Larry Page & Mark Zuckerberg. (Image originally atlanticwire.com)

Every time you go online you are entering a war zone. It might not feel like it, but there is an almighty battle taking place between two superpowers and you are caught in the crossfire.

Welcome to the war for web supremacy. The super powers, if you haven’t already guessed, are the search behemoth Google and social heavyweight champion Facebook. The prize is you and your data.

Sure, there are other combatants in this war; Twitter, Apple, Bing, LinkedIn…even Yahoo!, but they are merely involved in skirmishes and are open to being co-opted into alliances with the main players. Amazon currently appears to be Switzerland (more about them another time).

The nature of systems like the web is that monopolies emerge. We have a dominant search engine in Google, a dominant online encyclopedia in Wikipedia, a dominant retailer in Amazon, a dominant auction site in eBay, and now we have a dominant social network in Facebook. That’s normal and has been happening in business for centuries.

But what happens when two different monopolies decide to battle for a middle ground? That’s where it gets interesting, and that whats happening now. Facebook and Google share common goals but differing philosophies.

Facebook is trying to create its own version of the Web, where you never really have to go anywhere else. They want everything to happen and stay on Facebook.

Google want to control the flow of information of the Web and how you access that information. They don’t mind as much that you might go elsewhere, just that you get there via one of their properties (and read their ads along the way).

Google has been the dominant force on the Web over the last decade. Search was the Web’s number one function and Google were (and still are) the King’s of search. But then Facebook exploded across the globe as the popularity of social networks grew. Now Facebook is closing in on 1 billion members and presents a serious threat to Google’s existence.

This is why we have seen Google+ launched. Its the search engine giant’s response to Facebook. Its an attempt to merge search and social in a way that will keep Google relevant and massively profitable. Many of the ideas in Google+ are good ones and designed to address some of the frustrations Facebook members express.

Google+ is already closing in on 100 million users after around 7 months of existence and is tipped to reach 400 million users within a year. Its the fastest growing social network in history. Many will argue that this is being driven by the way Google are forcing sign-up through their massive Gmail service, and the number of active users are much lower. Many are also expressing their resentment of such tactics, but all is fair in love and war and when the stakes are this high a little bit of grumbling is a small price to pay.

The latest development for Google+ is to lift the 18+ age restriction and allow teenagers to join, just like Facebook. Except the Google army are promising a “safer” experience for teens than they’ve experienced on other social networks. This move should see further growth of G+.

Google is also now blending social network data into search results. First they had an arrangement with Twitter that was heading in the right direction, but that alliance faltered last year (I suspect they will kiss and make up eventually). Now there is the hamfisted Google+ Your World which blends G+ information into search results, but as many complain, is hardly a reflection of our social “world” at this stage.

A great response to Google+ Your World was the rapid deployment of “Don’t Be Evil” by a handful of Facebook and Twitter engineers which clearly demonstrates how disingenuous Google have been.

Mind you Facebook is fighting just as hard. We have seen plenty of changes to Facebook over the last year or so including the new Ticker / Timeline. Every time Facebook makes major changes or introduces new Terms and Conditions there are groups threatening to boycott it. But we stay and we accept it and move on, and Facebook know this.

Don’t expect Facebook to take the Google+ assault laying down. I almost guarantee that they are busily building their own version of search to fire back at Google. It won’t be just another search engine, it will be a totally new take on search. That will be interesting to see unfold.

The biggest danger is a serious threat to the open and interoperable web we currently enjoy. Facebook see themselves as a platform. Google are heading steadily in the same direction. (Of course Apple has always wanted this and Amazon have been stealthily working towards this…but that’s for another post). The result could require us to move between platforms rather than a seamless web.

So who should you trust? Which side should you back in this war? Its hard to say. Most wars end with winners and losers, or in the business world, leaders and second place. With two giants fighting for the same turf despite vastly differing backgrounds its an unprecedented battle. Ideally, its best if there is no major loser here. The best outcome would be that the major players decide to accept that there’s room for all and work out how to work together. Utopian? Maybe, but its the best chance of us maintaining an open web.

