-
Gevril and Haurex Italia dinner during Baselworld in March 2011 with Larry Brauner standing in the background.
Baselworld 2012 is right around the corner!
Jan
15
5 Web Strategies that Paid Off in 2011
Filed Under Best Practices, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Offline Online Integration, Web Marketing, Website Traffic | 8 Comments
While building my online presence and working on small client projects over a three year period, I devised, tested and evaluated a wide variety of web-based marketing, branding and communication strategies and techniques, and discussed them on Online Social Networking.In November 2010, I seized an opportunity that arose to join a major luxury goods company and test my strategies and techniques in a competitive real-world environment. The results were outstanding. Not only was enormous buzz created, the business was able to dramatically increase its authority and credibility within the trade and with the media.
I credit just five very simple ideas with our success:
- Building a core group of websites around which the company’s entire web presence was built.
- Fully aligning web content with the company’s mission and message.
- Creating a great quantity of top quality, expertly edited and search engine optimized content.
- Using plenty of images and videos to enhance our written content.
- Leveraging numerous online and offline sources, such as SEO, social networking sites, social bookmarking sites, email, print ads and word-of-mouth, to generate a flood of targeted traffic to the company’s web content.
Of course the details of implementation were far from trivial. They needed to be worked out along the way, and yours will too.
I shall elaborate on these five web strategies in future articles.
Please subscribe and join me on my Facebook page.
You may also leave me a comment.
Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to my RSS feed or by e-mail. Visit my About, Services, Media Buzz and Connect pages to learn about Building Your Audience and Brand on the Web. See also my Disclosure Policy regarding affiliations and compensation. 
Sharing is Caring! Use the handy SHARE widget. 
Tags: content sharing, email marketing, Marketing Strategy, online presence, SEO, Social Media, Strategies, Web Marketing, Website Traffic, websites
Sep
4
Fascinating Social Media and SEO Case Study
Filed Under Case Studies, Facebook, Measurement and Tracking, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Search Engines, Search and Social, Social Media and Social Networking Sites, Web Analytics, Web Marketing, Website Traffic | 6 Comments
The four-day International Watch Fair on Facebook, which begins Tuesday, is a free Facebook page event that’s open to the watch industry, the media and the public. Several hundred will attend this unique event at which luxury, fashion and sporty watchmakers will display a wide variety of timepiece collections. You’re welcome to join me there.The objective of this Facebook watch fair is to increase Gevril Group page membership and member engagement. Importantly, however, the fair is just one of many web-based strategies and techniques I’m using to build the company’s brand. My strategies include search engine optimization, social bookmarking, business networking and email campaigns, as well. It’s the synthesis and synergy of all these strategies that create an ever-growing buzz around the brand.
Since launching the Gevril Group website this past December, the company’s online presence has grown considerably. During the nine-month period since the launch, there were 53,128 visitors to the site and a healthy number of inquiries from consumers, job applicants, the trade and the media. At the same time, I’ve drawn conclusions I shall share with you.
Overall monthly visits grew from 2,221 in December to 8,572 in August as illustrated below:
Gevril Group Website Visits Months 1-9 - All Traffic 
Click to Enlarge
Initially, there was substantial traffic from social media, particularly StumbleUpon. However, during the nine month period, social media traffic failed to increase:Gevril Group Months 1-9 - Social Media vs. Non-Social Media Traffic 
Click to Enlarge
Facebook traffic grew from 113 to 338 monthly, but while a remarkably useful networking tool, Facebook hasn’t yet become an important traffic source for Gevril Group:Gevril Group Months 1-9 - Facebook vs. Search StumbleUpon Traffic 
Click to Enlarge
Unlike social media traffic, SEO traffic grew exponentially from 119 to 4,979 monthly and now accounts for 58% of all monthly visits:Gevril Group Months 1-9 - Search vs. Non-Search Traffic 
Click to Enlarge
Search traffic for Gevril Group related keywords grew from 51 to 343 monthly as the company became better known. However, search traffic for other keywords grew much faster from 68 to 4,636 thanks to the ongoing addition of rich content to the website:Gevril Group Months 1-9 - Gevril Group vs. Non-Gevril Group Search Traffic 
Click to Enlarge
Since the inception of the Gevril Group website, 19,591 visits were from SEO; 16,894 from social media; 8,548 from browser bookmarks, links in emails, typed in URLs and untraceable social media; 8,095 from referrals from other non-social websites:Gevril Group Months 1-9 - Traffic Types 
Click to Enlarge
These data are consistent with something I’ve known for a long time. The greatest source of website traffic is search engines, and if a site’s pages are optimized for relevant keywords, search visitors will find those pages’ content relevant. Social media helps to build and solidify relationships, but SEO will attract more traffic in the long run.Hope you’ll join me at the International Watch Fair on Facebook this week.
Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to my RSS feed or by e-mail. Visit my About, Services, Media Buzz and Connect pages to learn about Building Your Audience and Brand on the Web. See also my Disclosure Policy regarding affiliations and compensation. Sharing is Caring! Use the handy SHARE widget.
Tags: Facebook, SEO, Social Media, Website Traffic
Jun
5
Going Beyond Social Media
Filed Under Best Practices, Blogging, Case Studies, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Promoting Yourself, Public Relations, Search and Social, Web Marketing, Website Traffic | 2 Comments
I would love to spend my entire workday blogging, social bookmarking and business networking. However, long ago I discovered that combining these activities with other outreach is both more efficient and more far reaching than relying on social media alone to build a web presence.Not only social media but search engine optimization, press releases, email marketing — and even advertising — all figure in my web strategy.
Our company represents luxury watch brand Ferragamo Timepieces in the US and Caribbean markets. Industry leader Paul Ziff was appointed US and Caribbean Ferragamo President, and I was responsible as Social Media Director for spreading the word about the appointment and about Ferragamo.I had about a week to implement a plan and capitalize on the news before it became stale and irrelevant. Our company was ready to host numerous sales meetings in Las Vegas, and I needed to create adequate buzz before the start of the meetings.
The effort consisted of writing and publishing web content related to Paul Ziff and Ferragamo, distributing press releases about Paul’s appointment, and emailing the news to a very large list. We were able to impact several thousand people, thanks to excellent resources and superb teamwork:
- Marketing expert, blogger and watch enthusiast, John Sealander, did a marvelous job writing all the web content. I merely added a few links and images.
- Paul Ziff wrote the press release, which was effectively distributed by eRealeases — via PR Newswire — and through their own channels. Our story was picked up by several hundred news websites.
- Our huge quantity of email messages were delivered and tracked by Green Wave Email Marketing, under the direction of software guru, David Alexander, my good friend of more than 40 years. I use Aweber to manage my blog subscribers, but I prefer Green Wave for my email marketing because David’s service provides greater flexibility and more personalized attention. In my opinion, Green Wave is more geared to mainstream business than Aweber.
- I leveraged search and social strategies and techniques to drive additional traffic to John’s content on our company website and blogs.
Please subscribe to my blog and share ways in which you’re going beyond social media.
Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to my RSS feed or by e-mail. Visit my About, Services, Media Buzz and Connect pages to learn about Building Your Audience and Brand on the Web. See also my Disclosure Policy regarding affiliations and compensation. Sharing is Caring! Use the handy SHARE widget.
May
15
My Top 10 Social Media Sites
Filed Under Networking and Marketing Strategy, Search and Social, Social Media and Social Networking Sites, Twitter Tools, Website Traffic | 25 Comments
My top social media sites aren’t particularly the social sites that receive the greatest number of visitors. They’re social media sites I find the most pleasurable to use and that fit in some way into my search and social strategy.My top 10 social media sites nicely complement all of my blogging and search engine optimization efforts. Your list of top social media sites will likely differ from mine, since it’s highly improbable that you and I will share identical search and social strategies.
For the record, here are the Top 15 Most Popular Social Networking Websites, the Top 15 Most Popular Web 2.0 Websites, and the Top 15 Most Popular Social Bookmarking Websites according to eBizMBA, from which you can pick and choose.
My Top Social Media Sites
The following are my top 10 social media sites at present, and while Facebook is my favorite social media site by far, the rest of the social media sites are listed only very approximately in order of my personal preference.- Facebook - I spend more time on Facebook than on all other social media sites combined. I use my Facebook profile for networking and my Facebook page, as well as those of my place of business and my clients, for marketing and for community building. I also participate in quite a few of the new Facebook groups.
- Ning - I use Ning for marketing and for community building. My favorite Ning social networking websites are the Small Business Network and My Linking Power Forum. I plan to launch more Ning sites in the future.
- LinkedIn - I use LinkedIn strictly for business networking and have more than 4,000 direct connections. You may add me to your network using the email address in my LinkedIn profile.
