Tag Archive for: social media

Social Media: 5 Methods to Convince C-Level Skeptics

April 8, 2013/by Corey Padveen

When it comes to social media, every department may be sold on its benefits, but the most important folks in the room are the hardest to convince: executives.

Social media is an investment. Whether that investment is time, money, labor or something else, executives see it as an expense. And since the goal of executives is to keep a company as profitable as possible, it may not be an expense they are immediately willing to undertake.

Luckily, we have put together a compelling set of arguments to present to skeptical executives when it comes to selling the (very necessary) concept of social media. These five points should help any marketer cross that last hurdle before implementing a social media program and sharing a well-earned ‘told-ya-so’ at the next quarterly meeting. (NOTE: Probably not in your best interest to use those exact words at the next quarterly meeting. A well-organized report should do the trick.)

1. The ‘Leg-Up’ Argument

One of the easiest ways to show that social media is a necessary program is to show where your competitors are failing. We showcased 10 free social media monitoring tools in a blog post last week that you can use for some (very legal) corporate espionage. Listen in on what people are saying about your competitors and explain how this is information that can be used to give your brand a competitive advantage.

2. Scare Them (A Little Bit)

Though it seems hard to believe, there are still plenty of people out there who do not understand the power of SEO and social media. After all, not all executives rose through the ranks in the age of technology and online networking, and may not completely understand their awesome power. Ask them for five keywords with which they associate their brands. Type them into Google. Are they the first result? No? Their chances of being clicked on just fell 36% – and no we’re not kidding. Are they on the first page? No? Down over 90%.

We discussed some of the benefits of social media and SEO in a blog last week. SEO is still one of the most powerful ways of being found online. And even for those executives who do not believe or understand the power of social media, many know about SEO. Explain the added benefits to search rankings as a result of a properly executed social media strategy.

3. Show Conversations in Real-Time

This method is going to require a little bit more prep than the others. First, use any of the free social media monitoring tools we discussed in our earlier blog. Then, put together a profile of keywords that pulls in live conversations showcasing some leads that your company would be able to target with a social media program. This not only showcases the power of social media, but gets executives excited about implementing the program.

Last year, I was in a meeting with a real estate executive. I put together a very preliminary listening profile and, in our meeting, we pulled out three leads, one of which turned into a referral for the agent. Needless to say, they could not wait to dive into the program head on. Try it – these programs exist for a reason.

4. Present Case Studies

One of the most widely used arguments against the implementation of a social media program is that the results are unproven. This is always a baffling claim, because the evidence that these programs work is staggering. Before meeting with your executives, find some case studies for your industry (and yes, they exist for every industry) examine them and present them, in detail, at your meeting. Hard evidence of success is something executives are trained to look for, and practical examples are always better than theoretical ones.

5. Find More Than One Reason

You might know that the benefits of a social media program are virtually endless, but your executives might not. So, when you go into your meeting, give your executives more than one reason why they need social media. Though it’s obvious to seasoned social marketers, it is not as clear for everyone else.

BONUS: If you want a little push to get you going, set a few things up in the backend that can get your company started. These can be set up on your own time and include small, free listening programs, Google Alerts, or something similar. Having something in place will also help you get over that last hump before implementing a full-scale program.

Have you found any methods that help sell to skeptical executives? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Media: Week-in-Review, April 6, 2013

April 6, 2013/by Corey Padveen

In case you missed some of the topics we covered this week, here is the social media week-in-review!

Pinterest Marketing: Need-toKnow Updates [INFOGRAPHIC]

With the recent Pinterest updates, there is quite a bit social marketers need to be aware of. This infographic does an excellent job of outlining what new features exist, what features have been removed from the photo-sharing network, and how marketers should adapt to these changes.

Social Media SEO: The New Backlink Strategy

When it comes to SEO, social media is of ever-growing importance. Link-building has long been one of the foundational pillars of successful SEO, and with a proper social strategy in place, you can take your link-building to the next level.

10 Free Social Media Monitoring Tools

Success in social marketing is all about having an effective strategy in place, but tools can be a great compliment to your program. These 10 free social media monitoring tools can help you maxiomize your efforts in social marketing, and expand your reach considerably.

