Update to Mashable Fans: Pawns in the impressions game – The Social Media Guide responds to fan feedback and adjusts their publishing frequency, but not their engagement.

Two weeks ago, I wrote about Mashable’s practice of phrasing all Facebook updates as questions, most likely in hopes of stimulating fan interaction and conversations, while being noticeably absent from those same conversations.

This past Wednesday, Mashable changed their content posting strategy in response to fan feedback that they were simply posting too much content. Mashable is now using their primary fan page to highlight top stories, and has set up eight additional channels for specific interest areas, such as tech, video, jobs and social media.

The language and style of Mashable’s Facebook posts has also been changing since our initial piece, as Mashable experiments with different approaches. They are still leading many updates with questions, but they are mixing it up a bit, sometimes posting headlines only, sometimes questions only, and sometimes combing both. They have also changed the structure of most questions from the simplistic “Will you watch?” to include references to key points in the article.

I have also noticed a slight increase in Mashable’s engagement in the comments attached to any one post. It is very slight, but perhaps a sign of more to come.

If you’d like to find and follow any one of those channels, visit the Mashable Facebook fan page and check out their favorite pages.

The Social Media Guide asks fans to join in discussion around posts, but don’t participate themselves.

Do you follow Mashable on Facebook? Have you noticed the change in how they post? They’ve recently started asking questions. A lot of them.

Do you think the school was justified in its actions? Or are you simply creeped out?

How do you plan to celebrate Photoshop’s 20th?

What do you think of brands using augmented reality? Does it make you more likely to buy the product?

Be honest: Would you buy/wear these, or is this just a little too nerdy?

And my personal favorite: Will you watch? … Well now, that’s vague.

In the last 3 days (1pm on Tuesday to 1pm today…it’s Friday, by the way, but don’t let me get off topic), Mashable has posted 73 updates. Of those, 58 are questions. 79% are questions. W00t! Mashable wants to know what we think. And they’re going to engage in conversation with us. Right?

Wrong.

Mashable is not participating in the conversation. They’re inviting interaction by asking questions in an attempt to increase activity around each post, which will increase likelihood that posts will make it into the news feeds of more fans and friends-of-fans*, but they are not engaging in the conversations that play out in the comments. The most recent post Tim Burton Talks “Alice in Wonderland” Live on MySpace Tonight [VIDEO] had 24 comments at the time of writing, not a single one from Mashable. A scan of the previous ten posts shows an average of 33 comments, and again, not a single one by Mashable**.

At Terralever, we find this very disappointing. It’s one of the things that we insist our clients not do. Mashable is “The Social Media Guide,” and is the de facto news source for what is happening right now in social. They have also made efforts to truly be a guide by providing several how to resources that help newcomers understand the cultural norms and etiquette that govern social media interaction. This makes their current Facebook behavior all the more deplorable.

We’re not the only ones bothered. Scan fan posts on the Mashable wall, and you’ll see other discontents.

On Monday, Mashable posted this feedback request:

We’re looking to do a better job at serving our Facebook community. Some questions: 1. What would you like to see more of on Mashable’s Facebook page? And less of? 2. Would you like more questions & contests, or would you like us to stick to headlines? 3. Should we share all Mashable posts here, or just selected ones? 4. What other changes would make our Facebook page better? –Pete

Another request for interaction, to which they’ve received 204 comments. Here, Mashable has responded. Once. Out of 203 opportunities.

If Mashable wants to simply leverage their Facebook presence as a firehose that gives fans easy access to their wealth of information, cool. But please don’t use us, your fans, as pawns to gain impressions. That is a violation of our trust, and we will unfan you.

*Facebook uses a complex algorithm to determine what stories appear in your news feeds. This algorithm is a guarded secret, but stories that receive high interaction, via likes and comments, are deemed more relevant and are more likely to appear in your own news feed.

**Disclaimer: Mashable has several writers. It is possible for writers to participate in conversations under their own name, as opposed to as a Mashable admin, but my quick investigation did not reveal any of this activity.

I use the internet a lot. I’m browsing daily, reading articles & blogs, shopping, socializing, researching, paying bills, etc. etc. So, I come across usability issues pretty often. I’m even more prone to noticing these annoyances because it’s my job, which makes it that much more painful. However, I make it a point to learn from these instances. I see an issue and I immediately commit it to the “Don’t ever do that” portion of my memory. So, I’ve decided to start sharing. What’s the point in keeping it all to myself, right? I figure this could be a way to get these usability faux pas out in the open so that history will stop repeating itself. At the very least it’ll make me feel better and we all may learn something along the way. So, here I go….

A story about abandoned towels.

I’ve been thinking of getting new towels for a while now, but the frugal side of me has me waiting for a good deal. So, the other day, as I was browsing my money saving blogs, I noticed a post regarding a great deal on Ralph Lauren towels at Horchow.com. For those of you that don’t know, Horchow is a mail order only division of Neiman Marcus (with the exception of their Horchow Finale Stores—only 3 to be found).

Now, I don’t recall the exact sale price of the towels, but I know it had to be cheap to grab my attention. They were probably $6-7 a towel, and being Ralph Lauren, I knew (or assumed) that they’d be good quality. My mind was made up. I was getting new towels and I was super excited.

So, I went to their site to get my new towels. Everything was smooth sailing at first. I was able to efficiently navigate their “Pottery Barnesque” site to find the towels section and locate the product I was looking for. No problems there. There they were. My inexpensive Ralph Lauren towels.

With all good deals there must be sacrifices.

Now, you have to understand that when you’re shopping frugally, especially on a deal as good as this one, you may need to make sacrifices. In this case the sacrifice would be on the color. I knew I couldn’t be picky, but I wasn’t going to pay any money for something that wasn’t going to match my home. However, white, tan, brown, cream or even a nice shade of green would have been fine.

Here’s a “representative screenshot” of the Ralph Lauren towel product page. The actual page no longer exists because they have sold out, but I assure you this page will do.

It looks like any normal product page. Nice, big product photo, product name, description, price per product type, etc. There are things I would improve about this page, but overall it’s fine. However, the main issue with this page is the product color representation. There is none. The only list of available colors is located within the drop-down menu next to each product type (i.e. Bath towel, hand towel, wash cloth). In some cases, such as offering a product that only comes in red, green & blue, this works fine. However, when you have colors like papyrus, khaki, and crystal, it get’s a little more difficult for users to find what they’re looking for by process of elimination. They shouldn’t have to work that hard anyway.

Roadblock: which color is Larkspur?!

So, this was my problem. The listed color names were too vague and confusing. They were, white, bay leaf green, khaki, papyrus, meadow, primrose, crystal, sachet, petal, coral, larkspur and chili pepper. To add to the complexity, only 2 of the colors were still in stock and I had no idea which one belonged to which color in the photo. All I knew is that there was one color (a bright blue color) that I definitely did not want to get, even at this price. So, I was stuck. I tried to find answers via their online chat, but after about 20 minutes of my time, they were unable to help me.

