identifying your audience using social media
TRANSCRIPT
…or Building Personas for Search
Michael King | Global Associate
http://slidesha.re/personas
Search is Too Impersonal
The standard keyword classifiers are too vague to understand a searcher’s intent
Informational Navigational Transactional
Ways to ____ Company Name Buy _____
How to _____ Organization name Download ____
What is _____ Domain name Get _____
These classifications don’t make it clear exactly what need the audience is trying to
fulfill or who you should be talking to
So…Let’s Get Personal
Understanding your audience involves defining them and their needs
Social Listening
/ Need State
Determination /
Keyword
Research
Keyword
Mapping /
Information
Architecture
Creative / Copy /
Tech Development
Push Live /
Conversion Rate
Optimization /
Measurement
SEO Defines
Info Architecture
SEO Validates
User Experience
SEO Drives
Measurement
This is where the
magic happens
What Are Personas?
Personas are hypothetical representations of your target audience
Music Moms Typically uninformed gift givers
looking for information on the
right guitar for their happy
hobbyist or raging rockstar.
These people enter the
conversation when they are
looking to make a purchase.
Happy
Hobbyists Typically students or
amateur musicians
looking for the latest tips
and tricks for playing their
guitar. These tend to be
the most active content
creators in the acoustic
guitar conversation.
Raging Rock stars Typically professional musicians at
various stages of their careers that
tend to spend more time creating
content with their guitars only
consuming content as new guitar
technology is released. These are
the influencers of the happy
hobbyist group.
Involved Instructors Typically professional musicians
and thought leaders/content
creators who talk about new
techniques and have strong
opinions about instruments and
brands. These tend to be quite
active in the acoustic guitar
conversation.
What Are Need States?
Need States are the user’s motivations behind their search.
Music Moms Typically uninformed gift givers
looking for information on the
right guitar for their happy
hobbyist or raging rockstar.
These people enter the
conversation when they are
looking to make a purchase.
Searches for
[best acoustic guitar]
This person probably
needs information on
the best acoustic guitar
in order to make a
purchasing decision.
Need State is
“Learning to Buy”
Need states help to eliminate keyword ambiguity and write targeted copy
How Do We Develop Them?
Personas and need states are the art of educated guessing based on data.
Social Data &
Business Goals
Educated
Guessing
Personas &
Need States
Personas & Need States are typically used and defined by Market Research, Strategy and UX teams
How Do We Know We’re Right?
Measuring the performance of the site will prove or disprove your personas
Now more than ever there is enough data to verify or discover new personas
Business Goals?
Use the client’s business goals to drive audience understanding.
Sell More 3D TVs
More Shares in Social Media
Occupy the Conversation
Facebook Insights
Does the site have an existing Facebook page? FB Insights has demographic data
Gender Male
64%
Female
36%
U.S
88%
Non-U.S
12%
Age distribution
Male
Female
Country
If the site is already on the Open Graph can you get this too
Use Quantitative Analysis Tools
Who does ComScore, AdPlanner, etc say is the audience for this vertical?
If it’s a new site check out a competitor’s site in Ad Planner
Use Facebook Ad Planner
Use the FB tool to see how many people fall into an audience by interest and demo
Link: http://www.facebook.com/ads/create/
Preliminary Social Listening
Use a few broad keywords to see who is talking in Social Media.
Social Listening Tools
Start your social listening in Topsy, Social Mention, and/or Amplicate
Social Mention
Topsy
Amplicate
Discussion Listening
See what people are talking about on blog and discussion forums
Preliminary Keyword Research
Use a few broad keywords to discover related popular topics.
Apparently this audience wants to
know about the best 3d tv without glasses
Use Quora
Identify questions and people in the vertical that are important to the business goals
ProTip: Keep track of influencers for link
building
Use Quora for KWR
Put Quora questions into the keyword tool to identify the associated keywords opps
ProTip: Grab the questions with Scraper, export to CSV then use SEOGadget’s Adwords
API plugin for Excel.
KWR + Soc. Listening is Circular
Insights from one fuel research in the other; Iterate to a great list of final keywords
Define Your Audience
Break your audience into four core groups based on all the data you’ve collected
Curious George Gamer Film Purist Tech Geek
• 18-32
• Male
• Loves indie rock
• Wishes he had a beard
• 18-32
• Male
• Loves all music
• Wishes he could move
out his mom’s
basement
• 22-40
• Male
• Loves film soundtracks
• Wishes he could live in
the movie Avatar
• 22-40
• Male
• Loves Techno
• Wishes you would stop
invading his online
privacy
Define Your Need States
Based on your research identify the phases of need in the search process.
3D Advocates These people are participating in very detailed
conversation about 3D through the lens of their
passion. They get satisfaction from demonstrating
their knowledge about 3D and their opinion about
its use in media.
