As a continuation of The “Always There” Brand, let’s focus on a key behavior of the modern brand:

If brands are open and transparent, let’s have more authentic dialogue with our consumers.

The consumer journey has more touch-points than ever before. Broadcasting the same message at each one of these touchpoints is like having the same conversation with another person over and over again. Like friendship, conversation matures over time and it becomes more meaningful and impactful. Our conversations adapt to the environment around us.

Shouldn’t modern brand communications strive for the same effect?

Shouldn’t we tailor our messages according to where our consumer is within their journey instead of shoving one message or idea throughout each channel?

Brand marketers still insist that messages from Television be “integrated” across Print, OOH, Email, Display, Search, etc. It’s one thing to intend to increase a consumer’s receptivity, or CTR, for an advertisement by featuring messaging to which they may have previously been exposed. But, this approach also fails to build an authentic relationship.

The narrow focus of one benefit or one communication idea fails to identify the benefit of your brand’s presence within the consumer’s chosen medium. The medium in which a message is communicated fundamentally alters the consumer’s perception of that message.

Speak to consumers in a manner that corresponds to their current stage of the journey.

As stated by Razorfish’s VP of Search, Adam Heimlich: If web technology makes for a substantially different way of delivering brand messages, search’s function of making it easily, instantly, flexibly accessible is also substantially different. Remember that the goal of branding is to simulate human relationships, and consider the relative importance, in human relationships, of first impressions vs. verification of integrity over time.

If your consumer is searching for you, they are granting you permission to speak to them. They chose the medium of search because it provides utility, or some valued benefits. As search marketers, we should strive to better understand this benefit and augment it with our relevant message and consumer-centric branding.

Google recently (officially) announced that Google+ and +1’s are influencing your search results, and given the opportunity for Google+ to augment this even more, expect to see an influx of social applications on your search engine results pages (SERPs) in the next year.

This wish list includes several features that may socially alter search results and the searcher’s experience within them. Some are immediately applicable, while others err on the lofty side. But, if you are going to dream, dream big.

Social Influence Categorization:

As Google+ grows and users are forced to engineer Circles and group greater amounts of connections, search results influenced by shared information across the social network will need categorization. Imagine you’re searching for a particular topic and you have 1000+ connections. If several connections shared the same link that rises to the top of the results, wouldn’t it be beneficial to tell the searcher to categorize certain Circles above others? For instance, if I’m searching for movie reviews and the top result was shared by my Marketers, Friends, Family, and Google Circles, I’d be much more influenced by my Friends and Family Circle than my Marketers Circle – which includes thought leaders I’ve never met. Leveraging this user-provided data will make my results more relevant; therefore, increasing my satisfaction with the search results.

Social Meta Information:

When a connection shares a link on Google+, they rarely share only the link. Usually, they’ll also share a little blurb or opinion on the link. To augment the context of that shared link in search results, wouldn’t it be nice to see an excerpt of that blurb right below the search result? Google introduced more white space and spacing between results with their latest creative refresh, and this increased white space allows them to provide more detailed results when applicable. I’d love to know why my friend shared a link and their opinion on it versus only showing the fact that it was shared. In essence, this creates a dialogue between you and your connections within Google search instead of purely relying on what search marketers provide in the title and description.

Social Paid Search Ads:

Facebook has an offering similar to this idea. However, Google+ and +1’s proximity to Google search make this a winning feature. As paid search marketers, we are constantly striving to provide more relevant results to searchers in hopes of improving our CTR and increasing site traffic, leads, and revenue. In order to connect search marketer’s desires with consumers’, Google should roll out a new product offering within AdWords: Social Paid Ads. This offering would allow paid search marketers to serve special ads that immediately call out that the domain of your landing page was shared by a searcher’s connections.

Social Filters:

As Google’s database of shared information continues to grow, it would be very beneficial to filter by “Results Shared by your Connections”. The slash search engine, Blekko, already enabled this feature, but they are lacking the database to fully pull it off.

Google+ Comment Plugin:

As the +1 Button continues to span across websites, there’s a clear opportunity to allow these sharers the ability to add their voice to the +1 as they browse a website. Similar to Facebook’s Comment plugin, this would immediately post the user’s comment on Google+ and potentially influence the idea of Social Meta Information above.

What are your ideas on how Google can make its core business more social? Sound off in the comments.

