Monthly Archives: May 2010

Using Facebook Grader data, I studied the how people of different ages differ in their use of Facebook.

I found a number of interesting patterns, for instance, while teens tend to have the most friends, Facebook users in their twenties tend to have more posts on their walls.

On the other hand, it appears that users in their 30s and above are leading the way when it comes to entering lengthy answers to the various Facebook profile fields like quotes, favorite TV shows and interests.

If you’re interested in reaching out to a specific age group on Facebook, spend some time thinking about what those users are doing on Facebook and how you should interact with them.

If you want to learn more about Facebook behavior and data like this, be sure to register for the Science of Facebook webinar I’ll be presenting on June 29th.

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Kate Snow writes: My family spent the day at a barbeque. Maybe yours did, too. Continue reading →

Generating inbound links to your website is an important factor in search engine optimization.  But if you think any inbound link is just as valuable as another, you might want to check out the article at the top of our list this week, which goes to show that not all links are created equal in the eyes of search engines.

1. All Links are Not Created Equal: 10 Illustrations on Search Engines’ Valuation of Links

Author: Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz

After a brief overview of the history of the role of inbound links in search engine optimization, Rand provides a very helpful guide to understanding inbound links, offering handy illustrations to help explain his points.

Rand’s article allows even those most inexperienced in the world of SEO understand what makes a link valuable (and what doesn’t).

Marketing Takeaway: Don’t be fooled — inbound links attribute varying levels of value to a website.

2. How to Pitch Bloggers – Make it a Win/Win/Win Situation

Author: Darren Rowse of Problogger

Thinking of pitching a blogger to help promote something you offer?  Darren says the best way to get good results is to pitch something that is a win/win/win situation — for your company, the blogger and his/her readers.  But how do you make sure you frame your pitch in a way that makes it a win/win/win? 

Usually, says Darren, the major hurdle is making it a win for the blogger.  To help get past this roadblock, he suggests a few specific ‘wins’ that can be used to entice the blogger, including offering to purchase advertising, proposing an affiliate deal, promising promotion on your end, or giving away your product.

Marketing Takeaway: Make your pitch an offer the blogger can’t refuse.  Make it a win/win/win!

3. 5 Questions That Will Change How You View Your Business

Author: John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing

John’s article recognizes the fact that running a business, while rewarding and fulfilling, can often be a challenging task, and oftentimes business owners find themselves losing sight of why they’re doing it in the first place.  In order to help business owners reconnect with the heart of their businesses, John recommends they ask themselves the following 5 questions:

1. Why are we doing this?
2. What are we here to give? 
3. What do we want people to experience?
4. What are we supposed to learn from this?
5. Who could do this better?

Marketing Takeaway: When you feel like you’re falling into a rut with your own business, take some time to step back and evaluate what you’re doing and the reasons you’re doing it.

4. Put Your Small Business on the Map With Location-Based Social Media

Author: Eve Daniels on OPEN Forum

Can your business take advantage of location-based social media platforms? Eve Daniels thinks so. Engaging in the opportunities such platforms like Foursquare and Gowalla have to offer can do big things for your business, she says. 

To help you understand, she explains what each of these platforms offer and how they can be beneficial from a business standpoint, emphasizing that savvy business owners are already taking advantage of them, so why can’t you?

Marketing Takeaway: Location-based services are gaining in momentum and can be a valuable business tool. 

5. Conversation or Content? Who Rules the Internet?

Author: Kyle Lacy on Personal Branding Blog

It’s a common proclamation among internet marketers that content is king. But is it?  Kyle plays devil’s advocate and wonders if content really is king when conversations also play a big role in the lives and activities of internet and social media users.

While Kyle admits that content and conversation are related in that remarkable content helps fuel conversations, he also raises the point that “customers are people first and buyers second.” He points out that conversations lead to relationships, which ultimately leads to a successful company. What do you think — does content or conversation rule the internet?

Marketing Takeaway: Content creation is important, but are you also engaging your potential customers in stimulating conversations that lead to valuable relationships?

Photo by Hank Ashby

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We are 41 days into the Gulf oil spill crisis. With the exception of war coverage, I can’t recall a major story that after 41 days was still getting bigger. Brushfires enter a containment phase. Hurricanes quickly turn into tropical storms after coming ashore. Continue reading →

The Gulf oil spill is turning many of us into armchair engineers. Continue reading →

We’re all allowed to try to relax and have an enjoyable Memorial Day weekend, but it will be hard, for some of us, to extract ourselves from the “mode” of following each and every development in the spill in the Gulf. Continue reading →

As we said on the broadcast last night, if you don’t think this is an emotional issue, listen to this:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
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Do you work for a B2B company and believe social media engagement doesn’t make sense for your company?  Well, you’re not alone.  According to a recent report from digital marketing agency White Horse, 46% of B2B marketers surveyed indicated they thought social media was irrelevant to their company, compared to 12% of B2C respondents.

