Every blogger wants to boost traffic on their blog, but not everyone has the right online writing strategies. They can make all the difference.
Contrary to what newcomers to the blogosphere believe, blogging can be tough. It takes time, money, and experience to build a findable business blog that people want to read and follow, not to mention passion and determination. Then, you still need to deal with the competition. Most niches and industries are saturated. New blogs pop up every day. Still, there are ways to attract more online visitors.
Want to increase traffic to your blog? Need more leads, customers, and sales? Here are seven things that you can do that will have an impact.
Writing Strategies: 7 Ways to Boost Blog Traffic
1. Optimize old blog posts.
Is every single post on your blog completely and correctly search engine optimized? SEO isn’t what it used to be. Today, over/under optimization can hurt your rankings and traffic. Comb through your old posts. Check for title tags, URLs, and meta descriptions, as well as keyword density and links. Following on-page best practices is among the best online writing strategies. While you’re at it, ensure that your content is still relevant.
2. Update more often.
Every blog post is an opportunity to rank, drive traffic your site, and sell, so regardless of what some might tell you, more content is better. Two to three updates weekly is usually sufficient, but if you really want people and search engines to take notice, once or more daily is the way go. That is, if you have the time and resources – and have something valuable to say. At the very least, the average small business should be blogging once per week.
3. Write response posts.
Responding to controversial blog posts in your niche can drive traffic to your site. Once the original poster catches wind of your article, there’s a good chance that he or she will respond to it on their blog. Be careful, though, as this is one of the writing strategies that could backfire. Another good way to boost blog traffic (apart from effectively replying to comments) is to write posts that address topics and issues in the comments left on your blog.
4. Comment on other blogs.
Leaving comments on other blogs in your industry can drive a ton of targeted web traffic – among other things. A lot of people actually read the comments that are left below blog posts and will click through to the commenter’s site if they come across one that is interesting. To attract readers, leave comments that are a reasonable length (by commenting standards), thoughtful, and enticing. Leave your blog’s URL in the comment.
5. Get renowned bloggers to guest post on your blog.
This one tops many other online writing strategies. Why? Well, first off, you save time and money, since you do not need to write or outsource the post. Secondly, the guest blogger will probably share the content with his or her audience, which will drive traffic to your blog. How do you get well-known bloggers to guestblog for you? Approach strategically. Build relationships. Ask nicely. Offer something of value.
6. Use headline formulas.
Are prospects clicking your headlines? The headline is the most important element of your blog post. It’s what gets people to your content from search engines, social media sites, and other blogs. It makes sense, then, to use headline formulas that are proven to be effective. Using tried and tested formulas will not only get you more clicks, but it will also save you time and effort, especially if you are writing a lot of content.
7. Mention influencers.
Finding these writing strategies helpful? Ok, here is one more. Cite, quote, and mention influencers in your posts, and let them know that you have included them. For example, you can list the top blogs, experts, or resources in your industry and turn it into a quality blog post that your audience and search engines will appreciate, like this one by Kristi Hines. If it is useful, it will probably get a lot of shares. You get traffic, links, and exposure.
Have some online writing strategies to share? How did you manage to boost traffic on your blog? Let me know in the comments.
Discover the 4 most common affiliate marketing mistakes to avoid
Affiliate marketing is one of the most effective and powerful ways of earning some money online. Affiliate marketing gives everyone a chance to make a profit through the Internet. Many affiliate marketing programs are easy to join and implement. An affiliate marketer earns a commission on a regular basis with affiliate marketing.
However, like all businesses, there are lots of pitfalls in the affiliate marketing business if you’re not careful. Committing some of the most common mistakes will cost marketers a large portion of potential profits they could be making everyday. It is better to avoid some of these mistakes now than be regretful in the end:
Mistake number 1: Choosing the wrong affiliate program
Many people want to earn from affiliate marketing as fast as possible. In their rush to be part of an affiliate program, they tend to choose every affiliate product available out there.
Solution: It is important to choose an affiliate marketing program which compliments your business niche. Not every affiliate program will work for you. You need to be selective in this process. Just because an affiliate program works for someone else does not mean it will work for you. When choosing a product that is in demand (because every one else is using it) without actually considering if the product appeals to your own business niche doesn’t always work and isn’t a very wise move.
