The opinions blogged herein represent only those of Tony Faustino and do not reflect those of his employer, persons or companies mentioned herein, or anyone else. The posts on this blog are provided "as is" with no warranties and confer no rights.
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The New York Times Reveals Major Florist Brands Paid for Links
Another Linking Scheme Exposed. The New York Times article, Trying to Game Google on Mother's Day Flowers,' says these major florist companies participated in linking buying schemes to improve their organic search rankings during the week of 2011 Mother's Day:
Teleflora
FTD
1800Flowers.com
ProFlowers
Teleflora's Organic Search Rankings Rose from 7th to 4th. According to the article, Searchmetrics, a seller of analytics software, conducted research showing Teleflora boosted its ranking for the search term "mothers day flowers" which translated into a significant increase in visitors per day to its website.
Teleflora's Site Traffic Per Day Improved 43% Increase. In March 2010, Teleflora received 20,000 to 25,000 visitors per day. The week of May 2nd - May 6th, 2011, the number of visitors improved to roughly 35,000 visitors per day.
Searchmetrics believes Teleflora started its link buying in February 2011. The New York Times quotes Searchmetrics CEO, Horst Joepen: "There is a possible correlation between the backlinks and the increased visibility of the site. But, without more research there is no way to be sure."
Floral Companies' Responses to Inquiries from The New York Times
Makes Me Wonder. Here are direct quotes from the article regarding the floral companies' respective responses:
* ProFlowers: "Did not respond to requests for comment."
* 1800Flowers.com: "A spokeswoman said the company would not discuss the links."
* FTD: "An FTD representative said that the vast majority of its links were on Web Sites owned by FTD, adding 'If any of our practices to have moved outside of Google's guidelines, we will certainly address them."
* Teleflora: "Corporate policy is not to pay for any links that would violate Google's guidelines. After closely reviewing the Teleflora links you provided, we believe are in compliance with Google."
Did Google Punish These Firms For Their Alleged Paid Links?
The Top 5 Organic Search Results for "mothers day flowers." As of Sunday morning, May 15th, the page-one Google search results for "mothers day flowers" are:
Look at Organic Search Result #10. It's the May 6th, New York Times article exposing the alleged paid links scheme for these companies. I'm surprised this story ranks below Google's organic search results for Teleflora, FTD, 1800Flowers.com, and ProFlowers.
Even though the article lands on Google's front page, you'd think the search results for the aforementioned firms would rank in pages where you can't find them (i.e., pages 6 through 10).
Conclusion
Why Isn't Google Penalizing These Firms? The New York Times sent Google representatives a list of 6,000 links to the floral companies that were built in the last month. Jake Hubert, a Google spokesman, replied with the following statement:
"None of the links shared by The New York Times had a significant impact on our rankings, due to automated systems we have in place to assess the relevance of links. As always, we investigate spam reports and take corrective action where appropriate."
Apparently, Google doesn't feel like it has to take any action in this particular case. And, I find their lack of action and consistency perplexing. Here are two other blogs commenting on the New York Times piece:
Is Google Thumbing Its Nose at The New York Times? The placement of the New York Times article as organic search result Number 10 with the offending firms ranking at slots 1, 2, 4, and 5 appears more than coincidental.
Along with the issued company statement, the article's current placement appears to be Google's way of saying, "Whatever."
Have you tried LinkedIn's InMaps? What have you learned about your visualizing your professional network?
This past week LinkedIn launched LinkedIn Today. In learning about LinkedIn Today, I also learned about another cool LinkedIn innovation released in late January 2011 called InMaps.
Using the LinkedIn InMap Application allows me to quickly see how my current professional network is grouped into four (4) main clusters:
Cluster 1: Kantar Health Contacts (my current employer)
Cluster 2: Washington University Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity Contacts
Cluster 3: Cap Gemini Ernst & Young (CGEY) Management Consulting Alumni
Cluster 4: Washington University / Olin School of Business MBA Alumni
InMaps provides me several insights about my professional network:
Insight 1: Identify the Highly Networked Individuals Within Your Clusters. In the InMaps application, you can zoom in to see the individual names of people within your professional network clusters. It quickly becomes obvious who has significant reach (which is important when you turn to your professional network to solve specific problems).
Insight 2: Never Underestimate the Influence of Old School Ties. Until, I used InMaps, I never fully understood the influence of my Washington University undergraduate (Cluster 2) and graduate school (Cluster 3, MBA) relationships on my professional network.
Looking back, I leaned heavily on these relationships (epecially my former Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) Fraternity brothers) when I applied to business school, looked for new jobs, sought advice in dealing with the dynamics of corporate politics, or needed a trusted sounding board on personal as well as professional issues.
Insight 3: My Current Employer and First Job After Business School Comprise A Significant Number of My Professional Contacts. My working years in Cluster 1 (Kantar Health / MattsonJack) and Cluster 3 (CGEY Management Consulting Alumni) comprise a significant portion of my professional network.
