Category Archives: Marketing

Keyword Match Types for Google AdWords

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Google AdWords PPC Logo for Match Types ArticleFor this post, let’s turn our attention back over to Pay-per-click (PPC) and Google AdWords. As a Search Marketing professional, it is important to understand all angles of search. That means you can’t just focus blindly on SEO in the long run.

Sure, SEO is “free” and should be addressed for any website. But once you have optimized the on page and started driving backlinks, you really need to have patience as it all starts to pick up momentum.

Most businesses don’t have time to simply sit and wait. That’s when PPC needs to be taken more seriously.

Keyword Match Types: What Are They?

Google allows you to set the targeting you prefer for your keywords. Targeting is managed using match types. These designate the keywords you want to go after and how tightly you want to focus your ads within the SERPs. Here are the four top-level match types they offer:

Broad Match

Broad match is set by simply entering the keyword into the AdWords interface as a target keyword. If you do not add any modifiers to indicate it should be Phrase or Exact, it defaults to Broad.

Broad allows you to not only show up for verbatim searches of a keyword, but to also show up for variants, misspellings, and terms with similar meanings. While this sounds great in terms of ad impressions to those of us who were brought up in the mass advertising age, it is often the wrong choice.

Since you pay for every click, relevance is crucial. If you show up on a badly targeted SERP, you are guaranteed to pay for bad clicks. And to make matters worse, Google charges more for the same ranking on pages with high competition (meaning a lot of other people are bidding on the same terms), so a broad click is typically the most expensive of all.

Broad is useful for researching new variants of a keyword, but proceed with caution. I recommend you partition off a test budget of maybe 10% of your overall spend to find those new variants. Then go after those keywords using one of the below better targeted match types.

Phrase Match

Phrase Match looks for searches that include a pre-specified phrase, but also include other words around the phrase. You can set a keyword to phrase by putting quotation symbols around it.

For example, if you use “SEO services” as the keyword, your ad would appear on SERPs for “SEO Services in Memphis”, “Best SEO Services in Texas”, or “What to expect from SEO services firms”. As you may have noticed, the order of the words in the phrase must be the same, so “what services should an SEO offer” would not match.

This is useful for tighter targeting overall, perhaps based on location as shown above. Phrase match tends to be less expensive on a cost-per-click (CPC) basis, as compared to broad match. At the same time, it also delivers significantly reduced impressions but is more likely to be relevant to a larger percent of the results on which the ad will appear.

Exact Match

Exact Match, designated by using brackets such as [SEO Services], will only serve up your ad on SERPs for verbatim searches of that term. No other words can appear in the search, which is why it is called exact match.

This is the tightest targeting, most likely to be relevant, and least expensive bidding option. If you know for a fact that a keyword has a lot of volume, is relevant as an exact match, and has low competition (based on number of advertisers bidding for the term), you’ve found yourself a bargain.

The best way to find what terms to target with exact is to start with broad or phrase match and see what searches drive results. You may have a very relevant keyword that never drives conversions or quality visits to your site. On the other hand, you will sometimes be surprised to see what words drive the best results. Target those with exact match to get more clicks with higher potential for success.

Negative Match

Another match type you need to know about is Negative Match. This is how you specify all the words you DO NOT want to match for.

At a previous company, we sold a product that attached to a device called a Network TAP (Test Access Point). Unfortunately, the IT community rarely included the word “Network” when searching.

We started out on broad match and found that a huge portion of our spend was on irrelevant terms! There are kitchen taps, beer taps, tap dance shoes, the song “Taps”, the list goes on and on. So we used negative match types on our TAPs ad group to remove any search including the words kitchen, beer, dance, shoes, song, etc.

More on Match Types

This is just a brief introduction. There is much more to figure out when working with PPC advertising.You can use modified broad match, which allows for more wide variants and misspellings to match. You can now use modified exact or phrase match, which allows for close synonyms to match. And once you get all that down, it will be time to learn about bid stacking to optimize your spend across the various keywords and match types.

