The holiday season is going to be cutthroat this year and unfortunately it’s not due to a shortage of Elmo plush toys. A sagging economy plagued with higher gas prices, housing foreclosures, and a shaky stock market weigh heavily on the minds of consumers. According to comScore, “82 percent of consumers cut back spending in [the second quarter,] because of concerns about the economy.” Forecasts estimate a dismal holiday season with sales growth estimated to increase by a dismal 1.5 percent over last year.

In such a competitive climate retailers will have to work harder to convince leery holiday shoppers to spend more. Winning over customers in a time when companies are becoming increasingly constrained by their budgets isn’t easy, posing perhaps the greatest strain on marketing. A paradigm shift is eminent when big advertising spenders, such as Coca-Cola, announce that they’re reducing their investment in television and traditional media this season. The withdraw is not just a move to reduce costs, but to redirect the strategy to include more digital marketing, which is expected to yield the most growth and return this year.

More Shopping is Expected to be Online than in Stores

This season holiday shoppers are expected to turn out in greater numbers at online shopping venues than in brick-and-mortar stores, according to an annual “Mindset of the Multi-Channel Shopper Holiday Survey” conducted by the e-Tailing group. The reasons cited by consumers go beyond “saving money” or high gasoline prices, extending to what has always made online shopping convenient, such as “saving time,” “locating hard-to-find products,” and “avoiding crowds at the mall.” Now that the majority of consumers have changed their buying patterns, retailers can no longer ignore the power of marketing online. In this market, a well-targeted pay-per-click campaign may not only be less expensive, but also more relevant and effective, in driving sales than traditional advertising methods, like television commercials and highway billboards. With the anticipated rise in online traffic, it’s reasonable to expect improved return on investment for both online advertising initiatives and interactive marketing campaigns this season.

Social Media Satisfies Consumers

Not only are adult consumers saying that they want to buy online, but they’re using social media extensively to make shopping decisions. Product and service research, comparative price shopping, customer reviews - a study conducted by MarketTools has shown that about 70 percent of online adults go to blogs, online communities or social networks to make decisions about what they buy before they buy it. Reading these conversations gives retailers candid insight into the purchasing habits of their target market. The two-way channel of interactive marketing channels also provides retailers with an opportunity to better serve their customers and address their concerns, building brand loyalty. Consumers not only appreciate the effort, but most now expect businesses to engage in social media. Retailers who are not active in the social space risk being perceived as out-of-touch by their customers and make it easier for a more digitally-inclined competitor to steal potential sales.

Building Trust Yields Solid Sales

In tough economic times, people want certainty, assurance, and less risk. As consumers become more selective about where and how they spend their money, retailers have to earn their trust if they want to maximize sales. Impersonal, uncaring “corporations” are perceived to be the villains of the failing economy. It is essential for retailers to distance themselves from that image and instead relate to consumers, or at least show that the company “cares”. In a recent interview with Advertising Age, Antonio Lucio, who is the global chief marketing officer for Visa, suggested that “. . . in times of uncertainty, when more people are spending more time at home, uplifting people or providing that message of ‘What life should be’ would be equally important. … It’s probably more important than ever.” To achieve this messaging, several businesses are successfully reaching out to their customers using social media channels like blogs, MySpace or Twitter.

The Future

If one thing is for certain it is that consumers are more digitally savvy this holiday season than ever before. They are using online technologies and social media to solve their primary convenience and economic concerns to get the best deals and to optimize their shopping experiences. In the same vein, now is the time for retailers to embrace interactive marketing to maximize their sales and growth potential for this holiday season and into the future.

As consumers increasingly turn to the web to research information prior to making a purchase, it’s becoming more important for local businesses to appear in the local search results.  Despite the increased usage of search engines as information resources, many small businesses still aren’t properly utilizing the web as an additional marketing mechanism.  Small businesses are losing sales and market share with each day/week/month that passes in which they fail to show up online.  Big companies have the advantage of multi-million dollar marketing/PR budgets and years of brand building behind them which allow them to quickly make noise in any market they enter.

