Of course, you’ll want to find the right social media software that aligns with your needs and goals. In this article, I will explore the factors to consider when choosing social media tools so that your social media marketing strategy has the power it deserves.

What to Look for When Choosing Social Media Tools

As you search for the right social media tool, here are seven factors to consider:

• Cost and features
• Contracts
• Google Analytics integration
• Supported social networks
• User access
• Access to historical data
• White labeling
• Comparison of social media software options
• FAQ: What are the key factors to consider when choosing social media management tools? 

1. Cost and Features

The price range of a social media tool can vary from $50 to $1,600 per month.

Lower-priced options usually offer basic features like follower growth tracking and reporting. On the other hand, higher-priced tools provide advanced features like social listening reports, competitive analysis, hashtag tracking, and more.

(Some tools even offer free versions that give you basic functionality.)

Consider your budget and the specific features you require to make a cost-effective choice for your business.

2. Contracts

Most social media software providers require a year-long contract. However, some options like Sprout Social and Quintly offer month-to-month payment plans, providing flexibility for your business.

Be sure to carefully review the contract before signing so that you know what you’re signing up for.

3. Google Analytics Integration

You’ll want to see if your social media marketing strategy is actually bringing in traffic, so you may want to consider a tool with integrated Google Analytics.

Some social media tools generate reports similar to Google Analytics’ Social Referrer Report. Evaluate whether separate data platforms are acceptable for your reporting needs or if integration with Google Analytics is necessary for your business.

4. Supported Social Networks

Social media marketing is not a one-size-fits-all, so decide which social networks your target audience spends time on.

While platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook are typically included, some tools offer additional integrations with platforms such as Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, and more.

5. User Access

Different social media software packages allow varying numbers of user logins.

Assess the size of your team and the number of individuals who require access to the software. Ensure that the chosen tool offers adequate user access to facilitate efficient collaboration and management.

6. Access to Historical Data

Historical data can help you identify which messages and strategies resonate with your audience. However, not all tools provide access to data that existed before you started using the software.

Nuvi is an exception, offering historical data for X (formerly Twitter).

7. White Labeling

White labeling allows you to customize the software’s branding to match your company’s identity. This provides a seamless integration of the software into your overall brand experience.

While lower-priced accounts often lack this feature, higher-priced options like Nuvi offer white labeling at an additional cost.

Consider whether white labeling is essential for maintaining a consistent brand image across social media management tools.

Now that we’ve covered the key considerations let’s take a closer look at some popular social media software options and their associated features and costs.

Comparison of Social Media Software Options

• Nuvi: Nuvi offers packages priced at $600, $900, and $1600 per month. Their social media software provides advanced features, including comprehensive social listening reports with advanced sentiment analysis, competitor analysis, customizable threshold alerts, and content management capabilities. It supports multiple social networks, allowing you to monitor and analyze data across various platforms. Additionally, Nuvi offers white labeling at an extra cost for seamless branding integration.
• Sprout Social: Sprout Social offers a range of plans starting from $59 to $500 per month. The lower-priced plans provide basic features such as follower growth tracking and mentions. As you move up to the higher-priced plans, you gain access to advanced reports, Google Analytics integration, white labeling, and a message approval workflow. Sprout Social supports Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest, ensuring comprehensive coverage of major social networks.
• Quintly: Quintly provides packages priced at $129, $299, and $479 per month. While Quintly may not offer Google Analytics integration or content management features, it does support white labeling. If having control over your software’s branding is a priority, Quintly may be a suitable option to consider.
• DataPine: DataPine offers packages priced at €219, €399, €699, and €799 per month. Their software includes features such as Google Analytics integration and white labeling. However, it does not provide content management capabilities. Evaluate your specific requirements to determine if DataPine aligns with your business needs.

To get the most out of your social media marketing, it’s obvious you need a tool. Be sure to analyze your target audience and what has worked in the past to identify which tool you need.

There are many options, and most offer free trials, so be sure to try out a few before choosing the tool that will supercharge your social media marketing strategy.

What’s your preferred social media software? Share your thoughts in the comments.

FAQ: What are the key factors to consider when choosing social media management tools?

Businesses and individuals must select an ideal social media management tool based on their goals and resources. Our guide explores key considerations to aid this decision-making process.

1. Purpose and Goals:

Begin by defining your social media objectives. Are you looking to increase brand awareness, engage with your audience, or analyze data? Your goals will dictate which features and functionalities you need in a management tool.

2. Platform Compatibility:

Consider which social media platforms you intend to utilize. Ensure the tool you choose supports the most relevant platforms to your target audience.

3. User-Friendliness:

User interface and ease of use are crucial. Opt for a tool that your team can navigate comfortably, as this will impact efficiency and productivity.

4. Features and Integration:

Evaluate the tool’s features. Does it offer scheduling, analytics, and monitoring capabilities? Furthermore, check if it can integrate with your existing systems, such as customer relationship management (CRM) software.

5. Cost and Scalability:

Determine your budget and select a tool that aligns with it. Additionally, consider scalability – can the tool accommodate your future growth without significant cost increases?

6. Analytics and Reporting:

Comprehensive analytics and reporting are vital for measuring the effectiveness of your social media efforts. Choose a tool that provides in-depth insights and customizable reports.

7. Customer Support and Training:

Assess the quality of customer support and training the tool’s provider offers. A responsive support team and accessible training resources can save valuable time when troubleshooting issues.

8. Security and Compliance:

Ensure the tool complies with data privacy regulations and offers robust security features to protect your social media accounts and data.

9. Reputation and Reviews:

Read user reviews and seek recommendations from peers in your industry. A tool’s reputation can provide valuable insights into its reliability and performance.

10. Trial Period:

Choose tools with free trials whenever possible to see if they suit you before making the commitment to subscription services.

Selecting social media tools that meet your goals and circumstances is paramount to improve social media strategy and productivity. When selecting an application, it should help enhance both.

Step-by-Step Procedure for Selecting Social Media Management Tools:

1. Clearly define your social media objectives and goals.
2. Select your social media platforms.
3. Prioritize UX design and make sure everything is user-friendly.
4. List the essential features and integrations required for your social media management.
5. Determine your budget and consider scalability.
6. Prioritize tools that offer robust analytics and reporting capabilities.
7. Investigate the quality of customer support and available training resources.
8. Ensure the tool complies with security and privacy regulations.
9. Research the tool’s reputation through user reviews and industry recommendations.
10. Take advantage of trial periods to test the tool’s suitability whenever possible.

Following these steps will enable you to evaluate and select social media management software that best fulfills your objectives and needs.

This article was updated on September 13, 2023.

The post Is Your Company Ready to Invest in Social Media Tools? Which Factors Should You Consider? appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

With so many choices, kicking off social media marketing can be overwhelming. To help you choose the best fit social networks for your business, we’re shining a light on:

• The primary user base of the most popular social networks
• What brands are doing to find success marketing on each
• Guidelines for determining if your business could be a good match for marketing, branding, community building or customer service on each platform
• And any special considerations to be aware of that engagement on the platform may require

These are the six social networks covered here:

1. Pinterest
2. Instagram
3. Google+
4. LinkedIn
5. Facebook
6. Twitter

You can jump to each section from the link above.

