Good news is that there is a lot of free/low cost seminar activity in the Central PA area in the coming weeks. Here is where Kiwi will be speaking on a number of topics. Please contact the individual organizations to learn more. We’ve included the links or emails we’ve been provided with to date. Hope to see you there!

• Elizabethtown Library; Seven Secrets to Success in Social Media, Monday, 4/18/2011 6:00pm – 7:30pm; register online or learn more about it: http://bit.ly/e1TJl3
• New Holland Business Association Breakfast at Garden Spot Village; “Using Social Media to Grow Your Business,” Tuesday, 4/19/2011.  The breakfast will be at 7:30 a.m. This is a shorter presentation and not as in-depth as the others. For more info, LDodge@gardenspotvillage.org.
• Manheim Township Public Library; “7 Ways to Kick Your Competitors’ Butts Online,” Wednesday, 4/20/2011 11:30am – 1pm; register online or learn more about it: http://bit.ly/e6aQgd
• Wheatland-Conestoga chapter of American Business Women’s Association, Tuesday, 5/3/2011, at the Farm & Home Center in Lancaster just off Manheim Pike.  Social/networking starts at 6:00 pm, and dinner is at 6:30 pm.  More info to come.
• SMEI York meeting; Kiwi Marketing Group is the sponsor for the meeting and will be featuring a slideshow during breakfast on “What We Learned at Search Engine Strategies Conference This Year”; Wednesday, 5/11/2011. For more info: smeicentralpa@comcast.net.
• Community First Fund’s Women’s Business Center Entrepreneurial Speaker Series in Reading; “Utilizing Social Media to Build Your Business.” Event will be held on Thursday, 6/2/2011 from 4:00 – 6 pm, most likely Community First Fund’s offices in Reading: 505 Penn Street, 2nd Floor, Reading, PA 19601. Details TBA.

“You only pay if it works” means, to Google, that someone clicked on your Ad. After all, that’s how Google gets paid.  But does that mean it “worked” for you, as well as Google? Someone clicking through to your site or landing page is great, but that doesn’t mean that they’ll take an action. It doesn’t even mean that they’re an appropriate visitor.

What do you consider success to be?

Sometimes, your website is not the best place to expect the initial connection to be formed.

Reading reviews about your business on Google Maps or Yelp
• Leaving a review about your business on a variety of sites
Liking your page on Facebook
• Following you on Twitter or connecting on LinkedIn
Sharing your content (retweets etc.) with others

These actions are just as important as the others, because they’re often the initial steps people take when engaging with your brand. And, none of them actually occur on your website.

Getting someone to engage with your company could be compared to peeling an onion. (No, not something that causes tears and a lot of crying.) To get people to make larger commitments, you often have to move them through the outer layers first. The outer ones require little risk -like making a comment on a blog post- and they allow people to become comfortable with who you are and how you’ll treat them. After taking these initial steps (provided they have a positive experience) they’re more likely move on to a deeper layer and make a greater commitment, like signing up for a newsletter or making a purchase.

Getting a customer to engage with your organization in a positive way should be counted as a success. It should also be tracked so that you can measure the impact you outreach efforts are having.

What are your “outer layers” and how are you tracking them?

When over 70% of all people search online to find businesses, a number which climbs to 89% for those aged 18-24, showing up in local search results is critical.

Google delivers local listings when you type in a geographic location with your search (e.g. “plumber Lancaster”) or when it thinks that it can deliver a relevant local result (e.g “plumber”).

The Google local team recently announced what I consider to be a huge change in the way they deliver these local results. They’ve called it “Place Search” and it affects almost all searches conducted on Google. The change is still rolling out, so some people may not see the new system for a couple of days.

Here’s the old look:

And the new (the coloring is mine):

The new system puts a much larger emphasis on providing information on local organizations, and pushes non-local listings down to the bottom, or even off the page. In delivering these results, Google is now taking into account the optimization of your website and the quality of your local search listing.

The aesthetic difference is obvious, and there’s plenty of information designed for professionals in the local search community, but what does it mean for us as business owners?

The big take away is this: Google is getting better and better at interpreting what people are searching for. If a someone is looking for something that could potentially be found locally, be that a business or a non-profit organization, they’re going to be served up local results in a much more noticeable way. Because of this, users are far more likely to see and visit local organizations after conducting an online search.

Hopefully, this means you.

Key Changes for Local Businesses

The (probably) good:

• Local businesses that are physically within the area you’re searching are a lot more prominent.
• More information is displayed in each individual listing (name, address, reviews, related pages).
• Your local results now get a decent description instead of just a business name and address.
• Directories like the online yellow pages are far less likely to show up. Instead, you’ll get local businesses.
• Multiple listings from the same company appear to be merging together. This leaves more space for other businesses to show up.
• If your website ranked well before in the non-local results, your business is now much more likely to rank well in the new local results.
• Because the reviews are right there in the first results, customer satisfaction is much more obvious.

