himself has six children) the United States has a larger youth population and will be better prepared in the coming decades to care for the elderly, with less of an impact on the national economy. And folks, believe me, a healthier economy was on everyone's mind throughout the conference.
After lunch author Peter Leyden of WIRED magazine fame explained that change is coming and his hope is that we'll see an economic "long boom". Peter introduced concepts including government, economics, technology, and demographics. His concise delivery and wide ranging presentation left the room energized and hopeful for good things to come regarding business opportunities.
Learn more about Stuart and Peter at: Franchise Update 2008 Speakers.
Oneupweb sponsored the event and was pleased with the numerous networking opportunities. We talked with dozens of franchisors about their online marketing and lead generation goals. The franchisors offered stories covering novice and advanced online marketing tactics and everything in between. Overall it is clear that much opportunity exists to strengthen the use of online marketing by franchisors. Well executed online marketing will allow them to target new franchise sales as well as advance brands and drive traffic to franchisee websites.
I want to thank Gary Gardner, Therese Thilgen, Sue Logan, Lyola Shybanova and the rest of the Franchise Update Media Group staff for putting on this wonderful event. I applaud their decision to bring the event to the historic Drake Hotel.
I look forward to continuing conversations with the new friends and contacts I made at the event. Kudos to Franchise Update for bringing so much optimism to such a broad industry in these rough economic times. Surely everyone left refreshed and armed with new ideas to advance the franchise cause.
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Franchising
Franchise Update
Oneupweb
The Silver Lining In Advertising's Perfect Storm
Posted by vern on September 29, 2008 at 10:20 AM
I don't have to tell you we live in challenging economic times.
Talk of a U.S. recession has permeated the news for well over a year. It seems that every measure of business and economic activity paints a picture of gloom and doom. In fact, a recent study from TNS Media Intelligence, found that total advertising expenditures fell in the first half of 2008.
A careful read of the study confirms the ongoing deceleration of spending on newspaper, television and magazine advertising.
There are some bright spots in the report, however. Internet, cable TV and syndication TV saw gains in ad spending. Internet display advertising jumped 8%. Some may argue that's a no-brainer. Advertisers are spending in these channels because usage is increasing. They're just following the eyeballs.
But look beneath the surface and you'll see why smart marketers are moving more of their budget to internet display advertising.
Internet display advertising shares important benefits with internet search advertising.
The first benefit is targeting. The internet allows advertisers to target their market with a laser-like focus. No matter what you're selling, you can get your message in front of those with a predisposition to buy. The scattershot approach of traditional media means marketers will certainly overspend to reach the same audience. This approach wastes precious dollars and hurts the bottom line.
The second, and equally important, benefit is measurability. Just knowing how much you're spending isn't enough in this tough economy. Knowing what ROI you're getting on that ad spend is critical to maximizing profitability. The very interactive nature of the internet makes this possible. Clicks are a wonderful thing!
Now, this isn't ground-breaking information. But it is more important than ever before.
As companies react to tough economic times, those that better target their ad spending and measure and analyze the results will prosper. Those that don't are in for a stormy future.
Image: theakshay
Tags
Advertising
Display Advertising
Oneupweb
Google & Yahoo! Ad Agreement: Just the Facts
Posted by mike k on September 26, 2008 at 04:16 PM
Google must have known from the start that their search advertising deal with Yahoo! would create some confusion in the search marketing industry.
On June 12th the two companies announced an agreement to enter into a deal that could potentially put Google ads alongside Yahoo! search results. On that very same day one of the companies purchased two domain names: GoogleYahooFacts.com & YahooGoogleFacts.com. These domains remained unused until today when Google launched an informational/PR campaign explaining what it sees as the facts surrounding the deal.
Google gives a broad overview of the deal in three short bullet points:
* This is a non-exclusive deal that will strengthen Yahoo!.
* Ad prices will continue to be set by competitive auction.
* The deal is win-win for consumers, advertisers and publishers: more and better ads.
Google also provides this doc to further explain the agreement:
As much as I would like to believe that Google entered into the deal with the intention of increasing competition in the SEM industry, I just don't think that is the case. The agreement has been under scrutiny since it was announced and the number of opponents to the deal has only increased as the expected October launch date grows nearer.
I will let you come to your own conclusions as to the merits and potential pitfalls of the deal. Personally, I think that the facts do speak for themselves. One simply needs to read between the lines and think for a moment about what they are seeing when they visit the Google-Yahoo! info site. If this is such a good deal it should be able to sell itself without the help of Google's public relations department.
