Social Media

Call Tracking / Features, Tips, & Announcements / Mobile Marketing / Social Media — No Comments
17
Oct 11

Increase Conversions with QR Call Tracking Technology

Data shows that QR codes (Quick Response codes) are gaining interest from marketers. 57% of Facebook and Twitter users said they have scanned a mobile bar code at least once in the past year. Consumers want instant access to relevant information and QR codes help provide that access. With mobile growth exploding, allowing integration of QR Codes into marketing campaigns is an excellent way to boost conversions via mobile devices.

QR codes are a convenient way to encourage consumers to interact with a product or service. These codes are gaining traction as marketers identify new ways of integrating these trackable bar codes into their campaigns. Nearly two thirds of people have seen a QR code, with approximately one- third of those having used one. The technology behind QR codes is easy to use and implement – yet can be a very powerful marketing tool. Integrating QR technology with call tracking will allow marketers to better understand the behavior of their prospects.

Mongoose Metrics’ QR Call Tracking provides a number of benefits for customers that are serious about making conversion optimization part of their marketing strategy:

  • Capture & Measure Conversions: Drive conversions through QR Code implementation and call tracking efforts to measure mobile and other QR Code-driven marketing efforts.
  • Seamless Integration: Integrate QR Code Call Tracking with web analytics, bid management and CRM software for easy, consistent reporting.
  • Immediate Access: Instantly see traffic increases to your site – with QR codes’ ability to be accessed from anywhere via mobile.

With a growing number of searches being conducted via mobile devices and the availability of QR scanning apps for virtually every smartphone device, the power to increase conversions and optimize  marketing efforts is yours. Contact us today to learn more about QR Call Tracking.

Analytics / Mobile Marketing / SEO / Social Media — No Comments
17
Oct 11

Social & Mobile Technologies Encourage One-to-One Connections

Whether it’s Mobile Smartphones or Social Media, it seems that all age groups (especially the 18-34 crowd) are connecting via technology. Research shows that 1 out of 12 mobile phones will be “smart” by 2012. Soon everyone will have a smart phone and be socially connected. You can think of it as getting back to our roots. It used to be that people placed a lot of value on one-to-one relationships. Then we moved to more of a mass communication society. Now with the convergence of social media and mobile technologies it feels as if we’ve come full circle to again valuing one-to-one relationships.

Social networking continues to grow exponentially – 4 out of 5 Internet users are social. That’s one of many findings in Nielsen’s Social Media Report for Q3 2011. Some additional stats from the Nielsen report that I found interesting are shown below:

  • 53% of active adult social media users follow a brand
  • Almost 40% of social media users access social media content on mobile phones
  • Internet users above 55 years old have doubled their mobile usage/intake of social media content in the past year
  • Social networking apps are the third-most used by Smartphone owners. (Games and Weather are  1 and 2, respectively)
  • 70% of active adult social network users also shop online — 12% more than the general Internet population

If you’ve tried convincing yourself that social media or mobile marketing are just fads – think again. Social networks and blogs are the top destinations online. What does this mean for your business? With 53% of adult social media users following a brand, your business needs to be social. Find out where your customers like to spend their time online and create a presence there. Be sure to create your own personal brand as well. Your customers want to know that you are a real person and will appreciate this transparency. In today’s tech-savvy environment, being connected and creating relationships is what it’s all about.

Want to share your thoughts on social or mobile technologies? Please leave a comment below.

Features, Tips, & Announcements / Social Media — No Comments
14
Oct 11

The Ongoing Social Experiment

“Marketing is no longer about the stuff you make, but about the stories you tell.” – Seth Godin (sethgodin.typepad.com)

Earlier this week, Mongoose Metrics had one of our regular company meetings.  The meetings bring the company together, allow us to share what each department is doing, and set goals for the next week.  This week though, the focus was different.  Stephen Abbey, our CEO, had a simple request for Team Mongoose: connect.

The buying process is changing, and so are customers’ expectations of their interactions with companies.  They don’t want a sterile interaction with a faceless corporation.  They want that social connection—the feeling that comes from knowing that you’re doing business with another human being.  Another human being that has thoughts, opinions, frustrations, and triumphs—another human that cares enough to share those thoughts with others.

The people who work here at Mongoose Metrics are naturally inclined to make these connections, whether it’s directly with customers or through social media venues such as Twitter and Google+.  Of course, the request of “connect” was simple—but the guidelines were difficult.

I was involved in a passionate, thoughtful meeting with Pam Achladis, our Director of Marketing and Steve where we challenged each other to create a simple engagement policy that encouraged Team Mongoose to freely engage and share on social networks—while still preserving our brand and company identity.

We wanted to share the results and ask readers and friends:  what do you think of our initial social media policy?