Even after managing PPC for nearly10 years, I still learn something new almost every week. Just be creative and willing to learn, and you’ll see the massive potential of PPC to drive results for your business or cause.

Read more about Google’s take on these Match Types at http://support.google.com/adwords/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=6100

Anchor Text, Trackbacks, What to Tweet, and More | Return On News

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What a month March has been. Google pre-announced some massive changes to come to backlinks for their algorithm, SXSW has come and gone, and I’ve had quite a few distractions on the personal front.

I plan to do a whole summary of the upcoming Google algorithm changes later, but for now, let’s see what else has caught my eye this month.

Are Over Optimised Link Profiles A Barrier To Top 5 Rankings?

SEO Wizz has authored a number of posts on backlink campaigns and how to handle anchor text. The standard direction from most SEOs is that you should acquire as many backlinks that use anchor text which is an exact match to your most important keywords.

This article not only questions that long-standing belief. It shows data to support the right way to do it. I’ve found some great content on this site, and most of the time it’s pretty spot on.

5 Things You Need to Know About Trackbacks

If you use WordPress or similar blogging platforms, surely you’ve seen trackbacks in the user interface. Ever wonder why those matter? It doesn’t just show who links to you or who you link to. There’s much more, and it even helps your site authority with Google. For anyone generating blog content, this is a must read even if just for informational purposes.

7 Facts Extroverts Should Know about Introverts in Business

Being an introvert doesn’t mean you’re just socially inept or shy. It’s a whole different way of generating internal energy and thinking. If the above is a must read for bloggers, this is a must read for everyone.

If you’re an extrovert, it helps you understand why everyone else doesn’t get their energy from interactions with you and others. If you’re an introvert, it affirms that there’s nothing wrong with you for being different in a society that rewards extroverted behavior. Seriously, take a moment to read and understand this and it will only help, no matter whom you are.

Extreme Homepage Makeover: How to Increase Your Conversion Rate 106%

Hubspot reviews how to massively improve conversion rate from the home page, with a nice list of the key variables they manipulated to make it happen. Good stuff.

17 Foolish Mistakes to Avoid as a Guest Blogger

Guest blogging is one of the best ways to build your name and reputation, network, and get backlink love for your own blog or website. But you can really mess it up if you don’t stop to think about your approach first. This covers the main areas that tend to happen with overall strategy, pitching your guest posts, and writing the content itself.

Google Analytics Social Reports Coming Soon

Google keeps beefing up the data available in some areas, just as they are removing some visibility to keyword-level data. They’re clearly pushing social over the traditional SEO practices. This gives you an idea of where their thought process is heading in the early going.

What Marketers Should and Shouldn’t Tweet

Hubspot shares some insightful research that advises the right ways to use Twitter, and what to avoid. If you’ve been struggling to get followers and build a network on there, this might help you understand why.

Link Karma: How Linking to Others Can Get You Lots of Links in Return

You hear the themes about “pay it forward” in social media all the time. Here’s one way to use social networking for search engine optimization link love. I, personally, found this to be a great post.

Summary

That’s it for March folks. If you see anything I missed this month that was ground breaking for you, share below so all can read it too!

 

Website Traffic – The Power of Buzz

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We talk about search engine optimization (SEO) quite a bit on here, but SEO is (obviously) not the only way to drive web traffic.

You could also invest in various paid placements such as PPC, display, or sponsored white papers to drive targeted traffic back to your website. Many old school marketers immediately turn to these tactics, and the can certainly be used effectively if managed properly.

There’s something even bigger at your disposal.

The Buzz

None of the pay-for-play methods can compare to the potential scale of widespread buzz about your company. It is the pinnacle of word-of-mouth, albeit with wider, louder, and deeper reach. Whether fleeting or lasting, buzz can really make magical things happen for your business.

Great, So What Can We Do To Generate Buzz?

