Masterlink Interactive Blog

Want free ice cream? Just click around Facebook a couple of times.

According to Web Pro News:

Baskin-Robbins Facebook fans can sign up for “Group Scoop” on Facebook and start their own group or joins someone else’s. Once the number of people in a “Group Scoop” reaches 31, the organizer and all 30 other members will receive a coupon for a free 2.5 oz scoop of ice cream or a 3 oz swirl of soft serve.
“Group Scoop is a fun way for our fans to enjoy a free scoop of Baskin-Robbins ice cream with their Facebook friends, even if they are miles apart,” said David Nagel, Baskin-Robbins Director of Brand Excitement. “Groups of 31 Facebook Fans will be able to enjoy a scoop of their favorite flavor, on us.”

Simple. Smart. Social media savvy. Let’s take a look at how Facebook has created marketing capabilities for the ice cream icon that simply didn’t exist before the social media age:

Creates Incentive to Share

Basically, something like this encourages Facebook users do the heavy lifting of getting your word out. Tell your friends (in an easily doable and provable way), and we’ll reward you. It’s simple.

Exponentially Expands the Promotion’s Capabilities

These sorts of marketing ideas aren’t new—at least in theory. In the past, Baskin Robbins could‘ve taken an ad out in the paper saying something like “Bring three friends, get one ice cream free.” But with an online platform like Facebook, it’s much easier to ramp up the numbers involved with a promotion.

In other words, “Bring 31 friends all at once to our store and get free ice cream!” would seem like a non-starter, and would probably draw a discrimination lawsuit from lonely people. With Facebook, the promotion could easily be for 50 or a 100 people, because that kind of viral organization requires only a few clicks from each customer.

And isn’t this what all those met-once-at-a-party or took-math-together-in-high-school-I-think-but-am-not-entirely-sure acquaintances you have listed as “friends” on Facebook are for?

Creates Incentive to Check Back

Internet marketing campaigns like these create a feeling that the Facebook Fan Page is a way for customers to shrewdly beat the system (and get free stuff). As we mentioned a few weeks ago, the single biggest reason Facebook users become “fans” or befriend the page of an online business is for the possibility of promotions and discounts.

Furthermore, with elements like “Flavor of the Month,” Baskin Robbins is using their Fan Page as a spot where exclusive announcements are made — the fourth biggest reason why customers become fans of companies on Facebook.

Grabs User’s Full Attention

When a Facebook user comes to your Fan Page, the opportunities for reaching them are much more powerful than, say, an ad on the side of a news article they’re reading that you simply hope will catch their eye. Instead, a visitor is committing their focus specifically to your message when they arrive at your page.

Even if customers only come to read the details of the promotion, the opportunities to reach them within those details are endless. And once you get them in the room, you’re giving all your fancy graphics, pictures, and copy a chance to shine.

What is Facebook Places?

It’s Facebook’s new location-based service (LBS), built on a Bing Maps platform, and it’s a giant twist in the race between all the major search engines and social media platforms to perfect local search capabilities. LBS allows mobile smartphone users to broadcast out via Twitter, Facebook, or LBS-specific platforms where they are at any particular moment, and what they think about it.

Facebook’s version is similar to popular apps like Foursquare and Gowalla, where users “check in” via their smartphone wherever they go, broadcast their whereabouts on Twitter, and sort of compete for titles by spending the most time at a particular place (who wants to be mayor of the 45th St. McDonald’s?? I’m personally the mayor of Masterlink Interactive and DFWSEM Dallas Fort Worth Search Engine Marketing Association ). If you have a Twitter feed, and if you have noticed an increase of one-line “I am here”-type tweets (helpful or annoying, depending on how you use Twitter), you can thank LBS.

The appeal is obvious: Let’s say you’re at a huge shopping mall—LBS can help you meet up with friends who happen to be there as well. Or let’s say you go to a concert. You “check in,” and your other LBS-using friends who you didn’t realize were at the same show see it. Commence arm-in-arm anthem-swaying.

What’s different about Facebook’s version?

The easy integration into its pre-existing platform makes Facebook’s version a natural development. Whereas Foursquare and Gowalla have to piggyback off of unattached third-party technologies like Twitter, Facebook can tailor its product specifically to seamlessly integrate into the ever-evolving strengths of its site, like newsfeeds and user walls.

Furthermore, half a billion people already use Facebook, making it far more likely for this sort of LBS usage to hit critical mass. Foursquare and Gowalla have really just been early-adopters apps, popular mostly in the tech crowd. Facebook could do for LBS what Apple did for mp3s.

