In short, online social influence is the impact that an individual has on an online audience. Someone with high social influence has the ability affect someone’s beliefs and drive action online; it determines who to trust and who to avoid within a network of users. Initially, social influence could be measured by how many ‘Likes’ a person had on Facebook or how many times their content was ‘retweeted’ on Twitter. However the increasing popularity and controversy surrounding sites like Klout in 2011, reveal that measuring social influence, and thus its importance, is a growing trend.

Klout is a popular website that scores your social influence by examining the activity on your social media accounts, giving users a score from 1 to 100. According to Klout, the higher your score, the more social influence you have in your online community. It monitors how often people reply to or share your posts, your ‘Likes’, comments, ‘retweets’, re-shares, wall-posts and mentions, which in turn validates you and your content and increases the value you add to your online community. Klout acts as a third party barometer, adding value to you as a brand.

Before we all jump on the bandwagon it is important to realise that Klout also has its flaws in attempting to accurately measure social influence. At this relative age of infancy, online social influence can easily be manipulated if one has the correct tools and knowledge. However the potential is huge when one considers the impact it could have on online marketing, search engine reputation management and brand identity. Similar to how SEO has changed and developed to retrieve organic search results, measurements of social influence will develop to authentically identify and validate the true social influencers, giving authority to great content. It’s a trend to watch closely in 2012.

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3. Online games as a social medium

Online Social Influence and Why it Matters

In Part 1 and Part 2 of this 3 part series, I took a look at some of the individual benefits of SEO and PPC and how they compare to one another in terms of effectiveness. Today I’ll be taking a look at the outcome of this debate and drawing some conclusions from the benefits of each marketing method that we’ve identified in previous blog posts. Check it out…

So, who’s the winner?

Truth is there is no “winner” as such. SEO and PPC both have their individual benefits and are in essence two very different search marketing tools that can’t actually be compared to one another because they are just too dissimilar. The “winning” situation and strategy that all companies should really think about implementing is a balanced combination of the two strategies in order to take advantage of both of their individual strengths.

The Benefits of Using both SEO AND PPC in Order to Market your Website Online:

As mentioned above, the best strategy for an all round marketing plan is to use both SEO and PPC in a cleverly constructed combination of the two strategies. Some of the key benefits of a well designed combined strategy include the following:

1. Page 1 Domination

Probably the greatest benefit of combing SEO with PPC is that you get to dominate Page 1 of Google when relevant search terms are entered. If you’re ranking organically in the top 3 positions and being listed in the paid search section of the SERPS, you have good brand presence within the available real estate above the fold on Page 1. This means that regardless of what type of user you’re dealing with (those who use organic results and those who prefer paid advertisements), you stand a much better chance of gaining a click through to your website.

2. Achieve Success both Short and Long Term

Whereas PPC is a great way of gaining immediate traffic volumes to a brand new website, it is important that one also immediately starts investing in SEO in order to improve the overall worth of a website and eventually reach a point of sustained incoming traffic that is free. This means that while you are investing in receiving immediate traffic volumes to your website via PPC advertising, you can also expect to build up the authority score of your website organically in order to receive free organic traffic in the long term. Focusing on just one of these marketing methods limits your traffic potential, short and long term.

3. Dominate both Locally and Internationally

By combining an extremely targeted PPC campaign in terms of location and a well constructed SEO campaign internationally, you are able to ensure that you receive visits from both local and international web users. If for example you have an online store as well as a physical store for local users, you can use a combination of SEO and PPC to ensure optimal results. PPC can be refined to display only to visitors that are in driving distance of your shop and SEO strategies can be targeted nationwide or internationally to ensure that the success of your online store flourishes at the same time. This is extremely useful in this sort of situation and is yet another benefit of cleverly combining SEO and PPC marketing strategies for your website.

The Bottom Line

When it comes down to it, SEO and PPC are two very different marketing tools that each have their own benefits. Neither one is better than the other and if budget allows for it, investment should be made in both forms of online marketing. It’s all about catering to different audiences, be it local vs. international or people who prefer using paid search results instead of organic search results. Yes, there are situations when one form of marketing is more suitable than the other, but in general a well constructed online marketing plan should make use of both SEO and PPC marketing.

Related posts:

1. SEO vs. PPC – Part 1 of 3
2. Search Usability
3. SEO vs. PPC – Part 2 of 3

SEO vs. PPC – Part 3 of 3

Naturally, there’s plenty of advice going around for search marketing companies looking to enjoy a healthier, wealthier start to 2012.

