AUGUST 9, 2011

Marketers demonstrate what metrics to use and how listening affects business

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Social media and digital marketing have allowed marketers to listen to more of what customers are saying about their brands and those of their competitors. As a result, listening and engaging online with consumers are now parts of many marketers’ online strategies, and there are many ways to measure these initiatives to track success.

A June 2011 study commissioned by Dell from Forrester Consulting found that marketers from different industries look at various key performance indicators (KPIs) when measuring the success of their listening and engagement initiatives.

One of the more popular KPIs was number of impressions/reach, which was cited by 42% of respondents from the high-tech industry. Additionally, 57% of those in media, entertainment or leisure industries used the number of social network fan “likes,” and 46% of those at utility and banking services companies analyzed customer satisfaction scores.

Additionally, many areas within a corporation can benefit from listening to and engaging customers. Respondents said that market strategy (74%), web-interactive marketing (74%), brand management (72%), public relations (64%), product marketing (63%) and market research (53%) were all corporate functions that had created strategies based on information from listening and engagement initiatives.

No matter what metrics and KPIs marketers used to track listening and engagement initiatives, many were seeing success. Sixty-three percent of respondents told Dell and Forrester Consulting they had seen a positive effect from such initiatives on brand awareness, while 57% said the same about brand sentiment, and 50% about overall business success.

Listening to customers is not a new strategy, but consumers and brands are connecting more intimately via online channels. Companies must take the right steps to track and measure these initiatives, which will lead to continued improvements in this area—and in the business overall.

While pondering what to write about this month, I noticed my wife searching the Web for back-to-school items the kids needed – new backpacks, pencil sharpeners, new shoes, erasers in the shape of pandas, and so forth.

If you search Google for “kids backpacks”, you’ll see a “Nearby Stores” link displayed just below the image/shopping results, the most prominent section of the SERP.

If you sell kids backpacks, you’ll probably want to rank well for queries for it year-round, but back-to-school time is probably when it really pays to rank well for the term. In this case, you’d want to make sure that your inventory is available in Google Shopping so that you can show up in the Nearby Stores SERP.

As you are considering your SEO efforts, you should be thinking about the seasonality of your business as well as how it effects how your local customers use search.

For seasonal and locally focused SEO campaigns consider the following tips.

1.  Plan Ahead

If you want to rank for a seasonal keyword like “back to school sale” in your city, you’ll probably want to try to rank for the query ahead of time. While putting up a great piece of content and getting links at the time of the event can work, as people are more likely to link to something that’s current, I have found it’s more reliable to get your content indexed and linked way ahead of time.

During the actual time you want to have the best rankings, you can also add additional content that targets variations of the keyword and links back to the original page you are trying to rank. This can both bolster the original page as well provide an additional URL that can rank.

2.  Understand The Time Window

Planning for your New Years Eve party usually starts around December 1st. So if you’re a restaurant, you’ll want to rank for “New Years Eve menu” well before New Years Eve comes around.

3.  Understand The SERPs For Your Keyword

While Google and Bing update their various SERP displays regularly, having a handle on the different SERP inventory available for your target keyword is a good idea.

If Google is showing a lot of images, then you know you need to work on image optimization. If there are Shopping results as in the backpack example, you know you need to get your inventory in Google Shopping.

For event-based keywords like “Black Friday Shopping”, Google often shows relevant News links above the organic results around the time of the event. For the News results, consider writing an article on “Black Friday Shopping” for your local newspaper.

Often times, SERPs with News results also show blog results, so this would be an indication that you might want to add some content about the event to your blog. If it’s a hot term, update your blog regularly throughout the day, as Google will often update these links with the latest content.

4.  Create An Editorial Calendar

One of the challenges (and opportunities) with the Web is that it forces businesses to start thinking like publishers. But businesses should already know when their hot seasons are.

They also should know the types of products people will be looking for and the types of questions they will be asking search engines. Map out the seasons that effect you in a editorial calendar spreadsheet and start figuring out where your areas of SEO opportunity are going to be over the next year.

