Technorati also use a proprietary blog ranking system, which is useful for helping you to find useful blogs in your marketing sector. Why is this useful? Other than the benefits of learning and reading, you can also use a list of blogs in your sector as a target list for link building and public relations.

Additional benefits exist for you as blog owner, if you add your blog to Technorati. Adding your blog, or “claiming” your blog if it is already on there, is of benefit as you get to ensure the details are as you would like them. Of course the link to your blog is a follow link – which is kind of like a “thumbs up” sign to a search engine crawler.

To claim your blog you just need to create an account on Technorati, add your blog and submit a claim. You will then be given a unique claim code like this Q7759JM7D5M7 (this one is mine ). You will need to write a new blog post and insert your code into the post so that Technorati can crawl and verify the code in your post – thus telling you are indeed the said author, of said blog.

Easy peasy!

Why not try this for your blog? www.technorati.com

Excellent!

As you begin to generate a bit of a following and you’re seeing “community signs” such as increased repeat visitor numbers, higher page to visit ratios and also comments on your blog; you may notice the ubiquitos spam.

Some spam is so obvious, if this was 1972, we’d have eaten it. Other spam can be a little harder to detect, and it may get past the spam-catching plugin that you use. Getting comments feels great, particulalry as you launch your business and seek to establish networks and communities so I understand it can be hard to draw that line and work out what is a spam comment and what is a real genuine comment, when perhaps you would rather approve more than you disapprove.

Let’s have a quick definition and then look at a few quick and easy ways to tell spam from the real thing!

Spam is a lot of things in a lot of mediums, but from email, to Twitter to blog comments there are common elements:

1.The route to “spam” is electronic.

2. The “spam content” is most often disguised as a genuine communication

3. There is an attempt to deceive you, for the benefit of the “spammer”.

When it comes to blog comments, the reason for spamming, is to drop a link on your site, to the spammer site. Most of the time the reason for posting a link isn’t so much about getting traffic, but about the spam site, increasing the number of links to it. Some of the most important of the two hundred or so ranking componants of the Google algorithm look at number of links to your site, relevance of such links to your site, the quality/authority of the site linking to you and even more link related factors. If done well and undetected, link spamming via comments can help a spam site achieve a falsely high ranking that does not reflect the tru quality of the site.

So that’s why they do it!

Here’s a few thinks to think about when deciding if a comment may actually be spam.

1. Links in the comment/commentor details: do these links lead to good quality legitimate sites with such signifiers as clear business details in the Privacy Policy, About Us or otherwise legal footer links.

2. Links in the comment/commentor details: are these links relevant to the post, the comment or the general theme of the blog?

3. Does the comment add any value? comments such as “that was a great post – thanks”. Might make you feel great for a second, but if the comment adds no value, or makes no real reference to the content – chances are it’s deliberate spam.

4. Does it read well? Most spam comments are not made by humans, but by spambots. Such spambots crawl the web looking for blog platforms, crawling and following links to activities such as “add comment” then drop the auto content in the bot program.

5. Is it duplicated? If a comment is very vague and adds no value e.g. “A good article and thank you for the information. I will bookmark this post” then you could try searching for that phrase on Google, to see if it is a bot comment. Make sure you use the quotation marks around the phrase to only get results with the exact phrase, with words in that order.

One final point on blog comments in general. Many blog platforms give you the option to automatically approve all comments that are not identified as spam, malicious or otherwise by your blog software. If you work in a litigious or highly competetive sector, it may be an idea to allow automatic approval anyway, reason being if you have manually seen and approved these comments, you then as a publisher are responsible for this content.

More on dangers and legal pitfalls in social media here: Social Media 101

You nearly always did not ask for it.

Confession. I bleed purple. I have an emotional as well as professional motive for attending this session. I’m also becomming a big Bing fan of late and I’m pretty excited to see what they come up with this year.

2009 – Bing has established itself as the “best converting” search engine.

Cedric, 34MM UU in the UK across MSN Windows Live Messenger etc. IT’s not all about reach for you – it’s about performance. Today we’re looking at product capabilities focusing on Bing.

Launched June 2009 and is apparently the “best converting” search engine.

One question we always get. Why bother in search? A – because we are committed to succeed. 5 yrs ago Steve Ballmer said “we want to be number 2”, now they are so how to take it further.

Context – in ten years we have seen 100,000% growth in content. Everything has changed including consumer behaviour. It’s way more difficult to get around the web – hence the rise of search. More and more people are searching more and more.