One built in advantage that local businesses have over big corporations is the fact that they are indeed local.  Given similar price points and service offerings, I’d imagine most consumers would prefer to give business to a local vendor over a conglomerate.  But the point is moot if searchers are unable to find the local business in the search results as you can’t do business with a company that you don’t know exists.

How To Appear In The Local Listings

The single most important thing a local business can do to increase their visibility within the search results is to claim their local business listing within the major search engines.  In medium/low competition markets this step alone could allow you to rank for some of your targeted local keywords.  When claming your listing it’s important to ensure your business is properly categorized.  If no action is taken at this point the engines will list your business based on how other data sources (Yellow Pages for example) have categorized it.  The links below will take you to the sign up page for the local business centers of the three major search engines:

Google Local
Yahoo! Local
Live Search Local Business Center

The primary goal when optimizing for local search terms is providing the search engines with signals regarding where your business is located.  You can do this by making sure your full business address appears on at least one page of your site (likely a “Contact Us” or “About Us” page and including primary service areas within the title, description, and/or page content.

It may also help to create profiles or register with third party sites such as Citysearch, Yelp, InfoUSA, or YellowPages.com, some of which enable you to receive ratings and reviews for your business, which is another factor search engines consider when ranking local results.

Research reported by The Nielsen Company this month further reinforced expectations of a dismal holiday season by their indication that about one-third of consumers across the country are cutting their holiday spending this year. Highlights of the report include:

• 35 percent of U.S. consumers across all income levels expect to spend less this holiday season
• 32 percent of affluent shoppers plan to spend less this holiday season
• 29 percent of U.S. consumers plan to spend less entertaining at home
• 33 percent of U.S. consumers expect to spend less entertaining away from home

The most promising news is that online shopping, along with gas and convenience stores, has the most growth potential over last year as 12 percent of consumers said they expect to spend more in those venues. Nielsen suggests stressing value this holiday season to capture sales and encourage spending. What’s great about these suggestions is they can be easily implemented through interactive marketing. Here are a few examples:

“Reach out to your best customers in stores, through direct mail and/or via advertisements and make them feel special about your brands and your stores by providing customers with special coupons or sale prices.”

• Reaching out to your customers in online stores is just as important as reaching out to them in the brick-and-mortar. Don’t forget to put coupons or special deals in direct e-mails and targeted search advertisements. Putting out a coupon online will spread like wildfire through the numerous deal-oriented communities.
• Ensure that your online campaigns will be profitable by spending money only on targeting those in the demographic and geographic locations important to your industry to minimize advertising costs.

“This holiday season, retailers are likely to see a big upside in consumer packaged goods (CPG) sales. Leverage these CPG products to drive basic gifts and stocking stuffers, such as toiletries, pet care, household cleaners and special holiday packs for food and beverage items.”

• Local retailers can vie for more of the CPG sales pie by spreading all the reasons why consumers should shop with them through social networks. Having a blue-light special on a value package of laundry detergent? Twitter it up and give your local shoppers the latest information on the CPG specials you’re running.

It’s exciting to think of the unlimited marketing possibilities social media makes available to retailers and merchandisers. It will be interesting to see what companies decide to do this holiday season.

As commonly know, the social web is an ideal forum for companies interested in accessing a widespread audience. Engaging in conversations, providing feedback, answering customer questions: These are just some of the beneficial aspects of interacting with consumers online. But what if your business is smaller in scale and local in reach? Is it a waste of time to participate on nationally active sites? Can the mass appeal of social sites drown out the draw of your small business?

Local search is a great way to access your target market, but boutique owners don’t need to avoid popular social sites when trying to connect with customers. Finding the space where local and social cross paths is the key to small business networking.

To find your customer base on the social web, research location-based groups within social sites: On Facebook, join the local network and make friends; For Flickr, find groups within your city and share photos; On Yahoo Answers, help solve problems of nearby residents on topics related to your brand.

