E-Branding

The 5-Minute Brand Reputation Audit

When it comes to branding on internet,we have to differentiate ourselves
from plenty of other brands.Internet marketing is giving us chance to find
right and simply way for making brand of our site.






Many years ago branding was simply the act of marking one’s cattle with a unique identifier so that they could quickly be sorted and would be difficult to steal.
 With the arrival of big corporations and the maturation of
marketing, branding has evolved into something much more. Today,
companies like Pepsi Cola spend hundreds of millions annually on their
branding and marketing campaigns. With the popularity of search engines
growing, SEO and Pay Per Click (PPC) have started to gain ground in
these budgets. The following is a guide on how to perform an online brand
reputation audit, which is necessary for measuring these growing
resources.

Using the Brand Search Engine Result Page

Whenever I see top search query lists, I am always surprised at how often
people search for exact domain names or brands. It is for this reason that
the brand search engine result page (SERP) is so useful. The following
actions can help you identify what improvements might be necessary for a
branded term search result page.

Search for the brand name in the major search engines.

To complete the first action item all you need to search for is the brand
name of the given company. This will bring up a results page with about
10 results and some ads. This is one of the most important pages about
the given company, and many otherwise smart company executives don’t
pay attention to it. For many searchers, this will be the front door to
information about the company. Google knows this fact and has crafted
algorithms to take advantage of it. Upon analyzing the SERP for a wellknown
brand name, you may notice some seemingly unusual results. This
is because Google’s brand-specific algorithms intentionally show more
diverse results than they do for a normal search. These results tend to
include reviews and websites that share opposing views.

An ideal brand search result page means no matter which link
searchers click, they end up on a company-approved page.
The main domain would have Sitelinks, a group of Google chosen
links to primary sections of the given website in search engine
results. 

The end result of a result page like this is that no matter which link the
searchers click, they end up on a company-approved page. Although this
isn’t necessarily the best experience for the user, it is the best business
tactic.
Search all of the following and identify potential problems
(this is not a comprehensive list):

Brand Name Sucks
Brand Name Scam
Brand Name Cult
Brand Name Problems
Brand Name Issues
Brand Name Support
Brand Name Broken
Brand Name Error
Brand Name Review

The second and last action item on this list requires you to run a series of
directed search queries to see if you can identify any problematic
webpages. This list is not comprehensive and is only intended to be a
starting point. I use this list in my work and customize it to my clients
based on their product or service. (For example, if I was working for an
oil company, I would run queries for topical negative queries such as
“Brand Name environmental impact”) This step is important both
because it helps identify problematic sites early and because it mimics
behavior that a skeptical user might do. Remember, if potential
customers read even one negative review about a given company, they
are significantly less likely to buy its product regardless of the source of
the content.

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Useful Search Engine Querie

The search engines have been gracious enough to give us special search
commands for understanding their vast amount of data. The commands
that I find the most useful are:

cache:
site:

inurl:
intitle:
+-|

These commands, when used in combination, are powerful and
sometimes prove essential for diagnosing SEO problems. To the search engineers that created these commands, I send my sincerest gratitude.
You make my job much easier. (It should be noted that I have intentionally
left out the search engine commands that I don’t use. Because of this
decision, I recommend that you don’t treat this as a comprehensive list. It
details only the commands that I find essential for SEOs.)
These commands are useful for filtering search results to show only
pages that contain certain attributes. This means if you find a webpage
that has an issue like a misspelling in a title tag, you can use the search
engines to find all of the occurrences of this on your website and use this
information to fix the problem.

Another example of this is for checking the effectiveness of keyword
targeting. It is a common SEO problem to have multiple pages targeting
the same keyword. This is a problem because then all of these pages must
compete with each other for rankings rather than the best practice that
would have all of these pages combined and one more powerful page
competing for rankings. 

You can query a search engine in the following ways to yield some useful
data points:

Normal search: What is the best way to see how the search
engines will act? Run a normal search. According to my web history I
search using Google about 17 times a day. This does not include the
internal searches I do on Google properties like Gmail and YouTube
or the searches I do on my phone. I have found that the best way to
better understand Google is to continually and constantly use it. After
all, our goal as SEOs is to improve our clients’ rankings. What better
way to do this than studying search results every day?

