OrangeSoda Internet Marketing Blog

People mistakenly think of social networking as a way to market - to quickly make an impact. They want to be on Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and other sites. They want to try every new technique they read about.

The way most people approach social networking sites is like hiring people to hand out business cards to as many people as possible. They want to advertise, not be social. Social networking sites are about being social - which means interacting - but rather than to one person at a time it’s to a group.

I recommend that you go deep rather than wide. Choose one social network or platform and do that well. Social networking is high touch - it takes time and expertise. If you go too wide and shallow you likely won’t see results. Instead go deeper.

Guidelines for social networking – ways to be more social online:

• Find people in your target market who are already popular and try to get noticed by them. Add them to your network and see who their friends are so you can add them too.
  Example: It’s like you’re new in town and you need to find who the happening people are and work up to hanging out and being seen with them. Just by being seen with them you’ll get noticed and be more popular. While you’re street team might not be online, there might be someone they know who is very well connected on Facebook or online. Find that person. Friend them. On Facebook, you can suggest other friends.
• Interact with popular people who are in your target market online. Comment on their blog, their videos, their pictures. Leave a comment on their Facebook Wall. Follow them on Twitter. Read their blog.
• Track (use Google Alerts with your business name and perhaps the names of people or names in your space you hope to reach) so you can keep in touch with what’s happening and find new people to reach and news to talk about. If you get a Google Alert and find someone has blogged about you, write about it on Facebook and link to the post. Blog about it if you have a blog. Link to it on your MySpace page. Put it on your web site. Twitter about it, etc.
• Create content you can use on social networks – collect pictures (Flickr), video (YouTube), audio files. Use this content across the social media platforms you are on.
• Ask your network to teach you by asking their opinion. They have egos if they’re popular and by asking them you are showing that you recognize that they’re in the know. Example: Today I asked my Twitter network which headline they like best out of two I wrote. I got about 10 answers and #2 was the clear winner. This took less than 30 mins. But I had to build a network first. When you write about other people you compliment them (whether you blog about them, Twitter about them, or have a picture or video that has them in it).
• When you get a decent following or a lot of content, add links to your web site. So you might have a “find us on” Facebook (logo and link to your profile), MySpace, etc. You could feed in your Titter updates to your home page, etc. In other words, you can integrate all the channels. Blog updates can auto post to your Facebook page, Twitter can automatically produce a blog post of your recent tweets…all to reinforce what you’re doing and bring you buzz.

There is a learning curve and it takes time to build relationships, just get momentum going by starting to communicate and by communicating regularly on social networks. Once you start communicating you need to have a commitment to continuing to engage.

Choose one or two places to focus (places where your demographic is hanging out) and go. Here’s a press release about a large study of social networks that is find helpful to decide where your target market is hanging out online: http://business.rapleaf.com/company_press_2008_06_18.html

Here are more tips on starting a blog, continued from Business Blogging Part 1:

1. Sign up for Google alerts and put one on your company name, products, or buzzwords so you can track what is being said about your company online. (Read what we’ve written about Google Alerts). Then you can comment back, get ideas for posts, and write about what people are saying.
2. Make your blog readable - it’s hard to read online. Avoid large blocks of text. Use shorter sentences, headers, and bullet points. Give some white space.
3. Use categories - categorize the post by a general theme. One post can have several categories.
4. Add links! New bloggers don’t often link to other sites which really hurts their visibility.
   Link back to a relevant page on your site.
   Link to related articles.
   Link to examples on your web site.
   Also put links in blogroll to sections of your site.
5. SEO your posts. Use keywords in anchor text and title of blog posts. If you use Wordpress install the plugin Headspace 2 to auto-generate SEO-friendly links (I love 1-click installer to easily add new plugins to your blog). Also change your permalinks so words rather than numbers become the URL of your posts.
6. Respond to comments, which encourages more comments and can lead to an idea for another post. If the comment is negative, respond fast and thank them for expressing their opinion. Ask how you can improve, point out ways you’re addressing the issues. This is a chance to right a wrong with the public watching.

A Couple of Examples
This blog is so dense there is no space to breathe! They have done well on categories though.

Kodak has done well on their blogroll - it links to major sections of their web site.  They use links but not many keywords. This blog has been very successful for Kodak. They get invitations to speak at conferences and recognition. Notice how many pictures there are.

This blog from a small winery has a lot of personality, creativity, and authenticity - so much that it’s fun to read even if you don’t drink or live nearby!

One last thing - to find popular blogs (they are ranked) try blog search engine Technorati. You can also submit your blog to their list.

There are a million tips for blogging on various blogs across the Internet. Blogging is a great tool for SEO and to get visibility for your business. It has other benefits too - blogs can add a human face to your company. They can raise morale as employees get a chance to express their opinions and true self.