Criteria for Evaluating a Social Investment

Here are some questions to ask to decide if a social network is right for your business:

• Are my target users among this network’s user base?
• Does my business’s products or services fit the type of content that is popular on this network?
• Can I commit resources to an ongoing campaign to create or publish content that is popular on this network?
• What are the ideal actions a user could take from this network that would benefit my business?

Below you’ll find each network’s primary user demographics and the popular content types as well as an example of a brand that has built a loyal and engaged community of followers.

While the examples of brands making each network work for them provides a template of what your business might be able to do, what has worked in the past is certainly not the limit to what could work in the future.

It’s important to note that every successful campaign strategy begins with creative thinking about a business brand and the audience it serves. In other words, your brand story could break the mold and be the next case study of a business doing social right!

Pinterest: Visual Candy Collectors

• Popular content: Food, fashion, décor and DIY images that users find around the web
• Most followed brands are Perfect Pallet, Real Simple and The Beauty Department
• Established in 2010
• 100 million active users
• 85 percent of users are female

Pinterest users post images to the platform (usually images they came across while browsing the web, sometimes images or graphics they may have created or published themselves) sorting or categorizing them by theme or subject matter which other users can then follow or browse. Pinterest has become a hub of inspiration for creatively inclined people, 4 out of 5 of whom are women. The industry themes that thrive on Pinterest include:

• Wedding and event planning
• Home décor
• Recipes
• Fashion
• Crafting and DIY

A Brand’s Pinterest Success

Upscale cosmetic retailer Sephora joined Pinterest in 2012. The brand boasts more than 290,000 followers and 6,500 pins showcasing product lines, tutorials for how to use their products and beauty looks created with their products, in other words, their products at work.

Since Sephora began advertising on Pinterest, Pinterest became one of Sephora.com’s top ten sources of referral traffic. Not only is Sephora boosting its reach with Pinterest, but it’s also able to improve its offerings via the data collected through it. Sephora learns about their users and the products they are most interested in, along with other key marketing information, by mining their Pinterest data.

How new content will be used on Pinterest is a consideration of every new campaign. “When we create content for our site or emails, we think of additional ways that we can help the story along on Pinterest,” said Sephora CMO Julie Bornstein. “We use web analytics to look at top pins, test quote layouts from brand founders, and try different product shots — we spend time learning about what works and experiment often to get it right.”

Instagram: Public Diarists

• Popular content: Photos by celebrities and brands revealing what goes on behind the scenes and glamorous lifestyles
• Most popular brands are Nike, Starbucks and NBA
• Launched in October 2010
• 400 million active users and counting
• 80 million photos shared per day
• Men and women are rather evenly represented among Instagram’s young (18-29) user base

On Instagram, users publish photos and videos (up to 15 seconds) dressed up with filters, user tagging and hashtags. Brands that succeed on Instagram are those with stories to tell, drawing users into the lifestyle the brand is portraying through the vignettes and characters featured in their photo stream.

Here’s a photo from BCI’s Instagram account. That’s BCI’s content and media manager Virginia Nussey, me, and senior technical writer Paula Allen (left to right) showing some behind-the-scenes fun at the office on Flannel Friday.

A photo posted by Bruce Clay, Inc. (@bruceclayinc) on Mar 18, 2016 at 10:11am PDT

A Brand’s Instagram Success

The ice cream purveyor Ben & Jerry’s reached 9.8 million users on Instagram through a paid ad campaign on the network. The campaign consisted of 4 sponsored images of its ice cream disseminated among a target audience of 18- to 35-year-olds in the U.S. over eight days. The end result was greater top-of-mind recall, brand recognition and product demand.

“Since its launch, Instagram has provided us with an amazing platform to connect with our fans and tell our story visually. Ads on Instagram let us reach and engage with more fans about our flavors, fun and values,” said Mike Hayes, digital marketing manager at Ben & Jerry’s.

Also see 4 Reasons Your Retail Brand Needs to Be on Instagram Right Now.

Google+: Conversationalists Plus Max SEO Benefits

• Popular content: Articles on Internet marketing, business and technology – which is no surprise considering the top eight occupations among Google+ users are engineers, developers, designers, software engineers, web developers, writers, software developers and programmers. Google+ is also popular among photographers who use Google+ to showcase their work (and, fittingly, photographer is the ninth most commonly listed occupation on Google+).
• Launched in June 2011
• 300 million active users and counting
• 68% of users are male
• Special note to consider in a business’s evaluation for network investment: There are SEO benefits to Google+ including increased visibility opportunities for a business’s content to be displayed in search results, and a quick way to get content crawled by Google

Brands leading the way on Google+ include:

• Topshop
• TOMS
• H&M
• The Financial Times
• Cadbury
• Mashable
• Fitbit
• Flixster
• Hotel Tonight

Read brand stories and case studies for each of these companies.

A Brand’s Google+ Success

Like many other leading brands on Google+, British chocolatier Cadbury has leveraged Google+ to create conversations via Hangouts On Air.

“The thing that’s most different (on Google+) is Hangouts – you can’t really do it on any other platform. We’ve done three hangouts so far. The first one we created a chocolate version of our Google+ page. Then we did a second with Rebecca Adlington, one of the Olympians we’re sponsoring … We just met up with one of chocolate tasters and had an informal discussion on the basics of chocolate,” said Jerry Daykin, Cadbury’s social media and community manager.

“We spent quite a long time with our first Hangout thinking what will we do, when will we do what, and made it quite complicated in our head. And the reality was it’s as easy as having a conversation with someone face-to-face … My favorite feature about Hangouts On Air is the ability to have this really close connection to a small group of people but do it in a way that lets thousands of people see it.”

LinkedIn: Consultants, Personal Brands and B2B Reach

• Popular content: Professional profiles and resumes, business-centric news and articles, and job opportunities
• Established in May 2003
• 400 million members
• 3 million business pages
• Top company pages on LinkedIn include Mashable, HubSpot, NPR, Kellogg and AppleOne

Among LinkedIn’s users are many owners, presidents, founders and C-Suite executives – i.e., people with the ability to make change, hire companies and acquire new talent. If you are a B2B company, LinkedIn provides a golden opportunity to market your company in front of businesses who can hire you.

A Brand’s LinkedIn Success

One such B2B company advertising on LinkedIn is marketing software company HubSpot. HubSpot uses LinkedIn to distribute white papers, drive traffic to their own site, increase high quality leads, and reach targeted professional industries.

“With LinkedIn, we’re able to truly identify our core audience by going a step further and targeting by company, job title, job function and groups,” said Dan Slagen, head of paid search marketing at HubSpot. “This gives us the unique ability to tailor messaging and target the exact audience segment that we need.”

For HubSpot, LinkedIn advertising resulted in a lower cost-per-click rate than with search engine advertising. Slagen said that the CPC averaged at $3, “which is actually a fraction of the cost of paid search advertising … on traditional PPC search engines, we’ve seen average CPC rates that are … as much as three times higher.”

