When things are tough, it’s understandable that businesses look to save money. Budgets are cut back, expenses are limited and in the worst cases staff are let go. In such a climate it comes as little surprise that many businesses are looking at every existing and new...
Let’s say you are just starting out in link building, maybe as a freelance consultant or maybe just for your own websites. It’s easy to start out link building, creating social profiles, blog commenting, etc. But after a bit, you may want to see the...
Some of you may have already noticed, but Twitter announced yesterday that they will be rolling out a new user interface. They will be pushing the new interface to a select test group initially, and then to the entire community over the next few weeks. This is one...
How many times have you been reading a great blog post or page and just knew that you HAD to share it with your followers because you knew how much they would love it or find it beneficial? So you scroll up to the top, scroll down to the bottom, look to the left, then...
Facebook has recently implemented a few revisions to their policy with regards to the way they handle your data, and this came into effect after a vote by the social network giant’s users. One of the biggest changes is that Facebook is now entitled to share your...
For anyone that is looking to dive into the wonder world of social media, there are probably a few questions you should ask yourself before you get started. Also, to express my love for The Office, I decided to use the show as my theme for this post. By the way,...
If you’re doing business in today’s market, you know how small the world of business is getting. You can join hundreds of new sites, get new tools and, most importantly, build a community that works for you. These communities will bring you new business. Here are a...
In light of the recent blog post on voting patterns and unexceptional content over at Sphinn which has drawn several desphinns and some heated debate in the story’s Sphinn page comments, I thought it would be a good time to touch on some issues when it comes to...
On Saturday, I decided to go see The Social Network with some friends. I had heard a few reviews of the movie prior to going, but really didn’t know much about it besides that it was based on the story of Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook. I must say...
There are many reasons for guest blogging, such as getting exposure and backlinks for your website, positioning yourself as an authority in your niche, and so on. Can increasing your Twitter following be a benefit of guest posting? Absolutely! So what do you have to...
In a follow-up to Mark’s post yesterday on whether to follow or not to follow on Twitter, and what criteria you use to determine whether to follow someone, I thought I would share the Twitter strategy I have been using for the past year. I do two things that...
When it comes to Twitter, there is a wealth of information that is at your fingertips, as most everything on Twitter is public record. For businesses, this can mean a wealth of market research, lead generation, and reputation monitoring can be done with the use of...
A part, but a severely overlooked one, of running a business is motivating your customers to brag about your products to their friends and connections. In the past, this task was accomplished only through word-of-mouth referrals. But with the help of social media,...
At present, it is the era of social media. Social media is now being used to promote businesses and raise awareness about various matters which are in public interest. Social media marketing is a new and path breaking effort in the field of marketing that is being...
Since my last post, Making The Most Out of Google Places got such good feedback, I thought I would do a similar style post for Facebook Fan Pages. Facebook Fan Pages if used correctly, can be a great way to drive traffic, generate leads and sales. When Facebook...
Paper.li is a service that pulls tweet links and compiles them into newspaper format. The benefit to using these is that it brings relevant content to your users, as well as mentioning 2 – 3 users in each paper. These papers can be a good way to keep up on the...
If you haven’t already seen my previous post about 100 SEO blogs you should subscribe to, make sure you check it out. In this collection, I wanted to highlight a number of marketers who really stand out from the crowd and do an outstanding job of engaging on...
I have been avoiding putting the new Twitter retweet button on my site for a few reasons. For starters, it uses the t.co shortener instead of giving the option of getting to use the URL shortener of your choice like you can with the Tweetmeme button. And there are no...
No brand can ever ignore the potential of Facebook applications. In order to build your brand presence on Facebook, you can use a variety of these applications. Each application has its own unique value. If you want to drive social momentum, it’s crucial to use...
I have no doubt in my mind that almost everyone reading this has bought at least 1 “Group” deal in the past. Sites like Groupon and Living Social are capitalizing on local businesses who are willing to heavily discount their products/services to get...
It’s difficult to remember the days before communication became instantaneous. Thanks to the internet we no longer have to wait for the daily newspaper or snail-mail. Now, news and information is relayed the moment it happens and the ordinary person is an integral...
Google is a great example of how powerful the Internet really is. With more users than all the other search engines combined, and by a crazy wide margin, Google is a powerhouse the likes of which the business community hasn’t seen for a long while. No More...
Marketers have long understood the benefits of ab testing content on their site to increase subscriptions, signups, and sales through small changes on elements of their site. In this increasingly interactive web, have you considered the placement of your social...
With social media having a huge impact on brand marketing and online reputation, I thought it would be a good opportunity to ask Michael Fraiette, the Community Manager and Chieft Listener at Filterbox, a few questions that I’m sure are on the minds of anyone...
We all know that location-based marketing is becoming a huge hit with Internet Marketers. Services like Gowalla and Foursquare have been the front-runners in the space and have proven that users LOVE to check-in to tell their friends where they are hanging out and to...
