Learn to tap the power of Twitter search around your brand or business to gain insights on your market and to identify prospects.

This is the first of a three-part Twitter research tutorial, in pictures. I’ve created screen shots that relate to my nonprofit, SCORE Chicago, to use as examples.  SCORE, “Counselors to America’s Small Business,” offers free business counseling and inexpensive business workshops to entrepreneurs and small business owners. One of our most important keyword phases is “business plan Chicago.”

Twitter Search

To learn who it talking about business plans near Chicago, I can run a search. I might use the Advanced Search Form or search query terms Twitter specifies. Here’s my search for tweets with our main keyword in the Chicago area:

Using advanced Twitter search features like the one above, you can find relevant tweets by date range, keyword, location, even mile radius of a zip code.

Business Intelligence on Twitter

What can you learn from these searches?  You have the Twitter names of specific people in your area or niche — potential prospects — should you choose to engage them in conversation.

And they are talking using your keyword phrases.  The questions they have, the frustrations they express, the needs they describe are useful business intelligence that should inform your product offerings, your marketing messages and your business strategy.

SCORE Chicago could monitor these tweets and politely offer advice and help in response.  If our organization were to download the free Tweetdeck tool, we could also save and rerun this search daily.

Keyword Caveat

You might have noticed that I did not use “SCORE Chicago” as an example.  Well, our business name is problematic for simple Twitter searches.  It picks up sports scores (Chicago 8: Altanta:2), the Chicago radio station “670″ the SCORE, and even a certain gentleman’s club out by O’Hare.  Fancier social media monitoring tools, like SM2, are capable of more sophisticated filtering.

But for basic, ear-to-the-ground monitoring, Twitter is happening now, and growing fast.  Are you and your business listening?

Related Posts

Twitter Research Part 2: Twitter Hashtags for Business Intelligence and Prospects

Twitter Research Part 3: Twitter Emotions and Questions for Business Intelligence and Prospects

How To: Use Twitter’s Advanced Search Features Mashable blog

Viral Tweets: Rand Fishkin on How To Get Re-Tweeted

52 Links on Twitter for Business, with Brief Descriptions

Who’s On Twitter?  What Happens When You Shake Hands With Your Followers?

Peg Corwin, SCORE Chicago
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The Mashable Blog just had a post about 10 Essential Entrepreneurs to Follow on Twitter.  Two women made the list. I’d like to introduce them to you and get your nominations for more women entrepreneurs with useful tweets on Twitter.

Leila Janah

Leila C. Janah on Twitter

Leila is founder of Samasource, which provides digital work for Kenyan refugees.

Caterina Fake on Twitter

Caterina is a female entrepreneur with a major success under her belt — co-founder of the photo-sharing website Flickr – and a new and exciting project — Hunch – underway.

Who else would you nominate?

Please leave me a comment, a one sentence bio, and their Twitter name.  The voting booth is open.

And come connect with me on Twitter:  @pcorwin

Peg Corwin, SCORE Chicago
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Women and Social Networking

Women predominate in many social networking websites. That’s what Brian Solis’ stats say and this graphic from InformationIsBeautiful shows.

Graphic credit: InformationIsBeautiful

Why More Women?

Those commenting on the Mashable post Women Rule the Social Web speculate as to why:

The comments also contain questions about the stats themselves (duplicate accounts? active accounts?) and demographic effects (ages, incomes.)

Several readers are skeptical of the quality of some womens’–probably younger womens’–interactions.  “It doesn’t surprise me that women rule the social web. The majority of their time is spent twittering celebrities and uploading drunken photos and stalking ex-boyfriends on Facebook.” Despite this comment, and with other evidence that that those of all ages are using social networks, your current and future women customers will be found there.

Reaching Women Prospects

Regardless of the reasons, the overall message is clear:  if your small business wants to reach women in the future, you and your marketers will need to get good at social networking and social media marketing.

Related Posts

• How to Use Social Media to Reach New Customers
• 5 Ways to Make The Most of Social Media for PR
• Web 2.0 Marketing: Friedman’s 4 Steps into Social Media 

Peg Corwin, SCORE Chicago
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Harness the Power of Viral Tweets

If you’re on Twitter to network or promote your business, you want to be re-tweeted. You want others to share your insight, link or photo. You want your tweets to be viral.

Maybe you are new to Twitter terminology. If so, to “re-tweet” means to have someone else forward your tweet, or update, to their followers. (A “tweet” is merely a short status update on Twitter.) The shorthand for a re-tweet is “RT,” as in this sample Twitter update from a friend who forwards my tweet to their followers:

“RT @pcorwin: 5 good sites on managing online communities and social networks. http://bit.ly/RHr8o”

What Tweets Get Re-Tweeted?