The best way to generate positive buzz is to be outstanding. Not average or good enough, but beyond expectations. Offer products or services that really wow your audience, that deliver on the vision of Guy Kawasaki’s Enchantment. Look at what Apple has done and imagine the possibilities.

Of course, not every company can have an image like Apple. Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to attract positive attention to just about any business.

Public Relations (PR)

PR is available to anyone, individuals, businesses, non-profits, special interest groups, performance artists…you name an industry or profession, and there is a benefit within reach. This can be as simple as getting to know the local business page editor, or as sophisticated as you are comfortable taking your program.

As a powerful awareness vehicle, PR has a positive impact on organic as well as direct traffic to your site.

Social Media

Low on budget but have a lot to say? Passionate about, or possibly a budding thought leader, in your field? Start a blog. Take a few moments to learn about content marketing,

and how you can spread the word via social media. You will meet some amazing people if you jump in with an open mind and a good idea of what you are trying to accomplish.

Charitable Donations

Philanthropy is always a good way to show your commitment to the local community or bigger causes. Donations in the form of money, relief for emergency victims, or even assistance putting on a charity event are all equal in value. And it helps those in need, which is a tremendous side benefit on a personal level.

Publicity Stunts

I have seen some outrageous but madly successful publicity stunts over the years.

Horace Albright enjoying a "bear dinner&q...

Publicity Stunt Gone Bad (Image via Wikipedia)

When they work well, they can leave a lasting memory / impression. But be careful here, because a publicity stunt has been known to backfire for rather unexpected reasons.

As a sub set of publicity stunts, viral video or other materials is also a great “digital publicity stunt” that you can test in a controlled fashion. Just make the video good and cutting edge, and the audience could respond with raving approval.

What are some other creative ways you have used to drive traffic to your website?

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Google Search vs. Display – Pros and Cons

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This week, PPC expert Matt Kelly shares his guidance about when to use Google AdWords and when to focus on the content / display network.

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Search vs. Display: What Are They?

In Google Adwords, there are two primary “venues” on which you can display ads, the first being Google Search, the second being the Google Display Network (GDN).

Google Search and their search partners, such as search.aol.com, allow the display of text  ads along with organic results (unpaid) that are triggered by keywords. You type in a keyword or phrase, Google displays the most relevant ads.  When you click on the ad, the advertiser is charged based on an auction price and you are re-directed to the advertiser’s website.

GDN on the other hand are “contextually” targeted ads based on content, interests, or topics. Publishers of content use Google Adsense as the vehicle for displaying ads. In addition, Google uses your demographic data and interests to display ads you might be interested in.

You can view your Ad Preferences at: http://www.google.com/ads/preferences/

So if, for example, you are reading an article about Tiger Woods skipping the US Open and see an ad for the new Nike 20XI golf ball, the ad is there.  Nike recognizes that, if you are reading an article on golfchannel.com, you probably have an interest in Golf. So you might buy golf balls.

On the other hand, if you are reading an article on nytimes.com, you might see the same Nike 20XI Golf ball ad.  Most likely, this ad was displayed because your Ad Preferences indicate “Golf” as an interest.

How to Find a Good Site Where You Can Advertise

There are a variety of ways to find relevant/high quality sites to target.  Generally speaking, I look for them in this order:

  1. Search Google using the most valuable keywords I am trying to target.  I prefer using Google Search initially to find sites to advertise on, since those that show up on the first page are presumably more relevant. From the organic search results, I look at the websites on page one to see if they are running ads from either Google or Double Click. I also check the depth and content of the site for quality. If you see display ads on the site, check the link of the ad by either hovering over it, or look for the “Ads by Google” logo. (Hint: If you are a publisher, invest in SEO so we can find your site. [Double Hint from editorial team: Return On Now can help you])
  2. Next step is to use the Google Adplanner.  Adplanner allows me to more specifically target websites running Adsense based on audience parameters such as geography, language, demographics, online activity, and interests.  Adplanner also provides filtering based on Google Ranking method, inventory, category, ad specific, and domain suffix.
  3. I’ll use the “Placement Tool” in Adwords, even though the results are typically comparable to those found in Adplanner.
  4. I look at the sites referring traffic in Google Analytics to find sites that are sending some traffic, but would be good prospect for sending more.

