Get Free Press For Your Startup With Original Data
Getting traditional PR coverage is hard! As new startups flood journalists with lame press releases, how do you stand out from the pack? Will Flaherty of SeatGeek taught "Data Driven PR" at General Assembly today.
Startups have a treasure trove of valuable, propriety data regarding some aspect of their given vertical. When packaged in a digestible and usable format to the right journalists, it will get you mentioned. Although it may not be a love story about your company, it will get you more free press.
What kind of data do you have?
Demographics about your audience
Trends in your marketplace
What Your Data Can Lead To
Print: Stories were created from data sent to individual writers.
Radio
TV: Since television is a visual medium, they place the highest value on giving them someone who is immediately available to be on camera. This means you need someone who can talk knowledgeably and is willing to meet a camera crew wherever local news crews are.
Infographics: These are produced by SeatGeek and take about 15-20 hours to produce. You'll notice in their Final Four infographic that they partnered with Seamless to get even more interesting data.
How to Pitch Data
Create a couple of hypotheses around a topic that your audience might find newsworthy. SeatGeek picks a type of event and location to focus their analysis on based on which news outlets they want to attract. It's faster to chase existing stories in news (like the Super Bowl) and provide data to earn mentions. SeatGeek has also done well digging up deep data on an original story to get higher quality mentions.
Pull the raw numbers into something like Excel and analyze it while keeping an open mind for new findings.
Synthesize the trends you're seeing in the data. What are the changes over time, locations, etc. Write compelling punch bullet points.
Create a visual element (graph/infographic) to convey your data in a different and powerful way. (Don't forget to include your logo & URL on the graphic)
Push the pitch out to interested journalists, bloggers, and media members.
Building Your List of Media Members To Pitch
Find the media members who are writing stories in your locale/vertical/etc. If you know one site that perfectly epitomizes the readership you're looking for, copy their URL. Then do a Google search for "related:URL.com" to see the sites that are similar to them.
Most of the time, their email address will be listed on their stories or website. If not you can use a few tricks to find it.
If they work for an organization with a common email structure like first.last@company.com you can use that. You can use Gmail tools like Rapportive to confirm your guess.
You can search the journalist's tweets for their email address using sites like Snap Bird. Just enter the target's Twitter name and the search term "email".
How to Contextualize Your Data Points
Comparison: How do prices/demand/profits compare to others or past? How do customers in your area compare to other areas?
Superlatives: Most expensive/popular thing in X years.
Trends: How is prices/profits/demand changing over time.
If Statements: If you bought all components individually would it be cheaper than buying them individually? If you had bought this widget it the past, what would it be worth now?
Use Google Alerts to track what are popular story topics in your industry.
Writing Your Pitch
Punchy, description subject line. Use an actual data point that will stand out to a journalist drowning in story pitches.
Personalized opening paragraph. Make it clear this isn't a stock email to hundreds of people. Mention your specific relationship with them whenever possible.
Crisp, clear data points. Write in complete sentences (that the journalist can copy) and bold the numbers you're pitching.
Always provide a link. Encourage the journalist to link to your site by providing a landing page that supports the story (hopefully a page that puts readers a click away from a transaction with you).
Give them a method to follow up. Make yourself available to provide more data or provide a quote. Will uses a Google voice number that forwards to his cell phone (which I thought would be great for scaling later on, if you want to have different folks answer at different times).
Check It Out
OkCupid (a dating site) pulled aggregated data on their users to create buzz-worthy blog posts and earn press mentions in the New York Times.
Yipit (a daily deal aggregator) has become the go-to source on daily deal industry metrics. They produce detailed data reports that they sell to the other daily deal sites and the financial community.
How To Create A Responsible & Effective Cannabis Brand
We have a huge responsibility to shape how the public perceives Cannabis going forward. See how smart branding pays off in the long run.
The first annual Cannabis Business Summit wrapped up today with an overview of how Cannabis companies should shape their brand and marketing strategies. Taylor West, Deputy Director of the National Cannabis Industry Association, led a session with Kali & Bridget from Agent 64.
Culture Movements Are Not Marketing Gimmicks
Bridget believes that Cannabis legalization is a cultural movement, which means you are now a part of the cultural movement.
"Culture movements define an idea on the rise."
We have a huge responsibility to shape how the public perceives Cannabis going forward. Unlike traditional product marketing, which starts with the product, Bridget encouraged the audience to define their cannabis brand based on the culture movement and not on the product.
Integrated Marketing
I believe in integrated marketing, where every touch point from the front door to the website is shaped by marketing. Bridget spoke about the importance of looking at every single customer touch point and making it consistent no matter where you're interacting with your customers.
