St Louis Web Marketing

Archive for September, 2009

I am one of the few and lucky graduates of Spring 2009 that actually received my degree and got a job in my field within three months of graduation. “Advertising, so you write commercials and stuff?” is often a response when I tell people the industry I belong to.  I usually laugh, because that is a common stereotype for those of us in advertising and marketing. Honestly, it is those stereotypes that lead me to choose my major in the first place. While, I didn’t learn how to write funny commercials in class, I will say that I did not learn how to do what I am doing now either.

I am a web marketing account manager for an internet marketing firm.  Search engine optimization, social media, and Google Analytics are apart of my daily vocabulary at my new job, but I never heard one of those terms during my four years at an accredited University.  Schools are still teaching students about the ancient traditional media and are not training pupils on internet marketing or even mentioning the growing technology. Perhaps it is because it is a new genre that professors do not even understand, but in my opinion it needs to become a part of the curriculum sooner than later.

Having a degree no longer sets you apart from the eager job seekers, but knowledge and experience sure does. And in an industry that is constantly growing, employers are looking for those who know more than then they do. If Universities really want to stand out for their marketing programs, they should really begin teaching about internet marketing, search engine marketing, and social media. Soon enough they will realize that traditional media is yesterday’s medium, and internet marketing is the advertising of the future. Schools, students, and the industry are sure to benefit from these changes. At least until something else comes along…

So you’ve got your Facebook and Twitter accounts set up for your business.  They are synchronized for a convenient post to both outlets. You’re ready to tell the world about your brand through the all fabulous social media. But, what do you write? And more importantly, what is acceptable to post?

There is such as thing as Social Media Etiquette and it is important for you to follow the guidelines. You and whoever is going to be posting on behalf of your company or brand should be well aware of what is and is not acceptable to post via Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media outlet.

Here are a few guidelines that should be followed and please feel free to expand to better suit you and your business.

• Never represent yourself or your company in a negative way
• Never represent yourself or your company in a false or misleading way
• Be sure to post meaningful, respectful comments. No spam, off topic, or offensive remarks
• Do not violate any company privacy, confidentiality, and/or legal guidelines

Finally, the golden rule that is most important in terms of public relations and protecting your brand:

• Remember that not only do you represent the name under which you are posting, but you represent your company/brand as well

The internet is fast paced and unforgivable. If someone sees a remark that they are not happy with, it can be “retweeted” to thousands in seconds. Users have the option to click away from your page faster than you can say “Facebook” if they see one thing they are not satisfied. Realistically you have milliseconds to grasp your audience, keep them there, and keep them content.

With all of this said, please be selective in choosing who you give administrative rights to for your social media accounts. Social media is apart of a free world, so be sure to monitor your employees and what they are saying to the public. The easiest way of keeping the peace is by distributing guidelines to anyone you think may be using social media on behalf of your company or brand.

Now get to posting…

Facebook has got it all and it is no surprise that users spent an average of five hours and 12 minutes on Facebook in July, 2009. With all of the applications, friends, fans, and photos, there is still one thing missing from Facebook that even Twitter has.

And it is as easy @ b c…

Soon enough, that will not be a problem. Facebook just introduced the ability to tag your friends in your status update. Much like Twitter’s @mention, you will be able to direct a message through your status to any of your contacts. Not only can you tag your friends to your status, but you will able to tag groups, events, applications, and pages.

Capturing one of Twitter’s best features, Facebook is making it even easier to have a public conversation. Fans are sure to love the new feature and it could mean good news for businesses as well. Brands that have created pages, but are having a hard time getting noticed can reach out to their fans in a more direct way. On top of that, fans will be able to tag their favorite pages as well. Soon we will be seeing status updates that read Joe Shmoe: is eating McDonalds and drinking a Coke.  With easy linking to fan pages, this new element is going to be driving so much traffic to sites that users may have not stumbled upon otherwise.

While users and brands should be ecstatic about Facebook’s new feature, Twitter is probably pouting in the corner. This move takes away the need of Twitter for some people and gives them everything they could need on Facebook. If Twitter plans to continue to compete with Facebook it will need some new features, and soon.

More updates on Facebook and other Social Media soon…

YouTube… Many of us think of “Charlie Bit My Finger”, “Evolution of Dance”, and other hilarious homemade videos created simply for entertainment. But, in this ever changing world of social media, YouTube is now another source of marketing that can be used as a tool to advance your business.  However, just like any other form of social media (Facebook, Twitter, Blogs), YouTube is only considered effective if it is used properly. Here are some practices that should be followed when creating and optimizing your YouTube videos.

• Videos should be short, sweet, and to the point. Unlike the traditional, specific to entertainment YouTube videos, ones that are created for your business should be direct and informative. Viewers will not want to spend more than a few minutes viewing what you have to offer and desire instant gratification, answers now! Also, longer videos lead to longer upload times, which no one wants to wait around for.
• Save your video as a search friendly name. Just like a URL, you don’t want to save video files as 58756-apx.mov. Save it as something that actually describes your video and use some meaningful keywords.
• Comment and allow comments. Similar to Google Ranking, the more interaction you have with other users the higher you will rank in YouTube optimization. This means watch other videos, comment, subscribe, and make channels and friends. The more you put yourself out there, the more reciprocation you will receive. Also, be sure to post your video on other blogs and sites. If your video is viewed from another site, it still counts as a view.
• Chose ALL text wisely. Your Title should include basic keywords that people are likely to search and should be in conversational format. (How to do… How to make a…Product tutorial). Your URL should be the first thing listed in your Description.  YouTube only displays the first few lines of your description and since the ultimate goal is to get visitors to your site you want to be sure that they see that URL.  Following your URL, you want to illustrate your video with keyword dense sentences. Use as many keywords that make sense, but do not overdo it, that is SPAMMING. Your Tags should contain all variations of likely searched words and phrases. Get rid of non-specific words (and, of, to) and stick to the keywords.

These were just a few tips to get you started. Until next time……..