Craigslist's growing PR problem

03 September 2010

Craigslist is an internet icon, and it's a unique one. Despite the rapid evolution of the internet over the past decade, Craigslist in 2010 still looks like Craigslist in 2000. The fact that Craigslist has managed to thrive largely its original form is a testament to the value it offers.

But Craigslist is under assault. And it's not competitors who are attacking. It's politicians and the media. The reason: adult service ads which many say are frequently used in the illegal trafficking of women and children. And which many argue Craigslist continues to allow because they're a lucrative source of revenue.

The controversy over these ads isn't new, but it isn't going away. Despite Craigslist's attempts to appease lawmakers and law enforcement, public officials continue to lambast Craigslist. Some are even suggesting that laws designed to limit the liability of internet service providers for content posted by third parties be revised. Such revisions could threaten Craigslist's business model.

Politicians, of course, love to stir the pot, but perhaps much more worryingly for Craigslist, the company seems to be getting less love from the media lately too.

Case in point: Amber Lyon, a reporter at CNN, recently surprised (or ambushed depending on your point of view) Craigslist's founder, Craig Newmark, as part of a story on the trafficking of women and children. Newmark spoke with her and arguably came off looking a bit aloof. The interview sparked an angry response from Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster. Newmark himself responded to the interview last week. His defense: my personality makes me an easy target for a reporter looking to craft a story, and everyone knows I'm a good guy. He wrote:

...Amber, CNN, and others are depicting Jim and I as profiteers oblivious to the welfare of women and children. Anyone that’s followed us over all these years knows that’s not at all what we’re about. In reality, we’re both pretty obsessed with trying to make the world a better place, and neither have much interest in possessions or fancy lifestyles. Me, I’ll stick to my causes, like doing right by our veterans, keeping the faith on net neutrality, and working toward better governance...

So are the complaints about Craigslist's position vis-à-vis adult services ads fair? People on both sides of the debate have their arguments, and I'm not going to jump into the fray. But I would suggest from a PR perspective that when the face of any company is forced to declare "I'm a good guy who is trying to make the world better" and cite his or her good works in response to a matter that calls into question a company's values, it should serve as a wakeup call.

Craigslist may be low-key, but it has a high-profile brand. And despite the apparent staying power of Craigslist's popularity with consumers, every brand is vulnerable. Here, regardless of whether one believes Craigslist is right or wrong, Craigslist increasingly finds that a lot of the buzz around its brand deals with an inherently negative and visceral subject: the exploitation of women and children. That's not good. Clearly, the company's previous attempts to address concerns over adult services ads haven't been effective, and the situation has arguably gotten worse. And it will likely get worse unless Craigslist ditches its down-to-earth corporate persona and realizes that it's in the PR fight of its life.

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VeryFashion: iPad app review

03 September 2010

Shop Direct brand Very, formerly Littlewoods Direct, has recently launched shopping apps for both iPhone and iPad which allows users to shop from its fashion range. 

I've been impressed by some of the early e-commerce apps on the iPad, especially that from Net-a-Porter, so I decided to test VeryFashion on iPad to see how it compares...

Navigating through the app 

The navigation menu for the app only appears when you click on the link in the top left, otherwise all you see is a photo of various items, none of which can be clicked on. 

The various options are displayed in a list, which is basically the iPhone app's navigation placed over the image: 

The navigation on this app is nowhere near as usable as it needs to be, and users need to be prepared for plenty of scrolling if they want to browse and find anything on the app. 

If I select football shirts, I have a long list of 60+ shirts, displayed in no particular order. If you are looking for a particular team, then at least an alphabetical list would have been useful, but this is just a random jumble: 

This is where some filtering options would be useful to help users narrow their search. There are more than 60 football shirts, and this means a lot of scrolling down a list; the fact that you have to select 'more' to see the next ten items on the list makes it even more annoying. 

For football shirts, you can sort by long or short sleeved, brand, or customer rating, something which is pretty useless when it comes to football shirts: 

The main Very site (also viewed on an iPad) has a far better range of filters. You can sort by which league a team plays in, by colour, and by team, saving a lot of work for users. Some of these options would make the app for more usable. 

This lack of filtering is even more apparent for other product categories. If you select shirts, there are are more than 400 to choose from, yet the only way to narrow down this selection is by sleeve length, brand or customer rating, which is nowhere near enough. 

This lack of filtered navigation is a major problem for the usability of the app, and since the main site has some excellent options for narrowing users' searches, iPad users would do better to ignore the app and head straight to the desktop version of the site, which works well enough on the iPad. 

Product pages

The product pages are too basic, with no information on delivery charges or returns policies. There are also a number of basic usability flaws which are liable to irritate shoppers.  

For example, if you want to buy a Newcastle United home shirt, you have to select the colour before you can add to the basket, even though there is only one option:

Checkout process

Customers need to have an account to shop on this app, something which Very fails to explain clearly at any point during the purchase process. This makes the whole checkout very irritating for those without a Very account, or who would just like to pay by card. 

On the desktop site, you can either shop via account and buy now, pay later, or just pay by credit or debit card, but the latter option is not available through the app, which eliminates a number of potential customers. 

So, the unsuspecting user who just wants to buy a jumper ends up entering into an application for credit without a clear warning of what is happening; the word 'account' being the only vague clue. Well, that and questions about the length of time at your current address: 

Perhaps this is all there in the T&Cs, if you can read them. If not, the unsuspecting shopper is put through a credit check without being fully aware of it. This should be made very clear to customers. 

