I noticed a new postcode search box while on Google today…

Over the last month or so, we know that Google has been attempting to refine their local search, to try and make it so that if you search for something generic, like hairdressers or restaurant, they will return related local sites or ads. This meant that towards the top of the page you would usually get a Google map with the local vendors.

This new method means that you get more generic results, and if you WANT local results, then you can have them by entering your city or postcode.

I think this is an excellent improvement (though obviously not permanent, as I can’t find it again), because:

1. It lets you tell Google if you are wanting local rather than generic results – rather than Google just guessing.

2. It lets you tell Google the location, rather than them guessing from your IP address – which is particularly useful if you are searching for something for a friend, somewhere you want to go, etc.

3. It gets rid of that annoying big map picture, which you might not be interested in.

I have seen the new post code search on .com and .co.uk but not yet on .com.au, which was still showing the local business results.

If Google rolls this out as a normal service, businesses can expect to be able to increase their visibility to searchers who are actually looking in their area, but not necessarily for generic searches.

Social Media is without question one of todays biggest opportunities online, because not that many companies have yet figured out to harness its power.

Skittles tried to use Twitter in its brave redesign of replacing its home page with its Twitter search stream. This predictably ended in spamming of the term “Skittles”, and the eventual reinstatement of a normal Skittles home page. The Twitter stream is still there though, just a click away on their site, and unsurprisingly, people seem to have gotten sick of the spamming.

Meanwhile, over on Facebook, brands continue to create pages, which is not a bad thing, but it could be done so much better. For example, there are a tonne of  ‘Tesco’ facebook groups out there, all uncoordinated and disjointed. The one which comes top of the list if you search Tesco is unfortunately called “You know you’ve worked too long at Tesco when…” which has over 18k members. The next group down for Tesco has around 3k, and after that each small group has less than 50 members.

This brings me to the first step of creating a social media campaign – You should do your research. Yes it seems obvious, but I think too many companies are in a rush to have a social media presence that they don’t take their time to see what is already out there.  If you are starting out a group on Facebook, take some time to check first if there are groups which you could use as a starting point and build on them. Or maybe there are members of similar groups you could try and attract to your page? Could you have a response page to an existing negative profile? Don’t just build another replica, give it a strategic position in the social media ‘market’.

Secondly you need to have a reason for being on Facebook. You might ask what anyone’s reason is for being on Facebook? Well, the average person wants to keep in contact with friends and raise awareness of what they themselves are doing. So do that – listen to others and try and contribute in a non-sales, non-spammy way. Build up a friendly, engaging profile. Update it regularly so it stays relevant, and let people know what is going on with your brand. Make sure you are connecting with your audience and letting them know why everything you tell them is relevant to them, not just another press release.

Lastly, you need to be patient, and monitor what goes on. A social media presence is not going to work or seem genuine if you rush or force it. Try and build it up in a natural sense. Sure you can try and attract new visitors quickly with offers, gadgets or applications, but you also need to have other things on site which might hold interest, and make you a worthwhile profile to check back on in the long run.

Oakley for example, has a stand out official page for Oakley, Inc with over 50k fans. On it they showcase designs, new concepts, pics of their office, and classic ads. The problem – the profile was started in April 2008, was added to constantly for one month, and has had no activity since then.  It was obviously flavour of the month (literally) in April last year, but has long since been forgotten. For ongoing benefits, social media strategies need to be sustainable.

With only 2 weeks to go until the Federal budget is announced, newspapers are already speculating about the make up of this years spending. Seeing as we are so far in the red already, I would have thought the budget would focus on savings, but Kev has already been hinting at more stimulus for our economy.

Nearly everyone in Australia probably feels as I do – that no matter what the budget turns out like, they should have done something a bit different.

For all us armchair politicians (and ex-Finance Department employees), news.com.au has a fab new application, Instabudget, which helps you develop the budget for yourself – to see how you would really go.

After having a go on it, I realised I was hugely in the surplus – even though I reduced taxes for everyone! This could be because I left $0 in many of the categories, which really isn’t realistic I know. However, this is no place for me to have a political rant.

Anyway, this application is fun to waste 10 minutes or so, and news.com.au also has a dedicated area of their site for all budget related news, which will include breakdown and analysis after the announcement.

The Google Keyword tool is now no longer comparing last months search volume to the average monthly search volume (which I thought was useful). It is now comparing last months local search volumes to global monthly search volumes.

While you can’t compare the volume to the average as a number, you can compare it as a picture of the last 12 months.  Go to Show/hide columns, and choose “Show Search volume trends”, which will bring up a little column graph for every search term you choose.

search trends

As you can see in this picture you can also “show highest volume occurred in”, which will tell you the month which has had the highest volume. This might be useful when planning campaigns, if you wanted to bid more in certain months when you think the volumes might be higher.

If you compare the global search to the local search for Australia there are some surprising results:

Australians searched 20% of the ‘Easter’ searches, but only 0.4% of the ‘christmas’ searches. We also contributed more than 100% for ‘easter holiday’ searches apparently… which I think means that the global volumes are actually monthly averages.

Another feature in the show/hide columns, which I am not sure if it was there previously, is the average CPC column. If it did used to be there I kick myself for not knowing, because how great is this for sorting for relevantly priced clicks and seeing what kind of search volumes (not clicks) are out there for them.

Behavioural advertising uses cookies to target ads at internet users based on previous pages they have viewed or personal details handed over when registering for something, somewhere, on the web.

This is one step beyond search marketings ‘behavioural’ advertising – which is similar because of the fact that ads/brands/products are promoted depending on the search term you have typed or the content on a page you are visiting.

This new behavioural advertising records and remembers your previous online behaviour.

The benefits of behavioural targetting for advertisers is obvious – targetting your ads at the most likely respondents increases your chances of a conversion. There are some advantages for consumers as well – perhaps it will increase your awareness of providers, thereby improving competition for products or services in which you are interested.

However, the negatives for consumers are also as obvious – internet privacy. Concern is being raised by privacy activists regarding the recording and ‘monitoring’ of internet users behaviour.

While it is easy enough to disable cookies, the worry is that most people are unaware of this – a benefit of which advertisers are probably fully aware. Perhaps as well as fighting the use of cookies by those sites which issue or use them, privacy activists should also be raising general awareness of cookie-use so that internet users can decide for themselves.

In the UK, a company called Phorm has caused a storm of controversy when it was discovered that they had conducted a trial which monitored the online behaviour of thousands of British Telecom users for behavioural targetting purposes.

The system Phorm invented, Webwise,  is basically an advertising system which categorises users so that advertisers can better target the ads they serve. The EU has accused the UK of inadequate protections for UK internet users following complaints regarding the use of Webwise, and has announced that they will commence legal action over it.

Amazon UK is the first large website owner in the UK to announce that it will bar the use of Webwise on its sites.