Buffer's Social Failure / Watershed
Last wee Buffer wrote about losing 40% of their "social traffic". While key metrics such as conversion rates or the value of the lost traffic weren't included their panic was unmistakeable.
Never panic may be the hardest lesson my team and I learned during my 7 year tenure as Director of Ecommerce for a multimillion dollar website. We didn't start that way.
We started as frightened and panic stricken as Buffer. We learned the hard way how little panic matters. The web is MATH and GAMBLING. Sometimes the math turns FOR you and sometimes against.
@Cendrine Marrouat - https://www.cendrinemedia.com makes great points in her LInkedIn post (linked along with my comment with a jump link on Make Buffer's Social Failure Your Success (http://www.curagami.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/buffer-failure-your-success.png ). One of my favorite points, and one overlooked by the Buffer team, is LOOK TO THYSELF.
Cendrine points to a harsh new truth - the world is FASTER, LEANER and more VISUAL than before. She notes how poorly Buffer has tuned their content to our new mobile, social and gamified world. Brilliant point well made (as usual form a favorite #mustfollow curator),
My point is Buffer ISN'T asking the right questions in the right way. They assume they want their traffic back, but they don't explain what if any deeper meaning their traffic has to their WHY - the reason they exist, the reason users love them. I point out that if traffic goes down but conversions go UP life is good since Buffer would be paying less for more subscribers.
The abject terror in Buffer's post would seem to indicate conversions are off too. As I noted in my original post, conversions are a TRAILING indicator and so unlikely to be off nearly as much as their traffic. Another way of saying that is losing some of their "social traffic" is nothing but net (good).
If I were part of Buffer's team we would be exploring Cendrine's important point - has our content and so our brand lost touch with our customers? What do we stand for? Why do our customers love us? Why might a new generation of customer love us?
None of those questions seem to be on Buffer's agenda. Instead they are on a "traffic hunt", a mistake so many make since meaningless metrics such as followers, traffic and likes abound. As I point out in our Curagami post - NO METRIC MEANS ANYTHING ON IT's OWN. Every metric is TIED to some other metric.
We tied traffic to money. Our $ by visitor was a great way to VALUE traffic in a meaningful way. When traffic went up or down money per visitor usually trailed. If traffic was down 40% money per visitor was probably down 15% or 20%. Eventually those lines cross or reach zero and you don't want that (lol).
Best way to avoid having your metrics reach zero is to avoid PANIC (it doesn't help and can distract), test, create a new plan, seek input and ask for help. Buffer is doing some of those, but they are using community tactics in a pedantic way - telling instead of showing, asking for help but not curating responses, not handing their keys over to the kids (their community).
So they started GREAT but have slipped back into the solipsism virus that effects so many web marketers. Cendrine's brilliant point about the TYPE of content being created is getting more of an airing on my blogs and social than Buffers (not good).
What about you? Are you experiencing "social traffic decline"? Have you stopped using tools like Buffer recently? Why? What do you think Buffer can do to recover?
Share your answers here, in comments on the Curagami post or email martin(at)Curagami.com and we will curate your thoughts in with a link back. Thanks, Marty
Want to provide some great unboxing experience for your customers, but don't know where to start? Learn the basics on transforming a package into a gift.
Martin (Marty) Smith:
We think mobile + social makes the "unboxing experience" one of the hidden blue oceans of ecommerce. Why don't more ecom sites have galleries of videos and pictures of people sharing their "unboxing experience". Answer: most online retailers think their job is to sell stuff. Not so much these social / mobile days.
Now our jobs revolve around creating sustainable online communities and finding ways for your customers to share unboxing is like Christmas morning over and over. Why wouldn't you want to SHARE your customers' joy at their unboxing?
Oh, btw, better make sure your unboxing experience over delivers (so ASK for help from your best customers if needed to make your unboxing better).
30 Ecom Strategies & Tactics To Master
No wonder most ecommerce teams feel overwhelmed. Off the top of our heads we came up with 30 complex "mini-systems" that must be mastered to create greatness in online commerce.
Gone are the days when a little of this and that could win the day in online retail. Today all 30 of these tactics and strategies dance together requiring sophisticated understanding of individual trends, tools and ideas to win.
Things change too fast to really KNOW anything. Instead teams must surf waves, learn and fail fast and then wax up their boards for another wild ride.
Did we miss any BIG IDEAS your ecommerce team is managing. Soon we will support this infographic with a http://www.Curagami.com post to further explain each strategy and tactic. In the meantime let us know what we missed in comments or email martin(at)Curagami.com.
Thanks and remember DEEP SLOW BREATHES and if you aren't having FUN your visitors will know. They will feel it.
Social & Mobile Ecommerce
Ecommerce is being transformed by social and mobile. The implications for merchants are VAST. How your Ecommerce site creates conversations and digitally listens will determine its value. No matter how social your online store it isn't social enough for the immediate future.This Haiku Deck can help your site do things like:
* Create conversations that lower costs and increase profits.
* Build an online community.
* Learn to listen "digitally".
* Scale your store to the next level.
