Oddulent Global Marketing Blog

by Lance Whitney

Google’s official blog on Monday put in a plug for the ongoing flow of companies that have adopted its services, including not just Google Apps, but also the Postini spam filtering and Google’s Enterprise Search Appliance.

In August, Google asked customers to tweet the benefits of using its online apps and services, and now the company has gathered together those tweets in its GoogleAtWork Twitter page.

Through its “Gone Google” marketing campaign, the company has been able to relate the stories of corporate customers who have switched to Google Apps and “no longer have to deal with the hassles of managing e-mail servers or rolling out software updates.”

The “Gone Google” campaign has also included billboard advertising in high-traffic spots like airports and train stations. Pleased with the results, Google said it’s expanding the campaign to other countries, including the U.K., France, Canada, Japan, Australia, and Singapore.

With a portfolio that includes Google Docs, Gmail, and Google Calendar, Google Apps has been adopted by more large businesses in need of software that costs less and is easier to maintain. Converts to Google Apps include Motorola with 20,000 users, Genentech with 16,300 users, and Valeo with 30,000 users.

Google has also been more creative in nudging businesses toward its services. As one example, the company’s Apps Sync for Outlook plug-in lets users keep Outlook but move away from Microsoft Exchange.

Even Google’s response toward advertising has been evolving. In the past, the company has typically avoided promoting its own services, relying more on word of mouth to grow its search and ad businesses. But it’s recently become less shy about tapping into the ad market, using TV, billboards, and other unique arenas to tout Google Apps and its Chrome browser.

Reuters

CHICAGO, Oct. 31 /PRNewswire/ -- Optimizing relevance for consumers has been
the key to success for Google and now executives at FirstLook, the pioneer in
automotive retail performance solutions, are illustrating how this model can
be the key to success for automotive dealers in their online vehicle
advertising. As a featured speaker during the Digital Dealer Conference and
Expo in Nashville, Tenn., Pat Ryan Jr., FirstLook's Founder and CEO, will
reveal to dealers how the Google Relevance Model can be applied to online
vehicle advertising using Consumer Optimization techniques.

"People use Google because it helps them find what they are looking for - in
short, Google optimizes consumer relevance," says Ryan.  "Yet, despite
Google's virtually unparalleled success, few online advertisers, especially
online vehicle advertisers, leverage Google's powerful, yet simple secret in
managing their own internet business. With Consumer Optimization, dealers will
be positioned to create a new power shift - the shift away from irrelevance."

Consumer Optimization techniques focus on the features, qualities and benefits
that set one dealer's vehicles apart from others.  Similar to Search Engine
Optimization, which optimizes a web page so it ranks higher, Consumer
Optimization techniques allow pre-owned automotive dealers to optimize their
online vehicle ads to rank higher with consumers and be more likely chosen
over their competitors.

In addition to Ryan, senior vice president and general manager for FirstLook's
Elite Operations Division, David Nelson, will present "The New Four Square"
during the Digital Dealer Conference. Nelson will discuss the fundamental
shift that has taken place in pre-owned vehicle sales - from a confrontational
negotiation bases solely on price to a win-win negotiation based on consumer
values, or M.A.R.K. factors: Mission, Affordability, Risk and Key
Differentiators.  

More than 45 exhibitors and 500 attendees are expected for this year's Digital
Dealer Conference to be held November 1 - 3 in Nashville, Tennessee. 

FirstLook's 360 degree Market Navigation Tools allow dealers to tap market
data, and execute pre-owned operations best practices.  For more information
contact FirstLook at 800-730-5665.

About FirstLook
FirstLook, by INCISENT Technologies, is the pioneer in Automotive Retail
Performance Solutions and the #1 fastest-growing automotive related company in
the United States, according to the Inc Magazine's prestigious 2008 INC 500
list of fastest-growing private companies in the U.S.  FirstLook provides
industry-leading tools to manage Pre-Owned Operations, Internet Marketing and
Retail Performance Training & Best Practices.  FirstLook technology is in over
1,600 automotive franchises throughout the United States.  FirstLook helps
dealers Drive More Traffic from the Internet, Close More Customers More
Profitably, Close More Appraisals and Stock More of the "Right Cars" for their
lot through cutting edge technology solutions as well as industry leading
training and consulting services.  For more information, visit
www.firstlooksolutions.com or call (800) 730-5665.

