As summer approaches, we all tend to get a little more of an itch to go outside at the weekend, travel to the beach, or simply enjoy the lazy days of summer. With that in mind, The Beal Deal will be taking a summer break and will return in the Fall.

We finish this batch of interviews with one of the most loved people in the internet marketing industry: Dana Lookadoo.

I have yet to meet a single person that doesn’t both love and respect Dana. She’s one of those people that shines with marketing smarts as well as warmth and compassion. If you’ve never met her, be sure to track her down at the next conference you attend, and you’ll see what I mean.

OK, enough with the gushing. Let’s get to the interview so you can see for yourself!

Q1. Your career includes working for yourself and working at agencies. Why the current switch back to being a consultant?

Relationships are central to my approach. Consulting and working with a small team provides more freedom to choose which clients are served with a personal, customized approach. If a call extends an extra 30 minutes or an hour to listen and discuss what’s going on in their life, there’s more freedom to do so. Admittedly, it’s a tradeoff. You can do more as part of a bigger agency, but then you also have more pressure to meet budgetary quotas. I thrive off working closely with clients and getting to know them and their needs.

Q2. You’re currently focused on “Audience Engagement.” How do you define that?

• Better title tags and meta descriptions to increase the CTR from the SERPs;
• Valuable content that answers their target audience questions and meets their needs;
• Sincere conversations on and off their website.

Audience engagement results in better relationships, loyal customers, and hopefully some positive reviews and links. Heck, a little engagement and showing that one cares can turn an angry customer into into a brand advocate!

Q3. Which area of internet marketing are you hoping to explore further in 2013 and why?

One of the challenges I see with “pure” SEO is that it’s just about getting traffic. However, what you do with the visitor once they land on your page is KEY! Plus, the SEO lines are blurred. Internet marketing is really about taking a holistic approach.

Mining through and understanding the data can help one know the “best” way to design or write a page based upon what one’s audience needs.

Q4. You attend just about every conference out there. What has been your best conference moment?

Oh, gosh… There have been so many since my first Search Engine Strategies San Jose in 2005. At SES SJ 2006, I won a copy of “Call to Action” personally autographed by Bryan Eisenberg for asking the most intriguing question after a session. As a fairly noob conference attendee, I was thrilled!

My proudest search conference “attendance” was being chosen as one of 4 members of the SEOmoz community to speak at MozCon 2012 to present my Structured Social Sharing Formula.

Q5. You love cycling, and we all know that Lance Armstrong used black hat tactics to win. Where do you draw the line when a client asks you to compromise your integrity as a marketer?

Lance Armstrong and black hat – a parallel I’ve thought of many times, for sure! I can see why the UCI (international cycling authority) didn’t accept his “reinclusion” request even after he disavowed his “links!”

Integrity is key, for sure!

Our contract states that a client must own copyright of their content and images. I’ve had to deal with requests to “modify” someone else’s copy and simply refused. The client proceeded on their own, and guess what? Copyscape revealed all!

The other area in which I feel challenged is link building and tactics related to automation and “grey” hat. We simply tell clients “No!”

I let such situations bite the client themselves and stay away from any active involvement. For example, we performed an audit for a large e-commerce site and immediately noticed a link scheme. When I met with the team and CEO in person, they asked me not to tell them to take it down, because it was resulting in >$30K per month revenue. I simply advised them on best practices and warned them that it would probably catch up with them. That was in August 2011. You can guess what happened when Penguin rolled out last year!

Q6. You are always smiling. What’s your secret to staying happy and positive in life and work?

That’s one of the BIGGEST compliments I could receive! Attitude is key, and to have you say that, Andy, puts me over the moon! OK, this gets a little personal, but since you asked…

My Mom said I was a happy baby and that I was a lot like my Dad. Here’s a picture of me taken with my Dad and Mom:

They say women often marry their fathers. Well, 8 years ago I married a man who wears rose-colored glasses. He sees the positive in every situation. It’s like I’m inoculated with happiness and gratitude!

Told you the answer would get personal!

Andy, I’m absolutely giddy to have had this honor to be part of The Beal Deal interview series. You really do a great job of getting inside one’s head, which makes this even more fun. Thank you!

I do want to revisit your earlier question about conferences to tell you that I remember meeting you at SES San Jose and being awe-struck and impressed. Your speaking and sharing at conferences has influenced and shaped my perspective and contributed to my success in online marketing. Really! Thanks for being so “radically transparent!”