Quotes: As I am sure you are aware, putting search queries in
quotes limits results to exact matches. This extremely helpful when
you want to see if a random page is in the Google index. Simply find
a random sentence in the content, wrap it in quotes, and search for it.
If it is long enough, odds are it has only been written once on the
Internet and should return only one result. If it doesn’t appear it means
it isn’t indexed. If it appears more than once, it means your client has
duplicate content issues.

Cache: Cache is a copy of the file Googlebot downloads when it
visits a website. As an SEO, this information is extremely important
because it shows you exactly what Google sees. This is especially
useful for determining crawl rate and diagnosing potential geolocation
issues.


When viewing the cached version of a website, try clicking the link
labeled “Text-only version.” This shows a much better representation of
what Google sees. I can’t count how many hidden links I have found by
using this trick.

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SEO Copywriting Tips (infographic)

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Link Building Summary

· To achieve good, consistent search engine rankings it is important to get
quality links from relevant sites to your website. However, large numbers of
non-relevant links pointing to your site can have a negative effect on your
search engine rankings.

· Submit your website to free directories, such as local or industry-specific
directories. Use DirectoryCritic.com to search for niche industry directories.
Both Google Local and Yahoo Local are valuable local directories.
DirectoryCritic.com can also be used to find more local directories.

· Researching the links that point to your competitor’s site can be a good way to
discover which sites might be willing to link to your site. You can contact
these site owners by using contact forms on their website, or using the
easywhois.com service.

· Respected institutions such as universities, libraries, or business networks are
often willing to link to your site if you’re willing to help them out by giving a
free lecture or seminar on your specialized subject. Perhaps you can offer
these organizations something else of value in exchange for a link?

· Remember to send a testimonial for any product or service that your business
invests in. Send your testimonial to the marketing director and include your
website address to make it much more likely to give you a free one-way link.

· Search Google for your keyword phrase plus the phrases ‘add url’ or the
phrase ‘add site’ to find websites that are actively looking for link partners. If
the site is relevant for your readers then consider arranging a reciprocal link.
This offers value as long as if is part of a wider link building campaign, and
not the primary focus of the campaign.

· For links to the various websites mentioned in this pillar and up-to-date link
building resources and services visit:

http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar7.

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Put Facebook Ad Online

Writing your ad message

Facebook is about making connections.

 Ad copy should reflect this spirit
and maintain a familiar, conversational tone. With a friendly attitude in your
headline and body, social stories generated around your ad have a more
natural flow within the Home page News Feed. Given a 25-character limit on
the title and a 135-character limit on the body, you can’t waste a whole lot
of words. Be direct, be straightforward, and be honest with your objective.
Facebook is also about building trust, and your copy must show an openness
and willingness to share and connect with your audience.
Facebook ads should entertain if the subject calls for it. Ads with a humorous
message deliver higher rates of user engagement.

Choosing an image

Ads accompanied by images overwhelmingly perform better than text-only
ads. Therefore, we strongly recommend that you include an image in your
Facebook ad. If you use a photo, include a high quality picture with the maximum
allowed size of 110 pixels wide by 80 pixels tall with an aspect ratio of
4:3 or 16:9. Image files cannot exceed 5MB.
Preferably, use images that are easily recognizable, not too intricate in detail,
and feature bright colors without the use of the dark blue so strongly identified
with the Facebook logo and navigational color scheme.

Targeting your audience

Facebook has made it very easy to target your desired audience. In fact,

selecting your target audience is central to the Facebook self-serve platform.

You can target by location, age, relationship status, and interests. You can

even target by language, as Facebook is available in 40 languages with many

more in development.

Targeting your audience is as important as the message itself. Develop personas

to represent your target audience. Learn what they’re interested in —

their educational background, relationship status, and where they live. Reach

only the audience you desire by targeting to meet your specific business’s

ideal customer profile. 

