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Search Influence Goes to Digital Agency Conference

Search Influence had the opportunity to send our VP of Sales & Marketing Kelly Benish to Local Media Association (LMA) and BIA Kelsey’s Digital Agency Summit, which was held in Chicago on November 6th and 7th. The Digital Agency Summit is described as “two days dedicated to the best case studies and practices being employed by digital agencies owned or partnering with local media companies.” SI is a member of both the LMA and BIA Kelsey, and we are always strategizing ways to better serve our clients and partners by speaking at, sponsoring and attending these Association conferences.

(L-R) Jed Williams, BIA/Kelsey; Aswini Anburajan, BuzzFeed; Peter Newton, GateHouse Media; Lindsay Jacaman, Dallas Morning News/Speakeasy; Kelly Benish, Search Influence

Kelly was selected to be a conference panelist on a session entitled, “Native Advertising/Sponsored Content – A New Revenue Opportunity” and was honored to share the stage with some very well known representatives in the digital space including Aswini Anburajan, Director of Partner Development, BuzzFeed; Lindsey Jacaman, GM, Digital Services, Dallas Morning News/Speakeasy; and Peter Newtown, President, GateHouse Ventures/GateHouse Media.

The session was moderated by Jed Williams, VP Consulting and Senior Analyst, BIA Kelsey, and panelists shared with attendees how native advertising has been a valuable revenue opportunity that media companies and online marketers have adopted.

Anatomy of Native Advertising Placement

Kelly highlighted the differences between advertorial, native ads and content marketing, as well as ways to implement native advertising into digital agencies’ product menu through sponsored blog posts, sponsored Facebook stories, infographics and white papers. With 20% of all web traffic coming from shared content, Search Influence offers these online strategies for both our direct clients and partners. Many publishers do not have the dedicated content teams to create native advertising pieces and properly market them to targeted audiences.

Search Influence has a process in which we work on behalf of the publisher with their advertisers to make the dream of offering native content pieces a reality. This cutting edge new revenue stream was the main initiative presented in the session.

Contact us to learn how native advertising can help your newspaper property or business!

November 15, 2013
How to Link Your AdWords and Webmaster Tools Accounts

Google recently announced a new feature in the “Dimensions Tab” of Google AdWords. Once you link your AdWords account to your Webmaster Tools account, you will be able to view the “Paid and Organic” data. This report shows you a variety of valuable information, including the organic keywords that are delivering your website as a result and the clicks on those results. This is extremely valuable information given that Google is now masking all keyword data as “(not provided).” Below are the steps for linking your AdWords and Webmaster Tools Accounts.

First, make sure to verify your website in Google Webmaster Tools. Then follow the steps below.

1) Go to the gear icon at the top right.
2) Select “Account Settings” from the drop down.
3) Select “Linked Accounts” from the left sidebar.
4) Select “View Details” under Webmaster Tools.

Side Note: It’s a good idea to link your Google Analytics account, but for these purposes, you only need to link your Webmaster Tools account.

5) Type in your domain and select “Continue.”

6) If you did it correctly, you will get the following message:

Now you can view all of the great data in the “Paid & Organic” report! You will find some interesting info here, especially how the combination of paid and organic play into each other. It will take some time for the data to accumulate, but once it does, you can gain valuable information.

So What am I looking at?

Query: The search query that delivered your website as a result. This will show the exact term that was searched, and whether you had an organic-only result, an ad-only result or both shown.

Ad Stats

Clicks: The number of times a person clicked on your ad for a given query
Impressions: The number of times your ad was shown on the search engine results page for a given search term
CTR: The number of clicks your ad received divided by the total number of impressions
Avg CPC: The average amount you were charged for clicks on your ad
Avg Pos: The average position your ad appears on the search result page

Organic Stats

Clicks: The number of times your organic listing was clicked on for a given query
Queries: The total number of searches that returned your organic listings over the given period
Clicks/query: The number of clicks your organic listing received divided by the total number of queries
Listings/query: The average number of times a page from your site was listed in the organic results per query
Avg. Pos: The average organic rank of your organic listing compared to other sites

Combined ad and organic stats

Clicks: The number of times a person clicked your ad or organic listing for a given query
Queries: The total number of searches that returned your ad or organic listings over the given period
Clicks/query: The number of clicks your ad or organic listing received divided by the total number of queries that returned one of your ads or organic listings

What do you think is the most valuable thing to learn from this new data that is provided by Google (if you have an AdWords account)?

