The Social Media Battle Rages…For Good Reason

Posted by admin on January 12th, 2012

The issue of the moment in the social media sphere is all surrounding Google and its own social networking incarnation Google+. In a development that was not surprising to anyone, Google rolled out a new search function that incorporates Google+ and +1s into natural search results. For instance, if you log into Google+ and search on Google’s main page for a viral video, one of the first results might be from a friend who posted it earlier. For more information on this shift in Google, read the previous post in this blog.

Altogether, the response has been decidedly mixed, leaning towards negative, especially from the tech world. Twitter released a statement lashing out at Google, accusing Google of trying to keep Tweets out of search results:

“As we’ve seen time and time again, news breaks first on Twitter. “We’re concerned that as a result of Google’s changes, finding this information will be much harder for everyone. We think that’s bad for people, publishers, news organizations and Twitter users.”

In normal fashion, Google responded in kind, hitting Twitter with some choice words as well. Facebook and other social networking sites have yet to officially weigh in, but are probably concerned with these developments like Twitter. You may be wondering – why all of the fuss? Aside from the obvious concerns – ad revenue from the largest possible audience – the fighting is due to the massive popularity of social media.

A recent study from Nielsen was released, quantifying what most already know – social media is the center of the internet right now. According to the study, social networks’ traffic is up 82% around the world, with average time on sites like Facebook sitting in the 4-6 hours a day range. This is major for sites that sell ads, especially Facebook and Google. The battle is raging because having the biggest market share in social media means that you have the biggest and most engaged audience.

Where Google goes from here is to be seen. Will people start signing up for Google+? Will they engage? Will Twitter’s concerns become realized? No one has these answers yet, but keep your ears open –someone is going to win this war.

Critics accuse Google of unfairly promoting Google+ in search results (infoworld.com)
Google changes the rules and upsets Twitter, among others (liberatemedia.com)
Google+ Strategy For Taking On Twitter & Facebook: Choke The Life Out Of Them (reelseo.com)

Google Introduces Search Plus Your World

Posted by admin on January 10th, 2012

It’s about time Google started incorporating its +1s into search results, right? Today, the top search engine rolled out Search plus Your World, an upgrade to 2009’s Social Search feature. But, SEO professionals, don’t freak out just yet; Search Plus Your World is not an algorithm change. Another Panda update isn’t about to obliterate your work. Rather, the feature personalizes results according to each Google+ user’s tastes. Once the feature is turned off, Search plus Your World has no influence.

So, why introduce this feature? On its blog, Google gave its reasoning: “These wonderful people and this rich personal content is currently missing from your search experience.” They go on to say: “[…] [Y]our friends’ experiences are often so much more meaningful to you than impersonal content on the web.”

If Bing is the Decision Engine, Google’s Search plus Your World is about “people and relationships.” The feature alters search in three ways: Personal results, Profiles in Search, and People and Pages. Google claims that Personal results include prominently placing profile pictures and stuff shared by you and your friends, while Profiles in Search brings up profiles from people you know or may possibly know. People and Pages adds Google+ pages and groups related to a topic or interest to your search results.

But, what, exactly, is the point of including personal information in search results? Google states that Search plus Your World emphasizes friends’ experiences and likes over impersonal results, but isn’t this approach rather insular? It’s a cloistered search, one in which the user reviews results with blinders on or finds information he or she only wants to read without considering all possibilities. Considering “friends” aren’t the most reliable, wouldn’t a user rather make his or her own judgments? Search plus Your World is akin to saying, “If my friends like it, I must like it, too.” But, when you’re stuck with friends or “friends” who overly promote themselves on social media, do you want their likes or +1s infiltrating your search results?

Not everyone uses Google+, and not all Google+ users want their circles influencing search results. Google, thankfully, added a toggle for flipping between impersonal results and Search plus Your World. But, considering Bing already integrated Facebook “likes” into results, is Google being tentative with its own social media feature? Is Search plus Your World a partial glimpse of Google’s future +1-influenced algorithm?

