But there are however, some simple ways to increase your conversion rates without breaking your budget.   One easy way is to make your site search more prominent.   Did you know that site visitors who use websites internal search to find items convert, on average, 15% higher than users who go through a sites navigational structure.   And yet many sites hide their search box or it appears as an afterthought in the overall site design.

For example, an extreme example, Shopzilla’s homepage is dominated by a search box. They do offer category navigation on the right side of the page but they would much rather you ‘SEARCH’ for the items you are looking for.   Not only will this help Shopzilla’s conversion rates, it will also give them vital data to help promote and grow their business.   By using the search box you are telling Shopzilla what type of products you would like to see on their site and what the most popular items in a given time period are.

This data is just as useful to a small to mid sized e-comm site as it is for the E-commerce giants.    We often get wrapped up in what products people purchased during a particular time of year but it is often more important to know what people would have liked to purchase.

Just a little data to reinforce site search and it’s benefits.   This historical data was pulled from a 50Fish client during the last calendar year.

While only 6% of these site visitors used the search, they accounted for 40% of the revenue. They also had an over 400% higher conversion rate and over 570% higher per visit value.  These stats form the previous 30 days tell the story:

Number of visitors who did NOT use site search: 131,786 visits

124,073 Visits — Percent of Site Total: 94.15%
$110,773 Revenue — Percent of Site Total: 60.46%
909Transactions — Percent of Site Total: 69.06%
$121.86 Average Value — Site Avg: $142.12 (-13.13%)
0.73% E-commerce Conversion Rate — Site Avg: 1.00% (-27.26%)
$0.89 Per Visit Value – Site Avg: $1.42 (-35.78%)

Number of visitors who USED site search: 7,771 visits

7,771 Visits — Percent of Site Total: 5.85%
$74,489 Revenue — Percent of Site Total: 39.71%
403Transactions — Percent of Site Total: 30.53%
$184.84 Average Value — Site Avg: $142.12 (+30.06%)
5.19% E-commerce Conversion Rate — Site Avg: 1.00% (+418.73%)
$9.59 Per Visit Value — Site Avg: $1.42 (+574.66%)

The moral of the story is, pay attention to your site search and your conversion rates will thank you.   We will break down using Analytics to track search and best practices for displaying site search in future blog posts.

Update

Another interesting fact, when I wanted to tweet my “How to get rid of Who To Follow” post for the second time yesterday,  Twitter kept saying “Technical Error.” I then tweeted the word “test” and it went through fine. I then tried to tweet my blog post again and it said “Technical Error.” It wasn’t until I changed the text of my tweet to say “How to get Who to Follow off of your sidebar” that it finally let the tweet go through. Perhaps just coincidental but interesting…

POST FROM AUGUST 6, 2010

In case you want to get rid of the “Who To Follow” on Twitter, I found that clicking on “View All” then hitting the “x” button or “hide” on all of them makes them go away, even after I logged back onto Twitter.

Peace and happy weekend!
SW

Sarah Wallace is a freelance writer, and part of the 50Fish team, helping clients with blogging, Twitter, Facebook, web copy, SEO, e-newsletters and press releases. In addition to performing these writing services, she also provides editing and consulting. To learn more about her work experience you can visit her website: http://www.SarahWallace.com

According to the Fast Company article “Twitter Offers First @earlybird Exclusive Deal”, Twitter launched its @earlybird account in which advertisers can offer exclusive deals on Twitter.

The first @earlybird special is a buy-one-get-one deal for The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. In a blog post, Twitter said it will introduce a new @earlybird deal several times a week.

Twitter reports it has lined up tens of advertisers and hopes for hundreds by year’s end. Advertisers already on board include Groupon and Gilt Groupe.

The @earlybird Twitter account currently has around 54,000 followers. As word spreads I believe it will grow tremendously. People spend a lot of time on Twitter to network and learn. This is a way for users to get a little something back.

Sarah Wallace is a freelance writer helping clients with blogging, Twitter, Facebook, web copy, SEO, e-newsletters and press releases. In addition to performing these writing services, she also provides editing and consulting. To learn more about her work experience you can visit her website: http://www.SarahWallace.com

The foursquare Perspectives tool reports key statistics such as total venues, total check-ins, unique visitors and total mayorships, and presents that data through comprehensive charts, graphs and maps to help marketers easily visualize key market trends among Foursquare locations.

