5 Ways Small Businesses Can Make the Most Out of Social Media

by Jennifer Gregory on June 29th, 2012

 Most large corporations have positions dedicated solely to managing the company’s social media outlets, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and now Pinterest. But as a small business owner, social media responsibilities most likely land on your desk or another employee’s desk in addition to many other responsibilities. With the ability of social media to increase your customer loyalty, revenue and brand recognition, it is important that it doesn’t get pushed to the bottom of your to-do list.

Here are five tips for maximizing your presence on social media:

Pick the Right Media for the Message
Different social media applications are best used for different messages and goals. Think about the different messages you want to share with potential customers and then decide the best place for that based on the type of interactions on that media. By having a strategy, you will maximize your time spent and also increase the effectiveness of what you are sharing.



Raindrop Roofing in Portland, Ore. has seen a significant increase in leads due to their focused social media marketing efforts. “Twitter is our daily touchpoint for generating conversation, Facebook is who we are in pictures and LinkedIn, in terms of social networking, is our business networking anchor,” said Jenni Green Miller, social media/marketing director. They also use Angie’s List and Yelp to interact with potential customers.



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How To Get Better Digital Photos In Low Light Conditions Without Using A Flash

Great Article from the Digital Photgraphy School

How To Get Better Digital Photos In Low Light Conditions Without Using A Flash by  Darren Rowse


The following guest tip on Low Light Photography Without Using A Flash was submitted by Amy Renfrey – author of the Digital Photography Success ebook. I’ll be back from my short break tomorrow.

Digital photography is easy- when you have plenty of light and the conditions are ideal. But, as you may know, lighting conditions in digital photography aren’t always as we would like them. In digital photography its essential that we work with light as much as humanly possible otherwise disappointing results may occur.

One of my subscribers asked me how he could take digital photos at his friends wedding. He did not want to use the flash to distract the bride and groom during the time they were saying their vows. What he was asking me was how to get better digital photos in low light conditions without the necessity of using a flash. It’s a very good digital photography question. Good news it can be done. But like everything in photography there are advantages and disadvantages.

The flash is the biggest solution to low light digital photography. However the problem with this is that not all situations can benefit from using the flash. Not only does it interfere with your “moment” socially and artistically, but the flash can flatten out your digital images. This is especially true for a flash that is built-in on digital cameras. The built in flash (and a flash in general) has the effect of lighting your subject on the front only which compresses the depth in your digital photos. Compressed depth can really decrease the beauty of your subject in your digital photography.

This can be avoided to a certain degree, depending on your subject and by watching how your light falls. Learn how to see how the light falls on your surroundings and your mind will become adept at knowing what works and what doesn’t with the flash

Really, a good way to combat the problem in low light you can try using a higher ISO. Your ISO simply means the amount of sensitivity of light falling on your sensor. For example take traditional photography as a comparison to digital photography. Traditional photography ISO will be film sensitivity. (ISO in traditional terms works with film speed as well.)

The only set back in digital photography ISO is noise. If your ISO is perfect for the photo yet there is a significant increase in noise you can use software to sharpen up your digital photo. There are two good noise reduction software programs called“Noise Ninja” or “Neat Image”. If you don’t push the ISO higher you may find the problem with camera shake if a tripod is not in hand. By adjusting the ISO you will find that noise is better than camera shake. In digital photography noise will always be something to consider.

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Australia's Vast Ocean Environment

Our Australia. One Place, Many Stories: Oceans

Australia has the third largest marine estate of any nation in the world. It is a massive area larger than our landmass and extends from the tropical seas of the north to the sub-Antarctic waters of the Southern Ocean.
Our oceans possess an abundance of biodiversity and marine life - some of which cannot be found anywhere else in the world - and there is still much about our oceans that we are yet to discover.
Australia's vast oceans provide many benefits to its people and its visitors alike - as a source of food, recreation, and a range of industries such as minerals and energy that contribute to our economy. But this extraordinary natural diversity and biological richness comes with some responsibility. We need to ensure our oceans, and the life in them, remain healthy, productive and resilient so that future generations can enjoy them as we do.
For its part, the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities works to achieve these goals through programs and initiatives in a range of focus areas including marine bioregional planning, the creation and management of marine reserves, the conservation and recovery of protected species and assessing the sustainability of Australia's fisheries.

