Related links

• Aardvark
• Techcrunch article

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• Visit The Yolk website
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Related links:

• The Yolk
• The Yolk on Twitter

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The real-time functionality adds a completely different dimension to how users can search, especially on the way in which they look for opinions, reviews and customer feedback/opinion. The ability to now showcase user communication via search becomes an important factor in corporate communication, reputation and commercialisation. With 28% of Shoppers saying that Social Media has influenced holiday purchases, real-time search instantly lifts the need for businesses to maximise social media marketing. Encouraging consumers to discuss brands is going to be a massive contribution to increasing conversions online, so businesses must get as much conversation going as possible. Just remember this basic rule:

Customer engagement + Simplicity = Success online

Related links:

• Mashable's full post on Google real-time search
• Follow Phailanx on Twitter

Social Media Marketing has changed the way in which businesses need to communicate and reach their customers. Not only does it allow businesses to manage their corporate reputation and start a discussion on a different level, but it is encouraging them to meet and greet their customers in their own comfortable environment. Almost to the point where customer service is reaching out to a new level and letting the customer know that they are the customer.

More and more TV adverts now contain Facebook urls instead of their own... driving consumers towards critical mass, engagement and discussion. The returns then arrive from this discussion as it is viewed as a longer term investment into acquisition.

So, is your company successfully penetrating the social sphere?

Related links:

• Facebook page for Liv
• Create a Social Media Marketing strategy

Ref: www.hitwise.com

It looks as though online retailers (being more specialised in online sales) have been focussing their digital efforts to maximise communication and marketing tools such as Social Media, online customer service and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

Related links:

• Hitwise report/blog post
• Improve your e-commerce performance

Ref: Hitwise

With the ongoing launch of some massive single and multiplayer games, is there a marketing opportunity being missed by companies to partner or attach themselves to this market?

Related links:

• Go to the Hitwise website

A recent post by Econsultancy mentions that a lot of consumers choose to skip search functionality for e-commerce sites as they tend to be well below customer expectations (and ultimately dilute the user experience). This is apparently why Google has entered this market to help retailers who want a robust on-site search but without the setup issues or outsourced assistance. I would have to disagree with Econsultancy as while I was working at a few of the top online retailers in the UK, site search was the most used forms of navigation on their sites. Up to 60% of users used the search function from the homepage and then that number increased on subsequent pages when regular streams of navigation failed. Although I disagree with the customer behaviour insights of the Econsultancy blog post, it still leads to the same result and shows the importance of having a good search function on your website and the potential market gap spotted by Google.

Is it just the same as regular Google site search?
No, it's specifically designed for retail sites. For a start it allows retailers to "promote" and adjust results based on promotions and data/information. It also has advanced filtering/sort functions available which have become a necessity in shopping online. Finally there is also the ability to change result view types so that the search is a little bit more personalised to the customer.

How much does it cost?
It's not cheap starting at £50k. However, for this price you get a very powerful search function with Google's 24/7 support and experience to back it up. There are other competitors such as Fred Hopper and Mercado (taken over by Omniture) who provide some very good alternative solutions. However, they must all now be worried (even if they don't admit it) that Google has launched this product... as not only is it what they do best, but as expected, it also seamlessly integrates with all the other Google packages such as Adwords, Analytics and Checkout.

Related links:

• Find out more about Google Commerce Search

Top 5 best things in Social Media

1. Engagement
   The ability to engage users with new technologies and interaction
   
   
2. Communication / Corporate Reputation Management
   Social media allows businesses to have two way conversations with their customers meaning that it becomes much easier to manage your corporate reputation
   
   
3. Positioning
   Engaging with Social Media shows that your company is with the times and able to communicate with consumers at all levels. It gives the opportunity to present yourself as an authority in your related field
   
   
4. Simplification
   Social media has made using the internet (and work) easier with the opportunity to use new technologies that simplify many different processes
   
   
5. Collaboration
   With the introduction to new age social media (e.g. Social Commerce, Social Gaming, Social Learning), collaboration online has become much easier and a part of everyday internet use.

