How Users Interact With Brand Pages On Twitter [STUDY]

By Lauren Dugan at Media Bistro:
When Twitter launched brand pages for select partners in December, there was a lot of fanfare. And now that the hype has died down, there’s a new study that explores just how people are reacting to these newly branded corporate Twitter pages.

SimpleUsability examined all of the 21 initial Twitter brand pages that launched in partnership with Twitter in December. The first batch of brand to create these new Twitter pages include Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Staples and HP.
The new brand pages allow for a custom header, a “pinned” tweet that can include multimedia like a video at the top of the page, and several other smaller changes that separate them from the regular profile page on the new Twitter layout.
The study examined the 21 initial brand pages and how they were effective (or not effective) at courting engagement. The researchers tracked eye movement in order to see how users interacted with the various pages.
One of the biggest problems with brand pages that the study found is that – unlike with Facebook brand pages – a user rarely needs to visit a brand’s page on Twitter once they are following that brand. So, after a follow, the actual brand page becomes less than useful to the user – and therefore to the brand itself.
However, the SimpleUsability study did find that those brand pages that did succeed had a more human than corporate feel, and included some multimedia or discounts for their visitors.
Here are some other key takeaways from the study:

• Custom header images work best when they direct users how to interact with the page
• Using the custom header purely as an advertisement causes users to skip over it and focus on the pinned tweet
• Contests and promotions highlighted in the custom header worked well, but the lack of clickability caused some confusion
• The pinned tweet needs to take advantage of multimedia by including a picture or video
• Incorporating the same message in the custom header and the pinned tweet was received well by users
• Video is a big draw for users, attracting their attention instantly

You can read the full brand pages study from SimpleUsability here.

How to use Google Analytics to Drive more Traffic to Your Website

Via 1stWebDesigner.com:There are probably thousands of articles on the web talking about Google Analytics, such as how to use the free reporting tool, how to set up Google Analytics for your website, and what Google Analytics reports you can take advantage of. This is all great information, especially for novice website designers. What I think is missing is the most critical piece of information, which is “How do I analyze these Google Analytics reports in order to actually make impactful changes to my website?” In this article we are going to answer that question, as well as, provide you with some examples of taking certain data from Google Analytics, analyzing it, and then using it to make changes to your website and/or website marketing.

 

Analyze Your Website on a Quarterly Basis

Tools like Google Analytics allow you to check your website traffic data as frequently as you’d like. I definitely recommend keeping an eye on your Google Analytics reports daily or weekly. With that said, we all know that checking your reports and actually taking time to analyze them are two different tasks. This is why I recommend that every website owner take a full day each quarter to analyze their reports and implement any needed changes to their website based on what the data is showing.

What Website Data should I be Paying Attention to?

 

It’s easy to get lost in Google Analytics. There is SO much data that you can analyze. Not only is there a ton of data, but the ways in which you can slice it up seem almost endless. Every website owner is going to have different reports to focus on, but there are a few main data points that all website owners should be aware of during their quarterly reviews:

• Traffic Sources – Keywords: Knowing which keywords are driving the most quality visitors to your website is crucial. You can begin optimizing more of your website around these keywords in order to capitalize on those searches.
• Traffic Sources – Referring Sites: Understanding which websites are sending the most quality traffic to your website will allow you to focus more effort and time on those sites, and less of your time on under performing websites, moving forward.
• Visitors Overview: How much of your website traffic is new visitors versus returning visitors? Knowing this might help you phrase content different or run certain marketing programs geared towards one type of visitor versus the other.
• Content Overview – Top Pages: Having an idea of what pages are performing best will tell you what content your visitors are interested in. Produce more of that!
• Visits: What days do you have the most traffic to your website? Knowing what days visitors are coming to your website allows you to publish new content or launch promotions on those days in order to capture the most attention.

Now that we have an understanding of some of the most important reports to analyze for your website, let’s dig into each of them to provide examples on how you can use the data to make real impactful changes to your website and website marketing.

Spend more Time on the Websites that Refer the most Traffic to Your Website

 

Knowing which websites (or social media channels) around the web that are referring the most traffic to your website is critical. As a website owner you only have so much time in the day to market your site. It’s best to use that time wisely. Follow these steps in order to analyze your traffic sources and make impactful changes to your website marketing:

1. Go into your Traffic Sources report within Google Analytics and review the Top Referring Sites data
2. Ask yourself, are these the websites that I assumed would be near the top? Are these the websites I’m spending the most time using in order to drive traffic to my website?
3. Start trying to figure out why some sites are near the top of this list, while others are near the bottom. Perhaps one of the websites near the top is a site that you recently wrote a guest blog article for. Contact the owner of that site and see if you can write another article for them.
4. Is LinkedIn outperforming Facebook? If so, you may want to tweak the amount of time you spend on both social media sites, with more time being devoted to LinkedIn next quarter instead of Facebook. This strategy can be repeated for all social media sites that you use.
5. Is Banner Ad ‘A’ outperforming Banner Ad ‘B’? If so, perhaps you want to cancel Banner Ad ‘B’ and ask for more space on the website that’s hosting Banner Ad ‘A’.
6. Is there a website that you don’t recognize that’s currently sending a lot of traffic to your website? Reach out to the owner of that website and see if you can partner with them in some way in order to capitalize even more on all of the traffic they are sending your way.

