It seems like I’m hearing more and more about the privacy concerns surrounding online marketing. While this has been an issue for awhile, it could be soon reaching a boiling point.

For a lot of people, Facebook’s Beacon initiative put online privacy concerns on the map.

I recently heard a piece on NPR regarding protecting your children from those vicious online marketers. It was just a little one-sided and motivated me to call in to the NPR show for the first time in my life--which I later realized made me the oldest person I know.

Another fascinating article, which had a similar doomsday feel, was a NYT piece entitled, “To Aim Ads, Web Is Keeping Closer Eye on You.”

And to top it all off, Anil Batra’s “Web Analysis, Behavioral Targeting and Advertising” blog just posted the following:

One New York assemblyman, Richard L. Brodsky, has drafted a bill that would make it a crime — punishable by a fine to be determined — for certain Web companies to use personal information about consumers for advertising without their consent.

While I do believe much of the fear is based on a lack of understanding; I also believe this issue will need to be addressed sooner or later--especially now that big bad Google is now allowing us to opt-in to analytics data sharing as well as target our ads based on demographics (also see this post).

Additionally, the fact that Google is uncomfortable with the title “behavioral targeting” speaks volumes as they are beginning to take tactical measures to invalidate the finger pointing.

...Keeping you protected from the savage data sharing pirates; I’ll provide updates when it’s safe to do so.

We have lots of clients asking for Search Engine Optimization.  I wish I had had magic search engine ranking powers; but there isn’t a silver bullet to ranking in search engines. 

SEOspace had a fantastic post on the value of In-Bound Linking Vs. On-Page SEO.  I liked this article for two reasons:
1. It defined some of the process necessary to rank in search engines. 
2. It highlights the symbiosis of In-Bound Linking and On-Page SEO

Check out the post here.

It doesn’t matter if you are Apple selling the “best media player on the market” or Mother Theresa selling a better way to live.  If you take more than five seconds to convey your message, the likelihood that your potential customers will stay engaged is .002 percent.  You can disagree all you want, but they probably won’t give you a second chance to convert them.  Understanding message and concept is key.

Continue reading "What Are You Doing With Your Five Seconds?"

Is dialogue leaving the blogosphere?

ReadWriteWeb has an excellent post regarding a shift in online conversations moving from blogs to just about everywhere but the comments section. Whether it’s on Twitter or attached to a social bookmarking site or even a lifestreaming service, there are more ways than ever to participate in online conversations. 

Continue reading "Digital Conversations Find New Outlets"

As part of Howard Schultz’s return to Starbucks in effort to rejuvinate the flailing brand, the coffee giant is trying something it has long refused to take part in - a social media strategy. This week they launched My Starbucks Ideas - a forum for customers, fans and critics of Starbucks to share their ideas on how to improve the Starbucks experience. Similar to Dell’s IdeaStorm, My Starbucks Idea marks their first foray into engaging in an online conversation with their customers.

Earlier this year, Jesse Kornbluth had written in the Huffington Post:

It’s interesting that Schultz professes to love Starbucks customers but has no apparent interest in hearing from us. How’s that, Howard? You’re going to thrill us without getting our input? Do you really think focus groups, consumer research and executive offsites will tell you what you need to know? What, exactly, do you think the Starbucks website is for?

So perhaps Starbucks is finally waking up to the fact that there are millions of customers with great ideas for making Starbucks a better third place. And while it’s encouraging to see Starbucks taking steps in the right direction, My Starbucks Ideas will only succeed if customers see a genuine response and action from Starbucks.