Last month, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told the media on NBC New's "Meet the Press" that he would not do away with healthcare reform entirely, if he were to be elected into office. (1) Instead, he would plan to keep some of the most popular aspects of the president's healthcare law, including provisions for coverage for those Americans with pre-existing conditions.
This statement marks a slight change in Romney's stance on healthcare reform and was received with varied skepticism by the members of the media. The New York Times quoted Romney as saying, "“I’m not getting rid of all of health care reform...Of course, there are a number of things that I like in health care reform that I’m going to put in place. One is to make sure that those with pre-existing conditions can get coverage.” (2) The article put the facts out front and then made a point to highlight a hidden piece to Romney's plan: "Mr. Romney did not explain a significant feature of his proposal: he would explicitly guarantee insurance for people with existing conditions only if they have maintained coverage without a significant gap. That could exclude millions of Americans with medical problems like cancer, heart disease and asthma." By introducing this caveat to Romney's promise, the NYT opens up a door to further discussion of Romney's intentions and his overall agenda. However, the article does this in an effective, non-biased manner -- sourcing health experts from both Democrats and the Republican parties, as well as quoting a more neutral authority figure, health economist Joseph P. Newhouse, at Harvard.
An article in the Washington Post written by Eugene Robinson looked at Romney's NBC interview in a different light. (3) Titling the piece "Romney's health-care dither," the author immediately states that he is confused by Romney's statements over the weekend regarding his stance on President Obama's healthcare reform law. The article implies that Romney, himself, is confused on this point. "So Romney wants to repeal Obamacare and replace it with Obamacare, or at least the consumer-friendly parts of Obamacare that Romney knows are popular," writes Robinson. He makes several glaring assumptions right off the bat, pointing out how he sees Romney contradicting himself and totally missing the boat. "To review, Romney was for Obamacare before he was against it before he was for it again..." Robinson mocks Romney for his indecisiveness and apparent lack of intelligence, reminding the reader that the element of Obamacare that Romney wants to get rid of (the individual mandate) is the very key to the problem of "so-called free riders" that Romney himself solved back when he was Governor of Massachusetts. Robinson's criticism of Romney leaves the reader with one side to the story. Robinson says, "My advice is that before making a serious attempt to understand what Romney might actually do, make sure your health-insurance policy covers whiplash."
Business Week reported on the same topic, choosing to highlight Romney's less partisan tone/approach to Obamacare. (4) By doing this, they presented the story with less bias, while still highlighting the differences between the two parties. However, similar to coverage by other news outlets, the article did not let Romney off the hook saying that Romney "has made opposition to the health care law a central theme of his campaign" and that he has been clear from the beginning that one of his first acts in office would be to repeal Obama Health Care Law. Without drawing too many conclusions in the article itself, Business Week presents that facts and lets the reader make a judgment. Of course, which facts they choose to present is subjective and can often lean in one direction or the other. Nevertheless, this publication effectively gives the reader a synopsis of the facts and trends in the current campaigns, in order to better inform their audience from an economic standpoint.
Finally, in contrast to the two more balanced pieces by Business Week and the NYT, NPR's Julie Rovner reported a much more opinionated piece called "Mitt Romney's Shifting Stance on Health Care." (5) The piece has a critical tone from the very beginning, making Romney sound childish and stupid. Rovner points out that when Romney said that he might not want to repeal all of the Affordable Care Act, he is in express violation of his own Party's platform. She makes a strong case against Romney by simply making him appear ignorant and dense; like a child who makes a mess that his parents have to then clean up. Rovner says, "Not surprisingly, it was only a matter of hours before the campaign walked the candidate's comments back."She brings up several other points to add to the less than intelligent picture that she is painting of the candidate, reminding her audience -- like Robinson did in the Washington Post -- that Romney is opposed to the very type of mandate that he himself implemented when he was Governor of MA.
Similar terms/themes are used throughout all of the media coverage above. Namely, these are terms that are specific to the 2012 presidential campaign and/or healthcare reform, such as: "coverage for people with pre-existing conditions," "central theme of his campaign," "keeping some of the pieces," "where Mitt Romney stands on health-care reform." If I were pitching this story to the media from the Romney camp, I would first go back and clarify my message internally with my Communications team. Looking at this from a strictly objective angle, my first thought is that Romney's track record as former Governor of MA is going to make him look contradictory. I have some previous experience working on a political campaign and the one thing that I know holds true is that a candidate must have a clear approach to an issue.
The American people need to know exactly where he/she stands -- the more black and white the better. Of course, sometimes the approach is to purposely put oneself in the gray area, but this should not happen unless intentional. After clarifying Romney's position, I would find 1-3 things about Obamacare that he cannot accept as part of his platform and use stories to explain why. I would pitch the story, leading with the positive: Romney is enthusiastic about these aspects of Obamacare, but cannot accept this health care law in its entirely because...name reasons that really hit home for the American people; stories that they can relate to or scenarios that they can envision for themselves. This is not an easy task and one that I would not welcome at the moment.
If I were to report on this story as a member of the press, I would probably go back to Romney's campaign team and tell them outright that his willingness to keep some of Obamacare, but to eliminate the mandate from the law seems very contradictory. I would tell them the issues that I had with it, but want to sit down to dig deeper into their approach. Better to be straight forward and honest; they may actually give me an answer that I can work with and one that will clarify things for my audience (my ultimate goal). This article touches on something so much more meaningful than a candidate's public image. We are talking about a law the affects every single American and an upcoming election that will determine the next President of the United States. As a reporter, I would see the situation as demanding as much of my in-depth review as my deadline allows.
