Posts Tagged Seattle social media
New Shopping Demographics Make for Surprising Changes to Seattle Social Media Strategies
Posted by Rory Martin in Social Media Marketing on September 10, 2013
For the better part of the last century, women have dominated shopping. Whether online, or via brick and mortar stores, women are famous for loving to shop. Despite this, men are now overtaking them in spending, often surpassing women by as much as 25% per purchase on the internet. These numbers are not because men are shopping more often, but because they are making larger, more expensive purchases each time they buy. This surprising demographic has given rise to new, male-targeted advertisement campaigns, as well as the nearly unheard of male oriented shopping site, which is now combining perfectly with new content ecommerce solutions that are almost certain to make social more profitable for both sellers and the sites themselves.
Content Sites Turning Ecommerce
Part of the shift in the shopping demographic has been the steady lean towards social and content sites as a means of researching and finding products to buy. Content sites including Facebook, Pinterest, and millions of blogs provide shoppers with a wide range of information that they then use to make a purchase, and for most of those sites, integrating ecommerce to directly make sales is a logical next step. While major social sites like Pinterest, Myspace, and even Facebook are already making sales indirectly, many of them are talking about directly integrating stores and shopping interfaces. Some, like Facebook have already brought elements of this in with e-gift cards and flowers or chocolates that can be purchased to send as last minute presents. Others, like Tapiture, which has been online since 2012, integrates Pinterest like content functions with a fully working e-commerce setup geared towards men, so that users can actually buy items that they find interesting on the site. Pinterest competitors, Fancy, are also integrating this type of marketplace, so that instead of simply uploading a photo or ‘pinning’ the photo, the user can also include a price so that interested parties can buy it right on the site. Even MySpace, which is largely ignored by most social advertisers, has integrated ecommerce in the form of their Music Marketplace, where you can shop for songs from artists on the site.
What It Means for Businesses
Any business with products to sell should already be on social. Whether using Pinterest in the hopes of creating product awareness, or using Facebook and Twitter to create brand and image awareness, social sites can already greatly benefit most businesses. Now, with ecommerce and social integration, those same businesses can essentially increase profits by making their products or services easier to buy, because the interested party won’t have to leave their social site in order to make the purchase. This means changing strategies away from getting subscribers to click on links to getting subscribers to make a purchase. While a small change, it is an important one, as it means encouraging direct sales.
The rising demographic of male buyers should also be considered. For example, Tapiture and Fancy both have a largely male demographic, with nearly 100% on Tapiture and some 60% on Fancy, both of which are already actively making. In fact, Fancy is already making more than $200,000 in sales per week, while Tapiture has not yet disclosed their revenue so far, but is definitely doing something.
At the end of the day, just make sure your content is optimized for your demographic so that you make sales and shares. Even if the site hasn’t integrated shopping, you make shared products available for purchase, by including a relevant link. Social is becoming an integral part of ecommerce, and you should be prepared.
Five Reasons You Need Social Media Management
Posted by Rory Martin in Social Media Marketing on August 8, 2013
If you have a social page for your business then you might be doing just fine. However, studies show that some companies actually hurt their brand presence by not doing the right things, or doing too much of them. If you don’t know how to run your social successfully, your options include getting off social and limiting your brand presence, or hiring a local Seattle social media manager to help you out. Here are a couple of signs you might want to do one or the other.
Your Pages are Rarely Updated
If your pages are sitting there without being updated then you probably have no business running a Facebook page. Chances are that even if you have people who would like to follow your social, they won’t if they aren’t updated. Most people go to social media for news, updates, and sales, but if they don’t see anything, they won’t follow you, like you, or even give you a moment of their time. If you’ve wasted money on advertising and followed it by not posting you might even find that fans eventually leave your pages.
You Post Constantly
The only crime worse than not posting, is posting too often. Even on Twitter, you should time your posts and intersperse them with other posts so that it’s not all about you. No one wants to see a whole feed of just you, so take it easy. As a rule, you should focus on quality over quantity. However, that doesn’t mean that you should be posting just once or twice a day. Consider four posts per day for Facebook, and 20 or more for your Twitter. Does that sound like a lot of work? You can still hire a Seattle social media manager to help you out.
You Don’t Talk to Your Clients
Whether you have clients, fans, or customers, you do have to talk to them. Your social is your best resource for connecting to your fans. If you have a fan base then you probably have people asking questions, stating concerns, complaining, or offering praise. Responding to the majority of these people is important if you want your business to gain customers from it. For example, someone asking about the opening hours of your business would likely want to come and visit, if you never respond, they will never come and visit.
