Followerwonk – The Social Analytics Tool for Twitter

I came across a really cool social tool the other day that I can’t believe more people are not using. It’s called Followerwonk and is a miracle tool for cultivating influential bloggers, guest blogging opportunities, and socially authoritative websites. The tool has both a free and paid version based on usage and can be accessed by using your twitter account. The tool has four main purposes and allows you to export your findings to a CSV file and saves your recent searches.

One of my very favorite parts of this tool is the ability to search for twitter users by keyword and compare them based on different metrics (influence, followers, following, age, etc). In practice, if you were looking to connect with authoritative social media bloggers to  promote your content, this tool will let your search, sort, and download them based on the keywords you selected. You can also follow them on Twitter right from the application. Followerwonk also shows you if your account is following the selected twitter profiles or if they are following you.

Once you have selected a short-list of highly authoritative and relevant bloggers, or websites, you can dive deeper into their twitter statistics and then start to analyze their followers (or whom they are following) to help narrow down cream of the crop. There are a ton of metrics to take into account such as the average age, language of their followers, and how active and authoritative they are.

Lastly, Followerwonk offers user twitter analytics to help monitor the progress (or struggles) of your growing, authoritative followers. Using this feature within the tool can provide a closer look at your twitter account’s followers. It can also identify your most influential followers which is a vital aspect to any social media campaign since they are your lowest hanging fruit. You can also identify followers that are recent additions or recent loses. My suggestion would be to periodically pull up your followers that have chosen to unfollow you, identify authoritative users, and then attempt to retain.

For a social media consultant like me, Followerwonk is a great addition to the social media tools we are currently usiong at Web Talent Marketing. Of course no tool has ever created a winning social media campaign. A custom stratagy and solid reporting metrics often work hand in hand to help acheive long term success within social media – but tools like this help out a whole lot!

The Changing Faces of Google Analytics

By Lorianna Sprague, SEO Specialist

Some of you may have noticed, beginning in May of this year, that Google Analytics began changing the look and feel of their user interface. They ran a series of webinars to introduce both website owners and agencies to the new layout. Check them out for a seriously detailed tutorial (seriously means 6 videos at an hour a piece).

So, what’s changed? Here’s a quick list of the most obvious differences in the analytics interface:

• Visitor and Goal Flow Visualization – using Sankey diagrams
• Multi-Channel Funnels – to see what channels your customers interacted with in the 30 days prior to converting
• Real Time Reporting – updates your site’s activity continuously so you can see the results of your campaigns unfold in real time
• Mobile Reporting – gives you a more detailed look at how mobile users are interacting with your site so you can optimize for those users and improve conversions over time
• Integration with Webmaster Tools – which gives website owners and agencies access to the top 1000 keywords that landed people on a website over a 30 day period; this is the work around for the lack of access to keyword data through the Traffic Sources section of Analytics (see below)
• Limited Display of Keyword Traffic Sources – (based Google users who are logged in while searching) the good news is that what you lost in “keyword’ Traffic Sources, you have gained back in Webmaster Tools; if you have not integrated your Webmaster Tools account with your Analytics, now’s the time
• Advanced Segmentation – and the ability to define your own segments based on what matters, such as removing brand terms, or creating a segment to view traffic for only visitors who know about your company or brand
• Site Speed
• Social Interactions
• Better reports, and so much more.

Web Talent’s Lancaster, PA SEO Meet Up will be discussing the New Google Analytics in 2012. Join the Meet Up and comment here to let us know what parts of the new Google Analytics you would like us to explore.

Google Analytics Intelligence: An Underused Asset for SEOs

In 2009, Google quietly released its intelligence module for Google Analytics. This feature allows SEOs and webmasters to create custom alerts for a wide variety of metrics and segments. It is my experience that most Internet marketers are not using this feature to its full potential. There are many benefits that one can obtain from early warnings that allow marketers to respond quickly to changes in their digital landscape.

Monitoring Changes in Traffic

By setting up a custom alert, SEOs can be notified about gross changes in traffic, both positive and negative. You can segment these to cover both organic and paid mediums while  being alerted of traffic changes as well. A useful scenario would be implementing the alerts to detect large-scale traffic drops from keywords week-to-week or day-to-day. We have used intelligence reporting to track visits and conversion changes from targeted keywords and to alert us about changes in algorithms (like Panda).

