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  • 5 for Friday – Links, Stories & Posts for Your Weekend

    • Link Building From Scratch – Search Engine Watch

    Besides developing your brand, generating content and ensuring usability, building a quality site is difficult enough already without having to worry about links — but with Penguin now in effect, we are now forced to reconsider sites’ foundations. SEW’s Julie Joyce offers a checklist of things to consider when it comes to setting up links for your site to keep it in the game.

    • Social Media Policies: What Goes Up Must Go Higher – Social Media Today

    For better or for worse, it’s indisputable that social media is here to stay — and it’s necessary. With every business utilizing Facebook and Twitter, how do you leverage this ever-expanding force for the betterment of your company? Bryan Kramer gives us a nice guideline to consider when putting together a company’s social media plan.

    • Eyes On Pintrest: How People Look at Your Boards – Mashable

    The online digital pin board may represent a standard corkboard, but the site itself doesn’t follow conventional eye tracking like most sites. Brands are seeing a higher trust in their business with posts of products, inspiration, and the occasional cat photo. Sarah Kessler dives into how brands can use this unique aspect of Pintrest to generate more view and likes from customers.

    • Google +1 vs Facebook Like: The Similarities and the Differences – Web SEO Analytics

    Whenever we read an article on a blog or news site, we are asked the question, “How do I express my affinity for this article?” That’s where that little +1 button or thumbs-up come to play, sharing your expression and endorsement to your followers. This article explores the two iconic ways we use Facebook and Google Plus to share our discoveries with the world.

    • Who Has the Better Ad Network? Facebook Vs. Google – Being Your Brand

    Wondering which Internet giant is more beneficial for your company’s online marketing? Being Your Brand explores the benefits of advertising with both Google and Facebook and how both can help you reach a company’s target audience.

  • How To Twitter: Using Hashtags at San Diego Comic-Con

    Since I’m an Level 9000 bona fide nerd, I traveled to San Diego last weekend to celebrate Comic-Con. Of course, I took lots of pictures of what was going on when I was there. If you don’t already know, you can join the Twitter party of any major event by using the hashtag associated with it. This year’s Comic-Con used #SDCC — by hashtagging all of my related tweets, I was able to add my feedback to the public conversation about the convention, which anyone looking for the hashtag can read. If one of the people that reads one of my tweets wants to know more about me (or my business!), they might just follow me. What a neat way to network, right? (Don’t forget to check the “wrong” hashtags, too. It’s definitely not called “San Diego Comiccon“, but a lot of people searching the internet think it is.)

    Another key to getting involved in hashtags is trending. On Twitter’s Discover page, you can always see a list of the most popular hashtags for any given day. If you can get enough people talking about your topic, it will trend. While this is no small feat, it does mean TONS of exposure for you … not to mention for your business. If you have a strong Twitter following, it’s well worth it to engage your user base and ask them to use the hashtag if you are trying to promote an event. The best part about promotion like this is that it’s completely free, and you’re using one of the most popular social platforms out there today. What a deal!

    Of course, hashtags aren’t the only way to show your participation in an event. In the last few years, Tweetups have been popular, which are basically in-person meetups of your Twitter followers. It’s a great way to unify people and allow internet friends to meet in real life. It’s also an excellent way to meet business contacts.

    While hashtags like this are priceless way to be included in any event’s buzz, there’s no reason you can’t create your own as well. Geek goddess Felicia Day has put her own Twitter to work in this way, promoting several events, including her own @GeekandSundry project. Since Day has well over a million followers, plenty of people are listening.

    So how do you use Twitter hashtags on your own to best take advantage of the trend? If you’re at an event, make sure to find out what the hashtag is (and make sure its the right one!). Once you do, make a point of adding it to the end of all your tweets. That way, when people click the hashtag, they will see what you have to say along with everyone else.

    Want to create your own hashtag for an event? Make sure to keep it short. The easier it is to type, the more likely people will use it. Up to the date of your event, announce the hashtag and ask your followers to retweet it. That way, once your event begins, they will already know what to expect. If you’re lucky, they’ll use it too, and the more of them that do, the closer you are to that sweet high of a trending hashtag.