*For the purpose of this post, I am using the terms "healthcare reform," "health-care law," "Obamacare" and "Obama Health Care Law" interchangeably.
This article is the part of a series of posts that I will make throughout my graduate studies in Marketing and Communications. With a focus on both healthcare and interactive marketing, I hope to gain a better understanding for effective health messaging--which I think plays a key role in a happy, healthy society. Please leave your comments or write to me: camorous@gmail.com.
Sources:
1.)http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032608/
2.) http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/10/us/politics/romney-adopts-softer-tone-in-critique-of-obama.html?_r=1 2.) http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/11/us/politics/romneys-pledge-shows-repealing-health-law-to-be-complex.html?_r=1&ref=politics
3.) http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/eugene-robinson-romneys-health-care-dither/2012/09/10/6e9044e4-fb67-11e1-8adc-499661afe377_story.html
4.) http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-09-10/romney-says-he-would-keep-parts-of-obama-health-care-law
5.) http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/09/10/160898409/mitt-romneys-shifting-stance-on-health-care
10.09.2012
The Burning Question: Traditional or New Media?
There are many perks to "new media," or the term that we used to use in reference to social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs, video sharing, interactive marketing, etc. According to Nielsen's "State of the Media: the Social Media Report" for the end of 2011 (1), 4 out of 5 active internet users visit social networks and blogs -- and most do so from their mobile device/phone (40%).
What is even more interesting is that internet users over the age of 55 (many of the baby boomer generation) are driving the growth of social networking through the Mobile internet. Although new technology can present a challenge for older generations, baby boomers are often associated with a tendency to redefine traditional values, so this makes perfect sense to me. Many adults are now using social sites for online dating, scheduling and administrative needs, cloud apps for storage, and social media sites like Facebook as a way to stay connected to family and communicate to children and grandchildren. Social media is no longer a "young person's" activity. The phenomenon is growing and becoming a very tangible aspect of every day life.
One reality remains: as our society becomes more reliant on social media, are we subconsciously replacing older, traditional media such as newspapers, magazines, and TV news? Recently, many news outlets have focused on this exact topic. Bill Moyers posted an interesting infographic (2) that supports this argument that new media is, indeed, replacing the traditional and this is the year that it becomes official. Many current media efforts are now geared towards the method of dissemination -- mainly, social media. We use the title of our press release as the subject line for our email, our tweet, and our FB post that links to the press release, living on our website. According to the Moyers article, 50% of Americans have learned of a breaking news story from social sites, rather than from TV or the newspaper. About 46% of Americans get their news online at least 3 times per week. Finally, this year online revenue surpassed that of print newspaper revenue in 2012.
I think that this is a phenomenal development; I say that as an engaged user who manages a social media platform for my brand, as well as my own personal accounts. I am on social networking sites on average 5 times per day -- for monitoring purposes and for pleasure in my free time at night. I do not see this as a negative for my personal life (I maintain strong face to face relationships, am an avid reader, and an athletic runner). However, some people do find that social media has a negative effect on our society -- making our "friendships" and communication too dependent on online relationships.
Another negative (listed in the above infographic) is the drawbacks that social media sites have when they act as a place to share important news stories. Often, inaccuracies lead to misinformation (that is shared quickly through networks to reach thousands of people in a few seconds time); amateur reporters can compromise integrity or exploit subject in a story; and length restrictions can some times take away from the depth of a piece. However, all of these arguments against social media can be true of any news outlet (traditional or new) and I don't find that they make for a compelling case. I also disagree with the argument that social media detracts from personal relationships (para above) as I find that it connects me to many more friends and acquaintances than before, and enables me to communicate with them to set up an "in-person" time to meet.
Social media has the potential to do wonders for a marketing platform, as it can be a tool for sharing info and also the glue that connects campaigns within an overall marketing strategy. As a media relations professional, I can share content via social that send traffic back to a website where I have hosted a Youtube video that can, subsequently, link people back to the brand Youtube channel. All of these efforts can happen organically, without investing budget dollars, yielding a huge return on investment. In the field of healthcare, the Mayo Clinic has proven that social media can be an effective, low-cost mechanism for recruiting patients for clinical trials (3). Social media helped recruit larger, demographically diverse populations (ideal to reduce biases)for specific studies. This is something that we are currently doing at Home Base to help recruit for our studies focused on post traumatic stress (PTS) and traumatic brain injury (TBI) research. I will post research content to social media once a week, linking back to the section of our website that explains Research at Home Base http://www.homebaseprogram.org/general-information/research.aspx. All language is pre-approved by the IRB and carefully crafted to ensure clarity and comprehension.
The challenge with social media is to keep a professional legitimacy for your brand, as there is a distinct difference between personal and professional use. For many, the social sphere is still unknown territory and people are still figuring out how to best utilize the tool to reach a targeted audience. See this article today from Boston Magazine (4) on a study that the Boston Globe did looking at Bostonians and their use of Twitter. In my mind, it is all about content. Follow people who provide good, quality links, comments, and posts. If they don't make the cut, you can remove them with one fast click of the mouse.
This article is the part of a series of posts that I will make throughout my graduate studies in Marketing and Communications. With a focus on both healthcare and interactive marketing, I hope to gain a better understanding for effective health messaging--which I think plays a key role in a happy, healthy society. Please leave your comments or write to me: camorous@gmail.com.
