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Tag: social media marketing

It’s SNEAUXmageddon!

Down here in New Orleans, let’s just say we are not used to the cold. With freezing temperatures threatening, the entire city is shutting down, (but here at Search Influence we are still hard at work!) Although many people are referring to the winter storm as Sneauxmageddon (the world is ending, didn’t you know?), others are taking advantage of the unusual circumstances.

Hemline Metairie is offering hot cocoa to shoppers, urging them to spend their days off shopping at their store.

Over at Hattie Sparks, they are taking a different route. Closing for the day to stay warm, they are offering 40% off to online shoppers who have plenty of time to spare while at home.

The brave restaurants that have remained open are serving warm treats that we know all too well: hot gumbo, steamed mussels, and anything to keep us warm.

At Search Influence, we are bundling up with scarves, hats, and coats hidden deep in our closets. And to be sure we remain productive in the cold weather, we resort to some interesting methods. Check out Influencer Lauren Christy‘s hand-warming mouse pad!

Although the temperatures are dropping, creativity is on the rise. Websites like isitsnowinginnola.com, have popped up to add some local flair to the typical weather report (chanting “Snow me something, mister!”) Currently, the forecast states that the snow is “No, it ain’t.”

Hashtags have also emerged to describe the wintry weather in New Orleans. The graphs below from hashtags.org show that they are definitely catching on!

See what others are up to by following hashtags #Sneauxday and #Sneauxmageddon. What’s been your favorite thing to come out of the winter storm?

January 29, 2014
Social Media And Small Businesses
Early last year, an article was featured on StreetFight.com that made some overzealous claims about social media marketing for small businesses. The negative stance was made loud and clear: social media marketing + very small businesses = zero return.

I take the most issue with the article’s claim, “The type of business most likely to realize a social media return on investment are B2C businesses whose customers are younger than 50 and that focus on entertainment, retail, personal services, or tourism. B2B or home services, or businesses catering to older people, do not fare nearly as well.”

In my experience, that just isn’t true. Every business can benefit from social media marketing. Here’s why:

Social Media is for Everyone

First, let’s talk about the age comment. The whole “social media is only for young people” idea is dead. Besides the fact that every family member I have over the age of 50 is actively engaged on Facebook (and some are even on Twitter), there are numerous statistics that prove age assumptions wrong. The fastest growing age group using Facebook is surprising – 45-65 years old.

So, in all actuality, Facebook has transcended the age divide.

Second, the article singles out B2B companies, saying that these businesses do not do well on social media. Wrong again. According to Vocus, 90% of B2B companies are currently on Facebook. Outside of Facebook, Twitter has emerged as a popular platform for B2B, with 85% of B2B marketers citing Twitter as the top social platform, followed by LinkedIn at 82%. If those stats are not enough, there is a whole list here.

B2B Benefits

Social media generates leads and leads make B2B. That’s a fact. Social media allows businesses to:
- generate brand awareness
- increase customer engagement
- establish a personalized/genuine relationship with customers
- respond to customer reviews and make improvements
- share special offers and highlight products
The list goes on, but what I’m driving at is that social media drives site traffic. When executed well, social media marketing acts as a hook, getting customers intrigued. All social media business profiles should direct the customer back to the site. Regardless of the products sold, even if the business isn’t based in “entertainment, retail, personal services, or tourism,” social media marketing can work for small business.

Low Cost Alternative to Traditional Marketing

As the article points out, sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Google+ are all free, so the only cost is time. However, the easy-to-use formats of all these sites allow for quick updates. Plus, there are numerous scheduling tools out there, like Hootsuite, that allow you to make posts into the future. The benefits behind social media marketing are well worth the time SMBs are dedicating to it. Most businesses don’t have the time to run their own social media profiles, so these customers usually contract with Search Influence and our partners to manage their social profiles for them.

Finally, the article says “Sure, social signals are important for SEO. But as far as knowing that inputting X equals Y placement in search results, we don’t know the equation and never will.” Even if we don’t know exactly what X and Y are, we do know that there is an obvious correlation between social media traffic and site traffic.

