TAG Internet Consulting

Websites With More Content Generate More Customers [New Infographic]

tag — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 13:00:00 +0000

We recently reviewed some of our data from Website Grader pertaining to the size of websites that are run through the application, how often those sites add new content, and then acquire new customers from that content. Our research primarily shows that websites that create lots of content, build active social media profiles, and blog regularly are much more successful online than their peers.

This isn’t a surprise. We’ve long known that business blogging, social media, and great content creation are the keys to successful inbound marketing. To learn more about how often you should be blogging and how your website traffic increases as your social media presence grows, check out the new infographic, “Act Big to Get Big” we created below. Feel free to also grab the embed code below the infographic if you’d like to publish it on your own website or blog.

What do you think? How has content creation helped to improve your marketing results?

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Google+ Launches New Features, Adds Support for Google Apps

tag — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 19:00:00 +0000

News related to Google+ has been slow in recent months. Hopefully, Google is working on business profiles for its social networking platform. However, today we got some exciting news. Not as exciting as business profiles, but close. According to Google, to date, 1 billion posts have been shared on Google+.

Google+ has also launched three new features. The first is a new tool called Ripples that visualizes how messages are being shared on Google+. The second, What’s Hot, helps users discover interesting and popular posts. Finally, Google+ has added Creative Kit, which introduces basic photo-editing functionality into Google+. Additionally, Google today announced that customers of Google Apps can now use their Google Apps username and password to sign up for Google+.

Sharing Analytics Gets Visual

With Ripples, Google has added a visual layer of explanation around social sharing analytics. Ripples enables inbound marketers to see how their content is shared and which influencers help drive the most sharing activity. Trying to explain it doesn’t do it justice. You need to watch the video below to really understand Ripples in action.

Google+ Gets More Like Instagram

With Creative Kit, Google for the first time provides the opportunity for users to edit images in Google+. This makes Google+ much more similar to popular photo sharing service, Instagram. To view Creative Kit in action, check out this video from Google:

Google Apps Users Rejoice

Many companies and individuals use Google’s Apps product for a hosted version of popular Google apps like Gmail and Google Documents. As of today, Apps users can now sign up for Google+ using their Apps account. According to TechCrunch, Apps users will be able to share posts directly to other users within their organizations. Google is also building a migration tool, allowing existing Google+ users to port their personal accounts over to their Apps accounts. It isn’t done just yet, but Google says it will be in a few weeks.

Marketing Takeaway

These new features are cool, but they aren’t exactly original. Marketers still need business profiles more than any of the new features Google announced today. However, take advantage of what Google provides. Ripples are clearly the most interesting feature for marketers. Understanding how your content is shared and who the top influencers are that cause the spread of your content is valuable. Look at Ripples for some of your content and gather data to improve your content creation and promotion efforts.

How do you feel about these updates to Google+?

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How to Spot a Clueless Marketer

tag — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 17:00:00 +0000

The next time you’re chatting with another marketer — or yourself — ask this question: How do you measure your marketing success?

If you hear an answer along the following lines, watch out:

“We’re just trying to produce a lot of content.”

“Well, we really just try to get people to come to our site and boost our brand.”

“Right now we’re trying to build out our social media presence.”
“We’re trying to increase awareness of our company.”

These are the signs of a clueless marketer.

Why? The problem isn’t the topics themselves — social media is a great thing, so is awareness, so is traffic.

The problem with these answers is that they’re not specific measures — and they’re certainly not specific measures of success. How do you measure “creating a lot of content”? If content volume is really what your business wants to optimize for, pick a specific metric — maybe number of blog posts or number of ebooks. Just make sure you have a clear quantitative definition of success.

So what are some good answers?

“It’s all about traffic for us right now.”
“We’re focused on two things: Traffic and Leads.”
“We’re really focused on building our reach — which we define as …”

At HubSpot, some marketers focus on leads, some marketers focus on traffic, some focus on lead-to-customer conversion, and some focus on other metrics. Your business may have other goals, and that’s great. Just make sure they’re clear and measurable.