Why Market Responsibly
- It's The Right Thing To Do: We are building a brand new cannabis industry from scratch and we have the opportunity to be the example. Let's skip the bad marketing to children from industries that came before us (Marlboro's Joe the Camel).
- Don't Screw This Up For Everyone: This is an industry that is in a very volatile position. Your work in the cannabis industry reflects on the entire industry.
- The Medical Credibility of Cannabis Is At Stake: Unless you are in Washington and Colorado, you are marketing a medical product. When you don't market cannabis responsibility you are hurting the chances of people discovering or having access to the medical benefits of the plant.
- You Need New Customers: If you'd like to grow your business, you have to start thinking beyond your current customer base.
"Think about customers not in your traditional demographic."
Think about marketing to women. Think about senior citizens. Think about health care professionals. At the very least–you need to not actively repeal these groups. At the most–you need to attract these segments to your brand.
Define Your Brand Promise
This is the most important thing you can do. Living and breathing your brand promise from CEO to budtender shapes your entire company.Build Your Golden Circle: Define why you do it. Then how you do it. Then what you do. Simon Sinek's TED talk explains exactly why you need to do this.
Marketing Strategies
This is no different than the marketing strategy process for most industries. If you haven't been through this process before, find someone who has to guide you.
- Define your customer segments: Who are you going to talk to and what do they want?
- Find the white space: Where is there opportunity in the market that isn't currently saturated?
- Figure out what unique about your brand: What do you stand for that other's don't? What is truly important to you?
- Define your brand promise: Notice all that research and thought you need to do before you could define this?
- Pick your target profile: What is the age, income, gender, location, etc. of your target customer?
Customer Retention
- Customer surveys: Ask you customers how they heard about you. Why they choose you. Make sure you know what makes you different from your customer's perspective.
- Brand design: What does the design of your brand tell customers about you?
- Customer database management: Do you know who your customers are and what they're buying? Personalize your marketing to your customers exact needs whenever possible. Many companies wait until they are quite large to setup robust customer analytics, missing years of data that could reveal where and how they should have grown.
- Online/social media: This is an industry that was used to darker corners. Today you need to take control of social media and your public perception actively. Options for paid social media are limited but that may not last forever. You need to build community now.
Responsible Marketing 101
- Don't Market to Children: Perhaps the most important thing to remember.
-
Don't Market Like Children: Put forth a face that is professional and polished. If you take beer as an analog to cannabis, remember that no one is ever drunk in a beer commercial. Sell your experience. Your experience goes far beyond "getting high".
- Don't Alienate 50% of the Population: You can segment your marketing without actively offending women. Women are actually more likely to have a chronic illness, more likely to try alternative medicines, and more likely to control a family's medical decisions. Women aren't decoration for your ads.
What They See is What You Are
No matter what you think your mission–what your customers see is what they will define you as. This extends to your logo, signage, employees, and more. You need everything that makes up your company to be true to your brand.
What They See is What WE Are
As an industry. All Cannabis companies are affected by the images being put out by the Cannabis industry. From legislation nationally to your home district, the marketing being done in this industry will affect how the Cannabis industry proceeds (or doesn't). You have the power to shape our collective future so we hope you take it very seriously.Photo from Barbary Coast MMJ Dispensary, San Francisco
Your Company's Facebook Posts Will Soon Be A Waste Of Time
The day when your Facebook organic posts will reach virtually no one is coming fast.
Without boosting your Facebook boosts with advertising spend, you're shouting into the dark. No matter how hard you worked to build your fan base, as many as 98% of your fans never return to your Facebook page after liking it.
Facebook Organic Post Reach Is Diving Off A Cliff
The percentage of your fans that you reach organically (without paying for ads) is rapidly declining: from an average of 12% in October 2013 to 6.2% in February of 2014 (according to social@Ogilvy). The day when your organic posts will reach virtually no one is coming fast.
Shift Strategies or Abandon Facebook Organic Posts in 2014?
Even though Facebook has become an advertising network (with a social media network as a lost leader), you can still target extremely specific audiences. What other medium can you find 15-17 year old girls who live within 50 miles of Cleveland, Ohio, and own an iPhone 4 or iPhone 5? If you have the ability to craft campaigns that speak to your customers in their own homes and phones you can reap enormous rewards. I can't name another newspaper that is sent directly to all of my customers, for as little as $25 a campaign. Can you?