In the end, I ended up leaving the site without purchasing anything. I abandoned my towels. That one blue color was too bright for me to take the risk and I wasn’t confident enough to make my purchase. I was pretty upset. I really wanted those towels. They would have looked great hanging in my guest bathroom. Just not in that color.

So, what could have made my shopping experience more successful?

It’s easy. One simple addition to the product detail page. All I needed were some text labels on the product photo to represent which color was which. It may not be the prettiest of all product photos, but it would have gained them a sale. Even in the less complex example above, labels would have been nice. The color options for that product are: truffle, fern, celeste and blush. Again, I eventually figured it out after thinking it through, but I don’t want to think. I want to buy. And I’m in the emotional state to buy. In my mind, I already owned those towels. I’m the best type of customer and, as a retailer, you need to take advantage of that. Don’t distract me with silly things such as thinking or guessing.

To take it a step further, they may even want to think about changing the color names to be more user friendly. Such as, brown, green, blue and pink. That may not be so simple for all products, but in this instance it would make things easier.

How many people are “walking away”?

Now, I’m sure they’re not crying about losing my $28 or so dollars, especially since they apparently sold all of the towels anyway, but I can guarantee you that there’s an even smaller possibility that I would have paid full price to play their guessing game.

So, we have to ask, how many sales are they losing because of this issue? How many people just give up like I did and “walk away”? I can guarantee it’s a lot. If a web saavy customer like myself gives up, then it’s easy to presume that there are others. So, make sure to keep the customer in mind when designing and refining your website. Make things easy and quick and intuitive. If you keep those few things in mind then you’ll be a step ahead of your competition, these instances will be avoided and you’re sales wont be impeded. Guaranteed.

Small Update.

After browsing through a few more of their towel selections, I did find another group of Ralph Lauren towels with a color chart. It’s a nice added feature but way too far down on the page. I have my resolution set to 1440×900 and I still missed it. The most common resolution these days is 1024×768, which means those users will have to scroll even further down than I did in order to find it. So, keep the important information above the fold. Don’t force your users to search for what they need because they may not do that. If I had seen this on my original visit then I would probably be the proud owner of some new towels, but it wasn’t on the product page I was viewing. However, it would have been nice if their customer service could have pointed me here.

Your turn.

Sachet. Primrose. Larkspur. What colors do you think of when you read those? A Terralever color expert will be reviewing your answers later this week.

(Not really. We don’t have one of those.)

Social Media Shapes Perceptions About You as an Employer

The warnings for any job seeker are loud and clear: be careful what you post because companies are scouring your social sites, from LinkedIn to Facebook to YouTube, digging up any and all information they can to ensure that they are hiring quality, reputable talent. Those pictures of you doing a keg stand at your alma matter’s football homecoming game, or of you riding the subway in your underwear in the most recent Improv Everywhere No Pants Subway Ride may come back to bite you in the butt, no pun intended.

We’ve heard the messages targeted to job seekers several times and we’ll likely hear them several more times because they are worth repeating. But the message we don’t hear so often is one targeted to companies looking to hire savvy new talent.

You Google job candidates before hiring. Has it occurred to you that those candidates are doing that same thing to you?

If you’re a business, I’ve got a homework assignment for you. Yes, homework. As the evening draws to a close with the kids long since in bed and thoughts of following suit dancing through your head, sit down with your laptop. Switch the television channel to whatever network is playing reruns of your favorite comedy or crank up whatever tunes you bump when no one else is listening. Don’t crank it up too loudly though (remember, the kids are sleeping). Take another drink from your half-finished beer, fire up Google’s mighty search engine, and type your company name into that little box in the center of the screen.

Does your website come up first? If you’ve optimized your site properly, it should. What comes up next? With the increasing authority being given to social sites, you’ll likely find Facebook, Twitter and other social sites showing prominently above the fold.

One by one, search the social networks where your company has a presence. Look at your profiles and reflect on what they say about you. What does your brand stand for? How do you treat your customers? Do you have personality? Do you have soul? Look at the people talking with you and about you on these sites and other social sites, including blogs. Who are they? What are they saying? Does the content and tone of these conversations appeal the type of talent you want working for you?

How you participate in social media should be rooted in strategy developed around your business objectives, but don’t underestimate the potential for shaping perceptions about you as an employer. Even something as simple as an around the office photo album on Facebook can give job seekers a feel for the company’s culture, from how the office is laid out and how people dress to whether you place higher value on conformity or individuality.

Finish the last of your beer, and answer me this: What about your social presence makes today’s job seekers want to work for you?

Today Google delivered a much-anticipated new product announcement for a new social networking platform by the name of Google Buzz. Their strategy looks to, rather than build off of their investment with Orkut, to build new social network platform as an extension of Gmail. Interesting approach, and most likely a necessary departure based on the lack of Orkut’s success globally against Facebook. A few initial thoughts on what I saw and what it means:

• While using the popularity of Gmail as a great launching point was most likely Google’s best strategy for rapid user adoption and a good start for building my social graph within Buzz, I wonder if it’ll be enough. For those hardcore Google users that use Gmail as a primary email provider or Google Talk as a primary chat client, I have no doubt that Buzz will be an easy, natural addition to their Google experience.  For the rest of the world (including me) who don’t use either of those services as a primary method of communication, I’m left to manually build my social graph within Facebook. That’s a big ask considering users’ investments in building and maintaining these social graphs in environments such as Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn.
• I wonder what this means for the future of Orkut. Granted, Orkut never had the legs to compete with Facebook globally, but it did have success in a few international environments such as India and Brazil. A social product launch with no reference to Orkut doesn’t bode well for continued innovation with that platform.
• As is typical for a product announcement and demonstration, we didn’t get enough detail on core social topics such as privacy or integration options. While an open, social web is everyone’s goal, when considering the portability of both a user’s social graph and privacy preferences this conversation rapidly becomes complex. It’ll be interesting to see what’s under the hood here with Buzz.
• Completely and conspicuously absent from the announcement, demos and q&a were any sort of integration with any other social platform such as Twitter, Facebook, blog platforms, etc. For all the criticism Facebook gets for being a walled-in environment, they’ve done a great job of enabling integration with these platforms and providing a platform that can effectively integrate with anything. Google chose to launch only with integrations with Google products such as Gmail, Google Chat, Picasa and YouTube, which is curious for an announcement claiming to be the most open social web platform possible.
• What I found to be the most intriguing was the integration of locally aware information with Google Maps and their mobile offering. With their ongoing investments in Google Maps and Google Local, Google has been the defacto standard for local data worldwide. Using this investment to their advantage to instantly create the most locally-aware social platform was a savvy and powerful move. It effectively makes services such as Brightkite obsolete over time and pushes services such as FourSquare and Gowalla deeper into a mobile-game niche.
• Also noticeably absent was any reference to how this will effect Google search engine results. As with most things SEO related I’m sure we’ll be left to discover those effects on our own and it’s something we’ll have a keen eye on in the coming weeks and months.

