18 New Social Articles on Business 2 Community |
- Drupal SEO: The Best How-to, With Bonus SEO Tips and Tricks, for Drupal Webmasters
- Social Media Monitoring Tutorial in Plain English – Future of Engagement
- 1 Simple Trick to Spread Your YouTube Video Like a Virus
- Five Ways to Make Money with a WordPress Blog
- The Importance of Integrating Social Media Marketing
- WordPress Plugins I Like
- Top Web Design Influencers to Follow on Twitter
- Step Away from the Mirror: 8 Tasks That will Improve You and Your Business
- Time For You To Shine Online!
- Using @Zemanta For SEO Link Relevancy (And Taking Care of Your Neighbor)
- Add Your Headshot to Google Search Results Pages
- No Thank You On Twitter, Please: 5 Top Alternatives
- 20 Interesting Facts, Figures and Statistics Revealed by Facebook
- So A Slam Dunk! The 2012 Social Slam Delivers All Day Long
- Why I’m Hoping for Fewer Link Exchange Requests
- Do Not Be Another Facebook Like Exchange Victim
- The Most Important Words In Social Media
- Using Klout and Social Scoring for Sales and Marketing Teams
| Drupal SEO: The Best How-to, With Bonus SEO Tips and Tricks, for Drupal Webmasters Posted: 30 Apr 2012 03:20 PM PDT “How good is Drupal for SEO?” The answer: great Drupal SEO is easy to implement with the right SEO strategy, information and modules. However, Drupal makes it easy to shoot yourself in the proverbial SEO foot at the same time, so you have to be careful. Fundamentally, Drupal is a great SEO friendly platform. With the right information about how and where to tweak Drupal for SEO, you can have a lean, mean SEO machine that outperforms and out-competes your competitors. This article will quickly explore the must-have Drupal SEO friendly modules, and also look at some less well-known Drupal specific SEO issues that might help leapfrog your site to the front of the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). Must have Drupal SEO modulesDrupal 6 and Drupal 7 have a number of great SEO features built into the core. However, there are several modules that are vital to excellent Drupal SEO performance: Nodewords & Meta TagsNodeWords (Drupal 6) and Meta Tag (Drupal 7) provide hugely important META SEO (off-page) content. In particular, you are able to configure and automate the meta keywords and description tags, as well as specify a canonical URL for each page. Canonical URLs are extremely useful because they help the search engines to decide which version of a page is the most important one (in the even of duplicates). Global RedirectGlobal redirect is IMHO, one of the most important SEO modules available. It provides a host of important functionality that helps to:
Instead of having multiple URL paths that all serve the same page (Drupal’s default behavior – i.e. node/123, node/123/, node/path-alias, node/path-alias/, node/PATH-ALIAS, etc), Global redirect ensures that all variants of the same content are redirected to one URL. Path & PathautoPath is part of the Drupal core, and can be extended using Pathauto to automatically generate SEO and user friendly URL aliases. Absolutely vital for SEO, and far more useful than the default node ID paths. More about how to use Path with Token for SEO a bit later. Search 404Search 404 is a useful little module that returns search data for URL paths that are not found. In effect, it provides SEO keyword based content instead of a 404 error. BoostBoost is a must-have for any site that has predominantly anonymous traffic. Boost creates static cache pages and bypasses Drupal’s processing for valid cached pages, improving your website page serving speed drastically. Since page load speed is an important factor in SEO, Boost is now crucial. XML SitemapXML Sitemap allows you to easily create a sitemap that can uploaded into Google Webmaster tools, and other search engines, to help them better crawl your website. This module can help get your content indexed much quicker. SEO checklistSEO Checklist provides a helpful and handy checklist of modules you should have installed for SEO purposes, and activities you should perform to ensure that your site meets most SEO best practices for Drupal. Drupal SEO tips and tricksTweaking Drupal paths for SEODid you know that you can use the Path module to automatically rewrite URL aliases using tokens (requires the Token module)? This is hugely beneficial for SEO purposes. For example, you might want to rewrite the standard “content/” path with a taxonomy term. This would place content tagged with “marketing” into a path that always includes that SEO term (i.e. http://www.siteprebuilder.com/marketing/marketing-article) – far more useful than “content“. .htaccess 301 redirectsIt helps to know a bit about your .htaccess file. Usually the version you want to work on is found in the public folder (the root of your web directory). Make sure you set your server to redirect to either version of your domain (as shown here for Site prebuilder): Try clicking on each version of the link. Both will end up at http://www.siteprebuilder.com. This helps avoid duplicate content penalties because, from Google’s perspective, these URL could be completely different sites. Blocking stub pages with robots.txtGoogle, and other search engines, don’t like stub pages – pages that don’t contain much content, if any. You might not think you have any, but it’s easy for Drupal to create plenty without your knowledge. For example, are people allowed to create user accounts on your site? If so, then each user has a user page. If they don’t fill out their profile, most of those user pages will be indexed by Google as “stub pages. Without knowing it, you could have hundreds of stub pages harming your PageRank. There are plenty of other ways to build up stub pages in Drupal. You have to be vigilant. Writing SEO content for DrupalAssuming you have the NodeWords or Meta Tag modules installed, then you should always write your blog post or web page titles with SEO keywords in mind. In addition, since the first few sentences of any blog post will automatically be included as the page’s meta description, which is often return as part of search results, you need it to be something that attracts readers attention, and includes important SEO keywords. Read “Anatomy of a blog post: How to get more traffic and social engagement from your content” for more information on how to write killer, SEO enhanced blog posts in Drupal. Canonical URLs vs. robots.txtWhenever possible, use canonical URLs to indicate which page the search engines should rate the highest, instead of blocking duplicates. Google prefers to crawl all content so it knows more about your website. It understands there may be some innocent duplication, and, if it knows which is the canonical URL, it won’t penalize you. Disallow search engines access to paths and content that you know it should never need to crawl – like the user login page (you don’t want the google spider to open an account, do you?). Pass SEO juice with 301 redirectsIf you decide to change the structure of your website in any way, be sure to use 301 redirects (in your .htaccess file) to redirect links from the old URLs to the new ones. This will help to prevent google from treating the newly structured content as if it were actually new. It also helps to prevent referral traffic (that links to the old URLs) from being sent to ‘404, page not found‘ pages on your site. Be wary of Google’s Panda & Penguin SEO algorithm updatesThe following articles will help you understand more about how to create SEO enhanced content (or how to find an SEO to do it for you) without running the risk of being penalized by Google’s new over-optimization or webspam algorithms:
