How to Schedule Posts in Facebook (for Page Admins)

Do you schedule Facebook page posts in advance using third-party apps like Hootsuite? You may already know posts made with these apps are less likely to be read, but we have all done it from time to time.

Exciting news for Facebook page admins! Facebook recently announced their own scheduling feature.   I’m most excited about this because it means the “posted from Hootsuite” text and icon are no longer necessary when you must schedule a post. 

If you are a business owner and page admin with a longer to-do list than there are hours in the day (or if you simply want more free time), the new Facebook scheduling feature will allow you to provide content to your fans in less time than was previously possible, without using a third party app!

How to Schedule Posts in Facebook (for Page Admins):
Refer to the official Facebook graphic below.

How Far Out Can I Schedule?
At the time of this post, Facebook posts can be scheduled up to six months in advance at 15-minute intervals.

Any Cons?
One catch (at the time of this post)? According to Mashable, “once you schedule a post, you can’t modify or edit the content, only the time.”  My guess? Facebook will remedy this soon. 

Where to Review Scheduled Posts?
Want to review scheduled posts? Again via Mashable, click on “manage” at the top of your page, then select “activity log” from the drop-down. 

Ready to Get Started?
Now would be a great time to block out a few hours to create “evergreen” content if you don’t already have some handy.  Photos, helpful info, inspirational tid bits, you-name-it.  I typically write my content in a working word doc, then copy/paste one update at a time, adding photos and links. 

Remember...
Of course, you’ll want to have access to Facebook to check for replies/likes/questions.  Still overall a time-saver in my book, though.

Hope you enjoy!

 
Laura is a marketing professional and blogger who has been active in social media since 2005.  If you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing to this blog via Email or  RSS. Laura can also be found on Twitter (@LauraCatherineO), Facebook, and LinkedIn. 

Future of Advertising Event - DoubleClick Insights

This post originally appeared on the DoubleClick Publisher Blog.

There has been explosive growth in ad technology over the last 20 years. From each of our perspectives -- whether you are an agency, an advertiser, publisher or a technology provider -- we can all still see unprecedented opportunities as the digital world continues to grow and diversify. 

We believe that as an industry, we’re on a common digital journey and that the next wave of innovation in ad tech will come from us all working better together.  

However, like all great opportunities, there are challenges and questions, such as:

• How do we unlock the next $50 billion of opportunity for digital advertising? 
• How do we deliver those immersive, interactive experiences to today’s empowered consumer demands? 
• What do we, as part of the ad tech ecosystem, need to build to create even more value for our clients and consumers?

On June 5th we’re hosting the DoubleClick Insights event to start exploring some answers to these questions.  Senior leaders from top agencies, advertisers and publishers will help lead the conversation -- and you’re invited to join via the live stream!  Register here.

The agenda will include topics such as:

Adapting to the Empowered Consumer - Neal Mohan, Vice President, Display Advertising at Google will be joined by David Kenny, Chairman & CEO, The Weather Channel Companies, and James Pitaro, Co-President, Disney Interactive Media Group, to discuss how technology is being used to deliver new content and advertising experiences to consumers.  

If We Build It, Will They (Consumers) Come? Terry Kawaja, CEO and Co-Founder, Luma Partners (and creator of the now legendary LUMAscape chart) will lead a conversation about the ad tech ecosystem, and what it needs to do next to add value for agencies, publishers, marketers – and ultimately consumers. Terry will be joined onstage by:

• Omar Tawokol, Chief Executive Officer, BlueKai
• Greg Stuart, Global CEO of Mobile Marketing Association
• Kurt Unkel, President, VivaKi 
• Shishir Mehrota, Vice President of Product Management, YouTube

Outside the Box: Technology = Creative Friend or Foe? Technology is supposed to make the life of a marketer easier.  For our final conversation, we’re going to focus on the question of:  Is this technology exploring resulting in better marketing?  Or, is it just resulting in mediocre creative and complexity for both consumers and marketers?  Karim Temsamani, Vice President - New Products and Solutions, Google moderates the conversation with leaders from creative agencies, iconic brands and publishers including: 

• Brad Ruffkess, Global Connection, Coca-Cola
• Mike Lowenstern, Managing Director of Digital Advertising, R/GA
• Peter Minnium, Head of Digital Brand Initiatives, IAB 
• John Caldwell, Chief Digital Officer, National Geographic

The live stream will start on June 5, 2012, at 9:00 am PDT, and you’ll be able to watch from your computer, tablet, or mobile device. To learn more about our highlighted speakers go to the Speakers page on our site.