Again these are a few, off the cuff thoughts on Buzz, I’m sure I’ll have more in 3 minutes when I can actually play with it. I’d be interested in your opinion on Buzz and what it means to the evolution of the social web. Comment here with what you’ve got!

Since business fan pages have gone on the rise in the last year or so, there have been some great campaigns focused on gaining fans for those businesses. I’m sure you’ve noticed that there has been a large amount of businesses offering FREE goods to consumers in exchange for their fan-ship. I mean, who wouldn’t simply click a button and become a fan for a free bag of Oreo cookies? I did. I still don’t have my cookies, but all I had to do was become a fan. So, the time and energy investment for me was low while the outcome could possibly, maybe, fingers-crossed, be high for me and my family. No loss there. But what happens when these campaigns go bad and the experience leaves a bad taste in consumer’s mouths? Social media backlash. Companies typically want to avoid social media backlash of any kind. It’s quick and painful and it’ll hit you in the face before you know what’s coming. So, to avoid this, a social media campaign needs to be thoroughly planned out. If a campaign is poorly planned and managed, it can create a horrible experience for all those involved.

Let’s use this mornings Incredible Edible Egg (IEE) disaster as an example. Being the frugal consumer that I am, I heard through my online money saving network that starting at 10am EST, IEE was offering a free BOGO (Buy One Get One Free) coupon to the first 30,000 people to become fans. Simple, right? Click a button. Fill out a short form (which was pretty much filled out for you). Click submit. Coupon is emailed to you shortly thereafter. FREE eggs. So exciting!

Now, I have to tell you that as an experienced “become a fan” promo goer I am typically not optimistic about these sort of things. 30,000 coupons sounds like a lot, but when you’re dealing with a pot of over 350 million active Facebook users only 0.08% of them are going to get the coupon. I can pretty much guarantee you that if it was promoted well, there were probably over 30,000 people patiently waiting at their computers for the clock to reach “go time.” Everyone loves free stuff. Especially in this economy. So, chances were that I was not going to get a coupon, but I gave it a shot anyway. I figured I would have my answer in a few seconds and be able to get on with my day either way, right? Maybe not.

Here was my IEE BOGO coupon experience and an example of how things can quickly go terribly, terribly wrong.

At about 8:10am MST I clicked on the link, went to IEE’s Facebook page and became a fan. However, instead of being taken to the coupon sign-up page, I get this:

Now, because I work in, on and around the Internet all day long, it was clear to me that IEE hadn’t planned for all 30,000 (or more) users hitting their server at once. But to the average everyday Facebook user the experience is perceived much differently: The Incredible Edible Egg is broken. They hate me. They ran out of eggs. They scammed me. It’s a fake promotion. Really, they’ll come up with anything and they’ll tell people about it. This is why it’s best to avoid these perceptions completely.

So, I headed over to their fan page to check out the status of things. Their wall was already filled with comments from angry coupon-less deal goers that were being turned away by their server issues. Within 10 minutes they had hundreds of wall posts related to the promotion. Most angry, some calm and a few funny ones that included the expected egg related pun like, “Well, this didn’t go as EGGspected” or “Looks like the yolks on us.” Har har.

What’s amazing is that, even though they were angry, some fans were still trying to get their coupon 3 hours later and posting about how much of their day they’d wasted trying to get this coupon. They must really love eggs.

In attempt to keep diffusing the situation, IEE had been posting updates every now and again asking people to be patient, but at this point the damage had already been done. The experience IEE provided had not fulfilled fan’s visions of 12 free eggs all nestled away in their fridge for future enjoyment. And trust me, there’s no easier place to express your anger than a forum where you can post your feelings and run away with no consequences. Especially when you get a mob of people doing it at the same time. And it all stems from the fact that users feel entitled to receive what you said you were going to give them and it’s completely unforgivable if they don’t get it. Especially if it’s free.

So, when moving forward with a simple social media campaign like this, make sure you plan out every minor detail. Make sure that the user’s experience is fast, simple and easy. Let them get in and out without any hassle so that they are compelled to leave a positive message on your fan page and possibly even pass along your promotion to their friends through their many social media avenues. You want and need them to pass it on to make your campaign more successful. And ensure that you plan for worst case scenarios so that your promotion doesn’t die within the first two minutes of its launch.

I’m sure that IEE will recover from this incident. They’ll get the system working again and will probably have to give all of their fans coupons, well beyond the 30,000 they originally intended. Once they do that, everyone will be happy again and IEE will be able to live a more enjoyable existence. But, with better planning and guidance IEE could have saved themselves the heartache by doing it correctly from the start and keeping everyone happy all along.

Here are some of my favorite posts:

Not every email marketing best practice is an obvious one. In fact, in my experience there are quite a few best practices that companies seem to ignore. Here are 10 email marketing mistakes that you should avoid, the good news is these are all easy best practices to adapt and adhere to.

Below are the common mistakes, and what you can do to avoid them:

1. Not Having a Marketing Plan

Make sure you have a strategy in place before you launch each and every marketing email. Decide on a theme that matches with your business goals and will help you achieve them. Create articles, promotions, tips, and offerings that are in line with the strategy.

2. No Permission

You must have permission from every single one of your recipients before you can send email. It’s more about quality than quantity. Before investing your time and money in an email marketing program, start by getting permission from your customers. It’s easier than you think, and it’ll result in fewer spam complaints, better deliverability, and better open and click results.

3. Unrecognizable Address and/or Domain

Keep a static “From” address and/or domain — subscribers determine if your email is spam or not if it’s not relevant or recognizable. Ask to be added to the recipient’s address book or safe sender list at the top of each email.

4. Poor Subject Lines

Because the subject line is the first thing a reader sees and reads, it is really important to make one that will capture their attention. It should make them want to open the newsletter and read some more. Your subject line should be seven words or less (or 35 characters). Using the following conditions in a subject line can lead to being flagged as SPAM:

• Percent of Capital Letters: Too many uppercase letters compared to lowercase letters
• Repeating Capital Letter: Too many upper case letters in a row (e.g., SALE)
• Gaps: When the words have gaps between letters like s*t*y*l*e
• Repetition: When letters or characters are repeated (*****)
• Special Character Flag: Overuse of special characters (e.g., & $ # @ ( )[ ] !)
• Punctuation Flag: Too much punctuation (…) or the type of punctuation (!)
• Word/Space Ratio: Spammers use blank spaces to catch the recipient’s attention resulting in a high ratio of spaces to words
• First Character Flag/First Word Flag: Subject lines starting with a special character or punctuation. Words like “Free”, “hey”, “Sale” etc.