Thoughts on Social Media in 2012

Posted by admin on December 30th, 2011

The social media universe is just that – a vast space filled with millions and millions of users looking to connect. Every day it seems that there is a new idea out there that changes the way that businesses, companies and everyday people connect and use social media services like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. As 2011 comes to a close this weekend, it stands to be seen how this world will change over the next year. What we do know is it will not stay the same, as social media (be it online, in person or otherwise) constantly ebbs and flows with the world around it. Here are some thoughts on what may happen next year:

Facebook Hits 1 Billion Users – As Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the wall-replacing Timeline feature, he also alluded to the extreme amount of use on his social network. Beyond the fact that more than half of Facebook’s 800 million users log in every day, more of those people actually post, comment or like than on any other social network. Due to the overall abilities that Facebook grants to its users – freedom of speech, freedom to protest, etc. – expect Facebook to hit 1 billion users in 2012.

It’s Anyone’s Game – Although Facebook has an overwhelmingly large lead on other social networks, this does not mean that Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn or another network can’t swoop in with a development that draws away from the social media giant. Face it (pun intended) – Facebook will likely be ahead of the pack for a while, but just as MySpace or Friendster crumbled, Facebook can to. It will just take a lot longer than overnight.

TV’s Gonna Play Big – You notice all of your favorite shows are starting to put Twitter hashtags in the corner of the screen. Networks are looking for an easy way to see what viewers think while shows are currently playing. Whatever you may think of it, I’m convinced that viewers’ thoughts on shows will be used to influence writers’ rooms in the upcoming year. Twitter and up-and-comers like GetGlue are going to be the big players in this arena.

Change Your Reality – Augmented reality – which injects computer modules into your physical surroundings – will be a major part of the social / mobile gaming boom that started this year. For instance, think about storming a battlefield in a smartphone game. Simply hold your phone’s camera at your dinner table and you’ll see the battle raging there, as opposed to an in-game level. This technology isn’t just for games though – you’ll see it being used as a major ad tool in 2012.

These are just a few of the social media themes that I think will be huge in 2012. What do you think?

B2B Use of SEO, Social Media Expected to Grow in 2012

Posted by admin on December 23rd, 2011

Reaching a customer base is rarely achieved by not going where consumers are. And, when the consumers are all over Facebook, why ignore the trends in favor of the tried-and-true methods of yesteryear? Print advertisements with catchy, pun-filled taglines are going the way of the typewriter. Yet, when it comes to marketing, methods from print advertising to SEO and SEM focus nearly all the time on the consumer, but what if your customer base is, in fact, other businesses?

Because business presence on the internet and in social media has grown exponentially over the past decade, the logical strategy is to mirror other company’s and organization’s strategies for attracting new clients. The latest trend, in this regard, is B2Bs’ use of social media. Over the past week, eMarketer report “B2B Social Media: A Growing Focus for Marketers” was published, and the results, much like the 2011 Digital Marketing Report last month, show that methods for attracting clients increasingly incorporate social media, and that use is expected to grow in 2012.

So, where are B2Bs going to attract clients? LinkedIn, according to the eMarketer report, is on top, but Facebook and Twitter aren’t too far behind. Specifically, 89 percent of B2B companies used social media of any kind of marketing, but breaking this figure down, the report showed that 58 percent found success in this regards through LinkedIn, 50 percent through Facebook, and 43 percent through Twitter. In terms of ROI, however, the 2011 Digital Marketing Report revealed that close to 20 percent of all B2B companies found leads through social media and nearly 60 percent through SEO. But, leads through social media were evenly spread out through LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

Like many surveys indicating the success and increasing necessity of SEO and SEM, eMarketer’s does not indicate the application or strategy behind such campaigns. If your B2B organization is looking to catch the wave of this trend, what do you need to keep in mind?

Through our findings at Keyword Performance, involvement is the ultimate key to social media success, regardless of whether your organization is B2B or B2C. As we mentioned last week, marketing and customer service strategies are increasingly going online, becoming the social business side of a company rather than a faceless and unreliable bureaucratic department. In response, a business must align with customer expectations by become more approachable through social media; aloofness or an impersonal touch, on the other hand, dwindles a customer or client base. Although Keyword Performance can set up and manage a Facebook or Twitter account for traffic purposes, a company – especially a B2B organization – must be involved in presenting itself and essentially putting its best (virtual) face forward in relating with other businesses.