Facebook has focused its advertising strategy around its vast member data,

allowing advertisers to target an audience segment precisely. You can say

that Google’s AdSense is more a question of where your ad is seen, while

Facebook is all about who sees your ad. In fact, Facebook offers advertisers

the ability to reach their exact audience — from a broad demographic, to a

geographic preference, and to a more granular interest.

Facebook advertising is not directly contextual, meaning ads don’t necessarily

correlate to the content being displayed. An advertiser can’t pinpoint where

on the site their ads should appear. Google’s AdSense, on the other hand,

is a contextual-based advertising platform. Google’s text-based ads are tied

directly into the keywords being queried.

Targeting by location

Facebook allows for precise location targeting, based in part on your profile

data and the IP address of the computer you log in with. Most cities in the

U.S., Canada, and the U.K. allow you to add surrounding areas of 10, 25, and

50 miles for advertisers looking to reach specific regional markets.Here is example
of facebook targeting:

targeting your audience on facebook

Targeting by keywords

Facebook leverages its members’ profile data to allow advertisers to drill
down to specific keywords. These keywords represent a member’s interests.
Topics that users are passionate of, such as their musical tastes, television
preferences, religious views, and other valuable psychographic data 
, can be used to further micro-target your audience. Never before
has there been a mass medium that allows for this kind of precise targeting.
By adding keywords to your targeting, you can reach consumers based on
the interests listed on their profile page.

By micro-targeting, you’re limiting the total reach of your campaign. By casting
a wide net, you might be reaching outside of your target audience.

Money, money, money — setting a budget

After you create your ad and identify your targeted audience, setting the
budget is the final step before you can launch your advertisement. Facebook
employs a bidding structure for its advertising inventory based on supply
and demand. If there’s greater demand to reach a specific demographic,
the ad typically has higher bids. The company also provides a suggested
bid based on the approximate range of what other ads reaching this demographic
have historically cost.
Facebook’s ads are based on a closed bidding system. You can’t see what
others pay for ads, or can they see your bid. Facebook provides a recommended
bidding range. As a strategy, setting your bid initially on the low side
of the suggested range is a good idea. You can monitor your campaign to see
whether the ad is performing at your given bid. Although Facebook allows
you to bid as low as one cent, expecting a bid at that price to deliver any
impressions is unrealistic.
You don’t have to follow the Facebook pricing guidelines, but remember, if
you bid too low, your ad won’t appear.
Facebook also allows you to purchase ads based on a pay for clicks (CPC)
or pay for thousand impressions (CPM). If your goal is to drive traffic to a
specific page, paying based on CPC is probably the best performer for you.
If your objective is to get as many people within your target demographic
to see the ad, but not necessarily click thru, then ads based on a CPM basis
could be your best option.
On Facebook, ads purchased on a CPC basis are more cost efficient at driving
traffic to a given Web site or Facebook destination than ads purchased on a
CPM basis. However, if your goal is more of a brand awareness campaign and
you’re trying to gain exposure to as many people as possible, ads purchased
on a CPM basis could be a more effective strategy.

Putting your ad to the test

The social network offers marketers a full range of metrics to measure success,
both from the Web site’s internal ad management measurement or via
Facebook’s internal reports and measures. Because replicating an ad and creating
different iterations for testing is easy, Facebook is quickly becoming the
advertising platform of choice for savvy marketers.

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Ten Facebook Blogs for Business

Marketing on Facebook is truly unlike any other style of marketing.

Now that you’re well on your way to becoming a Facebook marketing

master, you’ll need to keep your knowledge of this ever-changing world up to

date. There is no better way to get fast, up-to-date information than via the

blogosphere.

Our goal is to give you some lasting tools for your continued education on Facebook. We monitored these blogs during the writing of this book to stay

current on any possible changes coming from Facebook.

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Ten Business Etiquette Tips for Facebook

As Facebook grows so do the surprising number of faux pas committed

by individuals and companies alike. The occasional slip of the tongue,

facebook etique

the odd photo, and of course everyone’s favorite: the embarrassing tag in a

note or video.