Photo: Wikipedia

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Inbound Marketing Lessons From Dr. Pepper [Marketing Update]

tag — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0000

On this week’s Marketing Update, Karen Rubin and Mike Volpe discuss BREW Bus, Google’s hypocrisy, Dr. Pepper using controversy to get attention, and 50 Cent trading meals for likes.

BREW Boston Kickoff!

Boston Region Entrepreneurship Weeks is a non-profit that has been around for two years and has focused on celebrating and recognizing the entrepreneurial spirit in Massachusetts. BREW’s goal is to connect and network entrepreneurs in the region. By creating this network, entrepreneurs are able to collaborate, share resources, and educate one another.

The BREW bus hosts office hours with VCs from New England Venture Capital Association. People attending should bring their business pitches and compete for a golden ticket awarded at a special event on Nov 1st.

Most of the stops will be hosting office hours from 4 – 6 on a first come, first serve basis.

Schedule

Monday, October 24 MassChallenge Awards Ceremony – Office Hours with Victoria Song, Flybridge Capital Partners and Sean Marsh, Point Judith Capital
Tuesday, October 25 Microsoft NERD Center – Office Hours with Andrew Parker, Spark
Wednesday, October 26 The Boston Globe – Tour of Globe Media Lab, Boston World Partnerships Office Hours, Office Hours with Steve Kraus and Kent Bennett of Bessemer Venture Partners
Thursday, October 27 CIC / Venture Cafe – Office Hours with Sean Dalton and Arun Agarwal of Highland Capital Partners
Friday, October 27 Cummings Properties – BREW Wrap Up Party and farewell to the Bus! Prizes, gifts and the office giveaway results!

Dr. Pepper Uses Controversy for Attention

Many women are upset with Dr. Pepper’s new social media marketing campaign due to it being specifically targeted to a male audience. The “Ten for Men” are Dr. Pepper’s “Ten Man’ments” which includes,

“THOU SHALT NOT POST FURRY ANIMAL VIDEOS. Exceptions made for beasts fighting to the death and bears destroying idyllic picnic scenes” and “THOU SHALT NOT OMG. If it’s not exploding, it’s not exciting.”

Dr. Pepper’s machismo social media endeavor isn’t the only case where controversial ad campaigns have backfired. EasyJet’s fans were not amused when the company decided to poke fun at their rival British Airways. EasyJet jeopardized their brand’s image after fans expressed that EasyJet’s social media campaign was rude and childish.

Domino’s Pizza took a major risk when they displayed Twitter messages on a ticker in Times Square. There were a few negative comments but overall the feedback was positive. In the end, 12% of those surveyed gave Domino’s Pizza credit for their brave move which gave customers a positive feeling about the brand.

Marketing Takeaway:

Controversial marketing attracts attention, but can also harm your brand. Use with caution.

50 Cent Trades Meals for Likes

Rapper 50 Cent’s takes a humanitarian approach with his Facebook campaign promoting his new energy drink “Street King”. The campaign begins on World Food Day (Oct 16^th) and 50 Cent has stated that he will donate a meal to a hungry child every time someone “likes” the Street King Facebook page.

50 cent is transforming his “brand” and image as an entertainer and becoming a corporate figure by creating this campaign. Everyone will have to wait and see if 50 Cent’s creativity pays off and if he reaches his goal of 1 million “likes”.

Marketing Takeaway:

Be original. Likes are important; find creative ways to attract more likes.

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How to Become a Top Story on the New Facebook

tag — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 21:00:00 +0000

The new Facebook rewards the level of engagement between you and your fans. The more engagement, the better the chances your posts will be more prominently featured as a Top Story – kind of like the front page on a newspaper or top listing in Google.

Many companies spend a lot of effort increasing the number of fans or “likes” on their Facebook pages, and they measure their social media effectiveness based on these numbers. It’s good to get more people liking your pages, but the truth is the new Facebook doesn’t really care how many fans you have. What matters are three things: the popularity of your post (affinity), its relevancy (weight) and its timeliness (time decay). These three factors are the “edges” that Facebook’s algorithm “ranks” to determine what content is likely to be most interesting to your audience.

