Social Media Strategies
Changes to Google in 2014
Google updates its algorithm roughly 500 times per year, so we can expect some significant changes to Google in 2014.
Changes to Google are not uncommon. Very recently, Google completely overhauled their primary algorithm and introduced the world to Hummingbird. In 2014, we won’t necessarily see a move quite as significant (the last time Google implemented such an update was over a decade ago) but we can surely expect to see some changes to Google and the way we, as marketers, should adapt for it.
Focus on Conversation
If we know one thing for certain about Hummingbird, it is that it focuses on the conversational aspect of search. The assumption should no longer be that people are looking for, “Buy black winter hat cheap,” but rather, “Where can I buy a cheap black winter hat?”
The latter is referred to as a ‘soft search’ and this is the direction in which we need to focus our efforts as search and social marketers. Google made it clear when they introduced Hummingbird that it will integrate very heavily with Google’s social layer, which focuses on conversation in Google+ and other social networks.
In 2014, we should expect this focus to increase and optimize our content for these kinds of soft searches as opposed to focusing on keyword density (but that’s nothing new).
Focus on Social (Even More)
Expanding on that point about the social layer, changes to Google in 2014 will surely include an even greater focus on social activity. The reason why Google has transitioned to a soft search approach is because of how many people turn to social media in order to conduct their searches now.
When over 95% of people trust the recommendations made by friends and family, you know they are more likely to quickly post a question (like the winter hat example above) to Facebook while conducting their own research on Google. Considering links on social networks contribute (quite significantly) to improved search rankings – and we can expect that contribution to rise in the coming year – this should continue to be a focus for your brand in 2014.
Focus on Mobile
The world is going mobile. In fact, estimates suggest that by the end of 2013 (so, in other words, now) there will be more mobile devices than there are people on Earth. And by 2017, there will be an estimated 1.4 mobile devices on Earth per person. Suffice it to say that mobile is important.
As mobile devices become smarter and more user-friendly, people will increase their use of their mobile devices and slowly move away from their desktop. Not to mention the fact that in the developing world, mobile devices are much more readily accessible than desktops. One of the major changes to Google in the coming year is going to be an increased focus on mobile.
Ensure that your website, app and all of your content are optimized for mobile in order to ensure that it is easily shareable and discoverable. Over the course of the year, Google will be sure to incorporate mobile readiness into search rankings in a much bigger way.
Focus on Google+
The fact that there are still detractors from the platform is mind-blowing. This is a social network owned an operated by a search giant that openly tells people to focus on social media. What better place to share your content than on that platform’s social network?
Every year, Google+ becomes more important to search. Bit by bit, Google is transforming their business structure to become a more social company. Doesn’t it behoove your brand to be active on the networks they own?
These are just a few of the changes we can expect to come from Google in 2014. What will you do differently? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!
Why Your Facebook Posts Organic Reach is Down
A lot of brands have noticed that their Facebook posts organic reach is down and many are asking why.
More and more, brands are noticing that their Facebook posts organic reach is down, and continuing to drop. This is not the first time companies have noticed a dip in reach and engagement, but there is something unique about this change: Facebook is acknowledging it.
Yes, it’s true. The reach of your page posts is not going to be quite as far without some financial stimulation. After all, Facebook is a business with a valuation roughly ten times its revenue, and they are going to have to find a way to even that out. So what is their answer? Make brands pay for their marketing efforts.
What is happening?
About a year ago, Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm underwent some changes and brands started to see a decrease in reach. According to Facebook, this was their way of providing people with the best possible experience and removing spam from individuals’ news feeds. This time around, Facebook is being much more blunt about what they are doing.
It is no secret that brands use Facebook for marketing efforts. Sure, the approach on the network is a much softer sell than say, on their website. But still, Facebook is a marketing and advertising medium, and the social network realizes that. So, another recent overhaul of the Facebook algorithm has resulted in this: brands have to pay to play.
