Using Google Knol as a B2B Marketing Tool

Yesterday, Google officially launched Knol, its Wikipedia-like tool for crafting encyclopedic expert articles. As with Wikipedia, subject matter experts can write or contribute edits to a Knol page on a specific topic. Unlike the case with Wikipedia, however, the author(s) is identified, so readers know who contributed to the article and understand any biases the author(s) may bring to the topic. For example, a technology vendor may write a very different page on a specific topic than what a user would write. Politically, a Libertarian is likely to define a term such as "healthcare reform" very differently from a Green.

This makes Knol at least potentially much more democratic than Wikipedia, a significant problem with which has been the ability of a small cabal of self-appointed high priests to unilaterally delete content for any reason (or apply their "rules" differently for different contributors). Also unlike Wikipedia, Knol will permit multiple Knol pages on the same topic; that's going to be interesting. No word on how Google will choose to rank competing Knols for search engine placement, but presumably quality will matter in some way.

So, why is this exciting for B2B marketers? Think of how many subject matter experts hold valuable knowledge in their heads, but don't have the time to commit to a blog. Until now, the only alternative was to either write an article for publication (beneficial but challenging) or to write a guest post for an existing blog (often even more challenging). Now, the SME can write a Knol page—with full authorship credit for the writer and company—and publish it for the world, with no pressure to write on a regular basis. Like a blog post, the content is interactive, but the shelf life of the Knol is potentially much longer. There is also potential SEO value, though details remain to be determined.

Among the better posts written about Knol thus far are Web development on Google Knol from Bluemilkshake, Google Introduces Knol as Wikipedia Alternative from Clint Boulton's Google Watch, Google’s Knol product is now open from David Crotty at Bench Marks, and Google Knol Released. It’s Not Wikipedia. from The Radioactive Yak.

*****

technorati tags: Google Knol, Wikipedia, Libertarian, Green, cabal, Bluemilkshake, Clint Boulton, Google Watch, David Crotty, The Radioactive Yak

del.icio.us tags: Google Knol, Wikipedia, Libertarian, Green, cabal, Bluemilkshake, Clint Boulton, Google Watch, David Crotty, The Radioactive Yak

icerocket tags: Google Knol, Wikipedia, Libertarian, Green, cabal, Bluemilkshake, Clint Boulton, Google Watch, David Crotty, The Radioactive Yak

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

ON24 Launches Virtual Tradeshow Platform with Real Potential

The concept of virtual tradeshows has been around since at least 2001. The appeal, to both exhibitors and attendees, is obvious. No travel costs. No lost productive time due to travel. No limit on the number of employees you can use to staff your booth or "send to the show." No need to limit the duration of the show to just a few days. No geographical boundaries (assuming you have a way to staff the odd hours). No environmental concerns. No panic because your booth staff flew to Chicago—but your booth ended up in Atlanta.

Yet in practice, uptake has been very slow. This is partly for cultural reasons (can I buy you a virtual drink?) but also because the technology has never quite delivered a user experience that's a viable substitute for physical presence. Now, the folks at ON24 believe they may have changed that. Their new Virtual Show platform combines the company's expertise in webcasting with rich graphics to create a compelling visual environment with useful tools for presenting information and qualifying online "booth visitors." It's almost like Second Life for trade shows.


Virtual Show is targeted at both individual companies and show organizers/event planners, including trade publications. On the individual company side, the platform could appeal to any company that's large enough to already host its own user group type events, but may be even more attractive to companies who are right on the edge of that—large enough to have a sizable base of engaged users, but not quite large enough to justify the expense of a live event. An online forum could be used in place of a live event for companies at this stage, while enabling firms that already host a live annual event to add supplemental online conferences throughout the year. Companies could also spread out the cost by selling virtual booth space to channel or technology partners.

The platform may have even more value for publishers. It enables them to offer advertisers a much richer and more interactive way to reach subscribers than the usual mix of enewsletter sponsorships, banner ads and white paper syndication. For aggressive publishers willing to get a jump on this, it also provides differentiation in a highly competitive online advertising market.



