Hate-Surfing

There’s a consumer statistic that has been circling the earth since dirt was invented, or at least long before anything like the Internet existed: For every one praise your business receives, there are 10 customers complaining to family and friends about your product or service. Who knows if the math is still correct? The point is that people are much more apt to express their displeasure with your business than heap praise.

Now, however, with the advent of the Internet, there are convenient online vehicles to not only bash a business, but to do it in writing and anonymously if you like, with the ability to influence scads more people than the word-of-mouth of yesterday. Review sites like Yelp and Kudzu; social websites like Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and Twitter; personal websites and blogs; even email give individuals the ability to shotgun their message far and wide with relative ease. Today, dissatisfied customers don’t just seemingly disappear into obscurity.

As damaging as a posted complaint directed at your business can be, however, you can use the overall concept of consumer online ranting to your advantage in a research method dubbed “hate-surfing.”

Hate-surfing involves researching negative comments and posts about businesses similar to your own to generate insights that can help you run your business. You’ll find complaints ranging from issues specific to a single business—i.e. “my food was cold” or “there were bed bugs in my room”—to industry trends across the board.

To search effectively, you’ll want to first acquaint yourself with the typical language used to complain in your industry. Do people often write “sucks” or that they were “ripped-off” or “ignored,” etc.? Then, you’ll want to narrow down where you research. TripAdvisor, for example, is a popular travel industry site where consumers air their complaints. Amazon has thousands of product reviews. You’ll find lots of restaurant reviews on Yelp. Facebook and Twitter pretty much cover the gamut. When you get into the rhythm, it usually doesn’t take too long to spot mistakes that other businesses are making that may prompt you to implement changes in products, service and policy, etc. in your own company.

Hate-surfing is an effective tool that we use at Ryan William’s Agency to keep tabs on our current clients and to help prepare when pitching new ones. Although not scientific, it does offer insight not unlike a focus group. And it’s free. So what’s not to like about hate-surfing?

Did your marketing mix put on a few extra pounds last year?

A new year always holds lots of promise and lots of promises of things you are finally going to do. According to a poll conducted by LiveScience.com, at the top of people’s lists for 2011 is the eternal battle of the bulge. In fact, losing weight beat out second and third place resolutions - Being Happy and Saving Money - by almost a two-to-one spread.

Although business resolutions are generally much more varied than those of the general public, weight loss should probably be at the top of the list among companies as well. What company couldn’t stand to shed a few extra pounds of underperforming marketing efforts?

One of the first questions we ask a new client is what their marketing mix looks like currently. Is the company using television advertising? Do they have a social media campaign? What magazines or print publications are a regular part of the advertising campaign? Are they using SEO or SEM?

After getting a good idea of what advertising vehicles are in their marketing mix, we then ask how each of them is performing. At this juncture we are oftentimes magically transported to a deep, dark forest where the only sound we hear is.. crickets.

Advertising in any form needs to get results for your company. Results translate into a ringing cash register or a busy service staff or an influx of sales leads. Your company can and should determine what sort of results you need and expect from your advertising and drill that down to each form of advertising you are using to determine if that print publication or that television campaign is really paying off.

If not, it’s time to trim some fat. Carrots anyone?

SEO/SEM Explained (in Non Geek language)

Back in the good ol' days, just having a website that worked was enough for any business. "Yes, we do have a website," business owners would say proudly. "You can visit us at www.mycompany.com."

Today, having a website is just the beginning of successfully competing in this new, confusing online world. Companies looking to gain new customers via the web are bombarded with sales pitches promising strange new things like optimization and keyword traffic.

Navigating the web world is not as confusing as it looks if you know a couple of basic terms and what they mean.

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the process of making your website easier for search engines (Yahoo, Google) to find. A well optimized website will appear in a higher position when a web user searches for your category of product or service. The process of SEO involves improvements to your website such as implementing keywords, tagging graphics, titling pages and putting good text content on your site. Search engines like these things and will have an easier time finding you if your website has them.

SEM or Search Engine Marketing is the process of marketing your website through paid online marketing. SEM can take a lot of different forms, but the most common are keyword searches, banner advertisements and text ads. These types of marketing are sold either on impressions or by clicks.

Keywords are simply words that people may use to search for your product. For instance, "carpet" or "rug" would be common keywords used by people searching for a flooring retailer. Keywords can also include strings of words such as

"Palm Beach carpet store." Google Adwords is one of the best known keyword marketing services.

Pay Per Click means exactly what it sounds like, you pay for people to click on your website. Pay Per Click programs usually involve buying certain keywords. When a user searches for a keyword you purchased, your website is listed. If they click on your website, you pay a predetermined amount for that click.

Impressions are the number of people who see your ad message. An impression is not a click. It simply means your ad appeared on a page that the web user viewed.

Still confused? Stephanie Leffler from Networks Solutions gives some great tips in this four-minute You Tube video.