Contrary to a misconception made popular by early ‘celeb’ adopters, Twitter is not just a vanity plaything or a teenager’s constant chitchat hotline. It’s not necessarily the only favoured broadcast channel for those in public life or even geo-political groups making world news in recent times…
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The message is loud and clear and the pressure is on! On top of everything else that an SME site owner must now do day in, day out is to inform, educate, entertain and generally provide superlative value content. The constant aim is to stimulate target niche audiences by attracting attention, gaining trust and winning their engagement.
So how can a busy eCommerce constantly come up with a rich supply of fresh, relevant content of value without falling back on sales messages and self promotion?
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“ Yes, we do social media, we have a blog and we’re on Facebook”, said the business owner, “… and we do it when we can find the time!” It’s not an uncommon story. A first look reveals the last blog was posted 4 months previously, and an announcement on Facebook about a tradeshow stand number.
A closer look reveals the usual typos, awkward grammar and ad hoc use of capital letters. It’s a scroll down through large paragraphs of cliché and bloat-text mixed in with how eCommerce imagines ‘social’ should look like in an attempt to be reader friendly.
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“Click my link!” might be the biggest ‘need’ demanded by site owners with a push marketing mindset obsessed with grabbing inbound traffic from an external link, such as a PPC ad. The sole focus for eCommerce is just to get a visitor to site and then sell, sell, sell!
More savvy businesses have understood the shift to providing rich customer experience along an entire ‘discovery’ journey. Website pages with content created to add value, interest, inform and entertain are aimed to win hearts as well as minds. The internal anchor text, or ‘deep’ link SEO keywords have always played a key role for visitor and search engines, alike.
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Noticing those Google+ and Pinterest buttons appearing alongside Facebook and Twitter on sites you visit? Pinterest has shot straight in as third most popular social media networking site while Google+ has been slowly gaining ground over the last year.
“Do we need more social sharing sites?” is the inevitable question on the lips of site owners who want to be present and correct on today’s multichannel brand awareness spaces. It’s understandable to think that Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are quite enough to be getting on with, so why bother with Google+ …
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Regular readers might recall a Provoke blog post in January, which described how and why there might be a possible reluctance by website owners to comply with the new EU cookies law. With the 25th May deadline just weeks away, a study by UK leading audit and advisory service, KPMG, has revealed that a “ massive 95 per cent of firms claim they have not yet complied”.
It can only be assumed that a majority of eCommerce are not going to bother amending their site and believe it doesn’t matter because they’re unlikely to get caught, despite a possible penalty of up to £ 500,000 …
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The promise of instant traffic results and Google PageRank No.1 ‘guaranteed!’ Thousands of links bought at an unbeatable price has always been an irresistible temptation for the unknowing SME owner.
Despite of repeated Google Panda outings, lessons still haven’t been learned and the scammers still offer their magic snake oil to budget strapped start ups and eCommerce owners disillusioned with social media …
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One or two blog posts a month and a couple of tweets do not a social media policy make! Providing frequent fresh content to a community audience with a niche interest in your brand, products or services is being social today in the way that followers value and search engines index.
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Business will always look to take advantage of any opportunity to promote, advertise and generally sell their goods or services. Companies will claim to be ‘doing social’ when it simply sees social media as marketing strategies by another name.
Pasting Facebook and Twitter icons on the landing page and asking everybody just to ‘find’ and ‘follow you’ is not much of an incentive either to get involved with a brand!
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Interest by some site owners in ‘doing’ social media comes in several variations of the same mindset!. The thinking is “Yep, let’s have a Facebook page, open a Twitter account – everyone else seems to be doing it… it’s free advertising and we might get a few customers out of it, you never know …”
That’s right – they’ve still not got it yet! Engagement through social is not free – neither is it an online marketing extra. Social presence means commitment at a new level …
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There are some things customers prefer to keep to themselves and other things they feel comfortable to share! Especially with specific items they buy!
Studies looking into social media behaviour reflect the natural but often overlooked differences each consumer might display according to every purchasing decision.
After all, do they want all their circle of friends to know the material and colour of their latest pair of boxer shorts or knickers? Or that they use mouthwash or skin cleansing cream everyday?
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Many of you reading this will have already spotted the small but significant step Google took last week in their continuing transformation from search engine to search and social network! Google have now added a Google+ share button and notification box to its home page and for all search results. Proof positive that social media influences ranking …
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