5. Too Much Unnecessary Content

Keep in mind that you should never put information that is not related to the main topic when writing a newsletter. Be straight to the point. Make it as short as possible but with quality. There will be times that you can’t avoid making your newsletter long — if this is the case, make sure that it will not bore your subscribers to a point that it would make them want to unsubscribe.

6. Bad  Code

Set the pixel width to 600. This prevents the need to scroll to the right—and the potential to lose interest if someone feels they have to do too much work to read your email.

Don’t use CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) in your HTML coding. It is stripped out by many ISPs, so if you want to avoid more testing and revisions keep it basic.

Many ISPs suppress images by default. Do not create your email message out of one big image or your subscribers may only see a blank page with a little, tiny red X. If you use any images, to be on the safe side, feature a view in browser so they have another way to see images if they are suppressed.

7. Failing to Use Call To Actions (CTA)

The top one-third and the left-most area of your emails are the most valuable real estate. Try to place a CTA in those areas, in text and as minimal images. Include two to three instances of your CTA above the fold. Make sure to include at least one graphical and one textual CTA.

8. Poor List Hygiene

Practice good and consistent list hygiene. Most people know to honor opt outs in 10 days to be CAN-SPAM compliant but you should also clean your list(s) of hard bounces after each send, plus monitor soft bounces and remove from your list as needed.

9. No Unsubscribe

Don’t make people jump through hoops to opt out. The unsubscribe link must opt out on the first step, per CAN-SPAM.

10. Not Testing in Different Internet Service Providers (ISPs)

HTML emails look different, depending on which email program you use to view it. Just because it looks good in the preview window, or when you send a test to yourself, it doesn’t mean it’ll look like that for all your recipients. Test your email in all ISPs!

The Society of Digital Agencies today released their 2010 Digital Marketing Report. The report is a must-read for digital marketers, including all companies who work with digital marketers, companies looking to work with digital marketers and pretty much anyone who is interested in what we can expect of digital marketing in 2010. The findings highlight key statistics from over a thousand of the industries top executives, including global brands, traditional and digital agencies, vendor and service providers that operate in the digital space, as well as freelance and independent digital practitioners.

Snapshot of results:

81% of brand executives expect an increase in digital projects for 2010. Of this group, 61% said they will be shifting funds from traditional to digital media. Additionally, when asked about “Top Priorities” for business in 2010, respondents indicated a continued focus on Digital Advertising, Digital Infrastructure and Search Optimization, followed closely by Social Networks/Applications.

In addition to industry statistics, contributors provide:

– past and future trends
– current and up-and-coming digital platforms
– explain the evolution of the social media revolution
– address the shifting roles of producers, advertisers and audiences in an on-demand world

In chapter two of the report, Terralevers’ CEO, Chris Johnson and Strategy Director, Scott McAndrew are highlighted as they speak about the evolution of Facebook where they answer the question, “what’s a marketer to do to innovate in this space?”

The information provided in this report by Terralevers’ very own, plus many other experienced digital marketers is invaluable.

To view the complete report visit, http://sodaspeaks.ning.com/page/digital-marketing-outlook

A recent case study presented by Marketing Sherpa shows that social media is a solid marketing tool for generating leads

The case study discusses 6 social media steps to help fill the sales funnel:

#1 Create a blog to start and join online conversation

#2 Establish an active Twitter account

#3 Create a LinkedIn Group (or Facebook page depending on your demographic)

#4 Modify your press release strategy for blogger coverage

#5 Promote social media channels on your company website and in email signatures

#6 Measure growth of social media accounts and web traffic

Results:

Results of the researched company’s social media campaign showed that there was a dramatic correlation between the use of social media channels and the growth of the company’s web traffic and leads.

After only six months, their campaign resulted in:

– 10,230 unique blog page views in Q3
– 280 Twitter followers
– 141 members of their LinkedIn Group
– 155% increase in unique web visitors

The most important thing to note is that the increased web traffic contributed to the majority of the teams leads.

Leads by source:

– 55% inbound web
– 23% trade shows
– 20.5% email
– 1.5% seminars

Marketing-influenced pipeline by source:

– 75% inbound web
– 17% email
– 4% seminars
– 4% trade shows

The following image shows the growth rate of new lead generation (blue), unique web visits (red), Twitter followers (yellow), LinkedIn group members (green) and blog views (purple) through Q1, Q2 and Q3.

Using social media as a marketing strategy is obviously still very young compared to more traditional marketing concepts however, as it evolves it is becoming less and less complicated to track its affect on your brand and your bottom line.

Social media is an incredible way to create strong relationships with hard-to-find prospects, on a limited budget – but don’t be fooled, it’s not easy and it’s a major commitment. To learn more about the exact strategies the company carried out to get these results, check out the full case study on MarketingSherpa.com.

It’s a new year, a new beginning, a new leaf, which means plenty of new opportunities for your web site and online marketing program. By this time, I am sure you have made your own personal resolution list for 2010, but have you taken the time to make one for you web site? To help you get rolling, I put together a list of key strategies for you to consider.

PPC
1.    Test New Ads – Try out new ad variations, it can never hurt to test out something new and fresh.
2.    Update Landing Pages – If you don’t already have customized PPC landing pages, now is a perfect time to implement them. If you are already utilizing them, analyze your results and make modifications accordingly.

On-Site SEO
1.    Rewrite Title Tags – When was the last time you updated your title tags? My guess is that they could use a little refresh, especially if you have added new products, services, and/or offerings.
2.    Fix broken links/URLs by 301 redirecting them to relevant new pages.

Link Building – Set Monthly Goals
1.    Identify X number of link opportunities per month.
2.    Send X number of link requests per month.
3.    Create X number of new pieces of “link worthy” content a month.

Blog  – Set Weekly Goals
1.    Blog X number of times a week.
2.    Comment on X number of relevant blogs per week.

Social Media – Set Daily Goals
1.    Participate consistently, but don’t force it. Tweet & post when you have something to share, not just for the sake of getting something posted.
2.    Ensure your profile bios are optimized to their full potential.

Email Marketing– Set Monthly Goals
1.    Develop a campaign calendar for the year.
2.    Commit to sending X number of emails per month.
3.    A/B split test your campaigns and messaging.

Analytics
1.    Commit to spending X number of hours per week digging into your analytics.
2.    Analyze the bounce rate for the top 20 landing/entry pages of your web site.
3.    Identify and analyze your biggest abandonment pages and modify them for success.