Monitoring Changes in Conversion

Monitoring conversion rates amongst all or selected traffic sources can help identify daily changes indicating a potentially devastating set of circumstances or a tremendous market opportunity. With custom email alerts, Google intelligence reports could notify you when your conversion rate decreases by massive amounts (like 60%!). This allows you you access your analytics easily to fix any potential problems and address potential issues in traffic quality or quantity at first notice, rather than letting days or weeks pass before you notice a problem.

Monitoring Brand Impact

With Custom Alerts you can quickly monitor your brand’s impact on the web. This is pretty easy to setup in analytics by creating a weekly report to show changes in brand related keyword searches (or any specific keyword for that matter). You can set up the account to email you when metrics experience a heavy spike or decline. This could also be a great metric that can be correlated with your company’s online reputation management efforts.

Monitoring decrease in ROI or Revenues

Revenues are at the heart of every online business. Having a daily or weekly alert set up to monitor massive changes in cost per conversion, ROAS or generated revenue could also be a helpful way to stay ahead of the curb. Once an alert is dispatched your company can pull resources and address any potential problem or get an early warning to secure inventory if there is a spike in demand for your product or service.

You have nothing to lose!

It’s amazing that most people aren’t taking advantage of this free feature in Analytics. The UI is very simple to use and the module has a pretty low learning curve.  The Google intelligence feature allows marketers and SEOs to be proactive and hyper reactive to changes affecting their client’s business and search marketing efforts.  To learn more about how to use Google Intelligence I recommend reading some of the advanced Analytics help that Google has on their website.

Video Marketing Is More Important For Your Business Than You May Think

Video is sometimes a topic that many business owners are instantly skeptical about implementing as a seriously advantageous tool for their company. This is mostly because it is often associated with amateur viral clips rather than valuable content. However, video is extremely important to a website because it shows potential customers that you are an actual breathing human being, and that you are passionate about what you sell. Here are some tips on what type of content to include when thinking about making a video, and how to make it accomplish something: bring in customers and generate business!

What type of video content is right for your company? How can you make it succeed?

1. Make sure that your video content satisfies a customer’s need—capture attention and create interest by meeting the information need of your audience. Don’t know what kind of video you want to make? Consider these creative options:

 

• Product Review and Demonstration Video- Show how to use the product you sell, what the best parts about it are, or what it does that makes it worth the customer’s dollar. What’s new or different about it than your competitor’s version? Creating project demonstration videos can impress potential customers forever. There is an increasing audience for video tutorials—for all of the “do-it-yourself” fans out there, you can feed their appetite for personal assistance while also showing them you are a real person behind your website because you know how to create, use, and fix what you sell.
• Post-Sale Support and Maintenance Video- Make a video that shows your customer troubleshooting tips that he or she may run into upon setup, how they could fix a simple problem they may run into. More importantly, it is always helpful to create a maintenance video that simply shows how to keep the product in its best condition or gives advice on how to avoid future dilemmas.
• Success Story (Case Study) Video- Nothing convinces a viewer more that you are a reputable and successful business then the accounts of those who have entrusted in your services and left satisfied. Upload video testimonials of happy customers. Use real customers and their first-hand experiences; they will carry more weight than text ever could. They will serve as a success story that highlights what your company provides. Think of them as an authentic walking and talking case study! Tip: Consider interviewing satisfied customers for video content to engage a conversation if you think your customer cannot sing your praises eloquently without some form of guidance.
• Video-Submission Contest- Sponsoring a contest is inexpensive and free publicity if your customers are submitting their video to you and posting it elsewhere on the web. Contests promote brand awareness and get video creators talking about your business. Even if you only have a few submissions, those video creators are spending time on your site and spreading word of mouth about their new project that they’re working on for your company.
• Man-In-The-Street Interview- Show real people and what they want, do or don’t like, how they’ve been treated by other companies, etc… transition to how your company can save the world! Just kidding, but you could switch over to showing how your business alleviates their previous struggles and satisfies what they’ve been looking for. Customers enjoy seeing ordinary people just like themselves incorporated into a video because it shows that your business aims to please the average Joe with cordiality as its primary concern.
• Event, Conference & Trade Show Communications- Show what your company does when its not servicing customers. Showing prospective customers how hard you work to research your area of business in order to stay ahead of the curve will show you are sincere about your business goals and prove once again that you are a real person selling a service or product—not a face-less website.
• Video Press Release- Have something new and important to say that you want to get out to your customers in a personable and quick way? Need we say anything more?
• Email Newsletter Video- Sending out a video to your email mailing list will help elicit specific conversion through a purpose-built video if you offer something in the video that the customer needs. You can track the responses that you get from whatever you offer in the video, and see how many people are watching what your posting, and how greatly the video has attributed to an increase in business.

