I’ve been wondering a lot lately about the readership of my company’s social commerce blog. Who are they? Where did they come from? Which type of content are they looking for? Recent findings, like one that found that “80% of blog traffic comes from first-time visitors“, have only made me more curious.
Ways of asking for feed back online tend to be annoying, ineffective and ugly as sin. So imagine my surprise when I came across a toned-down and unobtrusive pop-up survey on my friend’s excellent real estate industry blog. It took me all of 10 seconds to fill out, and I pinged him immediately after to learn whether the surveys had been effective–they had.
So I signed up for the white label version of KISSinsights ($19/mo., required for more than 30 survey responses per month) and gave it a shot. Installation on our WordPress blog was a 10-minute breeze, and setting up the first survey was equally painless.
You’re able to choose between a single-answer survey with radial buttons, a multi-answer survey with check boxes and a text-based answer field. Any answer respondents choose can expand to request additional information, which we’ve been using for the “Other” option. Once answered, the survey will not pop up again for returning visitors, and once minimized, it will remain minimized.
photo credit: flickr user bisgovuk
Here’s where it gets really cool. Each unique URL on your site can feature a different survey, so it’s easy to get super-specific feedback on each post (just like I did here). On a post about defining content curation, for example, you might ask readers to provide their own definition. Say you’d like to conduct a larger study of your blog’s readership. KISSinsights also lets you assign surveys by subfolder, so that any page within a specific subfolder features a survey, without you having to manually assign one survey to each page within your blog.
Bloggers are given remarkably flexible control over when, if and how a survey displays. Under “Who should be prompted to take this survey?”, we’re allowed these options:
- Anyone
- Only returning visitors
- Anyone who has already visited at least X pages on your website
- Signed in users
- Users that have been viewing the page for X seconds
- Continue showing even if the person has already answered this survey
Once a survey has been answered, the respondent can even be prompted to follow you on Twitter, or to Like your post on Facebook.
Aesthetically, KISSinsights is superior to almost any other survey option I’ve encountered. In it’s current iteration, you’re only given a choice between dark and light color schemes, but both are attractive and neutral enough to look good on almost any blog.
Response rates on the Bazaarvoice blog have hovered between 2-5%, but our traffic is strong enough that we’re still able to gather some meaningful data. KISSinsights has a decent user interface, within which you can see a breakdown of responses by percentage and number, an IP log, which browsers were used, the referring URLs, as well as which page was being viewed when the survey was filled out.
After exporting an analyzing results from our first two-week survey run, we’re ready to begin optimizing accordingly. Instant feedback makes for instant optimization. I can’t wait to learn more about our readers.
Not too long ago, I was looking for a job. The central emphasis of all my work-seeking efforts was on standing out. This much I knew: Now more than ever, you’ve got to positively differentiate yourself from the competition. You’ve got to market yourself.
Visiting LA recently, I started thinking about this again. The cruel paradox of LA is that it’s simultaneously the place where being noticed matters most and the hardest place in the world to be noticed. In this impossibly-crowded market, nearly everyone you meet is trying to “make it” in some form or fashion. Whether they know it or not, they’re trying to market themselves to influencers. This is especially true of aspiring actors. As evidenced by whichever bad movie you saw recently, being a bad actor does not–sadly– preclude one from getting serious screen time.
Enter an actor friend of mine, Logan Fahey.
I’ve known Logan since the second grade, and I’m not the only one that thinks he’s great. Daryl Miller of the LA Times called a recent performance of his “letter perfect” (and it was). It absolutely kills me that Logan isn’t using new media to capitalize on his recent successes, and I told him as much. He, if anyone, should be a standout. Within five minutes of meeting the other night, we had mapped out his next steps in order to make it so. I’m confident the plan will work, even in a place like LA where everybody is trying to get in front of anybody who’s somebody (say that five times fast).
Most of what we discussed applies to new media, personal branding and conversation marketing quite generally. To illustrate their applications, I’ll include some specifics regarding how Logan might take these steps, but just add a little imagination to construct your own game plan. It’s never too late to start marketing yourself.
- Claim a central online outpost; a place that aggregates all the new media presences you’d like to put in front of influencers. Once you’ve put up some decent content, slap this URL on everything you send or give out. In Logan’s case, he should print www.LoganFahey.com right on his headshots.
- Flaunt it tastefully. As Brian Clark writes, brilliantly, “What other people say about you is more important than what you say about yourself.” Collect and publish your praise. Don’t be shy about it. Smart people make choices that are informed by testimonials above all else. These are the people you want to get in front of, so give them what they want–or someone else will.
- Play to your strengths. Put up a blog and write about what you know. Come across as both informed and interesting! Most settle for one or the other. Go for both. Comment on the posts of those who influence you, but also start conversations with other beginning bloggers, as they are more likely to reciprocate, link to you, etc. Logan is easily the funniest guy I’ve ever known. I see him posting biting observations on the travails of the aspiring actor and the excesses and of LA culture. If his observations are as sharp and witty as I expect they will be, he’ll be able to create a substantial following.
