Clicky

It offers real-time stats, with a simple, but functional interface. The dashboard is nicely laid out so you can see all of your important site’s stats on the front page. It’s also quite fast to navigate around, compared to some of the other services.

Clicky also supports visitor segmentation. So you can see how many of your US visitors searched for a particular keyword, and how their engagement stats (like Actions, Total Time spent on site) compare with other users. Free version available but features are limited.

Mint

Mint is a very stylish “less is more” kind of analysis software. Where many others pile on feature after feature, Mint strives to show you the most relevant data about your website in a simple “at a glance” kind of way. Priced per site, starting at $30 each.

Mixpanel

Mixpanel is another service that oofers real-time analytics, however it is their handling of conversion funnels that sets it apart from the crowd. Mixpanel offer both free and paid packages.

Reinvigorate

Reinvigorate’s main strength lies in its real time nature. Providing you have the desktop client plus javascript installed, you can watch visitors land on your site or blog in real time. This enables you to be alerted to goals when a visitor performs a site action. Heatmapping technology is also a plus. From $10 per month

FoxMetrics

FoxMetrics gives you the ability to track metrics that are specific to your business, in the form of events. Using their API you could for instance track software installs, newsletter views, media consumption or almost any event that you can get to trigger an API call. FoxMetrics offer both free and paid packages.

Kissmetrics

T

he difference with Kissmetrics and other analytics services is their attempt to make it personal by tracking and allowing you to easily visualise, the user life-cycle. Kissmetrics allows you to drill down to see the behaviour of individual visitors on your site and how that has changed over time. Packages start from $29/month

Chartbeat

Chartbeat’s dashboard gives you the pulse of your site, showing you what traffic you have, who is sending it to you, and where it is going. Chartbeat enables you to react to events as they happen: promote or improve a rising story to maximize time on site, participate in discussions about your site on the web, and raise prices in response to demand. 30 day free trials are available.

Woopra

Developed by former Google employees, it boast features such as data sharing via an API, and runs via a thin desktop client (across all platforms). To access your (live) web stats, you can either use their online application or you can download a desktop client. Apart from the very stylish looks, Woopre boasts some impressive segmentation features. It is currently still in Beta, and during this period signups will be getting the product for free.

Piwik

Piwik is advertised as an open-source alternative to Google Analytics. It’s completely free to use and fairly easy to install on your own server. The Piwik

Dashboard is nicely laid out, displaying various widgets that show things like the keywords visitors are using to come to your site, what entry pages they are coming in to and more. You can add whatever widgets you want, and use the drag and drop interface to lay out the widgets exactly how you like them.

StatCounter

StatCounter is one of the better-known free Google Analytics alternatives and it’s been around for a while. You don’t get the “oooh, shiny!” effect when you log into StatCounter, but the data is all there and you can get all the info on visits, visitor paths, popular pages, entrance- and exit-pages, incoming keywords etc. Packages range from $5 to $119 per month

So there you have it, 10 of the best alternatives to Google Analytics. If you have any other alternatives feel free to share and I will add them to the list.

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But how do you change your Twitter handle? Thankfully it is not like Facebook where once you have your personal URL you are stuck with it. Twitter allows you to change your name on a whim…though that is not recommended. Before you change your name, make sure you look closely at the risks and the reasons.

How to Change Your Twitter Name

Log in to your Twitter account

Click on the picture of your avatar in the top right hand corner of the screen

Click Settings, the first menu option

You will see the Username right underneath your name. This is where you will enter in your new username.

When you enter your new username it will let you know if the name is available or not.

Once you get a name that is available, just click save and your Twitter handle will be changed.

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Learn and apply the basics of SEO, On-Page and Off-Page Techniques

Search Engine Optimization or simply SEO can spell the difference between success and failure. SEO involves the process of constructing web pages and optimizing them to become more relevant to what Internet users search. Just like any undertaking, you must equip yourself with basic tools and knowledge in any given field.

The more relevant your blog or website is to a particular search term or phrase, the better rankings it will achieve. Similarly, keyword and key phrase density is also essential if you really want to get in the first page of Google results.

Create backlinks in your social media accounts, article directories and bookmarking sites

Creating backlinks in various sources is another effective way of inching closer to the first page of Google. Backlinks play a heavy role in the algorithm not just of Google but as well as other major search engines like Yahoo! and Bing.

You can create backlinks in your social media accounts particularly in Facebook, Twitter and LinekdIn and also in article directories such as Build My Rank, Article Alley and Article Dashboard. In addition, bookmarking sites like Digg and StumbleUpon are also great places to create backlinks.

