As a consumer, there’s little risk or reason not to participate. Buy the deal for a fraction of the price, and when ready, redeem it. The only downfall is that they do eventually expire, and some, especially the exercise deals, will go unused. Beyond that, group buying is safe and extremely beneficial to consumers looking to save money, as well as people looking for new things to do and new places to try.

The real risk comes on the business’s side. A business offers a service or a product at a fraction of the price, usually at least more than 50 percent off. For example, “Pay $10.00 and get $20.00 of food” at a local restaurant. The deal is posted on the collective buying website and mass blasted to their enormous email list. Consumers now have a limited amount of time to purchase this deal before it expires. By the end of the deal’s time, “X” amount of people have purchased the deal, and then comes the split with the group buying platform that ran the deal. Many site’s split is as large as 50 percent, so businesses are now giving consumers their product or service at 50 percent off, but only received around 25 percent of the value.

Broken down in this manner, this may not sound like a very good deal for the business, but the upsides are that the business now has a large chuck of cash upfront that may be much needed at this time, as well as the exposure and the goal of generating new business. There are definitely pros to participating in a group buying deal, but many business owners are failing to look at the cons, and ending up with negative, unexpected ramifications. Here is the list of things to consider before participating in a group buying deal:

• Do the math. Figure out the entire equation of how much your product or service actually costs you and how much you are coming out ahead, even, or under after the split with the company. Make sure you are not coming out too far under.
• Assess the amount of deals your business can really handle. Each group buying site will allow you to put a cap on the number you want to offer. If you are a small, one-man show, selling 5,000 deals could be impossible to honor before it expires. Businesses have experienced negative backlash on online review sites and lost future customers because coupon buyers were unable to use their deal due in a timely manner because the business was booked solid. Don’t be greedy.
• Decide which company to partner with. There are literally hundreds of options of which company you can run a group buying deal with. If you are a business that can handle high volume, as well as can handle a larger split, one of the big guys such as Groupon or Livingsocial may be the way to go. Amazon recently ran a nationwide deal for $10.00 for $20.00 of products on its site and sold 1,378,938 vouchers. Amazon can handle this kind of volume, your local hair salon cannot. While these large businesses may look tempting, choosing a local, smaller group buying site has its benefits as well. Working with smaller companies means you’ll have a more personal experience and probably a lot more say in the formatting, copy, and delivery of your deal. For instance, Groupon doesn’t show businesses their coupon copy before it is runs. It may also be a great way to run a lower volume deal. Maybe you’re just looking for a little boost and would be happy with 100 deals sold; the smaller guys are a great place to start. Smaller companies will generally also take a smaller split and leave room to negotiate. If you can’t afford a 50/50 split, working with a local site that could go as low as 70/30 may be a better alternative.

Collective buying is one of the biggest trends in the market right now, especially in an economy where 50-70 percent off deals is much needed and appreciated. But as a business you cannot allow yourself to be sucked in without doing the proper research and consideration. Running a group buying deal could be life changing for your business, but it could also be the final nail in the coffin for a struggling business greedily looking to make some quick cash. Remember these tips when considering a group buying deal and you just might see the positive surge in business that you’ve needed.

Why Navigation Is Critical For User Interaction

It’s often the small details that make the biggest impact on your design and not implementing even the smallest change to increase usability can be fatal during the conversion process. Being able to navigate through a site and not be bombarded by links that don’t work or being presented with useless will make your online business more effective.

Many people don’t take the small details in to account or forget about the big picture just because their site looks great and is in a digital environment. You wouldn’t choose a cookie cutter layout for your office or storefront despite the convenience in selecting it, would you? You wouldn’t because your needs are unique. The same goes for your site – users need to navigate outside of the navigation methods imposed by generic layouts.

What Is Good Design?

Tackling the issue of website usability and how it can be implemented effectively, Tanner, our resident blogger at DigitalEYE Media wrote a very extensive post titled “Designing With Usability: How To Make Navigation Easier For Users”. In the post, you can learn what web usability is and how it plays a critical role in how visitors interact with your site along with tips for improving visibility.

There is a reason why great interface designers exist: the need for usable and effective layouts is not only in demand but their work can help your bottom line. If you have a website that is very easy to use, features interactive elements that guide visitors to their destination and is visually appeasing, your website will be the best generator of cash.