One thing is certain; the future of the web will be shaped by this fight and the strategies the combatants use to win. Search and social now touch on nearly every aspect of the web and in an interconnected modern society we cannot avoid them. Putting all personal preferences and philosophical arguments aside I’d suggest its probably necessary to have a bet each way and make sure you are properly set up with both sides. Its hard to write off either Google or Facebook at the moment. They’ll both be likely to serve you well for quite a while, and if one finally crumbles (which won’t be a sudden thing), you won’t be playing catch up with the winner.

Expect to see plenty more changes and new features from Facebook and Google over the coming year. Some will be good, some will be bad, but all will be another shot in the war for web supremacy.

Andrew and Elise had a dream to launch a business that provided people with the mind-blowing experience of swimming with dolphins in the wild. They now receive bookings online every day and meet their (pre-paid) customers dockside just prior to the swim. They did it with a kickass online marketing strategy.

Don decided it was time for his innovative Australian-based software solutions company to launch in the most competitive market in the world, the USA, and compete against the might of software giants Oracle and SAP. Two years later they’ve not only launched in the USA, they’re winning a significant share of the market and exceeding all sales projections. They did it with the help of a kickass online marketing strategy.

I’m proud to say that my team at Sticky were involved in creating these and many other successful strategies for clients over the last 6 years. Now we have distilled that thinking into an e-book that provides you with the information you need to create your own kickass plan – The Sticky Guide to Online Marketing.

If you have been thinking about launching a new business, growing your current business online, or have been frustrated with your results online then this e-book is your guide to successful online marketing and sales. Its an actual step-by-step plan that you can begin following from day one to improve your online marketing and results

The Sticky Guide to Online Marketing will be released in late February but you can find out more and get your own free copy via NLYZR.

originally uploaded by http://www.intersectionofonlineandoffline.com

Ok, I’ll admit it….I’m a little bit addicted to social networks. Using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ is an important part of my work, but it probably fair to say that over the course of a day I am exceeding what is needed to effectively get the job done. When you add the many different blogs and websites I check daily for great content and industry news, I am beginning to consume an amazing amount of media.

And then it becomes a default habit, something that can easily fill the day and lead you down endless clickable rabbit holes.

I’m sure I’m not alone. These days we’re consuming more media than anytime in history. Its accessible 24/7 and sometimes it seems that we are too. The lines between work and play have become so blurred that we tend to suffer an inevitable burnout.

This year I am totally rethinking how I consume media with the aim to improve my productivity and put some more space between work and play. The approach I am adopting is based on dedicated devices and apps for different functions:

My laptop (which is also my workstation plugged into larger monitor) is now only to be used for client work, “productive work” and emails.

Client work is usually run through Basecamp and Highrise. Internally, my team and I use Yammer to communicate, share and collaborate. All 3 of these applications can also be accessed on iPhone or iPad if we’re on the move.

“Productive work” is predominantly writing; reports, posts for various websites, analytics and business proposals. I use WordPress, Joomla, Google Docs for writing. I only check work emails at work.

I also use the laptop to share material from our various websites to social networks via Su.Pr or Hootsuite as they have great analytics, but I am not opening my social networks on the computer.

I have decided to switch to my iPhone for social networking. Because it is a totally different device don’t find myself checking in aimlessly as much. Whereas I previously flitted between multiple tabs on my browser, I now tend to finish whatever task I am using the computer for first then, walk away and take a break from my desk when I decide to check my favourite networks. The result so far is less chatter, more concise communications and far fewer interruptions.

I have used Google Reader for years to help sort my RSS subscriptions and it has served me well, but now I have removed RSS feeds from my laptop as they also tended to distract me each day as new posts piled up in Reader demanding to be viewed. Instead, I have my most valuable feeds coming into Flipboard on my iPhone or iPad.

While I’ve been using Flipboard on the iPad since it launched, the release of the iPhone app has made it even better. Once again, it allows me to walk away from my workstation for a break or to check during idle time. The way Flipboard presents feeds and social media links is brilliant and best of all I can share to my social networks or bookmark for later at the click of a button.

Lets face it…chatting online can be fun, but its the information and links we share that is of most value and Flipboard is an excellent way to filter this. I find that I am actually discovering more information from a wider range of sources this way than going to my default lists and searches. This in turn broadens my actual engagement with my network.

Away from the office I am using my iPhone for posting my usual (non work related) Twitter, Facebook, G+, Instagram updates and chats.

