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Author: Search Influence Alumni

Top 5 Most Read Search Influence Blogs of August

It’s back to school time, and you know what that means—time to catch up on your reading! Here are the top five most read Search Influence blog posts of August. Study up!

1: What Happened to Facebook’s 20% Text Grid Tool?

Ranking in the top five for yet another month, this updated blog post gives the ins and outs of Facebook’s latest text grid update. Peruse this popular post to learn what this update means for your advertising.

2: Search Influence Jobs: What Does an Account Associate Do?

Get a sneak peak into daily life at Search Influence! This upbeat post talks about three great aspects of working as an Account Associate: personal growth, great team members, and helping businesses.

3: Local SEO: How to Clean up Citations for Better SERP Visibility

If the image above makes zero sense, then you should probably read this post. Learn all about how consistent citations can increase your website’s visibility to search engines.

4: 5 Ways Technology Has Changed the Olympic Games

There’s no better remedy for Olympic withdrawal. Instead of mourning the sudden lack of Michael Phelps and Simone Biles in your life, learn about technology’s impact on the Olympics.

5: Two New Hires Join Search Influence

Welcome Kayla and Mildred! Get to know the two newest members of the Search Influence team, complete with fun facts about cars, Google Android, and Wolverine 3.

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September 6, 2016
Facebook Live: How Small Businesses Can Drive Traffic to Their Website

Ahh, the age-old question. Similar to Periscope on rival social media company Twitter, Facebook Live is a free service that Facebook recently rolled out for their users, pages, and public figures to stream live video to their friends, followers, and fans. The feature first launched on Facebook’s Facebook Mentions app, which is used by celebrities such as actors, musicians, and athletes to engage with their fans. A year later, it was made public for all users who used the Facebook mobile app on their iPhone or Android device.

Using Facebook Live for Your Business

Facebook Live is a great tool that can be easily utilized by small, medium, and even large businesses. Live streaming is becoming larger and even more popular every day. This marketing technique is breaking down traditional marketing methods. There is nothing more authentic than live streaming, allowing companies to connect and interact with their audience in real time. No edits, cuts, or reshoots—just you and your fans. Opening a new location for your business? Go ahead and live stream the grand opening and show off the new pad. Own a restaurant? Give a behind-the-scenes look at the kitchen and how your chefs create a popular dish. Own a boutique? Show off new trends and looks. The possibilities are endless.

How Can I Start Using It?

First: If you are using your business page, go ahead and download the Facebook Pages Manager on your iPhone or Android device. If you are using your personal Facebook page, disregard this step.

Second: Tap on “Live” from the menu. The icon should look like this:

Fourth: Add a description of what your live video will be about. Choose your audience before hitting “Go Live.”

Fifth: Be sure to smile! You’ll see a three-second countdown before your broadcast begins.

Happy live streaming!

September 1, 2016
Search Influence Jobs: What Does an Account Associate Do?

I joined the Search Influence team as a Junior Account Associate a little over a year ago. After working closely with my manager and completing the training program, I was then promoted to Account Associate. By that time, I felt like I had learned so much and was excited to start managing clients on my own and become more independent at work.

Being an Account Associate at Search Influence is a great experience for so many reasons. Here are three of my favorites:

1: Opportunity for Growth

If you’re like me, you get bored when you feel like you aren’t being challenged, and it’s safe to say my job is never boring. We’re in an ever-changing industry, and that alone can be a challenge to keep up with. On top of that, we’re presented with many challenges on a daily basis, like answering difficult client questions, building custom strategies, or revamping internal processes. There were countless times when I felt stumped, and every time, there was someone ready to help me, whether it was just to answer a simple question or jump on a call for extra support.

2: The Team

This brings me to my next reason: the team! Account Associates are part of the Account Management department. We may all work with different clients in many different industries, but our day-to-day is pretty similar. We have a department meeting every morning to talk about where the team stands as far as our task list numbers, set team wide goals, give each other kudos, and talk about any projects or new problems that pop up. After that, we’re ready to get to work. A typical day for me includes speaking with clients about their campaigns, reviewing and editing content, attending meetings, creating custom strategies, analyzing website data, and monitoring campaigns to make sure deliverables are completed when scheduled.

3: Helping Businesses Reach Their Goals

We truly help businesses achieve their goals. All departments in the company work on every account at some point, but account managers get to be the face of the company by directly interacting with our clients. Because of that, we are the ones who really get to know our clients and their businesses inside and out. We learn about their goals going into the campaign and do everything we can within the scope of the campaign to get there. With that said, it’s one of the best feelings to not only see the work we’re doing result in positive increases online, but to also hear from your client that their business has grown so much that they are opening a new office or location. That really adds meaning to my job.