I attribute this to a number of factors:
Both firms are management consulting firms
You build strong, individual ties with fellow colleagues in team-driven environments
Nothing rallies a management consulting team together more than the goal of outstanding client service under tight timelines
Insight 4: Why Haven't I Reconnected with Contacts from Other Jobs? I've held other jobs at different organizations, but I'm not connected with these individuals on LinkedIn. Perhaps, this represents an opportunity to reunite with past colleagues?
I'll have to think more about that because this observation requires more self-reflection.
Conclusion
I Recommend Using LinkedIn's InMaps. The application helps you understand important aspects of your professional life especially why you've chosen to connect with specific individuals.
In addition, understanding why you haven't reconnected with certain people from certain organizations is also valuable.
Have you tried LinkedIn's InMaps? What have you learned about your visualizing your professional network?
If you'd like to learn more about InMaps, here's a YouTube Video from the LinkedIn Blog:
Part 5 highlights the panel's insights on measuring social media's business impact by:
* Defining what metrics are valuable (and which are not)
* Understanding how your company performs in search engine results (i.e., SERPs)
* Showing how social media activity "bridges or links" to an organization's bottom line
* Acknowledging the real reasons driving an organization's desire for measuring social media initiatives
This post highlights the panel's discussion from 36:57 to 43:18 of the embedded video.
Track and Measure Meaningful Metrics
Number of Followers, Fans, or Page Views Is Not a Valuable Performance Metric (37:07 - 39:18). According to Chris, reliance on metrics quantifying potential reach or number of people "who possibly saw" your message is a mistake. The traditional pubic relations imprint methodology for quantifying success is not what you want. Why then do people cite these figures? Because people want to bring large performance numbers to the C-Suite executives supporting the social media initiatives.
Customer conversion numbersare the more refined and accurate number marketers should cite (i.e., "how many people clicked on the link you wanted them to click on"). Chris elaborates that earning 1.5 million You Tube views isn't enough. If none of these viewers takes action on the link that leads to your cash register (e.g., convert to paying customers or take a specific action), then you're missing business opportunities.
Track Metrics Articulating a Specific Business Outcome(s) (38:10 - 38:32). Chris encourages his clients to track the following metrics when evaluating social media initiatives:
Revenue Increases
Lead Acquisition (particularly decreases in cost of lead acquisition)
Number of Subscribers to Company Newsletters
Impact on Open Rates to Existing Company Media
Percentage of Conversation / Percentage of Mind -- Sentiment Metrics
Percentage of Conversation / Percentage of Mind (38:33 - 39:17). Chris believes sentiment metrics are valuable because they provide an understanding of what and how often customers are talking about your company's products or services (especially relative to your competitors). He suggests companies locate the most active online forums where their products / services are being discussed and track this metric:
How much percentage of mind is positive (+)
How much percentage of mind is negative (-)
The key is to remember how your choice of tracking metrics will always depend on the business goal sought. Therefore, always tie your social media tracking metrics to specific business outcomes.
Understand and Improve Your Search Engine Results
The Importance of Search Engine Results Pages - SERPs (39:19 - 39:47). David explains it's important to know two (2) things about search engine results:
(1) What are the important keywords and phrases relevant to your industry
(2) Where do your firm's products / services appear in the search results for these keywords and phrases. Take careful note of how your results fare relative to your competitors in these searches.
Search engine results matter because a buyer's intent starts with online search. If a company's products / services are currently landing on the fifth (5th) page of Google searches, social media can improve those results so the company earns first page placement.
Side Note: I wrote a blog post on the value of page one Google results in organic search. According to the research documented in that post, ~95% of consumers stop looking at their search results beyond the second page (regardless of the search engine used). This is why search engine rankings matter.
Bridge / Link Social Media Activity to Specific Business Outcomes
Duration of Sales Cycle Close and Linking Other Business Activities to Social Media (40:18 - 41:08). Chris notes how tracking the time to close sales is important. If you can accelerate / shorten the sales cycle duration, you are demonstrating how social media contributes to revenue generation. Other valuable metrics:
(1) Number of Customer Interactions / Touches: Research says you need to touch / interact with the customer approximately nine (9) times before making a sale. With social media, an organization can increase the number of customer interactions and beyond industry benchmarks.
(2) Competitive Intelligence Data:LinkedIn Company Profiles allows you to see which companies are researching your firm on LinkedIn. Also, you can find additional information about competitors on the Company Profiles Pages.
(3) Link to Existing Sales Funnel Metrics - Car Dealerships and Test Drives: Chris points out that number of page views on specific car model's home page is good, but that doesn't tell you a lot about overall impact on sales. Therefore, car dealerships are linking and tracking social media activity's influence on number of test drives. By linking social media activity to number of test drives, the car dealership links to an existing and trusted sales funnel metric.
