Nielsen has just released its 2011 Q3 report on social media.  It delivers troves of recent social media stats, and since we can all infer things like social networks and blogs are the dominate destination online without reading a report, I’ve summarized the Nielsen report to the 4 statistics I found most interesting.


40% ARE MOBILE SOCIAL MEDIA USERS
This is interesting because there are many business owners that have done tons to bolster their social media presence but still do nothing to optimize their websites for mobile.  How many prospects do you lose when then cannot navigate easily or at all through your website?  They may have found you through a mobile product on social media but can not continue their research if you do not have mobile ready content.  Some may argue that it depends on your target market; if you still believe this, the next point is for you

AGE 55+ IS DRIVING THE GROWTH OF MOBILE SOCIAL
There has been an increase of 47% since last year!  The older generation I’ve seen pulled in by their kids and relatives, then realize the usefulness of it in keeping in touch with long lost friends and family.  This statistic is important because there are a lot of business owners that cater to older customers that may still believe that their marketing efforts should never be targeted to online, much less social media.

70% OF ACTIVE SOCIAL USERS SHOP ONLINE 12% MORE LIKELY
Retailers, read this one again and again.  If you know where your business will get the most attention, well by all means focus your efforts there.  Social media sites are full of ad opportunities both locally and national.  Even small local retailers can integrate this into their overall marketing strategy and gain an advantage.

TIME SPENT ON TOP 5 SOCIAL MEDIA SITES (000s), DESCENDING ORDER
Facebook- 53,457,258 minutes
Blogger- 723,793 minutes
Tumblr- 623,525 minutes
Twitter- 565,156 minutes
Linkedin- 325,679 minutes

Does you budget reflect this?

There they are, the most interesting stats of this report, however you can view the full report HERE and please feel free to share your thoughts on the 2011 social media stats here in the comments below.  Lastly, if you like statistics and you live in the El Paso area, check out this great blog post on El Paso Demographics.

If you are an entrepreneur you spend plenty of time selling things.  And you may be really good at or you wouldn’t still be doing what you are doing.  But there are 3 huge mistakes that we sometimes  still make.

Huge Mistake #1- List Your Services

List your services online or on a brochure but the last thing you want to do when you’ve someone's attention is go down your long list of services.  This tells them that you may be more interested in your business and less interested in theirs or the issues they may be facing in their business.  Instead, do a little research beforehand and then do your best at describing their pain points to let them know that you understand them.  Then go into what your company does to alleviate those pain points.  If they quickly dismiss your comments, move on to the next problem, or better yet, let this turn into a discussion where they tell you first-hand what their problem is.  If this is the case, take notes because your prospect has just challenged you to fix his problems!

Huge Mistake #2- No Value Proposition

This is your promise to the customers and the best time to let your prospect know why they should buy from you over all of the other options there are out there.  Forgetting to do so groups you in with the over-sized, the-taste-is-a-little-funky-tasting bagged breakfast cereals, instead of with the high-quality boxed cereals, where most companies strive to be.  This is the perfect time to name-drop and tell stories about how you helped someone else with similar pains, to a viable and quality solution.

Huge Mistake #3- No Next Step

No next step, no follow up and no call to action; you might as well have been talking to your mouse pad for the last twenty minutes.  Suggest a follow up call, or a facility tour, or a demo; anything to push along the relationship.  If not, it's too easy to be forgotten.  I met a manager and sales representative that said to me “…they have my information already…they’ll call if they want.”  This was the first issues I addressed, and she immediately started seeing an increase in her sales funnel as she incorporated next steps and marketing initiatives to help spur those next steps along.

Avoid making one of the three hugest sales mistakes ever and enjoy more productive sales interactions.  This information translates very well into advertising.  Any marketing firm can tell you that your messages are targeted to a particular segment in order to deliver the most relevant message.  By avoiding the mistakes above you should be able to sale almost anything to anyone, and write up the ad copy to boot. 

When it comes to Google Ad Quality, things can sometimes get tricky. Advertisers of all shapes and sizes can find perfect ads a fleeting destination.  Google has taken everything it’s been hearing around the nation from its advertisers and put together 10 things they believe you should know about Adword account.  Use these 10 tips to get you closer to a perfect quality score.