Queries are becoming more complex in string length and composition. Many more variables to consider and consumers are voicing their frustrations with the search experience. Consumers have evolved faster than search.

Bing Promise: – A brand new search experience. Rich and engaging search content to help British consumers reach more content more quickly.

Intent – we switch on the internet because we want to switch on the internet. Just like TV. Don’t really have an objective in mind.

Bing – capturing  attention using the UI – the attractive imagery. Intended to be a source of information too, with some rollover features. Images are chosen locally by UK journo.

To the search engine nitty gritty.

Many, many queries are purely navigational – therefore why clutter the SERP with anything other than the desired object. E.g. “William Hill” , you would expect the brand result for William Hill.

Informational searches – delivering the answer in the SERP with the feature “instant answer”. E.g. if you type the ref for your flight “BA74″ in the search box then details of the flight will appear in the SERP, giving an instant answer; such as “BA74 departed LAX at 17:45, on time and is due to land at…”.

In the next few weeks expect to see live sports results in the SERP (done in partnership with in-market content providers). Partners include Sky Sports and Toptable.

UX is at the core. Understanding or catering for intent is key. Hence the left navigation. Categorised search for related query term.

Twitter – Bing were 1^st to market with this integration.

Innovation is a core philosophy. Example – using visual stimulus to search, such as searching premiership players by image. Refine by rollover information on the image or refine criteria in the left-hand links. E.g. “Top Scorers” (This looks awesome).

He quotes John Batelle. “Search engine: the database of intent” (I’ll leave it there.)

Over to Adam, who manages the entertainment and gaming channel. We’re gonna get some stats (whohoo).

Reach – 90% of UK internet base.

Unique functionality and tools. MSN targeting capabilities. Adcentre platform has some sophistocated targetting – including days of the week, age and gender.

3^rd year running NNR reports Bing as best converting search engine in the UK.

Bing searchers 47.4% more engaged than Google searchers.

The remainder is an interesting sales pitch for their various AdCenter tools, with UI screenshots. I’ll leave it there. The tool is called “Mate” and has a lot of deep-dive data, demographics, trends, KW data etc. so look it up.

We start off by debunking a few myths. Ralph goes through them; only high PageRank links are good, all paid links are bad etc. Don’t obsess too much about high PR links. PR can go up as well as down.

Another golden rule – not all links are equal. A good link building strategy needs competitive analysis and expertise. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket, as your behaviour needs to look natural. What’s natural about 100 permanent links all a PR5+? Basically; don’t obsess about the “myths” or your behaviour becomes unnatural.

Our MC (conveniently Michael Caselli) asks – Is PR still important?

Ralph – yes. It is indicative of trust. Just don’t obsess and remember the toolbar PR is not the same as the Google internal PR. It’s “for entertainment purposes only”.

Marcus – it can be hard to find sites without paid links so monitoring drops in PR is a good way (when no other factor seems to warrant a penalty), to work out if a source is taking paid links.

Christoph – also be aware of how PR drops can identify linkbuyers. If you have a paid link source and that source drops 2-3PR and you remove the link, you’re identifying yourself to Google – yes, I bought that for the PR. Again Christoph echoes Ralph; don’t obsess about PR and don’t base your strategy on this.

A member of the audience brings up the “bad neighbourhood” term.

Christoph – look at other links on the site linking to you. Are they quality. Are they relevant?

Audience – is there a danger in having links from a site that takes paid links, even if your is not?

Marcus – Yes! (back to bad neighbourhood). Marcus given an analogy “if you’re sat in a bar next to Bob (Rains) and Dave (Naylor) – that’s a bad neighbourhood”. (LOL.)

Christoph – Great links are the ones your competitors can not get easily.

Sebastian – You need to start with analysis, backlink tools, your links, your competitor links. If you believe in white hat only in this industry, then Good Luck! Penalties are over-rated. Too much money in this industry and everyone is buying links. (Basically; they can’t spank the whole industry overnight.)

Ralph goes back to “bad neighbourhood” to give a different perspective – relevancy isn’t too concerning. A bad neighbourhood is more – cheap Viagra, buy Cialis – that sort of stuff. Agrees with Sebastian that this is a highly competitive industry, if you don’t go for black hat, you’re toast.

MC – when is too far?

Ralph – “When you fail” (I love this!)