Now, I’m a Senior Account Associate and that means I get to take on bigger projects and mentor junior team members, which I really enjoy. Like I said, my job is never boring!

August 24, 2016
How to Repurpose Your Content Again and Again and Again

National Simplify Your Life Week: easier said than done, right? There are so many balls to juggle every day, the idea of adding a complex online marketing campaign to a to-do list sounds unbearable. But online marketing doesn’t have to break the minute-bank. By maximizing your content, you can get more for less, and without much more effort.

LinkedIn calls this the big rock strategy. Or, sometimes the Thanksgiving turkey. The idea is that for every big, information-dense piece of content you create, you can have many smaller pieces of content. Like the leftovers that turn into sandwiches, casseroles, and soup, big rock content can last for a long time. But how do you do this?

Create Big Rock Content

Your “big rock” is your starting point. It needs to have enough information that it can get chopped up, broken down, and reused multiple times without getting repetitive. This is best achieved by focusing on what you’re already an expert in. While doing lots of research might produce a really fantastic piece of content, the time saved by writing what you know is invaluable. Pick a handful of topics about your business, industry, or professional experience, and write everything you know about each one. This will create focused, rich content you can base the rest of your campaign strategy on.

Your big rock can be a white paper, blog post, video, webinar presentation, or anything else that provides plenty of room for your expert opinions. But publishing your big rock is only the beginning.

Slice and Dice

Once you’ve created your big rock, it’s time to get it out into the world! Just posting to your blog or linking on your website is not going to inspire droves of people to read what you’ve written and start an industry revolution around your brilliant ideas. Far too many interesting pieces of content languish where no one can find them. This is where social media kicks in.

Link to your big rock on all of your social media accounts when it goes live. Then, pull out quotes, fun facts, or other smaller pieces of information and use them as new social media posts (still linking to the original piece so people can learn more).

Write a blog post about your new white paper or video, then, link to it on social media. You can also pull out stats and facts and turn them into an infographic, and, you guessed it, share that on social media, too. If you have a newsletter, summarize all your newest big rocks and blast it out to your interested followers. And get creative; the more ways you can get your content in front of interested parties, the better.

You should be able to stretch a piece of content across a few months. Creating a few big rock pieces of content at once and then staggering their publication and rotating through promotion will make each one last longer. If this is all still a bit overwhelming, remember, content calendars are your friend. And, if all else fails, the team at Search Influence can just do it for you. Now, that’s simple.

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August 22, 2016
How To Be A Pokémon Master in 15-Minute Breaks

The world of Pokémon Go has reached us, and the race to become master before your friends has long begun. Of course, there are only so many hours in a day, and work takes priority over a virtual game, but there’s a lot that you can do during even a 15-minute break.

Go for a Walk

Before actually stepping outside, check the Pokémon Go app to scope out nearby Poke Stops, and plan out a path that you can walk in 15 minutes. Besides incubating eggs and picking up items, many poke stops will likely have lures set up throughout the day, sometimes attracting rare pokémon.

Start a Facebook Group

With an online group, start looking for pokémon with other coworkers or anyone who works in the same building. Organize walks on breaks, poke crawls at happy hour, or battle plans to conquer a gym in the name of your building. A Facebook group is a good way to find motivation through friendly competitive rivalries.

Use Lures to Your Advantage

After checking those poke stops, see which of them are restaurants. Chances are, someone will regularly add lures to keep bringing in pokémon. With a Facebook group, it’s also possible to start organizing the use of lures with other people, thus sharing the load and the benefits of purchasing these lures.

Capture Pokémon

Last but not least, there’s the ever-present challenge of catching pokémon. The best bet is to check to see what might be nearby and walk around the building or block in search of it. Be sure to look up and practice throwing curveballs accurately for a better chance at catching pokémon quickly. While this is usually better suited for time spans greater than 15 minutes, you would be surprised by what you might find during that short time.

Remember that since Pokémon Go is a new game, it is constantly being updated, which might necessitate a change in strategy. Ideally, the tips offered here will not see much change as a result of any updates, but it’s always good to check out tips from another Pokémon Go master just to be sure.

Good luck on your Pokémon journeys!

August 19, 2016
Still Not on Twitter? Here are 10 Reasons You Should Be.