With this type of data, Starbucks or any merchant can pinpoint its most popular Foursquare venues and cater its marketing campaigns based on demand. Not only is this tool incredibly useful but it is also incredible that it is free.

This comes right after Awareness announced the addition of a Foursquare channel support to its flagship product, the Awareness Social Marketing Hub, to allow enterprise marketers to manage Foursquare venues and publish tips to all or a targeted segment of venues through a single interface.

Along with foursquare Perspectives, Awareness has published two eBooks available for free download (The State of foursquare2010 and Top 10 Ways Enterprise Marketers Can Leverage foursquare) to any enterprise marketer looking to learn more about foursquare and how they can include it as part of their marketing efforts.

You may follow foursquare Perspectives on Twitter at @4sqPerspectives.

You may also read my notes after seeing Foursquare Co-Founder Dennis Crowley speak about merchant relations at My Take Away From Eat, Drink, Be Social.

Sarah Wallace is a freelance writer helping clients with blogging, Twitter, Facebook, web copy, SEO, e-newsletters and press releases. In addition to performing these writing services, she also provides editing and consulting. To learn more about her work experience you can visit her website:  http://www.SarahWallace.com

This is a big deal because if your business experiences staff changes, it is important to know who has access to your social media accounts. I have had clients who say they still have ex-employees attached to their fanpage or employees  have left and taken passwords with them rendering their social media sites useless.

Always make sure the appropriate people know your social media passwords and if you experience staff changes, change them for security reasons.

Sarah Wallace is a freelance writer helping clients with blogging, Twitter, Facebook, web copy, SEO, e-newsletters and press releases. In addition to performing these writing services, she also provides editing and consulting. To learn more about her work experience you can visit her website:  http://www.SarahWallace.com

Geolocation Glitches

First let’s rewind a bit to the social the night before hosted by DIALOGUE and Awareness, Inc. held at Dante Restaurant in Cambridge. Attendees were allowed to meet and mingle with the event’s speakers. At the social I had the chance to chat with Dennis Crowley, Co-Founder of Foursquare, a very nice guy who was doing a great job of fielding everyone’s Foursquare questions. At one point, he did clarify that  application glitches may be due to deadspots in your network or errors in the maps it is linking to. He explained that there are many pieces to the geolocation puzzle and that Foursquare is always working to improve the coordination of these pieces.

What Restaurants Think of Social Media

Fast forward to the first two panels of the symposium, a literal all-stars of the Boston restaurant scene with moderators and panelists from Zagat, Boston Globe, Yelp Boston, CitySearch, Boston Magazine, @eatboston and Cook’s Illustrated and restaurateurs Barbara Lynch (Menton), Jody Adams (Rialto and Top Chef Masters), Mary Catherine Deibel (Upstairs on the Square) and Jon Olinto of b.good. With these first two panels, my take away was that restaurants are well aware of the added pressure that rating sites bring and their emphasis on hospitality as well as food quality. The panelists said they are open to the feedback while Leighann Farrelly of Yelp Boston asked attendees to think about the words you use in your comments because they do effect livelihoods. I also found it interesting that Jon Olinto of b.good said that he was most responsive to feedback via e-mail and, in some cases, has even gone to customer homes to correct wrongs.

No Matter the Platform, It’s About the Customer

Props to Justin Levy of New Marketing Labs and Caminito Argentinean Restaurant who literally got off the red eye after one hour’s sleep to talk to us. He told the story of how he started helping his friend and eventually became co-owner of his restaurant. He reminded us that no matter what the platform, meeting the customers’ needs is what is most important and that is why his establishment has been successful.

Merchants and Existing Behaviors

The next panel was moderated by geolocation fanatic Mike Schneider (Allen & Gerritsen) and featured Dennis Crowley of Foursquare and Alexa Andrzejewski, founder of FoodSpotting. Dennis told us that Foursquare will be releasing its 2.0 version this summer and how they are trying to focus on working with merchants to offer specials and heightened awareness of the application. He brought with him hot-off-the-press window stickers that said “Check In Here” (see pic above) and “Foursquare Special Here.” He also spoke of trying to bridge the gap between enthusiastic mayors and establishments who have never heard of Foursquare. Alexa pointed out that FoodSpotting basically took an existing behavior and made it a little more formal and fun. I confess, I’m jealous she beat me to it. #foodporn

Tips For Restaurants

The last panel featured Jeff Cutler and Mike Langford of NomX3 ( an online show where they eat lunch and share their experience) who had great advice for restaurants to be more social media and customer friendly; offer free Wi-Fi, make sure all your URLs are visible during a customer’s visit, and (for higher end establishments) reach out in some way to make your restaurant seem more accessible. Oh, and the biggie, make sure your site is not in Flash, otherwise potential customers trying to view your information or menu on the iPhone will not be able to read it. << In my opinion, this advice goes out to everyone, not just restaurants.

