ROI of Social Media: Thinking of the Bigger Picture
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...
Moderating What Gets Hot on Social Networks
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...
What is the Google+ Project? A Look Inside…
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...
5 Basic Rules of Social Media Marketing Management
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...
Do “Like” Buttons Influence Search Engines?
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...
9 Ways to Use Twitter Lists
If you automatically follow everyone who follows you, then you may find your home feed a bit overwhelming. In order to keep up with all of the people you want to follow based on their interests and your connection to them. Here are nine great Twitter lists to create...
New Twitter Interface Revealed!
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...
100 Marketers You MUST Follow on Twitter
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...
Google Follow Finder, the Newest Service From GoogleLabs
Google just released a new Twitter application called Google Follow Finder, that allows you to analyze a users following/followers to help you find people that you may be interested in following. The service is actually very simple, just enter in a Twitter username...
7 Ways to Get More Comments on Your Facebook Page
Facebook posts look stale without comments on them. Getting fans to comment on your Facebook pages requires time and effort. However, you can expedite the process by following a couple of proven tips. Getting comments on Facebook posts is all about encouraging your...
Digg vs. Reddit – Interesting Numbers After Version 4 Goes Live
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...
Create a Custom Social Media Dashboard with Metricly
Metricly is a new social media tool you can use to help monitor, analyze and manage your social media presence on the web. It contains an aggregated dashboard and analytics platform that helps you track your metrics all in one place. For agencies and in-house...
How to Use Instagram to Build Your Business
You’re on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest… what’s next? If you’d like to continue to diversify your social media efforts, read on. Facebook’s recent acquisition of Instagram is proof of the company’s promise. You might not consider Instagram a top source for...
Who Needs SEO Marketing When We Have FaceBook?
When ever I get a opportunity to speak about seo or social media to a whole new audience. I start to get a feeling of enjoyment because I feel like this is my time to not just teach but also help others to simply just understand online marketing. Meaning that people...
To Follow or Not To Follow, That is the Question
Whenever I am trying to educate a social media client, I find that they all seem to ask the same question in regards to Twitter. How do I know who to follow and who not to follow? That is a great question and frankly there is no exact answer to that question. ...
The Ultimate Social Bookmarking Content Creation Guide (Part 4: Mixx)
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...
Social Media’s Impact on Internet Communication
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...
Is Your Website at Odds With Your Social Media Presence?
If you are actively participating on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook and yet your website telegraphs the opposite of transparent and interactive, you and your brand or business may be suffering from a split personality complex.
Who You Are, Not Who You Know, Matters in Social Networks
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...
3 Ways to Small Businesses Can Capitalize on the Pinterest Craze
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...
The Ultimate Social Bookmarking Content Creation Guide (Part 5: Delicious)
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...
Top 10 Ways to Grow Your Twitter Following
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...
Make Social Sharing Simple with Bookmarklets
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...
HootSuite Goes Freemium – Paid Plans and Free Alternatives
My favorite Twitter management tool HootSuite has made the announcement that they are going to start offering different plans for using their service. New users from now on will have to choose a plan (with the option of a 30 day free trial), and current users will...
3 Biggest Social Media Marketing Myths That You Need to Break Out Of Immediately
There’s no doubt that participation at social media is growing at an alarming rate. According to a recent survey, 43% of all online consumers are on one social network or another. More and more marketers plan to increase their social media marketing spend. The point...
Online Business Owners and Social Media: Listening is Branding
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...
8 Greyhat Tactics SEOs Are Using, Use at Your Own Discretion!
Throughout my 5 years as a SEO and Internet Marketer, I have seen a number of tactics that were borderline unethical (depending on who you talk to in the industry). Even though people won’t admit it, SEO’s are using some or all of the tactics I am going...
6 Resources to Help You Design a Twitter Background
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...
How to Use Paper.li – The Daily Twitter Newspaper
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...
Get More Retweets with These Plugins, Apps, and Services
There is a lot of information about how to get more retweets for your content, the most popular being the Science of Retweets with Dan Zarrella of Hubspot. But the simplest way to get retweets is to make your content easy to retweet. Amazingly, I still see lots of...
Do Brands Really Understand the Facebook Digital Culture?
“Likes”, “Connections”, “Followers” – we are living in the age of social media. Brands can never imagine growing without an ever-increasing number of social followers. And on top of that, you need to have quality followers. So, how do you get quality social followers...
Three Pro-Active Tips for Online Reputation Management
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...
At What Point Are You Wasting Your Time With Social Media?
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...
Google+ – Is it the Future of Search?
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...
Facebook’s Growing List of Worldwide Affiliates
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...
The Ultimate Social Bookmarking Content Creation Guide (Part 1: Digg)
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...
Using Web 2.0 & Social Media To Improve Customer Service
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...
Social Media and Post-Purchase Referrals
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,...
5 Big Reasons You Should Start Using Q&A Sites Immediately
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...
Is SEO Dead or Alive?
Evolution of Search Engine Optimization Death to the Old SEO Methods There is a prevailing theme often heard in Internet Marketing that Search Engine Optimization, better known as SEO, is DEAD. Any number of reasons can be attributed to this idea, and there are many...
My Review on “The Social Network” Movie
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...
Interview with Social Media Expert Michael Fraietta, Chief Listener at Filtrbox
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...
Setting Up Your Google Profile for Google Buzz Users
Is it silly to think of being active on Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube without fully filling out your profiles on those networks? Then what about the people who are active on Buzz, but have not completed their Google Profile? Google Profiles let you enter a lot of...
Samsung Creating New Social Network…’Samsung Facebook’?
The world of technology is full of surprises where nothing is impossible. Billion dollars’ worth of businesses can be created in a short time span and the brightest of ideas fail to impress the customers. Samsung’s plan with Facebook surely has to be the biggest...How Online Press Releases Can Benefit Your Business
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...
The Ultimate Social Bookmarking Content Creation Guide (Part 3: Reddit)
This is part 3 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...
Connect to Social Apps in Gmail With Google Buzz
Google just announced Google Buzz, allowing you to share photos, videos, and updates in gmail with existing friends you already have made. You have the option of sharing things with the world or specific friends. Easily connect with social sites you use like Picasa,...
Social Media Success and What It Can Do for Your Business
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....