Please register for this virtual event by visiting the DoubleClick Insights Live Stream page.

DoubleClick Insights

Tuesday, June 5th 2012

9:00am - 1:00pm PST

Set event reminder today

Following us on Google+ or Twitter (@DoubleClick and @DoubleClick_pub)? Use the #dclkinsights tag as you're watching the event to ask questions or share comments during the event? 

Posted by Stephen Kliff and Scott Brown, DoubleClick Marketing

Building a better shopping experience

(Cross-posted from the Google Commerce blog)

Truly great search is all about turning intentions into actions, lightning fast. In the early days of Google, users would type in a query, we’d return ten blue links, and they’d move on happy. Today people want more. When searching for great local restaurants, people want places to eat right there on the results page, not another click or two away. It’s the same with hotels, flight options, directions and shopping. 

Organizing these types of data can be very different from indexing the Web, because the information is often not publicly available. It requires deep partnerships with different industries—from financial services and travel to merchants who sell physical goods. 

Today we’re announcing a new initiative to improve our shopping experience over time--so that shoppers (your customers) can easily research purchases, compare different products, their features and prices, and then connect directly with merchants to make their purchase. 

Google Shopping 

First, we are starting to transition Google Product Search in the U.S. to a purely commercial model built on Product Listing Ads. This new product discovery experience will be called Google Shopping and the transition will be complete this fall. We believe that having a commercial relationship with merchants will encourage them to keep their product information fresh and up to date. Higher quality data—whether it’s accurate prices, the latest offers or product availability—should mean better shopping results for users, which in turn should create higher quality traffic for merchants. 

We’re giving merchants a few months to transition to this new model, and we’re also offering some incentives:

• All merchants who create Product Listing Ads by August 15, 2012 will automatically receive a monthly credit for 10% of their total Product Listing Ad spend through the end of 2012; and
• Existing Google Product Search merchants can receive $100 AdWords credit toward Product Listing Ads if they fill out a form before August 15, 2012.

To learn more and get started merchants can visit: www.google.com/ads/shopping 

Ranking in Google Shopping, when the full transition is complete this fall, will be based on a combination of relevance and bid price--just like Product Listing Ads today. This will give merchants greater control over where their products appear on Google Shopping. Over time they will also have the opportunity to market special offers such as “30% off all refracting telescopes.” 

In addition, merchants who want to stand out from the crowd can choose to participate in our new Google Trusted Stores program. Google Trusted Stores is a badge for e-commerce sites which gives users background on merchants—whatever their size—including ratings for on-time shipping and customer service. Google stands behind merchants that have earned the Google Trusted Stores badge with a $1,000 lifetime purchase protection guarantee per shopper. 

Google.com 

Second, starting today we’ve also begun to experiment with some new commercial formats on Google.com that will make it easier for users to find and compare different products. These include larger product images that give shoppers a better sense of what is available and also the ability to refine a search by brand or product type. For example, here’s what stargazers could see on Google.com when searching for [telescopes].

Search results for [telescopes] in the new Google Shopping experience

These new formats are clearly labeled “sponsored,” and take space currently occupied by AdWords. If people are looking for a specific product, such as [Celestron CPC 800], they might also see a new design that summarizes information about that particular item neatly in one place. They can then easily decide whether it is what they want, and buy it from their merchant of choice.

Results for specific product queries like [Celestron CPC 800] may include reviews and product attributes

We’re excited about building delightful shopping experiences for consumers in close partnership with merchants. Google Shopping will empower businesses of all sizes to compete effectively--and it will help shoppers turn their intentions into actions lightning fast. Today’s changes are a first step toward providing technology, tools and traffic to help power the retail ecosystem. 