- Twitter - I manage a number of Twitter business accounts using my Tweet Adder software. My main account is @larrybrauner. I share lots of links on Twitter and monitor each account for mentions and replies.
- StumbleUpon - Of all the social media sites listed, StumbleUpon is the one that generates the most web traffic. I’ve already shared more than 700 web pages through my StumbleUpon account. Share as many good web pages as you can and categorize them well.
- Business Exchange - I use my account at Business Exchange to share business content and to rub elbows with the information elite. Occasionally, I receive large bursts of traffic from this bookmarking site.
- Amplify - I share content as often as I can on Amplify, partly for the Amplify community and partly for the dofollow links this micro-blogging site provides.
- Posterous - Ditto for my micro-blog on Posterous.
- Delicious - Content on Delicious is often picked up and linked-to by other sites. Use tags correctly, with hyphens or underscores between the words in your keyword phrases for best results. I believe that it also helps content to get indexed quickly by the search engines.
- Digg - I use Digg for pretty much the same benefits as Delicious.
Now it’s your turn. Which social media sites do you like and why?
Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to my RSS feed or by e-mail. Visit my About, Services, Media Buzz and Connect pages to learn about Building Your Audience and Brand on the Web. See also my Disclosure Policy regarding affiliations and compensation. Sharing is Caring! Use the handy SHARE widget.
Tags: Social Media, Social Media and Social Networking Sites, Twitter Tools, Web 2.0
Apr
13
Growing Our Social Media Group
Filed Under Announcements, Blogging, Career Choices, News, Public Relations, Web Marketing | 4 Comments
I work at a watch company for which social media and web marketing are key tools for accelerating its business expansion.As Social Media Director, I flew with our team to Basel, Switzerland in March to attend Baselworld, the grandest and most important watch and jewelry event of the year.
Social Media Help Wanted
I explained in My Social Media Mission Abroad that I was visiting at Baselworld 2011 with the dozens of watch brands we represent to discuss social media collaboration and ideas for future projects.I realized, of course, that I’d need substantial help to carry out the social media plans made in Basel.
Besides freelance writers who can appreciate and blog about luxury, fashion and watches, I’m also looking locally in the Greater New York area for an art director, PR expert and advertising specialist.
New Social Media Profit Centers
For decades, I’ve been intrapreneurial. Now, in addition to leveraging our Internet properties to promote our firm and its many watch brands, it’s my intention, as well, to turn these websites into profit centers and totally new income streams.
So far we have several work-at-home bloggers and a few candidates for the in-house positions. To recommend someone or apply yourself for any of these opportunities, check out my Connect page.
Social Media Watch
I’ll keep you informed about our social media moves and their effectiveness. Please subscribe and join me on Facebook — and don’t hesitate to leave me a comment.
Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to my RSS feed or by e-mail. Visit my About, Services, Media Buzz and Connect pages to learn about Building Your Audience and Brand on the Web. See also my Disclosure Policy regarding affiliations and compensation. Sharing is Caring! Use the handy SHARE widget.
Tags: Blogging, careers, Social Media, social media marketing
Apr
5
Social Media Collaboration at Baselworld
Filed Under Blogging, Business Networking, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Offline Online Integration | 1 Comment
I’m still fatigued from My Social Media Mission Abroad in Basel, Switzerland and bruised from my tumble in the Rolex booth but please, don’t get me wrong. Baselworld 2011 and my meetings with the company’s watch brands were a total blast!Content in social media is essential. My plan, you may recall, was to ask each of our watch brands to supply me regularly with content for our web site that features and promotes their watches.
My Meetings at Baselworld 2011
I’m writing a short blog post this evening to provide you with a tiny bit more information about these meetings at Baselworld.I had four objectives in meeting with the marketing people from the watch brands:
- Build rapport and create a feeling of partnership between us
- Discuss the types of content they could provide that would be useful
- Request quality links from their sites to ours
- Explain my planned social networking site for the watch industry
Building rapport and relationships, were more important than all other objectives combined. The brands and I can now work together throughout the year to make our social media projects successful. That’s what made the Baselworld trip and my meetings with the watch brands such a blast.
Baselworld 2012
Needless to say, I’m hoping to be able to attend Baselworld 2012.
Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to my RSS feed or by e-mail. Visit my About, Services, Media Buzz and Connect pages to learn about Building Your Audience and Brand on the Web. See also my Disclosure Policy regarding affiliations and compensation. Sharing is Caring! Use the handy SHARE widget.
Tags: collaboration, Social Media
Apr
1
Social Media is Hazardous
Filed Under April Fools, News | 11 Comments
I just returned from My Social Media Mission Abroad in Basel, Switzerland, where I discussed social media with our watch brands attending the Baselworld 2011 event.Is social media strategist a hazardous occupation? I didn’t think that it was until a certain unpleasant incident that occurred at Baselworld. Let me explain.
One afternoon, as I was walking around the fair taking pictures of gorgeous watch brand booths, I neglected an important step up to a raised platform and fell conspicuously face-down upon a booth’s floor. The booth may have been too dimly lit, or I may have been overly engrossed in my endeavor. In either case, I landed on the hardwood surface of the booth and impacted my left knee.
Booth personnel rushed to my aid and, after confirming that I had no broken bones nor life threatening injuries, escorted me to a seat. They encouraged me to expose my bare knees and ascertained that no skin had been broken nor was there a hint of blood. It was only a bruise, and they were relieved.
You see, of all the places to take a tumble, perchance I accorded the honor to the Rolex Watches booth.The Rolex people were understandably relieved that I was back on my feet before ambulance chasers arrived on the scene.
Now, if my story sounds exaggerated or seems unrelated to social media, please accept my insincere apology, dear reader. Today being April 1st, I’ve exercised my poetic license and enjoyed a bit of fun at your expense.
Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to my RSS feed or by e-mail. Visit my About, Services, Media Buzz and Connect pages to learn about Building Your Audience and Brand on the Web. See also my Disclosure Policy regarding affiliations and compensation. Sharing is Caring! Use the handy SHARE widget.
Tags: April Fools, Social Media
Mar
28
My Social Media Mission Abroad
Filed Under Blogging, Case Studies, Networking and Marketing Strategy, News | 11 Comments
I’m writing from Baselworld 2011, the giant international watch and jewelry expo that takes place yearly in Basel, Switzerland. The watch show, with its grand and intricate exhibits, is very exciting.I’m wondering how many people, like myself, are in Basel for social media or are even aware of the social web beyond Facebook or their favorite blog – probably no more than fraction of the 80K attendees.
Baselworld 2011
I came to Basel to interview as many of the Baselworld 2011 exhibitors as I could, but I chose instead a more focused and practical mission: to visit the many watch brands our company represents and to discuss social media collaboration with them.I’ve been asking each of our watch brands to supply me regularly with content for our company blogs that feature and promote them.
In other words, rather than source all content by myself, I’m building partnerships with our watch brands to share the effort. If even half follow through and send me the desired text, photos and videos, I’ll have ample content for our blogs and web presence.
That’s the game plan. Your thoughts?
Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to my RSS feed or by e-mail. Visit my About, Services, Media Buzz and Connect pages to learn about Building Your Audience and Brand on the Web. See also my Disclosure Policy regarding affiliations and compensation. Sharing is Caring! Use the handy SHARE widget.
Tags: blog, Blogging, business blogs, Social Media
Mar
6
New Website Traffic Case Study — Watch Company — Weeks 1-13
Filed Under Case Studies, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Search and Social, Social Media and Social Networking Sites, Web Marketing, Website Traffic | 15 Comments
I wrote back in November that I was launching a website and building a web presence for a small business that makes luxury watches and that also handles distribution for other upscale watch brands.Generating website traffic is a key aspect of any online initiative, and I devised a four-part plan for attracting website visitors:
- Company Contact Lists - Mailing to existing lists of company business contacts.
- SEO - Posting search optimized web content six or more times per week on the company blogs.
- Social Media Sites - Reaching out on Facebook, Twitter, Small Business Network, StumbleUpon, Delicious, Amplify, Business Exchange, Posterous, etc.
- Community Building - Using website widgets and TweetAdder to grow a following on Facebook and Twitter, as well as an RSS and email subscriber base.
After 13 weeks of effort, I’m pretty satisfied with the growth of website traffic. However, I am very subjective, so I welcome your feedback.
Weekly Website Traffic from All Sources
Website traffic started to explode around week 9 or 10, and reached 1,741 website visits in the 13th week.
