Search and Social Media

Advanced Analytics for Pharma Search Engine Marketing (SEM and SEO)

2009-04-29T22:59:00.003-05:00

Presented by Ian Orekondy and Chris Boggs at EXL Pharma's 3rd Annual Search Engine Marketing Conference in Princeton, NJ in February.

Pharma Search Engine Marketing (SEM and SEO) Strategies

View more presentations from iano1000.

How to Use Advanced Search Functionality Within Meetup.com To Find and Engage Online Evangelists

2009-02-08T18:41:00.027-05:00

Hugely popular bloggers like Chris Brogan or Robert Scoble have been prime targets for brands hoping to leverage the social media space to generate positive word of mouth. But these bloggers are most likely not YOUR online evangelists. So where do you find yours?

Mack Collier's recent blog post shows how Tropicana could use social media search tools like Google and Twitter Search to find and engage its online evangelists.

But Meetup.com is a huge opportunity that most marketers are ignoring. Here's how to leverage Meetup.com and utilize some of its slightly hidden, advanced search functionality to find and engage your online evangelists in your backyard, in the U.S. or throughout the world:

1. Go to https://www.meetup.com/; Do NOT log in.

2. Go to Find A Meetup Group, and type in your topic of interest. Below, I'll build on the Tropicana example, and look for people interested in Nutrition.

3. Choose a relevant result: for Tropicana, let's choose Whole Foods Nutrition.

4. Now, do NOT click any of the specific Meetups YET, since this will prevent us from finding the goldmine ahead of us. INSTEAD, click on one of the Meetup Topics UNDERNEATH any one of the specific Meetups.

5. When the next page loads, the left-hand nav changes, producing a new option: Meetup Groups, click to go Meetup Groups.

6. Now you get a MAP showing not only all of the existing Meetup Groups and Members, specific to your chosen topic (Wholefoods Nutrition), but ALSO a map and listing of people who have previously searched for a Meetup on this topic, didn't find one closeby and then indicated that they would like someone to Start one up

For Tropicana, there are over 22,000 people already attending almost 1000 Meetups on Whole Foods Nutrition topic in 7 countries, and there are almost 17,000 people who have indicated that they are INTERESTED in a Meetup on Whole Foods Nutrition!

7. Drill down and you can scoll over individual meetups and see how many members are in each Meetup, so you may decide to focus only on large Meetups to begin, say those with over 100 members. For this example, we go to the Pittsburg Whole Foods Nutrition Meetup.

8. And what do we find? How about old and new members generating posts about exactly what they're interested in? Here we see "Heather" saying that she's interested in learning more about nutrition and being more deliberate in her food choices.

Within Heather's public profile, we can see that she just joined the Whole Foods Meetup today, and that she's a member of 3 other Meetups, including one about Cooking!

In less then 4 minutes, we've found over 39,000 people who are already out in the real-world meeting with like-minded people around Whole Foods Nutrition, and we've quickly begun to build a list of people that have indicated that they want to learn more.

How's that for using social media search tools to find and engage your online evangelists?

Further Reading:
Are Companies Targeting the Wrong "Influencers" with Social Media?

"Finding and Embracing Your Online Evangelists in 5 Minutes" and recommends using Google, Google Blog Search and Twitter Search to quickly find people who are talking about your brand, so that you can target them with your outreach efforts.

Combining Search and Social Media with Offline Radio Campaigns

2009-02-08T04:51:00.002-05:00

Now that we're past the Super Bowl, I thought it would be interesting to highlight an example of how a major brand is integrating search, social and CRM with an ongoing offline radio campaign.

The example I bring to you is Pampers' Pullups' "Do the Potty Dance" campaign, which leverages radio to create awareness, search to capture interest and social media to engage online via video, message board forums, e-cards, as well as offline by providing tools and tips to help parents and children learn the actual dance steps to the "Potty Dance" :)

I discovered the radio spot this past Saturday night on 102.7 FM, a 90s station in NYC (note: this was the cab driver's selection, since I usually listen to whatever the cab driver is playing, as a way to break free of my self-created media consumption routine.) The spot may have gotten my attention due to the fact that I currently know at least two families with toddlers undergoing potty training.

