Personalized Marketing

Welcome to MyMarketer, the blogging cubicle of Paul Wilson! Please feel free to subscribe via email (sign-up is located in the sidebar) or RSS. Also, check out the domains I have for sale. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks for visiting!

I have a very talented sister who is both quite technical and very marketing savvy. She recently decided to focus on her social media consulting. The below article came from one of her clients questioning whether someone should focus on a facebook page or a facebookgroup. When she finishes her consulting site I will update this post to let you know where you can find the best sm consultant out there . Until then you can live vicariously through mymarketer and enjoy the fruits of her labor here. Thanks sis!!!

Social Media: Facebook Fan Page Vs Groups
by Amy Claypool - a Social Media Consultant

Fan Pages

Fan pages are generally better for a long-term relationships with your fans, readers or customers. Facebook Fan pages could perhaps be best described as the hot-yet-high-maintenance younger sibling of the two, offering more options in some instances, but also more inconveniences in others.

• Creation: When creating a Fan page, you begin by selecting your category, choosing from either Local Business, a Brand or Product, or a Public Figure / Celebrity. The detailed information you add will depend on your earlier selection. Ie: If you chose Brand or Product, you would be asked to fill in a Mission Statement.
• Messaging: Messages sent to Fan members will not appear in your Inbox, but rather in your notification bar on the right hand side of your profile (this is changing soon to make it more assessable).
• Accessibility: Unlike Groups, Facebook Fan pages can be indexed on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP), and are thus publicly accessible .Facebook sporadically displays Fan pages that your friends are a part of, and they are also added as links to the public profiles of your Facebook account assisting in promotion.
• Recruiting: With Fan pages, you cannot send bulk messages using your friend list, inviting people to join. Well, in theory you can, but not through the Fan page dashboard. When someone becomes a fan it is posted in their profile on their wall which is visible to all of their friends virally promoting the fan page. Fan page recruitment can be generated through more passive means, through external marketing (posting the URL on your blog, website, twitter tweets etc.) as well as through personal message invitations.
• Content: Here you have more freedom in terms of content generation than you would have with Group pages. With Fan pages, you have the usual wall, discussion board, video and photo uploads that the Groups have. In addition, however, you can also import a blog feed, meaning automatic content can be generated on the page, making it look “busy” and “fresh”. There are also numerous other applications you can add to your Fan Page, such as StumbleUpon, Quizzes etc

Groups

Groups are generally better for hosting a (quick) active discussion and attracting quick attention.

• Creation: When creating a Group page, you begin by choosing a name for your Group. For best results, something clever will do. Thereafter, it’s a matter of choosing the Category Type (ie: Business, Common Interest, Just For Fun etc) as well as a more detailed Sub-Category (Beauty, History etc). Then simply add a brief description of your Group and the setup is basically done.
• Messaging: Messages sent to Group members will appear in their Facebook Inbox. This means potentially greater reach, although if you overdo the Group Messages, members will eventually make a point of ignoring you or leave your group.
• Accessibility: Groups are not publicly accessible via conventional search, and can only be accessed through Facebook itself. So, even though your group on Facebook Group has a million members, no one outside of Facebook will be able to view the page without being granted permission to join the group.
• Recruiting: With Groups, you are allowed to send bulk messages to friends inviting them to join. This means that numbers can quickly be built up.
• Content: The major weak point with Facebook Groups would have to lie in the creation of content. If you would like to post regular pics, stories, or video, this has to be done manually. If you have a blog and would like its content displayed here, the Group will unfortunately not be able to pull the feed.

Differences

Two major differences between Facebook Fan Pages and Facebook Groups include:

1. 1. Fan pages are visible to unregistered people and are thus indexed (important for reputation management, for example);
2. 2. Unlike fan pages, permission to the groups must be granted to join the group. An facebook group admin person needs to grant permission to each user and allow users send out “bulk invite” (you can easily invite all your friends to join the group while with pages you will be forced to drop some invites manually). Groups are thus better for viral marketing, meaning that any group member can also send bulk invites to the friends of his.

Recommendation

There are pros and cons for both types of pages, corporations, celebrities and large businesses do seem to be making use of the Facebook Fan Page option, as it seems to be the meatier of the two. Group pages remain popular and easy to set up, so whichever choice you make, be sure to dive in with both feet (though, I recommend Facebook fan pages for most business ventures on Facebook).

Content updated and modified from the following sources: gottaquirk.com, searchenginejournal.com

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Josh Spaulding wrote a fantastic article about whether or not you should build backlinks to your article directory articles (let’s just call these articles, AD Articles). His answer:

“The answer to the question is 98% of the time, no. And 2% of the time, yes.”

He continues on to state that AD Articles are for ranking on easy longtail and that they shouldn’t be used to rank on difficult keywords. I 100% endorse this method…if you are writing AD Articles to have them rank for your longtail instead of having your own site rank for them. However, I use AD Articles in a completely different manner.

