Keep thinking Auto

Last week we brought together top marketing executives, industry visionaries, and agency leaders to discuss vehicle shoppers' recent return to the auto marketplace at Google’s Think Auto 2011: Green Light, Go! event.

Speaking to a room full of excited marketers, Guy Kawasaki, author of Enchantment; John Ross, CEO of Shopper Sciences; and Google’s Lorraine Twohill, VP of Global Marketing, gave their thoughts on how to reach the "constantly connected" auto consumer and how this affords greater opportunities to deliver relevant and engaging brand experiences.

In order to share these innovative perspectives with as many people as possible, the event was live streamed on YouTube. If you missed the live stream, you can watch the recorded session on the Google Business channel here. Additionally, be sure to visit our Think Auto site, where you can view presentations and videos from the event.

Posted by the Google Auto Team

How to Give Someone "+K" on Klout.com

Have you created your profile on Klout.com yet?  I’ve talked about Klout in this space before.  Klout is a free service that “identifies influencers on topics across the social web.”  I’ve noticed a few neat features from Klout recently. The first was Klout “perks”.  I talked about a free Klout “perk” I received over here.  Just a few weeks ago, I came across a new “+K” feature on Klout. 

So, what exactly does it mean to give someone a “+K” score?
A "+K" reminds me a little of a “recommendation” on LinkedIn, but it only takes a moment and you can tweet about it!  Klout recommends that you give someone a “+K” if that person has influenced you about a particular topic lately.  Today on “Tutorial Thursday” I’m going to walk you through the process of giving someone a “+K” on Klout.com.

How to give someone a "+K" on Klout.com:

1. Login to your personal Klout profile.  If you don’t have an account on Klout yet, you can easily create one from their homepage. 
2. In the search box on the top right-hand side of the Klout screen, type in the twitter username (“handle”) of the person you’d like to give a +K score to. 
3. This will bring up his or her profile on Klout.  Look for the area that says “influential about” on the user’s Klout summary page.  It will appear next to “influencer of” and below his/her profile. 
   
4. Click on “see all” in the “influential about” area. This will bring up the full list of topics Klout has identified as being areas this person is influential about.
5. Look for the “Give +K” button below the topic, such as “marketing” or “blogging”, etc.  Click on the “Give +K” button to give this person a “+K” for the chosen topic.
   
6. In the pop-up window, click on “tweet” or “share” to let this person know you gave him/her a “+K”.
    

Laura Catherine Otero is a marketing professional and blogger in Charleston, SC who has been active in social media since 2005.  If you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing to this blog via Email or  RSS. Laura can also be found on Twitter (@LauraCatherineO), Facebook, and LinkedIn. 

Read This Carefully: Your Competitive Advantage Is What You Give Away Free

Answer the question at the end of this post – and you could win a free copy of Launch!

In today’s highly competitive and technology-driven marketplace, leaders wonder how their businesses can stand out. On a daily basis, leaders ask their sales and marketing teams to sell and promote products and services, they ask their R&D teams to develop the latest and greatest products, they ask their finance teams to accomplish more with fewer employees and smaller budgets, and they ask their IT teams to develop systems and infrastructure to handle business objectives with smaller budgets. So, it’s not surprising that customer focus can, and does, easily get lost. But thanks to Mike Stelzner’s latest book, Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition, the secret for standing out is easy.

Mike’s book describes the secret as the “other people” component. What he means by this term is that other people who are experts bring their insights to YOUR audience. “It’s a great way to develop relationships with people, an outstanding way to provide really interesting insights for your audience, and it’s another form of content that is written with perspectives and opinions other than your own.”

What makes this content different than everything else on your corporate website is that it is “minus marketing messages.” According to Mike, most businesses surround the content on their websites with advertising – this can include testimonials, collateral, media news, etc. Instead, Mike suggests, provide “other people” content:

• Comprehensive how-to articles.
• Expert interviews.
• Reviews of books, products, and websites.
• Case studies.
• News stories.
• Contrarian stories.
• Reports based on surveys – infrequently.
• Top 10 contests – infrequently.
• White papers – infrequently.
• Micro events (webinars, social media events, video broadcasts) – infrequently.

When you focus your content on helping people to solve their problems, your company will experience growth. Visitors will check out your site even if they don’t want to purchase your product or service now, but they will remember you for the value you provide. Your company’s focus shifts from “What can we sell you?” to “How can we help you?” Soon, people think of your company and your website as THE PLACE to go for help. Who wouldn’t want an increase in web traffic?

