25 New Social Articles on Business 2 Community |
- The Essential Elements of Optimized Blog Posts
- Want To Be A Social Media Activist?
- Google Plus: A Key To Social SearchSuccess?
- Are You Stuck In Social Media Awareness?
- The Secret To Building Your Brand On Twitter
- Can Facebook’s Local Currency Help Indian e-Commerce
- 5 Tips To Make Your Retweets Standout
- YouTube’s Mind Numbing Figures (Infographic)
- Increasing Ad Conversion through Social Context and Sponsored Stories
- 5 Social Tools To Keep You Up To Date With The News
- Crowd Sourced Summary Of #SBS2012 In 63 Tweets!
- Brands Can Edit Their Facebook Comments, Too
- Facebook SEO Tips For Your Local Business
- Flash Sales, Deals of the Day … Is Gamification Next?
- 3 Search Engine Optimization Methods to Avoid
- 5 Ways To Gain A Huge Profit From Facebook Sponsored Stories
- Never Let Them Catch You Rolling Your Eyes
- Why You Should Create Custom Lists on Facebook
- 5 Tips To Retain Visitors To Your Website
- How You Can Get Leads on Linkedln
- How To Measure ROI On Social Media
- 3 Link Building Strategies That Work With Google Penguin
- Social Media Helps Hunt For The Greatest Indian By History TV18 #TGI
- 8 Shocking New Social Media Facts
- Twitter Launches Expanded Tweets
| The Essential Elements of Optimized Blog Posts Posted: 22 Jun 2012 04:00 PM PDT
We also spend a lot of time looking at our blog analytics. It’s not just enough to write a blog; you have to look at the traffic generated each time you publish a new one. Which blogs performed well? Which ones did not attract the audience you’d hoped? More importantly, do you know why? Each and every time one of the team here at Weidert Group writes a blog, we try to deliver a post that’s both interesting and informative. We have our areas of expertise, we seek out compelling topics and we judiciously use our keywords. Yet, some posts do better than others, and some really take off, gathering hundreds of views and driving prospects to our website where we can convert them to leads. To date, our top 5 posts are:
When you read these posts and really delve into why they’re successful, you begin to see they have certain elements in common – let’s call them the essential elements of optimized blog posts: A great topicWhile I like to think all of our topics are good, there are just some topics that catch a reader’s attention more than others. However, you can increase your chances of choosing a good one by knowing your audience, why they follow you and what they’re interested in. Blogging about your keywords is a good start, and it certainly increases the chances of your blog being found. A conversational toneWhen you read these 5 blogs, you’ll notice they’re written in a way that’s both educational and conversational. You can hear it in your head as a dialog among a couple of friends or colleagues. It’s not jargon. It’s not overwhelming. Just a pleasant read. Links to additional informationLinks are a great way to add more information and expertise to your blog posts. It gives the reader additional resources, both on your website and to external sites, without adding to the length of the post. Adding those links also helps to build your websites inbound links, improving your rankings with the search engines. A list, a graphic or bothLists and images serve several important functions for a blog. Bulleted lists are a great way to segment copy into easily digestible nuggets; they’ll also help to break up a long post. Images can also break up long sections of copy, and they give you another opportunity to add keywords to your post by using them in the alt text, further increasing the visibility of the post. A related call to actionEvery good blog post needs to have a call to action asking the reader to take additional steps. Directing them to a topically related tip sheet, white paper or e-book increases the chances they’ll find additional value in the post. Not only will they download additional content, but that additional value will often cause them to share the post, increasing your views and potential to attract additional prospects. Of course, there are other ways to boost your blog viewership, like proper use of tags and a well-written meta description. But if you work on making sure you include and master the essential elements, you’ll see your blog readership steadily increase. To learn more about writing optimized blog posts, please see our e-book How to Write a Killer Blog Post.
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| Want To Be A Social Media Activist? Posted: 22 Jun 2012 03:10 PM PDT
Back in the 60s, activists called upon the inspirations of past revolutionaries in finding new and effective ways to protest. They used sit-ins, hunger strikes, and marches to make their point. These days, starting a movement more often than not begins less in the streets and more on the Internet. If you have a cause you care deeply about, be it education reform, greener environmental laws, or equal rights, it's time you learned more about social media activism. Connecting to the World Sure, there's a time and place for pounding the pavement and going door to door to spread the word about a worthy cause. But if you really want to make an impact on an important issue, the Web can deliver your message to the world. In large, technically-advanced nations where freedom reigns to small third-world countries where oppression rules, people are taking to the Internet and social media for activism. Sending a Message Email isn't the only way to send a message on the Internet. To be a serious social media activist one must take advantage of the most powerful platforms to reach likeminded people, such as Facebook and Twitter. With these two sources alone a lot can be accomplished in a short period of time, as you create a home base for your cause, begin to connect with people who share your beliefs, and start to organize support. Not only do you now have an open forum to plan, discuss, and inform, but the means to communicating vital information and updates to your support base. Reaching the Masses Now that your cause has an online presence and a growing group of advocates, it's time to use social media to make a deeper impact. A resource like Meetup, which helps bring people together and plan actual events, can be a powerful tool. Other ways to make a statement are through email chains and online petitions, which can achieve the type of groundswell support that makes people sit up and notice. And you can always post a video on YouTube, which may go viral in an instant, spreading the message to millions and potentially garnering mainstream media attention. Making a Difference When it comes to activism, the idea is stand up for what you believe in and fight for change. By using the far-reaching power of the Internet through social media, groups and individuals alike have proven to be able to make enough of an impact to bring about real change. Best of all, social media and the way it is used is forever evolving, making it possible to find new and more effective ways to start a movement than ever before. |
| Google Plus: A Key To Social SearchSuccess? Posted: 22 Jun 2012 12:40 PM PDT
While I certainly agree that these are valuable concerns, I also acknowledge that there are a number of benefits to using Google+ and reasons why companies may want to keep an eye on it. The main reason is search rankings and Google+ is making it impossible for the SEO savvy business owner to ignore this fact. Not surprisingly, it’s suggested that Google gives content on Google+ favorable positioning on its search engine. So, by using Google+, firms may be able to strengthen their search presence through participation on the network by sharing their own content and engaging with others' content. In addition to this information, I attended a session at a social networking conference (Social Slam) in April about the concept of Social Search. The bottom line? In the future search engine optimization will take into consideration individuals' participation on social networking sites. “Likes,” “+1s,” and “Pins” will start to affect the search engine results. Considering this, doesn't it make sense to engage on the one social networking site that is also a search engine? Hopefully, this evidence is enough to convince you of why you might want to consider using this site, but you may still be wondering about how to get started? Below, we have provided a brief overview of Google+ and its features to help you get started. Are you using Google+? Do you think it's here to stay? I would love to hear your input and experiences! |
| Are You Stuck In Social Media Awareness? Posted: 22 Jun 2012 11:25 AM PDT
Everyday, we read more posts about WHY:
It is time for change! – If you really want change, you need to do the following: Stop reading about social media and becoming more aware of it and actually take the time to do it. Yes – Take Action!!!! You must make an investment of your time and personalize this!!!!! Here is my plan of action for you if you are stuck? By the way, all of us at some point get stuck in our campaigns, so don't let some expert tell you otherwise. When it happens this is what I do: 1) Follow some great blog writers I start searching for good, current, updated all the time blogs. I want to get current information. Books are nice, but current information is better. 2) Search for information on different platforms Google+, Twitter – Both have great search utilities and you can find information on how to get better using social media platforms. 3) Connect locally with a marketing guru
4) Create your own goals to start
5) Most Important – Start a blog or restart your blog!
