Apparently most children grow up to become still more inquisitive adults in nature (at least in my case), which must have been in some way been the premise of social search.

So, what is social search?

Social search incorporates the wisdom of real people rather than of the semantic wisdom of search engines for queries that range from “What is the best dog food brand that I could buy?” to “How do I plan a wedding?” In a way social search is more an extension of the social media available online. Though social search sites began cropping up a few years ago, it’s never been as exciting as now for marketers to tap into the potential of what social search sites can offer for promoting brands.

Fluther is one such social search site that creates a ‘trusted community that shares diverse experience and knowledge’. The free question and answer service gets more than 700,000 unique visitors each month where users have until now answered more than a million questions. Fluther founders Ben Finkel and Andrew McClain, see their service as a tool for “knowledge-networking.”

More such Q&A sites that are populating the internet include Quora, Hunch, ChaCha as well as the recently purchased Aardvark. Aardvark was bought for a nice sum of $50 million by Google sparking interest among investors for other social search sites.

What does social search mean for business?

So what would social search mean to an average marketer? Not only would they be able to glean information from social search related queries but they would have an opportunity to participate as well.

When people pose questions, they inevitably reveal a lot of information about themselves.

I investigated a question and answer thread on the best place to eat sushi in Sheffield on a local website.  As well as discovering the popularity of sushi in the city I found revealing information on the demographics, age, gender, and disposable incomes of the people in the conversation. All information like this is hugely valuable for knowing where to market products so that they reach carefully targeted audiences.

You could also use Social Search in specific sectors. Let’s say you own a sushi business in Sheffield. How could social search help you? For starters, social search hubs could offer you all that information on a platter. You could get an idea of what your target market thinks of your competitors or what they would be willing to spend on a decent sushi meal.

After all, if social media has given any indication of what marketers spend online trying to woo people on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, it’s only a matter of time when you get a shampoo brand trying to get your attention on your question on ‘how to take care of your thinning hair’.

Think you could get some marketing mileage for your business out of social search? Why not give Quba a call on 01142797779. We will be glad to help you find cash generating conversations.

A well functioning website should be jigsaw of inter-connecting pages that cater for multiple user groups

Have you ever wondered how much of what you do is unnoticed?

Every day in the UK good work escapes praise. People get ignored and services get forgotten. Answers get lost and questions remain unanswered. It’s life..but it shouldn’t be, especially when it comes to your business’ website.

We’ve had loads of enquiries about getting your site indexed by search engines recently so we thought a blog article could help turn sites from secret gardens into public parks.

We’ve had a whip round our team and come up with the following tips.

…

Improving navigation gets users to visit more pages on websites.

“Sameness is the mother of disgust, variety the cure.” Francesco Petrarca

There should be a logical route to any page on your site from your homepage in three clicks or less.

But what if you have thousands and thousands of pages? How can you get them all in your site within three clicks? You need to be creative, this rule is not for bending.

1. Drop downs – A dropdown menu categorises content quickly which helps a targeted user to find what they want, fast.

2. Tabbing – Tabbed pages are useful for multi-faceted organisations or businesses who have a wide range of services. By skipping to the pages relevant to their area users only find content useful for them.

3. Calls to Action – Getting users to contact you can also be done by offering clicks to themes or subjects rather than business areas. Think outside the box.

4. Landing Pages – Be flexible. Cater for different kinds of users by incorporating search forms or having good quality related links to pages on your site that interest them.

Correctly linking to pages within your website gets them high up the rankings

“All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.” Galileo Galilei

Everyone knows that users need to find your website when using search engines. But finding the right page within your website can be the difference between a bounce and sale.
When a user searches for a phrase related to a service or product you offer, you want that specific page to be at the top rather than the homepage. Why depend on the user to click three times when they can click once?

1. Link structure – Make the link structure of your website as flat as possible ensures that both product and service pages appear in the search engines.

This means linking to as many important pages as possible from each page. A great way to do this is again implementing drop down navigation.

