The market is full of high-tech solutions to help with social media management. If you have money to spend, you can enjoy all sorts of features from vast content libraries to apps for running Facebook contests, conducting research and digging into some deep analytics.

If your budget isn’t grand, you can still get high-tech help. We have some suggestions for our favorite free and low-cost tools, categorized by what you can do with them. They are free except where a price is mentioned.

Monitoring: What are they saying about you?

Twilert: As the name suggests, this tool allows you to monitor Twitter by setting up free email alerts whenever you want them. Now you don’t have to stay glued to your computer. You won’t miss a tweet that mentions your favorite phrase or hashtags or more importantly your brand name. Don’t miss prospects looking for a company just like yours or maybe an unhappy customer complaining.

Google Alerts: Google Alerts may seem pretty basic, but if you set them up well you may be surprised at all that comes your way. One client had no idea that angry customers were complaining on review sites like complaints.com and pissedconsumer.com until Alerts delivered the mentions right to her. Google Alerts delivers website and blog mentions, but does not cover Facebook, Twitter and other social media.

Facebook Marketing: Look like a pro

Pagemodo: We have been impressed by this company’s robust offerings for Facebook marketing. One client uses the free version for the “Contact Us” tab while another retailer is using coupons and contests. All features are easy to use without any technical skills required. What’s not to like? You can also have a lot more, for a still reasonable fee.

Social Media Marketing: Use a centralized dashboard, shorten links, schedule posts, monitor and organize your followers

Twitter and other platforms can be overwhelming, but with a tool like Hootsuite: you can manage it with ease. A few features that I am particularly fond of include:

The Hootlet: This one goes in the category of “changed my life.” Instead of logging onto Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ — or even just logging in to Hootsuite or another social software – the Hootlet allows me to have an app right in my toolbar. As I read through my daily blogs and news sources, I can simply click on the Hootlet to share some content with my followers. It comes complete with a link shortener and scheduler as well as a connection to all of my social media accounts so I can choose which one to use.

Streams: If you get an Excedrin headache trying to make sense of your social media feeds, Hootsuite’s stream function allow you to organize content by keywords. Set up a stream for each topic you want to follow and import your Twitter streams. Now your “listening” is all in one place.

Reporting: Hootsuite offers some free reports that let you see if your tweets are getting retweets or clicks, and such. You can also tie in much more advanced features if you are willing to pay.

Twitter Follower Management: Get rid of Twerps you’re following who aren’t following you back, and follow people who are following you all in one easy interface.

Tweepi: Using the free version of Tweepi, you can organize your Twitter followers. Take a look at who you are following (and if they are following you back), their Klout score and other key metrics such as the last time someone Tweeted. You can mark your favorites so they can’t get flushed (and once they’re marked, you don’t have to review them again), then flush all the deadbeats who aren’t following you back. You can also look at the people following you, to make sure you’re following everyone you want to follow. Here, again, you can mark the spammers and others you don’t want to follow so you only need to review them once.

So, why not give these tools a try? Before you know it, your social presence may be growing so fast that you may want to keep going and invest in some paid options.

By Mary Anglade, for Starpoint Marketing

I don’t think I will ever launch content again that isn’t on Tumblr
—Katrina Craigwell, Lead for Digital Content at GE, January 24, 2013

Given the news this week about Yahoo acquiring Tumblr, we wanted to revisit this post. We love Tumblr for its clean interface, focus on content and ability to aggregate some of the most creative people in the world. So ask yourself – should you be on Tumblr? Let the following give you some ideas.

Can your business and brand benefit from visual story-telling? Then you should take a long, hard look at Tumblr, the micro-blogging social media platform. It could be a key part of your social, branding and content strategy.

There were quite a few sessions about Tumblr at Social Media Week NYC. I particularly liked the insights from Content Is King, A Guide to Telling Brand Stories on Tumblr.

First, the basics:

What is Tumblr?

Our infographic says it all — Tumblr is a micro-blogging platform that was founded in 2007. The service allows users to post text, images, videos, audio, links, and quotes to their tumblelog, a short-form blog.

Tumblr is also one of the top ten online destinations. According to the presenters of last week’s session, the site receives 170 million unique visits a month and has a mind-boggling 95.8 million blogs with a 120,000 new blogs every day.

