How Important Are Keywords In Title Tag

I’ve often been asked the quesiton by clients of the importance of the Meta Titles for their website, as they want to rank of a number of regional terms but don’t want to loose the look and feel of the website with unsightly page titles.

The answer I usually give is that if they want to rank for specific terms, then they need to ensure the terms are included in the page content as well as the meta information to increase relevance score.

After attempting to find circumstantial evidence on-line for my reasoning, I thought this post might help others answer the same question if asked.

It was in 2008 and early 2009 that keywords used in the title tag became the most important ranking factor. But recent results on a search engine ranking factors survey by SEOMoz rated keyword use in the title tag below the use of keywords in the inbound link anchor text.

Let’s analyze and verify the importance of keywords used in the title tag. To do this we will use the following method:

Step 1: Select a competitive, two- or three-word key phrases with a high volume of search engine traffic.

My Selected keywords:

car insurance quotes

Step 2: Gather title tag data for the competitive keyword for the top and bottom search result positions (position 1, position 5, position 10, position 300, position 400 and position 500 in Google’s search engine results).

Step 3: For the purpose of this factor with respect to the search query, we will devise our own rating system that is logical and acceptable. For example, if the targeted search term is “car insurance quotes” and the title tag used by the position 1 result is: “Auto Insurance Quote: Car & Motorcycle Insurance – Progressive,” all keywords are included in the title tag. This means you can find the key words “car,” “insurance” and “quotes” in the title tag. Since the targeted search term is a three-word key phrase, we can rate the keyword presence with the following equation: Keyword presence in title tag (%) = (Number of words in the title tag that match with each of the words in the targeted search term) / (Total number of words in the search query). % Keyword presence = 3/3 = 100%

Step 4: Assess the keyword proximity in the title tag. Of course, it might appear more relevant that you can find an exact match of a search query in the title tag. Here is an example of how we might quantify keyword proximity in the title tag: Targeted search term: car insurance quotes Title tag: Auto Insurance Quote: Car & Motorcycle Insurance – Progressive Of course you cannot find an exact match of the targeted search term right there in the title tag, but “insurance quote” (bolded above) might contribute some to the relevancy score. Since “car insurance quotes” is a three-word key phrase, and we found an exact match (only part of the targeted term) for “insurance quote,” The keyword proximity score will be: % Keyword proximity = 2/3 = 67%

Step 5: The last factor to be assessed in the title tag is the keyword prominence. This factor is described by SEOMoz as “Keyword Use as the First Word(s) of the Title Tag”

Step 6: Compute the overall rating that assesses the keyword presence in the title. Here is the equation:

Overall rating (keyword use anywhere in title tag) = Keyword presence in title tag x Keyword proximity x Keyword Prominence

A high rating means that the exact match is found in the title tag, and that it is prominent.

The hypothesis for this test is as follows: the overall rating of keyword use in the title tag should appear significantly higher for the web sites with top rankings in Google when compared to the ones near the bottom.

If this is not true, then it may mean the importance of the factor decreases as compared with other, more important relevance signals, like anchor text.

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Using Social To Communicate For Buy-In

Change cannot be defined and shouted out in the confines of a board room. Successful change must be communicated in a clear, concise way to capture the minds and hearts of the entire organization. When getting started in social media, you cannot dismiss and ignore an organization’s fears about social media engagement. Social media success is dependant upon a drastic change in corporate culture’s thinking and execution process. Already we have addressed three out of eight steps as defined by leading change management thinker, John Kotter – increasing the level of urgency, building the guiding team, and establishing a relevant vision.

Now that urgency has been established, a team in place to lead, and a relevant vision is established to guide the way, how do you communicate the vision for buy-in?

