20 New Social Articles on Business 2 Community

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• Are You Using the Social Business Model in Your Company?
• How to Fetch a Better Intranet
• How to Help Customers Build a Personal Brand in Your Online Community
• Twitter Paid Advertising for Small Businesses: How to Get the Most Out of the Promoted Tweets Platform
• How To Make Money Blogging With Google Adsense And Affiliate Marketing
• Could LinkedIn Answers Be the Ace In Your B2B Strategy?
• GSummit, Bubbles, Badges and the Future
• Want to Learn More About Adding SEO Keywords to Your Website?
• The Benefits of Monitoring Your Brand Online
• Social Insurance- Getting Back To The Basics Of Relationships
• How Will Google Penguin Affect Your Website?
• 5 Killer Strategies for Brands to Engage on Pinterest and LinkedIn
• Pinning Your Hopes On Social Media
• 5 Tips To Increasing Your Website Traffic
• 5 Lessons From Penn State’s Social Media Crisis Communications Fail
• Choose The Best Social Media Marketing Channel For Your Small Business
• Is Orkut Still Popular In India?
• Storifying Your Story
• G is for Google!
• 19 Revelations From A Social Media Marketing Blogger

Are You Using the Social Business Model in Your Company? Posted: 25 Jun 2012 02:00 PM PDT Traditional business models, particularly in large organizations, have had as one common characteristic careful limitation of direct contact between those within the organization and those outside of it. Only certain specific individuals (most frequently in roles such as sales, customer service and field consulting) were designated as "customer-facing" personnel. Organizations further limited outside access to internal employees through filtering mechanisms such as publishing only a main switchboard number (whether routed through a live receptionist or an interactive voice response system) and generic "sales@" or "info@" email addresses. The Cluetrain Manifesto (written by Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls, and David Weinberger and published in 1999) was among the first books to predict the demise of this old order and the emergence of more open business models, though most of the business world was slow to adopt the book's recommended cultural changes. Thirteen years later, authors Dion Hinchcliffe and Peter Kim added structural underpinnings to the cultural shifts outlined in The Cluetrain Manifesto in their book, Social Business by Design. The book details many of the ways social media tools and practices are being adopted within organizations, to support both internal employee collaboration and external customer engagement (which the authors describe as the "bigger problem"). Organizations that have adopted the social business model utilize social media tools and social networking behavioral standards across functional areas for communicating and engaging with external audiences, including customers, prospective customers, prospective employees, suppliers, and partners. Combining social networking "netiquette" (being helpful, transparent and authentic) with business engagement on LinkedIn (for one-to-one interaction), Twitter (for immediacy) and Facebook (for content sharing) more fully involves employees in the organization and increases customer intimacy and trust. In implementing the social business model, organizations apply social networking protocols and tools in a range of areas, potentially including: Marketing Customer Support Recruiting Crowdsourcing Internal employee collaboration Sales Product Development Supply Chain Operations Investor Relations Organizations that fully adopt the social business model will exhibit four key characteristics: Connected – employees will be able to seamlessly engage one-on-one in real-time with other employees and individuals outside the organization (customers, prospects, partners, media, etc.) using a variety of communications methods including text chat, voice, file sharing, email, and video chat. Social – employees will follow social networking etiquette (being authentic, helpful and transparent) in external interactions. The focus will be on answering questions and providing information rather than overt sales or promotion. Presence – these conversations may originate on the company's website or elsewhere online (e.g., publication websites, industry portals, or social networking sites such as LinkedIn or Facebook). Intelligent – organizations will use in-depth analytics to monitor connections, social interactions and presence; measure corresponding business results; and continually adjust and improve practices for increased effectiveness. While much of the change inherent in adopting the social business model is cultural, it also requires process changes enabled by social business technology. Functional requirements for a social business technology platform include: Analytics (including the cost of engagement as well as various measures of return on investment such as leads, sales, referrals, recommendations, and retained customers). Integration with other social media and business tools such as CRM systems, partner relationship management (PRM) software, product development, website analytics, and employee-recruiting applications. Rules-based workflow (e.g. routing a comment to the appropriate individual for a response, based on content). Geolocation (so customers or prospects can be automatically routed to local sales or customer service representatives). Content sharing. Collaboration tools. Transparency (i.e., people should know who they are engaging with) Unified communications (the ability to engage via voice, text, video, email, and share a wide variety of file types) Storage (the ability to store interactions for legal, training, compliance or compensation purposes, and purge stored data when no longer needed based on company policy or regulatory requirements). Immediacy (real-time monitoring and response).

How to Fetch a Better Intranet Posted: 25 Jun 2012 12:20 PM PDT Last week we shared how Elkie Wills from San Diego Humane Society set goals and built a solid intranet roll-out plan. Developing and implementing objectives and timelines for launching an intranet has proven to be a valuable factor in building a successful intranet for SDHS. Today we are going to take an in-depth look inside SDHS's intranet called Fetch. San Diego Humane Society's intranet is playful and stays true to their organizations focus of finding homes for the animals in their care. Their brand and design is aligned with their furry friends. A Sneak Peak Human Resources Elkie works closely with Human Resources in conjunction with the intranet. Career opportunities, benefits, workers compensation, and holiday pay-day calendars are all accessible from the intranet home page and menu. Employee Fun Employee Fun gives users an assortment of photo albums where they can thumbs-up and like content. SDHS takes hundreds of photos on a weekly basis so Elkie thought it was important to feature pictures in categorized folders that won't make it to their public facing website. At first she worried that people would spend too much time commenting but this area has proven to be popular and a draw for staff to check out the new intranet. Happy Tails Happy Tails shares adoption success stories from SDHS locations. Employees can check in on animals to see how they are adapting to their new homes and families. This information is very meaningful to employees and so Elkie created a widget to pull new adoption stories onto the intranet home page. Adoption Campaigns SDHDS has an employee recognition plan to ensure that hard workers get noticed. During adoption campaigns, Elkie holds employee contests to encourage creativity. Most recently they held a Valentine's Day contest where employees created a card for one of their favorite animals. Their next contest takes place during Meow Madness and employees will be asked to write a fairytale ending for their favorite animal. A "High Five" form allows coworkers to nominate and compliment peers. In the Mews This area houses press releases, television interviews and public news articles featuring the San Diego Humane Society and SPCA Intranet Widgets Elkie created several widgets for the intranet home page: Staff Treats Features organization-wide discounts for employees like cafeteria specials, employee HR benefits and external partnerships Most Pawsitive Player An employee showcase to recognize achievements Photo of the Week Shares fun initiatives completed by the team every Monday, like their weekly walk for animals The @SDHumane Twitter Feed Keeps employees updated on social media campaigns and involvement Available Positions Highlights internal career opportunities as people move around a lot internally Homeward Bound SDSH's goals and achievements are listed. "We want to reach 5,000 adoptions by the end of the year", says Elkie Takeaway Elkie left our interview with a great tip, "Take the time to get to know your intranet software. Get a fluent understanding of how things work. Talk to support, or use the implementation packages for one-on-one guidance in helping you get started in the right direction and which applications and tools to use for the best end results."

