About Casey Hansen

Online Marketing Strategist

Casey possesses extensive social media experience and expertly monitors trends in healthcare social media usage. He uses his industry insight and creative ideas to help Geonetric clients create social media strategies that increase brand awareness and improve loyalty. In addition, Casey also works with clients to develop customized search engine optimization services and search engine marketing campaigns. He reviews analytics and helps clients understand the impact social media, SEO, and SEM have on their overall online marketing efforts.

It’s Time to Take a New Approach to Marketing Campaigns

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Casey Hansen

Marketing is a fast-paced discipline. Every day, new tactics and opportunities for getting your message out to your target audience are uncovered and vying for budget. Which tactics are best? How do you know if you should put your eggs in the billboard basket or the PPC basket? And how do you measure these tactics in a meaningful way, tying clicks and passerby’s back to actual procedures and service line volume?

No amount of gut instinct can tell you for sure.

A New Approach

That’s why we take a different approach at Geonetric. We launch Responsive Campaigns — campaigns that are flexible, nimble and easy to adjust.

With our Responsive Campaigns, we set a measurable goal, launch tactics in the market quickly, measure our efforts and adjust them immediately to maximize performance. We can measure the return-on-investment of any tactic at any moment – and we tell you which tactic is working best.

Most importantly, our team of experts invests itself in the success of a campaign. We measure our results against the goal daily, and we meet weekly with our clients to share our thoughts, results, and recommend a new series of tactics. This is not a “set it and forget it” approach!

A Shining Example – Colonoscopy Campaign

Want proof our Responsive Campaigns work? Last fall, we partnered with Crozer-Keystone Health System to develop a campaign focused on scheduling colonoscopy procedures.

We built the campaign using responsive marketing strategies and delivered results that matter – 73 new appointment requests in just three months!

See how we achieved this in our case study.

Three Ways to Improve Your Landing Page

Posted on March 6, 2013 by Casey Hansen

It doesn’t take long for website visitors to make decisions. Within a few seconds, they’re either taking the next step to interact with your organization or(gasp!) moving to the next site.

Your landing page plays a huge role in which choice your visitors make.

Here are three easy things you can do right now to improve your landing pages:

Match Creative Pieces – Does your landing page coordinate with your ad? Do you use similar creative, with logos and imagery? Is the content related? Keep the experience coherent. Logos, imagery and text all matter.
Remove Extra Navigation – Your landing page should focus on one goal: conversions. If you include multiple links that allow visitors to wander off, your conversions will suffer.
Add a Strong Call to Action – What do you want users to do next? Think long and hard before asking them to fill out a four-page form. Short forms, phone numbers and easy downloads are excellent ways to encourage immediate action. Bonus tip: keep your call to action near the top of the page! Don’t bury it.

If your landing pages break any of these rules, it’s time to get to work. These easy changes can boost your conversion rate significantly!

Google Announces Enhanced AdWords Campaigns

Posted on February 19, 2013 by Casey Hansen

Pay-per-click advertising (and specifically, Google AdWords) is making it easier than ever to target users where and when it matters to them. Google Adwords is launching Enhanced Campaigns – a new way to manage ad campaigns in today’s multi-device world. This is making it even easier to drive targeted traffic to your site, no matter where visitors are or what device they’re using (desktop, mobile, tablet, etc.).

How Do Enhanced Campaigns Work?

Google AdWords Enhanced Campaigns allow you, the advertiser, to create ads that capitalize on the context of someone’s search… things like time of day, device they’re using, and location.

For example, to promote your emergency room, you may want visitors on a mobile device to see an ad with clickable phone number and driving directions, while visitors on a desktop computer view an ad that drives them to a landing page with an online form to reserve a spot. Your ad may even change depending on what time of day it is, or how far the visitor is from your hospital.

Rather than creating several ads for multiple different scenarios, Google will be able to detect the situations, and use your criteria to automatically tailor your one ad to fit the visitors’ specific needs.

The possibilities are endless.

Better Conversion Tracking

Since the new campaigns allow users to interact with your ads in a variety of new ways (e.g., click-to-call, visit a landing page, download an app, etc.), Google will also provide ways to measure and act on the data you can collect. Ultimately, this means better conversion rates and easier ROI information.

Next Steps

Google plans to convert all campaigns to Enhanced Campaigns by mid-2013. No worries, though. The AdWords gurus at Geonetric are on it.

