Searchers Getting Wordy

Bloggers can take heart from a trend in the way customers are searching on line.

Searchers are increasingly using complete sentences and long phrases as search terms, according to software maker Hubspot.

They're realizing that simple search terms can no longer pinpoint useful Web content, given its enormity.

So, for example, instead of entering "sales training," a searcher might enter "two-day onsite sales training for a small insurance brokerage in Kentucky."

"As a result of these more complex searches, Google has actually changed its algorithm to better fit conversational questions from searchers," Hubspot says.

Google's change in its algorithm will help drive more traffic to blogs, "which are designed by nature to be educational, answer questions, and provide background info," Hubspot says.

Social Spam Surging

Spammers are frantically spreading their muck across the social media networks, according to a study by Nextgate.

Spam increased by more than 350% on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn during the first six months of 2013.

Facebook and YouTube host considerably more spam than the other social networks, according to the study.

We're immune to the spam that floods our email in-boxes, but social spam is insidious, because it's much more difficult to detect.

And there's another reason spammers love it.

Where spam delivered as an email reaches one victim at the time, spam delivered as a post on a social media network can reach thousands.

A Content Marketing First

According to ADWEEK, Bank of America ran a banner ad this week on NYTimes.com that, when clicked, activated a live Webcast of The New York Times' "Schools for Tomorrow" conference.

Visitors who clicked the ad tuned into a live stream of the one-day event, Webcast inside the banner.

Bank of America was a sponsor of the conference.

An advertiser has never before hosted a live Webcast of a Times conference within an ad, says ADWEEK.

The ad "represents the demand by marketers today to align with, create and use content to get the attention of ad-weary consumers in fresh ways," ADWEEK says.

Expect to see a lot of copycats in the next 12 months.

Does Exaggeration Pay?

Do your ads embroider the truth?

If so, you may be wasting your investment.

Consumers are on to you.

Early this year, research firm Lab 42 asked consumers whether they believe advertisers.

The findings are unflattering:

• Three-fourths (76%) of consumers say advertisers always exaggerate. Fewer than one-fourth (24%) say they don't.

• Among the consumers who believe advertisers always exaggerate, a majority single out advertisers' use of Photoshopped graphics as an obvious attempt to deceive.

• Nearly one-third (32%) of consumers say they "get what advertisers are up to," and 17% would like to see the government punish advertisers for exaggerating.

The Best Ad Ever

Most people in the ad biz will tell you the best ad ever created was Volkswagen's 1962 "Think Small."

The ad was the brainchild of New York-based agency Doyle Dane Bernbach.

It's held in esteem for its faultless integrity. Speaking honestly in an ad in 1962 was nearly as against-the-grain as you could get.

In an era when motorists in the US were addicted to power and flash, the ad also tapped a shadowy part of the Zeitgeist, by asking readers to consider different values.

By chatting candidly about the simple virtues of economy, DDB persuaded 200,000 Americans to buy the stubby, 40-horsepower "Beetle" that year (the peak year for Beetle sales in the US).