“Blog” could be a misleading term, as for many the word may conjure up an image of a mostly text-based journal with a few visuals. A Tumblr theme is highly visual and can be as customizable and robust as a website. It also has many of the sharing capabilities and community benefits of any social media platform.

Compared to other social media sites, Tumblr is all about self-expression. Users follow an intuitive “dashboard” where they can keep track of how well their content is faring. A heart is good, a “reblog” is better as a user found the content to be share-worthy.

Who Uses Tumblr?

It’s no surprise that Tumblr’s rich visual features has attracted those in art, fashion and food — and other heavily visual specialties. The Tumblr folks say Tumblr is all about passion. So if there is a passion – there is a Tumblr. Photography, sports, cars, fashion, design — you name it — it is all there. If you have a passion, go check it out.

Users either create their own content or curate others. Tumblr intentionally does not reveal follower numbers publicly, because they want content to take center stage. The result is a very focused and passionate community that engages in materials that interest them.

The focus on content shows in the metrics. Tumblr users are very engaged, spending an average of 15 minutes and 30 page views per visit — which exceeds that of the supreme, time waster, Facebook.

Tumblr users skew young. 44% of Tumblr users are 18 to 34. 15% are in the 35 to 45 age range. The female/male split is 55/45%.

Which content works best on Tumblr?

Tumblr’s CEO, David Karp, noted, “The content that does best is the content that surprises you.”

So true.

Looking for a little more specific direction? Start with Tumblr.com/explore to get some inspiration before you jump in. It is here that Tumblr employs some “tag” editors who cull through blogs to pull some of the best content by category. This is helpful as Tumblr can be overwhelming for a newbie and at first, hard to understand what you are seeing.

The session’s Tumblr expert also highlighted the following characteristic of great Tumblr content:

• Emotional: Tumblr users are passionate, so photos and text that hit the nerve are shared the most. Top visuals include everything from the athlete scoring the winning goal to Disney’s beautiful park pictures that capture the magic of discovering Disney.
• Animated: Animated gifs are very popular on Tumblr. They’re also a great way to repurpose video.
• Informative: Even companies like GE are offering Tumblrs as the platform allows you to do long-form posts.

What are some top Tumblrs to check out?

The Tumblr team pointed out the brands and individuals they love to watch, and we also found a few of our own. Take a look at these Tumblrs.

• Patagonia: I have loved the Patagonia brand and clothing for two decades now, and their Tumblr does not disappoint. It is full of people doing great stuff outdoors.
• Lincoln Motor: If you love cars, especially vintage, you will love this Tumblr. If you are a marketer trying to tell your brand story, then this is a must-see too. Puts Lincoln in a whole new place for me.
• Kate Spade: I love Kate Spade so it is no surprise that I would enjoy the Kate Spade NY Tumblr. It captures all the bright color, renewed vintage looks and quirky style that make this brand popular with prepsters and hipsters alike.
• J Crew: As expected J Crew’s Tumblr features its Creative Director, Jenna Lyons, and is true to its preppy but stylish roots. A brand and fashion must see.
• Fash Gif: The Tumblr team clued me on to this young woman whose artistic creations using gif animation for fashion photography led to her position at Calvin Klein.
• Disney Parks: Disney Parks invited some of the top photographers from within the Tumblr community to capture its theme parks on film. The Disney Parks Photo Project is a curation of their work. This is Disney how it should be (not as I recently experienced it in the aisles of Toys ”R” Us).

What’s Coming Next for Tumblr?

Search: According to the Tumblr team, “search will be a top priority in 2013.” I was glad to hear this as I have had issues trying to find Tumblrs inside Tumblr.

Ads: Tumblr has also been so focused on the user experience that it has been slow to introduce ads. However, as of six months ago, advertisers can buy a featured placement in “Spotlight,” which are top Tumblrs chosen by Tumblr editors. Expect more ways to advertise in 2013.

Do you have a favorite Tumblr or a success story about using the platform? Drop us a note on our Facebook page.

By Starpoint Marketing

Discover why and how to use Twitter as part of your brand’s marketing campaign — and learn 10 easy steps to looking like a pro.

