Greg Verdino

Search ads are now more clickable than ever

Like most marketers nowadays, I understand the importance of both organic and paid search as key components of the digital media plan but (confession time) I don't have even half a clue about how SEO or SEM really work -- or how to optimize either to deliver maximum results.  Sure, I know enough to hire someone who knows more than I do when my clients ask me for help with search. And I've somehow managed to dominate the first page of Google results for my own name but don't ask me to tell you how. I don't know.

But I'd like to learn more.

Enter Clickable's Max Kalehoff, an innovative program he has been spearheading to help marketers get the most out of their search initiatives, and a free e-book that presents some best-in-class thinking about search.

In Max's own words (from the Clickable blog):

When I joined Clickable in late 2007, we began assembling a team of experts dedicated to public service - to help struggling marketers succeed in search advertising. We named them "the Clickable Gurus." For over a year, they've contributed expertise directly to hundreds of marketers in popular online communities, face-to-face, and on this blog. They've indirectly helped tens of thousands of marketers by leaving a permanent record of their wisdom and teachings on the Web. Indeed, the Clickable Gurus have been one of Clickable's most valuable investments to listen and connect with the search-marketing community. As a result, we've made better products for our customers. We all thank the Gurus for their great work, including: Andrew Bernero, Hanny Hindi, Trace Johnson, Ehren Reilly and Tony Soric...

To commemorate the Clickable Gurus' debut after one year of undercover service, we've released the first anthology of their teachings... The Guru's Guide To Better Search Engine Marketing is full of practical tips and best practices that demystify search and help marketers succeed. Just like Clickable's award-winning products, the Guru's Guide is simple and accessible to beginners, yet equally valuable for advanced search-marketing professionals.

If you're all geeked-out on digital you can download the free electronic version of the Guru's Guide. If you prefer good old fashioned wood pulp, Clickable offers a $10 hard copy through LuLu.com. They're also offering free hard copies to blogger who promise to write reviews -- not the reason for this post by the way. This isn't a review and I haven't read the book yet, but if you blog and think you'd like to review it you can get the details from Max's post.

To extend a great-sounding program and promising book, they also offer online forums where you can interact with the Gurus, ask questions, get answers and add your own advice. And they're running a contest that gives search experts an opportunity to vie for their own place in Clickable's Guru gang.

And finally, like all good content marketing efforts, this one supports Clickable's own brand positioning as "a trusted advisor" that helps clients make better search marketing decisions, is bound to generate enough social media buzz to fill at least a few big plastic cups with some extra Google juice, and (the clincher) actually intriques me enough to make me want to find out what that actually means.

I hope you find The Guru's Guide useful. Feel free to drop a comment with your own thoughts.

Book 'em Verdino: announcing microMARKETING

I'm excited to announce that I've inked a deal with McGraw-Hill for the publication of my first business book, microMARKETING: A Breakthrough Approach to Building Brands by Thinking and Acting Small.

If the title alone isn't enough to clue you in, I'd like to give you an idea of the ground I'll cover in the book.  Here's a bit of how I described the book in the proposal itself:

A media revolution is underway, fueled by a micro-content phenomenon that is shifting the balance of power from mass communications to masses of communicators.  This shift plays out daily on blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Ustream and other social sites.  It’s in the notion that an otherwise normal individual can use social media and low-end technology to become a micro-celebrity with a significant following.  It’s in the viral effect that takes hold when even one online influencer (in essence a one-person media outlet) sparks a conversation that makes or breaks a brand.  It’s in the shift in behavior that is turning the smart phone into the “first screen” for Gen Y and many increasingly-mobile Gen Xers.  It’s in the shift from watching 60 minute television shows interrupted by 30-second advertisements, to watching 30-second pieces of online video content with no advertisements at all.  It’s even in the changing of our expectations of product design and retail sales, giving rise to dozens of successful small businesses and individuals (think Threadless, think Etsy, think Mimobot, think Lemonade) that can create and sell enough high quality, unique or custom merchandise at a premium to shoppers for whom choice and individuality matter more than convenience and price. 