Aww shucks. My face just turned as red as our title font! Thanks Dana!

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First, let’s talk about Google’s move into the world of streaming music. It’s called Google Play Music All Access – which doesn’t exactly roll trippingly over the tongue. Perhaps we should call it GPMAA? Before GPMAA, you could only use Google Play to stream music you purchased through the system. Now, you can listen to just about anything for the low, low price of only $9.99 a month.

To get you hooked, you can try it for 30-days for free and if you sign up before June 30, they’ll only charge you $7.99.

GPMAA combines internet radio with music storage. When you’re online, you can listen to 20 million songs, just randomly or you can create radio stations based on songs or artists. If you interact with the site, it will learn what you like and don’t like and begin to customize the playlist.

If you need music for your daily 1-mile bike ride in the wilderness, you can download songs at no additional cost (I think.) You can also add 20,000 of your own songs which I think is excessive but who am I to judge. You can also buy new songs so I’m not sure how those songs differ from the free downloads.

The big news, unlimited skips and no commercials. Sounds worth it for that alone.

It looks pretty, but early reviewers haven’t been very kind. There are already complaints about random bugs and the removal of a delete button and other features. Oh well, can’t please all of the people . . . ever.

If GPMAA isn’t enough to keep you permanently logged on to Google, their new Google Play game service upgrade should do the trick. The new service let’s you play the same game across all of your devices. Never lose your place, your points, your achievements or leaderboard status. Neat, but it’s really more of an initiative than a new feature since game developers have to add it to their games in order to make it work.

Engadget.com says that Super Stickman Golf 2 and World of Goo already have the service – so what more could you ask for? You’re good to Goo.

Have you tried the new Google Music service? Tell us what you think of it or any of Google’s new features.

In space, no one can hear you tapping but down here on Earth, it’s a joyous sound.

• Ad impressions on the iPhone are up 28% over last quarter.
• Ad impressions from Samsung devices rose 19%

And here’s a really amazing stat

Amazon broke into the list of the top 10 manufacturers and saw impressions increase 125% from the previous quarter.

 Q1: Rise of the Androids

In keeping with our spacy theme, Androids are slowly taking over households across the planet. Android tablet impressions grew 96% year-over-year. That means they’re responsible for almost half of all tablet impressions. The Samsung Galaxy is tops in Android tablets but the Kindle Fire (darn, can’t make a spacy connection with that name) is coming on strong with 28% of Android tablet impressions.

Here’s the dirty little secret people don’t want you to know. . . 25% of iPad owners have an Android phone. I’m telling you, if Apple isn’t careful, it’s going to get crushed by Android’s massive footprint. (“We’ll cross one billion Android devices in six to nine months. In a year or two, we’ll hit two billion.)

Putting things in perspective:

Applied Interests

The reason the Androids have been able to advance their take-over plan is because we’re all too busy with frivolous things like Games. Music and Entertainment was the second most popular category. Inside that circle, radio and music apps accounted for 51% of impressions followed by Humor apps which ate up 38% of the pie. (Laugh now, humans!)

Mobile Social Media dropped down to the fourth slot giving Communication a chance to jump up to third.

Love conquered all when Dating and Sports traded places on the top ten impressions chart. News came in sixth, Weather in came in tenth.

The Game Plan

The big takeaway here is that non-phone devices are slowly creeping into smartphone territory. A year ago it was 75% smartphone, 20% non. This year, it’s 70% smartphone and 25% non. Tablets are smaller and lighter, so they’re just as easy to carry around in a purse as a smartphone so expect that ratio to change again by next year.

Also – the Androids. They’re here and they’re taking over. If you’re an iOS follower, it’s tough to hear. I know. I’m right there with you. But if we don’t face the truth we’ll be using our iPhones as coasters in another ten years.

See it all laid out in black and white . . and blue, green and orange when you download the free Q1 Mobile Mix Report.

“I’ll be back.”

If you are looking for a new job then find the full listings here.

If you are looking for that perfect hire you would be hard pressed to find a better audience than ours for just $27 / per month per listing as well. Find out how to list your openings here.

