A Medium Marketers Can’t Ignore: In 3 Charts

1) Pinterest is a $7.7 Billion Company, and “appeals to college-educated females between the ages of 25 to 44. A sweet demographic known for its spending decisions and habits.”

2) From Q2 2011 to now, Pinterest has grown from representing 1.2% of social media revenue for e-commerce sites to 17.4%, and it generates greater revenue per click than Facebook or Twitter.

3) Pinterest drives more referral traffic than YouTube, LinkedIn and Google+, and its share of total social media referrals is growing.

OK. So I can’t ignore it. What’s it going to cost me? 

TIME    91% of marketers report using social media, and over half of these are spending 6+ hours a week doing it.  A good blog post requires a lot of research because it contains a lot of content, and both Facebook and Twitter involve conversations with consumers that need to be monitored. Pinterest, however, is sometimes described as the next phase in social media – content is not (time consumingly) generated, but curated –  “Pinterest offers a new level of fun and interaction for our customers as they work with us to create and curate content.” Because you are using content you already have, content created by others, and your followers are adding to and refining your content, Pinterest lessens the burden of time investment required by other social media platforms.

MONEY    The chart below is one I created by compiling statistics from several sources, and averaging over the ranges given by various sources. For example, one company is selling Repins for $0.75, one blogger devised an algorithm to calculate the value of a repin, and Twitter and Facebook statistics were found elsewhere. Any of these stats are highly contested, industry-specific, and involve huge ranges, but the take home is that Pinterest is relatively cheap and appears to generate a healthy return on the investment.

So how do I do it?

It’s profitable and efficient, so how can you optimize your Pinterest board to increase brand/ product awareness and traffic to your site? Neocloudmarketing reiterates the standard adage for all content creation: show your consumer the “whole package” – how your product is used, the lifestyle and how it intersects with other brands and products on the market – ie, give content that goes beyond your product and is useful to your consumers. Social Media Examiner recommends researching how your followers are interacting with your board – which pins are they re-pinning, what information can you get about your followers’ interests by looking at what they pin on their own boards? There are also resources for creating the images that will entice users.

The great thing about Pinterest is that you don’t need several paragraphs – just a picture.

Claim Any Listings Floating Around the Web

The first thing you should do as a business owner is be sure to “claim” your local listings so you can have full control over the details and this also enables you to respond to reviews as a business owner. Popular review sites you should search for your business listing on include Google Places, Yelp, Bing Local, Yahoo Local, Smile Reminder (doctor reviews), Angie’s List, Kudzu and MerchantCircle.
Chances are you already have a listing on one of the above sites just waiting to be claimed.

Respond Online and Take it Offline

Once your listings are claimed they are ready to be monitored. And this is where the main point of this blog entry begins! You must respond to reviews, good and bad. The one thing our clients seem to be most confused about is how to address the bad reviews. Well, here are some tips to follow:
1. Do not respond “in the moment.” You may feel heated when you first read a negative review so step back and think about your response before you respond angrily. This is the time to take in some constructive criticism (assuming it’s a legit review).
2. Once you’re ready to respond, start off positive. Here’s an example of how to positively start your response, “We are open to all feedback from clients, as we believe it helps us adjust to better serve our clients.”
3. You should also discuss how you tried to resolve the issue (if you did) or how you plan on resolving the issue.
4. End the response by giving your contact information.

Be Known For Your Excellent Customer Service and Responsiveness

One of the companies I most admire for their customer service is ModCloth. They encourage customer feedback and will respond to any negative product reviews in a very personable way. They refer to the reviewer by name and make it known that they appreciate the feedback. Here are some screen shots of the great customer service I’ve witnessed on ModCloth:

If you’re running paid search campaigns in Google AdWords, and you don’t already use the Dimensions tab, you’re missing out on a ton of useful data. Rolled out in mid-2010, the Dimensions tab is one of the most important components of the AdWords UI. It allows you to view data for an entire account or specific campaign(s) that can be used to better target your customers, decrease wasteful spend, and improve conversions. At PPC Associates, our Production team relies heavily on the Dimensions tab to pull detailed reports on campaign behavior across different time periods or geos, and to better understand how and where our ads are being shown on both the search and content networks.

The Dimensions tab is located on the right-hand side of the tabs list in the AdWords UI. If you can’t already see it, click on the drop-down arrow at the end of the row to bring up the menu of available tabs.

Once you’re in the Dimensions tab, go to the “View” drop-down menu to see the types of data available. The screenshot below shows the main menu; for Time, Conversions, and Reach and frequency you have additional options, such as Day of the week, Day (date in time), Week, Month, Quarter, Year, or Hour of day.

