Randall Craig, Social Media, Social Networking, Speaker, Associations, Business, Consulting

Marketing Insight: When Users Defect

by Randall on January 31, 2012

Filed in: Blog, Blogging, Make It Happen Tipsheet

Tagged as: Advertising, google, Platform, Technology

Have you labored over your blog, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter for years, only to suddenly find a huge drop in your traffic?

As managers begin to probe the Return on Social Media Investment, an unexpected reversal is frustrating – and can have direct impact on the organization’s brand… and those responsible for it.

Determining the reasons for an abrupt change requires some detective work. For a blog, here are just a few of the possible reasons for a drop:

Another site that linked to yours no longer does.
You may have been dropped from a blogroll.
Because your content is duplicated on several pages throughout the internet, Google may be penalizing your search engine ranking.
Google is now increasing the weighting for the searcher’s location – if your content is hosted “far away”, this may be hurting you for a segment of your audience.
You’ve changed the domain of the blog, or you’ve changed the way the URL paths are coded.
The writing style on your blog has changed, and your readers don’t like it.
You’ve changed topics slightly, and your blog no longer appeals to certain readers… or to certain web sites: you may have lost both readers and links.
The blog design has changed, and people don’t like it.
You are now using too many (or too few) pictures.
The physical server your blog is hosted on is overloaded, resulting in a too-slow page load.
You’ve added more plug-ins, which have slowed your site even further.
The growing segment of mobile users don’t like your mobile interface.
A new smartphone or tablet was released, and your blog doesn’t take advantage of the platform.
A new version of a browser has been released, and your blog looks terrible on it.
The online advertising strategy (or spend) has changed, and fewer users are drawn to the blog.
The blog’s URL is no longer featured in off-web advertising, collateral, or communications.
A highly marketed competitive blog has started.

Key to determining the source of the change is a review of the analytics. For blogs, the key tool is Google Analytics; Facebook, YouTube, and other social platforms provide their own analytic tools as well. Some questions to ask: has the drop occurred because one particular source no longer providers users? Or one particular browser is no longer supported? (Or screen size?) Is there less click-through to secondary pages? And most importantly, did the drop happen all at once, or gradually over several months. Pinpointing the precise time that the change manifested itself – the inflection point – is key to diagnosing the source of the problem. And when the source is found, a prescriptive fix can be applied.

There are a number of situations when a drop in traffic may be expected. For example, if the Social Media strategy calls for a change in the blog’s focus, then it is perfectly natural – and even desirable – for non-target readers to quit.

This week’s action plan: If you are not reviewing your analytics on a regular basis, this is the week to start: 10 minutes is all it takes to quickly scan the numbers and charts. Not only does this provide an early warning of potential problems, but it also is the first step in measuring ROI.

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Audience Assumptions

by Randall on January 24, 2012

Filed in: Blog, Blogging, Communication, Global Business, Make It Happen Tipsheet, Presentations, Social Media

Tagged as: Comprehension, English, India, Language

My recent trip to India has once again sensitized me to an assumption that writers and speakers too often make: that everyone understands what you mean to say.

Test yourself – what do the following three words mean? Flyover, Subway, and Removalist.

If you are in India, a Flyover is a local bridge that “flies over local traffic”; elsewhere, it has something to do with airplanes. In much of the world, a Subway is a road or pedestrian path that goes underneath another road; in Toronto a Subway refers to the Metro. In Australia, a Removalist is someone who transports your possessions when you move houses; elsewhere this person is called a house mover.

When the mother tongue of the audience isn’t English, the problem intensifies further.

Avoid making bad assumptions: before delivering a critical presentation or posting a widely read blog or Twitter post, answer the following questions about your audience:

What is their English comprehension level? Do you need to do part of your presentation in their language? Or at least open with a local phrase? I give a number of suggestions to address the issue in this Tipsheet.
Which English do they know? (American, British, Canadian, Indian, Australian, Hong Kong, etc) Does it make sense to test your content with a smaller group first?
Can you use local examples to help the listener or reader better relate? Or is it better to keep with universal principles – lowest common denominator – to avoid making an embarrassing mistake.

One of the most important reasons for a Social Media strategy is that it helps define your target audiences, and lets you focus the version of your language squarely on this target. Without a strategy, it will become increasingly difficult to use the “right” language to have an impact.