SOURCE  FirstLook

FirstLook, +1-800-730-5665, Press@FirstLook.biz

By Kyle Anderson

Looking to apply their powerful search engine to the world of music, Google officially launched their new music discovery service. Not so much a new site as it is a new set of integrated options added to normal search results, Google Music connects people searching for artists, songs or lyrics with free streams of tracks care of MySpace’s iLike and Lala and with links to purchase songs and albums from one of Google Music’s partners.

“Music is a big part of our lives. In fact, two of our top 10 queries of all time are music related,” explains the introductory video on Google Music’s home page. “We think it’s time to bring the power of our search to the music industry, so that you can not only find but also discover music.”

So far, Google has agreements with EMI, Sony, Universal and Warnor Bros. for music and Lala, iLike (owned by MySpace), Pandora, Rhapsody and Imeem for streaming and sales. Each search for a relevant artist or song yields a handful of links to free streams. (You’re limited to one full freebie per song; after that, you’re limited to 30-second snippets).

A cursory test drive yielded pretty excellent results: A search for Beyoncé lead to a streaming version of “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” in seconds, and even digging up Mystikal’s turn-of-the-century hit “Shake Ya Ass” was no trouble at all. Though the demo video shows the music search working directly from the Google homepage, as of press time, it worked only from the Google Music page.

The lyrics engine is a little less exact. Though they’ve partnered with a Sony database called Gracenote that houses all manner of lyrics, it’s a little wonky. Searching for choruses generally works, but poking around for deeper lyrics is more troublesome: A search for the line “After the show it’s the after party” (from R. Kelly’s “Ignition [Remix]“) didn’t bring up any options, and when digging for Biggie’s line “I don’t give a f— about you or your weak crew,” Google brought up DMX’s “Bring Your Whole Crew” (a noble effort, but wrong).

Still, Google’s new music-centric search could change the way people look for and purchase music online. And with the added relationship to sites like Rhapsody and Pandora, there will be options for discovery as well.

Search Engine Watch

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued new regulations regarding blogger endorsements and word-of-mouth marketing campaigns. If a blogger is paid to do a review – either through money or product/service – said blogger must reveal said payment.

Ever been annoyed by posts in message boards that ended up being written by a company employee? The new guidelines crack down on such behavior as well.

The word-of-mouth guidelines don’t just extend to employees. They involve anyone who has signed up for a word-of-mouth marketing program, such as a Street Team.

To be clear, bloggers can post paid endorsements and people can post in message boards and join street teams or similar efforts. But if there is a relationship between marketer and company, it must be disclosed. If you don’t, get ready to pony up $11,000 when you’re caught.

How it must be disclosed was not defined by the FTC. But, if you’re a blogger, I recommend something like “Acme video game company sent me a free copy of this hot new game and here is my review.”

Consumers like it when they know the relationship you have with the product you’re pushing. If I had to guess, I’d say transparency begets loyalty.

However, the new guidelines opened up a can of grey areas the FTC needed to tackle. One such scenario is a blogger who already writes glowing reviews of Acme Video Game company. If all of a sudden, the blogger receives a free copy of a new video game and writes a review of the game, s/he needs to disclose the receipt of the game from Acme.

Another funky area of the new guidelines is the issue of liability if/when/should these regulations be enforced. If you’re an advertiser engaged in digital public relations, reaching out to bloggers or word-of-mouthers, you could be liable if the endorsers make false or misleading claims about your product/service.

The FTC said that they would consider reasonable effort on the part of the advertiser to keep the endorsers in line. But then they offered up this scenario:

A skin care products advertiser participates in a blog advertising service. The service matches up advertisers with bloggers who will promote the advertiser’s products on their personal blogs. The advertiser requests that a blogger try a new body lotion and write a review of the product on her blog. Although the advertiser does not make any specific claims about the lotion’s ability to cure skin conditions and the blogger does not ask the advertiser whether there is substantiation for the claim, in her review the blogger writes that the lotion cures eczema and recommends the product to her blog readers who suffer from this condition. The advertiser is subject to liability for misleading or unsubstantiated representations made through the blogger’s endorsement.

