There is a matter of semantics with certain publishers that will saturate some of the true value of employing a retargeting advertising strategy. If a single network is offering a retargeting ’solution’ as a package offering with other display, some sort of CPC, etc., I’d be wary of their temptation to retarget on the click rather than the visit for the sake of impression scaling.

What’s the difference?

Any groomed Google Analyticsman will tell you that a click does not equate to a visit (1-1). There can be pre-page load bounces, multiple session counts, spiders/bots, fraud, and who knows what else muddling up your clicks. If a user is not arriving on my site after clicking an ad, I do not want to waste impressions on them. Call me old school, but behavioral retargeting must be site-based to be effective.

There are a lot of new developments in the Twittersphere; so much in fact, that people are being sucked into any and all tools that will help to make them ”powerTwitters.” But what they are finding instead is that they are falling short of a successful Twitter account. The success of Twitter branding is not in gaining the most followers, following thousands of people, or in getting a following and then spamming them with outrageous and non genuine tweets.

There is no doubt that Twitter has become the center of the social media world. In becoming more mainstream, many have found that it can be a powerful tool in helping users to build and develop their own personal brand. Whether or not the account is set up for a business, a person, or a brand, there is a basic etiquette that should be followed to ensure an effective Twitter.

Here are some basics that will help you to develop and to maintain a healthy and successful Twitter account:

1. Create a Bio. In order to be successful in conversation, you have to gain the trust of those who are following you. Having a bio on your profile (a simple 160 blurb about yourself or your brand) will increase the likelihood of gaining followers, and it makes you approachable as a person. Therefore, it helps your credibility to include a picture, to be direct, to state your position, and to provide a link back to your original site. DON’T: create so many blank accounts without a bio that you never touch. Not only will it hurt the brand you are trying to develop, but it will never get off the ground and typically results in the Fail Whale or the even more feared, Foul Owl:

   

2. Followers. Once you have a profile, start following people. There are many tools that will help you to find people beneficial to you. As you find people to follow, look through their followers for other interesting people. Using search.twitter.com allows you to search tweets via keywords.
3. Engage in discussion. As people follow you, start following back. Begin conversations and stay consistent. Make sure that you are not adding too many followers without following any tweeters back. As you gain followers, reach out to them to reassure them that you are a real person, not:

   

4. Ratios. You should be adding followers at about an even pace as people start to follow you. In addition to that, you should be tweeting your own content at the same ratio that you are tweeting to others. It is important that you are not only preaching to your followers, but also talking to them.
5. Retweet. Retweeting other people’s tweets is an effective way to create buzz, to gain followers, and (if it is originally your tweet) to gain more traffic back to the original content. In essence, a retweet is another way to linkshare. (Example: RT @evisibility check out our latest blog post…) The more people that retweet it, the more links you are sharing to more people; thus, helping the viral nature of the content.

In the end, to be successful on Twitter you have to participate. The more realistic you can make your profile and your discussions, the better your chances are of gaining not only more followers, but followers that will stand by your word and will help to bring you more business.

This is a step-by-step pictorial on how to use the new Myspace advertising platform, MyAds. I applied the platform to a real-world application rather than a paying customer. The hyper-targeting, as advertised, of this product allows for such specific Myspacer targeting that you don’t have to spend much to get a lot. That’s what is earned when you limit your impression spillage.

Exhibit A:

After login, you are immediately driven into the creation of a campaign. The instructional visuals and traditional Web 2.0 give the site an inviting ease of use.

Exhibit B:

If you select to use the MyAds templates you are cue’d to select your ad size and then choose one amongst any of a number of pre-fabs to work within.

I decided that my campaign would be best suited for a simpled 3 frame animation. 1) Question 2) Answer 3) Click me.

Exhibit C:

Whoops! No animation available when designing. I would have been stuck with a very ambiguous single frame, but instead, I returned to the templates to re-think my creative.

Exhibit D:

The templates appear pretty flat at first glance, so a spicy photo from my own collection was warranted. The option is given to either import locally or pull from an existing Myspace destination. This isn’t a seamless transition as you aren’t given any transfer functionality from your Myspace albums. The best you can do is save locally and then browse-upload to the MyAds platform.

Exhibit E:

After selecting a relatively flattering photo and using the image sizing tools, I was able to adjust my photo and create the image ad on a basic template easily.

Exhibit F:

Enter the Hyper-targeting; MyAds’ key functionality. You are able to pinpoint your target not only geographically, but also by very specific interest. I zealously selected Female, 18-32, located in San Diego.

With an interest in targeting a financially sound and health conscience woman, loving of animals and partying, but also may venture outdoors to view a favorite ‘Family Guy’ episode, my filters were added accordingly. Much to my initial confusion, filters don’t actually filter; they layer. So in reality, my dream of targeting 1 female in San Diego that has all of the aforementioned interests was replaced by the targeting of 37,000 either/or’s.

Exhibit G:

Yay! I’m done, now time to sit and wait for A) Approval B) my next future ex-wife.

The buzz of social media was once blind, but now it can see. Advertisers far and wide are finally able to answer the million dollar question of 2008, ‘What is social media? And how can I use it?’.