To help you get started, I have created a Local SEO Seasonal Calendar that shows some of the major events for the year, complete with relevant local business categories/keywords for those events and the window of time for each.

And remember, with local SEO, ’tis always the season.

Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.

Related Entries

• SEO For Seasonal Promotions
• Tracking Seasonal Search Behavior
• Last Minute Holiday SEO Tactics
• 10 Last-Minute SEO Tips For Holiday Shopping Season
• Using Predictive Modeling In Seasonal Search Campaigns

By Andrew Redfern @ 9th August 2011 8:30 am

There are innumerable ways to improve a page’s Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO. Whether improving the quality and keyword density of your page’s text content, developing a strong network of useful links from other popular sites or any number of other tried and tested techniques, the name of the game is forcing search engines to take notice of your site and rank it highly within search results for the searches that you want to be a part of.

It can be pretty daunting to try and addressing each of these rules and recommendations from the outset, which is why this article is designed to help you lay a solid foundation from which to develop your SEO strategies throughout the life of the page. The pointers referenced in this passage are the fundamentals of SEO and the starting point for anybody who wants their site to ascend the rankings.

The bottom line in SEO is this: Text, Links, Popularity and Reputation.

Text is an absolute necessity because search engines operate using functions nicknamed spiders or crawlers which trawl the worldwide web instantaneously to find information that is relevant to the terms of a user’s search, but spiders/crawlers are only capable of reading text.

For this reason, a website with the most stunning imagery and design is likely to feature less prominently in a natural search list than one with quality, keyword rich text.

In many ways, links, popularity and reputation go hand in hand. The more popular your site, the higher it will appear in the rankings as search engines will perceive it to be a valuable resource on the given subject matter.

The popularity of another site can have a positive effect on your ranking too, if you are able to secure a link within that site to your own. The strength and quality of links to and from your site, all contribute to your position within search listings.

But just as exterior forces can have a positive influence on your ranking, the opposite can also occur. If you share a server with a blacklisted IP address or known spammer, you will suffer a much lower ranking as a result. This could diminish the effect of any hard work you carry out producing strong, keyword rich text and to the same degree a site with less text content but very strong authoritative links may fare better.

Observe the four cornerstones of SEO and you are likely to reap the benefits. There is no magic wand for SEO, just a set of principles. But if you are faithful to them, you are likely to benefit from a much higher ranking and, in turn, a great deal more clicks.

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Other Related Stories That May Be Of Interest:

1. Using Keyword Links is Vital for On-Page SEO
2. SEO Proof Your Internal Links
3. SEO Content that Pleases Both Humans and Spiders
4. Quality Over Quantity: Link Building for SEO
5. How to Get Your New Site Spidered for SEO
6. Avoid Stuffing Keywords Into Content for Great SEO
7. Your URL File Extension Won’t Affect Your SEO
8. Increase Your Site’s SEO Success with Inbound Links
9. Google Makes Changes to Search Engine Algorithm, How Will This Affect Your Business?
10. Create a Blog to Improve SEO on Your Site

Andres Oppenheimer Daily Herald | Posted: Sunday, August 7, 2011 12:00 am

 

While much has been written about the fact that Latin America’s rapidly growing economies are largely immune to U.S. financial woes, President Obama’s deal with Congress to avoid a U.S. debt default will have a negative impact throughout the region.

Granted, the consequences would have been much worse if the U.S. government had failed to reach an agreement — even a bad one, as the one it reached.

Still, the U.S. debt agreement, scheduled to cut the U.S. budget deficit by at least $2.1 trillion over the next 10 years and allow a 12-member commission decide on additional deficit reduction measures by Nov. 23, is likely to slow down the already timid U.S. economic recovery, and affect all countries in the region to some degree.

Osvaldo Kacef, head of the Santiago, Chile-based United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean economic development area, told me that the U.S. debt agreement will hurt Latin America in the short run, because the expected U.S. economic slowdown will reduce U.S. imports and reduce the flow of U.S. tourists to the region.

