This is a bit off my normal topics – however…

Yesterday I stopped at a store.  I was near their clearance section and saw something I wanted to buy.  It was 75% off the normal $9.99 price.  I went to the register and it rang up as $4.25.  I commented to the young cashier that it was 75% off of the $9.99 price (I was giving her the opportunity to realize there was an error).  She said yes – $4.25!  I think my lip hit the floor.  She then asked what was wrong.  I told her ok let’s simplify this – “let’s make the regular price $10 if it is 75% off how much should the price be?” She said “the register says it’s $4.25.”  As a fellow human being my brain went into shock!

I finally did get the correct price but even the manager had to use a calculator!  Don’t get me wrong I am not opposed to technology – but it seems to be favored instead of using your brain.  That, blows my mind.

As someone who loves analytics and ROI for marketing campaigns – I do wonder sometimes if the next generation will really understand math, a deep intuitive understanding, something that rings bells and whistles when someone is wrong.

I don’t believe you need a deep understanding of calculus or differential equations to understand most business math, but a real good core of algebra and statistics is critical.  Simple math is an absolute requirement.

Yes I use excel and yes I use formulas but I always double-check the answers initially to make sure they are valid and that my formula is correct as well.  The ability to explain your results is also critical, it isn’t enough to say “that is what the formula said” – to me this is the same as “that is what the register said the price is.”

Come on be geeky, think with your head, if not you might become a drone!

The past few weeks have been hectic ones in the enterprise technology space. Oracle acquired Sun, IBM and Oracle acquired a bunch of MDM players to compete with each other in that space, now Leo Apotheker is gone from SAP. What next?

Read more about Apotheker’ exit at BusinessWeek: SAP CEO Apotheker Unexpectedly Leaves; Co-CEOs Named or the Wall Street Journal: SAP Chief Quits; Co-CEOs Step In. Read good analysis from Dennis Howlett, Vinnie Mirchandani, and Ray Wang.

I am tangentially connected to a pretty large SAP project right now, so I can relate to the recent woes of customers regarding maintenance fees and future product vision.

The BusinessWeek article cited above suggests the best course of action for SAP might be to be acquired. Who are the candidates to buy SAP if that happens?

There have been a number of useful resources published over the past six months about the changing role of the CIO in companies and organizations. Technology and business are so completely integrated right now it is not surprising that the CIO role has changing
responsibilities and reporting structures.It is critical that this ascent be done deliberately by the CIO community as a whole and within specific industries.

EDUCAUSE published The Evolution of the CIO: An EDUCAUSE Issues Brief to meet this need in the Education and Research industry.I expect a more formal publication based in part on this brief. This publication outlines several areas within the industry in which the CIO role is shifting and annotates that outline with responses from a set of participating CIOs.

The briefing is organized around four topics: the nature of the shifting role of the CIO, the key skills the emerging CIO must master, what executives can do to help build the profession, and what EDUCAUSE can do to help build the profession.These last two topics differentiate the Education and Research industry from most others — even within the public sector. Most studies like this I have read contain the first two topics, but not the two on how an industry community can help solve the problem. It is second nature within the industry to always ask “how can we help?” That is a wonderful quality for an industry to have.

If you are working with technology in the Education and research industry, I recommend this briefing. It is helpful to people in all levels of the organization as it sketches out the broad issues facing the industry.

Further Reading

2009 IBM Global CIO Study

State of the CIO 2010: Three Types of CIO

EDUCAUSE

When: Wednesday Jan 20th, 11:30 – 1:00 – lunch time
What: LA2M weekly marketing series
Where: Conor O’Neils Downtown Ann Arbor
Cost: free – if you want lunch it is $10 (tip, food and soft beverage included) from a limited, incredibly tasty list of meals.

From LA2M web site:

Deb will share her story, lessons learned, and tips & strategies for staying on top of social media development and the decision questions that will help you make wiser choices for how you budget your marketing time and money. Deb’s presentation will include looking at the niche of marketing for independents, consultants, and small to medium-sized business, which may be overlooked in much of the social media research geared to large business.

Bring business cards!

I have been reading the lately released IBM Global CIO Study this week. While I still need to think through it before I write too deep a review, here are some points of overview.

Background

The IBM Institute for Business Value (how great is that?) developed this report having interviewed over 2,500 CIOs around the world in several industries. Their goal was to find the competencies that CIOs from “high growth” organizations shared.

The Breakdown

IBM suggests that CIOs have or should develop strengths in 6 areas, (2 under 3 seperate categories). They are:

Making Innovation Real
* The ability to promote a broad technology agenda to help the business succeed.
* The ability to increase productivity through the use of current IT solutions.

The Return on Investment of IT
* The ability to help the organization profit from the smart use of data.
* The ability to manage the organization to reduce ir eliminate costs.

Making a Business Impact
* The ability to drive business initiative and cultural shifts.
* The ability to motivate the IT organization and deliver superior IT performance.

Wow. If all of that were on your CV you would be a rockstar CIO. This is a great report. Give it a read and let me know (in the comments) what you think. As I think through it more I will be writing in more detail.

“If it’s not in the numbers, I don’t care how strategic it is, it doesn’t play out.”

Safra Catz, President, Oracle Corporation

A colleague pointed me to an illuminating article this week called Oracle’s Incredible Profit Machine: 22% Maintenance Fees. It is worth a read. There is a fair amount of accountant-speak in there to dig through, but the upshot is that Oracle makes most of their money from maintenance fees drawn from existing customers; much, much more than they make from new sales.That is great for them, but how is that for us customers? The implication (and many times explication) in many articles, blogs, comments, tweets, etc. is that Oracle makes too much money from our maintenance fees. The suggestions are usually that they should give us a break, give us some things for free, give us better support, enhance the products we use more and so on. Those are fair to varying degrees. I would argue that Oracle does many of those things already. I don’t work for Oracle, nor do I always cheer for or praise them. I do believe in calling things like I see them though. Don’t get me wrong; Oracle sometimes does some crummy things to rock their outstanding bottom line. Business is business, I suppose.They sometimes do good things for their customers, though, and that should be pointed out occasionally (and fairly). In my industry (Education and Research), Oracle does a pretty good job of trying to understand our business needs, our regulatory and compliance landscape, and our funding models. That is complicated stuff, and I applaud them for asking and listening. They also work hard to try to deliver applications and technology to meet those needs. Is it expensive? Absolutely. Is it worth it? I’d say yes — especially at this time of year when many of my organization’s year end financial requirements are being handled quite well by the Oracle applications I run. Could they do a better job? Sure. Could we do a better job as customers coming together to articulate common issues? Sure. Would any of that happen consistently if Oracle stopped making money? I don’t think so. Find the comments and tell us what you think? Are you part of a user group? Do you gripe about Oracle? Are you a hard core capitalist and see no problem here? Sound off.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) continues to invest billions of dollars into our national educational infrastructure. This is good; we need this all of the time, not just during a recession.