SEO expert Rand Fishkin over at SEOmoz.org has created great short video on Re-Tweets. Watch it for all his insights. Here are his characteristics of tweets that get shared:

• Length under 100 characters
• Time of day — 9:00 – 3:30 Pacific Time
• Phrasing is factual, humorous, shocking, mysterious
• Subject matter is tech, celebrity, politics, images
• URL is likely included
• Authentic Twitter profile
• Tweets with push from emails or direct messages

In the video, Rand also puts Twitter into the context of your search engine optimization (SEO) strategies.

See all of Fishkin’s WhiteBoard Friday posts, a series of videos on SEO and much more. They are excellent.

Did Rand Get it Right?

Do you re-tweet updates with the characteristics he lists?  Are you changing how you tweet?  I, for one, am shortening my tweets as a result of this video. Please leave me a comment.

And if you liked this post, how about a tweet or an RT?  And please follow me on Twitter @pcorwin.

Related Posts

52 Links on Twitter for Business, with Brief Descriptions 

Peg Corwin, SCORE Chicago
View more posts by Peg

Companies Can No Longer Hide from Digital Media

With the power of social media in this Web 2.0 world, your business can’t run and hide.  It’s got to deliver or apologize and make good.

You have probably seen or read about the video of cable company repair guy caught sleeping at a customer’s house, or how Twitter and YouTube are upsetting elections in Iran.  Here’s yet another example of the power of customers using social media.

SCORE Chicago counselor and DePaul marketing prof Hank Rodkin gave me a head’s up on a small band that was flying on United.  They looked out the window before takeoff to see their guitars being thrown around and broken by the luggage handlers.  Click the arrow to play the above video, and hear the story in song.

And the story, as reported by CNN:

“This is a case study”, Hank says, “on how viral videos and the digital age have changed the marketplace.  And why it’s critical for service businesses to follow through with service.”

Many SCORE counselors, including those at SCORE Chicago, understand social media and can help you market your business online.

Related Posts:
Web 2.0 Marketing:  Friedman’s 4 Steps into Social Media
Why Web 2.0 Marketing Is Hard For Us 1.0 Marketers
Nonprofits Use Fire Power of Social Media:  One Condominium Tries Social Media Marketing

Peg Corwin, SCORE Chicago
View more posts by Peg

Internet Marketing Series

In July of 2008, I discovered Anita Campbell’s graphic on online marketing ROI, or internet marketing priorities.  SCORE Chicago clients were coming to us, overwhelmed by all the different possibilities.  They asked which were the most important, and which fit their types of businesses.

After seeing Anita’s graphic, I realized I knew about some techniques but not others.  So I set out to explore each on behalf of small business clients of SCORE Chicago.  In the process, I wrote this series of blog posts to provide basic links, further references and sometimes my own experiences.  To make the posts fun, I tried to find YouTube videos as well as text explanations.

It’s taken me ten months to complete these 18 posts.  I’ve now done podcasting, joined voting sites like Stumbleupon and Digg, signed up for affiliate programs.  I’m on Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace.  I’ve learned much more about email marketing, about search engine optimization.

I started out with a rigid format, but gradually changed it to provide meaningful, organized links and annotations.  So, Anita, I’m a bit late but I’m turning in my assignment.

Online Marketing Priorities in a Web 2.0 World: New How-To Series

Inner Circle, and First Priority

Online Press Releases: Intro, Video and Links

Email Marketing : Intro, Video and Links

Blogging: Intro, Video and Links

Pay Per Click Ads: Intro, Video and Links

If You Don’t Know About SEO, Start with Pre SEO

SEO (Search Engine Optimization): Intro, Video and Links

How to Choose an SEO Consultant.  And What to Watch Out For

Outer Circle, Second Priority

Online Directories and Review Sites: Intro, Video and Links

LinkedIn and Business Networking Websites: Intro, Video and Links

Networking Online: List of Business-Relates Social Networks, Forums and Online Communities

Social Bookmarking: Intro, Video and Links

Podcasting: Intro, Video and Links

Affiliate Programs: Intro, Video and Links

Flickr and Photo Sharing for Business?  Intro, Video and Links

YouTube and Video Sharing for Business: Intro, Video and Links

52 Links on Twitter for Business, with Brief Descriptions

34 Links on How To Promote Your Small Business On Facebook

Do’s and Don’t of Commenting on Blogs and in Forums

A MySpace Profile Page for Your Small Business?  Intro, Video, and 36 Links to Help You Market

Voting Websites Like StumbleUpon: Should Your Business Join to Listen, Share, Promote?

Bonus Listing — The Local Focus

46 Links on Local Online Marketing: Techniques to Promote Your Local Business

With a year’s more experience, I feel like I should start all over again, improving the posts.  But I’m taking a rest for now.  Comments?

