by Jaime 
Recently, Neptune Local was selected to be a beta tester for the new Facebook ads manager platform. As many internet marketing managers can attest, an upgrade to the current interface has been a long time coming.
The old ad manager was very archaic and impeding. The front page of the interface screen had all of your campaigns laid out with the title of each ad displayed. If you are only handling one campaign, it was simple to use, but with multiple campaigns with multiple ads in each, it was a pain in the a** to say the least. The old interface made it difficult to analyze the data in the campaigns and time consuming to sift through each campaign to find exactly what you were looking for.
Now, the new ads manager has made some strides and good improvements. First off, the front page lays out all of your campaigns without the ads. You can macro-manage each campaign from this front screen, and if you want to go into the nuts and bolts, you can click into the campaign to make changes. The daily budget and spend is right there on the front page as well, though my dates are off (must be a bug). You can also search for an individual ad easily with a search box located on the left sidebar. All of these are nice upgrades and happy to see they removed the cumbersome home page that was with the old ads manager.
There is a still a ways to go for Facebook. They did not make any changes to their reporting and believe this will be their next step. Also, I would like the ability to hide paused ads (have the same issue with Adwords). I like to pause my ads but not delete them for CTR reasons, however, I don’t want to have to look at them on a daily basis.
Overall, I am happy with the changes and believe the right steps are being taken to help out us internet marketing managers who are in these screens for hours on end on a daily basis.
by admin 
Via the Wall Street Journal today, I read that Twitter is in talks with Google and Microsoft about doing some business together.
From the report:
“According to sources familiar with the situation–Twitter is in advanced talks with Microsoft and Google separately about striking data-mining deals, in which the companies would license a full feed from the microblogging service that could then be integrated into the results of their competing search engines.”
The power of real-time search is becoming known, and the titans of the search engines are trying to get into the space before they are left behind. Users are increasingly enjoying the fact that they can jump onto Twitter to find exactly what is going on–right now. Google and Microsoft’s search algorithms, at this moment, do not have the capacity to offer a solution to its customer that matches what Twitter can provide. They are obviously taking the old business mindset of “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.”
A deal like this between these groups does not seem extraordinary to the average everyday Joe. Sure, there are business deals all the time, however, IMO, this is huge.
The search engine giants are realizing the move by its user base to other platforms, most notably real-time search with Twitter. Not to mention, Facebook and Microsoft’s deal some time back to provide Bing search results in Facebook’s search engine. All of these deals back up my notion about how companies need to embrace social media.You need to get you and your company out there in these platforms to be found.
If Google and Microsoft are realizing it, shouldn’t you?
by Jaime
The first move in creating an online presence is to create and build your website on your own domain. Okay done. Now, the big bucks start rolling in right?
Wrong.
Many companies complete this first step in their web presence but that is where they stop. They do not take that next initiative to list their business with Yelp, get a Facebook fan page, or claim their Google business listing, and this is a mistake.
I believe many companies are afraid of these sites because of the negative reviews they may receive. Well, get over it. People will talk negatively about your business on or offline, and knowing what they are saying allows you to take a pro-active approach and overcome the negative reviews. Turn a negative into a positive if you will.
There are many advantages to jumping into the social media sphere and I will name just a few of them for you here:
- SEO for Social Media Sites– The search engine optimization on many social sites is excellent. They have an immense popularity behind them and have great rankings, which enables your business to be found.
- Trusted Referrals–I think any business owner would tell you that the best referrals are ones from past customers and friends. Social media allows people to recommend a service or product or “become a fan” of a service or product. When people see that their friends like something, they are that more likely to buy since it is coming from a trusted and reliable source. This can’t happen with a search engine or PPC marketing campaigns.
- Social Media is the New Search Engine–Not only is it becoming the new search engine for real-time results, but also is the new search engine when Google or Bing fails or the user is looking for a second option. People are increasingly turning to Yelp, Twitter, Facebook and many others to find relevant results, and, at the same time, getting feedback from past customers.
When people are going online to look for a business, which over 70% of us are now doing, they are not solely turning to a Google or Bing result, but increasingly seeing what social sites have to say. As mobile search continues to increase, people will count even more on social sites that have embraced the world of apps. Do you think somebody with an iphone is going to search for a restaurant via a Yelp app or open their lap top, log onto the internet, put in a google search and see what comes up?
Jump on the bandwagon of Social Media for your business before it leaves you behind.
by Jaime
I hear it over and over again.
“I don’t have time to do Twitter.”
“I don’t have time to do Facebook.”
“Who has time to do that?”
Think again. These excuses are just that–excuses. Twitter and Facebook, along with other social networks, actually save you time and can make you a more productive individual.
For example, call ten of your friends to see what they are up to. How long is each conversation going to take? 10 minutes?
If you are lucky, most will probably take longer, but for the sake of argument, lets say it took 10 minutes a person.
10 people X 10 minutes = 100 minutes or 1 hour and 40 minutes
Now, go onto your Facebook or Twitter account and check your friends status updates. How long did that take? 2 minutes?
Looks like you just saved 1 hour and 38 minutes out of your day. Sounds like to me you do have time to Twitter or Facebook. I understand that you do not get the personal touch of speaking with somebody on the phone, but it does save you that precious time.
Here is another example. Let’s say you and your spouse are looking to go out for the night and your babysitter just canceled. How would you get a new one? Let me guess, you have to call around and try and find yourself a new one. How long does that take? 30 minutes, an hour?
Why don’t you put a post onto your Facebook or Twitter account asking for a good recommendation on babysitter tonight? How long did that take 30 seconds?
These are just a couple of personal examples of how Twitter and Facebook can be used to save you time. People shouldn’t be so afraid to change, and they should embrace some of these new technologies that have become apart of millions of people’s lives.
Sometimes change can be good and make you more productive.
