In Review, In Advance

2011-02-08T05:35:00.001-08:00

3 little blogging nuggets

2007-12-07T16:53:00.000-08:00

Seth Godin, Steve Mann and Jeremiah Owyang on social media for business

Mostly junk but this pseudo-interview provides a few nuggets of wisdom:

"Research shows prospects who engage in community interaction at the beginning are more likely to convert"
"It’s about conversation. Don’t be a narcissist."
"Forrester research: opinion of a friend: 83% trustworthiness. Online review by a blogger: 30%"

12 Tips for Social Media

2007-12-07T16:28:00.000-08:00

12 Tips To Creating Social Media Communities

It's another "to do" list of the best ways to birth a social media program. Boiled down, the keys are:

Goals
Focus
Reward
Freedom

This one uses an odd example of a social media site for doctors, but the point illustrates that even the niche-iest of topics can garner success when it comes to the Social Web. Not every community will become gigantic, nor should they expected to be. But the totality of them will move the industry.

Yahoo Local moves over into Search

2007-12-07T16:03:00.000-08:00

Yahoo! Reorg: Local Goes to Jeff Weiner

Ya, ok, the news is a few days old, but this blogger has gotten a bit behind in his news. Even so, this change is significant enough to warrant the attention even now. Yahoo decided to put the Local product line into the Search product department. It remains to be seen what that means to the future of Y! Local but it should be interesting. As previously noted, local searches make up a large percentage of total online searches, so the fit may be right. Noted in the previous post, however, is the GM's belief that community and content still are king. Does Search know that?

IYP becoming "more and more of a commodity."

2007-12-07T15:35:00.000-08:00

Questions for Frazier Miller, General Manager of Yahoo Local

An interview covering everything from where Frazier thinks the state of being is in the Local Search industry to their new pilot initiatives in hyper-local via community forums. My favorite quote is

"The Citysearches and Internet Yellow Pages I see as being very advertiser driven... optimizing for the advertiser experience. Ourselves and Google are looking very much at this from the search angle."

Inventory searches on the rise

2007-12-07T14:51:00.000-08:00

NearbyNow Identifies Top Local Search Trends for 2008

According to a self-promoting blog entry, the volume of all searches that are "local" in purpose is about 30% of the total search market. According to NearbyNow, the growth of search sites that can direct users who are looking for a particular product will finally put IYP into its own league beyond plain old paper-based YP. Will the audience learn to type in "Diesel shoes in Peoria, IL" into the search bar or will they still go hunting by store names? Or more aptly perhaps, how long will the re-training take?

The 5 goals of social media marketing (SMM)

2007-11-25T23:09:00.000-08:00

Social Media Marketing Campaigns: How to Set Goals and Define Your Target Market

DoshDosh suggests that there are 5 primary reason to get involved in SMM:

Brand awareness
Reputation management
SEO
Site traffic generation
To drive sales

I suspect the end-goal of all marketing is to drive sales, however. But in this posting the specific goal is to promote a new product release or similar via a trusted blogger in the community.

The post wraps up with this gem: "social media visibility = brand awareness + word of mouth = new customer." Obvious in a way, but worth including in any marketing materials on selling blogging.

SEO v. SMO, the battle rages on

2007-11-25T21:25:00.000-08:00

10 Misconceptions Why SEO is Better than SMO Refuted

Among the suggestions from Tad Szewczyk is that SMO should occupy about 95% of time and effort within SEO efforts. In this posting, Tad spells out some common misconceptions about who can be successful in social media, blogging in particular. The general point is that small business can and should participate, whether they do so with humor or do so with utmost seriousness.

Marchex goes blogging (locally)

2007-11-24T14:01:00.000-08:00

Marchex to launch local blog network

Following on the heels of the SuperPages launch into the world of blogging (noted previously), Marchex now plans to launch "neighborhood" blogs, starting in Seattle. With its relationship with Yellowpages.com this firmly places blogging into the next wave of Local social media expansion.

