Here’s the third post in our “Stand Out” series. In this post, you’ll learn how to tailor your content on Google+ to garner the most success. Google+ now has half a billion users, so if you’re not paying attention to this social platform, no
w’s the time to start!
1. Google+ users are more likely to engage with technology related content.
2. An easy way to create content centered in technology is to research trends in your industry to learn how things work – how your products are made, for example, would provide exciting insider content for your fans.
3. Google+ is very visual – pictures perform well on this platform because of its simple design and eye-catching feed. This being said, using photographs is a great way to tell your brand’s story. (Just don’t be one of those brands that posts pictures with every update).
4. Like all other social networks, make sure the theme of your content is consistent. For example, Brandtailers’ Google+ posts are centered in technology and Online Brand Management, with some topical and timely posts thrown in here and there.
5. In addition to pictures, use various media throughout your profile (infographics, videos, and presentations for example), not just text-heavy content.
6. Pick and choose whom you want
to notify for each post. Google+ allows your brand to utilize circles, which helps promote a feeling of exclusivity for your followers. When you’re providing content that is specifically targeted to one audience, this selective feature will both help you reach that audience and allow them to enjoy relevant content.
7. Your content isn’t just limited to your posts. Utilize targeted keywords and relevant links in your “about” tab to increase the visibility of your page. For example, the Google AdWords Keyword Tool is a great way to learn what the buzzwords are for your industry. Pick a few of them to incorporate into your summary and then link back to the products and/or services you provide.
Like all social networks, Google+ is constantly changing. One thing we’re still waiting for, however, is a wide release of its vanity URLs. We’re hoping that will come soon. Until then, follow these 7 tips to tailor your content to best suit your brand, retail message, and target audiences.
Stay tuned for our next feature in the series – Stand Out on Pinterest.
-Breanna Fleckenstein, Inbound Marketing Manager
Search Engine Optimization – everyone in business has heard the term and knows what it means, but only a few know how it can truly help their business. Here at Brandtailers, search engine optimization is integral to our clients’ online marketing strategies. Therefore, we’ve put together this primer to familiarize you with search engine optimization. In this article, you’ll learn: 1) how search engines work, 2) what search engine optimization is, and 3) how it can help your business.
How Search Engines Work
Google and other search engines works tirelessly to match the websites they return in their search results with the user’s intent. For instance, if a user types in “buy video camera,” Google knows this person is wants to buy a video camera. Therefore, Google returns websites that are useful to the user, such as video camera review websites and video camera stores. It determines the relevancy through three main criteria:
2. How many other websites link to the website (also called back links)? The more back links a website has from authoritative websites, the higher a search engine will rank it. Let’s assume there are two identical video camera review websites. The only difference is that one has no back links, whereas the other has links from major websites like New York Times, Huffington Post, Mashable, and AOL.com. Because the second website has back links from major websites, it will be ranked higher than the first.
3. Does the website have fresh content? Google will rank websites with new content higher. The content could be blog posts, articles, and videos. The main reason behind this is that a website that hasn’t been updated since 1999 will be out of date. But as the world moves faster and information spreads more rapidly, even a week can make a website out of date.
What Is Search Engine Optimization
In a nutshell, Search Engine Optimization is about leveraging your website’s assets in a way that encourages search engines to rank your website towards the top of their search engine results. There are two main parts of search engine optimization: on page and off page. On page optimization is more of the technical aspects. As we discussed above, a search engine looks for specific keywords to determine the subject of your website. But these keywords must be placed in key strategic areas. On page optimization is about placing these keywords in these strategic areas. Off page is about acquiring back links. There are numerous techniques to acquiring back links, such as encouraging sharing through social media, press outreach and content syndication.
How Search Engine Optimization Can Help Your Business
When a website ranks high in search engines, it receives a higher level of relevant traffic. For example, a video camera store that ranks in the first position for the keyword “buy video camera” will receive thousands of visitors a day. And each one of these visitors is actively looking to buy a video camera. The same holds true for your business. The higher you rank in search engines for keywords relevant to your business, you will get a greater number of valuable leads. Search engine optimization is the path to higher ranking and more business.
When businesses come to us looking for an online marketing strategy, one of the first things we discuss is search engine optimization. It is essential to a strong online marketing strategy. We’d love to discuss further how search engine optimization can help your business flourish. Feel free to contact us.
We have a theory among us at Brandtailers that is: “When you want to know what’s coming next for the Internet, look at what teenagers are doing, because they are the Internet’s early adopters”. Just look at the data. Between 2007 and 2009, the adoption of social media among 14-26 year olds remained roughly the same: 71-77%. In other words, a majority of teens have been using social media way before 2007. Now look at the entire US population of 14-75 year olds. It increased from 45-57%, and almost all of it coming from the 44-75 year old age range. Teenagers quickly adopted social media; the rest of the population is quickly adopting it. [data from Mashable.com]
What’s next? Take a look at most teenagers today. You’ll see their heads down looking at smartphones, tablets, and laptops. What are they doing? Consuming media. But it’s a different form of media. No longer is it television, radio, magazines, and newspapers. Now, it’s YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Pinterest, Instagram, and the myriad of other social networks. All day long, teenagers consume media in all different forms. On their way to school, they are reading their friends’ Facebook status updates. During lunch, they check out Twitter for any interesting articles. When they get home, they jump on YouTube to see the latest videos. And at night, they scroll through Instagram to see what pictures their friends have taken.
So what does this mean for marketers? Let’s look back at a couple decades ago. If you wanted to inform consumers of your new product or service, you’d pay for an advertisement on television, radio, or print. That was enough. But fewer consumers are consuming this traditional media. Therefore, fewer consumers are seeing these marketing messages. As the old saying goes, you need to be where your customers are. Media consumption has changed, and so too should your marketing. It’s no longer enough to only use traditional media.
Not only is the media changing, but so is the way consumers interact with their media. Traditional media were one way, broadcast messages. Producers produced, and consumers consumed. Now, the line has blurred. Consumers are not only consuming media, but are producing it as well. Looking at today’s popular media, you’ll see every day consumers creating videos for YouTube, status updates on Facebook, and tweets on Twitter. It’s no longer a broadcast, but a conversation.
Now, if you want your brand to be relevant, you can’t rely on broadcasting marketing messages. Instead, you need to join the conversation. So how can a brand marketer join the conversation? It’s best to illustrate this with an example. Let’s assume we are the marketers for a fictitious hotel, the Chic Night in New York City. We could run television, radio, and print ads. But as we said, that’s not enough. Looking online, we see people “sharing” us on the Internet: past customers tweeting about the positive and negative of our hotel; reviews on Yelp; check-ins on Facebook and Foursquare; pictures on Instagram; blog articles. And then there are the potential customers who come across these media, who saw their friend check-in at our hotel; who saw their friend’s vacation pictures on Facebook; who read reviews extolling how great our customer service was.
This conversation is going on, and we can join in. We can create a Facebook page inviting people to share pictures and stories of their stay at the hotel. We can thank people on Twitter who are saying how great we are, and find out how we can improve by asking those who were unhappy with their stay. We can post images on Instagram and Flickr to show what our hotel rooms look like. And we can respond to reviews on Yelp. While we are not broadcasting a message anymore, we are amplifying the conversation that is there. And when we amplify the conversation, more people join in. And when more people join in, our hotel receives more customers.
Let us show you how you can integrate this new media into your marketing plan.
Image Credit: 
Some rights reserved by hiler2002
