Has Social Media Become the Most Important Way to Advertise?

Unlike traditional marketing, social media advertising has made it easier for business managers to sell their products, services, or content to online users with less effort and money. No need to turn on your TV or grab your local newspaper to see advertisements in the morning — just check your Facebook or Twitter on your mobile phone. With just a few scrolls, there it is: advertising.

Let’s take a look at some of the popular social media platforms and see how advertising works and why your business should go digital.

Facebook: Like and Share

Photo courtesy of Steve Nicholls via Flickr

There’s no denying Facebook is the most popular thing on the Internet with its limitless sharing and connectivity to about 1.23 billion people worldwide, 945 million of which access through their mobile phones. Brands active on Facebook don’t only enjoy online exposure but can also update their followers on what’s new, promote special deals, and occasionally hold online contests. They also create focused ad campaigns that target a carefully selected audience.

The “Like” and “Share” buttons are viewed more than 22 billion times a day, not only on the network itself but across more than 7.5 million websites worldwide. In fact, Facebook even created Like and Share buttons side-by-side “to drive Facebook referral traffic to your website.” Additionally, brands that use the retargeted ads in Facebook users’ news feeds report 49 times more clicks than right-hand sidebar ads.

How do I begin? Your best bet is to create a Facebook Page (not personal profile or group page) where it’s a free avenue for everyone to peruse on your content, whether they become a follower or not. Next, come up with a plan: your target audience, the number of posts you will write a day, when to post, what material to use, and your tone. Make sure you follow other pages to gain more followers, too.

Twitter: “On the GO” Network

Photo courtesy of Maryland GovPics via Flickr

Twitter is notorious for its no-nonsense 140-character tweet limit that makes content direct to the point. But don’t get discouraged: while Twitter enables visual tweets (photos, videos) in its turf, it seems that its 650 million users worldwide prefer textual tweets more. Plus, a BostInno survey found that 49 percent of respondents would rather interact with brands in 140-characters or less, beating Facebook.

Twitter updates real-time with 9,100 tweets every second, amounting to around 58 million new tweets daily. Since many Twitter users use their mobile phones to tweet, this might just be perfect for business managers to target people on-the-go. Twitter also offers three different kinds of paid advertising: promoted accounts, tweets, and trends.

How do I begin? An official account, of course. Then acquaint yourself with hashtags (#), retweets, mentions (@), and direct messages. Aside from the brevity of your content, you need to sustain visibility by tweeting more often since every tweet has a very short expiration date. Don’t get too trigger happy now – you don’t want to spam or annoy your audience and lose followers.

The “Trends” pane on the left side lets you know the current buzz in the Twitterverse. Meanwhile, business managers can search for keywords related to their business and track people’s conversations, what piques their interest, and how to better improve marketing content. These can be monitored and responded to accordingly using dashboard tools like HootSuite, TweetDeck, or Commun.it.

Instagram: Photo Finish Marketing

Photo courtesy of Jason A. Howie via Twitter

This mobile-based network has hooked more young people than other sites with its limitless photo sharing spiked by image filters and enhancements. What makes this unique is that users share mostly original and creative content, mostly labeled with hashtags (#) so others can have access to their content.

Business Insider reported that 90 percent of 150 million Instagram users are under the age of 35, a demographic many brands could take advantage of: apparel, entertainment, and media. Since it’s a mobile app, people on-the-go are more likely to use it and hit “like” on posts. In fact, this Facebook-owned social media platform can turn into a mini-marketplace as entrepreneurs do a SFS (shoutout for shoutout) where they advertise their fellow entrepreneurs’ content and vice versa.

How do I begin? Interesting photos and creative content posted on a frequent basis. Like Twitter, Instagram operates on hashtags (#) and followers. But you have to use them cleverly, so you may as well acquaint yourself with the most popular hashtags. And do what entrepreneurs do – SFS.

Pinterest: Inspirations and DIYs

Photo courtesy of Bunches and Bits {Karina} viaFlickr

Pinterest is a good place to put your crafty hat on and get your creative juices flowing. Here, content is devoted to provide inspiration for various crafts, recipes, and DIY projects as 70 million users, mostly female, pin them to their Pinterest boards. In fact, Pew Research found that a third of American women are Pinterest users.

