Social Media Training Seminar Wednesday 19th February, 2014 2:00pm – 4:00pm

Your Presenter: Vorian Agency General Manager Matt Lynch General Manager of Vorian Agency – Delivering integrated online and offline marketing solutions to business wrestling with how to market in today’s changing environment. With over 20 years Information Technology and Online Marketing Experience, primary speciality being Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), working both within agency and in-house roles as a digital marketing specialist. Enjoys keeping up with the 'bleeding edge' of technology advancements and social media evolvement to ensure current knowledge in an ever changing landscape, leading to early adoption and determination of opportunity for marketing enhancement. Local, national and international project experience particularly in the field of Travel with companies such as Trafalgar Tours, The Travel Corporation brand and travel properties, Stella Travel and Best Flights; Matt has earned a reputation as an online marketing expert and search evangelist for thoroughness, quality, technical knowledge and success driven results. Matt's previous role was as the Global Online Marketing Manager for Trafalgar, coordinating the online marketing efforts with international teams for this global brand.

Connect with Matt… LinkedIn: http://au.linkedin.com/in/mattlynchseo About Me: http://about.me/au.mattlynch Twitter: https://twitter.com/mattrlynch Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mattrlynch Google+: https://plus.google.com/100121124281684757846 Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/mattrlynch Instagram: http://instagram.com/#mattrlynch FourSquare: https://foursquare.com/mattrlynch Klout: http://klout.com/#/mattrlynch Email: matt.lynch@vorian.com.au

Interactive Questions? During today’s session, you are welcome to tweet questions to our Vorian Agency Twitter Account @vorianagency using the hashtag #voriantraining https://twitter.com/vorianagency

Housekeeping Before we start, please note the following: Exits Toilets Mobile Phones on Silent Question & Answer session at end of the Presentation A link to the Presentation Slide Notes and Video will be emailed to you Vorian Agency info packs are provided to showcase our service offering Vorian staff are available to arrange an appointment or answer specific questions Please provide your feedback on today’s seminar on the supplied questionnaire Please invite others you may know to register for our free seminar series

In today’s session… At first, there was SEO… The new SEO – Introducing Search Marketing Integration ‘SMI’ The Social Salesperson Understanding SEO factors Social Stickiness Increasing your online footprint Content Marketing Awareness and follower building Reputation Management and Social Media A look at Facebook & Twitter Other Social Media channels Efficient Social Media Management Campaign Tracking Effectively with Google Analytics URL Shorteners Social Media and Search Engine - Pay Per Click Advertising

At first, there was SEO… If you business can’t be found you don’t get the traffic… Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the active practice of optimising a web site by improving internal and external aspects in order to increase the traffic the site receives from search engines. Often referred to as “Organic” or “Natural” Search. Considered the more technical part of internet marketing. 81% of internet users use search engines to find a website. 73% of all online transactions begin with a search engine. 87% of users only look at the first page. 85% of clicks are organic clicks Understanding how users search, allows you to target the searcher… 90% of online men and 91% of women use search engines. 85% of both groups say they found what they were looking for.

Changes in Google's Algorithm Google’s mission is to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. Of the daily queries on Google, 16% have never been seen before. Google’s search engineer, and head of the Web Spam team - Matt Cutts said that Google’s algorithms change once per day at the least. In one year, over 500 algorithm changes take place. Instead of focusing SEO strategy to fight against Panda, Penguin, Hummingbird and other animal-friendly Google changes, strategies need to focus beyond old school SEO tactics. The Penguin update and other tweaks changed the way that search engines interpret aggressive optimisation. SEO strategies can no longer focus on bulk links. Quality links trump quantity, but search engines also have a governing factor that restrains how quickly a site can increase their rank. To get Top Google Rankings = user engagement x on-page quality x off-page linking factors x on-page factors x social signals

The case for SMI Changes in Google algorithms have rendered many traditional SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) practices less effective. Search optimisation has been the backbone of Internet Marketing for many years. The days of traditional SEO as a distinct, independent discipline are now considered numbered... SEO is fast evolving into a more creative, diverse and finally integrated service that needs to cooperatively work together. 'Social' is something that should be integrated and embraced at every level of the organisation, and this especially includes sales. Social presents many unique opportunities to build relationships, gain insights, and make sales. Optimising your social media strategy for SMI (Search Marketing Integration) means creating content that's designed to fit in with how customers search for you, then socialise that content across all your company's social media channels.

