The Next Phase of Social Business Networking is Here! By: Business Wire | 27 Jan 2009 | 09:57 AM ET Text Size AVENTURA, Fla., Jan 27, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Analysts have been talking about how Social Networking will be transformed into a new Business Networking platform in 2009. In today's economy, everybody from small businesses to major corporations have been cutting back on their advertising budgets and moving towards Social Networking as the next phenomenon in business marketing.
Networkers United Worldwide (www.nuworldwide.com) is a brand new community of social business networkers that share the same vision of helping each other in growing their businesses by referring business to one another, exchanging tips and ideas, educating, promoting and connecting with each other on a localized or global basis.
The group believes in the Giver's Gain Principle. Give to people first, and in return you will get business back. It is a very simple law of attraction. The community was started on LinkedIn and Facebook just a few weeks ago and growing exponentially by the day. Our goal is to have over 500,000 members by March 2009 and 5,000,000 members by the end of the year.
"We are overwhelmed by its success and the quality of our members. The feedback we're getting from our members is only positive for setting up such a great and needed platform for business referrals," says founder Daniel Pansky.
The principle behind this was started in September 2008 when Victoria Blintser (Daniel's wife) decided to expand her LinkedIn profile. Upon expanding her profile and setting up the business group, she is now considered one of the biggest success stories on LinkedIn. This has led to many opportunities including joint venture offers, consulting offers, radio appearances, and the offers just keep rolling in by the day. Four months ago I was a struggling Real Estate broker having problems finding the next deal in one of the toughest Real Estate markets in history. Today, four months later, my business is on turbo charge to where I can't hire enough real estate agents fast enough. We are currently selling bulk portfolios, all thanks to the power of social business networking.
www.nuworldwide.com is absolutely Free to join and Free to use for the entire business community worldwide. Members can go ahead and utilize the NU Worldwide platform, or set up their own groups pertaining to their desired subject or business. The group offers free services to all their members such as tips, social business networking strategies, and guest moderators from the world's top leaders in Social Business Networking.
SOURCE: Networkers United, Inc.
CONTACT: Networkers United, Inc., Aventura Daniel Pansky, 954-239-7093 www.nuworldwide.com Copyright Business Wire 2009 -0- KEYWORD: United States
Showing posts with label Ecommerce platform. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ecommerce platform. Show all posts
Thursday, February 05, 2009
Friday, January 30, 2009
Gasta News; New Media Age Report
This week new media age reported that Google saw search impressions on its Content Network grow by over 300% year on year - an amazing statistic for something that doesn't seem to get many headlines (nma 29 January).
AdWords, naturally, is Google's piece de resistance, being far and away the most successful form of online advertising. But Content Network really isn't that far behind, if not necessarily in terms of revenue, and along with Google's display ambitions is starting to drive Google's core search business.
Efficient Frontier's UK Search Engine Performance Report Q4 2008 showed Adsense search ads generated by Google Content Network now accounting for 6.4% of all UK search impressions, up by 308% from 2.2% last year.
This is still a long way behind AdWords, at 81.8% of all impressions, but fast catching up Yahoo (8.4%) and well above Microsoft (3.4%), according to the report.
The catch-up isn't really surprising: Google's really pushed the Content Network hard this last year, rolling out new formats and better reporting.
In contrast, Yahoo last month announced the closure of Content Match, its text-based equivalent to Google's AdSense.
The company said it was because it saw the future in rich media, rather than text ads, but surely Google earning $1.68bn (£1.15bn) in revenues from AdSense in Q3 last year rebuts this view.
What I find most interesting is that while the discussions over Microsoft and Yahoo's failings in the search market have normally been with regard to AdWords, it's now the Content Network, not even a priority for Google, that is the biggest competitor.
AdWords, naturally, is Google's piece de resistance, being far and away the most successful form of online advertising. But Content Network really isn't that far behind, if not necessarily in terms of revenue, and along with Google's display ambitions is starting to drive Google's core search business.
Efficient Frontier's UK Search Engine Performance Report Q4 2008 showed Adsense search ads generated by Google Content Network now accounting for 6.4% of all UK search impressions, up by 308% from 2.2% last year.