Tactics like these will introduce your business to the high activity centers of social networks, while honing in on potential customers in your area. Twitter especially is a great place to gain insight on customer interest and activities; simply input a zip code and find the micro-blogs of people within miles. Other sites to explore are Placeblogger, LinkedIn and outside.in.

A major positive point about social media is that it’s a space where people can share in niche communities as well as on much grander scales. The interconnectedness between small and large groups is what gives the social web its news-and-information-spreading prowess. Local businesses should take advantage of the open stream of communication throughout the web in order to grow their brand.

Change: the political platform touted by both presidential candidates on the 2008 campaign trail. With differing objectives, Barack Obama and John McCain promise dramatic shifts in government policies upon entering office, but the transformation that has already materialized is the remarkable increase in voter engagement — a social movement brought about by the Internet. The social web has been utilized by the candidates for spreading political news and philosophy, tracking voter interest, generating awareness and organizing communities. Voters also use the media tool to their advantage, voicing their opinions and creating political content on a national stage. The Internet has fostered a vocal, involved citizenry in the current election. Change isn’t on the horizon; it’s already risen.

Democrats More Active in Search
From gathering election news to watching political videos, the proportion of Americans accessing the Internet for content and information has dramatically increased since the 2004 race. 40 percent of all Americans received news and information about the primary campaigns from the web, according to a survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project developed in June. The study also found that younger voters and Democrats make more use of online media for political consumption and sharing.

Both politicians are highly invested in SEO as a mechanism for growth in their online strategies. AdGooRoo released a recent study analyzing the high stakes search campaigns of both candidates, finding that Obama-related sites receive more than five times the amount of traffic than McCain-related – 22 million versus 3.5 million visitors. Pro-Obama websites are 57 percent more popular than pro-McCain, but the Republican nominee receives 11 percent more traffic from websites not affiliated with his campaign. In terms of search marketing, the candidates employ similar levels of sophistication. McCain has a slight advantage in keyword selection, but Obama wins in targeting topical keywords, such as “lipstick” and “Paulson”. The Obama site clearly wins in natural search rankings: McCain is seen on Google’s front page for 67 keywords, while Obama ranks for 117.

Social Sites Build Voter Communities
Especially influential during the election has been social networking sites. The Pew survey found that two-thirds of Internet users under 30 have a social networking profile, half of which use these sites to gather or share information about the election. Social networks have streamed politically-related entertainment, data and interactive content throughout the web in massive quantities.

“New media offers candidates with an alternative or complement to their traditional media spending,” says Gary Drenik, President of BIGresearch. “By actually listening to potential voters and using all media, not just traditional, candidates can build an ad strategy that is more likely to influence votes.” The White House hopefuls have accessed the benefits of using alternative media forms, like social networks, to reach an audience often neglected in the presidential race. Presently on Facebook, Obama has about 2,250,000 supporters and McCain has 579,000; On Twitter, Obama has over 100,000 followers (a social site for which he himself, apparently, actively participates) and McCain has a little over 3,000.

Expanding outside the established networks, both candidates have created their own social forums for addressing current issues and fostering supporter interaction. Channeling the popularity of social sites, Obama hired Facebook founder Chris Hughes for his campaign team and developed My.BarackObama.com — an attractive, user-friendly network created by the stealthy digital team Blue State. The site is an instrument of organization for Obama; its 850,000+ members have already planned 50,000+ events with the help of the site’s innovative tools (not campaign officials) and contributed to his record-breaking $600 million in fund-raising. My.BarakObama.com is an excellent example of the power of social media to incite participation on and off the web. An iPhone application and in-game ads are also part of Obama’s interactive media repertoire.

