Many of the social media tips we share—the ways to create a marketing plan from scratch, how to get more followers, how to get more clicks—often focus on the small business side of social media marketing.

Now imagine achieving social media success when the brand you’re trying to promote is you.

Personal branding on social media is a topic we’d love to dive into a bit deeper, starting with this overview of tips and strategies. I’m grateful to have found a number …

The post The 5 Keys to Building a Social Media Strategy for Your Personal Brand appeared first on Social.

Posted by ProfAlfonso

Being a digital marketer, I spend my day knee-deep in data. The time I don’t spend analysing it, I spend explaining its significance to a client or junior colleague or arguing its significance with a client or senior colleague.

But after many debates over the importance of bounce rate, time on site, mobile conversion rate and the colour grey for buttons (our designer partook in that last one), we’re never much closer to an agreement on significance.

Our industry is swimming in data (thanks Google Analytics), but at times we’re drowning in it.

Numbers without context mean nothing. Data in the hands of even the savviest marketer is useless without a context to evaluate its performance against competitors or the industry at large.

Which is why we need benchmarks.
Through benchmarking, marketers can contextualise data to identify under-performing elements and amplify what is over-performing. They can focus on the KPIs that are important, and recognise whether they are achievable.

Benchmarks also give context to those who aren’t familiar with data. One pain point that digital marketers face globally is communicating their performance upwards. There are very few ‘digital natives’ sitting in company boardrooms these days but plenty of executives who know their numbers inside out.

Industry benchmark data arms us with perspective and framework when we need to communicate upwards. It ensures we get pats on the back when deserved and additional budget released when required.

Google Analytics Benchmarking Reports

Google, you might argue, have already solved these problems.

The upgrade and roll-out of Google Analytics Benchmarking Reports has been met with plenty of excitement for these reasons. With its large data set and nifty options to chop up the data by geography and website size, for a minute it certainly seemed like the benchmarking of our dreams. And while we recognise its usefulness to benchmark against real-time data (comparing a surge of traffic from a particular location for example, or seasonal demands), it still left us short of the hard data insights we were looking for.

We wanted reliable KPI data that went beyond user behaviour. We wanted average conversion rates and average transaction values as well as ‘softer’ engagement metrics such as bounce rate and time on site.

Most importantly, we wanted to know which engagement metrics actually correlated with the conversion rate, so we could narrow our field of analysis and efforts in pursuit of a healthier bottom line.

Which is why we went out and got our own and generated this e-commerce KPI report.

Data and methodology

We analysed the 56 million visits and approximately $252 million (€214 million) in revenue that flowed through 30 participating websites between August 1, 2013 and July 30, 2014. The websites were in the retail and travel sectors and included both online-only and those with a physical store as well as an e-commerce site.

We averaged stats on a per-website basis, so that websites with high levels of traffic didn’t skew the stats. We had more retail participants than travel participants so the average e-commerce figures are not the midpoint between travel and retail but the average figure across all study participants. Revenue is attributed on a last-click basis.

Results

Here is a highlight of some of our most relevant and interesting findings. For all the data and results, download the full report on
WolfgangDigital.com.

Average KPIs: Bounce rate, time on site, and conversion rate

First, we calculated some averages across engagement KPIs and commercial KPIs. If you are an e-commerce website in the travel or retail business, you can use these numbers to evaluate how your website is performing when set against a broad swath of your industry peers.

Well, remember the conversion measured here is a sale. If your conversion rate is lower than the study average don’t fire your CMO straight away; check if your average transaction value (ATV) is higher. If they balance each other out you are all good – if they don’t, it’s time to start digging deeper. Does the 1.4% conversion rate give you a smug tingly feeling or a stab of panic?

We often break down conversion rate into two parts: website-to-basket and basket-to-checkout. Industry norms tell us expect about 5% CR on website-to-basket and 30% on basket-to-checkout. Check which one of these conversion rates is most out of kilter on your site, then focus your attention there. This exercise will often give greater visibility on where the hole in your bucket is, Dear Liza.

Another factor in this analysis is that online-only retailers tend to enjoy higher conversion rates as the consumer
must transact via the website. If you have an offline presence, a lower conversion rate comes with the physical territory as your site visitors may convert in store.

KPIs by device: Mobile under scrutiny

Next, we segmented the data by device: desktop, tablet and mobile.

We found that although mobile and tablet together accounted for nearly half of website traffic (43%), they contributed to just over a quarter of revenue (26%).

Mobile alone accounted for 26% of traffic but only 10% of revenue. This suggests that while mobile is a favoured device for browsing and researching, it’s the desktop where users are more likely to whip out the credit card.

When we looked at conversion rates by device, this confirmed it.

What data matters: The correlations

We wanted to know which engagement figures had an influence (if any) on commercial ones.

Then we’d know which behavioural metrics were worth trying to improve to lift conversion rate, and which metrics we could finally label insignificant.

