With the advancements going on in social media, developing new connections and building relationships has become quite easier. Let me give you a sneak peek of some of the tools to search efficiently and in a quicker manner.
Electronic Mails
Emails have an impressive aura around being spread everywhere and everyone owes an email address now. It’s an amazing way to connect with someone without giving any break in their ongoing routine lives. You may respond at your own convenience. The primary connection tool is email to connect with your networks and even for making new connects.
Interaction via Instant Messengers
Instant messengers allow talking to your connections in a live manner. You can stay in touch with your friends, family, professional connects and all other people in your circle via messengers at one go only. Their presence is of real importance as on date.
Microblogging via Twitter
All the more new way to connect with your networks is microblogging platforms like Twitter. It allows connecting with like minded people whether you know them personally, professionally or virtually i.e. just via internet. It has changed the way to find people over the web with whom you meet online and share your thoughts. Its features like tweeting, retweeting, direct messaging makes it even more attractive.
Social Networks (i.e. Facebook)
Through Social Networking Websites especially Facebook is an ultimate way to build an online network. You can clearly view the connections of your connects/friends. Private messaging, writing on people’s public wall allows you to keep in touch with them. It has become a true networking monster. You can create fan pages at Facebook to brand your business and bring potential visitors as a good source of traffic towards your website. Via fan pages you can share the recent launches and updates in your business and grow it exponentially.
Like Facebook, social networking sites like MySpace and LinkedIn are also a good way to maintain your social as well as professional connections.
Discussions Boards and Forums
Discussions boards and forums are great way to connect with a group of people who have interest on a specific common topic. You just need to be present at a forum that is related to your niche and you will have huge number of people to share their views over the same. It also gives you an option to send private messages to them in case you feel uncomfortable sharing some particular idea/view with everybody else in that forum. Forums are very effective way to find and connect with people.
Sentiments/Comments
To share your views and sentiments via blog commenting is often overlooked networking opportunity. You can share your thoughts in an extremely powerful way which helps in connecting with other bloggers. The blogger generally notices frequent commenters and recognizes their importance for their blog. To start with a new relationship, sharing your insights, thoughts, and view point via blog commenting is another option to have an online network.
Own Blog
Furthermore, you have an option to owe a blog that will help you to connect with people of common interests and you can create your blog network. You should identify and recognize the community leaders of your interests and build relationships with them. You may send them invites to connect with you via your blog where they can share their thoughts and become an active participant of your blog. It’s really wonderful way to have plentiful connects in your network.
Therefore, I can say that online marketing is not just social media, branding, and search engine optimizations. It’s going much beyond these tactics and strategies to become a part of your niche. Connect with people of your interest to grow yourself professionally and personally. You will observe that the opportunities are simply endless.
Social Network Marketing
Social Network Marketing is an effective way to prospect and promote your business online and has gained lot of popularity as on date. Initially, social networking was used to make friends and to stay in touch with people of similar interests through the internet. Over time, it has become an excellent way to gain targeted and immediate contact with the masses. Most of the people consider their participation in social networking merely wastage of time, but it really work wonders. It results in quite rewarding for websites.
I have seen what all matters is word of mouth and social network marketing is the quickest and effective form of viral marketing. You just need to have good reputation to excel your business so that you can reach your potential target audiences. Participate very tactfully for social network marketing. Your interaction with people to develop your brand should look very genuine otherwise it can even result in negative reputation also.
If you have gained credibility via social network marketing then it drives good traffic (potential customers) to your site. Now the question arises from where you should start?
You must look for social networking forums related to your domain and build your profile credibility there. Start with participation from well known social networking websites MySpace and Facebook. Then create your presence on LinkedIn which is quite good site to connect with professionals. And from last few years Twitter has become equally popular.
Although there are lots of other social networking sites available on web but Facebook and Twitter has captured most of the market.
One thing I must make clear here is - once you have established an audience of followers you can passively promote and market your business interests ethically. This strategy works for sure to build a solid customer base.
I have seen what all matters is word of mouth and social network marketing is the quickest and effective form of viral marketing. You just need to have good reputation to excel your business so that you can reach your potential target audiences. Participate very tactfully for social network marketing. Your interaction with people to develop your brand should look very genuine otherwise it can even result in negative reputation also.
If you have gained credibility via social network marketing then it drives good traffic (potential customers) to your site. Now the question arises from where you should start?
You must look for social networking forums related to your domain and build your profile credibility there. Start with participation from well known social networking websites MySpace and Facebook. Then create your presence on LinkedIn which is quite good site to connect with professionals. And from last few years Twitter has become equally popular.
Although there are lots of other social networking sites available on web but Facebook and Twitter has captured most of the market.
One thing I must make clear here is - once you have established an audience of followers you can passively promote and market your business interests ethically. This strategy works for sure to build a solid customer base.
Social Media - Blessing or Curse
Nowadays Social Media is a part of everybody’s lifestyle. It could not be called as a passive environment. Once you succeed to brand your product or services in your connected market, it is etiquette in Social Media (SM) to remain in connection with ones in your social network. One should realize the value time of ours as well as others. This is such a media which if used in a correct manner could be very beneficial for personal as well as product branding. It’s my personal view that everyone in today’s digital world should be in touch with its network via social networking websites or broadly you can say via social media.
Depending upon how marketers look towards SM, it could be BLESSING if used correctly and could be a CURSE if used in an improper manner.
As far as I perceive, it’s an OPPORTUNITY for individuals and businesses. I can’t say it has no drawbacks, but when compared, its benefits outweigh the drawbacks. Instead of spending another year re-building your website it results better if you re-brand your website via SM. For which you can keep your website updated with new and additional content to provide value to your target audiences, also to keep them hooked to your website.
Through Social Media Marketing (SMM) you can build long term relationships and interact better with your potential users. You can get requisite insights about your competitors. Most of the companies fear to face the negative comments about their brand, but the fact is this way you get the real feedback from market about your brand from the real users. Some of them feel insecure to acknowledge and respond to negative views. Rather this is the way a company can improve its brand further from true feedback coming via SM. This way I can say that it’s a necessity for customer relationship marketing and brand reputation management. So surely we can call it a blessing.
An individual who is not involved in any business can leverage SM for building personal connections. They can connect and communicate with their friends and family.
What one needs is proper strategic planning to have sure and definite outcomes. It just calls for proper marketing plan and also set goals to achieve success in Social Media campaigns. It requires a preset planning about how they will participate in SM channels like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. Do not avoid your participation by feeling insecure about the mistakes that might happen. This is the beauty of this digital world where everything can be corrected.
My preference is to follow a road-map with step-by-step instructions for specific things, combined with lots of hands-on and real-time learning from doing the work and participating in various social media channels. It is rather important to set metrics for your social marketing so as to gauge the growth from this channel over time. If you call the content as a KING, then one should agree that marketing that too via SOCIAL MEDIA is a queen that rules the whole game.
Depending upon how marketers look towards SM, it could be BLESSING if used correctly and could be a CURSE if used in an improper manner.
As far as I perceive, it’s an OPPORTUNITY for individuals and businesses. I can’t say it has no drawbacks, but when compared, its benefits outweigh the drawbacks. Instead of spending another year re-building your website it results better if you re-brand your website via SM. For which you can keep your website updated with new and additional content to provide value to your target audiences, also to keep them hooked to your website.
Through Social Media Marketing (SMM) you can build long term relationships and interact better with your potential users. You can get requisite insights about your competitors. Most of the companies fear to face the negative comments about their brand, but the fact is this way you get the real feedback from market about your brand from the real users. Some of them feel insecure to acknowledge and respond to negative views. Rather this is the way a company can improve its brand further from true feedback coming via SM. This way I can say that it’s a necessity for customer relationship marketing and brand reputation management. So surely we can call it a blessing.
An individual who is not involved in any business can leverage SM for building personal connections. They can connect and communicate with their friends and family.
What one needs is proper strategic planning to have sure and definite outcomes. It just calls for proper marketing plan and also set goals to achieve success in Social Media campaigns. It requires a preset planning about how they will participate in SM channels like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. Do not avoid your participation by feeling insecure about the mistakes that might happen. This is the beauty of this digital world where everything can be corrected.
My preference is to follow a road-map with step-by-step instructions for specific things, combined with lots of hands-on and real-time learning from doing the work and participating in various social media channels. It is rather important to set metrics for your social marketing so as to gauge the growth from this channel over time. If you call the content as a KING, then one should agree that marketing that too via SOCIAL MEDIA is a queen that rules the whole game.
How SMM and SEO are inter-linked?
Today successful marketer is the one who leverage advantages from both-SEO as well as Social Media Marketing (SMM). Social media (SM) flourishes where people are, and marketers propel there only. Earlier SMM used to be a standalone strategy but with time it was being realized that if it is united with marketing efforts it could generate even better results rather than working in isolation. SM is such a necessity for every individual today that in order to search for anything, he approaches SM addressing branded keyword terms. Moreover, high click trough rate was noticed as and when the customers had been showcased to SM.
Primarily, SM influences areas like branding, customer help desk, and customer relationship management. But it does not limit here only. It has additive, unbelievable outcomes across various marketing channels that help to have strong relationship with target audiences. It results in raising the brand value in its market.
