Tag Archives: Metrics

BREAKING: Changes Coming to Facebook Pages’ News Feeds

19 Wednesday Nov 2014

Posted by in Facebook

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Posted by Sara on 19 Nov 2014 /


In case you missed it, Facebook announced another change to the News Feed, but this time it’s Pages that will be affected.

According to a statement posted in Facebook’s newsroom, “A lot of the content people see as too promotional is posts from Pages they like, rather than ads.”

The post went on to state that, “News Feed has controls for the number of ads a person sees and for the quality of those ads (based on engagement, hiding ads, etc.), but those same controls haven’t been as closely monitored for promotional Page posts. Now we’re bringing new volume and content controls for promotional posts, so people see more of what they want from Pages.”

So what qualifies as a post that is “too promotional?”

According to Facebook, it’s one of the following three things:

  1. Posts that solely push people to buy a product or install an app
  2. Posts that push people to enter promotions and sweepstakes with no real context
  3. Posts that reuse the exact same content from ads

Businesses can expect these changes to go into effect starting January 2015.

One way Facebook’s change could affect marketers is they will have limited ability to promote their marketing campaigns. In the past, Facebook was not only a great place to host a campaign but also a great place to promote a campaign.

In January, Pages will need to rethink how they host and promote campaigns.  You’ve probably heard us talk about the benefits of hosting your campaign on your website or on a landing page. 

Since Facebook has also removed the ability to like-gate and made enoughalgorithm changes that it can no longer be relied on for driving traffic to campaigns, it’s time to come up with new tactics.

If Facebook’s latest changes have you feeling down, don’t worry! We’re here to share five ways you can still see success and interaction from your online audience, without Facebook.

Ready? Here goes!

#1. Use email marketing instead of Facebook to promote your latest products and milestones. 

Email marketing remains the most successful form of organic marketing for businesses. According to SalesForce, 70 percent of people say they always open emails from their favorite companies! 

When we first heard about the like-gate ban we knew it was an important topic of conversation for our audience. Below is an example of the email we sent out about the changes.


Facebook Like-Gate Ban

#2. Host promotions, sweepstakes and other campaigns on your website instead of on Facebook. 

Your website is the one thing that no one can take away from you! It’s hosted by you, run by you, updated by you and its content is all determined by you. You can’t say that about any social networks, especially not Facebook. It makes sense that businesses would use their website as a “hub” for all of their online marketing.

You can do this using a simple embed feature.

ZipCar UK, a car rental service, recently pulled all of their campaigns off of Facebook and began embedding them into their website. After doing a direct comparison of the same campaign on Facebook versus their website, they saw a 717 percent increase in entries into their web-based competition and a 204 percent increase in page visits to their promotion. Those are extraordinary numbers! Did we mention that their overall website visits went up as well? If you send everyone to your website, they’re more likely to click around to other parts of your site once they’ve entered your promotion. If you’re hosting a promotion on Facebook once someone’s entered they’re most likely abandoning your page.


ZipCar UK


#3. Place ads on your website and blog — for free! — instead of relying on Facebook ads.

We’re not going to lie, we are fans of Facebook ads. They work for us, and we believe that if you test them out you’ll discover that they probably work for you too. However, you shouldn’t stop there!

You can run all sorts of free ads on your website and blog, including hello bars, display ads, pop-up notifications, calls-to-action in the footers of blog posts, or graphic announcements on your website.

None of these options cost any advertising dollars to run. You just need your designer to make some ads and your web team to upload them to your website. If you don’t have a designer, there are plenty of tools you can use to create your own graphics;  Canva is one of our favorites but there are many other options.

We’re currently in the process of promoting our 2014 Holiday eBook and here’s a look at a few ways we’ve used our website and blog to do so.

Hello Bars


ShortStack Hello Bar


Socially Stacked HelloBar

Sidebar ads on our blog


Side Bar Ads

Call-to-Action ads at the end of blog posts


more-leads

 

#4. If you’ve been asking your Facebook fans to share your content, marketing campaigns, promotions or other materials, try using share features instead.

Share features give visitors to your marketing campaigns up to six different ways they can share a campaign: via Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ LinkedIn or manually.

Did you know that 43 percent of consumers are more likely to buy a new product when they learn about it from their friends or family?

This makes sense. In today’s world, if we need to find a practitioner or buy something we usually ask for our friends’ opinions or read through review sites like Yelp.

Share features are easy to add to any campaign and encourage your entrants and campaign visitors to tell their friends about the cool things you have going on.

Here’s an example from Cambria Inns, a hotel in California. At the bottom of each of their promotions they include links to their other profiles and encourage their audience to “join us.”


Share Widgets

#5. Explore other social networks instead of relying too much on your Facebook Page. 

There’s a great big social world out there and many businesses have pigeonholed themselves in Facebook.

Even if they have a presence other places, all of their efforts may be focused on that one place.

The easiest way to expand your social network horizons is to start where your fans already are.

There’s a good chance your audience is talking about you somewhere besides Facebook. Do a #hashtag search or simple name search on some of the other networks and join the conversation.

A good thing to keep in mind is that you don’t want to blanket post across all of your networks. Pick a strategy for each network, and provide a different value for each network. Your audience will be more likely to follow you in different places if your strategy changes!

#6. If you’re using Facebook to make promotional announcements, use traditional media sources as well.

The press release is dead?! We think not!

Each time we have a new feature or resource release we of course let our Facebook fans know about it but we also put out a press release and personally reach out to bloggers and media contacts we’ve built relationships with.

Back in the day we could rely on Facebook to reach enough people to bring enough attention to these sort of announcements, but that’s not the case anymore. Plus, with the latest algorithm changes I would assume that an organic post that says “Try our latest feature!” isn’t going to be liked by Facebook.

