Yes....REALLY! I remember when computers were seen as toys (I was really young then;-)). They were toys until they evolved and people started recognizing that without them you can no longer communicate, organize or manage. Now look at them.
I remember when email was deemed to be a flash in the pan. Not anymore. Websites were considered nothing more than an extended business card. Now they're the centre of commerce and information.
Now we have TWITTER, and people are trying to figure that one out. How can 140 characters be of any use to anyone? Trust me, it's more valuable than any other marketing activity you could be doing.
Here are five areas that Twitter adds incredible value:
Search Engine Optimization - when used properly, meaning when keywords are used, when the right links are used and when activity is constant and consistent, twitter provides valuable influence on your web site's PageRank and it establishes some pretty powerful back link support to help search engines find and recognize you.
Market Research - the key to effectively using twitter is in defining what your area of expertise is. For me it's social media and Internet marketing as a whole. So I only follow social media people that I consider experts in those areas. Most posts from these experts tend to have a link to an article, a study, an example or some other information that helps me become stronger, more aware and ultimately more useful to my clients.
Market Reach - my value to my clients is in my experience, knowledge and commitment to social media and Internet marketing. Their core competence is not. So by being able to synthesis and digest important information that will help them understand and benefit from this valuable subject area, and by becoming socially engaged themselves, I now have the opportunity to expand my reach. How? If the content I send out is engaging, interesting and/or supportive, there's a great chance they will retweet to their followers....and then the followers will retweet...and so on.
Engagement - Out of sight, out of mind. Or perhaps a better way of putting it, Reputation equals Repetition. If we are not in contact with someone on a regular basis, it's easy to be forgotten. When we can strike up a relationship with others and be able to keep them in the loop on key subject matters regularly and often, they give us permission to keep connected....and if we are good about it, they will engage others for us.
Measurement - Twitter is a great way of measuring your influence, engagement and social value. In fact I wrote an article a number of months ago that provides a number tools that will help to make measurement easy and fast.
Remember Twitter is just one venue, and should not be considered your only Internet Marketing vehicle. A good strategy comes from research; combined activities including websites, blogs, twitter and other online tools; and from commitment and effort.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Social Media Is Better For Traffic!
Ah ha moment time!!!! In just two months of Social Media activity for two of our clients, we've quadrupled traffic for one client, and multiplied traffic by a factor of eight for another. And it's not just traffic for the sake of traffic....it's qualified traffic!
We've been following the site statistics quite closely since the launch of these two sites, and monitored social media activity as well. Our anticipation at the beginning of these partnerships was that the social media activity would boost the search results. That may in fact happen, but with just two months in for Google and Bing to do their work, it's too early to tell. Mind you, the keywords we positioned are working very well for them in search.
What we found is that in both cases the majority of the traffic is coming directly from social media activity. In fact, the traffic is being driven by 'influencers' in social media that discuss and promote our clients. So it's not fly by night visitors...it's valuable visitors.
A tell tale sign of this relevancy of traffic is indicated by the number of pages each visitor goes to within the site, and the time that they spend on the site. Again, in both cases the results are incredible. Now content has a lot to do with that, but knowing that we've attracted and retained qualified visitors gives us and our clients a strength they couldn't get from traditional media....atleast not for the price;-).
So, bottom line, make social media an active part of your internet marketing strategy and you'll see returns like you've never seen before.
We've been following the site statistics quite closely since the launch of these two sites, and monitored social media activity as well. Our anticipation at the beginning of these partnerships was that the social media activity would boost the search results. That may in fact happen, but with just two months in for Google and Bing to do their work, it's too early to tell. Mind you, the keywords we positioned are working very well for them in search.
What we found is that in both cases the majority of the traffic is coming directly from social media activity. In fact, the traffic is being driven by 'influencers' in social media that discuss and promote our clients. So it's not fly by night visitors...it's valuable visitors.
