Fact: social media posts are content. They may be abbreviated and (in some cases) more casual, but they’re content all the same. They’re written to get attention; they can be optimized for search and deliver powerful search signals;  and when done right, they are written and posted with a clear goal in mind — a goal that is directly beneficial to the company.

Just like with content: if your content isn’t beneficial to your company, why write it? If your social media posts don’t do anything of value for your business, why waste your time on it?

Social media is not a random outlet or a sounding point. It is not a place for blind self-promotion. It is a tool, one that should be wielded with care and forethought. Furthermore, content and social must be integrated into one strategy.

After all, without promotion on social media, most content would never be seen at all (for more on propelling promotion of your content, see my last post).

How To Sync Your Content & Your Social Strategy

1. Create a Clear Social Posting Schedule & Integrate It With Your Content Schedule

Plan out your social posts and schedule them regularly. If it seems overwhelming, remember that most networks really only need a minimum of one (quality!) post from you per day.

On Twitter, where you’re expected to post more frequently, you can use tools like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck to schedule tweets for the future. Scheduling your posts in advance also ensures no social network is neglected or forgotten; furthermore, a set schedule will help.

2. Run Your Posts Past Another Person

The same way you’d run content past an editor, it’s a good idea to run the day’s planned social posts past another person — especially if you have a larger social team.

Another person can spot any typos or flag any post that might be controversial (or start an unwanted or distracting debate). If you’re tweeting numerous times a day, obviously this is unrealistic, but you can still ask someone to look over longer posts on Facebook, Google+, or Tumblr.

Remember, a post on social media is the first introduction a reader will have with your content: if it’s littered with typos or does a poor job of showing what the content’s actually about, why should someone click the link to read more?

3. Build Anticipation For Your Content

In addition to doing follow-up tweets the day after (for those who missed the initial content posting), consider doing warm-up posts for your content (a “teaser” photo, a quote from the article, a related reader survey, etc.).

Finally, it should go without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: actually read the content you’re about to share before you share it. Read the whole thing. Otherwise, you won’t be able to answer any questions asked about the content you shared, or worse, you may post an inaccurate synopsis of a post when you share it.

4. Know (And Write For) Your Audience

Tailor your posts to your audience the exact same way you would with your content. Write to that audience. Engage them. Spark discussions. Find out what they respond to. Find out what they want to talk about instead of forcing them to talk about whatever new thing your company is most excited about.

5. Respond To Every Question

Just like you’d answer every comment on your blog, answer every follower. Let no tweet go ignored, no Facebook question unanswered. On Facebook and other social networks, aim for a response within at least within 24 hours (weekends excepted); on Twitter, where users expect a faster turnaround time, aim for an answer within a few hours.

6. Make Your Promotional Posts Social.

You’re sharing on social media — why ignore the social aspect? When you share content on social media on Facebook or Google+, include an interactive tie-in: “What should’ve made the list?” or “Who did we miss?” for list posts; “What do you think?” type questions for controversial posts, etc. You can seize the opportunity to promote your content and start a conversation at the same time. You may even find that people who wouldn’t comment on the site itself are more likely to join in the conversation on social media.

7. No Original Content To Share? Curate!

What do you do when you don’t have original content for your blog? You curate: share a link roundup, share an infographic, post your own take on a controversial article, etc.

So, what should you do when you don’t have original content to share on social media? Curate! Tweet a link, share a picture on Facebook, or share another person’s post on Google+. You’re still adding something meaningful to the discussion (even though you’re not adding something you created).

8. Don’t Be Afraid To Optimize

With the exception of “walled garden” sites like Facebook, your social posts can and will show up in Web searches. A little optimization goes a long way — stick with using a keyword in your Twitter bio or one key phrase in the occasional Google+ post. Remember, the focus in your social strategy should always be humans, not search engines. If a key phrase fits naturally, use it. If not, don’t run the risk of alienating your audience by over-optimizing your posts.

9. Create Clear Goals (And Track Your Progress Accordingly)

Why are you on social media? What do you hope to achieve? Create both short-term (increase customer interaction or site pageviews) goals and long-term objectives (increase customer satisfaction, increase brand awareness). For more information, there’s always my recent post on tracking search and social KPIs.

Content Gets Even More Social: The Rise of Shareable Microcontent

With the rise of microcontent, social and content are becoming more linked than ever before. A photo you post on Facebook can have just as much impact as a blog post. A white paper can be broken down into pieces and shared incrementally on social networks. Content is becoming increasingly fractured and segmented for easy consumption. As this piece on prescription drug abuse indicates, even lengthy pieces of content can be broken down into easily digestible, aesthetically pleasing pieces.

Even big players like Mashable are jumping on board the microcontent platform. The old Mashable design read like a traditional newsfeed, with text-heavy headlines strewn across the page chronologically.

The new Mashable is dynamic, picture-based, and focused on what’s being shared the most. The “What’s Hot” column, a column featuring the most popular stories, shows large, high-resolution pictures along with a quick excerpt from the story. Even without clicking through to read any of the stories, the audience has a pretty good idea of the days’ hottest news.

Furthermore, social sharing is increasingly becoming micro, with startups like Markerly making it possible to share fragments of content (such as a picture on Pinterest or a quote on Twitter) instead of the entire thing. The company claims that 82% of sharing happens through copy and paste, and Markerly aims to make it easier for users to share these copied snippets of content while allowing content creators to track the sharing with clear analytics.

On the other side, it makes it much easier for content curators to share what interests them most, such as the most eye-catching or relevant photo or a segment from a much longer article that applies to them.

Let’s face it: your audience’s attention spans aren’t getting any longer. Microcontent isn’t a new trend or a fad. It’s the future. Making your content more social and making your social posts more like content are a win for your entire business — both your content and your social strategies.

While great content and choice of topics were largely responsible for the success of these columns, a solid promotion strategy is the other large part of the equation. So, I wanted to share with you how I market the content I write.

One of the biggest things I see new content writers struggle with is the promotion of their own content online. There’s a definite line between helping your content get off the ground and shameless self-promotion.

Unfortunately, that line can get pretty thin when you’re promoting your own content. How many shares is too many shares? How many tweets are appropriate and how many are spam? In short: how do you promote your own content to the best of your ability without turning off your audience?

Let’s get this out of the way first: sharing your own content is not shameful. It is a necessity. You are the only one who’s going to do the heavy lifting for your own content, and it’s up to you to pull your own weight.

In order for someone to share your hard work, that someone has to see it in the first place — and many times, the first person to share your article is someone who’s seen it on the author’s own page or profile. It’s up to you to get the ball rolling — but you can’t steamroll your entire audience in the process.

How I Encourage Sharing on My Search Engine Land Posts

I certainly don’t claim to be the end-all-beat-all expert of social sharing; nor am I claiming my method is the best (I’m sure it isn’t). But it does work for me, and I don’t think my methods are particularly spammy (at the very least, no one’s ever complained).

I do think it’s useful — particularly for new writers — to see what’s working for someone else.  So without further ado, here is my 9-step program for propelling content sharing for my own articles.

Step 1: Show Appreciation For Social Shares

On Facebook and Google+, I watch my posts get shared continuously throughout the day and “like” or  +1 each post someone has shared either from me or from the SEL page. Of course, you could also do this on Twitter by favoriting tweets that share your post, but know that this can quickly get exhausting if there are a high number of tweets for your article.

Step 2: Submit to Like-Minded Communities

I submit my articles on Inbound.org and SERPd.com, two great sharing and “social voting” communities for my niche (Note that while this is a great way to get discussion going amongst SEO/marketing communities, it’s frowned upon to only post your own articles on these sites).

Look for sites and directories in your niche or industry, as you’ll be already sharing with a targeted (interested) audience. Other sites I know others use include Blokube.com, Bizsugar.com, Blogengage.com, MySEOcommunity.com, and IMNewsWatch.com. Find what works best for you and stay actively engaged on the site.

Step 3: Share on Delicious and StumbleUpon

Even though SEL doesn’t have Delicious buttons, I still head over and submit it there, where my posts generally pick up a few saves. Additionally, I thumb my content on StumbleUpon if someone has submitted it; after a day or two, if no one has submitted it, I’ll go ahead and submit it myself. (Again, it’s generally bad form to submit your own stuff all the time; if you’re going to be submitting every article, every time, at least make a genuine effort to curate and submit others’ work that you found particularly useful or interesting.)

Though I don’t do it routinely, it’s also helpful to submit your post to relevant subreddits (SEOSocial, Linkbuilding, SEO, etc.).

Step 4: Indicate Authorship When Tweeting; Follow Up Later On Twitter

I do tweet articles by others on Twitter, so when I tweet my own posts I make sure to note how it’s “my latest post” or “by me.” This generally causes more interest and clicks than a standard “link-and-share” tweet.

After a day, I’ll go back and retweet Search Engine Land’s original tweet about my post to hopefully catch some second-day traffic from people who haven’t seen it yet.

