Wednesday, March 20, 2013

How Social Media Marketing Can Help Brand Building

There are a lot of brands which took a lot of time to build. But with the emergence of a lot of Social Media platforms, building brands now does not have to be hectic and tedious.

It is much simpler and easier to do but the work has to be done.



Capture your name

Use all the Social Media platforms to secure your name. Your name is your brand and it is very important to secure it. Begin by buying your domain name and getting your name with all these platforms. These are your assets and it is worth securing. You secure your name by going on these Social Media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, YouTube and creating profiles.

Be the Wikipedia within your industry

After you have captured your name, spread your message. Be known within your industry as someone who always has solutions. When you always answer questions that people want answers to you will be seen as the expert within your field.

Blog

Blogging consistently is one of the ways to build your brand. As I said previously you have to be the Wikipedia in your industry. Your website should be a place where people want to consistently visit because they know they will find answers and solutions to their problems. This establishes your expertise. This tip works in any industry. Whether you are in the real estate business, legal, fashion, music and so on, you can be a solution centre. Your website should not only be about you selling your products and services but your audience want to see fresh information that will help them and this has to be consistent or else they will get bored and go to your competitor. People like to buy from those they know, like and trust and one of the ways to achieve that is through blogging.

Use videos to share your brand

Do some mini tutorials with videos and share them on YouTube. These videos can be one or two minutes long. This is a great way of sharing your brand. Be consistent with these videos. Your audience will see your body language; they will feel more connected with you. These are some of the reasons why people love commercials, it is entertaining and sticks to the mind of the viewer. They get to see the other side of you.

Engage on Social Media

Social media is a market place where you can easily engage with people. So after you have secured your name and shared your message, use this as an opportunity to engage with people. Start conversations with people and take them offline. See them face to face if you can and carry on building relationships.

With the above tips, when done consistently you will establish your expertise and also experience a growth in your business.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Free SEO Tools for Website Analysis


Most of the SEO Professionals needs to send number of SEO proposals to new clients often. Also, they would like to have quick analysis on each website before sending the proposal. Following are top 3 free online tools which will help you while doing website analysis.

1.     woorank
2.     Site Trail
3.     Hubspot's Marketing Grader


Woorank is one of the best free tool for basic SEO analysis. Woorank team is putting their maximum efforts to optimize this tool. SEO Professionals who would like to know about any site in a single click can approach this tool without any doubt. One good thing is it’s always free and clean interface with no ads. Following are the couple factors this tool analyzes about a website:
  • SEO Suggestions
  • Visitor’s information
  • Social Share data
  • SEO Tech Info
  • SEO Tags Data
  • Link Evaluation
  • Keyword Analysis
  • Website Authority & Back links
  • Usability & Security
  • Tracking & Technologies


Site Trail is another free SEO tool for website analysis. It’s little new compared to woorank. It’s also offering the same kind of features in woorank. However Site Trail team has few more additional features to their tool i.e. Hosting, Server, DNS Records & HTTP headers information. Following are the list of features it offers:
  • Social Media Stats
  • Basic SEO Data
  • Visitors Analysis
  • Traffic Rank Details
  • Content & Linking Analysis
  • Hosting & Server Info
  • DNS & HTTP header Records


It will give little in-depth analysis of any website. This tool is able to recognize whether your site is a blog or not. It’s good to test one of your sites personally on this tool, so that you will have a better idea. If you are marketing professional then you will worth testing it. Listed below major features:
  • Blogging analysis
  • SEO Info
  • Mobile Compatibility check
  • Social Stats
  • Analytics

If you would like to add any free SEO tools to this post, please feel free share your views at below comment section.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Digital Marketing & Media Planning - Brand Promotion

Digital Marketing Strategy:

Digital Marketing is the promoting of brands using all forms of digital advertising channels to reach consumers. This now includes Television, Radio, Internet, mobile, social media marketing and any other form of digital media.

Whilst digital marketing does include many of the techniques and practices contained within the category of Internet Marketing, it extends beyond this by including other channels with which to reach people that do not require the use of The Internet. As a result of this non-reliance on the Internet, the field of digital marketing includes a whole host of elements such as mobile phones, sms/mms, display / banner ads and digital outdoor.