Timely and Quality Content is the Cornerstone

Search engines rank blogs and websites according to relevance and quality. Hence, no SEO or backlinking technique can outmaneuver the practice of regularly uploading relevant and quality posts.

While you can reach the first page of Google through SEO and backlinks, you cannot maintain such high rankings if you don’t upload relevant and quality content. Blogs and websites that reached the first page of Google through black hat SEO and backlinking techniques will eventually fall from their rankings and into Google’s back burner.

Don’t ever fall prey to ads promising first page rankings

Getting to the top of Google’s first pages could be frustrating. It takes a lot of time and effort that some would simply place their faith in SEO companies who provide such services. Even the most technically savvy SEO Company would not place a definite timeline on how fast they could get your website listed on the first page. If it’s too good to be true then you should definitely drop it.

Before you shell out some of your hard earned money, try to do simple research by checking out company reviews from “reputable” websites. You could also check their client lists. Companies who offer you “realistic” results are more likely to deliver on their promises.

Be Ready for Sleepless Nights

Enlisting the service of an SEO company is a good way of powering your website to the top but don’t leave your website on automatic pilot. If you want to be the best in your craft then taking a hands on approach gives you the best chance of getting to the top and saving a few bucks in the process.

Remember you’re competing with websites that have been around for years and outgunning them financially is not the best way to go about. Patience, a lot of it is needed. Nobody gets to the top after a few days and tapping away on the keyboard is something you should expect. If there one thing that could get you on the first page of Google – it’s called constant effort.

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The problem

All service providers claim to offer a professional, high quality service, yet many of them make this claim, from an amateur looking blog or website.  We call this a fractured message.  It’s where their words say one thing, but their online appearance says the opposite.  It’s the equivalent of being offered advice on how to quit smoking, from a person with a cigarette in their mouth!

No matter how powerful your marketing message is, it’s of zero value when your prospective clients don’t take it seriously.  When your prospects arrive on your website or blog, the first thing that hits them is the overall look of your site.  Just think how many sites YOU visit, then click away from in seconds, because they look amateurish!  You can’t afford to lose potential client inquiries like that – No one can.

Your online marketing needs to be presented to your prospective clients, via a professional looking website or blog, which reinforces the quality of your services and the message of your marketing, not a site that damages it.

The answer

Thankfully, even if you are on a restricted budget, there is an answer that I can highly recommend to you.  It’s a piece of software that allows you to build websites or blogs yourself, which look amazing, without you needing to know how to write code!

The software is called Headway and it allows you to build professional looking sites and blogs, by simply dragging, dropping and mouse-clicking.  How good is Headway?  It’s so good that I was able to build this site and one of the world’s most popular marketing blogs using it, even though I can’t write a line of code.  You can watch a video of Headway in action, here.  By the way, it’s the only product I have ever been an affiliate of; that’s how highly I value it.

Building your online marketing on an amateur looking site or blog, is worse than worthless to you.  If it was worthless, it would simply provide you with no real value, however, working off an amateur site will actively damage your reputation too.

The bottom line: Your website or blog is the foundation of your Internet marketing.  It’s crazy to market professional services, off an unprofessional looking site.  It’s also totally unnecessary, thanks to Headway!

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Based on my exploration of the site, products and images around weddings, crafts, food, travel and fashion make up the majority of pins, however vehicles and architecture are popular as well. The graph below from OpenSiteExplorer.com shows almost all of the links on Pinterest are followed links, demonstrating the potential SEO benefit. Although the value of one link is unknown, Google and Bing are using more social signals as ranking factors and may include Pinterest link juice as a new tool for measurement.

When users click the images, they are directed to the original photo source. If nothing else, Pinterest may drive traffic back to your site.

Pinterest for Business

Pinterest does not allow business pages at this time, so focusing on sharing your images and content should be the goal. Adding the “Pin It” button near images on your website is very simple and will promote sharing. Having the “Pin It” button also reminds your users to pin the photos.

The easiest way to start using Pinterest for content marketing is to create a Pinterest account for yourself and start pinning your own content to your boards, and follow other users who are interested in the same types of products. Too much self-promotion on Pinterest is not preferred, so share other types of content your users would find interesting.

Pin It Button for Websites

Joining the +1, tweet and Facebook share buttons, is the ‘Pin It’ button. If you have images of your products on your website, the ‘Pin It’ button should be added next to any and all images on your site.

The Pinterest button can be added by going here and filling in the form shown above with the website and a brief description of the image.  Pinterest recommends placing the Pin It button next to the other social sharing buttons on your website.

