Smart Internet Marketing

The internet offers information on a global scale, but sometimes, local is better. If you’re looking for a haircut in Brooklyn, for example, finding out about a Beverly Hills salon with dirt-cheap rastes isn’t going to be much help. That’s why local social sites like Foursquare, Gowalla, and MyTown have proven themselves so useful — not to mention SEO linking services like AnewB.com.

Foursquare

Boasting about one million members, Foursquare encourages a friendly, competitive environment where users earn badges and rewards for visiting local business. Foursquare has only recently expanded its coverage beyond large cities, however, and it’s non-GPS check-in system can be gamed by in-the-know users.

Gowalla

Although often considered a major Foursquare competitor, Gowalla has only about a quarter as many members. Gowalla has tapped into areas where Foursquare is not a central force, but the site is limited by its small size and the fact that, until recently, mobile programs were unavailable on most major phones.

MyTown

Believe it or not, MyTown has two million members — more than Foursquare and Gowalla combined! MyTown is only available to iPhone users, but even among this subset, the potential for off page SEO should not be overlooked.

Alright, we get it — if you’re going to have a business, your business is going to have to have a blog. Blogging is a great way to reach out to both current and potential clients, all the while pursuing that all-important SEO linking.

But now that we know the why, let’s talk about the how. Read on for 3 Tips for Successful Business Blogging:

1. Be casual: You’re a business, sure, but nobody is going to fault you for loosening up in one of the web’s loosest formats — the blog. So go ahead: embrace contractions, run on sentences, first-person pronouns, etc. It will make you seem more human, all the while allowing for the kind of super-readable content customers love.

2. Synergize: Buzzword alert! But seriously, some skillful integration with social networking services like Facebook and Twitter can take your blog to a whole new level. Check out services like Twitterfeed and Hellotxt, which can turn your blog posts into Twitter tweets and Facebook wall posts automatically.

3. Get help: Ever noticed how most blogging platforms allow multiple users to access the same blog? That’s because blogging — business blogging included — thrives under multiple authorship. So go ahead — invite your employees to contribute posts of their own, or outsource your writing to a marketing company with expertise in the area.

No SEO plan can be complete without social bookmarking. Bookmarking sites are easy and fast — allowing users to link to preexisting blog posts, articles, and sites with as little as a single line of unique content.

Let’s take a look at The Top 4 Sites for Social Bookmarking:

1. Digg: Anyone who’s ever seen a spike in traffic from a front-page link can tell you one thing — it’s good to be “dugg.” Founded in 2004, Digg has always been at the forefront of social bookmarking, but the site became even more crucial when it teamed up with Facebook in May 2009.
2. Delicious: Dating back to 2003, Delicious predates even Digg, and is likewise a potent force in the world of social bookmarking, especially after its 2005 acquisition by Yahoo! Previously located at http://del.icio.us, Delicious was one of the web’s first domain hacks.
3. StumbleUpon: An even older bookmarking service, StumbleUpon was barely post-millennial, emerging in the dark ages of 2001. Perhaps more than any other site, StumbleUpon captures in its name the way the internet often shows us things we didn’t even know we were looking for.
4. Reddit: Owned by social media powerhouse Conde Nast Digital, Reddit has since 2005 offered an SEO linking opportunity free of bells and whistles. To make ends meet, the site recently turned “freemium,” offering “gold” memberships for paying users.

Back in the day, Facebook pages were optional tools for businesses to reach out to customers. Now, we expect them. But Facebook pages aren’t just for connecting with customers — they also provide valuable SEO linking opportunities, and the right apps make them all the more powerful.

Let’s take a look at our Top Three Facebook Apps for Business:

1. Static FBML

Short for Facebook Markup Language, FBML is an important tool for app develops, but the Static FBML app makes it easy to customized your page using only HTML. Static FBML allows users to create unlimited tabs and boxes filled with the HTML content of their choice — that means images, links, keyword-rich introductions, the whole deal.

2. Networked Blogs

The Networked Blogs app is the blogger’s best friend. Like several others app and services, Networked Blogs allows you to import blog posts to your wall and your Twitter, but the fun doesn’t end there. That’s where “networked” comes in — Networked Blogs gives internet markets the opportunity to promote their blogs to a wider audience based on keywords and location alike.

3. Fan Appz

Kooky spelling aside, Fan Appz is another fantastic smart marketing asset. The app makes it easy to create lists, giveaways, promotions, and polls, offering that coveted client interaction while — you guessed it — enhanced your off page SEO.

If your business has a website, you’ve probably heard the term “off page SEO” before. But the question is: Do you know what it means? Essentially, off page SEO is the process of increasing search engine rankings by doing work on other websites — from an off-site blog to a Facebook profile.

Let’s take a look at some of the benefits of off page SEO linking:

Off page SEO doesn’t change your website. A lot of business owners worry that intense SEO efforts will make their company look “desperate,” but off page SEO takes place on blogs, bookmarking services, social networking profiles, etc. It’s the marketing campaign nobody has to know about — unless you want them to.

Off page SEO can target specific groups of people. With social networking, finding a specific demographic is as fast as a simple search, whether you’re looking for a Facebook page for stay at home moms, or users Tweeting on the #VoIP trending topic.