November 13, 2013
New Influencer Faces: Fall 2013

We are excited to welcome nine new employees to the growing Search Influence team!

Account Management Team

Jordan Polhemus has joined Search Influence as a Junior Account Associate. She graduated Cum Laude from Georgia Southern University with a degree in entrepreneurship and a minor in marketing. While in college, she was in the University’s Honors Program and was an active member of Kappa Delta sorority. Before Search Influence, she was an asset manager for Keller Williams Realty.

Kristy Roldan is SI’s new Senior Account Manager. She is a recent transplant from Los Angeles, CA. Before joining Search Influence, Kristy was as a Senior Account Executive at advertising agency RPA in Santa Monica, where she worked on the Honda account amongst other projects. Kristy graduated from California State University with a degree in business marketing.

Sarah Lustberg has been hired as a Junior Account Associate. Originally from New Orleans, Sarah attended American University in Washington, DC, where she received her bachelor’s degree in public communication. Prior to joining Search Influence, she worked as a Public Relations Assistant for the Time Inc. Lifestyle Group in New York.

Production Team

Ian Adams has been hired as an Internet Marketing Associate. Originally from Portland, OR, Ian attended Loyola University in New Orleans where he received bachelor’s degree in economics. He previously worked for The World Trade Center of New Orleans as a Multimedia Production Intern.

Devin Olsen recently relocated to New Orleans from Tallahassee, FL and has joined SI as an Internet Marketing Associate. Devin has a marketing and web design background, having worked in the industry for Homes Media Solutions and Expedia.com.

Shaye Anderson has been hired as an Internet Marketing Associate. Having lived in eight different states, it is difficult to determine exactly where she is from. However, after attending Tulane and LSU, she is proud to call Louisiana home. Shaye previously worked as a teaching assistant in LSU’s philosophy department and served as a one of Delta Literary Journal’s editor-in-chiefs.

A New Orleans native, Caroline Robinson graduated from Tulane University with a bachelor’s degree in communications and psychology. Before becoming a Search Influence Internet Marketing Associate, Caroline worked as a Marketing and Administrative Assistant for Besh Restaurant Group and freelance writer for Rouses Magazine.

Juese Wang has joined Search Infuence as an Internet Marketing Associate. She was born in China and raised in New Orleans. Juese is a student at Tulane University studying marketing and business law and plans on graduating in May 2014.

Zachary Goldrich has been hired as an Internet Marketing Associate. Originally from Los Angeles, CA, he is studying marketing and public relations at Tulane University. Before joining Search Influence, Zach worked as a photographer and as a licensing intern at Amygdala Music.

November 11, 2013
Team Building In the Workplace

Sometime during the spring, I was invited to join the newly formed Team Building Committee for Search Influence. At first I had no idea why I was chosen and what we would be doing. I assumed we would just be planning office parties. Little did I know the activities we planned would be much more than simple get-togethers after office hours.

Our ice cream party was a hit!

Whether it’s been big events, like a crawfish boil or laser tag, or smaller gatherings, like an ice cream social or movie night, it’s been somewhat surprising (in a good way) to see how receptive an office can be to these ideas. One of the biggest keys I’ve noticed to making sure these events are successful is to ensure everyone feels like they are involved and they have a say in what types of things the office does.

Additionally, not everyone is going to like the same thing, so finding the proper medium is important to having everyone enjoy the event. It’s also important to keep in mind that while some activities are fun, they might not be conducive to the team building incentive you’ve set. Every team building experience should be designed with goals in mind, such as improving employee morale or having everyone in the office get to know each other better.

If you feel your office could use a boost, consider starting up a team building squad and get some ideas flowing. Be sure keep an eye on the Search Influence blog to see what we come up with in the future and to see examples of activities you could be doing!

November 8, 2013
4 Tips to Writing Attention-Grabbing Social Media Posts

CONTENT CONTENT CONTENT

We are bombarded by content and information everyday. The average person reads a couple thousand words and sees about 247 images each day. Something interesting from a marketing standpoint: we see anywhere from 3,000-20,000 marketing messages every day! All of these words and images are pieces of informative content that we have to internally process.

