GlobeRunnerSEO

CEO of Globe Runner, an SEO Services Company.

I am an artist, entrepreneur, and motivation speaker that does speaking engagements and   seminars.  I understand business and have experienced the power of search engine optimization first hand.  I spend all my free time with my wife Heather, 3 year old son Keegan, and twin boys Trevor & Elliot.

As an expert in search engine optimization and search marketing, I founded GloberunnerSEO with the objective of helping small to medium sized business leverage the power of search engine optimization to become more profitable.

Globe Runner SEO works as an online partner, dedicated to the profitability of their clients.  We take the time to get to know our customer’s business, understand there online objectives, and help develop strategies to meet their goals. Creating long-term results with a vision toward the future.  “We only accept clients that we firmly believe will profit from our efforts.”

- A Slideshare Presentation by Hoover’s and Ideahaus Communications Director Kevin Popovic -

With new platforms and services appearing almost daily, social media is providing the ability to create a new type of customer relationship that can translate into real dollars for your organization – if they’re used and managed correctly.

The Slideshare presentation above is a detailed recap of  Hoover’s and Ideahaus Communications Director Kevin Popovic’s exciting webinar from Wednesday, April 7th that looked into social media and how your sales team can make the most out of it.  Key points covered in the presentation were:

• The differences between key social media applications
• How to facilitate your sales process using them
• New opportunities for Sales and Marketing to work together
• The impact of Satellite Marketing™ on your sales organization

We have also provided a video similiar in content to the presentation above where internet marketing expert Kevin Popovic addresses the Western Masachusetts Advertising Club during a workshop on “satellite marketing.”

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRcYjhUB_Ik

To see the original webinar in its full version, visit the registration page.

Learn more about the speaker Kevin Popovic by visiting his company page.

Facebook is Changing the Way We Interact With Brands

Changes are on the horizon for Facebook.  And the newly proposed modifications might not make everyone happy; Facebook “Fan Pages” as we know them will soon be a thing of the past and the way we interact with those Pages will change for better or worst.  In this article we will take a quick peek at some of the changes to come and briefly explore what this says about Facebook’s grip on the market.

But I Liked Facebook the Way it Was!

It is a widely accepted truth that Facebook is a powerhouse in the social media game.  With that said, their true strength in the market may be even more impressive than one could have imagined.  It is easy to look at the staggering user numbers – 400 million active users, 50% of which sign on at least once a day.  While those numbers are impressive and telling, the true measure of Facebook’s market dominance might better be measured by how they go about implementing changes to their website. 

Can anyone recall just how many times Facebook changed their user interface without asking if their users actually wanted a change?  How about the numerous occasions where the Privacy Policy was modified and made public only after a social media uproar shined light on the policy changes?  In keeping with their “we’re going to do what we want and you will eventually get used to it” relationship with their users, Facebook is now making a sweeping policy change to their Facebook Fan Pages which will affect more than just the casual user. 

So What’s Behind the Change Anyway?

The “Become a Fan” concept we have all come so accustomed with will soon be replaced by “Likes.”  Facebook Fan Pages (or whatever they end up being called) will no longer accumulate ‘Fans’ but rather ‘Connections’ (much like your personal profile pages it seems).  Those easy to understand call to action buttons labeled “Become a Fan” will now display a more ambiguous “Like” mention with a thumbs up logo. 

So what was so wrong with the verbiage “Become a Fan” that has Facebook modifying a utility that thousands of brands and causes have happily adopted?  It surely isn’t ease of use or popular demand – Fan Pages have never been so en vogue.  There must be a good reason behind this, but something tells me it has more to do with increasing revenues than it does with making Facebook users happy.  Either way, given Facebook’s current dominance and strategic partnerships with other large web channels, there probably isn’t much we could do about it if we wanted to. 

How do you perceive this move from Facebook?  Should they be more ‘user first’ oriented?  Share your comments below and let us know what you think.

Article written for Unilzyer by Nick Frank:  Follow Nick on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Nick_J_Frank or see his blog at http://mynicknews.blogspot.com/

Okay, here are the three key steps required to add Youtube Video to your Blog:

1. Upload Your Video to Youtube.
2. Download and install the Wordpress Plugin named “Smart Youtube.”
3. Place your embed code into your Wordpress Blog Post by copying the video URL from Youtube to your post and changing http:// to httpv:// (notice the ‘v’ character).  The video will be automatically embedded to your post in the proper way.

For example:

        www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiXZz4N97Pc

If you want to post a high quality/HD video you would use httpvh:// (‘vh’ for video high)

To embed a playlist use extension ‘vp’

www.youtube.com/watch?v=528026B4F7B34094

Additionally, you can set how do you want the video to be displayed in your RSS feed. Smart Youtube can show the preview image of the video (automatically grabbed from Youtube), the link to the video, or both.  One recommendation is to enable only the preview image.

