What Sort of Social Media Services Should An Online Marketer Offer Clients?
Monday, March 03, 2008
Here are the services an online marketing company can (or should) offer clients:
- Blogging: Providing blog content, including content that has a "real" voice and is calculated to drive traffic/comments/interaction. Metrics to measure the effectiveness of this include # of comments, traffic, link-tos, and Technorati ratings.
- Blogger Outreach: This involves first creating contact lists carefully targeted to the client in question – and having the ability to identify the influential bloggers within a particular niche. Then the bloggers are contacted regarding the client story in question. This is similar to traditional PR, but involves a far more personal hand, and the ability to network and create relationships online. Traditional press releases do not work in this outreach – they must be short, friendly letters. Metrics for this include hits and link-backs to your site.
- Forum Outreach: Similar to blogger outreach. Part of this is identifying in advance what forums might be useful to the client and developing a relationship with them BEFORE making the "pitch" on the site (or else you are labeled a spammer).
- Social Networking Sites: The creating/maintenance of MySpace and/or Facebook accounts for the client, including the creation of Groups, Friending, sending out bulletins, etc. In addition to Facebook & MySpace there are many other social networking sites to focus on, both broad-based (like Bebo) or specialized (depending on client’s needs). Part of offering this service is the ability to tell clients what specific sites will be best for them demographically, and keeping up with trends. Metrics for this would be page hits, increase of hits on referenced URL, number of "friends" and comments.
- Podcast & YouTube: Some clients will be particularly suited for these forms of viral marketing. Marketers should offer very basic services in making simple podcasts & videos with the goal of going "viral" within the social networks. There is also a social networking component to these podcast and YouTube communities that have to be maintained and "worked." Metrics for this would be hits, # of downloads, link-tos from other sites, and increase of hits on referenced URL.
- Social Bookmarking: Interfacing between client blogger and bookmarker to shape content most likely to be bookmarked. Metrics include # of "Diggs" or "stumbles" a bookmarked story gets, and corresponding hit spike on referenced URL.
Within all of this is the need to provide the client a list of metrics to demonstrate that the social networking is creating a result. Companies are more likely, even in the case of budget cuts to their overall online marketing plan, to keep a budget for social networking because it is relatively inexpensive – but because the technology is so new, they want to see tangible results. It will be necessary, then, for a shop to create their own methodology and protocol for collecting data for metrics and presenting them in a convenient and comprehensive manner for the client.Labels: blogger, buzz, Facebook, Myspace, new media, social media, social networking, Stumbleupon, video, Web 2.0, Youtube
posted by Valerie D'Orazio
0 comments
Quality SEO
Thursday, February 14, 2008
In addition to what my colleague, Adam Edwards, writes below on the ROI of SEO, I would like to present an example that illustrates that it is not just important to invest in SEO, but to invest in quality SEO.
GoCompare.com, a UK site that allows users to compare car insurance rates, used to rank number one on Google for the coveted term: "car insurance". What this translated to was that 17.49% of people searching on that term would visit the site. As you can imagine, this amounts to a huge number of people as "car insurance" is a very popular search term.
Not surprisingly, this term was responsible for most of the traffic to GoCompare.com. Even more so than its actual name spaced out: "Go Compare".
At the end of the week of January 28th, GoCompare.com lost its coveted number one ranking because Google uncovered dubious inbound linking to the site. Apparently, GoCompare.com had invested a bit too much in the pay-per-blog "methodology", which provides links to a site (which helps with optimization) for a fee.
So, how did GoCompare.com rank after it was found out? From number one, it plummeted to the obscurity of the seventh Google search page. Needless to say, the results were detrimental.
Just 2.31% of people searching on "car insurance" went to the site the following week. This equaled to an 87% decrease in traffic! The part that probably hurt the most was the gains made by GoCompare.com's competitors, the search traffic for which increased as much as 77% in the aftermath.
Google rightly decided to hone in on the practice of paying for inbound links as it falsely portrays a sense of authority. Your site is not ranking highly on a term because you offer quality data on the particular topic, but because you paid some key blogs and other sites to link to you.
So beware! Many SEO firms that claim to shoot your site right to the top of your most important search terms are probably using these unethical practices, to which Google is catching up.
Quality SEO, just like anything else that's worthwhile, takes time. At Connors, for instance, we build your site content out so that it is SEO friendly and worthy of a searcher's attention.
