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Blogging: Dan Zarrella’s scientific perspective

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At its start, blogging was mainly a platform for personal expression. A blog or a web-log was meant to be an online diary, journal or log for those who wanted to express themselves online. It has now emerged as one of the most powerful means of sharing information on the internet. Blogging has emerged as a specialized industry in itself and is increasingly being used by individuals and enterprises alike for establishing and enhancing their online presence.

Fact 1 71.4% of users say that blogs effect their purchasing decisions “somewhat” or “very much.”

Fact 2 Effective blogs are a key player in increasing businesses’ inbound marketing results.

Marketers, business owners, and the general public, it is time to take a science course: The science of blogging.

Using exclusive research and real data, Dan Zarrella, a social media scientist, virtually taught an audience of more than 3,000 how to create blogs that will have the greatest impact for one’s business’ success.

Why blog?

  • About 50% of people read blogs every day.  Smart businesses utilize blogs to attract customers.
  • 71.4% of users say that blogs affect their purchasing decisions “somewhat” or “very much.”
  • Boosts your search engine results: Get found on Google

Activities to enhance blogs

  • Don’t rely on 1 tactic: Develop a repertoire and blog at regular pace
  • Guest posting
  • Comments
  • Be sure to use keywords to enhance SEO
  • Be authentic
  • Engage your customers
  • People share links due to relevance: create synergies.

How do we leverage human behavior to market online?

  • Identify yourself as an authority
    • Why should people follow you?
    • With the “expert” label, you will have more followers.

When to publish?

  • Articles published around 11 a.m. ET tended to get MOST number of views.
  • Most people read blogs in morning. But approximately 40% read at night.
  • Professional blog readers link to sources earlier in day.
  • Comments are generally contributed earlier in morning.
  • 4 p.m. is more retweetable time of day.
  • Experiment in your own market.

Conclusion

  • Views/links/comments best to publish early in the day.
  • Post early in week for views and links.
  • Post on weekends for comments.
  • Share posts later in day.
  • Share posts in social media outlets later in the week and on weekends.

Timeliness

  • People want to know things in timely fashion
  • The more often you post the better
  • Blogs that publish more than once a day = more views

Gender Differences

  • Men are more frequent blog readers.
  • Women read more blogs via e-mail.
  • Men read more blogs at night than women.
  • Know your audience
  • How do you best serve your audience?

Return on Investment (ROI)

  • If it doesn’t make dollars, doesn’t make sense.
  • Measure and keep track of your return.
  • Hubspot has great analytic analysis program.

Final Blog tips

  • Get social sharing buttons on homepage:  Have Like and Retweet buttons.
  • Get your own domain.
  • Use underline for links.
  • Timeliness is important.
  • Make your post titles short, don’t overuse CAPS; make eyes drawn to title first.
  • Use real author names.
  • Don’t make site look generic.

Every blog can be improved. Whether you find one or all of these tips useful, take them to enhance the quality of your blog and improve your business.

View Zarrella’s research

Read the post-event blog 10 Common Business Blogging Questions Answered.

Earned media vs paid media – OMMA Social

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What kind of media do marketers need to invest in to be successful at earned media, as in blog mentions, non-advertising?  To succeed at earned media (giving people brand experiences that they willingly share, think viral), marketers have to invest in paid media (such as advertising), too.  But, things are changing because the social media climate is constantly evolving.  Questions need to be asked:

  • Is it still wise to buy portals, or does buying inventory on an ad exchange for niche targets provide better ROI?
  • How has the practice of seeding changed with the explosion in new platforms, from Twitter to mobile?

This OMMA Social panel looked at how to convert dollars into social media-generated distribution.

Moderator Alan Wolk, Managing Director, Social Media Strategy, KickApps

Tom Troja, Founder, Social Symphony

  • What is “earned” is hard to define, paid is well-defined, because it’s an older model. Extending the old model into “earned” is too limited.  Need people to co-create media.
  • We don’t have to wow you; we want you to feel closer to our brands. If you’re going just for entertainment, you are missing something. Follow more of a consultative sales model.

Kristine Shine, VP, PopSugar Media

  • PepsiCo is using both earned and paid media to bring brand to a new level.

Tom Troja, Social Symphony

  • One of best things Pepsi did that was earned was not buying Super Bowl ads

Josh Warner, President, Feed Company

  • You have to earn it: No one can can guarantee a viral video, a video may have potential.
  • Level of branding affects engagement level: Don’t overdo it.
  • Can package around the content, you don’t have to push the brand too hard.
  • “Unbuttoned Films” sponsored by Levis: People 4 times more likely to share engagement content when not pushing brand overtly.

