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Audio: Status Updates From The Grave And iPhone Dominance

February 5, 2010 By Leave a Comment

dirt nap Audio: Status Updates From The Grave And iPhone Dominance

Before we headed out for Affiliate Summit West last month, we recorded a podcast where we ask the question, “if you died today, what would your Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn status updates say about you for eternity?” And just to swing the pendulum wide, we also talked about using the iPhone for business. How’s that for an odd combination?

Shortly after we recorded the show, we took off for Las Vegas and got swept up in the excitement of talking with affiliate networks and meeting new affiliates. To tell the truth, I all but forgot about the show until a few days ago. It’s been sitting on my desktop just staring at me, disapprovingly. So, I thought I’d better take the time today to post the show and reduce my desktop by one less file.

The podcast is about 30 minutes long. I hope you enjoy.

Download Now

Leave your comments and feedback below.

Charles McKeever
OpenSourceMarketer.com

Live your open source life.

Audio: Status Updates From The Grave And iPhone Dominance

Filed Under: Facebook, Twitter Tagged With: , , , ,

To Tweet or Not to Tweet: Social media is a great way to get customer feedback…just be wary for potential blowback

February 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment

In my last blog post, I challenged you (and myself as well) to be more proactive in approaching customers for feedback. I recently found an excellent example on Twitter of an auto detailing supply company tying in the New Year with an offer to give feedback on things they can do better in the coming year.

Finding the right incentive

Notice they also offer a small incentive for providing feedback. However, it is important to note that the incentive is not a brand new car or a Neil Diamond Cruise Trip. It is just enough to pique the interest of followers, but probably not enough to cloud the feedback with nonsense in an effort for a chance at winning the car wax.

Social media caveat

detailedimage To Tweet or Not to Tweet: Social media is a great way to get customer feedback…just be wary for potential blowbackWhen using social media channels for feedback, please understand the control you have with this medium. Remember that with the advent and popularity of social media channels you can receive a flood of real-time feedback from all over the globe.

But that feedback rolling in can be positive or negative. The negative feedback can now become very visible not only to your past customers but also prospective ones.

Now I say all of this not to dampen your enthusiasm for using emerging social media, but to have you consider what the outcome could be once you hit that update button on Twitter.

So consider questions like these… Did your company have a massive shipping issue this year? Was a bad batch of products sent out? Did you offend Ashton Kutcher in any way?

While the feedback you could gather is still very valuable, you might choose a more controllable channel to gather customer feedback if you have reason to believe some of that feedback may be negative.

Speaking of feedback, we want to hear from you. What is your favorite source of news and information in the advertising and marketing industry? Not a blog or magazine you just like…but something you really love enough to send a Valentine to on this upcoming (and well-marketed) holiday.

Email or share your feedback using social media and we’ll publish our favorites in a future post right here on the blog.

To Tweet or Not to Tweet: Social media is a great way to get customer feedback…just be wary for potential blowback

Filed Under: Social Media, Twitter Tagged With: ,

Social Media Marketing: Use data and metrics to transition from wallflower to life of the party

January 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment

In middle school, I was fairly cerebral. OK, some would say nerdy. And while that mindset certainly paid off in the classroom, it didn’t help much at the middle school dance. My younger self would have delighted at being able to read a book that held the secrets to being the life of the party. I even tried exploring my trusty encyclopedia set (remember those) for an answer.

3278650279 eb724efb44 246x300 Social Media Marketing: Use data and metrics to transition from wallflower to life of the partyI share the awkwardness of my formative years because I believe that when it comes to social media, most experienced marketers are little more than brace-faced thirteen-year-olds staring at Twitter and Facebook like a poster of New Kids on the Block – you know deep-down a perfect marriage exists but just don’t know how to make it happen.

So I was delighted to hear that our sister company, MarketingSherpa, is close to releasing its second Social Media Marketing Benchmark Report. The subtitle, “Data and Insights for Mapping an Effective Social Marketing Strategy,” highlights what has largely been missing from the social media discussion over the past few years – real substance.

By combating the ample hype with an ROI-based strategy, I hope this benchmark study can guide marketers in the transition from, as Senior Analyst Sergio Balegno puts it, “novice to competent practitioner capable of achieving social marketing objectives and proving ROI.” And Sergio and his team hope to provide the guidance to get you there. As he says, “To make this leap, marketers will need benchmark data to help them better understand what works (and what doesn’t) in social media marketing, and a practical method for mapping a strategy that will lead them to social marketing success.”

MarketingSherpa let me have an early, pre-publication peak at their data and share one of my favorite insights with you on the blog today. The 2010 Social Media Marketing Benchmark Report has 188 charts and tables, and the one below really caught my eye…

smmbs 480 Social Media Marketing: Use data and metrics to transition from wallflower to life of the party[click to enlarge]

The most effective tactic shown in the chart above – blogger relations – is used by far fewer organizations than less effective tactics primarily because of the effort required. At first glance, I thought the lesson from this chart is to start amping up blogger relations immediately.

