Internal documents propose that users can become a fan by just clicking “like”, as opposed to “become a fan”.  Their documents, read them here, note that saying “like” is a light-weight method of expressing interest.  BlitzLocal’s take is that this will cause several things to happen:

• Users (I was about to call them “fans”) will be confused as to whether they are liking something or actually joining a Fan page.  If  Facebook is going to change the language to like, then they should also call a Fan Page a “Like” Page, which would devolve Fan pages into the old Facebook Groups– for when people want to hit thumbs up on a clever slogan.  In effect, a fan page becomes more like a bumper sticker popularity contest than a real business presence or one of deeper engagement.
• In a “twitter-esque” move, Facebook is trading volume of interaction with depth of interaction.  This is the “light-weight” engagement they mention. We believe that this will increase traffic over the long run and reflect the aim of a social network to be casual conversation.  Increased interaction is great from a search engine and investor valuation standpoint– it allows Facebook to show greater numbers, since the bar is lower to become a fan. This is somewhat similar to Twitter announcing they have just crossed 10 billion tweets– who cares how many of these are real (by humans versus robots) or how many were even seen by a human.  The point is to show large numbers.  Remember the search engine wars on how many pages each had indexed?
• Facebook will be able to sell engagement more broadly: Albeit, the engagement is in the form of someone clicking on a button, as opposed to interacting at a deeper level.  Advertisers may not realize this change, which will allow an interim bump in earnings. From an optics standpoint– wouldn’t you want to increase your fan count, even if you have to change your language to say that “X number of people liked my page” instead of “X number of people are fans of my page”?

Hat tip to Nick O’Neill and curious to see what other Facebook advertisers think of this.  If a fan might have been worth 50 cents to you before, what’s it worth now?

Whoa, I just logged into my Google Analytics and see it in Korean.  I hadn’t changed my browser’s language settings, logged in as another user, or had dinner at my favorite Korean restaurant.

I have seen this kind of unexpected personalization from Facebook before, where sometimes they change your language settings based on where you’re coming from. It reminded me of a conversation I had with the CEO of PeekYou yesterday.  We were talking about how Facebook will often nudge you to reconnect with friends you haven’t spoken to in a while. 

Given the amount of data that Google and Facebook have about you, could you imagine walking out of the grocery store — then seeing Facebook send you a text message saying “Hey, you should have bought Miller Lite at Albertson’s, you idiot– it’s $5 cheaper per case there!”  

With applications (games, really) that combine mobile, social, and local– people are broadcasting what they’re doing, where they are, and what businesses they frequent, so it’s actually possible to do that now.  Do you have a rewards card via your favorite supermarket, airline, or hotel?  Now imagine you earn extra points by signing into that program’s Facebook application.  

Would you do it?

P.S.– while most of the words are in Korean, you can still mouse over the links to see the words in English.  Thank goodness that urls are in our alphabet.  And then notice that “Conversion University” is not spelled out in Korean– maybe there’s not a translation for that!

What’s the secret?  Just submit to about 20 free press release sites.  If you want to pay for PR Wire or PR Web, that’s fine.  Might save you some time. While it’s great to be able to rank for Facebook advertising and local online marketing, the truth is that these news results don’t provide much traffic.  You might be sitting on the first page of Google News for a day before you slide down and are replaced by something more recent.  

Perhaps with Google Caffeine and the greater emphasis on the real-time web, news-like results will become more prominent.  Imagine Google copying Facebook, where the search results page is essentially the Facebook News Feed.

Last week, I was on a panel discussing SEO with Seth of Conductor, Chris of Bruce Clay, and Kevin Lee of DidIt. The audience was startups, and here were are, 4 of the top agencies in SEO, telling them about SEO. Trouble is, these aren’t Fortune 500 companies who have $20k a month to pay for SEO consulting– they’re scrappy startups with just a few people each and a few dollars for hosting. They’ve got brand new sites with no linkjuice, so no amount of on-page optimization– to spread around what little juice they have– will even matter.

Thus, SEO for startups is an oxymoron.

Clients who come to us wanting SEO, after a chat to clarify objectives, actually want more traffic profitably.  They may request SEO, likely because they don’t know the technical lingo or have heard others tell them that this is something they need.  Thus, most of our discussions with prospective clients is educating them about what SEO is, than it is pricing out services.  If you run an agency, do you discover this pattern with your inbound requests?