On the other hand, additional strategies are possible. While LinkedIn is a straightforward interface for companies to connect directly with each other, Facebook ads are another strategy for gaining visibility amongst your business peers or potential clients. But, like any B2C social media or SEO strategy, no approach is uniform; what works for another company might not be the best for yours. In the expected explosion of B2B use of SEO and SEM in 2012, be prepared to experiment with various Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn strategies, seek out possible customers by making direct connections, and always make a concerted effort to interact with others through your profile.

Social Business vs. Social Media: What’s the Difference?

Posted by admin on December 9th, 2011

Forbes published an article today titled “Is Social Business the Same as Social Media?”, and the piece brings up the issue of social media’s place in marketing and customer service strategies, which are increasingly going online. Writer Haydn Shaughnessy asserts that having a good social media strategy doesn’t translate into effective social business. But, what differentiates social media from social business, and how do they work together?

Using IBM as an example, the Forbes piece describes “social business” as a company’s all-encompassing interactions online: employee interaction amongst themselves and with customers, listening, support, branding, and representation. Social media, in this case, often fits within branding and representation strategies but can also be a medium for customers to communicate directly with a business.

Social business essentially adapts to the customers’ needs, going where they are and becoming a face for a company or organization, according to an older piece in Forbes. Writer Scott Goodson claims that the marketing approach used for years, both on- and off-line, no longer works; customers find it too one-sided and impersonal.

Goodson backs up his assertion with figures touting the effectiveness of social business, and essentially social media: two-thirds of businesses brought in customers with blogs, one-quarter of B2Bs found a client through Facebook, and websites with blogs get 55-percent more traffic than those without.

While customers have, indeed, gone online, not every approach is useful in bringing in new business or leads. Perhaps as the result of celebrities becoming more accessible through social media, customers don’t want to be met with a faceless corporation and several levels of bureaucracy when inquiring or complaining. Getting sent to voice mail or being asked to send an email, only to have your message ignored in both instances, is frustrating from a customer perspective, and a Facebook or Twitter page seems like a direct, or as close as you can get, connection with an actual person.

Yet, as Goodson mentioned and we have discussed several times, social media and an overall social business strategy shouldn’t be all about you. A strategy that does not consider customer interaction can repel your base like a banner ad: no one will click, and no one will care.

While a search engine optimization and social media marketing company like Keyword Performance can assist with your social business strategy through creating and updating blogs, Facebook, and Twitter pages, a business needs to be involved. Not answering a customer’s questions ultimately shows that you’re in it only for the promotion and traffic. Although these aspects are significant aspects of social media, a one-way relationship – on the internet and in real life – never works. Eventually, one party gets tired and leaves the other behind.

Proofing Against Panda

Posted by admin on December 9th, 2011

Disaster and emergency preparation involve checklists of supplies and strategies. So, when it comes to Google updates, why shouldn’t a similar approach be used for content? Ecommerce sites, particularly those with thousands of products, were hit at least once by the stages of the Panda update over the past year. While a site’s ranks are not immune to the fluctuations of Google’s 400-plus yearly updates, the content strategy behind it can be revised in order to combat drastic drops.

Google’s Panda update targeted three aspects of online content: content farms or mills (hence it’s early name of “farmer update”), duplicate content, and scraper sites. Some of these aspects overlap, but when it comes to your site’s strategy, not paying attention to all three can result in rank drops, with traffic soon following. Although a full upheaval of content is a time-consuming task for large retail sites, revision trumps taking a risk with the search engines. So, where do you start?

Begin With Onsite Content

Where did your web copy come from? Did in-house writers create it, was it copied from manufacturers’ websites, or was it written by outsourced writers? The first of these three is the surest against duplicate content, but the latter two can be improved. If all copy, particularly for individual products, is straight from a manufacturer, your site likely has the same content as the brand and, as a result, will be read as spam by the search engines. In this case, go product by product to revise all copy. However, keep in mind that a few minor changes do not make a revision. Rather, each piece of web copy needs to be re-written, so that all words are original.

Examine Your Offsite Strategy

Article marketing and blogging are two common approaches to generating content and providing link-back popularity for a site. Nevertheless, duplication is rampant in both media. While older article marketing pages may not have the strength they once did, new ones can adhere to the revised standards of Ezine and Articles Base, which guard against duplicate subjects and content.