For instance, an increase in followers leads to more shares, and shares are a great way to spread your website content and brand name. An active social presence will also generate inbound links and improve customer satisfaction as Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks provide the optimal forum for direct customer-business feedback. In other words, social networks increase online visibility, and they don’t just provide a small window of visibility – these business profiles open a genuine link between customers and businesses.

Putting Social Media to Work

So, small businesses shouldn’t count out social media marketing just yet. Create profiles that promote products and engage your customers in a genuine fashion. Of course, all of this support for social media marketing would fall on deaf ears without a direct example. One of our clients, a small business of the exact strain highlighted in the Streetfight article, reached out to Search Influence two years ago. At the time, they only had 97 Facebook fans and site traffic in the low hundreds.

Now, after a strategically designed Facebook ad campaign and other SMO tactics, the client has over 27,000 likes on their Facebook page alone and generates monthly site traffic in the thousands. Although their site traffic was not driven by Facebook alone, their Facebook ads had a click-through rate five times the average for other Facebook ads.

Annual ad spending is increasing most rapidly on Facebook. By the end of 2014, 88% of small businesses expect to put some of their marketing dollars on Facebook, up from 43% in 2009. Recent estimates show ad spending on Facebook and other U.S. social networks increasing by 31.6% in 2013 (eMarketer, 2013).

Even though social media marketing may still be a bit undefined, many online marketing experts predict that it will only become more prevalent. The future of links-to-like upheaval hasn’t been determined, but the power of the “like” is only growing stronger. Don’t count out social media marketing because you are afraid that you won’t generate a fan base due to age restrictions or the size of your company. Explore the social media networks out there and find the site that best works for your business.

Top 5 Keys to B2B Social Media Success
January 27, 2014
Q&A on ShortStack

For anyone that doesn’t know, ShortStack is an app that allows you to run contests and promotions from your Facebook page. It can also help boost social engagement and get more likes on your page. I recently had a client ask about using ShortStack for a Facebook contest and this overview helped explain it quickly and easily.

First Question

1. If I put this on facebook, will only my fans see it? If I’m trying to get more traffic, where do I put it then? How can I get more people to see my contest?

When you put an image or a form or text or anything in the ShortStack, you can choose the permissions who can see it underneath each addition. Visibility can be set to everyone, only fans of the page, non fans of the page, or admin only.

We had an image that said “Like our page to find out more,” and we set it so only non fans could see it. So if someone came to the tab that didn’t like the page, that’s what they saw. We then had another image and a form for fans only. Once someone liked the page, they saw the new image with details and the form.

The little buttons underneath each thing tell you what is what. The thumbs up is fans only. The thumbs up with a strike through is non fans only. Little people are everyone.

You can also check yourself and see what it will look like for different people (Fans vs Non Fans). Under “Live Preview” in the left corner just click the thumbs up. You will see what fans of the page see, and if you click on the non fan view (thumb with strike through) you will see what they see.

Second Question

When I install the final product through ShortStack, where does it appear on our facebook page? Does it have to be used on a personal page or business page?

If the login information being used is for a Facebook account that is connected to a business page, when you are ready to publish the ShortStack tab will show the pages you are a manager of and you can choose the pages you want.

Good luck in your next contest or promotion! I hope some of these questions/answers help.

BIG THANKS to Maggie Emerson who helped me answer these questions for my client!

Check Out More:

ShortStack provides more information and tips on their own website. http://www.shortstack.com/

They also have their own FAQ page along with video tutorials.

January 23, 2014
LocalU Is Coming To Dallas!
Local businesses and small business marketers in the Dallas / Fort Worth area are in for a treat! The traveling road show of local online marketing, LocalU, is making its way to Dallas, TX on Thursday, January 23. I had the opportunity to attend LocalU when they came to New Orleans, and we even invited some of our clients to attend.

Audubon Nature Institute’s Lani McWilliams even provided us her key takeaways from the event – there’s so much info presented at these events that she couldn’t even narrow it down to just 10. These top 14 takeaways are just a small sampling of the info that you will learn at LocalU to help market small businesses online.

What You’ll Learn:

LocalU, my friends, is a must see seminar if you want to learn all things related to local business marketing online, including:
- local search engine optimization
- social media
- review management
- paid online advertising
… and, at $89 with the discount code LocalU, it’s a steal-of-a-deal!

