Another Rocks Digital Marketing Conference has come and gone and now we have to take all that we’ve learned and put it to use in ‘the real world’. Oh wait… you missed the conference? Let me try to (as one of our presenters so eloquently put it) “snack-size” the conference for you.

Rocks Digital Summary 2016

If you want the micro-micro view or Rocks Digital wrap-up – this is it:

• Grow with your audience as technology changes – GROW OR DIE!
• Mobile is here to stay – LEARN TO WORK WITH IT!
• Utilize SEO, PPC, and SOCIAL to promote growth online – LEARN WHAT IT MEANS, PUT IT TO WORK!
• Stay current with technology news to stay ahead of the curve – KEEP ON TOP OF TECH!

Ok, so you want a LITTLE more in-depth coverage. I can do that:

• Put the customer at the center of your processes. Most organizations don’t really care about their customers, and it’s all about being customer-centered. Offer your clients helpful information, and be genuinely concerned and interested in them.
• Planning a website or working on your strategy? Remember ‘MOBILE FIRST’ – Mobile first means when designing a website, make the mobile version first.
• Have an app strategy – 44% of all digital media time is in a smartphone app.  The number one installed app is Facebook, and 48% of those people consider it the most important app they have.
• The attention span of humans has been reduced to less than 8 seconds – so you need to be agile/speedy to capture attention and engage your audience because you can get so much information so quickly these days that if you lose someone’s attention, they’ll move on.
• You NEED to CREATE connections, not just collect them. Ask yourself how you are helping your network? Give to your network to help grow your network. Making personal connections is really key regardless of the platform. Go forth and connect. Create dialogue and create connections!
• Figuring out exactly who your ideal customer is helps you focus your marketing and social media efforts. When trying to determine what social media platform is the most important, it depends where your customers are. Knowing your ideal customer will help you determine which platform(s) to use. You can use Facebook’s Audience Insights to get some ideas about how your ideal customers are accessing content (desktop vs. mobile) and where they are spending their money.
• Get your Google My Business Listing. Why? Because it helps you connect with customers when they search on Google Maps. Google My Business works across devices – desktops, laptops, tablets and mobile phones. And, getting your business on Google My Business is free!
• Does your traffic convert? All the traffic in the world is useless if it doesn’t convert. What’s the point of people seeing your content if they aren’t doing anything about it/with it? Organizations need to not think about SEO – Instead, speak to your target audience with content that is part of a comprehensive marketing plan. If you do this, the SEO largely takes care of itself because it become an integral part of your content.
• You need to be prepared, have faith, believe in your vision, be diligent and have discipline. Those things plus positive thinking and a positive attitude will put you on the path to your very own fairy-tale life!

Was there more information at the conference? ABSOLUTELY. This is just the Rocks Digital written summary. Don’t forget the photos! And I would encourage you to attend if you have the chance.  You can learn quite a bit from reading the blogs, but the “live” experience makes it all unforgettable. I’m already looking forward to next year!

#RocksDigital Marketing Conference Live Blog Wrap Up by @LauraDarkstar #Marketing #Branding #Mobile
Click To Tweet

The post Live Blogger’s Last Word – Rocks Digital Recap 2016 appeared first on Rocks Digital.

Rock Talks are delightful, quick talks that provide some great nuggets of wisdom in a fast-paced format. Since the talks were quick, I’m going to try and make my blog about them equally pithy.

The charming Elayna Fernandez was our first Rock Talker and she had a fairy-tale for us… or at least some ideas on how we can all live our “fairy-tale” life (Life IS A Fairy Tale© – 5 Principles To LIVE Your Magic Life).

• To live a different life – learn a new language – the language of POSITIVE THINKING!
• Instead of a to-do list, make a to-be list (hint: being a more positive person should be on your to-be list).
• To live a fairy-tale life you must have VISION – Cinderella envisioned a better life which helped her to know what she wanted.

You need to be prepared, have faith, believe in your vision, be diligent and have discipline. Those things plus positive thinking and a positive attitude will put you on the path to your very own fairy-tale life!

Now that we were all rocking our tiaras, Eve Mayer took the stage and talked about hyper-transparency and social care.

• Truth #1 – Companies are made of people, people aren’t perfect, so no company is going to be perfect and that’s ok.
• Truth #2 – The leading retail brands respond to direct questions in an average of 157 minutes, but the customer EXPECTATION is less than an hour.
• Truth #3 – You can’t force people to use a social media platform that they don’t like.
• Truth #4 – The internet never sleeps – social care needs to be 24/7.

Millennials (well, actually, it’s NOT just millennials – it applies to other demographics, as well)

• Lower tolerance for slow response times
• More tech savvy
• Don’t want to be ignored

If you can say to your clients ‘We are going to screw up, we’re not going to lie to you, we’re not going to hide it, we’re going to tell you and we’re going to fix it’ and really MEAN it, you’re on the right path. This is Eve’s company’s philosophy, should it be your company’s philosophy as well?