Custom Audiences Are Your New Best Friends
You're going to upload lists of email addresses and lists of phone numbers from your customer contact lists. This will allow you to target your current customers for ads (even if the haven't liked your page) and find more people like your customers on Facebook. Custom Audiences will allow you target people who have shopped with you before.Uploading your customer's email addresses and phone numbers to Facebook puts a lot of trust in their court. Facebook says that they encrypt the data that is uploaded, use it for matching purposes at that time only, and then delete the data. This means you should update the data periodically to add new customers. Privacy is never perfect but this is likely worth the risk for your brand. (Technically, they hash the data, not encrypt it, if you want the full technical explanation.)If uploading your customer lists are too creepy, try tracking everyone who visits your homepage. You'll install a tracking code in your header tags so that you can retarget ads to anyone who visits your company's website. Slightly less creepy and it continues to grow as your website traffic grows.
Lookalike Audiences Are Your New Holy Grail
How often do we sit around as marketers and complain: "I wish I could find more people who are just like my best customers." Facebook is offering to deliver them to you. Once you've uploaded a list of your best customers, you can tell Facebook to match their entire database of people within any single country to your type of people. To get started, see Facebook's "How to Create Lookalike Audiences".
So Now Facebook Is Just Like Any Other Advertising Network? Nope!
It seems clear that Facebook is turning into an Ad network and should be treated like the New York Times or Google Adwords. But one thing still separates Facebook, according to the Ogilvy report. There's one thing that STILL means your social media marketing messages should be fundamental different from other paid ads.
Classy Social Media #FAIL Recoveries that Dr. Phil Should Learn From
As in all things in life, mistakes happen on social media. What really matters is how you respond when something you post isn't received as you planned. Here's two celebrities that Dr. Phil could learn from on how to talk to outraged fans.
As in all things in life, mistakes happen on social media. What really matters is how you respond when something you post isn't received as you planned. Here's two celebrities that Dr. Phil could learn from on how to talk to outraged fans.
Regina Spektor's Fans Tell Her To Shut Up And Sing
Regina shows a lot of class and thoughtfulness in responding to her (mostly white and southern) fans who disagree with her the George Zimmerman verdict.
I understand that the Trayvon Martin trial is a hot button issue but this is a Facebook page- it's for writing. If you think I should shut up and sing (by definition an impossible act:-) then perhaps you should just not upset yourself, spare your blood pressure, and unlike this page. Also feel free to only listen to music by people you agree with. It's all good! There's room enough for everyone in this world and moments like these are a great opportunity for people to find some new places to like or unlike.
Her original post....
Reactions to her post were generally positive but attracted many critical comments, many directly attacking her...
Regina's excellent social media recovery...
George Takei's Staff Goes Too Far
You're likely to offend some of your fans at some point. Check out the original post and excellent apology from George Takei over using a controversial topic to talk about parenting.
And here's his (or his staff's) well thought out response. Notice it gets twice as many likes as the original post it is responding too. Your fans understand mistakes will be made, your job is to listen and respond with candor.
Dr. Phil Fails to Respond to his Twitter #FAIL
The Twitterverse went crazy over a tweet that Dr. Phil's twitter staff rapidly took down. Their mistake was not apologizing publicly, which instigated a Change.org petition to start circulating.Here's the original tweet:
A sampling of the viral lashing he received for it:
We'll see if Dr. Phil takes the hint and apologizes to his fans. In case you're reading this "social media intern who just got fired," here's some hints on how to respond in the future.
A Few Hints On Responding to Social Media Fails
- Platform: Typically you're going to want to use the same platform that the original fail occurred on to respond. However, it can be stronger to record a short video or write a longer blog post and link out to that apology to get the audience back on your "home turf" so to speak. If you're considering doing so on your own blog, you might want to turn off comments or monitor them closely.
- Timing: You need to be thoughtful but you also need to do this quick! The internet doesn't forget easily.
- Candor: If you've screwed up be honest about it. Tell your fans what you're going to do to make sure this doesn't happen in the future. Thank your fans for teaching you something. Apologize for making an honest mistake and most of your fans will believe you.
- Don't Give Up: Just because a mistake has been made, doesn't mean social media isn't worth your time. Social media is about conversations and you've just started a big one!
3 Types of Facebook Like Bait
hese examples from the top pages on Facebook show three ways they are winning likes easily to get later messages out for free.
As you know, from my post on Facebook's Edgerank algorithm, how often your updates are shown to your fans (for free) depend on factors including how often they like or comment on your posts. These examples from the top pages on Facebook show three ways they are winning likes easily to get later messages out for free.
Seasonal: Celebrate What's Now
This Happy Easter post from Barack Obama's page received over 380,000 likes.