“Education is the foundation of our progress”
-Thomas Watson, Sr.

Billions more is scheduled to be invested in research and development. This is better; we need research and development as much as we need education.

“Research is the advance guard of progress”
-Thomas Watson, Sr.

I am worried that so much of our recent investment in education is focused on getting people back to school, to school for the first time, or trained for a new career. This sounds cold, but people need to be left to their own devices a little more when it comes to those kinds of educational opportunities. It is true that we need a skilled workforce — but we need a highly skilled workforce, not a trained up manufacturing base. In any event, our workforce will probably not make us competitive again. Our research and development work will.

What flavor of R and D? Information Technology is definitely on the short list. Track Bob Gourley’s CTO Vision Tech Titan list and note his observation about the dominance of American IT. To maintain that dominance, we do not need as many moderately educated and trained workers as we need continued R and D spending. We need to get back to the great research organizations — the Bell Labs, PARC, and IBM research — to continue to stay ahead, way ahead.

Find the comments to heckle.

Further reading: the Watson quotes come from the IBM Archives:Valuable resources on IBM’s history. It’s wonderful. Check it out.

By maintaining inventory, you incur costs. These costs include not only the cost of products but also the cost of warehousing, employee handling, insurance and overhead. Now is the time to optimize your inventory to reduce capital tied up in slow moving products, salvage dead stock, and maximize the use of your warehouse facility.

More than ever, the right technology is an essential tool to help businesses tightly manage their cash, drive efficiencies and reduce costs. The right technology can help you to:

• Identify over stock and salvage dead stock in your warehouse to help you optimize and maintain the correct product mix

• Recommend more efficient purchasing to keep quantities low but still provide the right levels of service

• Help to control rising costs from vendors and suggest more efficient purchasing methods

With the right technology you will be able to wring the dollars you have tied up in inventory assets into cash and reduce your overall warehousing costs.

Social Media for Business
Ypsilanti Area Jaycees
Date: 12/16/2009
Time: 7:00 PM-8:00 PM
Speaker: Allan Curtis and Sandi Maki

Location: SPARK East 215 W. Michigan Ave. Ypsilanti MI 48197

Cost: FREE
RSVP to Insight Groups at 810-623-5839 or smaki@insights-group.com

Free training organized by the Ypsilanti Area Jaycees. Social media has become an important force in business marketing. Money goes where people go, and people are going to social media sites. Having an account in a social media platform (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter) is not the same as having a social media “strategy”, and having a strategy is essential for success.

Allan Curtis and Sandi Maki have a common sense approach to integrating social media into a business marketing plan, and they will share that with you in session. They’ll cover the top three social media sites, blogging, and how to start a strategy that can be adapted to corporations, small businesses, and solo-entrepreneurs. We guarantee that you’ll gain a better understanding of why social media is so important, and you will have and idea of the tools you need to get your new strategy started.

Event Phone: 734-678-0222 Event E-mail: vroomjenny@gmail.com

Marketing Roundtable – Public Relations
Sponsored by Ann Arbor SPARK

Date: Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Time: 5:00 PM-7:00 PM
Register: - click here

Speakers:
Sam Fine, Intermedia
Panelists:
Julie Metea, Message Coach Public Relations
Paula Gardner, AnnArbor.com, Business Review
Don DeSmith, Servant Systems

Location: SPARK Central, 330 East Liberty, Lower Level, Ann Arbor
Cost: FREE – just please register

Few marketers ever have enough advertising budget, so lower cost alternatives can significantly help extend promotional effectiveness. In these financially challenging times, public relations is still one of the most affordable and credible marketing communications options. When your company’s news stories are properly targeted, with content relevant to the public, they can positively inform and influence your prospects for a fraction.

In Part 1, we attempted to define a framework for thinking about measuring the ROI of social media activities and programs.  In this post we’ll take a relatively high-level view of specific research approaches that are applicable to calculating social business return on investment.

One of the items I stress to my PR/Advertising research students is the need for a researcher to understand the industry/business in which they are operating, how the discipline (e.g. PR or advertising) works as well as how the specific program or initiative is designed to ‘work’.  Two baseline concepts of the ROI Framework presented in Part 1 are the need to establish measurable objectives, and that these objectives should tie to one or more relevant business processes.  Alignment is crucial here and must be addressed as part of the planning process not post-execution.

At the risk of throwing-out a less than fully fleshed-out idea (OK, I am, so lets improve it together), here is a table to help you think through possible ways to align social programs.  The table shows the business functions/departments, a few possible uses of social programs in each area, the applicable business process, a few sample metrics and the basis (revenue, cost savings, cost avoidance) for creating ROI.

ROI Research Approaches

Direct Linkage – This approach is most applicable to social media promotional or e-Commerce efforts.  It generally involves use of unique URLs tied to specific social networks that direct respondents to a company e-Commerce website to redeem coupons or purchase product.  Using this approach, Dell generated over $2MM in incremental sales on their outlet site primarily driven by offers to their over 625K Twitter followers.  Direct linkage approaches mitigate two potential problems with ROI determination – tying the offer directly to an action and isolating the impact of each marketing channel.  Web analytics should provide the data necessary to determine ROI.

Staff Cost Reduction – The CRM or customer service and support functions are one of the more interesting uses of social networks.  There is some early work (e.g. Forrester Research) showing how social programs may directly reduce staff necessary for customer service and support.  For example, when questions can be answered by other customers and not just by the company.  ROI determination involves demonstrating how social programs have reduced staffing costs and call center investment requirements.  ROI may also be generated by enhanced customer loyalty resulting in higher average transaction volumes or more frequent purchases.

Correlation Modeling & Econometrics – Correlation models use statistical techniques to show the relationship between two variables of interest.  For example, we may be interested in how changes in Net Promoter Score correlate with sales.  The primary challenge with a correlation model is isolating the impact of social media from all the other ways – WOM, advertising, promotions, public relations – the change in the variable of interest may have occurred.  The simplest approach is to collect data during times of low or no other communication activity.  If multiple communications channels are in use, econometric models that attempt to statistically isolate the impact of each communication variable should be used.  Econometric modeling is expensive (in the ballpark of $100K to develop a model) and is data sensitive. That is, a lot of data is generally required for the models to work properly.  One also needs a lot of data (generally model designers want two or three years worth of data to isolate effects like seasonality) in order to achieve sufficiently high confidence levels in the correlation.  Other challenges include data normalization and the estimation of the baseline level of sales which is defined as the sales that would occur in the absence of any promotion or marketing.  For retail econometric models with established brands, the baseline sales might be around 50% of the observed volume.