Peg Corwin, SCORE Chicago
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Related Posts:

Why Web 2.0 Marketing Is Hard For Us 1.0 Marketers?

What is Web 3.0?  What is Marketing 3.o?

In a recent post, I talked about how a marketer can use basic Google Analytics data. Now I’m going to focus on some advanced slicing and dicing to help you better understand the behavior of your site’s viewers and customers using advanced features of Google Analytics.

Marketers can learn how many users take what steps towards goals (conversion tracking); what documents they download and links they use (event tracking); and what groups of users visit certain pages or take specific actions (segmentation analysis.)

GOALS AND CONVERSIONS
Marketers can set a goal by specifying the various pages a visitor has to click through to reach that goal. For example, a workshop signup goal might have these steps: workshop page, workshop description page, signup page, credit card page, and “thank you” landing page. This series of pages is called the funnel.

To set up a goal, go to your Aanalytics settings page, the page that lists the websites on which you have Analytics running. The column on the far right of the Website Profiles table is called Actions. Click Edit there to set up a new goal. Scroll down under Profile Settings, below Main Website Profile, to the section on Conversion Goals and Funnel. Add up to 4 goals there. To get the most use out of goals, use them in conjunction with Google Adwords campaigns.

Stats to focus on: goal abandonment and goal conversion rate
Questions to ask yourself: On what pages are customers abandoning the funnel, and what changes can you make in those pages to encourage them to take the next step? How many potential customers who click over from a Google ad actually complete the purchase? Is this number increasing or decreasing from earlier periods, and why? What can you change to increase it?

Links:

Google site: Goals and Funnels
7 minute video on How To Create Google Analytics Conversion Goals
Google Analytics Demystified: Goal Tracking and Funnels example of funnel and goal setup for an online store

EVENT TRACKING

By pasting a tiny snippet of code into your page, you can track events like email signups , PDF downloads, and the time viewers spend with your Flash content. For example, learn how many people click which outbound links. Or how many viewers download your brochure. Instructions for copying and pasting this code to track specific events is provided in the links below. You create a label that is part of that code. After you install the code and click to test, you should see that label within 24-48 hours under Top Content.

Certain website templates limit your ability to add event tracking code. For example, I am unable to install it on my website, www.scorechicago.org.

Stats to focus on: Under the Top Content section, see the custom labels you have created in the code.
Questions to ask yourself: If you move the location of the link, can you increase the number of signups, downloads, etc? Which links are people clicking on, and how can you add more content or related links to increase interest in your site? How long, on average, are viewers engaged with Flash content? How do these metrics change over time, and why?

Links:

How to Track File Downloads in Google Analytics
How Do I Manually Track Clicks on Outbound Links in Google Analytics?
Google site Flash events and _TrackPageview
Google tutorial video: Google Analytics for Flash

SEGMENTATION

Segmentation is just that — the ability to drill down in the data to see how groups of viewers behave. Marketers can answer questions like “How are buyers (those taking the action that I want them to on the site — a purchase, a form submission, a download, a mail list signup) different from lookers?” “What referral sources are they coming from?” “What keywords?” “Are they new users or returning users?”

On the Dashboard or on any other Analytics page, look in the upper right for a link that says Advanced Segments with a default of All Visits. If you click the dropdown by All Views, you can easily segment the page’s data using preset or custom “slices.” Click “new visitors” to see all page data related only to new visitors, for example.

Stats to focus on:Keywords, Visitor Type (new/returning), Source (paid, direct, referral)
Questions to ask yourself: Lets assuming you have set up a “thank you” page to land people on after a purchase, email signup or form completion. Look at that page using pre-determined segments. How does use by new visitors differ from repeat visitors? What referral source is sending most visitors to that page? How can you beef up actions from the groups/segments you want and reduce those that bounce or don’t buy. In essence, use segmentation to learn how your best visitors differ from lower-quality visitors and how to alter content to meet the best-customers’ interests.

Links:

Google site: Cross Segmentation
Google Analytics Releases Advanced Segments
Google video Advanced Segments

So many options, so much data. Are you digesting it all? Analytics pros, what did I miss? Please leave me a comment about how you slice and dice, or how you cope with data overload.

GREAT general reference: The Missing Google Analytics Manual

Peg Corwin, SCORE Chicago
View more posts by Peg

Graphic created with Wordle.net by Jonathan Feinberg

My theme today is local online marketing, with the emphasis on local. I’m covering local directories, local review sites, local ads, local social media strategies (i.e., how to use Twitter to promote locally), local blogs, and local search engine optimization.

