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Web Analytics Master Certification

August 8, 2012 Suse Barnes One comment

After completing a rigorous semester of training in web analytics from the guru of all web analytics gurus, Avinash Kaushik and his partner in Market Motive crime, and previous founder of ClickTracks, John Marshall, I am very happy to announce that I am Web Analytics Master Certified.

Not only does this mean that we can help you figure out what area of your business to focus on and how you are really doing online, it means we can help you run Google experiments, advise you on the best search strategies (paid search and search engine optimization) and make the recommendations that will help you succeed on the Internet, i.e. increase your bottom line.

We look forward to working with you to drive more business and awareness to your website and brand. Please call us to schedule your web analytics review today. (415) 305-6403.

What is your biggest question about your website?

Analytics, Marketing Analytics

Speaking Social Strategy

May 19, 2012 Suse Barnes One comment

I am honored to be speaking at two business organizations and teaching several classes on social media marketing strategy for SF State University’s College of Extended Learning’s Social Media Marketing Program over the next month. If you’re looking to learn a little more about social media marketing and how to develop a winning strategy, I hope you’ll consider joining me at one of the following events:

On Tuesday, May 22, I speak at the NorCal BMA, Business Marketing Association’s Marketing Roundtable in Palo Alto. The topic is Strategic Thinking for Social Media Marketing and should start your Tuesday off nicely since it will be jam-packed with juicy worms for those early birds.

The Introduction to Social Media Marketing: The Power of Community class starts on June 4^th and usually sells out, so make sure you register soon. The classes are on the evening of Monday June 4^th and June 11^th and all day on Saturday June 16^th. We cover social media marketing basics, what it means to be a community manager, developing your social media strategy and successful and failed implementations of social media marketing. This class is part of the Social Media Marketing Certificate program and is the kick-off course for students seeking a certificate, but it’s most definitely open to everyone.

On Thursday June 7^th I will be presenting at WIC (Women In Consulting). This is a four-hour workshop on how to Master the Art of Strategic Social Media Marketing for consultants marketing their own businesses as well as marketing consultants, implementing marketing strategy for their clients. I’m excited to be collaborating with Women In Consulting as the organization has several veteran marketers and consultant members and is a great opportunity for in person social networking.

On Wednesday June 13^th, we kick off the Social Media Marketing Intensive: Strategies, Campaigns and Measurement at SF State’s downtown campus in San Francisco. This is a three-day workshop including Day 1: Strategic Social Media Marketing, Day 2: Social Media Campaigns: Best Practices, and Day 3: Social Media Metrics and Performance Measurement. I teach Day 1 and the supremely talented and my co-advisor of the Social Media Marketing program, Avery Horzewski is teaching Day 2. Then we tag-teach the Measurement class on Day 3. It should be a fun and collaborative intensive lens into social media marketing, how to develop your strategy, campaign building best practices and tips for measuring your social media marketing efforts for constant improvement.

I’m very excited to have all of these engagements and looking forward to discussing ways to keep your audiences engaged. Since the topic is social media, it’s sure to be fun for all and well, super social.

Are you planning to attend any of the presentations or classes? If so, do you have anything specific you are hoping to learn? Please let us know by commenting below. Thanks!

Marketing, Social Media Marketing, presentation, Social Media, teaching

5 Mobile Trends to Watch in 2012

February 29, 2012 Suse Barnes Leave a comment

To no one’s surprise, smart phone usage continues to grow rapidly. In a recent webinar, Emarketer.com projected that smart phones, tablets and e-readers will each increase in consumer popularity by 7-8% in 2012. Below are the top 5 mobile trends to watch this year.

1. There’s an App for That!

There are so many apps now, in fact, that developers will have an increasingly difficult time getting their work noticed. 2012 will be the year of App Market Saturation and only the best—the highly engaging and usable—will rise to the top.

Gartner’s Top 10 Smart Phone App Categories for 2012:

Money Transfer Apps
Location-Specific Services
Mobile Searching Facilities
Mobile Browsing Facilities
Mobile Health Monitoring
Mobile Payment Services
Near Field Communication Services
Mobile Advertising Services (This is listed since it is the means for mobile apps becoming profitable)
Mobile Instant Messaging
Mobile Music

2. Where are you?

If you have a smart phone, chances are you are already using location-based services such as mobile coupons and check-in services. Last year, 55% of smart phone users utilized location-based recommendations and services. In 2012, expect to see more from these services including an increase in time-sensitive deals, a rise in effort among these companies to gain customer loyalty, and an increase in advertising within these services.