Step 5: Thank Others Who Share

I always make it a point to directly thank key people who’ve shared my article. They’re indirectly endorsing you by sharing your work and they’re sharing your post with an audience different (and possibly bigger) than your own. Thanking them directly lets them know you appreciate what they’ve done, which, in turn, makes them more willing to do it again in the future.

Step 6: Share on LinkedIn and LinkedIn Groups

I share every post on LinkedIn, and I also try to belong to a large number of search and social-related groups so I can utilize LinkedIn’s “Share to Groups” feature.

Step 7: Share Publicly on Google+

When I link or +1 on G+, I always make sure the privacy level is set to “Public” so others can see and share as well. I also have a large “Internet Marketers” circle that I share articles with directly.

If it’s an article I’m 100% confident that the recipient will find useful, I’ll use Google+’s “email to user” feature. However, this feature should be used sparingly, as it gets annoyingly spammy if used frequently. Save it for your absolute best work.

Step 8: Take Advantage of G+ Ripples

I use Google+’s Ripples feature to see where my post has been shared on the network (and thank/follow up accordingly). Note that Ripples only shares public shares, so if someone shares only with one particular circle it won’t show up on the Ripples display. Though it’s not a complete picture, the feature still gives you a good sense of your post’s activity on G+.

Step 9: Use Disqus to Vote/Promote Discussion

This one is simple (it takes seconds to do), but it’s one many people forget: I star each post on Disqus and upvote each submitted comment.

General Guidelines for Sharing

• Whether  you borrow one or all nine of these techniques, it’s important to find what works for you. Try out a few different communities, experiment with sharing times (do you get more retweets at 11 a.m. than 9? When are most of your key sharers active on G+?), and play around with where you share.
• No one likes a spammer. Don’t be one. Don’t tweet your link eight times a day. Don’t hammer everyone’s Facebook news feeds with hourly postings about your article. That’s not responsible social sharing. That’s being obnoxious. Stop it.
• In real life and in social sharing, one-sided conversations are useless. Share what you think is useful from others; if your Twitter feed is a nonstop parade of your own links, why shouldn’t others follow your lead and only share their own content? Why should they bother sharing anything you write if you don’t share anyone else’s?
• If you’re afraid to post something on a social profile because it’s “not good enough,” you shouldn’t have written it in the first place. The easiest way to feel good about promoting your content is to be proud of it in the first place.

Join in and help another writer: these are the methods that works for me; what works for you? What do you do to propel sharing for your own content? What’s proven to be most effective? What doesn’t work for you? Share your own sharing tricks and tips in the comments.

How do you know that all those hours and/or wages aren’t being wasted?

How do you know you’re getting positive results?

At the end of the day, how do you know what you’re doing is worth it?

Answer: you don’t!

Measuring your SEO/social media successes and failures are the only way to improve — and to confirm that your strategies are helping your business move forward.

And here’s where so many of you will answer: “But we are measuring! We do have goals! We’re getting more retweets with every tweet and our site hits are increasing every day. We’re improving!”

That’s great. Really. But at the end of the day, does it really matter if those 10,000 followers or site visitors aren’t doing anything of actual value for their business? Are they helping you increase revenue? Lower costs? Increase customer satisfaction?

If you answered yes… how do you know?

Again: you don’t. Unless you’ve got real data and a comprehensive plan — complete with concrete evidence as to how your strategies are helping you grow.

Getting more followers, fans, search engine traffic, retweets, and subscribers can be an important part of your strategy; but, to see the big picture — how all those things are supporting your business — you’ve got to widen your scope.

Everything You Do Should Reflect Your Company’s Overall Mission

As Angie Schottmuller points out in her excellent guide to defining a strategic social media strategy, you should start developing your goals based on your company’s overall vision and work down from there.

Everything you do in social media — and SEO, too — should fit under the umbrella of your business mission. Some examples of potential goals might be:

• Increase brand awareness
• Increase brand trust
• Increase brand loyalty
• Shorten the sales funnel
• Generate more leads/create a new lead generation channel
• Facilitate (or ease) customer support: either by reducing support-related emails or calls or to provide another outlet for support
• Increase customer satisfaction and/or interaction
• Understand user behavior
• Sell services/products

For more on developing overall goals, I highly recommend the aforementioned Social Media ROI: How to Define a Strategic Plan, as well as Lisa Barone’s A Call for Smarter Social Media Marketing.

Search/Social KPIs To Track

Now that you’ve developed your goals, it’s time to pick tactics that will help you achieve those Objective and Key Results (OKRs) — as well as finding Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to help you measure your successes.

Note: A lot of these KPIs are from Social Media Analytics by Marshall Sponder. When applicable, I’ve provided equations for finding more complicated percentages.

1.  Monitoring Search Engine Traffic

KPIs:

• Percentage of visits from search engines
• Percentage of conversions from search engine visitors

2.  Monitoring Visitor Engagement with Website

KPIs:

• Percentage of visitors that leave a comment
• Percentage of visitors that share/vote on social media
• Conversation rate:

(Number of comments)

÷

(Number of pieces of content)

• Percentage   of visitors that click to take action or click on CTA (Call to Action) link
• Average time on site per visit
• Average page depth ( the average amount of pages a visitor sees during a session on your site) per visit
• Number of engaged visits:

(Total number of engagements)

÷

(Total number of visits)

3.  Monitoring User Experience on Website

KPIs:

• Percentage of visits that bounce (single-page visits)
• Percentage of internal site searches that produce zero results
• Percentage of users waiting longer than 3 seconds for a page to load
• Bounce rate of a certain page (page X, in the following equation):

[Number of single page visits with zero actions (page X)]

÷

[Number of entry page visits (page X)] 

4.  Monitoring the Number of Visitors Donating/Purchasing

KPIs:

• Percentage of visitors donating/purchasing
• Percentage of visitors that visit a donation/purchase cart page

5.  Monitoring Brand Engagement

KPIs:

• Percentage of brand engagement:

(Number of visits with branded search times + Number of direct visits)

÷

(Number of visits from search engines + Number of direct visits)

6.  Monitoring Social Engagement

KPIs:

• Number of social actions per page:

(Total number of social actions)

÷

(Number of pages on site with buttons)

• Ratio of social actions to community size (Example: Number of page tweets per 1,000 followers; Number of shares per 1,000 Facebook fans, etc.)

7.  Monitoring Users’ Site Search Experience

KPIs:

• Percentage of visits that use site search
• Average number of search results viewed per search
• Percentage of people exiting the site after viewing search results
• Percentage of people conducting multiple searches during their visit (excluding multiple searches for the same keyword)
• Average time on site for a visit following a search
• Average number of pages visitors view after performing a search

8.  Monitoring On-Site Videos

KPIs:

• Number of visitors who watched
• When visitors stop video (Find the code here: http://www.bluefountainmedia.com/blog/track-youtube-player-events-google-analytics/ )
• Percentage of page visitors that played video
• Percentage of page visitors that completed video play

9.  Other Partial KPIs to Track

• Number of site visits with over X page views
• Number of site visits over X minutes/seconds
• Number of visitors that reached donation/purchase/lead page

Other Analytics Tools

Google Analytics is still the greatest tool in your arsenal, but a few other sites and tools are worth looking into:

1. Social Media Metrics plugin for Greasemonkey: shows you a comprehensive list of all your social shares in Google Analytics
2. RetweetRank: shows how often you get retweeted
3. YouTube Insight: in-site analytics that tracks your videos’ popularity, views, and more
4. ShareThis: provides visitors with an easy way to share your content; also integrates with Google Analytics to show you which social channels are the most successful/popular with sharers on your site
5. Reachli (formerly Pinerly) and Pinpuff: shows analytics reports for your Pinterest account. Pinerly also lets you create “campaigns” with selected pins and then compare different campaigns over time

At the end of the day, you should not be on social media because, quote, “every business needs to have a social media presence.” You should not be focusing all your efforts on getting to #1 in the SERPs if none of your site visitors ever buy anything.

Put the pieces together. Look at the big picture; look at how each of your strategies benefit your business as a whole. Start measuring, and you’ll start connecting the dots.

At the very least, you’ll have something real to say when someone asks you why you do SEO/social media marketing–something besides “well, everyone else was doing it.”

Image from Shutterstock.com, used under license.

So, if they’re so useful, why do so few sites utilize them? For the same reason that custom variables (CVs) are so powerful: they’re infinitely customizable. In other words: there is no one-size-fits-all variable.

It doesn’t come equipped straight out of the gate; additional assembly is required. You’ll need to set it up yourself to match your site’s audience and goals — which means, of course, that you’ll be rewarded with data uniquely tailored to your site’s audience and goals.

It’s frustrating to see such a powerful tool seem so neglected. Though “How to Use Custom Variables” articles abound, there’s a serious shortage of “How We Use Custom Variables” articles, and concrete examples of CVs in use can be hard to come by.

In the spirit of sparking more discussion on the topic, let’s take a look at some of the potential benefits CVs can bring to your site.