After hearing the radio spot while in the cab, the only phrase that stuck in my mind was "potty dance." Curious, I searched for the phrase on Google via my iPhone from the cab, and voila: PullUps was running paid search text ads on the keyword "potty dance":

Great for them because there is almost no competition for this keyword and so are probably paying almost nothing to get the top ad position.

When I click, I'm taken to DoThePottyDance.com:

From here, they provide multiple ways for search visitors to engage socially: learn the dance, send an e-card, even talk to each other via message board forums:

Some message boards, like "Starting Out" have over 26,000 views and almost 1000 posts.
They'll also be launching a contest to further engage both parents and children by encouraging them to learn the dance and submit videos.

Of course, they uploaded the video to their recently created YouTube Channel:

Though they do not appear to be promoting the videos within YouTube yet, Pampers PullUps' PottyDance YouTube Video has already been viewed 347 times in just 3 days.

It will be interesting to watch the latest search trends to see how this campaign ultimately impacts search volume. For now, it's still too early to tell:

Super Bowl XLIII Search RoundUps

2009-02-08T04:44:00.003-05:00

So Superbowl XLIII is over and search marketers have mostly finished evaluating how well (or poorly) each advertiser leveraged search to help extend and pay off their massive TV buys.

Here are a couple of good past and recent roundups:

Super Bowl 2007: Which Advertisers Won the Search Game?

Super Bowl 2009 Search Marketing Scorecard

Search Engine Watch's Super Bowl Search Marketing Scorecard

Enjoy!

5 Ways to Integrate Search and Social Media

2009-01-07T19:41:00.006-05:00

Much has been written and practiced when it comes to leveraging social media to impact organic search rankings and traffic -- often via link-building campaigns or addititional listing opportunities afforded through Universal Search (image, video, news, local, etc.).

But paid search should not be ignored when it comes to social media, though it often is since paid search operates under a different set of rules. Google's Quality Score does not yet take into account the social nature of the landing page, so let's reverse the challenge. Rather than think about how social media can impact paid search results, let's explore some ways that paid search can help drive social media results, which in turn can help drive organic search results.

Here are five ways that marketers can begin to leverage paid search to improve social media campaigns. Together, I hope we can build on this list in the days to come, so please share your thoughts in the comments section.

1. Use paid search to help launch a new social media effort; (e.g. Facebook Page, YouTube Channel)

It's common for a brand to spend time and money to create a Facebook page, YouTube channel, and seeding it with compelling content and opportunities for users to share the content virally. Marketers may also invest in a Facebook social ad campaign or a YouTube display ad campaign to help promote the page or channel.

Too often though, the initial results are fleeting. The Facebook page or YouTube Channel initially gets a decent amount of visitors, pageviews, fans, and subscribers, etc., but the initial excitement tapers off quickly once the marketers, their agencies, employees and friends have are done joining the fun.
Creating paid search text ads to drive to branded content on social media sites may not fit within your stated objectives and key performance indicators, which are usually around driving traffic to branded websites where people can "convert" by signing up for a newsletter, so modify your key performance indicators as necessary. Build social media results into your paid search key performance indicators.

Supporting social media with paid search can provide immediate and sustainable traffic to your social media effort, and can be quickly paused once momentum builds.

2. Create text ad copy with a "social tone".

Many websites have surveys, questionairres and other tools that are more "social" than you might initially think. For sites that solicit consumer feedback, I've found that using phrases such as "Share your experience" or "Tell Us About" have generated higher than average clickthrough rates, which in turn has led to better ad positions at a lower cost per click.

3. Promote your live podcast with paid search.

It's always a bigger client success when the live version of the podcast attracts many viewers, even though we know that it's the archived versions that ultimately receive the most amount of traffic over time. One way to combine the immediacy of paid search with the immediacy of a live podcast is to develop a series of "countdown" paid search text ads. For example, rather than the typical text ad that drives to your typical website/landing page, create ads that promote your live podcast, leading off with the date in the headline. Then drive to the page on your site that allows users to register for the podcast. Easy enough, right? A small, but well-targeted paid search campaign could be the difference a happy client and a disappointed one.

4. Start a local Meetup and promote it with a geo-targeted paid search campaign.

5. Drive paid search traffic to your Twitter profile?

Controversial in the blogosphere, yes. Does it make sense? Join the fun! Share your thoughts in the comments below!

