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Posts Tagged ‘Social Media’
Sunday, March 25th, 2012
Google have added two new features to their Analytics tool. The first measures social media interaction whilst the second measures page load speeds. These are two areas that we know Google are keen to include in their search algorithms. Page speed is an important issue for any website owner. The new tool added to Google Analytics makes it easy to see at a glance how a page is performing over time.
It’s easy for website owners to become complacent over issues such as page speed. You visit your pages and all appears well. They load quickly and with little drama, so why worry. However, at different times of the day, and on different days of the week, the story could be very different. Whilst the speed loading data isn’t comprehensive, you will be able to see at a glance if there are regular periods when your pages are loading slowly. You will also get an idea if one or more pages are loading far slower than others. This could indicate a page coding error, or a heavy graphics influence that may need looking into. Users are looking for fast page loading times – Google Analytics will prove to be a valuable tool for measuring your page loading speed.
The second tool looks at social media engagement. Although strongly influenced by Google 1+ data, it does provide valuable insight into the source of your traffic. The Social Visitor Flow sector allows you see at a glance how much traffic and engagement your pages gain from individual social media sites. You can also see at a glance which content is being shared on a regular basis – this is a good indicator of the type of content visitors are looking for – a good place to start if you’re running out of ideas for fresh content.
Google Analytics is by no means a comprehensive analytics tool. However, as a free resource, it does provide almost all the information a website owner needs. In fact, most website owners only use 10% of the data available. Spend a little time learning more about Google Analytics and you’ll be surprised how this free tool can help you improve your website. You can read more on the Page Speed tool here and the Social Media tool here.
Tags: google analytics, page load speed, site speed, Social Media, social media metrics
Posted in Tracking & Analytics | 4 Comments »
Friday, March 23rd, 2012
Reputation is an important factor for any online business. One of the hardest task for any online enterprise is developing trust, especially if you are asking for credit card details with the promise of delivery via snail mail. If a potential shopper feels there is a risk to their personal data, they will not stay and shop. If you have a reputation for poor quality, poor service, and poor communication, shoppers will also turn away. The question many business owners now face is whether or not an employers personal social media activities impact on their business. Reputation management includes working hard on preventative measures first, and that includes vetting employers.
There was a rather interesting (perhaps disturbing) article on the Washington Post that reported on a new trend that is growing slowly though human resource departments – the close vetting of job applicants through online channels. Checking an applicant is not new – employers have done it for centuries. What is new is the request (or demand) for access to social media profiles. In some cases, the request is not just for access, but for passwords as well. I can perhaps understand an employer wanting access to an employer’s social media account, however, I am not to sure the same holds true for a job applicant.
At what point does an individuals private life become the domain of an employer? If you have a business, would you want access to your employer’s social media account? Individuals can bring a business into disrepute in a number of ways, the most common being badmouthing an employer online. Other examples include being involved in tasteless activities, although some would argue that this only effects a business if the business is someway linked to that profile. Most social media profiles don’t include actual employers.
It’s an interesting argument – individual privacy versus a business’s right to know. A business spends a lot of time and money developing a good reputation. Does that entitle them to invade someone’s privacy to protect that reputation? How far would you go to protect your business’s reputation?
Tags: employees, Social Media, social media profiles
Posted in Reputation Management | 6 Comments »
Wednesday, March 14th, 2012
Whether you have an online or offline business, e-mail marketing is still a proven winner when it comes to marketing your business. One common complaint is the difficulty in building an e-mail marketing list. It really isn’t that difficult to build that list – the key is in not making the process too difficult. Offline businesses probably have an easier path, they can ask their customers at the checkout, and you’ll be surprised how many customers say yes.
For online businesses, there are numerous points where you can obtain a users e-mail address, the most obvious being during the checkout stage. Social media is also proving to be a reliable source of e-mail addresses for both online and offline businesses, and the benefit there is the fact that many of them are not current customers.
Why is e-mail marketing for small business still a winning way to go? People do respond to e-mails if they sent in the right format. Blasting your list is not going to win business. Rather, e-mails that are ‘newsy’ in nature are often welcome as are catalog type e-mails. In effect, they replace the old fashioned mail-order catalogs, and to a lesser extent, the junk mail catalogs used by offline businesses. Mail-order catalogs were successful because customers agreed to go on the mail-order mailing list – as they do with an e-mail list.
E-mail is still the number one online communication channel, especially for longer messages than need more than 150 characters. Businesses with a strong e-mail list that is being used wisely report good success rates when it comes to increased sales. If you are a small business with an online presence, consider developing an e-mail list that you can regularly market to – you’ll be surprised at the results.