Social Media Case Study: Gillette

In 2010, with the World Cup right around the corner, Gillette wanted to attract a new customer base in Italy – males under the age of 25. They knew that social was important, and aimed to expand their presence in this new market using YouTube. The results were outstanding and we highlight some of the key lessons for marketers in this week’s social media case study.

Social Equity: Social Media and SEO

Linking your social media strategy to your SEO efforts can have dramatic effect when it comes to Social Equity. In this week’s Social Equity segment, we look at the value added to your business as a result of having highly correlated social media and SEO strategies.

Have a look through some of these great articles and enjoy your weekend!

Social Equity: Social Media and SEO

April 5, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Social Equity stands to increase significantly as a result of the benefits social media has with regards to SEO.

The secrecy surrounding search engine algorithms has resulted in a great deal of conjecture when it comes to social media factoring into SEO. That said, allusions made by executives, such as Matt Cutts at Google, have led to inferences that social media is a major factor when it comes to optimizing your content for search engines. As a result, your brand’s Social Equity stands to benefit greatly due to the fact that SEO is still one of the most successful means of getting found.

In today’s Social Equity segment, we aim to show where Social Equity is derived from the incorporating of social media into your SEO.

Where Are the SEO Benefits from Social Media?

In order to understand how an intertwining of social media and SEO add value to your business, it is first crucial to understand where SEO stands to benefit as a result of social signals.

The chart on the left was derived from research conducted by Searchmetrics. What the data shows is how heavily social signals (data from activity on social media channels) weigh into rankings on search engines. (For the graph on the left, rankings in the U.S.) Last year, traditional link-building, one of the cornerstones of conventional SEO, had been surpassed by Facebook shares.

Essentially, social signals and sharing register with search engines as links (if, of course, what is being shared contains a link to your content or a landing page). Thus, as the popularity of social media continues to grow, the importance of factoring SEO into your social strategy grows with it.

This is where Social Equity comes into the mix.

Social Equity Derived from Social Media and SEO

A properly formulated SEO strategy that incorporates your social media will result in a tremendous value added with regards to Social Equity. This holds true for two reasons.

First, traditional SEO is an ongoing process that requires numerous man hours and ongoing expenses. With social media factoring as heavily as it does into the equation, you stand to save quite a bit of resources when it comes to your investment in SEO. Considering the strength of social sharing, the link-building process is both faster and collaborative. So there is a two-fold benefit here: both your audience and your search rankings are being built up as you invest in your social media strategy.

Second, for many verticals, SEO is still a major focus when it comes to determining market share. In fact, a study conducted by Optify showed that the top result on Google receive over 35% of clicks from a search. Social media activity allows you to rise through the Google ranks, and when you stand a chance to generate more than a third of all traffic for a given keyword (or better yet, multiple keywords) the value of your website and business as a whole stands to rise.

Traditional SEO is still of great importance to your business’s value. But when it comes to Social Equity and the value added to your business as a result of social activity, it is essential that you incorporate social media into your SEO strategy. Your shareholders will thank you.

Have you seen your search rankings rise since beginning your social media program? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Media Case Study: Gillette

April 4, 2013/by Corey Padveen

With the strategic use of YouTube, Gillette managed to capture and engage an entirely untapped demographic.

In 2010, as the World Cup approached, the marketers at Gillette were wondering how they could capitalize on the growing use of social media and garner a new client-base. Through the strategic use of YouTube, coupled with a global initiative, Gillette managed to engage with a population of new and future customers (males under 25 years old) in Italy.

Let us first take a look at an overview of the campaign, followed by some statistics and, finally, lessons for social media marketers.

Gillette’s ‘Future Champions’ Campaign

In Italy, Gillette launched the ‘Future Champions’ campaign in association with its global ‘Gillette Champions’ initiative. The global campaign featured a wide variety of media for advertising, extending anywhere from television to social media. The ‘Future Champions’ initiative in Italy was aimed at a younger audience, hoping to capitalize on a relatively untapped market of new and emerging clientele (with regards to shaving – hence the focus on males under the age of 25).

Effectively, Gillette focused its efforts on the booming popularity of social media (YouTube, in particular) to market to this demographic, and the results were outstanding.

Campaign Statistics

YouTube alone reached 10% of their total audience, and all of their online and social media efforts reached 31% of their total audience reached. (It is important to note that this does not factor in those who were reached by YouTube, online and social media and other forms of marketing. That number was significantly higher.)

