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Publisher and Internet company Ziff Davis just acquired monthly consumer computer magazine Computer Shopper. This is the fifth acquisition for Ziff Davis since early last year, a company once known for high-end hobby magazines, until it evolved into more of an internet information firm, managing sites including PCMag.com, ExtremeTech.com, Geek.com, Toolbox.com and LogicBuy.com.

Computer Shopper was founded in 1979, and was once a bible-thick tome of computer wares geared toward technology enthusiasts. It was originally bought by Ziff Davis in 1993, but then sold a decade later to CNET. After a few more switchings of hands, Ziff Davis again owns its evolved iteration, ComputerShopper.com.

Interestingly, Ziff Davis was founded in 1927 in Chicago by William B. Ziff, Sr. and Bernard G. Davis. The company began to shift a focus on tech in 1980, but eventually filed for Chapter 11 protection in 2008, which prompted a court-supervised restructuring in 2009. Eventually in 2010, former Time Magazine executive Vivek Shah, backed by Boston private equity firm Great Hill Partners, stepped in to acquire of Ziff Davis Inc., calling it the “first step in building a new digital media company that specializes in producing and distributing content for consumers making important buying decisions.”

How Can You Become A Better Influencer? Tip: You'll attract more bees with honey than you will with vinegar!

Last week Lee Odden shared a post  on attracting the attention of influencers online.  Whether we’re talking about influencers with mass appeal, or those that have a closer and more personal relationship with their followers, each person presents an opportunity to learn and grow.

That got me thinking, when it comes to the inner workings of an organization: what makes a good influencer, and would I consider myself an influencer at TopRank Online Marketing?  In my opinion, there are some key factors that make a good influencer.

• Building a strong relationship and trust with your peers is essential in influencing their decisions.
• Having a team centric attitude towards those that you work with (no man is an island).
• Presenting an attitude that says “I’m lucky to be here” vs. “the company is lucky to have me”.

There is a certain power that comes with having influence over your peers.  A power that should not under any circumstances be abused.  After all, what is power without trust?  The bigger question to ask is: why should you want to be an influencer?  There are many benefits to being an influential member of a team including flexibility, trust, decision making power, and proof of ability just to mention a few.  I would like to dive into some of the qualities that I think make a better influencer, as well as some signs that you may already be an influencer and didn’t even know it!

4 Tips for Becoming a Better Influencer

#1 Listen More Talk Less:  Think back to your “Sales 101” training, what is one of the most important rules that salespeople must always remember?  Don’t talk yourself out of the sale.  By listening to what your customers (or in this case peers) are really saying, you can  better formulate recommendations that will have the largest impact on both their perception of you as well as the project, situation, or problem at hand.

#2 Give Before You Get:  One thing that I have found is that you cannot automatically expect that your peers will want to help you.  I enjoy seeing the organization I work for from a variety of perspectives and not just my own.  Being aware of when your peers may be struggling or need help is the perfect opportunity to offer your help.  Offering assistance on a fairly consistent basis will show that you are invested in making each person on your team successful, and are not simply looking to pull ahead of the pack. This will in turn increase your team’s willingness to help when you’re in a bind.

#3 Work Outside Your Comfort Zone: As online marketers our industry evolving at a rapid pace.  What was best practices when you go to sleep, may be vastly different than when you wake up the next morning.  There will always be tactics that you don’t know but  by charging full ahead and working on projects or platforms that are outside of your standard comfort zone you will increase your adaptability and ability to think on your feet. Adaptability and quick problem solving will increase perception that you are an innovator within the organization.

#4 Suggest Collaboration: I’m sure you’ve heard the saying: “two heads or better than one” well imagine what you could do when your whole team puts their brains together.  When we come up with ideas on our own without collaborating it’s easy to self validate concepts and consider only one point of view on the subject.  By creating an open brainstorming you will give your fellow team members an opportunity to share their opinions and feel that they have an impact on the end product, recommendation, or solution.  What you will end up with will most likely be a better version of what team members would have come up with individually.

4 Signs That You’re An Influencer & Didn’t Know It

While many of us may be working on becoming a bigger asset or a bigger influencer within our organization there are many people who are influencers, but don’t know it.  What are some signs that you may be more influential than you think?

• When your company is making new hires they ask if there is anyone you know that might be a good fit for the organization.
• You’re asked to work on projects or tasks that are outside of your job description.  Proof that you are adaptable and can work freely.
• Team members come right out and ask what you think they should do as it relates to one of their clients or customers.
• You’ve formed a meaningful and unique relationship with each member of your team, which shows that you are interested in them as an individual.