The paradise of ‘free’ (and I use that word very lightly) marketing is over. With over a billion users, Facebook is no longer letting brands access these pools of potential customers without paying for permission. In a recent publication by Facebook, it was revealed that brands are going to need to consider investing in the network in order to reach fans in their news feeds.
Why are brands upset?
This is pretty clear. Brands have spent a tremendous amount of time and resources building loyal fanbases. Now, Facebook is telling them that that they are going to have to pay to reach that audience.
So naturally, companies are asking, “What was the point of building up my audience if I was just going to have to pay for people to see my content?” Well, that’s a fair point. But there are certain benefits to advertising that very few brands have taken advantage of to date; they’re going to have to now.
What’s so great about advertising?
Facebook advertising offers a whole selection of great targeting options. In addition to the usual demographics, brands can also choose to target users by device (FYI, mobile is the way to go), pages liked and even interests!
Even if you had built a large audience on Facebook, you still would not have been able to specifically target these users. All you could do was post to your page and hope for the best.
What’s more, advertising on Facebook is still very inexpensive. Currently, only 4% of companies on Facebook are leveraging the power of ads. Facebook needs to keep them affordable if they want people to take advantage of them. So, before prices skyrocket (look at Google AdWords for competitive categories) your brand should take advantage of the great advertising platform.
Have you noticed a drop in your Facebook posts organic reach? Tell us if you plan on advertising in the comments below or on Twitter!
Landing Page Best Practices for a Google AdWords Campaign
Your landing page is the first impression people get of your business when they click on an AdWords ad, so stick to the best practices.
For anyone who has ever looked into running an AdWords campaign, it is no secret that Google tries very hard to filter out the “bad eggs” by forcing users to adhere to certain guidelines. That extends to landing pages. But even if your ad and landing page are approved, you still need to ensure that you have stuck to some landing page best practices in order to drive conversions with your campaign.
Your Homepage is Not a Landing Page
Technically, your homepage is a page on which visitors can land, but that does not make it a suitable landing page.
You should not be directing people to your homepage. Generally, people click on an AdWords ad because it relates to their search. You are advertising a product, service or bit of information about something relevant to the person searching on Google. Send them to the page that is most relevant to that search’s keywords.
If you expect people to start searching through your website after you have directed them to your homepage, you’re wrong. You’ll see a much higher bounce rate and lower time on site and pages viewed if you place the burden of finding relevant information on the visitor.
Include a Clear Call-to-Action
It might seem sales-y, but if you do not provide people with a clear means of getting in touch with you or letting you know that they want to take the next step, they won’t.
The process needs to be made as simple as possible. Show them a clear space designated for their email address, name, phone number or any other bit of information you want to collect. Again, make it as easy as possible for visitors to take the next step will result in a much greater likelihood that they do.
Give Plenty of Information
People hate being confused. There is a reason why Google best practices for ads does not let advertisers create ambiguous ads with lots of flash. (For example, an ad that reads, “Do you want to make money NOW?!?!” will certainly be rejected.) The same concept applies to your landing page.
Put yourself in the shoes of the visitor. You see an ad that looks enticing. You click on it. You arrive at a page with lots of big text and flashy images, but everything is cryptic in nature. Sentences like, “Looking for the next big thing?” and “You could retire when YOU want!” will scare people off. They scream scam.
Focus on providing people with as much information in the simplest format possible. They clicked on your ad because it appealed to what they were looking for. When they get to your landing page, it should tell them what you are offering and give them a chance to find out more. (See the CTA best practice above.)
Test Your Landing Pages
You should always test different landing pages to see what strategies work best. Little things like the placement of your call-to-action can make a big difference in your conversion rates.
Let each page remain active for enough time in order to determine what is working and what is not, then take what you have learned into account when creating a new campaign or landing page.
Allow for Social Sharing
When you include social sharing buttons on your landing page, you give your audience the opportunity to do some of your work for you.
If you are running a cost-per-click or cost-per-acquisition campaign, your costs can start to pile up. If you give your audience a chance to share your content to social networks, or invite their friends to sign up for your service, you are both cutting your AdWords costs down and creating brand advocates to create awareness for your new product or service.
