From the blog
Getting the most out of web 2.0 and social media marketing campaigns. SEO and PPC can have a lot to do with increasing traffic through search engines while other online marketing tools can get your website visible to a specifically targeted audience. Using Social media marketing tools and practices can provide your business with the key to doors that were once locked to outsiders.
With the phenomenon of social media has become a mainstay in the way people communicate. Ex. Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn, and numerous others
What is Social Media?
Social Media or social networking is the term that has been given to a breed of online websites that facilitate greater interaction with an online audience. Social Media sites allow two-way interaction between online content owners and their audience. It enables website visitors to engage, interact and contribute to content. It also enables site owners to syndicate content out to other sites and online channels, and gives them the ability to easily aggregate relevant, related content from other sources into their own sites.
Web 2.0 approach to Social Media
Web 2.0 in this case is the term given to the tools and techniques that form the core of many Social Media sites and channels. Blogs, Social Bookmarking, Syndication, RSS, and Aggregation are some of the popular web 2.0 social networking tools that are used in a successful social media marketing campaign.
Here are a few techniques that you can use to start embracing social media:
- Blogging. Not only do blogs improve your SEO (which is always a good thing), they enable you to build a relationship with your visitors. Blogs are a great way of communicating with your audience. Not sure what to blog about? Blogging about news and info specific to your industry is always a good start
- Networking. Sites such as LinkedIn, Plaxo and Facebook are amazing resources for getting in touch with people, generating leads, raising brand awareness and much more. They’re also becoming powerful business to business (B2B) tools, enabling companies to effortlessly communicate with their stakeholders.
- Digging. Add social bookmarking tools to all of your news and product pages which will allow your visitors to easily bookmark and share your content with their own networks. Sites such as Digg and Del.icio.us are a good starting point.
- Twittering. Twitter is a great way of keeping tabs on your friends, colleagues and workforce. Many people don’t get it initially, but once you do, you’ll be hooked! You can also feed(RSS) your blog to Twitter
Social media is changing the way company’s can interact with potential customers. The web is no longer a faceless medium. Social media marketing allows you to become an authority in your market sector by giving you the ability to build trust By empowering your audience with the ability to contribute and become involved, you will gradually build a strong relationship which develops brand loyalty.
Ximda’s social media consulting can immerse your company in the social media landscape by fully utilizing tools and techniques that meet your business goals. Contact us today for a free consultation.
Are you ready to take your business mobile? It’s very likely that your audience is already waiting. The evolution of mobile devices has changed the way we do business and everyday life. Driven by device evolution, speed, and developing business models, the mobile phone is moving from being just a portable phone to becoming a mobile communication and media management platform.
Apple, with its iPhone, has boosted the attention of the mobile industry and is forcing them to innovate. This means that the mobile experience is going to continue to improve, providing a better user experience for everyone regardless of using an iPhone, or some other “smart phone”. Better mobile experiences will eventually lead to increased mobile behavior.
Google’s Android platform for mobile devices is capable of handling any type of Web content that a desktop computer’s Web browser can handle. That design opens up a countless number of possible browser-based services already available to PC users, including contact management, document creation, GPS direction services, and VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) services. The goal of the open source model is to create “consumer choice” by making it easier for customers to use any wireless application they want.
With backing from major handset providers (Motorola, Samsung and LG) and service carriers (Sprint, T-Mobile, AT&T), Google’s Android will make the mobile web apart of the fabric of everyday life. Potentially changing the way we shop, bank, and interact as more and more companies provide mobile web solutions.
“The data demonstrate that the mobile Internet can not only increase the frequency of visits to a Web site, but also grow the overall size of the pie,” said Jeff Herrmann, VP of mobile media at Nielsen Mobile, in a press release. “Publishers can now monetize their total cross-platform audience, and advertisers will better understand the efficiency and incremental value of mobile Web traffic.”
According to Nielsen, leading sites with a mobile property could increase the size of their audience via the mobile Internet. As the mobile web gains traction and more users, a big chunk of online revenue could migrate to wireless interactions. Without a mobile web presence your company could be giving up sales and losing valuable customers to those with web mobile capabilities. Ximda’s mobile consulting services can give your company the freedom to be everywhere. Contact us today to grow your business from PC to mobile web.
Pay per click (PPC) is an advertising model used on search engines, advertising networks, and content websites/ blogs, where you only pay when a user actually clicks on an ad to visit the your website. PPC campaigns involve bidding on keywords that predict your target market will use as search terms when they are looking for your product or service.
Organic SEO (search engine optimization), is the methods used to acquire unpaid, algorithm-driven results of any particular search engine, or “natural” search engine results.
Both of these options can be used together to improve your online marketing campaign to attract new visitors to your website. Where SEO provides a great long-term solution to meet business objectives, PPC usually makes short-term gains.
Variables to consider when choosing the right mix for your business:
The biggest benefit of pay per click is the fact that it will provide you with an instant boost of visitors or traffic to your website, which can be great for a short term campaign. But in the long run, organic search listings generate a higher ROI than PPC programs. Trends show that more sales result from organic search engine listings than paid site listings.
Not only are organic listings longer lasting than paid listings, they’re more valuable. Research shows that 70 % of search engine users will click on organic listings, while the remaining 30 % click on paid listings. Another study found that 6 out of 7 sales resulting from search engines originated in the organic search listings. Also users are more likely to trust websites naturally occurring in
top ranking positions, therefore natural SEO can be of great importance in generating a higher ROI.
Fortunately we don’t have to pick one or the other…what’s really important is getting the right mix of both. PPC click may be a great option to use while you are boosting your SEO campaign in order to fill gaps where your site is not naturally visible yet. If your business can handle increasing sales and gaining a greater ROI then for your free web analysis contact us…
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