Recognition: New Text On An Old Meme
This repost by George Takei got over 70,000 likes. Mr. Takei's page has nearly 4 million followers. I would guess he has a professional social media expert helping him or he's just the the most "with it" celebrity I've encountered of his generation.
Guilt: You're a Bad person If you Don't Agree
This example from Hit Like If You Agree had over 59,000 shares. What mom on Facebook wouldn't share this.
Bonus: Recovering When You Go Too Far
You're likely to offend some of your fans at some point. Check out the original post and excellent apology from George Takei over using a controversial topic to talk about parenting.And here's his (or his staff's) well thought out response. Notice it gets twice as many likes as the original post it is responding too. Your fans understand mistakes will be made, your job is to listen and respond with candor.
How to Save Money Advertising on Facebook by Using Facebook's EdgeRank
Did you know that only a small percentage of your Facebook posts to your fans are actually shown? Now that Facebook is making it easier to pay them to promote your own posts, many page owners are suddenly asking how they can get their posts seen more often for free.
What is Facebook's EdgeRank
Similar in the way Google uses PageRank to determine which websites are at the top of their search results, Facebook had to create an algorithm to filter status updates. EdgeRank is a algorithm that determines how many people see your status updates on their wall.[box]Input x EdgeRank = Output[/box]
What Affects EdgeRank Positively
An increase in the number of fans liking and commenting on your content will incase how many people are reached by each post.[box]EdgeRank = (Comments + Likes) / Fans at the time of the post[/box]
What Are The Most Engaging Content Types?
Overall these rules hold true for the different content types, but there are some specific differences for different types of pages below too.
- Photos: Quick and easy to consume, plus major comment fodder. Had twice the engagement rates of other types of posts.
- Status: Fast to read and doesn't require the user to click through. Users are actually more engaged with updates longer than 140 characters. So it's NOT a best practice to run the same update to Twitter and Facebook because you should run slightly longer copy on Facebook.
- Video: Videos need text summaries posted with some context for the reader. Videos with no description had the worst engagement of all types of post.
- Link: Links require users to click out of Facebook
For An Artist, Band or Public Figure
- Behind-the-scenes photos and candid photos
- New song you're composing
For Brands & Products
- Photos were 7x more engaging than status updates. So work with your graphic designer to come up with photo versions of promotions.
- All other content types averaged less than 1% engagement.
For Causes and Communities
- Photos were the most engaging
- Videos were a close a second because these communities were very responsive to videos about their group and viral videos
For a Company, Organization, Institution
- Photos most popular
- Video second most popular
- Links are less engaging because users are less likely to want to share or comment on commercial messages with their friends and family watching
- Polarizing content (taking a controversial position) will create more engagement
For Local Businesses
- Photos were 3x more engaging than links.
- Photos are closely followed by videos - Videos don't have to be fancy, content as simple as a personable/community/local message gets high engagement. One of the most popular local videos was an iPhone video of the snow fall outside a store.
For Entertainment (Sports teams, Movies, Games)
- Status updates are the most engaging because you have very loyal fans that are more likely to comment on any update
- Photos were the second most engaging
- Videos were third
So Should I Only Post Photos?
EdgeRank is Like A Credit Score...It Follows You
Quick Tricks
- At the end of the post, tell readers to "click like" if they agree to drive tons of engagement.
- Ask users to add their opinion in a comment. "Vanilla ice cream is the best flavor. What's your favorite flavor?"
- Make sure to always pair a written description with photos, links, and videos. You should add context with this written description.
- Make your updates timely and related to real-world events/holidays/etc.
- Post cute things (dogs, cats, babies, etc.) but they have to be related to your brand! See the Chef Boyardee message here.
- Post a photo and ask your fans to caption it.
6 Ways You Haven't Used Social Media To Improve Your Blog
No matter how long you've been doing social media for, there are new tricks and tips coming out every day. Tip #1 and #5 were well worth the price of admission for my organization. Here are my notes from Austin Gunter's (Brand Ambassador, WPEngine) presentation on "Developing Digital Marketing (Social Media) In Your WordPress" at WordPress Camp NYC.
1. No One Cares About What You Just Said On TwitterThink about your site from the perspective of a first-time visitor, they're looking for a reason to trust you. Stop using the standard Twitter widget to show the last few tweets you've sent (which could be awesome or random rants). Instead reconfigure your Twitter widget to display your account's favorites. Favorite great tweets about your organization and re-label your widget something like "140 Character Testimonials".2. It's Time To Make Sharing Your Content AwesomeUsing the standard Facebook & Twitter share links are LAME. It's time to do some custom development for elegant sharing solutions. Instead of a tiny Pinterest button above every post, Wedding Chicks does an elegant job of encouraging pins. Every image you mouse over has a "Pin It" badge appear in the lower right.
