As social media continues to be a big influence on consumers as to whether they decide to purchase with your brand versus a brand not on social media, some of us may be asking, what happened to SEO? Although I’m still a firm believer in professional search engine optimization services, we internet marketers need to be cognoscente on where an audience is searching for information about your brand. According to a study by HubSpot, if 85% of Internet users have a Facebook account and 80% of social media users prefer to connect with brands via Facebook , then your brand should definitely not only have a brand page on Facebook, but one that is fully optimized and engaging. When creating social pages for a product or service, be sure to follow these steps to create a fully optimized social network.

Before I begin breaking down each channel you’ll want to gather a keyword list from your online marketing company’s SEO department. Narrow down the list to your top 3-5 keyword phrases which will be included in all descriptions across your social networks.  Now let’s begin:

FACEBOOK

With the ever-changing world of Facebook, it’s important to stay up to date with all of the new updates within the platform (i.e. editing your brand page to Timeline view). The about section is your chance to give a short description of what your brand does, while also including a keyword and link back to your site for Google to index. It is also a best practice to include links in the description section to all other social networks that your brand is active on.

For even more SEO value within Facebook, consider placing a keyword at the beginning of your status update; especially updates that include a link back to your site. Click on the timestamp of each update and you will be brought to a separate page specific for that update.  The first 18 characters, sometimes a bit less, of your update will be the SEO Title for that post.

TWITTER

With only 140 characters or less, there’s not much SEO opportunity on this platform, but still some SEO benefit.

What you write in your bio information is very important not only just for SEO, but also for other tools that gather Twitter users based on a search query (like FollowerWonk). Don’t forget to insert a keyword in your bio and also include a link to your site. Design a custom skin for your Twitter page that includes more information about your company and calls to action.

GOOGLE+

A social network result from the search engine giant itself, we have Google+ and its land of opportunity for SEO.

Before creating a profile for your brand on Google+, decide whether you want to create a local page (for a specific address like a hotel or restaurant) or a brand page (for products/services). A Google+ local page now integrates with Zagat reviews. Once your page is created, edit your descriptions to be keyword-rich. Google+ allows you to link those keywords within your introduction, creating the dofollow links that Google loves. Having a profile that is linked to a website will also help your credibility; it’s a simple snippet of code provided by Google that is to be inserted on your sites homepage. Learn more about profile and page verification badges on Google+ here. Once this is done, your Google+ page will show up on the right hand side of the Google search page for relevant queries, thus making your Google+ page more discoverable.  Lastly, don’t forget to include links to all of your company’s other social networks in the links section.

YOUTUBE

Another social network result of Google is the video sharing platform YouTube.

Although there is no option for anchor text links in the about section of your channel, be sure to include your keywords as “tags” in the channel settings. Link to all other social networks and also take advantage of designing a customizable YouTube skin for more information about your product or service and calls to action. As you begin to make a presence on this platform, keep in mind that your video title doubles as a SEO title and the video description doubles as your Meta description. This is a great place to add keywords as your “tags” for each video uploaded if it doesn’t sound right in the description.

LINKEDIN

According to my research, there isn’t much SEO value so far from LinkedIn brand pages. Therefore my recommendation would be to include keywords in the about section, specifically in the specialties box which will help your company appear in search within LinkedIn. A link to your website is also not to be forgotten.

PINTEREST

Who would’ve guessed that a virtual pin-board would create so much buzz so quickly? Getting verified on Pinterest is much like getting verified on Google+. All you need to do is download the verification file from your settings and host it on your sites homepage. Don’t forget to include keywords in the description of your Pinterest page, and if possible, title your boards with a keyword. Boards also have SEO opportunity within their descriptions, so be sure to have a keyword there as well.

Now that you have properly optimized six social media channels for SEO value, watch as the referral traffic from social increases over time. With the ability to reach over 50% of Americans, according to We Are Social, social media networks should not only be created, but optimized to ensure you are building relationships while also ranking in the search engines. Have other social SEO service recommendations? I’d love to hear in the comment section below!

When people hear of Google, an iconic image of the six colorful letters, simple search bar beneath and “I’m Feeling Lucky” tab usually pops up in people’s heads.

But for those people who are familiar with social media, search engine optimization and all the perks that come with the worldwide web, they know that Google is making headlines everyday to make our Internet experience safer and easier. Google makes its way to daily newsfeeds and it is becoming a well-known fact that the powerful company is becoming more important for your website or blog.