I could go on and on. However, implementing everything mentioned in this article will set your business blog or website a long way down the right path to SEO success. My own organic search traffic has doubled nearly every quarter for the last 18 months – a strong indication that the SEO strategies and policies that I implement (for myself and my clients) is both effective and acceptable to Google and the other search engines (i.e. Google’s Panda and Penguin updates actually help my blog posts bubble to the top of the SERPs). Feel free to share any additional hints, tips, and SEO tricks in the comments below. |
| Social Media Monitoring Tutorial in Plain English – Future of Engagement Posted: 30 Apr 2012 02:35 PM PDT Social media monitoring tutorial in plain English: For this week's Future of Engagement episode, host Murray Newlands has taken on a slightly different format: Social media monitoring tools. These tools help businesses listen to what their customers are saying about them on Facebook, Twitter, and blogs. They can then use this information to improve their campaigns and gauge how well people are up taking their branding efforts. Watch Murray's tutorial below: Highlights:
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| 1 Simple Trick to Spread Your YouTube Video Like a Virus Posted: 30 Apr 2012 02:25 PM PDT
Thanks to the exponential adaption of both mobile devices by consumers, video marketing is becoming hotter than ever. In fact, a recent study by Social Media Explorer found that 76% of marketers plan on increasing their use of YouTube and video marketing, making it the top area marketers will invest in for 2012. Mitchell credits one simple trick he and the gang at Warialasky used to achieve viral success: "create really engaging content, and get it out there." Sounds simple enough. As much as I'd like to pack up this blog and go get an early lunch, I think Mr. Wright is under-selling both his and the Warialasky group's efforts. In fact the rest of his post, which details what steps they actually took to attain such speedy YouTube success, highlights a number of best practices for building up your YouTube subscriber base.
Hard to argue that one. For those who think that video campaigns such as Warialasky's are of little real business value, think again. Thanks to the success of their videos, Mitchell and his friends at Warialasky have had numerous opportunities to "monetize" their success, including an offer to direct a 3-D movie in Poland, various product placement opportunities, a YouTube partnership, and multiple offers to create corporate videos. Although it's clear that Warialasky worked hard to promote their video campaigns, there is no secret formula to YouTube virility. One the contrary, as Mitchell Wright points out, the path to YouTube success is quite simple: create great content, and get it out there. Amen to that one, brother Wright. |
| Five Ways to Make Money with a WordPress Blog Posted: 30 Apr 2012 01:35 PM PDT A blog is an incredible tool for building communities, sharing information and even earning an online income. However, there is a lot of misconception and over complication when it comes to making money with a blog. This article aims to share a clear understanding of the various ways you can begin earning an online income using your WordPress blog, but at the same time each of these methods may or may not work for your site or brand. It's up to you to chose the best option that works for what you building. Method 1: Sell your own Products The best option to earn the most money with a WordPress blog is to develop and sell your own products whether they are physical, information or freelance services. A blog is the perfect platform for business because it allows you to build a steady stream of visitors which are also potential customers. Affiliate products, Adsense and direct advertising are pointing your valuable visitors to other businesses but offering your own product keeps people on your blog and creates interest around what you have to offer; there is no 'leakage'. Consider creating an eBook, video series or audio course around the type of information you talk about on your WordPress blog. Setup a sales page on your blog where people can learn about your products and complete a purchase. Offer support for your products through email, social media connections, Skype and other forms of communications; treat your online products just like any other business. My thought: This is the first and best option for anyone using their WordPress site as their business and if you haven't developed a product to sell, go now do it….or be sure to sign up for my newsletter, grab my free Top 100 Plugin report and keep and eye out for my upcoming Product Launch Program in the fall. Method 2: Amazon Associates Amazon is the largest eCommerce website on the Internet at this time; there are millions of products offered but more importantly, they offer an affiliate program which means you can earn a commission for each product sold through their website. Upon signing up for Amazon Associates, you will have access to a toolbar where you can grab an affiliate link to individual pages and products. On your blog, write blog posts around products you use in real life and link to them with your Amazon affiliate link. You will earn a commission if a person clicks through your link and buys any product on Amazon. My Thought: I often recommend that my clients sign up for an account, it's a great way to build some small additional income by recommending books and other products that you have read or used. Method 3: Affiliate Marketing Affiliate marketing is another option that is very lucrative for people wanting to earn money with their WordPress blog. Affiliate marketing, like Amazon Associates, is nothing more than selling other people's products in exchange for a commission. Two of the largest affiliate marketing marketplaces are Clickbank and Commission Junction; these websites have thousands of products in nearly every type of niche. Once you've found a product worth promoting on your blog, snag the affiliate link to the product and integrate it onto your blog by writing fresh blog posts around the product or going back through existing content to find keywords where you may link over to the product. My Thought: First if you are thinking of promoting a product on your site I always recommend you purchase the product you are promoting so you can give an honest review and recommendation. Many people use affiliate marketing as a way to make additional income. I personally use it, my recommend section of my site are all affiliate links. I always tell folks to ONLY recommend products you love and have used otherwise you'll likely come off as not authentic. Method 4: Direct Advertising The ads which you see on blogs, around the web, are generally bought by interested parties and advertisers; your blog can have these, as well. Direct advertising is loosely based around the amount of traffic and engagement you have with your audience. However, the key to earning high income with direct advertising is to build a wildly successful WordPress blog. Once you have traffic, you have the power position to demand higher prices for advertising on your website. The best locations to offer are "above the fold" which is the point that appears on-screen before a website visitor needs to scroll down for additional content; areas like the top sidebar are perfect spots to sell direct advertising. To get started, seek out potential advertisers by contacting companies you see advertising on relevant blogs on your niche. Likewise, create an 'advertising' page on your WordPress blog, with a contact form, to allow people to directly contact you and learn more about advertising options. Close the deal on your advertising and you'll be earning money with your blog! My Thought: I haven't yet used this option, but I could see it be an option at some point on my other project (Become a Techie