amit klein

There’s no doubt that Google Search is a great product, but aside from some cosmetic changes in how results are displayed there hasn’t been any major innovation in search in the last few years (aright, Goggles is pretty awesome):

There are a number of questions which Google fails to answer:

• “where’s the best bagel in new york?”
• “what’s a cheap, clean, centrally located hotel in bangkok”
• “which DSLR camera should I buy?”

In the cases above, you’re most likely to get SEO-optimized aggregator/review site whose primary motivation is affiliate sales.  And forget about finding anything usable to:

• “what’s everyone up to this weekend?”
• “should I get a tattoo?”
• “is business school right for me”

Increasingly, I turn to Twitter and Facebook for these types of questions:

Aardvark is another really nice product that tries to answer these experiential/recommendation type of questions.  It’s easy to use (via a chat bot) and gets quick and solid responses.  The same question got me three responses within 10 min (here’s two):

• (From Rakesh R./24/M/Arlington,US, Re: **cameras**
  go for canon 50D with a kit lens to start with . Your body is excellent but lens is OK types. u can always improve on ur lens whne u know what u needhttp://vark.com/z/b41bf (Amazon: Canon EOS 50D)
• (From Sam A./M/Dubai,UnitedArabEmirates, Re: **cameras**
  Well the best bet would be to start looking at the more popular brands:
  Canon and Nikon. Some people also swear by Olympus and Leica (the latter
  being seriously expensive), and even Sony. I’d stay away from Sony because
  cameras is not their real bread and butter (though I have read some good
  reviews regarding their Alpha series). Now I wouldn’t recommend sticking to
  the popular brands because they’re better or provide the best value for
  money, but rather for things beyond that: availability of accessories,
  lenses, repair options, etc. I personally just purchased a Canon D7 and it’s
  a really great camera. Though a little on the pricey side, it provides great
  value for money. Things like high continuous shooting rate, HD video, etc.
  This site helps you actually buy one: http://reviews.cnet.com/dslr-buying-guide/

  This website will be really helpful in doing some comparisons: http://snapsort.com/
  Enjoy!

Imagine if I could aggregate this data, slice and dice according to my tastes (i.e. 2nd degree relationships within NYC who have bought a camera in the last 6 weeks), compare prices and actually buy this thing from a single application?  This is a game changer that could be a devastating blow to Google SEM and forever change the way we buy products and services (though Google’s smart and they’re workin’ on it) . Facebook ::nudge nudge wink wink:: I’m lookin’ at you…

My favorite quote from the excellent video by @equalman (posted below) is:

We no longer search for the news, the news finds us…
In the near future we will no longer search for products and services they will find us

Increasingly though, it’s not just individuals who will be turning to social tools to answer tough questions:

There’s a new tool that can help companies predict sales for the coming weeks, or decide whether to increase inventories or put items on sale in certain stores.

It’s Twitter.

~ MIT Sloan

Social data from Facebook, Twitter and the like combined with traditional CRMs will allow you to keep track of buzz, transactions and brand loyalty/sentiment, letting you answer questions like:

• What are people saying about my product right now?
• How has the perception of my brand changed recently and in what direction is it trending?
• Geographically where is my biggest, rapidly emerging and diminishing customers?
• Who are my biggest evangelists, in what demographic do they fall in, where are they located?
• Who are my biggest naysayers, how can I change their perception?
• What is the perception of my product vs. my competitors?
• What product features do my (potential) customers want?
• Where is my next potential biggest growth market?
• What are the trending (in both directions) topics in my industry?

Social CRM is totally hot right now and an important trend to watch this year:

Everyone’s talking… are you listening?

Social Media and Web 2.0 is all about the collaborative, bidirectional flow of information.  It’s no longer a brand, company or authority figure dictating the rules.  As part of the course I’m teaching at NMIMS and ISB, I’m trying to apply the same principals and ask the students to help shape the class.   Here are some examples of what we are doin’:

• We have a fairly active Google Wave which covers the course goals and meeting notes.  Students are free to edit the course outline, ask questions and suggest topics for future classes (please note you must be logged in to Google for this to work… the embed API is also fairly new – i.e. buggy):

