There are now hundreds of social networks and new ones are being born every day. Which one is right for you and when and how should you use them?

The obvious place to start is by mastering the obvious – the Facebooks and Twitters of the world and then moving into niche channels.

So – when is Facebook most effective? When are you better off using Twitter, or LinkedIn? And what exactly is Google+ good for, anyway?

The business consultant network Zintro recently pulled research from more than a dozen sources including Mashable, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google and Quantcast to put together this nifty infographic, which will help you develop your social strategy. Check it out below for the full report.

For the remainder of this column, let’s forget the search engines exist, or say for the sake of argument that you already have number one rankings at Google, so you don’t need any more links for rank, you want links for direct click traffic which has a chance at converting into business.

Where Would You Start the Process of Looking for Links?

Let’s look at one real life successful link marketing project. Business names have been changed so as not to give away the name of a specific client and website that now receives hundreds of direct clicks and conversions per year that have nothing to do with Google, PPC, banners, etc.

A business located on the Florida coast sells scuba (diving) charters, training, travel services, and one day dive trips to ship wrecks. The website doesn’t sell much equipment, but does rent it and offer repairs.

Their website was quite nice, and they had been trying to rank highly at Google for years for local scuba/diving related terms. They’d paid for directory submissions, article syndication (their rankings actually dropped), and even paid for a few links on some scuba sites (perfectly good and no violation).

Nothing helped. Page 2 of Google.

The problem: they were competing with several famous dive shops and dive charter business websites, and those well-known dive charter businesses seemed to attract links without even trying.

As an aside, some sites fall out of bed and get links. The American Medical Association (AMA) is a great example. That site gets more links without trying. This phenomenon was discussed by Mike Grehan in “Filthy Linking Rich.”

It was time for this scuba website to pursue some non-Google linking strategies because no matter what we did to try and catch the competition in the Google SERPs, it might never happen due to the sheer power of the competitor’s names and brands. Why waste time and money without improving his bottom line at all?

Rather than try and fight deeply entrenched well known competitors, we decided to pursue a linking strategy that would take us directly to potential scuba enthusiasts behind the scenes. Forget Google searchers.

But Where Would These People be Found?

They contacted every hotel within 10 miles of their business and pursued a co-marketing arrangement where whenever someone booked a hotel room online, in the email confirmation the resort sent them, the following line was included:

———————————————-
Thank you for booking your stay at the ++++ Resort and Hotel. Please find your confirmation information below. In addition to the many amenities offered here on site, we also are proud to partner with Scuba-licious.com, where every one of our guests receives a 15% discount
off scuba lessons, charters, rentals, and more.

Print this confirmation out and learn more @ example-scuba-charter-website.com———————————————-
(Remember, this is a fictitious example based on a real campaign).

Ready for Some Amazing Numbers?

One of the resorts that agreed to this idea sends out roughly 100 email confirmations a day, or36,500 per year. How would you like to be the only scuba charter business link in those 36,500 private email confirmations?

And here’s a wonderful secondary benefit. This is stealth linking. Your competitors don’t find your links by doing backlink analysis, because these links to your scuba site exist inside a private email confirmation, which exists inside your private inbox.

You might be wondering about the cost of this promotion. Zero dollars. The scuba charter company offered two free charters per year to the resort staff to use as they pleased, in exchange for those 36,000+ 9 word long sentences that contained that one single link.

This promotion started in 2008 and continues to this day. It has expanded into other areas like resort hosted scuba charters, kids scuba certification classes in the resort’s indoor pool and. As far as clicks and conversions are concerned, everyone involved is happy.

And this had nothing to do with Google – where, by the way, some trickle down linking also took place due to this promotion and the scuba site now is on Page 1 of the SERPs. How about that? Forget about Google and you end up ranking higher at Google.

Forget Google Exists

Link opportunities are everywhere. The key is you have to stop thinking about Google in order to see them. It isn’t easy.

Yes, Google is important, and no, you shouldn’t ignore them. Rather, get into a mindset where your strategic linking thoughts are by nature non-Google related. Nothing is better than doing a significant amount of business knowing that it will come your way no matter which way the Google winds blow.

source: http://searchenginewatch.com

Some 60% of adults say they get news and information about local businesses other than restaurants and bars. When they do:

47% say they rely most on the internet, including:

• 36% on search engines.
• 16% specialty websites.
• 1% rely on social network sites like Twitter.

