Social Media | Solve the Marketing Mystery

The Lifespan of a Link in Social Media

September 16, 2011 Leave a Comment

Unless you’re a public company trying to bury bad financial news on a Friday afternoon, you want as many people as possible to see, click and forward the links to your blog post, press release, sales page or other online content you’re trying to drive traffic to.

So, you may be interested in a recent study about how long a link published via social media and other online marketing is clicked and shared.

Borrowing the concept of a “half-life” from science, bit.ly URL shortening service recently measured how long it takes a link to get half of the clicks it will ever receive after the clicks have peaked.

Tracking the Social Media Buzz

No surprise, links had the shortest half-lives on Twitter. Although the average of 2.8 hours was longer than I expected.

Links shared on Facebook fared a bit better, getting clicks for a half-life of 3.2 hours–which makes sense since your newstream on Facebook tends to update slower than your Twitter stream.

Links sent via email and Instant Messaging (IM) programs were next with 3.4 hours. Again, you hopefully get few emails than you do Facebook updates, so an email stays on the “front page” longer.

The difference between email and Facebook should have been even bigger. But for some odd reason, bit.ly decided to include links shared via instant message programs like Skype in this number. Not sure what they were thinking there…

The Social Media King of Link Longevity

The surprising winner–links shared from YouTube got clicks for twice as long as links shared in other social media–at 7.4 hours.

The study also found that sharing and forwarding links followed the same time spans as clicks.

Bottom line, if you want your link distributed with maximum speed–for example, if you have breaking news–Twitter is your best bet. But YouTube takes the cake for longevity.

Of course, the smartest strategy is usually to use ALL of these online marketing methods to get your link out. And if you stagger the posting times so your link stays in circulation longer, you’ll multiply the amount of time it’s driving traffic to your website.

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Making Yourself UnLiked With Facebook Fan Pages

May 19, 2011 Leave a Comment

The requests fill my email inbox in droves, “Suzy Q suggests you Like her Facebook page” from all sorts of “friends”–whether you actually know them or not.

And it drives me freaking batty.

Because they all seem to forget the old marketing maxim, “What’s In It for Me?”

Sure, if you’re a real friend or fan, you probably don’t mind surfing over to click the Like button when you get a chance. But everyone else needs a real reason to Like your fan page…which means getting a little more creative than sending out the generic email Facebook creates.

“Like and Reveal” Facebook Fan Pages Make Liking More Enticing

Facebook’s recent switch in fan page programming technology now makes it a breeze to include uber-cool “Like and Reveal” functionality–where visitors to your fan page see one page of content, but after they Like your page, they see another.

This gives you the ability to save the “good stuff” for those who Like (and, in essence, “opt-in” to) your fan page. So, it’s a no-brainer to offer a free report, audio or discount they want to entice more visitors to Like your page.

After all, isn’t that what you (hopefully) do to entice people to join your email list? Well, your Facebook fans and other social media followers are simply another email list to nurture and grow.

Even better…the new content comes up without physically taking them to another page (as normally happens when you opt-in to a traditional email list). So not only do they stay in Facebook after clicking the Like button–they stay right there on your fan page as well, ready to read whatever content you’ve loaded to show next.

And of course, adding the incentive means you can ditch the generic email and give ALL your friends a good reason to surf over and click the Like button on your Facebook fan page.

By the way…

If you’re looking for an easy way to create a kick-butt Facebook fan page without having to know a bunch of tech gobbledygook, a client of mine has created a WordPress plug-in you can use to do it in a snap!

It’s called Easy FanPage Design and I’ve got it all loaded up to make myself a new page this weekend–I just have to decide what I want to put on it first! Check it out by clicking here… (affiliate link)

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I Miss Twitter

March 18, 2010 Leave a Comment

…

When I joined Twitter 2 years ago, it was about “meeting” others that shared your interests, your mindset, or even just your love of chocolate peanut butter ice cream.

Your fellow tweeps could be across the country, across the world or even just 5 minutes away. Finding new resources, getting help, and sometimes, sharing what you have to offer with the twitterverse.

But most of all, it used to be about having a conversation.

Connecting with people you would have never otherwise known. Swapping tweets with “gurus” you would have never gotten a chance to talk to in person. Staying in touch with people you met elsewhere.

Then a lot of people started competing to see who could get the most followers. One guy I know would literally get upset if he lost 100 followers one day simply because Twitter cleaned out a bunch of bots. Um, how exactly were those bots useful to you?!!

