The E-Commerce Blog

There are numerous benefits to engaging in social media marketing. Some are tangible (number of Likes, Fans and followers) and some are not (enhanced customer service, brand recognition and developing lasting relationships). You may not fully “get” social media, but you can’t deny that it is important and should be included in your overall marketing campaign. Social media is here to stay, and it is up to you to make sure your company uses it to their best advantage.

SEO is another field of marketing online that has earned itself a permanent spot in the marketing campaigns of many companies. With millions of searches being conducted every day, a company that can’t be found in the search engines is practically invisible. SEO isn’t just about ranking well; it’s about building your online brand. There are many factors that affect how a site ranks in the search engines and SEO is about optimizing your site as best as possible to help it succeed.

However, SEO and social media marketing shouldn’t exist in separate silos. In truth, there should be an element of SEO in all of your online activities, as well as finding a way to leverage your offline marketing methods online. As social media marketing matures, it is becoming clearer and clearer that it has an impact on a site’s SEO.

Here are a few ways you can use your social media marketing activities to aid your SEO:

Create Social Networking Profiles

Aside from the big three of social media (Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter) there are literally hundreds of smaller social networking sites for every kind of audience. Each of these profiles has the potential to rank in the search engines, increasing your brand presence online. Keep in mind that you should only create profiles on sites that you actually intend to be involved with. While creating a profile to just get the link is okay, an active profile is going to be worth much more in the long run. Social networking sites are a great place to establish relationships with consumers and build a strong community.

Incorporate Keywords into Tweets and Posts

Twitter only gives you 140 characters, so space is limited. It is a great way to share a link to your blog, an article, video or any other form of content. Incorporating keywords into the Tweet (perhaps as a hash tag, stylized as #keyword) helps that Tweet get pulled into a results page by the search engines. On Facebook, you have more room to target keywords in your posts. The title of your post is a great place to incorporate keywords. You can also write a short description about the content of each post, another good spot to target keywords.

Drive Traffic to Your Main Site

If you are going to post blog posts on your Facebook or LinkedIn page, don’t throw up the whole post. Include a snippet and call-to-action that drives visitors from your social networking profile over to your company blog. Having someone read the whole post on your social profile doesn’t give you the chance to lead them further into your site.

On your site, you can include links to your social media profiles, but they shouldn’t be prominently featured. Why would you want to send traffic away from your site? What good is getting someone to Like you on Facebook if you want them to purchase your product? They are already on your site, don’t send them away. Otherwise, what is the point all of your SEO? Your social media profiles should serve as gateways to your main site, not the other way around.

Reach Out to Influential Social Media Personalities

Every industry has a leader that your target audience looks to for advice. These influential personalities can help better position your brand in front of that audience. Connecting with them on social networking sites is the first step in building a relationship with them. Social media marketing is a give and take. You can’t expect others to share your content if you don’t share theirs. Google has also admitted they take author authority into account when looking at social media to influence the search results. A link or story shared by an active user has more weight and worth than that same link when shared by a spam account. Quantity is great, but sometimes quality is worth more overall.

Publish Content Within Reasonable Time Frame

Did you know that content posted on a social networking site has a shelf life? A recent study found that Facebook posts get 50% of their likes in the first 80 minutes. However, it takes 22 hours for that same post to get 95% of its Likes. Publishing too frequently means that you’ll push your content out. Publishing too infrequently means you’ll lose the engagement of your community. Content marketing is a critical component of SEO, but it is a fine line between too much and too little content.

Many sites allow for “social sign-in,” meaning you can leave a comment using your Facebook login information. Your activity on these sites is then linked to your Facebook account and gets published on your wall. Depending on how much blog commenting you are doing as a part of your link building campaign, you could be flooding Facebook with your actions. Some of your network might feel like you are spamming them and un-Like your page.

You also have to look at your target audience to best determine when you should be posting content. Another study found that “companies that post content on their Facebook pages outside normal business hours see engagement rates that are 20% higher than average.”

About The Author
Nick Stamoulis is the President and Founder of Brick Marketing, a Boston SEO services company. With over 12 years of industry experience, Nick Stamoulis shares his knowledge by posting daily SEO tips to his blog, the Search Engine Optimization Journal, and publishing the Brick Marketing SEO newsletter, read by over 130,000 opt–in subscribers. Contact Nick Stamoulis at 781-350-4365 or nick@brickmarketing.com

I’m a giver by nature. It’s hardwired into my DNA. I much prefer giving rather than receiving. As such, I truly enjoy helping people. Over the years, I’ve dispensed thousands of marketing tips through the many syndicated articles I’ve written, on my blog, through my marketing consulting service, and on a variety of Internet Marketing/Small Business Forums.