Mistake number 2: Not doing your research
When you’re searching for a particular affiliate niche market, find out what their commission profitability is.
Solution: Search on Google to get a feel of what is out there in terms of locating specific targeted keywords relating to your own business niche. Most sponsored listings are located above the organic search results. Check out their commission structure, such as: pay-per-sale & percentage programs, pay-per-lead, pay-per-action, pay-per-signup, pay-per-click programs, pay-per-call and/or pay-per-post. Find out if this is an affiliate program you can also offer your customers? You want your advertising efforts to be worthwhile to both your customers and business.
Pick an affiliate product that appeals to you and then research the heck out of it. Promoting a product you are more passionate about is easier than promoting one for the sake of the earnings only.
Mistake number 3: Joining too many affiliate programs.
Since affiliate programs are very easy to join, you might be tempted to join multiple affiliate programs to try and maximize the earnings you will be getting. However, joining multiple programs and attempting to promote them all at the same time will prevent you from concentrating on each one of them.
Solution: The best way to get excellent results is by joining only a few programs (2 to 4) that pays a 40% commission at least. Then give it your best effort by promoting those few programs enthusiastically. As soon as you realize that it is making a reasonable profit, then maybe you can now join other affiliate programs.
The technique is to test what works so that you can eliminate what doesn’t to make room for more.
Mistake number 4: Not buying or using the product yourself
As an affiliate marketer, your main purpose is to effectively and convincingly promote a product or service to your customers.
Solution: In order for you to achieve this goal, you must be able to relay to the customers which product(s)/service(s) work. This will allow you to provide your own unbiased opinion on the product. Therefore, trying out the product(s) yourself first before you sign up as an affiliate marketer, will allow you to see if it is really delivering what it promises. You’re a credible and living testament of the product’s advantages and disadvantages which translates into a sincere and trustworthy marketing campaign.
Avoiding the 4 most common affiliate marketing mistakes above will make for a better affiliate marketing experience. Remember, time is key. Take the time to analyze your marketing strategy and check if you’re in the right track. If done properly, you will be able to maximize your affiliate earnings. To view the original article Click Here
There’s a good chance you’ve heard of Tumblr by now. As thefastest-growing social media platform in 2014 with 120% growth, it is quickly moving up in the ranks of how people interact with one another online. But have you considered using it as a marketing tool?
Whether you’ve been wanting to start a Tumblr for your company or are completely unfamiliar with the platform, this guide will help you create and manage a successful account.
Keep reading to find out what exactly Tumblr is and how it can function for your brand. In this post, I’ll explain how you can get familiar with the platform, and also explore what kind of content tends to do well brands that already use it as a marketing tool.
About Tumblr
At its core, Tumblr is a microblogging platform. Microblogs differ from regular blogs in that they are made up of shorter posts – sometimes just single sentences, photos, or quotes. They do not involve the lengthy, in-depth content that is associated with regular blogs. On Tumblr, users can post text, photos, GIFs, quotes, links, music, and videos, and other users can “reblog” those posts, or repost them on their own blogs – much like the “share” feature on Facebook.
How popular is it?
According to Tumblr, the website currently has 200 million blogs publishing 80 million posts per day. It is important to note that unlike other social platforms, there are also visitors that do not have accounts.
When counting both registered users and unregistered visitors, Tumblr’s number of unique visitors jumps to 300 million per month.
Demographic and audience
Another thing to keep in mind is that Tumblr has the youngest audience of all social platforms, with 70% of its users between the ages of 16 and 34. This is an exciting statistic for brands attempting to reach a younger demographic, but it also means that not every business stands to benefit from creating a Tumblr account. If you are not attempting to market to young consumers, you may be better off investing your time and resources into more diverse platform like Facebook or Twitter.
This young demographic also necessitates a slightly different approach than other social platforms. You will likely have to come up with entirely different content to be successful, but the extra effort can be worth it. Tumblr is ranked #1 in social sentiment towards brands, so if you are able to find an effective way to communicate with its users, it can be a great way to build brand loyalty.
