SES Chicago December 2009 Day 1

I'm back to the Hilton Chicago for my favorite conference of the year, Search Engine Strategies (SES #seschi). Although I own a real estate brokerage, these conferences are a delightful throwback to my old life as a computer nerd. I love coming here and mingling with all these interesting souls.

However, as always, I am woefully reminded of how much I have fallen behind technologically since the last time I was here. And I'm not talking in just a few ways, but hundreds of ways. One thing is for sure, I am glad that I waited to revamp my website until after I came here.

The conference this time has a subdued feel. I think this is because the world is in the middle of a transition between Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 and this feels like a big deal. Web 3.0 is mysteriously creeping up on us all. This time around we are quieter before the sessions start, in fact you could hear a pin drop as we sit quietly waiting, listening, striving to understand what is going to happen next. And we are learning that what is going to happen next will be a big shift away from what we know.

Today we heard a lot about real time search, the role of search in our future, social media vs search strategies, and much more. The new web is no longer about page ranking. Social media has us thinking about the web into in terms of "people ranking." Soon we will see that people and their reputations will be the anchors of the web, not static web sites. There is also a lot of talk about "real time news." The kind that you can only get from Twitter.

As if on cue, today Google rolled out a new real time search feature. If you put a topic that is trending into Google, you will now get current news results in the return. (Try a topic like Tiger Woods). Usually, we use Google to either look up a domain name or to find information about a topic. For current events, most of us use Twitter or RSS feeds instead of search engines. But Google and other SE's are on the case to change this with their brand new real time search capabilities.

The day ended with my favorite session, "What's the Link Between Search and Social?" The panel discussed how search strategies and social media might work together. The group decided that comparing the two is like comparing apples to oranges; the two tasks are different from each other, each serving a different function. There is a place for both in online marketing, but not so much an intersection of the two.

I personally had been moving away from search strategies and investments. However, I see that search has a place next to social media marketing, at least for now. However, networks of people-powered systems are clearly forging a strong stand against the foothold that search engines like Google have had on the Internet for a long time. It's an important concept to understand in the Web 3.0 world. Looking forward to tomorrow...

Jennifer

SES: Getting Mobilized! Mobile Marketing Strategies

Sitting in this session felt a bit like somebody was repeatedly cracking me on the head with AHA after AHA. I've seen the presenter, Cindy Krum, speak before. She is vivacious and cute, and so believes in what she is saying. The information she gave us was a gigantic shift for me. I think this session was my second favorite of the conference and you will see why.

In this session she spoke about searching with smart phones. The most popular smart phone of course is the iPhone, with various Blackberry models in second place. Cindy gave us the statistic which I have already quoted several times, but bears repeating:

* 5% of phone owners have an iPhone, but 75% of mobile searches are coming from an iPhone.

Translated into easy to digest brain info, this means that smart phone users are much more likely to conduct a mobile search than users of other types of phones. It stands to reason then, that when these people who don't yet own an iPhone get one, mobile searching will increase at some number too big to even comprehend, talk about, or even write down.

So the question for a small business owner is, will you be ready?

Yes, dear soul, you have stuff to do to get ready. There is such a thing as mobile bots, and they will visit you. When they come, like regular bots, they will evaluate your website(s). They are looking to see how your website will "render" on the screen of a smart phone, and even if your content is something that a mobile searcher might be looking for. You will want to roll out a raging bottie party for these little guys in order to make them feel right at home.

In order to do this, let's take a step back for one moment and examine what is going on when a mobile search is performed. I am willing to bet that a search from a phone is being done to: find a location, find a phone number, find a restaurant, find a business, find a Starbucks, find a gas station, etc. Further, and astute readers will tattoo this concept directly onto their foreheads, these people have an IMMEDIATE NEED TO USE THEIR WALLET!

Please take all the time you need to grasp the significance of this. Mobile searches will be increasing in MASS by people who are looking to spend money immediately.

!!!!

Okay, so let's get back to the role of the mobile bots. These bots hold your lifeblood in their hands. They are actively indexing mobile sites now. Does your site render properly to a smart phone? Don't know? Call your site developer and ask. If they say they can't do it, fire them and find somebody who can. It's that important.

Cindy provided some very interesting demographics slides, which I will get and share. She also explained the difference between on-deck and off-deck searches. They are important to understand, but I will put off an explanation for now because it is complicated.