Yet, despite the quality marketing information myself and other marketing experts have dispensed over the Internet, I continue to see newbies making the same mistakes year after year after year. So, I decided to create a 10-Step Success Blueprint For Newbies.

1. Don’t Rush the Process

You’re excited about starting your new business, as well you should be. I understand that. But what’s the hurry? Does it really matter whether you start your business now, or a few months from now when you’ll be much more prepared? It’s sort of like studying before you take an important test. Being prepared will reduce your chance of failure and improve your chances for success… as well as reduce the number of mistakes you’ll make.

So, take your time, and do it right the first time. It will save you a great deal of heartache and frustration – not to mention money. Learn as much as you possibly can about starting and running a business, before you actually start a business. In that regard, I highly recommend you purchase the book, Starting Yóur Own Business, by Entrepreneur magazine’s Rieva Lesonsky. Yes, Entrepreneur magazine. Need I say more?

2. Have a Plan

You need to have some sort of business plan, or plan of action before you start a business. It doesn’t necessarily have to be an elaborate business plan unless, of course, you are seeking financial backing. But you do need some sort of business plan nonetheless. Why? Because a business plan is like a road map to your goals – a GPS if you will.

Instead of wandering aimlessly, with a map and a clear plan of action, you not only improve your odds of getting to your destination, you’ll get there a whole lot faster.

3. Become Competent at Self-Promotion

If you want to make monéy online, you have to become competent at self-promotion. If you become competent at self-promotion, it really doesn’t matter what you sell. You will make monéy with it, regardless.

Marketing expert Ilise Benum has written an excellent book titled, The Art of Self-Promotion. If you’re serious about additional revenue, do yourself a favor, and purchase the book.

4. Include A Budget for Advertising

Free advertising methods such as article marketing, forum marketing, social media marketing, etc. are all proven traffic generators. But it’s also important to have a sufficient amount of money set aside for paid advertising. If you want to make sales, you will need to be able to generate traffic to your website in the short term. The best way to do that is to combine proven, free advertising methods like the aforementioned, with paid advertising. For example, pay-per-click, ezine advertising, text link advertising, etc.

5. Have a Trustworthy Website

One of the most important things you can do is instill confidence in your website. That starts with making sure your site doesn’t have any blatant spelling or grammatical errors. Also, let visitors know who’s behind the site. I highly recommend using your picture. But absent that, at least let visitors know who’s running the business and what their exact role is. Also, make sure all transactions are secure, and be sure to spell out your guarantee and refund policy in detail.

If you use PayPal, display your “PayPal Verified” logo. In addition, make sure your contact information, as well as all testimonials are conspicuous. If you are a member of the Better Business Bureau, link directly to your BBR report from your site.

Finally, purchase a domain name. Having the names Homestead, WordPress, or Blogger in your domain name gives the appearance you’re not serious about your business. If you aren’t serious, that’s fine. No harm, no foul. But if you are serious, spend a few dollars and purchase a domain name.

6. Make a Good First Impression

If you haven’t ever built a website from scratch before, don’t experiment with your first website. You don’t want visitors first impression of your business to be a poorly designed, non-user friendly website. Either use a professional-looking template, or hire a professional website designer to build your website for you.

Remember the old adage: “You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression!” How true that is.

7. Understand Why People Buy

Convincing people to purchase what you’re selling is one thing. Understanding why people do is something else entirely. If you want to take your business to the next level, learn as much as you can about marketing psychology. And when it comes to marketing psychology, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, by Robert Cialdini is as good as it gets.

8. Develop a Unique Selling Proposition

Here’s what master copywriter, Michel Fortin had to say about a USP in his article, How to Hook (More) Copywriting Prospects:

“A USP is what distinguishes you from the pack. It increases perceived value, expertise, and credibility – without needing to state it outright. Just by being 10% different, unique, original, or special is enough to make you stand out like a sore thumb in an overcrowded, hyper–competitive marketplace.”

You simply can’t say it any more succinctly than that. Be smart. Get an edge on your competition, and develop a USP.

9. Practice the Law of Diminishing Returns

Many newbies fall into the trap of jumping from one program to another. They’re like bees pollinating flowers – darting all over the place. They don’t ever settle on any one program for any length of time, and as a result, they don’t ever make any money.

When it comes to marketing, you have to be disciplined enough to be patient. You have to give programs a chance to work. It’s often necessary to make multiple adjustments to get a program to work. It’s part of the process. But when you do find something that works, stick with it and milk it. Milk it for all it’s worth. Milk it to the point of diminishing returns, before you move onto something else.

