Over the past few years, I’ve been talking to SEO guys about social media’s impact on search. They tend have these assumptions.
If you find the right algorithm you can beat search engines
Social media is just another system to learn and program for
Coding beats talking to people
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I explain that any human being would rather buy from someone that they know, like, and trust and nothing in optimization theories allows for people doing what they want. Eric Schmidt agrees
“Within search results, information tied to verified online profiles will be ranked higher than content without such verification, which will result in most users naturally clicking on the top (verified) results. The true cost of remaining anonymous, then, might be irrelevance.”
It is profitable to follow what Google says.
They don’t owe me a rank in their search engine or the visitors I get from them, and they have a lot more genius working to give relevant results than any huskter with a system for beating the algorithms
Social Media Impact on Search – What it means to you
In 2011, Google started pushing authorship, a way to tag posts that identified the human that wrote it. Since then I’ve seen SEO jocks go through what looks like the five steps.. ignoring this, denying it will affecting them, fighing it, bargaining, and finally accepting that their days are numbered.
When we heard about a TIME social media editor using social media for an old media property, our first thought was “Won’t this just be #oldmediabias talking about what they are doing to get people back to ‘the way things should be”
In this Ebyline interview of social media editor Kelly Conniff by Susan Johnson, we see there’s more to it than that. Still, we have the paradox: the better she does at embracing the future, the harder it will be for TIME to pretend they can hold to the past?
Is there a future for magazine? Read this and let’s discuss in the comments below.
When news breaks, readers turn to social media to read and post updates, presenting opportunities for news outlets to engage with them and challenges in keeping up with multiple platforms and a 24/7 news cycle. Ebyline recently discussed these challenges and opportunities with Kelly Conniff, who started as social media editor at TIME in September after working as social media manager at the National Geographic Society since 2009. Excerpts from that interview follow.
What social media platforms does TIME focus on?
Really the number one platform we’re on is definitely Twitter. We actually just hit four million followers today, which was amazing. Beyond that we also are on Facebook, and we just actually hit 600,000 [Facebook likes]. We’re one of the biggest news ands on Google +, and we should be in the neighborhood of hitting two million next week, which is just amazing.
We’re also on Pinterest and Instagram. We actually have two Tumblr’s. One is TIME magazine proper, and it’s very much kind of our behind-the-scenes look at how the magazine is made, how we put together our amazing covers, and basically how we do what we do. We also have one for LightBox, which is our photography blog that is very popular in the industry. That one focuses a little bit more on the photo projects that we feature every day as well as kind of promoting what’s happening in the photography community.
Social media has a great deal to do with businesses these days and it is important to have a strong social media campaign. In addition to this, costs are minimal, in fact free. As an example we shall look at it is an ideal way to promote an online casino and attract new customers as well as engaging with existing ones in order to develop increased amounts of customer loyalty. Many sites from the UK to online casinos in New Zealand have utilised these tactics, and with such a wide target audience the campaign must be streamlined very well.
Today there is a plethora of alternative social media sites, however the best ones for promoting an online casino business tend to be the tried and trusted ones, which are in order of importance, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn, which is more a professional network on which many people use for career connections. It is true that the younger generation are rapidly abandoning Facebook for alternative social media, the reason being that their parents are also using Facebook, but that isn’t the important generation to target in order to promote an online casino – their parents are remaining faithful to Facebook and it their parents who you want to play.
There is a saying, which is really nowadays a cliché, the content is King, but it is still as true as it ever was. The fundamental point about promoting an online casino such as through social media is to serve up information that members of the network will wish to share, that way your audience can grow at a potentially exponential rate, so it is essential to get your content right.
However don’t underestimate the dangers. Social media is great for promoting, but it can also have the reverse effect. It is also an ideal way for disenchanted customers to say bad things about you in order to do harm to your reputation and brand. However the effect of this is balanced in your favour as long as you have enough fans who like you. Disenchanted customers who like to flame your reputation will soon be silenced by the majority of fans who continue to like you; it is the way social media works. No longer does one bad apple cause the rest of the barrel to rot.
