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By Neptune Moon, September 29, 2011 1:14 pm

The web does not need to be homogeneous. Usability is important and making sure your site is meeting visitor expectations is critical, but I think we are losing our ability to create sites that are appropriate for OUR audiences. Case in point – the redesign of the Slate web site. Haven’t seen it yet?

Here’s a look at the new home page layout:

Not so bad or different from how it used to be, but scroll down further and it is a disaster:

I don’t even know where to look?

I am getting a little exhausted by what seems lately like every web site’s attempted reinvention into some type of social media experience. Not everything needs to look or feel or function like Twitter or Facebook. Twitter and Facebook are great tools and can play a really important role in your relationships with your customers and potential customers. A web site is not a social media outlet – why do we keep trying to make them into one?

Even Facebook is arguably trying to turn itself into some strange Facebook Twitter hybrid with its new design.

Enough already.

Today’s web sites should be about integrating your web site proper with your social media efforts. Turning your site into a real time experience with constantly refreshing content and comment streams, well, takes away from the experience most visitors are looking for when they choose to visit your web site – instead of your Twitter feed or your Facebook page. There is still room for a well designed, user-centric web site in your internet strategy. Let’s make the most of what a web site can be and stop trying to make it do everything.

The comments about the Slate redesign have been overwhelmingly negative. Look, I know people aren’t generally great with change, but the criticisms of this redesign really resonate with me. And they should resonate with anyone who is still designing and developing web sites for clients in today’s climate.

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By Neptune Moon, July 27, 2011 3:31 pm

What does it take to really engage with “fans” on Facebook? This has been an open question since Facebook became a part of many of our daily lives. Just how much time do you need to spend in it? How often do you need to post updates? What should be in those updates? What do fans really want from businesses or organizations (hint: discounts!).

ComScore is out with another one of their always enlightening reports this week and this one focuses on Facebook and how individuals spend their time while logged in. Not surprisingly, people spend the biggest chunk of their time on Facebook reading their Newsfeed. Of particular interest are their figures about just how often a Page (or business) needs to post updates to potentially reach even a small portion of their fans. Would you believe that less than 20% of your Fans will see your content in their Newsfeeds – even if you are posting 5 out of 7 days a week?

From the ComScore Report (available for download after you fill out a brief form):

Despite the dominance of consumption in the Newsfeed relative to the brand page, a minority of Fans see content from a brand in a given week. A Facebook analysis indicates that, on average, 16 percent of Fans are reached by branded content by a brand that posts five out of seven days.

That is both fascinating and a little depressing! It is not hard to understand why this is though – Facebook uses a complicated (and closely guarded) algorithm that determines what is actually displayed in any given user’s Newsfeed. Ever wonder why you see updates from some friends more often than others? It has to do with how often they post, of course, but there are other factors that impact what makes it into your feed. The greater the number of Friends or Pages a user has in their network, the more crowded their Newsfeed space becomes.

So what is an organization or business to do if you want to engage on Facebook? Now, more than ever, it takes time and a well planned strategy. Not surprisingly, ComScore suggests that the Friends of your Fans are a great group to target. Engaging your Fans is important, but finding ways to have them share your posts with their Friends is even better. Get creative, but remember to be genuine. And, as always, don’t bite off more than you can chew. Make sure that Facebook is the right social media platform to reach your target audience. If it is, then go for it, but be prepared. Successfully managing a Facebook page and strategy takes a lot of time, creativity and effort.

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By Neptune Moon, June 28, 2011 2:19 pm

With technology advancing at what often feels like warp speed, it is easy to forget that on the other side of any type of communication is still a human being. We have so many opportunities to instantly express our thoughts and opinions and so many outlets to post to, I think we may have lost sight of why we engage in the first place – to communicate.

So much of our business communication is decidedly one-sided and often, a little ego-centric. Think about it – how do you communicate most often with prospective clients or customers? Email? Twitter? Facebook? LinkedIn? A blog? There has been a lot of talk in the past couple of years about how push marketing is dead and it is now all about engagement. While I agree that engagement media (think Twitter and Facebook) have certainly risen in popularity and sophistication, there is still plenty of room in your marketing mix for good old-fashioned push marketing (think Email or blogs).

Whatever channel you choose to communicate with your customers, make sure that you are always putting THEM first. It is so easy to forget this simple philosophy and just bombard people with messages that are all about you and not all that interesting to them! I often suggest to clients that they think about their own behavior when we are discussing a new marketing concept or delivery method. Granted, your target market may be very different from your client and those differences are important to recognize, but there are certain types of behavior that are pretty universally annoying.

