Author: Lisa Chapman

Guest Author: Srinivas Sarathy

There is no doubt that social media can and is being used by webmasters and SEO’s to improve rankings and drive traffic. And we are talking about real revenue producing traffic. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Reddit among others are being used to spread buzz virally and ultimately to send positive social signals for the purpose of improving search engine rankings and drive targeted traffic.. That is great for webmasters, right? Of course, and some might say it is too good to be true.

One might wonder if Google is taking a deeper look at social media, and how it impacts rankings. It is their goal to deliver the best search results to users, by whatever means they see necessary. Social media mentions are very much the flavor of the day for website authority signalling and have become a bigger player in search results.

Remember SEO in the old days?

Do not lose sight of what Google does when things are going too well. Remember when you could just optimize meta keywords and see your traffic rise instantly. Many less than scrupulous SEOs would even abuse keywords to rank totally off topic pages for high payout keywords. Of course it seems silly to think anyone could get away with that now. Google, and the other search engines of the time, cleaned that up once they really started to understand what was going.

Then there was meta descriptions, h-tags, and page titles. A good SEO could tweak the three and in a matter days the traffic would come running. This approach worked really well for a while. Again, many would say too well. Alas, Google eventually tweaked algorithms and removed quite a bit of the effect.

Next in line was offsite links. SEOs spent many hours building links or even went out and procured links. Rankings and the resulting traffic flowed pretty well to sites that were well linked. And as usual, Google put in updates that quickly minimized the value of these vast link networks.

Now Social Media?

Social media has moved in to the SEO realm over the last year or so. As with the other SEO tactics, it started small, with many SEO’s doubting the effectiveness at the beginning. Now you can buy followers openly. Not only can you buy followers, but you can actually buy social media mentions. It does not take much imagination to think of how Google feels about this.

When Will the Other Shoe Drop?

Call me a pessimist, but I truly believe the other shoe will drop eventually. Once things start going too well, Google will drop another update on us, and will minimize the impact of social media mentions. I don’t think it will happen too soon. But I feel very confident it will. It meets all the criteria. A tactic drives traffic. More people adopt the tactic. The everyone jumps on board. Then it works too well. Then Google puts out an update. Then everyone complains.

I’m sure I am being a doomsayer. But I believe this will happen.

Overall, I believe the webmasters and SEO’s who integrate social media tactics naturally and organically through creating buzz-worthy content will win overall in terms of SEO, however those who abuse this tactic I firmly believe will have their rankings hurt in the long run.

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

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About the Author:

Srinivas Sarathy is a blogger and freelance writer who works with Interlink courier services. He talks on social media and the web.

For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Marketing and Social Media

Guest Author: Manilyn Moreno

There’s no doubt that Pinterest has indeed emerged as one of the biggest social networking sites today. Forbes reports that Pinterest is now the world’s third largest social media, with almost 105 million visitors. Although this figure is still small compared to Facebook, with more than 7 billion visits, Pinterest’s statistics stands closer to Twitter’s 182 million visits, and goes ahead LinkedIn’s, with roughly 86 million visits. This is an amazing feat, considering that Pinterest is just a new comer, launched in 2010, offering dozens of benefits to businesses small and big alike. If you don’t have a Pinterest account yet, read on and find out the best that Pinterest has to offer.

1. Pinterest Lets You Share Your Photos

When you start pinning photos, you will notice that Pinterest actually links the image back to the original source. So, for example, if you have are trying to sell an item in Amazon and if you pin an image of that product, you can actually link that image back to your Amazon account. According to Stephanie Chandler, who writes for Forbes.com, pinning your posts will do so much to generate backlinks and increase the traffic that goes to your blog. You may also make your photos more interesting by adding descriptions and website link since Google could immediately follow these links.

2. Pinterest Helps You Build your audience

Another interesting perk that you can enjoy when using Pinterest is that it actually lets you cross promote your posts to other social networks. You can also link Pinterest with your Twitter and Facebook, so each time that a new pin is made, it’ll also pop up on your other accounts automatically. Likewise, don’t forget to link your Pinterest on your website’s profile page, as well as your other social media accounts.

3. Pinterest Builds Your Online Presence

Google immediately crawls and indexes Pinterest content, which could significantly boost your online presence. So, if you are thinking about a way of making an edge against your competitors, then engage Pinterest into your online marketing campaign. You’ll see the difference. Also, make sure to incorporate the important keywords each time you post comments on images. If you have published your own photo, make sure to include the keywords, as well when including the photo descriptions.

