April 16th, 2013

Hoarding Domain Authority for Multi-National Companies is Now Easier

Rel=Alternate HREF/HREFLANG Allows Brands with Multiple Audiences Across the Globe to Create a Single, Authoritative Web Presence

Can’t they do this already? Well, sure, using redirects and basing content on a detected language only, though not a language-region combination. This change creates a work-around for multi-national companies so they can keep all content on their main domain, and serve substantially similar content to same-language-different-regional audiences while avoiding a duplicate content filter/penalty (Panda).

Before: Regional Top-Level Domains were Gateways into SERPs

Google’s regional search engines prefer regional, or country specific, Top-Level Domains like .de for Germany. In the past, if you were not using one of these domains, you would have a difficult time showing up in search results in non-US Google searches. The “rel=alternate” and “hreflang” elements seem to be a significant change to this historical behavior. Google’s Search Quality Highlights throughout 2012 covered many improvements to search results for countries outside the US, and for results relevant to searchers from one region, but requesting info from another:

Search quality highlights: 86 changes for June and July

“Ref-16.[project codename “Other Ranking Components”] Changes to an “official pages” algorithm to improve internationalization.”

This change, on the heels of so many others, is a move to make it possible and easier to rank specific content on regional search results without a country specific TLD. Those who will reap the benefits of this change the most are big brands that already have the content for the audience, but maybe not enough domain authority to immediately rank in a search engine like Yandex in Russia or Baidu in China. Imagine Coca-Cola, hypothetically speaking, wanting to move into China. If they used the .hk for Hong Kong, they would be like every other new business that wants to move into Hong Kong – starting with zero domain authority. Now, when a big brand wants to move into a new region, they can build on their existing domain authority, which will give them a boost above other regional brands (potentially) and any smaller competition. Nice for brands, isn’t it?

Yeah, We Get it – Google Prefers Brands

Well, we all know that Google prefers brands. That is not even a point of discussion. And some of you may recall all of the hype in news outlets like Bloomberg last year surrounding Asia as the new frontier due to their growing consumer-led economy.

Now we are seeing a partnership between Google and Yandex, Russia’s market leading search engine, on this new Rel=Alternate/HREFLANG attribute.

The point of this new attribute is to provide a way for webmasters to tell Google, either via a header tag or their sitemap, what part of their site to serve users by region according to their specified language. The “x-default” element allows the webmaster in question to also specify a landing page to serve users with no specified language or region.

What does this do for websites and brands? It removes the necessity of housing content on a country-specific TLD to get into regional search results, and allows brands to keep all of their content on a single TLD, consequently hoarding all of their domain authority in a single place.

This will further give major brands a leg-up on search domination They already have multiple websites, with content for multiple regions and languages, but they may have been faced with some difficulty in getting to the top of search results in new markets – China and Russia specifically – where their brands may be relatively unknown. This change allows them to keep the authority to rank, but removes all prior risk of duplicate content issues.

ccTLDs, IPs and Other Credibility Signals

One barrier to quick adoption and success of this new approach is that those in other countries have come to trust the ccTLD for their specific country. I can’t speak to their willingness to click on a dot-com, but it seems dot-com was around before ccTLDs, and, therefore, should still be familiar enough NOT to inhibit a click when the title and description elements are in the correct language.

On top of the mental barriers of the audience, there is also the difficulty of “votes” from external sources in the region where you want to rank. Rule of thumb up to this point is that you host your ccTLD in the country where you want it to show in search results because the hosting IP address will indicate you “belong” – for lack of a better word.

This is not always possible, and is not, I believe, going to be the best course of action in the future. What’s the alternative? Well – international link building, of course. If a brand is producing high quality content in region-specific dialects, and providing value to that audience, then people will link and share naturally. A brand big enough to have taken this approach should have marketing plans to target each region, and have social media and other brand/audience building tools set up, and a consistent execution strategy in place. Assuming all of these things are happening, the brand’s dot-com site will be able to dominate regional search results. Further international PR and website promotion would augment this work, and help boost that success.

How Rel=Alternate/HREFLANG Works as Panda-Repellent

The rel=alternate/hreflang attributes effectively canonicalize region/language pages so Google knows the pages have substantially similar content, and that they are meant to serve different audiences.

