Social Insights Report: How Search Engine Marketers Engage on Social Media

Social Insights for Decision Makers @Leadtail

Social Media Insights: How Search Marketers Engage on Twi8er

A special report from Leadtail

July 2014

Leadtail Social Media Insights for Decision Makers!

Introduc?on

2!

Search engine marketing is a key pillar of almost every online marketing budget. This means search marketers are now responsible for managing tens of billions of annual spending on the placement and optimization of keyword-based advertising programs. To compete effectively, these paid search strategists must keep up with the ever changing intricacies and best practices of search marketing, while also taking into account the increasing convergence of search marketing and social media. With that in mind, we developed this report: “How Search Marketers Engage on Twitter”, using Leadtail’s Social Insights Technology to analyze data from Twitter. The goal of this special report is to help you answer questions such as:

}  How do search marketers describe themselves on the Social Web? }  What topics are they talking about? }  Which content sources are these search practitioners consuming and sharing? }  Who are the most influential publications and people with search marketers?

Armed with these social media insights, you can now take a more informed look at your strategy for reaching and engaging search marketing professionals, and influencing them to take the actions you care about most.


Methodology and Data Set

3!

The methodology the Leadtail team used to create this report:

1.  Identify search marketers active on social media based on criteria such as job title, type of company, location etc., to create the target audience data set.

2.  Use the Leadtail Social Insights Technology to extract insights around key social media activities, such as what links are shared, who is mentioned and retweeted, popular hashtags, popular platforms used to share content, etc.

3.  Review, analyze, and package these insights into this report.

The specific data set analyzed for this report is comprised of:

}  521 North American search marketers active on Twitter during the report period

}  Focused on individual SEM practitioner accounts vs. brand, agency, or company handles }  Total of 105,121 tweets, and 55,615 shared links

}  Total follower reach: 1,135,439; median # of followers per marketer: 481 }  Tweets published between Mar 1, 2014 – May 31, 2014

Key Takeaways

Leadtail Social Media Insights for Decision Makers!4!

}  Search engine marketers are highly-skilled practitioners focused on curating a social media presence that showcases their skills, expertise, and affiliations.

}  Digital marketing, search marketing (both PPC and SEO), and analytics are all

active conversations for search engine marketers. These topics, and their related sub-topics, should anchor the content strategy of those wanting to reach and engage SEMs.

}  Search engine marketers consume and rely on industry media to educate themselves and inform how they do their jobs. This makes industry media a key channel for influencing SEMs.

}  Search engine marketers also engage heavily with content created and

curated by an elite group of vendors, creating both opportunity and challenges for other vendors that want to compete for the attention of these marketers.

}  Certain publications, vendors, and people are highly influential with search

marketers – these are good starting points for building brand awareness and driving social amplification.

Who Are These Search Marketers?


Where Are They Located?

While most search marketers are located in the major media hubs, many have set up shop and are hard at work in smaller markets across North America.

Leadtail Social Media Insights for Decision Makers!!

6! Based on the location provided in the Twitter profile.

How Do They Describe Themselves?

The way search marketing professionals describe themselves reveals keywords that can help you reach and engage them across the Social Web.

Leadtail Social Media Insights for Decision Makers!7! Based on keywords used in the Twitter profile.

What Do They Talk About?

8! Leadtail Social Media Insights for Decision Makers!

Hashtags reveal the topics and events, big and small, global and local, that captured the attention of search marketing professionals during the report period.

How Do Search Marketers Engage with Content on Twi8er?



6%

8%

9%

10%

13%

14%

17%

18%

18%

18%

18%

22%

45%

67%

80%

Post with Klout

Twitter for Websites Widget

foursquare

Buffer

Twitter Web Client

Twitter for iPad

iOS

LinkedIn

HootSuite

Instagram

TweetDeck

Twitter for Android

Twitter for iPhone

Tweet Button

Twitter.com Website

% of Search Marketers that published at least 1 tweet from this platform during the report period.

