Visa app...Innovative!

Visa recently released an app for the iPhone, which has been regarded as highly creative for the credit card company. The app, free and available on iTunes, offers a somewhat similar service to Foursquare and Groupon.  

The application gives users access to offers stored on the app from various retailers. The offers can be redeemed online or offline. The app, like Foursquare, consist of a location-based technology giving users access to a map and directions to the stores and businesses offering redeemable deals. 
Additionally the app also provides Visa cardholders location to the nearest ATMs.

When launched, the Visa had 50 chosen retailers offering deals to their account holders through the app. The chosen businesses participating are inclusive of New York & Company, Holiday Inn, Hard Rock Cafe, 24 Hr Fitness & many more.

The app also gives users the option to customise the offers available on the app to their preferences. The users would simply have to select as many categories as they like to personalise the deals offered. The line of options are inclusive of purchases such as entertainment, travel, food, clothing, accessories and other commercial goods.

Visa also adopted a marketing and promotional approach with the app to attract more consumers, by offering extra special offers additional to the offers available to users to their account holders with Visa signature cards.

Creating an app is now considered a marketing tool and companies have various options in terms of choosing an app's functions depending on the relevance to their business trade. 

Pipon Solutions advises clients when appropriate to consdier constructing and designing apps to engage and interact with their customers in and through different channels. The Visa app is an excellent example and very innovative app for the company, as it gives it more personality and dynamism.

Facebook Release Top 10 trends of 2010

Following the likes of Google and Twitter, Facebook have recently released their own top trend of 2010.

Facebook acquired the top trends by analyzing status updates across 236 countries, and comparing each of the phrases' occurrences and rates between 2010 and 2009. The ones with the most increased percentage and volume were chosen as the top 10 trends.

The results emphasize the differences between Facebook, Twitter and Google. Facebook's top trend, 'HMU' meaning 'Hit Me Up' defines the engagement on Facebook as more of a communicative channel in comparison to Twitter. That's how we engage on it too, here at Pipon Solutions.

More detail on the Facebook's top trends can be found on their blog here.

Google Hope For Star Trek Future

Google reported another acquisition last week, to help them bring their Star Trek visionary concept to life. The acquired company, Phonetic Art, specialises in speech synthesis and Google hope to utilise it to enhance its voice output services. Google aims to integrate the technology into its products and services, to translate text to speech and address users with a more natural voice.

Google's speech technology manager explains that the concept and desire originates from Star Trek. He explains that "...in Star Trek, they don't spend a lot of time typing things on keyboards-they just speak to their computers, and the computers speak back," he says. "We're confident that together [with Phonetic Arts] we'll move a little faster towards that Star Trek future."

Phonetic Arts based in Cambridge, focuses on building technology that create expressive speech more humanly toned for computerised products. Meaning they specialise in creating features to make computers speak any text in any voice.

A Google product, which would benefit from this acquisition, is Google Translate. It is already equipped with the capability of translating text to speech, however with Phonetic Art advanced expertise; we at Pipon Solutions believe this could push the limitation it holds.
Additionally, it is possible Google could utilise this to translate Google search to a more interact multimedia platform, similar to Qwiki.com

Google Acquired Widevine, For YouTube?

We previously wrote a post on Google's new approach to YouTube services and features. Well Google has recently made a acquisition to broaden their video platform and it is believe this could be also part of YouTube's reform.

The acquisition of Widevine was reported last week on the Google blog. The company provide an on-demand video service recognised for its multiplatform DRM and adaptive streaming technologies.

The company's specialties is providing protected and branded video through multiple channels.
Additionally, it procure digital rights management technology licenses to company protecting their content from piracy.

The beneficial aspect of the Widevine is that their one of technology consist of a adaptive streaming feature, which functions by detecting a users bandwidth and follow by adjusting the video to comply with it. Superbly, Widevine is designed for mobile devices, and also works on desktops.

Pipon Solutions concur with buzz surrounding the industry, refering to Google's attempt to start providing premium content on their YouTube platform. This would be a direct competitive approach to Hulu, which already provide premium content. Premium content would provide YouTube with a better revenue stream in addition to their advertising based revenue.

Google Promotes Easy Access To Alcohol On The Web

Google has recently extended their advertising policy covering the promotion of hard alcohol and liquor. The policy was first introduced two years ago, allowing the promotion of branded hard alcohol and liquor.

The policy permitted ads promoting websites offering information about an alcohol or liquor brand, the  products or cocktail made with the products.

The latest policy now permits ads promoting websites selling hard alcholol and liquor online, ads directing users to retailers selling alcoholic products or featuring sales promotions on hard alcohol and liquor.

Now here at Pipon Solutions, we can't help by wonder how is this suppose to combat against underage drinking, especially here in the UK. The Licensing authorities, in charge of permitting the sell of alcohol in UK, have admitted of not having an effective approach to prevent alcohol being sold to minors on the internet. All is needed is a debit/credit card and the card holders address. However certain retailers' websites such as; ASDA and Tesco allow delivery of items in alternative addresses.

