Posts Tagged ‘social media optimization’

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Don’t Forget to Optimize Your Social Media Profiles

Posted by Brent on May 26th, 2009

We have talked before about how social media strategies can be a great compliment to any SEO strategy.  Social media can be a great way to build quality inbound links and develop solid off-page content.  Naturally, all the basic SEO rules apply:  content, keywords, user value, and quality inbound links. 

So what about your social media profile pages?

If you haven’t already noticed, social media profile pages are starting to rank regulary for search terms.  For example, if a person has a Facebook.com and Twitter.com profile and then Google their own name, these profile pages will usually come up first,  or at least very near the top.  The reason of course is because these websites themselves are already highly regarded by Google.  They have millions of pages, great user-generated content, etc.

So when looking for a great compliment to your SEO strategy for your website, consider optimizing your social media profile pages as well.  Great SEO pratice according to Google’s latest algorithms suggest that it is best to optimize all possible online assets including websites, videos, social media profile pages, press releases, pod casts, images, etc.  When considering optimization for your social media profile pages don’t forget the following:

  • If you don’t have a Twitter and Facebook page (any other networks of course) for your brand, create one
  • Flood your BIO and pages with keywords, but do it in a reader-friendly natural way
  • Use keywords in your profile name if possible
  • Add other great content such as videos
  • Build good inbound links

Remeber also that when building a following for your profile pages such as Twitter and Facebook, one of the best ways is to actually drive external traffic to these pages (as opposed to just networking within the social community).  Make sure to have links to your social media pages from your main website, email signatures, newsletters, print media, etc.   Some companies have considered using social media profiles as their main websites do to their searchability, cost effectiveness (FREE), and great functionalities. 

The best Facebook and Twitter strategies use the profile pages as key communication platforms where they announce all value propositions, special offerings, incentives, coupons, etc.  Imagine of these pages are also apearing in the SERPs for relevant keywords how impactful that would be!


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Social Media: Gaining Acceptance

Posted by Myles on May 16th, 2009

Here at IMI, we have been big proponents of using social media for all kinds of businesses. Social Media is not, and should not be exclusive to tech companies, and this can be seen by giants such as Starbucks, Whole Foods, and more. Social Media is the replacement of what PR and traditional marketing used to conduct, and as a result businesses are jumping on the bandwagon so they will not stay behind.

According to Business Journal, social media has begun to gain wide acceptance.

“More than two-thirds of those who responded to the most recently completed Business Pulse survey said they use sites like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook for work.

About 12 percent said they use social media only for business. About 18 percent said they use it only for personal enjoyment.

Another 37 percent said they use the sites for both reasons.

About 11 percent said they have tried the sites but don’t use them while about 19 percent said they have never been to a social media site.”

These numbers keep changing daily.  Social Media is here to stay, but to be successful your business must have a clear cut plan of what it needs, what it wants, and what audience it is intending to rech out to.  Additionally, because running a social media campaign is a job in itself, many businesses cannot afford to hire a full time person to do an overwhelming task.  This is where hiring the right Social Media company comes into place.  They have the knowledge and expertise, and will assist you in obtaining what you need without breaking your bank account.

Taco Trucks Using Social Media Marketing?

Posted by Brent on April 14th, 2009

You bet!  The following example is one of the most aggressive (but simple) gorilla marketing efforts (via social media) done by a simple Mom and Pop Korean Taco Truck in Los Angeles.  The good old days of big marketing budgets may be over for a while but small companies with large visions are killing it with social media.  There is a big difference between basic social media and social media down right.  A company must make a true committment to these efforts if they want to see a tangible ROI.  The soft an easy approach usually doesn’t work.  A good recomendation is to hire an experience Internet marketing company or social media marketing company to handle this effort.