Have you seen the new listings this week (as of May 17, 2013)? Here is a sampling:

Media, Marketing & Mobilization Director – Alliance for Climate Education – Oakland, CA

SEO Marketing PPC Specialist – Vigilant Technologies – Troy, MI

Sr Online Marketing Manager – AT&T - Bothell, WA

SEO / SEM Specialist - IGM Creative Group – Lincoln Park, NJ

Marketing Summer Internship  - CleanEdison Inc – New York, N

The Official Google Webmaster Central blog reported

Today, we’re launching support for the schema.org markup for organization logos, a way to connect your site with an iconic image. We want you to be able to specify which image we use as your logo in Google search results.

Using schema.org Organization markup, you can indicate to our algorithms the location of your preferred logo. For example, a business whose homepage is www.example.com can add the following markup using visible on-page elements on their homepage:

<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Organization">
  <a itemprop="url" href="http://www.example.com/">Home</a>
  <img itemprop="logo" src="http://www.example.com/logo.png" />
</div>

Anything you can add to help Google make a search decision based on your actual preference (rather than them making a choice for you) is something to consider. The post finishes with

This example indicates to Google that this image is designated as the organization’s logo image for the homepage also included in the markup, and, where possible, may be used in Google search results. Markup like this is a strong signal to our algorithms to show this image in preference over others, for example when we show Knowledge Graph on the right hand side based on users’ queries.

Happy marking up!

Google is on a push to make things more beautiful and efficient. I get it in theory but the whole beautiful part sounds so forced although it is a company mantra these days.

The Inside AdWords blog tells us

Today, when you log into AdWords Express, you’ll notice a brand new look. We’ve listened to your feedback and worked with a lot of small businesses to streamline the AdWords Express experience. It’s part of our ongoing efforts to make Google products more beautiful and efficient.

The first change comes in the dashboard where Google tells us:

Small business owners have told us that they’re busy and that they don’t want to spend time looking for the information they need. We redesigned the dashboard to show you at a glance how many views, clicks and calls your ad has generated. There’s a simple pie chart for tracking your monthly spending, and you can also compare results over time with the new performance graph.

Google couldn’t figure that out on their own? Most SMB’s are pressed for time so if you have to root around for information in a confusing interface that was engineered by engineers for engineers then of course they might not be thrilled. Oh well. The new dashboard looks like this.

Another improvement is the paring down the sign up process to just three steps (which is more of a benefit to Google and, once again, why do they need to ‘discover’ the idea that the less steps the better for non-engineer types?).

Last but not least is real-time ad previews. They look like this.

OK, so now Google AdWords Express is more beautiful and efficient. Do you feel better?

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More recent examples include a safe driving book from Michelin Tires which was published in 1900 and the free 1904 Jell-O recipe booklet which led to millions in sales for the product.

It’s an intuitive leap – if you help your customer do something better, faster or safer, they’ll think kindly of you and consider buying your product.

According to a new infographic from Demand Metric, 60% of people have been inspired to seek out a product after reading about it.

In other words, it’s all good–ish. Lately, there’s been a lot of concern about content marketing masquerading as unbiased articles on the web. We don’t want to feel tricked into reading what might not be true. What it really comes down to is trust. Here’s a list of 5 Excellent Action Movies. Does it matter if the list comes from Entertainment Weekly or Netflix? What about Stan the DVD blogger vs Universal Studios?

People will grumble if it’s from Universal because chances are only their films made the list. But that Jell-O recipe book was loaded with recipes that included Jell-O products and everyone was okay with that.

Let’s move on:

At first I was surprised by the 90% number of this graph, but a lot of things fall under the term “content.” If your company has a blog, a YouTube channel or posts helpful tips to Facebook, that’s all content. I’m not surprised to see the B2B guys are out in front. This infographic is a perfect example of how general content can be used to promote a company. This informative graphic doesn’t specifically advertise Demand Metric’s services but I’ve now been introduced to a company I didn’t know. Simple.

Marketing companies are experts at this. They run webinars and create free ebooks, slideshows and DIY templates that help the less experienced market their own businesses. Many of the people who avail themselves of these freebies won’t build on the relationship, but a few will take the offered hand and come on as a new client or customer.

Let’s look at one last piece of this enormous infographic:

Social media is a quick way to content market. It’s bite-sized and can be done on the fly. Blogs are even better. They take more effort but Demand Metric says that, on average, a company blog delivers 67% of the leads per month. Blogs are still one of the best ways to talk to your customers just remember to lean heavily on the informative side and go light on the company PR.

You can see the entire Demand Metric infographic right here.

Thoughts on content marketing? We’d love to hear them.

