The Maine SEO Blog

Yesterday, Rich and I did a speaking engagement for the Great Bay Foundation – an organization which supports nonprofit social enterprises; in other words, social entrepreneurs. Before our over arching sessions on all things Web marketing, Laura Quinn of Idealware spoke about some other technical gadgets used for nonprofits for email, constituent data, and collaboration.

While at flyte we talk about a lot about web marketing for corporations, the fact of the matter is many business laws and best practices are the same for nonprofit organizations. You’ll find the slideshare presentations below for Web Design & SEO, Blogging, and Social Media.

For many of these small organizations, the day was a lot to handle; and yet, and invariable pupu platter of technical needs they will soon be able to use to satisfy their organizational needs. [Remember: do what's right for you.]

Web Design, Usability, and SEO

Blogging

Social Media

Recently, I blogged about a session at Social Media FTW (Search Engine Optimization and Social Media). In it, my boss, Rich Brooks, gave a great analogy for incoming links. I didn’t share it then since I wanted to give it its own special place…because I think it’s that powerful.

The analogy

Let’s say you’re visiting Chicago; so naturally you ask 10 friends what restaurant to go to while you’re there (as opposed to Googling it. You’re smart, you want recommendations.) 7 friends suggest Restaurant A, 3 suggest Restaurant B. All things being equal, you’re going with Restaurant A.

That is, of course, until you realize that those 3 friends are Chicago natives and the group of 7 are tourists, just like you. The 3 friends might even tell you “Tourists say Restaurant B, because they don’t know about A”. Then things change – the 3 friends have established their expertise now, and you’re on your way to B for some fine dining.

The same rule applies for Link Building

More links may be pointing to Website A than Website B. At first glance, that might mean that search engines would give more “value” to Website A (all other things being equal)…

But just like our restaurant scenario, things aren’t always as they appear. You see, as far as search engines are concerned, quality incoming links matter – not quantity. Sorry, A.

What’s the takeaway?

Sure, try to get out there and get all the incoming links you can. But the low hanging fruit won’t help you in the long term. Shoot for attaining links from those high quality websites that will help you establish your expertise.

Nicki Hicks
Visual Learner

Thanks for all the photos.

This week, I gave two presentations (or rather, the same presentation, twice) for a senior Business Seminar class at Saint Joseph’s College. Though it’s always nice going back to my alma mater, more so than usual, I feel for the senior class.

A year and a half ago, it was easier to find a job. Obviously, it took some work, but it’s nowhere near the type of competitive environment these soon-to-be grads face in the next 6 months of their job search. So how are you supposed to differentiate yourself in such an atmosphere? Why, with social media, of course!

The full presentation is in Slideshare below, but here are some of the key points:

• On Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter already? Great…now go in and clean up and fill out your profiles. Not on them? Join! (Note: only join Twitter if you can devote the time to it.)
• The next step: go above and beyond. Engage people by friending/fanning, following, and connecting with the right people and groups.
• Jobs in ME/VT/NH and many of your other favorite job listing sites have a presence on all of the major social media networks. Why go to their website everyday when you can engage them via Twitter? or Facebook? or even an RSS feed?
• A really neat find: when I was doing research for the presentation, I stumbled upon some video resumes on YouTube – what better way to add depth to your resume? But be careful – you have to do your video resume the right way; check out the presentation for tips and tricks for YouTube!

SEOQuake

I’ve been using the SEOQuake toolbar for a while now. It’s a gem for any search geek: the ability to quickly see statistics in the search results, from PageRank to indexed pages in Google v. Bing, from incoming links to Alexa rank.

You can also dig a little deeper by getting more information about the site you’re currently visiting; which is a nice one-stop shop for getting any of your basic need-to-know information for client statistics. Here’s a screen capture of what that looks like:

Aside from the SEOQuake Toolbar, the SEOQuake Toolbar also has two products for statistics: SEOPivot and SemRush.