Our Australia. One Place, Many Stories: Oceans - view some of Australia's iconic ocean environments.
http://www.environment.gov.au/coasts/publications/one-place-many-stories/ebook.html#/page/1

Our Australia. One Place, Many Stories:Oceans


Marine turtles have lived in the oceans for over 100 million years. They are an integral part of the traditional culture of many coastal indigenous peoples throughout the world.
Marine turtles migrate long distances between their feeding grounds and nesting sites. They have a large shell called a carapace, four strong, paddle-like flippers and like all reptiles, lungs for breathing air. The characteristic beak-like mouth is used to shear or crush food.
All marine turtle species are experiencing serious threats to their survival. The main threats are pollution and changes to important turtle habitats, especially coral reefs, seagrass beds, mangrove forests and nesting beaches. Other threats include accidental drowning in fishing gear, over-harvesting of turtles and eggs, and predation of eggs and hatchlings by foxes, feral pigs, dogs and goannas.
Species found in Australia
There are only a few large nesting populations of the green, hawksbill and loggerhead turtles left in the world. Australia has some of the largest marine turtle nesting areas in the Indo-Pacific region and has the only nesting populations of the flatback turtle.
Of the seven species of marine turtles in the world, six occur in Australian waters:
Flatback turtle (Natator depressus)
Green turtle (Chelonia mydas)
Hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata)
Leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea)
Loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta)
Olive Ridley turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea)

Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities
The department is responsible for implementing the Australian Government's policies to protect our environment and heritage, and to promote a sustainable way of life.
For more information on the Sea Life of Australia visit their web site
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“How To Start a Social Media Routine - A Method To Your Madness”

“How To Start a Social Media Routine - A Method To Your Madness”

By Shaun Hinklein

So its Monday morning and you’re back into your social media routine. You might not refer to it as a social media routine yet. Maybe its just random checking here and there on Twitter mentions, Facebook likes, and shared content on Pinterest and Tumblr, but did you ever think of creating a method to the madness?

Social media never sleeps and if you were so allowed you’d be able to contribute and evolve your campaigns using it 24-7. Since you can’t (unless you’re a super cool robot) it is best to spend your time wisely. Creating a routine doesn’t mean there is anything set in stone and you can customize this to your liking anytime.

Here is just a bit of my current social media routine. Maybe it’ll help you guide your own campaigns.

Optimize and Report any Social Media AdsThe first thing before getting into community engagement is to check up on any ads I’m running. This includes Facebook ads, Twitter ads, LinkedIn ads, and Google AdWords buys. Instead of just collecting data to analyze for a report I’ll also make changes based on the weekends performance.

This can take some time so its normally why I knock this out first thing in the morning. Creating content and engaging brand ambassadors will have to wait. If ads are running they are my top priority. I want to make sure the money is being well spent and targeted towards the right users.

Twitter Mentions and Facebook TagsTwitter mentions and Facebook tags (along with a slew of other metrics) are just two examples of users mentioning the brand or interacting with the campaign. For this action I react by either mentioning them directly, replying, or showcasing them.

This goes hand in hand with reputation management. With the good comes the bad comments that might hinder the brands digital identity. This will also be the damage control segment of the day, though this is ongoing considering it can occur at anytime.

What helps me find these before anyone else is an intense obsession with Google Alerts, Sprout Social, and Google Trends. Hootsuite works as well, but you’ll have to stay diligent and refresh the streams.

Create and Share ContentNow comes the part I enjoy the most when it comes specifically to social media; content creation and syndication. There are a few steps here


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The Starfish Story

 

The Starfish Story
Original Story by: Loren Eisley

One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed a boy picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean.

Approaching the boy, he asked, "What are you doing?"

The boy replied, "Throwing starfish back into the ocean. The surf is up and the tide is going out. If I don't throw them back, they'll die.

"Son," the man said, "don't you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish? You can't make a difference!"

After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish, and threw it back into the surf. Then, smiling at the man, he said,"I made a difference for that one."

 

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The Thorny Question of Marketing Attribution: Does It Apply to B2B?

By Ruth Stevens

Have you noticed how marketers are focusing on attribution these days? Which media channel is really driving the sale, they ask. What touch sequence is most productive? Where should we assign credit? There is much confusion and gnashing of teeth on this subject, but I say that in B2B, these are the junior questions, and just a building block to the bigger issues. Sure, we business marketers want to know where to invest our precious dollars. But what we really want to know is: 1) How do my prospects buy, and how can I make their journey easier, faster, and more likely to result in a sale for my company? 2) What’s the ROI on the sale, meaning how much sales and marketing investment do I need to close the piece of business?