Facebook: Local and National Brands Alike, but Come with a Budget

• Popular content: Photos (including selfies), coordination of social plans, posts about what people are doing, likes and shares of content found on the web
• Established in July 2004
• More than 50 million business pages
• 1.65 billion active monthly users – with this many users, everyone’s on there, which is how Facebook has been able to grow its ad products that feature a high degree of audience targeting capabilities
• Special note to consider in a business’s evaluation for network investment: paid promotion is required for visibility

Facebook has been the dominant platform within the social media sphere for many years. It has the most users, and, speaking to its prominence users’ daily lives, 48 percent of 18-34 year old Facebook users check Facebook when they wake up. But when talking about Facebook as a marketing channel today, the discussion must begin with advertising.

If you’re considering investing in Facebook for your business, you should understand that you will likely need to dedicate an advertising budget for promoting your content on the network, even among your own fans. Without paid promotion, Facebook reportedly shows brand page content to a mere 1 to 2 percent of a page’s followers. In order for a brand page’s posts to show to its fans and followers, reach must be amplified by paid promotion.

Facebook points to the following industries as leaders in Facebook advertising:

• Automotive
• Consumer goods
• Financial services
• Gaming
• Politics
• Retail/ecommerce
• Technology
• Travel

A Few Brands’ Successes on Facebook

On Facebook, national brands and local retailers alike successfully pay to play with the social networks. Global retailer Michael Kors, for example, was able to use Facebook ads to drive more than one million view to its sneaker videos, increasing brand awareness and sales.

Sam’s Chowder House, a locally owned restaurant in San Francisco, attributed a 19 percent increase in guests and revenues to Facebook’s promoted posts. The day after their most successful promoted posts, they experienced 58 percent sales increase and 22 percent guest count increase.

Twitter: Build Awareness Through Fast Feedback

• Popular content: Users have 140 characters to broadcast commentary, links and images or converse with other users. The avenues of success on Twitter are broad and varied, with popular accounts ranging from musing celebrities (@ladygaga) to humorous shticks (@shitmydadsays) to businesses providing stellar customer service (@JetBlue) to food trucks tweeting the day’s location (@CurbsideCupcake)
• Established in March 2006
• 310 million active users on Twitter
• 83 percent of Twitter users access Twitter from a mobile device

Compete.com recently looked at the online habits of 2,000 consumers and found that 38.9 percent of users made online purchases from retailers whose tweets they had seen … compared to only 26.9 percent of users who made online purchases without being exposed to any tweets. A brand that tweets stands to gain a 37 percent increase in online sales.

“Consumers who see Tweets from retailers are people who, for one reason or another, are engaged in conversation about or with that retailer. These people prove to also be much more likely to shop and buy from retailers’ websites … The results demonstrate that more exposure correlates with more retail activity.”

Here’s a photo tweet by @BruceClayInc of me speaking on social media marketing at a recent event in LA. Photos are easy to post to Twitter through the mobile app, and tend to get higher engagement than tweets without images.

Branding on Instagram and Snapchat panel at Media Leaders Growth Summit #dgs16 https://t.co/eQoIi1Sr9H pic.twitter.com/OJIAn8zV92

— Bruce Clay, Inc. (@BruceClayInc) May 6, 2016

A Few Brands’ Successes on Twitter

As with Facebook, brands of all sizes and from all industries are using Twitter. Chicago bakery Whipped Bakeshop used a promoted account to increase followers in Philadelphia and attract new customer. The Barack Obama presidential campaign used promoted trends get keep voters informed in real time and gain record engagement in 2008. The American Red Cross used promoted tweets to drive donations (reaching 100% of its goal) and attract new volunteers.

Next Steps for a Social Media Marketing Strategy

Success in social media marketing is measured by the quality of interactions over the quantity of interaction. No matter how your business’s online social presence develops, it’s critical to determine and track metrics that align with your business goals so you can decide what’s working and what’s not.

As you’re deciding what social network to invest in, determine the metrics you’ll be tracking to measure your efforts. That way, when you’ve launched a campaign to build brand awareness, provide customer service, enhance visibility of your products, and grow loyalty, you’ll be able to tell if your efforts are making progress for your business and adjust your tactics accordingly.

Want Social Media Recommendations Just for Your Business?

If you’re interested in a free 15-minute social media review from me, BCI’s social media editor, and learning more about how we can help you build your online presence, let us know and we’ll be in touch!

The post Which Social Media Networks Should Your Business Invest In? appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

Using Twitter’s Unique Data

Control studies show that promoted tweets build intent and drive conversions. Twitter found a 3.2X lift in conversion rate for people who engage with a Twitter ad vs. those that did not.

Turn everyday moments into action. Let’s say a woman is looking at her Twitter feed in a café. We know who she’s engaging with, what she’s interested in, etc. Let’s say she says she’s looking forward to her morning coffee.

As you think about mentions of the keyword coffee, what looks seemingly random is actually predictable – as you might expect on the weekdays and mornings, coffee has high frequency. But surprisingly, it also has peaks on weekend evenings. Know the patterns for your keywords

Let’s say you set up a campaign and target the keywords coffee, Peet’s, and Starbucks to target people who are thinking about coffee. Then, just seconds after the woman tweets about her love of coffee, your tweet will show up in her timeline. All of this happens live – it’s important that you’re able to capture signals like this live and connect in real time, while they’re thinking about keywords that relate to what you offer. That’s how you connect.

Twitter is your live connection to billions of signals of interest and intent. “It’s your live connection to you customer in all the places they go,” says Sise.

Performance Marketing Scenarios

Europlore

Let’s say it’s Paris in the summertime. Your business is Europlore Tours and you offer vacation packages and cultural tours in European cities. It’s March, and only 12 or your 60 slots are booked for the Paris tour. You want to fully book the Paris tour before it starts in May. Here’s how Twitter recommends leveraging ads in this scenario:

1. Mine everyday conversations with keyword targeting in the timeline.
   When a Twitter user takes to Twitter to muse about an upcoming trip, saying “Starting to plan my family vacation. Should I go to France or Italy?” Your promoted tweet with a website card then shows up with a clear CTA to book a tour with Europlore.
2. Cross sell to current customers.
   Use your own data (cookie ids, email addresses, phone numbers) to form a matched audience with Twitter users, and then target accordingly. Set up a campaign with that tailored audience. There, you can add additional forms of target such as device or gender.
3. Ensure visibility into cross-device conversions.
   Use the website tag and cross-device conversion analytics. It’s very common, in this scenario with Europlore, for a user to do quick research on their phone but actually make the purchase on desktop.

Dog Star Adventure Gear

Dog Star Adventure is a retail outdoor and sporting goods online and physical store. They’re launching a new store section dedicated to climbing gear and apparel. How can they cost-effectively drive climbing gear purchases and capture market share?