So far the new arrangements seem to be for the better. I’ve been able to batch my real work, force myself to walk away for breaks (rather than be anchored to my desk all day) and differentiate more between social for work and social for play. I already feel slightly less addicted and a little more in control. (It has nothing to do with my recent decrease in caffeine consumption …really).

Are you rethinking your media consumption too? How are you going about it?

As I spend the Christmas break with my extended family I can’t help but notice how connected everyone now is. With ages from 5 to 68 filling the house, nobody here could be considered a Luddite.

My father flits between his MacBook, iPad and iPhone. He downloads his books and music, reads all his news online and buys golf gear, fishing gear, clothing and more online. The iPad is his favorite device.

Mum just received an iPad 2 and is doing puzzles and organizing photo galleries. She is also starting to shop more online.

My brother-in-law uses an iPad and Blackberry for working remotely and keeps up to date on international sport and surf conditions constantly.

My sister has a MacBook and iPhone in her armory and is quickly getting up to speed on the benefit of being connected.

There’s a 12 year old with his first iPhone who is using Instagram, Path and Skype whilst listening to music, playing games and taking pictures. The pressure for a Facebook account looms.

There’s a 9 year old who is making stop-motion movies on a MacBook and uploading them to YouTube. He also makes his own games on Sploder and manages his own Posterous websites in between playing Minecraft with his friends, listening to music on his iPod or playing assorted games on his Wii.

The two youngest kids, 8 and 6, have received a Nintendo DS for Christmas and know how to get online with them. They’re also Minecraft fans.

The digital revolution is no longer a generational thing, it’s all pervasive. The transfer of information, products and money is increasing online daily. Even your oldest, most loyal customers cannot be relied upon when planning for the future.

The question is: what is your organization doing to address this?

I have paraphrased a few of the best stats here or you can look through the entire infographic by clicking on “read rest of this entry”.

1. 85% of internet users have Facebook accounts; 49% are on Twitter

2. 74% of internet users use Facebook daily; 35% use Twitter daily

Source: AYTM Market Research

Its not that we aren’t an innovative race; there are some extremely talented people dreaming up many amazing ideas, and there is something of a talent rush on Aussie tech entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley at the moment. The problem is that very few of those businesses or digital entrepreneurs will remain in this country unless things change considerably. The talent, the intellectual property and the businesses will move offshore.

The other risk is that, in an increasingly global and digitally connected economy, Australia will find itself being less than competitive due to a sluggishness in adopting new technology. Once again, this rubs against the popular stereotype that we are a nation of early technology adopters. That may be true as consumers, but the corporate world appears to be less enthusiastic about embracing change and technology.

A recent global study by IBM revealed that Australian marketers are lagging significantly in tech and social media. The study showed that Australian marketers still rely heavily on traditional forms of promotion and research and are yet to embrace the more modern techniques of their global counterparts.

At the same time research by GE indicates that Australia is seen as one of the least innovative nations on earth. The GE Innovation Barometer had Australia lagging behind countries like Brazil and Finland by corporate chiefs who were asked which countries were leading the way in technology and business practices.

The question is, why are we lagging behind? Here are 5 reasons I can see:

1. Traditional geographic isolation. Geographically Australia is a long way from the rest of the world, especially the traditional economic powers of Europe and the USA. We’ve managed to go through history doings thing our own way and there was rarely any pressure to adopt new ideas and technology in a hurry. But that was before the rise of the global, connected economy of the last 20 years. These days information and innovation travel fast and the borders of commerce have become blurred. No longer can we afford to be slow on the uptake.

2. Lack of competition. This is probably a symptom of our isolation too, but the reality is that competition isn’t exactly rampant in Australia at the corporate level. We have traditionally been a nation of monopolies and duopolies; Coles & Woolworths, Fairfax and News Ltd,. David Jones & Meyer, Holden and Ford, Qantas and Ansett ..and then Virgin, Telstra and eventually Optus are just some examples. Our retail sector has recently been screaming blue murder with the advent of internet shopping and competitive forces creeping in online. They’ve gouged Australian shoppers for decades and were too slow, lazy or cumbersome to see and react to the threat of the digital economy.

