From the index of over 10 billion images in Google’s databases, Google has cross-referenced images as often as possible in order to more thoroughly identify what’s in the picture.  For instance, if you post a photo of The Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, but do not label it (even with a descriptive file name), Google will likely figure out what it is by comparing it to other photos of the hotel that have been labeled.  This is also true of many other types of images, even down to sub-species of animals.

When photos are displayed on the Google search, they pop up as a box over the top of the original page they’re on and this box has other information about the picture.  It tells you the size, weight (file size), any image information embedded (titles, photographer, usage rights, etc.) and gives you its best-guess if there is no labeling.  You can also use that image as the basis for a new search to find more like it.

You can even specify a color you prefer when searching for an image in the Advanced Search area.  So if you’re looking for Volkswagencars , but only want to look at red ones, you can include that and Google will do its best to only return red VWs. Now that is pretty neat!

All in all, there are a lot of cool new things in Google’s new Image Search.  It’s now become on-par with Bing and then one-upped the competition.

The report, which was conducted by Forrester Research Inc. on behalf of Shop.org, the online retailing division of the National Retail Federation, an industry trade group, notes that most retailers regard customer ratings and reviews as useful and directly correlated to sales.

And though the report adds that 66% of retailers are unclear about the effect on business of other forms of social marketing, it notes that 58% say the primary benefit of social marketing and social commerce is in listening to and better understanding customers.

Other forms of social marketing and social commerce cited in the report include social product recommendations, product sharing in social networks, e-commerce widgets, customer-generated videos, social shopping sites, online forums and co-browsing.

The report also notes the percentages of online retailers agreeing with the following statements regarding social marketing:

• The return on investment is unclear, 66%
• The primary ROI is in listening to and understanding customers, 58%
• We’re pursuing it now to avoid being latecomers, 54%
• We’re pursuing it because of the buzz surrounding it, 50%
• We use a specific set of metrics to measure social marketing initiatives, 36%
• It has helped to grow our business, 34%
• We’re pursuing it because our competitors are, 28%
• We’re pursuing it to satisfy senior management, 15%

The report also notes the percentages of online retailers who have used the following methods to measure the effect of social marketing:

• Click-throughs to a retail site from a social marketing tool like Twitter or Facebook, 60%
• Growth rate of followers on sites like Twitter and Facebook, 57%
• Total subscribers to blog or social network page, 53%
• Unique visitors to social marketing tool, 42%
• Improved search engine optimization, 38%
• Requested action taken (i.e., video views, contest entries, coupons downloaded), 33%
• Insight and market research findings, 31%
• Time spent on social tool, such as reading a blog, 26%
• Percentage of products with multiple customer reviews, 25%
• Number of referrals from customers, 24%
• Media buzz generated, 24%
• Return visits to social tool, 21%
• Not yet measuring social media initiatives, 17%
• Number of installed widgets (i.e., desktop links to e-commerce site), 11%

The flipside is that Social media marketing can be so compelling and addictive that if you are not careful an hour is gone and you haven’t done a thing. Friends and colleagues often make the observation that there is so much valuable information  and tempting headlines that compel us to read and view that like the temptations of the mythoglical Greek Ulysses ‘Sirens’ who lured away away ancient mariners we too can be turned from away from our destination.

So how do we keep on track so that the ‘Sirens’ of Ulysses don’t distract us to destruction and ensure we meet our goals?

1. Check your goals

Why did you set up your social media marketing channels in the first place? Is what you are currently doing on social media moving you towards those goals. Some goals may be quite specific such as to to increase inquiries by 20%. It may be a more general goal such as to connect, engage and communicate or create more brand awareness. It may be to write one blog post a day.

2. Get Focused

You have now checked back to your original goals and now you need to refine and continue to determine what are the most important and prioritize them. For me one major goal is to write our  blog post on a daily basis.

3. Set a Schedule & A Routine

Providing yourself with a schedule and a deadline can ensure.. mostly… that the activity is done and then you can move on to the next task.

4. Planning , Creating and Developing Content

To ensure that we have information to place on the social media channels that we are using we need to be constantly brainstorming and keeping an eye out for content to  post that provides value to your clients and answers their questions and helps solve their problems.