McCain’s approach to social networking hasn’t been as successful. McCainSpace.com is also aimed at young voters, but hasn’t reached the level of user participation as Obama’s site. To step things up, in June WhereIsTheRed.com was launched — a blog following three college students as they travel the red states and broadcast the widespread appeal of the Republican Party. But the lagging presence of McCain in the social media sphere sends the message that he’s out-of-touch with the demographic and out-dated when it comes to technology.

Online Videos See Record Viewers
Video streaming has been a massively popular toy in the election/social media playground. On the official Obama site, video streaming increased 155 percent from July to August, according to Nielsen Online, reaching 1.3 million views. The site also saw a 173 percent increase in unique video viewers in the same time frame. The same metrics for the McCain site shows increases by merely 16 and 5 percent, respectively. Although Obama is leading on the video front, McCain did make strides in August by attracting more women viewers to his site, clearly due to his choice for running mate.

YouTube has been a major platform for user-generated spoofs and memorable campaign moments. The celebritized Obama effort “Yes We Can” and the “Obama Girl” music videos each drew 10 million views. And, of course, there is the content phenomenon that is Sarah Palin (and all her various interpretations). The Republican Vice Presidential candidate’s network news interviews and SNL skits permeate the web. More than half who watched the recent SNL satires featuring Tina Fey viewed the skits on the web, according to a Solutions Research Group survey, with 11.7 million views on YouTube alone. Without a doubt, content sites and political videos have mobilized the campaign effort. Hosted by YouTube are YouChoose’08 and VideoYourVote – election channels that measure candidate support by user participation. Not surprisingly, Obama-related content exceeds in the total number of views and subscribers.

Online Presence at the Polls
The pervasiveness of social media has been leveraged by both candidates to reach a widespread audience. The obvious winner of the web is Barack Obama. He took voter outreach to another level, reshaping the landscape of election campaigns by investing in social media programs that heightened Obama activism in the real world. But the race isn’t over just yet. As noted by Jon Gibs, vice president of media analytics for Nielsen Online: “The question that remains for both candidates is whether web visitors and online video viewers will translate into votes in the general election.”

Whatever the final result may be, it is evident that social media has emerged as a principal transmitter of citizen opinion and a space for political participation — an aid in bridging the gap between disconnected policy-makers and the American public. On November 4th, in the moments before the next president is elected, the Blogosphere will echo with silent anticipation, and the ultimate test for ROI in search and social media campaigns will be revealed.

Just received an email from Zillow as follows:

Improve your Google ranking with Zillow’s help

Want to show up higher in results on search engines like Google? We can help. Zillow has a lot of “Google Juice” and we want to share it with you. By using Zillow and Search Engine Optimization (SEO),
you, too, can boost your Google search results.

Don’t be scared - it’s pretty easy. Here are 3 tips:

1. Post your listings on Zillow with good links to your site - Zillow is one of very few sites where your listings actually improve your Google ranking. To enjoy this, make sure your listings on Zillow link to your Web site - preferably with links to the exact listing pages on your site.

2. Join the Zillow Professional Directory - When you create an active profile on Zillow, it will automatically load into our “Find a Pro” directory. Make sure the link to your Web site
from the Zillow Directory is accurate so your ranking on Google improves. Join the Directory

3. Update and optimize your Zillow Profile - Complete or update the “About Me” section of your Zillow Profile. In your description, use keywords that you want to be recognized for in Google and link those words to your Web site or blog. By using links to your Web site within Zillow, your profile gains authority in the search engines. Update My Profile

Bottom line: The more active you are on Zillow - through your listings, profile, directory, or discussions - the better your Web site or blog performs. Learn more about how to ensure that your listings are helping you to rank in Google.

As always, thanks for using Zillow.

Advising members to “use keywords that you want to be recognized for in Google and link those words to your Web site or blog” lends itself to abuse and could lead to Google nuking this as a link source.

In the Google Webmaster Guidelines it states:

# Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings. A good rule of thumb is whether you’d feel comfortable explaining what you’ve done to a website that competes with you. Another useful test is to ask, “Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn’t exist?”