“The most immediate impact will be felt in those countries that have the most intense trade with the United States, such as Mexico and Central America,” Kacef said. “Caribbean countries that depend heavily on U.S. tourism will also be affected.”

South America’s commodity exporters, including oil-rich Venezuela and Ecuador, metal exporters such as Chile and Peru, and agricultural exporters such as Brazil and Argentina, will be hurt indirectly. The expected U.S. slowdown will affect China, the biggest buyer of their goods, he explained.

Eduardo Borensztein, a South America economist analyst with the Washington-based Inter-American Development Bank, agrees that a U.S. economic slowdown will hurt Latin America, but cautioned that it shouldn’t be an alarming trend.

Other economists fear that U.S. congressional budget cutters will sooner or later get their hands on U.S. foreign aid, hurting small Central American and Caribbean countries that rely on U.S. assistance.

Among the most optimist economists I talked to was Alberto Bernal, from Bulltick. He says not even a slowdown in the U.S. economic recovery would affect South America’s commodity exporters, as long as it’s just that, and not a new U.S. recession.

“If U.S. growth slows down from the 2.5 percent to 1.7 percent this year, as we expect, it will have a minimal impact on Latin America’s economic growth, with the exception of Mexico,” Bernal said. “But if there is a U.S. recession, it would be a different story.”

Before this week’s U.S. debt accord, most economists had projected an average economic growth of 4.5 percent for Latin America this year, including 7 percent growth for Argentina and Uruguay, 6.7 percent for Chile and Peru and 4.5 percent for Brazil and Mexico.

At the time of this writing Wednesday evening, no international financial institution had adjusted growth projections for the region.

My opinion: In the medium term, I’m reasonably optimistic about the U.S. prospects. Unlike in Europe, there is a certain social consensus in America that the country needs to tighten its belt. While in several European countries people take to the streets to protest against budget cuts, in the United States the loudest protesters are those who want bigger budget cuts.

Also, compared with China, there is a relative transparency that will keep the dollar as the world currency of last resort for the foreseeable future. And I’m mildly hopeful that economists are right when they say that there is a 70 percent chance that the coming U.S. economic slowdown will be just that, and not a new recession.

But in the short run, I’m afraid that the U.S. debt deal, coupled with Europe’s financial chaos, will cut the wings of the U.S. economic recovery. At the insistence of Tea Party fundamentalists, the U.S. budget deal cuts too much too soon, rather than spreading the pain over a longer period.

Unless Obama wins the next round and gets some tax increases that could keep the recovery afloat, it will hurt the U.S. recovery, and Latin America as well.

• Andres Oppenheimer is a Latin America correspondent for the Miami Herald.

 

Copyright 2011 Daily Herald. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

 

The Bakersfield Californian

| Saturday, Aug 06 2011 10:01 PM

Last Updated Saturday, Aug 06 2011 10:01 PM

Trying to pinpoint the cause of Kern County’s notoriously high teen birthrate isn’t easy. Some blame high rates of poverty or low educational attainment, while others point to pop culture, risky behavior or parents who are unwilling to discuss the birds and the bees.

But one glaring statistic can’t be ignored. While nationwide, three out of 10 teen girls will become pregnant, for Hispanic teens, the chances are a full 50 percent. More than half of Hispanic women have their first child before the age of 20. And in Kern County, Hispanics are the fastest growing segment of the population: Between 2000 and 2010, the local Hispanic population grew 63 percent, according to U.S. census figures.

That’s not to blame our teen pregnancy problem solely on one ethnicity. Birthrates among Hispanic teens have come down in recent years — though not as quickly as other population groups. And local teen birthrates for whites, blacks and other ethnicities are also higher than the statewide and national averages. But seriously addressing teen pregnancy in Kern County merits taking a closer look at the factors in play in the fastest-growing segment of our population.

We’ve all got a significant monetary incentive to do so. Between 2004 and 2005, a slight drop in the California teen birthrate meant that 1,419 fewer teens gave birth, saving California taxpayers more than $44 million. At the time of the study, Hispanics accounted for 72 percent of all teen births in California.

