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Author: Search Influence Alumni

New Orleans: A Growing Tech City
For those of you who don’t know, before Hurricane Katrina ripped through the Gulf South, New Orleans was on a steady rate of decline. However, the city we love to call home here at Search Influence is in the middle of a major renaissance. News sources across the nation have reported New Orleans is the fastest growing city in America.
- Population in April 2010: 343,829
- Population in July of 2011: 360,740
- Change in population: 4.9 percent (national average 0.73%)
- Unemployment rate May 2012: 7.2%
- Unemployment rate December 2012: 6.8 % (national average 7.8%)
With all of these growth changes and increase in jobs, New Orleans has also become a hub of entrepreneurial activity. Forbes recently said New Orleans is one of the biggest brain magnets in the country, attracting young, innovative minds. It is reported that 427 out of every 100,000 adults started up a new business in the New Orleans metro area, which is 40% above the national average.

Many of these entrepreneurial efforts are tech-based. Companies such as Idea Village and LaunchPad have helped young tech and digital media entrepreneurs start their businesses, giving them advice, a place to work, and grants. Marketing firms, apps, and software are all being developed in this city, which is quite shocking considering this has always been a city known for being 10 years behind everyone else. Kickboard, started by Jennifer Medbery after teaching at a charter school, is software that provides a centralized location for teachers to record their students’ progress.

Even Search Influence was founded during Katrina’s aftermath, and along with this city, we have grown at a rapid rate. In 2011 we made it on Inc. 500’s list of fastest growing companies, and we are now the largest online marketing firm in New Orleans. Digital media has many different facets, and we are proud to offer SEO, social media, and paid search services.

New Orleans institutions such as the Audubon Institute, Naked Pizza, and Southern Costume Company have integrated the digital space into their marketing efforts. Naked Pizza tweets on a regular basis, and they have truly embraced pop-culture (I strongly encourage you to watch their Harlem Shake video).

The Audubon Institute and Southern Costume Company have opened their marketing efforts to include social media promotions and building their brand on Facebook.

Digital Media, online marketing, and social media have become vital factors for today’s businesses to succeed. It’s all about the conversation and being transparent with your customers. We are so happy to report that our city and businesses are flourishing due to technology and media advancements.
March 13, 2013
6 Ways Your Surgery Practice Can Market the New Gummy Bear Breast Implants

The FDA just recently approved a new gummy bear breast implant in February, and let me tell you, there has been some excitement in the cosmetic surgery world. With the approval of the Allergan Natrelle 410 shaped breast implant, cosmetic surgeons nationwide are celebrating the long-awaited product as another option to offer patients.

Sientra gel implants were approved in March 2012, and Allergan’s gummy bear breast implants were approved February 20, 2013. Now is your opportunity to talk about the new cohesive gels.

When Search Influence was founded in 2006, plastic surgeons were our core client base. The company has grown and expanded in the years since, thus the industries we serve now are varied with attorneys, B2B, franchises, auto dealerships and so forth. We still work with many plastic surgeons, and these plastic surgeons are asking us daily how to reach their consumers and tell their potential patients about the new cohesive gel implants.

You Have to Tell People You Offer These
Your potential patients don’t know you offer the new Allergan breast implants if you don’t say it. In the online world, that means you say it on your site. Create a new page talking about the new implants and what you like about them. Be professional and be friendly in telling potential patients why these implants are good and give more details about them. That is why people go to any website – they want information. So give them some quality information. Quality information will make a great first impression, and when they come in for a consult, they will have more educated questions.

Cross Promotion
If you are a cosmetic or plastic surgeon, surely you have a breast augmentation or breast implants page on your website. Cross promote! If you have a page that talks about augmentation in any way, then you might mention (with a link), “Hey, go read my new page about the new Allergan 410 implants.” If they are reading about augmentation, then of course they want the latest and the greatest, and you should point them that way.

Embrace the Hype
People are talking about the new implants. Join the conversation. Jump in with both feet. Talk about the new implants on your Facebook. Talk about it on your Twitter. Talk about what people are saying. Address their questions. Now, don’t go extreme. Depending on how much you update and post, you will want to talk about cohesives maybe 10% of your updates. I pulled this number out of the air, but the point is talk about the new product, talk about it frequently, but don’t flood your followers with cohesives-only messaging.