Earlier this week, I received a heads up from my Google rep that the tablet interface for Google search will be changing to look just like mobile. This comes at no surprise considering the incredible growth of tablets.  It looks like the change has taken effect this morning, and instead of the desktop style interface with up to 10 ads, there are now only 2 – 5 ads. The new interface focuses on making content more visible and accessible for tablet users by increasing the size of the search button, adding more white space, and making the search results bigger.

OLD INTERFACE:

NEW INTERFACE:

What does this mean?  Search marketers will need to be more vigilant and cautious about how they manage advertising on tablets, and some initial optimizations will be required.

Following is a quick how-to on getting your campaigns up-to-date with this change:

1. If you haven’t already, split out your campaigns to Desktop, Tablet, and Mobile.  This is a best practice Google has been pushing for a while, and with this new change it has become almost essential.
2. If you already have your campaigns split, take a look at your Tablet/iPad bids, and ensure that you are in 1^st or 2^nd position.  Similar to mobile, most traffic will come from the top 2 or 3 positions because there is no right sidebar, and no one’s really going to scroll all the way to the bottom for additional ads.
3. If you don’t have Sitelinks activated on iPad, do it.  This will actually ensure that you are the only advertiser showing up on top, giving you access to pretty much all the paid search traffic for that term.

With these steps, we can definitely expect much higher CTRs, as the user will get a much simpler, cleaner interface to work with.  The coming few weeks should be interesting to see how this change pans out, and what effects it has on overall campaign performance.

OVERVIEW

Google+ is a new social networking destination, reaching more than ten million users in its first few weeks of field trial. While it is natural to compare Google+ to Facebook, its founding concept does not entirely mirror that of Facebook’s. Google+ is positioned as more than just another social network, and Google’s new theme that changed the look and feel across all products (Search, Email, Calendar, etc.) is a testament to that. The core idea around Google+ and the Google +1 Button is “Google + You”, which is Google’s overarching plan to move the search engine into the next era, fight web spam, and make the company more social.

This POV is intended for performance marketers trying to understand the potential impact of the Google+ launch on their digital media programs. The information contained in this POV highlights key implications for marketers, business implications for Google, and introduces several important features of this new social network.

BUSINESS IMPLICATIONS

With recent buzz around a Facebook IPO, Google timed the launched of Google+ perfectly. Google has invested more than $585MM in Google+, a product that also added $20B to Google’s market cap within weeks of launching.

Why is Google+ attracting so much buzz and consumer interest? Facebook is needy, time consuming and, after more than 750 million people joined, it’s a stretch to call it “cool” anymore. Since Hitwise reported that 25% of all U.S. pageviews came from Facebook, marketers and advertisers dropped their jaws and assembled their teams to begin increasing advertising on the social network. However, this level of usage isn’t always a good thing for consumers and exposes new risks that the social network must innovate against – Facebook fatigue. Facebook users have too much to check, too much to update, too many messages to respond to, and too many new friend requests from people they barely know. This overwhelming responsibility makes users shut down and disconnect with the very reason they joined the social network.

Initial buzz around Google+ is fueling its rapid adoption; however, if this excitement and adoption rate plateaus too soon, it will pose a huge threat to the lasting success of Google+. Like many social-centric products, this adoption and growth is impacted by network effect. The more people you know who are actively using Google+, the more value it will provide to you personally. If adoption and usage falls flat, it could initiate a domino effect that causes users to abandon the new social network.

SUMMARY OF KEY IMPLICATIONS

Google+ has many implications across the entire breadth of Google’s products, ranging from photo sharing applications such as Picasa to video sharing platforms such as YouTube and, of course, Search. Search has the most to gain from Google+’s success.

Google has been searching for the answer to an extremely important question, “how do we make Search more social?”

It’s very likely that links shared and +1’d within Google+ and +1’d across the internet will begin to impact Google search results. With the Google +1 button being clicked more than 2.3 billion times per day and equally impressive numbers around Google+ sharing, Google is inching closer to its answer.

If Google+ can sustain its early growth, advertisers should ready their owned assets and build a presence on this new network. In addition to the user engagement you may receive within Google+, having a dominant presence within the network may also impact your brand’s visibility across the internet.

HOW IT WORKS AND SPOTLIGHT FEATURES

Not surprisingly, Google+ works in a similar fashion to Facebook. Users can create robust profiles, post comments, links, photos, videos, and re-share posts from other users, etc.

However, Google+ has several distinct features as well.

New Google Theme and Toolbar

This was the framework to make “You” a part of the Google experience, regardless of what Google product you are using. The new theme will eventually rollout with the same look and feel across all Google products, connecting you to your activities across Google properties like never before.

