5 Ways to Prime the Social Pump

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5 Ways to Prime the Social Pump Posted: 30 Nov 2011 11:56 AM PST Posted by Dr. Pete You’ve finally finished that epic blog post [infographic, LOLCat, Thundercats remix…] and tomorrow morning you’ll unleash it on the world. So, what should you do between now and then? You could take a nap, sure, or you could start priming the social pump early. Here are 5 tips for how to put your network to work before you need it… i. Be Genuine This is the pre-tip that makes all the other tips work. I honestly hate giving social media advice, because I find that just about every “Always do…” or “NEVER do…” has an exception. There are people who can Tweet out the same link 10 times a day and see great returns. There are others who can talk about nothing but what they eat for breakfast and get 10,000 happy followers. What’s the difference? Sincerity, and a little moderation. If you’re genuine, believe in what you’re doing, and aren’t just trying to game the system, people will forgive the occasional over-indulgence. Just like we all deserve to eat a bit too much for the holidays, we’re all allowed to get carried away when we’re passionate about something we’ve created. Just do it because you mean it, and try not to overdo it. 1. Participate It’s sad that I have to say this one out loud, but priming the pump starts long before the eve of your launch. The first word in social media is “social” – if you just create an account on every platform, broadcast your own links, and never participate, you’ll get no results. The only exception is if you’re already famous. The rules that apply to Kim Kardashian don’t apply to you. Life isn’t fair.  If you’re already famous, congratulations – you can go read another post now. The usual argument is “I don’t have time.” If that’s true, fair enough – focus your efforts. Better to spend quality time on one social network than just throw links at ten. Even one solid network you actively participate in can create amazing returns. 2. Pre-Announce You’ve got a post scheduled, and you’re itching to click [Publish]. Why not share that excitement? Even if you don’t have a link yet, let people know you’ve got something great in the works. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a Tweet like this: Of course, please see Section (i) – for this to work, you have to mean it. If you’ve never been psyched about anything, or you send out this message twice a day, you’re going to sound like an ass. The best way not to sound like an ass is not to be an ass. 3. Be A Tease This is the advanced form of pre-announcing. Did you ever watch a movie preview and it was so awesome you stopped caring about the movie you actually paid to see? Studios are great at turning short versions of their work into teasers – take the best minute or two, put it to dramatic music with a booming voiceover, and Bam – magic! So, why not take a couple of the best bits of your post and pre-release them? It could be a bit of a copy, a piece of data, or even an illustration. For my recent dupe content mega-post, I posted this on Google+ just for fun: I’ll admit it – this was a tease. I wanted people to think “Wow, I wonder what that post is about?” The trick, and the art, is to give people something of value (no matter how small). I honestly thought the quote was funny, and I wanted to share it. Of course, the other trick is to make sure that you don’t waste all the good bits in the previews, like almost all romantic comedies of the past 5 years. I also did a bit of a post-post teaser, using the opening illustration: I could’ve just as easily made that a pre-post teaser, but I was a bit afraid to waste it. I sometimes get a little too attached to my mediocre drawings. It’s all part of my charm, I imagine. 4. Create Buy-in Have you ever seen someone post a survey asking for data or topics for a post? The magic of that tactic isn’t just that other people are helping create your content – it’s that each one of those people has just bought into your post. As soon as they provide data or feedback, they’ll want to know what you’ll do with it. The trick to this one is that you have be specific and create something interesting enough that people want to participate. I’m not a big fan of Tweets like this: Don’t get me wrong – it’s a perfectly valid thing to say, and it lets people know you’re human. Just don’t expect your boredom to result in someone else’s interest. If you want participation, you need to structure it – create a survey or even a simple poll, ask people for data, and generally get them invested in your idea. It doesn’t have to be complicated. While working on a recent slide deck, I Tweeted this: Looking back, it’s a combination of teaser + participation – by asking people’s opinions, I was trying to get them both interested and invested. Ultimately, participation is just another facet of social influence and a way to impact people in your network. By the way, if you want to know which caption won, tune into my free webinar on Tuesday – “Future-Proofing Your SEO: 2012 Edition” (see what I did there?) 5. Pre-Reciprocate If you’re good at social media, you’ll thank the people who help you and try to help them back. If you’re great at social media, you’ll help them before they help you. Be active the day(s) before you put out an important link – talk to people, re-tweet/Like/+1 their URLs, and generally make yourself seen. Social media is all about perception. You don’t have to be online every waking minute, but it never hurts to look like you are. Now You Know Those are all my dirty little secrets, and my social media life is now ruined forever. Seriously, I fall back on Tip (i) – I can say this out loud, because I’m sincere. Yes, there’s method to my madness, and I probably scheme more than most people realize, but I also love what I do. You can game social media to a point, but real success in the social world is ultimately a reflection of you. If you don’t care, neither will anyone else. If you’re excited about what you create, why not let your excitement be contagious? Do you like this post? Yes No