You place this on the page (or in the site map) showing Google the “alternate” versions of the page for different region-langauge combinations, specified by ISO standards 639-1 and ISO 3166-1 Alpha 2. Region is optional, and will be most widely used for companies with a different marketing message for regional audiences.

So, this new attribute also helps provide a way around Google’s Panda. There are many smaller brands that may be looking at expanding into new markets. For those of you looking to do this, moving to a brand new site would be a mistake. You can now take your existing domain authority with you, but serve the right landing page to the right audience to provide the best marketing and user experience.

Published by Lorianna Sprague on April 16th, 2013 in Business, Google Algorithm, Sales & Marketing, Search Marketing & Optimization, Web Design & Development

April 16th, 2013

Google Opt Out Tool in Response to AntiTrust Suit

Limited, Ability to Remove Content from Some Google Properties

The Federal Trade Commission’s Anti-Trust Suit against search giant Google ended in January of this year with the conclusion (interpretation provided by Google): “Google’s services are good for users and good for competition.”

Whether publishers agree with the statement or not, Google was required to allow an opt-out option for webmasters who want their content removed from Google’s properties. So, which properties are included?

A short list:

• Shopping
• Advisor
• Flights
• Hotels
• Google+ Local

There is some confusion as to HOW Google was including content on their pay-to-play properties, such as Shopping, but Google and others have included reviews as potential scraped content. I had found something on one of Google’s blogs that said “ratings” as well, but I was not able to find that source to include it – so that can’t be verified at this time.

The core of the suit seems to be around better competition. A separate change Google made in response to the antitrust suit is to allow Google advertisers to export their campaign data easily so it can be placed on competing search ad networks. Google has released this change to their advertisers already, and it will remain in effect for 5 years. The anti-trust agreement covered the following, including:

“Google will give websites the ability to “opt out” of display on Google vertical properties[.]
Under the same commitment, Google also has promised to provide all websites the option to keep their content out of Google’s vertical search offerings, while still having them appear in Google’s general, or “organic,” web search results. The FTC investigated allegations that Google misappropriated content, such as user reviews and star ratings, from competing websites in order to improve its own vertical offerings, such as Google Local and Google Shopping. Some FTC Commissioners were concerned that this conduct might chill firms’ incentives to innovate on the Internet.”

The Opt Out Tool

The opt-out options presented are all or nothing. Oddly, Google Maps is not a part of the opt-out option, which I found interesting. Also, the opt-out is only valid for a period of 3 years, and does not prevent Google from “innovating” search and pulling data into new products – only innovations of the currently listed properties are restricted in their use of publisher data as protective measures.

Once you have opted out, you can view your opt out history to verify the length of time since the request was made, etc.

Finally, it will take 30 days for the data to be removed. Google doesn’t allow specification of sub-domains or sub-directories, and reserves the right to make website owners verify ownership, of course. No word yet if there are any glitches in the process – but we’ll keep an eye out.

Published by Lorianna Sprague on April 16th, 2013 in Business, Sales & Marketing, Search Marketing & Optimization

March 1st, 2013

Thinking and Communicating like an SEO, Marketer and a Client

 

Several viewpoints of thought are essential for Internet marketers. All areas need to think like the other to coexist and to execute a successful SEO campaign. Before I began diving into the sales world, I never thought of SEO from a sales perspective. Likewise, if I hadn’t worked in SEO prior to sales, I wouldn’t full understand why it is so important to integrate the two.

 

During the sales process, it is very easy for the lines of realistic outcomes to become blurred. Once this happens, a client’s campaign is fast tracking towards disaster. Managing client expectations is a phrase that is constantly being thrown around the office. Managing expectations is the first step in the right direction for an SEO campaign.

 

Expose the Realistic Possibilities

It is important that the client understands that SEO’s do not control Google, although we would all like to. We have control over the work we do and the deliverables at the end of the month. Promising specific ranking results or outcomes in place of reporting on tested research, link building efforts, and other deliverables is just asking for an unhappy client. Realistic goals should be discussed at the beginning of the relationship, and if the client has unrealistic expectations, it is the sale’s persons and SEO’s job to define a realistic path for their campaign.