Tags: mailing list, Social Media
Posted in E-mail Marketing for Small Business | 13 Comments »
Sunday, March 4th, 2012
Are eCommerce websites any different to a standard website or blog when it comes to SEO? You would think that a website was a website and that SEO is similar across the board. In essence, SEO is similar, however, different types of websites do need to concentrate on different areas of SEO. Ecommerce websites often include content that isn’t permanent, for example, product descriptions – these are often removed once the site discontinues that product.
If you sell a range of products through an online entity, then you do need to concentrate on certain SEO factors that could be critical to your business. These factors include:
- Converting keywords – every online business has a list of keywords that convert into sales very well. You need to protect that list, and to constantly monitor those keywords in search results. Those keywords could be the one factor that is keeping your business alive, so they require a lot SEO activity to keep them ranking highly.
- Duplicate content - perhaps not as big an issue as several years ago, duplicate content can still hurt a business. When creating content, particularly if you’re an on-seller, don’t fall in to the trap of publishing the manufacturers descriptions. Create your own descriptions, optimized for your keywords (and long tail versions as well).
- URL issues - following on from duplicate content is the perception of duplicate content. This is caused by having more than one url for the same document, this is very common with product descriptions. Keep a watch on url issues, especially if you point to your product descriptions from several places on your website. The use of robots.txt files can help, for example, can prevent search engines from spidering group data such your archives.
- Be social – they say that 50% of online shoppers are logged into Facebook whilst shopping. If that’s the case, then the inclusion of social media connect buttons makes sense. If a customer has enjoyed the shopping experience, or better yet, found a good product at a good price, then you want them sharing that information with their friends – put those buttons on to take advantage. Be warned, customers are twice as likely to complain online if they have been disrupted.
Concentrate on those aspects of your eCommerce website, and you should find that your business steadily grows. Let those SEO areas go, and you’ll find that, over time, your customer base will diminish, and with it, your business.
Tags: content, keywords, Social Media
Posted in SEO for Small Business | 4 Comments »
Saturday, February 25th, 2012
If you look around the Internet, particularly on blogs, you’ll notice that some articles have bios in their footers. In most cases, the articles themselves are guest posts, and the bio is the ‘reward’ the author gets for writing the article. Reward? One of the major reasons for writing a guest post is to receive a link back to your website and links have been regarded as gold in the past. There are, however, many sites that are now including small bios in the footer of their own content, particularly if they have multiple authors.
Should you include bios in the footer of your posts? If you have multiple authors, then it could be a good idea. If you employ several people in your business, then it may also be a good idea to have them write content for your website. Who better to write about the technical side of a product than a technician, what about your company’s customer service – someone who handles customer service? So what purpose does a bio serve? I can think of three very good reasons to include a bio.
- Personalize – a bio helps to personalize the content. The reader knows they are looking at content that has been published by a particular person, someone they can put a name to, even if it’s only a first name. You can link the bio to a profile page, contact page, or a social media page. Personalizing also leads to
- Credibility – if your bio (or profile page) includes qualifications/training/skills in a particular area, then the reader is going to put more credence on the information they are reading. Credibility is also affected by
- Ownership – your employees (writers) are going to take ownership of content that has their name attached. People are more likely to produce quality material if they know they are going to be acknowledged for that material.
Bio’s are not for every website, however, even single author website gain some benefits. Placing a bio on a particularly good page of content, and linking to your Google+ profile, or a social media page, can add credibility to you. Credibility is one of the first stepping stones to trust, and trust often leads to sales.
Tags: article writing, blogs, Social Media
Posted in Business Writing | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012
Are you using infographics on your website? Infographics are those images you often come across that tell a story. They can be as simple as pie charts or bar graphs, or as complex as product process from raw material to finished goods. Graphics in general have a lot of appeal. Infographics go that one step further – they deliver information in an image format. So how do they improve your social media appeal?
Images are amongst the most shared content on the Internet, especially through social media websites like Facebook and StumbleUpon. Pinterest is the latest social media sharing site, and that too has a heavy leaning towards images. In fact, users will even tweet images they like, and that’s the top four social media sites covered.
Whilst images are popular, infographics are even more popular. Are infographics hard to create? Simple images like pie charts or bar graphs are very easy. You can create them using any popular spreadsheet, then either save them directly or copy and paste them into any graphics program; even the most basic Paint – I would recommend using a better graphics program, one that made it easy to add additional text. If you use Windows, you can often just right click on a graph (in a spreadsheet), then select Save Image as from the drop down menu.
More complex infographics will need more complex software. With the right software, you can import small images, add text, arrows and background color to produce a top quality infographic. The more appealing it is to the eye, the more popular it will be. Just be sure the infographic tells a story and the story is relevant to your website. As an added bonus, search engines, particularly Google, seem to love infographics. They will often appear in search results quite close to the top.