Lack of competition breeds laziness and a lack of innovation. A fast-moving innovator like Ruslan Koglan becomes the automatic enemy of traditional retailers like Gerry Harvey, and in true Australian style the old behemoths will do their best to wipe out upstart competitors and seek government protection against any threats to their previously uncompetitive existence.

3. Government policy. We hear constant debates about protectionism of old industries but very little about fostering innovation in this country. Both sides of politics are to blame. While we have a handful of small innovation funds and grants they mostly seem to exist to tick a box for government. Where is the serious discussion about tax breaks for new industries, or incentives for new breakthroughs? Sadly, while governments pay some lip service to innovation they do very little to foster it culturally, relying more on our ability to live comfortably off resources.

4. We’re too resource rich. Australia’s historic wealth has been based on agriculture and mineral resources. Its provided us with one of the world’s highest standards of living, but it also has led to a complacency that may have dire repercussions in decades to come. What happens when our resources aren’t as valuable or in demand? Why aren’t we reinvesting some of this good fortune in innovation?

Finland, one of the countries we’re said to be lagging behind, is not a resource rich country. Their traditional industry is forestry and related products like matches and paper. But this highly educated nation turned towards technology in the late 1980′s and companies like Nokia became world leaders. They now have a booming tech sector (for a nation of 5 million) and a more diversified economy. My fear is that our wealth and complacency will prevent this from happening in Australia.

5. Inherent conservatism. While we see ourselves as a nation of rough and ready risk takers, the truth is that we are highly risk averse. Part of this stems from the aforementioned lack of competition and government policy, but it seems to be prevalent throughout Australian society. Banks are very unlikely to seed new business ideas here due to the risk. Corporate managers are unwilling to try new ideas and technology until it has been proven convincingly elsewhere. Failure is such a black mark in this country that entrepreneurs are less likely to go out on a limb.

The result of this conservatism is a lack of innovation and slow adoption of new technology, as evidenced in the IMB study. The new generation of entrepreneurs who are willing to stick their neck out are more likely to take their ideas overseas, especially to the USA and Silicon Valley the new mecca of entrepreneurial innovation. That’s why US-based tech funds are starting to scout here in Australia. They know the talent is here, and the ideas are being developed, but the risk takers are more likely to feel at home and much more welcome in California.

The result of all of this will be lost opportunities for Australia and a major risk of being left behind in the digital economy.

The Experian figures show that, as a result of poorly-targeted communications, eight per cent of consumers have stopped engaging with 20 or more brands. A further 27 per cent of Australians have gone as far as creating a separate email address to receive this information to avoid other email accounts from being inundated.

However, marketers are also making strides to change traditional marketing practices demonstrated by a significant 89 per cent of marketers now using a customer segmentation strategy.  In addition, 69 per cent are becoming more selective about the channels they use to engage with customers.  A key challenge identified by half (50 per cent) of Australian marketers lies in cutting through the white-noise to get messages through to the consumer.

It’s clear that many marketers are investing in tools to get the right message to the right audiences at the right time, yet the findings suggest that they may not be applying this strategic segmentation across all marketing disciplines, particularly among newer channels such as social media.

The evolution of social media

The findings show that consumers are least trusting of newer marketing channels such as social media, SMS and LinkedIn for direct communication with brands.  Almost three in 10 (29 per cent) consumers ranked social media as among the three marketing channels they trusted least when receiving information about a brand.  While just four per cent said it was the channel they trusted most.

“The lack of trust we are seeing at this stage in the social media evolution is a natural part of the process for new forms of communication,” comments Matt Glasner, General Manager, Experian Marketing Services.  “Social media is a new and immature market within Australia and there is much that all organisations are still learning about the effective use of this channel and how to deliver value both to customers and the brand.

“The challenges uncovered by the research are similar to the barriers we saw five or so years ago when customers lacked trust in emails and E-DMs.  Yet, for many brands, these are now common place communication channels which are highly valued by customers.”

Consumer attitudes towards marketing channels

A large majority of consumers, 70 per cent, agreed that giveaways or incentives was one of their top three favoured ways for brand engagement, closely followed by direct mail from the brand (60%). Communication via email was named by 46 per cent of consumers as one of their top three ways for brands to engage with them, followed by online and offline advertising as the third most preferred way for brand communication, named by 42 per cent of consumers.