These are exciting times, but they can also be scary times for marketers who have been trained to think that bigger is better, and for whom the excesses and successes of the past 50 or so years – big budgets for major media ad campaigns designed to sell mountains of product through big-box retailers – seem to be the only way to build a big brand.  For better or worse, the new reality is that the old way doesn’t work so well anymore. Simply put, micro-content and macro-marketing don’t mix – and trying to maintain the status quo while consumer behaviors and expectations change amounts to little more than a recipe for failure.

Enter micromarketing – a new approach to building brands, marketing products and services, and growing meaningful long-term customer (and corporate) value.  Micromarketing emphasizes relationships over reach, interactions over interruption, and the network effect over the broadcast network.  It is built upon the premise that the “next big thing” is really lots and lots of small things, and that to survive and thrive, even the biggest marketers must think and act small (make that “micro”), too. 

microMARKETING is not a "Twitter book."  Puh-leeze... In signature Verdino-style, I will aim to help marketers understand the larger trends that are driving the popularity of tools like Twitter and what the real world implications are for businesses (even if Twitter itself -- or Facebook or YouTube, for that matter -- goes away), but my focus will be aimed squarely at the big picture.  I also don't plan to trot out the same ol' tired social media case studies.  In fact, one key piece of my approach is to help large companies understand how to thrive in the era of micro-content and micro-culture by taking lessons from the people and organizations that are involved in the revolution at the grassroots level.  In other words, I'll be looking at what the biggest of big corporations should learn from "whatever experts." 

Again, from the proposal:

Over the past several years, social media has evolved from a trend to watch to an irrefutable fact of life for marketers of all sizes.  Now – before most companies have even gotten social media right – the mainstreaming of micro-content services, the ubiquity of powerful low-cost handheld technology (from Internet-ready phones to consumer-grade HD cameras) and the rise of DIY culture promise to change the rules of consumer engagement yet again.  It is important to understand how these changes impact our ability to build brands, manage customer relationships and drive sales today, and this will only become more important over the coming years as more and more consumers flock to the technologies that are powering the shift.

On the flipside, it is also important that marketers not get swept up in the hype surrounding a single tool or tactic, losing sight of the bigger implications for their businesses.  As has happened with core social media tools like blogging, podcasting and social networking (and short-lived fads like Second Life), marketers now run the risk of not seeing the forest for the trees – of jumping on the “Twitter bandwagon” with short-lived, ill-advised tactics that do little to impact their businesses.   

On the one hand, microMARKETING educates decision makers about larger trends and what they mean for companies who are looking to more effectively engage consumers through new digital channels.  On the other hand, it delivers tangible and practical case studies, stories, tips and tricks from familiar competitors (other large corporations) and unlikely sources of inspiration (micro-businesses and individual creators.)

microMARKETING is slated for a May/June 2010 release.  I need to hand in the final manuscript by mid-October.  Needless to say, I've got my work cut out for me over the next few months.

That may mean less blogging for the next few months, although I'll still try to post here at least once/week.  And you should stay tuned for periodic updates on the book, my progress and the process.  Hell, I may even ask you for some input along the way.

Finally, I'd like to thank the good folks at McGraw-Hill -- especially Donya Dickerson -- and my agent Ethan Friedman at LevelFive Media.

Good times, ahead...

Panasonic CES influencer program in Adweek

Adweek's Brian Morrissey gave Panasonic, crayon, our CES guests and me some nice press today, in an article that looks at brands tapping web influencers as brand ambassadors and content creators. 

From the piece:

Among the hundreds of journalists at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week there are five people producing reams of copy, photos and video about the show, new product demos and press conferences. Unlike the reporters, though, they are popular bloggers in Las Vegas courtesy of Panasonic.

The Panasonic program is one of several undertaken by brands carving out a new take on the old notion of advertorial. Rather than relying on magazines, they are contracting with influential bloggers who bring with them their own powerful distribution networks. Rather than a long-form narrative, content is fit for the Web via blog posts, Twitter updates and  YouTube videos. And the key differentiator: instead of dictating the content to lead to a sale, brands typically keep their distance to maintain credibility.