  • Feel free to associate your personal accounts with Mongoose if you are selective about content only (be smart, use good manners, don’t offend others). If you’re unsure if your account is appropriate, it may be best to not affiliate.
  • You may create a professional account that you affiliate with Mongoose.  (For example in your Twitter profile, list your role with @mongoosemetrics.) For your professional accounts, use your real name…build your own “brand identity”!
  • Please don’t create an @mongoose handle or account on any network.
  • Try to be active on LinkedIn. It is good for your professional brand and it is good for Mongoose—and a great place to share and consume interesting content.
  • Feel free to write a blog post and send it over to Marketing to be posted on the blog.

…which is exactly what I did.  Now I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

SEO / Social Media — 4 Comments
29
Sep 11

The Top 10 Things I Learned At Content Marketing World

It’s hard to believe that three weeks have gone by since I attended the Content Marketing World conference in Cleveland, Ohio. Time flies when you’re busy directing the marketing efforts of a growing technology company!

First, I want to thank Joe Pulizzi (affectionately known on Twitter as @juntajoe) and the other people involved with The Content Marketing Institute for putting together such a fantastic show. This was the inaugural event and I was impressed with the overall quality of the line-up, venue, creativity and content (no pun intended) of the show! Next, I want to thank the brilliant minds who presented. You guys all did a great job at keeping the attendees engaged.

I learned so much at the conference I have 10 pages of notes! I thought for my blog post I needed to condense that down a little! I will share the top 10 insights I brought back with me from the conference below. I hope you enjoy reading this and I hope you consider attending the next Content Marketing World in 2012!

  1. You don’t learn how to be fascinating. You unlearn how to be boring. (via Sally Hoghead, author of Fascinate)
  2. We can’t always reinvent the product but we can reinvent the story. (via Sally Hoghead)
  3. Be human about your content. (via David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of Marketing & PR)
  4. Email is not dead. It is still the strongest method of communicating. Get people to subscribe and give them content that keeps them engaged. (via Brian Clark, Founder of Copyblogger and Michael Stelzner, Founder, SocialMediaExaminer and author of Launch)
  5. Your content should be commercial free. Nobody wants to be converted. They want to be served helpful content. (via Brian Clark and Michael Stelzner)
  6. Don’t make up terms that do not come up in search. Always consider organic search in content creation. (via Jonathan Byerly, Director Online Content, Dell)
  7. It’s not your company’s story. It’s your buyer’s story. (via Ardath Albee, author of eMarketing Strategies For the Complex Sale)
  8. The buying process is not static. (via Ardath Albee)
  9. A content curator is part editor and part artist. (via Susan McKittrick, Analyst at Patricia Seybold Group)
  10. Surround yourself with “why not” people. (via Kevin Smith, Writer/Director/Producer)

So there it is. My short and sweet list of key insights from the Content Marketing World conference. If you were there and want to share your takeaways please comment.

Features, Tips, & Announcements / SEO / Social Media — No Comments
27
Sep 11

Key Takeaways from Attending SMX

September has been a good month for Mongoose Metrics. We recently attended the Search Engine Marketing Expo East in New York City where we learned some valuable insights about SEO and SEM. The show’s focus included content marketing, SEO best practices and upcoming trends in social media. Since not everyone could attend the show, the marketing team at Mongoose would like to share some Key takeaways from SMX.

Keep it Simple

This applies to Search Engine Optimization specifically, as Tony Wright (@tonynwright) at SMX outlined the 4 C’s of SEO to outrank your competition:

Code – Make sure it is clean! Cleaning HTML code will help reduce page size and increase accessibility

Content – Good and effective content is key to higher SEO rankings

Connections – Linking to other sites and developing that relationship will help search engines find you faster

Conversations – Social media is now more important than ever – so keep those tweets, Facebook likes and comments coming!

Be sure to integrate the 4 C’s of SEO  to continue improving the visibility and organic rank of your website.

Users are Now in Control

As marketers, we know to focus our message to our audience and our customer. Something has happened within the last year or so that is starting to alter this mentality. Why? Users are now in control and we need to be one step ahead. Understanding what’s going on across all channels is imperative to your marketing success.

Photo Credit: Bright Edge

Before it made sense to post an advertisement on Facebook and hope some of your target audience would see it. Now, with such a user-driven environment, we need to be in-tune with what our customers are tweeting, where they are checking in, what they are liking, who they are following and what circles they’re creating. If we keep throwing information in their faces without rhyme or reason, they will simply block our efforts and never think twice about us. I listed some of Jim Yu’s (@jimyu) tips for making sure you don’t get left behind in leveraging social media for SEO:

Tip #1: Measure your social SEO

  • Are your social media pages ranking in search results?
  • Are you doing SEO on your Facebook page?
  • Do you have a Facebook and Twitter presence?

