Google’s Latest Announcements: Social Reporting and Google Webmaster Tools Updates
Thursday June 30, 2011

MoreVisibility’s Twitterchat (#MVCHAT) took place today. MoreVisibility’s chat was lead by Danielle Leitch, MoreVisibility’s Executive Vice President, and the Agency’s Director of Web Intelligence, Joe Teixiera (@jtex316). As a Google Certified Analytics Partner, MoreVisibility works with several clients on how best to use the interface.  Just yesterday, Google made a few major announcements related to the new Social Reporting feature in the Google Analytics Interface.  MoreVisibility is very excited for the new tools. The discussion covered:

• Social Engagement Report
• Social Actions Report
• Limitations of the Reports
• How Businesses Can Leverage Social Reporting
• And more…

MVCHAT is a weekly 30 minute discussion starting at 3:30 pm (est) covering a variety of online marketing topics. Clients, advertisers, and online marketing enthusiasts are invited to participate in this rapid-fire conversation by following and including #MVCHAT in tweets. Read more about #MVCHAT in the news here.

According to a recent report conducted by Pitney Bowes, in their SMB Owners Report May 2011, 68% of respondents are choosing email marketing as a new advertising tactic and 54% say they are choosing social media.  In fact, 76% of small businesses responded by saying the ideal marketing mix is a combination of traditional media and digital communications.  One of the main reasons for the shift is the inexpensive entry to market through these digital channels.

Small businesses are always looking for inexpensive, yet effective ways to market their products and services.  Usually, they can not compete with the large national chains or mega brands that can afford to saturate the market with huge marketing campaigns.  It is critical for small business to get creative and find less expensive ways to get their message to the public.  Factor in a shaky economy that has not rebounded like many expected by the middle of 2011 and it is more important than ever for small businesses to leverage digital channels to promote their business.  It can be significantly less expensive to develop a mass email campaign compared to dropping a physical mailer or flyer to the same number of recipients.  With technology today you can create robust graphics and aesthetically pleasing emails at little to no cost.

Social Media channels like Facebook and Twitter are another inexpensive way to reach a massive audience.  It is free to set up the channels themselves, and while I do not pretend to think they can be managed effectively for free (I would recommend a social media expert managing any small business’ social media presence) it is still much less expensive than traditional forms of media.  Facebook has approximately 700 million users now and you can target by age, location, and interests when marketing to those millions of people.  Twitter is an excellent tool for customer loyalty programs and can really help small businesses increase their customer base through “digital” word of mouth advertising.  If you have a Twitter account and you haven’t tweeted out a coupon deal or special discount to all your Twitter followers, you are missing a great opportunity to make a strong move in creating new business.

The numbers don’t lie and the statistics are eye opening.  Small businesses are using digital communications to supplement (and sometimes replace) their traditional advertising programs in larger numbers.  The reasons are simple…digital media is now a proven advertising platform and inexpensive compared to traditional media.

MoreVisibility’s Twitterchat (#MVCHAT) took place today. MoreVisibility’s chat was lead by the Agency’s Director of Web Intelligence, Joe Teixiera (@jtex316). As a Google Certified Analytics Partner, MoreVisibility works with several clients on how best to use the interface.  With the recent updates to the platform, it is becoming increasingly important to understand how to navigate through the new interface and take full advantage of all of the new features offered.  During today’s #mvchat, Joe highlighted:

• The ‘Must-Have’s’
• Underutilized Features
• Common Pitfalls
• Leveraging Data For ROI

MVCHAT is a weekly 30 minute discussion starting at 3:30 pm (est) covering a variety of online marketing topics. Clients, advertisers, and online marketing enthusiasts are invited to participate in this rapid-fire conversation by following and including #MVCHAT in tweets. Read more about #MVCHAT in the news here.

There are a lot of buttons appearing on websites these days.  Twitter has the Follow Button and the Tweet Button.  Facebook has the Like Button and the Send Button.  All of these buttons allow visitors to be active participants in the promotion process.  LinkedIn released a Share Button that is growing followers amongst businesses looking to promote content B2B.  The Share Button is placed on a webpage with a simple snippet of code. 

http://www.linkedin.com/publishers

Visitors to the page click on the button and a pop-up window appears.  Within this window you can edit the content to post on LinkedIn.  The content includes a title for the snippet, a blurb, and an image.  Visitors can choose whether or not to include the image (pulled and minimized from the webpage).  Also within the pop-up window are three ways you can select to share the content: post to updates, post to group(s), and send to individuals.

‘Post to updates’ which goes into the stream of posts on LinkedIn (similar to a Twitter stream) goes as far as to allow you to also post the content to your Twitter account (essentially a Twitter Tweet Button within the LinkedIn Share Button).  You are also able to segment who sees the content to ‘anyone’ or ‘connections only.’  If you are active in groups on LinkedIn you are able to share the content to one or more groups.  If you have a specific individual in mind (whether you are currently connected with them through LinkedIn or not) you can share the content with them through the ‘Send to individuals’ option.

LinkedIn’s Share Button is a great tool for businesses with webpage or blog content that they think professionals would like to share.  The button and pop-up are easy to use and take up very little real estate on your site.  If you would like help choosing which social media buttons to add to your webpage or blog, please contact MoreVisibility’s Social Media Team.