Still not sure about Twitter, eh? Maybe because it’s because conversation occurs way too rapidly on Twitter for you to keep up, or maybe it’s because you still don’t know the difference between a tweet and a hashtag. Regardless of what your reason is, it is time to rethink your business’s presence on this opportune social platform. Today, Twitter has transformed into a vital component of any integrated social media marketing strategy and you don’t want to miss out.

Here are 10 reasons why your Facebook needs a Twitter account.

1: It’s Free

There is no better bang for your buck than using free social platforms. With over 1.4 billion users, Twitter offers your business a tremendous opportunity to post live updates that can be found by any of its over 1.4 billion registered users. Can you imagine how much it would cost your business to pay for a tool like Twitter? For a business operating on a smaller marketing budget, utilizing a free yet valuable opportunity like Twitter is worth the investment.

2: Go Where the People Are

When it comes to online marketing (or any form of marketing), you need to invest your time in platforms where your marketing messages are being seen and heard. After all, if your marketing messages are not being seen and heard, then what’s the point? According to DMR, there are 100 million active Twitter users on a daily basis with 34% of these users logging into their account multiple times a day. If you’re trying to get the word out about a business update, sale, or promotion, it would be unwise to utilize a platform solely because of the platform’s expansive reach.

3: Build Relationships

Twitter has more active forms of communication than any other social media platform. The platform is meant to be conversational in a way that Facebook isn’t. On Twitter, you follow profiles instead of friends or making connections like on Facebook or LinkedIn, which makes profiles on Twitter more available to the public. This provides your business the opportunity to strengthen relationships with existing customers and reach out to potential customers (We’ll get to potential customers next!). Pro Tip: When building relationships on Twitter, be genuine. Ask your followers questions. Share some humor. Retweet any posts that your followers send to you. Taco Bell and McDonald’s are two excellent examples of leveraging Twitter to build relationships.

4: The Gift That Keeps on Giving

Twitter allows users to retweet. If you post shareable and valuable Twitter information, your followers can engage with your post not only by liking and replying to it, but also by retweeting (aka sharing) it on his or her own profile. Retweeting will make the tweet visible on the Twitter feed of other followers. When consumers retweet, it expands the reach of your brand to potential customers. You can think of retweeting as an opportunity for your brand to gain exposure from potential customers via peer consumers. In this line of thinking, it can be seen as an authentic way for users to endorse your business.

5: User Generated Content

There’s no better way to express how great your business is than to let customers do this for you. Just as followers can retweet your tweets, as a business on Twitter you have the opportunity to retweet user generated content pertaining to your brand. User generated content on Twitter promotes your brand in a way that content curation cannot. It’s also a way of showing your consumers that you appreciate the positive content and that you value them. Starbucks does a great job retweeting user generated content.

6: Hash Tagging Helps Your SEO

A hashtag is a simple feature that allows Twitter to organize and categorize posts based on a topic or theme. When you click on a hashtag, you will be taken to every post that also has the same hashtag. Google has also started incorporating hashtags in search results. In other words, hashtagging a search term on Google will not only provide you with organic search results but Google now also provides you with the results from Twitter and Instagram. Learn more hashtag tips here.

7: Online Reputation Management

People will talk about your business whether you’re active on social media or not. Having a Twitter account for your business provides another avenue to put the ball in your court. Through Twitter, you can reply to disgruntled consumers. In addition, Twitter is also a great tool for public relations. In fact, businesses with an aggressive public relations strategy should use Twitter. Because of the nature of the live feeds, Twitter allows your business to be the first to share important news before a consumer, news agency, and the like.

8: Industry Related Conversations

It’s important for your business to stay attuned to industry conversations because businesses must evolve with the changes in its industry and market. Through hash tags, Twitter can connect your business to meaningful industry-related conversations. Twitter chats are a public Twitter conversation that focuses on a specific topic via the use of a common hashtag. Furthermore, not only can you gain insight on industry happenings, but you can also spy on what people have to say about your competition.

9: Make Your Business Stand Out

If you’re a business on Twitter, I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to create a custom hashtag for your business. Using a custom hashtag allows your business to become a trendsetter and extends the reach of your creative branding. It also facilitates a greater engagement with your Twitter followers. Additionally, using a custom hashtag can signal to your Twitter followers that the post containing the custom hashtag is extra special.

10: If You Don’t, Somebody Else Will

Last but not least, if you’re not engaging your audience on Twitter, your competitors will be more than happy to do it for you. Consumers today have plenty of options in purchasing power. Marketing has stepped out of just a one-stop shop and has transformed into maintaining customer relationships before, during, and after a purchase. If your business is currently opting out of a Twitter profile, you are providing your competitors with the opportunity to engage your audience and potentially tap into your current consumer base.