Gender issues aside, I love the idea behind this event because it’s not just a set of PR announcements, it’s a community coming together to create amazing new tech goodies for you and me. I also love that the official agenda includes a time slot for “Bike and Coat Check.” That makes me smile.

Anyway, let’s get down to business – search business with a look at some of the new things coming your way.

The main theme going forward is conversation. Google has tweaked their voice activated search engine so it not only responds to simple questions, it can actually respond in a conversational way.

For example: ask Google to show you pictures of the Santa Cruz boardwalk. That’s easy peasy. It’s the next part that’s amazing.

“Google, how do I get there from here.”

Google responds with a map and directions and I wouldn’t be surprised if it told me where to get cheap gas along the way and the best place to stop for dinner.

Since we’re somewhat used to this concept, it doesn’t sound like a big deal, but think this through. In this example, Google has to understand that when you say “get there” there means the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. When you say “here” Google has to determine your current location using the locator in your phone. And it does all of this in a matter of seconds.

The feature will be included in the next iOS and Android updates but it’s also coming to a computer near you as long as you use Chrome as your browser. I tried Chrome long ago and gave it up in favor of Firefox but this might be enough to make me try it again. Mostly, voice search on a computer is a novelty (it’s not like I’m driving and can’t type) but with all the typing a do in a day, I appreciate any shortcuts.

Google has also put the work into their knowledge graph. They’ve made it more “intelligent” in a variety of languages including both simplified and traditional Chinese. They’ve also prompted the search fairies to give a more detailed response to a query. So instead of just getting the population of Australia when you ask, you also get comparison to other countries and graphs.

Google Now

I’m also looking forward to trying the updated Google Now portion of the search app. They’ve added the ability to trigger reminders based on place. You go to the store to buy milk and it reminds you that you also need dog food. It can also nag you if you’re about to miss your train and let you know when a new book, movie or CD is about to be released so you can be there on the first day.

It’s all about relevant information given your location and situation. Nice.

Okay Google, where can I get a juicy hamburger? I’m starving.

As we often do here at Marketing Pilgrim, we will turn over some of the reporting to Google itself regarding changes in Google+. Until these changes are realized by all it seems pointless to analyze or predict what they do or don’t mean. Besides, my crystal ball is in the shop following it’s prediction that Justin Timberlake would make MySpace relevant again.

So here is a series of videos to bring you up to speed on the new and improved Google+. Enjoy.

First up from the Google+ blog post about the changes covers

A multi-column layout. You’ll see one, two, or three columns of content depending on your screen size and orientation.

Awesome-sized media. Photos and videos can fill the entire width of the stream, making it easier to scan, and nicer to look at.

Delightful animations. The sharebox bounces, the menus slide, and the cards flip and fade — just to name a few.

Next up is a look at related hashtag implementation

And last but not least we learn about the new standalone Google+ Hangouts offering

We’ll keep an eye on all these changes as people start to digest them over the coming months. Is there anything that truly catches your marketing fancy? Let us know in the comments.

Pilgrim’s Partners: SponsoredReviews.com – Bloggers earn cash, Advertisers build buzz!

What that mobile world has created, however, is a brave new world for the consumer who now wields more power than ever. That power comes mostly in the form of reviews of a business’ products and services. It all leads to a customer who can voice great joy or great dissatisfaction with a business and that is power.

According to Gib Olander, CEO, Local Viewpoints,

Word-of-mouth advertising has long been recognized as the primary factor behind 20% to 50% of all purchasing decisions; in today’s mobile friendly, digital world, consumer testimonials and online reviews have become the default way within search results for consumers to judge the viability of a business to meet their needs.

The folks at Local Viewpoints put together an infographic to help further explain this reality of today’s online world.

Here it is.

The importance of the review is hard to deny for sure. What is even harder is to deny is the general disarray that the local review space is in. You can’t flip over a rock without hearing complaints about Yelp or Google reviews. Olander continues

Reviews have become the go-to decision-making content when performing local searches. Studies show that 90% of people use online reviews to make buying decisions. It’s become evident that there aren’t enough reviews on enough businesses.

So what are you doing to control your reviews, get more reviews and ultimately impact your bottom line? It’s an important question that demands an answer in the brave, new mobile world.

Editor’s note: If you are looking for a strong company to create infographics for your business, check out our friends at Avalaunch Media who created the above infographic. This was not a paid ad or anything. Just a heads up to our readers. Carry on.

You’d say, “Of course you can! You’re Google!”