Using the Referral Sources report in Google Analytics will help you become more efficient with your marketing time and more effective at driving traffic to your website.

Run a Contest for New Visitors, Say ‘Thank You’ to Returning Visitors

Analyzing your Visitor Profile through the Visitors Overview report in Google Analytics will let you know how much of your traffic is composed of ‘New Visitors’ and how much of your traffic is composed of ‘Repeat Visitors’. You want to encourage new visitors to become return visitors, as well as, continue to attract even more new visitors. Here are a few ways that you can take your data from the Visitors Overview report and actually use it to improve your website:

• Post some sort of a ’Thank You’ message somewhere prominent on your website for returning visitors OR send out the periodic ‘Thank You’ email to your email list just letting your supporters know you appreciate them.
• Do you have an e-Commerce website? Give repeat customers a discount on their next purchase.
• Create a ‘FAQ’ page to help new visitors quickly understand your website and how to use it
• Make the ‘Contact Us’ page as prevalent as possible in case new visitors have questions and need to contact you
• Create a survey for returning customers to capture information that you think will help you provide more value to them in the future
• Run a contest to encourage new customers to get engaged with your website/brand

 

Produce More of the Content Your Visitors Like

 

Understanding what content is resonating with your visitors will help you come up with new content topics for the next quarter.

1. Go into the Content Overview section of Google Analytics and navigate to the Top Pages report
2. Find the top 5-6 pages visited over the past 3-6 months
3. Think about what information is displayed on each of those pages and determine what information the majority of your visitors are looking for
4. Develop a Content Plan for the next quarter, comprised of topics that you think are most relevant based on your findings above. A few ideas might be:

1. Write blog articles around popular topics
2. Focus social media efforts in promoting those top pages or discussing those top topics
3. Write an eBook expanding on some of those topics that your visitors are finding valuable
4. Shoot YouTube videos around those topics and embed them into your Top Pages

Producing more of the content that your visitors are finding valuable will keep them coming back, get them to share your website with their friends, and attract new visitors.

Publish New Content, Contests, and General Website Updates on High Traffic Days

Are the weekends a popular time for your website or do most people visit your website during the week? Knowing what days are high traffic days for your website and what days are low traffic days for your website allows you to be much more strategic in regards to publishing new updates to your website. By analyzing the Visits report in Google Analytics you can see which days seem to generate the most traffic. Make a list of your high traffic days and then start taking advantage of those high traffic days in the following ways:

• Publish blog articles on those days
• Begin and end contests on high traffic days
• Spend time on social media during those days
• Publish events to your website
• Make architecture or functionality updates on low traffic days

Knowing when, and when not to, publish new information to your website can drastically alter the number of views your new updates receive. Be smart about when you publish new content, news, events, etc. Use the Visits report in Google Analytics as your guide.

Turn Google Analytics Reports Into Impactful Changes for Your Website

Google Analytics is great. The website data provided by Google Analytics can help website owners learn a ton about their website. With that said, unless website owners take time to review and analyze their reports on a regular basis, and then take time to use that data to make changes to their website, they are missing out on the biggest advantage that Google Analytics provides. Google Analytics provides you with a blueprint for giving your visitors what they want, when they want it. Be sure to take advantage of that.

 

 

 

INFOGRAPHIC: Facebook Beats Twitter In Video Sharing By A Landslide

By Megan O'Neill at SocialTimes: 
How do you engage with online video?  Do you watch more online video on your computer, tablet or mobile device?  How and where do you share online video content?  A new infographic from Wistia, with data from a quarterly Ooyala report that analyzed the viewing behavior of over 100 million users, explores these questions and more.