How to Help Customers Build a Personal Brand in Your Online Community Posted: 25 Jun 2012 11:30 AM PDT Increase Online Community Engagement by Advising Customers, Members, or Employees on How to Develop Their Personal Brand What do you say when your customers, members, or employees ask you why they should join your organization's online community? Your response may include points about finding answers to questions, access to experts, and ongoing education. However, your customers and members are people. Many of them may be motivated by a more personal benefit – building a personal brand. Personal branding benefits the company for which an individual works, then is portable in that employees take their brand with them as their careers progress. 9 Tips To Help Customers, Members, or Employees Build a Strong Personal Brand in Your Private Online Community Here are 9 actions that you can encourage your community members to take to boost their personal brand profile. Knowing that all members don't have the same comfort level online and experience participating in online communities, we've laid out these tips according in three categories: Beginner – "This is My First Online Community" Tip #1. Be Helpful 'Social networking software' can sound scary to novice members, but helping those in one’s company, customer base, or industry solve problems is human nature. Look for ways to help people in the community with their problems or questions. Tip #2. Complete Your Profile Take advantage of all of the ways to represent yourself in the online community profile settings. Don't forget to pull in outside content, like your LinkedIn profile and YouTube channel, to make your profile more interactive. Create a professional profile, but be sure to add a human voice and interests as well. Nobody likes connecting with a robot. Tip #3. Set Up Content Notifications & Subscriptions It is hard to find ways to spread your expertise if you are not aware of what is going on in the community. Spend some time learning the subscription settings and activating content alerts for specific groups, forums, blogs, and keywords where you can add value. Intermediate – "It's Not My First Time to the Dance, But I'm Not Sure Where to Start." Tip #4. Chime In Commenting in forums, on document or videos, or on blog posts is an easy way to build your brand in a private online community. Hold back any impulse to promote yourself. Instead, add something that furthers the conversation. Tip #5. Create Useful Content Start a blog or guess post on another blog. You can also upload a document, like a PDF ebook, to the file library or produce a series of helpful videos for the media library. You can choose to share your thought-leadership with specific groups or communities, or open it up to the entire community. Tip #6. Be Consistent Building a personal brand is a marathon, not a sprint. It takes time and ongoing effort. This means that consistency if your friend. When you are choosing which brand-building activities you will undertake, like writing a blog, commenting, or creating videos, make sure that you can sustain that level of activity over time. Advanced – "I Want to Be the Mayor of this Online Community" Tip #7. Connect with Active Members Research shows that connecting with influential members of a private social network can have a greater impact on customer engagement than other forms of participation. Community managers can use the gamification tools in your online community to highlight the most active and prominent members. Build relationships with those members (Tip: This takes time). Tip #8. Curate Content Become the person that people go to for news and insight about a product, industry, or project. Become this hub of information by combining your original ideas with relevant shared content from across the web. Tip #9. Be a Connector As you build your network and brand in the private online community, you'll get to know more and more people every day. Personal branding superstars get to the point where they can look at a majority of the questions, problems, and challenges in an online community and connect the question-asker with someone who has the answers. "Looking for a new IT project management job? I know just who you need to speak with." "Need to a roommate for the annual conference? I'll reach out to my network and have someone contact you directly." Online Community Takeaway One of the most important ongoing steps in creating a thriving online community is conveying the value that your target audience will get from participating in the online community and then helping them reap those rewards. Providing clear tips for how to use the online customer or member community to get ahead in one's career will surely get your target audience's attention. Feel free to steal parts of this article to educate your target audience on the tools and techniques available in your organization's online community to bolster their personal brands.

Twitter Paid Advertising for Small Businesses: How to Get the Most Out of the Promoted Tweets Platform Posted: 25 Jun 2012 11:10 AM PDT Twitter's pay-per-click advertising platform, now in beta, has opened up to offer access to some small businesses in addition to the larger advertisers who have been able to advertise via Twitter ads for some time. Getting access to the promoted tweets platform and understanding the different types of advertising available to you via Twitter could be a point of confusion for small businesses, so let's outline the different means of advertising on Twitter. Available Forms of Twitter Advertising There are a few different ways you can advertise on Twitter: Promote Tweets to Twitter Search – You can pin a promoted Tweet to a specific search (you could choose some of your core keywords or advertise on a competitor's brand name). Promote Tweets to Your Followers – You can also promote specific tweets to people who already follow you – this might be a good place to promote a specific offer you want followers to take, to promote your presence at events, or to promote content you want to get more exposure for. Promote Tweets to Users Similar to Yours – This is a good way to get additional exposure beyond your follower base, as the platform will find users similar to your followers and show them your promoted Tweets, which might promote certain offers and/or content. Promote Tweets to Trends – Similar to search, you can promote a Tweet in response to a specific trend, such as showing an ad for NBA jerseys in response to an #NBAfinals trend. Brand Pages – You can create an "Enhanced Profile Page" which is a branded page similar to a Facebook fan page. Sponsored Accounts – You can also pay to have your Twitter account sponsored to users who the platform determines would be interested in your account. If you're a larger advertiser and can commit to at least $15,000 over three months, you can have access to all of these features, or if you're a smaller business and want to test the platform via self-serve ads you can leverage the promoted accounts and promoted tweets (to users similar to yours). You can learn more about the small business platform and get $100 in free ads here: https://business.twitter.com/en/smallbiz/ And you can sign up for a new Twitter ad account here: https://business.twitter.com/en/advertise/start/ For a small business, self-serve account you can designate how much you want to pay per follower, for the promoted accounts product, and you can designate a daily budget as well as a cost to pay per new follower: As you can see a bid is recommended and they project how many new followers you can expect per day. Promoted tweets is very similar, but in addition to controlling budget and cost per follower, you can also accept or reject actual tweets to promote to Twitter users who are similar to your followers: You can promote specific content you want to gain exposure for (such as link baits, Webinars, white papers, discounts or coupons, etc.) and while you can't hand-designate specific tweets you can "reject" tweets to help cultivate the five tweets that actually show up as promoted. Pushing hard offers via Twitter ads can be very ineffective, but investing in growing your follower base and exposing your tweets to more Twitter users can be a great way to help generate more exposure for your content and can actually drive leads and sales to specific types of offers. You have much less targeted control with many of Twitter's promoted products as you're basically promoting an existing account or tweet that you're using for another purpose, rather than hand-crafting an account to drive specific traffic to a specific page via a specific ad as you would with AdWords. But if you're cognizant of the prices you're paying (in some cases as low as .50 per engagement) and the traffic and interaction with your site that's being generated as a result, Twitter ads can be a valuable part of a balanced set of lead generation channels that also includes PPC, content marketing and so on. About the Author Tom Demers is co-founder and managing partner at Measured SEM LLC, a boutique Boston, MA SEO and PPC agency offering search marketing consulting services including pay-per-click account management, a comprehensive SEO audit, content marketing strategy, reputation management for SEO and link building services and strategies for a variety of specific niches such as B2B SEO services.