Sources:
1.) http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/reports-downloads/2011/social-media-report-q3.html
2.) http://billmoyers.com/2012/04/23/how-social-media-is-replacing-traditional-journalism-for-breaking-news/
3.) http://blog.pharmexec.com/2012/02/13/patient-recruitment-via-social-media-lessons-learned/
4.) http://blogs.bostonmagazine.com/boston_daily/2012/09/17/boston-intellectual-twitter/
What is even more interesting is that internet users over the age of 55 (many of the baby boomer generation) are driving the growth of social networking through the Mobile internet. Although new technology can present a challenge for older generations, baby boomers are often associated with a tendency to redefine traditional values, so this makes perfect sense to me. Many adults are now using social sites for online dating, scheduling and administrative needs, cloud apps for storage, and social media sites like Facebook as a way to stay connected to family and communicate to children and grandchildren. Social media is no longer a "young person's" activity. The phenomenon is growing and becoming a very tangible aspect of every day life.
One reality remains: as our society becomes more reliant on social media, are we subconsciously replacing older, traditional media such as newspapers, magazines, and TV news? Recently, many news outlets have focused on this exact topic. Bill Moyers posted an interesting infographic (2) that supports this argument that new media is, indeed, replacing the traditional and this is the year that it becomes official. Many current media efforts are now geared towards the method of dissemination -- mainly, social media. We use the title of our press release as the subject line for our email, our tweet, and our FB post that links to the press release, living on our website. According to the Moyers article, 50% of Americans have learned of a breaking news story from social sites, rather than from TV or the newspaper. About 46% of Americans get their news online at least 3 times per week. Finally, this year online revenue surpassed that of print newspaper revenue in 2012.
I think that this is a phenomenal development; I say that as an engaged user who manages a social media platform for my brand, as well as my own personal accounts. I am on social networking sites on average 5 times per day -- for monitoring purposes and for pleasure in my free time at night. I do not see this as a negative for my personal life (I maintain strong face to face relationships, am an avid reader, and an athletic runner). However, some people do find that social media has a negative effect on our society -- making our "friendships" and communication too dependent on online relationships.
Another negative (listed in the above infographic) is the drawbacks that social media sites have when they act as a place to share important news stories. Often, inaccuracies lead to misinformation (that is shared quickly through networks to reach thousands of people in a few seconds time); amateur reporters can compromise integrity or exploit subject in a story; and length restrictions can some times take away from the depth of a piece. However, all of these arguments against social media can be true of any news outlet (traditional or new) and I don't find that they make for a compelling case. I also disagree with the argument that social media detracts from personal relationships (para above) as I find that it connects me to many more friends and acquaintances than before, and enables me to communicate with them to set up an "in-person" time to meet.
Social media has the potential to do wonders for a marketing platform, as it can be a tool for sharing info and also the glue that connects campaigns within an overall marketing strategy. As a media relations professional, I can share content via social that send traffic back to a website where I have hosted a Youtube video that can, subsequently, link people back to the brand Youtube channel. All of these efforts can happen organically, without investing budget dollars, yielding a huge return on investment. In the field of healthcare, the Mayo Clinic has proven that social media can be an effective, low-cost mechanism for recruiting patients for clinical trials (3). Social media helped recruit larger, demographically diverse populations (ideal to reduce biases)for specific studies. This is something that we are currently doing at Home Base to help recruit for our studies focused on post traumatic stress (PTS) and traumatic brain injury (TBI) research. I will post research content to social media once a week, linking back to the section of our website that explains Research at Home Base http://www.homebaseprogram.org/general-information/research.aspx. All language is pre-approved by the IRB and carefully crafted to ensure clarity and comprehension.
The challenge with social media is to keep a professional legitimacy for your brand, as there is a distinct difference between personal and professional use. For many, the social sphere is still unknown territory and people are still figuring out how to best utilize the tool to reach a targeted audience. See this article today from Boston Magazine (4) on a study that the Boston Globe did looking at Bostonians and their use of Twitter. In my mind, it is all about content. Follow people who provide good, quality links, comments, and posts. If they don't make the cut, you can remove them with one fast click of the mouse.
This article is the part of a series of posts that I will make throughout my graduate studies in Marketing and Communications. With a focus on both healthcare and interactive marketing, I hope to gain a better understanding for effective health messaging--which I think plays a key role in a happy, healthy society. Please leave your comments or write to me: camorous@gmail.com.
Sources:
1.) http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/reports-downloads/2011/social-media-report-q3.html
2.) http://billmoyers.com/2012/04/23/how-social-media-is-replacing-traditional-journalism-for-breaking-news/
3.) http://blog.pharmexec.com/2012/02/13/patient-recruitment-via-social-media-lessons-learned/
4.) http://blogs.bostonmagazine.com/boston_daily/2012/09/17/boston-intellectual-twitter/
8.13.2012
Rich Media Ads Bring Home the Bacon
Rich media ads are a
popular trend in the world of online advertising. Over the past couple of
years, online advertising has moved away from the more conventional, static
textual ads and now leans more towards interactive, dynamic content that can be
highly customized for the brand and user experience.
Although they may not look
like anything special upon first glance, rich media ads often come to life the
moment that you move your mouse over the image. Each ad is different and
created for a unique purpose, but many have similar characteristics. They
expand up or expand down; they have a short animation that loops to repeat
itself; or the entire homepage will become customized for the user in what is
known as a "homepage skin." These rich media ads can include
everything from video to online games and they can also include content from
Youtube, Twitter, and Facebook streams, according to Evelyn Rusli on Tech
Crunch. (1) They are defined as those with which users can interact as opposed
to solely animation, and they include such formats as transitionals and various
over-the-page units such as floating ads, page take-overs and tear-backs. (2)
These ads are regulated by
the Internet Advisory Board (IAB) is a committee charged with overseeing all
internet marketing activity and upholding established industry standards. The
IAB plays the role of "sheriff" in the wild west of the world of
Internet marketing. With recent growth of rich media advertising over the past
several years, the IAB has amended its guidelines to better suit this growing
trend.