Save yourself some time– avoid that discussion entirely.  

1. No need to talk to folks who believe they should rank #1 on “mortgages” by tomorrow because they paid you $79. 
2. No need to explain to them why those firms that guarantee organic rankings or thousands of links for 12 cents each are just charlatans. 
3. No need to discuss why their content-free site can’t rank unless they are willing to create meaningful content, in addition to getting great links.

In short, avoid completely the dashed dreams of clients who believe that SEO is a magical elixir to their site not getting traffic.  You wouldn’t believe that a diet pill can cause you to lose 30 pounds in 30 days with no exercising or diet required.  So why believe that by hiring a SEO firm that you don’t need to build a great site, reach out to industry folks that matter, and experiment with PPC and social media?

BlitzLocal doesn’t rank on SEO terms and doesn’t try to– though we do rank on “local advertising”, “local online marketing”, “facebook advertising”, and so forth. We believe it’s easier to sell clients on delivering results– a certain level of qualified traffic that converts into a phone call, form completion, coupon download, or other measurable action.  Having a compelling site, engaging users on social media,  reaching out to the press, and doing things that have been in the category of “webmastering” was and has been effective long before the term SEO was coined and became en vogue.

We’re not bashing SEO– there are plenty of practitioners who provide great ROI to clients. What we are exposing is when clients really want certain types of results, but mistakenly think it’s SEO.  Nowadays to get organic traffic from search engines– the definition of SEO- you’re engaging in lots of things that are called by other names.  So why add to the confusion?  Just sell the underlying parts of public relations, content writing, application development, buying links, social media, or other more specific forms of getting traffic and engagement.

This is a guest post from David Kenward, the Mental Coach.  I’ve chatted with him a few times and see how his services can add amazing value to help folks perform under pressure, whether sports or business.  Watch the videos on his site to see…

In the film Chocolat, the protagonist (who made chocolates and owned a small retail chocolate store) had a specialty of finding each person’s favorite chocolate treat.  She was doing what she was best at and worked with people who came in because they wanted what she provided.

I wonder what would have happened if someone would have come into her store and said they didn’t like chocolate, or didn’t know if they did or didn’t have enough money to buy, but wanted her to spend her valuable time and resources on them while good customers (who like chocolate, have money and want to buy) would be forced to wait and might leave the store in frustration without making a purchase.

Does this happen in your business?  Do you know what you are best at, but waste your time with potential customers who really aren’t a good fit?  I used to do this because I know the specialized service I provide (helping people overcome mental blocks holding them back) is what I’m best at and can help nearly everyone.

But, what I discovered is that many potential customers either don’t think they have a problem or don’t really want to fix it.  Also, like the great article on the “Five Magic Words to Grow Your Business” pointed out, a lot of people don’t have the resources to fix it, don’t want to invest in themselves to fix it or discount the value of the service.

I would feel bad because I know how helpful my service is and so I’d reduce my fees and try to convert every customer (even those who were just a bad fit).  The result was I didn’t have many good customers, my profit didn’t reflect the value of my service, the business was stagnant and I felt really frustrated.

Then I gave myself a business reality check, revisited the phrase: “I don’t have to hit my head against the wall to know it’s going to hurt” and embraced the concept of those “Five Magic Words.”  I increased my fees to reflect the value of my service, created a screening process to find the potential customers who would be a good fit and spent my time and effort on them.

The result is happy customers, increased profit and my business continues to grow.

Take a step back and look at your business – are you doing what you are best at and spending your time and resources on the right customers, the ones you really want, the ones that will help your business grow?  If not, give yourself a reality check and re-tool if you need to.  This is the road to consistently staying focused, motivated and on-track and enjoying your business.

If you run an ad network, see how many of these 10 Commandments you actually deliver upon versus just say you do:

1.  Thou shalt deliver publishers better eCPM’s: Not the highest payouts, but just better than the competition. That means some ads don’t get to run.  Though we are a marketplace, we want to deliver consistent earnings, which may require us to adjust margins and allocate high performing offers unevenly to key publishers.

2.  All users are not created equal: Focus on the top 10 advertisers and top 10 publishers– not the 700+ other guys who have random thoughts and will waste our time.  Total self-service for them. Tier accounts based on value to the network, which means better performance and personalized service.

3.  Don’t reinvent the wheel: There are common standards for most of what we do (sign-up screens, payment terms, clickfraud detection, reporting, account management, ratecard discounting, etc…).  Copy AdSense and AdWords.  Over-invest where we are different.