Gary Vaynerchuk doesn’t mince words when he talks about social media ROI. He’s been quite vocal in telling us the calculating the ROI for social media is like trying to assign an ROI to your mom.
That’s a good line, but leaves us wondering how to figure what works. In this video clip, Gary gives us some further insights:
Are You Ready for Social Media ROI?
I agree that it’s going to be a while before everyone sees where the ROI is in their social media investments. However, that doesn’t mean we can sit back and wait. Smart businesses are using the data being generated now to measure what they can and learning that the online models of business established during the last decade are just one way to measure. There’s still a lot of value in using the click to transaction metrics to see immediate boost in sales.
Always nice to spend X and see a multiple of that in the cash register the same day. That’s one KPI (key performance indicator) that every business should know and measure. In a sales funnel, the bottom of the funnel where the money comes out is the heart of your business.
What we’re learning now is how to set KPI’s to measure the much larger volume of data (people) that are at the top of the funnel. Your prospects and those thinking about you that haven’t got to a Google search.The mass media approach of the 20th Century was aimed at hitting everyone in the funnel, and everyone else. We’d blast a message to everyone and expect a very small percentage to buy and provide us with sales and profits.
Modern audience are so overwhelmed with messages that they have learned to tune out nearly everything. New technology filters out many messages and the default reaction becomes to yell louder. That does not work if you message is getting filtered.. if anything, it makes the message easier to filter.
Social media ROI comes from two way communication, which means listening to the audience and responding to those who are seeking information, especially at the top of the funnel. Do this and you will stand out far more than anyone yelling “buy me”
Keyboard tricks like these Facebook shortcuts don’t make you more profitable, but they can cut down on the time you spend online using social media.
Social Media experts know that any post is more powerful with personality. Add an emoticon or use some white space to add style and flair to everything you do. Anything that can add a photo, link to valuable information or make things fun will bring out your personality and engage your readers.
There are some of the Facebook shortcuts we use.
Facebook Shortcuts Cheat Sheet
Use these Facebook Shortcuts to navigate Facebook in your browser, to add smiliys and other emotions quickly and to add your profile to messages
What Facebook Shortcuts Do You Use
These aren’t all the Facebook Shortcuts that social media experts use. I’m sure you know a few more. Share them in the comments below.
Last night on Facebook, Robert Scoble asked if people thought that company reps and fans were cluttering up the marketing technology landscape with too many people saying the same thing.
I said the problem was not consumers, it was the company stuck in the paradigm that they had to be talking about their new products.
I’ve been saying:
If you’re the only one saying how awesome your product is, you don’t need to yell louder. tweet this
It’s a topic I’ve been YELLING about (irony is not lost on me) since we wrote Twitter Revolution.
We recognized that we were leaving the anomaly of the 20th century, the mass media one way blasts, and were having two way conversations. I’ve been saying how we spent the last hundred years getting good at pushing out a message, and that now we needed this Century to teach (or have die off) all the people who assume LOUDER is better.
Since then, I’ve learned that dialog is just one step.
OLD MARKETING = One Way Blast from the Center
SOCIAL MEDIA = Two Way.. LISTENING
SUCCESS = Two customers talking to each other.
Your Job is Help Customers Talk to Each Other
Its Word of Mouth and Social Graph and the move to LISTENING put together with a huge amount of data. Working toward knowing the needs of influencers and ALL to anticipate their needs and see that it’s available WHEN THEY ASK FOR IT.
We used to craft marketing messages and announcements. MOST marketers think that’s what social media does: just another media (they are the ones going away over the next 100 years :).
The marketing technology landscape has evolved. The business of the future will have smart relationships, use all the data they can mine, wisdom and insight to design better products and then let the market find them.
