Sounds like a very simple concept but many traditional marketers and CMO’s still think that SEM refers to buying keywords such as Adwords.

SEM (search engine marketing) encompasses both SEO and PPC.

SEO stands for search engine optimization; this is also referred to as organic search or natural search.

PPC stands for pay per click and also known as paid search; other think of PPC as just Google Adwords but I guess it speaks to Google’s dominance of the market place.

So in short, next time someone mentions SEM, remember that it’s both SEO and PPC.

According to the latest data collected by eMarketer, the social networking is growing fast. In 2008 nearly 80 million internet users visited a social networking site, this translates to about 41% of the US Internet user population; up 11% over 2007.

By 2013 this share is expected to rise to 52%, as more and more people turn to social media sites for their daily updates.

Some of the key trends for 2009 will be the rise in engagement, such as time spent and frequency of use. Another area to watch will be the expanded adoption by Generation X and Twitter becoming mainstream.

More and more companies are shifting budget online because of its efficiency and ability to easily track success; especially now in these tough economic times.

However many companies are running into issues such as lack of clear objectives and internal politics.

This is my personal list that can help you have success with your web analytics.

1. you need a champion in IT
2. you need the buying of management & marketing
3. set clear KPI’s (key performance indicators)
4. measure and test. No test is a failure
5. make decisions on the data

There are certainly more pointers or key areas to focus on, but the 5 above should get you on your way.

This past February 19th, President Barack Obama visited Ottawa, Canada. To leverage the buzz, the Canadian Tourism Commission decided to tap into the social media space by filming short welcome clips and uploading them to YouTube.

Here is one of them. Thus far it has received over 30,000 views and nearly 100 comments.

Really good video from Craig Newmark, the founder of Craigslist, on Web 2.0 and the role the internet may play in politics and especially for the Barack Obama government.

By the way, Happy 2009.

okay. First, sorry for not writing lately but things have just been crazy busy. I have now actually set aside 45min every 2 days to dedicate to the blog.

Updates:
- I finally joined Twitter http://twitter.com/montegroup
- Working on a launching a new corporate site
- Been working heavily with WordPress and currently working on an implementation for a client
- Working with Adobe flash encoder for a client
- Getting new ski gear this Saturday (gotta have some fun)

Over the past couple of months we had the opportunity to work with Vancouver limousine company Pacific Harmony on the development and design of their new web site; one of the key features of the site is the quick quote widget, which allows users to get an idea on costs for the most popular routes. The widget is xml driven, which allows Harmony staff to easily update rates.

Besides the web design, we have worked on an SEO strategy in order to improve organic rankings and drive more traffic and sales for Pacific Harmony.

Some of the limo services include:
Vancouver limousine
Whistler limousine
Wedding limo service
Corporate transportation

So far the site is performing well and business is up with improved organic rankings on Google.

The question! What is brand awareness and how do we measure it?

The word ‘awareness’ really bugs me; to me it is almost an excuse word for “I’m not really sure how your campaign did, but you got brand exposure”.

I know, there are brand awareness campaigns both offline and online but to really go into a campaign without any success metrics is irresponsible and shows incompetency on the part of the media buyer and perhaps even the client to some degree. But from my point of view most of the responsibility sits with the media buyer or agency.

I may be rambling here but to say that a media buy of 500,000 impressions or less over 4 weeks is brand awareness is misleading.

Another one that gets me is ROS (run of site). “ROS is good for your brand” I hear that statement all the time.

Here is another one… “home page placement tons of impressions and exposure”. Okay fair enough on this one if your Apple or Nike or someone doing a home page take over, but if you’re just buying a few thousand impressions over a short period I would call it an ineffective placement. For one, your frequency is likely going to be very low additionally your CTR (click through rate) is likely to be low as well.

So what do I always here on home page placements “it’s brand awareness”.

Marketers, agencies, media buyers….it is time to be more responsible and measure. Remember, that’s the beauty of online marketing….measurement.

The iPhone hype continues. With the recent launch of the iPhone 3G Lonely Planet took the opportunity to promote its mobile phrasebook Mandarin version.

If you haven’t tried their phrasebook give it a shot….it’s free for limited time.

Click here to go to the download page.

The Travelocity Experience finder is quite hidden as it still in beta mode, but it is very powerful as it gives users the ability to search by experience or theme similar to what Canada Tourism has done.

Besides being able to search by experience, you can also search by Destination and Product Type.

Though the maps under each experience are not great, it does provide users with a sense of location; I think if they could enhance the maps it would really improve the overall user experience.

However the maps found under Tools are fantastic; you are able to overlay the map with Hotels, Activities, Museums and much more.

Another cool feature is the wish list where you can add hotels, activities or vacation packages.

Overall I think Travelocity has done an excellent job with this initiative; from a PMO or DMO perspective there are many ideas that can be taken, such as building a web site that will allow your users to search by experience or incorporating a map that can be overlaid with experiences chosen by the user to having a wish list – the one thing I would add is a viral component where users can share their wish list with family or friends.