The Reciprocal Consulting Blog

An SEO company conducted an experiment with a well done control test that sheds some light on the connection between organic search rankings and social media promotion. The conclusion is that Google+ promotion increases search rankings. I think there may be some nuances this test doesn’t touch on, but it looks pretty reasonable to me that they’ve drawn the right conclusion.

I have noticed that Google+ is a good reputation management tool.

If you look at the results of the study, they seem to indicate that acquiring new Google+ followers is the best activity for increasing one’s search engine rankings, but that could be misleading. The results are based on gaining just 100 new followers. Would the results be the same if the number of new followers were 1,000? How about 5,000?

Next in line for increasing search engine rankings is getting +1s. It actually makes sense that getting more +1s would increase search engine rankings. This doesn’t surprise me at all.

That Facebook promotion actually does increase Google rankings does surprise me a little bit. But I’m glad to see that it happens. Facebook has done a lot to make itself a walled garden so a lot of your activity isn’t measured by Google. Evidently, Likes and shares are.

Tweets and retweets can also increase search engine rankings, but only by a smidgen. The only thing that surprises me about this is that the results are much lower than expected. I’d have thought that Twitter promotion would do more to increase search engine rankings.

Finally, simply acquiring new Twitter followers not only doesn’t help, but there was a slight decrease in search engine rankings. That’s another surprise. But this might not have anything to do with Twitter. If no other social media activity took place, then the slight decrease in search engine rankings might have been as a result of that lack of activity.

Given these results, it seems to reason that if you engaged in Google+, Facebook, and Twitter promotions simultaneously, then your search engine rankings should improve relative to the amount of activity engaged by your competition. Nice test. I’m glad someone undertook it.

Is it getting more difficult to market a business online? I can see how a business owner would think so. There is so much to think about. You have to build a website, then you have to promote your website. You have to come up with a search engine marketing strategy, perhaps a pay-per-click advertising strategy, and put together a social media marketing plan. You may need a video marketing plan, an e-mail marketing plan, and even a display advertising plan in some niches. There really is a lot to think about.

While there is a lot to think about when you embark upon an Internet marketing venture, it isn’t as difficult as it seems. There are some things that are actually easier online than off line. For instance, there is a lot that you can measure online that measuring off line is unheard of.

Still, it helps to have a plan.

A good Internet marketing plan starts with research. In your research you should include some time to study your competition. Learn what the movers in your niche are up to. Not that you’ll follow them, but it helps to know what others have done and are doing in your industry. You may find some things that you like that you want to emulate while tossing out other strategies that don’t fit in with your goals and mission.

When you start with research you will eliminate a lot of your options. Taking items off the table that don’t belong there is a good way to narrow your focus and research can help you do that. Build your online marketing plan on solid research and it gets easier. A lot easier in most cases.

The best viral marketing sometimes just happens. Such was the case recently when hundreds of thousands of people shared a photo of a smiling man within minutes. The man has since come to be called The Ridiculously Photogenic Man.

Which is, uhm, a bit ridiculous.

But of course, it took off and soon after news and talk shows on TV were discussing him. Talk about going viral. It doesn’t get any more viral than that.

And the thing is, the man whose image went viral didn’t even know about it until after it happened. Not only was it not planned, but he didn’t even have knowledge of it. Still, he reaped the rewards of 15 minutes of fame and the Cooper River Bridge Run got some notoriety from it as well.

So here’s the eternal question. How can social media marketers learn to go viral using this meme as an example. What can we learn from it?

1. No. 1, I think it’s important to point out that promoting someone else first can go a long way. The John Ritter Foundation for Aortic Health is a good cause. They didn’t plan this or have anything to do with it, but they certainly can reap the benefits from a viral meme that spun out of control.
2. Step back and let it run. Don’t force it. Let others take the ball and run.
3. Just put it out there. You never know what will happen if you put a little drop into the stream. That’s a metaphor for “just do it.”

Viral marketing doesn’t always have to be planned. Sometimes the best way to get a little attention is to be spontaneous.

Pinterest is the new kid on the block and already it has surpassed Twitter in traffic numbers. But don’t get excited just yet.

We’re only talking about one month. Was that a fluke or is Pinterest still trending upward? Will that trend continue over time?

And if it does, will traffic from Pinterest convert?

It’s best to understand that Twitter and Pinterest are two different social networks and therefore have two different sets of demographics. That might make it unfair to compare the two.

For instance, Twitter is mostly women and mostly younger people. Twitter, on the other hand, is mostly male, but only slightly. Twitter is also heavily used among the African-American and Hispanic demographics. It’s also a mostly younger crowd.