Here are the reasons that “other people” content is so important:

• People will become return visitors to your site to check out the latest content.
• People will recommend your content to others.
• People will reach out to you – unsolicited – to provide feedback and offer content.
• You will be received as an authoritative source.
• You will inspire deep loyalty.
• Experts will want to work with you.
• When you decide to decide to sell something, readers will buy – because you will have proven yourself as trustworthy and knowledgeable.

According to Mike, “The result: You no longer need to sell! Instead, you demonstrate your expertise by the content you produce, the ideas you showcase, the stories you share, and the people you attract…You can become the center of your industry, niche, or local market. And when that happens, you’re launched on an unstoppable trajectory that will take you places you never imagined possible…Everyone wants access to great insight and great people, before they want great products and services. When outstanding content is coupled with great people and decoupled from marketing messages, your business can quickly attract a larger base, more partnership opportunities, and significantly more sales.”

Want a free copy of the book, Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition? The person who submits the most creative response to the following question in 100 words or less will win a free copy: Mike talks about creating an “idea vault” for finding ideas for blog posts and interviews. Where do you find content for YOUR idea vault? Chime in below in the comments section with your response – and be sure to include your name and email address.

Visit this site for a free chapter of the book: www.elevationprinciple.com

Follow Mike on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Mike_Stelzner

Become a fan on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/elevationprinciple

+1 reporting in Google Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics

Cross-posted from the AdSense and Google Webmaster blogs.

It’s been a busy week for us here at the Googleplex. First we released +1 buttons to Google search sites globally, then we announced the beginning of the Google+ project.

The +1 button and the Google+ project are both about making it easier to connect with the people you trust online. For the +1 button, that means bringing advice from trusted friends and contacts right into Google search, letting the users who love your web content recommend it at the moment of decision.

But when you’re managing a website, it's usually not real until you can measure it. So we’re happy to say we’ve got one more announcement to make -- today we’re releasing reports that show you the value +1 buttons bring to your site.

First, +1 metrics in Google Webmaster Tools can show you how the +1 button affects the traffic coming to your pages:

• The Search Impact report gives you an idea of how +1‘s affect your organic search traffic. You can find out if your clickthrough rate changes when personalized recommendations help your content stand out. Do this by comparing clicks and impressions on search results with and without +1 annotations. We’ll only show statistics on clickthrough rate changes when you have enough impressions for a meaningful comparison.
• The Activity report shows you how many times your pages have been +1’d, from buttons both on your site and on other pages (such as Google search).
• Finally, the Audience report shows you aggregate geographic and demographic information about the Google users who’ve +1’d your pages. To protect privacy, we’ll only show audience information when a significant number of users have +1’d pages from your site.

Use the +1 Metrics menu on the side of the page to view your reports. If you haven’t yet verified your site on Google Webmaster Tools, you can follow these instructions to get access.

Finally, you can also see how users share your content using other buttons besides +1 by using Social Plugin Analytics in Google Analytics. Once you configure the JavaScript for Analytics, the Social Engagement reports help you compare the various types of sharing actions that occur on your pages.

• The Social Engagement report lets you see how site behavior changes for visits that include clicks on +1 buttons or other social actions. This allows you to determine, for example, whether people who +1 your pages during a visit are likely to spend more time on your site than people who don’t.
• The Social Actions report lets you analyse the number of social actions (+1 clicks, Tweets, etc) taken on your site, all in one place.
• The Social Pages report allows you to compare the pages on your site to see which are driving the highest the number of social actions.

Over the next few days (and if you’re using the default version of the latest Google Analytics tracking code), if you’ve added +1 buttons to your site we’ll automatically enable Social Plugin Analytics for +1 in your account. You can enable analytics for other social plugins in just a few simple steps.

Social reporting is just getting started. As people continue to find new ways to interact across the web, we look forward to new reports that help business owners understand the value that social actions are providing to their business. So +1 to data!

UPDATE: 7/8/11 5:30pm PST, corrected references to the social plugin analytics feature.

Posted by Dan Rodney, Software Engineer

“Mobile”-ize your business with Google Sites

A poor mobile web experience can negatively shape a consumer’s opinion of your brand or your company altogether. In a recent study, we found that 61% of users are unlikely to return to a mobile site that they had trouble accessing from their phone, and 40% go to a competitor’s. By the end of this year, more than half of all Americans will own a smartphone. Your customers are mobile—are you?