 

2. If you post your video on YouTube, understand the power of demographic profiling. YouTube has analytic software that gives you invaluable data regarding who watches your video and what that viewer searched to come across your video. Small and large businesses can leverage demographic information from video statistics to better understand their customers in the real world. Not to mention, a YouTube video tells you and the customer how many times the video has been watched, which can entice the viewer to watch, and also help you better understand if the video is gaining success or hitting a plateau.

 

3. Encourage users to subscribe to your YouTube channel or company email newsletter at the end of your video. Take advantage of the fact that they are already interested in what your company does since they’ve clicked play and watched until the end of the video. Now, show them how they can stay connected to your company with special offers.

 

4. Think about posting or stating some type of promotion somewhere on your site, like “Print the step-by-step instructions for (whatever your video content is about) to receive 10% off our in-house evaluation by visiting www.mysite.com/youtube”. The customer’s action will translate into your value because a unique URL with the incentive of a discount equates to a measurable way to determine the success of your video.

 

5. Encourage a discussion—have someone in your company post a comment under the video to spark conversation. The more comments below a video, the more worthy of debate it appears, and the more important it looks.

 

6. PUSH PUSH PUSH! You ultimately want your video to be viewed by as many people as possible, because the more its viewed the more important it appears, giving prospective viewers the incentive to click “play” and learn more about your business. At some point in your video, market your company directly. After making the video, post it everywhere—your Facebook business fan page, your Twitter profile, your blog, your website, and any other social media network that you use.

Apple’s Thoughts on Adobe Flash

New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind.

We have all been asking ourselves why Flash hasn’t been available on Apple’s mobile devices and when it will become available. The answer is in this article. I don’t know about you but it make sense to me. I also sense a little Adobe Apple tension.

Read the full article here

Do you let users post comments on your blog?

Webworkerdaily.com released a good article discussing the pros and cons of letting users post comments on your blog.

Read the full article here: http://webworkerdaily.com/2010/02/04/are-blog-comments-worth-it/

Advertising Tracking… Learn what works!

When your telephone rings do you know where the caller originated from? What campaign, what made them call and what is the probability they will purchase?

More than ever before, tracking advertising efforts has become incredibly important. In today’s economic times you do not have the ad budget to hope for the best. In general, advertising is very uncertain. You allocate funds where you *think* the best returns will be. However, you rarely know how many phone calls or website hits you receive from a single ad campaign.

New technology allows us to track our ad campaigns in a way that removes virtually ALL THE UNCERTAINTIES of advertising. If you know where your revenue is coming from you can better maximize the benefit from that ad campaign.

Imagine having a Google Pay-Per-Click campaign with 200 phrases. Your total budget is $1000 per month. You spend on average $4 per click and get about 250 clicks per month spread between 200 phrases. Currently you only know that the campaign gets clicks and brings traffic to your site – perhaps you track how many people submit email forms for more information. Ad Track allows you to accurately and effectively determine which of your 200 phrases are bringing the most phone calls that ultimately turn into sales.

After running the Ad Track system for a couple months you would have enough data to eliminate a portion of your 200 keyword list, freeing up more dollars for the phrases that produce sales. Imagine if your list went from 200 to 25 high producing phrases – you would now get almost 10 clicks per phrases (before you were getting 1.25 clicks per phrase). Where you were getting 1 phone call you could be getting 10.

What if you could track phone calls that originated from various Internet Marketing campaigns?

What if you could record the call to better anticipate and prepare for pre-sales questions, aid in sales training efforts and much more?

What if you knew 80% of calls from Google Organic lead to sales and 60% of calls from Google Pay-Per-Click lead to sales – or vice versa?

What if you knew phone book advertising only brings 10 calls per year and only 20% turn into sales?

We like to call it Advertising Accountability and Advertising Forensics.

The time is now to start strategically measuring the performance of virtually every advertising campaign you deploy.

Backup your data before it’s gone!

 
If you answered never, or better yet if you aren’t sure what I’m talking about you need to read on. As reliable as computers are, they are just as unreliable. With the cost of media storage decreasing as new technology becomes available there is no reason not to backup your data on a regular basis.   Whether your computer is used as a hybrid for personal and business use or only one or the other you cannot afford not to backup your data.   