I prefer models that attempt to correlate PR/SM outputs to PR/SM outcomes, and then a second correlation involving PR/SM outcomes (e.g. purchase consideration or Net Promoter) with business outcomes like sales.  Here is a simplified overview of a possible modeling approach.

Econometric models have two important characteristics – they are predictive so once you develop a model, in the absence of changes in the assumptions,  it may be used for forecasting without the need to generate a new model, and it provides a way to address value attribution for non-financial indicators like exposure, engagement or influence.

Exposed/Not Exposed – This form of research attempts to identify those individuals within your target audience who were exposed to programs and content, and compare their purchase intent or purchase history with a control group of audience members who were not exposed to the program and content.  The ‘lift’ created within the exposed group is used to calculate ROI.  The research approach involves use of primary audience research to gather the data necessary to calculate ROI.  You would screen respondents for exposure to specific social programs (this is tricky from a research questionnaire perspective) using visual cues and/or descriptions, being as specific as possible.  Experience shows the percentage of the potential audience exposed to a given program may be fairly low.  Therefore you may need a large sample size to net enough ‘exposed’ respondents to have a statistically projectable sample.  This dynamic drives higher research costs of course.

Integrated, Cross-Platform Research – By utilizing a combination of web analytics, click-tracking, digital content analysis, sales/scan data and primary research it is possible to track behavior of individuals across websites and social networks.   Companies like Compete and ComScore are becoming more integrated in their offerings along these lines, combining online behavioral tracking with panel research.  Early efforts have focused on using a combination of click-tracking, primary research and sales scan data to track opinion, behavior, actions and transactions.  The effort undertaken by ComScore and Dunnhumby to measure MySpace advertising (see April 17 AdAge) is a great early example of the cross-platform approach to ROI determination.

We are still in the early stages of understanding ROI with social business programs.  I look forward to continuing the journey with you.  Thanks for reading!

(Please also see this article in this week’s IABC CW Bulletin for a discussion of social media return on investment – separating myth from methodology.)

Social Media ROI Framework

Here is a simple, five-step framework for developing a social media ROI measurement program.  Remember that not all social media initiatives will result in short-term ROI generation. It is also important to comprehend the results of programs that result in non-financial value or impact. (For a quick refresher on the difference between value and ROI read this).  Holistic measurement programs should be designed to track and measure non-financial impact as well as ROI.

1. Set measurable objectives aligned with business outcomes

Failure to begin with measurable objectives is probably the most common impediment to proper social media measurement.  A couple of award seasons ago I was a judge for a major PR campaign competition and was appalled by the low percentage of programs that actually contained measurable objectives – about 20% or so.  Your objectives should be aligned with one or more desired business outcomes.  Think through all the ways in which the social business effort will contribute toward driving the overall business forward.  Make sure the alignment is obvious and understood by all involved in program approval.

2. Link to and understand the requisite business process

In order to demonstrate ROI in social media it is necessary to link the results seen in social media with the relevant business processes they are addressing.  Social programs to date generally relate to one or more of the following business processes:

For example, in a B2B company, you might try to link social media efforts with the lead generation and closure process.

For a program aimed at employee engagement, you might link social media efforts to the employee recruitment and retention business process.  For an e-Commerce company you might be able to directly link to the sales process through unique URLs or click-tracking technologies.

Understanding which business processes are impacted by social networks, and how, is fundamental to understanding ROI.

3. Select communications model, research approach and key metrics

In addition to understanding the business process impacted by social programs, it is important to have a communications model to assess non-financial impact.  The accepted Outputs – Outtakes – Outcomes communication model is difficult and confusing for many to understand and apply.  Here is an alternative communication model that is somewhat more intuitive and in tune with social media measurement.

• Exposure – To what degree have we created exposure to content and message?
• Engagement – Who is interacting/engaging with our content?  How and where?
• Influence – The degree to which exposure and engagement have influenced perceptions and attitudes of the target audience.
• Action – As a result of the social media effort, what actions if any has the target taken?”

The metrics listed are a starting point.  You will note these metrics come from all three “zones of measurement” – web analytics, digital content analysis and primary audience research.

Possible ROI research approaches include:

• Correlation modeling and econometrics
• Staff cost reduction and/or cost elimination tracking
• Direct linkage via unique URLs and click-tracking
• Exposed/Not-exposed primary audience research
• Integrated cross-platform research – web analytics, content analysis, click tracking, primary research.

4. Gather and analyze data

Gather longitudinal data for the requisite business process and communications model metrics.  When attempting to show statistical correlations, the amount of data you include is important because it impacts the confidence level of the results.  Also, what metrics you attempt to correlate and how is crucial.  For example, we might try to correlate social media brand engagement and audience influence with metrics like likelihood to recommend to a friend, likelihood to seriously consider the product or likelihood to purchase the product in the next X months.  Select the metrics that are most applicable to the business process you are attempting to drive.

5. Calculate ROI and report results

We started with measurable objectives, aligned them with requisite business processes, determined our research model and approach and have gathered the data.  Now we can calculate ROI and describe the value of the social business initiative.  Results for key program metrics should be captured on a dashboard that may be shared with all program stakeholders are a regular basis.

(Note: Part two of this post will cover specific research approaches to determining social media ROI in more detail)

Businesses are difficult to manage.  Poor information or detail overload can make it challenging to make a speedy, reliable assessment of your current situation.  Solutions that leave you guessing about key performance issues are ineffective and counter productive.

To make confident business decisions quickly, you must have a comprehensive understanding of your business performance and where your organization and employees stand in terms of productivity, efficiency and profit contribution to business success.

Using key performance metrics can benefit your business by:

• Presenting summary performance metrics via roles based portals, including profit per technician, equipment or customer and other related departmental metrics.

• Providing easy drill down and benchmark reporting into metrics calculations and details.

• Sending business alerts to instantly highlight changes in key business metrics.

• Evaluating employee performance within the company.

• Comparing your company’s performance in comparison to the industry and your competition.

A comprehensive dashboard with these capabilities will ensure your business decisions are based on fact, not conjecture.

A great new slideshow about social media and how to measure return on investment by Oliver Blanchard who writes The Brand Builder blog.

Check out his post too:  Social Fresh, good friends, and the definitive Social Media ROI presentation

(This post is a re-purposing of a speech I gave to the FPRA/PRSA-Orlando on July 23, 2009.  You can download the slides here.)

Public relations measurement is at a crossroads.  Old techniques are no longer sufficient.  Old metrics are no longer applicable.  Old thinking must be replaced by new.  The need for accountability, and to prove the value of PR and social media programs, has never been greater.