Are you guilty of any of these?

1. Obnoxious Frequency. Sending the same email blast out every other day for two weeks because your open rates are low. Tweeting about every little thought that comes into your head all day long.
2. The Hard Sell. Are all of your communications all about how wonderful your company or product is?
3. Not Listening. Do you ever reply to people who do try to engage with you or do you leave them hanging?
4. Being Intrusive. Social media can be tricky – just because you or your company was mentioned, does not always mean you need to jump in to a conversation.
5. Not Asking for Permission. Do you add people to your email list, or worse text message list, without asking? Do you get permission for one thing and then automatically sign them up for everything else?
6. Abusing Trust. Do you share email addresses with other companies?
7. Not Taking No for an Answer. Do you make it easy for people to disengage with you if they so desire?

Engaging in great communication starts with you and it is easier than you might think. How can you avoid being guilty of the above offenses?

1. Take a hard look at your email content and/or your email list segmentation. If you have low open rates, ask yourself why. Perhaps your information is not all that interesting or useful. Make it better!
2. Ease up on the blatant sales language. Start to build a reputation as a connector of people or a source of useful and topical information.
3. Build social media listening into your social media strategy – spend time reading what others are writing and when appropriate, join the conversation.
4. Use some restraint and avoid being creepy! Just because you or your company were mentioned in a post does not automatically mean it is appropriate or welcome for you to directly engage and jump into someone else’s conversation.
5. Follow sound opt-in procedures and be clear about your policies when someone is signing up to receive communication from you.
6. Treat your email list, followers and connections like gold – because they are! If you’re not sure about a particular behavior, you probably shouldn’t do it.
7. Make it easy for people to unsubscribe and if you do step over the line in the social space, apologize quickly and sincerely and then go away.

If we all take a moment to think about our audience and put ourselves in their shoes, our communications can’t help but be better!

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By Neptune Moon, May 19, 2011 10:04 am

So Bing upped the ante this week in its continual bid to gain marketshare from Google by beginning to include information about Facebook, particularly Likes, in their search results. To see this type of search result, a user would, of course, need to be logged in to Facebook when performing a search. And, you will have to grant Bing access to your Facebook profile. My question is does this really make search better?

I’m not sure it does. Perhaps for some types of searches – like restaurants in the area or entertainment type queries, but for informational searches, I am not sure that prioritizing things that people in my Facebook network have liked improves my search experience or gets me to the best results. A Like has a pretty low threshold for participating – one simple click. Does it really carry enough weight to start filtering search engine results?

Some people, particularly the Facebook obsessed (and you know who you are!) will probably love this new feature. But what does this mean for businesses and search engine optimization? I am a firm believer in solid SEO practices for any site and I don’t think that will change, even with the integration of more and more social aspects into search results. It does give me some pause though, as popularity via social networks may eventually supercede or at least equal quality, objective web sites and content.

Do we really want the web to turn into a Facebook popularity contest? Think about who’s in your Facebook network – how much influence do you want them to have over the search results you see? Recommendations from trusted friends will always be a very powerful commodity and motivator – I’m just not sure that a Facebook Like should be given that much weight…

AdAge has a great article about Bing’s new feature – you can read it here.

We will definitely be keeping an eye on this and will report back on what we’re seeing in the search space and how it is impacting our clients and others in our networks.

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By Neptune Moon, May 11, 2011 9:30 am

Some really interesting data from a Lightspeed Research study on the role of search, social media and online reputation in purchasing decisions. The debate about how much direct influence social media channels like Facebook and Twitter have on actual consumer purchasing actions has been a topic of hot debate over the last year. While it can certainly be difficult to quantify the exact impact of your social media efforts as they relate to actual sales, this survey sheds some light on the role that different types of content play in our buying decisions…

A few highlights from Lightspeed’s survey about pre-purchase behaviors in the past 6 months:

• 62% of respondents said they read reviews online
• 49% have checked the sites of competing retailers, brands and service providers
• 49% saying they have checked price comparison sites
• 19% said they have read online reviews of bricks-and-mortar stores or online shops
• 27% had not conducted online pre-purchase research

Where are people seeking product and review information in their pre-purchase research:

• 64% via search engines
• 58% on shopping sites
• 54% on Consumer Reports web site
• 47% on company web sites
• 32% on specialist web sites, with reviews
• 21% shopping comparison sites
• 7% have sought product review information via social networks

And, if we didn’t already know that online reputation management has become a critical part of any business model – and especially for business to consumer companies:

• 21% of respondents said two bad reviews about a product or brand can lead them to change their minds about a potential purchase
• 37% saying their threshold is three bad reviews
• Only 3% don’t look for any kind of reviews

What does this mean for you and your business?

