May Roundup: Social Media Advertising and Vendor Management

2013 has been whizzing by and somehow we are almost half way through the year. Here are a couple of highlights from a very busy May, as well as some extra thoughts on how paid social and organic social play together and the importance of really knowing your agency account manager.

Social Media Advertising and the Paid-Organic Social Interplay

This month, I appeared in a Forbes article alongside social media marketing extraordinaire and mentor, Marty Weintraub, about how to triple your success using social media advertising platforms. Yes, B2B Facebook ads really do work for demand generation.

The article also touched on the topic of how organic traffic from Facebook increased whilst using Facebook ads. We often hear about the interplay between PPC and SEO, but it is interesting to see that paid social and organic social also work very well together. The chart below shows over time how paid traffic from Facebook ads also led to a corresponding increase in organic website traffic.

Increase in organic social visits alongside paid social ad visits

What is interesting, is that this interplay goes beyond Facebook. Promoted videos on YouTube can also boost organic rank (and traffic) by helping to increase social signals for a video.

Through past tests, I’ve found that a well-targeted YouTube promoted video campaign can help to substantially increase video rank. Campaigns can be used to drive more views from interested viewers, which in turn leads to an increase in the video getting liked, commented on and favorited — all those good social signals that help towards improving your organic position. Look out for my next post on how promoted YouTube videos can boost your video SEO efforts.

Vendor Management

This month, I also gave my two pennies worth on Webmaster Radio’s PPC Rockstars, talking from the PPC vendor manager perspective. In particular, how size and scale is an important factor to consider when choosing an agency to work with and never to underestimate the importance of working with a good agency partner.

In addition, your main agency account manager/team is also important. It is always good to know who you will actually be working with day-to-day. Very often, when agencies come in to pitch, they send in their best sales people and a whole troop of executives. The question you have to ask is, are these the people who are really going to be working on your stuff? Typically the answer to that question is no.

The thing that you have to remember is that your success will be highly dependent on the people who are supporting you day-to-day. So make sure you get to know who these people are, their level of experience, what other clients have they worked with, and what their working style is like. Ultimately, this person will be a part of your extended team, so they need to be sharp and willing to go the extra mile for you.