It has been known since yesterday evening that hashtags are being rolled out bit by bit on Facebook. So far, only a few users have been able to use the new feature. In addition, the small keywords will only be available via the web browser . Even if the hashtag feature looks like a little gimmick at first glance, it has many great advantages for the user, not least for companies and thus for Facebook itself.

Facebook hashtags as a community tool

First and foremost, you can use hashtags to set certain topics and trends and make them available in compressed form. Many site operators have already made use of this on Twitter and Google+, showing those interested in a brand campaign the way to specific content. For example , if you wanted to be forwarded to articles, spots or opinions on the real beauty campaign from the cosmetics brand Dove, you could search under #realbeauty and found what you were looking for. Nike created the hashtag #makeitcount for its FuelBand and, last but not least, sent the wonderfully beautiful web video about Max Joseph’s product on Twitter and Google+. Entire communities often crowd around such campaign hashtags – similar to company pages on social networks.

In this respect, Jens Wiese has not exaggerated when he writes on allfacebook.de : “The introduction of hashtags is as important for Facebook as the introduction of the Facebook pages recently.” -Pages so far a great idea. However, if you only found one campaign interesting, you had to choose either the complete program of the fan page or nothing at all. Some companies have occasionally set up their own pages for campaigns, but there is often the risk that the respective pages will simply be orphaned at some point as soon as the marketing campaign is over. An example here is the “Giro sucht Hero”-Fanpage of the Sparkasse referred: 164,000 fans were acquired in a few months and then dropped at the end of the campaign by not communicating anything about it. Unfortunately a bit disadvantageous for the brand and, last but not least, for those interested.

Hashtags can be used to generate feedback even after a campaign has ended. For example, when the community that has gathered around the product takes care of the content itself. Fans can still read tweets on Twitter about the FuelBand or Real Beauty campaign every day. Funnily enough, you are also confronted with updates on the Sparkasse campaign. Brands can finally use this potential on Facebook – where there are potentially over a billion users.

Facebook hashtags for targeted advertising

Hashtags are also particularly exciting when it comes to advertising for companies. The principle in the context of advertisements is not that new here either. Topic targeting has been relevant in ad tools since August 2011. Here it is possible to assign the advertising to a higher-level topic with the help of a hashtag. With the hashtag feature for users, you can now guarantee even more specific spending and maybe even run real-time campaigns like on Twitter in the near future. In other words, if someone uses a certain hashtag, they can be given a corresponding product at the edge of the page at the same time – theoretically even in the news feed itself, if the principle is extended to sponsored posts. Advertisements on trending topics could also be placed. In addition, Facebook is working on a hashtag insights tool,

Digital technologies, infrastructures and ecosystems enable new forms of collaboration. This has consequences for creative processes such as innovative project and product development. Companies and freelancers can already help shape this new co-economy.

More and more creative people are communicating their concepts and ideas openly instead of closing themselves off behind closed doors. This is accompanied by the request to participate in the generation of ideas, implementation or financing if you are interested. The web finally makes it possible: At least since the sociologist Manuel Castell put forward his thesis “Rise of Network Society”, we have understood a society and economic structure primarily as a network with decentralized value creation processes and global access to resources such as work, knowledge and capital – but also their bundling and redistribution with regard to supply and demand. In order to understand this new, digital social order, one has to understand the underlying mechanisms and motivations. The “Wikinomics” approach of management professor Don Tapscott plays a role here, but so does the knowledgeable use of the technical infrastructures.

Collaborative value creation

[metabox keyword = “crowdsourcing“] The co-economy primarily drives common goals: the successful implementation of projects, the desire to be able to help design products, or the advantages of a shared and thus expanded knowledge and creative pool. However, the collaborative approach does not exclude economic interests. Often collaborative processes even conserve resources and are therefore more efficient than self-sufficient approaches. On the one hand, the co-economies can be used within the company: for example, as an idea or forecast exchange, where the wisdom of the many helps to weigh and make strategic decisions; on the other hand, in the form of cooperation with other companies, customers or, in general, an expanded community of like-minded people. The latter are mostly online marketplaces where companies advertise creative concepts or other digital services (globally). The consensus: Those who are open to exchange learn and promote innovations. He reaches a wide target group with his product or concern and finds supporters in the implementation and financing of his ideas. Nevertheless, the co-economy is not a sure-fire success, but needs to be controlled. The hierarchies are distributed differently, but tasks and content still have to be curated. The basic infrastructure includes corresponding online networks and tools such as (digital) payment services. Without these technical requirements with correspondingly good usability, open collaboration is only possible to a limited extent – or at least not to the extent that is available today. on which companies advertise creative concepts or other digital services (globally). The consensus: those who are open to exchange learn and promote innovations. He reaches a wide target group with his product or concern and finds supporters in the implementation and financing of his ideas. Nevertheless, the co-economy is not a sure-fire success, but needs to be controlled. The hierarchies are distributed differently, but tasks and content still have to be curated. The basic infrastructure includes appropriate online networks and tools such as (digital) payment services. Without these technical requirements with correspondingly good usability, open collaboration is only possible to a limited extent – or at least not to the extent that is available today. on which companies advertise creative concepts or other digital services (globally). The consensus: those who are open to exchange learn and promote innovations. He reaches a wide target group with his product or concern and finds supporters in the implementation and financing of his ideas. Nevertheless, the co-economy is not a sure-fire success, but needs to be controlled. The hierarchies are distributed differently, but tasks and content still have to be curated. The basic infrastructure includes corresponding online networks and tools such as (digital) payment services. Without these technical requirements with correspondingly good usability, open collaboration is only possible to a limited extent – or at least not to the extent that is available today.