3. Pay with Your Phone

Get ready for your smart phone to double as your credit card, too! Apps such as Square and Google Wallet, which are designed for mobile payment, will become increasingly available in 2012 though most likely will not go mainstream this year.

4. Video Killed the Radio Star

You already watch a lot of videos on YouTube and Vimeo, right? In 2012, video is the latest game-changer. Emarketer.com predicts that spending on video advertising will surpass $3 billion this year and that this genre of advertising will have the broadest reach of all ad formats. The online video audience is expected to grow 18% this year.

5. Mobile Search

TechCrunch recently reported Ross Sandler’s estimate that mobile search volume will increase from 9% to 20% of all searches. Local ads will generate a sizable portion of the mobile search ad revenue. Do you run a local business? Now is the time to jump into mobile advertising.

What is your favorite mobile trend? We invite you to join the conversation in the comments section below!

Mobile apps, Mobile, Search, video

Search in 2012: 4 Trends to Watch

February 8, 2012 Suse Barnes Leave a comment

Along with the rest of the web, search continues to grow and evolve this year. Here are our top search trends to watch and be a part of in 2012.

Search Gets Personal
With the 2011 advent of Google+, it is no small wonder that Google search has gone social too. When logged into your Google account, your searches and browsing are tailored to you and your network.

You now have the option to view posts from friends first, and additionally, the remainder of your search results will be tailored to you, your preferences, and your network as well.

As a result of social media’s rapid gains in search, we can expect to see links that are shared most via social networks to gain higher organic rankings on search engines.

Page Rank? Not so much.
As a result of search becoming so personalized, page rank as we knew it in the past will fall to the wayside. With so many factors being used to determine page rank—social media, location, and search history—results will differ for each individual, making page rank an obsolete measurement.

Mobile Search: More personal than ever.
With exponentially more cell phone users upgrading to smart devices, mobile search is changing rapidly to keep up. Highly localized apps and sites such as Foursquare, Yelp, Groupon, Scoutmob, and other geo-based services have changed the way we search from our phones. According to websitemagazine.com, Foursquare is the check-in app leader. Foursquare’s plans to enhance their offers and explore features, means that Foursquare and similar apps will be used even more for search in 2012. Google reported in 2011 that 79% of mobile users search on their phones while shopping and that 95% of mobile searches relate to location.

Mobile advertising will also increase in 2012 as advertisers increasingly realize that mobile search provides valuable leads. eMarketer.com reports that mobile ad spending is projected to exceed $2.6B this year. $1.45B was spent on mobile advertising in 2011.

Paid Search
In 2012, more and more ads will be delivered via video as opposed to text ads. There is speculation that Google will begin offering incentives to advertisers (based on budget size and ad quality) to maintain their stronghold of the PPC arena.

With social media becoming increasingly ubiquitous, advertisers will keep up with the trends by asking for “likes,” “+1’s,” and “follows” in their 2012 advertising.

Search = Influence
Google hit the 1 billion monthly unique visitors mark in June 2011, so it is no secret that search has become quite powerful. Search has become so influential in fact, that correspondents project that Google searches may be a better indicator of election results than preliminary polls.

So, what was the most-searched term on Google in 2011? Facebook.

We’ll be back soon to report on 2012 mobile trends. In the meantime, please share your thoughts with us on search. What are your favorite tools for finding the information you need?

searchmarketing, SEO Google, Search, search engines

8 Social Media Trends for 2012

January 23, 2012 Suse Barnes 4 comments

Social media continued to gain popularity in 2011 and will grow even more in 2012. If you haven’t caught the social media bug yet, 2012 may be your year! Below are some of the trends we expect to see in the next 12 months.

Happy connecting!

1. Google+ is the new kid on the block

The latest big idea from Google and major social network on the scene, Google will continue expanding Google+ in 2012 and plans to integrate the social network with many of their other properties such as SEO, Reader, AdWords, and YouTube.

Though most social media users still spend the majority of their time on Facebook currently, it’s a good idea to create personal profiles and business pages on Google+ now so that you’ll be one step ahead while interest in Google+ continues to grow. Furthermore good implementation of your Google+ page can produce search engine ranking benefits.

