As we say hello to warmer weather for springtime, we say goodbye to the first quarter of 2013. For those of us working in social media,  we’ve been on our toes keeping up with all the latest updates Facebook and Google have rolled out to us in past three months.  Get ready, we’re about to recap the biggest announcements in social media marketing so far this year.

Facebook

Facebook announced three big updates in Q1:

• Graph Search [Beta ] – January 15^th, 2013
• New Looks for News Feed – March 7^th, 2013
• Improvements to Timeline – March 13^th, 2013

Facebook Graph Search was created, “to make the world more open and connected,” according to Facebook.  This differs greatly from a web search in the sense that users won’t be searching by keywords, but rather by combining phrases. For example, you could do a search for a “Pages liked by fans of Internet Marketing Inc.” (See below) to help you find other pages that interests your fans. Take this a step further and start sharing articles from those pages as your brand page and you’ll become even more popular with your fans. Get on the waitlist for Facebook Graph Search today! 

As an attempt to reduce clutter and focus more on stories from people you care about, Facebook created new news feeds for users to explore. Users can choose from all friends, photos, music, and following (where brand page posts lie); with bigger and more vibrant photos. You’ll also experience the same look and feel across all devices (see right). Get Facebook’s new news feed today!

The most recent announcement from Facebook relates to a new timeline design that helps users express what’s important to them.  Instead of scrolling down the timeline, reading from left to right, the left side will showcase a more detailed about me section, followed by apps you choose to feature. Facebook gives the following example, “If you’re an avid reader, you can keep track of the books you want to read or add more with Goodreads” (see right). The right side of the timeline is where your posts and posts from friends will be displayed.  Facebook is continuing to roll out the new timeline to personal pages in the coming weeks.

YouTube

Google recently announced a complete redesign for YouTube channels, what they are referring to as “YouTube One.” The new design has three distinct features. First, brands can now win over new subscribers with a trailer video that only appears to non-subscribed viewers. Second, similar to Facebook’s new design, branding works across all devices (see right).  Lastly, brands can organize and present their videos and playlists to reflect their one-of-a-kind style. You can see an example of the new YouTube One design below; notice the social icon links to help with cross-promotion. YouTube has even created a “Channel Setup Checklist” for brands to follow to ensure they are getting the most out of the new design. Make the switch today!

Pinterest

Pinterest users are now given the option to “Switch to the new look” (see below). The functionality within Pinterest all stays the same, just a sleeker design in my opinion. The real update is Pinterest web analytics. Brands can now track their pinning activity by reporting how many people have pinned from their website, the number of impressions versus the number of clicks. Brands can also learn what pinners like by analyzing the Most Repinned tab to find out which pins get the most repins, and then tailor your website and Pinterest boards based on the information gathered. One thing to note is to make sure you’ve verified your website on Pinterest and switched to the new look in order to view Pinterest Analytics. Analytic reporting will not begin until you’ve verified your website. 

Social Media by the Numbers

Now that we’re aware of what’s been happening in the social media space this past quarter, check out where the channels stand against their competition in regards to number of active monthly users:

Source: http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/resource-how-many-people-use-the-top-social-media/

If  you know of any other  big updates, I’d love to hear them in the comment section below!

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!

With over three billion views a day and sixty hours uploaded every minute, how will your YouTube video stand out and grab the attention of some of the 800 million registered users? Pay close attention and bookmark these five easy steps that will serve as a guide to your social media marketing strategy and help your clients build their social influence.

1. Embed Links Back To Your Site: This is very important because when users share your video, you want to make sure they are given a backlink back to your site so once they’ve enjoyed watching the content, they can find out more about your company easily. This is also a very valuable tool for search engine optimization purposes, as well. 
2. Use Keywords in the Title, With Attention-Grabbing Semantics: The title to your video is the most visible element to users and also the most valuable for SEO. So try t include your main keyword, while not sounding too obvious (surround with other words that will really entice users to watch). Remember to keep it under 66 characters, or Google will cut you off in the search results.
3. Use Keywords in the Video Description and Tags: Once you’ve completed the necessary keyword research, be sure to include the keywords you wish to rank highly for in the description of the video, once again be reminded to avoid keyword stuffing. We also recommend adding the URL of your site at the end of the description, in efforts to drive users back to your site. Include the word “video” as well while describing and tagging (because most users will enter this in the search query when looking for videos). If some of your important keywords don’t sound right in the description, no problem! You should tag at least 10 keywords in the tagging section that you wish to rank for.
4. Keep Videos 90 Seconds or Less: The truth of the matter is that Internet users have very short attention spans. With that being said and in hopes that your video is watched and shared with friends, you should aim to keep the video shorter rather than longer.
5. Eye-Catching Thumbnails: The thumbnail is going to be the only visual a user gets when searching for a video. Therefore, you want this to be the most eye-catching image of your video. You are able to choose the thumbnail image in the edit section of the Video Manager, in which YouTube will automatically pull three images.