Cindy urged us to think about the Mobile User (KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER). She urged us to always code our sites in xhtml and use CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). As I have said previously, it's okay if you don't know what these are, however ask your developer if your sites have these standards. If not, fire the buggars and get somebody who knows what they are doing! Your very online life depends upon it.

She gave us a huge list of mobile directories to submit our sites to. I will get that and share it. She said that there is a meta tag for mobile which helps to alert engines that you have a mobile version of your site. She said that we all have a lot of work to do. She said to be ready.

I am going to be ready. Fortunately for me, I am my own developer. Call yours and have a conversation STAT.

One last item of interest, Cindy introduced the notion of QR codes. QR codes have been popular in Japan for a long time. They are two dimensional bar codes which can be read by some cameras. iPhone is adding QR code readers into future versions which is why I advise to wait to buy an iPhone.

Curious on how the QR code works? Check out this video:

Awesome stuff!

Jennifer Bunker

SES: Where Will Consumers Be Searching in 5 Years?

That's what I wanted to know. Here are the key points I picked up:

1) Search marketing spending is getting smaller. As a result, Google is collecting less from ad spending.

2) Video marketing is increasing. The number one thing people look at online is video.

3) iPhone Effect - The mobile audience is growing fast.

4) At any given time, watch what the kids are doing. We'll be doing that in 5 years.

5) The panel predicts that computers will converge, and then merge, with TV. They get this from the fact that we are watching so many videos online.

6) Google is building big data centers to support its Cloud Computer Initiative. This is the idea that everything we do will take place in the cloud (including TV) . We'll have simple access devices. Probably some relative of the iPhone or other smart phone model.

To support this point, the panel reported that Nike will be broadcasting the (uh oh! something I didn't get down in my notes!) finals on YouTube in May '09. What would that be? Don't know but the point is Nike is using YouTube to do it.

The panel also discussed the "Deep Web." There are billions of pages of information that Google doesn't search such as archives and libraries to name a few. This will become more available as time goes on. Also Semantic web searches are coming about. These handle complex searches mostly through social media outlets. Google is no longer the middleman in these types of searches. Trip Advisor is a good example of this. This site answers questions about travel directly. Also, go to pipl.com and put your name in. Prepare to be shocked.

This panel emphasized that Twitter as a media type is where we are headed in the future. This means access to information through social networks where search engines are not needed as middlemen. The nice thing about Twitter, so says the panel, is that Twitter is in real time and that is what we want.

Universal, blended, and Live search are the results that we get now when we Google something. You will notice that in the results you get videos and images and categorized websites. Also, there is a lot of geo-targeting going on as results are presented to you. These links are targeted towards your own geographical area, which has been noted via your previous search activities.

More on these interesting concepts in later posts.

Jennifer Bunker

SES: SEO - Where to Next?

This was one of my favorites of the entire conference, but before I get to the details, I want to clear up a few things.

The acronym SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. This geeky term was coined in the day when we were trying to figure out how Google algorithms where working upon our websites and placing them thusly in the rankings. The acronym, SEM stands for Search Engine Marketing, which at least is a little bit more descriptive what we are thinking about these days. I prefer the much more generic term, Internet Marketing because that at least casts a large net over the topics which are tackled within the subset.

Okay, on to “SEO: Where to Next.” These sessions are the reason why I go to these conferences because I am interested in what is coming down the road in this field. New changes come up fast, so I want to be working towards what is up ahead, not what is happening now.

This session did not disappoint. My favorite panelist, Jill Whalen spoke about the necessity of developers “baking” good SEO basics right into the CSS of websites. CSS means Cascading Style Sheets. If you aren’t a developer, you have no reason to know what this is except to be sure that your website is being designed with this type of format and with XHTML standards. Just ask your web designer if this is the case. If not, fire them and find somebody else who does it that way. It’s really important.

Jill’s point was to drive home the need for web coding standards across the board, so that websites can be found via all kinds of searches. This could be mobile, geo-targeted, vertical, blended, whatever. It was here where I first heard that “rankings are dead.” They just don’t add up to quality traffic anymore. The panel stated that analytics are the new rankings and I think they are right. This means that you must know who is coming to your website, how, why, and when. Know how long they stay, where they are lingering, and even know where they are clicking on each of your pages. We are now much more interested in the performance of the website itself rather than driving the masses to a so-so site.