Marketplaces, creative portals, innovation platforms

In addition to crowdsourcing marketplaces such as99designs *  (for logos or web design) and oDesk  (for all types of creative services) or creative portals such as Jovoto  , there are above all innovation platforms such as Quirky  or UnserAllerthat promote a new type of collaborative creation: Here people develop ideas for products, product variants or improvements together. This co-creation is a strategic approach in which users create new services, products or ideas as part of a collaborative process (via the corresponding online platform). This has resulted in a fundamental paradigm shift in the relationship between client and customer as well as company and customer, but also in classic value creation. The community is driven by intrinsic motives such as the prospect of reputation, fun or interest in the product. Or extrinsic remuneration, such as an advertised prize money for the best designs. While on the crowdsourcing marketplaces creatives offer their services in an open infrastructure for hourly rates, fixed amounts or in the form of pitches, companies on the innovation platforms also use closed contests to treat designs more discreetly and thus in accordance with the group. In all cases, the rights to the drafts only change hands after confirmation by both parties, whereby the structures of the platform cover the handling (e.g. payment). In the case of open idea platforms, the companies must also ensure external community management (controlled by the company or an agency) in order to motivate the participants and ensure prompt feedback on the suggestions. Companies also use closed contests for their innovation platforms in order to treat drafts more discreetly and thus in accordance with the group. In all cases, the rights to the drafts only change hands after confirmation by both parties, whereby the structures of the platform cover the handling (e.g. payment). In the case of open idea platforms, the companies must also ensure external community management (controlled by the company or an agency) in order to motivate the participants and ensure prompt feedback on the suggestions. Companies also use closed contests for their innovation platforms in order to treat drafts more discreetly and thus in accordance with the group. In all cases, the rights to the drafts only change hands after confirmation by both parties, whereby the structures of the platform cover the handling (e.g. payment). In the case of open idea platforms, the companies must also ensure external community management (controlled by the company or an agency) in order to motivate the participants and ensure prompt feedback on the suggestions.

Implementation and requirements: Multi-stage review process

If you want to successfully implement such an online community, you should follow a few rules when building and operating the platform. The founder of the platform UnserAller Catharina van Delden, for example, relies on a project structure in several phases and a multi-stage review process. In their view, the proposal and coordination phases should always run separately. Ideally, invisible pre-voting limits the number of suggestions in the review and thus guarantees a minimum quality. The community has the last word, but the manufacturer can ensure the strategy and production fit. “Every project should be structured like a good brainstorming session. At the beginning, ideas are spun wildly and only then narrowed down, ”explains Catharina van Delden. “The biggest mistake in crowdsourcing product development is voting without prior review. It then inevitably appears as if the manufacturer is putting itself above the community, ”says van Delden. UnserAller relies primarily on good sorting algorithms that organize the display of ideas during the proposal phase. Every idea should have an equal chance of finding supporters in the proposal phase. In addition, a good mix of new things as well as exciting and good suggestions must always appear on the first page. It is recommended that the moderator summarize similar or identical ideas during the review or split suggestions. Finally, you need a closed area for elaboration: after the winner has been determined, the community dialogue should not stop. So it would make sense To let the winners participate in how their ideas actually flow into the product concept. At UnserAller, for example, this works via a closed project in which all winners of a phase can have a say.

Collaboration and co-working: online meets workspace

Models that connect online communities with physical workspaces take a slightly different approach – such as the co-working network  Seats2meet  from the Netherlands. The business model is based on the “social currency” – that is, the knowledge, skills and contacts – that the freelancers involved bring into the community. The deal is: registration on the online platform for free workspace, coffee and lunch. This lively creative community thus attracts companies that pay for the use of the infrastructure. In the US, a similar project was initiated by former Second Life founder and advocate of virtual worlds and currencies, Philip Rosedale. Who for his work  club is registered in San Francisco, has access to a mapping system that lists requests and offers: from print design to courier rides to Spanish courses. In addition, there is another platform called  Worklist . It is an open developer network that brings startups and programmers together. With these different elements, Rosedale wants to redefine the future of work, in the virtual and the physical world.

Conclusion: a new management style is required

These developments are one of the biggest changes of our time for many corporate areas – but especially for innovative project and product development – and require a completely new management style that knows and takes into account the collaborative value creation processes and new infrastructures as well as the needs of the associated community.

Positive effect of collaborative work	requirement
Flexible access to ideas, work and capital	Transparency, simplicity and good usability of the platforms
Better use of resources	Adequate system for fair, targeted remuneration
Extended creative pool with a view of the bigger picture	Clarification and protection of intellectual property
Greater creative freedom for individuals	More individual responsibility and motivation

Basically, the individuals of the co-economy work more self-organized and responsible than ever before. Nevertheless, they need functioning infrastructures that allow them to work more flexibly in terms of time and space. Ultimately, this development also demands a lot from companies. Because flat hierarchies are by no means synonymous with less responsibility. On the contrary: With the disruption of previous work processes, the complexity of process control increases dramatically. All those involved have to position themselves in these new digital technologies, infrastructures and ecosystems and help shape new processes as well as possible.

Content is an effective means of increasing sales, but how do you scale efficient content marketing ? The following seven tips will help with this mammoth task.

1. Automate the topic research

Researching the subject is complex and time-consuming, writes Tampon. He therefore uses some services that speed up the process. First and foremost is “ If this, than that ” (IFTTT). Tampon couples the web service with the RSS feeds of important blogs and can be used to send current articles via email. In this way, they can keep an eye on which topics are currently relevant and find inspiration for their own content.

Another web service for this task is Buzzsumo . Tampon uses its filter to filter out the most shared contributions from the relevant industries, he writes in his article. But the comments of interested readers also regularly contain topic ideas, says Tampon. To export all comments, he uses the WordPress plug-in ” Comment Contact Exporter ” from Seer Interactive.

Tampon also mentions the “ Content Discovery Scraper List ” as a final recommendation . With the help of the topics generated in this way, he always finds “quick inspiration”. Although the list is in English, it can be translated quickly.

2. Find a co-author

For larger projects such as an e-book, Tampon recommends working with a suitable co-author. This not only leads to better content, but also to a greater reach.

3. Share content in multiple formats

Transferring existing content to new formats is relatively cheap but effective. Perfect for small campaigns. For this purpose, marketers convert a presentation into a blog post and a video, for example, and thereby increase their reach despite relatively little effort.

