Search engines are an important part of the advertising world. What sites are consumers using? What areas of a site have the most traffic flow? Where will we be best able to reach our target audience? Out of the 763 adult Internet users surveyed, about 70% have not changed their search engine activity. It seems to me that although a few people are checking Bing out, our best bet is going to be continuing to use the well-beloved Google search engine.

As that old saying goes, “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it” and I feel that very saying applies to our search engines. For those of us completely satisfied with our experiences on our favorite search engines, why would we switch? From needing to look up directions to researching random knowledge out of curiosity, the first words out of my mouth are, “I’ll google it!” Google hasn’t let me down yet, so unless that day ever comes, I don’t think I’ll be making the switch to Bing either.

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/07/14/consumers-unlikely-to-drop-google-for-bing-jp-morgan-says/

The power of the Internet has and is bringing about enormous changes in higher education. This is especially true in driving the enrollment of new students. Research has shown that nearly 82 percent of respondents to a special survey began their search for university degree and certificate programs by using various online channels.

As the internet becomes ever more popular and gains credibility, educational institutions are seeking effective ways to market their products online. This allows for a more targeted approach in promoting both online and campus-based programs. Enrollment programs that use online marketing channels are also easier to quantify in terms of success as education marketers pay only for the qualified leads they acquire.

So, it’s a piece of cake. Right? Promote on the Internet and you’re home free. Unfortunately it doesn’t work that way. Just as any skill must be acquired through hard work and the refining of the tools of the trade, so must the skill of online marketing. A case in point is the tale of a major Midwest University spending approximately three million dollars over two years and acquiring only fifteen students!

That’s why EDU Interactive believes it is so important that. as your lead generation partner, we assume responsibility for all aspects of your campaign from strategy through execution, while our partners maintain ownership of leads delivered on a pay-for-performance basis.

EDU Interactive believes that successful online lead generation demands certain critical attributes, and adherence to these will determine the success of a campaign.

ONE: It’s impossible to put too much importance on budgeting. This is where fantasy and reality butt heads. This is the first inning – the first batter – the first pitch! Get this right and the chance for success and realizing expectations come together.

TWO: A campaign strategy tailored to achieve enrollment goals. A strategy that communicates a message of substance. This is where our experience really shines!

THREE: A media plan that leverages a mix of online channels to reach a multitude of highly targeted
candidates and direct this traffic to education programs. A media plan that is negotiated with the client’s
best interest in mind and not the media’s.

FOUR: Apply advanced optimization strategy across these online channels determined by our extensive personal, behavioral, and contextual targeting criteria to make sure we are delivering an on-target message to the right candidates, ensuring a consistent stream of qualified student leads and return on investment.

FIVE: We feel that it is also very important that we verify the quality of all student leads using a highly developed data cleansing process.

SIX: Finally, it is vital to analyze a campaign’s results and provide recommendations for all future campaigns.

So, as you can tell, it is more of an art form than a science. The people of EDU Interactive have devoted countless hours and experienced immeasurable success, and yes failure, too, in an effort to learn what it takes to create and administer a service based on the six principles stated in this article.

Ultimately, it boils down to execution … EDU Interactive’s greatest strength!

The service is completely automated, and there is no access to human communication. In my experience, the voice recognition works well, but you must speak loud and clear, especially when calling from a mobile phone. If it takes the wrong information, you can say “go back” or “start over” at any time to either go back or start over.

When I first tested the service, I expected to hear paid advertisements while my requested number was being accessed. To my surprise, no ads! This was a nice change compared to other free information services I’ve used in the past. Overall, I’ve had great user-experiences with Google-411, and would highly recommend it for a fast, free and efficient 411 service.

Who offers an API?
Many of the larger, more reputable online companies offer API integration to some or all of their services. A few companies that have mature APIs are Google, Yahoo, Salesforce, Digg, Flickr, Basecamp, etc. With the internet’s growing number of disparate systems, programs and languages, APIs are rapidly growing in popularity and use.