Panasonic wanted to build cachet among Internet influencers for its array of tech products. As part of its "Living in High Definition" push, Panasonic new media consultancy crayon recruited five bloggers to travel to CES on Panasonic's dime. Panasonic footed the bill for their travel and passes to the event while also loaning them digital video and still cameras. The bloggers, which include popular Internet figures Chris Brogan and Steve Garfield, will also meet with Panasonic executives and preview products. The catch: Panasonic has no say on what their guests post, according to Greg Verdino, chief strategy officer at crayon.

"There's not a direct quid pro quo," said Verdino, who also blogged and Twittered about CES for Panasonic. "When you give people equipment and they love it, just like any other consumer they'll evangelize it. We're not looking for them to hit message points and in effect shill."

Brian also writes about recent outreach programs managed by Izea, and a small business blogger initiative from American Express and Digitas.  It's good to see blogger relations get some good coverage, although Brian does clump all of these initiatives under the banner "Advertorial 2.0." 

I don't know that Brian intends the term to be negative and, for me, well done influencer junkets bear more resemblance to the traditional press junkets that are sometimes planned to spark mainstream media coverage, than they do to paid advertorials (which are simply ads designed to be viewed as legitimate third party content.)  UK blogger Robin Grant sees a similar distinction and has an interesting conversation taking place on his company's blog about this very topic.

But hey, it was my program so I'd love to hear what you think. 

How do you feel about blogger programs like the ones in the Adweek piece?  What works for you and what doesn't?  What would you do differently?

What happens at CES, happens courtesy of Panasonic

For the first time in a dozen or so years, I'll be making a pilgrimage to the International Consumer Electronics Show, happening in Las Vegas on January 8th - January 11th.  This time around, I'm going courtesy of crayon client Panasonic and I'll be blogging, vlogging, photologging and Tweeting about my experience the whole time.

Exciting for me but that's not the real story.  The real story is that I will be joined by five social media guests (plus my doppelganger Jaffe) that Panasonic has invited to document and share their own CES experiences with their communities. This program is one of several things that we've been working on for Panasonic -- look for more programs to go live in the coming weeks -- and it's a worthy experiment in how large companies can partner with citizen journalists, if I don't say so myself (which I must since I had a hand in putting the program together.)

Here's the low down:

What We're Doing
Panasonic has invited a handful of guest content creators, culled from the social media rank and file, to join them at CES 2009.  They're flying them out and giving them front row seats at press conferences, new product announcements, exhibit hall presentations and more.  They're putting some of the latest and greatest Panasonic gear -- digital cameras, standard- and high definition camcorders, and more -- in their hands.  They're setting them loose to document their CES experiences.

In marketing speak, this no doubt sounds something like influencer outreach meets product sampling meets branded infotainment.  But it's really more than that.   It's just one of several things crayon is doing with Panasonic to put real people at the center of the company's "Ideas From Life.  Ideas For Life." positioning.  In other words, Panasonic is a consumer electronics company with a decidedly human focus -- to not just make great products but to make products that help people live better.  So who better to tell that story than - you know -- actual people.  And what are so-called influencers but people who like to tell stories to their own loyal communities.

OK. OK. So Who's Going?

We've assembled a veritable content creation dream team that includes a top blogger, a well known vlogger, a professional podcaster, an author and social media CEO, and a documentary film maker.  I think we can look forward to diverse perspectives and content to suit just about any appetite.  You may recognize some familiar faces in a montage below-- but even if you don't, I've laid out their details below.