4. Pinterest Enhances Backlinks & Referrals

The images you’ve pinned on your board will immediately send a link back to the original source. These backlinks are very helpful in boosting traffic to your website. You could start by posting images and websites of your products and the links will automatically lead to your website. But remember to avoid being overly promotional because you will leave the impression that you are actually up to selling something, and not in offering great value. Remember this, your pins have to be interesting to make it worth liking, commenting on, and re-pinning.

5. Pinterest Expands Your Social Signals

Google and Bing’s search engine algorithms put heavy emphasis on strong signals generated by Pinterest and other social networking sites. Likewise, Pinterest offers more avenues for your searchers and prospective customers to gain access to your products and services. It only means that the stronger your social signals are, the more eager you are to make your content very accessible to people and that you are interested to forging a stronger relationship with your audience and prospective clients.

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

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About the Author

Manilyn Moreno writes articles on SEO, technology, entrepreneurship, and catering business. Currently, she’s working for Better Cater where she contributes articles about software for catering and cooking tips.

Guest Author: Abbas Hussain

In the most recent round of his webmaster Q&A sessions, Google’s Matt Cutts fielded a query, which dealt with why his company does not currently offer any kind of calculator service, to indicate just how well optimized particular sites are and where there is room for improvement.

The questioner argued that without such a tool, site owners have to guess at the quality of their SEO efforts and can often end up languishing low in the search rankings, even if they believe that they have taken the right steps.

Mr. Cutts addressed the issue at hand by first indicating that there are certain tools available to webmasters which can provide a good indication of the quality of the SEO that they have conducted on their site. This includes Google’s notifications system and the various services within Webmaster Tools.

However, Mr. Cutts said that Google does not believe in assigning an exact numerical value to the SEO quality of a particular site or page, because he believes that doing so would only lead to an influx of spam domains, which exploited the particular nuances of a search algorithm, rather than producing genuinely organic results that are relevant to users.

Mr. Cutts made clear that Google is not against the SEO efforts of webmasters and is, in fact, in favor of optimization when it is being carried out by legitimately useful sites which have honorable intentions. He calls this ‘productive optimization’ and sees it as something that a small business can harness, to improve the standing of its sites in the SERPs.

Google’s Refusal To Create the Calculator

So it seems that the real reason for Google’s refusal to create an SEO quality calculator is that it wants to keep spammers at bay, by not giving them direct access to the data that impacts the rank of particular sites. It also wants to make it as simple as possible for scrupulous site owners to take advantage of its engine, which is why its Webmaster Tools are on hand to provide relatively comprehensive feedback, if not exact numerical values, relating to SEO performance.

Mr. Cutts pointed out that there is invariably a conflict between wanting to minimize the impact of spammers, while maximizing search tools for all other webmasters, with Google trying to walk the line as best it can.

SERPs

Some critics have pointed out that Google might be stifling those sites looking to obtain a better organic search rank, as a result of its changes to how SERPs are displayed.

By displaying fewer results on the first page and failing to introduce infinite scroll technology for standard search, unlike the steps taken to improve its image search feature, Google might be making it harder for small sites to establish themselves and become visible.

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

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Author Bio:

Abbas Hussain is a blogger who passionately shares information about SEO for Integrity SEO Experts.

Guest Author: Sam Ott

Re-gaining Trust in Real Estate

Over the past few years, one of the most difficult challenges for real estate is gaining trust back in the minds and wallets of consumers. However, social media has expedited this process by revamping networking capabilities – online community involvement that leads to offline engagement and business success.

How So?

Social media connects people that know and trust each other, while assisting in expanding that network. This is exactly what real estate is about; trust, community and networking. Networking connects the right people and creates relationships, trust is what is formed in that relationship, and community is the ongoing involvement and development in this relationship.

Real estate companies need to actively engage and make a presence in social media outlets to re-gain that trust.

Getting Started

This is easiest part. It’s free and it’s takes only minutes to create an account and a business page.

When creating a real estate company’s business page, be sure to keep everything integrated – from the company’s website to its logo. Integration is not duplication. Don’t say the same thing over and over. People want to hear something new; something fresh; something that will actually benefit them. By integration, I mean creating a unique voice for the real estate company that’s being represented. Say something different, but in a consistent, similar style.

Have a Plan (Even a Small One)

One common issue faced by real estate and all other companies is getting all set up throughout many social media outlets and then…wait, what do I do? Being on a social media platform without saying something or making a presence is pretty much pointless, especially when it comes to selling something.

Formulate a strategy, even a small one. This can be anything, such as creating an editorial calendar for posts.

