Which Social Network is Right for My Business?

The evolution of social media has changed the world in so many ways. The way you market your business is no exception to this fact. Social media has proven to be a complete game changer. As a company, you are no longer in control of your message. Your consumers have the ball in their court. They decide what they want to see and when they want to see it. Furthermore, thanks to social media, your customers have the ability to share their opinion about your brand and/or products (whether it is good or bad) with the entire world, all at their leisure. Worldwide conversations are taking place about your company. Are you going to ignore what people are saying and continue to send out your one-way marketing messages? Are you simply going to sit back and listen to what people are saying, without taking any action? I did not think so. You want to get in on the action. Now comes the million dollar question—which social media platform(s) do you choose to market your business?

No two businesses are the same. Even those that market similar products still differ in their branding, their goals, their objectives, and so on. Therefore, the answer to this million dollar question will not be the same for any two companies. For Company A, Facebook might be the best option. Company A might be looking to increase brand awareness and having a presence on Facebook might be the perfect option for them. For Company B, the answer might be Twitter. Perhaps Company B is a news-based company and they need to get information out in real-time. Additionally, Company C might benefit from a combination of Facebook and Twitter, and maybe even Pinterest. The point is, choosing a social media platform(s) that will be the most beneficial to you depends on your company, your industry, and your goals.

It is absolutely vital not to take on more than your resources can handle. “Brands that have small social media budgets can still achieve a high level of brand awareness by focusing their resources on just one or two platforms” (Business Insider, 2013). If you are tight on time, people, money, etc., it is beneficial to focus on just one social platform. “Most people and companies can't be amazing on every platform; that takes a huge amount of bandwidth and resources. Instead of having a sub-par representation in a lot of places, be awesome on a few of them” (Levy, 2013). In some cases, it might benefit you to be awesome on just one of them. Of course, this does not mean that you should ignore the others. You should be listening to conversations taking place all over the web when it comes to your brand. However, do not bite off more than you can chew. Attempting to maintain active profiles on too many networks may be spreading your resources too thin. In this case, you might be there, but your efforts will likely go unnoticed by your target audience. If you are going to do something, do it big. Pick a platform, and go all out. Now, how to choose which is right for you?

If you Google around and read what the experts have to say, you will frequently find a very good suggestion to start by learning more about your audience, and where they come from. “The key to choosing the right social marketing platform for your business is to know where your customers ‘hang out’ online…” (Fishaw, 2014). Knowing exactly who you want to target and then figuring out where these people are online will help you decide which platform to choose. Of course you will have to do a little research to learn a bit about each social network. Knowing their capabilities, their limits, and what others are using them for will help you determine which social network(s) will help you achieve your business goals. 

Some of the more popular and widely used platforms are Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.

Facebook: The biggest social network out there, with over 1.5 billion active users worldwide (Fishaw, 2014). This makes it great for building brand awareness. Two of the biggest age demographics using Facebook are 25 – 34 year-olds, and 45 – 54 year-olds. These are both highly desirable demographics.

Twitter: Twitter does not have nearly as many active users as Facebook, and the most popular age demographic is 18 – 29 (Fishaw, 2014). However, this is the preferred social network for many B2B companies. According to an article in Business Insider, Twitter is used by more Fortune 500 companies than Facebook (Business Insider, 2013). A total of 73% of Fortune 500 companies have active Twitter profiles, while only 66% are active on Facebook!

Pinterest: Users of this social network are comprised of mostly females. It is a very visual-based platform, so if your company has great image-based content and is targeting women, this is the place for you.

LinkedIn: This is your go-to if you want to network with business professionals.

Keep in mind that these are only a few of the most popular sites. Google+ and YouTube are also great options to look into.

Now that you know a little about each network, once you figure out where your audience is you can start to determine where you want to make your presence. Regardless of which you choose, make sure you go in with a clear-cut strategy and goals in mind. It might take a while to build traction, but you need to keep working towards your goal. “Social media is a long game and while it is a bit of a cliché it is all about relationship-building. Brands with the patience to stick to a smart strategy will see it pay off in the medium- and long-term” (Business Insider, 2013).