VA), but this site not so much. Again, think about your brand, what you are offering and if it's a fit. Method 5: Google Adsense Google Adsense displays relevant ads, through their platform, on your blog after installation. Adsense is passive which means that you do not need to do any other work than to install the Adsense code and wait. You will earn a percentage of the revenue from every person that clicks on an Adsense ad on your WordPress blog. To increase your Adsense earnings, ramp up your blog traffic by creating new, interesting blog posts. Change the font size, color and type to blend with your existing design. Experiment with the placement of your Google Adsense ads throughout your website. Adsense earnings are based around how much competitors pay for keywords; writing content around these keywords will give you a higher chance for these ads to be displayed and earn you higher payments. My Thought: I don't always recommend this for my clients, but depending of your niche or site it might make sense to use this as an income generator. Always think about your branding and how your site will be seen by those who stop by. I don't recommend this as an option for anyone that is using their WordPress site as business blog and you are using it to advertise your services. In my opinion this cheapens your site and there is the danger of the loss of credibility. The potential to earn money with a WordPress blog is truly endless. The methods detailed in this article are just the tip of the "monetization iceberg"; there are dozens of ways to earn an online income with a WordPress blog especially when you realize you can combine each of these methods. |
| The Importance of Integrating Social Media Marketing Posted: 30 Apr 2012 01:22 PM PDT Social networking, via popular sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and YouTube has evolved from peer-to-peer interactions to becoming a viable relationship building tool for businesses of all sizes. In fact, Facebook alone boasts an astounding 845 million active users worldwide; further, the site accounts for one of every five page-views on the Internet worldwide. Collectively, Facebook users share more than 100 billion connections. In the United States alone, over 150 million users log onto their accounts daily. With numbers like this, social media as a whole (and Facebook in particular) is too powerful a resource for business owners to fail in developing a social media strategy to connect to their customers and potential customers. By engaging customers in meaningful interactions, businesses can effectively increase customer loyalty while providing a platform for valuable feedback to help you to better serve your customers. For instance, savvy business owners have taken to Twitter as a tool for both promotions and for answering customer complaints in real-time. YouTube nets 4 billion page views daily and has attracted business owners to this free advertising platform. Moreover, Facebook has now given business owners the flexibility of coupon marketing and special promotions to a target audience. So how do you go about integrating social media into your business marketing strategy? One of the best ways to get started is by establishing a Facebook Page. The personal profile page that many commonly refer to is simply for individuals who wish to use the free site to connect with friends, family and companies they are interested in. However, as a business owner, to comply with Facebook's Terms of Service, you must establish a Facebook Page (a simple process that is also free to use) to maintain your company's professional presence on the site. Among the Facebook Fan Page's biggest advantages is the ability to connect with an unlimited number of fans on the site. With a mere profile page, an individual is limited to 5,000 "friends." Establishing a Fan Page will also enable you to assign admins to maintain your account, so you can designate one person (or a group of people) to routinely update your Fan Page to keep fans engaged and coming back to the site. Before you begin to engage customers, it's important to define your marketing strategy to get the most from your social media efforts. Determine who your customer is, when and how they want to interact with you, and what calls to action you want to present through this platform. Regardless of the social media outlet you choose, your goal will be to relate more personally to your customers. Keep in mind that people want to do business with other people. While customers are interested in your sales promotions, they are likely to have more loyalty to businesses they feel more personally connected to. Perhaps, then, you could share business-related photos or videos, special discounts or exclusive content. Maybe you could invite Fans to a special event, to use a special discount code with their purchases or to engage in a limited time contest or promotion. Custom application developers like Rackspace can create develop relevant applications to use on your Facebook page for a fee, but the cost is, in most cases, much less than more traditional forms of advertising. Integrating social media, which has become part of the social landscape for all age groups, can be as simple as adding a plug-in or RSS Feed to your current website, blog or digital newsletter. |
| Posted: 30 Apr 2012 01:00 PM PDT
As you can potentially imagine, I am a WordPress fan. One of the biggest reasons is that you can add plugins for functionality. Here are the ones I install whenever setting up a blog for someone (or myself):
Why do I have them? What do they do?
Any major ones that I'm missing? Any functionality you think I've left out? Write a helpful comment and you'll get a special thanks/credit if/when this goes into book format. |
| Top Web Design Influencers to Follow on Twitter Posted: 30 Apr 2012 10:30 AM PDT
From an individualistic stand point, Twitter provides everyday people a way to communicate with otherwise inaccessible experts, brands or celebrities. As a web designer / developer, I use it to follow web design "web-celebrities". i find that it keeps me up to date with the latest trends, technologies and best practices. It's also really nice to connect with some of the people you aspire to in your industry. The Top Web Design Experts on TwitterJason Santa Maria @jasonsantamariaJason is the founder and principal of the design studio Mighty, creative director for Typekit, a faculty member in the MFA Interaction Design program at SVA, co-founder of A Book Apart, former vice president of AIGA/NY, founder of Typedia, a shared encyclopedia of typefaces online, and creative director for A List Apart, a magazine for people who make websites. He works with big name clients like AIGA, The Chicago Tribune, Housing Works, Miramax Films, The New York Stock Exchange, PBS, The United Nations, and WordPress focusing on designing websites that maintain a balance of beauty and usability.
Doug Bowman @stopDoug is currently the Creative Director at Twitter and runs a small consulting firm called Stopdesign. Under Stopdesign, he designed sites and applications for Google, Capgemini, Blogger, Cathay Pacific Airways, Adaptive Path, and Mighty Goods. In 2006, he put work for Stopdesign on hold to join Google as Visual Design Lead. In 2009, Bowman left Google to join Twitter as its Creative Director.
Cameron Moll @cameronmollCameron is the founder of Authentic Jobs and a well renowned freelance web designer, author and speaker. His work has been featured in HOW, Print, Communication Arts, Forrester Research publications, National Public Radio (NPR), and .net magazine.
Ethan Marcotte @beepEthan is a popular and experienced speaker, having been featured at An Event Apart, Carsonified Workshop, and South by Southwest, and co-hosts the Handcrafted CSS seminar series with Dan Cederholm.