In summary, awareness will develop as you take action and it will make much more sense. Take Action! – Stop spending all of your time in developing your awareness… |
| The Secret To Building Your Brand On Twitter Posted: 22 Jun 2012 11:21 AM PDT
The best way to build your Twitter following is through word-of-mouth marketing, which is triggered by retweets. Two major studies done over the years that have analyzed which tweets get shared and which fail to make the grade. The Tweet StudyUCLA and Hewlett-Packard's HP Labs conducted a recent study to predict the popularity of news-based tweets. Their focus was to predict tweets' popularity before they become tweets and their tools were able to calibrate their tweets in advance of posting with 84 percent accuracy. They found that there were four important factors in tweet spreadability.
Dan Zarella, a Hubspot employee who constantly researches new Twitter trends, focused on what stimulates a retweet for his study. He found that 51 percent of tweets that included "Please Retweet" were retweeted more than once, 39 percent of those including "Please RT" were retweeted more than once, and only 12 percent of tweets that included neither were retweeted more than once. Tweet Times MatterHe went deeper into his analysis for his "Science of ReTweets" presentation. He found that the most retweetable words are "you," "Twitter," "please," "retweet" and "post." One of the most interesting and valuable pieces of information that he concluded was that the most amount of retweets happen at around 5 p.m. EST. If you tweet around that time, you should be able to get the most return on your tweet (ROT). Also, he found that the likelihood of a tweet being retweeted increases dramatically each time it is retweeted. The reason for this is because there's social proof that it's already popular. By arming yourself with this information, you can be more successful on Twitter and save time asking yourself if your tweet will amount to anything. Twitter can be an extremely powerful tool if you use it correctly and understand what works and what doesn't. Too many entrepreneurs use it without insight into how human behavior works on the platform. The reality is that it takes time to build up a fan base that can help market your products on your behalf, but it's worth it. —– |
| Can Facebook’s Local Currency Help Indian e-Commerce Posted: 22 Jun 2012 11:10 AM PDT
To make this concept work, Facebook had tied up with players such as MOL, the leader in virtual currency for online games in India too. But things have not worked the way as it was thought and virtual currencies have failed to replace real currencies. So Facebook is removing the need for a platform-wide virtual currency and introducing the support of pricing in local currency such as US dollar, Indian rupee, etc. The new move that has been thought of will benefit Facebook's global audience who can now perform transactions in their local currencies. The local pricing payment option will allow more granular and consistent prices for non-US users and it would also allow pricing the same item differently on a market-by-market basis. In addition, Facebook has also assured that the transition will be seamless and additionally users who have credit balances will receive the equivalent amount of value in their local currency. To know more, you can always read the FAQ and sign up for the latest information. Can this move benefit the Indian ecommerce?Facebook being the largest social network in India, it is a natural call for businesses to open a Facebook page first for interacting with fans. The Indian ecommerce industry has done the same and it has also invested a lot on Facebook in terms of driving engagement. One of the reasons why Facebook Stores (which was termed as a failure) was launched, was to support the ecommerce businesses. Facebook wanted businesses to build their own store on Facebook so that fans wouldn't leave it and do all their activity on Facebook itself. But one of the major reasons why Facebook Stores didn't work was that it had to deal with Facebook Credits. In a country where online transactions are still not trusted, acceptance of Facebook Credits was bit of an ask. Besides this, other businesses used to lead fans to different payment gateways, thereby leaving the network when they were asked to make a payment. But by introducing support for pricing in local currency, Facebook has brought good news for Indian ecommerce businesses. Apart from having a website, businesses can now display their stores on Facebook without getting into the hassles of payment since fans can easily transact in their local currency if they wish to. And if you don't want to display your entire website, may be you can create a store that displays the latest collection along with the ones that have good deals. This will help fans to do the transaction in Facebook itself without leaving the network. In a nutshell, Facebook local currency will be a welcome move by ecommerce businesses and fans for its sheer convenience. So do you think that Facebook will kill the need of having a website when you can have the complete experience on Facebook itself along with interacting with fans daily? |
| 5 Tips To Make Your Retweets Standout Posted: 22 Jun 2012 11:03 AM PDT
1) Place your Retweet Comment at the beginning of the Tweet you are retweeting. (Gets People's Attention, especially if others have retweeted the same message. 2) Don't just retweet a post without some sort of message. Sometimes its tough to place a comment, but retweeting for retweeting sake should not be your goal in the long run. (A lot of people do this, but you always want to stand out from what everyone else is doing) 3) Always leave the link and place and give lots of thought if you have to shorten the original tweet. Always make it a goal to make the message stand out versus eliminating some words and creating a confusing message. 4) Make sure to RT the original author. THIS SHOWS CLASS AND RESPECT! Retweeting other RT'ers is nice but retweeting the original author shows you care about who actually wrote the article. 5) If its just not possible to perform any of the steps stated above, send a reply and recopy/repaste the link. (THIS IS THE BEST WAY TO MAKE A CONNECTION WITH THE AUTHOR OR PERSON SUBMITTING THE LINK) To me, this is how tweets go massively viral. In addition, it shows that you are serious about your comments and you really value the information you just read and you want others to know. REPLIES/Mentions are always appreciated and in my experience lead to deeper connections. Just some thoughts on Retweeting! Retweet this post with your comments as to what you have seen. I know there are a lot of great tips out there for improving communication on Twitter. |
| YouTube’s Mind Numbing Figures (Infographic) Posted: 22 Jun 2012 10:35 AM PDT Earlier this week, we posted a Tip Sheet on how to make sure your audience can find and watch your online videos. But why should you care so much about YouTube? Is sharing video content really that big of deal? Yes, it is. People are much more likely to engage with videos than any other sort of online content. And not only are online audiences more likely to watch your videos than they are to read your posts or look at your pictures, they are much more likely to share the videos with their friends. We posted some figures with the Tip Sheet to convince you, such as the fact that over 800 million unique users watch over 3 billion hours of video each month. Those kind of numbers are almost impossible to wrap your head around. So if you're still not convinced on the value of YouTube, TechWelkin created a wonderful Infographic illustrating these and other mind-blowing facts and figures about the video sharing social network. It shows just how useful YouTube can be to have your brand reach a global audience. Some interesting points from the Infographic:
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Have any thoughts about these astronomical numbers? Let us know in the comments and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn. Register for our FREE Resource Center and Newsletter to access our growing library of valuable Guide Books, Tip Sheets, and more! To learn how MAGNET MEDIA can help with your social media/interactive marketing or video solutions, contact info@magnetmediafilms.com, 646-486-7109, or visit magnetmediafilms.com/what-we-do ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Ryan W. Neal is a journalist from Sacramento, California. After earning a B.A. in English and philosophy at UC Santa Barbara, he interned with the Santa Barbara Independent and wrote freelance stories for the Sacramento News & Review, The Summit Daily News, and Virgin.com/music. He earned his M.S. in journalism from Columbia University, and now works as Editorial Assistant at Magnet Media. |
| Increasing Ad Conversion through Social Context and Sponsored Stories Posted: 22 Jun 2012 10:30 AM PDT When it comes to advertising on Facebook, businesses have found that the environment is very friendly. Although it is constantly changing from one month to the next, the changes end up benefiting everyone. Take Sponsored Stories for a quick example of a Facebook advertising method. These ads are a great way for a business to bolster their conversions. What exactly are Facebook Sponsored Stories? The quick version: These are essentially just posts from your pages or from your friends via Facebook. You have paid to have them highlighted, so obviously the odds of people seeing them are better. But other than that, they're just regular stories/videos/pics, etc that have been shared through pages you're connected to, either your business page or your friends' pages. A Sponsored Story can obviously be an advertisement, and the real trick here is figuring out how to up your conversion rate when using Sponsored Stories. Getting Conversions with Social ContextSponsored Stories, to take the technicality out of it, are ads in the news feed section that mingle around with the other updates on your page. Because there is a like/dislike feature with these ads, you can definitely play into the social context aspect of it and end up with a higher conversion rate. For a quick look at how these sponsored ads in a social context outperform regular ads without the context, here's a graph of a control group looking at regular ads and a group exposed to ads with social context (sponsored ads that have been liked by their friends already). As you can see from the above graph, ads with social context had a 6% higher rate of recall, displayed 4% more awareness, and gathered interested from 6% more people who had an actual intent to purchase a product. Of course, the explanation of why social context is important and what makes an ad contextual in that department is a longwinded subject. What's more important to you, obviously, is how you can use the social context to up your conversions. Using Social Context EffectivelyWhen you think of social context, a good way to approach is within the framework of a fashion designer. The intent is to create a fashion that is admired by all fashionistas. You want to create a trend. Inherently this means that you want to create a popular ad that's positive in nature and that people will like. This means stepping outside of the "business" aspect a little bit and focusing more on what your audience enjoys. You want to create and test ads that offer something appealing to your potential customers. Give them a fun video, a unique image. Write an inspiring story about how your product has changed lives. Be true to your product but seek to entertain people through these stories and ads that will turn people on to a more entertaining side of the advertisement rather than a business-first approach. Once a few people like the ad, the odds of others following suit are huge. |
