Internet Marketing Tips, Tools and Strategies

Online influence has been a hot topic on the web lately and it seems everyone wants to know just how influential they are on social media networks. Users are also asking the questions “Who am I influencing?” and “Who am I being influenced by?”

So how do you measure your social media influence and answers to these questions?

There are actually a few tools out there that can give you some insight into your Social Media influence:

Klout – Quickly becoming the big name when it comes to online or social media influence, Klout gives you an overall influence score. This score is based on how many people you influence, how much you influence them, and the influence of your network. They also offer insight into topics or industries you have influence in, users you are currently influencing, etc.

PeerIndex – They also uses a score system that produces an overall influence rating. Here, you are judged based on your authority - how much others rely or trust your recommendations and opinions, audience – the size of yours and your extended network, and your activity – as the name implies, what you share, how often you share, etc.

Crowdbooster – This “intelligent social media dashboard” doesn’t spit out an easily digestible influence number like the previous tools, but they do offer a deep understanding of your social media networks. Gain insight into not only what you have been doing on your social networks, but also receive recommendations to reach important influencers and develop rich relationships.

Don’t forget engagement with those you influence and are influenced by (not to mention fans, customers, etc.) is the most important thing at the end of the day. Your influence number is a great tool to measure yourself by, but don’t forget to engage!

Make sure your Social Media Marketing Strategy is successful, download our strategy kit.

As more and more users access the web via their mobile devices, it is important to not only develop a mobile website, but also to start utilizing the mobile marketing tools out there. What are these?

Apps (or applications). Everyone knows what an app is right? Well a significant amount of the mobile user population not only knows what an app is, but have several downloaded on to their smartphone. According to Flurry, over 40 billion applications have already been downloaded from the App Store and Android Market! With those numbers, it is not only important to look into developing an app for your company, but ensuring it will be useful for your users. 

Geolocation. Location based apps, also known as “check-in” apps, are popular mobile user past-times. If your company relies heavily on local business or promotes itself as a local service then it is important to not only be visible on these applications, but also make sure you are actively developing and managing your reputation on these. Be sure to check your listing on Foursquare, Gowalla, and Loopt to start with.

Mobile Coupons. According to eMarketer, mobile coupon use in the US is set to double by 2013. Then it should be no surprise that many businesses are starting to offer their own coupons to mobile users. Mobile coupons help you stay visible to mobile users. Getting started with mobile coupons has even been made easy by companies such as Groupon, Living Social, and Yipit.
 
Be sure you are not only staying relevant, but visible to users no matter how they are searching for you – desktops, tablets, or mobile devices. Download our Mobile Marketing Strategy Kit to find out more about mobile use and how to take advantage of these new forms of marketing.

So you already have a great Facebook page, share content regularly and have a pretty healthy “like” count? Great! That is a good start.

To truly take advantage of that Facebook network you need to engage users. How do you do that? Well here are a few ideas to get your engagement started:

Share. Make sure you aren’t only sharing links to your website - post photos, ask questions, reshare useful content, etc.

Have fresh content. Refresh (rewrite) content as often as you can – try once every quarter to start.

Promote special offers. Try running an exclusive pricing deal or promotional offer on Facebook. Or, try a giveaway for customer interaction – example: “Answer our poll question for $5 off your next visit” or “What did you think of our last blog post? Leave a comment and your next order is shipped free!”.

Reward loyal fans. Have a “Fan of the Month” highlight where you reward those who are engaging with you and on behalf of your brand across Facebook.

Having a large network on Facebook is important, but how that network is interacting and engaging with you is equally (if not more so) important. Engage your network and be successful on Facebook.

Want more Social Media tips? Download our Social Media Marketing Strategy Kit.  

Pew Research Center’s recent study of buying habits over the holiday has put tablet and e-readers in the forefront of online marketing initiatives in 2012. According to their study the amount of people who own one of these devices has risen from 10% to 19% in one month. That amount of growth means you need to be prepared that your future customer may be using one of these devices when surfing your website.

What should you do?

Consider the tablet user experience. We know you have a lot of users to consider when building and maintaining a website – rendering on different browsers (Firefox vs. IE), different types of operating systems (Mac vs. Windows), mobile users, etc. It can be overwhelming trying to accommodate everyone, but don’t let that make you leave out tablet optimization. Users will be looking at your website on these devices and you need to make sure the experience is seamless.