So what are the most recent changes? Substituting the home page’s logo with fun keyboard games during the Olympics isn’t even half of it.

Catching the Internet Pirates

If it hasn’t been publicized enough in the past year, Internet piracy has emerged as major problem. From illegally downloaded mp3s to bootlegged films of summer hits, Google’s has recently declared that they are cracking down on this piracy that’s infecting the web. The company’s core web search engine will be relegating websites that often host unlawful copies of films and music. It will take into account the copyright infringement notices a site has received and then alter the link’s ranking.

Google’s head of engineering claims that in the past 30 days, more than 4.3 million URLs have been submitted containing possible copyright infringement. It may seem like this makes it more difficult for us to download those EPs we so desperately want on our iTunes, but Google’s proactive approach to eradicating Internet piracy is a huge feat for the entertainment industry. It establishes Google’s power beyond the world wide web too, making it appear unstoppable.

Google Plus’ New Addition is a Plus

Google has also achieved new internal accomplishments. This is for all you Google Plus members. If you joined this social networking site, owned and operated by Google itself, you will know the URL can be overwhelming on the eyes and just hard to remember. To access a typical Google Plus profile, you will have to put in a URL looking something like this: http://plus.google.com/109299348960895456083/.  Now, custom URLs are finally coming to Google +. This user friendly approach will enable URLS to look more like Facebook URLs, but with a nifty little algebraic plus in the web address (i.e. http://google.com/+paulmccartney or http://google.com/+nissan). Currently, a user needs to fit the criteria to acquire such an exclusive custom URL, but overtime, the unique web addresses will be accessible to Google Plus members worldwide.

Travelling on the Web Made Easier

For all you businessmen, Google has invaded your world too. The company announced on August 12^th that it will be purchasing Frommer’s travel guides to enhance its local and travel searches. Since purchasing Zagat last year, which specializes in restaurant reviews, Google has expanded once again, and is becoming a more relatable, media company. It will make your travel planning easier, giving you the results you want and optimizing your search even more.

So if you are a music guru, social networking fiend, or daily businessman, Google’s news is becoming more and more relatable to a wider spread of Americans.  The powerful corporation is taking bold moves and in turn, taking headlines and making news.

If your looking for something new to put that spark into your business’ SEO, changing your business name isn’t an easy direction to head. Changing your business name is going to require a lot of SEO work just to maintain your current Google ranking and user traffic. Be forewarned, unless your willing to put in some hours of SEO for your company name change, you could be looking at penalties from Google, lost customers, less traffic and confused users.

Don’t Touch that Domain Name

Your domain name is going to hold a lot of your search engine traffic, so switching that domain name and your going to take a serious dip in Google rankings. Changing your domain name will result in having to accumulate new links and social sharing signals. You’re going to need a good internet marketing strategy in place, like a PPC marketing, to get that website traffic going again. This is going to mean more money and time from you.

Keep Current with Your Business Contact Info

Along with the many things Google does, using an algorithm to correlate phone numbers, addresses and names (or NAP) to your business is one of them. Correlating these factors will determine your rank for local search inquires. In order to keep your rankings up there your going to need to update your Google+ Local, Bing Local, Yahoo Local accounts, and any other local listing account.

You’ll have to make sure all your old local listings are updated because old business listing can show as duplicate content and NAP corruption to Google, thus hurting your traffic and rankings more. If you change your business phone number you have to make sure that is also updated or you’ll face the same problems. Also (though it may seem obvious) make sure you change the name on your website, this is probably the easiest change you’ll make but a vital one to say the least.

Tag up that Title

If your going through the whole trouble of changing your business name you might as well put some keywords and/or locations of your business in their. By incorporating names and location in the title your increasing your SEO value.

An example of this would be “Coronado Eye Doctor”. Also take into account the title for social media benefits, does it have a ring to it?

Keep The Customer Informed

With all these changes and updates going on make sure that your customer gets the heads up on whats going on. On your website and/or your facebook page give your customers an alert that you’ll be changing your business name soon. This will help lessen confusion and keep those loyal customers.

So if your dead set on a new business name, be prepared for what might seem like a daunting task and hope that new business name is a winner.

One year, and now 250 million registered users later, we can say happy first birthday to one of the newest social media platforms, Google+. In light of Google’s celebration, they announced two major updates: Google+ Events and Google+ for tablets. Let’s dig a little deeper into what these updates entail to determine if Google+ looks like it’s going to continue its rising popularity.