If you want to go to the source for more information, here is a link to see instructions on how to embed YT videos in Wordpress:  http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/smart-youtube/installation/.

In this Unilyzer Blog, you can read more about the benefits of adding video to your blog, read the article on this blog name Dominate with Video, http://www.unilyzer.com/social-media-marketing/dominate-with-video/.

Good luck!

Unilyzer Dashboard Tracks Facebook Fanpage Traffic

Does it help to know which channel is working best for you?   Social Media Marketing can be time consuming, so after awhile you might ask yourself, “how should I spend my time and money in a way that gives me the most ‘bang for the buck’” ? Or, in CFO speak, “which channel is giving me the most ROI”?

Well, the answer is probably different for everyone, depending on your product, service, or content and depending on who is your target audience.  But, here is one way to get a good idea of which channel is best for you: line up key metrics for each of your social media networking channels like Facebook, Youtube,  & Twitter. Do this on a side-by-side basis, like in the image above.

I personally do this with my Unilyzer Dashboard because I understand things better and faster when they are presented using charts and graphs. Now, in this example,  “a picture paints a thousand words.”  I lined up three key analytics metrics, Visits, Stickyness, and Time On Site – all provided by Google Analytics, which is one data source for Unilyzer.  Now, I clearly see the difference in visitor behavior based on which social media channel they came from.

See how 60% of people visiting my site from Facebook stick around and spend an average of 10 minutes and 1 second on my site?  Now, see how only 67% of visits from Twitter stuck around (did not *bounce) and those that stuck around stayed for an average of 1 second, while 100% of visits from LinkedIn did not “bounce” and they stayed for 2 minutes and 1 second on average.

So, what does this tell me?  My interpretation: well, my tweets generated curiosity – but not real interest, while my facebook marketing efforts hit a home run (got to the right target audience), and my LinkedIn visitors are interested in my site as well. The ironic thing is that I spent most of my day watching my tweet deck!  So, what to do from here?

Well, now that I have insight, I can make adjustments to my overall social networking campaign. What I do know is that Facebook is the best social media marketing channel for my specific product and service.  It might be different for you, but line up your metrics and find out!

*Bounce: a term used by google analytics which means that a visitor came to your domain, then left within 5 seconds – therefore, they bounced off your site.

I could talk about social media marketing analytics, reporting, and metrics all day long, but to keep it real, let’s stop here.  Look for more articles on the Unilyzer Blog about how to use social media marketing analytics to help you monitor and manage your social media and inbound marketing campaigns.

As a final note, I realize that this approach to measure traffic is based purely on traffic metrics (quantitative measures) and doesn’t consider leads or branding (qualitative measures) related to social media marketing campaigns; however, this is a good start and a good approach for sizing things up.

in to What Your Following Wants

What’s in a Number?  Quite a Bit Apparently

Okay guys, can we go ahead and agree that Social Media is good for business?  At least in an empirical data kind of way?    Well, you might be surprised at how many skeptics are left out there.  Everybody knows “that guy” who will never be seen on Facebook and thinks that Twitter should never have been invented in the first place.  The funny thing is, “that guy” all too often happens to be a marketing manager or marketing influencer for their respective company.  For the good of everyone, new and concrete statistics are now available to add to your pro-social media arsenal.  When “that guy” says you are wasting time creating a Facebook Fan Page, you can remind him that 60% of people surveyed were more likely to refer a brand to a friend if they are a fan of that brand.  And for Twitter? Try 80% more likely.  “That guy” might waive this off as crazy talk.  If he does, forward him the rest of this article – We found some pretty compelling arguments and stats that are hard to dismiss.

Social Media Fans Much More Likely to Buy

Recent findings by Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate have given some reassurance to social media marketers looking to substantiate the time and money they put in developing a fandom on Facebook, Twitter and other social media outlets.  Take a look at the graph below where US internet users were polled on their Facebook fan habits:

We can see from this graph that Facebook fans are much more likely to not only buy your brand, but to recommend it to their peers.  Most of us could probably have guessed as much – when people are engaged with a product or service through channels such as Facebook and Twitter, brand visibility is heightened and they have a better chance of staying on the customer’s radar.  The trick for brands is to understand why people become fans / followers and then to capitalize on this built-in communication channel by making sure they are telling them what they want to hear. 