Let’s take a closer look at these factors that make up your EdgeRank:

Affinity is the score between the viewer and the ‘edge’ creator. How closely you are tied to the person creating the content determines this score.
Weight is the value given to the comments and actions any given post receives from your Facebook community. As they “like” it, comment on it, tag it, it gains in relevance to the community at large.
Time Decay is just that, the decaying value of the content as time passes. Today’s news is news. Yesterday’s news is history.

Gaining a high EdgeRank is contingent on creating the type of content that gets people to click on it in one way or another and to do so consistently. Here are some tips on how to create engaging content.

Tips For Increasing Facebook Content Engagement

Start a discussion - Just posting what you are up to doesn’t encourage any interaction. Sure, it lets your fans know what you are doing, but there is no reason for them to interact. Write posts that end with ‘what do you think?’ or ‘do you agree?’ questions. Then make sure to monitor that discussion and, when appropriate, feed the discussion with comments of your own.

Videos - The beauty of putting a video as a post is that it begs for people to click on it. But be sure to keep it short. People are willing to watch a short video to its end, but unless it’s riveting, they will stop watching after a couple minutes.

Photographs - An interesting photo always gets a reaction. You may also try adding a caption that positions the photo in a way that adds to the viewing experience.

Call-to-Action – Sometimes you want your post to make people take action such as ‘Read this ebook’ or ‘Check out this article.’ Creating a post with links to things that are of interest to your fans is a good thing to do. If they are interested they will click on the link and that causes interaction, and interaction is good on the new Facebook.

Don’t oversell or undersell - No one likes a never-ending sales pitch. By the same token, make sure you do highlight your wares from time-to-time. Use the 80-20 rule for content/connection posts (80%) vs. sales messages (20%). And when you do have a sales message, make sure there is a clear call-to-action.

There is a lot more you can do to make the most out of marketing on Facebook. We’ve just published a new eBook “How to Master Facebook Marketing in 10 Days,” and in this you’ll get practical tips on how you can substantially improve the metrics that matter in terms of your inbound marketing campaigns centered around Facebook.

How is your EdgeRank? Are your posts Top Stories? Let us know how you did it.

Image credit: DeweyDefeatsTruman.com

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5 Ways To Double Your Social Media Results

tag — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 19:00:00 +0000

This is a guest blog post written by Dave Larson, one-half of the voice behind @TweetSmarter, and an internet entrepreneur and investor.

Who wouldn’t want to wake up one morning and see twice as many sales, visits or retweets? (Especially if you did nothing much different the day before.)

A growing crop of tools and best practices for automatically optimizing and increasing promotion of tweets, Facebook shares and blog posts is promising exactly that.

These new tools are so effective, existing apps have begun taking notice and integrating them into their features. Here’s a quick run-down before we get into the details:

BufferApp: Single-click, editable auto-sharing (Twitter, and soon available for Facebook updates) at whatever upcoming time slot is likely to get you the most clicks, retweets and likes.
BlogGlue: Have your latest blog post automatically shared on similar blogs as a “recommended” post.
Timer apps: Find the times your followers are most active in clicking links and retweeting posts.
Triberr: Create or join “tribes” of other users that share one another’s posts.
Ten Best Practices: If you find just one tip you haven’t been doing consistently, this section alone should increase your results.

Let’s start with one you can’t do without—the Buffer button.

1. Automatically Share At The Best Times For Results

If whatever app you’re using now doesn’t already have a buffer button (yet), simply add it to wherever you share from the most: Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Mobile and/or Twitter.com (and soon Facebook).

Whenever you have something to share or retweet, one click creates a “special delivery” tweet or update that is automatically scheduled to be sent at the time most likely to get the best results.

You can let it auto-optimize your sharing time, or you can customize it to your own data or in conjunction with timer apps such as When to Tweet (reviewed with several others below).

A recent Twitter study showed new users of BufferApp doubled their retweets and clicks, without needing to send twice as many tweets.

A not-so-obvious benefit is that “buffering” your social media shares can help space out your sharing, making it easy to increase the amount of times you tweet or update without annoying people. More shares = better results.

Buffer currently offers free built-in analytics and has a “the more you share, the smarter it gets” feature coming later.