How To Make Money Blogging With Google Adsense And Affiliate Marketing Posted: 25 Jun 2012 10:50 AM PDT It’s important to understand how to use Google AdSense (or similar ad networks) and affiliate links effectively in order to make money blogging. But which advertising technique makes more money? This article will show when to use Google AdSense ads, and when to use affiliate links to maximize your blog’s ROI (Return on Investment). Before we compare and contrast each method of advertising, it is important to note that neither will work without high quality content to drive targeted traffic. High quality content is what drives engaged visitors in sufficient numbers to make blogging, as a business activity, worthwhile financially. If you still need to focus on how to create high quality blog content and drive traffic, read the following articles before continuing: Five top SEO tips for small business bloggers Small business SEO & Internet marketing strategy guide, 2012 Small business SEO tutorial: How to attract higher quality Google traffic The top 5 marketing ideas for small business, 2012 How to choose the best advertising technique The type of content on your blog plays a pivotal role in which type of advertising is more effective. Successful advertising requires relevant, or targeted, ads shown to as many people as possible. The relevance of an ad is determined by the subject matter of the content on a webpage. Focused content and good SEO mean that search engines will send traffic based on the search keywords used. Only people who are predisposed to reading your content find it in the first place, via search. That’s why implementing killer SEO is so important. If your advertising strategy is properly implemented, then people reading your content are predisposed to clicking on ads or affiliate links because they offer products and services they are already interested in, generating revenue in the process. Google AdSense ads Google AdSense is an ad serving network that allows you to create custom ads and ad channels, and display text, image or rich ads using embeddable code snippets. AdSense ads are easy to customize and configure so that they integrate seamlessly into your blog. However, there are limits to this configuration. For example, it is not possible to select custom ad sizes. Google’s embedded ad code snippets analyze the content of the pages they are in, as well as the demographics of the visitors, and select the best ads to display from their vast, global stable of advertisers. Advantages of Google AdSense: Contextually aware Geographically targeted Easy-to-implement Displays international ads High CPC (Cost Per Click) Large network of advertisers All of the above points make Google AdSense a great option for anyone looking for low maintenance, targeted ads. However, Google AdSense may not be the best option for everyone. Disadvantages of Google AdSense: AdSense doesn’t always get the contextually aware part entirely correct. For example, a blog on African wildlife and conservation may result in Google displaying ads for hunting safaris – obviously not appropriate for people who care about animals. It is possible to block ads by various criteria, but it can be difficult to do this ahead of time (i.e. you may only find out about an offending ad once it is already displaying on your blog). Also, while AdSense has a huge network of advertisers, it may be that it struggles to find the right advertisers in your particular niche. In which case, it may show more generic, less effective ads, and revenue will drop. It’s also not possible to control pricing. A highly focused blog may not generate large volumes of traffic, so it becomes important to have a high CPC (Cost Per Click). This can be difficult to achieve with AdSense. Affiliate marketing Many online retailers and other businesses offer affiliate partnerships to help market their products and services. In return, affiliates receive a share in the profits. Be warned that affiliate marketing is likely to undergo some big changes in the latter half of 2012 as a result of Google’s announcement that it will display paid product search results above organic search results. Read the following articles to find out how this might affect your affiliate marketing strategies: Why Google is shooting itself in the foot with paid product search How Google Product Search will affect small business SEO SEM strategies and how to cope The most successful of all affiliate programs is Amazon associates. But, there are also several large affiliate networks offering affiliate relationships with a wide range of businesses in a wide range of categories. If you haven’t already, check out: Commission Junction LinkShare Google Affiliate Network Adding affiliate links and ads to your content allows for fine-grained control, but it comes at a price… Advantages of affiliate marketing: Manually targeted Easy to use Control over which ads and links display Ability to select ads based on payout Ability to select advertisers based on performance In effect, affiliate ads give you complete control – you can decide which product or service to show at a particular point in, on, or around your content. Disadvantages of affiliate marketing: The primary disadvantage of affiliate links is that payout is not determined by clicks. While Google ads pay you whenever someone clicks on the ad, a click on an affiliate link has to result in a defined conversion before payment is made. Visitors who click on an affiliate link may decide not to purchase the product or service displayed on the target page. In which case, not only is there no revenue, but the visitor has also left your site (most likely never to return). While payouts can be very high for a conversion (in some cases, thousands of dollars), the conversion rate may be very low. Affiliate links may also not be appropriate for international visitors. For example, a business may only serve customers in the U.S, in which case, the affiliate ad is effectively wasted space for anyone outside the U.S. Which advertising method makes more money? The answer depends on the type of content, and the audience. While affiliate marketing has many disadvantages, its main advantage is that it has a relatively high payout per action. If you are able to focus your content and reach the audience you intend, then affiliate links are an ideal advertising method because it is likely that you will achieve a fairly high EPC (Earning Per 100 Clicks). If your audience is less defined and more dispersed, then AdSense offers great advantages in terms of providing nicely targeted ads without requiring effort on your part. In general, I use Google AdSense to bring in my baseline ad earnings – earnings that tick over nicely on a daily basis. I use affiliate links when I know precisely who the visitor is, and what they are looking for. I hope this article has helped clarify which advertising technique, or combination of advertising techniques is right for your blog. How do you use advertising to make money blogging? Are you selling your own ad space? Which advertising technique is the most effective on your blog, and why do you think this is the case? Share your advertising experiences in the comments or join the conversation on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Could LinkedIn Answers Be the Ace In Your B2B Strategy? Posted: 25 Jun 2012 10:47 AM PDT LinkedIn is the social media darling of the B2B world. It provides an easy-to-use digital toolbox for traditional business tasks like business development, recruiting, networking, marketing and sales. So once you've set up a personal profile, built out your company profile, made some smart connections and joined a few groups, you've made the most of it, right? Not so fast–LinkedIn offers another valuable opportunity to engage with B2B buyers—and boost your inbound marketing efforts. It's time to consider what LinkedIn Answers could do for your business. LinkedIn Answers gives users the ability to both ask and answer questions on a wide variety of business topics, from defining basic business terms to diving deep into complex business strategy and problem solving. Aside from offering a great resource for personal development, the constantly updated database of questions provides seasoned marketing pros with a golden opportunity to share their depth of knowledge and expertise. For example, here are some ways B2B marketers can put LinkedIn Answers to work. You can: Discover what kind of content people want most. Which questions are most frequently asked? Which answers aren't quite covering all the bases? Do certain answers get positive feedback? By keeping up-to-date with the conversations at LinkedInAnswers, you can better understand what kind of information people are actively seeking, and then you can provide it for them not only on LinkedIn Answers, but on your blog and social media platforms, as well. Get to know potential allies—and the competition. LinkedIn Answers give you the chance to meet a great collaborator with a complementary offering… and a glimpse into how your competitors are positioning their expertise and their product or service. Use pain points and questions to improve your business. What do your prospective customers struggle with most? Where do products like yours fall short? What do prospects wish you could do for them… but you don't yet? LinkedIn Answers give you a glimpse into what your B2B market really thinks and feels, and how you could be serving them better. Engage potential customers—without a pitch. I've already mentioned that LinkedIn Answers is a great spot to establish your expertise, but make sure you steer clear of offering any kind of sales talk when you're responding to questions. A clear, helpful answer can do as much to engage a potential customer as the best line of copy in your ads. Many B2B businesses invest time and money into learning more about their market and their competition. However, with LinkedIn Answers, you don't need deep pockets to get access to a wealth of valuable insights.

GSummit, Bubbles, Badges and the Future Posted: 25 Jun 2012 10:40 AM PDT I have been catching up on the events of GSummit over the weekend. I was very heartened to hear so many people talking about moving beyond badges and xp systems. They were looking for the next phase of engagement. You just need to look at FourSquare recently ditching its gamified elements to see that we are hitting the first big dip in user interest in this kind of thing. However, there were still quite a few talking about promoting engagement with the use of simple badging / xp systems. I must admit, at first I was a little confused. Then I realised that I was totally missing the context that these ideas were being discussed in. Badges still have a place. When you look at instances where people were talking about badges and the like being of some use, it tended to be related to enterprise. The thing with enterprise gamification is that you have one key thing in the back pocket before you start. An audience. Not only that, you have an audience that has already got one very important motivator. They are doing their job. This may not sound like a motivator, but let me explain. Think back to before you heard the word gamification. People still turned up to work every day. They still did their job to the best (usually) of their ability. Why? Because that is what you, do. You get a job, you try to do it well and then you go home. At a set point in time, you are paid for doing this. This payment then allows you to do other things, like pay your mortgage and buy your wife nice things. As it happens, in just that little run through you can see game mechanics in use (though I would not call this gamification!!) Go to work every morning – appointment mechanic. Don't turn up, don't get paid Do your job everyday – Behavioural Momentum Do your job well – Pride Anyway, I digress. The people who are seeing success with badges and xp are using them to try to make this daily churn a little more interesting, by setting up a little competition and fun. In this case, it does not seem to have that negative an effect, because it is not trying to replace the intrinsic motivation of doing your job each day (if done properly). Another factor is that these are closed groups of people who are all in it together. In addition, there is nothing to be lost by joining or not joining. There is sooo much more that people could be doing though. Gamification of a rubbish process makes it more rubbish (ish). What enterprise should be looking at is changing the processes to make them more intrinsically engaging. They should be using gamification to change the behaviour of the company as a whole, but just make it a little bit more fun. It is not all about making everything a game. It's all about making everything a game. So that is enterprise. In brand engagement things are a little different. Badges, points and leaderboards are proving to only improve engagement for a short period of time. What is happening (as with FourSquare), there comes a point where the "I really don't care anymore" factor kicks in, there is a sharp drop off. Where people are succeeding is where they have seen that there is a drop and offer something more. I had a great chat with Steve Bocska from PugPharm.com who are currently trying to combat this Badge Fatigue or Loyalty Backlash as they call it. I will talk about PugPharm more at some point, but essentially their Picnic platform tries to make it all a bit more playful. Using badges and ladders to get people into the "game", they then throw more enjoyable challenges and collectables (in the form of iCards) into the mix. Finally they use those collectables to connect you with other people with similar interests in a social network. Their hope is that this will keep people engaged with the brand or anything else for far longer. The big players (Badgeville springs to mind) are now trying to give the end user more than just the basics. They have all seen that as the general population is getting wise to the gamification that has been successful up until now, that they need to focus less on trying to influence or manipulate the customer. Now it is about giving them something that they find enjoyable and engaging. The Bubble has to burst We are at a crossroads, that much is sure. I can see a bubble waiting to burst with lots of people floating in it repeating the word Gamification over and over again. When it does burst, I really hope that those who are left floating in the remaining bits of the bubble are the ones who are repeating – how can we be different, what's in it for the customer. That's when we shall start to really see the more mature and focused side of Gamification that so many of us know is there.

Want to Learn More About Adding SEO Keywords to Your Website? Posted: 25 Jun 2012 10:35 AM PDT Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a focal point for just about any website doing commerce on the Internet. While there are many facets to implementing an SEO strategy to improve your search engine rankings, the proper use of keywords is typically a staple of any campaign. If keywords are used effectively, when an individual enters a search for "ERP software vendors" on the Internet, and you are a vendor, your website will come up in the results. The following is a brief overview on using keywords for those that are new to SEO. What Keywords Should I Use? The first step in determining what keywords to use is relatively straightforward. In most cases SEO keywords stem directly from the products or services that you offer. So if your website is selling business ERP software, you'll want to include that phrase exactly, in addition to variations that potential clients may also use in an Internet search, like "accounting ERP software." A great way to identify which keywords people enter the most is through the Google AdWords Keyword Tool. When you enter an exact word or phrase into the tool, it gives you a listing of matches and variations along with information such as the frequency of the search. Where Do I Put My Keywords? In order to effectively implement keywords to boost your search ranking, you will need to use the most popular words and phrases throughout your website. This includes all areas, from short product descriptions to detailed sales copy. It's important to always use the most heavily searched keywords in headings or titles and within the body of the text, as well as in any links on the page. The higher the Google AdWords result for a given word or phrase, the more you will want to include it on the pages of your website. How Many Keywords Do I Need? In general you will want to try and include all of the keywords that have the highest amount of searches in your product category. But don't go filling your page with them. That's called stuffing, and if a search engine detects that you have used an inordinately high percentage of keywords it will shut your website out of its listings. The idea is to produce readable, professional-sounding copy while including keywords where they naturally fit. Most experts agree that from 1 to 3 percent is a safe and effective amount. The Last Word Using keywords is just one step to better SEO for your website. With a little thought and experience you are sure to grasp the concept completely, effectively using words and phrases in the correct places and density to help drive more traffic to your website.