Posted by Sameer Samat, Vice President of Product Management, Google Shopping

Upgrade now to the new Core Reporting API

Core Reporting API Migration Update
Back in December we launched the Core Reporting API to replace the Data Export API. We also announced that we would be shutting down the old Data Export API and that all applications should migrate to the new version.

The time has come for us to shut down the old version. So this is our last reminder to migrate to the new Core Reporting API.

Starting next week, we’ll begin redirecting a portion of Data Export API requests to the Core Reporting API as we prepare to shut down the Data Export API on July 10th. So you'll begin to see Data Feed requests return a Core Reporting API response, and requests for the Account Feed will produce an error.

If you do not migrate, your application will experience service outages.

For more information, visit:
Reminder: Migrate to the new Core Reporting API
Migration Guide: Moving from v2.3 APIs to v2.4 & v3.0



New Guides To Get You Started Fast
It’s important for the Google Analytics APIs to be open and accessible to all developers. It’s common practice for developers learning a new API to start off with the basics and incrementally build from this foundation.

So with that in mind, we wrote a new Hello Analytics API tutorial to give you that basic foundation. The tutorial includes sample code for Java, PHP, Python, and JavaScript. It also walks you through the basic steps of using the Google Analytics API, including registration, authorizing users, retrieving account and profile information, and querying for a report. Once complete you will have a working example that you can customize.

To make it even easier to build applications, we’ve also updated the developer guides for both the Core Reporting API and Management API. Examples for a variety of programming languages have been included, but more importantly the basic concepts have been highlighted.

So whether you’re just starting, updating, or migrating to the new version, you should check out the Hello Analytics API tutorial and Developer Guides before settling down to write that awesome application.


Posted by Pete Frisella, Nick Mihailovski, and Jeetendra Soneja, Analytics API team

Want to learn new ways to promote your mobile app? Join us tomorrow for a Hangout On Air.

Earlier this month, we announced new features in AdWords that provide a simple solution for developers and businesses with a mobile app to acquire users and track downloads. Tomorrow (May 31st) at 10am PST, 1pm EST, we’re hosting a live Hangout On Air with Product Manager Anurag Agrawal in a conversation with businesses who have been early to test this out - Brian Wright, Sr. Marketing Manager at Lookout Mobile Security, and Troy Morris, Mobile Marketing Manager at WhitePages.   We’ll also be demonstrating how to use the new Mobile App Extension, and set up Android Download Tracking inside AdWords.

How to tune into this Hangout On Air:

1. Visit the Google Ads +Page at 10am PST/1pm EST.
2. Look for the stream post, and click to tune in.  Don’t forget to be signed into Google+!

Look for the Hangout on Air post like the image above on the Google Ads +Page and click to tune-in!

Leave us comments and questions! We’ll be sure to answer these during or in a follow up to the Hangout On Air.

Posted by Sonja Lee, Google Mobile Ads

Answers To Your Burning Google Analytics Questions

Last week we hosted a webinar on Getting Started with Analytics and received so many good questions during the event that we didn’t have time to answer all of them. I’ve sorted through the hundreds of questions and below are answers to the most asked and interesting. If you missed the webinar or want to rewatch, it’s now available on the Google Analytics YouTube channel.




QUESTIONS & ANSWERS:
Can I measure if a visitor plays a video, downloads a whitepaper, etc?
Yes, use Event Tracking to learn about visitor actions like video plays, or PDF downloads that don't correspond directly to pageviews. And once you set up an Event it can also be tracked as a Goal. You can assign a value to these Events as a microconversion. Start with a larger objective that has a monetary value, like landing a big client, then map out the smaller steps leading up to that sale. For example, you may discover that for your business, an average of 7 PDF downloads corresponds to 1 sale. The value of a download would then be equal to an average sale divided by 7.

How do I learn if my website drives phone calls & offline conversions?
Many business’ customers start researching online, but then pick up the phone and call to complete the sale. Think about what activities a user may do on your website that would motivate them to call. Do they spend time viewing your portfolio, reading testimonials, or checking out prices? Set up Goals to measure these micro-conversion actions that will help you learn which of your sources are providing quality visitors. You can also add unique phone numbers to the landing page or ad that will enable you to identify when a user calls you what marketing source they came from. The GA App Gallery has call-tracking integrations and here is an example of how Google AdWords enables call forwarding and tracking by pay per click campaigns.