This insistence on either having an account already or creating one renders the app almost entirely useless to the shopper who has seen it via the App Store and decided to download it. 

Conclusion

This app is not a great example of e-commerce on the iPad, and is so full of usability errors that any iPad users wanting to shop with Very would be better advised to ditch the app and head for the main Very website.

Very seems to have simply adapted its iPhone app for the iPad, instead of treating it as a unique device to be designed for separately. As a result, Very's app looks very basic compared to those from Net A Porter and Gap. 

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Why PRs can be better link builders than SEOs

03 September 2010

I talked in my last post here at Econsultancy about whether the PR industry had missed the boat on SEO. Although there were some differing opinions in the comments, I think the consensus was that the public relations firms could have done more to get into search engine optimisation.

Despite this reticence to get going I think there’s a scary truth that the search firms need to wake up to: If and when the PR industry gets its act together a lot of the link development tactics search companies are delivering could be delivered by someone with a public relations background.

PR is built on relationships

The best PR people generate and sustain great friendships and relationships in the world of publishing. Some are no better than press release spammers; but the best genuinely have a little black book of contacts built up over the years, and this is where their value comes from.

Search marketing link builders just don’t have this type of network. They’re far more likely to see link request as a one night stand, and even if they have taken a longer term view, they just don’t have the years under their belt.

Vertical specialism

There are a few search marketing firms which have great experience providing services to a particular type of business, but this is more by fluke than design. Sensibly PR companies tend to work with certain types of clients which means they are even more likely to have built up the relationships with the journalists who also specialise in that area.

If you’re building links to financial service clients, IT customers and an entertainment brand you’re not going to gain much vertical specialism.

No lack of talent

Search marketing as an industry is still a very young sector. Ask many graduates what they want to do when they leave university, and not many will say SEO, even if they are taking a digital marketing degree.

This doesn’t mean that they are not well-qualified, or that they wouldn’t necessarily enjoy the work. It’s just simply the fact that they don’t know the industry exists. Compare that to PR where demand for roles is so high, long term internships are the norm. That competition for work really drives up standards and instils a hunger in young PRs that serves them well throughout the rest of their career.

Once PR firms get their head around link building, we have an industry with the cream of the crop in terms of graduates up against a career that most people happen upon by accident. That doesn’t mean link builders are hugely gifted individuals, they are, but there aren’t many of them who set out to be a link builder.

Offline contacts will soon be online contacts

The little black book of journalists any good PR has used to only be able to get them offline coverage. The online team was separate and siloed.

Not any more.

Most publishers are integrating their teams. People from newspapers are moving to pure-play online publishers. B2B experts are starting their own specialist websites aimed at micro-niches. Suddenly there aren’t online journalists and offline journalists, there are only journalists, and those working in public relations have a huge head start.

What does it mean for search agencies?

Most are recruiting from PR firms, and many are taking graduate recruitment seriously to get the strongest applicants.

The best link builders are building relationships as well as links, but those who take their eye off the ball could quickly find they are only left with onsite technical SEO, which, while essential, is only part of the business models that’s been working so well for most SEO companies.

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Is 'mafia sourcing' really a bad thing?

03 September 2010

Social media and Web 2.0 (a term that, incidentally, we don't hear much of anymore) were supposed to make the internet a more democratic place. On today's internet, just about everybody has a printing press, and the little guy has equal opportunity to distribute a message. The best, we're often told, will rise to the top.

Of course, anyone who is involved with user-generated content and the popular web services through which user-generated content is shared and promoted, eventually learns that the internet isn't as democratic as it's supposed to be.

Mark Suster, an entrepreneur-turned-venture capitalist, the other day shared how a friend let him in on this not-so-little secret:

On Digg it really matters who submits your story. There is a small group of people that all work collectively to promote stories. We all know each other by online handles. We are all linked in IM (instant messenger).  When we want a story promoted we ping each other and all of the power users will promote the story. When it starts breaking then the power of the crowds takes over.  If you want a story to break on Digg just let me know. I’ll help promote it.

Suster also learned that this isn't always a not-for-profit activity either. "I learned that some of these people I knew are paid to help promote stories," he wrote. "They have consultancies that guarantee you traffic and get paid to operate in these mafia rings." Suster calls this 'mafia sourcing', and for many who learn of it, it becomes a scourge that needs to be addressed. Hence support for the changes that companies like Digg have made to their user-generated content-driven services.

But is mafia sourcing really a problem?

In my opinion, the answer is no. The reason: individuals and businesses pay for promotion in every medium. PR firms help companies obtain earned media on television, in print, and on the radio. SEO firms help businesses grow their exposure in the SERPs. And so on and so forth. Which begs the question: why would anyone expect social media to be different?

The truth of the matter is that anywhere there's an abundance of attention floating around waiting to be focused, somebody will be doing the extra mile to obtain it. The exposure driven through social channels is often very valuable, and it's only getting more so. Thus we'll continue to see social media mafia sourcing.

But online, there has to be some substance. Mafia sourcing can only do so much. A blog post is unlikely to hit the front page of Digg, for instance, if it's devoid of any value. Which is why, in fact, mafia sourcing may be a good thing. If a company pays a lot of people to promote a message that has no resonance whatsoever, chances are it will still fail to spread. Particularly in the realm of social media. Yet in other channels that have an entrenched culture of pay-to-play, a message with no resonance may still be distributed far and wide.