If you’re not currently working with us for your pay-per-click campaigns, now may be the perfect time to contact us. We love making pay-per-click advertising work for our clients and can do the same for you.

Analytics Analysis: Time for Action?

Posted on February 12, 2013 by Casey Hansen

Have you ever logged into Google Analytics and noticed a surprising shift in your metrics or traffic? When you notice large shifts (up or down), it’s probably time for some investigation.

You can start by asking some simple questions:

Have you made any major content changes that would change your numbers?
Do you have new marketing campaigns driving traffic to your site?
Have the search engines made any significant changes that would change your inbound traffic for better or worse?
Have you done any maintenance on the site that may have changed your tracking code?

Sometimes, you need to dig deep into your analytics for the answers. For example, you may investigate your top referrers to see where traffic is coming from. Is your organic search traffic on the rise? Hmm… maybe your visibility in Google has improved!

Once You Have Some Insight

Once you’ve done some investigation, it’s time to act on what you’ve found.

You can quickly make adjustments. For example:

If your search traffic has dropped, you may invest in a search engine optimization strategy to boost your visibility.
If you notice an increase in traffic coming from social media sites, can you take advantage of that with a campaign to build on that traffic?
If you’re benefiting from someone linking to your content, maybe it’s time to partner with that new friend and get some more exposure.

Don’t Make Assumptions

The key is to not make assumptions or have knee-jerk reactions when traffic shifts. Shifts are normal and will happen.

Often, they may be predictable (a marketing campaign, SEO efforts) or unpredictable (a major blogger linking to your content or a dip in your search engine rankings), but it pays to investigate and then act.

Always be aware of your data and how you can use it to your advantage from day-to-day. It’s an easy way to get your website to give you results.

How the New Facebook Graph Search Impacts Your Healthcare Organization’s Fan Page

Posted on January 17, 2013 by Casey Hansen

Photo: Facebook

Another day, another social media announcement. This time, it’s our friends at Facebook making news with the announcement of their new “Graph Search.”

Essentially, this announcement means better search functionality within Facebook. You’ll be able to easily find friends (and fan pages) that have liked certain things, have visited certain places or know certain people. That’s just a few examples of what will be easily found.

Your Fan Page

Over 1,200 healthcare organizations have official Facebook fan pages that they manage. What do the new changes mean for fan page admins?

The most important way you can use this new feature is to give your fan page content more visibility. Searchers will be able to find your status updates, photos, videos and other content via the Facebook search function. Your Facebook content just got a whole lot more visible and became an even larger tool for spreading your message and services on the Facebook platform.

Quick Tips

It’s safe to say content creation continues to be key. Just as we optimize our website content for searchers, how should you optimize your Facebook content for searchers?

Think strategically about what you’re posting and how it might be shared throughout Facebook.
Utilize keywords where possible (and where it feels “natural”).
Use a variety of content types – status updates, notes, videos and photos are a great start.

In the end, it still comes down to the usual message we share at Geonetric: content is king. We’ll know more in the coming days as the feature is slowly rolled out to users and we get a feel for how it works exactly.

Stay tuned more for strategy ideas surrounding Facebook’s new search functionality.

ROI and Social Media – The Awkward Date

Posted on October 19, 2012 by Casey Hansen

Here at Geonetric, we’re constantly cooking up new and exciting ways for our clients to engage with their patients. These days that engagement conversation often turns to tools like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and many others.

You know – that social media stuff.

But along with generating creative ideas, we’re in love with measuring the tactics we use. Some might even call it an obsession.

Some Background

At the recent Social Brand 2012 Conference here in Iowa, presenter David B. Thomas took a stab at giving us some measurement tactics for social media.

Social media has always been the tough one to measure so I’m excited to share some of those tips. So, without further delay, here are six steps to measuring your social media efforts courtesy of David B. Thomas (but summarized by me):

Establish Your Goals – Simply posting wildly on social media won’t cut it. What would you like to see come out of your social media efforts? Certain Web traffic numbers? Event registrations?
Tie to Organization Goals – Your social media goals should tie directly back to organizational goals. How do your efforts feed the overall goals of your organization?
Establish Your Definition of ROI – ROI is difficult to define because everyone has a different explanation. How will your organization count your efforts on social media as a success? (Don’t copy your neighbor.)
Focus on Campaigns – Social media is often part of a larger marketing campaign, so meshing the metrics between the two can be powerful. Use metrics from social media (such as Facebook Insights and Google Analytics data) to assess the success of individual campaigns.
Track Through Web Analytics – Always use Google Analytics (or your tool of choice) to assess inbound traffic sources (social media specifically) and determine which platforms give you the best traffic numbers.
ROI = (Gain – Cost) / Cost – A simple formula that may work for some. Of course, you’ll have to define the “gain.”