There are backup solutions that meet the needs of virtually every computer user. More often than not backup routines should be customized based on your specific needs and the configuration of your hardware.  The backup solution for a college student will vary from that of a business professional who travels half the week with a laptop and the other half is spent in the office on a desktop.   When creating a custom backup solution I look for a few things. I look for ease of recovery, speed of the backup, automation, cost, reliability and mobility.  

My specific practices need to include the ability to perform backups and sync multiple computers while traveling. My hardware setup includes a Blackberry, iPod Touch, Apple MacBook and an Apple iMac. While in the office I will use my desktop computer, the iMac. When I use the iMac I store entries in my address book, send, receive and store emails, schedule to do items and calendar events, create and modify files and change preferences like bookmarks or email signatures. Because I travel so often, it is important for me to have my files available so I can be efficient while on the road.   

To backup my main computer (iMac) I use Time Machine along with a 300 GB external hard drive. Time Machine is software that comes with Apple’s latest operating system. Time Machine automatically stores hourly backups for 24 hours, daily backups for a month and weekly backups until the backup disk is full. Time Machine makes a complete backup of my system. In the event my system crashes I have all my files on a portable device that I can connect to any other Apple computer and retrieve my files within minutes. Moreover, because the software automatically backs up my files each hour I have been able to retrieve files from earlier in the day or week when I make a mistake. Time Machine lets me browse my files in real-time  over the past 24 hours, days, and weeks, giving me the ability to recover any file right on the spot.  

In addition to Time Machine I use Apple’s MobileMe. Although MobileMe offers a great deal more features than what I take advantage of, I use it for 2 reasons; to back  up my calendar and to do list, and to backup my address book. Not only to back them up but to sync them in real-time between my desktop computer and my portable computer. The best part is, even when I’m on the road as long as I have Internet access the synchronization and backup of my address book and calendar entries are running.   Because I don’t use the MobileMe email and I use my company email I elected to use an email protocol called IMAP.  Basically, when you use IMAP anything you do that pertains to your email stays on the server. If you read a message it will show as read in your webmail interface as well as in your email client. If you create a new folder to store messages it will show in both places. The primary benefit to using IMAP email protocol is that all data is stored on the server and chances are your server is less likely to crash or be rendered inoperable than your personal computer. Should something happen to your computer you simple setup your IMAP account on another computer and you have all your messages just as you left them.  

The last ingredient to my backup solution involves an online service called SugarSync. I read about the service while reading an article on the most efficient workflows and the tools that allow us to achieve more as business owners. SugarSync is an online backup and synchronization utility. The software runs on both Mac OS X and Windows Operating Systems, they even have a version for your Blackberry and iPhone/iPod Touch.  

The way SugarSync works is by scanning your computer for modified files. When it finds modified files it uploads them to the SugarSync server. Their server is actually taking advantage of Cloud Computing which, I wrote about in previous blogs. After you sign up for the service you download and install their software, which guides you through adding folders and files to be backed up and sync’d. Upon selecting the data you want to backup (i.e. My Documents, your Quickbooks database, photos, music, spreadsheets, etc.) it will upload all the data to the server to create a duplicate copy. After all the data has been uploaded to the server anytime you make a change on your computer the modified file is re-uploaded so you always have a recent version backed up in the event of a crash. 

Not only does SugarSync backup the files but it will sync two or more computers so the files are always the same on both computers. So if your like me and use two computers equally as much you’ll want access to all your important files – regardless of the computer you’re using. When SugarSync is setup and operational, when you make a change on one computer the modified file is uploaded to the server and then automatically downloaded to the other computer.   SugarSync also offers a browser-based file manager so you can safely view your files even when your not at your own computer. A few other feature highlights include the ability to send large files, save files on the server and not on your system (saves space on your computer while allowing you to keep the data), create photo albums and share photos online, retrieve files that you deleted on your computer as long as they were backed up previously, and even go back to a previous version of a file.   SugarSync is relatively new and the Mac version is still in beta, however, I consider myself a power user and have genuinely put the software to the test and I have had little to no trouble using the service for over 30 days. I use two computers and sync nearly 15 GB between the two including my Quickbooks file, personal finance software, client files, word documents, PDF’s, images, and more. It has been great.   Before I go I also want to add that SugarSync support has been a pleasure to work with. And best of all the pricing is affordable and scalable for almost any type of user – including basic home users to business professionals.