     

  • Copy This Copy – The Importance of Clean Content

    Having clean, edited online copy is vitally important. Whether we’re talking about content for a website or a blog, it can make a big impact — for better or for worse. As Mitt Romney’s campaign recently found out, even text written for mobile apps should be given a close look before going live.

    romney

    While most people assume that they have a good enough grasp on the English language to get by, the facts are simple — typos are easy to make, and a second pair of eyes can be your saving grace. As a former reporter for a daily newspaper, I know the importance of having an editor work their magic before copy is printed. But in today’s Internet-minded world, writers can be too eager to hit the publish button, sending unedited content to the masses in an instant.

    Not only can errors be embarrassing, but also they can completely change the original intention of the content.

    blog

    People could visit your website, your blog, or your mobile app for a variety of reasons. Whether they’re looking for news, general information, or something as simple as a laugh, you don’t want them to be turned off by copy that was poorly edited (or worse, entirely untouched).

    Your content can say a lot about you, your company, and your purpose. If it’s well-written, clear, and concise, it says that you took the time to get it right. It says that you are concerned about the details, and more importantly, it says that you care about your reader.

    If, on the other hand, your copy is riddled with spelling mistakes or grammatical errors, it can convey a negative view of your organization. It communicates to your reader that quality isn’t your top priority. And if you’re in the business of trying to market a service or a product, it can be a tough sell.

    Instead of just leaving the job to spell check, consider working with an editor or a proofreader before publishing your content online to ensure that your text is error-free. If time constraints or your budget won’t allow, at the very least, have a co-worker take a look at your copy before it goes live. As the adage goes, you never get a second chance to make a first impression, and having a pair of eyes to catch the occasional stray comma or poorly-placed participle can be a lifesaver.

  • Will Scott at Search Insider Summit 2012: Social SEO Panel

     
    We’re excited to present this video of our CEO Will Scott speaking in a panel from the Search Insider Summit 2012. Moderated by aimClear’s Marty Weintraub, Social SEO: How Search Marketers Should Think About Optimizing Social examines the increasing social aspects of SEO and how branding with these tools can grow your business. Check out the full video after the jump!



    Video streaming by Ustream

  • 5 for Friday – Links, Stories & Posts for Your Weekend

    5 Cinco Five Fem Vijf Viis Viisi Cinq Fünf Öt Fimm Lima Cinque Pieci Penki Piatka Cinci Pet BeçWith Siri and New Alliances, Apple Takes on Google Search — FOX Business

    Apple has announced that Siri will be getting help from Yelp, Rotten Tomatoes, Open Table and many others in the new release of iOS6. The goal is to bypass Google search and just use this in-house product. Apple is obviously looking to become the winner in mobile search in the next few years.

    Facebook Mobile Ads a Hit for Investors, But What About Marketers? — Search Engine Watch

    A few weeks ago Facebook launched mobile-only ads, allowing people to purchase them separately from web ads. This article goes over some of the impressive results of Facebook’s major ad partners. It’s noted that while these results are promising, it still may be too early to declare that the trend will continue.

    Yahoo Images With Tiled Design, Latest & HQ Images & Getty Images Deal — Search Engine Land

    Yahoo’s video and image search tools have gone through some significant changes. Teaming up with Getty Images for this project seems like a match made in heaven, and the results look great so far. This article shows off some examples of the new format.

    Is It Time to Rescue Your PPC Campaigns? — Search Engine Journal

    This article goes over how you should go for the best results from your PPC campaigns. If executed correctly, your PPC campaign will be successful and your ROI will be as high as you had planned — but if not, you may be facing wasted money and effort. If you are currently running a campaign but not seeing the results you desired, take a look at this for a step-by-step guide to the common errors and best practices.

    Twitter Enhances Verified Account Viewing — Marketing Pilgrim

    Twitter has now made an improvement on how you to view verified accounts. These pages are mostly celebrities, athletes and users with millions of followers, and many celebs use their accounts for dialogue with colleagues and friends. This update lets you choose to view just the timeline without @ tweets or the full version with them. Will this change make a difference in how you use Twitter?

     

  • Twitter Ditches LinkedIn, Says It’s Not Personal

    twitter linkedin split
    I'm a fan.

    “It’s not you. It’s me.” That’s what Twitter proclaimed to LinkedIn this morning, ending a two-year partnership between the micro-blogging giant and the social network site for job seekers. Breakups are hard to do, as the saying goes, but according to LinkedIn, they didn’t even care in the first place.