Weekly Website Traffic from All Sources
Click to View Enlarged Chart
Weekly Website Traffic from StumbleUpon
Website traffic from StumbleUpon has been fairly flat all along, averaging around 400 visits per week. I don’t know how to quantify the benefit from StumbleUpon traffic, but I’m hoping that such traffic, weak as it is, still contributes something to added awareness of the company’s watches and their brands.
Weekly Website Traffic from Stumble Upon
Click to View Enlarged Chart
Weekly Website Traffic from Search Engines
Targeted website traffic from search engines is, according to my thinking, the most important form of web traffic. The effect of search engine optimized content can be both far reaching and long lasting.
Weekly website traffic from search engines to the company domain has been growing all along, but it really took off in the 9th week and exceeded 500 visits in week 13.
Weekly Search Traffic from Search Engines
Click to View Enlarged Chart
Weekly Website Traffic from Other Sources
Website traffic from other sources including direct traffic and email traffic was substantial.
On the other hand, with the exception of StumbleUpon, none of the social media sites are yet providing large numbers of visitors, although several are providing high quality inbound links that help off-page search engine optimization.
Weekly Website Traffic from Other Sources
Click to View Enlarged Chart
Additional Website Traffic Strategies and Techniques
Phase two, which begins tomorrow, will feature additional website traffic strategies and techniques that will accelerate website traffic growth and increase website stickiness. I look forward to presenting the results of this phase three months from now.
Please subscribe to my blog, “like” my Facebook page, and leave me a comment or feedback.
Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to my RSS feed or by e-mail. Visit my About, Services, Media Buzz and Connect pages to learn about Building Your Audience and Brand on the Web. See also my Disclosure Policy regarding affiliations and compensation. Sharing is Caring! Use the handy SHARE widget.
Tags: SEO, Social Media, StumbleUpon, Website Traffic
Dec
26
3 Key Social Media and Web Marketing Strategies for 2011
Filed Under Blogging, Business Networking, Facebook, LinkedIn, Networking and Marketing Strategy, News, Ning Sites, Privacy Issues, SPAM, Search Engines, Social Media and Social Networking Sites, Web Marketing, WordPress | 11 Comments
The social media and web marketing space is evolving, and we must therefore continually revise our social media and web marketing strategies and techniques.Here are several cases in point that affect social media and web marketing practice, especially for small business.
Good-Bye Facebook Open Networking
For years, Facebook was an open social networking site that permitted members to befriend people whom they didn’t know despite mounting privacy concerns.However, in 2010, Facebook tightened its friending policies in order to combat phishing and spamming practices.
It appears that Facebook now evaluates friend requests based on degrees of separation and profiles users who repeatedly go out-of-bounds, restricting their friending capabilities.
Consequently, we must regard Facebook as a closed networking site going forward, despite the Facebook Freedom to Share and Connect principle, and find approaches to building our Facebook networks that don’t raise red flags.
Hello Ning Open Networking
Since the Ning shift earlier this year from free or paid networks to paid-only networks, protest from disgruntled free-site creators has subsided and, as promised, Ning has come through with improved functionality upgraded periodically.While Ning cannot compete with Facebook based neither on popularity nor functionality, Ning is nevertheless a great platform for creating niche social networking sites and for open networking.
I’ve dedicated the Small Business Network, my own Ning networking site, to the pursuit of open social and business networking, and I would be delighted if you would join me there.
You can still share via broadcast any of your Ning content, like blog posts or pictures, with all your Ning friends, a feature not found on the Facebook or LinkedIn social networks.
Search Engine Optimization Still Pays Big
Notwithstanding my remarks in The NEW Search Engine Optimization, search engines are still the mightiest source of website traffic, and SEO is still the most vital web marketing activity.Social media sites send thousands of visitors per month to Online Social Networking. However, Google and other search engines send much more. Having a website or blog site and optimizing it for search engines and humans is of paramount importance if you want to market successfully on the web.
Put website development and optimization at the very top of your to-do list for 2011.
Please accept my sincere wishes for a healthy, fulfilling and peaceful New Year. I look forward to growing and sharing with you in the years to come.
Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to my RSS feed or by e-mail. Visit my About, Services, Media Buzz and Connect pages to learn about Building Your Audience and Brand on the Web. See also my Disclosure Policy regarding affiliations and compensation. Sharing is Caring! Use the handy SHARE widget.
Tags: blog, Facebook, Ning, Ning social network, Search Engines, SEO, small business networking, Social Media, social media marketing, social networking, Web Marketing
