Social Media - what's the verdict?

Ah social media....everybody's talking about it, every company knows it needs to be in the social media sphere, but how do you approach it to make the most of it from a marketing point of view?
Well this is one the issues I'm facing right now thanks to budget cuts and limited resources!
Even though I've been working in online marketing for 7 years now, social media is still something I have to learn about as it changes every day, and the need for SMO (social media optimisation) is becoming critical to improve search engine rankings and customer interaction.
So where to start?

• I guess the first thing you need to do is be organised and have clear objectives.
• Tracking / reporting: decide on how you're going to measure you social media effectiveness and manage your online reputation (ORM - online reputation management)
• Start with the basics: get involved in relevant blogs and forums for your business as they could be a good source of leads and will allow customers to interact with you
• Create a Twitter (www.twitter.com) account only if you have resources to dedicate to it. The whole point of social marketing is responsiveness, so if you don't have the resources, don't do it. Microblogging is great but time consuming
  
• Target social networking sites if you have resources: Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace. Make sure you choose the right ones based on your target audience
  
• Create content/articles for syndication and link baiting - make sure that what you offer/talk about is interesting and link worthy. utlimately, you want to establish yourself as an authority in your field
• Social bookmarking: target social bookmarking sites like digg, delicious, stumble upon to broadcast your content/news/posts as widely as possible. an RSS feed can help here.
• If you have budget, widgets can also be helpful, without forgetting viral marketing campaigns
  
• Above all, keep control of what is happening and integrate your social media strategy within your overall online marketing strategy to get results
  

I know i'm probably missing a lot of things here, but this is just a start and I'll keep posting as I go along. Thankfully, my colleague Rochelle (www.rochelledancel.com) will be at hand to help me so hopefully I'll be able to come back with a good recipe for a perfect social media strategy!

Choosing a search marketing agency - a quick checklist

Since I'm currently trying to choose a search marketing agency for my company to help with our SEO/SMO strategy, I though it may be useful to give a quick reminder of what you should expect from a good agency before hiring one:

• A comprehensive content and technical audit to identify potential problems
• A level of support and consultancy adapted to your needs: since many agencies charge quite a significant amount per hour, it is worth having clear requirements before signing a contract
• An integrated strategy: all elements of the strategy should be working together
• Beware of companies offering top rankings, no self respecting agency would ever promise number 1 SE rankings for specific keywords
• Good reporting: since you're likely to spend large parts of your marketing of your budget on SEO/SMO and PPC, make sure you're provided with the right reporting tools as you'll need to measure ROI going forward
• Check for references, see who the agency is currently working with
• Remember, you may not need all of the bells and whistles on offer, so make sure you get the basics right (onsite optimisation / link building) before signing for complicated and expensive social media activities
• Always negotiate rates and never let an agency treat you like a small customer, no matter what your budget is
• Don't be afraid to ask questions if you're not sure about some of the terms mentioned
  
• Whichever agency you choose, responsiveness is key, so a good account manager needs to be available for you when you need

These are just some pointers to get you started and I'll go more into details of strategies in a future post.
If you want to know more, feel free to ask!
see you next, have a good weekend

Google Analytics for Blogger - How to

Hey again
Since I just wrote a long post about web analytics, thought it'd be worth adding a quick link on how to setup Google Analytics on a Blogger account
Here's an easy guide - http://www.eblogtemplates.com/how-to-install-google-analytics-on-blogger/

Let me know if you have questions, I'll be happy to help!

It's all about tracking - top tips to make the most of your web analytics tool

As you may know if you read my posts, I'm usually quite keen when it comes to web analytics. One of the main reasons why I work in online marketing is because everything is measurable, and there's nothing better than knowing that your marketing efforts are working (or if not, discover what's wrong).

• Which analytics tool?

While some products like WebTrends provide you with a huge amount of data, they can be tricky to set up, especially if you go for a server side installation. There are dozens of reporting tools available on the market, and the choice usually lies on bugdets and resources.
However, we can all thank Google for giving us Google Analytics. Although this free system has its limitations (only 4 goals per profile), it is really straightforward to use and will allow any internet enthusiast to find out more about what's happening on their website in an almost real time basis. it is a tried and tested product based on the old Urchin platform and is a great tool to get started in web analytics.

• Tips for web analytics beginners
  

Nowadays, it is crucial for any online business to understand visitors behaviour in order to achieve marketing objectives and improve user experience. One of the common pitfalls is to collect too much data and not knowing what to do with it, so here are a few tips to get you started:

1. Establish clear business/marketing objectives for the website
2. Select the right web analytics tool for your business
3. Define internet metrics based on these objectives
4. Set up your web analytics tool to capture data for these specific metrics
5. Gather data and present it in a simple, easy to understand format (build a web dashboard)
6. Review performance against marketing targets and change website accordingly
7. Go back to step 4 and repeat the process as regularly as possible
   

That's it for today, have a good weekend!

What makes a good online marketing strategy

Web marketing is a constantly evolving discipline and never has this been more obvious than now with the rise of social media and user generated content. I've worked in the online marketing/SEO industry for more than 7 years now and I still learn something new every day.
I worked on the online marketing strategy for my company the other day and thought I'd share what I think are fundamentals in any good strategy:

Search engine marketing

• Search engine optimisation:
  - on the page (metadata, content, alt tags, H tags, internal linking, keyword density, technical analysis) never forget that content is king!
  - off the page (link building, link baiting)
• Social media strategy:
  - Blogs/ forums
  - RSS feeds, social bookmarks, content aggregation sites
  - Social networking / microblogging (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn....)
  - Online reputation management
  
• Paid search:
  - Pay per click campaigns (Adwords, Yahoo search marketing, MSN)

Email marketing / Advertising

• internal campaigns for retention (existing customers, prospects/leads, lifecycle emails)
• Display advertising for acquisition (banners, sponsored emails, solus emails/3rd party emails)
• List rental for acquisition (targeted emails to key decision makers/ key sectors)

Web development

• Usability / User experience
• Copywriting
• Regular design review
• other business relevant projects (product launches, special offers....)
• Technical infrastructure
  

All of the above elements will only be effective if used in an integrated manner and as part of an overall marketing strategy.
And of course, I cannot finish this post without mentioning web analytics, the key to success for any marketeer! The strategy has to be implemented based on measurable business objectives and targets.
Well, that was a long post so hopefully somebody will read it and maybe benefit from it. Contact me if you would like to know more, I'm always happy to help.

Is Google's monopoly making life easier for internet marketers?

I was thinking this morning (yes, it happens!)...is Google's monopoly on the SE market such a bad thing? I've got to admit that it is sometimes frustrating as an online marketer to have only one point of reference for SEO, Google! That means that if you dont get your optimisation right, you could be missing out on 90% of potential traffic and business on your website.
However, from a reporting/tracking standpoint, this supremacy makes life a whole lot easier. I'm quite keen on web analytics, and I've got to say that having google as a benchmark for all marketing activities allows you to focus more.
This of course doesn't mean that you should neglect the other SE players such as Yahoo, Live (now Bing), Ask and others, as genuine business may come out of them, but Google always leads the way. I dont know of any business owner who would complain for his website not doing well in Yahoo...however, not seeing a website on the first SERP in google is a major drama in many companies.
I still hope though that the times when you had to understand several search engine algorithms come back as it would secure our jobs!

A new Wave

Yes, you've guessed it, we're talking about Google Wave...
and yes, Google has done it again. how do they manage to generate so much buzz each time they launch a new product? Reminds me of Apple each time they launch a new gadget. Let's hope they don't disappoint and give us something that can be useful in an online marketing environment