Harvest Business and Internet Blog » Social Media

Will Your CMS Cause Paid Search Problems?

cgseo — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 16:08:13 +0000

For many marketers involved in SEO, the three letter acronym CMS can sometimes be more like a four letter word. Depending on the CMS and the implementation, there are some serious problems that can impact your SEO efforts. From duplicate content to unfriendly redirects to lack of content optimization, the list can get quite long. The irony is that CMS packages are supposed to make your life easier (and many do), but there are times they can negatively impact your SEO initiatives (and that’s an understatement). There are many types of content management systems on the market. Some are tailored for specific industries, others for running e-commerce shops, and then you have the major players which can run robust and high volume websites. Some packages are more flexible to work with, while others have limits. I’ve mentioned SEO a few times already, but you probably noticed that the title of my post focused on SEM and not just SEO . That’s because I’ve been running into more and more CMS-related SEM problems than I’d like to. Some of the problems can be avoided if they are addressed up front, while others are more difficult to tackle. My goal is to arm you with information that can help you avoid some of the headaches I’ve seen when running SEM campaigns while using a CMS to power a website. And as many of you know, hell hath no fury like an SEM that can’t track his campaigns properly. By the way, I am by no means saying that CMS packages in general are problematic for marketing departments. I simply want to explain specific situations where content management systems can be a thorn in your SEM side. But Isn’t SEM Straight Forward? There are times when I’ve been brought in to help companies and clients vet and choose the right CMS packages. Regardless of the size of the client, most of the focus has been on the potential SEO impact. I think many people see paid search as something relatively easy to implement. For example, choose your keywords, build campaigns, point them to your site, and you’re good to go. That’s not necessarily the case. Sure, the SEO implications of choosing the wrong package for your specific situation could be catastrophic, but when many SEM campaigns are heavily judged on ROI, you should be able to give yourself the best shot at success (and that means control). That’s where some CMS packages can be a pain in the neck. I’ve included four categories of problems that you could face when implementing your SEM campaigns while using a CMS. I’ve also included some recommendations and workarounds later in the post. Customizing Content and SEM Landing Pages Meeting visitor expectations in SEM is critically important for increasing conversion. Since you are spending $x per click to drive targeted prospects to your site, you definitely want to make the most of it. So as a smart search marketer, you decide to craft campaign landing pages tailored for each visitor segment. Smart move, but will your CMS cooperate? For example, you probably want to limit the amount of navigation on your SEM landing pages to ensure the focus is on the product or service at hand. I’ve run into circumstances where clients could not remove parts of the navigation (or the entire navigation if that’s what they wanted to do). Your CMS could potentially limit what you can provide, which can have a big impact on the user experience (and on your ROI). Depending on your CMS package and your implementation, some might be able to give you what you need, while others might require additional development. Other smaller CMS packages might not be able to bend at all. An Example of Customizing a Campaign Landing Page: You might also want to tailor content areas on the landing page. CMS packages use templates to render the layout of certain categories of pages. If you didn’t have specific templates created for your marketing landing pages, then you might be extremely limited with what you can tailor. For example, your product detail pages all might be driven from one template. Depending on how detailed you were while setting up your CMS, you might not be able to add new elements so easily. Or, you might have to cut down your requirements and only get some of those elements implemented. Tracking Conversion Web analytics packages have come a long way over the past several years. Most packages enable you to track both macro-conversions (sales, registrations, etc.) as well as micro-conversions (downloading a document, viewing a video, clicking an email address, etc.) However, some CMS packages are not ready to track conversions the way you need them to. The beautiful part of a content management system is that it can make it much easier to update and manage the content on your site. The downside is that it might limit the level of functionality you want to implement for tracking visitor behavior. The problems I have encountered typically deal with micro versus macro-conversions. For example, as long as your macro-conversions are triggered in a standard way (such as submitting a form), you probably won’t have problems tracking them in your CMS. However, tracking micro-conversions in your CMS could be problematic. I’ve provided a quick example below. Let’s say you choose to tag a download link as a pageview to track it as a conversion in Google Analytics. That’s a quick way to see how many visitors from your SEM campaign reached that goal. But, you found out that your CMS doesn’t allow tagging of links (due to several reasons). That might sound ridiculous, but I have run into this issue a few times. For example, you might not be allowed to add JavaScript to links in a CMS template. Another example would be if you decided to use event tracking to analyze your flash video files . Maybe you want to know how many campaign visitors are watching each video, if they reach certain points in the video, and if they click a call to action in the video player. That’s cool, but what if you find out that you can’t include the necessary code or files to implement this correctly? Your solution might be to custom develop a tracking mechanism for your CMS, but that costs money and can take time. Destination URL’s The CMS-related URL problems I have seen are more like little gremlins versus major issues. But these little gremlins can still cause big problems. In some CMS packages, URL’s are tied