In general, the IAB
guidelines provide clarity for online advertising and many of the major
stakeholders in the online ad industry, such as AOL, Walk Disney, Condenast,
and Google, have joined the IAB as project partners in the effort to regulate a
fair industry. Guidelines include: ad definitions, acceptable counting methods,
and guidelines for filtration, cacheing, auditing, and disclosure. These
guidelines are “intended to cover on-line browser or browser-equivalent based
Internet activity." (3) They do not cover wireless, off-line cached media
and Interactive-based television because of differences in infrastructure
and/or delivery method. Another important thing to keep in mind is that the
metrics continue to change with the industry; therefore, these guidelines will
probably continue to evolve over time.
Ad formatting allowances
for host sites often varies. The easiest way to better understand the IAB
guidelines is to compare ad specs for popular web publishing companies. I
looked at Media Kits for Martha Stewart Weddings and the New Yorker. Both
companies accept rich media ads; however, the New Yorker is more specific in
their ad specs.
The New Yorker accepts
interstitial (full-page ads that appear before the actual webpage), push down
ads, and video. Ads must less than 30 seconds in length, if video or animation
is used (the price of the ad varies depending on the length and features used).
Video ads can loop up to 3 times, but they can never rollover to replay. Interstitial
ads are limited to 640x480 dimensions, whereas push downs can expand up to
970x418, but they must collapse to 970x66. Push down ads are set by the vendor,
but must push content down and cannot expand over preexisting content. All ads
must be hosted by an approved rich media vendor, which I assume helps the New
Yorker (and really Condenast at large) maintain a standard of quality and
legality. (4)
At Martha Stewart Weddings
site, rich media ads must be hosted by a third party vendor, as well. Martha
Stewart sets some standard sizing limitations, but is less stringent on exact
sizing for each combined advertising option. Instead, this company stresses
that all ads must be user initiated –including audio. The X button must be
visible at all times, enabling the viewer to exit out of the ad at any
time. Any in-banner ads must be
hosted on the homepage; videos can only loop once and must not be longer than
30 seconds. Ads cannot solicit funds or deem the viewer a “winner” for a
particular contest. Any click through feature must open the URL in a new
window, so that the viewer can return to the host site more easily and does not
feel as if he/she has left the page. (5)
The above sites illustrate
the industry guidelines established by IAB, and also the individual allowances
that each company has made for their online media marketing. In general, the
goal is to protect the consumer and to make online advertising a helpful,
enjoyable feature – not something that creates frustration. If that were the
case, it would prove to do more harm than good and would sabotage any campaign
whose goal was to make a profit.
These options are popular
with advertisers because they are popular with consumers. As long as it is not
annoying, the interaction between the user and the ad feature can be a very
positive experience; one might argue that it is reflective of the culture of
the current "social graph" on the web. Simply put, people are more
inclined to pay attention to a product that demands their attention, versus one
that lies flat on the page. The ad directs more traffic to the landing page,
which subsequently results in a higher conversion rates and sales/revenue.
Rich media online
advertising is not only more effective, but it provides the marketing brand
with a much richer data set on its user demographic than the average static ad
with text only. Tech Crunch says that the real value of a rich media ad is
hidden in a store of valuable user data. Not only can you capture the number of
impressions, but the brand can discover how a user is interacting with the ad
and which tabs/services are most popular. It’s a window into the consumer,
his/her online habits and a way to gauge the success of a social media
strategy. (6) This insight allows that brand to refine overall strategy,
messaging, and target audience.
All of these things will
allow for a more cost-effective and successful marketing campaign. Adding video
to a rich media ad is something akin to inserting the "special sauce"
ingredient to a dish. Rich media drives purchase intent, brand awareness, brand
flavorability, balance, and helps better craft overall messaging for the
campaign. When a brand chooses to invest more dollars into video, aligning this
format with the proper target audience (with evidence based research back it
up), it is bound to see an increase in performance rate across the board.
A Double Click research report
released in 2009 says that exposing audiences to a single rich media with video
ad results in an average 1.16% increase in purchase intent among exposed groups
compared to the control group. Using rich media without video results in an
average 0.50% increase over the control group. Simple Flash shows the poorest
results at driving purchase intent. When your goal is to sell, use rich media
formats. (7)
Although it seems obvious
that rich media advertising is the best choice, it is also the most expensive
and is not always an option for a brand, due to budgetary or scheduling
limitations. The price of customizing the ad creative and the cost of
advertising a rich media ad with a host site is much greater than when using a
static ad. For this reason, it is important to carefully choose the ad format
that you use -- and do this on a case to case basis. What works for one
campaign, may not work for another. The most important thing is to plan ahead
and remember that first impressions count. (8) Start by delivering a rich media
ad with video to expose your audience to the best possible snapshot of your
brand. However, if cost is an issue, keep it simple. The ad doesn't have to be
interactive; use static messaging to drive the campaign, but choose video when
possible. Most important, put the message front and center. Don't rely on people
to click on the ad, in order to get the message.
This article is the part of a series of posts that I will make throughout my graduate studies in Marketing and Communications. With a focus on both healthcare and interactive marketing, I hope to gain a better understanding for effective health messaging--which I think plays a key role in a happy, healthy society. Please leave your comments or write to me: camorous@gmail.com.
Resources
(1,6)
Rusli, Evelyn (2010). ClickTurn: Build Rich Media Ads In Half An Hour.