You can and must protect your brand’s reputation on Facebook, as well as

maintain the utmost respect for the Facebook community. The downside is steep; you can lose your Page, your profile, or both. Once you are banned from Facebook, it’s hard to get back in and by that time the audience that

you worked so hard to build is gone.

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Web Links for Facebook Marketing

Facebook offers you the opportunity to build new and develop existing
business relationships. A completely self-contained universe, Facebook
has plenty of tools that can help you to find and then connect with your
target audience. From setting up your business presence on a Facebook Page
to advertising to a highly-targeted consumer base to providing a Marketplace
where you can buy and sell your goods and services, the following links can
provide you with some basic building blocks to help you further develop
your Facebook strategy.

Facebook Pages Directory

A searchable directory of all Facebook Pages, this organizes Pages according
to which ones have the most fans. You can also view more links according
to vertical Page directories, including: places, products, services, stores,
restaurants, bars and clubs, organizations, politicians, government officials,
non-profits, TV shows, films, games, sports teams, celebrities/public figures,
music, and Web sites.

www.facebook.com/pages

Facebook Marketing Solutions Page

Want to see what’s working for other Facebook marketers? The Facebook
Marketing Solutions page is the place to go where you can also contribute to
the conversation .

www.facebook.com/marketing

Facebook Lexicon Tool

The Facebook Lexicon application keeps on getting better for marketers
interested in knowing what people are saying. Type a term and see how much
buzz it’s garnering within Facebook.

www.facebook.com/lexicon

Facebook Friend Finder

With this handy friend finder page, Facebook offers a number of ways to
search for your friends. You can type a name or an e-mail address, or search
by a school or an employer.

www.facebook.com/find-friends

Facebook Help

Confused about a Facebook feature or function? Facebook provides a searchable
Help database that explains terms in easy-to-understand language 

www.facebook.com/help.php

Facebook Advertising

The Facebook self-serve advertising system is easily accessible from a link at
the bottom of any Facebook page. It lets you create your own ads, target your
audience, and set a budget to optimize your returns.

www.facebook.com/advertising

Facebook Developer Resources

For developers interested in building applications for the Facebook platform,
Facebook offers sample documentation and resources. Here you’ll find tools,
script libraries, and forums to help you develop compelling applications.

http://developers.facebook.com

Facebook Marketing Primer

This presentation walks you through the many marketing opportunities available
in Facebook. From building a company presence with a free Facebook
Page to launching an advertising campaign on the self-serve advertising platform
to selling products via its Marketplace, this primer is a straight-forward
overview on how to market your business in the world’s largest social network.

www.slideshare.net/rkrueger/krueger-facebook-marketing

Five Tips for Improving Your Landing Tab

From the popular Facebook blog AllFaceBook.com, Facebook advertisers can
benefit from this helpful guide. As you tap into the micro-targeting advertising
platform, you will want to use tabs to create an effective landing page for
your Facebook audience.

www.allfacebook.com/2009/08/how-to-create-a-landing-tabthat-converts-new-visitors-into-fans/

Five Tips for Optimizing Your Facebook Page

Like a Web site, a Facebook presence is a fundamental tactic for all social
network marketers, and should be on everyone’s list of must haves. But once
you build it, you’ll need a strategy for posting updates as frequently as you
can with interesting content.

www.buzzmarketingfortech.blogspot.com/2009/06/5-tips-foroptimizing-
your-facebook.html

Five Ways Facebook Will Get You Fired

More than half of all employers monitor your computer activities. Find out
the most important ways to protect your online reputation and keep your job
in this helpful eBook.

www.aboutfacedigital.com/blog/2009/08/18/facebook-can-getyou-fired/

Facebook Applications Tracking

Facebook developers and marketers alike can now pay close attention to
which applications are catching on, thanks to Adonomics. This Web site
charts the top performing Facebook applications across several categories


www.adonomics.com


I hope that this post will help you in future managing your own facebook page.
For any question,comment.Thank you

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Riding the Facebook Viral Wave (Creating a Facebook Survey)

Creating a Facebook Survey

Creating and designing a survey is a fine art honed by marketers for years.

