Last year we filmed this short interview with our Social Media trainer Claire, and we’ve just found it on the iMac and thought we’d share it with you all!
Clare has tons of experience running Social Media campaigns for a wide range of clients, and her points are as relevant now as they were then.
There’s never any guarantee that what you publish will go viral (trying to ‘plan’ viral content is notoriously hard) – but if you follow some of the tips in here and consistently publish content that people will want to share, and is relevant to what you do – you might just hit on a gem
The video’s a bit rough and ready (filmed on our good old Flip camera!) – but there’s some good tips here.
A full transcript is below:
Tips for Creating Viral Content and Linkbait – Transcript
Colin – Hello, we’re here with our Social Media trainer Claire who has just finished today’s training, so we’re going to ask her a few questions. (Claire seems to be muttering something – probably sarcastic – under her breath at this point – if any lip readers out there can tell us what it is please e-mail in!) Have you got any tips on getting content out there so that it goes viral?
For percentage symbol you need to use the character viewer. If this is not shown in the menu at the top right of your screen you will need to enable it.
You can get a free @facebook.com address by going go to your Messages view in Facebook and clicking the Claim your Facebook email link. Your facebook email will automatically be your profile username. (Note you cannot set these up for Fan pages but you can for Group Pages and Personal Profiles)
Your email address will match your public username. Once it is registered you cannot change it.
If you don’t have a username yet, or someone else has already registered that email address, you will be prompted to choose one when you create your email address.
Once you have set up your Facebook email address, anyone can email you using any type of email account, and the emails get delivered to your Facebook Messages, just like an email inbox.
When you send messages to other peoples email addresses, the emails are formatted to look like Facebook messages, which include your name, your profile picture along with your message.
Why do you want a Facebook Email?
We haven’t quite worked that one out yet! However, if I were you I’d register it anyway so that you secure the name you want, than when you find out what to do with it let us know.
Silicon Beach Training provide a host of SEO Training courses and Social Media Courses.
What is ?fb_xd_fragment= in Google Analytics Results
Some of you will be seeing this strange code in your Google Analytics if you have the Facebook Like button on your web pages. This is because of a bug in Facebook’s new JavaScript SDK – the platform behind XFBML versions of the Facebook Like button.
It’s a problem because it causes Google to see duplicate content across your site, something that Google doesn’t like and can effect your ranking. It also makes your Google Analytics look like you have thousands of new fans returning two page views every time a user views a page. The ?fb_xd_fragment= versions of the urls that Google indexes also lead to blank pages. So all in all not good for your ranking or your Google Analytics.
How to fix the ?fb_xd_fragment= bug
Firstly you will need to prevent Google from indexing these duplicate pages with the weird facebook code – (the fb_xd_fragment versions of your pages) .
Go to Google Webmaster Tools (GWT)
Go to the Google’s webmaster dashboard for the domain you want to edit
Expand the Site Configuration Menu menu and click Settings
We shot this short video interview with Claire Stokoe (@killer_bunnie) last year, and then forgot about it!
We discovered it lurking on the office iMac this week and decided to unleash it! Claire explains why Brand Monitoring using Social Media is so important – and gives some great tips on how to do it. A full transcript of the video is below.
Have you invested in search engine optimistation? Are you pulling potential customers into your site using Social Media? Are your pages now doing well in Google. Yes? Well done! Now take a look at the bounce rate and the time users spend on your site once you have got them there. If your bounce rate is high and your users are leaving quickly there’s still work to be done.
If you are not ranking so well in Google, don’t know what your bounce rate is or haven’t started your Social Media Strategy yet – then maybe you should enrol on our SEO training, Social Media Training and Google Analytics training courses in Brighton, Sussex.
Now with Google instant previews landing page optimisation is even more important. Google Instant Previews often shows images of pages that rank in the SERP (search engine results page). Decisions about the value of a link or site will be made based on the look and feel of a page before they even click. Keep in mind that Flash isn’t supported by Google Instant Previews.
What is a Landing Page?
A landing page is a page on your site that a user is brought to when they click on a link, online ad or any other entry point.
What is a Conversion?
What you want a user to do once he or she reaches a page is called a conversion. This forms the basis for landing page optimisation.
A conversion can be:
A user filling out a form
Downloading something
Buying something
Signing up for a newsletter
In fact a conversion is any action you want your users to take. A microconversion can be something like a click to the next page or time spent on the page this can help you identify which part of the conversion funnel could be improved.
What is Landing Page Optimisation?
