But for some businesses, our basic SEO plan is only the first step in crafting a successful search engine marketing campaign. To really out-edge the competition, they need more agressive social networking — that means daily activity on Facebook and Twitter.

To satisfy this need, Ajax Union is happy to introduce three new AnewB Booster Packs:

AnewB Booster Lite — $500/month

This economical social media solution includes daily activity on Facebook or Twitter, as well as weekly in-depth outreach on both networks to increase your connections, sponsor contests and more.

AnewB Booster Back — $1200/month

The AnewB Booster Back offers daily Facebook and Twitter updates, in addition to weekly outreach on both services. Plus, we executive one additional social activity every day, chosen specifically for your industry and business. Examples include: Youtube networking, Yahoo! Answers, blog commenting, LinkedIn networking and more.

AnewB Turbo Shot — $2400

This is the AnewB Booster Back on steroids, providing Facebook and Twitter updates every 1-2 hours Monday through Thursday, in addition to the regular booster activities.

Interested in boosting your off page SEO with suped-up social networking? Give us a call at 800-594-0444.

1. Be interesting. Be you.
Nobody likes to see their Facebook feed filled with advertisements. Engage your fans by posting compelling, entertaining content that showcases your company’s unique qualities — especially your personality. One of the best things you can do for your business is to flaunt a sense of humor.

2. Stop, look, and listen.
The internet is a crazy place, and you never know how Facebook fans are going to react to the items you post. They might ignore the contest you thought would be a winner, while flocking to comment on a goofy picture you almost didn’t bother posting. See what you fans like, and give them more of it.

3. Keep up the good work.
Rome wasn’t build in a day, and neither was a successful Facebook fan page. So in order to build a Facebook following for your company, you’re going to have to visit your page several times a week — if not more often — supplying not just new content, but also replies to user questions and comments.

Of course, not everyone has the time to keep their Facebook page in working condition, which is where companies like Ajax Union come into play. Visit us at www.AnewB.com to learn more about our SEO linking and social networking services.

Ah, the blogosphere. A place to socialize, advertise, and otherwise share information through short-form, casual updates. At www.AnewB.com, we’re all about business blogging, so we were all about Technorati’s 2010 State of the Blogosphere, which reported some interesting stats.

Of the survey’s 7,200 respondents…

• 2/3 are male.
• 1/4 live in households with $100k+ incomes.
• 42%  blog about brands, both positively and negatively, while 34% do not mention brands at all.
• 42% follow brands on social networks like Facebook and Twitter.
• 25% blog via smartphone.
• 15% blog from California, 8% New York, 6% Texas, 4% Florida, and 4% Illinois. All other states have lower blogger concentrations.
• 87% are on Facebook, but only 1/3 of those have Facebook pages for their blogs.

What can we deduce from this information? Nothing all that surprising. Social media and blogging are clearly powerful forces in the world of business, even if not all users contribute to such discussions.

Technorati also points out that social and business blogging is a great way to increase visibility within your industry, gain new customers, and establish yourself as an industry authority. One thing they left out — blogging is likewise essential for an off page SEO plan. To learn more, check out www.AnewB.com.

There are a variety of free tools online that can help you pick the right SEO linking keywords for you. But before you turn to these freebies, it’s best to ask yourself some general questions.

Where is my consumer base? If you have a local business that caters to a select radius of clients, all or most of your keywords should include the name of your region within. For example: “NY catering company” or “self storage New York.”

What do I want to rank for? Picking keywords can be intimidating, but the process is actually surprisingly simple. When people search on Google, what kind of terms do you want your business to show up for?

Now that you’ve got the basics down, it’s time to figure out what people are really searching for. For this, we recommend Google’s Keyword Tool.

When selecting your SEO linking keywords, be sure to choose attainable terms. It’s going to be extremely difficult to rank for “shoes,” for example, but “womens tap shoes” is much more attainable.

In the world of off page SEO, LinkedIn is somewhat unique. Although exhibiting some of the same social networking traits as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and similar, LinkedIn is strictly for business, which can be both a positive and a negative. (It makes it a lot easier to promote B2B products and services, but certain campaigns that soar on Facebook and Twitter just wouldn’t fly in LinkedIn territory.)

What can you do to make your LinkedIn campaign thrive? We have some ideas:

Optimize your profile.

LinkedIn profiles have a lot of room for SEO linking. Be sure to add a keyword-rich description in the Summary section, in addition to listing a non-spammy amount of keywords under Specialities. Customize your links to include keywords, like “AnewB SEO Plan” and “SEO Linking Blog.” If you have a WordPress, be sure to import it using the corresponding app. And customize your URL!

Optimize your business profile.

Two profiles are always better than one, and on LinkedIn, you can create a business profile (like this one) for your company in a snap, as long as you have an @yourdomain.com email address. Optimize your company name with keywords, and plant some more of your keywords in the specialties section. Add your location and (duh) website for the best SEO linking.

MySpace, still trying to pretend it’s still relevant to anyone who doesn’t have a band, has finally publicly acknowledged that Facebook exists. Yesterday it unveiled its “Sync with Facebook” feature, which will automatically send MySpace updates to Facebook. There’s also a Twitter sync.

The FB sync is a one-way street, though; FB users won’t be able to send their updates to MySpace, which is probably smart on MySpace’s part, since no one (except, again, people who have bands) would log in ever again.

According to Information Week, Facebook had well over twice as many unique users as MySpace in July. I’m not sure what’s keeping MySpace going — maybe it’s their theme gallery.

An SEO plan can only go so far if the customer doesn’t even know the correct keywords for which to search. The average internet surfer is not smarter than the average bear, and if your customer needs your services, he may not even know that he needs them! Therefore, teach him, and he will come!

Use smart business blogging to thoroughly explain the whys and wherefores of your business so that any layperson scanning through the internet can understand. Ask company outsiders to read your blog or website to ensure your company practices equal opportunity blogging.

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.

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.

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.