social media : blogging :: coffee shops : coffee

What good is your content without community, consumption and distribution?

Enter social media.

Which social networks are worth it?

•Perfect for broadcasting and building relationships -- especially with other influencers, press members and bloggers.

•Connect with “regular” non-media, non-financial types -- aka your audience.

•Have a home base for your networks -- stream tweets, YouTube videos, pins and Tumblr posts here.

•Run targeted ad campaigns that won’t blow your budget.

•A must if you’re serious about SEO. Take advantage of free real estate in SERPs from branded search terms.

•Send sticky traffic to your site -- good for ad revenue and SEO.

Get more face time on Facebook•Engagement isn’t just a buzzword.

•It’s an algorithm that can help you drive referral traffic and reach through earned media.

•Weight and time decay are two algorithm factors you can influence. Graphic by UptownTreehouse.com

Get more face time on Facebook•Give your timeline posts more weight by eliciting a response.

• KISS: People prefer quick and easy tasks to ones that take time and effort.

Ask simple questions. Think yes/no, more/less, like/dislike, multiple choice, fill in the blank. (WildfireApp.com)

• Get the big picture: (Pandemic Labs via AllFacebook.com)

• Emotional value: Share your feelings and experiences.

Get more face time on Facebook•Combat time decay: Post at optimal times.

• Brands that posted or scheduled posts outside of business hours showed engagement rates 20% higher than those posted only during business hours.

• But 60% of posts were between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. (Buddy Media study)

•Combat conflicting “optimal time” data.

• Use Facebook Insights to do your own A/B testing to see what works for your page.

• For two weeks, post consistently at specific times each day.

• The next two weeks, post consistently at a different set of specific times each day.

• Compare data for each date segment.

Get more face time on Facebook•Cross-promote.

• Posting an article or blog post that isn’t yours? Tag the person who wrote it or page that published it!

• Can’t afford to offer a giveaway? Partner with brand.

• Find the community manager or contact person for the brand.

• Ask about upcoming contests or promotions you could get involved with. Or suggest your own ideas to get your pitch sponsored.

• This is an underutilized tactic. Out of HUNDREDS of personal finance bloggers, only TWO have ever approached me to request a sponsorship.

A ‘Plus’ for your SEO•Google Plus offers all kinds of ways to stand out in SERPs.

• Simply having a Plus page snags you real estate in branded searches.

• Direct Connect makes it simple for users to circle your Plus page via search.

• Google authorship reveals author Plus pages in SERPs, enhancing visual cues, social context and CTRs to your content.

3 reasons you want Pinterest traffic1. It’s sticky.

view 22.8% more pages per visit.*

Users coming from

*Compared to our average number of pages viewed per visit.Omniture, June 2012

2. That’s good for ad revenue -- you’ll get more money per visit.

Pinterest traffic earns more per visit, compared to average revenue offrom social traffic referral visits. (Specifically, it’s a 15% raise per visit.)

3. That’s even better for search signals. Google doesn’t look too highly on high bounce rates. Engagement and stickiness rank.

Valuable networks if time allows

•Even if your video doesn’t go viral, you’re still being an active player on the world’s second-largest search engine.

•Establish another source of referral traffic.

•Run affordable, targeted ads.

•Name another major social network that doesn’t publically list how many followers you have.

•Reblogging, liking and commenting make going viral a possibility … even if you only have a few followers.

Twitter tips•Establish thought leadership in your niche.

• 30+ financial conferences in the U.S. each year. Join the #conversation for each of them.

• Search Jump$tart.org, National Association of Personal Financial Advisors and Institute for Financial Literacy for conferences.

• Disclaimer: None are as good as:

• Peruse trending topics to weigh in on what’s going on.

With social, your content is immortal.•Stories don’t have an expiration date. You can tell them again and again.

•Your blog posts are your stories, so share them again and again.

•There’s always a new twist or angle you can pull from a dusty blog post to push it out again on social networks.

•Fresh content is important, but utilizing existing assets is a smart business move.

•Extending your content’s lifecycle means you may not have to produce as much of it -- reducing your costs of hiring freelancers.

•Get into the habit of upcycling your content: Challenge yourself to draft about 4 tweets about one blog post.

• Tweeted July 24, 2012. Article originally published August 2, 2010.

Final pointers

•Facebook Insights don’t go back indefinitely to old data. Download your insights into an Excel file at least each month and save it.

•Use your Web analytics/ Google Analytics to generate metrics for social.

•Create a social dashboard or report that tracks key metrics such as referral traffic, bounce rates and mentions in social media.

•Use these benchmarks to track your growth and progress!

Thank you!@BankrateJanet

@Bankrate

janet.stauble@bankrate.com

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