There seems to be a lot of stuff on the web pertaining to measuring social media engagement - i.e. social media and web analytics. This week's reading material was a good sample of what's out there. There is a fair bit of marketing rah-rah attached to much of it. I suppose that's inevitable in a field that is new and constantly morphing into something else. Still, it makes it hard to separate the wheat from the chaff.
There are some questions around how effective SEO is now with companies taking to social media to peddle their wares. Over the past six months, we've seen some unbelievable numbers in regards to traffic to our site. In fact, over the past six months, traffic to our site from Facebook is second only to a province-wide television ad. There are still others who think branching out to social media hurts your SEO, because now there are too many sources for people to find information. I'm still not sure how I feel, but being a social media person, I'm less inclined to believe in SEO being the be all and end all of a business or government website.
You make some interesting points. I don't have any inside knowledge of website traffic patterns at my workplace (U of A), but I do get the sense the much of the discussion around this subject (web metics, social media analytics, big data, etc) is not well evidence based, as we say in my field (data analysis). There are a lot of claims out there, but it is very difficult to judge their validity and reliability.
Avinash Kaushik's blog post on Best Social Media Metrics is really good: use conversation, amplification and applause to measure the economic value generated after the social media particiation. This is a way we can answer the skeptics who say that social media does not affect bottom line.
Who would have guessed that 70% of keyword searches are unique long tail searches. It makes sense that these searches would convert better because the person is further down the sales funnel and closer to buying. This also makes it more complex for the marketer setting up a campaign that will convert.
And finally, if Google says that social signals have 2nd most priority as a factor that decides search engine rankings (SEO), we probably need to share that information with the skeptics.
So timely...and interesting that SEO comes before website design. Looking forward to this week....
ReplyDeleteThere seems to be a lot of stuff on the web pertaining to measuring social media engagement - i.e. social media and web analytics. This week's reading material was a good sample of what's out there. There is a fair bit of marketing rah-rah attached to much of it. I suppose that's inevitable in a field that is new and constantly morphing into something else. Still, it makes it hard to separate the wheat from the chaff.
ReplyDeleteThe Introduction to SEO left me wanting to know more. It was very interesting. I am excited for what is to come.
ReplyDeleteThere are some questions around how effective SEO is now with companies taking to social media to peddle their wares.
ReplyDeleteOver the past six months, we've seen some unbelievable numbers in regards to traffic to our site. In fact, over the past six months, traffic to our site from Facebook is second only to a province-wide television ad.
There are still others who think branching out to social media hurts your SEO, because now there are too many sources for people to find information.
I'm still not sure how I feel, but being a social media person, I'm less inclined to believe in SEO being the be all and end all of a business or government website.
You make some interesting points. I don't have any inside knowledge of website traffic patterns at my workplace (U of A), but I do get the sense the much of the discussion around this subject (web metics, social media analytics, big data, etc) is not well evidence based, as we say in my field (data analysis). There are a lot of claims out there, but it is very difficult to judge their validity and reliability.
DeleteAvinash Kaushik's blog post on Best Social Media Metrics is really good: use conversation, amplification and applause to measure the economic value generated after the social media particiation. This is a way we can answer the skeptics who say that social media does not affect bottom line.
ReplyDeleteWho would have guessed that 70% of keyword searches are unique long tail searches. It makes sense that these searches would convert better because the person is further down the sales funnel and closer to buying. This also makes it more complex for the marketer setting up a campaign that will convert.
ReplyDeleteAnd finally, if Google says that social signals have 2nd most priority as a factor that decides search engine rankings (SEO), we probably need to share that information with the skeptics.
ReplyDelete