 

Communication is Key

One of the most surefire ways to avoid these mishaps is communication. Communication between the sales team and the people carrying out the work is essential. While a marketer might think ranking #1 for “trees” in month 1 is feasible, an SEO specialist will tell you “no way, no how.”

 

Actually, they probably won’t even say anything– they will just laugh and think you are joking with them. Taking a couple minutes to speak with your SEO team about a client’s campaign could save you a lot of hassle in the long run.

 

Skip the Tactics, Strategize Like a Marketer

On the flip side, it is crucial that SEO’s think like marketers. If a campaign isn’t working for the client, it is the SEO’s job to identify it and bring it to the sale’s team’s attention. This way, a different approach can be recommended for the client. If a client starts a campaign and wants 15 blog posts written a month, but you discover that they really should be producing an awesome piece of content as link bait, it is your job to convince the client of it’s worth. Taking on this mindset will deliver better results for the client, help out the sales people, and keep your company very happy with you.

 

Put Yourself in the Client’s Shoes

Lastly, the most important person to think like is the client. No one knows the client’s campaign better than the SEO working on it. That being said, when it comes time to talk to the client, we, as SEO specialists, tend to rattle on about metrics, SERPs, link bait, etc. without realizing that the client has NO idea what we are talking about. Instead of rambling on about the technical aspects, explain what it is and what it means to them. Not only will this help them understand, but also if the client understands what it is and how it will benefit them, they are much more likely to approve your suggestion.

As an SEO or an old-school marketer, if you can master these different perspectives, you will be paving a path for success for yourself and your clients.

Published by Sarah Stoltzfus on March 1st, 2013 in Business, General Information, Sales & Marketing, Search Marketing & Optimization

January 23rd, 2013

ANYTHING but BLOGGING!

Yep, it is YOUR turn to write the next company blog post. Ownership has sent down the mandate that everyone will participate. They aren’t sure why it’s necessary and they certainly won’t make the time to write their own post, but some SEO guru’s voice has been heard on the C-Level. Knowing that your paycheck is dependent upon the completion of this task you begin to ask yourself questions like…what should I write about, who is my audience, should I be serious or funny, how long should it be, and possibly the most critical question pertaining to the success or failure of the entire post, “WHY am I doing this again?” (Oh, that’s right, my paycheck).

We (WebTalent Marketing) are that “SEO guru” mentioned above that many employees of our clients have secretly cursed for filling their owner’s head with the virtues of blogging. BE ENCOURAGED, my nameless/faceless blogging friend, this post is for you as I, in typical blogging etiquette, casually and briefly address some of the “What, How, and Why’s.”

WHAT…
• Is a blog in the first place? It, quite simply, should be a clearly defined page within your company website that acts as your direct communication channel with prospects, clients, and employees. Not all of your target audiences can be addressed with each post so always keep in mind who you are writing to and make certain that message is appropriate to achieve the desired outcome.
• Should you write about? Write about your industry trends and happenings. Find industry related topics that are neglected, do a little research, and then write for the purpose of adding value. Write about company related events and happenings. This content is fuel for your social campaigns!

HOW…
• Often should you post? As much as possible. 4 to 8 posts per month (not all coming that last week) is a good start. Some say, as often as you have something valuable to share. Don’t post for the sake of posting, and don’t wait until your company has “cured cancer” to share.
• Should I write? Again, this is somewhat dependent upon your topic and target audience but, in general, write in a way that is representative of your organization (or in a way you’d like your organization to be). Write in a clear and concise (500 words is good) way that promotes engagement with your audience. Shares, likes, reposts, and comments are all good indicators of your engagement. Don’t be afraid to show personality while allowing your expertise to shine through.

WHY…
• Should I bother? Going back to the paycheck reason…your pay may be influenced by blogging. No, not in the sense that you keep your job if you do it, but rather the blog creates opportunities to generate additional revenue through sales as well as retention. It is a platform for your companies’ voice to reach the people contributing to or having the potential to impact your bottom line. Are you talking to them?
• Is it REALLY important? Ok, so the crux of this post is right here…It is REALLY important because the content you create for it is the best indicator to Google (and the others) that your door is open for business. Search engines love/demand fresh content in order to determine your relevance and to then consider your website more authoritative than your competition.