By allowing this policy Google could be accused of allowing easy access or worse baiting misuse of alcohol.
Their approach on preventing such as inevitable threats is to force advertisers, ads and websites to comply to certain restriction, which are mentioned on the Adwords Blogs entailing

 "...(but not limited to) not targeting minors, not implying that drinking alcohol provides certain advantages, and not showing inappropriate content". 

However, it is also mentioned that further restrictions apply in relation to the country being targeted.

Google explains the reason for changing the policy as a way "to help more advertisers use AdWords for the promotion of their products". From a marketing point of view, this does open a new market to target, and also acquisition of potential new clients.

However this could also potentially raise the debate on ethical advertising and marketing.

What do you think?

Ping Me, Write On My Wall, Message Me…Video Call Me?

Pipon Search Solutions utilizes various communicative channels to get a word to our client, or family and friends. The most used at the moment is Google Talk, Facebook, MSN but as some of our clients are international (also some of our friends and family) we also use Skype.

So on hearing the rekindled speculation rekindled that Facebook might integrate Skype on the platform seemed like an early Christmas presents. 
Last month Skype publicized a deep Facebook integration, which created speculation that Facebook might implement Skype video chat functionality within the social network platform; however nothing has been established…yet.

The rekindled assumption arose from a Facebook application developer, Tal Ater, who claim to have uncovered a “Video Chat object in Facebook’s code”
The application developer suggests that the code is possibly still at a testing stage, and could only be available to some users as it does not appear every time the page loads. He also describes the code as holding some properties similar to Skype and Skype user IDs.

If the speculation holds any truth, it could mean that Facebook plans to build its very own video chat feature, which would allow Facebook users to also video chat with Skype users without Facebook account from the social network’s platform.

However, claims of Skype codes on Facebook have been reported since 2009 and Facebook did respond to previous claims by confirmed that it was testing the feature, however it had no intention in launching it to its users.

The company’s business strategy and their latest messaging system, which both aim to connect all its users through a more seamless and synchronized communicative channel across multiple platforms, could potentially push Facebook to launch its Skype feature soon.

Black Friday: The Brightest Day In The US Last Week

Black Friday, American’s starting point for Christmas shopping following the Thanksgiving holiday; witness a significant figure in online sales this year, $648 million (£417 million).

ComScore reported this Black Friday sale to be a 9% increase in comparison to last year Black Friday. The report further indicates several increases in online spending in comparison to last year within the US.

For instance, during the recent seasonal holiday in November, an expenditure of approximately $11.64 billion (£7.49 billion) has been reached, which is a 13% increase from the previous year.
Additionally, a further increase in online sales was reported on Thanksgiving Day; at $407 million (£262 million), 28% more than last year.

Gian Fulgon, chairman of comScore, explained this year’s increase in online spending by stating: “Although Black Friday is known for the flurry of activity occurring in brick-and-mortar retail stores, online shopping is increasingly becoming the refuge of those preferring to avoid the crowds and long lines”.

He further points out that the online sales figures is the largest spending this year to date in the US, and that the Thanksgiving figures has never reached such amount in the past, due to “low buying activity” historically on this day.

The reason behind this surge has been explicated as deriving from the influence “online channel” affect offline shopping activities. Consumers were utilising online resources on Black Friday to plan in advance for the day’s events.

Numerous retailers utilise this Black Friday as an internet marketing strategy to boost their sales. Therefore, whilst consumers researched on offline deals; they would have exposed to more lucrative online deals.

ComScore reports also illustrated that the number of visitors in coupon sites was 3.6 million, a 4% increase from the previous year. Furthermore, increases of 16% to 7.4 million visitors were especially visiting the Black Friday category on the sites.

Top Site Visited On Black Friday for Black Friday:

BlackFriday.info        630,000 visitors
CouponCabin.com     543,000 visitors
RetailMeNot.com      332,000 visitors 
Groupon.com           332,000 visitors

Pipon Search Solutions continue to advise our clients to utilise seasonal events as paid search marketing approaches, to drive their sales and increase their ROI.

However, Black Friday is not the only online seasonal event expected to successful gain this year, Cyber Monday is another event, which should also be interesting to utilises as an approach.

Check-ins, The New Loyalty Programs for Businesses

Mobile marketing has witnessed a rise in apps providing local check-ins deals for businesses. Speculations are surrounding the use of mobile in affiliation with shopping online and offline, or both to increase during this holiday. These apps have been designed to facilitate the shopping experience.

These apps work by establishing platforms where both users and businesses can engage. Users are offered deals for the amount time they trade within a business establishment.

The apps also feature social networking platforms, allowing users to find and interact with friends. They also allow users to search and locate business establishments utilising the same apps. They additionally inform users of business establishments located near their location, utilising the mobile device’s GPS. 
Currently, the most popular app providing these services within the industry is ‘Foursquare’.

The growth in Check-ins application is constant; however they are still nowhere near mainstream activities. Facebook’s decision to update their mobile application with the inclusion of a check-in feature illustrates the innovative significance of these applications within the industry.