You Have No ROI
Time is money so if you are not making money from your social media efforts then something is obviously wrong. Any venture without ROI is not worth doing, so consider moving on to something else. If you aren’t making money, consider either having the pros help you out or giving up on your social altogether. If you are wasting your time on unproductive social, then you aren’t making money.
You Don’t Know What You’re Doing
Is social a mystery to you? While you might know what to do with your personal Facebook page, and even have a twitter account, you might not know a great deal about social media marketing. If that is the case, you might not want to manage a business page. While you can take the time to learn your social, you might also be too busy.
So, do you need Seattle social media management? If so, check out our SMM page to see what we offer!
Social Media and SEO – Your Two Greatest Marketing Assets
Posted by Rory Martin in Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization on August 1, 2013
If you pay attention to marketing news then you can probably see that ‘SEO vs. Social Media’ is a pretty hot topic. A lot of people want to compare the two to see which offers more ROI, but the truth is that both are pretty much indispensable when used correctly. A social media professional can leverage your social to covert your fans into customers, and a quality SEO can convert thousands of visitors onto your website. Both offer results, but the best results are found when you combine the two.
Social Media
Social Media has a huge advantage when it comes to conversions. In fact, a study in 2012 showed that social has a 100% higher lead to close rate than outbound marketing conversion rate. Does that mean that every person on your social will become a customer? Far from it, but statistics show that you can increase your leads from social by more than 25% by offering a simple discount on your social. Social Media is popular because it is the easiest way to connect to fans, and is the fastest way to convert traffic. If you have people on your page, then you can talk to them instantly, which greatly increases your sale conversion rate. Facebook is used more often for researching brands via their pages, while Twitter is more popular for asking brand questions, or asking about brands. You can use both to get in touch with your client base and make new fans. If you ask any Seattle social media expert they will definitely be able to make sales from your social when given the time to create a fanbase.
SEO
SEO is quite possibly the most widely misunderstood marketing tactic ever, but mostly because it has changed so much since its start. The key to SEO is keeping up with changes and remembering that traffic is the most important goal. A good Seattle SEO strategy consists of technical website details that affect search, on-site content that draws traffic, and off-site SEO that sends traffic to the site. While there are other factors involved, these are usually the most important. Your Seattle SEO plan should cover your link building, technical specifications, and keyword optimization on your site so that you draw traffic.
SEO & SMM
One important thing to remember is that no matter how much traffic your website draws, it might not convert. Most people prefer to research a site as thoroughly as possible before making a purchase or investment, and your business is probably no different. Your landing pages can either attempt to convince visitors to make a purchase, or can be used to get visitors to stick around, become fans, and maybe make a purchase later. Whether you do this by offering a purchase incentive, or by simply directing them to your social page for more info, social plays a huge role in long term retention of traffic and therefore of increasing your ROI.
Both SEO and social media play a large part in your Seattle marketing, but usually you need both to see the best results. While there are some exceptions to the rule, the two are mostly inseparable.
The Top Five Social Media Platforms You Should Be Concentrating On
Posted by Rory Martin in Social Media Marketing on May 24, 2013
Social media is constantly changing. A social site that is popular one year might completely fail the next, or might offer less traffic or fewer sales to businesses from one year to the next. For example, for most of 2011 and 2012, Twitter was the best social platform for businesses, and for most of 2013, that has been Facebook. What this means is that you should not and can not focus all of your social media efforts on one platform because it might offer very little turnover in a few months time. However, you shouldn’t have an account on every platform either because that is time consuming, confusing, and most likely to be repetitive. Here are a list of the top five social media platforms you should be on.
Facebook is the single most popular social media platform out there. With plenty of options for businesses to grow and reach fans, and with plenty of ways to make money, Facebook is quite possibly the perfect median for a business social page. However you do have to be careful to post shareable interesting content because the more of your fans see and talk about the content, the more people see your content. A good Facebook strategy is usually only about one fifth self-promotional and the rest informative. That means you can post sales or deals every fifth post, and then add in humor, photos of cool stuff or your customers, and tips and tricks in between. This makes your page valuable to your fans so that you aren’t just advertising yourself. No one wants to follow an advertisement.
Two years ago anyone would have told you that Twitter is the best place online to make a sale, contact, or pretty much anything. Today many of the people on Twitter are really just trying to promote themselves but there are many exceptions. To succeed on Twitter you have to offer valuable tweets as well as salesy ones (even if your value is just posting deals), and you also have to build a following. The latter is not always easy but if you consistently talk to people, retweet as well as post your own content, and be active, you will get a following. Follow for Follow usually is a good way to build followers but not a good way to build an audience. Remember to use hashtags related to your content to try to get more impressions and views.
