Mark Anderson, Author at Social Media Explorer

The Evolution of the Sales Funnel [CARTOON]

Mark Anderson — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 11:00:50 +0000

This cartoon was inspired after having read Nichole Kelly’s post, The Death of the Sales Funnel As We Know It, a few weeks ago. While she cleverly likened today’s sales process to a neural network, I still found it difficult to give up the idea of a funnel. So I went to the old drawing board and came up with a new use for my old funnel.

A customer’s path to conversion often entails several twists and turns and doubling back to pour over information. For that reason, I have re-purposed my sales funnel, filled it with the batter of leads and poured it into a vat of hot oil… and voila! We have the Sales Funnel Cake!

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The Reality of Facebook Graph Search [CARTOON]

Mark Anderson — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 19:00:13 +0000

With the announcement of Graph Search, Facebook’s answer to Google’s search engine, privacy concerns are once more in the forefront of the minds of many users. While no new personal information is being provided to the general public, Graph Search has made it exponentially easier for that information to be accessed. Graph Search will enable people to tap into your timeline, check-ins, likes, employment and education history, and other personal information with a simple query.

This could pose many awkward situations. Let’s say that you have recently started working for a company and you love your new job. But maybe, in 2011 you “liked” their archnemesis rival company’s page. That “like” was long forgotten in your mind, but springs right to the top of the list when your new boss does a Graph Search for people who work at your company that like your rival. That example might be a little far-fetched, but it is entirely possible given the power of Graph Search.

The moral of the story is: be aware of the information you share and the privacy settings that are on your account. If you are concerned about “Big Brother” looking over your shoulder, you might want to change some settings from “Everyone” to “Friends”. Or maybe you are completely paranoid; in that case feel free to change the settings to “Only Me”. If you want to see something really eye-opening, take a look at your activity log and see all of the things you have done or liked on Facebook. You may have second thoughts about some of those comments that you posted or those late night partying photos you were tagged in.

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Reputation Management and SEO Rankings [CARTOON]

Mark Anderson — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 19:06:32 +0000

Many companies try to rank on search engines for any and every keyword. A #1 ranking on Google is not necessarily a good thing if you are ranking for terms that are not congruent with your target audience, or even worse, ranking high for negative keywords about your industry.

Reputation management is not only an important thing to monitor on social networks, but for SEO rankings as well. User experience across all channels of interactions, whether online, on the phone, or in-person, will have an impact on how people react to your brand. If you are providing poor customer experience or sub-par content that is irrelevant to your target customers, chances are they will talk about you negatively online. Companies should have a handle on all of the terms they are ranking for and proactively address any causes of negative keywords. Be sure to include SEO in your typical reputation management process.

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