Comment and Share, Anywhere

No matter what Google product you are using, if you’re signed in, you’re able to immediately receive notifications from your Google+ social network and instantly comment back, all within this new widget and without actually visiting the Google+ destination interface.

+1 Button

With the early success of Google’s +1 Button (adoption rate now above Twitter) and the launch of Google+, the main thrust of Google’s “Google + You” initiative is becoming clearer. Google, and all search engines, are drowning in web spam. By giving users a personal benefit to +1 web content, Google is effectively collecting quality assurance data at massive scale – the scale needed to minimize web spam. It’s not just about search, though. Google wants to become your “+1″ for all your web activities.

Sparks

Sparks in Google+ are simply themed content aggregators, similar to Google Reader and Google Alerts. The user specifies a particular interest and Google+ aggregates related content around the internet and adds it as a Spark on the user’s Google+ homepage.

KEY IMPLICATIONS

Search Market Growth

Many have speculated about Facebook’s plan to create a search engine. Now, flip that scenario. Google creates a social network with more than 100 million users in the U.S., and this social network connects all Google products. Suddenly, non-Google search users begin using other Google products, ultimately leading to them changing their primary search engine. If this happens, three potential possibilities emerge:

1)  Google gains market share against the Yahoo and Bing Alliance.

2)  By giving consumers more methods to perform search queries, such as search being integrated with Google+, the overall volume of search queries grows.

3)  Total search volume increases and Google outgrows the category as a whole to continue dominating market share.

Photo Sharing Market Growth (Picasa)

Photos added to Google+ are automatically added to Picasa, Google’s competitor to Yahoo’s Flickr, the leading photo sharing service.

Video Sharing Market Growth (YouTube)

Videos added to Google+ are played within Google+ only, using the YouTube framework for playback. In the future, it seems likely that consumers will have the option to link Google+ videos to their YouTube account. YouTube is already the leading video sharing service and a top search engine in and of itself.

Also, YouTube links posted to Google+ are automatically hyperlinked using the YouTube video’s title as anchor text. This could indicate that Google is placing increased importance on cleaning up the quality and ranking signals of YouTube, the second largest search engine. If so, this immediately impacts how you should optimize YouTube video naming for broader reach within and outside of YouTube.

Web Email Client Growth (Gmail)

To join Google+, consumers must create a Google account. The Google account is the gateway to all Google products and was started by Gmail, Google’s web email client. Whereas Facebook’s attempt to allow its users to use Facebook as an email client seems to have failed, Google’s positioning as the consumer’s “+1″ for all web activities may give it an advantage in effectively cross-promoting Gmail adoption. This holds especially true since Gmail can also be a stand-alone email client, exclusive of its social network counterpart.

Location-Based Services and Local Deals (Google Places and Google Offers)

This feature operates like many Location-Based Services (LBS) before it, such as Facebook Places and Foursquare. Mobile users can quickly check-in to local businesses and share this across their Google+ network. This local focus may also impact Google Offers in the future, especially if users are able to +1 and share offers within Google+. This feature could help drive user adoption, scale, and give Google a unique offering within this coveted space. Also, imagine the opportunity for Google to serve users these Offers within search results or within Google+ if they have searched “pizza” in NYC.

Social Gaming (Google+ Games)

This unannounced feature is hidden in the source code of Google+. Google’s entrance into the social gaming community isn’t a big surprise when reviewing recent investments made by the company, namely the $100MM+ invested in Zynga, a leading social gaming company.

Internet Browser Growth (Chrome)

This will be the hardest to win for Google. While its Chrome browser has gained ground in the web browser war, it is still far behind the likes of Internet Explorer and Firefox. However, if millions of consumers flock to Google+, this gives Google the perfect opportunity to feature its web browser on Google+ users’ homepage, think: “For the best Google+ Experience, Use Google Chrome.”

Personalized Search and Improved Quality

Bing partnered with Facebook to help personalize search results and fight against web spam. Google recently relinquished its contract with Twitter, possibly signaling bigger changes coming to Google’s algorithmic search results. The problem with these search engine + social network partnerships is exactly what Google+ is looking to solve: social networks as destination portals. What consumers do within their social networks does not always coincide with consumer behavior on a search engine.

While consumers do share impressive amounts of information, links, and other content within social networks, matching these “Likes” to search results and porting this massive amount of information into a search engine algorithm is not easily accomplished. However, Google+ and Google’s +1 Button provide the leading search engine with the information social networks provide, already in the format and platform that Google needs. For example: a consumer “Likes” a URL and shares it on Facebook. Google would then have to find and match that URL in Facebook to the exact URL within their database and attribute a “Like” to it. This “Like” is stored within Facebook’s database and comes in a different format than Google’s. Now, imagine a consumer “+1′s” a URL. That back end connection to Google’s database happens instantly, enabling real-time personalization and immediate quality improvements.