The ultimate fate of the Google-Yahoo! agreement will soon be known when the Department of Justice presents the results of its review sometime in early October. Stay tuned, things could get even more interesting.
Economic Gloom & Doom? Not for Online Retailers!
Posted by sswaney on September 25, 2008 at 01:42 PM
2008 has been a difficult year for retail. The United States economy has had to face a housing market correction, a sub-prime mortgage crisis, rising unemployment, high food and energy costs, a declining dollar value, and now a financial bailout for Wall Street.
The National Retail Federation predicted this week that these financial pressures will result in the worst holiday sales season since 1991.
While overall retail sales will be slumping this year, the online retail market sector is expected to grow by 17% according to a Shop.org study conducted by Forrester Research. With a little digital marketing strategy, this holiday season could still be full of cheer!
Take these steps and you'll be jolly this holiday season:
PLAN: Understand holiday online retail buying trends and plan your marketing strategy around them. Learn more by reading our Oneupweb white paper (an oldie but a goody). Listed below are the top 5 holiday shopping days:
• Thanksgiving Day
• Black Friday (Friday after Thanksgiving)
• Cyber Monday (Monday after Thanksgiving)
• Christmas Eve
• Christmas Day
PROMOTE: To resonate with shoppers, offer incentives for shopping sooner this year. Starting after Halloween, use deals like "Free shipping all this week" that could entice consumers to purchase early, and more importantly, from you.
ONLINE MESSAGING:
• Redesign your homepage with a Christmas/Holiday theme. Here are some examples.
• Use holiday season messaging in your SEM campaigns to help consumers identify your site as a good place to shop for gifts.
SAVE SALES ON OUT-OF-STOCK ITEMS:
• Redirect your customers when a product is out-of-stock. Use language like "If you liked product x, you'll love product y!" and provide a link to product y.
• If a product is only temporarily out-of-stock, provide a method for the customer to receive an email when the product is in-stock. This will also give you additional opt-in email addresses.
MERCHANDISING: Cross-selling and up-selling
When a customer adds an item to your shopping cart, instead of taking them to the shopping cart page, land them on a cross-sell page. There the customer is reminded of exactly what item they added to the shopping cart, then immediately show additional items from the same category to keep the customer browsing. If the customer then chooses to check-out, you can get more aggressive with a highly targeted pop-up. If the customer adds that item to the cart, send them back to the cross-sell page and repeat.
OPTIMIZE FOR LAST-MINUTE SHOPPERS: As Christmas approaches, start displaying purchase cutoff dates for guaranteed delivery to reassure customers that they will receive their gifts on-time. When holiday shipping deadlines are behind you, promote electronic gift cards by using tag-lines like "It's Not Too Late" or "There's Still Time" to attract last minute shoppers.
Don't let the economic pundits and pessimistic forecasters get you down this holiday season. Crisis creates opportunity, and you can capitalize this year if you plan to succeed.
Happy Holiday digital marketing to all, and to all a good ROI!
Tags
Retail
Holiday Shopping
Oneupweb
Travel Marketers Hitch a Ride with Web 2.0
Posted by lawrence on September 24, 2008 at 03:03 PM
The web 2.0 shift has had a huge impact across a variety of markets. The peer to peer influence on today's online buyers has prompted many industries to get involved in these new trends to stay on top. Online marketers across the board have responded by incorporating podcasts, blogs, social networking, photo/video-sharing, etc. into their marketing mix.
One particular market that has fully embraced these new technologies is travel and tourism.
Many state, regional and local tourism offices have invested heavily in online marketing initiatives, and during these trying economic times social aspects have been a huge factor for tourism industry websites. Social media, such as blogs and podcasts, can really help to highlight a region's natural assets from the view of someone who lives there, or who has visited the area themselves, and these can all add to the sense of value for the vacation planner.
One city that is incorporating the latest and greatest in social and new media technologies is Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Virtual Philadelphia site, which is still in the works, will soon boast amazing interactive 3D technologies that allow users to truly see Philadelphia from a walking, driving, or aerial perspective. Interactive options and information will be available by simply clicking on different locations within the 3D space as you make your way through this historic city.
Regional tourism associations are also accelerating their online offerings. For example, the West Michigan Tourist Association (WMTA) has created its own online portal for fall color tours in the Great Lakes state. All Things Autumn provides updates on fall color conditions throughout Michigan and users can print detailed directions for 26 fall color driving tours. The WMTA also has a presence on Myspace, a West Michigan Weekly blog that allows users to stay in the loop with updates on autumn conditions, and a Twitter account.