But that’s not all. Tampon recommends converting the most popular and successful posts into pages. They would usually rank better and, above all, permanently. In order to select the appropriate contributions, website operators should consider the number of visitors, shares and links, explains Tampon.

4. Write guest posts regularly

Guest posts not only serve the reputation and link building, but also the reach. Those who regularly write for other websites are slowly bringing their visitors to their own platform. It is only important to give them clear incentives to do so. Tampon also has some tips for beginners:

• Start writing for websites that are already linking to your site. Its operators are more likely to agree to such requests. Tampon recommends thanking them first for their support (e.g. links or shares) and then asking whether there is a fundamental interest in regular guest contributions.
• Publish enough quality content on your website. You can then better link your own subpages in your guest posts, a big step towards good rankings.
• Only write for strong websites. According to Tampon, a good criterion for selection is, for example, the domain authority of the Moz Toolbar.

5. Develop a strong content team

For more content, more authors are needed in the long term. According to Tampon, clear guidelines and instructions are needed in this context. Only they guarantee uniform communication in the long term. A contribution on this topic that is well worth reading can be found at Distilled .

6. Optimize your content

It pays to optimize your own content for both users and search engines. Tampon gives the following tips on this, but also refers to the classic on-page tactics .

• Use terms that are related to the industry to increase the chance of rankings in the longtail.
• Use longer text phrases for internal links. This increases the click rate, says Tampon.
• If possible, always link relevant posts from your own website to guest posts.

7. Invest in marketing your content

Marketing is responsible for 50 percent of your website’s success, according to Tampon. So use all your options, but especially the inbound channels. Tampon considers marketing via email to be particularly important. It can be combined well with classic content marketing, he emphasizes.

Inbound marketing turns classic marketing on its head: Instead of creating the first contact of potential customers with advertising , it is about drawing attention to yourself through high-quality content on the web. Classic advertising is only used in a later step. That sounds unusual, but it is viewed by many experts as the future of marketing.

Advertising has been the focus of all
marketing activities for as long as there was marketing. However, the acceptance and thus attention of advertising has
decreased in the past decades due to its mass, which affects
us every day . Nowadays one speaks of
an “advertising blindness”: Everything that smells like advertising in the first contact
automatically activates an advertising filter for many people. That is why it will become more and more important to emotionally charge brands and products in advance via content , before promoting a
further strengthening of the brand or the conclusion. Only then can advertising regain acceptance and
attention. The focus is on the emotional content
and initiates the first customer contact, not the advertising . This is exactly what inbound marketing is all about. After thought leaders such as Seth Godin and others / see source reference 3) laid the foundation, the term was first used in Germany in 2012 by SEOmoz founder Rand Fishkin at the SMX in Munich .

What is inbound marketing?

If you consider the term inbound marketing as a counterpart to outbound marketing, you would have to include all non-classic advertising measures (“below-the-line marketing”) both online and offline. However, Hubspot’s definition of inbound marketing (see source reference 5), which only takes online instruments into account, seems to be gaining ground. Inbound marketing, based on the Hubspot definition, includes the following (online) marketing instruments:

• Content creation
• Blogging
• Public Relations (PR)
• Social media or word-of-mouth marketing
• Search engine marketing (SEO and SEA if necessary)
• Landing page optimization or conversion optimization
• Email Marketing
• Web analysis
• Customer Relationship Management

Inbound marketing: this is how it works

The individual phases of the inbound marketing process are divided into the following phases:

1. Inspire

In this phase it is important to create helpful and / or emotional content for the respective target group. These should be search engine-optimized and appropriately prepared for the target group, and they should be easily shared via social networks. The spreading of the content (“seeding”) can also be accelerated by targeting selected opinion leaders and distributing them via your own social media channels.

2. Interaction

In this phase, interaction should be encouraged that enables direct or indirect dialogue. At the latest when this phase is over, the online marketing specialist Karl Kratz says: “Welcome to the system” .

3. Graduation

The aim here is to turn interested parties into customers through dialogue or advice.

4. Loyalty / upselling

In the course of the fourth phase, the process basically starts all over again: The customer is inspired again by additional content and, of course, high-quality products or services and is convinced that he has made the right choice.

Define intermediate goals

Measurable intermediate goals should be defined for the individual phases. A long stay, low bounce rate, subscription to the feed, a tweet, like or share as well as a link through another website speak for a certain enthusiasm. This would have achieved the goal for phase one.

An entry in the newsletter, a new Facebook fan or even a request via a contact form by email or telephone complete the second phase of the interaction. From now on – if possible – more or less personalized communication can take place, for example via a CRM system.

Content creation

Everything starts with quality content. Sufficient time should flow into the planning before the actual content creation begins. The focus here is on target group identification and analysis.

The following questions need to be answered:

• Which intermediate and main goals should be achieved?
• Which target group (s) should be addressed?
• What is interested in and what information is the respective target group looking for or what is linked?
• How and in which process phase should the respective target group be addressed?

The question of the goals is important, since it can be used to record the success of the action and the achievement of the respective process stage of the interested party.

Which target group you want to address is determined, for example, on the basis of the group’s motivation to share content and / or the degree of networking. If backlinks are the main goal, the target group must be selected very precisely: The focus is on people who, through their familiarity, cause many new links (“linkerati”). If it is primarily about the social buzz that is to be generated, one can spread a lot “broader” when selecting and addressing target groups, since a lot of people are members of Facebook, Twitter and Co. In addition, it should be considered which process phase the potential customer is currently in. What is his level of knowledge? Is he doing research or does he already know what he wants? Was there already contact with the interested party? If so, in what way?

Seeding

So-called seeding is used to distribute the content adapted to the respective target group. This can be done via passive seeding, such as publishing the content on your own blog, providing social media buttons and RSS feeds, on-page SEO such as WDF * IDF-oriented texts and internal links, your own social media Media channels and newsletters. The focus here is solely on the attractiveness of the content in order to create a word-of-mouth effect (mouth-to-mouth propaganda).