We’ve sipped the Kool-Aid and it tastes good.

Introducing (insert fanfare here) the new Google Maps!!

This nifty number isn’t just about how to get from here to there. No, no. Like its big brother the search engine, Google Maps is all about discovery. That’s a huge plus for anyone running a brick and mortar location – except when it’s not.

Let’s take a walk with Sue. She’s walking down Dolores Street in San Francisco and she wants Italian food for lunch. She takes out her phone, activates the new Google Map app and types Italian. Instantly, dozens of tiny fork circles appear on a map. It’s easy to see that there are several good choices within walking distance. Like Sparky’s. But wait. Delfina is listed as a “bustling” Italian restaurant. That sounds like fun. Sue clicks and a info card overlays on the map with reviews. Her friend George left a 5 star review. Forget Sparky’s – Sue’s headed to Delfina’s.

One click and she has walking directions, or directions using public transportation, a bike, even a car.

If Sue enjoys Delfina, she can click the star to “like” it. That will help Google decide which other restaurants she might enjoy. And thanks to Google, Delfina now has a new, loyal customer.

The new map app lets you switch in and out of street view. You can locate photo galleries for nearby attractions and you can get a 3-D view of the city with a touch. It’s not any more helpful than a flat map, but it’s cool.

The new Google Maps is designed to help people find places to eat, shop, and enjoy. This is great news if you have terrific ratings and a catchy description, but it’s deadly if you don’t. Why settle for a three-star burger joint when there’s a four-star place right around the corner?

If you’re not happy with the way your business shows up on Google Maps, Google has a page of instructions that will help you submit photos and review your Google+ listing.

Here’s hoping the new explorers come your way.

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Okay, I can’t take credit for the whole “pinteresting” usage, but it’s cute, it works, so let’s run with it. . . straight to the website.

This is Pinterest’s new duplicate warning system. It will pop up and warn you when you’re about to pin something you already pinned. Pinterest says users have been asking for this feature which is funny because there are billions of images in the world, so what are the chances that you’d accidentally pin the same image twice?

Pretty high, apparently. I don’t know if it’s because we travel in the same circles, are drawn to the same colors and faces or what; but we do tend to return to the same images over and over again. Is there a psychologist out there that can explain this?

The real irony is that Pinterest thrives on repeated postings. Scan the popular pictures and you’ll see the same pics turning up over and over again, each pinned and repinned by different people. A repin is a duplicate – but obviously, that’s not the point of this warning. This is for those people who have already pinned 500 pictures and can’t remember what they put up last week.

For those people – it’s a good thing.

Mobile Upgrades

For those who prefer to pin on the go, Pinterest just rolled out updates for both their iOS and Android apps. Highlights ahead:

Notifications: Pinterest added this feature to the website only a few weeks ago and now they’ve added it to mobile. For marketers, this little drop down is a gold mine of information. It shows you who repinned, liked or commented on your pins and it goes back a lot further than the original activity feed. If you’re really hot on this, you can set it to send you push notifications whenever someone interacts with your page. Wow, that could get crazy fast.

Mention your friends: Pinterest has added the ability to tag people when you post or comment. Just use the @ symbol to start the search. This is an interesting move because, to me, Pinterest has never be about people. It’s about pictures. But by allowing folks to tag other folks, you can draw them in to a conversation. (They get a notice when you tag them.) Now we’re putting the “social” in this social network.

Recent Searches: Pinterest upgraded the search engine so it not only remembers what you’ve searched for in the app, it will remember what you searched online, too. This can be a time saver if you often search the same words on Pinterest. And heaven only knows, when you’re on Pinterest, the last thing you want to do is waste time typing words in a search box.

Now, if they would just stop blocking my shortened links, I’d be a happy pinner!

What feature would you like to see added to Pinterest?

The one trouble has been that the process can be a little less than quick for any variety of reasons. It can be somewhat clumsy depending on the user. There’s is nothing worse than the panicked high school kid at the register having trouble processing a payment and looking at an impatient line of customers. I feel sympathy for them (in most cases) but there are many others that feel scorn and impatience. Don’t misconstrue this. It doesn’t happen much with Square but it can just like any other payment processing system.

So what has Square come up with for an improvement? Ta-da! The Square Stand.

Slate tells us more.

This morning Square announced a new product that took me by surprise: the Square Stand, an iPad holder and credit card reader that’s meant to function as a point-of-sale system for high-volume small businesses like restaurants and cafes. The Square Stand costs $299, which is far more expensive than zero, which is what Square charges for the tiny credit card reader that made it famous.

