SMX Conference London 2015 day 2 takeaways and tips

Posted by Wordtracker on 21 May, 2015
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SMX London 2015 day 2 wrap up with some fantastic insights from the search marketing experts.

Better together: Search and social

Are you proving to your audience that you're truely invested and passionate about the topics you're sharing about? Gain trust through your social posts and be the brand that is there when it's time to buy.

twitter profile pic basvandenbeld

"If we consider it interesting for people around us we share it on social, family, work stories and articles @basvandenbeld

"We are the fans and the content creators- but there is more chance people won't see your content @basvandenbeld

"What is the problem? Our timing is off from" @basvandenbeld

"We are focusing too much on these phases of the cycle" @basvandenbeld

"Talk to your customers in their language, at the right time for social success" @basvandenbeld

"Think about family relationships that encourage you to connect and how this can be applied to your audience" @basvandenbeld

"Prove that you understand the topics, show your passion, and you'll gain trust" @basvandenbeld

"There is no such thing as an 'average user' people approach things in different ways" @basvandenbeld

"There are 4 mains groups seekers, amplifiers, joiners and buyers" @basvandenbeld

"There is no such thing as an 'average user' people approach things in different ways" @basvandenbeld

"Don't just focus on the buyers, they make decisions based on the actions of the other 3 groups" @basvandenbeld

"Look at what content people are sharing on Twitter to help get content ideas to satisfy issues in your niche" @basvandenbeld

Twitter profile pic searchmitch

"90% of global data been produced in the last 2 years" @searchmitch

"You can see social data grow in real time!" @searchmitch

The Internet in Real-Time

"Integrate your teams around content so you have a joint mindset for your main goal" @searchmitch

"Check where your social accounts rank in SERPs. Is your Facebook account outranking your core website?" @searchmitch

"The best way to dominate SERPs for your keywords is to optimize your social accounts" @searchmitch

The Q&A

Some interesting points were raised about how you can integrate trending topics like, for example, Breaking Bad into a piece of content about say, dishwashing liquid. It was generally agreed that you have to tread quite carefully:

"It's a fine line between a fun title and clickbait, don't fool your readers" @basvandenbeld

The future of G+ was also raised:

"Is G+ dead? Depends on your target audience. If you have an active audience there, it's not dead for you" @basvandenbeld

Winning Strategies With Facebook Ads

If you're doing it wrong, Facebook ads can clean out your marketing budget. So here is some practical advise how to do social advertising right.

Twitter profile Dane Cobain

"Everyone blames Facebook for bad Facebook ads" @danecobain

"Don't waste your money by pushing your ads out in front of people who are not going to convert" @danecobain

"Don't dismiss engagement focused ads just because you don't instantly get a sale" @danecobain

"Dark Facebook posts can be combined with ad testing" @danecobain

Twitter profile pic firstconversion

"Facebook ads: balance free, educational content with asking for contact details" @firstconversion

"How are you going to get someone who doesn't trust you to become a lead?" @firstconversion

"Think beyond Facebook ad > landing page, think about the journey" @firstconversion

"Are you brave enough to throw away your website? conversion.com has one link, one focus" @firstconversion

"Google ads, your visitors are a stream who have the same intent, Facebook ad people are in ponds with pools of interests" @firstconversion

"There is a myth about fresh imagery. If you find something that works go with it" @firstconversion

And here is the link for more handy tips for creating winning Facebook Ads firstconversion.com/facebook-advertising-tips/

"When shared on Facebook amongst friends the Ad loses the appearance of an Ad" @firstconversion

 

Twitter profile pic soanders

"Facebook sits across all stages of the customer journey. Awareness > engagement > conversion" @soanders

"Sending people out of Facebook with ads is more expensive and doesn't work as well. It's a challenge" @soanders

"Getting started with your Facebook page? You can import your email list as a custom audience" @soanders

"Make a lookalike audience, and exclude your existing audience, those who already like your page so there is no overlap" @soanders

"Defining factors for Facebook success = content quality, affinity with users and timing" @soanders

Using paid social and native ads to amplify reach

We spend lots of time making (hopfully great) content, but how do you make sure you're getting maximum exposure?

Twitter profile pic petecampbell

"Native advertising is an article paid for by a company to promote their product but written like editorial content" @petecampbell

Actually this isnt quite right, must have been the post lunch lull.

@wordtracker @petecampbell no, the technical distribution is relevant. There is difference btw editorials and #nativeadvertising.

— Coskun Tuna (@coskun_tuna) May 21, 2015

But we got there in the end with the help of @coskun_tuna and @petecampbell

@coskun_tuna @wordtracker agreed. Native Advertising is a type of marketing to help you promote editorial content.

— Pete Campbell (@petecampbell) May 21, 2015

"2 good examples of recommendation widgets are @Outbrain and @taboola" @petecampbell

"Taboola found 40% of revenue came from mobile, unless your content is responsive don't even bother" @petecampbell

"Manual conversion specification - you can target people more likely to take a certain action" @petecampbell

"The perfect Facebook Ad: 80+ character title, big beautiful image, CTA button"@petecampbell

"The perfect promoted Tweet - question, solution, call to action and link" @petecampbell

"Promoted Tweets - don't include hashtags or handles, you'll pay for clicks on these" @petecampbell

"Stumbleupon - as people vote up your content you'll get lots of free traffic" @petecampbell

"Burn less budget A/B testing with usabilityhub.com" @petecampbell

 

Building your search marketing technology stack

Twitter profile pic kelvinnewman

It was interesting to hear advise for marketeers on how to chose the right platform for them.

Kelvin broke them down into Tools, Platforms and Suites. The general consensus was to take advantage of free trial periods - like ours :) and see what works for you.

"Consider the end users within your company when choosing tech for your search marketing" @kelvinnewman

 

Measuring up with social analytics

We're all investing more time, and money in promoting our businesses on social media. So it makes sense that we will then want to analyse the impact.

"Why do we measure social analytics? So we can do a better job in the future" @kelvinnewman

"Social analytics involves understanding the different between fact, observation and insight" @kelvinnewman

Your insights need to be backed up by facts and observations, so that it's not a hunch @kelvinnewman

"Optimizing social for engagement doesn't mean you're not trying to sell, just not right now" @danecobain

"Traffic can be a lazy KPI, combine with another metric like sale" @danecobain

"Some brands have generated a position ROI just from moving from phone support to social #customersupport" @danecobain

"42% of people who complain on social media expect a response in an hour" @danecobain

That's it until next year! Check out day 1 for more search marketing tips and takeaways.

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