* Create an engine that mines User Generated Content.
Can your store be too social? Not so much as it turns out.
Old Ecommerce OVER, New Ecommerce ??
I'm not sure I go all the way here. Our Curagami (@Curagami) #startup created a free white paper about Why Ecommerce Marketing Is Broken (http://www.curagami.com/e-commerce-marketing-broken-whitepaper/ ) and we see DATA as a CSF (Critical Success Factor) for SURE.
Data without connection is a wish without fulfillment. That nit aside the IDEA of a more OBJECTIVE and FAST ecommerce future we agree with 100%.
BTW, Team Curagami believes we need new Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) too :).
Creating a distributed content network with widgets is a vast blue ocean of low cost, high reward Internet marketing today. Won't be that way for long.
At AddShoppers we have been busy number crunching. “Why?” We wanted to help eCommerce store owners and social experts understand a monetary value for soc
Martin (Marty) Smith:
Wow, helpful stats for pitching the "new ecom" to the c-level here.
Scale Is The Game & Amazon is WINNING
The web game is different than bricks and mortar. On the Internet scale is what matters. Doubt that? Look at Amazon's amazingly quick catch-up on social media marketing. From laggards to Kings:
* 22M Facebook Likes.
* 1M Twitter Followers. * Traffic Rank #5 (US where lower is better). * 1M inbound links.
* 38M pages in Google.
Amazon doesn't care if it makes money on a particular product because they know scale creates money. Soon they will make more money from their web services than from selling goods.
Amazon had to build a vast network of warehouses and servers. Once that network was built it presented a new revenue opportunity - Amazon web services. Amazon knows they don't find that new pot of gold without their aggressive actions on merchandising and creation of their partner network.
Amazon also knows the people who make the real money in a gold rush are the merchants supplying the shovels and tools. The shovel and tool business is always good as long as merchants are smart enough to know when one thing is almost over in order to move on to the next.
Unfortunately for all Amazon, largely thanks to the Wall Street roots, seems adroit at knowing when to pivot, twist and what dance will be next. Bezos' Wall Street thinking where everything is an arbitrage and you diversify your portfolio, act fast and think long term has helped the company to rule the web.
Martin (Marty) Smith:
Set Social Expectations & Then BEAT THEM
Michael Jordan knew how to set expectations and then beat them. I was lucky enough to see him play several playoff games and the superstar could will his game to another level.
There are no secrets on the court or in business today. When Michael Jordan took over a game it was clear what was going on and THAT is what must have made playing against him maddening.
Michael Jordan's Nissan car dealership in Durham could learn a lesson in social media marketing from their namesake. The car dealership recently underwent an extensive renovation that must have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
One of the innovations was a much better waiting room with worktables and away from the damn TV. I pulled up next to an AC outlet during my last stay and worked while my car's oil was being changed.
Michael Jordan's Nissan installed a window from the shinny new workroom out to the garage. Great idea, but a loaded gun too (much like social media). Once you show me a window on to your world all things become theater.
The experience of watching my car leave the garage and then NOT to be called to transact the $50 oil change for twenty minutes when I was in a hurry to get to work was frustrating (despite being able to use their Wi-Fi and do work). The window CREATED AN EXPECTATION.
Think of your social media efforts as creating an expectation too. If your company or brand is on social media your customers and supporters have an expectation that you will keep them informed (provide a window into your thinking and actions) and include them in some meaningful way in your process.
"Include in some meaningful way" can mean responding to questions or @yourtwitter notes to forming special teams and requesting feedback from your social channel. Social media is a CONVERSATION and those who listen more than they speak and care more than they don't are using social media marketing to kick the stuffing out of competitors who don't get it.
I asked to see the service manager and he told me he was down three people and offered a free oil change next time. Good (not great) response. The great response would have been to ask me a question and elicit the feedback I'm writing here.
The great response to customer dissatisfaction is to FIND the kernel of the discontent and then learn from it to improve. The manager, so caught up in his own problems, missed a chance to excel like the man whose name is on the building :)
Martin (Marty) Smith:
Common Ecom SEO Mistakes
It is easy to take one step forward and two back with your online store's SEO. Here are 5 common mistakes to avoid.
5 Common E-Commerce SEO Mistakes
1. Poor Titles. 2. Slow Pages.
3. No UNIQUE titles across all pages.
4. No use of Canonical URLS to prevent dupe content. 5. Poor keyword density in navigation.
Titles and H1s matter a lot in these post Panda and Penguin days, so research them. Always start with who is winning top positions now. Also remember you must use a tool like Mike's Keyword Checker to know the absolute position of your pages or your competitors on a keyword phrase due to the Google float.
If you have video or large graphics give some thought to a Content Delivery Network (CDN). CDNs are TRICKY, so treat them with care and try to keep your pages LIGHT in code and graphics. CDNs cache your images and so can speed up your page loads, but nothing can help dense, heavy pages with lots of code and multiple layers of Javascript.