The Benefits of Monitoring Your Brand Online Posted: 25 Jun 2012 09:03 AM PDT While much of the focus of social media and your online presence tends to be on how to deliver your message and communicate with your customers, there's another aspect that is often overlooked: listening. Having a strong social media listening program in place is crucial because much of the discussion is happening online. There are plenty of tools you can use for social listening, starting with one of my personal favorites, Google Alerts. And even when we talk about brand monitoring, the focus tends to be on reputation management and knowing when people are saying bad things about you and your brand. This is important, but it's not just about finding and responding to the negatives. It's also important to hear the good things that people are saying about you, as well as the general mentions of your brands. This is such a simple thing for small businesses, and there are free tools to help you out. This was brought home to me just last week with a very simple Twitter exchange. You can see the exchange below, which began when my friend Jason did what many of us do: he went to Twitter looking for suggestions on how to spend his iTunes gift card. I just happened to see his tweet, and decided to respond, suggesting some of my favorite music, including Sugar & the Hi Lows. And that's when the good stuff happened, because the band was paying attention. The interesting thing is that I didn't even use the bands Twitter handle, which would have made the "listening" easier for them. I just mentioned their name, and clearly they got the word, and got it fast. Obviously they are tracking mentions of their name on Twitter, and they responded. I have no idea whether Jason would have purchased any music from my suggestions without that one tweet from the band, but their response is what sealed the deal and got him to download their album. They listened, they responded, they got the sale. And notice, their response wasn't some sort of hard sale. It was just a pleasant response. Certainly this is a small scale example, but it's the type of thing that can really make a difference for a band. Jason downloaded their album, and if he likes what he hears, he's very likely to tell others about them. And because of how they reached out to him, he might even share that story along the way. This is the sort of thing Frank Eliason initiated with Comcast a few years ago, and other large brands have followed suit. Small businesses are perfectly suited for this sort of thing, and can certainly benefit from such a social listening program, especially since so few are doing it. It's one more way you can stand out and rise above the competition. There are plenty of tools you can use to manage your social media presence, but choose one that allows you to monitor your brand as well. Listen and respond. It might just seal the deal. How are you monitoring your brand online? Have you seen the benefits?

Social Insurance- Getting Back To The Basics Of Relationships Posted: 25 Jun 2012 09:00 AM PDT When was the last time you thanked your car or home insurance agency for helping you? Or reached out to them before you got into a fender bender with another driver to talk about safe driving tips?  Probably never– if you are less than 80 years old. In the olden days, a person depended upon their agent to help them through life changes – to know when they are buying a home or having a baby and enabled them to prepare and protect.  The industry has became somewhat price driven over the past 10 years- as old-school relationships waned, people made buying decisions based on rates and not on sage consult from a trusted agent. But, insurance agencies are getting back to the basics of yesteryear when relationships mattered. Due to social media, insurance agencies and their customers are re-engaging their relationship — online.  As I prepared for a talk I am giving next week to an group of insurance executives, I found a data point that more than 90% of Insurance, Annuity Providers Use Social Media according to a recent report "Social Media Leaders" by Corporate Insights (April, 2012). And, we have all seen social media marketing being used by insurance in interesting and innovative ways. Some examples include The Progressive Girl on Facebook where a person can talk to the Flo, play games and see her garden gnomes as she prepares for summer. She has over 4.1 million "likes" and 24K comments; Geiko's YouTubechannel which include some funny videos including one about how a Dad saved money on a pet for his kid by adopting a wild possum instead of buying a puppy; and State Farm’s twitter account has over 23K followers and actively provides customer service through the channel. These social efforts represent the human face of insurance and, given the number of fans and followers, the reaction is positive!  But, how much of this attention to social media marketing is really furthering the ability for insurance to better serve their customers? Your mileage may vary.   I can’t help but wonder how quickly the bar will be raised by customer expectations of a deeper relationship.  In an industry fraught with low customer loyalty records, the opportunity to attain purposeful, sustained interactive exchanges between insurers and customers is front and center for both the company and the customer alike. One online community that has captured my attention as evidence of purposeful, sustained customer engagement is the AllState Community. Here, great things are happening between AllState insurance experts and customers!  From blogs about understanding gas price inflation to discussion with other customers about going green, this online community is leading the charter on thought leadership and getting ahead of the issues that affect insurance decisions before the time of need. The community is broken out into 4 topical areas: Making a Difference – Share your ideas about making a difference in your community All Things Wheels – Share your ideas on how to be safe and smart about what you drive Daily Spending – Share your ideas about managing and tracking your spending Personal Finance – Share your ideas about protecting and planning for your future This community is a powerful example of an insurance company engaging with customers, learning their needs and supporting them with key information, products and services driven by the online engagement. It moves well beyond "likes" and "friends" to enable real outcomes that benefit both customer and company alike.   As many carriers struggle to demonstrate ROI from their social marketing, communities such as the AllState’s can turn ideas shared into new products and services, gain and retain more customers through customer intimacy, enable greater customer awareness of topic that effect insurance premiums.  The also get ahead of risks and potential problems by providing valuable information and support before the dreaded "fender bender" occurs.  So, next time you wonder what your insurance company had done for you lately, go see if they have an online community to support you – you may be pleasantly surprised!

How Will Google Penguin Affect Your Website? Posted: 25 Jun 2012 08:54 AM PDT The word "penguin" generally brings to mind a cute, black-and-white bird that can't flay and that walks with a delightful waddle. The Google Penguin, however, is somewhat less benign. The Penguin is a new set of guidelines for ranking the order in which sites appear on the search engine. As a result of the shake-up, sites which once earned high ranks are now finding themselves towards the bottom of the list, or worse, off the list altogether. What should you do if your website has been downgraded by Penguin? This post can help you figure out your next steps. Why Google Penguin? Google Penguin was developed to cut back on the astronomical number of spam websites that use questionable practices like duplicating content from another site (i.e., plagiarism), stuffing content so full of keywords that it comes impossible to read, or cloaking — trying to fool the search engine by sending electronic "bots" to one page of content and human visitors to another. By the time everything is all sorted out, Penguin will prove a tremendous asset to sites that follow the rules, but right now, everyone involved — including Google — is feeling some significant growing pains. Don't Rush Into Major Revisions Your site might have lost some of its page rank status when Penguin was introduced. A lot of sites did. Google is still working with Penguin and making changes to ensure sites that follow the rules won't be unfairly penalized. Before you rush in and take action, let Google finish their tweaks. If you still have a lower page rating than you believe you deserve, you can communicate with the search engine giant to find out why. Use Original, Fresh Content Whether you're selling classic CDs or renting a YaleChase California forklift, you need to be sure the content on your website is original — not lifted or closely paraphrased from another site. If content is your problem, you may even want to consider hiring a copywriter to make sure your content is unique. It's also important to update your website with fresh content on a regular basis. This can easily be accomplished by keeping a blog or by adding an updates section where you post new information about your company or industry. Use Keywords Sparingly Keywords are the words or phrases people type into the search engine to find the information they're looking for. For instance, if your company rents industrial equipment in California, a potential client may find you with a keyword phrase like "forklift rental Los Angeles." While it is important to use keywords in your copy, it's not smart to keep using the same phrase over and over. This is known as "keyword stuffing" and if Penguin catches you at it, you're toast. Google Penguin doesn't have to be your enemy. In fact, if you play your cards right, it could be your best friend because it will downgrade the sites of competitors who don't follow the rules.