| 5 Social Tools To Keep You Up To Date With The News Posted: 22 Jun 2012 10:05 AM PDT
Think about how you came to find this post. What led you here? Maybe it appeared in your search results, perhaps in your Twitter feed or even an old fashioned email. I'd argue that Twitter has been one of the catalysts for this. As an extremely simple, open platform which is based around short and easily digestible pieces of text it was built for sharing news. However, there's a challenge amongst all of this. How do you cut through the noise of all the conversation to find the information you want to read? How do you slow the flow to something your brain can keep pace with? I wanted to share some tools that I've been using which have helped me: An iOS app (and currently in beta for Android) which presents a beautiful, magazine style representation of links from various sources. You literally flip through pages of stories and photos from the places you want to keep an eye on. One of the most useful features is the ability to read through only the links from your Twitter timeline. I find this extremely useful to keep track of the great things people have shared. ReederAgain, another iOS app, but this one allows you to read your Google Reader offline. If you've not set up a Google Reader account, it's definitely worth it. It's based on RSS, which is a way of subscribing to content posted by almost every website. I like Reeder because it has some great sharing features. You can instantly post out articles you like to Twitter or Facebook, which brings me to my next point: InstapaperHave you ever seen an article or post that you really wanted to read, but didn't have time? Instapaper is a great way to save those articles for later reading. One of its nicest features is the ability to remove ads and other formatting from articles so they're presented in a clean, almost newspaper like format for easy reading. StorifyThis is a great tool for keeping track of Twitter conversations. Twitter's speed is great for getting access to the latest news, but can be maddening when you try and keep track of what was shared by whom and with what comment. Storify let's you track all of that, and presents the results in an easy to share story format so you can share with others. Last, but not least: your own blogThis has been perhaps the best tool for me in keeping track of the things I like. If I find an article or post which inspires me or prompts a comment I post it as a link post on my own blog. It means I can keep track of my views on a particular topic by sharing them with people. Image credit: faunng on flickr |
| Crowd Sourced Summary Of #SBS2012 In 63 Tweets! Posted: 22 Jun 2012 09:54 AM PDT Due to the popularity of my last crowd sourced summary I thought I would continue on with the social collaboration. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the conversation using the event hashtag #SBS2012. The Social Business Summit 2012 was held in London on June 21st 2012. The event was organised by Dachis Group and sponsored by IBM. The event featured keynotes from some of the most influential thought leaders from the world of social business. The line up included:-
Great to be in a place with so many like minded people #sbs2012 — For the benefit of anyone who couldn't attend or for anyone who would like a recap, I have compiled this article featuring what were, in my opinion, the key tweets and quotes from the day. It features a compilation of some of the things that were said on the day by the speakers and the opinions of those in the audience. I narrowed down the many hundred of tweets into just 63. Too much good stuff to get into a shorter list sorry! Hopefully it should give you an idea of the summit and some of the ideas discussed. I have also added some photos of the event onto my Facebook page I have serious #notebookenvy (along with @shimi_j!) of @ideasarenothing and his notebook order. http://t.co/58FPqxY8 #SBS2012 — Interesting #stats from #sbs2012: 80% of brands still closed to #mobile. 68% of social happens via mobile. Via @nilofer — .@folletto says use competition, excellence, curiosity or affection to motivate people #sbs2012 — We largely talk about external motivations (i.e. money) or intrinsic (passion) but what about relational motivations? #SBS2012 — Henry Ford being quoted at #sbs2012. So why did people want a faster horse? Go back to their needs. They wanted to get there faster. — .@iotwatch says best way to predict the future is to invent it (or someone did on her slides) #sbs2012 — RFID chip is now about $.10 a piece. So no reason to not build instrumentation + data on anything. #SBS2012 — .@iotwatch says the future is not an internet fridge! #sbs2012 — Great question about how to measure success of a social business. Surely it depends on the business objectives? #sbs2012 — .@mjfreshyfresh says #social #bigdata is a hot job market #sbs2012 — “Your advocates are better marketers than your marketers are” #sbs2012 #socbiz — Peer advocates are better marketers than professional marketers. More credible, more trusted, more sales conversions. #sbs2012 @dachisgroup — Giff Gaff: Importance of being open & honest about the big picture/business needs when putting price in the hands of customers #sbs2012 — #sbs2012 @giffgaff people have choice between credits, cash and charity as reward (payback) for contributions — First time I hear about @giffgaff. MIND = BLOWN #sbs2012 When are you guys entering the NL market???? =) — I think @giffgaff is a perfect example of a business model built around relationships, respect, trust, cooperation, community. #sbs2012 — As #giffgaff case study clear shows, we shouldn’t underestimate what can be created w/ community, purpose. #SBS2012 — .@vincentboon says @giffgaff have crown sourced 7000+ ideas and have implemented 350+ of them #sbs2012 — Giffgaff haven’t developed any apps, their community members have released their own. Talk about brand loyalty! #sbs2012 — 68% of all social activity is done on a mobile device. #sbs2012 #IBM research. — 68% of all social activity is done on a mobile device. #sbs2012 #IBM research. — At @giffgaff the existing customers are happier than the new ones! How many mobile providers can say that? #sbs2012 — @giffgaff : Community advocacy used to address potentially negative media stories #sbs2012 — .@vincentboon says 70% of people trust online opinions #sbs2012 — #sbs2012 Idea of social customer service. Metric: for every 1 who complains 25 don’t. 90% online trust recommendations from people they know — .@vincentboon says 90% of consumers trust recommendations from people they know #sbs2012 — .@vincentboon says it’s hard to have conversation on #facebook or @twitter #sbs2012 — .@vincentboon says they have given £1.2 million away in return for crowd sourced #customerservice #sbs2012 — #sbs2012 given £1.2m back to the network One customer earned £30k pa from helping out. — .@vincentboon says you do something for us we will do something for you #sbs2012 — .@simonbigpicture says spend 80% of #marketing spend of safe bets and 20% on experimentation #sbs2012 — There are millions of people with these devices in their pocket, and it’s time to think about mobile 1st. #sbs2012 — .@simonbigpicture says success = targeting marketing to people on basis of location profile and preferences #sbs2012 — #sbs2012 A person is more likely to buy something in a store if they speak with the same sales person > 3 times. call centres take note — .@simonbigpicture says if you are served by the same member of staff 3 times you are 10 times more likely to return #sbs2012 — .@simonbigpicture says forward thinking stores expose stock levels to google so they can tell you where the product is in stock #sbs2012 — “Amazon Price Check may be Evil But It’s the Future” |
| Brands Can Edit Their Facebook Comments, Too Posted: 22 Jun 2012 09:24 AM PDT
In the past, users who left a comment they weren't happy with had to delete it and re-post. With the new feature, users can simply click on an edit button, which looks like a little pen (see image), fix any issues and then hit enter to save. The good news is that this feature will also apply to brand or business pages. When you're using a page as an admin, you can also edit any messages left by your company. Though this seems to be a simple update, as brands engage with customers in real-time, this feature will surely help to save time. To be clear, this feature is not for editing status updates, just the comments left below them. Personally, I would love to see the ability to also edit status updates. Often times, after taking the time to craft a message and publishing, I find a mistake. I'm not sure there is really a specific reason the company rolled out the feature now, other than its engineers just finally got to it on the "to do" list. However, it does show that Facebook is working to get more users commenting on each others updates by making it easier from a user experience perspective. Has the new edit feature been rolled out to you yet? |
