In February, Adwords introduced a new toolbar on their campaigns tab, which is now available across all the tabs in your Adwords account.


My favourite part of the toolbar is this down arrow, which means you can download a report showing whatever you have in your table right that moment. This is fantastic, because, when you are using the main interface every day (rather than reports which you might use weekly), you get used to a certain way of looking at the data, and here you can export it just like that.


The 'All Campaigns' button drops down to give you 3 choices - All, All Enabled, All But Deleted. The All choice is fantastic, as it allows you to see all those campaigns you might have deleted, so that they aren't really gone forever. I haven't yet found a use for the All But Deleted and All Enabled - and frankly, don't understand what the difference between them is.

Segment
The segment button allows you to segment the results in the table (not in the graph) by timeframe, click type, device and keyword match. Timeframe is useful for comparing adjacent time periods, but is too much information when using the keywords tab. Click type isn't useful for me, because I don't use call clicks. Devices could provide some VERY useful information, telling you how many of your users are mobile, and keyword match is useful for tweaking your campaign.

Filter
Here you can create your own filter to apply to your data, kind of like in Google analytics. You can exclude clicks, costs, conversions, status types and lots of other things, without having to export all the information first.

The other buttons are the usual ones - changing columns and graph display.

These improvements to Google Adwords are just making it more and more unnecessary to use other software to manage your Adwords campaigns. I believe that using the normal Google Adwords interface coupled with Adwords Editor, you don't need to use any other software, this should give you all the flexibility you need to manage campaigns of any size.

Social Media is constantly touted as the 'biggest thing on the net' by marketers everywhere. There are whole conferences to discuss it and many agencies placed to help you get into it. With all this publicity - coupled with the fact that you and almost everyone you know uses Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or blogs - your business may well think they need to get on the Social Media bandwagon quick smart.

But before you jump in,please consider these points, and remember, once it's posted, its usually there for life...

1. Your Industry: While it is fine, perhaps ideal, for you to be the first business in your industry to undertake social media, first eliminate the possibility that this is because social media might not be suitable for your industry. If your business services only a few, very large clients, social media might not be suitable. If your business is concerned with security or privacy, then social media might not be for you. If you work in a politically sensitive environment, again, you might want to think hard about it first.

None of these things mean you shouldn't go into Social Media, but just that you should think long and hard about the realities of what could happen if you do. You should research all the companies in your field who are doing social media now, and find out what you should emulate, and what you should avoid. Look across the internet at the Social Media disasters and try and put in place measures to avoid this.

2. Define what you want out of social media, and how you envisage getting it.  Don't just say feedback, communication or brand awareness, think about how social media would meet those goals. For example, how is Facebook going to engage you with your customers? Could it be by letting users comment on upcoming products, research, photo's from corporate events or memos? Could you do surveys and offer prizes? Do you want to offer internships or discounts?

If you want to go on Twitter - what do you have to say for yourself? Who do you want following you? What value can you give them? Could you still be bothered tweeting this time next year?

3.Worst case scenario. Imagine you were Southwest Airlines or Nestle, whose PR nightmares came true in the public arena of Facebook and Twitter. To avoid such a storm, you need to ensure that your staff are trained by social media and PR experts.  The youngest guy in your team might use Twitter all day, every day, but that doesn't mean he is qualified to lead your corporate campaign.

4. Sustainability - Do you have staff to manage this for you? Will they be able to continue into the future? Social Media is a long term strategy where you need to become engaged, and stay engaged, with customers. You can't just fly in and out, because there will be no trust, and therefore, no benefit for you. Can you be bothered being in Social Media for the long run?

Playing the devils advocate on this one, I could also say that it doesn't matter if you're not. Social Media is a relatively low investment thing to set up, so if it doesn't work out, you can just stop doing it. But I reiterate - Social Media is a longer term strategy, and to make it work well, you need commitment.

5. Is your brand strong enough? Think hard about the current attitudes towards your brand - are they strong enough to withstand some bad feedback? Are there people out there who would want the opportunity to attack your brand publicly? If so, you might want to think about more low profile or even one-way communication strategies to help improve your brand image before you move on to social media.

This isn't meant to be a list of reasons not to undertake social media, only some things to consider before you do. Social Media is a risky business, it is out there in the public eye and could be up on the net forever. Take the time to plan it well, know what you want from it, and be ready with a contingency plan.

If you sell goods online, whether it is fashion, electronics, books or tools, there are a tonne of virtual shopfronts you can use to increase sales.

Virtual shopfronts can be set up at a variety of stores, like Ebay and Myshopping.com.au. The advantages of having yourselves on these stores is;

1. It increases your exposure to shoppers - comparison sites are becoming more and more popular. Some people use them as their first port of call to compare prices and see who the providers are.

2. It is very low cost, often commission based

3. It increases your exposure in the search engines - for many products, sites like Getprice and Myshopping show up on page 1 search results. If your site isn't on page 1, shoppers could still find your store through Getprice and Myshopping if you are listed.

If you want to increase exposure for your products, you might want to consider stores on;

Ebay                                     Getprice
Shopping.com.au              Shopping.com
Shopbot                               Froogle
Bizrate                                  Shopferrert
Yahoo Shopping                Miracle Shopper
PriceCompare                    Etsy (if your goods are independent, handmade or antique)

 

Wagamama's, a UK restaurant chain which has a few stores here in Australia (international aiport terminal for example) has become the 'first' restaurant to launch it's own iphone application.

The free application allows iPhone users to find the closest Wagamama restaurant, browse the menu, place their order and pay, all through their iPhone. The order is then sent to the kitchen just like the other orders their staff are taking through their wire less hand held devices.

This clever marketing ploy taps into the current zeitgeist which embraces all things iPhone, while also promoting convenience and immediacy, must-have's for the Wagamama demographic.

Free iPhone applications which act as another customer service point or entry point could be the next big thing, and businesses should think about whether there is a feasible app for their particular niche. Of course, the app must be easy to use and actually add value. Like corporate Facebook pages and blogs, these things aren't worth investing in if they don't actually add any value, because people won't use them. They have to add something unique, which is either honestly entertaining or useful.

Yesterday I got the Fail Whale, and today I get this;



Can Twitter not handle it's 50 million Tweets per day?