1. Keep it simple – Speak the language of your organization…no, not the acronym or business lingo. Think of water cooler and coffee break discussions. Communicate concisely and establish an emotional bond by explaining how their buy-in will address their concerns and anxieties.
2. Cut through the clutter – In the same vein as keeping it clear and concise, communicate the vision in channels outside of the norm to help generate excitement. Go beyond the memos and form emails and find ways to incorporate their feedback. We are talking about social media integration, so consider how to incorporate these new tools within your organization first. Give your folks the warm and fuzzy of internal dialogue before opening up to external communities.
3. Sell solutions – Be wary of selling the tools you will be using to implement change because these tools will evolve. Sell the solutions and how these new principles and change of thought processes will aid their workflow and align with their business goals.

What has successfully worked for your organization to create buy-in? What hasn’t worked?

source: Radian6

Social Media: B2B and B2C Engagement by the Numbers

I spend a great deal of time working within the B2B sector, among other things, and social media is a growing and or pervasive program within a comprehensive, integrated communications and service strategy. In almost every scenario I’ve encountered, executives, marcom and service executives, and brand managers have generally assumed that social and interactive activities and programming were ideally best suited for consumer applications. However, as we recently explored, in Social Media, it’s not just business, it’s business-to-business.

Indeed, Social Media is not limited to B2C applications, its impact and effects are actively measured and felt in B2B as well as government, education, military, and other prominent verticals. As decision makers take to the social web, their research, activity, communication, and most importantly, their relationships only intensify over time.

If you’re working in B2B, perhaps this post will provide you with value. Or, at the very least, it will arm with you data necessary to convince, compel, and persuade those skeptical or uninspired colleagues, clients, and managers.

Business.com recently conducted a study that evaluated Social Media activities of those in B2B and B2C. In its report, “2009 B2B Social Media Benchmarking Study,” Business.com found that North American companies focused on B2B were much more rigorous in the world of social media than those in B2C. As you’ll see, B2B leads the fray across the entire regiment of campaigns and programs.

Social Media: B2B vs. B2C

Maintained company-related profiles on social networks:

B2B: 81%
B2C: 67%

Participate in Twitter:

B2B: 75%
B2C: 49%

Host blog/s:

B2B: 74%
B2C: 55%

Monitor brand mentions:

B2B: 73%
B2C: 55%

Engage in discussions:

B2B: 66%
B2C: 43%

Participate in Q&A sites such as Yahoo Answers, LinkedIn, forums:

B2B: 59%
B2C: 44%

Upload content (social objects) to Social Networks:

B2B: 50%
B2C: 32%

Manage a community dedicated to customers or prospects:

B2B: 49%
B2C: 51%

Monitor/support user ratings and reviews:

B2B: 49%
B2C: 51%

Produce Webinars or podcasts:

B2B: 46%
B2C: 22%

Advertise on social networks:

B2B: 42%
B2C: 54%

Utilize social bookmarking sites such as delicious and digg:

B2B: 38%
B2C: 21%

Employee recruiting:

B2B: 36%
B2C: 27%

As expected, those companies engaging in social media, whether B2B or B2C, focused efforts on creating social network profiles, microblogging, blogs, and brand monitoring, hitting a high of 81%. Most social activities however, maintained a level of participation with an average of around 50%. There is room for growth for brand engagement regardless of industry.

Business.com also evaluated where companies were focusing their attention and resources. The study surfaced that not only are a greater number of B2B companies experimenting with Social Media, they are also extending their presence across multiple networks. However, B2C businesses dominated engagement within Facebook and MySpace.

Notice the disparity between B2B and B2C adoption of Twitter. If these numbers truly reflect that of the greater community of businesses, B2B companies are at the forefront of this wildly scrutinized and popularized social property.

Facebook

B2B: 77%
B2C: 83%

Twitter

B2B: 73%
B2C: 45%

LinkedIn

B2B: 56%
B2C: 27%

YouTube

B2B: 43%
B2C: 30%

MySpace

B2B: 14%
B2C: 23%

FriendFeed

B2B: 9%
B2C: 2%

Plurk

B2B: 1%
B2C: 0%

Other

B2B: 4%
B2C: 8%

Also according to the Business.com study, 60% of B2B respondents leverage Twitter search to monitor brand or company mentions compared to just 35% of those in B2C. With Facebook slowly revising their privacy settings to open up real-time search capabilities within the 350 million strong network and MySpace recently announcing the availability of a real-time API, businesses will have the ability, and the responsibility, to search for relevant conversations outside of Twitter and Google.