Getting started
Now that you have a general idea of Tumblr’s growth and demographics, how can you start using it for your brand? These few basic steps are essential to creating a successful blog.
Get familiar with the platform
The best way to figure out how you can use Tumblr as a marketing tool is to create an account and spend some time getting to know the platform. I’ve already stressed that it is different from other social media, but the easiest way to get a sense of how is simply by browsing the site as a user.
When you log in, you’ll be presented with your “dashboard,” or a feed of the most recent posts from all of the blogs you follow. Posts will be a mix of text, photos, quotes, links, conversations, audio clips, and videos. You will also see posts that people you follow have “reblogged,” or reposted to their own blog from other blogs. Each post has a number of “notes,” which indicates how many users have liked or reblogged it since it was posted. Most posts also include tags at the bottom that identify what the post is about.
You can find blogs to follow by searching for tags that interest you in the “Search Tumblr” bar. You can also search for other brands in your industry to see which ones already have Tumblr accounts. Following a few blogs right off the bat will give you a head start on becoming a part of the Tumblr “community.”
Once you have a feel for how other users post and interact with one another, it will be easier to thrive on Tumblr. You’ll get a sense of the casual style that dominates the site and be able to emulate it in your own content. This does not mean that you have to adopt the loose grammar and hyperbolic tendency of many users – just that you should keep those users in mind and be able to attract and interact with them.
Decide how Tumblr will function for your brand
Given that Tumblr is different from other social platforms, it will likely serve a different purpose from your brand’s other social media accounts. Instead of driving traffic to your ecommerce site or having direct calls to action, your Tumblr’s main focus could simply be raising brand awareness.
Determine what exactly it is you hope to accomplish with Tumblr before spending time creating your content.
Creating content
The most important part of a successful Tumblr blog is original content. While many users simply reblog popular content, this approach won’t do much to help your brand. Users won’t have much incentive to follow you if you aren’t offering anything unique, so you need to create content that they can’t find on anyone else’s blogs.
Creating quality content also increases the likelihood that your followers will reblog your posts. If they do, your posts will show up on all of their followers’ dashboards, greatly increasing your reach. But what kind of content should you create for your Tumblr to inspire this reaction?
What to create
Tumblr is a very visual platform, so posts that are strictly text are often ignored. Images and GIFs are more engaging than text, and tend to get more reblogs, so focus your efforts on posting content that will grab users’ attention as they are scrolling through their dashboards.
Creative, off-the-wall content does well, and ideally, you should create posts that users will want to reblog regardless of the fact that they are associated with your company. One brand in particular who does a nice job creating popular content is Vans:
This photo of a skateboarder had 161 notes in under 10 minutes, and probably would’ve performed similarly well even if it hadn’t been posted by the popular skateboarding company.
With that in mind, try to make quality photos and graphics a regular part of your blog. If you are struggling to come up with ideas, think about what could be visually appealing about your brand. Do you have any eyecatching products? Can you take “behind-the-scenes” photos of your employees? Do you have a cool, new office to show off? Anything that is fun to look at is perfect for Tumblr.
Urban Outfitters often posts photos that do not even feature their products, but are reblogged by many users who want the images on their blogs. This might seem counterintuitive to someone who is trying to market their business, but think back to the function you decided to give your blog. If you are trying to create a brand identity, you don’t have to explicitly promote your products.
This strategy works on Tumblr, because no matter whose blogs the images end up on,your brand name will stay at the top of the post.
In addition to photos, GIFs are extremely popular on Tumblr. If you have the time, it could be worth making a few and seeing how they perform. If you are new to creating GIFs, this a good tutorial using Photoshop.
Tumblr users also tend to respond well to humor. Don’t attempt to put a funny spin on everything you post, especially if it doesn’t match your brand’s identity, but if you think of a good joke that relates to your company or a humorous caption for a photo, there’s a chance that it will be well-received by your followers.
MTV uses this technique often, and makes light of pop culture references on a daily basis.
A humorous approach isn’t right for every brand, but for a television channel that broadcasts teen dramas and reality shows, celebrity jokes are ideal for their demographic.
Tagging your posts
Once you’ve created content and are ready to publish it to Tumblr, it is very important that you use appropriate tags on your posts. These tags are how users search Tumblr, and will help users besides your followers see your content.