| Facebook SEO Tips For Your Local Business Posted: 22 Jun 2012 08:43 AM PDT Facebook is not only a great site for building your brand and engaging with customers and followers, but it can also help your business get found in search engines. If it's optimized for search, your Facebook page can show up in the organic listings for people searching for your types of products and services, as well as –for your business name, helping you own more "shelf space" on the search engine results page. So, how can you optimize your business Facebook page for SEO? Basic SEO principles, like keyword optimization and inbound linking, apply to the ranking of your Facebook page. Facebook recently launched a new video detailing some important SEO tips for all Facebook pages. Here are a few takeaways the video highlights – as well as a few of our own tips on how to apply these ideas for local SEO: Create a Good Page Name Local SEO Tip: Don't reinvent the wheel on your page name; stick to the name of your business. If that's not available, or if you're creating a page for a business with multiple locations, use your business name plus the business location, such as Bob's Automotive of San Francisco. Include Details and Keywords in the About Section Local SEO Tip: Include important business details, keywords, and the location of your business in this section, but don't keyword stuff. Stick to what's most important and relevant for your business, and make sure it's easily understandable and written in plain English. Claim a Facebook Username Local SEO Tip: Like with your page name, your desired user name may or may not be available, or you may have multiple business pages for multiple locations. So, start with your business name, and then include a simple location keyword like the name of your city, suburb, or street to keep your user name as short and memorable as possible. For example: http://facebook.com/bobsautomotivesf. Generate Links and Likes for the Page Local SEO Tip: As a local business, there are many opportunities to encourage people– including employees and current customers– to like your page. . Generating likes from these people has added value, since it will not only improve your Facebook SEO and boost your chances of being found by new prospects, but it will also give you the opportunity to engage with and build community with people who already love your business. Set Up Your Page as a Facebook Place Local SEO Tip: Local businesses have the opportunity to make their Facebook page a Place where users can check in, so make sure you've taken this step, and consider putting up signage in your business to let customers know they can check in at your location. You may even want to run a Facebook Check-In Deal to help generate more likes for your page. Generate High Quality Links Local SEO Tip: It's also important to generate links to your Facebook page from other websites. As a local business owner, you might consider including a link to your Facebook page in your bio when it's used in online publications or profiles, or seeing if local organizations like the chamber of commerce will allow you to link to your page from your business description on their website. Click to View Video on Facebook
Have you optimized your Facebook page for SEO? Are you using any of these tactics in your Web marketing? Let us know your thoughts in a comment! About the Author Tiffany Monhollon shares practical tips and insights about reaching consumers across the web as a blogger for ReachLocal. Follow her on Twitter and Google+ |
| Flash Sales, Deals of the Day … Is Gamification Next? Posted: 22 Jun 2012 08:30 AM PDT Earlier this year, I questioned the definition of social commerce. In my opinion, social commerce means much more than conversions and sales.
If you continue to believe that social commerce is just an order placed on a Facebook Store, the future isn't that great. And if you include conversions on your own websites from inbound social traffic, social commerce still doesn't look too promising. My argument was, and still is, that retailers need to pay a lot more attention to reach and customer service in order to create a successful social commerce program. Reach will be supported by user-generated content as a result of enabling consumers to explore products, share, and collaborate. Proactive, not reactive, customer service will allow retailers to leverage this content or diffuse a potential harmful situation to their business. Of course, both types of these interactions lead to a transaction between buyer and seller, regardless of where it takes place. So how can online retailers create engaging and viral experiences that drive purchases? Last month, something from Klout on this front caught my attention. I may be late to the party, but the gamification of Klout through its Perks program is fantastic. And considering how many retailers tried to replicate their own versions of flash sales and deals of the day as part of their existing ecommerce business, gamification could be a great next move. When consumers share products and leave reviews, give them points. Then use a formula that considers average order value and other metrics ranked via a leaderboard that rewards those at the top of the list. It's human nature to compete, want to be better than someone else, and win. Say what you want about a website like foursquare, but I continue to hear from a colleague (and others) who's really proud to be the mayor of his local Domino's Pizza. And then there's the Klout naysayers, who usually are people whose Klout scores rival how many years of school they completed. |
| 3 Search Engine Optimization Methods to Avoid Posted: 22 Jun 2012 08:20 AM PDT
Gaining traffic from search engines, like Google, Yahoo and Bing, doesn’t have to be difficult. However, if you choose the wrong type of search engine optimization strategy, you may never see the ranking you desire. Some of the SEO methods out there won’t help, but if you use the right strategies, it can be like getting plastic surgery for your website. If SEO is your main marketing method, it’s important to make sure you understand all the necessary information to help you put together the best strategy. Google changes the way they rank websites regularly, which means a good strategy targets more than just Google. Avoid these three methods and you will have a better chance of ranking high on all the search engines. Bad SEO Methods You don’t Want to Use 1. Low Quality Backlinks Purchasing backlinks from a service that creates low quality links like directory links, profile links and even some blog comment links can hurt your site. It used to be that all you had to do was build a large amount of backlinks and Google would rank you on the first page, but now they look at the quality of the links more than the quantity. 2. Keyword Stuffing When marketers first started using SEO, they could gain ranking by using the same keyword phrase over and over throughout their content. Now, if you do this it is considered keyword stuffing, which Google hates. Yahoo and Bing don’t care for this strategy either, and your site can be marked as a spam site, if you stuff your main keyword into the content on your site or blog. 3. Low Quality Blog Networks Most low quality blog networks are no longer in business, but a few of these still exist. They won’t for very much longer since these networks are no longer creating good quality links and Google has banned many of their sites. You want to avoid these networks if you want to rank high on the search engines. Alternative SEO Methods for Better Ranking Adjusting your SEO strategy and avoid the above three mistake, is easy. You need to start by using quality content for your website and concentrate more on a theme than a main keyword phrase. This will give you quality content to help you rank better on the search engines. Of course, it doesn’t stop there. You also need to build backlinks to your site that are higher in quality. Finding websites and blogs in the same industry as your site and gaining a backlink from them through guest blog posts or blog comments will help your site more than blasting out thousands of low quality links. This will help you gain ranking much faster. Finally, you can build your own blog network with web 2.0 sites and your own domain names. This will help you protect your site and will give you ranking you can keep for a very long time. If you use all three of these tips and avoid the mistakes above, your SEO strategy work better for you. |
| 5 Ways To Gain A Huge Profit From Facebook Sponsored Stories Posted: 22 Jun 2012 08:00 AM PDT We all heard about facebook ads. Rumors out there stated that paid ads in facebook do not work. And also there have been rumors that Facebook ad revenue decreases. Ok, rumors are one thing and facts are another! Marin Software, an advertising management company, proved that Facebook ads work, especially Facebook's new ad units, Sponsored Stories which work in a social context are doing very well for social media marketing. The simple reason why firms are not successful with their Facebook marketing is they do not understand that people go online to research and not to buy thing. In the case of Facebook marketing the people go to Facebook to connect, exchange ideas and to communicate. They go to Facebook to discover new things (research). Companies which do Facebook marketing do some major mistakes when performing paid campaigns. One major mistake is they attract the Facebook user to click on their Facebook ad and lead him or her away from Facebook. This is a bad idea as the people on Facebook want to communicate and learn about new things on Facebook and they do not want to be led away. To avoid this mistake companies which perform Facebook paid ad campaigns should be creative and lead these ad attracted visitors to their Facebook page, for example with an exclusive offer. This would for sure improve the marketing results. Another major mistake when businesses do Facebook social media marketing is, they do not take the opportunity to communicate with those ads attracted new visitors of their Facebook pages. Social media is about communication and connection with people. It's not about selling and sales pitches. Businesses should take the time to communicate with their network and carefully listen to them. This can result in a massive revenue growth when done right. Also a major mistake is to think, to be on Facebook as a brand is enough and the audience will follow. Why should they follow your business page on Facebook? Do you have something remarkable, valuable and interesting to share with your audience? Did you take this chance to build trust and position you as a professional resource there? A great way how you can position your business and your brand in social media sites like Facebook is to publish and share remarkable, valuable and interesting content! You can expand your brand reach very easy and quick by expanding the reach of your content through "Facebook Sponsored Stories". So your content reaches wide more people and the best thing is it reaches the right people. The way of social targeting helps to reach the right persons and attract those future customers to a business page. This way you build trust and brand awareness the smart way. The success of "Sponsored Stories" is huge. An increasing number of advertisers are using this smart marketing way to expand the reach of their custom created content. Infographic: A Brief Insight Into Facebook Marketing