What does payment systems have to do with marketing? Just as much as anything else. Marketing entails the ‘entire’ customer experience. You can do all the marketing in the world to get someone to the store but if checking out is a dreadful experience you can undermine all that great work.

This Square Stand looks cool and apparently works better. People like to associate with other folks and anything else that they think is ‘cool’ or is a reflection of their good taste. When a small merchant looks the part; they are efficient and quick and they have a certain look which the Square Stand can offer, it helps the business.

As a merchant, Square is great on the back end of the business and the overall business process. That’s great but it also helps with image and branding. If that’s not marketing, I don’t know what is.

We don’t know for sure but we sure do ‘like’ this infographic and we hope you do as well.

With shows like these, you know ABC is in for another season of high ratings in the young demographics and lots of social media buzz. Because of that, the network is pushing forward with two concepts that will help advertisers reach that coveted audience.

First is the Watch ABC app. This app allows viewers to watch live ABC shows on their tablets and smartphones. Up until now, you could only use the app to watch rebroadcasts 24 hours after the initial airing. This is nice if you’re playing catch-up, but murder if you’re getting spoiled by your friends on Twitter.

As Jimmy Kimmel puts it, “now you need never miss your favorite ABC shows just because you’re driving, again.”

What this means is that appointment television is back. Instead of using the DVR (with its ability to skip commercials), ABC fans will be able to watch shows as they air from almost anywhere. It truly is the definition of TV Everywhere.

To go along with this, the network has changed their ad strategy to something they call ABC Unified. This is the ability to schedule advertising across all screens from one place. Ad buyers can schedule a commercial for TV, pre-roll ads on mobile and even Hulu, and I’m sure they’ll help you buy placements on ABC’s social media sites, too.

But what’s advertising without metrics? ABC’s President of Sales said that the network will be using the brand new Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings to measure the consumer response not just on TV but on tablets and smartphones.

It’s a breakthrough in how networks determine the popularity of a TV series and maybe it will mean longer runs for shows that are popular online but not so much on TV.

ABC is also breaking a few other old school rules this season. Instead of presenting a traditional slate of fall shows and mid-season replacements. ABC has created a number of limited run shows specifically designed to air during the winter break so they cut down on the number of repeats. They also plan of delivering new, scripted shows 12 months of the year. Face it, the days of the summer rerun season are over.

Now, for all you geeks out there, here’s a look at ABC’s most anticipated new series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Enjoy.

But a new study from GFI Software shows that even 9-5 office workers answer email at night. . . and on the weekend. . . while on vacation. . even at funerals!

Outside of regular work hours, six out of ten workers say they check email once a day. 12% check in “real time” which I assume means they have some kind of alert set to let them know there’s a message.

I’m sure there are people who need to check email when they’re not at work. If you’re lab is developing a vaccine that could save half the world, it’s good to be in the loop. But I suspect that the majority of people who check email after hours don’t have to. Their boss might like it but nothing terrible will happen if they answer the email on Monday rather than Sunday. Still, we see responses like this:

• One in 10 respondents admitted to checking work email at a child’s school event
• 9% at a wedding
• 6% at a funeral
• 6% logged into their work email while they or their spouse was in labor.

So why do we do it? Fear, for one. We’re afraid that if we don’t check on Saturday, we’ll come back to a mess on Monday. Then, since we’re already flipping through looking for trouble spots, we knock out a few other quick questions to clear the queue.

I also think that checking email makes us feel needed. Imagine if all communication from your company stopped for two days. Would you feel relieved or concerned?

Experts like psychotherapist Nancy Colier of the Huffington Post says that constant email checks are an addiction.

Email triggers a part of the brain that I call “lottery brain.” It is the part of the brain that produces the thought/hope/belief that miracles can happen, and specifically, to us — personally. To some degree, “lottery brain” is an adaptive part of us, as it inspires hope and a sense of possibility, as long as that hope is also supported by proactive agency in our behavior.

The bigger question is, who is initiating all of these after hour emails? If you work with people in other countries, time zones will cause an issue. But why is the guy who sits next to you M-F emailing you on Saturday night?

There Is An Upside

Even with the pressure to perform and the constant disruptions, 90% of the workers who responded to the survey said email was a blessing and not a curse. In addition to helping them keep in touch, 58% use email as a means of storing and retrieving information. 62% use folders to organize their email and 29% archive their email. One respondent said he had emails going back to 1994. Now that’s dedication!

