by cassandr | Sep 7, 2012 | Advertising, Branding, Business Success, Interactive, Social Media
In today’s day and age there are tons and thousands of blogs and growing. So how do you drive traffic to your blog? This is the million-dollar question that everyone asks.
Many people think that all you need is a catchy title about a popular topic, add in some popular search engine keywords and there you have it.
Well, it’s not that simple. Below are a few tips in building traffic to your blog.
Before getting started let’s begin stating the two basic reasons as to why regular readers follow blogs. Firstly, useful information is key in attaining followers and secondly highly engaging entertainment. If your blog substantially lacks either one of these don’t expect to get many followers because you won’t. You will need a different approach and a lot more brainstorming before reaching the next stage of building traffic.
Another key element in building traffic is you must be an expert in the particular topic you are talking about. There’s no sense in writing a blog if there’s no main focus. If too many unrelated topics are posted you will likely have an audience that will be very fragmented.
If your blog lacks expertise you’re just calling for trouble so, don’t expect to have an audience at all. But most importantly, have a focused direction.
If your blog offers valuable information, has a key focus then continue reading on about the tips and tricks of building traffic to your website.
1. Write Posts That People Will Want To Read
This sounds like a no brainer, but you would be surprised how many people forget to provide headlines and copy that will be interesting to your audience. If you write posts that the reader will find interesting they will likely come back and visit your blog regularly. That is only if you write often and regularly.
2. Use Twitter, Facebook and Google+ to Share Your Posts & Find New Connections
All three social networks attract a vast range of internet users around the world.
These networks which also be referred as “content distributors” meaning they can help you spread the word about your blog. Taking advantage of putting these networks will surely lead you on the path to success. Here’s how!
- Firstly, if you’re not already registered on these accounts I suggest you do so.
- Make sure you fill as much of these profiles as you can otherwise they will not look credible.
- Remember to connect with users on these sites whom already share a professional relationship, and begin following industry luminaries, and influencers.
- Share content with your peers especially anything that you feel is interesting enough to possibly go viral.
3. Optimize Your Posts for Search Engines
It is important when writing blog posts that you remember to optimize your pages for search engines to find them. I can’t stress this enough but you must include relevant keywords. A rule of thumb is to not overload your post with too many keywords or words that have not relevancy with what your talking about.
4. Tag Your Posts
It takes literally a few seconds to do yet people still don’t spend the time doing so. Adding tags to your blog posts is worth the time in terms of building additional traffic to your blog. They’re also key to helping readers find your blog when they are specifically searching for a topic, and can be easily picked up by search engines.
There are plenty other tips and tricks for building traffic to your blog. These four tips mentioned above are simply a good place to start and by no means the only ones. The blogging world is constantly changing and if you want to get to the top you must continue to read up on these trends.
How do you build traffic for your blog?
by cassandr | Sep 5, 2012 | Branding, Business Success, Interactive, Social Media
Have you ever wondered how to tell a real account from a fake account? The tricks they use, and the game they play? Well you’re not alone.
Unfortunately many fake Twitter accounts pop up everyday, some harder to spot than others.
The downside to fake followers for brands is significant. The number of followers a brand has becomes irrelevant if the followers are fake. Measuring social media is already a difficult process, but once you throw in accounts that add no value other than a number it becomes even more difficult.
How do you truly measure social media success if a brand gets nothing in return from its Twitter followers?
StatusPeople is an App that is a social media management tool that can easily help businesses and brands track their social media communities and if they are real or not. Over 150,000 people have used the Fakers App to find out what the quality of their followers is.
Barring the use of any Faker App, here are some online do-it-yourself identity checks to help you spot the fakers, right off the bat:
1) Style and Personality
Before following a Twitter account make sure to do a quick review of their biography. It is also very important to check out their tweets and the daily conversations they engage in. This can easily display the style and personality of the individual you want to follow.
2) Huge Amount Following, Small Amount of Followers
This is a pretty self-explanatory indication if an account is fake. If an account is following thousands, while only a few are following back, this is more than likely a fake account. One of the first things to check is if they truly work for a specific company; you could possibly expect to see other employees following them.