In the SEO community we have been fighting the effects of personalised search in Google, turning the function off so as not to cloud our results pages with links that are biased towards our browsing history and recommendations from our friends on social networks. So...
When somebody else decides to start something revolutionary, or at least nifty (let’s use this word) most people either don’t hear about it or it can’t be used properly due to small circle of people using the service. On the other hand, when Facebook releases...
People love stories. We humans are curious in nature, and by using stories in your marketing messages you can engage with your audience a lot better. Take the 2 scenarios below for example: Scenario 1 Susan exclaimed: “Yes! I’ve finally made it!” After a continuous...
Content promotion is getting to be as important as creating the actual content. I think what people are starting to realize is that just creating great content will only take you so far. This is one of the reasons Social Media and SEO are blending together. You...
I am friends with almost 2,500 people on Facebook, and my Facebook page has around 340 fans. Yet today, I gave a guest post of mine exposure to an additional 90,000+ people by doing three simple things. 1. Look for brands mentioned in post on Facebook. If you happen...
For a business owner, reputation management is not getting easier. Twenty years ago it would have been really hard for a single customer with a bad experience (or just sour grapes) to single-handedly take down a business. But in this age of the Internet, it just...
This is part 2 of a 5 part series that covers creating content for the following social bookmarking sites. The other parts will be released over the next few weeks so keep checking back. Part 1: Digg Part 2: StumbleUpon Part 3: Reddit Part 4: Mixx Part 5: Delicious...
Social media is an important part of our lives. Most of us rely on it to receive and relay all sorts of information. But lately it feels like there’s a bit of a social media bubble. Social Media: Tactic Not Strategy Social media is rapidly starting to reach...
Most of today’s business professionals are well aware of the benefits of marketing on sites like Facebook and Twitter. But with the rise of social media and blogging, the power of the press release seems to have gotten the cold shoulder. If you’re looking to boost...
Measure the ROI from a social media campaign, is much different than measuring a Pay-Per-Click or Banner Placement campaign. The reason is because there are many qualitative factors and other moving pieces that are hard to measure. Things like branding, company...
Many small business owners have come to appreciate the benefits of Facebook for professional purposes in the last several years. But, for those who are just starting out, it can be frustrating trying to compete with some of the more established businesses. It’s a...
There are many ways to update your social networks. Some applications and web services such as Ping.fm, HootSuite, and Twiterfeed (to name a few) allow posting of text only, Twitter-like status updates to other social networks such as Facebook, FriendFeed, Google...
Social Bookmarking sites have been a great source of traffic and inbound links, however understand the type of content that each community enjoys and are willing to share with other community members is extremely important. One of the best ways to know what type of...
With more and more happening in the way of location based social media, including deals that you get and contests you can enter simply by checking into places, there is also a growing need to remind people just what they are sharing when they “check in”...
YouTube has introduced a new editing feature on Wednesday. This allows users to edit their videos on the website. The user can edit the already uploaded videos and the videos will retain the same video IDs so that the counts and comments are not lost. All the links...
While perusing the recent Twitter lists that I have been added to, I spotted several that were generated by @formulists. Intrigued, I Googled it and was led to an interesting service that automatically creates Twitter lists based on particular specifications. Basic...
With the rise of social media marketing, the notion of collaboration, integration and disseminating information with a click of a button has become an evident norm. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and recently Google have all found multiple innovative ways to make it...
You may have seen them around town: odd black-and-white squares on signs, brochures, and product packaging. QR codes (Quick Response codes) function similarly to UPC codes, which most of us are familiar with. Two major differences between a QR code and UPC code are...
As anyone can tell from Google’s stock on the trade market, it’s not going anywhere anytime soon. Google+ is a testament to the new technology in search engine features, which Google continues to improve upon. This awesome Google software enables social...
There will be a heavy amount of tweeting going on during this week’s Blog World Expo. Here are some ideas on ways you can use Twitter during this or any event, conference, or seminar. 1. The Event #Hashtag The most important thing to keep an eye on as well as...
Do you share your social profile links via Twitter, or on other social networks where there is a character limit? Do you want to track the number of times that your profile link was clicked? If you answered yes to any of the above, then the obvious thing you would...
Whether you are planning the launch of a new product or want to create awareness about an existing brand, Facebook fan pages can bring you amazing results. It’s an excellent idea to build a killer Facebook page for your brand and make it a favorite place for your fans...
In order to best use social media, you need to understand how to capitalize on your presence on these networks. From Facebook to Twitter, social media can serve as a powerful tool to reach new customers and gain greater influence within a particular group online. If...
Don’t say this too loud in front of your boss, but there’s a chance that all the social media marketing you’ve been doing to attract a younger audience could be falling on deaf ears. Turns out, the 12-24 age bracket doesn’t want to “like” or be friends with brand...
Internet marketing is rapidly becoming the most powerful tool utilized by companies and individuals to bring attention to themselves and generate an income online. A wide variety of websites have come and gone in the past, due to public interest waning and the overuse...
