PDmediaLAB iMAGE Guide

iMAGE Interactive Media Action Guide for Excellence A must-have manual on how to dominate your online presence

PDmediaLAB

Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

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chapter one Web Development

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chapter two Search Engine Optimization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

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chapter three Mobile Website Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

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chapter four Social Media Optimization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

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chapter five brand Reputation Management

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chapter six Content & Conversion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

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chapter seven Test your skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

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chapter eight glossary of terms

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Let’s get started!

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Welcome... to a helpful guide to improving your digital marketing presence. The sessions in the PD Media Lab Workshop Series, along with the useful material in this guide, should provide your business with a strong foundation and roadmap for making better use of digital resources to attract customers. The landscape and environment for any local business is extremely competitive with local and global forces at play, seeking to win over your customers and market share. Keeping up with today’s technology is important, but it is only one piece of the puzzle. Successful businesses today must carefully monitor what works, change what doesn’t work, and take advantage of innovation to drive results. This guide and the resources of the entire PD Media Lab stand with you to accomplish this goal.

website development

START

the journey

reputation management

SMO

seo

mobile web

content & conversion

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1 web development Overview Before diving into the details of what should be on your website, ask yourself what you would like to get out of your website. Answering this question will help identify how to best approach developing design, content and conversion strategies.

really slick website

When properly executed, your website can be an effective marketing tool. It is the virtual front door to your business. In the few seconds consumers allow to scan your site, you want to provide enticing information to encourage them to stay longer, take an action, or come back later.

What are the basic elements of a successful website?

Design, Content and Conversion How do I apply these concepts to my website?

Design & Development • Domain name • Platform

• Custom design

• Easy navigation Content

• Unique content

• Obvious call to action

How do I measure the success of my website?

• Monitor • Adjust

• Review

4 4

Conversion

• Conversion form

• Traffic tracking system (analytics) Maintain

• provide a reason for visitors to come back later • keep information current

• provide client requested information

Did you know?

63%

of consumers turn to the internet first when looking for local products. – Nielsen Online

82%

of local searchers follow up offline via an in-store visit, phone call, or purchase. – ComScore

Interactive Media Action Guide for Excellence

notes

Homework: 1. Purchase the domain name for your business 2. Install Google Analytics – your web developer should know how to do this for you. http://www.google.com/analytics/learn/setupchecklist.html

3. Perform a search inquiry for your most popular product/service. Do you show up on the first page of results? What about your competitors?

Perform a second search for your most profitable product/service.

What did you find?

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2 Search Engine Optimization Overview Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of structuring your website so it is located, read and indexed by search engines (Google, Yahoo and Bing). Search engines use mathematical formulas called algorithms to evaluate over 200 variables of your website. Results of these evaluations determine where you rank on search engine result pages. ...What?

SEO helps your website get found.

The basic elements of Search Engine Optimization (SEO): On-Page Optimization On-Page SEO is the foundation of your website, very much like a house. You want your humble abode to be built with the strongest materials and built to last. Search engines look for sites that are built correctly from the ground up. Partner with an SEO firm who takes the time to analyze the right keyword strategy for your individual business and builds the proper code into the structure of your site.

Off-Page Optimization Now that your house is built, you want to create the pathways or roads that will bring your friends, family and of course complete strangers that want to buy from you, to your masterfully built home.

Off-Page SEO is the art of creating a powerful link structure from carefully selected sources on the web that will drive quality traffic to your website. Ongoing Off-Page SEO will increase your organic placement on major search engines for targeted keyword strings.

Things to think about:

1. Identify your reach. Is your target audience local? Regional? National?

2. Do your homework! Is your SEO firm reliable? What is their reputation in the community?

3. Content editing services are a major part of On-Page SEO. Inquire about what content editing services are available to you.

4. Transparency – Obtain reports showing what is being done, how the campaign is performing and what tactics will be implemented in the coming months.

5. Be wary of firms who claim to have a “secret recipe”. This sometimes equates to what the industry calls “black hat” tactics, or tactics that are designed to trick search engines into ranking a website. These are unethical and when caught, your website runs the risk of being flagged and in some cases banned completely.

6. Ask a lot of questions.

Continued on page 8

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How do I measure success?

1. Check your ranking

2. Monitor your website traffic tracking system (analytics) Myth: When choosing an SEO firm, make sure they guarantee 1st page ranking on Google.

Truth: If an SEO firm mentions the word “guarantee”, then run away as fast as you can. In today’s SEO market, you cannot properly offer guarantees. Those who do offer guarantees often use keywords that are not competitive or target search engines that are not widely used.

Myth: Every SEO campaign should have the ability to get you a minimum of 500 links.