Any time you use a social media site you should take some time to study their users. Who else is using that site? If your targeted audience doesn’t use the site, then it doesn’t matter how much traffic you can potentially get from the site.

If your target market is mostly women, then Pinterest is a good bet for you. That’s not to say that you can’t use Pinterest if your target market is mostly men. But you have to understand how to reach the men who are using Pinterest, so familiarity with the platform and its limitations is also necessary.

Most marketers can effectively use Pinterest and Twitter side by side, but don’t try to use them the same way. They are different social media services and your audience will require a tailored approach.

Now that blog marketing is more than a decade old it is apropos to ask if it is still effective. To answer that question, let’s look at what the benefits to blogging have been for the past ten years.

• Fresh content published on your website
• Solid inbound or internal links with great anchor text
• More web pages with the potential to rank for your key search terms
• The more you publish the more your site gets crawled
• Branding
• Reputation management
• Traffic increases to your website
• Relationship building with your audience
• Social media interaction
• Expertise positioning
• The ability to share your knowledge and experience while presenting yourself as an authority within your niche

These are just some of the benefits that blog marketing has offered businesses over the past decade. But does blogging still provide these benefits or has it run its course? The answer is a resounding “Yes! Blogging still provides the same benefits.”

Of course, there is a lot more competition today than there has been. There are more blogs and more bloggers vying for attention – in your niche and in every niche under the sun. This makes it more difficult to achieve the same results that you could achieve ten, or even five, years ago. But it can be done. The key is to have a strategy and to be diligent in pursuing it.

Blog marketing is still as effective as it ever was. Focus on delivering great content that is optimized well for the search engines and that is pushed out through social media. Position yourself as an expert and you’ll be perceived as one.

We’ve said all along that small businesses – in particular, local small businesses – should make their best use of search and social. If you can incorporate a strong search engine optimization campaign and a social media campaign, then you should do it.

As you manage your two campaigns, there are three pieces of information that you should ensure you incorporate into both campaigns:

• Your business phone number
• Your business address
• Hours of operation

Why Your Phone Number Is Important To Search

According to the latest social search study, the information most often sought by local searchers is a business phone number. The second most sought after information is a business address. And the third most searched for information are hours of operation.

In fact, these three little bits of information far outweigh everything else people search for online. So you should be sure to include them on your website in a prominent location. If possible, get them into the search engines.

But don’t just stop there. More and more, people are using social networks to search for local businesses. And 91% of the people who do are using Facebook to do it. What’s that tell you?

It tells me that you should have a Facebook page and your phone number, business address, and hours of operation should be displayed prominently on it.

Why People Do Business With You

Here’s the kicker. 72% of survey respondents said they are more likely to do business with someone if a friend or colleague recommends them. If you are a business-to-consumer operation, then Facebook is your friend. Build a brand page, share it with your friends and fans (and customers) and watch them share it with theirs. A recommendation online goes a long way.

Make it easy for people to find you and they will find you. Whether in the search engines or the social networks, being found is the first step to getting business.

Online marketers differ as to what constitutes good marketing and whether or not specific types of messages are spam. When it comes to social media marketing, the lines get blurrier and grayer. The lines are blurred even more by the differences in policies at the various social media websites that people use.

One of the most important questions any marketer will have to answer about his or her marketing efforts online is, What makes a good social media marketing campaign?

Indeed, what?

Here are a few ideas I’ll let you chew on.

• Your campaign is cross-platform. What I mean by this is you don’t limit your social media marketing to one service. Post to Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn. You might even try a few specialty media services. But don’t post to just one.
• Modify your messages across the platforms. Just because you are posting to multiple social media services doesn’t mean you should post the same message. Get to know your audience and tailor the message to your audience.
• Develop a long-term social media vision. Don’t think in the short term. Know what you want your social media marketing strategy to do for you in the long run, and play to that.
• Assign your social media marketing to one person. Make one person your social media manager and let her run the program. Too many fingers in the pie will spoil the berries.

Social media marketing is not an exact science. It’s a people business. Your marketing should be focused on delivering content that people want. Otherwise, you’re just spitting into the wind.