The blogger is also liable (in addition to any liability gained if the relationship was not disclosed). But the FTC says advertisers need to provide training and then keep a close eye on the ramblings of bloggers and other endorsers.

The guidelines should serve as a warning for companies hiring interns and other young people to head up your social media efforts. The FTC isn’t really proposing anything here that isn’t already frowned upon by the general public.

Sponsored blog posts are pretty easy to detect and kill reader loyalty. Many companies have had to repair damaged reputations after they engaged in blogging or forum posting efforts pretending to be random people when a PR effort was really transpiring.

Social media has always been best implemented under these guidelines unspoken rules. Use today’s news as a means of lining up your core social media values with how consumers truly wish to interact with your company.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 5, 2009 1:26 PM

Reuters

CHANTILLY, Va., Oct. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- The rapid growth of digital
word-of-mouth through online reviews and social media presents a challenge for
small and medium-sized business owners, who are often unaware of the online
conversations taking place among consumers. BIA/Kelsey predicts this will
change as SMBs adopt more sophisticated marketing practices that require
advanced communications platforms for e-mail, reputation and presence
management (ERPM). The firm forecasts revenues for ERPM to grow from $460
million in 2008 to $3.1 billion in 2013. The number of SMBs using ERPM will
increase from approximately 500,000 to nearly 4 million during the forecast
period. BIA/Kelsey plans to offer comprehensive coverage of this topic over
the next few months during two upcoming webinars and its Interactive Local
Media 2009 (ILM:09) conference in December.

"SMBs will soon have a window into digital word-of-mouth," said Matt Booth,
senior vice president and program director, Interactive Local Media,
BIA/Kelsey. "There are too many disparate conversations going on through
social networks, user reviews, message boards and online affinity groups for a
small business to find let alone track manually. We've been watching ERPM
closely over the past couple of years and believe the segment is poised to
break through with solutions that enable SMBs to effectively manage their
online reputations. The market has developed in such a way that ERPM is
basically a white space that capital and technology will rush to fill."

E-Mail, Reputation and Presence Management Defined
The e-mail segment of ERPM comprises subscription-based software-as-a-service
providers and e-mail marketing agencies that tailor their solutions to the
needs of SMBs. In 2008 this segment represented 64 percent of the ERPM market.

Reputation management is built on the aggregation of reviews and comments,
including product and service mentions by consumers. Opinions are gathered
from sources like Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, Citysearch and thousands of others.
The data is aggregated into a simple dashboard whereby businesses can view
their online reputation by monitoring digital word-of-mouth. BIA/Kelsey
expects technology and partnerships to evolve to enable businesses to respond
to consumers' opinions, concerns and requests.

BIA/Kelsey defines presence management as "where" and "how" business data and
information are located across Internet sources. A business may be listed in
100 directory sources. Presence management allows business owners to see how
their businesses are displayed. BIA/Kelsey analysts expect presence management
to transform into the ability to suggest corrections and clarifications to
core business data. Further, presence will allow businesses to seamlessly
promote themselves via outgoing messaging to numerous sites like Facebook and
Twitter.

As part of its coverage of ERPM, BIA/Kelsey is presenting two upcoming
webinars moderated by Matt Booth, with research presented by BIA/Kelsey
Research Director Steve Marshall:

    --  "The Communications Revolution: E-Mail, Reputation and Presence
        Management," on Wednesday, Oct. 14, at 2 p.m. EDT, will provide an
        in-depth look at the unfolding business, market and what it means. For
        details and registration, visit:
        https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/191044625.

    --  "The Business View of E-Mail, Reputation and Presence Management," on
        Thursday, Oct. 15, at 2 p.m. EDT, presenting SMB advertiser
perspectives
        from companies currently testing alpha- and beta-release ERPM
platforms.
        For details and registration, visit:
        https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/823169025.

