“Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t so you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t.” -Unknown
Tag: itive.net
Quality Content Pays Off Over Time [STATS]
First – Make sure to read the tips I shared on how to increase online visibility.
Second – Keep in mind it all takes time.
Yes…the most important thing is to remember that nothing happens overnight.
How does this work?
People search on Google solutions for their problem and they find your content. If it helps them in satisfying their needs, people will then happily share your content by either blogging about it or recommending it to friends in their social networks. This will increase your authority and the authority of your content so you will show up higher in the search results that Google will offer to those who are searching for solutions. But this will only happen in the long run. To prove it I conducted a test here on my blog.
One year ago I wrote a very informative post on how to use Google Calendar as a project management tool. Here’s what happened:
After the first spike related to the launch of the post, the traffic decreased to then constantly increased in the long run. These are some numbers that will help you to get a better idea:
Conclusion: Google will trust you as more people trust you and to reward you it will give you, and obviously your content, a higher authority. So follow these tips and be patient. It will payoff in the long run.
Andrea
4 Steps to Reach your Target Audience
What are some of the first steps a business owner should take when creating his or her digital strategy? I shared 4 tips to better reach your target audience during an interview with Andrea Genovese of Wind Business Factor. The video is in Italian, but the original transcript has been translated into English below by my team at itive.net. Enjoy!
Andrea
The Experience of a Business Owner
When a business owner is going to use the web for the first time he or she should keep a few important things in mind. First and foremost, a business owner should no longer think of the web or “digital world” as something disconnected from the real one.
Today, the web is constantly evolving. And a consumer and a business owner can do business exactly as they would if they were downtown “IRL” (in real life).
First, the most important thing to understand is where you are as a business and where you would like to go. Therefore, at this initial starting point there is a need to create a digital strategy that will allow you to reach your goals.
Second, you should analyze the tactics that will be utilized to achieve your objectives and reach the finish line. After that, you could reach out for support from somebody who has experience in this arena. It could be a web agency like us at itive.net, it could be an external consultant, an online communicator who in a certain sense could help you move through these “first steps” of the digital world.
Before you start to do any of this, though, be silent and use these, one of the most important organs we have, your ears. You have to listen carefully in order to learn about what is happening in your niche market. You have to be attentive listeners and figure out the dynamics that are in your market, as well as to identify the needs of your consumers. Once you understand the current situation within your market, you should contribute to the conversation and become an active member who interacts with the digital communication dynamics that are already taking place in your field.
In summary, the 4 tips for creating digital strategy are:
- Listen to what is happening within your niche market
- Analyze the market dynamics
- Evaluate the needs of your consumers
- Contribute to the conversation and to the digital dynamics
If you’re interested in creating your digital strategy with us, feel free to contact us or go ahead and click here to fill out a “get started” form and we’ll help you get there!
8 Tips to Increase Visibility Online
How do I increase visibility online? This a question that people and organizations ask me quite often, so here’s a list of basic tips that will set you on the right path to increase your visibility online:
- Create good quality content (detailed, informative, slim, no jargon, etc.)
- The content must be relevant for your target audience.
- Optimize the content syntax.
- Tag the content properly.
- Promote the content in the right digital venues (social networks where your target audience lives, etc…).
- Tailor the content promotion for the digital venue in which you are sharing it (links for twitter, photos/videos on Facebook, etc…).
- Share it at the right time (during the day, on specific weekdays, before/after a product launch etc…).
- Nothing will happen overnight. To get Google’s “soul” to trust you as a relevant source on information you need to be patient. Results will come in the long run.
There are also more advanced SEO tactics that my team and I utilize – they change according to the nature & objectives of the projects we are working on. So go ahead and have fun testing out the tips I shared, then if you need some help or if you have more specific needs feel free to get in touch with us. We’ll be happy to help 😉
Andrea
How to Upload Files and Folders to Google Docs
Here’s how you can upload, not just files, but an entire folder from your computer to the cloud using Google Docs.
I can’t tell you how happy I am about this new feature! I’ve been waiting ages for this. It’s handy to upload data to the cloud but when you deal with a huge number of files you need a way to transfer offline archives to the cloud without then spending extra time in reordering everything once everything is online. This new Google Docs feature solves the problem.
Google Docs is an essential tool that I use on a daily basis with my team and clients. If you are not familiar with Google Docs I encourage you to have a look at it, I’m sure it will come in handy.
Andrea
Communications Report for April 27th 2011 – AndreaVascellari.com
Do you want to get these report-updates in real time? Subscribe to the live-report RSS feed! This feed includes only report related items. It’s not a substitute but a complement to my main RSS feed which still remains the official one that brings you all my blog posts.
- Metrics & ROI – 2011 Trends: Turning Data Into Action; Mobile; Social Marketing – Most marketers understand the value of good customer data, but they still struggle to organize and use it effectively: 62% cite “turning data into action” as their top marketing issue in 2011, according to a report by Unica.