How SMM and SEO are inter-linked?
The initial glimpse does not showcase any connection between the two since SMM is more of off-site interaction whereas SEO approaches to drive traffic to a website.
SM helps in link building. Marketers create interesting and unique content and share with potential users via various social media channels. This content is then distributed and discussed in discussions groups and forums generating links. This way content will reach more people and this buzz will pull potential users to search engines, from where they get re-directed to a particular website.
SM allows using wide range of keywords instead of using a limited set of targeted keywords. Marketers project a search marketing strategy to compute socially promoting keywords which helps in enhancing the brand value. Besides driving traffic to a website, SM promotes websites content via its social network thereby influencing SEO also.
The marketers can boost search engine visibility using pervasive “Share this” buttons in which they provide certain code to distribute your content. This will increase the inbound links to your website. While running a promotional contest, you may provide your users with a tool to share content created by them. In your blogs you can allow outsiders to link to your posts which will help building brand credibility and hence building a community of brand supporters.
Now marketers need to take care while sharing links via social media that links should not include tracking code. This will affect Page Rank giving no SEO benefits. While making headlines in content, use targeted keywords to aid optimization. You may use independent page titles independent to get the max SEO value.
Looking at the increased usage of mobiles for accessing SM, marketers should incorporate mobile into their social media strategy.
Social media is no doubt a commitment. Proper time and man power is required to keep you updated for latest trends and for active participation. It would surely pay off. SM gives you an option to keep your brand live in front of potential users giving constant new content to search engines for indexing. This way your website is crawled frequently. Doing this way increases long-term outcomes on SEO by enhancing quality as well as quantity of website references.
Through SM you can have valuable consumer insights. It enables to determine unique keywords via customer interactions. From these insights you can bid on correct keywords to increase conversion rate.
Marketing is a holistic process. In online marketing, marketing through social media definitely affects brand awareness and SEO.
Primarily, SM influences areas like branding, customer help desk, and customer relationship management. But it does not limit here only. It has additive, unbelievable outcomes across various marketing channels that help to have strong relationship with target audiences. It results in raising the brand value in its market.
How SMM and SEO are inter-linked?
The initial glimpse does not showcase any connection between the two since SMM is more of off-site interaction whereas SEO approaches to drive traffic to a website.
SM helps in link building. Marketers create interesting and unique content and share with potential users via various social media channels. This content is then distributed and discussed in discussions groups and forums generating links. This way content will reach more people and this buzz will pull potential users to search engines, from where they get re-directed to a particular website.
SM allows using wide range of keywords instead of using a limited set of targeted keywords. Marketers project a search marketing strategy to compute socially promoting keywords which helps in enhancing the brand value. Besides driving traffic to a website, SM promotes websites content via its social network thereby influencing SEO also.
The marketers can boost search engine visibility using pervasive “Share this” buttons in which they provide certain code to distribute your content. This will increase the inbound links to your website. While running a promotional contest, you may provide your users with a tool to share content created by them. In your blogs you can allow outsiders to link to your posts which will help building brand credibility and hence building a community of brand supporters.
Now marketers need to take care while sharing links via social media that links should not include tracking code. This will affect Page Rank giving no SEO benefits. While making headlines in content, use targeted keywords to aid optimization. You may use independent page titles independent to get the max SEO value.
Looking at the increased usage of mobiles for accessing SM, marketers should incorporate mobile into their social media strategy.
Social media is no doubt a commitment. Proper time and man power is required to keep you updated for latest trends and for active participation. It would surely pay off. SM gives you an option to keep your brand live in front of potential users giving constant new content to search engines for indexing. This way your website is crawled frequently. Doing this way increases long-term outcomes on SEO by enhancing quality as well as quantity of website references.
Through SM you can have valuable consumer insights. It enables to determine unique keywords via customer interactions. From these insights you can bid on correct keywords to increase conversion rate.
Marketing is a holistic process. In online marketing, marketing through social media definitely affects brand awareness and SEO.
Growing Status of Search Engine Marketing
Being working as a search engine marketer, what I have observed is that Search Engine Marketing industry if growing at double rate even when operational budgets are slicing. According to the professional organization of SEM's, the survey stats say that SEM industry will grow by 14% in the year 2010. It was $14.6 billion in 2009 and for the year 2010 it is projected to be $16.6 billion by the end of the year.
As per this survey conducted, measuring the ROI is the major challenge that marketers will face in all the three key search plan of actions in marketing and advertising industry i.e. paid search, search engine optimization and social media marketing. It is also highlighted that most of the companies (more than 95%) advertise on Google; out of which nearly 70% are paying Google for advertising, and around 50% are broadcasting their advertisements via Google grid. In contrast to Google, usage of Yahoo network is just 50% and merely 45% for Microsoft's Bing in 2009.
With time, marketers have seen keyword inflation on Google; also Google keywords are getting expensive each day when compared to last year.
Impact of advancement in Social Media
Today, social media is being given attention by most of the companies but the budgets these companies set for social media marketing are still seen insignificant when compared with SEO and paid search campaigns. But the expansion interests as mentioned on budget for social media is projected to increase this year. More than 50% of the companies are planning to have increase in budgets in the year 2010. In spite of this insignificant budget plans on social media, more than 60% of the companies promote their brand on renowned social networks like Facebook and Twitter.
Along with the advancement in Social Media Marketing, there is little positive impact on paid search campaigns which was just 70% in 2007, increased to 78% in 2009 and to nearly 80% as of now. But the participation in Search Engine Optimization is stable since 2007 i.e. 90%.
The tendency for in-house SEM has increased when compared with last year. Whereas for SEO it has diminished very minutely (nearly negligible) but for paid search, there is spectacular decrease of around 10%; from 86% last year to 76% this year.
As per the projections made out of survey, companies are expected to increase their budgets for SEO and paid search in 2010. Nearly 50% are divvying up budgets into SEM, propelling their expense on print advertising. Some of them are moving spends from direct mail and significant moves are seen from conferences and web based advertising.
This is as per the survey conducted by the professional organization working for Search Engine Marketing industry, which is widely known as SEMPO. The estimated spend for 2010 is $16.6 billion growing to $18.6 billion by 2011 according to the projections.
As per this survey conducted, measuring the ROI is the major challenge that marketers will face in all the three key search plan of actions in marketing and advertising industry i.e. paid search, search engine optimization and social media marketing. It is also highlighted that most of the companies (more than 95%) advertise on Google; out of which nearly 70% are paying Google for advertising, and around 50% are broadcasting their advertisements via Google grid. In contrast to Google, usage of Yahoo network is just 50% and merely 45% for Microsoft's Bing in 2009.
With time, marketers have seen keyword inflation on Google; also Google keywords are getting expensive each day when compared to last year.
Impact of advancement in Social Media
Today, social media is being given attention by most of the companies but the budgets these companies set for social media marketing are still seen insignificant when compared with SEO and paid search campaigns. But the expansion interests as mentioned on budget for social media is projected to increase this year. More than 50% of the companies are planning to have increase in budgets in the year 2010. In spite of this insignificant budget plans on social media, more than 60% of the companies promote their brand on renowned social networks like Facebook and Twitter.
Along with the advancement in Social Media Marketing, there is little positive impact on paid search campaigns which was just 70% in 2007, increased to 78% in 2009 and to nearly 80% as of now. But the participation in Search Engine Optimization is stable since 2007 i.e. 90%.
The tendency for in-house SEM has increased when compared with last year. Whereas for SEO it has diminished very minutely (nearly negligible) but for paid search, there is spectacular decrease of around 10%; from 86% last year to 76% this year.
As per the projections made out of survey, companies are expected to increase their budgets for SEO and paid search in 2010. Nearly 50% are divvying up budgets into SEM, propelling their expense on print advertising. Some of them are moving spends from direct mail and significant moves are seen from conferences and web based advertising.
This is as per the survey conducted by the professional organization working for Search Engine Marketing industry, which is widely known as SEMPO. The estimated spend for 2010 is $16.6 billion growing to $18.6 billion by 2011 according to the projections.
How to Increase and Improve Search Engine Visibility
Since long, we had seen and even tested various techniques and guidelines for generating search engine traffic. A decade back, SEO became a full time career for a few years. Since then so many methods have been evolving to control and manipulate the engines to get front page search results. As on date, scenarios have been changed.
Many of these earlier followed practices and techniques are still very much relevant as they were then, so here I am collating the key ones.
(a)Commence with your Domain Name
Select the domain name, relatively short and easy to spell. Avoid hyphens and or unusual characters for branding purposes, than SEO. Search visibility remains there even with perplex, long character riddled domain, but such domain names are hard to remember without the assistance of a search engine.
(b)Build Quality Inbound and Outbound Links
Your site is ranked by search engines based on the amount of inbound links it has from other sites. Spend some time and get authenticated sites linking back to you called inbound links; it influences the search engine ranking.
(c)Google Page Rank
Websites are ranked with higher Page Rank if Google conceives them to be important and influential. Higher Page Rank gives better search results and rankings. Authoritative sites usually have high Page Rank. You should take care of it but do not focus completely on it.