I’ve been looking into this attribution discussion recently, and find it pretty frustrating. In the purely digital marketing world, marketing attribution analysis actually makes a lot of sense, and the various methods that are being talked about are worth looking at. To summarize, they boil down to 4 general techniques:
First touch, last touch. This means all credit for the sale (or whatever is the desired outcome, like becoming a qualified lead) goes to the media channel that acquired the prospect (the first touch) OR the channel immediately before the outcome (the last touch). While many consumer marketers find last touch to make sense for attribution, in B2B, it’s more likely that marketers will be keeping close track of the first touch, since that is so useful for analyzing cold prospecting investment decisions.
Weighting. All recorded touches are given some credit, and weighted equally, or according to some reasonable factor, like where they lie in the path to the sale. In B2B, this method becomes problematic very quickly, since the sales cycle is so complex, involving a long series of touches, to multiple contacts in a target account, through multiple channels, many of them offline, and difficult to capture in a database.
Modeling. Statistical analysis of purchase patterns against touch sequences provides insight into the relative impact of each media channel, which can then be used for more reliable weighting. According to a 2010 Lenskold Group study, only 3% of business marketers are modeling for attribution. And even if they do, models tend to provide guidance only at a fairly high level, which doesn’t much help with granular touch-sequence decision-making.
Test and control. Hands down, the most reliable method of sorting out the impact of an isolated single variable. But well nigh impossible to execute across a multi-channel, multi-touch relationship.


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“Building a Business While Having a Life”

Say goodbye to all barriers that stand in the way of you and a thriving business …and hello to automation, viral marketing and 100% Commissions.
From this point on, as a member you’ll never have to wait for another less than worthy commission check in the mail again. Ever. Get paid instant and automatically, directly into your bank account daily, hourly …even by the minute. And collect 100% commissions from every sale you make.
You can now leverage our ‘done for you‘ marketing system that pays you all the money, converts sales for you and keeps you focused on the things that matter in your life and business.
No rules, except get paid now – right now – and except nothing less than 100% commissions.
 

Yesterday our growth CONTINUED. 247 NEW blogging customers (consistent with our Mondays lately), and by the end of the day....
 66 had earned over $200
 32 had earned $1,000
 3 had earned $2,000
 1 had earned over $3,000
3 had earned over $4,000
 (within 24 hours)
 We're NOT slowing down. So....
 Stay focused.
 Ignore the haters.
 And 'delete the wussy' :)
 Follow the '8 Core Steps'

Watch your business grow

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VIDEO

Outsource Your Social Media to the Professionals

Outsource Your Social Media to the Professionals
 By Chris Abraham
I really believe it’s bad advice to recommend that companies fire their social media consultants, experts and agencies only to bring everything in house.

While “everyone” is on Facebook, social media is no longer a land of tinkerers; it’s a land of consumers. If you fill a room of potential brand ambassadors you harvest from your own ranks, I guarantee that only 1% to 10% of those people are active participants, and the rest are passive folks who are mostly lurkers. And when people bring up Zappos as the corporate exemplar, I always remind them that Zappos is exceptional and that’s why they’re the only company anyone can think of who does it as well internally. Plus, Zappos is a dyed-in-the-wool customer-service-centric company with an aggressive, visionary founder — someone who has completely rebuilt itself to over-serve its communities. Kudos, but seriously a truly exceptional example.

Only the largest companies have in-house counsel — their own corporate lawyers. Very few small or medium-sized companies maintain their own in-house accountants, designers, publicists, reputation and crisis managers, or marketers — some don’t even have their own dedicated sales teams.

And this is becoming more and more the reality of modern business — and it started in the ’90s. Why incur internal staff bloating when you can keep your staff limited to core expertise and services in focus, outsourcing everything else to professional service firms — vendors? Specialist vendors, like doctors or lawyers or management consultants, are generally staffed by people who are not only trained and experienced but also have the benefit of being able to load-balance and mind-share across the experience of multiple clients.