From the research above, I will add sites as “Managed Placements,” in addition to a list of standard sites I always target such as mail.google.com, ehow.com, about.com. and nytimes.com

Managed placements are my highest value group of websites, as opposed to automatic placements, which are those that Google is determining as relevant and then displaying my ads accordingly.

Think of the difference between Automatic and Managed placements as if they were baseball teams.  Managed placements are the players on the team that have made it to a Major League Team. I hand picked them, and if they don’t play well, I kick them off them team. In the past, they have performed well and are of above average quality.

Automatic placements are those that are still in the farm system working extremely hard to perform well enough to make it to the Major League. Automatic placements, like a Baseball Scout,  are also always on the lookout for new sites to target or new players to add to the team.

Search Pros

  1. Simple to set up and manage

Search Cons

  1. It’s the first thing everyone thinks of when launching a paid search campaign, so the competition for a keyword may be high resulting in poor ROI / Return-on-Investment.
  2. In order to have an effective search campaign, a large amount of emphasis needs to be on targeting high Quality Score keywords
  3. It is available as “Cost-Per-Click” Pricing Only (also referred to as PPC / Pay-per-click pricing)
  4. Text ads are the only format allowed

Display Pros

  1. Lower Cost per click and conversion. On average the CPC is 30% less for display than search.
  2. Remarketing – This is the practice of displaying an ads on GDN  to someone that visited a particular page on your web site
  3. Measuring “view-through-conversion”, which is a metric of the number of conversions that happened within 30 days of someone seeing the ad
  4. Casts a much wider net (better reach) across content that is related to your keywords
  5. Pricing flexibility: Cost per Click or Cost per thousand (CPM pricing)
  6. Better targeting to content-rich and relevant sites
  7. More visually appealing ad options rather than just text
  8. Behavioral, demographic, and geographic targeting capabilities

Display Cons

  1. Getting your boss or client to understand why such a low Click Through Rate (CTR) is a good thing can be challenging
  2. Initial set up is more complicated that search
  3. Initial cost to set up is higher than search as you may incur a cost for advertisement design
  4. Less control can mean lower quality traffic if you are using automatic placement. Automatic placements require increased maintenance to exclude sites that are of poor quality (i.e. one page websites running Adsense on what is essentially nothing more than a doorway page)

So how do you sell this to your metrics-driven Boss or Client?

First, focus on what the key metrics are as follows:

  • Impressions:  Depending on a number of factors, including your overall budget and how much of it is allocated to display, you can see 10-20 times as many impressions as you can in search
  • Cost per click: As a general rule of thumb, your cost per click on display should be 30% less than Search
  • Cost per conversion:  The metric I personally manage to for display conversions is 20% less than search

Search Engine Marketing: PPC vs. GDN Metrics

If you are a newbie to display advertising, here is where to start:

  • Have five non-animated banner ads designed. The sizes I recommend are 300×250, 160×600, 200×200, 468×60, and 728×90. You should be able to get a decent graphics designer to design these ads for less than $400. The GDN ad specs are located at: http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/static.py?hl=en&topic=28431&guide=28427&page=guide.cs
  • Create a separate campaign for “Managed Placements.” This will allow you to control the budget separately from search campaigns.
  • Limit that campaign to one of your ad groups so that you are testing a small group of keywords and phrases.
  • Allocate a small amount of your search budget to managed placements. I’d start with 10%.
  • Only use a handful of managed placements, i.e. less than ten. Make sure mail.google.com is on that list.
  • Cap your CPC at 30% less than your search CPC.

The biggest advantage of display versus search is it’s reach and the ability to give a product context through the use of images. As they say, “A picture is worth a thousand words”. So maybe a text ad is worth only one hundred words?

