Microsoft Now Powering Yahoo Search Results

Today Yahoo announced that all of its organic searches are powered by Bing, the search engine created by Microsoft as a direct competitor to Google. The switch is finalized from a deal hammered out between Yahoo and Microsoft over a year ago.

Now that Microsoft powers Yahoo’s searches, the software giant commands 28.1% of the search engine market which is contrasted by Google’s share of 65.8%. Yahoo’s Senior Vice President of Search Products gave his take on the switch:

Yahoo! Web, Image, and Video search experiences on both desktop and mobile devices are now powered by the Microsoft platform in the US and Canada (English), with more markets to come. The speed in which this was completed is a testament to the great work and partnership between a number of Yahoo! and Microsoft employees, the ranks of which are numerous.

While the backend has changed dramatically and Yahoo’s web development team didn’t need to step in, searches will start to look different. However, users are left asking one question; why should I continue to use Yahoo instead of Bing now that the two search engines are virtually the same? The answer comes down to preference, which brand do you trust more? Loyal Yahoo users may shy away from Microsoft’s new search engine but those who have been using Bing may not find Yahoo interesting enough to ‘switch’ to. If you’re an ad agency dealing with Yahoo, be prepared to switch over to Microsoft’s AdCenter this coming October. The ad platform is one of the last platforms to switch over to Microsoft’s solution.

Via: Search Engine Journal

How Writers Can Leverage HTML5

HTML5 is one of the newest web technologies and is being readily embraced—but what does it mean for journalists and writers?

What HTML5 Means For Writers

There has been a lot of buzz surrounding HTML5, especially in regards to HTML5 overtaking flash design for video playback and animation. This is sure to put a tough decision on any ad agency. While Adobe’s Flash and the newly released HTML5 specification compete head to head in both functionality and mindshare, coders and web designers are readily implementing the newest version of HTML. People who write online don’t think about the design process and offload that to the designer. However, HTML5 is shaping up to be a vital tool for them. Martin Belam has a great write up on what HTML5 can do for journalists which introduces them to how it works in relation to their content. If you’re a journalist or Blogger who tends to shy away from coding and instead offload HTML and CSS duties to a contracted designer or website design company, this is the time to embrace it in the form of HTML5.

Incorporating HTML5 Into Website Design

One of the best tools HTML5 offers is article structure which is vital for any writer to clearly show what they’re trying to convey. The “section” tag will allow you to divide up your content on criteria such as tutorials, reviews or news items. Writers can utilize the “aside” tag to identify related content.Factoring  in time and dates to your writing is another important aspect journalists can take advantage of in HTML5 using the “time” tag. A close comparison is the data detectors employed in Mac OS X which recognize time and dates. However, the time tag will be implemented into your CMS in due time.

Another interesting tag to use under HTML5 is the “details” tag, which allows you to insert relevant information that can be collapsed or opened by the reader. This tag could encompass information such as relevant dates, in depth location or directions. The “mark” tag makes your content stand out. The “wbr” tag can be used in place of the break tag when a word break is needed instead of forcing line breaks.

Making HTML5 Writing And SEO Friendly

In addition, HTML5 is SEO friendly and easy to use which is important for any writer looking to promote their work and have it show up in relevant search results. HTML5′s XML-like structure makes it easier for search engines to index. You can also improve your ranking with the “article”, “aside,” “header” and “section” tags. You can also compliment your content with video and identify it appropriately with the new video tag and search engine friendly wording.

Are you a writer or journalist utilizing HTML5? Let us know your experience!

The Power of Custom Branding Your Facebook Page

Tom Sullivan over at Turbo Social Media reviews the importance of having a custom landing page in Facebook. This ability to customize is known as FBML, or Facebook Mark-up Language (a nice little spin of “HTML” … see the connection?). DigitalEYE can create an FBML page for you to give your company personality, capture leads, engage with your audience and manage campaigns to strategically grow your fans.

View DigitalEYE’s FBML page here and the page of yours truly here.

“A couple of weeks ago I touched on the importance of custom, branded Facebook page in an article about how to make you business standout with social media. I want to revisit that topic and elaborate on it in more detail.

Your Facebook landing page is also known as your “welcome” page. It is the first thing people see when they come to your Fan page (for the first time). Your Facebook Fan page is likely the second most important piece of real estate online for your business, after your website. You need it to reflect that same uniqueness and creativity that your website does. Just like you website should be geared toward generating leads, your Facebook landing page also should be geared toward generating leads, or getting people to “like” your business. Here are some reasons why your business needs to have a custom Facebook landing page:

1) A custom Facebook landing page shows your business’ personality. Facebook has a pretty generic look as it is. A custom landing page is your business’ one opportunity to really give people an idea of what you’re all about. Show some pizzazz and creativity. Create that “wow” factor. Utilize video and a stylish design to brand your business and make you stand out from your competition.