My two takeaways are that search still matters – two thirds of people still use search as a tool when doing pre-purchase research. The idea that SEO no longer matters, simply is not true today. Second, your online reputation has become a mission critical business priority.

If you have not started to address online reputation management, you need to at least start thinking about it. This data is a small sample (1500 people), but the behavior trends are quite stunning. Pretending that online reviews don’t matter is a recipe for disaster. You can take control of your online reputation – it just takes knowledge, a plan and time. You can’t afford to ignore it any more.

Need help? Get in touch, we’d be happy to help!

See the full Lightspeed Research survey results here.

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By Neptune Moon, April 20, 2011 3:08 pm

I had a great time talking with Carla Wilson and Mary Motz recently about Online Reputation Management. Thanks again for having me on your show. What an interesting conversation we had, both on and off the air. You can check out all of their podcasts at the Online Biz Insider site.

Here is the link to my guest appearance.

We talked about the basics of Online Reputation Management and what you can do to protect yourself and your business online.

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By Neptune Moon, March 31, 2011 10:43 am

Why can’t Google just stick to search? I would rather see Google invest their massive funds and brainpower making search better and better rather than trying to integrate social media into its results. With the announcement this week of its new +1 feature, Google is once again wading into the search and social waters.

What is +1 and how will it work? Essentially, +1 will function a lot like the “Like” feature on Facebook and external web sites that include Facebook’s “Like” buttons. The feature is being slowly rolled out, but eventually, we will all start seeing +1 impact our search results. Mashable has a great write up on how the feature will work:

“Google defines this action as a “public stamp of approval,” and it is exactly that. When you +1 something, your name becomes associated with that link “in search, on ads, and across the web,” according to the company. It also shows up in a feed on your Google Profile, which is required to use the product.”

You can read the full story at Mashable.

Google seems to really be trying to become a social hub and not just a search destination. I don’t know about you, but I really don’t want my search results junked up with sites people in my network “like”. I spend a lot of time online and search is a big part of what I do every day. Having to wade through this type of stuff will not improve my search experience. To use the service, you’ll need to have a Google account, be logged in and if you want to start adding your +1 endorsements to sites, you will need to complete your public Google Profile. So, there are some barriers to this becoming the de facto state of search. I have a Google account, but I do not have a Google Profile and I generally do not perform the majority of searches while logged in to Google.

Maybe I’m a little old fashioned, but I like my search to be search and my social media to be social. I wonder if we will start seeing less relevant results in search as marketers figure out ways to game this system by incentivizing +1 activity. Google has already been including more and more social content in its results sets – read more here.

Doing the amount of search I do for clients when working on competitive intelligence and SEO, I am very aware of what the results include. Sadly, the quality of results returned for the average search has not improved in the past 2 years. In fact, in many cases, the results returned on the first page of Google are pretty crappy. It has gotten a little better since their most recent two algorithm updates, but the nature of what you see on the first page for a lot of search terms is markedly different from the landscape of even 18 months ago. Is this a good or bad thing? Who knows. It is what it is and we’ll all be working to do our best for clients with whatever the current landscape and technology requires!

It certainly has implications for not only SEO strategy, but also for your social media and reputation management strategies.

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By Neptune Moon, March 28, 2011 4:08 pm

Just when you thought you had a handle on your online reputation, along comes the site AboutEveryone.com. Haven’t heard of it yet? I suspect in the very near future, you will.

What is this new site, you ask? Well, it allows people to post anything they want about you, based on your Facebook profile link – completely anonymously. Let me repeat that – anyone can post anything absolutely anonymously about you on this site and the link points back to your Facebook profile page. Even if you have your profile privacy settings set pretty high, most of us still allow “everyone” to see our name and profile picture. So, any nasty comments posted on this site will at a minimum link to your actual profile page and show your name and photo, so people will know it is about you.

