5 DON’TS of Social Marketing

Monday, August 24th, 2009

1. Overdoing it – One of the most common ways to abuse sites like Twitter is by overdoing it.  Too many useless posts can be obnoxious and drive customers away.
2. Putting all your eggs in one basket – Some businesses are too wrapped up in Twittering for a few minutes a day, they have now ignored doing SEO or writing useful articles for their site. Don’t forget about the other important online marketing tools.  A well-balanced online marketing campaign including SEO, PPC, SEM, and Social Media are all vital.
3. Spamming – Do not fill up people’s social networking pages with unsolicited ads promoting everything ever created.  Its doing more harm than good posting bogus information about how consumers can “Get Rich Fast.”
4. Irrelevant information – They say that 40% of all Twitter posts are “useless babble.”  I think that is much lower than the actual amount of useless information.  They say that 10% of your social media should be used for sales and 90% should be used for posting relevant, usable information.
5. Repetitive Posts – Some people use programs to help them post tweets throughout the day.  But using this can be to your demise if misused.  Posts that are the same day to day or week to week are obnoxious and people notice.  Instead of people deeming your posts as relevant and constructive information, they will delete you.

Click here to read article.

No Comments | Tags: pay per click, SEO, social marketing, Twitter
Posted by Jessica in Online Marketing

What comes first – The Web Design or SEO?

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

You could consider this question like the chicken & the egg controversy… and you’ll get a different answer from different internet experts. 

I am often amazed at some of the websites that Google ranks #1. The design is elementary and the content is irrelevant or somewhat spammy.  These websites all have a very high bounce rate.  Why? …because their website looks terrible.  Nobody will take a tacky, unprofessional site seriously – even if it is ranked #1 in Google.

Obviously, a website is nothing unless it is aesthetically pleasing.    BUT you can’t get too carried away with the appearance. 

A few years ago, people got carried away with the design aspect and created entire websites in flash.  Search engines don’t read flash.  So any content that was on a flash site was irrelevant.  The people who paid for an outrageously expensive, beautiful site were scratching their heads wondering why there was no traffic. This pretty website is nothing but a façade and the company will end up paying a fortune in Pay-Per-Click because their website is no where to be seen in the organic search.

So what is the answer? What comes first?  The truth is, they go hand in hand.  A website needs to be constructed with SEO tactics in mind.  The extra time and money spent to do initial SEO set-up (keyword research, META tag writing and keyword-rich content) will go a long way.

This is why I believe so strongly in working with companies that cover the whole online spectrum – from branding to web design to SEO to social media.  I don’t want to work for companies that only do SEO or that only do web design.  Both need to be mended together from the beginning, otherwise the website will only be partially successful.  COMPLETE online marketing campaigns, will make the most successful websites on the internet.

1 Comment | Tags: branding, Google, pay per click, SEO, web design
Posted by Jessica in Branding & Design, Online Marketing, Opinion

Bing/Yahoo Update

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

Microsoft and Yahoo have made their merging of platforms official.  Yahoo sites will still be branded and controlled by Yahoo, but will use Bing’s algorithmic search and paid search platform.  A “Powered by Bing” notation at the bottom of search results.

The deal is final but the logistics will be clarified through the rest of the year. Once everything is approved it should take 3-6 months to implement globally.

One of the main benefits for online advertisers will be the usage of adCenter. AdCenter is Bing’s robust PPC software that is in many ways, even better than Google’s.

No Comments | Tags: Bing, pay per click, Yahoo
Posted by Jessica in Online Marketing

Online Marketing & the Bing/Yahoo Deal

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

Yahoo is planning on making Microsoft’s Bing its new search provider. The effects of this transition are many. But how could it directly affect online marketing?

First of all, there will be a change in traffic from the various search engines. Although many people have switched to Bing, it has not created a threat for Google. However, if Yahoo and Bing combine forces, then Google will have some much greater competition. This will mean that online marketers will need expanding their attention to the other networks if they are already not. Or if they are, it means that they will need to spend more time focusing on Yahoo/Bing.

As rankings vary on each search engine, your rankings may change. If you had good position in Yahoo and poor ranking in Bing, your position will drop and vice versa. Pay-per-click campaigns often reflect your organic rankings when you pay for ads on keywords that your organic rank is not high. So, the changing in rankings in both Yahoo and Bing may cause you to do some revisions in your paid search programs.

In order to stay on top of things, online marketers will need to be revising their client’s current metrics and strategies to see where change would take place.

For more information on the Yahoo/Bing transition, click here.

No Comments | Tags: Bing, Google, Online Marketing, pay per click, search engine, Yahoo
Posted by Jessica in Online Marketing

Eye Tracking

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009

If you have been blowing off a good SEO and Pay Per Click campaign, this eye tracking study is a powerful reminder of just how important it is.

You’ll notice the eye activity is in a triangle shape starting in at the top left hand corner.  So, search results located in that “golden triangle” will be most seen (and clicked).  There is a dramatic change in eye scan and clicking behavior as users look “below the fold” or to the scrolling point.

This isn’t just useful for your online searches, but for your web designer.  Your most important content (logo, links, information) should be in the “golden triangle.”

Read about this study here.

No Comments | Tags: pay per click, SEO
Posted by Jessica in Online Marketing

Measuring Social Media Marketing

Thursday, May 7th, 2009

MarketingSherpa released a survey measuring the perceived accuracy of marketing ROI in social media (below). Not surprisingly, over 50% of businesses claim they can not accurately track the effectiveness of participating in blogs, review sites, and social networking sites.

In the online marketing world, where analytics play a pivotal role in shaping your marketing strategy, this perceived inaccuracy may seem very high. But successful online marketing is not only defined by click-through rates and conversions. Businesses can learn valuable feedback about their customers behavior. How do they communicate? What makes them excited about your products and services? What other interests do they have?

At Album, we define Social Media Marketing as a Baseline Online Marketing tactic. In contrast to Lead Online Marketing (which includes services like pay-per-click and email marketing that produce very accurate metrics), Baseline Marketing encompasses search engine optimization, brand reputation management, and social media marketing. We define these services as “baseline” because, like in music, they create a critical foundation that often goes unnoticed. They play a more long term role. Performance in baseline marketing is measured more qualitatively than quantitatively. For example: what blog topics produce the most replies? Or, what angers your customers the most?

Much can be learned from the social behavior of your customers. The popularity of social media sites only adds to the qualitative market data available.

No Comments | Tags: blog, email marketing, Internet marketing, pay per click, social media, social media marketing, social networking
Posted by Nathan in Online Marketing

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