3. You Can't Fight On TwitterThere are going to be customer support issues and people are going to complain. You need to take it off Twitter. Generate a support ticket for the customer and email them or reach out another way. 140 characters is not enough to be logical and really help.5. Facebook is for Developing Your Existing Fans, Not First-Time CustomersYour customers aren't going to follow you on Facebook until they've already experienced your brand. Liking a brand on Facebook is akin to putting that brand's bumper sticker on your car. Use Facebook to develop deeper conversations with your biggest fans, not sell to first time customers. Austin likes integrating Facebook with his blog post comments so the comments on his site spread to Facebook too (and vice-a-versa).
5. The One Thing To Use Google+ ForGoogle is now using Google+ profiles to determine who is writing what online for SEO with rel="author". People who have been writing quality content for years will benefit from this move (which fights SEO cheating). To do this, follow these instructions to update your Google+ profile with what sites you write for (or guest post on). This will allow your headshot to appear next to your content on search results (which may increase your click throughs) as well as possibly raise your general rankings.6. Turning Twitter Conversations Into Real StoriesYou can use Storify to collect tweets around a topic or conversation. It allows you to comment and expand on what was said. We've seen great summary posts on conference, news events, and locations.Bonus: Check out Buffer for a super easy way to share what you've read online into scheduled posts that are even faster to use than HootSuite.
Increasing Page Views & User Retention on Your Wordpress Blog in 3 Minutes
Do your readers leave your site right after they finish the first post they came in on? Neil Mody from nRelate gave a great overview of all the elements you need to use to drive more readers to your site and get them to stick around for longer at WordPress Camp NYC today. If you know the basics already, skip to the end for all the plugins your should install in 3 minutes to increase page views.You've Got Nothing Without Great ContentFocus on your message first. Create an original consistent presence on the Internet with quality content first. Then you can build a long-term audience. Everything else optimizes on high quality content. Without good content you won't get far. Your Site Must Load in 3 Seconds or LessYou must use a caching plug-in to speed up the load time of your pages.
- W3 Total Cache (free)
- WP Super Cache (free)
Then you need to use speed loading testing tools to check it.
- YSlow (based on Yahoo Tools)
- Google Page Speed Tools
Hosting Options (from least to most expensive / least to most scalable)
- Blue Host
- Liquid Web
- Media Temple
- WP Engine (specialized hosting that starts at $29/month)
- Rackspace (high-end if you have dedicated staff)
Everything you add to your site will make the site slower. Your site should load in 3 seconds or less. For every extra second your site takes to load you lose a portion of visitors according to Google's analytics.Bring Style to Your Substance With a Quality ThemeHow your site looks can be just as important as your content. Having a stylish theme with clear navigation affects how many users stick around to read more. Just as how a book's cover design affects how many people buy the book in the book store, your theme will affect how many users will read your site.Social Sharing in NOT OptionalYou need to:
- Link to your site on Twitter
- Have an active Facebook page
- Start using Pinterest
You MUST reach out to people in your community and engage! Start commenting on other people's posts. Sending out your content is just half the job, engaging others is your other.Be Where Your Audience Is
- Depending on where your audience is, you need to rank well there. In the US, search traffic is dominated by Google so you must rank well in Google.
- Study your referral traffic and see what terms readers are coming in from. Build content around your most profitable terms.
- Setup Google news alerts for related terms to your content. Build content around trending topics.
- Link parties are collectives of bloggers who are linking to each other to building incoming links. You have to be careful though because your links could end up on less desirable sites.
FINALLY! Engage Your Audience Beyond the One Post They Came in OnnRelate makes plugins for most of these functions but there are tons of great options out there. Tell us which plugins you like in the comments.
- Auto-linking plugins automatically ads a link back to your other content whenever you add certain words to your post.
- Photo galleries and slideshows increase page views (but can be really annoying).
- Related Post plugin should be in your sidebar or at the bottom of your post.
- Most popular post plugin should always be in your sidebar.
- Flyout plugins suggests a related article to your reader when they reach the bottom of the post
- Social sharing and commenting plugins allow your users to easily share your content to their network. One developer said you have to un-gate (not require login) to encourage commenting.
What You Need To Know About The Future of the Web
Roger McNamee explains what you need to know today to understand where the web is going tomorrow.Let Jeff Bezos remind you there's a long path of innovation ahead of us online.
