Penang Stencil Art

Follow a bus line on Twitter or Facebook? Only in Penang...

Penang version of Queen Victoria Market

Petrona's Tower (Singular)

Wondermilk Cafe in Kualalumper: Doing wonderful things with milk since 2009

Big beers, tiny glass-What does that say about a bar?

Last week I spoke on Skype to Amit.

Amit lives in New Delhi, and has been working for me for the best part of 5 years. Amit is an outsourcer who has a great job at various programming and SEO jobs for me over the years.

The reason I was speaking to Amit was to go through some details about an exciting journey I am making next week. I will be going to visit and meet first hand, “My Team”

I am feeling both excited and nervous about this trip I am going to make. I will be meeting with people I have worked with every day for the past 3-4 years – but have never met face to face, which would in everyday situations be a little weird, but is common place in today’s hyper connected world.

First stop will be New Delhi.

In New Delhi I will catch up with Amit and the team who do all my web development work. “My Team” here consists of 3 designers and programmers who I have come to know very well.

Next Stop will be Pune. In Pune I will meet “My Team” that do all my SEO work. This is a highly specialised and skilled team who have been working for us for over 3 years. “My Team” consists of around 25 individuals who perform various tasks in the SEO process, and together, perform an amazing service for myself and my clients.

Last stop is Goa. In Goa I will meet Satish, who along with 3 colleagues makes up “My Team” of data entry and research. Satish is taking an overnight train to meet up with me.

I am really looking forward to further building my relationships with “My Team” and feel this is a valuable trip that will not only benefit “My Team” and myself, but also help us both work together to provide a better service for “My Customers”

Have you met “Your Team”? What was the experience like? What have I got to dread/look forward to? I would love your advice

“Videos, properly submitted, are 53 times more likely to generate a first page Google ranking than traditional SEO techniques, according to a recent study by Forrester Research.”

Now, I have always known about the potential of video SEO, and have touched on it for clients over the past few years – but never really given it the attention it deserved

After reading the above article, I started doing some research on some key areas to find the competitiveness of key local search terms on Youtube, just to see what I was up against.

To somewhat surprise, I discovered the Australian local video optimisation landscape is next to non-existent. People are making videos, and there is certainly some savvy business owners out there who are taking the first step, but the optimisation of the video listings has a lot to be desired.

Some current results:

• Financial Planner Melbourne
• 59 Search Results
• 11 “All in title” Results

• Melbourne Accommodation
• 428 Search Results
• 28 “All in title” Results
• Melbourne SEO
• 239 Search Results
• 30 “All in title” Results

• Real Estate Melbourne
• 1580 Search Results
• 55 “All in title” Results

Note: ‘All in title’ results means videos that have those keywords in the correct order. This gives us an even better idea of the number of other videos we are competing against. To search ‘All in title’ results, just type “allintitle: keyword” and replace ‘keyword’ with your chosen niche.

The above results are some pretty competitive terms. As an SEO company, if someone were to call to me wanting to rank for any of those local terms I would tell them to expect no quick results, and a lot of hard work form both my team and the client to help them get there.

Video marketing on the other hand may be the ‘backdoor’ we have looking for.

According to the same Search Engine Watch article goes on to say “Results begin to appear in days, and some publishers succeed in getting 25 percent or more of their videos to produce first page results.”

I am certainly one guy who is more than convinced. I have opened up iMovie on my macbook, and am firing up the webcam.

3-2-1….Action!

Over the next few weeks I will be running some video optimisation tests using video sitemaps and various Video optimisation techniques so stay tuned.

Source: http://searchenginewatch.com/3636282

First off, I will start by saying that I have not been paid or encouraged in any way shape of form to make this review. I was simply a consumer who used their service and was impressed by the concept.

Last weekend, I was away with my Girlfriend in beautiful Tasmania. The weather was amazing, the food great, and we had a great time. After exhausting ourselves throughout the day on trips to various tourist sites, we returned via Woolworthes to pick up some food for dinner, and thought about buying a DVD to watch in the hotel room.