Who You’ll See:

At the half day / four hour event, you will hear from the brightest minds in local online marketing including:
- Search Influence’s own CEO, Will Scott
- Mike Blumenthal
- Mary Bowling
- David Mihm
- Mike Ramsey
- Ed Reese
- Aaron Weiche
When and Where:

LocalU Dallas
Thursday, January 23
Pegasus Ballroom/Magnolia Hotel on Commerce St.
Check-in: 8:00 am
Sessions: 8:30 am – 12:30 pm

The faculty hopes to see you there!

Buy tickets here!
January 17, 2014
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
3 Tips for Measuring Your Online Success with SEO and Beyond

Lately I’m finding more and more clients focused on increasing site traffic. Some are setting goals to double, triple, or even quadruple their current site traffic in as little as 3 months with an SEO campaign. I’m all for a challenge, but there are other metrics to measure the success of an SEO campaign than just site traffic. Here are 3 helpful tips to running a successful and fulfilling online campaign!

Focus on conversion traffic

Having 2 million site visits a month is phenomenal! But when these 2 million visitors come to a site, how are they engaging or interacting? Do they click on one of your display ads or make a purchase? Are they filling out a form or calling for more information? A site can generate 2 million visits a month, but if your phone isn’t ringing or if products aren’t being sold, those visits aren’t very valuable. I’ll take less site traffic and a higher conversion rate any day.

I worked in a retail boutique for 7 years, and as anyone who has ever worked in retail knows, there is nothing worse than a busy day with no sales. You are constantly catering to a customer’s every need with the hope that they might buy something, only to have them say, “I’ll think about it and come back later,” and walk out the door. It gets tiring after a while. Now, try doing that 2 million times a month.

Traffic coming to your site and not converting is the same as having a full retail store with no sales. You not only want to drive traffic to your site; you want to drive the traffic that is most likely to convert into sales, leads, or better yet, repeat customers.

Market your business through other online marketing avenues

In addition to SEO, a great way to increase your site traffic is to make sure you have a presence on other social platforms and engage potential customers through other online marketing campaigns. Launching a paid search campaign is a great way to increase your site traffic immediately if you just can’t wait the 6 – 12 months it will take to organically grow your visibility with SEO.

A strong social presence can potentially impact your organic search rankings as well. Having optimized and branded social networks throughout the web not only helps your SEO but also allows for another branding opportunity. Different market segments interact and connect differently. Having a presence on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+ and running a paid search campaign gives you the opportunity to expand your reach and potentially increase conversion traffic.

Look at other metrics to track success

When analyzing the success of any online marketing campaign, a great way to see how your audience is interacting when they come to your site is to look at bounce rate, pageviews, and the average time spent on site. Having a low bounce rate indicates that visitors are coming to your site and finding the information or products they are looking for. A high bounce rate suggests that a visitor came to your site and wasn’t pleased with your content, couldn’t find a form or contact number, or had difficulty finding your products or services and left your site feeling frustrated.

Another metric to look at is pageviews. A high number of average pageviews shows visitors are staying on your site and engaging with your content. The more pageviews, the more engaged your visitors are on your site. Paying attention to the average time spent on site is another indicator to show that visitors are spending time reading content, looking at products, learning about services, or viewing before and after photos. Keeping visitors engaged on your site is key. The longer they are on your site, the lesser chances are that they will leave and go to another competitor.

Lastly, consider calculating and tracking your total site conversion rate. Of all the visits to your site in a given time period, how many of them “converted,” or performed the desired action? If you’re interested in monitoring this metric, the ultimate tracking would include organic and paid call tracking, form inquiry tracking that captures the source and medium of the visitor and strategic event tracking in Google Analytics.

There’s more to online success than a high number of website visitors. Even with a slight decrease in traffic, if metrics such as bounce rate, pageviews and conversion rate are up you will know that you are targeting (and capturing) the right audience!

October 18, 2013
What’s Wrong With Facebook Cover Photo Reach?

Facebook announced a new version of News Feed way back in March 2013 and emphasized that decreasing clutter and increasing images were the company’s top priorities. Months later, some of the highly touted features have still not rolled out to all site users. However, one change was made almost immediately: allowing Business Page cover photos to appear in both ads and stories in the News Feed.