Here is the MediaVision list of three essential New Year’s resolutions for SEO company owners:

Diet
What you put in is what you get out – so this year, make sure your team gets only the best “brain food”. Read and share high-quality, informative industry articles from reputable sources. Be sure that your healthy intellectual diet is balanced and varied – it’s no use devouring social media news on a daily basis but starving yourself of useful search engine and Analytics developments. Bon Apétit!

Exercise
Many people resolve to work out and get in shape at the start of a New Year, and in the same spirit, every SEO/ SERM agency should be looking to get fit and trim the excess fat from their operations. Your SEO fitness regime should be designed to help your team work on those bothersome weak spots; put out smaller portions of well-crafted content and focus on creating fewer high quality ads, rather than larger volumes of “flabby” lower quality writing. Make 2012 the year to help your team flex their SEO muscles, tone up and tackle the New Year with a well-honed strategy.

Quality Time
The New Year is also a time when many plan to spend less time in the office and more time with friends and family. Your company can embrace this resolution as well by showing clients and competitors a bit of extra love! Make time in your busy schedule to be more social; interact with fellow SEOs on Twitter, share your latest success story with clients on Facebook, and make sure your team writes regular blogs sharing industry news and insights.

Don’t limit your social time to the online world; get out and mingle! Treat your team to a networking dinner, and make sure your calendar for 2012 includes some industry meet-ups and conferences. This is the perfect way to inspire any SEO professional.

MediaVision wishes you all a happy and successful year ahead!

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Three New Year’s Resolutions Every SEO Should Make

1. Fresh, Relevant and Enticing Content

Regardless of how exhausted the poor Panda may be, Google is almost certainly going to continue its focus on providing good quality and relevant search results by penalising sites with duplicate or low quality content. So the first of the SEO predictions for 2012 is that more emphasis will be placed on new and relevant content.

2. More Focus on Mobile

Tablets have become widely available to the public and this, combined with the popularity or Smartphones, is expected to mean a massive increase in mobile search. This was big in 2011 and the prediction for 2012 is that it will be even bigger. It is important that you get your site SEO ready and optimised for mobile search.

3. Things are Getting Personal

Google has been paying more attention than ever before to what you are searching for and returns personalised searches based on your browsing history (read their post here). Another factor affecting personalised search is that Google includes results shared by your contacts. While this may be good news for the average browser using the search engines, a prediction is that it will make things a little more challenging for SEO agencies in 2012.

Keeping these SEO predictions in mind for 2012 can have a big impact on your results and ROI.

What are your SEO predictions 2012?

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2. Online Writing Predictions for 2011
3. Take a look from their point of view to find your core phrases

Top SEO Predictions 2012

Our trip to the Breede River certainly created an environment that stimulated these qualities, with team building river trips and the general ‘elbows up’ at the bar that accompanies any weekend away. On arrival at the Felix Unite ‘Round the Bend’ campsite (well for the most of us at least) we chilled and cracked open a cold one while waiting for the lost ones (Tom, Louis and Melissa) to pull in. It gave as plenty time to laugh with (or at) the racy Mina, definitely the loudest member of the group. When we finally gained all our members we geared up and made our way to the abseiling. In true style, Tom played the role of a fearless, leading director and abseiled forwards down the cliff face, running it in about five seconds. Our courageous Kat, as determined in abseiling as she is in her writing, also took on her very first abseiling experience facing the rocks below.

On Saturday morning we woke up blurry eyed and straggly tailed to face the Breede River rapids. Overall, it was a successful day of physical strength and endurance, except for the ‘newbie boat’ consisting of David and Bridget, who were the only ones to bail not once, but twice. The experienced Dave and Tom got stuck under a tree branch and also capsized, relieving some of the shame felt by team newbie. Nevertheless, much amusement was provided to all. After mild sunburn, endless banter and two snake spottings, our river adventure was over and we headed back to camp for the finale- our dress up party and awards ceremony.

Personality awards were given to the team; if you could meet our eccentric members you would understand why. Best dressed went to Paola who came as a reincarnation of her famous line in her September MediaVision interview, when she stated, “In a nut sack…” as opposed to, “In a nut shell…” when describing her amiable characteristics. Other costumes included the scary Stuart garden gnome, who once again proved his resourcefulness and ingenuity by creating a gnome hat out of used Santa gear and a plastic cone. On a more serious note, our brilliant Julia won ‘employee of the year’ for her outstanding work and for always being on hand to offer great advice on writing and SEO matters- congratulations. We were all sad to leave such a memorable weekend behind us, but it was back to work on Monday as usual, minds refreshed, bodies a bit bruised, yet ready for the wrapping up of a highly successful year at MediaVision Interactive.

