Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing, has been live for several weeks and has already made an impact among the search engine community. comScore reported in May that Microsoft had a 8.2% share of search engine volume. Bing’s share of search during the week of June 8-12, however, rose to 12.1%—an increase of 3.9%.

The increase in Bing’s share of search has prompted many in the search engine optimization industry to take a hard look at Bing and how it delivers its search results. In particular, researchers have looked at the primary differences between Bing and Google.

Domain age, for example, is a factor that appears over and over in the research as a main determinate for search in Bing. Bing gives more weight to sites that have a domain that has been registered a longer period of time. (more…)

Continuing our discussion about integrated campaigns with members of LeapFrog Interactive’s Interactive Marketing team (you can read part one here), the team talks about the importance of a good website to an integrated campaign and offers an example what can be achieved as a result of a well-run integrated campaign.

Integration seems to be the key. So if you are not committed to it, should rethink your marketing strategy?

Amberly Stitzel: No, I just think those clients who don’t integrate don’t get the full benefit of an agency approach by doing that.

Stephanie Stokell: You could go out there and do PPC for your site but if you don’t have the content on your site with the integrated SEO you will be paying more for each click and won’t be realizing the conversion rates that you could. And if they wander on to your site, even if it’s great website, if the only way they’re getting there is by happening upon it, then a great conversion rate doesn’t provide enough return because you’re not getting the traffic that you need. Everything works together to not only bring them in but to complete the whole cycle. You really have to have the whole shebang.

Christy Belden: It’s also the design of and copy for the site all integrated into the marketing of it. You have to have good design and relevant copy to drive the sale and support the SEO. It all has to match.

Amberly: So having the copy and the design for an effective website should be put first before you would even start your campaign. We can drive people to your site but if the site isn’t set up to convert then you’ve wasted marketing dollars.

Stephanie: It’s the house metaphor again. You would be sure your house is clean and straight and well-decorated before you invited anyone over.
(more…)

We sat down seven members of our Interactive Marketing team—SEO Specialist Christy Belden, Media Coordinator Emily Carroll, Interactive Marketing Coordinator Miranda Mattingly, Interactive Marketing Manager Amberly Stitzel, SEO Copywriter Stephanie Stokell (who chimes in during the second part of this two-part discussion), SEO Assistant Krista Thompson, and Social Media Specialist Emily Van Winkle—and asked them for the lowdown on integrated interactive marketing programs. From how to start one and what to include to why an integrated campaign is better than running separate interactive efforts, they filled in the gaps and offered a new way to consider interactive marketing “real estate.”

If a client wanted to run an integrated program, what should they start with?

Amberly Stitzel: First thing to do would be to ramp up SEO, perform PPC at a high budget, and then crisscross them.

Miranda Mattingly: You would start PPC at a higher budget because it’s an immediate thing, and can get immediate results while SEO might take a while to get your site up to the first results page.

When does social media come into play?

Emily Van Winkle: Social and SEO are very intertwined because a lot of the social efforts have SEO optimization. Social is going to help SEO efforts and vice versa. Often we would recommend social media be engaged when we start SEO. It does involve a lot more research, a lot more time, and a lot more development.

Amberly: Other programs take a while to ramp up. Even with e-mail, you have to build your list before you start to see significant results. With SEO, you’re going to have to get your code set up and start talking at social outlets. It’s also going to take a while for link building because you can’t do a 100 million links at one time.

Emily Carroll: With display advertising, you have to have a brand in place before you can build out your display images and decide how you want that to look, who your target audience is, and where you want to reach those people.
(more…)

The growth of social media is incredible, no doubt about it. A news story across the world breaks and within hours several thousand users have tweeted about it. An accomplished magazine editor reaches out to her college roommate from 15 years ago on Facebook in order to get a fresh angle on an old story. The global reach and sheer speed of social media can be explosive at times.

Brands, of course, are no stranger to this platform. New and veteran brands are emerging as major players in the social media community with each passing minute. However, it is important that brands remember the social elements of all their marketing channels, such as e-mail. With several years of experience under its belt, e-mail marketing has established itself as a trusted channel for brands’ transactional communication and promotion offers. Yet, e-mail is also an excellent example of a seasoned marketing tool whose features marketers are still determining how to properly and effectively integrate into social media.

The truth is that e-mail is a social technology. When a friend or co-worker forwards you a “buy one, get one free appetizer” offer, you have received a message via a social contact. In other words, e-mail continues to be a primary way to share information. E-mail marketing, therefore, has great potential to augment the efforts of a recently launched social media campaign and vice versa. (more…)

A social media page can be a great way to meet people and make new friends, but it can also be a great way to make a fool of yourself and even lose your job. When it comes to what you post about yourself on Facebook, MySpace, or anywhere else, keep in mind that too much information (TMI) is never a good thing.

If you’re not sure what qualifies as TMI, ask yourself these questions before posting anything:

• What would my employer think? Would the thought be, “Why is this foolish person working for and representing our organization? Get me Human Resources on the phone right now!”

• What would my mom think?

• What would happen if this got into the wrong person’s hands (e.g., posting when you would be out of town and thus announcing precisely when your home will be left an easy target for a break-in)?

• Is this something I would want everyone to see (as in everyone online, as in billions of people)?

• Is this something that I want to have online forever (because even if you remove it, someone else might have already posted it somewhere out of your control)?

Just because social media gives you the means to share whatever you possibly might want to share about yourself online doesn’t mean that you actually should. Be friendly but be sure to be smart because online embarrassment can last forever.