Blog posts, on the other hand, aren’t always approved by site editors, and if you are using an outside source, scraping could be possible. How do you know if a post is scraped? While some bloggers may, in fact, link back to the original scraped content, many don’t. While reviewing all blog posts with links, copy and paste the content into Google’s search bar. Do any similar pages come up? For a better, and perhaps more accurate, strategy, use Copyscape, a free plagiarism checker.

Keep in mind that professional bloggers often source their material to provide support for a subject or argument. This isn’t scraping and, rather, is a standard media writing and online journalism practice. A source, on the other hand, is credited through a link and its text is in quotations. If content in a blog post linking back to your site has duplicate content without using proper sourcing protocol, the author scraped it.

Facebook Wants to Be On Your Desktop Permanently

Posted by admin on November 28th, 2011

It’s a safe bet that your social media management is probably a little bit cluttered, considering the number of different profiles you may have. For your Facebook, you may simply have a window opened to the site, posting statuses and edit your profile from there. For Twitter, you may skip over the somewhat clunky and slow web interface for a management system like CoTweet or HootSuite. Nevertheless, you still have to come up with your tweets and responses to comments, questions and concerns of customers. With the recent launch of Google+, social media services companies are wondering what the next open window on their desktops will contain – just a Google+ page or an app of some sort?

No matter where social media management begins to move, Facebook has some of its own ideas. Earlier this year, the social giant partnered with RockMelt, a company that has designed a web browser with integrated Facebook notifications. Later on, Facebook acquired an app distribution company that works with the HTML5, the newest version of the code that backs most of what we see on the web. While these business deals have sparked a number of rumors and rumblings throughout the social media sphere, no definitive plans have been announced.

However, one development caught my eye – the development of a standalone app specifically for your desktop from Facebook. It does almost nothing new – in fact, it is basically a pop-out version of your Facebook chat. It seems to be based on AOL Instant Messenger, the formerly popular chat client that was on every 12-year-old’s desktop at one time or another. Since Facebook has become the way to connect, why not have a client that uses Facebook’s chat system?

So what does it do besides allow a more seamless chat option than the messy and ineffective chat on Facebook itself? Facebook’s Messenger has the ability to deliver your notifications and show you the oft-maligned Ticker Feed all at the same time without having a browser window open. Facebook seems to be looking to firmly plant itself on your desktop, even though it probably already is, just without the browser window. A small group of users are currently testing out the new Messenger app – no news on when all users will get it.

Survey Shows SEO is the Driving Force Behind B2B and B2C Lead Generation

Posted by admin on November 23rd, 2011

At the end of last year, we predicted that 2011 will the year in which the ROI of social media is determined. A recent survey, falling in with our predictions, indicated that social media has an impact on the leads generated for B2B and B2C businesses. Nevertheless, the survey, the 2011 State of Digital Marketing Report conducted by Webmarketing123, shows that SEO is the primary driving force for using digital marketing in lead generation.

More than 500 marketing professionals, two-thirds from B2B and the remainder from B2C, responded to the survey. When asked about their objectives for digital marketing, lead generation and then sales were the most common goals. For meeting them, all professionals used a combination of SEO, Pay-Per-Click (PPC), and social media marketing, but when it came to doing the work in-house, PPC was outsourced the most, while 84.8 percent of all companies did their own social media.

How does the survey measure “success”? No matter the digital methods used, professionals used, ranked in terms of importance, website traffic, lead generation, click-through rate, sales, call to action conversions, and brand awareness as factors.

Overall, the survey showed that when it came to lead generation, B2B saw 57.4 percent from SEO, 24.8 percent from PPC, and 17.9 percent from social media; B2C saw 41 percent from SEO, 34.2 percent from PPC, and 24.8 from social media. Breaking social media usage down, B2B leads were spread nearly evenly over Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, while B2C’s came primarily from Facebook. In analyzing the effectiveness in lead generation of each social media platform, B2C benefitted the most from Facebook, B2B from LinkedIn, and Twitter was divided nearly evenly (31.6 percent for B2B and 40 percent for B2C). Yet, when it came to usage of the three platforms, more professionals overall were using Twitter over LinkedIn, and Facebook trumped both.