What Apps + PlaJorms Drive Twi8er Sharing?

When it comes to engaging on social media, SEMs appear to be holding on to their favorite desktop tools even as other business and consumer audiences move rapidly toward mobile apps and mobile websites. Desktop Mobile

What Types of Content Do They Share?


By a clear majority, industry media sites are the most common type of content shared by search engine marketers. It plays an important role in defining the conversations SEMs have with each other, their internal teams, and ultimately clients and customers. Many of these publications feature submissions from marketing thought leaders and experts, and have robust email and social media distribution (plus, great SEO!) that keeps their content in front of their target audience every day. Mainstream media content is the second largest type of content shared by SEMs, and tends to be driven by the broader news cycles of business, finance, and technology, with a smaller contribution coming in the form of in-depth editorial content. The social media content shared by search marketers includes everything from slideshows on content marketing, to Instagram photos of dogs, awards, and office happenings…and lots of cheering on our favorite sports teams!

% of 100 Most Popular Shared Content Sources

Industry Media 58%

Mainstream Media 29%

Social Media 11%

Other 2%

11.  WSJ Blogs 12.  CNET 13.  Time 14.  Google 15.  HBR Blogs 16.  WIRED 17.  Washington Post 18.  Slate 19.  Gizmodo 20.  CNN 21.  The Guardian 22.  Fast Company Co.Design 23.  The Atlantic 24.  Engadget 25.  CNN Money

Following are the Top 25 Mainstream Media Content Sources shared by search marketers during the report period, based on the number of unique marketers that shared each source.


What Are the Most Shared Mainstream Sources?

12!

1.  Forbes 2.  New York Times 3.  The Wall Street Journal 4.  Inc. 5.  Huffington Post 6.  Entrepreneur 7.  Fast Company 8.  BuzzFeed 9.  Medium 10.  Quartz

11.  SEO Roundtable 12.  Ad Age 13.  KISSMetrics Blog 14.  Buffer Blog 15.  ClickZ 16.  Econsultancy 17.  HubSpot Blog 18.  Adweek 19.  AdWords Blog 20.  Bing Ads 21.  Social Media Examiner 22.  VentureBeat 23.  The Verge 24.  Unbounce 25.  Social Media Today

Following are the Top 25 Industry Media Content Sources shared by search marketers during the report period, based on the number of unique marketers that shared each source.


What Are the Most Shared Industry Sources?

13!

1.  Search Engine Land 2.  Search Engine Watch 3.  Marketing Land 4.  Mashable 5.  PPC Hero 6.  Search Engine Journal 7.  Moz 8.  WordStream 9.  TechCrunch 10.  Business Insider

11.  Spotify 12.  Vimeo 13.  Kickstarter 14.  SoundCloud 15.  Flickr

Following are the Top 15 Social Media Content Sources shared by search marketers during the report period, based on the number of unique marketers that shared each source.


What Are the Most Shared Social Sources?

14!

1.  YouTube 2.  SlideShare 3.  Instagram 4.  LinkedIn 5.  Facebook 6.  Google+ 7.  Foursquare 8.  Pinterest 9.  Reddit 10.  Vine

Which Publishers, Vendors and People Are Most Influen?al with Search Marketers?


Which Publishers Do Search Marketers Retweet the Most?


As social media continues to reshape how information is consumed and shared, creating high-quality digital content is the minimum bar for online publishers. Raising the bar further, vendors are now expected to pump out content on par with professional publishers to engage their prospects and customers before, during, and after the sale. But producing the content is only half the battle. Successful publishers and vendors must also develop high-quality social channels, and get their content in front of their most important audiences on a regular basis. (After all, you have to tweet to get retweeted!) The word cloud to the right reflects the publishers and vendors who are doing the best job creating content that appeals to, and is reaching, search engine marketers in a way that drives amplification via retweets.

Top 50 Publishers/Vendors Most Retweeted by Search Marketers

* Based on unique # of search marketers in the sample that retweeted the person. Ties broken using Klout score followed by # of followers.