Currently only available for Twitter, but Facebook integration is being tested and should be available for everyone very soon.

2. Get Shared on Other Blogs

If you are starting up a new blog, having your latest blog post automatically shared on similar blogs as a “recommended” post is an excellent service for building traffic and readership. If you are already a high-traffic blog, the benefit is less clear, but it’s worth testing.

BlogGlue reviews new blog posts and creates related links to them on partner sites. So what you blog about is shown on other sites in a “related links” section on their blog posts. This also means that a “related links” section will be added to all your blog posts, linking to other blogs. BlogGlue chooses partner sites that are relevant based on the user’s blog topics.

3. Timer Apps

These tools show when your Twitter followers are active online. You can then tweet at the best times to reach them. These work particularly well to help you customize Buffer settings. Most have both paid and free options.

The current crop of apps to check out includes Tweriod, TweetWhen, Timely, When to Tweet, and 14 Blocks.

Queued.at is a little different from the rest. It attempts to automatically schedule your tweets for the most likely best times. However, it does a too-brief analysis to come up with those times, and doesn’t (yet) offer any customization or insight into what makes certain times better than others.

4. Get More People Retweeting You

Triberr has become very popular—and very controversial—very quickly. It allows you to create or join groups (“tribes”) that retweet one another’s content.

The controversy comes from using the automated settings. The general consensus is to NOT do this. This will cause you to retweet everything everyone shares, and this is often too much, and opens you to abuse if someone in your tribe begins oversharing. Use it instead to read a feed of things from your tribe, and select what to retweet.

Of course, if everyone does this, there is less reciprocation, and those with low-quality content may find themselves retweeted less. But filtering out low-quality content is actually a good thing.

The bigger fear some have is that if they don’t retweet folks more, they won’t in turn have their own conent retweeted as much. While this is somewhat true, how it actually works in practice is that by only retweeting relevant, quality things, you will typically end up focusing on a subset of your tribe (the people that share the most relevant, quality things).

If this is true, simply start a new tribe, and invite them to it. The whole idea of a tribe is to find the best folks for it. If you don’t have the best folks, you’re using it wrong. Move out of low-quality tribes, and into high-quality ones, creating them if you have to.

5. Ten Best Practices For Social Media Results

I’ll talk first about some things I’ve seen people fail to do, before covering things you really should know already. Consider this your checklist!

Target people you would like to share your content. Share, retweet or like something of theirs just before you share your content. When they see you sharing their content, they may then check our your recent content to find something of yours to share or retweet.
Get things to share that are hot right now by check sites tracking share popularity such as LinkedIn Today, BuzzFeed or PopURLs.
Award a prize to the first x people who answer a question about your company correctly. This gets people writing about you while they learn more about your company.
Profile groups of key users from time to time on your blog. Also interview influential users when you can.
Join relevant Facebook groups and participate in relevant Twitter chats.
Poll your audience on pop culture facts, industry news, their daily life or habits.
Tweet about Twitter on Twitter, update about Facebook on Facebook. Tweets about Twitter in particular get a lot of engagement (clicks, comments and retweets).
Keep Tweets short (under 110 characters) to allow room for people who add comments to their retweets.
Add a call-to-action to follow/fan your social media accounts to everything you do. Email signature, business card, etc. Be sure you have Twitter/Facebook share buttons on your site.
Test Facebook advertising. Facebook adds more powerful features to it all the time

Marketing Takeaway:

Consider this just the first wave of “Social Media 3.0″ optimization. This category of apps and services is poised to explode.

Keep your eyes peeled for more services like these and test them as they come out to keep working smarter, not harder.

Tried any of these services and have feedback? Have any tips or service you would add to the list? Leave your comments below.

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6 Facebook Marketing Best Practices

tag — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 17:00:00 +0000

The following is an excerpt from our newest ebook: How to Master Facebook Marketing in 10 Days.

While there aren’t any hard and fast rules in social media, there are some general “best practices” that are you can start with as a base. Ultimately you will have to carve your own way with what works with your audience and what they need from you.