Why does it matter for businesses?

Basically, it brings companies and regular Facebook users much closer together. Your friend “checks in” at a coffee shop they like, and Facebook posts it on the Places page, the customer’s wall, and the customer’s newsfeed. It’s free publicity—and a link back to the cafe’s Places page, where they can promote themselves with gusto.

Right now, most companies on Facebook have carved out their niche via a Fan Page—the profiles we talked about last week that allow businesses to connect and converse with customers, and broadcast information and announcements. If you haven’t started a Fan Page for your business yet, we highly recommend it.

According to Search Engine Land, most business Fan Pages will eventually morph into Facebook Places pages, with a heavier emphasis on maps and real-time updating. A local search function will eventually be integrated in, as well.

In other words, your Places page registers you as a dot on the map. It’s an important dot.

How can I capitalize on this?

Let’s say you’re a Thai restaurant in Dallas, and you announce a big one-day discount on pumpkin curry on your Places page. It’s a smashing success, and Facebook-using curry cravers are beating down the door to get their fix. If several of them “check in” and comment about the discount, it’ll create a buzz on Facebook that spreads your brand and attracts more customers.

Furthermore, Places can let you keep an eye on your competiton (what kinds of deals and discounts they’re offering, and what kind of feedback they’re getting). Pay attention, and who knows what you might learn.

And if you’re really savvy, you could find ways to offer incentives for Facebook users to stop by and check in. The possibilities are endless.

MSN Adcenter has been around for awhile with increasing smaller traffic results. Bing has reversed this trend in the last year or so, but their numbers are about to jump significantly. Yahoo Sponsored Search results will cease to exist before the end of September; they will be all MSN Adcenter based ads!

Of course, most of you reading this already know that, but many of you really aren’t prepared to manage Bing results like a pro. I mean, their total piece of the market got down to less than 10%. Microsoft has taken a lot of time getting their interface right, and the old Live Search engine experience didn’t make the experience any better. The bad news is that there will be growing pains and a few bumps in the road before, during and after the hand-off process. The good news is that the interface is much easier to operate, and the traffic will be worth. The great news is that getting started like a pro is easy. All you have to do is download my walk-through, follow the steps, and “Bing!” you’re ready to start getting MSN Adcenter clicks.

All you need is a well done Google AdWords account, and a Bing Master Account. If you don’t have either of those you will need to get them. This article is really only about promoting the process of exporting your Google AdWords account to MSN Adcenter. That’s the easy part.

Of course, you probably already have a Yahoo account, and Yahoo has assured you that they will handle the conversion process to Bing. There are only two problems with the Yahoo to Bing conversion process. For starters, they use totally different match types; Google uses almost identical ones to Bing. Most Yahoo to Bing conversions will not be as successful as a Google to Bing conversion. The other problem only arises if you don’t have a Yahoo account; maybe you’re reading this after September?

Just view below or download the presentation, and see if it’s something that will work for you. I hope you enjoy it!

It’s a place for friends to connect, to catch up, to plan parties, and to upload embarrassing and political-career-destroying pictures of said parties.

So just how much, really, can businesses, products, and brands fit into the ever-expanding and evolving Facebook landscape?

Google has been trying to explore exactly that question, and has dug up some interesting numbers from a study done by Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate Research Technologies. The gist? Those party-picture-posting people might be more interested in your business’ Facebook page than you might think:

Photo courtesy Google Retail Advertising Blog.

So while a slim majority of Facebook users don’t bother with business pages on the site, the fact that even 45 percent do (with 27 percent of users following three brands or more) is hugely significant. More than half a billion people now use Facebook, and 225 million of those willing to form at least limited virtual relationships with businesses on the site is nothing to sniff at — especially considering how carefully the free, formerly-college-exclusive networking site has had to tread about introducing both advertising and commercial interests.

So, with that in mind, perhaps more interesting (and useful) are the numbers showing why Facebook users “friend” or “like” a particular company or brand:

• 25 percent to gain access to promotions and discounts.
• 18 percent to show support for the brand.
• 10 percent simply because it’s fun and entertaining.
• 8 percent to be the first to hear new information.

In other words, draw them in with opportunity, and you’ll have their ear when it’s time to make a sale.

Regardless, it all shows just how important a robust social media element of your Internet marketing strategy has become. Tools like Facebook and Twitter allow you to control and spread your message, to give loyal customers “insider access” that creates incentive for them to repeatedly return, to explore and harness viral marketing opportunities, and to create healthy forums for feedback, customer service, and dialogue. It’s simply a great way to connect.

