OMG DO U FB?

Friday, August 27th, 2010 | Search Engine Marketing, Social Networking Sites | No Comments

Today’s business marketing is all about stepping outside of traditional marketing rules and focusing on current trends. Social websites such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and LinkedIn have gained the attention of online marketing search engine giants. Social media marketing is an effective tool and has quickly become an essential component of a company’s marketing message.

Within each social media platform, there exist different rules, languages and even profile styles. You need to understand each nuance to know how to adapt your marketing techniques in order to be successful. It is important to recognize how to cater your advertising campaign to each particular group you are targeting.

BTW:

At NetSearch Direct, we can manage your company’s on-line presence. Whether you want to target one social media group or go after various demographics, we have proven results within the social media arena. We specialize in search engine marketing services – SEO, PPC, and social media. We provide monthly reporting services to our clients with detailed data analysis so you can see exactly how successful our proven techniques are working for you.

Social Media Marketing – GWI  :- )

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2010 Retail Marketing Expo – Ride The Winning Wave

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010 | Internet Marketing, Local Search, NetSearch Direct News, PPC Advertising, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Social Networking Sites | No Comments

On August 3rd, our team of SEO experts set up shop at the 2010 Retail Marketing Expo for the day to introduce our company and our unique concept to local businesses. The theme of the 2010 Retail Marketing Expo was “Ride the Winning Wave.” The day focused on finding opportunities to ride out the recession into the new waves of the future. A must-attend event for retail and business professionals for over six years, NetSearch Direct was proud to be part of the event.

At the Retail Marketing Expo, we talked to people about what NetSearch Direct does. Specializing in search engine optimization, we offer the following services to your business:

Pay-Per-Click
Local Paid Search
Local Business Directory
Call Tracking
Website Design/ Landing Page Design
Social Media / New Media
Custom Blog Setup
Blog Writing

To all the people we met over the course of the day, thank you for allowing us to introduce our team and our proven SEO program to you. Let’s talk again soon.

Ride the Winning Wave with NetSearch Direct

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Scenester Ads: Hip or Square?

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 | Internet Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Social Networking Sites | No Comments

I just read an article written by Steve Smith for Mobile Insider (which, by the way, is definately worth your click through to read the entire article) where he relayed his tale of being sucked into a mobile marketing campaign while out and about at the movie theater. In the article, he is attracted to a movie poster featuring a bar code and little else except a number where you can send a SMS message. The advertising bait dangling in the poster is too intriguing for Steve to pass up (admittedly, I felt the same anticipation he described when he saw the barcode) and he relays the tale of his movie poster marketing scavenger hunt adventure.

Only it isn’t an adventure at all. It’s more a series of irritating steps, two of them pointless, which lead him in a sort of circle showing a movie trailer. That’s it. A movie trailer. As an advertiser, I can list about ten fundamental marketing truths that this poster and its scavenger hunt violates. As a business advocate, my purpose here is strictly public service.

Why do you care? Because the article paints a picture that everyone in advertising should see – whether you’re the business owner giving marketing authority, or you’re the marketing manager pushing the buttons, or if you’re the one waiting around for your movie to start – just because it’s cool doesn’t mean it works. Yes, Facebook and Twitter are amazing marketing tools and there is money to be made by harnessing the power of these social media marketing darlings. Yes, PPC is a highly-effective marketing solution which can give you incredible analytics and insight into your business’ best (and worst…) products. And of course SEO will provide you with a wealth of insight into not only your business and your website, but also your customer’s behavior patterns. But just because all the cool kids are doing it doesn’t mean your business should be.

Smart advertisers will look at your business from every angle and offer up custom solutions that reinforce your company’s goals.  For those still with me, that sentence contains at least three extremely important parts: “smart advertisers”, “custom solutions”, and “your company’s goal”. Sometimes you’ll get one or a combination of these critical three elements, but rarely do you get the trifecta. The reason that you need all three working for your marketing campaigns is because you can’t afford to invest vaulable marketing dollars into a “smart advertiser” who offers “custom solutions” only to have it serve their purpose.

Next time you’re tempted to display a barcode on a movie poster (or jump into a marketing strategy of any kind), ask yourself whose purpose you’re serving. If you’re signing up for a marketing trend to test the water, we applaud your pluck but caution you to get your feet wet before throwing yourself off the high-dive. There’s plenty of time for that after you get adjusted to the water temperature. Ads that create a scene are like skinny jeans, high tops, and mohawks – they’re not for everyone. And that’s okay.

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Tags: ad trends, advertising trends, internet advertising trends, marketing trends, online advertising trends, ppc trends, seo trends, social media marketing trends

Wanna Hunch.com?

Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 | Search Engines, Social Networking Sites | No Comments

If you haven’t already heard, you no longer have to make decisions on your own thanks to Hunch.com!   Launched publicly June 15th, it has solved the problem that other search engines are still trying to figure out:  how to answer questions.  Sure, Bing prances around calling itself the “decision engine” but only Hunch.com has been making all my important decisions all week.   I recently asked it; What should i have for lunch? And by gosh, it told me exactly what i was in the mood for; Thai food.  Genius!  Still not a believer? Check out this answer when I had asked it; What is the  best profession for me?

Did hunch.com read my bio? (“…In her free time she likes to watch episodes of Lost, paint, play outdoors and daydream of living on a deserted island. “) or does Hunch simply have ESP?   Not exactly, it asks you a serious 5-10 questions about yourself and then displays an answer based on algorithyms, trends and other technical junk.   I still like to imagine that Hunch.com is my new best friend and knows me best.  Maybe we should start dating…

Hunch, should we go on date?