Why Your Fans are Fans and Why Your Followers Follow You

So what do your fans want to hear?  Why did they become your fan in the first place?  More data from the study referenced above sheds some light on these questions.  In the graph below, we can see that 61% of “Max Connectors,” or users having 500+ social media connections became fans or followers of a brand to learn about new products, services and features.  This group was also driven to fan or follow a brand to learn more about the company culture, worker’s policies and other corporate information.  For the rest of the users (<500 SM connections), 65% engaged with the brand in order to stay abreast of sales and new deals, while 61% were looking to learn about new products, features and services.  Not to be forgotten, many fans also cited entertainment as a factor in their decision to follow a brand.  Here is the chart:

And what about Twitter?  Do you know why your followers are following you?  If not, you may not be telling them what they want to hear.  The chart below shows strong evidence that supports the notion that many users follow brands on Twitter in order to receive exclusive deals and offers.  Being a customer of the brand and looking for interesting or entertaining content came in neck and neck as the second and third primary reasons users follow a brand on Twitter.

Dig Deeper, But This is a Good Place to Start

Any company with a product or service should keep these easy to remember stats in mind when developing their social media strategy.  While there are countless other ways brands can optimize their social media efforts, the basic concepts laid out above are a great place to start.  Knowing why people follow your brand on social media channels and comprehending what they want to hear is powerful stuff.

Finally!  A Way to Track Your Facebook Fan Page

If only there was a way to track Facebook Fan Pages with Google Analytics…

As Facebook Fan Pages gain momentum as a leading Social Media Marketing outlet, the need to effectively track this medium becomes all the more important.  Up until very recently, the only way to monitor your Fan Page was through the extremely limiting Facebook Insights.  Insights provides page administrators limited data on visitor demographics and fan interaction but is unable to report on visitor statistics, traffic sources, keyword data and some of the other extensive reporting that Google Analytics provides.  Thanks to some crafty out of the box thinking by London based web developers Webdigi, the code has been cracked and now everyone can track their Fan Pages using Google Analytics.  In this post, we will show you how to track your Fan Page with a step-by-step guide, including the necessary links to generate your personal Google Analytics tracking code that will be installed on your page.  We will also introduce you to the Social Media monitoring tool Unilyzer and show you how it can be used in correlation with Google Analytics to extract even more detailed and valuable information from Facebook and other Social Media outlets.  Let’s get started. 

Google Analytics for Facebook Fan Pages + Unilyzer = Tracking Bliss

Once you complete the installation of Google Analytics on your Facebook Fan Page, take your tracking to a new level using the Social Media Monitoring Dashboard from the Unilyzer (www.unilyzer.com).  The Unilyzer is a data-to-dashboard tool that uses Google Analytics to pull data from a wide range of Social Media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube as well as social bookmark sites like Digg, Stumble and Delicious – using this data, the Unilyzer generates a personal dashboard with insightful charts and trending arrows which allows you to adjust your Social Media marketing efforts accordingly.  Before we tackle the process of tracking the Facebook Fan Page on the Unilyzer, let’s take a look at the following step-by-step guide you will need to follow to install Google Analytics on your Fan Page.

Google Analytics Installation Guide for Facebook Fan Pages

Installing Google Analytics on your Facebook Fan Page isn’t all that complicated, but you will want to closely follow the steps provided below as there are a few moving parts.  Luckily, the aforementioned web development company Webdigi (www.webdigi.co.uk/) has written up an extremely comprehensive “how-to” that will facilitate the process.  Let’s take a look at some excerpts from their article below.  If you’ve already installed Analytics to your page, scroll down to the “Unilyzer” section to learn how the Unilyzer, when used in correlation with Google Analytics, allows for an even more extensive tracking experience.

How to setup Google Analytics on your Facebook fan pages

“The workaround we use in our code is to include Google Analytics as an image instead of setting the standard Javascript. This method tracks every visitor to the custom facebook pages on Google Analytics. It required a combination of server side cookie management and an additional <img> tag to the bottom of the facebook fan page. Here are the steps to get Google Analytics working on your facebook fan page.

1) Setup Google Analytics account. If you already have one, create a new website profile. You can name it facebook.com or facebook.com/your_page_name. You will finally get your tracking code which looks like this UA-3123123-2
2) Create your custom img tag for each of your pages you like to track. EG: contact form, services, products etc. You can use our tool to create the Google Analytics link generator for Facebook pages.
3) Add the entire custom image html tag from step 2 to the bottom of each Facebook fan page that you need to track.

That is all there is to it! Google Analytics is not real-time, so you will need to give it some time. Approximately a day before you see the fruits of your “hard” work.”

For advanced users

“Use this method, if you don’t want to use our hosted link redirection as mentioned in the method above. You can download the entire source code which is just about three files to get this setup working on your own server (running PHP4.3 or above). The code is written in PHP and essentially creates the Google image tracking URL with the referrer, page information, ID, etc. The additional advantage of hosting this on your own server and domain is that visits from your website to your facebook fan page gets tracked, etc. You will also be able to customise further if you wish. Please do share any useful updates you apply to the tracking link code.

Facebook – Google Analytics Version 1.1 (Updated 21st Feb, 2010).  For advanced method – Download this code to use on your server.