GEICO Partners With Local Dealerships on Social Media and Marketing

2009-01-03T11:18:00.003-05:00

Geico partners with local motorcycle dealerships in FLA on marketing, advertising...joint cable buys, billboard buys and YouTube videos.
For example: check out this video from Bruce Rossmeyer's Harley Davidson and Geico Motorcycle Insurance on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSLOLYwhFe4

Best 2009 Search and Social Media Predictions Presentations on SlideShare

2009-01-02T12:30:00.003-05:00

Influencers on Online Marketing (from Trends Spotting)

- includes predictions and insights from Henry Blodgett at Silion Alley Insider, JupiterResearch, JP Morgan, Piper Jaffrey, ReadWriteWeb, and Gawker

2009 Social Media Predictions (from Randy Price at Omnicom)

The Future of the Social Web (from Forrester's RoundTable Event)

Happy New Year!

Fast Way to Search Twitter

2009-01-02T12:21:00.008-05:00

Twitter Grader is a great social media search tool that allows you to search by keyword or username to find influential Twitterers.

Obama and Social Media: The Medium Is the Message

2008-12-29T02:54:00.004-05:00

Well before the November election, it was clear that both search and social media would be powerful forces in shaping the election's outcome.

In the Spring of 2008, the Pew Internet and American Life Project reported the following Social Networking usage comparing Obama and McCain supporters:

The Obama campaign clearly acted on this and similar research.

As David Erickson of e-Strategy recently pointed out, Obama "set up shop at all the major centers of gravity but also at the major niche networks that cater to specific demographics. Within Facebook itself, they segmented audiences by creating fan pages for various demographic groups.
They even created a presence where you wouldn’t expect to find them, such as at Faithbase. While Democrats have typically not fared very among people who attend church regularly, their mere presence there speaks volumes. People will often give you credit for merely being there; they may not vote for you in the end, but you’ve earned a measure of good will for trying."

The Medium is the Message.

Thanks to David for this list of social networking sites that Obama used to reach voters in 2008.

Facebook
Michelle Obama
Joe Biden
Obama Action Wire - Rapid response page
Students for Barack Obama
Veterans for Obama
First Americans for Obama
Latinos for Obama
African Americans for Obama
Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders for Obama
Women for Obama
Obama Pride
MySpace
YouTube
Flickr
Digg
Twitter
Eventful
LinkedIn
Black Planet
Faithbase
Eons
Glee
MiGente
MyBatanga
AsianAve

Social Media Search Tools

2008-12-27T19:58:00.009-05:00

Since Twitter just re-launched it's People Search Tool, now's a good time to take a quick look at some of the other social media search tools now available. In aggregate, these tools help you dig deeper into the Twitter landscape, connect with influential people, monitor conversation trends, and alert you via email when your name or brand (or any word) is mentioned on Twitter.

Tweetbeep is basically like Google Alerts for Twitter. It's a free web-based service that lets you get notified via e-mail whenever someone mentions a word, name or phrase on Twitter. Find out immediately when someone tweets (posts) your name, company, or website address on Twitter, even if they use a URL-shortening service like TinyURL.

Note: they are growing very fast and the site has been offline as of late.

MrTweet helps you find and connect with the most influential people in your industry based on who you already follow on Twitter.
https://www.mrtweet.net/

Twitstat shows the most popular words of the last 500 tweets of people tracked by @twitstat. Get automatic hourly updates of the Top 10 by following @twitgeistr
www.Twitstat.com

Of course, if you haven't already heard, Twitter just re-launched their Twitter People Search Tool which finally allows you to find people by name even when their Twitter account username is an alias.

I recommend you check out all of the above, but so far, I still find Twitter's search tool to be the best search tool at finding the most relevant social media conversations related to my clients' brands and my own fields of interest.

Search and You Shall Receive

2008-11-03T23:22:00.003-05:00

[Note: I've recently noticed a surge in Google traffic to Search and Social Media from people searching for Pharma-related keywords. I've also found that these searchers are more engaged with the content than other readers, so in an effort to deliver relevant content to this audience, this week's post continues our recent focus on issues related to Pharma search and social media.]

As new media marketers in the pharma vertical know all too well, legal and regulatory issues must be thoroughly understood and addressed before any new media opportunity can become a reality.