31% rely most on newspapers, of which only 2% rely on the online version.

22% rely most on word of mouth from family and friends.

8% rely most on local TV, either broadcasts or the websites of local stations.

5% rely most on local radio.

What is more, of the 55% who look up information for a local restaurant, bar or club, the online numbers increase a few percent.

51% percent of people turn to the internet including:

• 38% on search engines.
• 16% on specialty websites.
• 3% on social media (e.g. Twitter).

Of the 31 percent rely on newspapers, 5% rely on the online version.

Keep in mind when you are reading these numbers that people can fill in more then one option, majority of the people didn’t but some put in Twitter and Social Websites in addition to Search Engines. They were later polled about news and information about local businesses other then restaurants and bars.  The research shows that 47 percent of people rely most on the internet for information. One interesting thing that I found in this survey was that 55 percent of adults that search for their results online via search engines are more likely to be women, young adults, urban and technology adopters, 60 percent of which are tech users.

How can we as online marketers take advantage of this information? You need to take your business online.

You need to market it to every local citation site out there.  Sites like Google Place, Yelp, Yellow Pages, City Search, and many other sites will help boost your rankings.

There are 1000′s of local Google Places like sites. When you list your information on these sites make sure that you are listing everything exactly the same. Make sure that your address, phone number, and all information is the SAME across the board. This will help you rank better and come up above your competitors. If anything is different, it will not help you as much as if everything is exactly the same across the board.

Local business could use this information to set up local PPC campaigns.  Buy bidding on their own branded keywords and keywords that people will be searching for they can get more customers coming into their local business at a cheap affordable cost. Google has set up AdWords Express, an easy way for local merchants to set up a PPC campaign and not have to manage it a ton.  They have also put together Dynamic Search Ads, allowing them to index your site and bid to potential customers on relevant links.

source: http://searchenginewatch.com

Let’s discuss a couple of simple ideas regarding conversational media (i.e., social networking sites and blogs) and its relation to search:

1. How to help your social pages rank better
2. How to help your website rank better with social influences

A Little Perspective About the Market as a Whole

The growth in activity at conversational media sites is undeniable. The number of unique has increased more than 80 percent since 2007 to 213 million in May 2011, while total visits to the category grew 136 percent to 6.2 billion.

Since a search click to a website represents one type of site visit, this is where we can begin to connect the dots on influence between navigation events. The number of search clicks to the category reached 845 million in May, accounting for 13.5 percent of the total visits to the category. That number has grown 145 percent since 2007, outpacing gains in both unique visitors and total category visits.

Branded social media searches (e.g., Facebook, Twitter) and people searches (e.g., friends, celebrities) appear to be the two primary growth drivers of search clicks.

Although these types of terms still make up the vast majority of the terms driving traffic to conversational media sites, the fastest growing search traffic segment is actually big name brands. Well-known consumer brands have finally begun to embrace their conversational media assets and are driving a considerable amount of traffic directly to Facebook and Twitter in addition to their own websites.

When combining the top 20 brand names in retail, finance, and travel, their branded searches delivered over 1.6 million clicks directly to Facebook, a 1,300 percent increase since mid-2009.

How to Help Your Social Pages Rank Better

Links on SERPs are like shelves in a store: Owning more shelf space, and the more varieties you have to offer, invariably will drive more sales (clicks). Because you will already own the premium position for your website for your branded searches, further promotion of your social media assets can only improve your end game.

In collaboration with SEO software vendor BrightEdge Technologies, we’ve identified three simple steps you can take to improve the rankings of your social pages.

Link From Your Homepage

It can’t be as simple as linking from your homepage, can it? Actually, it can because search engine algorithms absolutely value these links when scoring sites (more on this later).

Despite this reality, 6 of the top 20 most searched for Retail brands did not have any sort of social media integration on their homepages. Talk about a missed opportunity! Linking from your home page and using your brand name in the link will have immediate impact.

Use Brand Names in Posts

URLs that match search terms have a built in advantage for high SEO rankings on that search. This same principle will apply to the words you use in your social media posts, so be sure to use the brand names of your company and your products when posting for maximum effect.