Landing Page optimisation begins with tests conducted in a controlled environment. The web developer makes tweaks to the look, layout and positioning of elements on a page, image changes, content changes, call to action changes, headline and title changes etc. in order to influence the ‘conversion’ (user behaviour).
The first step is to choose the landing pages that are most important to your business. Take a look at Google Analytics. Which pages drive the most traffic or conversion already? These pages would be a good place to start.
Now it is time to start testing. One type of testing is called A/B split testing. You need to create two different versions of a Web page. You can do this either at the same time, tracking visitors by IP address so no one visitor receives the same landing page twice, or you can test one page at a time for a specified duration. It is possible to do A/B testing using Google Website Optimiser. See video below:
Another type of testing is called multivariate testing. This is best done after your initial A/B tests. Multivariate testing allows you to test multiple elements within a landing page, and conduct more detailed analyses of these elements to see what creates a successful page.
google heatmap show the hotspots on a web-page
Google’s heat map
A Heat Map shows the most likely areas of a web page to produce click throughs this example was developed by Google for its AdSense program.
Dark Orange – the hottest area of a web-page.
Orange – areas next in importance for visitors.
Yellow - areas of moderate interest .
White – areas with little or no activity.
Grey – neutral areas.
Consumer Behaviour
When people are looking to buy a product online they spend time researching the product first. They then decide on a handful of sites from which to make their purchase. One small change on a landing page can affect your conversion rates. These changes can include:
Shape of buttons
The grouping of related elements
The color scheme – particularly contrast
Color of elements
Size of elements
Speed of page
Legibility
Layout
Alignment
Suggested Benefits
Call-to-action
Types of questions you ask in a form
Confidence building – testimonials and client recommendations
Customer Incentives
Offers are becoming more and valuable for Internet marketing and landing pages. Be specific – the more specific the offer, the higher the response rate.
One of the first things people want know once they have downloaded WordPress and set up their database is how to change WordPress themes. It’s important to look different and whilst free themes are not exactly original there are hundreds of free themes out there to choose from so you can choose one to suit your style.
If you would like to learn more then come along to our fantastic WordPress Training in Brighton, Sussex, you could also brush up on your blog writing skills with our Blogging Training or try a Photoshop Course .
WordPress has made this process really simple by providing a built in theme system. It’s possible to install and activate a theme in minutes, honestly! It’s so much simpler than trying to design a website from scratch!
The first step in learning how to change a WordPress theme is to download and add a new theme. You will have to have give WordPress your FTP details first (that is the server name, user name, and password you will have used to upload your wordpress site to your host) you will only need to do this once, click here to read more about uploading your WordPress site using FTP
To install a free WordPress Theme from the Internet
Type “free WordPress theme” into Google and you will be inundated with choices.
First download the theme from the Internet.
In the appearance section click “add new” at the top of the page
Click Upload
WordPress will then ask you where it is located on your computer. . .
Select the file you downloaded, it will automatically upload the theme to the proper directory on the server where your site is hosted.
Alternatively you can use the built in search function in WordPress -
All you need to do is click on the add new theme link which is found when you selct the appearance section in the WordPress sidebar.
Click the Install link by whatever theme you wish to use. . .
Finally you need to know how to change the WordPress theme that your blog is currently using. This is called activating the theme.
Click on the themes tab in the WordPress navigation menu.
Click the activate link found by the theme you wish to use. WordPress will automatically activate the theme and make it live on your website. That is it! .
Every SEO Person Needs This in their Link-Building Toolkit
Link building is the process of trying to manipulate the inbound links that are directly aiming towards a site. It is an essential part of an SEO campaign but a lot of SEO people do not use or have the essential tools to do the job properly and thoroughly. Even so, the people with the right tools still don’t use them to their full potential and are making life difficult for themselves.
If you want to learn more about building your own spreadsheet then take our Excel Training course ( we also offer advanced excel training), also if you want to learn more about Search Engine Optimisation, then try our SEO Training course in Brighton, Sussex.
I have created an Excel document and a Word document to help you with your link building campaign. The Excel document includes different worksheets with different lists in to enter your data as you go along. For data entry, Excel will always be a useful tool to use as it allows you to switch from cell to cell while entering data with ease.
Normally, link building is an on-going practice and from time to time it can get boring and repetitive, but if you keep it all organised then you will find it a lot easier. Also, if you need to get someone else to do the link building for you, with these resources, you can easily pass on what you have done and they can just pick up where you left off.
One of the first things people want know once they have downloaded WordPress and set up their database is how to change WordPress themes. It’s important to look different and whilst free themes are not exactly original there are hundreds of free themes out there to choose from so you can choose one to suit your style.