When you finally decide to set up your business’s twitter profile, check out these five businesses that are using Twitter the right way. And while you’re at it, don’t forget to follow @SearchInfluence on Twitter for valuable tips and tricks for enhancing your business’s online presence! Happy tweeting!

August 16, 2016
Search Influence Reviews: Here Are 4 NOLA Restaurants Where 2 Can Dine for Under $50

With over 1,400 restaurants to choose from, deciding where to dine in New Orleans is no small feat. With tempting options from world-famous chefs like Alon Shaya, John Besh, and Emeril Lagasse, deciding where you can afford to dine in New Orleans can be a challenge as well. There are workarounds—you can stalk Groupon discounts, eat exclusively at happy hours, or skip the entree and only buy appetizers, drinks, and dessert. However, sometimes you just have to know where to go. Here are four great restaurants around the Crescent City where two people can dine for under $50—tax and tip included.

#1: St. Roch Market

Located in the Bywater, St. Roch Market was originally built in 1875 as a neighborhood open-air market. In 2015, it was refurbished after destruction by Katrina and 10 years of abandonment. The new market features an airy, black and white interior, complete with stately columns and stalls for 13 local vendors. This bustling locale combines the convenience and variety of a food court with the atmosphere and quality food of fine dining.

The wide array of dishes and vendors provides an endless combination of foods and prices, but a few favorites are the Dirty Mac ‘n Cheese from Dirty Dishes—creamy smoked gouda mac and cheese with crawfish tails and tasso—and Nola Trio from Fete Au Fete—a combo platter featuring Crawfish poutine, red beans and rice, and shrimp and grits. Together, these dishes come to $25.63, leaving the other half of your budget free for cocktails or craft beers at the Mayhaw Bar.

#2: The Rum House

In a restaurant-packed corner of the Garden District, The Rum House stands out from the competition with its laid-back Caribbean atmosphere. Its colorful, outdoor picnic tables are packed at any hour of the afternoon or evening, and it lives up to its name by offering varieties of rum from over 20 countries.

While it can be tempting to split an enormous plate of Damn Good Nachos ($13.95) and spend the rest of your $50 on adorable margaritas served in mason jars, tacos are the true pride of The Rum House. Order several a la carte ($3.95–$4.25 each) or go for the Taco Trifecta, a combo platter featuring three tacos and a side. One great combination is the Brisket taco, the Lamb Vindaloo taco, and the vegetarian Rasta taco with a side of Coconut Mango Rice—$17.64 with tax and tip.

#3: Parkway Bakery & Tavern

Located in Mid City, overlooking Bayou St. John, Parkway Bakery & Tavern serves some of the best po’boys in the city—just ask President Obama! The restaurant opened in 1911 as Parkway Bakery and started making their signature dish in 1929 to feed factory workers at the American Can Company across the bayou. Now, the walls are decorated with almost 100 years of NOLA paraphernalia, including framed newspapers, local high school banners, and historic political signs.

Parkway offers po’boys in two sizes: small ($3.65–$9.70) and large ($4.95–$13.55). While you can order the traditional lunchmeat options, seafood is the undeniable way to go. Keep it classic with fried shrimp or oysters dipped in remoulade sauce from the sauce bar. If you’re feeling ambitious, go all in for the Surf and Turf—slow cooked roast beef topped with golden fried shrimp and gravy. Either way, two can eat lunch or dinner for well under your $50 budget.

#4: Cochon Butcher

Next door to award-winning Cochon in the CBD is Cochon Butcher, a combination butcher shop, sandwich counter, and wine bar. This niche restaurant offers a less expensive, more casual, and equally delicious opportunity to enjoy Cochon’s culinary creations. Providing all the charm and freshness of the rapidly disappearing neighborhood butcher, it also offers house meats and sausages sold by the pound.

All of Cochon Butcher’s sandwiches sell for $10–$12 before tax, but two delicious suggestions include Cochon Muffaletta—a twist on the classic Louisiana sandwich, featuring house meats—and the Pork Belly sandwich—complete with mint and cucumber on white bread. One sandwich each leaves plenty of your budget to use on local Louisiana beers, like the classic Abita Amber, Parish Brewing Envie Pale Ale, or Great Raft Reasonably Corrupt Black Lager.