When we announced the launch of our Campaign Builder we combined both traditional and non-traditional approaches and it worked perfectly. We were able to attract new people and alert existing users of the exciting news using a variety of platforms including social networks, PR Web, social blogs and our website! Here’s a look at some of our efforts.

Blog Post


Campaign Builder Blog Post

Email 


Campaign Manager Email

Social Posts


Campaign Builder Post


Pinterest Campaign Builder

Landing Page


Campaign Builder Landing Page

Press Release


Campaign Builder Press Release

Media Coverage


Screen Shot 2014-11-17 at 3.30.07 PM

 

As you’ve probably put together, the more places in the online universe you talk about what’s happening in your business the more people you’ll reach!

While Facebook remains a valuable communication channel for businesses, this latest announcement further supports the idea that it should not be used as a sales platform, unless you’re willing to pay.

To learn more about Facebook’s latest announcement, read about it on theFacebook Newsroom Blog.

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Pinterest Announces It Will Be Rolling Out Ads

14 Monday Apr 2014

Posted by in Pinterest

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Pinterest announced that they will be rolling out ads in the next quarter, great news right? Yes, but before you start putting together your next Pinterest Campaign, you might want to put together funding. Rumor has it that Pinterest will follow Twitters lead in pricing these promotions.  So, what will entice brands to pony up? Pinterest hits that proverbial “sweet spot” demographically and is uniquely qualified for commerce integration.

bii pinterest dem1

In a recent report from BI Intelligence, we looked at the demographic breakdowns of the major social networks, as well as each one’s unique characteristics. Pinterest has a high-income user base that’s very interested in using the site for shopping inspiration.

Here are some of the top statistics on Pinterest’s users:

In full, the special report: 

How Much Does Marketing Cost?

09 Sunday Mar 2014

Posted by in Content Marketing, Multi Channel Marketing, Uncategorized

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This is a question that stumps those who are just going into business for themselves more often then not. I know that this does not directly relate to Social Media Marketing, however I thought it was a subject important enough to cover anyway…

I just reviewed an RFP for marketing services. It was a very detailed, well written RFP. And the client was asking for everything. Which is not a problem. Unless you have a limited budget.

Do you know how much marketing costs? How much should it cost? What should you pay for good advice when it comes to your marketing strategy?

I’ll try to unpack the answers to this complex question below. My answers lead to a few more questions, which I’ll have to address in future posts. Read on, and let me know what you think…

How much is a marketing plan?

Just the term “marketing plan” can mean a lot of things to a lot of different people. Are you looking for a complete, strategic marketing plan, or do you just need a tactical plan or roadmap to guide your marketing programs for the next few months?

I know an independent consultant (not me) who charged a start-up $25,000 for a full-blown marketing plan. Did they pay too much? Maybe. That all depends on the results.

If you’re shopping for a marketing plan, consider this before opening your checkbook:

What do you hope to achieve with the plan?

Do you need help identifying the right customers, streamlining your product plans and developing competitive strategies? If so, you need someone who specializes in marketing strategy. Look for a consultant who has executive-level marketing experience that relates to your market or industry.

Expect to pay a few thousand dollars ($2,500-$15,000) for a project that will take several weeks or a few months. Plan to be actively involved, providing access to company and customer information and your business strategy. This effort may include customer research, competitive analysis and exploration of things like your sales process, customer relationships and technical capabilities.

Did you have something more basic in mind? Maybe you need help promoting an upcoming seminar, or launching a new service offering. In that case, a tactical plan is more in line with your needs. In fact, you may not even need a formal, plan document. Instead, a solid project plan with budget, timelines and deliverables may be enough.

You can engage a professional marketing consultant for this work,  hire a freelance marketer or call on your agency for assistance. Depending on the scope of your project, an actionable marketing plan like this may run from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars ($750 – $5,000), excluding implementation.

You want me to pay for that?

Don’t be surprised when the consultant or freelancer includes things like a marketing assessment, brand audit or competitive research in their proposal. Understanding the market environment you’re working in is critical to providing sound advice. Scrimp on the foundation, and your strategy will be shaky.

It pays to invest up front so your marketing partners have a strong base of knowledge about your business. This will actually save you money in the long run. A consultant that knows your business will be able to quickly spot trouble areas you might miss, helping you find solutions before you even realize there’s a problem brewing.

Other things that are worth paying for? Professional copywriting, skilled design, SEO analysis and customer feedback, to name a few.

What does a website cost?

This is a common question. I remember paying upwards of $50,000 for web work back in the mid-’90s, knowing I was getting a good deal. Thankfully, technology has become much more accessible, and the availability of exceptional web designers has expanded. (Of course, so has the number if not-so-qualified resources, so be careful.)

The price you pay for a website will depend on a number of factors. You can make your own for free if you’re really stretched, or have a small shop create a simple site based on WordPress to get you going. In fact, WordPress is a pretty powerful CMS (content management system) and many companies are moving to the platform as a viable option for easy to use, highly manageable websites.

Pricing for a basic site will start as low as $1995 and may reach $25,000 depending on size, design and functionality. Add more complexity, and you could be up to $30,000 or more.

What makes the price go up? Adding capabilities like these will cost extra:

  • An ecommerce shopping cart so you can sell merchandise or digital downloads online. From freeware like Zen Cart to more sophisticated solutions, getting the right people to work on your ecommerce capabilities can save a lot of headaches.
  • User interface design, UI or UX (user experience), focuses on the usability of your site and the ability of visitors to complete desired actions. If the objective of your site is to provide shopping, search or membership features, an investment in UX work can pay huge dividends in higher conversion rates and more engaged users.
  • Custom coding, like a specialized database application, image galleries, or recommendation engine. Thankfully, lots of these items have been packaged up as plug-in or third-party solutions that can be added to your site. However, there is a cost for integrating things like live chat, customer reviews and video capabilities.
  • Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – While you might think that web designers are experts at SEO, the fact is that most are not (just as many are not well versed in UX). You may need a separate SEO expert to work on your site, ideally partnering with your web team to build in search-friendly structure from the start. Ongoing SEO support starts about $2500/month and goes up, depending on the size and complexity of your site.

