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8 Money Drainers on Your Website by Stephen Woessner I see it all the time: Businesses miss opportunities and waste money online. Over the past 20 years of conducting academic research and working with clients in the private sector, I’ve collected tens of thousands of data points that show there are eight areas where most companies misunderstand online consumer behavior. These money drainers cost you visitors, leads, and conversions, but they are fixable.

4 Ways to Build an Online Community in an Offline Industry by Tom Dedin Regardless of what your industry is, there are never-ending possibilities in online communities. Brand loyalty, consumer engagement, and fresh perspectives can all be developed online. If your arena happens to be one in which offline work is the modus operandi, however, you can still build a community by following these four tips...

Facebook’s Recent Cover Photo Changes and 20 Percent Text Rule by Livvie Matthews | Recently Facebook made some changes and relaxed it’s Cover Photo Rules. Originally your cover photo could not include a website or email address, telephone number, or coupon offer. They also stipulated no more than 20% text on the cover photo images. Now most of that has changed:

Some impressions are indelible.

 

The golden sun, slowly dropping from view on a perfect horizon; the smell (and taste) of mom’s fresh-baked cherry cobbler; the eyes of a child in an early instance of wonder.

 

For most of us, a few experiences are deeply etched into the memory banks.  They conjure vivid memories that repeatedly nudge their way into the present, becoming context and fabric for the conversations of life — personal and professional.

 

The best of these stories — those that resonate — are not only born of personal experience; they tap into the experiences of others, becoming the threads that build dialogue and weave strong relationship.

 

And these stories endure.

Mobile Growth Highlights Importance Of Comprehensive Local Strategy by Natalie Wuchenich | The 2013 study, which features 2012 data compiled from several comScore digital and mobile metrics databases, demonstrates a significant shift in how consumers are accessing the Internet and emphasizes the importance of local businesses embracing mobile platforms as yet another venue to reach consumers.

Website Content Every Organization Needs by Gini Dietrich | On Marcus Sheridan’s website there is an image of a gorgeous pool and the headline says, “Considering an Inground Pool? Get Started with Pool 101.” Right below that is a thumbnail of a video with copy that reads, “Watch the video and learn how to make your backyard dreams a reality.” Why not give new visitors 101, 201, and 301 content? I’m calling baloney on myself…and the image of Marcus’s site got me there. [Read More]

How has SEO changed? Posted by: Hannah Gordon-Smith | Penguin and Panda brought panic amongst marketers and business owners when traditional SEO strategies began to become less effective, and in some cases penalised. As a result of Google evolving its algorithm, SEO strategies also had to evolve – but how have they changed, and what can we expect for the future?

Building A Creative Presence With The Right Content Marketing Strategy by Lee Jackson | The best internet marketers know that it’s ALWAYS been about content, and that the right content strategy can provide far-reaching benefits for you, the perception of your brand and the future direction of your business. But how do you go about creating something unique and sharing it with the right people?

3 Ways to Identify Link Prospects by George Fischer | Over the last year or two that viewpoint has slowly changed as Google’s algorithm has caught up and eliminated the easy-to-execute tactics that put outreach on the back burner. Today...Every industry expert now touts outreach as the preferred form of link building. ...[0]nly those who utilize creative forms of outreach specific to their target vertical will be able to separate from the pack.

Word of Mouth Is the Best Ad Advertising via traditional and electronic media—as well as customer reviews on websites—still lacks the strength of good old word-of-mouth recommendations. Pro or con? Pro: Consumers Trust Their Friends by Shawn P. O’Connor, Stratus Prep Con: Multiplatform Works Best by Thomas H. Davenport, Babson College

Google Plus for business continues to gain momentum in the social media universe and it’s important to know how to create the best possible profile. This is especially true if you’re promoting your business.

Below are four steps to improve your Google Plus profile visibility in search engines and make your online profile stand out from the others.

The new IgnitionOne Digital Marketing Report for Q1 finds that overall paid search spend in the U.S. was flat for the quarter, while mobile and tablet growth remained strong. Tablet spending rose 112% and smartphone spending jumped 113%.

The study suggests that the growth in tablet and mobile is coming from a reallocation from existing budgets for Desktop/PC ads, rather than net new spend.

