How to Choose the Right Social Network

We all know by now how important it is for a business or brand to engage with its audience through social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and Google+. Social media is an easy, affordable way to build a rapport with your target market and to establish a meaningful, two-way conversation with them. But before haphazardly joining the latest, trendiest social media sites, you need to make sure that the people you are trying to reach will be there. Otherwise, there really is no point in wasting your time and resources building up profiles on sites that no one uses. So, before you start setting up those profiles, make sure you are where you need to be. Following are a few easy ways to figure out which social media sites are right for you.

Real World Interactions

If you operate a brick-and-mortar business—that is, one that has a physical location offline—you should prominently advertise your social media accounts. You could put up a large banner in a heavy trafficked area of your store, letting your customers know where they can find you online. You should also train your staff to start informal conversations about social media with your customers, informing them about any discounts/special offers they can find on your social media profiles. This is also a good opportunity to ask them which sites they frequent and which ones they think will be a good fit for your business. If your staff keeps detailed notes on any feedback they got, you will start to see a clearer picture of which sites, besides the ubiquitous Facebook, your customers frequent.

Surveys

The easiest thing to do when you need answers is to simply ask. So, if you want to know where your customers go online, creating a short survey is an extremely simple and effective way to find out the information you seek. Keep it short and sweet if you want anyone to actually respond. Just ask your customers what social networks they actively use and which ones they would suggest a business like yours participates in. You can also solicit customer feedback through your print or online newsletter, by including an insert in the monthly bills you send out or by adding a few questions to your online contact form. If you present your questions honestly and sincerely, explaining that you are still learning how to navigate the social media world and could really use their input, you will greatly increase your response rate.

Online Sleuthing

Checking your website analytics is the most accurate way to find out which social media sites your audience is using. By looking at the “Referring Sites” area of your analytics program, you will see which social networks are sending you the most traffic. This is very useful, for if you see that the lion’s share of your traffic is coming from a site that you aren’t using, then you will have found out where your audience is and where you should be. Another online method for determining where your target market spends its time is through your customer mailing list. Most social media sites, including Facebook and Twitter, have a “Find Friends” tool wherein you put in your contacts’ email addresses to see if they are using the site. While it may seem a bit creepy or stalkerish to track your customers this way, it’s purely for research so you can learn which social media sites are the most popular among your existing clientele.

As you can see, it needn’t be complicated or expensive to find out where your customers and prospects spend their time online. Once you’ve determined which sites are the most popular among your demographic, then you will be able to fully harness the power of social media.

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How to Make Your Site ‘Juicy’

One of the most important tenets of SEO is link building. Volumes have been written about the importance of establishing a good backlink profile—not only will it demonstrate your value and relevance to your audience, it will enable you to rank higher in the search engines so more people will be able to find you. It can be challenging at times to come up with new ideas for creating these links. Following are a few “outside of the box” ideas that can help you gain the brand recognition and high rankings you want.

Provide Value

The best way to entice people to link to you is by providing something tangible that will make their lives easier. For example, if you have the knowledge and the capabilities, you could try creating a free tool or software program that will help other website owners manage their sites easier and outrank their competition. You could also develop a Firefox or Chrome plugin. These plugins are very popular and, if done correctly, can be very useful. Before diving in and developing a new tool, program or plugin, make sure you carefully research what is already out there so you don’t simply copy something that’s already been done. Remember—you are trying to assert your brand’s value and relevance, so take the time to do your homework and create something that is unique and useful.

Get Out There

Sometimes you need to venture outside of the online world in order to take advantage of some good linking opportunities. Joining a business group will enable you to get “face time” with others who belong to the same niche as you and is a great way to create awareness of your brand. If you covet the difficult-to-earn .edu link, you should consider contacting local colleges in your area to see if you can book a speaking gig. Whether you decide to do a presentation on an industry topic for a specific class or if you choose to hold a seminar for the Career Center, you will probably get at least a few links back to your site from the college’s different departmental websites.