To Chris, the type of linking described in the car dealership example is "the gold of social media." Why? The car dealership example shows how social media can improve customer conversion.
What's Really Driving the Social Media Measurement Obsession?
Is It Fear? (41:25 - 42:47) When David hears senior executives questioning the financial validity of social media, he thinks it's really a veiled response for "I don't want to be bothered with social media." Therefore he addresses that objection by posing the following question:
"As soon as you can tell me the ROI of giving each salesperson a Blackberry, I'll tell you the ROI of participating in social media."
We Do Certain Things in Business Because It's the Right Thing to Do. Here are additional examples of existing corporate activities that David cites as having no quantifiable ROI, but we do them because these are the right things to do:
Painting the walls
Maintaining a nice-looking corporate campus
Providing salespeople with Blackberry smartphones for client management (and as a company expense)
It's Not Always About Putting in $X and Always Getting $X Back . David concluded his point-of-view with an important point. Yes, measuring social media is important, BUT make sure you're divorcing your indvidual fears/ignorance/bias before justifying the need to measure something.
We Tend to Overvalue the Things We Can Measure and Undervalue the Things We Cannot (42:49 - 43:48). Charlene cited this quote from John Hayes, Chief Marketing Officer of American Express, when describing the social media measurement obsession.
She elaborates it's not a matter of "is social media worth it" because we already know there's value in it. In the big picture perspective, she points out:
Is it really possible to value a relationship?
If so, how much value do you place on that relationship?
Conclusion
How Much Do We Value Relationships? This should be the governing question for all organizations when evaluating and measuring social media business impact. Why? The resounding theme expressed by Brogan, Li, and Meerman Scott throughout the video always comes back to:
It's All About Relationships
Companies who've founded their reputations on this moral value are the ones genuinely investing the time, resources, and money to become relevant social media citizens. Companies like Starbucks, IBM, Best Buy, Intel, H&R Block, Boeing, HubSpot, Amazon, Dell, fall into this mix.
Cold, Hard Fact: Social Media is Reinventing the Power of Customer Influence. The power of one individual (or a collective group) to influence a company's online reputation is significant -- and that power is here to stay. In fact, that word-of-mouth power (WOM) is escalating.
This brings me to a simple question:
Is Social Media ROI really just Corporate Code for CYA?
I would argue Yes. Please understand, I strongly believe in measuring social media's business impact and linking its activities to targeted, business outcomes. Doing so allows an evaluation and understanding of the social media activities making a positive business impact (and even more importantly, those that are not). Making that determination is critical because successful social media initiatives require the significant investments mentioned earlier. As a result, measurement drives informed decisions on resource prioritization.
Therefore, let's not go down the paralysis analysis road to financially justify every aspect of social media participation.Let's keep an eye on the ball and the big picture. While you kindly invested time to read this post, someone is online. And he/she is positively or negatively influencing your company's financial success RIGHT NOW.
"Yahoo is all about the shareholders now. It's all about the bottom-line. That's all that matters. It's not about the users. It's not about building or maintataining great products. It's about finding the ones that make the money and slicing the rest."
Remember, at the end of the day, it's not about you or me. It's about clients, customers, and helping them make informed decisions about the business challenges they confront. It's about something bigger than ourselves.
It's All About Relationships.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Thank you for spending your valuable time in reading this installment of The Business Value Behind Social Media. Please tune in for Part 6 - Social Media and Crisis Recovery.
I'm targeting January 15, 2011 for publishing Part 6. I want to get it right, and I'll also be catching up in my "regular job" after returning from vacation over the holidays.
Many Thanks and Have a Safe and Happy New Year's Day!
The Challenge of Managing Stakeholder Expectations: Social Media is not Free
Social Media Initiatives Requires Budgetary Funding. Here are some direct quotes supporting the fact that social media requires financial investment (even in a large organization like Intel).
* "We like to remind management and stakeholders that social media is not free."
* "Intel has been an early adopter in social media, but we haven't funded it as well as many of us would like."
* "We anticipate funding in three areas: expanding tools, infrastructure and analytics, because we need to expand our ability to measure and drive insight; social network site development; and campaign activation."
* "We'd like to scale social media [globally] in 2011. We're hoping that we secure budget to move funding into this area."
When Williamson asked Malone about budgets expanding at Intel to support social media marketing, she replied: "Yes, it would be an expansion and a more defined social media budget to support scaling, more interesting and dynamic social content and our enablement goals.
Processes, Infrastructure, and Marketing Integration Supporting Social Media
Intel's Social Media Center of Excellence Manages Social Media Guidelines, Training / Education. Intel established The Social Media Center of Excellence as part of the marketing strategy and campaigns team. This team reports to sales and marketing and ultimately to Intel's Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). The Social Media Center of Excellence manages social media guidelines and governance which is important because this team's role is to drive strategy, enablement, use of social media, and social media training and education within Intel.
