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...
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. ...
4 Ways to Get Noticed by an Industry Leader
Whether or not you want to admit it, there has probably been some point in your life where you wanted to be noticed by someone who is top dog in a particular niche or industry like digital marketing. This could be for the development of your career, your blog, or even...
Is Twitter a Stethoscope or Megaphone??
I just don’t get Twitter!!! This is the catch cry I constantly hear from business owners almost every time I speak to them about social media interaction and marketing. And you know what?? This lack of understanding of how to use Twitter effectively doesn’t...
Why You Should Monitor Your Brand
No matter who you are, you should be monitoring your brand. Your brand could be anything from your own name, your business or company name, your product, your blog, and so on. Brand monitoring isn’t just about reputation management issues – it’s...
How You Can Use Stumbleupon to Generate Traffic
Stumbleupon can help you out with generating a greater amount of traffic to your website. This website will allow you to share websites with others and to help you find other sites that you can add as favorites. It will be easier for you to get people to find your...
The Right Way to Create Branded Content
Content marketing is growing by leaps and bounds. More and more reputed companies like Red Bull are using branded content to create more awareness about their products, without actually “selling” directly to their target audience. However, creating the right mix of...
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...
Can You Really Outsource A Social Media Strategy?
The foundation of social media involves the interaction, engagement, and discussion with people using user-generated video, audio, and text through blogs, wikis, social content sharing sites, and video hosting sites. With that being said I ask…Is it possible to...
9 Professional Social Media Monitoring & Reputation Management Tools
Brand and online reputation management has become a growing concern for a lot of companies because of the multiple ways people can interact with each other online. People now are communicating via blogs, forums, discussion boards, wikis, Q&A, and video sites. ...
Important Social Media & ORM Questions, Answered By Community Manager of Radian6
Lauren Varges, Community Manager at Radian6, was nice enough to take time and lend her expertise and insights into questions regarding social media and online reputation management. For many businesses owners out there, I’m sure you have wondered how you can...
Social Media Marketing or Content Creation: Which Comes First?
While creating a Facebook Fan page, Twitter profile, and LinkedIn profile, YouTube channel, Flickr account, etc and then using those social media networks is technically “creating content,” for the purposes of this post, when I speak of “content...
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...
Online Business: How to Utilize Your Social Networking Sites Properly
Facebook, Twitter and Google+—these three major social players aren’t just places to drop your ad and service update bombs. In Internet marketing, social networking sites are a sacred place to position yourself in the market without even mentioning that you sell a...
The Powerful Convergence Between QR Codes and Internet Video
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...
Make Your Content Shareable By Adding a Social Media Toolbar To Your Blog
Blogs and websites in all industries have been trying new ways of making their sites more social. Adding Tweetmeme icons, social bookmarking buttons, and RSS feeds are just a few ways sites are making their content more sharable. Social Media Toolbar Examples...
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...
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.
How Do I Know My Web Content is Good Enough?
I love when readers, clients and social media connections ask questions; the answers make great fuel for articles, so please keep them coming! Recently, a reader asked, “How do I know my web content is good enough or SEO’d well?” Thus, the topic of today’s blog. So...
How to Get Fans, Followers & Subscribers
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....
Traditional SEO to Social, What Matters?
Have you ever wondered how Twitter links and updates play into search results? A recent study by Michael Stelzner on small business social media use reported, 88% of all marketers found social media helps get them increase exposure. But where is this exposure coming...
Karmin Music – Social Media Case Study
A few months, I happen to stumble across a HOT new music duo when I was wasting away my day on YouTube. The band “Karmin” are two up and coming artists that have been using YouTube to jump-start their music careers. Like thousands of other musicians, they...
Instagram: How to Effectively Use Pictures to Market Your Brand
Just two months after its October release in the Apple App Store, the photo-sharing application Instagram already had 1 million registered users. As of April of this year, there are over 30 million registered accounts. For an owner or marketer of any business whose...
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....
Understanding Social Networking Demographics
Each Social media website develops its own community and its own demographic profile. With the ever changing world of social media, it can be hard to determine which social media community would be the most effective place to market your company. With one in four...
Defining Facebook Profiles, Pages, Groups, and Communities
I know when you are just starting out with Facebook things can be hard to figure out. You probably have a lot of questions about what is the most effective way to market yourself or company using Facebook. Whats the difference between a Facebook Page and Facebook...
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...
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...
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...
Pinterest Tips for Your Business
I started using Pinterest not long after it launched in 2010. Not too many people were using Pinterest at the time; the people I followed were mainly other bloggers, but only a few I actually knew in real life. Now, as more and more people join (Pinterest made TIME’s...
Using the Google Keyword Tool
Using Google Keyword Tool Among other functions, the Google Adwords keyword tool plays a vital role in effective SEO. All know the role of SEO on internet and the benefits it brings. If you ever plan to optimize your web content, you will definitely come across this...
How to Create a Social Media Conversion Funnel
Defining your social media goals As with any other type of marketing initiative, social media marketing must begin with a goal. For marketers many times these goals will be: Increasing awareness, loyalty and influence Measuring public opinion Market research...
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...
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...
Facebook for Business: Setup and Usage Tips
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...
Managing Agency and Client Responsibilities
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...
8 Blogs SEOs Must Check Daily
“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...
Why a WordPress Based Website is a Social Media Trend for 2011
The world of social media is witnessing a lot of changes in the year 2011 including location-based marketing, review websites, text campaigns, plugins etc. If you are planning your new social media strategy, it is important to make sure that you leverage all of these...
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...
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...
Facebook Deals: How to Setup Your First Facebook Deal
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...
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...
How SEO and Social Media Are Joining Forces
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...
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...
The Ultimate Social Bookmarking Content Creation Guide (Part 2: StumbleUpon)
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...
A Twitter Exercise to Get More Followers
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...
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...
How To Assemble the All-Star Content Promotion Team
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...