Twitter has become the new bloggers playground, with Andy Murray (Tennis Player) and even Obama twittering on a fairly regular basis (although I would suggest the Obama postings may become slightly less frequent ). However it has also become a commercial tool recently with brands like ComScore, Dell and even the likes of Oracle and IBM getting to grips with the Twitter phenomenon.

However, why do so many brands suck at Twitter?

Size

As many of us know, large organisations often have more defined rules and regulations than smaller organisations and individuals. This lack of flexibility often restricts brands from either

• Responding quickly to potential issues
• Corporate guidelines can sometimmes restrict the level/tone of response particularly in larger organisations
• Senior decision makes sometimes don’t have the familiarity with new technologies and can sometimes be wary of new technologies, and thus slow to adopt

Late to the show

As highlighted on the above point, larger organisations in particular are often slow to react to new technologies, and thus often can be beaten to the punch by competitors or just keen admirers. For example @disney is owned by Cherie Thomas from Los Gatos, California – https://twitter.com/Disney

Those that do adopt, come in two guises

1. Those that embrace, brands such as Dell and Comscore are perfect examples of this and…
2. Those that merely sit and do nothing, reserved with little or nothing to say, unsure on how to deal with the new guest to the party – such as Microsoft – twitter.com/microsoft

Intention

Lets face it, nearly all of us hate being preached to. Thats one of the beauties of the web. We invite who we want in, in particular search. Twitter is a very personal channel, if people don’t like you they will just stop following you – and thus your Twitter activity will go unnoticed. This lack of direct business return, can often restrict just what activity occurs – and for those that do go down the direct sales channel, can often end in disappointment unless done correctly (The Dell outlet example being a reasonably good example of this.

The Big Brother aspect

There are a number of brands out there following individuals, some as a direct response to previous follows (Starbucks for example returned in kind a follow for me), however others go out directly and follow indivuals in the hope of getting a follow recipricated. However there are a lot of Twitterers who do not like bing followed by corporate followers, and thus such tactics can fall on deaf ears.

Lack of familiarity with brands

With some brands such as IBM and Oracle, individuals have created so called hybrid profiles, such as RichardATDell. Whilst Dell do actually have a brand persona, there are a number of brands out there where hybrid accounts operate, and where these operate without brand compliment, can potentially mean a disassociation with the brand.

The other potential issue can be job migration. People don’t stay in jobs forever and these hybrid accounts can often become obselete very quickly – OracleJulio being one such example.

If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound

With big brands it is likely that people will naturally search for that brand, however this isn’t often the case with smaller brands. For this reason, active commercial use of Twitter in these instances can merely result in lots of effort with little or no return.

Lack of buy-in

Whilst brand monitoring is become more popular by the day, there is still a long way to go. Many brands do not follow what is being said about them online, even by simple devices such as Google Alerts. Without knowing what is being said, it is unlikely some brands will have a justifiable reason to operate in the Blogosphere, let alone Twitter.

There is no doubt the effect Twitter has had within search circles, one only has to look at the people using it (most of the UK and US search welebrity circuit (term coined from Ciaran Norris) are on there including Matt Cutts, Jill Whalen, Jason Calacanis, Danny Sullivan, Lee Odden, Will Critchlow and Richard Scoble,

As an individual, are you on Twitter – if not, why not?

If you are a brand – what are you doing on Twitter. Its not for everyone, however if you are going to enter the brave new world, take your time, do your homework and enter it with your eyes wide open

I, like many have been following the recent events in the US election, with the fight for the White House. It was therefore interesting to see the influence online has played in the campaign. Two recent articles have really struck a cord as a result.