Centralized Social Media Training and Guidelines. At Intel, the Social Media Center of Excellence makes sure that Intel's employees using social media (corporate marketing group and other business units) understand and know the latest guidelines. These guidelines include employees disclosing they are Intel employees in their Twitter "names or handles" and blogs.
Social Media Integration with Overall Marketing Requires Infrastructure. Social media started off at Intel organically, unstructured, and was led by early adopters. According to Malone, 2009 and 2010 have been about operationalizing social media and putting in an infrastructure. The goal in 2011 is to scale up social media use but ensure Intel does so strategically.
Successful Audience Engagement Requires A Social Media Team
2011's Biggest Challenges for Successful Social Media Engagement. Williamson asked Malone what will be the biggest challenges she faces in making social media engagement successful in 2011 and beyond. Malone makes two key statements:
"The resource issue is a big obstacle, because social media can be time-consuming. To be successful you need to fully engage in a two-way dialogue."
"And so I think the challenges are around having enough resources to get social media to scale."
You Need an In-House Social Media Staff Participating in Conversations. Malone points out how successful social media engagement must come from within the organization. In her view, the organizations successfully leveraging social media are participating and engaging with their own teams or as she says: "We believe it's important to stay engaged firsthand."
You Can't Outsource Genuine Social Media Engagement. Furthermore, Malone implies that "handing off social media execution to an agency" is a mistake. I agree with this point. I think her direct quote says it all:
"It's not the same a putting a media plan together, where you are briefing an agency to complete the plan. You can do some of that in social media, but I don't think the companies that are most successful in social media are handing off a whole lot."
Most importantly, Ms. Malone's viewpoint that genuine social media engagement requires significant resources in time and people (e.g., a dedicated team) bears repeating. The guidelines, the processes, and the team members required to enable Intel in "scaling up" its social media strategy will require major investments in time and people.
Social Media Engagement Requires Time + Commitment.This is "the commitment investment" that many organizations fail to honor. Social media engagement isn't about the technological tools (i.e., Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogs, Facebook, etc.). Social media engagement is about interacting with another human being who enjoys participating in the online conversation by sending out tweets and updating their personal status.
And it takes a lot of time, hard work, and commitment to genuinely and consistently engage those folks if you want to earn their trust over the long haul ...
* Martin Giles, The Economist, US Technology Correspondent. Martin moderated the October 2010 panel discussion. In David 's aforementioned blog post, he notes how Martin Giles is the best moderator he has ever worked with. After viewing and studying this video, I understand why.
* Chris Brogan, President of New Marketing Labs, popular blogger and co-author of Trust Agents and author of Social Media 101.
* Charlene Li, Founder and CEO of Altimeter Group, popular blogger, and co-author of two (2) books, Groundswell and Open Leadership.
* David Meerman Scott, popular blogger and best-selling author of the two (2) books The New Rules of Marketing & PR and Real-Time Marketing & PR.
The discussion topics covered the following issues relevant to social media strategy, emerging trends, and several case study examples of its successful execution (or in some cases, unsuccessful):
* How should organizations build a social media presence?
* Who within the organization should own the social media function?
* How can organizations measure and analyze the value of social media?
* Who are the model organizations of modern social media management and strategy execution?
Part 1 represents the first piece of a multiple-post blog series describing the insights shared in this video. My goal is to publish the posts from every Saturday morning until completion (but please bear with me if I slip on a date). Part 1 will be the A to Z Executive Summary provided by Martin Giles at the end of the panel discussion. In the future posts, I will publish the deep dives generated from the panel's discussion. And trust me, there's a lot of substance in this panel discussion because I recorded 20+ pages of notes.
Martin's A to Z Executive Summary starts at 1:01:57 of the video. His Executive Summary recapped Chris', Charlene's, and David's insights from different parts of their hour-long conversation. Where appropriate, I sprinkled in my point-of-view (I hope you don't mind).
Executive Summary: Social Media Strategy from A to Z
* A = Analytics. Understanding the value and ROI your social media initiatives produces requires analyzing the data with analytics tools.
* B = Brogan and Boeing. Chris did a great job as a contributing member. Boeing showed it was listening to the conference's live Twitter Feed by acknowledging David Meerman Scott's positive comments citing Boeing as a model organization in social media strategy and execution. Here' the tweet, Boeing sent to David: @dmscott thanks for citing us during #pbls10. Here's the air show effort DMS mentioned. http://bit.ly/dkQEqC
* C = Control. Control in social media means you have to give it up. Learn to lose control.
* D = Disaster Recovery. Mistakes will happen in your business. Have a disaster recovery plan in place to address these mistakes through the right social media channels. For example, if an irate customer makes a highly publicized complaint via their blog, respond quickly by commenting on that customer's blog. Responding via a press release is a mistake.