MC – How many links do I need to get to position one for poker?

Ralph – (I’m paraphrasing) – “How long is a piece of string?” You can have a site with 7000 links in position 1 or a site with 150,000 links in position 1. Remember not all links are equal and your link strategy is just one part of over 200 factors. So many other variables in the mix.

Q from the audience – What is the one “Golden Link”?

Marcus had a great one from W3C. Essentially when they introduced the donation facility on their site, high donors got a link. Marcus was one of the first few – paid his $1k for a year. In his own  words that link was “better than sex”.

Christoph – points out that when such trust is transferred from a link like this, then linking to the next level down the tree is also of great benefit. Being a degree or so removed from that golden source is still worth it. Accumulating such links takes time and also why age/trust are inextricable.

Sebastian – if you develop a new domain, keep it clean, do your press releases. Buy a couple of great paid links; then when the site gets some trust and some traction, then you can really go for it.

Ralph – one of the problems with hunting for that “golden link” is often you can’t tell until after the fact.

MC asks the panel. If you want to rank for the term “Poker”, where is your golden link? Apparently this is a favourite question from Marcus and one he has previously offered money for the right answer for. Marcus thinks this time he could be out of pocket, but it turns out not everybody knows the answer. Which is of course “from the number 1 in the SERP for “poker”. Just ask Google who they trust, and that’s number 1.

Q from the audience – I have a German site and I’m building links from the UK – good or bad?

Sebastian – try to keep a 70/30 rule (70 being the country of origin). Be careful of link brokers here.

Christoph – A link has to pass the smell test. A site in a different country and a different language might make perfect sense; just thing about it logically, naturally and factor relevance.

Q from the audience – How does Google determine relevance? e.g. is “Sportsbook” related to “poker”?

Sebastian – don’t think of Google as a fancy sophisticated bit of .php. Google has been trying for years to emulate human behaviour. Human interpretation of relevance is probably much wider than a machine interpretation.

Ralph – points out that there are linguistic tools available that can assist with this. Also, do bear in mind that text around your anchor text is not ignored. Don’t drop a link with anchor text into a completely irrelevant paragraph.

In summary: Don’t obsess over any one factor in your link-building strategy or you risk losing sight of the whole. Don’t be too timid in this industry or you will sink. Don’t be too rigid or inflexible in your approach or behaviour. Make sure you don’t stink.

My first session of the day and it promises to be a really exciting one. Social Media is always a good crowd-puller, but in the hugely competitive affiliate space, Social Media participation has it’s pitfalls.

Here we go…

Andrew is a self-proclaimed geek and former affiliate. Currently working with a big agency and experienced in managing legal social/gaming issues, (particularly the celebrity death odds.)

Participation is underpinned by a required understanding of the law.

We’re starting off in 2000 when Lawrence Godfrey goes after Demon Internet and sets a 15k precedent for content host responsibility. Blame him…

Andrew himself had a client video removed from YouTube, due to a trademark referenced. Less than 100 views before it was pulled.

The Electronic Commerce Directive “ISPs should not have to monitor everything.” However in France Louis Vuitton and eBay are at constant war over fake goods. eBay does offer some policy (the VeRo program) to try to protect IP.

How does this affect You?

Blogs

Post moderation and pre-moderation. Post comment goes live, approved after the fact.) Pre – moderation approving by consideration, actually puts you i a difficult position, as you have complicity approved something.

Spartacus Order – anonymous comment trolls need to watch their backs. This order means the person responsible for comments must identify themselves.

John Doe: 18thc law. A court can still proceed without knowing the identity of a perpetrator.

In the UK, the  Consumer Protection Act. A financial interest must be disclosed e.g. if I chat on social media “Betfair is great”, then I need to disclose my financial relationship, or am technically breaking the law.

Yahoo! Answers example – comment in Car Insurance from a guy who gets a lot of thumbs up, however ‘always’ recommends the same insurance co. Naughty.

Gambling in Europe

EU free trade is fuzzy when it comes to gambling and proceedings take a very long time to change. One law is that there is coming EU tracking law. Opt out of tracking must be clear.

Other Effects – Google

The algorithm knows gambling content.

That’s the cautionary tale, now for the advantages.

Affiliates are not stupid

Affiliates don’t have a brand committee (nimble and flexible structure)

On average affiliates are 3525% quicker than brands to make site changes

Merchant Disadvantage

One client took two years to put a link on their homepage

One bank took one year to add an RSS feed to a page for a 10k bill from their design agency.