Also, if you do online sales/e-commerce on your website, be sure that purchasing on these devices is simple and easy. Don’t lose sales!

An e-reader is for reading. Obviously you knew that, but have you thought about how your valuable content is being displayed on these? Be sure to optimize your whitepapers, case studies, newsletters, etc. to be read on these devices. Don’t forget that content can be viewed via various tablet apps as well.

Utilize video marketing. Just like with mobile devices, a user is not going to want to resize and move around content to be able to read it. Meaning information is going to have to be in an easier digestible form – video. You might want to start looking at adding online videos to your 2012 Marketing Strategy.

How users connect and use the Internet is always evolving. Make sure you are evolving with the times by including mobile and tablet users in your future online activities.

Download our Mobile Marketing Strategy Kit to find out more.

If you are just starting a Twitter account or you have been around the Tweet-o-sphere, it is important to know that there are certain dos and don’ts that any Twitter user should know. This Tweetiquette (or Twitter Etiquette) is not just there to make you a well-mannered status updater, but can actually keep you from being blocked (by Twitter) from search results.

So how do you protect your Twitter image?

Use #hashtags respectfully. Hashtags are one of the hardest concepts of Twitter to not only get familiar with, but use properly. Hashtags are actually a tool you can use to “tag” your tweets, but be sure that you are not overusing hashtags or abusing popular trending topics for visibility.

Don’t tweet the same content. Now posting a follow-up to a previous Tweet or link already posted is okay, but constantly tweeting the same thing over and over will mark you as a spammer.

Also, be sure that you are not posting the same message over multiple accounts. If you have several employees who tweet on the companies behalf just encourage them to retweet your message, instead of putting the exact same tweet in their status box.

Be a conscious follower. Obviously you want to follow and be followed by others on Twitter. I mean, that is the point isn’t it? But be sure that you are not just following users to amass a high number. Adding a ton of users to you follow bucket in a short amount of time is a quick way to have Twitter label you a spammer and landing you on the search blacklist. A best practice way to approach following and followers is maintain a similar ratio between the two.

Don’t have a cookie cutter response. Are you using automated tweets? Are you using automated replies? Well stop it! Even if you aren’t a bot, an automated or generic response such as “Thanks for the follow!” can make others think you are. Really connect with your network by sending personalized messages; it is about connecting after all.

Be sure to follow proper tweetiquette and don’t end up on the receiving end of a Twitter search ban! For more social media tips and tricks read our Social Media Marketing Strategy Kit.

Google Analytics isn’t just for seeing how many website visits you get in a month; it is a powerful tool that gives you the ability to understand your customers and their needs based on statistical information. Customer behavior is often dictated by their geographical location and thankfully Google Analytics gives you information on customer location.

So how do you get location data in Google Analytics? Well Google has a handy section under visitors called “Map Overlay”. This allows you to see where your website visitors are located in the world, which you can drill down from country, to state and even to city level maps. 

If you are a company that targets customers in your local area - your surrounding neighborhood, city, or maybe the entire state; knowing how to access this geo-information can help you make improvements to your website content, advertising, etc. to increase traffic and conversions. How?

Find the content that is bringing your target audience and improve on it. Are particular products or content phrasing on your website resonating with a particular audience? Do people in your area use search strings that your website contains? Find the keywords that are driving your target location traffic to your site and write content focused on them.

Really understand who buys your product. Are you under the assumption your customer is from suburban locations? Google Analytics can show you that urban or rural users are actually the bulk of customers searching for your product or service. Knowing exactly who your client is, not who you think they are, helps you develop marketing and sales tactics that work.

Locational information also can tell you if you are limiting your business. By viewing your Google Analytics location information, you might discover that there is potential for expansion to another state or even internationally! Or, maybe you might want to consider adding an ecommerce option to your website that allows users to buy product from areas you aren’t currently doing business with.

Knowing where your customers are located helps you understand them. Understanding your customers allows you to market yourself and your company effectively for success! So be sure to start utilizing Google Analytics location data right away to start understanding where your customers are located and what they need.

Don’t currently use Google Analytics or need some help understanding what all the numbers mean? Contact WSI for an analytic consultation today.