Be Proactive

Effective link building requires constant effort and upkeep and if you want to be successful with it; you can’t just sit back and wait. Instead, you need to always be thinking of ways that you can improve your link juice. One thing you should do is set up a Google Alert to track any time one of your branded keywords is mentioned. Check out every site that mentions you to see if they are linking to you properly and if they’re not, contact the webmasters right away so you can get the link juice that’s rightfully yours. You may also want to consider purchasing an existing blog; this way, you don’t have to build up everything from scratch and you can link this back to the main page of your website. Although you will still need to update this blog regularly, you won’t have to take the time to build up an entirely new one.

The important thing to remember when it comes to link building is to not discount anything. Flexibility and creativity are key to successful link building; “juice” can be in the most unexpected places, so keep your options open!

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SEO Essentials for 2012

            If you have built or created your own web site, you probably have somewhat of an understanding about how search engine optimization (SEO) works. Many proprietary websites do their own SEO while there are some that hire individuals, usually consultants, who are experts at doing search engine optimization. These individuals are effective at optimizing websites and understand the important areas of doing SEO and bring it all together into a search engine optimization campaign.

 

                  So what is so important about SEO? The main reason search engine optimization is used is to increase a websites visibility on the Web, so it receives more traffic. This in turn is what helps website designers and proprietors earn some extra cash. Now lets consider the various components of your website which are on-page and off-page content. On-page SEO is the optimization that is done on your actual website, which includes the code, meta data, and meta explanations. There are many strategies and methods that can be utilized to help your website become search engine friendly. You want search engines like Google and Bing to index and rank your web site properly, so the more effective your on-page optimization the easier it will be for search engines to crawl your pages and put them in appropriate groups for all those people you want to see your information. Ranking for the category that is most suitable requires that your site use key phrases for that category. These key phrases have to be enhanced on each page of your website for the best results. Likewise your site needs completely unique content to be able to be categorized as a signal of authority.

Next there is off-page optimization, which is the part that's done from an external site on the Internet. The purpose of off-page SEO is to improve the quantity of traffic your site receives, with a large part of that being link building. This is done naturally to a certain point, like when a person links to some site that's like using their own. So when that person has an Internet site that is highly rated, it may be able to provide extra traffic, as well as higher rank to your site. Another way to build links for your site is to post articles to article pages, such as an offer to improve optimization of a site, or other various techniques.

 

               Search engine optimization can be time consuming and intensive, especially the link-building part of it. When you are not a specialist, the involvement of doing the items needed for optimization of your site can seem overwhelming. You might not want to do everything you need to do for the greatest results. This is the main reason why many website proprietors have decided to leave SEO to the experts. We have the ability to begin a campaign that considers all of the important areas of optimization and can help you to obtain the top results.

The 3 “W”s of Abandoned Shopping Carts

Much has been written about how to optimize shopping carts for e-commerce sites for optimum conversions and sales, but do you have a plan of action in place when potential customers end up abandoning these shopping carts mid-transaction? If you don’t, you’re squandering a prime opportunity to win back people who might not even be aware that their purchase didn’t go through. Statistics show that a whopping 54% of companies don’t even try to win back these abandoners, making cart recovery one of the most underutilized conversion techniques. Don’t let a golden opportunity to increase sales pass you by; check out the following guidelines and take action today to ensure that you’re doing everything you can to set yourself up for success.

Why?

In order to be successful in winning back these cart abandoners, it’s first to helpful to explore some of the reasons why people aren’t going through with their orders. One of the main culprits is that they are using your cart as a means for comparison shopping. They gather all of the items they’re interested in purchasing into the cart so they can see how much it will cost with shipping and they’ll repeat this process on a couple of different sites. Some other common reasons for shopping cart abandonment include high shipping cost, an overly complicated and invasive checkout procedure or the customer simply changed his mind.

What?

Once you’ve explored and pinpointed the reasons why your customers are abandoning their carts, it’s time to try to woo them back. How you do it depends upon why they left their cart behind. For example, if you’ve determined that people are abandoning carts in droves because your checkout process is too long and/or confusing, figure out a way to streamline it. If your customers feel like you’re trying to gather too much information about them during the purchase process, figure out a different way to get it, like a follow-up survey AFTER the sale is completed. Emails are also an extremely effective way to lure back customers, but there is an art to it (see below).