• We have a few really awesome guest speakers including:
  • Maneesh Madambath – Founder of Smursh reviewing current trends in Social Media
  • Guarav Mishra – CEO 2020 Social discussing using social advertising to recruit members into brand communities
  • Vaibhav Arya – CTO of Skezno giving an overview of paid online advertising
  • Brian Burns – Founder of SpeakWell Communications discussing copywriting for the web
  • Adam Sachs – Co-founder of Ignightr talkin’ ’bout creating an investor pitch
  • Ninad Raval – UX Lead at Directi discussing Web Analytics and A/B Testing
  • Lauren Vargas – Community Manager at Radian6 discussing social media monitoring
  • What’s Web 2.0ey about this is that half the speakers are based in the US and will be conducting their sessions via skype/video conferencing.
• Rather then a preassigned reading list, the students are being asked to share a few links weekly with each other via Twitter and Wave.
• Students can ask questions/make suggestions/provide their own examples (via twitter and wave) during the class.
• The students will be partnering with a local NGO to raise awareness or solicit donations for a social cause using social media and an SEM campaign (hopefully Yahoo! and Google will come through and donate some ad credits).  These projects will be posted publicly.

Other things I could be/should be doing:

• Posting the course outline (as a wave) and inviting everyone whose registered for the ISB course to make their edits/suggestions (for topics or speakers)/questions/modifications prior to the start of the course.
• Reaching out to students in these universities ahead of time (via Twitter) to build some hype and make sure the class is filled up.

Anyone else have any ideas on how to make the course better?  Let me know…

There’s the old project management saying: good, cheap and fast… pick two.

In the business world I’ve noticed that three characteristics generally determine success: smart, hard working and charismatic. Sure, the definition of success widely varies but for the purposes of this post, I’ll define it as, “the ability to achieve lofty goals.”

If you have one of these characteristics above you can get by fairly well. The smart, lazy, boring gal who manages to muddle away at her corporate job, she’s doin’ alright.

If you’ve got two of the above characteristics you are in the top quartile of successful people.  The dogged, friendly sales guy is makin’ it rain but won’t get to CEO.

But the ladies and gents who really crush it, are the ones who are intelligent, relentless and likable. While smarts can’t generally be picked up, the other two can be cultivated.  Work harder then everyone else, make sure you genuinely care about the people you work with (never sacrifice relationships for individuals project deliverables) and you’ll get to where you wanna be.

Last week I gave two sessions on Social Media Marketing at SPJain. Videos and slides below… let me know what you think:

This past weekend I gave my first two lectures at SPJain on paid online marketing.  I thought it went pretty well, the students seemed really engaged and interested in the material.  The slides, course outline and videos are posted below.  I’ve also agreed to do a 6 week course at another business school: NMIMS (more or less following this outline), if anyone has any ideas on how to improve this session or the course outline, please let me know.

Video:

The videos from the actual lecture didn’t come out to well (you can see them here and here).  Below is the same session I gave to our team internally:

Slides:

Course Outline:

Prior Reading:

• Put Ad on Web. Count Clicks. Revise.
• India Digital Outlook Report 2009
• Ads Follow Web Users, and Get More Personal
• Introduction to Google Adwords (video – 15min)

Introduction
iTunes Case Study – You are the marketing manager responsible for launching the iTunes Store in India
- What are your objectives?
- How do you go about achieving those objectives?
Goals:
- Discuss branding vs. performance objectives
- Discuss differences between online and offline marketing (targeting, measurement, reach)
- Discuss the marketing funnel (Awareness, Consideration, Conversion, Loyalty, Advocacy)
- Review options for online advertising in relationship to the funnel
Review terminology:
- Impression, CPM, CPC, CPA/L/S, Goal, Conversion, CTR

Methods of Online Advertising
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) – Google Adwords Example
- How does Google determine which ads to display to users? Keyword, bid, location, quality score / relevance (clickthrough)
- Why are the bulk of most ad budgets allocated to SEM http://mashable.com/2009/07/08/social-media-marketing-growth/#mb – intent
Ads on Social Networks – Facebook Ads
- Targeting based on demographics
Ad networks – Right Media Exchange
- What is the advantage of purchasing an ad on an network rather then directly on a site itself – Non-premium, performance based, auction, reach
Affiliate Sales – Amazon
- Description of the affiliate model
Email Marketing – Email Brain
- Review analytics for email marketing
- Discuss limitations on reach

Revisit iTunes Case Study
How can you determine effectiveness of online marketing campaigns?
- Demonstrate eCPM / eCPA calcualtions
- Link online marketing metrics to sales

Ask students to come up with a marketing plan
- Split class into branding vs. performance
- Determine goals and budget allocation based on historical results

Measurement and Course Correction
Demonstrate Google Analytics
- Show ecommerce analytics
- Glean insights, create hypothesis based on analytics data (i.e. per visit value of certain states are high, let’s see if additional marketing – online or offline – will help us generate more sale with less spend)
Course Correction
- 3 slides for creative, source and keyword performance
- Discuss actively managing campaigns and getting rid of underperforming ads, sources, keywords