* E = Earpiece and Earning Credibility. Martin made light of having to constantly readjust his earpiece during the panel discussion. He also pointed out how much of the discussion focused on "earning credibility" through your social media efforts versus the traditional advertising mentality of "buying credibility."
* F = Facebook and The Future of The Web (two highly debated topics among the panel members).
* G = Grab Audience Attention. On the World Wide Web, you have to creatively think of ways to grab audience attention. Martin also said G stands for Go Giants because he lives in San Francisco.
* H = Human. Be human and don't be afraid to put real human beings on The Web to support and implement your social media efforts.
* I = Innovate and Influencers. Identify the online influencers in your impacting your organization's online reputation and think of innovative ways to reach them.
* J = Journalists. Martin noted The Internet's impact on traditional publishing and how he may be searching for a job soon (so please hire him). Also, David suggests organizations bring journalists into their social media operations because of their storytelling abilities and gift for creating share-worthy content.
* K = KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). Carefully think about and select your KPIs and how they can inform your decision-making.
* L = Charlene Li and Listening. Charlene Li contributes great insights to the panel and cites many different examples particularly in the Fortune 500. Martin thanks the live in-person and online audiences for listening. Most of all, he cites how organizations need leverage social media in listening to their respective online audiences.
* M = David Meerman Scott, Modeling (a humorous reference to David's former career as a male model in Japan), and Measurement. An ongoing and important future trend in social media is understanding how to best measure its impact.
* N = Need to Respond Quickly. Martin notes how he and his fellow journalists are online 24/7. Learn to respond in real-time because if you're not, there's a problem.
* O = Open Leadership and Ownership. This is the title of Charlene's recently released book (I purchased my copy this past week). Her book describes the required organizational and leadership attributes required to effectively compete and successfully engage audiences in today's World Wide Web. In addition, her new book discusses how to determine, manage, and execute the right open leadership strategy for your organization. Ownership is for who's going to own and execute your social media strategy (and what's the best way to do that).
* P = People and Paris Hilton. As Martin says, I'll stop right there ...
* Q = Questions. Pose better questions to your audience because we've discussed numerous examples of how really smart companies benefit from seeking audience feedback.
* R = ROI and Real-Time. The panel shared examples where companies have achieved ROI and how they measure it. Furthermore, companies who learn or take the initiative to respond and act in real-time will have future competitive advantages in areas ranging from product development, interacting with the media, and capitalizing on real-time events impacting your industry.
* S = Sharing. Social media is about sharing great content so be willing and generous in sharing it.
* T = Twitter and Trusted Advisor. The panel provided a number of examples of using Twitter to generate revenues, enhance customer service, and promote content. Consistency, commitment, responsiveness, and a genuine attitude to help customers make better, informed decisions described organizations developing Trusted Advisor reputations online.
* U = Understand Customer Insights. A lot of these insights come from "L" Listening and "A" Analytics.
* V = Virality. Whatever you're publishing on the World Wide Web, learn to accept that your content will flash across at the speed of light.
* W = Word-of-Mouth. That's the real goal here. If you get existing customers and potential customers to talk about you to one another, you've created a fabulous success story.
* X = X Marks the Spot. Martin joked this is what he figured what the audience was wondering for what he would write for "X."
* Y = You. Martin also joked "you" (as in the audience) must be wondering "when I'm going to shut up."
* Z = Zero. Zero because Martin had zero time left.
Conclusion
Watching and studying this video was a labor of love. How many times do you get the opportunity to learn from thought leaders like Brogan, Li, and Meerman Scott interacting on the same stage. I personally want to thank SAS for publishing and sharing the videos from The Premier Business Leadership Series. By allowing thought leaders like David Meerman Scott to share this content, everyone in the social media community benefits.
Thank you for reading and if you watched the video, please let me know in the comments. What did you enjoy and learn? I would love to hear from you.
Please stay tuned for next Saturday's installment -- The Business Value Behind Social Media: Part 2 - Open Leadership, Guidelines, Process Discipline, and Goals.
In a recent post, 3 Findings on Real-Time Trust and Influence in Online Communities, I wrote about how an inbound link from a very popular Facebook Fan Page, positively impacted my site traffic. Here's a screen shot of the Facebook Fan Page's inbound link, and the referral to its Fans about my blog post:
This Inbound Link and Relevant Keywords Helped One of My Blog Posts Achieve Page-One Results in Google Searches
This inbound link also had another important effect on my blog: placement of my blog post, 3 Social Media Tips for Oogy: The Dog Only a Family Could Love, on the first page of organic Google search results. The post shows up in different places on the first page of organic Google Searches and Google Blog Searches (depending on the keywords typed into Google).
Here are some example screenshots where my blog post or my blog has shown up on the coveted Google 1st Page:
Page-One Google Results Drive the Most Click Traffic ...
