My Personal Brand Online - Assignment Example

My Personal Brand Online Literature review of latest thinking on keyword research methods and social media influencer’s analysis methods No matter the type of business activities conducted on the internet, be it selling your products online, promoting products or a personal profile, one cannot be successful unless people actually visit the particular website. However, having just anybody visit the site is not enough. One must attract the targeted prospects. Keyword research is very important in the process of attracting the targeted visitors to your site. The success of one’s venture online depends on the keyword research efforts. There are several ways of conducting effective keyword research (Diamond, 2014, p.3). According to Diamonds, keyword research involves forcing search engines to find your website. People search the internet using different search engines including Google and Yahoo!. Therefore, one must make sure these search engines find the particular sites as often as possible. Even though things are changing, search engines are still text based meaning they find particular words and ignore video and graphics. Search engines utilize algorithms to decide how they will rate any website that they have analyzed. The algorithms read words on a page and index the page according to what the words tells them about it and its value. A webpage that is properly constructed focuses on a particular phrase or keyword. This is the work of those involved in the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) (Diamond, 2014, p.4). A good keyword research is the bread and butter to any successful online marketing campaign. The creation of all keywords is not the same because a key word can describe what a person’s intentions are. The Google Keyword Toll is effective in doing a keyword research for SEO. When compared to other search engines, it is extremely accurate and receives the most traffic. To build a larger list for the keywords to use, one does a Google search with the intention of finding competitors who are paying for ads for the same keyword (Heart, 2013, p.16). Earlier studies of Web metrics typically have focused on a particular type of Web object (like Web hyperlink or blog) and examined how it can provide useful information. This study analyzes various types of Web objects to find out what kind of business information they contain. In addition, the study finds out if it is possible to construct business profiles by combining information from various sources. The study analyzed the following three types of Web objects: the company’s own Web site, blog sites discussing information about the company, and hyperlinks that point to the firm’s Web site. The researchers selected a group of companies for the study, and they collected data about these companies from these three different sources. They explored two research questions: What kind of business information can we get from each source, and how do different sources complement each other (Vaughan, Juan & Jian, 2010, p.1121)? To carry out the research, the researchers used the quantitative approach method. Next step was the selection of keywords that represented company products and conducted the following three searches: a) Searching for pages that contain these words on the company’s own Web site b) Searching for pages on blog sites that contain these keywords and the company name c) Searching for pages that contain these keywords and have a hyperlink pointing to the company’s Web site They then analyzed the number of pages retrieved to learn if and how the business information could be uncovered. Three rounds of quantitative data were collected over a 7-month period (August 2008 to March 2009) to test the reliability of the data as well as observe changes (Vaughan, Juan & Jian, 2010, p.1121). China’s oil industry was chosen for the examination of the research questions and to explore both data-collection and analysis approaches. There was plenty of discussion of the oil industry on the Web, which provided a very good opportunity for the study. They chose four major Chinese oil companies for the study: China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (later referred to as Sinopec), China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), Sinochem Corporation (Sinochem), and China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC). These firms all have well developed Web sites, which attract a large number of hyperlinks from other sites. These companies also are frequent subjects of blog discussion changes (Vaughan, Juan & Jian, 2010, p.1122). The researchers considered three types of keywords. The first type was about energy products. They chose six such keywords: crude oil, kerosene, gasoline, diesel, fuel oil, and coking. The second type related to things produced from oil. The following three keywords in the study were of this type: fertilizer, ethylene and chemical products. They carried all the searches through Google and Yahoo! because no crawler from a single researcher or even a very large research team can cover the vast Web space, as can these two search engines (Vaughan, Juan & Jian, 2010, p.1122). The method of analyzing product keywords on company Web sites was productive. Comparing keyword distributions within and across companies can help to construct or discern product profiles. The method of searching for blogs with the company name and product keywords was the most useful in finding recent changes and developments of the company. These two methods provide complementary information and can be used together to gain a fuller understanding of business situations. Companies can use this kind of information to gain a better understanding of not only their competitors but also respective own relative market positions. The in link-plus-keyword method provided limited information, but the overall result was not as effective as the other two methods (Vaughan, Juan & Jian, 2010, p.1128). The method of keyword search on a company Web site provided consistent results over a long period, as the company profiles did not change during this period. This suggests the reliability of the method. The results of the blog search varied over time, and major changes in the number of blogs matched major events during that period. This suggests that the quality of blogs on a specific topic could signal important business information in that area. One can use a computer program to monitor the numbers and to follow up on potential leads. This approach could be of more value if one is monitoring information written in a language that one does not read (like Chinese). Keywords in that language could be preselected, and the program would alert the person if the number exceeds a threshold. To test the validity of the methods, the researchers carried out a qualitative content analysis of Web pages retrieved from the