2) A custom Facebook landing page allows you to capture leads. Along with branding, this should be your goal. While a “like” is valuable because it gives you an open platform to get in front of your Fans, and email address from an opt-in is even more valuable, and it should be treated as such. Someone who opts in for your services or offer on your Facebook page is just as valuable as someone who does so on your website. The best part is that you now have two lead generating machines: your website and your custom Fan page.

3) Your custom Fan page allows you to engage with your audience more. If a person goes to your Fan page and the first thing they see is your wall they are much less inclined to engage with you or comment than if the go to your landing page first. The reason is that your landing page can tell them exactly what you want them to do. You’re landing page can list an offer that is more enticing because it is bright and colorful, it can point directly to the “like” button requesting that they become a Fan, or it can use video to excite viewers or encourage them to interact with your business.”

ROI: How to Measure Return on Investment in Social Media

Written By Brian Solis February 22, 2010 http://www.briansolis.com

What follows is the entire version of my recent post on Mashable, “The Maturation of Social Media ROI“

Over the years, Social Media experts attempted to redefine ROI for a new era of influence. While some introduced alternative philosophies for measuring the nuances tied to social media, others wondered aloud whether ROI simply wasn’t necessary as the tools and methodologies for analyzing yields didn’t yet exist. And furthermore, by focusing on justification and metrics, we were distracted from the primary objective of building relationships and cultivating dialogue.

The debate over ROI inspired certain brands to cannonball into popular social networks to join the proverbial conversation without a plan or strategic objectives defined. At the same time, the lack of ROI standards and established authorities unnerved many executives, preventing any form of experimentation until their questions and concerns were addressed.

But that was then and this is now.

In 2010, we enter into a new era of social media marketing, one based on information, rationalization, and resolve.

Business leaders simply need clarity in a time of abundant options and scarcity of experience and answers. As many of us can attest, we report to executives who have no desire to measure intangible credos rooted in transparency and authenticity. In the end, they simply want to calculate the return on investment and associate Social Media programs with real world business performance metrics.

Over the years, we explored ideas, driven by a passionate desire to find new meaning and vindication in uncharted domains. These discussions and the innovation they sparked, redefined the framework for traditional metrics, creating hybrids that would and will prove critical to modernizing business practices, improving products and services, and effectively competing for the future.

ROI: The Return on Ignorance

Where the “I” in ROI represents return on investment, marketers have also explored ancillary elements to address the socialization of media, marketing, and the resulting dynamics of engagement.

Adaptations included:

Return on engagement – the duration of time spent either in conversation or interacting with social objects, and in turn, what transpired that’s worthy of measurement.

Return on participation – the metric tied to measuring and valuing the time spent participating in social media through conversations or the creation of, social objects.

Return on involvement – similar to participation, marketers explored touchpoints for documenting states of interaction and tying metrics and potential return of each.

Return on attention – In the attention economy, we assess the means to seize attention, hold it and as such measure the responses activities that we engender.

Return on trust – A variant on measuring customer loyalty and the likelihood for referrals, a trust barometer establishes the state of trust earned in social media engagement and the prospect of generating advocacy and how it impacts future business.

But as we learn through experience, our views and techniques mature into more sophisticated strategies as we progress through the Ten Stages of Social Media Evolution.

For many businesses, the case for new metrics cannot arise until we have an intrinsic understanding of how social media engagement affects us at every level. To be quite honest, it is not as simple as counting an increase of subscribers, followers, fans, conversation volume, reach, and traffic. While the size of the corporate social graph is a reflection of our participation behavior, it is not symbolic of brand stature, resonance, loyalty, advocacy, nor is it an indicator for business performance.

ROI: Return on Investment

Sometimes we simply need ROI to signify a meaningful return on investment.

In 2010, Social Media endeavors are still funded as pilot programs to steer the brand towards perceived relevance in the hopes that they demonstrate momentum and as such, rewards materialize. Budgets are for the most part, borrowed from other divisions to fund the teams and programs lead by the internal champions who effectively make the case for experimentation. Where that money goes and from where it’s borrowed varies by department and by company usually tied to where champions reside internally today.

In many cases however, new programs are introduced without an integrated strategy. Money is allocated from existing programs, and if we’re going to take it away from something, we should therefore determine whether or not we’re justified in doing so.

According to a 2009 study performed by Mzinga and Babson Executive Education, 84 percent of professionals representing a variety of industries reported that they do not measure ROI.

Source: eMarketer

In 2010, executives are demanding scrutiny, evaluation, and interpretation. Even though new media is transforming organizations from the inside out, what is constant nevertheless, is the need to apply performance indicators to our work.