Small businesses owners have been reported to have shown interest to these latest applications, but find the process a little too overwhelming.
Recently a new application has been reported to be able to find a solution of those small business owners. Named ‘PlacePop’, the application provides the similar feature to other check-ins apps like ‘Foursquare’ but in a different approach.

PlacePop, created Kent Lindstrom former CEO of Friendster, is still relatively new in the market but growing steadily. It has been reported to hold a huge difference to other check-ins application such as Foursquare, which is simplicity.

The originally concept for the application was similar to the other check-ins apps, to allow users to share their favourite retail outlets with friends. However the concept eventually changed and developed to a loyalty program for small businesses.

The new concept is aiming to eliminate “punch card” hand-outs for customers and allow business owners to create them virtually instead on PlacePop.com.

Loyalty programs works once a business owner signs up on the website, and create deals such as, offering freebies to returning customers. PlacePop will assist on keeping tracks of the returning customers as they check-ins on every visit. 
Once loyal customers are eligible for deals, PlacePop automatically contact the customers through messaging services letting them know how to redeem their reward.

One of PlacePop representative expresses their confidence in the application in stating that: “Place Pop isn’t about collecting badges, it’s not a game, it’s about loyalty rewards. Local deals, that’s what’s going to drive the space.”

At Pipon Search Solutions, we concur with their statement and find these apps to be revolutionary. They could be one of the innovative ventures to force both the real and virtual world together.

Tell us what you think of these apps?

Google Wants To Take YouTube to the Movies

YouTube has had its share of blows with the industry this month in reference to their advertising performance. Hulu, an alternative video platform to YouTube, reported a 1 billion ad impressions this month; however both Google & YouTube have only reported 170 million ad impressions.

Some explanations surrounding the differences suggest that Hulu is leading because of its longer contents, which YouTube do not hold and is recognised for its shorter content.

This could be the reason for Google’s latest acquisition inquest for its video platform. As it turns out, Google is trying to acquire Miramax, the film studio behind some of the greatest films in cinema history; such as Pulp Fiction (1994), Trainspotting (1996), City of God (2002) and many more. The movie company has been reported to hold more than 700 films in its archives.

Google plans to utilise this acquisition as strategic plans to reform their YouTube platform with longer form contents. These plans could potentially produce lucrative results; it would attract more users to their platform and could even revolutionise the way we pay for movie, depending on Google’s plan that is.

However, Google is not the only ones after Miramax and its 700 films; Netflix is also interested in the movie company’s library for the same intention as Google’s. 
Although it could be argued that this strategic plans is originally Netflix, as Google hired Robert Kyncl, a former Netflix employer, as its VP of Content Partnerships in September to establish TV & movie rights deals similar to this.

Google refused to comment on the acquisition rumour by stating: "We're always talking to the studios about different things and Disney remains a valuable YouTube partner…Outside of that, we don't comment on rumour or speculation” says a spokesman.

Here at Pipon Search Solutions, we think this could cause a severe potential change in the way users and the industry utilises Google’s YouTube platform. 
Although it is too early to speculate, it can be said that this approach could surely alter a lot of things in both the internet and movie industry.

Twitter Finds Its Melody With Ping

Social network being the most lucrative and beneficial channel of communication currently has attracted a lot of attention and innovative platform from big such as Microsoft, Google and recently…Apple.

Although it is not a surprising move from the multi-billion organization, Apple has successfully established a social network for music called Ping. Like other social network, user can interact with friends, ‘Stay up to date on who, what, when, and where’. However, Ping differs from other social network by focusing heavily on music. User can follow their favourite artists, on ‘what their favourite artists are playing — and when and where they’re playing it’ Apple explains further on the site by stating that you can ‘set your inner groupie free by following your favourite artists on Ping’

Following the trends of social networks platforms, Ping also joined with Twitter to launch a cross-platform integration. This allows users to access their twitter accounts and directly share their activities on Ping as ‘tweets’.
This makes Apple the new additional company to enter the growing list of brands’ alliance within the internet marketing industry. The list consists of Microsoft’s Bing, Yahoo, Facebook, & Twitter.

The latest Twitter alliance with Apple means that the Twitter will now be able to place iTunes song previews on their site, inclusive of supporting song purchases and downloads via tweets. The features are accessible to only users residing in countries where iTunes is available.

The Ping features will be set on by defaults; however, users have the options to disable the twitter features from Apple’s social network platform. Once Ping users are connected to their Twitter accounts, they will automatically share Ping posts, likes and reviews on Twitter.

Twitter’s communication team explains the reason behind this collaboration as an approach in making twitterer’s experience richer, following Twitter’s new version that gives users the ability to access photos and videos on the platform.

 “Last month, we launched a new version of Twitter that gives users the ability to see embedded photos and videos directly through the details pane. Adding the ability to listen to music previews makes that experience even richer,” says Carolyn Penner of Twitter’s communication team.

This benefits both platforms by increasing their user’s interaction more intensely. Ping users can connect and find their followers, which amplifies the social network status. Twitter uses are rendered significant in the growth on the Apple’s social network.