Dave Shea @mezzoblueDave is a well known designer, speaker and influencer in the web design world. He operates a one-man studio called Bright Creative and has created designs for Joyent, Apple and New York University.
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| Step Away from the Mirror: 8 Tasks That will Improve You and Your Business Posted: 30 Apr 2012 09:10 AM PDT
Today is not about you. Oh, it could be, but it shouldn't be. Do yourself a favor today, and don't look in the mirror. You see, once you look in the mirror, you generally have one of two reactions: you either like what you see or hate what you see. And that takes you further down a path you don't need to travel. Whether you like what you see, or don't like what you see, both are dangerous. Dang, I look good. Wait, where did those wrinkles come from? Is that a gray hair I see? Boy, the ladies sure are gonna love me. I'm too fat, too thin, too old, too this, too that. We are a self-absorbed, self-obsessed people. It permeates our culture, and therefore permeates our businesses. The more time we spend looking in the mirror, the less time we spend looking around us and at others. That's not healthy. So today, no mirror. In fact, step away from anything that makes you think about yourself, and try to focus on others. When you finish here I want you to go to one of your social accounts, take a few minutes and think about others. Here are a few suggestions: 1. Celebrate – Go to Facebook and look up in the upper right hand corner of your newsfeed where the birthdays are listed. Wish one or all of the people listed a "Happy Birthday". 2. Comment – Reach out and post something on someone's Facebook wall or comment on their blog. Nicely. I know I get a smile on my face when I get that email telling me I have a comment, or see someone has written on my wall. 3. Share – Find something you like on Facebook and share it. Retweet something you like on Twitter. Repin something on Pinterest. 4. Respond – Respond to the @ replies you get on Twitter, the comments on your blog, and the comments on your Facebook page. This lets people know you're listening and care. 5. Thank – If someone shares your content on any of these platforms, offer them your gratitude. A simple "Thank you" will do. 6. Personalize – when you chat with someone on Twitter or Facebook, use their first name. 7. Recommend – Write a recommendation for someone on LinkedIn or write a review of a local business on Facebook, Yelp, or Google places. Even sharing someone's business page on Facebook is a recommendation of sorts. 8. Encourage – Send a private message to someone encouraging them, via DM, email, or Facebook message. It's one thing to do this publicly, but if we do it privately, it's more about them, and less about us getting attention for being nice. When you've done some of those things, hit the repeat button. Try doing this every day for a week. See if it changes your outlook. It might seem forced at first, but eventually it will become a part of your normal routine. In fact, why not write this on a sticky note or print it out and cut it out and put it by your computer:
And then, take it offline. As you deal with customers, clients, vendors, and anyone else around you, try to get in the habit of doing these things and putting others first. It's the little things like this that bring about change in you, and might just help change and improve the culture in your business. That's your homework assignment for the week, folks. Get to it! What other tips do you have for putting others first, while not focusing so much on yourself? |
| Posted: 30 Apr 2012 09:00 AM PDT  Photo Credit: bjorn.watland As more and more individuals become involved in professional online communities, understanding how to engage online becomes increasingly important. While most professionals develop good skills at in-person networking and idea-sharing, when they start looking to use an online group or forum to collaborate with peers the keyboard can sometimes get in the way of effective communication. Here are a few guidelines to help new members of professional communities get the most out their participation in online peer groups. Find the right online community Identifying an appropriate online peer community for your needs may take some time. There are professional communities and online groups that serve every imaginable profession and discipline, so you may have several to chose from. Discovering which one will be best for you requires a bit of research and exploration. First, do Google searches on specific terms relevant for your profession and ask your peers where they go online for help and peer collaboration. With a list of candidate communities in hand, take a moment to visit and explore each community to determine if it will be a good fit. Do the members seem to be people you would like to spend time with in-person? Do the discussion topics interest you? Did you learn something new in the forums or find a topic to which you might contribute a comment of two? If so, chances are you found a viable online home. Take the first steps Once you identify a possible community, spend some time filling in your community profile, then post an “introduce yourself” message. Most professional online communities have a “Welcome New Members” discussion or something similar where you can post a short “Hello, I am …” introduction. My general rule of thumb for online etiquette is behavior that would be effective, welcomed or expected in face-to-face settings is likely to be acceptable online. What works in-person works online, too. If you’re ready to take the plunge and be more visible, the next step is to make a contribution to a discussion topic. Look for an active discussion thread that catches your interest and write a brief response. For some reason, this is sometimes one of the most difficult steps for professionals online. However, just as you wouldn't join an in-person networking group and never, ever say a word, staying a silent member of an online community is a less-than-rewarding experience. Remember, as with all communities — in-person and online — you get what you put into the activity. If you give nothing, you get nothing. Overcome barriers to participation There are a number of reasons why professionals hesitate to participate online: they don't feel they have anything to contribute (maybe this isn't the right group?), they fear saying something stupid in public (find a safe or neutral discussion for the first few posts), or they are concerned they won't be able to finish what they started (don't worry, most online discussion threads only last a few days to a few weeks – tops!). Most community software platforms offer a subscription or notification option for discussions, so you can be notified if someone responds to your posts. If you are still hesitant to post, there are other ways to establish connections with the group. Participate in quick polls and surveys online. This gives you access to the aggregate wisdom of your peers, and most communities share survey and poll data with community members. Another approach, if you already have a blog, an article or other information of value to the community, would be to email the community manager and ask if they would be interested in the information. If they have a library or document upload area, you can always make a contribution there. Of course, be sure you have the rights to post it and that it does not contain any confidential information. Reap the rewards of participation Once you take these initial steps to participate in an online community, you will unleash the power of a global peer group. Idea exchange, personal experiences and know-how, research and best practices will all be available to you 24X7, wherever you can get online. You’ll have a wealth of information and peers to help you be more effective at your work and expand your professional competence. What a great deal! Remember, the more you participate and connect with other members, the more dependable and responsive the community as a whole will be to you. Online communities offer professionals an opportunity to shine — sharing what they know, enhancing their reputations, making meaningful professional and business connections with peers. After spending so much time and energy in your career honing your professional know-how, isn’t it time to shine online? |