From this perspective, one might even go so far as to encourage mafia sourcing. The companies that think they can buy distribution for a lacking message will probably lose money, and in the process, they might just learn to create something more compelling the next time around. And when that happens, everyone wins.

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Ten ways to really annoy your customers (and how to avoid them)

03 September 2010

Social media is all about building long-term relationships with individual customers so they become regular, active users of your site, service or product.

Building a relationship to the point where a customer trusts and values your opinion is hard. After all, deep down they know you want to sell them something. Destroying that bond on the other hand is child’s play.

Let’s look at the most common ways companies break the bonds of trust and turn customers off, and see if we can work out how to fix the mistakes....

Rules aren’t made to be broken

One sure fire way to fail at social media is to start depersonalising customers or herding them into funnels.

If you want to sell, then treat customers as individuals, and make sure you set policies that have a certain amount of give in them so that staff can really help customers.

Just as importantly, be seen to be doing so.

If you have a fantastic, high-yield return customer who purchases in bulk, then the chances are you’re already willing to offer them a few extra perks or payment options. If at all possible, extend these across the board.

Let people know that every transaction is valuable to you and that you appreciate their custom.

Don’t make promises your business can’t keep

There are lots of ads for services promising results such as '80% improvement in conversions' these figures may be true, but if they don’t hold true 100% of the time, you shouldn’t be using them in promotional material.

Never promise more than you can deliver and your customer will never (well...hardly ever...) be disappointed. 

Occasionally you will find that you simply cannot meet a deadline or fulfil a promise. If this is the case, then contact the customer in person as soon as you can, and give a full explanation. Don’t be tempted to sweep a problem under the carpet. if it’s online, it won’t go away.

In addition, you should offer tracking for anything you dispatch so the customer can see where and when there was a problem, and you can work to avoid it in the future.

Know your stuff

We’ve all been there. You wander into your local electronics store to grab a new TV or camera, or maybe a netbook. “So, what’s the benefit of 1080DPi?” you ask the 15 year old oik with the ‘Regional Manager’ badge glued to his polyester shirt. “Erm... well... it’s, like.. erm.. better for movies and that...” comes the hesitant answer. Instant no sale.

Whatever your business and however large your sales team it’s your responsibility to give them training and access to information.

Don’t be tempted to hide behind the "I can’t give all my staff access to all the information" excuse either.

If it’s directly relevant to sales, then yes you can.

If you don’t trust your staff with this, then you shouldn’t have hired them to begin with. These people are the direct face of your company, so make sure they are able and willing to represent you properly, offering genuine knowledge and solutions.

Keep customers close

A large number of companies worry about time wasters and spammers, but it’s usually easy to spot a spammer, so don’t be shy about giving out detailed contact information.

If a customer has a big problem or an emergency then they don’t want to be hunting around your site for an hour looking for a phone number.

Display contact details prominently and welcome feedback and requests for help through multiple channels.

Just putting you through

Speaking of which, let’s have a look at possibly the biggest customer turn-off of them all: Transferring their call. Despite it regularly featuring as the one thing guaranteed to drive a customer insane, a lot of businesses still pass calls around.

If you transfer a call at all, it should be to a senior member of staff who can deal directly with the problem. Any more than this and you’re showing that you are unwilling to take responsibility for a problem.

Make sure you have clear departmental points of contact that are adequately informed. If there is a particularly complicated question, then make sure you have a member of staff stay with the customer at all times.

This goes double for online engagement. If a customer emails a particular member of staff, then they should respond. Don’t send multiple replies from various addresses.

Keep the lines of communication simple for your customers, it adds a personal touch and helps build trust.

We take your complaint very seriously

In the old days of broadcast media, you could probably get away with ignoring some complaints. I’m not saying you should have, I’m just saying it was possible to ignore a customer. These days that's thankfully off the cards for any business.

Failure to acknowledge a problem is dangerous and can be extremely damaging.

If there is a recurring problem with any part of your business, then you should be grateful to the customer for pointing it out and dedicated to eradicating it. If you have an unhappy customer or even a habitual complainer, you should still express your concern and let them know what steps are being taken to remedy things.

Even if a full resolution isn’t possible, let them know that you are aware and working to help make sure there aren’t any repeat incidents.

Be prepared to back down

With the best will in the world, occasionally you’re going to get complaints that you feel are unfounded.It’s perfectly natural to want to defend your company, your product or your actions.

Unfortunately this is also a quick fire way to completely destroy customer loyalty. “Well so what? We’re BigCo, it’s only one customer!”.

No it isn’t.

It’s one customer, plus all their Facebook friends, plus their friends, plus... well, you get the idea. And if that isn’t enough, wading into an argument represents a fundamental flaw in your business thinking.

No one and nothing is perfect, so if you fail to deliver, admit it and apologise.

Take the high road and the likelihood is that a customer will forgive you, and your apology could even strengthen their trust in you. Even if something isn’t your fault, don’t brush them off or defer blame. Take it on the chin.

Dear Sir or Madam

Data is the most valuable online asset, it’s what’s propelling the multi-billion fortunes of the Facebooks and Googles of the world but if you don’t utilise it correctly, it’s worthless and can even be actively harmful.

I still receive emails and letters addressed to Mr N.Owenn from one major retailer which shows me that the company involved don’t consider me as an individual.

If you send a letter, email, tweet or any other communication make sure you have the customer’s title and name correct. Customers today expect contact to be personal. If you can’t get someone’s name right, then they won’t trust you to get anything else right either.