2. Anchor text – Make sure your links have the right ‘anchor text’.  If you want a page to appear in the search engines for a particular key phrase, make sure that the key phrase is used as the text to link to it. This means both links on your website and on others.

3. Use the correct URL – When linking to your website, choose the most relevant page. For example, if you are promoting ‘family law’, then make sure you link to the ‘family law’ page within your website.

Use social media to generate targeted traffic

“When you give yourself, you receive more than you give.” Antoine de Saint-Exupery

In most cases your website should be the hub of your online presence. Your social media profiles act as spokes or outposts around the hub to engage with your audience and drive traffic to your site.

1. Useful information only- Social media is great for sharing content, provided it is useful to your audience. An effective way to drive traffic to your site is to simply ask your fans or followers what they would like to see from you and then create it and promote through your communities. An on site blog, for example is one of the simplest and most beneficial methods for improving your website’s search engine rankings.

2. Find Relevent Conversations- Another way to use social media to drive traffic is to go out looking for conversations that are happening around your industry and services. Become a member of the community, offer expert advice and where appropriate link back to your website. Again you should always ensure you direct people to the most relevant page in your site.

If you would like to have a chat about improving your website’s search rankings and traffic levels, please call Jon Eaton on 0114 279 7779.

The special occasion.

Not long after the wedding, baby ‘online reputation management’ was born. Everyone was happy and a long life together seemed on the cards.

The problem is, as Jeremy Kyle can confirm, SEO wasn’t really the father.

It had quickly gone back to its old ways of indulging in link building with dodgy websites and Social Media was left to have it away with old man Mr. Brand Manager, 79, from Harvard (whenever she could get a look in).

However, I still think the marriage can work. SEO and Social Media should stay together and raise ‘online reputation management’ as their own. But maybe rename it ‘online audience engagement’ to dispel the bad memories.

As you may know, ‘online reputation management’ is the process of finding mentions of your brand name (usually by using social media tools) and then getting involved in the conversation. This can sometimes result in you being able to link back to your website.

You can also take this further, monitoring the internet for mentions of the keywords you’re focusing on and doing the same – something I like to combine with ‘online reputation management’ and call ‘online audience engagement’.

The problem for many SEOs seems to be engaging in a meaningful way, with the process being too lengthy for not enough SEO benefits.

This is because many SEOs in competitive markets subscribe to the approach that the value of links need to be judged in terms of their perceived popularity and the time it takes to build them. This essentially means spending as little time as possible getting links from sites with as high PageRank as possible.

In other words, they subscribe to a purely short term approach, which usually leads to using methods that Google works against.

The benefits of integrating Social Media and SEO can be exponential for your brand in the longer term, if you spend time trying to do it well.

For example, if you engage in a meaningful way, with something to say of value to the audience, then they are one step closer to becoming advocates for your brand. And how do you advocate a brand online? By linking to it.

If you devote just a small amount of time towards Social Media in your SEO campaign and strive to do it well, then it could be well worth doing it at the expense of some of those mediocre ‘quick win’ links.

Quba account executive Jon Eaton discusses how the Rauol Moat case shows the power of Social Media in reporting live events and exposing the unknown.

In the three weeks since Rauol Moat went on the run 700 pages on Facebook have been created, tens of millions of tweets have been tweeted and upwards of 800 videos have been uploaded to Youtube. Online audiences have remained huge since his death with social media channels playing a huge part in keeping the story current and on the lips of 61 million British people.

One group praising Moat attracting upwards of 30,000 fans has even prompted the Prime Minister to condemn supporters of a man he publically dubbed a ‘callous murderer’.

In such extreme circumstances it is difficult to see what a business could learn from what appears to be exceptional online behaviour in exceptional circumstances.

How could this be relevant for my business or organisation?

How can online hysteria make me money or generate interest in what I do?

Social media channels are becoming increasingly important for people looking for information on live issues.