(d)Relevant Keywords on Web Address
Publish content on your site with relevant keywords with headline formatted in the permalink/web URL. For instance, if your site has a page with images on wild animals, format the URL like: http://www.yoursite.com/images/wild-animals.html or http://www.yoursite.com/wild-animals.html Mention the sub-directory with target keyword of the subject matter.
(e)Headlines and Page Titles with Target Keywords
Along with relevant keywords in your URL, place the keywords in your headlines and page titles as well. It would help even if no other optimization is worked out otherwise it would be hard for search engine to spot your existence.
(f)Include Blogs
Blogs are considered to be the major source information for everybody. Search engines give preference to blogs for fresh and timely content. If tweaked correctly it can be a powerful tool for search engine traffic generation. Configure your permalink structure immediately after installing your blog. Install plug-ins like "All in One SEO Pack" available for WordPress. You may also leverage RSS to convert search engine clicks into a return visitor.
(g)Keywords as Anchor text
Generally, anchor text is weighted highly in search engine algorithms and its results since it gives descriptive information to search engines about the content of a hyperlinks destination. Avoid using "click here", it would hamper search engine visibility.
(h)Web Analytics
In order to measure and understand your traffic patterns and behaviors do set up Google Analytics at the very start.
(i)Use Sitemap
Sitemaps list down all the pages pertaining to a particular site that helps to notify search engine about URLs on your website available for crawling and indexing, which might be left undiscovered by Google's normal crawling process.
(j)Google Webmaster Tools
Google's Webmaster Tools helps to see your website the way Googlebot looks at it. It finds out which sites link to yours, also looks for search queries that list your site and which of your site's pages are indexed, and also shows up certain errors (if any) Google encountered while crawling your website. Make your site as Google friendly as possible. This gives higher visibility in search results.
(k)Publish Quality Content Frequently
Publish quality content on a regular basis so as to be frequently seen as more reliable than sites that seldom produce content. Keep on increasing content on your website to yield more indexed pages, in turn more visibility, increasing the quantity of search clicks to your pages.
(l)Headline Tags
Use headline tags (h1, h2, etc.) for targeted keywords and phrases. Search engines recognizes and assigns greater value to keywords found within headline tags.
(m)Do not Forget Other Search Engines
Do not overlook other search engines like Yahoo, MSN while you keep considering Google, the gorilla, that produces the biggest quantity of search traffic. Yahoo has a resource for web publishers, as does Microsoft to help you better optimize your pages for their engines.
(n)Consistency
Keep on testing different permutations and combinations to understand the criteria the search engines looks for when indexing your pages. Focus on what works and run with it.
(o)Last but not the least
If you have active participation in social media, you are already ahead of the game. To have profiles at Social Networking Websites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter helps in getting indexed, and always rank on the top of the search results. This is even great if your objective is personal branding. You have to be active and maintain consistency to own your name in Google. Social media is the most invaluable tool for traffic generation, if executed correctly. User generated content and the applications that power them such as, blogs, wikis, videos, social networking sites, bookmarking, microblogging, etc are the leading mechanisms for search engine traffic, and keeps on increasing with time.
To optimize a website to be ranked higher in search engines is not very complex. Use of techniques suggested above will definitely pay off. You must not expect instant results. It takes time to build up content, establish inbound links, tweak and re-tweak.
Many of these earlier followed practices and techniques are still very much relevant as they were then, so here I am collating the key ones.
(a)Commence with your Domain Name
Select the domain name, relatively short and easy to spell. Avoid hyphens and or unusual characters for branding purposes, than SEO. Search visibility remains there even with perplex, long character riddled domain, but such domain names are hard to remember without the assistance of a search engine.
(b)Build Quality Inbound and Outbound Links
Your site is ranked by search engines based on the amount of inbound links it has from other sites. Spend some time and get authenticated sites linking back to you called inbound links; it influences the search engine ranking.
(c)Google Page Rank
Websites are ranked with higher Page Rank if Google conceives them to be important and influential. Higher Page Rank gives better search results and rankings. Authoritative sites usually have high Page Rank. You should take care of it but do not focus completely on it.
(d)Relevant Keywords on Web Address
Publish content on your site with relevant keywords with headline formatted in the permalink/web URL. For instance, if your site has a page with images on wild animals, format the URL like: http://www.yoursite.com/images/wild-animals.html or http://www.yoursite.com/wild-animals.html Mention the sub-directory with target keyword of the subject matter.
(e)Headlines and Page Titles with Target Keywords
Along with relevant keywords in your URL, place the keywords in your headlines and page titles as well. It would help even if no other optimization is worked out otherwise it would be hard for search engine to spot your existence.
(f)Include Blogs
Blogs are considered to be the major source information for everybody. Search engines give preference to blogs for fresh and timely content. If tweaked correctly it can be a powerful tool for search engine traffic generation. Configure your permalink structure immediately after installing your blog. Install plug-ins like "All in One SEO Pack" available for WordPress. You may also leverage RSS to convert search engine clicks into a return visitor.
(g)Keywords as Anchor text
Generally, anchor text is weighted highly in search engine algorithms and its results since it gives descriptive information to search engines about the content of a hyperlinks destination. Avoid using "click here", it would hamper search engine visibility.
(h)Web Analytics
In order to measure and understand your traffic patterns and behaviors do set up Google Analytics at the very start.
(i)Use Sitemap
Sitemaps list down all the pages pertaining to a particular site that helps to notify search engine about URLs on your website available for crawling and indexing, which might be left undiscovered by Google's normal crawling process.
(j)Google Webmaster Tools
Google's Webmaster Tools helps to see your website the way Googlebot looks at it. It finds out which sites link to yours, also looks for search queries that list your site and which of your site's pages are indexed, and also shows up certain errors (if any) Google encountered while crawling your website. Make your site as Google friendly as possible. This gives higher visibility in search results.
(k)Publish Quality Content Frequently
Publish quality content on a regular basis so as to be frequently seen as more reliable than sites that seldom produce content. Keep on increasing content on your website to yield more indexed pages, in turn more visibility, increasing the quantity of search clicks to your pages.
(l)Headline Tags
Use headline tags (h1, h2, etc.) for targeted keywords and phrases. Search engines recognizes and assigns greater value to keywords found within headline tags.
(m)Do not Forget Other Search Engines
Do not overlook other search engines like Yahoo, MSN while you keep considering Google, the gorilla, that produces the biggest quantity of search traffic. Yahoo has a resource for web publishers, as does Microsoft to help you better optimize your pages for their engines.
(n)Consistency
Keep on testing different permutations and combinations to understand the criteria the search engines looks for when indexing your pages. Focus on what works and run with it.
(o)Last but not the least
If you have active participation in social media, you are already ahead of the game. To have profiles at Social Networking Websites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter helps in getting indexed, and always rank on the top of the search results. This is even great if your objective is personal branding. You have to be active and maintain consistency to own your name in Google. Social media is the most invaluable tool for traffic generation, if executed correctly. User generated content and the applications that power them such as, blogs, wikis, videos, social networking sites, bookmarking, microblogging, etc are the leading mechanisms for search engine traffic, and keeps on increasing with time.
To optimize a website to be ranked higher in search engines is not very complex. Use of techniques suggested above will definitely pay off. You must not expect instant results. It takes time to build up content, establish inbound links, tweak and re-tweak.
Internet Marketing Professionals Perception for Twitter
Today companies consider usage of social media as a nuisance or mere time wastage. Marketing professionals should consider Twitter as another social media tool just like LinkedIn and Facebook, with strong potential for generating good business ROI.
Twitter is really beneficial social medium for IT as well as marketing professionals and other businesspeople too.
1. It has got a real business use. Businesspeople use Twitter to engage over professional topics. It is not like people are just update about their routine activities, meaningful discourse happens on Twitter mostly every hour of every day.
2. Unlike Facebook or LinkedIn, on Twitter you follow people according to the interesting things they share in their tweets; even people you don't know at all. You can follow anyone unless and until someone has protected his tweets. To spread your message or viewpoint, follow like minded people on Twitter and can be benefited by listening others.
3. Its key advantages include news, unique perspectives and stellar information. It is the most excellent environment to follow trends, gathering information, gauging buzz and researching your topics of interest. Spend good time to search smart and like minded people on Twitter, and you'll learn things you might not learn any other way.
4. Twitter could be used to build your personal as well as company brand, so as to enhance business relationships, interactions with customers, do market research or selling too. This powerful one-to-many tool reaches very influential, engaged audience.
5. It gives you an option to "unfollow" someone if you no longer find his tweets beneficial for you, without even letting him know about this.
You must also do what is called "Smart Tweeting" Follow only people you're genuinely interested in. With tools like TweetDeck, create multiple groups for people who are generally focused on a specific topic. You may use hash tags or Twitter searches to see tweets on specific topics.
This is how Marketing Professionals should consider Twitter for promoting their brand name as well as their personal professional brand.
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Twitter is really beneficial social medium for IT as well as marketing professionals and other businesspeople too.
1. It has got a real business use. Businesspeople use Twitter to engage over professional topics. It is not like people are just update about their routine activities, meaningful discourse happens on Twitter mostly every hour of every day.
2. Unlike Facebook or LinkedIn, on Twitter you follow people according to the interesting things they share in their tweets; even people you don't know at all. You can follow anyone unless and until someone has protected his tweets. To spread your message or viewpoint, follow like minded people on Twitter and can be benefited by listening others.
