Posts by InsightsDigital

It is not only quantity but quality. Growing an online community requires constant care as well as encouraging others to do the same as well.

I actually attended an Ultra Light Startup pitch party during internetweekny and I was really impressed by the whole concept. I will definitely check these groups out. Thank you.

I may have met you at ULS events. I was there as well. You can create a startup on a shoestring budget. :-D

Twitter search is also a food way to monitor trends. It also helps assess sentiments from a manual qualitative perspective.

As I have perused through the free iPhone apps, I noticed many apps are offered free and then one has the option to upgrade to a paid version. Similar to the freemium version. What do you think of this?

You need to leverage both offline and online sources to promote your newly established online business. It also depends on the type of business and segments your business caters to.

For example,
Linked In - include your business post, create a business profile, join groups and include links for press release/white papers and any other documents that are of interest to the readers.
Twitter - share your thoughts about non-business news but also share links to news your Followers care about.

Thanks BC. I do think that the landing page is like setting the first impression and trying to entice the visitor to spend more time on the site and/or convert in one way or another.

Here are the questions that would be interesting to get answers for.

- what 3 social networking sites generates most traffic for YOUR particular business (please in order of performance)?

1. LinkedIn, a Meetup bullentin board, and a Google Group (tech related).

- how much traffic each of them dries to you per month?

It depends, I can have as much as 750 uniques to as little as 100 per month. It depends with how much plugging I do on the above mentioned sites.

- what tips and tricks can you share to maximize the traffic from those sites? (please provide as many details as you can)

Constantly post something from the perspective from the visitor and not from the perspective it can help my business

I also recommend using Facebook ads and targeting your ads to users from that location.

I also have heard success stories from non-profits using Twitter and it has helped them with their fundraising drives.

Even though it is more group related rather than business, I recommend you to check out these two LinkedIn groups - BrandHackers and Ultra Light Startup. These two groups include links to posts and I know it has helped these two groups gained more professional exposure.

In a few groups I belong to, I have seen very active discussion on members accusing posters that their posts were spams while the poster insist they are just informing. I also have noticed this on Twitter. Some members do not post any thoughts but just a bit.ly link while others share their daily experience. In regards to building a business following, what are the guidelines you consider or keep watch to prevent crossing the line between spamming and informing?

I actually have helped create a few business related fan pages. Do keep in mind that most people who do sign up to become fans of a page find out either through:
1. Seeing their friends' update if they joined.
2. Receiving an invite email from the company asking them to join.

Most Facebook users will not actively search for a Facebook page. Kee that in mind.
In regards to your client, it will help include information about these utilities and even an advertising campaign on Facebook may help drive traffic to the page.

It all depends on the type of message the logo is trying to evoke. The red in Yahoo evokes power meanwhile the rainbow like colors and the mostly blue hues in Google evokes high levels of trust. Look at the logos for major online networking sites, there are all blue - Myspace, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

Think of the three online activities that your visitors will want the most and the three that could generate a more ROI for your client.

I have seen others to do that it may help bring traffic to the client's site but it will require much more publicity and then enticing these visitors to sign up on the landing page. This sign up must promise updates on future webinars or some other information. At least this way, the client can still have a database of potential visitors.

Also, there are available plug-ins for Wordpress that enables you to add chat and add more CMS components to it.

I have heard many success stories like that one you described. Dell stated that it made over $3 million dollars in sales due to its Twitter presence. http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/desktop/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=217801030

I like Google Alerts. A friend of mine uses Techgrigy to monitor social media alerts. There is a free version available but I never got into it. http://www.techrigy.com/

There will also be differences in numbers between various web traffic tools because it depends if the data is from server logs or javascript.

Your site may benefit from doing behavioral segmentation and/or personas. Try to think what are the needs of the most popular visitor segments and cater to their needs. Do they want more videos or event updates? Experiment.

I also noticed the same issue with very specialized niches, lest say a medical specialty. Google Trends may me more useful for consumer brands.

I also recommend that you attend events and meetups that include the type of visitors you want on your site and just plug your site. Give them a catchy business card with your website url very visibly seen.

Yes, I have helped develop webinairs to help increase the website's online marketing. It depends if your client wants to do a webinar on a constant basis or just one time. Some issues you need to take into consideration:
1. It needs at least 4-6 weeks of promotion.
2. Need to compile a database for those interested to watch the webinar.
3. The webinar has to be seen in major computer screens. My friend recently presented for a major online webinar and I was unable to see it because I have a Mac.
4. Write a thank you email to the viewers right after the webinar and asked for their comments and suggestions.
5. Ask people to tweet about it.

My recommendations:
1. Conduct a usability test on your landing page. You may want to create separate pages/tabs for the specific content on your landing page. Thus, it will be easier for the visitor to read.
2. Submit site map to Google.
3. Constantly create new and relevant content.
4. Plug your site at different events.

Another reason is that Google search has been made available:
1. As the first choice on FireFox search box. Yahoo is also a drop down option but I wonder which percentage of users actually purposely stroll down to use Yahoo.
2. on major mobile devices - I have both a Blackberry and iTouch and I have a Google application for both. I did not find a Yahoo application so of course I will choose Google.