This is still a long way behind AdWords, at 81.8% of all impressions, but fast catching up Yahoo (8.4%) and well above Microsoft (3.4%), according to the report.
The catch-up isn't really surprising: Google's really pushed the Content Network hard this last year, rolling out new formats and better reporting.
In contrast, Yahoo last month announced the closure of Content Match, its text-based equivalent to Google's AdSense.
The company said it was because it saw the future in rich media, rather than text ads, but surely Google earning $1.68bn (£1.15bn) in revenues from AdSense in Q3 last year rebuts this view.
What I find most interesting is that while the discussions over Microsoft and Yahoo's failings in the search market have normally been with regard to AdWords, it's now the Content Network, not even a priority for Google, that is the biggest competitor.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Gasta Opinion: Bye Bye Traditional Marketing
Heralding the death of non-social media
Right before the end of the year, there was a strong backlash against marketing through social media channels. If you were working anywhere near social media, it was hard to miss: People said it doesn't work. People said it doesn't work as they'd like it to. And people said it may work, but it takes effort (my favorite).
It was probably inevitable. There's never been a more explosive media format than social media. As someone wrote on one of my newsfeeds, "Is there anyone out there who isn't starting a social media company?" At any rate, backlash is practically street cred for the internet set. It's right there in the arc of the internet's growth. Personally, I have no question as to whether social media is a proper marketing channel for a company, and that's because of one simple reason: In the very near future, all media will be social media. Here's why -- and what it means for you.
Social media at point of purchase
Let's pause for a second before heading off into the future. For many brands, you could probably argue that all marketing efforts have already gone social. How?
A high percentage of purchases are already preceded by online research. And where there is online research, there are search results. Those search engine results pages often bring up links to a number of consumer review sites. Now, if you've done any amount of conversation monitoring, you know that reviewers don't exactly pull their punches. Even with shopping sites like Amazon, consumers posting negative reviews are hitting the brand where it hurts most -- at the point of purchase.
So given the above scenarios, even in a "controlled" push-media world, many brands can't even make it through the far end of the buying decision funnel without running head first into a social media situation. Compounding matters, many consumer comments are on social sites like Yelp, where they quickly rise to the top of search rankings.
This point-of-purchase invasion is heading for the physical shopping world as well. Have you tried any of the bar code scanner tools for mobile phones? I haven't found one that works well. Today. But with several of these technologies already in consumers' hands, how long until that's as seamless a part of the buying process as reading an Amazon review before purchasing online? Shoppers will be able to scan an item themselves and get all sorts of product information -- right in the store.
The rise of social viewing
So where's a company to hide from social media? On TV? Whether IPTV or internet TV is the TV model of the future, TV viewing is going to be highly social. I'd say the best glimpse of that future right now is internet TV.
Last November, I watched my high school football team play in the state championship -- on my laptop while waiting for a flight at O'Hare airport. Next to the video stream was a live chat box, open to anyone viewing the game. No sign-up, no identity verification -- just post off the top of your mind (and many did). Welcome to social viewing.
What I found particularly interesting is that during the few lulls in the game (they set the record for most points scored in a state final), the chat conversation topics would drift outside the game video to address the surrounding content on the page -- including the ads. And it certainly wasn't all positive.
Social viewing technology is also currently available in the "Watch & Chat" section of CBS.com, on View2gether.com, and in beta at NBC.com. It's similar to the gaming experience on Xbox Live, except that platform focuses primarily on voice instead of text.
If you project social viewing onto a national broadcast-like environment, you can imagine how vulnerable brands will be to public floggings. Social viewing carries with it all the things you were afraid of on the social networks, now fueled by anonymity combined with the reach of broadcast TV. With search engines aiding and abetting these conversations, even comments on small broadcasts could be discovered and shot into the mainstream conversation rapidly.
Commenting capabilities -- everywhere
In addition to TV, the future of display advertising offers little sign of protection from social media. Have you seen the display ads on Facebook? With commenting capabilities underneath? I recently commented on one, and it went straight into my newsfeed -- broadcast to all my "friends." (Facebook didn't even flag me that this would happen.)
You should expect comments across all online media to be more visible in the future. Disqus is already connecting comments across 45,000 websites, archiving them, making them more searchable, and tying them to database technologies like Plaxo.