Previously seen as a stand-alone service in its own right, it is frequently being seen as a domain that can and does cover most, if not all, of the more traditional marketing areas such as Direct Marketing by providing the same method of communicating with an audience but in a digital fashion. Digital is now being broadened to support the "servicing" and "engagement" of customers.

Digital Marketing – Pull vs. Push

There are 2 different forms of digital marketing, each of which has its pros and cons.

Pull

Pull digital marketing technologies involve the user having to seek out and directly select (or pull) the content, often via web search. Web site/blogs and streaming media (audio and video) are good examples of this. In each of these examples, users have a specific link (URL) to view the content.

Pros:

Digital Marketing and Power Users of the internet are an integral aspect to the united states economy. Interactive Media is a form of art and creative inspiration.

* Since requests are inherently opt-in, the size of content is generally unlimited.
* No advanced technology required to send static content, only to store/display it.

Cons:

* Considerable marketing effort required for users to find the message/content.
* Some types of marketing content may be blocked in mixed content scenarios (i.e.: Flash blockers)

Push


Push digital marketing technologies involve both the marketer (creator of the message) as well as the recipients (the user). Email, SMS, RSS are examples of push digital marketing. In each of these examples, the marketer has to send (push) the messages to the users (subscribers) in order for the message to be received. In the case of RSS, content is actually pulled on a periodic basis (polling), thus simulating a push.

Pros:

* Faster delivery - push technologies can deliver content immediately as it becomes available.
* Consistent delivery - some push platforms have single content types, making it difficult for the user to block content by type.
* Better targeting - since push technology usually justifies subscription, more specific marketing data may be collected during registration, which allows for better targeting and more personalization.
* Better data - marketing data can be correlated to each request for content, allowing marketers to see information such as user name as well as demographic and psychographic data.

Cons:


* Smaller audience - push technology not implemented on common platforms generally need client and/or server software before content can be created, distributed, and/or viewed.
* Higher cost - less popular platforms may have higher implementation costs.
* Lesser discoverability - smaller audiences mean fewer views mean less visibility in search engines.

Digital Marketing and Multi-Channel Communications

While digital marketing is effective using one message type, it is much more successful when a marketer combines multiple channels in the message campaigns. For example, if a company is trying to promote a new product release, they could send out an email message or text campaign individually. This, if properly executed, could yield positive results. However, this same campaign could be exponentially improved if multiple message types are implemented[citation needed].

An email could be sent to a list of potential customers with a special offer for those that also include their cell phone number. A couple of days later, a follow up campaign would be sent via text message (SMS) with the special offer.

Push and pull message technologies can also be used in conjunction with each other. For example, an email campaign can include a banner ad or link to a content download. This enables a marketer to have the best of both worlds in terms of their marketing method.

Digital Marketing Terms


Banner Ad
An advertisement that appears on a Web page, most commonly at the top (header) or bottom (footer) of the page. Designed to have the user click on it for more information (see Microsite)

Blacklisted
A blacklisted notice means that the message may not have been delivered due to be flagged on one of the major lists that keep tabs of known spammers. Different ISPs use different blacklists to block mailings from being delivered to their clients. It can be a temporary ban or a permanent one, depending upon the list.

Blocked
A blocked notice means that the message did not get through due to being considered spam by the subscriber’s ISP. This may be due to being on a blacklist or because the message contains a domain that is already being blocked.

Blog
Shortened from “web log” a blog is a user-generated Web site where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order.

Campaign
A campaign is a specific message being sent to a specific group of recipients.

CAN-SPAM Act of 2003

The CAN SPAM ACT is a series of federal laws that must be followed by all email marketers. Those found in violation of the laws can be subjected to major penalties.[1]

Click Through
The number of times people clicked on the links in your message. This is often referred to as CTR (Click Through Rate). Note: you must have enabled click through tracking in the campaign in order for this to be recorded.

SEM

Search engine marketing Is a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs) through the use of search engine optimization, paid placement, contextual advertising, and paid inclusion.[2]

Cost Per Click
Refers to the amount of money an advertiser pays search engines and other Internet publishers for a single click on its advertisement that brings one visitor to its website.