The Social Salesperson We are seeing the rise of the 'social salesperson', that can enrich the marketing department's SMI efforts weaving SEO techniques into their day-to-day work. Content marketing is fundamental to the success of any organisation that wants to generate business online. Your savvy sales individuals will have unique perspectives on the market, products features/benefits, and how to solve problems. They will be able to identify common customer questions, reservations, and effective selling points. They are ideally placed to help with the creation of content that aligns with every stage of the sales funnel. Content should be monitored of course and vetted before representing the brand (have a brand guideline or ‘style guide’ is a good start). The sheer volume, and quality of content will be beneficial for the business. Savvy sales reps can support the business by sharing information via social communities. Retweet company announcements, promoting content, engaging with their community. As the sales rep's social presence grows, so should the brand's, bringing in new followers and widening your social reach.

The Social Salesperson… Ask them to engage with customers, prospects and industry peers on blogs, and groups (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google+) this will help to build relevant links back into your site. Encourage them to attend local meet-up groups or networking events, where they can 'check-in', 'tweet' and post updates. Many sites, associations and groups allow the users to post profiles, and links... and contribute to solid link authority references back to your site. Salespeople tend to have larger than normal networks, which can be tapped into and used for SEO, including LinkedIn, Facebook and Google+ Colleagues in complementary organisations on LinkedIn, who can be used for guest blog posts, co-marketing sponsorships, interviews and other opportunities. Keeping up-to-date and informed on the competition, your sales team are well suited for this role. Successful SMI requires the full integration of your whole organisation.

Does it mean that SEO is dead? Every year, somebody proclaims SEO is dead, however SEO is fast evolving into a more creative, diverse and challenging profession. These days, search engines AND consumers want; quality, engagement and social proof. Search engines will measure content quality, brand sentiment and relevance. One key element in Google's Penguin update was the inclusion of an organisation's brand reach as a factor in SERPs. The greater your brand popularity, the higher the probability of achieving a first page position. Press releases, interviews and relationships with magazines are a big part of SMI, as they help PR link building. If Google sees it as relevant to a particular query, you will now see images and videos outranking organic page listings. Search engines are increasingly using social signals in their algorithms and measuring 'brand sentiment' more accurately.

SEO Factors are still required Good domain name Quality SEO friendly CMS (Content Management System) or choice of <html> Quality hosting, preferably on own IP address, with server compression enabled Clear of Spam blocks (IP not blacklisted) www resolved. Your website without the www doesn't redirect to www. (duplicate content) Lower case, hyphenated, structured URL address strategy Well structured, clean <html> code that passes W3C Validation Text/html ratio and positioning Fast loading page code/design (compressed images) Good competitor research and keyword analysis Appropriate SEO <title>, <description> meta tags and other appropriate meta data that search engines understand (Language, doctype, encoding) Google/Bing Webmaster Tools verification Geo positioning location code (particularly for local search) Canonical reference to the primary parent source (prevent duplication) Favicon icon image RSS feed for the site

SEO Factors are still required… Reduced number and quantity of Javascript and CSS files ALT tags and descriptions for images, along with good file naming conventions Breadcrumb navigation Use of only 1 <h1> tag, and appropriate lesser heading levels <h2><h3> Well structured footer navigation internal links Dynamically coded header navigation with child levels to enable one click traverse of entire website Google analytics code on all pages Consider use of embedding Google maps (location lat/long code) Local phone number, address, postcode Actual well written content on the page (keyword saturation) Use of syntax signals; bold, italics, unordered lists Customised 404 error page Strategy for old pages to have 301 redirects Inclusion of the robots.txt file Inclusion of the sitemap.xml file(s) Avoid use of frames and avoid use of flash (doesn't work on iDevices) Oh,… and did I mention – “Good Content”!

Webmaster Tools The Search Engines are incorporating Social Signals - BWT (Bing Webmaster Tools) continues to evolve to include information on the social media accounts associated to the business website. GWT (Google Webmaster Tools) is yet to follow… but it won’t be long. GWT does have Author Stats (Google+)

Different types of search Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Maps, YouTube, LinkedIn… Mobile, leading to immediate engagement (phone calls/maps in transit) Voice Search – tied into Google’s new Hummingbird Algorithm change 70% of Mobile Searches Lead to Online Action Within an Hour. 61% of mobile users call after a local business search. 43% of consumers are unlikely to return to a slow-loading mobile site. 40% of consumers are going to turn to a competitor's site after a bad mobile experience.