ERPM at ILM:09
ERPM will be a focus of BIA/Kelsey's Interactive Local Media 2009 (ILM:09)
conference (www.kelseygroup.com/ilm2009), Dec. 9-11 in Los Angeles,
California. A number of sessions will touch on various aspects of ERPM,
including:

    --  Populating Local Content
    --  Reputation - The New Driver for SMB Engagement
    --  Making Money With/for SMBs
    --  A Special Conversation With Yelp

    --  Los Angeles SMB Panels: What Works for Me, What Doesn't

ILM:09 is BIA/Kelsey's annual conference devoted to digital media with a local
focus. This event covers a range of important topics, including local search,
mobile search, Internet Yellow Pages, vertical directories, Internet video,
online classifieds and social media.

About BIA/Kelsey
BIA/Kelsey advises companies in the local media space through Consulting and
Valuation Services, Research, Continuous Advisory Services and Conferences.
Since 1983 BIA/Kelsey has been a resource to the media, mobile advertising,
telecommunications, Yellow Pages and electronic directories markets, as well
as to government agencies, law firms and investment companies looking to
understand trends and revenue drivers. BIA/Kelsey's annual conferences draw
executives from across industries seeking expert guidance on how companies are
finding innovative ways to grow. Additional information is available at
www.bia.com and www.kelseygroup.com. The company's blogs are located at
http://blog.bia.com/bia/ and http://blog.kelseygroup.com, and it can be found
on Twitter through http://twitter.com/BIAfn.

SOURCE  BIA/Kelsey

• By Curtis Silver October 29, 2009  5:44 pm  Categories: Advertising, Social Media

Viral marketing — the technique of wrangling word-of-mouth to create a buzz around your product or idea — has been a powerful tool since the first caveman started the first rumor. Spreading the word person to person is the stuff of Avon dreams — and Bernie Madoff nightmares. And it requires the confidence to lose control of the message by setting it adrift.

The modern age of viral marketing began in the mid 1990s with (of all things) a cultish, childish cable TV show that defined “guilty pleasure” way before Beavis and Butthead. The producers of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (the premise of MST3K is almost too ridiculous to articulate) knew immediately they had something viable, new and remarkable, and that their best marketers were the show’s smallish but loyal audience. In those dark days before streaming media, they encouraged the show’s viewers to videotape their copyrighted shows, and pass them along to friends — creating that sought after word-of-mouth buzz.

Marketing agencies took note, realizing that in order to have a successful viral marketing campaign they would have to give something away gratis. They also had to give people a reason to recruit others to their cause. But how!

In 2002, three years before YouTube, BMW ported this revelation to the internet. More than 11 million viewers initially tuned in to watch the web-only short film series The Hire, starring Clive Owen. Of those, 2 million registered to the BMW website. We don’t know how many of those clicks were converted into sales, but here’s the big number: In four years, it’s estimated the videos were viewed over 100 million times.

Viral marketing was now a proven method — so good in fact, that many thought it couldn’t possibly be replicated. Enter YouTube, which introduced  viral marketing to social media. The courtship was quick and the relationship was more than anyone could imagine it would be. Now, with tools such as Ning, Twitter, Orkut, PayPal, YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Digg and Flickr, viral marketing has become a true virus, spreading across the social media landscape like the Black Plague in the 14th century.

To find out more on how companies are adapting to the current industry trends, I wondered (out loud and by e-mail) how they will be able to best leverage current social media trends against the more established viral marketing trend. From Jamie Schutz, VP of Marketing and Distribution for Chaos Squared:

Chaos Squared knows social media trends inside and out partnering with one of the largest online marketing companies, CPX Interactive. Through the use of online contests, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, online banner ads as well as traditional marketing elements, Chaos Squared is influencing the right people to purchase Blood Night: The Legend of Mary Hatchet. The key to having a successful viral campaign begins with a good product. Fortunately, the horror community has embraced the film and there is quite a bit of excitement surrounding the release.