Interestingly, Ping could potentially expand its growth with the social media industry once affiliated with other social network such as Facebook; however, these two companies are intertwined over a dispute which has not yet been resolved. Therefore, Ping users are only limited to twitter until matters are resolved.

Some of us at Pipon Search Solutions think that this collaboration, including all similar others, are a very good to establish strong platform interaction and better user engagement. In the social marketing sense, this alliance would be beneficial to those in the music industry, such as artists, producers and music labels etc.

However, this could also be potentially valuable to companies dealing in music trading, HMV, Amazon, and other retail store such as Asda, Tesco, and Sainsbury in the UK. 
In utilizing this cross-platform as a social marketing tool to they can engage with users to create a presence in the industry and additionally acquire data and information on the latest musical trends.

Google Preview Through The Looking Glass

Google’s last search feature, Google Instant, created a big commotion in its introduction within the search marketing industry, with numerous internet marketers dubbing it the SEO killer. However, Google recently has taken a further step in developing its search engine by creating a new search feature, ‘Google Instant Preview’.

This new feature works within the same conceptual approach as their previous search feature, which is to produce a search query’s result faster and easier.
Google Instant works by producing results as a user key in their search query, on the other hand, Google Instant Preview works by illustrating a preview of the website to the user whilst they skim through the search results.

The new feature is activated, once a user clicks the magnifying glass icon placed beside any organic results. Once activated the user would only have to scroll through all results and each will produce a preview of the site. Additionally, the preview also features a passage from the website, such as a quote. However it is unclear whether this feature is limited to only certain site.

Google mentioned on the blog the three beneficial points this new feature will provides to users;

• Quickly compare results - A visual comparison of search results helps you pick the one that’s right for you. Quickly flip through previews to see which page looks best.
• Pinpoint relevant content - Text call outs, in orange, will sometimes highlight where your search terms appear on the webpage so you can evaluate if it’s what you're looking for.
• Interact with the results page - Page previews let you see the layout of a webpage before clicking the search result. Looking for a chart, picture, map or list? See if you can spot one in the preview.

Google also mentioned that they are aware of the new features limitation and issues, which they made a statement declaring that it just temporary and would be resolved soon; “ Currently, some videos or Flash content in previews appear as a “puzzle piece” icon or a black square. We’re working on rendering these rich content types accurately. So we hope webmasters aren’t rushing to get rid of Flash – this is temporary!”

Here Pipon, we like the new feature, it gives the search engine a little bit more flare and personality. As user this tool is fascinating, it helps find specific sites faster, and avoid certain sites.The feature de-masked those sites hiding behind clever URL to attract traffic, as an SEO marketer, this feature just enhance the importance of well-designed landing pages as this would certainly affect those seeking traffics with a core keyword focus.

We notice that although its effect on the natural results is beneficial, it is the complete opposite to paid search as it hides ad text. A comment made by SEL (Search Engine Land) suggest that it doesn't affect paid results because if a user " decides they want to focus on editorial results, they're already ignoring the ads". Here at Pipon we disagree with that notion, the reason being is the instant preview clearly appears in front of ad text, which should clearly affect the CTR, and therefore the paid results.

'Topics' Makes YouTube Search Smarter

Last week, the industry witnessed YouTube trialling a new search feature on TestTube, a YouTube platform used as a testing ground for all their “recipes and concoctions that aren't quite fully baked”.
The latest trial feature, Topics, produces search results through an algorithm descriptively similar to video tags, comments, viewing patterns and shares.

The new feature works by using generic keywords inserted by a user, which then follows on to search videos related to the topics of the keyword with potential interest to the users. It is also capable of retrieving the exact video a user is searching or possibly a video of interest to a user that he/she didn't know they were seeking.

The concept behind this new feature was to keep YouTube users on the site longer, as the current time a user spends on the site has been reported at 15 minutes a day by the BBC; watching content and videos inclusive of ads on the platform.

Regardless, YouTube continues to witness growth within its platform. It just recently announced a significance increase in its uploads, which is more than 35 hours of video per minute on the site.

Here at Pipon, this new feature raises the importance of the social media marketing. Utilising video as a social media marketing tool can produce significant results to a well strategized and this new feature could potentially expand a campaign’s audience. However this would require is severe and specific video optimisation. 

We recommend trying the new feature, as it produces very interesting results.

Clash of The 'Project Titan', Gmail Vs Facemail?

A lot of people within the industry have witness the bickering battle between the dominant brands within the industry; Google and Facebook.

The dispute was over email exports and imports, which started with Facebook refusing users the ability to export their contact and friends data using Gmail. Google retaliated by banning Facebook from importing its users’ email contacts. 
However Facebook responded by establishing and letting their users know of a method to add their Gmail contact, which consist of by saving the email addresses on user’s hard drives first

This fight between the two rivals have apparently cross over from online to offline. Facebook apparently has been reported offering deals to Google’s Engineers to leave the organisation. Additionally, other reports surrounding Google 10% pay rise to its employee has been implying that in fact this was due to hold on to its engineers affected by Facebook’s offer.