After looking for a while, we baulked at paying over $20 for a B grade DVD, and something we would most likely only watch once.

As we were exiting, the Oovie DVD Rental machine caught my eye. I have seen these before (My local supermarket has one too), but had never really stopped to see how they work, or what they offer to a consumer.

I was pleasantly surprised by the ease of use, the DVD selection, and the whole DVD delivery and return process.

Now lets get this straight, I am not trying to close down business’, or remove people’s livlihood-but seriously, these machines could easily overtake traditional DVD retal stores with some clever marketing and consumer education.

Some of the best features of the system include:

• No Memberships
  Just swipe your credit card and the DVD is yours for the length you decide to keep it
• Cheap Rental Fees
  A $2.99 where looking at a rental cost similar to a mail order DVD service, or an itunes movie rental
• Email receipts
  You have the option of having tax receipts emailed directly to an email of your choice-awesome.
• Return it ANYWHERE
  If you are on the road, simply return your DVD to any of the machines around Australia. Great for travelling and convienience.
• Like the DVD? Keep it
  If you decide you like the DVD so much you don’t want to take it back, or are too lazy to get off the couch and return it-just keep it. The max cost is about the same as buy a DVD from JB Hifi.

Now I hear you say, if the system is so good-why is everyone not using it? Why is it not a huge phenomenon and DVD stores are dropping like flies in their wake? I think its about consumer education and promotion.

Some tactics that Oovie and similar services could use to help promotion:

• Sharing rental information on Facebook and Twitter
  This is a simple one. Simply tap into the biggest promotional tools around and give consumers the option to auto publish their latest rentals and broadcast them to their friends.
• Instore demos
  Simply having staff manning the machines during peaks times, handing out free rental codes and showing people how to use the machines would go a long way to help consumer understanding of the machines.
• Social Website
  Create a website where customer can login and see and share their DVD rental history. See titles that suit their previous rental interests, and find locations to rent these DVD’s
• Bluray anyone?
  Surely this service should offer Bluray rental considering it’s the  latest technology on the market?

The DVD rental business is a an evolving market. No-one really knows where it will be in 5 years with the increase of streaming movie availability and faster internet speeds. That being said, Oovie has nice opportunity to take on and chance this evolving market and really make some waves in the industry.

For more information visit Oovie.com.au

Google instant sets to put the way we were used to searching on speed, with the new version of Google released which displays results as you type.

When typing a search query with Google Instant, results start to appear as soon as even one letter is typed, and the results change and update as more of the search query is entered - Google tries to predict what you are search for.

This is VERY Cool.

According to Google, a typical user spends 9 seconds entering a query, and 15 seconds searching for answers. Google hopes to shave 5 seconds per search using Google instant.

Now as much as I love innovation, and love all the stuff Google is doing to help users get exactly what they want, as an SEO provider, changes have a two fold impact:

1. A change makes me cringe that I will have to revisit and reevaluate many of the SEO campaigns I have under management
2. I see it as a challenge and oppurtunity that is levelling the playing field a bit for a younger player like myself, against some of the more seasoned veterans.

As I was going through and checking the changes, I came across the following questions that remain unanswered:

Google Keyword Selector Result Skew?

Google analytics is gold for online marketers around the world. It is the only real insight we can gain into prospective markets we are not in, and is a great tool all round.

The way Google instant displays results, what does google consider a ‘Search Query? Is a search query when a user has stopped typing into the search bar? Is a search query when a user clicks on a result on that page?

What if a user types ‘Melbourne’ views the results, then continues, ‘Melbourne Water’, then realises they meant to finish the query as ‘Melbourne Water Rat Problem’, the three results are vastly different, but will result in two highly skewed keyword numbers.

What will Google consider a ‘Search Query’?

Inflated Google Adwords

If I am completing my search query, I will see all results that are supposed to be displayed for all the terms that make up my query, instantly as a type.