Firstly, Sage Lewis highlighted the importance of online (and in particular Search and Social Media) played in Obamas rise to the White House. In his article, Sage mentioned a number of interesting statistics, namely:

• There are nearly 2 million links to Obama’s website, nearly twice as much as those pointing to John McCains website.
• According to statistics released by Rubicon Consulting, “Democrats are more active online than Republicans. Democrats are more likely to participate in online communities, and say they’re more heavily influenced in their voting decisions by information they find online.”
• Obama’s campaign had social media at its heart, not just in terms of the site itself, but also in terms of the personnel involved. The involvement of Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, shows the importance of social media within the strategy.

The second article of particular interest to search was Kate Kay on Clickz. In the article, Kate highlighted that Obama’s campaign spent nearly $8 million through October to Google, Yahoo, Facebook, news Web sites, ad networks, and in-game ad firm Massive (which I talked about at the recent Interactive Marketing show in Manchester). In particular it is interesting to see where the money was spent.

• Just over $4 Million on Paid Search – roughly broken down $3.5 Million to Google, with Yahoo accounting for about an eighth of that, with $673000.
• Nearly $8 million spent on online ads.
• Interestingly, the spend on Social Media comes to the fore. Nearly three quarters of the social media budget used in September alone, with Facebook taking the lions share.
• The use of MSN owned Massive Incorporated (well worth a look) was interesting alone. The campaign placed ads pushing an early voting message in EA games, including a racing game called “Burnout Paradise,” targeting them to players in 10 battleground states.
• Ad networks were a particular focus with more than $600,000 was paid to a variety of networks throughout the year, including AOL’s Advertising.com, Collective Media, Undertone Networks, Burst Media, Quigo, DrivePM, Pulse360, Specific Media, and online video networks Broadband Enterprises and Tremor Media.
• Local online media targeting also saw significant spend with around $100000 being spent.

Politics is an area many people have an opinion about, and it is therefore suprising it is often not integral to modern day political campaigns, however it is encouraging to see more and more focus given to Online. In particular key channels such as Search (inc Online PR/Blogging), Display Online Brand Management (and monitoring in particular), should be a fundamental part of any modern day political framework.

Given the noise that has been generated on Twitter by many of my search colleagues with regards to the US Elections, it is suprising that McCains camp didn’t use online as a bigger battleground, and I personally think this is the first of a more digitally focussed policital landscape moving forward, as even we in the UK start using online as part of the political juggernaut.

It has always been one of my goals to start getting more and more on the speaking circuit – something I havent been able to do previously due to the volume of work in previous roles. I was fortunate (some would say unfortunate) to get the opportunity to open my account at the recent Interactive Marketing show held here in Manchester, something Jon Myers was meant to be doing, but was unfortunately not able to do.

Having got the first one out the system, I have to say I have the bug. Watch this space…

Further to my post last week regarding a busy week for many search marketeers, it seemed appropriate to follow it up with a beginners guide to getting the most out of whatever conference you are attending. Most conferences these day are not cheap affairs, so heres my guide to getting the most out of them.

Have a clear motive.

There is no point in attending any of these conferences without a clear objective. It doesn’t necessarily need to be the attendance of a key speaker, it could just as easily be:

• New Business – This obviously depends on which conference you are attending however many of these conferences provide a wealth of new business ops whether they be:
  • Speed Dating sessions – For example Business NorthWest at the GMEX in Manchester is providing a number of speed dating sessions for potential new business or business partnerships
  • Interaction with key decision makers – This will depend on show to show however these events can be great for making contact with a key new business target – for example SES tends to more industry focussed, whereas AdTech/InternetWorld show often see a higher number of client types in attendance
  • Displays – Many of these conferences allow vendors to highlight their goods and services. Certainly the likes of InternetWorld can be a great place to get your suppliers into line – whether it be your 3rd party bid management tool, analytics or even recruitment.
• on that note – Recruitment. SES and some of the other more focussed conferences and shows can be a great place for recruitment. Whilst this is sort of unwritten, there is no doubting it goes on – and it can be a good time for getting the foundations in place for potential collaboration at a later date. (Just look what happened to me )
• Learning – Probably why 90% of us go to manyof these conferences. If you learn one good thing from the conference it can often be worth the attendance fee alone. Certainly there are some conferences that are better than others, certainly I was very impressed by the level and tone of the presentations at SES in London this year and the SMX line up is looking very good too. On that note I would highly recommend the following speakers
  • Bryan Eisenberg – FutureNow Inc
  • Jon Myers – MediaVest Manchester
  • any of the ComScore/Hitwise stuff – Normally some good titbits in there
  • Kevin Ryan
  • Matt Cutts or any of the other Google lot tbh – Mylie at SES was very good
  • Dixon Jones (Receptional)
  • Dave Naylor – never seen him personally but many people seem to talk very highly in terms of speaking
  • Erica Schmidt – Isobar
  • ….and please feel free to suggest any others below….