Truth: To mention that they’ll get you “500 links” is inappropriate. Depending on the industry, there might not be 500 on-topic or authoritative links to get. If your website is linked to unnatural links or unauthorized links, you run the risk of being flagged by Google which can negatively impact your ranking. In some cases, you can be completely removed from Google’s index. Working with an SEO firm that performs manual deep linking, will help ensure quality control.

Myth: I don’t really need SEO, my website is getting plenty of traffic.

Truth: While your website may be getting traffic now, that can change in an instant. Without having a partner in your SEO strategy, you may not be keeping a critical eye on your competition’s ranking, or be keeping in tune with search engine trends.

Myth: Desktop SEO and Mobile SEO are the same things.

Truth: As mobile users increase in numbers and become more and more demanding, it is imperative your mobile website is optimized to the same extent as your desktop site, except using a mobile SEO strategy.up? How many scrolls and or pages did it take to get to your business? Where do

your competitors show up?

links

web analytics content

S ES

d

s

!!!

keywor

SUC C

STRATEGY

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Interactive Media Action Guide for Excellence

notes

Homework: Grab a smartphone and search for your products and services. Where do you show up? How many scrolls and or pages did it take to get to your business?

Where do your competitors show up?

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3 mobile website development overview Mobile is the connection of our physical and digital worlds. It enables us to connect with local businesses any time of day, from anywhere, at the moment of inspiration.

By 2014, 90% of the US population will own mobile phones.

Strategy Analytics, Wireless Device Strategies.

80% people never leave home without their phones in hand.

Our Mobile Planet: US, Google/Ipsos OTX, May 2012 Join the Mobile Movement! Here are 5 easy tips to mobile success!

1. Build smart

2. Make it easy 3. Create experience unique to mobile 4. Monitor and adapt 5. Include in your marketing plan

MOBILE DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT 57% of mobile users will not recommend a business with a poorly-designed mobile site.

Consider your audience. What actions do you want them to take? How do they want to interact with you from a mobile perspective?

Also consider how will your business change this year? Next year?

MOBILE DESIGN TEMPLATE Advantages

Things to consider

Ready for immediate download

Limited customization abilities

Many templates to choose from Low price point

Not unique – often resembles many other websites May not be SEO friendly Generic look and feel

Pre-organized space for content and images Continued on page 12

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CUSTOM MOBILE DESIGN Advantages

Things to consider

Unique design

Additional development time

More adaptable to client needs

Additional Investment

Ability to grow and change as your business grows

Research time on web development companies

Unique branding ability SEO friendly options Customizable user experience Long term benefits Ability to tie in marketing and branding strategies Options for platforms that are easy to update Make it easy for consumers to engage with you • Limit the number of options per screen • Tap to call • Tap to locate • Tap to share

Monitor & Track • Monitor and optimize based on consumer usage. Never stop improving your mobile site.

• Monitor mobile traffic growth.

• Track conversion rate.

What percent of your current website traffic comes from a mobile device?

Content & Conversion • Simplify navigation • Clear calls to action • Get to the point. Summarize.

• Keep forms to a minimum

Common mistakes: • Too much on one page • Too many images • Using technologies that will cause your site to load slowly or not at all, such as flash • Forgetting to include an option to view the full desktop website

Have you recently viewed your website on a mobile phone? Are you able to easily call, get directions or make a purchase?

Tie in your marketing strategy • QR Codes • Specializing your marketing plan to include mobile targeted advertising opportunities such as localized mobile banner ads or mobile focused local SEO.

Did you know?

61%

of smartphone users are making local searches – ComScore

38 million

Americans use mobile devices for social networking almost every day. – ComScore

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Interactive Media Action Guide for Excellence

notes

Homework: How does your website help people find your social media pages?

What will they find there?

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4 social media optimization overview Effective social media optimization (SMO) campaigns involve strategic business intelligence gathering and a clear understanding of your industry. As consumers continue to interact with brands, the value of a “like“ or share is more critical to local businesses than ever before.

Social media is one of the most effective ways to stay connected to your customers on a more personal level.

We XXX

Social Media

50% of social networks users are connected to brands 600 million people use social networks at least daily

Planning your strategy Identify what your goal is for social media. Here’s a few to try on for size: • Raise awareness of your brand.

• Increase website traffic • Website visitor loyalty • Increase total conversion rates • Create a community to build sustainable relationships that are organic and positive.

Identify the appropriate social media platforms for your business.

Create a content outline • Be authentic • Not too sales oriented • Show your business’ personality Create content schedule • Stagger your posts Get Social!

Set up your social media pages and profiles!

Communicate: • Talk to me, not at me • Promote an action • Ask the question • Be consistent Continued on page 16

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Connect: • Join the conversation • Respond to comments • Reward for loyalty • Personalize. Make your brand, their brand.

Community: • Sharing • Exposure • Referrals

Did you know?

