General Overview

At the corporate level, companies often struggle with rationalizing the value of allocating time and energy towards social media, Twitter in particular. This is primarily a result of the lack of understanding in regards to social metrics and insufficient tracking. However, Sprout Social puts an end to all this by tracking useful metrics, such as engagement and influence, over your social networks. As the alter ego for the @PPCHero and @SEOBoy Twitter handles, I can tell you that this program was helpful in a variety of ways. Here are some pros and cons that I came across:

Pros

• Connecting all of your accounts in one convenient interface.

This is my favorite aspect of this SaaS. Through their guided process, you can connect your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIN and Google Analytics accounts together in one place. This is helpful because it eliminates the need to micro-manage your individual interfaces from different places, which can get confusing! With Sprout Social, syncing your accounts becomes as easy as 1, 2, 3.

• Detailed reporting that is meaningful to businesses.

As internet marketers, we are constantly digesting and analyzing numbers in order to look for ways to improve quality scores, rankings, etc. This is much easier said than done when it comes to tracking the performance of social media. Sprout Social provides you with helpful metrics for tracking performance, such as engagement and influence.

Engagement

Your engagement score is an indicator of how well you are communicating with your audience. The higher your engagement, the more valuable your audience will become to your business.

Influence

Your influence is an indicator of your growth and the interest level among your audience. These numbers are commonly low, but increasing them over time will result in greater brand awareness and enthusiasm for your business.

In addition to these, they also provide you with other more common metrics, such as clicks, new followers and demographics. You can even present them to your boss or company with ease by selecting the “Export Data” button, which compiles your data as a PDF or CSV and presents it in a digestible format.

• Ability to easily create and automate your posts.

I can remember back when I created my first Twitter account. I had to painstakingly curate interesting posts and ensure that they were delivered throughout the day, which turned out to be terribly meticulous. However, Sprout Social enables you to send your message instantly, schedule a one-time or recurring post, and even set up RSS feeds for automated delivery.

What’s better is how easy they make it to create your posts. They have a “Send from Sprout” button you can drag to your navigation bar that creates the post for you. By clicking the button, it pulls bits and pieces of a page’s meta data and generates a headline for your post with link included. If you are using custom bit.ly URLS, these are also compatible with Sprout’s interface. All you need is to do is enter your bit.ly username and API key in the “Account Settings”, then you’re all set.

• Detailed message inbox and outbox.

This section is pretty straightforward, allowing you to filter your messages by incoming and sent messages. Within the “sent” tab, you can see all the messages you have sent, as well as the clicks, retweets and total reach. This feature can be particularly helpful if you’re trying to drill down to your tweets and see which posts are performing well and attracting the most attention.

• Easily locate and attract new followers.

Although I haven’t utilized this section to it’s full potential, Sprout’s “Discovery” tab can be an excellent resource for locating and attracting potential followers to interact with. The best part is how the interface does all the dirty work, performing the search for you.

• Compatibility with Google Analytics.

For those of you looking to go even deeper for a better understanding of your social media efforts in relation to your overall site traffic, Sprout Social is compatible with Google Analytics. In fact, you can sync your Analytics account with your social media handles to have that information included in Sprout’s interface.

More On Facebook

It’s no secret that Facebook is like an addiction for some people with endless status updates, comments and likes taking over every extra minute of the day. However, for the internet marketer, it is equally important to manage your time wisely while taking advantage of the traffic possibilities within Facebook. The Sprout Social application could be the answer to that time management quandary as it gives you the ability to setup an entire day’s worth of Facebook posts in one visit. Here’s a brief look at the Facebook tab and features:

Pros

• Ability to track Facebook performance, in respect to other social media venues.

Being that you can schedule things to be posted on your Facebook and Twitter simultaneously gives you the ability to look at data and know if one is outperforming the other or if both are bringing in equal traffic since blogs, etc. are fed out at the exact same times.

• Extremely insightful demographic info, etc.

The reports section has a ridiculously detailed amount of information about likes, comments, age groups, languages…and having all that data gives you the power to alter your activity to raise traffic in places where it’s needed. Take a look at the screen shot above and see for yourself!

