The results I obtained through the research I conducted for the University of Texas – Dallas Ph.D. program for the School of Arts and Technology were also reinforced by this study.  “Young adults continue to be the heaviest users of social media, but their growth pales in comparison with recent gains made by older users,” said Mary Madden author of the Pew report. “Email is still the primary way that older users maintain contact with friends, families and colleagues, but many older users now rely on social media platforms to help manage their daily communications.”

This proves that Social Media is NOT all about 18-24 year-olds.  You have to:

1) Develop an Integrated Marketing Strategy.  How are you going to bring together your “traditional” marketing channels (TV, Radio, and Print) and these “new” digital marketing channels (SEO, PPC and Social Media)?

2) Think about WHO is going to “quarterback” your marketing department or company down the digital field – a “walk-on” quarterback from a Division II school OR an All-Pro who knows what it takes to find your target customer and make your cash register ring.

I’m sure there are marketers with a few grey hairs that have experiences similar to mine. I’ve been involved with eCommerce since the early days of the Internet.  I’m certified in SEO and Social Media Strategy.  I’ve seen CRM evolve from a mailing list for postcards and coupons to psychographic databases for targeted digital inserts.

I’m sure there are CFOs that started with a ledger book and a calculator who are now using complex back office software programs to balance the books.

We have a saying here in Texas, “Fish where the fish are!” Make sure you have an experienced “fishing guide” to teach you the right bait to use.  Look for someone who “has been there, doing that.”

That’s the News
From Clint Hughes

Want to make sure you’re conducting the best tests you can? Keep these tips in mind:

SEO and Social Media are the physical fitness regimens of your corporate marketing body.  You can’t get off your couch after years of inactivity and run a marathon.  You can’t magically start an SEO and Social Media Strategy and jump to #1 on all the search engines.

Let me give a quick overall answer to one of the questions I am asked most often – “What do I say on the Social Networks?”

Here’s is what happens:
Imagine the Social Media world as a big high school reunion/family reunion/neighborhood block party.  What would you think of someone who went around interrupting every conversation trying to sell anyone who would listen a “super magic drink?” People would tune them out and then before long run away whenever that person approached.

Social Media is like that.  If you are constantly trying to sell to anyone/everyone who might be reached by your Twitter Feeds, Facebook updates or blog, people will tune you out!

Here’s the general rule of thumb:
90% of your Tweets and updates should be informative and/or conversational – 10% should be self promoting.  Go back to the reunion/party theme: if you have interesting stories and helpful ideas people will engage you in conversation – your social networking is working.  If you ONLY talk about yourself you become a pariah.

You might ask – “What do I say? How often do I say it? I don’t know where to start!”  Like a doctor would say, “Stop by my office for an exam and we will run some tests. I’m sure you will be fine.”

So go to my contact page and it will send me an email OR call me – my phone number is right there at the top of the page.  Relax, now you have a professional “captain” to help you navigate the choppy seas of social media.

* SEO is not static and optimization is competitive. You may be on the first page today but your competitors aren’t necessarily going to sit still forever. You could be bumped at any time. So if you’re not prepared to maintain an ongoing and strategic SEO effort – no matter what the competition does – then save your money.

* Search engine “secrets” are just that – secret. The search engines aren’t telling them – it takes persistence, follow up and testing.

* From the search engine point-of-view, if your site doesn’t have enough useful and relevant content to be on the first page, ethical SEO notwithstanding, eventually it won’t be. This is the objective of the search engines and there’s little likelihood you can out-think Google, Yahoo!, Bing and others in the long run.

* Focus on keywords that are realistic. You’re not likely to get a good placement with a keyword like “real estate” but you might get first page with long-tail keywords like “Hill street real estate”;

* Make sure your keyword is mentioned in the link to your page. Instead of saying “click HERE” make sure the text for the link says something like “for more information about HILL STREET REAL ESTATE”;

* Make sure your keyword is mentioned in your page title, your keyword list, your page content, bolded page content;

* For every keyword you’re interested in, make sure you have an appropriate page to focus on it (and that it complies with #1, #2, and #3 above)

* Register with search engine webmaster accounts so that you can submit your site to them quickly and efficiently (search for “google webmaster”, “bing webmaster”, or “yahoo webmaster” to find the details).

* Enroll in all relevant local or regional directories – (search “free directories” to find lists of these); many will be free, some will want nominal fees or backlinks. You decide.

* Ensure that any press releases and announcements you make refer to your site and specific pages within it.

* Post pages of your site to delicious.com or to digg.com and to similar bookmarking sites.

* Ask local friends and business acquaintances if they will exchange links with you.