Get Likes

Search engine algorithms value crowd science quite heavily in their rankings (link building relationships). This same type of value is given to likes, follows, +1′s, etc. This is an inherent trust metric and will impact rankings as well.

Getting likes can be easier said than done. It may require some creative marketing tactics that engage your customers and make them smile.

Helping Your Website Rank Better With Social Influences

The first part of this column discussed how to drive better rankings for your social media pages. Clearly this has become more of a priority than it was a couple of years ago – particularly for branded terms – but will never be of the same volume and SEO coverage as your own websites. The more important goal is figuring out how to use social media influence to impact your owned media assets.

Social signals drive SEO performance, but how important is it? According to data from BrightEdge, between 75 and 90 percent of the top 10 search results on any given SERP have at least one Facebook like or Twitter tweet. These numbers and the related influence will spike sharply, especially for industries such as retail and finance.

Start With the Basics

Visitors to your website are usually interested in your company and your products, so don’t miss the opportunity to invite them into your treasured social media circle. Invite them to connect, like, follow, and/or share your company and your product pages.

Target Head Terms With Social Media Friendly Pages

For most companies, head terms make up a large percentage of their referral traffic. Although these terms drive high volume in both searches and clicks, they are often very competitive for page/position rank.

Ensuring that your head term landing pages are social media friendly with further impact your overall SEO ranking for these coveted terms. The more likes and follows your landing pages have, the higher they will rank.  Therefore, encouraging visitors to take social media action with a “bookmark & share” drop down menu will further your landing page SEO efforts.

Create Tools That Are Easy to Share

An easy to share tool is something that is visually appealing and simple to use. Too many times you arrive at a website that has expert only tools available for analysis, searching, sorting, and the like.  Or you find a tool that is easy to use for all of these things, you would love to tell someone about it, and there is no sharing drop down.

Either of these scenarios is negatively impacting your use of social media SEO influence. Think about the types of assets you have on your site that begat social involvement and make it simple to do.

Drive Social Engagement to Your Website

Facebook offers a variety of social plugins you can utilize on your site. Different plugins encourage different types of engagement, so choose wisely on which ones work best for each part of your site.

Conclusion

Social media and search share a two way street of influence. Social media assets have reached enough critical mass to rank on the first page of search results, as well as directly contribute to the SEO ranking of your website pages.

Although many companies are taking advantage of this established medium, many others have not and are missing a sizeable opportunity. By implementing some of the best practices mentioned here, you can ensure that your social media and search teams are working together and that your organization isn’t being left behind.

source: http://searchenginewatch.com

For those of us who have spent the past several years using YSE to conduct competitive analyses, a few indefatigable qualities dominate a page’s likelihood to rank highly in search engines:

• Quality of the site linking.
• Quality of the page linking.
• Anchor text linking.
• Thematic relevance of the linking site.

Given that this information isn’t new in search circles, why are many marketers still struggling to generate the incoming links required to succeed?

Why So Many Link Building Efforts Fail

Failed link building efforts typically occur for one of two reasons:

• Links were not obtained.
• Only low quality links were generated (such comment, no follow, and low quality directory links).

The root of many failed link building campaigns usually stems from a misguided approach. Too often, companies engage in commoditized link building, such as hiring an SEO firm for (X) number of links per month. While the logic is sound, the output can be frequently less than desired because the vendor now has a quota objective as opposed to a performance objective.

If we know (and we do) that link building is an effort in quality over quantity, why have we become so hell-bent on link numbers?

To overcome these misaligned incentives, it becomes critical to rethink link building activities. One of the best ways to do this is to apply group dynamics to the problem.

Make Link Building a Win-Win

Historically speaking, three of the most effective link building mechanisms all involve some principal of a win-win relationship. In each of these cases, the person giving the link actually receives a tangible benefit from the transaction:

• Free tools: The benefit of the supporting this tool is less financial and more psychic in nature as the linker has an incentive to contribute to its long-term health (assuming it provides strong value).
• Guest blogging: This provides traffic and worthwhile content for the blog host.
• Link purchases: The linker receives immediate financial benefit for providing the link. (Important note: this is against Google Webmaster Guidelines and, in rare cases, can result in website penalties or bans)

These tactics can also be used in unison, as guest blogging can be a fantastic way to drive links and promote the creation of a new tool.

With these ideas in mind, the process of link building fundamentally shifts to one that is rooted in creating means the linker, not the transactional outcome of acquiring links.