Search Targeting

What is one of the largest opportunities for search engines that Display marketers love? Demographic and behavior targeting. If you’re signed in to Google+ or any Google product, you’ve most likely given Google your gender, age, location, and probably more. If you’re +1′ing links around the web, you’re telling Google what you are interested in (Sparks in Google+ as well), what you’re in-market for, or what you simply “Like”, which enables Google to aggregate these +1′s into “interest categories.” Search marketers could then potentially target not only the search query, but the “search query” + “males” + “ages: 34-54″ + “living in NYC” + who have “+1′d the automotive interest category.”

Imagine two sections of paid search ads within Google Search: “Related to your search” and “Related to your interests”. This is purely speculative, but the opportunity does exist for Google to take it this far.

Next, imagine ads within Google+ that target “users who have searched within the automotive industry in the past 3 months” + “males” + ages: 34-54″. This extra layer of “users who have searched” immediately indicates consumers who are in-market and becomes a powerful targeting attribute within the network.

CONCLUSIONS

Currently, businesses are being asked to stay out of Google+, with promises of business-oriented solutions coming soon. Ads are also absent on Google+, as the company will evaluate user adoption during the field trial prior to its full-scale launch. However, Google became an idolized, multi-billion dollar company by creating simple text advertisements and streaming revenue by the click, so it’s safe to assume we will see advertisements on Google+ in the future.

The greatest implications for search marketing are market share, personalization, quality, and targeting. If all of these are capitalized on by Google, the search giant may be well on its way to creating the next generation of search. However, as with all web innovations, success is contingent on user awareness and adoption.

If Google can keep Google+ simple to use, provide a unique utility not found with Facebook or other networks, and shy away from the time-draining destination feel of its competitors, Google+ has the opportunity to win.

———-

If you would like this POV in PDF form, please download it here: Razorfish Google+ POV.

A look at the top searches on Google last week:

1. 27 Club

Musicians who have died at the age of 27.

2. Amy Winehouse

Amy Winehouse dominated 6 of the top 10 search results this week and her YouTube music videos are still rising.

3. Norway Shooting

A terrorist killed over 76 people in a national tragedy this week in Norway.

4. Captain America

Another comic classic comes to the big screen.

5. Debt Ceiling

Our government is still working this one out… why should you care?

4th Week of July Top YouTube Videos:

If you’re an online marketer, chances are you are aware of the growing usage of mobile devices within search.

As of June 2011, Mobile impressions account for 12% of total search impressions, up nearly 100% year over year, and roughly one-third of cell owners say their phone is a smartphone.  As a result of this exponential growth, these cellular devices have become the focus for marketers within the past year, but a new area of opportunity is on the rise: tablets.

Google’s recent AdMob survey showed that 78% of consumers use their tablet to search for information, second only to gaming activities (84%).  Tablets currently account for 13.3% of all mobile search clicks; and, based on the rapid growth of mobile, similar growth in the tablet space is not unthinkable.  Consumers are using tablets as an extension of their current search behavior, and in many cases tablet use is cannibalizing desktop usage.  This is illustrated in a recent Nielson report, in which 32% of Desktop & Tablet owners have seen a decrease in their desktop usage while 30% of Laptop & Tablet owners decreased laptop usage.

So, how do we effectively utilize tablets in our digital strategy?

Google AdWords offers a few campaign targeting options for tablet devices. Users can target all mobile tablet devices on Android, iOS and webOS platforms, or any combination of the three. Google also offers the option of targeting specific mobile carriers.  Landing pages, keyword mix, messaging and budgeting can then be controlled and crafted specifically to your audience and their viewing interface.

If your brand does not have a tablet optimized site, Google recommends targeting Desktops and Tablets in the same campaign, as user experience does not greatly differ from a desktop given most tablets’ screen sizes.  In fact, Google now automatically targets tablets within existing desktop campaigns. As with all things search, further segmenting campaigns can yield greater efficiencies.  Through segmentation, marketers can drill down to the most efficient device and carrier to allocate advertising dollars.

With growing consumer interest and usage, screen size and application offerings, tablet targeting is an asset to a brand’s digital strategy. Search trends continue to evolve rapidly each day and right now, tablets are the next big thing.