Now that we know the five easy steps, go to your YouTube Channel and see if each and every video has the necessary components to rank higher. If you have any other helpful video optimization tips, be sure to share with us in the comment section!

With so many social platforms now on the popularity rise, how do we know which one will offer our brand the most engagement? Some may say Facebook due to its 901 million users, or maybe Pinterest for its lucrative, exponential growth in just a few months. But when you have a platform that gives users the ability to watch footage ranging from a music video to one of America’s funniest home videos, YouTube can definitely stir up a lot of attention.  Social media marketing has grown tremendously in just the past year, so let’s dig a little deeper as to how internet marketers can utilize YouTube specifically for marketing their brand.

Produced by TechWelkin, the infographic below informs us of the latest YouTube facts and statistics. Here are some key takeaways I have derived:

• YouTube is the 3^rd most viewed website after Google (#1) and Facebook (#2)
• More than 1 trillion views took place in 2011 (that’s 140 views for each person on earth!)
• The equivalent of 500 years of YouTube videos are watched every day on Facebook
• 700 YouTube videos are also shared on Twitter every minute
• Each week 100 million people either like, share, or comment on YouTube
• More than 50% of videos are rated/commented upon by the users

Based on these statistics we can conclude that YouTube has the ability to create awareness about a brand/topic on a global platform. Therefore, it is vital that your company create a YouTube channel and post videos that are both informational and more importantly, as entertaining as you can make them. In a world where three billion hours of video are watched monthly, we can no longer ignore that YouTube could be the next best way to advertise over television ads. What do you think about the popularity of YouTube and how is your business using the platform to market your products/services to consumers?

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?

Social Media Examiner released this week their fourth annual social media study, which has grabbed the attention of more than 3,800 marketers to tell us where they see the future of social media activities heading. It is stated in the report that an overwhelming majority of 94% say they use social media in order to market their business; while 83% feel social media is important for their business. With so much likability, any online marketing agency should analyze this year’s industry report to help your business utilize this service.

So if marketers can agree that social media has an impact on their business how much time exactly should we be spending on our social media efforts? According to the report, 59% of marketers implement social media efforts 6+ hours a week, with 33% devoting 11+ hours a week. It was also noted that those aged 20-29 are spending the most time in social media, with 43% spending 11+ hours a week.

Now that we better understand the time commitment, what do marketers see as the biggest benefit about social media? 85% believe that increasing exposure is the biggest benefit of social media, with increasing traffic following close behind with a 69% response rate. An important takeaway from this part of the study is that 58% of marketers who have been utilizing social media efforts for three years believe it has helped improve sales.

In terms of which tools we should be utilizing, 92% responded with Facebook as the most used social media platform. Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs, and YouTube took the next four spots. It was interesting to see that even with Google+ being newly added this year to the report, 40% of social media marketers are using this platform. Google+ was also the platform that marketers are most interested in learning more about (ousting last year’s winner, Facebook). Also added new this year was the category, photo sharing sites (including the new Pinterest platform) with a 21% user rate.

Aside from social media marketing, marketers view email marketing, search engine optimization, and event marketing as the top three services they are also implementing. Surprisingly, pay per click internet marketing is not gaining as much attention as previous years, coming in the sixth spot. Also losing heat is webinars; 48% plan on not utilizing them at all this year and 79% plan on keeping the same level or increasing their use of press releases.

There is a lot of useful information to take away from this study, so we want to know where you see the future of social media is heading based on these results?

Once Google acquired YouTube, we all knew YouTube was going to grow and grow. We just didn’t know how much and in what direction. Frankly, we still probably don’t know. But today we get a glimpse into part of YouTube’s future, movies. That’s right; YouTube and Google Play are becoming a new platform for renting movies.

Google isn’t simply just going to be adding feature length movies to YouTube; this is an official move. Paramount Pictures has already signed an agreement bring almost 500 of their titles to YouTube and Google Play. They are just one of the studios to enter into the agreement. Five out of the six major film studios, plus ten independent studios, have already agreed to partner with YouTube and Google Play. This brings YouTube’s movie library up to about 9,000 titles. Films like Shrek, Transformers, and Footloose are already available for your viewing pleasure up on YouTube.

Film rentals will cost between $2.99 and $3.99 for the standard definition versions. If you want high definition, it will cost $1 more. From the time of purchase, viewers will have 30 days to begin watching a title. And once the movie has begun, it must be finished within either 24 or 48 hours depending on the title. There are no announcements about Google selling films, so as of now, they will only be renting them.

Since the acquisition of YouTube, everyone has wondered how it would be monetized. Would pay per click internet marketing ads or premium memberships take over? Well, movies may be one of the ways to solve this. This move not only creates revenue from rentals, but it opens up a venue for internet marketing. Instead of previews at the movie theaters, we will most likely begin seeing paid viral ads integrated somewhere into the experience.

