The phrase “social media” has become a catch-all for a long list of viral marketing strategies often associated with the chicklets listed under a blog post for well known platforms like Facebook, Wordpress, RSS, Twitter, Stumble Upon, Del.oc.ious, Technorati and others. How to make these platforms work for your business is often a mystery that scares the hell out of many business owners.
Two chef’s in L.A. created a roach-coach success called Kogi that mixes Korean and Mexican flavors in a mobile taco truck experience. When they first started the business no one came. They quickly found that people liked their tacos and created a strategy to get the word out quickly regarding their daily location and specials using Twitter. They now have 8,000 followers. YouTube is another platform that they use to showcase the unique experience Kogi brings to a neighborhood. Notice the very young audience Kogi attracts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbQuCW95ESQ
So how do you decide which social media platform is right to promote your business?
- Create compelling content - Kogi’s content is a unique menu as well as a dynamic experience
- Think about your target audience. What social media platforms do they use? If your demographic falls in the age range 30-50 consider email as a social media platform.
- Define measurable business goals to reach that target audience such as selling 20 subscriptions over the 1st quarter.
- Develop a strategy to reach your business goals factoring in how a social media platform can compliment your marketing efforts. If you have a blog, there are plugins to allow your subscribers to share your information with others easily.
Don’t rule out social media altogther. Be creative and think of social media as platform to deliver information much like email (a social media strategy.) If the platform compliments your business goals, test it out. When it comes to the new social media platforms, don’t rule them out completely as millenials are bringing the Gen X’ers and Baby Boomers up to speed quickly.
Start the conversation when interviewing Search Marketing professionals by first implementing 4 strategies that elevate you from spectator to participant in selecting the best Search Marketing partner:
- Know What Your Visitors Are Doing
If you do not have a Web server analytics tool telling you what is happening on your Web site, get one. Google Analytics has a free tool that provides a wealth of knowledge to determine where visitors came from and what they do after they arrive. Understanding current online activity on your Web site is critical in identifying strengths and opportunities to define Search Marketing strategies for your business. - Identify Your Most Valuable Customer
A Web site that speaks to everyone speaks to no one. Is your most valuable customer the easiest to close, returns often, or costs less to aquire? Think about your customers in terms of total cost to do business with them and how that factors into your bottom line. Discuss your most valuable customer with prospective Search Marketing professionals to observe how they would approach the problem of driving these specific visitors to your Web site. Be ready, a good consultant may question your list and help you to think about your most valuable customer in a different way. - Take Inventory of Your Marketing Mix
Are you getting the best return on your online marketing investment? If you are investing in Paid Search, traditional PR, or any other online marketing program, review the results of those campaigns by comparing with the results of your Web statistics. Consider reallocating dollars to pay for a campaign that may have better results. - Define Business Goals
Search relates to action and action can be measured. Once you’ve installed Google Analytics and identified your most valuable customers, business goals require measurement. If your goal is to increase sales of a specific product or service or to increase visitors in order to draw investors, you will begin to understand how many options are available in Search Marketing to achieve those results. As the mystery of Search Marketing begins to unfold, defining or re-defining your business goals will guide you in understanding strategies that any SEO company will propose.
The decision to introduce an SEO company can be a good one. You should not feel at the mercy of the SEO company due to lack of knowledge or experience in implementing Search Marketing strategies.
As the expert in your industry your focus is to collaborate with professionals who will work with you to understand the complex nature of Search Marketing, identify where your strengths lie and what opportunities are out there that fit into your business goals and budget.
Wordpress is an ideal open-source SEO friendly platform that is easy to install and easy to manage. You can buy a template online or have a Wordpress developer create a custom theme for a reasonable cost.
If you’re taking the opportunity to utilize this powerful platform, ensure you read up on security. Avoid making security mistakes by controlling directory and file permissions, backing up your blog site and following these Wordpress Security guidelines.
Is your Web site design layout speaking to your visitors as well as Search Engines? The balance between the two is related to two distinct elements in Web site design:
Search Engines capture only keywords and keyword phrases. Images are essentially ignored. Opportunities are lost when Web design does not take into account active content as a strategic element in design.
Learn how Eye Tracking and Heat Map studies have guided us toward SEO friendly Web design best practices.
There are instances where you would like to share your Google Analytics statistics with members of your online marketing team but would rather not share your login information for obvious reasons.
Google Analytics provides the ability to grant a user Read Only or Administrator access to your account.
Make sure you meet the following criteria before watching this video on how to Grant read only access to your Google Analytics statistics without giving out your user login information.
Search Engine Optimization strategies bring awareness to your Web site. Understanding your target audience and conveying a message that resonates with visitors is the key to great SEO.
GrokDotCom published this amazing story that illustrates the difference between conveying information and communicating a message that resonates with your target audience. When you know who you are speaking to, Search Engine Optimization becomes more effective.
Google Analytics was reporting a client’s Error page as the 3rd hottest page on the Web site. Obviously there was a problem but the biggest mystery was that although visitors were getting a 404 Page Not Found Error, through the Google Analytics Navigation Summary I could see that visitors encountering the 404 Error were continuing to find content on the Web site from that page.
After performing some investigation, I found that the 404 Error Page was populated with a sitemap of the entire Web site, including a list of URL’s by product. Visitors were redirected, so to speak, from a serious issue.
