July Internet Marketing Stats

Website visitors                             1136

Facebook Friends                            135

Twitter Followers                             1502

LinkedIn Connections                    228

Email List Members                         627

Inbound links                                   330

This month was not a typical month.  My website traffic is down a bit. This is because this month I drove a lot of my traffic to our Social Media Giveaway event.  In fact, I thought the traffic dip would be larger than it is, so I’m not upset with this number being lower than last month.

Twitter is growing organically.  This is not traffic I’ve driven from anywhere, just new followers that are probably following me because I’m on someone else’s list.

My email list has grown quit a bit.  I participated in the Social Media Giveaway this month.  It gained me about 150 new community members.  The event was definitely a success when you consider how little work I had to do on my part to participate.

Inbound links have not moved. I am going to focus on those and web traffic this month.

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Social Marketing: Show Us Your Niche

Recently I got an email from an accounting asking me for help with his social media strategy.  He had just discovered LinkedIn and was excited about its potential in driving traffic to his website and  building his client list.

After reading his email, I immediately went to check out his website. When I got there, I found a site that had very general information. I could see he offered accounting services, but nowhere could I find specific information about exactly what those services were.  Did he offer basic bookkeeping? Year-end financials? Business analysis?

When a visitor comes to your website, they should immediately discover who you serve, what you provide. My guess is this consultant wanted to appeal to a very broad audience so he could capture work from several different types of clients.  We all think this when we first start marketing our businesses. But on the internet, what you end up with is a website that appeals to no one. Most people will see his website, look to see if he has what they are looking for. If they don’t see exactly what they are looking for, they will click away and go elsewhere.

I could help this accountant drive traffic to his site, but they wouldn’t stick around once they arrived. He first needs to decide  what is his niche. Is it small businesses? Insurance companies? Mom and pop shops? Large professional firms? He needs to state what work he is doing for them. Is it taxes? Investment management? Daily bookkeeping? Is he focusing on one geographical location or offering virtual services which could be delivered anywhere?

Once we show visitors the exact niche we want to serve, then we will start to receive attention from people fitting exactly that niche.  Others will go elsewhere to look for information, but clients fitting this niche will read the site, look for useful information, sign up for our newsletter, and call when they need services. 

Are you trying to market to a broad audience?  Are you pulling in the interested customers you are looking for?

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What is your Twitter Destination?

Spending time in an airport is like visiting another world entirely separate from your everyday world.  Everyone is working to get to different destinations, moving in different directions.

Recently on a vacation to the Grand Canyon (my first time to see it), I was in an airport waiting for my next flight. As  I watched people walk by, I knew each one had a different destination to which they were heading. We were al a mishmash of travelers all under one roof.

I find the same patterns when I am on Twitter. Everyone is there for a different purpose. One person may be marketing an ebook. Another person may use Twitter to entertain friends with clever posts. Another might be looking to connect with like-minded people.

We all have a different purpose, like travelers, and we end up in one huge network, connecting to each other, making discoveries, building relationshships. Twitter can be so many things to so many different people. In my mind this is what distinguishes it from Facebook or LinkedIn. 

If you’re new to Twitter, and you’re not quite getting it, hang in there.  Keep showing up. You will find your way slowly. Soon you will discover you’ve gotten the hang of having conversations on Twitter.  You will find the ways the network can really work for you.

Maybe you will use it to stay in contact with other people in your industry. Maybe you will use it to discover the newest trends related to your business. Maybe you will find it a good place to show others what you are blogging about.

But wait, just when you discover how you will use it, then you will find another use and another use. When you do, share it with people. Let others know what you have learned. Users on Twitter, much like people in the airport, are all going in different directions. As you make your way to your destination, stop occasionally, look around, help a fellow traveler on their way to their destination.

How do you use Twitter in your business?

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June Traffic Report

Website visitors                             1417

Facebook Friends                            123

Twitter Followers                             1367

LinkedIn Connections                    219

Email List Members                         535

Inbound links                                   330

The big change in stats this month is the number of email list members. Thank you to all of you who have recently joined our community.  This new portion of the community came aboard during the Social Media Wildfire Telesummit I hosted this month.  This was my first Telesummit, with five social media speakers.  I wasn’t sure how it would go, pulling together all of the detailed organization and technology that is required to host a telesummit. But I was stoked at how fun it all was.  Everything went smoothly and our speakers shared some awesome material. I’ve already listened to the replays again. Each time I listen, I come away with more information than I caught before. 

I’m pleased that most of my stats are rising gradually each month.  I’m finding that our community is highly focused. We all are very interested in social media and how to use it to market our businesses. I know this because when I send out information about a new blog post by email, a really large number of you come over to read the blog. That means you are liking the information I’m sharing. Fantastic!

Are you tracking analytics on our website?

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