We credit an improv class at from Upright Citizens Brigade for a new perspective on search marketing. It’s inspiring enough to share.
Yes… and
The first lesson in improv is to always “Yes…and” everything. Your improve partner tells you your name is Ichabod? “Yes, and… I’m the sixth in a long line of Ichabods.” She sets the story in ancient Rome? “Yes, and… everyone’s hygiene here could use a little work.” The premise behind the rule is that a story can’t go on unless open minds allow it to go on. If someone comes up with a brand new idea, and all you say is, “No,” there’s nowhere to go from there. If the response to a new idea is, “Yes…and tell me more,” the story evolves.
Search is a constantly evolving field, so if you’re not open to new ideas, you’ll fall behind. Search marketers learn through constant testing how a single additional word in ad copy can lead to a significant improvement in results. Keeping an open mind about new searching habits is rewarding because we can always test to see if a different approach works better than the original. The key is not to disregard something as a failure right off the bat, because you never know how the story is going to develop.
Add new elements
In improv, everyone starts off with zero information and builds from what other people say. Saying “Yes…” establishes that what was said in the past is part of a story. The function of “and” is to make sure each statement adds new information to the scene.
Your search accounts are a treasure trove of data. You might as well just draw a giant X on your computer screen because that’s the place to start digging for the first fact in a story. If impressions rose after you launched a set of keywords, “Yes… and” why? What else happened? The story could go anywhere from that point. The way to make something happen next is to add new information by extrapolating from your data set or running more tests to establish more facts.
Truthin Comedy and Search
As Del Close and Charna Halpern stressed in their book Truth in Comedy, nothing is more impactful than the truth. For improv, the truth is where we find humor. When was the last time you were on the floor with tears streaming down your face while clutching your stomach in a fit of laughter? Was it because you were watching a comedian on TV? Or was it that the situation you were in was extraordinarily hilarious? Because comedy comes from everyday life, the funniest improv always mimics ordinary circumstances.
In search, the truth is where we enhance results. Search is the only medium where people are trying to tell us what they want. SEM experts are closer to a true connection with consumers than everyone else in marketing. The way to be true to customers is to provide a satisfying experience. No gimmicks. No tricks. Just relevance and service. As improv stories earn the gift of laughter, search connections are rewarded with happy customers and exceptional results.
To provide yet another reason to claim and manage the local listings of your clients, Google has just rolled out Places Pages to Android devices. If you recall from a few months ago, Google renamed their local business center profiles to Places Pages. Every single location in Google Local has its own Places Page with a unique URL. These pages, or a very similar mobile representation of them, are now available through Android. A new icon appears in the apps launcher of all Android devices, allowing users to search through the massive local directory.
A few things to keep in mind:
Android was present on 6 of the top 20 phones in June 2010 (source)
Android commands an 11% market share as of June 2010 (source)
Android is present on 60 devices in 48 countries (source)
Mobile search on Android grew 300% in the first half of 2010 (source)
An Android phone is being activated every 2 seconds (source)
Because of this amazing rate of adoption on a significant number of devices, it makes a lot of sense to ensure that all venues for customers to find your store are representing you in the best manner. This is just one more indicator that local search is going to keep growing at the rate it has been, and it is just one more reason for business owners of all sizes to pay attention to that space.
We love workplace cliches, so when we stumbled across this blank verse celebrating the phrases we love to hate , we laughed out loud. Kudos Jesse Brown of the Search Engine. We salute you.
I’ve been a regular user of Facebook since it’s inception in 2004, when it was first marketed amongst collegians as an exclusive social network. When I heard about it from my randomly-assigned freshman roommate, I could barely grasp what she was talking about. “A face? Whose face? A book? What kind of book?” “No, no,” she said, exasperated. “F-A-C-E-B-O-O-K. Dot com!” Over the next four years, my relationship with Facebook mutated more often than Burger King’s marketing campaign; my peers and I generated online personas and expanded our networks exponentially, all under the semblance of control and ownership.
The rate of change in Facebook rivals its rate of integration into our lives. For hours on end, we update, like, share, chat and peruse the profiles of friends, bands, companies…of everything and nothing at all. This behavior makes Facebook the perfect vessel through which companies can reach their audiences. Given the time we spend on Facebook, the nature of what we share and the potential data available to advertisers, privacy is certainly important to users. But how important?
The general consensus is that consumers will continue to “sacrifice” their privacy because they value the experience so much. Maybe Facebook will continue to serve 400 million users because it’s made mistakes and innovations in a way that makes it seem like its growing up with its audience. We believe Facebook is listening and making every effort to protect us. Like parents who thrive on that semblance of control and ownership, millions of users, save for a fraction of outspoken and conscious ones (like, say, 35,000 people), won’t care about Open Graph and its ability to “target you on an even more granular level,” nor the Graph API, which “makes it much easier to parse, collate and thus search through user info.” More specifically, Open Graph allows website URLs to be part of the Facebook universe and advertisers are able to trace and track users who connect to those websites, much like Facebook Pages.
As an avid Facebook user and marketer, the big question after the ruckus dies down about things like “privacy” and “transparency” is whether or not most people care. And not only do I wonder how many people care, but who exactly cares?
We want to hear from you! Do you think a significant amount of users negatively react after companies adapt this new knowledge stream? How will Facebook resolve its liminal stance between connecting users and monetizing their participation?
Exercise crazes come and go, but the P90x seems to be holding its ground. The program has been around since 2004, but Google Insights for Search shows an increase in demand over the past year.
After a surge in search volume during January 2010, interest in the make-me-huge-in-90-days videos has plateaued (undoubtedly tied to ambitious New Year’s resolutions). Will this exercise craze remain strong for the next few years or is it just another fad?
