Google Plus: Solution to Online Privacy Issues?

Word on the street is that Google Plus is looking pretty good. As great as it looks, many are expecting the Circles feature to be what truly differentiates Google Plus from its main competitor. While Facebook continues to revamp its privacy options, there are still the countless stories out there having to do with people that have been fired, retired, dumped, and even evicted due to certain dealings on the world’s largest social networking site all in the name of good fun. Google has come up with a revolutionary solution to that which will most likely set the standard in days to come. How Google sizes up in the long run remains to be seen, but again, word on the street is…it’s looking pretty good.

A quick look at the new Google offering:

A Shift in Your Vision: Banner Ads

Is any marketing safe?  Not a day goes by that we don't read stories of television ads losing viewers because of DVRs, mobile devices (tablets, smart phones, etc.), and people watching video online.  There are stories of how no one reads print anymore, and that print ads are going away.  The latest news is that click through rates on banner ads are at their lowest percentage ever.  What’s an advertiser to do?

Change your paradigm.

Side note: I’ve always wanted to use Paradigm in a title, ever since I read my first Dilbert cartoon strip.

Banner ad click through rates are certainly at a low.  People have a tendency to tune them out. Even if it is exactly what they need, with a flashing billboard of their name, saying, “You need this!!!” there’s a good chance they will miss it.  As a society, we are trained to look away from these ads.  You almost have to spring them on someone to get a response.

The belief has always been that a banner ad is only useful if it encourages an immediate call to action.  For example, if 1000 people see the ad, and 2 click, your .2% CTR shows how effective that ad was.  The shift in vision is to consider these banner ads the same way that you would consider your television ad - as a branding platform.

Banner ads that are used as branding tools do not need to say, “Click here”.  In fact, a click to such an ad should only bring the customer to a brand awareness landing page.  The call to action is not “BUY OUR PRODUCT NOW” or “USE OUR SERVICE NOW” but rather, “Remember us when you need us, because we’re the guys you want to do business with.”

The use of banner ads can mirror your social media platforms.  Rather than an immediate call to action, you are using your banner ads to create a brand loyalty based on respect.  In fact, rather than pushing landing pages to sell product, you can begin to use banner ads to suggest your social media channels, where the future customer can see what you’re really all about, and make an informed decision.  It is a way of showing your company as more than a peddler of goods, but as a company worth doing business with.

This is a non-traditional use of banner ads, and we wouldn’t recommend this to be your only use of such a medium, but it is certainly a direction that is worth looking into.  If click through rates are all you are concerned with, this isn’t the program for you.  If you’re interested in expanding your advertising reach, and can imagine your banner ads as basically television commercials, then this is for you.  No one has a click through rate on TV. (Of course, Old Navy, with their Shazam encoded commercials come close...)

Are your ready to shift your vision?

Spreading your knowledge to the world, 500 words at a time.

The values of running a blog aside your traditional website have been touted several times, in countless articles for years.  Most of the articles I have read go over the same common facts:

1. Blogs increase SEO to your website, as long as it is set up correctly.
2. Blogs enable your company to provide anecdotal summaries that show you are the expert in your field.
3. Blogs are social, and allow for a give and take between your company and your reader to answer questions and provide additional information.
4. Blogs enable your company to be found by customers based on ideas and concepts, instead of just product names.

Depending on how nit-picky you chose to get, this list could continue on for quite a ways.  Rarely in life is the WHY the easy question.  Most often, the WHAT or the HOW is the easier question.  So for this article, we’re not concerned with the WHY you should have a blog for your business.   We’re concerned with the WHAT to write and the HOW to come up with new information.

When your personal muse has gone on hiatus and you are searching desperately for something new and interesting to write about, remember what the main purpose of a blog is: to share information.  There is an application on your computer whose sole purpose is to share information, and it’s called your email program.  Every time someone has asked you a question, there is an opportunity to turn the answer into a blog post.

For example, if a customer emailed you a question on how to use your product, there’s a good chance that someone else doesn’t know how to use it correctly, either.  Write a blog, and call it, “How to best use this product.”  The idea is, if someone in the future is having trouble, and they turn to Google, presto! They type in “How do I use this product?” and your blog appears.

Almost any email you send or receive can become a blog posting, if you look at it as pure information.  Another example: An email from a vendor, explaining that your product is going to be late because of limits at the factory? Re-write this received email as an explanation for low inventory.

Who handles customer complaints at your company?  Every single time a customer has made a valid claim against you, it should be addressed in a blog.  I don’t mean paste a transcription of the complaint against you.  If a customer complained because you deliver, and it took too long, write a blog article discussing appropriate delivery expectations.  Customer service complaints show where you and your customer have had a breakdown in the communication, and by answering all of these complaints in a written format, you potentially stop the complaint from happening again with a different customer.

Blogs need to be relevant to your business.  There is no more relevant a source than the communications already sent regarding your business from people with questions and concerns.

A Flash Sale, the Catalyst for Small Business Increases.

Amazingly, there is not one Wikipedia entry on this term yet, although there are several entries that do mention it.  For those who aren’t comfortable with the term, it means a huge sale for a very short time on a particular item.  Sites like Woot.com, DailySteals.com, and etc. work on the idea of a flash sale.  Groupon works as a flash sale, by having its members rush in and buy, buy, buy!  Can your business accomplish this without services like these? And does it make sense to try?

