July 25th, 2011
Local Search: Small is the new BIG
It seems Seth Godin’s popular marketing mantra “small is the new big” applies to local search as well. We all know local search is one of the big sources to fuel the search engines. I’d like to think that it also gave the rise to location-based platforms like Foursquare and Gowalla. Most importantly, if there’s local search, there’s always marketing involved – location marketing.
Early this month, Google has launched Google Offers to big cities such as New York and San Francisco. Google has improved its Android app called Shopper in order to support Google Offers. Along with Google Wallet and Google Places, Google Offers is set to engulf Groupon and Foursquare’s turfs.
Some people are asking why are “big” cities the only ones being offered with Google Offers? In a recent study from online ad network Chitika, the company sampled from 10 million search queries that brought traffic to its US sites during the first week of July. Smaller cities like Tulsa and Chattanooga were among those who have high local search percentage. On the other hand, big cities like New York and San Francisco have the least local search percentage.
So what does this suggest? Searches from small cities matter more because a brand’s “physical presence” like a store or an outlet is more visible in big cities. With the big Google+ integration lurking around, it’s a no-brainer if Google Offers lands on every city to bring daily deals.
July 19th, 2011
User Engagement: Can Google+ Take It to the Next Level?
Google plans to unveil the bigger picture when Google+ integrates with Google Offers and Google Wallet soon. But before that happens, Google+ is already showing a lot of promise, user engagement and content syndication has been increasing. One of its functions, Hangouts, is already being considered as the next big killer application. But how exactly can businesses benefit from Google Hangouts?
While most people view photos on Facebook, and browse for news on their Twitter feeds, Google+ is seemingly combining both features, but only better with Hangouts. Mashable started a particular discussion on Facebook and Google+; the discussion posted was about a study that 34% of iPhone users think they have 4G. The Facebook post had 57 likes and 40 comments; on the other hand, the Google+ post garnered 183 +1′s and 116 comments. Now, imagine if those comments are drawn from actual video chat. Real-time video chat. Wouldn’t that be great?
Those results are surprising, but Google+ has just been launched weeks ago so most early adopters are very active on Google’s latest social platform. It’s not proof that people are about to abandon their current social graphs yet. And Facebook did answer with their Skype integration weeks ago. But hey, Google+ isn’t the new Facebook; it’s supposed to be more “open” and better than Facebook. Google has always been all about business and enhancing how people do business. High-level of user engagement can lead to ROI, when companies speak rather than advertise, people listen and turn into potential customers.
But let’s face it, people nowadays want to watch more than read, while conventional content like blog entries and syndicated articles are SEO fuel, businesses are entering the age of social where videos are deemed “content” as well. User-generated content like videos begets user engagement. Every response to a tweet or post is a simple yet direct means to increase user engagement, but video chat makes it more personal. Even Michael Dell thinks it’s the future of customer service. Why use a telephone if the customer is online? Google Hangouts is the catalyst that could make business capitalize on Google+ and enhance user engagement for them. Wait until Google materialize from its big integration soon and everyone will see the bigger picture.