Tools to Help

There are many great tools available to help you manage your social media measurement and see how your efforts are performing. They also help you manage your brand online and monitor the conversation going on about your brand

A couple candidates:

Radian6 (http://www.radian6.com/)
Sprout Social (http://sproutsocial.com/)

My Takeaway

In the end, ROI of social media continues to be a bit elusive. Since it does rely on your goals and your definition of success, I think there is room for you to develop your own definition of ROI for social media and then how you’ll measure it.

Know what you want to measure (followers? fans? social reach?) and set up the tools to measure your success against those metrics.

And measurement? Well, that just makes us Geonetric folks grin from ear-to-ear. And we’re here if you need a little help getting there.

Geonetric and Google: Partners in Pay-Per-Click Advertising

Posted on September 12, 2012 by Casey Hansen

We’ve been pay-per-click advertising gurus at Geonetric for many years. We’ve helped clients build their brand awareness, drive registrations for events at their hospitals and push memberships at their fitness facilities – just to name a few.

Today we are happy to announce our new status as a “Google AdWords Certified Partner.” This status is given to companies that manage a certain amount of ad spend and have qualified individuals on staff that specialize in Google AdWords advertising techniques.

It Just Keeps Getting Better

When you put this latest achievement together with our on-staff individuals who are also “Microsoft Advertising Accredited Professionals;” you can see that Geonetric continues to be dedicated to pushing the envelope in online marketing with both Google and Microsoft/Bing.

Our unique understanding of pay-per-click principles and the healthcare scene give us the background we need to put your organization’s message in front of the Web users who need to hear it. Or, more accurately, see it.

Whether you’re marketing your heart care services or getting the message out about a fundraising effort, pay-per-click advertising can be an effective part of that marketing plan.

If you’re interested in seeing first-hand how this new partner status with Google AdWords is just another way Geonetric continues to push ourselves and our clients forward, give us a call.

Bing Ads – Should You Be There?

Posted on June 6, 2012 by Casey Hansen

When you think of search, you typically think of Google. When you think of online advertising, you typically think of Google. So it stands to reason that when you plan for a pay-per-click campaign, you typically want to launch it on Google AdWords.

Our paid search efforts primarily focus on this exclusive audience, and rightly so, since Google is the ruling search engine. But at Geonetric, we’ve always kept a watchful eye on the ‘ugly ducklings’: Bing and Yahoo, especially in light of several recent announcements regarding format changes aimed at challenging Google’s empire.

We think there’s value in sharing your ad budget and optimizing across the board. You don’t want to become so preoccupied with your daily Google devotion that you miss out on valuable gains from some impressive secondary search contenders, like Bing. And here’s why:

Bing is the number two search engine, accounting for 30 percent of U.S. Web searches last month. According to Hitwise, Bing (which is made up of searches from Bing.com as well as Bing-powered searches on Yahoo and a handful of other notable Web partners) processed 2.6 billion search queries last month (compared to Google’s 11.4 billion and Yahoo’s 2.3 billion). So there is an audience outside of Google looking for the services you offer.
Competition is fairly light. And that’s a money saver. Your dollar will go further when it comes to keyword costs on Bing because there isn’t the same demand as with Google AdWords. Also, Microsoft adCenter software – which powers Bing pay-per-click ads – offers a menu of features (that Google doesn’t) which can make personalizing ads easier than ever.
Consider the new push by these search engine underdogs to step up their game. In the past two weeks Bing and Yahoo announced big changes to their search engines and how they display search results. Bing is using a redesign to offer search results that tap into the power of social media. They are incorporating personal search results into their search algorithm similar to Google’s Search Plus Your World. The search engine will also be digging deeper into Facebook’s social network and Twitter’s messaging service to showcase information unlikely to be found on Google.

These changes represent Microsoft’s most dramatic shift in Internet search since debuting Bing as a “decision engine” nearly three years ago – and is hoping the move will loosen Google’s stranglehold on the lucrative Internet search market.

