Chicago Media Marketing & Advertising January Meetup

Nicholas Kinports (follow him on Twitter @ADMAVEN) has worked in the interactive technology world for over 15 years. He is the Digital Strategy Lead and founder of Chicago-based digital marketing firm lonelybrand, where he directs the creation and execution of digital marketing programs that generate measurable signups, conversions and sales.

January details are online! I look forward to meeting you all there!

Details:

Join us along with a special panel of three (3) guest speakers. All experts in their field, who will be discussing Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Local Search at its best.
There will be a brief Q & A .

This will the first 2009 meeting.

Galway Bay is 50 feet west of Pine Grove on the north side of Diversey.
Accessible by the #151 bus (1 block walk east), the #22 Clark or # 36 Broadway (2 blocks walk west) or the CTA Brown line (5 blocks walk west).

If you're driving there is metered street parking on Diversey (bring quarters) and/or cheap, private-lot parking behind Market Place grocery store which is across the street from Galway. There is also a Public Pay-by-the-Hour lot on Diversey between Cambridge and Clark.

Interactive Advertising Q&A Roundup

As an active member of communities touching the interactive advertising world I answer many questions on a daily basis. Each week I will round of some of the best questions and answers for your consumption.

Joy Abdulla asks:

How can social marketing be shown to be effective in terms of dollar sales?

Is there a mechanism/ method/formula through which we can effectively forecast or project what would be potential earnings for a brand by utilizing social marketing techniques on various sites?

ADMAVEN answers:

Joy,

The answer to your question is that you must have a third party software (or design your own) to measure the effects of your campaign. If the campaign is simple you may be able to track metrics yourself, but if there are any added layers of complication you will need extra help.

I have linked a company called Sway that does this very thing for many campaigns rooted in social media.

LINK: http://www.swayonline.com

Rich Dettmer, Director of Digital Strategy and Partner at Slack Barshinger, asks:

What law governs web based data collection?

When collecting data on a web site, is the collection governed by the laws of the country the data is collected from, or the country where the site is hosted? For example: If I am collecting user registrations from Europe on a site that is hosted in the United States, who’s laws govern that transaction?

ADMAVEN answers:

Hi Rich!

International law is tricky in the traditional corporate sense, but combined with the Internet there is very little case law to call upon.

The generally accepted concept is that you are governed by the place where your business is incorporated (whatever mechanism that may be). If you do not have a brick and mortar establishment, you may be subject to the laws of any country through which you transact. For example, collecting money from a UK citizen and storing that money in the United States exposes you to legal liability in both countries, however collecting data with no financial transaction most likely does not expose you to the country in which the individual providing the data resides. There is some case law along these lines regarding spam as a method of collecting data, and I do not recommend mass emails as a foreign campaign strategy.

In general the United States is a rules based country when it comes to law. You can review case law and find clearly (sometimes not so clearly) written torts, statutes, and laws that govern our businesses. In Europe (since this is in your example I will use it here) the laws are principle based. In other words, courts tend to look at your intent more than your action when deciding cases. If you are not doing anything blatantly illegal, I would say your liability is very low.

You can always seek council through an international attorney, but this is a costly engagement and may not provide you with a clearer answer.

I highly recommend contacting the consulate of each country in which you are interested to discover more about what your legal exposure may be. In my experience they are very helpful and willing to discuss these issues as well as the culture of their home country (which may help you formulate regional marketing strategies).

DISCLAIMER!

I am not a lawyer, though I do hold a Bachelor of Science in International Business and am almost through my MBA in the same subject. These kinds of questions appear in case studies and course materials. I hope my answer helped!

Laura Fitton, Principal and Founder of Pistachio Consulting, Inc., asks:

How can businesses use Twitter and other microblogging tools?

Communications, advertising, PR and social media agencies, what are your client's burning questions about Twitter and other "microblogging" platforms? Where do you look for the answers to what they should be doing?