Model the Benefit of a Top Ranking, Then Offer Incentives

Now that we’ve established the strategy and tactical methods required for effective link building, it’s important to tap a motivated individual within an organization (or agency) to execute properly.

One of the most powerful methods of achieving the results is to incentivize ranking for specific keywords. Paid incentives are a powerful way to reach ranking goals, and it’s frequently helpful to create payout phases such as the following:

• Payout 1: When keyword ranks on Page 2 of Google
• Payout 2: When keyword ranks on Page 1 of Google
• Payout 3: When keyword ranks in top 5 of Google
• Payout 4: When keyword ranks No. 1 on Google

To answer the question of “how much?” it is first critical to understand the impact of that keyword ranking number one on Google.

To derive this value, you will need:

• Total monthly volume (exact match) of the keyword in Google AdWords.
• The average value ($) of an expected conversion.
• Click through rate for each position.

Next, multiply the monthly search volume by the expected CTR and this should yield a good estimated traffic result based on the goal position. Now, multiply that times a benchmark conversion rate of 1.5 percent to establish potential sales driven from the keyword rank. This should provide a strong conceptualization of the revenue that will be driven from this keyword ranking and starting point for bonusing effective implementation.

Recap

Effective link building only works with a strong understanding of the types of link required to succeed and the proper means to motivate your linkers and link builders. The best knowledge in the world is useless without a scalable way to grow.

source: http://searchenginewatch.com

Why do Google+ Pages matter?

When Google+ first revealed the new officially branded pages, I questioned their unique value. What is the distinctive usefulness of creating an officially branded page on Google+ as opposed to Facebook? Likewise, how is this different from using a verified Twitter account?

Brands on Google+ aren’t allowed to run promotions directly on the platform and must, instead, link out towards the promotion being run elsewhere. This could prove to be inconvenient for some companies who might prefer to run contests etc directly on the service (similar to Facebook promotions). I can only guess this is to either prevent the flooding of promotion spam on G+ user streams, or perhaps to provide better search engine optimization for companies and brands utilizing the network. Google+ is, after all, the social hub of Google’s main search feature.

After taking a peek at a post by the official Google+ page, however, I feel I have a better understanding of how these pages work. The new Google+ branded pages appear to offer equal value to the consumer or the customer of the brand, rather than just the brand itself. This isn’t to say that the brand won’t experience some benefit, but to know that Google+ created these pages with its core users in mind rather than the big companies alone appears to fall in line with the “frictionless” experience all the big social channels have been buzzing about lately.

What Google+ wants us to know about Pages

1. You can +1 a Page to show support or add them to your Circles.
2. No Google+ Page can follow you until you follow them.
3. In fact, Google+ Pages can’t even mention you unless you’re connected.
4. Google+ Pages unfollow you automatically if you unfollow them.
5. You can find Google+ Pages in Google+ Search.

The key thing to take away here is that Pages on Google+ work in sync with those following the brand or company. I’d wager that this will promote better consumer loyalty and heighten engagement between brands and their key influencers or users, rather than simply flooding the platform with information some might find to be spammy or useless.

I’ve definitely seen instances in the past where companies on Twitter have followed several thousands of users simply to boost their “follow-back” count, then unfollowed these users later to misrepresent their popularity and vanity ratio. With Google+’s more-strict policy on who a brand can follow or interact with, this no longer a problem. Also, there goes the spammy “check out our new promotion!” notifications and mentions I usually get on Twitter from brands hoping to get a brief mention back.

Also included for official G+ pages are various analytics measuring social and +1 data, as well as how these statistics might affect a brand’s bottom line. Facebook offers a similar sort of transparency for pages on its own network, but Google+ seems to hint towards offering something more. In regards to its current public API, it states, “We’ll be keeping a close eye on your feedback and will release more APIs into production as soon as they’re ready.” So get that feedback rolling in if you’re excited to see specific changes.

The silver lining for brands

While official brands might be annoyed by current sharing restrictions on Google+, limiting who the brand can interact with to only its most loyal followers or consumers can actually be a very good thing. In the long-term, a brand’s follower count on Google+ will hopefully be a more accurate representation of who is actually dedicated or eager to engage with the company. And hey, enabling brands to utilize Google+’s Hangouts feature to interact with their dedicated followers doesn’t hurt, right?