New Trend: Video Holiday Cards - Bergdorf Goodman Goes to the Dogs
I received more video holiday cards than physical cards from businesses this year for the first time. Whether your business is trying to save trees or just preparing for the Postal Service to go out of business, a video holiday card might be right for you.
Tips For Spreading Your Business Message with a Video Card
- Set a budget: Although a video card is cheap to send out through email, you can spend much more producing a video than printing paper cards. Make sure to set a budget and find a video director that can work within it.
- What's the payoff?: The best holiday videos have a plot payoff for watching them. You know how the best commercials can make you want to cry in 30 seconds? Can you make your story pay off at the end? Watch Bergdorf Goodman's longer holiday video for their heartfelt ending. Or check out LivePerson's charity donation at the bottom of this entry.
- Keep it short: 30 seconds to 2 minutes is optimal
- Keep it agnostic: Unless you're sure all your customers celebrate Christmas, it's better to go for general Happy Holidays.
- Make it fun(ny) or unusual: If you want the video to be shared, make it fun or funny. On the unusual side, Tekserve's most successful viral video featured $60,00 worth of recycled iPods.
- The delivery method is the most important part (and often overlooked): Once you have the perfect holiday video card, the most important part is getting it watched. Make sure you consider the timing of sending your video to recipients, the holidays get busy and any non-essential message gets trashed. Can you create a great email message that will make them want to click-through? Will your recipients be able to view it from their mobile phones?
- Seed the sharing: If your holiday message is meant to reach potential customers as well as existing customers, reach out to target blogs and ask them to embed the video. Don't forget to upload it to your Facebook page and YouTube.
Bergdorf Goodman's Holiday Card
Bergdorf Goodman, a luxury department store in Manhattan, created a great holiday promotional video card by letting famous New York dogs lose in the store. Not only are cute pet videos more likely to be shared, but also I would argue that BG's target customers are dog owners. Because having a dog in Manhattan is a luxury, their shoppers are more likely to be pet owners. The fun footage of dogs running through the store gave them a great excuse to show off a lot more products than a typical commercial. Although I would have made the video shorter, the ending is the perfect heartfelt payoff that their target customers will love. If you check the audience analytics on YouTube, you'll see this video is most popular with women age 35-54 (their target customers).
Offering to Donate To Charity
With more businesses limiting gifts to employees, donating to charity on their behalf has become popular. LivePerson sent their customers an email asking them to visit the page screen-shot below and choose from one of twelve charities for a donation. This method aligns your organization with doing good while making your customers feel good. You'll notice LivePerson doesn't mention how much they will be donating so the bottom-line impact was totally up to them.
12 Things You Haven't Tried To Improve Your Website's SEO
"Best practices are things you should have done if you had thought of them first." If all your competitors are doing it already, you won't get the returns you're looking for by jumping in late. Try taking best practices from other industries and reusing them. This quote is from Byrne Hobart, who taught the Advanced SEO course at General Assembly that I attended last week.How to Advance Your Way Up the Blog HierarchyHere's how to work your way from nothing to a top-level blog or news source.
- Do a Google search for "your industry blog" and you'll find the most popular ones. Pick a highly-ranked blog that speaks to your prospects. Then use Google to show sites related to the highly-ranked blog by searching for "related:rankedblog.com." Less popular related blogs will be returned. Continue to do this until you find the least popular blogs with readership communities. Collect these into a list.
- Stalk your new blogger friends. Comment on every post they write on your industry and re-tweet their stuff. After a few weeks they'll start to recognize you as a loyal reader.
- Write a post they'll like on your blog and send it to them. For example, write a deeper-dive into a topic they cover or a clarification of something they wrote. If they repost your piece you're in! Plus you'll be the girl they turn to when they need a quote or clarification on your industry.
- Now use their repost of your content to trade up to more popular blogs. Most bloggers read all the blogs larger than theirs and a few sites less popular than theirs. Write an email to a more popular blog, "You may have seen my post on LesserBlog.com, I liked your related post, and so I write this post."
- Continue trading up until you reach the top blog in your industry.