The Business of Social Media

The CFO, CEO, and CMO of any organization would be remiss if they did not account for spending and resource allocation, regardless of the allure and seduction of social media.

MarketingProfs recently published a study performed by Bazaarvoice and the CMO Club that revealed the true expectation of chief marketing officers. Bottom line, they want measurable results from social media.

Elusiveness continues to prevail however. The study found that the exact impact of social media tactics evade the grasp of CMOs.

- 53% are unsure about their return on Twitter

-50% are unable to assess the value of LinkedIn or industry blogs

More specifically however, roughly 15% believe there is no ROI associated with Twitter and just over 10% cannot glean ROI from LinkedIn or Facebook.

I believe this is the direct result of not tying activity to an end game, the ability to know what it is we want to measure before we engage. Doing so, allows us to define a strategy and a tactical plan to support activity that helps us reach our goals and objectives.

We first answer,

What is it we want to change, improve, accomplish, incite, etc.?

Doing so will allow us to establish goals and objectives that specifically tie activity to:

- Sales

- Registrations

- Referrals

- Links (the currency of the social web)

- Votes

- Reduction in costs and processes

- Decrease in customer issues

- Lead generation

- Conversion

- Reduced sale cycles

- Inbound activity

Customer Insight

Among the responses received from CMOs, customer ratings and reviews rose to the top of marketing activities that deliver tangible ROI insight. In 2009, 80% of respondents reported that customer stories and product suggestions shape products and services. As a result, brands earn the trust and loyalty of their customers for listening and responding – as long as they are made aware of their role and rewarded for it.

In 2010, CMOs will review opportunities for user-generated content sources to involve customers and advocates with many reporting…

- a 400% increase in use of Twitter comments to inform decisions about products and services

- a 59% increase in the use of customer ratings and reviews

- a 24% increase in use of social media for pre-sales Q&A

The Socialization of Monetization

Social media metrics will increasingly tie to revenue in 2010. To what extent seems to vary according to CMOs.

- 80% predict upwards of 5%

- 15% optimistically hope for 5-10%

In 2009, those companies that aligned social media investments with revenue estimate:

- 5% or less revenue tied to social in 2009 foresee an increase of an additional 5% in 2010

- 6-10% of revenue stemming from social is expected to increase more than 10%

- Those with greater revenues resulting from social engagement expect an escalation of revenue derived from social at 20%

Companies such as Dell are not only tracking the impact of Social Media on revenue, but expanding lessons learned across the entire organization. According to Dell’s Lionel Menchaca:

Our @DellOutlet is now close to 1.5 million followers on Twitter, and back in June we indicated that @DellOutlet earned $3 million in revenue from Twitter. Today it’s not just Dell Outlet having success connecting with customers on Twitter. In total, Dell’s global reach on Twitter has resulted in more than $6.5 million in revenue. In fact our Brazilian and Canadian accounts are growing rapidly too – and it was Canadian tweeters who asked to make sure Dell Canada came online to Twitter. Dell Canada responded because the team heard our customers. In less than a year,@DellnoBrasil has already generated nearly $800,000 in product revenues. Similarly,@DellHomeSalesCA has surpassed $150,000 and is increasing at notable pace.

The Forecast for Metrics in 2010

Earlier we mentioned generic forms of Social Media metrics. The survey revealed that indeed, many CMOs, 89%, tracked the impact of social media by traffic, pageviews, and the size of their social graph or communities. However, 2010 is the year that social media graduates from experimentation to strategic implementation with direct ties to specific measurable performance indicators.

In 2010, CMOs will seek to establish a connection between social media and P&L business goals. The study documents the adoption of three metrics:

- 333% surge in tracking revenue

- 174% escalation in monitoring conversion

- 150% increase in measuring average order value

A Call To Action

Among the most effective forms of any marketing initiative is the integration of a call to action. It is how I define influence as it gives us the ability to inspire activity and measure it – as designed. As stated earlier, revenue is only one form of metrics we can introduce, but defining the “R” in ROI is where we need to focus as it relates to our business goals and performance indicators specifically. Even though much of social media is free, we do know the cost of engagement as it relates to employees, time, equipment, and opportunity cost (what they’re not focusing on or accomplishing while engaging in social media). Tying those costs to the results will reveal a formula for assessing the “I” as investment.

When we truly grasp the ability to define action and measure it, we can expand the impact of new media beyond the P&L. We can adapt business processes, inspire ingenuity, and more effectively compete for the future.

Connect with Brian Solis: Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Google Buzz, Facebook
—
Pre-order the next book, Engage!

