How to Create Buyer Personas With Google Analytics

By Ben Jacobson
Published May 8, 2014

Do you want to learn more about your social media followers?

Have you created social media buyer personas?

You have to know your audience before you can serve them on social media.

In this article I’ll show you how to create buyer personas for your social media audience using Google Analytics.

A buyer persona goes beyond the definition of your target audience. You use them to create fictional identities that represent people within your target audience who share similarities.

Use Analytics data to find information you need to create your buyer personas.

With solid buyer personas informing your social media messaging, you can formulate content to better target your audience’s interests and concerns. This will in turn make for a more engaged audience.

You can find a lot of information about your brand’s online audience in the search data from your website’s analytics.

Here’s how to build buyer personas with Google Analytics.

Begin by opening up Google Analytics, then go to Acquisition > All Traffic > Google/Organic and set the Secondary Dimension to Keyword.

Go into Google Analytics to find your keyword traffic.

This shows you the keyword searches that bring visitors to your site over a relatively long time period.

While the vast majority of the referring keywords will be “not provided,” the remaining data will be enough to get you started.

Here is an example of top organic keywords displayed in Google Analytics.

Copy the list into a spreadsheet so you can edit it.

Sort through the keywords in your spreadsheet and group them into themes or categories.

For example, if you market sporting goods, you might divide the keywords into categories such as clothing, footwear, balls and other equipment. You might also have categories for location-specific searches or sports-related questions.

After you determine which keywords send customers to your website, imagine what types of people are searching for them. Image: iStockPhoto.

Once you’ve created the categories, use them to determine what types of people are searching for these terms. Use the information you have to find the right questions to ask yourself to come up with accurate representations of your customers.

Make a list of personas such as “serious runners interested in buying sneakers locally for under $100,” or “beginners thinking about getting into mountain climbing.”

These are your rough buyer personas.

Now that your personas have been roughly defined, use the referral traffic data from Analytics to create prototypical audience members for each of your social media channels.

Back in Google Analytics, go to Acquisition > All Referrals. Choose Second Dimension and click on Landing Page.

Find out what content your readers like by social media channel.

Download this data into a spreadsheet and group the landing pages by social channel so you can determine which kind of content resonates best with the followers from each social media channel.

Who is listening to you? Where are they? Image: iStockPhoto.

The patterns and preferences you find will help you create a sharpened buyer persona for each social network your brand manages a presence on.

For example, a restaurant might find that Facebook refers more people looking for reservations and that Twitter refers more people looking for daily specials.

With that information, the restaurant can install a custom reservations tab on their Facebook page to better serve their existing customers and begin promoting their lunch specials on Twitter to bring in new customers.

You can take things a step further and beef up your personas by looking at how your fans and followers on social media describe themselves to see if you can spot any patterns.

Twitter’s native Analytics provides relevant insights, especially from the Your Followers Also Follow and Interests sections.

Using the often-overlooked Twitter Analytics module, you can learn what topics (other than those directly related to your brand) are popular with your followers.

Followerwonk will pull common keywords from your followers’ Twitter bios.

On Facebook, you can use Graph Search to learn more about the interests of your fans by running queries such as “pages liked by fans of [your business page]“.

Examine the smaller social media sites your audience frequents—for example, Behance, Empire Avenue, TripAdvisor, OpenForum or Quora—to help you further narrow down their interests.

For example, people who spend time on Q&A sites are likely to enjoy information written by experts, while those who like photo sharing social networks will look for content rich in images.

Use social media buyer personas to zero in on your customers’ interests. Image: iStockPhoto.

The more information you compile for your buyer personas, the more personal you can make your messaging, content and outreach.

Over to You

Follow the steps above and you’ll learn more about your social media audiences and maximize the business impact of your social marketing.

Once you know what your social media audience searches for, you can adjust the content you create and your messaging so they match the interests of each social media channel’s buyer persona.

Better understanding through data analysis is what lets you do this, and the potential rewards are huge. When the members of your community feel that you understand them and have a knack for addressing their needs, they’ll pay more attention to what you have to say. They’ll also interact more with your posts. This means more organic reach to like-minded people, which will drive more business.

Use the information available to you on Google Analytics to learn more about your audience and serve your customers better on social media.

What do you think? What tools and techniques are you using to learn more about your social media audience? Share your suggestions and comments in the box below.