On YouTube, 62% of those reached fit the demographic Gillette was targeting (males under 25). Furthermore, the graph below shows how the campaign influenced intent.

YouTube was also the most cost efficient form of advertising. On average, reaching 1% of the target demographic on YouTube was over 7 times cheaper than reaching that same number on TV. Lastly, YouTube helped Gillette reach an audience that would have been lost without social media. 35% of those who were exposed to the brand’s campaign on YouTube had no contact with the television campaign.

Lessons for Marketers

Considering Gillette managed to reach a huge proportion of their target demographic and appeal to those individuals, persuading them to buy, it is no wonder that this is an excellent social media case study. This was no accident, however. The marketers at Gillette did their research and knew exactly what they were doing, and these lessons are some that should be adopted by all marketers, social media or otherwise, when constructing a campaign.

1. Know Where Your Audience Is

With regards to social media, this refers to knowing in which network your target audience is having a conversation. For marketing in general, it means which medium (i.e. TV, radio, print, social media, etc.).

The marketing team at Gillette knew the power of social media, particularly when a target demographic is under the age of 25. We have posted about social media demographics on our blog, and firmly believe that in order to be successful, your understanding of social media and your strategy when it comes to social marketing needs to go beyond simply having great content. You need to know where your audience is and when they are around in order to ensure that they see your content. Gillette understood this and it was a major factor behind their success.

2. Use Every Avenue at Your Disposal

One important thing that the campaign’s statistics showed was that adding YouTube to the mix of media used did not cannibalise other forms of digital advertising. In fact, of the 31% of people reached through YouTube and other online forms of advertising, there was an overlap of only 7%.

It is important to note that when you are trying to get a message out to your fans, followers and leads, you need to be aggressive. There are hundreds of millions of conversations taking place on social media at every moment of the day, and if you want to be heard, you need to be loud.

Do not confuse “loud” with careless, however. You need to make sure that your strategy is executed in such a way that you do not turn people off to your product. But market research, as done by Gillette, will help ensure that your message is both heard by everyone you wish to target and will help avoid redundancies in your marketing efforts.

3. Create a Marketing Hybrid

There were two major findings in the study: first, television alone was tremendously expensive and reached a massive audience (71%). Second, YouTube alone was extremely cost efficient but reached a smaller audience (17%). Together, however, they reached nearly the entire target audience and were quite cost efficient.

The takeaway here is that conventional forms of marketing still work, but they are no longer enough. In order to be successful, you need to create a hybrid marketing strategy that take the tried, tested and true media and incorporates the new, booming and efficient media. Together, the old and new cover all of your bases.

Remember, there are more cell phones in India than there are functioning toilets, so in many cases, the new has far surpassed the old in terms of reachability.

These three lessons are crucial to the success of a marketing strategy. Through the use of YouTube, Gillette managed to reach a huge proportion of their target audience, increase brand awareness and engagement, and increase intent to buy. What’s more, a huge proportion of this success can be attributed directly to the use of social media and, above all else, YouTube. The marketing team at Gillette understood their audience and marketed for them, not simply to them. This ultimately proved to be the most successful step taken.

Which of these lessons do you feel is most important? Why? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

10 Free Social Media Monitoring Tools

April 3, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Social media is all about listening to what people are saying about you, and monitoring your brand online. These 10 free tools are a great asset for any social media marketer.

While all of these tools feature paid and enterprise versions, the basic, free versions contain a wealth of information and are fantastic resources for any marketer looking to optimize his or her social media marketing.

1. HootSuite

Many people know about HootSuite. And for anyone who has used it, it should come as no surprise that it sits on top of this list. There are plenty of neat listening and monitoring features available in HootSuite, including the ability to listen to keywords and geo-target your monitoring to see what people are saying in a given radius.

2. TwentyFeet

Ever wonder how you can optimize your social media activity for maximum results? TwentyFeet is a great tool to help you get there. TwentyFeet aggregates your social media activity and mentions from a number of social media channels and helps you determine where your social efforts are paying off and where you could use some help.

3. PeerIndex

PeerIndex is a great tool for those looking to build up their influence in certain categories. The tool helps users determine their level of authority in different niches based on conversations taking place and the level of engagement a brand has with its fans.