In an effort to keep up with those on the go, or already on vacation, many tourism websites are making information more readily available to mobile users. Sonoma County in California has recently launched a mobile version of its main tourism bureau website, allowing users to quickly access a calendar of events, make restaurant/tee time reservations, locate a winery, etc.
Yelp Mobile is another good source for online reviews while you're on-the-go. Users simply enter the address/intersection, city, state, or zip code, and are served up reviews of local restaurants, retail stores, tourist attractions, and lodging. Enter in your local zip code, and see what people are saying about your favorite establishments.
With the help of applications such as Google Maps, travelers can easily print out detailed directions and estimate the mileage of their trip, which is a huge factor with today's gas prices. A new tourism buzzword that has emerged lately is "Stay-cation", referring to vacationers who are doing away with airline travel or long automobile trips in favor of travel destinations a little closer to home. The tourism industry has noticed this trend and has been shifting some of its efforts to entice "neighbors" with deals to spend money closer to home.
Today's internet savvy travelers are looking for quick, accurate information that they can use for comparing available travel options. Just having the prices and description isn't enough anymore. Thanks to social media applications on many tourism websites, vacation planners can now factor in reviews of what other travelers have experienced on similar trips and converse with those who have "been there, done that". Members of this tech-savvy target market do their research to ensure that they are getting exactly what they are paying for, and getting the best deal available.
Ask yourself how your industry can learn (and benefit) from the online initiatives currently taking place in the travel market.
Image: Hvnly
Tags
Marketing
Tourism
Oneupweb
Dean Kamen is Calling All Mobile Innovators
Posted by chip on September 23, 2008 at 09:58 AM
The name Dean Kamen may not ring a bell.
And you may not be familiar with the multitude of innovations that Kamen has been involved with over the years - like the iBOT all-terrain wheelchair, a mobile dialysis machine called the AutoSyringe, the first insulin pump or the brain-controlled prosthetic limb called the Luke Arm.
Regardless of your level of familiarity, I'm sure everyone at some point has marveled at his most famous invention: the Segway personal transporter.
Driven by the desire for innovations that change people's lives and recognizing the possibilities of the emerging mobile space, Kamen has partnered with Nokia for Calling All Innovators, a competition that challenges young developers to explore how mobile applications can benefit society.
Calling All Innovators is putting up $150,000 in cash and prizes and distribution assistance for the winning applications in a quest for mobile phone applications "that solve real problems that face real people." All submissions are required to run successfully on Nokia devices, the S60 and/or Series 40 platforms, and need to be focused in one of three areas:
Eco-Challenge which seeks mobile devices, software and services that reduce our impact on the environment.
Emerging Markets which seeks mobile services that could impact the daily lives of the millions of people in developing nations - including improvements in the delivery of health information, education, literacy, agricultural information as well as other areas.
Technology Showcase - which seeks cutting-edge applications that enhance the mobile experience. Regardless of the purpose or the development platform, if it runs on S60 or Series 40 Nokia, Calling All Innovators wants to see it.
In addition to the prize money and distribution help, winners will also be given the opportunity to showcase their applications at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain where they will also be part of a "meet and great" with industry leaders, VCs, Mobile Operators and distributors.
So if you or your company is working to develop the next great mobile application, or believe you have already done so, now is the time to answer the call.
Segway Image: Malachi Lopez
Tags
Mobile
Mobile Applications
Oneupweb
Gain Buy-In for Integrating Online & Offline Campaigns
Posted by luke on September 22, 2008 at 09:51 AM
A recent study conducted by JupiterResearch shows that only 55% of search engine marketers are integrating their search marketing efforts with offline channels.
So why aren't more marketers integrating their offline and online initiatives? The fact that separate departments manage these marketing initiatives independent of one another is one of the most common factors.
It's clear that a large percentage of marketers are not coordinating search and offline, but why should they? Yes, we understand that search captures demand generated by other offline channels. Surveys, studies, and figures aside, coordinating these two channels can improve bottom-line. It costs less to process a transaction online than it does in-store, by phone or by mail. Therefore, the more your offline efforts drive consumers to search and convert online, the better your company's bottom-line.
Now, you're ready to prove the benefits of integrating your online and offline marketing efforts. But where do you begin?
First of all, keywords, key messages and calls-to-action that have been identified as most profitable within your search marketing campaign(s) need to be leveraged in your offline mediums. The online team, whether done in-house or by an outside agency has the availability of data to show the offline team how they've optimized to maximize ROI, CPA, or any other key metric.
These concrete numbers can help gain buy-in for integrating the two departments.
