At the same time, 55% like contacting brands through social media to give them feedback. They also like it when a brand has a page or site, especially if the page has coupons and discounts.

What’s the takeaway? Let your social media be a lighthouse, steadily attracting traffic but not wading in the waters to collect people. Wait for them to engage, but then make sure to follow-up, even if the request falls more squarely in customer service than sales.

Unfortunately Google’s new “Search Plus Your World” feature may have dimmed your lighthouse’s beacon, highlighting Google + profiles over all other social media. However, the clever engineers at Facebook, Twitter and MySpace are not going quietly into the night. They just released a browser bookmarklet, or small piece of code, that can run in Google Chrome, Firefox or Safari (sorry IE users) and pulls up relevant social media profiles across platforms for any search you do.

Perhaps you want to tweet/post about it on your social media profile to let your fans/followers/friends know?

Afters users expressed frustration with sites that place an inordinate number of ads “above the fold” and bury content, Google has decided to penalize sites that do so.

The good news is that Google estimates this will affect only 1% of sites, and Paywall Times readers who are concerned with serving their audience through quality content shouldn’t be too concerned. Sites can still have banner ads above the fold, and the new rule will not affect pop-overs, pop-unders and overlays at all.

How much is too much? Google Browser can help you figure out what gets looked at the most on your page, and you want to make sure there’s some content in that 90-99 percentile area. But again, this new rule does not call for the elimination of ads, just their strategic placements. In fact, Google AdSense will tell you that you can place up to three ads on content-rich pages. Although, ironically, Google may be breaking its own top-heavy rule, as this article cleverly illustrates.

And while Google maintained a cool 80% of market share, Search Engine Journal claims that 30% of all US-searches are  through Bing. Plus, the Yahoo and Bing alliance (Yahoo is now powered by Bing) had clicks that were 14% more valuable than Google, while also producing 9% higher ROI. These numbers support recent comments by members of our sister site, Subscription Site Insider. At the Insider’s Summit in NYC last October, a number of members claimed that Bing users were more important to them than Google users.

We surmise (with absolutely no proof…yet) that Bing users stick to desktop pre-sets (Dell computers, for example, come preset to Bing). We know that Bing users are usually older, more US-based and more likely to have children, all implying that they are more likely to be spending consumer dollars.

If this is the demographic you’re targeting, then consider optimizing for Bing instead of Google. Here’s a handy cheat sheet to get you started. Most of the rules are similar to SEO for Google, with some tweaks. Although some ideas — such as having a keyword-rich domain name — seem curious. (As any journalist will tell you after their first day, whitehouse.com is not keyword-friendly content; it’s porn. Eventually, we find our way to whitehouse.gov.)

For more information about SEO, get the Insider’s SEO toolkit.

It’s a nice way to get B2B referrals and opt-ins for your list. The problem may be in retention. Sweepstakes hounds, like extreme coupon clippers, will be willing to sign up for a free trial of anything and then cancel their subscription after the drawing.

A more savvy approach might be to offer the sweepstakes for people who pay for a reduced price trial period — say$1 for 2 weeks? That way you’ve jumped over the pay hurdle and begun cultivating a relationship with people more likely to be genuinely interested in your content. When it comes to opt-ins, numbers count, but so does the quality of your leads.

Here are some tips to keep in mind:

• Valentine’s Day promotions are not just for dating sites! If you’re membership site isn’t very romantic, consider partnering with one that is to boost your opt-in or conversion rates. For example, how about one free month of gaming for guys who buy their sweethearts flowers?
• While women tend to dominate online shopping, guys reign supreme around Valentine’s Day. Plus, most guys hate malls, so they’ll be searching for an online option. Make sure you search advertising and SEO is up to snuff. Include a “Valentine’s Day” keyword in recently updated content.
• Most ecommerce happens the week before Valentine’s Day and top online sales in 2010 were February 5-6. So make sure your email blasts and promos are ready by the first week of February.
• Don’t forget to show some love to your current members. A free giveaway to a limited number of respondents is a great way to foster that community spirit that so many membership sites thrive on.

And if January is a slow month for you, put all your ducks in a row so you can test your opt-in and conversation rates with whatever promo you choose! You’re bottom line will thank you for it.

Now you can integrate information to and from Constant Contact, Summify and Formulists. The new tools will be available to all users, including free and basic members. The Constant Contact app allows HootSuite users to view results of recent email campaigns and share them across social networks, which can extend your marketing potential.

And while social media is not the best way to convert site visitors to subscribers, our sister site Subscription Site Insider just published a report on how HootSuite’s URL link shortener Owl.li is one of the best ones out there for websites looking to maintain the integrity of their short links over time. HootSuite only seems to offer the Owl.li link through their social media dashboard, and so integrating your Constant Contact email campaigns through their dashboard is a welcomed convenience.

Should your site launch gift-giving offers?  It’s a particularly great idea for niche hobby and enthusiast membership sites.  You can position a membership as the gift for people who are tough to buy for.  Email, search PPC, and PR should all help givers know you’re the perfect solution to their last-minute shopping problem. Here’s a great example from Consumer Reports:

Targeted campaigns can help you sell subscriptions as last-minute gift items.

Be sure to include guidelines about what will happen if the giftee already has an existing membership (it would be extended).  Your marketing offer should be for a year (month-to-month doesn’t work well for a large number of reasons) and allow gift-givers to opt-out of auto-renew easily.  Also, you’ll need special welcome (aka onboarding) campaigns to optimize giftee engagement in your site so when the time comes round to renew, they’re more willing to pay for it themselves the next year.  Lastly, you’ll also want to implement renewal campaigns to the gift givers to remind them they can renew as well.

Yes, all of this is more work than you may have bargained for.  But it can be well worth the time and cost.  For example, Angie’s List has been running heavy gift-giver campaigns for several years now, presumably because it works.

However, most of the existing data rates social networking platforms pretty low when it comes to conversion. Search and email still work best. And it’s unclear whether sites that link to a social media platform gain access to user’s email accounts and if that’s a valid opt-in to start emailing them directly. However, as Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn and other sites battle it out, it’s possible that they will begin to sell user’s data to merchants you use their platform (so far Facebook seems to have the most advanced user stats, but their ethical use of such information is also under heavy scrutiny.)

But social logins may be a good idea for sites with leaky paywalls and mixed business models. Having non-paying users sign in will definitely give you a better sense of who your readers are and some basic demographics (location, age, etc.). Even if you can’t convert them to paying users, you can definitely tailor your ad sales to advertisers looking to target your heaviest users. And editorial can always benefit from knowing their audience more, which in turn allows you to better serve your audience and grow your subscription rates.

If you’ve had a social login success or failure that you”d like to share, contact us… we always prefer real-life lessons to theory!

That doesn’t mean your membership site can’t use Groupon successfully. You’ll just have to be savvy and creative, as this Insider report explains.

Subscription sites looking to augment their SEO and social media strategies may be interested to know that Scott Templeman, formerly of Outsell, Inc.,  is now working as a free agent. He also specializes in inbound marketing, web analytics and community management for membership sites. Check out Scott’s Linked In profile for more information on his specialized skills.

In the business/audience development arena, Fred Macri is making some waves and looking for a project with sites focusing on fitness and health, social responsibility, and new technology. Fred used to work for Enlightened Next, where he had some impressive accomplishments in increasing auto-renewals and subscriptions. If you’re a fast-growing company that likes innovation, Fred may be your man.

Do you have a classified you’d like us to run? Paywall Times is happy to run classified ads from experienced professionals or established membership sites.