Surely someone will invent something to stop all that, right? Here's what that would require: Less data made public for everyone to see. Less inclination among people to expose deeper and deeper levels of their lives in public. And fewer and fewer brands willing to venture into new media.
But since the public onset of the web, trends in this respect have been quite the opposite -- overwhelmingly so. So, in order to avoid that kind of social environment, brands would have to be practically invisible to anyone using online media -- and that's not exactly the objective of marketing departments.
So what's a brand to do?
How to get started
If the thought of participating in social media today seems scary, the thought of not participating in it in five years should really scare you.
Many brands will trip in their adoption path of social media. It just doesn't work the way push media like TV and print do, where you can turn on the fire hose and go from zero to $5 million a month in spend overnight. Doing so would be like the shy, quiet kid in the back of the classroom deciding to become the class clown the next day. It wouldn't be very authentic. And worse, it would be a path right back to the old-school "we're cool because we said so" form of branding. Beyond all that, it can take time to understand your audiences and to figure out what interests them and what they respond to.
This is what I would suggest to any brand that doesn't think it can go social: Start small and work your way up. Don't try to be Burger King in a month. Be yourself in a month. Start laying a foundational presence in the primary social media arenas. Initial moves into social media can be as simple as providing store locations, product information, coupons, or quizzes. Regardless, social media is where your customers are. It's where you should be too.
Papa John's has taken this route quite effectively on Facebook by adapting its website ordering technology for the social media network. As of this writing, the company has more than 200,000 "fans." Two months ago, prior to launching the Facebook app, it had about 10,000. Its 200,000 fans are a great social marketing foundation. If Papa John's can involve fans in a future Facebook campaign, their involvement will be forwarded on to their friends' newsfeeds.
Last year at SXSW, Mark Zuckerberg said the average number of friends on Facebook is 150. If that figure is anywhere near accurate, that's a newsfeed multiplier that can build significant word of mouth.
Connecting with your audience
Another proven social media tactic is to go directly to a community or group of influentials that includes your target audience. If you have something to say or share, they'll welcome you. And the more value you bring to them, the more they'll give back to you.
Virgin America connected with Boing Boing to launch its service here in the U.S. The company started by asking the Boing Boing editors to name one of its planes. (In true Boing Boing style, they tagged it "Unicorn Chaser.") That started the relationship. From there, Virgin America invited a top Boing Boing writer to join the inaugural flight.
Of course, effective social media marketing often comes back to the need for a quality product, which Virgin America has. And this reflects what Seth Godin has preached for years: Good products create their own positive press. The glowing reviews on Boing Boing were not only well written, they were supported by a convincing overview of the standout features on the plane. Boing Boing has a readership of more than 3 million early adopting consumers. What would it cost to reach them with a TV or print ad? And what ad would ever attain the level of credibility that came from Boing Boing's coverage?
So how should you begin your brand's move into social media? By reaching out to the people who are most interested in your products and services. Discover who your brand advocates are -- or who they could be. Figure out what they like about you and what they're interested in. There's a treasure trove of consumer research in that alone.
From there, expand your activities and begin engaging them in fun and distinct ways that define your brand's personality. You want to evolve with the medium so that several years from now, you don't come off as some uninformed noob.
When it comes to social media, think of your brand as a person. You don't have to be the class clown -- but you at least want to make an impression worth remembering.
Doug Schumacher is president and creative director at Basement Inc.
Right before the end of the year, there was a strong backlash against marketing through social media channels. If you were working anywhere near social media, it was hard to miss: People said it doesn't work. People said it doesn't work as they'd like it to. And people said it may work, but it takes effort (my favorite).
It was probably inevitable. There's never been a more explosive media format than social media. As someone wrote on one of my newsfeeds, "Is there anyone out there who isn't starting a social media company?" At any rate, backlash is practically street cred for the internet set. It's right there in the arc of the internet's growth. Personally, I have no question as to whether social media is a proper marketing channel for a company, and that's because of one simple reason: In the very near future, all media will be social media. Here's why -- and what it means for you.
Social media at point of purchase
Let's pause for a second before heading off into the future. For many brands, you could probably argue that all marketing efforts have already gone social. How?