1. Appeal to people’s passions with @username targeting.
   Imagine Twitter user Sheri. She reads parenting blogs, is concerned with the environment, and likes to climb. In fact, she follows @ClimbMagazine. Dog Star can target people following @ClimbMagazine. The ad that is served can show up outside chronological order. It can also show up for users that accounts are not following.
2. Retarget at the product level with Dynamic Product Ads (currently in Beta).
   In the most valuable minutes after a user has seen a product on your site, you can serve them an ad. Let’s say Sheri is on the Dog Star site looking at shoes. The next time she logs into Twitter, she becomes eligible to see that same product front and center on her timeline.

3. Increase reach and scale with the Twitter Audience Platform (currently in Beta).

Tweet Copy Best Practices

The Do’s

• Convey urgency. Tweets that use urgency words have a 10% lower CPA and a 10% link click rate.
• Mention percentages over dollars for discounts. Tweets that advertise percentage discounts have a 40 lower CPA than tweets that advertise dollar based discounts.
• Highlight new items. Tweets with “new” have a 10% lower CPA and a 23% higher link click rate.
• Pose a question. Tweets that ask a question have a 9 percent lower cost per click and a 16% higher link click rate.

The Don’ts

• Don’t overuse capitals. Tweets that overuse capital letters have a 2% higher CPA and a 9% lower click rate. When you use caps people feel like you are yelling at them.
• Don’t user @mentions. Tweets that mention another handle have a 6% lower click rate a 3% percent high cost per link click.

The Future of Twitter ads

People are spending more and more time on mobile. People are in a rush on mobile. They use moments of found time: between meetings, on elevators, on a train ride. Flurry data show that people who open an app more than 60 times a day has grown by 123%. People have very brief moments to experience your brand.

The world, however, is not a mobile world – it’s a multi-device world. Forrester Research shows average U.S. consumer aged 24-25 uses four devices. They switch attention across devices seamlessly. Therefore, you need to determine where they’re most likely to convert. Marketers need to take a new approach to make marketing work. Address short attention spans by turning moments into action with real-time targeting and running native ads.

The post Maximizing ROI for Twitter Ads #SMX appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

Meeting the Challenges of Mobile

Mobile is fundamentally different than desktop – users use it in very different ways.

• Mobile influences and is influenced by other activities – people want in-the-moment personalized content.
• People consume mobile content in short bursts. They consume and contribute constantly.
• Cross device conversion paths are the rule, not the exception.

The point? The strategies that worked on desktop aren’t always translating well to mobile. The screens are small, the users are distracted, the users are using multiple devices, the technology is different, and there are platform complexities. In order to overcome these challenges, the medium needs a new approach.

• Connect in the now.
• Inspire action with media rich ad units that drive specific actions.
• Make conversions possible any and everywhere.

Targeting and Measurement     

It’s difficult to reach your audience online. People aren’t raising their hands to say they are interested in your service. You can use Twitter to target people on their interests.

Each day your customers are sending millions of signals via Twitter. Two unique targeting types on Twitter are keywords and interests. Interest come from the content users engage with and the people they interact with.

Keyword Targeting is a precision tool that allows you to hone in at the right time in the right context.

Let’s say Ryan is tweeting about an upcoming vacation he’s considering – if you’re someone who works for a ski resort and Ryan is tweeting about skiing, it’s a prime moment for you to reach him.

Think about your existing important keywords in your SEM campaigns – how can you leverage them on Twitter?

Match Types:

• Phrase Match – words in exact order only
• Broad Match – includes synonyms

Reach your customers with tailored audiences. Build tailored audiences using your data – cookie IDs, emails, phone numbers. You can expand the reach of your campaign by using a lookalike audiences. You can also extend performance with additional targeting options – geo, age, etc.

Measurement

93 percent of marketers said they would run more cross channel campaigns if they were able to more effectively measure mobile advertising performance.

The website tag is a small snippet of code that you place on your site that allows you to track conversions and remarketing to audiences of recent website visitors.

Best Practices for Tag Installation

• Consider your sales cycle
• Tag all pages on your site
• Speed thing sup with a container
• Consider how you want to remarket

Select a key conversion tag when setting up campaigns – specify what conversion is the most important. This will gear the campaign toward that key conversion event.

Customize your attribution by post engagement or by post view – it’s up to you! Nate recommends advertisers use post view.

Understand how exposure to your promoted tweets drives conversions on your site:

• Volume of conversions
• Cost per click
• Conversion rate
• Total revenue
• Order quantity

Gain cross device conversion insights with the website tag.

Campaign Optimization and Setup

Plan your Campaign for Success – what do you need to see to consider this campaign a success:

• Define your KPIs.
• Set campaigns for auction success.
• Use those KPIs to calculate your bid.
• Create a testing framework with multiple campaigns. Cast a really wide net, figure out what works and then replicate those campaigns.
• Test mobile and desktop in separate campaigns.

Fast Tips on Bidding

• Higher performance advertisers pay less.
• Bid higher when choosing narrower objectives.
• Target bidding can often drive the best performance.

Optimize your Landing page

• Keep copy pithy
• Simple, clear CTAs
• Capture lead
• Use click to call
• Reduce typing
• Scalable vector graphics

The post Getting Started with Twitter Ads #SMX appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

As moderators of last Thursday’s SEO-focused Twitter chat, #SEOchat, we wanted to hear what top SEOs were feeling about the current state of link building, link removal and disavowing links. The debate was lively and at times surprising. We asked questions like:

Here are a few of the thought-provoking and controversial points of view shared:

Do you think link building is a black-hat technique?

The term “linkbuilding” has some baggage, but it is not inherently black hat. Still prefer “link earning.” All about intent. (@ramirez_robert)

Do you always recommend a site submit a Google disavow file?

Call me crazy, but I wouldn’t walk up to a cop and say “hey, someone left these drugs in my pocket.” (@tonyxrandall)

To remove weak links for Google Penguin recovery, how much time do you spend pruning links vs. disavowing links?

Very sensitive issue to be handled per site. Many sites don’t require disavows – and when used – I fear a red flag is raised. (@EricLanderSEO)

Would you want to know if any site has disavowed you? How many disavowals would it take before you were alarmed?

Yes, especially in cases where you suspect negative SEO. I would want to be notified immediately. (@MatthewAYoung)

Yes, I would like to know. There’s no reason to be oblivious in this respect IMO. (@JesseStoler)

Yes, especially it were part of a pattern. Might be bad SEO, maybe my baby is ugly. But getting disavowed is a call to action. (@CallMeLouzander)

Read on to find out what SEOs had to say during Thursday’s #SEOChat on Twitter!

Has the Penguin update simplified the link building process for you or made it harder to tread?

Eric Lander: My clients tend to view content quality and social engagement as triggers for quality links. So in short, it’s beneficial for me.

Netvantage Marketing: Depends on a website to website basis. Need to pay close attention to sites that dabbled in bad link building in the past.

Creative California: Definitely more difficult. I now have to scrutinize every site before I look to get a link on it.

Matthew Young: Neither hard nor easy. By having a content-forward link earning strategy, nothing has really changed.

Do you think link building is a black-hat technique?

Robert Ramirez: The term “linkbuilding” has some baggage, but it is not inherently black hat. Still prefer “link earning.” All about intent.