First of all, let’s break down the term.  Flash, in this case, has to do with speed and impact.  A “flash mob” forms immediately, has high energy, and is gone forever.  They drive up viral video, and work as guerrilla marketing in many different ways.  The same is true of a flash sale.  They happen quickly, and the outcome is huge. 

A recent example of a flash sale is Lady Gaga’s new album going on sale on Amazon for $0.99.  It was only available at that price for one day.  Amazon had several trending tweets that day.  There was a ton of hype around this sale, on all different social media channels. The rush to take advantage of this sale brought down Amazon’s servers, and it brought an unprecedented amount of people onto Amazon’s site.  The site, which is the fifth largest site in the United States, ground to a halt by the level of traffic this sale generated.

What does this mean to you, the small to medium business?  Can you somehow capture this same level of increase in a day, and make it a positive experience for your customers and your bottom line?  You bet!

First, you need to think of an item or service that you typically sell in volume.  Something that everyone could use, that is exclusive to you, and that your competition would never dream of giving away at a loss.  You want it to be expensive enough that you can show a huge discount, but not so expensive that reducing the price cheapens the product after the sale ends.  It also cannot be the only product you sell.  You need something that goes hand in hand with lots of other products you sell, with the hope of selling these when your customers arrive.  We’ll call this, for the remainder of the blog, “Product X”.

Now, you need to deliver the knowledge about this sale out to the masses.  All of your social media channels need to pump this message out, as well as possibly some direct mail, print advertising, etc, depending on your current marketing strategies.  You need people to write down on their calendars that this is the day to go buy Product X.

I don’t recommend this type of sale to everyone is that you need a dipstick to test the waters.  If you have no social media already in place, and have no email marketing, I don’t necessarily recommend it.  You need to be able to see some feedback before the day of the event.  You need to be prepared.  Without this knowledge, you won’t be able to prepare your stock levels.

The day of the sale, SELL.  Sell everything you can.  Sell Product X, and everything else that you can sell that day.  They come in for Product X, and you want them to leave with Y and Z, and return tomorrow for A, B, and C.  You have three goals for this day:

1. Sell like crazy.
2. Make everyone happy.
3. Expand your customer base.

You have to make sure that everyone who partakes in this deal sees how great your business is.  You need word of mouth to flow.  You need your level of customer satisfaction at its highest on this day.  Warn your employees, that although they are going to leave tired, they’d better have their game faces on. 

Now, who needs Groupon?  If you’re still thinking, “Can this work for my business?” click on the Feedback tab on the left, and we’ll work with you to start your business revolution.

Building Custom Pages on Facebook.

This box is probably not your friend.  You go and spend the time conceptualizing the ultimate page to run on your Facebook page, that will completely captivate your audience.  You spent time reading about FBML, and how it differs from HTML.  You went and tried to create a static page, that would enable you to actually do business on your Facebook page.

And now you’re stuck with this grey box next to your page. Yuck.

If you are going to build custom pages on Facebook, it’s time to start thinking like a developer.  You can’t think, “I’m going to build a page”, but rather, “I’m going to create a Facebook App.”  It’s a hard transition, and one that throws people for a loop.  Especially if you’ve been in web development for a while, but not in the programming world, you hear the word “App” and cringe.  For Facebook, the term is a little more interchangeable.

In order to build a good custom page, you need to bite the bullet and verify your Facebook account with a mobile telephone number.  Without doing this, you cannot become an app builder.  (For those that think they are tricky, Google Voice numbers don’t work. Sorry, they want the real mobile number, tied to a carrier.)  Once you are verified, you can start building Apps.

Before creating your custom page, you need to create your Privacy Policy, and your Terms of Service.  I can hear you already, saying, “But I just want to build a simple web page!” It doesn’t matter.  You need these two things created. Luckily, there are some decent example ones out there, if you search for them.  You’ll also need a server to host these on. Facebook won’t accept your uploads; you need to be able to reference them via url.  So, if you’re thinking that Facebook is going to be your only webpage, you are going to need a backup page, to run your app and these files.

Ok, so you’ve built your two text files, and now you want to start building your page.  (Yes, please. That’s what this is about, right?)  Using whatever building tool you want to, whether it is Dreamweaver, Amaya, or a simple text editor, go ahead, and get your page built, so that it can run on its own.  You are going to do NO CODING on the Facebook page. (Very different from the old FBML you spent hours learning.)  Your app needs to be able to run completely independent of Facebook.

Don’t worry about coming up with a fancy name for it, since Facebook only wants to see it as an “index.” file.  You are going to tell Facebook where to find it on your server, and it will create the an iFrame for it.  You log into developer, and create a new app.  It’s here where you will assign it a name, give it 2 graphics, (one 16x16, the other 75x75) and enter in the relevant information from your server. 

Then, all you have to do is go to the actual app, and click “Add App to Page”.  Presto, you’ve got your custom website on your Facebook page.  This entire process for someone with experience takes several hours, and for people who have never created a webpage, days of learning, so unless you have the time, it would probably be easier to ask a professional.