Furthermore, there are ways to track the ROI for your offline channels. The key to tracking offline media performance lies within the URL.
For radio, it's a little more of a challenge as users typically will not be able to directly access the internet following a 30 second spot, yet alone remember the URL, verbatim. As a result, working basic keywords related to your campaign along with branded keywords is the best route to take. You'll be able to bid on these keywords within your paid search campaigns and direct traffic to your custom landing page for offline media.
The same principle can apply to television. With print and direct mail, you can purchase additional domains, define a rule set to redirect users to a custom landing page, and append a tracking parameter to identify the original source: print ad, direct mail piece, or any other offline channel.
By integrating your online marketing campaigns with your offline campaigns and leveraging the above tactics, you'll be in a better position to understand the effectiveness and profitability of your offline media spend.
Image: Wilhei55
Tags
Search Marketing
Offline Integration
Oneupweb
International Talk Like a Pirate Day: A Viral Sensation
Posted by maureen on September 19, 2008 at 08:22 AM
Avast me hearties! Today be International Talk Like a Pirate Day. As crazy as it sounds, this holiday is truly a viral sensation.
I'm sure you're wondering: who ever came up with an international day where we all run around talking like pirates, saying things like "shiver me timbers" and "ya' scurvy dog"? Apparently that honor goes to John Baur and Mark Summers. But the holiday didn't really take off until a certain Pulitzer Prize winning author decided to write a column encouraging everyone to use pirate lingo on September 19: Dave Barry.
The result was a viral sensation. And the internet community has picked it up and run with it. This year, besides the official Talk Like a Pirate website, devoted landlubbers will post and share pictures on Flickr, buy official books on Amazon, purchase t-shirts from Café Press and blog in pirate lingo all day long.
And that's not all! Pirate-themed web tv shows will recognize this important holiday, online communities will challenge memberships to spend the day talking like a pirate and HowToDoThings will even have information on how to teach your parrot to talk. Even Apple has gotten in on the fun with Pirate themed iPhone apps, including a pirate name generator.
To help spread the pirate cheer, every employee at Oneupweb has donned a Oneupweb-designed Talk Like a Pirate t-shirt (those who didn't were forced to walk the plank and visit Davey Jones' locker).
It's fifteen men on a deadman's chest, yo ho ho and a picture of Gates!
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Tags
Pirates
Talk Like a Pirate Day
Oneupweb
Microsoft & Powerset Combine Innovations
Posted by alex on September 18, 2008 at 12:02 PM
Last May, I wrote about Powerset, a new, alternative search engine that boasted improvements to the way we find information by unlocking the meaning behind ordinary language. My exact words: "This Powerset version allows users to search against material within Wikipedia using natural language."
Since the launch, Powerset has gone through some changes and was recently bought by Microsoft. The higher-ups at Microsoft were impressed with Powerset's capabilities and interface innovations, so they teamed up to create a shared vision:
To take Search to the next level by adding understanding of the intent and meaning behind the words in searches and webpages.
Today, Powerset continues to forge ahead with that same goal in mind. Over the last few months, teams from Powerset and Microsoft's Live Search have collaborated on ideas and designs, and have come up with several projects that will be released over the next 30 days.
These projects were designed with the goal of improving Live Search and Powerset simultaneously by integrating technologies from both search engines. So, without further ado, I would like to introduce three new projects from the collaboration efforts of Powerset and Live Search.
This Wikipedia-like project is open to anyone who would like to contribute information; it is "an open, shared database of the world's information." Microsoft is utilizing Freebase in order to provide expanded and improved answers for Live Search. A lot of search results today don't show answers for topical queries such as musicians, albums, and films, but by using Freebase, Live Search is able to return a topic summary that includes links, a result very similar to the Freebase Answers in Powerset.
Improved Wikipedia Captions
Another one of Powerset's nifty features is that it utilizes semantic technology in order to create improved Wikipedia captions for various articles. And, with the help of Powerset, Live Search will now be able to pull these improved captions into its search result pages that include Wikipedia results.
The Factz Engine
"Factz" from Powerset are concise representations of information that are taken from sentences using three parts; the subject, the relation, and the object. From those parts, a list containing related searches for a set of queries is generated. For example, a search for "chicken recipes" will generate the following list of "Related Searches":
- Baked Chicken Recipes
- Oven Baked Chicken Recipes
- Easy Chicken Recipes
- Chicken Soup Recipes
- Low Fat Chicken Recipes
- Lemon Chicken Recipe
- Fried Chicken Recipes
- Chicken Pot Pie Recipe
These projects are currently being tested on a small, randomly selected audience, so any search at Live.com could potentially contain one of the above projects as a bonus tidbit of information. Microsoft and Powerset say that they will continue to work together to help improve each other, and I will be here to report the results back to you! So, until then!