Think of these links as a crash course in local target marketing on the internet. If the list overwhelms you, read only the contents of the first link in each section for key points.

But first, look at the table in this post, which document the shift from print to the web:

Relying On Print Yellow Pages? Most Local Customers Turn To The Web! - One takeaway: “Local business needs to ensure they’re measuring the web’s impact in their real-life activities. When people call by phone or visit a store — the top two actions after an online local search — is someone in the store asking about this? Asking about whether particular online sites were used may help local businesses better understand the potentially “invisible” drivers of traffic that they’re not aware of.”  Credit:Search Engine Land, Greg Sterling.

Local Directories

Check your business listing for free at GetListed.org. See how your firm is listed right now on Google, Yahoo, Best of the Web and LiveSearch. If it isn’t, I suggest you use the links to those directories to add a listing now.

Google Autofills Photos & Videos in Local Business Profiles - As of April 2009, “Google is auto-filling local business profiles with photos and videos pulled in from other web sites.” He concludes, “If you don’t optimize your profiles, Google’s gonna do it for you.”  Credit: Small Business Search Marketing. Matt McGee.

The Definitive List of Local Search Directories You Need To List With. – Links to 38 local search engines, directories, providers and 5 data suppliers. Discussion of the importance of online local listings. Instructions on how to write for search engine directories. Credit:eMarketing Matador.

Online Directories And Review Sites: Intro, Video and Links – My earlier blog post on the topic, with many how-to links and examples. Credit:Web 2.0 for Small Business, Peg Corwin.

Twibs A website that “gives Twitter users a place to find businesses on Twitter.”

Local Review Sites

“Your Pizza Sucks, and…” Getting Positive Reviews in Local Search Directories -  Go on the offensive: get listed on major review sites, promote positive reviews, publicize positive reviews, and add reviews of other businesses, especially your strategic partners. Credit: Duct Tape Marketing.

Leveraging Small Business Customer Reviews and Testimonials Online - Why reviews and testimonials are effective, how to use them in ads, 5 steps to get testimonials, how to make it easy for clients to provide them, and SEO benefits. Credit: Search Engine Journal, Steven Brier.

Yelp Will Let Businesses Respond to Web Reviews – Yelp’s recent change in policy allows businesses to comment on negative reviews.  Credit:New York Times, Claire Cain Miller.

The Masses on Yelp.com Eat and Tell -  How customers are using review sites like Yelp, CitySearch, Insider Page, Zagat, OpenTable and ChowHound sites.  Credit: New York Times, Donald McNeil.

Local Pay Per Click Ads

How local ads can help you survive the recession -  “The key to marketing success in the economic downturn is to get in front of the right-sized audience, from the right demographic, when they’re willing to buy.” Balance targeting, traffic and intent to hit the sweet spot, he advises.  Credit: iMediaConnection, Jean Eric Penicaud.

Search Advertising Geo Targeting Options - Comparison of geo ad targeting options of Google, Yahoo and Ask. “Google’s advertising product and its geo-targeting capabilities have one distinct yet obvious feature the other’s lack: An actual map for geo-targeting the location of your ads and where they will be shown.”  Credit: Search Marketing Communications, Tim Cohn.

Google Adwords details for local business - Click “For Local Business,” lower left to see local and regional targeting, how local Google Ads work, including ads on Google Maps.

Yahoo Small Business Paid ads for targeting potential customers in various ways.

Microsoft Ad Solutions “Entry-level” ad solutions, social media ads, shopping ads and more.

Extinction Threatens Yellow-Pages Publishers - Discusses niche local search websites like ReachLocal, Yodle, Spotrunner and Marchex. Further, she reports, “Local business is chopping ad spending amid the recession.”  Credit: Wall Street Journal, Emily Steel.

Local Web-Ad Market Cools Down - In February of 2009, she reports “”As small businesses cut outlays, ReachLocal refines ad-targeting methods.”  Credit: Wall Street Journal, Emily Steel.

Local Social Media Strategies

8 Social Media Sites for Local Networking -  Discusses how to use the websites Flickr, Facebook, Stumbleupon, Twitter, Yahoo Answers, Outside.in, PlaceBlogger, and Linkedin in local networking. Credit:  Small Business Search Marketing, Matt McGee.

Harness The Power Of Twitter For Local Marketing – 7 Tips on how to use Twitter locally. Real world examples of Twitter use by a group of 4 local authors, taxi company, hotel chain, casino, excursion business, theater, church, grocery store, and attorney.  Credit: Search Engine Land, Chris Smith.

Twitter Local – Find Out Who’s Tweeting Near You – Twitterlocal.net “takes a location, postal code or a state, together with a mile radius, and spits out an RSS or XML feed with tweets from that area.”  Credit: Mashable, Stan Schroeder.