* On the other hand, DO NOT sign up for paid links without the guidance of someone experienced in Internet marketing.

You need to think in terms of what kind of return you are going to get on your investment. The calculation is simple: Divide the total SEO cost (yours or a 3rd-party’s) by the number of orders/sales you’ve received as a result of the effort. Then compare that cost-per-sale against your margin-per-sale. If you have margin left over, you’re in the right territory. If you don’t, you’ve got a problem.

The bottom line is that when you talk with any SEO service provider, you must think in terms of ROI. Not in terms of “secrets” or first pages or top spots, but ROI. (Note: it is theoretically possible to be on the 3rd page and still get a positive ROI – not likely, but possible) If the ROI doesn’t work, then search engine optimization may not be for you and other Internet marketing methods might yield better results and a better ROI.

http://blog.ineedhits.com/search-news/seo-fail-google-bans-their-own-website-for-cloaking-12028092.html?source=10-08-06SFDIYdiy2h

I’ve told you that Google rules are complicated and change all the time – even Google itself can’t keep up with their changes!

This may sound simple – but it is very important for your integrated marketing activities. Test, Test and Re-test!

Here is a simple example:

You run a PPC campaign on Google AdWords and you have one ad running. Let’s say you sell shoes, and here is the ad you were running.

Designer Shoes are Affordable
Women’s Designer Shoes
Big names, great prices

Now, let’s say your click through rate (number of people that click on your ad) is 4.2%.  You are happy, because that’s better than you’ve ever done before. What most people do is keep running with that ad.  What we want you to remember to do is Split Test.

All that means is create a second version of your ad, to compete against your first version and see who wins.

So, now look at version 2:

Designer Shoes are Affordable
Lady’s Designer Shoes
Big names, great prices

Do you see the difference?  Only one word (more about that in a minute).  In the first ad we have

Women’s Designer Shoes and in the second ad we have Lady’s Designer Shoes.

So, let’s look at the results.

Ad 1 – 4.2 click through rate
Ad 2 – 5.1 click through rate!

You just increased your response rate by 21.4%!  No extra costs, simply changing one word and getting an improved response.

Why did more people click on Lady’s than Women’s?  We don’t know, we may never know, but we also don’t care.  All we know is have now improved our click through rate!

Now are we done?  Not even close.  Now we take Ad 2, and create another ad to split test against Ad 2.  You can constantly test 2 ads against each other and incrementally increase your response rates.

What can you test?  Anything and everything!  Test your ads, test headlines on your site, test your pricing.

Test, test and re-test.

There’s so much more about testing that I could go into, but we’ll have to save that for another time.  For now, just remember these 2 important points…

1. Test EVERYTHING!

2. Only make one change in each test for accurate results.  If you were to change the headline and the middle text on Ad 2, you wouldn’t know which was the cause of the higher response.  So, take one thing at a time and test, test, test.

By the way, Google has a great tool (that is available at no cost) that allows you to set up these split tests easily.  Check out Google Website Optimizer!

It is unanimously agreed that SEO is the top source of driving targeted traffic to sites. Everyone wants top SEO rankings.  The problem is, you look at the SERPs (search engine results pages) and you find sites there that you don’t expect to.  You see sites that are filled with spam, you see sites with no content, you see sites with no inbound links.

And worst of all is what you don’t see – YOUR site.

It makes no sense – you’ve done everything you can, followed all the rules and still your site is no where.  How are these other sites that don’t belong there holding on to your coveted spot?

The truth is, as smart as the engines are, they don’t catch all the garbage sites out there as quickly as we would like them to.  There are 2 things we can do to help eradicate this problem.

1.  Report any and all spam and garbage sites to Google (and the other engines you use).  This is not being a tattle tale, this is not going out for revenge.  This is simply asking Google to uphold the rules that they are asking you to follow.  It is saying, “I’m playing fair here, so level the playing field so my competitors that are “less-than ethical” don’t rule the SERPs”.  To notify

Google of a spam site, click here:
http://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html

2.  The second thing you can do is follow best practices 100%.  Be aggressive, be proactive, but be ethical.  The more people insist on “black hat” tactics, the more sites we’ll see that are sneaking by Google.   Know that with active efforts Google is making daily to weed out spam – you have everything to gain by patiently, aggressively and ethically optimizing your site.

The Secrets Of SEO

 There is so much information floating around out there about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and how to get some rankings. So much of it is contradictory and confusing.SEO Secret # 1: There are no secrets! 

Once you know how much content you both have, you can create an action plan to build more content and beat them out!

In your Google toolbar or the search box on Google.com type in:
 site:website.com Keyword Here

So for example if you wanted to search CNN to see how many pages refer to election you would type: site:www.cnn.com election