Following my recent lightening round at Brighton SEO, I thought I’d do a quick “How To” on getting your Hangout to Podcast using iMovie and Garage Band.
I love Google Plus Hangouts and what better way to extend your content but to turn a successful conversation into a nifty podcast!
If you missed Brighton SEO (shame on you… only joking. All the videos should be online soon so no need to worry), here are my slides for your viewing pleasure…
It’s no secret that I’m a massive data fan. To me, data analysis is another way of listening to people and listening is one of the most important skills you’ll ever learn. Listen to what people say and use data analysis to listen to what they do, that way you get a holistic image of the world, not the image we build out of assumptions and past experiences.
*hat tip to Paul DeGregorio for sharing on twitter
During my seminars, I harp on constantly about the importance of using the data available to you and acting on it. What do your Facebook page visitors click on / share / like the most? How can you produce complementary and similar content that you know they will like? What type of post gets retweeted the most?
If you don’t know how to track any of these things, use Facebook Insights on your page, Bitly for individual link stats and Google Analytics for website specific behaviour.
What have you learned from data? Have you ever been surprised by your social media or webs stats, do they tell you a different story to your blog comments?
This article originally appeared on Guardian Media Network and is published here with full permission:
When you think about your website’s SEO, you think about Google. Sure, you might do a quick check over at Yahoo and Bing to make sure what you’re doing works there too but let’s face it, your SEO tactics are pretty Google-centric. When you want a new site recognised, you have to tell Google about it. You register the URL with them, invite a bit of googlebot crawling and wait to see the results.
For me, one of the fundamental things to remember about Google+ is that it lets Google know your pages are there. At the basic level, you should have Google+, along with StumbleUpon, Digg, Delicious, Zootool and Diigo as one of the social bookmarking sites that need to know about your content. Admittedly these aren’t the strong back links that you get from a high-ranking site like the Guardian for example, but they are important none the less.
So, lesson one: make your content shareable on Google+. In the same way that you add “like” and “tweet this” buttons, include “+1″ as an option – it may not be in your communications plan yet, but G+ should at least be in your SEO one.
What about the platform itself? There have been many articles written about how unpopular Google+ is as a social network. However, let’s face it, that’s what makes a great headline. The truth is a little muddier and a little less predictable. Social networking is not a new thing; the online community has been engaging in it for years through chat rooms, online gaming and so on. Mainstream social networking for those outside of the tech community is relatively new in comparison.
With this in mind, it’s worth remembering that it took Facebook a little longer than G+ has been around to catch up with Myspace. We’re all talking about Pinterest and Instagram but they have far fewer numbers and are limited in that they’re predominantly image based interactions. Add that to the fact that Google themselves are promoting G+ as a hub for Google services rather than a social network and the water just keeps getting muddier.
So, do you need to have a Google+ page as part of your communications plan? Any social network is time consuming to get right so ask yourself: is your audience there? Are your competitors there? What will you be able to get out of it? Many organisations jump on a network because they feel they should be there without taking the time to work out if their audience is active on that network. Worse still, people write off social networking because they think it’s just for teenagers – WRONG.
If you’re unsure about any of the above, that’s fine. Don’t add Google+ to your marketing strategy just yet. However, don’t let it fall off your radar – you may not need a corporate profile but you do need to understand it and be ready to include it if and when the time is right.
Also, why not use it for internal comms? Hangouts are great for conference calling, interviewing, and talking to colleagues in other offices. The events function is easy to use, well designed and integrates with Google Calendar, so use it for arranging meetings and sharing pictures from office events, product launches etc. This will not only be useful, it will ensure that if and when you do go live with G+ for comms, your staff know and enjoy using it.
I am a tart when it comes to technology and I play with and test things mercilessly until I can confirm their usefulness. At the moment I’m getting a lot out of using Google+. It’s maybe not exactly where it needs to be and not all businesses will find it essential, but that’s the same for any network. It is definitely worth the watching (as my mum would say).