The best vendors, like the best docs and lawyers, keep rigorously up to date in the state of the art with a single-minded incentive to keep up and even lead the way. Personally, I have over 15 years of experience in consulting, and the only way a consultant ever gets a job — and keeps it — is by being just a little smarter, more curious, quicker, and more confident than the client — and since this is rarely completely true, most consultants worth their salt work really hard and spend many hours being and staying a top expert in the field.

Why Zappos is the unicorn of social media success stories....................


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Is Google turning from a search engine into a publisher?

  Webmasters push back against recent changes at Google by JD Lasica
Target audience: Businesses, brands, marketers, search specialists, SEO experts, Web publishers — anyone with a business website.
By and large over the years on number of fronts — search, mobile, open source, public policy — Google has generally worn the white hat. They’ve played the good guys in this still unfolding Internet saga right from the start. Back when search was still young, as I wrote in 2001, Google decreed that there must be a clear demarcation between search results and sponsored links, and it has been thus ever since.
So it was somewhat jarring to see the cool reception that Google’s Matt Cutts — probably Google’s biggest superstar behind Larry, Sergey and Eric — received yesterday at the Search Engine Strategies conference in San Francisco. Cutts laid out a rosy portrait of the company’s Knowledge Graph, unveiled last week. Search on “chiefs” on Kansas City and you’ll get a different result than if you searched out the Chiefs rugby team in Australia or New Zealand. (For the possible downsides of this, see my interview with Eli Pariser, author of “The Filter Bubble.”)
But Google is doing more than just personalization, and audience members took to the microphone to push back. Their objection came down to this: By all appearances, Google’s recent moves seem to be moving the company away from its search roots and more into the role of an online publisher, a one-stop shop, a commercial Wikipedia.
Google’s entry on Tom Cruise, part of its Knowledge Graph initiative.
As one questioner put it — and you may have noticed this trend — when you do a search on Tom Cruise now, you don’t just see link to his Wikipedia page, his website or other sources, you see a content capsule right there in the search results (see image at right).
And not just good ol’ Tom. Do a search on best hotels in San Francisco and you’ll see a spate of choices that Google ranks before Frommer’s or Trip Advisor. When you search on hotels or other items, the results you get, well, depends

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Neuromarketing: The Future of Advertising

Marketing Conversation

Neuromarketing: The Future of Advertising
by speters on August 14, 2012
Marketing evolves over time to the will of the people. This is a very important fact for business owners and other entrepreneurs to remember and follow accordingly. As times change, people change, and because advertising and marketing rely on the response of the people, they need to change as well.
In recent years we have seen the use of strategic ad placement, as well as social media marketing techniques. These strategies work very efficiently and sometimes effortlessly; however, success can be pushed even further by getting it all down to a science. What does that mean? Marketing to the masses using neurological means of advertising.
Some of you may think this already sounds confusing and complicated, but thankfully, it isn’t. Neurological marketing strategies are in fact very simple and easy to effectively incorporate in your business. In order to equip them into your business plans, you’ll need to understand basic examples of neurological marketing strategies.
When designing psychological based methods of advertisement, entrepreneurs should always be thinking of basic human needs. Basic human needs are what drive consumers to make choices about certain products and purchases; thus, if a consumer ultimately feels that their needs are not being supported, they will choose to not purchase a product. Bartering with consumers and proving to them that you understand their desires and needs can help resolve their decision in your benefit.
With our current generation, there are multiple needs you can strike a chord with in order to be innovative and successful. In fact, these methods of neurological marketing are simple and have been used for years, but the way we use them is what has changed. The following are 3 basic marketing needs used by business savvy entrepreneurs that had their production booming in a short amount of time.
The first basic need we’ll cover is sex. For example, in 2002, cosmetic dentistry business owner Helaine Smith was finding trouble with her advertisement plan. She began to brainstorm other abstract ways in which to bring interest to her business. She considered the human need for sex, and published an electronic book titled Healthy Mouth, Healthy Sex, documenting how good oral hygiene assists sex in being a much more pleasant experience.
Since the publishing of the book, her Helaine’s annual revenue for her business has tripled to one million dollars. This is due to readers finding information linking the book to Helaine’s original business.
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Your Business vs. Cyber Bullies