Twitter and Local Search -  About using Twitter locally, including Summarize.com. Key point for us promoters: He recommends only 10% of your Tweets be about your business.  Credit: Loc@l SEO Guide.

Facebook — Can Local Business Flourish in Social Networking? - The answer is yes. Examples of Social Flowers and a yoga teacher using Facebook to market locally.  Credit: Darby Sieben – Internet Marketing.

MySpace Goes Local — Announces Partnership with CitySearch – “Users on MySpace can now review, rate, and share content about businesses on MySpace Local, and reviews and ratings will appear in users’ activity stream. MySpace will launch this service with support for restaurants and bars first, though it plans to include a wider range of businesses in the near future.”  Credit: Read Write Web, Frederic Lardinois.

TwtQpon A website to create Twitter coupons for your followers.

Going Local in Stumbleupon Look for Groups related to your community or your state. Get to know some of the people there to network directly: “If you have trouble finding a state (sometimes SU’s search features are cumbersome) you can just use the (.com/state/new_york/) at the end of the URL to get where you need to go; similar action can work with city (.com/city/brooklyn/.) ” Like by state, if you are signed in to your account.  Credit: 10e20, Jake.

Local Blogs

How to Start a Hyperlocal Business Blog -  A five part series: planning, setting up, content development, marketing, and successes and failures.  Credit: HyperlocalBlogger.

How to Promote a Local Blog -Talks about TOPIX, YourStreet, Twitter, CraigsList and getting the community involved.  Credit: Koka Sexton.Com.

‘Hyperlocal’ Web Sites Deliver News Without Newspapers - Opportunities for local coverage at local sites Everyblock, Outside.in, PlaceBlogger, and Patch?  Credit: New York Times, Claire Cain Miller and Brad Stone.

Why Hyperlocal Blogging Works -  The answers are: growing interest in local “stuff” online, decline of the traditional media, local websites are often lacking, and search engines love a good blog.  Credit: Hyperlocalblogger.

5 Ways to Grow a Local Blog – In essence: Twitter, CraigsList, letting readers know you care, local content and local ads.  Credit: Hyperlocalblogger.

Hyperlocal Blog Posts You May Have Missed – Links to 5 posts from HyperlocalBlogger, on what makes a great local blogger, TOPIX, local content, EveryBlock, and Outside.in.  Credit: Small Business Search Marketing.

Local Search Engine Optimization (for those technically inclined)

Local Search Tactics for Tough Economic Times -Checklist of 5 tactics in order of priority: local listing management, internet yellow pages, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, mobile/directory assistance.  Credit: Search Engine Watch, Gregg Stewart.

Local Search Marketing Tips for B2B Marketers - Four recommendations are: test local PPC ads, submit and manage your business profile, capitalize on local directories and search sites, and consider mobile search programs.  Credit: Search Engine Land, Julie Shumaker.

Local Search Engine Optimization: SEO Geographical Targeting. Effects of domain and hosting decisions, importance of contact info, need for sensitivity to language and cultural phrasing, power of local links, advantage of Google maps and selection of target in Google Webmaster tools.  Credit: SEO-Wizz, Tim Grice.

Local SEO: The Single Most Overlooked Strategy -  “For many local businesses, suburb targeting will provide higher quality traffic, and above all, there is usually no competition…It is much better to be on the first position for a specific suburb phrase that will bring very few, but very targeted visitors, rather than be on the 3rd page for a more general city phrase.”  Credit: Search Engine Marketing Perth – Aussie SEO.

Small Business SEO: How To Launch That Web site -  Her three-pronged strategy is to localize your content, create and claim your business listings, and build local mentions.  Credit: Outspoken Media, Lisa Barone.

Tracking Local Search Traffic with Analytics -  How to use Google Analytics URL builder tool, track 301 redirects, monitor traffic on Google Maps, as well as local search.  Credit: Understanding Google Maps & Yahoo Local Search, Mike.

50 SEO Tips for Online Retailers -  “SEO for online retailers is the process of improving a website potential in order to gain more organic non-paid traffic from the major search engines. Normally, SEO uplift doesn’t happen overnight and it can take a long while to rank well for non-brand key terms.” Gives 50 tips to facilitate this.  Credit: Econsultancy, Ran Nir.

How-To: Optimizing Business Listings in Local Search - Takeaways from SMX West, intended to help small and mid-sized businesses optimize their business listings across local search.  Credit: MarketingVOX.

YouTube – [Online Branding] -  Video discusses online branding including Yelp, Yahoo Local, CitySearch and MerchantCircle as a strategy to getting excellent search engine visibility.  Credit: YouTube video, Patrick Schwerdtfeger.