Here’s our infographic: Blueprint for Twitter Success

Click the image twice to see a large version

Tweet

By Elena Rover, for Starpoint Marketing

Working with clients large and small, we’ve identified three distinct approaches to launching a social media campaign and growing engagement that all have merit. Which one is right for you? Or are you ready to move to the next level? See where you fit, and consider the benefits and pitfalls, then decide on your next move with confidence.

#1: Let’s Go!

Approach: You’ve got to get on social NOW! So, you create what amounts to a digital brochure with a few calls to action. You put up a Facebook page, add a few images and a description of the company—and then start posting about your products, services and promotions. Then, you struggle try to engage your audience by asking questions (What did you have for breakfast today?), putting up polls (Who do you think is going to win the SuperBowl?) and posting a contest (The best picture posted wins an iPad! Woo hoo!). You’re not getting a lot of return for your efforts, so you don’t invest more.

Benefits: Perhaps the fastest way to get going in social, this approach takes little planning and few resources. Social is cumulative, and you can’t afford to wait. Just having a page means that some people will engage with you—especially if you’re offering coupons and contests. Friends and followers may slowly grow. Coupons may generate some sales.

Pitfalls: Your social presence is making you look clueless about social, conversation is limited, and conversion is scarce. While some users may take advantage of your discounts, the savvy ones are embarrassed for you. Social is supposed to be a two-way interaction, and you don’t get it. That’s not the impression you want your brand to make.

You haven’t engaged a lot of new customers or increased loyalty to your products. You’re getting some sales, but you’re really just chipping away at your profits through discounts and giveaways. These buyers aren’t the customers with the highest lifetime value. You’re missing a huge opportunity to reach new audiences and gain qualified customers.

Bottom line: Your embarrassment is 100% public. But at least you’re out there. You can’t create a following if you’re not on social. Even with limited resources, you can step it up to Strategy #2.

#2: Let’s Toss It Up and See What Sticks

Approach: You know the difference between PR and social media, and you are paying attention to your target audience. Every day, you log on to Facebook and Twitter and spend some time creating engaging content that encourages interaction. Because you’re posting daily, you can respond to news and trends as well as your fans’ questions and comments. Your following is growing slowly, and you have a few stalkers talking to you all the time. Perhaps you use a free tool like HootSuite to make it easier to manage your various social pages.

Benefits: You can be hip and happening, keeping your finger on the pulse of your industry, and you’re engaging your audience a little more each day. Your social media presence is growing slowly but steadily. And every once in a while you have a winner—a post that gets a little more attention than usual. It feels terrific when you strike it just right, and you do your best to repeat the experience. You technology makes it a little easier to manage your pages and provides a click report so you can see what’s working.

Pitfalls: Writing may be fun, but that’s not your main business. You’re busy with customers and neglect to post updates. Or you’re spending a lot of effort on social media, and it’s taking you away from your bottom line. The “winners” are sporadic, and you have a hard time replicating them. Most of your fans aren’t loyal. They check in every so often, maybe for a few days, and then they’re gone for a while. They don’t un-friend/un-follow you, but they’re not visiting much—so they’re not helping grow your business. Your biggest fans tend to have the lowest value. They’re the lonely folks who would talk to anyone about anything—and that’s exactly what they’re doing with you.

Bottom line: Bravo for getting out there and being social every day. If this approach is manageable for you while you’re getting started, then it’s the right way to go. But once you’re comfortable posting and have some decent traffic to your pages, it’s time to ramp it up with some planning and technology. Once you do, your life will be a lot easier and your pages will perform better.

#3: Let’s Be Strategic and Nimble

Approach: You are wise to the risks of haste. To paraphrase the parable: Publish quickly, repent at leisure. But you’re well aware that social media moves at warp speed, and you can’t tarry getting out there. Thankfully, you have a strong brand architecture, with a mission, vision, voice and message. You’ve gotten to know your customers well, and you keep tabs on the competition. (If you don’t have those pieces in place, why are we having this conversation? You’ve got work to do!) To get going in social media, you plan to spend a few weeks on strategy, move ahead with a design, craft a content framework, and get some evergreen posts prepped. Along the way, you’ll decide exactly what “success” looks like for your brand, pick the best technology you can afford, and train your team (or hire the help you need). After launch, you’ll track, measure, test and optimize—staying alert to changes in platforms and followers, so you can adjust and adapt while building the enhancements your team dreams up.