Another option is active seeding. PR attempts to address opinion leaders directly and, if necessary, to use paid advertising such as search engine advertising (SEA) to place the content on non-company platforms. If it concerns target groups whose contact details are already available, they can be addressed directly for active seeding. This also applies to prospects and customers who are already in the downstream process phases.

Turn prospects into customers

Especially when the interaction phase has been concluded with a lead in the form of a specific request, there seems to be an interest and basic trust in the offer. The task now is to build on this trust. In addition, the advertising filter has been removed from the potential customer so that he is more receptive to advertising.

The final phase is the only stage in the inbound marketing process in which you should actively approach the potential customer, as he is already emotionalized in relation to the brand. This can be done through sales or advice by email or phone. This also applies to the use of classic push advertising such as display advertising, TV spots or print ads.

Turn customers into promoters

If you have been able to win the prospect as a customer, the obligation is fulfilled. But that does not mean lying on your lazy skin now. The customer has placed their trust in you. Now it is time to prove that he made the right choice. The customer has to be delighted again. However, this is a little easier than in the first process stage because the trust has already been won. The customer is open to the information and may respond by promoting the content or recommending it. In addition, in the best case scenario, the customer is now registered in their own information system via newsletters, the Facebook fan page, RSS feed, Twitter, etc. and can thus be reached for the upselling process – regardless of paid measures or channels to which there is no direct administrative access .

The all-purpose marketing weapon?

The content and inbound marketing hype is in full swing, but inbound marketing is not applicable across the board for every company and business model. Above all, the inbound marketing principle must be firmly integrated across departments in the company and lived daily. In many companies, this requires long-term rethinking and radical restructuring. In addition, over the years a large number of new marketing channels and sometimes very complex new marketing disciplines have been added that require a high degree of specialization (including SEO, SEA, web analysis or related areas such as conversion optimization). The trick is to identify the methods that are relevant for the respective project and to use competencies in the areas of creation,

A major task will be to relate the individual marketing measures to each other and to record the contribution of each individual measure to the overall project. Getting to grips with these amounts of data and interpreting them will give the job description of the marketing analyst new weight (keyword: big data), as every marketing discipline has so far cooked its own soup.

For some years now, search engines have been integrating relevant results from their niche search engines into the results of web search. The search results are expanded to include relevant multimedia elements such as images, videos or PDFs. Google calls this “Universal Search”. Special content types such as news, products or yellow pages are also displayed. If companies optimize these special media for the vertical niche search engines, they can generate additional traffic via the universal results.

There are a variety of search engines out there, Google’s web search is just one. There are also niche search engines which, as vertical search engines, cover special areas such as individual media types, industries or services. The three major search engines Google, Bing and Yahoo! offer vertical searches. In addition to web searches, Google also conducts vertical searches in the areas of video, news articles, products, images, places, scientific publications and books, among other things.

Universal Search: vertical search results in one place

With the launch of “Universal Search” in May 2007, Google integrated relevant results of its vertical searches into the search results page. The web search – previously actually a niche search engine exclusively for websites – is now becoming a universal search. The term “Universal Search” refers specifically to Google, while the terms “Blended Search” or “Enhanced Results” also refer to other search engines.

With the Enhanced Results, Google and other search engines are expanding their text results with multidimensional content from other media types. These include videos, images or PDFs. On the other hand, they summarize special content types and industries. This is the case with news, shopping results, yellow pages or the more recent hotel and flight searches.

Display depending on the type of search query

Which vertical search results Google integrates into Universal Search depends primarily on how closely they match the user’s intention of the search query. If a user is looking for instructions and explanations, videos or pictures are often found. If Google recognizes a regional reference, local search results are displayed . But the assignments are not always that clear. It is therefore advisable for website operators to check the potential of their universal search displays for the relevant keywords and to match them with the intention of the search query.

In December 2012, according to the Universal Search study by searchmetrics on Google, seven out of ten keywords led to a universal search result. The overlays of videos come first, followed by the results of the image search. Instead, shopping results, maps, and news are displayed less frequently.

Universal search types and their optimization

Universal Search is created by Google displaying various results from its niche search engines in the SERPs (Search Engine Result Positions). In order to be listed as a website in the extended results, good rankings in the vertical search engines are necessary. Only then does Google take the results into account when displaying the enhanced results. Website operators should therefore optimize the individual media types for their website accordingly .

Videos

Videos make up a large proportion of the advanced results. Search phrases in the context of previews, reviews, tutorials, instructions, tests or explanations lead to video results. Queries related to music or films also very often show video previews.

To optimize videos for Google video search , Google itself gives some advice . The main thing is to make it easier for Google to understand the content of the video. Ideally, there should only be one video on each page. Content that refers to the content of the video, suitable titles and awards via markups help Google to classify the video. A suitable preview image appeals primarily to the searcher. Where the video is hosted is also crucial for optimization. If a video is hosted on YouTube, Google is more likely to show it on Universal Search via the YouTube link. If your own website is the goal, it is therefore more advantageous to host the video on your own server.

photos

Google also frequently shows images on Universal Search. This can be within the web results or in the information box of the Knowledge Graph. The Knowledge Graph, introduced in 2012, bundles the most important facts in a central location, especially for informative inquiries (see figure).

When optimizing images, it is also important to convey the content and relevance of an image to Google. The ALT attribute, the image file name or the incoming links are important for this. The content in the immediate vicinity of the image also signals to Google which content can be found in the image. Images should therefore, at best, always be surrounded by content and not be in the sidebar.

Places / Local Results

Around five to ten percent of the keywords lead to Google Places entries. These are particularly important for regional providers and in the context of local SEO. A distinction can be made here between pure Places displays and the displays of organic hits with linked Places profiles. Using the search phrase “Keyword + Location” or the location determined, Google decides for which region it outputs the industry results as pure blocks of location overlays linked to Google Maps.