Isn’t social media free?

Sure, you can sign up for Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and hundreds of other social media sites for free. But what is your time worth? As a business professional, you can easily step into social media quicksand if you are not careful about how you manage your time and social media presence.

Here are a few areas where you may want to hire social media help:

  • Social Media Strategy – What are your goals? Where will you invest your time on social media? What is your message? How can you monetize your social media efforts? Are you looking for a hard or soft return on investment (ROI)? A social media strategist can work with you to address these questions and formulate a plan that works for your business. The cost? Usually $500 and up.
  • Social Media Policies – Once you have a plan in place, you need to establish social media policies. These are guidelines for your staff that cover appropriate use, showing employees where they are empowered in social channels, and where they need to exercise caution. Well written policies can be priceless, so its worth investing $250 or more to have your own custom policy created.
  • Social Communications Calendar – When do you post on your bog? What goes on Facebook? How often should you tweet? What do you say? A communications calendar can help you plan social media content that aligns with your strategy, enabling staff to express your messages in the right way at the right time. Monthly management of your social communications plan may run $500/month or more.
  • Outsourced Engagement – Hiring someone to tweet and post on your behalf may sound good, but this is one area I advise clients to be cautious about. There are many risks if you outsource the voice of your business, and the cost to your reputation can be high when things go wrong. With that in mind, if you choose to outsource your tweeting, posting and blogging, hire someone you can work closely with to collaborate on plans and create content. You’ll pay upwards of $50/hour or $500+ a month.

Should I bring it in house?

Based on the prices listed above, you might be thinking that it’s smarter to hire staff to handle your marketing. This is a “yes and no” answer. For things like social engagement (tweeting, Facebook, blogging) I do recommend in house resources. No one knows your business like an employee and this is an area where tight control over content can be essential.

On the other hand, for things like strategy you are probably better off with an experienced consultant. Even if you have a marketing VP or CMO, the insight provided by an expert who brings a broader perspective can help alleviate what I call “marketing myopia.” You might just be too close to the situation to see everything you need to consider.

In these cases, a consultant can help you assess the market environment and plan strategies for success that your team can implement. If you need some additional assistance, hiring a virtual CMO or a contract marketer for a few months can provide the jump-start you need to accelerate your growth.

It’s cheaper to do it myself

DIY is a terrible malady. It can be a chronic disease for entrepreneurs. I know, I suffer from it myself. Whether you’re just starting a business or you’re simply trying to squeeze the most from every penny, it’s easy to think, “that’s easy, I can do it.” And you can. But will the results really be what your business deserves?

Do It Yourself marketing is often slow and slightly off target. It may be good, but usually it’s not great. And it comes with a huge opportunity cost. What would you be doing if you weren’t trying to figure out how to get your site to the top of the search engine rankings? Maybe you’d be closing new business or working on a new product idea.

Instead, there you are pulling your hair out, trying to do something you know you can do, but probably shouldn’t. Think about it…

If you loved writing copy, you would have been a copywriter.

If you were passionate about market research, you would have chosen that field.

And you would have been damn good, I’m sure.

But you didn’t.

So hire someone that did and reap the rewards of their passion and expertise. Then get back to running your business, which is what you do best, right?

Still stuck on the cost? Think about the value of your business. What will it take to realize the ROI of that project? Often, it’s as little as one new customer. Keep your perspective and spend strategically.

– See more at: http://www.joeysargent.com/2011/06/how-much-does-marketing-cost/#sthash.t63YhEi1.dpuf

18 Ways to Improve Your Facebook News Feed Performance

29 Wednesday Jan 2014

Posted by in Best Practices, Content Marketing, Facebook, Marketing, Online Marketing

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Are you frustrated with Facebook’s frequent changes to the news feed algorithm?Do you feel like you’re being forced to buy ads to reach your audience?

While Facebook change is the rule rather than the exception, this article gives you 18 ways you can improve your Facebook news feed performance—and gain the upper hand.

How Reach Is Created on Facebook

Facebook defines reach as the number of unique Facebook users who see your updates.

To see your page’s reach, go to Facebook Insights and look at your page’s Reach report. You’ll be able to see how your reach is improving over time (as shown below).

facebook reach

How much reach does your Facebook page have?

 

Reach is generally influenced by one or more of the following actions:

  • You post content to your Facebook page. Yes, most of your fans don’t see it, but it still generates reach. Facebook calls this organic reach.
  • Facebook users take action on that update (like, comment, share), which creates a story in their friends’ news feeds. Facebook calls this viral reach.
  • You send visitors to that update using your own marketing channels. An example would be linking to a specific Facebook update in your email marketing newsletter. This also falls within organic reach.
  • You buy reach with Facebook ads. Facebook offers a variety of ad options, including boosts and targeting custom audiences. Facebook calls this paid reach.

All four actions are interrelated.

For example, if you publish content (organic reach) that your fans react to, friends of those fans will see that content (viral reach). If you decide an update is worthy of a Facebook ad, then the ad creates paid reach.

The more kinds of reach you generate with an update, the more people see that update. And that’s where these 18 ways you can beat Facebook’s news feed algorithm come in.

#1: Create a Content Strategy

You’ve heard this before, but what really matters in the end is the content.

Your fans don’t share a post just because they see it the news feed. They share it because it’s useful and interesting to them.

In the nonprofit world, fewer than 25% of pages have a content strategy, and I’ll bet that’s true for most small businesses as well.

If you need guidance on creating a content strategy, read these Social Media Examiner articles:

#2: Know When Your Fans Are Online

When is the best time to post on Facebook? When most of your fans are actually using Facebook.