It’s a small point, but in this case first impressions really do count.

The resolution must be televised

All half-decent businesses listen to their customers, but great businesses make sure the customer knows it.

If you receive a complaint, one of the biggest mistakes you can make is to appear blasé about it. 

However seriously you take a problem, if you don’t pass this attitude on then it’s worthless. Show that you care and include the customer in the resolution process.

This will help build a huge amount of trust. Many customers will forgive the initial mistake if they feel you’ve taken their complaint to heart and acted appropriately.

It isn’t enough to simply fix something. You need to communicate the resolution.

Manners cost nothing

Finally, remember to say Please. Say thank you. Most importantly: say sorry.

It’s a fairly basic human interaction but one that businesses still seem to forget.

If my train is delayed because of an ‘incident’, then I’m annoyed. If it’s delayed and the driver tells me ‘I’m sorry, I don’t know why but we’re being held at a red signal –I’ll let you know as soon as I hear anything”, then I’m still late, but I empathise with the driver and won’t be lodging a formal complaint.

If you have a problem, can’t fulfil an order, or can’t honour an offer, have the decency to acknowledge this and apologise. It happens, and the customer will get over it.

A simple, sincere apology will beat any amount of business jargon hands down every time.

 

All of these are simple, common sense practices, but in many businesses still behave as though communicating on a straightforward, personal level with a customer is somehow unprofessional. It's not beneath you to forge a lasting relationship with a customer, so make sure you remember to ditch the jargon and pay attention when dealing with problems and complaints both online and off.

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Twitter's link logging will be a boon for businesses

02 September 2010

Twitter is getting into analytics. Finally. This week, the microblogging service announced that it will be updating its URL shortener t.co to help alleviate malware problems and track link sharing on its service. 

By the end of the year, t.co links will be more secure, and provide more information to the people that share them. This is good news for marketers.

As the company wrote this week, Twitter's in-house URL shortener t.co will be expanded so links are easier to read:

"Wrapped links are displayed in a way that is easier to read, with the actual domain and part of the URL showing, so that you know what you are clicking on. When you click on a wrapped link, your request will pass through the Twitter service to check if the destination site is known to contain malware, and we then will forward you on to the destination URL. All of that should happen in an instant."

Depending on implemenation, the new links could be problematic for retweeting. But screening for malware is a good idea. More important for businesses, Twitter will finally start sharing link data:

"When you click on these links from Twitter.com or a Twitter application, Twitter will log that click. We hope to use this data to provide better and more relevant content to you over time."

A major weakness for social media marketing is the current inability to track shared messages. Twitter's search engine Summize only goes back a few days. Brands trying to follow their mentions (and retweets and conversions) don't have an easy time of it at present.

Twitter's new service will be a big help. As CNET writes:

"Knowing what links are popular can help a sufficiently sophisticated Web site refine its recommendations, and likely will let Twitter improve its "promoted tweets" program and its resonance algorithm, which uses metrics like number-of-clicks to decide which messages are relevant and useful."

If Twitter can share some of the info it uses to make Promoted Tweets relevant, businesses will benefit.

For brands, it's important to know what's happening with Twitter messages. When I spoke with Ben & Jerry's Kate Lee this summer, she noted Twitter makes marketing difficult, despite the popularity of the channel:

"Twitter is a little more difficult. It’s also hard to know who you’re reaching. It doesn't really tell you the breakdown."

If social media can become more measurable,  even more digital marketing will head in that direction.

There are some privacy concerns. According to CNET:

"Wednesday's news was soon met with a smattering of privacy concerns, with some Twitter users dubbing it a "disgusting data landgrab" and others wondering if there will be an "opt-out policy" for those who prefer not to have their clicks recorded. Another concern: a centralized link-redirector means a centralized point of failure in a service known for being frequently overloaded."

Twitter can deal with those issues — and at the least offer an opt out for privacy conscious users — because the new updates will actually help protect users from the pitfalls of blind links. Once businesses start getting some useful information out of the links they're sharing on Twitter, they can really dial up on the messaging that's working for them, and start getting more out of their social media efforts.  

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Training: Getting More Media Attention

02 September 2010

Our September E-Clinic is all about getting your nonprofit and good cause more media exposure, and registration is now open! During this month-long e-clinic, you’ll get the training and coaching you need to learn how to get the media interested in your organization and your cause today. You’ll get the basic media training that all nonprofit [...]

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Fun facts: The US nonprofit sector in a video nutshell

02 September 2010

Check out this great video by the Ben Klasky, executive director of a Seattle-based nonprofit called IslandWood.  He told me as part of his duties, he teaches a class on nonprofit management.  He said his students are always stunned by the size of the nonprofit sector. (1 in 10 US workers are employed by nonprofits; revenues earned by US nonprofits are greater than the entire economies of Saudi Arabia and Sweden combined, etc.!)
So he made a video to make the point for all of us.  Check it out!

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Google expands sponsored map icons experiment

02 September 2010

Google may generate billions of dollars every year from AdWords, but that doesn't mean that it's idly sitting by and ignoring the monetization potential it has elsewhere in its network. One property with a lot of potential: Google Maps.

Given that potential, it's no surprise that Google is bringing its 'sponsored map icon' experimental ad format for Google Maps to the U.S. market.

As the name suggests, sponsored map icons are icons that appear on a Google Map that are enhanced with a sponsor's logo. Example: with sponsored map icons, a Target logo would appear as the icon for a Target store denoted on a map, as opposed to a generic icon.