Google+ Events: Google is striving to capture and save all the important highlights of an event, before, during and after the event occurs. This methodology is brought about due to Google’s perspective of our lives today stating, “In life we plan, we party and we keep in touch. Software should make all of this more awesome, and that’s exactly our aim with Google+ Events.”

So what exactly is Google+ Events all about? You can click the photo to the right to see a short introduction video but to start, the application has the ability to stay in sync with your Google calendar. This means you will never forget about dinner at Aunt Mary’s on Wednesday night, or little Drew’s baseball banquet Sunday night. When creating an event, you can also attach cinemagraphic themes (like a baseball picture), a personalized video greeting from YouTube, and even unique animations to make the invite fun to receive. Internet marketers should take advantage of this creative opportunity when making an invite for their company’s next event.

Now it’s time to go to the event, and enter “Party Mode” as Google+ calls it. You will receive a notification when the event starts, and then be asked if you wish to enable Party Mode. When this is turned on, you will see any photos other invitees upload, in real-time. Once the event has ended, you can go back to the event page and upload even more photos you may not have gotten to yet. The best part about this is that everyone can reminisce and relive the good memories of the event by seeing everyone’s photos in one place. Google even allows you to browse the photos by popularity, photographer, or who’s tagged. This is great for social media marketers when advertising for a company’s next big event. What better way to engage with your customers then having them upload photos live from the event for all invited to see.

Google+ For Tablets: Google reported that, “More people now use Google+ from a mobile device than a desktop computer, and today’s tablet release will quicken this trend.” With the Google+ application for tablets a user will see a beautiful stream that organizes content based by popularity, type and orientation. There is also a “lean back” Hangout option that is designed for couch or common room chats. With crisper text, easily-tappable actions and fuller photos, Google has truly designed this application to work at its fullest potential for Android users. Google also stated that the update for iPad’s will shortly be released. What do you think of Google+’s updates, will they fare against the social media ring leader, Facebook?

We are always in search of new and good places to go; and many of us look towards friends, family and other trustworthy sources to seek out that perfect place to eat or shop. To ease this search, Google has recently teamed with Zagat to give its users not only recommendations from friends, but a key rating of places nationwide with various categorical breakdowns. With this roll-out, there is no longer Google Places; in order to use the application you will have to log into your Google+ account and click the Local tab on the left sidebar. Here is where the internet marketing strategy comes into play because Google is now forcing users to create a Google+ account in order to use the local search application.

Once on the Google+ Local page, you can begin searching for whatever type of location you’re feeling like visiting or wanting to know more information about. Being born and raised in New York, I wanted to find some Italian style pizza and here is what came up:

As soon as you begin typing in the search bar, popular queries will begin to emerge, and once searched several locations in your designated area will be displayed. At a glance, you will see photos, a Zagat score and summary, along with reviews from other Google+ users (displaying those you are connected with first), and even useful information such as store hours and address. Zagat is able to make their reviews based on user-written submissions and surveys.  Social media marketing can be enhanced here by encouraging users of your business to write reviews, which is now easy to do with the little pencil option in the top right corner of each location. A sign located on the users’ way out of your business reading, “Hey! We know you liked your meal, but let us know how much you loved it and why on Google+ Local,” and then implementing a QR code to the destination would be most beneficial to your business.

Google+ Local has an app on the Android market and will soon release one for iOS devices.  It is integrated with other products you search for regularly, and therefore will display the same information when looking for a place on Search or Maps. We’re wondering if this new application will drive you to create a Google+ page and be more active on the social network.

Perhaps you recall reading an earlier post about the marketer’s perspective on social media. Here we gave you an inside look as to how internet marketers view the social media scene for business-to-consumer marketing. Now courtesy of social media examiner, more than 1,900 business-to-business (B2B) marketers has given us further insight into how they’re utilizing social media for their campaigns. In this post I will focus on the different experiences B2B marketers encounter when running their campaigns, as opposed to a consumer-driven focus.

In terms of how confident B2B marketers are in social media for expanding the reach of their business, more than 93% are using it to market their business, a 5% increase from 2010. When it comes to experience it was stated that, “B2B marketers bring more long-term experience to social media marketing than B2C, but lag behind slightly in the 1-to 3-year category.” When asked what results social media has brought to their B2B marketing campaigns, over 56% stated they acquired new business partnerships, 60% saw improved search rankings, and B2B marketers are more able to gather marketplace insights from their social efforts, when compared to B2C. In this area it is important to note that only 53% of B2B marketers found social media helping to develop a loyal fan base; an area where B2C marketers rely heavily on social media for. Also note that there was no mention of a correlation between social media and increased sales. This is due mainly in part to businesses not knowing how to measure their efforts, and therefore not given the opportunity to see results from their campaign.