Follow these landing page best practices in order to get the most out of your AdWords campaigns. The ad is just the first part of the process!
What other best practices can you think of when it comes to running a Google AdWords campaign? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!
What You Need to Know About Instagram Direct and Snapchat
Late last week, Instagram launched Instagram Direct and now the world wants to know how it compares to Snapchat.
Instagram Direct comes just a short while after Snapchat turned down Facebook’s almost surreal offer of $3 billion. Well, if Snapchat thought they were holding all the cards, it seems as though they never considered Facebook’s contingency plans.
Instagram, as we all know, is a mobile photo-sharing app. Originally, users could tag friends in captions and make their profiles private. This was the only way to privatize the public network. Now, with Instagram Direct, users have the ability to send pictures to a select group of friends that only they can see. Sound familiar?
Well, if it does, that’s because the premise is very similar to Snapchat’s model. The difference rests in the fact that Snapchat’s appeal is the disappearing nature of images sent. They will only stick around for at most ten seconds (or thirty, if you are using the Story function). However, Instagram offers a few things that Snapchat does not and vice versa.
The Similarities
When one looks at Instagram Direct, it is clear that the feature was designed to compete directly with Snapchat. Users can take pictures, select a group of friends with whom to share the images, reply to images shared and filter their friends lists with both services.
The popularity of visual content is no secret. (There is a reason why Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion and offered Snapchat $3 billion.) Offering users a way to communicate with pictures? Priceless. It makes sense that apps like Instagram and Snapchat are so popular. But it is the differences that will determine a winner in this battle for photo-conversing supremacy.
The Differences
Snapchat images disappear. That is perhaps the biggest appeal of the app. You can feel safe knowing that any picture you take will disappear from viewers’ sight in at most ten seconds. With Instagram Direct, images will remain archived in a conversation. The benefit here is that Instagram Direct is designed for an actual, ongoing conversation to take place between a select group of friends either through comments of shared images. On Snapchat, images might be fun to share, but there is no way to like them, comment on them or maintain an ongoing conversation without simply sending a disappearing image back to the original sender.
As for editing, Snapchat allows users to post comments directly on an image and draw with their fingers. Instagram Direct allows for filters to be applied (as with traditional Instagram photos) and captions to be written. Once again, in terms of a conversation, Instagram opens up the possibility of conversing either through images or written responses. Snapchat, on the other hand, relies on a user responding with an image.
Snapchat is still ad-free and that makes people happy. Instagram has started sharing ads, and that makes people sad. (Or mad, if you have had a chance to read some of the comments.) But the reality of the situation is that these apps are businesses. Billion-dollar businesses need revenues. Ads generate revenues. Apps need ads. Snapchat had the option of remaining ad-free (for now) and integrating with Facebook as a free feature of the network. They chose to decline the acquisition request and are now left to figure out how revenues will be generated. Instagram will presumably make its money from ads on the public feeds, and Instagram Direct will remain ad-free so that friends can have uninterrupted conversations while staying on the network.
The Winner?
Time will tell.
Snapchat might see this move as an attempt by Facebook to quash the photo-sharing app after they rejected their offer. At least, that is how they will see it for now. Hundreds of millions of snaps might be sent every day on Snapchat, but you have to wonder if the investors that just fed Snapchat with another $50 million are a little nervous now that they see this new feature on Instagram. There is no revenue being generated by Snapchat and now there is what appears to be a very serious competitor emerging.
Do you use Snapchat? Do you plan on using Instagram Direct? Why or why not? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!
Google’s Latest Patent: Taking the Social Out of Social Media
One of Google’s latest social media patents promises to make the automated features of social media so realistic, you would never know the difference.
Late in November, Google received their latest social media patent. According to the filing, the new platform is designed as, “A system and method for automatically generating suggestions for personalized reactions or messages.” What does that mean? Well, for individuals and businesses, Google is now making it possible for you to be active on social media without ever being active on social media.