* Potential customers begin their decision making process with a search engine
* These customers trust that a search engine will bring forth the best and most relavent results
* On average, 95.3% of all non-branded natural search traffic comes from a Page-One result from a search conducted in Google, Yahoo!, or Bing
* If your search result lands on the second or third page, you're likely to garner only 1.6% to 3.4% of the natural search traffic to your website -- minimal impact
* The other way to look at this data -- 95% of all users aren't going that deep into their search results because they stop after search result #10
... and the #1 Ranked Search Result Drives 34% of that Traffic
This picture further reinforces the importance of gaining a Page-One Organic Search Result. If you can't achieve the #1 search position, your goal is to earn positions #2 through #10. Why? Your opportunity to earn search traffic drops significantly if your search result land in positions #11 to #20 (e.g., your search result lands on page 2).
Conclusion
Google rewarded my blog post with Page-One organic search results for different keyword searches for two (2) reasons:
#1: A High Authority Inbound Link from a Popular Facebook Page
#2: Relevant Keywords in the Blog Post Title and/or URL.
It only takes one high authority inbound link or careful placement of relavent keywords in your blog post title and/or URL to improve your Google Search Rankings. These examples also underscore the SEO implications for carefully choosing the blog post titles and wordings in the URLs.
Furthermore, the research data reinforces why earning a Page-One search engine drives website or blog traffic. If you're fortunate to earn the #1 position, the top ranking search result always gains a disproportionate share of the click traffic. Therefore, looking for and understanding opportunities to improve keyword selection with our blog titles, URLs, and website content increases the likelihood of achieving a Page-One Search Result and earning more click-generated traffic.
BONUS SECTION
If you read this far in my post, I thank you. Here are links to the research I found on the value of Page-One Organic Google Results:
I recently wrote a blog post titled: 3 Social Media Tips for Oogy -- The Dog Only a Family Could Love. I wrote this post because I wanted other people to discover this moving and inspiring book about a very special dog and the people who rescued him. The post was my small contribution to promote the book and hopefully increase its public awareness via social media. I have no personal or business relationship with the book's author and its publishers. I just love this book and its beautiful story.
After publishing this post on November 1st (late evening), I sent out this message via Twitter on November 3rd (mid-day):
I couldn't predict what happened next. In my opinion, I think the following events and findings are an example of the real-time power of trust and influence in online communities.
Thursday, November 4th (approximately 10:30 AM Central Time) My wife calls me at work and says my blog post is posted on Oogy's Facebook Page! Unbelievable! I was busy at work so I couldn't go to Facebook until later in the afternoon.
Thursday, November 4th (a little after 4 PM Central Time) I checked Oogy's Facebook Page and look what I find -- I was thrilled and honored! People even commented on the link posted by Mr. Levin (the author of the book and Oogy's owner). I left my own Facebook comment thanking Mr. Levin and Oogy for their kindness and generosity in linking to my blog, and I commented on how Oogy's book genuinely inspired and moved me.
That evening and over the next few days, I asked myself the following questions:
* What could be the potential impact on my blog post traffic due to Oogy's inbound link and personal referral to his growing legion of Facebook Fans (9,550+ and growing)?
* What type of real-time influence do Oogy and Mr. Levin have with their Facebook Fans online behaviors (i.e., positive / negative)?
* Is there a way to quickly measure the impact of this real-time influence?
Here's my analysis in addressing these questions using some of the basic features of Google Analytics.
Finding #1: Oogy's Facebook Fans Trusted His Referral to My Post
Why? Mr. Levin inserted the link to my blog post on his own. In my tweet, I made no solicitation or request for an inbound link. The purpose of my tweet was to bring the attention of Mr. Levin's book and my blog post to my Twitter Followers (and it's a modest 400+ following). Mr. Levin and Oogy's inbound link was confirmation that I wasn't some spammy website.
And maybe, they thought I had some worthwhile content to share ...
As a bonus, here are some of my favorite articles covering trust and online word-of-mouth (WOM):
Finding #2: If Readers Trust the Source, Positive Word Travels at Real-Time Speed
Here's some back-of-the envelope analysis with Google Analytics on how quickly Oogy's Facebook Fans clicked on Mr. Levin's inbound link to access my blog post. These fans were clearly positively influenced by Mr. Levin and Oogy's referral because they didn't take long in accessing my blog:
* Date/Time Inbound Link was Posted on Oogy's Facebook Page - November 4th, 8:31 AM Eastern Time (assumption because Mr. Levin lives in the Philadelphia, PA area)
* Date/Time of 1st Facebook Visitor's Click to My Blog Post - November 4th, 9:00 AM Eastern Time (my Google Analytics Time Settings are in Central Time so I did the conversion here)
* Real-Time Elapsed Between Inbound Link Post and 1st Visitor Visits - Less than 30 minutes. This 1st visit could have come even faster but I can only measure visitor traffic in Google Analytics on an hourly basis. I examined data from another web analytics tool, and that tool tells me the post was accessed six (6) times within the first 5 minutes of the Facebook inbound link's placement.