Tom Troja, Social Symphony

  • Brands need to be ahead, not put themselves at the forefront of the conversation.
  • When people think about “joy and happiness,” they think of BMW, thanks to that campaign.

Kristine Shine, PopSugar Media

  • PR firms are ahead of agencies when it comes to balancing paid and earned media.
  • Barbie Facebook posts: “Barbie & Ken are driving up to Malibu to go to the beach, what should she wear?” You should see the engagement!
  • Have you ever heard the term “Prom King Brands”? Like Pepsi, Starbucks, Nike, etc.? Actually a pretty good description.

Josh Warner, Feed Company

  • Viral will be a retired term next year, it’s really about creative marketing.
  • Whether it’s paid or earned, it’s going to cost money, so budget for it.

Richard Jalichandra, President & CEO, Technorati Inc.

  • Earned media is more likely to be evergreen, last longer.

Brands should work on creating a strong brand in the mind of the consumers and balance energy and money between earned and paid media. For more on influencing earned media makers, join us at Newport Interactive Marketers next gathering.

How social media is changing brands at PepsiCo at OMMA Social

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In honor of the the first major brand to eschew Super Bowl ads in favor of social media, on Super Bowl weekend Eve, we’re compelled to post these insights from PepsiCo and OMMA Social.

Social media is growing as a marketing tool; it is a great way to reach consumers.  PepsiCo has seen how social media impacts their campaigns: It is a key driver of business performance.

PepsiCo’s  Director of Digital and Social Media Bonin Bough described how social media is changing brands at PepsiCo.

Dewmocracy demonstrates how to galvanize your fans

PepsiCo is in its second year of using social media.  During this time 

  • Users have created 3 flavors of soda
  • College humor utilized
  • Has become an immersive experience
  • Dew fan so rabid: Perfect audience
  • PepsiCo is beating expectations on sales side

SoBe beverages advises consulting new resources for new ideas

  • Let digital agency run the show
  • Drop traditional ad agency
  • TV spots

Foursquare and blue app: Can we transform loyalty?

  • Leverage location-base services to create loyalty as person enters store
  • Approach location from a portfolio, move beyond Foursquare
  • Don’t let the perfect stand in the way of the good

Universal Purpose Code: innovation leads to connections

Social media is changing brands at PepsiCo.  Bough advises listening to the consumer and incorporating consumers’ opinions into the business to ensure continued loyalty and success.

Editor’s note You don’t have to be a big brand to adapt these successes and scale them to your customers and target audiences. Posts such as this inspire great opportunities for Designated Editor clients.

A/B testing your PPC: Is too much detrimental?

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“Could too much A/B testing be detrimental to PPC?” asks Matt Van Wagner of Find Me Faster at a recent SEMNE event.  Follow Matt Van Wagner’s SEMNE slideshow to see how to obtain advertising success on the internet.

A/B testing:  Which message resonates best with your target audience?

  • Run ads to create performance profile
  • Find out which ad is the best

Reasons why AdWords fail

  • Keywords don’t match queries
  • Ad impressions doesn’t equal number of searchers
  • Ad rotation isn’t even/balanced
  • A/B testing will give you the best ad, not designed to give you your highest performing ad group
  • As many of 50% of searches are repeats, and they happen in hotspots, search up to 20 times
  • 5-20 impressions could be just one person
  • Quality score impacts ad rotation, so rotation might not be even

Winning ads perpetuate themselves

  • A few well-performing ads will be more effective, we forget that individuals with personal preferences are doing the searches
    • Humans can out-smart the algorithms
    • “Save 20%” message vs “eco” message: these are two different demographics you’re speaking with
    • Keeping multiple ads gives a fighting chance to engage with divergent populations. Why would you only write ads for men and cut out women?
    • 5 well-performing ads will outpace one top-seller

Google is trying to make money, so if you didn’t click on the first ad, it’ll show you another version

  • After 1 search you’ll see different results, by the time visitors search 4 times there’s a 93.75% chance that visitors are seeing both ads

Bottom line: Don’t be so quick to kill off ads that are performing until you have a top 5 and keep testing

  • Don’t try to reduce to 1 ad
  • Test more combinations
  • Ad sets can mask the performance of poorly performing ad groups
  • Set ad rotation to even

Broad Match Modifier

  • Create keywords that give you more control than broad, more flexibility than phrase match
  • Use + sign in front of broad-match keyword
  • Now available in the US, think how can use broad match to direct traffic to targeted places.
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