Marketing is Seduction
Like any seduction, marketing that looks like marketing is third rate marketing. We don’t chase the one who is chasing us. The ART of this is knowing that people are anxious for your new products, your excellent service and your fresh ideas. More important, they are dying to tell their friends that they found the newest thing.. not parrot what we tell them.
We got into a serious discussion about the balance between asking for attention/sales and building real relationships that are far more profitable over time.
Is Asking for Social Media ROI Selfish?
This goes back to one of my most basic philosophies. The most selfish thing you can do in life is to be selfless.
Talk about a counter-intuitive headspin… Once you know that selfless is the best for your own interests, you realize that trying to ACT selfless is selfish. You have to BE selfless.. that is, you want to get to the point where you put your self interest on the back burner and think about it less and less.
Easier said than done.
Applied to marketing, we know that marketing that looks like marketing is 3rd rate marketing. Everyone has a BS filter and some people will attack you just because you have something for sale. (ignore them).
Mike Hill is a glowing example of getting it right. He runs a private group on Facebook with the best peer to peer advice around and hardly anyone gaming the discussion for lead generation or traffic (Imagine how crazy promotional a group of Internet promoters could be if they were all trying to sell to each other).
I love my wife 🙂 why is it this reminds me of us SO MUCH! She tolerates my stupidity and encourages my insa instagr.am/p/P98ZAglGO0/
Mike set up strong rules against self promotion works hard work to police posts, he’s got a pitch free zone. When he posts or comments, it’s high level helpful advice. You’d really have to dig to even find out what he sells.
This is the best marketing Mike could do. If you ask him about the ROI on the group, I’d imagine his first response would be “Huh?” The thought of capturing an audience to push products to appears to completely missing from his motivations. I haven’t seen sales data for Mike, but know he continues to do well.
How much would Mike attribute to his social media efforts? Hard to say. It’s just part of who he is, and that’s what his customers are buying.
We have to calculate what works, even if our pure intent is to serve others we want it to be effective. All the influence and strategy serves that.
I study the tools, use them for profit, but now I’m learning to limit even the language of IM (ie. traffic, eyeballs, “killing it”) and speak in terms of how I might love my readers and customers more. I don’t just rely on what feels good. I know that my feelings could lead me to waste time in some places and ignore other in pursuit of short term advantages.
Being aware of this takes me back to the paradox of selfless/selfish which I now define as a life mission. We can measure the transactions and assign values to find out what works best, but we prosper more when we act in the interest of our network.
The best opportunity for building your social media network is to mingle with though leaders in your market.
For affiliates and online marketers, that makes Affiliate Summit a must attend event.
There is always plenty to learn from speakers, but the best reason to attend events is the long term relationships that develop from interacting with other attendees.
This is why I love going on the Affiliate Summit. The serendipity of meeting with other publishers, advertisers and vendors means you will find many opportunities through the conference.
As I went through my preparation to network, I thought it would be interesting to document some of the ways why networking with speakers and attendees works so well for me.
Know Who Will Be There
As soon as I book a trip, I look for social media connections.
Start with your own social profiles. Post that you are planning to attend and ask who else is going. Then search Twitter and Facebook for connections in your network. Make sure you’re registered in the Affiliate Summit Forum and look for posts that resonate and and those participants to your list.
When I first started attending Affiliate Summit, I knew no one, but instead of looking at the agenda for topics, I used it to find the speakers.. followed their Twitter feeds and read their blogs. I quickly found that the people I wanted to meet were active online.. and I know what to do to make any blogger take notice. I read their blogs and tweet and commented.
Do a blog search for people talking about your niche, or a topic you want to learn about. Try adding “Affiliate Summit” or “ASE12” to the search. You’ll be amazed how many are talking about the exact topic you are looking for.
Affiliate Summit East – Photo by Steve Hall
If you can’t find a social media connection, try the members tab in the forum
I have been doing this for a while, so most of the attendees are already friends on and off Twitter. For the few that I couldn’t recall, I used a Google search. Here is the syntax I use to find a user on Twitter using Google.