To wrap things up, Sprout Social’s SaaS definitely has a lot of good things going for it. It is my hope that you might try it for yourselves and build off of what I’ve learned so far. In fact, I would recommend this program to any company, small or large, who is looking for a way to consolidate social media efforts into one convenient and easy-to-use platform. But you don’t need me to tell you, go try it out for yourself!

*Big thanks to Kayla Stockert, an account executive here at Hanapin, for compiling the “More On Facebook” section!*

SEO Boy Greatest Hits:

First place honors go to Jessica C. for her article, 10 Ways to Improve a Google Places Page.  Google Places is a free option used for promoting your business online and helps boost your listing to the top of the local search results.  Jessica takes us through step-by-step account set up, verification and optimization of your Places Page, including making the most out of tracking your pages through Analytics.  The bulk of this post is about optimization so make sure that you read the full article to help place your clients in those top results like Jessica did!

Kayla rocks the second spot this month with Google Displays Click Count In Paid Search Results.  Google is now testing a new feature in AdWords that will display the click count under select advertiser’s PPC ads. Google has not released info on how they will select these advertisers but it is in the works.  Kayla also addresses what this means for all of you SEO Managers out there who think that this new feature won’t help you… so read on friends!

PPC Hero Greatest Hits:

Just when you thought the water was safe, Google introduced a new version of Analytics back in April, which introduced several new features.  Bethany bravely cannonballs into the Analytics pool and gives readers lessons on how to swim and not sink with her article Creating Custom Reports in Google Analytics.  She outlines how to choose what kind of report will meet your needs and how to set up your report and how to get the most out of your built report. Read Bethany’s post to get the skivvy on making the most out of Google Analytics.

You asked for it – and you read it!  One of June’s most read posts hails from Jessica C. who provides 5 More Top Excel Tips for PPC Managers.  This post is part of our June EXCELlent Series highlighting different tactics to win the PPC war and make Excel one of your best allies.  Jessica highlights the LEN function to help with ad text creation; the beauty of using Pivot Tables (a step-by-step tutorial!); creating useful charts; various keyboard shortcuts for PCs and Macs; and the IF function to test if certain conditions are true in your spreadsheets.  Don’t miss out on this post if you want to be all you can be in Excel!

Other posts in the blog series include:

http://www.ppchero.com/my-top-5-excel-tips-for-ppc-managers/

http://www.ppchero.com/excellent-blog-series-use-excel-to-boost-ppc-performance/

http://www.ppchero.com/projecting-ppc-account-performance-in-excel/

http://www.ppchero.com/excellent-series-making-excel-subtotals-work-for-you/

What else do you want to see on PPC Hero and SEO Boy?  Let us know by filling out that awesome pop up screen in the bottom right hand corner of your screen… And remember, your favorites won’t make this post if you don’t read at home!  On that note, Coover, out!

Google is committed to working on three different areas of their design principals:

• Focus: getting the “clutter” out of the way.  Giving you what you want when you want it in any Google tool you are using.  Bolded action buttons and hidden navigation buttons (yup – this is where the “where did that button go” comes in!) will help you find what you need to be efficient.
• Elasticity: will allow you to view Google on any device at any time and have a consistent visual experience.
• Effortlessness: “power with simplicity” is the name of the game here. Clean and simple, the latest, greatest and fastest – all in one bundle!

Google Then - 1997

David Bowie Then - 1997

Google Now - 2011

David Bowie Now - 2011

Good thing Google has aged more gracefully…

The “focus” of your SEO efforts may have to change along with these Google updates.  Google has decided to only show the navigation buttons that are “needed.”  Vanessa Fox from Search Engine Land proposes in her article that most searchers won’t click the “more” categories to display more navigation choices and will just settle on the results that are shown under “Everything.”  Don’t let your site fall victim of Google’s unexpanded navigation bar!  Optimize your site to show for searches with very specific categories in mind as well as the generic “Everything” results.   Take advantage of your meta data to make these differentiations as well.

The new “focus” update changes the organic results that are served based on the navigation button that is highlighted.  For example, if the search is for “cute scrapbook ideas” and you are on the “Everything” button, this is what you would see:

Let’s say your site is filled with keywords for books about scrapbooking.  Your site wouldn’t show here in the Everything results and searchers who never thought to expand the navigation buttons by clicking “More” will never find your site.  But look what happens when they DO expand and click on “Books:”

Tada!  More focused site results…  Moral of the story?  Make sure that you choose those keywords that will serve your site in BOTH categories.