When used correctly, tags can be a great way to extend your reach. However, make sure that the tags you use are relevant. Don’t just add a bunch of popular tags in the hopes that more users will see your post.
Tumblr sponsorship
If you are serious about investing time in creating quality content for your Tumblr, you might also want to invest money in promoting your blog and posts.
Similar to sponsored posts on Facebook and promoted tweets on Twitter, Tumblr offers businesses the opportunity to pay to have their posts show up in users’ dashboards other than their followers. These posts look just like organic posts, except that “sponsored” appears next to the username of the poster.
In this example, the movie “The Longest Ride” chose to promote their upcoming release by sponsoring a post on Tumblr. They also used hashtags that are likely to be searched frequently in February. This combination of paid and unpaid tactics is a common Tumblr marketing strategy.
Sponsoring your entire blog
In addition to sponsoring individual posts, Tumblr offers users the opportunity to promote their entire blogs. On the right side of users’ dashboards, there is a sidebar that displays recommended blogs. While most of these blogs show up organically and are personalized to users based on the blogs they already follow, you can pay to have your blog show up here as well.
In this case, the movie “The Lazarus Effect” chose to pay to have their blog show up in some users’ recommendations.
Important Tumblr guidelines
Tumblr has a few guidelines for its sponsored posts, and although you may not choose to have your posts sponsored, these are still good tips for making quality posts.
Make sure you use the appropriate post type
When creating a post, you will be presented with seven different types to choose from – text, photo, quote, link, chat, audio, and video.
Choosing the correct option will make it much easier to upload your content. It also helps Tumblr format the post appropriately and make it look nice in users’ dashboards.
Add click-through links on your photo posts
When creating a photo post, be sure to insert a link to your Tumblr page or to your company’s website on the image. This makes it so that no matter whose Tumblr your post ends up on, viewers will be able to click it and be taken immediately back to the source. This will be beneficial to you when other users reblog your post.
Never, ever plagiarize
With all of this emphasis on quality imagery, you may be tempted to search the Internet for eyecatching graphics and photography and post them on your Tumblr. While it should go without saying that this is a bad practice on any medium, Tumblr users tend to be particularly passionate about artists receiving credit for their work, so plagiarism in any form could ruin your chances of success on the platform entirely.
This does not mean that all of your posts have to be 100% original, though. It is perfectly acceptable to use material from around the web as long as you include the content source in your post.
Interacting with other users
After creating content, interacting with other Tumblr users is the second most important component of a successful blog. The sense of community on the site is much stronger than on other social networks, and becoming a part of that community will serve you well.
Follow their blogs
One of the easiest ways to interact with Tumblr users is to follow their blogs. Start by following the people who follow you – especially those who frequently like and reblog your posts. Not only will this generate good will towards your brand and blog, but if you take the time to look at their blogs, you should be able to get an idea of what your fans like to see. This will help you as you continue to create content for your Tumblr.
Reblog content that relates to your brand
Search for posts that are tagged with your brand name, and consider reblogging ones that really stand out. The user who posted it will appreciate it, and it will also add content to your blog. In this example, Coca-Cola reblogged a photo of a user drinking their product while wearing a shirt with their logo. It doesn’t match their traditional advertisements, but makes a cool addition to their blog.
Many brands have also had success with calls for user-created content once they’ve built a successful following. This can be a great way to generate material, and if you encourage your followers to use certain tags when they post, you’ll be able to easily find content for your blog.
It is also important to know that directly asking users to reblog or like a post is considered “fishing for notes,” and is against the Tumblr community guidelines. Although it is standard practice on other social platforms to ask users to engage with your content, Tumblr does not allow it.
Customizing your Tumblr
Try different themes
Like most blogging platforms, Tumblr allows users to customize their blogs with themes. There are free and paid themes in all styles and colors under the “customize” tab, and you can also create your own theme with some HTML knowledge.
These themes determine how your blog will look to users who go to your page, and can add personality and style – much like your regular website’s design.