How have you used Google+ and how do you find it?
For more digital and social media tips and training, why not sign up for one of my online training programmes. Guided learning in the comfort of your own home from beginner to advanced.
The lovely Emma Cossey and Fran Swaine joined me this week for a live Q&A on the topic of Digital Media over on Google+ Hangouts. Questions covered included:
We had such a great time and are really looking forward to running our next discussion. We didn’t get a chance to answer all the questions we were asked (Sorry Sally, definitely talk about Facebook competitions next time) so we have plenty left to talk about.
Before we decide what theme we should go with for our next Q&A, it would be great if you could post any theme requests or questions below. What have you always wanted to learn more about from the world of Digital Media? What do you find confusing, interesting or just think deserves a bit of air time?
–x–
From the video – links mentioned in our discussion:
Mentioned in the intro – Lasa ICT Digital Media Survey:http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/lasadigitalsurvey
Please take a second to fill it out if you work in a charity. Thanks :)
Resources mentioned:
Hootsuite: http://hootsuite.com/dashboard
Tweetdeck: http://tweetdeck.com/
BufferApp: http://bufferapp.com/dashboard
If this then that: https://ifttt.com/dashboard
Alternion: http://www.alternion.com/
SEOMoz: http://www.seomoz.org/
Geek & Sundry: http://geekandsundry.com/
Nerdist: http://www.nerdist.com/
For more digital and social media tips and training, why not sign up for one of my online training programmes. Guided learning in the comfort of your own home from beginner to advanced.
Having clearly set your organisational goals using the advice from my previous post, it’s now time to look at your target audience. Who are they, which social platforms do they use and are they open to your communications while using them? Just because your audience are on Facebook doesn’t mean they are willing to interact with your there.
Continuous and evolving
As part of your marketing you will already have a clear idea of who your target audience are. Now it’s time to find them online. Not just online but specifically on which platform and additionally which device. This is where your web analytics can help you. If you use Google Analytics you can not only find out how much of your traffic comes from mobile devices but also the amount of social referral traffic you are getting from sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+.
This is also a good time to look at your bounce rate from mobile devices. Is your content cutting the mustard when it comes to mobile operating systems like iOS, Android, Windows Mobile and Blackberry?
Now that you have a baseline to work with you can start looking at potential. You know how much social and mobile traffic you have at the moment so where should you be concentrating your efforts to increase that interaction?
There are many places you can go to collect this data so my advice is to start a spreadsheet (this is often my advice, I LOVE a spreadsheet) so that you can put the data collected from different sources into one place for easy analysis. Here are some of the places you can go:
After finding the general usage data you need to experiment and look at any sentiment data you can find to establish how open users are to interacting with brands. Again if resources are low you might just want to experiment for a while and establish for yourself which platforms are best for you after all, this is an ongoing process.
You need to really listen to your audience and there are two ways that you do that:
It’s not just about what people say they do but what actions they actually take.
When all this data is collected and you’ve made an informed decision where you want to place your efforts, you need to look at what content you are going to share. The next post in this series will look at how you can create and implement an effective content strategy for your organisation.
For more digital and social media tips and training, why not sign up for one of my online training programmes. Guided learning in the comfort of your own home from beginner to advanced.
It can be incredibly difficult to divide your resources when you are part of a small team. Although social networking sites are free to join, to be truly effective your organisation you will need to invest time and resources.
How do you know where to start, never mind how to amplify and grow your online presence. Where should you focus your efforts to ensure your team’s actions are garnering the best results?
Continuous and evolving
A digital strategy is not a fixed document but a continuous and evolving process. This is especially true when resources are tight. To capitalise on what digital communications can offer, it’s important to be agile.
This is really important if you want to avoid the trap that so many companies fall in to of trying to jump on every shiny new digital trend. It’s not about your digital goals, they come next and should be tied directly to what you are trying to do as an organisation. For example:
The goals above are very simplistic but it is worth starting with the most basic and building complexity from there. In the example above Revenue could just as easily be e-commerce or Online Donations, they all come down to the same thing.
