This week on the Blogosphere we’ve selected five insightful blog posts for discussion. The following articles focus on a wide array of topics, including:
- Most online users merely skim content, rather than reading it word-for-word. In order to appeal to readers in the social media space, it’s important to structure and style your content in a digestible, accessible format.
- Risk reversal strategies don’t just apply to B2C; they have relevancy in B2B marketing efforts as well.
- Three-word queries appear to be the magic number for driving traffic from search engines.
- E-mails containing social sharing options produce 30% higher click-through rates than those without.
- There are numerous advertising opportunities available on LinkedIn that go a step beyond the network’s standard marketing offerings.
How to Prep Content for Social Media
Search Engine Land | Jordan Kasteler | 6-29-10
It’s well known that the average user on the Web skims rather than reads content. When developing content for your social media networks, it’s essential to keep this in mind and to realize that users will be looking for even more quick, accessible content in the social media space. While it’s important to focus on publishing high quality writing, this author argues that employing an easy-to-navigate, user-friendly structure and style is critical. In terms of structure, the author suggests using short sentences and paragraphs, focusing on one topic per paragraph. Also, he recommends including a table of contents, bullet points and a clear hierarchy of content. For the purpose of SEO, the author also highlights the importance of properly coding your content.
- The majority of users on social networking sites will skip over dense, difficult-to-skim content.
- It’s essential that you structure and style your content in an accessible format, if you want a shot at attracting and retaining readers.
SEO Sweet Spot – Three-Word Searches
This article looks at a recent study by Chitika (an online ad network), which determined that three-word queries yield the highest return on traffic from search engines. Queries with more than five words showed greatly diminished numbers in traffic, suggesting that three-to-five word queries are ideal for driving traffic and conversion. The study also looked at ad click rates, which were highest for queries of five, six, then four words (in that order). The article concludes that this latter finding suggests that the more complex the search query, the greater the chances are for publisher profit, to a certain extent.
- Three-to-five word queries produce the highest traffic from search engines.
- Ad click rates are highest for queries containing four to six words.
Study: E-mail click-throughs boosted with social sharing
BtoB Magazine | Christopher Hosford | 6-21-10
In a study conducted by GetResponse (an e-mail marketing provider), it was found that e-mails containing social sharing options produced 30% higher click-through rates than e-mails without these options. E-mails that included three or more sharing options saw a 55% click-through rate. Out of the social networks included in the study, Twitter saw the highest preference at 67.2%, and Facebook was runner-up at 62.7%.
- E-mails with social sharing options yield 30% more click-throughs than e-mails without sharing options.
- The most popular sharing options are through Twitter and Facebook.
8 Interesting Media Offerings on LinkedIn
In this post, the author details eight specific advertising opportunities available on LinkedIn that go beyond the network’s basic marketing offerings. Recently, this largely B2B social network added a new feature (much like Facebook and Twitter), which allows you to add a follow button to your company profile, so that your followers will receive updates from your page. Additionally, marketers can use LinkedIn Direct Ads and InMail to reach their target audience through display ads and direct messages to their inboxes. Other features include customized groups, which allow a business to create, moderate and control the advertising of their own group, and LinkedIn Polls, which you can generate and equip with questions for your target audience. Also available are LinkedIn Answers category sponsorships, enabling businesses to advertise on a custom-built page, as well as “audience roadblocks,” which allow a company to manage their target audience’s homepage ads.
- LinkedIn offers many unique marketing opportunities, including: Upgraded company profiles, Custom groups, Audience roadblock, Answers category sponsorship, DirectAds, InMail, Polls and a White paper program.
- The social network recently began allowing companies to include a follow button on their profile pages.
Six Risk Reversal Tactics For B2B Lead Generation
Search Engine Land | Brian Massey | 6-30-10
The author proposes that B2B companies can use risk reversal strategies for lead generation much like B2C companies do, just with an alternate approach. He suggests that while consumers stand to lose money when making a purchase, business people have an even greater opposition to such risks because their jobs and reputation are at stake, which, he claims is why risk reversal is most relevant in B2B interactions. Some of the risk reversals that he recommends include: offering your webinar, video or white paper for free; asking for a limited amount or no contact information upfront; making forms optional; and, telling visitors what to expect when they’re asked to click on buttons or links. Most importantly, make sure that you’re as good as your word. For instance, if you offer prospects an opt-out option on e-mail lists, make sure you live up to that promise.
- Risk reversal strategies don’t just apply to B2C; they can be used quite effectively for B2Bs when correctly executed.
- Just implementing these tactics isn’t enough; you must ensure that you’re following through on your promises, so as to not lose potential customers.
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