Twice in the last week I have had clients ask about doing paid advertising on the internet. One was for Facebook, the other for Google Adwords. I also had someone ask if doing SEO was worth $2000 per month.
Anyway, I figured you might also be wondering about this, so here is a version of my reply;
Online advertising is like any marketing. I could go and put an advert in the classifieds that reads: "Web design 0410123123" and I might get a call. (I know, I could jazz it up and write a great advert, but stick with me here) Alternatively, if I had a strategy that, with research, found that my audience is reading one trade magazine, then I come up with a plan to test 4 different adverts over 4 months, that each have a specific, measureable call to action path, then I am going to get a better result.
Classifieds are the same with trying adwords, Facebook, banners or even SEO on their own. Unless it is planned and there is a path that you are taking a prospect, then you are less likely to see great results, or your results are going to be intermittent.
A rough guide to what will work for many businesses is this:
Start with the website - ensure it is designed to sell* and capture email addresses. Know the outcome you want for each visitor.
Do some research to ensure your audience is looking for you/your service or product. (If they are not, then we have to get creative.)
Design some targeted landing pages (A landing page is like a home page, but for one type of audience/product mix)
Start with an Adwords campaign perhaps with someone like Reachlocal, or do it yourself at Google Adwords. Ensure you are pointing visitors to the landing pages only that are specific to each search phrase.
Measure Everything. Change and test the calls to action in the advertisement, the landing pages, and any other page or email you send your client.
Check you are measuring everything then double check you are measuring everything.
After 2-6 months you should be certain that you have a clear list of search phrases that are resulting in sales - not just clicks. Don't stop testing, but expand and build other funnels of marketing.
You are now armed and dangerous. You can see clearly the words that are producing sales, so you now have the best tools for SEO, Banner advertising, and any other type of targeted advertising.
The next step is to begin honing your site to focus on the search phrases that produce sales. Usually done with SEO techniques - which are a whole different topic.
*For the purpose of this article, 'Selling' or 'sales' is whatever the result is that you wanted for your visitor, which may be contacting you, sending a message or filling a form.
Social Networking is very popular today. Just a few years ago, before Facebook and MySpace, no one had ever thought of using the web in such a way. A mere decade ago, people connected to the web to obtain information, buy books, movies and products or services from online stores. Today, individuals, corporations, charities and non-profit organisations use these social networks to provide information, organise events and receive donations. As social networking becomes more popular, it becomes subject to growing legal restrictions.
The three biggest "no-no's" that web designers and site administrators run into are:
Plagiarism: Many people think that anything found on the Internet is public fodder. Would you cite every idea that you knew came from a conversation? It seems absurd to an extent, but even if there isn’t any actual copyright statement to be found anywhere, content on social networks is copyright protected.
In order to protect an individual or organisation from committing plagiarism, run all content to be placed on a website through a program that checks for plagiarized material. These programs are easy to find on the web and can put articles, blogs and other Internet documents through a large database of information to ensure their originality.
Bandwidth Theft: Bandwidth theft (a.k.a. Hot linking) is both easy to commit and easy to get caught doing. Most everyone has seen MySpace pages. Almost everyone has taken pictures of their favourite movies, their favourite rock bands and displayed them on their own profile pages. These picture help make profiles personal and attractive, but it is possible, depending on how the pictures are linked, to make those very same profiles illegal. Hot linking occurs when some information, whether a picture, a video clip or anything else, is displayed using a server that does not belong to the person displaying that information. Example: You put a picture on your website. You put it there using HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) code that does not place the picture on your server, but instead summons information from the server that you are taking the picture from instead. This is sort of like stealing cable television. You are plugging into someone else’s server and using bandwidth to display items on your own website (or social network profile).
Defamation: This is another issue, which is sometimes hard to avoid. Social networks are supposed to be microcosms of the real world. You have peers or friends on MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn (or any other social network) but then again, you may know people that aren’t your friends. Sometimes, people who don’t like each other like to say things that aren’t always good and the line between comments that are just mean and comments that are defamatory is very, very thin. Social networking is vital in today's economy. However, individuals, corporations and organisations need to use care and caution on popular social networks. Remember that just because it’s online and it is easy to maintain some level of anonymity does not mean that you get to do whatever you want.
Charity organisations are just beginning to realise the importance and value of social networking, 21st-century style, to enhance interaction between organizations and the general public, as well as increase donations to wide range of social and community based philanthropic organizations.
Whether it comes to global warming or Habitat for Humanity, today's society has grown increasingly visual-based through the use of Internet use and habits. For example, social networking websites on the Internet have exploded in both use and function. Not too long ago, MySpace, a common social networking arena for high school and college age students, has now been taken over by the post 35-year-old age set. YouTube, a popular create-it-yourself-video website, receives over 100 million visitors per month. Facebook, another popular social networking website, increased its members by over 120% in a mere 12 months.
Charity organisations need to take advantage of the popularity and ability to connect with millions of users through such social networking websites. One such organization, Defenders of Wildlife, has utilized the tools and options on MySpace to create alerts to blog posts, bulletins, and advance notice of special events in their calendars. By utilizing special tools and codes on MySpace, friends and visitors to the Defenders of Wildlife page are able to create banner ads to place on their own MySpace pages.
Another charitable organization, the Humane Society, has a huge following on MySpace. A large network of friends enables the Humane Society to write and create content that addresses common and popular issues between MySpace members, animal lovers, and methods that encourage them to help in their own communities. By including links back to original websites outside of MySpace, charitable organizations are able to encourage and develop hundreds of contacts through social networking member databases.
