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Google Hangs Out a Shingle for Its Apps Marketplace

Written on March 11, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Advertising, book, marketing

Google does what Google does and it has now opened the doors on an apps marketplace that is designed for Google Apps customers. Don’t think the overlap in terminology with the other app guys is coincidence either. The difference with this form of app though is the fundamental difference that separates Google from Apple. Google provides apps that are fundamental business needs and this strategy is where the search giant appears to be hanging its hat moving forward relating to search, advertising and more.

Yesterday the Official Google blog reported:

Every day, thousands of businesses choose the cloud. More than 2 million businesses have adopted Google Apps over the last three years, eliminating the hassles associated with purchasing, installing and maintaining hardware and software themselves.

We’ve found that when businesses begin to experience the benefits of cloud computing, they want more. We’re often asked when we’ll offer a wider variety of business applications — from accounting and project management to travel planning and human resources management. But we certainly can’t and won’t do it all, and there are hundreds of business applications for which we have no particular expertise.

First of all, having 2 million businesses using Google Apps is pretty impressive. While most are the SMB’s of the world, Google has shown the world the ability to penetrate enterprise accounts as well. Of course, this hits at another of the biggest competitors against the Goog: Microsoft.

Some apps that are part of the roll out are Intuit Online payroll, Manymoon project management, PS Connect and JIRA Studio for development to manage flow between various apps.

Watching this strategy unfold is pretty interesting. There is an awful lot riding on it and it would appear that Google has more of the pieces under their roof than any other competitor does. How this plays out should be fascinating. One of the final paragraphs of the post tells the real story:

For more information on the benefits of the Google Apps Marketplace to businesses, check out our Enterprise Blog post. Developers interested in learning how to integrate with Google Apps can check out our post on the Google Code Blog. Or, you can explore the Google Apps Marketplace directly at http://google.com/appsmarketplace.

Notice the order of how these are written. What it seems to be saying is that Google wants the enterprise and is daring everyone else to find a way to stop them.

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Google Hangs Out a Shingle for Its Apps Marketplace

Google Earth Adds World War II Imagery

Written on February 5, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Object

The Google LatLong Blog announced the addition of World War II imagery to Google Earth. Now you can compare, side by side, the earth as it is today versus how it was during World War II.
Google said:
Images taken in 1943 show the effect of wartime bombing on more than 35 European towns and cities. [...]



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Google Earth Adds World War II Imagery

Report: Digital Marketing Budgets To Increase In 2010

Written on February 3, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Object, marketing

Econsultancy and ExactTarget released a new report today that says digital marketing will account for 24% of overall marketing spend this year, and 28% of firms are shifting at least some of their overall marketing budgets from traditional to digital channels.
The research was based on a survey of more than 1,000 companies around the world, [...]



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Report: Digital Marketing Budgets To Increase In 2010

Third Annual Doodle 4 Google Contest

Written on February 3, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Object

Google announced their third annual Doodle 4 Google contest today. In this year’s contest, the competition is around the theme, “If Could Do Anything, I Would…”
The prizes include, the logo being features on Google.com on May 27, 2010, plus receive a $15,000 college scholarship, a laptop computer and a $25,000 technology grant for their [...]



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Third Annual Doodle 4 Google Contest

Report: Google To Bring More “Transparency” To AdSense Revenue Sharing

Written on February 1, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Object

BuzzMachine’s Jeff Jarvis was part of a “private meeting” in Davos, Switzerland at the World Economic Forum with Google CEO Eric Shmidt and a handful of other top Google execs. Jarvis reports that Google sales boss Nikesh Arora said that Google “would consider giving more transparency about revenue splits in Adsense” (this is likely a [...]



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Report: Google To Bring More “Transparency” To AdSense Revenue Sharing

US Appeals Court Allows Google Street View Trespass Lawsuit To Continue

Written on February 1, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Object

A couple called “Boring” (yes, that’s their surname) sued Google in early 2008 for taking pictures of its suburban Pennsylvania home. The claim was their house was on a clearly marked private road (“Private Road, No Trespassing”) and Google’s Street View mobile trespassed by entering and taking the images of their home. There was also [...]