But, as always with social media, hopping on the first thing one sees is the easy (and least effective) approach. And that’s what this chart is really showing. Too often, marketers focus on fast and easy ways to make use of social media instead of leveraging the most effective ways. Since social media is essentially free, why bother if something requires too much effort? Of course, in reality, social media is not free. You must invest a significant amount of time to do it right.

According to the Benchmark Report, “This focus on ‘fast and easy’ versus effectiveness is a problem that is far more prevalent with organizations in the trial phase of social marketing maturity than with more advanced social marketers working from a strategic social marketing plan.”

You see, in the end the most profitable approach to this new medium isn’t so new after all. Be strategic. Twitter is a tactic, not a strategy. And the real perfect marriage occurs when you pair proven marketing principles from your overall plan with social media tactics that make sense in your overall strategy.

You probably intrinsically know that this is the right thing to do, but I hope this little reminder helps you stay focused on what really works for your company as you execute on your 2010 plan. As for marrying the cute one from New Kids on the Block…I’ve got no advice to help you there.

Social Media Marketing: Use data and metrics to transition from wallflower to life of the party

Filed Under: General, Marketing, Marketing Insights, Online Marketing, Social Media, Twitter Tagged With: , ,

Nine of ‘09: You can increase email clickthrough rate…use Twitter for business…but you can’t listen to Penelope Cruz sing here…

December 30, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Today’s blog post will not feature music, romance, or a cast of Academy Award winners. If you want to hear Penelope Cruz sing, you have to watch “Nine,” the film.

But while “Nine,” the blog post, can’t provide what Peter Travers from Rolling Stone describes as “…a hot-blooded musical fantasia”, I can share our nine most popular posts from 2009 full of lessons that will help you better understand successful viral videos and affiliate marketing, and improve your lead generation rate while building your email subscriber list. I’ll even throw in a (not quite as gushingly fabricated) review for each post from the Twittersphere.

4219923214 11671894e2 300x183 Nine of ‘09: You can increase email clickthrough rate…use Twitter for business…but you can’t listen to Penelope Cruz sing here…At first glance, a film with a starry cast and yet another “Top Blog Posts of 2009 Roundup” have little in common beyond the name. But the tenth lesson is in the execution. If you’re a frequent visitor to the blog, you’ll notice our new Topsy Retweet Button. One way we use Twitter is to listen to you, our audience. This button is an easier way for you to tell us (and the rest of the Twitterverse) which posts provide you with real value that so you can be successful at what you do, which is how we define our success.

So the next time you’re tempted to look at Twitter as just a chance to gossip about how Nicole Kidman began rehearsals for “Nine” just four weeks after giving birth…stop. And listen. Your customers are trying to talk to you.

Now, let’s raise the curtain on the nine most valuable blog posts of 2009 as decided by you…our audience.

  1. Twitter for businesses: 7 articles + tools you don’t want to miss – With hundreds of lists of Twitter tips and tools, and dozens more popping up each day, it’s getting impossible to keep up unless you work for Mashable. So in advance of June 19th’s Twitter Experiments: Getting beyond the “now what?” web clinic, we wanted to share some of our favorite tips, tools and articles related to the business side of Twitter. Instead of a laundry list of 87 tools or 143 people to follow, here are seven of the most valuable articles and resources we’ve seen lately. Enjoy. “This is good stuff…” @danfranktx
  2. What else can I test… to increase email clickthrough rate? – Email marketing is still the most preferred and effective way channel marketers can communicate directly with their customers. Here are eight tactics that you can use or re-visit to increase your email clickthrough rate. “A few good ways to increase your email clickthroughs” @rickburnes
  3. What do great viral videos have in common? – It’s always fascinating to see smart, unique and, occasionally crazy concepts come to life. Most interesting are those that somehow connect with a brand and really support brand awareness. Here a few of Gaby Diaz’s personal favorites. Besides being funny and eye-catching, what have these videos done right? “Short and straight to the point.” @brunoluis
  4. Google adds more flexibility and intelligence to Analytics and Website Optimizer – At the 2009 Partner Summit, Google gave a preview of the new Website Optimizer (GWO) features as well as soon-to-be-launched, feature-packed version 4 of Google Analytics. So what’s new with GWO? Let’s take a look. “Google’s smarter Analytics and Website Optimizer. It’s about time” @jasonbarczewski
  5. Affiliate marketing clinic study guide: 12 resources to get you going – For September 8th’s Affiliate Marketing web clinic, we explored this Internet-based marketing practice and how to optimize your programs. This shortlist contains a dozen of the best articles, research, forums, and related resources we’ve seen that can help those who are just starting out with affiliate marketing. “MarketingExperiments is an awesome free resource.” @bsainsbury
  6. What else can I test … to improve my lead generation rate? – Lead capture forms can be a powerful business driver – if they are relevant to the surrounding content and your prospect’s motivation, and placed intuitively to meet the prospect’s eyepath and sequence of thoughts while viewing your page. Unfortunately, many forms aren’t living up to their potential in these key areas. “3 ways to optimize your lead generation forms (I need to try one of these)” @mandy_vavrinak
  7. Alumni Questions: Reliable case studies, SEO, and test design – MarketingExperiments Training alumni often share their questions and concerns with our analysts before, during, and after they take one of our courses. These questions about reliable case studies, SEO, and test design are an example of the interaction you can expect if you attend a MarketingExperiments course. “Nice Q&A.” @diogenespassos
  8. Email Marketing: Building Valuable Subscriber Lists on the Cheap – On December 2nd’s web clinic, we explored how to maximize revenue from your house list. In this blog post, let’s look at a strategy for building that list on the cheap. “7 steps to blog contests for rapid list growth” @vmodarelli
  9. Creating a Culture of Testing: How to defeat the tyranny of best practices – Sometimes the most difficult part of testing is finding the right way to get started in your organization. Andy Mott discusses how to get the ball rolling. “Testing: ‘It’s like eating chips while watching a football game, you just can’t stop’” @johnlapierre

