He says links were not important then and PPC was not nearly as competitive as it is now. In 1996, users would scan many pages of search results, but now they hardly go past page 1. Overall, the entire search industry has become more competitive. This is due to several reasons including the additional options with social media and the fact that searchers have become savvier.

Bruce says this “evolution” of the industry has brought about improvements, but the downside is that search has become more complex and technical. As search develops, these trends are expected to increase.

As newcomers embrace SEO, Bruce has noticed that they fail to dig deep into the technical and complex side of SEO and he foresees this as a problem. Additionally, while social media integration into SEO will increase over time, Bruce says its purpose has to be better determined.

How have you seen the search industry change? How do you expect it to change in the future?

In addition to the changes, the advertising industry has been hit with a hard blow from the economic downturn. However, the advertising industry is far from being over as Steve Hayden, the Vice-Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of Ogilvy Worldwide, so eloquently explains in the above video. His words should not be taken lightly since he co-created the 1984 Apple commercial that launched the Macintosh computer, led the team that produced IBM‘s award-winning e-business campaign, and his clientele at Ogilvy has included Kodak, Motorola, Dove, American Express, and more.

With advertising, on one side lies the “fear” factor and on the other side is the “love” factor. Given the changes in the industry and the impact of the economy, it is no surprise that there is a sense of “fear” among advertisers. Steve developed a tool called Hayden’s Mandala that describes the cycle a business or even a person experiences when facing changes. The stages of the cycle include:

1.    Fear and Arousal
2.    Intelligence
3.    Intelligent Fear
4.    Arrogance
5.    Intelligent Arrogance
6.    Stupidity
7.    Arrogant Stupidity
8.    Cowardice

To counteract the current fears among advertisers, Steve introduces 3 new innovations that pushes the fears aside and brings back the spirit of excitement and love to advertising. They are: Intelevision, Bunkspeed, and Ogilvy PR’s Digital Influence program. These innovations prove that the advertising industry is still very much alive in spite of the obstacles the industry has encountered. As Steve says, many valuable inventions and developments resulted from the Great Depression and as evidenced by his 3 examples, the same could happen today.

Some marketers are overwhelmed by the social media outbreak and have trouble integrating it into their business. It is important to remember that social media is a powerful force that can increase brand awareness, control reputation management, and more.

To begin, Dana suggests looking into your business structure and target market. Secondly, determine what you need to do to improve your business and how you can engage in it with your target. Once that is done, the question of which social tools you should use should be clear.

Have you found the right fit for social media in your business model? If so, how did you reach that determination?

“It’s [Huffington Post] almost a social media site with news as the topic of conversation.”

The site logs over one million comments each month.

In the above interview, James encourages other content publishers to push for active communities as well. He explains how implementing polls, thumbnails, and popular statistics can all add extensive social value to content.

Publishers that use social media know that it requires close monitoring. Most of the time publishers closely monitor their social efforts in order to manage the negative response. But did you ever think about how you could also benefit from closely monitoring the positive response? James says publishers have the opportunity to take advantage of the positive surges by further promoting them.

As Mona Elesseily of Page Zero Media explains above, the process of deciding on ad copy is and should be a slow one. The advertiser needs to think about every aspect of the ad including the headline, product or service features and benefits, call to action, and the offer you will extend.

As you determine the ad copy, you should also consider all the various phases of the buy cycle. At the beginning of the buy cycle, consumers are looking for information and want to assess their options. Toward the end of the buy cycle, consumers are ready to act and will respond to direct and specific ads.

For example, if a consumer is interested in financial services, effective keywords at the beginning of the buy cycle could be “financial planner.” As the consumer gets closer to making a purchase, effective keywords could be “get mutual funds” or “buy 401(k) plan.” It is important to be present during every phase of the buy cycle because if a consumer does not know you exist in the beginning, you most likely will not be able to get them to notice you during the call to action phase.

As a result, Google is helping both searchers and local businesses by displaying a Google map and 10 local listings on its first results page even if the searcher hasn’t specified a geographic location.

Before this change, searchers on Google needed to include a geographic indicator such as a city or state, into their query. (e.g., “flowers in San Francisco, CA.”) Now however, searchers on Google can search for “flowers” and the 10 local listings and Google Map will display directly on the first page of results.