Tweet!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,'script','twitter-wjs'); About the Author, Ben Jacobson

Ben oversees new media marketing and at Action Packed Media, a boutique managed service agency based in Israel. Action Packed Media also offer subscription-based email marketing solutions via ManagedForMimi.com. Other posts by Ben Jacobson »

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Google+ Stories: This Week in Social Media

By Cindy King
Published May 24, 2014

Welcome to our weekly edition of what’s hot in social media news. To help you stay up to date with social media, here are some of the news items that caught our attention.

Google+ Introduces Google+ Stories: You can “automatically weave your photos, videos and the places you visited into a beautiful travelogue.”

“Stories will be available this week on Android and the web, with iOS coming soon.”

The 2014 Social Media Marketing Industry Report Is Out: Check out Social Media Examiner’s sixth annual social media study, where “more than 2800 marketers reveal where they focus their social media activities, which social tactics are most effective and how content plays a role into their social media marketing.”

Be sure to download a copy of the 2014 Social Media Marketing Industry Report before May 30th.

Google+ Announces Google+ Movies: You “can produce a highlight reel of your photos and videos automatically—including effects, transitions and a soundtrack.”

LinkedIn Introduces How You Rank Feature: “You can now see where you stack up to others in your network with profile views (this feature is coming to mobile).”

“Take a look at the top profiles in your network to gain inspiration for changes you can make to your own profile, or content you can share to increase views to your profile and drive opportunities for advancement.”

Facebook Introduces New Way to Share and Discover Music, TV and Movies: “When writing a status update—if you choose to turn the feature on—you’ll have the option to use your phone’s microphone to identify what song is playing or what show or movie is on TV.”

“That means if you want to share that you’re listening to your favorite Beyoncé track or watching the season premiere of Game of Thrones, you can do it quickly and easily, without typing.”

Facebook Rolls Out Privacy Checkup: “A new and expanded privacy checkup tool, which will take people through a few steps to review things like who they’re posting to, which apps they use and the privacy of key pieces of information on their profile.”

The Privacy Checkup will be available for existing users.

Facebook Sets Default to Friends for New Users: “When new people join Facebook, the default audience of their first post will be set to Friends.”

“First-time posters will also see a reminder to choose an audience for their first post, and if they don’t make a choice, it will be set to Friends.”

Facebook Goes International With Premium Video Ads: These ads will now be introduced to “a limited group of advertisers in select international markets including Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom.”

“Premium video ads are designed for advertisers who want to reach a large audience with high-quality sight, sound and motion.”

Shutterstock Introduces Shutterstock Music: “A new product from Shutterstock that expands [its] content offerings for customers and generates earnings for musicians looking for new ways to monetize their craft.”

“When searching the site, you’ll find awesome, high-quality music to add to your project, be it something serene to represent nature, something bluesy to signal playfulness or maybe a classical track by Vivaldi that will flow perfectly in your story.”

New updates to follow:

Twitter Rolls Out New Profile by May 28: “Beginning May 28, all Twitter users will have the new profile, which has already been rolled out to new users and some existing users in the past month.”

New http://t.co/JbzACuw5a2 profiles will be turned on for everyone May 28. Get ahead of the curve & update yours: http://t.co/GpCan7yXGw

— Twitter (@twitter) May 6, 2014

Facebook Rolls Out Video Metrics: As a page owner, you’ll start to “see information like video views, unique video views, the average duration of the video view and audience retention.”

“Video metrics will be available for all paid and organic videos uploaded directly to Facebook pages, including premium video ads.”

Here are a few cool social media tools worth checking out:

Epoxy: “Custom-tailored for Facebook and Twitter, and fine-tuned for every screen and device, Epoxy video apps are designed to keep your audience’s attention and keep them watching.”

“Your videos the way they should be viewed.”

Tunepics: “For the first time, share the true emotion of your moments by adding tunes to your pictures.”

Screenshooter: “The simplest way to organize and manage mobile screenshots.”

You can “automatically separate your photos from your screenshots.”

What do you think? Please share your comments below.

Tweet!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,'script','twitter-wjs'); About the Author, Cindy King

Cindy King is the director of editorial for Social Media Examiner. She spent 25 years abroad in international business development and then built her own international business from scratch by using social business networking. Other posts by Cindy King »

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10 Ways to Get Live Viewers for Your Google Hangouts On Air

By Ryan Hanley
Published May 13, 2014

Do you want more people to show up for your next Google Hangout on Air?

Do you want a more interactive experience with your audience?

Hangouts are changing the way brands connect with audiences to share advice, interview influencers and more.

In this article you’ll find 10 ways you can entice your audience to join you in real time on your next Hangout on Air.

