2011 Online Web & Marketing Trends

2011 has been a great year for social media influence, especially in business. We've seen an increase in Facebook business fan pages who are taking advantage of Facebook's user traffic and real time, analytics tracking. We've also seen a strategic effort in not only the branding of Facebook business pages (with Facebook app designs), we've seen an increase in  interconnectivity with company blogs, newsletters, pay per click ads, and keyword optimization.

Let's start with blogging. Blogging regularly for business is hands down the best way to get timely projects and news distributed to users. Blogs are full of relevant keywords (if you were smart when writing them), meta tags, and are picked up by search engines very easily. Most blogs can be shared through Facebook, Twitter, Digg, LinkedIn, and other social media apps. Blogs are also included in newsletter promotion and used to create interest on social networking sites. The best blogs not only include pictures and relevant keywords, they also are appropriately titled on captions, file names, and meta tags.

Social Media Branding is a relatively new technique for businesses who actively use Facebook or Twitter. We are seeing many businesses custom design several pages that include information about brands, products, or general information about their company. One of our clients, Advanced H2O, manufactures a brand called Crayola™ Color Coolerz®, which is a good example of a strong Facebook presence - https://www.facebook.com/crayolacolorcoolerz If we. were to look ahead, we only see this trend increasing in frequency; businesses will soon be able to create a whole branded website on facebook that includes videos, commercials, blogs, news, and more.

A lot of companies are turning to Social Media Marketing instead of other mediums like TV or Print. Or they are investing a lot more online AND doing TV and Print. This term covers everything a business is doing with social media - pay per click, daily updates, blog promotion, online ads, incentives, giveaways, branded apps. etc. The best social media marketing strategy starts with inter-relating all online outreach efforts and developing a theme of topics to write about that are of value and interest to users. Content should be sharable and go viral at best.

Search Engine Marketing has increased its intelligence in 2011. Businesses are taking advantage of Google Places, Google's Pay-Per-Click Ads, keyword optimization for blogs, and websites. Keywords have gotten more specific for users in searches on Google, Yahoo!, and Ask.com. General terms are not searched as frequently, but more specific terms that include the city the business is based out of and specific products or services.

We always recommend utitlizing the very measurable pay-per-click ad. In fact the best places to include a pay-per-click ad, aside from high traffic websites, is on Google, Yahoo!, and Facebook. Twitter is also offering a very high end program of promoting your call tag for a starting price of $5,000-$10,000 a month. On Google, pay-per-click ads work based on specific keywords that have been identitifed as what customers are searching for. It's cheap and affordable too. Facebook ads are also affordable, but track even more specifically with user demographics and interests. Facebook without a doubt, increases fan base for business pages, but also can link directly to a company's website, hopefully converting to sales. 

We follow a lot of newsletters, especially newsletters put out by retail brands. Their efforts have become more concentrated and timely. Many send out daily newsletters promoting new products, services, discounts, collections, and giveaways. Newsletters can link to your Twitter or Facebook pages as well as directly back to the company's website where deals can be redeemed and information can be found.

Our 2011 web and marketing trend observations seem to be all about interconnectivity and the linking of these tactical elements so they all benefit each other. Smart companies have created a Social Meda entity of sorts that is working for them online, is easily trackable, and real time. maoStudios assists many companies on a regular basis with their overall Search Engine and Social Media Marketing. Contact us here to learn more information.

Posted by Andrea
in Marketing and PR | Website Design | Website Usability on November 28, 2011
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