“Like” competitors’ Facebook pages or follow them on Twitter. These sound counter-intuitive, but it helps you to stay on top of their every move. If a real estate company posts pictures of a house that it’s selling, take note. What quality are the pictures? How many? Do the pictures provide a potential buyer with enough information? Point being, learn from your competitors and see what they’re doing. This is extremely beneficial to you.

Expectations

It’s important to explore realistic expectations of social media. Most real estate companies that post on social media and expect their marketing problems to be solved. They often think that people will flock to their business and demand to buy a house, chanting “Gimme Shelter!” Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that. Like many things in life, nothing great comes without effort. Treat social media like anything else. Invest time, offer value and be there for people. You will eventually reap benefits. Just be patient and think long term.

In the meantime, don’t expect anything! Real estate is a necessity. So, for those in the real estate industry who actually make an effort because they care, have nothing to worry about. Take pride in your efforts. In the end, people will always need a place to stay.

What now?

Overall, social media can be a great thing, especially for real estate, since it sells from visuals. Real estate companies should be there for their communities and, since most people are online, it’s important to be there waiting for them, ready to provide shelter when people need it most.

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

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About the Author

Samuel Ott is a writer for Assist-2-Sell, found at www.RealtyMO.com, assisting Kirksville, Mo with real estate purchasing.

Guest Author: Benji Hyam

When it comes to social media marketing, measuring effectiveness is key. Ultimately, the true measure of success for any such campaign is an increase in sales; however, it’s not always easy to attribute sales to specific marketing efforts.

So, we’re often left with looking at secondary data in order to measure just how effective our business’ social media presence is. In the case of Facebook, the company has provided businesses with a tremendous tool in the form of Facebook Insight.

Facebook Insight gives you all sorts of data about the activity on your business’ Facebook page, as well as information about how your page and posts are being shared. It helps you get a feel for how your brand is being discussed on Facebook and more.

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Significant Metrics

Let’s take a look at some of the most significant metrics Facebook Insight offers to businesses:

1. Monthly fan size

The number of fans on your company’s Facebook page doesn’t tell the whole story, but it is an important number nevertheless. What you’re really looking for here is organic month-to-month growth. If you’re hitting between 10 and 15% each month, you’re doing extremely well. Watch out for large spikes so you can try to figure out what caused them, too.

2. Average likes and comments

This tells you how well your Facebook content is engaging your audience. If there’s a significant drop or spike in this number, it can help you modify and hone your content strategy going forward. This allows you to identify those posts that seem to track well with your fans, and create more like it.

3. Rate of attrition

How many fans you’re losing is also important. You’re always going to have some unlikes. Here again, look for large spikes and major trends. See if you those trends correspond to specific kinds of content or page activity.

4. Mentions

This number reflects how many times your page is being tagged in someone else’s post. Mentions are good for your Facebook page, as they make it easy and intuitive for friends of the fan who’s mentioning your page to click through and then follow your page themselves.

5. Tab views

If you’re using multiple Facebook page tabs, this will tell you whether or not those tabs are getting any traffic, and which ones are getting the most. Tabs are more or less falling out of fashion, but if you’re still relying on them on your page you’ll want to pay attention to this number.

6. Demographics

Age and gender of your fans, as well as their geographic origin, are important numbers, too. They let you know whether you’re connecting with your business’ target audience.

7. Impressions

Whenever someone views your post, it counts as an impression. This is useful in determining how often a given post is viewed, and when combined with average likes and comments from #2 above can help you identify what sorts of posts really connect with your fans.

8. Referrers

Knowing where your Facebook traffic comes from is important, as well. If there are specific websites that are sending a lot of viewers to your Facebook page, you’ll want to be able to measure that. If you’re integrating your Facebook marketing with your overall web strategy (and you definitely should be) this number becomes especially important.

9. Check-ins

If your business has a brick-and-mortar presence, this number lets you know how often fans are checking in to your business. This is an especially useful piece of data, as it reflects a real-world result of your social media efforts. Check-ins don’t always mean a sale, but there is often a strong correlation.

10. Viral reach

One of the newer aspects of Facebook insights has to do with the “reach” view. This tells you how many people are accessing a given post. That reach is divided into organic reach, paid reach, and viral reach. Viral reach refers to views that are spreading quickly across Facebook, beyond simple friend-to-friend exposure as occurs with tagging or sharing a post.