But will this always be what advertisers want? If I am an accomodation Provider, I will want my ad to be displayed when someone searches for ‘Melbourne’, but if what they are searching for is ‘Melbourne Strip Clubs’, I may not be as interested.

How will this impact on Google Adwords spend and budget? How will the increased traffic numbers affect the Impressions, Conversion rates, click through rates?

Organic Traffic Quality

Continuing the theme from above, by displaying my website to people who might not exactly be after whatever I am selling (By selling I mean your product/service), is the quality of my traffic going to decrease? Will my traffic numbers increase, but my conversation rate decrease?

Google: Make these changes, keep growing and expanding, but help us to move with you – a little help?

Being a free medium, its a practical gold mine for communicating and engaging existing and new customers in a very ‘social media’.

This week, I was encouraged to see a local favorite of mine ‘Cafe Italia’ jump on the horse, and start a fun and simple twitter campaign, to promote their restaurant, and encourage new diners to try them on the busy and competitive Lygon Street strip, in Carlton, Victoria.

Quick facts
Twitter ID: twitter.com/cafeitalia3053
Following: 559
Followers: 216
Average Tweets per day: 3.7

Cafe Italia is a an Italian restaurant located on University street, Carlton, which is a side street off the infamous Lygon street ‘Little Italy’ precinct in Melbourne, Victoria.

This past week, Cafe Italia have taken to promoting a special ‘Pasta and Gnocchi’ celebration, to highlight their fresh pasta and hand made gnocchi, and have been doing a stand up job at that.

Some of the important factors that Cafe Italia have been getting right are:

Casual Conversations
Cafe Italia have been reaching out to those who @ reply them, RT them, or follow them and communicating to them in a natural way.

Have purpose
Cafe Italia had a clear purpose and agenda for their use on twitter. By having something in mind when you are using twitter for business, you can slowly work towards your end goal – whatever that is!

Make your followers happy
Cafe Italia ran a competition throughout the week, entered simply by RT’ing a promotional message about the restaurant. Having giveaways and freebies for fans costs you very little, gets a customer in the door, and creates buzz in the wider community.

Although these guys should be applauded for taking the plunge and doing so much right, they can certainly do a some things to further enhance their profile.

Here are two ideas I would recommend right away to these guys:

1. Promote Social Media profiles on website
Cafe Italia has a website which is looking a little tired, and has no social media integration. If you are a small business and using social media to build your profile, interlink EVERYTHING.

If someone goes to your website, make sure they find out about your twitter and facebook profiles, and vice versa.

2. Customize your profile
Although there are HEAPS, of really feature rich and cool Twitter desktop and mobile apps out there, fact is, most people still use Twitter.com to browse and reply to tweets.

Make sure your twitter background has the following distinct features:

• Company logo/Image: Make sure you have an identifying image for your business on the right sidebar of the profile
• Links and contact details: Although these are not clickable-visually they are a great call to action for the customer
• Appropriate color scheme: Make sure that your profile is attractive, and most importantly readable. Twitter allows you to choose your text colors, border colors and heaps more – so try and be sensible in your choices.

If you are a small business, I encourage you to embrace, or at least dip your toe in the social media waters.

If you are in the area, Cafe Italia is a great place for dinner in Carlton. Visit the website or call them on 9347 0638

If you are low on budget, or looking for that competitive edge, the following are some great methods I have personally used with great success, that won’t cost you a cent (almost…)

Social Media
Social media is a no brainer. In this medium, the only cost is time, and the reach is amazing.
Social media allows you to target and interact with people who have interests relevant to your event, and allows current and potential attendees to spread and share your message, and there is nothing better than hands off marketing!
My preferred social media platforms for this purpose are Twitter and Facebook.

Twitter is great for building a great list of interested individuals, to which you can use 140 characters to connect with them.
By pushing out a variety of direct event promotions, insights on topic articles, and engaging banter with your followers or potential followers, you will start to build up a reputation as an authority figure within your community.