The team of Graphic Designers and Web Programmers I work with at DigitalEYE Media take site usability very seriously. Their experience in crafting sites that are very easy to use and effective conversion points sets them apart from the competition. Even more so, my team’s work speaks for itself.

Email was championed as the forward-thinking communication tool of the 90′s. It spawned uninterrupted communication across all continents and brought down one of America’s largest corporations — killer indeed! Email is also a spammer’s heaven despite the legal ramifications. Spam is the scourge of the Internet. It is a one-way facet that disrupts people’s workflows. It’s the most obtrusive form of advertising, yet spammers continue to thrive on unsuspecting recipients. Filters have been created and are continually tweaked but the battle against spam is waged in offices everywhere on a daily basis.
Email is one of the biggest productivity killers and time wasters as people write out epics akin to The Illiad and The Odyssey, that could be condensed in to a sentence or two. Thankfully, there is a solution: Twitter’s Direct Messages and @replies is the email killer we’ve been waiting for; they’re fast, minimalist and won’t assault your inbox with spam.

Twitter Kills Spam With a Click

Has someone sent you a spam-filled Tweet? Block them. Don’t want to be burdened with automated messages? Unfollow them. Twitter makes communication (private or public) simple. Twitter offers the broad reach of emails with the advantages of simplicity by promoting pick-and-choose communication and focusing on whom you really need to talk to. Messaging with Twitter forces you to start a conversation and really be a part of it— spam free, of course.
Twitter Gets Straight to the Point

The best thing about Twitter is its biggest limitation: 140 character messages and updates. If email were built on the idea that a message cannot exceed 140 characters, we wouldn’t have the current epidemic of spam and seemingly endless emails that serve no purpose but to waste the recipient’s time. Twitter’s limitation makes the real purpose of a message shine, instead of it being dimmed by unneeded thoughts.

Email is Too Slow
Despite the advancements in email, it’s still slow compared to Twitter’s @replies and direct messages, which happen instantly. Email must be downloaded and have a high latency when downloaded to a phone. Twitter replies can be delivered as text messages to your phone and if you have a Twitter client on your phone, the message appears instantly.

Twitter’s @replies and direct messages are nirvana for those who thrive on simple, direct forms of communication. Its spam control methods beat email, messages are straight to the point and they’re sent fast. I predict direct messages will soon outnumber emails; Twitter is just that efficient.

Copy Blogger

(http://www.copyblogger.com)

Copy Blogger is a great read if you are going to be doing any kind of writing online. Copy Blogger writes great articles and tutorials on how to improve your writing and make blogging, copywriting and writing for search engine optimization fun and effective.

Top 10 SEO Tips

(http://www.top10seotips.com)

Top 10 SEO Tips, maintained by Steve Wiideman, is one of the greatest online search engine
optimization resources online. I work with Steve on a regular basis and his expertise is astounding. He’s great at what he does and regularly blogs about search engine optimization.

Mashable

(http://www.mashable.com)

Mashable is one of the most active and well written social media Blogs out there. It’s constantly updated with tutorials and features a plethora of resources that will help you harness the power of social media. The blog has the latest news in social media allowing you to keep up to date with the newest startups, trends and tools.

Scobleizer

(http://scobleizer.com)

Robert Scoble is one of the most interesting personalities on the Internet. He is most notable for his book “Naked Conversations” which details his work evangelizing Microsoft through blogging. Scoble’s blog is great to read about, well, blogging.

ReadWriteWeb

(http://www.readwriteweb.com)

ReadWriteWeb is another great social media blog that tackles the legality and impact of social media campaigns. They have a small networks of blogs that focus on very specific segments of social media such as cloud computing and the mobile web.

Hopefully these blogs will help you better understand social media. This is just the tip of the iceberg though. Exploring more social networks and blog s related to your niche will help make social media fun and effective.

When compared to other office suites, in-house hosting and productivity Apps, you’ll find Google Apps cut down on cost and deliver on productivity. It’s extremely easy to set up with your domain and start saving money. Best of all, the Apps store data in their cloud, which makes your documents, contacts, mail and calendars accessible anywhere you have an internet connection.

Google Documents

Google Docs is the web-based competitor to Microsoft Word and it’s free. Your documents are uploaded to Google’s servers making them accessible anywhere you are. Documents such as spreadsheets, presentations and letters can be shared with other Google Apps users instantly.