The site is in beta now. According to AboutEveryone.com’s About page, don’t expect them to help when someone posts awful, damaging or untrue statements about you:

“AboutEveryone is not the author of the posts that appear on the site. Rather, AboutEveryone is the provider of an interactive computer service. As such, AboutEveryone is immune from liability arising from content posted by users. 
Operators of Internet services are not to be construed as publishers and thus not legally liable for the words of third parties who use their services. 

AboutEveryone is still in beta. You will have more opportunities to remove content [in] the future.”

Not sure what those opportunities to remove content will be in the future, but I sure hope they provide some mechanism where you can remove defamatory comments or I can see this site getting seriously out of control. The ramifications for your online reputation are potentially catastrophic. There are a few nice comments posted, but the majority are not.

See for yourself…

We will be keeping an eye on this as it develops.

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By Neptune Moon, March 8, 2011 2:19 pm

Have you Googled yourself or your organization lately? If you haven’t, you definitely should. Being aware of what’s out there is the first line of defense in the rapidly expanding world of online reputation management.

First, the good news…

You probably won’t find anything that is particularly problematic. But, the full list of just what is out there about you individually and your organization can be really eye opening! You should see certain results pop up, both for you and your company. For individuals, you should expect to see results such as:

• Your bio page on your organization’s web site
• Your LinkedIn Profile
• Your Google Profile
• Your Facebook Page (depending on your privacy settings)
• A personal blog, if you have one and blog under your actual name
• Other references to you on the web, including places where you might be listed as a member, volunteer, sponsor or board member
• Links to other social media sites you participate in (depending on your privacy settings)

For your organization, if you’ve done a good job with SEO, you should expect to see results such as:

• Your company’s web site
• Google Places page
• Local links in Bing or Yahoo
• Your company’s Facebook page
• Listings on directory or local search sites, such as Yelp, Insiderpages, Yellowpages.com, etc.
• Links to employee or board member LinkedIn Profiles
• Other references to your organization on the web, including places where your company might be listed as a member, sponsor or contributor

But, what else might be lurking out there?

Sometimes, the answer to that question can be a little horrifying. Surprise results can range from the relatively benign – links to another person with the same name, which can create confusion, to the downright panic-inducing – finding an entire blog or web site dedicated to excoriating you or your business – and everything in between.

It is a little disconcerting to think about, but pretending that the information isn’t out there, really is not a viable approach to protecting and managing your online reputation. It is a fairly regular occurrence to find severely outdated or incorrect information about you or your organization. It might surprise you to know that Google has very little interest in verifying the “truth” of content they index. It is important to realize that the truth according to Google, is for all intents and purposes, considered to be the truth, period.

So, what can you do?

Knowledge is power and the first step in starting to address any misinformation in Google results is knowing that it is out there. We suggest that clients make it a regular practice to Google themselves and their organizations at least once a quarter (or more frequently if you sell directly to the public) so you know what’s out there. These days, you have to assume that at least 75% of potential customers or employees will Google your company at some point in their decision-making process. You need to know what they will see so you can be prepared to discuss it and professionally correct any misinformation you’ve found.

Preventive maintenance when managing your online reputation is always a good idea. If you discover a major issue in your searching, it may be time to bring in a professional to help mitigate the damage and start the hard work of repairing your online reputation.

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By Neptune Moon, February 25, 2011 10:27 am

Search engines are going social – at least in the results you might see. Both Google and Bing have recently announced changes to their search results algorithms that will start to include “social” results. What are social results and what does this mean for you SEO and social media strategy?

Both sites describe social results as including links that have been publicly liked, shared or commented on by people in your social networks. What does this mean in a practical sense? For some searches, it won’t impact your results at all and for others, you will start to see links endorsed by friends throughout the search results for your queries. Both Google and Bing are banking on the idea that knowing what your friends like is valuable data in your decision-making process. Looking for a restaurant for dinner this weekend? Now you can see more links from your friends. Need a plumber or contractor? Now you can see who your friends like (and dislike) right in the search results.

I tried several searches myself and did not see any social results. I expect that this will change over time though.

So, what does this mean for your SEO and Social Media strategy? It is not completely clear at this point, but what does seem clear is that the convergence of your brand controlled web properties and social media activity will likely become even more intense as this type of search matures. We will be following this story as it develops so we can keep you up to date on the ever-changing social and search landscapes!

Have you noticed a difference in your search results? Let us know, we’d love to hear about your experiences.

Here are the announcements about this from:
Bing
Google