This new feature was poised to make businesses’ cover photos more important than ever, especially after Facebook removed the 20% text rule from cover photos in July. These site improvements were welcome changes for most brands, as they allowed companies to improve their branding and use calls to action directly on their Facebook page. Unfortunately, business pages are unable to see just how many people are seeing their cover photos due to a bug in the new system.

We noticed back in July that a new cover photo we posted for Audubon Zoo had more “shares” and “likes” than it had organic reach. I assumed that it was a temporary issue, or a fluke, but we have seen it time and time again over the last few months whenever we change our clients’ cover photos. We updated the Center for Restorative Breast Surgery’s Facebook cover photo on Tuesday in conjunction with Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The new cover photo post received 225 likes, 71 shares, and 12 comments, but for some reason Facebook is reporting that the new image was only seen by 33 people total.

It certainly doesn’t take a mathematical genius to realize that number cannot be correct, but there seems to be virtually no information out there as to why we’re seeing underreported reach totals for cover photos. If this truly is just a bug, why has Facebook not yet identified the issue and fixed it? Have you encountered this problem on your Facebook Business Page? Let us know in the comments!

October 4, 2013
New Orleans Non-profit Spotlight: Café Reconcile

Many of us go about our days without thinking about the non-profit world in New Orleans, including myself. I heard about Café Reconcile through one of my family members and wanted to share some of the amazing things they are doing to turn lives around in Central City, New Orleans.

The dining room at Cafe Reconcile usually packs a good crowd.

Café Reconcile improves future employment opportunities for youth by removing some of the barriers that generally stand between them and success. Since the non-profit restaurant opened in 2000, it has made strides in reducing the roll of poverty in a part of town that is ridden with drugs and crime. Marketing & Events Coordinator Cara McMenamin, said, “We want to change the perception of Central City,” and they are doing just that. This change is largely catalyzed by the restaurant training they provide students. Participants in the program can train in nine different restaurant positions, giving them the tools they need to secure a job in a restaurant, hospital, or other food provider.

I had a chance to speak with Cara about Café Reconcile’s social media marketing. They have almost 4,000 likes on Facebook and nearly 3,200 Twitter followers. They are reaching a wide audience from the New Orleans area and around the country. On Facebook, they have found that posts on lunch specials, special events, smiling students, and good-looking food attract a lot of attention, usually in the form of likes.

Members of the Cafe Reconcile team.

The restaurant uses their Twitter account to get quick words out to their followers while things are happening such as contests and graduations. They find that people mention them in tweets while they are eating at the restaurant. Café Reconcile occasionally receives negative feedback on social media, but it’s usually from individuals who are ignorant of the fact that the restaurant is staffed by students.

Café Reconcile is open Monday through Friday for lunch and also offers off-site catering and space for special events on the second floor. Like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter to stay updated on their delicious food and inspiring updates!

August 1, 2013
Easy Ways to Improve Your Pinterest Descriptions

By now, we should all know that Pinterest is a great tool for businesses. But, since Pinterest is so visually centered, what you may not have thought about is the importance of your written content.

After you have your About section properly filled out and you’ve established your boards, it’s time to direct your attention to your pin descriptions. Some of the biggest mistakes that you can make are not spending enough time writing descriptions and not editing repins.

Whatever industry you may be in, it’s never a good idea to repin content that has a description written in the first person. Since there’s no need for a stranger to be essentially speaking on behalf of you or your organization, take advantage of the description, and use it as an opportunity to appeal to the reader.

Instead of keeping an existing description like, “Everyone in my family loved this recipe,” it would be more effective to draw your reader in with descriptive language. Your audience is more likely to click on a pin with a description like, “This unique DIY skirt is both casual and comfy. All you need is a yard of fabric, elastic, thread, and 30 minutes to spare, and you’ve got a new addition to your wardrobe!”

