Local Merchants Face Mobile, Social Overload & Noise

Like many entrepreneurs I've met with, I have been thinking a lot about local merchants and how the web is changing their businesses (mobile, social, deals, etc). It is a fascinating trend / space - and merchants are getting barraged with technology offers and services. There are opportunities (and in some cases promises) around users acquisition, loyalty / retention, in-store activity, etc. I am reminded of my Sept 2010 post, "Geo Local Overload" and this local shop's outdoor signage: follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, Google:

It's overwhelming for merchants and consumers. The winners will emerge with a simple, widely accessible solution that adds value to both the merchant (either in acquisition, loyalty or in-store experience) and the consumer.

If you're an entrepreneur addressing the local market and the merchant's needs, make sure you have a product - and a pitch! - that cuts through the noise. And if you can cut through the noise, I'd love to talk with you. Email me =)

Facebook Deals Brings Friends Into Emails

I write a lot about Facebook Deals and I start each post with something along the lines of: I am not sure what Facebook Deals will become, but I give Facebook a lot of credit for the rate of innovation and their UI / UE treatments. Facebook Deals continues to test new visual treatments (examples here and here)... and here is yet another clever, compelling one.

Facebook's stance with Deals has been to overlay your social graph with your geography and your Facebook Places activity. They have done a good job merging those in the web experience... and here they do it via email. The first thing you see in the email is *not* the deal or the deal provider. It is the list of your friends (and their Facebook profile pictures) who have either liked the deal or the deal provider. Eventually it could of course be the friends who have visited the location, purchased the deal, etc (as we have seen in their online units

As your inbox gets more crowded -and marketers / brands fight for your time - this is a powerful way to capture your attention, improve conversion and tell a unique, differentiated story:

Google Unveils New Ad Units: Email-able Ads

Over the past couple days, I have been seeing the following ad units in my GMail accounts:- the top sidebar ad is prominently separated from others - it is in an entirely different treatment that includes a branded image - and it has an email icon atop

When you click the ad, it opens into a full screen unit that is essentially an email. It appears in the GMail mail format with four buttons atop the screen: Return, Save to Inbox, Forward and Dismiss.

Google describes it: "It's a new type of ad you can save to your inbox and forward on. If you dismiss the ad, you won't see it again."

It is an interesting effort because it enables the small ad unit (no different than a traditional AdWords unit) to bloom into something shareable, potentially social and much bigger (from two lines of text into an entire, rich-content experience). While that is conceptually very cool, it puts a burden on advertisers to make content that is worthwhile of sharing / keeping. I have cycled through a handful of of these email ads and have found nothing relevant to me or worthy of being shared.

Three Must Have Google Plus Extensions

I have written a fair amount about Google Plus and about how Google Chrome / Chrome extensions are changing my web behaviors. Lets put those two themes together... here are three great Google Plus Chrome extensions: 1. +Photo Zoom

I have glowingly written about the Facebook Photo Zoom extension and how every website should leverage this sort of interaction. I love it. And here it is for Google Plus.

2. +Everything

Add the Google Plus header to your web experience. I wrote it about it here:

3. +Comment Toggle

One major design flaw of Google Plus is the commenting system... which can get overwhelming very quickly. This extension fixes it.

Facebook Continues to Improve Comments: Links, Images Now Included

It wasn't long ago that Facebook rolled out their commenting system to off-Facebook publishers. They then enabled @ tagging within Facebook comments. And now it appears that they are enabling more robust content creation / sharing (ala the normal "status" update box). Here is an example where I commented with a URL and it expanded it into a full "link" treatment: image, summary, hyperlink, etc. You can also see that I referenced a Facebook page using the @ sign and it auto-linked it:

Of course, if you're interested in seeing the page I was linking to - it's SpoonFashion.com!

Google Plus Now My #3 Referring Site.

Google Plus now has 20m+ users and a the press can't get enough of it. The obvious question is what does engagement look like both near and long-term. One indicator is referral traffic. So here is a look at referrals to www.ryanspoon.com. Obviously it not the ideal example - but content is shared equally across Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus. So it is fair... Here are two charts of the top referring sites.

First, for all of July (note that Google Plus was days old on July 1):

Google Plus still trails Facebook and Twitter. Google Plus represents about 55% of Twitter's referrals... to put that in perspective, I have ~5x the followers on Twitter than I do on Google Plus. Clearly there is a higher engagement ration there.

The last week (Google Plus now more open & popular):

Over the last week Google Plus is the #3 referring site and ahead of Twitter and Facebook. Clearly this is imperfect data since Facebook and Twitter shifted markedly over the month (historically they are about even) but it is impressive that:

1. Google Plus is making a significant contribution just a couple weeks into launch 2. Google plays such a meaningful in referral traffic: Google, SEO, SEM, Plus, etc.

Of course this has real implications for marketers & brands and how they should think about leveraging / interacting on Google Plus. Furthermore, it is a powerful position for Google (should the trend continue) because they can begin connecting the properties (SEO, SEM, Plus, .com)... which in turn will cause marketers (and their budgets) to dedicate themselves further to Google.

Amex + Facebook Likes + Social Graph

This is powerful. And it happens to showcase my favorite brand, Dunkin Donuts... so of course I had to share it:

From American Express:

"You and your friends like and share many things on Facebook. Now, American Express has deals and experiences for you based on those likes and interests. And once you sign up and choose your deals, all you have to do is use your American Express® Card and statement credits will be sent directly to your Card account.

No coupons. No hassles. Just a credit on your statement, and savings in your pocket."

Chrome, Extensions, Google+ & Facebook.

Anything wrong with this picture?

It's how I am now browsing the web: Google Chrome browser. A ton of Google Chrome extensions. A Google+ header. A collapsable bar of all of my bookmarks.

In reflection, it is pretty interesting. Speaks to how large a role Google and Chrome play in my web experience. And (I think) the opportunity Facebook has to influence my web experience with a toolbar / souped up extension / browser / etc. Their reach on and off Facebook is wide enough that it just makes sense.