For many online entrepreneurs, creating an SEO strategy sounds terribly intimidating. And I agree: Search engine optimization can be daunting if you’ve never worked with it before. It’s often seen as something to be left in the hands of tech-savvy computer scientists. However, this just isn’t true — the key to getting a handle on this aspect of online marketing is to simply understand what an SEO strategy is. And I have a hint to help you do this: SEO is not too different from traditional marketing.

The connected and global knowledge economy is providing the quiet introvert with media platforms that provide a soapbox to shout at the world.

The creative spirits that were locked in urban and rural islands are now free to be heard, read and viewed in milliseconds on fixed and mobile devices.

YouTube since its  inception in 2005 is one of many social media channels that allow anyone with passion and purpose to display and spread their ideas and express themselves.

 

There are hundreds of YouTube partners earning 6 figure incomes from their presence on a free video channel.

 

To provide some perspective on what the social and multimedia web has unleashed here are the latest YouTube facts, figures and statistics.

Facebook Competition Applications can help grow your Fan Base but they can also help build eMail subscribers which can be more valuable. If you had a choice of sending an offer to 1,000 e-mail subscribers or 1,000 Facebook fans which would you pick? I know I would pick e-mail as conversion would be much higher. Why don’t you send to both? If you convert your Facebook fans to e-mail subscribers then you can! Here are 5 different types of competitions you can run to help build your e-mail subscribers through Facebook.

8 STEP SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY [INFOGRAPHIC] This "tool-agnostic" approach highlights the fact that strategy does not equal tactics by Mark Smiciklas | As far as this infographic – It was inspired by Jay Baer’s “tool-agnostic” take on how to develop a social media strategy. What are your thoughts about this strategic approach? Does your organization have a social media strategy in place? If so, how does it differ from the one represented in this infographic?

Inspired by the rich variety of influencer types our customers discover through Traackr and by the successful engagement strategies they have built in their influencer marketing programs, we looked for patterns and identified 10 key influencer archetypes. Among these influencer profiles are:

The Marketing Value of YouTube - Posted by Phil Nottingham | In this post, I’m going to expand on that answer and outline the core values most businesses can hope to gain from YouTube as a marketing channel - detailing how those values can best be achieved, and by inference, when YouTube is an appropriate platform to host your videos.

Social Search Optimization on Five Major Social Networks (Part 1) by Courtney Gibb

Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google+ are five of the largest social networks today. We've examined each of their search capabilities, focusing on three major points: what is offered in social search on each network, which demographics are searching, and how to optimize content to better fit search needs.

5 Ways to Optimize Your Business for Local Search By Chris Horton | [A recent study] sampled 3,000 US adults who use smartphones to search for local businesses, found that the total number of U.S. searchers using mobile phones grew 26% between March 2012 and December 2012, from 90.1 million to 113.1 million, while tablet searches were up 19% between April 2012 and December 2012. While mobile searches have risen, desktop searches have declined- 6% between November 2011 and November 2012.

Building A Creative Presence With The Right Content Marketing Strategy by Lee Jackson | The best internet marketers know that it’s ALWAYS been about content, and that the right content strategy can provide far-reaching benefits for you, the perception of your brand and the future direction of your business. But how do you go about creating something unique and sharing it with the right people?

SEO Outreach: Gain a Competitive Edge by Running Display Ads by George Fischer | ...[T]argeted outreach is at the core of any successful link building campaign. The process of executing a results-oriented outreach strategy is time consuming (read: expensive). Prospecting and prioritizing relevant, authoritative targets is a critical step in this process. Large brands possess this inherent advantage: Targeted prospecting is done by Google and other large media networks for free.

Smart work is the key of success in blogging, and those who are in this field for quite some time, must be agreed with this fact. I have seen many bloggers writing high quality articles, but ending up with ‘no results’. Quality Content is king and will always be, but must not miss making the article SEO optimized.

By now, if social media isn't a critical element in your online marketing strategy, it should be. Having a presence on sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn can add value to your product, to customer service and ultimately to your brand.

But simply having an account and broadcasting company news isn't enough. To attract and keep customers -- and to build a strong brand online -- business owners need to be active on social media. They have to provide valuable information and engage with their followers.

 

Here are four things businesses should be doing on social media in order to grow the brand online:

Read more: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/226214#ixzz2OyGUZv7u