Facebook has been in the news a lot lately. Here are some of the biggest headlines regarding Facebook and what they are up to in these times:

• Facebook settles privacy dispute with FTC. Of course, there were no fines levied, but Facebook will have to undergo a biannual privacy audit for the next 20 years. Will that change anything? This specific ruling may not change much in the near short term, but I’d expect to see more privacy laws in place to protect online consumers and Internet users.
• Did Facebook purchase Gowalla? Neither Facebook nor Gowalla are confirming these rumors, but CNN reported it as true.
• Facebook is opening an office in New York. The office will be an engineering office and they are now accepting applications.
• Facebook Insights includes negative feedback. If you have a business page on Facebook and you want to know when someone has left negative feedback, you’ll now be able to see that in your page metrics through Facebook Insights.
• Facebook will run a mini-web series. Looking for entertainment? It’s supposed to be a documentary.

With all this talk of Facebook, if you run a business and you want to know the best practices for marketing through Facebook, talk to someone who knows how to meet your needs.

Define “more effective.”

Article marketing has been around a long time. At one time it was the preferred link building method of savvy online marketers. Then social media came along.

Social media has never really been about building links, per se. It was about making connections, but it had the side benefit of helping you build great links – if you did it right. And article marketing could lead to great connections that increased your bottom line.

So which one is more effective?

If you’re talking about sheer marketing power, I’d have to say article marketing. Only, today we do it differently.

If you write great articles and get them published on high traffic websites with a lot of authority, not only can you build great inbound links for your website, but you can also drive loads of targeted traffic to your website. The key is to target the right venues for your articles. And if you do that right, those articles will be online for years allowing you to reap the benefits of article marketing for a long time.

Social media has its benefits too. Reputation management, authority, relationships. But you have to keep your marketing in perspective. What works best for you?

Which is the best kind of online marketing for small businesses? Blogs? E-mail marketing? Social media?

The answer is as proverbial as the question. It depends. All three have their place and each is very effective when accompanied by the other two. That’s why we typically recommend a mixed bag of tricks.

Blog Marketing – Blogging is good for SEO, branding, and social media injection. If you use your blog effectively, you’ll gain search engine traffic, drive new traffic to your important landing pages, and develop a conversation around your brand.

E-mail Marketing – E-mail marketing is the perfect tool for keeping your audience in the loop. It can drive steady traffic to your landing pages and prepare your audience for closing the sale. Dollar for dollar, it’s the most effective marketing for most businesses.

Social Media Marketing – With social media, you can drive traffic to your website, build relationships, grow your brand, and keep your audience engaged.

Rarely is it a question of either/or. For most businesses, a combination of the above tactics is best. You can make your blog, e-mail blasts, and social media work together for the good of your business and your customers. Build your strategy around your business goals, then take action through the various tactics at your disposal.

Smartphones have become all the rage. Both iPhones and Androids are gaining in popularity and people are using these devices in strange new ways. Businesses included.

One of the most powerful ways that iPhones and other smartphones are being utilized is through the development of apps. Apps can serve very useful functions for businesses that go through the trouble of developing them. And some of those functions are social.

For one thing, they allow you to repurpose your content. That’s always a plus. But if you can imagine your website being accessible to iPhone users who are also capable of sharing your content on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social websites, then you’re starting to get the picture. But even beyond that, iPhone apps themselves can be social media tools to reckon with.

Take your website again. Instead of simply reformatting the website for mobile consumption, why not repackage it into an app?

This can be done in a number of ways, but one way that many companies are using to make their content more palatable, interactive, and powerful is by turning it into a game. People love to have fun. The interactive nature of multi-player games that can be played through an iPhone interface will keep people connected to your business as they connect to their friends. You can’t get any more social than that.

Brian Solis wrote an article about social media that I believe offers some real insight into how large brands are being “antisocial” when it comes to using social media marketing tools. The gist of the article suggests that these companies are using traditional marketing tactics in a more interactive way, which doesn’t really inspire online prospects to pursue their products and services. Is it a good point?

I think so.

One of the most important principles for any business person (whether a sole proprietor or the CEO of a megacorporation) to understand is that everything changes. Some things change faster than others, but everything changes. Particularly markets.

So with that in mind, how has marketing changed? In the last 20 years, it has become necessary for any business that wants to grow to engage with audiences online. That means through social media as well as paid and organic search. But the key word there is “engage.”

Here’s a news flash: Pushing your message out to your followers, fans, and friends is not engagement.

Engagement means that you interact, and to interact with your audience you need a human face. Simply tweeting links to your corporate content under an account that bears your company name is not engagement. I offer you these 5 qualities that describe what a truly engaged social media personality has to offer:

1. An engaging social media strategy is personable. That means it not only tries to interact with followers, but it involves a human trying to get to know its followers.
2. It is not self-centered. In other words, you don’t just link to your own content, but you link to other content as well.
3. The strategy seeks to be a resource of helpfulness. That is to say, the content you link to should hold value in your followers’ eyes, not merely your own.
4. The personality behind the account is consistent. You cannot build trust among your followers if you are not there every day. Turning it on and off again will drive people away.
5. You must be reliable. Your social media content must be so valuable to your fans and followers that they come to rely on it.