• There may not be ads on all search results, even for queries that advertisers are bidding on.  
• Google is more likely to show no ad at all than a low quality advertisement that does not fulfill the users need.  This is line with their philosophy of showing the right ad, at the right time, to the right user. 
• Just because there is low competition for a keyword doesn't mean it comes at a low cost. 
• This is because keyword competition is only one factor in determining your Ad score.  If there are other competitors with better quality scores, be prepared to pay a higher rate, even if there is low competition.
• Your ad position does not play a role in your Quality Score.  
• Google takes into account where your ad is when calculating its CTR, and adjusts your ad quality score to level out based on your position knowing that top ads get more clicks. The bright side of this is that you can achieve a high quality score without being in the top ad position.
•  Your bid primarily impacts your rank, not your Quality Score. 
• Your Google Quality Score is based on your position-adjusted CTR, URL and Keyword relevancy, and user experience.  Your bid and relating rank do not impact this.  Discovery the Mysteries of Google Quality Score 
• Quality plays an important role in determining which ads appear on top. 
• Only the ads that pass a certain threshold of Quality and CPC bid are eligible to be shown at the top; however Google calculates the CPC threshold in this case by using the keyword quality, ad quality and the lower CPC bid threshold.  Thus ensuring Quality plays an extra important role in ad placement. 
• Ad conversion rate does not affect your Quality Score. 
• Conversion tracking is just an added tool for you to track your effectiveness and ROI but it does not play a role in determining your Quality Scores. 
• A few bad days of performance will not ruin your Quality Scores. 
• Google encourages testing and tweaking your bids, creative and keywords.  The short-term results to your Quality Score will soon be outweighed by future performance for each instance.
•  Quality Score doesn't suffer when your ads are shown infrequently or not at all due to pausing or budgeting. 
• Your Google Quality Score is calculated every time your ad comes up for consideration.  If your ads are paused for maintenance or budgeting they are not considered, thus no affect. 
• Restructuring your account doesn't rid you of your historical Quality Score information.
• All of your data is there, even deleted items, in the case you feel it necessary to revert to your old ways or review past mistake made.  Refine your views to show everything including your deleted ads and keywords, or only the current and active ads.
• Google does not keep track of your landing page quality history.
•  Only the latest crawl of your landing page is calculated.  This is a benefit to those that may have started off with a horror landing page.

Just as some of the most famous mysteries of the world, Google Adwords has been perceived to have its very own, especially when it comes to Quality Score.  Intentional or not, If you’ve ever spent time developing your Google Adwords account, you may have had the great mysterious feeling that there are many unknowns all around you.  The Quality Score is the system by which Google ranks your Adword activity, and determines the cost of each ad, and at which rank each will be positioned at.  This is usually both one of the most important factors of your account and sometimes the most daunting.  In reality, it doesn’t have to be; Google actually spells out most of the factors it looks for when determining your score.  Here are five Google Adwords Quality Score mysteries revealed:

Mystery One- Historical Click-Through Rate (CTR) Your account’s overall CTR which is calculated by taking the number of ad clicks divided by the total number of times it is seen (impressions), is the most significant component of your Quality Score.  It helps Google determine when your ads are proving to be interesting and relevant to their search.  The human factor here is taken into account; however it is just the beginning.  Google used to base much more on the CTR but has since refined it to account for the overall experience of ads to sustain an attractive business model in which searchers discontinue clicking on any ads altogether. The historical CTR is based on your entire Google Adwords account from its beginnings.  Make sure to correct or delete any of the lowest ranking keywords and campaigns as quickly as possible as it will significantly affect your account as a whole moving forward.  

Mystery Two- Keyword Relevance The keywords you select for each ad group must be relevant to each respective ad.  Or more simply, the selected keywords within any particular ad group should be used within the ad text contained in that ad group.  Make sure to segregate your overall selected keyword list in the beginning, and then segregate again, refining your ad groups to contain only the most similar keywords each.   This will help avoid running into any keyword relevance issues.

