(Credit: Dale Hugo (cc))

The networks that we live in when we are online can be best understood by looking through the twin lenses of search engines and social media.

We talk about ourselves as a Search and Social company, and I thought it would be good to offer some thoughts on what that means. Although this is a company blog, these thoughts are very much a personal perspective, so I hope my colleagues will chime in with their critique of it.

I think search and social is not just good positioning for a company which has strengths in services around search engine marketing and social media. It is the best possible way for us to think about the web.

Social media and search engines are both things that are – of course – native to the web. Portals and information superhighways were ideas that came to us from thinking rooted the channel media world, a world which basically was centred around, or radiated out from, a centre owned and controlled by the media owners.

Search and social media are user centred. They let people shape their media experience, their experience of the communications technology around their desires.

Search and social are also both about networks. The networks that we live in when we are online can be best understood by looking through the paired lenses of search engines and social media.

Read more…

So you’ve got a website, you think it’s cool and you’re pretty sure other people will like it, but you’re just not getting the traffic, so what can you do about it?  Well there are a number of simple and some not so simple things you can do to get more people coming to your site.  Below we’ve compiled a basic top 10 of things to do.

1)    Optimise your page titles
Eh?  A page title is the part of the page right at the very top of the screen, it contains a brief description of the page contents and is used by search engines when deciding how to rank your site/page in search results.  It’s also part of what users see in the search results so it’s important to get this bit right.  You want to make sure you have words and phrases that accurately describe what is on your page and are also terms that people are searching on.  You can use keyword volume estimator tools such as Google Adwords to show you how much search there is on each word and choose the best ones to use.  Although it may be tempting to only use super high volume words, remember you’re unlikely to rank for competitive terms such as “football”, so try more specific phrases such as “Football news UK”

2)    Links links links
This bit isn’t so easy, but massively important so it’s worth paying attention.  Many of the popular search engines use the number of inbound links you have to your site as a measure of popularity, therefore the more links you have the better you will rank.  While there are many underhand ways of gaining more links, the best way is to promote yourself in a non spammy way and great content is a good way of doing this…

3)    Quality content that attracts attention
Having high quality, timely content that naturally attracts links is what all search engines seek to promote and ultimately reward. Having a blog on your site is a good way of creating fresh content and if your posts are good, hopefully attracts links.  Also the ability to comment on posts creates user engagement on your site which helps you connect with the users of your site, creates a sense of community and ultimately return visitors.

4)    Optimise site copy
Along with optimising page titles, it is also important to optimise other parts of the site such as H1 tags and the articles on the site.  There needs to be a delicate balancing act done here so that you don’t ruin all your articles by trying to squeeze in as many keywords as possible, but subtle changes such as changing soccer to football shouldn’t ruin the flow and will better match search queries. Jeremy explores this in depth here.

5)    Make sure your site is indexable and accessible
Search engines cannot read the text within images, and although it’s getting better at reading text content within Flash you should provide text only alternatives or the search engines will not know what search terms to rank you for. You also have to make sure  your content is accessible, i.e. outputting text content using a JavaScript function will mean search engines cannot access the text.

Read more…

Before I joined iCrossing, I spent 7 years working as a freelance travel writer. In case you hadn’t noticed, traditional media is under huge financial pressure at the moment as reader numbers continue to decline.

Much of the reason for this is the impact of the web. Why pay for a travel magazine if you can read similar content online for free? We’re in the middle of a difficult transition for journalists. With ad revenues in decline, the pay available in traditional media is dwindling and the opportunities disappearing. You’d expect the money to follow the readers – so as more people switch to reading online content, ad revenues should grow for websites, which in turn should start to pay people that write for them a decent wage.

This is starting to happen, but only very slowly. There are far fewer barriers to setting up on-line so there’s a plethora of websites out there – all chasing a fairly finite pot of ad spend. And for these content-driven websites it’s real chicken-and-egg stuff. Investing in quality content is expensive. You don’t want to burn through your investment cash too fast, but you won’t get decent traffic and regular readers without investing in content – and as a result you won’t attract high paying ads.

Right now payment for on-line writing is pretty dreadful, particularly in the travel sector which is my main focus. There’s a real trend towards sites being set up with little thought about quality content. The assumption is that user generated stuff and wannabee travel writers’ submissions will be enough to get the thing up and running.

I was recently interviewed by the Written Road a website for aspiring travel writers. There’s lots of debate on there about writing for web, with many writers seemingly happy to pump features at travel websites with abandon in return for getting no more than their name out there or at best a minimal slice of the yet to be achieved ad revenue.

