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Who I Am... What I Do...

Robert Stanke is a Community Management Professional, Social Media Strategist, and Digital Marketing expert in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota.  This blog revolves around his passions, including: community management, technology, social media, marketing, and team productivity and collaboration.  Stanke currently works for Life Time Fitness in Chanhassen, Minnesota.

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Monday
08Feb2010

Consistent blogging and proper keyword placement has been paying off

DateMonday, February 8, 2010 at 7:25AM

A couple of days ago, I was reviewing my web traffic reports for January when I noticed a trend that has been occurring over the past several months that I am pretty happy about.  After a solid year of a majority of my website traffic coming from the likes of Twitter and Facebook, search engine referrals have narrowed the gap... almost to the point where I think February will be a changing of the guard.

In January, 33.49% of all my web traffic was from referring sites (Twitter, Shoemoney.com, and Facebook taking the top three spots and attributing to 53% of the total referring site traffic).  This statistic has pretty much remained the same for the past six months or so, but the one that has been creeping up and taking "market share" away from the "Other/Direct" traffic numbers has been the "Search Engine" traffic sources.  During the month of January, search engines drove 32.24% of all traffic to my site - all from organic search engine results (that means I did not buy any advertising that would have resulted in hits to my site).  Sure enough, I reviewed the keywords that were causing this traffic and everything looked legit.  99.15% of all that search engine traffic came from Google (no surprise), but in general the search engine traffic has been growing by double-digit growth since October.  At that rate, February should be when I see those two competitors switch spots in my report.

I am kind of surprised by the results, but as I look back, I shouldn't be.  Since October I have been posting at least 5-7 new blog posts per week on top of adding just plain additional pages with content to the site.  This alone has raised the amount of robot hits I get as search engines index my site for new content that they have learned is going to be there when they arrive.  On top of that, I have made a habit of being smart about keywords.  When I start a post, I do my research, seeking out what keywords are hot around that topic and placing them in my post and in the headline.  Finally, I have been following a content calendar as much as possible.  This has mostly made me stick to a routine and remember what topics are going to fit best in a given time frame.  SEO is not magic.  In fact, it is pretty simple if you stick to the basics and focus on content.  Search engines are smart now a days - they don't need additional help.  My SEO is built-in to my hosting provider, Squarespace, and they do an excellent job.

The result of all of this was great.  January produced my second-highest month ever of new traffic to my site, and the most page views ever in a month period.  New traffic up and they are staying longer.  That means my engagement level is increasing.

Things to build on for February...

 

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Sunday
07Feb2010

In case you missed them... My top 5 posts for January 2010

DateSunday, February 7, 2010 at 7:25AM

If you follow my blog on a regular basis, you know that I like to finish off every month with a review of what I accomplished, what opportunities I missed, and what mistakes I made.  Yesterday, I wrote that post, and one of the things that came out of it was how I was able to keep up my goal of creating one new blog post every day of January.  It was fun to look back and see all the posts I did, and using Google Analytics, I was able to see which posts drew the most traffic.  So I wanted to end January by highlighting my Top 5 posts of the month.

January was my second highest traffic month of all-time.  Most of this can be credited to strong search engine result traffic which is most likely due to my high frequency of blogging.  Where Twitter and LinkedIn use to be my highest referrers, now it is Google search engine results that drive my site traffic.  Kind of exciting for sure.  And that is really the bottom line of it all.  I am not an expert in regards to anything I blog about on this site.  I blog because I enjoy capturing information, putting my twist on it, and sharing it with others.  I am just grateful that so many of you have been following along!

So here goes... my Top 5 posts from January 2010:

1. Goal-setting - Part 2: Yearly Goal Planning Worksheet (NOTE: This post was actually published back in August 2009, but because I re-released a new version of the worksheet, this post got a lot of traction.  Very interesting!)

2. Join Life Time Fitness at a special discounted membership rate! (NOTE: Again, another post that was published in 2009, but because the special got extended, it drove additional traffic.  To date, this is the highest trafficked blog post by search engine results.)

3. Happy New Year! Here is a Goal Planning Worksheet for 2010 (NOTE: This post led to over 500 people downloading my free worksheet template.  It still gets downloaded 3-5 times a week.)

4. Required skill for Community Managers: Know how to say "sorry" (NOTE: What is it with posts from 2009 getting all my traffic?  I will take it as a compliment of good, lasting content!)

5. Online community metrics you need to pay attention too

 

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Saturday
06Feb2010

Where did January go? The power of a monthly review

DateSaturday, February 6, 2010 at 7:25AM

I have no complaints about January from a professional or personal standpoint, other than how fast it flew by!  Looking back, I got a ton of stuff done and revised some of my goals in order to shoot for some new things.  Exciting from one angle, stressful from another.  So after each month I sit down and review what I accomplished, what opportunities I missed, and a tally of the mistakes made.  A good time to look back and find out how to make the next month even better.  Here is a random stream of consciousness for January 2010...

* I blogged every day of the month, which was an original goal of mine at the start of the year.  Sure, I always have pre-written posts ready to go, but the bottom line is that not one day went by that I didn't have a post I was proud of putting up.