Of course, these are just a few of the delicious and affordable restaurants that New Orleans has to offer. For further eating, check out Cowbell in Carrollton, Casa Borrega in Central City, or just wander down your street and see what tasty locations you can find!

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August 15, 2016
Two New Hires Join Search Influence

Kayla Fletcher and Mildred Padilla recently joined our team at Search Influence.

Kayla Fletcher

Kayla is our newest Junior Internet Marketing Assistant. Born and raised in New Orleans, she is currently a senior at the University of New Orleans, studying English with a concentration in Creative Writing. Prior to Search Influence, she worked at Barnes and Noble and spent most of her time in the children’s department. Kayla enjoys running, reading novels and comic books, watching movies until she falls asleep, and listening to Prince really loud when she’s home alone. Kayla is also into cars, and she wants to learn how to drift someday.

Mildred Padilla

Mildred is delighted to join the Operations Team as the new Search Influence Product Manager. After graduating from Loyola University New Orleans, she went on to work as a Product Manager at Warner Brothers in the United Kingdom and then at Google Android in Silicon Valley. She is also an avid film fan. Upon her return to New Orleans last year, she worked on over a dozen TV shows and movies filmed locally as a featured background actor. Her last role this summer was as a nurse on the upcoming Wolverine 3 film.

Welcome aboard, Kayla and Mildred.

August 12, 2016
Top 5 Search Influence Blogs from July 2016

If you are like many of us at Search Influence, you took a few days off last month to enjoy the summertime. Now that August is here, you may have a few minutes to catch up on your reading. Here are our top five most read blogs from July.

1: Search Influence Reviews: Here Are 5 of the Best Bars We Visit After a Long Day at Work

Our team members enjoy grabbing a nice cold one after a long day at work! Check out our top five list of local bars—each with a wide selection of beers and delicious bar food in venues only New Orleans can provide.

2: What Happened to Facebook’s 20% Text Grid Tool?

Facebook officially rolled out this new update to the 20% text rule in June. Read about it and how it affects Facebook ads in this updated blog.

3: Learn How to Create a Snapchat On-Demand Geofilter to Boost Your Next Event

Snapchat launched the ability for users to create On-Demand Geofilters for birthday parties, weddings, business events, or just for fun! Learn how easy it is to submit the filter along with some key metrics to gauge your filter’s success.

4: 12 Things You May Not Know About Online Marketing

New to online marketing? Here are 12 things that surprised some of our team members when they started working at Search Influence.

5: 10 SEO Blogs You Should Be Following

Every day, we see traditional marketing grow more obsolete. Learn about 10 of the most informative and essential SEO blogs you should be following.

August 4, 2016
What Is Canonicalization and How It Helps You Get Found Online

For those who are unfamiliar, canonicalization can be an intimidating, seven-syllable term. Fear not—it’s nowhere near as complex as it sounds, but it is definitely important, particularly in terms of helping your business get found online.

Defining Canonicalization

When it comes to SEO, canonicalization refers to normalizing multiple URLs by redirecting to a single, dominant version. In other words, you need to determine if you want your site to be www.yoursite.com OR yoursite.com. If you choose www.yoursite.com, then yoursite.com should redirect to that URL. If you can pull up both versions, then you have an SEO problem. Why? From a search engine’s perspective, there are two identical sites that exist with the same exact content. Since the search engines cannot decipher which version of the duplicated content should be shown to individuals searching for the subject matter, it penalizes both sites. This will make both versions appear lower in search rankings. This concept is actually essential to the creation of a successfully optimized website.

What Web Developers Can Do to Help

With canonicalization, individual web pages can be loaded from multiple URLs for the purpose of successful SEO best practice. This becomes a problem when pages with the same content have different URLs, as the links that are intended to go to the same page get split up among multiple URLs. Web developers have established methods for redirection so that mismatched URLs can be changed and combined. Two main types of redirection are the 301 and the 302. With the 301, an HTTP status code indicates the permanent move of a hyperlink. The 302 indicates a temporary redirect message.

Good vs. Bad Canonicalization

Canonicalization is known to be among the most important aspects of organic SEO. To put it simply, good canonicalization results in search engines crawling more pages on your site, which gives link authority, so you have a stronger link profile. This also means there are fewer broken links across other sites. Bad canonicalization, on the other hand, produces the same results, just with the opposite effect.

Case in point: when it comes to good canonicalization, one product description or page of content should never have multiple URLs. Every resource—every page, image, video, etc.—must have one Uniform Resource Locator (URL), and never more.

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August 1, 2016