Another took 7 months to decide to use Google Local and 1 year to actually get on there.

Lesson: affiliate organisations are the perfect size, scale and mindset to successfully participate in social media.

Virtual Networking

Nimble affiliates can easily participate in Twitter.

TRAPS

Blogging

Blogger, Mixx, Friendfeed, Twitter, Twhirl – one blog can grow into so many means of promotion it is an easy trap to end up exceeding time spent “being social”. Do monitor your time against benefit.

Dumb Merchants

Andrew himself was previously an affiliate of New Line Cinema – When Lord of The Rings launched, they offered an affiliate scheme on a golden ring for £200 which got a lot of traction in some social media, (incredulity of price for a replica ring) which lead to a lot of impressions, high-interest. Social/viral effect can lead merchants to suspect some form of click incentive. Andrew got kicked off this particular program.

Biggest Tip

NEVER offer legal, financial or medical advice in any way, shape or form.

Also – careful when providing content related to celebs. If it is true = copyright, if it’s private = Intellectual Property.

Moving onto Gamer Networks and the Prime Candidates for Affiliate Social Activities.

Raptr is a perfect hunting ground for casual gamers.

Real-time in Twitter, links text ad links related to trending topics.

Outbrain’s Outcloud A great way to collate blog content into a social content form including thumbnail image content. Costs $10 a month, but huge potential for impressions and clicks. Highly recommended.

Also – don’t forget good old Yahoo! pipes.

In summary – Social Media is a world of opportunity for affiliates, but just be aware of the rules of play, and how social viral campaigns may not convert in the way that is expected by the merchant.

QUESTIONS

What about duplicate content?

Don’t duplicate your own content. Don’t push the same post to multiple distribution points. Check Google from a content dupe perspective. Make sure your post is live on your own site first. Establish authority of source.

PR are the sites good distribution sources?

Yes. Particularly if you can get something into Google News. NYT picked up a press release about how US prisoners are forbidden to play Dungeons and Dragons. Great story, which was picked up by the blogs already for two days before NYT picked it up.

Following this evening’s iGB Affiiate Awards, the conference and exhibition proper starts on Friday. theMediaFlow will be in full attendence so if you see me, Stephen or Sarah; please say Hi!

Friday I’m attending and liveblogging the following sessions, so if you can’t make any of these sessions or can only come for one day; be sure to bookmark, subscribe etc. I’ll also be tweeting-up the place #LAC.

Friday.

11:30 AM Social Media 101

Andrew Girdwood of Bigmouthmedia takes us through some of the most crucial social media concerns for affiliates, such as; legal considerations, Google and Facebook view of affiiates in social media, the crackdown on lead-gen and more.

12:15 PM Demon SEO

(My two favourite words in one session. What’s not to love?)

SEO heavyweights Bob Rains, David Naylor, Ziv Descalu and Frank Watson, will be taking us through Advanced SEO techniques and telling us what really counts.

13:45 PM Hunting for that Golden Link

Up to date strategies from a supremo SEO panel. Marcus Tandler, Ralph Tegtmeier (Fantomaster), Christoph Cemper and Sebastian Wentzell.

15:15 PM KEYNOTE: Bing – The New Search Experience

An overview of the Bing experience, plus insights into online gaming search trends which should be invaluable. Speakers are Cedric Chambaz and Adam Goodman of Microsoft Advertising.

I’m liveblogging a selection of the conference sessions, and there are many more excellent panels and presentations in the Friday program. Here’s the full schedule.

Stay tuned tomorrow for the liveblogs and the Saturday schedule.

On the bonus side, nobody can tell that you haven’t pressed your dress suit!

If you really want to rock the party, it pays to have a clear idea of why you are there in the first place. If it’s primarily a customer growth objective or a credibility objective, this will effect your follow strategy.

Here’s a few tried and tested, but imaginitive ways of finding people to follow…

1. Use a Directory

A number of directories exist just for people on Twitter. You can search for Twitter users by their interests or categories and/or geo-location. www.wefollow.com is one of the largest, and allows for both interest and location based searches. Other directories include www.twellow.com, www.justtweetit.com, www.twitterdirectory.com and www.geofollow.com .

Make sure you add yourself to these directories too; so that you can be found by people who are interested in your chosen categories and physical location.

