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As social media marketing budgets continue to grow, it’s vitally important to have a way to assess how your efforts are going.
Heidi Cohen, writing for ClickZ, has produced a ‘Social Media Marketing Checkup’ to help businesses get a decisive mid-year insight into their marketing efforts.
Here is a summary of the five points provided:
News brought to you by ClickThrough – experts in Search Engine Marketing & Internet Marketing.
Despite the significant emphasis placed on social media, a recent poll has shown almost half of small-business owners don’t utilise social media marketing.
As reported in the Wall Street Journal, only four per cent of people surveyed specified that social media was an indispensable tool; whilst 50 per cent instead valued the power of word-of-mouth more.
The survey was carried out by the US insurer Hiscox Insurance Company; 304 business owners and managers were interviewed in May this year.
Those business owners that do use social media did so to improve brand awareness and ultimately generate more sales.
28 per cent said they had a company Facebook page; LinkedIn was also a popular choice with 18 per cent of respondents having a page or group on the site.
Twitter, surprisingly, was a less popular choice amongst small businesses, with just two per cent of companies operating a Twitter feed.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – specialists in Search Engine Optimisation and Internet Marketing.
For far too many years, too many people have believed that Search Engine Optimisation was the be all and end all of Internet Marketing. Millions of pounds have been spent (wasted?) on endeavouring to get to the top of the search engines; often without fully understanding, “WHY?”
However, Google has taken steps recently that should make many realise that even Google has spied the fact that no longer is search going to be the predominant method for finding your business.
RECOMMENDATION is.
WORD OF MOUSE.
And the sooner businesses see what Google has, understand what Google is doing, and adjust where they spend their marketing pounds, the better for the bottom line.
Even in-house it has been a struggle to get SEO and PPC people to understand the importance of social media, and the changes that was bringing to SEO. That importance and those changes began a few years ago, are becoming prevalent now, and stretche far into the future. Just like language changed the stone age world, so we are seeing similar changes now, online.
For many, this is disruptive and has been hard to grasp, mainly because the mantra of “SEO is great” has been around for so long that many in the SEO world could not cope with “SEO is DEAD”. People have become locked into the algorithms so deeply they have missed what is going on in the “outside world”
The introduction of more bandwidth into the online world has meant we have gone from simply broadcasting to COMMUNICATING. And no-one communicates more than a pro-active consumer. Many businesses have attempted to ignore this fact: by locking down access to social sites for their employees; by making comments unavailable on press releases, stories, blog posts etc; by not adding Chat buttons to the site to talk to passing trade; by pooh-poohing sites such as Facebook for as long as they dared until the noise could no longer be ignored. After all, in ye olde world, businesses had control over the messages that were carefully crafted to be released. That world has long gone.
All of this communication has come, not because Google existed (there were search engines and SEO practioners for more than 10 years before Google arrived on the scene), but because the way we all use the Internet is changing. And Google have realised this, and are taking steps to extend their dominance beyond a dying industry – search – to a growing one – communication.
(Image Source: Mashable.com)
Google are making a huge number of changes, and these have already begun. Google+ is one, but Google is endeavouring, and will undoubtedly succeed, to make the whole of Google’s multiplex of products work together seamlessly, or (better than they have) alone, should that be the choice of the consumer.
Google Calendar has already changed and Gmail has new profiles that are on Preview at the moment, but are shortly to be rolled out. (Click on Settings, Themes, Preview and Preview (Dense) for a ….preview!).
There are changes coming to Youtube as Google begins to hire people as citizen journalists in US cities to possibly threaten the big bad media. And search-based ads have been under threat by Facebook’s huge amount of personal data offering advertisers granular targeting, so Google is working on that too – not just through Google+, but also with the +1 button for personalised search within their own engine.
Google appears to be about to bid for Hulu as well, which will take Google into the world of Hollywood. And increase users’ time online. Which is where the purpose of Google’s trip into the world of fibre networks to the home becomes a serious threat to telcos. Particularly if Google pursues open access models which could turn the world of companies such as BT on its head, forcing them to find alternative revenue streams which Google has not already mopped up.
Recommendation engines are another big thing that has been coming at us, slowly but surely, and Google isn’t slow on getting involved in this either. One example is Hotpot is a beta recommendation engine for places you and your friends recommend, and Google+ Mobile has launched with Places in-built, which will give them a running start on gathering info, particularly as Maps is an integral part of the Google+ toolbar.
The +1 button on its own should have made SEO people conscious that the days of knowing what will show in a searcher’s SERPS are limited, of not already gone. The addition of the huge amount of slicing and dicing possible with news, discussions, realtime, shopping etc on the left hand side of the SERPS was also an indication that to optimise a web page for that level of granularity was now getting difficult, if not impossible. No longer is it an option to sit down and create profiles for users based on whether they were likely to be conducting research, or shopping.
Those days of that simplicity of search are long gone. And hence so is SEO as most agencies and SEO experts think of it. Whilst there has long been debates about where the blurry lines of SEO activity begin and end – does it include PPC, or posting to fora, or article marketing, for instance – now that debate is defunct. SEO is dead. You cannot optimise for the search engines any more and justify it. You must optimise for the consumers. After all, they are the ones who buy your products, who seek the information you offer, and who are increasingly unlikely to use a search engine to do so.