I mean seriously think about it…

TEXTS PHONE CALLS
EMAILS   RADIO
WEBSITES TELEVISION
TWEETS MENUS
FACEBOOK POSTS BLOGS
SEARCH RESULTS STREET SIGNS
INFOGRAPHICS BOOKS
GOOGLE+ POSTS MAGAZINES
PINS ON PINTEREST   NEWSPAPERS
PRESENTATIONS FOOD LABELS
BILLBOARDS   MAIL

Whew—it’s exhausting just thinking about it! And I guarantee there is more than what I listed! Most of it probably goes in one ear and out the other, so, as marketers, we only have a split second to catch the attention of someone who is already being bombarded by information. Here’s a list of 4 types of social media posts that are guaranteed to catch the eye of your clients’ audience.

1. Anything that drives interaction
Any post that encourages a user to interact with a page usually works well with social media marketing. By interact I mean liking a post, sharing it, commenting, retweeting, +1, pinning on Pinterest, etc. If you can do this organically (without forcing it), then it’s even better!

2. Anything with eye-appeal
We are a very visual culture (why do you think the iPhone took off like it did?)! If you can integrate words into a visual image that presents the information is a well-designed way, then you’re golden! I’m talking about the infographic, people. There are good and bad infographics out there. But a good rule of thumb is don’t over load it with information, and make sure what you are presenting is relevant to your client’s industry. This example below was pinned 508 times and liked 76 times on Pinterest.

3. Anything That Links the Brand to Current Events
If you can find a way to tie the brand into something that is relevant to current events in the news and/or pop-culture world, you need to post about it! People often try too hard with this one, so please don’t force it! The brand needs to truly be relevant for this to happen organically.

4. Anything That Stirs An Emotional Connection
We are an emotional species, and significant life events can really change our lives. If you can stir an emotional feeling in someone, they are likely to be more drawn to the brand. Note: This doesn’t always have to be the warm and fuzzy feelings! If you want to touch on the controversial subjects, there is an audience for that as well!

Now get out there and create some engaging content!

November 6, 2013
The BIG PROJECT To Get Your B2B Content Marketing Strategy Going In A BIG Way

Don’t worry. Unless you’re selling whaling vessels, you don’t need to write like Melville.

Are you an expert in your field? Do you want potential customers to know that? Give them proof by literally writing the book. Now, don’t go anywhere just yet. Yes, I did just say that you should write a book, but we’re not talking about the next Great American Novel or even the next Mildly Interesting American Novel. We’re talking about writing an ebook.

Here’s what you need to do: write 20-50 pages. Actually, write however much you can. Only got 15 pages in you? Fine. Want to crank out 100? Go for it. As long as it’s high quality, relevant information with supported claims and research aimed at providing readers with solutions, you’re good. One of the easiest ways to do this is to start with your FAQs and expand from there because: 1) You know all these answers. 2) You know that your customers are asking these questions.

Alternatively, you could start by publishing a series of blog posts that you then put together in a collection with an introduction to pull it all together. Boom! You’ve got an ebook. Have you written articles for industry insiders? Bam! Ebook!

Here’s why you need to do this: people like to get information before they spend money. It’s that simple.

1) Give the People What They Want to Establish Your Company as a Leader

Decision makers want all the information they can get from the best, most credible source it can come from. Make that source is you. Before you can start selling your products or services, you need to sell your brand and your business as a leader in the industry—and not just as a leader in terms of size or profit. You need your potential customers to view you as a thought leader in your industry, an authority, an innovator. You’ll look like you know what you’re doing, and that builds confidence in your customers.

2) Get Many Miles Out of the Info

One of the greatest benefits of writing an ebook is that once it’s done, you’ve got all the research and content that you’ll need to power your content marketing for months. You’ll publish your ebook, release a mobile version, get a few blogs out of it, stick it on SlideShare, put it on YouTube, publish a press release about it, post about it on all the social media sites, promote those posts, turn it into an infographic (bonus points for a series of infographics), do some guest blogging on the topic, and on and on forever and ever… or at least until your audience has already consumed it in those various forms. Except isn’t your audience always growing and changing (if you are doing it right)? Update everything in a year or two and do it all again. Repurpose that content so that your audience is getting relevant information in just about any form they want it and you are getting backlinks, social signals, and other valuable SEO stuff.

3) Get There Before Your Competitors

The Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs found that 16% of B2B marketers used ebooks as part of their content marketing strategies in 2012, up from 9% in 2011. Utilizing this tactic while it is still relatively rare will make you stand out among your competitors and establish yourself as an authority in the field (see number 1 above).