A tell tale sign of this relevancy of traffic is indicated by the number of pages each visitor goes to within the site, and the time that they spend on the site. Again, in both cases the results are incredible. Now content has a lot to do with that, but knowing that we've attracted and retained qualified visitors gives us and our clients a strength they couldn't get from traditional media....atleast not for the price;-).
So, bottom line, make social media an active part of your internet marketing strategy and you'll see returns like you've never seen before.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Strategic Internet Success - Anjolique.com
An interesting thing about Anjolique.com is that they are battling in an industry that is comprised of the likes of such companies as Vera Wang, Davids Bridal and Alfred Angelo, some of the biggest names in wedding dress supply. The competition isn't the interesting thing....but the battle that's being won is!
Anjolique.com is now inching closer and closer to reaching the online traffic of their high budget counterparts, and their online activity is already proving to drive traffic to their dealer's sites....and it's only been ONE MONTH!!!
It was a tough leap to go from the traditional magazine advertising model that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, to the revolutionary marketing medium of social media and search engine optimization, but it's already paying off.
The critical first stage of the transition focused on rebuilding their existing site, which comprised entirely of images and no text at all. A huge no no for search engines. Content, design, flow and strategic search engine modifications were carefully orchestrated to deliver the desired outcome of being found and being attractive and resourceful.
The second stage involved the creation and integration of social media properties that enable the company to market through conversation, a marketing paradigm shift that is ideal for their target market. With a highly active Twitter page and an information rich Facebook site that seamlessly mingle with their Anjolique.com site, traffic and sales are growing quickly. In fact, in the first two weeks of this year, the site has more than doubled the unique visitors it had for the entire month of January last year!
A well executed Search Strategy, and clever Social Media Strategy and a committed leadership team in the company are helping to drive traffic and success to this amazing wedding dress supplier.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Out of Chaos Comes Order - The Internet's Future
It is said that great things are born out of chaos. Some say the start of the Universe was the result of a 'Big Bang' wherein an event triggered the explosion of a dense and hot mass and that explosion continues to this day 13.7 billion years later where planets exist in an orderly manner, relying on each others gravitational pull and characteristic relationships.
Another example of great things being born out of chaos can be seen in you and I. From a singular event where we 'exploded' into this world, screaming and terrified, we ultimately became cooperative, caring and collaborative human beings (for the most part;-)).
So it's no great surprise that the Internet itself was born out of chaos and destruction. In 1962, the Internet seeds were planted as a means of remotely controlling nuclear weapons. It was a network of computers that were strategically placed throughout the country for the sole purpose of destruction and control.
Over the years, researchers recognized it's potential value and through the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) ARPANET was created , enabling the communication and collaboration of researchers nationwide. Replaced in 1992 with the help of Tim Berners-Lee and the adoption of his HTTP and HTML, the Internet as we now know it was able to evolve.
As more and more users found reason to engage in the use of the Internet, the transition from research and technical boasting has moved to more mainstream interactions. We are all finding relevancy in the Internet now. Whether it's looking for directions, seeking out referrals, checking bank balances, purchasing items, you name it, the universe has expanded.
Where we go from here is a continual evolution towards a sense of order and relevance. The techies and researchers were vital to the foundation of this great Internet universe. The graphic designers and the game makers were key to engaging more users. But it is the communicators and more specifically, as Malcolm Gladwell so famously illustrates, the Connectors, the Maven's and the Salesmen that will be the true builders and the future of the Internet.
Just look at Social Media today. We see Connectors whenever we see a referral or a link. We see Mavens in various blogs, research postings and articles. And we see Salesmen in the various websites and portals that we find when ever we search for a product or service.
It is early still, but as more and more people come to recognize the true essence of the Internet, it will continue to grow more orderly and relevant and quite frankly become the universe that everyone will come to rely on.
Another example of great things being born out of chaos can be seen in you and I. From a singular event where we 'exploded' into this world, screaming and terrified, we ultimately became cooperative, caring and collaborative human beings (for the most part;-)).