* I started towards my goal of giving back by joining the Life Time Fitness Foundation review board and contributing helping world organizations with their technology/computing needs.

* I have been pretty good at reaching out to one person in my network each day, attempting to keep relationships strong and durable.

* I made some significant progress towards some social media goals at Life Time Fitness that are nearing reporting stage.

* I did complete my goal of developing one new template for download on my site.  To date, over 500 downloads of the file have occurred!

* Missed opportunity: Going to the gym and working out more.  The goal of 3-5 hours was hard to obtain most weeks, mainly because I stopped myself - not vice versa.

* Missed opportunity: Stopping myself from going a gazillion miles per hour.  I am hoping that yoga slows me down a bit...

* My website achieved an all-time high in number of page views, and second highest month of unique visitors.

* A new vision of my future popped into my head one day and a plan has been put into motion to make it happen

Here's to a successful February!

 

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Friday
05Feb2010

Presently playing around with Present.ly

DateFriday, February 5, 2010 at 7:25AM

How do you combine team collaboration and social media?  How about through the Twitter knock-off called "Present.ly"?  I had heard of Present.ly a couple of months go, but never had checked it out because I was knee-deep in the world of Twitter integration, but a new application on my Palm Pre drew my interest to Present.ly a couple of days ago.  Now I am playing around with it to see if it has any application into my current position at Life Time Fitness or to any of my clients I support through Red Zone Research.  I am early in this experiment of Present.ly, so take that into mind in my brief assessment below!

In a nutshell, Present.ly is a Twitter-like web application meant for inter-business collaboration.  It is a micro-blogging platform that allows you to post updates (exactly like in Twitter), share files, and exchange ideas with team members in your department, division, or company.  The interface is actually a lot like the Twitter.com experience and the general functionality is the same.  The only real difference is the built-in security Present.ly offers.  When you register an account, you use your professional email address and Present.ly checks to see if your company is already on the network.  If it is, it is easy to find your fellow co-workers to connect up with them.  If not, it is pretty lonely until others in your organization get involved!

Present.ly offers a free web-hosted solution that is great for small businesses, but also has a "behind-the-firewall" option that you can download and install on your own server.  This level of security is what has organizations like CNET and the New York Times raving about what Present.ly brings to the market.

Currently, I am the only Life Time Fitness employee on Present.ly (which should be no surprise given that I am the social media guy!) so for now I am just trying to recruit some others to play along and mess around with all of the settings and options.  The jury is still out on whether or not this would benefit us internally, but I am willing to give it a test drive.

Below is a video that overviews Present.ly.

 

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Thursday
04Feb2010

The two main types of online communities - Part 2: Branded Communities

DateThursday, February 4, 2010 at 7:25AM

On Tuesday I touched on the first of two different types of online communities, organic.  Today, I want to look at the basics of the opposite type of community to organic, which is "branded" or inorganic.  This type of community is growing in popularity as more and more companies embrace the idea o being more open and creating a platform for their customers and prospects to share thoughts, ideas, and feedback on your products and services.  Just like organic communities, branded ones have their pros and cons.  Here are some basic thoughts...

The Branded Community

I have moderated in both types of environments, but currently I am the Community Manager for Life Time Fitness' branded community.  Membership is nearing 200,000 members and activity on the site is growing steadily every month.  Obviously this community is very niche specific - focusing on the products and services Life Time offers, but it also is a source of information around athletic interests.  It is a changing community because we are in a transition focus to a different type of structure (more on that another time).  Most big brands have at least a place to share discussions with similar enthusiasts.  Take Apple, for example, who has a branded forum for its fans.  Microsoft's popular gaming console, the Xbox, also has a community page that is very active from both a player and developer standpoint.  These last three examples are types of branded communities that are open to the public to view, but require a membership to participate.  In the case of Mini Cooper, the popular cult-following car, has an "Owner's Lounge", that requires a membership to even view the content.  This is the case for a lot of branded communities who like the feeling of exclusivity in their community.  Either way is fine - just a different way to manage the activity.  So the main difference between an organic community versus a branded one all boils down to who owns the platform and activity.

The Pros of a Branded Community

Your company having a branded community can be very beneficial.  Here are some of the key positives:

  • You have complete control over the branding of your products and services within the platform
  • You have complete control over the content that is being delivered by your marketing department and content created by members of the site
  • It can be a great customer service vehicle
  • Some companies are finding branded communities as a great source for new product and service ideas (crowdsourcing)

The Cons of a Branded Community

Like everything in life, you have to take the good with the bad.  Here are some of the negatives to a branded community:

  • Some companies turn their communities into advertising platforms, which can turn members off very quickly
  • Running a community takes time and money: development, support, and moderation being the biggest three
  • Some companies develop a community that fits their needs, but not those of the members/audience, which will lead to zero activity levels

Overall, branded communities can be very powerful and a great addition to your web presence.  However, do not forget that just because you can set up a community for your fans that they are not in other places on the web talking about your products and services.  That is where your social media/reputation management plan comes into play.  More on that in a future post!

 

 

 

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