The program is designed to adapt to your voice and activity trends in order to react to posts, share content and essentially run your social profiles without you ever having to do a thing (once it has gathered enough information about your activity, of course).
No matter how you look at it, there are going to be two basic, extreme schools of thought: those that love the idea and feel as though it is going to make running a social business easier, and those that hate it. (NOTE: Those that hate it are probably the ones with an actual social business.)
The Secret to a Successful Social Business
It might not sound like a secret, but it seems so many people are still in the dark when it comes to understanding what it takes to run a successful social business: work. Hard work, investment and dedication are the most important tools you will need in order to succeed with your social business.
So many people know that social media is crucial to the longevity of their brands, but they keep looking for shortcuts. Shortcuts will not get you anywhere. Using a tool that automates your brand’s presence on social channels might work for Google rankings, but it won’t work for customers.
Bringing automation into the mix is exactly why so many people have moved away from conventional customer service avenues (like the phone and even email) and towards social. And how often are we shown examples of an “Epic Fail” when a brand sends out an automated response on Twitter? People want to interact with people. Even when it is a big brand, the human component that social media offers is why people continue to choose it over other means of communication.
Creating Your Voice
There are some forms of automation that work. Some brands choose to automate tweets in order to ensure that important messages are seen by the broadest audience possible. For those that use Hootsuite, some brands might choose to upload a content schedule for a number of networks. This is all fine once you have established your voice in a market. But it is the real-time responses and comments that people react to most.
Recycling your articles might be a great way of getting fresh eyes on old content, but if social has taught us anything, it is that real-time marketing is where you find your greatest success. People want to see that your brand is active on social channels. They do not want you to simply be present.
Running a social business is a serious commitment. No matter how many shortcuts are created, people are still going to want to talk to you. It is hard for any brand to call itself a social business when they are actively trying to avoid the social part of the term.
Would you use a product like this? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!
Email Marketing Myths [INFOGRAPHIC]
Email marketing is still alive and well, and there are plenty of email marketing myths that still scare marketers.
There is no shortage of email marketing myths out there that tend to scare some people away from the very successful platform. Email was the first form of social marketing, and it is still a viable option that should be considered in any strategy.
You want to reach your audience. That’s a goal for any social business. While billions have taken to the socialsphere, not everyone has adopted the platform yet. Despite seeing a mention of social media at every turn, it is still a new platform. Even marketers that have embraced social as the next big step in communications are still trying to figure out exactly how to sell on social platforms. With email, that trial and error period has been going on for much longer, and there are several ways to get your message across and sell your product or service via email.
In the infographic below, seven email marketing myths are laid out and dispelled. Take a look at them and ease your concerns about email. It should definitely be a consideration with any strategy!
How do you integrate email in your social business? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!
Legal Implications of Social Media: Where is the Line?
The legal implications of social media might not be written in stone (just yet) but they do exist and you, as a business or individual, need to know about them.
It is no secret that employers are using social media when researching prospective employees, or business partners. In fact, 1 in 5 recent graduates has reportedly been denied a job because of something a prospective employer found on social media. That relates to the social implications of these new media. But what about the legal implications of social media? Surely, with something as clearly defined (for the most part) as the law, they cannot be nearly as severe, right?
Wrong.
There are plenty of legal implications of social media, and your social business needs to be aware of them.
Your Workplace is Now Online
In 2009, a Philadelphia police station was sued by a group of individuals who felt that a discussion online between coworkers was creating a hostile work environment.
As noted above, your personal online activity can cost you a job, but you need to realize that if you are not paying attention to your employees’ habits online, you are as at fault as they are. It might sound like an extra workload, but ignoring social media is not an option – neither internally nor externally.
As a social business, you need to inform your employees of your expected best practices. The reputation and credibility of your firm might rest on it.
Know Your Limits
It is no secret that your best brand advocates can be your employees. You know they are loyal to your brand, and there is nothing legally or ethically wrong with asking them to share your company’s content in an effort to increase your reach. But you need to know just how far you can take that.
