social media marketing strategies Archives

Social Equity: Having a Facebook Presence

March 1, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Social equity comes in many forms, and a Facebook presence can greatly enhance your business.

What value does a Facebook fan page and community add to your social equity? This is an important question that must be answered if we are to delve deeper into the social network to measure other features of Facebook and determine how they impact social equity (e.g. campaigns, offers, promotions, etc.).

In today’s post about social media equity, we are looking to explain exactly what it is a Facebook presence offers your business in the way of value added.

The Value Lost Without Facebook

Measuring social equity and the return of social media is not as conventional a measurement as other forms of marketing and business. In fact, due to the fact that every aspect of social media marketing can be measured, it is quite different (in a much better way). So, to understand what value a Facebook presence adds to your business, we may want to consider, first, what value is lost (or overlooked) if our brand does not have a Facebook presence.

Let us first look at the added search engine optimization (SEO) value that comes with Facebook. In a post a little while back, we explained how social signals factor into SEO. Below is the graph that shows some of the most heavily weighted criteria when it comes to SEO:

What are the top five criteria when it comes to SEO and social media? Four of them relate to Facebook. So the first aspect to consider as far as social equity of a Facebook presence is concerned is SEO. We lose some of the most important SEO criteria without a Facebook presence, rendering many of our other SEO efforts much less viable.

Second, a Facebook presence is as important as a web presence. Early on in the age of the Internet, there were those who believed that a web presence was only viable for those high tech-industry businesses. Over the course of the last few years, every business, large or small, has taken to the web to promote their businesses to both a local and international audience. The same is true for Facebook today. The ability to tout your business across a multitude of markets and expand your business drastically is as true with Facebook as it is with a website, if not more so. Facebook is all about being social. And, more importantly, unlike the seemingly endless web, Facebook has boundaries in which users are confined when using it. So, unlike a website, where people may not find you at the speed at which you may have hoped, the ability to become a viral sensation in the world of social media is much easier.

Furthermore, Facebook pages have undergone dramatic overhauls in the last few years. Facebook was the first social network to recognize its own importance to businesses, and has made adjustments accordingly. So in addition to SEO opportunities that reach outside of Facebook, there is also the ability to showcase every aspect about your company and build a corporate personality with which a customer base want to engage.

What is the Social Equity of a Facebook Presence?

As we can see from the lost value above, the social equity of a simple presence on Facebook is tremendous. So in addition to the SEO opportunities that come with Facebook, and the ability to showcase our brand, what else is added with regards to social equity when it comes to Facebook?

Perhaps the best way to determine the value added of a Facebook presence is through the use of statistics. 20% of Facebook users have purchased something because of ads or comments they saw on the social network. In a market of one billion accounts (with hundreds of millions of regularly active users) those are strong numbers. Second, in a recent survey conducted by HubSpot, they noted that 77% of B2C companies acquired a customer through Facebook while 43% of B2B companies acquired a customer through Facebook. (NOTE: For brands in the retail industry, over 90% of those with a Facebook presence reported acquiring a customer from the network.)

According to that same HubSpot survey, 80% of social network users prefer to connect to brands on Facebook. Lastly, the two areas in which brands saw the greatest benefits from Facebook in the last year were in increased brand exposure (nearly 90%) and increased traffic (nearly 70%).

Not all of us are as lucky as a Coca-Cola or a Harley Davidson; we do not have lifelong brand loyalty, or are internationally recognized and respected brands. We need to work hard to retain customers, build loyalty and increase brand awareness. So where does the social equity of Faceobok lie? It has to do with increasing your brand awareness, reputation and loyalty.

Where do you see social equity fitting in with your Facebook efforts? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Media Measurement [INFOGRAPHIC]

February 28, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Social media is an important tool to help grow your business, but like any business tool, you need to be able to measure it!

Unlike many other business tools, however, social media is not only measurable, but easily measurable. There are a number of analytics tools, some add-ons and others built into the networks themselves, that can be used to measure the success of a social media campaign. These analytics can help you enhance or modify your social media program in order to generate the highest returns on your investment.