- Pages, not profiles. Logan the friend has a Facebook profile. Logan the actor should have a Facebook page. Pages offer far more functionality, customization and marketing flexibility. They allow you to construct and maintain a rich new media presence on one of the globe’s top websites–free. Using touches of FBML and following basic web design principles, pages can be a one-stop showcase of a brand’s value. Logan’s page will use video, photos, press clippings and carefully-written verbiage to create a mixed media demonstration of his talent and commitment to excellent presentation.
There’s more that Logan can do, but the above will keep him busy for a while. Rather than spreading ourselves too thin, it’s much more effective to carefully select a few new media tools, create deep content experiences and update them often. Every time someone comes across one of your online outposts, make sure they’re encountering the person you want them to see, and not a bit of you here and a bit of you there, scattered across a trail of half-finished profiles.
As much as I’m excited to show a dear friend the new media ropes, doing so has forced me to consider my own reflection. Staring back at me, I see an incomplete picture of myself. I have a lot left to do and even more to learn. Yet, I like what I see. With a little work, it’s only going to get better.
The advent of the new media era has changed the way smart people think about marketing. Most new media are purposefully designed to facilitate conversations,allowing participants to share and rebroadcast the words of others with whom they agree (or disagree). In this powerful, democratic way, our mores and ideas about things like merit and authority are being patched together and paved over, layer upon layer. Until recently, this picture was anarchic, and made new media seem unapproachable to those of us that crave structure.
New media has reached critical mass. From this patchwork of layers has emerged a fascinating value system—coherent, but in a constant state of flux. It’s stillmalleable and lawless enough to allow trailblazing, innovation and, of course, exploitation, but finally developed enough for newcomers to learn the ropes before they attempt to do their own thing.
People and businesses of all stripes have realized the marketing opportunities these new media present. But too many of them figure they can simply refocus their current marketing efforts to address these new channels without much thought or development. This approach has failed, and will continue to fail.
New media marketing is about participating in the conversations that will go on with or without us. It’s about understanding what those involved in these exchanges value, what they expect from them, who they listen to, and why.
If we want to successfully market anything to this audience —our products, résumés, candidates, ideas— we need to respect and understand it. This is an audience that values genuine interaction. Its members have little tolerance for the stilted jargon many confuse for professionalism. They want to know what we really think. They expect us to listen, to respond.
New media marketing is thoroughly, refreshingly human. Be 3D.
Dimension 1: Authority
No one is an expert on everything. Chances are, however, that you know quite a bit about your industry or niche. Share it. Brand yourself as an authority by adding value to the conversation. Share your professional insights and build a following of those that wish to learn from you. At the same time, be sure to communicate with peers and leaders alike. Learn when to speak up (when you know what you’re talking about), and when to listen and ask the right questions (when you don’t). Don’t be afraid to show fallibility—asking a great question can demonstrate authority just as well as providing an answer.
New media is not a sales presentation, contrary to popular belief. Trust me, the obviously self-promotional blog comments, posts, and tweets are not getting those guys anywhere. Want to get people to take an interest in whatever it is you’re trying to promote? Answer a question they have about something else. Join a twitter chat and say interesting things. Give someone helpful feedback on their blog posts or intelligently challenge something they write with words of your own. Do it enough and people will look at you and your widgets.
Dimension 2: Personality
This one seems so intuitive; it’s amazing how many get it so painfully wrong. Would you invite a telemarketer or robot into a conversation between humans? Neither would those you’re trying to market to. Show some skin. Be funny, interesting, even self-critical—be authentically human.
Make friends, not sales leads. Part of cultivating a three-dimensional new media presence is recognizing the humanity in others. The friends you make will promote you; rarely will they promote whatever you’re selling. Don’t take advantage of them and ask them to hawk your wares or confuse an endorsement of you with an endorsement of your products. Engage people on the right level and they will be interested in what you do. People love to buy things from those they like. There is no need to push it.
Dimension 3: Consistency
Don’t dabble. Being inconsistent dilutes the perception of authority, and shows others that you don’t value new media. If your last blog post was five months ago, and you’re not turning out good content at regular intervals, delete the blog. The same goes for the twitter account that you use once every 2 weeks. The chance someone will see your biweekly tweets, however profound, is slim to none. To make your new media efforts worth your while, you’ll need to persist in creating and sharing value. Be a frequent contributor to the online conversation, and eventually you’ll be known as such.
Keep your ear to the ground. It’s not just about monitoring what people say about your brand and your competitors. Recognize opportunities to be among the first to comment on industry developments, innovations and other changes that will be talked about. Use amazing free tools like RSS feeds and readers, Google alerts,TweetDeck streams, and start conversations where none exist yet. Be proactive.
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