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. 

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.