We did this by calculating correlations. A correlation ranges from 0 to 1, so 0 indicates on no correlation at all, while 1 signifies a clear correlation. A negative correlation indicates that as one variable increases the other decreases.

Time on site (0.34) and pages viewed (0.35) both had positive correlations with conversion rate, so our advice is to look at how to improve these metrics for your site to benefit from a higher conversion rate.

We delved into the device data and found mobile was the only device with positive traffic (0.29) and revenue (0.45) correlations to overall conversion rate. In fact, that 0.45 correlation rate between mobile revenue % and conversion rate was actually the strongest correlation rate across all factors we measured.

We infer that while the mobile conversion rate is depressingly low, a mobile user is still somebody with purchase intent who is likely to convert later on another device. The lesson we took from this is to make sure your website is mobile-optimised, particularly for ease of research and browsing content.

Finally, the time came to talk about bounce rate. Our Excel wizard had converted the data to an ‘un-bounce rate’ (1 minus the bounce rate) for consistency with positive time on site and pages viewed metrics. We gathered round the spreadsheet.

He revealed
there is actually a negative correlation (-0.12) between un-bounce rate and conversion rate. This correlation signals that it couldn’t be less influential on conversion rate, so for those unable to sleep at night for bounce anxiety, we’re delighted to let you sleep easy.

Increasing your conversion rate may not be as complex a task as it seems.

Our KPI study shows that if you can increase pages viewed and time on site it will push up your conversion rate (content marketing for conversion optimisation anybody?).

We’ve also proved that mobile matters. Don’t be discouraged if your mobile conversion rate pales against desktop’s performance; keep driving mobile traffic and revenue (however minor) and you’ll see the difference in your bottom line.

Read the full results broken down by industry level by downloading from the Wolfgang Digital e-commerce KPI Study.

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This post originally published on May 15, 2013. We’ve updated it here with the latest, newest information, screenshots, and videos. 

The retweet function has been a favorite way of ours to give appreciation and acknowledgment to the tweets we love. And we’ve often wondered: What happens when we love a lot of tweets? Or when we find an awesome tweet at an odd hour?

Being able to schedule your retweets gives you an awesome opportunity to show your support and engagement for other …

The post How to Schedule Retweets to Share at the Perfect Time and Without Ever Flooding Your Followers appeared first on Social.

Posted by EricaMcGillivray

Slide decks are a powerful way to back up any type of presentation from team meetings and sales pitches to conference keynotes and workshops. We’ve all seen presentations with poor design that takes away from talks, and at worse, completely distracts the intended audience. However, most presenters aren’t graphic designers. Slide decks can be frustrating to build, and great slide decks help communicate what an audience needs to hear.

At Moz, I’ve had the pleasure of working with many speakers on their decks, whether for a 
biweekly webinar or for MozCon. And while you aren’t going to turn into a god of slide decks overnight, there are some easy ways to go from terrible to decent. Decent won’t get you heaps of praise for a deck, but it also won’t leave a sour taste in someone’s mind about your slide skills and will allow them to focus on what you actually have to say.

Here are seven simple tips to sharpen up any deck.

Download the checklist version to help you get started.

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Outline your way to success

While we all have different creative processes, I can’t recommend enough outlining your deck before you start in on the slide-building. This will help you focus. It will also let you organize the narrative of your presentation’s story.

I always refer to my outline as the “everything and the kitchen sink” version. It’s typically 2-3 times longer than my allotted time. But it helps me fine tune for the specific audience and make sure tactics (or my message, if not a how-to) stand out.

For example, a few months ago, I gave a social media 101 talk at a burlesque conference. My initial draft and brain-dump outline was way too long, and I quickly realized I could make easy cuts by removing advanced tips. I thought they were cool, but my audience was going to lose me. The tips would’ve taken away from the presentation.

Make better presentations by outlining them.

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Get readable fonts and font sizes

Use legible fonts. I know they can be boring, but that’s better than most of the audience being frustrated by not being able to read your slides. There are plenty of great free fonts if you hate Times New Roman, Arial, or Calibri, and typographers have put together cheat sheets for matching common font types with each other.

Even at conferences like MozCon where there are two 16-foot (4.8 meters) high screens, font size is still an issue. For legibility, even for the back of the room, we recommend speakers do not use lower than a 36pt font. Or no one will be able to read it.

Ideally, 48-60pt font should be your smallest range, depending on the font. Let’s face it, not all of your audience will have perfect vision.

Extra font tip: If you are using any non-standard fonts, please send the fonts to the conference organizer along with your slide decks. Or send a PDF. Fonts are embeddable in most slide deck software, but it’s best to make it easy.

For presentations, use a font no smaller than 36pt and, ideally, 48-60pt.