Our technique does not just ensure success in the relative near future, but also for years to come. Please refer to Adam's eloquent metaphor below to get a better idea of this important difference.Labels: Connors Communications, optimization, seo, Web 2.0
posted by Gina Bolotinsky
0 comments
PPC Is Not an Investment
There's a great article by Tameka Kee in MediaPost today about SEO providing great ROI and outperforming other marketing initiatives. It looks like the rest of the industry is finally catching on! However, what worries me is the idea that some marketers believe pay-per-click (PPC) is an investment. Now don't get me wrong; PPC is a fine business. Connors helped launch the entire industry with its PR work on Overture, after all. Yet let's be clear in that PPC is advertising. And once you stop paying, its benefits disappear. It may be a good buy with consistently high ROI that continues to bring in search traffic and provide leads, but it is not an investment. PPC is kind of like renting an apartment. You can sign a lease and move in quickly. Sometimes you can even get a month-to-month agreement. If you have any problems, you can talk to the super and (hopefully) he'll fix your place. But you are not gaining any equity. Should your landlord decide to sell the building or raise rent dramatically, you'll be stuck without a place to live. In the long term, isn't it better to buy or build your own house? SEO, on the other hand, provides compounding returns. You can build your house (or site) and then make improvements or additions. Yes, some patience and hard work is involved but don't worry, as you can still hire contractors like us to help. It will all be worthwhile when your property value (or PageRank) goes up. Then, should you choose, you can sell at a profit. There is nothing wrong with renting some keywords with PPC as long as you make sure you are saving enough to invest in your own SEO house. Labels: advertising, PageRank, PPC, ROI, seo
posted by Adam Edwards
0 comments
Surprising Data On Natural Born Clickers
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Here’s an interesting study on Natural Born Clickers by Starcom, Tacoda & Hitwise (via SEOmoz blog). Natural Born Clickers -- or NBCs -- click on online advertising the most, and what the data shows about them is surprising. Heavy clickers: Account for 50% of all display ad clicks, but only 6% of the total online population. Skew towards Internet users between the ages of 25-44. Skew towards households with an income under $40,000. Spend 4 times more online than “normal” clickers – but their spending does not proportionately reflect this increased usage. Are more likely to visit auctions, gambling, and career service sites.
Will this study have a negative impact on the paid display ad industry? Will more targeted methods of attracting customers like organic SEO get a boost? Only time will tell – but it’s certainly food for thought. Labels: advertising, Adwords, seo
posted by Valerie D'Orazio
0 comments
Zooming Vs. Scroll And Search: How Will It Effect SEO?
Monday, February 11, 2008
A fascinating article in Newsweek.com caught my eye, about how the future of online naviagation might be in zooming, not the scroll and search with which we are so familiar. This all apparently has to do with the way humans process information, being far more skilled at scanning and picking out information spatially than by navigating lists. This has been a situation that has bedeviled web-developers for years -- but now there is finally headway being done in the area of zooming navigation. Of course, we already have some examples of zoom in the form of Google Earth. But, Google Earth has pauses in its zoom to load up new images. The technology we are referring to in this article, however, involves seamless zooming, like increasing the power of a telescope. The Microsoft-owned Seadragon is a bold step in that direction, and with a sharply increased staff as of late, it is clear the software giant has a great belief in its potential to revolutionize both the Internet and they way we navigate our own desktops. So picture, if you will, a search where instead of lists of links you had a visual “map” of choices. You quickly scan with your eyes this map, lock in on the visual you want, and click a button to seamlessly zoom in on it. Repeat, drill-down, zoom in on result after result. I know what you might be thinking – this sort of navigation might work well on a nice big monitor, but what about a cell phone? Well, wouldn’t this method work better than a list of links? I mean, how many Google links can fit on a mobile device’s “screen?” Five? Of course, Microsoft is also working on its own version of zoom for mobile – Deepfish. But, the $250,000 question for us remains – how does zoom navigation impact SEO? Certainly, there will still be tags and keywords. And apparently a zoom search is more efficient than scroll, increasing the amount of information one can work with at one time, according to the Newsweek article, by perhaps even a thousand. However, I would think there would be certain logistics related to search results that would have to be adjusted. And, since zoom navigation might one day take over from scroll, we will have to anticipate these changes and adapt. Labels: blog, Google, Microsoft, seo
posted by Valerie D'Orazio
1 comments
Social Media and Super Tuesday
Friday, February 08, 2008
The writers have been on strike for so long, that I think we have given up on the idea of scripted programming altogether. Perhaps, during a more uneventful time period, the strike would have more dire consequences. It's a good thing we have this election to keep us on the edge of our seats and thoroughly entertained.
Just as I was scanning for news on how social media impacted Super Tuesday results, I stumbled upon the news that Mitt Romney has dropped out of the race. Out of curiosity, I wondered who had the exclusive. After scrolling back to the 30th page (yes, thirtieth, as in three - zero) of Google News results, I gather that ABC was one of the first to post the news to the site of its local San Francisco affiliate just 4 hours earlier.
So, where was I? Oh yes. Did social media have an impact on the biggest primary day?
A nice place to begin answering that question is on a blog called the Marketing Pilgrim. On Super Tuesday morning, the Pilgrim made a bold claim that the winners were already decided based on online fanfare. Its prediction: John McCain and Barak Obama would win on Super Tuesday.
The prediction was largely based on positive and negative search results on the candidates. Apparently, Obama and McCain had the most positive results.
What really happened? Yes, McCain did win, but what about the democrats?
Despite their reported dead heat, there are stark implication made by the states that were won by Clinton and Obama. A nice summary by blogger Krutic can be read here on Blog Critics Magazine.
