Social media marketing has always been a great way to connect content marketing campaigns with social websites. Not only does it connect your content with target markets, constituents, users, and consumers but it adds incoming links for greater popularity (also known as link building). More information on content marketing and social media marketing here. And a case study “A Tweet’s Effect On Rankings – An Unexpected Case Study.”

The original intent is still pretty fantastic–and I’m still using it for clients everyday–but the impact of sharing your content socially has just gotten a promotion. Now Google is specifically seeking out social content as part of organic search engine results.

Whaaaat?
But Shauna, you say, you’ve used so much nerdy jargon that I’m completely lost! No worries. Just know you need to be taking an even closer look at social media than ever before. Now back to the nerdy.

What Google is Telling Us

1) This means you’ll start seeing more from people like co-workers and friends, with annotations below the results they’ve shared or created. So if you’re thinking about climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro and your colleague Matt has written a blog post about his own experience, then we’ll bump up that post with a note and a picture.

2) If you’re looking for a video of President Obama on “The Daily Show” and your friend Nundu tweeted the video, that result might show up higher in your results and you’ll see a note with a picture of Nundu

3) We may invite (users) to connect your accounts right on the search results page and in your Google Account settings.

Check out the Google Blog for the rest.

Okay, cool. Now what does that mean for marketers?
This means an opportunity exists for those ready to put in the work. Google is telling us that to be given front page service, not only do we need to implement existing SEO tactics but, we need to connect with users socially on a much bigger scale, implement keywords into social content in a very different way, and determine which markets are apt to opt into pieces this service to begin with.

Formatting Social Content
Formatting social content specifically for search engine listings needs to be taken into account. Consider:

• How will adding keywords to tweets impact the way you communicate?
• Should you add keywords or will that hinder the genuine nature of your conversations?
• In order to increase visibility, how will you extend your social media fans/followers/friends?
• How will you determine if your target markets are even opting into this service?
• How will you reformat the technical sides of blogs to increase visibility?

Let me know what you think. I’m curious to see how this changes search engine optimization for you, if at all.

Social media shows no signs of slowing down, but it’s successes might not be what you think. eMarketer.com just released a study from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research revealing which top social media tools companies are using and, most importantly, where they’re having success.

The top three social media tools companies are using are no surprise: Facebook, Twitter, and blogs. Read the entire article for more on that.

Let’s focus on what matters: Results.

The reality: Social media isn’t going away. It’s only continuing to grow with new platforms and tools, integrated content strategy, and search engine optimization opportunities.

If you haven’t begun using the tools others are having success with, take a first or second look. And, please, get your business in front of the camera. With metrics like that, and it’s stellar search engine optimization performance, you have no excuse!

Thanks to Dave Murray for the excellent share.

Once you’ve set up a solid digital base, it’s natural to want to fine tune things. While Google Analytics and Adwords are both continuously improving their offerings, I thought I’d share a few options.

This list isn’t an endorsement, nor does it imply your current analytics solution isn’t cutting it. It’s a look into my notebook. Literally. See the photo?

Analytics

1. Comscore: Digital marketing intelligence
2. Pardot: Real-time alerts on visitors, mobile insights
3. Clicktale: Heat maps, real-time, conversion funnels
4. Kampyle: User feedback
5. Statcounter: Real-time tracking
6. SiteMeter: Free web counter
7. Kiss Metrics: Conversion funnel metrics
8. Crowd Science: Combines analytics with survey research
9. Chart beat: Real-time analytics

Why they matter…

• Conversion Funnels: I really like the idea of more comprehensive conversion funnel mapping. A few of these providers actually create visual maps for these–which the nerd in me loves. This is something I really wish Google Analytics did better.


How a Conversion Funnel works

• Real-time Analytics: Real-time is neat, but I don’t know of many companies who are willing to commit a resource to using that regularly. That said, this tool would be great for understanding comprehensive time patterns or for tracking traffic bursts specific to a campaign.
• Combining analytics with survey research: I really like the idea of what Crowd Science is doing. They’re batching the quantitative metrics with the qualitative, essentially reinforcing the value of each in doing so. (Say your traffic is fantastic one day, but it’s because someone posting an incredibly embarrassing photo of you…You’d know!)
• Heat maps: These maps provide a graphic view of how people are using your website, using colors to indicate frequency. Heat maps are probably best used by user experience planners rather than dataphiles.


