Tag : social media

How Integrating Search & Social Ads Can Improve Your Revenue

Published on: April 21, 2014Category: Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing Comments: 0

In a recent study that explored search and social advertising campaigns, it was determined that customers who clicked on both search and social ads actually had 2x the conversion rates and a 26% increase in revenue per click when compared to users who only clicked on a search ad alone. What this means for advertisers is that by integrating both search and social campaigns together, you can expect to see more profitable sales, resulting in a greater return on investment! Read the article for a more in-depth look at how this integration can benefit your advertising campaigns.

http://marketingland.com/study-integrated-search-social-ads-80463

Linking is Still Queen

Published on: February 8, 2013Category: Authority Building Comments: 0

Almost 10 years ago, I wrote a piece called “Linking is Queen”.  The article discussed how linking is essential to the health of a website, but that content was still “King”.

Skip to 2013 and the only thing that has changed is the way we link.  There is no longer any need to solicit links, though it would not hurt to solicit them from appropriate sites (such as clients and suppliers).  Links today come directly from a viewpoint of popularity.  If you are popular, you get discussed and linked to in social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, and more.  This in turn makes your site, your brand, and/or yourself a deemed authority on the subject in question.

So how do you become popular? The answer is the same as it ever was: “Content is King”.  Write original, valuable content, and people will discuss it, share it, Tweet it, and make your article or website the most popular one around. You can use tricks like link bait, but that is just another way of confirming to “write content that people want to share”.  It all comes down to: good content generates good links.

So what is good content? Good content is both unique AND adds value to a website.

  • It is not offered anywhere else
  • It is an original solution to people’s problems
  • Is either interesting, surprising, and/or has a practical use

If you want your content to spread, it should trigger one of the 3 A’s: Anxiety, Awe, or Anger.

Unique content without value may in fact harm your site’s authority.  So don’t regurgitate old ideas, be creative and initiate new concepts.  That is how you will make it to the top.

So, in a decade, everything has changed, and nothing has changed.  Content and links are still the King and Queen that dominate search engine landscape.

Don’t forget to pledge your allegiance.

by Shawn Campbell – February 8, 2013 – www.RedCarpetWeb.com

Hootsuite – Social Media Management Tool Review

Published on: January 25, 2013Category: Social Media Marketing Comments: 0

I use Hootsuite as my social media management tool and though I’m pretty satisfied with it, there are of course a few things that I think they can improve on. To get right to the point, here goes:

What I really like about Hootsuite:

  • I can easily import my networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and have access to a bevy of apps such as Wordpress, Instagram and Constant Contact for email marketing.
  • I have the ability to schedule my messages whatever day or time I want in my timezone (instead of using Facebook’s old school scheduling tool) and I can see my scheduled content organized in Hootsuite’s Publisher.
  • I can create streams to scan my client’s competition and see what they are posting about and can also add hashtags to search keywords related to my client’s industry.
  • Hootsuite provides easier management amongst teams so that anyone can use their own account to log in and be accountable for any interaction they instigate.
  • I also think their support team is on the ball with answering requests (it would be pretty terrible if they weren’t, considering…)
  • At a reasonable monthly add-on fee of $29, I subscribe to Hootsuite University, have become officially certified and all with a nice badge to use for our company website.
  • I have unlimited access to training videos and industry experts providing tips on various industries and how they handle social media.

The nitty gritty of what I don’t like?

  • I can’t tag people or pages in any posts or comments I make, which means that I have to go to Facebook.com if I want to make my post more engaging, or in other words, be more social! However, to defend Hootsuite, this is apparently an issue of Facebook’s API not allowing them to provide this option.
  • I’m not able to create a stream of my Newsfeed, which is unfortunate because I can’t share or interact with any pages my client has liked.

These (seemingly) small issues are actually quite important on the grand scheme of things because the whole point of social media is to be able to interact with your peers on a regular basis and the goal of using Hootsuite is to be able to use all of your social networks in one place. Hopefully, by the time that someone from Hootsuite reads this, they’ll have moved my recommendations up the ladder in their Feedback Forum.

There are many other major aspects of Hootsuite I didn’t discuss such as reporting and pricing but let’s keep that for a subsequent post.

What about you? What are your initial impressions and experiences with Hootsuite?