The swift reaction by Oogy's Facebook Fans to access my blog post emphasizes the real-time speed of the World Wide Web. David Meerman Scott has published a recent series of blog posts and a new eBook on the World Wide Web's power in real-time marketing and communications for individuals and organizations. You can access the links here:
Finding #3: Oogy's Fans Actually Read The Blog Post -- How Cool!
This made me feel really good. It looks like these new visitors took time to read the article, and I believe the referral from Mr. Levin and Oogy had a lot to do with that.
Conclusion
Oogy's Facebook Fans came to my blog and read my post because they trusted the referral from Oogy and Mr. Levin. These fans didn't come to my blog because they knew me, or because I'm a widely known blogger. I'm just starting out in blogging, and I'm trying to build a loyal following and positive reputation one blog post at a time.
It's telling how Oogy's Fans literally arrived at my site in 30 minutes or less after Mr. Levin posted his inbound link to my blog. The real-time power and influence of trust is truly a driving and powerful force in online communities.
In this blog post, I'll discuss what I've learned from Avinash's webinars. His insights explain how companies can reinvent measurement of their online marketing initiatives. Also, I've added extra notes by including content from his books.
Rule #1: Review & Take Action on Your Bounce Rates
Avinash is passionate about how marketers can improve the performance of their websites. This is why he espouses implementing metrics that will reveal when your site is performing poorly (e.g., your site sucks).
Bounce Rate: A Powerful Measurement of Website Performance and Visitor Behavior.
Avinash defines bounce rate as an "audience behavior" metric that tells you (1) if your visitors are coming to your site and leaving right away or (2) if they're staying longer to read more of your site's content.
From Web Analytics 2.0, he defines bounce rate as "the percentage of sessions on your website with only one page view."
Examine Your Bounce Rates and Take Action. Bounce rate benchmarks that he recommends in monitoring and evaluating your blog / website:
Good: 25% to 30%
Not-so-Good: 50% or higher
Low bounce rates may provide clues on undiscovered referral traffic (is that traffic valuable?)
High bounce rates provide an indication that audience engagement may be low for particular pages or specific content
For blogs, a bounce rate might be high for a particluar page or post because the visitor reads the post and then exits. That's not a bad thing, but if you want to learn more valuable insights your blog, Kaushik recommends examining and segmenting the bounce rates of your new visitors. Based on his sample screen shots, it looks like segmenting new visitors can be performed in Google Analytics.
Here's a great video by Avinash explaining Bounce Rate. In particular, I admire his highly technical explanation that Bounce Rate is an indication of your website visitor saying, "I came, I puked, I left."
Rule #2 Move Beyond The Top 10 & Monitor Statistically Significant Changes/Events
Look Below the Fold. Too often, marketers focus only on their Top 10 Performing Content Titles or Top 10 Performing Pages for insights (Yes, I plead guilty as charged). Avinash recommends looking deeper by examining items demonstrating significant statistical changes:
* Keywords that are increasing or decreasing * Top 10 rising content pages / titles * Top 10 decreasing content pages / titles
Significant Statistical Changes Can Inform Your Content Strategy Choices. Monitoring these changes results in evidence for altering content strategy. He suggests setting up "Alerts" in Google Analytics and experimenting with the alert sensitivities. By drilling down further, we can uncover insights about:
* Referral Source * Date * Geography * Content Type
Demand More From Your Data So You Can Take Action. Avinash says he often finds important revelations such as new websites that are driving high referral traffic. One of the first questions he asks is "was it because someone new is linking to me?" If you're not looking for these types of changes, you may lose great marketing opportunities. That's why we should all "dig deeper" and "look beyond The Top 10."
Rule #3: Segment, Segment, Segment
Many Different People have Many Different Intentions. I love the simplicity and power of that statement. This is a key insight of well-performed web analytics. Marketers should always strive to understand why the audience visited their websites and even more importantly try to figure out what the audience was trying to learn during its visit.
Analyze the Depth of Visit. Avinash defines the "depth of visit" as a distribution of the content consumed (e.g., the number of pages people are reading on a particular visit). In particular, he likes to look at visitors who are consuming three or more pages. These are the audience members he defines as "Loyalists," and they are visitors to be cherished.
Create and Manage Advanced Segments so You Can Love Your Loyalists. The example Kaushik described here looked like it could be implemented in the "Manage Advanced Segment >> Create Advanced Segment" of Google Analytics. This form of analysis will tell you the specific type of content that's preferred by specific visitor.