According to marketing firm Piqora, each “pin” attached by a user to her interest boards is worth an average of 78 cents in additional sales to the brand whose merchandise is featured, and reported that sales-per-pin is up 25 percent in nine months. Adobe also reported that site visits from Pinterest yield 55 cents a piece in revenue, up 150 percent year-over-year. A study by Shopify also found that orders driven by Pinterest are larger than those produced by Facebook or Twitter, at $80 per order, topping Google and Amazon.

How do I begin? Your selling point is a virtual album bedecked by high definition photos of your product, services, or even your crew. It also won’t hurt to follow the DIY path to lure more followers, but make sure to fortify it with photos, illustration, and other graphic content. Go snitch those pins, tiger.

Google+: The Plus Factor

Photo courtesy of Mookieh via Flickr

Google+ rubbed us the wrong way but it’s starting to pick up speed now. If you want your content to make it to the search results, list and reach out 550 million users that are mostly students, tech-oriented professionals, bloggers, and photographers, then you might want to give Google+  a try and be active.

Unlike other social media platforms out there, Google+ calls for intelligent content — so you may want to make every word count. It’s like digital marketing at its best and Google thinking for you. Thus, you need to use relevant keywords and consider your search engine optimization (SEO).

How do I begin? As a brand, your best bet is a Company Page. As mentioned, you need to craft your content cleverly and weave relevant keywords through it for your SEO. Communities are strong on Google+, so widen your network by interacting with communities related to your business and do so in a clever fashion. It’s like doing business with conscience: offer value to people and understand that participation in communities is mostly about giving. Hard selling and spamming simply don’t work here.

There are many ways to advertise and reach out to various demographics via social media, depending on what your business is about. But all of this would be for naught if you have no metric telling you what these numbers meant or if they translate to profit at all. Avinash Kaushik’s social media metrics are good yardsticks for social media effectiveness.

via

The Difference Between Content Marketing and Advertising

Content marketing has been a buzzword in media for a while now. But that doesn’t mean that everyone knows what it is, how it works, or how it differs from traditional marketing. Much like social media, many marketers have attempted to use content as another vehicle for one-way blasting of marketing messages.

Content marketing, however, is quite different from traditional advertising, and the same rules don’t apply.

Saying vs. Showing

McDonald’s is attempting to apply the old advertising tricks to content marketing.

Advertising is all about making claims. United’s tagline, “Fly the Friendly Skies,” sounds nice, but the skies don’t sound as friendly when you know that United has the industry’s lowest satisfaction ratings from customers.

There are tons of brands claiming to be “The Most Trusted Name” or “America’s Favorite.” Advertising is all about talking the talk. Content marketing is about walking the walk. 

Subway backs up their “Eat Fresh” tagline with content that supports the brand’s healthy image. Brands like Lowe’s and Colgate provide useful, relevant content that shows their expertise. This content is relevant to their customers (DIYers/contractors and people with teeth respectively) and is more about helping than selling. The content is authentic and pertinent to the brands.

When content is not authentic, it’s easy to tell. However, that hasn’t stopped marketers from trying to hijack the content train. McDonald’s Moms Quality Correspondents content reads like it was written by the company's PR department. I question whether these moms are real people, because I’ve never heard anyone talk like this.

I groaned to myself when I read one “mom’s” assertion that “the family dining concept where the time spent eating with the family is deemed to be an important part of the experience. The PlayPlace and the toy are all designed to help to enrich that experience.” I’ve had a lot of family dinner experiences, and none of them were enhanced by me playing with a plastic Batman toy.

McDonald’s is attempting to apply the old advertising tricks to content marketing. They think, “If we say we are great, they will believe it.” Unfortunately for them, this is not the case.

One-Night Stand vs. Relationship

Advertising is about the quick sale. That's why traditional advertisers have trouble adjusting to social media.

Advertising is about the quick sale. That's why so many traditional advertisers have trouble adjusting to social media and attempt to apply the same broadcast/quick sale model.

