The Adido Digital Blog

Twitter claim that their users generate 65 million Tweets a day. That’s a lot of conversations happening, and some of these could be discussing your brand, looking for the service you offer and talking about your products. 

We’ve had a look at many tools which can be used to monitor brands and phrases on Twitter over the last few months. We’ve listed below what we think are some of the most effective and simple to use tools that that brands can e to monitor conversations related to their brand and product names

Twitter Search

One of the easiest ways to monitor a particular keyword, brand or product name is to conduct a search at Twitter Search. By clicking on the RSS feed for that search query (which is located at the very top of the right sidebar) and add it to your RSS reader you can easily keep track of any keywords, brand name or service that you are interested in almost as fast as they are mentioned on Twitter, as any mention of that keyword or phrase will display directly in your RSS reader instantly! Set up multiple searches and you’ll be off!


Monitter

Monitter lets you “monitter” the Twitter world for a set of keywords and watch what people are saying in real time. Just type three words into the three search boxes displayed on the site’s home page (where it says ‘monitter’ now) and within seconds you’ll start seeing relevant tweets streaming live.

This is a really useful tool to track what people are saying about keywords specific to your brand. You can also specify which location you are interested in. I searched for people tweeting about web design, SEO and online marketing within 50 miles of our Bournemouth office. Within a couple of seconds a tweet came up from someone looking for an SEO specialist, I checked his profile and saw he was in Bournemouth, so then sent a direct tweet to inviting him to give us a call. One possible bit of new business right there!


Twitter Analyzer

Twitter Analyzer is by far the best Twitter App seen in a long while for providing details about your activity on Twitter. It is incredibly comprehensive and shows data on almost everything, including who you follow, who re-tweets your messages, what you’re talking about, how quickly your Twitter network has grown since you’ve been involved, the geographic location of your followers, the volume of your followers who are online at different times of the day, etc.

And don’t forget, you can also find out a huge amount of information about the ins and outs of your competitor’s Twitter accounts as well!





Monitoring your online reputation is incredibly important. These tools allow you to find out who is saying what about your brand as well as how effectively you are managing your Twitter presence. Twitter is a great way for small businesses to strike up conversations with customers and future customers, if you have any success stories yourself or know of any Twitter tools that need to be mentioned, get involved and leave me a comment.

Social media has seen astonishing growth in recent years, with sites accruing huge numbers of followers in recent years. Just recently Facebook announced it now has a staggering 500 million users registered on the site, an increase of around 150million in only six months. Twitter now has 190 million users and is often referred to as one of the fastest adopted media platforms, these are both followed by Linkedin which has roughly 70million users (June 2010)
So with 2010 seeing such surges in growth across a plethora of social media platforms, what can we expect in 2011, and can it in any way surpass the innovation and continued mass adoption we have seen this year?

The Importance of Location
We saw foursquare launch in March 2009 but it was 2010 that saw this website and app experience huge success. As of March 2010 Foursquare reported 725,000 users, with a growth rate of around 100,000 every two weeks for the prior month. And only a few weeks ago on 19th August 2010 we saw Facebook launch their rival, ‘Facebook Places’, their geolocation check-in service which works on a similar premise to Foursquare by allowing their users to share their current locations with friends, enabling them to see who is nearby. We predict that this extension of the already globally adopted Facebook will massively increase the use of location based social media, and as accessibility increases we will see 2011 be the year of the Facebook and Foursquare show down. Although it’s interesting to note that on the launch day of Facebook places Foursquare recorded a record number of new signups, could this be a sign that Facebook places will not be the death of Foursquare but the making of it? Definitely one to watch in 2011.


I heard from a little birdie
Promoted tweets were launched in April of 2010 and we predict that as we move into 2011 that these will be rolled out and be available to the masses. With the growth rate Twitter has seen, why wouldn’t businesses want to capitalise on this? And with many companies becoming more Twitter savvy and using the platform in ingenious ways to reach prospective customers, this will add another string to any online marketing strategy; could promoted tweets be the social media equivalent of pay per click ads?