Add up the user numbers Be found not just on Google in search… (Bing, Yahoo!, local search,…) Go to where the users are, don't ignore them: Facebook YouTube LinkedIn Twitter Tumblr Instagram Pinterest Flickr Google+

Brand Consistency Before we delve into preparing to do business online… research and do the due diligence, to determine a consistent brand approach (name and logo) to avoid confusion and conflict to the brand. NameChk: http://namechk.com/ Knowem: http://knowem.com/

Secure Your Name Proverb: Failing to plan is planning to fail You may not use them today, but secure them for tomorrow!

Style Guide Generate a ‘Style Guide’ for your online business Research your target demographic to develop your ideal ‘persona’ Determine your ‘Tone of Voice’, type of language used and how you will come across Consistent naming convention for account creation Consistent brand approach for use of logo, hero images, fonts and colours Prepare business descriptors for use in ‘About’ biographies Look to incorporate target keyword strategy throughout

Your Social Media Policy To maintain our company's open, honest and transparent approach, and our genuine personality, we’ve set out a few Guidelines and Policies to follow. They should be read and followed by all staff, and especially anyone who updates a Social Media profile for our company. Our Social Media objectives Have fun. If you enjoy what you do, they will too! Respect the audience. Even if their opinions differ. Be timely. Social Media is about NOW. Know when and what to post. Right message, right time. Be mindful of situations where you need approval signoff before responding or posting. Leave competitors to it. They may talk about us, but the best response is no response. Act responsibly. Do us proud and keep it honest. Don’t post negative comments, avoid inflating feedback with other profiles and importantly never leak confidential business information Remember to follow these policies Keep it quiet – never discuss company or customer details. This includes subjects like sales figures, customer details, internal policies, complaints, staff members or incidents. Keep it nice – Never refer to our company or others in a way that is defamatory, harassing or indecent. Keep it private – Never reference any clients, customers or trade partners without obtaining their permission to do so. Keep it real – Never post online on behalf of the company or competitors (under your own name or anonymously) unless it’s part of your job role or you’ve been given permission to do so. Keep it calm – if you’re in a bad mood, or someone riles you, take a step back and come back to it later. And finally, remember to keep it cool – We know you love social media as much as we do, but remember your social media usage shouldn’t interfere with your job. Usage may be reviewed and monitored by your Manager.

Which Demographics are Social? Number of Australian Retailers using Facebook: 53% Number of Australian Retailers using Twitter: 46%

Top Twitter Tips Does account match business name (matching brand)? Do they have a Hero (Header) image (1252x626px 5Mb max size)? Have they included Location Information "Bunbury, Western Australia“? Have they included their Website URL? Do they have a suitable 'About Us' Bio description?

Top Twitter Tips… Do they have a custom background design? Do they have suitable branding logo (company) or photo (individual)? How many Tweets (how active are they?) How many Following (who are they connecting to?) How many Followers (how many people are connecting to them?) Do they use LISTS, if so how many and what about? Do they use Favorites? Do they use Photos and Videos? Do they advertise (in the design, about us, posts) to their other SM accounts (Facebook, Pinterest etc to cross promote.)? Frequency of Tweets (posts)? Types of posts (text, photo, video, links)? Do they Retweet other users? Do they DM (Direct Message) other users? (won't be visible to public) Do they use #hashtags within posts? Do they use a specific URL shortener? Topics of posts? Engagement with posts (from users and to others)?

Hashtags # Use hashtags (#) to focus tweets on topical keywords, or brand name. Regularly post with hashtags. Don’t over do the amount of hashtags implemented within a post. Keep an eye on trending topics and particular #tags, and blend these into your RT/posts. Trending topics can be seen on Twitter. http://www.hashtags.org/trending-on-twitter/ Hashtags can be used as keyword links within Twitter, Facebook and Google+

Tweet Length Twitter limits Tweet length to 140 characters. To encourage Retweeting studies show that the “ideal” character count for a RT is in the range 70-100 characters. To illustrate this, count the characters: don_crowther is 12 characters long. Add one for the @ sign. Then add 3 more for RT and the space which follows it and you have 12+1+3=16. So the longest tweet I would ever want to tweet is 140-16=124 characters I would suggest that you have a rule of thumb where your character count including spaces, hashtags and shortened url all adds up to 120 characters maximum. The easiest way to manage this is by using a spreadsheet and format a cell to perform a character count for each post which has the formula =LEN(C3).

Location Search Within Twitter you can keyword search by location ‘near’ Websites like twitterfall.com/ provides access to geo located tweets

10years on – Facebook Tips Firstly, ‘Happy 10th Birthday’ to Facebook.