Social media and content marketing are intertwined, because both are about building relationships. While advertising is front-loaded, brands can use content to address the customer’s concerns  at every stage of their purchase journey. While an ad can help inspire a purchase, content can keep the customer in touch with the brand before, during and after the purchase.

Mass Market vs. Individualized

Advertising is expensive. When buying a TV or radio ad, it has to appeal to as general an audience as possible. It’s the reason why so many Budweiser commercials feature pretty girls and cute dogs—it’s all aimed at the lowest common denominator. 

With content, you can craft pieces to reach the needs of all of the different segments of your audience. This can be in both tone and medium. The lower cost of content when compared to traditional advertising can allow you to create a piece of content in multiple forms—infographics, video, press releases. By distributing this content to social sites, such as YouTube and Facebook, you can let users consume your content where and how they want, rather than hoping they are watching TV when your ad runs.

Because it can be tailored to specific customer groups, another great feature of content is that it is sharable. When you create useful, non-advertorial content it is much more likely to be shared by bloggers or on social media. Think about it this way: lots of people send you funny or interesting articles to read (think Buzzfeed), but very few people send you a commercial to watch.

Not the End of Traditional Ads

There is still a place for traditional advertising. Companies will still need to launch new products, announce special offers, and drive general awareness. However, content marketing has allowed brands to be more useful to customers when they aren’t looking to buy; to become a useful part of their lives at every stage.

It’s more than marketing, it’s building relationships. It requires a bit of restraint and patience, but the rewards can be much greater in the end.

via

Too Many Advertisers Are Talking, Not Enough Are Listening

The Wall Street Journal published an online critique of social media last month (The Myth of Social Media) which added to the already roiling clouds in the advertising world. They supplied data from Gallup giving yet more evidence of the vastness of social media. Consider the following daily activity online:

 

• Facebook users post 4.75 billion items of content
• Twitter users send 400 million tweets
• Instagram users “like” 1.2 billion photos
• YouTube users watch 4 billion videos

 

And according to Gallup, “72% of U.S. adults use these channels, with the majority saying they use them several times a day.” Why then does social media have such seemingly small impact?

 

The answer is simple: too many advertisers are talking – and not enough are listening. In other words, social media advertisers frequently ignore the most important aspect of the platform: social. Whether advertising with static ads or video, engagement is the key to success. For the advertising agencies which “grew up” producing television, print and radio spots, this has proven a hard concept to grasp.

 

Scott Cook, co-founder of Intuit, says this of branding in the digital age: “A brand is no longer what we tell consumers it is – it is what consumers tell each other it is.” Exactly.

 

Social media content – whether from a Fortune 100 corporation, a family owned business, a non-profit organization, a trade or membership association, or even a political campaign should – no, must – engage with social media users. In other words, it should be “social” and encourage consumer/member/donor/voter participation rather than just preach.

 

One quick example: Which company has more social media “clout”? Company ABC has 200,000 Facebook likes and 150 people active on their page, while Company XYZ has 20,000 likes and 10,000 people active on their page.

 

If you answered Company XYZ, you’re correct! It doesn’t do you any good to have 200,000 likes or followers or friends if no one is reading your content. And, Company XYZ, with the right digital strategy, can most likely grow its base very quickly online.

 

Sadly, there are many Company ABC’s out there today. And they spend a great amount of money with ad firms who either don’t understand they’re not reaching anyone – or they just don’t care enough about digital yet.

 

With Americans now spending more hours online each day than watching television, however, the opportunities are too great to ignore. And with the right engagement strategy, you won’t be ignored by the audience you want to reach.

via

Mobile App Metrics: Attributed Install vs. Assisted Install

To stay ahead of the curve, mobile app marketers need to be looking beyond top-level metrics. One of these top-level metrics is the install.

Looking at which marketing channels and advertising partners convert installs doesn’t give you insight into what engagement helped drive that install along the path to conversion. Mobile marketers should look at attributed installs versus assisted installs to better understand the impact of channel and campaign performance along the conversion funnel.

Before explaining more about the importance of an attributed installs versus assisted installs, let's review some terminology.

