You can view and download the presentation slides from SlideShare here, and read on for more Q&A ...

11.19.12 note: I'll research and respond to questions here, so check back all this week for updates!

 

Why? In many cases the page itself is not the issue. Often the problem starts with the visitor's purpose for visiting the page. Purpose is everything: If visitors find what they came for they are more likely to stay. If not, they bounce.

To reduce bounce rate, take a step back and determine the visitors' interest or motive who land on that page:

Evaluate the source of incoming traffic
Check out the keywords that generated visitors. High bounce rates indicate some keywords generate traffic that is irrelevant to the real purpose of the page. Rework your page so the keywords you intend to generate visits actually generate visits. While you may see less total traffic, the visitors who do arrive are more valuable because their purpose for visiting better matches the content of the page. Would you rather have 100 visitors actively seeking what you provide or 10,000 visitors who don't?

Limit your scope
It's tempting to cram lots of information, resources, calls to action, and sign-up boxes onto each page. Too much clutter drives visitors away. Each page should have a clear, primary purpose. While you can include a few secondary purposes, make sure those are relatively discreet and do not distract from the main purpose.

Match the page purpose to the call to action
A product page should feature the product and make it easy to purchase that product. A newsletter page should highlight the benefits of the newsletter and make it easy to sign up to receive it. Visitors are satisfied when they can quickly meet their needs.

Tighten the page design
Subtlety doesn't work on the web. Visitors should be able to scan a page in no more than two to three seconds to find what they want. Multiple navigation bars, multiple search boxes, oddly placed ads -- the more complicated the design the more likely a visitor will bounce.

Finally, keep in mind a high bounce rate could mean the page was in fact successful. If visitors bounce off your contact page that could just mean they wanted your phone number. If so, the fact visitors leave quickly doesn't indicate a bounce -- it indicates success.

Every page should have a purpose. Make sure you have no throwaway pages. Define the purpose of each page, attract visitors whose intent matches that purpose, and make it easy for visitors to accomplish what they came for.

It’s a lot like a subway map. It shows the structure of your website and where are your pages reside.

 

Creating a sitemap is easy. You can find sitemap generators online that will create the .xml file for you. Once you get the .xml file, simply upload it to the root directory of your website (e.g. www. website.com/sitemap.xml). If your website is updated regularly, make it a good practice to update your xml file at least once a month so search engines have the freshest data.

You might be wondering how much or how little information you should require with a form. There is no magic answer when it comes to how many fields your form should contain but the best balance would be to collect only the information you really need. The fewer fields you have in a form, the more likely you will receive more conversions. This is because with each new field you add to a form, it creates friction (more work for the visitor) and fewer conversions.

 

A longer form looks like more work and sometimes it will be avoided all together. But on the other hand, the more fields you require, the better quality those leads might be. The best way to determine what works best is to test it.

2. Pinterest is retaining and engaging users as much as two to three times as efficiently as Twitter was at a similar time in history. (via RJMetrics)

3. Pinterest accounts for 3.6 percent of referral traffic, while Twitter just barely edged ahead of the newcomer, accounting for 3.61 percent of referral traffic. In July 2011, Pinterest accounted for just 0.17 percent of referral traffic, proving the site's blockbuster growth. (via PR Daily)

4. According to AppData and Facebook, 97 percent of Pinterest users are women.

5. American users of the social network spend an average of one hour and 17 minutes on the site, well ahead of Twitter (36 minutes), LinkedIn (17 minutes), and Google+ (six minutes). (via AllTwitter)

Want to see how other companies are using Pinterest to gather a following for their brand? Here are the top corporate Pinterest boards:

• Real Simple
• HGTV
• Nordstrom
• West Elm
• Kate Spade

 

 

Scroll Through Profile Pics with One Click
A really neat trick built into google+ is that you can scroll through all of a user´s profile pictures directly from the profile or post site. To do, just click on the avatar image. If the user uploaded more than one picture, google+ will flip through them. Some users already got creative with that by uploading profile pictures looking like an animation by fliping through.

Disable Resharing/Use Permalinks on Posts
If you post something you`d like to stay private, click on the drop down menu arrow at the top right of the post and select “disable reshare." If you want to find a post´s permalink, go to the drop down menu at the top right of the post and select “link to this post.. The post will be opened in a separate tab and you will be able to access the permalink.

Drag and Drop for Share (our favorite new feature!)
It is very easy to share videos, photos, links and even other users Profiles. Expand the “share” box and drag and drop content into it.

Don`t show People in your Circles on your Profile
Click “edit profile” and hit the circles box on the left of your screen. You can now choose which circles you want the world to see.

Post Notification
Google+ offers a way to notify people in a circle about a post without having tag their name in the post. Just click on the circle you`re sharing the post with, and check the “notify about this post” box.

Enjoy!

On the other hand, many (email-marketing vendors in particular) have come to email’s defense with a lot of data and pretty charts, claiming that email and social media are two peas in a pod and “we’re all in this together.” While I tend to agree with this idea, it’s important to tease out what’s really going on out there.
When looking at this argument (not for argument’s sake, but for the purpose of making business decisions), it’s important to focus on two key areas: target and intent.
Who is your target?

• If your target is under 34 years old, you’re likely to be successful using social media. If your target is under 20 years old, you’ll probably need to reach them through social media almost exclusively.
• If your target is a business, email will likely get you results faster. If your target is a consumer, you’ll get better results through a social campaign where your target sees others singing your praises.
• If you’re targeting a person while they’re at work, email is the answer (usually). If you’re targeting a person at home, social media can drive results.

As you can see, the demographics and psychographics are key to deciding whether to use social media or email to reach our target. Often, you’ll want to use both.
What is your intent?

• If you’re trying to sell directly, social media probably isn’t the place for you. Email can work better.
• If you’re trying to build a long-term relationship, start with social media (but the relationship may move to email).
• If you’re all about providing value, social media is probably the place for you.
• If you’re trying to communicate in a personal way, either can work (but email is currently better at personalizing in bulk).
• If you need a quick response, it depends on your target. A teen will fire back a Facebook reply in seconds. A middle-aged cube monkey will reply by email almost as fast. Both will fail in the other’s environment.

In the end, if you’re communicating with the intent to do business, email is still the inner sanctum. I manage my inbox religiously. If I don’t, I get behind, and business suffers. If I don’t tweet every day, the business isn’t impacted as much. Businesspeople still guard their email more closely than they do their social profiles. So, if you want to do business with someone, use social media to get into their inbox. Either connect personally, or drive value to an opt-in form.

This is the general flow in our current times. This may change though. Right now, college grads are forced to adopt the email world in business. But over time, their generation may change business to the degree that social media becomes their inner sanctum and email is either a forgotten channel or becomes a channel that leads to the inner sanctum.

Meanwhile, DMs on Twitter and messages on Facebook look almost identical to their predecessor: email. Not much has changed. It’s just got new wrapping paper. The war is not a war – it’s an evolution.

McKinsey & Company recently released the results of a survey of how more than 3,200 companies in a range of regions and industries use Web 2.0 tools and technologies. Companies were asked about the business benefits and organizational impact of 12 Web 2.0 technologies: blogs, mashups (a Web application that combines multiple sources of data into a single tool), microblogging, peer to peer, podcasts, prediction markets, rating, RSS, social networking, tagging, video sharing and wikis.

In this fourth year of the study, Web 2.0 continues to grow. Two-thirds of the respondents reported using Web 2.0 tools in their organizations. The percentage of companies using social networking (40 percent) and blogs (38 percent) rose significantly, as did the number of employees using Web 2.0.