We stepped next into social selling with Patty Farmer who shared a killer quote right off the bat:

“The modern consumer is digitally driven, socially connected and mobile empowered” – Jill Rowley

• 74% of today’s B2B buyers conduct research online.
• By 2020 customers will manage 85% of their interactions with a company without interacting with a human.
• Social sellers realize a 66% quota attainment.
• Buyers who use social media have 84% larger budgets.

Social selling is about building relationships as part of the sales process – if relationships are the currency in today’s business environment, how fat is your wallet? Remember, the key is to SERVE not sell.

• Step 1 – Know your ABCs  (Always Be Connecting).
• Step 2 – Know your audience.
• Step 3 – Provide relevant content and value consistently.
• Step 4 – Collaboration vs. competition.
• Step 5 – Create social offers.

The only difference between a contact and a contract is the “R” and the “R” is RELATIONSHIP!

By this point, I have to admit that my brain was pretty crammed full of things to think about, but along came Mark Traphagen to share the best SEO strategy you didn’t know was an SEO strategy.

On Site/Page Optimization

• Provide excellent, relevant content
• Provide expertise/authority/trust
• Great brand = superior products + awesome customer service + unexpected delight
• Connect people to what matters to them

And the Rock Talks wrapped up with Lance Bachmann talking about the NOW, the NEW, the NEXT in mobile.

90% of the time on mobile is spent on apps.

Search – 48% start on a search engine, 33% start on a branded website and 26% start in a branded app. So if you are only focused on optimizing for Google, you’re only appealing to half of consumer queries.

• Paid Advertising
• Online Marketing
• Integrated Campaigns
• Push Notifications
• Expanded Text Ads
• Promoted Pins – Google Maps

Where is mobile headed now?

• Wearable Devices
• Personally  Predictive
• Voice Search

But what happens after that?

• Smart Clothing
• Biohacking
• Modular Devices

Key Takeaways

• Mobile is here to stay.
• Utilize SEO, PPC & social to promote growth online.
• Grow with your audience as technology changes.
• Stay current with technology news to stay ahead of the curve.

Rock Talks are a lot like hitting “sample day” at your favorite store. You get a lot of little tidbits and find yourself stuffed (in this case with new things to think about, consider and implement).

Rock Talks provide nuggets of #DigitalMarketing wisdom at #RocksDigital 2016 – Live Blog
Click To Tweet

The post Highlights from 2016 Rock Talks appeared first on Rocks Digital.

There was a lot of discussion at the conference about Google’s local search algorithm. Andrew Shotland and his team took a unique approach and attempted to reverse-engineer the algorithms.  They were on a quest for the perfect local SEO ranking factors.

They analyzed a number of different factors: links, Google My Business listing, website and off-site local. The data points were put together via repeated Google searches based on keyword and geographic location (city). They partnered with PlacesScout and also used data from Moz and Majestic.

They looked at ~3,000 local searches, ~30,000 Google My Business listings, websites, links and citation profiles which gave them over a million quantitative data points to analyze. Then they applied two statistical methods which were employed to properly correlate the data. One was to analyze ordinal variables (continuous or integer independent variables) and the other was used for categorical independent variables.

The Ordinal Variables

• Total customer reviews
• Followers
• Average rank of citations
• Total mentions
• Authority of citations
• Links (and there were a number of factors related to links that were explored)

It turns out that the organic algorithm outweighed the local algorithm. Links are the key to ranking. Websites matter a LOT!

“As the internet and our understanding of the internet have grown in complexity, the Toolbar Page Rank score has become less useful to users as a single isolated metric.”

Key piece of advice – Meta Keyword Tags are NOT important (anyone who says this is important should be summarily ignored)!

Local Search Algorithm Drivers

So, in your pursuit of the magical (unicorn) algorithm, where do you focus your efforts?

1. Links
2. Website
3. Google My Business Listing
4. Off-Site Local (Citations)

Have Andrew and his team completely “cracked the code” yet? Not quite but they’re getting close. What is clear is that links dominated the quantitative analysis of local SEO ranking factors. If you are not focused on, and investing in, building links and your website, you’re not focused on, and investing in the right things.  Yes, Google My Business listings and citations (and ‘traditional SEO’) do have a place in your strategy, but they should not be your primary focus. And, given the data from this study, it seems like Google is working to expand the scope of what it takes to rank in local search.

#Google’s #Local Search Algorithm and Reverse Engineering by @LocalSEOGuide #SEO #RocksDigital
Click To Tweet

Honestly, a blog post doesn’t really do this topic justice. I urge you to check out the slidedeck below.

Don’t forget to read more here and get a complete picture of what’s going on with the local search algorithm. And realize that it’s going to keep changing and evolving, so be sure to keep up on what Andrew and his team are doing to keep you in the loop!

The post Reverse Engineering Google’s Local Search Algorithm appeared first on Rocks Digital.

The post Live #RocksDigital Social Media and Local Search Day 2016 Photos appeared first on Rocks Digital.

Let’s explore the mad, mad, MAD future of local search, and certain breakthroughs in the epidemic of local search.