3. Its key advantages include news, unique perspectives and stellar information. It is the most excellent environment to follow trends, gathering information, gauging buzz and researching your topics of interest. Spend good time to search smart and like minded people on Twitter, and you'll learn things you might not learn any other way.
4. Twitter could be used to build your personal as well as company brand, so as to enhance business relationships, interactions with customers, do market research or selling too. This powerful one-to-many tool reaches very influential, engaged audience.
5. It gives you an option to "unfollow" someone if you no longer find his tweets beneficial for you, without even letting him know about this.
You must also do what is called "Smart Tweeting" Follow only people you're genuinely interested in. With tools like TweetDeck, create multiple groups for people who are generally focused on a specific topic. You may use hash tags or Twitter searches to see tweets on specific topics.
This is how Marketing Professionals should consider Twitter for promoting their brand name as well as their personal professional brand.
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How Social Media is Conceived by Online Marketing Professionals
It is well said "Content is king but marketing is queen, and the queen rules the household". Or we can say "Great Content Markets Itself". This is very true for Social Media. It is all about Word of Mouth. You have to be very communicative and interactive with your networks to keep them engaged with you. They will stay tuned and remain hooked with you unless and until they will find value in the engagements with you.
Its presence in a business today is increasing day by day. According to Forrester Research, it will be rising exponentially by 2014. Here is how "Social Media" being quoted by some of the professionals in Online Media industry. It is the future of everything on Web. There will be social networking sites for everything you could imagine. Instead of this, stumble upon mentality, it will focus and more demographically delineated. It will still be wide open but it will have an organized chaos mentality to it.
Where Time, Network, and Trust (TNT) intersects.
The Wild, Wild West... it's certainly evolving by the minute though. Refinement is coming and several players will emerge as leaders of their particular genres; genre being social, and professional. It's here to stay, no doubt. Jump on board or get run over! To individuals, it is friendship and communication. To groups with a message, it is a way to get the message out. To businesses is it a way to obtain exposure and establish credibility. All together, this is so powerful that it will continue to grow and become major use of the internet.
At times remarkable because of its ease of use and ability to connect to a single person or masses, and at times scary because of its immenseness. It is not really a new concept. Today we see many different forums and communities for virtually any human need, personality and interest. The one common trait for all of the successful communities (past to present) are that they built value to sustain and then monetize their members.
SM is marketing nirvana for those that are truly invested in managing customer relationships. The long term focus on Relationship Marketing is back in vogue and illustrates that corporate focus needs to be on a 12-36 month timeline, not a 3 month ROI on tactical ad campaigns. Really depends if the organization has the appetite to go that long.
It is a tool for broadening conversation and creating community that, if used intelligently, can be valuable for sharing of knowledge and building relationships. It is easy, enjoyable, effective and economical. It seems like a day will come when social networking tools will become fee-based.
SM is Business. It's the direction that all media is moving. It's not a fad or a temporary thing. In 2008 we called it Web 2.0; early 2009 we called it Social Media. Now, in late 2009 people are referring to it as Media and Advertising. It's a platform for having a (meaningful) conversation, in my opinion, through which one may be able to build the authority and influence.
LinkedIn is the business meeting, FB is the hallway conversation, and Twitter is the cocktail party. It's a big honking' volume. Customers share recommendations (good and bad) with their friends. Humans have always wanted to be heard and to connect. It is taking over as the best way to get the word out and target your message. I've found it very productive already. Work is flying in!
Social Media is an Opportunity and a Blessing too, a tool for sharing, collaborating and marketing.
It is a communication channel to converse and engage directly with your customers, friends, fans, opponents, decision-makers, and thought-leaders. It is literally changing the way individuals, businesses, governments, etc communicate. The one to one marketing model is over. It is now many to many, there is no turning back.
Some neural or negative quotes are as:
Social media is expanding our ability to connect and share corporate as well as personal information in ways that weren't available in the past. This presents new challenges and opportunities, but we cannot forget that authenticity and quality are still much more important than quantity when it comes to true and viable business relationships.
It will ultimately fail since the number of "people" who want to know you for selfish reasons far out-weighs the number of people you know or will ever want to know you for "personal" reasons. This ratio dictates the security platforms that surround all SM's, thus draining their lifeblood (connectivity) before they even get started!
When you put thoughts or ads in newspaper, it might reach 1 Lac people and might interest 5K people (5%). But on FB, it will reach approx. 5 crores and will interest only 5 Lac (1%). SM may give reach to mass audience but it makes difficult for business to pull right kind of people to turn them into customers compare to other media.
Other media allow you to reach targeted audience, whereas it lets you to connect with the entire pool of users in any network. Finding customers through SM is like finding water in desert. It is a try to filter the 10% valuable information vs. 90% waffle. Just like a black hole that sucks you in.
Last but not the least:
The problem is that so many people still operate in a Web 2.0 mindset! Those days are gone. The two worlds are no longer independent of each other. The relationships we make in real life carry over into the virtual realm, and vice-versa. It's a marriage and the strength of each will sustain the other. Social Media isn't going anywhere. In fact, there is only growth in the future.
Its presence in a business today is increasing day by day. According to Forrester Research, it will be rising exponentially by 2014. Here is how "Social Media" being quoted by some of the professionals in Online Media industry. It is the future of everything on Web. There will be social networking sites for everything you could imagine. Instead of this, stumble upon mentality, it will focus and more demographically delineated. It will still be wide open but it will have an organized chaos mentality to it.
Where Time, Network, and Trust (TNT) intersects.
The Wild, Wild West... it's certainly evolving by the minute though. Refinement is coming and several players will emerge as leaders of their particular genres; genre being social, and professional. It's here to stay, no doubt. Jump on board or get run over! To individuals, it is friendship and communication. To groups with a message, it is a way to get the message out. To businesses is it a way to obtain exposure and establish credibility. All together, this is so powerful that it will continue to grow and become major use of the internet.
At times remarkable because of its ease of use and ability to connect to a single person or masses, and at times scary because of its immenseness. It is not really a new concept. Today we see many different forums and communities for virtually any human need, personality and interest. The one common trait for all of the successful communities (past to present) are that they built value to sustain and then monetize their members.
SM is marketing nirvana for those that are truly invested in managing customer relationships. The long term focus on Relationship Marketing is back in vogue and illustrates that corporate focus needs to be on a 12-36 month timeline, not a 3 month ROI on tactical ad campaigns. Really depends if the organization has the appetite to go that long.
It is a tool for broadening conversation and creating community that, if used intelligently, can be valuable for sharing of knowledge and building relationships. It is easy, enjoyable, effective and economical. It seems like a day will come when social networking tools will become fee-based.
SM is Business. It's the direction that all media is moving. It's not a fad or a temporary thing. In 2008 we called it Web 2.0; early 2009 we called it Social Media. Now, in late 2009 people are referring to it as Media and Advertising. It's a platform for having a (meaningful) conversation, in my opinion, through which one may be able to build the authority and influence.
LinkedIn is the business meeting, FB is the hallway conversation, and Twitter is the cocktail party. It's a big honking' volume. Customers share recommendations (good and bad) with their friends. Humans have always wanted to be heard and to connect. It is taking over as the best way to get the word out and target your message. I've found it very productive already. Work is flying in!
Social Media is an Opportunity and a Blessing too, a tool for sharing, collaborating and marketing.
It is a communication channel to converse and engage directly with your customers, friends, fans, opponents, decision-makers, and thought-leaders. It is literally changing the way individuals, businesses, governments, etc communicate. The one to one marketing model is over. It is now many to many, there is no turning back.
Some neural or negative quotes are as:
Social media is expanding our ability to connect and share corporate as well as personal information in ways that weren't available in the past. This presents new challenges and opportunities, but we cannot forget that authenticity and quality are still much more important than quantity when it comes to true and viable business relationships.
It will ultimately fail since the number of "people" who want to know you for selfish reasons far out-weighs the number of people you know or will ever want to know you for "personal" reasons. This ratio dictates the security platforms that surround all SM's, thus draining their lifeblood (connectivity) before they even get started!
When you put thoughts or ads in newspaper, it might reach 1 Lac people and might interest 5K people (5%). But on FB, it will reach approx. 5 crores and will interest only 5 Lac (1%). SM may give reach to mass audience but it makes difficult for business to pull right kind of people to turn them into customers compare to other media.
Other media allow you to reach targeted audience, whereas it lets you to connect with the entire pool of users in any network. Finding customers through SM is like finding water in desert. It is a try to filter the 10% valuable information vs. 90% waffle. Just like a black hole that sucks you in.
Last but not the least:
The problem is that so many people still operate in a Web 2.0 mindset! Those days are gone. The two worlds are no longer independent of each other. The relationships we make in real life carry over into the virtual realm, and vice-versa. It's a marriage and the strength of each will sustain the other. Social Media isn't going anywhere. In fact, there is only growth in the future.
Optimize the Bidding Strategy
In order to manage multiple SEM programs across a broad landscape of web assets, it's of utmost importance to realize that it's not one-size-fits-all when it comes to manage keywords and their bids. In such circumstances where exists diversity in business goals and revenue models, marketers cannot consider a singular approach to SEM program management.