Retrieved from http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/24/clickturn-build-rich-media-ads-in-half-an-hour/
(2, 3)
IAB - Rich Media Creative Guidelines. Retrieved from http://www.iab.net/guidelines/508676/guidelines/Rich_Media_Measurement,
http://www.iab.net/media/file/IAB_Rich_Media_Measurement_11_12_07.pdf
and http://www.iab.net/guidelines/508676/508767/Rich_Media
(4)The
New Yorker - Rich Media Ad Specifications. Retrieved from http://www.condenast.com/brands/new-yorker/media-kit/web/ad-specifications
(5)
Martha Stewart Weddings- 2012 Media Kit. Retrieved from http://www.marthastewartweddings.com/sites/files/marthastewartweddings.com/MSW_2012_Media_Kit.pdf
(7,8)
Cole, Spaulding, and Fayer (2009). The Brand Value of Rich Media and Video Ads.
Retrieved from http://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/www.google.com/en/us/doubleclick/pdfs/DoubleClick-06-2009-The-Brand-Value-of-Rich-Media-and-Video-Ads.pdf
Washington
Post - Media Kit Ad Specs. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-adv/media_kit/adspecs/index.html
New York
Times Ad Intro. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/ads/Intro.html
8.08.2012
Behind the scenes: SEO
Search Engine Optimization
(SEO) is the process by which you can use techniques to improve rankings on the
Search Engine Results Page (SERP). This can be done through a variety of
tactics --some more effective than others. When implementing SEO for a website,
it is important to understand your desired audience. Strategically choose what
tactics you implement and make sure that your campaigns, blogs, social media,
and advertising drive traffic back to your site. If your marketing efforts are
integrated in this fashion, you will have a greater impact overall.
This article is the part of a series of posts that I will make throughout my graduate studies in Marketing and Communications. With a focus on both healthcare and interactive marketing, I hope to gain a better understanding for effective health messaging--which I think plays a key role in a happy, healthy society. Please leave your comments or write to me: camorous@gmail.com.
Search engines produce web
links on their results pages by combing the Internet, looking for key words
that relate to a particular user's search. After noting which sites embrace
those key word concepts, as well as other characteristics of the websites,
search engines classify them for future searches. Depending on the value of the
content, the search engine will rank the site for that particular search on the
results page; this is called the page rank of the site. Page rank is not set in
stone and can improve with good SEO and popularity of the site (i.e. user
traffic). SEO provides webmasters and marketers the opportunity to equip their
sites so that they will come out on top for related search engine results. The
challenge with SEO is to make sure that you are targeting the right audience,
so that your site gets traffic from users who are actually interested in your
content and may later be turned into loyal customers/patients, etc.
To establish good SEO, it
is critical that you build on-page and off-page SEO in order to drive traffic
to a website and increase visibility. On-page SEO includes content, code, and
site architecture. Strive for well-written content that is concise and
comprehensive. Keep your site fresh and up to date, but also comprehensive. If
you are a site that offers articles or lengthy blog posts, consider posting
only 2-3 times per week, instead of every day. According to DiTesco, " Google,
is now looking for “fresh” content. Obviously, if you are talking about something
that is “hot” or trending, the more updated the information is, the better."
(1) Also, make sure that you are giving users what they want. Think about
answering their search question directly -- if you envision your website as the
top result in a search for a new medical procedure, make sure that the story
about that procedure is featured front and center on your site.
Make sure your code is
clean. Code is really just the signals that a programmer establishes to ensure
that a site is optimized for the search engines that crawl the web. Meta
tagging and keywords can help search engines find your info. As Erin Everhart
says on Mashable Tech, "People search in Google because they have a
question. Anticipate those questions — whether about the best style of yoga
pants or where to get the lowest mortgage rate. Your keywords and the content
on your pages should reflect the answers to those questions. Keyword research
is tedious, but it’s arguably the most important aspect of SEO." (2)
You also want to think
about the design of your website and the navigation path that you have set for
the user. Is your site navigation intuitive? Can the user easily find his or
her way from one page to another? User-ability can play a key factor in
capturing the attention of a user and not immediately boring your audience
(this would result in a high bounce rate for your page, if everyone who arrived
immediately left the site).
Off-page SEO ranking can
play a much bigger role in influencing the success of your website. Build links
into your content, highlighting keywords that will take the user to another
part of your site or to an external site of relevance (make sure that the link
opens in a new window, so the user does not leave your site in the process!)
Breadcrumb trails or anchoring text are other ways to show people where they've
been and to allow for the user to orient him/herself. Form relationships with
other like-minded organizations and host referral links to each other's
websites. If the other site has a good reputation, their referral will give
your site increased legitimacy and it will also improve your Google Page Rank.
If SEO is done right, it
can greatly improve your ROI; whatever that may be. SEO can generate a great
deal of revenue for websites that support a PPC (Paid Per Click) advertising
method. As stated in Payperclickuniverse.com, PPC ads are display or bid-based ads
that appear only on high ranking webpages or search results pages. PPC metrics
employ a quality score, determining which ads should appear. As advertises pay
for the placement, the ads are certain to appear instead of having to compete
with other search results, as can sometimes happen with SEO (3). Advertisers
pay the publisher (website owner) when the ad is "clicked." The more
a website leverages SEO, the more traffic will result. Advertisers will then be
attracted to sites that are well-built, with good user friendly interfaces, and
a high volume of traffic. A happy user is more apt to click on an ad and linger
on a site; therefore, revenue potential is high.