“I think our efforts are going to have to be more targeted to specific communities and populations,” said Bill Phelps, chief of programs for Clinica Sierra Vista, which provides services to teen mothers and contracts with school districts to provide sex education courses. “The message we’re giving is not being heard by everyone. If you’re newly immigrated here and new to the language, and your cultural norm is to have a family in your teens, (our message) may be falling on deaf ears.”

Recent research that has begun to focus more on Hispanics has found that one explanation for their stubbornly high teen birthrates may have to do with the failure of traditional prevention messages to connect with the community.

Standard prevention messages often characterize teen pregnancy as destructive behavior that can jeopardize future ambitions. But in many Latino cultures, motherhood is valued at any age, a deep-rooted standard that creates a conflicting message for Latina teens.

Consequently, “a lot of teen pregnancy messages have been seen in the Latino community as anti-family, anti-baby, anti-child messages,” said Bill Albert, chief program officer for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

Messages directed at Hispanics should avoid portraying babies as life-destroyers, Albert said. Instead, they should emphasize that “it’s not a question about loving babies, it’s about timing and experiences,” Albert said.

While cultural influences do impact Latina teen birthrates, teen childbearing is largely a socioeconomic problem, according to a UC San Francisco report, published in March, that broke down Hispanic childbearing factors in California.

The study noted that “lack of hope for educational and career opportunities” was common among the adolescent Hispanics interviewed. Foreign-born Hispanics in particular indicated that while they wanted to go to college, they perceived that their inability to obtain state and federal aid would make it virtually impossible.

Silvia Henriquez, executive director of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, wrote in the Huffington Post in 2009 that socioeconomic obstacles are even more basic than that.

“For many Latinas, the top barriers to birth control usage are … transportation, lack of health insurance or cash for health services, confusing and intimidating immigration regulations for households with a combination of citizens and non-citizens, and lack of guidance about available services. When teen pregnancy prevention programs and messages ignore these obstacles, Latinas become distanced from sex education efforts.”

Kern County’s rural nature likely compounds some of these challenges, said Phelps of Clinica Sierra Vista. While there may be a clinic that provides free birth control in Arvin, a teen may be worried about who will see her going there — an aunt, a mom, a neighbor? A Bakersfield clinic might be an option, but that requires locating a ride or finding money for bus fare, and an hour on the bus each way.

In Los Angeles County, a Latina with similar circumstances could take a bus to another neighborhood 10 minutes away and visit a clinic there, Phelps said. That may explain why teen birthrates among Hispanics are lower in Los Angeles than in Kern, even though its Hispanic population is larger.

Over the next two years, Clinica Sierra Vista will retool some of its teen pregnancy prevention programs and will focus greater efforts in Arvin and Lamont, where the population is almost entirely Latino. Phelps hopes that will inform some better strategies for preventing teen pregnancy among Latinas.

But reaching parents is also key. Albert, of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, said his organization’s research consistently shows that Hispanic teens cite parents as more influential in their decisions than peers, pop culture or partners. Yet other studies show that Hispanic parents are likely not to discuss sex with their children.

“I think the message … to all parents, and Latino parents, too, is you really do have a role to play here,” said Albert. “People are talking to your kids about sex, on TV, the Internet, at school. Are you going to be part of that conversation or not?”

If Kern County, consistently at the bottom of every teen-birth survey, is to ever make headway on this difficult and self-perpetuating problem, it’s a conversation we’ll have to resume with new urgency.

Stacey Shepard is The Californian’s associate editorial page editor. Email her at sshepard@bakersfield.com.

 

Jessica Alba gets all kinds of flack for not being Latina enough. But just so you know, she’s totally considered moving to a Spanish-speaking country so that she may improve her Latinaness:

“I’ve definitely considered moving to a Spanish-speaking country for a little while. Even if it’s just a month or tow. Because I think at the end of the day that’s how you really learn.”