2. Speaker ‘Circuits’

If you want to follow and establish a presence with the leaders of your industry, it’s a good idea to familiarise yourself with the ’speaker circuit’. Industry leaders and conference speakers tend to have a highly visible media presence and you will find many on Twitter. Check your industry conference and exhibition websites for a list of speakers. Most websites will feature a detailed speaker profile with Twitter ID included. If not, take your list of names and do a “Find People” search on Twitter.

3. Competitor Websites

Following your competitors is always a great idea. If your industry is super cut-throat, be warned that they may not follow you back, or may even block you from seeing their Tweets. This is a bit extreme and most competitors will have nothing to hide from you, and many may welcome a bit of banter and exchange with an industry peer.If any of your competitors are on Twitter, most will have a link to their profile on their website.

4. Follower-Drilling

Once you have identified a good person or competitor to follow, check who is following them and use the profile information in the followers list to see who could also be of interest to you. In most cases with a well managed Twitter account, you will find followers of a like-mind.

5. Keyword Searching/Hashtags (#)

Use the Twitter search functionality to search for keywords or hashtags that are relevent to your brand and your product. A hashtag is slightly different to a keyword in that adding a hashtag to a Tweet, collates all Tweets that use the hashtag, regardless of content. As an example #LAC is the hashtag for the London Affiliate Conference next week. I may well see Tweets like this…

“Where is everyone staying then? #LAC”

or…

“Going to the closing party?” #LAC

So a hashtag, when used correctly, can help you identify people that are involved or interested in something, even if their Tweet content does not specifically call this out.

Search results for keywords will show Tweets from Twitter users that have referenced the keyword in their Tweet. In many cases this may be because they have a specific interest in your product. It may be a good idea to directly introduce yourself to them by sending a Tweet (@mention) solely to them. Be aware that someone you follow will be quite likely to click your profile to assess if it is worth following you, so please don’t do this!

I want To Be Special!

Tip: If you use a third party application such as Tweetdeck you can create a column for your keyword search or hashtag and all public tweets containing your keyword or hashtag will appear in this column in realtime.

6. Other Social Media

Many other social media sites allow users to add their Twitter ID to their existing profile. If you already have an established community elsewhere, such as your Linkedin network, then check the profiles of your contacts and those that are also on Twitter will be easy to find!

Of course, the standard way to find people on Twitter is to use the “Find People” search within Twitter, however this is a little long-winded and relies on you knowing who you are looking for by name.

We hope these resources and tips give you a bit more of boost to your follow strategy, so that you can easily find people to learn from, connect with, market to and create a relationship with. Do you have any questions about Twitter in general that you would like to see answered in this blog? And do let me know if you have any cool ideas for identifying people to follow!

This year however I’m speaking, reporting, live blogging and all sorts.

I’m really excited having been off the scene for a while. Also I’m a little nervous about seeing and meeting all those people I have spent the past year stalking, befriending, admiring and engaging with on Twitter. I have a bad habit of seeing celebrities in London and thinking we’re old friends, so I’m not confident in my avatar recognition skills. Please don’t be offended if I walk past you. Grab me and explain who you are and we’ll get on like a house on fire I’m sure. Or you may get dragged into a room at SES and interviewed for SEO-Chicks. (If you’re really, really lucky )

First up is #LAC, or London Affiliate Conference (Gaming). I’m speaking on a panel about advanced social media strategies; lead by social media expert @JudithLewis. Judith has been online, since there’s been an ‘online’ and truly knows her onions when it comes to social media, search engine optimisation, paid search, quality chocolate and indeed most other things. I’m excited to meet my fellow panellists, who are Sarah Goodwin of Bloom Media; Matt Nash of OOSOCIAL and Zoe Sands from Cisco.

We have a tough gig though as we’re on Saturday (30th January) last session of the day, on the last day, on the session before the partayyyy! BUT. We’re giving away free stuff including wine and chocolate and I may even have something pretty speshup my sleeve.

So please come and heckle/learn/laugh/eat/drink/snooze/whatever: just come! You will certainly pick up some gems of information, that could help increase your audience and brand rapport; even if you’re an experienced social media communicator.

If on the other hand, if you have no idea what ‘#LAC’ (hashtag) means, or why I’ve prefixed a name with an “@” – then you have to come!

John Prescott on Twitter

I think that this is a great thing. The product capabilities of social media platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube have opened more than just a new functionality-driven approach to customer communication. Over time, such media have shown us that customers have longed for that personal route and that feeling of belonging, so it’s actually a shift in mind-set we’re seeing.