Google+ is effectively connecting brands to their key influencers in a more synchronized and user-friendly fashion through G+ Pages. For brands, this represents an opportunity to create better social strategies through which they can reach out to their followers in a more effective way, especially knowing that those users following them on Google+ are looking to be actively engaged or are open to possible brand-to-consumer interaction.

As for how beneficial Google+ Pages will actually be for brands and their consumers in comparison to social channels like Twitter or Facebook, only time will tell. To sign up for your own Google+ Page, be sure to visit the official Page guide. Or just watch this video.

source: http://thenextweb.com

I thought I had my social media game covered on all fronts: Twitter, check. Facebook, check. Even Skype, which I like to include as a necessary tool for connecting real-time, check-check!

Until I realized that I am missing one giant piece of the puzzle, and it is not even a new kid on the block. It is an old timer that has been around for a while and still goes by the same name: LinkedIn.

LinkedIn? Really?

It made sense to have a LinkedIn profile when I was in the corporate environment, and when I was looking for jobs and needed to show off my resume and qualifications, or even when I wanted to be found by other potential employers—it sure was fun to fly out to Google headquarters for an interview in 2007, entirely thanks to LinkedIn. But is there more to LinkedIn?

You probably wonder, as I did, just what could it do for you as a blogger, a writer, or a solopreneur. What more can you really do on LinkedIn besides creating a nice static profile, connecting with a few people in your network, getting a couple of recommendations, and then letting it collect digital dust?

Apparently, a lot!

I was missing the point altogether. Now that I’ve had a chance to dig in deep under the surface of LinkedIn, I want to tell you why it is smart and even profitable to have a professional presence andengagement on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn has become the world’s largest network for business professionals—it has over 100 million members. It is the best place to market yourself as such, and network with other business professionals. Facebook and Twitter combined cannot give you that space unless you spend a lot of time targeting the right people. Maybe.

LinkedIn, however, specializes in this: it makes it very easy for you to connect with like-minded business professionals in your field.

Since I started using it, I have had one of my raw vegan recipes featured on a food network show online, met an amazing client, connected with several coaches and speakers for possible collaboration, and am scheduled to be on a Chicago TV station later in October to promote my book. All from using LinkedIn Groups and ranking for the right keywords—and I am not even a serial user … yet!

Why you should make time for LinkedIn

First, allow me to anticipate and then respond to a common reaction:

“You mean I have to keep up with yet another social media platform? You gotta be kidding me!”

Yes, and I’m not kidding! Listen, make the time, even if you have to take a “vacation” from Facebook and automate or minimize your Tweets for a few days—or even a couple of weeks. Explore and learn to use LinkedIn well and integrate it into your schedule. It will do wonders for your blog and business.

You really cannot afford to ignore LinkedIn any more. Here are four reasons why you should embrace it, starting today:

1. The LinkedIn community approaches networking with a business-oriented mindset and wants to hear about your business, your offers, your products, and your services.
2. The spirit of the LinkedIn community is to support one another as business professionals, as opposed to Facebook and Twitter where we are first peeps and friends before we talk business.
3. The LinkedIn professionals are very likely decision makers in their business and your connection with the right person could mean real business and profits.
4. LinkedIn search database is used widely for finding candidates not just for a traditional job but also for consulting, contracting, targeted projects, and other unique opportunities. You do want to show up when they search for your target keywords, don’t you?

Take your game to the next level

Let’s get on with the show. Here are three fundamental ways you can build your presence on LinkedIn to make it really work for you.

Build out your professional profile first

You need to have an attractive profile. First, complete these sections using keywords relevant to your expertise and areas of interest:

• your professional headline
• the Your Summary section
• the Your Experience section.

As you fill out the above information, remember to not write in “resume” language—create something more along the lines of sales copy about who you are and what you can offer. Think about presenting yourself in that light to the world, and think about prospects, potential clients, and business partners who read this.

Think of this information as your brand in action. Make sure you stay consistent in terms of the way you present yourself on your website and other places online.

Build up your LinkedIn recommendations

The recommendations on LinkedIn are essentially testimonials from your network telling about their experience of working with you. I know that these have brought me a lot of credibility over time, and it is a really good way to display social proof.