If you have a blog, definitely write some posts about it. Get the surgeon’s’ perspective on the benefits and the considerations of the cohesive gel breast implants. Anticipate the questions that will be asked and go ahead and answer them on your blog. Educate your site readers.

Reach Out to Current Fans
So reaching new potential patients is how you grow your business. You always look for new business, but don’t forget about the current patients. I’m sure there is some fancy statistic somewhere that says what percentage of patients are repeat customers, and each practice is unique. But if you are a cosmetic or a plastic surgeon, then you already know that engaging with current patients helps keep them loyal to you when they have more surgeries in the future as they age. We already talked about Facebook and Twitter and blogging, and you have yet another opportunity in reaching them in their in-boxes.

I hope you have been collecting an email list, and I hope you have an established history of sending newsletters to your patients. If you don’t have an email list, start building one today. If you have a newsletter but maybe get a little lazy or a little distracted and only send the newsletter out a few times a year, you need to get organized! Put someone in charge of getting a newsletter out once per quarter at a minimum. Once a month would be ideal.

Usually, a newsletter will have 2 or 3 articles or topics. For special circumstances, such as announcing that you are offering the new Allergan Natrelle 410 shaped gel breast implants to patients, you might want to think about a single message newsletter. It has a lot of impact as a single message, focused announcement.

Paid Search
If you have existing paid search happening, you might consider editing some of your breast augmentation ad copy to say you offer the new implants. Make sure you look at your budget. You might want to reallocate a few more dollars to the breast campaigns while people are talking about the cohesives.

If you need help marketing your practice, we would love to help. Just give us a call and we can discuss the best way to help you spread the word.

March 11, 2013
2013: The #YearoftheTweet

Although some consider Twitter the redheaded stepchild to the social media behemoth that is Facebook, brands are beginning to recognize and harness the “real time value” of Tweeting. No one can deny that Twitter is growing in both users and usage. The number of tweets per day has increased from 95 million in 2010 to a staggering 340 million per day in 2012, that’s 236,111 tweets per minute! Brands have started advertising on the fly, attempting to engage and interact with their audiences via #Twitter.

A picture may be worth 1,000 words, but a tweet is worth 140 characters, and brands are capitalizing on spontaneous televised hiccups (such as Blackout Bowl of 2013) and classic entertainment award shows (like the Oscars). This type of instantaneous and off the cuff marketing is a new and exciting frontier in the advertising world. Many brands, such as Oreo and Tide, dedicate entire teams to audience interaction via social media and specifically Twitter. The relevance and quick wit both brands displayed during the 2013 Super Bowl black out generated thousands of retweets and responses in an organic and viral way.

Seeing how far brand advertisements have progressed in the Twittersphere, it’s easy to forget that the first hashtagged Super Bowl spot appeared on television only three years ago. The 2013 Super Bowl saw over half of the ads display a hashtag call to action. Yet, Twitter isn’t only for the young and hip brands. Older skewed organizations, such as AARP, are also taking advantage of the social site. AARP used the State of the Union address and appropriate hashtags to lobby for retirement protection. At one point, President Obama singled out a 102-year-old retiree in the audience, Desiline Victor, and AARP immediately began Twitter promotions on Desiline’s name.

Local brands fear not! While we all saw how JCPenney had a strong Twitter presence during the Oscars, Twitter’s real time advertising isn’t just for the big boy advertisers. Local businesses customized their hashtags in order to stay relevant within their geographic market. For example, Baton Rouge tweeters used #225Oscars during the awards ceremony, and the Baton Rouge magazine, 225, used the opportunity to promote an interview with an Oscar nominee found on the magazine’s web site.

As a brand looking to capitalize on your tweeting demographics, it’s important to keep in mind a few key points about the platform. It’s important to tweet about relevant events or topics, and timeliness is of the upmost importance. Witty observations or comical tweets may generate the most audience interaction, and including a link to your site will generate web visits. Marketers are still analyzing whether these viral tweets deliver revenue, but the brand awareness of a well-crafted hashtag may just be priceless.