SEOPivot

SEOPivot is essentially designed to show you the potential of ranking for certain keywords for particular pages on your website. For example, a post I did on GetListed.org and Local Search currently ranks #152 for “live local search”, a search term with a potential volume of 1,362 visitors if the post were ranking #1.

SEOPivot reminds me a lot of Google Webmaster Tools’ top search queries. Here are Maine SEO’s top 10 queries in Webmaster Tools:

Very similar, but I will say that SEOPivot offers two added benefits above and beyond Webmaster Tools’ top search queries.

1. The potential traffic you could receive if you were #1. While it isn’t a perfect number, it is interesting if nothing else.
2. More importantly, the average search volume. How many people are searching for this keyword a month? (In other words, is it even worth trying to optimize for?

All in all, SEOPivot will give you some interesting information about where your pages could rank – and you can query 10 websites a day for free, with 5 keywords per site. Want more than that? You’ll have to pay a little.

SemRush

The other SEOQuake tool, SemRush, gives a little more insight. Like SEOPivot, you are still served up keywords from your site, where they currently rank, search volume, and the URL. The benefit here comes in the form of some really great AdWords data, should you be using it, including CPC and competition.

Like SEOPivot, you can get several free reports, but have to pay if you want more than that.

All in all…

SEOQuake remains my favorite, although if you want some interesting statistics about where some of your keywords stand (sometimes keywords you never even thought to rank for), SEOPivot and/or SemRush are for you!

Nicki Hicks
SEO Tool Afficiando

When’s the last time you revamped the copy on your website?

The leaves are in the midst of falling, and now might be the perfect time to rework your website a little.

It’s about the title

It’ll be the first place any SEO suggests adding your best keywords, the title is the easiest way to increase your search engine visibility. If you don’t want to (or need to) do a lot of copyediting, this might be the perfect place to start. For some ideas, you might want to head over to Google Insights or Trends for what’s hot right now.

Content

When it comes to the copy on your pages, you know your business far better than anyone else could imagine to. However, the point is to see your company through the eyes of your customers. Optimize for the keywords they’re searching for. Do you come up in a Google search for the right queries? Move through the site like they do. Is it easy to navigate? Think like your customer.

‘Tis the season

You might need a change simply due to the nature of your business. Do you notice your customer flow changes seasonally? If you run a lodging or hotel business, the answer is obvious; but for other companies it might be more subtle. Update your copy accordingly.

Blogging makes it easy

This is where a blog comes in handy. Even if you do have a blog, you should still spice up your copy and titles every so often. But with a hot topic or news, you won’t have to as often. Just blog about it! That post has the ability to rank (just make sure you funnel people from your blog to your website).

Give it a facelift

There’s no need to update every page on your website, but maybe a facelift here and there – starting with the homepage – could really do some good! Search engines love fresh, unique content. Then again, maybe your copy is perfect the way it is. Either way, pay it a visit every once and again and just read it through. Make sure everything is still accurate and up-to-date.

Nicki Hicks
Content is the Spice of Life

Photo Credit

Ever come home from a conference, start sorting through your notes and think I know I learned something, but what the heck was it? Closely following will often be: Now I remember what I learned, what can I use to help my business?

There’s a lot of information in the SMX live blog recaps, a lot of which involves quick note taking and scattered thoughts. So in an effort to consolidate (in an admittedly very long post) and walk away with something helpful, here are my takeaways:

(more…)

Chris Bennett, Co-Founder, BLVD Status

What should you track?

• Traditional metrics
• Micro conversions (non traditional)
  - Outgoing clicks
  - RSS subscribers
• Indirect results (aftermath)
  - ROI

Traditional metrics

• Referring traffic
• Conversions
• Brand and search type
• Google Analytics
  - Visits and page views
  - Compare to average traffic for day/week/month previous
  - Visitor loyalty/time on site
• Referring sites/sources
  - quantity?
  - quality?
  - new? (leveraging future campaigns)
• Conversions occurring more?
• Identify top referring sources
• Surge in brand queries
• Increases in direct traffic

Micro Conversions

• Outgoing link clicks (RSS subscribers, Twitter, Facebook fans)
• Newsletters, opt-in list
• Google Analytics > Profiles settings> Goal settings > Head match, put onclick: java code in WordPress code

Indirect Results

• Backlinks
• Total search traffic
• Search keywords
• Conversions that come with search
• Keyword vitals – tool to keep track of stats

David Berkowitz, Director of Emerging Media & Client Strategy, 360i

David’s got a lot of great pictures and case studies, so here’s the presentation.