Use the following rules for building up your recommendations:

1. Find testimonials from clients and business partners in your email or on your website. Then contact them and ask them if they wouldn’t mind sending that to you in the form of a LinkedIn recommendation. Obviously, you’ll first need to connect with them on LinkedIn.
2. Seek out your trusted friends, colleagues, and mentors whom you respect and offer to first write them a sincere recommendation. Then ask if they have a good story about interacting with you to send as a recommendation.
3. Offer to write recommendations for people with whom you have worked in the past. Be sincere and specific in your praise, and do so without pushing to get a recommedation in return. Choose the people wisely, preferably only those with whom you are still on good terms. Most will likely write you a recommendation in return if they feel the same way about your work.
4. If people offer to write a recommendation for you, thank them profusely and remember to point out your specific areas of strength and expertise that you want them to emphasize. Most will gladly comply.

Join the right groups and engage in the dialogue

The heart of LinkedIn is in its groups. Groups are the forums where discussions take place among hundreds of thousands of business professionals with a polished and clean user interface. I love the layout and the features in the Groups; it is far more advanced than any in Facebook and other online forums I have used.

Here are some quick tips for engaging well in groups:

1. Choose groups that interest you using Groups search.
2. Look for active membership participation by browsing the discussions.
3. Look at the Groups rules and be aware of them.
4. Join your Groups of choice and watch first before jumping in to contribute.
5. Contribute to an active discussion first before starting your own discussion.

The Groups are where the learning and the networking happen. I find myself constantly drawn to the knowledge that flows freely in the LinkedIn Groups. There is usually enough critical mass in a group that if anyone presents false information, it is quickly balanced out or corrected by other members. My experience has been extremely positive. In fact, a few weeks ago, I worked up the courage to create my own group! Who knows, maybe I have inspired you to do the same thing too?

It’s never too early or too late to jump on LinkedIn. Even if you are blogging just for fun or thinking about starting your own business down the road, there is only an upside to having a network on which you can rely and from which you can draw both inspiration and opportunity. LinkedIn fits that bill perfectly!

Farnoosh Brock is a corporate escapee, writer, photographer, yogini, and coach at Prolific Living. She empowers you to crush your daily fears and live life on your own terms with smart habits. Naturally, she would love to connect with you on LinkedIn!

Late this summer, HiveFire, a Cambridge, Mass.-based internet marketing software solutions company, surveyed nearly 400 marketing professionals about the state of the business-to-business, or B2B, market, and discovered that marketers are retreating from traditional marketing tactics such as search marketing and have made content marketing the most-used tactic in their brand-enhancing tool box. Fact is, according to HiveFire’s B2B Marketing Trends Survey Report, twice as many B2B marketers now employ content marketing as they do print, TV and radio advertising, according to the survey.

So what exactly is content marketing? It’s the creation and publication of original content — including blog posts, case studies, white papers, videos and photos — for the purpose of generating leads, enhancing a brand’s visibility, and putting the company’s subject matter expertise on display. HiveFire’s researchers found that an impressive 82 percent of B2B marketers now employ content marketing as a strategy in their marketing programs. Coming in at a distant second place is search engine marketing at 70 percent, followed by events at 68 percent, public relations at 64 percent and print/TV/radio advertising at 32 percent.

Seventy-eight percent of respondents said driving sales and leads was the top marketing goal of their organization, followed by boosting brand awareness and establishing or maintaining thought leadership (both at 35 percent). Another 28 percent said their primary goal was to increase web traffic and 24 percent said it was to improve search results.

Part of the popularity of content marketing is its ability to generate qualified leads while engaging prospects in a branded environment without busting the budget. Nearly half of the content marketers interviewed said they dedicate less than a third of their budgets to such marketing expenditures. In addition to frugality, B2B marketers also believe most of their customers and prospects are online, which is why they’re focusing their marketing efforts on the Internet.

Finally, the survey shows that “content curation” — which is defined as the process of finding, organizing and sharing content — continues to gain strength as a top marketing strategy, up 17 percent from six months ago. Seen as a way for marketers to fuel their marketing programs, content curation does have its problems. Nearly 70 percent of content curators say lack of time hinders their efforts, with 66 percent saying a lack of original and quality content is a major drawback. Another 38 percent say difficulty in measuring results is the stumbling block and 37 percent say lack of staff to do the work is the hindrance.