to fields for product name or SKU. So, if the product name or SKU changes, the URL also changes. I’m sure many SEO’s reading this post just had adrenaline shoot through their veins since they understand how big of a problem this can be SEO-wise . But, this can also be an equally big problem for SEM. If one of your destination URL’s changes but nobody tells you, then you’ll be driving traffic to a 404. That’s right, you’ll still be spending money, but with absolutely no chance of converting visitors. That’s until you (or Google) realizes what’s going on, which depending on the size of the account, could be hours or could be days. Think about it, you could have hundreds of ad groups running in a larger account. If even five of your destination URL’s change, you could potentially lose thousands of dollars per day (depending on the size your budget). I have also seen some weird tracking issues with URL’s in certain CMS packages. For example, destination URL’s that work flawlessly when you click through your ads sometimes don’t track properly in your analytics package. I haven’t seen this problem as much as others mentioned in this post, but it still could be an issue. The most serious impact is that you cannot effectively track campaign performance if your destination URL’s aren’t picked up by your analytics solution. The problems that I encountered were the result of how the CMS implemented URL rewriting. For example, the original URL might have querystring parameters, product id’s, etc. and the CMS is rewriting the URL to be descriptive. I would keep this in mind while testing your campaigns. Just because the link works and the page renders doesn’t mean it’s being tracked properly. Double check your reporting to ensure all of your campaigns and ad groups are being tracked. Landing Page Optimization I mentioned earlier that SEM landing pages were critically important. Once you map out your campaign landing pages, you might choose to utilize A/B split testing or multivariate testing to increase conversion. Unfortunately, you might run into some problems while implementing testing with your CMS. In order to implement testing, you will need to add code to your landing pages and conversion pages in your test. You also might need to tag “sections” of your page if you want to test multiple versions of each element and their impact on conversion. To understand what’s working and what’s not, you also might need to tag micro-conversions as your success metrics (as mentioned earlier in my post). Unfortunately, if you don’t have the ability to add the necessary code or tag certain actions as conversion, you might have a hard time effectively optimizing your landing pages. It’s important to speak with your CMS vendor to ensure this can be accomplished BEFORE you launch your campaigns. Will Your CMS Enable You To Add Code For Testing? Recommendations and Workarounds I have provided some recommendations below that can help you while choosing the right CMS package for your site, as well how to manage certain situations if you already have a CMS in place. Vet CMS Vendors and Packages The first and most obvious recommendation is to thoroughly vet potential CMS vendors and packages. Ask vendors about both SEO and SEM, and how their packages hold up under the conditions mentioned in this post. Ask to see examples of the CMS in action with regard to SEM landing pages, multivariate testing, analytics and tracking, etc. Bring up some of the latest SEO and SEM advancements to see if the package supports them (or if it has plans to support them in future releases). Also ask to speak with a few clients that are using their CMS with paid search. If Needed, Take It Outside the CMS If you are already using a CMS and cannot implement landing pages or effectively track your SEM efforts, then you might want to build static pages that can reside outside of your CMS. Then you can have more flexibility in developing custom landing pages, tracking what you need, adding code where you need to, etc. Yes, this defeats the purpose of a CMS, but you will only be doing this for your SEM campaigns. I’ve had several clients go down this path with success. Hacks Are Sometimes Needed… If you are already tied to a CMS and cannot do what you need SEM-wise (and you cannot build pages outside the CMS), then you might have to use some hacks to get what you want. For those of you not familiar, a hack is simply a way to get a system to do something that it wasn’t meant to do out of the box. For example, you might be able to use on-site search to get the right products and content on your landing page. You might be able to hide the navigation via a CSS hack or use product-based URL’s for tracking purposes. Hacks work, but they typically aren’t pretty. I would use them as a last resort. Testing Is Critically Important Create a system where campaigns can be easily and thoroughly tested. For example, ensure your analytics solution is tracking campaigns accurately. Make sure your destination URL’s are working properly. By analyzing key metrics in your reporting, you can pick up signs that problems are brewing. For example, if AdWords shows you that a specific ad group had 450 clicks yesterday, but your analytics package shows a fraction of that (or none at all), then you might have a CMS/SEM gremlin causing problems. Summary and Takeaways I hope this post introduced some potential CMS-related problems that could inhibit the success of your paid search campaigns. In a perfect world, you would address these concerns before choosing a package. That said, the reality is that many companies have already implemented a CMS package and need to make the most of it. Content management systems can be extremely powerful for your business, but just make sure the one you choose can track your marketing campaigns effectively. And a quick note to CMS vendors. You can give your CMS a serious competitive advantage if it’s SEM, SEO, and Analytics friendly. Please feel free to reach out to me with information about your CMS if you feel it already is. I’d love to take a look. Glenn Gabe is an online marketing consultant at G-Squared Interactive and focuses heavily on SEO, SEM, Social Media Marketing, Viral Marketing and Web Analytics. You can read more of Glenn’s posts on his blog, The Internet Marketing Driver and you can follow him on Twitter to keep up with his latest projects, news, and updates. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . Will Your CMS Cause Paid Search