3D mapping combined with Local Search

2007-11-22T11:26:00.000-08:00

UpNext: Wicked 3D Maps of NYC on Facebook

Take Google Earth, add a dash of local search, and bring in reviews from around the web and you have UpNext. It's plainly in a beta-like mode still, buggy on my own browser before I switched back to IE, and a bit difficult to navigate. But it's cool and fun!

Google Coupon search

2007-11-22T00:09:00.000-08:00

Is Google Marketing Again? I Hope So!

As pointed out in the above article, Google is pushing their Coupon Search via some AdSense marketing. Try http://maps.google.com/coupons?hl=en&q=pizza&near=90069 and you'll see the results shown here. Note the "Search Coupons" button. The results are quite poor so far, but I'd expect that to improve in short order.

Local searches via IM

2007-11-21T23:52:00.000-08:00

Poynt via SuperPages.com

Nothing especially new here. Just another IM buddy that operates as a portal into some other application technology – in this case a SuperPages search.

User-adjusted business mapping at Google

2007-11-21T23:15:00.000-08:00

Google lets users fine-tune maps

This San Jose Mercury News article describes a new feature of Google's mapping technology. With the new feature, common users are allowed to directly adjust the "true" location of a business address. The address of a business might be the side street, but the front entrance is on the big boulevard. If so, make the adjustment and voila!

Businesses that sign up for their local "Business Center" can restrict movement of their address marker. Sounds a bit like intimidation?

100 Social Web blogs to follow

2007-11-21T18:03:00.000-08:00

Top 100 Social Media and Social Networking Blogs

As one might expect, this is a long list by Laura Milligan of her favorite blogs covering the Social Web (social media, social networking and Web 2.0 in general).

Will Christmas invert the Local Search weekly pattern?

2007-11-20T10:50:00.000-08:00

Forget Black Friday! Are You Ready For Holiday Season's Cyber Mondays?

According to this blogger, the Cyber Monday influence will cause search traffic to spike on Mondays during the holiday season. At least thats the theory. Knowing that typical searches for restaurants and nightlife, the mainstays of Local Search, peak typically on Thursdays and Fridays, will this lead to an inversion of the common weekly pattern for the next 4-5 weeks?

Oh, to be popular (a popular blog, that is)

2007-11-19T23:14:00.000-08:00

101 Ways to Make Your Blog More Popular and Successful

Like the title says, here listed are a number of tips, from the obvious ("98. Become an expert in your trade, be a specialist in your topic") to the humorous ("57. Use pictures of beautiful women"), and even the serious ("90. Trademark your blog name and logo"), from the technical ("44. Use the h2 tag for post titles") to the social ("15. Reply to your comments"). All in all, good suggestions for the would-be blogger.

The POWER of scanability for blogging

2007-11-19T22:59:00.000-08:00

With Blogging, Size Matters - If You Want Traffic

It doesn't have to be short, it just has to be interesting and digestible. Included are tips on writing great blog entry headlines, so that the user can quickly find what they want (or at least find out that you don't have it).

Connecting the Social Web to the offline world

2007-11-19T19:38:00.000-08:00

Connecting social media with the “real world”

Members of a forum discussing the social web posed the question of when online social media will connect with the offline world.

Wiki'ing in the Local space

2007-11-19T11:15:00.000-08:00

$5.5 Million Comes Knocking on Fatdoor

Startup Fatdoor is testing out Wiki as a means of creating a Local site. The article here explains a little bit of the rationale and implementation, which is currently in private, behind-closed-doors test mode.

Web 3.0: The Semantic Web

2007-11-18T21:58:00.000-08:00

Imagining Web 3.0 and Beyond Part 1 The Mind Blowing Evolution of the Social Web

Introduce contextual searches to the social web, then place that information in front of the user at the appropriate time, and you have the Semantic Web, aka Web 3.0. So says this author.

Is this truly the next step in the evolution of the web, or is the next big thing still lingering out there yet to be discovered? Is the Ask.com paradigm sounding familiar?