So it's no great surprise that the Internet itself was born out of chaos and destruction. In 1962, the Internet seeds were planted as a means of remotely controlling nuclear weapons. It was a network of computers that were strategically placed throughout the country for the sole purpose of destruction and control.
Over the years, researchers recognized it's potential value and through the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) ARPANET was created , enabling the communication and collaboration of researchers nationwide. Replaced in 1992 with the help of Tim Berners-Lee and the adoption of his HTTP and HTML, the Internet as we now know it was able to evolve.
As more and more users found reason to engage in the use of the Internet, the transition from research and technical boasting has moved to more mainstream interactions. We are all finding relevancy in the Internet now. Whether it's looking for directions, seeking out referrals, checking bank balances, purchasing items, you name it, the universe has expanded.
Where we go from here is a continual evolution towards a sense of order and relevance. The techies and researchers were vital to the foundation of this great Internet universe. The graphic designers and the game makers were key to engaging more users. But it is the communicators and more specifically, as Malcolm Gladwell so famously illustrates, the Connectors, the Maven's and the Salesmen that will be the true builders and the future of the Internet.
Just look at Social Media today. We see Connectors whenever we see a referral or a link. We see Mavens in various blogs, research postings and articles. And we see Salesmen in the various websites and portals that we find when ever we search for a product or service.
It is early still, but as more and more people come to recognize the true essence of the Internet, it will continue to grow more orderly and relevant and quite frankly become the universe that everyone will come to rely on.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Cold Calling Is Dead....
It's funny how a little recession is all that is needed to get companies to recognize the inherent problems and wastes that have permeated their existance for years. When revenues plummet, sharper pencils come out to see what is working and what is not, and what has become explicitely clear is that marketing has changed, and activities like cold calling are a waste.
We have a great client who half jokingly told us that he still does cold calling. It's a practice that he's done for years. He has diligently made 15 cold calls a day and has not made a sale from a cold call in over five years. It was the practice of doing something active that made him feel like he was being productive, but the fact remained that it wasn't doing anything. Guess what he's stopping?
We're in an environment where people now realize that they are the masters of their own universe. We all know the goals and objectives of a cold caller. Make the sale, and use whatever manipulative tools you can use to do so. Add in the incentive of commission as an influencer in the process, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the activity of cold calling is flawed and has forced it's own demise.
There is a greater chance of succeeding at solving a problem by simply asking trusted friends and associates than there is in waiting for a stranger to call. The reality is, we are tired of the old 'in your face' advertising and marketing games...and we don't trust them.
The bottom line is that we will have a much greater chance of succeeding by building on earned and trusted relationships. Honest networking, demonstrated expertise, successful execution of promises beyond expectations and being available will go a lot further than cold calling ever will.
Rest in Peace, Cold Calling!
We have a great client who half jokingly told us that he still does cold calling. It's a practice that he's done for years. He has diligently made 15 cold calls a day and has not made a sale from a cold call in over five years. It was the practice of doing something active that made him feel like he was being productive, but the fact remained that it wasn't doing anything. Guess what he's stopping?
We're in an environment where people now realize that they are the masters of their own universe. We all know the goals and objectives of a cold caller. Make the sale, and use whatever manipulative tools you can use to do so. Add in the incentive of commission as an influencer in the process, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the activity of cold calling is flawed and has forced it's own demise.
There is a greater chance of succeeding at solving a problem by simply asking trusted friends and associates than there is in waiting for a stranger to call. The reality is, we are tired of the old 'in your face' advertising and marketing games...and we don't trust them.
The bottom line is that we will have a much greater chance of succeeding by building on earned and trusted relationships. Honest networking, demonstrated expertise, successful execution of promises beyond expectations and being available will go a lot further than cold calling ever will.
Rest in Peace, Cold Calling!