March 11, 2013
The New Facebook News Feed – What Brands and Users Need to Know

Facebook announced a new look to their News Feed yesterday, which aims to streamline its appearance and cut down on irrelevant stories. In fact, the tagline on their announcement reads “Goodbye Clutter… Hello bright, beautiful stories.” The new version will focus on images, and they will appear much larger and richer than they had previously. To many reviewers, the updated feed looks like a cross between Google+ and the Facebook Mobile app. For the first time, the platform will look virtually the same across different devices. This leaves just one big question for both Facebook users and brands… Where will the ads go?

Never fear, Facebook advertisers, this update looks poised to deliver even larger and more effective ads than those that are available on the current version of News Feed. The three column design of the new layout allows for larger images and stories from your friends, but also allows for richer, more striking sponsored stories from advertisers. And in the end, isn’t that what Facebook shareholders are demanding? The new update downplays and shrinks the traditional right side bar ads, which seems designed to push brands to utilize creative content and sponsored stories to target potential fans.

The updated News Feed may impact businesses’ organic reach significantly. And truthfully, this may be a deliberate plan to get more brands to utilize sponsored stories in order to reach a wider audience. Facebook quietly released a “Pages” feed several months ago, which has been popping up more and more on my News Feed in the last few weeks to highlight brands I rarely click on. With the new update comes an “All Friends” feed, which allows you to only see people you are friends with in real life on your News Feed. Although Facebook claims the News Feed algorithm will not be changing, its not hard to imagine many users will be clicking “All Friends” rather than viewing their entire feed.

Mashable has some great tips on some ways brands and publishers can get a jump start on succeeding in the new News Feed, many of which are as simple as updating your brand’s cover photo. The biggest takeaway from Facebook’s new look is that brands need to focus more intently on sharable, high quality images, videos, and links rather than plain text updates. For some this might take a bit of adjustment, but it has been a known fact for some time that posts with photos or links get far more interaction on the social media network than text-only statuses.

For the average user, this update seems like an overall positive design change. The look of the News Feed hasn’t been updated in over two years, and quite frankly seems overrun by apps and useless stories. Personally, if the top story on my News Feed is never about “Candy Crush Saga” again (a game I don’t play, for the record) I will be one happy girl. With this redesign, Facebook seems to be getting back to what matters, content from people you actually care about. In the end, isn’t that the point of social media?

March 8, 2013
5 for Friday — Links, Stories, & Posts for Your Weekend

1. The High Cost of Missing Listings: $10 Billion (or More) – Screenwerk

Have you ever wondered about the real cost of erroneous or missing business contact information for local businesses on the web? A research firm has studied the issue, and you might be surprised how big the numbers are. An estimated 43 percent of listings have some kind of error — often in the business name, phone number, or address — and it’s having a big effect on commerce.

2. How Ads Look in the New News Feed Layout – Inside Facebook

There was a lot of chatter this week about the unveiling of Facebook’s updated design for News Feed. While everyone immediately noted the larger photos and individual story modules, internet marketers looked for differences in the new ad design. This article compares some page post ads before and after the update.

3. Google for Mobile: How Google Makes Money from Mobile – Wordstream

While many thought Google would be doomed by the inevitable shift to a web environment where mobile rules, it’s beginning to look like the search giant is in the process of successfully transforming into a mobile-first company. In this excellent blog and infographic, you can delve deeper into all their entire mobile portfolio to answer the question, “How does Google make money from mobile?”

4. Top 5 Google Analytics Changes You Might Have Missed – Search Engine Watch

Have you been keeping up with all the changes in Google Analytics? This blogger takes a look at five recent additions to the toolbox that can help you save time and find the data that means the most to your site.

5. When It Comes to Analytics, Are You Doing Enough? -SEOmoz

Sometimes online marketers forget that descriptive analytics is only one-third of the data researching pie. By focusing equally on predictive and prescriptive analytics, this author argues, your team will be empowered to find the story in the data, formulate reliable predictions, and operationalize your findings.