Interestingly, both marketers (91 per cent) and consumers (85 per cent) agree that a company website is the most important source to find out information about a brand or product.  Yet when it comes to social media and print there are differences. Consumers value print media (70 per cent) and direct mail from a brand (60%) more highly than social media. This is in contrast to marketers who see print media as one of the least important sources of information (28 per cent).

Investment in the future

Over the next 12 months, 58 per cent of marketers plan to increase their investment in social media advertising and channel development. This is followed by email marketing (52 per cent), online advertising (47 per cent), apps (41 per cent) and events (41 per cent). Despite the increased focus on digital, the more traditional channels still have an important role to play, with 36 per cent of marketers planning to increase their spend on print ads. Similarly in TV and radio, 28 per cent plan to increase spend and 52 per cent will keep to the same budget.

Matt Glasner, General Manager of Experian Marketing Services comments: “Marketers are working hard to ensure their messages are heard.  However, our research highlights that there is still a huge opportunity for marketers to further understand how and when consumers want to engage across all channels, including social media.

“Information overload is a challenge for the industry. As we move deeper into an era of multichannel marketing, marketers need to be more selective in their communications and deliver them in a way that is personally relevant to the audiences they are targeting.

“The big opportunity over the coming year is to apply the clever consumer segmentation that is already being used, to create tailored social media campaigns which talk to the needs of their customers.  This is an important conversation for marketers to get right over the next 12 months which, in turn, will generate greater cut through and start to establish the channel as a truly valued and trusted information source.”

—–

About the findings:
The research is part of an in-depth whitepaper on ‘The future of multichannel marketing’.

Experian Marketing Services commissioned independent research with 330 Australian marketing professionals across the retail, financial services, government, technology, digital and travel industries; and 1,000 consumers across all demographics to develop an industry whitepaper on the current state of play in consumer marketing.

The independent research reveals how well marketers’ and consumers’ interests are aligned. It demonstrates where marketers in Australia are investing their dollars and which channels they value most highly in their communication. From a consumer perspective, it explores how effectively the general Australian population respond to and engage with marketing efforts.

Yelp founder Jeremy Stoppelman in Sydney

Popular US-based user recommendation website Yelp launched today in Australia. First launched in San Francisco in 2004 by founders Jeremy Stoppelman and Russel Simmons, Yelp has grown to 14 countries and more than 61 million monthly unique visitors.

Aussies are now able to create accounts on Yelp to share their opinions about local businesses and services in their neighborhoods. Yelp’s free iPhone and Android mobile applications are available, as is Yelp for Business Owners, the company’s free suite of business owner tools.

Stoppelman was in Sydney today talking to a handful of bloggers about how Yelp was created to replace Yellow Pages, who he considered a dead tree business crying out for reinvention. Initially the Yelp founders didn’t believe user reviews would be key to the site but were surprised when they took off and became the main focus of Yelp and a major point of differentiation. Remember, this was back in the days before Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and even newcomers Oink and Roamz.

For millions of US users, Yelp has become an invaluable search resource to discover what’s nearby and how its rated.

It’ll be interesting to see how Yelp does launching in a new market 7 years later with many other location and recommendation contenders on the scene. Stoppelman is confident that the site can get good traction in Australia via their (rather ironic) partnership with Sensis (publisher of Yellow Pages) who provide the initial database of businesses and the sales force for future ad sales. Certainly the Yelp model of engaging community manager in each territory will go a long way to determining the public take-up of the service.

Yelp will be available throughout Australia; however, the company will focus its initial community-growth efforts in Melbourne and Sydney. This city-by-city expansion strategy has proven to be an effective one for the company in other markets.

Here are the 16 top tools I use regularly for inbound marketing;

WordPress website. Sure there are other excellent open source content management systems available but for inbound marketing its hard to go past WordPress. Its easy to use, very search engine friendly, extremely optimisable and has thousands of great plugins to address just about any requirement. There’s a reason over 60 million people have chosen WordPress for their websites.

WordPress mobile app. Inbound marketers like to post content. Lots of content. From almost anywhere. That’s where the WordPress mobile apps come in. You can create and publish content directly from your iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry or Nokia to your website.