So, what about driving traffic to the website? The thinking is that now we drive highly targeted traffic to our websites via social media and much less through casting wide nets via search engines. So the shift is towards UNDERSTANDING WHO YOUR CUSTOMER IS (I will always capitalize that most important point) and knowing what they want and how to get it to them. Find customers where they hang out already. Start a dialogue, give them something they need or something of value. Use your analytics to measure success, and then shift accordingly.

Figure out what your client is worth to you. What is the chain of events to the purchase? (Does this sound just like old fashioned marketing? Say, “Hell yeah it does!”) Universal and blended searches along with geo-targeted searches will deliver people to your door. Will you be there to greet them in the manner upon which they demand?

Become an authority. Make sure your links have contextual relevance. Think local. Think quality connections. Think conversations. And all of this doesn’t cost anything to do.

We see that the future holds this truism ”The best Social Marketer and the spiffiest websites get the prize.” Back to basic Marketing 101, but with spicy technological tools and gadgets.

One other thought from me. I've never really understood why Traditional Marketing and Internet Marketing can't share the same bed. They really are the same thing aren't they? They have the same goal after all, right? Just a thought.

This was a conceptual session. There are more how-to’s lurking for later on.

Jennifer Bunker

SES: First Head Dump

I had hoped to get some blogging done the Friday and Saturday following my attendance at the Search Engine Strategies (SES) Conference in New York City, but when I got back, my real job kept me hopping through both of those days.

It’s just as well, because I’ve been pondering how in the world I would get what I learned from head and onto the page in some cohesive fashion. I have 70 pages of notes from 3 packed-in days. The amount of information, AHA’s, and mindblowers that I received would take me an entire year to sort through, investigate, blog and apply.

So, I’ve decided to record my general impressions here, and then go through each session that I attended in separate blog posts.

I took my daughters with me so that they could play around in NYC while I was in the conference. I was glad I did because they had fun and provided me with an escape from the dizzying amount of information that I was trying to take in. Each day, they cheerfully said, “Have fun at your conference, Mom!” and each day I desperately scrambled to retain everything that I could. Blogging will help me to sort it all out, so here goes.

I attended over 20 sessions in 3 days. It is important to note that the attendees were mostly technical people from large business or consultants to large businesses. In the past, these conferences have been highly technical (I have a degree, work history, and 10-years teaching these subjects under my belt so I am okay with the technical aspect) with a small amount of marketing thrown in. Let’s keep in mind; the subject of these conferences is how business can better position themselves to be found by customers on the Internet. In the past, the answer to this question has always been technical in nature.

This world was previously dominated by Geekies who didn’t take into account actual marketing principles, consumer behaviors, or even stoop so low as to actually think about the people applying the technologies they were designing. For them, it was 100% about the technical aspect of how these new ideas were applied.

For example, they used to ask, what is a meta-tag and how is it applied? What are the bots that find them and how do the bots behave? How many links do you need and where to have your website rank well? What product should your website be designed in so that it would perform best in a search engine search? That kind of stuff.

Being 1/2 geek and 1/2 marketer, I always wondered when the human aspect would actually become a part of the search mix. I got to NYC this time, and wondered no more. The time is here. This message was loud and clear throughout:

“It is imperative to understand marketing techniques and the full consumer purchase/product cycle.” Awesome. For me it’s like having Mommy and Daddy back in the same room.

So, let’s first talk about Social Marketing. The first concept that I picked up is that Social Marketing is taking over the search engine role almost entirely. This means that consumers are asking each other more and more about things that they previously would have asked Google about. Tools like Twitter and Facebook are facilitating this. I came away with the knowledge that Twitter (and devices like it) is the single most important aspect of the future of the Internet! I know! Who’da thought it! But, I see that it is true.

I attended a couple of Facebook sessions, and being their biggest fan, was duly impressed, I will discuss what they are doing in the future in a later post. It’s fascinating. I believe that they, more than any other Social Media Leader, will benefit from Generation X and Y behaviors.