Benefits: You launch quickly, and you won’t peter out just as fast. Your message is on target, engaging to your target audience and credible coming from your brand. Your team feels ready to act as ambassadors, and they understand what is expected of them and how they fit in to what you’re trying to accomplish. You’ve minimized the risk of embarrassing content or worse, a single overworked channel manager holding the keys to your social image. You’ve taken advantage of your key social resource: your employees. They have a solid idea of what you want, because your brand and social media strategies are clear. You’ve picked an appropriate technology, allowing you to track what’s working and optimize your presence. You amaze and delight your audience again and again.

Pitfalls: While it sounds practically perfect in every way, there are a few problems you may encounter. First, many companies lack a solid, up-to-date branding strategy. You can’t build a solid social media strategy on a shaky foundation. But, as discussed in 2 Social Media Strategies Guaranteed to Fail ,#2, you can’t take too long on pre-launch strategy. Overcome this problem with a short-term strategic dive married with your existing knowledge and gut instincts. Make a plan you believe in, and get started. Thankfully, social media is essentially free and fluid, so you can shift easily once your branding strategy is more solid. Another potential problem lies in developing the social media strategy. If your team doesn’t have the skills and knowledge to craft an effective approach, you’ll need to hire help. Choosing consultants and managing the process can be challenging when you aren’t well versed in the field (and if you were, you wouldn’t need them).

Bottom line: It’s always smart to strategize before launch. The prep work pays off. Your solid social media plan and informed, engaged staff will greatly improve your performance. Tracking audience response and adjusting along the way will keep your content fresh and engaging. If you can afford the time and investment (for technology and consultants), this approach is the clear winner for long-term success.

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Let us know if you have a twist on social media strategy that worked for you. Post your ideas to our Facebook page or Tweet them to us @StarpointSocial.

By Elena Rover, for Starpoint Marketing

If you’re thinking you’d better figure out what this “social media” thing is all about and get started, you’re right. In this two-part series, we’ll start with two strategies that are sure-fire failures and all too common. While we’re picking those apart, we’ve slipped in a few insights that can prep you to get started.

Strategy #1: Let’s Wait and See

Why it Fails: Even Coca Cola—with 62+ million likes on Facebook—started with just one fan. It takes time to build a following on social media, even if you give away iPads. You need to get out there and start the conversation, or you’ll be left behind. How big is the early-adopter advantage? It could put your brand on top. Consider the 2012 presidential election. As New York Times blogger, Richard Parker put it: Obama started with a huge advantage in the social sphere as he already had 1.2 million likes on Facebook by September 2012 while the official Romney page had half as much. That’s a big difference. Don’t be the Romney of your industry.

Strategy #2: Let’s Perfect our Plans Before We Launch

Why it Fails: Did we mention that social media is a nimble, fast-paced environment? While it’s important to have a strategy (more about that in our next post), if your research, analysis, testing, and strategizing take months, the landscape will shift before you’re done. You’ll never develop the same kind of certainty you can get with other marketing and media strategies, because social media changes too quickly, and some aspects just can’t be measured. There won’t be proof about what will work. Audiences can be fickle, shifting their attention at whim. And platforms change their structure and their rules with barely any notice. Base your strategy on your brand values and your existing knowledge of the target audience, build a content plan that avoids public embarrassment, then get out there. Measure and optimize as you go.

Next, we’ll take a look at three approaches that could work. Perhaps more important, we’ll give you tips on how to choose the approach that’s right for you.

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Who should win a Worst Use of Social Media award? Share your favorite flops on our Facebook page or Tweet them to us @StarpointSocial. Check out the nominees for Worst Use of Social Media on our Twitter page.

By Mary Anglade, for Starpoint Marketing

You can expand your reach on Twitter using various organic tactics (hashtags, great content, ReTweets, etc.), but if your Twitter presence isn’t growing fast enough, what can you do? Well, Twitter advertising may be the answer. This post will help you understand Twitter promotions, and how you can use them to drive more targeted followers, grow your reach and build your network.

