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Social media is everywhere, and studies show the average American likes to visit sites like Twitter and Facebook on a daily basis. So, that means social media marketing must be incredibly important to your online marketing plan, doesn't it? 

Or, to get closer to the point, does being successful on social media necessarily indicate that you are well on your way to Internet marketing profits?

A lot of companies are asking themselves that very question, as they pour lots of time and money into things like sponsored tweets, viral campaigns, and other distinctly social tools. On the one hand, they're putting their faith into the power of social networks; but on the other, they are very aware of the fact that few companies have been able to show a definite link between successful social marketing and real bottom-line improvement.

So, how do you answer this question for your business, and determine whether you should be pouring resources into social media marketing? Here are a few guidelines to help you:

1. First, it's important to note that most businesses should be taking advantage of some form of social media, even if it isn't advertising or extensive campaigns. It's a great way to communicate with customers and meet buyers one-on-one, so you don't want to miss out on that opportunity.


2. Next, consider treating your social profiles as you would any other Internet marketing tool (such as a banner ad or pay-per-click campaign). You wouldn't spend money on those without tracking the results and seeing what you're getting in return, so don't do that with social media, either.


3. And finally, you shouldn't put an inordinate amount of time and energy into anything that you aren't sure is going to pay off. Feel free to experiment and work at your social profiles, but don't do it at the expense of email marketing, search engine optimization, and other proven means.

If you're looking for the right online marketing mix for your business, why not let the Kinetik team of experts help? Call us today to arrange for a free consultation and see what we've been able to do for other companies just like yours.

It's a little bit ironic that a lot of people who use "social" media extensively find themselves sorely lacking in social skills. Believe it or not, there is a certain decorum to the way things are done on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and the further you stray from it, the more your manners are going to affect your ability to market yourself and your company.

Think of social media sites as a big dinner party; it's okay to talk business and network a bit, but being rude and overbearing is only going to scare people away. Here are three quick tips to help you stay polite and profitable:

It's ok to put your business out there. People, even those you don't know personally, will sometimes be interested in your company, what you do for a living. Feel free to answer questions enthusiastically, but don't make every profile or post into a virtual advertisement; you'll only push interested prospects away.

Don't dominate every conversation. Just as in real life, if no one else can get a word in edgewise, or express an opinion that's contrary to yours, you aren't exactly going to attract new friends. Be engaged but not bullying – you want to leave people with the impression that you’re a helpful professional, not someone in full-time marketing mode.

Participate in conversations started by others. Whether it's online discussions, forums, or even just short posts on their wall, try to get involved beyond your own content once in a while. Not only does that make everything a lot more fun, but it shows that you’re online for reasons other than making a quick buck.

There are a lot of great potential customers for you to meet through social media. Just be sure to follow the rules and stay in their good graces the same way you would if they were actually sitting across from you.

Believe itThere's a lot that goes into successful email marketing – so much, in fact, that entire books and seminars have been devoted to the subject. And yet, a lot of business owners and marketers don't understand the one unbreakable rule for sending email newsletters… or not, that rule isn't that you have to continually promote your products and services to the contacts on your list. Instead, it's a reminder that you simply cannot afford to lose subscribers unnecessarily.

Why is this so important? Once upon a time, it wasn't that difficult to find new subscribers. In fact, the numbers suggested that you could come out ahead by offering one product or discount after another. If you pushed a little too hard and someone removed themselves from your list, you could almost always find a few others to replace them if you were willing to work at it. 

Now, though, people are being much more selective about what they'll allow in their inbox, and a lot of marketers are seeing their email newsletter subscription list losing clients as a result. And, when you lose a subscriber, you might be permanently losing an ongoing sales opportunity to work with someone who was once interested in your products and services. If you can't replace them, you're taking a valuable part of your Internet marketing effort and throwing it away forever.

For that reason, it's important that you follow a few simple guidelines:

• Don't contact your subscribers too often; for most businesses, between two and four times a month is plenty.

• Respect your subscribers' time; don't send them offers that aren't relevant to what they need.

• Mix in some interesting articles along with your sales message; don't make your newsletter completely promotional.

• And finally, offer unique discounts or ideas in your newsletter; you want to prevent subscribers from leaving by giving them something they can’t get anywhere else.

Of all the parts of search engine optimization that give headaches to SEO professionals and clients alike, few are as frustrating as link-building. That's because, to get it right, you have to not only secure links from other sites and pages, but make sure that the ones that are coming in are high quality. And usually, that means doing it one e-mail or phone call at a time.

With that in mind, we'd like to offer a tip that can help you out, regardless of whether you're doing the work yourself or working with a search engine optimization partner: do the math and see the big picture.

Here's what we mean: when you first start looking for links, you'll probably feel an overwhelming temptation to contact anyone and everyone and ask them to partner with your site. You might even think about sending a mass e-mail, or looking for "link farms" that promise thousands of inbound links for just a few dollars. Sadly, those tactics don't work anymore, and could even irreparably harm your search engine position.