Websites coming to a desktop near you!

In February of 2008 Adobe Systems announced Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR). Adobe Air’s runtime environment is designed to bring a websites interactive content to your desktop without an Internet browser. Using Flash and HTML developers can access the API (application programming interface) and bring dynamic content from a website to a local application. The local application serves the user just as any other software would. Whether online or offline, users can access the content of websites like eBay.

Adobe Air provides users with the ability to drag and drop information to interact more easily with websites. Users can store certain sets of data such as transaction history, photos, and the like for access when offline. 

EffectiveUI, of Denver, Colorado, created eBay Desktop using Adobe Air. EffectiveUI revamped the entire user experience by creating the desktop application. eBay Desktop users now have the ability to drag and drop photos and text directly into the new application. Additionally, they can view some data while not connected to the Internet, users are able to display information from bids in real time through the use of ‘AJAX’ and, users can customize search and bidding pages as a result of the desktop application.

More information about Adobe AIR can be found on Adobe’s Website.

Fly With Wi-Fi

 
Internet has long been a necessity for many since the advent of the world wide web. Accessing the Internet is no longer confined to just using computers; even your mobile phones can allow you to send that important email to your colleague. But what happens when you (or your boss) suddenly decide to pack your bags and ship you off to an island, whether for a well-earned dream vacation or for a business conference and the only option is to travel by plane? Do you really have to bid a transitory good bye to your online responsibilities at least for the time being?   Well, put that thought of impossibility to rest right now. Sure, in 2006, Boeing’s Connexion service shut down in its fresh attempt to offer in-flight Wi-Fi, but that did not mean Internet connection in the air will be entirely distant.  

ATG connections Despite the lack of in-flight access in all planes, a bulk of major airlines have opted to be partners of third-party providers.   As an example, Aircell’s Gogo services uses air-to-ground (ATG) connections. Gogo works only in continental United States at present time, but the process which allows data to be sent over a high-speed Internet connection to towers on the ground proved to be an effective one. Additionally, to be able to use Gogo, the user will need a web browser, from which he signs in to connect directly to the Internet.   Good thing is, most laptops, phones, and portable game units can connect, given that the gadget uses 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi.   Gogo however, blocks (no, the network capacity is not the rub) VoIP or voice over Internet protocol, since the system can detect voice data, discouraging phone conversations (to maintain a tranquil flight among travelers). Not all voice calls though, can be blocked.   Another dilemma is the fettered Internet access when the plane flies over a body of water, since the technology relies heavily on tower coverage.  

Following suit Other major airlines have joined the Wi-Fi bandwagon, too. An example is American Airlines which rolled out Gogo on 767-200 planes with coast-to-coast routing amounting to $13 a pop. Less than three hours flights are cheaper at $10.   Next summer, patrons of Delta are going to enjoy the newly-installed Gogo. By the end of this year, Virgin America flights are looking to have the same Internet service available to travelers.   US Airways is set to try the service this fall.   Some would even go as far developing its own ATG system, just like JetBlue subsidiary LiveTV which put together Kiteline. Kiteline, which provides limited access to e-mail and instant messaging is free, and will even permit users to shop on Amazon. For starters, this is already available on one plane which is the BetaBlue. Starting in January, Kiteline complimentary service is going to be offered to some Continental 737s.  

Satellite connections Another alternative being explored at this point is using satellite connections, being inspired by Boeing’s Connexion service. Through this system, antennas on the planes send information directly to orbiting satellites, bypassing ground towers. One such service Row 44 (which is touted to be twice as fast as Gogo). Similar to Gogo, gadgets using 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi can connect using Row 44.   Unlike Gogo, Row 44′s service allows both VoIP and mobile phone roaming which, is openly challenged by the Federal Aviation Administration and Federal Communications Commission as they currently ban cell phone usage during flights. The commission even went so far as to propose a legislation explicitly barring all voice calls on planes.   At present, Row 44 works with Southwest and Alaska Airlines. Incidentally, neither of the two airlines plans to enable VoIP.  

Rules of thumb As with most evolving technology, in-flight Wi-Fi may not necessarily affect the aircraft systems, but questions of security and discretion could be matters of concern. For one, it is logical and smart to protect sensitive documents and data in the course of the travel. And for another, some sensitive sites (i.e. adult sites) are better viewed somewhere more private and appropriate as a sign of respect to your more prudish neighbors.