Biznology Blog by Mike Moran

Where Business and Technology Come Together

February 8, 2010

Social Media Breed Imaginary Friends

You're familiar with search spammers, but have you seen the latest? You've seen spammers load up keywords on pages and set up link farms, but have you seen how they create fake people in social media? To see the most recent search apam technique, check out my latest post on Internet Evolution, "Social Media Breed Imaginary Friends."

Posted by MikeMoran at 2:16 AM | Comments (0)

February 4, 2010

Google Says, "It's the Applications, Stupid!"

by Frank Reed

Google is being so intensely aggressive on the local search side that there is no denying that local search is the play of the future. With the continued proliferation of smartphones feeding information to people whenever and wherever they want it, attention now turns to the applications. It is always about the applications. Why do you think Microsoft was able to become what it is? Was it because they made the best hardware? No. They made NO hardware. They made the hardware of others functional (and commoditized). Google is doing the very same thing, but they look like they are doing it from both sides of the fence.

Continue reading "Google Says, "It's the Applications, Stupid!""

Posted by FrankReed at 10:41 PM | Comments (0)

Social Media and Search Marketing in Denmark

It's always fun to present in Copenhagen, and I was honored to do two talks at the Search Marketing Stategies 2010 conference today. The first talk, "Social Media from the Inside Out," for which I ended up standing in for Rob Key. Rob's my CEO at Converseon and unfortunately was grounded by his doctor and I stepped in to pitch his slides on how social media is a cultural change for a company and requires consulting and the human touch to work, especially in larger organizations. My second talk was my own, about how to reach global customers using search marketing, called "The Three Keys to International Search."

Posted by MikeMoran at 8:58 AM | Comments (0)

February 3, 2010

Is your Web site confusing the search engines?

In my line of work, I see a lot of Web sites, and sometimes I take the absolutely simple stuff for granted. I realized the error of my ways when I saw a client site that had over 500 (!) HTML errors right on the home page. Now, you might not know or care what an HTML error is. In fact, it's even OK with me if you don't know what HTML is. But my goal by the end of this post i to get you to care and to make sure that your site is working as expected.

Continue reading "Is your Web site confusing the search engines?"

Posted by MikeMoran at 7:09 AM | Comments (2)

February 2, 2010

Are You Undervaluing Your Web Site?

I spend a lot of time with clients and one thing keeps coming up again and again. Most of my clients sell offline, but they have no idea how to track those sales back to their Web site. Sometimes, I wonder of the whole issue seems so difficult that they feel like giving up. My advice don't. If this is happening to you, check out my latest post on Search Engine Guide, "Are You Undervaluing Your Web Site?"

Posted by MikeMoran at 4:11 PM | Comments (0)

February 1, 2010

The Age of Privacy Is Over

Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, has attracted a lot of attention lately over his new stance on privacy, with some claiming his attitude is tantamount declaring the age of privacy is over. It's not that he's wrong. It's just that it's not the smartest communication strategy and it's just the latest in a series of mis-steps by Facebook. In fact, Zuckerberg might have a point. Many people have become far more open about their lives, especially younger people who have grown up with social networking. I recently met Stowe Boyd, who has written some very interesting stuff on this trend, calling the style of Twitter "publicly" (as opposed to privacy). Perhaps the default that Twitter has pursued of being open is better than what Facebook chose (of paying more attention to privacy).

Continue reading "The Age of Privacy Is Over"

Posted by MikeMoran at 7:31 AM | Comments (0)

January 29, 2010

Internet Hucksters of the Information Age

by Frank Reed

Many people, including myself, have spoken about the death of sales as we once knew it. The ABC method (Always Be Closing) no longer has the same effect that it once had because people are smarter than that. People, in general, don't like to be manipulated and the years and years of being burnt have taken their toll. We as a society are too smart to listen to just any sales person and inherently trust what they are saying. We also realize that many times that what's in the best interest of the salesperson is not in the best interest of the customer. In other words, salespeople sell things that earn commission rather than trust but those days are drawing to a close rapidly.

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Posted by FrankReed at 12:22 AM | Comments (2)

January 28, 2010

Why Marketers Don't Need to Care About the iPad

The mania has struck again for another new device. The. One. That. Will. Change. Everything. If you are a publisher, maybe you need to take notice. But if you are a garden variety digital marketer, the iPad probably won't rock your world. To see why that's good, check out my latest post on Search Engine Guide, "Why Marketers Don't Need to Care About the iPad."

Posted by MikeMoran at 5:42 AM | Comments (0)

January 27, 2010

How Do Customers Find Your Store?

That's your question, but it's not their question. Customers want to know how they find the store that has the product they want for the right trade-off of price and convenience. Until now, that was not easy to do. Enter Milo.com, a free Web site that enables shoppers to research online and buy local—providing the best of both worlds. You can search for the product you crave online, just as you do with any shopping search engine, but the results have a twist: Milo can show the brick-and-mortar stores that have the product in stock, along with the price. So you can decide between driving ten more minutes and paying $20 more.

Continue reading "How Do Customers Find Your Store?"

Posted by MikeMoran at 2:56 PM | Comments (0)

January 26, 2010

Let's Push "Delete" on Big Button Marketing

If you're in marketing, you've probably been tempted yourself. You're not all that confident that what you are offering is all that exciting, so you might think that you need to fuzz things up just a bit. You might think that if you could fool people, just a little bit, into thinking that your offer was a bit better than it was--put it in the best possible light, yes, but maybe even a little better light than that. Unfortunately, the Internet punishes that kind of behavior, because someone calls you on your (slight) deception, and they do it publicly. All this was brought to mind recently when I was trying to download some "free" software by pressing the big button and kept ending up with the paid version, because the offer was just a little too good to be true. If you've been fooling folks just a bit, and you are wondering what the alternative is, check out my latest post on Internet Evolution, "Let's Push 'Delete' on Big Button Marketing."

Posted by MikeMoran at 9:46 AM | Comments (0)