Dragon Search: It can be either, depending on how you go about it. A little strategic PR goes a long way.

Brian Baker: Difficult question. It’s all about the intent behind the link building.

John Alexander: I’ve always been suspicious of link building campaigns, TBH. Find relevant directories, sure. But how systematic can you be?

Kristi Kellogg: Personally, I feel time is better spent investing in creating quality content and promoting it than link building. My logic being that if you build something amazing, links will be a byproduct naturally.

Eric Lander: No, and it never has been. People push envelopes across marketing initiatives — link building is essential, but far from black. To be clear, aspects of SEO can be pushed in gray/black areas. It’s up to us to ethically provide quality services and results.

Netvantage Marketing: Providing value to users = white hat. Only trying to manipulate rankings = black hat.

Creative California: Not at all. Most link-building we do is local directories, media quotes, social. If we don’t pursue these, they’ll never happen. In other words, you can’t naturally get links if you don’t promote yourself.

Matthew Young: Depends on who you ask. Google says ‘Don’t build links,’ but the irony is that the algo is built on them.

Do you think it’s acceptable to ask for links? When and how?

Brian Baker: Of course it’s acceptable, just don’t be pushy!

Eric Lander: Yes, asking when relevancy is clear and there’s a visitor value added to the host site. All require direct, quality conversations.

Netvantage Marketing: Absolutely. When you can provide value to their users — by asking in a personable way.

DragonSearch: I like to barter. Provide something in exchange then ask for a link in return.

Matthew Young: It’s acceptable under the right circumstances.

If you could offer one piece of advice for link building in a Penguin world, what would it be? Go!

Kristi Kellogg: Be aware of who’s linking to you at all times. It’s your responsibility.

Brian Baker: Focus on existing relationships, link reclamation, and natural links. Go after low-hanging fruit for max effect.

Eric Lander: Stop emulating what others are or have been doing. Developing a unique approach in your space has explosive opportunities.

Netvantage Marketing: If you have to question if a site is a good link prospect, the answer is probably no.

DragonSearch: If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck …

A4. Patience, my young SEO. Quality and relevant links take time. #seochat pic.twitter.com/4tBEmCyKrY

— Matthew Young (@MatthewAYoung) July 16, 2015

To remove weak links for Google Penguin recovery, how much time do you spend pruning links vs. disavowing links?

Robert Ramirez: Actually removing bad links from the internet > disavowing links. Google rewards cleaning links sooner than relying on disavow.

Brian Baker: Penalties and the disavow process are a nightmare. Talking about it further will put me in a tailspin.

Netvantage Marketing: Depends on the penalty and size of backlink profile. We outreach to sites at least once when we see a link we don’t like.

Eric Lander: Very sensitive issue to be handled per site. Many sites don’t require disavows – and when used – I fear a red flag is raised.

Matthew Young: The pruning takes way longer than the disavowing. Plus you have to account for the time a site remains penalized before the next Penguin refresh. So, yes, a long time.

What link pruning tools do you rely on? How do you identify weakest links?

Brian Baker: I’m loving @Moz’s spam analysis tool – GREAT starting spot + Manual Ahrefs review.

Eric Lander: My go to tool is @ahrefs for link quality, research and competitive/shared reviews. Then Excel. And logic. :)

Matthew Young: I use a combination of Majestic, @ahrefs and Google Search Console. Can’t forget Excel either.

Netvantage Marketing: A machete and beast mode — bit.ly/1J0rbm5.  

John Alexander: Majestic makes my life so much easier, including their browser plugins.

Bruce Clay, Inc.: Who’s tried DisavowFiles.com? It’s a free crowdsourced tool that lets users compare disavow files to their backlink profiles.

Do you always recommend a site submit a Google disavow file?

Eric Lander: No. Rarely. I need to see a direct correlation of a Penguin release date and traffic and/or rankings loss to even consider it.

Matthew Young: Depends on the penalty situation. If not penalized, no disavow. Pruning for sure, though, in all cases. Everyone’s got skeletons.

Netvantage Marketing: No. We only go disavow route if we suspect a penalty is in place.

Tony Randall: Call me crazy, but I wouldn’t walk up to a cop and say “hey, someone left these drugs in my pocket.”

Would you want to know if any site has disavowed you? How many disavowals would it take before you were alarmed?

Eric Lander: No. If you know what a disavow is, you should be comfortable with your own site (being disavowed). Feeling “alarmed” is not a productive state.

Matthew Young: Yes, especially in cases where you suspect negative SEO. I would want to be notified immediately.

Creative California: I think I’d see many other signs that my sign was spammy long before I noticed disavows.

Jesse Stoler: Yes, I would like to know. There’s no reason to be oblivious in this respect IMO.

John Alexander: Yes, especially it were part of a pattern. Might be bad SEO, maybe my baby is ugly. But getting disavowed is a call to action.

Google has stated that data from disavow files is NOT part of the quality algorithm. Do you believe it? Could that change?

Eric Lander: Change is inevitable. So too are algorithm hypotheses. As an SEO, you focus on what you can control – and stay the course. Don’t mean to suggest that you don’t innovate your approach, but you cannot obsess on what you don’t know and be successful.

DragonSearch: Pretend your client somehow gets added to the list of low-quality disavow sites. Imagine trying to get out of THAT penalty.

Matthew Young: Anything could change. It’s Google. You can’t see me, but I’m wildly shrugging right now.

John Alexander: I haven’t seen direct correlation. But as part of online reputation, I’m sure it can come later to bite you in the … server logs.

Want to join the search engine optimization conversation? #SEOchat takes place every Thursday at 10 a.m./1 p.m. PT. Meet up with your fellow digital marketers for a tactic-packed hour of SEO goodness.

The post Link Building in the Penguin Age: SEOs on Earning, Pruning and Disavowing Links appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

What’s a Twitter Chat? What Twitter Chats Are Right for My Brand?

What is a Twitter chat? A Twitter chat (also referred to as a Tweet chat) is real-time conversation conducted via tweets — each Twitter chat has its own hashtag that bands the conversation together.

Investing in a Twitter chat as a part of your ongoing social media marketing strategy can lead to myriad benefits:

• Relationships. With real people. With real needs. That you can help them with.
• Thought Leadership. Regularly use Twitter chats as a platform to authentically share your one-of-a-kind knowledge and people will begin to turn to you as a thought leader.
• Staying Top of Mind. To stay top-of-mind in potential consumers’ minds, you have to find ways to meet consumers where they are — and one of those places is Twitter. Chatting. It takes massive effort across multiple platforms to stay top-of-mind. Twitter chats are one piece of the puzzle that can keep you there.