The power of influence is ever present in this discussion, which is what social media tools add to viral marketing. The crowd mentality is heavier within a social-media community, which makes it easier for viral marketing to do its job. Honestly, it seems like marketing through social media is the new form of viral marketing. That’s the wave of the future in marketing, a new and improved marketing platform. More from Jamie in relation to film and when to claim success:

The company that is successful at driving niche groups to films online will be profitable in this new digital world of film. But, you can’t just put a film up online and expect people to watch it. You still have to get the message to the people. We sent out 25 million ads and had 1.5 million visitors to the Blood Night website. That’s a response rate of 6%. Starting on October 26th, we plan on serving close to half a billion ads in support of this film. If we apply similar response rates, we anticipate having close to 20 million visitors. If we convert even 1% of these visitors, then this film is doing very well. These ads will run on social media sites, horror sites, film sites, as well as other targeted publishers. For us, we’re relying on social media to introduce the message and reinforce the message.

We feel as though we know where the consumer is located now we just need to prove it. If our response rates are high then sales will be high. Of course, all of the online marketing we are doing will be complemented with a traditional marketing plan as well for consumers that have no plans on making online purchases. We believe very strongly at proving the consumer with options. The Burger King approach. What you want, when you want. Today’s consumer isn’t going to be bullied by corporations telling them where to watch something and how to watch something. You tell us, we’ll listen.

Like Pac-Man and Mrs. Pac-Man, social media and viral marketing have fallen in love and become one. They are virtually indistinguishable these days and follow the same basic principles as early forms of viral marketing. Tell your friends. Tell your neighbors. Call someone. Now it’s tweeting and leaving comments on Facebook pages. Viral marketing is the concept, social media is the tool.

A great example of recent use of what I’m calling “viral social media” is the release of the recent online rock opera, The Battle for Milkquarious. Released exclusively online, it was pumped up using an aggressive YouTube and social media campaign. The California Milk Processor board (responsible for the “Got Milk?” campaign) listened to its core audience and created a rock opera about milk. A bold move, but completely feasible in this age of minute-by-minute entertainment and attention spans.

I asked the Executive Director of the CA Milk Processor Board, Steve James, for his thoughts on the impending marriage of social media with viral marketing and the challenges that lie within.

Social media and viral marketing are virtually interconnected (no pun intended). The success of social media — in allowing people to gather in groups of mutual interest and to share what’s meaningful in their lives — is really the foundation of viral communication. In terms of viral marketing, we’ve seen that people will happily pass along your marketing as long as: 1) the content is entertaining and 2) the message is genuine.  In the case of milk, I believe we’ve been successful in both respects.

The first challenge is to create outstanding content — without that to stand on, nothing else you do will work. Next is to identify the right “neighborhoods” where your message will find the desired “crowd.” In our case, the crowd was teens and tuned-in parents, and the neighborhoods were social networking, entertainment and music sites. Next, using all sorts of analytics that abound on the internet, is to choose individual sites for their traffic and demographics. Finally, using many of those same analytics, engagement needs to be quantified to determine the success of our communication and media strategy and to tweak it as necessary. Put all of these elements together, and you’ve got a winning viral marketing program; if any one is missing, you’ll miss the mark.

One of the most interesting developments in the new trend is that it’s not limited to the expertise of a corporation marketing a product. With social media, anyone can run at least a mildly successful viral marketing campaign. Bloggers are even getting into the act, using social media outlets to market themselves across all platforms, with no product to sell besides sage advice and videos of their families. However, readership and attention is just as important to bloggers, as financial gain is to a production company or advertising agency.

One such blog is Everyotherthursday.com. The focus of this blog is family and fatherly values, but promoting their blog has been more complex than just a quiet father-son talk in the garage. Full disclosure, I’m one of the founders of that blog. Therefore, by linking it here I’m proving a point about viral social media. From fellow EOT founder David Binkowski, Senior Vice President, Word of Mouth Marketing at Manning, Selvage & Lee:

Dads are really underrepresented in the blogosphere, for starters, understanding that it takes time to build a following, we really wanted to focus on great content and building credibility online by getting the word out organically. To date, the blog has driven its comments and following purely through word of mouth without any advertising. The blog plans to introduce more video content and frequently feature guest contributors to keep things fresh. Dads want to know that they’re not alone in this and if we can help provide even one Dad with some good advice, well, then we probably failed. But a few hundred Dads would be great.