3D Curiosities There are more people in this group than the
3D Advocate group. They are intrigued by 3D
and how it could fit into their home life, but
they haven’t made the decision to purchase.
They can relate to the advocate group
through their shared passion points.
3D Gamers Tech Geeks 3D Film Lovers
Content Creation Content Consumption
Unaware
Interested
Unaware
Unsure
Unaware
Ready to Buy Aware
Owner
Aware
Looking
for 3D Content
Aware Creating
Content Aware
Ready to Buy
Give Your Audience Personality
Build a story for each of your segments helps you understand their needs.
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
Positive Negative
Curious George on 3D TV
Note: Individual results can be both positive & negative
Curious George is a hipster between 18 and 32. He’s a college
educated graphic designer with a lot of
time on his hands. He doesn’t like to be
the last to find out about things but he
doesn’t know if this 3D thing is going to
stick around long. Curious George liked
Avatar but he isn’t crazy about it like some
people. Really he’s looking to find out if a
3D TV is going to become cool and if so
he wants to be down before it becomes
cool.
Curious George Gamer Film Purist Tech Geek
• 18-32
• Male
• Loves indie rock
• Wishes he had a beard
• 18-32
• Male
• Loves all music
• Wishes he could move
out his mom’s
basement
• 22-40
• Male
• Loves film soundtracks
• Wishes he could live in
the movie Avatar
• 22-40
• Male
• Loves Techno
• Wishes you would stop
invading his online
privacy
Googlebot: the 5th Persona
We know Googlebot’s attributes so think of it as an influencer in your audience.
Googlebot
• 17
• Eunuch
• Needs explicit
explanations
• Is somewhat visually-
impaired
• Loves Google+
• Wants to know the
newest info on 3D TV
:Beep: Bots need love too, yo.
Do Final Keyword Research
Based everything you know about your audience find and categorize keywords
Keyword Local Monthly
Searches Page Target
Persona Need State
3d glasses 18100 Glasses Curious George
Unaware Interested
2d to 3d conversion 1000 Conversion Tech Geek Aware Owner
3d tv glasses 1000 Glasses Curious George
Unaware Interested
glasses free 3d 1000 Glasses
Curious George Aware Owner
real 3d glasses 1000 Glasses
Curious George Aware Owner
3d ready 720 3D-Ready All All
3d ready tv 590 3D-Ready All All
3d active glasses 390 Active/Passive Tech Geek Aware Owner
active 3d glasses 390 Active/Passive Tech Geek Aware Owner
Separate Targets from Influencers
Segmenting your audience helps you determine who will spread your content
Curious George This group represents people considering buying a 3D TV
Gamer Gamers talk about their 3D gaming experience and the components and games they use.
Film Purist This conversation revolves around use of 3D in film. They talk about 3D in a broad way, and occasionally touch on 3DTV specifically.
Tech Geek This group talks about the technical details of their AV setup. They treat their TV’s like a racecar driver treats their car.
Curious George Gamers Film Purists Tech Geek
INFLUENCERS TARGET
Take Action
Lay out and/or optimize a site structure that reflects what your targets are looking for
Have you found popular questions? Target them in your information architecture
Measure to Validate Personas
Validate your hypotheses via data collected in conversions
Curious George
• 18-32
• Male
• Loves indie rock
• Wishes he had a beard
You can also test effectiveness using demographic targeting with Facebook Ads and Paid Search
Use Keyword-Level Demos
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/keyword-level-demographics
FB:Admin Search
Referrers
Keyword-Level
Demographics
This requires an opt-in so there must be a value-add to encourage enough people
Use Pzyche
http://www.pzyche.com is a tool built by @JasonD that gets demo info without opt-in
Use Micro-conversions
If you can’t get the info from sales or an external source, use micro-conversions
Step 1: Create An App
Place Your Site on Facebook’s Open Graph: https://developers.facebook.com/apps/
Step A Step C
Step B
Step 2: OpenGraph Meta Data
Install OpenGraph Meta Data on your website template.
<meta property="fb:app_id" content=“[YOUR APP ID]" />
<meta property="fb:admins" content=“[FACEBOOK IDs OF ADMINS]" />
<meta property="og:title" content=“[PAGE TITLE]"/>
<meta property="og:url" content=“[PAGE URL]"/>
<meta property="og:site_name" content=“[SITE NAME]" />
<meta property="og:description" content=“[SITE DESCRIPTION]" />
<meta property="og:type" content="website" />
<meta property="og:image" content=“[IMAGE URL]" />
Step 3: Install FB Code On Site
Install the code for the Facebook Button & Connection into your site
Step B: <fb:login-button scope="user_birthday,user_location">Login with Facebook</fb:login-button>
<div id="fb-root"></div>
<script type="text/javascript">
var ref=searchRef();
window.console.log(ref);
(function() {
var e = document.createElement('script');
e.src = document.location.protocol +
'//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js';
e.async = true;
document.getElementById('fb-root').appendChild(e);
}());
// Asynchronous Initiation of Facebook API
window.fbAsyncInit = function() {
FB.init({
appId : „[ YOUR APP ID HERE]',
status : true, // check login status
cookie : true, // enable cookies to allow
the server to access the session
xfbml : true, // parse XFBML
oauth : true //enables OAuth 2.0
});
fbApiInitialized = true;
};
// Runs Keyword Demographics Function once init is
finished
fbEnsureInit(kwdemos);
</script>
Step A.