Can I track actions that happen on a 3rd party page like email newsletter sign up or checkout?
Since this action happens outside of your website, Google Analytics will not be able to measure it. If you work with a third party vendor check with them to see if they can share with you any tracking information they may have. Be sure to check out the Google Analytics App Gallery to see if there are 3rd party integrations like payment solutions, reporting or email marketing that could work with you to solve this problem.

How do I get Multi-Channel Funnels Assisted Conversion reports in my account?
Similar to your other Analytics reports, Multi-Channel Funnels (MCF) are driven by the Analytics tracking code you have already placed on your webpages. No additional code is required to access MCF reports but you do need a Goal set up in your Analytics Account. Once you have goals set up, the MCF reports will be automatically filled with data for the visitor interactions that lead up to the completion of that goal. Keep in mind viewing MCF reports on a filtered profile can skew your data, learn more in our help center. We will also have a webinar focused on MCF reports coming soon.

Why do my visits in Analytics not match with AdWords or my website hosting service?
All of the AdWords reports in Google Analytics import data directly from the AdWords system, and they usually match the data in your AdWords account exactly. But there can be circumstances where the data can differ. For example AdWords clicks do not equal visitors, if a user clicks on your ad twice within thirty minutes without closing his or her browser this is registered by Analytics as one visit to your site, but it equals two AdWords clicks. Also your Analytics profile could be filtered to exclude visits from IP’s within your company, but your web hosting service could count those as visits. Here is a great article from our Help Center explaining this in more detail.

What is the best way to tag my marketing campaigns? And can I use a URL shortener?
If you need help creating campaign tags for links in your marketing campaigns (Search Marketing, Display Ads, Email Newsletters) check out the tagging tool in our Help Center. Remember to turn on AdWords Auto-tagging if you are running AdWords campaigns as this will automatically insert the campaign tags for you. Yes, you can use a URL shortener like goo.gl or other services out there to successfully pass your campaign tags through a nice short link.

If you’re interested in learning more about Google Analytics, we have a great webinar on Reaching Your Goals with Google Analytics. For more advanced users check out our Marketing Attribution Insights webinar, and watch the blog for more details about our attribution webinar series.

Posted by Ian Myszenski, Google Analytics team

Solve Problems. Don't Add to Them.

He should have…

     I can’t believe she…

          OMG, did you see how they…

If you listen to Rush Limbaugh or NPR…. If you watch E! or Extra, CNN or FOX News, you’ll notice it.

We’ve become a nation of Armchair Quarterbacks.

People become rich by simply sitting back and waiting for politicians and “celebrities” to screw up – then ignoring all of their own faults and pointing out the flaws in everyone around them.

They expect perfection from everyone, but add absolutely no value of their own to the world.

Many of you loyal readers are Marketers, most of the rest are CEOs or other execs.  No matter the title on your business card, we are all in the idea business.  What is the best way to drive traffic?  How can we reduce attrition?  What if we grew into a new market?  It is the production of great ideas that drive everything.

The next time you're involved in brainstorming or as a sounding board for other’s big ideas, remember the armchair QBs. 

Not every idea you’ll hear will be a good one, but just about every idea has some merit – no matter how hidden.  Individuals who spend more time ADDING value and creating ideas than they do dismantling other’s ideas move projects forward.

My personal rule of thumb … Never present a problem without a possible solution.  For every reason you find for why something won’t work, create at least one way to make it successful.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MarketMatch is a full-service marketing firm, dedicated to the credit union and community banking community.  We utilize knowledge-based strategies to help you FOCUS on the right story that will generate the greatest  MOMENTUM and prove the best RESULTS with our written ROI Guarantee.

Want to learn more?  Enroll in the MarketMatch eCollege!  Smart online sessions delivered with CFMP credits, tactical advice and a game plan for success!

See our story here. (click)

Chat with me LIVE! (click)

Or email me directly (click)

937-426-9848

AdWords for video: Use video to capture a new advertising audience

Join us every Wednesday at 11am PST on the Google+ Your Business page to learn about the tools that Google offers your business. This week, we’re excited to bring you a Hangout On Air about AdWords for video.