To help get you started, here are a few valuable resources I think will help you understand and plan around the key issues involved with social media in the pharma space, including:

- adverse events reporting
- off-label promotion
- fair balance.

TNS Media Intelligece and Cymfony's White Paper:
"Connecting with Patients, Overcoming Uncertainty" - The industry’s first white paper that provides strategies to help drug firms harness social media without violating DTC promotion regulations.

Next Generation Pharmaceutical brought this great whitepaper to my attention (also from TNS and Cymfony): Making the Case for A Social Media Strategy in Healthcare

Bunny Ellerin also has a good blog on Social Media as it relates to Healthcare and Life Sciences.

From the FDA: FDA's 4 Criteria for AE Reporting

Pharmaceutical Search Engine Marketing: Transforming the Culture of Medicine? The Internet's Impact on the Patient-Physician Dynamic

2008-09-30T00:19:00.000-05:00

As I look ahead to the 3rd Annual Pharmaceutical Search Marketing conference from eXl in February, I'm reminded of a concept that Professor Stan Kachnowski, PhD talked about at the conference earlier this year in Philadelphia. Professor Kachnowski is the Chair of Healthcare Innovation Technology Lab at Columbia University Medical Center, and the concept he discussed is what he called "information asymmetry".

The opposite concept, "information symmetry", suggests that better decisions are reached when all parties have access to the same information. Similar to how car buyers search the Internet before visiting a dealer, patients search Google, Medline and other search engines before visiting their healthcare provider.

Does this increased online access to medical research and treatment information improve the physician-patient dynamic and lead to better medical decisions?

Last year, Google commissioned a study on Physicians and the Internet, which explored among other things, how physicians perceive the Internet's influence on the consumer-physician dynamic. (Since the research is proprietary and confidential, feel free to email me and I will connect you with my contacts on Google's Health team.)

This and other studies support what we already know: patients are searching for symptom-, condition-, diagnosis-, and treatment-related information online before and after they visit their physicians; and doctors' decisions are frequently impacted by patient research.

In his book Super Crunchers, Ian Ayres also discusses how the Internet is "transforming the culture of medicine."

Have you read it yet? What are your thoughts on information symmetry and the patient-physician dynamic. Post a comment!

Tapping Into Our Dreams

2008-09-06T14:48:00.000-05:00

Marketers are often afraid of engaging in the social media conversation, because they don't want to be criticized. Well, we know that ignoring the conversation doesn't make it go away.

Twistori is a social media experiment which might at least get your team one step closer to embracing the bright side of social media.

It's at Twistori.com

And it works on the iPhone.

Pharmaceutical Marketers Can Leverage Twitter Search and Social Media Today

2008-09-06T14:03:00.002-05:00

Looking to monitor your brand within social media? Want to know what people are saying right this moment? Ok - there are a number of tools on the market that help marketers monitor their brands in social media; and in July, Twitter acquired Summize and then relaunched it as search.twitter.com. Go ahead and try it. Search you brand name. Try your category.

People are passionate. People are talking...about you and your brand. But now what? Will you join the conversation? Will you use Twitter as an RM tool? As a recruiting tool? As a PR tool?

Pharmaceutical companies have multiple marketing objectives, including brand awareness, driving new prescriptions, increasing adherence and compliance, even recruiting participants for their clinical trials.

Here's what healthcare patients have been saying about Lyrica (pregabalin) a drug treatment for fibromyalgia, diabetic nerve pain, partial onset seizures in adults, as well as other conditions.

Can you see the value here? If not, I'm sure your relationship marketing (RM) team can. If your search marketing team is not yet providing this type of actionable information, ask your PR team.

Do a social media search here to see what people are saying about your pharma brand right now on Twitter.

This is a great opportunity for search marketers to help our clients see and capture immediate value with search and social media, because it's so simple, clear and concrete. To build on this next week, we'll explore examples of how big brands are already engaging their most passionate consumers, and we'll also look at how we can make Twitter programs immediately measurable with Google Analytics.

If you want to get a head-start, check out this list of how big brands are using search and social media. Thanks to Erik for the link!

Increasing Organic Search Traffic with User Generated Content

2008-09-04T03:02:00.004-05:00

It's the second week of the US Open in New York City, so let's take a look at how online tennis retailer Tennis Warehouse which attracts almost 500,000 visits/month, leverages user-generated content to improve organic search results and drive traffic.