This type of analyses will help you build simple bar charts that you can analyze by what I'll describe broadly as:
* Number of Content Pages of Topic A, B, or C * % of the Overall Visits Those Content Pages Garner
By looking at your content this way, you can understand:
* Am I emphasizing a particular topic too much? Look at the % of visits here and determine if they're low (especially if you've dedicated a high number of content pages to this topic)
* Do I need to create more content around a particular topic? See if you have a low number of dedicated content pages to this topic but the % of overall is visits high.
Rule #4: We Don't Get Love Because We Don't Make It a Goal
Learn How to Set Up Conversion Goals. This was a key takeaway and another powerful feature I need to learn and set up in Google Analytics. Avinash defines conversion rate as "the percentage of people who take action on something that's of value to you." In the case of blogging, these valuable actions could include:
* Subscribing to your blog or newsletter * Giving you an email address * Reading the "about page" of your blog
Rule #5: Silence the HIPPOs by Experimenting and Learning to Fail Fast
HIPPOs Make a Website Suck. Avinash defines HIPPOs as the Highest Paid Person's Opinion. These folks can make a website suck by imposing their opinion (and this opinion may not represent the voice of your customers). This is why you should conduct experiments and see how they perform. Point being, if you're going to fail, "fail well" by failing fast.
Google Web Optimizer allows you to perform A/B testing (and you can test for free!). Even better, you can learn the results in as quickly as 6.5 minutes -- now that's fast!
A sample experiment might be testing how well a certain type of email campaign performs (i.e., includes all images because that's what the HIPPO wants). You could test different types of emails such as:
* Text only * All image * Hybrid
At least this way, you can validate how well different options work with measurable data. If you have data to back you up, the HIPPO is dead in the water!
If you have some favorite Avinash Kaushik quotes or learnings from his books or presentations, please post them in the comments. I would love to learn more pieces of wisdom about web analytics!
* Will you forgive me? * I was thinking of you the whole time ... * It didn't mean anything to me ...
Okay, okay, I know these are a bunch of stereotypical cliches to comically describe the types of apologies portrayed in "cheating scenarios" in relationships. But, I also have have a confession to make. Please don't hate me Tweetdeck, but I've started using HootSuite!
Why I Fell in Love with TweetDeck in the First Place ...
When I first started learning Twitter (about 6 months ago), I found TweetDeck a fantastic tool for broadcasting tweets. For a Twitter novice, it represented my user-friendly multi-purpose tool, and it made the mechanics of tweeting less daunting. My favorite features for TweetDeck at that time included:
* Creating an "executive dashboard" multiple-column view * Sending retweets (RT's) and @replies and * Shortening URLs
When I want to monitor Twitter activity on my iPhone, I go straight to my TweetDeck app. Even on a smaller screen, the information is displayed beautifully and zipping from column-to-column is just a finger swipe away. But 645 tweets later (as of this morning), I found myself wanting something more ...
... and the 3 Reasons Why HootSuite Has Stolen My Twitter Affections
Reason #1 You Can Easily Schedule Tweets for a Future Date or Time.For me this is huge. I conduct my article research either early in the morning or late at night so I can include their links in my tweets. Also, I have a demanding full-time, daytime job so sending out tweets during the workday isn't going to work. As a result, few followers would see my tweets because I was sending them out during "non-peak" Twitter viewing times (at least for my following which is primarily US based). With the HootSuite Scheduler, this problem is easily addressed with an easy-to-navigate, "point-and-click" and click solution:
I now rely heavily on this feature and I love it! Now, I can schedule the tweet to be sent out either the next day or later in the day during "peak Twitter viewing hours" (i.e., 9 AM - 9:30 AM Eastern Time, Noon Eastern Time).
Quite simply, the HootSuite Scheduler increases the likelihood of a follower reading my tweet.
And how do I know that followers are reading my tweets or "engaging with my content?" That leads us to reason #2 ...
Reason#2 You Can Track Twitter Viewer Engagement. HootSuite allows you to view clicks on your URL-shortened links in near real-time. This capability is very important for organizations who desire to:
(1) Measure audience engagement with their content (2) Evaluate messaging effectiveness / tweeting effectiveness or (3) Monitor what type of Twitter content really attracts consumers
Reason #3 Viewing User Information is a Lot Easier (My Opinion). Admittedly, this is subjective argument on my part. I just like being able to easily view information about other users (especially if they've granted me the privilege of their follow). In TweetDeck, this feature usually set up what looked like a new column (even though it really wasn't). The HootSuite solution just appears a little cleaner and more visually pleasing (at least to me).
Please let me know what you think by leaving me a comment:
* How many of you out there have a preferred Twitter client / user interface?
* Which one do you prefer (i.e, the Twitter web interface, TweetDeck, HootSuite, others?)
* What's the favorite feature(s) of your favorite Twitter Tool?
* Are their other Twitter Tools you can share with us that I need to learn?
Many thanks and I hope to hear from you in your comments!