I suppose if you count the states, Obama won. When looking closely at the states he won, however, a different picture comes into focus. Out of the 13 he won, only 3 - Connecticut, Illinois, and Delaware - tend to vote democratic and would truly count for him in a general election.
Clinton, on the other hand, won the democratic strongholds of Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and California. These are all monster states in terms of population, which equal to delegates, which equal to winning the nomination.
But back to the question at hand: Did social media make a difference?
I think it is safe to say that social media has made a huge impact for Barak Obama's campaign. I would even make the claim that without his enthusiastic youth following, he would have been driven to anonymity months ago.
The more appropriate question might be: Can the youth truly decide this primary? In essence, will the difference social media is making count?
Jeffrey Feldman wrote an interesting article for The Huffington Post on this very topic. In it, he explains that while there is an exorbitant amount of attention being paid to Obama and his movement, the fact is that on Super Tuesday "the 18-24 age group typically made up only 7%-8% of the overall vote, while the 65 and over age group typically made up 20%-22% of the vote." And guess what, "Obama did not carry the 65 and older vote in a single state." Not even in his home turf of Illinois, where the senior vote was split 50/50 between him and Clinton.
With the current facts in mind, it's important to note that the race is far from over. Clinton is about 100 delegates ahead of Obama and all fingers point to this primary going to the democratic convention in May.
The basic fact that young people don't vote, yet are very opinionated online remains. So, for now at least, we might have to take Facebook polls and the like with a grain of salt. Perhaps a true testament to social media will only be seen decades from now, when the young are not so young anymore.Labels: 2008 elections, Internet, social media, social networking, super tuesday, Web 2.0
posted by Gina Bolotinsky
0 comments
Future Trending: The Mobility Of Content And The Need To Track Its Impact
Thursday, February 07, 2008
The blog Buzz Marketing For Technology pointed out a trend for the future of online marketing: the distribution of content and the need to formulate methods for tracking the impact of that content (in terms of views, keywords, and general efficacy in achieving its objectives).
For example, in tradition Web 2.0 marketing techniques, one has a blog or website and content is generated for that particular venue. Then the impact of each post/article is tracked in terms of how many hits it generated, how viral it is, how many consumer referrals were made as a result of it, what keywords were used to find it, etc.
But, the trend is now more and more about distributing that content to other sites – whether it be communal blogs, syndicated content, content carried by widgets that can be installed on other people’s blogs or social networking pages, etc.
This trend seems to me to be part of larger one in business in which the focus is less and less about one's "homebase" -- whether it be a blog or a company headquarters -- and more about mobility. The mobile office: more people conduct their workday partially in their pajamas or dashing down Main Street. The mobile company: companies outsource their help to places halfway across the globe. Even the mobile rock and roll band: individual members of the band will record their sections individually from different areas in the world.
Back to the example of online marketing and analytics. In the (not too distant) future, content will need to be mobile in order to compete and reach its intended audiences, and there has to be something in place to measure the effectiveness of the content in those multiple locations.
Hence, the need for firms who can develop the measuring systems and methods of data tracking to keep abreast of the many streams of content and analyze their effectiveness.
And in this equation let us not forget the seemingly countless streams of social networking tools: Facebook pages, Twitters, social bookmarking, etc. Taking this into consideration, plus the rather “conversational” nature of many blog exchanges, I would recommend a management system that combines both necessary algorithms and spreadsheets plus a personal, organic understanding of Web 2.0 and natural SEO.Labels: conversational marketing, Marketing, search, seo, social media, social networking, Web 2.0
posted by Valerie D'Orazio
0 comments
Will Google’s Vendetta Against Baidu Impact The Future Of Free Music Downloads?
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Google’s mission to oust the success of Baidu in China has been uphill, despite a move by the American search giant to larger offices in the country and increasing staff. Now Google hopes that offering free music downloads to the Chinese via a partnership with Top100.cn will turn the tide. By cornering the popular music search market – something Baidu has become quite popular in – Google hopes to make crucial inroads on Baidu’s supremacy and gain a foothold in the continent. Most intriguing in all this is the possibility that the precedents Google might set in China for free music downloads and music search, if successful, will spread to the rest of the world as well. Beyond the immediate questions of how this will affect the music industry, what impact might a legal music search/download system implemented by Google have on SEO? What sort of data might be generated by this new system of legal free downloads and the keywords used to find them? When I think of the online marketing matrix that might be created between Google, music search/free downloads, and the possibility of melding social networking with SEO, I marvel at the possibilities. For example, the music searches can be tagged in Google with keywords, particular searches bookmarked for other users to browse. Google could have a social network set up of just saved searches and playlists, a competition brewing between users as to who is the “top” searcher. Meanwhile, you have all this keyword data cropping up, including what I would think would be some great long tail results. So will Google do what Napster could not – popularize legal free music downloads? And how will this change the online marketing playing field? Stay tuned to find out…don’t touch that dial! Labels: Google, music downloads, new media, seo, social media, social networking
posted by Valerie D'Orazio
0 comments
 |