Yahoo has also jumped in the water with a phased release of Axis, its new search browser plugin that enables a visual display of search results. The move, according to Yahoo, is an effort to streamline search and connect experiences across devices.

These moves tell us two things: shared content is becoming more critical to online visibility, and if you’re already running Google AdWords ads, or if you’re looking to start a pay-per-click campaign, Bing is another option on the table.

We definitely think it’s worth a look.

Casey is a Certified Google Adwords Professional and a Microsoft Advertising Accredited Professional. He can help you determine and develop the most effective pay-per-click campaign for your organization.

Are All Your Eggs in Google’s Basket?

Posted on May 22, 2012 by Casey Hansen

DuckDuckGo. Blekko. Bing.

You’ve probably heard of that last search engine, but what about the first two? It may be time to start paying attention to some of the new competitors in the search market.

Google has long been the go-to resource for most searchers. It’s even a verb for most of us. But with their recent privacy policy changes and latest shifts in strategy (social search, etc.), many searchers are losing trust in the search giant. They are venturing elsewhere for their search results and that may mean some different SEO tactics.

Where Are They Going?

Blekko, a search engine that prides itself on results that aren’t spammy and don’t hold any sort of search bias, saw an increase in unique visitors of 337% this past year.

DuckDuckGo, a search engine that holds your privacy to the highest standard and provides a clean, simple interface received 1 million search queries back in February.

Of course, Bing continues to grow (slowly, but surely). Granted, most of this growth is attributed to IE9 and users who don’t change their default search engine.

These growth spurts are becoming less easy to ignore.

What Does This Mean For Your SEO Efforts?

Google is still far-and-away the leader in search, but it’s time to start thinking about other search engines in the mix.

Keep focusing on developing solid content and basic SEO guidelines. Since these other search engines are lesser-known, best practices are still being worked out across the search industry. But it is safe to assume the usual SEO tactics remain effective.

Ultimately, this shift means we may see some serious challenges to Google in the coming year. Will they succeed? Time will tell.

Give some of the other search engines a test run the next time you need to find information. How do the results compare to Google? Does your own site perform well on the other search engines?

You might just find a new default search engine in the process.

Can You Over-Do Your SEO Efforts? Google Thinks You Can

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Casey Hansen

When writing content for your website, you likely take the first step of identifying keywords to focus on. After all, you want your content to match the words used by potential site visitors as they search for information.

But in an article from Search Engine Land, Barry Schwartz sheds some light on a new search algorithm change Google is working on that may change the way you write content.

At the recent SXSW mega-conference, Google’s Matt Cutts announced Google will soon be trying to identify websites where content is over-optimized. It’s an attempt to level the playing field and give smaller businesses (with great content) a shot at ranking higher in search results.

So what does this mean for you?

One of the better blog posts about this change comes from HubSpot. As they call out, this change is going to affect how you approach Web content. You may want to start by identifying keywords you want to rank well and molding your content around that research. But Google is saying, “cut it out.”

Google is trying to look out for the end-user. They want their search results to be relevant and useful instead of annoying. So as you write content, don’t focus on keywords. Instead ask yourself:
●    What topics will be most useful to users searching for this information?
●    Am I using titles and keywords because they’re popular, or because they are actually relevant to a potential visitor’s needs?
●    Will users want to share this content via social networks and help increase visibility in social search?

What does this mean for SEO?

Google made it clear that best practices for SEO are still acceptable and encouraged. In other words, page titles, page descriptions, good information architecture and some keyword strategies are certainly still the way to go.

Google simply wants to target websites that take SEO too far – those which try to game the system rather than focusing on the user.

And, really, who can argue with that?

Google Says: “Give the Users What They Want”

Posted on January 20, 2012 by Casey Hansen

We’ve always known it was true: when users clicks on a search result in Google or other search engines, they want to see the answer to their questions. Google knows that too.

Most of us have landed on Web pages that aren’t helpful, or are confusing and make it difficult to find the content we want. The content is either buried by ads, large images, lists of links or a combination of those things.

Yesterday, Google announced a new change to their search algorithm that focuses on page layouts and how users find the content they need on websites. It’s really not a new concept for Google – they have always been a strong advocate for user experience. This change benefits content pages that put the content first and any advertisements or secondary images below the fold.