Off page SEO makes frequent updates easier than ever. Frequent updating is the foundation of any good SEO plan, but you might not be interested in updating your website every day, not to mention several times a day. With off page SEO, though, it’s easy to add new bookmarks, posts, and Tweets linking to your site on a daily basis.

With Google Caffeine upon us — the suped up version of the search engine’s usual indexing system — it’s now more import than ever to choose an SEO plan with frequent updates. Google Caff indexes the web in little chunks instead of big layers, allowing for results about 50-percent fresher.

For the most part, the relevant to-do list is fairly obvious:

• Frequently update website content.
• Frequently update company blog.
• Frequently update social networking and bookmarking sites.
• Frequently visit… forums?

In the world of SEO, that last bullet point is somewhat of a curveball, as online forums are not generally recognized for their marketing potential. But forums’ ever-dynamic content puts them in line to benefit dramatically from Google Caffeine. And, as usual, those in the SEO community are looking to get a piece of the pie.

Marketing via online forums is similar to working with Facebook and Twitter, except that posting in forums requires slightly more finesse. With forums, the other users can make or break your SEO efforts — if they smell a rat, it’s bad news.

If you’re worried about alienating said users, consider the following tips:

• Don’t try to make a million posts in one day (especially not for a million different clients). Creating small, realistic posts under multiple usernames will likely be more effective.
• Do post on the forum’s designated advertising section if one exists.
• Don’t forget about your signature! Your forum signature is a great place to squeeze in some SEO linking without fear of retribution — and it will show up on every post.

Not everyone thinks their business needs a blog. But whether you sell polypropylene bags or transport cars — trust us — business blogging can help.

So, what can business blogging do for you?

Business blogging can make your business look professional. Anybody can make a blog, but not everybody can make a good blog — you know, one with regular updates, intriguing content, a sleek design featuring your company logo. Pulling all of that off will impress your customers, and maybe even attract some new ones.

Business blogging can make your business look casual. Wait — didn’t we just talk about looking professional? Yes, but acting casual — i.e. human — is just as important. Potential customers want to know what there are people behind all those www’s and 1-800-numbers. So go ahead, show off your personality a little!

Business blogging can help you deliver news. Visitors might not always remember to check your site for new specials, products, and services, but blogs are widely recognized as smart marketing tools for their ability to deliver fresh content. Use your blog as an interactive space to keep your customers updated and — just as important — hear what they have to say.

The Best Tweet Award was given today at the Hay Book Festival of Literature and Arts. The Tweets that entered the competition are, as one might say, our modern haikus, contemporary poetry, and the most beautiful tweet of our times belongs to Mark Mackenzie, a 41 year-old medical physicist from Canada.

Steven Fry, the British actor, director, writer and most of all gadget enthusiasts, was the judge and the regulations stated that the winning tweet can be eloquent, impassioned, emotive or a pun.

And the winning tweet?

“ I believe we can build a better world! Of course, it’ll take a whole lot of rock, water & dirt. Also, not sure where to put it.”

Poetic, yes. Sensitive, very much. Rewarding, indeed!

The news of the winning made Mackenzie’s stream (marcmack) to sky rocket from 150 followers to well over 1,000.

How can you benefit your business by using Twitter? Well, you don’t have to be a poet. You just need smart internet marketing.

There’s a lot of fun to be had with Google Trends. A public web facility of Google.com, Google Trends shows how often a specific search phrase is entered in comparison to the total search-volume across different regions of the world.

Google Trends can be so much more than just a cool way to see what other people are looking at. It’s a phenomenal tool for internet marketing. Realizing this, Google launched “Google Insights for Search” in August of 2008.

This public tool was designed specifically for internet marketing, allowing users to easily compare search patterns across any region, category, or time frame.

Google Insight can help you determine which keywords resonate best. This is vital information when attempting to market over the internet.

Data is displayed on a scale from 0 to 100, with each point on the graph being divided by the higest point of popularity. As Google puts it, “our system designates (the) peak as 100. Now let’s suppose that interest decreased significantly in December, where the next highest peak was approximately half of what it was in November. That peak would then be designated as 50, and so on.”

Often it’s not the most important phrases that are the most popular, and not knowing the most-used terminology can cripple your business. Both Google Trends and Google Insight can be exceptional tools in assisting you with your internet marketing.

Using an e-mail based online newsletter is an excellent and effective internet marketing technique that can be used to keep your clientele and customers informed about your company.

The main focus of any successful online newspaper should be to inform clients of valuable general business information while simultaneously grabbing their attention. If the newsletter doesn’t inform the reader, then it’s useless. If the newsletter doesn’t grab the attention of the reader, or motivate them to check future newsletters, then it’s just as useless.

A newsletter should include just that… news. It should not be a private endorsement or an e-mail commercial. Nobody wants their inbox flooded with advertisements.

An online newsletter can be as easy as simply sending a few short sentences on recent company news to your e-mail distribution list. However, as your company begins to grow, so will your distribution list. Maintaining your list can become extraordinarily time-consuming, and the best set-up usually involves an opt-in page on your company web site. This program will not only maintain the list of e-mails for your newsletter, but save you valuable time while doing so.

Not only is an online newsletter a great internet marketing tool, it’s also an effective way to keep current customers informed, as well as converse with prospective clients.