You are not allowed to require your employees to provide you with access to their social channels. The law might not have caught up to technology entirely, but the right to privacy is still alive and well. It might seem obvious for most business owners and managers, but for some, that is not the case. Understand your limitations when it comes to your internal process.
Words Matter
For a social business, anything written online is representative of your brand’s culture. For better or worse, people formulate opinions based on what they see. Now, objective comments and status updates are (usually) harmless, but it is in your best interest to stay away from touchy or potentially harmful subjects.
From an internal perspective, you do not want to create that hostile work environment mentioned above. You also do not want to use employees’ social channels as a means of blackmailing them. This can lead to a discrimination suit.
From an external perspective, the laws of libel and slander are still in effect. Not only is it bad form to criticize competitors on open forums – your best way to get past them is by providing a better product or service – but if you are not careful, you could wind up saying something that is not true. When that is in writing, you open yourself up to a world of unpleasantness.
The law is still catching up to social business. There is quite a ways to go, and each industry is going to have different standards when it comes to the medium. There exist, however, certain elements that we already know about, and these should be considered when you are putting together your social business strategy.
What stories can you think of that relate to the legal implications of social media? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!
How to Create a Twitter Ad Campaign [VIDEO]
It is easy to create a Twitter ad campaign, and you can do it for your brand by following these simple steps!
Why You Need to Focus on Facebook Mobile
Facebook mobile is now more important than ever, and your strategy needs to incorporate Facebook mobile in a number of ways.
It is no surprise that Facebook mobile is now among the most important focal points of a successful social business strategy. Over 70% of Facebook’s users are accessing the network through a mobile device, and an increasing proportion of Facebook users are now only accessing the network via their mobile devices.
In order to capture the attention of this large and continually growing audience, you need to incorporate Facebook mobile into your strategy in a big way.
Some Interesting Facts About Facebook Mobile
A recent study by Shareaholic has revealed some very impressive data with regards to the importance of Facebook mobile.
In the last year, the referrals generated from Facebook (for businesses) have grown by 58.81% (year-over-year). How did they do this? Mobile.
As the chart below shows, referrals from mobile devices have increase a whopping 253.25% in the past year! What’s more the study finds that more than half of Facebook’s referral traffic growth has been the direct result of mobile activity.
As more and more people rely on their smartphones for everything from phone calls to everyday business and social use, the importance of a mobile component to your social strategy increases.
Below are a few ways you can take advantage of this growing trend and capitalize on the value of Facebook mobile referral power.
Create Mobile-Specific Ads
There exist some incredible features on the Facebook advertising platform that so few businesses are taking advantage of.
When you create a Facebook ad, you have the ability to target your ads to mobile devices. What’s more, you can specify the type of mobile device being used. Now, if you pay attention to your Google Analytics, and see that a large proportion of your mobile audience is coming from iOS, you know that you can create an ad on Facebook that targets only users with an iPhone! (Yes, this is actually something you can do.)
All it takes is a little tweaking and you will be able to really boost your success with Facebook ads click-through rates.
Create Mobile-Friendly Content
This is really more about creating content that is Facebook-friendly. Writing a long-winded story as a post is going to be annoying enough as it is for your fans on their desktop. Imagine how much more frustrated they would be if they had to scroll past in on their mobile devices as well. And do you expect anyone to click on images and see the full thing if it does not simply show up on their mobile News Feed? Probably not.
People want something fast and easy – that goes double for mobile users. Your content should have a clear message delivered fast and in an easy-to-view way. This way, you can encourage your mobile fans to click on links and read more if they are interested.
Share From Your Device
If you are using Facebook as a business – or even as a professional – then you should be using it to share content from your device. Post to your page from your mobile phone and check in at different locations. Generally, this increases engagement with your mobile audience, and should certainly be tried. This tactic also helps humanize your brand, and helps users relate to your company on a more personal level.
Try out some of these pointers and see if you can start capitalizing on the huge surge in mobile referral traffic from Facebook!
Do you access Facebook on your mobile device? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!