So, here are my tips for anyone starting a new blog:

Business Blogging Tips Part 1 - Writing tips.

1. Post frequently - you won’t get recognition if you don’t post regularly. Most blog software (like Wordpress) allows you to  write several posts and schedule them ahead. So designate a few hours every Monday to write posts. [NOTE: I should take this advice! We spend more time helping clients blog than blogging sometimes!]
2. Find someone in your organization who can write - it may be someone who is already blogging, or who has personality and knowledge. Customer service or admin staff can be great choices. They may welcome the chance to develop a new skill. They usually know what customers are asking about that could be made into great posts.
3. Give useful information - Write about and link to new updates of your site, answer to common questions, examples of projects using your products or services. Add pictures of places who’ve used your product, mentions in magazines, tips, lists. “How to” posts are popular as are creative ways to use your products.
4. Get customers involved - ask people to send in pictures of their projects and a short paragraph about them. Flatter customers by showcasing them on your blog (or if they blog, highlight it) - with their permission of course. You can include success stories or testimonials too.
5. If you are out of ideas or want to add variety to your blog, ask for guest posts by partners/manufacturers to give customers more in-depth insight into products. Or, ask employees to guest post on their expertise. They can email you their thoughts which you can add to the blog.

This email got too long, so I’m posting Part 2 of Blogging Tips in a seperate post.

MarketingSherpa did a case study on a business that sees online leads pour in - after they started PPC and SEO to market their web site. I half expected to see our name on the article since what they talked about is OrangeSoda’s specialty! Note: MarketingSherpa articles are free for a limited time and then you need a subscription to access them.

The case study is about a company called Basement Systems who went from using one channel - the Yellow Pages - to marketing their web site.  It’s been wildly successful - the number of leads skyrocketed 3,477% from the year before. Granted they weren’t doing much the year before - but think of the potential leads they missed out on.

At first the company didn’t think they needed to focus on the web site because people only call them after their basements flood. They didn’t think they would get online leads.

This is a common misunderstanding about how people use the internet. People use it to research purchases along the buying cycle. I’m not convinced that there is any business that can’t benefit from PPC and SEO. But I often hear people claim their business model won’t fit. Usually it’s more that their web site isn’t maximized for the way their customers search and buy online.

Why should businesses do both PPC and SEO? Here’s a quote that illustrates one of the differences - PPC advertising is much more targeted and usually converts better because it gets people as they are ready to purchase. The drawback - once you stop paying your ads disapear. SEO is a long-term strategy to drive more traffic to your site with permanent links.

“Natural search drove most of the traffic to the site, But it didn’t convert quite as much traffic as PPC ads because SEO is not as targeted.”

Here are some other things Basement Systems did for their SEO and PPC campaigns:

• Assessed title tags and metatags and eliminated duplicate or incorrect tags and titles.
• They ran locally-based PPC ads and directed the ads to local dealer’s web sites. In other words, they increased relevancy of their ads. Plus it often costs less to run targeted PPC campaigns rather than compete with national brands. They used dynamic keyword insertion which means the ads change depending on what terms people type into a search engine. This can increase clicks but sometimes quality of leads goes down. So you need to test and bid less on lower converting keywords.
• Tested everything and invest in trying new things. “We test every text line, dynamic content switching on Yahoo! and, of course, placement positions based on bids.” Surprise finding - putting their 1-800 number in the ad didn’t lift conversions, so they took it out.
• Submitted their web site to directories like: Yahoo! Directory, Business.com, DMOZ.org, YellowPages.com, niche and regional directories.
• Added testimonials, awards won, patents, and other trust-building elements to their website.

OrangeSoda Tip for Basement Systems - start blogging! And not just blogging but use targeted keywords to help boost your SEO. Our clients are seeing huge jump in traffic after starting a blog or implementing our suggestions.

Seats are filling up quickly to hear OrangeSoda’s Chris Finken speak at WOMA - the Wasatch Online Marketing Association which is based in Salt Lake City, Utah.

If you’re nearby, you can join us this Friday, September 12^th from 12-2pm at Westminster College, in Salt Lake City, Utah. We’ll be in the Foster Building, Room: 101.

Chris Finken will speak about: Pay-Per-Click Search Best Practices

Specifically he’ll talk sharing knowledge across multiple search engines and platforms. So what can be learned from Yahoo to help with Google and visa versa.

Lunch is included. If you want to go, hurry and RSVP by Wednesday, Sept. 10th. To RSVP Email  rsvp@wasatchonlinemarketing.com.

Here are Harrison’s tips on what NOT to do on an PPC campaign - a follow-up post to his tips on how to optimize a PPC campaign.