Today, we’re excited to announce a brand new tool to help your business get “mobile”-ized: Google Sites mobile landing pages. With Google Sites mobile landing pages, you can build yourself a professional mobile landing page in minutes for free—and without any coding experience.

(click for full size image)

Why use Google Sites mobile landing pages?

• It’s easy. Creating a Google Site is as easy as editing a document, which means there's no markup language for you to learn—just get started.
• It’s free. Google Sites is one of many free products offered by Google.
• It’s measurable. One-click Google Analytics integration allows you to monitor your site's traffic.
• It’s fast. Create your mobile landing page in minutes by starting from one of five pre-loaded templates. You can also start from scratch with the custom template.

(click for full size image)

Watch the video below to see how “small” businessman, Bob, transformed his business using Google Sites:


Visit sites.google.com/mobilize to get started today!

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew

Alesya *Dreams Big* and Launches Alesya Bags to the World

Alesya Opelt of Alesya Bags

Have you been following Alesya Opelt of Alesya Bags in Charleston, SC? Her stylish laptop bag business, Alesya Bags, launches TODAY to the world! I admire Alesya for many reasons, and one of those reasons is the way that she openly shares her entrepreneurial journey by way of her blog. Readers get an inside look every step of the way, and Alesya is always honest, always open, and always captivating.

Alesya and I met through the Twitterverse (yet another reason to get started on Twitter if you haven’t yet), and I’m eternally grateful that we did! We exchanged tweets back and forth before agreeing to meet for coffee. At the time, I was working on my jewelry designs, and Alesya was building her bag business.

The first time we met, we talked for well over an hour. I instantly liked her. She was SO approachable, and underneath, I knew there was a brilliant woman building an empire. Yes, I said empire. You see, Alesya dares to dream, and to *dream big*. She’s inspired me in many ways, and you may recall that I use *dream big* on this blog often.

I could go on and on in my respect, admiration, and high regard for the work that Alesya does and the business she’s built, but this post is also about “THE BAG”!!!


Take a look at this super-sophisticated, can’t-live-without-it, once-you-see-it-you’ll-need-it stylish laptop bag!

"THE BAG" in Heather Green



Talk about making a statement! The bag makes the entire look!

Heather Green or this amazing Eggplant...decisions, decisions! ;)

Here's a personal video message from Alesya that she posted on her blog this morning, the morning of her launch! (Email readers, please visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRvC7HerVB4&feature=player_embedded).



If you've been as inspired by Alesya as I have, be sure to visit her website to show your support.  I'm expecting the first-round of bags to be sold out before you know it, so get yours while you can! She's a rising star who'll be taking the fashion industry by storm, for sure.  She's also on Twitter and Facebook!

XO,

~Laura
Laura Catherine Otero is a marketing professional and blogger in Charleston, SC who has been active in social media since 2005.  If you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing to this blog via Email or  RSS. Laura can also be found on Twitter (@LauraCatherineO), Facebook, and LinkedIn.

 

Animal Planet leverages rich media and video advertising across platforms to engage viewers for River Monsters premiere

Mobile, video and rich media advertising are changing the way that businesses capture user attention by bringing together the power of sight, sound, and motion to engage audiences like never before. For example, to build awareness for the new season of their popular River Monsters series, Animal Planet, the "Surprisingly Human" TV network, launched an integrated media campaign across platforms to bring the show to life with the broadest audience possible - driving more than 900k YouTube video views in the weeks leading up to the premiere.

The River Monsters campaign ran across both the YouTube and AdMob networks, delivering users a sneak peak of the upcoming season whether they were on their desktop computers or their mobile phones. Rich media display ads on YouTube enabled the star of the show to pop out of the YouTube Channel to introduce new creatures to potential viewers, while video advertising offered a glimpse at upcoming episodes of the new season.

On the YouTube desktop website, users were able to interact with the River Monsters whether they were searching for their favorite video, watching partner content, or browsing the homepage. Ads led visitors to a custom mimicry gadget on the Animal Planet Brand Channel, where the host of the show jumped out of the ad to highlight the most exciting portions of the featured video.

(click for full size image)

In-Stream Ads on YouTube are also available in the YouTube Android app, enabling Animal Planet to extend this engagement opportunity to mobile users. Including Interactive Video Ads on the AdMob network further expanded the mobile campaign, giving users the opportunity to watch a preview of the River Monsters show, share the video through social media, learn more on the show’s mobile website, and watch additional videos - all from within the mobile ad.