Here are five ways how you can make Facebook Sponsored Stories work for you:1. Start a corporate blog and create and share content in social media like Facebook in which your audience is interested in 2. Create eBooks, whitepapers, how-to's, etc. and offer a free download in exchange of the visitors contact information on a landing page. This way you generate targeted leads 3. Set this landing pages under Facebook apps, so the user never need to leave Facebook 4. Start "Facebook Sponsored Stories" and direct the ad link to one of your Facebook landing pages 5. Encourage your audience to give you feedback regarding your content. This way you start the conversation How about you, did you use "Sponsored Stories" yet and how is your opinion?
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| Never Let Them Catch You Rolling Your Eyes Posted: 22 Jun 2012 07:30 AM PDT I experience a lot of contempt for bloggers and social media influencers. From agencies and marketing firms as well as from self-professed social media experts and social media gurus. Bloggers and other social media online influencers may not know who Edward Bernays is or have the lingua franca of a trained communications professional, but they sure can spot the eye roll of condescension and contempt from a mile away, even through the terse messaging of a single pitch. While the biggest brands with the biggest gifts and social cachet can get away with being douche bags and intolerable asses because the level of peer and personal prestige and importance more than compensate for bad manners, rudeness, and a condescending manner–the proverbial upturned nose and eye roll–this sort of behavior isn't acceptable from anyone but the crown king and queen of their particular demographic. For example, if you're offering cars, purses, trips to bloggers to review, you can act as you like; if you're offering coupons, you had better really try to understand that it is relationship, kindness, attention, and connection that is selling your pitch–and the blogger's valuable-to-her time–instead of your patently insulting suggestion that "you and your readers would really benefit from this dollar-off coupon." If you think that bloggers are actually failed journalists, you may have contempt for your audience; if you consider the time spent to become a blogger would be better spent "working," you may have contempt for your audience; if you believe that what bloggers do is "just prattle on," you may have contempt for your audience; and if you actively play favorites and only engage with the crème de la crème of bloggers, you may have contempt for your audience. This contempt is made plain by two variations of a quote attributed to Henry Louis Mencken, "No one in this world has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby" and "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public." This blog post came to a head upon reading the time-honored and often-reviled book by Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends & Influence People. At first blush, it is a deeply-troubling and kiddie-pool-shallow indictment of all that is superficial and manipulative about sales, marketing, PR, and social networking. If you gird your loins, however, and push through, I kick myself for not having studied it further. I will admit that I always get to where it really sounds like Dale is suggesting that we superior elite who are reading his book need to learn to manifest the same sort of compassion, patience, and calm–grace–that we generally reserve for children and the infirm. And then I realized that that is indeed what Dale Carnegie is saying! But that we should not just reserve compassion, empathy, gentleness, love, patience, attention, and kindness to just children, we should lavish anyone and everyone in our lives with adoration, no matter if that person is one's child, one's wife, one's business associate, or one's prospect. What he seems to be suggesting–and this is really revolutionary to see laid out through endless illustration and scenarios taken from history's greatest and most successful men and women–is that being nice, generous, and friendly should be something one aspires to generally and not just as a ploy to make friends and influence people. While this book may well have been popularly reflected as insincere, insincerity is what doesn't work in PR, sales, marketing, and especially in earned media online with bloggers and other online influencers. Some good advice that Dale Carnegie offers is "bait your hook for the fish you want to catch rather than for yourself." (OK, if you're rolling your eyes now and thinking, "pearls to swine" right now, get out of the business immediately and get into a profession that better tolerates insufferable snobs and douche nozzles.) I have been saying this forever based on what I read years ago in a very popular book of the day called Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus by John Gray: "you need to give the gift your partner wants instead of the gift you want to give." Great advice for us men who are constantly giving vacuum cleaners to our significant others for Valentine's Day instead of a romantic weekend at a bed and breakfast or whatever may well indicate love and appreciation to her or him. And on the topic of appreciation, Dale Carnegie addresses this, too. And you need to be obsessed with it. Too often in earned media engagement, agencies and firms keep up appearances until a media mention is acquired and then see ya! The fire-and-forget method of acquiring social media mentions works if the brand is high prestige but appreciation goes a long way towards making up for not offering the blogger an Audi A8 to test drive for a month instead of just providing a limited-time-offer coupon for sessions at a regional day spa. Dale does address this, and I will paraphrase: people will put up with assholes if the reward outweighs the shame. Your boss can be an asshole because he can fire you; the King can be an asshole because he can make you a Knight; the Judge can be an asshole because he can incarcerate you and magically turn you into a felon. Earned media marketers are pretty vulnerable in this regard! We're not paying anyone anything. Sometimes we'll offer a review copy or product, but we're professionally limited in terms of what signifies paid or sponsored media and content. We have to rely on our wits and of our general, natural, and effortless love, appreciation, and respect for social media, social influence, citizen journalism, and the power of blogging. And while I think you either have that respect, maybe because you are, yourself, a blogger or social media content producer, I do believe you can fake it 'til you make it. (I have been blogging since 1999 and have been in social media since they were called bulletin board systems and required 1200 baud modems.) But you need to make it, you can't just grin and bear it because you're not having fun. If you don't love love love chatting and interacting with the unwashed masses, the hoi polloi, the vox populi of online influencers–no matter how little influence–then you're screwed and this whole blogger outreach thing will end up blowing up in your face and you will hurt your reputation, your agency, and the reputation of your client. Primum non nocere. Oh, actually, now that I think about it, if you think fancy bloggers are the unwashed masses, the hoi polloi, the vox populi, you may have contempt for your audience. And don't forget, you're doing noble work. Most bloggers are writing their blogs without any feedback, appreciation, or love. Most bloggers are writing in a vacuum and are generally a couple posts away from hanging it all up, no matter how much work they have already put in. There's a constant desperation as to why one spends all this time writing, writing, writing into the infinite blogosphere. Getting a pitch from anyone, to say nothing of Kimberly-Clark, Mizuno, US Olympic Committee, or Habitat for Humanity is huge! To be tapped from on-high and asked, authentically, to help and to share, can be the kind of affirmation that fuels that blogger to redouble his or her efforts. In my experience, most bloggers have never been pitched, tapped, or kissed and are pretty lonely. To read what folks say inside our marketing bubble, bloggers are being pitched to the point of blindness and deafness. Why is this true? Well, because the top-100 blogs are, surely, but that's 0.000002% of all bloggers. So, that's like saying that all entertainers are being stalked by paparazzi just because 100 top celebrities are constantly being dogged by TMZ, Us Weekly, OK!, and Star. It's ludicrous. The top-1,000 influencers of social media, be it blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, MySpace, Instagram, Google+, etc., is no indicator of the norm in social media. Why do agencies only target the top-25 influencers appropriate to their clients in any particular campaign? Partially because these agents are over-worked and over-committed and there's generally only enough time and budget to get a short way down their media contact lists. But really it's because everyone has general contempt for anyone who isn't already super-hot. While this is a no-brainer for Ford as it chooses folks to give Ford Fiestas to–cars surely get the attention of the hottest online celebs–it is a disastrous strategy for everyone else. Unless you're Scott Monty, Ford's awesome social media rockstar (he is that good), you'll generally get shot down if you ask the assumed prom queen–and only her–to prom; you'll generally get rejected if you're not at least valedictorian of your class if you only apply to Yale and only Yale for college. While Dale does talk a lot about how people aspire to be important–and that is indeed true because when a brand reaches down "from on high" and taps a blogger–especially newbie and baby bloggers–this is more often than not an essential sign of legitimacy and status rather than being a terrible inconvenience or SPAM. If you're willing to ask someone out to prom who you really like, get on with, have chemistry with, you're more likely to have an amazing prom with memories to last. And, if your date's never been kissed before, you'll forever be his or her first and never forgotten. Every blogger and tweeter remembers their first time: when they were first contacted by a publicist who asked them for help, be it a good or bad experience. Every blogger with any level of success has loads of "dating" stories they can tell you about their good, bad, and ugly experiences with us PR and marketing executives. Finally, to close, remember the words of Philo of Alexandria (or Plato) in the words that are chiseled in stone wherever I manage: "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." |