three types of searches. Because the quantitative methods developed relied on keyword frequencies, the content analysis aimed at determining the effectiveness of the keywords in signalling business information. The researches manually examined 454 pages to see if the use of keywords on the pages was in the context of discussing the company and the product. The results from the qualitative analysis not only confirmed the conclusions that two of the three methods are effective and one is not but also helped explain the reasons for effectiveness or the lack of it (Vaughan, Juan & Jian, 2010, p.1128). The social media influence is measurable by ascertaining the originator of a comment or the section of a prose and determining the number of people influenced by it. The proxy of influence is finding out the number of people; reading the particular comment, forwarding it, voting on it, citing it on another post and responding to it. Influencer analysis uses social networking techniques and looks at the online personalities that affect the most people. Although influence is usually measurable for people, it is not restricted to them. Certain websites, blogs and groups have influence and should be included in the influence analysis. People who are serious about social media insights must develop and continuously maintain internal data sets of manually annotated social media data. This is critical for creating benchmarking metrics (Wollan & Zhou, 2010, p.98). The person responsible for Social Media Optimization must be familiar with your niche from previous experience with other companies and be able to identify key influencers. However, if they are not familiar with your niche, they should conduct a research to find speakers, bloggers, authors and other online leaders who are using social media sites to connect with their audiences. They should be participating with their audiences actively on a consistent basis e.g. constant twitter updates or frequent blog posts (Trika, 2010, p.169). Referent influencers are people who possess influence in social media networks. People need to reach these influencers so that they can help to increase the number of hits or views by sharing ones profile or individual. One needs to find the right referent influencer who attracts a specific audience required. Reaching these influencers is not easy. Most of social media networks do not allow the mining of user social graphs by marketers. Thus, identifying and activating the specific people who can help on reach the targeted audience is quite hard. Some companies that deal with advertising technology have been conducting researches to find ways of reaching the referent influencers without invading the privacy of the targeted audience and their social media circle of friends. This method is very safe however, it can be quite expensive and the charges depend on the number of referent influencers required. People can also reach the referent influencers without paying anyone. One can achieve this by building an online community through the creation of a Facebook page. People will like the page and by doing so, they may attract the referent influencers provided the people are given the incentive to do that (Singh & Diamond, 2012, p.226). Literature review on digital strategy development and thinking of legal and ethical implications of you being online Constructing a digital strategy that is effective is critical for any organization or individual seeking to use the Internet’s power as well as digital media coverage to reach required audiences. A few years ago, running ads on Google or launching websites was enough for businesses to generate revenues online. In recent times, the Internet is continuously evolving into a very high competitive environment. Only ads and website cannot guarantee visibility by intended audiences. For one to succeed online, individuals and organizations should be willing and ready for investments in resources, which strengthen the adoption and understanding of web technologies and digital media. Individuals or organizations may build successful digital strategies that can support the globalization efforts they require (Berlin, 2011, p.5). Understanding an individual’s business is the first step in building a digital strategy that is successful. One must also have clear goals and reasonable expectations. Strategies are rarely uniform. Even though the temptation of copying what works for other people is irresistible, and may work occasionally, one should always strive to develop strategies that are unique to the individual’s or organization’s objectives. The web technology used should fit the needs of the individual or organization. The website acts as the bridge to the world and thus it is the most important asset that is digital. According to a recent study conducted, the average time required to load a page for a website is six seconds. This means that a person has six seconds or less to impress, therefore one should make it count. Websites that appeal visually help, but the messaging is more important. It should be possible to view the value proposition clearly on the home page. One must use a good content management system that allows one to update and publish information easily to the site, hence increasing relevancy to audience that is target and the web crawlers, which index the site for ranking. One must repeat these procedures often (Berlin, 2011, p. 6). Although agencies, analyst firms and brands have developed a bevy of digital strategy frameworks, all these frameworks allow a common approach. Digital strategy is a broad term but essentially involves the research, planning, definition and creation of a go-to-market plan for digital channels. The end goal would be a return on the investment, something affecting the bottom line in a reasonable period. When developing digital strategy, digital analytics serve as a rich input that allows one to understand the target audience across several different dimensions. The search analysis relates to the actual search queries of the targeted audience so that it includes relevant, timely and specific information about what consumers are searching for. The search terms reveal the topics that the target audience is interested in, which are dissectible to inform content strategy and planning. Content is king. Content strategy is a process that breathes life into content marketing programs and branded content initiatives. Content strategy deals with one of the biggest, yet not so obvious problems that marketers are facing today: organizing and planning content. For someone to be relevant to the targeted audience, the content has to be remarkable (Hemann, 2013, p.266). Factors that contribute to the fast web channel global growth include; available connectivity to the web by all consumers, an increase in consumer familiarity and consumer preference for e-spaces (Gordon & Mark, 2012, p.72). Expansive