From their top nav, they promote their message boards (from vBulletin ) allowing users to discuss a wide range of topics around tennis players, tournaments and equipment. This provides fresh user generated content allowing Tennis Warehouse to generate organic search rankings and traffic from long-tail keywords.

For example, a Google search for "Nadal's string tension" shows that Tennis Warehouse is getting 3 of the top 5 organic search listings, and the top 2 are from their message board discussions.

According to Quantcast about 9% of their visitors go to their message boards.

Are you employing a similar strategy? What have been your key challenges and successes? Share your experience at our new Search and Social Media Community

Retailers Using Twitter: Integrating Search, CRM, Social and Mobile

2008-08-29T15:46:00.002-05:00

Let's take a closer look at how online retailer Woot.com is leveraging search, social media, mobile, and Web 2.0 features to drive sales of the Orion Stainless Steel Outdoor Cooker (relevant as we head into Labor Day weekend).

Last night at midnight, I received my daily (CRM) tweet (social) from Woot on my iPhone (mobile) highlighting the Orion Stainless Steel Outdoor cooker. At work the following day, I Google (search) Orion Stainless Steel Outdoor cooker, and what's the first organic result?

Woot's latest blog post for the you-guessed-it: Orion Stainless Steel Outdoor Cooker.

So I click.

Intriqued by the blog post, I click on "Discuss" which brings me to a really cool Web 2.0 page showing me a breakdown of sales since the tweet went out last night. I get sales stats by time (notice the pop right after the tweet was sent), geography, and Woot member seniority. How's that for "social proof"!?

Clearly, this integration of CRM, social, mobile and search is driving business results. The tweets, emails, podcasts and RSS feeds PUSH the message out to those who've opted in, search PULLs interested shoppers, the blog drives search results and further engages shoppers, and the Web 2.0 features close the deal. Brilliant.

P.S. Anyone using Lively yet?

Retailers - are you using Twitter?

2008-08-28T18:24:00.002-05:00

Online retailer Woot uses Twitter to post daily deals via Twitter. Over 13,000 people follow Woot's deal tweets. See https://twitter.com/woot

Bricks and mortar retailers, especially high-end exclusive shops, could leverage this willingness on the part of consumers to opt-in to receive relevant messages.

Leveraging location-based technology available on cell phones like the iPhone allows retailers to broadcast exclusive opportunities to say, mobile users within a 2 mile radius of the store.

How can we test this?

How about an 11am tweet from an iPhone at Sak’s Fifth Avenue Location:

“Be the first to Pre-Order from Oscar de la Renta’s Resort 2009 Collection. Come in to Saks Fifth Avenue before 5pm today to receive a special gift.”

Twinkle from Tapulous allows users to receive Tweets sent within 2-,5-,10-mile radius' of the user's location...in real-time on their mobile phone. https://tapulous.com/twinkle/

How else could you test this low-cost, potentially high-impact tactic? And do you have a broader social media strategy for your retail operation?

Brand Value of Search: While the Debate Continues, Let's Look at The Future

2008-07-16T23:37:00.008-05:00

So we're talking about the brand value of search impressions vs. clicks. And we know that relevance in search is king, whether it's the most relevant ad being served to each keyword, or utilizing multi-variate testing to find the most relevant and engaging combination of SEM landing page components.

Now some believe Google is leaving money on the table by not charging for impressions. Others argue that because of the searcher's mindset and the nature of working vs. long-term memory, the impression-alone has little value. Well, that debate will evolve, and I hope it does, because there is at least one reason why Google may be staying committed to the click.

It's the amazing potential that exists for our SEM landing pages to be more engaging, immersive and meaningful for both consumers and brands. And no, I'm not talking about deep-linking, or multi-variate testing.

Other tools are quite valuable and effective at delivering on a relevant search experience. Such tools include those for checking inventory, finding locations or customizing specific products.

But we also know that searchers don't just search once; they search, learn and search again.

Imagine if we could truly engage the customer so that they are able to learn more than what is possible to include on a landing page or even throughout the entire site.