When you wield Twitter chats to achieve the above objectives, they naturally lead to fan growth, which in turn leads to:

• New Clients, Customers and Fans
• Increased Following
• Increased Engagement

Finding the Twitter Chats that Align with Your Brand

There are Twitter chats on every subject you can imagine, from business, marketing, SEO and LinkedIn to fashion, mommy blogging, food service and fitness. What Twitter chat aligns with your business or brand? This Twitter chat master calendar from TweetReports provides a comprehensive list of all Twitter chats on the Internet … and there’s a Twitter chat for literally every niche. Check out some of these unique and/or specific examples:

• #YALitChat
• #GreenRoofChat (“green roofing”)
• #HayTalk (“a discussion on hay and forage issues”)
• #SalonSpaChat
• #CoffeeChat
• #VLLChat (“celebrating Latina lifestyle bloggers”)
• #ChinaChat (“business in China”)
• #FundChat (“nonprofit fundraising and marketing”)

The above is proof positive that you’ll find a Twitter chat that aligns with your business/brand, no matter your industry. Take a look at how many Twitter chats there are for the digital marketing space alone!

• #B2BChat
• #AppChat
• #BlogChat
• #ContentChat
• #TechTalk
• #PPCChat
• #JournChat
• #AdChat
• #BrandChat
• #SEOChat

Twitter Chat Etiquette

Now that you’ve identified which Twitter chat(s) to participate in, you can use the following guidelines to maximize your participation on the social media platform!

Use TweetDeck. Add a column for the Twitter chat’s hashtag and then follow along. In my experience, TweetDeck is the simplest and most reliable platform for participating in a Twitter chat.

Remember the basics. Use the hashtag in all your tweets. Also, most Twitter chats are made up of a moderator asking questions and guests, like your brand, answering. Don’t forget to include the number of the question you’re answering in the tweet (e.g., A1).

A6: GSP boost branding efforts. Target your competitors’ URLs and show GSPs to users who receive emails from your competitors. #PPCchat #PPC

–Bruce Clay, Inc. (@BruceClayInc) July 7, 2015

Listen. Favorite, retweet and engage with people’s tweets. You’re not in this just to be heard, but to listen.

Prepare ideas ahead of time. Usually, the topic of a Twitter chat is announced beforehand. Take some time to study up on the topic. Find the latest statistics or news on the topic. You’ll also want to take stock of your brand’s blog or assets — if your brand, for example, has written an article or created an infographic on the subject at hand, that’s something you’re going to want to work into the Twitter chat naturally.

Try to include images in a few of your tweets during the Twitter chat. Social Media Examiner reported a 150 percent increase in retweets when you include images. That’s important to remember for all Twitter activity, not just Twitter chats.

Promote the chat on your social networks prior to the chat. Here, again, it’s important not to forget to use the chat’s unique hashtag.

Don’t be afraid to be funny! A well-timed meme, joke or gif can liven a Twitter chat’s mood and gain lots of engagement. Please inject personality into your brand’s tweets (while still maintaining your brand voice, of course!).

Mind your manners. Show up to the chat on time and introduce your brand when you join the chat (unless you are late — don’t interrupt an ongoing chat to announce your presence). Never forget to say thank you to the host.

Don’t write a novel. It should take one tweet to answer a question — two AT MOST. In this case, the beginning of your tweet should indicate that it’s part of a sequence by utilizing 1/2 and 2/2:

(1/2) A1: When you’re talking thousands of pages, it makes more sense to hire top tier writers ($$$) for converting pages. #SEOchat

— Kristi Kellogg (@KristiKellogg) June 11, 2015

(2/2) Consider hiring cheaper for the lower priority pages. #SEOchat — Kristi Kellogg (@KristiKellogg) June 11, 2015

What are You Waiting For? It’s Time to Get Started

The best way to get started with Twitter chats is to jump right in. Once you’ve identified a few chats your brand could benefit from being in, show up and tweet away! Most Twitter chats occur on a weekly basis — try to attend for a few weeks to give the Twitter chat a solid chance.

Twitter chats are a powerful social media marketing tool for stimulating buzz for your company or personal brand (not to mention their ability to drive traffic, generate leads, etc.). Twitter chats provide opportunity to network, gain quality followers and amp up engagement, all while positioning yourself as a thought leader in your industry. Finding Twitter chats that work for your brand are a must-do if you are trying to enhance your SMM strategy!

If you’re looking to jump into a Twitter chat, join us for #SEOchat every Thursday at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET. You’ll love the weekly opportunity to talk to fellow digital marketing enthusiasts like yourself, and you’ll get a feel for what Twitter chats can offer a business. It’s one hour a week where you can both socialize and sharpen your skills from the comfort of your own office. Follow the #SEOchat hashtag and we’ll see you Thursday!

The post #Winning at Twitter Chats appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

Speakers:

• Merry Morud, Social Advertising Director, aimClear (@MerryMorud)
• Evan Sandhaus, Lead Architect, Semantic Platforms, NY Times (@kansandhaus)
• Courtney Seiter, Head of Content Marketing, Buffer (@courtneyseiter)

Merry Morud: Essential Knowledge Open Graph Social Markup

“Content is king, but strategic content markup for distribution for social is everything,” Morud says.

Social markup makes it easier for users to share your content, and therefore more likely. When you share a link and it looks really poor, the user is going to rethink even posting it. Investing in social markup improves the health of your content in the long term.

(For Twitter Card beginners, Facebook Open Graph is an integration between Facebook and the internet at large).

Smart brands, like the NY Times, The Huffington Post and the Washington Post, take control of how content is displayed via strategic social markup.

Morud shares some quick tips:

• 1200 x 627 pixels is the recommended image size for Facebook — but that ratio is always subject to change. Make sure the image is no smaller than 400 x 209 or the image will revert to a thumbnail.
• Make it engaging – keep the character count to 200 and the most important message within the first 100 characters.
• Check your work: Use https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/ This clears the cache and lets you see what your latest post version looks like.

No HTML Skills?

Try using Google Structured Data Markup Helper (within webmaster tools). Highlight the headline and author easily and avoid confusion for HTML novices.

Approach Social Markup like Ad Creative

No one else is (probably) going to edit the post — you need to treat the post like an ad and make it awesome and accurate. This is essential for increased content sharing. And note that OG tags are also read by LinkedIn, Google+ and Twitter.

Courtney Seiter: The Everything Guide to Twitter Cards

View Seiter’s slide deck: bit.ly.com/cards-guide

Seiter opens by quoting Michael Sippey, of Twitter: “Twitter cards are an important step toward … creating new opportunities to build engaging experiences into Twitter.”

Twitter Cards, Seiter asserts, allow Internet marketers to expand Twitter into a rich multimedia experience by including videos, pictures and so much more.

What’s so great about Twitter Cards? They’re:

• Familiar
• Contained
• Portable (easily transported from person to person)
• Tactile
• Consistent

9 Types of Twitter Cards

1. Summary (Headlines and description)
2. Photo Summary (includes small picture)
3. Photo Card (includes large picture)
4. Gallery Card (includes three pictures)
5. Product Card (fast facts about product – sizes, price, etc.)
6. Player Card (play video, play song or view slides)
7. App Card (shows app rating and on a mobile device, you can download app directly)
8. Lead Generation Card (when you click the Call-To-Action, such as sign up for email list, the action automatically happens).
9. Website Card (everything you click takes your user to your site. This is the only Twitter Card that can never be truncated).

You create Twitter Lead Generation Cards and Website Cards via Twitter Advertising (for free).