It’s not only experts that use the Google advanced search operators on a daily basis to help cut down on returned search results, now everyday users are also integrating these into their searches. Google returns hundreds of thousands, if not millions of results for any given search term and most people don’t often go past the first three pages of these, so why not use any tools available to make these results more specific? This is where the Google Advanced search operators come in. These advanced operators enable you to search in a much more detailed manor enabling you to get much more precise results.

Bing have recently capitalised on this insight with their television advertising campaign which focuses on ‘information overload’ and how their SERP attempt to overcome this problem, and recently Google have introduced yet more ways of searching. These cut the amount of results given and leave those that are returned being much more tailored, making searching quicker and easier. Some of the search commands that Google supports are as follows:

Related :domain – this will list websites that are similar or related to the domain given. This could be an extremely useful tool for finding websites to contact for relevant link exchanges. To make this work you don’t need to use the http:// bit at the front.

- (and +) - this will remove pages that contain the given term from results, for example south Africa – world cup will show all pages containing the words ‘south africa’ but NOT those related to the world cup.

Allintitle:search term – this ensures that results are very accurate to you search term as the title will have to contain all words you search. This one is highly useful for SEO purposes as it can help find related sites to help with you link building efforts as it is a clear indicator of the importance of using keywords in your titles. This is very useful when you are searching for a specific or specialised product and know exactly what you want, such as the example given below.


Phonebook:name – this is a new command and can bring up a list of phone numbers for people with that name who you search for. You might be a little shocked by the amount of information so readily available! Although only currently available for US numbers this could be a useful tool for getting in touch with people of interest, for example bloggers or online experts.

Type of document: You can also search for documents on Google, and one of the newest operators that they have introduced enables you to search for document by type – search term:document/presentation.spreadsheet etc. A great way to cut down you time spent researching and finding the content that you want.


With more and more people adapting their searches as the internet becomes overloaded with an increasing amount of information it seems that these advanced search operators may be the way forward, not only for industry professionals but also for simple searches. And if you’ve got any more that you find useful we would love to hear about them.

Everyone is well aware of the global giant that is Google and for 89.2% in the UK it is the only search engine you use. However there have been some recent changes to the UK market share for search engines. Google has recently seen a drop to their UK market share from 90.8% to 89.2% within one month (January to February 2010). Although this seems like only a small decrease, it is the equivalent to Ask.com’s market share and bigger than that of AOL.

With this decrease it was Yahoo and Bing which benefitted, Bing now reaching a market share of 3.8%. Although this is a small market share it still shows great opportunity for online marketers and the need to work on good rankings on all three search engines in order to reach the maximum amount of people.


Local listings seem to be one of the best ways to achieve good rankings as both Google and Bing use a similar map set up as the top hit for most location business searches.



There has been some confusion in the best way to achieve a local listing on Bing as they currently have a local business centre, very similar to Google’s, however this is only for US websites. Bing were previously using information for their local listings generated by Multi Map, however this has now been replaced with a brand new service. My 118 Information is now working in partnership with Bing to provide both precise and relevant information for Bing’s local listing results.

In order to create a Bing local listing for your business you should firstly log on to their search page to find your business address.


Once you have located it on the map, My 118 information will ask for your business details and the contact number for the ‘Senior Decision Maker’. From the information provided, My 118 Information will then call your business to verify the information provided in person and voila – you will have a nice shiny local listing on Bing!

There are a few teething problems with the system and it may take up to 2 weeks for the verification call, however it is worth taking a bit of time over this in order to have your business listed on the map ranking number one. We experienced a big delay in getting our listing activated and had to reapply for our application several times before we started to show up!