March 8, 2013
5 Content Mistakes to Avoid

You work hard to promote your business, providing your clients with the best services and customer experience possible. However, in order to develop a loyal customer base, it’s necessary to first attract potential clients who may be interested in the services that you offer. This often begins with their first glance at your webpage. Not only is web content important for these same visitors to reach your site, it’s instrumental in keeping their attention on your company.

No matter how wonderful the products and services your business provides may be, one look at your webpage can make or break a potential client’s commitment to the company. For example, improper grammar, punctuation, or spelling not only makes you look foolish, it ultimately detracts from the overall credibility of the organization itself. That’s why copyediting is important to everyone, whether you specialize in legal services or auto repair.

While there are hundreds, or even thousands, of words that are misspelled, misused, and generally abused regularly in sales copy, here are a few particularly common mistakes to look out for:

Words to Watch:

1. Effect/Affect
In general, effect is used as a noun, while affect is used as a verb. E.g.
“The effects of water damage in your home can be severe.”
“Mold and other toxins can greatly affect the air quality in your home or business.”

2. Premier/Premiere
If your services are the highest quality in the area, you are the “premier” service provider. A “premiere” is the opening night of a film or production. E.g.
“We are the premier carpet cleaning service in the state, providing affordable rates and guaranteed customer satisfaction.”
“Did you catch the premiere of ‘Game of Thrones’ last night?”

3. Lose/Loose
This is a common typo, yet can make such a bad impression on a potential client. For example, an educated consumer may think twice about enlisting the services of a lawyer who guarantees no fees in the occasion that you “loose your case.” E.g.
“You have nothing to lose when working with us, because we offer a free case evaluation, and charge no fees unless you are compensated for your losses.”
“If your plumbing fixtures are loose or in need of repair, trust the skilled professionals at our company.”

4. Insure/Ensure
In the same vein, informed customers would never choose to purchase a flood protection policy from a company who “insures complete customer satisfaction.” Insure is used exclusively in limiting financial loss or liability; that is, providing or obtaining an insurance policy. Ensure, on the other hand, means to guarantee a condition, term, or event. E.g.
“We insure boats, trucks, cars, and ATVs.”
“We will work hard to ensure you are satisfied with the quality of our products.”

5. Team/Staff
Team, staff, and other collective nouns are always singular. E.g.
“Our team is dedicated to providing high quality service and repairs.”
“The staff at our company is highly trained, and capable of handling any job you need completed.”

As you can see, there are a number of linguistic pitfalls that should be avoided when posting content to your website. Make sure to carefully look over your page, or hire a team of competent copy editors to ensure the quality of your content matches that of the product you work so hard to promote.

March 6, 2013
What’s Everyone Yelling About?

First a caveat, I am not a psychologist, but we’ve all felt the urge to ask the question “Why Is Everyone on the Internet So Angry?” The article linked here addresses the cultural pressures on the individual that may result in the bombastic tirades we often see on message boards or in comment sections. But, what if the connection goes deeper than a desire to exploit anonymity or a mimicry of pundits. Then the question is why do people act mean on the Internet, or more broadly, why would ordinary people act so belligerently? Thus we arrive at the Stanford prison experiments. Now if you’ve never heard of it, the long and short basically reveals the extreme nature of people to psychologically adapt to the roles a situation places them in, ie. prisoners and guards. Here’s the funny part. This experiment was a big step in the world of Attribution Theory, something directly applicable to the world of … wait for it… Marketing.

If you clicked on that link you’d find Hull University’s Stephen Dahl’s, a Professor of Business, explanation of attribution theory as it applies to how we interpret another person’s comments about a product or service. Namely, we “attribute” motivations to another person’s actions or comments, based on three categories: consensus, consistency, and distinctiveness. Is everyone else saying that? Has this person always said that? Does he say that about everything? If he is acting with low values in these categories, it’s likely he has a personal motivation. How does this apply to anger? The simple answer is, trolls. Individuals on the Internet who are trying to make you act a certain way, their words are not based on true opinion or interpretation of something, but on the wholly personal desire of enjoying another person feeling upset by their actions. And a lot of people are buying what they are selling. You can find that most of these heated exchanges online are traced back to, or at least spurred on by these mischievous instigators.