Social media is another
area of interactive marketing that should be directly tied to the SEO of a
website. Use your company's social media platform to help your website's page
rank, start a dialogue, and build trust with your audience. A recent article by
Ragan.com states that Google search (debatably the best and most popular search
engine out available) is now actually favoring social media activity --
"likes" and tweets -- over key words and other more traditional
aspects of SEO. (4) Social media can be the perfect place to tie together your
website, media coverage in the news, advertising campaigns, and blog posts or
reviews. Share these things with your audience and keep a close eye on your analytics
for your website. Trial and error is often the best approach when crafting a
message, as the audience is different for every brand. Test it out to see what works. Sometimes something as
simple as the time of day that you choose to post can slightly alter the
demographic of your viewers.
SEO is only one piece to
the larger puzzle of what is called "inbound marketing" for a brand
or company. If you take a look at this Infographic on hubspot.com, it is easy
to see the strong relationship between SEO for a website and the overall ROI for
a marketing strategy. The Infographic "helps inbound marketers understand
the entire inbound process from start to finish -- from getting found online,
to converting visitors into leads and customers, and then measuring the entire
funnel." (5)
After considering all of
the points made above, it is critical to remember that like most things on the
web, best practices for SEO are forever changing. It is important to update and
freshen up SEO periodically, staying abreast of the latest developments. As DiTesco
says on his iBlogZone, " SEO is
not dead as many would like you to believe, but it is constantly changing and
as new factors come into play, others go." (6)
This article is the part of a series of posts that I will make throughout my graduate studies in Marketing and Communications. With a focus on both healthcare and interactive marketing, I hope to gain a better understanding for effective health messaging--which I think plays a key role in a happy, healthy society. Please leave your comments or write to me: camorous@gmail.com.
References
(1, 6) Perez, Fransisco
(2012). The Best SEO Practices and Tips 2012. Retrieved from http://www.iblogzone.com/2012/01/best-seo-practices-tips-2012.html
(2) Everhart, Erin (2011).
6 Best Practices for Modern SEO. Retrieved from http://mashable.com/2011/11/08/seo-best-practices/
(3)Pay Per Click Universe
(2012). Organic SEO and Paid Search: Friends or Foes? Retrieved from http://www.payperclickuniverse.com/pay-per-click-search-engines-articles/organic-seo-and-paid-search-friends-or-foes/
(4) Kramer, Shelley (2012).
Google favors Facebook shares, 'likes,' and comments more than keywords.
Retrieved from http://www.ragan.com/Main/Articles/45186.aspx
(5)Vaughan, Pamela (2012). How
Inbound Marketing Works, From Start to Finish [INFOGRAPHIC]. Retrieved from http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/31271/Inbound-Marketing-From-Start-to-Finish-INFOGRAPHIC.aspx/
Common Craft (2011). What
is Search Engine Optimization/ SEO? Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF515-0Tduk
7.17.2012
Addicted
With a lot of my focus centered on social media these days (for work, in class, in the news), I took one of those long pauses to consider why networks like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and blogging play such an important role in our lives today.
On any given day, I will probably access and engage in social at least 6-8 times. I login to Facebook in the morning to check our brand page for work. I wish my friends a happy birthday, if their special day happens to be popping up in my newsfeed and I will continue to browse content for my brand page related to my field of health care. I then read straight news articles and make a post for my healthcare organization on some relevant material.
If I am not in the middle of running a planned campaign, I will usually post something educational and link to an online resource. Other times I'll choose to link to a news article or program offering. Typically, I monitor the site for 1-2 hrs after posting, leaving the browser open so that I can pick up on any negative activity immediately, while I move on to other marketing work. I will check back at lunch and in the afternoon, depending on work meetings and the structure of my day. I always have my mobile phone on hand, which will alert me to activity regardless. Right now my evenings are spent studying, but inevitably, I will return to social media for personal browsing and updates on my friends and family.
Wow. You probably think I'm addicted, now. Which may be the case -- but it's a good thing. I manage the social media platform at work, which is a big task. I am responsible for growing our fan base, with significant outcomes each year. As a nonprofit, we has chosen to use only organic efforts (campaigns, interactive marketing, and creative ideas) to promote our social media. We do not use paid advertising. It is also critical to our success that we target the correct demographic, ensuring that our efforts will yield the proper results.
And it's all about the metrics! Seriously, everything these days is measurable and this is a tool that is invaluable. Measuring the value of a LIKE or the virality of a message on Facebook allows for analysis and tweaking that can greatly improve your marketing method and legitimize your brand. If you learn as you go and stay abreast of the latest developments in social media, you are on your game. The potential ROI for interactive online marketing is unprecedented.
There are many thought processes that make a marketing campaign a success, but the most important thing to keep in mind is why are people using sites like Facebook anyway? What makes these sites addicting? Why is it that people stay on these sites for MUCH longer than the average web search or page visit?
Because...
1. You can connect with friends who live in all parts of the world or from different stages of your lives. These are people that you cannot see on an every day basis, but you can keep up to date on some of the ins and outs via Facebook. Sharing challenges and triumphs with people you care about is one of the greatest joys of life.
2. You can get useful info -- current news stories, job opportunities, education on topic. All of this info can be accessed and shared by valuable individuals, your "friends." A recommendation for a restaurant or a promotional deal for a local store is much more believable and reliable coming from a friend. Trust is at the base of all Facebook interactions; trust breeds sharing.
3. You can keep yourself busy stalking people (not literally, although that some times happens). When you get bored or need inspiration, Facebook is the place to go! It is possible to suck up hours and hours of time on internet and sites like Facebook are big culprits.
Good things to keep in mind. Why does social media matter to you? There's a good chance that it matters to your next door neighbor for many of those same reasons. Of course there are always differences between different populations and the marketer must take that into account, as well.