Some last words from our CEO, Louis Venter: “After an outstanding 2011 we felt that we really needed to celebrate in style and the river rafting weekend was an obvious choice. It really fitted in with the work hard – play hard ethos that we expect from all employees. Needless to say the weekend was epic with a huge amount of fun had by all.
The current team has a great blend of talent, creativity and enthusiasm which helps us deliver such outstanding results for our clients.”

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2. Beer and bowling, the truth behind team management
3. MediaVision TShirt design contest

A Weekend on the River for Our MediaVision Team

The Benefits of PPC – Pay Per Click – Paid Search Marketing:

PPC, an acronym for Pay Per Click, literally refers to advertising on search engines via display advertising that you only pay for once somebody actually clicks on one of your displayed ads. The cost of the click is determined by a bidding system whereby relevance to a search term combined with the amount bid on an advertisement determine when and where your ad will be displayed. I could go into much more detail regarding the calculation of the actual cost per click, but that’s for another blog post on another day.

Due to the nature of PPC and the way campaigns are run, there are numerous benefits to this type of marketing over organic search marketing (SEO) and in general. Let’s not waste any more time and take a look at the advantages of PPC advertising.

1. PPC is Instant

Due to the nature of PPC, one doesn’t need to wait years, months or even days before being able to gain valuable traffic to your website. Unlike organic SEO which takes a while to build up an authoritive website that ranks for relevant keywords, PPC is instant and as soon as you start paying for different ad campaigns, your ads WILL start appearing in the SERPs and your website will start achieving increased traffic volumes. This is especially true if your campaigns are well constructed and implemented by a qualified PPC manager. PPC is particularly beneficial to new websites, however; older websites that are looking to invest more in their existing website traffic volumes can also benefit from PPC when fast results and greater ROI are required.

2. Reach only your Target Audience

Whereas organic search, especially when carried out incorrectly, has the potential to attract a certain percentage of irrelevant traffic to your website; PPC enables you to thoroughly refine your search campaigns to only display to an extremely niche audience that is highly likely to convert into paying customers. Google AdWords and other paid search tools such as Yahoo Advertising and Facebook, give one the ability to refine target audiences by near exact location, languages, categories and what devices people are using to search. Some social media PPC platforms enable you to go as far as targeting age, gender, race, income bracket and marital status. So whether you’re a large retailer in the middle of London, or a tiny boutique store that sells antique coins in a little village like Bridgenorth in the Midlands, you can define exactly how broad or focused you want your search to be. Speaking of large retailers, this brings us to our next point…

3. Get a Second Chance with Remarketing

What is remarketing I hear you ask? Remarketing is a feature in Google AdWords that enables one to target visitors who have previously visited your site, left and visited any other site that makes use of the Google display network. By placing a piece of code on relevant pages of your website, you can tag a user that has, for example, visited the LED television page of your website and left. When these users then visit another related page on another website that makes use of the Google display network, Google will then show the user your advertisement for LED Televisions, or cross selling categories such as DVD players for example. Basically, what it comes down to is that once a user has visited your site and visits any other sites, they will continue to be bombarded with ads for your business which could result in a sale on the second or third time round.

4. Who Needs Rich Snippets when we have Ad Extensions?

Rich snippets are in essence the extra markup displayed in organic search results, such as reviews, ratings or prices and more. We’ve all seen them at some point, but what we don’t see is the amount of blood sweat and tears that goes into getting these very limited snippets of information to actually work. Once we have them working, it’s really up to Google to decide if it’s actually going to bother displaying the snippets. This whole process is eliminated in PPC advertising where you have the ability to use what we call Ad extensions. Ad extensions enable one to display site links, products from the merchant feed, a telephone number, maps for location etc. All can be added and can be seen immediately in most instances resulting in an eye catching ad and improving clickthrough rate for ads. As I said before, who needs rich snippets when we have Ad Extensions?

5. PPC the Leveler

With organic search, it takes a lot of time and investment to be able to compete with and out-rank big, well established websites. As a new website for your small online shop starting out as a delivery service of groceries to your local village, it is near impossible to immediately, or even over a long term, compete with bigger retailers such as Tescos or Sainsburys online for keywords such as “online shopping” or “buy groceries online”. However, with PPC, one is able to bid on keywords and compete against the biggest brands out there. The overall authority of your website has very little to do with how well you compete against tough competitors and larger brands.

6. Short Term Marketing

For e-commerce stores in particular, PPC is an extremely useful tool for the marketing of short term promotions or competitions. PPC Ad text can be changed instantly to reflect special offers and prices that one doesn’t normally have the ability to list via organic search marketing. Carrying out a search for “LED Television London” can provide one with many general LED Television results, but the one that’s going to catch your eye is the sponsored ad advertising an exact special offer for the LED telly that you require. Once the promotion is complete, no sweat, simply stop the ad and move on to the next promotion or seasonal trend.