Virtual visitors to an event can:

• network with peers at the show, exhibitors and sponsors (through online chat);


• get documents (beyond the normal limited tradeshow marketing collateral, since the booth rep can now provide any document from within their organization);


• view a presentation (similar to a webinar) and ask questions;


• chat with a booth rep;


• have content recommended to you via ON24's patent-pending Smart Booth technology;


• engage in group discussion and interact with people; and


• upload a cool avatar.

Depending on the number of booths and degree of customization, pricing generally ranges from $20,000-$50,000 per event. For a large enterprise hosting its own user group or other forum, that's competitive with the cost of a live event—and again, with no travel costs or travel-related lost productivity. Publishers should be able to provide advertisers with attractive pricing for an online presence that goes well beyond the standard webcast.

Other recent coverage of ON24 and Virtual Show:

ON24 Announces Virtual Venue Platform from Worlds In Motion

UP Media, ON24 partner for virtual trade show from DMNews

ON24 Enters Virtual Event Space with New Solution; Adds Flash to Webcasts from DemandGen

ON24 Aims to Turn Desktops into Conference Halls with Virtual Show from Streamingmedia.com

Kill the Business Trip from Forbes

*****

technorati tags: virtual tradeshows, ON24, Virtual Show platform, Second Life for trade shows, user group events, publishers, Smart Booth technology, pricing, webcast, ON24 Announces Virtual Venue Platform, Worlds In Motion, UP Media ON24 partner for virtual trade show, DMNews, ON24 Enters Virtual Event Space with New Solution Adds Flash to Webcasts, DemandGen, ON24 Aims to Turn Desktops into Conference Halls with Virtual Show, Streamingmedia.com, Kill the Business Trip, Forbes

del.icio.us tags: virtual tradeshows, ON24, Virtual Show platform, Second Life for trade shows, user group events, publishers, Smart Booth technology, pricing, webcast, ON24 Announces Virtual Venue Platform, Worlds In Motion, UP Media ON24 partner for virtual trade show, DMNews, ON24 Enters Virtual Event Space with New Solution Adds Flash to Webcasts, DemandGen, ON24 Aims to Turn Desktops into Conference Halls with Virtual Show, Streamingmedia.com, Kill the Business Trip, Forbes

icerocket tags: virtual tradeshows, ON24, Virtual Show platform, Second Life for trade shows, user group events, publishers, Smart Booth technology, pricing, webcast, ON24 Announces Virtual Venue Platform, Worlds In Motion, UP Media ON24 partner for virtual trade show, DMNews, ON24 Enters Virtual Event Space with New Solution Adds Flash to Webcasts, DemandGen, ON24 Aims to Turn Desktops into Conference Halls with Virtual Show, Streamingmedia.com, Kill the Business Trip, Forbes

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

How to Track Buzz for Big Brands - WiseWindow

One of the biggest challenges for most small companies is generating buzz—getting people to talk about their products, online and off. Big brands, however, have a very different problem: keeping track of the incredible volume of content being generated relating to their company, product or service.

That's the problem WiseWindow is attempting to solve for brand managers, marketing research firms and CPG ad agencies. WiseWindow is an online (SaaS) platform designed to aggregate consumer sentiment as expresses across more than 12 million sources—forums, blogs, opinion sites and other social media venues.



WiseWindow attempts to measure "what moves people" in terms of attributes and buying factors. Their system aggregates opinions expressed across a vast number of online sources and applies intelligence to the data to help marketers, researchers and brand managers make more informed decisions across areas from product development to advertising.

The "intelligence" applied includes:

• separating comments about a specific brand and product from unrelated content (e.g. isolating content related to Dove shampoo from text about birds or ice cream bars);
• analyzing positive vs. negative sentiment (e.g. understanding that "unpredictable" is a bad term for a restaurant meal, but a good term for a movie plot);
• graphing the importance of product attributes in the purchase decision;
• comparing buzz for competing products; and
• considering the element of time (e.g. if a product is described as "cutting edge," it's vital to know if that description is two weeks old or two years old).