A high percentage of purchases are already preceded by online research. And where there is online research, there are search results. Those search engine results pages often bring up links to a number of consumer review sites. Now, if you've done any amount of conversation monitoring, you know that reviewers don't exactly pull their punches. Even with shopping sites like Amazon, consumers posting negative reviews are hitting the brand where it hurts most -- at the point of purchase.
So given the above scenarios, even in a "controlled" push-media world, many brands can't even make it through the far end of the buying decision funnel without running head first into a social media situation. Compounding matters, many consumer comments are on social sites like Yelp, where they quickly rise to the top of search rankings.
This point-of-purchase invasion is heading for the physical shopping world as well. Have you tried any of the bar code scanner tools for mobile phones? I haven't found one that works well. Today. But with several of these technologies already in consumers' hands, how long until that's as seamless a part of the buying process as reading an Amazon review before purchasing online? Shoppers will be able to scan an item themselves and get all sorts of product information -- right in the store.
The rise of social viewing
So where's a company to hide from social media? On TV? Whether IPTV or internet TV is the TV model of the future, TV viewing is going to be highly social. I'd say the best glimpse of that future right now is internet TV.
Last November, I watched my high school football team play in the state championship -- on my laptop while waiting for a flight at O'Hare airport. Next to the video stream was a live chat box, open to anyone viewing the game. No sign-up, no identity verification -- just post off the top of your mind (and many did). Welcome to social viewing.
What I found particularly interesting is that during the few lulls in the game (they set the record for most points scored in a state final), the chat conversation topics would drift outside the game video to address the surrounding content on the page -- including the ads. And it certainly wasn't all positive.
Social viewing technology is also currently available in the "Watch & Chat" section of CBS.com, on View2gether.com, and in beta at NBC.com. It's similar to the gaming experience on Xbox Live, except that platform focuses primarily on voice instead of text.
If you project social viewing onto a national broadcast-like environment, you can imagine how vulnerable brands will be to public floggings. Social viewing carries with it all the things you were afraid of on the social networks, now fueled by anonymity combined with the reach of broadcast TV. With search engines aiding and abetting these conversations, even comments on small broadcasts could be discovered and shot into the mainstream conversation rapidly.
Commenting capabilities -- everywhere
In addition to TV, the future of display advertising offers little sign of protection from social media. Have you seen the display ads on Facebook? With commenting capabilities underneath? I recently commented on one, and it went straight into my newsfeed -- broadcast to all my "friends." (Facebook didn't even flag me that this would happen.)
You should expect comments across all online media to be more visible in the future. Disqus is already connecting comments across 45,000 websites, archiving them, making them more searchable, and tying them to database technologies like Plaxo.
Surely someone will invent something to stop all that, right? Here's what that would require: Less data made public for everyone to see. Less inclination among people to expose deeper and deeper levels of their lives in public. And fewer and fewer brands willing to venture into new media.
But since the public onset of the web, trends in this respect have been quite the opposite -- overwhelmingly so. So, in order to avoid that kind of social environment, brands would have to be practically invisible to anyone using online media -- and that's not exactly the objective of marketing departments.
So what's a brand to do?
How to get started
If the thought of participating in social media today seems scary, the thought of not participating in it in five years should really scare you.
Many brands will trip in their adoption path of social media. It just doesn't work the way push media like TV and print do, where you can turn on the fire hose and go from zero to $5 million a month in spend overnight. Doing so would be like the shy, quiet kid in the back of the classroom deciding to become the class clown the next day. It wouldn't be very authentic. And worse, it would be a path right back to the old-school "we're cool because we said so" form of branding. Beyond all that, it can take time to understand your audiences and to figure out what interests them and what they respond to.
This is what I would suggest to any brand that doesn't think it can go social: Start small and work your way up. Don't try to be Burger King in a month. Be yourself in a month. Start laying a foundational presence in the primary social media arenas. Initial moves into social media can be as simple as providing store locations, product information, coupons, or quizzes. Regardless, social media is where your customers are. It's where you should be too.
Papa John's has taken this route quite effectively on Facebook by adapting its website ordering technology for the social media network. As of this writing, the company has more than 200,000 "fans." Two months ago, prior to launching the Facebook app, it had about 10,000. Its 200,000 fans are a great social marketing foundation. If Papa John's can involve fans in a future Facebook campaign, their involvement will be forwarded on to their friends' newsfeeds.