Yet, even with all of these tools, people are still looking for ways to measure their social media in a more tangible way. This great infographic from MediaZo details how exactly some of the most important elements of a social media program’s returns can be measured and analyzed.

Have a look below and let us know what you think.

How are you measuring your social media programs? What do you consider ROI on social media? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

SEO Keywords with Google Analytics

February 27, 2013/by Corey Padveen

SEO is one of the most powerful tools a brand can use to get found, and Google Analytics offers some great insights to help you maximize your SEO efforts.

We never tire of pointing the wonderful world of analytics that are offered to webmasters in the backend of Google Analytics. With a simple code, site owners are offered a wealth of insights when it comes to the search engine performance of their sites. Though all this information exists, few people are well versed in all that Analytics has to offer. The result? Missed insights that can be vital to the success of your website on search engines.

While it would not be possible to cover all that Google Analytics has to offer when it comes to insights in a single blog (there are multi-part courses that offer this) we thought we could discuss some of the tools webmasters can use to see how their websites are performing when it comes to keywords and search terms. Are you optimizing for SEO in the right places? Are the keywords you’ve chosen for SEO performing as well as you had hoped? If not, what keywords are the driving factor behind your SEO success?

Below is a set of helpful steps when it comes to both finding and using these insights for your SEO efforts in Google Analytics.

Where can I find these insights?

So, perhaps the most important thing we will need to know when it comes to using these insights is knowing where to find them. On your menu on the lefthand side of Google Analytics is a Traffic Sources tab. Under there you will see Search Engine Optimization and, beneath that, Queries. (NOTE: You will need to have Google Webmasters set up on your site in order to monitor these insights.) In the Queries section is where you will find the bread and butter of SEO keyword lists.

It is here that you will be able to start delving into the world of saved search keywords and see just how you are performing for those keywords you wish to rank for, and those that you did not even realize were a means through which people were finding you.

Isn’t that a treat?

Now that we know where we can find these keywords, it is important to understand what they mean with regards to our SEO, and how we can leverage this information to increase our rankings in search engines.

Analyze and Implement

SEO is an ongoing process. There will always be evolution in our SEO strategies, and this is one area that will show us how we should be evolving our SEO strategies in order to keep up with the market.

Once we arrive at the Queries section under Search Engine Optimization, we can begin to understand how we are being found on search engines. There are three means through which we can organize our search results: Impressions, Clicks, and Average Position. Impressions has to do with the number of times our site (homepage or landing page) has appeared in search results for a given keyword or phrase in a set period of time. Clicks has to do with the number of times people have clicked through to our site as a result of a searched keyword or phrase. Lastly, Average Position ranks our keywords based on, you guessed it, the average position in which our site ranks for a specified keyword or phrase. The table looks like this:

Taking these statistics into account, we can begin to see where we are performing best. Say, for example, you run a restaurant, and you optimized for “southern cuisine” in your initial SEO run. Well, say a few months after your launch, you notice that the majority of your clicks and impressions are coming from searches for “southern barbecue” as opposed to what you had initially optimized for. This will lead you to reevaluate your SEO strategy, and begin optimizing for a new set of keywords where you are seeing your highest return. Upon your next visit, you will see that not only have your impressions and clicks risen, but your average position will have gone up as well, as a result of your re-optimization.

Have you used these insights for your SEO in the back of Google Analytics? How so? What have you found to be the most beneficial way of using them? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Facebook Marketing How-To: Optimize for Graph Search

February 26, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Facebook marketing is experiencing some changes as Graph Search rolls out across the social network, so how can you optimize your Facebook fan page for the new feature?

At first glance, Facebook Graph Search does not look like it will have much of an impact on your Facebook marketing efforts. We noted in a post a little while back a few small changes your Facebook marketing strategy might experience as a result of Graph Search. Frankly, as it stands, Graph Search does not appear to be the monumental change in search the social network seemed to hope for. That notwithstanding, Graph Search still has an impact on your business, and we have a few tips listed below that you should be paying attention to when putting together your Facebook marketing strategy in an effort to incorporate the impact of Graph Search.