- Companies increase outsourcing for SEO, PPC and social media: survey – The report is based on a survey which polled 900 client-side advertisers and agencies. It found that the number of companies handling SEO exclusively in-house fell from 51% in 2010 to 44% in 2011, and the number handling paid search in a similar fashion dropped from 47% to 38% over the same time period.
- 25 reasons why you should be blogging – The main benefit of a blog in terms of search engine optimisation (SEO) is that it builds backlinks to your pages. If your content is good then people will discuss and share it, creating links to your pages on their websites, their own blogs and through social platforms like Twitter.
- TEDxEdges – Ricardo Sousa on Teen Entrepreneurship – @ricardojrsousa – Wow!
- Free and Easy Email Reminders with FollowUpThen – Handy tool.
- 6 Smart and Effective Email Marketing Tactics – Here are several simple, emerging email marketing methods with which brands are seeing success.
- IAB: Internet Advertising Reached $26 Billion In 2010, Display Grew Twice As Fast As Search – Compared to other forms of advertising, Internet advertising surpassed newspaper ads in the U.S. last year ($22.8 billion) and is now second only to TV ($28.6 billion).
- Google’s collateral damage after algorithm changes, illustrated – TNW Google – SEOBook has created an interesting infographic that details the effects that changes to Google’s algorithms have had on the web.
- Search Marketing To Grow 16% This Year [REPORT] – Search marketing will grow 16% this year to $19.3 billion and 74% of North American ad agencies say their clients use Facebook, according to a study released Wednesday.
- Cost of Facebook Ads Jumped 40% This Year [REPORT] – Search engine marketing grew 17% year-over-year primarily because of increases in the retail and finance categories. Display advertising showed a 300% jump in exchange ad inventory and a 30% cost-per-thousand (CPM) decline, which Efficient Frontier attributes to “greater gains in reach and efficiency within the ad exchanges.”
- Google Research Shows How Online Ads Drive Offline Sales – The relationship between online search advertising and online sales can be easily quantified, and that’s part of what makes Web advertising so powerful compared to its print and broadcast counterparts.
- HOW TO: Improve Engagement on Your Brand’s Facebook Page [STATS] – Here findings along with tips about when and how to make the most of a Facebook post.
- 2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report – A significant 3300 social media marketers provided valuable insight.
- Moblie Marketing & Tagging Infographic – Infographic.
- 7 tips for a killer Facebook landing page – A great Facebook landing page should turn visitors into subscribers, engage people, and encourage them to explore your products and services further.
Twitter Advertising? 5K. Thanks.
Are you interested in having your ads on Twitter? Yes? Ok, that’ll be at least $5000.
Looking at the ‘natural influence’ of big brands that probably have no need for ads on Twitter vs the 5k minimum budget for smaller businesses and other players that want to make their voices heard it’s certainly something that makes me think.
Beth Harte recently grabbed my attention on this topic with a Facebook update, I’m interested to hear your thoughts on this ‘barrier’ at the entrance that Twitter has set.
Andrea
Do You Need an Infographic?
Do you need an infographic? You might want to talk to these guys.
These are some nice graphical summaries that Daniel, Carla and Bauke created during my talk last week at the Switch Conference in Porto (Portugal). Their contact info is below, enjoy!
Andrea
Daniel, Carla, Bauke and me in Porto
Digital Evolution at Switch 2011
This weekend I’ll be speaking at the 2011 edition of the Switch Conference in Porto (Portugal).
“Switch is a two-day event that gathers people with different background experiences to discuss technology, science, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation in a network-friendly environment.”
My presentation will focus on ‘Digital Evolution’. I will talk about why the need to constantly evolve in the digital space has become something that isn’t just important but necessary for anyone who wants to succeed. I’ll explain why we have to re-think of websites as ‘digital brains’ instead of a simple ‘online presence’ and I’ll give 5 practical tips on how to prevent and eventually overcome 5 of the most frequent causes of digital extinction that brands, organizations and at times also individuals are facing today.
I hope to see you there!
Andrea
UPDATE: These are the slides of my presentation. Enjoy!
QR Codes – What They Are & How They Work
In the style of a movie trailer parody, the following video is the full version of an informative series about the emerging technology of QR Codes that my team at itive.net and I created.
QR Codes are one of the latest emerging technologies in digital marketing and communications. Users may discover QR Codes in their environment or on their favorite products and then scan them with their phones to be taken to additional information online. The creative and strategic uses of QR Codes are being seen world wide as more and more organizations, as well as individuals, are implementing them into their marketing and advertising campaigns. From jewelry and t-shirts, to cupcakes and temporary tattoos, who knows where you will find the next QR Code…and where it will take you.
Did you like this video? You can check out Parts 1, 2 and 3 by clicking on the following links: What Are QR Codes? (Part 1), How To Use QR Codes (Part 2), and How To Create QR Codes (Part 3). Enjoy!
How can QR Codes help you? If you have any questions or are interested in learning more about how you and/or your organization can benefit from using QR Codes, please feel free to contact us 🙂