Your Business vs. Cyber Bullies    By DYAN MACHAN
In the old days, if you were mad at a merchant, you could muster an angry mob and have him tarred and feathered and run out of town. These days all you have to do is write a nasty report on a complaint message board. But it s worse: The digital angry mob will be back to chase the victim out of town every single day.
I first encountered the phenomenon a few years ago when I was looking to hire a landscape designer. A friend recommended a local gardener, but when I searched for that person s name online, the first result that came up was a Web site that lambasted his performance in boldface type, accusing him of overcharging and shoddy workmanship. When I asked the gardener about it, he said the site had been put up by a disgruntled customer he didn’t t know much more about it, he explained, because he doesn’t t own a computer. The gardener said he had asked his lawyer what he could do. His answer: nothing.
Fortunately for him and other entrepreneurs, that’s not exactly true. Over the past few years, a brand-new industry has sprung up to help businesses protect their online corporate images. Small businesses and entrepreneurs are among the top customers of the firms that offer these Internet Write-Out skills, which combine public relations finesse and search engine technique.
When a large company gets a tongue-lashing online, the complaints often get shoved to the backwaters of a search result, because there s such a sea of other information available. But there s typically less information online on a small fry, which means a customer s diatribe on a complaint board can be sticky and devastating. That s where businesses like Reputation Defender, specialists in online sanitation, come in and offer their services. Of course, you don t have to turn to a white knight to fight your battles for you but it takes a lot of elbow grease to wipe away a concerted online smear.
Where the attack originates has a big impact on your odds of making it go away. If inaccurate or libelous information is posted on a blog, you have a chance of getting the blogger to take it down just by asking. Many bloggers would prefer to avoid a defamation-of-character lawsuit or at the very least, a pissing match, notes Kevin Spleid, a New York based computer consultant. And in many cases, the law prohibits individuals from making false or defamatory statements online. But there s a colossal exemption built into the Communications Decency Act that protects Internet service providers and any review site that allows other people not its employees to post comments. Ripoff Report, one online gripe net, says it has successfully defended itself against 20 lawsuits and is adamant in its refusal to take down reviews even when an author asks to retract one.
While you can sue an individual for posting malicious or false information, winning a lawsuit doesn’t t mean the offending content will go away. Digital material that’s archived or stored doesn’t t easily disappear. My gardener friend s problem was particularly tricky because it wasn t a matter of one bad review tucked inside some sprawling Web universe. In his case, the site that criticized him occupied its own, easily found Web planet.
Digital Reputation Management To solve problems like this, the larger reputation management firms generally ask for a retainer that can run up to $1,000 a month to take care of cleanup and monitoring. For this cash, would your online-meanie problem go away? Sort of. According to the whitewashers, the best you can do is bury the offensive material under an avalanche of more positive fare. As students of how search engines favor certain types of information, these firms know how to create content that pushes the nasty stuff away from the top of a search-results page. Reputation Hawk, for example, has created business-related sites where it posts its customers positive reviews. If successful, the technique makes an impact, because 90 percent of people don t look past the first results page after an online search.
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Don’t Roll Your Eyes at Social Media Influencers