This article is the part of a series of posts that I will make throughout my graduate studies in Marketing and Communications. With a focus on both healthcare and interactive marketing, I hope to gain a better understanding for effective health messaging--which I think plays a key role in a happy, healthy society. Please leave your comments or write to me: camorous@gmail.com.
On any given day, I will probably access and engage in social at least 6-8 times. I login to Facebook in the morning to check our brand page for work. I wish my friends a happy birthday, if their special day happens to be popping up in my newsfeed and I will continue to browse content for my brand page related to my field of health care. I then read straight news articles and make a post for my healthcare organization on some relevant material.
If I am not in the middle of running a planned campaign, I will usually post something educational and link to an online resource. Other times I'll choose to link to a news article or program offering. Typically, I monitor the site for 1-2 hrs after posting, leaving the browser open so that I can pick up on any negative activity immediately, while I move on to other marketing work. I will check back at lunch and in the afternoon, depending on work meetings and the structure of my day. I always have my mobile phone on hand, which will alert me to activity regardless. Right now my evenings are spent studying, but inevitably, I will return to social media for personal browsing and updates on my friends and family.
Wow. You probably think I'm addicted, now. Which may be the case -- but it's a good thing. I manage the social media platform at work, which is a big task. I am responsible for growing our fan base, with significant outcomes each year. As a nonprofit, we has chosen to use only organic efforts (campaigns, interactive marketing, and creative ideas) to promote our social media. We do not use paid advertising. It is also critical to our success that we target the correct demographic, ensuring that our efforts will yield the proper results.
And it's all about the metrics! Seriously, everything these days is measurable and this is a tool that is invaluable. Measuring the value of a LIKE or the virality of a message on Facebook allows for analysis and tweaking that can greatly improve your marketing method and legitimize your brand. If you learn as you go and stay abreast of the latest developments in social media, you are on your game. The potential ROI for interactive online marketing is unprecedented.
There are many thought processes that make a marketing campaign a success, but the most important thing to keep in mind is why are people using sites like Facebook anyway? What makes these sites addicting? Why is it that people stay on these sites for MUCH longer than the average web search or page visit?
Because...
1. You can connect with friends who live in all parts of the world or from different stages of your lives. These are people that you cannot see on an every day basis, but you can keep up to date on some of the ins and outs via Facebook. Sharing challenges and triumphs with people you care about is one of the greatest joys of life.
2. You can get useful info -- current news stories, job opportunities, education on topic. All of this info can be accessed and shared by valuable individuals, your "friends." A recommendation for a restaurant or a promotional deal for a local store is much more believable and reliable coming from a friend. Trust is at the base of all Facebook interactions; trust breeds sharing.
3. You can keep yourself busy stalking people (not literally, although that some times happens). When you get bored or need inspiration, Facebook is the place to go! It is possible to suck up hours and hours of time on internet and sites like Facebook are big culprits.
Good things to keep in mind. Why does social media matter to you? There's a good chance that it matters to your next door neighbor for many of those same reasons. Of course there are always differences between different populations and the marketer must take that into account, as well.
This article is the part of a series of posts that I will make throughout my graduate studies in Marketing and Communications. With a focus on both healthcare and interactive marketing, I hope to gain a better understanding for effective health messaging--which I think plays a key role in a happy, healthy society. Please leave your comments or write to me: camorous@gmail.com.
7.13.2012
www.what the heck am I doing.com
When working in PR/Marketing, it's only a matter of time before you will be asked to help redesign a website. If you are one of the lucky few who never has this task (not to say it's not enjoyable, it's just tedious) then "Lucky you!" You still need to understand the ins and outs of a good site, in order to strategically place ad campaigns.
Tell the Brand Story
A website serves as the "home base" for your brand. The strategy behind a website should be to create an accessible and easy-to-use website that embodies your organization's brand and legitimizes your message. When a marketer is speaking on the phone to the media, referencing his or her company to clients, or providing feedback to a board of directors, it is important to have a website that represents the entire company and highlights the significance of the work being done. In some sense, a website should tell a story on its own -- as a website visit can be a one time chance to capture the attention of the user.
Aesthetics
Web layout and visual appeal are key. It is important to keep the branding consistent across the board for an organization or company, so the color palette for the website should align with the logo and other existing branding. A website should also use color combinations that make the text readable and easy to recognize (sometimes dark colors on dark backgrounds can make text undetectable). Consistent branding is also important as often users visit the site after tying a keyword into a search engine, such as Google. It is important that they recognize where they are and that the site branding confirms that they have come to the correct place. Otherwise, they will immediately exit the site and, thus, contribute to the "bounce rate" in your site analytics (something you'd rather keep low - trust me!)
Navigation & User Experience
Visual appearance is only part of the equation for the perfect website. The navigation and layout of the site are also critical to creating a comfortable, easy environment for users. The "user experience" is what determines popularity of a site, the number of page visits, and the length of time that one user will spend browsing content. If a site is easy to navigate - meaning the navigation is intuitive, well marked, and fast- then the user will be happy. From that point on, good content will speak for itself. Interesting reading, helpful material such as downloadable PDFs, and interactive video will capture the user's attention. Content should be written in plain English- no clinical jargon or academic prose.
Know Your Audience
Keep in mind the unique needs that your users may have, as well as their expectations. You want their experience at your website to be a memorable, pleasant experience. Whether that means going out of you way to make online accommodations for vision or hearing impaired users; streaming news feeds or stock market updates to maintain user attention; or providing a "one stop shop" portal for users to access a list of resources, in addition to your site, that might meet their needs if they did not find what they needed at your site. Much of the reasoning behind choosing a site layout should be to make the user experience easy for all audiences: community members, educators, physicians, students, and patients who may be accessing the site as a resource. When considering a patient, it is important to remember that some times symptoms of an illness can make everyday tasks challenging. Just another reason to tailor your user's web experience as best you can. Enabling access for people of all abilities is key to building a sustainable website.