If you have a personal Twitter account and are involved in the industry, leverage that to push more followers towards your ‘event’ account.
Facebook is another great social media platform to reach the masses. Although it is a little dependent on the event type, it provides a wide variety of options including creating an event, and creating a page, both of which I recommend.

Email marketing
If you build it, they will come. Was Kevin Costner really talking about email lists in the classic movie ‘Field of Dreams’?
An email list is invaluable. If you don’t have one, build one. If you do have one, use it! With all the talk about social media, we often forget that email is a more personal form of communication, and let’s be honest, EVERYONE has email, and only a fraction have a Twitter account.
Use the emails to inform people about the event, but make sure you have a strong call to action.
Some great tips on email marketing can be found:

• 5 crucial Email marketing tips
• How to build a list
• Is Email Marketing worth your time?

Referrals
Anyone in business knows it’s expensive to get new customers. The same goes for targeting brand new potential attendees for your event.
By utilizing the contacts you already have, you will have an easier time reaching new people, and will not have to go to great lengths yourself, it just happens naturally.
The best referral techniques I have found are Linkedin and leveraging existing ticket holders.

Linkedin is an often overlooked online networking tool. It will help you find the right contacts within organisations, and give you the right people to ask for when you email, phone or contact these organisations.
Search for a business that might be relevant to your event, and find employees at that company. Go through and select those which you would like to contact and either a) Call them on the phone b) Buy an ‘In mail’ package form Linkedin which allows you to send them an email directly through the system.

Existing ticket holders should be contacted throughout the lead up to the event. By offering an incentive for referring their friends or colleagues, such discounted referral tickets, and prizes for the most referrals, you will get some great results.

Running an event is a stressful pursuit. It takes alot of careful planning, marketing, and budgeting. With some clever marketing efforts like I have mentioned, you will not only save time and money, you will go a along way to helping your event be just that little more successful.


Good luck!

With some great and inspirational speakers, a truly amazing and iconic venue in the MCG, and a fantastic array of sports and social media minds, we created an event not to be missed, and a permanent fixture on the sport and technology calendar.

The day begin with a fantastic presentation from Jeramie McPeak, VP Digital Operations from the Phoenix Suns. He spoke of the importance social media plays in fan engagement of the team, how his players are universally embracing the technology, and how the Phoenix Suns leverage social media to increase ticket sales and drive merchandise sales.

Other highlights throughout the day included:

• Johnathan Simpson form Essendon FC who spoke about how his club is leading the way in the AFL in social media use
• Anthony Harrison from Cricket Victoria who spoke at length about how the Victorian Bushrangers used social media and iPhone applications to raise the profile of its players and promote games.
• Darren Rowse who spoke about how he successfully uses his blogs to generate a revenue stream and how sporting organisations can take a leaf out of his book and begin to show ROI from online mediums
• Nick Marvin, CEO of the Perth Wildcats spoke about social media from a management perspective. This was a fantastic presentation which spoke of sport as a business first.
• Alana Fischer from FFA who spoke about building and maintaining communities for the World Cup bid
• Peter Jankulovski from Vapour Media who gave some interesting insight into fantasy sports in Australia and its amazing growth over the past few years.
• Harry O’Brien giving us a great insight as to how players can use social media to build their profile and leverage their celebrity for the greater good.

The day was a great success for everyone involved (Including Anthony, Katherine, and myself).

We had over 160 attendees on the day, over 850 tweets using our #dss10 hashtag, and many happy people during and after the event.

The organisers (Jak Events) would like to thank our sponsors Lava, Slattery Media Group, BizCatalyst SEO, 3 Dots Studio, andEventOffice, as well as our fantastic volunteers Rhian and Tyson for their help throughout the day.

We cannot wait to see what we can arrange for Digital Sport 2011 – stay tuned for dates and more information, it’s going to be bigger and better!