11.  @Moz 12.  @adage 13.  @WordStream 14.  @FastCompany 15.  @googleanalytics 16.  @Inc 17.  @HubSpot 18.  @Forbes 19.  @Adweek 20.  @WSJ 21.  @TechCrunch 22.  @EntMagazine 23.  @BruceClayInc 24.  @google 25.  @nytimes 26.  @hootsuite 27.  @socialmedia2day 28.  @WIRED 29.  @SportsCenter 30.  @VentureBeat

31.  @ForbesTech 32.  @ClickZ 33.  @buffer 34.  @CNET 35.  @Econsultancy 36.  @MediaPost 37.  @ThinkwithGoogle 38.  @WhiteSharkMedia 39.  @3QDigital 40.  @point_it 41.  @Digiday 42.  @semrush 43.  @seroundtable 44.  @Slate 45.  @Gizmodo 46.  @HarvardBiz 47.  @SAI 48.  @eMarketer 49.  @GrowthHackers_ 50.  @MarketMotive

1.  @sengineland

2.  @ppchero

3.  @BingAds

4.  @mashable

5.  @Marketingland

6.  @adwords

7.  @unbounce

8.  @sewatch

9.  @KISSmetrics

10.  @sejournal

17!

Who Do Search Marketers Retweet the Most?


When it comes to the people search marketers are retweeting the most, the same rule of “great content” prevails – only here, tweets may be amplified because they’re timely, topical, provocative, or insightful – all without regard to whether the content was originally created by the tweet author. Original thought leadership is definitely well represented, but so too is meaningful curation and clever commentary. The word cloud to the right reflects the people who are doing the best job building a personal brand around the type and quality of content they create, curate, and comment upon, resulting in retweets from other SEMs.

Top 50 People Most Retweeted by Search Marketers


11.  @rustybrick 12.  @LisaSanner 13.  @LukeAlley 14.  @GinnyMarvin 15.  @bgtheory 16.  @robert_brady 17.  @ArianaWolf 18.  @bigalittlea 19.  @elisabethos 20.  @BryantGarvin 21.  @michellemsem 22.  @SamOwenPPC 23.  @PPCKirk 24.  @DuaneForrester 25.  @TheGrok 26.  @dr_pete 27.  @SusanEDub 28.  @avinash 29.  @ebkendo 30.  @Szetela

31.  @aleyda 32.  @siliconvallaeys 33.  @AndyGroller 34.  @NeptuneMoon 35.  @sugarrae 36.  @lisabuyer 37.  @mattmcgee 38.  @danbarker 39.  @RavenJon 40.  @RickGalan 41.  @rodnitzky 42.  @aknecht 43.  @DannyNMIGoodwin 44.  @HeatherCooan 45.  @glenngabe 46.  @AnnieCushing 47.  @leeodden 48.  @portentint 49.  @CyrusShepard 50.  @bill_slawski

1.  @larrykim

2.  @Mel66

3.  @Matt_Umbro

4.  @dannysullivan

5.  @randfish

6.  @mattcutts

7.  @Realicity

8.  @jmgagnon

9.  @John_A_Lee

10.  @chrishaleua

19!

Which Publishers/Vendors Do Search Marketers Men?on Most?


The publishers search marketers mention on Twitter can give us yet another perspective on the forces that shape their views on products, services, and industry trends. Mentioning a publication or vendor can be a reference to an experience, a thank you (or no thanks), a question or even one of those highly-coveted social recommendations. That means mentions can often represent a deeper level of engagement than a retweet. In any case, the publications and vendors in the word cloud to the right have captured valuable mindshare with the search engine marketers that they’re trying to engage.