Third-party comment features
One add-on you can use to make your Tumblr more accessible to non-Tumblr-users is a comment feature. Although the ideal viewer would be a user who can follow your blog, allowing other people to comment can generate helpful feedback. Disqus is a relatively easy way to do this, and also allows you to moderate comments.
Now that you have a general idea of how to use Tumblr as a marketing tool, the best way to gain a full understanding is to get started. Create an account, look around, and start blogging!
Have any questions about how to use Tumblr in your marketing plan? Feel free to leave a comment and we’ll get back to you right away.
Want to buck up the search engine ranks of your website right away? Well, in that case, figuring out some of the best SEO tips and tricks can work wonders for you. In order to help you out, we’ve come up with a list of the top 20 SEO tricks that’ll buck up your search engine ranks in Google simply with a few clicks. Have a look at these awesome guidelines.
A SEO friendly template- In order to buck up your SEO ranks, you’ve got to get started by using SEO friendly templates for your site. Go for a responsive theme, that loads quickly and is compatible with all browsers and devices.
High quality content- While coming up with your own website, make sure that the website content is engaging, innovative and non-plagiarized.
A good meta description- A good meta description is the backbone of a content. So every time you post a content, try to come up with a meta description of 120-140 words before the post.
Make the URL SEO friendly- Try to use permalink in order to make your URL SEO friendly. Also try to use the main keywords in the permalink title.
Keep a proper keyword density ratio- Try to maintain a proper ratio of keyword density. Too less of keyword or keyword stuffing won’t work. You’ve got to keep the a proper ratio.
Using proper headings- While coming up with a web content, try to use the headings in the H1, H2 and H3 format. Always write the keyword in the H2 format.
Optimizing your images- In order to optimize your images, always use the alt+title tag.
Coming up with quality backlinks- While building backlinks for your site, do not come up with these links very fast as Gooogle marks the extra-fast backlinks as spam. Take time to build quality backlinks on websites that have a proper page rank, Alexa rank and domain and page authority.
Length of the post- The minimum length of a good SEO optimized post is 300 words and the maximum length is 800 words. Don’t make it more than 800 words.
Good keywords- Do not figure out the keywords yourself. Rather, try to use some keyword optimizing tool to figure out the relevant keywords for your post.
Choosing key phrases- Key phrases have even better effects than keywords. So instead of concentrating on keywords, try to concentrate on key phrases as well. Try to go for phrases that compare the keywords well.
Choosing a proper place for navigation menu- While coming up with a SEO optimized website, always figure out a proper place for the navigation menu. We recommend you to place the menu below your logo or at the top right corner of your logo.
Social bookmarks- Social bookmarking bucks up SEO optimization of your website. So now when you come up with a site, make sure it has a Facebook page for social bookmarking.
Link your posts- Always try to link your newer content to the older ones. This has a more engaging appeal on the readers.
Speed of your site/blog- In order to buck up the speed of your site, try to use optimized images. Also make sure that there are lesser ads.
Relevant pages- Whether you have a blog or a website, always try to create separate sections for relevant pages like ‘about us’, ‘help’, ‘support’ and ‘privacy policy’.
Update your site from time to time- In order to rank high in search engines, you’ve got to ensure that your site is updated from time to time. Regular updates increase the chances of better ranking.
Redirect all your 404 error pages- Yes! In order to enjoy better SEO ranks, always redirect the 404 error pages to your homepage.
Send your sitemap to search engines- Always send your sitemap to search engines. This will increase the chances of better search engine.
Moderate the comments section- Maintain and moderate your comments section to avoid spam comments. This will automatically buck up the search engine rank of your site.
So what are you waiting for? Simply follow these guidelines and you will soon end up with better search engine ranks. Good luck!!If you have any other doubts or quires regarding SEO Tips & Tricks please let us know by commenting.Stay Tuned to All News At One for more SEO Tips & Tricks.
Now that it’s a “thing,” we have a tendency to overcomplicate content marketing. Not coincidentally, this was also the case when websites became a “thing” as well as when email, and SEO and social media got hot. Probably even butter churning, when that first went viral (or whatever passed for viral in feudal Europe). But I have one piece of advice that will serve you well as new technology and marketing trends capture our imagination:
People who make things more complex than they are either know less than they think, or are trying to sell you something
There are certainly people and organizations in social media and content marketing that are living proof of that principle, and one of my deepest desires for Convince & Convert as a blog and as a consultancy is to not be among them. Our unofficial motto is “Uncommon advice without the hype.” In that spirit, I wanted to spend a few minutes with you today talking about how content marketing gets made.