 Why insincerity doesn’t work in PR, sales, marketing & online media June 12,2012
by Chris Abraham
I experience a lot of contempt for bloggers and social media influencers. From agencies
and marketing firms as well as from self-professed social media experts and social media gurus. Bloggers and other social media online influencers may not know who Edward Bernays is or have the lingua franca of a trained communications professional, but they sure can spot the eye roll of condescension and contempt from a mile away, even through the terse messaging of a single pitch.
While the biggest brands with the biggest gifts and social cachet can get away with being douche bags and intolerable asses because the level of peer and personal prestige and importance more than compensate for bad manners, rudeness, and a condescending manner — the proverbial upturned nose and eye roll — this sort of behavior isn’t acceptable from anyone but the crown king and queen of their particular demographic.
For example, if you’re offering cars, purses, trips to bloggers to review, you can act as you like; if you’re offering coupons, you had better really try to understand that it is relationships, kindness, attention, and connections that is selling your pitch — and the blogger’s valuable-to-her time — instead of your patently insulting suggestion that “you and your readers would really benefit from this dollar-off coupon.”
If you think that bloggers are actually failed journalists, you may have contempt for your audience; if you consider the time spent to become a blogger would be better spent “working,” you may have contempt for your audience. If you believe that what bloggers do is “just prattle on,” you may have contempt for your audience; and if you actively play favorites and only engage with the crème de la crème of bloggers, you may have contempt for your audience.
Why it’s important to be generous for its own sakeThis contempt is made plain by two variations of a quote attributed to Henry Louis Mencken: “No one in this world has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby” and “Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.”
This blog post came to a head upon reading the time-honored and often-reviled book by Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends & Influence People. At first blush, it is a deeply troubling and kiddie-pool-shallow indictment of all that is superficial and manipulative about sales, marketing, PR, and social networking.
If you gird your loins, however, and push through, I kick myself for not having studied it further. I will admit that I always get to where it really sounds like Dale is suggesting that we superior elite who are reading his book need to learn to manifest the same sort of compassion, patience, and calm — grace — that we generally reserve for children and the infirm.
And then I realized that that is indeed what Dale Carnegie is saying! But that we should not just reserve compassion, empathy, gentleness, love, patience, attention, and kindness to just children, we should lavish anyone and everyone in our lives with adoration, no matter if that person is one’s child, one’s wife, one’s business associate, or one’s prospect.
What he seems to be suggesting — and this is really revolutionary to see laid out through endless illustration and scenarios taken from history’s greatest and most successful men and women — is that being nice, generous, and friendly should be something one aspires to generally and not just as a ploy to make friends and influence people.
While this book may well have been popularly reflected as insincere, insincerity is what doesn’t work in PR, sales, marketing, and especially in earned media online with bloggers and other online influencers.
Some good advice that Dale Carnegie offers is “bait your hook for the fish you want to catch rather than for yourself.” (OK, if you’re rolling your eyes now and thinking, “pearls to swine” right now, get out of the business immediately and get into a profession that better tolerates insufferable snobs and douche nozzles.)
I have been saying this forever based on what I read years ago in a very popular book of the day called Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus by John Gray: “You need to give the gift your partner wants instead of the gift you want to give.” Great advice for us men who are constantly giving vacuum cleaners to our significant others for Valentine’s Day instead of a romantic weekend at a bed and breakfast or whatever may well indicate love and appreciation to her or him.
People will put up with assholes if the reward outweighs the shame
And on the topic of appreciation, Dale Carnegie addresses this, too. And you need to be obsessed with it. Too often in earned media engagement, agencies and firms keep up appearances until a media mention is acquired and then see ya! The fire-and-forget method of acquiring social media mentions works if the brand is high prestige but appreciation goes a long way toward making up for not offering the blogger an Audi A8 to test drive for a month instead of just providing a limited-time-offer coupon for sessions at a regional day spa.
Dale does address this, and I will paraphrase: People will put up with assholes if the reward outweighs the shame. Your boss can be an asshole because he can fire you; the king can be an asshole because he can make you a knight; the judge can be an asshole because he can incarcerate you and instantly turn you into a felon.
The limits to what signifies paid or sponsored media and contentEarned media marketers are pretty vulnerable in this regard! We’re not paying anyone anything. Sometimes we’ll offer a review copy or product, but we’re professionally limited in terms of what signifies paid or sponsored media and content. We have to rely on our wits and of our general, natural, and effortless love, appreciation, and respect for social media, social influence, citizen journalism, and the power of blogging.
And while I think you either have that respect, maybe because you are, yourself, a blogger or social media content producer, I do believe you can fake it ’til you make it. (I have been blogging since 1999 and have been in social media since they were called bulletin board systems and required 1200 baud modems.) But you need to make it, you can’t just grin and bear it because you’re not having fun. If you don’t love love love chatting and interacting with the unwashed masses, the hoi polloi, the vox populi of online influencers — no matter how little influence — then you’re screwed and this whole blogger outreach thing will end up blowing up in your face and you will hurt your reputation, your agency, and the reputation of your client.
Primum non nocere.
Do you have contempt for your audience?
Oh, actually…………………..

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How to Do a Better Search Engine Optimization Than the Rest

By Seomul Evans

The problem with search engine optimization is that almost all publishers and business owners online are trying it. This should not come as a surprise since search engine optimization SEO is considered as the key in doing well in the eyes of search engines. What this means is that in order to get ahead of the competition, then you must do your SEO much better. This is the only way for you to get ahead with the rest that also take search engine optimization seriously. Here are some suggestions on how you can out-do your competitors:

1. One important thing to do is to research the keywords well. And when you have identified the keywords for use in the content pages and the site, then its best that you should use the keywords on the right places. The right places include insertions of the keywords on the title tags, the Meta tags and the Alt for images. The links should be properly formatted as well. When using the keywords on the content, it should be kept in mind that there is a science as well in using the keywords. Don't overdo the use of the keywords. Based on the experiences of experienced publishers, the keyword density for content should not exceed 2 percent. Even in terms of keyword placement, there is a rule in doing this. To many, it is best to put the keyword on the title, the first sentence, the second paragraph and on the last sentence.