Currently rumours surround the industry on Facebook’s response to Google’s latter action. Facebook has since then sent out an invitation about a special event in San Francisco which it will host. 
The rumours, originating from this announcement, suggest that Facebook is planning to unveil a new messaging system to challenge Gmail in retaliation.

This new venture, which apparently is codenamed ‘Project Titan’ and referred to a ‘Gmail killer’, is suspected to capably over take the email market, surpassing not only Gmail, but also AOL, Hotmail and Yahoo. This is believed to be possible due to Facebook’s 500 million-strong user base.

Currently the most powerful brand in the email market is Microsoft’s Hotmail/Windows Live with 361.7 million users, followed by Yahoo’s 273.1 million users and then Gmail with 193.3 million.

Although this is buzz is still referred to as a rumour, and Facebook has not made any comment surrounding this, some believe that Facebook’s wealth of information on its users would be their irresistible proposition in offering their email services.
However, it is still unbeknownst to the availability and limitation of this service, if introduced that is. For instance, it is unsure if the email service would available to only Facebook Users.

Here at Pipon, we believe in love not war, however if this rumour surrounding a new email service by Facebook shade any truth, then the industry should witness a major shifts from Google, Yahoo & Microsoft’s Hotmail.

The reason being, Facebook already holds a strong fan based and user based, and introducing a new mail service would be easily transit their success over to the new market.

Would you still use your Hotmail/Yahoo/Gmail, if you could have an email address integrated with your Facebook profile?

AdCenter Officially Now Serving Yahoo (US & Canada)

This week the US & Canada witnessed the latest integration to the merger of Bing & Yahoo!. Their entire advertising search will now be powered by adCenter, meaning advertisers now have access to both of their services, which accumulates to 27.9% of all searches according to the last stats published by comScore.

Although both companies merged and now hold an integrated search advertising program, Bing and Yahoo! still continue to develop their own individual features to deliver better results and performances catering to their users. 

For instance, Pipon recently posted news on Bing & Facebook Social affairs, consisting of socialising Bing search and excluding un-affecting Yahoo!.

In turn Yahoo! earlier this month made some significant changes to its interface, explaining its purpose as part of their continuous strategy to deliver unique user experience and to increase user interaction to help drive high quality traffic into the combined marketplace.

Although there are some negative speculations surrounding Yahoo! and Bing and also Google leading the market, Pipon can’t wait for the integration to be Global. The potential of using the combined marketplace would benefits advertisers and small businesses to reach wider audiences.

In addition, although still too early to tell as there are no indications of this, Yahoo! implementing Bing social search could benefits their overall goals to provide their clients with higher exposure and conversions. This could potentially raise their status and presences in the internet marketing industry.

PPC - AOL's Project Devil, Could It Be Apocalyptic To the Existing Display Advertising?

Presentable, extremely interactive, more relevant but most of all bigger and better is what AOL had in mind when they created 'Project Devil'. So what is it and why could it end the contemporary form of display advertising?

It is a new method of advertising products using online-magazine style content on the display advertising network. A user’s advert appears on the whole right side bar of a webpage and their ad solely occupies the ad space without any competition. The ad formats and features available range from Interactivity, video and social media integration and all in one package.

AOL launched this project last month; starting with a couple of their websites; ‘moviefone.com’ and ‘StyleList.com’. Plans are undergoing to include eight additional websites in their network by November 2010; potential brand currently campaigning on the network includes Cheerios, Macy’s, Sprint, Suave Professionals and Pillsbury Crescents. Websites not owned by AOL will also be part of the network to expand their segment.

This form of display advertising is AOL’s solutions to minimise noise within the communicative process of internet advertising. Devil reduces page clutter, keeping the acutely targeted audience focused on the client’s advert. The additional benefits, which Pipon believes is Devil’s unique selling point, is its ability to blend the adverts on a webpage they’re placed on, & interact with the visitors without their knowledge of its commercial purposes.

Granting it is too early to advise and forecast its performance and expectation, Pipon believes this could be a new web innovation, inspired from magazine advertising to give great exposure to clients, however it raises a couple of issues which if not tackled can halt its potential accomplishments.

For instance, currently cost of running a campaign on Devil is high, which in return limits their clientele to big brands. In addition to that, their display advertising structure restricts the ad placement to one advert per page, which unfortunately affects their click rates to decrease.

Dirk Freytag, SVP at AOL and CEO of AdTech claims not to be concerned in a statement by ClickZ News, where he explains that “although the inventory volume (AOL’s) has decreased, ad revenue has remained the same. The company expects its ad revenue to grow as the Devil promos are disseminated across its sites”

PPC: Google Resurrected 'Simple Ad' To Lead Businesses

Simple Ads, a notion created to help small businesses to advertise easier on Google’s AdWords. The approach, which was conceived quite a few years ago, was never officially launched because Google was supposedly never satisfied with the end results of the product. The product was intended to help small businesses use AdWords faster and more efficient by automatically creating and managing their campaign for them without the need of a third party agency.