Facebook is constantly improving the Insights system, as well, in order to make it more user-friendly and intuitive while offering deeper data to users. If you’re not currently including Facebook Insights as part of your system for measuring the ROI of your social media marketing efforts, it’s time to give it some serious thought. The numbers it provides can help shape your social media marketing strategy going forward.

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

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Author Bio:

Benji Hyam is Social Media Coordinator at Vistage International. Vistage business coaching groups help CEOs build successful companies. This executive coaching organization is membership-based only and provides high-level executive development programs.

Guest Author: Helen Butterworth

Last month Felix Baumgartner became the first skydiver to go faster than the speed of sound. Not only was it a triumph of human endeavour, of interest to marketers was the way Red Bull, the sponsors of the event, broke through the traditional barriers of marketing. Social media, Facebook and Twitter in particular, played a huge part in what many are calling the most successful marketing campaign of all time.

Over 7.1 million people tuned in on Youtube and half of the worldwide trending topics on twitter were related to Red Bull Stratos.

Facebook also played a major part with the most engaged of Red Bulls Facebook posts generating 500,000 likes, 70, 000 shares and 15,000 comments within 40 minutes of being posted.

Here are some lessons we can take away from their social media activity:

· Use more pictures on Facebook

The visual marketing benefits are even stronger on Facebook and pictures can be very powerful and more appealing than the average post. The new Facebook ‘timeline’; interface is particularly welcoming to pictures as they take up more space in the news feed.

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By posting this picture capturing Felix on his knees just after landing, they were able to generate huge engagement levels. Today the picture has creates 50, 811 shares, 291, 173 likes and over 21, 000 comments. Note also the picture includes a link to help drive traffic where they want. The focus is still on the brilliant picture, but there is also a way for the audience to get more information.

It doesn’t have to be a ground breaking event. Perhaps you are announcing a new product or even if you have reached 100 followers, all worthy of posting a photo or creating a fun engaging video. Consider using Instagram to make your pictures more attractive or even to push them out across more channels. Think what you would like to share online, utilise trends and consider customising photos so they are more personal to you and your fans.

2. Use Quotes to encourage sharing

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Inspirational quotes consistently get one of the highest rates of likes and shares on facebook. A trend Red Bull did not ignore. Regular quotes from Felix and the team added a personal element to the brand.

3.Create engagement through Facebook questions and competitions

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The red bull team encouraged viewers to ask questions via their Facebook and Twitter pages throughout the event.

Questions placed at the end of posts increase engagement by 18%. Studies show that keywords of ‘when’ ‘where’ and ‘can’ drive the most comments whereas ‘why’ questions generate the lowest amount of engagement. Red Bull have mastered the art of when to use keywords, calls to action and questions to get their fans engaged. The built in questions application by Facebook is useful to find out more about customers and involving them in big decisions helps them gain a feeling of ownership.

They also show that rewards motivate engagement behaviour. The prize here was an exclusive watch and if you want fans to engage and share your content offering a prize can get people to click.

·Build up anticipation for big launches

Red Bull built the anticipation for the jump for a whole year. If you scroll through the Facebook page alone, quality content has been added consistently from way back in February. Anticipation was also built by not giving everything away. A lot of effort was made to keep the audience intrigued and keep certain aspects quiet until the appropriate time. If your business has a big announcement of product a launch planned consider taking a similar approach and keep some things back.

Red Bull succeeded in using social media for engagement and amplifying their message, but the principles they used are not restrained to an event of this magnitude. Every brand has an attribute that can be larger than life and a launch that could use the techniques red bull put in place.

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

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About the Author:

Helen Butterworth is a social media blogger and marketing assistant at https://www.polo-shirts.co.uk/ and https://www.clothes2order.com/, e-commerce websites that rely on social media channels to increase engagement and traffic to the sites.

Connect with Customers

Guest Author: Joe Cecere

Using the Microsoft Store experience to connect with customers

For many shoppers, sterile stores and flat websites don’t do today’s technology justice, they need a hands-on environment. The Microsoft Store invites shoppers to experience technology at their own pace, letting them touch, play, experiment and learn. These real-life experiences help mitigate the risks associated with big purchases. The comfort of trying something in-store and learning about the product from the experts instills confidence in purchase decisions and the brand itself.

Leveraging an engaging environment

One of the more distinctive things about the store is how alive it feels. It’s a vibrant, stimulating environment that entices the explorer in all of us. Shoppers don’t just browse, they engage—playing games in the “living room” setting, interacting with the large video walls and participating in various in-store promotions and contests.

