By Allan Maurer
RALEIGH, NC –Andy Beal, the top Internet marketing consultant, founder of online reputation management company Trackur, and editor of the award-winning Marketing Pilgrim blog, says that for the next decade, the future of search is mostly spelled Google.
Considered one of the world’s most respected internet marketing consultants, Beal has worked with many top companies such as Motorola, GlaxoSmithKline, SAS, Lowes, Quicken Loans and NBC.
Beal joins more than 40 of the top Internet technology experts participating in TechJournal South’s Internet Summit at Chapel Hill’s Friday Center Nov. 19. (see: http://www.internetsummitevent.com for more information on the Summit).
Beal discussed the future of search, the use of blogs for marketing, and his Raleigh-based online reputation management company, Trackur with TechJournal South in a wide-ranging interview.
The future of search
Discussing the future of search, Beal says that with a 70 percent market share, Google rules the roost for the foreseeable future. “I advise my Search Engine Optimization clients to focus on Google,” he says.
All the other search engines, the ten behind Google then the 100 more niche products are all divvying up the remaining 30 percent market share, Beal notes. Also, since Google’s algorithm for ranking pages is the most complex and trusted, most of the other major search engines use similar ranking methods.
“Seven or eight years ago, the search engines all had different algorithms and what worked well on one wouldn’t on another,” Beal says. “Now they’ve all fallen in behind Google. If you meet Google’s standards, you’ll likely rank well in Yahoo and on MSN.”
Google’s position is solid because people love its clean interface and assume the results are the best they can get. “You’re not locked into it,” he points out. “You could switch this minute. But people see it as the best and as long as that perception does not shift, it’s going to dominate and increase its market share.”
It would take a catastrophe for that to change in the next decade, he says.
Yahoo and MS–get it done
Insofar as the ongoing merger talk between Microsoft and Yahoo is concerned, Beal says, “Everyone is screaming at them to just get married already. It’s a perfect match, just get it done.”
Beal launched Trackur, which he self-funded, in February. “I run it very lean,” he says. He uses developers to add features as needed, but has no fulltime employees other than himself. “It’s my first Software-as-a-Service initiative.”
The service helps companies or executives track and manage their online reputations. To some extent, it’s similar to the clipping services offered by PR firms, but with tools to track trends over time, forward items, and more.
“I started it because there are a lot of high end monitoring and buzz tracking tools that cost $5,000 and up,” Beal says. “But nothing catered to the entry level. Google alerts are free, but limited. Then there’s nothing under $1,000 a month. This is something a small business, attorney, or realtor can use.”
His book, “Radically Transparent,” published this year, is the first ever published on the topic of reputation management.
Corporate blogging: do you need it?
Beal says he isn’t thinking about seeking additional funding now. “A similar service launched and raised $500,000 and has 10 employees. It took a year to develop. I wonder what their profitability is.”
Personally, Beal says, he’d rather not deal with the headaches of keeping investors happy and maintaining a payroll. “We built Trackur in two months and it’s profitable,” he says. “If we continue to grow, we may bring on fulltime people and ramp up new features.”
Trackur is only one of the busy Mr. Beal’s daily activities. He also consults and spends up to three hours a day on his Marketing Pilgrim blog. He also consults on corporate blogging.
What does he tell companies or CEOs thinking about starting a blog?
“I suggest they understand what their goal is before launching a blog. A lot of businesses, they read about the increase in the adoption of blogs, about how all the cool companies are blogging, and they’re tempted to dive right in without understanding what they hope to get out of it.”
So, he asks them, “What do you hope to achieve? Are you trying to increase the reputation of your CEO, to establish him as a thought-leader in your industry? Or are you reaching out to your customers to explain new product launches? Are you doing it for status updates?”
Beal, who was having his own problems with Google’s calendar the day of this interview, notes that Trackur maintains a blog that lets users know about any problems with the service and when they’ll be corrected, and to tell them about new features. “We want to be transparent,” he says.
Consistency is key to success
Beal says he also advises clients that “You don’t have to blog.. Many companies I meet with realize that what they really need is a forum for their customers to provide feedback, and a forum is better for that than a blog.”
Beal says starting a blog then abandoning it can actually harm a company’s reputation. “People see it as a failed product launch, so it really is a commitment,” he says.
The key to blogging success, he adds, is consistency. “If you post once a week, and it’s a good post, that’s what people come to expect. I post three or four times a day. If I didn’t post for a week, it would annoy my readers and I might lose them.”
Among blogs he says get the job done are the Southwest Airlines company blog, the blog by GoDaddy’s Bob Parsons, and locally, blogs by Scot Wingo of ChannelAdvisor, and Lenovo’s David Churbuck.
On the Web: Marketing Pilgrim blog: www.marketingpilgrim.com/;
Trackur:
www.trackur.com/index.php
ChannelAdvisor blog:
www.channeladvisor.com/blogs/
Lenovo’s David Churbuck’s blog: http://www.churbuck.com/wordpress/
Bob Parson’s blog: http://www.bobparsons.tv/
Nuts About Southwest blog: www.blogsouthwest.com/
Southeast Venture Conference, February 29 – March 1, 2012 at the Ritz Carlton in Tysons Corner, VA – Where Smart Money Meets Smart People.
www.seventure.org
© 2008, TechJournal South. All rights reserved.