Truth Be Told: I shared what being an influencer means to me but I’m curious to know what you think.  Do you thinking working towards influencing your team members is a self serving strategy, or will it help the greater good?  Is there anyone in your organization that you would like to nominate as an influencer?  Why would you nominate them?

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TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog, 2012. |
Want to Have a Larger Impact on Your Organization? 4 Tips for Becoming A Better Influencer | http://www.toprankblog.com

In the world of B2B online marketing, content and media have been used in a variety of forms to educate and persuade customers across long buying cycles with great success. Over the past few years I’ve heard from many B2B marketers that prospects are leading themselves through much of the initial phases of awareness, interest and consideration by consuming useful content discovered through social channels and published by the brand.

The result of smarter content and social engagement is a more qualified and educated consumer by the time they get to sales discussions which can mean a shorter sales cycle and even an impact on order volume and referrals.

Content marketing on the social web is a hot topic in many areas from SEO to Public Relations. Despite growing popularity, many marketers think “more content” is content marketing. What matters with content marketing is the thoughtful creation of information designed for a particular audience and specific outcomes as an individual object and as part of an overall strategy.

Content is educational and a tool of persuasion that can guide prospective customers in the journey from awareness to advocacy, across the entire customer lifecycle.

For a more qualitative approach to content, here are tips on how to make the most out of your content marketing efforts on the social web:

1. Planning

While experimenting with social media applications and platforms is a practical first step, many B2B Marketers seem to think that it’s a strategy. Goals, audience, and approach can allow for social experimentation but also provide companies with some structure and accountability toward achieving business outcomes with social content.

Social content plans don’t need to be set in stone. In fact, with social media content, it’s important for such plans to be adaptable and capable of analytical input and iterative improvements as data increases through growing network participation. A plan will help marketers better evaluate and scale their social media initiatives as well.

2. Prospect Centric

Companies that view social media platforms simply as a distribution channel for self-promotion often fail to create value for the very customers they’re trying to reach.

People don’t typically use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, blogging, Pinterest, and other social applications for keeping tabs on corporate press releases, product announcements, and promotions. Reasons for social media usage are most often personal. According to a Pew Research Center study, “two thirds of social media users say that staying in touch with current friends and family members is a major reason they use these sites.” With engaging on personal networks, consumers certainly connect with the brands they like, but contrary to how many brands behave with social content publishing, those connections are part of the social web experience, not the reason for it.

B2B marketers can achieve much better success with social content by empathizing with customer needs, interests, goals, and pain points across the buying cycle. Seeing things from the prospect’s point of view will help B2B marketers develop a content and social media approach that serves as a solution or facilitator to creating the kind of social content that resonates, engages, and gets shared. As prospect-centric social content gets shared, many of those who engage will refer or become customers.

3. Give to Get

Along with self-promotion, B2B marketers have a tendency to expect social communities to behave the way the brand wants them to. The guideline I like to share with B2B marketers that want to foster community and engagement is: “Give to get.” That doesn’t mean, give a sales pitch to get a sale.

Instead, provide something of value before expecting anything in return. In fact, it’s smart to find out more specifically what consumers and those who influence them find valuable as inspiration for a social content plan. Deliver useful information, listen to how audiences respond, and make adjustments. Then repeat.

The investment in creating value that is thoughtful for both customers and the brand’s business objectives is where consumer and corporate needs are met with social content.

4. Promotion

A lot of B2B marketing budgets have invested in creating content for companies, but many purists feel that great content should be left to attract attention based purely on the quality of the information. There’s a feeling that if content is really good, it will attract traffic and engagement all on it’s own. That’s a naïve perspective, especially in a competitive category and it also makes some strong assumptions about whether there is a preexisting community for the brand, or not.

With a hub and spoke publishing model, themed content is published into a repository that represents a “go to” resource for topics that the brand wants to be known for. At the same time, that content can be promoted through spokes or social channels among communities that are interested. People often rely on content promotion to discover what’s new. Promotion can attract traffic, social shares, and links, which can all serve as useful signals to search engines and improve standard and social search engine visibility.

Promotion works best with content that deserves to be shared. That kind of content makes a promise to social networks that it’s good. If a B2B brand can consistently create, optimize, socialize, and promote great content, the community will respond with shares, referrals, engagement, links, and even sales.

5. Analyze and Optimize

As they mature in their social content journey, B2B companies develop social profiles, publish descriptions, and contribute content at various intervals as part of their social media participation. They may even actively optimize social content with search keywords and social topics as a way to empathize with what consumers are looking for and talking about on the social web.

A missing piece of this puzzle is the importance of ongoing monitoring and analysis. There’s a process I call, “The cycle of search and social improvement” that involves creating and optimizing social content. As useful content is created and promoted, it gets shared and attracts fans, friends, followers, and subscribers.