I’m not disagreeing with the other explanations for this anger on the Internet, but merely adding another facet to understanding it. Some people are not trying to have a conversation; they are trying to persuade you to act irrationally for their amusement. Most people who have been on the message boards long enough have honed their senses and research abilities to more accurately attribute a “troll” motivation to these individuals, and thus avoid these situations entirely. We aren’t all angry, angry just has a very aggressive sales team working for it. And thats the problem.

People who spend large sessions in communities, like Reddit and Tumblr, have sharpened their instincts for picking up personal motives. Initially to avoid being manipulated by these people, but now they see personal motives as deceptive in some ways and can react strongly against them. It’s important to be open about your marketing intentions or backgrounds when dealing with some communities or else the backlash can be harsh.

March 4, 2013
5 For Friday — Links, Stories & Posts For Your Weekend

1. How does social media affect your SEO? – Search Engine Journal
Does Google really pay attention to social signals? As more and more users share content through social networks, Google is taking note to what gets shared and has even trying to capitalize on that by starting Google+. Some users may use social media to see what is newsworthy, but you definitely have to watch how your company manages its social presence. How are you taking advantage of social media for your business?

2. Google’s Algorithms – How does it all work? – Search Engine Land
Did you know that the web is made up of over 30 trillion individual pages? Take a look at Google’s most recent infographic on “How Search Works.” The graphic is divided into three parts: crawling and indexing, algorithms, fighting spam. Check it out.

3. Google releases change history in Google Analytics – Search Engine Watch
If you logged into your Google Analytics recently, you will notice a new change. Google has added Change History in Google Analytics, which allows you to see what historical edits were made to the account. This is pretty neat and helps you keep track of what changes were made if you work with multiple admins.

4. Groupon fires its CEO Andrew Mason – Social Media Today
Andrew Mason, CEO of Groupon, was let go this week after board members were questioning his role in the company. As the daily deal market becomes more competitive and oversaturated, Groupon saw its stock decline since its initial public offering in 2011. Did Groupon make the right decision to go public? What does this mean for future IPOs?

5. Will Pinterest help Nars generate meaningful leads? – Mashable
Nars launched an interesting social media campaign last month on Facebook to promote their new Andy Warhol-inspired collection. Now they are launching a new campaign on Pinterest to see if they can generate actual sales from the popular site. Partnering with three popular Pinterest users, these pinners will develop their own boards on each of their accounts to offer early access to its new Satin Lip Pencil collection. Nars is stepping up their social media plans. Will others follow suit?

March 1, 2013
5 for Friday — Links, Stories, & Posts for Your Weekend

How Brand Came to Dominate Google’s Relevancy Algorithm – SEO Book
Google CEO Eric Schmidt has said, “Brands are the solution, not the problem.” Going all the way back to 2003, this infographic details the timeline of Google’s preference for brands in rankings, even going into some high-profile companies using shady techniques and not being penalized in the same ways small businesses might.

Write a (Good) Blog Post in 1 Hour – SuccessWorks
The old adage goes, “write about what you know.” The SEO-focused copywriting agency SuccessWorks takes it a step further in this brief how-to list, saying we should write about something we enjoy. Not only is this more enjoyable, but it’s also easier to push out a post quickly when you like what you are writing about. The other main takeaway from this is to take a break after your first draft. Fresh eyes will pick up on typos and other mistakes when you come back to the computer. You may even see places where you can add more information.

Will Social Signals Replace Links? – Search Engine Journal
It’s obvious to anyone online, especially in marketing, that social media is becoming more and more important to building a brand, but what if it becomes more important to your rankings? This post explores some of the possibilities but maintains that proven strategies for link building shouldn’t be overlooked just yet.

How to Use Hashtags in Your Social Media Marketing – Social Media Jungle
We’ve written about how to use existing hashtags to your advantage, but what if you want to create your own? Probably one of the most important takeaways from this post is to search the hashtag before using it. We’ve seen what can happen if companies use a trending hashtag without knowing why it’s trending. It’s just as easy to make one up that is being used for something completely unrelated.