Track Your Brand Name Across Social Web with SEJ Tools

admin — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:44:56 +0000

Haven’t I told you SEJ Toolset is a one-stop destination when it comes to all types of your web campaigns? This week I’ll show how to monitor your online reputations from the same handy dashboard. Social Media Monitor is a service which lets you track what people are saying about you, your client, or your brand. It aggregates user generated content from across the Internet into a single stream of information. Step 1: Add a search to track social media

SEO is a Brick not a House

admin — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 14:50:26 +0000

This post is in reference to SEO services as a business model, however many of the ideas can be juxtaposed to businesses and their utilization of the method for marketing So much gets said about SEO and its relevance or even legitamacy. Most of this is purely linkbait, and the SEO crowd is all to quick to fall into the trap. The arguements fall into three basic camps. 1.The SEO are scumbags camp, of which Derek Powazek became a member and then quickly left. 2.The SEO is bullshit camp, of which Jason Calacanis is probably the most visible member, but you can find tons of the linkbait here . 3. The SEO is a “dying business” concept, of which Jeremy “Shoemoney” Schoemaker is one of the main figure heads, and now Robert Scoble has joined the mix. None of these are 100% right, or for that matter wrong. 1. Some SEOs, like some circus clowns and some grocery baggers are indeed scum bags. But then there are people like, Neil Patel who have gotten rave reviews from savvy web people due to his aid of their web properties. From Quicksprout.com : “Neil has advised TechCrunch for more than two years and been an important part of the growth of the TechCrunch Network by helping us implement SEO best practices. Search engines have grown to be responsible for 1/3 of all TechCrunch traffic, so Neil’s ongoing support is critical to our business.” – Michael Arrington, founder of TechCrunch 2. Some SEOs offer services that are nothing more than bullshit, every SEO has had to clean up a mess by these types of unscrupulous business people. But there are a ton of proffesionals out their helping people transition to the online space, and thus save their livelihood. 3. Some SEOs have thriving businesses based on there insane prowess, like my bud Dave Naylor , others are feeling the economic crunch. For me, long term, I look at my business ventures and I side with Shoemoney on several points. SEO as a stand alone service offering is a tough long term business plan to feel solid about. The engines are changing too fast to allow anyone doing the service to feel confident about their business over the next 10 years, and everyone should be looking at the current changes in terms of personalization and taking it as a cue to diversify what they do. SEO is a block in the creation of a solid online marketing strategy, it isn’t the entire house. Good SEOs know this. Every site clinic I have ever seen with SEO rockstars like Greg Boser, Todd Freisen, Dave Naylor, Mikkel deMib Svendsen, and countless others always circles back to them spending as much time exploring conversion, usability, and social media as they do the standard SEO practices. To definitively say SEO as a practice or service based business model has lost its legs is a bit premature to say the least. Traditional media is dying quickly, and more businesses are turning to the web to make a new revenue stream. Search is the most logical place to begin for these companies. Also, the top 5% of SEOs out there will be making money as long search engines exist. Again though, search, paid or organic, can only be a piece of the online marketing puzzle. As we look at 2010 we are seeing that brands have cemented their position on the web, building a solid brand, via a mixture of online marketing streams is the only route towards continual prosperity online. Mobile adveritisng, due to the growth of app based mobile OSs, will likely grow from 2009s relatively small $416 million in spend, and acquiring the tools to make this a part of your offering as a service provider will soon become a necessity. Social media has become profitably, and now is a must have for CMOs. And so we start to get this view of online marketing like a machine, one distinct entity, but with sum parts that have little use on their own. What good is 100,000,000 search based visitors if you are only getting .02% conversion, and negative ROI on the money to achieve the paid and organic rankings? How real is a 90% conversion rate if you are only bringing in 2 natural visitors a month? Smart professionals in the space, like my friend Todd Malicoat , are using their talents to offer companies online business consulting services, and utilizing the revenue generated from these services to fund their long term goals. This has been the premise behind Search & Social from Day 1. Why make everyone else money? Utilize the skills and team you have built to build revenue streams beyond services. This site is the most public proof of this concept for us. We are looking at an evolution online, and not a death. The direction the online world is moving favors diversified marketing campaigns, more directly branding based marketing, and savvy service providers will make note and transition. Others will die off. This is the cycle of business in any sector, and not a fact reserved to SEO alone. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . SEO is a Brick not a