7. Dominate the SERPS

Whilst organic search results do generally have a slightly higher clickthrough rate from SERPs, paid advertising does still occupy a significant portion of real estate on results pages. If you are currently ranking well for organic search results in a particular category or industry, one can strive for page 1 domination by showing up for related keywords in the sponsored results of the SERPs as well. This results in 2 of your results showing up above the fold in SERPs which is great for your brand and will result not only in more traffic, but also increased brand awareness as your name continuously pops up in a particular industry for related keywords.

There you have it, some of the key benefits of running an effective PPC campaign. Whether you’re a new business looking to get some immediate traffic and increase your brand awareness amongst the SERPs, or a much more established site looking for ways to further increase traffic to your site by dominating page one of the search engines and social media pages; PPC is an extremely useful tool for any kind of business and should be considered an essential part of any all round online marketing campaign that has the required budget.

That’s it for part 2 of my three part series of blog posts dedicated to the benefits of SEO vs. PPC. My final part of the series will take a look at the key benefits of both PPC and SEO and see how we can effectively combine them together to form a flawless online marketing campaign that will guarantee not just increased traffic volumes and brand awareness, but also result in a great ROI overall for your website or business. Until then…

Related posts:

1. SEO vs. PPC – Part 1 of 3
2. Google’s new search-based keyword tool is a welcome aid for advertisers
3. Online Video SEO for SMBs

SEO vs. PPC – Part 2 of 3

Dave led the team along the dirt road before we were led up mountainsides and down gorges at less than break neck speeds. While Melissa was slowly adjusting to losing her power steering bonus, and the rest of us eased the bikes through their paces as we managed to take in some of the most beautiful views on a sun kissed day which heralded the start of spring in the Cape. We reached the pinnacle of one of the peaks to enjoy a moment to take it all in, before returning back to the farmhouse and proceeding to the wine tasting halls of the estate. A petition was suggested for the acquisition of an office quad bike, and signatures are currently in process to be sent to the CEO for consideration.

We all took our seats inside the modern tasting rooms and decided to pop the cork with some bubbly Cap Classique Rose. Our tasting hostess provided us with the full experience, offering us tastes of dry citrus infused sauvignon blancs and buttery chardonnays while others sided the more smoky and spicy reds. We all came out of the experience a little more educated and satiated, and some of the troops made purchases from the estate, with Brett and I deciding the Shiraz Granache blend was definitely a winner that deserved a medium rare steak as a date.

Reconvening at a Seafood restaurant, we all finished the days outing with a good meal. An assortment of Sushi, salads, executive platters and calamari were enjoyed and as the sun set over Cape Town, we enjoyed some good laughs and time together as a team. For more highlights, take a look at our facebook page and see if you “like” it as much as we did.

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Quad Biking and Wine: What Can Go Wrong?

Social Media Week in Glasgow will include more than 130 events, which will take place in venues across the city from September 19th – 23rd. Speakers from Google, Nokia, CNN and BBC will be participating in the 5-day celebration of social media.

With the world’s largest social media event for 2011 just beginning, statistics are rolling in about social network usage, and it appears that in the UK, social media sites are more popular than ever. According to a study conducted by InSites Consulting, approximately 37 million Britons (around 73% of the UK population) use social media sites on a regular basis. InSites studied social media usage in more than 30 countries around the world to put together these latest social media adoption statistics. Unsurprisingly, social networking juggernaut Facebook was the most popular platform among these 73 million UK respondents, with sites ranked in the following order of preference:

• Facebook 64%
• Twitter 24%
• LinkedIn 21%

According to researchers at InSites, this high rate of adoption (only slightly below the European figure of 74%), shows that social media has penetrated all layers of British society. For SEO agency owners in Britain, this serves as an indication that many consumers have begun making their purchasing decisions based on the information they gather during their social networking interactions. Another interesting finding was the fact that any new social networks would find it very difficult to compete with existing platforms; a staggering 93% of people surveyed are content with the existing platforms.

With three quarters of UK Internet users highly engaged in social media activities, SMW in Glasgow is sure to attract a record number of participants. Researchers say social networks are useful as a means of bridging the gap between consumers and brands, and this trend is only set to grow in the coming year.