What is a real-world API usage example?
My most recent usage was the Google adWords API. Let me take a step back, Google adWords is the platform for Paid Search Marketing on Google and their Search Network. I interfaced programmatically with our clients’ data (via the API) to pull custom reports and send that information each day in an easy to read, easy to understand HTML email. Without API access, I would have had to login, navigate to the right report, copy/paste the pertinent data, manually construct the email and send it out for each of my clients.

How about another real-world example?
At EDU interactive we deliver our clients’ high-quality web leads in real-time through 3rd-party APIs. Instead of forcing our clients to use an overly simplified home-grown solution or sending emails/cumbersome spreadsheets to deliver the data, we seamlessly deliver the leads directly into each customer’s CRM solution. CRM – Customer Relationship Management – is a broad term used to describe a system or software used to track a lead/prospect through the various points of contact and conversion milestones. If a new customer does not already have a CRM or similar solution in place, we can suggest one of many commercial solutions that makes sense considering their requirements and budget, while providing the necessary API access.

Here’s Wikipedia’s definition for the term: “Web 2.0 refers to a perceived second generation of web-based communities and hosted services–such as social-networking sites, blogs, and social bookmarking— which aim to facilitate collaboration and sharing between users. Although the term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, it does not refer to an update to any technical specifications, but to changes in the ways software developers and end-users use the web.”
So what does this mean? And what started the “Web 2.0” revolution?

The concept of “Web 2.0” was born during a conference in 2004 with O’Reilly Media and Media Live International. Dale Dougherty, web pioneer and O’Reilly VP, noted that the dot-com collapse in 2001, had marked a turning point for the web. There were more and more new and exciting applications and sites popping up every day, such as weblogs, social bookmarking, wikis, podcasts, RSS feeds, social software, web application programming interfaces (API’s) and online web services (ie. eBay). Most of all, the way people were using the web had changed significantly. These websites take advantage of web application technologies and give web users the ability to collaborate and share their experiences, views, opinions and interests while they surf the web.

The diagram below was developed during a brainstorming session at FOO Camp, a conference at O’Reilly Media. I thought this diagram best described all of the concepts that Web 2.0 encompasses.

Given the lack of set standards to what “Web 2.0” actually means, there will continue to be controversy over the term. The most important thing to understand are the main web 2.0 characteristics that make a website successful:

• “Web as a Platform” meaning delivering (and allowing users to use) web-based applications entirely through a web browser
• Providing a service, not a product
• Unique Content – maintaining hard-to-recreate data sources that get richer as more people use them
• Rich Internet application techniques–programming done “behind the scenes” to increase the web page’s interactivity, speed, functionality and usability. Website is built using the latest web 2.0 technologies.
• Social-networking capabilities- allowing users to interact with one another (chat, messaging, email, blogging, discussion groups, etc.)
• Microformats – data formatting (coding) that enables data items to be indexed, searched for, saved or cross-referenced by web crawlers.
• Encourage user contributions – an open source format, like weblogs or message boards, that are open to the public and can be modified by users (user-created and user-owned data)
• Folksonomies (a.k.a, social bookmarking) – creating & managing tags to categorize content to make info easier to search, discover and navigate over time. (ie. del.icio.us and Flickr)

Below are just a few very successful websites that utilize the web 2.0 technologies:

1. MySpace.com – Perhaps the most popular social networking site on the web! The online community allows users to create their own, personal webpage to share photos, journals and interests with a growing network of mutual friends.
2. YouTube – a site that allows users to share their favorite videos with the entire world.
3. Wikipedia- The largest reference website on the Internet. The content of Wikipedia is free, and is written collaboratively by people from all around the world.
4. Digg.com – this is a user-driven social content website. Users submit content (favorite websites, opinions, stories, etc) and other digg users read submissions and “digg” what they like best.

All of these websites offer different services, but they all share the common characteristics of a web 2.0 website. They all offer the ability to take advantage of web-based applications and services. They all encourage user contributions, by allowing them to add content and customize the look and feel of the site. And they all allow for socialization and collaboration among users.

The World Wide Web is constantly changing and evolving, and new technologies will continue to change the way people use and interact with the web. Pretty soon, “Web 2.0” will become a term of the past, and we’ll be wondering… “So, what is “Web 3.0” really?”