In this ongoing series of “How To’s”, I will be covering the basics of Search Marketing, Social Media, Website Optimization and much more. There are a lot of businesses out there that just need a little jump start, and once the tools have been put into place, they require minimal assistance.

This week’s How To will be covering : Building Your Social Network

This may sound like a very vague topic, and it is to a certain extent. A social network, in the traditional sense has nothing to do with making a sale, or the bottom line. However, this is a very naive way of approaching social networking.

Even only a decade ago, the only way businesses were spreading their message to potential (and even existing) customers, was TV, Radio, or Print. This was only effective with bloated budgets, massive up front costs and countless man hours.

Today, these traditional means of advertising are truly showing their ineffectiveness, especially when compared to the possibilities offered online. Constantly barraging viewers with ads and hoping for feedback can only work for so long.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could track down to the penny, exactly what you’re getting for your advertising dollar?  Welcome to the world of online marketing. But, I digress.

Gone are the days of the ‘banner ad or nothing’. Today, through the use of social media, there are countless ways to attract and connect with customers. These methods are much less intrusive, provide the means for customers to leave feedback and best of all, let them generate word-of-mouth (or… text-of-fingers… *ahem* sorry….). Anyways, some of the most effective tools, which I’m sure you’ve heard of, are listed below however, what you do with those tools is entirely different.

These only scratch the service. I haven’t even mentioned Facebook ads, LinkedIn ads, Promoted Tweets, etc. I also haven’t mentioned how to measure Social Media and Networking success and performance. But alas, those will have to wait for another day!

In what innovative ways do you connect with customers?

Leave some feedback in our comments below!  Or, check out some of our related articles :

• Online Marketing : What NOT to do
• Is mobile marketing important?
• Handling Social Media management
• Social Media Tools : Pros and Cons

Google has rolled out a new change to their search engine algorithm, which will now display multiple search results for the same domain, as long as the results are highly relevant and useful.

The example they have provided, is a search for ‘exhibitions at amnh’ (american museum of natural history for the non-American’s). Before this new change was rolled out, the search term generated 2 results. Now, it returns 7.

Click here to see the current search results for exhibitions at amnh.

The ability for additional pages to show in search results for a highly relevant website is a welcome change to Google’s algorithm. However, could this cause brand names to be boosted? For instance, the chances are good that you would not search for ‘adhesive bandages’, you would more likely search for ‘bandaids’. The same thing can be said for ‘Kleenex’ instead of ’tissue papers’ and others.

A similar issue could occur with domain names now receiving multiple results, regardless of the quality of content. Should http://www.searchengineoptimization.com/ receive more search results simply because of the domain name? This isn’t referring to anything about their content, or service, but simply the new variable added to Google’s method of choosing appropriate content.

If it is indeed meant to boost only the most highly relevant content, then we’re all for it. We’ll have to wait and see if this is the case.

UPDATE : Just as I suspected.  Others are finding flaws in this new algorithm change. Read SEOMoz’s latest blog post here.

Back in July 2009, the ball began to roll on a merger of sorts between Yahoo and Microsoft’s Bing search engines. This March the deal became more finalized and a shape began to form for what would become a joint search marketing effort. (Read our own article from January this year.)

What has happened since?  Well, not much really. However, any SEO you talk to will most likely have received countless emails regarding how it’s moving forward, how big things are happening, etc. etc.

In case you haven’t heard, the idea behind this Search Alliance is to allow Bing to power Yahoo’s organic search results, basically replacing Yahoo’s ’search engine’ with Bing’s. In addition to this, Microsoft’s AdCenter advertising platform will eventually replace Yahoo! Advertising.

What is Yahoo! providing for their end of the deal? They are still the #3 most visited website in north america, which will provide Bing with an enormous playing field for ad impressions. In addition to that, they are providing Microsoft with their own search-technologies (albeit for a 10-year license).

The way that the transition has been handled is very PR heavy, with little effect on the users who rely on the services every day.  We still log in to Yahoo Site Explorer, Microsoft AdCenter, etc. and will continue to do so for months, until the dust settles.

Even the official website itself is not 100% certain when the full transition will take place. As a quote taken directly from the FAQ proclaims :

Our aim is a high quality transition of advertisers and partners in at least the US prior to the 2010 holiday season. However, we may wait until 2011 if we determine this will be more effective.

We will be advancing with a ‘business as usual’ attitude unless there are drastic changes. Will you be changing your SEO approach due to this new alliance? Do you think Google will have some real competition? Leave a comment, or visit us at our Facebook or Twitter pages!

Search engines and SEO in general are changing on what seems like a daily basis. Algorithms are constantly being tweaked, and what worked like a charm 2 months ago, may be falling flat today. This presents an interesting mix of excitement and stress for most marketing companies, and I won’t lie… we are not exempt.