This week’s action plan: Whether you have a strategy or not, spend a few minutes defining who the primary audience is for your Social Media initiative – then review your last few status updates, blog posts, or videos to see if they are using the “right” language to make an impact.

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig

www.RandallCraig.com
www.ptadvisors.com
www.ProfessionallySpeakingTV.com

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Access Assumptions

by Randall January 17, 2012

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Signalling Your Intentions

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Tools of the Trade

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Five Social Media New Year’s Career Resolutions

by Randall December 28, 2011

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All the world’s a stage

by RandallCraig December 13, 2011

…and all the men and women merely players. Shakespeare may have said this in the 1600′s, but it is more true than ever today. Politicians, celebrities and others have always known that an audience was watching and judging. Today, different paparazzi watch and judge us – we call them followers, friends, and connections. We narcissistically [...]

Who is your Mahamood?

by RandallCraig December 6, 2011

Ever wonder about the impact you made with those you’ve touched? Whether you would be remembered or not? And for what? Every so often, we get a stark reminder of this: someone doesn’t remember you – but you think they should. Or someone comes up to you and reminds you about a special conversation – [...]

Repurpose or Repeat?

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Have you ever considered how many ways there are to express one of your ideas? Here’s a short list: A book A whitepaper A case study A brochure A blog post A newspaper op-ed A voice message or phone call A tweet A magazine article A TV series A documentary A sitcom A news commentary [...]

Viewpoint: Planning for an Uncertain Future

by RandallCraig November 23, 2011

In 1997 there was no Google. In 2002 there was no Facebook. There was no Twitter in 2004, and the iPad only made it’s debut in 2009. There is no indication that the pace of innovation will slow, so how can you plan for the future when the target is moving , and moving quickly? [...]

Are you a Social Media addict?

by RandallCraig November 16, 2011

Have you ever been “captured” by an activity, finding it almost impossible to let go? Marathon runners call it the runner’s high. Smokers call it an addiction. But what is it called when you can’t tear yourself from Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube or other social networks? If it is part of your job, then some would [...]

What Social Media Tier are you on?

by Randall November 11, 2011

Every organization – and every individual – can find themselves somewhere on the three-tier Social Media Engagement Index. Where are you? Passive: At best, passive users have a profile on a few sites, but do very little within Social Media except for responding to the occasional connection request. Benefit: passive users will be found when [...]

Trust Takes Time

by RandallCraig November 3, 2011

How long does it take to make a sale? And is it faster using traditional marketing and sales techniques, or Social Media-based ones? In traditional marketing and sales, advertising informs prospective customers about a product or service. Those who have a need show up and make their purchase. In the more sophisticated business-to-business sales process, [...]

Build It and They Will Come: Social Media Promotion Strategy

by Randall October 19, 2011

While Build It and They Will Come might work in the movies (remember Field of Dreams?), it doesn’t quite work that way in the world of Social Media. Yes, you can put up a Facebook page, LinkedIn profile, or YouTube channel, but how can you truly attract followers? And how can you truly drive engagement? [...]

Consistency

by Randall October 12, 2011

How often have you struggled to show up on time for a meeting, only to be kept waiting as others stumbled in 5-10-15 minutes later? Or have you ever tuned in to your favorite TV show, only to find that it was “rescheduled” for some other time? Or travelled to a faraway store, but finding [...]

Reflections on Steve Jobs and the impact of Apple

by Randall October 7, 2011

Steve Jobs was a visionary: incredible focus, a market disruptor, a tech genius, a serial entrepreneur, and so on. All true, but there is also something else – a thread that underlies and connects everything that Apple does: their focus on the empowered customer. From day one, this was reflected in the user experience. It [...]

Social Media Damage Control

by Randall October 6, 2011

Picture this scenario: you get an email from your manager, letting you know that a complaint (or a picture, or a video) about your organization has gone “viral”. You check it out, and indeed it is embarrassing… and it is everywhere. What do you do? In a previous post, I suggested several things to consider [...]

The Power of a (Broken) Promise

by RandallCraig September 28, 2011

Have you ever been disappointed, frustrated, or annoyed with an experience with a person or organization? In today’s Social Media world, suffering in silence need not be your only option. You can Tweet, Blog, post to Facebook, create a YouTube video, write on a review site or even create your own complaint site. You can [...]

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