| Using @Zemanta For SEO Link Relevancy (And Taking Care of Your Neighbor) Posted: 30 Apr 2012 08:40 AM PDT Zemanta – A Powerful Free Tool To Assist Your Blogging!Did you know there's a really cool plugin/add-on that can not only improve your SEO and build your brand but also make your life easier as well? Introducing: Zemanta! Zemanta, the blogging assistant plugin that you won't want to miss! With things having gotten very volatile in the SEO world, it becomes more and more important to pay attention to criteria that we know Google is looking for… and one of those is "relevancy". Fortunately, Zemanta helps with this by giving you a super-duper easy way to see posts that your friends and colleagues have written on a topic… without having to dig through Google search for hours! As you can see, Zemanta saves me a TON of time! And, these outbound links are as important for my relationship marketing approach as they are for my SEO so its a win/win from all angles. Are you using Zemanta? I look forward to your thoughts and questions in the comments below! PS: Want to learn more about Zemanta? Be sure to check out Ileane's post on Basic Blog Tips with another great Zemanta walk-through! She uses Zemanta differently than I do and hers is not a duplicate of this post :) image source: Zemanta |
| Add Your Headshot to Google Search Results Pages Posted: 30 Apr 2012 08:00 AM PDT  Image provided by screenshot Google recently started displaying author information in search results . This provides a new way for influencers to strengthen their brand with search engine results page's (SERPs). You may have noticed it already, top influencers now have an image of themselves appearing in search engine results. How can you add your image to Google SERP's? Image provided by screenshot The process is very simple, though it may require a little collaboration with your web development team. 1. Setup a Google Plus profile with the photo you want to appearIt helps to already have an established Google+ profile. As google mentions in their webmaster article, "Google doesn't guarantee to show author information in Google Web Search or Google News results." It's also important to use a good, recognizable headshot as your profile photo. Try to avoid using photos with multiple people, a nice headshot of you, and you only, will work best. 2. Verify authorship of your content by associating it with your profileThere are a few ways to do this. First, make sure that the content you author has your first and last name present in a prominent area on the page. Next, add a link to every page you author in the following format: <a href=”[profile_url]?rel=author”>Google</a>. Be sure to replace [profile_url] with your profile link. For example, a link to my profile looks like this: <a href=”https://plus.google.com/u/0/111749382468611843918/posts?rel=author”>Kevin Leary on Google+</a>. Your link must contain the ?rel=author parameter. If it's missing, Google won't be able to associate your content with your Google+ profile. If you have a web developer on staff, or a web development team that you work with, I would suggest setting this up dynamically. It's not had to automate these links, and you want to make sure they appear on each and every page you write. 3. Add a reciprocal link back from your profile to the site(s) you just updated.To link your website to a Google+ profile you need to add a link to it on Google+.
4. Sit back and wait for Google to work it's magicAfter you complete the steps above the process turns into a waiting game. When I originally tested this method for "boston wordpress" it took 9 days before the change was accepted by Google, and the SERP cache was cleared. It may be longer or shorter for you depending on various circumstances. If you would like to test whether or not you have a rich snippet on Google you can use the rich snippets testing tool that they provide. |
| No Thank You On Twitter, Please: 5 Top Alternatives Posted: 30 Apr 2012 07:15 AM PDT Before you freak out, read the post. (Don't worry, my mama raised me right.)
My overall thought: when all you do is say THANK YOU FOR THE RT or THANK YOU FOR THE FOLLOW, you are diluting all the hard work you've put into creating your branded presence. Why create a personal brand if you're going to make people jump hurdles to find it? Because when people visit your stream, they see a creatively thought out tweet, hashtags on your keywords, links to interesting content, and then a rash of THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. Think about it: do you want to follow someone when the majority of their content is simply a bunch of THANK YOU'S? It's like trying to get to customer service with your bank. Ya know, the live kind. Where's the beef? Where's the person? Which isn't to say you shouldn't thank people. You absolutely should. So, how to solve this quandary? I'm gonna tell you. Cause I'm bossy like that. 1. Bitch it up: thank them for the RT or follow but also insert a funny quip or saying. Use a keyword or phrase. Be yourself (which is your brand anyway) while still thanking them. For example, on my personal @RachelintheOC stream, I'll mention something about Nutella, martinis, or #Mancode in the thank you. This is still representative of my brand, my personality, and I'm still thanking them. 2. Use DMs: highly underutilized. Do you thank people individually on your public stream so they will feel good or so everyone else will see what a great person you are? Yea. 'Use the Force, Luke. Let go.' Use a Direct Message. It's much more personal to thank someone privately (unless that person says they never check DMs, which I find is quite rare). And I don't mean one of those automated DMs thank you services. Take a second and do it yourself. 3. RT them back: Twitter is very karmic. If someone RTs you, take a look at their content. If you find them to be within your interests, RT something of theirs. This increases your interaction and your secondary reach (since your Twitter handle is shown on their stream) as well as their secondary reach (same concept). Then if someone else RTs you and them, you have tertiary reach. And if someone else RTs all y'all, well, I don't know what comes next. Fouthiary? (I know. Quaternary — but who says that?) Read this and pay attention: the simple few seconds it takes you to scan and find something of theirs worth RTing is worth far more to them than a THANK YOU FOR THE RT on your stream, particularly if your following is much larger. This is a generous thing to do. *If you're on Triberr, use the REBLOG feature which is quite nifty. 4. Follow their blog: A few more seconds, sure. But take some time to go follow their blog, even make a comment! I recommend my clients go to at least five blogs each day and comment. This is a wonderful way to interact with people outside of Twitter and find rich content. 5. Follow them back: Twitter is based on a 'trust model' (shout out to @Dino_Dogan for explaining that to me) as I've mentioned before. This means you can follow someone, see their stream, etc but there is no obligation for them to follow you back (of course, DMs won't work). {This differs from Facebook, as you cannot interact with people without both of you following each other back. Though you can leave private messages for each other. Which is weird.} I believe you should curate a targeted, quality stream. This is why I personally follow all of my tweeps myself and eschew automated programs like Tweet Adder – whom Twitter recently filed suit against for spamming. Point is, you are under no obligation to follow anyone back. However, if someone follows you and they are not a pornbot (unless you like that kind of thing and really, I don't want to know) or weird spammer, give them a look. They went out of their way to follow you (even if it was through automation), so at least review their account to determine if they fit your follow criteria.