For all other Twitter Cards, you need to edit the HTML on your site (via hand coding, a Yoast plugin on WordPress, etc.).

Twitter Card Strategies

Make the images large and beautiful.

Make the text engaging – have the user want to click on it. This is particularly important because your gorgeous Twitter Cards can be truncated, and then the user needs to click on the link to get the photo to appear. You must make the text extremely clickable.

Test images, languages and offers. Do different images, headlines, etc. and see what works. Post at different times and with different hashtags to find the sweet spot.

Twitter Card Measurement

Twitter Card Analytics show data for anyone who has shared your Twitter Cards, not your brand’s account alone. View:

• Change over time
• Card Types (compares your cards to other Twitter Cards)
• Top Links
• Top Tweets
• Influencers (see the most influential people sharing your Twitter Cards – Seiter suggests using this as a place to find people you can reach out to in the future)

Evan Sandhaus: 19^th and 20^th Century Social Media Optimization

Sandhaus is tasked with optimizing The New York Times archives, which date back to 1851. Articles appearing before 1981 are categorized as the Deep Archive. Via the TimesMachine, users can find the 11.3 million articles as they appeared originally via PDFs that show the entirety of the page that article appeared on. This was a conscious choice by the NY Times, as they believe showing the article in its original context alongside the other articles of the day and ads serves to position the article in history. Sandhaus calls this a more immersive and accessible experience of the deep archive.

Because this TimesMachine content is only available to subscribers, the NY Times doesn’t want TimesMachine content showing up in search … so they block it from search via noindex. They want traffic showing up from the NY Times site search, direct traffic, third-party content sites, and social media.

Via @NYTArchives Sandhaus uses Twitter Cards to share a lot of interesting TimesMachine content.

The post SMX East Liveblog: Twitter Cards & Facebook’s Open Graph appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

If you only take one thing from this session, this should be it: Twitter is about human communication. Any brand that has an audience that they want to connect with can excel on Twitter. It’s all about finding the community; using the tools they’re using; engaging your community with content that adds value.

Ready for more? Here’s Ric Dragon’s nitty gritty Twitter for Business run down:

A quick intro to Twitter:

• When to use a handle? If your name is really, really long.
• Twitter posts have 5 basic elements: display name; hashtags; @mentions; shortened URL; via or by at the end of the tweet.
• RT = rewteet. What does MT mean? Modified Tweet! (Start using it tweet modifiers!)
• If you’re using an @mention, make sure you are including a period (or other character) before the @mention if you want that tweet to go into your public newsfeed (and not just to you and the person you are @mentioning)
• Consider the words you use in your bio; all of these words (including hashtags and @pages) are searchable
• Consider your background image. Ric uses Geico as an example of a company that is doing a great job. It doesn’t take too much and it makes a big impact to have a designed background image.
• Your user icon: As a brand, think about trying to humanize yourself with your profile image. Don’t try to include too much information. Make sure your profile image is clear.

What makes the language in a tweet great?

Make your tweets engaging! It’s like any other venue for content marketing. You have to write something enticing that will make your audience want to click through.

Here are some examples that excel:

When you’re retweeting, try adding a bit of personality to your retweets. Make people want to follow you.

Some Twitter for Business Best Practices

1) Write more @ tweets!
Communicate directly with people. Make an effort to reach out and talk directly with your community more. It’s not all about getting people to look at you; it’s all about you/your brand/your business engaging with the community.

2) Don’t automate tweets.
Yes, you can schedule tweets, but don’t automate them. Automation = content is going right from one platform to another (IE: right from your blog to your Twitter; or right from Facebook to Twitter). Imagine: What if your automation makes your account tweet something about Miley Cyrus when a catastrophic hurricane has just hit a neighboring state? Automation can inadvertently put your brand in awkward, unforeseen PR-disaster situations if you’re not careful.

3) Add value in what you tweet!
A story should have a narrative arc over time, and so should your tweets. Does your business have an event coming up? Creating a narrative arc around that event. Build up to it; offer sneak peeks; make the event your high point; and then keep the narrative going even after the event.

4) Leave room for retweets.
When possible craft your Twitter messages in a way that allows for the added “RT” without chopping off the end of your post (especially if the end of your post is the URL).

Twitter Lists

1) Use Twitter lists to connect with influencers
2) Consider the story that your list of lists is telling
3) Subscribe to lists that include you

Some Twitter Tools

Communi.it
Allows you to see if someone has followed you and you haven’t followed them back. Also allows you to see your top content influencers; your followers who are very active and often interact with your content (these people are your brand advocates!). It’s a good way to identify your brand advocates (and to help you reach out to them).

Twiangulate
This tool can take two or more other profiles (as designated by you) and see who the two profiles have in common. It’s a great tool that can help you discover people to engage with; people that would be a great addition to your community.

TweetUp
Definition: A group of friends on Twitter that are planning to meet up. Also a request by a user to meet with friends via Twitter.

This is the idea behind a TweetUp: TweetUps are comprised of a bunch of people who want to meet up and communicate with each other via Twitter but they don’t want to have to include everyone’s handle every time (in every tweet), so they all start using a hashtag to communicate. And, thus, a TweetUp is born! This creates a great community experience, and also an excellent shared history for all the users.

TwitterChats

Twitter chats are great places to meet people with common interests, and a great way for a brand to start building community with their community.

TwitterChat Lists
Search for this; this is a list of TwitterChats that are active

TwitterChat Etiquette

– Stay on topic (don’t ask questions that are off topic. Don’t start side conversations.)
– Number your answers. (A1 after Q1; A2 after Q2; etc.)
– Don’t self-promote (unless the moderator asks you [everyone] to introduce themselves at the beginning of the session, or if it’s at the end of the session and you have a relevant link to share)
– RT with attribution
– If late, don’t ask “whats the topic” (just read the stream! Catch yourself up)
– Say thank you (that’s just nice.)

Looking to make sales from Twitter? Do This…

The key is truly to connect with individuals and participate in real conversations. To become a real part of real communities with real people.

As a Twitter sales person you need to be asking yourself:
Can I help 5 people out per day?
Can I join 3 (or however many) TwitterChats per week
Can I host a meet-up?

Can I take time each day to engage with community for X hours?

Think in terms of a virtuous cycle of activity you can do:
Engage → Reciprocate → Nurture connections → Create Content

Should a brand follow back? Ric advocates for reciprocal followbacks

Take time to stop, analyze what you’ve been doing, and consider whether you can do better. Can you write better tweets? Can you engage more with the community? Can you personalize your @responses to people?

Should I have two Twitter profiles? One for me, and one for me as X-brand advocate?

Ric doesn’t advocate for two reasons:

1) Nine out of 10 times one of these accounts is going to get dropped off; you’re going to just give up on one of them.

2) Social media is all about being human. People want to know that Jon the Dell worker is also into Fishing. They want to see Jon as a human. Only positivity can come from showing your personality next to your professional tweets.

What if my brand is somber, or boring? Can we still use Twitter?

