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Track Your Brand Name Across Social Web with SEJ Tools

admin — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:44:56 +0000

Haven’t I told you SEJ Toolset is a one-stop destination when it comes to all types of your web campaigns? This week I’ll show how to monitor your online reputations from the same handy dashboard. Social Media Monitor is a service which lets you track what people are saying about you, your client, or your brand. It aggregates user generated content from across the Internet into a single stream of information. Step 1: Add a search to track social media

The Inexperienced Guide to an Optimized Blog in 30 Min

admin — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 16:03:56 +0000

This being my debut article on SEJ I wanted to write on a topic that I’m passionate about. As an educator I always try to share my experiences and knowledge to help the community and my students. I figured there would be no better way for me to get started than to help you get started. Today we are going to squash some myths and shake things up a bit by creating a simple, optimized website in under 30 min. Stop Trying to be an

Social Media Tips : Why Should I Help You?

admin — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 18:32:44 +0000

When the clock struck midnight on January 1st, I began running. It was a 5k run in Philadelphia, along the Schuylkill River, to be more specific. During this run, I passed a homeless man. Rather than running past him, I stopped. I gave him $100. Later that day, I stopped to think in greater detail about that incident. What was it that compelled me to engage him? I think the answer to that question, in this case, should be fairly obvious. The night was cold and rainy. No person should be outside and homeless, regardless of how they got there. How does this story relate to my thoughts on many folks on Twitter? Before I continue, please understand I am in no way making light of the homeless. I’m simply offering background as to what inspired the following thought: Many individuals all around the social media world are simply asking for handouts. Think about that for a second. How many people do their best to be placed prominently in front of you, but really do very little to offer a value proposition? How many individuals clamor daily about social media strategies, and the need for engagement, yet fail to offer an answer to the simple question of why you should contribute to their success? I find more and more redundancy invading my personal space. Less substance, less value, less originality, more noise. While there is overwhelming concern about those that are not participating in social media ‘correctly’, there is a disproportionate lack of concern for those that are considered social media ‘geniuses’ and really offer minimal value. If you’re going to be successful long term using social media, you must be certain that your product can back up your mouth. With that in mind, follow along and below you’ll find a small list with tips to help you, or your product, offer a compelling value proposition. 10 Ways to Translate Social Media Success into Real World

Social Media Marketing Snake Oil

cgseo — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:30:14 +0000

This post is a response to BusinessWeek’s recent “ Beware Social Media Snake Oil ” article. I would like to elaborate on a few concepts and misconceptions the article had. Right off the bat, one thing this article fails to separate is social media for small business and social media for large corporations as defined by different goals and objectives. When discussing social media people tend to lump all facets of social media and all social media channels together. However, social media is an all encompassing word for: Content Aggregation Media Sharing Bookmarking Blogging/Micro-Blogging Networking Forum conversation These facets are what define social media and should be treated differently, for each facet can have its own unique set of analytical measurements and objectives. All are tools to an overall marketing strategy though. Risk The article dives right into proclaiming utilization of social media “tools”, such as Facebook and Twitter, to be risky in many ways. Employees encouraged to tap social networking sites can fritter away hours, or worse. They can spill company secrets or harm corporate relationships by denigrating partners. What’s more, with one misstep, one clumsy entrée, companies can quickly find themselves victims of the forces they were trying to master. The article also uses a quote from James Cooper, Saatchi’s digital creative director, stating: Social media [campaigns], by their nature, are unpredictable, which makes them an easy target for critics. “Anyone who says ‘This is going to work’ is either lying or deranged,” he says. He compares the risk model with venture capital, where one bet out of 10 might pay off richly, while the others struggle or even bomb. Rebuttal First and foremost, companies should learn to dedicate resources towards social media. Not just have one of their SEOs or tech guys handle it as part of their already over-piled list of duties. Employees won’t waste time on social media if there’s a system of checks and balances. Rules can be set in to place to dedicate X amount of time each day conducting a diverse array of social media related tasks. If there is a well-defined social media policies and guidelines then there should be little worry over an employee “spilling company secrets” or “harming partner relationships”. Let’s not focus on the medium here let’s focus on the message . If an employee leaks company secrets the secrets will find a way to travel to the masses regardless of which channel the secret was released. Loose lips sink ships. Companies just need to define clearly what employees should and should not discuss both online and offline. What is worse is not monitoring the sentiment about your company and doing nothing. The conversation will happen whether you are there or not to try to control it. To address James Cooper’s point, no marketer knows how a campaign is going to turn out. Isn’t that the beauty of marketing? That it’s a game of successes and failures? One must look at the overall results of several campaign initiatives to judge the overall outcome and ROI. Judging campaigns on a one-off basis is fine to measure results and refine direction but most campaigns are a single node in an overall strategy. Success Metrics and