First, companies should claim and confirm their Google Places entry for optimization. By choosing the right business fields and providing an informative description, Google can better classify the business type. The ratings on Google Places and other connected rating portals also influence the ranking [8]. In addition, companies can optimize their own website for Places. The company name, the location and the industry should be used in the title, in the meta description and in the content. A focus should also be placed on this data in the off-page area. However, it is important to pay attention to naturalness and the correct use of the brand .

Shopping

Google Shopping is the vertical search engine for physical products. Google receives the data for the products by means of a feed via Google Merchant (formerly: Base), which the shops send to the search engine. In February 2013, Google switched this search to a paid model in the form of Product Listing Ads (PLA). This means that companies have to pay for the clicks on the displayed products, which Google does with a link to AdWords.

In order to increase the display for Google Shopping, on the one hand, optimization through AdWords is necessary. This includes bid optimizations. The product data from the Google Merchant Feed determine whether Google shows the advertisements with product information. This is why the content of this feed must also be prepared. This depends on the product names, the categorization and the description.

This information should also cover the long tail and individual product specifics as well as common terms that users use to search for the product. It is also important to ensure that it is complete and up to date. In contrast to other ad formats with AdWords, only this data leads to a display. Keywords do not affect delivery in the SERPs.

Universal Search Opportunities for Websites and Businesses

Google draws attention to vertical searches with the advanced results. Website operators also benefit from this type of listing. By contrasting web search results, users also look at those results more often. With the display of additional content types, websites can achieve a multiple listing. This increases their presence on the search results page. Companies that publish these media in particular also have the opportunity to attract attention and traffic away from the pure niche search engines.

The possibilities of individual advanced results depend in part on the type of business. Services that, like the Places entries, focus on individual industries, limit competition to the specified area and thus increase the chance of being displayed. Even in highly competitive web search areas, the vertical results form a niche in which websites can be specifically positioned. Individual extensions such as book searches, shopping or news already specifically limit the products offered. The shopping search is particularly suitable for e-commerce companies. News displays, on the other hand, bring valuable traffic, especially for news sites and magazines.

 

Which factors determine the click strength of an email? And which age groups are particularly interested in newsletters? A new study on the subject of email marketing answers these and similar questions.

E-Mail Marketing: Study examines usage behavior in relation to electronic mail

For a new study, 1,000 English-speaking e-mail users over 21 were asked about their e-mail behavior. In addition, several hundred million emails from HubSpot and Litmus customers were evaluated. The study gives us an interesting insight into the behavior of users of different ages and income groups. In some cases the responses were also broken down according to the gender of the respondents.

For example, women are less likely to use special e-mail accounts that are only there to keep commercial offers away from the owner’s actual e-mail account. Even if the difference is a little less than 10 percent, companies whose customers consist mainly of women have, at least in theory, a higher chance that their emails will be read.

Email marketing: Men tend to use special email addresses to protect their actual account from advertising.

Regardless of the age or gender of the recipient, however, many people use filters so that they don’t even have to see unwanted advertising in their inbox. This applies most to the age group between 18 and 29 years. Here the rate is 63 percent. However, at 49 percent, it is still comparatively high even among users over 60 years of age.

The study also dispels the myth that certain terms or special characters such as the dollar sign are automatically kept away from users due to common spam filters. Neither “free” nor “!” Or “$” in the subject line have any noticeable effect. In addition, there is some information in the study that should have a direct positive impact on your email campaigns. We’ll tell you what these are in the following paragraphs.

Email Marketing: 8 Tips for Successful Campaigns

1. Even if users don’t admit it, more images hurt the click rate

The study is a good example of the fact that the statements made by users do not always correspond to their actual usage behavior. Almost two-thirds of respondents said they would prefer marketing emails made up mostly of images. An analysis of usage behavior showed, however, that the click rate goes down significantly the higher the number of images.

2. The larger an image, the lower the click rate

Email marketing: The image size has an impact on the click rate.

Not only the number of images, but also the size has an influence on the click rate. The higher an image, the lower the click rate. The width, in turn, had a smaller influence on the click rate. Images should therefore tend to take up less space in the mail.

3. Users prefer HTML mail

64 percent of the surveyed users prefer HTML mail. It should be noted, however, that the same question was asked by the authors of the study back in 2011, and the results have hardly changed. Therefore, mails should still be optimized for both types of readers. The older semesters in particular still seem to prefer plain text e-mails to a large extent. It is even the preferred method from the age of 60.

4. Emails should be short and crisp

Text that is too long has a negative effect on the click rate. According to the study, the best emails were those whose content was between 300 and 500 characters long. It is therefore advisable not to annoy your own customers with texts that are too long and to get to the point quickly.

5. The subject line should also be kept short

As with the actual content of the mail, the subject line should also be kept short. Our article ” Newsletter Marketing: With Better Subject Lines for Higher Open Rates” provides further tips for better subject lines .

6. The term “newsletter” in the subject line leads to a lower click rate

According to the study, the click rate is reduced by around 30 percent if the term “newsletter” is in the subject line. The authors of the study also have an explanation for this. According to them, the word suggests that the mail was only sent because it was time for the newsletter, not because there was necessarily something new to report.

7. The sender should ideally consist of two words

The sender should consist of two words.

 

In addition to the subject line, email clients usually display the name of the sender. According to the study, it should ideally consist of two words, as this will statistically achieve the highest opening rate.

8. Optimizing e-mails for tablets is worthwhile, especially for the 30+ target group

The older the user, the lower the smartphone usage in terms of receiving e-mail. The fact that the age group from 30 to 44 years of age reads their e-mails on a tablet significantly more often than the age group from 18 to 29 years of age is probably more surprising. In fact, those up to 29 years old are the least likely to read their emails on a tablet. Optimizing e-mails on tablets is therefore primarily worthwhile for companies whose target group is 30 years or older.

The Medium publishing platform can also be used for marketing. We’ll show you what you should pay attention to.

Medium: The Democratic Publishing Platform

Medium was founded in 2012 by two Twitter co-founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone. In contrast to traditional blogging platforms, Medium functions very democratically in its own way. Decisive for the success of an article is not necessarily the number of Twitter followers or whether you are constantly producing new content, but only the quality of the article.

