Google SEO: +1 Button, G+, & Social Search

Google Plus's [+1] button is finding its way onto web pages quicker now and with good reason. The button has two cool functions when logged into Google. The first click is simply a vote endorsing the page. Then the button expands and allows you to say something about that page and share the link with an individual, a Circle of friends, or the Public on G+.

On January 10, 2012, Google moved the SEO goal posts yet again with the introduction of "Search, plus your world"... ie Social Search.Google now lets searchers see page results endorsed by people in their G+ network, which puts serious value on the [+1] button and G+ in general. Google is essentially adding human intelligence to their search engine as it builds its own social graph. 

So what is the impact on SEO? Google hasn't directly declared what the effect is yet, however marketers are seeing that pages that receive many +1s are performing better (more from Ian Lurie at Conversion Marketing for more). In general, there does seem to be a correlation between links shared on social networks and their resulting search rank according to SEOmoz. The nuance here is that the improved rank is related to Click-Through-Rate... simply that the page is getting more traffic, which effects pagerank. Not a direct link to the actual action of a user hitting the [+1] button.

How do marketers impact it? Do we just need to hire a room full of button pushers to hit our [+1] buttons? No, that won't affect anything because its not about the number, its about the [+1] vote of people in a user's network primarily. I say "primarily" because when I look at my social search results, I'll just see +1 G+ comments from people in my G+ network. Secondarily however, I'll also be able to see the total number of people world-wide who have given a page a +1, which might also influence my decision whether to click or not.

Still it seems that good SEO comes back to creating engaging content and then using every means possible to share that content. Google's [+1] button is a new tool for getting that content out... if the content is worth the +1 endorsement. 

Resort Marketing: Terranea Resort Leverages Social Reviews

Very recently, the Four Seasons launched a new site that generated buzz about their focus on digital marketing, social marketing, and specifically their embrace of customer reviews. That's been hot on my mind this week, and I've posted quite a bit on it (follow my Google Plus).

So this morning, I came across from this G+ post from Guy Kawasaki that led to the discovery of  Terranea Resort outside LA, so I thought I'd check it out.

I can't say that I am crazy about the site. The entry photos are captivating but overall its a bit cluttered. One thing that did catch my eye was a promo for Social Buzz - "read what others are saying". 

Do I care what the brand has to say about themselves? No. Do I care what customers have to say? Yes. So I clicked.

Here is why resorts especially care. Four Season’s VP Marketing Susan Helstab explains in this recent USA Today artcile:  “In a Four Seasons survey, 33% of guests rate TripAdvisor “very to extremely influential” in their selection of a luxury hotel. In its research, the Toronto-based hotel operator also cites these stats from consulting firm e-tailing group: 92% of internet users read product reviews and 89% say that reviews influence their booking decision.”

On their Guest Reviews page I found a nifty module powered by Revinate.Using the tool, the resort selects favorable reviews to display. I dug a bit deeper into the tool and found that its a pretty powerful reputation management tool for managing these many points where people are talking about the resort. The visitor doesn't really know that these were carefully selected, though they may suspect. The company partnered with TripAdvisor so they get top billing at the top, but there is also access to see all other reviews by other sources such as Yelp, Hotels.com, Travelocity, Google, etc.

The emphasis on reviews carries over to their Facebook page as well.

They use Evinate's Social Buzz app to provide access to guest reviews. Here they're not displaying any, and I'm not sure whether this is a limitation of the app, or oversight on their part. Key is users do have the access to guest reviews. Overall, Terranea's Facebook page provides a case study model for how a resort can make the most of Facebook. All their paths to conversion are all there - book rooms, golf tee times, spa treatments, etc. Very smart... but that's for another post.

Though brands always fear those "angry reviews", studies show that a strong majority of reviews tend to be positive. If you offer a solid product at a fair price, customers will tell others and nothing is stronger than that word of mouth endorsement!

Update on Friday, January 20, 2012 at 11:50AM by Dave Gibson

Another key reason that I forgot to mention is SEO. Particularly with Google Place reviews. Review ranks don't affect placement, but volume does.

Facebook's Sponsored Stories Ads Show Strong Performance

With the recent updates to Facebook, the relevancy of the Sponsored Story ads continue to increase - especially as they show such gains over Facebook's Standard Ads. This is part of a broader strategy to increase ad performance and value, which Facebook has long been criticized for.

The results are speaking for themselves as ad performance for Facebook's Sponsored Story ads are both cheaper and out-perform (CTR) Facebook's Standard ads by a long shot. FastCompany claims by 50%, and Facebook Ads API service provider TBG Digital's study revealed a 46% performance gain.

In a nutshell, what you have here are "implied endoresements" - a nuance of word of mouth marketing, that Facebook knows so very well. 