So what does the future hold now that viral marketing has evolved to utilize social media tools? It started out as a cheap and viable way to spread the word about a product or idea, and it continues to do the same. The method has been altered to accept new tools and processes and we’ve adapted along with it to use those tools and respond to them. Viral social media is what it’s become. Twitter, at first a place to tell everyone what you ate for breakfast is now a place to promote yourself, your company or your product.

So while viral marketing has evolved to include social media tools, social media tools have evolved to include viral marketing. It may seem confusing and chaotic at times, it’s the wave of the future — for now.

By Sean Cook, ShopVisible
E-Commerce Times
10/21/09 8:48 AM PT

The following is an excerpt from an eight-page special report, exclusive to ECT News Network. Addressing the power of mobile messaging, social media and other word-of-mouth technologies, this paper provides concrete advice on how to integrate them into an e-commerce business plan. The complete report is available as a free download to ECT News Network subscribers.

Word of mouth has long been a priceless asset to any business, and technology has expanded the playing field in a whole new way with mobile messaging and social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and more. Every day, it seems hard to avoid the buzz about social media — who’s on it, what they’re doing and what the latest trend is. Through all the chatter, it can be difficult for many business owners to know whether they should get involved, where to start, and how to launch their own social media campaign.

Technology has changed the way people shop, and it has also changed the way they live and communicate. Social media’s growing popularity and impact on business has established that it is not a fad, but rather a growing part of the consumer conversation. Studies show that people are spending more than 80 percent more time on social media sites today than they were a year ago. Twitter’s reach has grown amazingly in the first half of 2009, reaching 10.7 percent of active Internet users in the month of June. What’s more, these millions of tweets and Facebook pages are coming more and more from the 35-and-older demographic.

Online retailers who want to tap into new and existing opportunities for growth must implement tactics to maximize word-of-mouth marketing technologies to begin increasing reverberations of their company. Businesses need to utilize the technology that is available and create a specific plan for marketing and consumer promotions using social media.

Word of mouth, whether face-to-face or online, relies on the unfiltered opinions of consumers about the goods and services they use, and it can have a dramatic impact on the success of an online retailer. There is a growing list of innovative ways that businesses are using social media as a word-of-mouth marketing tool. However, there are some basic principles and strategies that can be easily implemented for e-tailers who need to get started.

Jump In!

Core components to accelerate positive word of mouth involve knowing how opinions are shared, listening and responding to consumers (even if they are being negative), sharing information on your products, and giving consumers easy tools to share feedback. These simple principles remain true for traditional word of mouth and also apply directly to new word-of-mouth technologies.

The first step to engaging in digital word of mouth is to find out where and how opinions are being shared. There is no surefire best place to start when it comes to social media; the most important thing is to dive in and start familiarizing yourself with the different networks to learn where and how people are talking.

If you haven’t been on Twitter, Flickr, Digg, YouTube or Facebook yet, do it immediately. Look to see if your competition, your customer base and even your employees are there — and check out what they are saying. Each page has its own site search function, so simply type in key terms related to your company and industry to get started. Also, be sure to check out blogs that may be related to your business, and see what people are saying. Technorati is a great resource to help find blogs that may be related to your company. For example, if you sell tea and teapots, then you would want to know there are blogs dedicated to drinking tea.

Finding out where audiences are talking and what they are saying should be an ongoing process for any business and needs to become a core component of ongoing marketing. After your initial exploration, stay active in monitoring and participating in the digital networks where people are sharing their thoughts, and look out for new social media sites and tools that continue to emerge. Depending on available resources, e-tailers can have a dedicated word of mouth manager or can simply integrate daily monitoring into existing operations.

Identify Goals and Objectives

Chances are, you will find some surprising discoveries from your initial social media endeavors, and it can be tempting to immediately begin talking back to consumers who may be chatting about you. However, it is important to first plan what you want to achieve through digital word of mouth, how you want to implement your strategies, and how you intend to measure success. Do you have a quota to meet this holiday season? Are you launching a new product and need to get the word out fast? Or do you want to enhance brand recognition and customer service?

When outlining your goals, be sure to consider not only what your company will achieve but also what your customers will gain. Social media is an opportunity to grow your business and enhance customer service and satisfaction. By listening to what shoppers are saying, you can gain real-time insight into their needs and directly respond to them, in most cases …