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Think Links! But Not Just Any Links
It wasn't that long ago that marketers were habitually manipulating sites and submissions to gain greater rankings in prominent search engines. Originally, in the 1990's search engines had minimal staffing and very little power and at that time the concept of search could barely keep up to the fast growing number of new sites. That of course, left it wide open for abuse and manipulation. Today, however, the scene has become considerably more evolved and civilized. Search engines have gotten smarter, especially around evaluating the connections that are their bread and butter: the links.
Web crawlers, or the small little programs that search engines use to index any and all sites they come across, utilize links to not only get to other sites, but to evaluate their worth. It didn't take search engines long to realize that the value of their engines was determined by the value of the results. So it was imperative that they would change the way they indexed sites.
What search engines can't live without though are the hyperlinks that help them travel from one site to another, and it is in these hyperlinks that search engines have put greater prominence and stricter rules on when evaluating a site for ranking.
Here are five very important considerations for using links to get better rankings:
1. Links from related sites hold more value then links from unrelated sites. Don't link to sites about training dogs when your core business is selling electronics. Instead, try to link to sites that use electronics and have related keywords in their sites.
2. Backlinks (links from other sites to yours) are extremely important in helping engines determine your value. But again, not just any site. Sites that are 'influencers' such as related association sites, news sites, international customers are more valuable than sites that appeal to a limited audience.
3. The number of inbound links is important. Search engines are looking for popularity with quality references. The more popular you are with outside interests, the more valuable your site.
4. 'Anchor Text' of inbound links is another means of identifying the keyword relationship and value of the search. 'Anchor Text' is the word content which is visible on the browser. The link may in fact be http://www.watersdenison.com but the 'anchor text' could appear like this: Internet Marketing Experts
5. You could become an authority site. In other words search engines will define a site that has numerous relevant outbound links as being a 'hub' or an 'expert', thus giving you greater prominence in the searches.
Mastering your link strategy is only one of many ways to maximize your site's potential on search engines. Stay tuned for more insights on Internet Marketing and the World Wide Web in upcoming articles, and please feel free to follow us on Twitter at @billwaters
Web crawlers, or the small little programs that search engines use to index any and all sites they come across, utilize links to not only get to other sites, but to evaluate their worth. It didn't take search engines long to realize that the value of their engines was determined by the value of the results. So it was imperative that they would change the way they indexed sites.
What search engines can't live without though are the hyperlinks that help them travel from one site to another, and it is in these hyperlinks that search engines have put greater prominence and stricter rules on when evaluating a site for ranking.
Here are five very important considerations for using links to get better rankings:
1. Links from related sites hold more value then links from unrelated sites. Don't link to sites about training dogs when your core business is selling electronics. Instead, try to link to sites that use electronics and have related keywords in their sites.
2. Backlinks (links from other sites to yours) are extremely important in helping engines determine your value. But again, not just any site. Sites that are 'influencers' such as related association sites, news sites, international customers are more valuable than sites that appeal to a limited audience.
3. The number of inbound links is important. Search engines are looking for popularity with quality references. The more popular you are with outside interests, the more valuable your site.
4. 'Anchor Text' of inbound links is another means of identifying the keyword relationship and value of the search. 'Anchor Text' is the word content which is visible on the browser. The link may in fact be http://www.watersdenison.com but the 'anchor text' could appear like this: Internet Marketing Experts
5. You could become an authority site. In other words search engines will define a site that has numerous relevant outbound links as being a 'hub' or an 'expert', thus giving you greater prominence in the searches.
Mastering your link strategy is only one of many ways to maximize your site's potential on search engines. Stay tuned for more insights on Internet Marketing and the World Wide Web in upcoming articles, and please feel free to follow us on Twitter at @billwaters
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Analyze This! On Twitter
Twitter has become one of my favourite tools for keeping in touch with the people, subjects and events that I care about. As is typical with anything that becomes phenomenally successful, there are those that will blast it and denounce it as wasteful time mongers and vanity tools, but to those that have given it the time and effort, it has become invaluable. And to truly appreciate how well you are using this powerful tool, there are some equally impressive analytical tools to make it easier.