Contact one of our Dallas social media marketing experts for more information about how to maximize your social media presence.

When it comes to the Internet, the customer doesn’t always have to be right.

A few weeks ago, we talked about how it’s becoming increasingly difficult to manage your online reputation. There are just too many prominent platforms online for angry customers, nefarious competitors, or criticizing chaos cravers to take unfair shots at your business.

With the arrival of local search (where customer reviews are integrated with technologies like Google Maps in search results), this problem has become even more significant. If the first thing a searcher sees about your business is a nasty (even if unfair) review, that alone could undo all the rest of the work you’ve put into an Internet marketing strategy.

Thankfully, Google has recently made it just a little bit easier to defend yourself.

According to Google’s Lat Long Blog:

Starting today, if you’re a verified Google Places business owner, you can publicly respond to reviews written by Google Maps users on the Place Page for your business. Engaging with the people who have shared their thoughts about your business is a great way to get to know your customers and find out more. Both positive and negative feedback can be good for your business and help it grow (even though it’s sometimes hard to hear). By responding, you can build stronger relationships with existing and prospective customers.

For example, a thoughtful response acknowledging a problem and offering a solution can often turn a customer who had an initially negative experience into a raving supporter. A simple thank you or a personal message can further reinforce a positive experience. Ultimately, business owner responses give you the opportunity to learn what you do well, what you can do better, and show your customers that you’re listening.

Click to Enlarge

You must be the verified owner of a verified listing in order to respond. Google also posted a user guide with some tips (be nice, don’t make it personal, etc.) for responding without losing customers a little bit less precarious.

At Masterlink, we believe strongly in mutual benefit of these sorts of online conversations, and offer a full suite of online reputation management services that ensure you a reputation that’s accurately reflective of your sterling business.

Last week, we talked a bit about why your site visitors might not stick around long enough for you to make a sale and how to improve  high “bounce rates”. Cluttered design and navigation issues, poor website performance, and boring, muddled content can each send a site visitor packing.

But let’s say you’re consistently getting them to hang out a bit and listen to what you have to say—what’s next in making your web design affect your bottom line?

Here are three keys:

1. Content. Content. Content.
Yep, content is still king. SEO can grab a web visitor. Snazzy web designs can get them to click around a bit. But it’s content that sells, just like a salesperson greeting a customer in an actual store. In fact, this might be the only time a visitor takes the time to dive into the nitty gritty details of what’s written on your site, rather than just scanning and clicking around.

Beyond hooks and slogans, the key is to anticipate the visitor’s needs and desires in the content before they get there. Think about all the doubts and skepticism that a visitor brings with them to your site. Make them feel understood and reassured in a way that builds real trust. Back this up with accurate and expertise-driven detailed content about your products and services that builds a sense of respect and faith in what you’re selling, and you’ll be in good position to develop a deeper relationship.

2. Lights. Camera. Call to Action.
Some customers need a slight nudge. Others might just not know what to do next. Regardless, concise, clear call to action is critical element of your web design.

Many business owners seem to think that if a visitor likes their product or service, they’ll just sort of figure out what to do next. Don’t assume this. Give them a compelling, clear-cut offer, and then make it as easy as possible for them to take the plunge, in a step-by-step way. This includes:

• An attractive “Contact” page, featuring more than just a form. Give them email addresses. Give them phone numbers. Give them a Google map with all of your locations listed. Give them a name and a face for who they’d be talking to if they make the all.
• “Add to Cart” functions if you’re selling a product.
• Forms for quote requests.
• Clear information about pricing, packages, and product specs.
• Online chat with salespeople.
• Access to newsletters, blogs, and white papers.

3. Be Memorable

In the end, the time just won’t be right for many otherwise interested site visitors. But if you connect with visitors in a real way, make them feel understood and cared about, and make yourself stand out from the competition, you’ll be there in their memory when they’re ready to pull the trigger.

This is where a comprehensive web design matters most, with all the different elements working together. A visitor should leave your site impressed by your professionalism, expertise, personality, and the way you anticipated their needs and desires. Sacrifice any of these, and the experience won’t be so memorable.

Contact one of our Dallas web design experts to learn more about our approach to web design and creating compelling web content. We’re here for you if it’s time to rethink your web design.

Why Web Design Matters: Bounce Rates

A new web design is more than just a fresh coat of paint.

At Masterlink, our web designs are sleek, professional, pleasing to search engines, and welcoming to first-time visitors. But if they didn’t draw visitors further into your site (and ultimately effectively sell your products and services), the design would largely be a failure. What good is SEO-driven traffic, after all, if nobody sticks around long enough to see why you’re ranked so highly in the first place?