Link Building Strategies: Time to ACT

admin — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 15:18:43 +0000

Everything in life that is worth anything takes a lot of effort and action. When I was in High School my Dad bought me an old 66’ Ford Mustang that was really beat up. For three years I worked on that old car and made it look like a million bucks. Because I worked hard and took action the car was amazing and it meant a lot to me, a lot more that if my Dad would have just bought me a new car. The point is you have to ACT to receive what it is you want. Link Building is no different. If you want links (which you should) then you have to take some specific actions to get links. If you think they are just going to come because you have a cool website, then I am afraid you will be very disappointed. Link Building in regards to Search Engine Optimization is not going away anytime soon, and for this very reason if you don’t have a strategy it will be very hard for you to rank for the keywords/phrases that you so desire. Below you will find some specific actions you must take to build up your link juice. These items are not the only steps you need to take (there are hundreds – even thousands) but they will tell you what actions you need to take today to start your Link Building campaign. A.C.T. stands for Ask, Content, and Timing. You must A.C.T. to build links effectively. A –

7 Overlooked Sources of Keyword Data

admin — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 14:22:50 +0000

Keyword Research is an obvious first step in researching a niche for yourself or for a client. Keywords, and their results, make up the terrain of search marketing – and knowing the terrain (and who else is playing in it) helps us navigate up the mountain (and determine when the mountain is maybe too crowded to climb). Google’s AdWords Keywords tool isn’t a bad place to start, but if you’re operating in a competitive niche there isn’t much of an advantage there – even my grandma uses it (not really, my grandma still has a rotary phone, but you get the idea). Your real advantage comes from looking in places where your competitors aren’t to identify “under the radar” keywords. Here are 10 sources of keyword data that are often overlooked in the course of everyday keyword research. 1) Misspelling