Google search results, at least prior to the real-time search revolution, also proved valuable for mining and unearthing relevant content. 59% of B2B and 40% of B2C companies report using Google Alerts and 61% of B2C and 60% of B2B reported that they actively googled themselves.

With the rapid evolution of search, business monitoring will assuredly shift its focus from traditional to real-time. Just recently, Google announced both Social Search, the inclusion of content generated by your social graph in traditional search results, as well as real-time results from Twitter and other social networks. We already know that customers, regardless of industry, are actively taking to search engines to learn more about brands and products mentioned in their social stream.

A New Era of Influence

- 20% of tweets published are actually invitations for product information, answers or responses from peers or directly by brand representatives

- About half of Twitter users who were introduced to a brand on Twitter were compelled to search for additional information

- 8% of those who came into contact with a brand name on Twitter went on to search for additional information on search engines with 34% searching other social networks

Customers Take to the Social Web

- 44% admitted that they have recommended products in Social Media and 39% stated that they have discussed a product specifically on Twitter

- 46% of Facebook users talk about or recommending products on the 225 million strong social network

- Social Media already accounted for 18% of all information searching in early 2009

- 30% claim they wished to learn more

- 27% reported that they were receptive to receiving invitations for events, special offers or promotions

- 25% stated that they visited a site after learning about a product on their social network of preference

Engagement Has Its Rewards

In a recent Razorfish study, 40.1% of consumers reported friending a brand on Facebook or MySpace. Once a connection was established, the resulting activity was profoundly beneficial to the awareness and potential revenue of the brand.

Recommend the brand to others:

Always: 22.94%
Usually: 39.15%
Sometimes: 33.92%

Consider the brand when in the market for a similar product of service:

Always: 22.69%
Usually: 40.90%
Sometimes: 34.41%

Raise awareness of the brand:

Always: 21.45%
Usually: 38.65%
Sometimes: 36.66%

Purchase a product/service from the brand:

Always: 17.46%
Usually: 42.89
Sometimes: 36.66%

ROI: Return on Investment or Ignorance?

I recently wrote about the lacking of an industry-wide practice for measuring social media. According to one study, 85% of businesses engaged in interactive programs were not measuring the ROI.

Even though measurement was more pervasive in B2B over B2C, participating companies appeared to actively measure social media in this case – at least those surveyed anyway. B2C companies tended to focus on revenues to assess ROI (where the I represents investment and involvement). B2B companies typically evaluated Web traffic, brand awareness, and the quality and volume of lead generation. That being the case, B2B and B2C reported that Web traffic was considered the top metric.

It appears that an industry typically characterized as lethargic is in actuality, pioneering new forms of communications, service, sales and branding in the social realm.

Questions remain for me however, in order to better ascertain how and why businesses are using these new tools and to what extent. For example, I would ask those within B2B and B2C what their level of engagement and commitment to social media is across multiple departments within the organization. I firmly believe that every department affected by outside behavior or those that have the ability to affect it will ultimately benefit from socializing. Therefore, conducting a benchmark survey to capture the state of the industry as it corresponds specifically to service, sales, branding, communications, HR, etc., will help us better surface opportunities and potential strategies. In addition, I suggest introducing one more set of questions that focuses on what I refer to as the “ a ha” vs. the “uh oh” moment, when a company decides to embrace or experiment in Social Media. Are businesses jumping online because they realized the opportunity specific to a network or because they felt it necessary based on a negative discussion or series of negative and public instances.

The Attention Economy and Earned Relevance

Attention is increasingly thinning and as such, it is considered a precious commodity.