So now that you know where to find this, how are you going to use it? There’s a ton of good stuff here, and obviously not all of it will be relevant to every campaign. If you’re not using track-able phone numbers in your ads, for example, the “Call details” option is not going to have any data for you. If your campaigns are only running on the search network, you won’t have any automatic placements to review. But take advantage of what you can. Here are a couple of examples of how we use the Dimensions tab at PPC Associates:

1)      Day parting. We usually run two types of day parting reports: day of the week and hour of day. You can pull the data separately, or you can use the advanced segmentation feature in AdWords to break it down by hour of day for each day of the week. Once you have the data in Excel, use conditional formatting to easily spot trends in campaign performance. This can then be used to optimize the campaigns; for example, you may choose to increase bids during time periods with high conversion rate and low CPA, or decrease bids when the opposite is true. If there’s a clear drop in performance during specific days or hours of day, you may even want to turn campaigns off during these low-performing time periods. In the sample data below, it’s clear that the hours of 5 am – 8 am do not perform well, whereas the hours of 4 pm to 8 pm have high conversion rates and low CPAs.

2)      Search query review. Being able to see the actual queries that cause your ads to show is powerful, both for finding terms you don’t want to show up on and getting new ideas for keywords. We all know that running keywords on broad match – or even modified broad match or phrase match – opens up a campaign to a wide range of search queries, many of which might not be relevant to what we’re advertising. The “Search terms” option in the Dimensions tab will let you see the queries triggering your ads. Use this data to promote high-performing queries by turning them into keywords with targeted ads, and also to scrub out unwanted terms. This is especially important when your campaigns include a lot of general keywords. Just imagine how many irrelevant queries you can get matched to when bidding on “will” (as in last will and testament) keywords. The screenshot below shows just a few out of thousands.

Clearly this is a very broad overview of the Dimensions tab and the ways you can use it to optimize your campaigns. There are a lot of different ways to use the data, and the “Customize columns” and advanced segmentation options let you slice and dice the data in innumerable ways. No time like the present to get in, start some tests, and figure out how to improve your campaigns with the options on hand.

-  Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily of Schipul – The Web Marketing Company.

With the release of Google’s Search Plus Your World update, Google now recommends Google+ pages for specific search queries. When I do a search for the term “web design,” I get these recommended Google+ people and pages:

As you can see, Google now recommends Google+ People and Pages related to a specific search term e.g. “web design.”  So, how can you appear as a related person or page for search queries? Well, the first thing you need to do  is fill out your Google+ page and optimize it.

Below are some tips to help you optimize your Google+ page.

Tips on How To Optimize Your Google Plus Page

Be Sure to Select an Optimized Title

The name of your brand or business should be the title of the page but be sure to choose wisely and if relevant include keywords in your title.  For example, the SMX Conference Google+ page, includes “Search Engine Marketing” in their title. See the screenshot below.

Fill Out Your Meta Description

Google also let’s  you provide a meta description that appears directly below your page title. This is a great place to provide an accurate description of your services. Also, be sure to include keywords in your description so that you can rank better for these terms in Google’s new update, Search Plus Your World.

So for example, SEO Hacker  uses “SEO Hacker is an SEO Services Company in the Philippines that aims to help you learn SEO in Simple. . .” as their description.  Instead of using their tag line, “Be Visible. Get Searched. Let’s Make This Happen,” they decided to use a more keyword rich meta description which will help them better rank in Google+ for SEO and SEO services.

Fill Out the About Section

This section is just as important as filling out your meta description and choosing the right title and it’s a great opportunity to include links to specific pages to your site like a services page or a contact form.

In this section, you should include information that searchers will want to know about your company. Also, Google allows you to use bulleted formatting which is a great way to list your services and products in an easy to read format.

So, be sure to include as much information as possible when filling out this section. A good example of this is from Schipul’s Google+ page:

Upload Photos

In the photo section, you have the opportunity to upload photos with keywords. Also, by uploading photos it will help your profile reach completion. Use photos that best feature your company, company culture or services. You can also use images for your photos like the Search Engine Land example below:

Also, the photos you add to your Google+ page will appear the new Search Plus Your World’s search results pages  (SERPs)

Fill out Your Recommended Links

This section is another great chance to link your services pages, contact forms, etc.  We recommend inserting links that are only relevant to your Google+ page including keywords. Also, be sure to include links to your other social networks, blog, website, contact forms, etc.

Here’s an example from SMX’s Google Plus page:

Be Active and Update Frequetnly

Finally, you need to become more active and update frequently on your Google+ page. You don’t have to over do it but posting something valuable and relevant to your customers, followers and friends can help you rank better in Search Plus Your World.  Try posting at least twice throughout the week.  By posting regularly, Google will notice your activity and reward you for being active and providing new and fresh content.

Be sure to follow Schipul – The Web Marketing Company on Google+,  Facebook and on Twitter for more tips on Search Engine Optimization and web marketing.

SchipulCon is in full swing! We were thrilled to see Brian Wheelis of Facebook speak Thursday on Facebook Ads. Below are our notes:

On Facebook Fan Pages

Your page represents who you are, similar to an individual’s profile page.  The page is the concert, the ad is the ticket to that concert. That concert may be Kenny Chesney or Lady Gaga – the ticket is the same, but the experience will be completely different. Pages connect people, ads help us reach their friends. When businesses are connected, they win.

