There has been a lot going on with Google local search lately. Maybe you’ve heard the uproar all along Main Street USA, but if not, here’s a little background.
Local search is a rather new phenomenon to small business marketing. You may have heard it referred to as local search engine optimization or reputation management. No matter what the insiders call it, the bottom line is, it’s revolutionized small business marketing at the local search level and given a distinct advantage to Main Street.
It all began in November of 2010 when Google recognized that 30% of it’s users were forcing the algorithm to return local search results. Google wisely decided that if 30% of users had figured out how to game the system, then how many more users might want Google local search results rather than broader more global results.
That’s when another Google generated shift occurred that forever changed marketing at the local level. And until recently, that system which we called local search generically and Google Places at the behemoth level, put local small business locations on page one of the search results. This was done not just as a courtesy to you and I, but also so that Google could grow it’s virtual real estate.
Google gave every local business that you might find in every Yellow Pages in the nation and the world, a page on the Google website. (Hence the rapid demise of both Yellow Pages and Super Pages). It was GENIUS! But what was once just user centric embraced feedback and interaction has turned into a multi-billion and perhaps trillion dollar marketing opportunity.
I often call this one, the Field of Dreams approach to marketing a small business online. You remember the highly popular movie with Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones (where we got our first look at Ray Liotta as Shoeless Joe Jackson)? No?
Well let me give you the tag line: If you build it, they will come.
Not just No, but Hell No!
This is exactly the wrong tactic when it comes to marketing a small business.
With all due respect to Hollywood, hearing voices in a cornfield isn’t a good way to make decisions about life or marketing for small business. (more…)
Let’s talk gamification. If a picture is worth 1000 words, what’s a video worth? Gamification
I’d venture to say it’s worth a trillion. A trillion words, a trillion dollars, a trillion visions of fun.
The Fun Theory is an initiative of the Volkswagen company, and they’ve hit the proverbial nail on the head. An interesting concept that proves gamification in marketing is the way to get customers/clients to do what you want them to do, even when it’s good for them.
This particular video really appeals to me because it’s such a great example. The concept is: can we get more people to take the stairs over the escalator by making it fun to do?
Watch the video and I’ll tell you why you need gamification in your marketing.
In my consulting practice at ikalynn (shameless plug) the first service that we offer new clients is what we call a Local Search Campaign.
In a nutshell, a local search marketing campaign applies the concept behind the old telephone directory to the new online model of searching for a business. Fifteen years ago, customers always looked to a phone directory to find local businesses to engage. But a paradigm shift occurred in how we all search for information which has resulted in the death of the telephone book and many other print media types. We all know that new model is the internet.
However, the impact of the internet on the print media industry is not actually what this post is about. It’s merely background for the real story.
Lately I have found myself speaking at groups on the topic of online video marketing or YouTube marketing.
Now YouTube marketing is not the only venue where a savvy business person can utilize video marketing shorts but it is the big dog and here are a few reasons why.
YouTube is the #3 ranked website today. Google, the #1 website on the internet bought YouTube in 2006. A very good move on their part. You know that Google is a Search Engine, a website where people go to search for anything and everything. But what you may not realize is that YouTube is a search engine too.
I’ve purchased dozens and dozens of domain names over the years, but the most important domain I have purchased by far is my own name.
Yes, perhaps it’s the misguided notion that one day I will be famous enough, like Oprah, Madonna or even Joel Comm, that my little old name becomes a viable commodity on its own. At the very least, it could become a valuable piece of virtual real estate which is why I decided it was important to buy my own name in a dot com version. (more…)