Take a look at how Kogi tackled the world of late night Korean BBQ tacos with agressive (but meaningful) use of Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, and blogs. First, the set up a great looking

kogi-logo-final

website with a design feel that you would not expect from people in the late night taco business.  After that they used the following basic SEO and social media marketing tactics. First, they realized that content is king, but not just with thoughtful blogs and articles.  Although they have a great blog.  They developed a large inventory of videos as well to fill the site with rich media in a Google friendly way (i.e. YouTube videos).  They also set up an account on Flickr and use Youtube to marketing the videos.  They have a powerful SEO campaign because the site has great basic SEO coding and the rest is in the valuable content (a good mix of copy and video as well as great inbound links developed through their social media efforts).

Next, they did what any good social media company would do and found out where their target audience was hanging out online.  Twitter just so happened to be the most responsive tool in their soccial media tool kit and they are up to a following of about 14,000.  The next step is crucial and where many social media campaigns fall short.  They actively and regularly interact with their audience.  They don’t just post comments and truck locations on Twitter, they use it as a real communication tool. They talk to their customers, get feedback and even include them in branding ideas, t-shirt designs, etc.  This gives their customers a sense of community and ownership.  It sounds crazy because most of their customers visit them after being at the clubs and bars all night!  But it works!

The company has a true sense of authenticity and transparency.  They know their customers and their customers know them.  They started as a simple mobile taco stand and know have two trucks and customers that stand in line for over an hour late at night to get their hands on the awesome tacos!  The best part about their social media campaign is that they have a good product.  None of this works in the long run if there isn’t something great on the other end for the consumer.  In fact, that is where the world of Web 2.0 can bite you.  This leads into a discussion of online reputation management, but we will dig into that later.  More to come!


Follow the Social Media Herd – All 14 Million of Them

Posted by Myles on April 8th, 2009

 

This is a pretty telling chart showing where the social media herd is going over the past year.

It will be interesting if Google pulls the trigger to buy Twitter in the coming months and if either company can find a way to truly monetize it.

Is your business on Twitter and how are you leveraging it to help you and your customers?

twitter-dominates-unique-visitors

 

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Creating Viral Online Videos

Posted by Melanie on March 23rd, 2009

The fact remains that our population consists of 60% visual learners and 35% auditory learners (the other 5% are kinesthetic learners).  It is no wonder online videos are the ideal environment for people to learn about your brand, products, services and company.  With many online videos to compete with you’ll need to make yours the one to Twitter, Digg, bookmark and buzz about.  To make your online videos ‘viral’ is to create it so that it is indeed remarkable and worth remarking about!  Here are a few tips to creating remarkable and viral online videos:

  • Don’t forget to consider production quality: lighting, sound, location, editing, etc.
  • 15-30 seconds is ideal.  If creating a longer video, break into 10-15 second shots.
  • Make your videos relevant and informative to your business.
  • Have an engaging and shocking (if possible) story line.
  • Connect with your audience by capturing a human element that people can relate to.
  • Add some humor where appropriate- everyone loves a laugh.  This is what makes comedic videos so viral.
  • Be clever in delivering your message.  If it appears like an ad, viewers will not share it unless it’s truly worth sharing.
  • If possible, add a celebrity presence as it would attract more viewers.
  • Don’t forget to add call to actions i.e. frame with your company name and website URL at the end of the video.

With the above in mind, it will make your Social Media Optimization (SMO) campaign more effective and possibly profitable for your company.  The Return of Investment (ROI) for online video marketing is astounding.  You can reach a global audience quickly with little investment as compared to traditional marketing.  The catch is that your online videos need to be share worthy backed with a SMO strategy!


Why Social Media Matters

Posted by Myles on March 16th, 2009

By now you have probably heard of Social Media.  If you have not heard of it yet, now is a good time to learn more about it, what it does, what it can mean for your business, and your branding efforts.

Social Media is what the industry commonly refers to web applications, tools, software, or websites that connect people to one another.  Famous among these are the likes of facebook, MySpace, Orkut, Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit,  Xanga, Flickr, YouTube, Digg, and many, many more.  These  allow people to connect to one another in one form or another, to read the opinions of one another, and to base their own decisions on what the “communities” of these sites say.  But, that is not all that Social Media is excellent for.  In fact, it is becoming an increasingly important part of a company’s arsenal of marketing, messaging, and customer interaction.