Mystery Three- URL Relevance Think of this in two parts: the URL that is the display URL and the URL in which the user will be directed to.  Each carries importance in Google determining your Quality Score.  Google gives you the option to change the display URL to be anything you want- make sure it includes a keyword within it as well.  Take this into account when refining your ad groups so that you can very intuitively include the chosen keywords into the ad and have it relate very closely. Your landing page is rated on relevancy, originality and transparency.  Relevancy promises that your visitor will find what it is that he or she was intending to find by clicking on your ad in the first place.  Originality says that the page the user is landing on is not just a copy and paste of some other website out there.  It takes time to build quality content that is not copied but it returns quality traffic and worth the investment.  Lastly, transparency refers to the landing page including contact information and privacy policies to ensure the safety and trust of the visiting user.

Mystery Four- User Experience The architecture of your webpage matters.  The ease of use, navigation and loading time all contribute to your Quality Score.  Be sure to have your website user reviewed to catch errors and issues that may be hindering your users’ experience.  In addition, try using a website optimizer to check for HTML errors and loading times as well.  Also try reducing image DPI to 72, and setting image size properties. 

Mystery Five- Unknown This is one mystery that will stay a mystery based on the fact that Google calls it “Other relevance factors.”  Google tries very hard to educate their users while keeping a few secrets in order to delay the inevitable black-hat SEOer.

Utilize these Quality Score mysteries uncovered, and you can start to take advantage of all the good things that come along with a properly structured and refined Google Adwords account as it relates to your overal marketing strategy.

First off, it's about being seen, and all businesses can benefit from verifying their Google listing as it increases your search ranking with local search.  This means that when a buyer searches from his home, he will see your listing at the top of all your national competitors.  Furthermore, claiming your listing while your competitors do not almost always ensures you will rank higher than they do.  No matter your industry or business, Google Places is an easy and free way to immediately increase your local search rankings.

Once your Google Places page is claimed, start with these 5 tips:

1. Keywords- Do a bit of research via Google keywords to determine which keywords are most relevant to your industry and specific business.  When writing your content, one of the best tips is to be sure to build it keyword-rich by dropping a keyword into Google Places (<--perfect example) anyway you can.
2. 1 Page per Location- Each location of your business should have its very own Google Places page.  This tip is important because the criterion for owning a page is an address (although you don’t always have to show it).  The more Google Places pages the better your local search ranking per geographical location.
3. Vigorously Encourage Reviews- each review adds points to your listing so encourage as many people to leave Google Places reviews as much as possible.  A bonus tip here is that Google Places recognizes other local review sites like Yelp and Yellowpages, and although you no longer see them listed in your Google Places page, Google calculates them into your total rank.  Note that Google users must be logged in to make any comments or changes.
4. List with Directories- listing your company with other business directories lifts your ranking with Google Places.
5. Analyze- keep track of your visits and keywords etc to determine where changes are appropriate, thus ensuring a #1 Google Places ranking for your business.

Keep in mind that the rules are forever changing and enlisting the help of marketing firms specializing in such work can lessen your stress in reviewing the rules and implementing the changes. Use these tips as a starter to your Google Places and watch your ranking rise. 

Wouldn’t it be great to have the time to sit with each customer and just talk about your company and told you exactly how they felt about what they like, don’t like, and what they would spend endless amounts of money on, if only it was offered?  Well… believe it or not, through social media you can virtually hang out in their living rooms, home offices, or with the explosion of mobile devices, wherever they are the moment they decide to talk about you (without being creepy).

Social Media’s virility is alive and kicking, really hard.  The latest social media statistics continue to rise at the pace of our national debt and even the most resistant-to-change humans are being forced into adopting online tools to help stay connected with the rest of the world. 

What does this mean for you and your business?  Your company brand is an ever-changing location in the consumer’s mind that is affected by every touch.  A touch can be any means of interaction such as a billboard, a magazine ad, a phone call from one of your account executives, a nurturing email from your marketing department, comments made by your CEO in a press release, a Twitter post or a blog, etc. (the list goes on!).  

One of the most important and influential “touch” and branding opportunity is when one consumer talks to another. There is free software out there to help gain perspective on what people are saying to each other on a candid stage.  Others may tote the top 5 or 10, however I have yet to see anyone do it better than SocialMention.com.

SocialMention.com allows you to peruse brand mentions throughout the entire web universe or by select media, such as just blogs, or just twitter mentions.  SocialMention.com even estimates the Strength, Sentiment, Passion and Reach of each keyword.   Let’s look at how each of these metrics is determined.