There’s no doubt, we’re addicted to email – work or otherwise. And even though a large number of people are dealing with business emails at home, 30% said they check and respond to personal emails while they’re at work. So they kind of makes it even.

Could you go a whole day without checking your email? If you did, what’s the worst that could happen?

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The deal that was deemed a ‘non-starter’ by opponents back in April is now officially deemed inadequate by Google rivals. This time though it appears they actually had something to read vs. just complaining about what was rumored. At least that’s a step in the right direction….. I think.

Of course, those complaining are the same who have been making these claims against Google (otherwise known as ‘advertising through litigation’ or ‘we can’t do anything ourselves so we will force people to know about us by whining’ approach). At least that’s what we think since the Financial Times reports gives an indication of just how spineless these opponents actually are.

Another rival, which declined to be named, attacked the concession as producing “orphan links” that would be too small and lacking in detail to attract much traffic.

Declined to be named. That’s real courageous.

Of course, the lead dog in the ‘Let’s compete in the EU through the courts’ is Foundem. They aren’t bashful because this whole process is apparently part of their marketing plan.

In some circumstances, Google has agreed to include links to rival sites in the panels at the top of its search results pages, which currently display links to its own services. However, where these panels show results that advertisers have paid to have included – as happens with Google’s shopping service – rivals will also have to pay to be included among the new links.

These paid links are “a potentially catastrophic escalation of Google’s abuse, providing a new and immensely powerful anti-competitive tool, which in many cases would hand Google the majority of its rivals’ profits,” according to Foundem, a UK shopping comparison company that has been one of the most vociferous critics of the deal.

This activity is getting old so we won’t waste your valuable time getting into the details. You can get more information from the FT article.

But let’s go over this one last time. Competition happens in the market and not in the courts. Depending on government to be fair in regulation is a ridiculous notion. Sure the free market isn’t perfect but it’s a better option than dumbing everything down to a government regulated middle at best.

One man’s opinion. What’s yours?

If you’re like most digital marketers, you track a set of website metrics—measurements such as site visits, time on site, referring sites and the all-important purchases, conversions or downloads. While tracking and reporting on these metrics is fairly straightforward, do you know how to use them to make improvements?

While it can be challenging to move from reporting on results to driving action, it’s a critical transition. It can help transform your organization and put you on the path to marketing glory.

Here are four steps to get you started:

Step 1: Focus on Results
For each metric that you track, brainstorm what you can do to move that number. If you’re measuring customer loyalty, what actions can be taken to improve that? If you’re measuring how often people complete a form, what methods will help you drive traffic to the form? Make sure that your metrics align to the all up goals of your organization.

Step 2: Develop a Plan
You now have a list of performance indicators tied to possible actions. Any metric that doesn’t have an action tied to it should be dropped. Compile your list of actions into a comprehensive plan and prioritize based on resource availability and potential impact. While all these theoretical actions are nice, who is actually going to do them?

Step 3: Build Your Team
That leads to your next step: build your team. To get the job done, you will likely need to enroll people from other teams who have the necessary skills to complete certain tasks. Figure out who those people are and assemble them around a common goal. For example, you may need to collaborate with someone from the IT department to optimize your landing page. Initiate discussion among your peers to determine what is feasible for your new team to accomplish.

Step 4: Execute
Finally, work with your team on implementing the plan. Meet regularly to discuss results and address any barriers with stakeholders. Review your plan frequently and check for alignment between results and business goals.

A little planning goes a long way. By starting with a list of actionable goals, you avoid wasting time on metrics that won’t move the needle.

Read our whitepaper to learn more about advancing your digital marketing strategy with analytics.

This post represents the thoughts and opinions of the author and not necessarily those of Marketing Pilgrim.

Microsoft UK set aside the facts and figures in favor of a sweet, animated video series called a SkypeOpera. These digital shorts use storytelling to show how effective advertising on Skype can be. The current series is called Skype: The Proposal. It’s a five-part series featuring Charlie and Lizzie. Charlie wants to create an amazing proposal experience but things never go as planned.

In each episode, the couple uses Skype to get in touch with each other and with friends. Along the way, they encounter all the different types of Skype advertising. Each ad is perfectly tailored to their current situation (of course) and contrived though it may be, it’s still a solid example of how Skype ads can work for your business.