November 4, 2013
Influencer Spotlight: Sarah Lustberg

After growing up in New Orleans and graduating from McGehee, Sarah Lustberg got her degree in Public Communication from American University in Washington, DC, and promptly moved to NYC to pursue a career in PR – along with just about every other twenty-something in the world. After working for the Time Inc. Lifestyle Group (think Southern Living, Real Simple and Cooking Light), Sarah moved back home to New Orleans with her husband Casey and her dog Mario.

How long have you been working at SI?

Just started on October 7!

As a Junior Account Associate, what do you find yourself doing at work on an average day?

Since I’m still in training, it really depends on what I’ve most recently learned. You can find me doing anything from editing articles to researching keywords to scheduling Facebook posts for clients.

What is your favorite thing about working at SI?

I love that everyone in the office is so young! Also nice is the fact that I can wear leggings to work…

Tell us a little more about your life in NOLA. In your free time, what do you do for fun around here?

Since I moved away in 2006 and only returned a few months ago, I’ve been having lots of fun rediscovering all the cool things that there are to do around this city. From restaurants to music venues to bars, there’s always something exciting going on. When I’m not at work, you can usually find me out with friends stalking the Taceaux Loceaux truck.

If you could identify yourself with one neighborhood in NOLA which would it be and why?

This is a tough one! I’ve lived all over the place (Uptown, Old Metairie, Metairie, West Bank) but I have to say that the Warehouse District is my favorite these days. There’s just so much going on!

November 1, 2013
Search Influence: Home of Master Pumpkin Carvers

At Search Influence, we are a “Work hard, play hard” bunch! With it being the spooky Halloween season, a few of our account managers decided to get together to carve pumpkins! “Team Megan,” named for our Senior Account Manager, Megan Lindsey, left Search Influence promptly at 5:30pm on Thursday, October, 24th and drove straight to the nearest pumpkin patch.

After picking out the perfect pumpkins, we all headed back to Sarah’s house. Once we were there, Megan whipped up some delicious taco soup (recipe listed below). While the soup was simmering on the stove, we got to work on the carving.

Carving our pumpkins. From left to right, Erika Karas, Julie Simmons, Jordan Polhemus, Samantha Wright and Sarah Gallagher

Between stencils, steak knives, pumpkin carving kits and some patience we brought our pumpkins to life. On the top left you’ll see Jordan Polhemus’ pumpkin. In an attempt to carve a southern take on “BOO!”, she had carved “Boo Y’all!!” into her pumpkin. This turned out to look more like “Hoo Y’all!!” but it was fitting as we had two owls! Megan Lindsey’s pumpkin, in the middle left, might just take flight! Sarah Gallagher is our team “Wanna-Be-Hipster” and free handed a crescent moon and stars onto her pumpkin! #nostencil

Top right we have our other owl, carved by Samantha Wright. Below we have Julie Simmon’s ghost. By the way, this pumpkin was carved exclusively with a steak knife. Julie wasn’t wasting any time on tiny pumpkin carving tools! Finally, at the bottom right, you have my (Erika Karas’) headless man! #stencilrequired

After all of the pumpkins were carved, candles lit and pictures taken, we went back inside and roasted our pumpkin seeds. Between six pumpkins we made three types: cinnamon sugar, garlic, and salt and pepper!

Happy Halloween from Team Megan!

Megan’s Taco Soup Recipe:
Ingredients
2 pounds ground beef
2 cups diced onions
2 cans pinto beans
1 can pink kidney beans
1 can whole kernel corn, drained
1 can Mexican-style stewed tomatoes
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can tomatoes with chiles
2 cans diced green chiles
1 package taco seasoning mix
1 package ranch salad dressing mix
Corn chips, for serving
Sour cream, for garnish
Grated cheese, for garnish
Chopped green onions, for garnish

Directions
Brown the ground beef and onions in a large skillet; drain the excess fat, then transfer the browned beef and onions to a large slow cooker or a stockpot. Add the beans, corn, tomatoes, green chiles, taco seasoning, and ranch dressing mix, and cook in a slow cooker on low for 6 to 8 hours or simmer over low heat for about 1 hour in a pot on the stove. To serve, place a few corn chips in each bowl and ladle soup over them. Top with sour cream, cheese and green onions.

October 31, 2013
You’re So Vain, You Probably Think This URL is About You: Claiming Your Google+ Vanity URL

Google has rolled out a batch of Google+ updates yesterday, and among those updates, they are now offering vanity URLs for Google+ Pages or Profiles.

Requirements for getting a custom URL are pretty straightforward:

Well, this a fun and interesting small project, so I thought I would walk through it with a client. I logged in, and there it was! I’m not sure it could be any easier.