Would you like your company website to outrank your competitors and get more sales or inbound leads? Posting on your blog is a great way to show your expertise and engage with your audience in a non-salesy manner. We should know – you’re reading our blog right now!

Do have any concerns about investing time into your company blog? Leave us a comment below, and we’ll help you figure it out.

HAPPY BLOGGING!

Published by Matt Self on January 23rd, 2013 in Business, General Information

January 3rd, 2013

2012 – Web Talent’s Year in Review

It’s that time of year again – a time for reflection on the past 12 months and looking forward to what the next year has to offer. 2012 was an incredible year for Web Talent Marketing as a whole; our production team more than doubled in the last twelve months and, as a midsized business, this is rapid growth and keeps us thrilled to see what 2013 holds for us.

Fun

The fun began with a trip out to Argentina to visit our hard-working team in our satellite office based in Buenos Aires. Need a website optimized for Spanish speakers in the US? Claro que si! Our knowledgeable BA team  quadrupled during 2012, and is still growing!

This year we celebrated birthdays in style, and while each birthday is slightly embarrassing for those being celebrated, the humor of each party keeps us going throughout the rest of the month.

Check out how talented the WTM team is at gift wrapping here.

Or, if you are like me, all you want for your birthday is to be touched by a teenager in a giant rat costume. Happy birthday, me.

 Training

Things aren’t all fun and games here at Web Talent, no matter what the Real Housewives might say.

 

We get down to some serious business, and we are seriously committed to upping our game in 2013. This past year we attended some incredible conferences, like Link Love in Boston and SMX East in New York City. We also hosted a number of  local industry meetups and Q&A panels in the Lancaster area. If you are interested in attending any of the meetups coming up, join our Meetup Group here. Keep an eye out for us this year at the Conversion Conference in Chicago and SMX West in San Jose. We are bringing our A-Game and will return to drop some knowledge bombs on our unsuspecting (but actually thrilled) clients!

Results

We took on some great (and challenging) clients in 2012, ranging from animal control products to retail stores carrying yoga mats, and from law offices to fire truck sales. We can’t give you specific numbers, cause ya know, our clients own that information, but we do have some wicked Conversion Rate Optimization and SEO case studies in case you were curious as to the sheer volume of sick game that we lay down. Happy customers means a happy team, and all of Web Talent is smiling!

Teamwork

 Moving into 2013 we are looking to expand our team even more, with two new hires during our first quarter. If you have experience in the digital marketing industry and are looking for a fun but hardworking and totally rewarding atmosphere, check out our careers page for hiring opportunities!

Published by Miki DeHaven on January 3rd, 2013 in Business, Web Talent News

December 20th, 2012

How to Report on the Value of Social Media

Since the surge of social media in the past year, it has become an essential element in marketing for businesses. I’ve seen a lot of posts lately saying that social media doesn’t generate a return on investment. I would like to combat those naysayers.

So, you set up Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and hoards of other social media profiles for your business; now the burning question is, am I gaining any value for all the time and effort spent Tweeting and sharing?

Considering that social media focuses on whether your followers engage on your profile or not, it is a little trickier to track and report. Even with the number of visits to your site from social channels, how do you know if your visitors are actually converting? And what percentages of those conversions were from social media? Well, you’ve come to the right place to find out!

 

Social Reporting in Google Analytics

Considering Google rules the world, I’ll begin with the Google Analytics social report. Now if you don’t have Google Analytics for your business, you are way behind the times and need far more help than this post will provide you. That being said, those of you that do have Analytics, read on.

Under the social tab you will be able to view from each social network how many visitors visited your site, the number of conversions, which pages they are visiting and the flow of site navigation that they are following.  All of these metrics can be used to find out if the people directed to your site via social networks, are actually converting and producing revenue for your business.

I would begin looking at the network referrals section. This will break down each social network and how many visits are coming from them. You can also see how many pages they viewed and how long they were on your site. This can help determine if the visitors coming from social networks are serious visitors and if the content you are posting is engaging enough to make them want to explore your site further.

 

 

 

 

 

Next I would move to the conversions tab, which will break down how many site conversions can be credited to social. The revenue that you are making per conversion is also listed in this section. If you are concerned with the “numbers” of social, i.e. how much money is social bringing to my business; look at the conversions coming from social and the revenue being generated by those conversions. The social tool in analytics is a valuable one, so use it!