3) The Follow/ Unfollow Game
Have you ever had someone follow you on Twitter and then unfollow when you don’t follow back? Some people do this in order to have a positive ratio of followers to follows. These types of accounts wait a couple days for you to follow them, and then unfollow the people they recently followed. They continue and repeat the process until they have the desired number of followers.
4) No or Very Few Photo Uploads
Many fake accounts do not post many or any photos at all. Fake accounts typically have pictures of different people; this gives the illusion that this is in fact a real person.
5) More Than 50 Tweets a Day
Many fake accounts use services that provide them with automated tweets. These accounts do not target their tweets nor do they write there own content. In other words, they just let the software do all the work and send out as many spammy messages as possible.
Fake Twitter followers negatively affect both consumers and brands; brands in particular should remember quality is always better than quantity.
How do you use your Twitter followers to enhance your business strategy?
by Saara Jafari | Aug 30, 2012 | Business Success
The Dilemma
Many small to mid-sized businesses are often caught in a “To Market Research or Not To Market Research” dilemma and by Market Research, I mean traditional market research methods like focus groups, survey polls, etc. So why is there this dilemma? To nail it, it’s because of time and money. As a business manager you are often crunched for time before product launches, ad campaigns, and constrained by budget too.
So then you may ask – how to market research? Use tools like Survey Monkey? Sure, if you feel all you need is a range of 100 – 250 responses per month … Or, if you are a small business or network surveying your internal staff for cafeteria food improvements or annual Christmas party venue ideas, by all means, go for it. However, if you are launching a product or campaign and would like to test it before the big launch, using a third party research company specializing in the field should be the preferred route to take. Responses require analysis and credible/effective analysis requires thought and strategic direction. Survey Monkey does neither for you.
A tool providing a broader respondent base at a given point in time would seem more beneficial. Don’t you think? Do I hear Market Research company?
The Million-Dollar Question
Is market research imperative to business /product/brand success?
The Answer
“Marketing without traditional research still creates a blind target”
If you don’t know whether your product or service is relevant to your target market, you are not only wasting your valuable marketing and sales bucks on product development, but also on your distribution and advertising campaign. Miriam Hara from 3H Communications puts it very aptly, “Sometimes a $1K spend is more costly than a $10K spend – after you do the math.” Be farsighted. Think long-term customer loyalty via knowing customer demand. Translate that into sales. Translate that into dollars. Translate that into a happy boss. A happy boss equals promotion, which equals a bonus, which equals a happy you.
A lot of big marketers like to back up their ‘Market research is not important’ outcry by quoting what Henry Ford famously once said, “If I’d have asked my customers what they wanted, they would have told me ‘A faster horse’.” Steve Jobs was one of them. In an interview with Fortune Magazine’s senior editor, Betty Morris, he was quoted as saying famously, “we do no market research” when it comes to choosing strategy. And when it came to connecting with his consumers, he spoke about launching the innovative Apple iPhones after talking to everybody around him and finding out how much they hated their cell phones. iTunes Music Store? Same story. Observing people around him, he realized how much everyone loved their music and that they all wanted to carry their music around with them. It “seemed like the writing on the wall” that electronic music transfer is the future. Ironically though, Apple is known to conduct surveys to get customer feedback on its products and service.
“Know your market. Know their market”
If you don’t talk to your target market, you won’t know how to beat competition. Knowing about the strategies and plans of your competitors is Marketing 101.
“Don’t assume. Ever.”
Don’t assume you know what the consumer likes or dislikes. Find out and adapt.
“Good enough is never good enough”
As much as your family and friends’ opinions are valuable in your personal life, they are not good enough when it comes to your business. They don’t want to hurt your feelings. Start off with secondary research if you really can’t spend much. But try to use both primary and secondary research. Oh, and just in case you missed the point above, let me reiterate … Please don’t use Survey Monkey.
To conclude, “Dare to be surprised: Use research”.
The cost of a market research project is typically less than the media cost associated with a product or an ad campaign launch. So an unsuccessful campaign translates into a waste of all those big media bucks.
So what do you think is the roadway to business success? To Market Research or Not to Market Research?
