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Planning key to every social media campaign: Radian6 conference

As social media use is on the rise, most Millennials expect their first customer service point of contact to be online. Further, social spending is estimated to be 10% of a campaign for the year 2012.

Social 2011 the Radian 6 conference in Boston concentrated on social planning for campaigns.

The time is now to create a social plan for your business’ social media campaign.
Use these tips to help you start:

Social media teaches consumers to scream loudly about brand issues.
What does this mean for a business?

  • In the past we only knew brand perceptions from focus group; now we listen & respond real-time
  • Do not just listen to consumers
  • Read into insights & react to the culture of the moment
  • Focusing on the long tail is another way to reach your intended audience

Social media planning tips

  • Integrate social early in the campaign-planning process
  • Social media is NOT just about how many, but who!
  • Your brand should impact customers during several different touch points of the decision journey, not just the action
  • Good marketing practice is to remind people where to find you all the time
  • If your ad campaign doesn’t include a social/digital call-to-action, it’s a missed opportunity!
  • Integrate your branded Facebook page onto everything!

Emerging trends

  • Smartphone adoption
  • Gaming
  • Geolocation
  • Mobile couponing
  • Comparison shopping

Should companies measure earned media?

  • Don’t isolate: Think about where earned, paid, and owned media intersect
  • Know your audience, culture, and client to build insights and campaigns

The take-away from the social plans panel: When building a campaign, focus first on giving your audience what they are after. Then build a strong relationship with your targeted audience, for that will be a crucial move as social media becomes a key strategy in every marketing campaign.

Google Panda updates with Eric Enge at Search Engine Marketing New England

It seems like we are constantly trying to understand search engine algorithms, only to learn that algorithms are always changing and there is always something to be learned.  Fun, right?  One of these search engine algorithm changes occurred on February 23, 2011, when Google created Panda; yet another search algorithm change (cue hitting your head on the keyboard, now).

What is Panda?  Panda measures content quality and user experience to provide the user with the best search results. Panda also identifies pages that are relevant for a query, but lack significant content for viewers (aka “content farms”).

What has Panda done, thus far?  Eric Enge, president of Stone Temple Consulting, answers this question by going into the changes Panda brought about, what this means for users and publishers, and future predictions for Google at June’s Search Engine Marketing New England event.

Panda update aftermath

  • Total number of Panda recoveries: Zero
  • Panda recovery requires traditional marketing expertise
  • Panda is a fundamental shift for Google — it’s not going away
  • Panda will expand, Google trying to push it down to lower traffic levels

Panda recovery prescription

  • Establish authority
  • Offer a unique point of view
  • Provide new info/data
  • Bring in user-generated content
  • Kill weak pages
  • Add unique tools and video

Post-Panda Search Engine Optimization

  • Is about promotion — through links and social
  • Should focus on generating authority
  • Search engines are looking to see if you have anything new to say (not rehashed content)
  • Content should cater to users NOT search marketing tactics
  • Ad density: In many cases search engines can measure this: Don’t go overboard
  • Low AdSense click-through rate can bring a page down overall with Google
  • Google’s Webmaster Guidelines can help your page rank

Zappos case study

  • A bad review with intelligible sentences sells more than a good review that’s well-written
  • Zappos spends millions to edit user-generated content
    • Errors affect conversion
  • “Simple” writing doesn’t mean dumbed-down
  • Everybody’s stupid when they’re impatient ← LOVE THIS

Google Analytics

  • 59% of all websites have Google Analytics
  • Google Analytics time on-site = from the time you arrived at the last page you viewed
  • Bounce rate in Google Analytics = only looked at 1 page

Eric Enge’s expertise keeps everyone updated on Panda, perhaps Google’s most significant algorithm change.  Don’t be overwhelmed by all the search engine algorithms out there: Stay briefed, embrace input, and work on creating great and UNIQUE content.

Eric Enge is the president of Stone Temple Consulting.  He also writes for the Stone Temple blog, Search Engine Watch, Search Engine Land, and is a co-author of The Art of SEO, published by O’Reilly Media.

Thanks for the input for this post @diannahuff, @stonetemple

Engaging the mobile experience: Effective mobile measurement strategies, an OMMA Metrics panel.

80% of the world’s population has a mobile device; this percentage is higher than those who have Internet subscriptions.  In the United States alone, there are 100 million mobile web users.

With all of the mobile device use, a host of creations such as mobile sites, mobile apps, and other platforms enable users to engage and connect with the world around them.