10. Solicit Feedback from Your Customers

At least once a year, you should survey your customers and ask them what you can do to improve your products and/or service. A customer survey serves five purposes:

1. It invites customer interaction and participation.

2. It shows your customers that you care what they think.

3. It will spark dormant customers.

4. It allows you to conduct necessary market research.

5. It allows you to communicate with your customers without the usual sales pitch – which could, in fact, create more sales.

About The Author
David Jackson is a marketing consultant, and the owner of Free-Marketing-Tips-Blog.com – Powerful, free marketing tips to help grow your business! free-marketing-tips-blog.com

Each time a year ends, we encounter countless bloggers and writers who share their thoughts about the incoming year. Some predictions are theoretically supported and some are just plain wild guesses. Predicting what’s in store for the next year is almost a tradition for writers, even those not involved in SEO and Internet marketing. Sports writers, business analysts, music critics, and amateur writers – they all follow this unsung tradition. Many think that this tradition is worth following because nailing a wild guess or a well-researched fact means only one thing: respect from your readers.

It’s only the third month of the year but some predictions from last year have become realities. People didn’t ever expect that the realization would be this quick, but, unbelievably, many predictions are coming true right now.

The Power of Content Length

This was a common prediction that was heavily criticized. I read on some blogs last year that Google would be considering a site’s content length as a determining factor for site ranking. Experts and SEO veterans commented that this was an amateur’s prediction, but they all ended up wrong. As a result of this latest algorithm update, many guest blogging sites have increased their minimum article length to 450 words, and some are requiring even lengthier articles. Perhaps this recent update caused content-related terrors to some SEO geeks. They’ll just have to remember that quality is still better than quantity.

Mobile Search Growth

Both local and global search benefited from the rise of high-tech phones which provide consumers mobile Web browsing. The growing rate of free Wi-Fi zones over the country also made browsing even more accessible to mobile phone users. Mobile browsing changed the way people use the Internet. Browsing the Web has become a daily part of people’s lives – not only Americans and Europeans but also people from highly developed Middle Eastern and Asian countries like Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Qatar and Dubai.

Social Media Expansion

2010 was the year of Facebook and Twitter. Countless companies vied for the most numbers of “likes” and “followers”, not only for branding and popularity purposes but for online presence strength as well. These two social media giants have become major advertising tools. No SEO campaign would be complete without social media and no advertising method would be fruitful without Facebook and Twitter accounts. Social media expansion is an advertising basic for many businesses.

Although confirmed as a hoax, the rumor of Facebook closure struck many businesses. It isn’t easy to find a social networking site as powerful and effective as Facebook. The shocked Tweets from many businesses owners that day prove that advertising and SEO without social media is impossible. A business’ online presence is major determining factor of success.

Website Speed

It took a year for all SEO practitioners to understand the value of site speed in SEO. Google first announced that site speed would be part of their algorithm in 2009, but it wasn’t until late 2010 that a majority of website owners seriously incorporated it in their SEO strategies. It’s not a surprise that many site owners are now aware of site speed’s importance. There are reports that many businesses suffered a major decline in rankings because they took site speed for granted.

Site speed can be a determining factor for website traffic. With the millions of websites available today, a slow-loading website can force a viewer to transfer to a faster site that can provide them the information they need.

Other Search Engines

Google is still the leading and most reliable search engine today and the main reason we obsess about search algorithms and rankings. Some business owners pay large sums of money just to get their sites to the top of Google’s search results. Google has set the yardstick in Web search and brought balance and fairness to the competition for rankings, so that anyone can now get first page search result placement. But, there are still other search engines we can focus on. Not all Web users rely on Google to find what they need. There is still a significant percentage of users who prefer other search engines that you too should consider when doing your SEO. Yahoo! was once the leader of the search game, and it’s realistic to think that there are remaining Yahoo! loyalists out there who put less importance on Google results. Then there is Bing, the Microsoft search engine that draws young Web users because of its homepage and features.

Bing and Yahoo! are continually improving their search algorithms because they know they have a large following and an increasing number of users. It’s fairly certain that these two search giants are making plans to erode Google’s current standing as the Web’s dominant search engine.

Local Search Dominance

Global search has become popular over the past few years, but many people choose to concentrate on local search to get more specific results. As local search continues to escalate its way to dominance, the strength of the American local market today can be attributed to the growing number of local search users and the improvement of local SEO methods. The strength of site authority, anchor texts, and traditional link building is evident this year. Behind this strength are the ever-growing Local Listing (e.g. Google Maps Optimization) and SEO Resellers that focus solely on providing and introducing SEO to the local business scene.

About The Author
Warner writes about SEO, Blogging, and Web Development and works with Endless Rise. Endless Rise provides SEO services to SEO Resellers Only. You can become an seo reseller today with no cost or obligation.