As often as marketers are encouraged to tweet, most of them aren’t doing it right. Todd Wasserman for mashable.com informs us of how and when you can utilize Twitter for your company and increase traffic http://mashable.com/2012/06/26/marketers-failing-twitter-study/. Social media marketing firm, Buddy Media, found that times, days, and hashtags determine engagement more than you think.

A new study shows that Twitter engagement on Saturday and Sunday is 17% higher than on weekdays. Currently, brands are tweeting heavily during the mid-week plateau, rather than on the off days when they should be. Of course, the response activity varies per industry. Fashion brands produce 30% higher engagement on the weekends because that’s when their target market is out doing what they do best.

Timeliness of a tweet even comes down to the time of day it’s published. “Busy hours” on Twitter last from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. This time frame is opposite to the exciting nightlife of the Facebook world; from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. The source encourages marketers to take advantage of the contrasting “busy hours” between Facebook and Twitter, using both as means of outgoing communication.

Delivery and presentation of tweets themselves account for the majority of engagement rates. The study found that the “tweet spot” of four tweets per day; each consisting of fewer than 100 characters, and a maximum of two hashtags per tweet produces the highest engagement rate. Several aspects must be considered in the composition of the perfect tweet. From typing out “retweet” to including a space between a word and a link, the difference is monumental.

It seems like the trick here is to be simple yet meticulous. Remember that in many cases, less is more. Most importantly, when publishing for your brand the goal is to get retweeted, so type with Twitter etiquette.

Ironically, our research into which days and times yielded contrary results. Analyzing software indicated that the Agency’s optimal time to tweet was at 12 p.m. and 6 p.m. …weekdays (except Fridays).  Thus is why I am releasing this blog post at 12:05.  I’m giving you a few minutes to into the lunch hour. Of course that does not address the other time zones.  Hmmmm.

We have recently been having a few issues with PPC. The main issue is that some ads do not seem to appear online after going through the necessary processes to get them launched. I had an intern investigate possible reasons why this could be happening, and some interesting issues were brought to my attention.

First off, Google may block ads from being seen for a few seemingly simple reasons. One possibility is that your account is under review, which Google periodically does to make sure an account is in line with their terms and conditions. An ad could also be under review, or there could be performance related issues. In the latter case, it is suggested that you give a look-see to the Ad Diagnostic tool. 

If you are having a quality score drop (to see this go just below the keywords tab, to the columns button) ads may not be showing up. If you come to this roadblock, you may want to give some consideration to having separate campaigns for the search and display network. The Ad Preview and Ad Diagnostic tools can help you on this subject also. Furthermore, check out the campaign settings on Google. Google search and search partners under Network and Device settings must be CHECKED. If unchecked, your ads won’t get their big break, period.

If any of those issues aren’t the source of why you can’t display your ads, it might also be that there is not enough traffic on the entire network for the keyword to trigger. Furthermore, it could be that the bid is too low or another technical issue. Expect a 24-48 hour “pending” period for an ad to be approved and make sure you abide by Google’s rules.

When Google chooses its top ads, it looks at relevance, historical performance and the amount of moo-la you’re willing to bid. Sometimes, even Google messes up, surprise surprise. Google will sometimes mistakenly assume that your first description, line 1, is a complete phrase. The result is an advertisement that makes almost no sense. Another issue is a description line without punctuation. There is no separation between line 1 and 2 anymore. In order to use ad placement to your advantage, include a short description line that features a call to action. If you’re launching a new site, come close to a 35-character limit for line 1 and 2. This allows Google to attach your domain name to the headline. Don’t forget to include relevant key words and to include a punctuation mark at the end of line 1 to avoid any run-on sentence issues.

Lastly, keyword status can throw some road bumps in your PPC campaign. Be sure to raise the max CPC bid for the keyword to a little more than the first page bid estimate (Bids decrease on keywords that are converting at too high of a CPL in a client’s account).

http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/adwords/cant-see-my-ad/L1PXbsPZY-8

http://www.affilorama.com/forum/ppc/ppc-ads-not-showing-need-help-t7252.html

http://www.webpagefx.com/blog/search-engine/top-of-ppc-world/

http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/adwords/cant-see-my-ad/L1PXbsPZY-8

http://www.affilorama.com/forum/ppc/ppc-ads-not-showing-need-help-t7252.html

http://www.webpagefx.com/blog/search-engine/top-of-ppc-world/

I'll keep you posted....