2. Next up to the identification of keywords is the creation of great and helpful content. Users and readers should learn a thing or two about the content that you will provide. The better the content on the site, the higher the chances of being valued well by search engines. Also the contents that are posted on the site should be regularly updated, whether the update is daily or weekly it doesn't actually matter. And speaking of the articles, it is a good move to have a title that speaks about the actual content.

The content that can be posted on the site can be written by you or you can re-post content that has been used somewhere else. But when you do this, make sure that you republish the content with consent. If you are not good at writing articles, then you can let others write the content for you. The investment for this is minimal but the returns can be huge.

3. Try creating a Google site map which can be used by the search engine. There is a tool online that can guide you in the creation of the site map.

4. Another good move is to publish the articles to article directories and other article submission websites. Now, this article should have links that will point back to your website. This is a good move since search engines like to look at the inward pointing links to the site. The higher the page ranking of the site that points to your site, the better.

5. And finally, it's best if you can read the suggestions offered by Google. The search engine giant has drafted its Webmaster Guidelines, detailing the best practices that should be adopted by anyone wishing to get noticed by Google.

By doing all these recommended search engine optimization actions, you can be sure that your efforts will generate returns better than what the rest is gaining.

About the Author: Seomul Evans is a SEO services consultant for Dallas based Search Engine Optimization Company specializing in organic SEO.

Source: www.isnare.com Permanent Link: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=851431&ca=Internet

Internet Marketing Through Newsletters

Internet Marketing Through Newsletters By Anthony McBride
If you have an internet business, you probably spend a lot of time thinking about how to get more visitors. After all, attracting people to your little corner of the web can be difficult. One creative way of achieving this is by using newsletters. Internet marketing through newsletters is a smart way to get people interested in what you do.
Using newsletters is different than traditional marketing, where you just try to ‘get the word out.’ Website promotion through newsletters is a soft marketing technique that simply informs people. This instills trust and credibility and will send people right back to your website. Here are some guidelines and tips for creating an effective newsletter marketing campaign for your online business.
1. Ask for address, don’t buy them
You can go and buy long lists of email addresses and use them to distribute your newsletter. It is easy, fast and requires little work on your part. This might seem like a great way to start, and it does have some merits, but in general, it’s best to ask people for their email address.
People are tired of getting unsolicited spam mail and that makes them skeptical. This starts your relationship off on the wrong foot. So, ask visitors to sign up for your newsletters. Network with complementary websites for referrals and of course, ask people that get your newsletter to pass it along!
2. Make it fun and interesting, no matter the topic
Think you can’t have a fun newsletter because you sell concrete or industrial strength solvents? Think again, because no matter what your business is, you can and should have a fun newsletter that people look forward to reading. The goal is to get people interested and have them pass your newsletter along to their friends. Making them think and laugh will achieve this goal.
There are many ways to make a newsletter standout and get noticed. Start with well written content and add peripheral subjects for variety. Add in quirky quotes, interesting first hand stories, funny tidbits, helpful hints and event puzzles and games. You want people to feel that your newsletter adds value to their life.
3. Be consistent
Consistency is important in business, and it’s just as important when it comes to your company’s newsletter. This means being consistent in all things, from frequency to quality. Remember that people will form an opinion about you based off of your presence online, and this includes your newsletter.
So, if your newsletter is set to be out every two weeks, make sure you hit that deadline. If it is monthly, never let a month go by without getting it out as scheduled. Additionally, make sure that it is consistent in contently well written with similar sections each time.
Internet marketing through newsletters can give you credibility and drive up sales when you do it right. This starts with asking for email addresses and ends with interesting content delivered in a consistent manner. Follow these simple rules and people will be anxiously awaiting your company’s newsletter each and every time!
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Common Mistakes in Search Engine Optimization and How to Avoid Them