New Adwords Social Extension Displays Google +1's In PPC Ads Posted: 30 Nov 2011 04:11 AM PST Posted by Justin_Vanning Hey there Mozzers! Today I'm going to talk about how to link your new Google+ Business Page to your Google AdWords account so you can start utilizing the new social extension feature. As we all know, Google+ has been hard at work lately trying to increase their user base and trying to close the gap between them and Facebook. Over the past few weeks they have moved one step closer by rolling out their Google+ business pages - basically the equivalent to Facebook business profiles. Now, before I go any further, I want to state a quick disclaimer; social extensions are brand new within AdWords and the folks over at Google are still ironing out the kinks. There are still many questions around how they will evolve over the next several months, but for now I will do my best to explain what social extensions are, how to set them up, and what they can do for your PPC performance. What Are AdWords Social Extensions? Social extensions within AdWords are Google's way of annotating your Google+ follower count to your PPC ads. Here's what it looks like in action: Pretty cool, eh? Now there's 2 types of Social Extensions that Google rolled out with, Personal and Basic. The example above is a Personal social extension. It shows you how many people within your Circles who have +1'd either the landing page or the Google+ Business Page. When the Basic social extension is shown, it will show you how many people across the web have +1'd the landing page or the Google+ Business Page. For example, if Roger Mozbot does a search on robot wheels he might see an ad that has the Basic social extension, "300 people have +1'd this". That means that 300 people across the web have either +1'd the landing page or the Google+ Business Page. How Do You Set Up Social Extensions? 1. Setup your Google+ Business Page The first thing you need to do is setup your Google+ Business Page, if you haven't done so already. Our Chief Community Wrangler, Jen Lopez, set ours up and told me it was quick and painless. But, if you need some help on how to set up your business page, check out this article by Search Engine Land. 2. Verify your site In order for Google to verify that you are the owner of the Business Page, you need to do two things. In the "about" section of your Google+ Business Page, add a link pointing to your website. Create a link from your site to your Google+ Business Page by adding the Google+ badge to your website. You can do this easily by adding a snippet of code to your website and formatting the Google+ badge. 3. Activate social extensions in your AdWords account After completing the first two steps, go in to your Google AdWords account and click on the "ad extensions" button, then make sure you are viewing "social extensions" and click "new extension".   Now you'll have to paste your Google+ Business Page URL in to the box: After saving the new social extension, it may take a few days for Google to approve it. It will say "pending review" until it has been approved and then the status will change to "eligible". Now your ads should start showing social extensions. W00t! What Are The Benefits Of Setting Up Social Extensions? So now that you have everything set up properly, you're probably wondering what type of impact the social extensions will have on your ad performance. I can tell you that I have seen a nice bump in CTR on all of my ads that have been shown with the social extensions. The data is pretty preliminary since Google is only showing social extensions on a limited basis, but so far, the results look very good. After setting up everything correctly in your AdWords account, if you want to see how the social extensions are performing, follow these simple steps: Click in to one of your campaigns that has enabled social extensions Click on the "ads" tab Click on the "segment" drop down and select "+1 Annotations" In the above screenshot you can see that while we only had a handful of impressions showing with the basic social extension, it has a much higher CTR then our standard ad. I reviewed some other ads within our campaign and am seeing a significant bump in CTR on all ads that were shown with either the personal or basic social extensions! We know that these social extensions are still in their infant stages at Google, and I'm sure Google will be making some tweaks to them as they gather more data. But for now, there are several unique advantages you will have by turning on social extensions in your AdWords account. Most advertisers still aren't utilizing social extensions so you can roll out with them before your competitors do It only takes a few minutes to set up, it is free, and it will instantly give your ads more credibility and trust by having the social annotations appear within them While the results are still very preliminary, it appears that ads with social annotations are generating higher CTRs Increase the number of +1's you have on your Business Page since users who +1 your ad will count as a +1 to your Business Page I hope you find this post helpful and can get some value out of turning on social extensions within your AdWords account. If you have already turned them on and are seeing results, please feel free to share them with me. Also, if you have questions, please let me know and I'll do my best to answer them.  Do you like this post? Yes No

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