In the first episode, Charlie and Lizzie are having a video chat about meeting up for dinner. While they talk, an ad for 10% off flowers fills the right side of Charlie’s screen. Perfect. He clicks it and orders flowers for his girl then makes an early break from work. As he waits for Lizzie to arrive, his best friend pings him via Skype mobile to warn him that their boss is looking for him. Oops, too late – now Charlie has to choose between his girl and his career!

What’s fun is how seamlessly Skype and the ads fit into the storyline. If you click through to the accompanying data sheet, you’ll find that most Skype conversations last more than 30 minutes, 50% of Skype users log on at least twice a week and they say it’s a more personalized experience than Facebook. That’s why the ads have a 37.1% lift in purchase intent.

In the third episode, Lizzie uses a unique type of ad called a Group Calling Voucher to video chat with five friends at once. Currently, if you want to video chat with more than one person, you have to have a pro account.

With the Group Calling Voucher, a Skype user sees an ad offering this service free for one week. The user types in their name and Skype ID and they receive a branded voucher that allows them to call for free.

This is cool. Imagine you run a bridal salon. You could give the bride a Group Call Voucher so she can call all of her bridesmaids to discuss the wedding. It’s a neat idea.

The takeaway here is that a little creativity goes a long way. By using animated storytelling, Microsoft gets their point across more effectively than any chart full of numbers. After you watch these videos, you’ll see how Skype advertising makes sense. It’s relevant and intuitive and hey. . . the videos are just plain cute.

If you’re a Skype user, you’ll also get a kick out of the use of the Skype sound effects in the video. They’re so realistic I went to my Skype box to see who was calling! Charlie, if Lizzie turns you down, let’s talk!

You can watch the full series at Skype-Opera.com.

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According to Twee-Q, I’m a very anti-equal opportunity retweeter! I kind of figured this would be true on a rough guess, but seeing it here in red, yellow and orange gave me pause to think. Why am I passing on the wisdom of men more than women? Are they providing better information via Twitter? Are they more clever? Is it simply that I follow less women and if so. . . why is that?

A study from Pingdom shows that 60% of Twitter users are women. Statistically, they should have the upper hand when it comes to retweets. But not. It seems that I am rather typical.

This is the total tally from Twee-Q based on all the people who tested their Twitter feeds using the site. Pretty crazy.

And obviously, this is the reason Twee-Q went online. Here’s more from their site:

Gender equality begins in the conversation, when people who have something to say communicate with people who are interested to listen, who are curious and attentive, and who are not afraid of change. When discussion and reflection leads to action. That’s when the magic happens.

But how equal is a conversation? What if the core of the conversation is unequal? What if we rather listen to, acknowledge and pass on opinions or thoughts from a particular gender? Simply put: what if we generally evaluate the arguments of a particular sex higher, perhaps without even knowing it ourselves? Well, in that case the conversations are broken.

Twee-Q is a metod to examine just how equal every single one of us really act in conversations.

Our vision?
We want to change the world -by showing how each of us rank women’s and men’s contribution in a conversation. The ranking will be measurable and we base our experiment on the world’s largest ongoing conversation – Twitter.

Only when we have to see how we act, and who we choose to listen to, who we choose to acknowledge, then we can take the first steps towards a truly equal society. It’s easy to assume that gender equality is something that others need to improve on, but until we see our own roles in creating a truly equal society, we continue to tread water.

Gender Tweets and Your Customer Base

From a business standpoint, gender retweets are even more important. If you’re promoting a product that is mainly aimed at women, but 60% of your retweets are from men, that message is getting through. I don’t believe anyone is in there counting, but just as I had a feeling about my own account, you get a sense when you follow for awhile.

I think my skewed gender bias goes back to the business I’m in. I retweet my editors (who are almost all male) and I retweet actors I like (also all male, of course). I also retweet a lot of branded accounts and Twee-Q ignores those.

If you’re interested, Twee-Q assigns gender based on the first name on the account, which means they do get it wrong sometimes. They’re also based in Sweden so they can run into name conflicts such as with the name “Jan” which is usually a women here in the US but is often a man in Sweden.

Even if the data is off a little, the point is made – even though women run most of the accounts, it’s men who are being shared and heard. We need some balance.

Hang on. . . okay, I just retweeted two tweets from women and I hate to say it, but I had to search pretty hard to find two tweets worth passing on. Maybe what I really need are some fresh accounts to follow. Any suggestions?