Google searches for occurrences of the text between the quotes on Twitter. Usually, you’ll get only the most active use with that name. Click on the link, see the profile and FOLLOW the person. While on Twitter, be sure to read their recent tweets and click through to their blog and bio links.
Making a List and Checking it Twice (a day)
I created a list of these user handles to follow. I use Hootsuite, where I’ll column open between now and a mid August to see what others are tweeting about. I’ve found that Hootsuite is the fastest way to add people to a group, and it allows me to keep it outside of Twitter, where the limit to lists is only 20.
I’ll add other attendees to my Hootsuite list as I find and follow them. You’ll find plenty more to choose from is you do a Twitter search for “ASE12”
Don’t wait for them to start talking about the event, and actually prefer to find out what they are talking about besides Affiliate Summit, since I want to have a relationship before and after the event. I already know we have that in common, so I look for what else we can connect on.
Building Relationships Before the Event
Using the links I get from Twitter feeds, I’ll find links to blog posts about whatever expertise the person has, along with other interests on Facebook, LinkedIn and anything else they talk about.
What I’m looking for is their passion. I’ve learned that it’s best to put off my interests for as long as possible and focus on what the other person needs and wants. Many of the famous people I network with are more interested in a charity, cause or avocation than you might think. Some might spend all their time talking about their niche or making money.. that’s okay, but what I’ really want to know is what passion they would follow if they had all the money they ever need.
That’s where the real connections lie.
Attack With a Preemptive Love Strike
Here’s where the real fun begins.
Once you have spent a few minutes getting to know a person and their passions, you’ll find at least one thing to love about them.
Now we get to put my listen and love marketing strategy into play.
Look for a question asked, a poignant comment, a shared life story or desire from the person you want to know better. I rarely need more than a few minutes to find at least one question or something to provoke a positive comment.
Now, do something nice for them. Instead of reading and thinking “that’s nice”, TELL THEM in a comment, tweet, or message.
Please don’t settle for “nice post” or “I’m a fan” (I use that when I’m nervous.. it rarely gets a positive reaction). Take a couple of seconds more and think of something specific and personal that you can say. It doesn’t need to be long, but it has to show you really mean it.
My friend Dr. Ben Mack is calling this a preemptive love strike, which means that you don’t wait for others to reach out to you, you look for ways to show love.
Since I’ve used Twitter and social media to help me show love and appreciate to others, I’ve learned to do it much more often… and now find ways offline to do the same.. handwritten notes, a book from Amazon with a note enclosed, a phone call when it’s not expected.. I can’t imagine ever running out of opportunities.
This works. I just set up a joint venture from sending one post card, I have sold consulting to someone who watched how I tweet positive ideas, and made new friends while strengthening bonds with many others from using these love strikes.
Watch for the HashTags
Attendees to the Affiliate Summit were encouraged to tweet and talk about the event and add a hashtag to the end of each post. This triggered a link in their posts and allowed others to click and see a stream of every tweet with that tag. They were also able to view this on the web using cool tools like TwitterFall.
TwitterFall allows you to click on a photo to see the current stream, or use the site to set up your own instant updating stream with whatever search term, with a list of people you want to see. It’s great for projectors or monitors at events.
Using the hashtag, you can also set up a stack or column in nearly every Twitter client. On the web you can follow us from any browser with Twitter Search.
Come to the Tweet Ups
Affiliate Summit East – Photo by Steve Hall
Many events around Affiliate Summit have pre-events the night before the official start time. This is often the best way to get a leveraged fast start on meeting speakers, promoters and experienced attendees for a head start.
Go to Twitter and watch for announcements following the #ase12 hashtag. When you see the invite, you’ll be able to access a list of attendees and follow them.
By the time you get to the Tweet up, you’ll already be seeing friends you met online.