While I could talk all day long about what could help in the short or long term for a website’s online performance, it might be easier to list what NOT to do. We spend a lot of time researching, analyzing and scouring the web, and we’ve seen some questionable things, so here it goes…

What NOT to do with your website

• Make a site entirely comprised of Flash. Search engines don’t need to find your website.
• Rely on Javascript for all links. You should make it as hard as possible for a search engine to crawl your website.
• Ignore social media completely.  Facebook? LinkedIn? Pfft, they’re just fads.
• Stick with newspaper ads instead of a highly targeted PPC campaign. Proven results don’t mean anything.
• Keep content the same…… forever. Why do other companies waste time writing fresh content all the time?  So what if they are constantly ranking higher?
• Ignore analytics. You don’t need to know where visitors come from, or who is converting to a sales lead. That’s where those expensive newspaper ads come in handy…. right?
• If you DO end up optimizing your website, just do it once. 6 months later everything should hopefully be the same anyways.

Once the <sarcasm> HTML tag has been created, this entire list would surely be contained in it, so my apologies.  Also, sorry about the <sarcasm> joke.

Anyways, this is just scratching the service of BAD choices. It was a lot of fun to write surprisingly, so I will definitely be doing it again. In the meantime, have a look at some of our other related articles :

- SEO Rule #3 – It’s Never Too Late To Promote
- SEO Rule #2 – Focus On Website Goals
- SEO Rule #1 – Content Is King

It seems that nearly everyone has a mobile device of some kind, especially ones that have online access able to view content and advertisements.

Why then, do so few people discuss mobile as a viable advertising vehicle? Could it be because of the much smaller viewable area on the device’s screen? Could it be because people are scared of using data on their mobile device, due to the potentially sky-high fees incurred by their mobile carrier? Or could it be that they simply don’t use their mobile devices for viewing media, content or other ad-supported material?

Whatever the case, mobile advertising is growing and is a very large part of the future of companies such as Google and Apple. Approximately $3.8 billion will be spent on mobile ads in one form or another this year, which provides a lot of opportunity for businesses.

This does not include social efforts, such as Foursquare, Gowalla, Google Local Mobile (organic) searches, Yelp, among other available mobile based services. As these services become more refined and widely used, additional marketing efforts and budgets will need to be allocated in order to capture the growing audience.

Solution : Start small. Make sure your Google Places account is setup.  Make sure you are on Foursquare and Gowalla. Then… setup a Google AdWords – Mobile campaign. Allocate a portion of your existing AdWords budget (you DO have an AdWords account, right??) towards the mobile campaign, and keep a close eye on it.  This shouldn’t be scary, it’s an exciting new way to connect with potential customers!

Here are some other related posts :

- Location Based Advertising, How Could It Go Wrong?
- Twitter Announces Promoted Tweets
- Online Advertising Vs. Print

Whether your website provides your distributor or clients with password protected materials, or is available for the entire world to see and access, the process of website optimization and usability testing is equally as important.

Some businesses may have a website dedicated to each individual purpose, perhaps for privacy or security reasons, or perhaps one was created after the other. Whatever the case is, ensuring public facing pages are optimized for both their visitors and for search engines is a no-brainer. Is this the case for sites intended for a very small, specific audience? Of course!

Programmers have a knack of being great at one thing, and that’s programming.  They aren’t, let’s say… the best when it comes to visual design, or usability (I’m anticipating a few smacks to the back of the head right about now). Ask them to code anything and they will, and chances are it will work exactly as it should. However, ask a client to use the application without applying any usability testing or optimization, and you’re in for a world of hurt.

you will be handed a project from a team of programmers, with colours you thought only existed in a wardrobe from the 1970’s

There’s a reason quality assurance can quite often become the largest consumer of man hours on a project. The more complex a project is, the more time will be required to ensure it works as advertised and that any concerns are wiped away.

Quite often, you will be handed a project from a team of programmers, with colours you thought only existed in a wardrobe from the 1970’s, as well as cramped spacing, along with nothing but text, text and more text. Hand this over to a client and expect them to raise an eyebrow, or two. This is where optimization and usability testing come into play.

By performing a complete walk-through of the application, necessary changes can then be made to its style, look and feel. Any occurrences of cumbersome, confusing or navigation, content or section layouts are also rectified, allowing for an easier user experience.

You’ve optimized your public-facing website for your visitors, right? Well, I hate to break it to you, but your private intranet or secured website is being used by humans as well, and should be developed with that in mind.

This process is no different than traditional SEO, only with a more limited audience in mind.

One of the latest trends in online social activity has been the explosion of location-based search.  Whether it’s through Google search, Foursquare, Yelp, or the myriad other services available through a quick query to your mobile phone’s built-in GPS, tracking a user’s location is proving to be beneficial for both users and businesses.

Security and Privacy

The biggest fear of location based marketing is not a big surprise. Personal data, including the chance of an individual’s location being publicly spread, is highly sensitive and is still a very difficult roadblock for many online businesses to overcome.