5 Killer Strategies for Brands to Engage on Pinterest and LinkedIn Posted: 25 Jun 2012 08:05 AM PDT Wondering if LinkedIn or Pinterest are right for your brand?  You are not alone – marketers have been focusing their efforts on the Big 3 (Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube) but increasingly are looking to LinkedIn and Pinterest to build a presence and connect with their constituents. As a follow-on to our latest white paper, Five Killer Strategies to Dominate Social Media's Big 3: Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, which offers insights into how the leading social platforms can be used for marketing success, we turn to dissecting the best social marketing practices on Pinterest and LinkedIn, among the most popular social platforms of our days. LinkedIn boasts 147 million users and Pinterest recently hit 10 million unique active users. These two social networks hold untapped potential for reaching new customers waiting for your brand to make connections with them. Here are some ideas on how marketers can approach the social platforms along with some suggestions for tools they can use to get the most of their efforts.  We also bring two great examples of brands doing it right on Pinterest and LinkedIn. How to Use Pinterest and LinkedIn While the social channels may seem different, marketers can successfully apply the same strategies to each by using different specific tactics. For example, successful use of Pinterest and LinkedIn requires great content, but on Pinterest it's best to "avoid self-promotion" (see Pinterest's terms and conditions), while LinkedIn content focuses heavily on company and product updates. Pinterest and Linkedin can be used by brands to effectively achieve key marketing goals such as: Increase social reach Engage fans through effective content Identify and engage with influencers Increase lead generation Integrate activity with analytics Pinterest How-tos: Although Pinterest is still in its earlier stages, it's clearly here to stay. Tools are popping up left and right to help marketers increase the effectiveness of their Pinterest efforts. Tools such as PinReach and PinPuff make identifying influencers easier and more efficient. Content development tools for Pinterest, such as Pinstamatic, Snapito, and Pinerly, allow brands to be creative and visually stimulating with their pins. Chobani, a yogurt brand, uses Pinterest as a way to tap into their customers' lifestyles and create a sense of brand loyalty. The themed boards are based on their target audience's interests, such as recipes using yogurt, nutrition, and being active. Chobani uses creative titles, such as "Chobani Fit" and "Chobaniac Creations", a clever strategy that have helped the brand gain over 6,000 followers on Pinterest. Chobani used Pinterest to tap into their customers’ lifestyles. LinkedIn Success: LinkedIn has gained a reputation for successful lead generation, with marketers ranking the platform as 277% more effective than other platforms in a marketing study conducted by HubSpot. The "Products and Services" tab that displays customer-generated recommendations make LinkedIn an extremely effective lead generation tool. Embedding the "Recommend on LinkedIn" widget on your homepage is one way to encourage customers to actively promote your brand. Juniper Networks, a business-to-business company that offers high speed, reliable switching routers to satisfy ISP-level performance, has a great LinkedIn company page. With over 40 products and services listed, Juniper Networks has 215 customer recommendations on their "Products and Services" page. The "Overview" tab is effectively utilized with widgets that give the most important and updated information about the company. Juniper Networks uses LinkedIn for promoting products and services and customer recommendations. With the right strategies, LinkedIn and Pinterest can be powerful platforms to add to your social media toolbox. If you are looking to the make the most of your Pinterest and LinkedIn efforts, download our complimentary whitepaper, Beyond the Big 3: 5 Killer Strategies to Dominate LinkedIn and Pinterest. To learn more about how to boost your brand's success on Pinterest and LinkedIn, download our recent white paper, Five Killer Strategies to Dominate Social Media's Big 3: Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Have you seen success from LinkedIn or Pinterest? We want to hear about it. Tweet your story to @AwarenessTips.

Pinning Your Hopes On Social Media Posted: 25 Jun 2012 07:00 AM PDT This is the second post in a series of posts dedicated to the Quick Service Industry (QSR). I previously wrote about 5 excellent reasons to get on board with franchising in 2012. Today, I'm discussing pinning your hopes on social media. Enjoy! It's not enough in today's culturally and socially aware market to provide customers in the QSR industry with a superior product; they want more. Consumers in today's day and age want deals, coupons, and they want the best possible product for the least amount of money they can possibly spend. They also want their opinions to be heard and treated with respect. It's true that's how it's always been in the QSR world but the only difference is that QSR franchise owners of yesteryears didn't have to worry about their business or product being panned or badmouthed on the World Wide Web through various social media outlets. One day we lived in a world where Facebook or Twitter didn't exist; next we shifted into living in a world where we can't go a day without being logged into our Facebook or Twitter accounts. That's just how quickly social media blew up! The thing is that if you play your cards right and monitor what's being said about your company through Twitter feeds or Facebook pages you can use that to reach a very large audience and potentially lure new consumers to your QSR franchise who see your company as being tech savvy and with the times. [Related: People are 71% More Likely to Purchase Based on Social Media Referrals] If your QSR franchise is already using Twitter or Facebook to reach people instantly on the web you should then focus your attention to the latest social media trend: Pinterest. For those of you unaware of Pinterest it's a social network that lets users "pin" interesting online items onto "boards." Basically, Pinterest is all about using visuals instead of texts to share what they're into. Facebook and Twitter came out of nowhere and so too has Pinterest, to the tune of almost 12 million unique monthly visitors; users are on Pinterest more than Twitter and other social media outlets other than Facebook and Tumblr, according to comScore research. If you're a QSR franchise owner and haven't set up a Pinterest account yet you should highly consider it as you can use it to let fans of your QSR franchise interact with you and other fans about such topics as favorite products, where the best location of a particular franchise is, what qualities they want in their products and so on. You need to stay on top of your social media accounts because it builds up brand awareness and any positive awareness of your QSR franchise can only lead to good things. Of course you have to be active and engaged on your Pinterest account for it to be buzzworthy so make sure you're not one of those lame corporations that starts a social media account only for it to be dormant. If you use the social media tools at your dispersal to your advantage then you can look forward to a thriving and hip QSR franchise.

5 Tips To Increasing Your Website Traffic Posted: 25 Jun 2012 06:35 AM PDT Tips For Traffic! When a business owner builds a website sometimes they are under the impression that if they build it, someone will find it automatically. But, this is not true. It's important to ensure that you build your site with getting traffic in mind. The fact is, if you want more targeted traffic to your website, you can have it as long as you create a plan and follow it, adapting along the way. These are just a few of the ways to get and keep traffic that I cover in my new report, "Traffic Building System: How to Get More Targeted Traffic to Your Website". The first rule is to realize that getting targeted website traffic is almost all about website content, but it is also about building a user friendly and search engine friendly website. Beyond the technical know-how it's also important that you have enthusiasm for your business model as well as the drive to do what need to be done. Whether you do it all yourself, or you outsource much of the work, it does not matter. What matters, is sticking to something that has been proven to work for the tasks at hand. Also important is understanding how a website gets traffic. Search engines often change how they rank websites so you cannot ever count on what works today to work tomorrow when it comes to certain activities. But, you can count on the fact that good, informative, engaging, keyword rich content will always be an important component in your website if you want targeted traffic. You can also count on your relationships with both your site's community and the larger niche community. You should be proud of the content that you provide your visitors on your website. There are little extra touches you can add to make the content that is on your website even more attractive to humans, and search engines alike. Create Compelling Headlines — While your headlines should entice the reader to look further, the headline also needs to contain keywords and immediately grab the reader. Have the keywords in the beginning of the title if possible because that is how the search engines look at your website. However, don't neglect a awesome headline just because it is not keyword rich. Headlines become your tweets and social share titles so it's important that they be impactful. Get Shared — Use social share buttons and good calls to action to encourage your readers to not only read and comment but also to share their content with your friends. This helps create social momentum and social proof that further encourage others to share the content. Provide a variety of ways to share your content to your readers but don't provide TOO many which is both overwhelming and slows down the site. Pay particular attention to avoid any floating style button set that is not mobile compatible or your mobile visitors will not have any buttons at all! Write Informative Descriptions — If you don't have a plugin for your website to write a description about each piece of content you add to your website then get one. It's easy if you use WordPress.org! Grab the WordPress SEO by Yoast plugin (and ditch the outdated AIO SEO plugin.) Remember that if you want the beginning of the description to be full of accurate keywords (don't just stuff them in there) and to describe your content well. If you don't have a plugin keep in mind that search engine picks up the description from content towards the top of the website. You can learn more about WordPress SEO here! Continually Add Great Content — You need to add great content to your website on a very regular basis. Most experts agree that adding a new keyword rich blog post at least three to five times a week is an important, if not the most important component to getting more targeted traffic to your website. There are a variety of ways of creating strong content regularly including original posts, edited PLR, and curated content. Make Your Site Visually Appealing — With the recent changes to SEO, a visually delightful site is more important than ever. Your site must pass the "would I trust this site with my credit card numbers" test if it wants to be favored by Google. Visual design is now more a part of SEO than it's ever been before! Additionally, the site must have strong, well-structured navigation. If Google's little spider aka GoogleBot gets lost on your site, a visitor will too! Click Here to Learn 7 additional tips to build traffic to your site here. When you visit a new site, what attracts you to stay, read, and share?