Titles MUST be unique. You can use business rules to generate titles, but make sure those rules NEVER create the same title over and over. Remember 80% of your revenue will come from 20% of your pages, so you don't have to get 1M page titles perfect. Make sure the pages that MATTER have great titles and you should be fine.
Canonical URLS identify MASTER pages, the pages you want in Google and OTHER pages that shouldn't be included. Duplicating content from outside or inside your site can cause penalties and damage so use canonical urls to stay in Google's good graces (btw it is VERY easy to duplicate content without meaning to spam, so BE CAREFUL).
If your navigation says, "Services" you are nuts. Do you want your website to rank for "services" or Internet Marketing, Email Marketing and SEO? Use keywords in your nav because your nav sits in <a href LINK> tags the most.
DON'T use keywords that aren't appropriate for the category or pages, but be sure KEYWORDS are in your nav
The social scoring startup is making a play for business users with new enterprise features that begin rolling out today.
Martin (Marty) Smith:
About time. Perhaps, and I am saying just perhaps, this will quiet down some of the nonsensical Klout bashing that goes on. Any metrics that helps understand the social web better is a GOOD METRIC.
If your business marketing plan doesn't include social media strategies, you're already dead in the water. Why? Because more of your customers are using
Martin (Marty) Smith:
Dead In The Water
Dead in the water indeed since your competitors are out there creating wiht social media, learning what works and building a following. Good luck catching up fast.
NOTHING happens all that fast in social media. You can create great campaigns that boost your social media 10x, but natural growth is SLOW and STEADY.
This means your social media strategy will need to DISRUPT to win and create trust at the same time. Those two ideas can be mutually exclusive so make sure to JUMP IN NOW or double your efforts now.
Rememer if you are not the lead sleddog the view is always the same :).
Tweet this: eCommerce gets social
Medill Reports: Chicago
The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council has begun to formulate social media guidelines for social media eCommerce.
Martin (Marty) Smith:
Should have seen this coming. When Square revolutionized mobile money the next step is the creation of social banking. Too cool and sure to quiet if not eliminate the, "What's the ROI?".
This piece is about how bankers are doing what bankers do - formulating the rules of "social banking".
Scott Mason is our excellent local CBS affiliate WRAL's Tar Heel Traveler. Scott interviewed me yesterday for our Cure Cancer Starter video and I agreed to take a look at his website to say THANKS.
This post is about why "web design" is a dangerously vague term now and why sometimes creating a website that works is about the money or about finding experts capable of making money online to help create your online presence.
Martin (Marty) Smith:
The Tar Heel Traveler Website
Scott Mason is an amazing visual storyteller. He creates "slice of life" pieces for our excellent local CBS affiliate WRAL TV. You can watch Scott's videos by clicking on the link below:
The Tar Heel Traveler on WRAL Scott wrote a great book about a year ago on his travels across North Carolina. The book has been a big hit selling several thousand copies (this is very unusual, most books only sell a handful of copies). Scott created a website to support the book:
TheTarHeelTraveler.com
The Magic Math of Making Money Online
There is a large group of "web designers". There is a smaller group of Internet marketers that know how to design a website to matter more and more every day. Finally this is a TINY SET of Internet marketers that really know how to make money online.
That third set can't be larger than a few thousand people in the world. I've managed teams that have made millions online, but my talent is in recognizing the kind of skills and minds necessary. I know how to create a team that feeds off each other, teams capable of creating websites that matter more and more and so make millions.
I haven't met the designer who created TarHeelTraveler.com, but they made many unforgivable mistakes including:
* Site doesn't have social support.
* No blog (Scott is an amazing writer).
* Title is poor and they are poor throughout. * Conventions such as "HOME" is violated (welcome instead). * Visuals could be better. To the designer’s credit the site was created in cascading style sheets and it loads fast, but those benefits don't overcome the site's significant issues.
The lack of social support is, at this time, is unforgivable. The site has a PageRank (PR) of 2 and that is only because WRAL is driving a PR5 into it. This website design has NO CHANCE to scale or matter much. I just wrote a note to Scott explaining that this site in 2002 or 2003 might have worked; now a website design like this is dead on arrival.
Platforms Vs. Websites
I wrote a piece on the death of the "closed loop" website, a website such as TarHeelTraveler.com that is talking to itself about itself, in 2011. Platforms vs. Websites is about changes created by social and mobile (sometimes called SMobile).
The GOOD NEWS is you can use OPP (Other People's Platforms) to help create social websites. I suggested Scott use Flickr and YouTube, but he could also use Scoop.it, LinkedIn and Shopify. We don't have to look far to see the rise of User Generated Content (UGC) platforms such as Amazon, Facebook and Twitter.
UGC Is the secret weapon of all platforms, we all know this by now. Tough part is UGC is getting harder and harder to generate since it is in such clear demand. The Tar Heel Traveler has a built in demand. People want to share stories, pictures and video about a well-loved and visited state.
This means Scott only needs to ASK for UGC, use a few free tools and his PR2 becomes a PR5 in no time. The other big learning is there may be many "web designers", but there is a tiny group that really knows how to create platforms that matter more and more every day. Many are called, few are chosen.
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