When it comes to which tools B2B marketers are utilizing, the results were higher with using Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs, and Google+ when compared to B2C marketers. 82% responded with using Facebook, compared to 96% of B2C marketers using the platform giant. We all know Facebook and its extremely high impact it can have on consumers, but these numbers infer that experienced marketers really understand where their target audience spends their time.

Where did the time go? B2B marketers are far more likely to increase their use of LinkedIn and invest more time in blogging when compared to B2C marketers. And what do B2B marketing companies want to learn more about in the social media world? Google+, LinkedIn, and Twitter (and it that order). 77% of B2B marketers are interested in learning how to measure the effectiveness of social media, 72% in how to convert activities to sales, and 69% are interested in discovering the best social media tactics. In the future, B2B marketers plan to increase their use of SEO, event marketing, and e-mail.  Will your B2B marketing company be doing the same?

We all should be familiar with the sharing application, Dropbox. A place most internet marketers probably use to simplify their lives by being able to share upcoming presentations with employees so everyone is consistently up to date with the most recent versions of their companies files. To stay ahead of competition, Google released its own sharing application very similar to Dropbox, but called Google Drive. This is a place where you can create, share, collaborate, and keep all of your files. Whether it’s that last minute college presentation you and classmates are working on, or a photo timeline you wish to share with family of your travels; you can upload pretty much anything in Google Drive, including photos, videos, Google Docs, PDFs, and more.

Upon downloading Google Drive, you will be able to:

• Create & Collaborate: Since Drive is setup with Google Docs already built in, you can work with your fellow colleagues/classmates in real time on documents, presentations, and spreadsheets. Once the document is shared, you are able to add and reply to comments on any part of your content. You will receive notifications when other people make comments so you can respond efficiently.
• Access Content Everywhere: One of the main selling points for Google Drive is being able to store everything and anything safely, but then being able to access the content on virtually any type of platform. Whether that may be your home Mac of PC, or your Android phone/tablet, Drive can even be accessed with a screen reader. It was stated that Google will be working hard on a Drive app for iOS devices, so be on the lookout for that announcement shortly.
• Search Everything:  Within the Google Drive application, you can search by keyword and filter by file type, owner and more. What’s an even cooler benefit here is the savvy technology Google developed, Optical Character Recognition (OCR). With this you can actually search for a word from the text of an actual article, even if you only scanned a small image from an old newspaper clipping. Say you uploaded some pictures from your trip to Italy, you can later enter in, Italy, to the search bar and pictures of the waterway canals should pop up. Google did state that this technology is in its early stages, and improvements are to be made over time.

Everyone will be able to download Google Drive shortly, with 5GB of free storage space. From there you can upgrade to 25GB for $2.49/month, 100GB for $4.99/month, or if you still want more, 1TB for $49.99/month.

What’s really great about Drive is it was created to work seamlessly with all of Google’s applications.  This means you can attach photos from Drive directly to your Google+ page, and soon you will be able to attach content directly into Gmail. So we want to know, will your internet marketing company be utilizing Google Drive? If yes, what do you see as the biggest benefit that can be brought to your agency?

It is no secret that social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have grabbed the attention of millions of consumers when it comes to the social scene. This is why event marketers and planners should be considering the viral networks in order to spread word of mouth and create buzz about their next big event.  An online marketing firm can benefit from the platforms to announce their upcoming events in hopes to acquire a bigger reach and awareness about your company and its events. Follow these three easy steps and be on your way to publicizing your next big event through social media marketing.

1.  #HashtagSwag – Create a Universal Buzz Word

It is important that consumers can connect with your event and find information about it easily and quick. This is why internet marketers should brainstorm for an overall hashtag, about 10 characters or less, that can be used to advertise the event in a unique, yet specific way. Take a look at what hashtags are trending now on Twitter to get a better perspective on what types of words/phrases grab people’s attention.

In terms of event marketing, speakers will love to reference the hashtag for it gives them a real-time feedback loop. A universal hashtag about your event will also give those unable to attend the opportunity to follow along with announcements and get involved on a virtual basis. Be sure to remind your audience about the hashtag you plan to promote before, during, and after the event. This is very important because you will need many tweets using the hashtag in order to gain virality; therefore consider including your hashtag on all print and online editions of any advertisements about your event.