5 Lessons From Penn State’s Social Media Crisis Communications Fail Posted: 25 Jun 2012 06:25 AM PDT The verdict is out. On June 22, 2012, Jerry Sandusky was found guilty on 45 of 48 charges of sexual abuse to children. He faces a sentence of potentially hundreds of years in prison. But what about Penn State? How – or will – they ever be able to repair their once good name and begin to pick themselves off the ground? This is a big question. One that will depend on Penn State's actions from here on out. Looking back, Penn State made so many irresponsible and unwise decisions since the unfolding of the scandal – as many companies and organizations do in a crisis – that, had they responded differently, could have potentially separated the University from the scandal entirely. The Penn State Crisis could have been titled the "Paterno Scandal" or "The Curley and Schultz coverup", rather than the "Penn State Crisis" or the "Penn State Scandal". Looking at it from a social media standpoint (being a social media crisis manager and all!), there are so many actions and strategies Penn State could have – and should have – put into place that would have helped to cushion their fall. Looking back on Penn State's Social Media Crisis Fails First and foremost, Penn State chose to never once address the entire – or even a portion of – the crisis via social media. With social media endlessly buzzing about it for months on end, and with the public curious to know the University's position, this decision to do nothing and to stay silent was the worst thing that Penn State could have chosen to do. Although they allowed comments and remarks to be posted as comments to their own posts (and boy were comments posted!), they did not allow for comments to be directly posted to their timeline. At this point, thousands of comments have been posted to their channels, both supporting and attacking the University. And although their audience was screaming their want for open and two-way communication, Penn State stayed silent. How else can you further implicate yourself or your brand in a scandal? It's as though their silence begged for their implication, and as a result, the University has many long hours, days, weeks and potentially years of damage control ahead of them. With their core audience screaming their want for open communication, the University would have been wise to open up that portal. To develop a core and consistent message, as well as a strategy and guidelines for responding, would have helped them position their brand as caring, responsive, open and, most importantly, separate from the scandal. The actions of a few individuals should not put the entire organization at risk, though they allowed it to have these kinds of repercussions. It was the public who named the scandal the "Penn State Crisis", and this was a product of poor crisis communications. What Penn State should have done differently on social media in response to the crisis Address the situation Penn State should have immediately addressed the situation the second it went public. Real-time communication is both key and appreciated in a crisis – especially one of this magnitude. They should have been open and honest about the charges and developed a consistent message that separated the University and the Football program as a whole, from the scandal and individuals being accused. Put a social media crisis team in place With all the comments and questions flooding their social media channels, Penn State would have been wise to develop a team of social media monitors and communicators. This team would have been responsible for actively monitoring the online discussions and communicating and responding to comments and questions, 24/7. Develop a clear and consistent message They had no message other than silence – and silence is a very loud message. Penn State should have immediately developed a clear, honest and consistent message, as well as a strategy for communicating it efficiently across their many social platforms. Choose a spokesperson A spokesperson should have been titled for their crisis communications, period. And this spokesperson's message should have been communicated and uploaded across their active social media networks on a regular basis. Empower social media personnel Penn State instructed their staff to stay silent on social media. They were not permitted to post anything in direct relation with the scandal. Instead, their staff – who had proven to do so well on social media for the University in the past – should have been empowered and instructed on how, when and where to respond and post about the scandal. They had all the tools and advantages at their disposal Penn State had loyal fans and active communities. They had people interacting with them who wanted to believe in them. They were surrounded with brand advocates who would have helped and come to their defense in a heart beat. These are all powerful tools that Penn State could have and should have used to their advantage. But they didn't and look at where they are today. Paying hundreds of thousands of dollars a month to repair the damage caused by their inaction. What's your opinion? Having watched the scandal unfold, and perhaps having been a Penn State supporter, what do you think of the way the University handled their crisis communications, and do you think they will be able to redeem themselves? Share your comments with me below! * Click here to read Penn State's official statement, released after the verdict on June 22nd 2012.

Choose The Best Social Media Marketing Channel For Your Small Business Posted: 25 Jun 2012 06:13 AM PDT In order to advance your small business, you need to stay up to date on current trends and continue to innovate.   A powerful and effective way to amplify your marketing mix and generate new business is social network marketing.  Establishing a social media presence for your business is vitally important.  Effective social network marketing necessarily entails creating and sharing information-rich content.  There are a number of popular social networks, which are effective channels to share content, create a following and effectively market your business.  If you are new to marketing on social networks, Facebook, Twitter,LinkedIn and Google+ are the networks you should initially focus on.  Add these networks to your marketing mix to augment your marketing strategy and increase your bottom line. Facebook Marketing on Facebook allows companies to reach over 900 million users, who spend an average of 24 minutes a day on the network.  Facebook has a visitor-to-conversion ratio of 0.77%. Facebook Ads enable marketers to create engaging and socially relevant ads. Sponsored Stories are another option, which allow marketers to amplify the distribution of their content that Facebook users have shared with their friends. When someone posts on Facebook that they have "checked-in" at your business, their friends may see this update in their News Feeds.  Sponsored stories can be purchased to increase the distribution of these stories among the friends of people who interact—by "liking," commenting on content, participating in discussion or "checking in"—with your company's Facebook Page.  Sponsored stories have the ability to increase your reach exponentially. Twitter Twitter enables companies to reach over 6 hundred million users, who spend an average of 7 minutes a day on the site.  Twitter has a visitor-to-conversion ratio of .69%.  With Tweets, you can create and share small, concise yet engaging pieces of content—including links to your website and blog content—that are information-rich and socially relevant. Being a successful Tweeter requires genuine enthusiasm, authenticity, transparency and active engagement and involvement.  Send direct messages or shout-out tweets to personally thank followers who share your tweets, comment on or answer questions about your business.  Sending thanks is polite and will help get conversations going.  Do not only broadcast your own content.  Instead, actually converse and really listen to your fellow Tweeters.  If someone new "follows" or subscribes to your business, reciprocate by "following back." Responsiveness and true engagement with your audience will increase your reach on Twitter. LinkedIn LinkedIn is the world's largest professional network with over 160 million users, who spend an average of 7 minutes a day on the network.  LinkedIn has a visitor-to-lead conversion ratio of 2.74%, which is outstanding and greatly outranks the conversion rates of Facebook and Twitter. Make use of the many available applications to showcase content on your LinkedIn profile, including:Events, SlideShare and Polls.  Post status updates frequently—with links and keywords—that will direct your LinkedIn connections to your website content and other related information.  Join groups and participate in discussions.  Be responsive and take your feedback seriously.  Cater your shared content to your target audience; knowing and understanding your audience is invaluable. Google+ Google is the most highly trafficked website in the world, attracting over a billion visitors each month.  Google+ has over 170 million active users, who spend 5 minutes on the site daily.  Google Plus Pages for Business (GPPB) are easy to navigate and can generate increased traffic at the top of lead funnels and amplify engagement opportunities.  With Direct Connect, searching "+ your company name" on Google leads potential clients right to your GPPB page. Sharing useful, informative content with keywords and links is a must.  However, Google+ is also image-centric, so share plenty of engaging photos to spotlight your business.  Google+ is strongly linked to and powered by Google Search, so having a GPPB page will significantly advance your company's search ranking and results on Google as a whole.  With the immense popularity of Google, revolutionary targeting and streamlined design, Google+ is a robust channel for targeted online marketing. Get Started Effective social network marketing is informative, entertaining, engaging and responsive.  Sharing interesting, information-rich content is essential.  Remember to be social—get involved, truly engage and directly converse with people on social networks in order to achieve an increased ROI from your social network marketing.  The summer is a great time to reenergize your company's social media presence. The more social media channels you utilize to showcase your content, the better.  Experiment and determine which channels work best for your business.  For more advice on social media marketing, check out Do Your Twitter Followers Know Whether You Can Fog A Mirror? and How To Build A LinkedIn Presence That Generates Leads.  If you would like help, Innovative Marketing Resources is available to create and maintain a targeted social media marketing campaign.