In general, Facebook shows the most recent content at the top of the news feed. If you post an update at 2am, but your fans are using Facebook at 8am, you can be sure they aren’t seeing your updates.

You can find out when your fans are online by going to your Facebook Insights and clicking Posts.

when facebook fans are online

Post when your fans are on Facebook to ensure maximum reach.

#3: Pay Attention to Post Frequency

After looking at your Post Insights, you probably noticed there’s never a period whennone of your fans are using Facebook.

This means you should post at least once per day. Socialbakers recommends no more than twice a day, based on their research.

#4: Let People Post Content on Your Facebook Page

When Facebook users post updates on your page or mention your page, their friends see that activity in the news feed. That’s important viral reach.

In the update below, Max has posted an update on the Libraries Are Essential Facebook page. Many of Max’s friends will be exposed to this page through viral reach because his post shows up in his friends’ news feeds.

If you’re worried about spam or negative content being posted on your page, don’t worry. You can easily configure your page to block content that contains specific keywords or profanity.

viral reach

Any time someone posts on your page, it shows up in their friends’ news feeds, which results in viral reach.

#5: Host a “Caption This” Contest

One thing I’ve done that’s consistently worked well is to host caption contests as a way to generate an instant flood of comments, which in turn creates a flood of viral reach!

caption contest

Fun and easy contests or giveaways result in higher organic and viral reach.

I give away copies of great books, but you can give away anything you want. Justmake sure it’s useful and relevant to your community.

#6: Reply to Comments

To build community, you have to listen to and respond to community. People use Facebook because they want to be heard!

Responding to comments is important.

comment reply

Reply to your commenters so they know they’re heard.

Your Facebook page has an optional threaded comments feature. This means that when a fan leaves a comment on an update, you can reply specifically to that comment.

When you respond, that fan receives a notification, which is incentive to revisit your page to read your response. Increasing the frequency of visits to your page is a key part of developing a core Facebook page community.

You can turn on threaded comments in a few easy steps:

  • Go to your page and click Edit.
  • Choose Edit Settings.
  • Find the Replies heading in the list and click Edit.
  • Click Allow Replies to Comments on My Page.
  • Click Save Changes.

#7: Tag Commenters

Normally, pages can’t tag people on Facebook, but there is one exception: If a Facebook user leaves a comment on an update, you can tag the user when you comment on that same update.

tag commentersTag commenters in your reply to bring them back to the conversation.

Depending on the users’ privacy settings, they’ll receive notification that they’ve been tagged, prompting them to revisit the thread.

#8: Tag and Give Props to Other Pages

Human beings are hardwired for reciprocity. Generally speaking, when you promote another business’s agenda on Facebook, they receive a notification so they know the good deed you did for them. If they’re a good partner, they’ll return the favor.

tagging other pages

This update tagged RazorSocial.

#9: Repost Previous Top-Performing Updates

Your content strategy doesn’t have to only include new content; you can also recycle your most successful posts to reengage fans.

To find and reframe your top-performing posts, you need to know post engagement rates—the percentage of people who saw an update and liked, commented on or shared it.

To find post engagement rates, go to your Insights and click Posts. Scroll down to the All Posts Published table, and click the Engagement column to quicklysort your posts by engagement rate.

To really get a feel for which updates your fans loved, export at least six months of post-level data and study it.

To bring fans back to your most brilliant and engaging content, you can:

  • Click Share on the original post and share it directly on your page.
  • Copy and paste the original post into a new status update.
  • Modify the original post, then post as a new status update.

An important note here: Don’t recycle recent content. You don’t want fans to feel like they’re seeing reposted content too frequently.

#10: Boost Previous Top-Performing Updates

There’s no way to escape it. If you’re serious about Facebook marketing, use ads. 

What I will say is this: Only promote awesome.

Investing in posts that already have a high engagement rate is more likely to give you the biggest bang for your buck—more likes, comments and shares—which translates into more engagement and reach in the long run.

Whether you have experience with Facebook ads or not, make time to read Jon Loomer’s articles on using Facebook Ads and the Power Editor to promote your top-performing posts.

boost a post

Promote your best Facebook content easily right from Insights.

#11: Feature Your Posts in a Like Box

Most people don’t know that the Facebook Like box in their website’s sidebar has a setting that lets you display your most recent page updates.

When people see your Facebook updates in your sidebar, it not only encourages them to like your page right there, but to click over to your page and take part in the conversation.

To update your Like box, visit the plugin page and configure the settings to Show Posts (as shown below).

display latest posts in like box

Sharing your Facebook updates in your sidebar Like box lures people to your page.

#12: Embed Top-Performing Updates in Blog Posts

One constant challenge for most bloggers is finding topics to write about.

Take a look at your most recent high-engagement Facebook updates and write blog posts that expand on those topics. Within the post, embed one or more of your best Facebook page updates (as shown below).

embed facebook posts

Write blog posts around your popular Facebook topics and provide a way for readers to revisit the conversation on Facebook.

This approach not only creates more reach for your best Facebook updates, it gives you blog post content that’s already been vetted by your community!

#13: Message Your Friend Networks

Have you hit a wall on your way to getting engagement? Depending on the strength of your collective friend network, try asking for shares or comments from within your personal networks.

Now, obviously you can’t force people to do this. But you can have willing parties message their friends at a time when you know your fans are mostly likely to be online.

These network shares cause a trending effect among friends connected to your business. When people see several of their friends talking about a topic, they’re more likely to be interested in that topic and click over to read more.

#14: Guest Post on Sites That Send You Traffic

If you’re a regular reader of Social Media Examiner, you know how powerful having aguest blogging strategy can be for growing your business.

But did you know you can find potential leads for guest-post opportunities right in Facebook Insights?

Within the Visits report, scroll all the way down to the External Referrers section. This graph shows you which websites are referring the most traffic to your Facebook page (shown below).

referrals from guest posts

Keep track of who’s sending traffic your way and make the most of those partnerships.