Each business has a distinct way of generating money, for each property we need a unique way of defining the value that a user can bring to the company. There is need to manage different SEM programs for a diverse set of businesses. It implies each type of business should have a unique approach to SEM program management, particularly as it relates to keywords, objectives and bidding. Let's see how it could be worked out:
Keep it Simple
For branding campaign to deepen the engagement, track and measure these engagements. To execute this, manage to a cost per point or cost per value model on a keyword-by-keyword basis. It could be done manually also, as the keyword set is finite and manageable too, which might help from purely a bid management perspective.
Tail skipping the head
In orders-based businesses, break up your keyword portfolio into the smallest possible discrete data points while maintaining a sufficient quantity performance data for bidding purposes. Bids can then be managed on these micro-units so the campaign can be optimized to a level of efficiency which was otherwise not possible when managed solely at the keyword level.
Kicking it up a notch
For listings properties, where users come, research products and services and then leave, the model gets altered completely. To get the maximum out of these programs, we must deploy multiple management strategies within a single program. For head or high-volume keywords, we can employ automated bid management algorithms to optimize to desired business metric- revenue, profit, ROI, etc. For other keywords we need to take a more rules-based approach.
At times when a large number of keywords that aren't getting any impressions, periodically "re-activate" keywords and try to bid them back to profitability once again assuming that bid them down to inactivity at some point because they weren't profitable. This takes a measured, rule-based approach to qualify and bid systematically to ensure the best chance at regaining profitability.
As the landscape for managing SEM campaigns becomes variable, there is need of more complex and custom approach to Search Marketing. You may match with uniquely suitable approaches for your businesses on one-to-one basis in order to bring to a truly optimized level.
Each business has a distinct way of generating money, for each property we need a unique way of defining the value that a user can bring to the company. There is need to manage different SEM programs for a diverse set of businesses. It implies each type of business should have a unique approach to SEM program management, particularly as it relates to keywords, objectives and bidding. Let's see how it could be worked out:
Keep it Simple
For branding campaign to deepen the engagement, track and measure these engagements. To execute this, manage to a cost per point or cost per value model on a keyword-by-keyword basis. It could be done manually also, as the keyword set is finite and manageable too, which might help from purely a bid management perspective.
Tail skipping the head
In orders-based businesses, break up your keyword portfolio into the smallest possible discrete data points while maintaining a sufficient quantity performance data for bidding purposes. Bids can then be managed on these micro-units so the campaign can be optimized to a level of efficiency which was otherwise not possible when managed solely at the keyword level.
Kicking it up a notch
For listings properties, where users come, research products and services and then leave, the model gets altered completely. To get the maximum out of these programs, we must deploy multiple management strategies within a single program. For head or high-volume keywords, we can employ automated bid management algorithms to optimize to desired business metric- revenue, profit, ROI, etc. For other keywords we need to take a more rules-based approach.
At times when a large number of keywords that aren't getting any impressions, periodically "re-activate" keywords and try to bid them back to profitability once again assuming that bid them down to inactivity at some point because they weren't profitable. This takes a measured, rule-based approach to qualify and bid systematically to ensure the best chance at regaining profitability.
As the landscape for managing SEM campaigns becomes variable, there is need of more complex and custom approach to Search Marketing. You may match with uniquely suitable approaches for your businesses on one-to-one basis in order to bring to a truly optimized level.
Leverage Social Media Channels to Optimize Websites
Social Media Marketing (SMM), being considered as a part of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), is a hypercritical effort to rank a website higher in search engines so that relevant keywords will help to find the website on the first page of search engines like Google. Although, the objective remains the same--to optimize so as to be found online as early and easily as possible.
Consider the top most social media channels discussed below to optimize your content as well as a website.
Facebook
Make your personal profile, groups and Pages at Facebook. You can promote and optimize your website using Facebook but to purpose it efficiently in order to drive traffic to your website is of utmost significance.
To efficiently use this social networking website, make a group or page profile for your business since they are more transparent to the crawlers of search engine. Choose a vanity URL containing relevant keywords. While posting your content, try to include a video or images because a user at Facebook likes and prefers visuals more than the plain text. Do update at least 2-3 times/week. Use Analytical tools for insights, and analyze the number of interactions and overall engagement with your fan page and posts.
Blogs
To showcase true commitment and passion through blogs and to stand out yourself from a crowd, sustain over long periods of time with good frequency of postings and updates. It would be good to buy your own domain name rather than renting one. Regularly update unique rich content and besides this, keep on promoting your Blog on Twitter since Google with its "real time search" feature feeds into Twitter API.
YouTube
The emerging facts and figures according to conducted surveys showcases the increasing impact of Social Media "Online Videos". Create your own YouTube channel and mention the link of your blog or website in the description section of your video to link back to your website. Also, mention the category along with tags of your video. DO not forget to promote your YouTube video on networks like Twitter.
Twitter
One of the great social media channels "Twitter" is a way to connect, communicate and promote your content of your blog or website. You may add your website's URL in your profile information. Do place a "retweet" button on your blog articles and then integrate your Twitter URL within your site's Global Footer and make it appear somewhere at the bottom of every page of your site. This would definitely help to drive your Twitter URL up in the search engines. You may include "Follow me on Twitter" buttons on your emails and blog. Try to make tweets of max. 120 characters so that it allows space for people to "Retweet" your "Tweet" with their comments like "Informative post"
LinkedIn
One of the best professional network could be established at LinkedIn which is nowadays growing rapidly and is one of the top social media channels. You may connect to your trusted professional contacts via LinkedIn in order to exchange knowledge, ideas, and opportunities with a broader network of professionals. You must optimize this platform to broadcast and enhance you and your company's brand. At the very start, create a public profile to build your on-line presence, then start participating in its questions and answers and also start conversations, create a community, and position yourself as an adept in that particular subject, and keep answering the questions to endorse your candidacy and expertise so that it may help to drive good traffic. You may also activate Twitter and LinkedIn interfaces on the homepage of your website.
By following these top and the most result generating Social Media Channels, you can optimize your website to be ranked higher on search engines.
Consider the top most social media channels discussed below to optimize your content as well as a website.
Make your personal profile, groups and Pages at Facebook. You can promote and optimize your website using Facebook but to purpose it efficiently in order to drive traffic to your website is of utmost significance.
To efficiently use this social networking website, make a group or page profile for your business since they are more transparent to the crawlers of search engine. Choose a vanity URL containing relevant keywords. While posting your content, try to include a video or images because a user at Facebook likes and prefers visuals more than the plain text. Do update at least 2-3 times/week. Use Analytical tools for insights, and analyze the number of interactions and overall engagement with your fan page and posts.
Blogs
To showcase true commitment and passion through blogs and to stand out yourself from a crowd, sustain over long periods of time with good frequency of postings and updates. It would be good to buy your own domain name rather than renting one. Regularly update unique rich content and besides this, keep on promoting your Blog on Twitter since Google with its "real time search" feature feeds into Twitter API.
YouTube
The emerging facts and figures according to conducted surveys showcases the increasing impact of Social Media "Online Videos". Create your own YouTube channel and mention the link of your blog or website in the description section of your video to link back to your website. Also, mention the category along with tags of your video. DO not forget to promote your YouTube video on networks like Twitter.
One of the great social media channels "Twitter" is a way to connect, communicate and promote your content of your blog or website. You may add your website's URL in your profile information. Do place a "retweet" button on your blog articles and then integrate your Twitter URL within your site's Global Footer and make it appear somewhere at the bottom of every page of your site. This would definitely help to drive your Twitter URL up in the search engines. You may include "Follow me on Twitter" buttons on your emails and blog. Try to make tweets of max. 120 characters so that it allows space for people to "Retweet" your "Tweet" with their comments like "Informative post"
One of the best professional network could be established at LinkedIn which is nowadays growing rapidly and is one of the top social media channels. You may connect to your trusted professional contacts via LinkedIn in order to exchange knowledge, ideas, and opportunities with a broader network of professionals. You must optimize this platform to broadcast and enhance you and your company's brand. At the very start, create a public profile to build your on-line presence, then start participating in its questions and answers and also start conversations, create a community, and position yourself as an adept in that particular subject, and keep answering the questions to endorse your candidacy and expertise so that it may help to drive good traffic. You may also activate Twitter and LinkedIn interfaces on the homepage of your website.
By following these top and the most result generating Social Media Channels, you can optimize your website to be ranked higher on search engines.
Improve Alexa Ranking of Your Website
Alexa provides traffic statistics for the websites. You can measure the number of visitors on your website using this ranking tool but to track the count of visitors using this tool, it is essential that this tool should be already installed on the visitors' browser. Unluckily, most of the visitors don't have this toolbar pre-installed on their browsers. Due to which we can't say that Alexa Rank is a true indicator of visitors count on your website, it's just a subset of your visitors.
Looking at this, Alexa addresses some of these concerns as:
• Traffic rankings of one lac and above should not be regarded as authentic one.
• The closer a site gets to #1, the more trustful its traffic ranking becomes.
So we cant say that Alexa ranking is an accurate ranking system, it is important only if you plan to monetize your website. Instead, you may use some way outs to improve the Alexa rank of your website.