Google Analytics. It constantly amazes me how many businesses I encounter that don’t have Analytics on their website. Its FREE and its very powerful. Effective inbound marketing requires understanding what is happening on your websites, traffic sources and conversion results. Google Analytics should be your first stop for this.

Analytics Pro for iPhone. I’m sure that this app is also available for Android and other mobile platforms, but I really love the iPhone app. Just add your Google Analytics accounts and check results wherever you are.

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Plus – surely it goes without saying that if you are doing inbound marketing you are using the big social networks….aren’t you? And you’ve got them all on your mobile device….haven’t you?

Hootsuite. There are plenty of “decks” available for checking and publishing to your social networks but I’ve become a big fan of Hootsuite. It currently allows me to publish simultaneously to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn from one place and has a built in URL shortener. I’m hoping Google Plus is added soon. Hootsuite has its own analytics, allowing you to monitor clicks and links and there are mobile versions for when you’re on the run.

Su.Pr. This is another social network publishing tool by the people at StumbleUpon. It allows you to publish to Facebook and Twitter profiles, shorten links, schedule messages and monitor the number of clicks. But the best aspect of Su.Pr is that it allows you to automatically post to StumbleUpon which can be a very good source of additional traffic. I tend to publish important messages here first and am happy to report that StumbleUpon is a seriously strong source of traffic for my sites.

Google Reader. There are dozens of RSS readers available but I’ve stuck with Google’s for ease of use and ubiquity. Inbound marketers are always on the lookout for great content and ideas and tend to visit a lot of websites. Subscribing to them all via RSS is the easiest way to keep track of your favourite information sources. Google Reader is one of the first things I check daily.

YouTube. Good inbound marketing websites use video and YouTube is the best place to host any videos you create. Its also the second biggest search engine in the world. From YouTube its a cinch to grab the code for a video and drop it onto your WordPress (or Joomla, or Drupal) site.

Flickr. Its like YouTube for photos.

NLYZR. The world’s easiest and fastest website optimization system. (Disclosure: Yes, we created it). If you want to optimize your website for search this is the tool for you, and you don’t need to be an SEO geek to use  it. Most NLYZR members (who are all ranking very high on Google) are small business owners.

iMovie for the iPhone or iPad. Capture, edit and publish video quickly and easily straight from your phone. A great tool for inbound marketing.

Instagram. This little iPhone app has really taken off in 2011. Its a fantastic way to quickly edit, improve and publish photos to your various social networks as well as having a community of its own. Instagram can make average pics look much much nicer with its range of filters and vignettes.

Those are the 16 tools and apps I use and rely on the most. I’d use the bulk of them at least daily, the rest weekly.

Do you have any you’d like to add to the list?

The biggest mistake most companies make when optimising their sites for search engines is poor keyword selection. They tend to optimise for themselves; company name, products and services. This is fine if the person searching knows exactly what they want or who you are already, but in most cases they don’t….they’re usually looking for an answer or solution.

Think about what you type into Google when you’re searching for something; quite often it starts with a question like “how do I…” or “best place for…” etc. Your potential customers are often doing the same thing. In fact, these sort of questions make up an amazingly high number of searches.

Yes, you need to make sure your business name, your products and your services are easily found in search, but that should be the starting point. The next phase of optimisation should be focused on providing solutions and answering questions related to your industry. At the end of the day this is marketing 101; the solution is really what you are selling.

We have been through this whole process ourselves with NLYZR, our search engine optimisation system. We initially optimised the associated websites for the name and industry terms, but phase two was around addressing the questions the average person asks when they jump on Google to find out about optimisation.

The truth is they might not have even heard of the term “search engine optimisation” at this stage, so we needed to look at what they were actually asking. Things like “how to be found on the first page of Google“, or even more basic terms like “how to be on top of Google“. Then its important to build a page and content addressing the question.

Once they have learned the lingo they might start asking different questions, like “how to SEO a website” or “how to increase website traffic“.

This approach delivers totally different traffic and conversion results to your standard company focused optimisation.

Smart marketers learn what their potential customers are looking for, the questions they are asking and then try to provide solutions to those questions. By posting as many helpful solutions as possible on their websites they build a portfolio of valuable pages that can generate a considerable amount of motivated traffic.