I don’t really use AD Articles for ranking the AD Article itself on my longtail, but rather as a backlink to a similar article on my own site. I love AD Articles because they provide relevent backlinks to my own site page. Generally, my technique is to write three articles all with the same title and subject matter (but with different content) and place them on three different authoritive AD Sites. All three have the same anchored text pointing back to a post on my own site with the same title (and thus the same title tag).

Doing AD Marketing this way makes it important to have as much authority as possible on each of my AD Articles. So, I will build backlinks to those AD Articles to give them more power. Yet, there is several ways you can structure your backlinks to your AD Articles. You can either have the anchored text be the same as what you are trying to rank your own article on or you can use some other anchored text (but still related).

For me, I like to use the second method for building backlinks to my AD Articles. It allows me to target more keywords. However, I never build authority for an AD Article using a longtail keyword that I am not already targeting on my own site. Interestingly enough, I have never had an AD Article out rank me.

I prefer this style of AD Marketing over Josh’s method. As Josh pointed out, there is a fundamental problem with his method:

“…you have [to] remember that this isn’t traffic to your site! The article still has to convert that traffic to your site!”

Obviously, you can use both techniques. However, each method is focusing on a different end goal. Josh is truly using AD Articles as an ad for his own site in the search engines; whereas, my AD Articles are being used more as authoritive backlinks to my site. Putting backlinks to your backlinks may be too much effort for a simple longtail keyword, but if you are going to spend any time focusing on a keyword (primary or longtail) you need to take the time to have the traffic go to your site over the AD Site.

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If you look at my last two post (see here and here) you will notice that in one post I am displaying my code as an image and the other as regular text. In fact, looking at my last entries before the last one they were all images. Every time I tried to add the code to display wordpress would read it as regular code and make my post look funky.

I finally got wise and found a plugin that allowed me to show my code without messing everything up. The plugin is Code Everything and it is super easy. Basically, all you do is add <code> before and </code> after your coding example, and walla you see the example you want to show. I know this really is insignificant, but you have no idea how much time that this little plugin saves me (and hopefully you).

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For the last several years I have been working on a wordpress MU project that seems to be the bane of my existence. I will work on it non-stop for several days, and then leave it alone for a few months and then go back and find errors that I hadn’t noticed before. It is really frustrating but some day I will actually finish and launch this project.

One of my biggest issues though, is my desire to have the theme editor active while I am in the development phase. Obviously, it is not wise to have the theme editor available when you launch a community. Having your theme editor global allows any user the ability to change the theme for your whole community. Yet, I spend a lot of my time in the wordpress admin area and having to jump from admin to ftp is annoying (yes, I admit I am lazy, efficient, but lazy).

Anyway, Wordpress MU deactivates the theme editor by default. Since I go periods of time without touching MU when I come back I have to update my wordpress instance. Every time I lose my precious theme editor, and every time I have to dig through Google to find the solution to bring it back.

So, for my sanity I am recording the process here so I can easily find it six months from now. This solution is current for wordpress mu 2.8.6. Who knows if it will work beyond 2.8.6. If so, I will write another post and link this post to it.

FTP to your server and open admin/includes/mu.php. Here you want to find the “old” code and change it to the “new” code.

old: unset( $submenu['themes.php'][10] ); // always remove the themes editor
new: //unset( $submenu['themes.php'][10] ); // always remove the themes editor

This change will let you see the theme editor option in the appearance menu. However, when you click on it the Wordpress Gods will tell you the function has been disabled. In the same mu.php file you will need to find and make the below change.

old: if ( strpos( $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'], $page ) ) {
new: if ( strpos( $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'], $page ) && !is_site_admin() ) {

Hopefully, this process won’t change for a while, or at least until I launch my project. Good luck.

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Happy 2010! For some reason I always prefer even years over the odd years. Not sure why, but I just feel more energized at the beginning of even years (probably a part of my OCD-ness showing).

Today I was looking at a couple of my blogs and I realized that the copyright date in the footer of some of them had not updated from 2009 to 2010. I figure I am not the only person to have this problem. So, I thought I would offer as a new year’s gift the below PHP code that automatically changes your blog’s copyright date to the current year on January 1st.

Required Code
Copyright © //Shows the copyright and its associated symbol
< ?php print date(‘Y’); ?> //shows current year
< ?php bloginfo(‘name’); ?>. All rights reserved. //shows the name of the blog found in the wordpress general settings and reserved rights

What It Looks Like
Copyright © 2010 MyMarketer. All rights reserved.

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A quick note to wish all the MyMarketer readers a happy Christmas. This year would have been far less interesting were it not for great insights you have contributed, and the comments you’ve made, in this blog during 2009. I hope you all have an excellent time over the festive season.