The amount of references to Facebook and Twitter in news reports show that both the press and public are increasingly trusting social media to find reliable information. By having a credible and active presence on these areas you can gain exposure to audiences hoping to find useful information which influences their opinions and decisions.

Using different social media channels together can tell a story in a multi-media style.

Using different kinds of websites such as Youtube, Twitter and Facebook together can produce a content rich and engaging informational resource which will boost your online reputations and encourage people to visit your website. Being able to give users a complete experience helps to retain and entertain them which improve your chances of doing more business online.

Social media can undeniably create huge momentum and interest which you can use to your advantage.

From nowhere the Rauol Moat story has become one of the most debated online issues with huge numbers of users participating. When social media users find something of interest to them their behaviour almost acts as a free publicity tool. The ‘viral’ effect of large numbers of users talking about the same thing promotes strong engagement. All you need is the right message.

Social media monitoring can find unexpected sources of dissent.

If there were thousands people rallying against you or actively supporting an opposition wouldn’t you want to know? By watching the activity of people you do business with online you can find out where your service is doing well and falling down. If you ignore your online audience behaviour in your sector could you be in a position where your reputation is being damaged and you can’t defend yourself?

Digital agencies can help you coordinate your social media operations in a way which is completely advantageous

Knowing how and when to communicate on social media sites to deliver results is both complicated and tactical. Deciding what to say and where to say it requires carefully planned individual strategies created by experts. At Quba we use cutting edge monitoring skills and our knowledge of online behaviours to deliver measurable results for your business. To find out how please contact David Sealey on 0114 279 7779.

Twitter posted “a pasted-in image of a tweet is a bit of a hack”, so let’s give it a go!

Edit: Looks pretty good!

First, answering the question “What is content strategy”, Kristina Halvorson, author of Content Strategy for the Web, defines content strategy as “the practice of planning for content creation, delivery, and governance.”

With the infiltration of Social Media, it’s now easier than ever for any company to create fresh content and timely updates. However, many companies find they cannot sustain Social Media engagement because they lack the internal resources to support it. You only have to cast an eye over the thousands inactive Facebook fan pages, blogs and Twitter pages to see what I’m talking about. Sometimes without a plan, people run out of relevant and useful things to talk about.

What this means is that while it is a great idea to create a company blog or Twitter account or whatever, it’s also a good idea to do some content planning.

A simple content strategy suggestion is to use a calendar to mark important dates for your business throughout the year. For example, imagine you are a book seller. Did you know that May is National Share-a-Story month? How could you optimise your content to ensure that your blog offers timely resources and attracts traffic from people who are interested in this event?

Another example is integrating your traditional marketing plan with your online content plan. When are your new TV ads hitting the public’s screens? What can you tell us about them? Can we have a sneak preview? When is your next big promotion? Do you have any special codes for your Facebook fans? It’s not rocket science, but having a content plan in place can be an excellent means for sustaining momentum. A community isn’t built in a day, after all.

At a deeper level, content strategy can extend into many other areas. For example, the way you lay out information online. Your information needs to be organised in a sensible fashion with clear visual cues and labels, both for usability and search engine optimisation. Content strategy can also help to refine how you post content. For example, by tracking responses you will be able to see if a Facebook post gets more interactions at a certain time of day, which can then inform your ongoing content strategy.

If you are interested in content planning or Social Media for your own business, please feel free to contact Quba by telephone (0114 279 7779), email or Twitter. I look forward to hearing from you!

Over recent times Google and Facebook have been squaring up as direct competitors for the future of web domination.

Google, as we all know, is the number one search engine in the world which revolutionised search and online business models with it’s smart software algorithms and pay per click advertising. Facebook, on the other hand, is the Social Media giant with over 450 million users, many of whom log in repeatedly during the day via both desktop and mobile devices.

With Facebook on the rise and Twitter snapping around it’s heels, Google have been experimenting with Social Media more and more. For example, late last year Google launched a real time search service. They have also been experimenting with sharing knowledge over Google Wave and now Google Buzz and recently purchased a Social Network called Aardvark, which lets users “tap the knowledge of people in your network”.