Tip #2: Add social buttons to your site

Add social networks you are active on. Listed below are some of the most popular.

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon

Tip #3: Optimize your Facebook page for SEO

  • Add plug-ins
  • Use your brand name in all wall posts & tweets
  • Try to engage your audience as much as possible through likes and shares

How to Make the Most of Your Content

Everyone has a light bulb moment – when suddenly everything makes sense. After listening to the great panel of speakers: Loren Baker, BlueGlass, Jay Berkowitz, Ten Golden Rules, David Kidder, Clickable and Stefan Tornquist, Econsultancy – I kept thinking about one specific part of the discussion – content. It all starts with a content marketing strategy and here are the industry’s suggestions on making the most of your content.

Cascade your content: You have a great article/newsletter/webinar – Take key topics from that and split into a few blog posts. Dissect those blogs into multiple tweets – tweet about key topics in those blog posts. Share those topics on LinkedIn or Facebook and distribute that content.

Conduct interviews internally: Interview sales and product development to find out what’s new – exciting and note-worthy within your company and write about it. If you find it exciting, there’s a good chance people who follow your company will too!

Update and optimize content so that it spans both search and social: Social media and search are completely integrated; use this to your advantage.

Don’t just post content, make it actionable: One way to ensure social success is to let people know you’re aware and there is an actual human behind the computer. Use Twitter to promote others, talk about current events, answer people’s questions and talk about what is important to you. Before long, making content actionable will become second nature.

If you attended SMX and would like to share your experience – please comment below. We’d love to compare notes.

Analytics / Call Tracking / Social Media — No Comments
27
Jul 11

How to Monitor Twitter Lead Conversion with Call Tracking and Google Analytics

Twitter can be an effective and valuable option for your company to build brand awareness, exhibit expertise, share valuable resources and generate leads and sales.

If your business is using Twitter as part of a marketing campaign, you should be measuring the effectiveness of your efforts. Through technology solutions, such as call tracking and web analytics, you can gather valuable data on audience response to your Twitter activity and calls to action.

Tracking Conversations from Twitter

Ideally, your Twitter activities and marketing efforts associated with the platform will result in lead conversions, some of which may occur by phone. To track these
 conversions, you should consider introducing call tracking into your Twitter strategy, and configuring analytics to track Twitter-related visitor activity.

Below are three ways you can integrate call tracking with your Twitter account to capture conversions that happen via the phone:

  • Within Your Profile — Assign a unique tracking number to your profile, and add it to the “bio” section under profile settings. The number can direct customers to your general business line, customer service center or sales department. (Remember that the bio has a 160-character limit, and a tracking number with hyphens will take up 12 characters).
  • Within Your Tweets — Assign a unique tracking number to an individual tweet or to your entire Twitter campaign. These numbers can be used to track responses from limited-time offers, customer service referrals, direct messages (DMs) and more. (Remember: tweets must be 140 characters or less).
  • Within Your Website — By integrating the call tracking Javascript snippet throughout your site, a visitor’s traffic source — direct traffic, search engine, referring site, etc. — will be recorded, and they will be shown a unique call tracking number. As soon as a call comes into this number, the call tracking platform associates it with the person’s traffic source and records it for later review.

When a visitor comes to your site from Twitter, then calls, the conversion is associated with Twitter and reported in your dashboard. This enables you to track calls from Twitter, thereby helping you to evaluate its ability to generate leads and evolve your Twitter strategy to increase conversions.

Twitter Conversion Tracking Through Analytics

Google Analytics can also offer insight on traffic received from different online sources, including social media accounts like Twitter. Under the Traffic Sources tab, you can set up Advanced Segment filters, giving Google Analytics rules for segmenting traffic from specific sources (such as Twitter and Hootsuite) as you define.

Once you’ve identified and setup Twitter, and any URL shortener sites, to be tracked as referring social sources, you can drill into the information — number of visits, pageviews, time spent on site, bounce rate and online form completions — that will help you better evaluate Twitter’s ability to generate leads.

If you feed your call tracking conversion data into Google Analytics, you can quickly obtain a holistic view of lead generation — both online and offline — that result from your efforts on Twitter, and you can more effectively measure and evolve your Twitter campaign based on ROI.

Has your company integrated call tracking into its Twitter account or other social profiles? If so, what have you found effective for enticing customer responses?

 

 

Analytics / Search Marketing / Social Media — 1 Comment
22
Dec 10

Social Selling with Promoted Tweets

As marketers struggle for answers and often prognosticate about how to convert social media efforts into real relationships and sales opportunities, we’ve found success with one of the newest and hottest – yet highly debated – methods on the planet at the close of 2010.