Thus, Google cast a far wider net than the other two search engines which may explain why more people use Google. Hardly anyone says: "Yahoo it!"

Though I have never started one, I have known a few people hwo have started one and they claim it has helped them professionally. Also, I went to a career event a few months ago where the career coach strongly advocated about creating a LinkedIn group. My observation has been that the majority of posts on many of these LinkedIn groups I belong to are all promotional and none are really stirring any conversation. Just my two cents.

I recommend you to check out the video for Google Wave and sign up.
http://wave.google.com/
It seems it will allow a form of monitoring Public Relations on your website - 2.0. From a SEO perspective, this may allow for monitoring your long tail keywords. What do you think?

From my understanding, Google is constantly updating its algorithm and consequently, it affects the website's PageRank.

I strongly recommend you to use Wordpress since it grants you more control.

Twitter provides a great opportunity for backlinks. A great way to track these shorten urls is by using bit.ly since it provides you with traffic data.

Assessing the different types of customers who visit your website can help business owners understand how to best cater to them. Thus, I often appreciate Quantcast's behavioral report for websites. I understand Compete Pro will also have this type of information. For the internet marketers in this community, have you used this type of information to define and refine your business objections?

Have you ever optimized your landing page? If so, how did you do it? Did you do a A/B split testing or just changed variables around your website intuitively? Which software do you use?

For a medical information site I used to manage, the site included many high ranking governmental urls. It did not only help increase the site's PR but it also helped increase traffic. FYI - some of the governmental sites allow others to re-publicize their content, of course, as long as you give acknowledge the source. Thus, tactic also helped increase traffic.

Thanks Socialbug for your comment. I actually used to send personalized thank you follow direct messages and it was very time consuming and I dont think it did anything.

If you did not know this already, Facebook allows custom urls for Facebook Pages.

Promoting a forum may require time and effort but it is worth it. I have created and promoted forums in the past. My lessons learned are:
1. Content - you need to constantly create content and keep the content fresh and valuable.
2. Invite other bloggers or other people you think may benefit from the site.
3. Use social bookmarks. Stumble your site.
4. Promote it on Craigslist.

So with having a business social media account, it is important to humanize it with non-business information. Thus, it may be this "humanizing" element that enables connection with your Followers.

I recommend making your site, especially the home page, engaging and informative. Thus, from a usability perspective, make the site as user friendly as possible. If possible, conduct a A/B test to assess which variables on your site can be optimized to decrease bounce rate. Second, increase the amount of valuable content on your site. From a SEO perspective, I strongly recommend making this content your own and link it with relevant keywords.

I also found that Ebay is a great online site to find cell phone accessories as well.

I strongly recommend to:
1. Boost up your content - like any instructional videos on how to win certain games and cheat sheets. This way, even from a SEO perspective, gamers who are looking for this information will wind up on your site.
2. Create Lots of Threads Yourself - Think of the most requested or FAQ and create it. One site creator created over 300 posts on her site before launching it.
3. Advertise on Facebook to a certain demographics.

Don't forget traditional advertising is also a good way to talk about your website. One example is going to related events and handling your site's business card. Make the URL and type of site very visible on the card. Also, network your way to be invited as panelists and this way, more people will know about your and your site.

I have been at internet marketing related conferences where it seems everyone is tweeting either on their iPhones or on their laptops' using TweetDeck or some other application. I saw a funny video produced by Current TV called Twouble in Twitter. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN2HAroA12w

Citigroup just released a report that the study found that Google was more useful than Bing.
I wonder who else will release similar studies.

This new finding released by Nielsen reflects that consumers trust virtual friends and strangers' reviews the most. Thus, for business owners, this means that one has to pay constant attention and minimize risk damage to what reviewers have written about your service or business. One interesting statistic was regarding trust towards ads before movies. People may find it more annoying than helpful and this question should be researched as well if it affects the ROI.

Im sharing some values from eMarketer. Despite the recession, small businesses are spending more on advertising on online networks rather than mobile advertising and podcasting. My question for the small business advertisers is: How has it been the ROI for such marketing tactics?

You may have heard already but Google will release their own Operating System based on open source coding. This OS will be Netbook friendly.

Google has been THE Leader for search marketing. Now that Google will have a OS in the market, it can potentially transform search marketing to a new unimaginable dimension. How? Well, Google can now collect a vast wealth of user behavioral data and create personas. It will allow for really personalized advertising.

http://arstechnica.com/web/news/2009/07/google-chrome-os-lives-and-is-coming-to-a-netbook-near-you.ars

So what do you think?

This graph is representative of companies with over 250 employees. With smaller companies, it is usually a one person role. In other companies I have seen, it is an integrated approach in a small operation. What do you think of the graph?

If you have not created a Facebook page for your business, start doing it soon. If you have created one for your business, what has been your experiences?
http://www.facebook.com/advertising/?pages

I have monitored social media buzz on particular keywords and brands via qualitative measures and it is time consuming. I found some good approaches like:
1. Google Trends
2. Google Alerts
3. Going to Twitter Search

Someone recommended Viral Heat. But its a pay service. But if it saves time and its accurate, why not.

What approaches do you take into consideration for your multicultural marketing? I have seen ads that cater this with different messaging and adding representative pictures.