For better or for worse, most companies have added social media into their overall marketing strategy at this point. For better, meaning they got started and are now actively engaging with their community of likes (on Facebook) , followers (on Twitter) and connections (on LinkedIn). For worse, meaning they dove into the pool without even knowing how to doggy paddle, without first testing the water temperature and without a plan. A bad combination if you ask me. Now they are barely (if at all) staying active.

One of the biggest mistakes a company can make is to begin Social Media without a strategy. Below are a few things you should NOT do with your Social Media channels.

• Set them up and do nothing. This is way too common and is simply not acceptable. If you are not ready to embrace Social Media head on, don’t do it at all.
• Get started with your channels and then after a month or two, just stop cold turkey. Again, if you are not ready to take Social Media seriously, don’t bother starting it at all.
• Only engage in shameless self promotion about yourself and your company. Social media is all about engaging within your social circle and encouraging people to want to like your Facebook page, follow you on Twitter and connect with you on LinkedIn. If all you do is talk about your company and discourage interaction, you will get nowhere fast.

If done correctly, Social Media can be a highly rewarding addition to your overall marketing plan. If done incorrectly, the ramifications can potentially be damaging. Be smart and take the time to do it right and maintain an active, engaging social media existence

Currently, most websites include social media icons that link to their social media profiles; typically you will see icons for Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Twitter has just launched a Follow button, that when placed on your website, allows visitors to follow your Twitter account with a single click. No longer do you need to worry about your visitors being taken offsite to Twitter.com and then not making their way back to your webpage.

The current Twitter icon is second from the left, amongst typical social media icons:

http://www.morevisibility.com/

The new Follow button is pretty straight forward.  It keeps the two-tone Twitter blues and bird and will automatically have your account follow the account connected to the button if you are logged in to Twitter.

You can access the code for the Follow button to add to your website here: https://twitter.com/about/resources/followbutton

Vanity Fair’s main page is an example of the new Follow button in action:

 http://www.vanityfair.com/

The new process of following through the use of the Twitter Follow button:

The process of following through the use of the Twitter icon:

Don’t confuse the Follow button with the Tweet button.  The Tweet button allows visitors to your website to share content from your website to their Twitter followers with a click of a button your website. 

Examples of Tweet buttons:

http://twitter.com/goodies/tweetbutton

There are many benefits to using easily identifiable Twitter icons, the new one click Twitter Follow button and the Tweet button. Twitter continues to release new ways to enhance your website and increase engagement with your audience. We look forward to seeing how these onsite buttons will progress in the future.

LinkedIn for Business
Thursday June 8, 2011

MoreVisibility’s Twitterchat (#MVCHAT) took place today. The discussion corresponded with MoreVisibility’s live webinar on “Leveraging LinkedIn for Business” with EVP @DanielleLeitch.  LinkedIn has and continues to play a large role in networking and connecting with other professionals. Working the channel as an individual as well as a representative of a company enables you to leverage your professional network in unique ways.  This week’s #MVCHAT highlighted the most important aspects of LinkedIn and explained how companies can optimize their experience and efforts within this growing social media network.

MVCHAT is a weekly 30 minute discussion starting at 3:30 pm (est) covering a variety of online marketing topics. Clients, advertisers, and online marketing enthusiasts are invited to participate in this rapid-fire conversation by following and including #MVCHAT in tweets. Read more about #MVCHAT in the news here.

Twitter for Business
Thursday June 2, 2011

MoreVisibility’s Twitterchat (#MVCHAT) took place today. The host, Boca Raton Police Services Department (@BocaPolice) discussed ways that the organization leverages Twitter and other social media channels to communicate with the local community.  The discussion highlighted how any organization can benefit from Twitter and illustrated how the Police Dept has paved the way for other Law Enforcement Agencies.

MVCHAT is a weekly 30 minute discussion starting at 3:30 pm (est) covering a variety of online marketing topics. Clients, advertisers, and online marketing enthusiasts are invited to participate in this rapid-fire conversation by following and including #MVCHAT in tweets. Read more about #MVCHAT in the news here.

Facebook’s advertising platform is great for audience targeting in that you can target its 500 million users based on a user’s location, demographics, interests and education and workplace. In addition, although Facebook does not advertise the fact that occupational targeting is available, it most certainly is, along with the ability to direct your ads to users who “Like” your competition.

In order to target a user’s occupation, you can enter job titles in the “Precise Interests” box under “Interests”:

If you are seeking a way to target a specific industry or even a certain company of an individual, you can use the “Workplaces” section under “Education & Work” targeting.

For example, if you are trying to sell hospital scrubs to people who work in hospitals in the Miami, FL area, you can isolate users in the target city and then enter names of hospitals in the area. Users that work at the specific companies you listed in the area you are specifying will see your ad.

You can also direct your ads to users who “Like” competitor companies, in addition to finding users who “Like” yours.  In the same “Precise Interests” box, you can list names of competitors to target. For example, if you are a lesser-known sneaker brand, you may want to target other brands of sneakers like: Nike, Adidas, New Balance, Reebok, Puma, Converse, etc., which will put your ads in front of users who like similar products.
As you can see, there are more ways to target Facebook’s 500 million users than meets the eye. The social network promotes the capability to target its users by location, demographics and interests, but if you dig deep, you can find innovative ways to reach a very specific audience that fits the goals of your company.