| Why You Should Create Custom Lists on Facebook Posted: 22 Jun 2012 07:00 AM PDT Trying to decipher Facebook privacy settings can be a mission. There are so many options it can be more confusing than quantum physics. One of the best ways to take control of your Facebook profile and your privacy is by creating lists. This post is the first in a series where we'll walk you through one of our favorite Facebook features: the list. What is a list?A list is the way to organize your friends on Facebook. You can create custom lists on Facebook for just about anything – close friends, family, frenemies, crazy people to avoid, political affiliations, acquaintances, organizations, potential business partners and colleagues just to name a few. Any way you'd like to organize your friends, you can create a list for it. It's a great way to keep track of how you know people. Facebook also automatically creates and updates smart lists for you based on information you have in common with select friends like a school, job or city. Smart lists are a great way to get started with lists, but for more personalized control over privacy settings customized lists are the way to go! So why should you care about lists anyway?Privacy. Privacy. Privacy! Lists are hands down the best way to control who can see your posts, tags and wall posts from others on your profile. You can even edit individual updates to go out to a specific group of people such as your best friends or restrict a specific group of people (think your boss, coworkers or arch-nemesis). True, you should never post anything on Facebook you wouldn't mind being made public, but lists help you share posts like family vacation photos and location check ins with people that would actually care and not abuse the information. Aside from the privacy perks, lists can serve to create mini, focused newsfeeds. It helps filter out the clutter and easily shows the updates of a specific group of people. You don't have to miss out on anything from the people you care about. Stay tuned next week for Part II – how to create custom lists! What lists would you create? |
| 5 Tips To Retain Visitors To Your Website Posted: 22 Jun 2012 05:55 AM PDT
It's time to look beyond just traffic generation to actual traffic retention. In other words, the art of getting someone who's come to your website to stay on your website. Here's how to do it. Start With Your SERP Description Treat your SERP listings as you would treat a PPC ad. In a PPC ad, you'd want to set the right impression about what you're offering before someone lands on your site. You want to get their hopes up about what you have to offer, but you don't want to over-promise, otherwise people will leave when their expectations aren't met. The same applies to SERP listings. Your title and your description should get people excited and interested; but don't over promise. Don't go off topic either. Cut Down on Non-Integrated Content The vast majority of your content should be integrated into your website. That means cutting back on content that requires downloads. PDFs are a big part of this. Yes, having PDFs can help with SEO. And yes, having a PDF download can increase the perceived value of a piece of content. However, PDFs make a big break in the continuity of the user experience. A lot of people who see a PDF download will just pass over the content instead of going for the actual download. You'll lose retention. The same applies to other types of content files. Instead of asking someone to download a video, just embed it on YouTube or Vimeo. Instead of asking people to download a mindmap file, just upload a graphical version of it. Continuity of Attention Your website should have a nice flow of attention, from beginning to end. The moment someone lands on your website, your headline should catch their attention. They should then be guided through your website by various call to actions. In other words, people should never feel confused about where they should be going. Your website should have very clear navigation for people who already know what they're looking for. A breadcrumb trail navigation will be a big help, as well as top or side navigation on every page. Pay Attention to Mobile At the moment mobile traffic is a small but substantial part of total internet traffic. However, this number is just going to get larger and larger over time. If you don't have a valid mobile strategy, you're going to miss out on a lot of visitors. The amount of effort you put into mobile depends on how much traffic you're getting. If you're getting significant amounts of traffic, you may want to invest in getting a site done specifically for mobile. This site should have larger buttons, pages with fewer choices and content that's broken up into multiple pages. Images should be compressed for bandwidth conservation. On the other hand, if you're not getting much mobile traffic yet, you can just take a shortcut by creating a style sheet just for mobile. This will take your existing website and make it much more mobile friendly. Make sure to preview your site on various mobile devices to make sure everything is showing up correctly. Open Tabs in New Window Finally, get in the habit of making all your links open in a new window rather than the current one. Any link that opens in the current window effectively breaks the browsing trance and sends people away from your website. That's the last thing you want to do. This applies to social media as well. If someone clicks on your Facebook page or Twitter feed, have it open in a new window. That way they can browse your Facebook page, then come back to your site. It applies to linking to external sources. If you're linking to a Wikipedia article, it should pop up in a new window rather than send people away from your site. These tips will help you take existing traffic and retain them for longer. It'll help you increase the chances of getting people's email addresses and eventually land the sale. |
| How You Can Get Leads on Linkedln Posted: 22 Jun 2012 05:50 AM PDT
If you're not yet active in social media platforms, you're missing out on potential opportunities and business. From Twitter to Facebook and all points in between, social media is essential to getting your brand out there. With LinkedIn, a networking site for professionals, you can easily connect with like-minded people in your field. You can also be connected to prospects that may need your products or services. If you are new to the social media field, read on to learn about how to present yourself on this network. Establish your Profile In your profile you will be asked to include information like your name, location, current occupation and company location. You are also able to add other information that will help viewers of your profile learn more about you and why they should connect with you. Add your company website to your profile along with a tag line. This will help spark interest that leads to traffic to your site. Your company background information should also be added to give other professionals a clear picture about your industry, what your role is within your business and how you serve clients. For example if you're a business lawyer in York PA you can discuss more about your practice. You can also connect with another business litigation attorney in York PA that you can exchange ideas with. Of course you want to connect with a variety of professionals because the more people you are connected with, the more likely it is you will receive leads from them. Everybody knows somebody that knows somebody else that can use the services you have to offer. If you're active on LinkedIn, you will be in a better position to receive referrals. Provide Useful Tips Once you have your profile all set on LinkedIn, you can start a discussion to educate the professionals that you have contact with. They'll appreciate your information, and you'll be able to position yourself as an expert in the field. Present Solutions You can answer questions other LinkedIn members are asking to add to your credibility. If you can tackle a question they post, you are more likely to receive a lead that is dedicated to working with you. By helping others with problems, not only will you show you're an expert, you'll also demonstrate that you are easy to work with. The more you do without expecting anything in return, the more surprised you'll probably be with the response you get. If you've just helped someone solve a problem, your company will be fresh in your mind when they need services or products you supply. Keep this tips in mind when you're starting or maintaining your LinkedIn account. |
| How To Measure ROI On Social Media Posted: 22 Jun 2012 05:45 AM PDT
This week, let's take a look at return on investment. Return on investment is often misunderstood by marketers when looking at social media. Traditional advertising relies on some form of tracking so that conversions can be linked to specific ads – helping marketers to improve their investment in what works and reducing the cost of what doesn't. The problem with social media marketing is that the path to conversion is often longer. With PPC ads, for example, you focus very much on quick conversion. You are paying for someone to click on the link to your site, so you want to make it as easy and inviting as possible for them to buy from you. Social media is the opposite. It's not about direct selling of goods and services but about interaction and building relationships. Social media marketing costs time and money to manage, so there is a cost involved and you should be able to measure the return those costs bring you. The key difference between social and traditional is time. Setting your benchmarks before you startBefore you can measure the ROI for social media marketing, you need to set benchmarks to compare with later results. If you are using Google Analytics, make sure you have goals or events configured so Analytics can report on conversions. You can then drill down into the data to find out the sources of those conversions – the path through the site to the conversion page, as well as the traffic source.