As we look to the next year, here are five things to forget and five things to learn about public relations measurement in 2010.

Things to Forget in 2010

1. Media Relations Focus

A focus on media relations fails to capture several important aspects of PR – brand, reputation, crisis, employee communication and DTC to name a few.  Also, the importance of traditional media is declining.  Numerous studies have shown people don’t trust what they read in the media, they trust each other.  I believe it was Hauser and Katz who coined the term ‘you are what you measure’ in 1998.  If measurement is focused on media relations that is how the public relations function will be judged.

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2. Outputs

The need to put PR results in a business context has never been greater.  We need to be able to address the question – what are we doing to help drive the business?  If you are focused on output metrics like impressions or message delivery, you will always have a hard time explaining business impact.  Instead, we need to focus on outcomes and answer the question – what happened as a result of our program or coverage?  Understanding outputs has primary benefit as a diagnostic tool rather than a ‘scorecard’.

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3. Impressions (and Multipliers!)

The most common PR metric today is Impressions.  While it is a somewhat dubious metric for traditional media, it really loses meaning in social media where engagement not eyeballs is what we seek.  Impressions also (greatly) overstate actual relevant audience.  Generally only a fraction of any particular magazine or newspaper’s circulation meets your target audience demographics.  And impressions merely represent an opportunity to see, they do not attempt to estimate the (small) percentage of the potential audience that actually saw your content.  To compound the problems, many PR practitioners use a multiplier on impression numbers to account for pass-along readership or a mythical credibility advantage PR has over other communication tools.  The simple fact is there is no factual basis (e.g. research proof) that multipliers should be used in any case.

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4. Ad Equivalency (AVEs)
There are many reasons why using ad equivalency as a proxy for PR value is not advisable.  Here are five good reasons they should be avoided:

• AVE calculations vary and there are no standards.  Tonality, article length, competitive mentions and other factors are handled differently.
• AVE results can be misleading.  AVEs may be trending up while metrics like message communication, share of favorable positioning and share of positive press are falling.
• AVEs reduce PR to just the media dimension by only assigning a value in this area.
• AVEs only apply to traditional media.  What is the AVE of a positive conversation about your company on a leading blog?
• How much is it worth for a troubled company to not appear in the Wall Street Journal?  AVEs cannot address this.

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5. Return on (Engagement/Influence/etc.)
Not a day goes by on Twitter without someone declaring a new and improved metric for the acronym ROI, or stating that ROI does not apply in social networks.  Wrong and wrong.  Most of these folks either don’t understand ROI or don’t know how to obtain the data necessary to calculate it.   There is also a lot of confusion between creating value and ROI.  Generating awareness creates value, for example, but may not immediately result in demonstrable ROI.

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Things to Learn in 2010

1. Total Value of PR

The majority of current PR measurement efforts focus on marketing/sales and output metrics.  The Total Value Cube is a way to visualize and think about all the potential value your PR and social media efforts deliver.  Beyond marketing to include brand and reputation, beyond outputs to include engagement, influence and action, and beyond revenue generation to include cost savings and cost avoidance.

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2. A New Model for Measurement
Many public relations practitioners regularly get their Outputs confused with their Outtakes or Outcomes.  Outtakes is not often used in the U.S. – it seems much more prevalent in Europe.  The overall terminology is confusing and is defined in different ways by different practitioners.  Further compounding the confusion is the fact audiences we present our results to rarely understand the terms and have trouble relating to them.  In short, the terms are too much ‘inside baseball’.

What we need is a metrics taxonomy that is easier to understand and explain.  I like this one.

Exposure – to what degree have we created exposure to content and message?

Engagement – who, how and where are people interacting/engaging with our content?

Influence – the degree to which exposure and engagement have influenced perceptions and attitudes

Action – as a result of the PR/social media effort, what actions if any has the target taken?”

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3. Three Zones of Measurement

From the left, companies or brands control, own or manage websites  – corporate sites, FaceBook pages, Twitter accounts, LinkedIn pages and blogs by way of example – and create content that consumers may engage with.  This zone is measured primarily by web analytics.  In the middle are the actual social networks and conversations between individuals.   In this zone we are interested in data sets that cannot be gathered solely using web analytics packages.  How often is the brand being mentioned in conversation?  What is the sentiment of the comments?  How often is the brand being recommended and by whom?  Content and behavior analysis, including tracking technologies, are the primary measurement tools in this zone.  The third zone represents all the real-world, offline transactions that may be of interest.  Did someone visit the store or attend or event?  Did they buy a product?  Did they recommend the brand or product to a friend over coffee?  Primary audience research is necessary to address many of the questions, as well as scan or other purchase data in some cases.

Your measurement strategy should be to take a holistic, integrated approach using methodologies, tools and data from all three zones.  The Holy Grail in many ways is to be able to track behavior of individuals across all three zones, cross-platform, understanding how online behavior impacts offline behavior and vice-versa.

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4. New Metrics

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5. The Difference Between Impact/Value and ROI
ROI is a form of value/impact, but not all value takes form of ROI.  ROI is a financial metric – percentage of dollars returned for a given investment/cost.  The dollars may be revenue generated, dollars saved or spending avoided.  ROI is transactional.  ROI lives on the income statement in business terms.

Value is created when people become aware of us, engage with our content or brand ambassadors, are influenced by this engagement, and take some action like recommending to a friend or buying our product.  Value creation occurs over time, not at a point in time.  Value creation is process-oriented.  Value lives on the balance sheet.

Your investments in social media or public relations remain an investment, creating additional value if done correctly, until which time they can be linked to a business outcome transaction that results in ROI.

Social media and public relations programs create value and in some cases generate demonstrable ROI.  The two concepts are different in important ways.  They are related like the rectangle and the square.  Remember that silly distinction you learned in elementary school?  A square is a rectangle, but a rectangle is not a square.  ROI is a form of value, but not all value takes the form of ROI.

ROI is a financial metric – percentage of dollars returned for a given investment/cost.  The dollars may be revenue generated, dollars saved or spending avoided.  ROI is transactional.  ROI lives on the income statement in business terms.

Value is created when people become aware of us, engage with our content or brand ambassadors, are influenced by this engagement, and take some action like recommending to a friend or buying our product.  Value creation occurs over time, not at a point in time.  Value creation is process-oriented.  Value lives on the balance sheet.

From a sales process perspective, the ultimate value of a social media program may be in increasing the number of people who are likely to buy our products and services.  Other programs may be designed to improve or protect corporate reputation or to build and enhance brands.  Much of this value is said to be intangible.  It is goodwill that becomes tangible at the point in time a transaction occurs.   When buying decisions happen, your investments in marketing, brand and reputation work together.  They become tangible.  You can measure the ROI.