Things To Remember When Using Custom Variables

I don’t want to devote a lot of time to the inner workings of Google Analytics custom variables — for that, there’s Google’s own guide, the three-part Lunametrics guide (which starts here), and countless others.

But as a brief refresher course, Google Analytics is already equipped to track a number of useful information on your site: visitor locations, referrals, keywords, social/event tracking, etc. These are relatively easy-to-use and immensely helpful, but this one-size-fits-all-sites approach can’t answer specific questions or track site-specific groups, pages, or activity. For that, there are custom variables.

Custom variables generally operate on three levels, or scopes: Visitor, Session, and Activity.

1. Visitor: A specific client (visitor) on a specific browser/device. This will stay active throughout each of a client’s visits to your site (unless the client clears its cookies).
2. Session: Stays active for the period of time a visitor is on your site.
3. Page: Tracks a certain activity on a certain page.

Standard (free) Google Analytics users only have five slots for custom variables. This allows plenty of room for customization, but it does limit how much you can measure: users must choose what’s absolutely essential. Premium users, however, have a whopping 50 slots to play with.

Finally, remember that you can only apply a custom variable if the user actively does something on your site. Google is not psychic, and Analytics will not tell you if a user is male or female: they would have to check a box, fill out a form, or click a link identifying  themselves as such.

Breaking Down The Data

“…If you simply sit and ponder for a few minutes it will be clear that your website exists to do many different jobs and people come to your website to accomplish many different goals. So why analyze your data as one big ugly glob?” -Avinash Kanshik, The Choice is Stark—Segment or Die!

Any site — from huge e-commerce sites to a one-man blog — can benefit from more-customized data analysis because it allows you to better understand your audience. Here are some possibilities of what you could be tracking on your site using CVs.

Social/Content Variables To Track

1.  Users who Share via a Social Button

Though you can use Event Tracking to track a single click of a social button, you can’t track the users who clicked that button. Find out: which articles are the social sharers drawn to? Are social sharers more likely to buy or become premium members?

Tracking these social sharers can help you refine your social strategy in the long run; as you find out more about their habits and preferences, you can increasingly tailor your social activity to that audience.

2.  Which content does the best on Social Networks?

Which pages have the highest social activity overall (a combination of Google+, Twitter, Facebook, etc.)? CVs also allow you to track categories as a whole, so you can see how one section on your site compares to another (i.e., Tutorials vs. News; Music vs. Movies; iPod accessories vs. Macbook accessories vs. iPad accessories vs… etc.).

If one category does better on Facebook, for example, you may want to share that category more often on your Facebook fan page.

3.  New Users vs. Returning users on Social Networks

Who’s sharing your content — the same five loyal sharers, or a mix of returning and new users? Are people who are logged into your site more likely to share on social networks than standard visitors?

4.  Commenters

Similarly, who comments on your site? Have they commented in the past? Do they comment on multiple posts per visit? Are return visitors more likely to comment than new users? Likewise, are commenters more likely to come back?

5.  Subscribers

Custom variables allow you to track users who’ve subscribed to your RSS feed and/or your email newsletter. How do they interact with your site differently from non-subscribers? Are they more likely to browse around? Are they more likely to purchase?

6.  Which authors are the most successful?

Custom variables allow you to instantly compare author performance on your blog. Which writers are driving the most comments? Which get the most shares? Which have the highest number of pageviews? CVs make it easy to track performance and offer performance incentives.

This isn’t only important with your in-house writers — as Rob Millard recently pointed out on SEOmoz, you can use it to evaluate your freelancers’ performance or find out which guest bloggers are consistently successful (and thus might be worth offering a permanent position).

7.  Track your promotional/sales codes

Which bring you more sales: an exclusive Facebook promotional code or a public sales announcement you made on Twitter? How much, on average, do people buy with each code? Which are used the most?

8.  Post Year (or Post Month)

Analyze your blog traffic by post year to find out which years were the most successful times for your blog. For a more in-depth look, organize them by month + year. Which months still bring traffic? Which types of old content remains evergreen? Which brought all-time highs? And how can you repeat past months’ success?

Search Variables

9.  Who’s using your internal search?

Do they find what they’re looking for quickly or do they leave without buying anything? Must they perform several searches before they make a final purchase? How often does an internal search lead to a sale?

10.  Track ranking keywords based on location

 John Doherty and Michael King report that not only can you track keyword rankings via CVs, but you can also break down ranking keywords based on international location as well.

Variables To Help You Find Out More About Your Audience

Though not traditionally search or social, these variables can do wonders in informing future campaigns. A group of female Facebook users won’t act the same as a group of males who are members of your sites, and the 60+ demographic will use your site differently than the 18-25 age group. Use these stats to tailor your social media and SEO strategies to your site’s individual demographics.

11.  Gender

This is one of the biggies for any site owner. Men and women behave very differently online in nearly every activity, from shopping to social media. Tracking how the genders are interacting with your site will help you understand what both men and women want from you and your company.

12.  Age

Similarly, figuring out a visitor’s age (by asking for their birthday or having them identify themselves as a certain age group) is an important factor in figuring out your audience. Which areas of your site are hits with certain age groups?

The data may surprise you: though you thought your target age range was 35 to 50-year-old women, your blog may be a surprise hit with the 25-to-35 crowd. Likewise, you can discover what topics are turning certain age groups away or what products are a flop with your biggest-selling age group.

13.  Repeat Customers

Creating a CV that tracks both new (0 prior sales), returning (1-2) and loyal (3 or more) customers to help you understand what’s bringing you new customers — as well as what’s bringing them back.

14.  Membership Level

Who’s a registered member and who’s a premium member? How do site members interact with your site differently from non-members? What social posts or content brings the most membership conversions?

I think these ideas are just the tip of the iceberg — there’s a whole world of potential uses for custom variables we just haven’t explored (or reported on yet).

So I’m curious: what do you use Google Analytics custom variables for? Which have been the most successful? What have you learned from tracking your results?

For more information (including specific coding for many of these custom variables), check out these excellent resources:

1. Analytics Talk: Mastering Google Analytics Custom Variables
2. Lunametrics: 20 Ways to Use Google Analytics Custom Variables
3. TechPad: 16 Interesting Ways to Use Google Analytics Custom Variables
4. Who Writes the Most Popular Content on Your Blog?
5. Getting Rankings Into GA Using Custom Variables

Sticky sites — engaging, well-designed sites that visitors find irresistibly hard to leave — offer dozens of benefits for your business and sales, including:

• A lowered bounce rate (because visitors stick around longer)
• Increased brand understanding and awareness (users learn more about you while browsing your site, and thus feel more comfortable investing/subscribing in your brand)
• Higher traffic and increased social shares (more eyes on more content = higher chance of sharing = more referral traffic from shares)
• Increased chance of conversions (more interaction = more opportunities/more incentive to subscribe, follow, like, etc.)

Sounds simple, right? Make your site sticky, and you’ll make your audience stick around for longer. However, with the advent of social media, our sales funnels have become wildly more complicated. Where we used to follow a pretty straightforward path, which began with a Google search and ended with a purchase, we now begin courting customers much earlier in the buying process.

In fact, it’s now become customary for businesses to use social media for brand outreach and awareness. Our social media fans and followers aren’t necessarily past customers or committed future buyers, but they are invested, engaged, and aware of our brand. And the more we can keep them engaged and active with our company, the better chance we’ll have of netting a sale (or accumulating shares that cause other sales).

So now we have two vastly different entrances into our sales funnels: a keyword-based entrance that begins with a targeted organic search, and a social-based one that begins with a click on a social network.

As a result, we have two different audiences with very different goals — and our sites need to be equipped to “stick” both audiences.

The Difference Between Search & Social Users

To illustrate the differences between the two audiences, let’s take a look at two very different potential customers: one searcher, and one social media user.

The Google Searcher

The Gateway: Jordan has finally worn out his favorite pair of skate shoes, and he’s in the market for a new pair. A quick Google search for “Vegan Shoes for Men” lands him at your site.

Looking To Buy: Jordan is at your footwear e-commerce site for one reason: he wants to make a purchase. He’s not necessarily looking to read your blog about skateboard fashion trends or follow your Twitter account to stay updated on the latest footwear sales. Jordan is looking to buy, and your site had better make it easy for him to find what he’s looking for.

Sealing The Deal: Your site looks professional. Your front page makes it clear you specialize equally in both men’s and women’s ethical footwear, and your navigational menus are prominently displayed. So Jordan hovers over your men’s menu, finds Vegan, and clicks Skate Shoes. He selects his size (11) and color (black). He chooses his price range and his favorite style, and within a few minutes of his initial Google search, Jordan is ready to make a selection on his ideal pair. Whether he does further research or pulls the trigger today, Jordan’s all set to add his new skate shoes to his shopping cart.

The Takeaway: Thanks to your professional site design (that made Jordan feel comfortable spending money at your site), your easy-to-navigate layout, and your handy search filters, your site made it easy for Jordan to find what he was looking for. As a result, he stayed on your site (instead of heading back to the SERPs), found his purchase, and is ready for the sale.