Matthew Leske, a Google Product Manager, told AdAge that Google's sponsored map icons experiment is coming to the United States and it brings with it a number of high-profile brands, including Target, HSBC and Bank of America. He also explained that as sponsored icons are designed to help customers of these brands more easily identify nearby locations, Google charges sponsored map icon advertisers on a CPM basis, not a CPC basis.

Recently, Google announced that more than 100m people access Google Maps from their phones each month, so it's likely major brands with physical locations will be interested in Google's experiment just by virtue of the size of the Google Maps audience. But despite the interest, in true Google fashion, nothing is being rushed, and Google isn't bending over backwards to plaster Google Maps with sponsored map icons. To the contrary: Leske made it clear to AdAge that Google isn't interested in turning Google Maps into a hodgepodge of logos. When it comes to how and when sponsored icons are displayed, user experience is key. "Advertisers can't pay to increase their prominence or whether or not they appear on the map. We look at the way people search for that business online and we look at what area people are looking at and what zoom level," he stated.

Obviously, revenue of sponsored map icons will almost certainly never rival that derived from AdWords. But they do highlight the fact that Google does have a lot of advertising-based monetization opportunities sitting under its nose. Advertising is its bread and butter and even though it's clear that Google's ambitions will continue to extend beyond advertising, it can't hurt to exploit some of these opportunities.

Photo credit: Hallicious via Flickr.

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Eight tips for understanding Baidu SEO

02 September 2010

Baidu is far and away the most popular search engine in China, but how does it differ from Google?

Here are eight simple tips to get you started with Baidu SEO...

In the near future, there’ll be more native Chinese speakers than there are native English speakers online (check out the numbers here). Internet access in China is soaring (for instance, last year 233m Chinese accessed the web using their mobiles alone), the Chinese middle class is growing all the time, and so is their disposable income.

No longer are emerging markets just the places businesses look towards for outsourcing and manufacturing, now these countries are the places where you want to be selling, and as we all know, making the move into foreign markets online is by far the least risky and expensive way to go about it.

Many businesses are currently looking at how they can attract customers in China, and let’s also take it as read that any business looking to step into the Chinese market will appreciate the necessity of having their website completely localised for the Chinese market. That means professionally translated content in Simplified Chinese, a website design that takes into account the aesthetic preferences of Chinese internet users, and a sales strategy aimed at Chinese buyers.

The next step, then, is to make sure you rank in the Chinese internet and potential customers can find you. Google’s battles with the Chinese government have been well publicised, but whether or not you think the search superpower has a solid chance of gaining supremacy in China, there’s no doubting that Baidu is the most popular search engine for that market, with 63% of the market share and gaining.

The reasons put forward for Baidu’s supremacy are many and varied; it may be due to the engine being optimised for Chinese characters, or perhaps it’s due to Chinese patriotism, or it could just be as simple as the fact that Baidu links directly to illegal MP3 downloads (and more than half of all Baidu searches are for MP3s).

So how does Baidu differ from Google? We know the essentials to winning with the Google algorithm; getting the right mix of long and short tail keywords, refining them regularly, link-building, local relevancy, regularly updated, useful content, etc but how does Baidu operate?

Well, here’s eight simple tips to get you started...

• Baidu doesn’t seem to have the same PageRank inbound linking algorithm as Google does, so spending your time by building inbound links with relevant websites in the Chinese internet would largely seem to be a waste of your time, for SEO at least (never hurts to spread the word a bit). 
• You’d be better off investing that time and money into your pay-per-click ad campaigns, as higher rankings are achieved solely by higher spend – the relevancy of the content to the search phrase isn’t counted in the way it is with Google.
• Baidu actively censors its content in line with Chinese government regulations, so be very careful with what you put on your site – it would be well worth your time to look into China’s censorship regime to figure out what you can and can’t say before launching.
• With Google, you can host your site anywhere and then set each subdomain’s location using the Geotargeting tool to specify which region it’s relevant to. Baidu doesn’t appear to offer the same service, so your best bet is to buy a Chinese top level domain and host it on a server in China. Luckily domains and hosting services are relatively inexpensive in-country.
• Baidu still loves metadata. While Google has largely discounted the relevance of metatags, etc, Baidu still factors these into consideration...and remember that your metadata should be in Simplified Chinese, not English.
• Keyword research. There are a few different ways to check what keywords are ranking on Baidu, for instance trends on the Baidu Index or the live keyword ranking feed, while Firefox has an extension that displays Baidu stats (a native Chinese speaker may come in handy for all these tasks).
• Get ranked for your news posts and get more visitors by submitting your content updates to the Baidu News Protocol. 
• Submit your site to Baidu. This might seem obvious, but if you don’t submit it for the spiders, you’ll never rank!

 

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Association Jam: Top Links for August 2010

02 September 2010

Blog posts and articles on Leadership and Social Media topped the active topics at AssociationJam.org last month. Events came in close behind, as association professionals were all geared up for ASAE10. Fundraising, Membership, Technology, and Volunteers were tied for third. Here are the most popular links at “AJam” in August 2010....(read more)

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Zara launches in the UK, forgets about Chrome

02 September 2010

Today saw the launch of Zara's first (and long awaited) e-commerce site in the UK and, for users of Google's Chrome browser, it isn't looking good, with error messages all over the site: 

Chrome may not be the most popular browser, but it is still used by up to 10% of web users, and has been growing market share rapidly, so this seems to be a major oversight. 

