The Importance of SEO in Social Media for Your Brand

Posted by leah on July 02, 2009 at 01:19 PM

Social media is a crucial element in order to dominate the real estate on a Search Engine Results Page (SERP). Owning the space relative to your brand on a SERP leaves your company in control of your message. Instead of having competitors or the unfortunate bad review listed on the SERP, your social media networks are there instead.

Note, if you do have negative press/comments in a social media network, it's best to respond to those negative comments in the same network. For example, if someone on Twitter complains about an experience they had with your company's customer service, it would be best to respond to that user directly on Twitter. Also, never attack someone who has negatively commented about your company, this will most certainly backfire. Instead, use the opportunity to let that person know what you are going to do to rectify the situation. Being honest and open about the issue will let people know you are working on the issue. What's cool about social media is that transparency, or being honest and open about your company, will get you a lot more R-E-S-P-E-C-T, thanks Aretha.

Ok, back to the issue at hand. Let's take a look at Oneupweb's SERP when searching for, you guessed it "oneupweb."

Notice from the image that every listing is either our website, or some sort of social media network we control: Flickr, local business listings, Twitter, our blog StraighUpSearch, press releases, YouTube, facebook, LinkedIn and our podcasts. Oneupweb completely dominates the SERP for our branded keywords — and your company should be doing the same.

What is your company doing in social media? The biggest hurdle a lot of companies have is the lack of actual human resources to take the time to spend within these social networks. Uploading photos/videos, tweeting, and changing status updates all take time. This is certainly an understandable hurdle, but one that you can certainly clear when having (shameless plug coming up) an understanding social media agency, like Oneupweb, help you along the way.

social media
SEO
Oneupweb

Social Media Marketing Works

Posted by maureen on July 01, 2009 at 11:48 AM

We just announced today that the 30th Annual Telly Awards has honored Oneupweb with a 2009 Telly for our Oneupweb vs. Sign Thief viral campaign. This is exciting news, especially because this award-winning campaign was executed through social media along — and it has shown some great results.

The entire campaign was built and executed in about one week. It arose out of the fact that everyday before the 2008 Presidential election, we would put out signs in support of now President Obama. And every night, someone would come along and take them down. So we decided to fight back in Oneupweb style: by being relentless.

With a high velocity video projector, we displayed a 30-foot image of now-President Obama dancing on the side of our building. And then we took it social, posting a video of the projection to CNN iReports, CBS Eye Mobile and more. We uploaded a Dragnet-style video we had created in-house to YouTube and Facebook. We started posting updates on various social channels, blogging and more. The entire promotion of the event was done through social media marketing.

And the results? Check this out:

• Within one week, the video was viewed by more than 6,000 users and received 113 comments from people around the world.
• Visits to OneUpWeb.com increased over 120 percent the day the video was posted to the various social media channels. And they continued to rise.
• The video appearing on YouTube and Facebook quickly became one of the leading sources of traffic to the Oneupweb corporate website.
• Within one hour of posting on CNN iReports, a CNN reporter was on the phone for Oneupweb CEO Lisa Wehr, eager to get all the facts. And the story ran on CNN primetime the night of the election in front of 5.8 million people.

All in all, the Oneupweb vs. The Sign Thief campaign reached an estimated 10 million people around the world in a little over one week. And we're continuing to see new hits to the videos almost eight months later.

So thank you to the 30th Annual Telly Awards, all of the judges, and everyone out there who made this award possible.

Top 10 Banner Ad Design Tips

Posted by JasonQ on June 29, 2009 at 04:25 PM

I'm a graphic designer at Oneupweb and let me tell you, banner ads are one of our specialties. That's why I decided to create a top 10 list of tips (in no particular order) to help guide your endeavor into banner ad design and to answer some of your questions about why we do what we do when designing a banner.