The way to track this is called a “bounce rate”—basically a measurement of what percentage of your website’s traffic quickly “bounces” away to other sites instead of sticking around and exploring other pages.

Here are three web design flaws that can create (or cure) bounce rate problems:

1. Navigation Confusion

There’s simply nothing more aggravating for a visitor than a confusing, disorganized website. More than likely, that visitor has come to your site seeking very specific information about your products and services. A poorly designed and unnavigable site structure will frustrate that process, and send the visitor packing.

If it takes more than a few seconds for a first-time visitor to find the information they need, it might be time to consider a redesign.

2. Plodding Performance

The web is a rapid-fire arena where holding someone’s attention for more than a few seconds can seem like a considerable feat. If your site is weighed down by heavy graphics and poor web design technique, it might load too slowly for visitors to stick around while the rest of the web is screaming for their attention.

We take website performance seriously, and employ an army of techniques to keep your site humming.

3. Colorless Content

Your business could offer exactly what a site visitor needs and desires. But if your content doesn’t effectively communicate as much, and successfully highlight what your company offers and how it stands out from the competition, the content fails. For more skeptical visitors, the content needs to be even more compelling.

This means content that leaps off the page, pulls visitors in, and whets their appetite for learning more. It may sound cliché, but content is very much king.

Contact one of our Dallas web design experts for more information. We’ll both design a site that boosts your business, and help you track your site’s performance with a full suite of analytics statistics.

Depending on how you look at it, it’s either the golden age of customer service or the cutthroat age of bullying business. Regardless, it’s the era of Twitter reviews, Chowhound critiques, and Facebook rants. Welcome to the Yelp generation.

For the most part, the web and social media have created a wonderful, vibrant community built on robust exchanges of information and opinion. Everyone has access to a bullhorn. Every customer has three or four ways to rate and review businesses. This empowers customers, and gives companies access to the feedback needed to truly hone their services around customer and client desires and needs. But it also creates a thousand new ways for your reputation to get dragged through the mud.

Techcrunch goes so far to say it plainly: “Reputation is dead.”

Trying to control, or even manage, your online reputation is becoming increasingly difficult. And much like the fight by big labels against the illegal sharing of music, it will soon become pointless to even try. It’s time we all just give up on the small fights and become more accepting of the indiscretions of our fellow humans. Because the skeletons are coming out of the closet and onto the front porch.

Today we have quick fire and semi or completely anonymous attacks on people, brands, businesses and just about everything else. And it is becoming increasingly findable on the search engines. Twitter, Yelp, Facebook, etc. are the new printing presses, and absolutely everyone, even the random wingnuts, have access.[...]

The random slam against your restaurant anonymously left by the owner of the competitor around the corner. The Twitter flame about how bad a driver you are, complete with a link to a picture of your license plate.[...]

Our minds haven’t evolved much over the last few thousands of years, but the spread of quick fire opinions is now moving at the speed of light and forever findable on the Internet. We’re still wired to think of gossip as something that spreads quietly behind the scenes, and relatively slowly. But we’re already in a world where it’s all completely public, there are few repercussions to the person spreading it, and it is easily searchable. No wonder people freak out. We’re fish out of water.

Despite its ubiquity, the web is still a relatively new, rapidly evolving part of life for many people in America. And it might take quite a long time for our society to adapt and learn how to handle this new overload of information and opinion in a healthy way.

Unfortunately—while, yes, we should be more forgiving, more willing to take what we read with a grain of salt, and less reliant on the opinions of others—anyone who’s been the dinged with an unfair review online somewhere (even if only as result of an honest misunderstanding) or been the target of an organized smear campaign by a rival competitor knows that simply hoping for a society-wide Internet paradigm shift isn’t enough. And people seem to say things behind the mask of the Internet that they never would face-to-face.

That’s why we offer our online reputation management (ORM) service. Basically, we employ a three-step process to ensure you a reputation that’s accurately reflective of your sterling business:

• We monitor & track what’s being said about your company around the web.
• We analyze how such comments affect your brand, reputation, and, ultimately, success as a business.
• We influence the results by participating in the conversation, consulting with you to speak up in defense of your products and services, and creating positive listings in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) to help push down the negative results.

The last thing you want to do is be blind to the negative reviews being posted about your business.

We can give you the peace of mind that comes with both accurately understanding your own reputation and having a few tools to fight back, and basically make the unpredictable nature of user-generated content just a little bit more, well, predictable and manageable.