ADMAVEN answers:

Laura,

Clients do not typically know about Twitter as a business tool. When appropriate, I may suggest microblogging as a way to engage a passionate target base.

The important thing when using Twitter - or any blog based tool - is to provide relevant content that is of interest to the target audience. Because Twitter is an opt-in service, target users must feel as though they are receiving something in exchange for their attention.

You can read more about how to use blog and microblog tools in ADMAVEN - The Interactive Advertising Blog, which I have linked below as a resource. Scroll down to the article entitled, "SEO vs. SMO Part 3: The Social Metropolis". Read the linked materials in the article and you will have a complete understanding of how to engage a target audience with a blog or microblog tool.

LINK: http://admaven.blogspot.com/2008/08/sem-vs-smo-part-3-social-metropolis.html

Natalia Alexandrou, Senior Marketing Executive at Report Buyer & Piribo, asks:

B2B Affiliate Marketing - does it work!?

I'm interesting in hearing your experiences (good and bad) with B2B affiliate marketing... and I'm not talking about the affiliate programs which use B2C tactics such as printer companies etc.

Are there any success stories? How did you approach possible partners? What tools work best for you?

We are a B2B company and we launched an affiliate program 5 months ago through a network with a dedicated campaign manager... and are only getting B2C affiliate sites joining our program. Is the industry just not ready to take on B2B affiliates?

ADMAVEN answers:

Ms. Alexandrou,

My experience has taught me several things about B2B Affiliate Marketing:

1) Pursue affiliates with whom you have a long and trusted business (or personal) relationship first. This may involve a C level meeting where you speak to the CEO, COO, and CTO to generate a list of companies that are willing to go the extra mile and form an affiliate relationship.
2) Be flexible. Although you should come in with a detailed plan on your Affiliate program, be willing to tweak the plan for each Affiliate. Every company is different, and applying one model to your targets may discourage them from forming a relationship.

When I started my B2B affiliate program, we went to our CEO and generated a couple of leads with whom we knew the CEO had maintained a personal relationship. These companies trusted our brand name, and were willing to at least listen. We then came in with our presentation, including the buy in figures, terms, etc... We had a contract ready to go, but never got a signature right away. Instead, we found the average time to close an affiliate was 6 months, and involved detailed negotiations with top management on both sides. Each deal was unique, but persistence and follow-up helped get the job done!

Nicholas Kinports (follow him on Twitter @ADMAVEN) has worked in the interactive technology world for over 15 years. He is the Digital Strategy Lead and founder of Chicago-based digital marketing firm lonelybrand, where he directs the creation and execution of digital marketing programs that generate measurable signups, conversions and sales.

SEM vs. SMO Part 3: The Social Metropolis

Social Media Optimization continues to grow at an exponential – and nearly incomprehensible – pace. In the agency world it is almost impossible to stay at the forefront of the SMO environment due to this rapid expansion. That being said, there are a few agencies that do an outstanding job of keeping abreast. In the third installment of the SEM vs. SMO series, I will focus on GoViral, the concept of The Social Metropolis, and the book by the same name.

To begin, let’s get up to speed on the concept. At the end of the article I will provide a link to download the full book free of charge from GoViral.

Jimmy Maymann, the founder and CEO of GoViral, presented his concept of The Social Metropolis this year in Cannes. The video of his presentation is below. Though lengthy, it provides a basic introduction to the concept of The Social Metropolis and what it means to enter this emerging space.

One of the key takeaways from Mr. Maymann’s presentation is the concept of democratization of information. As more people have free and unfettered access to the internet, we see a growing trend of consumer empowerment. The following excerpt from The Social Metropolis highlights the resulting disparity between consumer intelligence and the current state of the ad industry:

“The result is a genuine mismatch between a media and marketing experienced public, and a marketing/advertising industry that, generally speaking, have been delivering the same product since the 1970s. I magine if Ford or Sony did the same...? The old model is broken - a new one is only slowly taking shape. Over the past decades, companies have become used to defining their message, shaping their brand, and having complete control over the channels of communication. Now they are losing it” (The Social Metropolis – Page 11).