Contact the sites sending people your way and see if you can write a guest post for them.

Don’t limit yourself to guest blogging. Feel free to explore other co-marketing opportunities that may work as well.

#15: Pin Top-Performing Pictures on Pinterest

When you post images to Pinterest, you have an option to include a URL. When a user clicks the image, they go to that URL.

Try reposting a few high-performing photos from your Facebook page onto Pinterest and linking back to your Facebook update.

Make sure you use the correct permalink for the post! You can find that by clicking on the post’s publish date on Facebook (as shown below). You’ll be taken to a new page that shows just that post. Copy the URL for this page to use as your Pinterest link.

finding a post permalink

Use eye-catching images on Pinterest that link back to your Facebook page.

Keep track of how much traffic Pinterest is sending to your Facebook page via your Insights’ External Referrer graph. Then you’ll be able to determine how effective this approach is in boosting reach for your Facebook page updates.

#16: Tweet Your Top-Performing Updates

Some of my clients have had success scheduling tweets with links to their high-performing Facebook updates. Two or three tweets in 48 hours is plenty. Tweet recent Facebook updates rather than older ones.

tweeting a facebook update

Tweeting a Facebook post drives external traffic.

Make sure you’re able to measure clicks from Twitter to the post.

#17: Use Email Marketing to Promote Top-Performing Posts

This is one of my favorite strategies to use for my Facebook page. It’s so simple and effective, I’m surprised I don’t see it done more often.

Every time I write my weekly newsletter, I include a link to a Facebook page update.

For example, I recently asked my subscribers if they’d like me to write more about blogging, then I provided a link to a Facebook post where they could answer.

facebook poll

People who open and read your emails are highly likely to engage with you on Facebook as well.

#18: Identify Best Tactics With Facebook Insights

In the end, you have to find the tactics that work for your Facebook page.

Export the last six months of your Facebook Insights and study them to see what works for your page, then replicate that success with the tips above.

Pay attention to which updates resulted in new fans. Look at which posts produced specific kinds of reach and engagement (shares are more important than likes, for example).

 

From our good friends at Social Media Examiner –  Keep up with all the news http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/improve-facebook-news-feed-performance/

How to Use Google Analytics to Track Your Pinterest Efforts

16 Monday Dec 2013

Posted by in Google Analytics, Pinterest, Uncategorized

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FINALLY!!

Within Google Analytics you can measure the amount of traffic coming to your blog from most social networks including Pinterest.

Step 1: In the top right corner, select the date range you want to measure.

Select date range in Google Analytics

Step 2:From the menu on the right hand side of the screen select acquisition, then click on social.

Find social referrals in Google Analytics

Step 3:Click network referrals.

A screen will appear that lists the social networks referring traffic to your blog.  They will be listed in descending order from the network that sends the most traffic to your site down to the network that sends the least.

Measure social network referrals with Google Analytics

The resulting list will let you know how your traffic referrals from Pinterest stack up against other social networks. If you find that you are putting effort into Pinterest and seeing positive results, keep up the good work. If not, you might need to reassess you Pinterest strategy.

How to measure visits from your blog’s URLs shared on Pinterest

Step 1: From the network referral results list click on Pinterest.

In the example given, Pinterest is the top social network traffic refer, for your blog it might be lower on the list.

How to measure visits from your blog’s URLs shared on Pinterest

Step 2: When Pinterest is selected from the list a window will appear that shows the URLs from your blog that were linked to from Pinterest.

At the top of the list you’ll find the URL of the blog post or page that was most visited from Pinterest for the time period selected.

URLs linked from Pinterest

Having this information can be very helpful in determining what type of content resonates best with Pinterest users. Use this information to help guide future blog post topics and the images used in them.

How to measure which Pinterest pins are bringing you traffic

Each individual pin on Pinterest gets assigned its own URL. Google Analytics tracks how many times your site is visited from each individual pin.

Step 1: From the menu on the right hand side of the screen select acquisition, then click on all referrals.

Measure which Pinterest pins are bringing you traffic

Step 2: A list of all of the places online that refer traffic to your blog will appear.

Find Pinterest on the list and click.

Measure traffic from Pinterest pins

Step 3: A list of links from Pinterest that have referred traffic to your blog will appear.

On this list you might possibly see the link that comes from your Pinterest profile. This shows the importance of including the link to your blog in your profile. It gives Pinterest users a one-click way to get to your blog.

Pinterest pin links in Google Analytics

Screenshot 2013-12-16 09.31.15

There’s a small gray arrow next to each Pinterest pin. When clicked, it will open a new widow with that pin.

In this case, the top referring pin for this time period brought 163 visits to my blog. When I clicked on the gray arrow the pin below opened in a new window. I was surprised to see that is wasn’t a pin that was on my Pinterest board it was from another Pinterest account with over 1 million followers. It was repinned 43 times and liked 32 times.Track Pinterest pins in Google Analytics

I was sure to follow this pinner and repay the favor by following her and repinning from her Pinterest boards. Check the pins that are bringing traffic your way and you can find new accounts to follow that have already shown an interest in your content.

A word of caution, growth on Pinterest as with other social networks does take time. If you’ve only been active on Pinterest a short while you might not yet see Pinterest ranking high in your Google Analytics.

If you find that your efforts aren’t paying off after a significant amount of time you might need toreassess your Pinterest strategy. The amount of time varies depending on the amount of content you publish and your niche.

Google Analytics can provide you a wealth of knowledge about what is happening on your blog, taking a quick look to see if what you’re doing for Pinterest is really paying off and which pins are bringing visitors to your blog. You can use this information to learn more about the people who find your content interesting guide future blog posts or the kinds of images to use in your posts.

