8 Ways to Integrate Social Media and Online Advertising

Traditional advertising gets a lot of criticism in the social media space. Many say ads don’t work anymore on an increasingly savvy audience, but what if that’s only part right? Sure, fewer people may actually click, but what if examining the overall effectiveness of campaigns sometimes requires a longer view?

What if Impressions Really DO Matter?

Like having interactions in social networks, encountering ads also becomes a part of our online experience. Just because I don’t click on an ad doesn’t mean that ad didn’t leave an impression. What if we only think we ignore ads online? A report from GroupM Search and comScore released late last year confirms this idea.

Search reveals consumer intent, but a branded social media presence, and advertising that includes paid search help shape that consumer intent.

The report found consumers who were exposed to a brand's social media presence as well as paid search advertising were more likely to search on keywords associated with the lower part of the funnel, like the company name and names of products

It seems that no matter how much we ask, some consumers simply prefer not to click. However, when they do encounter something of interest, they’ll instead Google the name of the company or product. The results resonate with me because I am this type of consumer.

Rather than focusing on what department should own social media, maybe it’s better to think about how social media can compliment other marketing and advertising activities. Below is a list of my ideas on how to align a social media presence with other types of advertising.

How to Influence Discovery: Aligning Social with Paid Search and Advertising

1. Find out what search terms your company or product teams are bidding on and integrate them into descriptions/bios on social profiles
2. Upload images of display ads into Flickr (lots of photo sharing sites out there, I prefer Flickr) and tag with the search terms the company or product teams are bidding on. Use those images in blog posts or Facebook updates about current promotions
3. Coordinate backgrounds of social profiles to reflect creative elements in recent display campaigns
4. Include links to social profiles in display ads when possible
5. Write blog posts on current promotions without being salesy – simply give the facts of the promotion and link to the pre-sell, or landing page for the promotion
6. Embed TV commercials on YouTube, or even Flash animations used in online ads. There are actually people who think advertising is interesting and they may just happen to be at the outer rim of your funnel.
7. Blog about your new commercial and embed it in the blog post, then ask for customer feedback.
8. Take still shots of your TV or animation and upload those to Flickr tagged with keywords your paid search team is bidding on

This list by no means applies to everyone at every time, but rather is meant to spark the conversation and get you thinking about how you can build a more integrated presence for consumers. Notice this post really isn’t about the conversation or approach piece – that’s a different set of tactics for a different post.

But What About Measurement?

There are many ways to look at multitouch measurement, but if nothing else, look at increased branded keyword search over time. If you’re coordinating this effort with creative redesigns, new campaigns and design refreshes you may even see little peaks in this behavior, but you might not.

You may simply see a nice, steady upward trend. Nothing wrong with that… just make sure you have a site that can convert that new traffic.

To Be Continued…

Do you have other ideas you would like to see added to this list? How can you integrate all your marketing and communications activities so rather than competing for money and glory inside the company, they work in harmony to attract the right consumers?
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