1. Less is more. Banners that are too busy and complex will only irritate viewer's eyeballs (and you don't want to do that).
2. Keep it short and sweet. Avoid the temptation of the cram! A banner needs to be informative, not over-informative. Don't explain it all on three panels. Get to the main point in a general way, but don't beat around the bush. Remember, you want to intrigue the viewer's interest, which will most likely result in a click.
3. Nothing beats a good punch line. A catchy phrase can go a long way. It should be just a few words that sparks the interest or imagination of the viewers, and entices them to click on the banner.
4. Make it visually interesting. There needs to be an eye catcher on the first screen that will grab the viewer's attention. Don't resort to a bunch of annoying animation or tasteless irrelevant images. Flickering, blinking or flashing ads and intrusive fake desktop warnings only aggravate viewers. They've even caused web surfers to develop "banner blindness" (the tendency to consciously or unconsciously ignore any type of banner). Also, keep font size in mind. Lots of tiny text will only cause the viewer to ignore the ad.
5. Give the viewer direction. That's right, tell them what to do! Use action words like "Click here", "Enter", "Go", "Get", etc.
6. Use the word "FREE" in your banner. I don't think this needs any explanation.
7. Choose your fonts and colors carefully. Avoid crazy fonts. Use basic, but interesting bold fonts in standard web colors if possible.
8. Use subtle animation. When creating a flash banner, many designers make the mistake of getting carried away. While animation can be a great way to catch a viewer's eye, it can also have the opposite effect. Make the animation clever, but simple and short. If your animation takes too much time to load — never mind, you've already lost that click!
9. Keep the kb down. File size is a very important factor on getting a click. A viewer's attention span is very limited; therefore, you want your banner ad to load before the main content of the website loads. This grabs the viewer's attention immediately. Yet, smaller file size obviously has its trade-offs, such as less animation length, number of colors and detail.
10. Limit the loop. An animation that loops endlessly tends to irritate viewers. The entire banner ad should be no longer than 15 seconds long. It should loop no more than 3-5 times with the main message and button on the last frame.

There you have it! A list (or guide) to consider when trying to create an effective banner ad. I hope this helps, but you can always consult a pro. Give us a call at 877.568.7477 and we'll make things much easier.

Until then, here is some tasteless banner ad humor.

banner ad
banner ad design
Oneupweb

Pay-Per-Click Wish List

Posted by mike k on June 25, 2009 at 05:28 PM

Today marks the halfway point to Christmas, but I've already started a wish list of things that I would like to see under the tree. Instead of this list being for Santa, it's addressed to the major paid search engines: Google, Yahoo and Bing. If even half of this wish list is granted by the end of the year then it will be a very happy holiday season for PPC advertisers everywhere.

Google —

• Change negatives so they work beyond the 10th word in a search query. This isn't something that most advertisers will run into on a daily basis, but it does happen. Currently, negative keywords will only work if the keyword is one of the first ten words in a search query. Take for example the search query : "is there a list of the most popular video games for the xbox". In this case your ad would still show even if "Xbox" was in your list of negative keywords.


• Allow the blocking of individual search network partners. The ability to pick and choose which search network sites will display your ads would help to reduce spending budget on sites that rarely or never lead to conversions.

Yahoo —

• Release a campaign management program similar to Adwords Editor. If you've ever managed a paid advertising campaign then you will know how time consuming it can be to make a large number of changes through the use of web interfaces. Yahoo still hasn't bothered to create a stand-alone campaign management tool similar to Adwords Editor or Adcenter Desktop. I really wish they would make this a priority because it would make management much easier and more time efficient.


• Add phrase/exact/broad match similar to Google and Bing. Standard and advanced match don't offer the level of targeting that comes by using the phrase/exact/broad match methods used by the other engines.


• Clean up your sponsored search network. The Yahoo sponsored search network is notorious for being full of made-for-ad sites that drain budgets and reduce your ROI since they very rarely generate conversions.