One of the most intriguing aspects of Google Hangouts on Air is how your live audience accesses your show. Each Hangout on Air is broadcast, recorded and uploaded to YouTube. You can even share your Hangout in real time on your website.

That kind of social media integration makes Google hangouts on air the future of broadcasting. The potential for viral expansion is enormous, especially if you have a live audience talking about your content on various platforms.

But what if you’re having trouble getting real-time viewers to your live Hangout event?

Use the following 10 methods to attract more attendees to your next Google Hangout on Air and every Hangout you produce thereafter.

The power of consistent branding across platforms is unquestionable. Use a branded banner image (or theme) when you share your Google Hangout because it helps draw in viewers because they recognize you.

Chef Dennis Littley does this well with his Good Day Google+ Hangout series. His branded theme makes his updates immediately recognizable in the news stream and draws fans’ attention to his weekly show.

Chef Dennis’ professional brand and quality content have helped him amass over 488,000 connections on Google+.

Tip: The Hangout on Air banner size is 1200 pixels x 300 pixels and you can make one for free using PicMonkey.

Google Hangout on Air headlines are extremely important. Potential viewers are not going to give you their time if your Hangout sounds lame.

Think what you may about the merits of the topic below, but the headline of this Hangout is going to grab attention. Any blogger interested in making more money is probably going to stop and give this Hangout a second look.

No one goes to a Hangout with a boring headline. There are too many other things to do online and in life.

Tip: If you’re struggling to create great headlines, read How to Create Headlines That Go Viral With Social Media.

Just like an email list, creating and updating a notification circle is a necessity for long-term Google Hangout on Air success.

Share your event in the public stream and any relevant Google+ communities. Ask people to comment and let you know if they’d like you to notify them about future episodes. When people respond that they want to be notified, add them to your notification circle.

Ask people to opt into your Hangouts on Air notification circle.

Tip: After every Hangout you host, expand the Watched section so you can see who attended. Whether it’s 5 or 500, add each name to your notification circle.

If someone has attended once, there’s a pretty good chance they’ll want to attend again. Your notification circle is the trick to compound growth.

OK, so you’re sharing in the public stream and relevant communities. If you want even further reach, ask attendees and those in your notification circle to help you promote your Hangout everywhere they can. That word of mouth is powerful.

Make it easy for everyone to share your Hangout on Twitter by creating a ClickToTweet link for each new Hangout. ClickToTweet lets you come up with a tweet so your friends don’t have to. They click the link and they’re done.

I suggest including the ClickToTweet link in your Hangout on Air details, any email blasts you send out and all of your Hangout event page shares. And don’t forget to include your branded hashtag! (See #7 below.)

Make it as easy as possible for people to share your event.

Tip: Ask your audience for more than Google+ shares and +1s. Twitter, Facebook and other platform shares can help you reach different audiences.

It’s one thing to get people to click Yes under “Are you going to watch?” It’s a whole other monster getting those people to actually show up to the live event.

An informal poll of Hangout hosts I know suggested that 10-25% of people who responded yes actually showed up to the event.

I had similar results until I did one simple thing: I added a reminder image to my Hangout event page. Since then I’ve seen a 40-50% increase in live participation of registered attendees.

Just before your Hangout starts, add a reminder image to your event page.

When you add a reminder image to your event page, it pushes that image into your public stream and notifies everyone who said yes or maybe to attending the event.

Tip: Use Canva to create a picture that reminds your audience to drop what they’re doing and come soak in the valuable knowledge you’ll be sharing.

As a Google Hangout on Air host, you have the option to create a simple 20- to 30-second video describing your Hangout. This quick peek gives your potential audience a glance at the value they’ll get from your Hangout.

Your teaser is a great opportunity to introduce your upcoming Hangout guest(s) and share some of the topics or questions you’ll cover. Done well, your trailer can have a dramatic impact on attendance.

In the box with the Play button, you have the option to add a video or an image as a trailer for your Hangout. As you can see below, Wade Harman uses a branded image.

People see your trailer when your Hangout event page is shared on Google+.

Tip: Check out Hype My Hangout to create 10-second videos and quickly upload them to YouTube to add as Hangout trailer videos.

Unlike on Facebook, hashtags matter on Google+. Use a relevant, branded hashtag to help you (and your attendees) easily collect and track conversations about your show.

When choosing a hashtag, make sure it’s relevant to your brand and message. Do some research and find out if anyone else is using that same hashtag. Too much hashtag overlap can confuse audience members who find themselves in unrelated conversations.

In his Get on Track, Stay on Track Hangout, Jason Wiser uses the hashtag #ontracktips as part of every show.