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Keep important information away from the sides and bottom

Often times, projectors don’t line up perfectly, and there’s nothing more distracting than your words slightly sliding off screen. This is also something you can’t check beforehand at most events. So add a little padding on either side.

Additionally, unless you’re on a very tall stage, put a buffer at the bottom. Even with the raised stage of MozCon, if speakers put text or other important information near the bottom, the heads of the people in closer rows will block it. I recommend putting repetitive branding, such as your company logo or your Twitter handle there.

For assistance, here’s an example widescreen template for
PowerPoint, Keynote, and PDF that blocks off where images and text should be in your presentation.

Avoid putting important info too close to the sides or bottom of your slide decks.

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Add the conference hashtag

Marketers love to tweet. I recommend that you put both your own Twitter handle and the conference hashtag on every slide to help facilitate the love. The bottom of the slide is a great place for it.

Marketers love Twitter! Don’t forget to add the conference hashtag to your presentations.

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Ditch “about me” and promotional slides

Never spend more than one very condensed, slightly fun slide about yourself, and never spend more than 30 seconds on it.

A good emcee or moderator will introduce you based upon the bio you submitted with some other information from social media stalking. They’ll toot your horn. They’ll tell the audience why you’re qualified to be speaking on this topic.

If you’re presenting before clients or a small audience, who may not know you, keep it short and sweet. And if everyone knows you, no need to include it.

An audience wants you to dive right into the good stuff. If you impress the audience with your presentation, they’ll be hunting you down. And hopefully, they can do this easily because you’ve added that information to your slides. Also, a thank-you ending slide with your contact information is always a nice gesture.

Dive right into the good stuff and ditch “about me” slides to earn audience respect.

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Kill those bullet points

Rarely are bullet points a good idea for your slides, unless you are making a true list. If you find yourself spending any time explaining points, it’s definitely time to break them up.

Audiences will read slides before they listen to speakers. Bullet points typically leave slides copy-heavy and speakers ignored. At least for however long it takes for someone to read the slide. Reviewing your outline is a great way to determine if those bullet points need their own slides before you start practicing your talk.

Okay, how do you break up those bullets? Let’s say you have five items on your list. Time to turn them into six slides. Slide #1: put down your list’s title, e.g. types of social media metrics to track. (Bonus points if you use a font or style signaling that you’re transitioning into a deeper dive.) Slide #2: the first bullet, e.g. conversation engagement. Slide #3: the second bullet, e.g. applause engagement, and so on until your list is exhausted.

Bullet points kill slide decks. Learn more about how and why you should remove them.

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Planning anything beyond static slides? Loop in the event organizers

If you are doing anything beyond just slides—video, audio, musical production, live polling, audience participation, etc.—sync up with the conference organizers well in advance. They want to make sure you look good. Additionally, they may need to order extra equipment or do testing beforehand. And if they say no, be respectful.

If you’re trying to explain on-stage to an audience that cool thing you had planned but technical issues prevented you, you’re spending a lot of their trust in you (not to mention their attention spans) for nothing. Make sure the flashy fun works and make sure it enhances your presentation.

Making your slide deck multimedia? Contact event organizers pre-show.

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Print, pin, or share this checklist. 
Download the high-resolution PDF or snag the image below:

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Always keep learning more

Brilliant presentations and their accompanying decks are an art form in their own right. This tips will only take you so far. Besides practice, experience, and getting help and feedback, there are a ton of resources out there to help you improve. Here are some of my favorites:

Books:

• HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations by Nancy Duarte
• slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations by Nancy Duarte
• Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences by Nancy Duarte

Articles:

• How to Give a Killer Presentation by Chris Anderson, curator at TED
• How to Become a Confident Public Speaker by Matthew Capala
• The Evolution of My Public Presentations by Rand Fishkin
• The Making of SearchLove by Mack Fogelson
• Too Busy To Succeed: How I let ‘busyness’ make me choke at MozCon by Adam Audette (make sure to read comments too!)
• 11 Things To NEVER Say In A Presentation by XCamilleWong
• Presentation Horrors: Don’t Do These Things by Ian Lurie
• Being a MozCon Community Speaker: A Look Inside by Zeph Snapp

Videos:

• TED: The secret structure of great talks by Nancy Duarte
• 8 Rules for Exceptional Slide Presentations – Whiteboard Friday by Rand Fishkin
• 30 Tips for Awesome Presentations – Video and Slides by Ian Lurie

Best of luck!

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don’t have time to hunt down but want to read!

One of our favorite ways to improve our results on social media is to try new things. We dream up a new idea or research a possible change in strategy, we test it out, and we see what happens.

The testing phase is one of the most important stages for us—not only the “what to test” but also the “how to test.”

We’re grateful to have learned some helpful lessons about testing best practices as well as a host of ideas of …

The post 10 Unique Ideas to Test on Every Social Media Channel (And How to Tell What Works) appeared first on Social.