Pixelsilk: SEO-Friendly Content Management System

cgseo — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:31:34 +0000

Why would one want to use a content management system? The major benefits include: (1) the ability to easily create and publish web content with no programming language knowledge required and (2) the ability to connect multiple websites and multiple users under one handy dashboard. With Pixelsilk content management system we have yet another benefit: easily optimize your website for search engines. No, it is not about SEO automation like you may think: this is about creating clean, SEO-friendly websites – it’s about making the process easier and clearer (even for an absolute newbie), not about automating it. I had a great time talking to the company representative last week who walked me through the whole process of adding and optimizing web content with Pixelsilk CMS, so I am sharing that experience with you today. I don’t have huge experience with web-based content management systems (as I normally don’t use any) but I really liked Pixelsilk for the main reasons: It is very flexible: enjoy full control over your HTML, CSS, and overall SEO; It is really user-friendly and doesn’t take any time to figure it out (so should be easy to get your team work with it). Here’s a quick feature overview (with some SEO focus of course): Create new

10+ Tips For a Pubcon Vegas Newbie

cgseo — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 02:50:45 +0000

On Tuesday I will be flying out to Las Vegas for my very first Pubcon! Sounds unbelievable right? Mr. Search Engine Journal has yet to attend a Pubcon over the past 10 years or so, but it’s true. After cutting my teeth on SES, SMX & IM Spring Break, it’s now time for the big show. Vegas baby, VEGAS! My flight leaves Tuesday morning and I’ll be in town and checked in around 11 am in the Treasure Island Casino with the rest of the Search & Social crew including @ davesnyder (my Pubcon roomie), @ jordankasteler , @ ryansammy (Social Media Analyst) and @ scottpolk (our Director of Operations / Biz Dev guy). Dave gets in on Monday and I’m hopeful that our room will still be tidy, and not demolished by the Most Dangerous Man on the Internet . With a kid on the way I seriously doubt I’ll be hitting the tables or the booze (like the 3 day bachelor party I went to in Vegas this summer), so it looks like the main emphasis of this trip will be on business, building partnerships, educating people about SEJ Tools and speaking on a couple of panels. So, being this is my first Pubcon and I’ve been spending Sunday packing, getting ready and watching the Ravens lose, I thought that it would be a good idea to ask some Twitter friends for some tips on surviving Pubcon Vegas 2009, and here they are : 1. Remember afternoon naps, aspirin, jacket (Vegas gets cold at night), & mobile Twitter to get the latest #pubcon party updates 2. Find a “soft spot” in sessions to steal a nap. Good if it borders a lunch for maximum nappability. 3. Bring small multi-outlet power cord. Speaker/media room is woefully low on outlets. 4. #pubcon tip: day 1 go to the ABC Store in fashion show mall (walkable from TI) & get a case of water for your room. 5. Bring lots of $5 and $10 to split costs of cabs to & from Convention Center. [ and $1's work well too! ] 6. Try to increase alcohol tolerance now if you drink, and pack Advil; you’ll need it. [ I did this before my trip to Russia and it worked well ] 7. Take lots of Vitamin C before the conference and during as you’ll probably be exposed to lots of people during cold season. 8. Wear a diaper to cut back on crowded trips to the bathroom between sessions and stay away from @pamela_lund 9. If you see someone from Search & Social, introduce yourself, trade business cards (ours are insanely awesome) and ask us about our BIG NEW PROJECT! 10. Party like a ROCKSTAR! Thanks to @ pamela_lund @ blafrance @ andybeal @ danperry for the feedback. But you know what? Forget all that, I’m just going to get my conference tips from the Most Dangerous Man on the Interwebs! Do Enjoy : See you at Pubcon Vegas! Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . 10+ Tips For a Pubcon Vegas