5. Optimizing your Channels

So you now  have the content on your social media platforms….are they set up to ensure that people will find them online and when they get there they will find it easy to view and read. A blog may need some search engine optimisation tweaking and with the changes to Google’s search with the recently announced ‘Google Caffeine’ having more recent content on your web presence is more important than ever. Do you have your LinkedIn profile public and do you have your website, blog and facebook pages entered in the page?

6. Promoting Your Brand on Social Media

A lot of people think that once they have published their blog or posted that the online world is just going to turn up… they won’t .. so you need to tell the world. Tweet it (a few times). Place your content on as many channels as time, money and resources allow. Take your eNewsletter and embed social media buttons at the top and the bottom of the email and also place buttons and links to your blog.. email can be integrated into your whole social media activities.

7. Measuring and Monitoring

Set up measuring and monitoring tools and use them as these can provide the feedback on what is working and what isn’t,

8. Analyze and Adjust your Activities

You now have the numbers on your different activities…. use this tweak and fine tune your activities to ensure that they are producing the best result for the least effort.

9. Communicate and Engage with your Social Media Tribe

Ok .. so you have had your head down and tail up, pumping out great content and doing fantastic things  but you haven’t had time to listen and engage. You need to ensure that you are not just doing but also connecting otherwise one day you will look up and the tribe has dissappeared

10. Help Someone in your Social Media Community

Take time to promote and help someone in your online community achieve their goals and you will be find that reciprocation is often forthcoming and your efforts will be paid back in spades.

How do you keep focused?

Without an understanding of, and participation in, social networks, you can miss shaping and contributing to the decision-making process of those who define the success of your business.

While social media cheat-sheets and short cuts are available almost everywhere you look, the truth is that we have some work ahead of us. To help, I’ve assembled a list of five best practices to help you build, cultivate, and measure success in the new web right now.

1. Dedicate the time

Because time is a big concern, think about social media as an opportunity cost. Will your investment in identifying and connecting with prospects, customers, and influencers outperform your other activities? The answer is yes for most businesses, so carve out time for strategic experimentation. In short, you get out of it, what you invest.

2. Conquer your fears

Many business owners believe that social media gives people a chance to criticize their business. That’s true, but avoiding social media doesn’t mean that their opinions will never see the light of day.

Your brand is at the mercy of those who take to social media to share their experiences, so you might as well take an active role to contributes to the stature and perception of your brand. You might even learn how to improve your product and service in the process.

3. Listen and research to learn and contribute

Social networking is far more effective when you realize that creating profiles and updating social networks aren’t arbitrary. There’s an art and science to all of this, and the process begins with listening and research.

Step one: create a list of keywords that represent your market and then use the search box in each social network to see what people are saying about you. As you examine the results, you’ll identify the people who are leading conversations and the dialogue that invites and inspires participation. If local business is paramount to success, use services such as Twitter, Facebook, Yelp, LinkedIn. Also monitor location-based networks such as Foursquare, Gowalla, and Loopt.

4. Establish an attractive and expansive presence

Your presence online is far more valuable than you may realize. While you may think that you should focus on your website, your social-media presence also represents you and what you offer. The ability to showcase your products and services to attract customers and spark conversation is arguably greater on social networking sites than your own website. In any case, connecting the dots between social networks, websites, and the real world is now as important as the service and products that you offer.

5. Use engagement as the new customer service and marketing

It’s not what you say about you, it’s what they say about you that counts. Customer service and engagement overall is a new and genuine form of unmarketing. Customers, prospects, and influencers are already engaging with others to contribute, learn, and discover.

They are forming and sharing opinions and making decisions based on the information they find online—with or without you. You should use engagement as a fast, free, and powerful way to reach and serve customers.

This is your time to engage! Doing so will earn you permanent residence in the hearts and minds of the people who make up your markets. This will expand market opportunities, build brand awareness, stimulate demand, and engender loyalty and advocacy.

As we have mentioned before, the biggest benefit of social marketing is it’s ability to enable you to engage in ongoing dialogue with existing and potential customers. You cannot expect real quantifiable Return on Investment (ROI) from the outset, but in time you will see the benefits. Below are 8 top “social tactics” that you can deploy..and many of them you will be delighted to hear..are inexpensive!