Empowering employees to complete the experience

With all the options available to us, choosing the right products and services can be an overwhelming and unpleasant task. Once you talk to one of the experts at the Microsoft Store, you understand why they don’t sell everything. They handpick the best-of-the-best technology to offer shoppers solutions that will enhance their overall experience as Microsoft users.

Utilizing in-store exclusives to maintain relevance with brick-and-mortar

One of the benefits of going into the Microsoft Store is experiencing the full Microsoft ecosystem and how the various sub-brands work together to help people make the most of technology. The Surface launch adds to that ecosystem, giving shoppers another way to harness the power of everything Microsoft offers.

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

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About Little & Company:

Since 1979, Little & Company (www.littleco.com) has been showing companies of all sizes how design-driven businesses can exceed customer expectations and deliver significant results. Utilizing a unique combination of strategic resources, designers and writing talent, the firm creatively solves business problems to help clients across industries — including Target, Medtronic, Microsoft, Wells Fargo, American Craft Council and many others — to launch, grow and strengthen their brands.

The result is a flourishing collaborative environment that readily benefits clients ranging from retail and healthcare to financial services, education and a handful of high-profile non-profit organizations. Little & Company is a Nationally Certified Women’s Business Enterprise.

Little & Company was named one of Minnesota’s Top Marketers by Minnesota Business magazine and the AdFed chapter of Minnesota, and was recently featured in the September issue of Twin Cities Business Magazine

Guest Author: David Kendall

This post will feature eight of the top hosting providers for 2012. We will also include information on the features that help each site stand out above the rest.

1. HostGator

This service provider entered the scene in 2002 and has since then extended its service to support over eight million domains. Dell PowerEdge servers are used for its fully managed dedicated servers, and clients receive support on a 24/7 basis throughout the year. Customers also enjoy a lot of easy-to-install site templates, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited disk space, and an uptime guarantee. Other special features include unlimited email, $100 worth of credit for Google Adwords and one-click installs. The longer clients are signed up, the more they save on their monthly bill. Starting cost per month is $3.96.

2. Bluehost

For a starting cost of $4.95 per month, Bluehost customers enjoy unlimited bandwidth, disk space, file transfer and unlimited email. They also receive a free domain registration, free site builder and access via a cPanel. Their basic plans cover features such as domain parking, unlimited hosted domains, e-commerce and one-click WordPress installs.

3. InMotion

This service provider has been in operation since 2001. Their focus group has so far been small to medium-sized businesses to which they offer affordable hosting solutions that they find to be effective. They have dedicated server plans, use cPanel architecture and are suitable for any size business. Disk space, bandwidth and domains are unlimited, and their plan costs $5.95 monthly.

4. Justhost.com

Starting at $3.50, customers enjoy unlimited monthly transfer bandwidth, unlimited disk space, unlimited email and unlimited domains. There is a 99.9% uptime guarantee, website builder and ecommerce features. Other features include Fantastico, and customers receive Google advertising credits. Justhost.com is a favorite service among website owners.

5. Hostmonster

Hostmonster has several features that have found favor with its users. These include unlimited disk space, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited domains, unlimited email accounts and a free domain. The provider uses the cPanel control panel, and clients receive a $100 Google advertisement credit. Other features include free site builders, free online stores and WordPress. Their plan begins at $5.95 per month.

6. iPage

iPage also remained a favorite web hosting provider during 2012. Website owners enjoy features such as its unlimited disk space, unlimited bandwidth, and unlimited email addresses. An iPage package also includes free domain registration, a free security suite and free site building tools. Other features that users enjoy are free credits for search engine marketing, and a free online store. iPage is a green site that is 100% powered by wind energy, and costs $4.50 per month.

7. Fatcow

Fatcow also made it to the list of top web hosting providers with its many features and offerings. Aside from being an affordable $4.67 per month, Fatcow offers unlimited bandwidth, unlimited disk space and unlimited email, along with unlimited hosted domains and unlimited MySQL databases. Other features include a free website builder, free domain name and a free shopping cart.

8. DreamHost

This web host provider is no doubt among the top sites because it is customizable and scalable. This allows businesses to grow and accommodate growth. They currently run over 500,000 sites that have WordPress as their core. DreamHost features include unlimited bandwidth, 150 gb disk space and 500 email accounts. Packages start at $8.95 per month and include free a domain name and spam protection.

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

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About the Author:

David Kendall has been extensively involved in the hosting industry over the last few years. He enjoys sharing his hosting insights on various tech blogs. Use the WhoIsHostingThis.com search facility to see where sites are hosted.

Reference:

http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2012/05/five-best-web-hosting-companies/