Of course, there are at least as many types of content marketing as there are squirrels in my yard, and as I type this I can see 17 squirrels. So there’s that. At the execution level there are indeed myriad ways you can “make” and deploy content that works. However,the process that companies undergo to plan, create and measure content is (or should be) mostly static and consistent.
Here’s the six step process we use for content marketing plans here at Convince & Convert. Perhaps it’ll help you see through the smokescreen of obfuscation that is starting to creep into the content marketing field.
1. Business Goals
Now that it’s hot, far too many companies are creating content just to be able to check that box on their marketing tactics chart. “Let’s do content marketing” is replacing “let’s do social media” and “let’s try to go viral” as the most commonly heard – yet utterly rudderless – corporate mandate. Content can serve different purposes within a company, and the best content marketing programs define the role of content beforehand, not after the fact.
2. Strategy
What is this specific aim of this particular content execution? For which audience is it intended? At what stage of the purchase funnel? What is the key question or need that this content fulfills? How do we know that this need exists (social listening, search engine keyword analysis, customer feedback, etc.).
3. Production
What form should this content optimally take, recognizing that in many cases there isn’t a right and wrong way to do content, just a way that is more right based on your audience and their information consumption preferences. This is where you get to figure out what you’re making, who is making it, and when.
4. Atomization
Too often, content marketers attempt to reinvent the wheel instead of just chumming more bodies of water with a content tentpole they already possess. This is content atomization – taking one big idea and making many smaller content executions from it. My favorite example of content atomization in practice is this Fix In Six program from Lowe’s.
5. Amplification
You must market your marketing. The notion that you can simply create interesting content and people will magically find it is a lie. If you build it, they won’t necessarily come. You have to treat your content executions like a product, and launch them the same way you would a product. I employed dozens of integrated tactics to launch my book Youtility last year, instead of relying on Amazon and this blog to generate sufficient awareness. (for a related ebook on my 25 Secrets About How I Wrote and Marketed a New York Times Bestseller, check this out).
6. Measurement
Content isn’t inexpensive. It’s just different expensive. The time required (and in some cases, the production costs) can be significant. Some day, someone in your company is going to ask “hey, is all that content actually making us any money?” The best content programs are those that are measured, because the data gathered can be used to optimize the content next time. Here’s an ebook I wrote with Content Marketing Institute called “A Field Guide to the 4 Types of Content Marketing Metrics.” If you haven’t seen it, you should grab it. A couple of notes on measurement in general:
You may not be able to measure content’s impact on transactions, per se. But, if you are wise about survey research you can isolate content’s impact on preference and sales that way. For example, this remarkable program from McDonald’s Canada has been found to have increased Canadians’ trust of McDonald’s food quality by nearly 10 percent. That’s an enormous impact that shows up in surveys, but cannot be neatly measured in-store.
Also, make sure you have fully thought through your measurement narrative BEFORE you produce your content. You need to bake trackability into the content wherever possible, and if you don’t do that at the beginning you end up with a patchwork mathematical mess. Remember this:
Trying to measure content after it’s made is like trying to pinstripe a car once it’s moving.
Do you want to understand your social media return-on-investment (ROI)? Are you tracking the customer journey in Google Analytics In this article you’ll discover how to collect and analyze the data you need to properly calculate how social media marketing impacts your business.
Find steps to measure social media ROI with Google Analytics.
#1: Create a Custom Segment
The good news is that you already have data you can segment into control groups. When someone visits your website from a social media network, Google has an automated way of identifying that user and adding him/her to reporting under Acquisition > Social.
The challenge with the data setup is that you have a limited number of reports you can view, and you have very little control over how the data is displayed.
The solution: Set up a custom segment that mirrors how Google Analytics automatically tracks the traffic from each social network. Here’s how:
Log into Google Analytics.
Go to Acquisition > Social > Network Referrals. Hover over any of the social networks in the report to see how Google determines the traffic from that network.