34 Tools to Help You Create Better Content From Start to Finish (and Beyond) – BlueGlass
Getting into creativity mode is not always easy. This list of sites, apps, and other tools is not exhaustive, but can’t be too far from it. From brainstorming to editing, there’s a tool to help you with every step of the content creation process. Lots of these are free and all of them could be helpful for writers. Especially fun is The Writer’s Diet, where you can run a diagnosis on a sample to see where changes can be made to make the writing more concise and accessible to your audience.

February 22, 2013
Don’t Be ‘That Guy’…Top 5 Networking Faux Pas
Whether or not you are in a business development or sales role, networking is a great way to get your company’s name out there and put a face with the brand. Yes, I mean face to face networking, not “liking” posts on Facebook.

My personal experience with networking over the last several months has been mostly positive, and being a people watcher, I have especially enjoyed identifying what characteristics push people to make it or break it at these events. In that spirit, I have created a classification system of the networking personalities that I have encountered.

Five Types of Networkers

1. The Sales Slug

The majority of people at networking events are there trying to sell something directly or indirectly, but but take for example the commercial plumber attending the event to build his referral network. Pushing your catering business on him will not prove lucrative — you’re wasting your time, sales guy. The Slug is in a one-sided conversation with you for his benefit only. You may as well be talking like the teacher from “Charlie Brown”, because he is NOT LISTENING. “Wah waah wah wah waah”

2. The TMI Open Book Guy

Talking about your personal life is not a bad thing, particularly when it may be common ground and making connections. The trick is understanding where to draw the line. Based on the fact that you just met this person, they probably don’t want to hear about the DUI you got in college. Really, legal issues are never common ground for professionals. Taking it easy on the complimentary booze can go a long way in making sure you don’t become this guy.

3. The Phone Checker

Unless Fido is being held for ransom, you don’t need to check your cell phone while someone is talking to you. Your goal for that event and the $20 admission fee dictates that you are there to meet other people, and incessant phone checking makes you an unapproachable social pariah. It’s the new equivalent to checking your watch. The people with whom you are speaking will undoubtedly get the impression that you don’t have time for them.

4. The Wallflower

You are not at an 8th grade dance, so get off the wall and introduce yourself. Many of you may be situated on the introverted side of the personality spectrum. I’ve also been guilty of this at times. While attending a networking event, you need to pretend you are the most popular girl in school. If you are thinking that by becoming an island you appeal to the crowd as approachable, you are sorely mistaken.

5. The I Just Rolled Out of Bed Guy

Seriously Guy? Take some pride in your appearance when you are in the public eye; what you wear in your leisure time is up to you. This isn’t a slumber party, it’s a professional event. Shorts and snuggies are not acceptable, ladies and gentlemen. Networking events range from black tie to somewhat casual, but the invitation never says “what you wore to bed last night.” We think it’s great that you work from home, but we don’t. Thus, we do not care to see your home “office” attire.

Honorable Mention:

The Tries Too Hard Guy

I am hesitant to poke fun at this guy because I believe that he really means well. Typically, you will hear these people tooting their own horns and then brown nosing the people they’re talking to. They generally lack real social skills which leads to them overcompensating in a variety of ways.

So, based on what we have learned not to do, we can easily derive a few pointers that can make one better prepared for their next networking event:
- Be prepared. It’s the Boy Scout motto for a reason. Come to the event in the appropriate attire, with proper messaging, and be ready to put your best foot forward.
- Keep conversations professional, natural and sincere. If at the end of the conversation it makes sense to pursue a business relationship, it should happen naturally.
- An exchange of business cards is always recommended.
- Make good eye contact with individuals to engage in conversation. Once in conversation, give them your full attention and ask relevant questions.
- Make sure to follow up with quality contacts and connect through social media after the networking event.
These bad habits are all pet peeves of mine, but I have absolutely been “that guy” on more than one occasion. Networking can require a little practice, but a positive attitude, a sense of humor, and a willingness to listen go a long way. Hopefully these insights help you avoid any faux pas’ at your next event.

Scott Holstein is a Business Development Associate at Search Influence, a national online marketing firm focused on small and medium-sized businesses, and white label online marketing products for publishers and media partners who serve them. Search Influence is the largest online marketing company on the Gulf Coast and New Orleans’ only Inc. 500 honoree in 2011.
February 21, 2013