Personalize it!
Website personalization is an area where health communicators have to proceed with great caution. Any app or login feature would need to be highly secure in order to protect patient health information and confidentiality. A login feature gives users who frequent a site the ability to participate in multiple event registrations, surveys, or webinars without re-entering registration info each time. Instead, the form would pre-populate with their info, made possible using cookies. Personalization does greatly enhance user experience. The information that users volunteer when they login, becomes an important piece of intel for marketing strategy. We will discuss this in a future post.
Mobile Ready
Finally, in the current times it is crucial that a website be "skinned" for mobile devices. Everyone accesses the web via iPhones, Androids, iPads, eNotebooks, etc. and a company can miss out on an opportunity to engage a user if the website shows up in very poor quality on a mobile device. Nothing is more frustrating to a user then finding a website and then realizing that it is impossible to access half of the site because it goes off the screen.
Do the work for your user - make the content easy to access. For me, this is the real message when it comes to website best practices for websites.
References:
http://www.homebaseprogram.org/ http://ask.enquiro.com/2010/a-big-list-of-user-experience-best-practices/
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/11/best-practices-for-6-common-user-interface-elements/
http://mobilewebbestpractices.com/user-experience/
This article is the part of a series of posts that I will make throughout my graduate studies in Marketing and Communications. With a focus on both healthcare and interactive marketing, I hope to gain a better understanding for effective health messaging--which I think plays a key role in a happy, healthy society. Please leave your comments or write to me: camorous@gmail.com.
Tell the Brand Story
A website serves as the "home base" for your brand. The strategy behind a website should be to create an accessible and easy-to-use website that embodies your organization's brand and legitimizes your message. When a marketer is speaking on the phone to the media, referencing his or her company to clients, or providing feedback to a board of directors, it is important to have a website that represents the entire company and highlights the significance of the work being done. In some sense, a website should tell a story on its own -- as a website visit can be a one time chance to capture the attention of the user.
Aesthetics
Web layout and visual appeal are key. It is important to keep the branding consistent across the board for an organization or company, so the color palette for the website should align with the logo and other existing branding. A website should also use color combinations that make the text readable and easy to recognize (sometimes dark colors on dark backgrounds can make text undetectable). Consistent branding is also important as often users visit the site after tying a keyword into a search engine, such as Google. It is important that they recognize where they are and that the site branding confirms that they have come to the correct place. Otherwise, they will immediately exit the site and, thus, contribute to the "bounce rate" in your site analytics (something you'd rather keep low - trust me!)
Navigation & User Experience
Visual appearance is only part of the equation for the perfect website. The navigation and layout of the site are also critical to creating a comfortable, easy environment for users. The "user experience" is what determines popularity of a site, the number of page visits, and the length of time that one user will spend browsing content. If a site is easy to navigate - meaning the navigation is intuitive, well marked, and fast- then the user will be happy. From that point on, good content will speak for itself. Interesting reading, helpful material such as downloadable PDFs, and interactive video will capture the user's attention. Content should be written in plain English- no clinical jargon or academic prose.
Know Your Audience
Keep in mind the unique needs that your users may have, as well as their expectations. You want their experience at your website to be a memorable, pleasant experience. Whether that means going out of you way to make online accommodations for vision or hearing impaired users; streaming news feeds or stock market updates to maintain user attention; or providing a "one stop shop" portal for users to access a list of resources, in addition to your site, that might meet their needs if they did not find what they needed at your site. Much of the reasoning behind choosing a site layout should be to make the user experience easy for all audiences: community members, educators, physicians, students, and patients who may be accessing the site as a resource. When considering a patient, it is important to remember that some times symptoms of an illness can make everyday tasks challenging. Just another reason to tailor your user's web experience as best you can. Enabling access for people of all abilities is key to building a sustainable website.
Personalize it!
Website personalization is an area where health communicators have to proceed with great caution. Any app or login feature would need to be highly secure in order to protect patient health information and confidentiality. A login feature gives users who frequent a site the ability to participate in multiple event registrations, surveys, or webinars without re-entering registration info each time. Instead, the form would pre-populate with their info, made possible using cookies. Personalization does greatly enhance user experience. The information that users volunteer when they login, becomes an important piece of intel for marketing strategy. We will discuss this in a future post.
Mobile Ready
Finally, in the current times it is crucial that a website be "skinned" for mobile devices. Everyone accesses the web via iPhones, Androids, iPads, eNotebooks, etc. and a company can miss out on an opportunity to engage a user if the website shows up in very poor quality on a mobile device. Nothing is more frustrating to a user then finding a website and then realizing that it is impossible to access half of the site because it goes off the screen.
Do the work for your user - make the content easy to access. For me, this is the real message when it comes to website best practices for websites.
References:
http://www.homebaseprogram.org/ http://ask.enquiro.com/2010/a-big-list-of-user-experience-best-practices/
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/11/best-practices-for-6-common-user-interface-elements/
http://mobilewebbestpractices.com/user-experience/
This article is the part of a series of posts that I will make throughout my graduate studies in Marketing and Communications. With a focus on both healthcare and interactive marketing, I hope to gain a better understanding for effective health messaging--which I think plays a key role in a happy, healthy society. Please leave your comments or write to me: camorous@gmail.com.
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