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Powerset
Microsoft
Oneupweb
And Now for Something Completely Different from Oneupweb!
Posted by grant on September 16, 2008 at 08:53 AM
Hello, my inquisitive blog-peruser! You may have arrived here all a-twitter at the prospect of gaining a new day's supply of search related info, and now you are looking at a noble, kingly pooch.
"But why?" you ask. "Why the change?"
To be frank, my attractive little people-person, my purpose (like my taste in doggie treats) is simple: I am here to introduce you to Oneupweb's new look.
I have a pedicure in 10, so I'll have to make this quick.
My first order of business is to discuss the appearance of the site. Yes, we have some Flash in this design, and yes, it is so pretty that you are compelled to lick the screen. However, DO NOT LICK THE SCREEN - just let your eyes do the salivating.
We wanted the site to be light-hearted and fun, with a bit of goofy wit thrown in. It's something we fear may have gotten lost in all of our service-related awesomeness. We are a fun group who try not to take ourselves too seriously (talking Chihuahua here!). But we do take our work seriously. Things get DONE around here. It's impressive.
Secondly, I want to spread the word about our diverse service offerings. We're so much more than just an SEO company! You want your conversion rate to improve? No problem. Need more unique visitors? They'll have to set up a velvet rope! Analytics your thing? We do that better than dogs nap in sunlight. And trust me—I can nap in sunlight like you wouldn't believe.
Another part of our evolving stable of services is a mastery of Web 2.0 innovations. We retain a podcasting studio and a plethora of on-site talent. In addition, we have a service that can actually TRACK your podcast to minute details! I think it's as interesting as getting my teeth brushed, but you may find it exceedingly cool that PodTractor can gauge who is downloading your podcasts, when they're downloading and much more. And we have bloggers, graphic designers, programmers—basically everyone needed to execute a fully integrated digital marketing campaign and make it irresistible to your peeps.
To boil it all down to brass tacks (whatever that process actually looks like), we are rebranding our company because we are more than the predetermined set of skills we have displayed for the last several years. We have come so far from the days of yore—1996!—when we were a small, skilled startup that specialized in SEO. We hope you recognize our continued evolution and trust us to integrate your online business.
And just one more thing. This is only Phase One of our rebranding efforts. Phase Two? It's gonna blow your brains out.
Jeeves! Fetch me my collar! It's pedicure time!
Tags
Conversion Improvement
Podcast Tracking
Oneupweb
TechCrunch50 - Nearly 50 Ways to Build Your Brand
Posted by Christopher on September 15, 2008 at 10:40 AM
TechCrunch50, for the uninitiated, is the popular tech/web startup blog's conference during which 50 companies, handpicked by a veritable who's-who list of web luminaries, launch new products, competing for a $50K grand prize (and, of course, the attention of prominent VCs and their bulging bank accounts).
Despite the growing controversy surrounding the TechCrunch50 winner - Yammer, a business messaging application that, depending upon which camp you're in, is either a beneficial application with a genius business model or a blatant Twitter knock off funded by one of TechCrunch's major advertisers - this year's conference launched some interesting products.
I'd like to take this opportunity to highlight just a few (and, not to be crass, but also illustrate some potential opportunities for companies to advertise online):
Geared toward 16-24 year olds, this social network/3D environment "combin[es] the casual web with immersive 3D" and provides yet another opportunity for the obesity epidemic to increase its flabby reach. If MySpace and Second Life had a baby far more interesting than either, it might be hangout.net.
The demographic involved is obviously key (lots of disposable income combined with a burning need to fit in), and even the "About" page says you'll be able to "interact with the brands you love," like Monster Energy and SkullCandy. However, much like MySpace, chances are if you're not already a brand members love and with which (whom?) they want to interact, tread carefully. Another key characteristic of this demo is that their BS meters are set to kill - don't try to trick them, or you'll likely find yourself watching your avatar (or "hangout.net Object") die a horrible yet shockingly creative death.
Despite the crunchy, kind of dumb-sounding name (at least, thank God, they didn't call it "Brojam"), this is actually a very cool service that allows musicians of all skill levels and from all points of the globe to mass-collaborate, to record, mix and produce either original or popular music in a manner geographically agnostic (i.e., your drummer will never not show up because he got fired from the Quickie-Mart and his car's out of gas).