How to Quickly Check Tweets Related to Any Web Page

admin — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 14:43:36 +0000

The idea of giving the opportunity to leave off-site comments to any page has been hot for a long time: that’s how many social bookmarking / sharing sites work (like StumbleUpon where people “review” and tag pages within the system), that’s what Google Sidewiki concept is based on and that’s how Tweeting any page works… Why it has been popular is quite clear: people are saved from the trouble to log in or filling the comment form and are given the opportunity to use their favorite web environment and instantly share their comments with their online friends. The question is how we, bloggers and Internet marketers, can keep track of those comments and utilize that off-site conversations around our web pages. This post looks at one part of the question: possible ways to keep track of Twitter conversations related to any web page : Type Instant notifications Additional tracking tools Kutano Browser addon Yes No BackTweets Browser bookmarklet No RSS feed, email alerts AddATweet Browser addon Yes No Kutano Kutano works as a browser addons (supported browsers: FireFox, Internet Explorer and Google Chrome) that hides behind a handy sidebar and notifies you of recent Tweets around any page you are landing on. In short, it works as follows: Install the addon (and restart your browser). Kutano sidebar should appear; Navigate to any web page and notice a number that appears right on the sidebar (when it is closed). This number indicates how many Tweets have been found for the current page): Click on it and see the actual Tweets in the opened sidebar: Best features: Instantly see Twitter comments on any page you are currently viewing (the sidebar is open); See Tweets to the page or to the site; See “Discussions” – i.e. recent web updates that do not link to the page directly but use a related hashtag or keyword (useful for tools, brand names, etc): BackTweets BackTweets is a popular tool that tracks and aggregates tweets linking to a particular page. It supports a number of URL-shorteners which makes the tool one of the most complete. It can be added to your browser with help of a bookmarklet which allows to quickly find Tweets linking to the current page. Best features: Create an email alert for new Tweets linking to any page; Grab an RSS feed to follow Tweets commenting on any page. AddATweet AddATweet is more about commenting using your Twitter identity than aggregating all Twitter buzz around one specific page – that is you won’t see all the Tweets related to any specific page but you will be able to track comments left using the tool. Best features: Instantly see if the page has comments by the color of the addon button; Easily leave your own comments using the tool and your Twitter identity. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . How to Quickly Check Tweets Related to Any Web

Local PPC: Google AdWords GeoAttribution Is Inaccurate

cgseo — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 14:40:47 +0000

We discovered in 2009 that AdWords inaccurately attributes the geolocation of your AdWords visitors. I previously wrote a blog post about AdWords geotargeting’s inadequacies in Feb 2009 (” “> Hey AdWords, Do You Offer GeoTARGETING, Or Just GeoSUGGESTION? “). Though my desired fix (allow experts to turn off query parsing even even if defaults “on” for noobs) was echoed by many users, nothing has changed. After almost a year, Google can’t even tell me they intend to schedule an improvement in this area. AdWords users need to understand why they’re getting inaccurate geolocation information and make sure they adjust their advertising efforts accordingly, and be sure NOT to segment their ads in accordance with inaccurate info. A Second Major Problem Due to Query Parsing? I believe all of these problems relate to query parsing, which overrules the geotargeting you set in AdWords. “It’s Not a Bug, It’s a Feature” – by Mauralyn , Flickr Creative Commons Our AdWords rep called query parsing a feature. I said, “that’s like telling someone who wants a manual transmission that their automatic transmission is a feature.” Regardless, all we ask is that experts be able to turn it off. But the inaccurate attribution I cover below makes it a bit more complicated. This means that query parsing is somehow trumping IP-based geolocation in both reporting and ad serving. AdWords Geographic Report Disagrees with Both Omniture GeoSegmentation and Google Analytics [The experiments here are from one of my expert PPC/SEO/Social Media apprentices, Josh Williams , also of Fuel Interactive and WhatOurBossSaid .] Josh ran a test to see how AdWords’ geo targeting correlates with actual traffic from the targeted areas. He created a campaign targeted only to South Carolina, put an Omniture campaign parameter in the destination url, and ran it for a week. We compared the AdWords geographic report with Omniture’s GeoSegmentation report. AdWords said all but 5 impressions (and zero clicks) came from South Carolina (thus 100% of clicks were from South Carolina according to Google). That would be nice, since that’s what we asked for. However, Omniture SiteCatalyst said that the visitors actually came from 38 U.S. states, and only 12.2% of clicks came from South Carolina: The majority of visitors came from North Carolina, which as previously mentioned, fits with what we know about Myrtle Beach tourists from many other data sources. However, we didn’t ask Google to serve ads in NC, and Google says they didn’t. AdWords reports that what we asked for was achieved, even though it was not. In some circles, we would call that lying. But let’s not call an automated report a liar. Let’s give Google the benefit of the doubt and call it a technical error that they need to fix. (I would not be so cagily accusatory if I had not been through the unsatsifying AdWords customer service run-around on this issue for a year. I doubt my blog posts are more effective than running up and poking Goliath. This kind of neglect will lead Google to inherit the ire Microsoft has achieved- an ire they have expressed a desire to avoid. Neglect and/or stockholder interests could incentivize AdWords reps to be more PR diplomats than the customer champions we need.) If you don’t have Omniture, you can get the same confirmation from Google Analytics. We checked both to make sure our conclusions were correct. Our AdWords rep said this: “AdWords reports on IP addresses the same way Omniture is, so it shouldn’t show up differently in the geographic report. For example, that person from Colorado searching on the keyword with a location specific term, if he sees the ad and clicks on it, it should register as a click from Colorado in AdWords and not as a click from a South Carolina IP address.” But clearly the results show that’s not what’s happening. Omniture and GA agree with one another, and both disagree with the AdWords Geographic report. More Impossible Results Reported in AdWords Web Interface In a similar experiment, Josh created a series of 9 campaigns, each geotargeted to one state, and all using only the same two keywords: exact matches [myrtle beach hotel] and [myrtle beach hotels]. He ran these from Oct 5, 2009 to Nov 2, 2009. And when he didn’t see response, he attempted to get more impressions by raising bids and budgets. The results were striking: According to AdWords, more than 99% of the impressions came to the South Carolina campaign. Highly Unlikely, as we know from other data, and contradicted in the other study by Omniture and GA. Implications: Can You Trust Geo Data In AdWords? So why would you ever run a Geographic report in AdWords? I suggest you don’t, unless your business is not locally oriented and your brand names have no city names in them.What’s more, it means you can’t trust the impressions, clicks, and other data you see in the AdWords web interface if your campaigns are geotargeted. TAKEAWAY: Make sure you’re using another analytics package- use Google Analytics and link your AdWords account to it. Rely on that for your geographic data. GOOGLE: Fix the error, please. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . Local PPC: Google AdWords GeoAttribution Is