For websites with multiple images, use the advanced code and place the button near the correlating image.

Pinterest is still in an invite-only beta phase, but I predict Pinterest will only continue to take off. It is funded by several entrepreneurs and businesses, but has yet to discover an obvious revenue model. Have you checked it out? If you would like an invite, let me know. Comment below or find me on Twitter @Lokitis to share your thoughts!

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In their endless fight against Facebook, Google has released the next feature to bring them a little bit closer to the leader. Facebook currently has over 800 million active users and millions more pages for those users to like and track. Since Google+ launched a few months ago, they have acquired close to 50 million members, probably spurred on by the fact that everyone using Google was prompted to join the new network.

The G+ pages work basically the exact same way that Facebook pages do (if it ain’t broke…). They allow users to come and read news about a given organization, comment on the page, and +1 it if they so choose. Also just like Facebook, Google has done this to give businesses a personal connection to their customer base in a setting where they can be comfortable. It seems that with Google’s dominance over everything not involving social networking, it would be a fantastic idea for businesses to have these pages, as they could be integrated with other Google services. G+ pages will probably be given precedence over others in their search engine, which could eventually hurt Facebook in the long run.

Now, just to be clear, don’t go rushing over to Google+ to create an account for your business quite yet, as not everybody can make one. Google has a set number for right now, presumably to make sure everything goes as planned, and will open everything up later. For now, here is a nice screenshot of one of these pages:

The next online danger came from search engines. The rules vary in different countries, but many search engines allow your competitors to buy your trademarked names in paid search, which I’ve covered previously. This is a constantly changing area, where regulation and litigation might keep things fluid for a while. So, for search, some search engines and some jurisdictions offer more protections than others.

The name land rush has moved in recent years from domains to social media, and businesses don’t always have the same protections that you see elsewhere. Even though trademarks are regulated, there are no specific laws in most (all?) countries concerning social media names. If someone uses your trademark as their Twitter handle, you need to work with Twitter to get that corrected. Same for Facebook, YouTube, and any other social media service that you are using.

So, what do these services do for you?

Twitter’s trademark policy offers trademark owners some protections, but they are all at Twitter’s discretion. Twitter does not promise to release user names that match your trademarks just because they are trademarked. Twitter might do that, but they might also decide that there is no real confusion or that no harm is being done because the name is being used in a way that is not directed against the trademark owner. From my experience, major brands are much more likely to get what they want than small companies with a lesser-known trademark.

YouTube’s Privacy Policy seems to work similar territory as Twitter. Google doesn’t automatically repatriate trademarks used within user names, but if someone is trying to fool people into believing that the account is from the official brand organization, they take action.

I have less experience working with Facebook, although some have told me that Facebook’s policy is similar to Twitter’s and YouTube’s. All I could find from Facebook in their terms and conditions was this line:<blockquote>If you select a username for your account we reserve the right to remove or reclaim it if we believe appropriate (such as when a trademark owner complains about a username that does not closely relate to a user’s actual name).</blockquote>

If anyone has had an experience on trademark reclamation with Facebook or can point us to any more information, please let loose in the comments.

Now, who can guess the best approach to policing your trademark? Yes, it’s to beat the squatters to the name grab, which means staying alert to every new venue that might requires you reserving your name. So, if you’re keeping score at home, Google+ is adding brand pages real soon now, so be ready to jump in the moment you can.

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Singaporeans spend an average of 39 minutes on Facebook per session, while Americans spend an average of 21 minutes per session. As far as dominance by region, Asia-Pacific dominates the usage of social networking sites for prolonged periods of time; total average is 116 minutes per session on Facebook.

These findings create opportunities for markets and advertising agencies. Digital marketing campaigns can take advantage of these findings, where brands can advertise digitally through the social website to drive traffic.

Small markets are rapidly growing, such as India’s usage of social networking websites; an increase of 88% has been recorded between the years 2010 and 2011 with regards to Facebook’s market share in India. Ankur Shah, CEO and co-founder of Techlightenment, commented: “The power of social networks like Facebook is that in some respects they don’t have any boundaries and make the world a much smaller place. Knowing the market share social networks have in each country and the level of usage is key to social networking success. However, our research shows that the way individuals use social media can and does change according to cultural and personal backgrounds – therefore ‘one size definitely doesn’t fit all’ when it comes to digital.”

Facebook is not the only dominant website in other regions of the world. Singapore might have scored the highest on average time spent on the site per session, but a 3.24% year-on-year increase for Youtube has been also been recorded.