• Strength
  Strength is the likelihood that your brand is being discussed in social media.  A very simple calculation is used: phrase mentions within the last 24 hours divided by the total possible mentions.
• Sentiment
  Sentiment is the ratio of mentions that are generally positive to those that are generally negative.
• Passion
  Passion is measure of the likelihood that individuals talking about your brand will do so repeatedly.  For example, if you have a small group of very passionate advocates who talk about your products or brand all the time, you will have a higher Passion score.  Conversely if every mention is written by a different author, you will have a lower score.
• Reach
  Reach is a measure of the range of influence.  It is the number of unique authors referencing your brand divided by the total number of mentions.
  

For you PPC pros, Socialmention.com returns a list of top keywords within the mentions.  This is a potential treasure chest of which keywords you might be missing when selecting unbranded keywords.  For example, a search in Socialmention.com for Home Depot, returns “furniture” as one of your top keywords based on a comprehensive search.  This means Home Depot is either running an active campaign for furniture, and if not, maybe they should.

In addition, Socialmention.com is now equipped with a real-time buzz widget for your site or blog and an alert function.  Similar to Google Alerts, socialmention.com alerts delivers a summary email to you on a set, periodic basis. 

As I tested different methods and tools for searching brand mentions I did find a few blogposts and news sources that were not mentioned in socialmedia.com, but all-in-all the relevance and insight, for me, was much better.  Even if you survey your clients (which I highly recommend), there are some things they may not be willing to share with you.  Folding the use of Socialmedia.com into your business will help you keep track of what people are really saying about you and sustain your brand by acting on this insight and information.  Now go get some couch time with your customers and let me know what happens.

Groupon is one of the fasted growing companies in the US; so big it just recently turned down a $6 billion dollar acquisition deal from Google.  It has done more than well for itself by helping small businesses build their customer base through email marketing.

If you wanted to try Groupon, you would agree to discount your product or service 50% and allow them to write up copy and distribute locally targeted emails using their massive database (40 million plus).  You have the ability to specify when the deal will go into effect based on how many buys you want before you will honor it.  In addition you can cap the buys to ensure you don’t end up with more business that you can handle at once.

After the Groupon is complete you benefit from the exposure and new buying customers, but when all is said and done, you earn only 25% of your original sale price.  To illustrate, say you own a massage clinic and you normally sell 20 massages for $1,500 ($75 each); you spend $1125 in discounts and Groupon services, and you will end up with $375 in your pocket.  One can make a case to defend this discount and revenue shortage but is there an even better way? 

How can you do it better?

How can you keep more of your money, reach the same amount of people, and not seem desperate?  Hire a marketing company (Plug: Calo Marketing & Design: www.calomarketing.com) that can write the copy for you and supply you with a database of prospects that have opted-in for email deals.

In addition you will receive ALL of the sign-ups versus just those that bought before the cap was met.  Possibly the most valuable benefit of creating your own Groupon is that you can then use the resources of the same marketing company to help keep those new and existing customers coming back.

Take the same scenario as above using a marketing firm and you will spend around $649 in discounts, copy writing, and distribution, and you get to put $851 in your pocket.  That’s 44% more profit than with Groupon!

Hubspot recently published a report using troves of data on ~8,000 clients they currently serve.  Results indicated that email is still a formidable contender in the best way to create leads and sell your product.  

Small companies with under 10 employees still use email as the driving force in their marketing.  This may be due to a still developing shift to social media, however the email click through and open rates continue to maintain high numbers.

In the Business Services industry for example, the Best in Class, or those companies that are adhering to best practices, can enjoy 38.2% click through rate with a 64% open rate.  Best practices encompass copywriting, structure, aesthetics, mobility, etc.

Calo Marketing and Design felt it appropriate to give a few tips on email copy so feel free to check them out.

Email Copy Tips

See the full Eloqua report here.

The following was published in the Harvard Business Review's December issue:


Research Watch: What Does Your Logo Really Tell Consumers?Gap, Inc. learned recently just how powerful logos are when the public panned the redesign of its iconic symbol. Small design elements make a difference. Niels van Quaquebeke and Steffen Giessner of the Rotterdam School of Management showed logos of 100 Global 500 companies to two groups of participants. One group rated them on attractiveness and symmetry; the other judged whether the logo suggested that the company behaved ethically. The finding: Rationally or not, people associate symmetrical logos with more ethical, socially responsible behavior.