Augustin Vasquez, Analytics specialist, NVI

Case Study: Client Description

• Major men’s magazine, Cosmo for women
• Received over 10 million visits/month
• Target men 18-35

Goals

• Increase page view visits
• Increase incoming links

Other client info

• Multi-page articles= 3 x more average page views per visit
• Multi-page articles containing 2-11 pges

Problem? The social mob: negative comments on longer multi-page articles

Luckily, backlinks weren’t harmed because of negative comments.

Social Traffic vs. All Traffic

• All traffic drops off after 2nd page of article
• Social traffic to articles is much more steady than the rest of the traffic

Long term success threatened?

• Recruitement of new readers
• Brand perception and promotion of site: seen of drop of natural submissions to social plaforms

To calm the mob

• Find a reasonable length without compromising page views (3-4 pages for a normally 10 page article)
• Introduce existing fans to social media sites

Be creative with metrics

• Vertical of the article: sports, finance, science, etc. Benchmark with each other
• If pushed on a particular platform, try segmenting by submitter
• Effects on different platforms

Questions

• Helpful tools for social analytics? Twitalyzer, URL shorteners, Twitter metrics on followers, Omniture Twitter monitoring tool, Social Media Firefox plugin, Scout Labs, Radiant 6, People Browsr
• Determine sentiment on blogs? Very subjective, best done manually.
• Watch live what’s going on with Analytics if you’re in the middle of a campaign.
• Reddit likes business, world news, finance; Digg likes sports, science, health; StumbleUpon anything works in a moderate way

Brent Csutoras, Social Media Consultant, Brent Csutoras, Inc.

Social Media to the Rescue (Reputation Management)

• Professional Social Netowrking (Naymz, Focus, LinkedIn)
• Social Networking (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter)
• Social ‘Media’ (YouTube, Flickr)
• Social Aggregation (Digg, StumbleUpon, Topix, Kirtsy, Propeller, Delicious)
• Informational (Yahoo! Answers)

Social Media is taking over!

Social Aggregation Sites

• NOT a quick fix/over night fix
• It’s all about quality (not About Me or Small one-site page)
• Think out of the box, be creative

Using Social on Social

• Submitting Twitter to Social Aggregation Sites (Submit tweets as news)
  - Updates
  - Accounts
• Submit YouTube to Social Aggregation Sites (Delicious, MySpace, reddit)
• Push images to Wikipedia
• Submit something EDGY and CREATIVE to Yahoo Answers

Link to your social submissions

• It doesn’t take much to make social submissions rank!

Launch a social campaign

• e.g. IKEA Hacker (people who use IKEA products together to make new and different products)
  - IKEA created a social campaign around Delicious and StumbleUpon
• GM created the FastLane Blog

Submit 3rd party content - it doesn’t have to be yours, it just has to be positive

Chris Silver Smith, Director of Optimization Strategies, Key Relevance

Addressing Reputation Management Issues

• Push negative content off of Page 1 of SERPs
• Generate strong neutral/positive content
• File complaints to remove negative content
• Create links to make positive content stronger

Wikipedia Tactics for pushing down negative content

• Article about the company/brand
  - subject must meet minimum notability reqs
  - ask established wikipedian to author
  - must be written with neutral point of view
  - have reference citations
  - categorize to rank quickly
  - Google indexed Chris’s example article within 1 hour
• Other articles pertaining to brand name
  - e.g. use celebrity’s article as they spoke for company
  - create links to article to increase strength
• Generate unrelated article for coincidentally identical name
  - Warning: short-term tactic; avoid
• Provide Wikipedia common photos
  - use images, file named to rank for image
• Luckily, if you made a mistake, you can delete your content.