I’m a member of Virgin Wines, and every time I receive an order I throw the cardboard box in the recycling pile out back. Last time (which was just before Christmas) I happened to notice on the side of the box, the following message; “Did your driver do a good job today?”

Virgin Wines Social Feedback on Delivery Boxes

Isn’t that great? I think this is a bit of a mind-shift from the punative tone of similar messages seen on the back of professional vehicles. What struck me here is that, this is a personal request for feedback on an individual, that is motivated seemingly by desire to reward and encourage good performance.

I’d like to think that brands like Virgin Wines are seeing how well received is the social element in their interaction with customers and are thus embracing this mindset; this friendly and human tone of voice, throughout all of their communications.

A Cardboard Box Can Be A Social Medium!

My point then… customers really want to interact with you. Customers are human beings just like your employees. Customers might not have cared so much about who you are, until you showed them they could.

With the Virgin Wines example, I was immediately warmed to the thought that they care about my experience, they value my feedback, and they also value their staff by rewarding good performance. I want to continue to be a customer of a business like that. I’ll admit that I intended to send an email, but got distracted by what awaited me in my inbox. If they’d given me the option to tweet @virginwines then I definitely would have; and would have said something like “the man brought fine wines to my house. I am in love with him”.

Instances of brands embracing the social mindset are occurring more often in Europe, but it’s been happening for a while in the U.S. Coca Cola famously offered two of their biggest fans a job, after (said fans) Dusty and Michael created a kick-ass facebook fan page some time in 2008. Rather than contact Facebook and demand these guys handover the page to them (which Facebook will allow you to do), Coca-Cola obviously thought who better to run their fan page, than such die-hard, genuine fans? If you haven’t come across this story before; its a great social media case study, and you can find a thorough review on Econsultancy.com by Patricio Robles.

Now 'Offical' Fan Page

Brands aren’t just becomming more social-minded in the way that they involve consumers though. We’re also seeing brands communicate a human approach by telling us about the people that work for them. I’m thinking in particular of the charming and amusing “Intel Star” TV ads.

I took this video from their official “channelintel” on Youtube, where they state “Rather than focusing on a new product, the 2009 “Sponsors of Tomorrow” ad campaign celebrates what makes Intel different; culture, personality, heroes…”

That Intel are taking the trouble to endear to us the people that make the things that other companies stick into the machines we use to connect online, is a great testement to the brands embracing a social mindset. Even the less consumer facing brands!

What Does This Mean To Me?

I’m aware that all of the examples above reference brands that are hugely well known and have the sort of marketing budgets the rest of us dream of. Because of this, I think we can have more faith in the benefit of adopting a social mindset in approaching your customer communications. Huge brands like Virgin, Intel and Coca-Cola do not do things lightly. When your revenue is into millions and billions of dollars, you do not invest in a campaign direction without research and analysis. If these brands recognise a customer desire to connect and act on it; we won’t go far wrong to follow their example.

What Practical Lessons Can We Put Into Practise Here?

1. Be Consistent: Decide your social media brand identity and register it in as many places as you can. Use the same brand name, brand icon and profile precis throughout. You will probably benefit from having one detailed profile and a brief profile version, depending on the media tone of voice and character space available.

2. Be Everywhere: Register your social media profile in as many places as possible, starting with the most suitable for your audience and focusing your time in the same way. Even if you never intend to communicate via e.g. Bebo, you can at least protect your brand and make yourself available in the event a potential customer wants to interact with you there.

3. Be One Brand With One Voice: Instead of referencing “our Twitter account”, or “Our Linkedin account” think of your brand as everywhere online, and the social media platform is just the lens through which a customer may prefer to see you. Instead think “come find us on Linkedin”, “come join our fans on Facebook”.

4. Listen And Learn: Save the one-way “me, me, me” messaging for the spammers. Use the functionalities of social media that faciliate two-way communication. Monitor post interactions on Facebook, check your @mentions on Twitter; and most importantly try to respond and acknowledge those who participate.

5. Let Go Of Your Brand: I’m not saying you have to ‘do a Coca-Cola’, however it’s important to know that the people that buy your product have every right to mention your product and feed back about your product. It’s how you handle that feedback and what you can learn from it that is invaluable.