Although the project was put on hold, Google didn’t stop their attempts to support and assist small businesses. They created various ad products which focus heavily in supporting small businesses; such as Local Listing Ads and Tags.  

Those SMBs ad product won’t the only one targeted at small businesses anymore, as early this week Google resurrected their Simple Ads project and manage to complete, and launching under the enthusiastic name ‘Boost’.

It is presumably at a testing stage within certain markets, however its functions has been posted as automatically creating campaign for business focusing on a business’s sector and information in the listing. No bidding, No keyword research, all a business need to do is set a monthly budget and Google will take care of the rest, like decide on the keyword triggers.

The only requirement SMBs are expected to ensure is a Places page set up, which is essential for setting up ‘Boost’. Working to Google’s advantage this will forces businesses create a Places page.

Pipon believes 'Boost' could be a significant breakthrough for small businesses that cannot afford services provided by internet advertising agencies. However, Pipon also believe, in comparison to'Boost', internet marketing services take a more personalized approach to help establish a successful campaign. In addition, using an internet marketing agency like Pipon provides small businesses with the flexibility of targeting a wider audience using other internet advertising programs such as AdCentre, Twitter and Facebook.

It would also be interesting to observe Boost's performance in comparison to using AdWords manually and  how Google would market this ad product to SMBs. It is too early to determine if ‘Boost’ would affect the internet marketing industry, however by simplifying AdWords, renders the program more attractive to a wider audience.

SMM: Bing’s Treasure Map creates Hunters on Facebook

Bing latest endeavours, is the lucrative and unquestionably expensive internet marketing strategy for the rapper, Jay Z, upcoming book called ‘Decoded’ published by Random House. Utilising their alliance with Facebook, they are attracting fans on Facebook to a treasure hunt to find pieces of the book in the virtual world and the real world, mainly in London and New York.

The concept of the campaign derived from the memoir’s title, ‘Decoded’, which aspires to get fans from around the worlds to unearth and decode all the pages of the book before its release next month. The processes of the treasure hunt consist of a multi-platform search experience and interactive game. For instance a user will need to go on bing.decodejay-z.com and enter the contest, which also uses the search engine map to find locations of the pages. 

The indications on Bing to the pages are all relevant to the artist’s career and music. However, if you find that you do not know some of the answers, Bing has placed a search box under the response box to help those unbeknownst to the answers.

Facebook users can access 'join the hunt' by just accessing the “Decode Jay-Z with Bing” page, and additionally the Jay-Z and Bing Facebook pages give out clues to participants.

Bing’s communication director explicates the marketing strategy as a method to create a connection with the artist’s fans base and the search engine because findings from their research defined plenty of them as being ‘heavy searches’, "So we can reach this audience with a really engaging experience that hits a topic they're passionate about and it's a great way to build affinity for Bing."(Lisa Gurry)

She also mentions that this being Bing’s first interactive game, it is somehow a test runner, and based on the amount of users interacting on the platform (decoded Jay-Z site) with outline Bing future attempt in similar projects.

This venture is indisputably grand in various scales and very well coordinated with potentially lucrative results. Both the artist and Bing are getting plenty of publicity from the campaign, however separately Bing is getting more traffic from it and the artist is also getting his royalties.

This type of social media marketing is exceptional for a business, the exposure is massively great and the interactions with the users are highly beneficial. Pipon could advise and guide a company in this type of endeavour by developing a marketing analysis of the business’s image on a social media spectrum.

SEM: Google Taking Over, Holding the Top Places

Chitika Research, the advertising network, reported in their recent study that Google holds the No.1 & No.2 spot in mobile devices as the most used search engine. This got to be a blow to Steve Jobs, who has been reported scrutinising Google’s products during Apple’s conferences.

The study declares Google as being the source of 97% of all iPhone search traffic, which was based on all searches made via the safari toolbar and the Google home page inclusive of the Google app.
Chitika’s conclusive analysis showing that Google holds the two top spots is based on their findings that users are utilising the Google home page on safari instead of the Apple application’s toolbar.

The second spot is reserved for Google App on the iPhone as the largest search engine. Yahoo is reported as falling behind at 2.25% behind Google. Bing, however, has been hard to distinguish because the app’s traffic cannot yet be identified.

Regardless, comparing the data gain from the ratings for Bing and Google apps in iTunes, it has been reported that Bing app’s traffic can fall between 1% and 4% and all of its traffic is estimated to only amount to half of Google’s.

With this type of stats, Pipon believes the importance of tackling mobile devices for internet marketing is higher than ever. The introduction of the latest devices further expands this communication tunnel.

SMM: Don't Be Put off by the woe of Social Media

A study reported that only 16% of internet users trust social networking, which is caused by the recent news surrounding social media and its breech of privacy. The study by Vision Critical also reported that the users' faith in forums and blogs are even lower.

