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...
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...
Have you ever wanted to see who is the most influential Twitter user intersted in a particular topic, niche, or industry? There are several ways to do this, many benefits, and ways to interact with them as well. Finding Influential Twitterers So first off, how do you...
This is part 5 of a 5 part series that covers creating content for the following social bookmarking sites. Part 1: Digg Part 2: StumbleUpon Part 3: Reddit Part 4: Mixx Part 5: Delicious Delicious For anyone who is not familiar with Delicious, it is simply a more...
In my personal opinion, I have found Hootsuite to be by far the best Twitter client out there. I’m sure a lot of people can make an argument for clients like Tweetdeck and Seesmic, but I find Hootsuite to be the most user-friendly, feature-rich, and up-to-date...
I’ll be the first too admit it, I started using Twitter as a one-way communication tool, so that I could help promote my content. However I quickly learned that by doing that, I would not be able to build the following and relationships that I wanted on...
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...
I am happy to announce that we have released our first whitepaper, that is available for download. “The Secrets to Building Relationships Online” provides a detailed look at creating, managing, and cultivating relationships online. Whitepaper Includes:...
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...
Well, almost every business is jumping onto the social media bandwagon. But, the inside story may not be as interesting as it appears from outside. If you are a social media junkie, you must be aware that Twitter celebrated its 5th birthday last week. Since the number...
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...
In an online world filled with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Friendfeed, Foursquare, Gowalla, Skype, gChat, Tumblr, Flickr, YouTube, and the millions of Blogs/Foums…at what point are you wasting your time??? I often find these days forcing myself to shut down my...
The new Facebook Timeline format for business includes a more visual on-page presence with the Cover Shot, more user data via Insights, and features, like the Apps Ribbon and Milestones that allow businesses to better share their story with Facebook’s millions...
Over the last few years I have been few active on a number of social bookmarking sites including Digg and StumbleUpon. I have picked up a number of tools along the way that have helped me with staying active on a number of communities with ease. I thought it would...
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...
I have discussed with a number of people recently the debate about what is considered Search Engine Optimization and what is considered Social Media. To tell you the truth, I feel like they are starting to blend together to become the ultimate marketing machine on...
With all of the new communication tools and technology being introduced, the way that companies handle customer service has been transformed into a more effective and efficient manner. Users want to be able to receive real-time support and have multiple options to...
One of the things I find interesting in the world of social media and blogging is that there are people whose number one goal is to get fans, followers and/or subscribers, yet the make it difficult for potential fans, followers and subscribers to connect with them....
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...
Kevin Rose, the founder of Digg.com released an introduction video to the new Digg v4.0. A key point that he made in the video below is how the “old” or “current” Digg only features about 120-140 posts on the front page of Digg each day. But...
Many employees are doing it anyway, whether the management knows it or not. The temptation is just too great. White collar workers sitting at desks, with computers and Internet connections are very likely using social media for personal use throughout much of their...
Microblogging super service Twitter has revolutionized the social media world. You have even finally jumped onto the band wagon and started following and collecting followers. You might not have over 6 million followers like Ashton Kutcher (of course, who does?), but...
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...
Whenever we hear branding, what comes into our minds is its comprising entities—aesthetics, logo design, typefaces, and color contrast. However, in social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter (knowing that we cannot alter their layout and aesthetics), branding...
Quick Response Codes better known as QR Codes are frequently used in the physical world to drive individuals to check out websites, social media platforms, articles, music releases and of course videos. However, many marketers have actually been daring to take QR...
With all of the complaints about the new version of Digg, which went live on August 25th, many people have been switching from Digg to Reddit. Prior to the big change, there was a healthy competition between these two sites (as show by this infographic). Digg was the...
By now, almost everyone has heard about the new and exciting release of the Google+ Project, the latest product from Google. I myself have only been using it for a few weeks, so I am still trying to get use to it and test out all of the features it has. This is the...
If your company or business uses Social Media to advertise, market and brand your business you might already know how powerful and persuasive it can be. Sites like FaceBook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr and the rest (and boy are there a lot of them) can increase your...
I have been addicted to Digg for over three years…active for two… and in SEM for a little over one. Each phase of my relationship with the site has yielded a different return. I am just like every serious Digg user. I am a click-happy, instant-gratitude seeking...
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...
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...
Individuals and businesses around the world are unleashing the power of social media as you read this. While almost every social network adds value to the world in some way, some enjoy more exposure and popularity than others do. As we stand today, Twitter is...
Social media is increasingly used by businesses to promote products and serve customers on another level never before imagined. While today, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are the most popular networks for growing a brand, Pinterest is slowly but surely becoming a...
If there’s one path of determination that businesses alike have trouble developing, it’s a social media following. According to 2010 Social Media Marketing Report, 67% of marketers plan to use some form of a social media channel including blogs, Twitter, and Facebook....
I’ve developed a strong liking for Q&A sites (Yahoo Answers, Quora, LinkedIn Answers, Stack Overflow etc). No matter which niche you belong to, you can always leverage these online platforms to fulfill a wide variety of goals. If you can differentiate between top...
There’s no doubt that a website hoping to do business has to invest in and have some knowledge of online marketing if they expect to be successful. The sheer amount of information going live on the internet every moment can mean that despite authenticity and quality,...
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...
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...
When it comes to social branding, there is none better than Gary Vaynerchuk. Gary has build one of the largest followings on the web and he continues to gain new fans everyday. For people that are not firmilar with Gary, he is a wine enthusiast…to say the...
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...
Social media marketing has moved out of the realm of “trial and error” and has become a critical component of any online marketing strategy. Cost effective and relatively easy to use, social media has become a favorite tool of marketers. However, for business owners...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Recently I wrote a post on how much knowledge a client should have, but along with knowledge also comes responsibility. For any internet marketing agency to work well with their clients, there must be a mutual understanding of the overall strategy, and most...
This is part 4 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...
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...
“SEO is not dead, but it’s changing.” These are words extracted from the interview of Lisa Barone of Outspoken Media. SEO, like the rest of the world, is now in 2011 – another year of progress, struggle and learning for me and for everyone in the...
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...