As he explains these changes in video above, Matt McGee of SmallBusinessSEM.com, emphasizes the impact they have on small businesses. The modifications Google implemented allow businesses to have additional exposure. These changes also reinforce the power of search engine optimization. Matt says, “SEO and traditional SEO… still is and for the foreseeable future, will continue to be really important for businesses.”

What’s the reason for all this? Some blame the economy and expect the government to bail out the newspapers. U.S. Senator Benjamin Cardin introduced the Newspaper Revitalization Act to Congress, which would allow newspapers to operate as non-profit organizations if they wanted to. This week, Governor Chris Gregoire of Washington State approved a tax break for newspaper printers and publishers.

Some newspapers blame Google for their struggles claiming the search engine is stealing their content. Search industry leader Danny Sullivan disagrees. He believes newspapers actually get “special treatment” from Google. There are news publications that do not appear in Google news, but so many of the complaining newspapers do. These newspapers also receive a tremendous amount of traffic from Google that many other publications would readily appreciate.

Lastly, some even say the newspapers have created their own crisis. Has the newspaper industry embraced the Internet to its full potential? Could they have approached advertising in a different way that could have produced better benefits for them? Are they monetizing their traffic in the most effective manner?

Mike Wehrs, the President and CEO of the Mobile Marketing Association, reports that many large brands are making considerable investments in the mobile arena and are having success. For this reason, he says smaller businesses should embrace these mobile opportunities as well.

Mobile allows marketers and advertisers to directly target their market because it provides a higher level of engagement and interaction that is controlled by the consumer. Since privacy could become a concern, marketers and advertisers should refer to the consumer privacy standards from the MMA when they begin their mobile efforts. Consumers can also visit the MMA to understand how they can be protected.

The strong statistics above indicate that the mobile industry is growing at a rapid rate. So, as Mike Wehrs pointed out, why wouldn’t you want to participate in mobile and have the opportunity to directly target consumers?

Typically, the online space doesn’t change dramatically from month-to-month or even year-to-year.  But according to Charles Buchwalter, the Senior Vice President of Research Analytics at Nielsen Online, in the past 5-6 years, “this industry has transformed itself.”

The growth is evident not so much in the number of users, but where users are spending their time and how much time they are spending. Not surprisingly, the two biggest areas of growth over the last 2-3 years are online video and social networks. The significant growth of these two areas proves that innovation is still happening despite the current economic climate.

Additionally, there are other areas that are showing positive developments in the midst of the recession. Healthcare, packaged goods, and telecommunications were big spenders in traditional media and were slow to come online. However, those industries are now stepping up their efforts on the Web.

Brands used to fear consumer generated content. Jimmy equates this fear to the early days of the Internet when it consisted primarily of negativity on forums and message boards. Since it has now reached a higher level of quality and credibility, companies see the value in using it.

Brands such as Pepsi and Burger King have embraced consumer generated content through advertising and have received a large response from the community. Jimmy believes that any brand can find a way to advertise using CGM, but each brand has to discover how to interact with the consumer in order to be successful.

So, what’s in store for the future of consumer generated content such as Wikipedia? For starters, we should expect to see a lot more of it. Jimmy also predicts we will see other forms of CGM emerging that will offer even more business opportunities. It will be challenging, but success doesn’t usually come without hard work and innovation.

Speaking specifically about Wikipedia, Jimmy also clarifies what Wikipedia actually is and the reasoning behind Wikia Search shutting down.

Many people use Compete.com to track their competitors. Marketers, publishers, advertisers, and many others rely heavily on Compete to gain insights into consumer behavior and competitive intelligence.

The new site is especially designed to make that data more accommodating to meet those needs. It includes dynamic Flash graphs, tagging capabilities on-site and more. Interestingly enough, Compete promises even more changes to come this year.

Have you used the new Compete.com? Do the changes provide added benefits to help you meet your business goals?

In many cases, traditional media forms such as television are the easiest option for marketers and advertisers, even if it’s not the best choice. Some may argue that the proper measurement tools are not available, but Erin Hunter of comScore says they do exist. comScore even has a media planning suite for marketers and advertisers that goes beyond traditional measures.

One significant problem with choosing that “easy” form of media is the consumers that could be missed. Many consumers are now fully reliant on the Web. If marketers and advertisers aren’t taking this into consideration, a large part of their demographic is probably being neglected.