On Facebook Engagement Success

“Very little happens on the Facebook platform that wouldn’t happen off the Facebook platform” – Brian Wheelis

Your store experience is not created on Facebook, it’s replicated. Movements are amplified on Facebook, not created.

The more you create compelling content, the more your fans share. Storytelling is key (this has been a theme throughout SchipulCon).

ComScore did a recent study on Facebook Fan Page metrics:

• People are 50% more likely to buy from brand they are a fan of
• People are 60% more likely to recommend after becoming a fan

New Facebook Features (This is the Juicy Stuff!)

• Improved Fan Page Insights will be rolling out in the next few weeks (Brian admitted that Facebook hasn’t done the best job sharing metric data with Fan Page admins)
• Facebook will be adding the ability to create Ads directly from your Page post. You can take a post that’s been proven effective and push it out as an ad.
• Open Graph actions – instead of just “Like” you’ll get a button for any verb you want.   Defaults will be: Listened to, Watched, Read. People will be able to add any word with Facebook approval.

The Latest Facebook Update – The Ticker & Timeline

• Timeline is designed to be a curated representation of you – designed to deliver deeper connections. You decide how much you put on Facebook as a representation of you.
• 12-18% content on Facebook is seen on newsfeed – ticker is meant to increase visibility and allow you to see more newsfeed content

On Ad Targeting

Ad targeting is the main reason to use Facebook ads over other online advertising. According to Brian, targeting on Facebook is 90% accurate vs. 35% on industry sites – people don’t lie because there are social consequences. Interestingly, as you get more targeted, accuracy improves further.

Tips on Improving Facebook Ad Conversions

• Ads with friend interaction included has a double CTR.
• 60% better engagement for Facebook ads if you stick to three lines – the less you say, the better

On Facebook Apps

It’s not a “built it and they will come” situation. There are costs in marketing and promotion.  Consider an app, but don’t feel like you need to create one. If you do, some tips:

• Focus on people
• Enable great storytelling
• Create good experiences
• Use sponsored Stories

Does Facebook Increase ROI?

Brian showed case studies on liquor brands, & AMEX Small Business Saturday. He admitted that it’s more difficult for industries like Finance, Pharmaceuticals,etc. where data is more protected.

His tip was to be about something to make it social. i.e. Chase had a Facebook campaign rallying around nonprofits that brought them success.

More SchipulCon!

SchipulCon continues today (Friday 10/7). Photos are posted and will continue to be posted at schipulcon.com/photos.

Follow along at SchipulCon.com, or follow the tweets at the hashtag #SchipulCon.

And if you’re here at SchipulCon, come say hi to one of our Schipul SEM team Schipulites!

For more information about these Search Stars visit their websites:

• Bruce Clay – BruceClay.com
• Matt Cutts – MattCutts.com/blog
• Danny Sullivan – SearchEngineLand.com
• Rand Fishkin – SEOmoz.org

Once you have your Google Places page setup and verified, make sure and complete your profile. Then, take the next step and add a Posts feature as a quick status update in the now familiar 160 characters. The message will automatically run for 30 days in your Places page.  Think about using your targeted keyphrases or a special message to your visitors.  Only one post will show at a time, but you can choose between Specials, Events, or new features. The end of the year is a great time to provide information about specials and events.

Let us know how you are using your Google Posts or if you need help creating a complete listing for your business.

Contact the Schipul SEM Team in Houston for more information.

We happen to think Holiday and Seasonal trends are pretty insightful and shared how you can optimize your web campaigns for both traditional holidays or even make your own holidays to support your business. Flip through the slidedeck to learn how we research phrases and trends to forecast opportunities. We then help clients set editorial and planning calendars for specific dates and know what they should be looking forward to for the next campaign.

If you would like more information and resources about Holiday Search Engine Optimization for all season of the year, contact our Houston Search Engine Marketing Team.

Online shopping and events can make effective use of campaigns related to keyphrases such as free shipping, discount, gift, coupon and last minute deals. Use Google Insights and Trends to discover seasonal trends for your segment of the market. Whether it is a gift membership, free shipping or other discount, savvy shoppers are on the lookout for value.

Start planning now for health and fitness related topics in the early January, flu and cold season topics, and upcoming holidays for Spring Break and Valentines. Coordinate a combined effort from on-page web optimization with off-page marketing efforts including newsletters, events, and social media announcements.  Spend some time looking at your past year’s analytics and scour for traffic spikes or increased opportunities around industry events. Setup coordinated campaigns which may include a targeted PPC campaign.

Not sure what dates are important for your business or association? Check out the calendar for editorial planning from the presentation by the Schipul SEM Team.

Some of the most interesting features to be included are:

• Geographical Location datelines to show where tweets are coming from
• Reputation validating system to lend credibility to authors as information sources
• Reputation ranking system based on ratings from other users
• Grouping of followers by lists

Read the full article on CBSNews

Jonti Bolles

For more information on Social Marketing, Web Analytics and Search, contact our Search Engine Marketing Team at Schipul and follow SEMblog on Twitter.