With such an increase in the usage of Facebook, and the significant findings about the average time an individual spends on the social networking site, companies should take advantage of such marketing opportunities; create new target customers and find existing customers on the platform. Small companies can also take the opportunity that Facebook provides for advertising; Facebook gives away $10 million per year of free advertising.

Creating An Event On Facebook

The basics first- you can create and event on Facebook in two ways-

1. With Your Personal Profile- If you have a long list of friends, then you may create an event from your profile. It will have the opportunity to reach a lot of people. Also, in the case of an event created from your personal profile, you can message all invitees directly into their inbox. Instant contact is an attractive option with personal events.
2. With Your Fan Page- There is an Events link on the left of your fan Page, click it to go to the “Create an Event” button. Now you will not be able to send and personal invites to your friends here. The only way to reach out to them is via your updates on the page.

More on creating events here-

Essential Event Tips-

Once you have created an event, make sure to follow these little things so that your event gets publicized the most and that too quite easily.

• Make sure that the event photo/graphic is the best that describes the event and also attracts the users. The image selected sticks with it everywhere as when users share the Event around Facebook, the thumbnail of the image goes with it. See for example the event page of Nescafe- They have an exchange offer event going on, and the image that goes with it is perfectly suited to the event.

  

• The location of the event must be stated clearly- if its online, then the URL displayed. Also ensure that the information box has a short description. The “CLICK HERE” sign must be displayed clearly so that people know where they have to sign up.
• Create the event at least 3 to 4 weeks before the event date. This will give you ample time to send out invites, and wait for people to respond. The extra time will allow you to promote the event well and get the maximum number of people to attend.
• Make sure you select “anyone can view the event”. By doing this, friends of the invitees and friends of friends will be able to see that their friends have signed up for your event. They might get interested in what is happening too!

Another thing to remember is that you leave your event settings to default only. These include-

• allowing guests to invite others,
• uploading photos,
• writing on the wall.

This is advisable and highly beneficial as of a user indulges in any of these activities, the activity shows up in the news feeds of their friends, and they can also see and follow up to what the user is doing. The result- your event could go viral!

See the page of the Outside Lands Music Festival, they have allowed postings and people are posting pictures of the previous events. This activity makes the new guests interested and excited about the event.

Essential Inviting Tips-

Once you have created the event, then it is time to send out the invites. In the case of Facebook events, you send out your invites all at once, in the same way as is done with group invites. You or any other admin should send out invites together.

• When people will respond you will get a notification. Send out a message to those who have not responded, that there is this fantastic event that they must attend.
• 1 week before the event, you must use the personal message option and send a message to the “maybe” friends. Induce them by highlighting the benefits of the event. If you can promise some freebies. Sign off with a note of urgency, saying that there are limited seats left.
• 1 week before event, send a message to those who have said yes. Remind them that there is only a week left and they must sign up with the link you have provided on the page.

The thing to keep in mind when it comes to events is that you have to make it really clear to your fans/friends that to attend the event, they have to click on the link and register. This is necessary, as many users might think that by simply clicking on “I’m Attending” button, they will be signed up for the event.

Continuing with the example of event page of the Outside Lands Music Festival- how they have clearly stated the purpose of the event, what will the visitors see, and how to sign up.

A video tutorial on inviting your friends-

Now it is time for the next step.

Promoting Facebook Events-

The task at hand is to promote your event, fast and get the maximum you can from your Facebook fan page.

Post the Event On The Wall- You have to tell your fans that the webinar/show/concert is happening. After all, you are providing your fans with valuable information. So, promote the direct link to your event. You can post it with interesting questions like- “Have you got your seat booked for an exciting event/webinar/concert?” or “Are You In The Inner Circle Yet? Attend This Event To Become One.” You can also share the link of the signing up page too on your fan page.
 
See the fan page of Red Bull. Here they have promoted their event and have generated quite a response.

The idea is to get the maximum number of people notice the event and sign up for it and even share it-spread the word.

Arouse Interest By Cashing In On The Need To Know-

People want to know more about the things that interest them. That is why, if your event is an open question and answer session with an expert, you must promote it that way. People will be given a chance to know all they wanted to know, and this is what you must state clearly. See the event page of Nike Football, where Tiempo Designer, Tom Miami is answering people’s questions. And they have provided very specific information in the tab.

More on marketing tips here-

Answer any questions put up regarding the event-

People are quite likely to have questions regarding the event- when -where-how types. Be proactive and answer them quickly. This will increase your credibility among users and they will want to attend the event.

For example, see the German edition of the Coca Cola Fan Page, where they have answered questions regarding the event.

