From the monthly archives:

August 2012

The Cannibalization Of Your Traffic Or Not?

by Jason Falls · August 31, 2012

An interesting question was posed at a corporate event I was involved in earlier this week. I wasn’t the person asked the question, but it intrigued me enough that I gave it some thought and wanted to share. While talking about a relatively conservative company launching more holistically into a digital marketing strategy that included social channel activation, an employee of the company asked, “Don’t these social channels cannibalize traffic to our website?”

It’s a natural question and, frankly, makes a lot of sense to ask. Why would we route and send people to Facebook or LinkedIn, Twitter or YouTube if we could send them to our website? So here are some thoughts if I were to answer the question:

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9 comments

Where To Draw The Line With A Social Media Agency

by Ilana Rabinowitz · August 30, 2012

An agent is an entity that acts on your behalf.  When you are hiring a social media agency, you are hiring someone to provide any of a range of services for you that you either don’t have the time or the ability to handle.  In other business matters, you may hire a lawyer or an accountant to handle matters you are not capable of dealing with.  No one can be an expert in everything.

But in our interpersonal relationships we rarely hire agents.  You can’t very well hire someone to discipline your child or date for you or grow your social circle.  Well, in some cases you can, I suppose, but long-term your not being in the relationship becomes an issue.

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10 comments

The Curious and The Needy: Does Your Website Deliver?

by Heather Rast · August 29, 2012

Inbound marketing. Content marketing. Social Media Marketing. Internet Marketing. In a time when the whole of the marketing and communications landscape has changed faster than many companies can adapt (and most certainly before they can master), is there small wonder some brands have found themselves having zealotously favored one strategic direction and roster of tactics over another, maybe only to later command the troops to, “Quick, now go thataway?”

Publish twice daily on your assigned topic! Tweet four times an hour with these two hashtags! Know the best time of day to update the Facebook page wall! Oh my.

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7 comments

Using Analytics to Plan Great Content

by Kat French · August 28, 2012

If you’re a digital marketer and don’t log into analytics at least weekly, shame on you. You’re missing information that can help you make better decisions, even in tasks and roles that seem pretty far removed from reporting.

Most marketers associate Google Analytics with periodic reporting of traffic. Those who are responsible for tracking revenue or media buys may look at conversions or traffic source performance. But the data in Google Analytics can help content strategists, community managers and others in a more editorial role, too.

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17 comments

Does Compelling Art Sell?

by Jason Falls · August 27, 2012

Watching the promotional video for a friend’s new product recently, I found myself really engaged. It was a beautiful piece with vibrant imagery. Whomever produced the video worked hard and the finished product was well worth watching. It was compelling, visually. It was a piece of art.

Great art alone never sold anything

But nothing in the piece told me what the product was, why I might use it or how I can even buy it.

Great art serves a purpose. But great art alone never sold anything. For that, you need great copy.

Permanent link to this post (95 words, estimated 23 secs reading time)
7 comments

SoLoMo Show Ep 33: What’s New in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and How Social Affects Your Page Rank

by Adam Helweh · August 25, 2012

The SoLoMo Show is a weekly podcast hosted by Adam Helweh and Cory OBrien. Each week they discuss topics, trends and tactics related to social, local and mobile marketing.

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7 comments

The Glossy Veneer of Professionalism

by Stephanie Schwab · August 24, 2012

Today’s storefronts and social media platforms make it easy for anyone to hang out a shingle. Whether you’re a quilt maker, graphic designer or marketing consultant, you can build a very professional-looking web presence in a matter of hours. Then, over a relatively short time, build up your credibility as well by tweeting, pinning, or blogging on your topic. But a pretty front end and lots of followers say nothing about your ability to deliver professional work on a timely basis.

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8 comments

Social TV: The Battle For The Three Screens

by Jason Falls · August 23, 2012

The awesomeness was flowing on Wednesday’s SME Digital Power Panel discussion, Social TV: The Battle of Three Screens. Our guest experts were Gabe Goodwin (@GabeTheWP), of ESPN; Ann Glenn (@urlgrl), of Sony Pictures; and Jamie Kennedy (@JamieCKennedy), of O2Media.  Special guest Stacey Shepatin (@bosmediacontent), co-author of Social TV: How Marketers Can Reach and Engage Audiences by Connecting Television to the Web, Social Media, and Mobile also joined us for the discussion and two lucky viewers went home with a copy of her book.

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2 comments

The Reporter’s Guide to Customer Experience

by Ike Pigott · August 22, 2012

Congratulations! You did all the hard work, studied your options and embarked on a social media program for your company. You’ve already accomplished the second most-difficult part of maintaining a social presence that will keep your customers informed and engaged. The hardest part?

The rest.

We often got lost in the bright and shiny glare of the tool-of-the-day, and lose track of what’s important.

Now that you’ve launched, you need to take a critical eye and examine what seems to be working and what isn’t. And while there are so many variables for small/medium/enterprise and retail/service that a checklist isn’t really viable, there is a way to make sure you’re asking all the right questions about how you are maintaining your program.

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