Tools – Test Out New Tools
If you don’t already have a solid list of online marketing tools to help in your efforts, below are a few of my favorites free tools you can check out:

1.    SEOBook ‘s Backlink Analyzer
2.    SEOmoz’s LinkScape
3.    SpyFu
4.    Google Webmaster Tools

Set goals for your web site and online marketing program. Monitor the success of each of them and then modify the tactics based on the results you see. A resolution list is a perfect starting point. And with a little strategy and planning, your web site is bound to be a success!

Easy ways to spice up your social media efforts, with a little help from Dick and Jane.

A new year is synonymous with starts, either on new goals or on older ones that we’d like to take another crack at. Each goal represents a desire to be better than we were last year. A new year is also synonymous with new lists created to make that path toward success a little bit easier.
Whether you just got started in social media or have been playing in the space for years, there are several ways that you can add a little spice, extend your reach, and increase your impact.

1. Grab your name on every social site you can.
You can lay a foundation for continued social engagement by protecting ownership of your brand name, be it your company name or your own name. Sites that allow users to select a unique handle do so on a first come, first served basis, and while some offer restorative action where copyright or trademark infringement is involved, there’s no guarantee that you’ll recover your name in a timely fashion if some other Dick or Jane beat you to the punch bowl. KnowEm and namechk allow you to see where your username has been claimed. Neither tool contains a comprehensive list of all social sites, but they contain most of the major ones and are a great place to start. Signing up for one account is relatively quick; signing up for a dozen can take considerably more time. If you don’t have the time, KnowEm offers to do them all for you for a fee.

2. Pick one new platform to experiment with.
If you’re already participating in the social media space, you probably have an account on both Facebook and Twitter. These are among the most popular social sites, and every Jane has a profile, but Facebook and Twitter are only the tip of the iceberg. Try adding something new to your mix. You might try category platform, like LinkedIn. As the leading social business networking site, LinkedIn’s groups and answers features could be prime space to further a reputation for knowledge leadership. Or try something more niche that Dick hasn’t discovered yet, like 12seconds. Launched in 2008, the 12seconds micro-video platform is increasingly a space of expression and experimentation by creative individuals and companies.

3. Encourage social inside the company.
If you condemn participation in social networks as a distraction from the work at hand, you undervalue the contribution your employees can be making toward your business’ social efforts on the same networks. Social media is a word of mouth tool, and that word can start to spread from within your office. Embrace social as a way of doing business and allow employees to engage social media to connect with friends and each other, you’ll find in between posting pictures of their weekend hike or scheduling a lunch date with Dick, you’ll get featured. They will comment on how much they love the people they work with, retweet that job posting, and take notice when a Jane, a recent connection they may have yet to met in person, mentions she needs to launch an ecommerce site, which just so happens to be something your company rocks at.

4. Take your online social activities offline.
Your online social presence should augment and enhance in-person interactions. Give people a chance to deepen their relationship with you by interacting with you socially even while offline. Invite Jane and others to join you for happy hour or coffee at a locally-owned business. Open up your office space to Dick’s Historical Autobiography Book Club for their monthly gathering, attend the meetup and get to know the club members and what fascinates them.

5. Find at least one way to engage that has absolutely nothing to do with your core business.
All work and no play makes Dick a dull boy. All work and no play makes your company just another dull company. Nerf wars may spring up in the office during the day when you need a break, but if nobody knows, you’re missing an opportunity to showcase a bit of personality. Why not make the last Friday of each month a themed dress-up (or dress-down) day, post the best photos on Facebook and invite friends and fans to write the captions? Or why not take the engagement offline (tip 4) and organize a weekly meetup at your local dog-park for people who have dogs, as well as those who want dogs?

6. Share media and content that inspires your thinking.
The products and/or services you offer are your output, but what are the inputs that shape how you design and deliver these things? Books, blog posts, TED talks, even outside hobbies – the things you read, see and do have the power to influence how you do business. Share the very best of these via your social profiles. At the very least, you’ll give friends, fans and followers greater insight into the philosophies and values that guide you. At best, you’ll develop deeper relationships with customers, prospects and peers as you engage in idea-driven conversations. And if you’re really lucky, you’ll inspire both Dick and Jane along the way.

½. Be helpful.
We aren’t the first to say this, and we won’t be the last, but some tips are just so important that they are worth repeating… Be helpful. If Dick has a question and you know the answer, or can point him in the direction of a useful resource, do it. If it’s not about your company, product, service or industry, still do it. Never pass up an opportunity to demonstrate to your customers, friends and fans that meeting their needs is important to you.

Let these tips be a starting point to get you headed to more social 2010. As you put each of them in play, please share your ideas, questions and successes. Share your failures too, and the lessons that result, so that we can learn from each other and help each other make this year a rockin’ year.

Originally posted to the Phoenix Business Journal

Terralever has become one of slightly more than two dozen companies to be recognized as a preferred developer by Facebook.

The Tempe-based interactive marketing agency is one of 14 companies in the Facebook preferred developer consultant program, which can build programs for the massive social networking platform.

Terralever has been involved with Facebook applications since 2007 and has built programs for companies ranging from Apple and BMW to Red Bull and the University of Phoenix.

“Clearly, Facebook is one of the most innovative companies in the world. In the last five years they have strategically found ways to capture the attention of users everywhere, attracting more then 350 million active users worldwide,” said Chris Johnson, Terralever CEO. “We are honored and excited to be a part of this new program and to have the opportunity to continue to develop new experiences on Facebook Platform.”

My #1 frustration with Google Analytics since it started has been that it’s always limited you to setting up four goals per profile. This means that if you have more than 4 types of user events on your site that would constitute a “Goal” (shopping cart checkout, newsletter signup, contact form submission, etc), you’d be forced to create an additional profile in Google Analytics to track the additional goals, which means you’d have to flip between multiple profiles to see all your data. Sure, years ago, four might have seemed like plenty of goals…but it’s 2009, people. Fortunately, Google has smiled upon us and increased the limit of number of goals per profile to 20 (4 sets of 5).

Sure, it’d be great to have unlimited goals per profile, but I’ll take 20. Now all of our goal data can live together happily in one profile.

In addition to increasing the amount of goals allowed per profile, Google Analytics has also introduced a new feature called “Analytics Intelligence.” Right now, it’s pretty simple, but it goes a long way in helping you stay on top of what’s happening on your site. The simplest way to understand and take advantage of the new feature is to create a “Custom Alert” by following these steps:

1. Log into your Google Analytics account, select the Analytics account with the profile you want to view, and then click “View Reports” next to the website profile you’d like to view.

2. On the left-hand side, click the “Intelligence” Menu.

3. Beneath the graphs and the gray bar with the date on it, click the “+ Create a Custom Alert” link

4. On the next page, enter the following information in order to create an Alert any time your daily traffic goes beyond a certain number (replace the 200 with a number that would be abnormally high for your site):

Click Create Alert, and you’ve got a custom alert that will trigger each time your daily traffic surpasses that magic number. The alerts will show up on the “Intelligence” report, as well as in your email if you choose.

