Sharon O'Dell

Sharon O’Dell is Certified in Social Customer Care

Sharon completed a certification course given by SOCAP and WOMMA in August, 2010 and is now certified in Social Customer Care.  Her name is contained in the List of Graduates with an active hyperlink to her Certificate. Sharon intends to use this certification to help clients integrate their Customer Care departments into Social Media.

“I benefitted by  learning directly from well-known Brands such as Coca Cola, Intuit and Omaha Steaks, which was an amazing experience.  I now have the skills necessary to assist my clients in knowing the correct way to implement their own programs.”

Yeah, well you aren’t the only one.  Many of our clients have experienced that and many paid a LOT of money and never really knew what they were paying for.  Sure, it’s a science.  After learning a decent amount of  SEO, I can tell you – very few clients will want to try this on their own – it is definitely a FULL TIME  job that most of then would not care to deal with.  Thus, why is it such a secret?!

Many of my clients simply tell me, “it appears to be working”, but when I ask them for specifics, I get a “deer in headlights” look and nothing further comes from their mouth.  I guess they are treating it like “insurance” against being invisble”,  which is crazy because if they have decent content they will be in pretty good shape – certainly not invisible.

Apparently, this must be very common, because Google just announced they will REQUIRE partner Agencies to be transparent to their customers when using Google services such as AdWords.  When this goes into effect in February 2011, the Agency MUST disclose specific elements to their clients (and the client will receive a report directly), which include:

Clicks

Impressions

Spend

This will give Google the credit for the results, whereas now the Agency does not have to disclose the information and can take full credit for their “wizardry” when things go well, and disclaim everything, or get paid for more “needed” changes when things go bad.  This WILL affect those agencies who are not transparent – probably in a negative way.  However, it will affect Google in a positive way – with hundreds of thousands of accounts under third party management, it will now shine a bright light on, and weed out, bad SEO Agencies so that the negativity does not attach to Google itself.

This has been coming – it was initiated in the API terms of service years ago, then was admended, then conversation began again and a common phrase was being echoed by Google:   “Mythbusting”, I heard it many times in various conversations about transparency.

In conclusion, despite the Agencies who are going to rail against this,  I say:   TRANSPARENCY =  GOOD.  Just as in any other buying scenario, the more educated your buyer is, the better the sale.  This is simply good business and, I still believe, that most of the buyers will not go out and try to do it themselves – but at the same time, they will finally have some input into the process and will feel like they are buying a quality service instead of snake oil!

KUDOS to Google!!

How much did you want to make this year?

Affiliate marketing can be very lucrative.  You absolutely CAN make money while you sleep!  However, some people take that to mean that you don’t have to work for it.  Au Contraire!  Affiliate Marketing is very competitive these days.

The 7 basic tasks to ensure you are making money with affiiliate marketing include:

1. Creating buzz-worthy Content on a regular basis – it keeps you ranked in the search engines and shows you are knowledgeable about what you are selling!
2. SEO – optimizing [ONpage and OFFpage]  for search engines keeps you at the “top of the heap” in to order garner attention for what you are selling – top 10 is gold, top 20 silver and top 30 bronze – if you are not in the top 2 to 3 pages, you have lost to the competition – start again!
3. PPC – Pay Per Click gets you even more attention since your  ”ad” will be featured in the “hot zone” where eyeballs track!  This is the “top of the heap” at it’s finest.  Can’t afford it?  Return to 1 and 2 above. At the end of the day, Content is ALWAYS King!
4. eMail Marketing – sharing your content and affiliate link with your contact list on a regular basis will result in sales.  First, you are becoming the expert on the subject in their eyes by creating content they want to read; second you are providing it directly to people who know you, and third you are giving them a conversion opportunity with the content.  Remember, it generally takes 7 contacts to garner their interest for a buying proposition!  Write to inform, to solve a problem, to fill a need, and write to sell!
5. Display Ads:  by sharing a display ad  (that has a unique identifying link for its source)  with other websites and blogs, or even in social media, you can convey features and benefits of the product/service you are recommending and create conversion.  Best practices:  link to “more information” AND the selling page, whenever  possible.
6. Review your analytics regularly to see which pages are getting “action” and which aren’t –  which are selling and which do not. Test and modify regularly!
7. Don’t forget your WOM! Word of Mouth Marketing is someting you can do ONline and OFFline.  Spread the Word in Social Media and when you are out Networking.  If you believe in the product enough to sell it,  and you tell them how it helped you, and you now sell it – you will make more sales!  People buy from PEOPLE (even online).