Another example is the event page of The Great India Place. On seeing multiple queries about the ticket costs of an event, they put out the ticket details as their status update only.

Keep Up the Engagement Levels-

You have to keep interacting with the fans. Ensure that they sign up for the event after they have RSVPed it. For instance, if it is a 5 day event, and a new entry option for each day, then you can take a feedback of the first day. This will encourage new users to sign up for the remaining days. Also, you can post interesting pictures of the event, if possible.

See for example the event page of Honda Civic Tour. They are questioning fans about the first days of the month long event. This is bound to attract the rest of the visitors to the event .

Parting Words-

Facebook events can really boost your business, and you must make the most of them. Be precise in telling what you want, you will not go wrong.

Takeaway Tip- Make your events page sharper with the use of smart apps provided by Facebook. You can find them here.
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Next up is “Facebook, Twitter & SEO” with John Doherty, Michael Gray, Horst Joepen and Jim Yu moderated by Danny Sullivan. This session aims to discuss how social signals from Facebook and Twitter are used in search and how they can factor into “regular” search results. Who you are socially, your authority, the authority of those who talk about you (or your company) all play a role. I’m interested to see how Twitter plays a role since the Twitter fire hose was taken off Google.

Danny Sullivan: Social, when it first started out, was not that important – it was just fun. But now it’s so important and integrated to search – you can’t do SEO without Social. These signals are constantly changing, however the more social you are – the more it will help you out on the search side as well.

Up first is… Horst Joepen from SearchMetrics

The higher a page ranks for a certain keyword, the more likely that page had a ‘share’ or ‘like’.

Social media visibility – # of social media shares, tweets, comments, likes…

Organic search visibility – Reciprocal keyword ranking multiplied by search volume of each keyword.

Overall, people seem to be more comfortable with sharing on Facebook and Twitter than +1. Will that be something that changes soon?

Jim Yu, BrightEdge

SEO is Social.

Evolution of internet marketing:

1. Broadcast – pages and banners.
2. User Targeted – search helps focus in on user intent
3. User Driven – users are providing input through social signals

With 1 billion users on Google, 750 million on Facebook and 250 million on Twitter users are in control and customers are there to connect with you.

Measure your Social SEO

• Do you have the social presences?
• Is useful content being posted?
• Are your social media pages ranking in the search engines?
• Are you doing SEO for your social pages?

Add Social Buttons and Connect

• Increase in traffic with social plugins to homepage and deep pages within your site.
• Link social pages to your homepage with brand name: “Find your <brand name> on Facebook”
• Use brand name in wall posts and tweets and push for engagement through likes and shares.
• Connect your Brands existing pages within social. Examples: if you have several stores within your main store you can interlink your website with these social presences.

And lastly, automate for scale

Michael Gray, Atlas Web Service

How to Automate Social Media without Being a Bot

“Social Media is Huge Time Suck”

Use automation smartly, to push at things human being has looked at, approved and seen.

“Make Social Actionable”

Find stuff that’s not from you – send out other peoples interesting and informative articles.

Customer Service & Problem Solving

• Develop answers for your top questions for you and industry.
• If someone is asking you a question, answer them.
• Use search tools to automate keyword searches – tweetdeck, hootsuite, social mention
• Check a few times a day and take difficult problems offline ASAP.

Be a Curator & Share News

• Have a list of “evergreen” articles – that are not.
• Content should not be self-serving but relevant to your industry.
• Schedule posts/tweets for maximum exposure.

Promoting Others and Add Value to Community

• Use lists to monitor high value groups or individuals for resharing.
• Share content from noncompeting high profiles or complimentary organizations.
• Share others self-serving posts.
• Share current events.

Shameless Self Promotion should smallest part of your account with about 10-20% about you.

Set up a Social Scheduling Plan

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Social Bookmarking – Stumble, Reddit…

John Doherty, Distilled

Numerous factors go into determining if a social mention is going to affect rankings!

Search engines say # of followers doesn’t seem to matter for rankings. (Because there is so much spam and follower buying these days.)

People who manually tweet have a greater true reach because engagement matters!

• Number of clicks, replies and RTs contributes to authority.

“Bullet points kill kittens” – Rank Fishkin

From 11pm – 5pm may be the best time to tweet to garner retweets.

Do:

• Cultivate a group of people who will share your stuff
• Share new, interesting articles – your engagement can affect author rank
• Vary your style
• You can use semi-automated process

Do not:

• Spam followers

To gain more insight on this session, follow #SMX and #21A on Twitter.

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