You can examine social traffic sources to understand which social networks are sending traffic to which articles. You should also make a note of how many fans (likes) you have on your Facebook page, how many followers on Twitter, how many people have you in Google Plus circles, how many followers on Pinterest… Create a spreadsheet with your key benchmark metrics and make a note of the date, then use this as your starting point. Next, evaluate your conversions from each social network to place a value on them, remembering to count interactions as well as first-click conversions. For example, if Analytics shows 20 enquiries that have come from clicks originating on Facebook, you can look at your Facebook page insights to see how many people liked or commented on the link. Some companies, for example, assume that x% of the total will be looking to buy. If you know that, say, 10% of all enquiries convert to sales, and you know the average value of a sale, you can calculate the value of each like on Facebook, or each enquiry. How and what you measure is up to you, but you need a way to evaluate the activity.
A Facebook Insights graph showing activity on a Facebook page Remember the assisted conversions as wellGoogle Analytics has started reporting assisted conversions, which is a very useful way of showing how conversions don't just happen in a single session. With social media this is very useful because you might find that a customer converted from a PPC ad, but they had previously visited the website from a web link on Facebook. This would imply that they may have remembered the company name and gone searching for it, hence it was social media that assisted in getting the sale.
Create and measure content for the buying processSome smart companies are using social media to inform their content strategies. For example, if you monitor discussions about your brand or products on social networks (there are some tools and services that can help with this), you can spot which features are most important to customers, then focus your content around these. Because the buying cycle is longer on social media, you should create content that helps customers understand and use your products better rather than just try to sell the product. Inform, entertain and teach people through your content, promote this content socially and measure the traffic you get as a result. You won't get sales right away so measure what happens in between. Measure sign ups to your email newsletter, quotation requests etc. Then you can place a value on each stage of the chain. You should be able to measure the difference between when you started and any point in the future – whether it's sign ups, enquiries, Facebook likes, content being shared, referral traffic increases, reduced cost of conversion etc. |
| 3 Link Building Strategies That Work With Google Penguin Posted: 22 Jun 2012 05:35 AM PDT I currently work for a leading UK SEO Agency and spend a large portion of my time testing link building strategies in the post-apocalyptic wasteland that many affiliate marketers feel Penguin & Panda has left in its wake. In my previous posts I have divulged how Google Penguin affected my affiliate sites and what I did to regain my listings. As well as curating a plan of action to help return your website back to page 1! Today I’m going to give you three core link building strategies that help you focus on brand exposure as a primary goal, but will also help you increase your organic visibility during this turbulent time.
1. Content Marketing StrategiesGuest BloggingCurrently a thriving strategy that if executed correctly results in brand exposure, referral traffic and an increase in organic visibility. Guest Blogging is effectively an evolved version of article marketing, but with a few changes. I currently run my own guest blogging service and have seen first hand just how powerful this avenue of link generation is. You shouldn’t think of it as an alternative to article marketing, but rather a way to bring new visitors to your site! Guest Blogging: - High quality content Article Marketing: - Usually submitted to multiple sites Press ReleasesAlthough we’re treading on the toes of the PR experts, press releases offer a fantastic and legitimate way of distributing your company news to business and media websites. The primary function of a press release is to generate interest in your piece of news and if your article is targeted to the correct media outlets, you will start to see genuine interest from external agencies wanting to contact you and in certain cases write a piece about your press release. As a secondary benefit, the backlinks generated from the sites your press releases are syndicated to are a great way of diversifying anchor text or generating mass brand awareness. 2. Manual OutreachLink RequestsBack to basics I’m afraid, but manually scouting for sites that are within your niche is a perfectly acceptable method of link generation. By using common footprints and building relationships with other webmasters through traditional and social channels you’ll find yourself with a plethora of backlinks from genuine sites that hold their own authority. Directories / Blog Commenting / Forum PostingThe aforementioned strategies are currently under scrutiny by the SEO world as a number of free-for-all directories have recently been de-indexed (read this post on SEOmoz for more info) and to make things worse, we all know that blog commenting and forum posting can be automated. However, if you’re commenting on sites within your niche, posting on forums as an authority and submitting to high quality directories (few and far between I’m afraid) then these strategies are still entirely valid. When engaging with these sites, don’t try and drop your link in wherever possible, but pay close attention to the topic at hand, if you feel your site is relevant then by all means drop your link but if the first stat you checked on this site was PageRank, then you’re probably doing it wrong! 3. Social NetworkingSocial signals are the future – why do you think Google has been trying so hard to push “Search, plus your world“. By utilising these social networks, and building your brand via these social channels you can not only increase your referral traffic but in certain instances, your organic profile. Don’t believe me? Check out this amazing post on SEOmoz detailing just how powerful tweets can be in the ranking process. ConclusionI know a lot of the above requires a lot of hard work and some businesses just don’t have the time or resource to invest in online. The unfortunate fact of the matter is, if you don’t start investing in your website, building your brand and genuinely engaging in the online community then these latest updates will most likely be the end of your online business. Those of you that are ready to truly take the time to invest in your online presence, then Penguin & Panda are both a blessing in disguise, but be prepared for the sleepless nights that ensue any of the future updates ;) If you’d like to share any further link building strategies that you feel still work with Penguin and Panda then please leave a comment and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible! |
| Social Media Helps Hunt For The Greatest Indian By History TV18 #TGI Posted: 22 Jun 2012 04:30 AM PDT Social media is a great tool for dissemination, be it news, propaganda, or just plain rumours. Also, its two-way nature brings forth the potential for debate and discussion. This June, infotainment channel, History TV18 in association with CNN IBN and Reliance, have launched a massive hunt for 'The Greatest Indian' using television and the digital medium via a poll which is set to trigger a national debate on the one question, "Who is the greatest Indian after Independence?" Based on an internationally acclaimed format by BBC held in 22 countries, the initiative is to select that one great Indian after Mahatma Gandhi who is the most influential, iconic & inspirational and has impacted your life. You can cast up to ten votes from a set of 50 eminent Indians. And what better platform after television than social media to trigger a nation-wide debate! About The Greatest Indian (TGI) digital setupThe Greatest Indian hunt is on through the website and employs Facebook as well as Twitter to drive traffic and conversations. Interestingly, the campaign and the website were launched on the morning of 4th June before the show started airing in the night on History TV18 and later on CNN IBN. It's been 10 days and the website shows more than 3 million votes have been registered already.