Another method, through which the Humane Society helps to spread its message throughout social networking websites, is to provide videos and links to return to the organization's homepage. The ability to share such videos and links among members helps spread the word faster than any other method used today.
Catering to the desires of consumers and fledging philanthropists not only in the United States but around the world, charitable organizations are taking advantage of social networking when organising charitable websites to enlist and encourage visitors and donors to make a difference through their own contributions. Some of the most common charitable or non-profit organisations seen in MySpace or Facebook social networking websites today include:
• Stop global warming
• End global hunger
• Protect endangered habitats
• End homelessness
• Promote fair trade
Organisations have begun to understand the importance of focusing on issues that encourage action. Recently, the Chicago Tribune noted "…non-profit organizations are testing ways to raise money through these networks, betting that the Internet's viral nature will open fresh avenues for fundraising and marketing."
Brendan Byrne (www.receptive.com.au) is an internet marketing consultant. Brendan runs workshops on how to manage your online business and effectively market yourself.
With the growth of social networking on the Internet, many people have turned to networks found online as a source of money earning potential. Some of the most popular sites, such as YouTube, Facebook and MySpace, are great locations to boost your own company or organization's sales, gain additional customers or donors and even market your products or services.
If done successfully, everyone has the potential of earning money on any of the social networking sites within a reasonable amount of time. Internet marketers increasingly use networks to increase their own demographic, since sites such as Facebook bring in thousands of new members each month. Using social networking as a way to promote or advertise is extremely beneficial, since it reaches a massive audience around the world all at the same time. YouTube, a site where anyone can post videos, tutorials or anything else they have a mind to post, reaches up to 100 million visitors per month. By using this site as a source of advertising or marketing, companies or organisations are able to share their message in ways that would be impossible by traditional methods.
To begin setting up marketing through a social networking site, the first step is to sign up for an account. MySpace, Xanga and Facebook are just a few of the many websites that contain networking capabilities. Signing up for an account can be done either with a company name, a charity name or even the user's actual name. Many Internet marketers commonly use a pen name to register, and then create a profile to advertise or market their ideas or products.
Selling products on social networking sites usually does not have a limit. Opportunities to post links back to personal websites helps to generate traffic and offers users more potential to understand more of what is being advertised. Websites such as MySpace allow video or music capabilities that work much like television commercials, without the astronomical costs involved in a televised media campaign. Another beneficial feature found in many social networking sites is the ability to share information through the use of bulletins. This allows anyone to write message or display information that posts throughout the entire network that individual users belong to. Providing links or product reviews and then sending them as a mass bulletin to thousands of people generates commission sales for products advertised by the user.
Many individuals use their profile as a way to generate and earn money through social networking websites. Social networking on the Internet enables direct relationships between individuals, companies, organizations, charities, and encourages dialogue, direct involvement, and immediate feedback for causes and events. Social networking profiles are used in promoting a product or even to promote second party products. Using profiles to post reviews, informative pieces, and links to the product itself or other sites are just some of the ways that marketers make use of social networking sites in the 21st century.
Brendan Byrne (www.receptive.com.au) is an internet marketing consultant. Brendan runs workshops on how to manage your online business and effectively market yourself.
With the rise of social networking, more people are using it as a platform to obtain exposure as well as a way to broaden professional circle and social impact. With thousands of users visiting social networking sites like Facebook or MySpace on a daily basis, there are opportunities for you to break through to millions of people around the world. Anyone can gain access to your message, product or event all in a single moment.
While belonging to the social networking group does not mean that professionals or organizations will have an easier chance of finding jobs or platforms, it certainly helps promote causes and contacts that might be able to assist with a wide wealth of resources at some point in the future, depending on content, intent and even career paths. Since popular social network websites obtain millions visitors per month, companies, non-profits and charities are beginning to market to a variety of demographic users logging on to these sites.
Not all social network sites have thousands of users. Networks may also consist of smaller, specially designed sites created primarily to help users gain professional connections or contacts. For example, Linkedln is a professional networking site that promotes professional contacts, resumes and skills, as well as employment opportunities. Navigating through social networking sites such as this one allows users who are members to make professional connections. Networking has become important in most professional arenas, since companies now commonly search through these professional sites in order to find potential employees.
Many social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace or Linkedln allow users to search the database of other members in order to find people with similar interests, skills or talents, all by simply using search tools designed by the site. Some social networking websites even allow members to ask or answer career- related questions that help companies become more familiar with them or vice versa. Since these social networks are free, utilizing them is a huge advantage when looking for a job or seeking the perfect professional to join your organisation.
Not every social network has been successful. Fiendster, one of the first large-scale social networking sites, failed to catch on and soon became overrun by other sites such as MySpace and Facebook. While Facebook was primarily intended to attract college students, anyone was able to join the site in 2006. With its user-friendly applications, Facebook now sees millions of new users joining each month.
While certain social networking websites have different features or directions, users are continually putting a more professional twist on content and goals. Whether social networking is used as a career enhancer. To attract attention to a non-profit or charity organization or just make a few new friends, it has certainly allowed for open communication around the world. Finding old friends or staying connected to the ones users already have was a major desire during the beginning of social networking. In the future, sites such as Facebook and MySpace are expected to cater to professionals and the relationships they can build, resulting in important aspects of business and organization tools.
Brendan Byrne (www.receptive.com.au) is an internet marketing consultant. Brendan runs workshops on how to manage your online business and effectively market yourself.