A branded hashtag is one more way your audience can easily find you.

Tip: Your hashtag becomes part of your show’s branding. Use it on Google+, Twitter and Instagram so your attendees can participate in the conversation, no matter which platform they’re using.

Depending on your mobile device, watching a Google Hangout on Air can be a little clunky.

If you want to make it easier on your mobile viewers (and you do), give them a way to watch your Hangout on Air on YouTube. Since Hangouts on Air livestream to YouTube, it’s as easy as sharing a link.

Be sure to share the YouTube link in the event details section for your Hangout and in the event comment stream as the Hangout draws near.

Your mobile users would rather watch your Google Hangout on their YouTube app.

Tip: To find your YouTube link, click the Link icon at the top right of the Details section and then copy the YouTube link.

Podcasting is incredibly effective for launching products and delivering a deeper, richer message to your audience, but one thing it can’t give you is live engagement.

Google Hangouts on Air changes that. In fall 2013, YouTube upgraded the sound quality capture from Hangouts on Air. The result is that you can easily create a Hangout and a podcast from the same show.

Here’s an example of one of my hangouts with Martin Shervington. After the Hangout, I downloaded the captured video from YouTube, then stripped the audio so I could package a podcast episode. I ended up with two ways my audience could enjoy the interview.

I’ve found that making Hangouts as interactive as possible is a strong draw for audience members to show up live.

Tip: You can use Audacity to take the audio from your Hangout on air to create a podcast.

There are few things that drive Google Hangout attendance more than your active participation in the Comments section of the event page.

Take time during the show or spend 10-15 minutes after the show to engage with your audience in the comments. That simple effort is the most important aspect of turning a one-way broadcast into an interactive experience.

Answer questions and acknowledge attendees in the comments.

Tip: With built-in tools like Comment Tracker, integrating audience questions and comments into your Hangout on Air is easy and intuitive.

Key Takeaways

Google Hangouts on Air take audience-building to the extreme by providing a two-way experience between you and your audience.

It all starts with attracting live viewers and then getting them to return again and again.

Make it easy for them to find you by branding your Hangouts via your cover image, event reminder, trailer and hashtag.

Once viewers find you, make it worth their while to return by offering options like watching your Hangout via Google+, YouTube or your website. If viewers are mobile, be sure to give them the link to your YouTube channel.

Creating a circle of interested and previous attendees and contacting them before each Hangout keeps you top of mind too. Don’t be shy about asking them to help you spread the word.

What do you think? Have you used Google Hangouts on Air? How have you attracted more people to your events? How do you engage with your Google Hangout audience? Leave your experience and questions in the comments.

Tweet!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,'script','twitter-wjs'); About the Author, Ryan Hanley

Ryan Hanley is a content marketing writer, speaker and consultant, as well as the founder of Content Warfare, a weekly podcast interviewing the web's best content creators, Content Warfare Podcast. Other posts by Ryan Hanley »

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How to Create a Google+ Community to Grow Your Business

Are you looking for a way to get the most out of Google+?

Does your business have a Google+ community?

When you bring conversations to a central place and encourage collaboration, you provide value for your audience.

In this article I’ll show you how to create a Google+ community and how to connect with people and keep them coming back.

Google+ communities are one of the most flexible tools available in social media, and they’re free for Google+ users and brands.

Communities are easy to set up and a great way to develop a loyal following. That sounds pretty good, right?

Communities are a place to chat about the business of the day.

Then let’s kick off with how you can create a Google+ community for your company. (You can also create one for your personal account, but this article focuses on brand options.)

To create a Google+ community, log into your Google+ account, go to your brand page dashboard and follow these steps:

1. Move your cursor over the Home button at the top left of the page and choose Communities from the menu.

You’ll see the screen below.

Creating a Google+ community is easy.

2. Click the blue Create Community button on the right side of the screen.

3. Choose either a public or private community.

Public and private communities each have their benefits, but there’s a catch. Once you’ve established a community as public or private, you can’t change it. Private groups stay private and public groups stay public. Definitely consider which option will serve you better.

Decide whether you want your community to be public or private.

If you already have a larger following, I suggest creating a public community. In a public community, people can share content outside of the group (e.g., to their own stream).

In a private community, you can’t do that. In my experience, the energy in a community implodes when members can’t share valuable content from the group.

Having said that, private communities are great for conversation, so they definitely have a place. You just have to decide what’s best for you and your audience.

But let’s roll with a public community for this article because they have the greatest reach and are the most popular. You’ll most likely use the public setting for your community.