Don’t forget the Mobile Market place either!  Make sure you are developing your mobile marketing strategy in the near term so you can include your affiliate opportunities with that distinct audience.

Need help?  Let us know!!

[click image for larger size]

According to the infographic provided by Gigya:

Using Facebook as a Global Login ID:

• Across all sites:  46%
• Entertainment Sites:  52%
• News Sites:  25%
• B2B Sites:  37%

Using Twitter as a Global Login ID:

• Across all sites:  14%
• Entertainment Sites:  15%
• News Sites:  45%
• B2B Sites:  18%

Using YAHOO as a Global Login ID:

• Across all sites:  13%
• Entertainment Sites:  11%
• News Sites: 10%
• B2B Sites:  18%

Using MY SPACE as a Global Login ID:

• Across all sites:  7%
• Entertainment Sites:  14%
• News Sites:  1%
• B2B Sites:  3%

Using Linked In as a Global Login ID:

• Across all sites:  2%
• Entertainment Sites:  0%
• News Sites:  1%
• B2B Sites:  3%

AOL and ther IDs reported at 1% or less.

Source: Gigya. See the full infographic.

This great infographic will help you define where on the spectrum your friendships are, and help you grow them to the next level.

(Click image for a larger -easier to read view)

Thanks to Mike Auaraz:  http://www.mikearauz.com/images/spectrum_friendship.jpg

While Google already provides secure (SSL) socket layer to it’s gMail and Google Docs, today they have launched a beta secure search engine.

Why secure search? Lots of reasons…a good example would be:
.
Interlopers can see what you do by the information you send out of your computer. [Interlopers can mean a person or a bot monitoring traffic on any network]. Standard web activity is not encrypted data. So, if you type in “Iron Man 2″ in a search box, if your provider has bots monitoring the traffic on your network, or if you have some 14 year old who thinks it’s cool to monitor your unsecured Wi-Fi network traffic, then they see you are doing a search for “Iron Man 2″.

By using an SSL (https://) for Google Search – just like the banks and other websites do, they now would see **** *** * instead.
It evolves privacy to the search level, making it harder for someone with bad intentions to act on them – which is nice. While t first you just may not see the importance f it, Just think of examples you probably wouldn’t want others to see, then you “get” the reason for this move on Google’s part.

A good example would be a small business owner doing research on a business idea they have. If someone or something is monitoring your search and Internet use, it’s not a long shot to think they could figure out what you are doing – especially if they are monitoring your email as well….yes, email is also NOT FULLY encrypted and is never to be a trusted environment for ANY sensitive information unless you purchase a highly encrypted email service [which usually requires that the end recipient have a digital ID to open it].

I applaud Google for this extension of security – and privacy. It’s a step in the right direction.  In my opinion, it is going to be a great tool for them to go head to head with Facebook – who at this writing, is busy spreading our information all over the Internet without our permission and making it increasingly more difficult for those of us wanting privacy to block their efforts.

As Google brings this live, simply type in:  https://www.google.com to use it.  (https) being the important part to make sure it’s secure.

Really hard.

If you have been to a seminar on Internet Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Facebook Marketing, Blogging, or anything else that is made to look SIMPLE to do…and 48 hours later you still have not done it….

then you just may have

“Magellan Ship Syndrome”.

What is that?

It’s when seeing is not believing.

Magellan explored many islands without opposition.  The theory is that the natives did not attack Magellan as one would have expected them to do upon the arrival of  his big ships with a bunch of strange looking creatures on them.

Why?  The natives did not know what they were looking at – they had absolutely no point of reference.  In fact, they were so taken by what they saw, they laid down their spears and brought their canoes ashore. Watching the big ship with huge billowing sales was so far from any experience they had previously had, that they were in awe, welcoming Magellan and his crew, and treating them like Gods.

Lucky for Magellan he got out of town before the Natives were able to discern what he was really doing, and what would follow!

I’m Just SAYIN! that is why there are College Degrees for this stuff!

Quoted Source:  Stephen Simon, Producer

After six weeks of tons of reading, attending online classes, and taking quizzes, I am a WOM and Social Media Marketing Specialist!

WOM and Social Media Certificate - Sharon O'Dell