As great as revenue and conversions data is, social media is more about engagement and brand awareness.  One of your followers might see a really cool post you put up on Facebook, and then one month later when they are looking to buy a blue widget, they think “Hey, didn’t that company that posted that cool video sell blue widgets? I’m going to check them out.” Which leads me into my next social reporting tool.

 

Facebook Insights

Facebook came out with a fantastic tool for businesses called Facebook insights, and if you are a business and you have Facebook, I would recommend you set it up. Insights assists you in reporting on the engagement of your Facebook fans. Bottom line, if people aren’t engaging on your profile, it’s doing your business no good.

 

On the admin panel, go to the Insights section and click “See All”.

 

This will break down when you posted, the amount of people you reached and the number of people that engaged with that particular content. To break it down even further, Facebook gives you a detailed list paired with metrics of all of your posts.  But wait, I’m not done yet, take a look at the Likes tab and this breaks down metrics by demographic and location.  This applies to “Reach Tab” and “Talking About This” tabs as well. Fancy stuff huh?

To create a nice compact report for your client, you can export all of this information into an excel file with a custom date range. One other report format that I would like to mention is the Raven Social report. I’m not going to delve into this too much since Raven pulls the data from the sources that I have already touched on, however it does create a nice visual report in PDF format that compiles all of the above information.

 

The Long and the Short of It

Isn’t this exciting stuff guys?! Not only can you track the conversions and visits to your site from your social networks, but you can see exactly what content your followers are engaging with and how many people you are reaching! So to all the negative Nancy’s that are convinced you cannot measure the value of social media, I’m calling your bluff and telling you exactly how you can! So if you haven’t already, jump on the bandwagon and start tweeting and sharing and make sure to monitor how your profiles are performing for you!

 

 

Published by Sarah Stoltzfus on December 20th, 2012 in Business, Social Media, Social Media Marketing

November 27th, 2012

5 Productive Expectations for SEO Client-Agency Relationships

These days, there are many things being said about content marketing, SEO, social media, how they all relate, and Internet marketing agencies who claim to do them ‘the proper way’. Truth be told, there are many agencies out there that do the hard work, put in the time, and deliver results to their clients. Sometimes, these agencies fail (or seem to fail) to produce the results they claim they can achieve for a particular client – and there are a few key reasons for why this could happen. The main reason? Expectations.

Expectations are often referred to as the mothers of disappointment. However, this doesn’t mean that a client shouldn’t have expectations of their Internet marketing agency, nor does it mean that the agency shouldn’t have expectations of their clients — It does mean that both sides should be aware of what is expected of them.

When both parties are aware of what the other needs to complete their part of the bargain, it becomes exceedingly clear which parts of the relationship are working and producing results, and which are falling short. Let’s take a look at 5 examples of expectations that can bring about a more productive client-agency relationship.

 

1. Clients should expect to be involved throughout the process. Many times it seems as though businesses expect that an SEO agency should be doing all the work and achieving all the goals on their own, because they’re getting paid. In an ideal world, perhaps this would work – but in reality, it just doesn’t. SEO agencies need the client’s expertise in their field to identify the most valuable assets of the business, the best channels in which to market their services, and the years of industry knowledge that just can’t be replicated with some quick online research.

Agencies should be outlining what they will need from the client to complete each task, just as the client should outline at which specific points of the process they expect a communication for feedback and reporting.

 

2. SEO agencies need to be in communication with any in-house marketing and PR departments. This takes the previous example one step further, and is extremely important in the overall effort of properly marketing a business. Internet marketing (real SEO) is not a separate, self-sufficient channel, but rather an integral part of a business’s comprehensive marketing strategy. In order for offline PR initiatives to be the most successful, making your SEO agency aware of any in-house campaigns and changes to campaigns needs to be a top priority.

Letting the SEO agency know about any offline initiatives and company branding will help the agency effectively increase the awareness of your brand online.

 

3. Establish goals that land at even intervals. Setting goals for every 3 months or so can be a great way for clients and agencies to stay on top of current priorities. Within each goal period, establish which tasks need to be carried out in each of the months; breaking things up into bite-sized, actionable chunks helps everyone stay on the same page throughout the length of the contract.