The Local Search Ranking Factors: Ranking High in Google Maps and Yahoo Local - Results of a survey in which “Participants were asked to rate the importance of 47 criteria with respect to their influence on rankings in the Google and Yahoo Local ‘Universal’ search algorithm.” Includes ranking of positive and negative factors.  Credit: DavidMihm.

How To Create Effective Local Business Landing Pages -  Why a landing page for each location? 10 “Landing Page Best Practices.”  Credit: Search Marketing Insights, Dev Basu.

Local Search at SES San Jose - Summary of 4 presentations at the Search Engine Strategies 2008 session entitled “Local 2.0: Evolution of Local Search.”  Credit: Small Business Search Marketing, Matt McGee.

It’s No Secret…Link Building in Local Search is Different - “The best links for a local service business are those that provide help with conversions…they would come from organizations that have huge barriers to entry and are topically related to the service provided by the business.”  Credit: Convert Offline

Series of short posts on local mobile search - Local Mobile Search

Loci Series: Signficant Articles in Local Search - Various experts choose best articles on local search in 2008.  Credit: Understanding Google Maps and Yahoo Local Search.

The List: Local Search Industry on Twitter - 38 people and 27 companies with close ties to local search who are using Twitter, or at least have registered accounts on Twitter.  Credit: Small Business Search Marketing, Matt McGee.

And One Last Link

The Rise Of Hyperlocal Information – A 2007 post broadly covering the rise of local content, self-organizing local information, hyperlocal classifieds, hyperlocal social networking, aggregating hyperlocal data, monetizing hyperlocal data and conclusions.  Credit: ReadWriteWeb, Alex Iskold.

Updates: This is a link to my Delicious group (bundle) on Local Online Marketing. As I surf the web, I tag new articles on this topic, so check back.

What informative local marketing links have I missed? Please suggest them in a comment. And if you liked this post, please Digg, Stumble, Tweet and share it.

Peg Corwin, SCORE Chicago
View more posts by Peg

See also all posts in my Local Online Marketing series.

And the original Online Marketing Series, which has 20 link-rich posts on 18 online marketing techniques.

“What marketing questions can website statistics like Google Analytics answer? What should I do with this information?” Here are nine key marketing questions, the Google Analytics stats to get a handle on them, and some followup questions to pose.

I’m ignoring metrics from Google Analytics that help with site design, like browser usage and connect speeds. We’re talking hard-core marketing here.

In case you need a refresher before we start, here are links on basic definitions (clicks, visits, visitors, and page views), how to install Google Analytics tracking code, and an intro to Google Analytics.

VISITORS

1. Is traffic to my website growing, declining or stagnating? What are the trends?

Stats to focus on: Visits per period vs last period; absolute unique visitors per period vs last
Questions to ask yourself: Are numbers of visits and unique visitors growing, steady or declining? Do I see spikes when I run various campaigns and promotions? Because of technical limitations in tracking, trends are more meaningful than absolute numbers.

2. How useful are visitors finding the site? What are the trends? In essence, are users engaged?

Stats to focus on: Average pageviews, time on site
Questions to ask yourself: Are pageviews increasing or decreasing? What about visitor time on the site? If there are changes from last period, why? Are high pages views and time on site due to visitor interest or their difficulties finding what they are looking for?

3. Who are my visitors? Where do they live? Are they new visitors or returning?

Stats to focus on: Map overlay and new vs returning
Questions to ask yourself: Where are my visitors concentrated geographically? Does my copy need to be modified (language, jargon, pitches) to tailor the appeal? Which group is growing faster, new or returning visitors? Do I need to run new campaigns targeted to the slower group? How should I reposition product and service offerings on web pages to encourage visitors to return?

Sorry, no individual visitor emails from Google Analytics. You marketers already have data on user actions from other sources: email inquiries, mailing list signups, downloads if visitors register with an email, and of course purchases. Work on a system to add these client and prospect emails to your database.

CONTENT

4. What pages of my site are most useful to visitors?

Stats to focus on: Top content, content by title, bounce rate
Questions to ask yourself: What are the five most frequently visited pages? What pages should be top pages that aren’t? What can I change to make those pages more useful, accessible or interesting? How can I change the link structure to get visitors there? Which page has the highest bounce rate, and why? What can I do with that page to keep people on the site, i.e., substantive content or offers or page redesign?

5. Where do visitors first land, and how do they proceed through the site?

Stats to focus on: Top landing pages, click patterns
Questions to ask yourself: What are my top entry pages? How many visitors land on the home page versus other pages? Where is traffic coming from that is landing directly on internal pages, and how can I get more sites like that to link? What is the click path from the home page — where do most visitors go, and where do I want them to go?