Get More Shares By Giving Up CommentsYou can get more shares if you make sharing the only action available at the end of your post. When someone gets to the bottom of your post, they typically have a couple of choices: commenting, reading a related article, etc. If you make the only option sharing the article with their network, you'll get more shares. This works especially well with controversial content where your audience wants to add their input but can't because you've removed commenting. Google doesn't discern between people linking to your page because they disagree or agree with you.Fast Content Gets Shared FasterContent that is fast to read will get shared more often and more quickly. Shorter posts rise to the top of Reddit because Reddit takes the velocity of votes into account. So a photo that takes five seconds to read and react to will rise further than a well thought-out post that takes ten minutes to read. So if you have a long article, create an infographic of your top data from the post that you can share everywhere and then link back to your longer article.Get More Shares By Figuring Out Why Your Audience Really ReTweetsWhy do most people actually share your posts? They want to show off that they read your type of content (regardless of whether or not they do). This is why posts by Malcolm Gladwell are tweeted seconds after they're posted. Your audience wants to show off how smart they are for finding your content and sharing it with their friends (Facebook) or potential bosses (LinkedIn).Test Keywords Using AdWords Instead of SEO Because It's Cheaper (Really)Ranking on your keywords through organic search can take weeks and even months to climb to the top. You can buy the top slot through AdWords and check if the keywords you've chosen really convert before investing in a longer-term SEO strategy. Once your keyword terms move into organic search the conversion rate won't necessarily be the same but this is a great tactic to compare potential keywords against each other.Swap SEO Friendly Headlines In After Everything-Else Friendly HeadlinesSEO friendly headlines are stuffed with keywords that target searchers. Everything-else friendly headlines use a teaser proposition, controversial view point, or question to encourage click-throughs and shares. You can post the article with your teaser headline, get a lot of shares, and then switch it to your keyword stuffed headline later. Your article will retain it's popularity for being shared even after you change the headline.How A Print Ad Can Increase Your Search RankRun an ad campaign that tells your audience to search for "your company + what you do" on Google. If you get enough people searching for your brand name in conjunction with high-priority keywords, it will rise your search rankings. You'll be more likely to appear in the search suggestions for what you do. Coupon Cabin ran subway ads asking people to Google their name for coupons instead of listing their URL.Optimize Your Guest Blog BioWe all know that guest blogging (in both directions) will help bring credibility to your site. What you may not have thought of is optimizing the keywords used in your guest blog bio. Try to keyword stuff the link back to your company's site. So instead of "Jane Smith is Founder of Company.com" try "Jane Smith is Founder of the most popular widget company in New Jersey."Links Are ForeverWhen someone posts about your business but doesn't link to you, simply contact them and ask. Articles last just as long as the news cycle but links are forever.Use WordPress if You CanSimply put, search engines love WordPress. To solve the SEO drawbacks of WordPress, download the All in One SEO Pack.Use The Most SEO-Friendly URL For Your BlogYour blog's URL should be YourSite.com/Blog for maximum SEO benefit to your site. If you're in a "serious" business and the term "blog" isn't appropriate for your target audience, use YouSite.com/Articles or YouSite.com/Research.This post also appeared on Women 2.0's Blog For Female Entrepreneurs.
Creating Negative-Cost Marketing
Would you rather be the ad next to an article in the New York Times or the topic of the article? Would you rather buy ad spots on TV or be the TV show? These are the questions that Tom Szaky, CEO of TerraCycle, asks business owners to consider. TerraCycle recycles traditional trash into a large variety of consumer products. They make thousands from a self-published book, average 17 articles a day in various publications, and were the focus of a short-lived National Geographic Channel series.Mr. Szaky contends that creating the content, instead of marketing next to other people's content has saved him thousands and had a much larger impact than traditional marketing. My experience a previous supports his theories. I publish an eighty-page pocket guide to using your computer, which costs us fifty cents per piece to print but is more valued by our customers than any other promotional piece we've created. It saves our employees & customers time by being a great reference for common questions while advertising our expertise to the world.In the new age of marketing, trustworthy content will bring you more customers at a lower price than traditional ads ever could.Read TerraCycle's Quest to Create 'Negative-Cost' Marketing on the New York Times website.
Best Practices for Responding to Yelp Reviews for Business Owners
Here’s the top tips you should know from Yelp’s Join the Conversation About Your Business webinar on June 22, 2011, along with my insights from managing client customer reviews.
YELP MYTHS
The Majority of Reviews are Negative83% of reviews on Yelp are positive. From my work on CitySearch and Google Reviews, overall our Yelp audience is more fair.Yelp Doesn’t Do Anything To Protect Businesses from Questionable Reviews
- Consumers can remove review themselves, if the situation was corrected by the business owner
- Reviews that violate Yelp guidelines will get removed by the customer support team.
- Reviews can’t represent a conflict of interest. If a competitor is writing a review it will be removed.
- Reviews must be a first-hand experience. Something that a friend told you about a business will be removed.
- Lewd and offensive language gets removed.
