Viral-marketing | Search Engine Optimization

Flash, the iPhone and Facebook Format Followers

Posted by: Date: November 18, 2008

by Sage Lewis

Marketing Pilgrim gives us some good information this week regarding mobile phones and Motrin.

Everything You Think You Know About Social Media and Measuring ROI is Wrong!

Posted by: Date: November 18, 2008

by Mack Collier

One of the biggest ‘criticisms’ of social media that companies have, is the difficulty in measuring the return on investment for their efforts. Many believe that widespread business adoption of social media won’t happen until a clear benefit to the company’s bottom line can be measured. Of course, these people are totally missing the point of what social media is, and why it works.

First, let’s back up a minute and remember where social media came from. ’Social media’ is a fancy term used to describe tools such as blogs, podcasts, wikis and social networking sites, where people create content, share it with each other, and connect. Really when you think about it, message boards, chat rooms and IMs could just as easily be called ’social media’ under that definition. For years, people used these tools to write blog posts, create profiles, and connect with each other. And they did so pretty much without the rest of the world catching on to what they were doing.

But around 2005, blogs in particular started getting a lot of mainstream attention. Then there was the ‘MySpace Phenomenon’. In 2006, YouTube and Facebook got on everyone’s radar. So suddenly you had all this mainstream media attention being thrown at social media. All the facts and figures on how many millions of people were actively using these tools made marketers take notice. The thinking was that if all these hundreds of millions of people were using these tools to communicate, then why could companies start using social media as a way to push their marketing messages to these people?

So in the last year or two, there has been a rush by companies to get involved in social media. And of course when companies got involved in social media, they wanted to have a way to measure their efforts, they wanted to know that they were getting a return on their investment.

And this is where the trouble started.

The trouble isn’t coming from companies wanting to know the ROI of their social media efforts. That’s a completely valid and necessary consideration. The problem is, many companies that start using social media, are attempting to measure the wrong things. Many companies want to see a direct line drawn from time/money spent on social media, to a direct impact on the companies bottom line. They want to know that if they write X number of blog posts, that sales will increase by Y percentage points. That if they leave X number of tweets on Twitter, that Y new sales this week will be the result.

In short, traditional marketers are wanting to measure the ROI on social media as they would many of their traditional marketing efforts. But that’s the problem, because blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media channels were never intended to house and push marketing messages. They are personal communication tools.

Let me say that again; social media are PERSONAL communication tools.

Now you see where the problem lies. Companies are wanting to treat these personal communication tools as if they are marketing channels, and measure their effectiveness as such. As social media expert Jason Falls said: The problem with trying to determine ROI for social media is you are trying to put numeric quantities around human interactions and conversations, which are not quantifiable.

Bingo. In order for companies to accurately measure their return on their social media efforts, many need to fundamentally rethink how they view social media, and what they want to accomplish with these tools. If social media are fundamentally communication tools, then doesn’t it make sense to measure your social media efforts by viewing them through the lense of how effectively they allow you to communicate and connect with your customers?

Instead of measuring how sales or revenue has been impacted from your blogging efforts, what if you started measuring comments per post? Or emails you get from readers? How about tracking what percentage of online mentions are positive/negative, and how that changes as your social media efforts unfold. What about subscribers to your blog?

The point is, view social media as a way for you to better connect with your customers, and to build positive relationships with them, and measure your efforts with those goals in mind. And as you increase the number of positive interactions with your customers via your social media efforts, positive online mentions of your business will likely increase, and your customers will be far more likely to evangelize your business online, and to trust you.

And come to think of it, what do you think the net result that increased trust and positive interactions with your customers might have….on your company’s bottom line?

Exactly. You can definitely measure the ROI on your social media efforts, you just need to realize what social media IS, and perhaps just as importantly, what it IS NOT.

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Excerpted from:
Everything You Think You Know About Social Media and Measuring ROI is Wrong!

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10 Questions that Guarantee SEO Success, Part I

Posted by: Date: November 18, 2008

by Stoney deGeyter

When focusing on SEO strategies we often talk about the engines, algorithms, links, page-tweaks and whatnot. We focus on what we can do to improve website architecture, research keywords, or write better copy. All of these are important to successful search engine optimization, but what we often don’t focus on is the internal issues.

Businesses don’t succeed on the basis of a product alone. Those products have to be developed, marketed and sold using sound business principles. Similarly, SEO doesn’t succeed solely by what you do on the technical front, but what you do internally to build a platform that will allow SEO success to happen.

Whether you’re performing SEO for your own site, hiring a consultant or firm to provide SEO services for you, or you are the SEO provider serving various clients, there is the added dynamic of knowledge and communication that factors into building a successful optimization campaign.

Here are 10 questions that you need to ask to make the campaign successful:

Am I open to other people’s thoughts and ideas

If there is one thing I’ve learned performing SEO over the last 10 years is that my solution isn’t always the best solution. Nor is my solution always the most feasible. We often find ourselves making recommendations for changes then working with the development team to figure out how to best implement those recommendations. Sometimes we can get exactly what we want other times we have to figure out workable compromises, which often creates a far better solution for everyone.