SPAM: One final note of caution for Twitter newbies and vets alike: avoid #TeamFollowBack (or any other Twitter 'trains,' which is different than a hashtag meme — something I'll review in a future post); don't beg for follows (ugh); and never, ever send the same message (spam) to hundreds of people (particularly with a link) asking/begging/demanding ANYTHING. (For the record, I get those requests daily on both my accounts. We all do. I block and report for spam. Because you are spamming. It leaves a bad taste in our mouths. So stop it.) That's it for today. I hope I've given you some ideas to expand on your Thank You repertoire. How do you thank people? Do you agree or disagree? Share your ideas and experiences below! |
| 20 Interesting Facts, Figures and Statistics Revealed by Facebook Posted: 30 Apr 2012 06:45 AM PDT Facebook is about to raise $5 billion from investors.
When you are ask for that amount of money then you need to produce some reliable evidence and facts and figures about the current state of play that are accurate. So Facebook has recently revealed the latest statistics about its business in its S1 Filing for its upcoming IPO. Facebook doesn't appear to be struggling for cash as it has recently paid Instagram $1 billion to purchase its mobile photo app business and Microsoft $550 million for 650 patents (that it recently bought off Yahoo) In a knowledge economy that rewards innovators, patents are becoming increasingly valuable to protect your intellectual properties from potential imitators. Facebook's Growth not SlowingIf you have a look at this graph from its latest filing for the upcoming IPO, it seems apparent that its growth is not slowing anytime soon and with over 7 billion people on the planet it still has a lot of headroom for future growth.
This is despite Facebook being banned in China and the English speaking countries such as the US, Australia and the UK having almost no growth. The Facebook mission which states "To make the world more open and connected" is obviously resonating with the earth's netizens. Here are latest statistics revealed by Facebook. The Facts and Figures from Facebook
What numbers surprise you on this list? Image by WebWizzard |
| So A Slam Dunk! The 2012 Social Slam Delivers All Day Long Posted: 30 Apr 2012 06:00 AM PDT For anyone who believes the best social media ideas come of out of New York, Chicago or other major cities, you better think again. Originally famous for the 1982 World's Fair, the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, and Bush's Baked Beans, Knoxville is now burgeoning with social influence as the home to SOCIAL SLAM.
I first learned about Social Slam through being socially connected to Knoxville resident and social media guru, Mark Schaefer, on Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and GROW, his award-winning blog. Everything he authors, blogs, tweets and posts is thought-provoking and unique (check out his recent post: Why Google+ Needs to be Jay Z). While the chance of getting great value from most conferences is like shooting the ball from half court, I knew that anything Mark was involved in would be a slam dunk. Here are my Social Slam highlights: Marketing Rounds Break Silos and Put Customers First: Gini Dietrich, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Arment Dietrich Inc., spoke about getting all specialty areas under one marketing umbrella by proactively creating a "Marketing Round." This circle of passionate people with entrepreneurial spirits is all about breaking down silos, putting customers first and moving business objectives forward through integrated marketing. Micro-niching is Trending in the Blogosphere Stanford Smith, the VP of Marketing at Fluency Media, took 10 minutes to deliver 10 insightful blog tips. While blogging is big, the trend is to take blogs small. The idea of Micro-niching, or narrowing a blog's purpose / topic, has caught fire as people crave specific and relevant information. Sure, You're on LinkedIn, But are You Really "In"? LinkedIn is near and dear to my heart – I just love this tool and Jon Moss of Moss Media Labs does too. Jon recommends really getting "in" to LinkedIn but don't "cross the streams" (i.e., don't have your Twitter feed connected to your LinkedIn activity). Using LinkedIn "Answers" is a great way to both get and give valuable business advice and even possibly earn a gold star in the process. Searching for Answers about Social Search The break-out session, "Understanding the New World of Social Search," left me feeling like I have a lot to understand. The knowledge, insight and predictions of our panelists – Sam Fiorella of Sensei Marketing, Eric Pratum of Grizzard Communications Group and Sean McGinnis of DotCo Law Marketing– left my head spinning. Get active on Google+ even if you are finding it a bit of a ghost town. The platform will be driving future search results. Likes, +1s, and retweets are just a few of the social indicators that will soon trump offsite SEO / link building strategies. While it's a bit hard to imagine now, "author trust" will be more relevant than page rank. Sam, Eric and Sean will definitely be hearing from the Marketri team – we need to know more! Marketing Purgatory is a Good Place to Be! Mitch Joel, President of Twist Image, had a Steve Jobs-like presence as he discussed marketing hell versus purgatory. According to Joel, "We are in a weird moment of immense opportunity. Embrace the uncertainty!" Joel claims that there will never be a period like this again in the marketing industry and rewards will come to those who seize the "glass is half-full" mentality. Some other takeaways from his brilliant presentation:
The Content King – Marcus Sheridan Roars Off-Stage! Holy –WOW! If you are a blogging / user-generated content doubter, just sit through a 20-minute presentation by Marcus Sheridan, a pool installation business owner turned social media inspirational speaker. He will have you convinced that you can double and triple your business simply by developing online content that answers your products' or services' most "Frequently Asked Questions." Do You Have Klout and Does It Matter? I've wanted to see Mark Schaefer speak for a long time and he did not disappoint! Giving a sneak preview of his new book, "Return on Influence," Mark shared stories of how a shy, unsuspecting professional became a valuable brand ambassador, and how an unemployed, fed-up young woman brought down a powerful bank all through their words and nimble use of social media. While there is a natural resistance to being labeled and numbered, Mark has me convinced that for better or worse, social KLOUT is here to stay.