Focus on Being Local

One of the biggest benefits of Graph Search is the impact it has on your listings when it comes to local searches on Facebook. Thus, your Facebook marketing should now have a focus on check-ins and encouraging locals to engage with your brand on the social network. This can be done with promotions for check-ins, or other Facebook marketing campaigns that engage with a local audience and get them to engage with your brand both online and on site.

The local element is the real bread and butter of Graph Search for businesses. One of the hottest aspects of the Facebook search feature is the ability to search for terms such as “restaurants in Boston my friends like” and see results that fit that category. That, however, is only one of the areas in which you can be optimizing your Facebook marketing for Graph Search.

Pay Attention to Your Business Details

As we have noted in the past, there are a few hidden gems when it comes to SEO for Facebook. Well, now that Facebook has integrated its own search capabilities with Graph Search, SEO becomes all the more important.

Perhaps the two most important sections when it comes to optimizing your Facebook marketing for Graph Search are the categories and About section. Businesses can be searched in Graph Search by “Type,” so it is important that your business is categorized in those areas where you wish to be found. This is also important for your subcategories, as these factor into Graph Search as well. Furthermore, your About section must be optimized, as it is for SEO keywords, for Graph Search capabilities.

Say Cheese!

Photo sharing, as we all know, is one of the most prominent features of social media. Thus, it is safe to assume that somehow, in some way, Graph Search is going to emphasize photo sharing in some way or another. Well, no surprise then that it is. Encourage visitors to tag themselves and your location. These tags and images rank quite highly in Facebook Graph Search, and will impact your business rankings as well.

As we have seen with all of the changes to social signals factoring into SEO, shares with your business and links influence your overall rankings, so encourage your visitors to tag themselves and your business in their pictures.

Have you been using Facebook Graph Search for your Facebook marketing? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Media and the Oscars [INFOGRAPHIC]

February 25, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Social media may have played a much bigger role at the Oscars than simply deciding who was the #BestDressed.

The Oscars are generally one of the most buzzed about topics around, and in recent years, one of the most prolific discussions on social media. This year, in the month leading up to Hollywood’s biggest night, the Meltwater Group tracked social media discussions about the six most popular categories at the Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor/Actress and Best Actor/Actress in a Supporting Role.

Well, the numbers were released just prior to the awards, and it appears as though the conversation on social media did quite the extraordinary job of predicting this year’s winners. In fact, with the exception of the Best Director category, social media mentions predicted each of the five other winners in terms of the popularity of posts. The only category that was close was Best Picture. Perhaps Hollywood is listening to the public a little more now that social media is such an influencer.

Have a look at the infographic below to see just how well social media predicted last night’s awards. Did you take to social media in a conversation about your favorite picture this year? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Equity: What Is It?

February 22, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Social equity is a new phenomenon in the world of business, and though it is powerful, few people understand it.

What is social equity? Social equity can be many things. There is social equity in every aspect of your social media program. It can range from the value added from a Facebook campaign, to the overall value added to your business as a result of being social. Effectively, social equity is the yet to be determined value added to your business that an effective and powerful social media strategy brings to your brand over time. It is your long term social media ROI (return on investment).

Each Friday, we will be discussing social equity as it pertains to different aspects of a social media program and outlining exactly how value is added to a company as a result of being social. This week, as an introduction, we aim to simply define social equity in its most basic form, and give some applicable examples that make it easier to understand.

What is Business Equity?

According to the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP), business equity is defined as follows: “The interests, benefits, and rights inherent in the ownership of a business enterprise or a part thereof in any form (including, but not necessarily limited to, capital stock, partnership interests, cooperatives, sole proprietorships, options, and warrants).” Effectively, business equity is the value of all the individual assets held by a business.

So, taking from this definition, how can we properly define the phenomenon of social equity?