Pipon believe that such stats could potentially shatter businesses with hope or plans to dabble in internet marketing but don't be put off, I'll give a few tips to better interact with social media users and create trusting relationship.
The main points to focus on to establish a trusting relationship with social media users are:
- Riposte
- Visibility
- Appreciation
Riposte

Have you ever enquired about an issue or seeking information from an organisation and ended up getting frustrated over the endurance of the response? Well if you haven’t then, you’re either holding an important role or you’re very lucky.
However, Riposte is about responding to your customer in timely manner because that it is the only way a user can judge an organisation’s dependability. Pipon advises its client to always respond to a customer as quickly as possible, even if it is just to advised on a more detailed follow up.

Visibility

The reason behind the Riposte is because, offline customers usually define an organisation by its employees’ professional mannerisms and idioms and because internet users cannot see who they addressing themselves to, they rely on a business’s accuracy and pace when responding. Employing this method of giving an organisation a representative is one of the advice, Pipon give to its clients.

Small businesses can upload pictures of their directors in their social media profiles, or blogs to allow customers to get a better picture of whom they are trading with. Medium or Large businesses can apply the same methods of uploading pictures of their teams working or in their past times.
This method allows internet users to know that they are various ways of contacting an organisation and make them feel comfortable to express their sentiments about your products or services.

Appreciation

Last but not least showing a sign of appreciation goes a long way. Simply sending a last message thanking internet users for their enquiry or complaint can establish a strong relationship thus creating loyal consumers.

Here at Pipon we understand, practice and encourage the use of these methods because we believe that social media is an essential tool in creating a strong and positive relationship with consumers.

SMM: Scan Me & Find Out

There's been a growth in barcode scanning, a component available in most mobile devices, in the US this year. The growth, up 700%, has been reported by a new consumer adoption survey sponsored by ScanBuy.
The reason behind this huge growth is presumably caused by the large amount of apps created, such as ShopSavvy, CheckPoints, RedLaser, ShopKick and many others.
The process of scanning a barcode, which consist of placing a compatible mobile devices over a barcode usually placed on a product in a retail environment or on an interactive advert, has grew effectively as a popular and accepted practice amongst a lot of consumers.  
Apart from the irrefutable exceptional growth of barcode usage, the report also produced some intriguing stats. For instance, the practice of barcode scanning was higher solely in July this year in comparison to the whole of 2009. 
Barcode Scanning is predicted to soon enter the mainstream of faster communicative practice amongst B2C. Once it evolves to more than just a concept to those advanced in the tech world.

Amazon just recently launched their latest version of their iPhone app, which established a bridge between the offline and online sales world imminently. The app allows its user to scan compatible products in a retail environment with an iPhone using the barcode scanning system, and users can either purchase the items on Amazon using the app or add the items to their wish lists. This barcode scanning app benefits Amazon buy allowing them to engage with their consumers and potential customers, in both the real and virtual world.

Here, Pipon, we believe the practice of barcode scanning could be an essential method of engaging with in social media marketing. With the large demands of mobiles devices and the large increase of mobile users, businesses could potential benefits by using barcode to interact or attract consumers to their causes. For Instance, the survey reported that in Japan, businesses use barcode to engage with customer by promoting coupon.

SEM: Bing Met Tweet, but Got in Bed with Facebook

The latest storm in the SEO world is the partnership of Bing and Facebook creating a new term 'Social Search' which they announced last week during a press event. The whole internet world witnessed the alliance between two internet marketing practices.

I wrote a similar but diminutive post a while back regarding Bing and Twitter's affair on a social tab on Bing (Query Meets Tweet While Searching) and in comparison to Bing's latest partnership, it can easily be perceived as a mere fling in contrast. Bing and Facebook's alliance could restructure the whole SEO spectrum and generating more room for Social media.

We will start witnessing some of changes caused by the partnership almost straight away, and others in the subsequent weeks and months. Altering the way individuals view search and social networking, was the notion behind this affiliation. Both companies believe conducting a query should be lifted to a more social and personal level.
The mention of two new features 'Facebook Likes' and 'Facebook Profile Search' on the Bing's search engine is the starting effect of this association, which is predicted to be launched imminently. 
The feature 'Facebook Likes' will work by providing results to a user's queries inclusive of their friends 'Likes' using Facebook. Placed at the top of the results page will be sites or link relevant to the query that a user's Facebook friends may have liked.
This concept originate from the belief by Bing that people will trust their affiliates' (friends, family, colleagues) opinions better than a stranger's reviews or a computerised system's results. Additionally, Bing hopes such personal results will attract more or create loyal surfers.
The other feature is to enable user to find people they are searching for easier. A research by Bing on search queries reported that 4% of queries are on seeking individuals; there erupted the notion to design the feature. This feature will work by utilising share network and friends to help users find the correct person's Facebook. In addition, users will be able to see from the search results; the person’s mutual friends, add the person as a friend or message them without leaving the result page.

Clearly these features do raise some issues, whilst reading about this some alarms rang in my head especially in reference to privacy issues. However, conscientious to this, Bing constructed an option to allow users on Facebook to opt out of this enhanced results by disabling it. Additionally those opt-in to the features, their Facebook information will be limited on the results pages, only the information made public by the Facebook user will visual.