Many of the well-intentioned but misguided attempts to rename or reinvent what ROI means in social media – return on influence and return on engagement probably getting the most play – seem to be the result of an inability to distinguish value creation from ROI.  We know social networks have the ability to create value through customer engagement and community building.  However, ROI can only be measured by their ultimate impact on downstream metrics like sales, employee retention and customer loyalty/repeat purchase.

Your investments in social media or public relations remain an investment, creating additional value if done correctly, until which time they can be linked to a business outcome transaction that results in ROI.

Trying to get, keep or increase your budget for social tools, people and programs?   Estimate ROI where you can, but also try to articulate the value your programs will be creating, and how this value aligns with, and contributes toward achieving one or more desired business outcomes.  Propose metrics to track and assess progress in exposure, engagement and audience influence.  This is a better conversation to have than, “Let me tell you about Return on Influence…”

Make sense?

In a January post of 2009 social media predictions I wrote:

2009 will be the year when the pendulum swings from experimentation to accountability.  2009 will raise the bar on all of use to demonstrate how social media and PR programs are helping to drive desired business outcomes.

Are you are seeing the accountability bar being raised this year?  In my corner of the world, the volume of conversation about social media ROI is high and accelerating. Unfortunately much of the conversation has been misinformed and misguided.  It seems like every week brings another post attempting to reinvent the acronym or the meaning – ROI really means Return on Influence, or Return on Engagement is the new ROI, and on and on.  There is another group of online Zen Masters who would have you believe social media ROI is old school thinking and not in tune with social media Zeitgeist.   In that case, I’ll take’ Old School’ for $100, please.

Here are five things about social media ROI you should know:

1. Return on Investment is a financial metric.  It tells the percentage of financial return you generated for a given investment level.  The financial return is usually revenue, but may also be money you saved by making the investment or money you avoided spending in the future.   Notice the common thread here – its about money.
2. Attempts to reinvent the acronym are counterproductive.   Return on Influence/ Engagement/Whatever; do not ever get to the basic money question.  Most of these attempts share two characteristics – they are confusing ‘return’ with impact/results (read Olivier Blanchard’s The BrandBuilder Blog for more on Impact/Return confusion), and/or they are making an argument that social media ROI is largely intangible, represented by relationships, engagement and community.   What they are really saying, perhaps unintentionally, is ROI is often difficult to determine and I really don’t understand it.  In my opinion, attempts to reinvent or circumvent ROI discussion in social media actually hurt credibility with the people writing the checks.  They expect an apples-to-apples – money in and money out – discussion.
3. ROI in social media has a time dimension.  Value may be created in the short-term and longer-term.  Social media-specific promotions are an example of easily measured short-term ROI.  Longer-term value is much more difficult to quantify.  There are some similarities between social media and brand in this regard.  Success in each is a process and not an event.  You generally will have ongoing activities that sustain the brand/social media program and brand building events or campaigns that provide short-term spikes in awareness and engagement.  Contribution to organic search results is another example of longer-term value creation with branding and social media efforts.   Managing and measuring your social media effort properly requires thinking about the value you are creating in the short and longer-term.
4. Linkage and correlations are important.  In order to demonstrate ROI in social media it is necessary to link the results seen in social media with the relevant business processes they are addressing.  For example, in a B2B company, you might try to link social media efforts with the lead generation and closure process.  For a program aimed at employee engagement, you might link social media efforts to the employee recruitment and retention business process.  For an eCommerce company you might be able to directly link to the sales process through unique URLs or click-tracking technologies.  When attempting to show statistical relationships, correlations become important.  We might try to correlate social media brand engagement and audience influence with metrics like likelihood to recommend to a friend, likelihood to seriously consider the product or likelihood to purchase the product in the next X months.
5. All ROI studies are custom.  The simple fact is you cannot buy an off-the-shelf solution to calculate the ROI of your social media effort.  All ROI studies are custom.  This is primarily a reflection of the unique objectives each company may have for their social media efforts.  Objectives are specific and contextual, and your ROI measurement efforts will need to be as well.   Attempts to develop ROI Calculators where you simply plug in several numbers and hit a button to calculate your ROI are not worth the time it takes to plug in the data.  They are a one-size fits none approach to ROI.  (Read this brilliant and very humorous post by The Brand Builder where he methodically skewers a recent ROI calculator attempt).

We are in the very early stages in our ability to measure the ROI of social media.  Not enough cycles yet.  Case studies are limited but growing.  The need to demonstrate a financial return on social media investment, if not here already, will be here shortly.  We have a lot of work to do.  Let’s get started.

Every week there are multiple articles and posts on measuring Influence in social media.  The vast majority of these focus on assessing who are the ‘Influencers’ – those analysts, pundits, micro-celebrities and visionaries whose words and actions influence others in their online communities.  Influencers are an important element of your audience targeting strategy.  (Here’s a great post from Todd DeFren on audiences and influencers).

Influencers are a potential social media strategy, but we should measure social media objectives to determine whether or not programs are working as planned.  For that we have to turn to the other type of online influence, audience influence.

With audience influence, we want to understand what influence, if any, our social media efforts have had on audience opinions, attitudes and behaviors.  Here’s a social media measurement model that shows where audience Influence fits with the other major measurement stages, Exposure, Engagement and Action.

• Exposure – to what degree have we created exposure to content and message?
• Engagement – who, how and where are people interacting/engaging with our content?
• Influence – the degree to which exposure and engagement have influenced perceptions and attitudes
• Action – as a result of the social media effort, what actions if any has the target taken?”

In the model, successful relationships with Influencers would be represented as an aspect of Engagement – i.e. Influencers have the ability to influence if and how consumers engage with brands.

To measure audience influence typically requires primary research to quantify attitudes and opinions and to assess the role, if any, social media efforts had in any attitudinal changes and subsequent behavior.  Once we understand how Exposure and Engagement are impacting Influence, and whether or not Influence is motivating Action, we are well on our way to the understanding and data necessary to demonstrate the true ROI generated by social media.

In summary, determining who has influence should be part of your audience targeting strategy, determining whether or not you are creating audience influence should be part of your measurement strategy.

See it a different way?

De fleste er antageligvis oppmerksom på at man kan utnytte en webside som et markedsføringsmedium, men ikke alle. Hvordan er også spørsmålet? Vi vil i denne artikkelen beskrive noen triks for å gjøre din webside om til et kraftig markedsføringsverktøy.