• Increase the limit of blocked domains. Yahoo currently limits the number of blocked domains to 500. Due to the poor quality of the sponsored search network, this limit is often reached in a short amount of time — and there is nothing that can be done once it is reached.

Bing —

• Improve the web management interface and AdCenter Desktop. Nothing is more annoying than not being able to adjust bids or pause individual keyword match types without going into a separate screen.


• Add capitalization support to dynamic keyword insertion. Google and Yahoo have this one figured out, so it would be nice to see Microsoft add this feature. Proper capitalization improves the look of ads and can help boost click-thru rates.


• Improve day-parting targeting options. The current system only allows advertisers to day-part in four hour blocks instead of 15 minute increments like Google, or one hour blocks like Yahoo. Greater control helps to ensure your ads only run when they have the best chance of leading to conversions.

Although the list is short, it's full of things I would really like to see happen before the snow flies. What is on your paid advertising wish list? Leave a comment with what you would like to see changed or improved in regards to paid advertising, and hopefully, the search engines will take note and deliver your wish. Hurry though, only 182 days left until Christmas!

Image: Courtesy of Primitive Surf

Tags
paid search
pay per click
Google
yahoo
Bing
Oneupweb

Paid Search: A Catalyst to Grow Your Online Marketing Efforts

Posted by steve on June 23, 2009 at 02:48 PM

You probably haven't heard this expression since you were about 13 years old during some incessant peer pressure to conform, but when it comes to paid search advertising, "everybody's doing it." And for good reason.

It's no secret that paid search can be one of the most effective, efficient and measurable advertising mediums out there. If it were a secret, Google certainly wouldn't be the empire that it is, since about 90% of their net revenue comes from search advertising.

The reason that paid search advertising has grown exponentially, and why marketing budgets previously allocated toward traditional media are shifting more toward this medium, is that you have a unique opportunity to target specific niches who are in an active search to find what you have to offer.

When managed effectively, the inherent flexibility and measurability of paid search allows advertisers to continuously improve upon efficiency and performance. Let me give you an example of how this channel can allow you to make better use of your marketing dollars over time.

Let's say I'm an online retailer that sells trendy womens footwear. In addition to my two retail stores in southern California, I sell all of my product online and distribute throughout the U.S. and Canada. For shipping, however, I'm forced to charge more for Canadian customers.

I've been running a paid search campaign for about 4 months now. I've been pushing all of my product, and I'm targeting all of the U.S. and Canada. I find that I'm getting very few orders from Canada, as well as the Midwestern and Southern regions of the U.S. On top of that, it's apparent that I'm missing out on a lot of orders because of my limited budget and exposure.

After sufficient testing, I've decided to refine my focus. I'm now going to geo-target my campaign to focus on select metros in the East and West, and I'm going to only push 3 of my 5 product lines which correspond with the metros, markets and climates I'm targeting.

After just a couple of weeks, I've found that I'm now capturing a much greater impression share for the smaller set of keywords I'm targeting. In addition, conversion rates and sales corresponding with my paid search efforts have grown significantly. I continue to refine my campaign over the course of the next several months, and based on the data, insight and ROI generated through paid search, I feel I'm ready to begin expanding my online marketing efforts.

As you can see, when it comes to determining the best strategy for reaching your specific audience throughout all mediums, whether online or off, few channels can compete with paid search. It's a channel which offers advertisers a unique ability to optimize their efforts on the fly, and quickly determine how best to both appeal to and capture new customers at the right time, and in the right location.

Given this flexibility, paid search advertising can serve as an invaluable catalyst to formulate other online marketing strategies for channels that are less flexible, less measurable, and which require a more significant investment in time and resources to establish a footing.

While it's undeniably important to establish a presence in multiple channels over the long term, for many organizations, initiating a phased online marketing approach with paid search is a wise move that can provide the intelligence needed to make informed marketing decisions down the road. the road.

Image: Crocodile Shoes by sheilaellen

Tags
paid search
online marketing
Oneupweb