Here, Pipon we believe this alliance was established to benefit both Bing and Facebook; by allowing Bing to target Facebook users to their search engine and for Facebook to drive their users to utilises their social media profiles to its full potential as a result empowering the social search, by personalising search results.
However, in more created scale, I feel that this alliance will give social media more power, once established and successfully engaging with its search users. For example, social search could soon influence the sales of products and services.

SEM News: A Shift in the Google’s Structure, What Are They Up To?

‘Marissa Mayer’, if you deal in SEO or Internet Marketing, then that is a name you should be familiar with now, because I’ve only come to acknowledge her since starting this Internship.

The latest buzz in the industry is her new job position, moving from overview the search department to handling the ‘location and local services’ department within Google.
Some may consider this un-news worthy but they would be wrong, because Mayer was not only recognised as the first female vice president engineer for web search, but she also played a significant role in designing, developing and evolving Google’s search interface.
She was involved in the launch of 100s of features and products on Google.com especially the latest innovation by Google, ‘Google Instant’.

In retrospect, Mayer could be regarded as an asset and Google has made it clear in their recent statements: “Marissa has made an amazing contribution on search over the last decade, and we’re excited about her input in this new area in the decade ahead”.

However, here at Pipon, we can’t help by feel like this is just a mere step to an overall development within the company, and the location and local services are part of the whole operation.
Mayer’s move from one sector could be interpreted as a significant shift by Google.

This surely raised my anticipation and some questions about their future novelties; From Google Instant, Now Google TV & Automatic cars...one can’t help but wonder what’s next and also how would they benefits SEO, if any or possibly kill it?

Search Engine Marketing: Google TV – Official Site unveiled

Google TV has been anticipated since sparks started flying about its undeclared launched early last month.

The official site has now been launched, consisting of an overview of the platform and pictures illustrating the potentials of Google's latest invention.

This latest Google innovative feature gives television viewers the ability to surf the web inclusive of search and record programs. It also enables the viewers to watch TV and surf the web simultaneously due to an app gallery available on the TV screen. An inclusive feature also allows the use of a Smartphone as a remote control.

The new Google TV website conveys a lot of information regarding their product, from a list of their partners content to the available channels inclusive on the platform.

The content partners and providers consist of The New York Times and USA Today, Netflix, VEVO, Napster, blip.tv, and many more including Twitter and YouTube.

The channels featured include TNT, CNN, Cartoon Network and Adult Swim; NBC Universal including CNBC Real-Time; HBO with HBO GO; NBA has built NBA Game Time and many more.

Twitter pointed out that their application integrated on Google TV will be somehow similar to their current; easy navigable and holding most Twitter's features and functions.

Pipon Search believes this latest innovation creates a new medium platform allowing marketers to reach a larger audience for PPC campaign, however it holds a great deal of potential which has not been or cannot yet be established. Google has conveyed a related perception on the site; “The coolest thing about Google TV is that we don’t even know what the coolest thing about it will be.”

More details information can be found on Google TV sites.

Social Media Marketing: The Bid Is On, To Be The Top Account

Twitter has added a new feature to its Advertising application, called ‘Promoted Account’. This enables businesses to buy a placement within the "Suggestion for you" section located in the right hand panel on a user’s (Twitterer) home page.

Early last month during the AdTech convention, I attended one of the Twitter seminars that referred to their last advertising feature called 'Promoted Tweet'. It was launched early this year in April to allow businesses to broadcast their Tweet to a wider targeted audience. 

The amount of people paying keen attention to the subject of the seminar indicated that twitter’s advertising program held an interest to internet marketers and proved its possibilities to create new opportunities in social media marketing.

Relatively similar to some search engines advertising programs (Google AdWords), it works by placing the promoted tweets at the top of a search results in relevance to the users' search query. There is an additional feature available to all clients giving a choice to pay extra to highlight their promoted tweet as ‘Promoted’.

On the other hand, Twitter’s Promoted Account feature uses an algorithm to establish which ‘Promoted Account’ should appear to which users. For Instance, if a user follows a lot of Xbox-related accounts but not the official Xbox account then this one will appear within the ‘Suggestion for you’ section. 

Twitter further explains on one of their entry blogs, that only one ‘Promoted Account’ will appear per set of suggestions to avoid users being bombarded with other ‘Promoted Accounts’ they are not interested in.

Currently, there is a limited number of businesses featured which is Twitter’s method of testing out their new advertising features and in addition it has not yet been reported if the advertising features can be used by all users including personal accounts.

Twitter has also mentioned that they are testing two potential ad features called ‘Promoted Tweets’ and ‘Promoted Trends’ with a selected number of partners.

Pipon’s perception of Twitter's latest features is that it could prove to be another option for doing paid marketing but on a MicroMedia platform, which is different and more direct when compared to Facebook. It is an ideal method of trying to target a larger audience to engage with.

Social Media Marketing and Social Media Monitoring are services Pipon provide to their clients and they believe it is essential in the overall establishment of a successful internet marketing campaign.