Step 4: Install SessVars.js
This file is a helper function to track a variable throughout a user’s visit.
Code: <script type="text/javascript" src=“http://yoursitehere.com/sessvars.js"></script>
Get the code: http://www.thomasfrank.se/sessionvars.html
Step 5: Install KLD Code
Include the kwdemos.js file in the header of the site.
Code: <script type="text/javascript" src=“http://yoursitehere.com/kwdemos.js"></script>
Get the code: https://github.com/ipullrank/keyword-demographics
Step 6: Congratulate Yourself
Take a look in your custom variables in Google Analytics, you’re up and running!
That wasn’t so hard was it?
ProTip: Just Track the Persona
Identify the key criteria and just push the name of the persona to GA for ease.
Work with a developer on this
if (demos.age >= „18‟ && demos.age <= „40‟ &&
demos.gender=“male” && demos.state == “New York”)
{
_gaq.push([„_setCustomVar‟,‟1‟,‟Persona‟,‟Curi
ous George‟,1]);
}
Check for key attributes of
the persona with an if
statement
Push just the name rather
than all of the data points
:Beep Boop BOOM:
Measuring People
Using personas helps you identify insights in terms of people rather than abstracts
Measuring Link Building Efforts
Segmenting your audience will better help scale outreach and measure success
Twitter User Persona Status Referral Traffic
oxytree Curious George Engaged N/A
MikeEv4ns Tech Geek No Response N/A
RodolfoValiense Film Purist Closed 40483
LG_Thailand Tech Geek Closed 1491
TT_PangPang Tech Geek Closed 10785
Visual_Post Tech Geek Closed 20237
versianni Gamer Closed 40171
dinamofilmes Tech Geek Closed 22011
Mitsubishi3D Gamer Closed 23908
iCronos4 Tech Geek Closed 24960
BigStage Gamer Closed 9808
XanPhillips Gamer Closed 30569
Amazon_Lover Gamer Closed 22814
Looks like links from Gamers are easiest to get and drive the most
traffic!
Dynamic Targeting
Using this data you can build a site that reflects the persona when they arrive
Curious George
• 18-32
• Male
• Loves indie rock
• Wishes he had a beard
What Normal Users See What Curious George Sees
(Dramatization)
Keyword Ownership
Take a look in your custom variables in Google Analytics, you’re up and running!
Curious George Gamer Film Purist Tech Geek
• 18-32
• Male
• Loves indie rock
• Wishes he had a beard
• 18-32
• Male
• Loves all music
• Wishes he could move
out his mom’s
basement
• 22-40
• Male
• Loves film soundtracks
• Wishes he could live in
the movie Avatar
• 22-40
• Male
• Loves Techno
• Wishes you would stop
invading his online
privacy
OWNER
• 5000 Searches Monthly
• Conversion Rate 5% • 600 Searches Monthly
• Conversion Rate 2%
• 1000 Searches Monthly
• Conversion Rate 0.5% • 100 Searches Monthly
• Conversion Rate 0.2%
Keyword Arbitrage
Including audience in measurement helps to determine where to spend money
Initial Keyword Conversion Rate
Persona Keyword Revenue
Subsequent Keyword
Conversion Rate
Keyword Revenue
Sneakers 5% Curious George $50 Sneakers 40% $50
Sneakers 5% Curious George $50 Windbreakers 60% $100
Sneakers 5% Curious George $50 T-Shirts 20% $20
Windbreakers 3% Curious George $100 Sneakers 32% $50
Windbreakers 3% Curious George $100 Windbreakers 5% $100
Windbreakers 3% Curious George $100 T-shirts 80% $20
T-shirts 2% Curious George $20 Sneakers 50% $50
T-shirts 2% Curious George $20 Windbreakers 40% $100
T-shirts 2% Curious George $20 T-shirts 75% $20
Predicting Audience Action
Take a look in your custom variables in Google Analytics, you’re up and running!
Curious George
60% of these users that
buy sneakers from the
keyword “sneakers” come
back and purchase
windbreakers
We are now cleared for take off. Questions?
Michael King | Global Associate
http://slidesha.re/personas
@ipullrank
www.ipullrank.com
See me speak @ SMX West (2/28 – 3/1/2012)
LinkLove London (3/30/2012)