2. Facebook on it’s own timeline

While Google+ is giving Facebook a run for its money, Facebook is projected to reach 1 billion users in 2012 (via dreamgrow.com). We’ve seen major changes with Facebook since Google+ entered the scene, not least of which is Timeline. This new profile format encourages users to “live their lives via Facebook” and use the social network as a virtual scrapbook. Although introduced a year ago, timeline is yet to be implemented on all personal profiles. You still have a choice. However, to remain competitive in 2012, Facebook will be releasing Timeline for brand pages and introducing mobile ads. Additionally, Facebook’s 2011 purchase of Gowalla is expected to result in some 2012 enhancements to Timeline. (This links up with the Geolocation trend as described below.) Mobile meets local meets social meets viral.

3. Twitter keeps on tweeting

While 2011 was the year of the URL shortener, 2012 will be the year of advertising. We are used to seeing sponsored tweets, but expect to see increasingly prominent ads on Twitter this year.

Additionally in 2012, Twitter will continue to be an important part of the world news landscape. In 2011 we saw microblogging play a major role in sharing news about Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street, and the 2012 presidential election will make Twitter usage even more mainstream.

4. Aggregators keep getting better: Buffer and Crowdbooster

While technology becomes more advanced across social media, Twitter aggregators are making excellent gains as well. Buffer, an aggregator that schedules your tweets based on when your followers are most likely to see them, is now offering ifttt (if this then that). The ifttt service allows you to specify an action (such as favoriting a tweet) that will then trigger another action (such as retweeting said favorited tweet). There are many combinations that can be used with this technology so it is definitely worth a try! Buffer also allows users to email tweets via your phone or iPad.

Crowdbooster, another scheduling tool, provides a chart with data regarding your most successful tweets. With impressions on one axis and retweets on another, you have the ability to view total reach of your tweets. Pretty cool!

5. Pinterest – Yes, pin your interests!

Interest in Pinterest grew immensely in 2011. By allowing you to “pin your interests” with images you find online, Pinterest is blazing the trail for an even more image-centric social media landscape. Additionally, Pinterest is leading the way in the transition from long form curation (such as tweets) to push-button curation. Much more popular with women than men, because of it’s wide usage for planning weddings and looking at fashion, Pinterest is a niche network competing in some ways with the likes of Stumble Upon.

As Pinterest continues to gain steam in 2012, more and more brands will sign on as well. Expect to see more “Pin It” buttons next to the “Like” buttons you see across the web.

6. YouTube – the number 2 search engine

Using video to get the point across (whether you are an individual or a business) will become even more prevalent in 2012. With 4 billion daily views on YouTube, why not put yourself out there? YouTube videos are very sharable on practically every platform and 57% of internet users surveyed by Yahoo say they watch videos daily. People will be online to watch videos even more in 2012, so now is the time to get in the game.

7. Geolocation – “I am here, are you near?”

Social will be even more local in 2012 with services such as Foursquare expanding their offerings and geo-deals such as Scoutmob becoming more and more popular. Users can already add their location to tweets and Facebook posts, so expect to see more and more connection between location and social media in 2012.

8. Infographics

While certainly on the scene in 2010, infographics became even more ubiquitous in 2011. Practically anything can be expressed via infographics these days and soon visual.ly will be providing a service that lets you easily build your own infographics. There are already several such tools available.

Infographics will be used more and more to display data. It’s easier to learn from a colorful picture than three paragraphs of statistics, right?

We’ll be back soon with 2012 trends in search, so stay tuned!

In the meantime what are your thoughts about social media trends for 2012? Please add your comments. Thanks!

Marketing, Social Media Facebook, Google, Marketing, Mobile, Social Media, Twitter, YouTube

Success with Google AdWords

November 30, 2011 Suse Barnes Leave a comment

One of the services we offer at Susby Internet Strategy is Google AdWords search marketing. We have worked with several clients to improve their eCommerce business and web traffic with this tool.

Recently we compiled a case study chronicling the progress of one of our eCommerce clients. We increased conversions and lowered cost-per-click for our client, who now has a thriving online business. Have a look!

Google AdWords Case Study: Improving Conversions and Lowering Cost

Challenge
Decrease monthly spend and cost-per-click for client’s Google AdWords advertising initiatives while increasing clicks and conversions.

Results
In 2010, our client never received more than 18 many-per-click conversions in a month. In 2011 the lowest amount of many-per-click conversions received was 35, with the highest being 123.

The chart below shows the improvement in click-through rate for our client:

Our client’s click-through rate increased tremendously once we took over the campaign. It is important to experiment with new advertising ideas from time to time, however, and this practice is reflected in the lower click-through rate seen in September 2011.

