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.

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.

Here’s your new search engine optimization strategy:

1. Build a company that is valued by your customers and clients.
2. Build a smart, effective site that highlights this value.
3. Build a company that is valued by your customers and clients.
4. No, really, build a great company.

Here’s why:

A few weeks ago, we mentioned that Google had made a small tweak in the search algorithm, referred to as “Mayday”, and that such tiny changes in the formula could mean significant drops in search engine rankings for companies that focus more site optimization than on what the site actually offers to customers and clients.

Apparently, it happened as expected.

According to Web Pro News:

Google’s recent algorithm update, nicknamed “Mayday” by webmasters got a lot of people riled up, as many claimed it seriously affected their rankings, and potentially their revenues.

[…] Here are a few samples of reader comments from our previous coverage of the update:

“In conjunction with the drop in Google traffic, I have seen a matching drop in clicks out from my site to other sites. So it’s real, and it’s not been rosy to deal with.”

“Every time they make an improvement something else goes wrong.”

“Yes I have worked hard trying to rank and it keeps changing. Decided to go to other methods and forget about Google and their ranking.”

[...] One reader offered some sound advice:

“Never forget the first rules in SEO: It changes all the time. So, Google has made a change, which is not the first one. Do the basics right and you will have a sound long-term strategy.”

In an interview with the site, Google SEO liaison Matt Cutts says: “We’re trying to spot what are the signals of quality, whether for pages or for sites, that really are going to be good for users. [...] So part of what ‘Mayday’ addresses is trying to say ‘How do we return the best sites—the sites we think users are going to like?’”

We agree, and say as much often here at Masterlink Interactive: Focusing your web site’s SEO too much on a single, specific search ranking factor leaves you vulnerable to the whims and business interests of the search engines themselves. Quality sites that visitors love will thrive in a rapidly changing search environment.

This doesn’t mean that understanding the more complicated ins and outs of SEO isn’t important. Quite the contrary—the right tweaks can mean the difference between first page and third. SEO is constantly evolving, and someone (like us!) a little bit obsessed with following and figuring out the industry can benefit your company in a big way.

But web design quality is primary, and a site built solely to please the search engines is bound to fall whenever their algorithms get tweaked. We help you build sites that your customers and clients value, and it’s that element that the search engines are working endlessly to make sure matters most.

Contact us to develop a customized web design, search engine optimization, and comprehensive Internet marketing strategy.

Say it smart. Say it with heart. And say it in as many different ways as possible.

Some interesting stats were released this week from a new Nielsen Three Screen Report about how people are watching online video.

According to Web Pro News:

High-speed broadband access, now in 63.5 percent of homes, has created a better user experience for watching online videos and nearly a quarter of households have smartphones, allowing people to “place shift” and watch video anywhere.

Despite the common perception that viewers of videos on mobile phones are mostly teens, more than half (55%) are adults aged 25-49. While mobile online video viewing is still fairly limited, year over year growth is notable at 51.2%.

[…]Also in the first quarter 138 million people watched video on the Internet spending on average 3 hours, 10 minutes.

When it comes to mobile video, 20.3 million watched mobile video in the U.S., spending on average 3 hours and 37 minutes each month.

So online video is officially mainstream. How do these stats affect your web design and Internet marketing strategy?

Basically, it just means that there’s more and more reason to effectively integrate video into your comprehensive web presence. It can pay big dividends: Catchy content tends to get passed around. Shared links both spread your message and boost search engine rankings. Video platforms like YouTube give viewers the chance to respond and interact with your company. And with the rise of mobile video, these elements could be targeted in ways that will benefit users on-the-go, potentially giving your company a critical edge.

In other words, there are limitless ways now to creatively reach potential customers.

At Masterlink Interactive , we recommend a multi-faceted approach to Internet marketing and web design. All of our clients provide great products and services—our goal is just to help broadcast those impressive capabilities via as many different platforms as are needed to reach their potential customers. Different people will respond to different modes of communication, so it’s important to modify your message where possible.

Beyond video, this also means integrating elements into your web design like social media marketing, flash design, and e-mail marketing.

Contact our Dallas interactive marketing experts to learn more about video elements in web design and internet marketing.

If you noticed a slight change in your Google-driven traffic this past week, it may be due to a small tweak the search engine made in its algorithm — one that brings up an excellent point about web design and Internet marketing.

According to SearchEngineLand:

Google made between 350 and 550 changes in its organic search algorithms in 2009. This is one of the reasons I recommend that site owners not get too fixated on specific ranking factors. If you tie construction of your site to any one perceived algorithm signal, you’re at the mercy of Google’s constant tweaks. These frequent changes are one reason Google itself downplays algorithm updates. Focus on what Google is trying to accomplish as it refines things (the most relevant, useful results possible for searchers) and you’ll generally avoid too much turbulence in your organic search traffic.