Defining Social Equity

So with an understanding of business equity, we can surmise that social equity pertains to the value added to a business as a result of social activity, success, networks and reputation. Brand awareness on social media can give any company, large or small, a worldwide audience. Whether or not these are direct clients, the fact that your brand loyalty exists beyond your immediate network can mean a tremendous value to your business, and that is where social equity fits into the model. Let’s take a look at an example.

Social Equity Example: The Dentist

Say, for example, you are a dentist with a stable local practice. The goal, when you retire, is to sell that practice to a colleague. Where does the value of a dentistry practice exist? It exists in his or her client list. Essentially, you are selling your clients to another dentist who stands to generate revenues from this new client base.

Now imagine you are a dentist with a stable local practice and an immense social network on everything from Facebook to YouTube. You are an authority figure when it comes to tips on oral health and you generate referrals from your social network when people are visiting town or moving. This extends even further when people recommend you to a friend as a result of following you on social media. Now, when you retire, think of the value added to your business as a result of having that much more of a network to sell. It is not only about the physical client database anymore, it is about the virtual, social client database that comes with it.

Social equity is about the growth of your brand and business as a result of being social, and less about conventional measurements of ROI. With a new form of marketing media, there are going to be new forms of measurement. Social equity is one of those new measurements.

Stay tuned each Friday for more information on the phenomenon of social equity. Have you ever considered the concept of social equity? How would you define it? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Media Case Study: Ford

February 21, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Social media can generate quite a bit of success for your brand, and for Ford, their strategy and the lessons they pulled should be adopted by any brand looking to succeed on social media.

At a recent conference, Scott Monty, the Global Head of Social Media for the Ford Motor Company gave a presentation detailing the success of Ford’s social media campaigns in recent years entitled, “Social Wheels in Motion: Ford’s Lesson in Social Media.”

Of course, with so much success in social media over the last few years, Ford was bound to pull away a few key lessons that any brand should adopt with regards to their social media program. Below are the five top lessons you can pull away from Monty’s presentation and apply to your social media program today.

Stand By Your Product and Let Your Audience Share

In 2009, for the launch of the Ford Fiesta, Ford allowed a number of social media influencers to drive the Fiesta and share their experiences online. The videos and blogs were posted in real time, with no editing or filtering by Ford. The confidence Ford had in its product resulted in a great deal of success on social media. The campaign resulted in nearly a hundred and fifty thousand requests for more information about the new car. What’s more, more than 80% of those asking to find out more were new Ford customers!

Lesson: If you have a good product, let your influencers tell your social community about it.

Commit to Your Social Media Presence

Running a successful campaign is great, but your social media presence cannot be relegated only to when an official campaign is underway. In order to find success on social media, you need to be committed to your program. Ford created a hub wherein Ford users could engage with the brand in real time. This phenomenon is referred to as social care, and it is a social form of customer service that nearly a third of social media users prefer to conventional customer service options (i.e. phone).

Lesson: Make a point to stay active on social media, because Ford has shown that consistency pays off.

Integrate Every Form of Media

Disjointed campaigns will result in confusion for your audience. Different channels and department working on different campaigns and promotions will mean a diluted audience responding to a multitude of campaigns as opposed to a convergence on one major one.

For Ford, they approached their 2010 Explorer campaign this way, integrating every form of media in order to drive the most traffic at the launch. The result? The day of the launch they received 100 million social impressions and 400 million browser impressions.

Lesson: Integrate all of your media under one roof to drive every potential lead to the same place.

Build a Personality for Your Brand on Social Media

As much as people might like a brand, they want to engage with something more. Your audience wants to engage with a personality. For Ford, this realization came when they were looking to rebrand the Focus. So, how did they create a personality? They created a sock puppet mascot named Doug. The goal was to engage with a younger audience and find a new customer-base for the rebranded Focus. The results were impressive, and Ford saw a spike in interest in the Focus with a 61% consideration rate. Not bad considering most people tried to avoid the Focus even as a rental prior to this rebranding.

Lesson: Build a personality for your brand and engage on a human level with your audience.