Why Google’s New Hummingbird Algorithm is Good News for Serious Content Creators

22 Tuesday Oct 2013

Posted by in Google Analytics, Google SEO, Google+

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Image of a Hummingbird

On October 3rd, 2013 Google announced a major search algorithm release called Hummingbird.

Uh-oh.

Does this mean your content-driven business is in jeopardy? Is keyword researchdead? Are you going to have to reengineer your entire content strategy?

There’s no question that the Hummingbird algorithm is only the beginning of change in search optimization, but smart content creators can be prepared to thrive in this — and any — environment that may come in the future.

This release is basically a platform that enables Google to better handle “conversational” search queries.

To illustrate this, consider the difference between these two queries:

  1. “golden gate pictures”
  2. “give me some pictures of the golden gate bridge”

 

The first query is formed the way people have learned to enter entries using a keyboard. This has been our primary input method since web search was born.

Keyboards are not natural human devices, and even for fast typists they are a bit of an awkward device to use, so learning to abbreviate queries to talk to a search engine is a generally accepted practice.

However, the rise of mobile device usage brings some new challenges.

The mobile keyboard cometh

While many continue to type with the keyboards on phones and tablets, they are a bit more awkward to use.

Over time, people are going to increasingly gravitate to voice search in environments where that is acceptable (e.g. environments where speaking to your device is not seen as intrusive).

Voice queries are far more likely to fall into the pattern of the second query above — natural language queries.

As in all things search, Google wants to dominate mobile search too.

Google wants to process “real” speech patterns

Having the best platform for processing conversational queries is an important part of that, and that’s where Hummingbird fits in, though it’s just the beginning of a long process.

Think of Google’s Hummingbird algorithm as a two-year-old child. So far it’s learned a few very basic concepts.

These concepts represent building blocks, and it is now possible to teach it even more concepts going forward. It appears that a lot of this learning is derived from the rich array of information that Google has on all search queries done on the web, including the query sequences.

For example, consider the following query sequence, starting with the user asking “give me some pictures of the transamerica building”:

 

The user looks at these results, and then decides to ask the next question, “how tall is it”:

 

Note that the latter query recognizes the word “it” as referring to the Transamerica Building because that was identified in the prior query. This is part of the sophistication of natural language queries.

Another example is the notion of comparison queries. Consider the query “pomegranate vs cranberry juice”:

 

The Knowledge Graph

These examples involve Google’s Knowledge Graph, where natural language search benefits from the ability to pull real-time answers to queries that understand the specific context of the query.

Note that the Knowledge Graph has accepted some forms of conversational queries for a while, but a big part of Hummingbird was about expanding this capability to the rest of Google search.

I have seen people argue about whether or not Hummingbird was just a front end translator for search queries, or whether it is really about understanding more complex types of user intent.

The practical examples we have now may behave more like the former, but make no mistake that Google wants to be able to do the latter as well.

The mind reading algorithm

Google wants to understand what is on your mind, well, before its on your mind.

Consider Google Now as ultimately being part of this mix. Imagine being able to have Google address search queries like these:

  1. Where do I find someone that can install my surround sound system?
  2. What year did the Sox lose that one game playoff?
  3. What are the predictions for the price of gas next summer?
  4. What time is my dinner on Tuesday night, where is it, and how do I get there?

No, these queries will not work right now, but it gives you some idea of where this is all headed.

These all require quite a bit of semantic analysis, as well as pulling in additional information including your personal context.

The 4th question I added was to show that Google is not likely to care if the search is happening across web sites, in your address book, or both. Not all of this is Hummingbird, per se, but it is all part of the larger landscape.

To give you an idea on how long this has taken to build, Google’s Amit Singhal first filed a patent called Search queries improved based on query semantic information in March of 2003. In short, development of this technology has taken a very long time, and is a very big deal.

The implications of a Hummingbird search world

It is important to remember that this step forward being described by Google as a new platform.

Like the Caffeine release Google did in June of 2010, the real import of this is yet to come. Google will be able to implement many more capabilities in the future. The implications to search in the long term are potentially huge.

For you as a publisher, the implications are more straightforward. Here are a few things to think about:

1. Will keywords go away?

Not entirely. The language you use is a key part of a semantic analysis of your content.

Hopefully, you abandoned the idea of using the same phrases over and over again in your content a long time ago. It will remain wise to have a straightforward definition of what the page is about in the page title.

I’ll elaborate a bit more on this in point 3 below.

2. Will Google make the long tail of search go away?

Not really. Some of the aspects that trigger long tail type search results may actually be inferred by Google rather than contained in the query. Or they may be in the user’s query itself. Some long tail user queries may also get distilled down to a simpler head term.

There will definitely be shifts here, but the exact path this will take is hard to project. In the long term though, the long tail will be defined by long tail human desires and needs, not keyword strings.

The language you use still matters, because it helps you communicate to users and Google what needs and desires you answer.

3. You need to understand your prospect’s possible intents

That is what Google is trying to do. They are trying to understand the human need, and provide that person with what they need.

Over time, users will be retrained to avoid short simple keyword-ese type queries and just say what they want. Note that this evolution is not likely to be rapid, as Google still has a long way to go still!

As a publisher, you should focus more attention on building pages for each of the different basic needs and intentions of the potential customers for your products and services. Start mapping those needs and use cases and design your site’s architecture, content, and use of language to address those.

In other words, know your audience. Doing this really well takes work, but it starts with knowing your potential customers or clients and why they might buy what you have to sell, and identifying the information they need first.

4. Semantic relevance is the new king

We used to speak about content being king, and that in some sense is still true, but it is becoming more complex than that now.

You now need to think about content that truly addresses specific wants and needs. Does your content communicate relevance to a specific want or need?

In addition, you can’t overlook the need to communicate your overall authority in a specific topic area. Do you answer the need better than anyone else?

While much of being seen as an authority involves other signals such as links, and perhaps some weight related to social shares and interaction, it also involvescreating in-depth content that does more than scratch the surface of a need.