5 Useful Yahoo! Pipes to Monitor Your Brand

admin — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:18:27 +0000

After Yahoo! SiteExplorer and Flickr, Yahoo! Pipes is the third reason why I love Yahoo! so much. Surprisingly, I come across too many people who have no idea how to use Yahoo! Pipes and what one can do with them. This post is meant remind us of some huge possibilities behind the tool: here are 5 great Yahoo! Pipes that can be used for brand monitoring for competitive research and reputation management: Pipe URL Aggregated sites Best feature Social Media Firehose yahoo.com, google.com, technorati.com, twitter.com, blogspot.com, youtube.com, wordpress.com Search for multiple terms at a time (comma separated) Conventional & Social Media Tracker News sites [Google, Yahoo, Live]; Blogs [Google Blog Search, Bloglines, WordPress blog search, Technorati]; Social media [Twitter, Friendfeed, Youtube, Digg, Metafilter, Wired] Set the timeframe Social Site Submission Watch Dog Digg, Reddit Domain backlinks from social media sites Content Keyword RSS Digg, Technorati, Yahoo News, PRWeb, and Google News Filters out identical content Meta Search Alerts Del.icio.us, Findory, Flickr, Google Blog Search, Google News, Google Search, Icerocket, Live Search, Technorati, Yahoo News, Yahoo Search Filters out duplicate URLs Social Media Firehose is a social media search for tracking brand or product mentions on a number of social media sites, including flickr, twitter, friendfeed, digg etc. It allows to filter your search by location and to block any domain or phrases from search. Conventional & Social Media Tracker combs through multiple blog and social media search engines and also allows you to filter results based on dates published. Social Site Submission Watch Dog keeps track of your domain submissions to Digg and Reddit. Content Keyword RSS aggregates news sources from multiple sites such as Digg, Technorati, Yahoo News, PRWeb, and Google News, compares content, removing same stories and outputting a unique RSS feed and also allowing you to set how many entries the feed can contain. Meta Search Alerts aggregates search results from a number of sources and ensures all the URLs are unique. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . 5 Useful Yahoo! Pipes to Monitor Your

Share On Twitter – A New Amazon Associates Feature

admin — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:49:42 +0000

Now you can share Amazon affiliate links on Twitter! Amazon is releasing a new feature for Amazon Associates that is available today. The purpose of the feature is to facilitate the affiliate marketing efforts of their associates. If you visit Amazon.com while logged in using your Amazon Associate credentials, you will see a new bar available at the top of your screen. The “Share on Twitter” button located on this toolbar will allow you to quickly share the product on Twitter. When you click this link, a new window will open with the Twitter home page and it will populate the tweet box with the title of the page and a link to the product. You can edit the text of the tweet if you like, but I would not recommend modifying the link unless you are an advanced user. You will run the risk of removing your affiliate ID from the already shortened URL. If you have multiple Twitter accounts, you should double check which account you are logged into before submitting the Tweet. When sent to Twitter after clicking the button, it will use the account that you are currently signed into. If you need to switch accounts, or are unsure which account you are signed into, do not worry. You can sign out of Twitter and then sign back in under the proper account before posting the new tweet. If you are not signed in, it will ask you to sign into Twitter. Currently the way you share an affiliate link on Amazon is to find the product page, make sure your affiliate ID is present in the URL, shorten the URL, and then use your favorite Twitter client to post the Tweet. That represents 6 actions to tweet your affiliate link. With this new feature, it takes just 2 actions to tweet your affiliate link. You can also rest assure that your affiliate ID is properly inserted into the URL with this new Amazon Associates feature. With the old methods, you had to manually verify the value was there and worry about whether or not the URL shortener would remove your affiliate tag. Here is an image that shows what happens when you click the Share on Twitter link (click to enlarge): If you have any questions about this feature, please feel free to leave a comment here. Checkout http://twitter.com/amazonassociate for more information. Joshua Odmark is a Senior Search Specialist at Admax Media Inc. and also blogs for Performance Marketing Blog . Follow him on Twitter or connect with him on LinkedIn . Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . Share On Twitter – A New Amazon Associates