Strengths

WiseWindow applies powerful, sophisticated analysis of opinions expressed across a very large number of sources to help consumer product and retail managers make informed decisions about product design and promotion. It not only analyzes sentiment by positive or negative, but also takes into consideration the authority of each source based on multiple factors (assuring that commentary on low-traffic sites isn't unduly weighted). It enables rapid analysis of a vast amount of data aggregated across millions of websites.

The tool isn't applicable only to CPG manufacturers and retailers; here's an example of WiseWindow in action tracking voter sentiment with regard to Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain.

Weaknesses

Both the demo and the product are still a bit rough around the edges. When I sat in on a live online demonstration of the product, even beyond the technical glitches that can happen with any web-based presentation, the presenters seemed unprepared with their message. They dove immediately into examples of what can be done with the product without explaining, at a high level, what it is, how it works, and who cares. The selection of bloggers for outreach also seemed a bit odd. Although I found the product fascinating, most of what I write isn't targeted at large CPG firms or retailers. Someone like Kevin Hillstrom at the MineThatData blog would seem like a more ideal target for this.

WiseWindow's tool still needs some polishing as well. Some of the buttons are rather cryptic (what's an "overdeveloped positive"?) and certain graphs were mislabeled, seeming to show patterns that weren't really intended. Brand managers responsible for making multi-million dollar decisions based on this data will need to understand how the aggregations and trends are being developed as well as the ability to model the data in various ways to match their own needs and preferences.

Pricing

Doesn't matter. If your company, product or service generates thousands of mentions per month across the web, WiseWindow is worth investigating. If it generates only a small number of citations, you don't need this.

The Bottom Line

WiseWindow at this point appears to be an immature but very powerful tool for the monitoring and analysis of very large amounts of consumer opinion data. It is best suited for brand managers and market researchers who view themselves as cutting-edge, early adopter types willing to work with an early-stage product and help shape its development. Early adopters can potentially get a jump on competitors by being armed with this analysis, and WiseWindow stands to benefit from the product development input of this group.

*****

technorati tags: generating buzz, big brands, WiseWindow, monitor comsumer sentiment, aggregate consumer sentiment, brand managers, Kevin Hillstrom, MineThatData blog, voter sentiment, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John McCain

del.icio.us tags: generating buzz, big brands, WiseWindow, monitor comsumer sentiment, aggregate consumer sentiment, brand managers, Kevin Hillstrom, MineThatData blog, voter sentiment, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John McCain

icerocket tags: generating buzz, big brands, WiseWindow, monitor comsumer sentiment, aggregate consumer sentiment, brand managers, Kevin Hillstrom, MineThatData blog, voter sentiment, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John McCain

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

Two More "Google Killers" Take Aim: Viewzi and Site605

As Google continues to dominate the search market despite recent hiccups, still more competitors emerge. Two recent entrants to the alternative search engine space are Site605 (the brainchild of Bob Chandra and a partner who apparently really don't think much of Jason Calcanis) and Viewzi, a new visual search engine.

Stepping on the search giant's toes is certainly nothing new. Aaron Goldman recently wrote a nice series on Google killers, more Google killers, and Even More Not-So-Natural-Born Google Killers on the Search Insider blog. And of course Charles Knight at AltSearchEngines devotes his blog entirely to this topic—see his take on these new contenders in Site605.com Serving Search with Man & Machine and Stealth Report: Viewzi - It’s All About the Viewz!.

So how do these new entrants stack up? First, it's important not to compare them, as Site605 and Viewzi have very different approaches and purposes.


Site605 is attempting to combine the power and scalability of algorithmic search (Google, Yahoo etc.) with the intelligence and judgment of human editors (like Mahalo) without the spam that inevitably seems to afflict social search sites like Digg and Sphinn (think Wikipedia—though hopefully without the arrogance).

The challenge in executing that model is the breadth of search phrases that can be encapsulated. A purely algorithmic search engine can handle any one of the nearly infinite combinations of words that can be assembled into a search phrase; a human-powered or even hybrid site like Site605 will necessarily be limited to a list of what someone deems the most popular searches. The results can be head-scratching; for example, Site605 includes entries like Recipe For Pickled Eggs and Dateacrossdresser (seriously), but not for records management software or data warehouse, which are much more relevant to my world.

