Over the course of the past semester I have learned an immense amount about internet marketing in my course MKTG 470 at JMU. One tool I became very familiar with is Google Analytics. I used this to learn more about traffic to my web site. I had a total of 57 unique visitors and 252 page views. Overall, my SEO efforts throughout the semester definitely brought more traffic to my site than my PPC efforts. I was much more improved on SEO than PPC at the conclusion of the course. Also, my Google Analytics Pie was pretty balanced with 60.22% new visitors and 39.78% returning visitors, with a slight weight towards new visitors. Having known absolutely nothing about Google Analytics going in to the course, I can without a doubt say I learned a lot and this is an extremely important tool for marketers to analyze their web pages.
Besides Google analytics, I believe I have taken away some very important concepts from MKTG 470. I really enjoyed learning how to use Word Press and maintaining my own blog. Previously, I had no idea I would be interested in this sort of thing but have come to really enjoy it. I also learned a great deal about search rankings. I never knew there were so many ways to improve your own rankings through PPC and SEO. It fascinated me how much you need to stay on top of your game in internet marketing. Technology and the internet are constantly involving and it is extremely important to be an active participant and learner in order to succeed.
Finally, when looking back over the past semester and the MKTG 470 there are a few things I wish I could have done differently. One aspect I was not very successful at was my PPC Google Ad Words campaign. I wish I could have done better at this and hope to learn much more about Ad Words in the future. Although I’m not necessarily sure that internet marketing is the field for me, I can honestly say this is a course was a pleasure to take and I think blogging could become something I would really enjoy.
When learning about Search Engine Optimization, I chose to optimize my JMU page of this website. SEO can be a long process since it can take a while for the spiders to crawl your site and update the changes you have made. Throughout the semester I learned many different ways to optimize my page for the keyword “love jmu”.
At the beginning of the semester, with no optimization, when searching for the phrase “love jmu” my web page showed up on the 11th SERP as the 3rd result. I began my SEO by changing the title of my page from JMU to “All the reasons why I love JMU”. This way the key phrase was included in the actual title. Next, I used the All in One SEO Pack tool on WordPress to write a descriptive meta title. This is the small description that will show up on the SERP and is very important in increasing your SEO. I also learned the importance of link building, both internally and externally. Internal links would provide access to other pages and posts on my website to further drive track and boost my SEO ratings. External links provide access to a completely new webpage. I decided to link the words “love jmu” to our JMU homepage. By doing this I was helping the search engines to identify my important key words.
After all of my SEO efforts had been implemented I once again checked a search engine to see where my JMU page would land on the SERP. After my most recent check, my web page was on the 8th page of the SERP as result number 7. I was able to increase my rankings by three pages through the use of SEO and link building.
After signing up for GoogleAnalytics, I have begun to explore Google Webmaster Tools. This set of tools was created by Google in order to help internet marketers better track their website performance. After taking some time to explore all of the information it has to offer, I realized that these tools are a great place to start if you are looking to improve your website.
One very important toolI discovered is the Crawl Errors page. Without thistool you may realize that a particular page or post on your website is not getting the search results you would like, but you would have trouble determining why. You could optimize the page or post as much as you wanted and it wouldn’t make a difference if there were Crawl Errors occurring that you were unaware of. The Crawl Errors page onGoogle Webmaster Tools lists the pages thatGoogle wasn’t able to crawl and why, so then the search marketer can correct the error.
Another toolthat I found very useful was the Malware page. Malware can easily show up on a Word Press blog (such as this one) and the owner of the blog or page may or may not have any idea how to get rid of it.Google allows you to not only be alerted immediately but also gives suggestions of how to get rid of these issues. It helps you resolve them quickly so visitors to your site will be unaffected.Google Webmaster tools is a great resource for anyone interested in improving the searchability of their sites.
Deb Van Horn is the Vice President of Support Services at the Rockingham Group and she came to speak with our MKTG470 class about social media in the insurance industry. She discussed many topics and showed us several different insurance agencies Facebook pages, and particularly how they have been taking advantage of the new “Timeline” layout. She discussed Rockingham Group’s recent switch to the Timeline and how they are adapting. She also discussed how Facebook can be an excellent tool for developing relationships and the ultimate goal of increasing new sales.
By using social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, it creates a public forum for customer to leave comments (good and bad) as well as ask questions or anything else they might need. Ms. Van Horn stressed the importance of responding to each comment or question someone leaves on their page. It makes the customer feel like the organization really does care about their opinions and that they are having the service individually catered to their needs.
Ms. Van Horn also discussed how the Rockingham Group makes use of Facebook’s analytic options to determine how to best generate new traffic and get customers to like their page.
On March 5, 2012 a video titled KONY 2012 was uploaded to Youtube. Now, just two weeks later, the video has approximately 84 million views, a number that has skyrocketed. Jason Russell is the spokesman in the video for an organization called the Invisible Children. The 30 minute video goes on to describe the ongoing war in Uganda led by a man named Joseph Kony. For decades he has been abducting young children from their homes in Uganda and turning them into child soldiers. The video goes on to describe the horrible truth about the lives the children lead in constant fear of being abducted.