Who doesn’t love watching videos? They can teach, elicit emotion, and influence our daily lives. Naturally then, video is also an effective way to build awareness of your business. On average, video advertising on YouTube can lead to a 20% increase in website traffic. Watch Wednesday’s Hangout on Air to hear more about AdWords for video from two specialists who will address who should use video advertising, how to up set video campaigns, what performance metrics are available, and a few more helpful tricks.

Just sign into Google+ and add the Google+ Your Business page to your circles. Post questions ahead of time - simply look for the post that we put up every Monday morning soliciting your questions. Then, on Wednesday, navigate to your Stream where you’ll be able to view our Hangout live with just one click!

Posted by Katie Miller, Inside AdWords crew

Featured App and Tutorial: Flickr

Screenshot of one of my Flickr albums
from the N Chas Arts Festival

Are you a blogger who takes photos with your iPhone?  Have you been emailing the photos to yourself (one at a time) to save on your computer for posting on your blog? I’m embarrassed to admit that is what I was doing just a few months ago.  It can be downright exhausting (smile).  I knew there was a better way!

So, I turned to Flickr to see if there was a mobile app.  Of course, there was. Why hadn't I thought of this sooner? Before I share the details on how to use this super-easy (and free) app, I want to mention there is another mover and shaker app that allows you to save photos from your iPhone to your computer.  I’m sure I will give that a go next, and review it for you here.  Until then, I’m sharing Flickr info.  After all, plenty of bloggers like to drive traffic to their Flickr accounts, so it is still a winning app for me.

This is an app review and tutorial in one. I've reviewed a few other apps as well - view them here.

Name of app: 

Flickr

About the app: 

Flickr allows you to upload sets of photos from your iPhone to your Flickr account (7 at a time) and have easy access to them later, when you want to share them on your blog.

What I love most: 

It's a huge time-saver for me - no longer having to email photos to myself from my iphone library, download them from my email, and save to my computer for use in my blogging later.

Cost of app: 

Free (at the time of this post)

Any cons?
I've always felt like the process to save photos to your computer from Flickr involves more steps than necessary.  Instead of a simple right-click/save, you have to view the photo individually, then right click and select your download size, wait for that to load, and then right-click save again.  It does get faster once you get the hang of it.  The reasoning? Flickr allows you to grab various sizes/resolutions, which comes in handy if you're sharing photos with the media for possible print use.  That said, the embed option (explained later) may be faster for some bloggers. 

Now, onto the tutorial!

How to upload photos to Flickr from your iPhone
(Flickr is also available on Android phones - the uploading process is very similar)

1. First, search for “Flickr” in the app store and download the free app.

2. Next, you’ll need to login with your Flickr credentials.  If you have a yahoo account, your email and password will work. Otherwise, you can create an account in just a few simple steps.

3. Now it’s time to upload your photos!  On the iPhone, you click on the uploader icon on the top right after you’ve logged into your Flickr account.

4. Next, you select “take photo or video” or “select from library”. I love that you can upload multiple photos!

5. Now it’s time to add the photos to an existing set or create a new one.  You can also just keep them in your regular photostream.  I have found it comes in handy later to be organized with sets from the beginning.

6. Select “public” or “private” as your privacy level, then, click “upload”.

You’re all set! When you need the photos for blogging (or otherwise), visit your Flickr account from your computer and select the photo(s) from your photostream.  Right click on each photo when enlarged and follow simple download instructions.  OR, simply embed the photo into your blog post by grabbing the html embed code under "share" and selecting your embed size. 

Added bonus:
Flickr has a photo editing tool that allows you to crop and adjust photos.  It's available from your regular computer - select "edit photo in Aviary" under "actions" when viewing a photo individually.  Crop, adjust and save.

When you return to your computer to compose your next blog post, simply login to Flickr.com and grab whatever photos you’d like to embed.  Or, download the photo(s) by right-clicking and selecting the desired photo side. 
Laura is a marketing professional and blogger who has been active in social media since 2005.  If you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing to this blog via Email or  RSS.

Laura can also be found on Twitter (@LauraCatherineO), Facebook, and LinkedIn. 