As Bob Chandra has acknowledged, "We know we're not perfect, and there's a way to go; but we think this human-computer hybrid potential has potential." Indeed it does, but it's a tough balance to get right. Time will tell if Bob and his team are able to combine the scalability of computer algorithms with the relevancy of human judgment, but this is an engine worth watching.

Viewzi is an entirely different animal. This site combines multiple types of media searches: aggregated plain text (like Dogpile), video search, image search, site previews, news feeds (from Reuters), celebrity photos, shopping, technology commentary (from TechCrunch), audio (MP3 files from multiple sources) and weather.

The interface is beautiful and has a very high cool factor. Of course, there are lots of alternatives for multimedia searching (even Google) and it will ultimately take more than a pretty face to stand in the crowded search field, but Viewzi—which is currently in beta but slated for public release this month—has a promising start.

One key will be adding and expanding content categories. For example, a Reuters feed is a nice start but a much broader news feed search capability is required. Four additional content areas, just off the top of my head, that Viewzi probably needs to incorporate rather quickly are people search (e.g. show me John Smith's profiles on ZoomInfo, Facebook, LinkedIn etc. all at once); social search (what's being posted about my search topic on Digg, del.icio.us, Mixx etc.); blogs; and finance (stock prices, news, latest financial reports etc.).

Google's got company.

*****

technorati tags: alternative search engines, Site605, Bob Chandra, Jason Calcanis, Viewzi, Aaron Goldman, Google killers, Charles Knight, AltSearchEngines, algorithmic search, Mahalo, Digg, Sphinn, Dogpile, video search, TechCrunch, ZoomInfo, Facebook, LinkedIn, Mixx

del.icio.us tags: alternative search engines, Site605, Bob Chandra, Jason Calcanis, Viewzi, Aaron Goldman, Google killers, Charles Knight, AltSearchEngines, algorithmic search, Mahalo, Digg, Sphinn, Dogpile, video search, TechCrunch, ZoomInfo, Facebook, LinkedIn, Mixx

icerocket tags: alternative search engines, Site605, Bob Chandra, Jason Calcanis, Viewzi, Aaron Goldman, Google killers, Charles Knight, AltSearchEngines, algorithmic search, Mahalo, Digg, Sphinn, Dogpile, video search, TechCrunch, ZoomInfo, Facebook, LinkedIn, Mixx

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

Best of 2007: Cool Online Tools

Here's a list of interesting and useful tools to help you convert files, find content, promote your blog, and add content to your website, among other activities.

File conversion tools

Still running Office 2003, but need to convert the new XML-based formats from Office 2007 so you can read and work with them? Zamzar offers a free online service to convert files with no need to download software. Microsoft also offers its own downloadable conversion utility, which I've found to be the easier option.

If you have more extensive file conversion requirements, such as the need to view AutoCad, Corel and other file types in addition to MS Office, Avantstar's Quick View Plus an inexpensive utility to automatically view email attachments and other files from more than 250 formats. A free trial of the software is available here.


My Search Engines

Blogger David Berkowitz provides an excellent list of specialized search engines to help monitor buzz, find content within blogs, research websites, and find images, video clips and people. This is a "must bookmark" post for anyone conducting online research.


TypePad Widget Gallery

An extensive list of widgets that can be added to TypePad blogs to help promote content through sites like Bloglines, Digg and del.icio.us, as well as add cool features, collect email signups, embed a chat box, monitor traffic, create online polls and more.


Nabbit

Ever hear a song on the radio and wish you could "tag" it to learn more about the artist or possibly even download the song later? Or hear an ad that's compelling but can't stop to write down the phone number? Nabbit is a simple, free online utility that lets you easily "tag" songs and ads from your favorite radio station using your cell phone, then get the details later from a personalized web page. Very cool.


SitePal: Avatars and Animated Characters

A hosted service that enables you to add speaking animated avatars to any website. The company offers a free trial, and you can see an interesting application of the tool on the American TESOL website.


Firefox Extensions That Make Me A Better Marketer

Blogger Mitch Joel of Twist Image provides his short list of favorite Fire Fox plugins for tasks such as checking site popularity, downloading video and tagging content on del.icio.us.