At least in the English-speaking world, this is ensured by an editorial team. She selects the best texts and presents the articles prominently on the page. In addition, algorithms should ensure that users see the best articles. Medium not only uses the number of clicks, but also takes into account whether the article was actually read. Lurid headlines like Upworthy or Heftig.co are therefore not enough.

In addition, users can create collections on specific topics themselves, which other users can in turn follow. At this point, however, it should be noted that Medium is still a primarily English-language platform and the number of German articles is comparatively small. Nevertheless, it could also be suitable as a field of experimentation for marketeers in this country, especially since the medium should still have some growth potential.

Advantages and disadvantages: Medium as a marketing channel

A big advantage of Medium over your own blog is that you are not constantly under pressure to produce new content. If you only want to write an article occasionally without having to concentrate on your own blog in the long term, Medium is an interesting platform for you. In addition, existing articles can be republished there, which can potentially increase your readership base.

In addition, thanks to the integrated analytics service, you can not only see how many people click on your articles or favorite them, but also how many people actually read the article in full. On the other hand, of course, you have no control over the platform and must first lure readers to your page via an additional link. Which is also the reason for this that many authors publish content that they have already published elsewhere.

Medium: The publishing platform is suitable for republishing content. (Image: Medium)

Medium and Marketing: This is how you use the platform

In the following we want to show you how your medium can best be used as a marketing instrument.

Publish content from your blog on Medium

As already mentioned, there is no shame in republishing existing texts on Medium. You can either republish the whole article, or you can do it like the fader and just publish an excerpt of the text. In this way you can also attract new readers directly to your blog.

Create a collection of articles on a topic that affects your company

In addition to your own articles, you can also put together texts from other medium authors in a collection, provided the topic is related to your industry. That way you can position your brand as an industry expert.

Also publishes visual content

Medium does not have to be used for long, in-depth articles. There are many examples of medium posts that consist only of images. You could also use the site to republish an interesting infographic of yourself. Ideally, this way more people will enjoy your work. It doesn’t cost you a lot of time and effort.

Always offer your readers added value

You should never forget that Medium is all about interesting content. You can publish a press release or purely advertising articles on your blog. Nobody on Medium will care. You should always deliver added value to your readers here!

Create a collection of your own articles

If you use the medium regularly, it makes sense to create a collection that only contains your own content. Readers will find your content faster and can be kept up to date on all new articles.

Put a link on your website or blog

At the end of your article or at a suitable place in the text, you should refer to your website or blog. You could also try a call-to-action like “Follow us on Twitter” or “Wear yourselves on our mailing list” at the end of the article. Don’t forget to use a tracking link so that you can measure your success.

Recommends posts that fit your industry

Users who follow you on Medium can see which posts you recommend. Use the feature to establish yourself as an industry expert and to be perceived as a source of good content.

Search engines instead of printed yellow pages, location-based mobile apps , check-ins in trendy cafés and shops – everyone is talking about local online marketing and appropriate marketing measures for local companies are inevitable. But how do you position yourself most effectively in local search results?

The need for local search engine optimization can be illustrated by a simple example: A person has had a toothache for two days. In order not to delay the problem, she enters “Dentist Frankfurt” in the Google search field. At this early stage, the person concerned does not yet have a clear idea of ​​which dentist to visit. First she would like to know which dentists are shown to her on Google.

But the search results are not as uniform as you know from conventional searches. In addition to one to three organic search results – some of which lead directly to the websites of different dentists, but some also refer to evaluation or industry portals – between three and seven inserted results are highlighted on the first Google results page and with location PINs from A. to G. What the search engine user sees here are the explicitly local search results, which Google adds to the conventional web results as a so-called “Universal Search” insert. These are subject to different ranking criteria than is the case with normal websites, and this example from everyday life already suggests

Optimize locally

Local companies basically have to use a “multi-channel” strategy in online marketing. Book Google AdWords? Offer vouchers at Groupon? Communication on Facebook? Recommendation marketing on KennstDuEinen? Actively tackle local search engine optimization? The answer to these questions is likely to vary depending on the service offered – local companies should ask themselves these questions in any case, because the area of ​​activity “Local Search Engine Optimization” includes different disciplines such as classic SEO, but also measures that are unique to local Segment can be applied. After all, consumers not only get to the information most frequently searched for when searching locally (telephone number, address, opening times) via the provider’s website,

Local SEO Roadmap

What could a strategic “step-by-step” roadmap look like for a local company in order to ensure more visibility on the web?

A sensible plan for structuring and prioritizing the local SEO activities should answer some important questions: Where does the company currently stand from the point of view of search engine optimization? Which SEO measures should be tackled with which priority? And how much effort does it take to be better positioned than the competition? Local search engine optimization can be divided into three phases:

1. Collect data and analyze competition
2. In-depth analysis and special research
3. Document measures and track metrics

Phase 1: Collect data & analyze competition

In the first phase, you identify search terms for which you want to be found in the web search. The prerequisite for relevant keywords is that users who search for these keywords actually make contact. Various means are available for this. In addition to an initial brainstorming session with pen and paper, the traffic and conversion data on your own website provide important insights. These are supplemented by the use of the Google AdWords keyword tool, Google Suggest and the “Related Searches” category at the bottom of the search results. Chargeable resources include Google AdWords campaigns with conversion tracking and keyword databases from providers such as Sistrix, SEO Diver, Searchmetrics or Seolytics.

The result of the keyword research is a list of search terms that are also sorted in descending order according to approximate search volume – a value that some tools provide from different data sources.

The identification of competitors in the Google search results in relation to the search terms researched is also very important. Competitors can be completely different companies than those that are part of the real economy. All kinds of blogs, news and question-and-answer portals or even spam projects may rank better than the company website – domains which from a business point of view do not actually represent competitors at all, but which, with a better ranking, may have relevant visitors from their own website “keep away”. The most important competitors are determined by searching on Google for the keywords researched, searching on Google Places or using fee-based ranking query tools.