(click for full size image)

To stir up even more excitement on the day of the premiere, a Rich Media Masthead on the YouTube homepage revealed clips from the upcoming episode and reminded users to tune in.

(click for full size image)

The River Monsters campaign was hugely successful:

• YouTube advertising generated more than 930,000 video views on the River Monster clips
• Nearly 2,000 users subscribed to the River Monsters Brand Channel
• Mobile In-Stream Overlay Ads received more than 3 million impressions, with 84% of mobile users completing the video
• Interactive Video Ads on AdMob generated another 6 million impressions, with 75,000 users engaging with one of the interactive elements in the ad creative

The combination of compelling rich media and video advertising on both desktop and mobile created an engaging experience that increased social buzz around the show and led to a premiere that exceeded expectations.

Posted by Vicky Homan, Product Marketing Manager, Mobile Ads

Do you follow @tiglu?

One of my twitter friends, @tiglu wrote an amazing post on “Getting the Most out of Twitter”.  Tim & I have never met in person, but have exchanged tweets back and forth over the past year or so.  I’m not sure how we found each other’s tweets, but I’m glad that we did.  Tim also shares podcasts, something that I have not done yet. 

I can relate to Tim’s post about people’s reactions to Twitter.  I am used to folks saying “isn’t that just a site where you talk about what you had for breakfast?” or something along those lines.   I usually answer that Twitter has evolved a sophisticated networking tool that connects people all around the globe.  I then go onto to say that nearly all of my friends in Charleston have been made on Twitter.  Wow!

Without further ado, hop over to Tim’s post! You’ll be glad you did!

Laura Catherine Otero is a marketing professional and blogger in Charleston, SC who has been active in social media since 2005.  If you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing to this blog via Email or  RSS. Laura can also be found on Twitter (@LauraCatherineO), Facebook, and LinkedIn. 

+1 around the world

A few months ago we released the +1 button on English search ads and organic search results on google.com. More recently, we’ve made the +1 button available to sites across the web, making it easier for people who love your site to help their friends and other users find your content in Google search.

Today, +1s will start appearing on ads and organic search results for Google pages globally. We'll be starting with sites like google.co.uk, google.de, google.co.jp and google.fr, and then expanding quickly to most other Google search sites soon after.

We’ve also partnered with a few more sites in Europe, Japan, India, Australia and New Zealand where you’ll start seeing +1 buttons in the coming days.

(Click for full size)

You can also add the +1 button to your international websites by going to the +1 button tool on Google Webmaster Central where it's already available in 44 languages.

We expect that personal annotations will help users know when your ads and organic search results are relevant to them, increasing the chances that they'll end up on your site.
Think of +1 buttons as an enhancement that can help already successful search campaigns perform even better, now, at a global level.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew

Learn about the latest in Video Ads on Ad Innovations

Google offers the world's largest online video audience, based on users of Google.com search, our partnerships with top video publishers across the Google Display Network, and the reach of YouTube, the world's largest video property. On YouTube alone, users generate 3 billion video views daily and upload 48 new hours of video per minute. The online video market is huge for users, and we believe this means it also holds a lot of potential for online advertisers.

For those of you who are already passionate about this large and growing market, we’ve just launched a Video page on Ad Innovations -- your destination for exploring our latest advertising developments.

On this page, you can learn about new video innovations that can help you prepare your campaigns and promote your business.

Prepare your campaign

• Ad Creation Marketplace - Hire a professional to create a TV or video ad that fits your needs, budget, and deadlines.
• YouTube Video Targeting Tool - Search by keyword or audience to find YouTube videos where you might want to advertise.
• YouTube Insight - Learn about the video likes and dislikes of audiences you define.

Promote your business

• TrueView video ads by YouTube - Give users choice and control over which advertisers' messages they want to see and when. Pay only when a user chooses to view your ad, increasing your view count on YouTube.
• Video extensions - Include click-to-play videos for trailers, previews, and product demonstrations that play right below your ads on Google.com.
• Media Ads - Discover new ways to target, pay for, and experience video ads on Google.com.

Check out our new Video innovations page and send us feedback on these new features. We’ll add more items to this page as we bring new video advertising features to you.

If you're new to video advertising, start with the basics. We have online resources available where you can learn about all our video advertising solutions including YouTube advertising.

Posted by Lauren Barbato, Inside AdWords crew