14 Ways to Be a Better Digital Marketer in 2014

14 Ways to Be a Better Digital Marketerin 2014.

David GrinerFounder, Ishmael Digital ContentContributing Editor, Adweek

About Me

• Founder of Ishmael Digital Content• Former VP/Digital Content, Luckie & Co.• Contributing Editor, Adweek.com

@GrinerDavidGriner.net

1.Stop worrying that you're behind.

Marketers using social:• Facebook: 89%• Twitter: 87%• LinkedIn: 75%• YouTube: 72%• Google+: 50%• Pinterest: 40%

Only 34% have seen clear ROI from social.

Source: ExactTarget, "2014 State of Marketing"

Digital marketing is increasingly about prioritizing.

It's better to be great at one thing than to be mediocre at lots of things.

2.Audit, then purge your sites and social channels.

Unless your site and social are brand new, they're likely speckled with outdated info.

Now is a great time to poke every nook and cranny of your sites to ensure they're up to date.

A checklist to start from:

• Visit your site as a new customer would• Contact info up to date and prominent?• Click every link• How does it look on mobile? Tablet?• Try sharing your content on Facebook, G+, Twitter, LinkedIn. How does it look?• Are all your active social accounts linked from the home page? Any inactive accounts?

3.Drag yourself (and your business) kicking and screaming onto Google+.

(I know. I'm not happy about this either.)

Search is changing. Quickly.

Google has quietly been giving increased search prominence to its own business listing info (via G+) and reviews (via Google Places).

Integrated Google data like business info and reviews are now almost 50% of search result real estate.

All signs point to Google consolidating everything into G+.

Whether it's YouTube or business listing info, Google is nudging users toward G+ as a primary hub for your personal and business accounts. You might as well roll with it.

Here's Google's own summary of G+ for business:

So is Google+ replacing Facebook?

No. In terms of generating traffic and engagement from business accounts, G+ is actually a somewhat lousy and expensive social network by comparison. But Facebook and Google are clearly evolving separate, gigantic ecosystems.

"You're not really selling it, Dave."

Well, no, but keep these in mind:• Google+ "authorship" is fantastic for writers• G+ is rolling out new ad units all the time, including promoted content on other sites• The photo integration is pretty stellar• Google+ will definitely continue to grow, which can't necessarily be said for Facebook

3.Double down on email.

Where are marketers increasing investment in 2014?

• Email: 52%• Social: 46%• Search: 41%• Display: 36%

Source: StrongView, 2014 Marketing Trends Survey

What are marketers prioritizing in 2014?

• Integrating email with social: 59%• Expanding email loyalty programs: 57%• Optimizing email for mobile: 55%• Better segmentation/targeting: 36%

Source: StrongView, 2014 Marketing Trends Survey

Unlike social media, email is 'owned content'

Your list is yours to grow and maintain. And it offers a level of customization and segmentation social has never offered.

4.Stop running social promotions without advertising and email support.

Fan Growth by the Numbers

Fan Growth by the NumbersGiveaway w/ advertising

& email blastsContest w/ email blasts

(no advertising)

Giveaway w/ advertising

& email blasts

5.For great online content, look offline.

Discovering content is often easier than creating it.

• Archived documents and video• Vintage photography and ads• Company history and publications• Modern behind-the-scenes perspectives

6.Treat intellectual property seriously.

The Internet may not care about such things, but we have to.

It's just not worth getting sued over a kitten photo.

If you didn't make it, license it or get it released in writing, don't post it.

• Memes• Songs• News photos• Fan photos• Animated GIFs

To post this one animated GIF of Ryan Gosling, you'd need permission from:

• The copyright holder of the original film

• The creator of the GIF• Ryan Gosling

Experienced licensing is one of the best reasons to work with an agency. This in-house ad was initially pulled from YouTube due to song licensing issues.

7.Recognize that "social media" has now broken into three jobs.

1. Content Creation• Writing• Photography• Design• Videography• Captions, summaries, metadata

1. Content Creation2. Content Management

• CMS oversight• Traffic and trends• Rights management• Content strategy and planning• Freelancer coordination

1. Content Creation2. Content Management3. Community Management

• Daily content posting• Customer response and trafficking• Page moderation and oversight• Metrics: audience growth and engagement• Staying current on best practices• Sharing results/insights with content creators

How Content Strategy Flows Content Strategy

Topic Expert Identification and

Coordination

Content Development

Editing, Proofing and Fact-Checking

SEO and Social Optimization

Content Management

Community Management

Traffic and Trend Analysis

8.Get serious about creating (and maintaining) monthly content calendars.

Writing social content in advance ensures accuracy, quality and buy-in.

It also makes social a more buttoned-up endeavor and opens the process to other departments.

9.Stop drinking from the social media fire hose.

Feel like Twitter and Facebook are mostly just noise?

• Use Twitter lists to sort and follow accounts specific to your professional interests, client categories, etc.



• Facebook lists are an under-used way to keep tabs on competitors and news sources for your industry



• Facebook lists are an under-used way to keep tabs on competitors and news sources for your industry

• Customizing subreddits can actually make browsing Reddit more productive and less NSFW

10.Stop complaining about tactics that used to work but don't anymore.

Digital marketing rewards evolution and experimentation

When you start seeing diminishing returns, it's not always because Facebook is a jerk. Sometimes it's a sign that you're on autopilot.

11.Get to know your metadata.

Metadata determines how your content is searched and shared.

If you don't code, tags can look convoluted, but understanding them can be vital to increasingyour traffic and SEO.

Meta tags help tell social networks how to share your site's content.

Metadata is evolving rapidly

Tags used to be simple: headline, summary, etc.

Now they enable high-res image sharing, link site content to social media accounts and much more.

Site content shared on Facebook used to look like this:

So publishers started doing this:

Facebook compromised with this:

Which is great, unless your metadata is outdated:

Facebook Open Graph (OG) tags worth knowing:

• Image (go horizontal, as large as possible) • Article: Publisher (links your site content to your Facebook page)• Article: Author (links content to a user profile)

Other metadata to fall in love with:

• Twitter Summary Cards w/ Large Image- Makes your content look great on Twitter

• Schema.org - Universal set of tags preferred by Google+

12.Experiment with new ad units.

Facebook, Google and Twitter always give preference to their newest shiny objects.

Ad units are often at their cheapest and most effective when they're brand spanking new. Invest early.

13.Tell your leadership to start getting their hands dirty.

Despite the mainstreaming of social, executives still aren't the faces of their businesses.

Mid-level employees and anonymous business accounts just aren't enough.

Source: Weber Shandwick, "The Social CEO: Executives Tell All" (2013)

14.Have fun with it.

Yes, we're professionals. But no one benefits when we're boring.

If digital feels like drudgery, you're doing yourself, your company and your customers a disservice.

Some parting thoughts:• Stay active and engaged personally, not just

professionally• When something's working well, tell your leadership and make sure they understand it enough to brag • Don't just measure. Create incentives. Make success fun. • Don't be afraid to experiment and fail. It sure beats doing the same old thing...and still failing.

Thanks for your time.

David [email protected]/Griner

14 Ways to Be a Better Digital Marketer in 2014

Business

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