61%

of smartphone users are making local searches – ComScore

38 million

Americans use mobile devices for social networking almost every day. – ComScore

DO

DON’T

Listen

Ignore

Engage

Push

Take it offline

Argue

Thank you customers

Take supporters for granted

Be genuine

Sound fake or unauthentic

Include sub category related content

Include off brand messaging

How to measure success: Subscribers – Facebook Fans, Twitter Followers, YouTube Subscribers, Pinterest Followers are all measuring how many people want to hear from you.

Engagement – Comments, re-tweets, likes on Facebook or YouTube, Pins, etc. are all versions of interactions from your subscribers.

Reach – Facebooks People Talking About This, Tweet Audience, Youtube Views and Pins/Re-Pins give you an idea of how many people you potentially reached.

Activity – How often do you create new content? What is your activity?

By monitoring this information, you will be able to evaluate how your content resonates with your target audience.

Social media has changed the way people share their experiences. At any given moment, they can tell the world how they feel about your business. Mobile devices make this even easier by giving consumers the ability to express themselves in real time.

What are people saying about your business?

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Interactive Media Action Guide for Excellence

notes

Homework: Check review sites that are relevant to your business. If your company sells physical products, check Amazon, Google Shopping . If you’re an offline business, look for ratings on sites like Google Places or Yelp. What did you find?

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5 reputation management overview Protecting your brand; what are people saying about you?

For a local business, few things matter more than reputation, and in reputation management the Internet can be a friend or enemy. One poor review can turn off future customers, just as a glowing review can help spread the positive story about your business. A positive online image isn’t just a luxury, it’s a necessity in these rapidly changing economic times.

Protect your brand by: • Getting rid of negative search results in major search engines that may turn away customers • Ensure no one is posting links to your website on irrelevant or questionable sites.

• Create positive references to your website on consumer-review sites that matter to your customers • Make sure the popular review sites such as Yelp, CitySearch and others always have the right information about your business.

• Respond to what’s being posted on review sites.

• Enhance your brand reputation by using the available online social media marketing tools What do I do when there is a negative review?

Every organization breaks down to individual people – Kerry Rego, Kerry Rego Consulting No one wants to be ignored. People are usually looking for validation. The most important thing you can do is listen and respond. Make sure to balance good and bad reviews.

In summation: • Be proactive • Be meaningful • Be genuine • Monitor regularly Your brand is your business. Ensure your business gets noticed digitally – for all the right reasons.

Did you know?

70%

consult reviews or ratings before purchasing.

– BusinessWeek

90%

of online consumers trust recommendations from people they know; 70% trust unknown users – Econsultancy, July 2009, Erik Qualman, Socialnomics

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Interactive Media Action Guide for Excellence

notes

Homework: Enhance your reputation with your audience or consumer by providing them great information, but first you must decide what your goals are for the content you’ll supply. Do you want to: • • • •

Entertain?

Inspire?

Educate?

Convince?

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6 content & conversion overview Content IS king! Strong content helps convert website visitors into customers. Your Why is content so important?

• Content gives you an opportunity to stay in touch with your audience without always asking them to buy something.

• Valuable content keeps people coming back.

• Quality, unique content is the building block for search engines.

• Online users of today have more specific tasks in mind and leave quickly if they cannot find what they want. What is your bounce rate?

Content Strategy Unfortunately, not just any content will work. Writing out a bunch of content without purpose is messy and confusing to your audience. You know your customers better than anyone else. Focus your content to cater to your target audience and what they want to hear from you.

The fundamentals of good content: Relevant content is the foundation to your content strategy. Search engines strive to deliver relevant content to consumers. It also adds value to the conversation and builds trust with readers.

Fresh content keeps your audience up to date. It also provides your website or web pages with the opportunity to be re-indexed by search engines.

presentations

audio

products

video

photos Continued on page 22

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Engaging content helps you interact and connect with your website visitors. Help them understand how to move through your site in order to move forward and convert to customers.

• E-commerce – Make it easy. If you’re selling online, test your checkout process.

• Conversion forms – Customize based on your audience. Prompt them to think about other options.

• Newsletter sign ups – Stay connected after they’ve left.

• Phone numbers – Call now!

Here are some additional guidelines you can use to develop effective conversion friendly content.

DO

DONT

Be unique

Copy other websites word for word.

Make it very easy to understand

Make people work to figure out what you do

Implement keywords naturally where they fit

Keyword stuff

Deliver the right amount of content for your readers

Force too much or offer too little

Benefits of using the products

Focus on features too much

Use consistent style

Use too many different styles

Include calls to action!

Leave it up to the reader to figure out what to do next.

Don’t be afraid! Get started today!

Just start writing. Identify which topics you want to highlight.

Hint: If you get stuck, think about common questions your customers ask you and address them accordingly.

Content is a mixture of the written word, videos, images, etc. Think outside the box. How can you use these tools to educate people on what you have to offer?