What challenges have you encountered in your online efforts? Have you discovered that you were missing out on consumers before you integrated online?

ABCSearch launched as Advertise.com on April 21, during Ad:Tech San Francisco. In our above interview with CEO and Founder, Daniel Yomtobian, he says ABCSearch was limited to search and Advertise.com provides an outlet to marketers for all of their digital media needs. Advertise.com offers a larger advertising solution through integrated programs, contextual targeting, and display ads.

The website not only delivers solutions for advertisers, but it also provides services for publishers. Advertise.com offers easy-to-implement search tools, daily revenue reports, and contextual banner and in-page ad technology for publishers. For advertisers, the site provides network transparency for optimization, advanced fraud protection around-the-clock, and customer support. In terms of other benefits, customers can expect a banner display network, local advertising platform, and cost-per-action (CPA) network to be released soon.

Embarking on a re-brand is not an easy task, especially for an established brand. Daniel says one of the biggest challenges is building credibility for the new brand. People lose trust when they don’t know what is going on with the company.

It’s a give-and-take situation and Daniel says you have to take the good with the bad. Advertise.com is confident in their decision to re-brand and believes their visibility will be greatly increased moving forward.

Oddly enough, many of us view even more websites than that on a daily basis. What type of websites do you view? Is it commerce, community, news, or blogs? For most, it is probably a combination of all mentioned.

In order to get your business noticed in this digital age, Richard Jalichandra of Technorati says companies have to make their brand accessible. Utilizing 2 or 3 portals aren’t good enough. Richard says brands must realize that they have to extend their efforts beyond their comfort zones in order to succeed in the digital age.

Look at the above statistics and then think about your consumption of traditional media sources. How much TV do you watch? Do you get your news from television or a newspaper, or do you turn to the Web to get it? When was the last time you visited a library, or do you simply go to the Internet to find the information you need?

The Web has changed the way we do business and live our everyday life. We should expect this trend to only increase over time. Going back to the point Richard made, this information means that marketers and advertisers have to embrace several digital areas.

Take the Technorati online property BlogCritics.org for example. This freshly redesigned website tries bridge the gap between journalists and bloggers by setting a high quality content precedent. The site provides valuable content, but delivers it in a “community” atmosphere. There are countless properties like this on the Web and businesses simply need to find which ones can be integrated into their business model.

Many social networks were intended to be fun and should still be fun, even though they are now incorporated into business operations. Social media provides many cost-effective opportunities for businesses such as brand-building and reputation management, but websites still need to have quality content.

StumbleUpon comes into the game here since it tries to help the content providers connect with their brands. Katie says StumbleUpon listens and engages with users and also aims to make themselves available to users. The companies and brands that understand this “push and pull” concept are approaching social the right way.

Recently, StumbleUpon announced that is was no longer a part of eBay. The company is now in the hands of its original founders and a few other investors. While under eBay, Katie says the company was able to focus entirely on their product. As a result, they experienced unprecedented growth.

While very thankful for eBay, StumbleUpon is excited to be a start-up again. Katie says the company has more freedom and liberty now that they are independent. To give an example of those new opportunities, StumbleUpon just released a few enhancements to their Web Stumbling function. (Web Stumbling is the act of stumbling without downloading the toolbar.)

With Web Stumbling, StumbleUpon wanted to make stumbling accessible from any computer or browser. StumbleUpon revealed these enhancements to WebProNews:

Fully Personalized Experience – Now you can expect the same high-quality and personalized recommendations that you receive from your downloaded toolbar.  And you can access it from any computer, and from any browser… just visit StumbleUpon.com and login to get a personalized stumbling experience.

Web Stumbling syncs with your toolbar activity – Use Web Stumbling to rate, review and share content and all your activities will be saved for you in your profile and will influence your future recommendations.  For example, Web Stumbling in Safari or Opera would use ratings given using the Firefox or IE toolbars, and anything you rate will improve your recommendations on any platform.

Enhancements to Sharing – When sharing websites while Web Stumbling, you now have the ability to share with several friends at once, post sites directly to your Facebook profile, and even have conversations about the websites you share with your friends.

For more information, check out Chris Crum’s write-up or visit StumbleUpon.

What are your social media best practices? And how do you see StumbleUpon’s Web Stumbling enhancements supporting your social efforts?