Append An Alexa Rank Widget To Your Website
Setting up this widget on your website will help in increasing its rank. Using this widget, all the visitors of your website could be tracked. If, sometimes, loading of a page takes time with a widget added on that page, to still retain its benefits preferably place it at the very bottom of your website, or at the end of your source code.
Install Alexa Toolbar in Your Browser too
Just set your website as your homepage. Doing this way, you can increase the rank of website's traffic rank because your visits to your website will also be reflected in your rank.
Spread the word to Install the Alexa Toolbar
Try to make aware everybody, your visitors as well as your friends, that installing Alexa toolbar helps to give correct number of visitors to any website.
Use Alexa Auto-Surfing Websites
This approach is workable only if your Alexa rank is too poor, but these websites sends visitors to your website that have this toolbar installed for sure.
Look for Webmasters
Generally, web developers and tech-savvy people have installed the Alexa toolbar in their browsers. So, if you visit discussion groups, or forums, you may ask for feedback on your website, thereby increasing website visits.
Therefore, it's crystal clear that Alexa traffic rank is not a true indicator of your website's visitors. It can count near to real visitors, only if considered along with other performance metrics. Hitherto, using above mentioned tips, you can improve Alexa rank of your website, thence the value of your website could be enhanced in front of potential consumers.
Looking at this, Alexa addresses some of these concerns as:
• Traffic rankings of one lac and above should not be regarded as authentic one.
• The closer a site gets to #1, the more trustful its traffic ranking becomes.
So we cant say that Alexa ranking is an accurate ranking system, it is important only if you plan to monetize your website. Instead, you may use some way outs to improve the Alexa rank of your website.
Append An Alexa Rank Widget To Your Website
Setting up this widget on your website will help in increasing its rank. Using this widget, all the visitors of your website could be tracked. If, sometimes, loading of a page takes time with a widget added on that page, to still retain its benefits preferably place it at the very bottom of your website, or at the end of your source code.
Install Alexa Toolbar in Your Browser too
Just set your website as your homepage. Doing this way, you can increase the rank of website's traffic rank because your visits to your website will also be reflected in your rank.
Spread the word to Install the Alexa Toolbar
Try to make aware everybody, your visitors as well as your friends, that installing Alexa toolbar helps to give correct number of visitors to any website.
Use Alexa Auto-Surfing Websites
This approach is workable only if your Alexa rank is too poor, but these websites sends visitors to your website that have this toolbar installed for sure.
Look for Webmasters
Generally, web developers and tech-savvy people have installed the Alexa toolbar in their browsers. So, if you visit discussion groups, or forums, you may ask for feedback on your website, thereby increasing website visits.
Therefore, it's crystal clear that Alexa traffic rank is not a true indicator of your website's visitors. It can count near to real visitors, only if considered along with other performance metrics. Hitherto, using above mentioned tips, you can improve Alexa rank of your website, thence the value of your website could be enhanced in front of potential consumers.
Conversationalists Enter Social Technographics Ladder
The Social Technographics Ladder by Forrester Research now includes Conversationalists too. Covering majorly the US crowd in their survey, the resulting ladder reflects the level of engagement as:
Creators (24%) includes an individual who
• Publish a blog
• Publish your own homepage
• Uploads audio/video/music you created
• Writes articles or stories and posts them
Conversationalists (33%) are the people who
• Update status on social networking websites like Facebook, MySpace, etc.
• Posts updates on microblogging websites like Twitter
Critics (37%) are those who
• Post rating/reviews of products or services
• Comment on someone else’s blog
• Contribute on online forums and discussion groups
• Contribute to or edit articles in a wiki
Collectors (20%) include people who
• Use RSS feeds
• Vote for websites online
• Add “tags” to web pages or photos
Joiners (59%) are the ones who
• Maintain profile on social networking sites
• Visits other social media channels too
Spectators (70%) are the individuals who
• Read blogs, tweets, customer ratings/reviews and online forums
• Listen to podcasts
• Watch video from other users
Inactives (17%) are the people who don’t come under any of the category mentioned above.
With an addition of “Conversationalists” in this ladder showcases how effective it is to generate and spread conversation about a company. If the main goal/objective is to spread brand awareness, it would certainly be worthy to create a Twitter presence and reach out to those people conversing about your company or point them to a site where they can get rewards, encouragement, or connections with other customers. They might find interesting content that’s worth talking about.
Creators (24%) includes an individual who
• Publish a blog
• Publish your own homepage
• Uploads audio/video/music you created
• Writes articles or stories and posts them
Conversationalists (33%) are the people who
• Update status on social networking websites like Facebook, MySpace, etc.
• Posts updates on microblogging websites like Twitter
Critics (37%) are those who
• Post rating/reviews of products or services
• Comment on someone else’s blog
• Contribute on online forums and discussion groups
• Contribute to or edit articles in a wiki
Collectors (20%) include people who
• Use RSS feeds
• Vote for websites online
• Add “tags” to web pages or photos
Joiners (59%) are the ones who
• Maintain profile on social networking sites
• Visits other social media channels too
Spectators (70%) are the individuals who
• Read blogs, tweets, customer ratings/reviews and online forums
• Listen to podcasts
• Watch video from other users
Inactives (17%) are the people who don’t come under any of the category mentioned above.
With an addition of “Conversationalists” in this ladder showcases how effective it is to generate and spread conversation about a company. If the main goal/objective is to spread brand awareness, it would certainly be worthy to create a Twitter presence and reach out to those people conversing about your company or point them to a site where they can get rewards, encouragement, or connections with other customers. They might find interesting content that’s worth talking about.
Marketing during a Recession via Online Reputation Management
During recessions, most of the macroeconomic indicators vary in a similar way. In a lay mans term recession refers to general slowdown in economic activity over a period of time. During tough times, companies are uncertain where to make marketing investments, one sure bet is to invest in the reputation of the company and the key people. In such times, it’s good not to test or spend on new campaigns. When budgets shrink, relationships win the day, salesmanship goes down. It yields to engage with SEO and online public relations plan called "Online Reputation Management" to facilitate and improve media coverage using word-of-mouth (WOM) vehicles.
One of the most effective ways to research for any company, products and people of interest is Search. Therefore, the companies that are managing their online reputations successfully implies that they are closely monitoring the search results and also participating in social media mentioning their company names, brands and key people. This helps to gauge the sentiments – positive, negative, and neutral.
Start with the monitoring program by collecting the raw data, afterwards do the analysis of that data, make distinct categories, identify sentiments and influence to sources. When you spot any negative comment or review on the web, you get an opportunity to respond and deal with the situation appropriately, before it results into any wrong perception for your company or product.
Online Reputation Management helps to discover positive and neutral comments and you can recognize brand evangelists. Companies work proactively for managing online reputation and monitoring program, much before yourbrandsucks.com starts ranking top ten on Google for significant brand names.
Start up with monitoring, followed by optimizing the assets on and off the company websites. The key components for an effective and successful search engine reputation management effort leverages public relations expertise for conversing and messaging in conjunction with SEO for keywords and link building, in a recession or in good times.
One of the most effective ways to research for any company, products and people of interest is Search. Therefore, the companies that are managing their online reputations successfully implies that they are closely monitoring the search results and also participating in social media mentioning their company names, brands and key people. This helps to gauge the sentiments – positive, negative, and neutral.
Start with the monitoring program by collecting the raw data, afterwards do the analysis of that data, make distinct categories, identify sentiments and influence to sources. When you spot any negative comment or review on the web, you get an opportunity to respond and deal with the situation appropriately, before it results into any wrong perception for your company or product.
Online Reputation Management helps to discover positive and neutral comments and you can recognize brand evangelists. Companies work proactively for managing online reputation and monitoring program, much before yourbrandsucks.com starts ranking top ten on Google for significant brand names.
Start up with monitoring, followed by optimizing the assets on and off the company websites. The key components for an effective and successful search engine reputation management effort leverages public relations expertise for conversing and messaging in conjunction with SEO for keywords and link building, in a recession or in good times.
Leverage LinkedIn for Online Business Networking
LinkedIn is currently the most popular business as well as professional networking website. It is one of the businesses networking website being used by many professionals to share useful information and for the purpose of networking too. As on date, the participation at LinkedIn is increasing exponentially.
The standout features of LinkedIn like listing your experience in your profile and recommendations from employers, coworkers, clients, and other professional connections make it a quite good platform for building professional network. It is generally populated by a different type of individual, including professionals and many entrepreneurs. These people can be ideal prospects for your business. The profile may be used by the employers and even clients to locate the best available resources. Also, group discussion and sharing at LinkedIn: LinkedIn Groups facilitates discussion and information sharing in areas of common interest. The discussions are focused and helpful to very specialized business needs.
Best workable methods for using LinkedIn are:
a) Establish a credible profile - Your professional experience and the recommendations are important in order to be taken seriously. Recommendations matters a lot to enhance and verify your profile content.
b) LinkedIn Groups - The groups are monitored and moderated by the administrator of that Group owner like in Facebook. To join a Group, an application needs to be sent to the Group owner, who validates your profile and checks for your knowledge about the Group’s interest area. If you abuse your membership, your postings’ gets removed by Group owners. If found doing self-promotion then its assured you would be deleted from a Group.
c) LinkedIn Groups could be an effective feature that can be leveraged for your business. If you contribute in group discussions effectively, and provide helpful information to a community, this helps to develop good professional relationships, and eventually establish sound contacts.
d) The views you share and your participation in a Group, determine your effectiveness in making connections and eventually helps to turn these connections into leads for your business.