Top 50 Publishers/Vendors Most Men?oned by Search Marketers


11.  @YouTube 12.  @unbounce 13.  @sejournal 14.  @LinkedIn 15.  @ClickZ 16.  @Forbes 17.  @CNET 18.  @smx 19.  @googleanalytics 20.  @HubSpot 21.  @Hanapin 22.  @bing 23.  @KISSmetrics 24.  @TechCrunch 25.  @SlideShare 26.  @facebook 27.  @amazon 28.  @Econsultancy 29.  @MarinSoftware 30.  @twitter

31.  @copyblogger 32.  @Inc 33.  @adage 34.  @3QDigital 35.  @EntMagazine 36.  @buffer 37.  @smexaminer 38.  @FastCompany 39.  @WSJ 40.  @TheNextWeb 41.  @HarvardBiz 42.  @acquisio 43.  @semrush 44.  @BuzzFeed 45.  @nytimes 46.  @MediaPost 47.  @avalaunchmedia 48.  @Adweek 49.  @VentureBeat 50.  @verge

1.  @sengineland

2.  @adwords

3.  @sewatch

4.  @ppchero

5.  @BingAds

6.  @Marketingland

7.  @WordStream

8.  @google

9.  @Moz

10.  @mashable

21!

Who Do Search Marketers Men?on Most?


Mentioning a person by name can mean a few different things in social media: giving credit to someone for an idea or piece of content being shared, engaging someone directly in conversation, or giving a shout-out to a person you’ve recently met. In any context, being mentioned is a sign that a person is an active part of the social conversation, and those mentioned most are the people you’ll find at the center of engaging conversations between search engine marketers. This word cloud shows the people mentioned most by search marketers during the report period.

Top 50 People Most Men?oned by Search Marketers


11.  @SamOwenPPC 12.  @SusanEDub 13.  @Realicity 14.  @chrishaleua 15.  @mattcutts 16.  @BryantGarvin 17.  @LisaSanner 18.  @robert_brady 19.  @dannysullivan 20.  @bigalittlea 21.  @NeptuneMoon 22.  @jenstar 23.  @TheGrok 24.  @PPCKirk 25.  @Szetela 26.  @I_Marketer 27.  @HeatherCooan 28.  @dr_pete 29.  @ebkendo 30.  @AndrewPPC

31.  @IntelligentPPC 32.  @avinash 33.  @pateast 34.  @oligardner 35.  @timothyjjensen 36.  @mattmcgee 37.  @markkennedysem 38.  @tallykeller 39.  @RickGalan 40.  @andrew_goodman 41.  @ArianaWolf 42.  @ecouch11 43.  @lsussan 44.  @DuaneForrester 45.  @MattSouthern 46.  @RichardFergie 47.  @mvanwagner 48.  @stonetemple 49.  @aimclear 50.  @nateknox

1.  @larrykim

2.  @Matt_Umbro

3.  @bgtheory

4.  @Mel66

5.  @rustybrick

6.  @jmgagnon

7.  @LukeAlley

8.  @John_A_Lee

9.  @GinnyMarvin

10.  @randfish

23!

Conclusion


Conclusion

Imagine if you could listen to the daily conversations of search engine marketers. How would you use that information to better reach, engage, and influence these marketing professionals to take the actions you care most about? For example, would it provide you insights into where to advertise, what content to create, whom to build relationships with, and how best to develop and implement your social media strategy? Sure it would. We created this special report to provide you with social media insights to help you make more informed decisions about how to reach, engage, and influence search engine marketers. And since the topics, content sources, and influencers are constantly changing so, too, are the social media insights.


Sign up to get future social insights reports delivered to your inbox:

http://offers.leadtail.com/social-insights-reports

About Leadtail


Leadtail works with innovative companies to develop social media strategies and to leverage social insights research. The Leadtail team has developed and implemented social media programs for leading business brands and venture backed startups including: WageWorks, Trend Micro, Adaptive Insights, DNN, NetBase, and PunchTab. Our social media insights reports have been referenced in major publications including: The Wall St. Journal, Forbes, Search Engine Watch, Adweek, MarketingProfs, and Econsultancy.

@Leadtail

www.linkedin.com/companies/Leadtail

www.Leadtail.com/blog/

www.Leadtail.com

Interested in collaborating on a future social insights report? Email us: [email protected]