I think it’s such a bad idea. Ultimately people want to read well-researched, authoritative writing regardless of it being on or off-line. Most examples of writing on travel content sites that I’ve seen is pretty poor and some is awful.

Here at iCrossing I commission established travel writers to create destination guides and features for well-known travel brands. We pay a decent amount for this writing too, because we want quality.

I believe that content will be king on-line in the end. But which sites will it be hosted on?

Content only, traditional media-style sites or commercial sites like those of a top brand tour operator which, along with selling holidays, also wants to give its customers genuinely useful, well researched information about their destinations?

With the web we can all be publishers now.

Have you just chosen a new PPC agency and are wondering what next? Are you a search agency who’s just lost a PPC account to a competitor or a SEM paid search have just won a new paid search client following a pitch? Well, outlined below are our best practice guidelines for clients and agencies to ensure the seamless transition of PPC accounts between agencies.

To an incumbent agency:

1. Be professional and courteous

A client choosing to move search agencies is making a business decision so don’t take the decision personally and don’t make it personal by resorting to underhand tactics which seek to undermine the client’s choice. There’s nothing wrong with objectively offering your view on the decision but once a decision has been made very few people will backtrack so there’s little to be gained from constantly stating and re-stating that you think the client is making a mistake

2. Assist the client in seamlessly transitioning their search activity

The client is still paying you up until the end of their contract date so don’t down tools while you’re still being paid to work. Continue to respond to all reasonable requests for information and assistance.

3. Make it easy for your client and respect their decision

If the client has served notice and is requesting that you transition the search account then the damage has already been done. Creating barriers to the successful transitioning of a search account will only serve to reduce your standing in the eyes of the client further and cultivate you a bad reputation within the industry.

Read more…

OK, so New Year was a few days ago, but Monday 5th is when UK PLC gets back to work after the holidays. First order of the day is taking stock.

Here’s a selection of the predictions and analysis of 2009 I’ve found most interesting:

1. The Economist’s The World in 2009: The must-read overview of the coming year in politics, business, science and technology. The predicted Corporate Crunch as a follow-up to the Credit Crunch will come as no surprise, but better to be armed with the facts…
2. The Futurist’s Top 10 Forecasts for 2009 and Beyond: From urbanisation to nanotech, the Futurist has the big trends covered here. So, some of these may not happen in the coming year, but sometimes it is healthy to take the long view.
3. JWT’s 10 Trends for 2009: Ad giant JWT won’t tell all about their predictions for 2009 unless you give them $250 (someone tell them about freeconomics, please) but the summary tells you most of what’s on their minds right now from “recessionary living” to the “collective conciousness”.
4. Trendwatching.com’s Half a dozen Consumer Trends for 2009: i’ve yet to see a dull report from Trendwatching and this one’s no exception. Feedback 3.0 and Mapmania are two trends which particularly rang true for me.
5. Web Worker Daily’s Four Disruptive Technologies for 2009: The one to watch for me is the rise of Android / Linux phones.
6. Eric Schmidt on What’s Ahead in 2009: A video from Google’s Public Policy blog, I like this look at 2009 as it is about what *needs* to happen rather than what might happen.
7. Mark Andersen’s tech predictions for 2009: Another video, this time from the formidable futurist Mark Andersen, CEO of Strategic News Service. Peter Day of the BBC’s World of Business also interviewed Mark about his predictions for 2009 – you may still be able to download it if you hurry to the programme’s website.

Hope you enjoy them, and feel well-armed to take on the year…

: : Bonus link: How could I leave out search guru John Battelle’s predictions for 2009?

: : : And another: Read / Write / Web’s 2009 predictions are  must-read…

Inspired by a ‘recently compiled top ten list of New Year’s resolutions’ sent to me by local estate agent RA Bennett & Partners…

1.       Get into shape

For digital, that means redundancies. No digital media owner, agency or advertiser, particularly if they have US paymasters, is likely to end the year with more staff than it started. But, it’s an opportunity for those businesses to assess the parts of their business that deliver real value. The worry is that they’ll throw the baby out with the bath water. Creative talent, marketing and – particularly – investment in technology are not places to cut costs though it might look that way to the spreadsheet operatives. However, they should feel free instead to cut back on fancy offices, encourage remote working, and spend less on making their clients feel ‘special’. Good clients want good work, not good jollies.

2.       Get more organised

Thanks to its high-speed growth, digital businesses have evolved in very organic ways – so much so that too few people can answer the questions ‘what do you do?’ and ‘who do you report to?’ in any sensible terms. I’ve seen job titles like director of difference and always wondered what that person writes on their to-do list every morning. So company structures need to get simplified. Once everyone knows what their job is, actually doing is a lot easier.