Relevant ranking factors

In addition, it only makes sense to include those ranking factors that can actually be actively influenced. On the basis of the important expert survey “Local Search Ranking Factors 2012” initiated by David Mihm in the USA, the following relevant ranking factors for Google Places search results can be recorded:

• Optimization of the Google+ Local entry: verification, use of relevant categories, address and contact data consolidation, photos, additional information, link to the local Google+ page, collecting reviews – recently centralized with ” Google My Business “
• Optimizing the website: technical and structural on-site measures, off-site links, content optimization
• Local Citations: Update and expand company entries on relevant rating and industry portals
• Customer opinions: Number of reviews on the Google+ Local entry and on external review platforms
• Rating: Average values ​​of the ratings on all relevant portals

Phase 2: Analysis & Research

After creating an industry benchmark, the individual ranking factors should be examined more closely so that appropriate measures can be derived for implementation. The sub-areas of website audit, local citations, ratings and link building play an important role.

Website audit: on-site optimization

The creation of a website audit always makes sense from the point of view of search engine optimization. Regardless of whether this relates to the information architecture and usability, the internal link structure, simple HTML tags, meta information (robots tag, canonical tag etc.) or the content – there is almost always something to improve .

At the end, a list of the necessary on-site measures is the result of this work. On the basis of the on-site optimization, the effects of the other SEO measures also have a much more effective effect on the ranking of the website.

Local Citations: Creation of company entries on rating & industry portals

Local citations are an important component of local search engine optimization. These are company entries on industry portals such as yellow pages or rating platforms such as KennstDuEinen. Google crawls company information such as phone number, address or number of reviews and uses this as a ranking factor. It is important that a company presents itself everywhere on the web with the same company name, phone number, address and is entered in comparable, consistent industry categories.

Local citations also act as contact points for seekers. The following tools offer the possibility to find out more about the “status quo” of a local company on the web:

• Google search with company name “XYZ”
• Google search with “Industry + City”
• Local SEO tool Whitespark Local Citation Finder

A comprehensive, free whitepaper about local citations and how to use them for local search engine optimization can be found in the WinLocal Blog .

Reviews: Referral Marketing & Online Reputation

The importance of customer reviews cannot be overestimated. In addition to the positive effects on the local Google ranking (reviews on Google+ Local, reviews on rating portals), customer opinions that can be publicly read by users on the web play an important role in acquiring new customers and determine whether a company is User is contacted.

Local providers that do not actively take care of their online reputation are still rated by users. Therefore, one should actively take care of this aspect and motivate satisfied customers to post an evaluation on a relevant evaluation platform online.

The sheer number of user reviews is also an important ranking factor in a number of industries, in which both reviews directly on the Google+ Local entry and on relevant review portals are used to calculate Google’s ranking.

Link building: Link building for local search

Link building is an important aspect of local search engine optimization. However, you have to keep in mind that depending on the level of awareness of the local company, hundreds of arbitrary links are not necessary, but rather harmful.

Content marketing measures can be instrumentalized for “natural”, because voluntary, external linking: In a “de-commercialized zone” (e.g. blog), high-quality content that is extremely relevant for a local target group is posted on the company website are. Such information is often shared on social networks.

Phase 3: Documentation & tracking

In the last phase everything revolves around the documentation of the local SEO measures and the monitoring of relevant data points. However, the question arises, which metrics are worth actively being monitored at all?

Basic metrics for local search engine optimization

Number of local citations

Number of links

Number of linked domains

Number of Google ratings

Number of external ratings

Number of actively used external review portals

Number of relevant keyword rankings in Google search

Website traffic through organic google search

Website traffic through links

In addition to this data, which provides information about the effects of the local SEO measures on the visitor volume via search engines, it also makes sense to deal more closely with the conversions. After all, as an entrepreneur, you want to know how many contact requests the ongoing SEO measures actually lead to.

Therefore, the following applies: No reasonable success measurement without conversion tracking. There are a few rules to follow for measuring success:

• Measure channel SEM and channel SEO separately
• Phone calls received due to SEO and SEM actions are counted separately
• Evaluate contact requests using the website form
• E-mail inquiries from the website’s e-mail address count

In order to prove the success of the SEO measures, it is important to document the metrics before the start of a project. Only then is it possible to determine progress and to relate this to the individual measures of local search engine optimization. The benchmark with the competitors should also be repeated regularly. Based on the information collected, you gradually adapt your measures to the current conditions.

Conclusion

With Local SEO, smaller companies and service providers in particular have a powerful tool at hand to attract more potential customers to their own site. Anyone who does SEO anyway has less work to do when optimizing their own web presence locally. However, local SEO includes far more measures than classic search engine optimization.

A strategic local search engine optimization comprises three steps: Firstly, the research for relevant keywords, an analysis of the competitors based on the search results and the documentation of the initial situation before the start of the SEO measures. The second step is to analyze and research your own online presence. The compilation and observation of relevant SEO metrics only follow in the third phase.

With more than a billion users, Facebook is the largest social network in the world. B2B companies don’t want to miss this potential either. The following tips and best practice examples show which strategic fundamentals are important.

Originally intended as a communication platform for private users, Facebook has also been offering companies the opportunity to present themselves for a few years now: With pages, advertisements, locations, applications and much more. Contact with end customers (B2C) is therefore no longer new territory for social media managers. But what about communication between companies (B2B)? It works better than many think.

For a long time, many B2B companies concentrated more on pure business networks such as XING. The reservations about the mainly privately used social platforms are often still very high. But behind every company there are ultimately people who communicate with each other via networks such as Facebook – that is, who can be contacted by companies and excited about their products and services.

Online communication has also played an increasingly important role in the B2B sector in recent years. The fear of contact in this branch is decreasing, the positive experiences of the decision makers reinforce this trend.