Negative content within Wikipedia

• Is it cited? If not, request deletion.
• Is it slanted? If so, request deletion on non-neutral POV.
• Is it repeatedly defaced? Request a lock on edits.
• Is it minor? Request removable as non-noteworthy.

Finding content to push up

• Find relevant news
• Find relevant videos

File complaints to remove negative content

• Take down notices
• Google’s terms and conditions
• Cease-and-desist letters – copyright, etc.

Perform proactive online reputation management –  the best defense is a good offense.

Rhea Drysdale, COO & Co-Founder, Outspoken Media

Brand trust

• Consumer trust in brands has fallen from 52% in 1997 to 22% in 2009
• It takes 4 years to recover brand trust from a negative experience

What clients have in common

• No line of defense – If you have nothing good said about you, the negative stuff will rise
  - Author publishing first book
  - Disorganized search results
  - Negative book review on TechCrunch
• Brand doesn’t want to speak up – There’s a problem, but they’re unwilling to say/do anything.
  - News story by major news network
  - Ranking second for brand
  - Brand already tried interlinking social profiles
• Not righting the wrong
  - False advertising from the client
  - Rather than changing the message, kept rebranding with new sites
  - Complaintboard.com reviewers found the common thread and problem escalated
• Making the problem worse
  - Rejected job applicant leaving negative comments across company profiles
  - No line of defense + fresh, relevant results on the negative reviews!
• Tough industry!
  - Highly competitive, low-trust industry
  - Shady Facebook campaign
  - No social accounts and a roundabout Help Center

Knowem.com - check usernames, brand names, etc.

Outspoken’s Online Reputation Management Guide

Jordan Kasteler, Co-Founder, Search & Social

Social Profile Optimization

• Company name as username whenever possible
• Register vanity URL whenever possible
• Company name/keywords within profile page description
• company contact information
• Cross-reference social profiles
• Use dash-separated keywords in avatar/picture
• Keep profiles active and fresh
  - Leave comments
  - Create conversations
  - Join groups

Social Profile links

• Links from mixx.com (comments)
• Searchles (top people, top tags)
• Which ones are ranking? Link to help them rank better

Social Monitoring & Tools

• Buzz/Trends (trendrr.com, facebook.com/lexicon just for Facebook)
• Blogs/RSS (Technorati.com, blogpulse.com/conversation)
• Email alerts (tweetbeep.com monitors Twitter, Google Alerts, Yahoo alerts)
• Social conversations (whostalkin.com, keotag.com, search.twitter.com – advanced search has positive/negative attitude, asking questions, socialmention.com)
• Message boards/forums

Marty Weintreb, President, aimClear

Filter negative keywords

• Brand sucks
• Hate brand
• Brand recall

Set strategy

• Let world know brand is listening
• Make good friends
• Redirect damaging inbound links to boost SEO

Rep Management Metrics

• PageRank/mozRank of negative linking pages
• Yahoo Site Explorer for number of links – a lot of viral links is a good indicator

Put a defense in place.

Chris Winfield, President, 10e20, LLC

• There are no rules in Twitter and more importantly, what works for one company won’t work for another (e.g. customer service goals vs. sales goals)
• What would it take to tap into your market?

Chris is going to use questions he posed on Twitter last week (#smxpreso) to run his presentation…

How do you define ‘marketing’ on Twitter?

• About relationship marketing. Long term (months/years) steady return on your efforts. Some spikes, not many – @BrentDPayne
• Reaching out and building relationships & engaging in knowledge sharing – @martinbowling
• Anything that gets users from twitter to convert without pissing people off in the process – @kennyhyder
• Don’t do marketing on Twitter. Have a conversation and earn the trust of people  - not fast enough to snag this one!

There’s a lot of spam on Twitter. But what’s the worst form of it? Why?