You will notice that successful brands on Facebook don’t preach or sell to their fan base, they engage with them. Just like in the real world. Customers know when a salesperson is being disingenuous and it turns them off. They also know when a salesperson is genuinely interested in understanding their needs and finding out how best to meet those needs. Facebook is no different.

So what are some of these “unwritten rules” that you can guide your Facebook Page posts?

Here are some good general rules that you may find you need to adjust for your audience:

1. Post every day. That may seem excessive to you but as people make more friends and Like more pages, your posts may be missed. If you are only posting once or twice a week then it could be a long time between posts if your community misses one or two of them. There are studies that show posting between 3-5 times a day can be good amount for Pages (make sure you are varying your posts and also watch your statistics to see what works best for your community). You can decide that you might take the weekend off but also realize that the weekend is when many people are on Facebook.

2. Focus on engagement. You are trying to connect and get response from your community. Ask questions, post helpful tips, links to articles that your audience will Like and Share. When you make the posts about your audience and what they need rather than selling, you will develop a richer and deeper relationship with your community. You will sell more as a byproduct of that deeper relationship. Set aside time to follow up on posts and respond to questions on your Wall.

3. Have a call-to-action. Tell people to click the Like or comment on the post. Or have them watch your video or go to your website. Link directly to landing pages for ebooks and webinars to generate leads from Facebook.

4. Don’t oversell or undersell. No one likes a never-ending sales pitch. By the same token, make sure you do highlight your wares from time-to-time! Use the 80-20 rule for sales messages vs. content/connection posts. So if you decide to post five times a week, one of the posts should be a sales message and four posts will be other helpful or fun content for your community.

5. Ask for the Like. Facebook is about building a community with your leads and customers. As a marketer it is your responsibility to build you Facebook presence. One important part of growing your Facebook Page is being direct and asking visitors to like your page. This could be done by by using targeted calls-to-action on your website or by using a like-gate on your Facebook Page.

6. Make it fun. Facebook is a social community. People are there to have fun. This is a place where you can let your corporate hair down a little. Stay true to your brand but think of ways to entertain your audience.

What would you add to this list?

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9 Video Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

tag — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 15:00:00 +0000

In case you haven’t noticed, YouTube recently made some design changes, one of which included an updated video end-screen. Before, when you finished watching a video, YouTube would feature one video with a giant thumbnail, and then a couple others with smaller thumbnails. Now, you are given a choice of 12 videos, each evenly sized, to “make it even easier for you to find the next great video to watch,” according to YouTube.

This update reminds us that the world is constantly surfing YouTube, which is likely why the company is constantly trying to improve user-browsing ability. And to be a successful inbound marketer, you must recognize the need to live where the consumers live—but do so properly.

Here are nine mistakes you may be making with your video marketing.

1. Not Making Videos

America’s Funniest Home Videos was the first time many of us realized, hey, it’s hilarious to watch people do stupid things! That same idea has been translated into the online sphere. While you don’t have to make all your videos funny, we’ve learned that people enjoy watching videos online. So create interesting videos that are relevant to your target consumers, brand message, and industry.

2. Not Saving Your Password

I know this sounds silly… but I can recall at least three occasions where I’ve heard of a company or organization who created a YouTube account predicting that videos would eventually be uploaded… but then never saved the password or username email address. There goes your YouTube name. Now when people search for you on YouTube, they’ll be led to an empty page.

3. Uploading Only One Video

If you decide to jump on the video train (which hopefully you have by now), don’t simply upload one video. The new YouTube feature allows users to see up to 12 other videos from your account, so take advantage of this free promotion. Consistently create video content, as you would blog content.

4. Posting Videos on the Wrong Account

Often, marketers find it easier to simply upload a video to their own account. Or worse—you upload one of your own videos to your work account. You think it’s easier and you can log in with one email, but really it’s simply unprofessional. It provides that personal video the opportunity to pop up as a suggestion after a company video, and you want to promote the brand, not your latest shenanigans with your pal. This will also mess with your analytics when it comes time to measuring how well your account is doing.

