T. and F. They don’t stand for ‘true’ or ‘false’ anymore. They stand for Twitter and Facebook. They’re in the corner of every webpage we visit, alongside ‘in’ for LinkedIn, ‘su’ for StumbleUpon, and the universally recognized envelope, which represents the archaic sharing system we call ‘email’ – which still accounts for 17% of all Internet sharing.
When we’re surfing the web, we see something we like and click one or all of these sharing buttons without thinking twice. But if you’re a marketer, or a webmaster, or a blogger – anyone that has a vested interest in how many hits are coming in; sharing isn’t just the new American pastime – there are dollars at stake. And one company is attempting to help publishers better understand how encouraging sharing can increase profits.
This is the goal of ShareThis, the largest platform for sharing and influence across the web, which aims to help publishers strengthen their advertising by understanding the people who are receiving their content via shares. Sharing accounts for 31% of site referral traffic, nearly half of what search engines account for. Analyzing not who is sharing, but who they’re sharing it with gives publishers the ammo they need to secure advertisers that will profit from partnering with them.
ShareThis CEO Tim Schigel explains it as such: If I send a link about DIY furniture restoration to my cousin Susie, it says more about her than it does about me. As Susie’s cousin and ‘search agent’, I’m targeting her better than any advertiser could. If publishers understand the people who are receiving their links from sharing, they can secure more effective advertising. By tracking the path of clicks, ShareThis can aggregate pertinent information about the publisher’s audience, thus enabling them to broker more meaningful relationships between publishers and relevant advertisers. Eventually, ShareThis will be able to assign a dollar value to every share.
One website has already nailed down their share-to-dollar algorithm – Eventbrite. As Marketing Director Tamara Mendelsohn puts it, ecommerce isn’t something you’d inherently share with your network – you don’t post the $300 shoes you just purchased on your Facebook wall (or you do, if you’re gaudy). Enter social commerce. The nature of events is that they’re social – you want your friends to come along, you want to hear feedback from people who’ve attended a similar event, you want to know who’s already purchased tickets.
Add to that an interface that encourages both event organizers and ticket purchasers to post events to their social networks, and you have one of the most successful social commerce campaigns on the Internet. Facebook is now Eventbrite’s #1 referral site, surpassing Google and netting Eventbrite 11 clicks and $2.53 per share. How they got the number: “We track the total ticket volume that is driven by each sharing mechanism and divide by the total number of shares that are initiated through that mechanism on our platform. In reality the numbers are probably higher, as some people will just directly cut and paste links to share. We can’t track that, so we know our numbers are conservative.”
Of course, not every social site can be expected to provide a ROI like Facebook (an Eventbrite share on Twitter only nets 0.43). In the case of Eventbrite, this is because Facebook (and Facebook friends) are a lot more localized – your Twitter followers are likely to have a greater geographic spread than your Facebook friends. There’s also that whole “Facebook having 500 million users” part of the equation.
There’s been an undercurrent of dissent toward Facebook in the past few months; stemming from early adopters who claim it’s ‘jumped the shark’. The unfortunate truth is that it’s the most effective social network if you’re trying to garner clicks on your shares – whether you’re trying to share the cutest kitten video ever or an article you’ve mandated ‘required reading‘ for anyone who wants to associate with you.
Of 70 billion shares examined in the ShareThis study, 38% of clicks on shared content came from Facebook (Twitter was only responsible for 11%). If you don’t use social networks to promote your projects or your personal interests, feel free to deactivate that Facebook profile. But if you have even the tiniest incentive to reach an audience, it may be a while before Facebook becomes as irrelevant as some of us wish it were.
Where and how do you share content on the Internet?
We’ve talked about social media marketing and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) for your business. Now it’s time to look more deeply into the mechanisms that make SEM and, to a lesser degree, social media work for your Web presence. We are talking here about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It is the overall method for getting more traffic to your Website from search engines, and it starts like this:
Basic Overview
Getting the most out of Google. Since the latest Google update, online businesses and other Web publishers have been focusing on what they may be doing wrong to incur the wrath of the search engines. As it turns out, however, there are also from things you can do that are very right when it comes to improving the way you show up on the search engines. Here’s Aaron Wall to tell you how. SEO Book
The problem with keywords. When considering SEO on the content creation end, the first place most small business owners start by creating a Website, blog and social media presence for their online business, is with keywords. Mastering keywords is the first step in learning about the connection between search engine results and the content you create. But many first time content creators may need a bit of help along the way. Leading Results
Marketing
All about inbound marketing. The thing we call inbound marketing is evolving and often has more than one definition. In this case, think of it has the combination of good content, SEO and social media that helps potential customers find your Web presence and eventually buy from you. But how does inbound marketing work, and how can your small business use it effectively? Virtuosi Media
SEO run amuck! Here are five things you definitely want to avoid in your small business SEO when starting out. Learning the basics of SEO to use on your small business Website can be a real challenge. It isn’t always obvious what to do. Plus it takes some practice and some good old fashioned experience to figure out what works and what doesn’t. Here’s some advice to get you started. Small Business Trends
Public Relations
The power of PR. While many public relations folks may know zilch about SEO, Conrad Saam, marketing chief for online legal directory Avvo, suspects the same is true of Search Engine Optimization experts when it comes to PR savvy. But why is it important to interest mainstream journalists in your latest online marketing efforts? Three words: high value links. Search Engine Land
Tech
Blending search with apps. A new startup is blending two of the most powerful concepts of the Internet in a new approach that may dramatically change the nature of search. How might such innovations change your search engine marketing and the way you manage SEO to keep your brand and Website on top? WSJ
Advanced Techniques
Small biz SEO. Techniques for maintaining good SEO are the same whether your business is large or small. Though the size and resources of your company may determine how you implement them. Here are ten tips for link building no matter what size your company may be. Small Business Marketing
Getting creative when managing search marketing. There is no one way to market your business effectively on the Web. Though certainly there is a body of techniques proven effective in this respect, the fact is that individual creativity can play a huge role. Duplicating someone else’s approach may not always yield the same effect. Be creative. Be innovative. Stand apart. Search Engine Watch
Research
SEO more science than magic. To prove that the techniques used to make Websites easier to find by their target audience attracting more organic traffic from search engines is not a dark art but in many ways a simple, beneficial and helpful science, Danny Sullivan introduces the comprehensive “Periodic Table of SEO Ranking Factors,” a helpful chart that may have the unfortunate side effect of making you think you’re back in high school chemistry. Search Engine Land
ROI
How much should online marketing cost you? Whether you’re doing it yourself or outsource the efforts to an “expert” or “guru,” one SEO firm claims small businesses should pay for online marketing efforts based on the results they receive. Main Street SEO provides a free report to guide small businesses when buying SEO services. Whether you outsource or do the work yourself, what is SEO costing you? Web Wire
From Small Business TrendsSmall Business News: SEO for Small Business
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