Contact us for more information about online reputation management.

Sick of social media, sorry it was ever invented, sad about the direction it’s taking our society, and skeptical about its importance for small businesses? Well… sorry.

According to Web Pro News:
Millennials are expected to make online sharing a lifelong habit, according to new research from Pew Internet and Elon University.

In an online survey of 895 technology stakeholders and critics, 67 percent agreed with the following statement:

“By 2020, members of Generation Y (today’s “digital natives”) will continue to be ambient broadcasters who disclose a great deal of personal information in order to stay connected and take advantage of social, economic, and political opportunities. Even as they mature, have families, and take on more significant responsibilities, their enthusiasm for widespread information sharing will carry forward.”

Some 29 percent agreed with the opposite statement:

“By 2020, members of Generation Y (today’s “digital natives”) will have “grown out” of much of their use of social networks, multiplayer online games and other time-consuming, transparency-engendering online tools. As they age and find new interests and commitments, their enthusiasm for widespread information sharing will abate.”

If there is a reduction in use of social media functions, it will most likely be in a backlash against negative over-sharing, not with the obvious benefits of social media that people will continue to reap. Think less teen girl gossip; more valuable information that people crave.
Most of those surveyed believed the sharing of personal information online has many social benefits as people open up to others in order to build friendships, form and find communities, seek help, and build their reputations. They said Millennials have already seen the benefits and will not reduce their use of these social tools over the next decade as they take on more responsibilities while growing older.

“The majority noted that new social norms that reward disclosure are already in place among the young,” said Pew Internet Director Lee Rainie.

“Some experts also expressed hope that society will be more forgiving of those whose youthful mistakes are on display in social media such as Facebook picture albums or YouTube videos.”

[...] “Some of the experts said an awkward trial-and-error period is unfolding and will continue over the next decade, as people adjust to new realities about how social networks perform and as new boundaries are set about the personal information that is appropriate to share,” said Janna Anderson, director of the Imagining the Internet Center and a co-author of the study.

All this to say, if you’re skeptical about the long-term importance of investing in an Internet marketing strategy (with a robust social media component), don’t be. Even if Twitter or Facebook fall out of favor, new platforms will almost assuredly rise to take their place.

People like easy access to information. People like the “bullhorn effect” of being able to control and broadcast information. People like community, and crave exchange. Social media sparks all of this.

Learn it. Know it. Use it to your business’s advantage. Contact our Dallas social media experts—we’ll show you how.

Facts and strategies are cheap in the search engine optimization (SEO) world, as one day’s success-certified SEO formula is the next day’s waste of code.

Last week, we talked briefly about how Google’s increasing emphasis on local search could dramatically change SEO. Specifically, we showed how the page placement of local search results (the Google map, local listings and user-ratings) could sometimes push otherwise perfectly optimized websites further down in the search rankings. Worse page placement could equal less incentive to spend a bunch of time and energy getting such a page to the top.

Amazing how rapidly things can change.

SEO watchers around the web noticed this week that Google has already started experimenting with different page placements of local search results. According to Mike Blumenthal’s Understanding Google Maps & Local Search, some of the tinkerings include:

1) The Places listings are BIGGER and look like the organic results except they have a map pin.

2) As you scroll down the MAP scrolls with you. So even when you are at bottom of page in the organic listings the map moves down and shows on right.

3) ONLY 7 (purely) organic listings show and in this instance most are directories or assn. Only 2 are Dentists.

4) To get on the top TWO screens you need to be in local. Most of the organic are 2 screens BELOW the fold.

5) Reviews are more prominent

6) Link to Place Page is marked as such, instead of just “More Info” which means better branding and name recognition for Google Places

7) It’s pulling meta description from the site – just like organic.

PLUS it adds some snippets from reviews on the Place page. So best of both worlds and BIGGER!

Click to Enlarge

In this format, the best-optimized websites are back on top… at least, of course, until Google decides to experiment with placing the local search results in a different spot. Or perhaps mix in a variety of placements, based on the importance of local search to that particular query. Or at least until a new, innovative way of organizing and accessing information emerges.

Two points:

1. As always, fundamentals matter the most when it comes to SEO, and an effective, well-designed site that gets shared around by clients and customers will grab the attention of the search engines one way or another.

2. Even if Google and the other search engines tinker with the placement of local search results, don’t expect them to ever minimize the importance of local search. It’s here to stay, even if the algorithm and factors the search engines love most might change.

It’s something we’re watching very closely, because local search can have huge implications for your company’s Internet marketing strategy. Stay tuned…