On the client side, they too must be willing to compromise–that is if they want to perform well in the search results. Such compromises should not interfere with the integrity of the site or sales process, but will often need to be made to ensure site is properly optimized and search engine friendly.

Both sides must be willing to listen and understand what the goals are and work to find solutions that achieve those goals successfully.

Do I listen more than I talk?

Ok, obviously both the client and SEO cannot listen more than talk, but the point here is to be sure that you’re listening. We often want so badly to get our point across that we fail to hear the points being made on the other side. While the SEO has knowledge of the optimization strategies that work, the client has product and industry knowledge that the SEO cannot come close to.

The only way to learn is to stop and listen. Put aside what you already know, listen to the knowledge presented by either the SEO or client, then integrate that new information into an even more successful campaign.

Am I willing to change my opinion based on new information.

In over 10 years optimizing websites there hasn’t been a week or month that I didn’t learn something new. SEO is a process. Algorithms change, keywords change, customers change, and strategies change. While many of the same principles that worked 10 years ago still work today, there is still a need to keep up with what’s new.

And as that new information is gathered, opinions we had yesterday may need to give way to new opinions today. We often look back at things we’ve done and “update” it, either by making a change or implementing new ideas. This often causes concern from the clients as they think “why didn’t you do this last month?”

The truth is, as new ideas are presented, new tools developed, and new discoveries made, those changes could not have been made last month. But that’s the process of SEO, constant discovery and adapting your thoughts and opinions to build a better solution.

Do I readily admit when I am wrong?

This is hard for anyone, but is especially hard for the SEO who feels they have to justify the client’s continued need for their services. But the truth is, we all make mistakes and sometimes those mistakes are costly. Sometimes they cause usability problems, loss of conversions, or even a temporary rankings disaster. While the SEO tries to avert such things from happening, not all of them can be. As with anything, you have to admit your mistakes, learn from them, adjust course, fix what’s broke, and move on.

The client also must recognize that failure to implement the recommendations of the SEO may also lead to failure. This is often a frustration we have in that the client wants to know why they may not be getting certain results and we continue to point to past recommendations that have never been implemented. The client must recognize that these recommendations are made based on what the SEO believes is necessary for success.

Do I think and observe before acting on a situation?

Both the client and the SEO have responsibility to consider all things carefully. The SEO must fully understand (as much as is possible) any given situation before making any recommendations. The client must then analyze the recommendations to ensure that it’s implementation aligns with the goals of the site.

Every website is different and SEOs often see solutions as one-dimensional, not taking certain site nuances into consideration. Stock solutions must be changed, tweaked and adapted for each individual site. As both the client and the SEO discover any given problem, only through full observation by both parties can the best solution be decided upon. And while every solution may not work exactly as planned, the success rate is higher if the observing, thinking and planning comes before taking action.

Tomorrow we’ll continue with the final five questions that must be asked to ensure SEO success.

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10 Questions that Guarantee SEO Success, Part I

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Maximize Your Paid Search Budget with Better Ads

Posted by: Date: November 18, 2008

by Jennifer Laycock

With the holiday shopping season already in full gear online, paid search prices are going to be going up. After all, more competition equals higher prices. That means you’ll need to make sure every ad you create has the best shot at landing you a conversion. To do that, you really need to understand how to write great ads.

Karen Thackston tackles the topic of writing paid search ads that pre qualify in a great post over at Marketing Words this week.

Since AdWords has recently made some changes to the way they calculate Quality Score, it’s becoming a little easier for companies to use their paid search ads to pre-qualify buyers. In the past, there was a bit of danger to pre qualifying because Google used your click thru rate as part of Quality Score, which meant you would pay more for ads with less clicks.

Since they’ve made some adjustments to take ad relevancy into stronger consideration, that risk appears to be dropping somewhat. That means you’re free to tighten up your ad copy a bit in order to pull better results from the clicks you earn.

Karen explains:

In their AdWords Blog, Google states, “Most importantly, we are replacing our static per-keyword Quality Scores with a system that will evaluate an ad’s quality each time it matches a search query. This way, AdWords will use the most accurate, specific, and up-to-date performance information when determining whether an ad should be displayed. Your ads will be more likely to show when they’re relevant and less likely to show when they’re not. This means that Google users are apt to see better ads while you, as an advertiser, should receive leads which are more highly qualified.”

Karen also points out the benefits of using relevant keywords and even negative copy in order to pull in the absolute most qualified buyers. She gives a great before and after example of a sample ad for a Mexican cruise and does an excellent job of illustrating the copy changes that can make a dramatic impact on an ad’s conversion rate.

If you’re doing any paid search advertising this year, make sure you take the time to read through her full post over at Marketing Words.

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