These documents can also be accessed from any mobile device, so you never have to worry about where your work is saved. Revisions, formatting and group editing are available everywhere Microsoft Word is as well as tons of places it usually isn’t.

Compared to Microsoft Word, Google Docs beats the costly Microsoft App on data syncing, price and productivity.

Google Calendar

Google’s Calendar App once again takes the cloud approach to sharing data. Calendar information is entered via a web interface but you can sync your events, appointments and information to mobile devices instantly. Add an event on your phone, your co-workers can see it seconds later. That is the beauty of Google Calendar- its cloud integration that pushes data from Google’s servers to your computer and phone.

Google Mail

Google Mail is your answer to email hassles. Its powerful spam filter means you won’t be inundated with useless content. You can also access Google Mail with your mobile device and computer to once again sync mail and receive it instantly. The storage space provided is a spacious 7 GB with a guaranteed 99.9% uptime.

Google Apps can cut costs for your business, increase productivity and make your data accessible anywhere. Microsoft’s offerings can’t compete or are too pricey for a business looking for a reliable and cheap productivity suite.

The show, hosted by US Food Services, will be presented at the Alameda County Fairgrounds from 9 AM to 4 PM. Digital Eye will be in the Young California building. Our booth is TBD, when we receive more info I’ll update this post and Tweet our booth number. We’ll be showing attendees our Social Media prowess, marketing ideas and the importance of Blogging. Attendees will be able to see how I and Jamie use Social Media (Twitter, Facebook) to engage users. I’ll be demonstrating the importance of Blogging and why creating original content is crucial for brand promotion. Michael Jarvis will be talking about the importance of marketing and how Digital Eye can help promote your brand or company.

We will be Tweeting from the conference using the hash tag #usfoodshow. If you are attending, we encourage you to use the same hash tag so we can reply and give shout outs to attendees. Don’t forget to follow our Twitter accounts @digitaleyemedia @tannergodarzi @budor (Gary Brewer) @interseller (Michael Jarvis)

We are very excited to attend the show. If you are in the area, we encourage you to come out and have a great time while gaining valuable Social Media insight.

Yesterday, Google Instant made its debut to the millions who use the search engine. It shows instant results and adds a layer of predictive searches.

Google Instant

Eric Schmidt gave a precursor to Google Instant at the IFA conference the day before when we spoke about the future of the search engine. He saw Google as being faster, personal and jumpstart the age of “augmented humanity” Google Instant is exactly as its name suggest; instant search as you type. If you visit Google Instant you can enable the feature if it has hasn’t been turned on for you. Within the comings weeks and months, all of Google’s Homepage visitors will see instant search results.

Google Instant was a long time in the making; the search giant needed to build a new infrastructure to enable the capability of instant search, work the feature in to its web design and ensure an optimal user experience. From the Official Google Blog, a few of Instant’s important features:

Dynamic Results – Google dynamically displays relevant search results as you type so you can quickly interact and click through to the web content you need.
Predictions – One of the key technologies in Google Instant is that we predict the rest of your query (in light gray text) before you finish typing. See what you need? Stop typing, look down and find what you’re looking for.
Scroll to search – Scroll through predictions and see results instantly for each as you arrow down.

At its core, Google Instant is predictive search meant to speed up the search process. By suggesting keywords relevant to what you’re looking for, Google claims it can shave 2 to 5 seconds off your total search time.

Google Instant And SEO

Google Instant has a few people questioning how their SEO strategy will factor in to the search giant’s new predictive search feature. If you’re worried, don’t fret; a few notable SEO gurus have said that Google Instant will not hurt your SEO strategy but actually help it.

The general census is that Instant search will create a greater need for optimized content as search results become more refined. SEO Book spoke in praise of Instant as “increasing the value of a well thought out SEO strategy” as it “consolidates search volume into a smaller basket of keywords.” Google noted that natural search results won’t change.

Via Gizmodo

Priority inbox is your virtual mail clerk for managing your massive email overload. At the heart of the feature is a comprehensive algorithm that sifts through emails and replies to find important keywords, people you email the most and other important relays between you and others. All of this information is factored in to how Priority Inbox categorizes important email over non critical replies.

