When someone called me a social media Rock Star back in 2008, I was thrilled. My first thought? “Boy, that was easy!” Yes, it was truly easy, which is what I’ve realized after all these years on social media. The thing with social media is that we marketing folks often see it as a game — at least, many did in the early days. Top 100 influencers, top 50 Digg users, top 20 Stumblers… the lists were numerous. Many of those lists made sense in one way or the other at the time. Top Diggers would be “bought” by brands to submit and FP (front page) their stories on Digg. Top influencers would be invited to “brand engagement” programs. Some of this exists even now, in more sophisticated form. But today, the social media scene has evolved for the better. Number games and charts are gone for good, and brands and agencies have come to understand the significance of quality over quantity. However, there are still some residual bad habits that … [Read more...] about 5 Ways To Ruin Your Social Media Portfolio
Web design and social media
Why Content, Social Media & Great Websites Are Now Considered
Internet users have gotten spoiled. We expect the brands we interact with to be on top of their blog, website, and social media feeds — so when one isn’t, it really stands out. People who spend the majority of their working day connected to the Internet want to be able to find the information they’re looking for quickly and in an easily digestible format. If your online presence is lacking, then not only will they judge your company — they might find another company who does online marketing better than you. Online Content Not all companies have to have a blog. But if an online user is searching for a plumber and comes across one who has great articles about fixing common plumbing issues or has a Facebook page that is updated even weekly with questions and company updates, they may feel more inclined to work with that company than one with no online presence. Your online presence is now a precursor to how your customers interact with you. By setting yourself up … [Read more...] about Why Content, Social Media & Great Websites Are Now Considered
The Truth About Social Media Measurement
I’ve spent over two years developing a social media measurement platform. One of the most important things I’ve learned during that time is that what counts as good and valuable measurement is unique to almost every client. While there are some commonalities between companies in similar industry verticals, my experience suggests strongly that there simply is no “cookbook” for social media measurement that applies universally. What this means is that you can’t simply watch what the gurus are measuring (or the competition, or that guy you met at the conference) and adopt it as your own. To make matters even more complicated, there is an enormous amount of data available about social media – and only some of it will be valuable to you. Sorting through all of it to find the bits that will be useful simply isn’t an option. These challenges often lead to two common disasters: Analysis Paralysis (nothing gets measured and sound bites like … [Read more...] about The Truth About Social Media Measurement
Fifty Shades of Social Media Measurement Tools
(Full Disclosure: The author’s company sells a social media measurement product) At least once a week I run across an article or blog post about tools for measuring social media. Headlines like “5 Social Media Measurement Tools That Save Time and Money” or “Six Free Social Media Measurement Tools for B2B” have become as common as graduation parties in June. While it is encouraging to see so many measurement options emerging, the wide range of products in this space can be confusing. Part of the problem is that the term “social media measurement” is used to describe tools designed for many different types of users and tasks. I keep a running list of many different types of tools that can help users measure social media in some way. My list is divided into five categories based on the primary function or use of the tool. Here are my five categories: Listening Tools Listening tools are commonly referred to as social media monitoring, … [Read more...] about Fifty Shades of Social Media Measurement Tools
Google Doesn’t Want Searchers To Find SEOs & Web Designers
If you go to Google.com and type “hamburgers,” “shoes,” “candy,” “grills,” “beer,” and hundreds of other terms of ambiguous local intent, Google will almost always show you local results on a map that’s tied to your IP address. But type in “seo,” “seo company,” “web design company” and several terms related to these two types of businesses — heck, go ahead and specifically add in a city name like “seattle” or “houston” or wherever, and even include the state abbreviation like “wa” or “tx” — and Google will almost never show you local results on a map. Why does Google have it out for web designers and SEOs? That question has been going around for nearly two months, particularly in this thread in the Google Maps Help Forum. And, as Barry Schwartz reported on Search Engine Roundtable, Google employee “Joel H” … [Read more...] about Google Doesn’t Want Searchers To Find SEOs & Web Designers
User Considerations For Web Design And Online Marketing