The first application can be found at twitter.grader.com, a product from Hubspot.com. This easy to use twitter analytics tool simply asks for the user name and you hit 'enter'. What you get is a report on your rank (I was 477,851 out of 2,853,905) and your grade out of 100 (I'm at 83....my buddy @seedgirl is at 97.3). Following things like number of follows, power of followers, updates, recency and a number of other factors, Twitter Grader has created an algorithm to help you easily determine your effectiveness on Twitter.
Twitter Analyzer is another tool that I stumbled upon. It has cool dashboard like features that help you track how you are using Twitter. I consider this tool to be a surface level analysis in that it tells you things that you could probably gather on your own, but it's impressive to see in graphs.
Now for influence, an application called TwInfluence was created to measure the combined influence of twitterers and their followers. When you enter your address, it gives you your ranking based all others that have submitted their names. At 145,296, it's a small sampling so far. It's primary measurement of success is based on the number of followers your own followers have. If I have 10 followers each with 5000 followers, I'm deemed to be more influential than if I had 5000 followers with only 10 each.
Twitter Score uses a different algorithm to assess popularity and influence, but comes up with similar metrics as TwInfluence. It too looks at who follows you and who their followers are. They also analyze a few other things like updates and retweets and in the end assign a single score out of 10. I guess I have some work to do because I'm sitting at 3.9:-(
Now for me, I think the power of social networks is how remarkable you are. In other words, how do your followers take what you offer. Do they retweet, do they click on the URL, do they respond? So a good measurement for me is delivered by Twitterank. Right from their page, 'Twitterank calculates a score for each Twitter user indicating how engaged, interesting and/or prominent they are. As the name implies, Twitterank is sort of like Page Rank for twitter users, and uses "back references" of sorts to calculate a user's score'.
There are a few other analytic tools including Twitalyzer, Tweeple Rank, Klout, and TwitRank. Each one has their own merits and each one gives you a benchmark and a means to helping you measure your performance on Twitter.
The first application can be found at twitter.grader.com, a product from Hubspot.com. This easy to use twitter analytics tool simply asks for the user name and you hit 'enter'. What you get is a report on your rank (I was 477,851 out of 2,853,905) and your grade out of 100 (I'm at 83....my buddy @seedgirl is at 97.3). Following things like number of follows, power of followers, updates, recency and a number of other factors, Twitter Grader has created an algorithm to help you easily determine your effectiveness on Twitter.
Twitter Analyzer is another tool that I stumbled upon. It has cool dashboard like features that help you track how you are using Twitter. I consider this tool to be a surface level analysis in that it tells you things that you could probably gather on your own, but it's impressive to see in graphs.
Now for influence, an application called TwInfluence was created to measure the combined influence of twitterers and their followers. When you enter your address, it gives you your ranking based all others that have submitted their names. At 145,296, it's a small sampling so far. It's primary measurement of success is based on the number of followers your own followers have. If I have 10 followers each with 5000 followers, I'm deemed to be more influential than if I had 5000 followers with only 10 each.
Twitter Score uses a different algorithm to assess popularity and influence, but comes up with similar metrics as TwInfluence. It too looks at who follows you and who their followers are. They also analyze a few other things like updates and retweets and in the end assign a single score out of 10. I guess I have some work to do because I'm sitting at 3.9:-(
Now for me, I think the power of social networks is how remarkable you are. In other words, how do your followers take what you offer. Do they retweet, do they click on the URL, do they respond? So a good measurement for me is delivered by Twitterank. Right from their page, 'Twitterank calculates a score for each Twitter user indicating how engaged, interesting and/or prominent they are. As the name implies, Twitterank is sort of like Page Rank for twitter users, and uses "back references" of sorts to calculate a user's score'.
There are a few other analytic tools including Twitalyzer, Tweeple Rank, Klout, and TwitRank. Each one has their own merits and each one gives you a benchmark and a means to helping you measure your performance on Twitter.
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