In addition to custom alerts, Google Analytics creates automatic alerts in the Intelligence report based on your site’s average performance. Automatic reports look at a variety of visitor patterns and changes to make you aware of traffic and other anomalies on your site. The best way to get familiar with all the features the “Intelligence” tab has to offer is by logging in and clicking through the alerts on the bar graph yourself. Maybe you’ll discover something surprising, insightful, and useful about your site’s visitors.

We aren’t talking turkeys, holiday decorations or gift exchanges here…we are talking about Black Friday, Cyber Monday and THE busiest shopping season of the year.  The holiday season is literally right around the corner, but don’t worry if you haven’t devised your online marketing plan…there is still time if you act now. To help you as you work through the hustle and bustle of this holiday season, I put together a few tips.

Sales & Offer
Everyone will have some type of offer, so be sure to make yours a compelling one. Free shipping is always a winner, everyone loves something for free! To help promote the sale/offer, update your home page to include messaging that features the offer and make the design festive to align the holiday season. It’s also a good idea to put a banner on interior pages to reinforce the offer as the users explore your web site.

Also, don’t forget to update your meta descriptions to include the offer; holiday shoppers will be looking for a deal and by including the offer in your meta description, you are likely to stand apart from the rest of the search results. Just make sure you update your meta descriptions after the holidays, or you may have some angry customers still looking for a deal after the holidays are long over.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising
If you are active in Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising, include information about the offer in your ads, this will reinforce the offer and entice users to click on your add. Ad copy should focus on convenience for the shopper. Most marketers focus strictly on pushing their products and services, but consumers are looking for more, especially during the holidays. Showcase things like guaranteed delivery and customer service within the ad copy and don’t be afraid to test out relevant holiday related keywords (i.e. holiday gifts).

Social Media
Use Social Media to push your holiday related content and offers via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, etc. Offer discounts via Twitter and Facebook and reward those who “fan” and “follow” you.  Add AddThis code to your site, which will enable users to share products/items they find on Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Got a product to demo? YouTube is a great platform for product demos. Consider a custom one for the holidays, including a festive background or design.

Email
If you have an opt-in list, then by all means market to them via email. Send targeted campaigns featuring special offers or discounts on products and/or services. Include the offer in your subject line, be festive with the design and keep the messaging timely. Holiday “gift guides” make great content for email campaigns and can tie-in multiple products and/or services into one campaign.

Blogs
Hopefully you already have a blog that supports your web site and/or company, if not…it’s a perfect time to start one.

Blogs are the perfect place to push holiday related content and topics. Make sure not to turn your posts into sales pitches, but instead focus on providing readers valuable content, which will attract readership and ultimately bring more people to your web site.  Use your blog as a platform to communicate on a personal level with your customers with content like gift guides, holiday recipes, shipping tips, shopping lists, etc.  Sound overwhelming? You can pre-write your blogs and schedule them to post during the hectic holiday season.

Consider running a contest/giveaway for people who comment on your posts, offer up a free product or service to one lucky reader – this will encourage comments on your blog.

Make “friends” with other bloggers in your industry and post comments on relevant blogs. This will get links back to your web site and position you well within this space….you never know when you may need to call in a favor. Building relationships with other relevant bloggers will benefit you in the long run, so invest the time now.

Tracking
Don’t forget to track all your efforts via Google Analytics, this will identify the channels and tactics that provided the most value and allow you to plan better for the 2010 holiday season.

Now that you have a plan…make your list, check it twice and put your plan to action. This should leave you with plenty of time for holiday decorations and gift exchanges.

A Brief Recap and Additional Q & A from our Recent Social Media Webinar

First, a big thank you to everyone who joined me on Tuesday for our webinar, Social Media – What’s the Point? Time is incredibly valuable these days, and it means a lot that you chose to spend it here.

In the presentation, I focused on three key points.
•    All relevant media is becoming increasingly more social.
•    Integrate social media into your total marketing strategy.
•    Move beyond Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace.
Additional points that seemed to resonate with participants are:
•    Companies and brands can participate in social media, and do it right.
•    Social media marketing is more effective at growing brand affinity than generating leads and sales.
•    Listen to your friends, fans, and followers to discover, and then engage with them on the topics that are interesting to them.
At the end of the presentation, there were several questions that arose which I was unable to address due to time. I’d like to respond to a few of them here.

If you are new to social media for your brand, what are your suggestions for starting out?

Just as one size does not really fit all, neither does one social media platform fit every business. Start by getting a personal recommendation from someone who is both active in social media, and who knows you and your business well. They can suggest the platform that might feel most natural for you.

Twitter can be a counter-intuitive for the first-time user, but it’s great for listening for mentions of your brand or business. Follow colleagues or industry knowledge leaders to get information that is relevant to your work. Follow customers who are already using Twitter. Reach out to both for feedback on how you’re doing. Use Twitter Search to find mentions of your brand, and set up TweetBeep and Google Alerts to receive email notifications.

Facebook fan pages work well for personal community interaction and engagement. Leverage the information tab to talk about who you are and what you do in a casual voice. Post updates about things that are happening in your company, both public-facing activities, and occasional behind-the-scenes operations. Respond when fans comment on your posts or write their own posts on your wall. Use the photos and the events features when you have something cool going on that you want to share.
If you’re a local food, travel, or entertainment business, consider starting with Yelp. Search for your company and read what Yelpers are saying. Claim your business and email your reviewers. Thank those who wrote a positive review for visiting your establishment and sharing their experience with others. Reach out to those who wrote a negative review to address points of pain to ask for ideas on how to improve service.

Wherever you begin, keep it simple. Choose one platform and focus on it for one month. Learn its features. Build new relationships. And don’t be afraid to experiment a bit to find what forms of engagement work best. You can always branch out as you get more comfortable.

What are your thoughts on agencies tweeting on behalf of clients?

Authenticity and transparency are key to a successful social media presence. There is nothing transparent about ghost-tweeting. No one knows your business as well as you do, and while an agency may be on point with your brand messaging, unique aspects of personality get lost when posting happens by proxy. After all, there are certain things that can only be captured when you are in-house, like the sudden invasion of beloved four-legged friends on ‘take your dog to work’ day.

Another challenge is timeliness.  Whether it’s sharing breaking news in your industry, or responding to a mention of your brand, few clients are willing to give an agency the autonomy to tweet without some sort of approval process. Publishing schedules are common, but from preparation to approval to posting, your breaking article might have broken over a week ago. Customer service responses that have to go from agency to client back to agency for posting can often result in a delay of several hours, a full business day, or more.