The most difficult group entity we design for, engage with and market to is commonly referred to as “users”. Some of you know members of this group as people. A few use the term without thinking it through. The term “users” has an official formal name in some industries, which to be honest, only serves to complicate matters. I think the term “user” is often quietly defined as “they who are out there”. Like we’re all colorful globs of Jello. Do we like being called users? This question is asked often and yes, opinions vary. What fascinates me isn’t our feelings about the word “user” (even though to me it feels negative), but what we mean when we use the term. Is it a blanket term representing many types of people? Are users’ people at all? Could it mean computer hardware or animals? As one Twitter person reminded me, in the movie Tron, “users were gods”. I’m cool with that. First, The Labels … [Read more...] about User Considerations For Web Design And Online Marketing
Why SMX Social Media Marketing Is A Must-Attend Event
Social media marketing is hot—and everyone agrees that it has become a must-do activity for all companies wanting to connect with customers, reach out to prospects and maximize brand awareness. A recent study by online ad agency Collective found that 90 percent of marketers want to try new things online, and 62 percent of marketers anticipate increasing social media spending in the next 6 months. Yet, astonishingly, only 12 percent believe that social media marketing is valuable for brands. What explains this remarkable disconnect? We believe it’s because most companies don’t fully understand and aren’t leveraging the advantages that this powerful new form of marketing offers. They’re using familiar tactics and techniques that have worked in the traditional world of marketing, but that fall flat in the new online social media universe. Or companies fail at the crucial task of honestly engaging with customers in a genuine, social way. Worse, they … [Read more...] about Why SMX Social Media Marketing Is A Must-Attend Event
The Hidden Cost Of Cheap SEO & Social Media Labor
Fact: All businesses, large or small, want to save money wherever they can. I understand this. I sympathize with this. What I don’t understand, however, is why so many businesses try to take the cheap route and cut corners in their online strategy— and then are dumbfounded when they get scammed/receive terrible results/get blocked by Google. I know how devastatingly costly it can be to launch, maintain, and grow a business. But there are certain aspects of building a business where it’s never okay to cut corners. You wouldn’t hire an inexperienced, too-cheap contractor to build the building. You wouldn’t buy discounted, bruised produce if you owned a restaurant and you wouldn’t buy day-old bread for your sandwich shop. So why would you trust your website and your online reputation—the very first introduction your customers will have with your business — to an inexperienced amateur or a too-cheap scammer? In life and online, you get what … [Read more...] about The Hidden Cost Of Cheap SEO & Social Media Labor
Web Design Is SEO Most Important SEO Factors To Consider When You’re Designing A Site
Search engine optimization processes made great strides in the last few years. When the phrase first appeared, SEO web design intended little more than stuffing your great 90’s website with whatever terms you had been optimizing for, getting listed on famous directories, and populating your meta data for the search engines to evaluate. Search engine marketing and SEO optimization were fundamentally as traditional as the search engines themselves, before the 1st algo has been written to point keyword stuffing, you just typed your key phrase more times compared to anyone else to get the top place in Yahoo. But, oh man, have things modified. In their infinite search to provide users with the most appropriate, authoritative and good quality recommendations for a given keyword phrase, the algorithms and web metrics utilized by search engines such as Google to index, evaluate and understand the contents of the web have grown to be more and more advanced. The complication and relative … [Read more...] about Web Design Is SEO Most Important SEO Factors To Consider When You’re Designing A Site
#PPC & Paid Social Media Strategies With @Pamela_Lund
Pamela Lund is a well-known PPC marketing specialist, and an upcoming speaker at the SEJ Summit in Santa Monica on February 24th. The conference ticket cost for attendees is being covered by our partner, Searchmetrics, which delivers enterprise SEO and content marketing analysis, recommendations, forecasting and reporting for companies that want potential customers to find them faster. Want to attend? We still have a few spots open – so if you are in the LA area and want to learn from Pamela (and other speakers like Neil Patel, Stephan Spencer, Morgan Brown, and more), sign up for an invite now. If you aren’t in the LA area, check out where else the SEJ Summit will be this year, including Chicago, NYC, San Francisco, London, and Dallas. We are excited to welcome Pamela next week. and can’t wait to hear what she has to say. But for now, here is some insight from Pamela on PPC and paid social media: As with all things SEM, the answer is it depends. For e-commerce, the … [Read more...] about #PPC & Paid Social Media Strategies With @Pamela_Lund