So how can we connect with our audience?
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Transcript of So how can we connect with our audience?
So how can we connect with our audience?
Web site ?
Platypus
Working in computing over 30 years in academia and business
Set up first web servers in QUB, co-ordinated webmasters and department representatives to build Queen’s first web site
Started Ireland’s first Internet Service Provider in 1994, providing connections and developing content management for web sites, first clients Belfast Telegraph…
Now specialise in software development that takes full advantage of the web, easy owner operation, optimised for search engines
Run workshops on web related topics, such as, How to maximise your online presence, Creating a more powerful web using RDFa…
The first decade of the 21st century…
http://www.cinema-and-movies.com/
The first decade of the 21st century…
http://www.cinema-and-movies.com/
The first decade of the 21st century…
http://www.cinema-and-movies.com/
The SEO challenge
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ILQrUrEWe8
So how can we connect with our audience?
Web site ?Search engines
Back to basics
How search engines workSearch engine “spider” software crawls through text on a web site
As it goes, it builds a word index for that web site in the search engine
Once indexed, it assumes a default re-indexing frequency
When due, the spider returns to site and re-indexes the words
If lots of changes, it increases re-indexing frequency
The more quickly a site changes, the more frequent spider returns
Back to basics
What search engine?
http://marketshare.hitslink.com/search-engine-market-share.aspx?qprid=4
Back to basics
How do we use a search engineThis index of words is then queried when we do a ‘search’
Search results are displayed depending on the search keywords we use
100s of different factors are considered in determining results rankings
Our behaviour… we rarely go beyond three pages of search results
We’d rather change the keywords we’ve used and try again
Back to basics
Back to basics
Search engines—signposts or advertising billboards?
Google seems to encourage the signpost approach…
Submit it to Google at http://www.google.com/addurl.html
Submit a sitemap using Google Webmaster Tools—uses sitemap to learn about your site structure and to increase coverage of your web pages
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http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?&answer=35769
Design and content guidelines
Titles—what you do, first word important, short, 65 characters
Make sure that <title> elements and ALT attributes are descriptive
Pages—each page must have a different title
Make sure your meta description ‘sells’ the page to the searcher
Think about keywords and make sure that your site includes them
Don't load pages with irrelevant keywords
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http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?&answer=35769
Make pages primarily for users, not for search engines. Don't deceive your users or present different content to search engines than you display to users
Make a site with a clear hierarchy and text links
Offer a sitemap to your users
Create a useful, information-rich site, with accurate pages
Add content regularly
Use text instead of images to display important names, content, or links
Check for broken links and correct HTML
Keep the links on a given page to a reasonable number (fewer than 100)
Design and content guidelines
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?&answer=35769
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Make sure your web server supports the If-Modified-Since HTTP header. This feature allows your web server to tell Google when content last changed
Don't create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with substantially duplicate content
Make use of the robots.txt file on your web server
If your company buys a content management system, make sure that the system creates pages and links that search engines can crawl
Use robots.txt to prevent crawling of pages that don't add much value
Test your site to make sure that it appears correctly in different browsers
Technical guidelines
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?&answer=35769
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So how can we connect with our audience?
Web site ?Know who they are
Establishing desirable target audience
Determine your audience profileDemographics—age, gender, location, incomeWhat particular interests, influences, beliefsWhat media will they be using (desktop, mobile, home, work)
How many are thereAny relevant behavioral trendsClarify how to deliver value to your audienceWhat do you want to achieve when users visitWhat is your goal or "conversion" metricHow will you measure this
Knowing your audience
Compare keyword phrases and see trends over time and per countryhttp://www.google.com/trends
Make sure all links are workinghttp://validator.w3.org/checklink
Introduction to Google's web site optimiserhttp://www.google.com/websiteoptimizer/tour.html
Identify suitable keywords and see popularityhttps://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Find what pages have been indexed by Google—site:<domain name>
Find how many sites link to you—link:<web site>
Useful "tools" of the trade
Getting started with Google Analytics
Create a Google account
Identify your unique web ID
Insert unique ID into Javascript tracking code and add this code to all pages (which links to JavaScript library on the Google servers)
After logging in to your account you may select reports of interest from your Google Analytics dashboard
Google analytics
http://services.google.com/analytics/tour/index_en-GB.html
Getting started with Google Analytics
Create a Google account
Identify your unique web ID
Insert unique ID into Javascript tracking code and add this code to all pages (which links to JavaScript library on the Google servers)
After logging in to your account you may select reports of interest from your Google Analytics dashboard
Google analytics
http://services.google.com/analytics/tour/index_en-GB.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qfG2d9etvk
World map overlay—zoom in shows cities site accessed
Measuring and analysing access with Google AnalyticsTrack and analyse user behaviourShow how users find your siteShow where users go on your siteCompare metrics for one page against all othersView how metrics are changing over timeVisuals of geographic spread of visitorsAggregate several web sites or split parts of one siteShow ‘bounce rate’
http://www.google.com/analytics/support.htmlhttp://www.google.com/support/conversionuniversity
Web site ?
So how can we connect with our audience?
Social web tools
Opportunities & Challenges!Opportunities & Challenges!
What is mentioned most in social media sites?
http://infegy.com/buzzstudy/social-radar-top-50-social-brands-of-2009/
Top 50 social brands of 2009
Adam CoomesJanuary 04, 2010
The Social Radar top 50 measures the brands with the most active web presence based on overall online conversation volume. To create the top 50 list, we used Social Radar to analyze millions of blog posts, news feeds, forums, social networks and twitter posts to aggregate a list of the words and brands mentioned most frequently on the web during all of 2008 and 2009. The list measures the number of unique individuals or sources that posted content about each brand during 2009 rather than the overall number of mentions.