4.  Test, test, test: Got an assumption?  It’s probably wrong, so run a quick test and make decisions based on the data. Establish a testing framework so we can do zillions of tests with limited effort.

5.  Payment up-front: We don’t give out loans, ever.  You gotta pay to play.

6.  We have 31 flavors: Don’t argue with them– if they think buying clicks at 10 for a dollar is cheaper than 10 cents each, fine. If they think managing to CPC or CPI or another metric is better, who are we to argue?  If they want to manage their account via facebook.com, socialmedia.com or through their API, that’s great.  Provide all mechanisms– see Commandment #3.

7.  # Follow the money: Let the market tell us what is working and continue to do more of it.

8.  We are not religious:  Let publishers decide what they want to accept. We allow any offer to be on the network, provided it is legal and would be acceptable for a public company.

9.  Everything can be measured: If it doesn’t produce measurable margin, then it shouldn’t be done.  All people, projects, features, advertisers,  publishers, and tasks can be boiled down to their margin contribution.

10.  Transparency: We will show advertisers and publishers their own performance in stunning detail, but not that of others.  All performance questions can be answered by a finite set of automated analytics.

Sometimes you get a piece of advice so deep, yet so obvious, that you have to stop for a minute to think about it. Thanks to Gillian Muessig, President of SEOmoz, for mentoring me on this– her five magic words a bit later….

Have you ever been approached by a prospective client that would like to do business with you, but clearly doesn’t have the money? These are “wanna be” clients. They can’t afford to be clients, but have champagne tastes on a beer budget. See if any of these sound familiar to you:

• “We want to be business partners with you and share the risk” (translation: “we have no money”).
• “If you deliver us the revenue, then we can pay you your fee” (translation: “we have no money”).
• “I can get this a lot cheaper elsewhere” (translation: “we have no money”).
• “Let’s do a trade-out of services” (translation: “we have no money”).
• “We need to ask you some questions to qualify you” (translation: “we have no money and want to string you along for free advice in the meantime”).

If you ever hear any of this, here are the 5 magic words you say…. Drum roll, please…

WE ‘RE NOT RIGHT FOR EVERYONE.

Repeat that to yourself three times to lock it into your head. Don’t fall into the trap of selling yourself short. You’ll regret taking on a cheap client– and not only are they the ones with the least money, but also the neediest and hardest to deal with. Our best clients pay us handsomely, treat us well, and are a joy to work with. The clients where we’ve made exceptions to this rule suck the life out of us and sometimes make us wonder why we’re in this business. Spare your staff the angst and remember these 5 magic words, else you risk losing your best people, too (who can work anywhere).

Tell the prospect, firmly and politely, that you work with a select group of clients — that you work with the best in the industry and pay your people well, because you have the best people. Mention that you don’t compete on being the cheapest game in town, nor are you the most expensive. If they keep pushing, hold the line — say that you’re not a discount agency, that you can refer them to other agencies that would gladly take their project.

The clients that do pass this bar are going to be businesses that are likely to be solid in their operations, have folks who appreciate value, and will rekindle the excitement that caused you to strike out on your own to begin with. You’re being paid well enough to afford to do a good job, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Your staff members look forward to working with these clients and the enthusiasm is infectious.

Bruce Clay pulled me aside at SMX Advanced last year and gave me similar advice. He said the key to getting the right clients is to “stand in the middle of the road, arms outstretched, screaming that you are the best.” Half the people will think you’re crazy and walk away. The other half will say “Gee, he really must be the best” and then hire you.

Bruce also advised to ask the prospect this question, “If your child was sick, would you go for the cheapest heart surgeon or the best?” That should do it. If not, you don’t want to work with them. Their business is like their child– and when you have only one shot to do it right, they should choose the best every time, unless they have no money.

You don’t want or need to have every potential deal that’s out there. Be choosy. Would you rather have 40 clients that each pay you $1k a month in fees or 4 clients that each pay you $10k a month? If you have 4 clients, you can focus your efforts to deliver solid value, build a solid relationship, and have on-going solid business deals — as opposed to spreading your efforts thin among the chorus of squeaky wheels that compete for your attention.

So let’s make it 6 magic words, courtesy of Gillian:

SORRY, WE’RE NOT RIGHT FOR EVERYONE.