Den første utfordringen ligger i å få folk inn på dine websider, ja du må da også ha en hjemmeside. På kundebesøk, presentasjoner av din bedrift, visittkort, brevpapirer, faktura og email signaturer er det en selvfølge å få med web-adressen.
Men, alle disse tiltakene henvender seg til folk som formodentligvis allerede kjenner, eller i det minste har hørt om ditt firma – du har på et visst tidspunkt gjort den første kundekontakten. En svært stor kundegruppe finnes i dem som er på jakt etter de produkter eller tjenester som ditt firma leverer, men ikke er klar over at dere finnes, og mange av disse benytter seg av søkemotorer for å finne den informasjonen de trenger.

SØKEMOTOROPTIMALISERING I ET NØTTESKALL
Se for deg markedsføring på internett med en reklamekampanje som varer i månedsvis, kanskje til og med årevis, og de som ser den er alle på jakt etter nettopp de produkter eller tjenester ditt firma leverer. Dette er søkemotor optimalisering i et nøtteskall.
Synlighet på web. Hva skal ditt firma med en internett-side hvis ingen vet om den? Målet er å gjøre din webside synlig, forbedre din rangering via registrering i søkemotorer, øke antall besøkende og øke din omsetning.

Med søkemotor optimalisering vet man at kunden allerede er på jakt etter informasjon om ditt produkt.
En vanlig reklamekampanje på internett eller annet medium kan vare i i noen få dager til flere uker, og du betaler ofte dyrt for dette. Men hva om den som ser reklamen overhode ikke er interessert i ditt produkt? Da går store deler av markedsføringsbudsjettet ditt bort på å vise reklame til personer som ikke har noen interesse for dine produkter.

Fordelene med søkemotor optimalisering og ikke minst ROI, eller Return On Investment er utvetydige — Det handler om å optimalisere nettstedet for at ditt firma skal bli funnet av de som leter etter det du kan levere. Det handler om å markedsføre seg mot potensielle kunder. Og det handler om å gjøre seg synlig og markedsføre seg på en svært rimelig og effektiv måte.

ROI er hva? – La oss si at du selger et produkt eller en tjeneste som gir deg i sntitt Kr. 3.000,- i fortjeneste. Om du investerer Kr. 6.000-9.000,- i en hjemmeside og noe Internett markedsføring, vil du på 2 eller 3 salg fått din investering tilbake. Normalt vil vi i RedLineWeb garantere deg lang mer en dette. Gjør heller ikke dette deg overbevist om at å investere i en hjemmeside er bra, vil vi gi deg en gratis hjemmeside, mot at vi avtaler hva og hvordan du skal betale om vi lykkes. På fagspråket kalles dette ”No Cure No Pay”, les mer om dette på vår hjemmesiden.

Det er en utfordring i seg selv å faktisk få potensielle kunder inn på dine websider, men hva blir disse møtt med når de da eventuelt kommer inn?

DÅRLIGE NETTSIDER GIR KUNDEFLUKT
Snart ti år etter at internett ble allemannseie, er dårlige websider å finne, faktisk er over 70% fremdeles en plage for mange nettbrukere. Ofte kan de ikke finne telefonnummer, e-post adresser eller se hvor bedriften holder til. Dette viser en internasjonal undersøkelse utført av revisjons- og rådgivningsselskapet KPMG.

HUSK UFE: Utbytte – Fordeler – Egenskaper – Hjelper ikke med lave priser og flotte bilder.

Etter fire minutter på en side som ikke fungerer skikkelig, gir over halvparten av oss opp. Og hvis problemet gjentar seg neste gang vi besøker siden, kommer fire av fem brukere ikke tilbake.

“De fleste virksomheter jeg har vært borti, har ikke gjort en vurdering av risiko knyttet til nettsidene sine. En økende del av omsetningen foregår gjerne via nettstedet, men de fleste har ingen aning om hvor mye penger de taper hvis siden ligger nede bare én dag” sier Elisabeth G. Myhre i KPMG.

SÅ HVA ER ER EGENTLIG EN GOD WEBSIDE?
I all hovedsak er de besøkende, eller leserne som jeg foretrekker å kalle dem, på jakt etter informasjon — innholdet på dine websider er avgjørende, og uten tvil det aller viktigste fokusområdet. Troverdigheten til en bedrift blir fort forsvinnende liten om den er proppfull av grammatiske feil, håpløse setningsoppbygninger og så videre. Hvis du ikke vil anse deg selv som en kompetent skribent bør du la noen andre ta seg av innholdet på dine websider.

Det vil definitivt ikke skade din troverdighet om innholdet har en pen og tiltalende innpakning — og ikke minst er enkel og intuitiv å bruke og navigere.

Designet er en svært viktig del av din hjemmeside eller nettbutikk. Problemet er at forskjellige personer har forskjellige preferanser om hva som er pent og hva som er ille. Dess mer spesiell din webside er, dess større er kjangsen for at noen virkelig ikke kan fordra den, og det er her REMA 1000’s slagord kommer til sin rett — “Det enkle er ofte det beste”. Med mindre du har en helt spesiell firmaprofil som krever et spesielt eller virkelig utfordrende design vil jeg generelt anbefale et stilrent, tidløst design.
Og for all del, ikke overlat designet til “en kamerat som har peiling på data”. Dette er i de fleste tilfeller dømt til å mislykkes. Utvikling av websider bør overlates til profesjonelle, og du bør ha som minstekrav at det er validert HTML

PUBLISERINGSVERKTØY – GJØR DIN WEBSIDE SPENNENDE OG LEVENDE!
For å utnytte potensialet i din webside til det fulle er det viktig å kunne oppdatere innholdet når du har en kampanje eller nyheter som skal ut. Men hvorfor betale konsulenttimer for hver oppdatering når du kan gjøre det selv, når og hvor det måtte passe deg?
Besparelsene ligger ikke utelukkende i at du ikke trenger å hyre konsulent for hver gang du vil gjøre endringer – et publiseringsverktøy bidrar også til en mer effektiv drift av ditt nettsted som igjen bidrar til økt fortjeneste via web. Et oppdatert og godt vedlikeholdt nettsted er avgjørende for suksess på web. Og for all del — har du planer om å benytte dere av søkemotoroptimalisering bør du forsikre deg om at løsningen du velger har muligheter for dette.

Web-vett’ regler:
De som kommer innom sidene er lesere og skal behandles som dette. Hvis de ikke finner det de er på jakt etter i løpet av kort tid gidder de ikke å lese videre.
Fang leserens oppmerksomhet, kommuniser direkte til leseren, få dem til å tenke igjennom det de leser, still spørsmål, gjør dem aktive istedenfor passive — dermed husker de det mye bedre.
Spennende og interessante overskrifter og ingresser. Sug leseren inn i teksten og dra dem med videre.