Though there is a bounty of new and exciting information in The Social Metropolis, ADMAVEN wants to highlight the bigger picture – respect SMO or be left in the dust.

Explaining exactly how you can take advantage of SMO to leverage your next big campaign is out of the scope of this article. This information, however, can be gleaned by reading GoViral’s The Social Metropolis. Visit GoViral and download the book here.

Happy reading!

Nicholas Kinports (follow him on Twitter @ADMAVEN) has worked in the interactive technology world for over 15 years. He is the Digital Strategy Lead and founder of Chicago-based digital marketing firm lonelybrand, where he directs the creation and execution of digital marketing programs that generate measurable signups, conversions and sales.

SEM vs. SMO Part 1

Today marks the beginning of a two part series that outlines how Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Social Media Optimization (SMO) practices can help produce a well rounded campaign that generates great response numbers and leaves a lasting impression in search engine indexes. Let’s dive right in with a brief conversation about Search Engine Marketing.

SEM: Bang for the Buck!

Search Engine Marketing is one of the best ways a company or campaign can raise its profile on a tight budget. As with most things advertising, you can find ways to spend every dime of that precious budget, but few things are as measurable and actionable as a good paid placement plan. Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft offer their respective paid placement products, but most experts (and the stock market) agree that Google provides the best offering through AdWords and related products.

Andrew McMains of AdWeek offers a poignant reminder of how underutilized paid placement can be. The kicker – he is talking about interactive agencies! Why an interactive agency would not engage in a paid placement campaign is beyond me. I suggest you read Mr. McMains’ entire article and learn more about some of the fundamentals of getting your name (or the name of your client) to the right audience.

The paid options aside, my favorite topic when speaking about SEM practices is SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. SEO gets into the gray area of advertising on the internet. The major search engines guard their search algorithms from the public eye to keep SEO experts from “cracking the code” and circumventing the hundreds of data points a search engine uses to calculate the ranking of a page or site. When am asked about SEO strategies and the best ways to increase page ranking I always recommend using the natural tendencies of search engine spiders to generate a successful result. What do I mean by, “natural tendencies”? Generate relevant content!

Page titles and Meta Tags are the most basic – but also often overlooked – aspects of SEO. Make sure your titles and tags are relevant to your audience on every page and update them as your campaign evolves.

Frequent updates are important to search engines. Old content that has gone stale will be replaced by newer indexing. The best way to keep things fresh and on the top of everyone’s list is to update your page content weekly with relevant information. This may mean a blog or a news/press release section. How many times do you go to a company’s website and find their last press release is two years old? Shameful! If the contract is a one time revenue stream, build a simple method into your project that allows your client to update the page on their own without you (or your agency) helping.

Linking between sites is critical to generating great search results! Make sure your client has active links to their new project on all their websites. Conversely, make sure you link to your client’s new project on all your agency sites. Research professional and industry associations that may be interested in your client’s campaign or project and solicit links from those organizations. Ask your client what companies or relationships they maintain with vendors, business partners, etc… and network to build a solid base of links.

FLASH! The new player in the SEO world. As ADMAVEN covered in a previous post text within Flash SWF files is now available for indexing on the major search engines (Microsoft excluded). Place relevant words and text in your Flash projects to ensure proper indexing. Remember – indexing of Flash files does not apply to ActionScript text, Library names, or any convention not readily viewable by the end user.

Keep reading for the next article in the SEM vs. SEO series, when I delve into more detailed information on SEM as well as graze the virgin territory of SMO!

Nicholas Kinports (follow him on Twitter @ADMAVEN) has worked in the interactive technology world for over 15 years. He is the Digital Strategy Lead and founder of Chicago-based digital marketing firm lonelybrand, where he directs the creation and execution of digital marketing programs that generate measurable signups, conversions and sales.