Enough nostalgia! In mere hours 2009 will be gone and 2010 will be here. How can marketers prosper next year? Tell use your 2010 Internet Marketing Predictions. We’ll post the most visionary ideas to the blog in the New Year.

Nine of ‘09: You can increase email clickthrough rate…use Twitter for business…but you can’t listen to Penelope Cruz sing here…

Filed Under: Email Marketing, Marketing, Marketing Insights, Online Marketing, SEO, Twitter Tagged With: , , ,

Simple Search Engine Optimization Tips

October 4, 2009 By Leave a Comment

keys to seo Simple Search Engine Optimization Tips

Are you getting at least 100 new visitors to your blog everyday?

If not, it may be that your blog is not optimized for the search engines, which is where people begin their search for products and services online.

Some “search engine experts” would have you believe that search engine optimization requires a lot of advanced techniques to rank well. But the truth is that even a little simple optimization can go a long way.

Here are five things you can do right now, on your own, to make sure your website is optimized for the search engines.

  1. Page Title – Make sure to use relevant keywords within the title tag of each page of your blog. The title tag is the first thing a search engine discovers about your site. The keywords you use in your title should be carefully chosen to describe what your page is about.
  2. Meta Tags – Be sure to inlcude a useful description in the description meta tag that’s located in the head of your document. The meta tag is still used by some search engines as the description that will show up as part of the search engine listing. Completing the description tag doesn’t take very long and it’s a good way to exercise control over what appears to searchers in the search engine listings.
  3. Use H1 Tags – Make sure the headline of your blog post is displayed within an H1 tag. The H1 tag is considered a notation to highlight important parts of your webpage. The search engines use this to determine which parts of your document are emphasized. The headline of your blog post is different than the title of your document, so don’t confuse the two things.
  4. Post Titles – Also, ensure that the headline of your blog post includes keywords relevant to your post topic. Be careful not to overuse keywords though or the search engines will think you are keyword stuffing, or trying to game the system. Just be sure to use keywords when it makes sense, and make sure your titles are friendly for your visitors.

    5. Tip: If you use run a WordPress blog, a good SEO WordPress plugin is The All In One SEO Pack. It gives you the ability to tweak the page description, page title, and associated keywords.

  5. Write For Humans First – Most importantly, when writing articles for your website, be sure to write for the human reader first and the search engine second. For example, don’t just use the word “player” when you could be more descriptive by saying “music player” or “MP3 player”. Just make sure that your keywords don’t disrupt the flow and meaning of your sentences. Including the same keyword in back-to-back sentences can be very distracting for human reader and can be something a search engine can penalize you for doing. So be natural in your writing, but use relevant keywords where they make sense. This will make your articles work for both search engines and your blog readers.

A good free SEO analysis tool for analyzing your website can be found at WebsiteGrader.com. Website Grader measures the marketing effectiveness of a website. It also provides some basic advice on how the website can be improved from a marketing perspective.

For more information on ways to optimize your website for the search engines, check out the Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide.

Remember, even a few simple changes can make a world of difference for your blog. Just be sure you cover the basics first.

Charles McKeever
OpenSourceMarketer.com

Simple Search Engine Optimization Tips

Filed Under: Blogging, Facebook, Marketing, SEO, Twitter Tagged With: , , , , ,
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