When?

If you are going to use email as a means for winning back your shopping cart abandoners, time is of the essence. So many companies make the mistake of letting too much time pass before they send out that first, all-important email for fear of appearing too “stalker-ish”. Marketing to people who have failed to complete their purchases is NOT like dating—you don’t need to play it cool for days for fear of appearing too eager or uncool. Instead, you should be sending out an email immediately; in fact, the best course of action would be to have a real-time, automated message go out as soon as the cart is abandoned. Research has shown that the majority of carts that are won back are done so in the first few hours after abandonment, so don’t wait. Also, don’t stop with just one email. If you get no response after the initial email goes out, send another one out in 24 hours and then another 7 days later. Remember—you are trying to recoup money that was almost in your hand, so this isn’t the time to be standoffish and give your clients some space. You need to figure out what stopped them from buying and to remedy it as quickly as possible.

Abandoned shopping carts don’t have to be a bad thing—it’s all in how you deal with it. You should view it as a challenge and an opportunity to improve and hone your check out process. Of course you want everyone to complete their orders the first time, but if they don’t, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they won’t be back. Be proactive and persistent (but not pushy) and you might just be surprised by the results!

When’s the Last Time Your Site Had a Tune-Up?

 Just like a car needs regular tune-ups, so does your website. A lot of time and effort went into building the best site possible, so don’t squander all of your hard work by letting it fall into disrepair. Going back to the car analogy for a moment—when you buy a new car, it’s in pristine condition, with everything working perfectly. In order to keep it in tip-top shape, you need to be vigilant with oil changes, washes, repairs, etc. Well, your website is the same way—it may be perfect to begin with, but it needs constant monitoring and upkeep to stay that way. Keep a close eye on the following areas of your site to ensure that it keeps functioning in optimum condition:

Technical Issues

First and foremost, you need to check for technical problems like 404 errors and broken links. Having a bunch of errors and links that no longer work is very damaging to your site—with the search engines AND human traffic. Because websites are dynamic creatures with content constantly being added and taken down, constant vigilance is required in order to avoid 404 errors and broken links. If you have social share buttons for Twitter, Facebook, Google+, etc., you will also want to periodically check them to see if they are doing what they should. Act like you are a first-time visitor to your site and fill out any and all forms you have to test whether or not they work and if they are easy to navigate. Lastly, check your page load speed and adjust it accordingly so you won’t lose traffic because your page loads at a glacial pace.

Feedback and Analysis

Once you’ve made sure that your site is in good working order and is firing on all cylinders, it’s now time to focus your attention on what can be gleaned from any customer feedback you’ve received, unsolicited or not. This data really is your bread and butter and can provide you with valuable information that can have a huge impact on the success of your site. For example, you may think your site’s layout is intuitive and easy to navigate, but the actual users may think otherwise. Whether or not you choose to implement this feedback is, of course, your choice, but this raw data can be your best friend for determining what is and isn’t working on your site. You will also find it helpful to study your analytics data (you DO have some sort of analytics program running on your site, right?) to find out where your traffic is coming from, what pages are the most popular and which ones have the highest bounce rates.

SEO

Last, but certainly not least, you should keep current on the latest happenings with search engine optimization. If the whole Google Panda debacle has taught us anything, it’s that SEO best practices are constantly changing and evolving; just because doing things a certain way took you to the top of the SERPs in the past doesn’t mean it will always be the case. Therefore, it’s vital that you stay on top of the latest changes and developments in the SEO world so you can make sure that your site is easily found by humans and indexed by the major search engines.

While checking under the hood of your site may not be the most glamorous or sexy of tasks, it’s something that you can’t afford NOT to do. A successful, highly functioning website, much like an exotic sports car, requires a lot of TLC, maintenance and monitoring, so don’t neglect these much-needed tune-ups and calibrations.

‘Wine and Dine’ Your Prospects to Convert Them

A recent article on conversions compared the process to trying to establish a relationship with someone. This metaphor is a clever way to look at converting potential clients, with the main point being that conversation should be the driving force throughout the process. There is no one point of conversion; instead, nurture your leads in multiple ways on their journey to becoming loyal customers.