To understand why Social Media Optimization (a.k.a. SMO) is an ever increasing crucial part of a company’s marketing strategy, one only needs to look at the success that Alltop (Guy Kawasaki’s company) has had by looking at their Twitter efforts. According to Guy Kawasaki, 6% (http://bit.ly/HeGOs ) of all traffic to Alltop comes directly from one source alone – namely Twitter.  Alltop is not the only example, and it may not be the best tool for your customer either.  In fact, here at IMI we decided to run a test a pilot run for one of our high end customers with a niche market – the highly affluent people (in other words, rich!).

We decided to do this test on one site only.  We posted a forum on investments begininning at $5mm on aSmallWorld.net.  The response was astounding, because witin 5 minutes of posting we had our very first interested potential investor. This was social media at its finest.  Our poster already had a following on ASW, had been an active member, and with their post they were able to prove the model – social media optimization works.  SMO does not only work, but it is absolutely crucial for companies wanting to build branding, obtain customers, and expand, and pinpoint demographics for their product, services, or brand.  Without SMO, you may very well be giving up the edge for your competitors to run with.


Social Media Hard at Work

Posted by Brent on March 16th, 2009

Everyone wants to know more about social media marketing and how to use it cost effectively to improve online brand exposure and develop creative marketing strategies.  Social media optimization can also be a powerful tool for improving natural/organic search engine results through continually creating more inbound links.

Here are some great examples of current social media campaigns we are doing and how simple efforts can have a huge impact.

Twitter Campaign

Services Performed:

  • Ongoing campaign on Twitter.com
  • Building brand identity
  • Building “followers”
  • Post comments and offerings on a regular basis

Social Media Marketing Example Result:

  • IMI posted a comment on Twitter.com about the website and provided a link
  • The comment prompted a Twitter.com user to follow the link and purchase flowers
  • The customer was so satisfied with the experience they then posted a comment about the website
  • The complimentary review spurred others to follow the link and purchase items!

“A Small World” Campaign

Services Performed:

  • Website development
  • Organic SEO
  • Running campaign on “A Small World”

Social Media Marketing Example Result:

  • IMI developed a profile and gained user following
  • IMI posted a comment on ASmallWorld.net about the new homes for sale
  • The comment spurred multiple inquiries from investment groups and buyers
  • The leads were sent to the client
  • Interested investors flew from Europe to Mexico to visit the property

Social media marketing can of course be much more in depth than this as well as include very creative/specific marketing strategies.  These examples are meant to show how social marketing efforts can foster viral results that lead to actual sales!

Tweet heard round the world?

Posted by Myles on February 6th, 2009

The first alert to UC Berkeley student James Buck’s arrest in Egypt in April of 2008: a one-word post to his Twitter account from his cell phone. The first picture released of the downed US Airways Flight 1549: a cameraphone picture uploaded onto Janis Krum’s Twitter. Throughout 2008 and the beginning 2009, we have seen how Twitter provided real-time, eyewitness accounts of natural disasters such as the October 2007 San Diego fires, critical emergencies such as the Virginia Tech shootings, election updates, and widespread attacks such as the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks.

It takes very little to Tweet a story. The start and end of James Buck’s ordeal was encapsulated in two words and two posts: “Arrested” and, later, “Free.” And the Hudson River plane crash was just another example of traditional media being beaten to the punch by social media. Family members in Taiwan could learn about it raining here in California ten seconds after the first raindrop hits the ground. (Miraculously, the rain just suddenly stopped) Social media is tranforming the way news hits the world and who is responsible for it. It’s like you’re IM’ing the world. Or at least your world.