    “If you had previously synced your LinkedIn and Twitter accounts, and selected the option to share Tweets on LinkedIn, those Tweets generated from Twitter will no longer appear on LinkedIn,” says Ryan Rolansky on the official LinkedIn blog. “There will be no other changes to your LinkedIn experience.”

    In other words, you can still post updates to Twitter from LinkedIn, but not the other way around. ‘Cause Twitter totally blocked LinkedIn, bro. So uncool.

    Jokes aside, Twitter has been getting pretty fussy lately. Developers using their application programming interface (API) have their work cut out for them — it’s notoriously tricky to handle — and the initial Spartan interface has gotten more and more tricked-out over recent months. With all these new bells and whistles, Twitter wants its branding to remain as consistent as possible, which is why sites like LinkedIn are getting kicked off the bandwagon.

    While Twitter may seem like an infallible giant to the hyper-focused social media contigent, the truth of the matter is that most people are reading it through a variety of secondary services. If you connect your Twitter stream to Facebook, for example, you can read it all there at the same time as you read about Aunt Margaret and her eighteen cats. So why go to the source site when you can get it all in one place?

    Even though the service became famous for its brilliantly minimalistic-efficient service, the company seems determined to expand. Twitter Cards, a new option that offers partner websites a way to show off more content, seems interesting, but not necessarily what I want out of Twitter as a user. Just give me my feeds in Tweet form, let me post dumb photos, and I’ll be fine. Is the majority of the user base really craving more than that? Or is the thrust of Twitter’s new direction less about what the general consumer wants, and more about how Twitter can serve as a business tool?
     

  • Read This! — July 2012

    We’re back with another edition of Read This!, our monthly series exploring the DIY tips and tricks you can use to succeed online today.

    Can eCommerce Thrive on Tumblr? One Company Says Yes

    Tumblr is a fast-growing network these days, promoting constantly evolving dialogue and trendy memes at a breakneck pace. But can a business separate the signal from the noise and promote their brand on such a buzz-heavy platform? It may be easier than you think.

    How to Prepare for the End of Facebook

    While Facebook hasn’t given up the ghost yet, a few notable missteps in recent months have had pundits publicly wondering if the grandaddy of all social media platforms is entering its twilight years. Even if the end isn’t nigh, it’s always good to have a contingency plan; check out this guide to find out the best ways to leverage non-‘book sources of publicity and turn temporary fans into longtime allies.

    Setting Up Your Twitter Account

    Is your small business just setting sail into the online world? While the process of creating accounts may seem basic for some, the intricacies of perfectly setting up your Twitter account are more subtle than you think. Check out this guide for a handy refresher!

    Secrets To Launching Successful Pinterest Marketing Campaigns – The Experts Weigh In

    Pinterest is a hot topic right now among social media gurus, and with its ever-expanding user base there’s never been a better time to get in on the action. So how do you go about nabbing customers and getting leads through a haze of lace-and-polka-dot social sharing? Read SEO.com’s exhaustive list to find out!

    3 Ways to Declare Your Independence From Tired Sales & Marketing Tactics

    Is the same old thing just not working for your business? Take a page from the Founding Fathers and declare your independence in favor of new ideas! TopRank gives you several common challenges of sticking to the business-as-usual routine and top-notch tips on how to bust through them.

  • 5 for Friday – Links, Stories & Posts for Your Weekend

    • Google+: A Year of Missed Opportunities – Mashable.com

    Google+, the proposed “Facebook killer,” is turning out to be more Elmer Fudd than Brutus. Our blog noted the early successes of Google+ over a year ago, citing its sleek design and seamless integration of Google profiles and contacts. Yet Facebook’s de facto archenemy stumbled at the start gate, disallowing aliases and stalling for four months before allowing brands and news platforms to set up profiles. The numbers are startling: users spent an average of 3.3 minutes on G+ in January, compared to seven hours on Facebook. In the last year Facebook has grown from 700 million users to 900 million, a growth that exceeds the entirety of the G+ population. For small businesses interested in the clean, professional, design of G+, note that historically Google has added layers of complexity to augment their online platforms. With a growing sentiment that the Facebook juggernaut has shed its user-friendly coat, the question is: can Google take advantage of the sea change?