3.       Give up smoking/drinking

What is digital’s drug? The thing it knows does it absolutely no good whatsoever, but it just can’t give up. For me, it’s ad banners. Of course, everything has its price and the price of ad banners is becoming so commoditised as to be approaching free. Some businesses can build profitable models on them i.e. ad networks (and sometime soon ad exchanges). But, traditional publishers, agencies and advertisers have fought for too long to support high-cost and high-talent businesses on the back of them, chiefly because they’re the closest thing we have to a traditional media model. Personally, I’m looking for online businesses this year that monetise what they do in other ways – in-text, subscriptions (yes, subscriptions!), directories, strategic sponsorships are four that spring to mind for media owners.

4.       Change your job

New Year is the time to ask oneself what it is one would actually like to be doing – and is good at doing – with their working life. At the core of that is taking a broader view of whatever value it is that a company delivers for its customers. Why, really, do customers come to you? Is that really what you are focused on doing for them? And have you worked out ways of getting them (or others) to pay for it? If it’s a struggle to answer those questions, then a good rethink is in order.

5.       Reduce debt

Obviously. Because who knows what the banks will demand from us personally, and as businesses, this year to keep their shareholders and the regulators happy.

Social media is something that absolutely every agency in the land now claims to do. And, in general, they come at it from one of three angles:

1. SEO specialists who recognised that generating links from authority sites meant getting coverage in online communities and blogs

2. PR specialists who recognised that getting coverage meant dealing with online communities and blogs

3. Digital agencies who recognised that advertising doesn’t really work on web sites and therefore must start to deal with online communities and blogs (not that ads will work there either)

All three have rightful claims and, therefore – if I were a client – I’d be very confused about whom to charge with helping me out.

Some basic tips might help:

1. A new approach – since everyone claims to ‘do’ social, look for those seeking to develop new models for approaching it, not those seeking to map on their existing models

2. Technology – everyone claims to have unique talent, to be ‘leading’, to have great clients, and real expertise. Technology, fortunately, can’t be faked, demonstrates genuine investment and expertise, and really can be proprietary and unique. So, which agency has developed/is developing their own technology to support their new approach?

3. (Courtesy of Roger, C&M) Measurement – the true value of real engagement by brands in social media is really hard to measure. I’ll be dropping my bank as soon as I don’t need them anymore because of the way it treated me when I was a student – good social media strategy will have a similarly long-lasting effect. Nonetheless, some agencies are having a very credible stab at it. Just steer clear of the ones who claim it’s that simple.

4. Existing credentials – being good at something, in my view, is a transferable skill. Muhammad Ali liked to say that if he’d been a dustman (I’m translating of course), he’d have been the best dustman in the world. I believe him. So, is the agency now claiming to be brilliant at social media brilliant at what it already does?

5. Case studies – trade journalists will tell you that finding people to talk about social media is not a problem. Finding people that have real projects to talk about is a good deal more difficult. What has the agency really done in this area?

My shortlist would be made up only of agencies that tick all [five] boxes and I’d be much more concerned about these things than whether an agency has its heritage in digital creative, media, SEO or PR since social media, as anyone with half an insight cell could spot, touches everything.

So this year has seen several announcements from Google which are all set to make the giant even more money. Is this just a coincidence or do we think they’re feeling a little bit of a pinch like the rest of us?

2008 has seen Google relax their ban on gambling advertising in the UK as well as the restrictions on the Paid Search bidding on trademarked terms in May lifted. Both moves are set to probably increase click through rates thus earning them more money.

The new year will see the search giant removing their BPF (Best practice funding) scheme, a move which is set to save them more money, covered in more detail by Tom here. They will also be lifting restrictions on the advertising of alcoholic spirits tapping into a new potential revenue stream. The giant will allow spirit brands to run campaigns related to brand activity but not direct response that promotes actual sales. The ban is expected to be lifted in the second week of January.

In the great debate of whether Google are ‘good’ or ‘bad’ these announcements in 2008 are certainly pushing the needle more towards the morally ‘bad ‘ side, especially when considering the restriction relaxations on spirits, gambling and trademarks.

Are these the types of  moves that we can expect to see more of in 2009…? They’ve still got their 20% time policy so i’m not feeling sorry for them just yet!