Are you more in-depth than anyone else? If someone has some very specific scenarios for using your product or service, does your content communicate that you address it? Does your content really stand out in some way?

What’s it to you?

As noted above, this is going to be a journey for all of us.

While Google’s eventual destination is easy to imagine (think Star Trek’s on board computer), Hummingbird has only scratched the surface, and the steps along the way are hard to predict. That will be driven by very specific developments in technology.

For you, as an author, blogger, publisher though, your path is reasonably clear as well. Focus on becoming the recognized authority in your space.

Thanks to Bill Slawski of Go Fish Digital for input on some of the specifics of this article (note that all the speculations are mine, not Bill’s :) ).

Pinterest Drives More Traffic to Publishers Than Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit Combined

16 Wednesday Oct 2013

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Facebook accounted for more than 10% of overall traffic to publishers in September, by far the most of any social network, according to data released Tuesday from Shareaholic, a social plugin service that collects data from 200,000 publishers reaching 250 million monthly unique visitors collectively.

Pinterest drove 3.68% of traffic to publishers in September, the second highest of the social networks on the list and three times as much as Twitter, which ranked third. In fact, Pinterest’s share of overall visits increased by 66% year-over-year, more than any other social network. Pinterest now drives more traffic to publishers than Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit and Google+ combined.

shareaholic1

While most of the social networks tracked in the study showed significant year-over-year gains in referring traffic to publishers, referral traffic from Reddit and StumbleUpon declined 35% and 27.5%, respectively. Google+ remained essentially stagnant year-over-year and continues to refer the least traffic to publishers of the major social networks included in the study.

 

What You Need to Know About Facebook’s News Feed Algorithm

06 Tuesday Aug 2013

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I’m pretty sure Facebook is doing this to drive me PERSONALLY crazy. None the less it’s important, so here goes. Credit for this article goes to  TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Image credit: Johannes Fuchs]

facebook-news-feed-algorithm

More than 700 million people use Facebook’s News Feed daily, but not many of them understand how it works. Today, that all changes with the introduction of Story Bump and several other improvements that aid in the discovery of new stories.

Previously, Facebook relied on a system called EdgeRank to compile stories in News Feeds. Now retired, the social network is using new signals to organize feeds, such as who people interact with, what they like, and the kinds of stories they interact with most.

Story Bumping

The idea behind Story Bumping is that stories that someone hasn’t seen get pushed above the ones he or she has. Previously the News Feed would rate all published stories since logging in and display the best ones. Posts that didn’t make the cut got buried under other stories, making it unlikely that anyone would ever see it.

With Story Bumping, Facebook won’t just look at what stories have been published since someone last looked at the News Feed, but all of the recent stories that the person hasn’t seen. This way he or she will see more relevant stories, even if they’re a little bit older.

According to Facebook, this method has resulted in five percent more Likes, comments, and shares on stories from friends and an eight percent boost in interactions for stories from Pages. Additionally, potentially visible stories read increased from 57 percent to 70 percent, meaning that people are reading more content.

Last Actor

Another new feature, Last Actor, takes into consideration the most recent factors from someone’s Facebook activity. For example, if someone interacts with a post at 8am, the social network might show him or her more of that person’s post later in the day and give the original poster a slightly higher score.

The updated algorithm will keep track of the last 50 interactions and will apply that to help rank individual News Feeds so most posts by the last actor will be included. For brands, if someone engages frequently with your Page, he or she could potentially see a lot more of your content.

A final change that is still in development will eventually let News Feed look at a particular member’s posts that Facebook finds relevant and arrange it in a chronological order by actor. This will give a higher score to the most recent stories from friends — so someone’s 1pm post will appear higher than his or her 2pm post.

This feature is expected to be released in the future, and we imagine more details will be shared at that time. Last Actor is currently available on the web and mobile, while Story Bumping is available on the web only — it will be added to mobile soon. So to recap, a general rule of thumb for all content creators is to not be boring. The more people interact with your content, a higher volume of people will see it.

How To Ensure Your LinkedIn Profile is Found in Google

15 Monday Jul 2013

Posted by in LInkedIn

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With more than 225 million business individuals now on LinkedIn, there is a growing trend to ensure that a LinkedIn profile is not only created professionally, but can also be discovered by search engines such as Google. As a result of the public nature of the majority of users’ LinkedIn settings, an increasing number of individual profile pages are appearing in search engine results – particularly when searching for, validating or screening the information and expertise of potential candidates.

LinkedInLinkedIn advise that in order to ensure your profile is displayed in search engines like Google, Bing & Yahoo, your profile can be made visible by adjusting your settings, sending out at least one invitation to a business colleague or friend and adding as a minimum, one connection.

In order to ensure your profile is visible you will need to amend your settings. The process should only take a couple of minutes and can be found by going to your profile avatar (picture) in the top right corner and choosing ‘Privacy & Settings’ as an option. Here you can amend who can see your profile picture (‘Change your profile photo & visibility’ and ensure your settings are ‘Everyone’) and ‘Edit Your Public Profile’. Users have a tick list of profile content which you can opt for everyone to see.

Additional Sections:

LinkedIn recommend users to ensure their profile is updated regularly (at least every month if you are wanting to be top of results), as well as checking all additional sections have been correctly filled in. These sections include:linkedin-profile-picture-image_0

  • Attaching a headshot as your profile photo – This should be a professional business photograph. Users should remember that all profile images are searchable on search engines, especially in Google Images. Therefore care should be taken on the choice of image used, perhaps choosing to reflect a corporate element for a business networking site – here are 7 pictures you should NEVER use.
  • Completing your Headline – This is the wording which is shown next to your profile picture and name on LinkedIn. Some people like to customise this to fully reflect your role and act as an aide to stand out from your competitors – it’s shown as a summary in all search results. Here are 10 LinkedIn Headlines that stand out from the crowd.
  • Writing a short description to include in the Summary box – This is similar to a summary of a CV and is meant to be a couple of paragraphs detailing you and your role – make sure you spruce it up!
  • Adding industry specific key words under your job history – If you work within a business sector which has unique industry key words, recruiters will search on those requirements and therefore your profile will show in search results.
  • Entering each of the skills & expertise you possess – This acts as an additional section to add industry specific skills. Care should be taken however to ensure that you only accept skills from individuals endorsing you which are relevant to your business area.