Last year at SXSW, Mark Zuckerberg said the average number of friends on Facebook is 150. If that figure is anywhere near accurate, that's a newsfeed multiplier that can build significant word of mouth.
Connecting with your audience
Another proven social media tactic is to go directly to a community or group of influentials that includes your target audience. If you have something to say or share, they'll welcome you. And the more value you bring to them, the more they'll give back to you.
Virgin America connected with Boing Boing to launch its service here in the U.S. The company started by asking the Boing Boing editors to name one of its planes. (In true Boing Boing style, they tagged it "Unicorn Chaser.") That started the relationship. From there, Virgin America invited a top Boing Boing writer to join the inaugural flight.
Of course, effective social media marketing often comes back to the need for a quality product, which Virgin America has. And this reflects what Seth Godin has preached for years: Good products create their own positive press. The glowing reviews on Boing Boing were not only well written, they were supported by a convincing overview of the standout features on the plane. Boing Boing has a readership of more than 3 million early adopting consumers. What would it cost to reach them with a TV or print ad? And what ad would ever attain the level of credibility that came from Boing Boing's coverage?
So how should you begin your brand's move into social media? By reaching out to the people who are most interested in your products and services. Discover who your brand advocates are -- or who they could be. Figure out what they like about you and what they're interested in. There's a treasure trove of consumer research in that alone.
From there, expand your activities and begin engaging them in fun and distinct ways that define your brand's personality. You want to evolve with the medium so that several years from now, you don't come off as some uninformed noob.
When it comes to social media, think of your brand as a person. You don't have to be the class clown -- but you at least want to make an impression worth remembering.
Doug Schumacher is president and creative director at Basement Inc.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Gasta News: Top ten online retailers in UK see Increase in Traffic in December 2008
Visits to the top ten online UK retailers grew by an average of 37% year-on-year through the Christmas period, according to Nielsen Online.
Amazon, which averaged 15.6m unique users each month during the Christmas period (October to December) and Play.com, which averaged 5.7m unique users a month, were the only pure-plays to feature in the top ten.
Amazon was top of the list, with Argos coming in second (8.2m users on average per month) and Tesco in third (7.3m MW Live users on average each month).
Littlewoods, which ranked sixth, was the fastest growing site in the top ten after it saw a 66% year-on-year increase.
Asda (8th) grew by 53% over the Christmas period while Marks & Spencer (5th) saw a 46% increase.
Alex Burmaster, communications director of Nielsen Online, said, "Online retail won't be impervious to the tighter financial environment but it has an opportunity to weather the storm better than other elements of the economy, particularly if retailers promote the web as the best way of finding cheaper goods in the most efficient and convenient way possible."
Amazon, which averaged 15.6m unique users each month during the Christmas period (October to December) and Play.com, which averaged 5.7m unique users a month, were the only pure-plays to feature in the top ten.
Amazon was top of the list, with Argos coming in second (8.2m users on average per month) and Tesco in third (7.3m MW Live users on average each month).
Littlewoods, which ranked sixth, was the fastest growing site in the top ten after it saw a 66% year-on-year increase.
Asda (8th) grew by 53% over the Christmas period while Marks & Spencer (5th) saw a 46% increase.
Alex Burmaster, communications director of Nielsen Online, said, "Online retail won't be impervious to the tighter financial environment but it has an opportunity to weather the storm better than other elements of the economy, particularly if retailers promote the web as the best way of finding cheaper goods in the most efficient and convenient way possible."
Friday, November 07, 2008
Gasta News: PAID SEARCH: How the paid search industry is killing itself
PAID SEARCH:
How the paid search industry is killing itself
It may not be as bad as the banking industry, but SEM could use some help. Here's how paid search can get itself back on track before things get worse.
As the financial markets continue to turn out bleak news, I've begun to think about the many parallels existing between Wall Street and the SEM industry.
Mergers, acquisitions and shotgun marriages
To start with, we're now in the middle of a wave of consolidations that are reminiscent of the successive mergers and takeovers now taking place in the banking sector.