Facebook Tips… Do they use a suitable business name (matching brand)? Do they have a custom URL? Do they have a Hero image? Do they have suitable branding logo, or profile picture? How many LIKES? How many Talking About? How many were here (check-ins)? Do they have a suitable 'About Us'? Do they use Photos/Video gallery? Do they use Events? Do they use Notes? Do they tie in to their other SM accounts (Twitter, Pinterest ect)? Do they use Custom Plugins (newsletter, SM etc)? Frequency of posts (to the wall)? Types of posts (text, photo, video, links)? Topics of posts (competitions, engaging, asking questions)? Engagement with posts (from users)? Use of TimeLine (do they extend back to inception of business)?

It all starts with Content Content Marketing, Social Media and SEO works together for great results… Blog posts Videos and Podcasts Images and Infographics Whitepapers Webinars Slideshows Reviews Website copy and Product descriptions Ebooks Digital magazines Research reports Case studies Enewsletters ... then syndicate all of this content through your social channels. Did you know that making your content font size a bit larger can even impact the conversion rate?

Do Not Make Misleading Claims ACCC – Advertising & Promoting Your Business – Social Media: There are no specific or different consumer laws or rules in place for social media. Consumer protection laws which prohibit businesses from making false, misleading or deceptive claims about their products or services have been in place for decades. These laws apply to social media in the same way they apply to any other marketing or sales channel.

Repurpose/Reuse Content Images/video, there are multiple types of video social media channels where video can be posted/embedded, likewise with images. Look to reuse this graphic content in multiple areas. Depending on channels repurposed to, adjust the tone of voice of the text to suit. Anchor tags/link references variance (avoid duplicate content)

The power of an image One Picture is Worth a Thousand Words. Dozens of studies and experiments prove that users are more attracted by amateur pictures that look true-to-life, though they can miss a polished glamorous look. As James Chudley put in his guide on using photos to sell: Show off your product’s benefits Make visitors laugh Tell a story and show how to do something (step-by-step guides with pictures simply rock!) Be consistent and professional. Infographics are another way of leveraging images.

Efficient Social Media Management - HootSuite Did you know you can use HootSuite with many of the popular Social Media channels to connect with consumers, broadcast, amplify, and monitor conversations? Repurpose content across multiple social media channels and coordinate your social media campaign management from HootSuite. Schedule your posts in HootSuite in advance (day and time) upload from a spread sheet. Great for monitoring and listening Google Analytics connection Canned responses Shortened URL Get the App!

Effort + time + multiple channels Search Marketing Integration is simply creating value through several different online marketing mediums, and this will consist of the effort to build these and the time taken to grow. Consumers like to educate themselves during the ‘research phase’ first before subscribing or buying anything. Today's online traffic either already knows where they like to shop online or, take their time getting to know where they would 'eventually' like to buy things online. Social Media is the springboard for creating quality content and launching information. Blogging is one of the best delivery mechanisms for SMI, as it includes images, words, video and social sharing solutions built in.

Optimisation for SMI Three areas marketers can optimise for a more strategic and holistic approach to successful internet marketing: Optimise for Discovery – How does your target audience prefer to find information? Search, Social, Email, Advertising, Word of Mouth. What devices do they use? When are they most likely to search, socialise or purchase? Optimise for Consumption – What content formats and media types does your community prefer? Do they like long or short form? Text, images, audio or video? Optimise for Engagement – What messages, topics and contexts motivate your community to interact, share and convert?

Social Learning Apply shared learning's from each channel Cross pollination between each channel (share and point between) Focus on the strengths on each channel (demographic understanding, delivery time) Explain where you are (which channels)! Do this by… social share/follow on site/EDM/email stationery/off-line opportunities (POS etc.). So much effort taken to drive traffic to a business, why not get them to stick (particularly during their research phase) Opportunities to reinforce (confirmation pages, automated emails) Provide access to immediate information (Twitter, Facebook, Community?)