Digital Brand Engagement
Brand and consumer interaction through the Internet. This includes all aspects of dialogue through the social web and on the brand's own website.

DMA Market
DMA stands for Designated Market Area, which is often associated with the entertainment industry. DMAs are usually counties (or sometimes split counties) that contain a large population that can be targeted, such as New York City, Los Angeles or Chicago.

Email Service Provider (ESP)
Outside companies that send bulk emails on behalf of their clients to prevent their messages as being labeled as spam or blocked entirely.

False Positives
Legitimate messages being labeled as “spam”. Can cost companies potentially millions in potential lost revenue if not dealt with correctly.

GPRL
The Global Permanent Removal List consists of records that are automatically removed from a particular database. Almost all email service providers (ESP) or multi-channel messaging companies maintain these lists for their clients.

Instant Messaging
Instant messaging (often shortened to IM) is a type of communications service that enables you to create a kind of private chat room with another individual in order to communicate in real time over the Internet.

Keywords
Used in conjunction with SMS messages. A user types a short code and matching keyword in order to be added to a mobile club or database.

Microsite
A mini Web site design to promote a specific portion or brand from a larger corporate site. Used often with contests or as a landing page for a specific promotion.

Open Rate
This is a ratio determined by the number of people who opened your email against the total number of people to whom you sent the message. Typically, this number will be low for large campaigns and higher for more targeted campaigns.

Opt-In List
Email marketers have databases of subscribers to their newsletters, featuring these subscribers' email addresses and names. Such a list is known as an opt-in list (and is thus CAN-SPAM compliant; see above for info on the CAN-SPAM act) because users choose to receive the emails. This is in contrast to spam email, which is unsolicited.

Personalization
Personalization gives you the ability to create a customized message for each person in your database. Can be addressed by first/last name, city, state, zip, etc.

RSS
RSS or Real Simple Syndication is technology designed to allow users to subscribe to a specific content feed and be automatically alerted when new updates are available.

RSS Reader
Application used to subscribe and monitor selected RSS content feeds.

Short Code
A short code is a 5 or 6 digit number that is used to send and respond to text messages. They can either be a random set of numbers or a “vanity” number tied to a specific brand or number pattern.

SMS
SMS (Short Message Service) is a one-way text message sent via a cell phone. It is usually received via the subscribers' text message inbox on their cell phone and can be a maximum of 160 characters per message.

Social Bookmarking
Social Bookmarking is a popular way to store, classify, share and search links that are combined into a single site for easy access.

Social media optimization

The methodization of social media activity with the intent of attracting unique visitors to website content.

Spam
An email message that is unwanted by the recipient. Legitimate emails can sometimes be incorrectly identified as spam and is a growing problem.

Streaming Technologies

Communication channel such as video and audio that is accessed online. Can be a pre-stored clip to access as well as a live feed that is streamed like an online broadcast.

Subscriber

A person who signs up to receive messages from a particular company or entity.

Targeting
Targeting allows you to send a message to people based on specific criteria from your subscriber database.

Voice Broadcast
Sending a pre-recorded voice messages to a large set of phone numbers at the time same. Can either be a voice call (meaning the recipient must answer the call for the message to play) or voice mail (meaning the message will play only if the recipient doesn’t answer )

Widget
A small graphical device that does a highly focused, often single, specific task. Web widgets can be embedded in web pages or run on the desktop of a PC (Windows or Mac) using software such as Apple's Dashboard software or Yahoo! Widgets Engine.

Web Video
Short promotional video clip, designed to be displayed on a website or many websites such as youtube.

For more information visit www.seowebplanet.com

Monday, April 18, 2011

Key SEO Strategy for Facebook Business Page

Facebook boasts 500 million active users with 50% of those active users logging on everyday. Facebook users spend an average of 700 billion minutes per month on this very active and social platform. Hence, it is important to not only incorporate a Facebook fan page for your business, but also to optimize it for search engines.

Many savvy businesses are leveraging these statistics to reach more potential clients by getting in front of more eyeballs, many are just joining the game. If this is you, don't fret, this blog post is for you.