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Social Media Penetration Grows in the UK

As providers of SEO services, we know that social media can be a great tool for spreading a positive marketing message both quickly and effectively; the only drawback being that a negative or even dangerous message can spread just as rapidly…

Following the recent London riots, Prime Minister David Cameron announced that the Coalition Government would take steps to restrict social media usage during times of unrest, in order to prevent troublemakers from inciting violent activity online. Social networking platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Blackberry instant messaging were blamed for helping rioters to organise protests and looting operations. This raised concerns among human rights groups, who said that although Cameron’s proposal was made in good faith, measures to monitor, limit or even shut down certain social media sites would “overextend powers in ways that would be susceptible to abuse”.

Last Thursday, Home Secretary Theresa May met with social network executives and police officials to discuss how the organisation of criminal activity on these sites could be prevented. However, the Government decided not to seek and additional powers to close down or restrict the networks. Cameron’s deputy Nick Clegg told press that UK ministers were not prepared to support “a Chinese- or Iran-style blackout of social media”.

The climb-down has naturally sparked a nationwide discussion about the merits of social media vs the obvious potential for exploitation of the technology. Meanwhile it has been reported that Thursday’s meeting was highly constructive, examining “how law enforcement and the networks can build on existing relationships and cooperation to crack down on the networks being used for criminal behaviour”.

So far, at least five people have been convicted, and two have received prison sentences, for organising disorderly and violent acts via Facebook. We’ll be watching with interest to see how the Government and network executives plan to prevent criminal activity on social networks without an impact on the freedom of ordinary law-abiding users.

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UK Officials Discuss the Role of Social Media in London Riots

I have decided to do a 3 part blog focusing on the Benefits of SEO, the Benefits of PPC and the Benefit of using both in cahoots with one another in order to form a well balanced, all-round online marketing strategy.

Today’s post takes a look at the benefits of SEO when compared to PPC. Next week we will take a look at PPC and conclude the week after that. I hope you’ll find it as interesting to read as I have found it interesting to write.

The Benefits of SEO – Search Engine Optimization – Organic Search:

Organic search refers to traffic that has entered your site via free organic search results in search engines, whereby a search result appears because of its relevance to the search terms that were entered by the user and in no way affected by sponsored or paid advertising. This type of traffic is free and is based on the relevant search engine’s impression of your website and its available content.

As mentioned above, organic search clicks through to your website are technically free, but believe me, getting your website to a point where you are ranking on page one of all major SERPs and thereby achieving significant traffic volumes, is no easy task and requires a lot of skill and time. Skilled time = money.

So… if SEO costs money and takes so much time, skill and effort to get to page one of the SERPS before you can start experiencing any significant traffic volumes, then why do people bother with SEO? Let’s take a look…

1. SEO is long term

Probably the greatest benefit of an effective and ethical SEO company strategy is that it results in long term benefits. Unlike PPC campaigns that literally stop driving traffic to your site the moment you cease a campaign, SEO continues to deliver results as long as a site maintains a good level of relevance and authority which, if an SEO campaign is delivered effectively, almost takes care of itself after certain amount of time.

2. Larger Audience

Research has shown that the majority of search engine users view and click organic search results rather than paid search results down the right hand side of the page. The general perception amongst industry professionals is that a standard search engine results page (one that excludes images, map listings, videos etc.) will attract a 70% to 30% split between organic search clicks and paid search clicks.  This means you have a significantly larger audience that is likely to click through to you website, especially if you are ranking towards the top of the SERPs for the searched keyword.

3. An even LARGER audience

In addition to the point above, another factor that allows you to reach a much larger audience via an effective SEO strategy is that generally your site will perform well across all search engines rather than just those on which you are paying to advertise your services. With the rise in popularity of bing and the sustained popularity of Yahoo and similar search engines, this can add up to a fairly large number clicks through to your website each month.

4. Increase the value of your website

SEO is effectively an investment of sorts; one that if it is carefully managed, can result in a website of increased value due to increased traffic volumes and therefore increased revenue. A website that is already achieving a good bottom line is very much like any other business that is doing well – it is a sought after asset and can be sold to the highest bidder. Because of the long term effectiveness of a well SEO’d site, it is a lot easier to sell a website that is achieving excellent rankings and traffic from constant organic sources, rather than one that is relying on paid advertising.

All in all, SEO is an essential and integral part of any worthy online business’ marketing strategy. Whereas a new company might want to focus a large amount of budget on PPC for immediate results, one would be silly not to start with an effective SEO campaign as soon as possible. And in this regard, read my earlier blog post which discusses the importance of a hiring an SEO company to do your work for you, as opposed to doing it yourself.

There you have it – 4 key benefits that SEO has over PPC. It doesn’t stop here though. Check back in next week to see how an effectively managed PPC campaign can help your online business and start earning ROI in no time at all.

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SEO vs. PPC – Part 1 of 3