There are three types of Twitter advertising. We will start with the most budget-friendly.

Promoted Tweets

Best use: Extending the shelf life of your most engaging Tweets.

Twitter users tend to see Tweets in chronological order, so Twitter offers Promoted Tweets to expand the life and reach of Tweets.

A Promoted Tweet displays either directly in the users’ feeds (even if you are not following the brand) or in response to a search. Twitter charges per click. Promoted Tweets are clearly labeled by Twitter, but they function in every other way as a regular Tweet (can be Re-Tweeted etc.). Targeting options include demographic variables such as gender as well as geo-targeting to a specific location. To execute Promoted Tweets, first decide what you want to promote. For example, let’s say you are running a special for free shipping and want to promote it. Next, compose several different Tweets about free shipping and post them. Then, looking at which ones got ReTweets and clicks, pick the most engaging versions. Choose a daily spend to promote these to your audience.

Promoted Accounts

Best use: Getting more followers fast—and making sure they are a good match.

You can find and add new followers by promoting your Twitter account in search results and also in the “Who to Follow” section. In order to match a promoted account to the right Twitter user, Twitter’s algorithm looks at who is following it and matches it with other accounts those same users tend to follow. Your Twitter profile will appear as suggestions for users whose interests mesh well with your account. Twitter charges per new follower.

Promoted Trends

Best use: When Getting recognized as a thought leader—when you have some extra cash in hand.

If you want to jump-start a conversation around a particular topic, Promoted Trends let you choose a relevant hashtag and put your Tweet at the top of the list of trending topics. However, this option is costly at close to $200,000 (source: All Things D). With Promoted Trends, users see time-, context-, and event-sensitive trends. These paid Promoted Trends appear at the top of the Trending Topics list on Twitter and are clearly marked as “Promoted.” Twitter does not offer Promoted Trends under “self-serve” but at this price tag, you will want a dedicated manager from Twitter to help you execute your campaign.

Is it working?

As with all advertising, measuring results is the key to optimization. Some key metrics for Twitter campaigns include:

• Click-through rate
• Reach
• Unique clicks
• Favorites
• Cost per ReTweet
• Cost per follower or engaged follower
• Cost per conversion

You can make measurement easier and more powerful by using a social media management software like a Radian6 (now part of Salesforce), Sysomos or even one of the free tools like Wildfire. These tools allow you to also measure:

• Share of voice (how well you are stacking up against the competition)
• Sentiment analysis
• Follower trend analysis (your account and your account versus the competition)

Don’t forget: When you advertise, you need to be ready for the increase in engagement. Be sure to set aside time for someone to respond to Tweets. This is not the time to let your posting habits lag. Consider scheduling a bunch of posts before launching the ad campaign, spacing them out to keep your page fresh during the campaign. But don’t “set it and forget it.” You have to be listening, adapting and responding to your audience. That’s the nature of a conversation, after all.

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Tell us about your favorite tricks for getting results on Twitter—advertising or otherwise. Post your thoughts on our Facebook page or, of course, you can Tweet ideas to us @StarpointSocial. Check out any comments that come in on our Twitter profile.

By Mary Anglade, for Starpoint Marketing

It has been Social Media Week in NYC this week, and the Starpoint team was out in force. We particularly enjoyed sessions about Tumblr, community management, social media & patient engagement, working smarter along with some great networking at the various parties. We will incorporate our take aways into future blog posts. In the meantime we focus today on yesterday’s keynote from Quirky’s CEO.

Quirky: So much done right

Quirky makes me happy. Hearing CEO, Ben Kaufman speak yesterday was my personal highlight of Social Media Week. Love his company, its mission and many of its products of which I am looking forward to buying more.

For those of you who have not heard of Quirky, you will. In a nutshell, the company (Founded in 2009) is a community-based invention engine that connects inventors with a streamlined product development as well as top retailers like Target. They use the community for input on everything from the actual idea to pricing, design and even the product’s name. Ben highlighted a few products too — better modular storage (idea from a student who was trying to understand why milk cartons were being sold to store college dorm stuff) to a streamlined power strip that actually allows you to insert all sizes of electrical plugs.

