Business owners can now invite Google photographers into their establishments to take high-quality images of their businesses for use within Google.
Once photos are taken and added to Google, searchers will be able view the photos and learn more about the business by visiting the businesses Google Places pages.
Visit http://maps.google.com/businessphotos to apply or learn more about Google Business Photos.
I received the following email today from the Google just in time for the October 31, 2010 switch from the Google Advertising Professionals program to the Google Certification Program.
Google Advertising Professionals Qualification Achieved
With the above notification, both my company Advanced Marketing Consultants and I have met and satisfied all of Google’s Certified Partner requirements.
According to Seth Levine, in order to maximize every dollar spent online an advertiser must first define success prior to launching on a campaign.
I can’t disagree.
This year’s Nobel Prize in economics was awarded to three men for their “Search Theory’.
From the Wall Street Journal:
The trio pioneered research into the difficulties buyers and sellers often face in finding each other in the marketplace—and in particular, how that applies in the job market, where the buyers and sellers are employers and workers. This “search theory” has since been applied to a host of other topics, from the housing market to the search for a spouse.
The research by the three economists concluded high unemployment can be the result of “friction,” which keeps employers and workers apart. That friction can be tough regulatory rules on firing, or the lack of appropriate skills among the unemployed, among other things.
The research has also focused on unemployment insurance, with one conclusion being that more generous benefits give rise to higher unemployment—because workers spend more time looking. This ultimately is a benefit to the economy, however, because it leads to workers landing jobs that better use their capabilities.
Coincidentally, I too discovered degrees of “friction” prevent buyers and sellers from finding each other let alone successfully completing transactions.
My upcoming book For Sale by Google describes specifically how to identify what friction separates buyers and sellers and then how to eliminate it.
Got a problem trying to market and sell a product or products?
I have found a relatively easy way to bring to clarity to your situation.
Well actually Google has.
Take your product and set up an Adwords campaign for it.
AdWords Product Marketing Challenge
At the end of the AdWords campaign creation process, you will have distilled most if not all of the attributes needed for actually selling your product to people whether they are online or off.
Writing an ad for your product is the first step.
Go ahead… I challenge you.
Write an AdWords ad for any product and see if at the end of the process you don’t understand your product and market at an entirely different level – the requisite level required for generating sales.
Qualifications met!
Google Certification Program
More about this later…
I enabled Extensions within one of my Adwords campaigns and was surprised to see a report within my account about Extension activity.
Ad Extension Statistics
I activated Extensions by connecting my Adwords account to an approved Google Places account which in turn then pushes its data into my Adwords account.
I was surprised this particular ad generated as many impressions as it has.
Next, I am going to add multiple Google Places accounts and locations to a multi-unit Adwords campaign to see what kind of results it generates.
It would be nice if Google Adwords reported the number of location targeted within a particular campaign at the Campaign settings level.
Adwords Locations Targeted
As it is now, Adwords managers can scroll through an alphabetical list of cities targeted while in their campaign settings but have to drill down into the account to determine how many locations are targeted.
Pushing the number of locations targeted to the campaign level would make Geotargeted campaign management easier.
No… but wouldn’t it be cool if Google opened its Adwords targeting maps up to let advertisers export or even copy their data into other Google Maps?
Export Adwords Map Targets
If Google would make an Adwords campaign’s geotargeting data available in either a KML, KMZ, or GeoRSS file, I think I could create a My Maps map in my Google account.
A mentor of mine has a euphemism for the concept of “wisdom of crowds” – he calls it a “room temperature IQ”.
He then goes on to say that for those present in the room he is giving some (IQ points) and for others he is taking some (IQ points) away.
Conceptually he is saying by definition as a group increases in size its collective and thus individual intelligence decreases.
If this type of crowd mentality occurs offline, what is to prevent it from occurring online?
Specifically what prevents this decreased group intelligence from occurring online and infecting the individuals in a social networked crowd like those found in Facebook?
I recently read a person’s personality and disposition are a reflected average of the five people they interact with most.
If a person spends their free time throughout the day entering a Facebook room filled with 120 of their closest “friends”, how can their IQ not be lowered to room temperature?
What’s attractive about a person let alone a group with a Room Temperature IQ?
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