Although the study showed that comparable numbers of B2B and B2C marketers were not doing any social marketing at all, B2B marketers were much more likely to admit they had social media accounts but were doing nothing with them from a marketing standpoint.

Furthermore, the study revealed that one-third of B2B marketers feel there is a low level of executive interest in social media involvement.  This explains a lot.  If you’re a marketer and your CEO isn’t convinced social media is worth the time and effort, you’ve got a major roadblock to overcome if you want to start incorporating social media initiatives into your marketing mix.

We’ve heard this excuse before to explain a lack of social media adoption in the B2B space, and it’s understandable that it’s much easier for B2C companies to perceive value in social media engagement.  

Still, while social media adoption is perceived to make more sense in the B2C sector, it’s hard to deny the value in it for B2Bs, too.  Social media can be a powerful lead generation tool, and there have been a lot of social media marketing success stories and case studies showing how B2Bs are excelling through their participation in social platforms.  These businesses are experiencing significant ROI from their efforts, proving that social media does make sense for B2B companies.

So, why should you care about this data?

If you’re reading this blog, you probably have some interest in helping your company also see the light about the benefits of social media and inbound marketing if it hasn’t already.  If it were me, I’d see a huge opportunity in the fact that almost half of B2B marketers view social media irrelevant — the opportunity to take charge and become a pioneer of and ultimately a leader in social media in my industry. 

So, what can you do to help encourage your boss to seek greener pastures with social media engagement?  Arm yourself with data, whether it be in the form of case studies, charts, graphs, statistics, or whatever else you can get your hands on that will help you make your case and illustrate the benefits of B2B social media activities.  There’s a ton of advice out there to help you come up with a plan, so take advantage of it.  Good luck!

Have you been successful in convincing management to adopt social media practices? Let us know how you did it! 

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Does your online marketing strategy include things like “conversion,” “ROI” and “new customers?” If the answer is yes, then landing pages are something you’ve thought long and hard about.  Landing pages broker the exchange of information between you and the interested party. Combining an eye-catching offer button with an effective landing page can turn what was once just web traffic into a steady stream of leads for your sales team.

7 Landing Page Best Practices

Pass the Blink Test - Visitors to your site will often make the decision of whether or not they’re going to fill out your form before the page even finishes loading. Make sure where you’re sending folks appears immediately professional and easy to fill out. In other words – make sure they can understand the offer and what you’re asking for in the time it takes them to blink. 

Keep It Simple – A key thing to remember about your landing pages is that anyone who reaches it must have clicked on something to get there – like an action button for a free trial, webinar or whitepaper offer. So, theoretically, you will know something key about these folks immediately.  If they clicked to download a whitepaper on blue widgets, for instance, then you will know they are interested in blue widgets. You should be able to plan your next move pretty well armed with that information, and not have to ask for much more. Use that to your advantage and keep everything about this page, including the amount and nature of the questions you ask, simple.

Keep It Short – Seeing a massive list of 15 or 20 questions will make your prospect think hard about the value of his or her time, and whether or not they feel spending it filling out your form.

Graphics and Endorsements Matter – Remember, you’ll be asking people to submit information they may consider sensitive.  Credibility will be key.  Make sure you have your logo or client testimonial at eye level in one of the margins or in the header – or somewhere else they can quickly see it without having to scroll.

Go Naked – They are a few keystrokes and a click away from becoming a bonafide, qualified lead. In other words, you’ve got them right where you want them! The last thing you would want to happen is for them to get distracted. “Going naked” refers to the practice of making your landing page deliberately sparse. Customize this page so that it has zero navigation – no menu, no link back to the homepage, no other places to click, nothing. This page needs to be devoid of any and all hyperlinked distraction. Have the form and the “submit” button be their singular point of focus, and usher them through to completion.

Restate Value – The landing page will be hyperlinked to the offer button on your website; but make sure the two are also logically linked. Use a simple, bulleted list near the top of the page to restate what you’re offering and why it’s valuable. Doing so will ensure your prospect knows exactly what they’re getting – and create a qualified lead for your sales team.

Eat Your Own Dogfood – Before publishing the page, ask yourself: would I fill this out? Would I find this page confusing? Would I feel comfortable sharing this information over the web? Use these questions to ultimately perfect the look and feel of your landing page before going live. And of course, as always, test, test, test!

What other tactics have you found to be successful in improving your landing page conversion rates?

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