Ben had some great insights to share of which I have captured a few.

With inventors one size does not fit all

When asked if there is a “typical” inventor, Ben said, “no and that was surprising at first.” Quirky’s inventors have included: students, seniors, moms and the more likely engineering types. Inventors are not even necessarily tech savvy. In some cases his team has to coach someone to go to the library to find a web connection! Ben believes that anyone can have a good idea. He is right. He pointed out that right now the only ideas that traditionally make it to market (at least for the most part) come from the organizations with deep pockets — to muscle the products through development and to retail shelf space. Ben wanted to change all of that and takes that desire right to shelf.

Quirky features a photo on the product packaging of every inventor that makes it through the selection process and to market. We think Quirky’s ability to tell stories is brilliant marketing, but apparently there is more to it than that. Ben added yesterday, that Quirky puts the picture of the inventor on the box because, “you never know if the UPS guy, or person stocking the shelf may have an idea. Ideas come from everywhere.” See why we love it? Don’t you?

Crowd + Experts + Right Technology = Great products and development

Ben hates the term crowd sourcing as it sounds like the community “does not need experts.” According to Ben, it is the collaboration of experts, community and technology that makes it happen. The crowd would not succeed by itself (so true, just look at your Twitter feed!).

One more reason to love Quirky is that the crowd gets paid. If you are determined to be a contributor to the idea that gets produced and sold you get a fraction of the ownership. Such alignment — the community gets products they want — and gets compensated. The inventor produces the great idea that meets the community’s needs. Consumers get products that actually solve problems. Great vision, great common sense. Why aren’t more companies run this way?

Thanks Ben for sharing your wisdom and starting my day off right. Tune in for the latest on Tumblr, in our next post.

By Mary Anglade, for Starpoint Marketing

I remember my first office internship, or “real” job, in college. After being a server in a restaurant during breaks (and not a good one, I may add), my father had strongly suggested it was time to get serious the summer before my senior year. I needed to build up my resume. So I started working for Raytheon Company in operations.

I knew I was lucky to have corporate work, so I earnestly dug in to my summer position. My role was to reconcile huge boxes of bank checks and take on ad-hoc projects. Fluorescent lights glared overhead, and the woman behind me smoked incessantly (Mad Men had nothing on us) while she drank pots of black coffee (at least it was not scotch). To top it off, I commuted every day on Route 128, on a stretch of highway outside of Boston that was so congested that they opened the breakdown lanes for regular traffic. Reality bites (or bit).

That said, my co-workers were kind, I did learn, and I had a sense of what it is like to work for a large company — and in an office. I enjoyed the occasional socializing after work and that I had a chance to work with people of all ages and backgrounds. Most importantly, it probably helped me land three offers later that year and make the transition from school to my first job, which was in a conservative bank. Looking back, this experience has also made me more appreciative of my interns over the years.

So it was with great interest that I read in The New York Times, Virtually There: Working Remotely ,” by Jenna Wortham. Ms. Wortham profiles several interns who have been working remotely. She also points to Internships.com, a site that lists more than 8,000 virtual positions. In their survey of 303 employers, a third said they offer remote internships or plan to in the coming year.

At Starpoint we have interns and many on our team who work remotely too. Actually, we have been using a virtual model for years as a key part of our client value proposition and as a benefit for many on our staff. Why? First, and most importantly, we staff each projects with the best talent, and we have found that the best people are not necessarily nearby.

So our health writer that knows cancer inside and out but lives in Austin — can write from Austin. Some of our staff moves, and we keep their expertise and experience instead of having to go through a time consuming hiring and training process to find someone new. For example, our lead developer now lives in California, but last year he did most of his work for us out of Argentina.

Geography isn’t the only consideration. A lot of the top talent doesn’t want or can’t take on a full-time gig. Perhaps there’s a spectacular book project that has waited too many years on the back burner or continuing education to be completed. Why should these skilled and highly valuable workers have no option to work part time? How many projects do you have that require every brain and pair of hands to be 100 percent dedicated? Let’s face it — in a 9 to whenever office between the Facebook posts, phone calls and coffee runs used to break up the day — staff are not 100% dedicated.