Overall Impression

My overall impression… new applications and platforms in social media are trying to bridge the gap and work with merchants who have been around for decades. It is starting to happen and it will be interesting to see how it progresses and ultimately benefits you and me, the customer. Thanks to Tyson Goodridge and DIALOGUE for a great event!

My “Hot” Hotel Tip

Okay, not food or social media related but here’s something I learned from booking my hotel for this trip. For some reason I was totally striking out on Priceline.com (sorry Bill Shatner) so I hopped on over to Hotwire.com. I’d never used this site before but I liked that you could specify amenities. I had a specific hotel in Cambridge that I was hoping for, the Royal Sonesta since it was home to Dante. I noticed that Royal Sonesta had a spa service so I clicked “4 stars” and “spa” and voila! I got the hotel I wanted for 50% off the day before. Wait, what’s that sound? Oh, it’s me patting myself on the back : )

Sarah Wallace is a freelance writer helping clients with blogging, Twitter, Facebook, web copy, SEO, e-newsletters and press releases. In addition to performing these writing services, she also provides editing and consulting. To learn more about her work experience y9u can visit her website:  http://www.SarahWallace.com

Mashable just posted an article about a tool called iPad peek which supposedly lets you preview your site through the eyes of the iPad, but it is inaccurate because it allows Flash. Further down in this article, Mashable gives instruction on how to dis-enable Flash in your browser so you can truly view your website through they eyes of the iPhone or iPad.

The reason this Mashable article caught my attention is because last week I was telling my friend about a company that I greatly admired and was trying to show her its website via my iPhone. Unfortunately, even the company’s basic description was not showing up because it was in Flash.  Here is the link to read the Mashable article iPad Peek: See How Your Website Looks on iPad.

Sarah Wallace is a freelance writer helping clients with blogging, Twitter, Facebook, web copy, SEO, e-newsletters and press releases. In addition to performing these writing services, she also provides editing and consulting. To learn more about her work experience you can visit her website:  http://www.SarahWallace.com

Smith was asked to leave a plane for being too “large” and posing a possible threat to other passengers. He went peacefully, but this prolific Twitter user hasn’t held back and has spent the last few days tweeting about his experience and retweeting fan support.

“Dear @SouthwestAir – I know I’m fat, but was Captain Leysath really justified in throwing me off a flight for which I was already seated?”
- @ThatKevinSmith

In return, Southwest Airlines has publicly apologized to Smith on Twitter.

“@ThatKevinSmith hey Kevin! I’m so sorry for your experience tonight! Hopefully we can make things right, please follow so we may DM!”
- @SouthwestAir

This is a reminder that any business using social media should have a procedure in place for damage control and it should include the following:

How do you respond

Decide how your business will respond to negative comments on your blog, Facebook, Twitter or other portals. Will you respond to them, ignore them? Or other.

Who can respond

If damage control needs to happen, who do you trust to respond? If it is the person doing your social media, then that is fine. If you require them to refer to a superior, then you need to decide on a chain of command.

Chain of command

If you want your social media person to refer to a superior for damage control situations then decide the chain of command. Will they refer to the head of marketing? A vice president? The CEO?

Accessibility

So, you have decided there needs to be a chain of command for damage control then make sure those people are accessible. If you want your social media person to refer to the head of marketing for damage control, make sure they are available and this includes evenings and weekends. Incidences are not going to happen during traditional work hours. And, if that person goes on vacation, who is next in line for those decisions?

Hopefully, your business will not need to exercise damage control but it is good to have a procedure in place, just in case.

Sarah Wallace is a 50Fish copywriter helping clients with blogging, Twitter, Facebook, web copy, SEO, e-newsletters and press releases. In addition to performing these writing services, she also provides editing and consulting. To learn more about her work experience you can visit her website:  http://www.SarahWallace.com