The Social Media User

The Gateway: Jean sees a post about a fall faux-leather boot sale on Facebook from one of her friends. The boots look great, ethically made, and the price looks even better, so she clicks the link and arrives at your site.

Looking To Browse: Unlike Jordan, who was looking to make a specific purchase, Jean isn’t necessarily looking to buy a pair of boots today. She’s more interested in browsing the sale; if she finds a pair she likes at an awesome price, she might buy — then again, she might not. How long she hangs around to browse depends on how comfortable you make her feel.

Sealing The Deal: Jean doesn’t see any boots that catch her eye, so she’s ready to leave — until she sees a blog post on runway footwear trends for fall. She clicks. Jean pins a few featured boots on Pinterest and sees that your site also has a Pinterest account. She follows.

Later, Jean sees a pin for another sale — and that Facebook fans get an additional 10% off. She Likes your site on Facebook, which causes her sister Grace to check out the site, who actually buys that pair of snow boots she’s been meaning to buy.

The Takeaway: Your site gave Jean plenty of ways to interact with the site, from your products to your content to your social media profiles. You kept Jean engaged — and though she’s yet to buy a single thing from your site, she still caused a sale. Better yet, Jean still remains actively connected to your brand.

Direct Vs. Indirect, Buy Vs. Browse

In most cases, search traffic is very direct: a user comes to your site looking for something in particular. More often than not, they’re searching with the (eventual or immediate) urge to buy.

Social, on the other hand, is indirect: curiosity brought them in, and only curiosity will make them hang around. They’re just browsing to see what you have to offer, be it products, blog posts, or services. They’re a low-attention-span audience with no real reason to stick around, but with a little incentive (useful content, the promise of a giveaway or sale), they can be persuaded to stay connected.

Of course, there’s no harm in a little crossover, either. A searcher can easily be lured into a Facebook Like or a Twitter Follow at the promise of future sales; on the flip side, a site from a Google Reader subscription or a Google+ Circle can leap to the top of the SERPs for a social media user.

Whether indirectly or directly, both audiences are valuable sources for conversions, sales, lower bounce rates, increased social shares, etc. So, your goal as a site owner, then, is to create a professional, easy-to-navigate site that persuades both of these users to hang around.

Step One: Focus On Your Site Design

No matter if your visitors are social media or search users, your site design is your first line of defense against a high bounce rate. Your site design is the first impression you’ll make with your audience, and that site needs to be:

1. Professional. With very few exceptions, having a professional site generally means having a professional design it. If you want your audience to commit to returning to your site, you’ve got to show them they’re in good (professional) hands. A commitment to a professional, sleek design will lead to further commitment from your audience.
2. Easy-To-Navigate, Easy-To-Use. For the search crowd, this means having an easy-to-navigate site with prominent menu options and an effective in-site search function. The social crowd should be attracted to these key features on your site: sales, promotions, popular blog posts, etc.
3. Welcoming. Your home page should function as a start here page: an introduction that eases your customers into what you’re all about. They should be presented with a number of options for further exploration, but they shouldn’t be bombarded with thousands of links or features.
4. Personalized. We’ve come a long way since the days of sales-brochure websites. Your website shouldn’t look like every other site out there; rather, your audience should be able to instantly get a sense of what makes you different from your competitors.
5. Unique (And Definitely Not Boring). Stop worrying about offending everyone’s taste or sensibilities with your tame, bland-as-beige site. You have a target audience, don’t you? Why not play to that audience and design for what that audience would respond to? Show them something different, eye-catching, unique, bold… If you catch their eye with your design, you have a better chance of catching their eye with your products.

Your website should feel like something your audience will want to spend time in. As Barry Feldman writes in Your Website is Your Mousetrap and Your Content is the [Soy] Cheese:

“…Visitors should be saying to themselves, ‘I should go here,’ and, ‘I like it here.’

Make your users feel at home on your website. Decorate it accordingly. Don’t make it too busy. Show them around. Offer them assurance and invite them to get involved. Ask them questions. Answer them. Give them treats. Ask them to come back often, and tell them to invite their friends.”

Treat your audience like welcomed guests and care for their needs, and they’ll come back. It’s as simple as that.

Wooing The Social Crowd

Don’t underestimate the power of winning over social media users: Americans spend three times as much time on social media than email, according to a Nielsen report. What’s more, 70% of social media users shop online — 12 percent more than the average adult.

Here are some tips on wooing that flighty, low-attention-span social crowd:

1. Make it easy to find and follow you. First and foremost, you’ll need your social icons to be prominently displayed on your site, so potential social joiners can easily find and follow your accounts (bonus points if they’re prominent and uniquely integrated into your design).
2. Let your audience get lost in your content. Ever go to a site to read one article and, an hour later, you find you’re still on the same site? These sites have an Alice-in-Wonderland rabbit hole effect: once you get sucked in, it’s infinitely harder to leave (just one more Buzzfeed/Cracked.com/The Oatmeal/The Onion article…). The key factor here is to stock your site with well-written, engaging, must-read/must-see content. Without it, your audience won’t care enough to read more. However, it’s also crucial to provide plenty of rabbit holes to fall down: link internally to further related content, offer up your most popular posts, etc. With every link your audience clicks, you want them to tempt them with further links to keep them reading — and sticking to — your site.
3. Optimize your site for browsing. Social browsers don’t always have a set purchase or focus in mind (they’re the customers who say I’m just browsing to the sales clerks in brick-and-mortar stores). They may not painstakingly root through your virtual sales racks piece-by-piece, but they still want to get a sampling of what you’re about. Make it easy for them to browse at their leisure. Instead of posting 1-3 entire blog posts on your blog’s home page, list multiple posts in one-paragraph excerpts that allow readers to choose what they’d like to read. Offer a Bestsellers or All-Time Best Posts feature that showcases some of your most popular products and posts, or add a New Products section that shows off some new arrivals.
4. Freshness matters. Social media users love fresh, topical content — and so do successful social media strategists. Each piece of (relevant, timely) new content brings a new opportunity to bring people into your site. Social media is strongly rooted in the here and now, so capitalize on news stories, latest trends, or hot topics to get the conversation going.
5. Give non-fans something to miss out on. There’s nothing shoppers hate more than a missed opportunity. Social media promotions, giveaways, and fan-only sales create a feeling of exclusivity: if I don’t Like them on Facebook, I might miss a sale. Give back to your community on social media, and you’ll be rewarded with a much more active, invested (and larger) community.

Finally: Measure − and Deliver − What Your Customers Are Looking For

If you want to make your site stickier, you’ve got to find out what’s already making your customers stick. What keywords are bringing searchers to your site? If it’s a question, develop a multi-part blog series answering that question.

If a product is bringing in ten times more traffic than usual this week, feature it prominently on your site. Similarly, what features are bringing in the most social referrals? What posts or promotions cause the most increase in followers or fans?

Make your audience feel welcome. Make it easy for them to get around. Find out what they want and need, and then offer it. Make your audience want to stick around — it’s the only way to make a truly sticky site.

Image used under license, courtesy of Shutterstock.com

I understand this. I sympathize with this. What I don’t understand, however, is why so many businesses try to take the cheap route and cut corners in their online strategy— and then are dumbfounded when they get scammed/receive terrible results/get blocked by Google.

I know how devastatingly costly it can be to launch, maintain, and grow a business. But there are certain aspects of building a business where it’s never okay to cut corners. You wouldn’t hire an inexperienced, too-cheap contractor to build the building. You wouldn’t buy discounted, bruised produce if you owned a restaurant and you wouldn’t buy day-old bread for your sandwich shop.

So why would you trust your website and your online reputation— the very first introduction your customers will have with your business — to an inexperienced amateur or a too-cheap scammer?

In life and online, you get what you pay for. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: solid, successful SEO and social strategies take time. Time is money. Try to save a few dollars now by hiring a cheap, inexperienced, or shoddy “professional” and you’ll guaranteedly pay for it later.

Still not buying it? Here’s a look at what suffers when you try to cut corners (or hire someone that cuts them for you).

Image Credit: ByronShell via Flickr

What Happens When You Try to Take the Cheap Route

1.  What You Pay For: Cheap links or linkbuilding campaigns.

What You Get: Google Penguin.

Google hates link spam. Google punishes link spam. In fact, Google punishes anything that even looks like link spam. On April 24th, Google unleashed Google Penguin, an anti-spam algorithm update that affected roughly three percent of queries. All controversy about the effectiveness about the update aside, Penguin proved that Google is actively going after sites with spam, and its history of shutting down link networks and blog networks further proves the point.

Buying links is the overt way to take the cheap-and-easy route in linkbuilding (and scheming link builders abound), but it’s not the only one. As I’ve written before, linkbuilding takes time. Connections aren’t forged overnight, and anyone who promises you major results overnight is a liar.

An experienced SEO may have a well-established network of connections to start a linkbuilding campaign, but you’ll pay for those connections. A bottom-barrel hourly rate is a surefire way to indicate shortcuts (buying links) or inexperience (laughable outreach emails).

