Facebook recently caused a stir when it unveiled new changes to its website. It seems most users aren't happy with the updates. In fact, a poll done by SodaHeads showed that approximately 86% of the people don’t like the new changes. But regardless of how you feel about Facebook’s latest updates, it’s important to understand what they are and their effects on social media marketing. Facebook Timeline One of the most criticized updates on Facebook’s new site is the timeline, which replaces the traditional profile page. In the past, Facebook wo...

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Internet critics complain that Big Brother is always watching. They dislike the amount of information that is readily shared online and some have even raised questions regarding the legality of shared information. With all of the debate on user privacy and the Internet, one thing is for sure: Sites are starting to take notice. Recently Google announced it would be encrypting search results so that marketers and site owners can no longer identify what keywords logged-in users enter into Google before reaching your website. Basically, this means...

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Tune into any conversation lately on SEO and you’ll hear experts argue about link building. Some argue it’s still a tried and true method to increasing SEO, while others will say search engine algorithms are becoming sophisticated enough to throw out pages laden with links, therefore you shouldn’t bother with it at all. It can be difficult to determine who is right in this fight, so better to be safe than sorry. While link building can be costly, in many cases there are things you can do implement this SEO strategy and not break the bank. The ...

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Many of our posts focus on the importance of having a social media presence and keeping up with the various sites. But it’s just as important to monitor and analyze how effective your marketing efforts are. For example, do you know how much traffic your site generates from Facebook or Twitter? If not, how do you know your social media marketing efforts are working? As we all know, Web analytics are truly the only way to know where your site traffic is coming from. But getting accurate accounts of how much traffic is directed to a site has...

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Each generation has their own traits, and with those traits come certain buying behaviors. Many studies have been done to identify these buying behaviors, and the results of the various surveys describe who these buyers are to marketers. Our parents, grandparents or even great-grandparents are traditionalists (born 1927-1945). They are the least marketed to and therefore the least likely to try a new brand or business. Our parents (or perhaps you) were born during the Baby Boom (1946-1964) and tend to be the most skeptical of all generation...

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One of the greatest benefits of social media is the ability for businesses, no matter how small, to participate in the global economy. It allows companies to reach customers worldwide without the concern of borders and geographic constraints. While it may be true that social media connects all of us regardless of our location, for businesses it may not be so easy. Recently, the Data Protection Commissioner’s Office in Germany ordered that all businesses in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein cease using Facebook fan pages as well as the “L...

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Visit any of the popular social media sites: Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, and you will most certainly find large companies like Starbucks, IBM and Ford using these sites to their full potential and receiving accolades for it. Smaller companies? Survey says not so much. While small businesses make up more than half of the total market, a recent survey shows that most small and medium businesses (SMBs) are not using social media tools to their full potential, if at all. A survey was done by Zoomerang Online Surveys ...

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In case you haven't noticed, there's a new kid on the social networking block…well, sort of. While Google Buzz and Google Wave failed to make any buzz or waves, so far Google+ has received rave reviews. How Google+ is Different Many are already comparing Google+ to Facebook, which makes sense seeing as though Facebook has been the longtime front runner in social networking. However, those who have had a chance to explore Google+ have found the features to be a cut above Facebook. Here are some of those ...

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Experts agree that the +1 button, which in the future will be associated with Google+, is going to have a positive impact on SEO. Similar to the “Like” feature of Facebook, +1 allows people to recommend a website, business or service. The difference with Google+1 is the ability to have that visitor recommendation affect search engine results. According to a study done by Hubspot, websites that featured Google’s +1 had more traffic than other websites. “At HubSpot, we looked at data from our entire customer base (more than 5,000 businesses). W...

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It’s no surprise that search engines are getting more sophisticated as time goes by. This is obvious in the growing popularity of StumbleUpon, a discovery engine that is able to find and recommend web content specific to each user. While you may personally like the evolution of a tailored search engine, your client or targeted audience may not. Why? Because StumbleUpon basically puts users (otherwise known as “stumblers”) into interest-specific silos, making it difficult to penetrate a new audience. Example: Your client makes organic granola b...

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