Considering how vast the potential of social media and how fresh the news one hears from it is, it’s no wonder that your company should invest in social media accounts such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, to name a few. A well-managed social media optimization campaign allows your company to blast your networks with news and exposure. Focus on expanding your networks and providing quality updates. A shortcoming of social media is its lack of accountability: social media doesn’t impose the kind of regulations on integrity of reporting that traditional media does, and this has caused many to view social media as a world of fluff and real-time gossip. Ensure that your social media is committed to quality, integrity, and a sincere desire to listen and be heard.

Tweet away!


Are companies paying for FREE marketing?

Posted by David on January 27th, 2009

If you’re building a website, you obviously want people to eyeballs on your pages and traffic.  Not too long ago, you could get your website organically in top of Google and other major search engines with proper link building techniques, content writing, and correct site structure.  This is still of vital importance when creating a website and any good internet marketing company will say the same.  However, with the advent of social media sites like facebook, twitter and etc, more organic traffic is being generated to sites and the search engines are starting to realize that this needs to be a huge part in any organic seo campaign.  And the best part about this, is that this is FREE traffic…or is it?

I have been an avid MySpace and facebook user for some time now and I have recently started to dabble in twitter.  I, like my friends, really enjoy catching up with one another through these sites and like seeing pics and updates about one anothers life.  However, the true power of these social media sites can be seen when users who have huge followers – like twitter – can promote what ever they deem important – blogs, websites, events and etc.  Companies are starting to realize this and have assigned people to stay on top of the companies facebook, twitter and other social media accounts daily – update them, add new blogs, new status updates, new tweets and etc.  This takes not only a lot of time but you also have to get to know your users.  You have to constantly interact with users, gain their trust to do what you want them to eventually do.  I have to wonder though if companies do or eventually will hire employees strictly to stay on top of their social media accounts.  I wonder if start ups will eventually have a line item for “social media” employee on their books.  The social media optimization aspect is fairly new but has taken off and will be a part of individual’s lives and companies success’ in years to come.  Companies should really heed the advice of internet marketing companies and begin to dedicate much time in the social media realm.

Video Optimization

Posted by Ceci on January 22nd, 2009

With Google moving toward a universal search model , video optimization has become a must as part of your internet marketing campaign. This is just one more way to attract your target market and keep them coming back.  Similar to the content on your website you need the videos you add to be relevant to your website and give something back to the user.
Make the video for your users! No matter if you are selling products or services you can create videos that your viewers will want to see. Video sites are growing tremendously Yahoo video has grown over 400% and Youtube is still growing at about 160% a year. This is a great time to get your videos in front of your target market.
Here are a couple of tips for your video optimization:
1.    Make sure that your video is relevant! If you want people to keep on coming back to your website you have to give them what they want … useful information.  If your company is selling software don’t teach people how to cook a casserole. Tell them about all the different uses for the software and add how to videos that teach the viewer. These are great and will keep them coming back for more.

2.    Viral Video Marketing – Expose yourself:  we have all heard of viral marketing and the great effects it has. So don’t keep your videos to yourself! This social media aspect gets people talking about them, share your video with the world. Upload your video to sites like Youtube, Google Video, Yahoo Video, AOL Video etc. A few tips when uploading your video to different websites:

  • Make sure the video links back to your website.
  • Tag it! Always include keywords in the title and description of the video you are pushing out to video sites.
  • Let people use you! Seriously, give people the option to embed your video on blogs, forums and websites by giving them the embed code.
  • Power to the people: let people rank your video. Search engines pay attention to this when ranking your videos.

3.    Attract attention to your video; make it stand out on the page! Make sure to include information about the video in the title. A great idea is to incorporate keywords into the title of the video. Make sure that the video that you are embedding is relevant to the page its on. Make sure your metadata for the page is relevant to the video.

4.    Keep it short and Concise. Don’t bore your viewers, keep your video short and sweet while still keeping it entertaining and informative. I would suggest a 5 minute max.

5.    Include a brief intro with your logo and make sure each and every video has this 2-3 second intro to build brand loyalty.

6.    Create a video sitemap: this makes it easier for search engines to find and identify your videos.  Make sure to put your keywords in the video anchor text.


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