What is mentioned most in social media sites?
http://infegy.com/buzzstudy/social-radar-top-50-social-brands-of-2009/
1 Twitter
2 Google
3 Facebook
4 iPhone
5 YouTube
6 Obama
7 Mac
8 Apple
9 iPod
10 Microsoft
Top 50 social brands of 2009
What is mentioned most in social media sites?
http://infegy.com/buzzstudy/social-radar-top-50-social-brands-of-2009/
11 Windows
12 MySpace
13 Yahoo
14 Amazon
15 Fox
16 Disney
17 BlackBerry
18 Firefox
19 BBC
20 Wii
Top 50 social brands of 2009
What is mentioned most in social media sites?
http://infegy.com/buzzstudy/social-radar-top-50-social-brands-of-2009/
21 Sony
22 XBox
23 Playstation
24 Linux
25 CNN
26 MTV
27 AT&T
28 eBay
29 Starbucks
30 NFL
Top 50 social brands of 2009
What is mentioned most in social media sites?
http://infegy.com/buzzstudy/social-radar-top-50-social-brands-of-2009/
31 Android
32 Nokia
33 Ford
34 ABC
35 Skype
36 Dell
37 UPS
38 Wikipedia
39 NBA
40 LG
Top 50 social brands of 2009
What is mentioned most in social media sites?
http://infegy.com/buzzstudy/social-radar-top-50-social-brands-of-2009/
41 ESPN
42 Oprah
43 Samsung
44 NASA
45 Nintendo
46 Canon
47 Nike
48 Gap
49 Kindle
50 Intel
Top 50 social brands of 2009
Business purposes of social networking sites
Establish pointers to web site by attracting initial audience attention and developing a relationship.
Create brand. Very important—web site visitors often only seeking confirmation after having made an initial decision to use a product or service following research on social networking sites.
Peer reviews—very influential.
Marketing!
Use of social networking sites
Is online reputation management the new Search Engine Optimisation?Niall McKeownNiall's Online Marketing Blog, 9 December 2009
There is a strong argument that being #1 in the natural search engine results in Google for some industries is no longer what it used to be. I'm not arguing that search is irrelevant or that a site should not be built optimised for search engines, my argument is that the customer and how they purchase has little to do with being top of Google. Rather, it is how you are represented in terms of your online reputation. My argument is that online reputation management is fast becoming more important than search engine optimisation in service based industries. Better still, get your ORM right and the SEO takes care of itself.
Search Engine Optimisation effectiveness
http://blog.ionom.com/2009/12/is-online-reputation-management-the-new-search-engine-optimisation/
How twitter is changing our lives
Mary Gazze, CTV.ca News StaffJanuary 1, 2010
If you weren't one of the hundreds of thousands of people who jumped on the twitter bandwagon this year, you might be missing out. Even if you don't want to know what your friends had for breakfast, users and experts say twitter has changed our lives this year.
And if making new friends isn't for you and if you don't care about getting messages directly from celebs, politicians or companies, tech experts say you are robbing yourself by not taking part in a medium that keeps people informed about world events and even giving us a peek inside countries that are closed to the Western world.
Other reasons for using social networking sites
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20091218/holiday_twitter_100101/20100101
Evaluate what’s right for your company
Twitter—140 characters on ‘what you are doing’, observations
The Value Of Twitter Is In "The Power Of Passed Links”. It is predicted at current growth rates, Twitter "will surpass Google for many websites in the next year." And that just as nearly every site on the Web has become addicted to Google juice, they will increasingly try to find ways to get more links from Twitter. Because Twitter equals traffic... Moreover, he asserts that these Twitter links “convert better” than search links because they are often pre-filtered and come in the form of a recommendation from someone you are following. TechCrunch, June 2009
Twitter FAQs, http://bit.ly/4CB5l
Other reasons for using social networking sites
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ILQrUrEWe8
Seeking investment
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2010/0122/1224262838183.html
Software company completes fundraising using only LinkedIn, Gordon Smith
The Irish Times, Friday, January 22, 2010
GOSHIDO, A Limerick company which has developed software for managing projects, has completed a private fundraising round using only the social networking website LinkedIn.
According to executive chairman Frank Hannigan, the company is selling off 10 slots to investors at €25,000 each equivalent to a 2 per cent stake in the company. Seven hundred e-mails were sent to potential investors through LinkedIn earlier this month, generating 200 replies by phone, e-mail and Twitter. The company raised €162,500 in just eight days.
LinkedInAs an individual, build up network of common-minded peopleYour relationships matter—http://www.linkedin.com/
Slideshare—presentations onlineMaximise awareness of ideas and link from blogsPresent yourself—http://www.slideshare.net/
BlogSharing knowledge in area of expertise, gain credibility, http://wordpress.com
FacebookBuild community,http://www.facebook.com/
YouTubeAdd video of your product and servicehttp://www.youtube.com Google Maps for office location—http://maps.google.co.uk/
Google’s local business centre—http://www.google.co.uk/lbc/
Social networking sites
Real time search
Google announcementsDecember 2009
Google's real-time search features are integrated into the Google search experience and surface highly relevant, fresh content from across the entire web including public content from social networks, news and micro-blogs
The new features are based on more than a dozen new search technologies that enable Google to monitor more than a billion documents a day for fresh updates and process hundreds of millions of daily changes.
Google's latest improvements
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXHHkROejik&feature=player_embedded#
TwitterLess frequent but more in depth blogsCommenting on public blogsFacebookLinkedinWikipediaYouTubeSlideshare
Most effective approach with social networking sites?
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