5. Thinking You Need Fancy Stuff

You don’t need a studio, or expensive cameras, or any of that stuff. A simple flip cam, or even iPhone, can shoot the kind of basic video you need to get your video marketing going. From there, you can slowly build your quality by purchasing some basic equipment further along the line. The only thing you need to worry about is volume—investing in a small and low-priced microphone that can plug into your camera would be highly beneficial.

6. Make Videos Too Long

People have low attention spans. The likelihood of someone watching a video that is longer than 5 minutes is rare-to-never. If, however, you are providing a how-to tutorial, people will likely be willing to watch close to 10 minutes worth for the sake of learning. But other than that, keep it short, a minute maybe two at the most.

7. Forgetting Your Target Audience

Just because your company thinks something is hilarious or solid information, does not mean the world will. Really think about who your target audience is and produce content they will enjoy. Nothing wrong with your company enjoying it too—just make sure its relevant to your prospects and leads.

8. Obsessing Over Results

I mean, have you seen the movie that Beyonce stars in? Obsession is not okay, and the same applies here. Everyone wants to see how well their newly posted video is doing five seconds after it is posted. You want to see the views skyrocket and comments appear before your eyes! But views build over time, and sitting there refreshing the page constantly to see the watch the views increase is not healthy, or an adequate use of your time. (Seriously, you can make a whole new video in that time). Track how your video is doing, but don’t let it take over your life.

9. Fogeting a Call-To-Action

Every video you upload has the potential of containing a call-to-action—but do so with caution. Throwing a million links all over your video as it plays and being all up in peoples faces with exclamation points isn’t the right approach. Instead, throw your CTA in a a clear and contextual manner. At the end of the video, add in a link that recommends a webinar or eBook that would benefit the viewer. Hopefully they’ll navigate on over to your site, fill out a landing page, and now, now we’re in business.

What are other mistakes you’ve seen with video marketing? How do you suggest improving online video marketing efforts?

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9 Video Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

tag — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 15:00:00 +0000

Here are nine mistakes you may be making with your video marketing.

1. Not Making Videos

2. Not Saving Your Password

3. Uploading Only One Video

4. Posting Videos on the Wrong Account

5. Thinking You Need Fancy Stuff

6. Make Videos Too Long

7. Forgetting Your Target Audience

8. Obsessing Over Results

9. Fogeting a Call-To-Action

What are other mistakes you’ve seen with video marketing? How do you suggest improving online video marketing efforts?

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BlogWorld LA: Optimize & Socialize For Better Business Blogging

tag — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 14:41:40 +0000

After a successful Blog World Expo New York, I’m very much looking forward to BlogWorld Los Angeles in just under 2 weeks.

TAG Internet Consulting

Websites With More Content Generate More Customers [New Infographic]

Google+ Launches New Features, Adds Support for Google Apps

Sharing Analytics Gets Visual

Trending Posts Comes to Google+

Google+ Gets More Like Instagram

Google Apps Users Rejoice

Marketing Takeaway

How to Spot a Clueless Marketer

Inbound Marketing Lessons From Dr. Pepper [Marketing Update]

How to Become a Top Story on the New Facebook

Tips For Increasing Facebook Content Engagement

5 Ways To Double Your Social Media Results

1. Automatically Share At The Best Times For Results

2. Get Shared on Other Blogs

3. Timer Apps

4. Get More People Retweeting You

5. Ten Best Practices For Social Media Results

Marketing Takeaway:

6 Facebook Marketing Best Practices

9 Video Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

1. Not Making Videos

2. Not Saving Your Password

3. Uploading Only One Video

4. Posting Videos on the Wrong Account

5. Thinking You Need Fancy Stuff

6. Make Videos Too Long

7. Forgetting Your Target Audience

8. Obsessing Over Results

9. Fogeting a Call-To-Action

9 Video Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

1. Not Making Videos

2. Not Saving Your Password

3. Uploading Only One Video

4. Posting Videos on the Wrong Account

5. Thinking You Need Fancy Stuff

6. Make Videos Too Long

7. Forgetting Your Target Audience

8. Obsessing Over Results

9. Fogeting a Call-To-Action

BlogWorld LA: Optimize & Socialize For Better Business Blogging