The root cause of the problem was resolved by identifying a URL that was renamed. A 301 URL level redirect implemented via .htaccess redirected the old filename to the intended new URL. The problem was fixed immediatly. It took 2-3 weeks for Google to cache the new URL information but the redirect worked as intended.
Use 404 Error Pages for more than just reporting an error. Be creative and take the opportunity to fix a fubar gracefully.
Driving down the road headed to fill out paperwork for my mortgage refinance with Trinity Title of Texas, an Austin title company, I began to think about the fact that I had never met the mortgage broker, Joshua Borders. Joshua was from Treaty Oak Mortgage, an Austin mortgage company. We talked via phone a few times, exchanged emails and now I was headed to sign paperwork for a very big transaction.
I was a bit confused about the directions and called for help. A lovely voice guided me right to the parking lot where there were several spaces dedicated for Trininty Title of Texas customers. I parked and made it on time to my appointment. The office was nice but nothing specifically stood out until I was greeted and taken to an office. On the table was a scrumptious chocolate dessert with real shaved chocolate on top and fresh strawberries to compliment. I was asked if I would like coffee or something to drink. And my coffee was brought in a lovely tea cup with saucer. There was a floral napkin on the table which made me feel like every detail was taken care of and that I would enjoy this very much.
I didn’t hesitate and enjoyed my dessert and coffee while I chatted with a Annette Castellanos, an Escrow Associate with Trinity Title, about my closing and their customer service process. What caught my attention was that her first response to me was that they understood that the process of going through a mortgage refinance could be a rather impersonal experience. That’s exactly how I felt when I was driving to my appointment. They have a person dedicated to creating this unique experience to personalize each closing.
Right down to the paperwork did I get a different sense of the experience of working with Trinity Title. The size of the folder and the design where all my copies were unique among other companies I’ve worked with in the past.
The question is, would I recommend using Trinity Title of Texas? Is chocolate and coffee enough to convert me? I had worked with another broker that had dragged his feet and potentially made me lose out on a better interest rate. I was recommended to go with Joshua Borders with Treaty Oak Mortgage. He was quick and he understood that I wanted to get the best rate. I never really had much conversation with him but I was pleased with the efficiency and the paperwork signing was simply the icing on the cake.
How would I translate this experience on the Web? Either written or video testimonials are a great way to illustrate added value. This blog post is another great way to get the word out as well as provide Search Engines information that is well optimized to index. Notice I’ve used keyword phrases for my anchor text high and to the left of my post. Search Engines will like the anchors and both companies I’ve mentioned will get backlinks which are also valuable.
My 5 year old daughter recently asked me if the word “poopy” was bad? I came up with this response; “words are not bad, it’s the way that people use them that makes them bad.” The best example I could come up with was that if you called someone a “poopy head” that was bad. But if you told mommy that you had to go “poopy”, well, that was just reality. So what’s my point?
Humans understand the meaning of words and more appropriately, strings of words through semantics. Semantics simply convey the intended meaning of language. Humans process information through messages conveyed based on experience, body language, inflection, and other factors. Search engines cannot. The word “poopy” means little to a search engine without supporting words or phrases. It is simply a word. If a human hears that word, depending on their experience, language spoken, age, parental status, etc., the meaning begins to take shape immediatly. Add supporting words or phrases and the meaning becomes fine-tuned. The same concept applies to Search Engines.
Every page of a Web site has the potential to found by a user performing a search online. Keywords and more importantly, keyword phrases, are strategically placed by SEO professionals in key places on a Web page. It is critical to perform thorough keyword research, make proper keyword selection, determine relevance, and make good decisions about prominence and placement of those keyword phrases.
I guarantee your Web site will improve in Search Engine ranking position if you put effort into selecting good keywords and use those keyword phrases in strategic places on every Web page. If all other obstacles are identified and removed, you will see great results.
I don’t trust GUI’s and this is why. A simple URL 301 redirect was botched by PowWeb’s URL Redirect tool. I had an issue with an error page being among the top content viewed and found an problem with a URL name change conflicting with a PPC campaign landing page target. I knew what had to be done.
PowWeb has a handy set of control panel tools that allow .htaccess editing. The .htaccess editor has a URL Redirect tool that defines the from path as http://… and the to path also as http://… in it’s instructions.
The non-working redirect was defined by the tool as:
Redirect http://www.domain.com/home.html http://www.domain.com
After going through various resources, I found this lovely note that saved my sanity:
“Notes: Don’t add “http://www” to the first part of the
statement - place the path from the top level of your site
to the page. Also ensure that you leave a single space
between these elements:”
PowWeb also has a very nice direct .htaccess editor that allowed me to modify the .htaccess file so I manually changed the redirect to the following:
Redirect 301 /home.html http://www.domain.com
There was no designation for a 301 Redirect so I had to modify the .htaccess file manually. It worked… Check your redirects here - http://www.internetofficer.com/seo-tool/redirect-check/.
Luckily I have FTP access to the Web server but that is not always the case. In using the editor, I found there were actually 3 .htaccess files on the server. I had to ensure I was modifying the correct one and my next phone call to PowWeb will be about having 3 .htaccess files on the server.
Pay close attention to your redirects. Check them. Then check them again.