Range Online is the latest independent SEM agency to pack up its tent, as it was folded into iProspect, which was itself acquired by U.K.-based Aegis some time ago. Range follows Outrider (bought by ad holding company WPP, which also owns 24/7 Real Media), Reprise Media (snapped up by Interpublic) and Inceptor (purchased by Verizon).
It's clear that many SEM agencies are having a tough time going it alone, and the shotgun marriage M&A trend will accelerate if the macroeconomic environment continues to deteriorate and the SEM industry -- like the financial markets -- continues to suffer from ills that are largely of its own making.
Search engines enabled this mess
The SEM industry has no direct equivalent to sub-prime mortgages, collateralized debt obligations or over-leverage, but it suffers from structural issues that are largely a product of its ostensibly self-serve nature. Google and the other engines have stoked the fever of irrational optimism by encouraging everyone to believe that all it takes to succeed at search is a credit card and a couple of hours studying the AdWords help file.
The result is a world in which marketers behave like self-medicating patients who believe that watching a webinar on urinary tract infections is equivalent to getting a consultation with an experienced urologist. The fact that a number of people believe they are more qualified to run search than the experts reflects a dismal lack of confidence in SEM agencies. So it's no surprise when expert companies feel that getting swallowed up by a larger conglomerate is preferable to going it alone.
Killing the golden goose
But the search engines aren't the only ones to blame. Like Wall Street's "shadow market," in which trillions of dollars worth of complicated instruments are traded without any oversight, the SEM industry has its own shadow industry -- the conference and trade show business. This business depends on a simple proposition: if you go to enough shows, attend the right panels and rub elbows with the right people, you'll walk away knowing enough to run a competent search campaign. This is as absurd as saying that you can become a qualified mechanic by attending an auto show.
The only reason conferences and trade shows are so profitable for the people who run them is that exhibitors remain willing to buy very expensive booth space. Heaven help the trade show people, however, if exhibitors ever actually read the shows' agendas, which are chocked with seminars on how to succeed without an SEM agency!
Greed may destroy us all
And now let's talk about greed, which is as rampant in SEM as it is on Wall Street. Too many SEM agencies seem to have taken their sales approach directly from Moe's Mortgage Shop. These agencies are commission-driven -- not service-driven -- organizations that don't realize that overselling their services actually hurts long-term revenue goals by disappointing clients, creating client churn and destroying reputations.
Unfortunately, even good SEM agencies get tarnished by the continued operation of the fly-by-nighters. The SEM industry has failed to purge itself of these people and I have zero confidence it will do so at any time in the future. If it turned out that Macy's was filled with pickpockets, don't you think people would stop shopping there? So yes, the SEM industry needs to choose responsible conduct over unrivalled greed, or we're all headed over a cliff.
How to bail ourselves out
I don't think the SEM industry needs a billion-dollar bailout, but I do think it needs to clean up its act. Cancerous companies, much like toxic CDOs, need to be cleansed from the SEM books before confidence can be restored. Paid search practitioners need to be meaningfully accredited, not merely rubber-stamped, before they can run search campaigns. The search engines and the shadowy SEM conferencing business need to stop pushing the ridiculously destructive notion that neophytes can become as qualified as those with years of experience after only a few quick lessons.
Finally, SEM agencies should start thinking seriously about sharing risks with their clients. Hopefully the seasoned, expert agencies will launch programs to limit clients' downside risks and help stabilize the SEM industry once again. After all, the world has more than its share of uncertainty to navigate through on a day-to-day basis, and all the "black boxes" in our industry can be mind-boggling. The least we can do for our clients is present the clarity they deserve when we engage with them.
Mark Simon is vice president, industry relations, Didit.
How the paid search industry is killing itself
It may not be as bad as the banking industry, but SEM could use some help. Here's how paid search can get itself back on track before things get worse.
As the financial markets continue to turn out bleak news, I've begun to think about the many parallels existing between Wall Street and the SEM industry.
Mergers, acquisitions and shotgun marriages
To start with, we're now in the middle of a wave of consolidations that are reminiscent of the successive mergers and takeovers now taking place in the banking sector.
Range Online is the latest independent SEM agency to pack up its tent, as it was folded into iProspect, which was itself acquired by U.K.-based Aegis some time ago. Range follows Outrider (bought by ad holding company WPP, which also owns 24/7 Real Media), Reprise Media (snapped up by Interpublic) and Inceptor (purchased by Verizon).