Imagine customers helping customers, fans chatting with fans, and you laughing with your clients on the beach while listening to Radiohead playing on invisible speakers in the sky. Sound ridiculous? OK, it is, but it's also not impossible.

The latest example of what we're talking about is "Lively", Google's answer to Second Life, and it points to some of the amazing opportunities that continue to develop as we seek to better engage people and deliver meaningful brand experiences through search.

I'm excited to see which brand becomes the first to use Google's Lively to engage customers and prospects on an SEM landing page.

One of the benefits of this form of user-generated content is that it is real-time, allowing users to connect at the same moment in time. Integrated with an SEM campaign, this offers very interesting creative opportunities for the progressive-minded search marketer looking to enhance search's role in reaching and engaging the right people at the right moment - when interest and intent is high.

The second and potentially more interesting advantage, especially for online-reputation-conscious companies, is that this form of user-generated content is temporary. This means that if a rogue visitor says something offensive, it isn't spread across the web; it only lives "in the moment".

Of course, marketers should not consider this opportunity without committing the required resources, and should build a clear strategy and program around the idea, as well as commit the necessary resources to monitoring and ensuring an engaging, brand-relevant "in-world experience".

If you're looking for a low-risk way to test out this idea, why not try it on an SEM landing page, where you can easily control the flow of traffic?

And don't forget to ask yourself how you'll measure this new level of engagement. As most search-theory questions go, answering it won't be easy, but it sure will be fun.

Leveraging Video On Your Site to Drive Conversions

2008-05-10T11:46:00.000-05:00

What do you think of this example (from the Whitney Museum) of incorporating video into a site so that the calls-to-action / site goals are “buddied” around the video? It's simple, but it's something that many sites overlook in the development process, and I think it's quite tempting, since the calls to action (see, subscribe, join) are within view and accessible throughout the duration of the video.

Wouldn’t you love to test this to quantify the impact of the “buddy system” on conversion rates vs. no buddy system? Seems like a perfect opportunity to use Google's Website Optimizer.

If you already have tested this, LET US KNOW what you found.

Enjoy the weekend!

Ian

No More Landing Pages

2007-04-24T12:45:00.000-05:00

Great marketing from a web-marketing firm. They've turned their specialty into a "movement", they sell merchandise through Cafepress.com, and they're even planning to protest at Ad:Tech tomorrow.

https://blog.nomorelandingpages.com

Making Bulk Uploads Easier on Google Base and Froogle

2007-03-03T00:12:00.001-05:00

Google Base / Froogle Bulk Upload Tools

ECommerce Templates: https://www.ecommercetemplates.com

MojoPages.com Demo

2007-03-01T19:17:00.000-05:00

This sweet Local Search site (including user videos) just launched a week ago.

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Bulk Upload Templates

2007-03-01T18:45:00.000-05:00

I predict that we will begin to see Bulk Upload Templates published for specific industries. Here's one example for the Vacation Home industry, published by online apartment/real estate rental listing service and Local/Social Search site: Mwendo.com and Sherpa in the City.

Here's a direct link to several of their bulk upload templates.

Enjoy.

Local Search Sites

2007-03-01T14:36:00.000-05:00

So Local Search is hot right now, but few know how to harness it's power. It's part search, part social media/user-generated content, part yellow pages.

Here's my current list of local search sites. Please let leave a comment letting us know of any others you use or know of. Thanks!

Google Maps - consolidates info from many of the vertical engines listed below.
Yahoo Local
Mapquest

Yelp.com
insiderpages.com
mojopages.com - I'm the only one in my area on here - please join me!
dine.com - vertical - specific to the restaurant industry
chowhound.com - vertical - specific to the restaurant industry
winespectator.com - vertical - restaurant industry

Especially interesting would be vertical, local search engines for the banking industry.

Google AdWords Now Integrated with Google Base

2007-02-27T08:19:00.000-05:00

I've been working with Google Base for several weeks now, updating Local Search Listings for various clients.

Just today, as part of the process of updating a Bulk Upload file, I received a new message from Google indicating how to integrate my local business listings with Google AdWords.

Within the Bulk Upload doc., we can now easily create location-specific local AdWords ads.

https://www.google.com/base/custom.html

I've been using this on a daily basis, and this AM is the first time this info has appeared in a previously pre-confirmation message.

Follow the link above to see the info directly from Google.