However, sometimes a Google algorithm change is substantial enough that even those who don’t spend a lot of time focusing on the algorithms notice it. That seems to be the case with what those discussing it at Webmaster World have named “Mayday”.

[...] This change impacts “long tail” traffic, which generally is from longer queries that few people search for individually, but in aggregate can provide a large percentage of traffic.

This change seems to have primarily impacted very large sites with “item” pages that don’t have many individual links into them, might be several clicks from the home page, and may not have substantial unique and value-added content on them. For instance, ecommerce sites often have this structure. The individual product pages are unlikely to attract external links and the majority of the content may be imported from a manufacturer database.

Our favorite Google webmaster Matt Cutts posted a YouTube explanation of the tweak as well, describing it as “…an algorithmic change that changes how we assess which sites are the best match for long tail queries.” Cutts calls the change a “quality win,” and the goal, he says, should search relevancy, not search rankings.

They both highlight an important guiding philosophy about web design: obsessing and designing your site around a single, specific search ranking factor leaves you vulnerable to the whims and business interests of the search engines themselves.

Google’s goal is to get searchers the best, most accurate, most valued-by-the-wider-web-community information possible, and is constantly tweaking its search algorithm to weed out any emerging SEO gimmicks that undermine that aim.

So let’s say you own a Yamaha Mortorcycle parts shop in Dallas. You can’t just put “Yamaha Mortorcycle parts shop in Dallas” a thousand times on your site and hope to come out on top. Google values more than just keyword volume. They want the companies at the top of their rankings to be valued in their communities (and to have websites that reflect as much).

Similarly, our SEO goal isn’t to artificially boost your company’s presence on the web. It’s to help you highlight and draw attention to the excellent services you already provide.

So from your initial web design to the implementation of your on-going Internet marketing strategy, we take a more nuanced, comprehensive approach to interactive marketing and SEO.

This means aspects like:

• First and foremost, a quality, adaptable, customizable web design (view our web design portfolio here).
• A content management system supported by our Dallas staff that allows site owners to quickly and easily make changes.
• A MarketMaster™ interactive marketing plan that maximizes results by anticipating and meeting your unique needs.
• A social media marketing plan that both engages your customers and site visitors in a meaningful way, and boosts SEO via link building.
• An Internet marketing strategy built around social media marketing, pay-per-click services, online reputation management, email marketing, blogging, link building, conversion optimization and web analytics services.

Each week I have the privilege of speaking about the developments of the Internet on Everything Internet Radio. In the two years since our show began airing we have covered a wide range of topics including Internet Marketing, Blogging, Wordpress, Google, Yahoo, Search Engine Optimization, Pay Per Click Advertising, Web Design, and Security just to name a few. The Internet is a rapidly changing place and what was in two years ago in some cases is gone today. The life cycle of the new products and ideas has grown ever shorter over the years and is likely to continue getting shorter.

We introduced Twitter to our audience 18 months ago on Everything Internet and it was just a cute word, we were twitting, tweeting, and trying to explain a blog that was only 140 characters long. When we would get questions and explain it, people usually responded with “why would I want to know what my cousin had for lunch”. In fact one cell phone company actually launched a campaign featuring a father tweeting and a mother on Facebook using their mobile phones while their teenage children attempt an intervention.

While there has been a lot of fun poked at things like Twitter, there are emerging very useful applications of the technology. It will be interesting to see if Twitter can actually make it. They still lose money.

Along with Twitter we spoke about My Space which was replaced for the most part by Facebook. Like Twitter these social media applications have trouble finding ways to make money. Thanks to Farmville and freemium games, Facebook is making a profit. (freemium is a new Internet word for part free and part fee based products). Predictions however say that Facebook will soon be replaced by yet another form of Social Networking within a couple of years.

Old stable Internet operations also have their challenges. It seems Google is gobbling up all the new ideas as quickly as they hear about them. Even companies like EBAY have slowed down when they changed some policies that their users did not care for. Amazon keeps running strong in the web store space but both Google and Yahoo are angling for the space.

One of the best things about doing a weekly radio show like Everything Internet is having a company Like Masterlink Interactive to draw on for expertise. None of us can know it all and being able to tap the experts at Masterlink has provided a valuable resource for our clients and listeners alike. It really helps when your resource for knowledge has been there from the start of the Website industry. Masterlink has been there since 1995. For those of you mature enough to know that’s when it really started to develop.