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US Appeals Court Allows Google Street View Trespass Lawsuit To Continue

Business Analytics Gets Social at SAS

Written on January 28, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Object, marketing

If you are aware of SAS, a company located in Cary, NC then you understand or have a need to understand business analytics. As the largest privately-held software company in the world, SAS often flies under the radar because what they do isn’t sexy. Instead, it is necessary.

Necessary business functions don’t get the same attention or play that the exciting new and ‘edgy’ companies get. SAS is OK with that though. If you’ve ever visited their campus and saw how they treated their employees, you may quickly value necessary over sexy. A result of this reverence for their employees, the company merited the top spot on Fortune’s Top 100 Best Companies to Work For list this year. Actually you can find the company somewhere on that list just about every year but this year it’s number 1.

So what does a company that provides some of the most advanced business analytics software and services do to better reach out to customers and prospects? Turns to social media. That’s right, it moves toward what many see in the B to B space as a potentially risky practice. If any company was able to assess risk though, SAS is it.

As part of a continuing effort to give our readers some real life examples of social media in action we are looking today into the B to B space. I have had the pleasure of getting to know the Social Media Manager for SAS, Dave Thomas (On Twitter he is @DavidBThomas). As a social media practitioner he is very good. Here are some insights offered as he guides SAS through the social media maze.

Frank: How did you get into the social media game and when?

Dave: I’ve been active in social media since 1994, when I joined my first Internet forum. My first experience blogging was in 2002 when I wrote the official blog for the Iceland Airwaves music festival, and started my own blog in 2003. I’ve always loved the openness and authenticity that social media brings to online communication. I started at SAS in 2007 as a corporate PR representative, and I now have the job of shaping and guiding our evolving social media presence for SAS.

Frank: How did SAS decide that social media is a good direction?

Dave: In 2007 we put together a group called the Marketing 2.0 Council to identify the areas we wanted to address. We came up with a short list that included blogs, social networks, video, podcasting, Wikipedia and content syndication. We realized that none of it mattered without good information to share, so we added content to the list as an overarching topic. We were looking at all of these before Twitter started to grow, but we’ve added it to the list since.

We created task forces to look at each of the areas and ended up with a comprehensive list of recommendations. The council also recommended the creation of a social media manager position, which is the job I have now, creating our strategy as well as implementation plans, and helping communicate the value of social media to all 11,000 SAS employees worldwide.

Frank: Only 11,000? No problem right? How has that come together over the past two years?

Dave: SAS has some definite advantages that help us in social media. We have a lot of incredibly intelligent and talented people who are experts and thought leaders in their fields. We also have a dedicated and enthusiastic base of SAS users all over the world who are really passionate about our products. Over the last few years we’ve seen more and more interaction among SAS employees and customers on blogs, in social networks and on Twitter, and most of that has grown organically, which is what you really want to see. We’ve grown from a few external blogs to 17 right now, and we’re working toward opening up external blogging even further. We also have a strong video presence on YouTube, and we’re working on new ways to make video more accessible and searchable.

One of the key things we did to help encourage all of this was to create a set of social media guidelines and recommendations, which we released in June of 2009. They’re not just dos and don’ts. They give examples of how to communicate effectively in different social media channels. They let SAS employees know we think it’s a good thing for them to be participating in social media as long as they’re smart about it and follow the standards of the online communities they visit.

Frank: What’s the biggest challenge for you?

Dave: There are so many areas that we could be addressing, and we need to make practical decisions based on our existing objectives, and make sure that our social media efforts integrate well with our existing marketing programs. So there are a lot of factors to consider when we approach a social media channel. We also have a lot of people who are interested in participating but already have a full plate. 2010 will have to be the year that we get serious about making social media part of everybody’s job description. Plus, when you are making big changes like this on an enterprise-wide level, there are a lot of factors to consider. I work with our legal department, our online strategy and services group, our internal and external comms teams, sales and marketing, tech support, and the people who manage our relationships with our user communities. Social media really does touch every aspect of a large organization.