Stacy DeBroff
Stacy is CEO of MomCentral, and a nationally recognized parenting expert, author and television personality.
Web: http://www/momcentral.com
Twitter: @momcentral

Cliff Ravenscraft
Cliff is a full-time podcaster, whose GSPN network produces nearly two dozen podcasts including series devoted to Hanna Montana, LOST, Heroes and other popular television shows.
Web: http://www.gspn.tv
Twitter: @gspn

Steve Garfield
Steve is a video blogging pioneer and citizen journalist who produces several personal vlogs and contributes to media outlets such as CNN iReport and Rocketboom.
Web: http://stevegarfield.com
Twitter: @stevegarfield

Chris Brogan
Chris is a well known social media veteran whose blog ranks in Technorati’s Top 100, a co-founder of the PodCamp “unconference” movement and a frequent conference speaker.
Web: http://www.chrisbrogan.com
Twitter: @chrisbrogan

Melissa Pierce
Melissa is a creative coach and documentary filmmaker, currently working on her own independent film Life In Perpetual Beta. Web (Life In Perpetual Beta): http://lifeinperpetualbeta.com
Web (personal blog): http://www.melissapierce.com
Twitter: @melissapierce

Fellow crayonista Joseph Jaffe (@jaffejuice) and I will join Stacy, Cliff, Steve, Chris and Melissa. 

And What Do You Get?
Well, what happens in Vegas certainly won't stay there this time. We've asked our guests to create lots of content and share it with their communities -- so if you can't be at CES in January, you'll still get to witness the sights and sounds of the show through the eyes of our guests. Be sure to follow the gang on Twitter and subscribe to their feeds, because I'm sure they'll be blogging, vlogging, podcasting and Tweeting like nobody's business.

If you do plan to be at CES, we're also organizing a Thursday night Tweet Up on Panasonic's behalf (January 8) where you can hang with our guests, each other and all your newfound CES buddies.  Stay tuned to this blog and my tweets for the details, as we make them available.

For my part, I'll be sharing my thoughts on this blog of course, but also plan to set up a dedicated lifestream-like object so that you can see everything as I upload it throughout the show.  I hope to share lotsa cool stuff in January and hope I'll have the chance to meet some of you at CES.  Let me know if you plan to be there.

Stay tuned for more details as they become available. 

Hey honey, waddaya think of the new shed?

Remember "QVC meets MTV" hipster shopping site Honeyshed?  I don't blame you if you don't.  They beta launched a while back to much fanfare and some not-so-hot reviews, only to go into hibernation before getting out of beta or attracting much of an audience. 

Well, they're back -- totally revamped and raring to go. 

Bankrolled by Publicis and billed as "Home Shopping for the Digital Generation," Honeyshed rolls on-demand videos of cool(ish), (at least somewhat) attractive young people pitching everything from t-shirts and panties to gadgets and DVDs.  The site comes with all the usual social media trappings -- viewers can review products, share them on social sites and even submit videos of themselves hawking their own stuff.  And has a clear, well executed e-commerce tie-in -- you can click through to the sponsors' own commerce engines to buy whatever you like or "stash" products you might be interested in buying later.  The content doesn't seem to be as weird and off-putting as I remember from the first launch, but it still has a clear post-YouTube sensibility (but thankfully, old school post-MTV production values.)

So will Honeyshed work this time?  That depends on whether or not the team can lure in enough paying sponsors interested in having their products showcased on segments.  No sponsors; no revenue; no content...  And if Honeyshed is gonna pull this off, they'll need to attract a sizable audience in the right demographic.

So the real question is: will the new Honeyshed appeal to the digital generation? 

Did the gang at Honeyshed get the tone right this time?  Will twenty-somethings log on for their daily dose of a hipper Home Shopping Network?  Will Gen Y and Millenials find the paid-for pitches credible, and does this even matter so long as it's clear that that's exactly what they're tuning in for?  Is this even how people shop anymore? 

Let's ask some of them.  I'm hoping that my favorite honeybee, a real live digital girl, a social media guy and the smartest USC marketing grad student I know will be willing to give it a whirl and chime in.  While we're at it, I wonder whether Aronado thinks Honeyshed is lucky or sucky.

And of course I'd love to hear from the rest of you too -- what do you think?

Check out the site -- it's live now -- or if you're really lazy, I've embedded a slideshow of screengrabs below [feed and email readers will need to click to the blog to see the embed.]