How a Website Heat Map looks

Advertising

1. DoubleClick by Google: Buy, create, and sell digital media
2. Revenue Science: Behavioral targeting
3. Right Media by Yahoo: Digital ad placement
4. Turn: Ad placement for custom audiences

Why these matter…

• Behavioral targeting: This is an incredibly powerful tool and can have an awesome impact on conversion rates when used correctly. It is critical to profile your target market prior to using these tools.
• Custom audiences: This phrase alone reinforces the idea that your consumer is multidimensional and should be treated as such–but it’ll probably cost you. As it stands, Google Adwords doesn’t support much beyond the basics (location, language, networks and devices, and age.)

Additional thoughts…

• Text vs. Banner (image) ads: From what I’ve read, text ads do better on generally targeted campaigns–which is probably why you can get away with them using Google Adwords; however, image-based ads convert much better than their counterparts when placement is based on qualified traffic and the banner is specifically targeted.
• Outsourcing ads: There is a lot of heavy lifting associated with bigger ad campaigns, so I’ve heard a lot of companies say they’ve turned to third party providers to manage campaigns for them. When properly managed internally (markets defined, campaigns cohesive, etc), this can free up a lot of otherwise generally mindless work uploading text, etc.

What analytics or advertising solutions are you using? Wish lists? Work arounds?

I’m currently bridging the gap between data as a science and as an art, in order to tell a story and craft a strategy. At least, that’s how I summarized it in a tweet.

Digital strategy is sometimes a complicated idea. Let’s boil this down to basics. I’m assessing: web analytics, marketing and financial reports, market profile data, and more. The result is the calculated formation of how the client will present online and connect with target markets.

And it’s pretty awesome. Data paints a pretty clear picture, when you know how to put it all together.

That said, I apologize for the gaps in my updates. I’ll be sure to get blogging back on track as soon as I can. Thanks for your patience!

Conversion is arguably the most important measurement for business website success. It is what defines whether your business actually benefits from the website.

Perhaps you realize you need a “good conversion rate,” but you may not understand exactly what that means. That’s okay. Here’s what you, as a business owner or marketing professional, need to know.

Definitions:
Conversion: A user of your website completes a desired task (such as making a purchase, initiating contact, signing up for an eNewsletter, leaving a blog comment, etc). The desired task is completely relative to your business website. Here’s an offline example: A customer walks into your store and makes a purchase.

Conversion rate: The percentage of ALL website users who complete the desired task. If your conversion rate is 5%, this means 5 out of every 100 website visitors have completed your desired task. You may have multiple desired tasks; each will have a unique conversion rate.

Bounce rate: The percentage of all website visitors who immediately leave your website once they arrive. If your bounce rate is 30%, this means 30 out of 100 website visitors saw your one page of your website and left immediately.
My favorite way to illustrate this concept is with the bouncy ball. A user is a bouncy ball. Your website is the wall. Unless your wall is permeable and friendly, the ball bounces right off.

How do I track conversion rates?
Your analytics tool (such as Google Analytics) must be set up to accurately track conversions. Website developers typically do this for you when installing the analytics tool, though you must define what counts as a “conversion.”

How do I impact my conversion rate?
Qualified traffic: Driving traffic is often a large part of the online marketing budget; it is completely for shame if the traffic being driven doesn’t convert. Ensuring your website visitors are actually relevant or interested in your business website’s content is critical to success. Do not waste time blindly pushing people to visit your website. Understand your target market, know where to find them, then work on traffic building.

Information architecture: The way the content on your website is organized needs to intuitively make sense to users. If it’s confusing, they’ll probably just leave. (As a bonus, your information architecture also impacts your search engine visibility.)

User experience: The way a user interacts with your website is essentially the “user experience.” Things are laid out and designed in such a way to create a seamless, easy interaction. An offline example is interior design.
Creating a product experience online isn’t easy. In fact, it takes a lot of work. Once a user has become aware of your website, they either bounce (leave) or consume information. If your user experience is planned and implemented well, they might progress into participating, converting or even advocating on your behalf.