If you don’t have a Facebook fan page yet, visit our tutorial for code and help on creating customised Facebook fan pages.

PS: We could not find any other source / blog that described how to get Google Analytics on Facebook fan pages! There is support for canvas pages and applications but nothing for Static FBML fan pages. Hope this helps and please leave your comments below.”

UPDATE:
1) A lot of users have asked how to track visits to the wall. Yes, this can be done. Please see the comments by iphp below.
2) Here is a screenshot to a staticFBML where the code should be placed

Source: http://www.webdigi.co.uk/

Google Analytics is now tracking your Facebook Fan Page – Wait, it gets better…

Facebook Fan Pages have really caught on as a great way for individuals and companies to create micro-communities of followers of their brand and/or cause.  Now that you have the capability of installing Google Analytics on your page, take the next step and use a tool that works with Google Analytics to even further enhance your tracking and monitoring efforts.  The Unilyzer (www.unilyzer.com) is just the tool you need if you are looking for even more in-depth reporting on your Fan Page and other Social Media channels.  We will first take a look at what the Unilyzer is and how it works before moving on to a more detailed explanation of how the Dashboard can be customized to report on specific information. 

The Unilyzer – a new comprehensive Social Media Monitoring and Tracking Dashboard 

A bevy of tools for tracking social media have been developed over the past few years, many of them quite effective in what they do.  With that said, they all have their shortcomings – too expensive, lack of reporting breadth, uninspired user interfaces, minimal tracking channel capabilities.  Some tracking tools are great but medium specific, reporting on only one Social Media outlet and requiring the user to manage multiple monitoring tools in order to get a truly clear vision of their Inbound Marketing efforts.  The new Social Media monitoring Dashboard Unilyzer, developed by Eman Bass, provides a great overall package combining a great user interface, numerous customizable data points, user-friendly functionality, and broad reporting on all of the major Social Media channels.  And now that Google Analytics can be easily installed to track Facebook Fan Pages, the Unilyzer is even more attractive as it offers the best combined analytical reporting of Fan Pages the market has to offer.  For more information about the Unilyzer’s tracking and reporting capabilities, visit www.unilyzer.com or click here to watch a short video that describes the Unilyzer’s basic functions.

All in all, the fact that we now have the capability to properly track Facebook Fan Pages is a very good thing and it will give Page administrators a level of insight that Facebook Insight does not.

TIP #1: Plan Your Articles
Map out 20 -30 article titles ahead of time. This keeps your topic mix fresh and helps avoid writers block. If you know the direction you’re going, you don’t have to re-think each time you sit down to write a blog post.

This is also a good time to plan keyword placement. Make sure your articles are informative, but also have a 2-3% keyword density to maximize your search engine optimization. Investing time in crafting your blog post titles. Spend some time and think about a title that will attract and captivate the imagination of your target audience.

TIP #2: Build Off Other Content
You don’t always have to reveal earth shattering news or tips on your blog. It can be just as effective and valuable to your audience to make recommendations, product reviews, or point them to other informative websites. One example of this is embedding a YouTube video in your blog post, commenting on the video, and then add some suggestions or recommendations of your own. The key is sharing information or videos that your audience will care about, not any video will do.

TIP #3: Have a Point and Get To It Fast
Blog posts should be at a max 500 words. The key is drawing your audience in with the first 1-2 sentences. Replace the lengthy introduction paragraph with one sentence. The second sentence should be your thesis, argument, or point that you are trying to make.

TIP #4: Simple Language
Most of your audience will be people who want to learn something from your article. Short sentences are attractive, easily readable and understood. Like getting lost in translation the point you so anxiously wish to make can be lost by the time the reader finds his way to the end of a long sentence. (an example of what not to do)

TIP #5: No Excuses, Just Do It Already
Writing and procrastination have a tendency to go together. The worst thing you can do is not update your blog on a regular basis. Blogging 4-5x per week will yield amazing SEO benefits. Stop putting it off until tomorrow and start typing something now. You’ll get better with each blog you write.

Track Your Social Media Traffic in Seconds

Watch this Video About the Positive ROI of Social Media Marketing

Traditional forms of marketing and advertising are not working. Direct mailers and display ads are expensive and yield negative ROI. Bottom line they are a big waste of time and money. Social media on the other hand costs practically nothing and yields a positive ROI (14.5% in my personal experience) plus multiple positive side effects.

I personally recommend that small business owners spend 10 hours per week on social media marketing. You will see the return on this time ten fold if you do it consistently. If you don’t have 10 hours per week, there are plenty of companies that specialize in outsourced social marketing that can do it for you. You need to place high value on your blog, Twitter, and Facebook accounts. Take money you’re throwing away on print advertising and put it into your blog and social media accounts. It’s time and money well spent.

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