It’s important to remember that getting traffic to your website isn’t enough, what do users do when they get there? I would make this same point when it comes to twitter followers, Facebook fans, blog subscribers etc. For large retailers there is always an argument to be made for playing the numbers game if you can do it economically. However, for small organisations it’s much better to build value into each action.
Having clearly set your organisational goals, it’s now time to look at your target audience. Who are they, which social platforms do they use and are they open to your communications while using them? Just because your audience are on Facebook doesn’t mean they are willing to interact with your there.
Go to > Digital Strategy: Targeting your audience
For more digital and social media tips and training, why not sign up for one of my online training programmes. Guided learning in the comfort of your own home from beginner to advanced.
So yesterday I had the joy of Google deleting my Google Plus profile. Some of you may be thinking that’s not such a big deal, no one uses it right? Wrong. I love G+ and really enjoy using it. Also, enjoyment aside, my G+ profile is linked to my YouTube account and therefore when G+ disappeared my YouTube account was frozen. Disaster.
I have an idea how the whole thing happened…
Being a big fan and heavy user of Google products, I signed up for Google Apps for Business. During my years at The Guardian we used Google products for mass collaboration on projects, email etc and I’ve been using it ever since so this purchase was a no brainer.
The jury’s still out for me on whether a Google Apps account is completely necessary for a small business like mine, given the amount of functionality I can get on my free account. But in the interests of being able to recommend the correct solutions for my clients, I’m experimenting and will report back my thoughts and recommendations shortly.
The first thing I will say though is, the automatic addition of a G+ account for your new business mail is a bit of a pain. In fact, this is exactly where my problems started. When I saw one had been set up for me and that potential clients were starting to circle it, I asked for the new profile to be removed. If you have a G+ profile that you would like to remove, here’s what you need to do:
1. Click on your profile at the top right of your Gmail and click “Account”
2. Click on “Delete profile and remove associated Google + features”
3. Select the “Delete Google+ content” option and click “Remove selected services” (careful not to delete your whole Google profile! If this happens however, you can reinstate within 24 hours here)
You’ll then be taken to a terms and conditions page where you want to make double, triple sure that you are requesting for the correct account to be removed.
My problem? Instead of removing the new, inactive account that I didn’t need, Google deleted both my accounts. The first I knew about this was when I logged in to YouTube and there was a big red alert message that all my videos had been taken offline because my Google profile no longer existed. Yup. Panic time.
The thing that caused the most panic for me was the lack of details available for contacting Google. I get that companies like Google, Ebay etc want you to use their forums and FAQ pages so that they can avoid any customer services support. However, there are times when you really do need to contact the company directly to find out what your options are. Especially when it’s their mistake!
So what did I do? I tweeted @Google (no response), I added a post to their Google Product Help (both for Gmail and Google Plus). I added some site Feedback (the confirmation message for Feedback tells you they won’t respond to every message, reassuring), I posted on their Google+For Your Business page with my husbands login, I emailed their sales department at Google Apps for Business and finally tried to post on their Facebook page (no such luck, fan posts are not enabled).
At this point I’m also searching through blogs and forums for advice and getting more and more stressed by the second as I read yet another post about deleted accounts which have never ever been restored. Someone has even replied saying as much to me on one of the forums.
So, in order to at least get my YouTube account back online, I click the button which is asking me to set up my G+ profile. I do this grudgingly of course and get ready to start from scratch on my account. Not a happy place to be given that I was in the first few waves of invites that went out for Google Plus and have been an advocate for quite some time.
Bitterness aside, I see that when I click on my profile my information is still there! I’m still in the circles I’ve always been in! The only thing that is missing are my posts and activity history. I can’t tell you what a relief this was. OK I’ve lost a lot of information but at least from a business perspective I haven’t lost the followers that have been built up. There may not be very many if you compare to twitter or other networks but these are hard won and I spend time and effort building engagement so I’ll take what I can get.