67% No, you should not

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Tags: hunch.com, what shoud i have for lunch?

“Its all about the delivery…”

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 | NetSearch Direct News, Social Networking Sites | No Comments

Mary Toves, our new summer intern started a few weeks ago and will begin her Masters at the prestigious Brand Center at VCU this fall.  Her desk sits in front of a storage closet, so I thought, ‘why not,  Lets scare her. What else is that closet going to be used for?’  Here’s my grand attempt:

Attempt 1: fail

I recruited some help.  Jason… shall we give it another go?

Attempt 2: Success!

Welcome to the Crazy NetSearch Direct Family, Mary.

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Tags: Scare the intern

The Social Media Mindset: Just who is in control of Facebook?

Friday, April 3rd, 2009 | Internet News, Social Networking Sites | No Comments

An interesting post in Slate reads differently from what you may be thinking; it’s not the creators, the executives, or even the purse-holding accountants – it’s the users. Slate author Edmond Lee argues that it’s the same users who have signed up for a free account and use Facebook bandwidth to create personal profiles, upload pictures, and network on personal and professional levels that are really calling the shots. His biggest example: the recent uproar among Facebookers over the change in Terms of Service. Unless you’ve been unplugged from every media source you’ve heard about it: the calamity Facebook caused when they changed their terms to say that they basically assume ownership over every piece of personalized material you upload to their servers; you can upload but you can’t ever delete the content. Outraged, and likely perplexed (why do they want to keep the picture of me and my sister in our backyard???), Facebookers raged against the machines. Quick to defend Facebook’s stance, CEO Mark Zuckerberg attempted to put out the flames by explaining that the terms merely reflected an information-sharing security measure.

Let’s spin it old school: say I leave behind a few personal items at my parent’s home and later return to throw out some items and take a few others with me when I leave for college. My parents, worried that their trash may be picked through or that the objects will be stolen from my dorm room, forbid the items to leave the house saying they’re just looking after my [information-sharing] security. Granted, my parents aren’t in the business of raising children for money but the principal is the same. They provided me a free service (a space to call my own) and during this time I added my personal affects to this space. Now that I’m ready to take my personal items elsewhere they’re claiming control.

Three days later Facebook changed the wording back to the original terms.

Slate’s position is that this step backwards was a huge transgression on the part of Facebook and that the company is “doomed to fail”. LOL! “By heeding to the objections of its grumbling users, Facebook has essentially painted itself into a revenue corner.” ROFL!

I respectfully, and wholeheartedly, disagree. Social media – from a networking or marketing perspective – fundamentally is ALL ABOUT the user and it always has been. Sure, it’s a business and it’s got to turn a profit but Facebook isn’t having any trouble turning huge profit numbers and its business model is not in jeopardy now simply because they listened to their users. If ever there was a sign for the positive effects democracy can bring, Facebook has shown us in a new-age sort of way.

Facebook’s business principal is growth, then revenue. They invest time first in learning the behaviors of their users and then turning it into a profit. Perhaps that’s why it’s overtaking MySpace in terms of growth, flying right in the face of MySpace’s business principal: money first! Facebook hasn’t stepped backwards; they’ve leaped forward and businesses looking to make a profit and keep happy customers have some homework to do when it comes to customer service, client retention, and brand management.

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Tags: facebook, facebook terms of service, facebook tos, Social Media Marketing, social media networking, social media profit, social networking

An Advertising Coup d’etat

Monday, February 18th, 2008 | Internet Marketing, Social Networking Sites | No Comments

The world of advertising is changing at a rapid pace. As the space for advertising increases, so does the complexity of the ads. New advances in advertising will make it possible for marketers to trace users to see what their search interests entail, in turn allowing advertisers to then display correlated ads.

In a recent article, The Coming Ad Revolution, posted on The Wall Street Journal Online, this increase in sophisticated advertising is featured. This market will get more competitive, and users will be barraged by ads which they will pay less and less attention. Even though the ads will be more relevant than ever, users will increasingly tune them out. These marketers are now being sold uninterrupted access to users.

The big boom of social networking sites has also begun to have a tremendous effect on advertisers and consumers alike. Through social networking sites, such as MySpace or Facebook, users are being taught to supervise their own data. This responsibility taken on by users gives them the privilege of being able to choose who can catch a glimpse of them, so to speak. Presented in the article, The Coming Ad Revolution, is the process as to which the advertiser must go through to connect with the possible consumer. A company will request to friend the user and if accepted, can offer that user any number of promotions using marketing tools.

By using social networking sites, marketers are able to reach the type of consumer that they want. Consumers who are on these sites have formed some sort of trust with them; therefore they are more likely to respond to an advertisement which they believe is trustworthy. The new model creates a more trusted environment for reaching high-value, frequent purchasers.

This sudden flux of unconventional & fresh advertising is able to manufacture and strengthen virtual communities, giving them the upper hand in the internet marketing world.

To learn more about Internet Marketing & Social Networking Sites please visit NetSearchDirect.com

Please read the entire article for more information on The Coming Ad Revolution:
Esther Dyson, Investor
WSJ.com, The Wall Street Journal Online
Monday, February 11th, 2008

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Tags: Advertising, Consumers, Frequent Purchasers, Internet Marketing, Marketing Tools, Promotions, Relevant Ads, Social Networking Sites, The Wall Street Journal Online