• Installs: New users that open the app for the first time.
• Attributed Installs: Publisher with the last click, within the attribution window for the publisher.
• Install Assists: Publisher(s) with a click prior to the last click, within the attribution window.
• Publisher Install Contributions: The total number of installs for which the channel was involved (Attributed Installs + Install Assists).
• Install Rate: The percentage of installs occurring from the total number of unique clicks.
• Assist Rate: The percentage of assisted installs occurring from the total number of unique clicks.
• Install Contribution Rate: The percentage of install contributions occurring from the total number of unique clicks.

Measuring attributed installs makes complete sense. Marketers need to know which channel and campaign converted that install. However, the assisted install metric makes it possible for marketers to measure the performance of the channels, campaigns, and advertising partners that focus on promotion and awareness (not only the ones that convert the last click).

This data is particularly useful for marketers that have campaigns running with a variety of channels and advertising partners simultaneously. Campaigns and advertising partners that focus on promotion and awareness – typically via banner and video ads -can re-engage users at a later time to install your app. These campaigns and advertising partners typically generate attributed installs, but generate a large number of assisted installs. If you have campaigns and advertising partners with varying business goals (for example, awareness vs. installs), then the assisted install metric gives you insight into how well each partner is achieving their goal.

Measuring assisted installs in addition to attributed installs also gives mobile app marketers insight into the duplicate (overlap) rate between campaigns and advertising partners. If an advertising partner or channel has unique traffic, then they likely have very few assisted installs. If an advertising partner or campaign has many assisted installs, then they are interacting with many users via ads that your other advertising partners are also interacting with (not unique traffic).

As a data-driven marketer, do you differentiate these metrics and measure the performance of each individually?

(via)

Related articles

• How To Assign Value to Your Brand's Digital Properties
• 5 Tips to Boost Your Facebook Ads Conversions
• Seven basic email marketing metrics you should be tracking
• How to Measure Success in Inbound Marketing
• 6 Facebook Metrics Marketers Should Be Measuring
• Super Effective Facebook Advertising

15 Ways to Approach SEO in the Worst Possible Way

When it comes to search engine optimization (SEO), many website owners are still approaching the process incorrectly even with the vast amount of online info describing the right techniques. Here is a list of the worst possible forms of SEO marketing that are still being used today by some.

1. You think that Microsites with Duplicate Content are Still Effective

This used to be a common form of SEO used by website owners to help their websites climb search engine rankings. However, Google penalizes sites containing duplicate content, so now is a good time to stop using this antiquated tactic.  Building numerous sites targeting the same keyword is an inefficient use of your time. Focus on one domain and make that domain the best you can. Make it a hub for your brand.

2. You think that Spinning an Article 50 Times Classifies as Marketing

Years ago,  spinning an article many times so that it delivered the same message but with different words used to be effective and acceptable SEO. The intelligence level of Google’s web crawlers have now increased to the point where this now classifies as duplicate content. Poor thin content with no substance will only hurt you. The user experience is also very horrible.

3. You still Approach Search Engine Optimization with a Quantity vs. Quality Mindset

Trying to acquire a thousand links is not what SEO is all about these days. Instead, engage in quality SEO methods such as delivering high quality content to readers once a week instead of mediocre content each day, social media, email marketing and blog marketing. It's not the mad science project it once was. These days less is more when it comes to search engine optimization.

Full Article here

Related articles

• SEO Basics: 8 Essentials When Optimizing Your Site
• 6 SEO Mistakes That Are Killing Your Google Rankings
• Google Cracks Down on Spam with Panda 4.0 Algorithm Update
• SEO Writing Myths That Can Get Expensive
• How to Eventually Become a Millionaire Using Your SEO Knowledge

5 SEM Spying Strategies You Can Use Today to Generate More Profit

Internet Marketing is getting more and more competitive and if you want to run profitable campaigns, you need to know what your competition is doing. We have all done market research on our competitor's website, keywords and ads, but how actionable is that data?

I'm going to show you what spying data can actually help you improve results.

If you're doing paid search, you typically want to know which keywords your competition is using, what ads and landing pages they serve up, and how much they are spending.

