So They Like You on Facebook; Now What?
There was something very comfortable about writing a note to a girl in elementary asking if they liked me, and receiving the response in a similarly non-intimate fashion. In fact, the anxiety that I felt in the fledgling stages of a relationship was typically when I was forced to communicate with that individual in a meaningful manner.
Much to my dismay, receiving the initial confirmation that, “Yes!” they did indeed like me, was the easy part. What followed the confirmation was terrifying for the 10 year old me; I actually had to ask them questions, get to know them, listen intently, understand their wants and needs, all the while giving them my undivided attention.
GASP! Even the hazy memory that I just pulled up from that period of my life is giving me the chills.
The Elementary School Approach to Social Media
Apparently this is a common plague within our society, so it’s no surprise that some of us may become used to the distanced “please confirm that I’m good” tactic and apply it to their marketing dollars. I get the opportunity to be exposed to many companies’ interactions and activity on Facebook, and a common thread is what I will now deem The Elementary School Approach.
The Elementary School Approach revolves around assuming that “Likes” on Facebook mean that your customer base is growing and converting without any meaningful engagement or relationship building. As we discussed earlier in the week on the Intrapromote blog Facebook Ads Vs. Google Adwords – Part Four, the trick is not getting them in the door, the trick lies in what takes place afterwards.
“Likes” Aren’t Customers…Yet
Allow me to draw out the metaphor: Just because I got an enthusiastic “Yes!” back from my elementary school pursuit did not mean that we had a meaningful relationship to build upon. To that end: a “Like” from someone just getting acquainted with your brand doesn’t always equal a happy, paying customer. New customer relationships start with a “Like” and take time (and work) to mature and flourish.
So how do we take that initial attraction to your brand (the “Like”) and turn it into a relationship? Well—let’s refer back to the aforementioned list in this blog post:
“…I actually had to ask them questions, get to know them, listen intently, understand their wants and needs, all the while giving them my undivided attention…”
Ask questions! Get to know and understand your fans! Pay close attention to their responses and other interactions! This is what makes social media marketing tick, the meat and potatoes. For the first time in history you are able to glean all the necessary information from your constituents anytime you want, and deliver exactly what they need directly to their “doorstep”.
Treat your new fans like you would a first date—make them comfortable, ask them about themselves, and at least *act* like you’re giving them your undivided attention. These small steps will go far in the long run to create customers out of fans, and ultimately real brand advocates out of customers.
All things considered, Return On Investment (ROI) implies that you’ve made an investment.
We’d love to talk with you about how we help companies nurture budding relationships and grow them into happy customer families over social networks.
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Featuring Content: Our Freshest Newsroom Contest Winner
Congrats to @ProcterGamble for winning our Freshest Newsroom Contest! Find out what makes them so “fresh” –> bit.ly/IPFresh ^MLS
— Intrapromote (@intrapromote) January 26, 2012
Congrats P&G! Freshest Newsroom Award Winner!
We’ve been conducting The Freshest Newsroom Contest for a few weeks now, and while there were many fine entries and two top contestants (Best Buy and CDC) we are bestowing the Virtual Blue Ribbon on the P&G Corporate Newsroom.
Dig just below the surface and P&G offers all of the typical news and multimedia archives a journalist would require. It’s this newsroom’s home page and its distinctive Featured Content theme that’s really worth a long look if your company is designing a newsroom.
- P&G gives busy users and journalists a quick take with their P&G Featured Views mini-slider. This preview mode provides short news snippets accompanied by meaningful images. Clicking through on any of these news previews shows the user a short news announcement with accompanying PDFs and resources provided as separate downloads. Printing, sharing and emailing icons are in plain view at the top of each article.
- On either side of the newsroom home page one finds a clean layout. The left navigation is short and self explanatory, and the right hand side of the page offers an uncluttered column containing a search box, list of media contacts, P&G social media links and the latest P&G tweets.
- Beneath the Featured Views section are the P&G Featured News Releases; presented in a similar format to Featured Views. This is a very user-friendly presentation that allows the user to see a variety of news pieces without scrolling. It’s not necessary to click through on most of the releases as they are succinctly summarized in the Featured summary.
- Completing the newsroom page layout is the P&G Featured Video. It is only 1:12 minutes long which is a perfect length to tell a story without losing the audience’s attention.
Congratulations P&G, our first annual Freshest Newsroom Award Winner!
Paid, Earned, Owned & Shared is No Longer Enough
Paid, Earned, Owned & Shared is No Longer Enough by @annabelleblue bit.ly/xMkeT6 via @intrapromote
— Intrapromote (@intrapromote) January 5, 2012
A few years ago, typing the name of a favorite product into a search engine would often result in seeing the homepage for said product in the number one spot.