From the first day of 2009, Google’s Best Practice Funding scheme (a euphemism for agency commissions) will have ended. Yahoo too will be changing the way it rewards big spending agencies by moving to a tiered scheme. We’ve been thinking hard about how that will affect clients, agencies and the search engines themselves. And the answer is that, for agencies and their clients, there will be real impact. Google, in the meantime can roll on regardless.

Since Google accounts for at least 90% of all UK search spend (and therefore half of all UK online ad spend), we’re focusing here on them but Yahoo’s decision (it will begin to pay back four per cent to spenders of between £50,000 to £100,000 a month and nine per cent to spenders of £100,000-plus) will have an impact too.

BPF was Google’s replacement for direct agency discounts and was pitched as a way to encourage growth and ‘best practice’ among agencies. Where agencies invested the money they saved through the scheme in delivering better search (for example, systems, technology and people), that’s just what it did. But, many used it as their route to margin, particularly the traditional buying agencies that were used to receiving large discounts on offline media.

Under the last iteration of the scheme, agencies that spent more than £15m a year got more than seven per cent of it (£1m-plus) back. That is a large sum of money to remove from whichever line in your P&L account you put it but if you’d been putting it right at the bottom, you now face a real issue with profitability.

At iCrossing, we put our BPF cash into our own search technology and our team, not our bottom line. But, even for us that is still money that will be missed since lost business revenue can only ever be replaced in three ways – reduced investment, higher prices or lower costs. None of those is an attractive prospect and agencies will be looking for understanding from their clients as they look for ways to offset BPF while at the same time increasing (not just maintaining) the quality of their service.

In short:

1. Pitch time: agencies who were simply using BPF to bolster their P & L or passing this back to clients as a point of differentiation to win search accounts are going to be hit hard. Serious, fundamental renegotiation of large contracts will serve as a stimulus for many clients to consider their options and indeed other agencies

2. The experts will win out: those that invested BPF in developing real search expertise and technology, can make natural and paid search work together to develop efficiency, and use ‘native’ digital planning techniques (e.g. linguistic profiling and genuine customer journey insight) will be the ones that deliver real value and therefore should hold on to clients and pick up business in the new swathe of pitches – as long as those clients hire on value rather than just cost.

3. CPCs unaffected: it’s been speculated that CPCs might decrease since agencies will have less to spend on keywords. But, BPF average payout is probably more like 3-4%, rather than 7-8% and individual accounts still represent the majority of Google’s spend (not agencies) so we’ll see little impact in the price of search

4. Google steams on: the sheer dominance of Google as the country’s most popular search engine negates the normal dynamics of buying and selling. Since buyers are unable to choose alternatives, where Google leads, we must follow. That Yahoo has changed its agency commissions too demonstrates this

So, there’s our thoughts, what are yours? Do you think that the effects of the change will be manifest themselves in different ways? We’d love to hear from you. And if you’re interested in any more insight into how BPF might affect your own search campaigns and strategy, give us a call.

‘Here’s the thing’:

Social is not a distinct entity, you can’t ‘buy’ the channel, nor can you fit it into a sales funnel. The ‘media’ bit is whatever people want to make it. Some UGC amazing, some just noise. Some brands pollute the commons, some try to understand the new enviroment, earn permission, and then participate. The bit that agencies struggle with is the $$ (see Phil Buxton’s post on Twitter recently). If it ain’t for selling anything why is anyone going to spend their drastically reduced marketing budget on it. So here goes:

Social is for selling. We’re all selling something, be it opinions, thoughts or attention. Social is the biggest platform in the history of humankind for selling, and we are all invited to pitch.

Brands that want to sell things that people do not want may find this is difficult medium – it’s shockingly new, hugely complex, truly massive, and moving faster than most of us can comprehend.

Selling is anything that helps create a great perception, feeling or thought about a brand. Whether it motivates us to go out and immediately buy is another matter. If, through social outreach, we can help customers access brands, understand their products and get involved in developing the next superbrand - then this must at some point help to support price, market share and ultimately profitability.

If the bottom line is the bottom line, as marketers we need to answer how it can contribute to the commercial success of a organisation. If social is a valuable way of behaving, then it is valuable to everyone.

Social for a car maker provides a context for making better products in the future. For people everywhere it also provdes a rich utility value that can end-up in better holidays, buying the safest infant milk, or banking with a company that cares about the community it operates within.

Social has the power to add everything to the bottom line. It will make and break huge companies and change marketing forever. If social ‘ain’t for selling’ then brands cannot be intimately interwoven into our daily lives. I think that the best and worst ones help form the deepest reaches of our society.

For this reason alone, social is for selling. Now let’s go and measure that.