The (maybe) bad:

• Because the reviews are right there in the first results, customer DIS-satisfaction is much more obvious.
• If you had multiple results displaying on the first page, your listings are probably going to get merged.
• Your competition will be more likely to show up.
• You’re going to need to optimize your website if it isn’t already.

The (potentially) ugly:

• If you don’t have a website, you’re probably in trouble.
• Local results are likely to push “normal” results that don’t have a maps listing off the page.
• Businesses that are not actually located in the city or geographic area their customers come from are less likely to show up. If you’re in Lititz, chances are someone searching in Lancaster isn’t going to find you unless you have an extremely strong listing.

This change shows a level of commitment to local search from Google that we’ve not seen in the past. While the final results remain to be seen, the relevance of what Google delivers can only improve. I think this change is a step in the right direction that will benefit businesses who have already invested in reputation management and search engine optimization.

This change comes at a time when people are more and more often turning to their computer or phone to find local businesses. Being visible in these new results is more critical than it has ever been.

What do you think of the changes? How has it affected your website ranking?

It seems as though this new layout is being rolled out to other locations. Check out the screenshot below for a recent search I ran recently for “Insurance Lancaster, PA”.

As was noted by Search Engine Land this is a pretty huge change. With it, Google continues to place more and more emphasis on local results. Organic results are being pushed further and further down the page, those companies lucky enough to show up in the maps listings are being given more and more space, and reviews, addresses, and other information is far more prominent. The map also follows users down the page now.

Since I’ve been tracking this particular term for a while now, I noticed another change – results that were ranking in the #1 spot organically, but not so well locally, appear to have had their results merged. The #1 ranking company in my screenshot was previously the #1 ranking company organically. As you can see, it now shows up in the local results.
A couple of tests returned mixed results for “Insurance New York” vs. “Insurance NYC”. In the former, the map still showed up in the right hand column, but less space was devoted to each listing.

This particular difference seems to be triggered by appending a state name onto the search.

You’ll also notice in my screenshots that Google is tracking my location (I’ve logged out and disabled web history to run these searches). Running the search through a proxy returned all of the results to the old “in-line map” layout.

This change first appeared for me on the 26th of October. So, does Google simply happen to be testing local search in Lancaster, PA? Or, is this more widespread?

Is anyone else noticing a difference in their listings for other locations?

Someone searches Google for marketing in Lancaster and your company doesn’t show up. Not good. Another person searches for your fitness center, and you appear right at the top. Great! But wait, your 6 reviews have an average of two stars. “Service is terrible…” or “the place stinks.” …oops, maybe not so great after all.

A recent study from TMP Directional Marketing estimated that a whopping 70% of people turn to the internet, via computer or phone, to find a local business or service. That’s huge, and being found on local search platforms is incredibly important. But what will they find when they get there?

What do people see when they search for your business or service? The great days, or the not so great days?

There’s really no excuse for not knowing this. So go ahead, Google your business, find it in the maps listings, and see what you discover. The next thing you should do is understand a little about how the system works. Lets talk about Google…

Google crawls the internet looking for data about local businesses and organizations. When it discovers enough information about an organization, it will create a maps listing or “place page”. Your company is probably there already, even if you didn’t sign up.  Once Google creates a listing, it starts pulling all of the data it has on that organization together, and combines it. This includes address, phone numbers, website information, social media accounts, even photos.

Perhaps more importantly, it also collects reviews.

Check out this listing for a local diner. Unfortunately what Google has collected isn’t positive. (names removed)

Here’s the important bit – most of these reviews weren’t left via Google. The restaurant industry is particularly lucky (or vulnerable) in that Google pulls from a huge variety of sources. But this also happens to the rest of us, no matter what industry we’re in.

Major sources of reviews include:

• CitySearch.com
• Yelp
• Yahoo! Local
• Local.com

There are literally hundreds of others.

As long as these reviews exist on other platforms, they will keep showing up on Google – even if you could somehow delete Google’s copy.

Knowing what’s going on is the first step to addressing reputation issues, or cultivating a positive image. We’ll continue to discuss the subject here, but if you’re itching to learn more…

…please come to our class at HACC Lancaster on October 26th at 6:30pm. You can find more about it here (search for “kiwi”) and registration information is here. It’s pretty inexpensive and we know you will walk away with detailed info and tools on this important subject.

Last week on Twitter, Lancaster Connections Magazine (@ConnectLanc) posed the question “How often do you tweet?”.

It garnered a number of answers, but Steve Odonnell’s (@odonnellsteve) input caught my attention.

Steve makes a good point, and I agree completely. Twitter is not an advertising channel. Pushing out information about what you do, if it’s relevant, is ok, but only sometimes. Let’s be realistic here. Unless you have something useful to say, something that fulfills a need, that is interesting, funny, poignant, or, unsurprisingly, engaging, people don’t have any reason to listen or respond.

It’s tough to build up any kind of rapport or trust if you’re the only one doing the talking.

It’s also tough to measure success if you’re not tracking your activities. Please don’t get me wrong, I’ve never discussed social media with Steve, and I’m not disagreeing with him, or even implying that he’s saying conversations and metrics are mutually exclusive. Quite the opposite in fact, Steve’s tweet sparked an idea for me.