We have also significantly reduced our client’s cost-per-click:

Our client had a 40% reduction in cost-per-click in 2011, with an average 2010 cost-per-click of $2.19 and a 2011 average of $1.32.

Success Summary:
In a nine-month period we drastically increased our client’s click-through rate and number of conversions while significantly reducing their cost-per-click to make their Google AdWords advertising efforts remarkably more effective.

We are Google AdWords Qualified and are available to help your business achieve eCommerce and web visibility successes like this one. Give us a call today at 415.305.6403. We look forward to working with you!

Clients, Marketing, Search

Trends in Mobile Search

October 15, 2011 Suse Barnes Leave a comment

You probably use your mobile phone for the occasional web search. But have you thought about how much the search marketing landscape has changed since smartphones became ubiquitous? Recent research on the difference in desktop and mobile search trends resulted in some fascinating statistics.

Desktop search peaks at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. while mobile search peaks at lunchtime and in the evening between 9:00 p.m. and midnight. Despite the difference in time of day, topics searched are the same on both platforms. eMarketer, a daily eNewsletter, projects a 65% increase in mobile ad spending since 2010, which is expected to increase exponentially in future years.

Categories of mobile ad spending from highest to lowest are currently ranked:
1. SMS
2. Banner ads
3. PPC Search
4. Video ads

Spending for video and banners is expected to be equal to search spending in 2012, with banners and video spending surpassing search in years following.

Mobile search has increased five-fold in just two years! Users are searching with the intent to take action, making neighborhood-targeted ads very effective in some cases.

And what about the future of mobile search? Revenue for mobile gigabytes is projected to decrease from $25/GB (now) to $5/GB by 2015. Carriers will likely need to develop new pricing models at that point, which will very likely result in changes in how we use our mobile phones.

Mobile, Search advertising, Mobile, Search

Social Media Marketing Book List

September 27, 2011 Suse Barnes Leave a comment

When I teach classes I’m often asked if I have any book recommendations. While I hesitate to recommend books in a new media field, because the content changes frequently, I do read books and also have a wish list. Here are a few books to consider for getting started in Social Media Marketing.

Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media and Blogs by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah. Brought to us by the founders of the ever successful and highly popular HubSpot, this book covers everything you need to know to be a good digital citizen today. It includes tips on how to optimize your profile, content and general attitude in order to secure work in today’s competitive marketplace. It’s an easy read and well worth a listen if you prefer books on tape too.

Engage: Revised and Updated: The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web by Brian Solis. I’m a Solis follower and fan and believe he knows his stuff from both traditional public relations, and new media. He was extremely influential in my getting started in this field and he said “Participation is marketing” before anyone really even understood what participation meant.

The Zen of Social Media Marketing by Shama Hyder Kabani. This is a fresh approach written by a very successful 25 year-old entrepreneur. I enjoyed the insights from many leading online marketers and entrepreneurs included in the book as well.

Social Media Metrics: How to Measure and Optimize Your Marketing Investment by Jim Stern. This is a great introduction for tracking results in social media and how best to use the built in data to maximize your Return On Influence. Don’t miss this one.

Marketing 3.0: From Products to Customers to the Human Spirit by Philip Kotler. A more academic look at the state of marketing today including and social media, sustainability and how businesses are solving new challenges today.

On the wish list:

Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition by Michael A. Stelzner

Success Secrets of Social Media Superstars by Mitch Meyerson

Likeable Social Media: How to Delight Your Customers, Create an Irresistible Brand, and Be Generally Amazing on Facebook (And Other Social Networks) by Dave Kerpen

If you have read and/or are reading any of these books and would like to share your thoughts about them, please do so in the comments area below. Thanks.

Marketing, Social Media

Google AdWords Certified

June 27, 2011 Suse Barnes Leave a comment

This is a belated announcement, but never-the-less important. We are proud to say that our very own Cariwyl Hebert is a Google AdWords Certified specialist. In order to achieve Google AdWords Certification one must study a series of lessons and then take a rigorous exam. Cariwyl passed the exam with flying colors and is our in-house AdWords specialist. We’re very proud of Cariwyl and very pleased to be able to offer this qualification to our valued clients.

If you are in need of Google AdWords assistance, please give us a call at 415.305.6403. Thank you!

business, Marketing, Search, Uncategorized Marketing, Search, search engines, susby

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