Google Plus
An old joke suggests that only Google employees use Google Plus and that used to be the truth. Now, Google + is one of the top three social sites on the internet and ties with Pinterest for second place. Google Plus has recently revamped, offer business pages, and even video hangouts so that you can offer live advice and tips to your customers. Google Plus allows the use of hashtags as well as tagging people so you can combine some of the best elements of both Facebook and Twitter. Considering that the site also integrates with your Youtube and you can link it to anything you write via Google Authorship, you have a definite win.
Pinterest is among the top three social sites of 2013 and for good reason. Some new additions to the site include the ability to add specific pins such as deals or recipes, as well as business pages and analytics. While Pinterest is not the best median for every type of business, it is a great way to make sales and get traffic to your site if you have an interesting photo to share. If you build a following on Pinterest then your photos will get more exposure which could very easily lead to more fans and more sales.
Stumbleupon
Last but not least, Stumbleupon is a great social site to pay attention to. While it doesn’t take as much work as the other sites, Stumbleupon can generate a huge amount of traffic for your website with one condition. You have to have interesting, eye catching, and attractive content that people want to read. If not, you’re just going to have a lot of people hit the ‘next’ button instead of reading and potentially following your site. How tos, unique facts and tips, and photos are all great sharing ideas for Stumbleupon.
Want to learn more about our social media management and what is included? Send us a message, or visit our social media marketing page to get more information.
Online Reputation Management and how it Can Benefit Your Social Media
Posted by Rory Martin in Social Media Marketing, Social Networking on March 14, 2013
Anyone with a business should invest in some form of reputation management, even if it is something as simple as starting and keeping up a positive blog or social site. Reputation management begins in creating a positive media buzz around your website or company for positive media attention, brand awareness, and customer awareness. Despite its origins in covering up negatives about a company, brand management doesn’t necessarily have to be for hiding negative media. In fact, you can utilize it now to positively increase your presence on the web.
What is Reputation Management?
If you’ve ever lived in a small town then you know that saying something you shouldn’t can get you in trouble. You probably also know that doing something good can get you talked about in a positive way. Your Seattle social media, and website brand management, operate under the same premises. The internet is essentially a very small place because while spanning the world, it allows information to be exchanged instantaneously. This means that a potential shopper in Boston could read about how great your online shoe store is and buy shoes or a Seattle restaurant critic like Providence Cicero might see your restaurant online and decide to pay a visit. Reputation management is about controlling and managing the information that goes out about you online so that you create a positive vibe online.
Four Basic Online Reputation Management Tips
Your online reputation starts with your SEO, your blogging, and most importantly, your social media. While any DIY technique isn’t going to mimic the in-depth management of a professional, you can get a good start on your own, especially if you don’t have a lot of negative content up about your site. Here are four easy tips for reputation, and brand management for your Seattle SEO.
- Keep a Blog – SO what does a blog have to do with your reputation management? A lot actually. The thing is, the more you are saying about your business, the less room there is for other people on the first page. Another good thing to keep in mind is that a blog can draw traffic to your site, especially if you take the time to write high quality articles that reflect your site and your content. If your website is a blogging site then obviously you don’t need this advice, but it is important to remember that a regularly posted blog can do wonders for your social, your traffic, and your reputation.
- Take Care of Your Social – Your social is the hub of what people say about you online, so you should take care of it. Talking to people on your social, taking the time to create real working relationships, and making connections can really help to get positive word out about your website. On the other hand spamming people with links to click on and expecting them to automatically like your business won’t get you anywhere. Usually it’s a good idea to approach your social with care, and remember that each person who ‘likes’ ‘follows’ or +1’s your pages is a human being as well as a potential client, customer, or subscriber.
- Resolve Problems – So what next? You might not have any problems yet, but you’re likely to get some eventually. One of the hardest parts of online reputation management is resolving issues as quickly and efficiently as possible, and without getting into arguments. Making customers or clients feel like they are important is the easiest way to create positive brand awareness, so make sure you handle issues effectively. For example, were you the shoe store listed above and someone commented on your social, or left a review on Yelp, that their shoes had fallen apart, you would want to respond with an apology, and perhaps the offer of a new pair of shoes or a refund. While giving out the money might hurt, it will hurt less than the irreparable damage a bad review can do to your reputation. Likewise, a restaurant or even a freelancer with a bad review could
- Watch What You Say – Did you know that comments you leave on a blog can come up in search if someone searches for your email? Or that those comments will be there for years into the future? Everything from a tweet to a comment can come up for literally years into the future whether you like it or not, so watch what you say. Anyone who works extensively with their social should attempt to keep personal and business social accounts as separate as possible, and potentially even consider creating a personal Facebook that is private to all but close friends and family. An unintended joke or photo of a night out with friends can look bad to a professional, especially if you depend on your reputation for work.