To date I am yet to have a response from Google. Given that I am a new business customer who is now paying for services, this does not bode well. I’m going to try to not let this experience colour any reviews of my Google Apps Account as a product but it will obviously have an effect of my recommendation from a customer service perspective.
So if you find yourself in my position, try not to panic, most of your information will still be accessible. Luckily the Google user community is much more supportive than the company itself so put your questions out there. Lastly, make some noise about it. The more Google get the idea that customer service is important to its users, the more likely they are to respond (at least one would hope)*.
Have you ever found yourself in this situation? What did you do?
*Disclaimer: I’m aware that for the most part I am part of the Google product rather than a customer given how much data they get from me to grow their commercial business. However, as an Apps for Business user I should at least be able to expect a basic level of customer support
For more digital and social media tips and training, why not sign up for one of my online training programmes. Guided learning in the comfort of your own home from beginner to advanced.
There is one concern that comes up at every digital media training session I’ve ever run. How do you find the time to commit to successful social media? It’s not just the newbies who have this concern, you could be the most enthusiastic tweeter, it can still be difficult to co-ordinate your time to produce a successful social media presence. So, here are my top tips for streamlining your social media:
1. Schedule, schedule, schedule (but don’t sound like an autobot – make sure you compose all your own messages)
While the joy you get from social media is in the interactions, it’s ok to schedule a portion of your posts. What doesn’t work is if that’s all you do.
I use BufferApp to schedule for Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, unfortunately there’s no Google+ integration yet but I believe it’s in the pipeline. The great thing about BufferApp is that I can schedule posts while doing my job. Throughout the day you probably come across many articles, videos, pictures, blogs that are relevant to your sector. With a couple of clicks (using the Chrome extension) you can schedule that sharing across multiple platforms. Make sure you rewrite the suggested text so that the post is in your “voice”, scheduling is fine but sounding automated isn’t.
2. Find inspirational content to share
If you know you’re going to be offline for a few days (or at least mobile dependent), have a play with StumbleUpon to find content that is worth sharing with your audience. Depending on the interests you pick, you will get randomised posts that are tailored to your profile. The more you use StumbleUpon the more relevant the posts become. You can also use tools like Scoop.it and Summify to see what the people you follow are sharing.
3. Keep an eye on your channels
If your timeline moves so quickly you can’t possibly keep an eye on the twitter chat, use lists and columns to organise and manage any important feeds. I like Tweetdeck for keeping an eye on conversations because of the black background but you can also use a dashboard like HootSuite. Just add a column with your chosen search term or list of users and flick back and forth throughout the day.
4. Keep ahead of the trends
This is particularly useful if you are trying to build a following in foreign markets. TrendsMap uses both GoogleMaps and twitter API to make it easy to see who is talking about what in a particular town / city / country. If you see something that is relevant to your business, add the hashtag to your columns in Tweetdeck and get involved in the conversation (and see your follower count and RTs grow).
5. Recipe of success
If This Then That is a relatively new site that lets you match up multiple accounts to make your own recipes (automated actions). I’ve written before about how to set up your own recipes so I won’t bore you with that again here. What I will say though is that it’s become invaluable to me for keeping track of things like twitter mentions and comments on guest blogs.
Social media may be free at the point of entry but to do it well is time consuming. However, the opportunities to build relationships, drive traffic and create value are endless. To really get the best out of social media you do need to invest in it but that investment should be focused on the best areas for your goals. Treat social media like any of your communication channels; measure, evaluate, improve.
What are your top time saving tips?
For more digital and social media tips and training, why not sign up for one of my online training programmes. Guided learning in the comfort of your own home from beginner to advanced.
Search Engine Optimisation: Ensuring your web presence is a success was a seminar given by me for The Guardian Media Academy & Guardian Seminars. This presentation is a flavour of what was discussed and will hopefully give you some practical pointers on how you can improve your website usability and performance.
What’s your experience of SEO planning? What tools do you use to ensure your plan is successful? Please share below.
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