Introducing ‘Project Arachnid’: Econsultancy’s real-time data visualisation tool
Here at Econsultancy we’re big on data, and we believe that the best way for publishers to monetise their online audience is to properly evaluate visitors, just like the smarter retailers do. We’ve created a tool to show you how we’re trying to do this.
Called ‘Project Arachnid’, the tool is essentially a real-time visualisation of our website traffic. You can see new visitors arriving at the different sections of our website, represented by dots.
Facebook launches Ads API
The efficacy of Facebook advertising may still be yet to be determined for many advertisers, but that hasn't stopped brands from pouring big money into ads on the social network. With more than 750m users, Facebook is simply too appealing a platform to ignore.
When it comes to scaling ad campaigns on the social network, however, advertisers have had limited options. But that could soon be changing.
Eight tools and techniques to boost your link building efforts
There’s no question the difference between a successful search marketing campaign and one that fails is very rarely due to a lack of creativity or a naive strategy. Far more frequently it’s down to inefficiencies or wasted resources.
So what can you do to reduce those problems? Try and constantly improve things. Those changes are very rarely revolutions in your process, but just small refinements.
What follows are eight of those small refinements and improvements that I’ve made recently which I think have made me a better link builder.
Five free Twitter tools worth bookmarking
Earlier today I was asked a question in the office: “What’s that tool for checking out your follower velocity?”
The tool, which I couldn’t immediately remember, is TwitterCounter. It’s not the newest kid on the block but it’s something that we use every month or two, to benchmark our Twitter performance.
As such I thought I’d make a note of it by writing a quick reference post on Twitter tools, which features a few new ones that we’ve recently started to play with (or are about to).
How to extend your Twitter experience by using third party tools
Earlier today I wanted to locate a tweet from 13 October 2010. I happened to know the date, but not the precise Twitter URL of the tweet in question. It turns out that it is pretty much impossible to search for date-specific tweets on Twitter itself.
So I asked the question on Twitter and once again the glorious hive came to the rescue. All manner of wonderful workarounds and suggestions were fired back at me. Some worked, others didn’t, but within 10 minutes I’d found the random tweet I was looking for (despite throwing a few curveballs along the way).
Many of us are now fairly advanced Twitter users with our own personalised Tweetdeck or Hootsuite set ups, and our Twitpic and Yfrog accounts, but there are lots of other tools out there that can help us to enhance and optimise our Twitter experience. I thought I’d share a few of them with you...
How to find bloggers relevant to your business
We are on the verge of a blog outreach campaign, to support our PR, affiliate marketing, linkbuilding and brand goals. We want to share the love where possible, and to hopefully receive a bit back.
Cultivating relationships with bloggers is vital for any serious brand marketer. They can be a real asset to help you spread word about content, products and services. They are more likely to link to you than mainstream media sites and they often link in the right way.
I’ll try to shine some light on the tools you can use to unearth the most relevant blogs to your business. You’ll find that there are many bloggers out there that will be receptive to working with you, you just need to know how to seek them out.
Ten free usability testing tools
There are plenty of tools around which allow website owners to conduct tests and attempt to identify problem areas on their websites.
I've listed ten of the best free usability testing tools, which are either completely free of charge, or allow users to try before they buy. If I'm missed any good ones, let me know...
Social media measurement: a 10-step guide
Social media measurement is a tricky subject, not least because not everything can or should be measured, and in some ways social measurement is a bit like measuring the impact of TV ads on brand awareness: it's a slightly softer area than, say, paid search.
But there are lots of things that can be accurately measured, which - when seen through a wide-angled lens - can really help you make sense of what social media can do for your business.
That said, you might want to implement a social strategy but perhaps you haven't yet won the necessary budget? And it's getting harder, right? It has been a difficult year for many firms and a focus on ROI may now be mandatory.
So how can you prove that an investment into social media is going to be worth it? How can you persuade the boss to make some budget available? How can you convince your colleagues that the cultural shift required is a smart idea? And how - and what - will you measure, should you be given some resources?
The following pointers on social media measurement and social media metrics should help you prove that there are lots of things to measure, and can help you outline what the likely effects on the business are likely to be. Good luck!
10 free tools to help you create online presentations
Many Econsultancy members are in the business of regularly pitching for new business, or trying to grow existing accounts. Travelling and meeting people is part and parcel of winning work, but there are also various ways of using the internet to help you pitch to existing and prospective clients.
As such, I thought it would be a good idea to show you a bunch of tools that can be used to create and coordinate online presentations. They can be used for individual client work, or more publicly, to share your presentations with the wider world to increase exposure.
I believe that all of these tools are free, with the option to ‘upgrade to Pro’. There are others, but these are standout apps, and they're all worth checking out if you're not yet using them.
I hope they help you to win more business!
20 Free Buzz Monitoring Tools
As the recession continues, so do cutbacks. So, we’ve listed 20 of the better (and free) online reputation monitoring tools in order to help you engage with the onslaught of social media.