Find Your Audience Where They Are Talking

One crucial element that marketers often forget is that they need to be going out and finding their audience where they are as opposed to waiting for their audience to find them. Ford realized this and took action. When building a program last year, Ford created a video and distributed it among every one of their followers most popular networks. The results were quite successful, with the video receiving over 1.5 million hits.

Lesson: Find your audience and engage with them where they are, and not the other way around.

How can you apply some of these lessons to your social media strategies? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Media Marketing Statistics: Where Is Your Audience?

February 20, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Social media marketing success means knowing where you audience is, and a recent study shows those statistics.

The Pew Research Center published a study recently entitled “The Demographics of Social Media Users – 2012”. The study looked at Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr in order to determine where audiences were. As marketers, we need to know where we can find our audiences in order to find success when it comes to social media marketing.

Some of the figures in this study are surprising, considering all we hear about social networking statistics. Below are a few of the key takeaways from the study, and some tips as to how these statistics can be incorporated into your social media marketing strategies.

Facebook Is Still in Charge

Of the population surveyed, 67% say they are on some sort of social media. As expected, Facebook reigned supreme with that entire population stating that they were registered with the largest social network. Coming in second was Twitter, with 16% of the surveyed population claiming to use the micro blogging social network. And in a very close third was Pinterest, with 15% of the population. The growth of Pinterest has been no secret, and these numbers prove it.

With regards to social media marketing, the demographics were rather impressive as well. Have a look at the table below to see a breakdown of the most popular networks and which demographics use them the most.

An In-Depth Look at the Users

When it comes to social media marketing, we need to make sure we are targeting the right audience. In order to do that, we need to know where our target audience is talking. Moreover, we need to know if our target audience would even respond to our efforts when it comes to social media marketing. Below is a breakdown of the surveyed population based on demographics and the proportion using social networking sites in some way.

Perhaps the two most interesting figures arise when looking at minority statistics. When it comes to Race and Ethnicity, the Black, Non-Hispanic and Hispanic population have a higher proportion of social media users than the White, Non-Hispanic population. Furthermore, a surprising 32% of the 65+ population claims to be using social media in some way. Have a look at the table below.

Highlights by Network

The study breaks down similar demographics to those above for each one of the five networks observed. When it came to Twitter, there was a slight edge of male users (17%) over female users (15%) and the most popular Race/Ethnic demographic using the network was Black, Non-Hispanics.

On Pinterest, female users (25%) far outweighed male users (5%), which is to be expected considering the overwhelming data that has been produced showing that Pinterest is a network dominated heavily by the female population. But perhaps what is most interesting to note is that the two income brackets that were the most popular when it came to Pinterest were $50,000-74,999 (23%) and $75,000+ (18%).

On Instagram, women once again out edged men 16% to 10%, respectively. What was interesting about the statistics from Instagram was the fact that there was a fairly consistent makeup of users from nearly all demographics. The same can be said about Tumblr, the least popular of the networks reported.

Finally, Facebook showed yet another favor for the female population (72%) over the male population (62%). Though when it came to the rest of the data, there was little prejudice for one demographic over another in most categories. Based on the study, it would seem that regardless of your socioeconomic status, Facebook is where you want to be. Thus, we can conclude that when it comes to social media marketing to any demographic, Facebook is always a viable place to start.

Click here to read the full report. What have you found to be most surprising? Will any of these statistics influence your social media marketing strategies? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Facebook Marketing: Increase Your Shares [INFOGRAPHIC]

February 19, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Facebook marketing is all about exposing your brand on social media, so how can you increase your number of shares?

We all know that great content is what drives a successful Facebook marketing campaign. People want to engage with brands that are active on social media and posting content that intrigues and excites their fans. But, while we might know that the backbone of great Facebook marketing is great content, it might not be so easy to get your share count up. Luckily, there are a few tips and tricks in this infographic that will help you get the most out of your Facebook marketing efforts to increase your shares and showcase your brand on Facebook.

There is a lot to remember when putting together your Facebook marketing campaign, but if you adhere to the suggestions in the infographic below, you can expect to see those numbers jump pretty quickly.