I’d consider these the five pillars of social media engagement. Do them well and you won’t be antisocial. Do them poorly and you most assuredly will be.

Is social media a sham? Are social media marketers bad for your business? Veteran journalist and social media consultant Peter Shankman would have you believe they are. Don’t hire them, he says.

Enter Rand Fishkin, to the rescue.

It’s important to note what the purpose of social media is. Peter Shankman has it almost right. He says it’s to make you money. Well, that’s why you went into business, right?

In actuality, social media marketing is the same as any other marketing. It’s to position your company as the place to go for your particular core business. In other words, to position you as an expert. You hope that makes you money.

Admittedly, many “social media experts” are lousy salesmen. Many of them are ineffective in their approach to marketing through social media. They may understand the tools, but they don’t understand the methods well enough to close the sale. Or maybe they think their job is simply to drive traffic to your website and leave the sales to you.

Whatever the case, you are the expert in your business. You don’t have time to plan and execute social media campaigns. That’s why you hire someone else to do it for you.

There’s nothing wrong with being an expert – even a “social media expert.” If you can prove your expertise with results, then you deserve the business that comes your way. On that, Peter Shankman is wrong.

There is nothing about marketing online that is as much a lie as the idea that you can purchase off-the-shelf search engine marketing plans that anyone can use. Yet, many online marketers will try to sell you one of these solutions with no thought about the type of business you are running. Call it “online marketing in a box.” It doesn’t work.

The only truly effective way to go about search engine marketing is to create a custom plan. What works for one website or business may not work for another.

For instance, not everyone needs video marketing. Some Web businesses, however, couldn’t do without it. And that’s just one example.

Is social media marketing right for you? Maybe. But even if it is, the social media marketing plan you finalize for your business will look very different than the plan for another business. That’s because you have a different product, a different clientele, and therefore require a different strategy. Your social media marketing strategy should be tailored to your business.

Every search engine marketing plan rises and falls on its own merits. Just like every website and every business. You cannot take a generic online marketing plan and make it fit your unique business.

Custom search engine marketing is the strategic implementation of a plan based on careful study and market research. Don’t buy into the hype of off-the-shelf marketing products in a box.

Over the years, many Internet marketers have compared search engine optimization with pay per click advertising and offered their opinions on which is better. It’s not an apples to apples comparison, but at least the fruit are in the same family. Both rely upon keyword research and use search engine marketing principles. But what about a comparison between PPC and social media? How would that fare?

While the comparison between PPC and SEO is more akin to a comparison between a lemon and a lime, the comparison between PPC and social media optimization is like a comparison between a raison and a tomato. Both may be fruit, but they have very little in common.

Social media, for instance, does not require keywords in order to be effective; PPC does. That’s not to say that a social media campaign cannot incorporate keywords. If social media is keyword-based, it can influence your search engine rankings. The jury is still out on whether PPC influences such rankings.

Another difference between social media marketing and PPC is that social media is about building relationships. PPC is about driving traffic. Period.

You can develop a relationship on social media and lead your prospect to a sale right there on Facebook or Twitter without ever getting them to your website. With PPC, your goal is to get them to your website or landing page. Period.

PPC is better for short term results. Social media is a marathon. Can short term results happen? Yes, but if you don’t get short term results in PPC, you’ve failed. Not so in social media.

Both social media and PPC can be effective, but the threshold for success on PPC is much higher. You can expect lesser results on social media and still be effective. Plus, it’s easier to measure results with pay-per-click marketing.

Would I discourage you from using either channel? No. I think you should use both deliberately. But understand their differences before you do.

Ask anyone who has been around for 40 years or longer and you’ll find that the ways of marketing a business have changed. What worked in 1960 was different than what worked in 1980 and what worked in 1980 isn’t what worked in 2000. Even the marketing strategies used today aren’t the same as what worked in 2000.

Here are 7 online marketing strategies that work today and that will likely work ten years from now.

1. Search engine optimization – Build a website and make sure each web page is optimized for search engine traffic.
2. Pay per click marketing – Spend your money on clicks for a speedy response to your message and watch your income rise.
3. Social media marketing – Use social bookmarking and social networking to connect off of your website, then drive that traffic to your web pages.
4. Video marketing – Online video marketing has arrived in full force. Engage with your audience on YouTube and other video marketing websites.
5. Start a blog – Write to your blog every day. The search engines love the fresh daily content.
6. Article marketing – Write articles and distribute them online to websites within your niche. You’ll build your reputation and build links to your website.
7. Claim your local business listing – Each major search engine has a local business listing associated with their Maps feature. Claim your listing if you are a local business.