    • Understanding Google Places & Local Search – Developing Knowledge about Local Search – Blumenthals.com

    On May 30th, Google Places was replaced with Google+ Local. With 97% of consumers searching for local businesses online, having a presence on Google Maps is a necessity — if you can figure it out. MapMaker effectively took the burden of mapping the world off the folks at Google and placed it on savvy cartographers and small business owners alike. With categories functioning like keywords, a business owner can enhance their presence on Maps and keep the information up to date—especially helpful for start-ups.

    Though with Google Mapmaker lacking a comprehensive set of categories, small business owners want to know: “What is the best practice for adding categories in MapMaker?” The short answer is that avoiding keyword spam, using five standard categories (like ‘Gas Station’ if you’re a gas station), and editing the categories directly on the Place page will help create more cohesion between the two pages. As Mike Blumenthal delves into detail about the ins and outs of categories, one begins to see why Google democratized the effort. A complex list of practices to set yourself apart from the competition—if you’re willing to learn.

    • Facebook Email Fiasco: 900 Million+ Profile Updates Without Permission – SearchEngineJournal.com

    Can Facebook do anything right, or are we just too invested? While most Facebook users consider their inbox to be an extension of the chat feature, it’s actually a collection point for your Facebook email (yes, you have one): [email protected]. Check your company’s Facebook page. For if you wish to generate traffic to your business email from the email address displayed on your profile, note that the address displayed on your timeline is no longer your business email. This change has given ammunition to Facebook critics who note that changes made for “our privacy and security” seem to be made while violating privacy and security. To display your “real” email address again, navigate to your profile, click “Update Info,” then “Contact Info,” and “Edit,” then customize your email address options.

    • Hitwise: Bing Has Chipped Away 5 Percent Of Google’s Search Share Over Past Year – SearchEngineLand.com

    Though “Bing it” is still an unlikely response to the big questions (Dude, what movie is that guy from?) of everyday life, don’t think Windows’ “decision engine” is down for the count. Launched in June 2009 as a competitor (or, depending on your point of view, goat in the T-Rex pen) to Google, Bing has not yet undertaken the search engine behemoth. In the last 12 months, though, Bing has taken 5% of Google’s market share. That’s news. A bigger story, perhaps, is that Google has declined by 5%. The “sick man” of search engines, Yahoo, has dropped for nine consecutive months. With rumors of internal struggle and the floundering of Google+, the question is: has Google stretched itself too thin?

    • Google’s Developer Dilemma: Open Up Google+ Or Hold On To ‘Something Special’? – MarketingLand.com

    In related news, El Goog is displaying a stubborn side. During a “fireside” chat with developers at the 2012 Google I/O conference, several members of the Google+ team explained that their “tentative” approach to opening up Google+ to full read-write API is a result of “something special” and “magical” happening on Google+. As of yet, no news on what that means. Google’s desire to shelter their baby could pay off in the long run. After all, who got anywhere trying to satisfy everyone? The Google team reports that API access would result in spamming. If Google+ plans to remain inside the cocoon too long, though, developers and businesses alike may become frustrated. The conference was not all bad new for developers, however; Google hinted that big developments are in the team’s plans, such as adding Google+ comments to the API and making vanity URLs available to all users.

  • Back to Basics: Tips for Applying for a Job in the Digital Age

    Applying for a job is something that we all have to do at one point or another in our careers – unless you won the lottery at 18, or are an heir to a billion dollar empire where you can lounge on a beach in Cabo while waiters bring you Mai Tai’s all day. For the rest of us, the job market is something we will become all too familiar with. From crafting that perfect cover email to making sure your online presence is spick-and-span, here are a few tips you can use.

    Now, there are probably a million and one tips on how to apply to a job correctly and that’s why they have an entire section at Barnes and Noble dedicated to it. However, there are a few particular mistakes that seem to pop up time and time again. A few of the following guidelines will help anyone out there in this Hunger Games-style job market, where every open position seems like a fight to the death.

    You want me to pay attention?

    All companies have different ways of accepting resumes/applications. Make sure that you apply for the position in the way they request, whether it’s via email, within the company’s website, or through a job search hub. You don’t want your potential future employer’s first impression to be of someone that can’t follow instructions.