That’s not to say that an agency can’t ever post on a client’s behalf. Where we have found success is providing content support when a client has a busy season that prevents them from maintaining a regular posting schedule. In those cases, we have tweeted, posted Facebook updates, and written blog posts in the voice of the brand to supplement content authored by the client.
Where an agency provides the most value is in navigating the social media landscape and identifying opportunities. We can be a virtual knowledge rolodex of social platforms, a guide during set-up and implementation, a resource for ongoing questions, and an idea hub for new opportunities.

Do you use a particular CRM to save all social media discussions or customer information?

There are several social monitoring tools that have been designed to help companies track mentions and follow customer interactions. Two of the most widely used are Radian 6 and CoTweet. Social media is an evolving space, and there is not yet a single software suite that will meet your every monitoring need. Remember, social media is about being social; software cannot substitute for human engagement. You will have to invest time and energy in mining and interpreting the data, whether it is collected by technology, or your own manual search efforts.

We have posted the presentation deck on Slideshare, and a recording of the webinar on Blip.TV. Download and view to your heart’s content. If we can help in any way, please let us know.

We’ve brought on many new faces this year to support our awesome clients and still, due to landing a significant contract from an international company, we plan on hiring even more. We’re looking for some solid talent, so check out our careers page and see if you would make a positive addition to our team. Oh yeah, and I can’t forget to mention, we’re super-fun too! WE even got some tv coverage recently – ABC News did a story on local companies that are hiring, and Terralever’s very own Scott Miraglia is featured!

So, check us out, we’re super excited about growing our team!!

User Experience, also commonly known as UX, is a term not to be taken lightly when it comes to online marketing. It is also a term that I believe is highly misunderstood and often confused with terms such as Usability and User Interface Design.

So, what is User Experience?

Simply put, User Experience is a term used to describe the overall experience and satisfaction a user has when using a product or system. In Terralever’s case, that would be a website or web application but it also applies to a consumers experience using, let’s say, an iPhone, car, dishwasher, airport elevator, gas pump, mail box, office chair, etc…

It’s easy to see why User Experience is often confused with Usability and User Interface Design, after-all, they are both very important elements of the User Experience as a whole – It’s the synergy of many elements that makes up User Experience. This includes Information Architecture, Interaction Design, Human Computer Interaction and Human Factors Engineering, just to name a few.

In online marketing, the perfect User Experience can result in conversions, leads, sales and ultimately success – The question is, have you planned ahead for your customers’ User Experience?

For a more in depth view of User Experience Design check out: www.montparnas.com/articles/what-is-user-experience-design/

As many of you know, Terralever recently suffered a great loss with the passing of Andy Richter, managing partner, colleague, friend, and mentor. We have mourned and we have laughed as we continue to remember great times spent with a man whose passion for living was infectious.

Shortly before we learned of Andy’s passing, I discovered that my friend and his wife were expecting a baby via a biweekly web comic. Life cycled within mere hours. As the day continued, and news of Andy’s passing spread, the outpouring of support, expressed through Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and personal emails, was overwhelming. The loss was not just our own, Andy’s family or those closest to him, but one felt throughout Phoenix and the greater entrepreneurial and internet marketing communities. Each post brought home with new meaning that which I already believed, that social media, however digital it may be, is still human.

Sons and daughters are born, cancerous diseases are fought, promotions are celebrated, wedding vows are exchanged, and losses are mourned. Life is shared as it happens.

News channels will continue to publish the latest headlines, brands to focus on building communities of impassioned evangelists, and retailers to announce their hot new sale. Indeed, our role as an interactive marketing agency is to help our clients navigate opportunities to best leverage their online activities. It is my hope that as we do so, we always remember that social media is where humans connect with one another in meaningful ways.

We cherish the knowledge, guidance and passion that Andy brought to us each day. We are thankful for the gracious support of the community since his passing. Both are inspiration for us as we move forward together.

Andy Richter, Managing Partner of Terralever, died Thursday evening, October 1. Our hearts go out to Andy’s family and loved ones.  We’re shocked and saddened by his passing and we share their grief and deep sadness. Andy Richter was an exceptional individual, friend and community leader. Andy’s passing is a big loss for our community. He will be missed by all of us privileged to have known and worked with him.

As founder and CEO of Terralever I will continue to lead the organization.

Thank you for your overwhelming outpouring of kindness and love for our fellow colleague.

Does local search matter? was originally posted on Scott McAndrew’s blog on September 8th 2009

Seen that map on the first page of search results accompanied with a one or a handful of businesses after performing a search on Google, Bing or Yahoo?  Those results are considered to be “local search” results, displaying companies whose products or services align with what the Internet searcher is looking for.

Localized search results appear on search engines search results pages if…

• An individual business is explicitly searched for: “Apple Computer in Cupertino”
• Local intent is expressed by the visitor explicitly when searching for a product or service: “Pizza in Boston, MA”
• Although not explicitly expressed, local intent is assumed, based on the nature of the query itself: “Car wash”

Which business listings appear depends upon a long list of factors (suitable for a post of its own).

How much does having a listing there for a business matter?  The short answer: A lot, assuming that your business provides a product or service locally from a physical location (or several locations).  Keep reading if you’re interested in the long answer.

How many searches are we talking about?

Estimates vary by source on how many searches have local intent.  Those on the lower end of the range cite 20% and those on the higher side generally fall between 30 and 40%.  Calculating how many actual searches that equates to pushes us to numbers which challenge conventional understanding.

Recent ComScore data indicates that in May of this year 14.3 billion core searches were made in the United States.  I’ll forgo doing the math and just assume that we can all agree that local search represents a highly compelling number of searches.

How do user’s interact with a page of search results?

Sometimes images speak louder than words, so let’s start there.  Does the graphic below look familiar?

If you haven’t seen it before it’s a visual depiction of Google users’ attention from an eye-tracking study performed by Enquiro in 2005.  The area of most interest lies in the triangular area at the top left-hand side of the page.  Results from other search engine’s also follow suit.  That triangular area (often referred to as Google’s Golden Triangle) is also precisely where localized search results generally appear (they also occasionally appear further down the search results page).

This image (and the study that it emerged from) are at least a few years old, but it tends to hold true.  Subsequent studies by Google have revealed a similar pattern, even when additional distractions, such as images, are added to the mix.  If anything, its likely that the addition of a map image which accompanies local listings positively influences the attention given they receive.

Do they take any action?

All of this is for not if the Internet searcher doesn’t take action, regardless of the reason.  Recent third-party research provides a strong case for local listings.  There are several studies out there, the following statistics are from a publicly available ComScore/TMP local search study conducted last year:

• The information provided online isn’t lagging offline information.  Users are pleased with what they find, whether their search is offline, online or on a mobile phone, with 9 out of 10 searchers stating they ultimately found what they needed.
• Search engines have become the primary stand-alone source for local business information, ranking higher than the print White or Yellow Pages or websites specifically focused on localized or niche listings.
• After performing a local search the majority of consumers (more than 70%) chose to contact the business (or businesses) offline by telephone or an in-person visit.