Believe it or not, inexperience can be just as dangerous as a linkbuilder who overtly cheats the search engines, since an amateur “SEO” may have no idea what he’s doing looks like link spam to the search engines.

Don’t buy your links. Don’t fall for miracle-worker pitches, and be prepared to pay a decent price for a linkbuilding campaign. It’s the only way to ensure you’ll get results—real results that won’t get your site banned.

2. What You Pay For: Cheap Content.

What You Get: Google Panda

Google Panda probably needs no introduction, but I’ll give it one anyway: Panda was the major algorithm update from February 2011 that forced content farms into near-extinction. The age of cheap, shoddily-written content was over, and Google reminded us that not just any content could be king: only usable, quality (not keyword-stuffed) content could reign in the post-Panda wake.

But let’s take this a step beyond the obvious you-won’t-rank-well-with-terrible-content factor: cheap content does nothing for your business. Effective strategists use content to move people, to communicate, to grab attention, etc. Quality content compels: compels people to share, compels people to comment, compels people to buy.

Cheap, poorly-made content does nothing. It sits on a page, waiting to attract searchers (who, 9 times out of 10, will immediately get turned off by the content and return to the SERPs in seconds), and gets websites dinged by Google.

Hire a real blogger, writer, designer, videographer, professional. Look at their portfolio and really look at what they’ve done before (and if they don’t have a portfolio, run). If you’re going to put content on your site, it should be every bit as good as the site itself.

3. What You Pay For: Cheap Web Design and Development.

What You Get: Errors. Security vulnerabilities. Poor conversion rates. And, often, a pretty terrible-looking site.

Yes, you could pay somebody $50 to make you a website. And it will suck.

There are many amateurs out there who can slap together a GoDaddy-hosted site and make it look reasonably attractive (and millions more who can make an ugly one). But aesthetics aside, you don’t just need a site that looks pretty—you need one that functions.

Ask your developer how your site will be able to grow in the future. Ask if they know SEO (they should). Ask to see what sites they’ve designed in the past, and find out what hurdles they had to overcome when developing them. Ask what steps they’re going to take to increase conversion and lead your customers down the sales funnel.

Your website is the first impression you will make on potential customers. It’s also an extension of your physical business: it can take payments, answer questions, and show off your products and services like a virtual shop window.

With all the business your website can bring you, why leave it to an amateur that can develop a site that a.) crashes constantly, hurting your reputation; b.) confuses customers; c.) has little potential for growth?

Choose a Web professional that will stick around for the long haul: when it’s time to update or increase your site, you’ll want to return to the person who did an amazing job building it in the first place.

4. What You Pay For: Cheap SEO.

What You Get: Over-optimization, black hat tactics, zero results.

Professional SEOs are expensive. Like a lawyer or an accountant, they perform a function which most businesses need to exist but one that’s hard for most people to understand. They speak their own language, and they’ve built a reputation and results after years in the field.

If you want results, you will have to pay for them. And they will not come overnight.

When you hire an SEO (or social media marketer, linkbuilder, etc.), you are trusting them with your site and your online reputation. If you are not 100% clear on what they’re doing, you’ll have no guarantee they’re not doing something that could get your site penalized.

If they don’t stay updated on the world of SEO, they could be practicing outdated tactics that can get your site dinged for over-optimization. And if they can’t (or don’t know how) to measure their progress, you’ll have no idea if your SEO budget is actually doing anything for your site.

5. What You Pay For: Cheap Social Media Marketing and Management.

What You Get: Banned accounts and unauthentic results.

Social media may be free, but the hours spent managing your social accounts certainly come at a price. Any so-called social media guru should be advertising their people skills, marketing knowledge, and past experience running active accounts.

They should not be promising you hard-and-fast numbers of followers or fans. It’s one thing to promise to boost your numbers. It’s another thing to promise you 5,000 followers overnight.

Social media is built on relationships: showing your customers a different side of you, answering questions, getting feedback, and addressing complaints. You need someone who won’t just tweet three times a day (you could do that yourself, with considerably better results).

A talented social media manager will match your brand’s voice and build campaigns with clear goals— and that goal won’t be to simply nab you random followers or fans. It’s to build an audience based on people that will help your business grow. And they should be able to show you (in real numbers) how your social presence is helping your business.

You could hire an inexperienced college grad with 50 Twitter followers. You could hire someone who’s just going to boost your numbers with known follow-back accounts and accrue thousands of useless followers. Or you could  actually hire someone who knows what they’re doing—and actually see results.

There Are No Shortcuts. Period.

I don’t know if it’s hilarious or saddening that so many people fall for scams and get-rich-quick schemes from amateurs. I don’t know how many times I’ll have to keep exasperatedly saying, “There is no such thing as cheap SEO.” Because there isn’t.

No matter what low price you pay for Web design, SEO, or social media up front, you will wind up paying later on. Your site will get penalized. Your accounts will get blocked. And you will have to spend the time in the long run: whether it’s countless hours spent explaining things to a newbie, fixing a so-called “professional’s” mistakes, or working to recover your reputation, in the end, those pennies saved will cost you all the same.

So here’s a hint, a final plea, a last bit of advice: there are no shortcuts. Anyone who offers you one is a cheat, a liar, a scammer, or someone that has absolutely no idea what they’re talking about. It’s your choice: hire someone who knows what they’re doing and will take the time to do it right, or pay for it later. Either way, you will get what you paid for. To that end, paying more money does not necessarily mean you’ll get better results either. I’ve seen many expensive agencies offer awful services for your dollar, too. The same rules apply.

Google+ Local has the potential to be everything this column is about: the intersection of search (indexed local search listings) and social (integrated Google+ business pages).

It’s a major update from the number-one player in the local search game: 97% of consumers say they research local businesses before making a decision, and Google is still the undisputed king when it comes to local search.

In theory, Google+ Local is nearly everything a small business owner could want: a place where businesses can easily get found by new customers, interact with existing customers, and promote their business at the same time. It’s an SEO, customer service, and marketing tool all rolled into one site.

In practice, however, G+ Local can be glitchy, unreliable, and confusing for both business owners and consumers. So two months later, it’s time to ask: is G+ Local really helping Google push G+?  And more importantly: is it really helping small businesses?

What Google+ Local Brought To The Table

Most significant of all the changes is probably the switch from a five-star rating to a scoring system from Zagat, which Google acquired last year. For the uninitiated, here’s a quick video of Zagat’s main features, straight from Google themselves:

Google+ Local: Decide with Zagat

In a nutshell, here are the basic changes introduced with Google+ Local:

• Instead of the old one-size-fits-all general star rating, reviewers are now asked to rate local businesses from 0-3 in several different categories (restaurants, for example, are ranked in three different areas: decor, service, and food). The reviews are then averaged and multiplied by ten, giving the restaurant a score on a 30-point scale.
• Users can filter results in four new ways: Top Reviewers, People Like You, Just For You, and Your Circles.
• The reviews from people in your circles can now show up in both Google web searches and Google Maps. They’ll also be highlighted in G+ results.
• Each page got a visual makeover, with an easier-to-navigate layout and featured pictures.
• G+ Local pages are now indexed by Google.

Google also promised eventual integration with existing G+ pages, meaning a company’s G+ posts, company information, and customer reviews can all be found in the same place. See early-release pages like Chicago Music Exchange or Delfina Restaurant for a better idea of what this should look like.

Google+ Local: In Theory

In theory, Google+ Local’s new features sound pretty good. Here’s why:

1.  Zagat Reviews and Scores Are Better for Businesses in the Long Run

The Zagat review summary is balanced and concise, keeping users from scrolling through 30 reviews to get an idea of what most people think (and as an added benefit, the Zagat editors’ spelling and grammar is much better than a typical Google review). Even if your last three reviews were disastrously negative, the level-headed, balanced Zagat review will still be what new customers see first.

Furthermore, the new 30-point scale is more nuanced, giving businesses a chance to get out of the 3-star rating purgatory. Your products and quality may make up for a few bad service reviews, for example.

In theory, your customers will also have a better idea of what to expect from your business. If your restaurant rates highly on food but scores poorly on decor, your customers may not bring a business lunch to your doors, but they may return later when looking for a casual dinner spot with friends.

Finally, only registered users on Google+ can now post reviews, which will hopefully bring an end to fictitious reviews. As a result, businesses also have an easier way to follow up on negative reviews.

2.  The New G+ Local Pages Are More Visually Appealing

Many are calling the new G+ pages more aesthetically pleasing and easier-to-use than Facebook business pages, and it’s hard not to agree. The early release pages (like The Meatball Shop) are eye-catching and easy-to-navigate. Company information is prominently featured and high-quality pictures are beautifully displayed.

On a more practical note, it’s clear that the business has the “first say” before the reviews begin. Potential customers see company-uploaded pictures and an introduction from the business before they even get to the reviews. It lets the business owner (and not the reviewers) make the first impression.