Try and focus on the way outs mentioned above and see how fast it could help to build up strong and huge professional network.
The standout features of LinkedIn like listing your experience in your profile and recommendations from employers, coworkers, clients, and other professional connections make it a quite good platform for building professional network. It is generally populated by a different type of individual, including professionals and many entrepreneurs. These people can be ideal prospects for your business. The profile may be used by the employers and even clients to locate the best available resources. Also, group discussion and sharing at LinkedIn: LinkedIn Groups facilitates discussion and information sharing in areas of common interest. The discussions are focused and helpful to very specialized business needs.
Best workable methods for using LinkedIn are:
a) Establish a credible profile - Your professional experience and the recommendations are important in order to be taken seriously. Recommendations matters a lot to enhance and verify your profile content.
b) LinkedIn Groups - The groups are monitored and moderated by the administrator of that Group owner like in Facebook. To join a Group, an application needs to be sent to the Group owner, who validates your profile and checks for your knowledge about the Group’s interest area. If you abuse your membership, your postings’ gets removed by Group owners. If found doing self-promotion then its assured you would be deleted from a Group.
c) LinkedIn Groups could be an effective feature that can be leveraged for your business. If you contribute in group discussions effectively, and provide helpful information to a community, this helps to develop good professional relationships, and eventually establish sound contacts.
d) The views you share and your participation in a Group, determine your effectiveness in making connections and eventually helps to turn these connections into leads for your business.
Try and focus on the way outs mentioned above and see how fast it could help to build up strong and huge professional network.
Tools for Online Marketing Campaigns
Today everyone prefers different modes and methods to market their brand. Here I have gathered some of the online/internet marketing channels having high success rates like Social Media, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pay-Per-Click, Email Marketing, Video Marketing, and Mobile Marketing.
a) Social Media
To measure success and calculate the ROI, set certain defined goals at the start up. Social media participation definitely drives targeted/potential visitors to your website. To gauge from social media channels, use certain online analytical tools. You can look towards its potential targets which may include brand awareness, relevant traffic, improvement in trust and confidence among customers, valuable feedbacks, and visibility, to drive sales or to increase leads.
Try to focus on set goals so that you can assess ROI from social media efforts.
b) Search Engine Optimization
With the help SEO, it is easy to increase search rankings at Google, Bing or alike. But it is just half won battle. To target the potential visitors from all the desired locations, focusing on ranking as well calls to examine the metrics of your online/internet marketing campaigns to achieve utmost results.
Try to focus whether search results are targeting yours potential customers or live content address your target audience’s needs.
c) PPC
Amongst online marketing campaigns, PPC generates definite outcomes. Efforts put in PPC campaigns increases conversion rate. For the sake of betterment, you can try two different ad versions for a single ad resulting differently, like one could be cost-effective and other emphasizes on convenience aspect. You can try distinct headlines on your landing page using a tool named Google Optimizer.
d) Email Marketing
Email marketing, like other online marketing channels, has proved its significance. You can integrate emails with social media which is going to be a popular thing in coming years.
To bring email marketing up, try to encourage email subscribers to forward content via mail, and get social with mail and share them via social networks like Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn and other many other social networking sites.
e) Video Marketing
Google is pushing video as a larger component in search results. Online video with proper formats are getting more CTR than ever before. The live videos add value to your business making your website more searchable.Try to include “closed captioning” and “alt tags” in the video formats.
f) Mobile Marketing
Optimize your website to be workable with/for hand-held devices. As on date, mobile devices are not only used for net banking, to purchase commodities, download ring tones, to play games, instead consumers are doing a lot more than this. Now they have started their social media participation via networks like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, and create additional engagement opportunities and also traffic to the mobile version of your company web site.
Try to keep basic font format, eliminate ads to conserve screen space, take out images unless they are necessary, and also remove Flash, Java or any plug-in content, if not very necessary.
In case you have other online/internet marketing channels that has potential to increase success rates via running their set campaigns, do share.
a) Social Media
To measure success and calculate the ROI, set certain defined goals at the start up. Social media participation definitely drives targeted/potential visitors to your website. To gauge from social media channels, use certain online analytical tools. You can look towards its potential targets which may include brand awareness, relevant traffic, improvement in trust and confidence among customers, valuable feedbacks, and visibility, to drive sales or to increase leads.
Try to focus on set goals so that you can assess ROI from social media efforts.
b) Search Engine Optimization
With the help SEO, it is easy to increase search rankings at Google, Bing or alike. But it is just half won battle. To target the potential visitors from all the desired locations, focusing on ranking as well calls to examine the metrics of your online/internet marketing campaigns to achieve utmost results.
Try to focus whether search results are targeting yours potential customers or live content address your target audience’s needs.
c) PPC
Amongst online marketing campaigns, PPC generates definite outcomes. Efforts put in PPC campaigns increases conversion rate. For the sake of betterment, you can try two different ad versions for a single ad resulting differently, like one could be cost-effective and other emphasizes on convenience aspect. You can try distinct headlines on your landing page using a tool named Google Optimizer.
d) Email Marketing
Email marketing, like other online marketing channels, has proved its significance. You can integrate emails with social media which is going to be a popular thing in coming years.
To bring email marketing up, try to encourage email subscribers to forward content via mail, and get social with mail and share them via social networks like Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn and other many other social networking sites.
e) Video Marketing
Google is pushing video as a larger component in search results. Online video with proper formats are getting more CTR than ever before. The live videos add value to your business making your website more searchable.Try to include “closed captioning” and “alt tags” in the video formats.
f) Mobile Marketing
Optimize your website to be workable with/for hand-held devices. As on date, mobile devices are not only used for net banking, to purchase commodities, download ring tones, to play games, instead consumers are doing a lot more than this. Now they have started their social media participation via networks like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, and create additional engagement opportunities and also traffic to the mobile version of your company web site.
Try to keep basic font format, eliminate ads to conserve screen space, take out images unless they are necessary, and also remove Flash, Java or any plug-in content, if not very necessary.
In case you have other online/internet marketing channels that has potential to increase success rates via running their set campaigns, do share.
To Achieve DREAMS, Remember your ABC’s
Achieve you dreams keeping in mind:
(A) Avoid negative sources, people, places, things and habits.
(B) Believe in yourself.
(C) Consider things from every angle.
(D) Don’t give up and don’t give in.
(E) Enjoy life today as if yesterday is gone and tomorrow may never come.
(F) Family and friends are hidden treasures, seek them and enjoy their riches.
(G) Give more than you planned to.
(H) Hang on to your dreams.
(I) Ignore those who try to discourage you.
(J) Just do it.
(K) Keep trying no matter how hard it seems, it will get easier.
(L) Love yourself first and the most.
(M) Make it happen.
(N) Never lie, cheat or steal, always strike a fair deal.
(O) Open your eyes and see things as they really are.
(P) Practice makes you perfect.
(Q) Quitters never win and winners never quit.
(R) Read, study and learn about everything that is important in your life.
(S) Stop procrastinating.
(T) Take control of your own destiny.
(U) Understand yourself in order to better understand others.
(V) Visualize it.
(W) Want it more than anything.
(X) Xccelerate your efforts.
(Y) You are unique, nothing can replace you.
(Z) Zero in on your target and go for it!!!
One must follow these golden rules to achieve success.
(A) Avoid negative sources, people, places, things and habits.
(B) Believe in yourself.
(C) Consider things from every angle.
(D) Don’t give up and don’t give in.
(E) Enjoy life today as if yesterday is gone and tomorrow may never come.
(F) Family and friends are hidden treasures, seek them and enjoy their riches.
(G) Give more than you planned to.
(H) Hang on to your dreams.
(I) Ignore those who try to discourage you.
(J) Just do it.
(K) Keep trying no matter how hard it seems, it will get easier.
(L) Love yourself first and the most.
(M) Make it happen.
(N) Never lie, cheat or steal, always strike a fair deal.
(O) Open your eyes and see things as they really are.
(P) Practice makes you perfect.
(Q) Quitters never win and winners never quit.
(R) Read, study and learn about everything that is important in your life.
(S) Stop procrastinating.
(T) Take control of your own destiny.
(U) Understand yourself in order to better understand others.
(V) Visualize it.
(W) Want it more than anything.
(X) Xccelerate your efforts.
(Y) You are unique, nothing can replace you.
(Z) Zero in on your target and go for it!!!
One must follow these golden rules to achieve success.
Marketing of Products through Website using 5 W’s and an H
In today’s technology driven world, one needs to be crystal clear with 5 W’s: Who, What, Where, When, & Why and an H. People make snap decisions everyday - to use products, services, and even software too. The focus should be whether you are giving your potential customers the information they need to make split second decisions about your products/services or not.
Who
- Who is this for? - Communicate clearly who your target market is and try not to be too subtle. The visitor to you website should know if you are talking to them or someone else.
- Who is using it? – Exemplify the target users if possible to make things more clear. People generally follow up things which are pretty tried and tested ones.
- Who created it? – Disclose your real identity, no need to hide behind an isolated corporation. Tell the potential users exactly who you are.