An SEO agency should be discovering enough about their clients to identify which parts of their marketing efforts need the most help and are the most urgent – and the client will generally know if, for one reason or another, there are specific reasons why these priorities need to be changed to fit in with the day-to-day or overall goals already established by the company.

 

4. Expect change and be flexible. When referring to the original proposal which stated that for $X, Y-results will be delivered, keep in mind that as work is done for a client, more information and possibilities come to light that may not have been so obvious at the start. In a perfect world, the SEO agency would see everything right up front and would be able to deliver perfectly forecasted results, right on time. It would also be nice if the weatherman was always correct, too, but it’s just impossible to predict everything.

Things change, and marketing by its very nature is a process of educated tests and varied results, so keep this in mind when a project doesn’t turn out exactly as described or a set of results not as pleasing as originally thought. Keeping the lines of communication open during the process, from both directions, is the most important aspect of reducing the possibility of nasty surprises on either end.

 

5. Rankings, rankings, rankings. As is the case with many aspects of marketing, SEO has evolved over the years. While ranking on the top of the search engine results pages is a great way to increase your visibility and generate more traffic, it’s not the only part – or even most important part — of an SEO strategy. 

Businesses shouldn’t be too skeptical if SEO agencies suggest changes to website layouts, designs, and content. These all affect not only rankings, but the overall effectiveness of your website to get users to do what is desired of them. If CompanyX ranks #1 for “plastic tub stoppers” on Google, but they don’t have a clear way for customers to purchase plastic tub stoppers on their website, or don’t have enough or the right information about plastic tub stoppers, their #1 ranking won’t last or do them much good while it does.

 

A Few Take-aways…

Don’t look the other way, even when you’re busy. It can be easy for any person on either side of the client-agency relationship to shrug off a quick email or phone call to ask or answer a question regarding an SEO effort. This causes things to pile up, and many important details can be overlooked when communication is not an active priority in every step of the process.

Clients’ most reasonable expectation: Clients should expect transparency from their agencies. If an agency cannot tell you where they get their links from, exactly who is writing articles on their behalf, and so on, that agency should be dismissed. Quality agencies do quality marketing, which means any agency that promises to get you X-results should be able to identify exactly how they plan on accomplishing that task. [insert right-wing political jab here]

Agencies’ most reasonable expectation: Agencies should expect cooperation from their clients. If a business owner hires an SEO agency to perform specific marketing or development tasks, he should remain available to provide feedback and give direction to the SEO agency. The SEO agency has been hired as an expert in the field of SEO, and will need the business owner’s expert industry knowledge to get the job done.

 

Now that the record is set straight…

Approach your SEO efforts with a team effort mindset, where anything related to SEO is related to the business as a whole, and vice versa. Both clients and agencies stand to benefit from having partnerships where reasonable expectations do not result in disappointment.

Published by Mike Green on November 27th, 2012 in Business, Did You Know, Search Marketing & Optimization

October 5th, 2012

Give Your Social Media Campaign A Boost!

If you’re a smaller company, finding and reaching your exact target market can be sometimes difficult and then getting to know their thoughts, viewpoints, characteristics and behaviors can also be a struggle if you’re working with a limited marketing budget.  Well, in this day and age, you have the gift of social media to help you get to know and better serve your audience.

 

As part of your bigger marketing picture, social media helps you improve your online presence by increasing brand awareness and showing potential and current customers what products or services your company offers. Social media also helps you, as a company, to be seen as an “expert” in your industry. By sharing, posting, tweeting, pinning and +1-ing, you’re engaging with your customers and offering them advice, striking up conversations, asking questions, solving problems and so much more. They get to know your business on a personal level and as a customer yourself, it would be interesting to learn about a company’s history, employees, services and experience before you would buy anything they’re offering.

 

 

As influential as social media is, many businesses don’t give it its fair share of the marketing strategy. If you’re considering creating a new social media plan for your business, here are a few tips to help you along and to give your campaign the momentum it may need.

 

Industry Events

 

Check out Industry events near you, as this is a great way to meet potential customers face-to-face, engage with fellow businesses, etc. Trade shows are especially great for demonstrating your product or service and spreading brand awareness. Invite everyone you meet at these events to find your business socially. “Like us on Facebook to stay in contact with us.”