As the community grows, even more sharing of links and traffic is involved with brand content. The increase in engagement, search visibility, and social sharing provides a rich set of data with which the brand can improve content creation. It’s a cycle of hypothesis, implementation, and analysis that can improve how effectively a brand is able to refine social content effectiveness at inspiring business outcomes.

A version of this article originally appeared on my ClickZ Social Media Smarts column.

If you’d like a deep dive on these topics with plenty of how to’s, then check out my new book: Optimize published by Wiley and available this week.

Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog, 2012. |
5 Ways to Win with B2B Content Marketing & Social Media | http://www.toprankblog.com

This week at the PRSA Digital Impact Conference Vanessa DiMauro, CEO of Leader Networks talked to attendees about the benefits of online communities as part of a B2B social media strategy.

According to DiMauro, nearly 2/3 of organizations surveyed are engaged in private, online communities hosted by companies that sell them computer hardware, software or services.

The average visit in an online B2B community is 10 minutes, with 1 visit every 5-7 days.

What B2B organization wouldn’t want roughly 40 minutes of time per month with members to help solve problems, learn how they are using tools and what topics they are most interested in?

Building an online community gives organizations an opportunity to strategically connect with its audience in meaningful and sometimes deeper ways through private interactions.

Many companies continue to respond chaotically to social chatter. With this, they can end up with what Vanessa calls social media muddle.

Part of that muddle is due to baseline measurement such as number of  fans/followers. Vanessa recommends going beyond such measurements and make sure someone in the organization is responsible for reviewing social interactions so that they can be strategically brought back to the organization and impact future marketing decisions.

Online communities can help companies shift from chaos to focus. Specifically moving from a set of discrete interactions to a dynamic, meaningful relationship which can impact business outcomes.

Benefits of online communities can include deepening customer relationships, building greater brand equity, providing better customer care, shortening product innovation cycles, extending and accelerating product and service delivery and delivering improved financial returns.

Which companies need online customer communities the most?

Those where customers are:

• open to sharing information with other customers
• purchasing a platform product and need to communicate with each other about how to capitalize
• willing to participate in off-line user groups or in-person customer summits

And where customer problems are:

• critical, ongoing and ever-changing
• such that knowledge for solving problems becomes obsolete quickly
• those where other customers can gain major value by learning from the experiences of other customers
• urgent

Here are 3 models for communities:
1. Gated

• select, narrow target audience
• acceptance criteria established
• protected dialog
• managed topical agenda
• supported by the organization

2. Public

• open call, all interested
• member directed
• public forum
• ad generated support

3. Hybrid

• tiered membership
• consensus/trend driven
• public forum with private areas
• thought leadership
• hybrid revenue

An example online community is the Palladium Group’s Execution Premium Community. The audience includes senior strategy professionals from organizations worldwide.

The case for the community included; helping increase customer intimacy, raising awareness of products and services, tapping into leading trends in strategy execution and creating a new revenue-generating service line.

Results to-date include more than 50% of the membership from non-US countries and its ongoing revenue, which it started generating at month 6.

Then she reviewed the online community LexisNexis Investigators Network (LNIN). The audience includes federal, state and local law enforcement and currently has more than 7,000 registered members.

This site aimed to bridge the gap between different law enforcement agencies.

Results to-date include over 4,000 members in the first year, members from all 50 states and 3 new product enhancements implemented.

The following are 3 Operations Processes communities need to succeed:

1. Expert community facilitation
2. A healthy balance of Institutional Content and User Generated Content
3. Persistent and programmatic outreach

For B2B communities to work, they need to solve a problem, accelerate a process and/or make something easier.

To get members interacting, know the types of members and what motivates them.

• Fame Seekers – seek opportunities to grow reputation and showcase thought leadership
• Motivators – seeks opportunity to be valued. Connect people with each other and with content
• Problem Solvers – reticent participant but overcomes this in order to get answers to their questions

A member who uploads a photo of his/herself is 7x more likely to post a comment. Be sure to pay attention to the members who join and upload a photo first. These people are likely fame-seekers and can be encouraged by member spotlights, shout-outs or in discussions.

Understanding the members of the community, their individual goals and what drives them to share and engage are all critical to building a successful community.

Online communities may be the right next step for organization’s who want and need to connect with customers who have persistent needs and can learn from the collective wisdom of others.

Supporting users as they transition to customers, and across the customer life cycle, is a key message in TopRank Online Marketing CEO Lee Odden’s new book Optimize available in for Kindle and Nook now, with hard cover copies shipping starting on April 17th.

Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog, 2012. |
Building B2B Online Communities – Why, How & Where to Start | http://www.toprankblog.com

When you ask an online marketer what frustrates them the most about reaching customers and prospects online you’re likely to hear the following:

• Finding a way to connect with their audience
• Moving prospects through the buying cycle
• Growing their network and lists

Marketers often talk about their prospects being overloaded with too much information which can lead to an indecisive audience, causing marketers to miss projections and sales goals.  Lets face the facts, consumers are engaging online.  Recent studies show that over 53% of active social networkers follow a brand.  If there are that many people actively interacting and engaging with brands online what changes can be made to reach and engage target audiences?

Sign #1 – The Sounds of Silence – No One is Commenting On Our Blog

The first item to audit when trying to figure out why your blog is not getting the traffic and engagement that you want is to take a hard look at your content.  Is the content being created too broad, too specific.  Does it effectively address the pain points of your audience.  If so, take some time reviewing existing customer research or begin surveying existing customers to determine what type of information they like to consume and share.  Consider adding questions in the conclusions of your blog posts that encourage interaction.  Another tactic involves promoting blog content on your company website and other social channels.

Sign #2 – Is Anyone Out There? – Activity Without Engagement

The key to increasing engagement is to be engaging.  Have you made a point of reaching out? If not spend some time identifying key industry influentials as well as organizations or individuals you are looking to target directly.  Your social engagement will not improve if you are constantly in self-promotion mode.  Put some “skin in the game” by sharing original content which mentions those you would like to connect with, or re-share information they have distributed on their networks as a sign of good faith.

Sign #3 – Our Website is Awesome – But No One is Visiting

First question, is your content optimized?  Is this content optimized for search engines and customer experience?  Optimizing for search engines will undoubtedly increase your visibility online.  However, if you aren’t getting the number of inquiries or even the organic traffic you’re aiming for there could be a variety of reasons.  Take some time to review your Google Analytics and analyze your website bounce rate.  Perhaps you’re ranking fairly well but once people get to your site they aren’t finding what they want or need and are exiting the site immediately and moving on to the next.  It is also a good idea to assess the websites of your top competitors and identify what they are doing that is working and not working to draw in your target audience.

Sign #4 – A Sound Investment – Content Creation Without Representation

Before investing in the creation of white papers, infographics, videos, guides, or research you must first consider your audience.  What type of information do your customers and prospects typically consume and share?  Which websites social or otherwise do they spend the most time on?  By identifying these key pieces of information it should help guide you down the path to creating content that is in the proper format and set up to receive adequate exposure.

What is the moral of the story?  If  you want your audience to engage with you and listen to what you have to say it’s time to do the same.  Work to identify what topics and tactics work best for your audience, and evolve these strategies as their preferences change.  Spend just as much time if not more monitoring conversations as you do releasing information on social sites.

What hurdles have been most difficult for you to overcome as an online marketer?  If you could give one piece of advice to other content and social media marketers what would it be?

Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog, 2012. |
Stuck In A Marketing Rut? 4 Signs That It’s Time To Add Engagement To Your Online Marketing Strategy | http://www.toprankblog.com

In my last column, I told you about seven must-test elements on your e-commerce product pages. I left you with less tangible products and services with a promise I’d follow up in this column. So, if you sell a product or service through untraditional e-commerce or software, or even software-as-a-service as your product, then how do you maximize the effectiveness of your product pages? There’s a lot to say, so let me get started.

Video Marketing Is Hot

Just like e-commerce product pages, video is a must-test. Video is best used to explain complex ideas. Take some advice from my friend and video optimization expert Chris Johnson, co-founder of Simplifilm, who has been gaining some amazing insights into visitor behavior with online videos. He suggests you should be testing the following things on your product videos:

• Opens. What is the first mental image you give your viewers in your video? What is the still image that appears before they click play? How will you capture their interest in the first five to seven seconds? By the way, 80 percent of the people that watch the first 12 seconds of your video will watch till about 70 seconds worth of the video.
• Closes/calls to action. What is your final mental image? Have you created enough desire to get your viewer to take the next call to action? Not every product video will lead visitors to a sale, so plan that some may only be good to get people to see the next demo or learn more. Sometimes it may be more effective to not include any call to action in your video if you’ve designed your product page’s call to action effectively. This will make a bigger difference if the video is embedded on your page or on a third-party website.
• Information density. Too frequently marketers try to say too much in too little time. I’m often guilty of this. You also must balance not saying too little that the video becomes slow and boring. You don’t need to answer every question in the video but you must create desire. Remember, oftentimes less equals more. So for example, instead of saying your product even works on an iPhone, you can show the interface working on an iPhone.
• Specifics/screenshots (when people see actual interfaces screens, even mocked-up ones, they tend to increase conversions). This is one of my biggest pet peeves. I’m a marketing tool junkie and I built out a website to store my favorite tools at http://www.websitetestingtools.com. I have over 170 tools there and I can’t begin to tell you why many of them don’t have any actual screenshots of the application/software/tool anywhere on their site. At a minimum, if you can’t get video produced, at least put up some great screenshots and show how they will benefit users.For best results, try to make a demonstration – a matter-of-fact informative thing, not a sales performance. Chris would often advise you that a set of good still images or slides will outperform an overly-produced video.
• Voices matter. Should you use a male voice or a female voice for the voiceover? What accent should the voiceover have? This is especially important if you have international sales. Try to use doubt in the voiceover’s voice.I’ll leave out examples of the bad ones to protect the guilty, but here are some good examples:
  