How Two Nonprofits Improve Their Site Performance With Google Analytics

At Google, we’re proud that our products are used by nonprofits to help them better achieve their objectives and improve the world. We believe that data holds amazing power for all types of organizations and it’s inspiring to see some forward-thinking nonprofits live at the edge of adoption. Today we’d like to share two brief case studies we’ve published: how the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) are using Google Analytics. Links to the full case studies are included after each summary if you’d like to dive deeper.

By tailoring the features of Google Analytics, LunaMetrics helps PBS increase conversions and visits by 30%

Top Notch Programming, The Public Broadcasting System’s interactive arm, helps individual PBS producers and local PBS stations create and promote each section within PBS.org for programs such as NOVA, American Masters, and Sid the Science Kid. A selection of web analytics tools had been installed, but these proved difficult to maintain and use. PBS wanted to develop a coordinated approach to analysis and reporting that would inform their future strategic decisions.

Led by Web Analytics Director Amy Sample, the team at PBS needed a cohesive system across the entire enterprise, and for this they turned to Google Analytics. In addition to top-level analysis of PBS.org and PBSKids.org, they also hoped to implement a solution that would allow producers of individual programs to see only the data on those pages and microsites that related to their own shows. It was critical to have a solution that gave Amy the over-arching view she needed, and the microcosm view that each producer needed. To meet these requirements, LunaMetrics devised a custom technical solution for PBS that expanded their existing standard implementation. 

Google Analytics has been a key facilitator in the transformation of PBS online. The tool enables reporting that is robust, tailored and meaningful, which means that stakeholders are no longer focused on static monthly reports. Instead, they are increasingly able to use analytics to inform  critical and timely business decisions on a day-to-day basis. Analysis of search engine trends led to an increase in PBS traffic by 30% during the first year after implementation. PBS also used valuable conversion funnel data to optimize the registration path in PBSKids; this activity increased conversions by one-third. Furthermore, since Google Analytics was set up to allow PBS to evaluate the way users consumed video, the broadcaster created two new portals: PBS Video and PBSKIDS Go!

Read the full PBS case study here.

SFMOMA (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) chooses Google Analytics and masters the art of metrics

In 1995, SFMOMA was one of the first museums to launch an institutional website. SFMOMA.org offers a fluid space of exploration in which visitors can easily navigate an online collection of more than 9,000 artworks and a rich archive of studio and video content. The site also has an online store and a detailed calendar of exhibitions and events. 

Their primary goal was to develop rich, dynamic content that engages visitors and keeps them coming back to the website as well as the physical museum. SFMOMA’s website receives nearly four times the number of visits than the physical museum. Providing compelling digital content that visitors want was as critical as hosting popular exhibitions.

Google Analytics Certified Partner E-Nor helped SFMOMA connect key business objectives to a robust web analytics strategy and recommended Google Analytics as the best solution for their needs. As a result of the switch to Google Analytics with a thorough implementation plan, SFMOMA saw a tremendous increase in available insights about their online presence. They realized a 15% gain in traffic accuracy, and so were more willing to make decisions based on the data. 

They could clearly see what content users liked best, and made changes and improvements to their website to keep them coming back. Their marketing campaigns were tied to sales and other goal conversions, and so they could optimize accordingly.

All this new data is helping produce valuable insights on how the website is used and what marketing efforts and website designs are delivering results. SFMOMA is now prepared to continue its online leadership thanks to careful planning and strategy coupled with an expert use of the advanced features in Google Analytics.

Read the full SFMOMA case study here.

Posted by the Google Analytics team

As graduation season is upon us, a great man once said,
  "All our dreams can come true...if we have the courage to pursue them." - Walt Disney

Wishing a special congratulations to a huge MarketMatch fan, Casey Clapp, go get 'em Casey!

Enjoy your graduations, your weekend celebrations and enjoy your Memorial Day holiday.

Happy Friday!
Debbi

Social Reports are now found under 'Traffic Sources'

We’ve recently consolidated the locations of our social reports. The 3 reports, Social Engagement, Social Actions, & Social Pages were previously listed in the Audience section and have been moved to the Traffic Sources -> Social section. Click through to see the reports in your Analytics Account.