This is how it is supposed to look, viewed on Firefox: 

I first noticed this problem when I went to write a review of the site around 9am this morning, and three hours later, the errors are still there. At first I thought the whole site was broken, but it seems its just Chrome users who will see this. It appears to be OK in Firefox, though I did encounter a few errors on Safari. 

On Chrome, it's a mess though. The image on the homepage doesn't show, and there are error messages on every section of the site. 

Here's the shopping basket page, not one likely to reassure customers thinking about making a purchase: 

Chrome is a popular enough browser, so companies launching new sites should be checking that it is compatible and there are no major issues for users. 

At the moment, any Chrome users are likely to think the site is completely broken and head elsewhere. By failing to account for Chrome, Zara is missing out on custom from up to 10% of web users. 

UPDATE: Since writing this post, I've checked again, and Zara seems to have fixed whatever issues it was having with the site, probably just to make me look stupid... 

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The importance of knowing how to use web analytics tools

02 September 2010

Web analytics is still a missing art in many businesses, not just retail. Analytics is the last station on the investment train ride and is often compromised to pump more money into direct revenue generating digital marketing like PPC.

But why would any sane person put more money into something they don't fully understand and for which KPIs may not be optimised? It seems a strange decision.

My gut feeling is that there are too few optimisation specialists Client-side who really get web analytics 2.0. Dashboards are created and reports circulated to tick the analysis box yet limited insight is provided.

If conversion for referral traffic has dropped off the cliff, is that good or bad? I don't know. Even your data doesn't know but hidden within are nuggets of insight, you just need the focus and perseverance to find them.

This blog looks at a few examples of how data can be turned into insight to drive commercial decisions.

Conversion is not the be all and end all

Fact: not everyone who visits your site will convert, no matter how amazing the experience and how targeted the user journey. Some people just like to research and browse. So obsessing over conversion metrics as the sole indicator of success is in itself a failure. 

Social Media is a case in point. Most brands' social media traffic adversely affects KPIs like average order value, revenue and conversion. Why? Social media is better associated with building relationships and increasing content engagement, less so with direct selling. Of course the channel can convert, just look at Dell, but the point is I've seen as much as 95% social media referral traffic contribute de nada to the revenue pot if you simply look at direct sales.

What can you do? Well, it's not a great leap of faith to assume that social traffic is more likely to use social bookmarking to share content. This is easily monitored via web analytics tools including Google Analytics. However, what is the impact of that shared content on your website? Well, by embedding a neat bit of js code into the bookmarks you can monitor people who visit your website from the content that others shared. Now create them as a custom segment and you can evaluate the impact on KPIs like time-on-site, bounce rate etc.

If social media visitors are increasing viral effect, you can start to build a contribution model. With the increased insight, do you know perceive a greater value to your social media visitors?

Avinash Kaushik lists a few neat social media reporting tools in his Occam's Razor blog. My favourite is Tynt which measures content after it has left your site.

The value of custom segments and data filters

I've just done a piece of analysis for a retailer, digesting their Google Analytics data to provide insight into the impact of site search. The top level stats (22.7% new visits use site search with a conversion rate three times that of those who don't) don't give me anything juicy to sink my teeth into. I wouldn't pay me simply to say visitors who use site search convert better, old news my friend. 

However, if I start adding filters to show the top 20 products (defined by total revenue for last 12 months) matched against Google SERPs and then run against the live site search, the light flickers. I can see that 17 of the top 20 don't even return search results yet on Google exact matches appear in the first 3 pages. Why? A deep dive reveals the problem: issues with the search algorithm and poor data matching.

Taking the core web analytics data, questioning what it tells us, then filtering data and using complimentary analysis has given me insight to take to my client.

The next step is to add engagement metrics from Google Analytics. By adding % search exits, % search refinements and conversion rate by search term, I now build a picture about the impact of using search refinements driven by the merchandising tool.

Relating this back to revenue and conversion sheds light on the relationship between search refinements and conversion; the correlation proved really high, telling me that here is a big opportunity for testing to drive commercial benefit.

(click image for a larger version)

Creating a custom segment for visitors using search refinements also enables the ongoing analysis of this feature to understand trends. I can recommend reading this blog on Occam's Razor waxing lyrical about using data to drive actions. 

In short…

Now i'm not denigrating the importance of conversion optimisation, just saying that web analytics is a much bigger picture. 

The commercial benefits of web analytics are dependent on the quality of planning and level of effort spent asking the right questions and then interpreting data and information. The information above only scratches the surface but hopefully it illustrates the point i wanted to make.

Web analytics gives you the what, voice-of-customer data overlays the why. By blending intelligent data analysis with continuous customer feedback, website owners can piece together an often puzzling yet highly fascinating engagement jigsaw.

So what do you think? Do you get insight from your web analytics or do you struggle to know where to start?

Follow-up reading

There's a nice post by Avinash on heuristic evaluations of website performance in relation to answering the "Why" question.

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TV rentals: will Amazon's pricing trump Apple's brand?

02 September 2010

Looking to watch the latest episode of your favorite TV show? Apple wants to rent it to you. Yesterday, the Mountain View-based company unveiled the latest incarnation of Apple TV. And like most of Apple's newest consumer electronics devices, behind the hardware is a business model to move content.