While Bojam, like many of the TechCrunch50, is still in beta, they're looking for kick-ass musicians to start building the community, so put down that fake Rock Band microphone and make some real music. While it's still a bit early to gauge advertising opportunities, I can't imagine there wouldn't be a place for, just for example, indie labels to connect with folks. And, if a solid band does coalesce, they're going to need merch. If you rock, someone's going to want your t-shirt.
Geared toward fashion-oriented women, this social network is dedicated exclusively to fashion. It allows one to manage one's wardrobe while interacting with stylists and retailers who can provide advice and recommendations.
While, admittedly, transactions in this network will occur in a language I can't even fake (managing my wardrobe too often entails digging through piles of clothes on the floor to find the least repulsive item), the opportunity to connect your brand and get cozy with those willing to purchase seems almost natural. Were I either a stylist or a retailer, I'd find Closet Couture an irresistible way to expand my clientele.
Again, these are but three of fifty (also, don't forget about the "DemoPit" - start-ups that attended the conference but were not part of the TechCrunch50). While none of last year's TechCrunch40 are, as of yet, household names, and some are assuredly gone, you just never know. Any one of these could not only be the next billion-dollar baby, but could provide a fantastic way to connect with your target customers in a place where they want to be, to grow your brand with a receptive audience.
Or, in other words, to sell your stuff to someone who wants to buy it.
United Airlines Stock Decline & the Power of Google
Posted by steve on September 12, 2008 at 11:53 AM
Earlier this week, the stock of United Airlines plummeted as false reports of a second bankruptcy spread like wildfire following the resurfacing of an old Chicago Tribune article from back in December of 2002.
The dated article gained serious traction after it was indexed by Google News as a recent story. The mix-up occurred as a result of The South Florida Sun-Sentinel website posting a link to the archived story without displaying the original newspaper article dateline. When Google's algorithm followed the link under "Popular Stories" of the Sun-Sentinel on Sunday morning, it was met with a fresh date of September 7, 2008.
After the world's most popular search engine served up the story as fresh, it was then mistakenly presented as such by the Income Securities Advisors, which later posted the article on the Bloomberg financial news service. That report caused the shares of UAL Corp, the parent company of United Airlines, to drop significantly.
A lot of mistakes were made here, and the blame could be put on multiple parties, including Google, but the underlying issue that was reinforced from this series of events is that Google holds tremendous power over the stability and growth/decline of businesses around the globe through the power of search.
When most companies think of establishing or enhancing their presence in Google, they tend to think of utilizing SEO or paid search marketing to beef up visibility for their own website(s). What is often overlooked, though, and what we see in this case, is the tremendously negative impact that Google can have on your business when others are talking about you.
Online reputation management is a must in today's online world of aggregated news, personal blogs and social communities. Word travels fast, so you need to be prepared and understand how to react to both positive and negative press about your business.
With the United Airlines story that hit Google and set off a chain reaction in a hurry, UAL reacted swiftly once they got wind of the disruption in shares trading. Could UAL have discovered it earlier and reacted more quickly to help mitigate the negative impact that it had?
Tough to say for sure, but with a well-formed reputation management program that had the right pieces in place, I would say yes.
There's no doubt that it can be tough to keep up with what everyone is saying about you online, but as we can see from what happened this week, it is imperative that you do what you can to manage your reputation out there.
Tags
United Airlines
Online Reputation
Oneupweb
Protons, Grids and Black Holes
Posted by jared on September 11, 2008 at 03:07 PM
On September 10th, a multi-billion dollar science experiment began that could change life forever... and you may never have even heard about it.
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a project nine years and some $8 billion in the making, has begun smashing subatomic particles together, and will continue to do so over the course of the next year, in a 17-mile racetrack beneath Switzerland. The LHC is the largest and most complex physics experiment ever conceived.
The LCH accelerates two opposing streams of protons to within 99.99991% of the speed of light. It then merges the two particle 'beams' and forces a collision that is anticipated to reveal unexplained or unheard of concepts of physics, such as dark and anti-matter, the elusive Higgs boson and perhaps alternate dimensions. Essentially, the LHC is set to re-create the Big Bang to study what matter was like at the moment of its creation, and why it behaves the way it does today.
So what does a giant particle smasher have to do with our industry?
Enter The Grid.
Ian O'Neill, writing for Universe Today, says "This historic experiment will require a massive data collection and storage effort, re-writing the rules of data handling. Every five seconds, LHC collisions will generate the equivalent of a DVD-worth of data, that's a data production rate of one gigabyte per second."