The primary goal of Jason Russell’s video is to raise awareness about the Ugandan situation in hopes of putting an end to the war and tracking down Joseph Kony by the end of 2012. The video is targeting young people by showing several videos and images of teens and young adults supporting the organization. Three days after the video was posted on YouTube, “Uganda” had been trending on Twitter every day since the upload, the video itself already had 400,000 comments and 2.4 million Facebook likes. KONY 2012 went viral so quickly because of the people it was targeting. Teens and young adults are more active in social media than ever, and being that they are the future of this country and the world Invisible Children hit the target market dead on.
Towards the end of the video, Russell addresses the goal of getting 20 culture makers and 12 policy makers to address the situation and “make Kony famous”. The 20 culture makers are various pop-culture celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Rihanna, and George Clooney. The goal for the culture makers is to spread the word and gain awareness through their high profile presence. The 12 policy makers are various politicians who can put legislation into action and ultimately capture Joseph Kony. After finishing the powerful 30 minute video, I realized that KONY 2012 was undoubtedly one of the greatest if not THE greatest viral marketing campaign of all time.
Social media is rapidly becoming more important as a marketing tool and less important as a means of connection with casual trends. As the forms of social media and ranking continue to involve, it because increasingly important to take advantage of the personal branding opportunities made available. Klout is a unique website which ranks its users based on the level of interest of their content and the size of their network. As this form of social media grows, employers will become more likely to check your Klout score. Anything above 50/100 is considered to be elite and could potentially be used as a mean to set you apart from other job candidates in the near future.
As social media and personal branding continues to gain weight with future employers, so does the importance of protecting your online reputation. 48% of professional recruiters will refer to personal websites when deciding whether or not to hire you and if that seems shocking, 78% of recruiters use search engines to check out potential employees. That being said, it is very important especially for graduating college students, to carefully monitor what you expose on the internet. This can include pictures, friends, online posts, videos, profile information and much more.
Now that we are starting to understand the importance of personal branding, how can we improve it? Googlehas a few helpful tips on how to get started. First, set upGoogle Analytics so you can see exactly how people are viewing and using your website. It will be much easier to make adjustments according to the feedback you will receive. Next, include yourFacebook,Twitter, andGoogle+ feeds on your own website. It will encourage users to check out your other forms of social media as well. Lastly, use your head for your own favicon if you don’t already have a recognizable logo. It will draw attention and recognition.
For a class assignment I had to spend one hour without interruptions on Twitter. I was glad to have this assignment since I already spend a lot of time on Twitter. I figured that it would be easy and I would just check out all the same stuff I usually do. However, after checking my Twitter feed and a few of my friend’s tweets, I realized I was going to have to explore a little more than usual. I discovered many reasons why I should continue my account in Twitter. Other than staying up to date with my friends and favorite celebrities, there are a lot more uses for a Twitter account.
I started following Mashable for my internet marketing class, so I explored their tweets for a while. I actually found a lot of interesting articles about social media and job search. I found that Twitter can be a great tool for job searching as well as keeping up to date with all of the most recent social media marketing trends. I know that following users similar to Mashable, such as Heidi Cohen, will also be of great use when I enter the workforce. As a young adult new to the workforce, it is extremely important to make a good impression. Keeping up to date with current marketing trends is a great way to start. In the same sense, Twitter is a powerful tool for marketers as well. Since they are aware of the growing popularity of social media sites, they are becoming more aware of ways to exploit their brands through these mediums. Tweets can be promoted for all of Twitter to see, or certain brands can be endorsed by celebrities who have a lot of followers. One example of this is how the Kardashian’s endorse Quick Trim diet supplement.
The new theme I installed today is called “Floral 1.1″ by Bingo. I discovered this theme by choosing color options that I liked in the search menu for WordPress themes. I ended up choosing this one because I really like the colors of the flowers and leaves, and the layout of my web page. I like how the background is in black and white, creating contrast with the header and blog posts which are in bright colors. I think that the colors for the headings of the blogs help the blogs stand out more; it also makes it easy to differentiate one blog post from another. I also like how my sidebar, search bar, and page tabs are still located in the same place as on my previous WhiteHouse theme, this makes my web page easy to navigate.When choosing a new theme it is important to look for one that is easily customizable, is able to be opened in different browsers, and is able to support the widgets you want.
There were not many changes when I switched to my new theme and the process was fairly simple. My original favicon does not show up with my new theme but other than that everything else seemed to be very similar. I changed the message that came in the welcome box and deleted the words that were in the introduction box. Overall I found that changing my theme was easier than I had originally anticipated. My favorite part about my new theme is that it has a familiar and easy-to-use layout, while still having a touch of my personality for viewers to see.