Yet, while the survey creates a positive image for SEO’s use and depicts the growing influence and necessity of social media, it doesn’t delve into the application of each strategy. For instance, when a company finds success with an SEO campaign, what aspects are being implemented – on- or off-site content or links – and what emphasis is being placed on each of these? Would a company that focuses more on its SEO content get greater leads, or are links the primary force attracting lead-generating traffic? What if both are emphasized equally? Similarly, when it comes to social media, what is a company’s approach? How active are they, and is customer interaction a priority? Outside of Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, are additional strategies being used, and if so, which ones?

When we discussed Lady Gaga’s social media success in the spring, we mentioned that what may work for one company may not work for yours. As a result, when it comes to using digital marketing for lead generation, be active and experiment to find the best strategy – don’t just depend on a strict formula to give you results.

The Audience is Waiting on Facebook, Not LinkedIn

Posted by admin on November 23rd, 2011

The battle between social networks is always raging, even while you sleep. With a worldwide audience clamoring to spout off or share a story on their pages, the numbers of users is at astounding levels. Consider Facebook’s 800 million users, half of whom regularly use the site to post and share with friends. Even Twitter has 380 million users and all you can do is post short notes on there!

With the levels of site stats rising every day, a new figure has emerged from the Facebook data team that may not shock you, but is interesting to consider anyway. You know the six degrees of separation theory? Facebook’s audience has lowered that number to right around five. That’s right – if you are on Facebook, you are only 4.74 people away from someone you don’t know. This data is a perfect example of the power of a site like Facebook – you can not only make connections easily, but you can potentially affect an audience of thousands from a small business page.

To make this point clearer, think about searching for a job. The sites that may spring to mind are Monster, CareerBuilder, LinkedIn and so on. LinkedIn may seem like a good option, seeing as it’s populated by businesses and a vast job board. It would make sense – they have over 110 million users as of August of this year – but you might be surprised, Facebook is the better spot.

According to an article on Digital Trends, a recent survey showed that Facebook is owning the job search market by a margin of 38% over LinkedIn:

“When JobVite asked only the people that successfully used a social network to find a job, about 78 percent stated that Facebook led to landing their most current job while only 40 percent gave LinkedIn that credit. Even Twitter ranked higher than LinkedIn at 42 percent.”

So it stands to be asked – if you aren’t on Facebook and Twitter, then what are you waiting for? Social media services are right around the corner, so join the 96% of businesses and get your social networking on!

Every Business Needs a Blog

Posted by admin on November 18th, 2011

How do you extend your brand further on the internet? How do you show that you’re “with it”? Get a blog. Just as every business should take advantage of SEO these days, or be left behind its competitors, each should have a blog. Although we have talked about starting, how to write for, and the benefits of a blog, we haven’t discussed why a blog has turned into an essential part of branding.

Show You Know What’s Going on In Your Industry

When we’ve talked about writing a blog post, we mention that you should stick with newsworthy topics – relevant to your industry, of course. Many businesses ask, “Why can’t we just write about our company?” While you can, making every post directly about your business comes off as self-centered, and your blog won’t be as effective in drawing in outside readership. Instead, a blog allows your business to show it’s in touch with the latest industry news: You know what’s going on, and you offer your perspective on it. Customers and clients aren’t as inclined with work with a business that seems behind the times, and a blog indicates that your company’s on top of it all.

Interact With Customers

Although Facebook and Twitter are now seen as primary means for customers to follow and stay in contact with a business, a blog post lets them connect with you in more than 140 characters. While the blog can be linked from your Facebook and Twitter pages, your customers can read the post, comment directly to the blog, or leave a comment on one of the social media sites. A business, in showing that it cares about its customer base, can then respond and will appear as less of a faceless entity.

Improve Your SEO Strategy

Much of SEO is onsite, but the growing influence of social media is changing that. Within your company’s SEO strategy, a blog is a stream of new content for the search engines to crawl and a source of link-back popularity and traffic. Once a blog’s page rank starts to increase, the more influential the links become on your site’s placement.

The Social Media Battle Rages…For Good Reason

Proofing Against Panda

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