3.  The New Pages Are Indexed and Searchable

Forget the pretty pictures: this is the feature that SEOs are really excited about. Google now indexes your Google+ Local page, so business owners can get to work optimizing their pages for rankings. G+ Local pages will show up both in traditional Web and Google Maps searches as well as on mobile devices (most notably in the new Google+ Local app).

4.  Social Meets Search

When all the G+ business pages are integrated with Local, businesses will have a one-stop-shop to update their information, post pictures and videos, and interact with customers. In fact, the more visitors interact with your page, the stronger your search signals will be. So while you’re boosting your customer relationships via social, you’ll be boosting your search signals as well.

Don’t forget that you can leap to the top of the SERPs just by being in someone’s circle – and if someone in a searcher’s G+ circles has reviewed your business, you’ll jump to the top as well.

Google+ Local: In Practice

Forbes nailed it when they described their version of Google’s vision:

“…[to] create a social business profile that, unlike Facebook pages, is searched by consumers and can be a meaningful customer acquisition channel for local businesses. Local businesses will find these Google+ pages far more useful than their Facebook pages… In the long run, as consumers get exposed to increasingly content rich Google+ pages through their frequent local searches and their engagement with local businesses, they eventually become heavier Google+ users themselves. And so the cycle becomes complete.”

That’s Google’s theory. And by and large, it’s a good theory. But on the other hand, Google+ sounded pretty great in theory too, and now it’s considered by some a “virtual ghost town.” The SEO benefits of G+ are pretty awesome, but no one would argue that it’s a social powerhouse, and the network doesn’t show significant signs of picking up.

So again, in theory – Google decided to give its social network (a social network that, I should add, Google still swears is not a social network) a huge push by integrating Google Places with Google+. And in theory, that still sounds pretty smart. The troubles begin when you apply Google+ Local in practice:

1.  Users Don’t Understand the Zagat System

Let’s face it: Internet users are used to the 5-star scale. It’s what we used on Google Maps/Places. It’s what we use on Yelp. It’s even how we rate our discs on Netflix. Thanks to years of exposure to the starred rating system, we’ve learned roughly what to expect from a 2-star garage, a 3.5 star salon, and a 5-star pizza joint.

Show a 22 Zagat score to someone unfamiliar with the Zagat system and I’ll bet you they say, “Out of what? 100?” It’s just not intuitive. Yes, you can hover over the score to get a vague “Very Good to Excellent,” but you can also just head to Yelp and get a rating you’re familiar with.

Some business owners are even claiming the system is ruining their business, though to be fair, the system’s only been in place for a few months, and it’ll take users a while to get a feel for the Zagat system.

2.  G+ Local Pushes Google+ On Unregistered Users

Ever tried to view a G+ Local page if you don’t have a Google+ account? It’s not pretty: you’ll only see a one-line Zagat summary, and only the overall Zagat rating will be shown (not the individual category scores).

There’s also an ever-present reminder to “Join Google+” at the top of the page, and users are told they must “Sign in to see full summary and scores” in the Zagat review section. Google may have removed the Zagat paywall, but that doesn’t mean you’ll get to see all the details…unless, that is, you have a Google+ account.

As USA Today put it:

“Google maintains that its goal is to give consumers the optimal search experience, not for commercial gain. However, the search experience for consumers suffers in Google+ Local if you’re not a member of Google’s social network or aren’t signed into it. Non-members get bare-bones treatment.”

You also can’t leave reviews for a business without a Google+ account, meaning that to accrue those all-important reviews, you’ve first got to convince your customers to create a Google+ account – customers that are already approaching social media oversaturation with Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc.

Finally, though you may tell your customers to leave reviews or “+1″ your business, how many of them really know what a +1 is?

Since many G+ users are inactive or rarely use the network, it’s much easier for them to follow or like a business on a network they use every day (such as Facebook or Twitter).

3.  How Useful Is the Zagat System For Non-Restaurants?

Many have been questioning the Zagat system’s effectiveness for non-restaurants, and it’s a valid point. Just how useful are scores for “Service” at a mall, where each store is owned and operated by different staff? What, exactly, is the “Appeal” of a florist shop? Since the Zagat system was so clearly designed for food and restaurants, it’s sometimes hard to translate among other industries.

4.  Hard-Earned Reviews Are Lost In Translation

Numerous problems with G+ Local have already been pointed out, but a major complaint is that some customer reviews don’t carry over. Reviews from third-party sites no longer show up on Google+ Local. Other users may have opted to mark their reviews as private when Google made the transition to G+ Local.

To make matters worse, Google has admitted that sometimes reviews are dropped in the transition process (though they pledge to address this in the future).

Granted, many of these problems may be related to a long-term learning curve, and pushing a user to sign in to a network is nothing new. But with Apple Maps looming dangerously on the horizon, it begs the question whether G+ Local will be the driving force in boosting G+’s dwindling numbers…or if it’s just the falter Google needs for a new competitor to step into the local search game.

What Business Owners Need To Know About G+ Local

Though Google+ Local certainly has its share of flaws, it could become something insanely useful for business owners. The chance to network, attract customers, get found locally, and interact with existing customers all in one place is attractive, to say the least.

The new Zagat system, though far from perfect, seems to provide a larger portrait of a business than a chronological list of reviews. But no matter what your opinion on the fate of Google+, it can’t be denied that the new G+ Local setup contains powerful SEO benefits.

To capitalize on these benefits, here are a few simple tips for business owners on G+:

1. Claim and verify your business listing on Google+ (if you haven’t already).
2. Fill in ALL of the fields on your G+ Local page, even the ones that aren’t required.
3. Use your logo and upload eye-catching, high-quality pictures that help customers understand what your business is all about (your default pictures will come from Google Maps, so it’s well worth the effort to upload your own). Unlike the limited Google Places, G+ Local allows for stronger branding and personalization, so take advantage of it.
4. Use a phone number that contains an area code of the city your business is located in.
5. Optimize your page with strategic keywords, but don’t go overboard. Focus on connecting with the audience that will eventually become your customers, not spamming keywords just because the page will be indexed.
6. Consider using your contact page for your website URL. Generally, that’s where all your location-specific information will be found.
7. Now’s the time to build up your G+ Local page, before your competitors have a chance to accrue new reviews. Put a priority on getting reviews with the new Zagat system and be sure to instruct users on how to sign up for Google+ too (and encourage them to add you to their circles).
8. As David Mihm pointed out, you can leave reviews for other businesses under your business profile. Network with other businesses and leave reviews for other businesses to build up your own reviews.

What’s The Consensus On Google+ Local?

The jury may still be out on G+ Local, but it’d be great to hear your initial experiences and try to gain a consensus. After two months of use, what’s your opinion on G+ Local? Has it improved or hurt your business in any way?

As a searcher, what do you think of the Zagat system? Do you miss the traditional five-star rating? And what do you think about Google+’s “walled” approach to non-users?

In short: What do you think about Google+ Local so far?

It’s true: going viral does wonders for both search and social. I’ve already written  about what makes content go viral, but we too rarely consider the who – the users who make content go viral in the first place.

Every Virus Needs A Host

Just like a physical virus, viral content requires vectors: people who pass the viral content along and “infect” others. Yet even though the audience is essential for virality, we too often focus on just the content itself – what’s a catchy topic? What are the key elements of a viral video or post? How can we write/create/film something that will go viral?

Obviously, content is important: without something compelling, people would have no incentive to share anything you create. But amazing content idles without ever being seen by large audiences all the time. Even the pros can spend weeks or months laying the foundation for viral content only to have it flounder unnoticed upon publication.

Fact: there is no magic formula to make your content go viral. If anyone tells you differently, run. But there are definite factors that can increase your content’s chances for going viral. One of those factors is learning who best can move your content towards virality.

The 7 Social Technographics: Identifying Your Audience

In 2007, Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff released their Social Technographics: six (later changed to seven) levels of interaction on social media sites (keep in mind that a person can belong to several groups, not just one):

While all groups can be certainly be reached through viral content, certain groups are more instrumental in creating viral content than others. Here’s a basic breakdown of how each group can help your content gain shares and traction:

1. CREATORS: These are your viral heavy-hitters. Creators (bloggers, journalists, site curators, etc.) are unique in that they need material in order to create. Unlike a conversationalist or critic, who may only comment or share articles when it’s exceptionally moving or interesting, creators regularly use existing content to create their own. Whether they’re creating a weekly link posting, joining a conversation by discussing your material, or just linking to your content on their site, creators have many outlets and opportunities to share your content with their individual audiences.
2. CONVERSATIONALISTS: Added to the list in 2010 to address Twitter users and regular Facebook status updaters, conversationalists are the users who use social media to discuss and share. Since Twitter, Facebook, Google+, etc. are key in spreading viral content, the conversationalists are arguably just as important as creators.
3. CRITICS: Critics are eager to join the conversation, but they tend to be passive about sharing content. They’ll leave a comment on your site or forum, but they won’t be as compelled to share with others. However, critics are much more engaged in your content than a spectator, joiner, or inactive, and they can be a powerful contributor to heated content debates or comment section discussions. They can also review or recommend your content (and thus share it with others).
4. COLLECTORS: Collectors tend to amass sites on a particular topic that interests them, meaning they’ll be more likely to see your content (either from a primary or secondary source). They’re also experienced in your niche, so they can best identify when something new or noteworthy comes along. Finally, social bookmarking users are collectors, meaning that these users are gateways to the crowds over at Digg, Reddit, etc.
5. JOINERS: Joiners are the masses you gain access to when your post goes viral on Facebook, Twitter, etc. Joiners, spectators, and inactive users require more indirect targeting methods. For example, if your target audience demographic are largely joiners, you can target the conversationalists, who are more likely to share content on social networks (and thus reach the joiners via Facebook news feeds, Twitter feeds, etc.). Unlike spectators and inactive users, a joiner has the potential to share particularly interesting content with other joiners, even though they may not post or share as often as conversationalists.
6. SPECTATORS: Spectators – not creators, conversationalists, or collectors – are behind the massive traffic you earn when you go viral. For every link, let’s say you get ten click-throughs: meaning that though nine people won’t share your content, they’ve still consumed it. Viral content has a snowball effect: to reach the masses of spectators, you’ve got to target the creators, conversationalists, etc. who will get the word out.
7. INACTIVE: Viral content may be one of the best methods to reach inactive users. Think of the now-infamous Old Spice Guy commercials or the “Charlie Bit My Finger” video: these types of viral content are so well-spread that they reach beyond typical communities or social networks. Let’s face it: if you’re human and you have Internet access, you’ve probably seen “Charlie Bit My Finger.”

Know Your Audience, Know Your Community

Much like you would create a list of linkbuilding targets, you need a list of viral heavy-hitters: the people in your niche that wield the greatest influence. Think about popular bloggers, respected Twitter accounts, G+ users with a sizable follower list, etc. You should have some relationships with these influential users established already; if not, now’s the time to start.

Since these relationships are so essential in linkbuilding, you can start with your existing linkbuilding targets. You can also target people on SEOmoz’s linkerati list:

• Bloggers
• Forum Posters
• Web News Writers
• Content Creators
• Resource Editors
• Social Taggers
• Viral Connectors
• Journalists

You may want to run some analytics on your competitors’ successes or your  own past viral content: who was influential in getting it to go viral? Which sharers achieved the most reach? Which Twitter users had the most RTs, which Facebook accounts garnered the most shares, which G+ users caused the most Ripples? These are all ideal users to target for viral outreach efforts.

Join The Conversation Before You Publish

Relationships take time. To increase your sharing potential when you publish your would-be viral content, you need to start your sharing reciprocity now. RT your targets’ links, comment on their blog posts, share their content on social networks. Join a relevant discussion or community before you publish your own findings.

Be sincere: you’re trying to join a community, not get a favor. The more you participate, the more you’re adding value to a discussion – and the more people will respect what you have to say on the topic in the future.

Get Feedback from Your Targets Ahead Of Time

In his How to Increase the Odds of Your Content Going Viral video, Rand Fishkin suggests sending out your content to your targets ahead of time. Ask their feedback. Ask if it’d be something their communities would be interested in. If you get plenty of positive responses, you know ahead of time that your content has a better shot of going viral.

If you get negative responses (or no responses), find out why by asking for their feedback. This gives you the opportunity to adjust your content before you hit the publish button.

Better still, it gives your targets a vested interest in your content. They’ve had an exclusive first look at your work, and they’ve been given an opportunity to give their opinions. They now have a personal reason to share your content with their respective communities.

Focus On Your Audience

Source: BusinessWeek with data from Forrester Research

To go viral, you’ve got to aim viral: which means that even if your target customer base aren’t 18-21 or 21-26-year-olds, you can craft content that shares well among all demographics. By reaching the Generation Y conversationalists and creators, you can reach the Generation X joiners and spectators.

Also, be mindful of your timing: if you’re aiming for personal Facebook users, you should know that most Facebook users share on Saturdays, but if you’re publishing for a business audience, midweek postings are ideal and weekend postings should be avoided. This infographic by Kissmetrics provides a great introduction to social media timing.

Finally, aim to make your content as timely and relevant as possible. If you’re releasing an infographic on the London Olympics, for example, you should release it as close to Opening Ceremony as possible; if you had content lined up about the recent health care debate, you should have posted it the week of June 24th when interest was highest, as this Google Trends report shows:

Being as timely and relevant as possible doesn’t just help your chances of going viral. It’s also a way to sweeten the deal for potential sharers looking to join a discussion or share something their communities are currently interested in.

It’s Your Community. It’s Your Responsibility To Find Out How It Works

I can’t tell you what you should do to guarantee your content will go viral. No one can.

But you can do research to discover what’s best for your community: which users have the most reach? When’s the best time to post? What types of content do the best within your niche? What sources bring the most click-throughs? These are the questions you need to start asking if you really want a shot at virality.

In a word: Absolutely.

Yes, you’ve heard the “(Quality) Content is King” argument for years, and I’d never deny that that having quality, original, must-read content is essential to any content strategy.

But the visual presentation is your first impression with the Web visitor: it’s what makes the visitor decide whether or not to consume the content in the first place.

If your content looks boring, time-consuming, salesy, or unprofessional, your visitor will click out of your content before reading the first paragraph.

Fact: We All Judge Books By Their Covers

We also judge online content a whole lot faster than we do books. You only have a few precious seconds to grab your audience’s attention before they close your website or head back to the SERPs.

Your content presentation is  the clinching factor that holds an audience’s attention long enough for you to grab them with your actual content. It doesn’t matter how mind-blowingly original or well-crafted your content is: if your audience doesn’t stick around to consume it, why bother creating it?

Content Is Becoming More Visual Every Day

Gone are the days when users are satisfied with a mere blog post or status post. Infographics, video and infovideo creation has skyrocketed. Web design has exploded, evolving from pure function into a new art form.

Infographic created by IvanCash

The image-based Pinterest is now the third most popular social network in the country (with an incredible 59% of users admitting they’ve purchased something they saw on the site).

Facebook transformed their text-friendly Wall into a more image-friendly Timeline. Brands are no longer expected to merely tweet or post status updates; they’re expected to maintain visual pinboards on Pinterest, post pictures on Instagram, and reblog images on Tumblr.

But creating more visual content makes sense: why tell a consumer about your brand when you can show them? Why merely talk about a subject when you can illustrate it?

It’s the best form of multi-tasking there is: while visitors are reading your content, they’re taking in the images, the typography, the styling, the Web design. They’ll leave your site knowing about you, not just your topic.

Another reason to take visualization into account? People understand visualized information better, as this infographic by J6Design illustrates:

[source]

Search & Social Benefits Of Good Content Presentation

Looks aren’t just essential for content consumption: they’re also beneficial to your brand’s SEO and social strategies, too.

1.  Increasing Your SERP Click-Through Rate.

Google Instant Preview offers users a quick look at the page they’re about to click on. If they’re debating between the top 3 rankings and yours delivers an instant visual punch, they’re more likely to click on yours. The more professional or eye-catching your design, the higher your CTR will be if the searcher has Google’s preview feature enabled.

2.  Lowering Bounce Rates.

Again, your site design and layout is the first impression your site makes. Arriving at an overly salesy, intimidating, or text-heavy landing page is the equivalent of turning down a dark alley: your visitors want to get out there as soon as possible. Pull them in with your visuals and they won’t feel the urge to flee.

3.  More Visuals = More Shares = More Links.

We like to share things we haven’t seen before. Unique presentation and eye-catching visuals make us want to share content with others. It’s why infographics get hundreds more shares than a well-written article with the same data. It’s why a funny comic can get a thousand shares before a funny blog post gets ten. And more shares aren’t just good for your social presence: they boost your links, too.

4.  Boost Your Credibility.

In an age of a blogosphere oversaturated with would-be Julie & Julias and Perez Hiltons, anyone can be a blogger. Let’s face it: anyone can write an article and get it posted on the Internet.

Your content presentation is what makes you stand out from the amateurs: you’ve hired a graphic designer, a Web designer, or a videographer. You’ve made a clear and conscious effort to look professional. And the more credible you look, the more people will want to read and share your content.

5.  Social Network Previews Attract More Interest.

Both Facebook and Google+ have emphasized visuals in recent redesigns, and Pinterest’s visual-based sharing system needs no introduction. Preview images on social network shares help a user decide whether or not to click the link. The more interesting the image, the more likely they’ll click.