How are you increasing your shares when it comes to Facebook marketing? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

YouTube Marketing Optimization

February 18, 2013/by Corey Padveen

YouTube marketing is one of the best resources we have as marketers, but how can we measure if our efforts are paying off?

YouTube is a search engine, and like any search engine, a marketer’s goal is to rank highly for specified keywords and drive traffic and business from our YouTube marketing efforts. But, like any social media program, we need to be able to measure our campaigns and the success of our YouTube marketing efforts. Behind the channel there is an entire set of statistics and measurable data that we can use to see exactly where our YouTube marketing efforts are paying off, and where we need to improve them.

Below is a set of tips that you can use when it comes to YouTube marketing to measure exactly how effective your strategies are. You might be surprised to find just how much information you can pull directly from the backend of your YouTube channel.

Look Into Your Analytics

First of all, where can we find all of this stored information about our videos? In the top search bar of a YouTube account, there is a small dropdown menu where you can select your analytics.

It is in this analytics section where you can begin evaluating the success of your YouTube marketing. The YouTube analytics dashboard allows users to both measure basic information, such as viewer demographics and traffic sources, as well as engagement statistics, which allow you to measure how your videos are performing with your audience. These data are very helpful when it comes to modifying your YouTube marketing campaigns, as they indicate where your work needs improvement and where you are finding the most success with your video marketing. Paying attention to these figures will help you optimize your YouTube marketing to ensure that you are not losing anything (from time to audience engagement) with each of your videos.

Your Most Important Data

There is plenty of information to look through in the backend of your YouTube channel. It can become almost overwhelming. What is important? What should you focus on? These are not the easiest questions to answer when you have so much to sift through.

Perhaps the two most important areas of focus in your Reports section are your Traffic Sources and your Audience Retention. (In the menu on the right.) Let’s have a look at those a little more closely.

Your Traffic Sources are going to be one of the most important elements to look at when evaluating your YouTube marketing efforts. These tell you exactly where your viewers are coming from. This will help you structure future campaigns outside of YouTube to drive the most traffic from your most popular sources. Are your email campaigns driving the most viewers to your videos? Maybe it is your social media efforts on other networks, like Facebook or Twitter, that are bringing in the most views. This is where you can find out.

Knowing where your traffic is coming from will allow you to cut out the time you spend marketing on networks that are not driving any traffic to your YouTube channel and focus entirely on areas where you are seeing success. This increases the efficiency of your YouTube marketing and helps maximize your return on investment (time, in this case).

Audience Retention is another crucial focal point of these statistics. Say, for example, you put together a video campaign with a call to action at the end of a video. Then you put together another one with a call to action at the beginning. Which one is driving conversions? You can see this with your Audience Retention tool. Note in the image below that there is a drop off at a certain point in your videos. People have an inherently short attention span when it comes to YouTube, and the longer your video, the less likely it is that people will stay to the very end. We have found that the optimal length of a YouTube video is somewhere in the ballpark of two minutes. After that, audiences tend to move on to something else. So, when it comes to YouTube, a video search engine with billions of options to choose from, the shorter the better. And all of this is available in the Audience Retention report of your YouTube analytics dashboard.

How Are You Engaging?

Engagement is a cornerstone of any successful social media marketing campaign. And contrary to what a conventional understanding of the term ‘engagement’ might suggest, engagement on social media is more about your brand and your audience. It is not solely about how you are engaging with your audience, but also about how your audience is engaging with you. The engagement reports in YouTube focus on your audience’s engagement with your brand on YouTube.

This section is wonderful for tailoring your YouTube marketing to the preferences of your audience. You can find out what videos people like best, where they are commenting most and when your engagement is taking place. Again, this is an area that will help you maximize the efficiency of a campaign and your return on investment.

These are just a few of the great analytics tools available in the backend of YouTube. Of course, like anything, the best way to learn is by doing. So have a look at the analytics dashboard of your YouTube channel and find out where your efforts are paying off. Then tell us how you use the YouTube analytics dashboard in the comments below or on Twitter!

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