• Trending topic spam, especially on the local level. Totally ruins the most interesting part of the twitter data graph – @ddn
• “Want to join my mafia” That’s the worst IMO cuz it never ends and comes from random people so it’s hard to block – @Bukowsky
• Spam that steals login credentials and mass-spams all your followers, like several friends experienced last week – @audette
• Depending on who you represent, porn accounts following you can damage credibility.  Be diligent in blocking – @DavidWallace
• False tagging and irrelevant links in hidden short URLs – @TimDineen
• DM spam. That’s the sacred column of Tweetdeck for me – @MatthewJBrown
• Auto-DM after following someone…usually entails a horrible pitch of some service – @SearchBuzz

How are you leveraging Twitter to help get you more links & traffic to your sites/blogs?

• Getting more links and traffic by spreading message via useful and interesting stuff and communicating – @fantomaster
• Use Twitter as RSS feed that I can interact with my followers and using keyword searches the find related writers to connect with – @goodroi
• Mixing conversation with links. if you just use an account to push content, people will stop listening – @katemorris

Are #hastags important? How do you use them?

• I use hashtags both when searching and most importantly during events like #smx and #thinkvisibility – @yoast
• Hashtags help in structuring tweet content and making it easier to find. They’re also great for establishing authority. – @fantomaster

Is Twitter’s ‘real-time search’ really a threat to Google? Why or why not?

• For sure! I rarely use Google for products, teach help, or any recommendation really. I just tweet and get answer – @BrentDPayne
• People don’t search Twitter unless it’s for something someone said, we still use (85%) Google. – @steveplunkett
• Greasemonkey scriptes overlays twitter results with googles. Facebook is more likely to be a threat. – @SEOSEM
• Yes. Google can’t yet provide info on live/current events. Twitter often becomes the first-try search engine – @TimDineen
• Twitter is a threat to Google bc it takes the convo offline FAST, leading to less content creation – @johnandrews

How would you convince a company (in 140 char or less) that Twitter isn’t a waste of time?

• Twitter can easily connect you to influencers in any disciple. Unlike Facebook, poeple see what you tweet @ them – @Tamar
• I already convinced by company & we have built up over 21K targeted followers. My boss is happy and my boss doesn’t yell at me as much – Bukowsky
• SEe the Georgia Aquarium results $43,000 or Dell. – @CharityHisle
• I’d *let* them read @comcastcares and then *make* them call Comcast Customer service – @MatthewJBrown
• Show them the power of twitter search engine by querying their brand or company name – @aviw

Tamar Weinberg, Author, Owner, Techipedia.com

• Participation is marketing (coined by Chris Heuer)
• If you’re involved in communities, you’re marketing yourself

Twitter for marketing gain

• It’s not impossible with the right ideas
• Out of the “box”: immediate feedback, ability to easily connect with people, fast customer service
• API applications really got Twitter off the ground, enabling developers to make powerful applications to eventually help marketers

Generating Sales

• Dell made $3 million over 2 years by using its Twitter stream (used specific URLs only used in Twitter)
• Can small companies doe the same? (YES! Uses examples: Mimobot, Namecheap)

Saturated Markets and Twitter

• Apple’s App Store: Over 80,000 apps
• Convert: one week is all it took to become one of the top 30 paid apps
• Twitter gave them access to an older tech savvy demographic
• Relevant followers first, messaging later
• Offered a freebie that complemented the product (gave away limited addition MacBook Pro)

Twitter for Customer Service

• JetBlue’s Morgan Johnston helps Tamar all the time
• He also helps other people
• ComcastCares is the major case study
• Extends to client acquisition!
• Listen to conversation w/ competitors FULLY, then chime in

Brand Awareness

• Zappos! Firsthand knowledge of the culture
• One company (Oh Nuts) is finding higher SERP rankings w/ retweets

Other Communications via Twitter

• Iran Election protests
• Mumbai terrorist attacks
• Hurrican Gustav via the Home Depot
• Israel’s “Citizen’s Press Conference”

What works best?