 

Influence Blogs, Forums, Twitter

 

Share you knowledge as an industry expert by curating content for your own and industry-related blogs. Do some research on industry trends or respond to customers’ questions you may find in forums by writing a blog post to further elaborate on a topic. Then use social media to heavy promote your blog posts. You can also ask fellow industry experts to share the knowledge with their social followers if you’re providing something truly of value.

 

Public Relations

 

Some good old PR will help you improve your business on social media.  Think “offline” for a moment and contact local newspapers, reporters, editors or print media, radio stations, etc. and offer them newsworthy tidbits of information they can run with. For example, if you’re supporting a charity to raise money for a good cause, let them know and tell them to encourage people to help with the fundraising event on social media. A client of ours recently helped a charity by donating $1 for every Facebook “Like” they received.  Get creative with your campaigns and get the “offline” folks to engage “online.”

 

The most basic form of PR and still one of the most effective is issuing a Press Release. There are numerous PR news sites to submit press releases to and once you’ve done so, your news will spread across many news sites across the nation. Within your press release, encourage readers to visit or follow you on social media.

 

RSS Feed & Newsletters

 

Allow your loyal customers to stay up to date with what’s going on at your company by having them subscribe to an RSS feed. In addition to your RSS, send out a monthly newsletter to your current customers to improve your company’s retention rate. Within your e-blast or newsletter, encourage readers to continue reading more about the topics within the letter on your social media pages.  As a result, you know your newsletter is going straight to their inbox and you’re giving them the opportunity to easily access all of your social pages if they haven’t done so already.

 

Customer Testimonials

 

What’s the one thing everyone likes to do…talk about themselves and their experiences! Give your customers the chance to spread the word about your company by giving them the spotlight. Social media is great for this as it’s easy for the to create videos, write a review, take a survey, etc. Also, should you happen to get a negative review, you then have the opportunity to address it and resolve any issues. Customers appreciate it when a company responds to a problem a fellow customer had or an underlying issue with the product or service. It allows them to get to know your business on a personal level. And of course, the more positive testimonials your business has, the more people you draw in. At the end of the day, people like to read or hear about other peoples’ experiences, especially if it is that of a friend or relative. Therefore, let your customers do the work for you!

 

Well, there you have it! 5 tips you can start using to boost your social media campaign. If you’d like to learn more, read the latest article on how to achieve a Savvy Social Media Campaign on SEO News or hire the best social media marketing firm near you!

Published by Mike Canarelli on October 5th, 2012 in Business, Social Media, Social Media Marketing

July 13th, 2012

Increase Brand Engagement on Twitter

Social Media is a fickle beast and using it effectively for your brand can be difficult to pin point. So here are a couple tips for better brand engagement when it comes to using Twitter for your business.

1. 1.    Tweet 1-4 times per hour.

The more you tweet, the less engaging your tweets can appear to followers.

1. 2.    Keep it short and sweet.

Keep your tweets under 100 characters. This helps with engagement (I mean who really wants to read a tweet that is a paragraph and a half long) and also allows for retweets where the individual can add their own comments and thoughts.

1. 3.    Weekends are prime time.

Want the best click through rate for your tweets, well then it looks like you will need to be tweeting on the weekends. Studies have shown that brands see better engagement on Saturdays and Sundays.

1. 4.    Sorry boss, I was just uhhh, tweeting!

Ever hear that after you eat lunch you feel a little less energized? During that post lunch period is the best time to tweet! Post your tweets during the busiest hours of the day, 1pm-3pm midweek.

1. 5.    Add a link.

Want your tweets retweeted? Add a link that people will want to retweet, its reported that if you post a link people are more likely to retweet it by 86%!

1. 6.    Ask and you shall receive.

If you want someone to retweet your post, simply ask for it. “Retweet” will get you 23 times higher retweet than if you hadn’t asked at all.

1. 7.    #dontoverdoit

Easy on the hashtags guys! You will see more involvement with tweets that only contain one or two hashtags. However, add any more than a couple hashtags and you are looking at a negative response to your tweets.