Tim Berners-Lee (not Al Gore), a physicist at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) is accredited with merging hypertext with an existing network of protocols called the Internet to form the World Wide Web in the early 1990's. Now CERN is poised to yet again to usher in a new era of communication as well as physics.
To deal with such astronomically large amounts of data sets, CERN developed the LHC Computing Grid; a huge network of computers and processors designed in Tiers and connected by dedicated 10-gig/sec fiber-optic cables.
CERN has created "middleware", an open-source platform named Globus that is designed to sift through this avalanche of data to find specific data spread among thousands of servers, and gather it together seamlessly as though it's contained in one folder on your PC.
It's a form of cloud computing where all information is contained on a network, or grid, and is accessible at all times. The Grid, or a spawn thereof, will have the ability to make the internet essentially transparent, providing instant and on-demand data and access that is 10,000 times faster than current broadband connections. It envisions a world where people stop storing information on home computers and entrusts it all to the internet. In fact, one technology already emerging from the LHC is dynamic-switching, the creation of a dedicated channel for web users to download large files or data, such as full-length films, in seconds.
Most importantly, think about the implications.
For online businesses, this instant gratification system could put a sales person directly in your face much like video conferencing does right now, but faster and more efficient. And would those businesses be online anymore since 'online' doesn't exist? Would the grid just be a portal to the business directly, cutting out any middle men? Where would search fall? I imagine a search platform in some instance or other would exist, but how would it work? Companies could potentially inject their own ads into this free and on-demand environment, bypassing companies like Google. I think online advertising will either become extinct or conversely spread everywhere in a quasi-Blade Runner type of existence.
What will this mean for internet users and website owners? Will we even need companies like Comcast or AT&T to dole out ridiculously throttled bandwidth, or will we have access to free internet services anywhere in the world? What would happen to the ISPs? Would they go bankrupt or would they try to find a way to cash in or evolve with this new technology? Maybe we won't need ISPs, but then who do you go to if your 'grid' (for lack of a better term) is offline?
Think about the personal computer industry. Would we even need them in their current form? Will another company step up to the plate and usher in a new era of personal computers designed around this new type of cloud technology? Will Apple, Gateway and HP PCs be relegated to the quaint, curious contraptions such as my generation relates to Betamaxes and record players?
Or, as Computerworld puts it, "will the LHC Grid just think deeply and say '42'?"
This kind of open source, omnipresent digital age opens up thousands of doors for the one it could potentially close on current internet usage. But whatever doors are opened, I would bet that our notions of communication, and the Internet, will be smashed alongside little, whizzing protons.
Post Script:
There is a possibility that the LHC will form black holes that could merge with each other and devour the Earth. CERN scientists say that if these black holes do form they would not only be microscopic, but would only exist for the smallest fraction of a second. But, if a whirling vortex of doom is eating away front lawn, you'll know why.
Image: Image Editor
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Large Hadron Collider
Online Marketing
Black Holes
Does Thinking About Widgets Make You Fidget?
Posted by teal on September 10, 2008 at 10:08 AM
My first experience with the word "widget" was in high school economics class:
Company A has developed a new widget and wants to begin selling their new product. As they begin developing a marketing plan for this new widget, Company A should consider the 4 P's of marketing to ensure they are properly marketing their new product.
Oh, it's been awhile since I listened to a lecture about the 4 P's and I'm not saying how long. And while the 4 P's are the basis to initiating a new marketing campaign, new outlets have been introduced and the complexity to which companies can participate has increased.
Widgets are no longer a catch-all term for advertising and marketing examples. Widgets are now a powerful tool to brand and market your company and organizations are becoming more interested in how this type of initiative can work for them.
Image: chegs
Can a widget work for you?
One of the most important considerations when deciding if a widget (also known as a web application or web app) is right for your marketing campaign is a simple one: will it help you achieve overall business goals?
A widget is just like any other initiative - you need to determine if it fits into your overall marketing mix. Here are a few tips to keep in mind:
- Identify what the goal of the widget is and what you hope to achieve by including it.
- Determine how it will help your users/audience interact with your brand.
- Identify the message you intend it to deliver.
Of course, we all learn a little as we go, but it's important to approach it as you would any type of marketing campaign.
Depending on the type of organization you're marketing for, choosing the type of widget is important as well. Will your widget work on the user's desktop to help them with some type of daily task? Will your widget work within a social network and be shared amongst various social networking sites? Choosing the best type of widget, or the best widget function for your target audience is also an important choice to make early in the strategy development process.