Did I mention that SOCIAL SLAM was $89?!? You see, these are true social media thought leaders who simply want to share and learn from each other. I loved every minute of SOCIAL SLAM; in addition to the vast knowledge that I gained, I finally got to meet my marketing idol, Mark Schaefer! My fellow marketing professionals – SOCIAL SLAM is SO a SLAM DUNK! |
| Why I’m Hoping for Fewer Link Exchange Requests Posted: 30 Apr 2012 05:30 AM PDT Over the years, both I and my clients have been inundated with countless offers from link building companies, usually requesting we trade links, sometimes offering to sell them, nearly always requesting I link out to them. As someone working on the SEO of a number of websites, I know the value and the importance of links. However I, along with the rest of the planet, get frustrated with the seemingly endless torrent of unsolicited emails offering them to me or asking me to add a link from my sites to theirs. Something happened today which may mean things may be changing. More on that in a moment. I've recently witnessed a number of websites (not existing clients, I should add!) receive notifications like the one below from Google:  Google Link Warning Yes, Google are placing an increased focus on links and if they notice anything suspicious there could well be trouble. But rather than being a curse, perhaps this is a blessing in disguise? In a moment I'll explain why, but first: Am I worried about these warnings? No. Not one of my clients have received a notification and they won't because Vertical Leap have always practised safe, careful and steady link building. A few of my campaigns still contain reciprocal link exchange pages but these hail from the days when such features were far more effective. I have doubts that reciprocal link exchanges themselves are dangerous if kept to a suitably small scale and providing the links are appropriate, safe and not purchased. Yet whilst I don't believe link exchanges are dangerous, their effectiveness has been limited for some years and they advertise the fact you adopt different link building strategies, and that advert could bring unwanted attention from Google. The presence of a link exchange page on a website advertises that you're willing to adopt different techniques to attract links, and shouts loud and proud that your website is being optimised. With Google on the rampage against link manipulation, advertising yourself in that manner may be unwise. And this change I keep alluding to? After thousands of emails requesting links, today I received an email asking me to remove a link. One email – a drop in the ocean – but nevertheless something I've not witnessed before in my years practising SEO. Back when link exchanges were useful, one of the businesses that would later become a client was asked to trade link with another site. They obliged. Years have passed since then; this other website – nothing to do with us – will have had links built using a variety of techniques and has now received a warning from Google. Panicking, their SEO company is emailing everyone including me asking for links to be removed. Which isn't how to fix this, by the way. I know that a solitary link from my clients website has nothing to do with the penalty received by this third party. But I expect it's easy to panic when you receive a message like this from Google. Am I going to retain the link exchanges that I've inherited on some of the sites I manage? No. I don't want to advertise which of my clients conduct SEO and I don't want to imply my clients are willing to trade or buy links – they aren't. Do you need to panic and rush around killing link exchange pages? No, however with limited effectiveness and potential risks, what's the point of keeping them? If they're working for you (and I would gauge that on a case-by-case basis) then I wouldn't worry too soon, however this may mean the barrage of link requests decline as fewer and fewer people build these types of pages into their sites. Wait a moment – that's not one but two historic things that happened today. First an email asking for a link exchange removal, and second I began dismantling the link exchange pages I inherited. I think I may have a drink later and celebrate. Maybe tomorrow my inbox will be clear? Maybe I'll not have received an email requesting a link exchange? Or maybe someone will email me to say they don't want me to link to them? I'll let you know. Before I end this tale and proclaim link exchanges are dead, I'd like to reassure anyone concerned about their backlink profile. Link exchanges may not be dangerous and nothing really has changed. We've always said you should be careful and ethical with your link building, only obtaining links where they're appropriate, never buying them, building them at a sensible pace. Google aren't just kicking sites randomly out of the index, if you have concerns your site has been hit then make sure you've configured Google Webmaster Tools – it's here you'll be notified. And if you've been building your links sensibly – as we've been telling you to – then you won't have anything to worry about. Link exchanges will last a little longer, the emails will keep coming, but maybe now I won't be clicking the delete button quite so much. |
| Do Not Be Another Facebook Like Exchange Victim Posted: 30 Apr 2012 05:25 AM PDT Well, it just happens. I was just aimlessly browsing some threads of some popular forums and then I bumped onto a thread that seemed to me quite interesting at the very first look. I saw some members posting the links on their Facebook fan pages and then randomly liking fan pages of each other. A smart move indeed but I had a strange feeling that this is certainly not going augur well for the blog or website in question, So, I decide to dig a little deeper and try to find out the pros and cons of exchanging Facebook Likes, and what it could mean for your business?
Does it Make it any Sense at all? Well the answer is not that straight forward. Well, first find out the positive aspect of giving this shoddy method a try. Take it this way – your service is awesome and everyone around is full of praise of your service but the problem is that none of them seem that much proactive to start a discussion in Facebook, or like your Facebook page or retweet this. Having an unimpressive social presence is certainly not what you would like to have in your kitty. In that case, Facebook Like exchange may go a long way to make it appear all good. People will see that there are people who are talking about your product and they may like to take part in the ongoing conversion. Now, here is the flip side. Since these fans are not real or at least natural, you cannot expect huge turnaround when it comes to business or traffic. These people do not have any other intention other than getting as many Facebook Likes for their business as possible and as expected, you will not see any kind of visitors' engagement thing. A dark and desolated Facebook page with zero users' interaction, lol, you are certainly not looking for this. It Brings Traffic But What About Conversion: Traffic has been good always but wait not always of course. What good is a traffic if they do not mind checking the articles you have posted or go through carefully a researched work and come up with a brilliant comment. Nope, they are busy folk always at work, always busy like bees Liking other people Facebook page. So, before you try to give this technique a shot, here are some recommendations from an honest social media marketer. No matter what you are doing, the main purpose is to convert the traffic otherwise nothing is going to happen to make you see the bright side of things. For say, you may like your visitors click on certain buttons, or share your content in some popular social networking sites. But Like Exchange is certainly not going to help you in this direction. Bounce Rate: Since these people are certainly going to stick around your website and view some other pages of your website, the bounce rate of your website may shoot through the roof. If this is not enough, average time spend on your website will also take a beating. All these are not going to do any good to your website's online presence and that means, you need to end your age long obsession with and try to do something constructive than going for the shortcuts. In my opinion, Like Exchange is nothing more than a colossal waste of time and there is little difference between Like exchange and Link Exchange. So, stop doing this and you will have a bigger and far better online presence. |