    Polish your social media presence to a professional shine

    Your online image is important, and becoming increasingly more so in the 21st century. While being asked for your login information is unethical and potentially illegal, expect that anything you’ve left open for public viewing to be perused by potential employers and prune your profiles accordingly.

    That’s not how it was supposed to look!

    I can’t tell you how many times I’ve opened a resume to only see it look as if the applicant fell asleep on their keyboard, with weird spacing and columns all out of whack. There is an easy fix for this: once you have formatted your resume the way you want it, save it as a PDF. This way anyone that opens it, on any software or platform, will see it exactly the way you intended it to look.

    I’ve seen this before…

    Generic cover letters are fairly obvious to spot and aren’t much cared for by the hiring managers. You want them to feel as if this is the only position you are interested in. This is why you want the letter to be customized. You can do this by mentioning the company and position, where you found the ad, and what qualifications you have that meet the mentioned requirements.

    What company is this for again?

    We all know applying for jobs isn’t fun and can be very time-consuming. But when you are sending an email applying to a post, DO NOT apply to every position you find in one email. When employers see this, they think that you are desperate and willing to take anything. This means send a separate email per company/position.

    Dear Madam or Sir

    Even if you are submitting via email, you still need a cover letter. And by cover letter, I don’t mean an autobiography. Keep it to about 3 paragraphs. This should be in the body of the email and formatted with correct grammar and spelling. Showing your excitement about the job and thanking them for their time can only make you look better.

    These tips may seem like common sense to some people, but the mistakes are frequently made and can lead to an immediate weed-out. By following these quick fixes, you can expect to more effectively and efficiently stand from to your competitors.

     

  • Hammer Time! Squishing Fonts Into Text With Base64

    Ah, fonts. This binary data increases page load time, file size, the number of HTTP requests. Fonts will also cause the page to jump from a basic font to the included one when the font takes longer to load than it does to display the markup. All these hindrances, coupled with having many images, will begin to deteriorate your page’s load times. However, there’s a way to transfer your page’s custom fonts as plain text to the browser and compile them into a single request. Merging the request for multiple files into one or two requests will decrease your page’s load time and efficiency. Naturally the next question is, “How can I do this?” It’s actually very simple. There is a method for converting binary data into plain text using Base64 conversion. To quote Wikipedia in how Base64 conversion works, you can use the word “Man” as an example:

    Man is TWFu. Encoded in ASCII, M, a, n are stored as the bytes 77, 97, 110, which are, in 8-bit quantities, 01001101, 01100001, 01101110 in base 2. These three bytes are joined together into a 24 bit buffer producing 010011010110000101101110. Packs of 6 bits (6 bits have a maximum of 64 different binary values) are converted into numbers (in this case, there are 4 numbers in this 24-bit string), which are then converted to their corresponding values in Base64.

    Now to a normal person (read: not a programmer) that is not very simple at all, but what it means to you is that you can use a service such as Simple64 and you will get a Base64 string in return. Now, what can you do with this seemingly random bunch of characters? You can use them to make your site load faster. For example: you would normally use @font-face src: url(); property to include a font, correct? You can do this exactly the same way using a tool such as base64fonts.com. Convert your font then include it in an @font-face like so:

    @font-face{
    font-family: "Font Name";
    src: url(data:application/x-font-tff;base64,add base64 here);
    }

    I suggest, for more than one font, using an @import with a CSS file that contains all of your fonts. By storing fonts this way, you don’t have to worry about a content “jump” — where the content is loaded, but then suddenly changes fonts when the font is finished downloading. However, problems do lie therein.

    If you have several fonts, you may appreciate this option: downloading many fonts via a CSS file will cause your content to not appear at all until all styles are downloaded, causing a significant delay in the time it takes for the browser to render the content. However, the topic of whether or not this actually brings any site speed improvements seems to be highly debated. If you have GZip enabled in Apache when the site is served, it is zipped and sent. This would easily improve font delivery, as the font CSS will be zipped along with the CSS it’s inside. However, it’s much harder to deliver a GZip font file faster. As far as I can tell, there is very little speed improvement over standard font files unless you have multiple fonts that you would rather all load at once. In this case, fonts.css file included via an @import would be more efficient.

    Thanks for reading, and go experiment on your site! No definitive benchmarks have been run — what are some of your favorite solutions?