Think beyond just Search.

SEO: Why You Need A Content Strategy

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Search Engine Optimization is an ongoing need for any business that is serious about establishing and maintaining good positions on Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. Many businesses depend on Google alone for more than 50% of their overall traffic.

Achieving that sort of success with SEO takes more than the basics (on-page, backlinks). It requires that your website take another step to plan out a site that is:

  1. Easy to navigate
  2. Structured with broad keywords at the higher levels, and more specific keywords deeper in the nav
  3. Generating quality new content on a regular and ongoing basis

While it is rather easy to dive in and start tweaking the on-page elements that are used by search engines (page title, meta description, H1 / H2 / H3, etc.), the opportunistic online marketing mind will ask the question, “Is this the right content in the first place?”.

Content Strategy Before On-Page

Before diving into the tactics, it makes the most sense to do a self-review of your business, cause, nonprofit, or whatever entity it is that drives you to generate quality content. Map out the categories (e.g. product lines or different audiences served) at the highest level and decide what keywords best match with those categories.

Then line up the most important topic areas in the next level beneath. These will also be keywords. Feel free to even build out more specific topics at the third level (we recommend only three levels for most types of site). Continue until you have a solid plan for what keyword-rich, highly relevant content you need.

From there, you can begin generating or reworking content to fit. As you generate the new material, take a couple of extra minutes to label the right keywords…highest level category, keyword for that level, any long-tail words that make sense….and insert those into the appropriate on-page locations. And be sure to pepper in some conversion pages to collect leads if it makes sense for your business.

Planning Ahead Works

There are multiple benefits to optimizing your website with this approach.

First, it gives you a chance to take a fresh look at your site from a macro perspective. It is so easy to get caught up in the daily minutiae, that we sometimes need to take a step back to evaluate where we are, how we got there, and where we want to be.

Second, the output will be very helpful at beginning your ascent up the rankings. By structuring your website in a way that the search engine crawlers will find logical, they will better be able to connect your website to the keywords you are targeting. The bonus is that, when you relaunch your website or launch a new website, Google will typically do a full crawl of the site quickly, assuming you have an XML sitemap file logged with them.

We Can Help

You can most likely manage the build out of a content strategy yourself. If not, SEO and Content Strategy are specialties of ours. If you need help, drop me a line at tommy (at) returnonnow (dot) com.

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Read more posts from Return On Now about Search Engine Optimization.

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Customer Intimacy: A Lesson In Worst Practices

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With all of the talk about social media, transparency, content relevance, and user-generated content, we most certainly have a grand vision in front of us. As marketers, we want to evolve with our customers, moving from a mindset of pushing our content out to large audiences to a mindset of collaboration and engagement.

What we truly want is the next iteration of Customer Intimacy, a term that originated over a decade ago, yet still applies well in today’s environment. The pinnacle of marketing and product success is to become not only a vendor, but a trusted partner. This can be delivered in a number of ways, from custom product delivery, to special support terms, to well-structured, data-driven marketing efforts that suggest the company truly cares about the customer.

To establish customer intimacy, we need to move past economies of scale and one-size-fits-all thinking. The qualities that matter most are flexibility, responsiveness, and engagement (sounds like social networking, doesn’t it?). And most of all, if you say you know me, you darn well better know me. Even if that’s just a mirage served up by advanced database marketing techniques.

Customer Intimacy: How to Do It Wrong

Earlier this week, I was sorting through a stack of junk mail when I came across an envelope from Domino’s Pizza. Even when sorting through junk, I take a moment to look at each piece for two reasons:

  1. To see if there are any deals of interest
  2. To review for any marketing takeaways or lessons I should take note of

Since I tend to eat more healthy, all-natural foods, I was not interested in whatever special coupon or deal the mailer included, but it caught my attention from a marketing perspective. Here is the mailer in question:

We Miss You Domino's Mailer

Okay, good start. I have in fact purchased Domino’s Pizza in the past. It’s just good database marketing to look at your customers to determine activity/inactivity over time, seasonal patterns, and other trends. It has been quite a while since we’ve ordered from them, so I naturally assumed they did their job and send a re-engagement plea.

