Social Media Optimization | Social Media Marketing Strategies

Google Maps Adds Emergency Alerts

January 27, 2012 By John Rampton Leave a Comment

If a major storm is headed you way, Google wants to be your information guide. The Google Crisis Response team is looking to be your go to information source on when a storm will strike, how bad will it be, and what resources are available to help.

http://searchenginewatch.com/

Filed Under: Search Engine Optimization, Social Media News Tagged With: search engine branding, Search Engine Optimization, search engine placement, seo, social media blog, Social Media Marketing, social media marketing plan, social media optimization

Con Artist Shares Inside Story of Google Pharmacy Ad Sting

January 27, 2012 By Miranda Miller Leave a Comment

In a letter to the Wall Street Journal, career con man David Whitaker spilled the beans on his experience as undercover operative Jason Corriente, an agent for wealthy clients seeking online ads. The sting led to a $500 million forfeiture for Google.

http://searchenginewatch.com/

Weekly Link Round Up – 01-27-12

January 27, 2012 By SMMdotcom Leave a Comment

3 New Apps to Manage Your Social Networks (SocialMediaExaminer.com)

As new and very different social media sites rise up, managing your brand across them can be difficult. Thankfully, new apps with diverse features to offer have also been developed to help both brands and individual users manage their social networks.

Cable Networks Embrace Social TV, Creating New Social Apps (Mashable.com)

Brick-and-mortar businesses aren’t the only ones going social. Through networks such as Facebook together with check-in services like GetGlue and Miso, cable networks have begun to connect fans with show content to keep them engaged.

How ‘Pinterest’ing: 5 Great Ways to Use Pinterest (SocialWebDaily.com)

One of the hottest social networks trending today is Pinterest, a pinboard-styled medium for short-form blogging. As a great medium for exchanging inspiration and engaging with others with similar interests, the site lends itself to a number of creative uses.

The 12 Keys To Successful Gamification (Part 1) (SocialFresh.com)

While gamification may be gaining ground as a popular social media and marketing strategy, there are many ways to go about it. With a few ideas to think about, you can get started on creating the most effective way to gamify your brand, website, or app.

Infographic: Millennials will change the way you sell (BazaarVoice.com)

By 2017, Millennials—the generation that invented Facebook—will have more spending power than any other generation. With that said, it helps to understand that this generation needs an entirely different kind of marketing strategy to get to them. This infographic illustrates a study of how these Millennials shop.

http://www.socialmediamarketing.com/blog

Filed Under: Social Media Marketing, Social Media News Tagged With: social media blog, Social Media Marketing, social media marketing plan, social media optimization

SEO Chicks Competition – Win a ticket to SES London!

January 27, 2012 By Laura Roth Leave a Comment

SEO Chicks have launched a competition for the next generation of search marketers. Have you been in SEO less than a year or have a desire to join the industry? If so, this is the competition for you. Here is your chance to win a ticket to SES London

http://searchenginewatch.com/

Measuring ROI: How to Collect Meaningful PPC Conversion Data

January 27, 2012 By John Lynch Leave a Comment

Learn how you can track and collect significant conversion data and then bring it all together in one dashboard. Use these three levels of conversion data tracking that vary in terms of pros/cons, costs, effectiveness, and sophistication.

http://searchenginewatch.com/

Setting up effective social media-driven customer service strategies

January 27, 2012 By Luis Oliveros Leave a Comment

Image by Matthew Wilkinson

With social media proving to be a powerful tool for bridging the gap between brands and their demographic, it’s become customary for companies of any size to integrate it into almost every aspect of their business. Because of the real-time engagements taking place online, social media is a great platform for expanding and optimizing a brand’s customer service-geared strategies.

Ina post last week, we talked about how social media as a 24/7 interaction engine, and its near limitless content distribution channels are ideal for addressing customer concerns. Here is a quick rundown of the best ways you can establish a strong customer care line for your brand.

Form a Social Media Team

For starters, brand managers will need to form a team of social media savvy people to take charge of your online customer service strategies. Smaller businesses can perhaps work around having one person engaging with customers online, but sometimes a team would be better suited to focus on the ongoing follower interactions, and resolving concerns

Standardize Strategies and Resolutions

In order to properly resolve any issue presented to your brand, the people handling customer service should be capable of efficiently making decisions. Sure skills and quick thinking can help tons, but behind those, brands should also have a standardized set of rules and resolutions to make sure customer service people are giving out the right solutions to get the job done. For best results, a resource material should be created—knowledge base workers can consult when facing any kind of issue.

Choose Your Social Channels

Selecting the right social network is crucial. It will serve as your shared communications space with your clients; where they can ask questions and freely express their concerns and share their experience with your brand.