# Don’t participate in link schemes designed to increase your site’s ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or “bad neighborhoods” on the web, as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links.

I’ll be interested to see how this plays out.

As the coverage of the presidential election intensifies on CNN, I hear the social media microblog Twitter referenced as often as I hear Obama and McCain mention “Joe the plumber”. CNN is the most notable broadcast network that leverages and promotes the use of Twitter. CNN clearly grasps the utility of Twitter to connect with a widely distributed audience, virtually instantaneously, and for free. Social media guru, Chris Brogan, has recently published an article highlighting 50 ideas on using Twitter for business, where he highlights the effectiveness of Twitter for use in opinion polls, and its unparalleled speed at breaking news. So if you know of other effective uses of Twitter in business, please let me know.

The most effective – and appropriate — use of social media marketing is to change a relationship by building trust. Assuming that, social media ROI should not be measured in financial terms, but instead, in relationship terms: and exchange of social currency to build social capital. Social currency is the reputation score an individual or entity acquires in a particular social network that credibly reflects their value in that network, according to John Clippinger at the Commons Blog. Social currency represents the liquid form of social capital, and trust in the basis for social capital, as described by Tara Hunt, CEO of Citizen Agency. Wikipedia defines social capital as the connections within and between social networks. Unlike traditional forms of capital, social capital is not depleted by use. So how does search and social media intersect? James Lamberti of comScore, suggests that social media engagements drive search – the truest expression of interest and trust in your brand, even if they do not click. Through active listening and participation, a successful social media engagement identifies where people are talking about your brand and what they are saying. This interaction provides a window into what people think, and provides opportunities to utilize social currency to further build social capital.  An analysis of search behaviors confirms what people think by analyzing how they have acted. By tracking the changes in branded searches over time (how people have acted), one can deduce a change in thinking has occurred. If branded searches have increased as a result of social media participation, then one can assume an exchange of social currency and an increase in social capital – and that social capital is your ROI.

In recent news, a “citizen journalist” was hounded for falsely reporting that Steve Jobs suffered a heart attack, which ultimately caused Apple’s stock to plummet 3 percent in a day. The blogger posted the fabrication on iReport, a social content site run by CNN, and within 10 minutes the web was abuzz and Apple’s stock dropped. After Apple issued a statement denying the incident, CNN quickly moved in to delete the report and disable the user’s account.

This scenario exemplifies the power of the social web and its position as an authoritative source within traditional media. Online users continue to trust bloggers for their daily dose of information; rather than fight the powers that be, news outlets have chosen to welcome citizen journalists into their domain. iReport is an example of user-generated content site hitting the mainstream.

Citizen journalism, in essence, is valuable because it adds a wide range of commentary and perspective to the traditional news scope. The debacle over the fluke Jobs report calls upon the idea of enforcing a blogger code of conduct, requiring citizen journalists like JoeSixPack99 to report truthfully and without exaggeration when under pretense.

To deem the perpetrator a “bad apple” in the Blogosphere, CNN is denying the reality of the social web – it’s propelled by the rumor mill. Fundamental to the appeal of social media is that it’s a space for open, uncensored, frequently offensive, highly emotional, often provocative conversations. Although the iReporter’s actions were careless, the proliferation of false information is nothing new.

One commentator wisely noted: “It’s a mistake to say this indicates some type of larger problem. People start rumors on Wall Street all the time. Anyone with any sanity would have said ‘I’m going to check that out’, not ‘I’m going to sell all my stock’.” Maybe the issue to be explored in this situation is not the irresponsibility of citizen journalists, but people who believe everything they read.

Although many organizations have achieved great short term results with PPC and display adverstising, nothing produces better long-term ROI than an effective SEO strategy that produces high organic rankings. As keyword prices continue to climb — some costing as much as $45 per click — the value of an effective SEO strategy also increases. Not only are organic “clicks” free, but surveys show that organic results are more trusted and that trust tranlates into more conversions.