How does your customer find you?

How does your customer find you?  How diversified are your efforts.  Do they find you in Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Foursquare, Yelp, Google Places, Yahoo Local, Yahoo Directory, Google, Bing, Yahoo.com.  Do you really know?  If not (well thats another post) then you should probably start to look at that.

The reason for my question is simple, I want to provoke thoughts.  Your results should come from many different areas, diversification is very important to E-commerce stability.  The method of search for your customer is changing.  New methods are created by for your customer every year.  Most of these new methods do not use traditional search.  

If you are only working in the world of traditional search, you could be left behind in the future.  Just image what would happen to your business if Google, Bing, and Yahoo were no longer in business.  Your business is in an awesome position right now.  You are at the beginning of a changing "internet".  The traditional methods are loosing ground.      

• Index search is like a word processor, it was once the best thing in the world, now it’s just another thing we do
• Google provided leadership and commoditized content in the beginning.  Now its available in so many other avenues that are easier to access.
• People have chosen non-commoditized content in overwhelming amounts - apps, portals, directories, social forums.  
• Because things are going mobile, people find their content differently.  More than half of all searches for some kind of content is from a mobile device.

I don't want to say that any major search engine is going down in the near future.  I think all search engines can find their niche as the years go on, but traditional search will change in a major way.  People will continue to find content in other ways more convenient ways?  Some of you may be asking what brought the change, the social and mobile movements change the game for SEO.

Top search engine rankings are critical for the success of any new or modern business.  However, I do argue that as marketers we must identify the trends, and adapt to them. The social and mobile movement changed the way people find content.  In some cases, people are not searching for content that they want, the content is finding them through one forum or another.

Its a very exciting time to start an online business on the web, there are more opportunities than ever.  This past year was the highest black friday ever on the web and the following day also set a record.  Continue to work on your business and think about how your customer finds you and what areas you can branch out to.

Social Bookmarking Power - Delicous Staker

Social Bookmarking with "Delicious Stackers"

Delicious is in a transition phase and I for one am happy to see it.  I love it when companies think of their customer base and continually reinvent themselves for the good of those customers.  If you have not paid attention delicious lately please stop and catch up on some social bookmarking for your website.  Remember the service is free!

Set up a Stacker and put your web business in a position to continue it's viral quest.  "Stackers" are Delicious's version of a lens only they allow other parties to link to you too.  Create a stacker for your online business and share it with the web.  You can add tags for search engines, videos, articles, etc.  There are some real possibilities here for an online business.  You can also search for other stacker in your industry and stack your website's information too.

I hope the power behind this little tool is making sense.  We will be posting a video soon of the process of creating a stacker and how to tag it properly.  Good luck with your online business!

Youtube Advertising

A couple of years ago I attended a social media/ Ecommerce conference.  A number of the subjects touched base on or referenced video marketing.  One of the keynotes didn't see the true value of video because an order could not be placed on the video.  Since you couldn't buy from the video it wasn't a true Ecommerce tool.

I would like to ask him today if he still feels the same way.  In today's market 80% of all online users view online video regularly.  Which makes sense because we are all so conditioned for a TV.  There are over 2 billion views on YouTube each day.

More searches take place from a handheld device than on a desktop, and hand held devices revolve around video.  Next year a large number of phones will be 5G (which will be so fast!) and a 5G fan will create a whole new online experience.

So what does all this mean?  It means that video will change (and is already changing) your customers web surfing, web shopping and social media experience.  It means if you are running an online business, you should probably start becoming familiar with online video.

Working with video on a number of levels is very easy to do.  Youtube has video editor that can make it easy and its free.  Of course you will have to pay for something if you want something with really heavy editing options.  Make a goal to create, edit and upload your first video soon.  Don't back down from the video marketing aspect of your business.  You can't afford to sit on the sidelines on this one.

At this point you still cannot place an order from a video, but you can convert visitors into buyers with it.  You can build your brand identity faster and you can advertise on a much higher level.   So take advantage of the video marketing in your websites area.