If you get a chance, drop by the www.eiradioshow.com website and listen to two years of archived program segments or listen live Saturdays at 1:00. You will find just about everything that is and will be happening on the Internet. You will also hear from some of guest experts we have on the show many of whom come from Masterlink Interactive.

By Ed Frazier - CNN 1190 AM - Everything Internet

The iPad has arrived with gusto. It’s hardly the first, but it’s definitely not the last. This week Dell announced plans for their own tablet computer, following similar announcements by, well, just about every other tech company with an interest in staying competitive. Even money says another company or two or six reveals plans for a tablet next week.

So what does this mean for your Internet marketing strategy? Do you now need a regular site, a mobile site, and some weird tablet-oriented hybrid of both? Three sites?

According to R2Integrated:

Because the iPad is now a receiving device, count on the creation of an entire Internet-based or e-based advertising platform around it. This will usher in a new era of services offered by digital marketing companies, ad agencies, brand managers, and more, and you will actually witness a new advertising model evolving very quickly—not unlike the advertising paradigm that evolved on laptops with the first generation of Internet publishing.

Kikabink News points out that NPR and the Wall Street Journal already have iPad versions of their own sites. And ReadWriteWeb sums it with an almost grim take on the new Internet marketing reality:

Thanks to varying screen sizes and differing feature sets (most notably Apple’s refusal to allow Flash on their mobile devices), those who want to provide compelling content to all their site visitors will be forced to re-code their site multiple times. Publishers without the resources to do so will have to make a tough choice — remove the unsupported content and the media that makes it slow to load on mobile devices entirely? Or leave it be and risk losing their mobile audience instead? That’s a “Sophie’s Choice” no one wants to make. Unfortunately, in a down economy where money is tight, that may be just what happens.

So what’s next for Internet marketing — sites that are 3D compatible?

If your company is just starting to dip its toe into the Internet marketing game, and hasn’t even started thinking about a mobile-friendly site yet — take a deep breath. Look at the coming spread of iPads and other “tablets” as an opportunity — not a burden. Because while iPhone app makers are scrambling to redesign their apps specifically for the iPad—and while, yes, it might become advantageous to develop iPad-oriented versions of your company’s website—an iPad site isn’t something you’ll necessarily need right away.

Why? Let’s take a look at how iPads will probably be used:

They’re small, accesible and can operate easily on mobile 3G networks via the same operating system as the iPhone. This means they’ll likely be used similarly to smartphones, whose users are often seeking quick, easily accessible information on the fly like phone numbers and driving directions.

But iPads also feature bigger screens and touchscreen keyboards, meaning users are more likely to rely on them for more typical web browsing than they would a smartphone.

So build an easy-to-use mobile version with easy access to your more-developed regular site, and you’ll have something for both of the iPad’s primary uses. Worry about more iPad-specific tweaks when the industry that sprouts up around the new technology shakes out a bit.

For now, there are a few changes to be aware of. Take AdWords targeting, for example:

AdWords users who feel an urge to target iPad owners can now do so without reaching out to people carrying Android devices and iPhones, as well. Google’s added an option to its “networks and devices” screen that’ll allow advertisers to adopt a narrow focus.

A post on the Inside AdWords blog announced late yesterday, “[W]e feel confident adding the iPad to the list of mobile devices that you can target specifically. To do this, simply edit the ‘Devices’ section in your Campaign Settings, and select the iPad under ‘Advanced device and carrier options.’”

More research will show in time just how people are using the iPads, and the best methods for businesses to target them. Of course, we’ll keep you updated.

If it seems like your business is only as good as its dot on an online smartphone map, well… you might not be that far from the truth.

Masterlink Interactive on Mapquest Mobile

Location-based searching matters—more than ever—in the Internet marketing world. In fact, Google reported that nearly a third of its searches now pertain to the searcher’s location. In other words: “Tire shops near Beltline” or {ahem} “Internet marketing gurus in Dallas off 75 Central.”

As we discussed last week, it has everything to do with the rise of smartphones and mobile web design, and the ballooning expectation for and reliance upon the ability to access important information on the fly.

Perhaps no company understands the importance of capitalizing on this trend than online map and direction giving/business searching/real-life maze solving site MapQuest. Despite helping pioneer the online map and driving direction world, MapQuest has been bleeding market share to competitors like Google Maps for years.

But the company saw smartphones as its way back into the game, and jumped at the chance to carve out a niche with its MapQuest Navigator iPhone app. In addition to the comprehensive maps it offers, the site has loaded up with nifty bells and whistles that capitalize on why smartphone users are relying on such maps in the first place.