This move throws Google into another competitive category with Apple and a new one with Netflix. All six of the major film studios have signed with Apple and Netflix already has a large following for online movie streaming. It will be a competitive niche Google is entering and will be interesting to see how it performs.

Consumers now have many options when they want to watch a movie. It will be interesting to see if YouTube’s pricing options can compete with Netflix, Apple, and even Redbox. But if you feel like watching a movie without leaving your seat, you can simply navigate to YouTube and easily select a title to watch.

Today is quite the milestone for YouTube. YouTube announced via their blog that users are watching and uploading more videos than ever before. The fascinating rate at which a video is being uploaded is one hour of video to YouTube every second. That means within the next 24 seconds of reading this article, YouTube will have another 24 hours of video ready for you to watch.  Speaking of watching videos, users are watching videos more frequently, a lot more. YouTube is now exceeding four billion views every day which is surprising.

YouTube Outreach

What is causing this larger than normal spike over the past few months? Well one idea is that the parent company Google has pushed into larger categories and making it even easier for the user to share, upload, and watch. Take for example that YouTube is no longer just being played on computers; instead your Xbox, smartphone, and television now come equipped with YouTube.

In addition to the astonishing fact, some of the data and fact crunchers over at YouTube have switched from the mind-boggling charts and infographics to their new site onehourpersecond.com. This site is pretty fun and puts a lot of their stats into a visual masterpiece so be sure to take a quick look at it. Interested in more YouTube videos? Check out our YouTube channel. Give your company’s Youtube page a facelift by signing up for a social media package today.

What is a better way to share those special moments between your family and friends then with Google+ Hangouts? Google announced last month via their blog that their social networking site will offer you the ability to “hangout” with your friends online. The days of commenting back and forth on a status update are over as users can go beyond the typical “status sharing” and begin a live face-to-face video chat.

The idea behind Google+’s Hangout is to initiate a live, instant chat whenever you and your fellow followers read or write a compelling status update. Have a funny picture or an interesting news feed? The Hangout button will be seen at the bottom of every status update and you can click the Hangout tab and the poster will be notified that you are interested in video chatting. If the chat has already started then that will be notified on the wall.

On Air Hangout
Move over Skype and Facetime, in addition to Hangout a program called On Air provides a broadcasting platform to record and post live videos. While on the go do you want to share a baseball game or a new dance you learned? Google+ Hangout mobile allows an instant video stream to capture those feel good moments. We have already seen the Black Eyed Peas, the Dalai Lama and even the Muppets use and promote On Air but Google is now releasing the feature to a larger list of celebrities, public figures, and powerful social media users with a large following. Although many of us are unable to use it, the ability to chat or perform a presentation to a large audience raises some interest. The platform is also connected to YouTube and is completely self service which makes On Air Hangout a very enticing program to use in the future.

Google Panda has reorganized the way that Google evaluates search results. As a result of this update, some websites have been pushed up in search engines, and others have been pushed down. This new update aims to provide users with the most up to date results. According to Searchmetric, “Google thought that Panda 2.5 was a bit too much,” and rolled back large portions of the update a week later. Then, on Nov. 3, 2011, Google rolled out a “freshness update” that impacted 35% of queries.

“Given the incredibly fast pace at which information moves in today’s world, the most recent information can be from the last week, day or even minute, and depending on the search terms, the algorithm needs to be able to figure out if a result from a week ago about a TV show is recent, or if a result from a week ago about breaking news is too old,” Google says in a blog post announcing the big change.

 This Panda update is estimated to have an affect on up to 35% of all Google searches, specifically those for recent events and hot topics. SearchMetrics has been tracking the effects of the recent update on different sites and it brings both good and bad news.
One of the companies that was hit hard was Demand Media. According the Forbes.com, Demand Media’s site  lost around 29% of their search engine traffic due to the update targeting content farms that contain low quality content. Shares of Demand Media are off more than 70 percent from its year high in March of $26.25 due to worries that Google’s search engine changes have hurt the companies prospects. During the third quarter, Demand said that around 31 percent of their revenue was from Google, compared to the 33 percent in the second quarter of 2011. To fix this issue, Demand is putting more of an emphasis on video and is partnering with YouTube in three new channels on home improvement, pets, and health. It is also evaluating the content of its site eHow.  Ehow brings in about 29 percent of total revenue for Demand, so they are placing a main focus on increasing its content quality.

On the contrary, this update of Panda has helped many news sites such as Washington Post, Rate my Professors, ScriBd, Zappos, and Last.fm. However, the biggest boost was to Youtube and Android, both properties of Google themselves. Google and Android saw a gain by 10%, with YouTube topping the list of absolute gains.