Then I looked at how the envelope was addressed. See for yourself…

Addressed to Postal Customer

That’s right, they don’t even know my name (which I had to give to them when they took each and every order I’ve ever placed with them)! Even worse, I went ahead and opened the envelope to see if there were any other interesting gaffs, only to find a letter addressed to “Dear Domino’s Pizza Customer”.  Of course, they did explain that they noticed no activity on my part in 2011, but by the time I read that part, it was too late.

Small Errors, Big Impact

As you might guess, this mailer had exactly the opposite effect on me than they wanted. Should I get a craving for pizza, they’d be at the bottom of my wish list based on this campaign.

The lesson here is important – if you don’t have the data or the discipline to collect it, then don’t try to pretend you “know” me. Just send a generic message without all the hints that you did some analysis in it. If you can’t or won’t do it right, you simply can’t fake it. Not only will today’s consumers turn on you, but they could easily amplify their complaints online, perhaps via a blog or other outlet. Oh wait, that’s what I just did…

Got Any Examples Of Your Own?

I’d love to see any other amusing or simply awkward attempts at personalization and customer intimacy. If you have something good, share with us in the comments below!

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Why You Need A Website Part II [Toon]

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Thanks for all of your feedback to my previous commentary about how the Yellow Pages are about to be completely replaced by the Internet. I received both kudos and jeers for the post, the jeers mainly coming from those of you who are already wired and think the conclusion was a “so what”.

While I also think it’s a no-brainer that this is happening before our eyes, there are many, many of us who still think the old way works! As suprising as that might be, it’s a reality, hence the post.

Today I came across the following comic / toon on the Hubspot site and simply had to share. Good stuff Hubspot, keep up the great work.

Internet vs. Phone Book

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Interview with Russ Somers of Invodo

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Russ Somers of InvodoHeading into 2011, I decided to shake things up a little bit here on Return On Now. Most of my topics have been national or global in nature. However, living in Austin, I’ve been rather active among the social media and marketing communities. So I decided to highlight some of the more interesting companies and people in town for others to get a little insight into what makes us “weirdos” tick.

My first taker was Russ Somers, the Director of Marketing for local video commerce startup Invodo. First, to familiarize you with the value proposition that Invodo offers, here is an excerpt from their What We Do page:

Invodo helps businesses sell more online through the power of video. We improve the way online retailers sell, brands communicate product value, and consumers shop.

This excerpt is very much in line with how Russ described the company to me (guess who managed website messaging?). During our discussion, however, Russ elaborated, “Our goal is to bring the visuals and the experience of a live retail environment to you via eCommerce. Since visuals are an an important component of that experience, video is the natural answer.”

Based on those two statements alone, you can start to imagine the possibilities of how the company’s services and technologies can really impact online sales. If you can’t see the product firsthand, how about a 3-D treatment that allows you to view from any angle? Or maybe a quick overview of the benefits and key features of the product? What if the speaker on the video just so happens to be part of the target demographic? I guess you can tell I think they are onto something here.

With a clear understanding of the offering, I was interested in hearing why Russ enjoys working at Invodo so much.

Cultural Intangibles

Russ outlined the company’s cultural mantras, and I must say, they were great! The leadership team is focused on creating careers for the employees, evangelizing the idea that this not merely a “stop” on your path to greatness. Specifically, he shared several key operating principles that the company stands for (paraphrased in my own words):

  • Customers First
  • Our Team Rocks
  • Humans Not Resources
  • Build an Amazing Company

My initial thought was, “What a company!” Of course, every great company finds a way to keep the customers happy. If that’s not part of the mission, the risk of failure is much higher, right? The rest of the concepts, though, are excellent. “Our Team Rocks” is about establishing pride and camaraderie among the employees. Some companies use the family analogy, but Invodo cuts straight to the point. Russ shared some nice stories about the whole team pitching in on all sorts of things in the early days (e.g. moving several large appliances over a weekend, where nearly everyone showed up to help).