Honeyshed Sneak Peek

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Disclosure: I used to work at Publicis-owned Digitas and personally know some of the current Honeyshed management team.  I left before Honeyshed launched and I don't owe them nothin'. :-)

My blog has entered the terrible twos

My blog turned two over the weekend -- on Saturday, October 4th to be precise.  But since it was out binge drinking and barfing all over its shoes, I figured I'd wait until today to write a post.

The time has flown -- and while two years seems like no time at all, I know that it translates into something like 1,100 internet years. So I thought that this might be a good time to offer up a retrospective of posts from the past 24 months.  It's a great way for new readers to get a sense of the things that have held my interest over the past couple of years -- and a good way for long time readers to relive the glory that is me (that last bit is written with more than a hint of sarcasm, of course.)

For me, it has been interesting to look back at everything I've written here and find that -- although the specific details, companies and pet peeves may have changed -- my overall themes have remained the same.  Depending on your point of view, that either means that I'm consistent or that I've fallen into a rut.  You can decide for yourself. 

Anyway, thanks to everyone who has stuck by me, remained a reader, linked to me when I've written something noteworthy, and spread the word to their friends and colleagues.  I appreciate it.  I really, really do.

And so, without further ado, here are 24 posts from the past 24 months -- charting the course from my blog's humble beginnings to it's just as humble present.  Let me know what still resonates, what you think is a load of crap and if there are other posts you've enjoyed as well.

2006

• Don't let ads kill the video star

2007

• Let's define the word "pull"
• Does your ad agency advertise?
• Be the content
• Are you at war with your customers?
• The social media disconnect
• Do you make your customers uncomfortable?
• Get off the scale
• Are you a giver?  Probably not.
• Social media: how much is too much?
• What did you expect?
• Frank Zappa school of marketing
• A t-shirt is like social media because...
• How are television ads like SUVs?
• Britney Spears school of marketing
• The 7 strands of "blog dna"
• Black Eyed Peas school of marketing

2008

• Beyond knowledge: head in the cloud
• Tweet or change the world.  Pick one.
• The 'you test' for social media agencies
• Twitter, shunning, Siberia and solitary confinement
• Hate to tell you, but Web 1.0 was social too
• Social media: lipstick on a pig or total makeover?
• Next big thing? First, master the last big thing

If I can ever find the time to put it together, I am hoping to collect these same posts in a free e-book so that I can share them with clients and colleagues that don't read my blog.  I'll let y'all know when (if) the e-book is ready to rock -- hopefully you'll have some friends you can share it with too.

Thanks!

Mobile ftw (my mobile marketing presentation)

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I was putting together a presentation about mobile, and got lots of great input from some of you.  Well, tomorrow (or today, depending on when you catch this post) is the day I'll deliver that presentation to an auditorium full of marketers. 

My storyline? 2009 may not be the year of mobile but that doesn't mean marketers can't find smart, effective ways to innovate in the mobile channel.  But don't think that mobile advertising models that mirror traditional ad models will cut it.  Instead, focus on five key ways your brand can add value for mobile consumers.

What are the five key ways? Well, you'll have to check out the slides.  As regular readers know, my slides typically require voiceover -- but I think you'll still get the gist.  Besides, they sure are purty.

Mobile FTW

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[Feed and email readers will need to click through to view the embedded slides.]

Feel free to comment or contact me directly if you have any specific questions.

Next big thing? First, master the last big thing

It's the middle of September and we are in smack in the middle of marketing conference season.  As I write this, Advertising Week is in full swing and a number of other marketing, social media and new media events (including OMMA Global, Web 2.0 Expo, Blog World Expo, Inbound Marketing Summit and countless others, I'm sure) have all recently wrapped up.

And as is often the case with these types of events, I'm sure many of these have brought out the usual set of gurus talking about the next big thing to audiences of eager client and agency side marketers hoping to find out what it is, what it means and how to get a jump on the newest, shiniest object before it hits the Marketplace section of the Wall Street Journal.