Don’t just focus on what happens during the day.

Think Rob Kerry put this best in his post “The Search Engine Groupie”

The majority of conference pass paying punters that attend these events are purely there to learn; many unaware of what’s happening in the background. The quiet whispers of idea exchanges over pints of black gold, and games of business card top trumps. For beginners, Search Engine Strategies offers a valuable selection of sessions to learn more about search marketing. For those who have reached the next level up though, such an occasion is even more valuable.

Thousands of Black Hats, White Hats, PPC Pink Hats and “Suits” gather in one place to get drunk together and network. I’ve still learnt things at the sessions of each SES I’ve attended (such as Video Search SEO tips at SES Chicago); but casually discussing new ways to build links, harness social media and further our part in keeping Matt Cutts’ team busy (Black Hat SEO = Googler Job Security) is worth the price of a conference ticket alone.

At many of these conferences many of the attendees will often congregate in the same places, certainly SES London and Hilton are always synonymous – however I would add dont just go harrasing who ever it is you want to talk to – be focussed, brief and polite. Certainly you will knmow if they want to continue the conversation further.

Be Prepared

Maybe its just the Boy Scout in me coming to the fore, however it certainly helps to be prepared at the conferences. This will help you get the best out of the conference and help you reach whatever objectives you may have

• Random attendance probably isn’t the best approach – knowing which speakers you want to see, when you want to see them is probably a better course of action, and will ensure your trip doesn’t end in disappointment.
• If you can try and leave a days grace either side of the conference dates when booking a hotel and flight. The best networking events tend to be on the day before the conference and on the last day.
• Check the forums and blogs regularly and well in advance. Each major conference event will usually have an official thread or even Twitter trail detailing what parties are happening and where.
• Mingle with major and niche search engines in the expo hall, they may have an invitation-only party for existing and potential clients that you could attend – (thanks rob)
• Enjoy it – These conferences are not all business.

You may (or may not have noticed) a change in the look of the Holistic Search Marketing site over the last couple of days. This has co-incided with the migration of the site from its original wordpress.com shared hosting to a dedicated box – in order that we can add further functionality  and social media bits and bobs to the site itself,  something which was rather restricted on the original platform.

It also gives us the opportunity to provide a simple site migration overview over the next couple of days.

Just been looking at events in November, and noticed a huge logjam of events round the first week of the month.

For us UK search marketing profs, there is Danny Sullivan’s SMX London, running from the 4th to 5th of November 2008 at the New Connaught Rooms in Covent Garden, London (with the (in)famous LondonSEO party wedged inbetween. One for both search marketing bods and potentially clients alike, its always good for a bit of Search Marketing celebrity spotting if nothing else (MediaVest’s very own Jon Myers will be there and is always worth listening to, but there is also the likes of Bigmouthmedia’s Andrew Girdwood, Key Relevance’s Christine Churchill, Alltogether Digital’s Ciaran Norris, Broncos Dave Naylor and (SEM’s serial Mr Fixit- sorry Dixon), Receptionals Dixon Jones – full SMX London agenda here.