If you're doing SEO, you want to know who is ranking for your important keywords, how many links do they have, and from where. Some popular spying tools for SEO include www.moz.com,www.majesticseo.com, www.similarweb.com, and www.raventools.com.

Remember, begin with the end in mind.

You can't be successful at marketing if you don't know who you are marketing to. Ask yourself, Who is my ideal, best or most profitable customer? What keywords would they be searching to find my products or services?

Once you've clearly defined your target market, important keywords and specific PPC and/or SEO competitors, the spying can begin!

1. Keyword and Competitive Research Tools

Most marketers have used a keyword spy tool before, usually entering in a keyword or domain to see what the tool reports back. I highly recommend doing this for anyone involved in marketing and especially the organization's executives. 

Here is a good post that lists and reviews competitive analysis and keyword research tools.

We break the spying down into three components:

1. Visibility for keywords searched and content sites that your target market is using.
2. Ad Creative and effectiveness.
3. Continuity between the keyword searched and the ad, also the ad to the landing page.

There is obviously different data to collect within the three strategies, but it's really important to define each metric and how it can be used to improve your results.  

Use this example of metrics to benchmark your efforts against the competition and measure visibility, creative, and continuity.

This post will cover some specific examples from a tool called www.ispionage.com and a few specific examples of how to monetize this data. The same principles and strategies apply no matter which tool you're using, so go ahead and apply them with any keyword and competitive analysis tools.

Keyword Research

Entering a keyword, for example "iPhone cases", reveals that this keyword has more than 4 million monthly searches and the average CPC is $.88.

Also, you can quickly begin to see who you're up against. You can analyze how many PPC advertisers, which keywords they are using, which ads have been shown, how many SEO competitors, and any social mentions for this keyword.

By trying different combinations of keywords that are important to my business you can find opportunities and threats. By shifting money into these opportunities, avoiding extremely competitive terms and finding more profitable keywords, you bring the overall campaign ROI up.

In the example below, the keyword phrase "Search Marketing Agency" has 8,100 searches per month and a CPC of $16.76. It shows the 1,420 ads that have been used for this keyword, the 262 PPC competitors and 357 SEO competitors.

If we change the keyword phrase slightly to "Search Marketing Consultant", there are still 5,400 searches per month (2,700 less) but a CPC of $13.99 (17 percent less). Most importantly, there are only 40 PPC competitor (85 percent less) and 94 SEO competitors (66 percent less) for this phrase. By doing this simple exercise, we can find less competitive keyword that we can focus on to drive more profit.

If we look at the more competitive keyword, "Search Marketing Agency" I can evaluate the top competitors, how many keywords they are using and the Keyword Effectiveness Index (KEI) to determine which keywords are working for them. The KEI works by analyzing when they starting using that keyword and how recently they have used that keyword.

(via)

Related articles

• SEO Basics: 8 Essentials When Optimizing Your Site
• The Buzz on Search and Social Signals: Building Informed Cross-Channel Strategies
• Dig the Gold Mine: Hidden Features of Google Analytics Revealed
• SEO Really is Dead, Long Live...Uh...What Should We Call This?
• AdWords Top Movers Report: What It Is & What It Should Be

The Buzz on Search and Social Signals: Building Informed Cross-Channel Strategies

The consumer path to purchase has become much more complex, with various starts, stops, influences, and opinions along the way. Touchpoints in the buying process can span various channels, making it harder (yet more critical than ever) for marketers to make meaningful connections.

To see the full picture, marketers must leverage channels such as search, where there is stated intent, and social, where there is stated interest. Activating and integrating these channels is step one. Cultivating a sophisticated cross-channel strategy requires the same type of TLC gardeners use to tend their budding blossoms.

Like flowers, digital channels can thrive with a bit of attention, pruning and cross-pollination. Marketers need to be the bees of online advertising – swarming to the data of our campaigns, looking for signals that drive consumer activity, taking the standout signals from one channel and understanding how to apply those to another.

As a marketer who sits at the intersection of search and social, I have the benefit of seeing many of the world’s top brands realize the positive results of a well-informed cross channel strategy. Although search and social elicit different behaviors, they have a strong impact on one another. The exact nature of the impact depends on the marketer, the customer, the product, the vertical, the situation and many other variables, but marketers should be aware of some of the most consistent signals from these powerful channels.