It's clear that many SEM agencies are having a tough time going it alone, and the shotgun marriage M&A trend will accelerate if the macroeconomic environment continues to deteriorate and the SEM industry -- like the financial markets -- continues to suffer from ills that are largely of its own making.
Search engines enabled this mess
The SEM industry has no direct equivalent to sub-prime mortgages, collateralized debt obligations or over-leverage, but it suffers from structural issues that are largely a product of its ostensibly self-serve nature. Google and the other engines have stoked the fever of irrational optimism by encouraging everyone to believe that all it takes to succeed at search is a credit card and a couple of hours studying the AdWords help file.
The result is a world in which marketers behave like self-medicating patients who believe that watching a webinar on urinary tract infections is equivalent to getting a consultation with an experienced urologist. The fact that a number of people believe they are more qualified to run search than the experts reflects a dismal lack of confidence in SEM agencies. So it's no surprise when expert companies feel that getting swallowed up by a larger conglomerate is preferable to going it alone.
Killing the golden goose
But the search engines aren't the only ones to blame. Like Wall Street's "shadow market," in which trillions of dollars worth of complicated instruments are traded without any oversight, the SEM industry has its own shadow industry -- the conference and trade show business. This business depends on a simple proposition: if you go to enough shows, attend the right panels and rub elbows with the right people, you'll walk away knowing enough to run a competent search campaign. This is as absurd as saying that you can become a qualified mechanic by attending an auto show.
The only reason conferences and trade shows are so profitable for the people who run them is that exhibitors remain willing to buy very expensive booth space. Heaven help the trade show people, however, if exhibitors ever actually read the shows' agendas, which are chocked with seminars on how to succeed without an SEM agency!
Greed may destroy us all
And now let's talk about greed, which is as rampant in SEM as it is on Wall Street. Too many SEM agencies seem to have taken their sales approach directly from Moe's Mortgage Shop. These agencies are commission-driven -- not service-driven -- organizations that don't realize that overselling their services actually hurts long-term revenue goals by disappointing clients, creating client churn and destroying reputations.
Unfortunately, even good SEM agencies get tarnished by the continued operation of the fly-by-nighters. The SEM industry has failed to purge itself of these people and I have zero confidence it will do so at any time in the future. If it turned out that Macy's was filled with pickpockets, don't you think people would stop shopping there? So yes, the SEM industry needs to choose responsible conduct over unrivalled greed, or we're all headed over a cliff.
How to bail ourselves out
I don't think the SEM industry needs a billion-dollar bailout, but I do think it needs to clean up its act. Cancerous companies, much like toxic CDOs, need to be cleansed from the SEM books before confidence can be restored. Paid search practitioners need to be meaningfully accredited, not merely rubber-stamped, before they can run search campaigns. The search engines and the shadowy SEM conferencing business need to stop pushing the ridiculously destructive notion that neophytes can become as qualified as those with years of experience after only a few quick lessons.
Finally, SEM agencies should start thinking seriously about sharing risks with their clients. Hopefully the seasoned, expert agencies will launch programs to limit clients' downside risks and help stabilize the SEM industry once again. After all, the world has more than its share of uncertainty to navigate through on a day-to-day basis, and all the "black boxes" in our industry can be mind-boggling. The least we can do for our clients is present the clarity they deserve when we engage with them.
Mark Simon is vice president, industry relations, Didit.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Gasta News:Baidu news Ecommerce platform
Baidu news Ecommerce platform
Baidu has launched “Youa”, its own consumer to consumer e-commerce platform, which has up until now only been available to 50,000 people in a closed beta. The current market leader, Alibaba’s Taobao has a 57% market share and is reportedly investing around $700 million over the next five years to strengthen its position. However estimates suggest that Baidu’s offering will do well – and form 3-5% of its revenues in 2009.
Baidu has launched “Youa”, its own consumer to consumer e-commerce platform, which has up until now only been available to 50,000 people in a closed beta. The current market leader, Alibaba’s Taobao has a 57% market share and is reportedly investing around $700 million over the next five years to strengthen its position. However estimates suggest that Baidu’s offering will do well – and form 3-5% of its revenues in 2009.
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