As web metrics expert Avinash Kaushik points out (2011), an important part of this strategy should be what happens after your post your content. This is where the conversation starts. As Cory Doctorow points out, “Conversation is King, content is just something to talk about” (Novak, 2010). Choose a platform or platforms that will enable you to post quality, conversation-starting content. Then, make sure you engage your consumers in this conversation to keep it going. This will help you increase reach and create a desire among your consumers to share your content and continue the conversation elsewhere. This, in turn, helps build brand advocates and keeps people coming back for more.

To summarize, it is important to first know your business goals. Next, research which social networks your target audience is spending time on. Learn a little about the capabilities and limitations of each network. Figure out which you can fit into your budget, and then pick a platform or two. “Money and effort should not be wasted by brands to be on all platforms, even if the budget allows for it. A surprising number of small and medium-sized brands fall into the trap of believing they have to be on all the social media platforms. A well-crafted ‘platform-native’ approach is always better than a diluted presence on a half-dozen networks” (Business Insider, 2013).  The next step is to create a strategy, stick with it, monitor your results, and adjust as you go to help you reach your goals.

To give a real-world example, I am considering starting a party planning business. My business would be small (I would be the only employee!), it would be local, and it would be a B2C company. I would likely choose to social network on Facebook, where I can build brand awareness, share photos, and target my local audience. I would also likely be active on Pinterest where I can show off my skills in images. I would be able to target mothers looking to plan Sweet 16s, Bar or Bat Mitzvahs, birthday parties, retirement parties, baby showers, etc. These two platforms would benefit me more than Twitter, where my tweets might be lost and it would be difficult to start a conversation. LinkedIn would not benefit me for obvious reasons. So, keep in mind, it is all about your specific business, your specific goals, your specific audience, and your specific resources.

References:

Business Insider. (2013). How To Choose The Right Social Media Platform For Your Brand. Retrieved on January 25 from http://www.businessinsider.com/choose-the-right-social-media-platform-2013-7

Fishaw, Justin. (2014). Choosing the Right Social Media Marketing Platform for Your Business. Retrieved on January 26 from http://digitalsherpa.com/choosing-right-social-media-marketing-platform-business/

Kaushik, Avinash. (2011). Best Social Media Metrics: Conversation, Amplification, Applause, Economic Value. Retrieved on January 27 from http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/best-social-media-metrics-conversation-amplification-applause-economic-value/

Levy, Scott. (2013). How to Choose the Best Social Media Platform for Your Business. Retrieved on January 25 from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/230020

Novak, C. (2010, July 27). Why conversation, not content, is king. SocialMediaToday.com. Retrieved January 27, 2014 from http://socialmediatoday.com/wordspring/152636/why-conversation-not-content-king

Week 2: Bounce Rate Metric

Bounce rate is extremely important to all digital marketers. It measures the percentage of people who came to your site and left within five seconds or after viewing only one page (Kaushik, 2007). As Avinash Kaushik puts it, “I came, I puked, I left” (2010, pg. 51). Kaushik also explains that the bounce rate is great because it is a standard metric included in most web analytic tools, it is easy to read and understand, it is actionable, and it helps you to understand customer behavior. It is a metric that analyzes the engagement of your consumers in relation to your website (WVU, 2014).

When you run a report and analyze your bounce rate, you want to see a low number. A high bounce rate indicates that people are not connecting to your site. “On the Internet, a high bounce rate is the kiss of death — and a sure sign that your website and marketing strategy need a major overhaul” (Hartwig, 2013). Hartwig goes on to explain that a high bounce rate is “an indication that your site isn't providing the information the user seeks, the site could be taking too long to load or hard to navigate, or perhaps there's some larger disconnect between your site and your users. The simple metric is a general way to gauge the efficacy of your site.”

In the above example of a report posted on Kaushik’s blog (2007), there is a 70% bounce rate. This is extremely high, and a sure sign that this company is in trouble! “This 70% won't even give you five seconds, or see more than one page. You can't even start to impress them with your goodness. No matter how great your goodness is” (Kaushik, 2007). In a case like this, it is important to get to work on your website to make it more engaging and user friendly.

To find the bounce rate, you divide the number of single page visits by the number of entry pages (WVU, 2014). Kaushik (2007) recommends keeping your bounce rate between 20% and 35%. Keeping the rate on the lower end will help you reach very important goals, such as increasing customer engagement and conversion rate. Having a website where people spend a good amount of time is a sign that customers are connecting to your brand. Your site is making a good impression, and they are likely to come back and spend time on it again. This increased time will likely lead to a purchase or an opt-in.

