RegisterLocal - Centralizing Local Core Business Data

Justin Sanger over at LocalLaunch has done it again, or at least is doing it again with RegisterLocal

Managing your client's local search programs has become very cumbersome. Registering through Google Local, forwarding the PIN number on, managing geo-targeted ppc campaigns in Adwords, Local Match, SuperPages and then on top of that; identifying negative reviews and correcting business meta information is a whole other beast. Well RegisterLocal is allowing SME's the opportunity to blanket each of these local properties in one easy to use process.

Excerpt from the RegisterLocal web site:
"RegisterLocal makes it easy for franchise corporations, national companies with local presence, and other businesses with multiple locations to easily and effectively submit core business information to the leading local search providers. Whether your business has 10 locations or 10,000, RegisterLocal is your source for accurate business information distribution on the Internet."

I went through the entire process of setting up a business profile which until I got to the area where you added the categories, it was very smooth. The category section was a little daunting and almost too specific. If I were John Deli Owner, I am not going to find anything "deli" related in my search through categories. BUT, if I put "meat" into the search, I will find "Luncheon meat, poultry, manufacturing" or "delicatessans primarily retailing a range of grocery items and products" BINGO! We have a winner. The question is, "Is it too intelligent a process for your average SME?" They did a great job of identifying these categories and I would be interested in seeing how these categories were developed and what data they used in this process. Overall the service has great intentions and has taken Local Search and placed it into one integrated tool that will ultimately benefit the SME, while reducing the pains of days spent optimizing our online business data.

Also, when I got to the end, the cost was $1,000.00 not the $129.95/year...???

Mobile Blogging Meets The Eye

Mobile Sitemaps From Google

[excerpt]Search engines such as Google discover information about your site by employing software known as "spiders" to crawl the web. Once the spiders find a site, they follow links within the site to gather information about all the pages. The spiders periodically revisit sites to find new or changed content. Google Mobile Web Search crawls and indexes sites that have been specifically designed for mobile phones and devices. Google adds new sites to our mobile web index every time we crawl the mobile web. Users can search the mobile web on their mobile devices using Google Mobile Web Search.

Since Laundry Media has a mobile-enabled blog, I am going to create a mobile sitemap.

Red Cross: Hurricane Katrina

So this is a post to tell everyone to go to the Red Cross site and donate either your time or money to aid in this relief effort. I've got friends down there and I'm still trying to get in touch with them. I've also got a friend who just opened a restaurant 2 weeks ago and it's gone I hear. They are safe in Atlanta now, but this is a complete travesty.

Since this is not an official relief site, I am going to acknowledge some interesting search term research:

From Wordtracker: red cross, american red cross, red cross supplies are getting a ton of clicks. And "hurricance katrina" is receiving over 3,000 queries a day. It's good to see so many people using the internet as a tool to not only stay up-to-date on loved ones they may have, but for people I'm sure who are using search to get to sites to donate time or money. That's the American way and it really says a lot about this generation, wired and on-the-go.

20-Something Marketing Forum

Jared Degnan runs this new podcast that I've been listening too. I wanted to share with everyone out there because I feel he has a good foundation for exploring the lives of people in their 20's working in marketing and trying to reach for those ideas that seem to be squandered by baby boomers. Check it out here.

I recently wrote to Jared and this is what he said:
"My ultimate goal with the podcast (and the blog to a lesser extent) is to create an entertaining medium to share experiences about being in marketing and in your 20's so its great to hear from people like you."

My response was:
I think one of the things to address in terms of your podcast is ambition because Fortune 100 & 500 companies are starting to see VP, Director positions filled by people in their late 20's because of their thought provoking innovation and ability to connect with the upcoming generation. I think they are finding that it is becoming difficult for the baby boomers to find targeted ways to communicate marketing initiatives to our generation because we are so wired and on the go all the time, whether it be on the train texting friends about the previous night, setting up our own industry specific podcasts, grocery shopping and going online through our mobile phone, the possibilities seem endless, but I believe the 20 somethings find ways to attribute marketing dollars to tactics that baby boomers wouldn't associate with initially.