So, you do not need to reinvent the wheel since you can find so many

resources to help you. Following are some basics to help you create a winning

survey.

✓ Keep it short. When drafting your survey, you should brainstorm as

many questions as you can to be sure that you cover all the bases. Then

go back over the questions and mark the questions in three categories:

essential, useful, and nice to have. Keep the survey to essential questions

only, and as few of the useful questions as possible.

There is an inverse relationship between the number of questions in

your survey and the number of complete surveys you will receive, so the

shorter the survey the better!

✓ Write down the expected outcome. This trick is critical for helping you

decide whether a question is essential. Try to write the expected press

release headline, such as “Nine out of ten dentists prefer Crest to any

other toothpaste.” It not only helps you qualify the question for inclusion

in the survey, but also gives you a frame of reference to understand

how well you know the audience. If there is a huge gap, you might want

to host a discussion on your Wall about it!

✓ Start with your best question. We say this for two reasons.

1. If you’re going to get some incomplete survey data, then be sure

you get your best question answered up front; don’t save it until

the end of the survey.

2. Start with your most interesting question to draw in the survey

taker. This way you capture their interest and you can move them

toward the harder questions you saved for the end.

✓ Don’t sound like a survey. Try not to sound overly complicated or use

big fluffy words; use simple words that are easy to understand. An example

of overly complicated wording would be, “What is the approximate

frequency of your shopping behavior when it comes to the purchase of

toothpaste?” A better question would be, “How many times did you buy

toothpaste in the last month?”

✓ Keep the choices to a minimum. We recommend no more than five

choices per question. Whether you are ranking an attribute from

not important to highly important or presenting five multiple-choice

options, try to keep the number of choices down so your completed

survey rate goes up!

Facebook Fan Page Survey. SurveyMonkey aplication make it easy

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Strategies for Advertising Success on Facebook

Targeting your audience

Facebook has made it very easy to target your desired audience. In fact,
selecting your target audience is central to the Facebook self-serve platform.
You can target by location, age, relationship status, and interests. You can
even target by language, as Facebook is available in 40 languages with many
more in development.

Targeting your audience is as important as the message itself. Develop personas
to represent your target audience. Learn what they’re interested in —
their educational background, relationship status, and where they live. Reach
only the audience you desire by targeting to meet your specific business’s
ideal customer profile. (See Chapter 5.)
Facebook has focused its advertising strategy around its vast member data,
allowing advertisers to target an audience segment precisely. You can say
that Google’s AdSense is more a question of where your ad is seen, while
Facebook is all about who sees your ad. In fact, Facebook offers advertisers
the ability to reach their exact audience — from a broad demographic, to a
geographic preference, and to a more granular interest.

Facebook advertising is not directly contextual, meaning ads don’t necessarily
correlate to the content being displayed. An advertiser can’t pinpoint where
on the site their ads should appear. Google’s AdSense, on the other hand,
is a contextual-based advertising platform. Google’s text-based ads are tied
directly into the keywords being queried.

Targeting by location

Facebook allows for precise location targeting, based in part on your profile

data and the IP address of the computer you log in with. Most cities in the

U.S., Canada, and the U.K. allow you to add surrounding areas of 10, 25, and

50 miles for advertisers looking to reach specific regional markets, as shown

in Figure 9-6.

Targeting by keywords

Facebook leverages its members’ profile data to allow advertisers to drill

down to specific keywords. These keywords represent a member’s interests.

Topics that users are passionate of, such as their musical tastes, television

preferences, religious views, and other valuable psychographic data , 

can be used to further micro-target your audience. Never before

has there been a mass medium that allows for this kind of precise targeting.

By adding keywords to your targeting, you can reach consumers based on

the interests listed on their profile page.

Facebook Demographic

,

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Google Analytics

Google Analytics is likely to remain one

of the most commonly used tracking programs because:

• Although it is not the most powerful tool available, it provides

access to a wide range of information that most marketers need.

• It integrates seamlessly with Google AdWords.