A better tactic is to look for good, high-quality links one at a time. This can come from having your search engine professional contact others, from writing articles and guest blog posts, or from reaching out to other webmasters yourself. Whichever way you're going, however, pace yourself a little bit. Think back to math class; if you can manage to contact just five people a day, that will work out to roughly 1,250 per year. Not all of them are going to link back to your site, but enough of them could agree to it to make a dramatic impact in your long-term search engine positioning.

It's easy, in search engine optimization and other forms of online marketing, to want to do everything right now. But exercise a little patience, remember the way the real world math works, and you'll be at the top of Google, Yahoo, and Bing in no time.

KINETIK NOTE: Don't just take the word of an SEO company.  Get your info directly from the source: Matt Cutts, head of Google Spam Team  and know what bad link building practices are. You might be surprised to find that many SEO companies use these practices and you can learn avoid them.

Admit it: You know web analytics can be useful and informative, but you don’t look at them as much as you should (beyond checking out how many visitors you had), and aren’t entirely sure you understand what you’re looking at.

The good news is you certainly aren’t alone in that conundrum. A lot of our clients check their web analytics somewhere between “rarely” and “never.” And of the ones that do, most peek at the convenient graphs to make sure someone is reading their blog posts and then move on.

The bad news is that you could be missing out on some really important details – including a few that could help you make your website significantly more profitable – by failing to study important signs and indicators. Getting the “big-picture view” you’re looking for doesn’t have to be that hard; you just have to understand a few basics.

Here are five web analytics details you can’t afford to ignore:

1. Your top traffic sources. This isn’t just important for the obvious reason, that you want to know which parts of your advertising and promotion are working, but also because you want to know what type of visitors are coming to your website and what’s on their mind when they click through. That knowledge can help you subtly change the way pages are written and constructed, because you’ll have a better sense of what your visitors actually want.

2. Popular referral keywords. If people are using your most important search engine optimization phrases to find your website, you’re in good shape. However, if you’re finding a lot of terms that aren’t relevant to your business, it might be time to adjust your SEO strategy. Also, you’ll want to see whether or not your focus keywords are leading to conversions, since getting lots of traffic doesn’t always lead to big results.

3. Time on site. This is a sneaky statistic – one that’s incredibly important but not always noticed often enough. If visitors are coming to your site and staying, that’s a very good sign even if they aren’t making purchases or calling your business right away. At the very least, they’re finding something that’s interesting and relevant to them. On the other hand, if you have lots of visitors but very little time being spent on your website, that’s a sign you need more content, better usability, or a different kind of visitor than the one you’re getting.

4. Bounce rates. While they generally get a bad name, bounce rates, the percentage of people who leave your site from a specific web page, don’t always indicate problems. In fact, a high bounce rate in certain areas could indicate that a visitor found what they were looking for and then moved on. High bounce rates on specific landing pages could tell you that conversions aren’t as strong as they need to be, though, so they’re important to keep an eye on.

5. Conversion goals. Presumably there’s something you’re hoping people will do when they visit your website. Maybe you want them to buy something from your online store or fill out a form with their contact information so they can receive a free e-book. Whatever it is, you’ll want to keep a close eye on those stats. Don’t just study the net results, but also what type of visitors are responding to your offer, what search terms your converted visitors used, and so on. That data is going to make your campaign stronger over the long term.

Your website’s analytics reporting can seem complicated and arcane when you first start using it. Spend a little time getting to know the major features and tools, however, and we guarantee you’ll be comfortable in no time. Better yet, you’ll understand where your web traffic is coming from and how you can make the most of it.

KINETIK IT NOTE: When you are inside the Customization tab, click on the gallery link.  Many smart and experienced analysts have put together a variety of high quality reports.  You can find what you need and easily install in your dashboard.  Here is a the Google  Analytics Custom Report resource: https://www.google.com/analytics/gallery/

As a cool way to communicate and share information, Twitter almost seems like an old staple by now. In fact, it's hard to remember how we ever lived without it! As a tool for online marketing, however, things are still a little bit murky. Even Dell, a massive company with an extensive social media department and enormous resources, recently admitted that they essentially had to guess how much money they were (or weren’t) making from their Twitter activities.

Because that kind of confusion can make it hard for small business owners to know how, when, and how often to take advantage of Twitter, we would like to offer you three great ways to take advantage of the platform:

To share breaking news and announcements. Because tweets can travel so quickly, and be spread with a minimum of effort or input, it makes sense to share new developments through Twitter. In fact, Twitter can even be a faster way to spread the word than e-mail can, so make sure to make it is the backbone of your announcement strategy.

To answer common questions from customers and colleagues. Yes, there should be an FAQ section on your website, but if you seem to find yourself responding to the same issues over and over, why not turn it into a tweet? Not only will you get some exposure, but it could help your explanation to be indexed by search engines, too.

To announce sales and specials. This is probably the most popular use, and one you should definitely take advantage of. Notice that we put it last, however; constantly broadcasting offers to buy something is perhaps the quickest way to lose followers and turn happy customers into uninterested strangers. Twitter can be a great tool for promoting your business, but only if you have other things to say once in a while, too.