Keep Your Site Sticky! And once you have got the user to your website... Stickiness will keep them there! Newsletter subscription feature Follow on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest... Add to Favorites Community Section (If suitable) Encourage them to engage, and re-engage… give them a reason to do so. As with ANY Social Media account and your contact information, you want it to be seen so that others can discover, follow you and connect. Also add the Social Media logos and links to your company profile in your email. On your website, “Our Staff” section, have profiles for your team members and include links to their LinkedIn accounts and other Social Media. In your EDMs (Electronic Distribution Marketing – Emails) include both links to your LinkedIn company/personal page, as well as Social Share options within the content to encourage viral distribution opportunities. Add Social Media news feed plugins to your website to share the content. Remarketing…

Behind the Page <html> You can include a reference to your Twitter and Facebook social media sites from within the <html> code of your website using Twitter Card and Facebook Open Graph metadata markup. Twitter Card Validator: https://dev.twitter.com/docs/cards/validation/validator Facebook Open Graph Checker: https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug

New opportunities… Hangouts (create video content) Real time experience (tweets during an event) Apps (iTunes, Google Play, Windows) Social check-ins Video is fast becoming one of the most influential factors in all aspects of digital marketing. Particularly useful if you are targeting a long-tail query, if the query relates closely to a visual concept that could be better explained in a video than a blog, you will most certainly gain a better search position by producing a video. A 2010 Forrester study showed that a webpage with a video was 53x more likely to gain a page one position in the SERPs. Viewers of video are 64% more likely to purchase after watching a product video.

Quality Indicators +1s Likes Retweets Subscribes Votes Links Shares Comments Views Mentions Social signals, trust, recommendations, reviews, content and link references, relationships with search engines, multiple listings for your business in SERPs increasing site saturation/footprint Social media values such as likes, shares, retweets and +1s, are becoming more influential in terms of garnering search results. Google is interested in rewarding sites that have good social signals. Social media injects a valuable human element into the search landscape to balance out spiders, algorithms and technology.

Reputation Reporting Measure and Manage your Social Reputation Klout - http://klout.com/home Kred - http://kred.com/ Naymz - http://www.naymz.com/ PeerIndex - http://www.peerindex.com/ TrustCloud - https://trustcloud.com/ Social Mention – http://www.socialmention.com/ Record monthly your growth in followers, following, LIKES, Tweets check-ins, people talking about this, engaged users and reach.

Don't forget SEM Search Engine Marketing or Pay-Per-Click Advertising Start with standard Search Network, Display Network, Remarketing… Across Google, then Bing/Yahoo! Attach your Google Adwords to your YouTube channel Social Media PPC advertising across Facebook and LinkedIn ComScore's report suggests that display and video ads can increase brand-related search queries by 3x. A recent Google study suggests there is a strong relationship between ad click-through rates (CTR) and the presence of an organic listing on the first page results. Take the intelligence from SEM campaigns and directly apply to organic strategy.

Facebook PPC Determine your goal – increase LIKES or drive traffic to your site Refine your audience to target: Location, Town/City, Age, Gender, Interests, Connections, Interested In, Relationship Status, Languages, Education, Workplaces, More Categories… Advert Images are no larger than 110 x 80 pixels and less than 5Mb Ad Creative: When creating ad text note that there is a character limit of 25 for the title and 90 for the Body copy and News Feed Link description. Make certain that the most relevant keywords are used. Also note that it is okay to push branded messages and company taglines within the ‘branding campaigns’. However when writing copy for ‘tactical campaigns’, it would be best to put yourself in the users shoes and write copy that encourages engagement. Create dedicated landing pages for your campaigns, and use conversion tracking. Consider using Retargeting via Facebook Exchange (FBX) advertising platform.

Google URL Shortener & Campaign Tracking To assist your marketing campaign reporting and tracking of the efforts of links you post and measure the effectiveness of your activities, consider using a consistent URL shortener such as Google’s goo.gl Google Analytics Campaign Link Tagging Tool is also very useful to create tagged URLs with campaign and source information that you can then shorten. The results are then measured within Google Analytics to show the effectiveness of different mediums.

https://twitter.com/vorianagency Follow-up Questions? After today’s session, you are welcome to tweet questions to our Vorian Agency Twitter Account @vorianagency using the hashtag #voriantraining https://twitter.com/vorianagency

Keep Connected After today’s session, please feel free to connect with me if you have additional questions: LinkedIn: http://au.linkedin.com/in/mattlynchseo Don’t forget to follow Vorian Agency on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/vorian-agency All of my other Social Media links are available on About.Me: About.Me: http://about.me/au.mattlynch Email: matt.lynch@vorian.com.au

Please… invite others We would like to thank you for your attendance to today’s seminar on Search Marketing Integration. A link to the Presentation Slide Notes and Video will be emailed to you Vorian Agency info packs are provided to showcase our eight key business areas Vorian staff are available to arrange an appointment to assist your specific needs Please provide your feedback and hand-in the supplied questionnaire We would love you to join us for drinks at an informal sun-downer, a great opportunity to network with other businesses, and ask any further questions you may have Please invite others you may know to register for our free seminar series and forward them a copy of today’s seminar email.