Search Engine Optimization Techniques

cgseo — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:24:07 +0000

by Chris Dotson Search Engine Optimization is a tool which if used appropriately can help an organization to become a recognized brand in the market. It is very important for an administrator to be fully acquainted with all those techniques that a good Denver SEO Company should draw on while working with Denver Search Engine Optimization on the clients website. Some SEO firms promise their clients to provide 100% SEO results, which is not true. If a SEO firm is promising 100% results, then the administrators should not opt for such companies as no one can guarantee higher ranking. There are some techniques which a Denver SEO company follows so as to provide optimum results to the clients and help their websites to target more of quality traffic. Search Engine Optimization Techniques Title of your Website: A experienced Denver SEO Company knows that a good relevant keyword in the title will help the users and search engines find the site it wants effortlessly. Titles that have good keywords or phrases in them are a good start on throwing yourself out there, this will help the spiders and crawlers recognize the topic they want. Content: Something that the Denver SEO Company should be able to write, something that is full of rich and relevant content to keep the reader hooked. If the reader does not enjoy or think the content is important they will not visit the web site or spread the word in terms lowering your ranking. Keyword Density: Something that is most important when dealing with Denver Search Engines Optimization, that should definitely not be overlooked by the service provider in any case. Keyword Density is a tool that will aid the websites to rule the charts, search engine crawlers will search for these keyword densities in the websites. Internal Linking: Internal Linking is a very important aspect in which assists the visitor to view the website of the owner and a Denver Web Designer should opt to fulfill this necessity. Site Maps: Site Maps are an effective tool when it comes to the engine crawlers, it will help them rank the site higher on the search engines. For this very reason the Denver Designer should definitely create a site map in terms to get a better rank on the search engines. Social Media Marketing: Social Media Marketing facility provided by a Denver SEO Company helps to get a clear idea about the current status of brand recognition in the market as administrators can focus on the customer reviews. Video Spokesperson: A newly developed idea that some Denver SEO companies are doing, this is a great new way to grab the interests of visitors and makes it easy for the the website owner to launch new promotions and products. So, if you are also hiring a Denver SEO Company, make sure that it makes use of all these techniques so as to take the advantage of fruitful results, once the website is being designed by Denver Web Designer . About the Author: Sometimes finding the right Denver SEO Company can be difficult and should definitely not be taken lightly, but just remember the more quality traffic you have going to your website the more product and service you can put out. You are welcome to reprint this article – but get your own unique content version here.

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Search Engine Optimization Techniques

Audience Attention Deficit Disorder (AADD)

admin — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:23:37 +0000

Every person in the industrialized world who owns a mobile phone or computer has Audience Attention Deficit Disorder (AADD). The more devices a person owns the more severe their case of Audience Attention Deficit Disorder becomes. People who have Audience Attention Deficit Disorder spend their time focused on channels for getting media attention as opposed to giving media channels their attention. Although the disorder is found in technology device owners, advertisers and the media they used to count on to reach audiences are the groups most affected by it. As Audience Attention Deficit Disorder progresses through societies, the audiences advertisers used to count on and prey upon for attention to create demand for their products grows less and less interested in their advertising messages. Technology device owners can attend Attention Anonymous 12 step meetings to learn how to live their lives again without distraction, yet there is no known cure for Advertisers who have lost their audience’s attention.

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Audience Attention Deficit Disorder (AADD)