Help Promote the Event
When you tweet about the event, you’ll be doing a preemptive love strike on the promoter, the speakers and other attendees who will benefit from meeting you at the network.
This can be done even if you can’t make it to the live event.
When you tweet about an event, point your followers to the appropriate website, and let them know the handles of the cool people who are speaking or attending.
This preemptive love strike is about as direct as you can get. Everyone wants to be loved.
Keep in Touch After the Event
As you begin to use these tips, you’ll find that it takes a lot less time than you might have thought. Pretty soon, you’ll have new friends and connections, a network of people that will remember your preemptive love strikes, and be looking for ways to help you.
It’s natural to think that you have to sell something to them or perhaps it might be a waste of time. Actually, the reverse is true. The more times you can reach out and help (love) your contacts, the more apt they will be to ask you how they can help you.
When they do, be ready to engage them and move into whatever you need.
Of course, you want to keep your goals and desires in mind. I know we can’t do an individual love strike on every contact every day, but I have doubled, doubled again, and am still increasing my capacity to do this. So far, I can’t see any time that I will want to love less.
These are just a few of the quick steps I take when attending ASE12, or any live event, and every day. I know each of these work because I’m using them. Do you have other ideas? Please share them with me. Leave a comment, Tweet about the show, and let’s discuss what works and what hurdles you see. When you do, I feel your love
Imagine a time when you’ll have so many asking to engage you, wanting to reciprocate for the love you’ve show and anxious to see you do well.
Listen and Love.. it’s as simple as that… See you in New York
So you wake up in the morning and you want to access the online gift shop you visited last night on your laptop. You already emailed the link to your own email address and you are now on the subway on your way to work, eager to use your tablet or smartphone to click on the link again and place an order for your spouses’ anniversary. You are eagerly waiting for the page to load – when you start noticing some weird “things”. First of all, the page is taking quite a while to load. Maybe you have poor 3G reception on your way to work, even though the rest of the pages seem to load just fine.
You tend to ignore than and you eagerly start to browse the site. Wait, where did last night preview button’s go? Of, there it is! But it’s so small! If you could just click on it…zoom in just a little…more…that’s it! Oh no, you accidentally tapped on a different button and now a different page is loading! Did that ever happen to you? Well, my friend, that is because you have visited a so-called non-responsive website. Never heard of the term? Read on.
Responsive Web Site Design – An Absolute Present+Future Must
Responsive web sites are fully optimized web sites that feature a unique design which eables the sites to show up correctly formatted no matter what device you might be using. Laptops, desktops, tablets, smartphones – they are all part of your customers’ and prospects’ lives, and they are constant joggling tools in between site pages. So it is utterly important to provide them with the pages they need and boos their satisfaction, while considering improving your marketing results. An individual who has visited the sloppy, not optimized mobile version of a website that they have previously visited on his laptop is less likely to pay that site another visit.
Say No To Frustration!
The frustration of not being able to practically use the site, browse normally, see pictures or writing without having to constantly zoom in and out – all of these need to disappear. If we are to look at some important Google statistics, it would seem that more than 60 percent of mobile visitors who come across a sloppy mobile site go back to their favorite search engine and opt for a different site. Imagine how frustrating it is to get prospects on your site, and see them leave in less than 10 seconds because they cannot access your menus the right way. Moreover, a huge percentage of mobile users (close to 80 percent) want to be able to find the precise information they are looking for at the end of just a couple of taps, while scrolling left and right is not a viable option for these folks either.
Finding a responsive website designer is not hard to do – the important thing is that you need to fully grasp the crucial importance of stepping into the future. Align your site to the demands of the majority and success will come easier. Meanwhile, check out the slots-casinos.org site and try to hit some jackpots with some of the most popular online casinos you can read reviews for there. Read the news and the latest tips, watch the videos and become a professional slot player or play for fun – all from your mobile device or computer.