In addition to $4.99 high-definition movie rentals, Apple TV offers up 99 cent rentals of popular television shows from Fox and ABC. But will Apple TV do for television shows what the iPod and iTunes did for music? That may depend on how Apple deals with the competition. If the counter attack Amazon has already launched is any indication, the competition may be pretty fierce.

Amazon, of course, also competes with Amazon in the digital music space. And it has actively been looking to get a big piece of the action as the digital content wars extend into the realm of the big and small screens. The Amazon On Demand offering already gives consumers the ability to watch movies and television shows through a computer or one of the devices, such as the Roku player, that come bundled with the Amazon on Demand software.

Apple TV is a potential threat to Amazon on Demand, and many of the devices that come with Amazon on Demand. But right around the time Apple was announcing 99 cent rentals of Fox and ABC television shows, Amazon was unleashing a surprise of its own: 99 cent purchases of shows from ABC, Fox and the BBC. While it appears that Amazon may have cut into its own margins to bring pricing down to this 99 cent level, Amazon is clearly hoping consumers will ask a simple question: why rent when, for the same price, I can own?

If it can get enough of them to ask that question, it may find that it has more success competing against Apple in this market than it arguably has had in competing with Apple in the digital music space. One thing Amazon has going for it: Apple doesn't have a huge head start. When Amazon launched MP3 sales, for instance, Apple, thanks to the potent combination of iPod and iTunes, was already the 800 pound gorilla of digital music.

Additionally, Amazon may benefit from the fact that consumers already have quite a bit of choice. Companies like Roku and Boxee may not have anywhere near the brand recognition Apple does, but that doesn't mean their products aren't compelling, especially when compared to Apple TV. Bottom line: Apple TV doesn't appear to be revolutionary. That’s one reason Apple will arguably find greater competition for Apple TV than with any other device and content offering it has launched previously.

That, of course, doesn't mean that Apple won't succeed. After all, Apple's brand is everything and Apple TV may not need to be revolutionary. But Amazon is already fighting back, and I'm sure others will too. This means Apple just might face a level of competition it's not used to. And that is probably going to be a good thing for everyone, Apple included.

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Twitter: iPad app review

02 September 2010

Twitter has just released a new official version of its app for the iPad (iTunes link), and it looks like a strong competitor for Tweetdeck. 

I've been trying out the new app which, according to the Twitter blog, it has been designed to 'let the content shine'...

The new app interface is a series of panes that can be expanded and retracted, and opened easily without the need to click on any fiddly buttons. Simple navigation options down the left of the app allow you to flick between your timeline, mentions, DMs, or searches: 

The size of the iPad screen means you can read articles, or view photos and videos while still keeping the rest of the app's functions in view. In fact, you can look through your timeline while you wait for a video to load and head back to it when it's ready. 

There are some neat touches that allow you to view information quickly. For example, if you want to view the full conversation around a tweet, putting two fingers together and pulling down brings up all the replies. 

Also, if a particular tweet uses a hashtag, then clicking on it will bring up that tweet and others underneath that use the same tag. 

Follower suggestions are another useful feature. If you select a user's profile it suggests similar users to follow further down the page, a good way to find interesting people to follow. 

Having played with the app for half an hour this morning, I'm impressed so far. As shown in the screenshot below you have a few panes open, then select new tweet, the screen gets a bit cluttered, but it is easy enough to switch between panes and hide the ones you aren't using. 

I have been using Tweetdeck on the iPad so far, as I also use it on desktop and mobile, mainly because i like to be able to view several columns at once.

However, this new Twitter app makes it much easier to read tweets, get at the content contained within, and to see user's details and the flow of conversations. Since Tweetdeck on iPad can also be a little slow and buggy, this new Twitter app looks a better bet at the moment. 

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Communications Assessment Made Easy

02 September 2010

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Study: Display ad market nearly doubled in 2010, amidst a slow economy

01 September 2010

That online display advertising growth so many digital marketers have been anticipating may be arriving a little early. According to a new report from Rubicon Project, digital ad spending grew 47% during the first half of the year.

That's not including search revenues — and despite an economy that has yet to nudge past the brink of rebound.

The economy has rebounded slower than predicted this year. Economic growth started off well in 2010, with the economy expanded at a rate of 3.7%, but in the second quarter that growth slowed to just 2.4%.

Meanwhile, display advertising is growing at a fast clip. Marketers have expanded their budgets and 2010 is expected to be the strongest year for online ad spending.

In 2009, internet ad revenues (minus search) slowed, but totaled $5.9 billion in the first quarter of 2010, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the highest number since the companies started tracking internet revenues.

According to the Rubicon 20 Index, which tracks 20 premium publishers that include NBC Universal, Time Inc. and Gannett, CPMs rose an average of 25% from the first quarter of 2010 to the second. Overall, the Rubicon 20 Index grew 47% from the start of 2010 through the end of the second quarter.

U.S. Web users now receive 15% more display ads since 2009, according to comScore's Ad Metrix. comScore also estimates that the total U.S. display ad spending for the first quarter of the year reached $2.7 billion.

Meanwhile, Borrell Associates estimates online ad spending is poised to grow nearly 14%, from $45.6 billion in 2010 to $51.9 billion in 2011. Much of that growth is coming from local ads. The company predicts by next year, local online advertising should grow by almost 18% — from $13.7 billion in 2010 to $16.1 billion in 2011.

According to Borrell, targeted display advertising will grow nearly 60% in 2011, reaching $10.9 billion. While national advertisers are expected to ramp up their use of targeted display by about 50%, local advertising will more than double to over $2.3 billion in 2011.