4. SocialMention

With regards to free listening tools, SocialMention is among the best. This tool allows you to listen for your brand, company, product, service, competitors or industry keyword mentions across a multitude of social media channels. Data is pulled from dozens of social media services to give you the most accurate, real-time information.

5. SocialPointer

Engagement with your audience is crucial to the success of a social media program, and SocialPointer allows you to track mentions of your brand on different channels and respond to your audience in real-time. This is a great tool for those engaging in social care (social media customer service).

6. HowSociable

Ever wonder if your social media marketing efforts are enough? HowSociable measures your social media activity and provides you with a score to help you determine whether or not you or your brand are engaging enough on social media to be successful.

7. Brand Monitor

For every conversation you find about your brand, there may be hundreds if not thousands more taking place across the social sphere. Brand Monitor helps you track all of the mentions of your brand on different social networks to give you a better feel of how the conversation is taking place and where you should be involving yourself to improve your brand’s online reputation.

8. Kred/Klout

Kred and Klout are two scoring services that review your social media activity, engagement, influence, authority, etc. and provide you with a score that tells you how you rank compared to others on social media.

9. SocialBro

SocialBro is a great tool when it comes to determining your influence and success on Twitter. The insights offered drill deep into your follower lists and provide helpful analytics to determine if your Twitter marketing is paying off, if you are targeting the right audiences and whom you influence.

10. Topsy

Topsy is a real-time social media search engine. Configure your account to pull data only relevant to your industry, brand, product, competitors, etc. and receive plenty of real-time information that you can use to improve the success of your social media marketing.

As we always point out, these tools are a great asset to compliment your social media strategy, but real success is ultimately going to come from a well developed and properly implemented social media strategy. Tools alone cannot run a social media program. People are out there talking and you need to be able to use these tools to listen and then properly engage with your audience.

Which of these tools have you used? Which ones are you going to try? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Media SEO: The New Backlink Strategy

April 2, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Social media is of ever-growing importance when it comes to SEO, and the power of social signals when it comes to link-building could supercharge your SEO efforts.

Link building has long been one of the most important features of an effective SEO strategy. Over the course of the last few years, social media has become all the more important when it comes to SEO, and recently, the importance of social link building has gained a lot of traction.

How the New Google Panda Updates Change SEO

It is first important to understand why social media backlinks are so important now more than ever.

Google recently updated their algorithm to incorporate some major changes to the Panda filter. Much like a real panda, the name and appearance of the Google update might seem harmless, but the truth of the matter is that if a site violates any of the conditions set forth in the update, Panda will attack the site, removing backlinks and penalizing the site in terms of rankings. So, what has the result been? Many site owners have seen dozens of links they spent precious time building disappear, and their site rankings have suffered as a result.

So the big question is, how can site owners make up for this change with social media?

How Social Media Boosts Your SEO

In an article by Richard Petrillo, he suggests that the “social vote/social signal” can revive your SEO. Tweets, pins, +1s and Facebook shares are the new backlinks, and because they are effectively personal pseudo-recommendations, they weigh quite heavily into your rankings.

As people read and share your content, others are exposed to it. This works out similar to building links on other sites, but the fact that social media is so personal (at least, that is the intention) the weight of social signals when it comes to your link-building strategy is much heavier.

How to Build Your Social Signals

The simple answer? Produce engaging content that your audience wants to share. Dan Zarrella, social media scientist at HubSpot notes that the optimal number of tweets per day is roughly 20. But he makes it very clear that if you share content with which your audience wants to engage, then that number is irrelevant. The best way to do this is to monitor your engagement levels and take note of the content that boosts your brand’s engagement.

Second, make sure your content is social media friendly. A fantastic blog post is a great thing, but if people have no means of sharing it, then you lose the opportunity of adding a new social link. So in order to capitalize on the power of social media link-building, make sure you incorporate social sharing into your content wherever possible.

Lastly, share your own content outside your site in order to build your own links. It is one thing to rely on others to help you build your social links, but help yourself out wherever possible.

Social media offers us a number of new opportunities when it comes to SEO. Through social sharing and building social signals, you can improve your rankings drastically and much faster than every before.