Tools of the Trade

Ok so you have now optimized your tweets and when to post them, now what? In my experience no one likes doing the work without seeing the reward, so track your data and always be on the look out for new followers! There are some pretty cool tools out there to help you track your Twitter existence and gain more followers.

TweetStats

The first tool you should check out is TweetStats. This program provides graphs of information on how often you tweet, when you tweet, and how responsive you are at replying to others. TweetStats is great for helping you understand how your business tweets. You can even check out how your followers tweet to help better target your market.

TweetDeck

The second Twitter tool to look into is TweetDeck. It’s great for letting you know what’s going on with your Twitter account. TweetDeck keeps you up to date on your followers and helps monitor all things happening on Twitter. This program also lets you schedule tweets so you can post anytime, anywhere.

Followerwonk

Lastly you should look at Followerwonk. It is a great tool for finding people in your industry that are interested in your brand. With Followerwonk you can sort followers by different metrics and find people using certain keywords and phrases.

Here I wanted to search from people that mention internet marketing in their bio section and Followerwonk pulls up all Twitter profiles that mention this term:

 

So there you go! Now you can optimize Twitter to have more brand engagement and then track how well your Twitter account is doing!

Published by Sarah Stoltzfus on July 13th, 2012 in Business, Social Media, Social Media Marketing

May 31st, 2012

Google Knowledge Graph is Fine Tuning Your Search

So, Google has once again found a way to improve search by the launch of their latest update, the Knowledge Graph. Most Google users may not notice the slight change in Google’s search results appearance, however this change does have significant effects over search results. This new Knowledge Graph is a representation of how Google builds relationships between people, places, and things.

 

Google Gives You the Power

 

Based on the search term you enter into Google, it now gives you the choice to tell them what you are searching for. To pay homage to my favorite football team, I have used “Eagles” as my search query example. When I typed this into Google’s search bar, Google gave me a set of options for my search term based on its meaning or interpretation of the search term. This is displayed to the right of the search results and includes the sports team, the musical band and the animal.

 

Because there are several different meanings for the term “Eagles”, Google has prompted me to select which term I was actually searching for. In this case, I chose the football team, Philadelphia Eagles. If Google understands several meanings of  your search query, it will ask you which one you are looking for. This helps Google to tailor your results more specifically to what you are looking for.  Once I clicked on Philadelphia Eagles, my Knowledge Bar displayed facts, statistics, etc. for the Philadelphia Eagles football team.

Highlighting Key Facts

 

In the knowledge bar I can now see facts about the Philadelphia Eagles including their current roster. These facts are all viewable without ever leaving the results page. Pretty cool stuff if you ask me. I wish that Google had this back when I was in school and completing book reports and research papers where facts were not as easy to find. Along with the snapshot of facts about the Philadelphia Eagles, my normal search results located directly below the query bar are now targeted for information and news strictly about the Philadelphia Eagles.

 

Likewise, if I search for “Ryan Reynolds” it gives me a nice little snapshot including facts like his birthday, height, parents, movies he starred in and a couple of other facts. This Knowledge Bar also provides users with a section that includes people, places, or things that people also searched for when searching for your term.

 

Millions of Objects and Billions of Facts

 

Google has stated that the Knowledge Bar contains 3.5 billion facts on 500 million objects. Currently this feature includes facts for Authors, Actors, Directors, Movies, Sports Teams, Cities and Countries, Musical Groups and much more. However not every search term will have a knowledge bar, so you may not notice this bar depending on the term that you search for.

 

For some, this might seem like an overwhelming number and its impossible to not ask “how the heck does Google narrow it down?!” Google decides which facts appear in the Knowledge Bar based on which facts are most searched for.

 

Whether your searching for the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles or Ryan Reynolds new film, you are likely to learn a couple of new facts in the process.  Google is now providing its users with relevant information on the term they are searching for and in some cases getting users to remain on Google’s results page instead of traveling to a new source for the information they may have been looking for. The Knowledge Graph is shaping up to be a helpful tool in the world of search. Of course Google will continue to tweak and perfect this new facet of search, so expect bigger and better things from the Knowledge Bar.

For more information on Google’s new Knowledge Bar visit Google’s blog or check out this video!

 

Published by Sarah Stoltzfus on May 31st, 2012 in Business, General Information, Uncategorized