Coaching For Success
Social Media
Take Advantage Of The Tremendous Opportunity That Is Video
Mar 21st
Publishing videos is currently one of the most powerful methods of promoting an internet business, and should be a part of every online business owner’s search engine optimisation (SEO) arsenal.
But, despite the praise heaped on the use of video to improve search engine rankings and as a powerful promotional tool, both in these columns and throughout internet marketing circles in general, a recent report by SundaySky, a provider of online video solutions, has some pretty startling revelations regarding the use (or lack thereof) of video as a marketing force.
Top E-Commerce Sites Fail To Take Full Advantage Of Video
SundaySky’s report, based on data from the fourth quarter of 2010, shows that almost half of the world’s top 50 online retailers failed to make the most of the opportunity presented by video.
Despite the fact that some had started to add video to their sites, most had failed to take full advantage of the tremendous opportunity that video represents. But, that needs to change during this current year if better results in overall web site performance is the goal, and it should be a primary goal for all online retailers.
The Benefits Of Using Video
The benefits of using video are manyfold, one of the main ones as far as e-tailers are concerned being improved conversion rates, resulting in more sales on a wider range of products, reduced number of returns and increased web site stickiness, amongst other benefits.
Another major benefit is that video ranks higher in search results than other online content, delivering much more traffic to e-commerce sites. In addition, YouTube has been ranked 2nd in search since 2008, and is the fourth property overall on the web, which shows how valuable video content is these days.
Suggestions To Make The Most Of Video
What is evident from the report by SundaySky is that e-commerce business owners should be taking full advantage of video to drive more traffic to their web sites.
In order to do so, there are several steps online retailers should take:
- increase the scale of their videos to include all their product offerings
- look beyond YouTube for syndicating videos; publish videos on platforms such as Facebook
- apply simple SEO strategies such as video sitemaps and proper embedding
Although we’ve been referring to e-commerce web site owners here, increased use of video on their web sites would be advisable for all internet business owners.
For expert advice on the optimum use of video on your web site, consult a UK internet business coach.
Reap The Benefits Of Twitter’s New Advertising Platform
Mar 14th
Promoting your internet business on the various social media networks is regarded as a major component of any search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy today.
Some of the social networks, such as Facebook, also offer excellent opportunities for paid advertising, and it appears that Twitter is about to leap headlong into that market also.
Watch For Promoted Tweets Coming Soon
Advertisers’ messages on Twitter are known as Promoted Tweets, and users should start seeing them in their timelines any day now, if they haven’t already.
This is part of a major push by Twitter to sell advertising space to small-sized and medium-sized businesses in the form of either Promoted Tweets or Promoted Accounts, which is Twitter’s pay-per-follower advertising system.
Choose The Right Type Of Advertising
The question then is, Which type of advertising is right for your business? That all depends on the amount of money involved and also what the goals of your business are.
If the aim is to promote a single product or a single piece of content, your best bet may be to use a Promoted Tweet, but that depends on how popular what you’re offering is with the Twitter users and how relevant it is, not to mention the quality of the copy in the tweet.
If you’re looking to gain more followers, then the Promoted Account may be right for your business, but the expense can only really be justified if you intend to maintain your business’s presence on Twitter over the long haul.
The optimum option may actually be a combination of the two, particularly if most of your user base comes courtesy of Twitter.
Is Advertising On Twitter A Good Bet?
While it’s estimated there are over 200 million accounts on Twitter, only about 20 million are “active”, i.e. access their accounts at least once per month. So, this begs the question, “How effective can advertising on Twitter be?”.
That remains to be seen, but Twitter is determined to become a major player in the advertising stakes and is putting plenty of its not insubstantial weight behind a push to match, and, eventually, overtake Google and Facebook when it comes to revenue from online advertising.
Its sales force is playing a leading role in the push, but even more important is its upcoming platform for self-service ad buying, similar to Google’s AdWords, making ad buying much more accessible and affordable on Twitter.
More and more internet business owners are advertising on social media platforms to great effect, and adding Twitter to your advertising portfolio may be a great move, provided your budget can handle the expense.
For more information and help advertising on Twitter, check with a UK internet marketing consultant, who will help you determine the best strategy for your business going forward.
Social Video Is Going Viral
Feb 16th
For internet business owners, advertising via video provides a great return on investment, especially when shared across the social networks. This is a relatively new form of internet marketing known as social video that is taking on great significance for online business owners.
Recent Study Identifies Top Trends
A study conducted by Jun Group, a provider of social video solutions based in New York, discusses trends in social video using data compiled from over 6 million views of social videos. The study was conducted on behalf of Fortune 500 and leading entertainment companies during the last few months of 2010.
Here are the major trends identified by the study:
1. Facebook Is Tops (so what’s new?!!??!)
Videos on Facebook are shared over 200 percent more than via email and Twitter combined.
2. The Shorter The Better
Videos 15 seconds or less in length are shared about 37 percent more than those between 30 seconds and 1 minute in length and around 18 percent more than videos over 1 minute long.
3. Lady Power
The ladies love their social video, and account for 57 percent of the views. They also share 30 percent more than their male counterparts.