How do you incorporate social media into your link-building strategy? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Equity: The Power of Pinterest

March 29, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Social Equity benefits from the hidden power of Pinterest.

One of the jewels of social media is Pinterest. Since its launch a few years ago, Pinterest has been an unstoppable juggernaut in the realm of social media, and the Social Equity your business can derive from Pinterest is as impressive as it is unique.

Pinterest is not necessarily for every vertical, and it is important to understand that. While a presence on Pinterest can never hurt, it is not necessarily going to be your top generator of Social Equity if you do not meet the proper criteria – namely, that you are in a visual industry. Furthermore, if your business model is not necessarily apt for Pinterest (your average accountant may not be generating much revenue, Social Equity or referral traffic from Pinterest) you might be devoting precious resources to maintaining your account, when they should be focused on other social networks. Having said that, if you put together a social media strategy and recognize the potential for your business on Pinterest, the Social Equity you generate will be among the greatest of any of the networks we have discussed so far.

First, we should understand what makes Pinterest such a powerful tool when it comes to business.

The Business Potential for Pinterest

About a year ago, Shareaholic released a study that found something incredible: Pinterest was a greater generator of referral traffic than Twitter. Twitter. A month prior to that, it was discovered that Pinterest surpassed Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn combined for referral traffic. Since then, the social network has only grown in power, and with their recently launched Analytics feature, it is no wonder that we are discussing the Social Equity of Pinterest. Now Pinterest, too, recognizes the value it adds to business.

With the newly launched analytics and insights feature for your Pinterest account, you can monitor exactly how your audience is interacting with your pins and the images on your site. Though it is still somewhat new and in its infancy, this feature can mean big things for the future of Pinterest for business.

Other Important (Often Overlooked) Features

People tend to overlook a lot of the important features in the backend of Pinterest when it comes to generating referral traffic and building Social Equity. First, one should note that pins themselves do not register with crawlers to help with your search rankings, but your boards do, so optimize them.

Second, add links and meta descriptions to your images, because if those are shared outside of Pinterest, all the better for your exposure. And if someone clicks on the image within Pinterest, they are headed right to your site.

Third and finally, by simply adding a price to your pin’s description, you can add a price to the top corner of your image and create a pseudo-catalog (for minimal cost compared to traditional print) and share it with your followers, updating it regularly.

Now if you apply these simple measures, you can start to understand the Social Equity derived from a Pinterest presence.

Social Equity of Pinterest

Captivating images are a great way to build a following. People do not necessarily like text, but they love visual explanations. Just look at the jump in the use of infographics to simplify complex, often dull bits of content.

Pinterest can be a tool to develop a social image for your brand outside of your corporate image. Social Equity is as much about the likeability of your brand as it is the direct value added to your business as a result of social activity. Pinterest is an avenue through which you can make yourself very likeable, very quickly.

Furthermore, on the advertising end of things, Pinterest can, as noted above, provide your brand with a cost effective means of showcasing new products, providing links to an e-commerce store whereby those who like your product can purchase it and, more importantly, save you a tremendous amount of expense when it comes to printing new catalogs. Of course, a business with a physical location would likely do both, but for those who cannot come to your store, imagine the added value of having a virtual version of your catalog that not only features prices and availability, but links directly to the item in your virtual store.

In our social media case study about Burt’s Bees posted yesterday, we noted the increase in online sales Burt’s Bees experienced as a result of simplifying the buying process for their Facebook fans. (You can read the full article here.) Pinterest allows you to do the same thing, and a simple purchasing process with few or no hurdles means more customers and faster conversions.

Pinterest is a constantly and very quickly evolving tool. But with each step Pinterest takes, the Social Equity it stands to generate for your business goes a step further as well. Furthermore, because of its youth, there is still so much that has yet to be tried when it comes to Pinterest campaigns and promotions, and when it is something visual, it is often something intriguing. First to the social media market typically means biggest gains, and that goes both for financial and Social Equity gains.

Where have you found the value added to your business from Pinterest? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Media Case Study: Burt’s Bees

March 28, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Social media selling is all about engaging with your audience, and Burt’s Bees has managed to build an engaged Facebook audience of 1 million fans and convert quite a few of them into paying customers.