• Local search is about “ready to buy” intent and online to offline purchase behavior.
• The internet has escaped its desktop prison.
• More complex path to purchase.
• Increasing visibility re offline consumer actions (location analytics).
• Increasing sophistication of technology (search -> assistant).
• Blurring of offline and online worlds (for consumers and producers).

“All mobile queries are potentially local.”
~ Chandu Thota, Google Director of Engineering

Most search queries that carry buying intent are ultimately local because they will likely be fulfilled in a store, dealership or by an offline service provider. Ultimately, people are not going to buy a car or fridge online.

Google may be more inclined to treat the same query as local.

The Purchase Path

• Via an app – 19.6%
• On mobile web – 52.8%
• Via desktop/laptop – 48.3%

Awareness | Interest | Decision | Action

Mobile is KING

More than 50% of Google’s queries come from mobile devices on a global basis.

70% of Yelp searches come from mobile.

New Search Experiences

• Billions of mobile devices/new hardware
• New UI/UX experiences
• Improved voice recognition and NLP
• Machine learning/AI
• Metaphor of the virtual assistant replacing search

Using Voice Search By Age

• 71% of 18-29
• 59% of 30-43
• 39% of 44-53
• 38% of 54+

“The assistant is conversational – an ongoing two-way dialogue between you and Google that understands your world and helps you get things done. It makes it easy to buy movie tickets on the go, to find that perfect restaurant for your family to grab a quick bite before the movie starts, and then help you navigate to the theater. It’s a Google for you, by you.” – Google, May 2016

Marketer Challenges

Buyers are harder to reach, and figuring out how to bridge the gap between so many tools and dashboards. The top 5 challenges for large businesses today are the following.

1. 52% – Identifying and engaging our most valuable customers
2. 51% – Differentiating brand and experiences against competitors
3. 39% – Implementing strategies that help drive traffic to stores
4. 37% – Exceeding direct competitors and online pure-plays from a sales perspective
5. 36% – Keeping up with customer demands for more seamless brand experiences

People want more functionality, so they don’t need to use so many apps. Mobile consumers want to complete tasks. Users want personalization and relevance. Location is very forward but beware of being too personal.

84% of consumers think advertising interruptions while watching digital content are too frequent.
92% of consumers get frustrated with interruptions in videos because of poor internet connection.
63.2% never want to get notifications from brands.

Millennials are blocking ads!

Small Business Issues

• Average number of media types/channels used by SMBs to market: 7.8 in 2016.
• It’s strategic, competitors are doing it.
• Most small businesses do it themselves.
• Measure ROI – 74% not using tools to measure ROI.
• Trust issues – only 1 in 5 of small businesses (18%) trust their employees.

New Kinds of SEO

• LBO – location base optimization
• Audience targeting and validation
• Offline to online retargeting – figure out your marketing opportunities

Challenges/Opportunities

• Meeting consumer expectations (existential issue)
• Embracing predictive and conversational search
• Making search more “transactional”
• Optimizing and distributing content across the ecosystem to multiple consumer touchpoints
• Not alienating customers with bad ads/marketing

The most important thing to remember, though, is to put the customer at the center of the whole process. Most organizations don’t really care about their customers, and it’s all about being customer-centered. Offer your consumers helpful information, and be genuinely concerned and interested in them.

Exploring the mad, mad, MAD future of #LocalSearch w/@GSterling #RocksDigital 2016 – Live Blog
Click To Tweet

Speaker Information:

Click for PDF of slides.
@LocalSearchSSN
@GSterling
Greg@theLSA.org
TheLSA.org
415.886.7276

The post The Mad, Mad, Mad Future of Local Search with Greg Sterling – Rocks Digital 2016 Live Blog appeared first on Rocks Digital.

Consider moving to a not .com for Your Website

Keywords and semantic meaning

Ability to precisely match key terms to a domain name, for products, services, and corporate identity

No loss of Google and search engine love

Lack of available domains

Google Adwords Case Study

• Keywords the same for all ads
• Bids the same (1.00 per click bid)
• Same landing page, same content
• Only difference was the domain named used:
• 3caratdiamonds.com
• 3carat.diamonds

Results for .DIAMONDS

$.77
35% conversion rate

New TLD Stats – ntldstats.com/tld – All the TLD options (800+)

Check Calzone.org for when new domain endings will come out

.CHURCH
.DENTIST
.PLUMBING
.CLUB
.REALTOR
.PHOTOGRAPHY
.FEEDBACK / .REVIEWS
.LAWYER
.ATTORNEY, and more!

Consider moving to a Not .com. Tks @bhartzer #RocksDigital 2016 #Website #SEO
Click To Tweet

Things to Know

• Don’t take moving to another domain lightly
• Problems can be avoided with proper planning
• Moving to a new gTLD can be done successfully
• Notify Google you’ve moved to a new domain name thru Google Search Console

Senior VP – Agency Services, Advice Interactive
bhartzer@adviceinteractive.com
214-236-4378

The post Moving to Not .COMs with Bill Hartzer – Rocks Digital Live Blog appeared first on Rocks Digital.