Maybe when that prospective clients get a little larger, they’ll be right for you– or maybe if they’re serious about what it takes to succeed in online marketing. But remember that if you’re having a hard time with them when they haven’t even paid a dime, imagine how they’ll be when they’ve handed you a few dollars.

If you follow the Pareto Principle (the 80/20 rule), then remember that you need only a few clients to have a great business. Don’t be afraid to cut some clients loose. They may have been right for you a couple years ago when you were a smaller firm or just getting started. But now you’re a different company and have moved on to a different client base. You can recommend others that can do a great job.

If you like this, please let me know or send a note to Gillian thanking her for the advice she’s has generously given here.

I got this note below, which shut down the BlitzLocal affiliate account on Amazon as of March 8th because of the new Colorado Affiliate Tax (HB 10-1193).  Read it below:

Dear Colorado-based Amazon Associate:

We are writing from the Amazon Associates Program to inform you that the Colorado government recently enacted a law to impose sales tax regulations on online retailers. The regulations are burdensome and no other state has similar rules. The new regulations do not require online retailers to collect sales tax. Instead, they are clearly intended to increase the compliance burden to a point where online retailers will be induced to “voluntarily” collect Colorado sales tax — a course we won’t take.

We and many others strongly opposed this legislation, known as HB 10-1193, but it was enacted anyway. Regrettably, as a result of the new law, we have decided to stop advertising through Associates based in Colorado. We plan to continue to sell to Colorado residents, however, and will advertise through other channels, including through Associates based in other states.

There is a right way for Colorado to pursue its revenue goals, but this new law is a wrong way. As we repeatedly communicated to Colorado legislators, including those who sponsored and supported the new law, we are not opposed to collecting sales tax within a constitutionally-permissible system applied even-handedly. The US Supreme Court has defined what would be constitutional, and if Colorado would repeal the current law or follow the constitutional approach to collection, we would welcome the opportunity to reinstate Colorado-based Associates.

You may express your views of Colorado’s new law to members of the General Assembly and to Governor Ritter, who signed the bill.

Your Associates account has been closed as of March 8, 2010, and we will no longer pay advertising fees for customers you refer to Amazon.com after that date. Please be assured that all qualifying advertising fees earned prior to March 8, 2010, will be processed and paid in accordance with our regular payment schedule. Based on your account closure date of March 8, any final payments will be paid by May 31, 2010.

We have enjoyed working with you and other Colorado-based participants in the Amazon Associates Program, and wish you all the best in your future.
Best Regards,

The Amazon Associates Team

Update: Perhaps with some Denver medical marijuana, the Colorado legislators might ease up a bit.

Read the MediaPost article, hot off the presses.  Omniture (now owned by Adobe) will have the ability to buy ads via SearchCenter, their PPC management tool, by the end of 2010.  That’s over 3 years behind BlitzLocal– an eternity in web advertising, so it will be interesting to see what product is in place by then.  I will want to know if Omniture has plans yet to integrate Facebook into SearchCenter such that it’s treated like another search engine or whether it operates orthogonally (since social media plays in the the AID of the AIDA funnel). 

It will be interesting to see how large agencies and brands adapt, given their penchant for wanting simple interfaces to manage campaigns, as opposed to performance marketing on Facebook.  The world of buying Facebook ads is significantly different than traditional keyword advertising– much closer to the content network, but still it’s own animal.

There is also the issue of attribution, since social media adds additional touchpoints earlier in the funnel.  On Facebook, people find out about brands and develop trust from seeing what their friends like and endorse.  To be able to now see those social touchpoints later convert on Google search will pose an interesting challenge to advertisers that have to now allocate budget between social and search.  This doesn’t even yet address the issue of brand bidding, which also messes up the perfect dream of automated bidding– to be able to hide behind the black box math that is actually just last click attribution.

Even when Facebook does introduce their own conversion pixel later this year, it doesn’t address the issue of how to allocate credit when a user has multiple clicks in their clickstream prior to a conversion.  Neither last click nor first click nor average click is the correct answer.

I believe in a multi-channel environment, the advertisers who rely upon having smart in-house strategists will win over those who decide to shell out cash to buy the most expensive software.  Online marketing, and marketing in general, is increasingly becoming multi-channel, which will scare some into hiding behind software, while motivating others into arbitraging out the profits amidst the confusion. 

We’ve been at this 3 years with brands large and small, having seen and experienced the problems that the big players have yet to even encounter.  What do you think will happen?