Besides the alogorithm, starred emails are grouped in to Priority Inbox. What Google hopes to accomplish with grouping starred emails with pre-sorted email is that users will be more diligent in grouping emails that need acting upon.

In your Gmail window, you should see a tab above inbox showing off the new menu item. If it doesn’t show up for you, don’t worry, the feature is being rolled out slowly to users throughout the week.

Priority Inbox Makes Users The Number One Priorirty

Priority Inbox is not new by any means, it was originally included in Gmail but was taken out before launch to undergo further refinement. While the feature was being tested internally, Google found users saved 16% of time checking emails.

The Official Google Blog further refines the purpose of Priority Inbox:. “Gmail has always been pretty good at filtering junk mail into the “spam” folder. But today, in addition to spam, people get a lot of mail that isn’t outright junk but isn’t very important–bologna, or “bacn.” So we’ve evolved Gmail’s filter to address this problem and extended it to not only classify outright spam, but also to help users separate this “bologna” from the important stuff. In a way, Priority Inbox is like your personal assistant, helping you focus on the messages that matter without requiring you to set up complex rules.”

Bringing efficiency to email checking is Google’s next major step with Gmail and is a drastic step towards refining spam filters. Users who receive hundreds if not thousands of emails a day are the ones that will benefit the most from this new implementation in Gmail. Google estimates users who spend 13 hours per week on email will save a week’s worth of time after a year of using Priority Inbox.

However, the feature is considered Beta so Google Apps users won’t be able to take advantage of Priority Inbox unless their IT department configures beta features to be used.

As a Gmail user, I’m really excited Google is taking active steps in going above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to Spam filtering and instead focusing on filtering emails that are relevant to me and other Gmail users. Let me know what you think of this feature.

Via: PC World

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

Foursquare Marketing Campaigns

Don’t knock Foursquare as just your regular check in service, businesses are already using it to promote themselves; by having users check in to them.

Starbucks, one of the biggest Foursquare promoters created a special campaign just for its loyal customers. The coffee chain instituted a special that gave users who checked in to five different Starbucks a Barista badge. The badge gave Foursquare users access to promotions other customers couldn’t take advantage but the offers varied between locations.

However, the campaign fell flat on its face. While the coffee titan created the campaign on a company wide basis, not many outlets were informed of the offer or even what the Barista badge meant on Foursquare. This left Foursquare users looking at a dumb founded manager when they requested an offer that could only be unlocked by the badge. This shows poor management on Starbucks’ part on what could have been a great social media opportunity.

Foursquare Promotions & Deals

But there have been brands that have successfully used Foursquare to create some awesome marketing campaigns such as lifestyle brand Diesel. The company launched one of the most elaborate social media marketing campaigns the fashion industry has seen; “Be Stupid.” The Ad was combined with a special one day event at Diesel’s flagship New York store as part of the company’s experimental organic social media campaign. During the one day event, users who checked in to Foursquare within a three-city block radius were alerted a promotion available directly from the store. When those users checked in to the store, they were treated to special printed tees; a great marketing tool for Diesel considering four people within the first hour of the campaign took advantage of the Foursquare offer and dozens more walked in.

Foursquare Business Tools

If your business is interested in using Foursquare to generate buzz without generating a marketing plan from an ad agency, the company has tools you can leverage. Their services for business allow them to create specials for Mayors (those who check in the most to a venue in the past two months), multiple checkin specials (which Starbucks implemented, albeit on an unsuccessful scale), frequency based specials and wildcard specials which require staff to see you’ve met certain conditions to receive an offer i.e. “show us your swarm badge and you’ll get a discount on this product.”

If you do implement Foursquare specials for your businesses, remember some basic etiquette. If you add tips to your venue, avoid making them sound spammy. The purpose of tips for a venue is to turn on new users to what’s hot or any deals. Even more important is alerting your staff to Foursquare specials. If Starbucks has taught us anything, you can’t rely on word of mouth for your employees to automatically know about the latest and greatest in social media offers. Make a graphic to detail what each badge means and what special is associated with it. Chances are a lot of your customers will show you their badges on Foursquare’s mobile App or website automatically matching up a badge with its corresponding offer is critical to good customer service.

Are you already using Foursquare to promote your brand or business? Let me know what tips or practices you’d recommend.