use of technology, however, presents an array of new ethical and legal issues. Confidentiality and security are two primary concerns in this e-landscape. When using social media for marketing, there is no guarantee that one’s account cannot be hacked into, corrupted or information stolen. Blogs and discussion forums pose similar security concerns. Breaches in security can lead to breaches of confidentiality (Gordon & Mark, 2012, p.72). Confidential information is reveal able unwittingly and later broadcast throughout social media networks. Moreover, geographical social media tools such as Foursquare mean that a person’s movements are inferable despite someone wishing to maintain confidentiality (Gordon & Mark, 2012, p.72). Organizations or individuals with an online presence may risk the creation of unintended audience engagement (Gordon & Mark, 2012, p.72). There are three common scenarios where this may arise. First, a website may contain a ‘contact us’ page that invites web browsers (potential audience) to complete a form or send an email via the website (Gordon & Mark, 2012, p.72). Thus creates an inadvertent relationship with that person. The second scenario that might give rise to an inadvertent relationship is where an individual creates a Facebook profile that is accessible to family, friends and prospective audience simultaneously. The individual may then post professional announcements that are accessible by all these people. The third possible scenario involves answering questions posed by non-targeted audiences on a social media platform and thereby creating an unintended relationship (Gordon & Mark, 2012, p.72). These days’ employers are increasingly searching for information posted on social media by the potential employees. One time, a company president went online to view the Facebook profile applicants. He found that one applicant had listed smoking blunts as one of his interests. The president obviously questioned the judgment and seriousness of the particular applicant because of allowing such information to be accessible by anybody publicly. Employers rejecting applications or firing employees for the information that they display online is a growing trend. While a Fecebook profile can be a treasure chest for recruiters, it is not clear whether this is ethical (Bottom of FormSchermerhorn, 2010, p.290). Bottom of Form The use of social networking sites has exploded in the last ten years. This is why many people opt to post their profiles online on these sites because many people will be able to view them. An example of a well-known social media site is Facebook. Facebook commenced in 2007 and by 2010; it had more than 500 million members. As of December 2011, it had over 840 million active users monthly. The profiles may be personal, business or professional. These profiles allow people to communicate and share ideas with a targeted audience. Most of these sites allow the restriction of profile information of specific people. However, users who are perceptive about IT often circumvent these security and privacy settings. Moreover, the platforms’ administrators may change the settings without giving notice or informing the users (Brooks, 2013, p.314). For a website, the owner or the manager controls its content. However, for a social media site with security and privacy settings, the user has very little control over his/ her information. The disadvantage of putting up profiles on social media sites is that the user cannot view the profiles of those people who visit their profile. Moreover, on Facebook, one cannot search for a business account or send and receive friendship requests. Thus, it is very risky for people who post their professional or business information on such sites. A “friend” may comment on a post using abusive or demeaning language that makes people uncomfortable. People may go ahead to exchange abusive words, which is illegal in most countries. The profile may end up pulled down, people abusing each other may and eventually arrested. All this will be happening in a page meant to give professional identity. This will portray a very bad message to the targeted audience and may even end up in lawsuits (Brooks, 2013, p. 315). Not only the law, but industrial ethical practices too are not able to keep up with the impact on consumer privacy caused by the proliferation of tracking technologies. The software companies that develop the tracking technology may argue that they are simply fulfilling the need of marketers who want the best returns for their investment on online advertising. The marketers and the advertisers helping them may argue that they are helping the targeted audience to receive the information they are likely to be interested in rather than a flood of useless unfiltered information (Rao & Klein, 2013, p.188). The evolving technology enables tracking of web searches as people move from one site to another. People have claimed that “Big brother” is watching all the moves that people make on the internet without people knowing about it. This is very possible because there is nothing stopping them from doing it. The focus is not to track that information to improve user satisfaction on the particular sites. The focus is to build an online profile of an individual based on what the client does online. Majority of internet users have no idea that these third party trackers are tracking all their moves on the internet. They also do not have a clue where the dossier ends up. The privacy of people online is at risk and the confidential information may end up in the wrong hands. This is not only wrong but also unethical (Rao & Klein, 2013, p.189). ReferencesTop of FormTop of Form Top of Form Top of Form Top of Form Top of Form Top of Form Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Bottom of FormBerlin, L 2011, The Internet and Globalization: Ten Tips to Building an Effective Digital Strategy for Global Success: 2011 Winner of the Graziadio Student Paper Competition, Graziadio Business Review, 14, 4, pp. 1-7, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 25 July 2014. Brooks, E. C. (2013). Legal and ethical issues for the IBCLC. Burlington, MA, Jones & Bartlett Learning.Bottom of Form Diamonds. (2014). Keyword Research Bible: The No.1 Source for Keyword Research. 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Vaughan, L, Juan, T, & Jian, D 2010, Constructing business profiles based on keyword patterns on Web sites, Journal Of The American Society For Information Science & Technology, 61, 6, pp. 1120-1129, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 25 July 2014. Wollan, R., Smith, N., & Zhou, C. (2010). The Social Media Management Handbook Everything You Need To Know To Get Social Media Working In Your Business. Hoboken, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. http://www.SLQ.eblib.com.au/patron/FullRecord.aspx?p=644784. Bottom of Form Read More