We would love to hear from you about the new Google design updates and how they will help (or hinder – hopefully not!) your clients.  Let us know what you think! And as always, thanks for reading!

That’s right! Google’s Inside AdWords blog is reporting that as of this week, the +1 feature will begin appearing on ads and organic search results globally. Obviously they are starting in their own front yard, with sites like google.co.uk, google.de, google.co.jp and google.fr, but the expansion to almost all other Google search sites will occur shortly. Google is also reporting that they have partnered with other select foreign websites which will begin showing the +1 option, as well, such as:

• TechCrunch Japan
• The Telegraph
• Marie Claire UK
• Spilgames
• Tradingpost.com
• Games2Win

Users can also add the +1 button to their international websites by installing the +1 Button Tool in Google Webmaster Central to further enhance the +1 button experience for their customers or site-goers.

Hopefully this addition to the +1 feature either helps you open a new door by reaching international customers opinions you couldn’t reach previously, or it pushes a door open further by providing you feedback from your international customer base. What do you think? Do look to see a positive or negative impact on your own site rankings with this continued expansion of the +1 feature? Share your thoughts and ideas in the comments section below!

For further information about this topic, check out the following links:

• Google +1: An Overview-SEO Boy (in case you missed it and have no idea what the +1 button is!)
• Google +1 Button Begins Global Rollout-Hexus

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more news updates from SEO Boy!

All answers are due by EOD this Thursday, June 30th. The winner will be announced on the blog Friday morning!

+1 data is currently available for a select number of sites, and it appears as though Google is taking care of their own first. I had a hard time generating some +1 stats, but was able to see data in searches for Google Maps, +1 Button (duh!), YouTube and Mashable. Obviously Google has a vested interest in three out of four of those sites.

Here’s what you’ll see on Google results pages:

Out of curiosity, I ran the same search when I was both logged in and logged out of my Google account, and I found some inconsistencies, albeit small ones, with the data I was seeing.

Here’s what I found when I was logged into Google while searching for Mashable:

And here’s what I saw when I logged out:

I know 4 clicks isn’t a huge difference given the number of people that have +1’d Mashable, but I’m wondering why the data is different? And obviously this discrepancy could mean more to me if my site had a much lower number of +1’s than 4,000.

The other thing I noticed was that while +1 data shows up for a site generated by one keyword, it might not show up for the same result generated by a different keyword search.

Here’s what I saw whey I searched for “Google maps:”

When I searched for “map Google San Francisco,” which also generated Google Maps as the first search result, there was no +1 data:

I can’t figure out Google’s logic in making this data contingent upon search term and not URL, but maybe this is just a bug in the early stages of +1’s SERP presence (wishful hoping). Since the +1 button has the potential to influence whether or not a user clicks on a search result, obviously all site owners would want this data to appear with their URL on all search results regardless of the search query.

For additional reading on +1 counts on SERP, check out the following articles:

• Google +1 Counts Appearing in Search Results (Search Engine Land)
• Google +1 Showing Raw Counts in Search Results (Search Engine Roundtable)

Have you seen +1 data in your Google searches this week? Do you think it will be a powerful social tool, or will Facebook’s Like button still take the cake? Let us know in the comments below!

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more updates from SEO Boy!

But what does this mean for SEO? Higher website rank and better click-through rate.  For example, the more “likes” your site or article has from your social circle, the greater the chance that it will climb virally and organically up the Google search result ladder.  Obviously this only works for those who have set up their Google Profiles – so that is the first battle!  And for those nay-sayers who think it’s a waste of time to fill out their Google Profile, they might change their tune when you see how positively it can effect a site’s metrics.  At least that is what Google hopes!

Check out Rand Fish’s article Social Annotations in Search: Now Your Social Network = Rankings to learn more about this cool new Social Butterfly Effect.

What do you think about this?  Will it continue to help a site’s rankings in the long run?  Could social pressure finally for once be a good thing?  We want to hear from you!

As always, thanks for reading SEO Boy!