Despite these issues, the survey makes clear that content marketing is only going to become more important going forward, whether you market to other businesses or to the public at large.

source: http://entrepreneur.com

• When we’re building a media plan
• When we measure campaign results
• As we compare tradeoffs between campaigns

Essentially, we need a single way to:

• Normalize data across channels and campaigns to allow for comparisons
• Project ROI to determine the right mix of media and allow for tradeoffs
• Identify weaknesses in your plan, such as poor CTR from creative, to help prioritize any tactical needs
• Set goals against which you can measure and reach with course corrections during execution

We can go all of those with a marketing scorecard.

Creating a Marketing Scorecard

A marketing scorecard is a single spreadsheet that compares the potential or actual return on investment from all channels. Yours might look something like this:

A scorecard has 8 different components:

1. Channel – The various campaigns broken down by channel and source. For example, banner ads are separated by site where you purchased.
2. Spend – The total spent on the campaign buy
3. Visits – The number of people who came to your site as a result of the campaign
4. CPC – the cost per click, or visit, calculated as Spend/Visits
5. Conversions – The number of orders or leads generated
6. Cost-Per-Sale – Cost/Sales
7. Other Conversion Metrics– Your specific business model may require other data to compare ROI
   • Retailers – Average Order Value (AOV), Net Profit, ROI
   • Lead Generators – Opportunities, Lead Score
8. Any Additional Costs– You may want to include costs associated with running campaigns
   • Agency Fees – Search agency, graphic design, landing page help, etc.
   • Personnel Fees – The cost of employees managing the buys

Using a Marketing Scorecard

The marketing scorecard is a template that you can fill in with:

• Forecast Data – For each channel and source you’re evaluating, get estimates from vendors and use past data from our own analytics to estimate the spend, visits, and conversion data. This will give you a rough estimate of whether you expect the campaign to be profitable and the relative efficiency of each investment. These estimates then serve as the goals as the campaigns launch.
• Measure Campaigns – As actual data is available, you can replace your estimates with that information to see real return on investment.
• Goal vs. Actual – You can use the Scorecard to track performance vs. goal, calculate the variance and use that to make changes mid-campaign or improve the accuracy of future forecasts.

The Simplicity of a Scorecard

It’s easy to get lost in the data in marketing. A marketing scorecard is a simple tool that is easily communicated throughout the organization and simple to understand. It’s the first step in democratizing data for your company.

source: http://searchenginewatch.com

There’s been no doubt that the arrival of Google+ has electrified social media nerds the world over, but what does having a profile, or “page” or location or whatever, actually do for your business?

It’s hard to imagine it would when even the search engine’s own developers don’t trust it.

Google+ is just one of a host of new social media options that face start-ups. Facebook is now overtly attempting to lure small businesses while competitors are popping up all over the place, including a new family-focused social networking tool developed by an Australian couple.

Many budding entrepreneurs, especially the non-tech savvy ones, can be forgiven for being bewildered over which online tools to plump for and how to be confident of a healthy monetary return for the time and effort.

There have been case studies the world over proudly heralding the ease in which companies can engage their customer directly through this channel.

From Coke to Coles, Carlton Draught to Starbucks, many of the biggest brands in the world designate large portions of their marketing budgets to get more people on their Facebook page or listening to them on Twitter.

But how does this help small businesses that don’t have the budgets to hire a social media coordinator or community manager, or don’t know how to position their product in this space?

It’s all in the timing

It’s really a matter of time management, says Lucio Dias Ribeiro, managing director of internet marketing consultancy The Online Circle.

Ribeiro says the bottom line for any small business is time versus revenue.

“Every hour you spend in your day on social media is one that you could spend selling or building up your business or product,” he says.

“Small businesses that want to tap into social media need to have very clear objectives and need to be very accountable – social media is for the long run, it’s not really quick to have an effect.”

Ribeiro points to big brand clients like Cadbury and Kraft as examples of those who have the money to have the social media upkeep.

However, this isn’t to say that it’s impossible for small businesses to do well in social networking, mainly because they’re in an industry in which direct client engagement is part of a recognisable point of difference.

Don’t fall for the hype

“Small businesses need to be really careful not to be taken in by the fashion of the words ‘social media’ and forget about all of the other channels that may be more efficient for them – at the end of the day we talk about revenue and you need to be in ‘business’ not ‘busiless’,” says Ribeiro.