Yes! Using Twitter is all about connecting human to human. Sure silliness is a part of that connection, but it isn’t the sole reason people are on Twitter. As an example, if your business is a team of Divorce court attorneys (a rather somber profession) you don’t have to tweet doom and gloom; this “how can I serve my community? What do my clients (and potential clients) need?” Consider hosting something like a #DivorceChat TwitterChat so that people [your potential consumers] can get together and ask each other – and you! – questions.

Some Community Manager Considerations

– Don’t try to control the conversation; enable the conversation.

– Consider ways you, as the community manager, can help humanize the brand. One logistic that helps is ending your tweets with a human signature (for instance ^CA). You can also put the handle of the person that is managing the page in the brand’s Twitter bio. Mayb

e even use the community manager’s photo as the Twitter page user icon (of course, branded. Make sure the manager is wearing a shirt; or watermarked with a logo; or something else creative that allows you to clearly convey to your users “this is the X brand channel, and this is the human who is running this channel. Talk to them!”)

The post #SMX Liveblog: Twitter For Business (#14C) appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

Every Thursday, Internet marketers come together to compare notes in the #SEOChat Twitter chat (more about #SEOchat here). This Thursday, Jan. 16, at 10 a.m. PST / 1 p.m. EST Bruce Clay, Inc. is hosting #SEOChat with an experimental new format: a live review of Google Analytics. Join us as we log into Google Analytics (or your preferred analytics software) — as a group, we’ll mine our 2013 data and compare notes on content performance and audience behavior. We’ll ask questions such as:

• What area of your website performed the best in 2013?
• What was the top performing piece of content or blog post?
• What was your top traffic referrer in 2013? Top social referrer?
• What season saw the most engagement?

By identifying patterns and determining what’s working best, when it’s working and why it’s working, we can shape our 2014 SEO and content marketing strategy accordingly.

#SEOChat is going to be an action-packed hour, and in an effort to get everyone on the same page, we’re providing step-by-step instructions on how to access the reports we’re going to look at Thursday. After logging into Google Analytics, we’ll be looking at the following reports:

• Behavior> Site Content> Content Drilldown
• Behavior> Site Content> All Pages
• Acquisition> All Traffic
• Acquisition> Social> Network Referrals

Read on to discover how to efficiently access these reports. (If you’re new to SEO and starting from scratch you can learn how to set up Google Analytics here.)

Behavior> Site Content> Content Drilldown

1. Adjust the the date range to Jan 1, 2013 to Dec. 31, 2013. There will be no need to repeat this step in the following reports, as the desired date range will stay in place unless you change it or log out.

2. To access the Content Drilldown report, type “Content Drilldown” in the search bar on the upper left and select the Behavior> Site Content> Content Drilldown report.

3. Once in the Content Drilldown report, be prepared talk about which area(s) of your website saw the most traffic.

Behavior> Site Content> All Pages

1. Type “Behavior Site All Pages” in the search bar on the upper left and select the Behavior> Site Content> All Pages report.

2. Once in the report, look for particular pieces of content that saw major traffic gains. What saw the most traffic? A blog post? An infographic? A landing page?

3. We will also use this report to answer when we saw the most engagement. Switch to a monthly view to assess traffic by month.

Acquisition> All Traffic

1. Type “Acquisition All Traffic” into the search bar to pull up the Acquisition> All Traffic report.

2. Once there, change the primary dimension to medium.

3. Assess what source brought in the most traffic. How do your visitors find you? Though organic search? Paid search? Social channels?

4. This is also where you’ll find data on your traffic by day or hour. Change the secondary dimension to Day of Week Name and Hour accordingly.

Acquisition> Social> Network Referrals

1. In an effort to break down which social channels bring in the most traffic, we’ll also pull up the Network Referrals Report. Find it by typing “Acquisition Social Network Referrals” into the search bar.

2. Identify which social platform is bringing in the most the traffic to your site. Are those the platforms you are the most active on or that you’ve optimized? This data can lead to a better understanding of where your audience spends their time socially.

Google Analytics Live Review

When analyzing your data before or during Thursday’s #SEOchat, look for any patterns of points of interest that could benefit your fellow Internet Marketers. We want to hear what worked and where it worked so we can determine why it worked. We will see you at 10 a.m. on Thursday, Jan. 16 for #SEOChat! (Tweet this!)

Plus … participants will have a chance to win Bruce Clay’s latest book: “Content Marketing Strategies for Professionals.” At the end of #SEOchat, we’ll choose one active and engaged participant who will get a free, author-signed copy. Read more about the book here.

Tweets about “#seochat”

Have a question you’d like to see us address in Thursday’s #SEOChat? Share it in the comments!

The post SEOs: Share Top Content Performers and Traffic Referrers in #SEOchat this Thursday appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

#SEOchat

Each Thursday, in-the-know Internet marketers participate in #SEOchat at 10 a.m. PST. Each week, #SEOchat is hosted by a renowned digital marketer. Recent topics have included:

• Content Seeding Strategies for Maximum Exposure
• Winning Video Marketing Strategies and Tactics
• Site Analysis Q & A
• Optimizing, Messaging & Measuring in a “No Query” World
• Creating Content to Attract Links
• Solutions for (Not Provided)

As part of our commitment to thought leadership and knowledge transfer, BCI participates in #SEOchat each week, sharing insights and engaging with the SEO community. Wondering if #SEOchat is for you? Here are the three reasons we believe #SEOchat – or any Twitter chat, for that matter – is a worthy investment of your time.

1. Immediacy

If you have an SEO concern that you’ve been troubleshooting to no avail, #SEOchat puts you in a forum where you can reach out to other SEOs and get their insights – immediately. All participants in #SEOchat have set aside this window of time for this explicit reason. A community of dedicated peers is on standby, so take advantage of their knowledge, experience, and insights.

2. Strength

In the same way that you’re able to ask questions, you’re also able to answer questions and share your own experiences. It’s a win-win (potentially), as you can position yourself as an expert and strengthen your own brand voice while giving back to the SEO community in the form of knowledge.

3. Connection

When you routinely participate in Twitter chats, your network will grow as you interact regularly with industry peers. In addition to fostering engagement, those connections prove valuable in any type of outreach, including strategic partnerships.

Tomorrow, #SEOchat will be hosted by Internet marketing consultant Paul Thompson. The topic of discussion will be SEO planning in 2014 after the latest algorithm changes. Join Thompson, BCI, and other Internet marketers in this discussion at 10 a.m. PST. BCI will also be participating in #KloutChat immediately after at 11 a.m. PST – a monthly chat devoted to Klout users looking to learn more about social influence.

Twitter Chat Tip: Use a Platform like Twubs

Twubs is a helpful platform when it comes to participating in a Twitter Chat. Users will have a full screen display of all #SEOchat hashtags (or whatever Twitter chat you’re participating in), and all your tweets will automatically include the relevant hashtag. You can also see all participants on the right under Contributors.

BCI is always listening — connect with BCI at @BruceClayInc. You can also connect with me personally at @KristiKellogg — let’s get social.

The post Twitter Chats: 3 Reasons You Should Be in #SEOchat (Thursdays at 10 a.m. PST) appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..