What
- What is this? – Make it clear whether it’s a website, a mobile app or an iPhone app. Come right out and say what it is. Instead of presenting an idea, communicate exactly what it is.
- What does this do? – Tell the real features of your product or services and spread the real picture giving its benefits to satisfy your potential customers. Say it clearly.
When
- When is the best time to use it? - Mention certain case scenarios to let the potential customers know when your services could benefit them.
Why
- Why use this at all? – Try to mention the advantages of your product/services in front of the product/services provided by your competitors. This would need a different angle to achieve their faith in you.
- Why is it better than other similar apps? – To help people in making educated decisions, outline the similarities and differences in the services provided by you and your competitors.
How
- How do I use this? – Lastly, never forget to give detailed description of using your product or service. You can take help of podcasts and videos to give an idea about your product/service and can outline the steps in text as well.
This is the way you can map the theory to practice to increase the success rate.
Who
- Who is this for? - Communicate clearly who your target market is and try not to be too subtle. The visitor to you website should know if you are talking to them or someone else.
- Who is using it? – Exemplify the target users if possible to make things more clear. People generally follow up things which are pretty tried and tested ones.
- Who created it? – Disclose your real identity, no need to hide behind an isolated corporation. Tell the potential users exactly who you are.
What
- What is this? – Make it clear whether it’s a website, a mobile app or an iPhone app. Come right out and say what it is. Instead of presenting an idea, communicate exactly what it is.
- What does this do? – Tell the real features of your product or services and spread the real picture giving its benefits to satisfy your potential customers. Say it clearly.
When
- When is the best time to use it? - Mention certain case scenarios to let the potential customers know when your services could benefit them.
Why
- Why use this at all? – Try to mention the advantages of your product/services in front of the product/services provided by your competitors. This would need a different angle to achieve their faith in you.
- Why is it better than other similar apps? – To help people in making educated decisions, outline the similarities and differences in the services provided by you and your competitors.
How
- How do I use this? – Lastly, never forget to give detailed description of using your product or service. You can take help of podcasts and videos to give an idea about your product/service and can outline the steps in text as well.
This is the way you can map the theory to practice to increase the success rate.
Inbound Marketing
Inbound Marketing is the type of marketing that is mainly focused on getting found by potential customers.
In traditional or outbound marketing, companies used to focus on searching for expected customers, using techniques with poor targets and most of times interrupting people. This type of marketing involves cold-calling, T.V. advertising, print advertising, junk mails, and trade shows. But these techniques are less effective and more expensive.
Today, Inbound Marketers flip outbound marketing completely. The most successful key components of an Inbound Marketing campaigns are:
a) Get Found
Create Content via Blogging – It mainly surrounds the content. The substantial content in any Inbound Marketing campaign is a tool that to attract potential customers to your website for your products or services. You must create web pages, write blogs, participate in the blogosphere and then publish this content to drive traffic to your website.
Optimize via Search Engine Optimization - SEO is the practice of building your website and the inbound links to your site to maximize its ranking in the search engines, where most of your customers generally begin their buying process. It eases the potential customers to find your content. You must do on-page as well as off-page SEO and use channels like Youtube, Twitter to optimize your remarkable content.
Promote via Social Media - Social media magnifies the impact of your content. When your content is distributed across and discussed over the network of personal relationships, it becomes more authentic, and is more likely to drive qualified and specific consumers to your website. You can even run PPC campaigns to promote the website.
b) Convert
Convert Visitors to Leads via Landing Pages - Convert a targeted stream of traffic into mature leads. Design a well-crafted offer on a landing page specifically for the audience you will be driving to the page.
Lead Tracking and Intelligence – After generating lots of traffic from myriad sources like Google, social media sites, the blogosphere, create a magnet that sucks in prospects from all over the web. Look into the conversion paths on your website. Use your intellect to gauge where might people land, and what paths through your content they might take. And then put right offers in front of a given visitor to maximize the chance of converting it into a lead.
Lead Management – Use the analytic traffic tracking tools to keep a track and then manage the matured leads. Identify the hot prospects to increase the total count of potential customers.
c) Analyze
Marketing Analytics – Regularly post and comment on articles, and check your traffic, leads and landing page conversion rates. Schedule properly to write, optimize, publish and promote your content.
Competitive Analysis – Keep a close eye on your competitor’s presence in the market. Analyze and identify their hot prospects closely.
Lead Scoring – You need to strategize for further gains. Generate marketing reports and make new offers and landing pages to enhance the substantial traffic on your website.
In traditional or outbound marketing, companies used to focus on searching for expected customers, using techniques with poor targets and most of times interrupting people. This type of marketing involves cold-calling, T.V. advertising, print advertising, junk mails, and trade shows. But these techniques are less effective and more expensive.
Today, Inbound Marketers flip outbound marketing completely. The most successful key components of an Inbound Marketing campaigns are:
a) Get Found
Create Content via Blogging – It mainly surrounds the content. The substantial content in any Inbound Marketing campaign is a tool that to attract potential customers to your website for your products or services. You must create web pages, write blogs, participate in the blogosphere and then publish this content to drive traffic to your website.
Optimize via Search Engine Optimization - SEO is the practice of building your website and the inbound links to your site to maximize its ranking in the search engines, where most of your customers generally begin their buying process. It eases the potential customers to find your content. You must do on-page as well as off-page SEO and use channels like Youtube, Twitter to optimize your remarkable content.
Promote via Social Media - Social media magnifies the impact of your content. When your content is distributed across and discussed over the network of personal relationships, it becomes more authentic, and is more likely to drive qualified and specific consumers to your website. You can even run PPC campaigns to promote the website.
b) Convert
Convert Visitors to Leads via Landing Pages - Convert a targeted stream of traffic into mature leads. Design a well-crafted offer on a landing page specifically for the audience you will be driving to the page.
Lead Tracking and Intelligence – After generating lots of traffic from myriad sources like Google, social media sites, the blogosphere, create a magnet that sucks in prospects from all over the web. Look into the conversion paths on your website. Use your intellect to gauge where might people land, and what paths through your content they might take. And then put right offers in front of a given visitor to maximize the chance of converting it into a lead.
Lead Management – Use the analytic traffic tracking tools to keep a track and then manage the matured leads. Identify the hot prospects to increase the total count of potential customers.
c) Analyze
Marketing Analytics – Regularly post and comment on articles, and check your traffic, leads and landing page conversion rates. Schedule properly to write, optimize, publish and promote your content.
Competitive Analysis – Keep a close eye on your competitor’s presence in the market. Analyze and identify their hot prospects closely.
Lead Scoring – You need to strategize for further gains. Generate marketing reports and make new offers and landing pages to enhance the substantial traffic on your website.
Grow Business Via Social Media Network
Build your social media network aiming at driving targeted prospective customers to your business.
The primary goal in Social Media is to build and test the effectiveness of social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, My Space, Twitter and many more.
Primary Goal in Social Media is to measure Traffic and Conversion
This is the timeless business revenue building success formula. It includes:
• Identify and discover what works in attracting targeted prospective customers to your offer.
• Convert the targeted traffic to buying your offer.
Network Building Services in Social Media:
Develop a communication strategy to measure the social media growth that renders the growth of business profits as well as revenue. The social networking websites which are targeted primarily are Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. The success rate in social media marketing can be measured based on the destination picture and also how the incoming traffic visits to your websites is accounted for.
In short, build targeted followers, friends, contacts as fast as the sites allow us to. While building work on developing rich and quality content that will convert traffic into clients and customers.
Promotion and Advertising Using Our Social Media Network
Grow your social network on a regular basis and reach as many people as you can through primary social media networks. By analyzing the current trends you can double the customers with positive views for your product and services.
Effective Social Media Campaigns
The most effective campaigns include blogs and websites as destinations for most of our social media campaigns. Moreover the clients should be in business of selling products or services. You can drive traffic from third party sites also but it is challenging since the results are not easily tracked. The best way to track the traffic is to set up Google Analytics analyze the traffic patterns.
The primary goal in Social Media is to build and test the effectiveness of social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, My Space, Twitter and many more.
Primary Goal in Social Media is to measure Traffic and Conversion
This is the timeless business revenue building success formula. It includes:
• Identify and discover what works in attracting targeted prospective customers to your offer.
• Convert the targeted traffic to buying your offer.
Network Building Services in Social Media:
Develop a communication strategy to measure the social media growth that renders the growth of business profits as well as revenue. The social networking websites which are targeted primarily are Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. The success rate in social media marketing can be measured based on the destination picture and also how the incoming traffic visits to your websites is accounted for.
In short, build targeted followers, friends, contacts as fast as the sites allow us to. While building work on developing rich and quality content that will convert traffic into clients and customers.
Promotion and Advertising Using Our Social Media Network
Grow your social network on a regular basis and reach as many people as you can through primary social media networks. By analyzing the current trends you can double the customers with positive views for your product and services.
Effective Social Media Campaigns
The most effective campaigns include blogs and websites as destinations for most of our social media campaigns. Moreover the clients should be in business of selling products or services. You can drive traffic from third party sites also but it is challenging since the results are not easily tracked. The best way to track the traffic is to set up Google Analytics analyze the traffic patterns.
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