Marc Baumann

As American consumers spend more and more of their online time interacting on social websites, social media initiatives have become a high priority for businesses large and small. Social media is a booming industry, but it’s also the new Wild West. The landscape is constantly changing, the technology is continually evolving, and consumer behavior is an endlessly moving target. Unfortunately for businesses, there isn’t a clear cut path to social media success. As Tom Webster recently pointed out, what usually passes as strategy is actually tactical advice: be human, be authentic, be helpful. Great advice? Yes. Strategy? Not hardly. - Marc Baumann

With all the buzz about Twitter Lists I thought I’d take a look at how some major news sites are doing so far with their own Lists.Looking at selection of Twitter accounts from 30 31 news sites, I checked the number of Lists that have been created and how many followers each has attracted to-date. These figures will change quite a bit in the weeks and months to come, but I wanted to capture an initial snapshot. (Note: currently Twitter allows users to create a maximum of 20 Lists.) - Marc Baumann

According to data provided to eMarketer by Nielsen, traffic to Twitter.com was down a dramatic 27.8% between September and October 2009, falling to 18.9 million unique visitors. Traffic to the Twitter.com Website is declining month over month after a period of huge gains. The decrease in visitors could mean either falling interest in Twitter or simply migration to other platforms, such as third-party applications and mobile access. "While it’s valuable to look at Twitter’s Web traffic, the true picture won’t emerge until all the third-party traffic from mobile phones and API clients is accounted for,” wrote senior analyst Debra Aho Williamson on the eMarketer blog. eMarketer estimated in September that 18 million US adults would use Twitter by the end of 2009. - Marc Baumann

Recently, I was invited to give a talk to a small group of managers about KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) used to measure social media (SM) campaigns. Some of the points we discussed that evening are outlined below. Harsh reality 2: Developing comprehensive objectives takes time. Harsh reality 3: Did you remember your baseline? Harsh reality 4: Using the wrong benchmark measure is expensive - Marc Baumann

I just read a blog post from Mashable's Jennifer Van Grove on "3 Qualities to Look for When Hiring a Community Manager". Of course, this topic can be looked at from the other side of the equation, which led me to thinking about what qualities someone who wants to be a social media manager should have. For the record, Van Grove lists 1) intellectual curiosity, 2) passion, and 3) knowledge of your business. I'd modify and expand this to: - Marc Baumann

We’re interviewing a bunch of brilliant word of mouth marketers as previews for the Word of Mouth Supergenius conference in Chicago on Dec. 16. In this interview, Social Media Explorer Jason Falls shares his tips for creating and promoting your blog. Among others: Blaze your own trail. Set your own goals. Don’t get caught up in technical details. - Marc Baumann

Let’s face it: the classic blog post is boring. Barring the text and images, each one generally has the exact same layout. We see little originality from one post to the next. Of course, consistency and branding are extremely important to consider when designing a website or blog, but what about individuality? Does a blog post about kittens deserve the same layout as one about CSS hacks? - Marc Baumann

In this post, I have compiled the 10 most awesome sites made using the Thesis Theme. - Marc Baumann

As one of the 3 lucky Vertical Measures employees soaking in all the fantastic, valuable knowledge here at Pubcon 2009 in Las Vegas I wanted to share all the best SEO related information in a fast, clean uncluttered way. I’m not going to spend a bunch of time writing a compelling intro, talking about Vegas or parties or who is here and why. There are no links in this post, opinions or plugs for anything or anyone. These are tips, information and recommendations you can start using right now to get more traffic to your site, rank higher in the search engines and better conversions. This is from the most credible sources in the industry so don’t question it, just take action as quickly as possible and enjoy the success! If there is something below you are not familiar with, Google it. - Marc Baumann

Recently I introduced several methods to ensure your mobile site is properly indexed by Google. Today I'd like to share information useful for webmasters who manage both desktop and mobile phone versions of a site. One of the most common problems for webmasters who run both mobile and desktop versions of a site is that the mobile version of the site appears for users on a desktop computer, or that the desktop version of the site appears when someone finds them from a mobile device. In dealing with this scenario, here are two viable options: - Marc Baumann

Americans have dramatically integrated social networking tools into their lives. Euro RSCG Worldwide, one of the world's leading advertising and marketing agency networks, conducted a study on how people use the ever-changing options in social and online media available today. According to the study, their world is expanding and narrowing at the same time because of social media's hyperlocalization quotient. And "cyberdisinhibition" -- being more willing to behave online in ways they wouldn't in person -- has both emboldened users and led them to inappropriate behavior. - Marc Baumann

It seems the world is going mobile, with many people using mobile phones on a daily basis, and a large user base searching on Google’s mobile search page. However, as a webmaster, running a mobile site and tapping into the mobile search audience isn't easy. Mobile sites not only use a different format from normal desktop site, but the management methods and expertise required are also quite different. This results in a variety of new challenges. As a mobile search engineer, it's clear to me that while many mobile sites were designed with mobile viewing in mind, they weren’t designed to be search friendly. I'd like to help ensure that your mobile site is also available for users of mobile search. Here are troubleshooting tips to help ensure that your site is properly crawled and indexed: - Marc Baumann

Marketers have long focused on the "last click" a user makes before purchasing a product to measure the success of an online ad campaign, but that model doesn't work for social media, writes Rob Birgfeld, reporting on a panel from Ad:Tech New York. Users may interact with brands for an extended period of time before finally deciding to make a purchase. As a result, 94% of successful clicks are ignored, even though they truly helped make the sale, notes Esco Strong, head of the Microsoft Advertising Institute. Strong suggests companies use a longer model to determine the return on a social-media investment, expanding their window from 14 days to 90 days. - Marc Baumann