  ScribeSEO.com
  Monetate (two videos on home page)*
  UserTesting.com*

One thing is for certain, online video watching behavior is evolving quickly, and if you are working with a video production company that isn’t open to testing, you aren’t taking advantage of this medium.

Words Matter

Not every persona will want to watch a video, so you must also work through the 10 steps to optimizing your copy and content.

Two other areas that you want to focus your testing efforts on are your feature table and your pricing table. Next time, I’ll cover some ideas on what you should be testing there.

*Full disclosure: I sit on the advisory board but didn’t script the videos.

Google+ For Business

This infographic was recently shared by Chris Brogan on his website and provides some valuable insight into using Google+ for business.  Highlights include:

• Why Google+ is the place to be
• Sharing is the key
• Taking your business page to the next level

“Introducing Google Play:  All your entertainment, anywhere you go”  Google is looking to eliminate the hassle of syncing across multiple devices and computers.  Google Play is a digital entertainment destination where users can find everything from music, to books and movies.  The best part about Google Play?  It’s entirely cloud based so everything will always be available.  Via Google Blog.

“Senior execs increase Twitter usage 13%”  A recent survey found that senior executives access media at any give time of day and are using both traditional and new media to gather this information.  It appears that even the 55+ group of executives appears to be pretty digital savvy. Via BtoB.

“Facebook’s tips for getting your mobile game noticed”  Mobile games have taken over smart phone app stores making it difficult to choose.  Facebook believes they have a solution that will make games more discoverable.  Via Venturebeat.

“Pinterest:  Why Your Company Should Take An Interest”  Many brands are beginning to utilize Pinterest as an online marketing vehicle.  While some experts say that it may not be time for every company to participate, Pinterest is definitely something to keep in mind as a tool to leverage some out of the box solutions.  Via the brainyard.

“Google Patches Hacker’s Chrome Bug in Less Than 24 Hours”  Within 15 hours of Google Chrome being hacked at the Pwnium hack competition Google had already developed a solution to fix the hack.  It’s clear that Chrome is no longer unhackable, but props to Google for coming up with a solution quickly.  Via Forbes.

“5 Reasons Your Content Marketing Must Address Price”  The way that people are shopping has changed to a very online focused business.  However, many businesses fail to address essential questions that their customers may have, especially when it comes to pricing.  This article provides some helpful tips on how and why you should discuss price.  Via Social Media Examiner.

“New Site Helps You Control Google Search Results for Your Name”  If you are interviewing for a job or trying to land a new client you can be sure that your name will be Googled before agreeing to do business with you.  A new website BrandYourself, guides users in optimizing the links that you want Google to push up in the results when your name is searched.  Via Mashable.

TopRank Team News

Brian Larson – Infographic:  The Google Panda Update, One Year Later
There seems to be a widely held belief that Google’s Panda update targeted and impacted article sites. This misnomer serves as a reminder to look back at Panda year later to evaluate what we learned and how we adapted.  Via Search Engine Land.

Ken Horst – Can Friendsheet give Facebook the power of Pinterest?
Facebook quietly launched its own version of Pinterest on Tuesday that looks like a 100% knock off.  One obvious benefit to a Facebook version of Pinterest is its seamless integration with your Facebook community.

On the down side, Friendsheets are not easily sharable with people not in your network and the image database is not very searchable.  Also, it doesn’t appear that  Friendsheet has  a toolbar applet for easy image curation available yet.

From a marketing perspective, I will set up and use this tool as a way to expand my reach but I plan to keep using Pinterest as my primary image curation tool because  I like the Pinterest community and the sharing options.  Via SmartBlog.

Time to weigh in:  Will you be targeting older executives more aggressively now that you know they’re spending more time online?  What type of businesses do you think should utilize Pinterest?

Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog, 2012. |
Online Marketing News: Chrome Gets Hacked, Facebook Can Get your Game Noticed, Take an Interest in Pinterest | http://www.toprankblog.com

What does it take to go viral?

This recent video from Salesforce.com covers what it takes for your content to spread as well as the formula for success.  The video also includes a checklist marketers can use to increase their likelihood of going viral.

This Week in Online Marketing News

“Getting Socially Optimized with Mobile Marketing” As mobile marketing continues to expand marketers are still searching for the best way to reach their audience through the development of applications for smart phones, ads, and mobile optimized websites.  This article provides some insight into the benefits and challenges of a mobile marketing strategy. Via BtoB Magazine.

“How Twitter is Pairing It’s Interest Graph With Ads”  While Facebook’s social graph provides information on connections, likes, and demographic data Twitter is taking a different approach.  Twitter’s interest graph will focus more on users likes, what they read, and generally what topics they are interested in.  Via Techcrunch.

“Facebook Revamps Pages For Businesses”  In order to create consistency between profiles and pages, Facebook has now rolled out the new timeline for branded pages.  Facebook is encouraging businesses to make the shift from pure advertising to storytelling and hopes that the new timeline will push companies to make the transition.  TopRank recently rolled out the updated timeline, what do you think?  Via the brainyard.

“Foursquare Says Farewell to Google Maps, Joins OpenStreetMap Movement”  Foursquare has decided to part ways with Google Maps saying that “as a startup, we also often think about how we can make life easier for other startups.”  Curious to know why Foursquare chose this particular product?  Via Mashable.

“Posting From Pinterest To Your Facebook Fan Page”  Tabfusion recently released a Facebook app that allows users to display their “pins” to their Facebook page.  The company shares that once Pinterest releases their application-programming interface there will be further integration.  Be sure to take a look at the clever cartoon attached to the bottom of the article.  Via Marketaire.

“12 important steps bloggers should never forget”  Writing a blog is a serious commitment.  Many bloggers get wrapped up in creating the content and forget some very simple optimization and promotional steps.  This article provides some good insight into steps that bloggers should incorporate into their blogging routine.  Via ragan.

TopRank Team: Search & Social News

Brian Larson – Google Images Adds Previews to Related Searches
Let’s face it, some searches are just inherently more intent on visual content. Google gets it and is making access to relevant images even more convenient. For businesses, this update reinforces the importance of optimizing images as part of an overall online marketing strategy.  Via Search Engine Watch.

Shawna Kenyon  - Clock counts down as Google privacy change looms
Google’s new privacy change is their solution for combining 60 privacy policies for different services. For some Google users this change is unfavorable as there is no way to “opt-out”.  However for those who favor all of Google’s services this will be a way for the user to be presented with content that is similar to what they are already looking for. Google continues to reaffirm its commitment to preserving privacy stating the change will only serve to “simplify” the user experience.  Via Cnet.

Alexis Hall – msnNow Is Driving More Traffic To Bing, But Is It Artificially Inflating Searches?
msnNOW, a new service which aggregates content around trending topics, launched just two weeks ago, but already seems to be having an effect on Bing traffic numbers.  While new traffic to Bing has jumped in the past two weeks, this post suggests that those numbers may be inflated due to how msnNOW links are structured.  We’ll have to keep an eye on this trend to determine how search engine market share may shift, as well as how msnNOW may impact the search and social landscape.  Via Search Engine Land.

Ken Horst – LinkedIn Launches Follow Company Button
Here is something every company with a Linkedin profile should jump on right away.  According to execs at LinkedIn, there is a finite limit to how many brands people will follow per channel.  Companies that drag their feet with the LinkedIn “follow company” button may find it more difficult to find willing followers later in the year.  Via AdWeek.

Time to weigh in:  Do you consider the new Facebook timeline for businesses a positive or negative change?  What impact do you think this will have on your business?  Have you integrated mobile marketing into your online marketing strategy?  What have been the results?

Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog, 2012. |
Online Marketing News: Tips for Going Viral, Socially Optimized via Mobile, Facebook Timelines for Business, LinkedIn Company Follow | http://www.toprankblog.com

Making the time to execute on a social media strategy can rattle even the most experienced marketers.  Unlike traditional marketing, social media marketing can present many different challenges and distractions.  According to a study by eMarketer 73% of marketers say finding the time to create content as their biggest marketing challenge.

I recently ran a poll of @TopRank Twitter followers to get a sense of how they spend their time online.  I asked “If you had only 20 minutes a day to spend on social media what would you focus on?”  Some of the answers we received were:

• @henryroominates – “I would try to connect with powerful Twitter users and Tweet content from my blog.”
• @SebastianX – “I’d read my Twitter Followanyday List.”
• @Paco_Belle – “Look at 2-3 Twitter lists, couple circles on G+, scroll Facebook timeline & look through my RSS feeds for new things.”
• @Paramountbuzz – “Engaging others…doing it now.”
• @GreenDolphin_ – “My RSS feed, Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook.”