For those further up north – there is also the option of the Internet Marketing Show at Manchester’s GMEX on the 4th and 5th of November. Whilst this is a bit more broad in terms of subject coverage it promises to be a superb function with the likes of Steak, MediaVest and MediaEdge all in attendance.

However it is a shame that there is also a big US function on in the same week which I can’t help has affected the potential turnout of some of the US ‘welebrities’. The Ad-Tech New York show takes place from November the 3rd to November the 6th 2008 and includes the likes of Kevin Ryan on the speaker list.

Whichever conference you are attending or thinking of attending – Enjoy.

Yes, we are looking for you to contribute content to the Holistic Search blog. Whilst this will not be an opportunitity for an unashamed linkfest and plug ofyour latest product or service, it will be an opportunity for the lucky contributors to share the views with the wider public.

I will be approaching a number of prominent search marketeers to try and get their views, however we are not just looking for the Andrew Girdwood’s and Danny Sullivan’s of the world on this, but also some budding up and coming bloggers.

If you are interested in contributing to the cause, drop us a line, dm or email with an outline of the topic. Thanks and happy writing….

When you come across a great resource, it seems only right to share it with others. Danny Dover over at SEOMoz (Yes them again), has put together a group of links to key tools and resources every online marketer should be aware of – called the Internet Marketing Handbook.

Good for both beginners, with enough in there to keep the even the likes of David Naylor happy (well Dan anyway), its well worth grabbing five minutes having a look at.

According to the latest IAB figures, spend in online continues to flourish, despite the doom and gloom in many of the financial markets and regular talk of recession. Figures for online showed

• £1.682.5m was spent during H1 2008 – an increase over 348.2m year on year
• Thats a 21% increase on H1 2007
• Despite many markets shrinking (Direct Mail 5.9%, Outdoor 4.2%), Online continued to grow significantly – up by early 20.9%
• Market share up to nearly 19% up fromm 15.9% in H2 2007
• Spend in online was only just below Press Display (1737.7m) and Television (1951.8m)

Such figures only serve to encourage online marketeers many of whom are facing their first real brush with economic slowdown, and it testament to the accountability of the channel as a sales tool. So where has this money been spent.

• Display – 19.8%
• Classifieds – 21.5%
• Paid for Search – 58.3%

If these figures are taken with SEO in mind (estimated to be worth around 330 million according to E-Consultancy), an overview of the market would probably look as follows:

Uk online market including SEO

The above SEO figure has been worked out as a percentage figure based on the 88/12 split from the earlier E-Consultancy report. With the current IAB figures therefore a rough estimate of SEO allocation would be circa 7% of the total spend

The growth in spend, still continues to be fueled with the traditional investors, that is the likes of the recruitment, automotive and property sectors, with finance accounting for circa 6.2% of totlal spend

So can this continue, only time will tell. Some forecasters are still seeing significant growth in the industry, others like the lads over at Marketing Pilgrim are seeing times ahead that are less bountiful than now, however there is no doubting the effectiveness of online, and the fact it is in the marketing mix for the longhaul.

Google is planning to launch a trial of branded search calls in TV ads (ala the recent I am Orange Ads) on the UK marketplace, aimed at increasing both search volumes and revenues.

Google have been approaching agencies to get involved in the new trial, which works by directing browsers of TV ads back to the search engines to type in a phrase rather than the direct URL.

According to the NMA

“It(Google) aims to use the trial to measure the uplift in search volume that’s driven by TV ads and test the effectiveness of search prompts within the ad creative.”

Its certainly an interesting move by Google particularly given the lukewarm rollout of many previous campaigns such as the afore mentioned Orange and others such as the DEFRA  campaign. I certainly think this rationale is worth pursuing for a number of reasons:

• The role of search in the decision making process
• Many people actively ’surf’ whilst watching television. It is widely accepted that TV has a significant affect on traffic following periods of TV activity.
• The use of search as a branding tool. According to a recent study by Google 71% of people expected top brands to be at the top of the search engines (paid and organic)

Watch this space…