How about the deal with the "Page" URLs? Some have numbers, some don't. A lot of people have this issue, and are confused about it." In June 2009 Facebook launched the ability to choose a vanity URL for your facebook fan pages, making this feature one of the most important SEO opportunities on this social media platform. So how do you proceed in optimizing your facebook business page?

First thing is to ensure that you are an admin on this business fan page. If you created the fan page you are automatically an admin. To add admins to a page you must:

* Login with the Page Login
* Click on Edit Page
* On the left sidebar, about halfway down, is an option to "Manage Admins" - In the dialogue box, choose the option to "Add another Admin" and enter their email address.

As an admin, everything you post on that page will show as the business page profile, not your personal profile. Once an admin, you can optimize you Facebook business fan page. To customize a FB page URL:

* Go to username
* From the dropdown menu, select your business page. (You can also customize the URL for your personal page here.)
* Type the name you want.
* Remember, you cannot undo this URL assignment once complete.

Remeber, facebook fan pages are intended to be an authentic representation of your business or brand. Pick a name that you will be confident and content with.

P.S. Facebook requires that your fan page have at least 25 fans before it becomes eligible to select a username. If you have less than 25 fans you will need to recruit more fans in order to take advantage of this incredible SEO feature.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Free Website Analytics Toos

You belive or not you don't actually have to have a big budget to do great web analytics work. That is certainly a myth. And sure, most people know about the wonders of free Google Analytics, I would like to share a few of the other great free tools out there in the web analytics world.

Woopra
This is a great alternative to Google Analytics! Woopra is a very new tool, and is fresh out of the beta oven. This tracking tool is ideal for less trafficked websites, especially for blogs. It offers all the standard metrics that Google Analytics offers, plus two cool features that Google Analytics doesn't offer. Firstly, it has real time visitor analysis (creepy but great - you can see exactly which source your visitor comes from, the page they are on, and their path around your site etc), and secondly, they offer a great built in chat tool, that allows you to popup messages to your website visitors and actually talk to them - this is great for generating real time feedback or to offer help. Might be worth checking out, especially for those of you looking to try something different than the leading free Google Analytics tool.

Crazy Egg
Crazy Egg is basically a very advanced version of Google Analytics’ site overlay tool. It allows you to visually see EXACTLY where people are clicking on your website, and even shows you this in the form of a heatmap. It even allows you to segment this visual analysis based on things like visitor referrer. In particular, this is a great tool for helping you find poorly clicked areas on your website for testing (and yes, no-ones website is perfect!) They have a free basic version of this, plus some more advanced paid versions, but the free version should be more than enough to get some great insight into where your visitors are going (or not going!)

Enquisite
If you took out the Search Engine reports part of Google Analytics, and added in a lot more detailed reports regarding your regular search engine traffic (resulting from your SEO efforts) and your PPC efforts (paid search engine clicks), then you have ‘Enquisite‘. It is a very useful free tool for those of you who spend considerable time and resources attracting website visitors from search engines, and allows you to do some great analysis to help improve the ROI of your marketing efforts. An even more advanced, but expensive version of this is Omniture's Search Center - which also allows you to manage your campaigns.

4Q
I am a firm believer that one of the best ways to gain insight and understanding about what is happening at your website is to survey your visitors. You should never just rely on click stream data. Survey answers tell you ‘why’ your visitors are doing the ‘what’ that you see in your clickstream data, and enable you to get ideas for improving your website, thus improving the visitor experience, increasing the chance of them coming back (which should be the ultimate goal of any website). This new survey tool called 4Q is free and easy to set up and start generating good feedback and visitor insight. Oh, and Avinash Kaushik, genius web analyst is behind this great tool.

ClickTale
ClickTale takes visual analysis tools like CrazyEgg to an even higher level, and enables you to record and watch what your website visitors do without the need of expensive usability labs! Its great for gaining insight through the perspective of your visitors eyes, and reveals exactly where they go, how far they scroll, and what troubles they are having (and believe me, you will be surprised where people actually go on your website!) And it only requires a few simple lines of code to be added to your pages, which is great for non-techy people. The free version allows up to 100 recordings a week - more than enough to get started with. Intriguing stuff!