Social Media Tips : Why Should I Help You?

admin — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 18:32:44 +0000

When the clock struck midnight on January 1st, I began running. It was a 5k run in Philadelphia, along the Schuylkill River, to be more specific. During this run, I passed a homeless man. Rather than running past him, I stopped. I gave him $100. Later that day, I stopped to think in greater detail about that incident. What was it that compelled me to engage him? I think the answer to that question, in this case, should be fairly obvious. The night was cold and rainy. No person should be outside and homeless, regardless of how they got there. How does this story relate to my thoughts on many folks on Twitter? Before I continue, please understand I am in no way making light of the homeless. I’m simply offering background as to what inspired the following thought: Many individuals all around the social media world are simply asking for handouts. Think about that for a second. How many people do their best to be placed prominently in front of you, but really do very little to offer a value proposition? How many individuals clamor daily about social media strategies, and the need for engagement, yet fail to offer an answer to the simple question of why you should contribute to their success? I find more and more redundancy invading my personal space. Less substance, less value, less originality, more noise. While there is overwhelming concern about those that are not participating in social media ‘correctly’, there is a disproportionate lack of concern for those that are considered social media ‘geniuses’ and really offer minimal value. If you’re going to be successful long term using social media, you must be certain that your product can back up your mouth. With that in mind, follow along and below you’ll find a small list with tips to help you, or your product, offer a compelling value proposition. 10 Ways to Translate Social Media Success into Real World