Frank: What do you want the social media efforts of SAS to accomplish for the company?

Dave: One thing I’ve noticed in the two and half years I’ve been here is that there is a genuine amount of respect and affection among our employees and our users. You see that at events like SAS Global Forum, where thousands of users from all over the world come to interact with one another and with SAS employees. Social media provides the perfect tools to extend that kind of relationship and keep it going. The best thing SAS can do to promote our company and our software is to show people who we are and what we do and the value we provide our customers in a real and genuine way. I’m doing the best I can to facilitate those relationships.

Dave and I talked about a lot more. He is good guy who is dedicated to his craft. The desire to stretch and get better is probably one of the greatest assets that anyone who has social media responsibility for their company can bring to the table.

We are going to be keeping an eye on SAS and the programs that Dave puts together. The B to B space are less charted social media waters than the B to C space and there should be some fun in figuring out what works and doesn’t in reaching company goals on a case by case basis.

Look for Dave to be speaking and visit his blogs at http://blogs.sas.com/socialmedia/ and http://dbthomas.com/blog/

Thanks to Dave and we look forward to learning from him as we all progress through the brave new world of B to B social media.

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Business Analytics Gets Social at SAS

Twitter Goes Loco on Local

Written on January 27, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: marketing

Twitter is making sure that they are not left out of the year of mobile / local / smart phone etc, etc by announcing a new trending service that helps users figure out what might be the buzz about things in their neck of the woods. More and more we are seeing people getting drawn back to their lives on the move rather than behind the computer screen.

The Twitter blog tells us more about this addition

As Twitter evolves, and more people share what’s happening in their own world, we want to provide another way for people to discover topics that may be relevant to them. Last week we began to slowly roll out a new feature called Local Trends to expose what people are talking about on the state and city level, and today we’ve fully launched so everyone can use it.

The big events that come up around the world will always become a global conversation, but what about the big events that only happen in your world that only matter to those around you? Or the slight differences in the way Californians perceive an event, like Obama’s election victory, versus those São Paulo, Brazil?

Depending on how active your local area is on Twitter this is a welcome addition to the functionality of the service. I think the ability to monitor different geographic areas of interest regarding some event will be a boon to anyone interested in reporting what is happening. Using the example of the Obama election victory is a good one since he has become such a polarizing public figure it might be helpful to know what the buzz on the local streets are in your town and maybe that of somewhere that you are visiting. It can help to get a feel for the mindset of an area if there is enough of a response to the trend you are investigating.

As a tool for marketers it could do great things for research for various geographic groups as well. Understanding the ‘vibe’ of an area could even help in crafting messaging for paid search ads that are being served to that area. Of course, this will not be something that affects businesses universally but it certainly could help the right kind of business.

This year is certainly about getting down to where we live. I wonder sometimes why this has become so important. Maybe it’s because people are finally seeing that while you can have ‘friends’ all around the world via social media channels that you have never met face to face you have to live day to day on the streets of your town.

Hopefully more people will be looking to experience their local lives when they know more rather than wondering what it might be like to be someplace else.

Any local thoughts?

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Twitter Goes Loco on Local

One Week to Save on SMX West – Register Now!

Written on January 25, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Object, marketing

The Early Bird Rate for Search Marketing Expo – SMX West expires Saturday, January 30th. Save up to $350 on your All Access ticket by registering now! Here’s why:

More than 150 of the world’s most knowledgeable speakers will present at SMX West. They’re selected based on ability AND willingness to share the tactics and strategies [...]



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One Week to Save on SMX West – Register Now!

Some SEO Advice For Bill Gates

Written on January 24, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Object, seo

What do you get for Bill Gates, the richest person in the world? How about a little free SEO advice for his new blog? It could use some.
Bill, I went looking for your blog today on Google. Sorry, like many people, I have a habit of using that search engine first. What did I find [...]



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Some SEO Advice For Bill Gates