You can also keep it short and sweet. If your descriptions aren’t complete sentences, pick a format and stick to it to keep your pins looking neat and uniform. If, for example, you choose to use title case, make sure that you apply that format to your other descriptions. As pin descriptions, “Sweet Southern Iced Tea” and “Quick and Easy Garlic Dinner Rolls” look better than, “Sweet southern iced tea.” and “Quick & Easy garlic dinner rolls.”

In short…

Take time to make sure that your pin descriptions are saying what you want them to say and not what someone 5 pins ago might have said.

Use descriptive language that will make your reader want to come back to you or your organization for quality pins.

Clean up your text so that it is aesthetically pleasing to the reader and they can quickly scan for the information that they want.

July 31, 2013
The Return… of the Website

The website is back, y’all! Yeah yeah, we know they didn’t go anywhere, but for the last few years we have had a large shift to companies investing in their social media presence and building out experiences that their fans can interact with on Facebook.

It made sense 100% of the way at that point in time. That’s where the users were — on Facebook. That’s where MANY users still are. Facebook is still growing; albeit, not quite as rapidly as 2 years ago, but doesn’t it feel like you see at least one new aunt and uncle popping up on Facebook each week?

If it’s growing, then why does it feel like it has become stale?

The challenge here lies in the evolution of Facebook over the more recent years. Facebook started with a wall for each person. That was the only place, besides on your own profile, that you could write anything on Facebook.

If you wanted to see what someone was saying, you had to visit individual Facebook profiles. Since 2006–and then expanded upon by “the new Facebook” in 2010–we have the News Feed. Facebook prioritizes what it thinks is news based on an algorithm of what it thinks you want to see. The problem is, I am pretty bored with checking my Facebook because the algorithm hasn’t quite got it right, and it’s too far gone to ever get corrected.

If you are a business, Facebook admits only 16% of your fans (I refuse to call them “like-ers”), are seeing your posts that you are putting all of that thought and energy into. Now I am not recommending you abandon Facebook — as you shouldn’t — buyers (especially women) are on Facebook, so learn how to improve your EdgeRank with our recent post by Laura Manning.

When Facebook users see only a couple new posts every time they check, they get bored. And bored on Facebook means your user starts to think “hmm… what else can I do on my mac, iPhone, or iPad?

I have found that I have started to wander the internet much more than I did a year ago. Facebook used to consume about 90% of my leisure internet use. Now it consumes about 20%.

What I am starting to find is an appreciation for websites again: a place where you can go and dive deeper into a product or service and really discover your options. Kind of how it was in 2000.

So for those of you who have truly been investing in your websites in the right ways over the past decade, who have recently started, or want to make an investment now, my prediction is that is the right time to do so.

The Key Things You Need to Remember:

1. Make sure they can picture themselves using your product.

Got a spa? Make sure they can see themselves in it. Got a house cleaning business? Make sure they can picture themselves sitting in their clean living room when you are done.

2. Sell it.

Sell what you’ve got to offer. Whether you’ve got, again, a spa or a house cleaning service, buyers want to read all the juicy details of how they’re getting a quality, comprehensive service for their hard earned cash. Explain every aspect of your packages, down to the last detail. Even if you think it’s insignificant, your buyers will appreciate it. Your customers want to know the benefits!!

3. Update your website.

Feature all of your products or services on your website. I want to know what you can do for me. No one wants to ask “do you do stump grinding?”

4. “Give away a little bit of the store.”

Search Influence’s Director of R&D, Amy Arnold, often preaches that each website needs to “give away a little bit of the store.” This means provide info on your site that you would typically share with someone when you have an initial call, consultation, or meeting with them. Yes, yes, it may be more than you want to put out because “what if they don’t call me” but trust me, this is the right thing to do. We have low bounce rates on sites that support this recommendation.

If you provide them the information they are looking for without them having to call you, you are proving to them that you have the knowledge — when you competitors are probably not.

The key learning here is simple — don’t ignore your website — your website should be updated almost as many times as your aunt comments on your recent pics on “the Fbook.” Your customers are searching, and they will likely find you if you continue to keep your website up to date. Of course, doing some off-site promotion of your site never hurt either, but that’s not the point of this post 🙂

Your website is being looked at more than you think. And if you don’t know how many visits you are getting to your site and from where they are coming, for heaven’s sake, install Google Analytics on it!

July 24, 2013