Google’s free Webmaster Tools now provides information on +1 recommendations to help put more of a user value on results.
Google introduced +1 to search results to give users a chance to rate content on websites – similar to ‘liking’ pages.
It gives a valuable insight not just into how many people have visited a webpage – but how many people would consider it good enough to recommend.
The update to Webmaster Tools this week will offer a vastly larger amount of data for internet marketing.
It’s now possible to review how many +1s your pages are attracting, how they are affecting your ranking and traffic, who is +1ing your site, and where they live.
It means you can see which pages work, which don’t, and refocus your strategy to capitalise on your popular content.
Google’s Analytics tool, which can be used in combination with Webmaster Tools, is now also reporting on social media trends too – allowing webmasters to see which content is being picked up and shared by users, and adding more useful data to show how people are interacting with your site.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a best practice Internet Marketing Agency.
As millions of people shift focus away from television and newspapers, the popularity of the internet has made it the best place to market your company.
Unlike TV, where strategic adverts have to be repeated – and paid for repeatedly – the internet offers a one-stop shop for your advert.
You can reach your target audience directly through advertising on websites that interest your customers – and your customer base is immediately widened online because it’s accessible to everyone, everywhere on the world-wide web.
By providing interesting information or offers to potential customers online, you can also guide them straight to your website in a matter of seconds, without them having to think, move or do anything other than click.
As traditional print and broadcast media makes the transition to the internet, previously successful marketing techniques will eventually become obsolete unless they are transferred to online marketing.
With the rise of mobile marketing making the internet available even whilst shopping, businesses which have relied on traditional media will have to make the transition to the internet too, or face a dwindling customer base with little potential for future expansion.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a best practice Internet Marketing Agency.
Combining a YouTube video presence with online marketing services could help boost awareness of your brand.
Facebook and Twitter have proved to be really useful tools for companies to increase their online presence.
But combining that with video on YouTube could open up your business to new customers.
Even simple, explanatory videos, that can help consumers understand your products or brands, or demonstration videos either showing how to use products, or giving hints and tips, can help increase visitors to your website – and, ultimately, boost your profits.
Using social media for the sake of it is not advisable as potential customers want quality, valuable content.
But if you are already finding success with Facebook and Twitter, adding a YouTube channel could round-off your online marketing campaign.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a best practice Internet Marketing Agency.
More businesses in the UK are using social media networks to win customers than ever before, according to new research.
Workplace provider Regus spoke to more than 4,000 businesses and found an eight percent rise in the number of firms using social media.
In 2010, 33% of UK firms had Facebook or Twitter feeds to drum up more business. That rose to 41% by the same period in 2011.
Of the respondents, 48% said they had used social media to engage with existing customers, with 50% of companies encouraging staff to join business networks like LinkedIn.
Regus also found 33% of UK companies questioned are currently devoting up to 20% of their budget to social media marketing.
Celia Donne, regional director at Regus, explained: “Business social networking has finally come into its own in the commercial world. Particularly in the UK – where one in three social network users is a fan, follower or friend of a company page or profile – firms should expect to see an increasing proportion of marketing budget being destined to this activity.”
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a best practice Internet Marketing Agency.
A new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is predicting a boom in internet advertising which will see digital channels will boost the UK market to £17.7 billion by 2015.
The research predicted that internet advertising will rise by 11.2 per cent in the next four years, making this the only sector of the UK market poised for double digit growth.
The area of online marketing which is set to see the most growth next year is social networking, which along with classified ad spending will take the lead.
“Product placement, sophisticated social media campaigns and internet advertising are all becoming part of truly multimedia campaigns for advertisers who are themselves increasingly involved in a dynamic conversation with their customers,” said Phil Stokes, head of entertainment and media at PwC.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a best practice Internet Marketing Agency.
Combining key press and public relations skills with an understanding of digital PR, online news distribution, social media campaigns and video marketing is key to a successful online PR strategy.
Today, press and publicity management is no longer just about the print and broadcast media. These days blogs, web communities, online news sites, discussion forums and social networks play an increasingly important role in marketing to a wider audience.
Meanwhile a successful well planned SEO strategy will ensure a positive effect on a companies Google rankings.
An online marketing strategy is now a crucial component of doing business and will draw in a steady stream of new customers.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – experts in SEO, PPC, Multilingual Search Marketing and Website Conversion Enhancement services.
Following on from a conference in San Francisco today, TV companies are being advised to look at their social media marketing campaigns after crucial figures were revealed by Facebook.
A the TV of Tomorrow conference, Facebook’s director of media partnerships told attendee’s that more than 275 million users of the social networking site have Liked a television programme on the site.
In addition those that have liked a show, Like around six shows at a time, meaning that a total of 1.65 billion Likes of TV shows are being seen on Facebook.
Recommendations from Justin Osofsky were now that TV studios should consider increasing their marketing campaigns on Facebook to take advantage of the millions of users on their to attract more viewing figures.
According to Osofsky they can increase and ’strengthen fan loyalty, increase viewership, and sell merchandise.’
Major shows such as Family Guy, South Park and Glee have spent minimal on advertising but have converted their online presence massively.
Other bonuses to TV shows using Facebook is to make announcements on episode times, offer preview vido clips as well as stream shows through the web.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – experts in Search Engine Marketing & Internet Marketing.