There is no substitute for these 7 online marketing strategies. You can do more, but I wouldn’t dare do less.

A new report from Social Media Examiner details who is engaged in social media marketing, why, how they use it, and what benefits they are deriving by using it. It appears that small businesses and sole proprietors are making the most use of social media marketing and reaping the rewards in a big way.

The top benefits of social media marketing, as reported by those who are using it, are (in order of most beneficial):

• More exposure for the business (88%)
• Increased traffic to the website or subscribers (72%)
• Improved search engine rankings (62%)
• New business partnerships (56%)
• Qualified lead generation (51%)
• Reduction in overall marketing expenses (49%)
• Higher number of closed sales (43%)

It’s difficult to argue with these results. If you are the type of person who looks only at the number of sales generated, you might look at this list and see a glass half empty. But look at the number again – 43%. That’s almost half the small businesses using social media getting increased sales. But look at the rest of the numbers.

Even if you don’t see more sales, increased exposure for your business is certainly a benefit. More traffic and higher search engine rankings are benefits you shouldn’t ignore. If you’re getting those and not getting more sales, then you might need to tweak your landing pages.

Social media isn’t going anywhere, and small business owners who employ it effectively are getting huge benefits. We think you can too.

Some trends come and go. Some stick around. I think the following 4 Internet marketing trends may be keepers. At least for a little while. Have you discovered these trends yet?

1. Blog Marketing – Blog marketing has been around for a long time now, but it took a little dip after Google killed inbound links. Nevertheless, it seems to be making a comeback, particularly for businesses that want to use it for marketing and branding purposes.
2. Mobile Search – Mobile search is a trend that is sure to stick around. People not only read blogs and news with their mobile phones, but they update their social media accounts and make purchases.
3. Local Search – All kinds of businesses are discovering local search. And unlike traditional SEO, you can be very powerful and effective on the local level within just a few weeks.
4. Social Media Marketing – Facebook and Twitter are all the rage right now. You’d think they are passing phases, but they’re not. If you are running a business, social media is a must in today’s fast-paced marketplace.

Now is the time to hop on board these Internet marketing trends. Don’t just ride the waves until they hit the beach. Make them a part of your daily routine.

Social Times says it is. And it’s easy to see how they’ve arrived at that conclusion.

Social media like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn have been going through heavy growth phases in the last few years. At some point, that growth is going to slow down. Social Times is saying that could be this year.

By slowing down, they don’t mean that growth will go negative. Rather, the social media sites will continue to grow, but at a much slower rate.

What’s that mean, exactly? It means that the social media users who are on those sites will be more savvy and sophisticated than the users of the past five years. As such, they will be more discerning users and less likely to click a link out of curiosity. You’ll have to work harder to get that click and to make the sale.

When it comes to social media marketing, there are several components that are necessary to run a successful and engaging campaign. Here’s what you have to think about:

• Competitive Intelligence – Who is your competition and what are they up to?
• Market Research – Who is your target market, when are they online, which social media sites do they use, and when do they use those sites?
• Strategic Planning – Which social media sites are a best fit for you, what times of day should you be posting, and what messages should you be promoting?

Gone are the days when you can just log in and start tweeting. You need a social media marketing plan and your plan should begin with research.

We’ve reached a new level of social media euphoria. A story about Bing’s successful Farmville campaign is giving marketers something to think about. Maybe you should think about it too.

According to Bing, Farmville now has more visitors than Twitter. If that’s true, then Farmville could be the next big marketing arena. Or, let’s rephrase it, any of Zyng’a Facebook applications.

So what did Bing do? Essentially, they promised to give Farmville users farm cash if they became a fan of Bing on Facebook. A really simple thing, really. But it worked. Thousands of people responded. Many of them wrote about it on their own blogs. And now, Bing has 400,000 new fans. Voila!

Can you do it too? Maybe not on that scale, but I see no reason why any small business can’t wage a similar campaign through Farmville, Cityville, or any of the other thousands of Web applications out there in Internet game land. Think about all the places you can go: Yahoo, Apples’s iPod Touch, Fubar if you’re into online dating, Facebook, MMORPG.com, or just search for online multiplayer games.

What Bing did isn’t really new, but it does break new ground in social media marketing and online game playing. Now it’s your turn. How are you going to reach your customers in this new social media world?