Facebook was one of the first social networks that businesses sought to take advantage of. As a result, Facebook adapted and created pages. Burt’s Bees, the notable personal care product line, saw Facebook as the perfect medium in which to engage with their audience, and the result has been a growing, highly engaged audience that converts to paying customers.

How did they do it? Burt’s Bees uses Facebook as a place to not only build an audience and share great content, but promote their products in a fun, engaging way that does not turn people away from the brand, and actually converts them into customers.

Selling on social media is a tricky grey area. People do not necessarily want to be bombarded with promotional content, but at the same time, many people follow a brand because they either use it, their friends use it or they want to keep up to date with specials and promotional offers. Burt’s Bees recognized this fact and modeled their Facebook marketing and sales strategy accordingly. In this social media case study, we aim to showcase the lessons social media marketers can extract from the Burt’s Bees brand in order to build an engaged audience on Facebook and convert that audience into paying customers.

1. ‘New’ is Intriguing

People are often curious about new products. There’s a certain mysterious quality about ‘new’ that tends to intrigue people. Burt’s Bees saw this and capitalized on it when it came to Facebook. One of the most prominent features of the Burt’s Bees Facebook page is their promotion of new products in fun and engaging ways. For example, one of the main ingredients differentiating their products is Cupuaçu. Nothing special about that. But when they wanted to emphasize the benefits of the new product, they took to social media to promote it by creating a video wherein they interviewed New Yorkers, asking them to try and pronounce the word.

The video is short, funny and the word stays on your mind. And there is little more than a branded sign off at the end. However, Melissa Sowry, Social Media and Content Manager at Burt’s Bees stated, “Through Facebook, we can introduce new products more interactively than in print or banner ads…and provide a space where [our consumers] can connect with one another.” So, what is this new product? People might like the word and the video, but they were starting conversations to find out more.

Lesson: Find a creative way to introduce new products and your audience will engage with your brand to find out more.

2. Social Media Selling

Burt’s Bees has integrated “Buy Now” buttons into their content and features coupons for Facebook fans. The result? Dramatically increased sales through social media.

Unlike many brands that may feature a product and a link to a store, Burt’s Bees allows users to click through to an e-commerce site from a product post that already has the product in a shopping cart. This may take a little customization on the part of the Facebook page and app designer, but any hurdles (e.g. clicking to the store, finding the product, adding to the cart, checking out, etc.) you can eliminate from the buying process means higher conversions.

Lesson: Help facilitate the buying process for your fans and you will see your conversions skyrocket.

3. Engaging and Influential Content

In addition to fun content like the video post above, one of the cornerstones of Burt’s Bees success on Facebook has come from their ability to engage with their fans in conversations. In an interview with eMarketer, Sowry said, “We also create opportunities for consumer education around skin care, for example, and sampling offers. We ran successful sampling programs on Facebook for our relaunched body lotions and new tinted lip balm.” Furthermore, the brand also asks questions and directly responds to user comments.

An active Facebook page is one thing, but to be engaging directly with your social media audience (particularly when that audience is nearly 1.5 million people large) will mean a returning audience, and that makes the social media sales process that much simpler.

Lesson: Engage with your audience and your products will sell themselves on social media.

4. Educate Your Audience

Burt’s Bees has increased their conversions on Facebook through education. By educating their fans on products and informing them as to which product best suits their needs and why, people want to buy from Bert’s Bees, and they don’t need to do too much research on their own.

The easier it is for a lead to learn about your product, compare it to the competition and ultimately make the decision, the higher the likelihood that you will see social media conversions when it comes to sales.

Lesson: Social media selling should be more about teaching people why your product is the best as opposed to simply telling them.

Burt’s Bees is one of the few examples out there of brands that has mastered social selling. It is not an easy task; not by any means. People do not necessarily want to be sold, but if it is done in the right way, your fans are more than open to the idea of buying from you through social media.

With regards to social selling, Facebook has been around a long time. But people still seem to struggling when it comes to engaging with their Facebook fan base and converting those fans into dollars. Burt’s Bees is a great example of social media selling done right.

What is your Facebook strategy with regards to social selling? Have you seen positive results? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Media and SEO: 25 Important Tips and Hints

March 27, 2013/by Corey Padveen

When it comes to SEO, social media is of ever-growing importance.

Social media is a major factor when it comes to SEO. In fact, within every one of your social networks there are small details that are referred to as social signals, and these are extremely important when it comes to improving your rankings.