1. Ratings and Reviews: These are already used by most retailers, and offer an opportunity to reduce content creation costs.  This also enables you to have direct contact with your customers, and gain an honest insight; which will help you refine your product more effectively to meet customer needs.

2. Microblogs (eg. Twitter) This is inexpensive to launch, can provide a great platform to offload excess stock (Dell); and provide an opportunity to serve your customers’ needs in real-time. It can also put a face to your brand.

3.  Social recommendations - gives you an opportunity to “leverage” the wisdom of the customer. It exposes customers to content deeper in the site, and encourages “stickiness”. A referral from a friend is, furthermore, so much more powerful, than from a company!

4. Company Blogs – provides the biggest opportunity for SEO benefits. They do not drive a great deal of traffic, but can be set up for relatively low cost.

5.  Customer generated outfitting – Enabling customers to see how they will look in different products will enhance cross-selling considerably. This method further engages shoppers and provides a more interactive customer experience.

6. Product sharing on social network sites – Much more effective than company social network pages. Customers promote your brand for you! Nice..

7. Social shopping aggregator sites – This is a great opportunity to drive incremental traffic to your site.

8. Open APIs – Opportunity to “crowdsource” technology.

These are some of the methods you can look at to drive sales through social media. It all points to the same thing though. Before embarking upon any of this, you need to have clearly identified your target audience, decided upon your goals, and then your approach to meet your objectives. Only some of these methods will  be of benefit to your business, but I hope this gives you a guideline as to what those who have achieved success, do!

A lot of this material was taken from a presentation given by Suleika Bloom , who is the Social Media Director of Heels in the US.  This was posted on Social Commerce Today , a fantastic source of information by Dr Paul Marsden.

There are many techniques involved with organic SEO . However, without doubt the most important ingredient is quality, relevant back links from third party sites.

Other important elements are a combination of good page titles, relevant text, compliant well structured code and online self promotion. The proliferation of social networks, and increasing popularity of YouTube and Flickr. enables you to attract a wide audience through a selection of different media.

You bring in traffic by using content that works, linking strategies, and adding value via interactivity and a great user experience, not paid search listings.

Thousands of companies will promise the earth and deliver nothing; your spam inbox is probably full of them!!

There are a lot of companies out there who like to lead people to believe that reaching the top of Google is a simple and easy process….it’s a lie. It is a long and drawn out process but one that is full of rewards and benefits once you have achieved it.

Should you wish to enquire about Organic SEO and have a realistic budget to achieve this, then please do not hesitate to contact us by our enquiry form or by giving us a call on 01694 724899

We tend not to suggest using online advertsising so much, as much as anything due to a lack of knowledge. I think we need to look at this again. The course, part of my MSc (nose to the grindstone now!), was largely about the use of various display advertising formats, CPMs, CPAs, CPCs and the like. It has to be said that for certain offerings, this channel should be used – in conjunction we would suggest with the more standard routes such as search and email marketing. That sentence in itself is contentious, as for some people their view of the world would be the opposite with displays being the primary focus. I will leave it up to you to decide on your own priorities.

The key point however is that online advertsing is continuing to grow http://bit.ly/2oqCxP. This is all good news for those suppliers involved in the digital arena. It is also good news for clients, as online promotion has one huge benefit over traditional media – MEASURABILITY! Whilst you will never know how many people see your ad in the paper you will certainly know the reach of your online promotions. If nothing else, we would recommend you review the allocations of your marketing budgets and check those pounds are working their hardest for you.

This is a really good article and we would recommend you give it the once over … http://bit.ly/100gn

Not only is online marketing’s share of spend increasing but it is at the expense of traditional advertising … as Paul mentioned the other day, people are increasingly not using newspapers as much, although I still buy them myself (!), so what is the point of advertising in them?

Pretty simple really – spend your marketing money where the people you want to reach exist!

More information, with the appropriate Forrester Research numbers can be found at http://www.briansolis.com/2009/07/the-decline-of-advertising-and-the-rise-of-social-media/