Golden Nuggets from Toronto's Mesh 12 Conference

Toronto played host to this year’s mesh 12 conference on May 23 - 24, 2012 and, as
usual, offered a plethora of seminars and networking opportunities. Attending was
representatives from many well-known online brands, including Blurb, ecobee,
Ushahidid, Global Voices and IBM Canada. Featured speakers included noted media
lawyer Michael Geist; NPR Icon Andy Carvin and Clay Johnson, co-founder of
Blue State Digital, responsible for Barack Obama’s successful online campaign in 2008.

While a good deal of material was covered, two areas that were of particular interest
are UNDERSTANDING YOUR WHOLE SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIENCE and
INBOUND: THE FUTURE OF MARKETING. In regard to INBOUND
MARKETING, Brian Halligan, founder of HubSpot, shared that INBOUND
MARKETING is just the opposite of traditional OUTBOUND MARKETING -
advertising, cold calls, etc. Since most of us recognize that INBOUND
MARKETING is the wave of the future, it is most important that we understand how
to master it as soon as possible.  According to Halligan, the key to INBOUND
MARKETING is remarkable content. The reason?  GOOGLE has gotten smart
enough to weed out the lousy stuff! To be successful, you should:

• Create good quality that people want to engage with, publishing frequently

• Have calls to action to get your readers to become leads

• Do lead nurturing to get those leads to become customers

• A/B Test everything to increase conversion rates. By continuously improving, you
  can increase conversions by 200% to 300%

• Remember the Power Laws of Inbound Marketing: Top 20% of your content will
  generate 80% of your traffic and leads

Halligan also said that your content needs to be relevant to your business, and it
needs to not to oversell your product or service. Focus on creating value for you
readers, not on selling, and use targeted calls to action to move people through
your marketing funnel.  Obviously, this is a lot to digest and, if your realm of
expertise is not Internet Marketing, it might even be a little overwhelming. A
solution might be to contact an Internet Marketing Firm, such as PATHMAKER
MARKETING LLC. Headed by founder and CEO Randall Mains, they stand
ready to help you with not only these two issues, but the whole of Internet
Marketing. In discussing “Your WHOLE Social Media Audience” a key term
that was bantered around was “lurkers.” In essence, these individuals are your
“invisible online audience,” people who may visit your site but who are not
tweeting, liking or sharing your content. Lurkers may also use Facebook but
don’t post, like, or share, even though they may log on to FB several times a
week.  A comprehensive survey by Andrew Reid and Alexandra Samuel
explains what is different about lurkers, and what you need to now about
reaching them. And, this information is important, because their study showed
that 68% of Canadian Facebook users are lurkers, and that for Twitter 61%
log but are not posting.  Interestingly enough, lurkers do not behave the same
way, nor want the same things, as sharers. As a result, most of the data
available on social media audiences does not apply to the majority of the
audience.  Insights into this group reveal that:

• Lurkers tend to be less influential in terms of their workplace purchasing
  or hiring decisions.

• Attitudes: Lurkers care less about being fashionable; Lurkers are more reluctant
  to engage in shopping.

Information alone is not enough - it is imperative that we are able to draw some
marketing implications from this data. One of the main suggestions is that you
might want to change the way you structure social media initiatives. For example,
if you are an office supply store you may want to create two different feeds: one
targeting workplace influencers (made for sharing) and another for the silent
majority who might be focused on deals for home use.  Another thought is that
you might also change your key metrics. Rather than shares or likes, you might
want to increase your emphasis on measuring clicks and actual online transactions
that are driven by social media.  In summation, the silent social media audience is
value-oriented rather than being driven by trends or being ahead of the technology
and/or fashion curve. They are more likely to quietly click and buy if the deal is right.

What Do You Mean They Weren't Looking For Me!

by Floyd Allen

Boy, I hate to burst a friend’s bubble! Especially when that friend thinks he is excelling in my area of expertise. Especially when that friend is Jim.

Now, you probably have already read about Jim though he wasn’t referred to by name. Jim is the gentleman who referred to “Pay Per Click” as “Paper Clip,” and wasn’t thrilled by the program’s results, nor by the fact that I had corrected him on it. Anyway, he is doing his best to keep up with technology, and decided he would start a Blog. The owner of an independent sporting goods store and a pretty fair fisherman, Jim decided he would do a Blog on fishing. He has been at it for about a month, and when we had lunch the other day he breezed into the restaurant and announced that he had finally hit the big time!

Enjoying the beaming smile on his face, I asked what was up. He explained that he had fourteen hundred hits on his latest offering, 5 Important Facts about Fly-Fishing in Arizona. And, he proclaimed triumphantly, he didn’t think that many people even knew his name. Without thinking I informed him that undoubtedly most of them didn’t. He gave me a hard look - - he wasn’t to the point of fuming, but he was, at least, brooding. Knowing he deserved an explanation, I shared a few Internet Marketing ideas with him.

The reality is, I explained, that approximately 82% of the people who read our Blogs have not typed in our name, but rather a keyword. This, I went on to tell him, is the basis for Keyword Marketing. Keyword Marketing is an excellent Online Marketing Tool, and one that Randall Mains and Pathmaker Marketing, the firm I am associated with, feature as part of their Search Engine Optimization Services. My best guess was that people were looking for advice on fly-fishing in general, and fly-fishing in Arizona in particular, and that’s how they came upon his Blog.

Jim was a little deflated; there was no doubt about it. He is a friend, and not wanting to bring him down and leave him there, I shared some of the positive aspects about his situation. I first pointed out to him that now fourteen hundred people do know his name. Next I suggested to him that he might want to use what he had started as a social Blog as a subtle way to market his business. His spirits were lifting, and he seemed genuinely interested in the prospect of using his Blog to increase his business.

Warming to the discussion myself, I explained how another Pathmaker Marketing associate, Karen Randau, knew a gentleman who had developed leads for a hunting lodge that he owned and operated. He just wrote about some of the interesting experiences the people who stayed there had enjoyed, and before long people were asking about flyers and what not. Utilizing all of the knowledge and expertise at Pathmaker’s disposal, I assured him, would allow us to help virtually any business use a Social Networking program such as Blogging to promote their business without violating the unwritten code of “fun” that is associated with Blogging.

By the time lunch was over Jim had returned to being his beaming self. We discussed some other topics that might bring him new readers, and speculated on how many hits each one would receive. He was thrilled that he might get fourteen hundred new customers, until I pointed out to him that probably half of them were probably from out of state. I got that hard look again, until I explained to him how he could deal with that, too - - - but that’s for another day and another Blog!

Add a Virtual Tour to your Website

A virtual tour can be an interesting and valuable addition to your website, and if you do it properly, it can be a valuable part of your internet marketing ideas. A virtual tour is a simulation of an existing location, usually composed of a sequence of video images. They also may use other multimedia elements such as sound effects, music, narration, and text. Virtual Tours can allow a user to view an environment without actually being there whilst on-line.

There are a number of issues to take into account before adding a virtual tour to your website.

1. What is the goal for your tour?

2. Who are you trying to reach?

3. What kind of interactivity will your audience most appreciate?

4. What kind of bandwidth will you be working with?

Pathmaker Marketing can help you with virtual tours and other kinds of website design. Give us a call at 623-322-3334.