2.  Publicly Display Your Virtual Attraction

In order to keep people involved online while at your event, you must bring the online attraction to the event through use of Twitter walls, for example. Setting up Twitter walls throughout your event will allow attendees to see all those online who are interacting with the event in a virtual way, while enticing them to join in on the online conversation as well.

If your event is small, consider setting up a virtual welcome near the registration center that encourages attendees to check in through social media platforms, like Facebook and Foursquare, using your designated universal hashtag. Once they see their name displayed on the big screen they will be more inclined to stay involved and keep tweeting about the event.

3.  Create a Central Online Location For Social Content

Those who are interested in your event should have a location that is easy to get to of where they can find all the social media information about your event. For example, consider creating an event page on your company’s website about upcoming events, with a tab that directs interested attendees to all your social media platforms. Be sure to include your preferred hashtag associated with the event here along with direct links to your Twitter account, Facebook page, Google+ profile, YouTube channel, etc. Consider putting a link to this page during the registration process for the event so you can drive consumers to your social media sites early on.

After reading these three easy tips, do you plan to utilize social media in order to gain awareness about your upcoming big event  and hopefully create interest for more people to attend?

With courtesy to Online MBA, internet marketing companies everywhere should take note and analyze the infographic below in order to better understand where we stand now in terms of social media and which platforms offer the greatest opportunity. Did you know that over 66% of all adult online users are connected to one or more social media platforms? Internet marketers should be taking advantage of the most popular social media sites by using them as a channel to find and reach the most targeted audience. By gaining better insight as to who exactly is using these platforms, we can decipher which sites will be most effective at reaching our target audience through use of advertising campaigns.

The infographic below breaks down users of the most popular social media sites based on gender, age, education, and household income. Facebook being the leader of social media, comes in with 845 million active users; most of which possessing some college education and a household income of $50,000-$99,999. This platform would be useful to use if you have a product/service that is somewhat costly and appeals to the older, intelligent generation. Twitter, with 127 million active users, obtains most of their tweeters from a mobile device; therefore make sure your website is mobile friendly. Google+ is definitely a platform mostly used by the college grad (age 0-24), predominately male figures who are single and looking for friends. If you have a product/service surfaced around online dating, Google+ would be a good place to advertise. It is also noted at the end of the infographic that most Americans use social media sites to stay in touch with friends. Although web marketing companies like to use the sites as a gateway into our targeted audience, remember too much promotional content could backfire.

Via: Online MBA Resource

The infographic provides lots of good insights as to who the most typical user of the social media platform is and why they are using it. Let us know what you think and how you will be utilizing such networking sites.

As we welcome Google Play into the family of music lets take a moment to explore some of the possibilities. For example if you love sharing things with friends and family Google Play’s coolest feature is the compatibility to play through mobile devices, software, and social media at any time or place. Google Play is also connected with the social media outlet Google+ and can be integrated with email, texts, and circles within your Google+ hangout. For example, if you want to share a great book that you recently finished or listened to an awesome song then choose your favorite platform to share it through. You can also take Google Play to the cloud. You entire library is stored in the cloud which enable your downloads to be seen anywhere from your desktop computer, mobile device, or live at play.google.com.

Buyers Remorse

Hate buying something you’re afraid you might end up not liking? Google Play makes the decision much easier as you can preview books, music, and movies. If that still doesn’t persuade you then try the large compilation of app ratings, user reviews, and detailed screenshots to make your purchase that much easier.

Flavor of the Week

To celebrate (or attract customers into switching to Google Play) the launch Google is throwing a party called “7 Days to Play” sale. Here is a list as to what you can find during this sale and also be on the lookout for weekly specials & discounts:

Music:    Feature: top 40 hits Now That’s What I Call Music 4 $.25

 Extras: Various hip-hop, rock, and country albums for $3.99

Game:    Feature: Where’s My Water $.25

 Extras: Selected apps for $.49

Book:     Feature: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close $.25

 Extras: detective novels $2.99

Movie:    Feature: Puncture for just 25 cents $.25

  Extras: Editorial team’s favorite must have movies for $.99

Name Game

If you feel still unfamiliar with some of the new names here is a guide of what was and now what is:

Google Music = Play Music

Android Market = Play Store

Video App = Play Movies

Google Books = Play Books