Search Signals

The Query. What the searcher actually types into the search engine is a very clear window into intent. If I search for Black Rain Boots, it’s obvious that at this time I wouldn’t be interested in a pair of sandals or tennis shoes.

Branded vs. Non-branded Terms. Let’s go back to my rain boots example. If I search on a brand name, like Hunter Rain Boots, as opposed to a generic term, I have indicated a particular brand preference. What if I search for a specific product from a particular brand? The narrower my search becomes, the more it reflects my intent.

The Device. How a person searches can be just as telling as the query. Suppose I perform myBlack Rain Boots query on my mobile phone as opposed to my laptop or desktop. This change in device often indicates more localized purpose. I may be out shopping and interested in trying on a pair right now, or a rain storm could trigger my immediate need.

Behavioral Data. Information collected through cookies can help marketers piece together a consumer's path to purchase and provide insights into a searcher’s actions. For a marketer, understanding that I searched for Black Rain Boots, clicked on a Product Listing Ad (PLA) for a particular brand, then two days later searched on that same brand name, is vital to optimization and valuation of actions. A customer's unique path to conversion can reveal telling insights, such as what messages he or she responds to on which devices and so much more.

Social Signals

Interests. In social advertising, the most readily available signals are based on a consumer’s social activities and declared interests. On Facebook, for example, a user’s personal profile information (such as age, gender, marital status), engagement with brand pages and stated Interests can be used to target specific audiences.

Likes, Re-tweets, and Comments (Oh my!). Earned media activity can be an excellent indicator of high performing messages for brands to amplify in market. It’s likely that organic posts with high engagement will produce similar results when amplified to the right audience.

Hashtags. Not only do these handy marks help us to see the hot topics of the day and what’s #trending; more importantly, they enable marketers to track specific topics and conversations that can be used to inform the activities of community managers and overall social content strategy.

Connections. It’s all about who you know. Your online connections are at the core of your social graph. Tapping into a fan, follower, or influencer network can exponentially grow a brand’s reach and exposure.

Let the Cross-Pollination Begin

Now, consider some examples of how signals from one channel can apply to the other:

Location Targeting. Since device type and local search can be compelling signals, find ways to harness this data in social. Set up local searches to trigger social promotions that offer discount coupons for in-store purchases. Tie together channel activity to create a closed-loop experience.

Retargeting. Here’s where that cookie data comes into play. Leverage user-level data to remarket to consumers across channels. For social, the Facebook Exchange (FBX) represents a great retargeting opportunity and can be improved by layering in intelligence from your SEM and PLA campaigns. Advanced technology platforms can drive dynamic ad creation based on demand and intent signals from search, to automatically create ads on Facebook for products that are performing best on Google.

Keyword Expansion. Identify the audiences performing well on social channels. Is there a pattern in Likes or interests that sparks inspiration to test some new paid search keywords? The same thing goes for hashtags; if an audience engages heavily on a specific topic, consider how that topic can be leveraged in ad copy or through new keywords.

Multi-touch Attribution. Purchase decisions typically aren't made in a single instant, but over the course of various stages and interactions with a brand or product. As marketers, our goal is to make an impact at each touchpoint in that process, so it’s crucial to understand location and role of each ad or keyword and how they relate to one another. For instance, you may find that some of your Facebook ads are not leading to an immediate conversion, but are playing a key role as an introducer or influencer. Be sure to give proper credit to each channel and each ad, updating budgets and bids accordingly.

Start by Tearing Down Silos

The biggest step towards finding signal synergy and optimization opportunities is to open up the channels of communications. It’s easy to get caught in a channel silo, as obstacles like separate team structures and varying platforms reduce cross-channel visibility.

Even if the search and social team sit apart, find a way to bring the data together and begin to grow your garden.

(via)

Related articles

• Social Media Brand Building
• Content Marketing, Social Media & SEO: The 3 Things You Need To Boost Your Website
• 6 Reasons Social Media Is Critical To Your SEO
• Technology, Integration & Disparate Data Top Marketing Challenges [Study]