Website and search engine marketing have already established themselves as essential pillars of marketing and in some cases even assume the leading function for further communication measures. The use of social media platforms has also increased significantly in the B2B area. Experts assume that this development will even intensify in the future. At almost 60 percent, Facebook is the most frequently used social media platform in the B2B sector .

Anyone who asks Tobias Ilg, who is responsible for social media at Liebherr-International Deutschland GmbH, gets this confirmed with practical experience: “Today we have been active in social networks for almost a year and we receive up to 30 inquiries about our products, service or career opportunities every day Facebook and YouTube. The volume of conversations about our group of companies has increased significantly on the social web, especially the positive traffic, ”explains Ilg. The strong growth of fans confirms his company’s social media activities, and a corresponding expansion is planned.

B2C versus B2B communication

Anyone who designs a corresponding communication strategy for the social web should also know the differences between B2C and B2B communication.

The structure of the target group

First of all, the target group of B2B companies is usually structured differently than in the B2C area. Depending on the orientation, a company addresses specialists and experts from the respective industry. Of course, this also has an effect on the conversations: The fans of a B2B Facebook page often ask very detailed questions or discuss subject-specific problems.

For a social media manager, this means that they should be very well networked in the company and have in-depth specialist knowledge. In this way he can quickly answer complex questions or refer to the right contact person in the company. In this way, the trust can be built up, which is essential as the basis for long-term business relationships and the usually higher investments in the B2B area.

The address of the fans

Another difference is the direct approach to B2B fans. For many B2C companies, it is customary to say goodbye to the fans. Decision-makers in the B2B area have to weigh carefully here. Many companies therefore do not use direct approach when posting to all fans. When communicating with individual fans, many companies heard them. With business partners or applicants in particular, it is important to keep a certain distance and not to communicate too confidentially too quickly.

Complexity of the content

Due to the complexity of the products or services, the B2B content for Facebook should be prepared very clearly. Professional images can help with visualization. But authentic photos of fans can also be used well to show the variability of a product. Important: B2B companies do not have to describe or explain all the details precisely. A B2B Facebook post should clearly convey the USP as a teaser, but the detailed information can then be found on the linked company website.

Interaction times

Studies show that Facebook fans interact with a fan page especially on weekends and evenings – regardless of the industry. In contrast, communication in the B2B area usually takes place during traditional business hours, i.e. Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. B2B companies should therefore not post important content on a Friday afternoon, as the interaction rate is likely to be lower outside of traditional office hours.

Of course, the differences between B2C and B2B communication cannot be generalized. Every company has a different range of services and thus a different target group. Companies should find out and address their habits and preferences individually.

Success criteria for the social media strategy

In order to develop a long-term successful strategy for a Facebook page or group, the goals must first be clear. These can vary greatly depending on the product and service. In the long term, corporate success is the top priority of most strategies. In the short and medium term, however, social media strategists should define specific and measurable sub-goals such as:

• Increase awareness of the company and the brand
• Maintain the image and generate branding effects
• Strengthen customer loyalty and support
• Support search engine optimization (social signals)
• Build a knowledge platform and a feedback channel
• Recruiting qualified personnel (employer branding)
• Generate traffic on the company website
• Increase customer inquiries and orders

Correctly delimit the target groups from one another

Depending on the goal, it is then a matter of defining the right target group and addressing them individually. Basically, there are five target groups in B2B communication: employees, applicants, (potential) customers, multipliers (e.g. journalists or bloggers) and other business partners (e.g. suppliers).

Many companies do not concentrate on one target group in their B2B Facebook communication, but address a combination of several target groups. Then when defining the measures, B2B companies should make it clear which target group has which priority and whether the focus of the activities is on a specific target group.

Perform analysis and monitoring

Before starting the derivation of the next steps, a social media manager should also explain their own industry (competitors, trends and much more) and their own company (such as strengths and weaknesses, budget, human resources, etc.) within the social Analyze the media environment. If you observe the competitors who are already active on Facebook, you will find it easier to assess relevant subject areas and the time required for community management.

With the help of social media monitoring, communication measures on critical topics can be prepared – an important prerequisite for being able to react quickly to negative Facebook posts from fans. Towards the end of the strategic considerations, the social media manager then has to derive the right measures, such as the postings, the integration of job offers via an application or the implementation of an employee competition.

When defining goals and developing a strategy, B2B companies should determine suitable key figures for the success of their Facebook activities. Because only with them can you actually determine the return on investment (ROI) for your social media activities and thus put your success in numbers.

Successful B2B communication in practice

The following two best practice examples show how B2B companies can use Facebook successfully. They exemplarily show how they can support their corporate communication and marketing as well as address junior staff. An article on t3n.de provides further examples .

ROPA Maschinenbau: Brand communication in good Bavarian style

The Lower Bavarian agricultural machinery manufacturer for harvesting, cleaning and loading (sugar) beets, ROPA, has been active on Facebook since 2011 and has over 17,000 fans here. Authentic and uncomplicated communication is particularly popular with (potential) customers.

For example, a product video explains the operation of a machine in Bavarian language and is a useful addition to the company’s services. The varied combination of company information and unusual photos from international locations shows that ROPA is a competent regional business partner.

Krones AG: Branding and recruiting as a regional employer

Krones AG is the world market leader for filling systems and a supplier of packaging systems. Since 2010, the company has now gained around 75,000 fans on Facebook. The Krones AG fan page is one of the larger B2B pages in the German-speaking region . Krones does an excellent job of presenting the dry topic in a varied way with pictures and videos.

In addition, users can take a look behind the scenes and get to know the employees of the large corporation. A trainee blog integrated in Facebook shows young people, for example, which daily tasks they can expect in an apprenticeship and thus also supports the company’s recruiting. This authentic communication conveys a personable image as a regional employer and also as a competent business partner.

Conclusion

Facebook is also an important and successful communication channel for customers and future employees in the B2B sector. The examples mentioned show this very clearly. However, Facebook is only one way of supporting a company’s online communication. A good website and search engine marketing should definitely be the basis of a comprehensive online marketing strategy that goes hand in hand with classic marketing activities.