(Miriam Hara’s e-book quotes are available on www.3H.ca)
by cassie | Aug 29, 2012 | Advertising, Branding, Business Success, Creative, Design
On August 23, 2012 a monumental change took place at one of the world’s largest technological companies; Microsoft unveiled a new logo, the first new logo since 1987.
This marks a significant change in the direction the company is taking. On the same day the logo was reveled, Microsoft stated in a press release that they wanted to revamp their image in time for the launch of Windows 8, which happens in late October. Windows 8 is the first software from Microsoft that can be used on both PCs and personal tablets, changing the way in which consumers interact with their various technological devices.
By creating a new logo Microsoft is not only trying to build interest and buzz around the product launch, but also show its target market that they have changed their way of thinking product development in response to how people currently use technology. Windows 8 is not just another “pretty” update and neither is the logo. It’s a new logo for a new Microsoft… with a new attitude.
Before
After
So how is that new business attitude reflected in the new logo? The first change is the font. Gone are the italics in favour of a new, straight font, which connects the F and T. They also altered the colour by lightening it and simplifying the use of colour removing dimension and shadows.
Secondly, the four coloured squares, which were previously curved and used to represent a window, have been straightened out and flattened to make a square. This was done to represent how applications will appear as mosaic tiles that will work on both touch tablets and PCs.
The changes are pretty minimal, so what has the response been? Pretty minimal as well. While it’s not being hailed as horrible, there’s no real praise for it either. It seems that it has failed to make an impression one way or another.
For a new logo that is supposed to be ushering in “one of the most significant waves of product launches in Microsoft’s history,” I personally think they could have done much better.
But like I said, they didn’t do a horrible job. Many components used are what go into a good logo. As Lance Ulanoff, Editor in Chief at Mashable.com, points out it’s simple and timeless. The design is clean and modern and void of stylistic trends that will easily look dated in a few years time. It also doesn’t deviate too far from the past logos. The logo is appropriate for the direction the brand is heading in. The tiles act as representation of the product the Microsoft is offering.
So where does it fail? Where it fails is the fact that it’s not memorable. Microsoft wanted the logo to be “humble, yet confident,” but humble is the wrong route to take if the brand is trying to play up the notion of significant innovation.
The lightened colour comes off as dull and weak. The adjustment of the coloured tiles is very minor. What the logo should say is “Microsoft is a leader in technology that offers innovative products to customers for their changing need.” Instead it says “Microsoft made a few changes here and there that might go unnoticed with customers.”
Simplicity is key in logo design…can anyone say Apple? The new Microsoft logo can be described as simple… but unlike Apple, it’s not clever and it’s not iconic. It’s bad business practice to try to follow in the footsteps of a competitor who has done it so well. Microsoft would have been better served striking off on its own… creating something original to set its brand apart.
While a logo a brand does not make, it is important to put thought and care into it, especially when evolving it.
Do you feel, given the goals and intended messaging, that Microsoft created a new logo that connects with consumers?
by cassie | Aug 24, 2012 | Advertising, Branding, Business Success, Interactive, Social Media
Every marketing campaign starts off with two things: a brand and a target audience. Determining a target audience used to be fairly simple; marketers looked at demographics and psychographics and determined which groups would be most responsive to the brand.
Who: is your target market made up of males or females? How old are they? Are they married or single?
Where: where do they live? What country? Are they in the country, suburbs or city?
What: what are their interests? What time of day is best to reach them? What is it about the brand’s persona that connects with them?
Why: why is the brand appealing? Why does the target audience need the product or service?
How: how can a brand’s product or service benefit the target audience?
Fundamentally the process for determining target audiences hasn’t changed, marketers still ask those questions. However, what has changed is how specific target audiences can get.
Psychographics are becoming increasingly important as niche marketing is becoming more of a common practice.
Brands that serve a niche market need to pay attention to psychographics in particular. Already having a smaller number of people in their target audience, these brands need to ensure that the connection they do create is a strong one.
It used to be that males 18-25 and who live alone was a target audience. Seems kind of broad doesn’t it? It is possible to narrow down the target audience even more and it’s largely due to social media.
Social media has made it possible for anyone to be a publisher or a writer. If an individual is dissatisfied with the lack of discourse on their interests, there is little stopping them from starting a blog or an online magazine. That’s where marketers need be looking to determine their target audience.
With the vast amount of resources available at marketer’s fingertips, it is possible to include more variables in the target audience. Instead of targeting males 18-25, who live alone and don’t cook, they can target males 18-25, who live alone in an exact neighbourhood and who don’t like vegetables.
For agencies, this can mean greater efficiency and better results for the brands. While the “blanket approach” of placing ads in all outlets that cover a particular topic can be successful in some cases; increased exposure does drive sales, it runs the risk of being too generic and lacking the details that speak directly to the target audience.
For niche marketing and its specific target audiences to be successful, marketers need to use the fine details to grab the attention of the members of the target audience, speak to them directly and build a strong relationship that will be maintained over time.
With niche marketing ads are just the beginning. As previously mentioned there are blogs, online magazines and digital media, but then there are also social media platforms and forums. Marketers need to be monitoring online conversation and see how people are speaking about brands and products. In doing so marketers can better position brands and products to align with the feelings and perspectives of the target audience, again developing a stronger connection.
Integrating psychographics and multiple variables when identifying a target audience helps drive sales through developing brand loyalty, as opposed to attracting a large amount of one-time buyers.
How specific do you get when identifying target audiences? How do you determine which variables to include?
by cassie | Aug 21, 2012 | Advertising, Branding, Business Success, Interactive, Social Media
Social Media change…what else is new!
The only constant in life is change, and this seems especially true in terms of social media. It seems as if every other day there is a new platform that is coming into vogue and those that have been around awhile are changing to keep up. Once you finally learn how to leverage networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, they change the next day.
Let’s take a look at some recent social media changes:
Klout has altered its scoring system to include “moments.” Moments are posts that have generated activity. Through moments users can see what action was taken, who did it and what network it happened on. In similar fashion to Facebook, Klout is also including insights, which allows users to have a better idea of their influence by allowing them to view data quickly and simply.
LinkedIn has changed its user interface. The homepage now features a more modern design as well as incorporating more visuals in the updates stream. Additionally, updates and posts can now be organized and viewed by what is most relevant, not that which is most recent.
Twitter has taken its promotional tweets one step further with targeted tweets. Targeted tweets allow advertisers to send tweets to specific audiences without tweeting to all of a brand’s followers. Advertisers using targeted tweets can segment by location, devices and platforms.
Facebook is following in the footsteps of Twitter by testing promoted posts. Promoted posts allow ads to show in the news feeds of all members regardless if the user has liked the brand page or if they have friends who have liked the brand page.
The question remains, are these changes necessary and useful or just annoying?
As with any change, there are going to be positive and negative aspects.
The best instances of change come out of necessity. In the case of Klout, there were many critics voicing opinions about whether the score is truly accurate and even questioning how the score is determined.
Klout’s response was to try to develop a better user understanding through its new features. Whether it will silence the naysayers remains to be seen.
Facebook is also a good example of necessary social media change. One of its largest competitors was offering a way to reach more people, so they are testing a similar approach to stay relevant.
This particular case has huge potential for brands and advertisers. Facebook already offers ads, but they are small and cast off to the side of the page. Promoted posts will bring the content onto the news feeds of users, giving it more space and attention.
These changes have the potential to transform the way those specific platforms are used and to open new ways for marketers to engage with their audiences. These changes show that the platforms are listening to their users and work to serve a purpose.
Change for change’s sake is not necessarily good. Facebook is notorious for changing their user interface and often times the reasoning behind the change is not clear. LinkedIn is the most recent platform to alter its appearance and one could question why the now and if it was even necessary.
Changes, such as those mentioned, can seem superficial and can lead to “user rage.” With the speed of technology and the amount of platforms out there, users can easily become overwhelmed. It takes time, a precious commodity they don’t have, to learn and adjust to a new interface and many initially resent being forced to make the change. It goes against the “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” mentality.
Change has the potential to bring about great things, so long as it serves a purpose and people are willing to accept it. How do you feel about the recent changes in the social media landscape?
