In the ever evolving cat and mouse game of marketing, the spring loaded marketing message, popping out at you from the noise of everyday life has been one of the great constants.  Interruption marketing.

Now, with the evolution of search, and our constant old friend, need satisfaction, relevancy becomes the key.

With Google facing a ‘relevancy’ war with Bing in the results trenches, look forward to fallout on your own website. Both sides will be evolving their algorithms, and your rankings may be likewise evolving.  Some of the more well known tricks that raise ranking, but hurt relevancy may come under threat, including link farms, domain nurturing sites, hijacked keyword strategies, etc.  Would that be such a bad thing?

This takes me back to one of my previous posts, “SEO Tips and Tricks – Practical Advice“.

Digital Ministry – Are you relevant?

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A great article for anybody doing web design or development.  Small differences in desgin can make big impacts on overall effectiveness of a web project.

10 Useful Usability Findings and Guidelines « Smashing Magazine

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I love great examples.  Even better when they demonstrate a good concept, that could have been so much greater.

The Good

Honda have taken a stance in the Social Interactive Media forum by creating an identity on Facebook, and opening some groups to promote their gear, lifestyle, financial services, etc.  Do a quick search for Honda on Facebook, and its one of the 500 or so groups dedicated to the Brand.  Fanboys and girls, dealerships, and people named Honda all orbit in that same universe.  In a nutshell, its not like they have total domination of their keyword, nevertheless …Kudos for joining the game.  Obviously, there’s a lot of love for Honda out there.

The case in point is the launch of their Accord Crosstour, a new crossover (CUV) car, as in, NOT SUV gas guzzling behemoth, but large family sedan with commanding driving position and luxury feel…  We can talk about rebranding later.  Launch is set for Fall 09 in the US.  About now.

The Bad

The unexpected result of this effort is that the car is getting ravaged on the facebook page. Comments are overwhelmingly negative about the look of the beast.  Shock Horror!  The vehicle and the brand are being ravaged on their own turf!  This is the nightmare of practically every marketing suit when it comes to this kind of effort.  But, this is also the great value of the effort – customer feedback!

The Butt Ugly

Yes, the car, er, rather ‘CUV’ is as ugly as a pan of fried butt.  Don’t take my word for it, have a look yourself.  When people accuse Honda of being as bad as GM when it comes to design, that’s some tough love. Apparently some rather timely tough love…perhaps a wake-up call.

OOPS!  Back to the Good!

What makes this so good is that this is what its all about on Social Interactive Media.  Feedback.  How valuable is this kind of feedback to the Honda Motor Corp US?  How will this impact production?  How will it impact advertising?  Next model year’s cosmetic update?  Not to mention Honda being in the news, on this blog, and in you brain as we speak.  This negative feedback will save them money.  What they do with the opportunity is something to follow, I reckon.

Oh no, back to the Bad…

One can only help but wonder how much more effective this effort would have been, if the facebook strategy had been applied in the design stage, if Honda had asked for input as opposed to approval of a finished product.

The lesson:  Social interactive media feedback is good, but better when you integrate it in the process so you can act upon it before everything is a done deal.  There is no such thing as bad feedback if you understand how to work with it.

Facebook | Honda Accord Crosstour

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Part of the whole web2.0 and social interactive marketing buzz is about user generated content, word of mouth recommendation and the authority they bring.

It appears, at least in New York State, USA, that posing as a regular punter and putting up your own positive reviews constitutes the equivalent of false advertising.

So along with risking SEO purgatory, you may also be risking $$$ and lets not even talk about the brand value statement…

ATTORNEY GENERAL CUOMO SECURES SETTLEMENT WITH PLASTIC SURGERY FRANCHISE THAT FLOODED INTERNET WITH FALSE POSITIVE REVIEWS

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To blog or not to blog, that is the question.  Most the larger companies I have worked with have held the idea of a corporate blog at arms distance.  There’s a lot of concern about being targeted,  or having unpleasant issues brought onto their ‘turf’.

Its not an outright rejection, but a ‘we’ll keep an eye on the issue, maybe next year’ kind of thing.

Tell them about Sun, Dell, and a whole other raft of good news examples, but its still, ‘next year, maybe…’

The bigger they are, the slower they move.  Too many trying to cover their asses, too few trying to shake it!

Here’s an example of several trends and applications of corporate blogs to crank up the music and maybe get the dance floor rocking!
And, say hello to some leaders, brands that are engaging, building collateral and embracing the future.  Ones you can bet will persevere, good investments…

Corporate Blog Design: Trends And Examples

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Still on my Social Media topic:

A great presentation to put the size and viability of social media into perspective.

Think paradigm shift is search, customer relationship management, customer engagement and product development.

Statistics Show Social Media Is Bigger Than You Think

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Still on the social media topic, the title says it all!

Has google page rank and Alexa ratings next to them…

Social Bookmarking Sites – All Of Them

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Social Networking is the buzz, and twitter is flavour of the (month, year, ???).  Regardless of your opinion, it certainly is a happening place, and considering the success and evolution of instant messaging one to one, this instant messaging, one to many certainly should catch your attention.

Here’s a great post on corporate tools to twitter.

Corporate Twitter Toolbox: Twitter Tools for the Enterprise

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Following my current theme of social networking, here’s a great list, with links, to 26 social networking sites, most of which are special interest, for all you niche marketers out there.

Social networking from A to Z

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Social Interactive Marketing, beyond SEO, Beyond SEM.  All about extending the tentacles to pull traffic back to the head.

This is something that take work, constantly, and dovetails nicely with any optimisation effort.  The growth of opportunities makes for a growth in efforts to capture them.  Get used to it.  If you’d like some detailed help in putting together a plan, let me know.

The attached article gives you a nice overview, but for each and every enterprise, its a different basket of goods in detail.

Social Media Optimization: 16 Rules Revisited – Online Marketing Blog

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