So there we are. None of this is remotely unfamiliar is it? In fact you may have been reminded in the anecdotes here about your favourite local caf, or the corner shop from your childhood. I think it is human nature that we crave recognition and we want to be valued as an individual customer and not a sales statistic. Social media websites have the functionality to enable brands that would other wise be very distant, to feel more local and approachable. From this; we’ve been reminded of what we already knew.

A social mindset is nothing new. What’s (fairly) new is that online technology faciliates a local and social approach not previously possible for national and international business. And your customers will love it!

I explained that at the core of every service, our focus is on maximising revenues through commercial performance optimisation and conversion rate optimisation.

Richard made an extremely valid point; that in the online industry, online marketing services particularly, are described using alienating jargon; self-congratulatory titles and pretty meaningless three letter acronyms.

I cannot help but agree. SEM, SEO, MMO, SMM, SMO, CRO, CTR, CPM, PPC, GUI… (I could go on) might be the stuff of a geek meet-up. However for most small to medium sized businesses, who are seeking to expand to the web, these terms mean nothing.

I wanted to walk through all the steps, to explain in particular – Conversion Rate Optimisation .

What the hell does that mean?

Quite simply; I’m in Marks and Spencer, all the packaging is gorgeous, the products are clearly priced and labelled, everything is laid out in an order that makes sense and the shelves are always full. Once I walk towards the till, every irresistible treat I could ever desire in a moment of weakness sits beside me as I move forward at a brisk pace towards the payment point of my choice (of which there are many).

Gorgeous packaging, clear pricing and labelling; an intuitive store layout, full shelves, additional treats, fast payment process and multiple payment options: none of which are there by accident.

Online, offline, mail order, whatever… it matters not the physical medium to purchase. Every purchase medium has multiple variables, and the tweaking of these variables will affect how well my product sells. That’s conversion rate optimisation.

So why ‘conversion’ not ‘sales’ optimisation?

Websites can make money through advertising, selling physical goods, selling virtual/digital goods (like gifts you see on Facebook, or downloading a ringtone); providing a service (e.g. insurance) or by providing qualified leads to service providers. Soooo many different online business models exist and not all of them are direct sales models. Hence the term ‘conversion’ is used to cover any activity that results in revenue.

Conversion rate is therefore the percentage rate at which revenue actions occur, compared to volume of unique or total visits, for the same time period.

Where Do You Start?

We start by identifying all of your conversion metrics, and ensuring that each one is tracked. We then take the user journey, imagining we would like to buy your product, fill in your lead form, or download your e-book. We do this in multiple browsers and we’re paying attention to usability, functionality and technical performance.

Then What?

Data analysis… Lots of it… Tonnes in fact!

Not everybody’s cup of tea; but we love it. We analyse every single metric and every single variable available.

We establish average’ behaviours’ across types of traffic, types of browser, types of visitor (new or returning), we then look at specific deviations of a percentage greater than ‘normal’ deviations.

We look for anomalous patterns and data points and compare this with error logs and visitor by browser/OS data. (Oooh look. I’ve done it again! OS = operating system.)

We compare all of the data findings with the online user journey and seek to identify holes, low performance areas, broken areas of the site, poor trafficked areas, high bail-out pages, low conversion rates.

Then We Make Our Bespoke Recommendations

Data and research is presented and recommendations are made, which may often include A/B testing different layouts, changing colours here and there, tweaking the layout of landing pages. Cross browser errors and other technical corrections will be listed, and we also look off-site too. We make recommendations for optimising the route to site, for commercial intent. Recommendations for more relevant keywords, keywords with more purchase-intent, optimising external profiles in social media and such-like.

No Matter What Site These General Rules Should Help…

1. Your site needs a search box; which should be top and centre or top right, for highest engagement (on every page).

2. Your search box should be 50 characters wide minimum.

3. Don’t put any text in the search box (users scan the page for the big white stripe, and I’ve actually seen “Search here” appear high in site search logs for brands that should know way better).

4. Any actionable item needs a rollover state (be it a link, a button, whatever…)

5. Any call to action should be above the fold, or designed in such a way that highest performing items are prioritised on list-style landing pages.

6. Red can work as a colour choice for sale prices or cheap goods prices, otherwise avoid.

7. Make your content font size at least 12pt or risk losing 2MM (UK) visually impaired users (RNIB).

8. Make sure your error page is commercialised.

If you would like to know more about conversion rate optimisation and commercial usability, we’d love to hear from you.