So I figured I would write a quick blog post advising all the folks who leave these events with visions of shiny new marketing sugarplums dancing in their heads to take a deep breath, turn around and consider which of the 'last big things' they haven't yet used to the fullest of their potential.

Wait a second.  A so-called marketing futurist is telling us to back up and retread the ground we've already walked? 

In a word, 'yes.'

I've often pointed out that social media insiders need to remember that they are ahead of the curve and can't assume that the rest of world is as excited about (or even aware of) the latest, greatest presence applications, mobile social networks or any other new thing that the gods of Web 2.0 throw our way.  Outside the land of the bloggerati and Twitterati, it is still pretty progressive for the average consumer to have both a MySpace and Facebook profile, let alone an account on Flickr, delicious or StumbleUpon.  Mention ExitReality or even lifestreaming and your buddy is bound to call for back-up (ummm, pun intended.)

So I'd like to offer similar advice to marketers.  Stop fixating on the next, and start getting smart about the now -- or even the recent. Before asking what shiny objects are sparkling just around the bend, take a look at the many, many channels that are available to you today and ask yourself if you've done the best job of experimenting, optimizing, standardizing and internalizing the way you use the long list of the not-so-new to engage consumers.

For example, what does your organization do with the following channels?

• Blogging
• Podcasting
• Virtual Worlds
• Gaming
• Social Networking
• Online Community
• Mobile (think SMS, not QR Codes)
• Widgets and Applications
• Feeds (RSS)
• Search Marketing
• Search Engine Optimization
• Behavioral Targeting
• Contextual Targeting
• Video
• Branded Content
• Word-of-Mouth Marketing

None of these things are really all that new, anymore.  At one time or another, every item on that list (and many others, of course) was buzzworthy.  They were the next big thing, or at least the new new thing.  And while most still get plenty of play in marketing circles, most don't raise nearly as many eyebrows as they once did.  Most probably wouldn't be handed off to your 'innovation' guy or gal, as they might have been even a year ago.  They're just more ways to connect with an increasingly multichannel-engaged consumer.

But be honest -- have you cracked the code on any of them yet? I don't believe many marketers have -- fewer still have mastered all of them.  But a lot of these very same marketers are already losing interest in the untried, in favor of the unknown.

What can you do better?  Which 'new to you' thing from the list above can you test (or better yet, turn into a vital element in your overall marketing mix) before you move along to whatever media or marketing innovation the so-called gurus are crowing about today?

What is your organization doing to master the Last Big Thing?

PCB3 smart social media marketing panel

I'm back at work after a great PodCamp Boston 3 weekend.  On Saturday, I shared the floor with Philip Robertson, Doug Haslam and Adam Broitman for a panel discussion/open conversation about Smart Social Media Marketing.

Qik lifestreamer Len Edgerly captured most of the hour+ session on video.  The audio is a bit dodgy but if you're interested in getting a sense of how it went and what we discussed, check out Part 1 and Part 2.

The panelists, left to right: Philip, Doug, Adam and me.  That's Len shooting the video in the lower righthand corner.  Check out Flickr for the rest of my photos from the weekend.

Be the content redux

It has been more than a year since OMMA published my online video column, "Be The Content," about the need for marketers to look beyond the obvious but ultimately misguided approach of putting repurposed TV spots on the web and, instead, look for ways to create (or curate) and distribute compelling brand content that people might actually want to watch. 

It seems that this message is no less relevant today, and its always good to hear other industry types beat the same drum.

In a clip shared by AlwaysOn today, Forrester analyst Josh Bernoff talks about how any company -- regardless of size, budget or inherent sexiness -- can tap into the inherent pull of interesting or entertaining video content to attract an audience and drive real business results.

Click through to Beet.tv to hear what Josh has to say.

(Sorry to make you click but for some reason Typepad keeps eating Beet.tv embeds and presenting blank space instead of the video.)

If you're new around these parts and would like a copy of "Be The Content," you can grab the PDF here.