Posts Tagged ‘facebook’

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Social media doesn’t equal SEO

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

By Robert Lockard

Social media is a great tool for businesses to communicate with customers. It gives marketers an opportunity to establish close contact with people in ways seemingly unthinkable until just a few years ago.

Winnie the Pooh and tiger too

Despite social media’s strengths, it should not be considered an end unto itself. Without other marketing strategies, such as search engine optimization, advertising, etc. a company’s efforts in social media could fall flat. A Brafton article entitled “Does social media increase SEO?” caught my interest and inspired this blog entry.

This is not the first time I’ve talked about social media and its effects on ecommerce in the eHarbor Blog. In one of my blog entries, I noted companies are increasing their spending on search engine marketing, despite the recession. In another, I point out companies are also reducing their social media spending slightly this year, after greatly expanding it over the last few years.

It seems like many businesses have learned the virtues of social media, but they are also prudent in their decisions to try to maximize return on investment. By getting to the top of search engines, companies can reach a wider number of Internet users than by using social media. Both are useful tools and should not be considered superior to the other. But it appears businesses are choosing the broader tool than the more personal one to help them through this recession.

In the Brafton article I mentioned above, Warren Cohen, CEO of SEO-focused Greenlight, said social media would probably not have a noticeable effect on SEO for a company’s website. SEO is built slowly by creating a search engine-friendly website, populating it with relevant content and building connections with similar websites.

A presence on Twitter, Facebook and other social sites is great and it can add to search-engine rankings, but it probably won’t have a significant impact.

Tried-and-true principles are your best options for getting to the top of Google, MSN and Yahoo. If you would like a more in-depth explanation of SEO and how to use it to your advantage, check out my blog entry “Search engine optimization at the drugstore” or my seven-part series on SEO tactics.

The photo of Winnie the Pooh and “Tigger” is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of JoshMcConnell.

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Posted in Ecommerce, SEO, Search Engines, eHarbor | 6 Comments »

Marketers cut social media presence when they need it most

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

By Robert Lockard

I have discussed the growth of ecommerce many times in the eHarbor Blog. You can find lots of information on marketers joining ecommerce in my blog entries, “Bucking recession, ecommerce keeps growing” and “Strong sales attract retailers to ecommerce.” I will continue my streak by talking about ecommerce, though in a slightly different way.

Scissors cutting ethernet cable

The main reason companies keep moving into ecommerce is the revenue growth this industry is experiencing each year. During this recession, consumers have cut back on most spending, but they continue to spend more online, making it a popular alternative for businesses to thrive in hard times.

However, according to an article in B to B, a magazine for online marketers, companies are starting to spend less money advertising their services and brands in social networks, such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. The article I am referring to is entitled, “Social network ad spending projected to contract this year.”

The growth of advertisement spending on social-media sites has slowed in recent years, from a 129-percent increase in 2007 to 33 percent in 2008, and now an estimated 3-percent loss in 2009. To put it in real numbers, $1.18 billion was spent on social-media advertising in 2008.

Social media is an excellent way for businesses to interact with customers and even gain new ones, so it makes sense for them to jump into this arena. Maybe with all of the cuts businesses are making to compensate for the decline in consumer demand for many products, social media just doesn’t seem as important at the moment.

Ironically, it seems like social-media spending is one of the best investments a business can make, especially in a struggling economy. Consumers are shifting their time and money online, making social networks popular places to reach them. Companies that shy away from social media might be shooting themselves in the foot.

I discussed social media’s many strengths and weaknesses in my blog post, “Facebook’s growing pains could transform social media.” There are plenty of reasons to stay connected with your customers online. Keep trying and stay positive!

The photo of the scissors cutting an ethernet cable is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of nrkbeta.

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Posted in Ecommerce, eHarbor | 4 Comments »

Too much information is bad for you

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

By Robert Lockard

In the digital age, information is not only plentiful, it’s downright endemic. We have Web analytics tools that can glean information on people who visit our websites.

Fat cat lies comfortably on chair

I will compare information gathering to eating. The more food we eat, the more weight we are likely to gain. If we eat everything we find, we’re not living a healthy lifestyle. It takes discipline and wisdom to choose the foods that our bodies need the most and then eat appropriate servings of them. A little variety doesn’t hurt either.

If we constantly eat and never do anything with that energy, even if the food we eat is good for us, we’ll probably become obese. People who become obese have a greater chance of premature death, just as ecommerce companies that become saturated with information and don’t do anything with it can die prematurely, as well. Not to mention suffer indigestion.

Information is a great thing, just like food. But we must use it wisely. We should gather information pertinent to our needs and then put it to good use in our online marketing decisions, product pricing, customer service, etc.

By the way, I got the idea for this blog entry from an article in Ecommerce Times, entitled, “Drowning in Data: Web Analytics and Information Overload.” That article has lots of insights into information gathering, and I took a piece and ran with it.

This leads me to some things I learned at a recent Webinar by Hubspot and Brent Leary, entitled “How to Use Social Media to Attract More Customers.” I promised I would talk more about this Webinar in my blog entry on Facebook, and I’ll keep my word now.

I highly recommend clicking on the Webinar link above to watch the hour-long presentation. You can also download the presentation slides in a PDF file to save time.

In the Webinar, I learned about websites I can use to both gather and organize information from social-media sites like Twitter. Here are the ones Leary mentioned:

- TubeMogul – distribute online videos and analyze viewers and impact.

- CoTweet – organize your conversations in Twitter.