The image above is of the home page and you can know more about each nominee if you click on the pictures, which also has the options to vote either through Facebook or a missed call. 'About TGI' section gives you the details of the poll in terms of process flow and the jury. 'Social Buzz' has two featured videos and the Facebook social plugin, along side the Twitter plugin that streams tweets having the #TGI hashtag. The 'Leaderboard' is a real time ranking list that shows the number of votes for each of the nominees. Driving conversations on Facebook and TwitterThe History TV18 Facebook page has employed the timeline in a beautiful manner. It is fascinating to see India's history in the making if you start browsing from the start. The first post has an early photograph of Ustad Bismillah Khan performing to mark India's independence. You can see many of the feats by the nominated people but above all, it feels nice to see and feel your country's history with the help of black & white pictures. The use of the Facebook timeline as a story-telling tool is very impressive. Besides, History TV18 is actively engaging with tweeps including influencers and building conversations around #TGI. The brand got 50,000 votes as a result of a quiz on Twitter.(1) From the comments and posts in each of the social media platforms, you can gauge the amount of debate that it has raked up. Earlier this March, History TV18 had roped in Salman Khan for 'History Har Din' campaign where the common man was invited to upload his pictures/videos wherein he creates a historic moment for himself. An excellent campaign by the brand to bring about engagement around the brand message. Here is a review. Churchill was nominated as the greatest Briton and Reagan as the greatest American, so it remains to be seen which of these 50 gets to be nominated for The Greatest Indian. Have your cast your votes for the Greatest Indian? Did you like the use of social media in the hunt for the Greatest Indian or does History TV18 need to do more?
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| 8 Shocking New Social Media Facts Posted: 22 Jun 2012 04:00 AM PDT I'm pleased to be a collaborator with Edison Research on the new Social Habit Project. Why? Because I'm a numbers geek so I'm overjoyed to finally get some social media data we can trust! Here are eight fantastic facts from the Social Habit's latest study. 1. 7 percent of Americans have never heard of Facebook
So on this one, can I hear a big ol' what the HELL? How can seven out of 100 people you see each day have no clue about Facebook? The social network has dominated ALL media, not just social media, for a couple of years now. TV. Magazines. The news. Even a movie. This is one mind-blowing fact. Who are these people? Even my mom knows about the "Facebox." 2. 80 percent of Americans between the ages of 18-24 use this one product
Can you name any other branded product in the world that is used by 80 percent of the young people in the United States? I asked this question in a class once and somebody shouted out "toilet paper." Ha ha. Very funny. That's not a brand. But Facebook is, and the penetration of this single brand is beyond belief. It seems like that fact alone might be a reason some people would want to invest in Facebook. They are just so … THERE. 3. Facebook acquired one new user in the U.S. every second for three years
Check out this growth rate between 2009 and 2012. Over three years, Facebook acquired about 3,805 new users per hour. That equates to almost exactly one new user per second — and that's just in the U.S. I wish I had the server installation and maintenance contract for this outfit. 4. 74 million Americans are passive aggressive
If these numbers are to believed — and they are — 74 million Americans are at least somewhat concerned about privacy issues on Facebook. That is one significant gaggle of people. Why is there no outcry? Why isn't anybody DOING anything? How come there is no Occupy Facebook Movement? Seems a little passive-aggressive to me. 5. Look to your left. Look to your right. One of you is a social media stalker.
So how many social media users are active on the network but NEVER post? If you guessed about one-third it's only because you looked at this graph first. Come on, you didn't REALLY know that did you? I would have guessed about 5 percent. Shows how much I know. I guess I haven't earned my guru merit badge yet. 6. Foursquare still sucks
Well maybe I took some liberty with that conclusion, but the data show that there has been a dramatic drop-off in both the use of location-based service and the amount of check-ins going on. Why? Boresquare is not delivering enough value to its users. We want free pastries and we want them NOW. Here's the bright side. It has never been easier to become the fake mayor of your favorite donut shop. 7. Companies are rapidly figuring out social media
I think this chart is a real-eye-popper. Here's my assumption. Since 2010, human nature has not necessarily changed so that we are more open to "following" brands and companies. I'm thinking that people aren't waking up in the middle of the night with a cold sweat and a sudden realization that the simply MUST follow more brands on Facebook. The way I interpret this chart is that the brands are delivering more value so that people WANT to follow them. I think this is a pretty amazing validation that the money being spent on social media is at least having some impact on customer connections. 8. Content marketing is for real
Here's another good news chart for marketers. A significant number of people are coming to our social media sites because they like the content, not just because they are getting a coupon. I would like to see more research about this as far as loyalty to coupons versus content, attitudes, conversions, etc. but this is pretty encouraging. Maybe there is an alternative to buying off fans and followers with daily discounts? If you thought this information was interesting, wait until you see the whole report: The Social Habit. It is very well done and has lots of pictures of Beyonce and Justin Bieber. Well. No it doesn't. But I'm suggesting it for the next report, along with free pastries. Somebody has to do it. Many thanks to my partners Jay Baer, Jason Falls and Tom Webster of Edison Research for collaborating on this project. Now, here's how you can get involved. What question did we NOT ask that needs to be included next time? Give it your best shot in the comment section! Mark Schaefer is a marketing consultant, author and college educator who blogs at {grow}. You can also follow him on Twitter: @markwschaefer. |
| Twitter Launches Expanded Tweets Posted: 21 Jun 2012 03:30 PM PDT Twitter seems to be on a launching spree, especially from the last few days. First there was a logo redesign, then the change in how we look at trending topics and now Twitter is going to change our experience on how we look at tweets from Twitter.com or Mobile.Twitter.com. According to a latest Twitter blog post by Michael Sippey, Director, Product Team, from today onwards, one can discover interactive experiences such as content previews, view images and play videos inside tweets from certain publishers. Till day on Twitter we would find links of videos or images but from now on, we could see a content preview too. So when you would find a breaking news tweet from sites such as The New York Times or The San Francisco Chronicle it will include a preview with the headline, introductions and sometimes Twitter accounts of the publisher and writer. Thereafter you can read the article, follow the given accounts, reply or retweet or favorite the tweet.
To implement the feature, Twitter had tied up with publishers like The Wall Street Journal, Breaking News, Time, etc. who would provide links and a preview. For exclusive photos, the partners that have been tied are BuzzFeed and TMZ who will provide you exclusive photos such as from the ring of WWE. In addition to this, you can also watch moments from your favorite television shows and play videos from partners like Lifetime and DailyMotion. The new feature that Twitter has rolled out is an effort in the direction of discovering easy and new way of content. This will allow twitteraties to preview the content before they can click on it. Besides this the preview feature having Twitter id's of authors will bring them closer to readers. However, it would be interesting to see how many authors would be ready to do so because of the ever-increasing number of trolls. Besides these, attaching videos to the preview is exciting and definitely will increase the activity of Twitteraties on Twitter. I won't be surprised if tomorrow the publishers come out with an idea of including promoted tweets to these videos. Going further it would be exciting to see if Twitter ties up with Indian publishers for the expanded tweets. Do you think this new feature will excite Indian publishers? |
We write a lot of blogs here at Weidert Group. We strive to publish every work day because we believe in blogging as a fundamental element of our Inbound Marketing strategy.
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