10 Places to Find Free Images Online and Make Your Content More Linkable

Loren Baker at Search Engine Journal details sites where you can download images for use in blogs, websites and other applications, ranging from totally free to partially rights-protected.

Previous articles in this series:

Best of 2007: SEO Analysis Tools
Best of 2007: SEO Keyword Research Tools
Best of 2007: News Articles on Social Media Marketing
Best of 2007: Blog Posts on Social Media Marketing
Best of 2007: Articles and Blog Posts on SEM
Best of 2007: Articles and Blog Posts on Google AdWords
Best of 2007: Articles and Blog Posts on SEO (Part 1)
Best of 2007: Articles and Blog Posts on SEO (Part 2)
Best of 2007: Website Design
Best of 2007: Blogging for Business
Best of 2007: Marketing Research
Best of 2007: Interactive PR
Best of 2007: SEO Copywriting
Best of 2007: Strategy and Branding
Best of 2007: Web Analytics
Best of 2007: Web 2.0 Sites

*****

technorati tags: Zamzar, Avantstar, Quick View Plus, David Berkowitz, TypePad Widget Gallery, Nabbit, SitePal, Avatars, Mitch Joel, Loren Baker, Search Engine Journal

del.icio.us tags: Zamzar, Avantstar, Quick View Plus, David Berkowitz, TypePad Widget Gallery, Nabbit, SitePal, Avatars, Mitch Joel, Loren Baker, Search Engine Journal

icerocket tags: Zamzar, Avantstar, Quick View Plus, David Berkowitz, TypePad Widget Gallery, Nabbit, SitePal, Avatars, Mitch Joel, Loren Baker, Search Engine Journal

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

Best of 2007: SEO Keyword Research Tools

The first step in any SEO effort is determining the right keywords and key phrases to optimize on—making sure the search terms chosen contain the words that your customers and prospects use when looking for a product or service like yours, and that the terms you optimize on actually get a reasonable amount of search activity.

Here are some of the best tools for conducting keyword research and building a search phrase list.

Keyword Tools

Overture’s Keyword Selection Tool

Overture's tool lets you enter a term related to your site and then displays related searches that include your term along with the number of times that term was searched on within the last month.

Google Suggest keyword tool

Type in a word and Google will provide suggested phrases, along with the relative search popularity of each term.

Blog Posts About Keyword Tools

Tools and Resources for Keyword Research by Daily Blog Tips

This blog posts recommends three keyword research tools: the SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool (which uses Overture), Google Trends, and Wordtracker (which offers free and fee-based options).

How Can Yahoo Search Assist Be Leveraged as an SEO Tool by Ask Enquiro

Jody Nimetz demonstrates three ways that Yahoo Search Assist, a real-time query suggestion tool for refining web searches, can be used to assist in search marketing efforts.

Reader Poll: Best Keyword Research Tools by TopRank Online Marketing Blog

Blogger and SEO guru Lee Odden reveals the result of an online poll showing which free and fee-based keyword tools are most popular.

An Exhaustive List of Search Engine Based Keyword Research Data by SEOmoz

A post that provides a "list of every which way you can look at a keyword to get an idea of metrics, value and potential from the (search) engines themselves" rather than single-purpose keyword tools.

Previous articles in this series:

Best of 2007: SEO Analysis Tools

*****

technorati tags: SEO effort, right keywords, best tools for conducting keyword research, Overture, Google Suggest, Tools and Resources for Keyword Research, Daily Blog Tips, Google Trends, Wordtracker, How Can Yahoo Search Assist Be Leveraged as an SEO Tool, Ask Enquiro, Jody Nimetz, Reader Poll: Best Keyword Research Tools, TopRank Online Marketing Blog, Lee Odden, An Exhaustive List of Search Engine Based Keyword Research Data, SEOmoz