“You don’t want to be six months down the road and saying, ‘Hey I’ve done Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and YouTube and nothing returned back to me’.”

“That social media plan doesn’t work. You need to find the most efficient way to keep up with all of your objectives – you need to sit down at the table and say, ‘My time costs $60 per hour and I spend X amount of hours on social media, making sure I don’t have any spam, feeding in content, thinking about strategy, thinking about promotion. Am I better off going to a CPC  (cost per click) model or paid media model?’”

These are questions that all small businesses must face when figuring out how to divvy up their marketing time (and dollars if they’re lucky).

For those whose business relies on a consistent online presence, lessons can be learned by those companies that have discovered how to best utilise this space.

David Olsen, head of social media for AppliancesOnline.com.au, has built the online company’s Facebook community to 170,000 members over the past two years, shaping what he sees as “one of the most engaged Facebook communities in Australia” and making it one of the largest among Australian retailers.

“What we believe sets us apart is that we listen and engage with our customers directly on our Facebook page and avoid simply pushing a marketing message or trying to sell through Facebook,” he says.

“As a retailer that sells online-only, Facebook has been invaluable to us. It allows us to demonstrate our dedication to customer service and satisfaction in a public forum for all to see.”

“Allowing our customers to share their experiences with us, and their friends, eases any apprehension consumers may have about spending $1,000 online to buy a fridge they have only seen in pictures on our website.”

Getting customer centric

This management of product image in the social sphere is what Olsen sees as creating accessibility to his brand.

The more visible they are to their customers, the more likely they can head off any negative connotations that could be associated to them.

“In addition to Facebook we have a presence on both Twitter and YouTube, as well as a number of Australian internet forums,” he says.

“It’s important to be visible, but it’s more important to be active where your customers are.”

Value ads?

While having a visible presence on these networks is important to Olsen, the lure of advertising through them has yet to catch on – though that’s not to say that it should be ignored.

“We believe the ROI on advertising on social networks is a hard one to quantify – but if you can build up a model and the numbers make sense for your business it is not something that should be dismissed entirely,” he says.

This is an area in which Cliff Rosenberg, LinkedIn’s managing director of South East Asia and Australia/NZ, has been educating small business for a number of years.

For Rosenberg, social media platforms have to offer a compelling channel for small businesses to engage with their customers or risk losing them to more “traditional” methods of online advertising.

“As a small business, they may not have large marketing budgets so there’s a clear need to be savvy and creative in marketing themselves on social media platforms,” he explains.

“Currently over 10% of LinkedIn members in Australia are small business owners.”

“We have tools for companies of any size and budget level… our Marketing Solutions business involves display creative, custom solutions and enhanced engagement tools.”

“LinkedIn Ads, our primarily text-based ad system (for direct response marketing), allows advertisers to create their own campaigns and set their own bids.”

Picking your social media battles

So, will social networking tools such as these, along with everything from Foursquare to YouTube, put your business in the game?

According to The Online Circle’s Ribeiro, it’s a channel that should be taken with a grain of salt – where it works for those whose business relies on an online presence, other areas such as services should be more careful, especially if you’re only able to service a certain location. You could get more traffic but not necessarily in your area.

“When I’ve worked with SMEs before, the return is really difficult to earn for these guys, especially the guys offering services in regional areas,” he says.

“I think Google+ offers a lot of resources – there is definitely a good reason to be using it… I just don’t know where it is taking small business specifically.”

“I would advise SMEs to look at Google+ mainly for the resources it offers such as Conference Call – which could impact in the overhead costs for an SME… this isn’t about gaining new business/lead generation, it’s about potentially saving your business money.”

“However, I’m not sure if Google+ will go anywhere – you’ll have a lot of people following but I don’t think it’s going to be a hit the mainstream like Facebook.”

Tips:

• Don’t avoid social media. Observe it if you don’t have time to be on it.
• Work out where your customers are and what they are saying about you. Do they mainly stick to one or two social media sites?
• Measure your time management against how much your time costs – does it balance out?
• Social networking can pose problems if your service is “locationally locked”.
• Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth: if there are free opportunities to advertise with social media, have a go and see if the figures work out for you.

source: http://startupsmart.com.au