If you aren't already marketing your company and its products to online videos, then stop and ask yourself why not. Not only is YouTube garnering more than 2 billion hits per day, effectively making it the world's second-largest search engine, but it's been a breakthrough marketing platform for all kinds of businesses all over the world.

Unfortunately, however, not all of the videos companies produce have the effect that was intended. More often than not, it's not because the message was off or are there wasn't any interest, but because the marketer was missing an essential element. Here are three things missing from a lot of small business online marketing videos:

Professional editing. Unless it's something wildly entertaining – like two cats boxing to the theme of a popular movie – most people aren't going to take the time to watch your video if it looks like it was shot on a camcorder in your garage. Don't skimp on the scripting and editing of your online marketing video; you’re only cutting back on the results you get.

A call to action. What is it you want people to do after they have seen your video on YouTube or elsewhere? Is it to buy a product, to request more information, or something else altogether? You have to decide this beforehand, and make the next step very clear to the viewer. Otherwise, all they're going to do is click on to the next video.

Your contact information. While this might seem like the same thing, it's actually important that you display any pertinent link of telephone number for at least 5 seconds at the end of your video clip. It should also be the last image that stays on the screen when the video is finished playing. It's a small point, but one that can boost your response rate significantly.

Used correctly, pay per click advertising can be one of the best, and fastest, ways to bring qualified prospects to your website. It's not always as cost-effective as organic search engine optimization, of course, but it does have some distinct advantages: namely, that you can have it up and running in minutes, and that you can specify any landing page that you want, making changes and testing them instantly.

But one thing that a lot of online marketers struggle with is determining the right spending level for their PPC campaigns. Paying too much, and you're basically pouring money down a funnel; commit too little, and you'll never see results.

Here are three quick tips for setting your pay per click budget on Google, Yahoo, and Bing:

Measure sales closely. Ultimately, the decision about how much to spend should come down to the issue of how much you're earning in return. If it's coming back to you in new sales almost immediately, then don't stop as long as it's profitable; if not, then ask yourself why, and set your budget accordingly in the meantime.

Measure other activity. In some industries, a successful "hit" from the pay per click campaign might not lead to an immediate sale. That's why it's so important to track the source of new business, as well as residual effects over time. Just because someone doesn't call or pick up the phone right away doesn't mean they won't later. Often, a PPC campaign can be more profitable than you first think when you get the chance to look at the big picture.

Don't bid all out for no reason. Obviously, the first ad position on any page is going to get the most hits, all things being considered. But what a lot of marketers don't realize is that the second, third, and even eighth positions can get a lot of traffic too – especially in certain markets where there's a lot of competition. That means it doesn't always make sense to pay for the top spots. Try bidding for a few different positions and see how your results are affected – you might find that you can get a much bigger return by having your ad displayed a bit lower in the results.

Even a few years ago, standard advice from a web designer online marketing team would be to start a blog and RSS feed on your website, and to populate both with company or industry news as often as possible. After all, what better way to keep people informed and build your own content profile at the same time then by giving them a constant taste of what's going on the world?

That makes sense, until you fast-forward a handful of years and find that everyone's doing it.

In fact, with the sheer number of news sites out there, RSS feeds available, and even real-time search engine updates, the problem isn't that people are having any trouble finding what's going on, but that it's hard to sort through all the news and find information.

With that in mind, one easy way for you to set your website and business apart from all its competitors is by giving visitors what they really crave: insight and advice, rather than a steady stream of data. Unless your customers are living in a cave, they already know what's going on – what they want from you is a better sense of what new developments mean to them.

That means populating your site with columns, blog posts, and other updates that center on sound business advice. Don't just tell people what you saw, fill them in on what it means to them, what future implications could be, how they might profit from it in the future, and so on. Before long, you'll find that you won't have to seek visitors just through search engines and online newsletters, because they'll be telling each other about you and showing up on their own.

There were plenty of places for people to go and find news online, and they probably do the job better than your company could. But what no one can duplicate is your specific industry knowledge and insight, so keep that in mind and give your customers what it is they really want.

In our experience, search engine optimization is wildly popular with small business owners because of the potential to bring in thousands of new potential customers from Google, Yahoo, and Bing every day.

However, you can't miss the forest for the trees. As great as SEO is, there are still some pitfalls to avoid. Clients tend to think that it's all about getting to the top spot on Google, but there's a little more to it than that. Here are two things you absolutely can't overlook when it comes to search engine optimization:

You have to start with the right research. Being on the first page for a keyword is great, but only if it's one that can ultimately bring you customers. We see far too many online marketers concentrate on words and phrases they think will bring lots of traffic, when what they should be focused on is finding the right set of visitors who are likely to buy.

Your landing pages still need to be persuasive for buyers. Just as bringing the wrong sets of visitors to your site will not help you sell anything, neither will bringing the right ones if you can't give them compelling reasons to do what you want them to. Search engine optimization is valuable only if it leads to action. Don't forget that and fall into the trap of thinking that a whole lot of traffic will automatically translate into an unimaginable number of sales… it doesn't always happen that way, especially if your web pages aren't well-written and designed.