Social Media Tools: Cutting through the Clutter
Serena Ehrlich, Startup Army Twitter.com/serena – add me!
Social Media is here to stay… have you Twittered or checked LinkedIn today?
Where do you start?
Know your company‟s comfort level! Check out how many tools you usually are now considered „social media‟ tools
The Online Newsroom = Key Website The Press Release = Online Web Page Your Company‟s Website = Traffic & ROI Media Relations = Content and Links Public Relations = Direct Customer & Social Media Marketing Campaigns = Keywords Crisis Management = Ranking and Reach
If they care they will share.
Define Your Audience
How? Use existing & web-based research:
Ask web team for web-based analytics Ask IR team for their IR web page analytics Ask New Biz Dev group for future areas of interest Ask advertising team for the data they use Use web-based tools to find out how savvy your online customers are:
Web traffic measurement sites: Quantcast.com, Alexa.com Website measurement: Websitegrader.com
Objectives & Strategies
A social media campaign takes time to build, so focus on long term objectives
Good: Comcast on Twitter Bad: Starbucks Podcast
Choose your strategy to match your customer and objectives Don‟t forget the easiest objective, increase search engine results!
Measuring Social Media Success
Attention. The amount of traffic to your content for a given period of time. Similar to the standard web metrics of site visits and page/video views. Participation. The extent to which users engage with your content in a channel. Think blog comments, Facebook wall posts,YouTube ratings, or widget interactions. Authority. Ala Technorati, the inbound links to your content - like trackbacks and inbound links to a blog post or sites linking to a YouTube video. Influence. The size of the user base subscribed to your content. For blogs, feed or email subscribers; followers on Twitter or Friendfeed; or fans of your Facebook page. There's an "x-factor" that comes into play well: sentiment. The spirit driving user participation matters. The net result of these adds up to a score for social media engagement.
Source: Peter Kim: www.peterkim.com
Technologies: Pick Your Poison
Do your research: Where is your customer
A company with a local Oklahoma* audience
Locally focused blog Outreach and participation on Sooner related sites
Pick your tool(s)
Increasing search results Blogs Tagging Technorati YouTube Flickr Photobucket Twitter Myspace Facebook LinkedIn Digg Delicious and we haven‟t even gotten started yet…
Where You Appear in Search Ranking is Important
Google HOT Zone
Organic Ranking Visibility (shown in a percentage of participants looking at a listing in this location) Rank 1 – 100% Rank 2 – 100% Rank 3 – 100% Rank 4 – 85% Rank 5 – 60% Rank 6 – 50% Rank 7 – 50% Rank 8 – 30% Rank 9 – 30% Rank 10 – 20%
*Source: Eyetools, Inc.
Increase SERPS: Determine and Implement Keywords
SERPs = Search engine results page (ranking) Analyze keywords
Brainstorming Keyword analysis A popularity count Keyword research Assigning keywords Keyword selection
Refine keyword list
Identify 3 target keywords
More than half (55.53%) of searchers use two – three words in the search engine
Source: ZDNet, May 18, 2006
A variety of tools can tell you which search terms are being used
Sources: Google Trends and Keyword Discovery
Free tools like Google Keyword https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal?defaultView=2
Type in the URL They provide the keywords!
EASY!
Bold, Italics, Symbols *@ #
Sub heads and Bullet points are optimized
Anchor Text key phrases and company name Foreign language characters Add in Social Networking Tags Multimedia: Photos, video
= FREE Improved Search Engine Visibility
The Social Media Release
Try PressReleaseGrader.com to see how your releases rank
How do your releases rate?
Increase SERPS: Tag Everything
Add tags to press releases Add tags to your website Add tags to the multimedia on your site Tagging works!
Other tools: Blogging
According to BlogPulse, a Nielsen BuzzMetrics service:
Total identified blogs: 78,703,197 New blogs in last 24 hours: 93,041 Blog posts indexed in last 24 hours: 14,310 (as of August 4, 2008)
How do you compete with that?
Create a long term plan with an objective
Example: Starbucks podcast: Blog your press releases then tweet your blog to give it additional life Link to other interesting blogs and ask them to link back to your blog
Create an editorial calendar.
Watch your target marketplace/industry Practice writing and getting comfortable with blogging Be transparent & hype free. No spin! Remember, the web is forever
Example: Whole Foods chat room participation
Show an interest in dialogue ~ both good and bad
Dell being forced to reply on blogs = Dell being lauded for web participation
Add unique value so people come back!!!
Tools To Try Now
•Announcements •Press Releases •Images •Video •Blog/RSS •Supporting Documents •Media Coverage •Social News/Bookmark
Lee Odden, TopRank Blog 2008
Did I mention…
Sites like YouTube, Photobucket, Docstoc, Digg, Delicious, Twitter are
Mini search engines, so why not have your company or product registered Extremely optimized, increasing your visibility in your own search results
Links from these websites to your website increase your natural SERPS.
Google news alerts, keyword search, website analytics This is your new research department to understanding your peers & your “rep” Allows you to find out where your audience is hiding
Forums
Review sites And discover appropriate social media platforms and get involved Free. All day. Every day.
YouTube, Photobucket, Flickr, Docstoc
Create company accounts on each of these sites Use your logo as your avatar Include links back to your website Name and tag each item you upload
Photos, headshots, logos and computer screen shots User generated video, photos Company created videos: Training videos, commercials Documents such as:
Marketing materials Print advertising examples Supporting research
Include links to each of these within EVERY press release
Does great in universal search! Aim to be helpful Don‟t aim to for global redistribution of your video but enjoy it if you get it! Ideas…
3M Post it Challenge, Tide-To-Go Talking Stain Contest, Will it Blend, etc. Instructional videos Products or services in action Webinar recordings Interviews ANYTHING!
Embedded links & tags in a press release let you share your online content with your readers to improve your online presence.
You can then add these people (or anyone that you find, for that matter) to your network
To tweet or not to tweet…
Great for passing on short pieces of information or links (links = SEO) Users are “early adapters” and primarily coastal, growing internationally A good Twitterer shares helpful info Connect with possible customers. Build a following & brand awareness Save time and use the Twitter search button Twitter.com/serena
Comcast Zappos Dell
How to use Twitter
Create an account. Think about what your account name should be – shorter is better Go to search.twitter.com and search on every possible keyword you can think of Follow those folks you find to be interesting Follow folks talking about your brand/industry/competitors Share interesting, relevant information through “tweets” Use tools like Futuretweets.com to set up tweets meant so drive traffic
Getting Started Today….
Define your product/company‟s keywords Identify and locate your online influencers and audience Add formatting and links to your press releases to increase visibility and web traffic Figure out the best page to link to on your site Set up accounts on social media sites to provide resources and check keywords and tags Watch your ranking, measurement reports and website analytics to see how people are finding you and how traffic is moving thru your site. Watch and adjust
If I can ever be of assistance, just tweet!
Serena Ehrlich Twitter.com/serena www.startuparmy.com Serena.ehrlich@gmail.com