I must say, though, “Humans, not resources” really piqued my interest. You see, I’ve always taken issue with the phrase “Human Resources”. The term is rather dehumanizing, grouping you and me together with things like computers, machinery, and materials used for manufacturing products. Invodo got it right…we’re all people who deserve equal respect regardless of position, experience, etc.

Cover of "Good to Great: Why Some Compani...

Cover via Amazon

Building a Great Company is something that all leadership teams want, but not all are able to sell properly to the entire company. The above mantras surely help set them

up for success with this objective, as does the fact that they encourage their employees to read the classic business book Good to Great. If you haven’t read it yourself, I strongly encourage you to do so.

Finally, Russ made it clear that the whole company embraces Austin as a city. “Quirky” was a word he used for something they consider a part of the company as well as the city. I must say, I’m in complete agreement!

After a nice walk through of Invodo, we delved into some other topics of interest.

Online vs. Offline vs. Mobile

I have very strong opinions about where I think the various mediums should interplay. When I asked Russ about his take, we generally agreed. Online will continue to be online, albeit with improvements such as the Invodo offering to help improve the experience. On the other hand, offline and mobile are due to merge in the future, at least partially if not completely. Geo-based social media services have opened a lot of doors that we are only beginning to peek through, and with the growing popularity of QR codes, you can now integrate all three touchpoints in new and different ways.

Social Media: Where Is It Heading?

In digging into one of my favorite topics, social media, I learned that Russ is truly “old school”. He was getting social on usenet groups before many of today’s adults were even exposed to the Internet! Heck, I’ve been online for years and he even beat me to it. Impressive, to say the least.

We both agreed that we are already in a period focused on content. The phrase “content economy” came up at least a couple of times. What does that mean? Ask Demand Media if you’re unsure of what to think. They’ve just lined up 151M reasons to believe in the content economy.

We discussed newcomer Quora briefly, and both agreed that it really needs some structure introduced into the experience. While it is great to get answers to questions from heavy hitters like Evan Williams of Twitter, finding it can be a challenge. I asked Russ if he thought a service like Quora might threaten blogging, and he didn’t buy it. His great analogy was that a blog is like your “home base”, while all the other social sites are great ways to extend the conversation. I must say, we were in complete agreement.

Conclusion

I really enjoyed the visit with Russ Somers. He had great insights and is a generally interesting guy. I wish both Russ and Invodo the best of luck in their ongoing endeavors.

Now a question for you – Who in Austin do you think would make a good interviewee for Return On Now? I already have quite a few folks in mind, but I want to hear from my readers directly. Thanks for reading!

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Nonprofit Mobile Fundraising With Tech

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This week I offer you a great guest post by my friend and colleague Janet Fouts. She is very active in the online marketing for nonprofits area, and I thought it would be a great idea to interject another voice between local services businesses commentary.

Plain and simply, Janet “gets it”. If you need strategic advice or insight into anything related to social media, mobility, marketing, and related areas, she can help you. You can view her website at http://www.janetfouts.com.

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Hauling a credit card machine to a rally isn’t the best solution to collect funds in the field, so nonprofits have accepted checks or cash and probably missed a lot of transactions and new members to their cause. Technology for mobile transactions has taken a giant leap in the last couple of years though, and it’s a whole lot easier to sell merchandise at an event or accept donations on the fly. Here’s how.

The Square

The Square payment service is incredibly simple. You download the free application for Android, iPhone or even an iPad, set up your account and enter the sales and card information on your screen, have the user sign on the touch pad, send and you’re done. You can also use the card reader which attaches to the audio port of your device. Honestly it takes a little practice to swipe cards quickly, but once you get the hang of it, it’s simple and fast. Square takes 2.75% of the transaction for swiped cards plus a 15 cent transaction fee and the balance can be auto-deposited into your bank account. There is no set-up fee or monthly service fee involved.