A level of paranoia still exists for many people who still believe that “Big Brother” is watching them, and it’s sometimes difficult to prove them otherwise. (See the very highly publicized PleaseRobMe.com) What I try to suggest to these naysayers, is that companies want to know as much about their customers as they can, but they do not necessarily concern themselves with each individual’s activities.

In fact, the largest of all social networking websites, Facebook, is in the process of implementing a service which allows its users to enter their location into their status updates. This could be a boon for businesses as their locations may show up in searches and other friend feeds. Facebook has seen its share of bad press lately though, with a variety of privacy related issues, so this is an update that must be handled carefully.

Imagine searching for ‘Running Shoes’ in your mobile browser, only to be directed to the 5 nearest running shoe stores?

There are other websites, with questionable business models, such as Blippy, who have had some very unfortunate experiences. It’s a service where users can log their credit card purchases and share them with the world.  Why anyone would want to this is beyond me, but… to each his own. User’s credit card numbers were showing up in search results, with obviously detrimental results.

The Benefits

The biggest benefit of location features for users, at least for the near future, is mobile search. Imagine searching for ‘Running Shoes’ in your mobile browser, only to be directed to the 5 nearest running shoe stores? This effect can even be seen on your desktop or laptop browser, with your location being pulled through your IP address.

If carefully executed, location focused activities could create a substantial increase for local businesses. A fantastic example of this, taken from Report On Business magazine, involved an individual searching for a Christmas tree, using the search term ‘Christmas tree, palo alto”.  He was immediately instructed to go to the local Boy Scouts office, who were selling Christmas trees, showing up as  the #1 website in Google’s search results. The Boy Scouts hadn’t spent a penny on billboards or advertising, but due to a mobile location-based search, they were able to reach a customer who was looking for a specific product.

This is one of the millions of stories that have, and will be told in the months and years to come, as the possibilities for retailers and geographically targeted businesses are endless.

Some location based tools include :

• Foursquare
• Gowalla
• Blippy
• Facebook, Twitter and Google have some form of location based marketing either in the works, or in practice, with MANY more to come.

Whenever Google makes a change, no matter how small, it’s a big deal. Ok, maybe a bit more to us, the people who work with it nearly all day, but still… when they change a portion of their algorithm, which happens frequently, it can have huge ripple effects.

Arguably their largest update in a while, codenamed Caffeine, has been in the works for quite a long time.  Matt Cutts (the unofficial face of Google, at least in my eyes) recently mentioned Google would be slowly rolling out the Caffeine update during the coming weeks.

Today we noticed something interesting when we accessed Google.com in IE. Aside from the subtle graphic changes, it seemed…. different.

We figured it could just be small usability changes.  That was, until we brought up a search results page.

Location based search has been a huge focus for Google, as well as social networking behemoth, Facebook. Could this be a huge step in that direction? Is this indeed an indication that Caffeine is around the corner? We’ll have to wait and see.

Note : This was tested in Internet Explorer 8.

After months of rumours and discussions, Twitter has finally launched their business model. Instead of calling them ‘ads’ or ‘paid tweets’ they will be called ‘Promoted Tweets‘. Many wondered if Twitter could ever actually begin making money, and with the launch of this new model, it’s certainly a possibility.

The way these tweets will be distributed will not, thankfully, be very intrusive. During the initial phase of the roll-out, they will only show in relevant (hopefully!) Twitter searches. Some promoted tweets may start as organic tweets. If promoted tweets do not get retweeted and shared enough, they could get taken down. This will encourage advertisers to offer their customers useful and relevant information.

Promoted Tweets will have the same abilities as organic tweets, which will allow them to be shared easily. Thankfully they do not appear as the typical annoying banner ad, which will make them much more prone to being shared in the first place.

Twitter has provided business with the ability to instantly inform customers with any sort of information, so here’s hoping this new initiative takes off.

UPDATE : It appears promoted tweets are now live.  Go and check it out : search.twitter.com

One of the biggest social media concerns of every client is the management of the tools they use. Since the majority of work is performed by the client (blog posts, twitter posts, facebook page updates, etc.) it can all be a bit overwhelming.

It can take up to a few hours to write a good blog post, so you won’t want to spend another hour updating Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other tools manually, especially if you don’t need to.

There are a few tools available for making your life a lot easier, one of which, is called Tweetdeck. We use it extensively, and it has made updating a snap. You can link multiple Twitter accounts, Facebook pages and LinkedIn accounts, allowing for one message to be broadcast across all networks simultaneously.

Tweetdeck

You can leave comments, manage your followers, create and manage Twitter lists, and more. We don’t officially endorse Tweetdeck in any way, but since the tool is so useful, why not spread the word? Download Tweetdeck here, for PC, Mac, Linux or iPhone.

As for blogs, there’s a great tool called Networked Blogs (which you will notice on this very page!). It publishes your blog on Facebook automatically, while allowing others to find it via Facebook search. We love it and it takes yet another unnecessary step out of our social media routine.

Are there other tools you use instead?  Or do you think there’s a better way to manage social media?  Let us know in the comments!