When you regularly have something useful to say, tracking becomes easier. Do something often enough and you see patterns beginning to emerge. Larger sample, better data. Basic statistics, right?

As you engage, have conversations, and yes, make mistakes, you discover what people care about. Recently, for instance, I’ve discovered that people care a great deal that Christchurch, New Zealand (my hometown) was just hit by a huge earthquake. These are people I know and like, sure, but New Zealand is also a country thousands of miles away. (Thanks to everyone who got in touch, by the way. It means a lot). Not only does it make me feel good, it’s also an interesting insight into the kind of people we’re connected with on Twitter.

What it comes down to it this: The more you participate, the easier it is to see what works and what doesn’t.

In social media marketing, it’s still tough to pin up a dollar amount as a target and call it success. On the other hand, it’s very easy to tell how many people you’ve reached on any given day, what they like to hear from you, who they shared it with, and what they’re not interested in. These are things that we can track, and should. Its a lot easier to do that if what you say is interesting. Here’s the second part of my answer to @connectlanc which, probably due to space, wasn’t retweeted:

I can tell you how often we tweet on average (2-3/day is about right) and how many times we tweeted on Wednesday (5 tweets) because we track those numbers. I can also tell you what subject material people who follow us respond well to (timely information about social media, and more personal messages about what we’re doing) and what they ignore (no one we’re connected with cared about New Zealand’s soccer world cup run, except for me and @christophervogt who is the only other person I’ve ever heard bring it up.)

Does the fact that I know these things cheapen my interactions with people on Twitter? I don’t think so. In fact, I think this information makes for BETTER interaction. Because I know it, I can talk  with others about things they’re really interested in.

Who would you rather talk to at a party? The loud sweaty guy who yaps around himself all the time, or someone who shares your interests?

Don’t be the sweaty guy.

Like Steve said, its all about conversation.

6pm to 8pm on 9/27 & 10/26

The net never forgets! More importantly, people are likely to be talking about you or your business right now. Take control of your online reputation as we delve into the many facets of online discussions from review sites to Twitter, and forums to blogs. You will learn how to keep track of online conversations about your personal or business reputation.

Registration information is available from HACC’s Catalog.

“How to Create and Manage Your Online Reputation”

9 to 11 a.m., Southern Market Center

During this session, you’ll learn how to monitor what people are saying on the Internet about you and your company; design a strategy to engage and respond effectively; triage problems with ugly reviews; craft an ethical way to distribute positive information about your company; set up policies that will help others in your company be effective in the social media space; and continuously add value online so that your reputation grows and your company thrives.

People also love to come up with cool NEW labels for new things, and stick those in boxes too.

It’s nice, it’s neat, it fits, and allows us to cope with uncomfortable or new ideas. Plus, if you’re the person who “coins” the label in the first place, and it well, sticks, you get the prestige of having named the next big thing. Cool, eh?

At the moment that’s what’s happening as people try to get their heads around the next evolution of online technologies. Whether you’re calling it Web 3.0, Web Squared, or The Semantic Web (See what I did there? Semantics, Semantic Web? Annnyway, moving along…) the idea is that a bunch of new technologies and standards are emerging that will, we hope, change the way we do things.

Again. Just like Web 2.0.

Please, don’t get me wrong. Progress is great, better understanding, better resources, context — these are all great things, and they’re all things that “Web 3.0″ is probably going to offer us.

But here’s the thing:

A large amount of people still have -absolutely- no idea what Web 2.0 means. Very few people have even heard of Web 3.0 (or whatever you want to call it). In order to decipher the geek speak, people need a frame of reference to their world, and better yet, they need to know the benefits. They need to know what it will do for them.

A name like “Web 3.0″ or “The Semantic Web” doesn’t give anyone any perspective. In fact, it just clouds the issue.

A while back, when I was asked “So what is this Web 2.0 thing, anyway?” my answer was generally something like this, “Oh, that’s just a name that people give all the new social technologies available online. Things like Facebook, twitter. Things that let you share and communicate and collaborate with others.”

If the person I was speaking with was of the less tech-focused persuasion, I’d normally get a smirk, and, “I have a phone, I can do that already.”

Annnd, we’ve just hit the flaw in my explanation. No one cares about that.

What people want to know is how it’ll change things for them, how it’ll make things more like Steve Austin (For everyone reading that’s my age or younger, that’s the 6 million dollar man, “Better, Faster, Stronger”). Unless I can explain, or better yet, demonstrate, how this is of benefit, they’re really not that interested.

There’s no point in telling someone what something does unless you tell them what it can do for them.

Web 3.0 faces challenges just like Web 2.0 did. Coming up with a cool name for it isn’t one of them. Proving value, demonstrating the benefits — that’s where the challenge lies in bringing the idea mainstream.

Frankly, I think we’d almost be better off without the goofy names entirely. They confuse people, and sometimes even make them feel stupid. I mean, really who wants to ask the Internet Marketing guy at the next Lancaster Chamber of Commerce mixer what Web 3.0 is?