She’s considered it, OK? She’s probably not going to do it, but she definitely considered it.

Check out pictures of Jessica Alba in the August issue of Latina magazine here.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 8, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — The Hispanic Access Foundation has announced it will continue its partnership with H&R Block, the world’s largest tax services provider, to launch the next phase of its campaign “Preparate Para Un Futuro Mejor” (Prepare Yourself for a Better Future) to educate Spanish-speaking taxpayers about tax issues affecting where they live, work and congregate. The effort kicked-off August 8 and will focus on Hispanics in the Miami metropolitan area.

HAF and H&R Block will work with faith and community leaders throughout the Miami metropolitan area to discuss tax topics, promote informational seminars called Tax Talks, and participate in community events.

“Hispanics, particularly those with limited English proficiency, need access to quality information in their language and to bilingual tax experts to help build their understanding about taxes,” said Maite Arce, executive director of HAF. “With bilingual offices throughout the Miami metropolitan area, H&R Block is an ideal partner to help this population.”

The program’s goal is to increase Hispanics’ knowledge of the key elements that are critical to understand and consider when filing a tax return. These elements include the benefits of establishing an accurate tax history in the U.S. and how a tax return is an important tool when building a financial plan.

“Hispanics have a unique set of issues they deal with when it comes to taxes that are confusing and easy to overlook,” Arce said. “Through tax education we can help position them for greater long-term financial success.”

For more information about the local events, call us toll-free at 1-800-206-9096 or visit http://hispanicaccess.org/events .

About Hispanic Access FoundationHispanic Access Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that works to promote responsible citizenship, educational attainment, and active engagement in the improvement of the health, environment, and financial well-being of Hispanic families throughout the United States. Working with and through our strategic partnerships with faith and community organizations, we are dedicated to providing greater access to vital information and community resources to the U.S. Hispanic population to improve their health and quality of life. For more information visit www.hispanicaccess.org .

About H&R BlockH&R Block Inc. /quotes/zigman/219890/quotes/nls/hrb HRB -7.22% is one of the world’s largest tax services providers, having prepared more than 575 million tax returns worldwide since 1955. In fiscal 2011, H&R Block had annual revenues of $3.8 billion and prepared more than 24.5 million tax returns worldwide, utilizing more than 100,000 highly trained tax professionals. The Company provides tax return preparation services in person, through H&R Block At Home(TM) online and desktop software products, and through other channels. The Company is also one of the leading providers of business services through RSM McGladrey. For more information, visit our Online Press Center at www.hrblock.com .

Contact: Dinah de SarachoPhone: 301-412-4044E-mail: Dinah@hispanicaccess.org

SOURCE Hispanic Access Foundation

Copyright (C) 2011 PR Newswire. All rights reserved  

Study shows Mexican immigration has declined for the first time since 1970s

Ryan Pelham/STAFF

Julio Perez, owner of the grocery store and sandwich shop Julio’s, stacks sections of Cuban bread into a bag for storage on Wednesday.

BY PALLAVI AGARWAL

Highlands Today

Published: August 8, 2011

Updated: 08/08/2011 08:47 am

SEBRING – Getting this year’s oranges picked almost came down to the wire for Barben Fruit Co. Inc.

Fewer laborers, almost 25 percent less than previous years, were here for this citrus harvest season, and some even left in the middle of picking season to go elsewhere, said John Barben.

Barben got his fruit picked, but it took much longer.

The citrus grower partly blames the anti-migrant sentiment for driving away agricultural laborers to other jobs in perhaps, cooler places.

A Pew Hispanic Center study released recently shows that for the first time since the 1970s, Mexican immigration has sharply declined.

The lack of jobs here, combined with increased border security, has slowed the flow of new arrivals. Births accounted for 63 percent of the 11.4-million-person increase during the past decade, as Mexican women had more children than other women, including other Latinas, the study concludes.

Augustina Anaya, whose family owns the Anaya Produce Stand in Avon Park, also has seen sharply fewer Mexicans buying tomatilloes and jalapenos peppers from her this year.