Research your competitors. What types of content do they offer? How can you take it one step further?

Hint: Stop and read it aloud to yourself as you go. You’ll always pick up more mistakes that way.

Did you know?

90%

of consumers find custom content useful... AND

78%

believe that organizations providing custom content are interested in building good relationships with them.

– TMG Custom Media

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7 test your skills

What’s your digital IQ? Take this quiz to see how far you’ve come... (hint: answer key is on page 26).

1. CTA stands for:

A. Complex Test Analysis B. Call to Action C. Conversion Test Analysis

2. With your PPC adwords campaign, you should send your traffic to: A. Your homepage

B. A targeted landing page C. The page on your website that explains whatever it is you’re advertising on your adwords 3. A page with video is _____ time more likely to appear in Google search results.

A. 40x

B. 50x C. 99x 4. What is the purpose of a transactional landing page?

A. To persuade a visitor to complete a undertaking such as filling out a form B. To present information that is relevant to the visitor C. To distract a visitor from clicking the CTA

5. What does ‘Bounce Rate’ mean?

A. When a visitor comes to your landing page and converts B. When a visitor comes to your landing page, turns around and leaves right away C. When a visitor comes to your landing page and stays for over a minute

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Interactive Media Action Guide for Excellence

6. Which of these factors will affect your ranking for local-focused queries?

A. The number of Facebook fans you have in the area B. The location of your website’s server C. A correctly formatted address on your website 7. Which social networking site is primarily designed to allow users to share videos?

A. Flickr

B. YouTube C. MySpace 8. How many characters can Twitter users fit into a standard tweet?

A. 120

B. 140 C. 160 9. Which choice below is NOT considered technical SEO? A. On-page Sculpting B. SEO Programming C. SEO Audits D. Content Marketing E. Unnatural Link Building 10. On-page optimization includes:

A. Link building, social media and link bait.

B. Factors that the webmaster can control without the help of others.

C. Factors that the webmaster cannot control without the help of others.

D. Meta keywords, meta description and social signals.

E. Keyword dispersion, keyword families and page rank.

BONUS QUESTION:

Which most affects your website’s ability to show up first in searches: A. Correct search engine optimization

B. What is written online about a company

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8 glossary of terms

Speaking the Lingo Here’s a guide of some common buzz terms & acronyms to keep you from looking like a novice.

Blog

Short for weB LOG.

CRO

Query

The term(s) entered into a search engine by the user.

Conversion Rate Optimization, or people go from just browsing to making a purchase.

RSS

Geotagging

SEO

Process of adding location-based data to media such as photos, video or online maps.

Hashtags

A #symbol before a word (phrases must be joined without spaces) it is highlighted as a tag.

HTML

Hyper-Text Mark-up Language is the code that the World Wide Web is written with.

Hyperlink

Known as “link” for short.

Meme

Any information on the web that people share for their own amusement.

Moblog

A blog published directly to the Web from a phone or other mobile device.

PPC

Pay Per Click are adverts targeted to the specific search terms.

Really simple syndication.

Search Engine Optimisation.

SERPs

Search Engine Results Pages.

Style Sheet

A design template used for the layout of multiple pages within a website.

Tweet

A “tweet” is an entry made on the microblogging site, Twitter.

UGC

user-generated content.

URL

Uniform Resource Locator is the unique name of a webpage.

Widget

A gadget, badge or applet, is a small block of content, typically displayed in a small box.

Answer Key: 1. B; 2. B; 3. B; 4. A; 5. B; 6. C; 7. B; 8. B; 9. D; 10. B; Bonus B

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Interactive Media Action Guide for Excellence

Congratulations!

From student to specialist, you’ve completed a full course on interactive marketing.

Go forth and conquer your digital destiny!

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Logo style guide 2013 Shari Bennett-Jackson Advertising Account Executive Color

707-526-8665 Black 100% shari.bennett-jackson@pressdemocrat.com

Deep red: cmyk: 0/100/100/40 rgb: 157/11/15 web: 9d0b0f

Logo File name: SMI_logo_cmyk_2012 SMI_logo_blk_2012

Chenda Hou Advertising Account Executive 707-526-8531 chenda.hou@pressdemocrat.com

Font: Myriad MM 215LT 600N Myriad MM 700BD 600N

Logo size requirements

No less than 3/4" wide

No less than 1/2" high

Incorporating Sonoma Media Investments, LLC

PDmediaLAB

Owned locally by

YOUR BUSINESS IS OUR BUSINESS Owned locally by

Email: services@pressdemocrat.com (707) 526-8695 • WWW.PDMEDIALAB.COM

A Pulitzer Prize-Winning Newspaper | Owned locally by Sonoma Media Investments, LLC

When referring to ownership, use the phase:

Owned locally by Sonoma Media Investments, LLC Font: ITC Stone Sans Std | Min. size 6 pt