6. From what pages do visitors exit the site?

Stat to focus on: Top exit pages
Questions to ask yourself: What are my top exit pages? For other than Thank You landing pages after purchase, how can I change copy or links there to keep visitors engaged in the site? Are they clicking outbound links, and do I want them to? (Maybe yes if these are Adsense ads or affiliate banners.)

TRAFFIC SOURCES

7. What traffic sources — direct (typing a URL), referral, search engine or paid ads — are driving visits to my site?

Stat to focus on: Traffic Sources Overview percentages
Questions to ask yourself: What traffic sources are growing over last period, and why? Is off-web promotion increasing direct traffic? Are a growing number of related sites or blogs linking to mine? Have I changed copy on pages, which is leading to better organic search engine traffic? Are my paid ads campaigns working better than last period?

8. What other websites are referring visitors to my site?

Stat to focus on: Referring sites
Questions to ask yourself: Where can I find sites similar to those referring traffic and request a link? Which referrers are bringing visitors who stay on the site the longest? View the most pages? These may be the best sources of high-quality prospects. Should I request that other referring site improve the link description to drive more traffic? What sites should be referring but aren’t on the list? Why, and what can I do to get them to add links?

9. What keywords are driving traffic?

Stats to focus on: Keywords and phrases
Questions to ask yourself: What are the most popular keywords bringing visitors to my site in organic search? Are those keywords in my site’s metatags? What keywords are NOT driving traffic, and how can I tweak my site (with substantive copy, page redesign, or formatting) to change that? How can I modify my paid search ads, if any, to incorporate keywords that my customers are already using in organic search to find my site?

In a later post, I discuss marketing insights from more advanced metrics using Google Analytics features like goals, events, segments and conversions.  Here’s the link: What Advanced Google Analytics Tells Marketers and Questions to Ask Next.

What marketing insights do you glean regularly from your Google Analytics reports? Please share your expertise and experiences in a comment.

-Peg Corwin, SCORE Chicago
View more posts by Peg

Reference Links:

Definitions of key stats: clicks, visits, visitors, pageviews, and unique pageviews and the technical explanations of these definitions.

Table of web analytics software from Wikipedia

Intro to Google Analytics from the site itself.

How to add Google Analytics Tracking Code to your website for free

The Missing Google Analytics Manual (a post from the Development Seed blog filled with great links, organized by topic.)

An explanation of why stats from Google Analytics differ from server logs, by FutureNow.

My New Year’s resolution is to start commenting on selected blogs and contributing to relevant online forums. Why? To build our niche visibility, promote the SCORE brand and increase traffic on SCORE Chicago’s website and blogs.

Commenting  gets you involved in conversations, expands contacts in your niche and brings traffic back to your blogs and sites. In Case Study: Power of a Blog Comment, learn how Jesse Heap of Pink Cake Box left a comment on the Small Business Search Marketing blog, which lead to Pink Cake being featured on a magazine cover.  Similarly, blogger Marko Saric posted a comment on ZenHabits, a blog with over 79,000 RSS subscribers. This one comment brought him 230+ unique visitors in less than 6 days.

Here’s what I’ve learned from a web search on commenting do’s and don’ts:

Commenting Do’s

Comment on blogs relevant to your niche. When you focus on your niche, readers are more likely to visit your blog or site.  (And highly relevant back links have a greater SEO value.)  Concentrate on maybe 5 or 10 blogs in your area.  See this great ReadWriteWeb post on how to determine the top blogs in any niche.

For maximum impact, choose blogs with good page rank in Google and large numbers of RSS subscribers. (Check the page rank of any blog here.) Popular blogs, with high numbers of RSS subscribers, show up in the blog aggregator Alltop.com.  And the free Google Reader lists the number of subscribers to any blog feeds (Subscribe to the blog feed in Google Reader, click the blog name and then click “show details,” upper right, to see the feed count.)

Make the comment relevant and substantive. Read the post thoroughly and contribute something meaningful.  This might be your own experience, an answer to a question raised, even a further question the post suggests.  If you’re tempted to write “great post,” try instead to mention one idea you strongly agree with or something new you learned.

Be careful with negative comments. Saric recommends that you only comment positively: “Only write a comment if you like the post and if you have something relevant and interesting to say.”  On the other hand, LeadsExplorer says you can make negative comments:  “A comment is just another opinion that can have the opposite opinion from the blog post or the general opinion of the readers of the blog.” Sarah Perez agrees that negative comments are part of intelligent conversation: “Blogger and reader don’t always have to agree with each other, but being able to at least constructively debate the issue brings something to the table that straightforward reporting does not.”