And a lot of the follow-hungry tweeps automatically unfollow anyone not following them back. Which is just crazy to me…Maybe you’re just not on their radar screen yet. Maybe they manually decide who to follow (like I do) and they just haven’t gone through to update that yet.

Some folks I’d follow regardless of whether they follow me back because I want to keep up with what they’re doing. Or the info in their tweets is usually quite valuable–or funny. (Laughter is always a good thing!)

But nowadays, I hardly ever see tweets from the people I used to “talk” with all the time because my Twitter stream is full of crap–ghostwritten tweets, pre-scheduled quotes to make it look like someone has a presence on Twitter, and endless promotions…

Especially for get-followers-quick schemes and products promising to show you how to make “a boat load of money” on Twitter.

Hello–you’re MISSING THE POINT!

The most valuable part of Twitter has always been the relationships. But as more companies and spammy marketers fill the tweetstream with their junk, that’s getting harder and harder to do.

Because people start tuning out. Just like they did with TV commercials (unless they’re REALLY good) and just like they do with anything that makes them feel they’re constantly being hounded for the money in their wallet.

Unfortunately, I’ve found myself tuning out more and more these days.

Yes, you can make lists. I’ve done that. But as I move to different Twitter clients or devices it gets harder to take those lists with me. Plus they always need to be updated as you follow new people.

I know some have completely purged their accounts and started over with just the people they really want to keep in touch with. But I like the synchronicity of discovering new people to “meet” popping up in my timeline.

So what do you do to reduce the noise in your tweetstream so Twitter continues to be useful for you?

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Create an Online Swipe File with Delicious

January 20, 2010 2 Comments

One way to make writing your own marketing materials easier to start creating a “swipe” file of things you like as you see them.

Often people talk about using a swipe file to save examples of copy they can “borrow” ideas or words from later. (Of course, there’s is an art to swiping copy effectively–especially for sales letters–you can’t just willy nilly cut and paste sentences and paragraphs you like together.)

But as a marketing savvy small business owner, you should include other items in your swipe file as well, such as…

Layouts and graphics you like
Clever promotions and marketing ideas
Sales pages for competing products and services
Ideas for new products and services
Even research and stats related to what you sell

Sure, you can put these web pages in your browser’s bookmarks, but I’ve found using the Delicious social bookmarking site works even better because you can make notes, tag items and access them wherever you have an Internet connection.

Here’s how:

If you don’t already, get a free account and install the Delicious button or toolbar in your browser. (Which usually involves just clicking a link and possibly restarting your browser afterward.)

Then, just click on the icon to bookmark a site when you find something you want to save

It’ll bring up a small page with where it’s already filled in the URL address and page title. Use the Notes text box to jot down information such as what you particularly liked about it, any performance information you may know, or what project you want to use it for later. (If you’ve ever tried to remember why you bookmarked a site later, you’ll realize just how handy this is!)

In the Tags box, add keywords like “swipe,” “productidea,” “ebookproject” or whatever you might want to search for later. Company or product names may be helpful too. (Note, these should be space separated–no commas–so two or more words in a single phrase will be typed as all one word.)

If you don’t want others to see what you’re saving for your swipe file (I usually don’t) then click to check the box next to “Mark as Private.” You’ll be the only one who will see it listed in your account.

You can also email the page to, say, your web designer by clicking in the Send box and entering the appropriate information. Twitter’s available there too if you should want to tweet it.

And there you have it–an annotated swipe file full of marketing and copy ideas you can access anytime, any place!

One note: if you don’t expect the page you’re saving to stay up long (perhaps it’s a limited time offer) you may want to take a screenshot and save that on your computer as well. I use the free version of FireShot to do that.

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Marketing Lists You Can’t Miss — 3 Killer Posts from Around the Web

October 2, 2009 2 Comments

Today, I thought I’d share some of the best posts of links I’ve come across in the last week or so–full of great and resources for your marketing pleasure…

The Internet Marketing List: 59 Things You Should Be Doing But Probably Aren’t gives you even more things for your to-do list–courtesy of @portentint. My personal favorite has to be the first one…

If you have a Flash introduction on your web site, delete it. If you don’t agree, try this: Shove your head into a bucket of water. Stay in there, not breathing, for 10 seconds longer than is comfortable. That’s what you’re doing to your customers. Delete it, please. (I second that!)

I bet you’ll find at least one new strategy to attract visitors (and probably more!) in this post on 21 Untapped Traffic Sources from @buzzblogger. I’ve already started implementing the video responses and article site bookmarking ones…the tutorials tip is a great one too.

4.6 Million WordPress Tools and Training Resources from @bendtheweb has links to, well, a heck of a lot of WordPress plug-ins, plug-in best of lists and more. (Don’t go overboard though, or your blog will load as slow as molasses.)

Any killer list posts you’d like to share?

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How Has Twitter Helped Grow Your Small Business?

September 21, 2009 4 Comments

I’ve talked in previous posts about ways my business has benefited from using Twitter (More on the Value of Social Media for Entrepreneurs and My Top 10 Reasons for Using Twitter.) But I still meet owners who wonder if there’s really an ROI from the time invested.

So I want to hear from YOU. What are the best examples and stories you have about Twitter helping grow your business?

Tales of money made or clients gained are great, but meeting an important JV partner, landing a killer speaking gig or anything that has helped your business…those results are very valuable to share too!

For example, without Twitter, I’m sure my blog would never have been chosen for Alltop last year…it was getting so little direct traffic at the time, I don’t think my web host even knew it existed.

And I suspect Alltop is the reason one of my blog posts ended up the subject of a recent Marketing Profs newsletter and on the radar for the Top 100 Marketing Blogs list it was chosen for last week.

So the question is: How has Twitter helped grow your small business or entrepreneurial venture?

There are still a lot of skeptics out there so let’s show them it IS possible. So, the more specific you can be, the better. (Specifics always make a story more interesting and more believable. )

I invite you to share your examples and stories below!

I may even highlight it in my new project, which is still under wraps! (Along with your name and URL, after making sure it’s OK with you first, of course.)

(If you’re feeling shy, you can also send me an email at tracy at compellingcomm.com.)

Oh yeah, and here’s how to find me on Twitter.

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Adventures in Teleseminar Marketing

August 18, 2009 1 Comment

I was reviewing my recent marketing promotion for the phantom teleseminar on 9 Secrets to Ebook Success and thought it might be interesting to share what I tracked and what I learned.

(Phantom teleseminar=you just sign up for the audio, there’s no actual call time.)

Overall, there was a great response with nearly 90 people signing up for the teleseminar during the month of July. And I’ll admit, I didn’t do nearly as much promotion as I’ve done for others.

But I still got some interesting results…

Sign-up by Autoresponder

This was the first time I’d done registation via email to an autoresponder instead of a web form– and I highly doubt I’ll do it again. Here’s why…

The good about registration by autoresponder–

It was super easy–people could just click the email link and hit send. So having one less step to go through could be part of why registrations were a lot higher this time around.

It was fun to see the comments people sent along in their sign-up emails.

But on the downside–

A whopping 51% of sign-ups did not confirm. With double opt-in, you submit your email address, then receive an email that contains a link you must click on to actually be added onto the list. I suspect two things were at work here:

–The lack of a reminder page to check your email for the link (like you normally get after filling out a web opt-in form)

–And often, you don’t have a double opt-in system when signing up by autoresponder. You just send the email and get whatever document you’re looking for back

Also, posting an autoresponder email address on public sites attracted junky sign-ups. At least six sign-ups were clearly sketchy. (Of course, these emails didn’t end up on the final list because they never confirmed.)

You can’t track clicks on email links like you can track clicks on URLs. So it was very difficult to track where people actually saw the email to sign-up.

Solo Email

Anyone who subcribes to my Compelling Marketing Ezine and hadn’t registered by July 9 received a solo email with the subject line: “Sorry, you’re not invited to the call.”

The edgy subject line seemed to be a hit–generating some quite funny responses as well. In all, 10% of everyone who received the email signed up, which is great–especially since two previous announcements in the ezine had already gotten a strong response.

Response among those who actually opened the email blast was near 40% but I prefer to focus on overall response since open rates can be wildly inaccurate.

The email had three email “links” to sign-up because some say three links is most effective. I created a different subject line for each of the three email links so I could tell which links were clicked if the click tracking didn’t work. (And it didn’t.)

Surprise–NO ONE signed up from the first link! Since the rule of thumb is that the first link will get the vast majority of the clicks my results totally defied that standard. Instead, 85% of responses were from the second email link and 15% from the third.

It would take more testing to figure out why the big difference from the supposed norm since a couple factors could have been at work. But the key point is that you should always do your own testing to see what works for you.

Overall, the solo email brought the highest amount of sign-ups, accounting for more than 25% of teleseminar registrations.

And six more signed-up when the email was sent out via Twitter (which Aweber automatically does for me)–boosting the total response to 33% of total teleseminar sign-ups.

Next time, I’ll reveal how other teleseminar promotion methods such as the ezine, Facebook and Twitter fared!

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A Round Up of Twitter Resources

June 2, 2009 1 Comment

If you’re just finding your way around Twitter, or looking for helpful tips and strategies, TwitterHandbook is a great place to start. One invaluable tip I learned from it was how to change your Twitter name.

Here’s a helpful list of various Twitter apps to make your life easier.

And here are the Twitter apps I use…

Tweetdeck to scan tweets and track categories of people and keyword searches that I’ve created. You can also track Facebook Friend updates as well.

Tweetgrid to watch groups of searches in real time.

Twitterfeed to feed blog posts to Twitter.

Tweetlater to pre-schedule a series of tips via Twitter. I used to use it to send an auto DM to new followers until the backlash about that hit.

Twitbacks to create a quick and easy Twitter background with more of your contact info.

Twitter Grader Ok, first, it’s really cool to see what your Twitter grade is (especially when you rank among the Twitter Elite in your locale!). But I also use it to find local people I should be following.

To find people to follow…

I don’t autofollow people. To me it’s not about getting the biggest list, it’s about finding people I’d like to connect with. So here are some tools to make finding the right people easier:

Twellow to search Twitter profiles for keywords or location or find various groups of people by area of interest.

Twitseeker to search keywords in both tweets and profiles.

Twitter Karma see who you’re following that’s not following you and vice versa. (Not always accurate, but it’s a good way to get an idea of who’s following you that you may want to follow back.)

Mr. Tweet will analyze your tweets and send you a link every two weeks of people it says you should be following. Will also show you who’s following you that you’re not following back.

Who Should I Follow? will analyze people you follow and find others like them.

Other Small Business-Related Twitter posts I’ve done…

One List is Not Enough Anymore

Using Twitter for Business

More on the Value of Social Media for Entrepreneurs

My Top 10 Reasons for Using Twitter

Twitterberry Versus Tiny Twitter for the Crackberry

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One List is Not Enough Anymore

May 27, 2009 2 Comments

Remember when business was simpler and you only had one list to worry about?! (Or two, if you count contacts that aren’t on your ezine list.) But Web 2.0 has changed all that.

Because blogs, Facebook and Twitter are essentially creating other lists of contacts and prospects within your sphere of influence. But the quality of your relationship with each of these lists varies greatly.

Ezine subscribers–They’re in the center of the bulls-eye below because they tend to be your most loyal fans.

They’re not only letting you into their inbox– which people are getting increasingly protective about–but the personal note most ezines include gives them a chance to know you better. So they feel more of a connection with you.

Blog subscribers (via email)–A step out from the center, these prospects are all about the information.

They want to keep an eye on what you’re doing, but you’re not building as much rapport with them. Plus, they usually have to take the extra step of clicking over to the blog to read the full article. So you tend to get less overall readership.

On the other hand, they may be getting your emails more often–which can create a sense of familiarity.

Blog subscribers (via RSS)–These prospects are literally keeping you at arms length because they’re not convinced you’ll consistently provide enough value to rate being in their inbox. (Unless they’re a fanatic feed reader.)

Facebook–Friends would probably be yet another ring beyond Twitter because it’s so common to friend someone yet never interact with them.

But people who join your FB Group have taken that extra step–so they’re definitely interested in your topic. Also,you can build credibility and rapport through group emails.

The downside is you don’t have direct access to them (ie their email address) and groups can be pretty inactive.

But it exposes you to a new circle of contacts and can be a good first step in building a relationship with them. It’s also a good way to interact with subscribers and contacts you already have.

Twitter Followers–Twitter is more complex, which is why it’s on the outer ring. If someone’s following thousands of people and not breaking them down by interest in apps such as Tweetdeck, they may never even see your tweets.

Yet the more casual nature of Twitter means you can connect on a business and personal level that builds the all important Know, Like and Trust factor.

So again, it’s exposure to a new group of people and a good way to further relationships with other contacts.

Keep in mind that Twitter and Facebook are NOT about just pushing offers and info out to people. (None of these should be, but you’re held to a higher standard with Facebook and especially Twitter.) It’s more about interacting.

But in short, all of these networks create a valuable web of contacts and potential clients for your business.

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