• Contest (brings visibility, especially using hashtags; retweets increase SEO)
• Solid customer service (Twitter more effective than calling someone now)

Twitter Tools

• Desktop: Seesmic Desktop, TweetDeck
• URL shortener: HootSuite, bit.ly, su.pr
• Trends: Twitt(url)y, Twist, Twitscoop
• Stats: TweetStats, TwitterCounter, TwInfluence, Twitter Grader
• SocialToo

Michael Gray, President, Atlas Web Service

What are your goals?

• Commercial accounts have different goals than personal acocunts
• Connect with your customers, advocates, industry leaders, new customers, and detractors (don’t be afraid to connect with people who are saying bad things about you)
• Make sales and generate leads
• Promote content
• Solve customer problems

How big can you make your account? You can grow even if you’re not a well known brand

Tips to grow your account

• Tweet links to non self serving interesting content
• Retweet the most self serving links of power users in your vertical
• Help solve people’s problems
• Engage with users, especially people who @ you (Remember, if you start with @, only people who follow both you and the person will see it. Use a period or words in front of the @ if you want more people to see it)
• Don’t be a robot, tweet the occasional boring off the cuff slice of life information

Dig through other People’s Follower List

• Use directories like Twellow, WeFollow, Mr. Tweet to find leaders in your vertical
• Build a list of A, B, and C level people
• Mine your followers
• Use auto follow scripts with caution!

Automate without being a Robot

• Look for ways to automate your Twitter activity
• Have blog post auto tweet when they publish
• Schedule tweets in the future with tools
• Use virtual assistants and “grunt labor”
• Repeat tweets for multiple timezones (Think about tweeting something in the morning one day, then the afternoon the following day)

Twitter for Traffic

• Traffic from social media can be powerful

Twitter in the SERPs

• While keywords may not rank, names and company names will! (Rep management)

Twitter Tools

• TweetDeck
• URL shortening: 301 and tracking, like bit.ly
• Twitter Hawk: paid with automatic tweets

ReTweet Tips

• Make tweets direct and click enticing
• Keep tweets as short as possible: try to leave 15-25 characters
• Jump start the retweet process with your friends
• Ask for the retweet – thank the people who do retweet
• Be aware of multiple timezones – retweet yourself several times throughout the day
• If more than 30 minutes has gone by without a retweet, chances are you’re not going to be retweeted
• Retweet your best content from months/years past

Questions

• Best practices for joining a conversation? If it’s a closed conversation (between two people), you should probably avoid it. If it’s an open topic, jump in, be funny, be natural. Make sure you add to a conversation (more than just yes/no). Be patient, sometimes when someone has a lot of followers it might take a while to get back to you.
• Superlinks accuracy? HootSuite is being used by a lot of businesses. Superlinks is pre-beta, there are problems. What about the viral aspect? Hidden gem, you can see how many people have seen the content and give it a “thumbs up”. Many analytics are going to underreport traffic, URL shorteners might overreport because of bots.
• 80/20 rule: 80% of focus is about the account (personal vs. company brands), 20% unrelated content.
• Personal tweets depend entirely on comfort level
• Follow a bunch of people to try to acquire followers? No, quality not quanity (Tamar). If you’re looking for exposure, follow everyone who follows you who isn’t a spammer (Michael). It depends on what your goals are, Chris wants to connect with people. He won’t follow 10,000 people – they are no longer “friends” then (Chris).
• How big does a contest need to be to be worthwhile? Give away something someone wants (lowest $ amount: $25), make sure it’s something that relates to your industry.
• How much time do you need to spend on Twitter? As much time to get you what you want, as little time as you can.