If you are involved with implementing social media marketing, you know that 20 minutes a day just won’t cut it.  On top of implementing social media tactics, there’s also the task fo staying current. Lee’s post “11 Ways to Get Smarter & Stay Current in a World of Social Information Overload“ outlined how much time can be involved using social tools to collect, filter and curate social media marketing knowledge.

Avoiding Shiny Object Pitfalls

Reuters estimates that the average worker loses 2.1 hours of productivity every day to interruptions and distractions.  To avoid wasting time begin by prioritizing your week.  While it’s true that unexpected issues can come up plan for the best and the worst.  If you have 3 hours per day on average to complete tasks related to social media strategy what will you get accomplished in those 3 hours?  If you were only to have 1.5 hours per day what would you want to get accomplished?  Proper planning will lead to improved productivity and efficiency.  Also, take some time to determine what your top distractions are and eliminate them.

Optimize for Productivity

Focus on what will have the largest impact on your productivity. Determining what time of day you are most productive, and which activities are most significant will help you to stay on track.  Are you an early riser, night owl, or somewhere in between?  Creating a daily schedule and routine can significantly improve your productivity.  You will also want to keep in mind statistical data which points to the best times of day and days of the week for engaging in social media activity.  A recent infographic by KISSmetrics on “The Science of Social Timing” provides valuable insight into the best times of day to share or engage on sites like Facebook and Twitter.  Some of the findings include:

Twitter

• 5pm – best time to Tweet for re-tweets
• 1-4 per hour – most effective frequency of Tweets
• Midweek & Weekends – best days to Tweet
• Noon & 6pm – best time to Tweet for increase Click Through Rates

Facebook

• Saturday- best day to share on Facebook
• Noon- most effective time to share on Facebook
• .5 per day – best sharing frequency

Tips for an Optimized Focus

Now lets talk about some no brainer “don’ts” that the many of us “do”.  Let me know if any of these sound familiar to you:

• Your best friend is having problems with their significant other so you keep your phone close, just in case…
• It’s baseball season and your team is playing but you don’t have the day off, thank goodness for internet radio right…
• You have email anxiety which forces you to check email every couple minutes because you never know what you might miss…
• One of your colleagues is obsessed with chatting online and pings you every couple minutes with a question or joke…
• You’re scheduling Tweets, posting on your personal facebook page, and reading Psychology Today all at the same time, because after all you are a master multi-tasker…

I too have often thought that I could do everything at once.  A balancing act acquired from years of having too much to do, and not enough time.  I considered multi-tasking an art form and a higher form of organization than my counterparts who only focused on one thing at a time.  I could not have been more wrong.  In recent years I’ve had to buckle down and force myself to devote all of my attention to one task at a time.  I’ve found that the quality of my work has improved and the level of my stress has decreased significantly.  Some tactics that have worked for me include:

• Closing my email when I’m working on social media tasks
• Close all Internet windows and tabs except for the one I need to work on
• Disabling chat or closing chat windows to avoid distraction
• Pick 15 minutes a day to indulge in activities such as checking personal social media profiles, responding to texts, or chatting with friends.
• Spend 30 minutes to an hour each morning reviewing emails and responding, do the same thing before leaving at the end of the day.
• It is significantly easier to stick to your schedule if you are working ONLY on the tasks you have scheduled in the time allotted.

Tools for Optimizing Your Time

Depending on your available time and social media content strategy, there are many tools that can help you accomplish more with less time.  Below are three different types of tools that social media marketers can use to get the most out of their time:

Curation Tools – good for quickly gathering and automatically sharing content

• Scoop.it
• Storify
• Pearltrees

Social Aggregators & Management Tools –  follow and engage with multiple platforms

• Hootsuite
• Tweetdeck
• Seesmic
• Here’s a list of 22 social media management tools

Social Bookmarking – effective means of organizing and storing social bookmarks

• StumleUpon
• Reddit
• Delicious
• Evernote – not a bookmarking tool exactly but very useful for curating

Next Steps

I’m sure you’ll agree that focus and time management are something that most of us can relate to.  Based on what was covered in this post, consider the following questions and determine what you can do to better focus on the tasks at hand:

• What are your top 3 social media goals and do you have a plan for reaching them?
• How much time can you dedicate each day to using tactics to reach these goals?
• What steps can you take to improve your focus while completing social media activities?
• Which type of tool: curation, aggregator, or social bookmarking can you use to help save time?

