FB TRAFFIC EXPERIMENT CONTINUED

By Mig Pascual | May 5, 2009

Today I was thinking of more ways I can put links in my FB account to drive more traffic and increase visibility to this blog.

I decided to comment on each of my pictures and put this message “If you like this picture, check out my blog http://www.migpascual.com” I was able to post this exact message on 29 pictures before FB displayed a message to “please try later.” There may be a security system in place to prevent spamming in their comment box.

My next step will be to variate the message to make each comment unique. Hopefully, I will be able to get pass the 29 comment mark.

Due to the large number of users on FB, there is a large potential to get a lot of eyeballs and traffic to your site. This should be done ethically and responsibly. I’ll try to share the results soon.

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INCREASE YOUR BLOG TRAFFIC USING FB WALL

By Mig Pascual | May 1, 2009

Build links to your blog using the FB wall. When your friends write on your wall, simply respond to them or comment back on their wall but share a link (which will be your blog or site that you are promoting). This would be a shameless plug, but the extra traffic you may get could be good. This is an experiment I am monitoring right now to see if it will increase traffic to my blog. I have Google Analytics set up so I can see the referrals by domain. If one of your friends have more than 250 friends, this could a good source of traffic referrals from FB. Imagine if you put a wall post on a minimum of five friends that had more than 250 friends. Your traffic should technically increase. When this blog post was written, FB remains the dominant social network in the United States if not abroad. This is one way to utilize social networks to improve your site visibility.

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PITCHENGINE

By Mig Pascual | April 22, 2009

Pitch Engine

Check out this social media PR press release tool. There is a free trial, but for the minimal investment they charge afterward looks worth it to make your news story easy to share and viral.

I have not personally used this yet. Does anyone know if PitchEngine provides strong SEO organic value?

If you are you looking to connect with gen x and y on the web. This could be a useful tool in your marketers bag of tricks.

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SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING (SEM)

By Mig Pascual | March 9, 2009

Search engine marketing (SEM) is a great way to advertise because you can connect with potential customers at the time they express interest in your product or service. In this economy, this form of advertising is becoming increasingly popular because of its accountability since you only pay for performance and the results are measurable.

The way SEM works is that advertisers purchase relevant keywords to their product or service in an auction where their ad will display in the highest positions to one of the top bidders. The price for having an ad shown is based on supply and demand. If the keywords in a certain industry are highly searched terms, it will cost more based on the demand. Advertising spend is priced on cost-per-clicks (CPC) which can be reduced if advertisers purchase long tail keywords. There is also an opportunity to purchase keywords based on cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM).

Search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, MSN, and Ask are the most commonly used in the U.S. where a company can advertise on. If your business is global, there are opportunities to advertise on Russia’s Yandex or Korea’s Baidu. Consumers in various regions of the world use different engines based on the popularity in a particular market. When setting up the right mix of engines for your SEM program be sure to understand consumers and their behavior of where they surf on the internet.

This is a high level overview on search marketing, but this form of marketing is both an art and science of finding the most relavant keywords, setting the right bids to achieve optimal page positioning, writing attractive ad copy, and directing consumers to the right page on your website. Finding the right balance to achieve your advertising goals can be complex, but rewarding.

If you would like to learn more about the beginnings of search marketing, I highly recommend watching The Google Boys DVD.

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MARKETING WITH NEW MEDIA

By Mig Pascual | January 10, 2009

There are still a lot of directors and C level executives (disclaimer: this is not referring anyone I’m working with in my present employer) still relying on traditional methods of marketing. Two of my former professors @joecullinane and @doctort2 will be publishing a book in the next few months targeting these professionals.

Many are just stuck in their old ways, but the challenge of today is that consumers are more informed, connected, and empowered to make smarter decisions. Plus, consumers are busier than ever with many options for media consumption to watch, listen, or read what they want when they want it.

How can you develop a strategy to hit the consumer with your marketing message, a moving target, and still be effective?

I think marketing today is about engagement and building relationships.

Below is a short, but by any means not comprehensive, list of books to give you an idea of the new marketing and media landscape which I’ve found helpful. Hopefully they may point you in a direction or help you build a case for you to investigate new technologies and how you can incorporate it into your business. They are not listed in any particular order.

DigiMarketing: The Essential Guide to New Media and Digital Marketing by Kent Wertime, Ian Fenwick

The Online Advertising Playbook: Proven Strategies and Tested Tactics from the Advertising Research Foundation by Joe Plummer, Steve Rappaport, Taddy Hall, and Robert Barocci

The Open Brand When Push Comes to Pull in a Web-Made World by Kelly Mooney and Nita Rollins, Ph.D.

Branded Entertainment: Product Placement & Brand Strategy in the Entertainment Business by Jean-Marc Lehu

Multichannel Marketing: Metrics and for On and Offline Success by Akin Arikan

Kellogg on Advertising & Media The Kellogg School of Management

I’ll be adding my professor’s book to this list when published. Please feel free to comment on this post and add titles you may have found helpful.

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YELLOW PAGES: WHAT IS THE VALUE OF IT ONLINE?

By Mig Pascual | December 17, 2008

I’ve been trying to figure out the value that Yellow Pages brings since its evolution online. Although it has been the standard in researching for businesses over the last century, internet searches on top tier engines such as Google, Yahoo!, and MSN have changed the way consumers think and do things.

My grandmother’s generation would still probably reference Yellow Pages, but the evolution of the internet industry has shaken media and advertising causing a shift in how consumers look for information. What real value does it provide online? They are trying to evolve their product and catch up to search engines.

If you are a business owner, you may want to think twice about placing an ad in a book that is outdated when printed. Also, you may want to think about placing a listing on their online network when you can get great if not better results by having PPC campaigns running on the three top tier search engines for a fraction of the price. Your business will have better visibility in the search engines when consumers do their research. Yellow Pages is no longer considered top of mind when people need to search for things. Consumers now use “Google” as a verb.

If you were to place an ad in Yellow Pages, it may be good for local search, possibly SEO results, and link building back to your company website. Yellow Pages looks like they back fill business listings on networks such as Yahoo! Yellow Pages, Yahoo! local, MSN Yellow Pages, and Microsoft Live Search so there may be benefit there as well. If you do purchase a listing from Yellow Pages, their Bronze listing pricing is based on the ZIP code of your business which should be sufficient enough.

It looks like they are starting to offer SEM services for local businesses but do your research first to find the best agency for your needs.

So, is there value in Yellow Pages? Its something to consider, but in my opinion not necessary if you have good coverage in the top three search engines.

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MEET UP

By Mig Pascual | December 15, 2008

If you own a business, www.meetup.com may be a cost effective way for you to promote, get new customers, and increase sales.

This site is a great way to build community and create local groups based on common interests. If you run a dance studio, own a knitting shop that offers classes, or restaurant that offers wine tastings, these are just a few examples in which you can create MeetUp groups. Be sure to read their terms of service to make sure you wouldn’t be violating any rules depending on the type of group you plan to set up.

Through MeetUp, you can also post your groups on Craigslist or MySpace. You can also upload photos of your events which is great to give people an idea of what your business or event is about. Its a great tool to communicate based on meeting individuals with similar interests.

At the time this blog was posted, the investment to be an organizer on MeetUp is $72 for six months, $45 for three months, and $19 for one month. This is an extremely affordable way to promote your business.

The results of your events are measurable because you can see how many people RSVP or express interest. Its also great for people in the MeetUp community to give reviews about your event.

How would you leverage this site to promote your business?

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