Obvious ones include bigger social platforms like Facebook and Twitter. When effectively implemented with the right strategies, both can provide great social media mileage. However, depending on your desired results or your mapped out procedures, you can also make use of other social platforms like message boards, Q&A sites, and even your brand’s own blog. When selecting third party social media sites, consider these factors:

User Base-Obviously you’ll have to understand who are signing up and using these social networks. This way, you can make sure that you are indeed reaching out to the right people.Niche- Some social networks cater to specific fields of interests or niches. Needless to say, you’ll need a social platform that will align with the nature of your brand’s products and services.
Social Media Features- Understand what features and capabilities social networks are offering. This way you’ll be able to understand the limitations you may to work with.
Social Media Features- Understand what features and capabilities social networks are offering. This way you’ll be able to understand the limitations you may to work with.

http://www.socialmediamarketing.com/blog

Filed Under: Social Media News Tagged With: social media blog, Social Media Marketing, social media marketing plan, social media optimization

7 Steps to Prepare For the Search Alliance in the UK

January 27, 2012 By Duncan Parry Leave a Comment

After a year’s delay, Microsoft adCenter will start to power the PPC results on Yahoo UK in Q2 of 2012. Discussion of its potential for success aside, here are some useful links and an action plan for preparing UK paid search campaigns.

http://searchenginewatch.com/

Social Media and Travel

January 26, 2012 By Scott Monty Leave a Comment

If you're like me, you spend a good deal of time on the road. Whether it's at an airport, on a train or in a car, you're mobile and your digital life is mobile too.

The pervasiveness of tablets and smartphones (in addition to the already ubiquitous laptop) is growing daily. Just this week, Apple announced that it sold 37 million iPhones and 15.4 million iPads in the fourth quarter of 2011 alone. It means that more of us are doing things on the web (or mobile web, as the case may be) while we're on the go, and there are certain things those of us in the digital world look for when we travel - at least with regard to infrastructure.

The Airlines
To my knowledge, Southwest was the first airline (or at least the most prominent early on) to get involved with social media. Their blog, Nuts About Southwest, has been a perennial leader in the corporate blogging space. They've made great use of Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and more and have always led with a very human and very customer-centric approach.

JetBlue made a name for itself in the social media space after a difficult travel situation thanks to severe winter weather in 2007. Their CEO David Neeleman was direct and honest in his approach, the video of him was sincere and emotional, and JetBlue made it clear that it put customers first. And to think that my colleague Morgan Johnston at JetBlue had started his job on that very day...

Delta got a late start in social media (and was the subject of its fair share of complaints, including a dramatic rant ), but now has @Delta and @DeltaAssist looking after its customers on Twitter. Not to mention some personal interaction from a certain member of the crew from their famous safety video.

That finger wag gets me every time.

The other airline that's going above and beyond in social media is Virgin America. Based out of Silicon Valley, they're in the thick of the action from a technology standpoint. And their use of Groupon, Loopt, Foursquare and more prove it. But their always-on monitoring is essential when it comes to catching consumer complaints, especially after their switch to a new reservation system last year.

Overall, customers want interaction - they want to be heard, certainly, but they also want action - when they take to Twitter to voice a concern. According to an eMarketer article, the expectation that a company will respond increases by age cohort from 38% of 18-24 year-olds all the way up to 65% of those in the 55+ age category. And it clearly matters in terms of satisfaction:

If you'd like to see a comprehensive roster of airlines on Twitter, check out @Kayak's list of some 160 or so.

Staying Powered - and Connected
I've been in the unfortunate circumstance of leaving for a trip without power cord for a device. There are two points of good news: many times, you can charge your phone directly from your laptop using a USB port; and quite often, the hotel will have a power cord for your phone that you can borrow from their lost and found collection (I was once told by a concierge that phone cords are like currency at most hotels).

There are a few gadgets that I'd recommend as well. If you're travelling internationally, it's essential to have an all-in-one adapter that has attachments for every major country's electrical sockets. And because the hotel where you're staying or the airport may not have many readily available sockets to charge your laptop, phone, tablet, etc., it's handy to have a cord with 4 outlets, an all-in-one charging station, or even a PowerSquid that will allow up to 5 others to connect. You'll be the most popular person at the airport! (Note on all of the links in this paragraph: http://cmp.ly/5).

Then again, a number of airports have recognized that passengers travel with gadgets and need places to charge.

Thanks, Delta!

If you happen to have a non-3G iPad or a laptop without an air card, you depend on local wi-fi networks for connectivity. I've been in my share of airports that have had plenty of network access, but I didn't want to spring for a Boingo account to get connected. For that reason, it's helpful to know which airports have free wi-fi. Here's a quick list for your reference:

Airports with free wi-fi:
Boston (BOS)
Charlotte (CLT)
Cincinnati (CVG)
Denver (DEN)
Fort Myers (RSW)
Honolulu (HNL)
Indianapolis (IND)
Kansas City (MCI)
Las Vegas (LAS)
Oakland (OAK)
Orange County (SNA)
Orlando (MCO)
Palm Beach (PBI)
Phoenix (PHX)
Pittsburgh (PIT)
Portland (PDX)
Sacramento (SMF)
San Antonio (SAT)
San Diego (SAN)
San José (SJC)
Tampa (TPA)
Washington Dulles (IAD)
Washington Reagan (DCA)

But it goes farther than wi-fi and charging stations. FareCompare has developed a list of the top 12 airports for social media power users, with a list of the top airports that are also known to take good care of their customers. I've reproduced the table here.

