Below is live coverage of the Local + Social: the Future of Promotion panel from the SES San Francisco 2011 conference. This coverage is provided by Ben Pfeiffer at RankSmart.
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Ben Pfeiffer:
9:44:15 am
Local + Social: the Future of Promotion
Clearly two of the hottest categories in online marketing are local search and social. Find which data feed services work best for mass local listings online and on the mobile web plus which social networking features have the most effect on local marketing. From Geolocation social media with FourSquare to Local Search Marketing with Google Places, this session will offer tried and true strategies for maximizing visibility on the local search and social web.
Moderator:
Anne F. Kennedy, SES Advisory Board, International Search Strategist, Beyond Ink USA
Speakers:
Benu Aggarwal, Founder & President, Milestone Internet Marketing
Gregg Stewart, President, 15miles
Clearly two of the hottest categories in online marketing are local search and social. Find which data feed services work best for mass local listings online and on the mobile web plus which social networking features have the most effect on local marketing. From Geolocation social media with FourSquare to Local Search Marketing with Google Places, this session will offer tried and true strategies for maximizing visibility on the local search and social web.
Moderator:
Anne F. Kennedy, SES Advisory Board, International Search Strategist, Beyond Ink USA
Speakers:
Benu Aggarwal, Founder & President, Milestone Internet Marketing
Gregg Stewart, President, 15miles
Ben Pfeiffer:
9:44:37 am
Gregg is up first.
Ben Pfeiffer:
9:45:05 am
He asks what type of local businesses are in the audience. He is going to cover the local space and why it's important.
Ben Pfeiffer:
9:45:28 am
He says local is ripe fertile ground that is usually at the end of the sales cycle.
Ben Pfeiffer:
9:45:45 am
He says local is ripe fertile ground that is usually at the end of the sales cycle.
Ben Pfeiffer:
9:46:17 am
When we look at the importance of local search. Almost every local search is mapped. Google place pages are viewed by millions of people.
Ben Pfeiffer:
9:46:31 am
20% of search are local oriented.
Ben Pfeiffer:
9:47:46 am
While 83% of consumers of shop online at least weekly. There is a lot going on here.
Ben Pfeiffer:
9:47:51 am
While 83% of consumers of shop online at least weekly. There is a lot going on here.
Ben Pfeiffer:
9:47:54 am
While 83% of consumers of shop online at least weekly. There is a lot going on here.
Ben Pfeiffer:
9:48:23 am
So 64% of small businesses think social media is not necessary.
Ben Pfeiffer:
9:49:13 am
That is a stat from a Mashable article. Gregg says that social is a higher sales funnel.
Ben Pfeiffer:
9:50:40 am
Consumers are increasingly using more sources to find local information and content.
Ben Pfeiffer:
9:54:36 am
When you are start to look at local and the social dimension. Facebook for example, 1/3 of users access the site via mobile.
Ben Pfeiffer:
9:55:13 am
So what is the local search foundation best practices? You need accuracy, distribution, signal strength, and enrichment.
Ben Pfeiffer:
9:56:56 am
So the business name: represents your business exactly as it appears in the offline world.
Ben Pfeiffer:
9:58:15 am
For your business name do not include marketing taglines in your business name. Include phone numbers or urls in the business name field. Don't keyword stuff.
Ben Pfeiffer:
9:59:52 am
For categories: provide at least one category from the suggestions provided in the form as you type. Categories should be specific, but brief. Do not: provide categories about your business does or what it sells, but what your business is.
Ben Pfeiffer:
10:00:36 am
Also custom attributes and description: This is your change to tell about your business.
Ben Pfeiffer:
10:01:20 am
To help ensure that consumers are able to find your pertinent business information, it is important that your business listings are distributed across multiple channels.
Ben Pfeiffer:
10:02:00 am
Once you have your accurate business listings distributed amongst the different channels, it is important that your listings all appear in similar format.
Ben Pfeiffer:
10:02:30 am
Local requires a proactive approach to help correct inaccurate local listings at the source.
Ben Pfeiffer:
10:03:16 am
In discussing place page listings. Gregg says it's amazing how few business have claimed their place pages.
Ben Pfeiffer:
10:03:44 am
It's a huge opportunity for businesses to take control of their place pages and ways to optimize their pages.
Ben Pfeiffer:
10:04:26 am
So shifting gears for a moment. When we look at the social part of local search, reviews and ratings are a component of that.
Ben Pfeiffer:
10:05:23 am
When he started to look at the ComScore data. The most revealing thing was when consumers were asked whether yellow pages were important. Most said yes, but they couldn't find it. So there is a content problem.
Ben Pfeiffer:
10:05:58 am
Question are citations still a local search signal?
Ben Pfeiffer:
10:06:40 am
This is reviews from TripAdvisor, opentable.com, etc.. Google removed these from the listings. Why? Not quite sure. The data is still there but its harder to find.
Ben Pfeiffer:
10:06:59 am
Google is in the game of promoting their own information.
Ben Pfeiffer:
10:07:44 am
Gregg says as a business do not abandon the reviews and ratings information.
Ben Pfeiffer:
10:08:28 am
Reviews are one of the most important optimization techniques when it comes to local listings and position rankings.
Ben Pfeiffer:
10:09:00 am
Only 6% of consumers are leaving content out there. Users are lazy, ask them for a review.
Ben Pfeiffer:
10:10:16 am
In terms of special promotions, this is helpful too for local search.
Ben Pfeiffer:
10:11:26 am
In summary, basic business listing information is so very important.
Ben Pfeiffer:
10:15:28 am
Up next is Benu Aggarwal
Ben Pfeiffer:
10:15:42 am
She starts off asking the audience some questions.
Ben Pfeiffer:
10:17:14 am
She says that understanding your goals for local are very important.
Ben Pfeiffer:
10:18:41 am
If you saturate all search engine buckets ideal scenario for any platform.
Ben Pfeiffer:
10:19:44 am
She talks about crafting a platform for which you put out your business information. Saturating this information has a big impact on your local search.
Ben Pfeiffer:
10:21:19 am
Puts up a graphic of a marketing funnel. Social is at the top, web & mobile in the middle, and local is at the bottom.
Ben Pfeiffer:
10:22:55 am
So why do social interactions might not work?.. For example you put up a social media page. But it goes wrong because all your focused on was just creating the facebook page. You had no strategy.
Ben Pfeiffer:
10:23:33 am
She provides some examples, in this case Six Flags Fiesta Texas. She shows the facebook page for this place.
Ben Pfeiffer:
10:24:52 am
She said Six Flags had about 30 websites. They looked into analytics to find out what people where using to find them. Who were their users.
Ben Pfeiffer:
10:31:10 am
She recommends to always geotarget, so very important.
Ben Pfeiffer:
10:32:22 am
The use of QR codes works well.
Ben Pfeiffer:
10:32:40 am
The idea is to convert local users into mobile users.
Ben Pfeiffer:
10:33:05 am
Encourage users to write reviews about the property. Give them ways to connect with you.
Ben Pfeiffer:
10:34:32 am
She puts up a flow chart. 1. Competitive & Marketing Analysis 2. Perform Research & Create Social Marketing Strategy 3. Creates Calender. 4. Design Channels & Push Live
Ben Pfeiffer:
10:34:56 am
Content calender are important and helpful to organize the info.