In the UK, Facebook is, of course, growing in numbers, with 6.01% of UK internet visits, but it has not yet reached anywhere near to Google’s 9.34% market share.

However, the upcoming trend in mobile internet could throw a major spanner in Google’s plans. According to an article in the Times Online there are already 16 million Britons accessing the internet through their phones. Five million of these visit Facebook, putting it comfortably ahead of Google traffic. In the mobile era “Facebook intends to dominate by knowing what we are thinking, doing and intending to spend — wherever we happen to be”.  And apparently we’re just at the start of this revolution, “3G mobile penetration in Western Europe rose from 17% in 2007 to 29% in 2009, and is forecast to reach 67% next year”.

While information like this is a compelling case for Facebook’s mobile domination, Times Online points out two stumbling blocks;

Money – Google made $6.5 billion in 2009 and has $24.5 billion in the bank while Facebook only went “cashflow positive” in Autumn 2009. See for example Google’s recent aggressive advertising campaigns for their Chrome browser and Android smartphones.

Privacy – While there have been growing concerns and attention paid to online privacy, Facebook’s business model depends on convincing it’s users to allow advertisers access to their personal data. Somehow Facebook must convince their users that doing so is in their best interest.

Obviously these two sites currently serve very different purposes but Facebook have openly stated that they plan to “change the way people think of search, by being the first to tie everything to a personal social graph, and bring information and recommendation origins back around”. It looks like interesting times are ahead.

If you would like to talk to Quba about using mobile for your business, mail or tweet us

Image source: Acquiso Blog and Hitwise

Below is a fantastic presentation from Oliver Blanchard outlining the basics of Social Media ROI. If you haven’t seen this before I recommend a quick run through

I will open this post with a disclaimer, anyone who knows me knows I love Lady Gaga. I’m just a little obsessed with her, so the release of her Telephone video (featuring Beyonce) last week was a major event for me. Luckily, the video has caused controversy, not for it’s risqué content, but instead for it’s “over the top product” placement, giving me the excuse to make a blog post about the Lady and her marketing team.

First of all, lets look at Gaga’s ascension to fame. The first time I became aware of her was late 2008. I saw a post about her on Perez Hilton’s celebrity gossip blog (I know, shoot me) and she was hanging out with Paris Hilton. That was enough to make me hate her with the fire of a thousand suns. Around Christmas time her video for Poker Face was out and I detested her further using the age-old “she’s not even pretty” as my main ammo. Girl on girl crime, anyone?

Over the next year, not only did she become the darling of the music, fashion and celebrity scenes but she also became an icon, a brand and an inspiration. I fell in love with her slowly at first and then all at once, as so often these things happen. And it seems I wasn’t the only one. The graph to the right shows Google’s Trend data for the Lady Gaga compared to Beyonce. As you can see, the interest began to kick off in a big way in early 2009 and has continued to rise ever since.

An interesting article from Ad Age summarises her influence as follows:

“How did a 23-year-old singer/songwriter achieve so much in so little time? Two words: Social Media…she’s put a new-media spin on her distribution strategy. The November premiere of her video for “Bad Romance,” for example, debuted on LadyGaga.com before MTV or any other outlet could play it — resulting in a Universal Music server crash, a Twitter trending topic that lasted all week and a cumulative 110 million (and counting) views on YouTube to date, more than any viral music video of yore could ever claim. Vevo, a music video site co-founded by Universal Music Group, also recently reported a whopping 20% of its traffic came from just Lady Gaga videos — as in 1 in 5 videos streamed on the site was likely to be a song such as Poker Face, Just Dance or LoveGame.