That last statistic might be the most compelling of all, connecting that online activity to tangible, offline business.  Conclusion?  If you provide a service or product locally, put local search high on you to-do list for your marketing and advertising and take advantage of this opportunity!

Digg, the popular social bookmarking site, announced this week on their blog that they are incorporating the nofollow tag (rel=”nofollow”) to external links they don’t trust, with the goal of reducing spam.

When submitting to Digg there are really two goals. One is to make it to the front page which will in turn drive a lot of traffic. And by making it to the front page your story is most likely to become very popular and people will want to link to it, which in turn garners a lot of links to your site. These are both great things for your site and from an SEO perspective, the links are golden.

The problem for Digg is that even if a story does not become popular on Digg, the link coming from Digg itself offers some weight to the spammy URL in a search engine crawler’s eyes. The bottom line here is that Digg will no longer pass link juice on to just any link, the downside maybe that legitimate links, in addition to the spammy ones,  may also not get any link love from Digg from now on.

Digg’s blog stated that the nofollow tag will be included on user profiles, comments and unpopular posts, but they made no mention on how popular a link had to be to have the nofollow tag removed.

“We’ve added rel=”nofollow” to any external link that we’re not sure we can vouch for. This includes all external links from comments, user profiles and story pages below a certain threshold of popularity.”

It will be interesting to watch how the rule is implemented over time and see what links Digg deems as trustworthy. The change may mean less link love from Digg but there is no doubt it will provide a better user experience for the Digg community by weeding out the spammers.

It’s all around us and it’s here to stay. Businesses and brands on our favorite social media platforms hoping to be friended, followed and faned by existing and potential customers who will then go and share branded content with their own friends, followers and fans. Social media networks make this sharing easy. Comment, like, retweet, favorite, or star something, and others will see it. It’s that word of mouse marketing.

The good news for businesses and brands is that over half of participants in social media networks are currently connected with a brand and 46% have spoken positively about a brand.
The question for companies, then, is how are you influencing these mentions? Are they unsolicited references to your product or service? Or are they the effect of others sharing the content you’ve published online? Consider the most mentioned brands on Twitter are Starbucks, Google, BBC, Apple and AIG. All are big name brands, but only the first three have a Twitter presence. Apple and AIG do not, and in the case of AIG, mentions were more often criticisms of company operations as they came to light during the financial crises than any sort of messaging initiated by or on behalf of the company.

On July 22nd, social media channels were abuzz with the announcement that Amazon bought Zappos. News of the announcement was quickly followed by links to a letter from Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh to employees explaining foreseeable affects of acquisition, and to a video of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos talking about both companies and his views on entrepreneurship. Amazon and Zappos are both incredibly active in social media; Amazon is the sixth most mentioned brand on Twitter. That engagement from both companies helped shape conversation about the acquisition. The video received over 35,000 views from site embeds occurring on that same day. The letter inspired hundreds of blogs and reblogs, and thousands of tweets.

When the information you’ve created is what’s being shared, then you have more opportunity to have your voice reflected the stories others tell about you.

Hat Club, a leading retailer of baseball caps, skater hats and accessories, was seeking ways to increase revenue and generate respect and loyalty within their brand for both their online and offline channels. E-commerce was an area the internal marketing team had dabbled in—enough to launch the online sales effort and sell hats online. However, it was time to get more serious about selling merchandise online. Hat Club turned to Terralever to show them how to do it strategically, effectively, and with great success.

Objective:

Terralever and Hat Club wanted to create an online experience that would not only raise, but reset the bar for sports retail e-commerce. High importance was set on creating a strong presence on search engines and stimulating Hat Club Membership to create loyalty, repeat web site visits and revenue.

Solution:

Terralever envisioned a premiere membership-based, e-commerce web site, coupled with a balanced campaign of SEO, PPC, email marketing and social media marketing as Hat Club’s solution. Terralever provided an extensive strategic plan, e-commerce website design and development and a proactive strategy and analytics program.

Results:

Hat Club’s online sales are up 245% since Q2 2008. Hatclub.com, formerly listed as the most poorly performing retail outpost across Hat Club, is currently the top selling, surpassing its counterpart brick and mortar store locations. Awareness and affinity for Hat Club online has grown steadily since the execution of Terralever’s online marketing plan. The combined approach of sustained online marketing and the launch of a new persona-based, search engine optimized website, has produced a steady increase in Hat Club’s online performance metrics.

Comparing web visitors ending Q2 2009 with the same period 2008, Hat Club boasts a 175% increase in traffic, while maintaining an industry enviable balance of returning and new clientele. Additionally, Hat Club increased pageviews and time spent on site by 280%, while reducing the site’s total bounce rate by 15% across the same period. Within the first quarter of proactive online marketing, revenue increased 245% year over year, and continues to trend upward in a down economy.

SUMMARY

Product: Baseball caps & accessories
Retail locations: 21
Online: hatclub.com
Target Market: Fashion-minded millennials
Founded: 2001

Online Results

• Visits:  +175%
• Unique Visitors: +175%
• Pageviews: +280%
• Online Sales: +245%
• Bounce Rate: -15%

Originally posted to sodaspeaks.ning.com by Natalie Certo on August 18th, 2009

Vote for SoDA’s SXSW 2010 Panel Discussion – Best Digital Agency Advice and Practices

SoDA will again be attending South by Southwest (SXSW) 2010 and hopefully hosting panel discussions (with your help by voting) this coming March in Austin, TX.

As most of you know the PanelPicker is an online system that allows the SXSW community to have a significant voice in programming Interactive, Film, and Music conference activities (panels, presentations, discussions, demonstrations, etc.).

If you are interested to hear SoDA’s SXSW 2010 panel “Best Digital Agency Advice and Practices” vote here: http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/3898

Also please tweet, post, email, morse code (by whatever means necessary) the message to your friends and industry affiliates. See you there!

Introducing “Zero Gravity”, our new mind-bending adventure featuring the lovable and lost astronaut, Lieutenant Bennett. To build this game, we used Silverlight Technology with the Microsoft Expression suite, along with a few other tools.

“Zero Gravity” was built using the C# language. Considering this is Beta Tech, we relied on a few of our own tricks to make the game exactly how we wanted. To help reduce the size of the xaml files over the wire, we used compression. We also created a pre-loader that would load our assets to provide a better user experience. In addition to our own assets, we used info on the Silverlight forums and the community’s code to get a leg up. We will certainly be giving back to the community through articles and code samples.

The result is an addictively fun game that has it all: animation, sound, video, quality gameplay, and over twenty levels of cosmic adventure.  Check it out at www.ltbennett.com.