City	Airport Code	Twitter Hits	Outlets per Gate	Other Amenities
Atlanta	ATL	14.7 million	8.1	Charging stations, work desks
Baltimore	BWI	7.92 million	7.3	Charging stations
Dallas	DFW	2.7 million	7.2	Charging stations, work desks
Detroit	DTW	3.4 million	6.7	Charging stations, Boingo data ports
Fort Lauderdale*	FLL	120,000	2.65	Fast, free Wi-Fi
Los Angeles	LAX	153 million	5.3	Charging stations, internet kiosks
Minneapolis	MSP	2.11 million	Varies by terminal	Charging stations, iPad kiosks coming 2012-13
New York City	JFK	8.45 million	Varies; Terminals 2, 3, and 5 have the most	Charging stations, work desks, iPad kiosks
New York LaGuardia	LGA	1.05 million	7.2	Charging stations, iPad kiosks
Salt Lake City*	SLC	8.97 million	5.4	Charging stations, work desks
San Francisco*	SFO	110 million	13.6	Charging Stations, lounge areas, work desks
Seattle	SEA	6.68 million	2.7	Charging Stations, fast Wi-Fi

* Airport has free Wi-Fi

The Airports
I've had experience with some airports that are downright personal. For example, I traveled to Kansas City last year and was pleasantly surprised at the greeting and send-off that I got from the Kansas City International Airport (@KCIAirport) on Twitter:

Followed by a warm greeting waiting for me at home (@DTWeetin):

When you're travel-worn and checking in on Foursquare or commenting on a queue, sometimes it's heartening to realize that there are teams of people looking out for you. For example, Logan International Airport (BOS) in Boston has a team of five people handling their social media; @LAX_Official gives travelers in Los Angeles tips, newsletter and other helpful information. For a roster of over 130 airports on Twitter, see @Kayak's list.

What's your experience with regard to social media and travel? Do you have any other examples of airlines, airports or other entities who get it right, campaigns that resonated with you, or personal touches that made the difference in an otherwise difficult circumstance? Please leave a comment with your input.

Image credit: ~Oryctes~ (Flickr)

http://www.scottmonty.com/

Filed Under: Social Media Marketing, Social Media News Tagged With: facebook marketing, social media blog, Social Media Marketing, social media marketing plan, social media optimization, social networking marketing, twitter marketing

Does A Social Business Always Deliver the Best Customer Engagement?

January 26, 2012 By Michael Brito Leave a Comment

A few weeks ago, Peter Kim wrote a post about his trip to Ford. He mentioned a few different times that Ford’s initiative of inviting external influencers – several different bloggers from countries including Canada, Germany and China was a bold move and that it was a great example of how Ford delivers on being a social business. I agree.

Opening the doors behind the firewall to external people and being open to feedback is certainly one attribute of a social business along with operational elements like communication, connections and culture as Peter mentions.

I have always had this philosophy that a social business enables a brand to communicate more effectively with customers, partners, employees etc. and as Peter says “scale” programs such as Ford’s initiative earlier this month. That being said, a natural conclusion of Ford being a social business is that their external engagement initiatives are second to none.

However, a recent report by Visibli, a real-time analytics platform shows otherwise. Visibli analyzed the top 5 auto brands to see which one of them is most engaging on Twitter, and how they do it. Some of the findings include:

Honda is more engaging on Twitter than Ford and rest of ‘big auto.’
Honda does it by targeting the right followers — 45% of their followers are interested in auto-related content, higher than any of the other brands
Contrary to popular ‘best practice,’ almost 100% of Honda’s tweets are auto-related. Zero variety … but it works!

Other than owning a Honda Civic many, many years ago, I have zero visibility into Honda as a company. Are there social business initiatives happening behind the firewall? Are teams collaborating and engaging internally? I really don’t know and I don’t know anyone who works there. But here are a few considerations:

This is one study from one vendor; and one could argue that a retweet is not an accurate measure of engagement OR at least the the only measure of engagement
Perhaps Ford is still early on in their journey of social business transformation per Chris Carfi from Ants Eye View.
It could very well be that Honda just has a stellar marketing team (or agency) and utilizes real-time analytics to provide extremely relevant content to the community – the right content, at the right time, in the right channel to the right customer.
Increased customer engagement is only one output of a social business – other outputs include an increase in employee engagement, increase in employee productivity, efficiency and sales; innovation, collaboration, etc.

Image: StockFresh Speedometer

http://www.britopian.com

Filed Under: Social Media Marketing, Social Media News Tagged With: social media blog, Social Media Marketing, social media marketing plan, social media marketing services, social media optimization, Social Media SEO, social media strategy

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