Skap bilder slik at leseren ser for seg situasjoner og gjerne assosier med kjente situasjoner. Ikke skriv ‘Kan skrive ut 60 sider i minuttet’. Prøv heller med ‘Spar din bedrift for 15 minutter i printerkø hver dag — per ansatt’
Bruk illustrasjoner for ytterligere å forsterke assosiasjonene.
Folk kjøper et sluttresultat av din bedrift, derfor må du lage et bilde av sluttresultatet og presentere dette istedenfor masser av tekniske detaljer.
Etter at brukeren har lest, hva så? Responsorientering. Få dem til å ta kontakt med deg! Link til email eller kontaktinformasjon på hver side!
Profilér relaterte produkter med PS: og link til det aktuelle produkt på hver side. Dette er utrolig effektivt. Folk er ‘dumme’, og når du sier at de skal klikke på en link, da gjør de det.
Fokuser på tilgjengelighet og oversiktelig navigasjon
Fokuser på interessante titler som fanger oppmerksomhet.
Få tak i leserens info. Navn, email (firma). Da har man mulighet til å fortsette kontakten med leseren selv om han ikke besøker websiden, og man har mulighet til å fronte tilbud eller ta kontakt med brukeren selv i form av vanlig email eller nyhetsbrev. Dette må være lett tilgjengelig og synlig på hver side. Standard tekst i form er ‘ navn@firma.no ‘ (for å få firma adresser, ikke Hotmail) og ‘Fornavn Etternavn’.
Presenter produkter med Utbytte, Fordeler, Egenskaper. I denne rekkefølgen.

Håper tipsene kan bidra til inspirasjon og videre utvikling av deres websider. Med enkle midler er det fullt mulig å øke omsetning via web – direkte eller indirekte. Selv om ditt firma ikke selger deres produkter eller tjenester direkte på web vil dere få avkastning om dere bruker litt tid og ressurser på dette.

RedLinWeb.no tilbyr deg hjemmeside med eller uten nettbutik, Internett markedsføring, salg og kundepleie systemer, joomla support og tilbyr effektive hjemmesider fra Kr. 100 pr.mnd.

One of the hotter topics in my corner of the Twitterverse is Return on Investment (ROI).  How do you calculate the ROI of social media?  What’s the ROI of Twitter?  The questions are many, the answers too few.  There have been several blog posts on the subject (here are just three examples – Tim Ferriss, Olivier Blanchard, Zygote ), and I plan to post an overview and synthesis of some of the better ones in the near future.   One important question seems to be missing from much of the conversation, to what degree should social media be considered a cost of doing business (from a corporate/organizational viewpoint) rather than a distinct activity that must/should be justified by hard ROI?

If your customers want the option of customer service via Twitter do you really have an option long-term?  If crises are often spawned in social media, how optional is listening/monitoring if you want to protect your brand?  Increasingly, the corporate world will realize the options are all with the consumers/customers and how, how often, what and why we communicate will largely be in response to this dynamic.  When voicemail came on the scene (patented in 1983), I’m sure the ROI pencils were sharpened and presentations made.  When was the last time someone was asked to justify the cost of voice messaging or 800 numbers or email?  They are all considered part of the cost of doing business today.  In a relatively short period of time I believe many applications of social media – CRM, crisis monitoring and listening to customers/competitors/industry voices and many others – will be considered necessary, baseline activities to doing business in the 21st. century.

The ability and need to demonstrate ROI in social media should be considered contextual and dependent on specific program/initiative objectives.  If the objective is ‘listening and learning’, what’s the ROI on insight?  However, in other cases, program objectives will be to drive a specific business outcome, and demonstrating ROI will be expected and required if budgets are to follow.  Dell offering product promotions on Twitter was closed-loop and easy to calculate ROI.  HyperLocal marketing by Kogi or your local pizza shop on Twitter is measureable in incremental sales.  You can calculate the ROI on a hotel or resort offering last-minute cut-rate weekends via FaceBook.

Knowing when social media should be considered part of the cost of doing business and making this case to your company or clients may just make the ROI imperative a little less urgent and more focused in the right areas.

Thanks for reading and please comment if you agree or see it differently!

Don B

@donbart

Mange mener det er jo gratis å ha en blogg for bediften, så trenger de jo ikke non hjemmeside… JA, men er virkelig 500,- pr. år for domene og webhotell dyrt i.f.t det signal du sender til dine kunder og kommende kunder? Om du heller ikke vil investere 5-10-15-20 eller 100.000 kroner for en hjemmeside…er mitt spørsmål ville du betale 15.000 om du kunne trykke en lite nyhetsbrev og få dette sendt ut til alle norske hjem? Hvis svaret er JA, kan jeg fortelle deg at dette koster langt over 500.000..og hvor mange vil virkelig lese dette… kan du endre innholdet og sende ut igjen gratis hvor mange ganger du vil. Finner du ut av hvor mange som virkelig kunne tenke seg å høre mer om dette. Om kunde skal registrere seg som intr. i dine produkter/tjenester.. hvor gjør dette dette, hvordan administrere du dette?

ROI (Return on Investment) på en hjemmeside er i 90% av alle tilfeller skjedd f.o.m 1 uke til 6 måneder(om dette gjøres riktig).

En hjemmeside skal ha et formål, det er ikke noen grunn til å ha en hjemmeside om du bare legger ut på nett som et visitkort. Skal du ha visitkort..ja! da ville det bli langt billigere å få noen trykt. Jeg lover deg… om ikke hjemmesiden har et formål om å skape forretning, dele informasjon fortere og med noen, ta vare på kundene og gi bedre service og skape nye kunder… ja da er det billigere og mye enklere å IKKE ha noen hjemmeside.

Det er bedrifter som stadig mener at telefonboken er et sted de vil bli funnet av potensielle kunder, men virker dette ikke litt rart når folk flest ikke ønsker å motta den? Mange små og mellomstore bedrifter har tidligere betalt for denne service og hvorfor de skal ha en hjemmeside. Din hjemmeside vil gi deg mulighete for helt noe annet (kommer ikke inn på alt dette her), men vil bare gjerne fortelle hvor viktig det er at din hjemmeside også blir funnet i “telefonboken” og andre søkemotorer på nett….ellers har du igjen bare et dyrt visitkort.