In addition we’ve added new social reports and functionality, as detailed on our recent blog post on the launch of our Social Reports. Users now have access to both onsite behavior, the existing data, and off-site social activities of partners such as Google+, Digg, and Reddit among others. Below is a summary of how to access the data from the old reports in the new ones.

To access onsite activities use the Traffic Sources -> Social -> Social Plugins report. Here you see the social activities broken down by content. Selecting a specific page shows you the social activities by network for that page. Click the “Social Source and action” tab highlighted in the screenshot below to see a breakdown of the itemized activities.

Hope you’ll find this information helpful and learn more about how social channels are delivering value to your website.

Posted by Linus Chou, Google Analytics Team

Google Surveys are Here: Implications for Multicultural Research

Google is my favorite tech company these days. It has created and continues to create solutions that are quite outstanding.  That brings freedom of research and expression to the world, literally.

Recently the company launched Google Surveys. That allows users to:

• Create a survey online, including graphics
• Respondents answer questions to get free access to content online, one or two questions at the time, only
• The content publishers get paid for allowing their viewers to answer questions
• The survey creator finally gets the data tabulated and graphically displayed, and the data is updated continuously as more people answer

The system of Google Surveys is still being developed and eventually it will become a killer app, I think.  Right now the survey creator or researcher pays 10 cents per response, or 50 cents per response if the responses are from specific targets.  So, if you ask 50 questions from 500 Hispanics it costs you $2,500.  Not that bad although not that inexpensive either compared with companies like Research Now that can do similar work via River methodology at very competitive prices depending on the specifics of the project and include many more questions in one survey.  There are several issues that Google Surveys needs to address before their platform is really useful for multicultural research.  Here is why:

• The fact that each respondent answers only one or two questions at a time makes correlations and multivariate statistics impossible to conduct.  If you have a survey with 50 questions, you need all 50 responses from each individual to be able to compute statistical associations and other relational analysis.
• They are currently only targeting English language publishers, thus if the researcher wants to target “other language” respondents that is difficult as the incidence may be too low and the data slow to collect.
• The cost is not really lower from that of competitors that do target “other language” groups, and who get individual respondents to actually complete an entire, let’s say, 50 question survey at one time. That way the researcher can conduct actual segmentations and other complex data analyses.
• Also, the target of Google Surveys now are people who visit sites that charge for content. That makes the respondents somewhat idiosyncratic and perhaps not representative of the universe of online respondents.

At this time "Google Surveys" is a useful tool for people who want to know the answer to one or two very specific questions. In multicultural research, we usually need to find relationships between variables from the diverse cultural groups in the US.  Google Surveys does not seem to be ready to address these issues at this time. Nevertheless I am hopeful that they will eventually have a very general and powerful tool.

How Google+ has helped Cadbury connect with over 1.2 million people

Cadbury has become the European brand with the largest number of followers on Google+, currently at 1.2 million. Their Google+ success is having a strong impact on their overall marketing strategy, especially by improving the performance of their Search campaigns. The question is how exactly did they do this?

Their first step was to create a Google+ page. As featured in a previous blog post, Cadbury used hangouts to interact in real time with Olympic athletes and chocolate experts, and to participate in creating the chocolate replica Google+ page. By promoting their hangouts, Cadbury grew their Google+ follower base by 150,000 people.

They also used circles to segment their followers according to their chocolate preferences and unveiled a brand-new product launch, the Dairy Milk Bubbly Bar, which has achieved a strong impact, already sales are over £8M.

However, where they are seeing tremendous results is in their search campaigns. Since they started using social extensions, which links Cadbury’s Google+ page to its AdWords campaigns, they have achieved a 17% uplift in CTR across all their AdWords campaigns. Now when you search for “Cadbury” and see the relevant ad, recommendations from your friends are displayed directly with it, making the ad much more relevant to you. By clicking on the social extension, you directly land on Cadbury’s Google+ page and can start following all the great content they are posting.

