Meeting of the Minds 2010

www.OurKidsMedia.com

meeting ofthe minds


for Social Media for Your SchoolTop Five Tips


be helpful


it’s important because...


you should use it because...


our website viewersTwitter – 4500/monthFacebook – 2500/month


1.1 person, 1 hour/day


2.start at Facebook


goal=show leadership


leverage your skills


400 000 000


55 minutes


38 year old woman


W O M


newsfeed• fans (likers?)• fans’ friends


facebook.com/username


3.be on +


#2 engine


google juice


there vs. perfect


here, today


33% 33% 33%


hootsuite.com• team tweeting• scheduling• assignment


4.monitor what is being said about you


Google Alerts• your name

• your company’s name

• your industry: “private school canada”, “summer camp ontario”

• your closest competitor


RSS


Google Reader


speak in pictures


videos too


Five Quick Hits to Increase Traffic from Google and other search engines


Submit Your Site to

Google Places

#1


Google account > Account Settings > Try something new/more > Business Solutions > Google Places

Or search for “google places”

How to Set Up Google Places


Track The Success of Your Listing


Install Google

Analytics

#2


Google account > Account Settings > Try something new/more > Google Analytics

Insert code into footer of every page

Start collecting information

Google Analytics: How to


Understand Traffic


Tell people what your site and its pages are about Use your site to tell people as much as you can about your school

Basics of SEO & Search Marketing On Page#3


Don’t assume that people & search engines know what it is about

Your website is a publication


http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/ 2008/11/googles-seo-starter-guide.html

Download Google’s SEO Starter Guide


Links to your site tell search engines that your site is important and they can tell about your site.

• Students, parents, staff and anyone else with websites or blogs

• Directories: local, educational, general (most are free)

• Proper variation in anchor text: Great Lakes Christian High School is a Christian high school serving the Niagara Region

Get Optimal Backlinks to Your Site#4


Use Google Adwords #5


Your Google account > Google Adwords

• Set up parameters, including geographical

• Create campaigns & ad groups

• Bid on keywords & create compelling ads (within the format restrictions)

• Set your max CPC for each keyword & set your maximum daily budget

• Review regularly, as this is very dynamic

Adwords: How to


• Only pay when people click on your site

• Viewed across the web wherever Google ads are displayed, (including Gmail)

• Complete control of your budget

Advantages of Using Adwords:


• Amateur errors can be costly (don’t make typos!)

• People tend to distrust them

• Poor quality clicks

• Click fraud

Disadvantages & Limitations of Adwords:


• Adwords, Advertising & Organic Search

• Adwords & other web advertising can be important to marketing

• Adwords is especially useful if you have no organic presence at all (e.g. new site or heavily competitive vertical)

• Organic results have much(!) better click-throughs and much more trust

Adwords, Advertising & Organic Search


Keyword tools collect data from previous user searches and offer estimates of search volume for specific words and phrases that are related to each other.

(None of these are perfect but they do offer important marketing insights)

Resources: Keyword Tools


• Google’s own tool is all you need: http://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordTool

• Keyword Discovery: www.keyworddiscovery.com/search.html (my 2nd favourite; once/6 months or so)

• Wordtracker: http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/ (offers 7 day free trial)



• An appropriate caution: “Five Reasons Your Keyword Tool May be Lying to You” http://www.searchenginepeople.com/ blog/five-reasons-your-keyword-tool-may- be-lying-to-you-and-ours-might-too.html



Webmaster tools: www.google.com/webmasters/tools/

• Offers some insights into things that might be really wrong (e.g. broken links)

• Some like this but it’s too much irrelevance

• Free

• Google Trends: http://www.google.com/trends

• Neat, fun and can tell you about seasonality and other larger trends

• Restricted to very high level terms

Resources: More Google Tools


• Webmaster Central blog: googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/

• Matt Cutts, Google’s spam cop and liaison with the SEO industry: Mattcutts.com/blog

• Search Engine Land: searchengineland.com/

• Survey of search engine ranking factors: http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors.

Resources: Some Trustworthy Advanced SEO Information


MAxIMIzE your marketingFree initiatives to stretch your marketing efforts


What’s new and what works?

• 67% of online searches are driven by offline channels

• 44% of people in Canada belong to a social networking site and is on the rise

• Retailers and brands on facebook or with microblogs agree that they have helped maintain clients and grow bottom line

Social Media

PrintRadio TV

Open HouseEmail Marketing


Amplify your efforts

1. Where can you

share your blog, twitter

and facebook pages?

2. Can you automate

postings/ feeds with

tools and widgets

Amplify your efforts

1. Where can you share your blog, twitter and facebook pages?

2. Can you automate postings/feeds with tools and widgets?


Facebook Twitter LinkedIn

Pull RSS feed of News or Blog


FriendFeed.compowerful resource to streamline online updates

!


‘Sharing’ and ‘Tweeting’‘Sharing’ and ‘Tweeting’‘Sharing’ and ‘Tweeting’


!

Optimize your e-listing• Provide images that showcase different

elements of your school (web format)

• Add testimonials. Parents search for “school testimonials”

• Add content about programs you want to feature. This will help you be found using the keyword search.

• Keep your ‘Important Dates’ updated and access your e-listing quarterly to keep content fresh


q Add smaller media outlets to your Press Release list

q Submit articles to monthly e-newsletters

q Be the expert. Blog on a particular topic. Answer questions.

q WOM : Get students, coaches, teachers and parents to blog!

Free online marketing tips


• current families

• prospective families

• alumni

• faculty and staff

How do I build my email list? JUST ASK!

School E-Newsletters


Sender : Use a personal email address and name

Subject : only 4 to 6 words

Content : exclusive to your subscribers

Format : Plain text, HTML or Template

Email marketing best practices


Our Kids Canada’s #1 resource for parents searching for independent schools

250,000 copies distributed

70,000 monthly online visitors

15,000 e-newsletter subscribers

5,000 daily blog visitors

1,777 Twitter followers

2,000 families attending expos

20% International online traffic

100% target audience

1,000,000 Families

#1 Ranking on Google.ca

Meeting of the Minds 2010

Education

Transcript of Meeting of the Minds 2010