Tracking Twitter: The Best Social Media Marketing Keyword Search Tools

March 8th, 2010 by Andrew

socialmediamarketingIt’s rather amazing to think about how social media has changed in the past few years. It wasn’t long ago when blogs were seen as marginal, unimportant commentary. Now nearly every news organization hosts several blogs. And social networks like Friendster and MySpace were once derided as toys for teens and young adults. Not anymore.

What’s also amazing is how much more sophisticated social media marketing has grown in just a few years. Once, tracking social media conversations through services like Twitter was frustrating and ineffective. But thanks to a range of new services, online businesses and social media marketing professionals can now get the data necessary to perform targeted social media campaigns.

Keyword research is and always has been a major part of SEO marketing campaigns. And now, many social media marketing professionals are using keyword research for services like Twitter to craft the kind online social networking campaigns that get results.

Here’s what social media marketing professionals can get from the latest, more advanced social media Twitter keyword tracking tools:

  • Social media marketing specialists can learn more specific user behavior.
  • They can locate the online places and services where their branding efforts will have the most impact.
  • They can learn people’s feelings and attitudes towards a specific topics.

Here are four tools that social media marketing specialists can use to preform keyword research.

  • TweetBeep. This service lets you create a free account and save your targeted keywords. When one of those keywords is tweeted you can have TweetBeep email you a notification.
  • TweetVolume. This tracking service lets you compare keyword usage on Twitter. A good resource if you want to choose the most popular keywords possible.
  • Hashtags.org. Tracks popular Twitter hashtags. This service also comes with charts that let you see what time of day certain Twitter hashtags are popular.
  • Trendistic. Another service that lets you track the popularity of certain keywords by date and time.

There are more social media marketing research out there. Do you have any favorites? Let us know.

Bookmark and Share

Tags: , ,
Posted in Search Engine News | No Comments »

Is PPC Advertising Worth the Money?

March 5th, 2010 by AliciaYoung

money-bag-save-moneyIt seems the more money I try to save, the more I am asked to spend. Does this sound true for your business? We know we need to “spend a little to make a little,” but how much should a company be spending on PPC advertising and is it really worth the money to be seen both in PPC and organic search results?

While there are many different opinions as well as ad agencies willing to take your money to “get you on the first page of Google,” there isn’t one strategy that will work for every company. As an ethical SEO company, Search Circus carefully analyzes your business, your budget as well as which online marketing strategies would work best for each type of industry.

I can give you the Cliff notes on paid advertising strategies from several PPC marketing experts .

1. Don’t just “throw together something” when you want to increase your online presence. It’s best to do the research or ask your ethical SEM team to do the research for the best strategy to use PPC advertising, which search engines, how much and how often. It’s best to look at your competitors and their paid online marketing tactics.

2. Don’t try to do too much with not enough. Have you ever overbooked your day or tried to stuff that one last item in a drawer then come back to find the drawer’s contents all over the floor or worse the entire drawer? PPC advertising is like that. Adding too many keywords or ads or types of markets in one campaign is not how you can test and measure the effectiveness of the campaign itself.

3. Think before you act. What are your goals for creating an effective PPC advertising campaign? Who is your audience? What do they want? Each PPC campaign should target one specific audience or geographic location. Then each campaign can have different ad groups with its own products or services. Keep it simple, clean and organized.

4. Follow your competitors. Do your competitors appear on the first page for each niche audience, product or service? Follow their lead, but do it better.

5. Only run your ads as much as your targeted audience is likely to see them. If your audience is not likely to be online between midnight and 6 am, then do not have your ads running during these times.

If you want to gain an edge over your competitors, do something that they aren’t or do it better.

Give your PPC advertising time to capture attention. Oftentimes it takes a few months to several months to see whether it is an effective online advertising strategy. If your sales are not increasing, calls aren’t coming in any more than before starting PPC advertising, then make a few changes, but don’t call it quits all at once.

Not sure if PPC advertising is worth the money for company, contact the online advertising team at SearchCircus.com for the best advice.

Bookmark and Share

Tags: , ,
Posted in Drive Traffic to Your Website | No Comments »

Social Networking and Business Benefits in a Tough Economy

March 1st, 2010 by Andrew

searchcircusfacebookAre we living in a new entrepreneurial era? Economic conditions have forced many to rethink their career path. As a result, many people are transitioning into consulting careers, freelance careers and entrepreneurial careers. According to WorkXpress CEO Treff LaPlante, now’s the time to start a technology business.

And many are finding that social networking and business benefits abound. New, small businesses are taking the lead when it comes to thinking creatively about using services like Facebook and Twitter as low-cost methods of getting their brand out into the public eye.

A great example is Coolhaus, a new ice cream business started by a former architect and a former realtor. They realized potential social networking and business benefits by establishing Twitter and Facebook accounts. Social media promotions included giving followers a link to a famous architectural photographer Julius Shulman. If customers came to their roving ice cream truck and said his name, they’d get a discount.

Thanks to fun ideas like that, the social networking and business benefits have led to Coolhaus gaining nearly 8,000 Twitter followers and 1,300 Facebook fans. And according to a recent Rice University study, having more fans and followers really does matter when it comes to social networking and business benefits. Fans of a small chain of cafes visited the business 20 percent more often and spent 33 percent more money than other customers.

Looking at social networking and business benefits goes beyond the low costs. Social media marketing reaches consumers where they communicate. It’s a way of getting in on the conversation.

Bookmark and Share

Tags: , ,
Posted in Business Social Networking, Social Media Marketing | No Comments »

« Older Entries