For example, if your company sells printed t-shirts online and allows users to download and share design ideas, an audience appropriate widget may allow users to view the "design of the day", or photos of prints entered into a t-shirt design contest. Or, if your primary audience is IT/Systems Administration professionals, a helpful utility widget may provide consistent security updates for their IPS.
Really, there's no end to the possibilities for cool and practical widgets. It's just most important that you create something your users will interact with and find fun or useful.
Measuring your widget's ROI
Finally, depending on how you promote your widget, it's important to accurately track the activity your widget receives. Activity may refer to a variety of items from initial downloads, to sharing frequency, to how often the widget was updated, etc.
By tracking your widget, you will be able to make decisions about the look/design of your widget icon, make changes to the media campaign to better promote your widget, change the wording of the widget's description to better speak to audiences, etc. Analytics are important for your other online marketing campaigns (off-line too, of course); widgets are no different.
As always, for all of your online marketing questions, you can always contact Oneupweb. We're ready to strategize.
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Widgets
Web Apps
Oneupweb
Google User Data Life Span Reduced to 9 Months
Posted by keirsun on September 09, 2008 at 11:19 AM
The phrase 9 months normally evokes a few mental images: pregnancy, parenthood, a forgettable film starring Julianne Moore and Hugh Grant.
However, this morning I see Google.
That's because late last night Google announced it will make its user data anonymous after 9 months.
Today, we're announcing a new logs retention policy: we'll anonymize IP addresses on our server logs after 9 months. We're significantly shortening our previous 18-month retention policy to address regulatory concerns and to take another step to improve privacy for our users.
While I don't expect Hugh Grant to star in a movie about Google's user data retention policy anytime soon, this move should make a few other Europeans happy.
The European Union has repeatedly pressured Google to reduce the amount of time it keeps user data. Under pressure from the EU and privacy advocates, Google announced in March 2007 that it would anonymize its search server logs after 18 months. But Google says that this move wasn't enough for the EU:
Some in the community of EU data protection regulators continued to be skeptical of the legitimacy of logs retention and demanded detailed justifications for this retention.
Of course the longer Google can hold onto user data, the more useful it is for ad targeting and "innovation." It's unclear exactly when the new 9-month policy will take effect.
Google has also announced that it will anonymize user data collected via its Google Suggest feature in about 24 hours.
So what kind of personal data does Google collect from its users? Read our Google Knows More about You than Your Spouse Does article.
All Chromed Out
Posted by tim on September 05, 2008 at 12:35 PM
Google has finally released a long rumored web browser of its own, Chrome. And thanks to the super-hype machine that follows Google's every breath, this is almost certainly old news to the tech and online junkies.
Lots of folks are digging into the nuts and bolts of the new browser and talking about features, enhancements, speed. I'll let those pros handle that. Instead, let's take a look at what this might mean for online marketing.
Fact is, in the short term, Google Chrome itself won't mean a whole lot. There's nothing specific being done to monetize this browser. Google hasn't integrated more AdWords into the browsing experience (yet). I take Google's explanation at face value for now. They are in the Beta cycle of a fundamentally different browser. The engineers at Mountain View saw an opportunity to tune a better browsing experience. Kudos to them.
Where Chrome may very well present opportunity for marketing is in more subtle places. The launch of this new browser can give you great insight into how your audience ticks.
When you live every day online and are immersed in tech and marketing news, it might seem standard to try a new piece of software like Chrome. Keep in mind though, Chrome hardly registers to the wider world yet. That's why you can really learn a lot about your audience.
Google Analytics is now tracking Chrome as a specific browser type. Even though it's Google's product, they were among the last of the big analytics vendors to recognize Chrome (it was getting lumped in as a Mozilla browser). Now that you can see when a Chrome user is accessing your website, you can find out if you have a strong, early adopter audience. If Chrome has creeped up to even 4-5% in the last few days, it's a good bet that you have a lot of early adopters visiting your site.
Now you've got to ask yourself, are you properly targeting the early adopters? Do you have something unique to offer them? Could you be more effective focusing your marketing efforts there?
After all, knowing more about your online audience is a main reason to use an analytics program. Take this opportunity to get better acquainted with your customers.
CSS DO's and DON'Ts - Part III
Posted by ashley on September 03, 2008 at 01:36 PM
Welcome to the third installment of CSS DO's and DONT's, a monthly blog series designed to provide useful, time-saving CSS tips while making note of some bad habits website developers tend to repeat in their code, despite the negative impact on workflow.
Today's DO's and DONT's:
DO Properly Organize Your CSS File
and
DON'T Overuse Conditional Comments and CSS Hacks.
Let's get started.