About the Review FilterAn automated filter suppresses some reviews. Typically short or intelligible reviews. You cannot manually add or delete reviews from the suppression filter. Yelp is tight lipped about how this works so that no business can abuse or benefit from it.
CONTESTING A REVIEW
There are two methods to contest a review.
- Go to yelp.com/contact and select “Questionable Content”. This may take longer but you’ll get an email response back from customer support.
- Flag the review on the business page. This will be reviewed faster but you will not get an emailed response about the resolution.
TALKING TO YOUR CUSTOMERS
There are two methods to respond to reviews posted on your business page: Private & Public. Once you are logged into your http://biz.yelp.com account and uploaded a human photo to your account you can:Private Messages
- A private message is typically the best first step when you receive a negative review.
- Thank the customer for the review.
- Recognize any positive aspects of the review.
- Apologize for the issue.
- Let the customer know how you’ve followed up on the issue to resolve their concerns.
- Welcome them back to give the business another try
Public Review Comment
- Thank them for the feedback.
- Address the issue and let them know how you’re fixing it.
- Let the world know that you always endeavor to resolve problems like that your business. “Your experience wasn’t our intention.”
- Call out anything that might have changed in your business since
RESPONSE TIPS
Don’t Freak Out
- Consumers look at the big picture. No business is made or broken in one review, they’re looking at the overall rating.
- Potential customers will see you lashing out against your customers which will do more harm than good. The Yelp community may punish you for abusing Yelp users.
- Don’t encourage a back-and-forth. Take the high road. Something like: “We’d love to work with you to resolve this situation. If that’s not possible, we respect your opinion and wish you well.”
Should You Respond to Positive Reviews?If you have time, it’s great to compliment positive reviews as well. Thank the customer for their positive review and let them know you appreciate it.
GETTING MORE REVIEWS
Don’t Ask for ReviewsYelp recommends letting reviews accumulate organically. This is why companies like Review Boost don’t deal with Yelp, I believe the automatic filter will suppress obviously solicited reviews. Tell customers you’re on Yelp without telling them to give you a 5 star review.Tell People Your Business Is On Yelp
- Post a “Find Us On Yelp” Badge on your website. Check out Yelp’s Flickr page for badges and logos.
- Place Yelp a check-in table topper or check-in card at your business (download from Yelp’s Flickr page).
- Add your Yelp page URL to your email signature.
- Yelp mails out "People Love Us On Yelp" window clings a few times a years to top reviewed businesses but they are scarce.
MORE RESOURCES
- Yelp’s Responding to Reviews Best Practices
- Yelp’s Business Owners Blog
The Latest Facebook Marketing Advice from Dennis Yu and Jason Keath
I attended Webtrend‘s Facebook Session during Internet Week NY and learned a bunch of surprising statistics. Dennis Yu and Jason Keath gave a summary of the latest developments and opportunities in the Facebook world.Who’s Using Facebook?Of Americans over the age of 12:
- 53% use Facebook
- 8% of Twitter
Who Fans Companies and What Do They Want?
- 84% of people who become fans are existing companies
- 83% want offers and exclusive benefits (Things they can get only by liking your page.)
- 36% say they use a product more often after becoming a fan
- 92% of people who were satisfied with a fan program will tell a friend to become a fan
Nobody is Reading Your Posts
- 98% of wall posts from your friends and pages don’t show up on your wall (according to Facebook). That means somewhere between 2-5% of your posts get through to your fans.
- The ones that do get through are ranked by popularity, the ones with the most interactions show up in your fan’s feeds. This isn’t Twitter! Don’t post articles of general interest, post topics that provoke likes and comments.
- Stories with a touching emotional story & provocative debates get 2-3x the interactions
- Important sports wins & simple questions get 1.5x-2x the interactions
Facebook Ads
- Images are the most important element of your ad. So test multiple images!
- Change your ad creative every week. There’s a dramatic decline in CTR after 3 days
- Avg CTR of ads targeted to non-fans .05% (lower than the average banner ad)
- Avg CTR of ads targeted to fans .35%
- Sponsored links are the most effective ad units. (But I find them creepy!)
Your Budget
- Average cost of acquiring a fan is $1.
- The majority of your budget should be spent on fan nurturing.
Put the Like Button Throughout Your Site
- If there are only a few clicks you should show the number of likes.
- If there are thousands of likes, hide the number to encourage clicks. People like to be among the first to like something.
Tracking TipYou can now embed Facebook’s tracking code throughout your site. This allows you to track Facebook users who send links to their friends (even privately). Go to your Insight dashboard > Add a domain and get the code snippet.Jason Keath’s Slides