At the top of the page, click on Add Segment, then click the red New Segment box.
Adding segments is easy to do.
Title the report GA Default Social Users.
Click on Conditions.
Select Source Contains and type in what you saw in the drop-down list (e.g., Twitter.com). Using Twitter as an example, you’ll notice other types of Twitter traffic come up as you type. Take note of what shows up and add those too. You can do that by clicking OR and typing the new criteria.
Review the All Sessions numbers to see if they match the Default Social Users numbers. If they don’t, follow steps 8 and 9 to edit the segment.
Click on the arrow next to the segment at the top of the page and select Edit.
Repeat this process for each social network until all of the numbers match.
Type in the network name and see if additional traffic sources show up. If they do, add them to your segment. Then check again to see if the All Sessions numbers match the GA Default Social Users number.
Your GA All Sessions number should match the Default Social Users number.
If you have a lot of social traffic, you may run out of fields if you keep selecting OR for each criterion. If that’s the case, consider using Regex to include multiple criteria in one field.
Use Matches Regex to include multiple criteria in one field.
To use Regex, select Source > Matches Regex. Use the pipe (see the image above) with no spaces before or after each criterion to signify OR. To get the pipe, hold shift and press the backslash key.
#2: Isolate Social Media Users in the Data Set
The next step is to set up the data so you can isolate traffic into two groups: default social users and social link clickers.
Default users are those who came to your site from social media and are automatically tracked by Google Analytics. These users did not come from the links you created and shared.
Social link clickers are users who clicked on the links you distributed on your social media properties and the earned traffic that resulted from shares of those links.
To isolate the two groups, use the Google URL builder to create trackable links you can share on your social networks.
First, I suggest you create an excel spreadsheet that includes all of your sources and media so you can copy and paste them into the URL builder and keep your data clean.
Use Google’s URL builder to separately track default users and social link clickers.
Before you complete the URL builder fields, be aware that capitalization and spacing matter! Whether you’re using title case or lowercase, be consistent. For example, Ebook, ebook , E Book and EBook will show up as separate data sets in Google Analytics.
In the URL builder, type in the URL you want to share. This must be a link to your website.
Step 2 in the URL builder is where you add meta data to your link that Google Analytics will be able to read and include in your data set.
In the Campaign Source field, type SLC + (the social network). SLC means social link clicker and is the key to isolating these users. Be sure you include it!
Track SLC in the Campaign Source.
Enter the content type in the Campaign Medium field (e.g., blog post, infographic, video, etc.).
Type the content title in the Campaign Name field (e.g., How to Create Social Media Control Groups in Google Analytics).
When you’re done, click Submit. You’ll get a long URL—copy it and shorten it with your social media management tool. Next, add your status update and post it.
Follow the steps in section #1 to add a custom segment that contains SLC in the source so you can run reports.
#3: Analyze the Data
Before you analyze your data, come up with a list of questions you want the data to answer, and then list the metrics you’ll use to answer those questions.
Here are a few ideas for questions to answer: Does sharing content on social channels influence consideration for products and services? Does sharing content published on your website influence a higher or lower propensity for consideration? Does curating content influence a higher or lower propensity for consideration?
Use custom segments to analyze control groups.
To conduct your analysis, use the custom segments you created for GA default social users and social link clickers.
Export the Google Analytics data to Excel to calculate percent changes between your control groups.
Navigate to the reports that hold the metrics you want to analyze, then copy and paste the metrics into an Excel spreadsheet or use the Export function to create a file with raw data that you can open in Excel.
Calculate the percent changes from one group to the other to see where the outliers are and highlight the insights you find in the data.
Wrapping Up
Interested in conducting an analysis like this inside of your Google Analytics account? Here are resources with the pre-built segments and a custom report on goal conversion data.
Understanding how to measure social media ROI has been the number-one topic marketers want to understand for the last four years.
Look at how social media influences the customer journey of awareness, engagement, consideration, acquisition, retention, advocacy and loyalty.
Use Google Analytics to set up control groups to identify the website visits.
What do you think? Have you performed control group analyses within Google Analytics? Do you have advice or findings to share with others? Please leave a comment below and join the conversation.