There are many reasons why investing in online directories are very important for your business’s success. It will help enhance your company’s relevance in the competing world of online marketing. Placing your services or your business on a directory with a keyword-rich domain name will help increase your presence in search engines along with driving more leads back to your websites and social media profiles.

As an agency we own over 1,500 domains that currently have directories listed on them. We have just launched all of these and are continually managing the search engine optimization and content of them all. Almost all of our domains are showing up within the first few pages of Google, and Bing! This seems insane that no one is taking the opportunity to jump up further in the online rankings to get noticed and sign up for these sites. Who honestly could not use more business and a higher income for their company? If you just answered with “I don’t”… then, good for you and goodbye. For the rest of us struggling to become millionaires, it only makes sense to give our brands more name recognition.

What better way to do this than to sign up for these high optimized lead generation domains. An example of what these directories look like is www.dallashappyhours.com , which by the way, if searched on google under the keywords “Dallas Happy Hours” appears at the top of the first page. A comprehensive list of the domains that are available for lease or directory sign up can be found at http://www.tagteamcreative.com/dallas-lead-generation-website.html . Unless you are content with your spot on the 4^th page, and the little amount of successful leads that brings your company wake up, and sign up.   

 Levis took a great leap into the world of curvy women by launching their line of jeans called “Curve ID” in 2010. The concept of the line was to eliminate the physical and psychological issues associated with bigger women shopping for jeans. The overall message for the new line is, “Hottness comes in all shapes and sizes” yet they are managing to fail miserably to portray the average women’s size in advertisement, after advertisement.

Here is the ad under the most controversy: 

As you can see, “hotness” does come in all shapes and sizes, as long as that size is under a 4. Here at the agency we find the failure to get the correct message across to be a critical one for the campaign. This advertisement must have passed through the hands of multiple people before it got to print; which is outrageous to think about. It is amazing to us to think that there is an advertising department who believed that this ad would help encourage bigger women that there are “curvier jean options” out there without having to feel shame. Not one person in our office needed to take a second look to understand how much of a tragedy for advertising this is.

Levis tried to help retract this early ad and made a few changes to their campaign. The sizes for the “Curve ID” vary, there were originally 3 body style fits called: Slight, Demi and Bold. They added a 4^th body style type (you know, to help encourage bigger women to buy their product without shame) and that body style has been classified as “Supreme”. Way to go Levis, as if showing your curvy jeans on stick-figure women wasn’t killing your campaign enough; why not compare some of the women to food products that have an enormous amount of extra loaded toppings and stuffings (ex. Supreme Pizza, Taco Supreme, etc).

 Here is their most recent ad campaign they launched last week to help display all of the “curvaceous” women that wear their jeans:

http://shine.yahoo.com/fashion/jeans-ad-sparks-controversy-levis-models-come-other-202400157.html

Although SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) has approximately 4x more congress members “leaning no” towards the bill than it does in favor of it, the reality of how far the bill has got is scary. Many of the congress members admit that the bill needs some reworking from its original proposal. However, a simple reworking of the bill does not seem to be enough. The idea that the justice department would be able to take the legal actions a step further and not only take down a link posted on a popular website, such as Twitter or YouTube, but shut down the website as a whole because of one copyright infringement is an absurd concept.   

The amount of problems that could arise from SOPA is too much to estimate. Specific advertisers that are paying to be a part of a social media website will fail to produce the results that they once had. Here at TagTeam creative, we focus a lot of our time on Search Engine Optimization for ourselves and clients. We have dedicated a great amount of time into strategic planning for the companies we work with and if copyright infringement was filed it has the potential to drag our name down as well as the clients. The plans we help implement for generating income will also be immediately affected because within the bill it states that the credit card companies can be demanded to stop all further payment processes associated with the website. With so much emphasis focused on the internet and all the ways it is furthering our country’s business strategies; how are we supposed to find security in the fact that it could be taken away so quickly with one misrepresented allegation?

  Although the bill is still in the beginning stages the reality of the bill getting this far is one that anyone who relies on the internet and social media should fear.  The idea that someone can claim copyright issues and entire site will shut down only has the possibility to benefit people seeking the upper hand. Imagine that a post or link goes up on a popular site with information about the government, or about a specific candidate facing scandal, one call and the entire website would be shut down. It is very apparent how convenient this set up would be for the people in charge to legitimize their actions.  This is where companies who have any involvement with the internet should come together and propose a different strategy for blocking piracy on the internet.