Another key concept is that ranking well in a search engine search is no longer important. Look at how social media is changing the search landscape and you’ll realize why. People are less and less looking to “cold” results from search engines but instead are asking people in their social networks before searching. This is a BIG one! Make no mistake; ranking well in a geo-targeted search is something completely different, and a very important place to rank. More on Geo-targeting and how to do it later.

A critical piece of information that I received is that mobile search is the future, period. Let me say that again: YOU. MUST. MAKE. ALL. PLANS. TOWARDS. THIS. INEVITABILITY. Look at this statistic and you’ll get it: iPhone users total 5% in this country, but 75% of mobile inquiries come from them! That should blow the lid right of your head with a huge AHA! Google has been working quietly towards their “Cloud Computing Initiative” where all things will be stored in the “cloud” including your software and data. We won’t have computers on our desks anymore, just a smart device that operates everything we need which is stored in our piece of the “cloud.” If you don’t have an iPhone yet, don’t get one. Wait for the new models, the ones that read QR codes. Don’t know what a QR code is? You will! Mobile computing is literally changing the face of the Internet as we know it. Much more on this later.

Some others:

* Analytics are the new rankings
* You must understand full product purchase cycles for your industry
* Universal and blended searches
* On deck and off deck searches
* CSS structures with baked in website designs
* Geo-targeting (big big big!)
* What will people be doing in 5 years?
* Relevant linking and intent content
* Local filtering, intent modeling
* How to launch a global website
* What are people looking at most online? (Hint: Videos!)
* The future of the Deep Web and the Semantic Web
* What are the five most effective social media sites? Watch for a blog post!
* What is the Viral Value Triangle?
* Linking and Navigation Structure
* Google says that 40% of queries have a local intent, so guess what they are doing about it and how you can, too.
* Three ways to rank locally. Thanks to Google for that one.

And people, that’s only from day one.

So, hang with me and I’ll blog it as I go through it bit by bit. I was hoping that I would come back with something like "10 Great Tips" that would be easy for a small business to implement. However, the face of everything is changing and so it is back to square one for all of us. The first question you must answer before you can start to design your plan is:

WHO IS MY CUSTOMER?

My Marketing half yelps a triumphant "HA! I've asked that question since dirt was young!"

First up, checking out the power of Twitter.

Jennifer Bunker

Search Engine Strategies, New York, Day One

Hello from New York! We are at Day one of Search Engine Strategies in New York City. I attended six sessions in the “Search and the Future” track. I had several AHA’s which I’ll blog out over the next few weeks. Here’s some highlights of the day …

The keynote, given by Guy Kawasaki, was my favorite of the day. Guy’s address was entitled “Using Twitter as a Marketing Tool.” Twitter has been no friend of mine, causing me one frustration after another, so I was eager to see what all the fuss was about.

What I learned in a nutshell is that Twitter, and similar Social Networking applications, are the absolute future of the Internet. As the popularity of these tools increase, people turn more and more to asking questions of each other in real time, rather than getting their information via a secondary source like Google.

Guy gave a great example of how one business is using Twitter to take advantage of this new trend. A little automotive service center monitors tweets for people within a 100 mile radius who are discussing the term “brakes” on Twitter. Once they spot a Tweet on the subject (“My brakes are squealing. What is causing that?” or “Does anybody know a place where I can get my brakes checked?”) they immediately respond with an offer to assist the questioner, and include a “Twitter 10% discount.

This particular automotive center conducts a large and growing business this way. They simply use the tools on Twitter and on Twitter apps to create opportunity for themselves as a business. Guy gave several Twitter apps which I will share in a later post.

So it seems cutting out the middle man and getting back to the human to human element is what our future holds when it comes to the Internet. Another session fleshed out details of Goggle’s project, Cloud Computer Initiative. Google is building large data centers in anticipation of the time when computing will all take pace in the cloud. Users won’t use individual computers, but instead will have terminals connected to the computing cloud. This cloud will contain all software, data, and applications needed for computing. Likely, future versions of smart phones will serve as the access hardware. We’ve been hearing this for years and now it appears this is on the near horizon.

I ended the day in a session where Cindy Krum was the presenter. Her topic was, “Mobile Marketing Strategies.” She gave a very telling stat: 5% of cell phone owners have an iPhone. However, 75% of mobile searches are conducted via iPhone. Think that one through carefully and you tell me where online opportunity lies.

What an amazing first day at SES. See you tomorrow!