4. Name your community, set your preferences and click Create Community.

You’ll end up on this page:

Tell your members a little about yourself.

5. Finish setting up your community by adding a tagline, image, About section and discussion categories.

Click Done and you’ll see a pop-up window that lets you invite new group members.

6. If you want to invite members to your group, type in a friendly message at the top, then add the people you want to invite in the To field and click Send.

If you created your community for a brand or company, you’ll have a Follow button in the Created By section. (This option isn’t available to general users right now.)

In the image below you can see that I’ve assigned our brand as the community creator instead of myself.

Use your company’s logo and name for the Created By box.

It may seem like a small thing, but it encourages more people to follow your company’s Google+ page instead of your personal page, and it reinforces that the community is owned by your brand.

You’re done with creating your community. Now let’s get people to find you and join.

A group is always better with more members, but they have to know about you to join, right? There are a few ways to get the word out.

It’s a given that you’ll share your community via your Google+ page and your own profile, but go ahead and send personal invites to people on Google+ in case they miss the announcement.

Once you’ve clicked on Invite, you have the option to choose an existing circle.

The important thing to remember with personal invitations is don’t be spammy. Instead of inviting everyone in your circles or even people you haven’t met yet, I suggest you contact only those people who have indicated some interest.

Google+ is a great start, but don’t forget to share across your other social profiles as well. Many of your followers have cross-platform accounts just like you do and may miss your announcement on Google+. Give them the opportunity to join no matter where they are.

If you run a live or recorded event (e.g., podcasts, hangouts or webinars) include a call to action in your promotion and during the event asking people to join your community.

Two things that have worked very well for our company are adding a link to email signatures and adding a community badge to our website. These small efforts have resulted in a steady flow of people joining our community.

Sometimes the perception of exclusivity can be a big motivator.

If you created an open public community (i.e., anyone can join without asking permission), consider changing your settings so it’s closed. When you close the group, people have to ask to join.

We did this with our Plus Your Business community and membership and engagement have skyrocketed. In the past six weeks alone, we’ve met 1000 new members and introduced them to each other.

Here’s how to change your group from open to closed in three easy steps:

1. On your community page, click the settings icon and choose Edit Community from the menu.

It’s easy to edit your public Google Plus Community settings.

2. On the next page, scroll to the bottom of the left column and you’ll see Who Can Join. Click the Change link.

Find the Who Can Join option at the bottom of the left column.

3. In the pop-up window, choose Yes, Anyone Can Ask to Join and click Confirm Change.

When you make a public community closed it’s still public. That means non-members can still see the community’s content and +1 or share that content, but they can’t comment.

Engagement is a key component of any successful community.

You’ve probably created communities and groups before, so you know that moderation goes far beyond you or your members sharing a post in the stream and clicking the +1 button. It’s important to meet and greet each person.

Encourage Discussion

To build a loyal community, you really need to be present. If you want people to interact, take the lead and start the conversation—be available, accessible and friendly.

Exclusivity can help you grow your membership.

When someone asks questions privately, suggest that they drop them in the main community stream. This not only allows others to offer advice, but it’s a way for you to share resources with everyone (rather than just the individual).

Ask people’s advice and involve them in the future direction of the community. Listening to your members’ suggestions and discussing in the main stream builds trust and loyalty.

Keep Categories Up To Date

Every once in a while, review your community categories. If you find people aren’t posting in the categories you’ve created or people are posting in the wrong category, try changing up the topics.

You can have up to 20 categories in a community. If they’re used well, people will post the right content in the right place.

An important note about categories: If you delete a category, it will also delete the posts in that category.

Reward Super-Engagers

In any group, there are always a few people who are the most vocal and helpful. Reward them by including them in a special circle and sharing it with the group members. The circle gives everyone an easy way to keep up with these super-engaged members.

Make it about them and give back by bringing people together into circles.

If you want to further reward your top contributors, you can create a Google hangout for the top 100 members of the community (you can have up to 100 people in the text portion).

Not only do you want to retain your existing members, you want to entice new members. One way to keep everyone interested is to offer regular community events.

Look to have events, including hangouts on air, as ways of bringing people together.

If there’s a topic that keeps popping up, a hangout is a great way for everyone to connect and discuss it. It’s likely that the conversation will continue in the group after the hangout is over.

Conclusion

If done well, Google+ communities can change your social experience forever.

Even if your community is large, discussions can be very intimate—members get to know each other. They share questions and answers, industry developments and more. Your community page becomes the gathering place.

What do you think? Are you already using Google+ communities? Do you have any tips for others who want get started? Please leave your comments below.

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