Tips on building social buzz

2007-11-18T17:22:00.000-08:00

Building Consistent Traffic With Social Media and How to Set Up a Domino Effect of Traffic

Included is a list of some core tips for bloggers that wish to build buzz around their blogs. Nothing earth-shattering here, but with the industry maturing at this point, we shouldn't expect any. Examples are such tidbits as "lists are very popular" and "using numbers in titles also tends to help" when targeting del.icio.us.

Content-driven or Concept-driven viral strategy

2007-11-18T07:33:00.000-08:00

Social Network Growth Strategy - Content, Concept or Both?

A this-or-that comparison of viral strategies, with a thrown-in at the end of "why not both". Some of this is probably a statement of the obvious, but the obvious is probably good to hear sometimes.

Local with "Implicit Recommendations"

2007-11-17T12:31:00.000-08:00

New Local Search Destination Grayboxx Officially Launches and Grayboxx about to Go Live and Grayboxx ranks Burlington

Grayboxx attempts to fill the void in areas where user reviews aren't as common (outside of the entertainment and leisure arenas). How they do it is anyone's guess, but the idea is to provide scoring based on "anonymous information" about offline activity -- leading to some privacy concerns in their test market of Burlington, VT. Their target seems to be the small to midsize markets (for now).

Social content gets attention in Local

2007-11-17T12:13:00.000-08:00

Think Local, Act Social

Every IYP and local online pure-play these days is adding ratings/reviews if they didn't already have it. Those that had it are flaunting it. And Yelp has shown us how to make a community truly work around the content model with their tremendous content growth.

But is "social fatigue" coming? Is the industry fragmenting too much?

Hey, what you looking for?

2007-11-17T11:56:00.000-08:00

Kelsey provides a look into what users using sites in Local want:

prices
the address
the phone number
hours
what the business sells and has on sale
search
product comparison ability
reviews and ratings

(originally discovered at http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3627083)

Sales teams in partnership

2007-11-17T11:31:00.000-08:00

Searching for a Better Local Ad Model

A study of the old-fashioned IYP trying to move online versus the online pure-play attempting to build out an on-the-ground sales force. Contrasts in approaches such as Yellowpages.com working with Marchex to get SEO-optimized, and Citysearch putting together an Atlanta sales call center.

The author makes a point of saying that both have to do a lot of hand-holding with the SMBs to help them make the transition into online advertising. The ones with sales teams that become counselors in this process gain the strongest long-term relationships.

The IYP UGC war

2007-11-17T09:43:00.000-08:00

Superpages Most ‘Web 2.0 of Local Sites’

A comparison of UGC on the major IYPs. Reviews alone are no longer enough. Photos, blogs, and even user-submitted listing updates are the current state of being in the game. What's next?

Local Search mapping into the 2.0 with MapQuest

2007-11-17T08:53:00.000-08:00

Local Search: Competing All Over the Map

A small study of traffic-leading MapQuest's very careful and slow movement into the AJAXian style mapping world. Simply stated, "MapQuest has long held that basic utility and functionality are valued more by consumers than bells and whistles." Now they're going personalized.

The author also theorizes that the local search revenue model for sites like Citysearch might move towards CPA.

The "Stats Shark" of social bookmarking

2007-11-17T08:10:00.000-08:00

StumbleUpon Shark Surfaces

The spikes in traffic caused by social bookmarking have a name, given by Shell Harris. He indicated that the spikes were proportional to normal traffic which would be interesting to a site with large volumes already. Would the proportionality be maintained?

Unverisal Search in Local

2007-11-16T19:02:00.000-08:00

What Local Can Learn from Universal Search

LiveDeal puts classifieds and business searches together. How much can Local borrow from the concept of universal search and will users prefer the mix? What are the content types that can be blended and still make sense to the user? Classifieds? Listings? Reviews? Articles? Blogs?

Follow up this with Superpages recent addition of blogs to their local search site.

Pending patent wars

2007-11-16T18:48:00.000-08:00

Local.com Begins Licensing Local Search Technology

Could a patent war be coming in the future. Local.com claims "patented local search technology" around geographical searches. How broad are these patents?