Dennis Yu, CEO, BlitzLocal LLC

• Facebook is NOT AdWords
• Facebook tool – Lexicon
• About identity, not queries
• Gender/demographic differences
• Profile attributes as keywords – use profile attributes as a proxy for keywords (Top 12: Simpsons, house, Family Guy, Music, Barack Obama, Dormir, Grey’s Anatomy, Chocolate, Friends, Nutella, Sleeping, Pizza)
• What sites do your customers visit? Use Quantcast.
• 74% of Facebook advertising in 2009 will come from Local.
• Ads with images have far higher CTR
• Use call tracking numbers for your ads
• Facebook = AdWords, circa 2003
  - Tough for agencies – no AdWords editor
• Ad multiplication (use multiplication of 10 images, 3 body copy, 5 demo targets [age and gender], 2 landing pages = 300 options)
• Interest targeting
• Ads are fragile, much more manual, high burnout rates
• Facebook is email marketing – you want to send people to your fan page. Emails burn out fast, messaging on Facebook doesn’t.
• You can target really well – people are honest about who they are, what they do
• The secret: drive them to your fan page, but not to the wall
• What to expect next?
  - Will become more competitive, more expensive

Marty Weintraub, President, aimClear

• A ton of opportunity (300 million users)
• Internal search isn’t all that great
• Edit privacy settings for your page’s search visibility
• For apps, always put the keyword in the name
• Put location in name for events!
• Web results – uses Bing
• Post by friends is chronological
• Select being found by everyone

Facebook Tips

• Best Use: crowd mining
• Give more than you take
• Share links to optimized Content
• Put most important information in titles
• Optimize photo albums
• Bing serves double duty
• Do whatever it takes to lift group and page fan count
• Gain immediate prominence with paid ads

Will Scott, President, Search Influence

Some Sneaky Facebook Opportunities

• Target just your fans or people coming to an event with Ads
• Birthday Targeting (Happy Birthday, get your free product from us!)
• 1:1 communication with Event attendees/maybes

Happy Birthday!

• Beat banner blindness w/ hypertargeted ads
• Applifies immediacy
• Offer redemptions often include complimentary sales
• Great way to attract new customers
• Excellent for retail/service businesses

Event invitations

• The second you respond maybe/yes, you have access to actual email inboxes
• Move those “maybe attending” off the fence

Facebook Advertising ROI

• Huge savings cost/lead
• Advertising is CHEAP!

Rebecca Kelley, Director of Social Media, 10e20

Facebook Groups

• Pre-pages Pages
• Analogous to a forum

Why join a Group?

• Find groups related to a business
• Find targeted users/demographics/potential customers
• Promote brand via comments, links, etc.

Why start a group?

• Run it like your own forum
• Help people, answer questions
• Traffic back to the site
• Subtle branding and interaction

Other thoughts

• Multiple admins on groups – one admin can “boot” another
• Groups can be self-sustainable

Best Practices for Groups

• Choose the name wisely (KEYWORDS!)
• Address a need
• Be mindful of the size of the group (<5000, you can email private messages)
• Participate and be helpful; don’t join if you’re not going to genuinely contribute
• Update frequently

Facebook Pages

• Set up for “fans” of something
• Consist of pretty much anything (causes, corporations, etc.)

What create a Facebook Page?

• Branding
• To find/communicate with an appropriate audience of like-minded individuals
• Traffic
• Stickiness
• Reputation management
• Could create a trendy new angle (run by comedy.com: Laughing fan page)
• Add fan page widget to website

Best Practices for Creating & Marketing a Page

• Create something fun: branded vs. non-branded
• Be “non-commercially” commercial
• What appeals to a broad range of people (think outside the box, word in an interesting way)
• Customize your URL
• Stay on topic (FB might penalize you if you veer off topic)

Questions

• Differences between B2B and B2C marketing: Segment by jobs
• Get links to Facebook page
• You can update fans (via geo-targeting, demographic) – comes in as an update
• Instead of sending someone to your Facebook wall (they’ll see the last 10 things people said), send them to a call-to-action page (if you’re lazy, you can even send them to an iFrame page of your site with an email capture)
• Facebook is the “other internet”
• Facebook or blog? Do what you can spend resources on; if you can do one well, you can do both well