If you’re not using infographics, you could be missing out on the opportunity to promote your business across social media websites. A good infographic shouldn’t need supporting text around it, however, when publishing an infographic, it helps to include that supporting to text in case readers can’t quite grasp the concepts – especially if you are only using data graphs.
Tags: infographics, Social Media
Posted in Social Media | 7 Comments »
Thursday, February 16th, 2012
In an era in which video, smart video, and social media dominates marketing discussions, it seems that podcasts have become the forgotten friend of business professionals. Are podcasts still relevant, or is it yesterdays technology and it’s now time to move on? Demand is always going to be an important factor when using technology like video and audio. The podcast that’s nothing more than a sales blurb has never been popular, however, I do think the demand is there for audio that is of value to a listener.
The best material for podcasting on a website revolves around the sharing of information. Interviews, recordings of public speaking engagements and lectures all make for a good podcast. Recording a podcast and making it available for downloading is only the first step. Promoting your podcast is also important, and social media is generally the best tool for spreading the word.
I wouldn’t, however, stop at promoting the content of your podcast. People often need to be reminded about the technology – for example, being able to download to a suitable player and played back while commuting. After all, most people seem to spend at least 30 minutes commuting each way.
Small business podcasts are still a valuable tool for many businesses. Whilst video and social media marketing have become the main channel for marketing, if you have content that would make a good podcast, don’t be shy in adding it to your website. You may not convert that podcast to a sale, but it can be a great resource for developing your brand, and most importantly, building your reputation as an expert in your field – and that’s invaluable in today’s online world.
Tags: podcasting, Social Media, Video Marketing
Posted in Small Business Podcasts | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012
The Google Panda update has really made people stop and take stock of the content on their website. Content for the sake of content is going out the door. What’s now needed is content that grabs a reader’s attention. The term ‘quality’ content is often bandied about – and it’s not a term I’m overly fond off since one persons view of ‘quality’ is going to be entirely different to someone else’s. Perhaps we need a new word to describe content – how about engaging, since that appears to be the most popular type of content.
Do you write engaging content? The kind of content that readers may share with others? That is becoming the benchmark for content now, not how many links your content acquires. Why is ‘sharing’ an important metric? Sharing implies that your content is worthy of being recommended to others, and since people first starting selling way back in the caveman days, recommendations have been the most sort after marketing prize. Search engines like Google have long understood this principle, using links as the recommendation currency. It has taken them some time to find ways of collecting social data (sharing) and incorporating it into the search algorithms.
Google’s Panda update really tried to remove low quality content from search results replacing it with more up-to-date and more ‘engaging’ content. Article directories and similar content farms all took a big hit in search rankings. Sites that had content that was regularly shared appeared to gain boosts in their search positions.
The lesson for all website owners, particularly those who run a business from their website, is to try and produce content that grabs people’s interest. Instead of volume, it will come down to that all important ‘quality’ component – better yet, engaging effect. From a small business SEO perspective, it will be interesting to see if, in twelve months time, the mantra is not publish more content, but publish content less often ensuring it is topical, what readers are looking for, and yes – engaging. How engaging is your content?
Tags: Social Media, social media sharing
Posted in SEO for Small Business | 3 Comments »
Saturday, February 11th, 2012
Is it important to brand a small business? You bet it is, and it isn’t as hard as many people imagine. Wesley LeFebvre has an interesting article on Small Business UK that discusses why and how you should brand your business. Of particular interest is the how, and he talks about five cheap ways to brand your business. His suggestions include:
- Getting a branded logo,
- Customizing your subscribe box,
- Linking your social media profiles,
- Adding an “About Us” page, and
- Including a personal photo
I’d like to add one more – being seen with your brand or logo. This can be in blog comments, writing guest posts, being active on forums related to your niche, and the obvious social media realms such as Facebook and Twitter. With the latter, it’s important to be seen away from your own pages. This can include commenting on other people’s pages, retweeting tweets that are of interest, and being involved in conversations.
I titled this ‘quick and easy’ branding tips, and I know many would question the ‘quick’ component of being seen with your brand or logo. It can be quick – you don’t have to spend hours engaged in social commentary; you can achieve a lot in ten or fifteen minutes each day.
Wesley LeFebvre makes an important point about branding. While it is good for your business to have an image (brand) that is recognizable, it also makes good SEO sense in today’s environment. This is where linking social media profiles, for example, stands out as in important point. If you haven’t taken the time to brand your site, perhaps it’s time you did. Follow those points and you’ll have made a great start.
Tags: SEO, Social Media
Posted in Branding | 5 Comments »
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