- Salesforce – measure results in Twitter, Google and other online media.

- Bit.ly – shorten links and keep track of who clicks them.

- Favotter – another Twitter measurement site.

- Twitalyzer – in-depth information on your Twitter account.

I find these sites helpful in my efforts to focus the social-media exposure of eHarbor, Inc. and its affiliates. In fact, eHarbor’s affiliates help not only to create a website for you, but track and gain more visitors through search engine optimization and other strategies.

These companies include: Magellan Commerce, Real Estate Promoter, Submit Solution, and Direct Home Find.

Remember, you are what you eat – but it’s what you do with your time and energy that truly defines you.

The photo of the fat cat is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of brokinhrt2.

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Posted in Ecommerce, eHarbor | 2 Comments »

New York Times struggles to stay afloat

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009

By Robert Lockard

I read a Bloomberg article that said the New York Times is facing a large drop in revenue and is trying to cut back on its expenses to stay in business. The article is entitled, “New York Times Sees Further Ad Drop After Loss Widens.”

Tiger staying afloat in water

The New York Times is learning the hard way that ecommerce and online media are changing the way people gather information and the way marketers advertise their products to customers. They’re trying to stay afloat by cutting jobs, reducing their staff’s salaries and selling property and other assets to try to make up for lost advertising revenue.

All of this is prolonging the inevitable. Old media will have to adapt to changing conditions or go the way of the railroad.

For better or worse, Facebook, Twitter and other social-media sites are revolutionizing communication and information distribution. Marketers are shifting their advertising dollars online because it is much more cost-efficient to do so. Print faces serious challenges because of this.

One quote in the Bloomberg article stuck out to me above all the others. Thyra Zerhusen, managing director of Optimum Investment Advisors, said the New York Times has “to do a better job monetizing their online revenues.”

This seems to be a common theme for companies looking to make a profit online. Online marketers save money by hosting a website instead of renting space at a mall, but they need to understand doing business online is a big change from the old way of doing business and it requires different approaches to earning a profit.

I recommend going to Magellan Commerce’s redesigned website to find resources that can help you succeed online. These include search engine optimization, website design, and more.

You can also go to other eHarbor, Inc. affiliates: Submit Solution and Real Estate Promoter.

The photo of the tiger staying afloat is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of fPat.

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Posted in Ecommerce, Media, eHarbor | 5 Comments »

Facebook’s growing pains could transform social media

Thursday, April 16th, 2009

By Robert Lockard

Facebook is one of the highest-profile members of the social-media revolution that took hold of the Internet four years ago. One question on many people’s minds is: Is Facebook on the verge of becoming profitable and going public? That might be a giant step for the social-media industry.

Man with a book for a face

I read about Facebook’s amazing growth and current struggles in a Fortune magazine article, entitled “Is Facebook losing its glow?” The article points out a lot of interesting statistics about the company, such as:

- 850 million photos are uploaded to Facebook every day.

- 8 million videos are uploaded to Facebook every day.

- 70 percent of Facebook’s users are outside the United States.

- Facebook’s revenue in 2008 totaled $280 million.

Those are impressive numbers. And to think that in 2004 hardly anyone had ever heard of Facebook. Or Twitter, MySpace or YouTube, for that matter. Clearly, these websites are doing something right to become so successful, and people around the world want to be a part of them.

But Facebook has yet to make a profit because it relies mainly on advertising for its revenue. And online advertising is cheap, as any newspaper or other traditional media provider will tell you. I’m not sure how social-media sites will earn a profit without eventually charging their customers a fee for some services.

Online consumer spending is expected to increase in the next several years, and a growing number of marketers are climbing onto the ecommerce bandwagon. Maybe social-media sites can take advantage of this trend, too.

But they might lose a large number of current and potential subscribers. Facebook bases its whole business model on generating new customers, so it might be difficult for it to transition to developing the quality of its customers instead of quantity.

Speaking of social media and marketing, on April 14, 2009, I attended Hubspot’s largest Webinar ever, which was called “How to Use Social Media to Attract More Customers.” Brent Leary, co-founder and partner of CRM Essentials, led this awesome presentation. I hope to discuss the lessons I learned at this Webinar in a future blog entry.

I just can’t help pointing out that the Fortune article had several obvious spelling and grammar mistakes. I pointed out mistakes in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, so I think it’s fair to do the same in Fortune magazine.

- Most of that came directly from banner ads, and a substantial chunk was still coming from a deal with Microsoft in which the Internet behemoth sold traditional banner ads, which cost as little as $0.15 cents per one thousand ads shown to users.
This is a common mistake. $0.15 cents is equal to $.0015. When people say this they usually mean $0.15 or 15 cents, not both.

- In 2008, the company brought in an estimated $280 milion.
In Spanish, this would be the correct spelling of “million,” but not in English.

- More than 131,000 users became a fan of the national pizza franchise saw traffic to its site jump 253%.
This is a clear case of rewriting a sentence and forgetting to make it fit together properly.

I have another really cool thing to share from this article, but I’ll save that for another blog entry. Be sure to check the eHarbor Blog to stay posted on good news in the world of ecommerce, search engine optimization and other topics like these. You can also follow us on Twitter.

You can take advantage of SEO tactics and succeed in the world of ecommerce with the help of eHarbor and its affiliates, which include Magellan Commerce, Real Estate Promoter and Submit Solution.

The photo of the “facebook” is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of _Max-B.

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Posted in Ecommerce, Media | 7 Comments »

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