Common Mistakes in Search Engine Optimization and How to Avoid Them
By Seomul Evans
If you want to achieve a strong online presence, you need to optimize your website for search engines for a higher exposure rate. And on that count search engine optimization or SEO is the best option if you want an easy way to obtain huge traffic on your website. However, some beginners do commit some mistakes on SEO practices. So aside from helping their website achieve huge number of visitors, those mistakes only do harm to the website. It is therefore crucial that you know the common mistakes that you should avoid.
The use of too much flash and scripts on the website
One popular mistake in SEO is the use of too many flash and other scripts in the website. Of course, it is a plus point if your website is appealing to the eye thus many website owners try to incorporate flash pages, which are not optimized for search engine to crawl. Since there is not enough content for search engine to index your first loading page, the spider will not be interested in your website. This will result to a very low page rank. If you really want to use flash in your website, it is recommended that you make up your flash page with some text and graphics that optimized correctly for the search engine.
Not maximizing what ALT tags can do for the content and the images
This is one recommendation that should not be forgotten- the need to use the ALT tags. These tags are used to describe the images that are used in the pages. Try to incorporateimages are used in the website. And when writing these ALT tags for the images, the best SEO efforts means including some of the keywords in these tags.
Keywords are considered as the foundation of search engine optimization. However, there are some who stuff their content with too many keywords. Overstuffing and using too much keyword in the resource will not help your cause. And when the spiders find out what you have been doing, then you are only courting disaster since the page ranking may be affected. Instead of keyword stuffing, a good strategy is writing good and informative resources that readers and internet users can really appreciate. At least by doing that, your site can get a return visit from the readers.
Content duplication
It is also a mistake to steal content from other websites. Take note that robots can distinguish an original content from a plagiarized one. You need to come up with good yet informative content to entice your readers to come back. Therefore, plagiarizing content is not conducive to your page ranking.
And lastly, most of the newbie SEO practitioners overlook the search engine guidelines. It is important to read and be familiar with these guidelines so as to avoid using the SEO techniques and practices that are prohibited. One of the bad or fraudulent techniques in SEO is the black hat. Consider these actions as unethical actions at least in the realm of internet and SEO. Once this is used, you may be at the risk of getting your website banned in the search engines. To put your online marketing on the right note means steering away from these common search engine optimization mistakes and traps.
About the Author: Seomul Evans is a SEO services consultant for Dallas based Search Engine Optimization Company specializing in white hat SEO.
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Is Your Marketing Business Stalling ?

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I am building my team very quickly using a system that I know will
work for you as well as it is working for me.

If you are sick of all hype, get rich over night talk with all the false claims
and promises, then this program will be a breath of fresh air to you.

The problem with most programs, they just don't work for the average
person. The only people who succeed are the marketing pros.

If you are new to the Marketing Business and lack computer skills
you don't stand a chance with 99% of these programs.

This is the ONLY program I have seen that works for all levels...
whether you are new to marketing or computers.

Now, that isn't to say all you have to do is join and watch the money
roll-in. It does take effort on your part, but you will be amazed how
simple they have made it for you.

So I wanted to show you what is involved.

Watch the  VIDEO  and if you have questions just give me a holler, you may just want to give this a try.

Is email marketing over?

Is email marketing over?
by Richard Fouts    July 30, 2012
A member of the Gartner Blog Network

Yes, if you use it as a generic outbound tool. No, if you use it as a partner to outbound marketing.

For example, a Survey by Pardot finds that nearly 70% of B2B marketers don’t think of email marketing as a primary lead generation tool. Why? The answer is fairly obvious, but I’ll review it anyway.

Email marketing, from your buyer’s perspective, is outbound spam. And – they will do anything to avoid it (TiVO, spam filters, caller ID, junk folders and the DELETE KEY are all evidence that buyers don’t want to hear from you). After all, the term junk mail didn’t come from nowhere. Marketers still send junk mail, they just do it electronically.

The Pardot survey shows a majority of B2B companies (65%) allocate less than 25% of their budgets to email marketing, while only 9% are devoting more than 50% of their budgets to email efforts. The survey also indicated that 70% of B2B marketers do not consider email marketing to be a primary lead generation tactic. Why not?

Marketers, hip to buyers that don’t want to hear directly from them, are moving more investment dollars to inbound marketing, then using email to move new leads through the sales process or to re-engage dormant leads.” So while email is alive and kicking, it’s just being used a different way.

For example, the survey also shows more than 60% of B2B marketers use email for drip nurturing. Of those, 65% personalize their messaging to align with how a prospect responds.

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