Paypal

Paypal is dumping a lot of energy into mobile payments and at the Developers’ conference in October they announced an $8 million dollar round of funding was going to Appcelerator which helps developers build mobile applications. Currently iPhone and Android users can use Paypal Bump to transfer funds from one account to another. Simply tap the two phones together and enter the amount to send. Paypal also has a “pay by text” service which allows you to request or send money by simply texting the amount and the other person’s phone number to Paypal. Paypal’s fees are quite low, starting at 2.9%.

mGive

mGive is probably best known for raising over $37 million for Haiti in MTV’s “Hope for Haiti” campaign. mGive works with any phone that can send text messages. Register your non-profit and donors simply send a text message to make a mobile donation from their cell phone. Donation levels can be pre-set for ease of use. For example if you want to send a donation to the American Diabetes Association, just text “ACT” to “27722″ to donate $10. mGive has several pricing plans to choose from based on the number of outgoing messages and other services. Here’s the pricing.

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10 Reasons to Give Thanks

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Thanks a million!2010 has been quite a year so far, with its fair share of good developments, curve balls, and surprises. I’ve been a bit spotty on updating Return On Now, primarily because of a couple of difficult curve balls that have come my way over the past 60 days. But as they say, put that behind you and move onward and upward, so let’s get ready for 2011.

But first, let’s take a moment to reflect on some of the good things, those things which have been both fortunate and welcomed, over the most recent months. It is far too easy to focus on the most pressing concerns, and we should all take time during this celebratory week to reflect on everything that is going RIGHT in our world.

In honor of Thanksgiving, I am thankful for…

  1. All of my friends and colleagues in Austin, TX, some of whom I’ve known for a long time, and others whom I’ve met in the past several years. Austin does a great job of balancing “small town” connectedness with a bigger metro mindset, and I’m proud to call it my home.
  2. The TRUE online marketing and social media experts, most of whom are humble enough to avoid adopting the narcissistic term “expert” or “guru”, for pushing the limits of what we know, striking out on new ground and sharing what they learn, and for keeping the faith as the space continues to be overrun by snake oil salesman.
  3. Every single one of us who understands that social media is not just a list of shiny new toys, but a true evolution of how we communicate in today’s technology-heavy world.
  4. The thought leaders who are finally espousing one of my key messages more widely – it’s time to stop bandying about terms like social media, social marketing, and a list of other overhyped phrases, and to start looking at them as simple tactics that must be considered within true business strategy.
  5. The fine folks who contribute to the WordPress platform, which has revolutionized web management and brought more control and capability to the masses.
  6. All of my online colleagues who are kind enough to help me make referrals to spread the good will among others, and who are kind enough to recommend me as a contact/friend/follow for others.
  7. The brave entrepreneurs who continue to churn out new ideas that interest, excite, and stimulate our imaginations with new tools, toys, and capabilities (hey, it’s not all about the tools, but at the end of the day, I love them as much as anyone!).
  8. The fantasy sports industry as a whole. In addition to providing me hours of enjoyment on a weekly basis, it inspired me to pursue my dreams of being a writer, to start a business and learn valuable insights about entrepreneurship, and to dive into social media more aggressively.
  9. My beautiful wife, precious children, and everyone in my close circle who takes the time to support me, exchange ideas, and generally participate in the daily growth and maturation that allows us to continually make progress toward becoming the best we can be.
  10. And finally, I give thanks for each and every one of you, the faithful readers of this blog. You provide me a platform to work out new concepts, to exchange ideas, to consider new and exciting viewpoints, and to generally express myself in a productive and enjoyable way.

Life is good, and I look forward to what it has in store for us in 2011. Thank you for reading, and I look forward to sharing more with you over the coming months.

Namaste,

Tommy Landry, Return On Now

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