| The Most Important Words In Social Media Posted: 30 Apr 2012 05:05 AM PDT
And so I offer up to you that the most important words in social media are "thank you!" They may be the most important words in, well, the history of words. But in social media, where we only see avatars and not real expressions on real human faces, they are particularly important. I recently read Tweet Smarter Not Harder by Rachel Thompson (@RachelintheOC) and I was reminded about how simply saying "thank you" has helped me make amazing connections on the social channels where I interact with people, sometimes and often on a daily basis. So I will explain my approach to be thankful on social media here in this post. And whether you use Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Linkedin, Tumblr, or any of the social tools available, remember that you are connecting with people, not avatars. And that a little "thank you" goes along way! What the heck does "Magnanimous" mean? "We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give." ~ Winston Churchill I met Bill Lublin (@BillLublin) at a social media conference here in Philadelphia. We were on Triberr together and had the pleasure of reviewing and sharing each other's blog posts on a regular basis. After I thanked him for his support and told him how great it was to meet him in real life (aka #irl), he introduced me to his colleague as the most "magnanimous man in social media." I didn't really know what magnanimous meant (it's OK! Look it up…I had to.) but I guessed from his context that he meant to say that I was a nice guy or something – which is pretty cool, right? "Hey man, thanks a lot!" I said. And didn't think much about it for weeks. Then a few months later, I was asked by Bill Strawderman (@marketingbard) to present on personal branding to a group of volunteer bloggers and I found myself using the word. I instructed the audience to be magnanimous. So afterwards I looked it up. It basically means "generosity but literally means "being of noble mind." So while it maybe really hard to say (and not so easy to spell), I suggest we should all think about being noble and generous as you approach your social activity. The Thank You Economy? "As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them." ~ JFK Last year, famous social media influencer and entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk (@GaryVee) wrote The Thank You Economy (not an affiliate link). In the book, Gary talks about how the internet and social has – both consumers and business buyers – given our voices back and transferred the balance of economic power to each of us. He talks about how it is not the company with the biggest budget who will be successful in the new business climate of social interactivity, but it is the company who cares the most about their customers and makes them feel like they have a personal connection with a brand that will succeed. I have not read the book (yet – summer reading list), and I'm not endorsing it (yet) but I totally agree with him that "businesses [that] can harness all the changes and challenges inherent in social media [can] turn them into tremendous opportunities for profit and growth." Thank Everyone? From the time I first started on Twitter (on July 9th, 2009) I thanked everyone who ReTweeted me. I follow back every real human being (as far as I can tell). I answer every @ mention and I respond to any direct message that doesn't look like SPAM or an auto-reply. Some people might think I am "crowding the twitter stream" with useless "thank you's". But for me, it's the least I can do if you take the time to share something of mine or mention me. I also try to ReTweet and @ mention and comment on blog posts to return the favor. But I always thank my ReTweeters. My Conclusion: Saying "thank you" and being "of noble mind" is important for personal success. It is especially important for personal social media success and it may be just as important to build gratitude into your business. Looking To Get Started On Twitter If you're not already a Twitter rock star, go back and read Rachel's post (and the first part of her series) linked above or read my early post on how to get started on Twitter. Or check out my 10 Tips for Twitter Success. I mention "being nice" but maybe I should have said "be magnanimous!" |
| Using Klout and Social Scoring for Sales and Marketing Teams Posted: 30 Apr 2012 04:00 AM PDT
One of the things I have been interested in is examining practical applications of Klout and social scoring to an internal enterprise. If you are unclear about social scoring systems and what they attempt to measure, it might be useful to start with this blog post about Why Klout Matters. Like a credit score, let's assume that companies like Klout, Kred and Appinions are beginning to measure something that correlates to an individual's social media effectiveness. I had an opporunity to test some of these ideas last week when I conducted a social influence workshop with a global services company in the UK. I began with an overview of the basics behind these systems and what we can really learn from them. Then, thanks to Andrew Grill, president of Kred, we were able to construct an internal dashboard that approximated the relative social media effectiveness of many company employees. It was nothing short af a revelation to these top executives. Here are a couple of observations: Who is the real company spokesperson? One of the executives said, "I don't know any of these people on this list! You mean they are representing our company?" Indeed. I told him the story about how one of his IT employees — the person with the second-highest Kred score in the company — connected with me through this blog and on Twitter, and over a period of two years we had become friends. When he found out I was coming to London, he offered to introduce me to the company's marketing team. That led to organizing the workshop. "You see," I said, "to me, this web developer IS the face of your company. The only reason I am here today is because he is representing you so effectively on the social web." This was a profound lesson for the executives. They were discovering their most effective representatives on the social web — and it was quite eye-opening. Now they are wondering about: How do we thank them, learn from them, and find ways we can work more closely together? How do we transfer their expertise to other parts of the organization? Where is marketing? It was illustrative that 80% of the top influencers where in no way associated with PR, sales, service, or marketing. This was an equally shocking revelation. Shouldn't these departments be highly visible on the social web, especially in a technology and services-oriented company? This company prided itself in being on the forefront of technology and best management practices but this simple ranking made them realize they were missing an enormous opportunity to discover gaps with their customer-facing strategies. This led to a lively discussion about further training and how some of the key ideas from Return On Influence could be incorporated into basic sales best practices. Influencer Outreach The exercise also started them thinking about using these scores to discover unknown or under-utilized resources at prospect companies, possible partner companies or even as a way to find high-potential new employees. How could they find like-minded and passionate individuals who have a natural interest in their ideas and technologies? They had already observed how it could be used to find a resource like me. The possibilities seemed vast. It was exciting for me to see some of the core ideas of Return On Influence come alive in this corporate setting and I wanted to pass along some of the experiences to you. Can you see how some of these simple lists can help you and your sales efforts? Mark Schaefer is a marketing consultant, author and college educator who blogs at {grow}. You can also follow him on Twitter: @markwschaefer. |
Mitchell Wright recently wrote 
Twitter is a killer resource for finding highly targeted influencers in a given industry. These influencers have the power to start a trend, connect with buyers with a product, or even destroy a brand.
"I can no other answer make, but, thanks, and thanks." ~ William Shakespeare
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