• Don’t content and search ads in the same campaigns. On search CTR (click through rate) is important, but not on content. On the content network you’re interrupting people, on search ads people are actively looking. The ads must be written differently depending on who you’re targeting.
• Don’t set up campaigns with only one ad group, a ton of unrelated terms, and one generic ad.
• Don’t use Dynamic Keyword Insertion with too much abandon. Be sure your ads still make sense. He also says: “You can dynamically insert the ad, search/content, and a couple other tracking variables in your destination url.”
• Don’t limit your negative keyword lists - come up with a whole list of synonyms and be creative to avoid paying for ads that have nothing to do with what you’re selling. He uses the example of online dating - you think romance - searchers may be thinking science (as in “carbon dating”). Exclude the content network sites that don’t convert.
• Don’t wait until your campaign is perfect before launching. Launch first, then use the data to continually improve.

OrangeSoda runs PPC campaigns for small businesses - we have a very low entry point and serve this part of the market that most companies won’t touch. We also manage PPC campaigns for larger accounts that involve a lot of customization. However, if you want run your own campaigns, be sure to avoid the common mistakes listed above (or if you can’t avoid them, at least learn from them!).

Sometimes businesses or marketers dream of a “secret sauce” to doing SEO or PPC. Most of the time there is no “secret sauce.” There are tools and software, and they give an advantage, but usually it’s knowledge and work that really count. It’s not a cakewalk and it’s best learned when you’re passionate about what you do - (hat’s where we at OrangeSoda comes in).

Shoemoney posted a great article about optimizing your PPC campaigns by 16 year old super affilite Harrison Gevitrtz. He’s an affiliate marketer - so he makes money selling other people’s things for a commission. It also means no results, no paycheck. So I generally trust affiliates.

I call Harrison an affiliate baby - one of those kids who makes more than their parents (Harrison nets 6 figures). I’ve heard stories how parents call up Commission Junction asking why they’re sending their kid a check for thousands of dollars every month. It happens. It’s fun to see the play that Harrison brings to his work.

First, a great quote: “You’ll perhaps be amazed that there are no “secrets”. It’s not because I’m not telling you— rather, it’s a ton of hard work and a little bit of luck. It’s amazing how “lucky” you get when you work hard. Don’t believe the “get rich quick” scams that would have you believe a single piece of magic software or a single technique to find the right keywords is all you really need.”

I’m going to summarize the best points.

KEYWORDS - Quality over Quantity

• Don’t load up your account with a large list of keywords. You’ll get penalized for having low quality keywords in your ad groups.
• DO pick a few high quality terms per ad group. Group them by subject. Make sure they are relevant to the ads that will show for that group.

PPC ACCOUNT MONITORING AND OPTIMIZATION - Use your anayltics program and check bounce rate

• Test your keywords. Run your campaign for a day or two (less if there’s lots of volume) and then look at which terms are driving the most volume. Do this by sorting keywords by click volume - in  descending order, using AdWords Editor.
• Find out what keywords are driving the most clicks and the best quality conversions. Look at your ad groups and see what is performing best. Use that to create variations of the successful campaigns. Try other match types. Increase bids, etc.
• Remove keywords that aren’t getting impressions or clicks. Also, cut ads that aren’t working.
• When testing campaigns, choose the campaign setting to have ads rotate equally– don’t let Google choose. “Your profit is how many clicks you get times how much you net per click– it’s an inverse relationship, unless you are bidding on tail terms or perhaps certain branded traffic.”
• Use your analytics data to get the bounce rate for your landing pages. If it’s over 60% cut it or optimize it.
• Look at your own web site to see what organic terms people are coming in on. Add them to your PPC campaign. Conversely, create pages for your best quality PPC terms on your web site.

He doesn’t use the Google AdWords API or Google Analytics. Here’s what he has to say about that:

“I rarely even use the Google Adwords API– but do in cases where there is enough volume to make it worth putting automated bid management in place. You do get dinged on using the API, for those who don’t know, so AdWords Editor is a more effective prototyping tool. Once you have something stable, then you can consider scaling it to the moon and using the API.”

I’ve heard conflicting feedback from another super affiliate who does use Google Analytics. Also, he is pushing offers for other companies as an affiliate. Thin margins. I’m not savvy to if there is a drawback to using Google AdWords API. This is something to explore - there are probably tradeoffs to each way. If you’re an individual running your own accounts, this may be a luxury.

He recommends Tim Armstrong’s book on landing page optimization (does he mean Tim Ash??) and promoting related products on your landing pages. And, after a lengthy post, he jokes that he should write a book. I think that’s a great idea - but hire a good editor!

Since this is already long, I’ll summarize what Harrison says NOT to do on your PPC campaign in the next post. Thanks Harrison for sharing your knowledge!