“There has been a decline of Mexicans coming here,” she said.

She’s heard there are more getting deported.

“Six to 10 years ago, they would not deport you unless you got into trouble or had a felony,” she said. Now, it appears all undocumented workers who get caught get sent home, she said.

The decline and or shortage of agricultural laborers, many of whom are of Mexican descent, is not just having a potential impact on Highlands County’s agriculture.

It’s slowly changing the face of the Hispanic population in Highlands County.

When Julio Perez came to Highlands County in 1989, most of the Hispanics he encountered then were Mexicans.

The Hispanic wave had not hit the county like it would about 10 years later.

Highlands County was still a sleepy part of Central Florida. The 1990 U.S. Census had the county population at 68,500, about a third less of what it is now.

Perez, who bought Julio’s from a Cuban woman who probably introduced the Cuban sandwich to the county, then started to see the change.

Puerto Ricans like him started to filter in and settle here. Then the South Florida Cubans started moving here.

Today, the composition of Hispanics in Highlands County has become more diversified even as their numbers steadily grow. In 2000, 12.1 percent of the county classified themselves as Hispanic, according to the Census numbers. Ten years later, that figure has grown to 17.4 percent.

At 8.2 percent or 8,147 people, Mexicans still comprise the largest bloc of Hispanics in the county, but in places like Sebring, their numbers are neck-in-neck with Puerto Ricans, the second largest Hispanic group in the county with 5,160 local residents.

Cubans come third with 1,711 living here, according to the 2010 Census numbers.

Highlands County’s Hispanic population is somewhat at odds with Florida’s.

While Mexicans comprise 75 percent of the country’s Hispanics, Puerto Ricans and Cubans generally outnumber the Mexican population in the state.

It appears Highlands County is moving more in line with the Latino population statewide although some places in Highlands County still have big pockets of local Mexicans.

The largest concentration of Mexicans is in Lake Placid, where 39 percent of its 2,223 residents describe themselves as Mexicans. Avon Park follows second where 17 percentage or 1,481 residents classified themselves as Mexicans, according to the 2010 Census numbers.

The subtle shift in the Latino population is happening statewide although in different ways.

In 2000, Puerto Ricans and Mexicans accounted for about 5.3 percent of the state’s population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, putting them on equal footing with Cubans, who made up 5.2 percent.

A decade later, Puerto Ricans and Mexicans are 7.8 percent of the state’s residents, eclipsing the 6.4 percent that Cubans account for. And many of those new residents — more than 365,000 of them — are Puerto Ricans.

In Orange County, Puerto Ricans now account for 13 percent of the population and a quarter of the total population growth since 2000, according to the Census bureau. In Osceola County, the increase has been even more notable. Almost 44 percent of the population growth has come from Puerto Ricans, who now account for more than a quarter of the county’s total population.

The political implications of the shift could reflect in the polling booths.

Puerto Ricans can vote while only naturalized Mexicans have that right.

Puerto Ricans and Mexicans tend to lean Democratic while Cubans, especially the older generation, have been considered a solid Republican base.

Humberto Ramirez, chairman of the Highlands County chapter of the Democratic Party, agrees.

But no matter where the Latino population leans politically and despite their growing numbers, Hispanics have a poor voter turnout in Highlands County, he said, and he wants to change it.

A Hispanic himself, Ramirez said the local chapter is aggressively seeking to register more Hispanic voters.

One option they are reminding voters is to send in mail-in ballots since they are more convenient, he said.

“We are trying to register as many people,” he said.

Kevin Roderick • August 7 2011 10:49 PM

The Los Angeles Times stylebook adopted Latino over Hispanic in 1995, or even earlier. A recent update seeks to clarify the usage and the reason behind it.

 

Assistant Managing Editor Henry Fuhrmann summarized the rule in a note to copy editors: “So, to be clear: Latino should be used in nearly all contexts; the exceptions, as described in the revised entry, must truly be exceptional.”