‘Movies on the Move’ explores video engagement on desktops vs. tablets and other mobile devices.  According to the infographic (and Ooyala’s report), “more people watch online videos on their mobile devices than non-mobile ones.”  Key findings reporting on the infographic are as follows:

• Mobile viewers have more patience – nearly 40% of mobile viewers watched three-quarters of a long-form video while only half as many were engaged that long on their desktops
• iPhone is the most popular mobile device for watching videos (71.8%) followed by Android Mobile (21.2%)
• For each minute of video watched on a desktop, 1 minute and 17 seconds are watched on a tablet
• Facebook beats Twitter in video sharing – For ever 1 video shared via Twitter, 19 videos are shared on Facebook in Taiwan, 17 in Italy, 13 in Australia, and 9 in the United States

Check out the full infographic below to find out more and let us know what you think.  Are you surprised by these statistics?  Share your thoughts with us in the comments

Google's Free 64-Language Translator App Comes to the iPad

By Jon Mitchell at ReadWriteWeb:
Google updated the Google Translate iOS app today adding iPad support. It's the same set of features as the iPhone version, but the iPad is a great place for a free translator. Technophiles are reading more on tablets lately, and a free Google Translate app is a boon for a more literate, global wired society.
Google Translate has been available on the iPhone since the mobile Web version launched in 2008. The native app released last year added the voice-to-text feature as well as the spoken translations from Google's voice synthesizer. As one should expect, the translations are never perfect, but they're great for getting the gist.

The iPad UI is the slightest bit strange. When you paste text into the box, it scoots up, so the language choice buttons go away. You have to pull it down from a very thin tab to get it back (or hit cancel and start over). There's also no 'Translate' button, only 'Go' on the keyboard. There's plenty of room for that under the voice-to-text button, so let this be a humble, simple feature request.
But that's all very nitpicky. I have no right to complain about an app that will translate text into 64 different languages, many of which it will read aloud to you, for free. The future rocks.
Download Google Translate for iOS from the App Store.

4 Online Secrets for Getting Amazing Flight Deals

By Samantha Murphy at Mashable: 
The best time to travel each year is during January and February, as flight prices plummet after the holiday season when consumers try to cut back on spending. So for those not burnt out from holiday travel and can spare some extra change, the Internet is bursting with great flight deals.
“People are spent and traveled out, and there aren’t as many destinations that are desirable for mid-winter travel since a lot of the bigger cities in the U.S. are experiencing colder weather, such as Boston, Chicago and even Atlanta,” George Hobica, founder of AirfareWatchdog, told Mashable. “Airfares are always lowered from about now until Mid-February, when the school vacations start up – with the exception of some higher fares around Martin Luther King weekend.”

1. Look for Airline Tweets

A low fare could pop up at any minute of the day or week, so shop around, follow tweets — because the best deals, even if they’re good for travel over a long period, last only a few hours — and be prepared to go wherever it’s cheap rather than where you can’t afford, Hobica advises.

2. Sign Up for Alerts

First, sign up for AirFareWatchDog’s fare alerts and email newsletter that sends cheap flight deals based on your home airport. Most domestic deals are under or around $200 – and some right now are so low, it’s mind-boggling. A roundtrip trip to Chicago from New York, for example, could cost as little as $54 and you’ll find airfare to Florida for less than $100.
In addition, non-stop, round-trip flights from New York to Istanbul on Turkish Airlines are unusually inexpensive ($565), including taxes, and that fare has been steady for a few months. Other popular deals include a non-stop roundtrip flight to Liberia, Costa Rica under $400, taxes included, on JetBlue’s new service route.’

3. Let Web Sites Do Your Legwork

Another site worth checking out is SkyScanner, which is perfect for flexible travelers. By typing “everywhere” into the destination search and selecting when you want to travel, the site reveals the cheapest options out there – from New York, fares to the Caribbean right now are under $300 and there’s even an option to Ireland in the $400 range.
Kayak also lets you search “everywhere” through its Explore feature, which shows on a map the prices to fly to certain destinations.

4. Know When — Exactly — to Buy

While searching for deals, remember that traveling on a Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday are the cheapest days to fly, while Friday and Sunday are the busiest travel days and the most expensive. The most cost-efficient time to fly is also first thing in the morning and red-eyes, according to FareCompare.com, followed by lunch time and dinner-hour flights.
The best time to purchase an airline ticket, however, is Tuesday at 3 p.m. ET, as discounted flights hit the sites. Most of these specials are pulled by Thursday, FareCompare said.
The deals are good, but not the best ever. Rock-bottom airfare is actually slightly higher this time of year than it’s been in the past, according to Hobica. For example, a standard roundtrip fare from New York to Los Angeles this time of year usually costs about $198, but it’s priced at $238 now. Even so, the route is significantly less expensive than it was just a few weeks ago during the busy holiday-travel season when it inched close to $500.
International airfare is also more pricy thanks to mergers and less seat availability.
“Airlines are getting better at making use of their planes when they can to make the most money – some such as Delta were flying domestic routes usually reserved for 757 aircraft with larger 767 planes reserved for Europe,” Hobica said. “Since European traffic was soft and certain domestic routes were strong, it made sense for them to take this approach but it cuts back on seat availability for the European travel and doesn’t help the price.”
But all is not lost. You can still get great deals now and all year round by putting in a little time (and using a little strategy) to get what you want.