6 Sites That Nail Content Presentation

1. Evan You’s Take on Internet Censorship. Open with a great punch and keep the interesting data coming. This site breaks up data into an extremely readable, compelling argument — and the ending call-to-action is a great final touch.
2. Cracked.com. Cracked.com is often cited as a great example of linkbait, but the site also deserves props for its strategic formatting. Customized headers and must-read titles grab a reader’s attention immediately. A Cracked.com article rarely goes six lines without including an eye-catching image, so readers aren’t intimidated by the post’s length. Witty captions and frequent page breaks keep readers hooked: one Cracked.com article becomes two, two becomes four, four becomes eleven..and before you know it, you’ve lost an hour reading articles on Cracked.
3. How to Hack Your Brain. The page doesn’t look like any health article you’ve ever seen before. It looks new, fresh, young, and a far cry from academic sleep articles, but it’s still packed with information. A unique layout, large fonts, and constant images turn this “sleep hack” into certifiable share bait.
4. SmashingMagazine.com. It should come as no surprise that Smashing Magazine, a Web design and development magazine, makes this list. Yet the site is a killer example of what readers want from a digital magazine or blog: it’s friendly, yet professional; it’s easy-to-read, but doesn’t skimp on creativity; and it’s packed with information, yet looks uncluttered on the screen.
5. The Oatmeal. Sick of seeing the Oatmeal on content lists yet? Get used to it. Both content-wise and design-wise, creator Matthew Inman nails it. His recent piece on Nikola Tesla packed a miniature biography (and Edison-bashing controversy) into one entertaining and incredibly sharable piece of content.
6. Brain Pickings. In addition to curating some of the most gorgeous visual content on the Web, Maria Popova’s brainchild is a visual feast for the eyes in itself. With large, high-quality images, highlighted quotes, and an elegant design, Brain Pickings serves as a stunning virtual display case for the curated content it showcases.

Before You Create the Content, Ask Yourself These Questions

Ask yourself: How will this content be presented?

Outline the presentation before you create the content. Ask yourself what’ll make it unique, readable, or compelling. Ask yourself what you can do to grab your visitors’ attention as soon as they land on your site.

Ask yourself: what can we do that they haven’t seen before?

There are too many visual possibilities out there for you to limit yourselves to the same old text-and-subheadings song and dance. If you want to get noticed — really noticed — you’ll have to invest in your presentation just as heavily as you do your content.

It’s frustrating that people continue to treat social media as an individual entity, a separate department, instead of a versatile tool.

We shutter up our Social Media teams in their own rooms and leave them to their tweets and Instagram photos while the marketing pros hunker down on the big guns: conversions. Landing Pages. Leads, Costs, ROI.

Sure, most pros acknowledge the power of social media in terms of brand awareness — it’s the flypaper that holds the customer still long enough for us to shove them down the sales funnel, where we cash them in profit.

But we often forget that social media is part of the sales funnel, a crucial element that often clinches the sale or conversion. It’s time to take off our blinders and stop focusing on the short-term conversions that occur “in-house” on our sites.

Conversion is a long-term process, and if you’re ignoring all the long-term factors that lead up to a sale, you’re failing your customers…and you’re failing your business.

The World Does Not Begin & End With Google Analytics

There’s no denying the power of analyzing your traffic patterns and conversion rates, but it’s not enough to cast your business’s net in only the small percentage of the population that lands on your site.

You have Twitter followers that have never visited your website. You have people who’ve visited your Facebook page twice without clicking “like.”

You have people out there that are interested in your industry, but they’re too busy checking out your competitors to take a look at your offerings. And finally, you have those potential customers  out there who don’t even know you exist.

It’s time to start casting your nets into bigger waters.

Fact: Sales Happen Slowly

We tend to oversimplify our sales process: I sell shoes. A customer needs shoes. They come to my site, browse my products and buy shoes.

Or more complicated:

I sell shoes. A customer finds my site and learns I sell shoes. They might not buy my shoes today, but they’re definitely interested. I’ll keep targeting them until they come back and buy my shoes.

But in truth, the sales process begins long before that initial visit — and even after that visit, sales are a long-term process with more opportunities to miss a sale than to close one. A customer may find your site and spend thirty minutes browsing your shoes…but two months later, he’s forgotten your site ever existed. He visits hundreds of sites each month. Why should he remember yours?

Or maybe a customer was killing time and wound up on eight shoe sites that day. Why should she remember your site over your competitors?

We often shop without a real intent to buy. We may be interested in a product in a general way, but without a clear reason (a sale, an upcoming event, a coupon), we’re not going to commit.

And if we don’t commit on that initial visit, we have no reason to commit to a sale in the future — unless you give us a reason to commit. And few places offer more reasons or opportunities than social media.

Let’s take a look at an example of a typical successful long-term social search funnel:

Informational Search > Social Q&A Site > Social Evergreen Resource/Linkbait Referral  > Retargeted Ad Click > Facebook Page Like > Facebook Discount Offer  > Ending Purchase on Your Site

1.  Informational Search

A customer types in “vegan shoes” in Google. This starts the research phase of the buying cycle.

2.  Social: Q & A Site

The customer finds a Yahoo! Answers thread about vegan shoes.

3. Social Referral

Within the thread, a vegan shoe company links to an article on how to identify vegan shoes. The article is an evergreen linkbait article created by the company a long time ago. The user clicks the link and reads the article.

4.  Search Retargeting

The company retargets the user through an AdWords Remarketing. The next day, the user sees a retargeted ad banner that leads to the company’s Facebook page.

5. Social: Facebook Page Like

The customer clicks the banner and likes the company’s Facebook page. The user now sees regular updates from that company on their Facebook news feed.

6. Social: Facebook Discount Post

Later that month, the user sees a post about an one-day sale the shoe company is having; the post offers a special discount code for Facebook friends.

7.  Social Referral via Facebook

The user clicks the link and browses through the sale offering. They find a pair they like, but they’re at work. The user writes down the discount code for later.

8.  Navigational Search

The user doesn’t know the exact URL, so they type in the brand name of the shoe company as a navigational search. The user finds the shoes, uses the discount code, and completes the purchase.

So what about that long path caused the sale? Most companies would focus on the navigational search. Looking at the path, others might argue that it was the Facebook promotional discount or the initial linkbait.

But that’s the wrong way of looking at it. Every piece of this process — from the first informational search to the final purchase — worked together to clinch this sale.

Harnessing The Power Of The Social Funnel

The higher in the funnel your customers are, the less aggressive you should be in your sales tactics. Social media marketing should never be salesy; rather, it’s about accruing a following, engaging your community, and influencing their actions.

So how does that all lead to a sale? You’re reaching a customer early in the sales process, meaning that you’ve likely reached them before your competitors. The earlier you reach them, the more history they’ll have with you when it’s time to make a purchasing decision.

We make purchases based on trust. The more you engage with your fans and followers, the more they “get to know” you and your brand, which breeds trust. You also become infinitely more memorable to your customers, since they now see you as a presence, not a product.

Through engagement, you show you’re invested in them — and in turn, they become more invested in you.

Finally, social media allows you to stay present in your customer’s minds. A post about a shoe sale may remind a customer that she has a wedding coming up and needs a pair of heels; a recent blog post may make a customer think of you when he remembers his brother’s birthday is right around the corner.

Quick Tips To Remember When  Crafting A Social Funnel

• It should be ridiculously easy to convert at any time. Don’t make your customers search for a URL that’s buried in your Facebook About page. Utilize banners, frequent links, even a Facebook store tab, if applicable. Make it impossibly easy for your customers to convert if the mood strikes.
• On the other hand, don’t bombard them with ads and banners. You are not pushing anything and you are not selling. You are offering – make sure your customers feel the same way.
• Social Q&A sites are amazing ways for your customers to find out about you in a “neutral” setting (i.e., not your site). Too many companies ignore them because they don’t see an easy return on results (unlike precise “subscription” or “following” numbers they see on social media). Don’t count them out — they work wonders in pointing future customers in your direction.
• Keep track of dips and spikes in your Twitter followers, Facebook friends, etc. Every time you lose a follower, you’ve let someone slip out of your sales funnel. Try to pinpoint what type of social content loses or gains followers.
• Do not post the same content on all your various social sites. You want people to have as many different points of contact with you as possible, so give people a reason to follow you on Facebook and Twitter and Google+ etc. by making your presences unique on each site.
• Offer as many opportunities for soft conversions as you can (mailing lists, newsletters, RSS feeds, likes, follows, etc.) to keep your brand as present as possible.

Social media followers can always play a huge part in your funnel, even if that subscriber never makes a purchase.

They can:

• Recommend you to friends, family, or colleagues,
• Share your posts/tweets/content with others,
• Buy your content or know-how (books, eBooks, etc.),
• Cause your company to show up in their friend’s search results through Google Social Search,
• Stay alert of ALL your brand offerings/sister sites/etc.,
• If nothing else, give you a number on your follower/friend count to encourage others of your authority.

Finally (& Most Importantly), Figuring Out Your Social Funnel Is YOUR Responsibility

I can’t write you a one-size-fits-all how-to post on your social funnel. No one could. Your business and your customers are wholly unique, and it’s up to you and you alone to figure out what helps to clinch the sale.

As a business, it is your job to try to figure out each and every single touchpoint a user might follow on a query– and you’ve got to make sure you’re present and active in each touchpoint. You’ve got to experiment, to test, to analyze and reconfigure. Because ultimately, every crack in your funnel is a chance for a lost sale – and a lost customer. And for every lost customer, you have no one to blame but yourself.