Start With a Corny Pick-up Line

When trying to get someone’s attention in a bar, people often resort to using pick-up lines. They need to distinguish themselves somehow from the others and, while often cheesy, these lines usually get attention. The conversion equivalent, then, is crafting a creative, compelling headline that will make your site stand out from amongst the crowd on the SERPs. Try writing something that is a pun or a play on words—sure, it might make someone groan, but it WILL make them more apt to click on it!

Dazzle Them With Your Witty Conversational Skills

In the bar, once the woman falls for the man’s line, he now has to back it up by engaging in a riveting conversation that will keep the lady’s attention. At this point, body language comes into play, so there are a lot of things going on. What this means for conversions is that once you’ve lured someone onto your site with an irresistible headline, you have to keep the conversation going by delivering them the information you promised in the SERPs. Don’t just rely on text alone; much like body language enhances conversations, inserting appropriate images will make your text pack a punch. Just make sure that your content and images pertain to your initial headline and don’t go in a different direction than you indicated. Just like no lady likes to be led astray by a lounge lizard, don’t make your prospects feel duped by a bait and switch!

Don’t Beat Around the Bush

Once the bar guy gets to talk to the girl and things are going well, what should he do? If she seems interested, he should at some point directly ask her for her phone number and maybe a dinner out. If he doesn’t clearly make his intentions known, there could be a miscommunication and a missed opportunity for a real love connection. Similarly, once you have gotten a prospect to your page and you have offered them compelling, relevant content, it’s time to seal the deal by making it crystal clear what the next step is. Make sure your call to action, whether it is to buy a product or sign up for a newsletter, very apparent so there can be no doubt in the prospect’s mind what comes next. Keep the conversation going by providing step-by-step guidance so they don’t get confused and abandon your site.

Yes, the metaphor is kind of silly, but contains many useful parallels to how you should go about winning over leads--don’t rush the process and always be available and helpful. Your prospects will discover that they just can’t live without you!

For more ideas on how to gain conversions, check out FindYourSearch.com’s article over at Posterous.

Why No One is Noticing Your Content

We’ve all heard the adage over and over again that “content is king”. Have you ever been frustrated by the lack of response to something you created that you felt was really great? If so, read on to learn about the most common culprits that are involved when your content is ignored.

You Didn’t Promote It

One of the biggest reasons content falls flat is that no one reads it. It’s very much similar to the old proverb, “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” In other words, you could have produced the most earth-shattering content in the world, but if you aren’t putting it in front of the right people, it’s destined to fail. Creating a great article or video is only half the battle—you need to research who your target audience is and network with them. Cultivate an open relationship and show them that you’re willing to reciprocate when it comes to sharing and commenting on content.

The Title is a Total Snore

There is a seemingly infinite amount of content out there, so in order to make yours stand out, you must craft an attention-getting, compelling headline that simply cannot be ignored. Even if the topic is not exactly exciting, you need to find a way to title your content in such a way that instantly signals to your audience that your material can’t be missed. Given how much stuff is available, people need a reason or interact with something and they look to the title for the reason. So, don’t shortchange yourself with generic, bland, unimaginative titles.

It’s All About YOU

The point of creating content is to interact with your audience so you can really get to know their needs and desires. Social media is not just another platform to use to blast your message out to the masses. Instead, your content needs to cater to the users—what’s in it for them and how will it help them to accomplish their goals? While you naturally want to broadcast your marketing, you have to do it in a way that doesn’t seem like advertising. This is where your creativity and imagination come into play; create something that has real value and adds something meaningful to the community and you will attract the attention you desire.

These are just a few reasons why your content isn’t going viral. Others include bad design/user interface, misusing social media tools and communities or targeting the wrong market. If your content isn’t performing well, take a step back and make sure you are doing everything you can to grab and keep the attention of a fickle audience without sounding like a commercial. It’s a delicate balance that can only be met through careful study and experimentation.

Putting eye-catching images and videos into long articles can break up blocks of texts and engage your readers. Check out FindYourSearch.com’s Flickr account for some inspirational images to use in your next blog.