The aftermath has become, ‘I’m using social media, but I have no idea whether or not it’s doing me any good.’

In a post found on MediaPost’s Online Metrics Insider, Social Media ‘Maybe I just don’t get it’.

A series of internet marketers are questioned “Have you been able to measure or track any tangible outcomes from your social media initiatives?“. Below are excerpts from Mediapost’s translations of their responses:

Expert #1, I don’t really know

Expert #2, ROI is likely negative.

Expert #3, It’s difficult, and we don’t know yet.

How to get it…

Social Media cannot be appropriately given a confident ROI if it is nonstrategic and improperly monitored/tracked.

Paid search is really the culprit here. Advertisers want all other marketing to be as easily definable.

Step one: someone searches a keyword.
Step two: My ad is clicked
Step three: 3%-5% of the time I earn a lead from the click pool

If the intangibles of paid search were monitored as though it were a social media campaign, it would fail 100% of the time.

Am I gaining online mindshare with paid search? Most likely never

Are key industry influencers talking about my product? It would strictly be by chance if Search propagated this.

Is my positive sphere of influence trending upward? Again, good luck purposely accomplishing this with Search.

The question here boils down to ‘Is there value in social media?’

If you are answering ‘no’, or ‘I don’t know’ then you were sleeping or hung-over in your Marketing 101 class.

Branding IS important.

The ability to precisely target your demographic profile and market WITH, rather than AT, your prospects is monumental. Never has a branding opportunity afforded this.

Cut to the chase, Dan.

Where do I see ROI?!?!!? It’s portfolio wide, as you can expect with any good branding campaign.

1. It could rear itself as improved SEM conversion rates
2. or Direct/branded traffic gaining momentum.
3. Improved customer satisfaction (retention)
4. Lessening the days to purchase or increasing visitor loyalty

And at least 100 other valuable benefits that could just as easily go unnoticed if they aren’t earmarked.

Marking the beginning of the Web 2.0 era, it is easy to see how the variation of upwards movement drawn from the internet world are distinguishable from that of more traditional media patterns. The artist’s choice of medium brings about an interesting interpretation, expressing more contemporary pixilation and features. The lines seen are very robust and carry the eye off the page in a continuing upwards movement. While each of the pieces below are unique in their fluidity, it is plain to see the upwards trend reflected similarly throughout.

Being new and only recently exposed to social media marketing, the web 2.0 outbreak, and the power of people on the internet, I find myself easily influenced by the words and information handed down to me by the social Gods. Telling me how to act and what to contribute, it seems that from their perspectives anyone can become one of the socially-famed. My title as Social Media Specialist was given to me the day that I finished writing my last SEO content article and opened a Digg account, but I hardly think that I really earned the title as a Specialist at day one. At that point I would have been happy with Social Media Hopeful or Social Media Contributor. My quest to earn my title led me to The Best Practices In Social Media Marketing Writing Project, in which Mitch Joel asked for opinions on what people thought the best practices of social media were. As I continue to build my credibility of a Specialist, and in my efforts for what it’s worth, I wish to contribute what I think is the best practice in social media marketing.

In some aspects, I sometimes still consider myself a social media apprentice, as we all sometimes are in the constantly changing social media world, but it doesn’t hold me back from adding to the already influential list of practices that have come from most of the big dogs themselves. As any young and naïve social mediaist will say; I add selfishness to the list.

It is important to think about yourself and the image that you are presenting to those you connect with. When dealing with social media, in any level of the term, it is important that you stick to your guns and, like any mother will tell you, be true to yourself. This means that you contribute to the social media world what you think is worthy, what you find interesting. This holds especially true for those social media specialists, like I was myself, that are just getting their feet wet in the grand scheme of things and still take the comments on Digg seriously or to heart. Thinking of yourself, your own likes and interests, will prove to be more successful in the long run than if you were to play the desperate card and cater to anyone and everyone’s needs. If you stick to those stories and topics that interest you, it is not only easier to reflect your “profile personality” and transparency to others, but you are also able to connect to people on a common ground. When delving into social media making sure that you think of #1, it will be harder for people to expose your real underbelly and you will always be respected. Not only that, but you will eventually gain that “specialist” title and literally be considered one when people think of social media.

Throughout other blogs that have been written on this topic, there seems to be a consensus that reaching out to others (Morriss Partee) and catering to other peoples’ interests by lifting up to others (Drew McLellan) are the best practices in social media. Mitch Joel also adds in the element of maintaining consistency throughout different networks. While consistency is in fact a great practice, it won’t be effective for those that have already established themselves under several alias profiles; it is difficult to maintain that type of consistency when it comes to recognition. And while these other practices of selflessness will help someone gain loyalty and karma within their wealth of fans, in the end if you aren’t looking out for yourself, no one will know where and when to follow your words of expertise. And at the end of the day, if you haven’t thought about yourself, well, then you aren’t marketing your social media specialist skills.

Written by Erin Cartaya, Social Media Specialist and Consultant for eVisibility. Watch for more of Erin’s attempts at becoming the actual owner of the Specialist title.