Simple enough.
Today, however, searching that same product often results in the user being inundated with choices, many of them links to social media channels of that product. Many times, the home page will still be in the top spot, but the searcher may now opt to visit a social media site ranked above the fold, such as a Facebook page, for the best, most accessible information. Currently, two of the top five search results for our company are social media channels.
Paid | Earned | Owned | Shared + Searched
More and more businesses are starting to understand that it is no longer enough to just go through the motions of Paid | Earned | Owned | Shared in the digital marketplace. The integration of search engine optimization with social media is not all that new, in that search engines have been using social signals to influence their rankings for the last few years. Yet it has only been since the last half of 2011 that most digitally-savvy marketers and social strategists have truly blended their social media efforts with those in the SEO space.
One reason social signals, such as a multitude of “likes” or a tweet being re-tweeted hundreds of times, are so important to search engines is credibility. Recommendations from peers and social groups tell search engines that your content is cared about and provides them with tangible value, similar to the way that high authority inbound links can increase your rankings in Google. Think of it not so much as an algorithm, but a new twist on word-of-mouth marketing. The more active the interaction in the social channels, the more potential for search results to be impacted.
Useful social content, such as videos, blog posts, or podcasts, that isn’t found via search is a lost opportunity.
For a long time, marketers and salespeople were focused only on what social media data could provide them in terms of insight – demographics, spending habits, and ad performance, for example.
But that approach leaves out a major component of the overall digital experience.
Here at Intrapromote, we utilize the Paid | Earned | Owned | Shared model for social media optimization, but with the additional benefits of “Searched.” Blending search into the equation means providing a holistic approach to both search engine optimization (SEO) campaigns and social media optimization (SMO) campaigns.
Businesses that utilize an integrated search methodology in their social strategy see higher conversions, better engagement rates and benefits that trickle down into their other areas of focus, such as new customer acquisition. Useful social content, such as videos, blog posts, or podcasts, that isn’t found via search is a lost opportunity.
At the end of the day, regardless of what the goal is, both SEO and SMO should be working together to not only deliver marketing results, but to deliver search results, as well.
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What Makes Good SEO Conversation?
I just recently overheard a comment of someone saying, “Content used to be king – Conversation is the new king”. While I don’t entirely agree with the statement, I think it brings up a great point.
With the rise of social factors creeping their way into search engine results pages, the conversations that are happening on social networks are going to have a greater and greater impact on what you see when you search.
For many people, having a great conversation can excite, inspire and bring happiness to everyone involved. Think about it. At night we gather around a fire or a bar or at a friend’s house to enjoy great conversation. As comments are passed back and forth, it’s often the most unique, insightful or hilarious comment that is remembered and repeated from that night onward. Conversely, think of the looks you’d get if you simply repeated everything the person next to you said. Would anyone remember? Nope. So you can see how the social interactions we have in real life have begun to mimic how we act and react on social networks.
If there’s a chance your website will get a boost in rankings from people “Like”ing or “+1”ing it, why not focus on increasing those metrics?
This may sound like a simple question, but it’s an important one especially if you’re working on increasing the number of “Like”s: “WHY would anyone “Like” my site?” The common sense answer: they “Like” the content on your site and hopefully, they’re willing to converse about it. Social media cannot exist without people posting unique content to spark the conversation.
If conversing in the real world parallels over to social media, then some of the same rules apply.
Know who you’re talking to and what you’re talking about – Vanessa Fox of Search Engine Land just recently did a presentation on how search personas help target specific audiences in the online world. SEOMOZ also just did a great Whiteboard Friday discussing this topic. Are you using search personas to understand your audience?
Ask questions – If you’re uncertain about how the visitors to your site may react to a change or a new piece of content, create a side-bar survey that allows users to give feedback on what they liked / disliked. Look at the comments from users and most importantly, respond and keep asking questions and seeking input.
Listen! – Social media helps your customers and users speak their mind. Listen and you will be rewarded with long-term customers that stay with you for a lifetime. Our very own Linda O’Neill did a great piece on how to listen to your customers on social media.
So has content been demoted? Not at all – if anything content and social have raised each other up, creating a synergistic force. When you create great content, people will share it, and if you’ve created truly eye-catching content then their friends will share it, and their friends will share it and so on. Sometimes they will even critique it so that you can learn first hand how to make your content better. They may even give you new ideas for your next great piece of content.
In the end, I believe search and social are both king. It’s a diarchy – if you will. So for my closing comment I say:
Long live the kings!