• Google has the ability to promote its Analytics program very

aggressively.

• It is free.

Because of its extensive use, and because the information it provides

shows up in a fairly similar form in most other tracking programs,

we will be using screen shots and references from Google Analytics

throughout the remainder of this section.

Programs like Google Analytics typically require developers to

include specific lines of code (that the program provides) within

each coded page of a site that the developer wishes to track. Depending

on the tracking program being used, these lines may need to be

installed in a very specifi c place within the code (for example, Google

Analytics requires that developers put the lines of code directly above

the </BODY> at the bottom of the page). Once installed, the tracking

software can begin to gather data and report back regarding site traffic.

Figure 13-1 shows the main screen or dashboard for Google Analytics,

after it has begun to collect data. While users can customize the information

so that data that is most important to them is presented on

the dashboard, the information provided in Google’s initial dashboard

set-up provides a good first glance at what is happening on the site.

Users can drill down deeper into each statistic for more information.

google analytics-user interface

Marketers look at all of the information gathered here and analyze

its meaning, seeking to gain a better understanding of who

is coming to the site, what visitors are doing within the site, and

whether or not the site is doing what is expected of it. In most

cases, the statistics provided by tracking programs only tell part

of the story. In-depth review of all the data can paint a positive or

negative picture that marketers use to make recommendations for

site evolutions.

In next posts you will be informed about tips and updates

from google analytics.

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Popular Web Retention Technique

There are many methods that marketers can utilize to decrease churn
rates and encourage visitors to return often. Each of these methods
requires advanced planning, and often involves numerous people
including writers, designers, and programmers.
It is important to remember, however, that some sites are visited by
a wide variety of people, and it is impossible to please everyone who
comes to a site. This is why it is especially important for marketers to
understand who their audience is. Marketers need to make sure that
the retention techniques they put in place speak directly to their core
demographic to ensure that the most possible people within their
target market come back regularly.
Although there are a number of tools and techniques that marketers
use to bring people back to a site regularly, the keys to increasing
brand loyalty on the Web are the same online as they are offline:
striking the best balance of quality customer service, value, and
product selection. In fact, the features that contribute to saving
the customer time and money and improving the overall shopping
experience rank highest among shoppers in terms of heightening
site loyalty.

Tools and policies that encourage return visits. SOURCE: “Consumer

Loyalty Survey.” DoubleClick Performics, 24 May 2007.

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Viral Campaign

With e-mail making communication between friends, family, and associates as quick and easy as pushing the Forward button, viral

campaigns have become a hot topic in marketing circles.

Viral campaigns are attractive due to their potential for high visibility rates

and their relatively low cost (when compared to other forms of mass media advertising).

In short, a viral campaign is one in which the marketer deliberately creates aspects of the campaign in such a way that the audience will be compelled to pass the message on to others.This is typically done in one of two ways:

• The marketer can offer an incentive to a consumer to pass a message

on to others.Often called a “refer-a-friend” program, marketers who use this tactic will offer existing customers anything from a free t-shirt to reduced rates to cash if they refer a someone to a site who then signs on and becomes a paying customer. The consumer

who passes the word along is happy, because they stand to

profit from passing on the name of a brand to which they already

feel connected. The person who receives the information is comfortable

that the recommendation of the brand is coming from a

trusted, reliable source and not directly from the brand itself. The

brand is happy because they have set the referral price at a reasonable

cost per each new client acquisition.

• The marketer will try to create a marketing piece that can capture

someone’s attention—so much so that they feel compelled to

pass it on if for no other reason than to show it to other people.

Typically, these tend to be videos that are either heavily comedic,

extraordinarily shocking, or both.

According to Jupiter Research, over 60% of all Internet users have

passed along an e-mail to a friend or colleague that they found interesting

or funny. However, with new content infiltrating the Web every

day, marketers are finding it more difficult to capture consumers’

attention and are increasingly pressed to push the envelope to attract

attention.

While the term “viral campaign” refers to any portion of a campaign

that gets passed from one person to another, savvy marketers seek to

create campaigns that are more complex than single, outrageous videos.

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