Once you find your bounce rate, the next step is to measure the bounce rate for different traffic sources (Kaushik, 2007). Look at the bounce rates coming from different URLs, the keywords being used in different search engines, the keywords for your paid ad campaigns, and your top trafficked pages. It is possible you are getting bad traffic from somewhere and you need to make some changes.

The bounce rate is a metric that “will help you focus very quickly on what's important, show where you are wasting money and what content on your site needs revisiting” (Kaushik, 2007). By paying attention to this metric, you can increase your conversion rate and become more connected to consumers. These are top goals for most companies! There is a ton of information online about different techniques for reducing bounce rates. More common suggestions include eliminating pop-ups, increasing user-friendliness, limiting video that takes a long time to load, and making sure you have quality content.

For an example of how one company reduced their 82% bounce rate by 39% and as a result increased their conversion rate by 400%, click here.

References:

Hartwig, Elisha. (2013). How to Lower Your Site's Bounce Rate. Retrieved on January 25 from http://mashable.com/2013/11/22/bounce-rate-metrics/

Kaushik, Avinash. (2007). Standard Metrics Revisited: #3: Bounce Rate. Retrieved on January 25 from http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/standard-metrics-revisited-3-bounce-rate/

Kaushik, A. (2010). Web analytics 2.0: The art of online accountability & science of customer centricity.Indianapolis, IN: Wiley Publishing.

PI Reed School of Journalism. (2014). Lesson 2: Basic Web Analytics. Retrieved on January 25 from https://ecampus.wvu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_group=courses&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2FdisplayLearningUnit%3Fcourse_id%3D_7879_1%26content_id%3D_335298_1%26framesetWrapped%3Dtrue

Week 2: Landing Page Analysis

What is a landing page? To put it simply, it is the entrance into a website (Webster, 2013). The landing page is basically where someone “lands” when they click a link and enter a website. Landing pages are part of both paid and organic search. When you create ads for a paid search campaign, you determine the landing page. When someone clicks on a link that popped up as a result of an organic search, the search engine chooses the landing page based on its relevance to the search query. Optimization is very important here. If every single page of your site is not optimized, there is less of a chance that a search engine will find it when a consumer conducts a search. “You can coach search engines with proper optimization techniques, but even for the savviest of SEO practitioners there are no guarantees. In the end, you need to make sure every single page on your website is performing to a high level, as any single one of them can be a landing page” (Webster, 2013). In other words, it is vital to make sure every page on your site and every link to your site works properly.  

Below are some examples. When the query “baby stroller” is typed into Google, the second sponsored ad is for Babies R’ Us. When I click on the link, it takes me directly to the website’s page for strollers.

I get the same result when I click on the Babies R’ Us link in the organic search results. When I click on the Walmart link in the Google search results, I’m also taken directly to the baby stroller page.

This is good for Babies R’ Us and Walmart. It would be frustrating for me as a consumer to type “baby stroller” into Google, click on a result, and be taken to a landing page that has absolutely nothing to do with strollers! Then I would have to continue navigating through the website I landed on to locate their page on strollers. This is time consuming, and does not make a good first impression.

Now that we have discussed what landing pages are and why they are important, let’s talk about why they are an important metric to monitor. Landing pages are a visit characterization metric (WVU, 2014). They tell you a little about your customers. By monitoring the pages on which consumers enter your website, you can determine the products and pages that your consumers are most interested in. This will help you target your consumers more effectively. You might think that your customers really like your business for one thing, and then find out that your most popular product is something else entirely!

Furthermore, monitoring landing pages will help you determine the top performing pages of your website. Of course, you will have to consider other metrics, such as bounce rate (to see if they landed on a page and then quickly exited). If this is the case, they most likely did not land on the page they wanted to. If there is a high bounce rate on any particular landing page, that is a good sign that your landing page needs to be fixed ASAP! This is especially true if the landing page was part of a paid ad campaign you are running.

So, always remember that thanks to search engine algorithms and SEO, any single page on your website can be a landing page. This includes your “Contact Us” page, your “Employment Opportunities” page, your “About Us” page, and so on. Therefore, make sure each one is fully optimized, looking good, functioning well, and is always prepared to entertain visitors.

References:

Webster, Kevin. (2013). Google Analytics: Landing Page Metrics. Retrieved on January 25 from http://webmarketingtoday.com/articles/Google-Analytics-Landing-Page-Metrics/