Ah, but there is always a catch. I don’t like the URL they gave me. What is that “Org” on the end? I don’t want that. It’s not part of the client’s name. I guess it’s there because their domain is a .org? They are a non-profit organization, unlike many domains which are .org, but still.

After a little investigating, it doesn’t appear we have the option to truly edit the vanity URL although Google mentions they may give you multiple vanity URL options to choose from. Not in this case. That is an unfortunate scenario, but I’m going for it anyway.

Super easy to just walk through the steps. And you can edit it – see the “Edit” button handy right there.

But when you edit it, you can only edit for capitalization. I can’t get rid of the “Org.” Aarrggh.

It said I can never, ever edit the URL again. So we can have a vanity URL, but you can’t create it. You are stuck with what Google gives you.

Or you can pursue it as Mark Traphagen suggests in his G+ post which drives you over to Google+ Help Page

And Mike Blumenthal gives us a heads up that it may not always be free:

Overall, it’s straightforward and simple (thanks, Google!). If you meet the requirements, this option should be available to you shortly, as Google is currently rolling it out.

October 30, 2013
3 Keys to Your SEO Strategy for 2013 and Beyond
If there was a formula for the best SEO strategy in today’s online market, it might look something like this:

Content + links + social = WIN

While there are no guarantees when it comes to search engine optimization, including these three ingredients in your strategy is sure to improve your ROI. Here are some tips and best practices to strengthen your SEO foundation and get results.

Content: More Important Than Ever

With recent changes to Google, like the new algorithm and the demise of the Google Keyword Tool in favor of SSL secured searches (that no longer allow marketers—or anyone else—to see specific keyword search data), great content is essential for optimizing your website.

There are no keyword “cheats” left. In order to boost your search engine ranking, you need to include keywords and search phrases organically inside well written, engaging content that encourages not only search engines, but also your visitors to spread the word about your business.

Aside from quality, freshness counts when it comes to content. Search engines index your website more frequently when you’re adding new content—so unless you want to continually rewrite the copy on your core pages, you need a way to keep updating your content. Starting or reviving a small business blog is a great way to do that.

Links: Quality Over Quantity

Link building has been an important part of SEO as long as there has been other websites to link to. Over the years, search engines have changed the way they weigh links. At first it was the more links, the better—but today, it’s all about quality.

There are two parts to link quality: inbound versus outbound and reputation. Inbound links—those that lead to your site from other sites—are weighted higher than outbound links, because they mean someone else is impressed enough with your content to link to it. With reputation, the higher the linked site ranks in search engines, the more it matters to your own SEO.

How can you get quality inbound links? Here are a few ways to do it:
- Guest blogging. By writing quality content for blogs related to your business, you accomplish two things: help the hosting blog by giving them fresh, unique content, and gain inbound links. Most sites will offer guest bloggers a backlink to their own site in exchange for writing original posts.
- Press releases. While some businesses view the press release as an antiquated tool that reached its peak while news still came mostly in print form, this type of content can still help your online marketing. There are plenty of syndicated online PR distribution sites, and sending out relevant, newsworthy press releases will spread more inbound links to your website around, even if it doesn’t get you in the newspapers.
- Content repackaging. For maximum impact with minimal effort, spin your existing content into new pieces for redistribution. Turn newsletter articles into guest posts, blog entries into infographics, or even case studies into explainer videos. Don’t forget to include links to your website in all of your new content!
Social Media: Yes, You Need It

If you’re one of the few businesses that still doesn’t have a social media presence, it’s past time to get started. And if your social networks are getting dusty with neglect, it’s time to start showing them some love. Being active on social media helps you amplify your SEO strategy—building your brand and exposing your business to more potential customers.

The whole idea of social media may be overwhelming, whether you haven’t started yet or you’re trying to keep up with accounts on 10 different networks. For most small businesses, the best social strategy is to choose one or two channels to focus your efforts on (with Facebook and/or Twitter usually the most effective) and build those networks to perfection, instead of scattering your attempts across every platform out there.

Have you included these keys in your SEO strategy? What are you doing to keep your online marketing relevant? Let us know in the comments!

Image courtesy of chichacha

Megan Totka is the Chief Editor for ChamberofCommerce.com. She specializes on the topic of small business tips and resources. ChamberofCommerce.com helps small businesses grow their business on the web and facilitates connectivity between local businesses and more than 7,000 Chambers of Commerce worldwide.
October 28, 2013