4. Generation Y Loves Social Video
Social videos are very popular among 18 to 34-year-olds, who watch over 55 percent of such videos, with the average age of the viewers being around 27.
5. Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) Companies Are Setting The Pace
Consumer packaged goods, in case you’re unaware, are consumable goods, such as soap, detergent, toilet paper, etc. (basically anything that is consumed and needs replacing sooner or later), and the companies that specialise in such products are blazing a trail when it comes to internet marketing and social videos. They’re driving more social video views (19 percent) than companies that specialise in entertainment, retail, media and consumer electronics combined.
6. Activity Varies Depending On Location
In the U.S., the study found that social video activities appear to vary depending on geographic location. For instance, people in the south watch more video than people in other parts of the country, whereas mid-westerners tend to share more video, while people on the east coast share video via e-mail the most.
Sharing social videos as part of an internet marketing strategy on the social networks is a great way for advertisers and internet business owners to spread the word about their products and services and to take the message viral. This is an exciting new medium that engages viewers and has the potential to turn prospective buyers into potentially life-long customers. This study shows how powerful this medium can be and the way users interact with each other and the medium.
A UK internet marketing consultant can help you take advantage of internet marketing using social videos and the trends outlined above.
Facebook Is Officially The Most Visited Web Site – Or Is It?
Feb 4th
We’ve discussed the importance of social media as it relates to your internet marketing many times in these columns and, hopefully, we’ve managed to impress upon you how important it is that your internet business has a presence on the various social media platforms, Facebook in particular. If not, this latest piece of news regarding Facebook should make you sit up and take notice.
Facebook Becomes Most Visited Site
A report from Experian Hitwise shows that Facebook has now moved into the top spot as the most visited web site in 2010 in the U.S., taking over from long-time leader, Google.
According to Hitwise, Facebook had become the leader in monthly traffic, over Google, back in March 2010, but this marks the first time the social networking behemoth has been recognised as the winner of the traffic race over the course of a year.
Fact Or Fiction?
But, is Facebook really the winner when all facets of web traffic are considered? What we’re referring to here is the fact that Google’s online empire is made up of many sites these days with Google itself ranking number 2 and Yahoo ranking number 5, so that the cumulative total of the traffic to all the sites within Google’s network resulted in a 9.85 percent share, making Google the winner overall. When taking into account the cumulative totals, this resulted in Facebook being ranked second with 8.93 percent, with Yahoo! and its related sites coming next with 8.12 percent.
However, of all the individual web pages, Facebook was the most visited, with Google.com in second place.
Is Google Its Own Worst Enemy?
The ironic thing in all this is that the number one search term for the year 2010 was Facebook, which means that a lot of the traffic supplied to Facebook came courtesy of its biggest rival, Google.
The results show that the 10 biggest sites on the internet attracted 33 percent of all traffic, an increase of 12 percent over the previous year. This means more traffic for the bigger sites and less for the small business owners.
Small Internet Businesses Benefit From The Big Boys
But, the important point in all this is that, regardless of whether search or social is the winner, the overall winner in all this is the small internet business owner, who benefits from both Facebook and Google and owes the success of his business, and, perhaps its very existence, to these two giants.
An UK internet marketing service can help you to set up your business to use both search and the social networks to boost the success of your business online.
Using Twitters Advertising Method
Dec 23rd
As has been mentioned many times, but it’s always worth repeating, Twitter and social media in general should be a major component of the search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy of your internet business. In future Twitter will be an even more powerful marketing tool with the announcement that, following months of speculation, advertising will be inserted into users’ streams.
Advertisements As Tweets Within Streams
Currently, advertisements on Twitter appear as promoted or sponsored tweets, but this new initiative will have advertisements appear as tweets within streams, so that the new advertising method will blend in with the way Twitter currently works and will be more closely aligned with the way Twitter works naturally.
Initially, ads will only be seen by Hootsuite users (Hootsuite is a third-party client that allows users to post to both Twitter and Facebook). Nobody’s exactly sure of the reason for this strategy, but the theory is that Hootsuite users tend to be more interactive and so the ads should see positive results quicker. Or so goes the theory.
However, it won’t be long before everyone on Twitter will see this new advertising strategy in action.
How Will Users Respond?
How this develops on Twitter will be interesting to see from a couple of standpoints. Firstly, how well the ads perform, especially in light of a recent report by Sysomos, which studied 1.2 billion tweets and found that a full 71 percent of them got no response at all. It will be interesting to see how responsive users will be to this new advertising format.
Secondly, how users react to this initiative, because in the past, whenever social media and advertising have been mentioned in the same breath, users have talked about the feeling of being violated, and have ended up folding up their tent and leaving the particular social media site en masse.
Twitter And Marketing A Perfect Match?
The odds of this happening with Twitter though are extremely slim because many of its users are already marketers, who don’t scare easily when it comes to advertising. Also because Twitter’s audience is a pretty internet-savvy crew very much accustomed to the presence of online advertising.
Your internet business should already have a presence on twitter, and this new Twitter initiative presents an exciting opportunity for increased exposure for all online businesses.
A UK internet business coach can provide advice and guidance to help your business take full advantage of Twitter and it’s new advertising initiative.