Det er også enormt mange bedrifter som bruker MANGE penger på annonser i aviser, blader m.m….faktisk så koster en hel side reklame i en avis/blad fra 100.000 til 500.0000,-. Jeg spør nå… hvor mange leser dette blad/avis som du betaler disse summene for. På Internett og med en målrettet reklame ville du for under 5%-10% eller 50% av denne summen “nok” treffe nesten alle i den målgruppe som din bedrift øsnker å henvende seg til. Det jo ikke så viktig at MAC/Computer har kommet med nytt sofware om 70% av alle leserne er over 60 år. Igjen er det ikke grunn til å sette inn reklame om bleier i en avis om 80% av leserne er forretningsspalter og leses av forretningsfolk. Internettet gir deg muligheten for 90% sikkerhet for målrettet reklame muligheter og på samme tid treffer flere potensialelle kjøpere.

Om du ikke helt forstår nytteverdien av Internett, ikke ser hvilke muligheter og uutnyttet potensiale du sitter med….ring eller kontakt via email… vi svarer deg gjerne og gir deg også gjerne en gratis webanalyse om du allerede har en hjemmeside. I tillegg sitter vi med mange erfaringer om hvordan du via synlighet, bevegelse og kontroll skaper enorm kundetilvekst, og som  igjen gir deg/dere eller din bedrift merinntjening pr.omsatt krone.

HVA koster en selger/salgssjef deg i året?… hva om en hjemmeside ga deg det samme salg. I tillegg hvordan ville det se ut om dine selgere fikk 100% kontroll på hvilke muligheter de selv har i riktig bruk av Webløsninger….

La oss ta en snakk!!!

Er du salgsdirektør, direktør, markedssjef eller har du ditt eget lille firma?

Er du synlig på nettet, har du uutnyttet potensiale?

FÅ EN WEBANALYSE . . . . klikk her eller les mer om webanalyse klikk her

Det er meget stor forskjell på analyseverktøy. Hvis du ikke får svar på spørsmålene nedenfor, så bør du jobbe for å få et nytt verktøy implementert…. eller du kan nedlegge din hjemmeside, og bruke pengene på nye visitkort. Jeg mener om de som ser deg, kun er de du gir adressen til, er virkningen den samme.

Et godt webanalyse verktøy bør kunne gi deg svar på:

• Hvor mange besøker nettstedet vårt hver dag?
• Hvor kommer våre besøkende fra?
• Hvilke sider på vårt nettsted er mest populære?
• Hvor lang tid tilbringer våre besøkende på forskjellige sider?
• Hvor i salgsprosessen får våre kunder problemer med å komme videre?
• Hvor mange salg(evt. henvendelser) får vi fra nettstedet vårt hver dag?

Hvordan komme i gang?
Det første du må gjøre er å ta kontakt med web-ansvarlig og spørre om informasjon fra webanalyseverktøyet. Spør om et cirka tall på daglig besøkende. Spør også om antall bestillinger(evt. henvendelser) per dag. Unngå diskusjoner om hvilket mål man skal bruke(unike besøkend per dag, unike sesjoner, etc.) Det viktige er at du finner et tall som gir en indikasjon på antall besøkende og konsekvent henter tallet fra samme sted i fremtiden. Spør også om hvor trafikken kommer fra(nettannonser, partner-nettsteder, søkemotorene, startsiden.no, sol.no). De bedre statistikkverktøyene kan gi deg detaljert informasjon om hvilke “markedskanaler” gir mest trafikk og mest salg. Når du har denne informasjonen, så kan du begynne å handle mer intelligent og sammenligne kostnader med resultater.

Hei
Det kommer mange spørsmål om hva koster søkemotoroptimalisering og nettmarkedsføring.

Kostnadene knyttet til søkeordsannonsering varierer stort avhengig av hvilken bransje man er i. Prinsippet er at man betaler kun når noen viser interesse for din bedrift i form av å klikke på dine annonser. Når et klikk skjer, så er det opp til din webside hvor mange kunder du får! Et klikk kan koste 50 øre eller det kan koste 50 kroner. Hvis din webanalyse viser at du får 1 kunde fra 50 interesserte, så vil kostnaden din for en kunde være mellom kr. 25 og kr. 2500. Klikkprisen avgjøres av konkurransen på ordene du kjøper. Ordet “flybilletter” er et relativt dyrt ord, mens ord som “akebakke” koster relativt lite.

Det opptimale er jo å ikke skulle betale pr.klikk, men komme høytest mulig opp på søkemotorer som google. Det viser seg ofte at en ny hjemmeside utviklet av en erfaren webutvikler på sikt gir langt bedre resultater, og på sikt er du på toppen uten å betale for det.

Noe å se på er:

Teknisk søkemotoroptimalisering krever teknisk kompetanse. Alle som driver med webutvikling og publiseringssystemer bør ha inngående kunnskap om hvordan et nettsted bygges riktig fra starten av! Denne delen bør derfor prises av inn i selve utviklingsprosjektet.

Redaksjonelt innhold krever gode skriveegenskaper og forståelse for markedsføring. Innholdet på nettstedet ditt er avgjørende for synligheten i søkemotorene. Robotene til søkemotorene forsøker hele tiden å avgjøre hvilket innhold som er mest relevant for folk som søker.

Linkbygging blir ofte sett på som en luretaktikk fordi noen firmaer forsøker å manipulere søkemotorenes roboter. Faktum er at det faktisk handler om god markedsføring. Det handler i stor grad om å få kvalitetsnettsteder til å linke til ditt nettsted.

Søkeordsannonsering handler om å lage relevante og effektive annonsetekster når folk søker etter produkter og tjenester i søkemotorene. Arbeidet har mer til felles med arbeidet knyttet til bannerannonsering og medieplassering enn med teknisk søkemotoroptimalisering.Du kan lese mer om det praktiske arbeidet knyttet til søkeordsannonsering.

Webanalyse er en annen sentral del av søkemotoroptimaliseringsarbeid. Uten webanalyse, løper du rundt som en kylling uten hode. Historisk sett så er hodeløse kyllinger ganske vanlig i reklamebransjen, men på internett, så er det mulig å måle veldig mye – så hvorfor ikke gjøre det

Ønsker du en snakk om hva det vil koste deg å bli kjent?..send meg en epost så ringer jeg deg opp. jorn@redlineweb.no

Nettsteder oppnår suksess når de har en god salgsstrategi, god kommunikasjon og innhold som brukerne finner så nyttige at de kjøper/bruker dem. Det er vårt hovedfokus når vi jobber med web og salgsutvikling.

Øke lønnsomheten med web/Internett!

- Hvilken webstrategi er riktig for deg?
- hvordan fungerer salgsavdelingen?
- Hvordan måles suksess?
- Hvilke målsetninger setter du deg?
- Har du en en forretningsmodell som gjør at du kan nå målsetningene?

Intenett gir bedrifter og organisasjoner noen unike muligheter til å få suksess, men her kreves det også hardt arbeid for at du skal lykkes dersom du legger ambisjonsnivået høyt i starten.

Les mer…