And since Cadbury installed the Google+ badge on its homepage, it’s now easier than ever for fans to follow the brand; Cadbury gains 10,000 new followers on average per day and have had an increase of 7.5% of traffic from Google URLs. To continue benefiting from their Google+ success, Cadbury are looking to include a Google+ social stream that will pull in their most recent updates into a re-launch of their homepage, which will be happening soon. Stay tuned to learn how Cadbury continue to innovate to make their Google+ experience a success!

Learn more about Cadbury’s success with Google+ by reading the full case study here.

Posted by Natalia Cano, Product Marketing Manager Google+ For Businesses

4 Simple Ideas to Create a Memorable Customer Experience

'Inc.' had a very intriguing article written by Jeff Haden, “6 Habits of Truly Memorable People.” Jeff went on to explain the importance of living life versus watching life pass us by. He stressed the importance of creating the experience in our personal lives not only for ourselves but also for the people around us.

We can take this one step further in creating a memorable experience for our customers every time they interact with our company. Below are a few simple ideas to start you on your way.

1. Attentiveness – Attentiveness does not only mean being attentive while our customer is on the phone or in the lobby, but also following up with the customer after the fact. Did they order a new debit card or set up online banking? Follow up – be attentive – and ask if they have any questions or problems and then follow through with a solution. If everything is great - simply thank them for their business.
2. Recognition – It’s so important to address our customers by name not just when they are in our lobbies or on the phone, but every time we see them - both at work and outside of work. A prime example of this was when a waitress from one of my favorite local restaurants saw me at a tourist attraction 300 miles from home and made it a point to come over and say ‘hi.’ Such a thoughtful gesture that can mean so much, both while at work and as we’re going about our every day lives.
3. Personalization – By being attentive to our customers, we will begin to notice their individual needs and preferences. If you need to take notes to remember, do so. Each personalized experience you can offer adds value and promotes an extreme amount of loyalty.
4. Delight – Customer delight has a personal touch, it appears spontaneous, and makes our customers feel good. Think about ‘thank you for your business’ notes, ‘welcome’ signs in our lobbies, sending ‘congratulations’ on life events, newspaper articles on children successes, etc. Look for ways to create meaningful, memorable, fun, unusual and unexpected experiences.

Many banks and credit unions may do the big things right, but it’s the little memorable experiences that differentiate us.  Create the memorable experience for you and your customers. 

Live Life.

Melissa 

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Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you imagined. Thoreau

MarketMatch is a full-service marketing firm, dedicated to the credit union and community banking community.  We utilize knowledge-based strategies to help you FOCUS on the efforts that will generate the greatest  MOMENTUM for your organization and demonstrate RESULTS with our written ROI Guarantee.

Want to learn more?  Enroll in the MarketMatch eCollege!  Smart online sessions delivered with CFMP credits, tactical advice and a game plan for success!

The Great Storyteller Gets the Audience.

What if there was a tiny building in a budding town that valued INTEGRITY over profits?

What if that building assembled all of the community’s brightest and most COMPASSIONATE people?

What if those individuals made a PROMISE to help everyone obtain the treasures they desired … the items they could afford – and better set aside riches for the future? 

What if they offered a PLEDGE to allow you access to your wealth, when and how you wanted, without seizing a ransom to do so?

Wouldn’t that be something?  Wouldn’t that be (Your Institution Name Here)?

  

Or …. You COULD say:

"We care."  "We have great loan rates."  "We offer convenient services."

Which would you rather read?  Which evokes emotion?  Which will stand out from what the other local banks and CUs are saying?

Even in our overly-busy lives, people are drawn into a great story.  We long to sit down and be entertained by the yarn of a gifted bard … to imagine our own lives through the well-scripted prose of another.

Think of your brand as an epic tale ... Your staff and customers are the characters ...  Each ad is one short story from it's chronicles.

Be the great storyteller and you'll get the audience's attention.

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MarketMatch is a full-service marketing firm, dedicated to the credit union and community banking community.  We utilize knowledge-based strategies to help you FOCUS on the right story that will generate the greatest  MOMENTUM and prove the best RESULTS with our written ROI Guarantee.

Want to learn more?  Enroll in the MarketMatch eCollege!  Smart online sessions delivered with CFMP credits, tactical advice and a game plan for success!

See our story here. (click)

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Or email me directly (click)

937-426-9848