Google has recently announced a new “Analyze competition” feature onto the side panel, under Opportunities within Google Adwords. At the moment the feature is limited to the UK, however, it is soon to be rolled out further. This tool allows you to see how you are performing in comparison to your competitors, as suggested by the name.
You will be able to see how you are performing compared to other advertisers in the same category. It uses categories from your products to your services keywords to give a perspective on how well your competitors are doing in each category. The data shown is refreshed every 2 weeks, so that data shown is always up to date.


The tool will allow you to see whether you are performing above, below or on par with your competitors. All the data displayed is anonymous as the data is aggregated and averaged, so you will not be able to compare individual activities. The data will be shown in a simple bar graph of your individual performance compared to the average performance of competitors. Hovering over the data in the 'Competitive Range' column will enable to view more details such as the size of your competitive range, the mean performance levels. Adwords will never reveal information about the advertiser’s identity

Added Value
By being able to see competitors performance it can show you exactly what you need to change to be more efficient, is exactly what ‘Analyze Competition’ offers. By seeing how your competitors are doing it can give you that little extra motivation to change your keywords choice and review their budgets to ensure that you are on top.

Key Benefits
There are many advantages to having some competitive data on the Adwords tool. The feature can help you to understand if your performance is up to the same standard of other advertisers in the same categories. By doing this it also point out where your performance can be improved through optimization changes. Finally, the feature allows you to explore new opportunities to grow your account, therefore becoming more competitive in your market.

Alternatives to Analyze Competitors
An alternative to Google Adwords Analyze competitors feature is called SpyFu. This alternative has two main features. One allows you to see what traffic keywords are getting and the other, more importantly, shows what keywords your competitors are going after. This allows you to see which keywords are likely to perform well.


Summary
This new ‘Analyze competitors’ feature on Adwords now gives you a unique way of viewing your advertising ecosystem. It predominantly allows you to make more optimized decisions based on your market performance. This is yet another piece of information which will allow you to focus your keywords further.
To make the most out of the ‘Analyze Competitors’ feature you can click on the ‘Explore Ideas’ button to see some automated ideas for your campaign. By using the ‘Analyze Competitors’ feature you will be able to easily analyze against your competitors enabling you to focus on aspects of your campaign that need improving. Just like other aspects under the Opportunities tab, ‘Analyze Competition’ will uncover new ways for you to improve your Adwords performance.

Keeping in touch with friends wherever you are has become has become a necessity for a young socialites life. Platforms such as Facebook and Twitter now provide people with the opportunity to update their current status anytime, anywhere with the help of mobile technology. With many people now familiar with always having the internet available in their pocket in the form of a smart phone, it has become the norm to continually connect with others on the go.

What is Foursquare?Foursquare is the latest social networking platform to take the social media community by storm. Only launched last year, this location based platform combines a friend-finder, local city guide and a ‘game’ which allows you to update your whereabouts by ‘checking in’ to local places via your phone. You can ‘check in’ to bars, restaurants, art galleries, stations, in fact any place that is registered on the Foursquare map! Once checked in your whereabouts becomes visible to your friends allowing them to track you down to join you.

The ‘game’ part of the programme comes when you check in to a local building. Depending on how often you visit the establishment, you can receive offers and coupons direct to your phone or even freebies if you are the current ‘Mayor’. The Mayor of the establishment is decided by choosing the most loyal customer. By becoming the Mayor, you can receive freebies for you to enjoy whilst in the building and once you are gone, a new Mayor is found. This adds a sense of competition to the game and has been very popular in the United States.


If you can’t beat them....Join them!

In the ever expanding Social Media network, it has become more a matter of synchronisation rather than competition between the big players. Foursquare seems no exception with Twitter already making it clear they are happy to work with Foursquare to provide a more holistic platform. In order to a head start, you can also link up your Foursquare and Twitter accounts to find all your friends who are already using Foursquare.