—

15 Helpful Social Media Monitoring Tools

There are many great tools to scan online social media content, and you can add these to your list of:

1. Backtype
2. People Browser
3. Addictomatic
4. Search Twitter

Click Here

How to Improve Conversion Rates with Design Elements

If you are tracking lots of unique visits to your website but your conversions are low, you might want to try some different design elements to improve your analytics. We try and target between 4% and 7% and if your site is converting below that you may have a poor design or your Keywords may also be too broad. Click Here for a good tool to use to research search volume on a particular Keyword so you can also make sure you are not using Keywords in your Title Tags, Meta Tags and URL Strings that are not being searched. Watch the video below.

Why Social Media Revolution

This is a good video from Socialnomics that illustrates some old and some new information about Social Media trends and statistics.  Share this with those you know who are on the fence about what the phenomenon is all about.  Never has there been such a robust channel that is rapidly accelerating the time to market for customer acquisition, conversion, retention and optimization.  Ask us at Digital EYE how we can help you increase your referring traffic and conversions using Social Media.

Social Media Marketing Spend to Hit $3.1 Billion by 2014

By Mashable

We already knew that social media marketing budgets were on the rise, but now we know by how much. Forrester Research is out with their Interactive Marketing Forecast for the next five years, and estimates social media marketing to grow at an annual rate of 34 percent – faster than any other form of online marketing and double the average growth rate of 17 percent for all online mediums.

Of course, social media is starting from a smaller base. Forrester estimates that $716 million will be spent on the medium this year, growing to $3.1 billion in 2014. At that point, social media will be a bigger marketing channel than both email and mobile, but still just a fraction of the size of search or display advertising ($31.6B and $16.9B, respectively).  Read Entire Article

How To Create A Killer Email Offer In 10 Minutes Or Less

This is a good article with lots of information on how to set up an effective email marketing campaign.  The real secret however is the subject line.  You need to follow the strategy that the Grocery Store Tabloids use.  Every article on the front page starts with these type of headlines:

• Learn The Secrets Of….
• The Truth About…
• 5 Ways to….

When people are scanning their Inbox, they open the eMail depending upon what the subject line says.  Humans by nature are curious and will more than likely open an email that peaks their curiosity.  If you are getting low open rates, and click throughs write us at Digital EYE and we will send you a White Paper on writing effective Subject Lines.

Learn More

How I Use Twitter

By: Jeremiah Owyang

Everyone will approach Twitter in a different way, and should find the way that works for them, here’s my approach on Twitter:

[Rather than answering "What are you doing" reframe your thinking to answer "What's important to my followers and me?"]
How I use Twitter, I try to add value, here’s how:

1) As a ’shared feed’ reader. I’ll post up links of what I’m reading that I find is interesting in near real time, and give some commentary. I try to add value here, rather than adding to noise. So use me as a news filter.

2) As a chat room. We collectively work out problems, issues, and I gain insight to other people’s viewpoints. Often when conversations are just between a few folks, I shift to direct messages or email –sparing my community from hearing my minutia.

3) Event capture: Lately, when I attend an event (like Mark Cuban’s presentation at BlogWorldExpo, or Teresa’s webinar on Facebook yesterday) I’ll fire off the top nuggets I learn.

4) Listening tool: It’s interesting to find out what others are sharing and talking about, from very personal to big concepts. I frequently use the search tools around different topics to keep on top of what’s happening.

5) Traffic driving tool: I use it to direct people to this blog, sometimes (I’ll admit) a bit too enthusiastically. Google Analytics indicates this is one of the largest referrers of folks to my blog.

6) For work: When I’m conducting interviews or briefings that aren’t confidential, I’ll state who I’m speaking to and what I find interesting, if you listen closely, you’ll hear me tweet about other interesting findings from my job as a social media analyst. Also, I will announce new research, request interviews, and promote workshops, conferences and other services.

How I don’t use Twitter

1) Personal Minutia: I rarely talk about waking up, eating lunch, or starting my car, instead, I want to add value.

2) Excessive personal discussions: I’ve been criticized for not @replying at people, but it’s because I’m sensitive to not overload the community with a discussion that’s only relevant to a few people. Instead, I may direct message them, favorite a tweet, or shift to email. Update as of Sept 2008, I have sent/received over 4000 direct messages, out of 10,000 updates. So 40% of my communications shift to private discussions.

A few people have found me too noisy (filling up their stream) but there’s a simple solution, although I would hate to see it happen, one can simply opt-out. You’ve got to do what’s right for you and I understand.

If you’re a Web Strategist at a company or agency, read Web Strategy: What the Web Strategist should know about Twitter.

I hope to see you on Twitter, add me as a contact. Also, one of the keys to Twitter is to add people you know, it then becomes more like a chat room. Following me alone isn’t sufficient, see a list of active twitter accounts on Twitter Poster.

So, how do you use Twitter?