Top 5 worst things in Social Media

1. Cost - It’s free
   It’s free price tag is a hook for customers, but it is also the Achilles heel for businesses. The free options make the market saturated and businesses assume that because it is free, that is how much it costs to invest in Social Media Marketing. Understanding the premium services and how to optimise this is what will make a success of Social Media in business and knowing when to invest money will also have a massive impact on the scale of this success
   
   
2. Time
   Social media is time consuming and resource intensive when done correctly
   
   
3. Diluted presence
   With there being so many platforms online, it is inevitable that your digital presence will start to become diluted. There are products that can help manage this but none have been perfected as of yet. It is important to manage this as effectively as possible within an integrated Social Media strategy
   
   
4. Monitoring
   Monitoring can be expensive to use the best tools. Basic analytics can be found in most mainstream packages, but specialised measurement can be expensive
   
   
5. Monetisation
   It can be very difficult to make money in Social Media. It requires the right research, the right functionality as well as a little luck in timing/customer behaviour. This is on top of a sound and robust platform

View the LinkedIn Poll

Besides purpose, engagement is the key factor at present to getting customers to convert/retain and stay with you so make sure that you are doing everything you can... it's amazing to see how much persuasion you can have over your customers just by creating a unique user experience.

Related links

• Brand Integrity Blog
• Find out how you can engage your customers

Acquition - Getting users to your website
Conversion - Converting those users into customers
Engagement - Getting them to engage with your product, website or service
Retention - Customers revisit because of the successful experience from all of the above stages

The ACER model is important because engagement is a key factor for all online businesses. This engagement is what can make a real success of even a mediocre business offering by connecting with your customers.

Despite my small rant about the short-sightedness of the above phrase, I noticed a post on Econsultancy that I think sums up the basic steps to success to maximise conversion rates. Econsultnacy focuses on the Acquisition - Conversion part of the model and give some good rules of thumbs to improving your website. There are a few things that can take you to the next step, but there isn't much missed so if you follow these guidelines, you should see improvement to your site:

A is for Accessibility

B is for Brevity

C is for Customer Intent

D is for Differentiation

E is for Ease of Use

F is for Forms

G is for Good Service

H is for Help

I is for Incentives

J is for Jargon

K is for Key Information

L is for Labelling

M is for Merchandising

N is for No Good

O is for Options

P is for Persuasion

Q is for Quality

R is for Repetition

S is for Speed

T is for Trust

U is for User Generated Content

V is for Value Proposition

W is for Where Did They Come From?

X is for The X Factor

Y is for YES

Z is for ZZZZZZZ

See the full article to get a full description of the above examples.

Related links

• A-Z of conversion optimisation article
• A-Z of online persuasion (By cScape)
• See how you can improve your performance online

"A further survey of 450 UK firms revealed that whilst half consider their website to look 'professional', 1 in 3 owners admit that they are guilty of 'neglecting' their sites."

Another interesting fact for small businesses is that 1 in 5 consumers take a web address from the side of a small company's vehicle whilst only 10% of small businesses currently display their URL on the side of any commercial vehicles.

Some top consumer facts to digest:

• 76% of consumers have now used the website of a small business
• 1 in 4 people state that small business websites are 'barely usable'
• 83% of online users found faults with the website of a small business

Some top small business website facts to digest:

• 54% were unfinished
• 52% contained broken links
• 50% contained out-of-date email addresses
• 31% are missing contact details

What is interesting from this report is that "The findings are in contrast to another survey of 450 small firms where 76% felt confident that the language on their website could in no way be perceived negatively, and 84% saw the images on their website as fit for purpose."

So a small shout-out to small businesses - make sure that usability and customer perception/corporate reputation is much higher on your list for your website. as you may be losing customers as you read this post! Never underestimate the power of a positive user experience as it can be the converting factor to your online success.

Related links:

• Read the full article on Usability News
• See how Sticky Panda can help you improve your online user experience
• Streamline hosting

Lists can be public or private to allow users to follow friends and family, or professional/hobby based lists. The functionality is in beta testing at the moment and is restricted but Tweeters should be able enjoy this new functionality shortly which will open up a new dimension to the fast-growing social media platform.

Related links:

• Twitter
• Follow Phailanx on Twitter

You can also book tickets to attend the award ceremony itself if you would like to possibly network and meet these great minds in person.

Related links:

• Buy Econsultancy Innovation Award tickets
• Nominate for the awards

What are your thoughts on Google Wave?

• Recommendations (46%)
• Suggestions (43%)
• Product reviews (40%)

Another interesting fact to know that the majority of Europeans would not spend more than 5Euros online, where as 1 in 14 UK residents, would spend up to £5000.

Find out more on the report at E-consultancy

If you would like a FREE copy of this report (or would just like to help!), please take a few minutes to complete this survey and forward to as many people as possible to get accurate results:

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