It added its own “streetview” function, allowing users to become more familiar with an area before arriving there. There’s voice-guided “turn-by-turn” navigation and route-optimization. There’s a search for local businesses (parking garages, coffee shops, gas stations, etc.) along each route. It even boasts a mapped-out gas prices tracker.

More importantly (at least from a Internet marketing perspective), it features a host of information sharing and searching capabilities, like Facebook connectivity that allows users to share location-based recommendations more easily (and access others’ recommendations).

Apparently, with its finger on the pulse of the mobile searching community, this new approach is working:

“We’re one of the most downloaded applications on the iPhone, despite the fact that other options are built in,” said MapQuest CEO David Cole to WebProNews. The site reached nearly 50 million unique visitors in July 2009.

So how can you make location-based searching work for your Dallas-area business?

Contribute information to online map sites. MapQuest is encouraging local businesses to submit information like menus, coupons, and contact information.

A mobile-friendly website matters, as does an awareness of your clientele. If they’re local, design your SEO local. If you’re pita stop in Plano, don’t spend all your effort trying to conquer the Google search rankings for “great Middle Eastern food,” or even “Dallas Middle Eastern restaurants.” Try “Middle Eastern food in Plano” instead. You’ll be competing against a more narrow search term field, and smartphone users with a hankering for falafel will thank you — and use those MapQuest features to help others thank you as well.

Let your customers do the work for you. If your product is worth sharing, it will find its way onto Twitter, Facebook, MapQuest and more. You just need to lay the groundwork with a site that responds to their searches (and a product that makes them think you’re worth sharing).

Let’s say your suffer a blowout near Texarkana and need to find a tire store. A search engine could get you the urgent information you need…or it might just lead you to a website run by Texas senator and 2010 gubernatorial candidate Kay Bailey Hutchison.

Search engine optimization went mainstream in Texas political discussion three weeks ago, when the Austin American-Statesman reported that the www.standbykay.com site run by the Hutchison campaign had more than 2,200 such computer-generated “Hidden Phrases” written into its source code, with the goal of boosting search results rankings for each of the dubious search terms.

This meant that both the expected (”Texas Republicans”), and the bizarre, but harmless (”Cooper Tire Texarkana,” “What is a keg?” and “Why do we have knees?”) would help you stand with the senator. Political comedian Bill Maher made his way in via four different spellings of his name. Ron Paul earned more than 120 mentions, including an eyebrow-raising “Bad Things about Ron Paul.” Incumbent governor Rick Perry was represented 148 times including, most scandalously, the search term “Rick Perry Gay.”

The Hutchison campaign denied knowledge and eventually severed ties with the consulting firm credited with what we in the interactive marketing community call “black hat” SEO strategy-gone-wrong. But the damage was done.

The Hutchison campaign took an egg to the face. Modern politics entered another new bizarro realm of controversy. And we learned a hefty reminder about the risk of black hat SEO techniques.

Why Black Hat?

The idea behind black hat is simple: boost search engine rankings by means that are frowned upon by the larger SEO community. In practice, this usually means techniques like:

• Invisible text: Hiding irrelevant keywords by, say, writing them in white text on white backgrounds.
• Stuffing keywords: Skipping any effort to seamlessly fit the keywords into the text, and instead inserting long lists of keywords without any relevant content.
• Doorway pages: Building fake pages filled with keywords that the site visitor never sees (but which search spiders do).

The Hutchison site stuffed keywords under an invisible CSS <div> tag “display: none.”

At Masterlink, of course, we do not condone the use of black hat SEO techniques for three main reasons:

1. It’s ethically questionable, and creates a user-unfriendly search environment.

Search engines are powering the information age, and we all depend on their accuracy. Imagine a search world where black hat techniques were allowed to spread unfettered. You’d search for information about local schools, and get listings for sites selling knockoff Gucci bags from Bangalore. You’d search for a tire store in an emergency, and learn about, well, a gubernatorial challenger.

This just isn’t the game we want to play. And it too often comes back to bite the website that tries it.

2. At best, it’s a risky strategy.

Even beyond the press and blogosphere backlash, Google got wind of the senator’s SEO shenanigans. The omnipotent engine eventually dropped the site from its search results.

Black hat often achieves its desired results, but only temporarily. It is in the search engines’ best interests to keep optimization a fair game, and sites unfairly gaining an advantage almost always eventually get caught.

3. Above all, it’s unnecessary.

MasterLink’s internet marketing methods have provided proven, safe, efficient results, without using such misleading techniques.

Stuart Frazier | Operations Manager for Masterlink Interactive