Comment quickly on popular blogs.  Saric says, “The earlier you are, more exposure you are going to get.”  Set up Google Alerts for your main keywords on your target blogs.  (The blog-specific format is “URL  keyword”, i.e. “http://www.scorechicago.org  commenting”.  Set type to blog, and how often to “as-it-happens.”)  If you’re on Twitter or a voting site like Stumbleupon, maybe also reTweet or Stumble the post after you comment, to get maximum visibility from social media activity.

Check back and follow up on later comments, to participate in the conversation.  If there’s a box to check to be notified of further comments, check it.  Network, learn, interact.

Use a consistent media profile. As Saric suggests, “Brand your comment by using same name, same avatar, same URL and same signature.”  Use your full name in the comment field to increase trust and promote branding.  For those who don’t know, most blog templates hyperlink your name to the URL you provide, so you don’t have to add your web address to the post.

In essence, do think long-term. Do make comments to build relationships, not to generate short term bursts of traffic.

Commenting Don’ts

Don’t cut and paste generic comments. They add nothing and you ruin your reputation for possible short term gain.

Don’t be rude. This networking world is small and you don’t want to burn bridges.

Forum Comments. Online or internet forums are online discussion sites.  Some allow you to set up an online profile and others permit you to include a link to your website in your signature.  It’s an excellent way to get your name out on the internet and present your knowledge and expertise.  Popular social networking sites like Linkedin, Facebook and Myspace, as well as many niche sites, have such forums as a site feature.  Be sure to read the forum’s rules and regs.

Big Boards has a list of forums on numerous topics, in both directory and search format. Of course, post in forums related to your blog or site.  Choose a couple forums and become known in them rather than spreading yourself too thin.   Sometimes you have to be a member for a certain number of days before you start posting.

Since we’re talking comments, please comment on this post.  Tell me something you agree or disagree with.  Tell me if commenting has worked for you, and how.   Or give me your opinion:  Is it OK in a comment to add a link to your own posts if it’s really on target?

-Peg Corwin, SCORE Chicago
View more posts by Peg

My Sources:

Smart Blog Commenting A video with 4 reasons to comment and 3 steps to smart comments.  10 minutes long, but worth it.

Rethinking Blog Comments. DoshDosh.com  “Think long-term, think relationships and think about getting repeat benefits.”  This blogger is my hero.  He writes thoughtful and thorough posts on topics I want to learn about.

How to Comment on Blogs: An Introduction. MintBlogger.com  “Let’s try to understand and find out the correct way of commenting, that not only give us quality back links but also helps in building our e-brand.”

How One Blog Comment can Bring You 230+ Unique Visitors. HowToMakeMyBlog.com.  Marko Saric got 230+ visitors from one comment, and has good recommendations for commenting.

14 Reasons Why Commenting is More Effective Than Blogging. LeadsExlorer.com  Reason number 2 “A blog needs to build an audience over time or the blog needs to get subscribers on the RSS feed, which takes time too.  A comment on a blog steals the readers of the blog post.”

Blog Comments Still Matter ReadWriteWeb picks up the discussion on negative blog comments.

Blog Commenting Community Strategist blog. “It’s not all about you & your blog! There is a much bigger world out there & you are but one voice, so you need to join the collective.”

Revising My Comment Policy:  Keywords Gone. Caroline Middlebrook no longer allows people to put their keywords in the name field to boost their back link.  She also deletes signatures with business names or keywords because the URL is already filled in.

The Art of Blog Commenting. Fast Blog Finder.  This author says it’s ok to add relevant links in a comment.

Your Best Customers Participate in Online Forums;  So Should You – A Case Study. WebInkNow.com  Two examples, one where a company participated in relevant forums and another where they did not.

Increase Traffic and Backlinks from Forum Commenting and Signature. GoArticles.  “The more relevant forums you contribute to, the greater your chances of a flood of free traffic. And not only that, at the same time you are constantly building back links to your site, each one of which can bring you traffic at any time.”

How to Build a Social Media Cheat Sheet. One item is how to find popular blogs using Delicious.

My Related posts:

Hey You There, Reading This. Here’s How It Works Sharing your opinion on a blog, becoming part of the conversation.

Promoting Politely: What’s Naughty and Nice Business Etiquette on Social Networks. Get your message out one-on-one, and low-key.

Technical Note:  Do-Follow and No-Follow Blogs

Some blogs have “nofollow” linking policies for commentors.  Wikipedia says “nofollow is a misnomer in this case since it actually tells a search engine ‘Don’t score this link’ rather than ‘Don’t follow this link.”“  Commenters intent on max back links worry about these things, but I say, comment on good blogs to build long term relationships.   For those who care, Google has a dofollow blog search. See also this video on Traffic From Blog Commenting, which specifically addresses do-follow blogs.

PS. Turns out blog commenting is a profession.  Get good at this and you can earn money.