Yes, we’re talking about Twitter’s much-lauded Promoted Tweets advertising platform which launched a mere two months ago on Nov. 1.

As one of Twitter’s 20 beta testers for Promoted Tweets, Mongoose Metrics has aggressively tested the platform in a number of ways detailed below.  For example, we’re currently running 14 distinct campaigns.  See details and screenshots from our first 3 weeks in the blog post “Top 10 Things We Learned from Twitter’s Promoted Tweets.”

Recently, on Dec. 14, Twitter added a form to its website where companies can express interest in purchasing Promoted Tweets as well as Promoted Accounts and Promoted Trends.  We’ve been told the program will begin rolling out publicly sometime at the end of January or beginning of February 2011.

We’d also like to note that Twitter – much like Google – has been less than forthcoming about how their algorithms work.  In other words, at the present time, there is no guidebook.

What We Know So Far – The Basics

  • You can run multiple campaigns based on key terms that relate to the content you’re promoting in Tweets.

bieber

  • Bidding on these terms is competitive and begins at $.10 per engagement.  An engagement is defined as a Retweet, a Favorite, a Reply or a Click.

engagements

  • Currently we’re seeing some bidding competition on key terms such as SEO.  The base bid for SEO is currently defaulted at $1.00 even though there has been very little competition on the term.
  • Tweets must be Tweeted organically before they can be designated in a Promoted Tweets campaign.  We’re not particularly fond of this method as it forces us to Tweet out self-promotional Tweets each time we refresh a campaign.

engagements

  • Tweet fatigue is ambiguous at this point.  Twitter tells us that a Promoted Tweet will be shown to a user a maximum of five times before it is removed by Twitter from rotation.  Analytics and details on this process are non-existent.  For example, some days show a major spike in impressions and engagement for no apparent reason.

The Results

As we mentioned in our first blog post about Promoted Tweets in Nov., Promoted Tweets has delivered conversions, followers and an improved Klout score.  Since Nov. 1, we have received:

961,000 Tweet Impressions
18,000 Clicks
220 Retweets
168 Replies
126 Conversions
Cost = $2067

Conclusion

Promoted Tweets is a valid marketing method for generating conversions as well as brand awareness.

sugar

Call Tracking / PPC / Search Marketing / Social Media — No Comments
10
Dec 10

Call Tracking Goes Mainstream with Google, Promoted Tweets & Mongoose Metrics

2010 was a big year for call tracking.  Here’s a rundown of the highlights:

By far, the biggest advancement in 2010 was Google’s entry into the call tracking space with their Nov. 2 announcement of Google Adwords Call Analytics.  The basic concept of the Google Adwords Call Analytics reporting platform works much the same way as many existing call tracking services.  In Google’s offering, a limited set of data points are logged and recorded within the Adwords account dashboard.  Of course, Google’s call tracking product tracks only one source: Google Adwords.  More sophisticated solutions, including Mongoose Metrics, track phone calls from other search engines, organic traffic, social media, email and traditional advertising sources.

“We see Google’s entry into call tracking as an inflection point for the entire industry.  Essentially, Google has validated call tracking’s promise of delivering the missing piece in the online marketing analytics puzzle,” says Bradley E. Reynolds, chief executive officer for Mongoose Metrics.

2010 also saw the adoption of speech analytics technologies by many call tracking vendors, including Mongoose Metrics.  Mongoose Metrics launched Conversation Conversion Dynamics, a speech recognition technology to assess real-time ROI.   CCD is an overlay feature on top of call tracking which records every move web-to-phone visitors take to reveal patterns of actions and behaviors.

Funnel

Additionally, Mongoose Metrics introduced a number of features to enhance the call tracking experience for customers including a reverse proxy server, API and PCI compliance.  The company also began providing service to Canada and the United Kingdom.

Integrating call tracking data with bid management providers, web analytics companies and CRM software packages also became de rigueur in 2010 especially for highly technological companies such as Mongoose Metrics.  In 2010 Mongoose Metrics partnered with a number of leading web analytics and bid management powerhouses including Kenshoo, Marin, Acquisio, Unilytics and SearchIgnite.  “By partnering with the leaders in bid management and web analytics we’ve been able to share the power of call tracking data with more sophisticated marketing professionals than ever before,” Reynolds says.

And, finally, to top off 2010, Twitter chose Mongoose Metrics (@mongoosemetrics) as one of only 20 beta testers in the world for its newly launched Promoted Tweets beta advertising platform.  Promoted Tweets launched on Nov. 1 and since then Mongoose has significantly increased conversions, followers and Klout.

Twtrcon