Some takeaway items from this change:

Page layouts that center around content and user experience will help you in organic search rankings. Depending on the quality of your page layout, you may notice your search rankings shift over a period of time.
Make sure your content pages are user-focused. Users want answers to their questions – so make sure each page focuses on those answers.
Be aware of design decisions. Make sure content takes center stage. It’s easy to get caught up in what a design looks like, but how functional is it for the end-user?
Google says this affects less than 1% of search queries performed. It’s a small change to a very complex process, but still worth noting.

Overall, this is a minor change to the search algorithm that Google uses. According to yesterday’s blog post from Google, Google will also release over 500 other improvements in 2012.

Keep your focus on the user and you’ll likely enjoy some benefit when it comes to search engine rankings.

Auto-Tweeting: A Cautionary Tale

Posted on April 11, 2011 by Casey Hansen

Auto-tweeting has been gaining popularity for busy marketers who post pre-written tweets about events they aren’t able to attend. But what if those pre-written Tweets don’t match up with what actually happens at the event? Twitter can go from a marketing outlet to a marketing disaster faster than you can say “retweet.”

As a flight instructor and pure aviation geek, I keep track of the aviation world via Twitter. A couple of weeks ago, one of the larger airshows in the country – Sun ‘n Fun – took place in Lakeland, Florida. It’s generally a great place to have an aviation gathering – the weather is usually sunny and warm. Except this year, which caused major problems for auto-tweeters.

On March 31, a severe thunderstorm and tornado rolled through the airport grounds while thousands of people attended the show. The storm made toys out of many aircraft on the field as well as display booths and tents. Luckily, only minor injuries were reported.

The Lesson
Twitter proved to be an excellent way to stay up-to-date on the weather and resulting damage. But a few companies at the show made an example out of why auto-tweeting can be so dangerous.

After the storm blew through and the airshow grounds closed, guess what? The auto-tweets kept flowing.

All events were cancelled, so this tweet was pointless and out-of-touch. The Twitterverse nicely helped King Schools realize their mistake.

The Takeaway
Twitter wasn’t meant to be automated. The platform is built on the idea of instant thoughts, instant reports.

Scheduling social media interactions can work, but it’s important to walk the line carefully and be ready to adjust strategies. After all, no one cares who’s speaking at 3:30 p.m. when they are soaking wet and assessing damage.

How does your healthcare organization utilize Twitter? Is it authentic, in-the-moment or do scheduled tweets help you manage your workload?

Content Strategy Trends for 2010

Posted on December 30, 2009 by Casey Hansen

It’s a good time to look ahead to 2010 and what the new year holds for your online content strategy and search engine optimization efforts. Here are some of our predictions and what they may mean for your organization.

Localization

Localized content and search engine tactics will have a powerful impact on search engine results this year. We recently posted about Google’s Local Business Center, which will only grow in significance as a tool for sending targeted content and information to potential visitors. We’ve helped several clients recently become more visible within Google’s Local Business Center listings. The new year is a perfect time to start trying out these newer tools that Google is providing – in return you’ll get detailed statistics on how your listings are performing.

Social Media

Social media will provide an increasingly important channel for engaging consumers and extending your brand. In Geonetric’s content strategy office, we are starting to see clients utilize Twitter for call-to-action initiatives and general outreach. In addition, Twitter seems to be working on a plan to improve its service for organizations and businesses — 2010 is poised to be the year Twitter gives organizations some new tools to use. If you’re not part of the conversation, it’s time to dive in.

Real-Time Search and Information

Consider this: recently, when experiencing an outage with my Blackberry, I went online to see if it was a widespread problem. Did I go to Google? Not quite – I went to Twitter’s search feature. Instantly, I saw that Blackberry was experiencing an outage and I wasn’t the only one annoyed. As society moves even more toward instant-gratification and the flow of real-time information, how will your organization respond?

Mobile

The mobile Web world is exploding with growth. Much of the world has a smartphone of some type on their hip or in their purse. The iPhone leads the way in number of users, but not all users are blessed with a browser and experience like the iPhone provides. We’ve already done some mobile work for Geonetric clients, but this seems like only the beginning of a possible shift in how visitors view site content. Watch for even more growth of mobile Web in 2010.

Needless to say, 2010 is bound to be another year of innovations and game-changers. We’re on top of it here and look forward to pushing the envelope in an effort to increase your organization’s visibility and success on the Web.