As LinkedIn are constantly changing and updating their offering, a number of optional areas have recently been introduced to complete such as:

Projects:

The option to complete the project name, date, project URL, description and to add all team members relating to that project. This feature could be useful if you are a contractor and working regularly on project-based work. It could be an excellent way to demonstrate the structure, workflow and expertise required for the project.

Languages:

linkedin what you should know

You have the ability to enter any other languages spoken and the degree of fluency of said language. This could be beneficial if you are interested in moving to work overseas.

Publications:

Individuals utilise this section to mention any publications or editorials written, including the title, publisher, publication URL, and ability to add any other authors. If you work within a niche business area and have written publications on your areas of specialism, this will give recruiters and hiring companies’ visibility of your knowledge and expertise within your industry.

Organisations:

If you belong to any industry organisations, there is the option to enter the organisation name, position held, occupation, time period and any additional notes. Again, for a recruiter this is very useful especially if you were to work within a niche industry or sector.  It will help position your profile as a stronger match on any keyword searches being carried out by recruiting companies.

LinkedIn also gives you the option to add honours & awards, test scores, patents, certifications and any volunteering & causes you work on.

If you want to be discovered by recruiters on LinkedIn, you should ensure that you have completed the following checklist:

  • Is your profile being kept up to date?
  • Have you entered all the relevant information to your current job?
  • Have you completed your skillset?
  • Have you ensured that both your profile and picture are visible to ‘Everyone’?

And finally and perhaps most importantly, ensure the contact details in both the contact box and your profile are visible and up to date.

15 Jaw-Dropping Social Media Marketing Statistics Every Marketer Should Know

02 Tuesday Jul 2013

Posted by in Facebook, Google+, LInkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube

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Facebook mobile users

Facebook mobile users are growing (Infographic courtesy of Statista)

How are your competitors doing in social media marketing?

Social Media is here to stay.

“Since the emergence of the social media networks decades ago, social media has continued to evolve. It offers consumers around the world newfangled and connected ways to engage with the people that matter to them. Now, years later, social media is still growing rapidly, becoming an integral part of our daily lives.”  ~ Nielsen

Social media now takes up the majority of people’s media consumption. It’s undeniable that we are shifting into a new era of social.

“However, sometimes we need some compelling numbers to hinge on when speaking with others who might still be struggling to understand how to integrate social media into their overall marketing mix.” ~ HubSpot

Even if you are a veteran social media marketer, these stats will still give you some clues of the possibilities that the social media offers.

Let’s dig in and find out what’s the most interesting social media stats out there:

Amazing Social Media Marketing Statistics Every Marketer Should Know

Social Media Traffic

About 57% of brands said they would be using social media more often in 2013 (Clickz) Tweet This Stat!

Women spend 30% more time on social networking sites than men (comScore) Tweet This Stat!

40% of time on Facebook is spent on the newsfeed while only 12% is spent on profile and brand pages (comScore)Tweet This Stat!

Social networks dominate internet usage, with 20% of PC time and 30% of mobile time spent on them.(Nielsen) Tweet This Stat!

The “Provide and Pray” approach to social collaboration sees about a 10% success rate. Without a well-crafted and compelling purpose, most social media initiatives will fail to deliver business value. (Garner) Tweet This Stat!

Facebook accounts for 23% of all time spent on mobile apps in the US which is a huge amount of time. (comScore) Tweet This Stat!

91% of online adults use social media regularly. (Experian) Tweet This Stat!

Nearly 80 percent of Indians now have a mobile phone, but only 11 percent have Internet access, and fewer than 5 percent use social media. (Nieman Lab) Tweet This Stat!

Social Commerce and Customer Service

China’s E-Commerce market grew to $190 billion In 2012, driven by mobile users and social media
(CNNIC) Tweet This Stat!

Almost half of online customers expect brands to provide customer service on Facebook, but only 23% provide it. Interestingly, much less people (only 17%) expect great customer service from Twitter. (emarketer) Tweet This Stat!

The majority of the CEOs said that social media will be the most important technology channel used by companies to engage with their customers within three to five years. (IBM) Tweet This Stat!

60% of financial Advisers have daily contact with clients through social media, some likely flouting their firms’ current policies against this type of activity.(Accenture) Tweet This Stat!

Social Media Ads

Twitter ad revenue to near $1 billion in 2014. According to the new forecast, more than half of Twitter’s ad revenues—about 53%—will come from mobile advertising this year, up from virtually no ad revenue from mobile in 2011.(eMarketer) Tweet This Stat!

Nearly three-quarters (70%) of brand marketers plan to increase their use of social media in 2013, followed closely by mobile advertising (69%) and video advertising (64%).(Nielsen) Tweet This Stat!

Nearly half (45%) of advertisers say they use paid social media advertising for branding, such as raising awareness and influencing brand opinions. Just 16 percent say their efforts are primarily direct response-related, including driving product trails and site visits. (Nielsen) Tweet This Stat!

Before long, let’s take a closer look at this infographic uses data from the Pew Research Center to show what are the demographics for social media from many perspectives, including age, gender, race, household income, and more. It’s all vital information that marketers can use to target their social media audiences wisely.

Infographic - Social Media Demographic and Statistic

Social Media Demographic and Statistic

What is your favorite social media related statistic? Have you come across any interesting social media stats that we have missed? Please give them a shout in the comments section below.