Our other reasons for embracing the virtual model are environmental-based and to keep overhead costs low — for us, our clients, and our employees. While saving everyone money, we also enjoy doing our part toward saving the planet as we reduce the carbon footprint for our entire team.

Is working remotely for everyone? No. If you need constant reassurance or an intense environment to motivate yourself working remotely is not for you. If you’re easily distracted and not good at managing your own priorities, don’t try this at home. At Starpoint, we are careful to offer virtual work to only those who can do it.

Frankly we focus on the results. We hire professionals who do stellar work, wherever they are. Typically, they are happier and more productive than our colleagues crammed in airless offices with too many meetings. In fact, working remotely eliminates the hassles of face time, office politics, the loud person in the next cubicle, and other time wasters. A little extra management time is well worth it.

Starpoint is far from alone in adopting a virtual office model. IBM, whose corporate offices are nearby, boasts that 40% of its workforce works remotely. The number of companies who offer or require remote work is sure to increase — the continuing advancements in mobile and other technologies allow productivity that was not possible ten years ago. Employees want it, and employers actually come out ahead financially. And, it can’t be ignored any longer that we have a major crisis with climate change, and this is an obvious way to help address some of the daily pollution associated with commuting.

Well, it is time to look into interns for Starpoint. Maybe they will come to our offices or maybe not. Our team will offer the best of our internship experiences — the learning and mentoring but will leave the stale air, fluorescent lights and manager-as-babysitter to folks who are stuck in 1988!

By Elena Rover, for Starpoint Marketing

It’s time to relax about SEO keywords and focus on delivering better, more useful content. Two changes in search have led to this shift, recently reaching the critical mass that will liberate you from keyword obsession. Here’s a look at what brought about the change, plus a few ideas to help you navigate the new landscape.

#1: Keyword stuffing is now a bad idea

Back in April, when Google implemented the Penguin algorithm update, content that was overloaded with keywords suffered a drop in search ranking. Now, Google officially warns against this SEO tactic in their content guidelines, excerpted here:

“Keyword stuffing” refers to the practice of loading a webpage with keywords or numbers in an attempt to manipulate a site’s ranking in Google search results. Often these keywords appear in a list or group, or out of context (not as natural prose). Filling pages with keywords or numbers results in a negative user experience, and can harm your site’s ranking. Focus on creating useful, information-rich content that uses keywords appropriately and in context.

In response, SEO advisors started to recommend a lower keyword density. It was no longer wise to repeat keywords verbatim as often as possible—and perhaps more often than optimal for comprehension and readability. Penguin made it advisable to use synonyms and similar phrases, as you would when writing quality content without an obsession over SEO keywords. The days of stilted sentences to squeeze in keywords could end. Unfortunately, the news did not reach everyone, or perhaps they weren’t convinced. Maybe the second reason will herald the demise of keyword stuffing.

#2: Encrypted search has made keyword data unreliable.

Introduced by Google in 2010, encrypted search doesn’t pass along the keywords you searched when you click through to a site. (They also call it SSL, or Secure Sockets Layer.) Why should you care about something many of your site visitors have probably never heard about?

According to a recent survey from Optify (a B2B marketing software company), 39% of all search was encrypted as of September. The same survey found more than half (64%) of companies reported that a third to a half of their visitors coming from organic search had the “not provided” keyword that signifies encrypted search. Most of the companies surveyed (81%) said they were getting at least 30% “not provided” as their keyword data.

How did encrypted search get so big without user awareness? In October 2011, it became the default for anyone logged in to a Google account. (Ever wonder what that lock icon was to the left of the URL in the browser and why the URL has the “https” for “secure”?). Firefox made it the default last July, Safari made the switch in October with the Apple iOS6 update, and Google Chrome joined in this month. For those who do know about it, it’s as easy as searching from https://encrypted.google.com.

As a marketer or site manager, encrypted search is probably making your organic search keyword analytics less useful. The impact depends on how much of your traffic comes in that way. If 50 percent of your organic search traffic arrives via encrypted search, your keyword research is only giving you half the picture or worse. You’re getting data about the half who are not encrypted search users, who by definition are not logged in Google account users (Chrome, Gmail, YouTube, etc.), not upgraded Apple/Mac/Safari searchers, and not the savvy/paranoid tech folks. You’re left with little more than late adopters and AOL/Yahoo users. Is that who you want driving your keyword decisions?