Find New Year’s Resolutions Online

cgseo — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 16:02:33 +0000

We know your New Year’s celebration may not be or should not be over yet. Most of us are still probably recuperating from last night’s revelry. So, what come’s after New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day celebrations, bowl games and lots and lots of food? How about starting to plan the things that we want to do this year? The bad habits that we’ve been trying to break, or the things that we’ve always wanted to do. You know what I’m driving at – it’s time to make our New Year’s resolution. So, what’s it going to be this year? What are the New Year’s Resolutions that you are going to break this year? More link love, comments and retweets to SEJ posts perhaps? If you have not idea yet what would be on your list or if this is the first time that you’re going to make a New Year’s Resolution, you might want to check out this New Year’s Resolution Guide which also features professional advice from University of Maryland experts. Another good guide is this guide on How to Make a New Year’s Resolution and Keep It . It might help you fulfill your New Year’s resolution in 2010. If after reading those guides and you still couldn’t start writing your list, here are some good examples of specific New Year’s resolution which seems feasible, practical and doable. 12 Social Media New Year’s Resolutions for 2010 by our friends at Search Engine Land would be most useful for social media companies and gives advices such as spending more of traditional ad budget improvment of customer service, to training and educating of works, among others. Five New Year’s Resolution for SMBs – tips that can serve as sample resolutions that can guide SMB’s social media and online strategies Top 10 New Year’s Resolutions – gives practical New Year’s Resolution which are geared for personal improvement. Popular New Year’s Resolution – if you’re interested to find out what other people are putting on their New Year’s Resolution, here are the most popular ones. And while you’re at it, you might want to check out some New Year’s quotes from the QuoteGarden . So, there you go some resources that can help you find New Year’s Resolutions online. You might also want to check out the top 10 tools sticking to your New Year’s resolution. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . Find New Year’s Resolutions

5 Reasons to Learn Social Media

admin — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 14:38:40 +0000

Have you ever noticed how many bloggers and social media marketers just tell people that they should go out try social media? How you shouldn’t worry about learning social it? That you’ll learn it on the fly and everything will be fine. Well, I’m not one of those. It’s absolutely in your best interest to learn the basics of social media before risking your time and money. Jumping into social media without at least learning the basics could be a major disaster. It probably won’t ruin your company. It probably won’t ruin you. But it will be a waste of time. Why do I say that? Well an understanding of social media theory and fundamentals makes your strategy better. How, you ask? Well… 1. It Helps You Create a Starting and End Point Taking the time to learn social media fundamentals gives you a starting point. It helps you decide where you are and hopefully where you should go. If you don’t learn what the marketing technique is, how will you know what it’s capable of? How can you create goals and work towards them? Taking the time to explore social media and soak up as much information as possible gives you a better understanding of what social media can do and how to create a plan. 2. Knowledge Leads to Fewer Mistakes On social media, a misstep can spread just as fast as a good campaign and consumers can be less than forgiving. Learning how to interact and promote a business shouldn’t endanger the brand. Start with baby steps. Minimize the likelihood of something to go wrong. Learn as much as you can about web culture and online customer service. Online consumers expect something much different than offline customers. You should know how to deliver it. 3. Experience Comes With Time – Who Has the Time? Remember the common phrase, “don’t reinvent the wheel?” – Well don’t do it. Marketers have been testing and exploring social media theories and sharing them online. Why would you want to go through that powerful information and have to learn it on your own? You can test and explore and research your content, but we know that more often than not list posts go viral. There’s no need for you to take the time to test and explore that. Take advantage of other’s experiences to bolster your marketing. Don’t try to recreate or “re-find” what others have already shown works. Save your time for actual marketing. 4. Learning Keeps You From Getting Frustrated Think back to your childhood. If you’re anything like me, than math class was a horror. I’d sit there trying to do a problem and just not knowing how. After a few minutes of trying, I’d get frustrated and give up. It wasn’t until someone taught me what to do and explained to me why it is that way that I began to enjoy math. Social media is the same way. There are fundamentals and there are strategies that you should know and understand. Don’t allow frustration lead to you giving up. We know social media is a powerful marketing tool. Don’t let it go. 5. How Are You Investing In Something You Know Little About? It all comes down to money. How are you supposed to decide how much to invest in social media if you don’t know what it can do? Learn what you’ll need to invest, both time and money, before throwing resources at it. Have a plan and create a budget. This will help increase the likelihood of success. Information is key. To have a positive social media strategy you need to know as much as possible. That means both in regards to social media knowledge as well as strategies and fundamentals. How are others in your industry doing? Why did their campaigns work? How can you recreate their success without copying them verbatim? Is social media for you? If you don’t understand these fundamentals or have this information you’re marketing with a disadvantage. I’d love to know what you think. How are you learning social media? Where do you go for research and strategies? Are you learning from example or creating your own ideas? Check out Samir Balwani’s new social media guide at Training Social , a resource for anyone interested in learning social media marketing. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . 5 Reasons to Learn Social