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Obviously, backlinks are important to a site’s ranking. However, you may find that keeping track of all the backlinks you get becomes quite a chore! In fact, I sent an email to my programming friend to create a software to track backlinks. Yet, I lucked out because recently, a freind of mine passed on a free link tracking software, called Backlink Reporter.

Several of the nice features of Backlink Reporter is that it allows you to keep track of all of the backlinks you have acquired for one or several websites. It also helps you quickly discover which links you previously had that are no longer linking to your site. Obviously, no one buys links , but if they did this tool is great in making sure that they are getting the links paid for.

The nice feature that sold me was that it also tracks the page rank of the backlink. As stated in a previous blog, don’t let the “gurus” fool you, page rank still is a good metric on the power you will be receiving from a backlink.

Oh, and the only catch in getting this free software is that you have to give a backlink back to the owners…hence this post =).

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With all the brilliant ways to do web marketing I am amazed that banner ads are still alive. We see them every where, so someone still finds impression advertisement effective. For me the banner ad was born dead (or at least mostly dead ). Even back in the 90’s I never clicked on them, I felt they were invasive and annoying (as I assume that a lot of people do).

Yet, like spam, banner ads penetrate the masses with nothing more than sheer brute force and undodged determination. Whether it is with the old static skyscraper ads or the new interactive—play a game or punch President Bush—banners, you cannot but surf a few popular websites without being annoyed by them.

The other day I clicked on my first banner ad in over a decade. The ad copy stated: “Warning: Smoking Can Used To Kill You” (see actual ad below). I looked at the ad for a long time before clicking on it. First, I was trying to tell myself that I didn’t need to encourage businesses using intrusive advertising to get my attention. Second, I was trying to figure out what the ad’sangle was. Finally, my curiosity won and I succumbed to yet another marketing scheme and clicked on the banner.

The ad took me to an article and a youtube video, which talked about a new fake (yes fake) cigarette. Truthfully, I am surprised that has taken this long to provide this product to help people to quit smoking.

However, the product isn’t my real intrigue. What fascinates me is their marketing. How do you get a die hard advocate against banner advertising to click on a banner? Simple, you make your ad so shocking or different from the norm that the person wants has to click on it. I’m not even a smoker, that’s the funny thing. In fact, I have never even tried a cigarette. Yet, I clicked.

To me, this is great marketing, not necessarily the intrusive part, but rather the type of marketing that compels a user (even if he or she won’t ever use the product) to engage with the advertising. Unfortunately, we don’t see too much of this type of marketing or advertising. I think the only thing that comes close is the Super Bowl commercials. I honestly have friends who hate football but watch the Super Bowl for the commercials. That is true power.

It would be fun for someone to create a blog that took annoying bland banner ads and refashioned them into ads that really drew people in. I know many advertisers think they already do this, but let’s be honest, do you really surf the Internet for the banner ads? I didn’t think so.

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I find it fascinating how everyone is trying to kill page rank, including Google. I was just reading a blog that shared, “Page rank means nothing.” The blog further states:

“Ya, I said it. It’s a loose comparative tool for relative sites but does not rank the site’s productivity. A less than google-perfect site can still be making tens of thousands of dollars. I know this because one of my sites has well over 550,000 in traffic monthly and ranks #1 out of more than 2 million sites… and has a PR of …. ready for this? PAGE RANK 2.”

I don’t doubt the blogger when she say that she is getting “550,000 in traffic monthly” and that her site “ranks #1 out of more than 2 million sites.” What I seriously doubt though is that all that traffic comes from just one single #1 ranking keyword. If so, that single keyword is very unlikely to be “low hanging fruit,” that a page rank 2 site can easily snatch up.

Like it or not, google page rank is a great indicator on the strength of a website. I would love to see a page rank 2 website rank #1 on the keyword “mp3″ or “credit card,” it’s just not going to happen. Having low or no page rank doesn’t mean you are not going to rank for any keywords, but it does mean the super competitive keywords are most likely out of your reach.

A great example to prove my point is this very blog. MyMarketer once enjoyed the glorious page rank of six. Due to some unfortunate events after I sold MyMarketer, the domain was burned and demoted to a page rank zero. In its glory days MyMarketer was seeing thousands of visitors a month. I just checked the analytics and for the last 30 days MyMarketer.net received a grand total of 106 unique visitors from Google.

I have no doubts that there are several factors that play into the low volume of traffic for MyMarketer. However, I also know that my SEO efforts on other sites show page rank still has power. When I receive a strong page rank backlink on these sites I increase in ranking for whatever the anchored text was for that backlink. Until that undesputed fact changes page rank will always mean something!

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So, I am not one for rap music or R&B, but when I came across the below video I couldn’t pass it up. This is definitely one effective way to teach SEO. Unfortunately, the old saying that white guys can’t rap still holds true for me! When you get a chance checkout the rest of the SEO rap songs. ~Paul

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