Understanding the concept may take a few run-throughs (at least it has for me). For a long time, having someone Like your Page pretty much guaranteed an initial shot of having that action reach that person's friends, as well as providing an open channel for Page posts to reach Fans's News Feed. Well, the News Feed became a torent which has reduced the window for exposure. 

Facebook introduced Sponsored Story ad units back in January this year to help fill the gap.. and then some. These ads provide a deeper anchor to keep the brand on the News Feed page (to the right under "Sponsored"), and then (wait for it) extend also to friends of that Fan with these "implied endorsement" ads. These ads now allow advertisers to extend their reach to a user's entire friend network each time they Checkin, Like a product, Like a Page (become a Fan), Comment on a Story, Like an App, Comment on an App, etc. etc... 

Here's the breakdown.

I've begun using these with a strategy of first concentrating ad resources to build Likes/Fans. Then to remarket through these Fans via Sponsored Stories. It works very well.

Here are some good resources for going deeper into the 7 different types of sponsored stories and how to set them up. 

• Facebook - General Overview and Pitch
• All Facebook - Overview
• Facebook - Deeper conceptual explanations and Type breakdowns

Word of Mouth Marketing for Spas - Webinar Followup

Many thanks for those that joined us for my February 17 webinar The Power of Word-of-Mouth Marketing. Thanks also to ISPA for hosting the event.

Key Points

• The world of marketing is changing and the influence of consumers upon both other consumers and brands themselves is growing rapidly through their use of blogs and social networks.
• Brands with Awesomeness are best poised to benefit... and Spas are awesome.
• Goals
  • Identify influencers to build a fan base
  • Provide incentives for fans to engage and share through their social networks
  • Turn that fan base into a community of people that interact organically with each other. Doing so increases loyalty (repeat business), and expands that brand reach.
• Focus on Influencers
• Focus on Mobile Social : Check-ins (Foursquare, Facebook Places, Google Places)

 Download Presentation (no audio) PDF (9MB)

Don't Forget: Your Website is Where the Conversion Takes Place

Hello Mr Marketing Director, here is some advice as all these social shinny objects wizz by each day. If you're like most organizations, you've sat in a spending holding pattern for at least two years. In web years... that's almost a century, and a lot has changed online. If you can remember back that far, Facebook was just for kids and mobile was a joke. Its also likely that the recession has forced your organization to adjust its game plan, which probably means that your website and your business are no longer in synch. Well now is the time to lobby hard for the resources to reposition yourself in "the new reality".

Click to read more ...

Leveraging Location Based Social for Resorts

With Facebook Places jumping into the geo location game that Foursquare pioneered, now is the time for resorts to plant their flag... literally. The goal is to get visitors to "check in" and broadcast to their networks that they are at your resort... ie indirect word of mouth marketing. The most obvious motivation for users to do so is for them to connect to their other friends who might also be at the resort, and with a little imagination I think any resort can come up with additional incentives.

The Vail Resorts family of resorts (Vail, Keystone, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, and Heavenly) forsaw this opportunity and developed the Epic Mix application - both mobile and desktop. This takes social  a few steps further by connecting on-mountain RFID data embedded in lift tickets to track stats and broadcast. The app combines this with social interaction to connect with friends on the mountain, and share experiences out to Facebook, Twitter, and the Epic Mix network. They also pulled the "badge" game concept from Foursquare to reward users for on-mountain accomplishments. Very cool.

You may lack the budget to afford Crispin Porter and the throng of developers needed to build such a custom application. The good news is that you don't need to. There are free tools available.

Facebook Places
In August 2010 Facebook launched the location based service. Rather than explain it, here's a good article. The first part is the Places page. Seamingly redundant to Pages, Facebook all on their own setup a Place for every business they could. If you search under your business name, you'll likely find a Place entry in addition to your Page. The first thing you need to do is capture control of your Place. Here is a PDF of the instructions, but note that the process is already different since they published this. Once you do, you can merge your Place and your Page. That is key.

Your goal is to get your customers to habitually pull out their phone and checkin every time they hit the mountain, the restaurant, the spa, the bar... etc. Consider rewards for most checkins, or a separate ticket line for customers who checkin to Facebook Places. Signage  Why? Everytime they do, that event is broadcasted to all their friends. Average user has over 300 Facebook fans. You do the math.

Foursquare
The joke is that Foursquare has more people in the media using it than real people. Its ahead of its time and will surely die soon. I expect Facebook (who considered buying them earlier this year) with Places will effectively take care of that. I would't invest much in it, but just understand the underlying "badge" plus "location" proof of concept aspect of the service. Badges are earned when users check-in.. for example, the person that checks in the most at a location earns the Mayor Badge. Some locations reward the Mayor with free coffee, 10% off, etc. Imagine similar incentives for most vertical feet, hitting all black diamonds, etc. Expect to see this game concept applied to Facebook Places.

 Ok. Be good to your customers and share the love....