These numbers are good news for those bullish on display advertising. As growth in the search advertising market begins to slow, that's getting to be more and more companies. For one thing, display advertising is quickly changing to include more formats and advertising approaches.

Just yesterday, Jonathan Bellack, Google's director of product management, explained in a post titled "Everything is going to be 'display'":

"Looking forward, what we call “display” today will just be “advertising”—a single platform that can coordinate an advertiser’s campaign across streaming audio ads in car stereos, interactive mobile experiences on smartphones, and HD video ads on set-top boxes. Imagine if that single platform could optimize the campaign, automatically delivering the best-performing ads, best returns and best mix, across all those platforms. That’s the future we envisage."

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Apple is about to teach telecoms to fear free with FaceTime on iPod Touch

01 September 2010

Cellphone carriers better prepare to understand the meaning of "tyranny of free." Today at Apple's fall product launch, Steve Jobs announced that iPhone and iPod Touch products can now make calls to other Apple mobile devices without the need for a cellphone contract.

It could take awhile for Apple and Google's similarly free voice calling features to go mainstream. But both products point to an ever present threat in the digital world, where free can be a nasty four letter word. 

Today in San Francisco, Steve Jobs announced some updates to Apple's iPod Touch:

“The iPod touch has been a remarkable product for us. It has become the most popular product for us — it used to be the nano. A lot of people call it the iPhone without a phone. But it’s also an iPhone without the contract!”

That's because iPhones and iPod touches can now video chat one another through FaceTime. Apple is selling three iPod Touch models: 8GB for $229, 32GB for $299, and 64GB for $399.”

Considering that the iPod has all of the features of an iPhone without the steeper price tag, it could catch on as a communication device.

Apple also isn't the only one working on digital calling alternatives. Skype's internet calling options are far cheaper than terrestrial phone lines. Meanwhile, Google just undercut Skype with the launch of Voice Calls from Gmail, a service that allows Gmail users to call landlines for free.

Right now, those aren't major options for mobile calling, but it's not hard to imagine mobile implementations of those services taking off.

The major benefit that telecoms have right now stems from the enormous data load that most smartphones require. For occasional calling, iPod Touch users can plug in to a home wifi network. But for frequent usage, consumers still need phone companies to communicate through voice and audio calls.

However, phone companies are going to have to do a lot better if they don't want some tech company to sweep in and eat their lunch over the next few years.

Many of the telcos are lacking when it comes to customer service, and with consumers, a little more effort could go a long way. Also, telcos can provide a level of consistency in calling that new video and audio tech features can't maintain right now. 

It will be especially interesting to see if monthly charges from the telcos drop over the next few months. It's expensive to provide the data capabilities many mobile users eat up on a daily basis. But when the competition offers a similar (if less reliable) service for free, it's time to start reassessing your cost structure.

Images: gdgt, Apple

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Facebook goes to Target with Facebook Credits gift cards

01 September 2010

Facebook may not be a retailer, but that doesn't mean the company can't sell gift cards. Starting September 5, Target will start selling Facebook Credits gift cards in stores nationwide.

Consumers don't necessarily need easier ways to spend money on Facebook, but it is a great trick to introduce more consumers to Facebook games. Free marketing for Target, too.

Facebook Credits are the social network's new currency that pays for goods in Facebook's myriad addicting games. Target will be the first brick and mortar to carry Facebook gift cards. According to the retailer:

"Facebook Credits are an easy and convenient way for people to buy digital goods in more than 150 popular social games and applications offered by independent developers on Facebook. The newly-launched Facebook Credits gift cards will be an ideal gift this holiday season for those who enjoy playing social games on Facebook."

Target shoppers will be able to buy $15, $25 and $50 cards.

More than 200 million people play games on Facebook every month, and at least 19 games on Facebook have more than 10 million active users a month. Facebook's self-serve advertising platform has been performing tremendously over the last year. The social network is expected to rake in an estimated $1.3 billion in online advertising revenue worldwide this year, up 92% from 2009, according to eMarketer. But as SiliconAlleyInsider writes:

"The whole virtual goods business – the one Facebook is bringing to Target on September 5 – could bring in another few hundred million dollars. Former Facebook president Sean Parker says the business could end up being a third of Facebook's revenues this year."

According to Inside Network, Americans will spend more than $1.6 billion on virtual goods and social gaming in 2010. Meanwhile, Facebook takes a healthy 30% cut of Facebook Credits sales. The social network is already signing up new users hand over fist, but this could be a good way to boost its gaming business. That's because people love buying gift cards. The domestic prepaid gift card market is expected to reach $86.2 billion this year, compared with $80.6 billion in 2009, according to Mercator Advisory Group.

Despite the impressive gaming revenues that Facebook brings in, there are many Facebook users that never actually play or see those games. Gift cards at the register at Target and other retailers could work as great marketing to consumers who don't currently use Facebook in that way.

Furthermore, this is a great move for Target. Facebook wants its Credits system to take off. And will be promoting the new cards in various ways. Add to that Target's status as the first adopter to sell these cards, and the whole partnership starts to win Target some great tech savvy points.

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Ideas to Boost Your Creativity

01 September 2010

This month at Nonprofit Marketing Guide, we presented a series of webinars aimed at helping you get more creative with your nonprofit communications, including using metaphors and humor. I heard from many people who want to guest blog for me, so you’ll see more creative ideas here in the coming months. For now, here is [...]

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