What to do

Here are a few ideas for ways to know you are providing useful, sticky content:

1. Conduct a weekly or monthly analysis of your page views, looking for trends.
2. Go to Google’s Webmaster Tools and check the top daily search queries and landing pages.
3. Use hashtags and social media technology to enable social listening, keeping you informed about hot topics.
4. Conduct user research via surveys and focus groups to determine which content is useful.
5. Engage a talented content strategist to do an audit of your content and a competitive analysis to develop a strategic content plan.

The optimist’s bottom line

With organic search keyword data is no longer so useful, content creators are liberated from the tyranny of keyword repetition. As a content marketer, you can focus on producing valuable content that meets your target audience’s needs. You can even play with the language for readability and impact. Enjoy!

By Elena Rover, for Starpoint Marketing

I just adore hearing all the buzz about content marketing. An early evangelist of sponsored content (from back when the dot-com bubble hadn’t yet burst and Google had just launched), I’m reveling in the millions being spent on content marketing. The news that “content is king” was reborn after Google’s demotion of content farms, and their elevation of truly useful and engaging content to center stage, no matter who created it.

Now that fresh content is a marketing priority, the problem of quantity over quality has grown ever larger. Web pages are easier than ever to publish, blogs by the millions clog cyberspace, and far too many folks believe we want 140 characters on their latest playlist or juice fast. With the financial model for editorial in tatters and not many publishers who know how to monetize their digital presence, there are fewer professionals turning out great content online. Anyone who fills a page with words will call himself a writer. Some “writers” are persuasive and engaging without concern for the facts. Others use statistics and data selectively to support a “truth” that is questionable. Many writers share their heartfelt convictions, whether or not they are accurate, useful, or interesting. Readers must root out the rare content gems buried among waves of content sewage. It’s no small task.

Generating content is not the same as content marketing. Sadly, many companies launch themselves into content marketing without adequate forethought. They start a Facebook page and let it languish. They put up a contest, get gobs of fans, but don’t know what to do next. They post promotions and tell readers the virtues of their products. They chatter on and on, often using jargon that obscures meaning. Or they build a user-friendly guide to the key topics in their field, with no concern that 382 similar primers already exist. And then, if they are watching the numbers, they wonder why the public isn’t rushing to partake, why content marketing is a bust, and why their brand isn’t benefitting.

The trick: Do content right—and save money and time—by developing a solid content strategy before you start publishing content. Good writing is an essential foundation of your content marketing campaign, but it’s not enough. You have to be unique, useful, or more entertaining. Better yet, be all three. Here are some questions to get you started.

Is your content uniquely valuable? You won’t get far as a latecomer posting info on coping with colon cancer, touring Venice, or a cookie recipe unless yours is clearly superior in some way. Are your cookies better than Toll House? If not, why bother developing the content? A content strategy will help head you off before you waste time creating the same content that’s out there. Don’t just check what your competitors are posting. Look at the publishers too. Why would your audience come to you for a cookie recipe when they can go to the Barefoot Contessa and Paula Deen?

Do you have the resources to be out there first? Will you get out there with the first review of the latest app before CNET and the existing bloggers? Can you break a big news story before CNN? Media companies spend huge chunks of their time, money, and energy thinking about and writing about their chosen topics. With all that invested, you should hope they get there first most of the time. If you can’t be first, it is probably best to find something other than trends and news to fill your posts. You need a strategy that makes your content valuable even if you’re second, or third, or fifteenth. What will set your content apart and make it useful and engaging to your target audience? How can you present it in a format and a location where those readers will gobble it up? How can you use your limited resources to create content that has impact?

If you don’t know the answers yourself, try hiring a content strategist—before you waste money and time adding to the cesspool of content sewage. A content strategist will help you figure out how to use your time and money wisely to create a content marketing campaign that has the best chance of engaging your target audience while being true to your brand values and goals. The strategy document will outline the best topics, formats, sources, voice and overall messaging to help your content work hard, maximizing the return on investment from creating content.