Is Orkut Still Popular In India? Posted: 25 Jun 2012 05:00 AM PDT Vincenzo Cosenza updates his 'world map of social networks' twice a year. The edition of June 2012 was published yesterday as reported by The Next Web. According to TNW, Vincenzo has taken 137 countries into consideration while preparing the report and he does with the help of Alexa and Google Trends for finding the websites traffic data. As you can see in the above image, Facebook has its presence felt more or less in the entire world. Out of 137 countries, Facebook is the leading social network in 126 countries and Europe is the largest continent on Facebook with 232 million users, says Vincenzo. Along with Facebook, V Kontakte and Odnoklassniki are dominant in Russian speaking countries like Tencent's QZone is the leader in China. Zing, Drauglem and Cloob are preferred in Vietnam, Latvia and Iran respectively. TNW also shares a table that lists the top three social networks in selected countries: The data provided for India states that Facebook and LinkedIn at number one and two respectively, which are not really surprising. However, it is interesting to see that Orkut is still one of the popular networks in India and has been ranked at the third position. Unofficially we are aware that Orkut is no more the most active social network in India and as confirmed by Vincenzo, the study has been done on total number of users. Some time back, TCS had published a comprehensive school level survey that highlighted how the young generation is adopting various social networking sites. The survey included Indian children between the ages of 12 and 18. It was conducted in 12 cities and over 12,300 students participated as it, as was reported by Trak.in. The survey, which took account of metros and non-metros shared that 85% have registered on Facebook and 43% have also registered on Orkut. Surprisingly, Orkut stands at the second position ahead of Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. Is Orkut still popular? I don't think it is still popular but may have the user base, although inactive. Both the reports account for the total number of users and not the active users. Why Orkut is still alive and how Google wants to integrate it with Google Plus, is a story that is yet under covers, although Pluggd.in had reported some time back that now you can connect your Google Plus with Orkut. Apart from this news , nothing much has happened in Orkut in terms of feature upgradation. So we will have to wait and watch to see what happens with Orkut. Meanwhile, do you think Orkut will phase out with time or we may have some surprises in the near future? Slider image courtesy: blog.superstarvinayak.info

Storifying Your Story Posted: 25 Jun 2012 04:00 AM PDT As many of my regular readers know, I am completely in favor of reusing good content in new and existing ways to increase the visibility of that content on the Web. If you've been reading me for some time now, you'll also know that I believe in being a Go Giver. I don't mean to hurt anyone's feelings, but when you're in business or marketing a product, it's not about you. The key to success is in the relationships you build, and the value you provide. That can turn into a lot of work if you think you need to do something different for each person you connect with. But sometimes, if a gift is thoughtful, the same thing can be given to multiple people. Now I'm not talking about giving all of your friends and family the Leg Lamp from A Christmas Story. I'm talking about giving them something they can use at their convenience and to their benefit; something that when they're done, they think of you with gratitude. Many of my author clients find themselves in positions where they are interviewed on radio, they speak at a conference, or participate in TweetChats. For many people, once the material goes "out into the Ether," that's it. The moment has passed and it's on to the next project. Yet, these days, radio content and conference materials have their own designated Twitter hastag or are shared on Facebook and other platforms. (For more on how hashtags work, check out Hashtags Demystified.) Sometimes the conversations move so quickly, it can be hard to thread all the information together in a way that's easy to understand, though. Or if you're at a conference, you may want to offer a conference momento with photos, tweets, and video content from the best speakers. Generosity is rewarded time-and-time again. Taking the extra few minutes to show that you enjoyed the experience and were thankful to participate generates warm feelings directed toward you. So, what to do, what to do? There's a tool that can help you repurpose that material, and shape it into a format that fellow participants will enjoy, and those who weren't there can still feel like they were part of the experience! The answer is Storify. This site allows you to pull in content from Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Instagram, Google, and to embed a URL. You can add the content to your story in any order you choose, including creating actual threads for the conversations that took place in all these sources. You can also add your own text to the story, and be as creative as you'd like with it! If there are off-topic conversations taking place, you can leave those out of the story to create a tight and useful resource for your readers. When you're done, publish the story and Storify will prompt you to notify any of the featured contributors to the story. You can also add anyone else you'd like to have notified as well, which makes it easier for the story to reach a broader audience. I recently participated in a #BookPro TweetChat. We had some great lines of conversation going all at once. Storifying the content (like my new verb?) enabled me to reorder the conversations into easy-to-read snapshots. Now, I could have stopped there, and just shared it with those whom I notified directly. But Storify lets me take it even further. I can then export my story to a number of different platforms, including WordPress (both free and self-hosted sites), Tumblr, Drupal, Posterous and MailChimp. Alternatively, I can use the embed code to add the story to my own site. This allows me to share the content with the rest of my network via my blog and mailing list. So, the next time you're creating content, whether it's live or online, give some thought to how you can create a larger audience reusing that content. After all, we all know how time-intensive it can be to create something from scratch. So, why not leverage existing content to the fullest extent, and then continue to share new, great content from there! In the meantime, enjoy my #BookPro story! And if you're an author looking for more great ideas like this, you may want to purchase my eBook The Plan that Launched a Thousand Books. [View the story "Featured Tweaker on #BookPro TweetChat" on Storify]

G is for Google! Posted: 24 Jun 2012 11:05 PM PDT Google is everywhere and is certainly a major part of my online life. You could almost do a complete A-Z just on Google itself from Google Apps, Google AdWords, Google Analytics (certainly a lot of A's!), Google Chrome, Google Drive, Google Doodles (which I love), Google Images, Google Keywords, Google Maps to Google Voice, Google Wallet and loads of others. The list is endless and I even found Google Zoo, though I'm not sure it has anything to do with Google! The fact is that Google is the new Yellow Pages and 65% of the 131 billion searches on the web per month were done through Google sites, according to market research by Comscore (May 2011). Google+ was launched in the middle of last year (though it seems to have been around for ages but that's social media for you!). It was interesting to see how little hype there was before Google+ launched and this approach may have contributed to its initial popularity. Everyone wanted a Google+ invite! Google doesn't describe Google+ as a social media network but as "a platform which allows us to bring social elements into all the services and products that we offer". It reached 25 million users incredibly fast, in less than one month, which made it the fastest-growing social platform EVER. It started with only personal profiles then in November 2011 it launched its business pages. As with Facebook, you will need a personal profile first and from there it is easy to follow the steps to 'Create a Page'. For those who haven't had a look, Google+ is based around +Circles which allow you to share updates and information with only groups of people you select, unlike Facebook where your updates go out to anyone who is your 'friend'. This is handy if you want to keep work, specific information and personal stuff separate instead of sharing it with everyone in your network. Creating a Circle is really easy and adding a person to them is also very simple (drag and drop!). You can place people in more than one Circle and they can't see which circle you've added them to, so if you want to add them to your 'NEVER DARKEN MY DOOR' circle they'll be none the wiser! I personally have to confess to having done very little with Google+ as the initial euphoria died down very quickly as other social media platforms were launched. This chart from January 2012 shows a comparison with Pinterest and Facebook (courtesy of Hubspot): BUT (and it is a big one!), as one of my mentors pointed out to me last week, it is Google and as such strategically can have a significant positive effect on your SEO ranking. You will need to use it as you would any other social media platform to really see the benefits. I'll now be looking to build my Google+ fan base, engage with fans and post great content and recommend that you give it a go too!