You can use your Twitter stream on Foursquare and vice versa to let people know where you are and what you’re doing. Foursquare has outdone its rivals however by allowing its users to choose how often they link up their location and Twitter status, therefore allowing you to stay under the radar when needs be!


What’s great about it?

Foursquare is different in the fact that its primary use is to track down your friends to have face-to-face contact rather than sitting on Facebook or Twitter and communicating via statuses or tweets. It also combines the social interaction with a ‘real-time’ competitive game which has tangible rewards. This is good both for local businesses and their customers by encouraging loyalty and reward you for your efforts in brand loyalty.

Another differentiating factor about Foursquare is it can also act as a guide to the city, with people being able to leave tips and hints for the local area. As a user you can add your own tips to a local venue to let both your friends and the general public know of the best places to go and things to do. For example, if you are sitting in the local winery and find the best tasting French chardonnay, you can let the world know of your discovery. Others can then save these tips on a ‘to do’ list allowing them to generate their own personal check list.


Will it be a Big Player in the Social Media Monopoly?

Having only been live since March 2009, Foursquare already has over 1 million users and is rapidly growing showing great promise. Predominantly found over in the States having originated in New York, Foursquare has all the ingredients to become a worldwide success.

Foursquare relies heavily on users registering popular locations and businesses verifying ownership. Once verified the company can offer its customers great rewards for loyalty and therefore is great for encouraging people to visit time and time again. However, Foursquare has the great advantage of remaining intimate despite having such a huge following due to people being incredible choosy on who they let see the geographical location.

This has led to concerns over people’s privacy on Foursquare. However, the argument could be made that all social media sites have some elements of privacy infringements. The advice being giving by the makers of Foursquare is simply to only add your friends whom you wouldn’t mind seeing your whereabouts rather than a My Space everyone’s-a-friend style.

With such a new platform it is near impossible to determine how much potential this media has, although from the first few stats, the future is looking bright for Foursquare!

Google recently introduced the new ad extensions tab to selected PPC campaigns. This new tab allows you to add map listings, phone numbers and Google Products in a drop down box underneath your PPC ad copy.
These extensions are not shown with every ad and are only showed intermittently as decided by Google at the moment. From our experience so far we’ve found that when these location extensions are shown, our already good CTR have increased dramatically, by over 70% in some cases.
Here you can see an example of one of our client’s ads with the location drop down, when clicked on the small plus box opens the map drop down, dramatically increasing the proportion of the front page of Google that your ad commands.
And below you can see an example of the shopping result ad extension. This allows you not only to add pictures of individual products but to also add an individual link to each product underneath, dramatically increasing the number of links that you ad has and relevancy of each, which from our experience has had a profound effect on click through rate.



The phone extensions work alongside the location extension option when a user is searching on a compatible smart phone device such as an IPhone or Android phone. When searching within a Google browser or any of the Google apps, where applicable and when compatible the phone extension will be shown as below.



Once you click on the number you are taken to the below screen. Once here you can simply click on the call button and you phone will dial the company within the ad, a quick and easy way to get through to the desired business without having to enter the webpage, find the number, remember, or copy and paste the number and then call this manually.



What does this mean for PPC advertisers?
It seems from out research that these ad extensions are somewhat few and far between at the moment, but then the frequency of them showing could be a contributor to this. With no control over when these extensions are shown the power seems to be out of the hands of the company and into Google. We predict it won’t be long until everyone is capitalising on the ad extensions introduced by Google, and with more coming along each month, including financial information extensions, such as that shown for a natural listing below, it becoming every important to stay on top of Google’s constant innovations.



Review extensions
And another ad extension that could be timidly entering the water is a review ad extension. This comes in the format of a grey line of clickable text that will take the user through to the review site. It seems though that these are being added in a different way to the previously discussed ad extensions, in that they seem to be added without any input on either agency or client part. Something to watch in the coming weeks and any ideas on how this particular ad extension comes about or any of the others discussed here please let us know you thoughts and ideas.