Gaga has already had a similar halo effect on her Mac Viva Glam lipstick. Less than a week into its launch, the lipsticks created by Gaga and her campaign cohort Cyndi Lauper have outsold any launch in Viva Glam’s 16-year history, said Estée Lauder Group President John Demsey, thanks to a groundswell of Social Media impressions. The launch day of her Viva Glam lipstick ad campaign alone generated nearly 20 million unique views in traditional media, including print and web buys and an appearance on “The Today Show,” as well as an additional wellspring of Social Media hits per Gaga’s tweets to her fans.”

Which brings me to the Telephone video, released on 12th March. Within two days the video has had more than 15 million views on YouTube. It has been written about by The Guardian, Rolling Stone and Interview Magazine amongst others.  The video is a massive 9 minutes long and features an all girl prison romp, smoking cigarette glasses, Beyonce saying the F word and a mass Gaga-induced homicide.

However, the bulk of the chatter so far has been about the insane amount of product placement. A vast array of brands such as Virgin Mobile (sponsor of Gaga’s Monster Ball Tour), Diet Coke, Plenty of Fish.com, HP, Polaroid and Miracle Whip make conspicuous appearance in the video. Gaga’s manager states, “We have a lot of fun with it [product placement] now. If Michael Jackson was making ‘Thriller,’ he would do this too. These million-dollar music videos have to have partners to be produced.” The interesting thing, however, is that while some of the product placement was paid, some were included on Gaga’s own request. Her take on the videos is “the idea that America is full of young people that are inundated with information and technology…[she wanted to turn then video] into something that was more of a commentary on the kind of country that we are”.

Whichever way you look at it, as usual Gaga has got us talking. U Talk Marketing claim that her approach “illustrates a shift in music marketing” and “that brands are happy to sign up and be associated with a top star and appear in a video that will be seen by millions and remain in circulation online forever”. On the other hand, Jezebel blogger Dodai beseeches “I already got the headphones, okay? Stop selling them to me!”

My thoughts? To paraphrase a Jezebel commenter, “I just like awesome things. And this was awesome.”

What do you think? Is this the “future of music marketing” or has Gaga sold us all out?

On 23rd and 24th February Technology for Marketing and Advertising ran a two day event at Earl’s Court in London. The event is aimed at professionals who are particularly interested in digital marketing. TFM&A have enjoyed phenomenal growth since its launch 10 years ago. Back in 2001 TFM was a niche technology show focusing largely on CRM and Data solutions. With the explosion of digital within the industry, and the strategic addition of the ‘advertising’ arm to the show in 2007, TFM&A’s growth has been unprecedented with visitor numbers growing cumulatively by 107% in the last 3 years alone.

Quba client Infogroup/UK teamed up with TFM&A to propose a dual branded Social Media mash up to promote an online/social experience to run alongside the event. The Mash up page was built by Quba and includes; a real time Twitter feed which pulls in any tweets containing the #tfma hash tag. Integration with Infogroup/UK’s Flikr account to display photos taken and uploaded during the event. Integration with InfogroupUK’s YouTube account to display and promote video interviews recorded on the two days.

During the event, the mash up page was used heavily. A total of 2,280 tweets contating the #tfma hash tag were posted.  People used the tag both to report on their activities at TFM&A and to arrange informal meetups at the event. In addition, the videos and photos were viewed a total of 760 times (you can even see our very own David Sealey getting in on the action).

The Mash up also provided longer term benefits for Infogroup/UK. Their Twitter following increased by over 20% and they recevied 741 additional visits to their website, referred from the Mashup page during the two day event.

Both Infogroup/UK and TFM&A were very satisfied with these results. Lydia Simpson, Marketing Assistant for TFM&A says, “I’ve had a lot of Twitter response from people commenting on how interesting the #tfma twitter feed was to follow, as well as colleagues who didn’t attend the show but loved following the giveaways – although disappointed there wasn’t a video of the dance!”

As InfogroupUK are hoping to use the Mash up solution for future events, Quba included flexibility in the core solution which allows us to quickly adapt and release the platform in the future.

If you would like to find out how Social Media Mashups and Marketing could fit into your businesses strategy, please tweet us or contact David Sealey on 0114 279 7779.