The good news is that once you get the hang of managing your online reputation, you shouldn’t have that many problems with it. Key issues are keeping up with your social, creating a positive buzz through articles, blogs, and networking, and resolve any issues as quickly as possible. Remember that the internet can turn a city as large as Seattle into a very small place information wise, so taking care of your reputation can be one of your best business strategies.
Seattle Social Media: What is Google Authorship (And How to Set It Up)
Posted by Rory Martin in Social Media Marketing on January 7, 2013
What is Google Authorship? And how does it affect your Seattle social media? Google authorship is a markup that you can insert into a blog or website to claim ownership, get extra stats, and use for a few interesting features. There have been many changes in recent Google search algorithms, and one of the biggest will soon be the implementation of authorship into search results. But first, let’s learn a little bit about Google Authorship itself.
Google Authorship uses a rel tag, which is part of HTML5. This tag can be utilized in author boxes, most web pages, blogs, and pretty much anywhere you can place content. Before you get started, make sure you have a Google + profile (it doesn’t matter if it’s active) and then proceed. If you don’t have the profile, you can sign up for free by creating or using your Gmail account.
Setting up Google Authorship
There are two ways to set up Google Authorship with a few special considerations if you have multiple people posting on your site. You should also use a clear headshot on your Google + profile (Google does not like their authors to be ‘companies’ so no logos if possible).
Method One: Use or set up an email account with the domain server that you have (For example info@RoryMartin.com) , then check to make sure each page of work that you intend to claim contains a clear byline (for example ‘Written by Rory Martin’) Check to make sure your byline name and your Google + profile are the same (I.E. you can’t use Rory Martyn and Rory Martin). Finally, visit the ‘Authorship’ page of Google and submit your email address, confirm it, and from then on, anything you publish on that page will automatically show up with your Google + photo in search.
Method Two: If you do not have an email with the domain you want to claim, you can use the Google authorship markup to claim the content as well. For this method you will need the link to your Google + profile to an individual page using the Google markup.
<a href=https://plus.google.com/109325933900468965289? rel=author>Rory Martin</a>
Edit the markup to include your Google + profile, and if you like, edit the tag, for example,
<a href=https://plus.google.com/109325933900468965289? rel=author>Rory Martin</a>
Minus the space, it would appear as
<a href=https://plus.google.com/109325933900468965289?rel=author>Rory Martin</a> <a href=” https://plus.google.com/109325933900468965289?rel=author”>Rory Martin</a>
Next, visit your Google + profile, click ‘Edit’ and scroll down to the ‘Contributor’ section. Add a link with a title to the site you’ve added your markup to, and you are all done. Websites who post work from multiple authors and who use an author bio box can actually include the markup in any author bio plugin that supports HTML5. This can save time because you won’t have to post the markup each time that person posts a blog.
Joomla: For Joomla sites you can choose to use an HTML5 reader, install a rich snippet reader, install author link, or edit your CSS ‘Written by’ to include the authorship markup. You could also directly modify the author link to any pages of individual authors to include the ‘rel=author’ markup. Not sure your rich snippets are right? Check them here with Google before posting them on your site.
What does Google Authorship Do for Your Seattle Social Media?
Social media helps drive traffic to and from your content, and as Google’s baby, Google + and therefore Google authorship are tools that you cannot afford to ignore. In the first eight months of authorship alone, more than 17% of Google search results for articles and websites consisted of pages with Google Authorship markups. Considering that during that time, Google Authorship was only being used by about 3% of web publishers, which shows a definite lean towards favoritism. If you want your content to come up in search, Google authorship is a great addition.
What else does Google authorship do? Each time your post shows up in search, it will have a link to your Google + profile, the headshot that you provided Google, and the number of Google + followers you have. You’ll also be able to view statistics for your work no matter where it is on the web. Logging into Google Webmaster Tools, going to ‘Labs’ and clicking on ‘Author Stats’ will take you to a dashboard where you can view everything from average views, to click through rate per article, per day! Essentially, Google Authorship helps your Seattle Social Media by allowing you to claim your content, increase traffic by giving it visibility and an author, and of course, great free stats that you can use to see how your content is doing.
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