A look at the top searches on Google last week:

1. Jennifer Lopez

Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony have split up, rocking the world of… well… people who follow TMZ all day.

2. Spotify

Spotify tops the charts for another week with its focus on music access vs. ownership.

3. Carmageddon

No, not the 1997 video game… but a masssive false scare of terrifying Los Angeles traffic this past week.

4. Alex Morgan

The US may not have won, but  Hope Solo and Alex Morgan got some heavy press this week.

5. Borders

After filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this year, Borders is officially liquidating their inventory… cheap books for all!

6. Breaking Bad

After a year long hiatus, this AMC tv show is coming back on the air.

7. British Open

Darren Clarke won the 140th Open Championship for the first time over Phil Mickleson and Dustin Johnson.

8. Insidious

Paranormal meets haunted house in this week’s horror movie from the makers of the SAW franchise.

3rd Week of July Top YouTube Videos:

A look at the top searches on Google last week:

1. Betty Ford

Elizabeth Ann Bloomer Warren Ford passed away this past week leaving behind a strong legacy.

2. Hugh Hefner Dead

There are quite a few celebrity death hoaxes going around… my favorite thing about this one is the response that the rumors are “greatly exaggerated”… he’s only a little bit dead.

3. Jaycee Dugard

Jaycee just published A Stolen Life based on her 18 year captivity.

4. Spotify

A Pandora competitor came to the US market from overseas this week. Sign up here

5. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 Reviews

Talk about long tail keywords…

6. Hope Solo

The US women’s soccer goalie “blew up” this week.

7. Derek Jeter

Mr. Jeter sat out of the All-Star Game this week.

8. Shuttle Launch

NASA preps for the last space shuttle launch.

2nd Week of July Top YouTube Videos:

If you don’t see the value in Search and believe you don’t need it, then you really don’t need your website either.

Again and again, we hear marketers speak rather harsh words about Search as a branding vehicle (anything not centered on Direct Response). The theme of those arguments is that Search doesn’t provide value for the business or the brand.

Let’s challenge that belief.

To simplify this response: it provides value to your consumer. Value to your consumer equates to positive perceptions of your brand. The more positive perceptions your brand has versus its competition, the more likely you are to move mass product for your business.

That may be a fluffy answer for some of you, but let’s take a step back and dissect the marketers’ discontent with Search. As mentioned in previous articles, Search is a bridge medium that takes your consumer from their “home” to your brand’s home, the foundation of your modern brand, The Always There Brand. Search elevates the investment you made in your website by beginning the brand experience on the search engine results page (SERP) and driving incremental traffic to your website. Not only that, but Search captures consumers at a very unique, valuable mindset. They are literally searching for you. They are explicitly requesting help from your brand. The mindset of your consumer at the moment she is exposed to your brand’s message makes all the difference. TV, Print, and portions of Display advertising are much more passive in nature. Search, Email, Text, and other “permission-based” channels naturally connect with your consumer at a deeper level. Search usually isn’t positioned as “permission-based”, but let’s argue that if a consumer is going to Google to search for something, she is giving you permission to talk to her. She’s not watching How I Met Your Mother when your spot appears or flipping through Seventeen magazine when your makeup insertion interrupts her experience. She’s looking for you (or someone like you)! Search often outperforms other channels in marketing mix analysis due to this difference in mindset.

The next time you hear a marketer challenge the value of Search, ask them how they measure the value of their website. Ask them what they want the consumer journey to achieve within their owned digital media. Then kindly explain to them that Search probably drives more than 50% of that value. You don’t manufacturer product and place it on shelves without telling consumers, so don’t build your website without Search Marketing.

A look at the top searches on Google last week:

1. Casey Anthony Verdict

Publishers aren’t looking interested in a Casey Anthony book deal.

2. Fireworks

Do you have a fireworks store in your area?  Or, as Stephen Colbert calls them, “Shabby cash-only roadside shacks that sell Chinese explosives to drunk people.”

3. Google+

The battle between Google+ and Facebook is on!  But the real question is… why are we doing this?

4. Planking

It’s back and bigger than ever… even US Celebs are doing it.

5. Copa America

It is time for some good old fashioned Fútbol.

6. Kobayashi

Takeru Kobayashi was not allowed to participate in the recent Coney Island Hot Dog Eating Contest again… similar to last year when he was arrested… but I’ll never forget this.

7. Mega Millions

$250,000,000.00 was won by a West-Virginian… that’s a lot of zeros.

8. Transformers 3

$97 million opening weekend and growing!

1^st Week of July Top YouTube Videos: