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Browse this week’s collection of search marketing articles for industry news, tips, guidance, and creative ideas for boosting an inbound marketing strategy.

Marketing & Branding:
How to Develop and Maintain a Content Team. “Content” isn’t just another buzzword when it comes to marketing. The importance of good content is here to stay, and more marketers are realizing that generating lots of high-quality content can be done more efficiently with a content team. This guide delivers tips for creating, managing, and tracking the efforts of a content team around marketing goals and strategies (from Distilled.net).

Customers Say iTunes Provides the Best Mobile Media Experience. PC sales are steadily declining, while tablet sales are rise. In less than 12 months, monthly tablet sales are expected to exceed monthly PC sales. It’s time for businesses to put equal effort into both the PC and mobile experience when it comes to customer satisfaction. Media companies like iTunes have nailed the mobile media experience, using tactics that can successfully transfer to nearly any business’s mobile marketing strategy (from Marketing Pilgrim).

SEO:
The 30 best new SEO tools. It’s a daunting task to stay on top of the ever-evolving SEO industry, but compilations like this one bring it all together for a snapshot of current SEO, which we can use to both measure and modify our current inbound strategies (from .netMagazine).

How 1% of your traffic can bring in 90% of your business. Traffic to your website is virtually useless if it doesn’t lead to conversions. Learn how long-tail keywords help target the searchers most likely to convert, making them an excellent way to drive the best kind of traffic to your website (from So What? Media).

Social Media:
7 Powerful Facebook statistics you should know for a more engaging Facebook page. These tips include some efficient ideas for boosting Facebook outreach, just by tweaking some of the social media strategies you’re probably already using. In a nutshell: post plenty of images, integrate an emotional element, pose a question, offer incentives, and keep it short (from Buffer).

4 Examples of Excellent Twitter Customer Service. 99% of brands are now on Twitter, but only 30% of them have a dedicated customer service strategy. Because technology makes it easy for consumers to publicly complain about problems related to a business’s products and services, addressing those problems using the same platforms is one way to both appease unhappy customers and maintain relationships with satisfied customers. Find out how four companies are successfully addressing customer service on Twitter (from Social Media Examiner).

4 Examples of Excellent Twitter Customer Service

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Gone are the days when people would call up a company and complain. Now, people are more likely to head to their smartphones or computers to tell the world how terrible a product or service is.That’s why customer service is becoming increasingly important on social media platforms like Twitter.

A study done by Simply Measured showed that 99% of brands are on Twitter, and 30% of them have a dedicated customer service handle. The average response time was 5.1 hours with 10% of companies answering within an hour, and 93% of companies answering within 48 hours.

Here are 4 companies with exceptional customer service on Twitter and key takeaways to help you improve how your customers perceive your company on Twitter.

1. JetBlue Excels in Responsiveness

Airline delays are one of the most common causes of customer frustration. Not only do delays happen often, but also people are pretty vocal about their feelings when their flight is delayed.

Acknowledging this, @JetBlue ensures they’re responsive to their customers because they understand it’s important for continued customer loyalty. Not only do they engage with happy customers, but they also respond to and help frustrated customers as quickly as possible.

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2. Nike’s Separate Handle

@NikeSupport is a prime example of customer service done well. They constantly respond to followers on Twitter, whether it’s about their apparel, Fuel Band or other products. Every few minutes, you can watch them respond to someone new.

What makes this remarkable? Nike is a huge company. They have many different types of sports equipment and lines of apparel that make up their brand. While Nike manages a number of Twitter handles to accommodate followers interested in specific sports or store locations, @NikeSupport is dedicated solely to responding to customers who need help.

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3. Seamless Around-the-Clock Customer Service

It is no longer a 9-5 world—especially when it comes to social media—and some companies need to be available at all hours.

Seamless is an online food ordering service that serves customers in several time zones across the United States and in London. There’s always someone ordering food and eating, right?

In addition to engaging customers through trivia questions with prizes of free food, they also provide customer service around the clock.

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4. Comcast’s Quality Assistance

While speed of response is important, many companies underestimate the importance of quality assistance. A quick response that isn’t helpful can be as good as no response at all. In the case of Comcast, their customers are looking for specific help to fix their problems. If their wireless Internet isn’t working, they want to know how to fix it. If their television connection is out, they want to know how to repair whatever is broken.

To provide each customer with a timely and helpful response, Comcast’s Twitter account is managed by a team of people who can quickly offer technical support and troubleshooting tactics for a variety of issues.

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These examples show how to use Twitter to cultivate loyalty by providing timely and helpful responses to customers.

Adopt similar tactics to improve your customers’ experience of your company on Twitter. Consider dedicating one person, even part time, to addressing customers’ questions on Twitter. Track the outcome to see whether you should expand the program.

IWW Top Tips: Internet Marketing News, Guides, and Insight From Search Marketing Leaders

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googleThis week’s collection of top search marketing articles includes insight on the latest Google updates, reasons for implementing SEO and SEM, and several perspectives on why marketers should be using the enigmatic Google+.

 

Epically Awful Social Media Plunders and Why Your Business Should Care

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Social media is growing in importance and strength as it has helped many small and large businesses reach out to their target audience with great efficiency. However, social media marketing can do more harm than good when not executed properly.

Here are examples of social media blunders that need to be avoided.

Letting The Wrong Person Manage Your Social Media Accounts. 

Social media marketing requires extensive amounts of time and effort, but handing the task to an employee can lead to certain risks. For example, a social media contractor at Chrysler commented in a tweet that people in Detroit do not know “how to (expletive) drive”. This tweet of course created a huge problem for Chrysler.

Another example of a social media disaster was when American Red Cross’ social media specialist posted on their Twitter account about drinking Dogfish Head beer and “getting slizzerd”. The social specialist blamed the mistake on her inability to use Hootsuite and meant the ill-fated tweet for her private account.

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The lesson here: if you are planning to let someone else handle your social media accounts, you have to make sure that he or she is properly trained.

Being Insensitive

Making insensitive marketing moves and comments on social media websites can draw adverse public reaction, which can jeopardize the reputation of your company. Make sure you think about whether or not someone might be offended by your social post before you hit send.

Kenneth Cole came under fire for suggesting on Twitter that news of its spring collection led to riots in Egypt, and American Apparel was blasted for offering a Hurricane Sandy sale.

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If you want to win the favor and loyalty of your customers, it is best that you refrain from making comments that may suggest that you are trying to profit from other people’s misery.

Lack of Understanding Social Media Mechanics

Social media mechanics are not easy to understand, and it is relatively common for people to make mistakes in this area. However, if you are using social media websites for business purposes, you should put in an extra effort to get things right.

One company that made a significant blunder in regards to social media mechanics is CVS Pharmacy. After signing up for a Twitter account, CVS asked its customers to become followers and offer feedback. However, its account was locked, so customers could not follow it or view tweets without asking for permission.

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While some mistakes can be easily resolved with little consequences, others can have long-term negative effects. Therefore, it really pays to learn more about social media mechanics.

Visit this link to read more about this article and Marketo Blog.

Internet Marketing News, Guides, and Insight from Search Marketing Leaders

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top 3 social sitesThis week’s collection of top search articles and resources on internet marketing includes guidance for navigating Penguin 2.0, mobile SEO marketing techniques, and social media application updates.

  • App Store SEO: The Inbound Marketer’s Guide to Mobile. As an online marketer, it’s your goal to reach as many people as possible, whether it’s by desktop, laptop, or mobile device. As more and more people are accessing information through mobile devices and their applications, it’s time for both marketing and enterprise to shift  focus to people on the move. This beginners’ guide to mobile app marketing focuses on AOS: SEO for the app store (from Moz.com).  
  • Google’s Penguin 2.0 Algorithm: The Definitive Guide. Still trying to figure out Penguin 2.0? You’re not alone. This guide explains why Google makes updates, the History of Penguin, what SEO marketers can expect from Penguin 2.0, and how to create a roadmap to solid rankings (from SearchEngineWatch.com).
  • Keyword Research Plus. This guide marries traditional marketing concepts with keyword research in order to take keyword research to a whole new level, including targeting the right market in the first place (from seobook.com).
  • Slow and Steady Wins the Social Media Race. Learn why it’s best to let the individual users test drive new social media tools before you implement them for your own business or client marketing strategy (from VerticalResponse.com).
  • Facebook’s Graph Search Expands To All US English Users. Graph Search, previously available only to a select group, is now becoming available for all English-language accounts on Facebook. Graph Search helps users find content that friends have previously shared with them. Find out what’s in store with Graph Search and how it’s changed since it’s initial launch in January 2013 (from SearchEngineLand.com).
  • An Evergreen Content Case Study. Is it more effective to put a lot of effort into regularly updating a single piece of content, or to regularly generate plenty of fresh content? As the usual practice seems to be the latter, you might be surprised by the results that one writer found with this insightful experiment on his own website (from Moz.com).

IWW Top Tips: Internet Marketing News, Guides, and Insight from Search Marketing Leaders

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social networksThis week’s collection of top search articles and resources on internet marketing includes tips about writing great headlines and social posts, going viral on slide sharing sites, and understanding and utilizing the latest services from Google.

IWW Top Tips: Internet Marketing News, Guides, and Insight from Industry Leaders

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This week’s collection of top articles and resources on search marketing and related industries includes information and ideas about content generation, SEO, social media, and web marketing.

  • SEO Tactics Die, but SEO Never Will. Search engine optimization isn’t dead, but its process is always changing. Dr. Pete takes a closer look at the ever-evolving process of filtration that allows searchers to find what they want, and how current trends show us what’s in store for SEO in the future (from Moz.com).
  • Think You Know Good Content? Fuggedaboutit. Here’s What Really Counts. These notes from the SMX2013 sessions include content strategy techniques and ideas from industry leaders, covering content as an experience, consistency in content, and taking content inventory (from Optify.net).
  • Keywords Still Matter. Keywords have fallen to the wayside in many online marketing campaigns, but this article reminds us that searchers still use particular phases to find what they’re looking for, and that it takes an understanding of the user and the words they use to find content, in order to create content that gets found (from BlindFiveYearOld.com).
  • 10 Checks to Ensure Your Twitter Profile is Growing Your Business. Neil Patel explains how to use Google Analytics to track website visits and conversions to show that your social media marketing is converting to revenue. Then he explains how to leverage the power of a Twitter account with 10 profile-boosting ideas (from QuickSprout.com).
  • The Periodic Table of SEO Success Factors. This table breaks SEO down into the fundamentals necessary for search success. The visual guide integrates content, HTML, architecture, links, trust, social, and personal factors, both on and off the page (from SearchEngineLand.com).
  • How Processing Fluency Impacts Web Marketing. Ever wonder how cognitive biases influence consumers and our ability to market to them? This discussion from Whiteboard Friday will make you rethink your marketing strategy around the ways we process ideas through the filter of cognitive bias (from Moz.com).

Facebook Apes Twitter with Hashtags – #CopyCat

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Hashtags, the popular tool used on Twitter and in an array of other social sites to surface content around specific topics #likeso, are coming to Facebook.

The introduction of hashtags, which are clickable right now, is just the first of a series of features the social network plans to roll out to “surface some of the interesting discussions people are having about public events, people and topics,” the company announced Wednesday on its website. Other features in the works include trending hashtags and “deeper insights” to help people discover more in conversations, Facebook said.

“Similar to other services like Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, or Pinterest, hashtags on Facebook allow you to add context to a post or indicate that it is part of a larger discussion,” Facebook said.

Hundreds of millions of people now use Facebook to share their thoughts on what’s happening around them, whether it’s sporting events, television shows or breaking news, the company claims, but “to date there has not been a simple way to see the larger view of what’s happening or what people are talking about,” the company said.

Users can search for a specific hashtag from their search bar, or click on hashtags originating on other services like Instagram, Facebook said. New posts can be composed directly from the hashtag feed or from search results.

IWW Weekly Top 9: Internet Marketing News, Guides, and Tips from Industry Leaders

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Increase your marketing knowledge and boost your search results with Interactive Web Works’ weekly collection of search marketing articles and related posts from across the web. You’ll find topics ranging from social media presence to content generation and insight from Google’s SEO guru, Matt Cutts. Follow IWW on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn for weekly updates and ongoing industry insight.

1. Leveraging Your Marketing With Instagram – Part 1: With more than 350 million photos uploaded to Facebook every minute, can you afford to ignore the potential of image marketing? Learn why Instagram—acquired by Facebook last year—is one of the most powerful brand boosters available today (from Position2.com).

2. Google’s Matt Cutts On SEO Industry Misconceptions: Updates, Revenue Goals & Link Building Obsession : Cutts explains algorithm updates versus data refreshes, the revenue value of Panda and Penguin updates for Google, and why SEO should switch their focus away from search engines and link building (from SearchEngineLand.com).

3. 10 Twitter Power Tips: Now that Twitter has established itself as a must-use social media site for business professionals, it’s time to learn the tactics that move your profile past being merely a presence (from InformationWeek.com).

4. 26 Ways to Create Engaging Content: There’s content, and then there’s engaging content. Engaging content not only grabs readers’ attention, but also inspires them to take action, through a comment, share, Like, follow, and ultimately a sale (from SocialMediaExaminer.com).

5. Social Calls to Action Work [infographic]: Calls to action are a long-standing and effective marketing tactic, but they aren’t used much in social media marketing. This infographic shows how simple social calls to action can be very engaging and effective, with examples from blog posts, Twitter, and Facebook (from DanZarrella.com).

6. 10 Signs Your Old Marketing Tactics Aren’t Working: While many of the golden rules of marketing will never die, those based on changing industries and technologies aren’t the survivors. See how your marketing techniques measure up to these 10 tests that provide insight on whether or not it’s time for some changes (from Optify.net).

7. Goodbye SEOmoz. Hello moz! The industry-leading website and SEO resource is dropping the SEO and keeping the Moz. Rand Fishkin explains why the company is formally rebranding their name, products, and work to Moz (from Moz.com).

8. Google’s Matt Cutts on Advertorials and Webmaster Guidelines : Cutts clarifies why advertorials and other forms of native advertising are against Google’s webmaster guidelines for increasing page rank (from SearchEngineLand.com).

9. Why It’s Time to Take LinkedIn Seriously: As LinkedIn celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, learn why it’s worth your time to boost your profile, maintain connections, and utilize other tools on the premier professional social network (from CIO.com).

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