With all of these wonderful creations, several questions remain unanswered for marketers and branders alike, such as:

  • How do you measure mobile?
  • Are mobile measurement results reliable?
  • What are the best tools to measure mobile?
  • How can you optimize mobile experiences?
  • What content should be in a mobile website?

This OMMA Metrics panel of mobile experts breaks mobile measurement down and teaches you how to drive insights from your mobile channel.  Use their guidance wisely so you can effectively use mobile to your advantage.

Moderator
Greg Dowling, Vice President of Mobile Strategy & Measurement, Semphonic

Panelists
David Berkowitz, Sr. Director of Emerging Media & Innovation, 360i
Steven Goldstein, SVP, ChaCha
Shiven Ramji, Vice President, Mobile Media & Advertiser Products, The Nielsen Company
Eric Rickson, Director of Mobile Analytics, Webtrends
Jeff Tennery, SVP, Publisher Services, Millennial Media

Mobile content planning

  • Look at traffic today & your expertise
  • Remember capacity of Smartphone vs. feature phone
  • Don’t bother with a mobile display advertising strategy if you don’t have a mobile website to back it
  • Look to gaming; tablets adding to TV experience
  • Mobile has stronger click-through rates because there’s less competition
  • So much of mobile morphs into another media naturally:
    • Trends while watching TV
    • Trends while in the store

Lessons learned from online measurement help with mobile measurement

Mobile measurement still evolving; one system will not solve it all, each data source has challenges

What’s the next big step?

  • Move to commerce, beyond the click
  • Brands trying to value what it’s really worth and how all the variations compare
  • Measuring mobile apps is easier, it’s capturing the ecosystem that’s the challenge @ricksone
  • Mobile has advantages over web; need to highlight those when comparing them @dberkowitz
  • Focus on privacy and transparency settings

The use of mobile phones for web use is only going to increase.  Use this expert advice from mobile gurus to plan your mobile campaign, observe trends, and measure wisely.

Google Analytics ROI with Jay Murphy at Newport Interactive Marketers

By Julie Woodside

The Newport Interactive Marketers went to class at Christie’s on June 23 as Jay Murphy, Boston University’s Center for Digital Imaging Artsinstructor and managing director at Trionia, taught attendees how to use Google Analytics to get the best results from their online efforts.

Did you skip this free course?  Here are some of the lessons from Jay Murphy’s presentation.

Google Analytics capabilities

  • Shows
    • Where visitors are coming from
    • How many come back to your site
    • How often people go to your site
    • Exit points
    • Traffic trends
    • How deep into your website do visitors go
    • Time of day people are looking at your site
  • Allows you to compare data with other similar sites (if you share your data as well)
  • Powerful heat maps are currently in Google Analytics Beta
  • Can link AdWords to Analytics

3 Big analytic tools

Free analytic sites

Who measures with Google Analytics?

  • Business owners
  • Bloggers
  • Online/offline ad agencies
  • Site developers
  • Online marketing specialists

Easy installation

  • Input name and time zone
  • Embed a bit of code
  • Check to make sure analytics is on

Set goals on Google Analytics

  • Time visitors are spending on your site
  • Pages visited
  • URL destination
  • E-mail signup
    • Then measure against goals

Bounce rate

  • When someone comes to the page and then leaves
  • Bounce is not necessarily bad
  • Need experience to interpret
  • Varies by industry and trade
  • Bloggers who post regularly will have higher bounce rates

 

Google URL builder

  • Google URL builder is an important tool for tracking ads/media/creative/content
  • Use to measure partner campaigns or 2 versions of a campaign to see results
  • Can use for email campaigns

Visitor reports

  • See even which town people are in when they visit your site
  • How many pages they visited
  • Are they new to the site or returning
  • What type of browser and connection speed they have
  • In-site analytics will overlay percentages of click on each page, allowing you to see each click

Advanced Segments

  • Will sort out different interests and match behavior
  • Example: Will sort out shoe shoppers vs restaurant goers (mall used as an example)

Optimize your site

  • Yellow buttons are better than red
  • Too much text is bad
  • Changing fonts is distracting
  • An “ugly” submit button works better than a fancy looking one
  • When looking for mobile users, look at the operating system being used instead of the browser

Lessons from another analytics guru

Google Analytics for Business: Introduction REGISTER ONLINE

 

Don’t be intimated by Google Analytics, it’s here to help your webpage.  Use Google Analytics to understand and better engage your audience, and to set and excel your webpage goals!  A great presentation, & another great Newport Interactive Marketers event.

A special thanks to @carloverkat, @franciscosamuel, @SJohnKreese, @NoirBlancDesign, @seangw for tweeting their insights during this event.