If  you are looking for additional tips on Optimizing your SEO, social media, and content strategies be sure to take a look at the new book: “Optimize: How to Attract & Engage More Customers By Integrating SEO, Social Media, and Content Marketing.”

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2012. |
Optimize Your Social Media Schedule: 4 Tips for Avoiding the Social Media Time Suck | http://www.toprankblog.com

Improved communication turns one time buyers into lifelong customers.

As marketers and sales professionals there is no doubt that we are focused on obtaining new customers and increasing awareness within targeted market segments.  However, we must also consider the lifetime value of our existing customers and how marketing communications can contribute to that relationship.  Taking the time to examine what kind of communications can keep your brand top of mind with customers and inspire continued awareness for repeat sales and referrals is of enormous value.

Do you know how much your current customers are worth to your company?  In recent years research has found that a 5% increase in customer retention can increase profits by 25% to 95%.  Armed with the knowledge that satisfied customers has a direct impact on your bottom line, there is no time like the present to begin targeting your current customers.  Here are 5 tips on better customer communications you can start using right now:

Tip #1 – Personalized Email Communication

96% of organizations believe that email personalization can improve email marketing performance.

Creating a steady flow of email communication for customers is not a new concept.  However, how many email campaigns do you send out that are segmented based on purchasing habits or preferences?  Say that you have studied the data relating to your current customers and have identified approximately 5 profiles or personas.  Based on customer information find the persona that best fits each customer.  Then create an email drip campaign for each customer segment with different content based on need.  Keep in mind that the subject line, internal content, and calls to action within the email should be personalized based on customer segment.

Tip #2 – Create A Stellar FAQ Page

53% of customers who shop online more than once a month find customer service extremely or very important.

Creating readily available and easy to find information is Customer Service 101.  It does not matter if you are B2B, B2C, technology, retail, or any other type of company; your customers will have questions.  A Frequently Asked Questions page on your website, social profiles, or other web destinations should be updated on a regular basis to include new questions or comments.  FAQ’s are also an additional opportunity to optimize content for improved visibility online.  It is important to remain consistent with your answers, provide a clean and easy to read page, and update or remove items that may no longer apply.  If you sell multiple products you may want to consider creating additional pages for each product.  Also, if you sell a product or service that requires assembly or setup you may want to provide instructional videos for your customers.

Tip #3 – Social Networking Channels = Customer Service Opportunity

40% of corporate Twitter accounts engage stakeholders on customer service issues.

Last week we shared the example of JetBlue’s customer focused approach on Twitter.  While Twitter may not be a customer solution for all marketers there is an opportunity to utilize your existing social media channels as a way of providing additional customer service for your customers.  Customer service does not only include answering questions or dealing with problems it could also include: sharing useful articles or information, notifying customers of upcoming promotions, or reaching out to customers that are inactive.  Consideration must also be paid to the time of day that your customers are most likely to spend their time online.  There are tools available like Timely, Buffer or Hootsuite which enable you to schedule your Twitter communications during a particular time of day for the highest impact.

Tip #4 – Create Content Based on Customer Need

36% of B2B marketers listed producing engaging content as their biggest content marketing challenge.

If planned for and organized appropriately, content creation can be executed efficiently and successfully.  A successful content strategy will focus on the needs, pain points, and triggers of your customers.  There are many ways to identify what those needs are including: customer surveys, research, and creation of customer personas based on buying habits.  Implementing a well thought out and concise customer survey can give you additional insight into what makes your customers tick.  A survey is also a great opportunity to crowdsource content from your customers for your customers.  Who better qualified to tell you what they want to read about than those who are purchasing your products or services?

Tip #5 – Turn Customers Into Brand Advocates

500 billion peer impressions are created each year.

It is extremely important that you tap into your existing customer base to find individuals or organizations who are willing to advocate on your behalf.  You could ask customers for: written or video testimonials, permission to use them as references, or employ them as a brand advocate to share information with their networks.  As user generated content becomes increasingly popular and credible, keeping your customers happy will continue to become even more essential.

Action Items:

Committing to providing customer support online is something that I recommend every company do no matter what industry you work in.  If you don’t keep your customers happy, someone else will.  I would like to leave you with the following questions that I hope will help you determine what tactics your company should implement to improve your customer service and communication online.

• How would you rate your current level of online customer service?
• Do you currently have a plan in place to improve your communication?
• What tactics have you implemented that have worked?
• What companies do you personally buy from that provide excellent online communication?
• What impact has that communication had on your purchasing decisions?

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TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog, 2012. |
5 Marketing Tips for Improving Customer Relationships & ROI With Better Communications | http://www.toprankblog.com