del.icio.us tags: SEO effort, right keywords, best tools for conducting keyword research, Overture, Google Suggest, Tools and Resources for Keyword Research, Daily Blog Tips, Google Trends, Wordtracker, How Can Yahoo Search Assist Be Leveraged as an SEO Tool, Ask Enquiro, Jody Nimetz, Reader Poll: Best Keyword Research Tools, TopRank Online Marketing Blog, Lee Odden, An Exhaustive List of Search Engine Based Keyword Research Data, SEOmoz

icerocket tags: SEO effort, right keywords, best tools for conducting keyword research, Overture, Google Suggest, Tools and Resources for Keyword Research, Daily Blog Tips, Google Trends, Wordtracker, How Can Yahoo Search Assist Be Leveraged as an SEO Tool, Ask Enquiro, Jody Nimetz, Reader Poll: Best Keyword Research Tools, TopRank Online Marketing Blog, Lee Odden, An Exhaustive List of Search Engine Based Keyword Research Data, SEOmoz

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

Best of 2007: SEO Analysis Tools

Welcome to the first in a series of posts on the best blog posts, articles and websites from 2007 covering various marketing topics. To start off, here is a list of the best tools for analyzing and optimizing SEO efforts.

Free SEO Tools

Search Engine Spider Simulator from the Webconfs SEO Toolset

Spiders and people don't see things the same way. For example, Flash content, Javascript and images are invisible to search engines. See your site through the eyes of a (search engine) spider with this free tool. This tool Simulates a search engine by displaying the contents of a webpage exactly how a search engine would see it. It also displays the hyperlinks that will be followed (crawled) by a search engine when it visits the particular webpage.

SEO Analysis Tool from SEO Workers

This free SEO analysis tool helps analyze and measure the ranking potential of web pages. It not only analyzes meta tags, but also uses the same spider technology as search engines spiders to give you an overall rating of on-page SEO efforts.

Website Grader from HubSpot

This free SEO tool measures the marketing effectiveness of any website. It provides a score (sent to you by email) that incorporates elements such as website traffic, SEO, social popularity and other technical factors. It also provides some basic recommendations on improving the website from a marketing perspective.

Web CEO

Web CEO is a suite of downloadable tools (both free and paid versions are available) that help you identify the best keywords, optimize your site, promote the site, submit to search engines, find potential link partners, manage paid search (SEM) campaigns, check your search engine position, analyze site traffic, and find and repair broken links.

Blog Posts About SEO Tools

The Top 15 Free SEO Tools by SEO Position

Blogger Brian Gilley provides an excellent list and reviews of tools for rank checking, SEO analysis, keyword selection, keyword density, page rank and more.

SEO Tools (136 SEO Tools) by SEO Company

Knock yourself out with this list. SEO Company provides links, brief descriptions and ratings for code validation, keyword selection, search engine ranking, link exchange, link popularity, page rank, web site optimization and other tools.

A Look at a Few Page Ranking Tools by Web Worker Daily

Dian Schaffhauser offers a brief review of one free tool (DigitalPoint.com’s Keyword Tracker & Keyword Ranking Tool, which can be used to monitor a site for ranking on Google, Yahoo and MSN and other engines by keyword over time) and two paid tools.

Google vs Yahoo from E-Marketing Performance

Ashley Graham posts about the Google vs Yahoo tool, which enables you to visually compare the results for any search term on the two most popular search engines. You can see the top sites that pop up for your keyword(s) by mousing over the dots. The graph shows you how different Google and Yahoo are for your entered keyword(s). This tool is useful for identifying quality URL link possibilities.

Premium SEO Tools

SES San Jose Day 1 - Benchmarking an SEM Campaign by Search Marketing Standard

Hallie Janssen offers up a summary of valuable tools (such as AdGooroo, useful but not free) and techniques for benchmarking your search marketing programs against competitors.

SEOmoz SEO Tools by SEOmoz

SEOmoz offers some basic free tools for tasks such as checking pagerank and backlinks, and identifying the strongest pages on your site, as well as premium content and more advanced tools. The premium offering is elegant, but over-priced (by about a factor of 10).

*****

technorati tags: best blog posts 2007, best tools for analyzing and optimizing SEO, free SEO Tools, Search Engine Spider Simulator, Webconfs SEO Toolset, SEO Analysis Tool, SEO Workers, free SEO analysis tool,