One of the major differentiating factors with regards to social media when compared to other forms of search engine optimization is the fact that social signals are updated in real-time, and as such, your SERPs (search engine results page) can rise much quicker than they did with conventional methods of SEO. So, in order to ensure that you are being found on search engines, it is important to understand what factors contribute to your improved rankings when it comes to social media.

Below are 25 great tips and hints that should help you optimize your social media activities to factor in how your actions on social networks will impact your search rankings.

An engaged audience is the cornerstone of successful social media SEO; keep your audience engaged with your content and your rankings will skyrocket.
A big audience is nice, but a smaller, targeted audience is much better.
Your employees can be crucial to helping you spread your content across social media channels, which helps bolster your rankings.
Going “viral” is something that happens naturally, not something you can plan. (So don’t!)
Social signals are admittedly important to both Google and Bing.
Social sharing (i.e. Facebook share, re-tweet, Google +1) are more important social signals than direct signals, like optimizing your About Us section on Facebook.
Captivating images with Alt Tags are easily shared and great for SEO (particularly when it comes to Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Google+.
Build your boards on Pinterest! These register as social signals but individual pins do not.
Of Facebook, Twitter and Google+, Google+ is the best network in which to engage with influencers in your industry.
Authorship authority on Google is important to improving your rankings, and a good way of doing that is with Google+.
Three important criteria for your Facebook EdgeRank are affinity, interaction and timeliness.
Facebook Graph Search (in these early stages) is most beneficial to the entertainment (movies and TV), fashion, restaurant, travel and hotel industries.
Twitter is an arena important to customer service – engage with your audience when they are reaching out to you and you will be rewarded in your SEO.
Create 5 different tweets for the same blog post.
Don’t be afraid to post tweets linking to the same content on Twitter more than a couple of times per day; your followers are not going to be watching everything you post throughout the entire day.
Keep creating content – the more content you create (both on social channels and on your blog) the higher your rankings will increase over time.
Engaging, share-friendly content should always be what you strive to post.
The most clicked content titles consists of: “How To”, “Do/Do Not”, “Top 10/25/100”, Tips, Reviews, etc.
Creating good titles for search engines is nice, but creating compelling titles that intrigue your audience is much, much better.
Links in SlideShare presentations can be crawled and registered with Google (as a social backlink – among the most powerful ranking criteria).
Google auto-complete is the feature most beneficial to registering your keywords.
Optimizing a mobile app/site/piece of social media content is a crucial feature to engaging with your audience, particularly now with Google’s Universal Analytics.
Be sure to optimize your website and all of your social media profiles (especially Google+) for your address; this will benefit your local rankings significantly.
When it comes to mobile search, the only engine that really matters (well, matters more than anyone else) is Google. (#AppleMaps)
Be active in the conversation! Optimizing social media channels and blogs for SEO are one thing, but to really see your rankings shoot up, make sure people are familiar with your brand (and you!) by engaging in the conversation online!

Overall, the one thing to remember is that in order for social media to factor into your search rankings, you need to have an engaging brand. And that works both ways. It doesn’t happen overnight. Social media might be a faster means than any other when it comes to driving traffic and increasing your rankings, but it still takes time and plenty of commitment.

How are you optimizing your social media channels for SEO? Have you seen any results? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Media ROI: 10 Examples [INFOGRAPHIC]

March 26, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Social media ROI is one of the most highly debated topics of conversation in the realm of social marketing.

People are constantly talking about social media ROI. There are those who say that social media ROI is among the most transparent of measurements when it comes to benefits reaped from marketing efforts, and then there is the (still very large) school of skeptics that believes that social media ROI is a fantasy of social marketers, and that it is not a return that is properly measurable.

Last week, Coca-Cola released a statement saying that their efforts on social media have been “crucial” to sales. That’s a word with a lot of implications. But Coca-Cola is just one example of a major brand that has witnessed tremendous growth and success when it comes to social media ROI.

Below is a set of 10 examples of social media ROI from brands around the world. These brands used a variety of channels and different types of campaigns to reap these rewards, but each one experienced measurable, financial gains from their efforts on social media.

How do you measure social media ROI? What campaigns have you launched on social media that generated positive returns? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

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