19 Revelations From A Social Media Marketing Blogger Posted: 24 Jun 2012 04:11 PM PDT When I discovered social media for the first time and saw its potential as a marketing medium to amplify content, spread stories and brand messages, I was excited. Social media became my shiny new toy. Four years later after logging onto Facebook for the first time, I am still as passionate as ever about social networks and the democratization to marketing and publishing that they bring. Is Ignorance Bliss? Many businesses are now discovering its potential. What still astounds me though is that many business owners and marketers still do not realize the marketing horsepower that social media provides that can accelerate their global brand discovery. Maybe it is a generational issue or just plain ignorance and contentment with the status quo. The challenge for the social media naysayer's though is that new "upstarts" are disrupting their business models and threatening to put them out of business. A few years of ignorance could turn into a lifetime of business extinction. The Interview This is an interview that I had recently with the print magazine "Search Marketing Standard" which was published in their summer edition. It is now online here for tweeting, Google plussing and Facebook and LinkedIn sharing. This interview content has now been set free to be powered by low friction sharing and accelerated by global social networks. Question #1. Your blog (at jeffbullas.com) has a very large following that you've built over the last two-plus years. Why did you choose to focus on social media instead of some other aspect of marketing online? Answer: On discovering Facebook, then Twitter I realised that social media was topic that intrigued me and I then became passionate about social networks. I also felt that on seeing people's obsession with the medium that it was something I couldn't ignore and would be a game changer to marketing and online publishing. Question #2. You've grown your readership and following enormously. How about some details of your reach? And what would you say was the single most important thing you did to influence that growth? Answer: Twitter has so far been my biggest social network to distribute my articles and content globally and I initially concentrated on Twitter and built up a targeted and focused following and today I have over 100,000 followers. I also use a Facebook page where I have nearly 10,000 fans. After joining those 2 social networks, I then started my blog and today I have over 300,000 page views and 170,000 unique readers every month that read my blog posts. I also use platforms such as Slideshare where I have over 130,000 views of my presentations that I have presented as keynotes to international events and conferences in countries including Turkey, Italy and New Zealand. Question #3. In January of this year, you made the Top 50 social media power influencers on Forbes.com, coming in at an impressive #14. I know Forbes used a complex formula (from PeekYou's social pull metric) to figure out who should make the cut, but what do you personally think makes your content so appealing? What do you offer that other social media bloggers don't? Answer: It was an honour to be selected by Forbes and it was a pleasant surprise. I have worked hard at making my content helpful and relevant by listening to my readers to see what resonates and is shared the most. One of the objectives I set out to achieve is to solve problems and provide a lot of "How to" articles. Also a very important key to make it appealing is to write headlines that make people click through to my articles as this is the first important step in the process of obtaining interest and readers. Also 2 important elements that I address that is often different to other bloggers is that my content is very focused and about what my readers want and like and not about me. Question #4. You're based in Australia, while most of our readers are located in North America. Can you give us a couple of examples of some social media campaigns in Australia that you found particularly impressive and influential? Answer: One campaign that was very effective was the one run for Tourism Queensland. Titled "The Best Job in the World" The results were impressive . The concept was simple: post a one-minute video application on Tourism Queensland's Web site explaining why you should be chosen as caretaker of Hamilton Island on the Great Barrier Reef and you might get to blog and cam your way through a six-month gig that paid about $100K U.S. The story broke with a Reuters placement around sunrise in Australia on January 12, 2009. By breakfast time in London, AP was interviewing Tourism Queenslands's UK director for a broadcast package that turned up on the morning shows in the U.S. Within two days there were 1,100 TV placements in the U.S. alone In 30 hours they had 400, oo0 new visitors. The goal was to get 400,000 new visitors to it's website (www.islandreefjob.com) over the course of the one-year campaign One million hits on the second day The million hits crashed the site When they brought it back up it was hosted on 10 Web servers, the maximum number of servers possible Approximately 34,684 people from more than 200 countries applied for the job of Island Caretaker More reading: How To Run A Successful Social Media Marketing Campaign: Case Study The second one that impressed me was for the National Australia Bank The NAB bank is one of the largest banks in Australia and they tweeted the following tweet that appeared to be a mistake by a junior community manager. It was in fact part of an integrated social media and traditional marketing strategy to get people to break with their current bank and to create buzz about their new competitive pricing across a range of their banking products that they were offering to the market . The Results Across the various social networks the Twitter campaign created 66% of all banking conversations online In three weeks they had a 20% increase in transaction accounts 50% increase in credit card applications 35% increase in mortgage enquiries 45% in mortgage re-finance applications More reading: 10 Twitter Marketing Tips Question #5. As someone who started out blogging awhile back, do you think that blogging is in danger of becoming irrelevant? As more and more social media properties come onto the scene, is the audience getting fragmented by too many online properties trying to get their attention? Answer: I don't think blogging is becoming irrelevant but evolving. What we have now is a whole range of blogging options such as microblgging "Twitter" and social media platforms such as "Tumblr". Creating a Facebook "Page" is also a blogging option now that is easy to use and very public and is multimedia rich. Currently there are over 155 million blogs so I don't think it is going away any time soon. You just have more options on what platform to use. Question #6. What about Google Plus? The recent redesign release seems to be pitting Google even more against Facebook than ever before, with an emphasis on the visual and a look that has a lot of similar features to Facebook. Do you think Google can steal the scene from Facebook? Answer: The challenge for Google is that Facebook has become the defacto standard for a persons online identity and interaction. I think Google+ has placed healthy competition which has improved the entire social networking landscape and ecosystem and made Facebook improve its product. Don't underestimate Google+ as it is firstly owned by Google wjho has very deep pockets and sees Google+ as "core" to its online strategy including search. Question #7. How do you think the increasing emphasis on the visual will mesh with the focus on original and useful content that is the cornerstone of Google's notion of "authority" ranking? It is obvious that the increasing popularity of the visual medium on the web will change how online platforms are designed and function. Google's challenge is to remain relevant on an increasingly social web and the launch of Google+ (which cost over $500 million to design and develop) is evidence of how seriously Google is treating social. The integration of the +1 button that allows people to vote on the content and links will determine what content Google ranks high in search engines whether it be visual such as YouTube ( a Google property) or Picasa (a Google image and photo social media site). Google is treating the "social signals generated as core to its technology across all platforms. Question #8. Recent studies have shown that we don't trust Facebook insofar as our privacy is concerned, much less understand its privacy settings, yet we continue to flock to it and increase our participation. Why are we ignoring this? Should people be expected to read and understand a mile-long TOS to avoid future problems with unexpected use of their data? Answer: We ignore the privacy problem because social networks provide so many other benefits. People are now treating this type of communication as vital as a phone or texting. It is still early days and people will adapt to it's the challenges and nuances over time. Technology is changing fast but humans are slow to change. Question #9. Do you have a prediction on the next big thing coming from a social media property? Answer: I don't know what it will look like but it will embrace two key elements. It will be highly "visual" and "mobile". Instagram is maybe a hint of what is to come. Now let's turn to questions more closely related to businesses and social media. Question #10. In your opinion, does social media suit some business goals better than others? What should be the ultimate goal of social media participation for businesses? Is it to create awareness, drive traffic to your website, sell product, branding, or something entirely different? Answer: Businesses have different goals they want from each element of marketing. It is no different for social media as it is just another marketing tool and medium. Marketing fundamentals still apply. For some brand awareness is paramount for others it is increased sales. Any marketing strategy and the resulting tactics should keep in mind the 2 key fundamentals. The target audience The goals Social media is not a magic bullet and should be used where appropriate just like Television, radio or email marketing Question #11. With so many different social media outlets demanding we interact with them for the sake of our businesses, how should a business owner decide which one(s) to should concentrate on? Answer: Business should focus on what social media networks where their customers and prospects are engaging on. For a simple example Pinterest is highly used by women so fashion and cooking are relevant and appropriate. Question #12. If you had to identify just one benefit of participating in social media for the typical small business, what would it be and why? Answer: The major benefit is and why social media so potent: It's ability to amplify word-of-mouth effects. Why is this important? Because it is efficient and effective channel and can lead to "cut through" of a brand on a crowded web of 550 million websites. Standing out and being everywhere is vital. Question #13. What is the biggest mistake you think small businesses make with social media? Answer: The biggest mistake is not having a strategy or a plan with appropriate resources allocated. Just because it is social doesn't mean it is free. Itg requires funding to resource it and run it just like any other proper marketing. Question #14. The new Facebook timeline is now reality. Do you see this as a positive move for businesses marketing themselves via Facebook? Or is it going to make it more difficult? Answer: It's still early days and some sites are reporting a lowering of engagement but I think that everyone is still working it out. I think the secret might may be to take advantage of its stronger visual design. That wil mean sourcing and using more compelling and shareable images and photos to communicate. Question #15. As a follow-up, how do you think Facebook is going to handle the dichotomy between people using it as a social network and those trying to do business via it? Is the boundary between the two going to further blur? Answer: Facebook is trying to maintain a similar theme and common ecosystem between pages and profiles. It is creating an ecosystem that has the ability for common functionality but allowing the outsourcing of app development for business and personal to provide a diverse and rich and evolving social networking and mobile ecosystem that works for both. Question #16. In your opinion, are companies making good use of the synergy between social, mobile, and local? Answer: I think that the synergy between social, mobile and local (eg Foursqaure) is still at embryonic stage and yet to reach critical mass. So at this stage it is highly experimental. Question #17. With so many conflicting calls on time and money, should businesses be focusing more on one of these three (social, mobile, local) now? How does this fit with the volatile nature of social media, where it seems as if just as you begin to see some movement from your development of a particular social media property, another one eclipses it totally. Answer: Social is where the focus should be currently as it is much more mature. Local and mobile marketing are not at a mature stage yet to warrant large marketing investment. They should be monitored though to ensure that as they develop you can take advantage of them. Question #18. What do you think is the biggest challenge for business in 2012 insofar as social media marketing is concerned? How does this answer differ for large corporations versus small ones? The biggest challenge is finding people with enough experience and skill to know what to do. There are a lot of so called experts in social media that don't really understand it but profess to. Question #19. A final question. If you had to choose just one social media product to integrate with a business today, which would it be? Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, something different? Answer: Just choosing one social media product is not advisable. Multi channel marketing provides synergy and leverage that is more than the sum of the parts. Your target audience will prefer a range of different media and networks so that you can reach the largest audience. Some prefer watching a video on YouTube, others would rather read an article on your blog and a lot will want to access your content from Facebook. Don't put all your social media eggs in one basket. Create and publish your content at your hub (website and blog) and distribute it out to your audience where they hangout (and each business is different). This includes the social network outposts of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Slideshare, Pinterest and LinkedIn to name the top six. Image by jez.atkinson

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