Whether it’s B2B or B2C, we are each in the end, consumers. And, as consumers, we seek information online in order to make more informed decisions based on research, the advice of friends, peers, and experts, and the recognition of our questions and commentary directly from brands. In order to make an impact on the bottom line through sales and the ongoing investment in engendering goodwill and earning loyalty, we must focus our time and resources on the attention dashboards of our prospects and customers, as well as those who also influence them. If we do not, we will quickly find ourselves outside of the parameters within every business decision-making process.

If it is one thing that we learn right here, right now, is that Social Media affects every part of the buying cycle. This is why a company-wide SRM program must be engineered and deployed in order to effectively monitor behavior and sentiment to effectively and genuinely shape perception, cultivate meaningful relations, and inspire action.

Buying Cycle

1. Acknowledging the need

2. Awareness

3. Research

4. Consideration (the short list)

5. Evaluation

6. Purchase

7. Applications

8. The Experience

9. Opportunity for advocacy

It should also not go unsaid, that while women rule the social web, the buying process in B2C is also dominated by female influence. This is why in the world of B2C marketing, women are considered the Chief Household Officer as they’re actively driving and steering purchase decisions.

Five stages of the purchasing process:

1. Kick-off – women
2. Research – women
3. Purchase – men
4. Ownership – women
5. Word-of-mouth – women

It is how we engage at each step of this cycle that determines our place and stature within the inevitable path of attention, analysis, and action. Once we learn how and where to engage, we can then focus our efforts on earning affinity and advocacy. This is our time to garner relevance through the intelligent practice of poignant and relevant listening, understanding, and participation. In parallel, this is also our opportunity to establish authority and attention. Without it, it’s easy to vanish from the cycle of awareness and consideration. Out of sight, out of mind…

A Beginner’s Guide To Facebook

Online social networking services have been around for some time now, withMySpace, Bebo and Facebook leading the pack. One of these contenders, however, has just stepped the whole game up a level, effectively becoming a disruptive technology.

Not so very long ago Facebook was one popular flavor of social networking service, differentiated by its user-base, design and specific features. Nevertheless, the differences between Facebook and MySpace or Bebo were less than monumental. All of that has since changed with the launch of the Facebook Platform.

Facebook Platform has opened up this already hugely popular online destination to third-party developers, and the results are nothing short of breathtaking. What you now have, in addition to a solid core of social networking features, is the ability to aggregate all of your favorite content and services from around the web, and monitor and control them from your Facebook profile.

Whether you are interested in instant messaging, Twitter, photo slide shows, music sharing or selling your wares via classified ads, there is no longer any need to visit a number of websites to do so. Facebook has it all.

In this beginners guide to Facebook, I take a look at:

• The Facebook buzz currently circulating, and what it’s all about
• The core social networking features on which the new range of applications have been built and seamlessly integrated
• Rich content aggregation and what it means for the end-user
• Why people love Facebook
• Why people hate Facebook
• A handful of must-have Facebook applications to get you started

Here are the details:

Overview – What’s The Buzz All About?

Facebook is defined by its creators as:

”a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. People use Facebook to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet.”
Long before the relatively recent introduction of the Facebook Platform that is getting everyone so excited, Facebook was a popular social networking service with a primary audience of teens and college-goers.

Like then similar services such as MySpace, the key focus was on befriending other users and sharing thoughts, photos, music and comments. Useful enough, and certainly enough to get the service millions of subscribers, but still nothing compared to the current amazing growth rate that Facebook is enjoying. Not only are the new sign-ups to the service going through the roof, but the demographic that it covers is expanding considerably, with a greater amount of twenty-somethings using Facebook that its initially teenage audience.

The sudden sharp interest is directly indexed to the opening up of the Facebook Platform, which allows developers from around the world to create their own unique Facebook applications. This essentially opens up the entire world of online content for easy aggregation into the existing social networking functionality, so that users can create a profile and personal network of friends whilst taking advantage of all of their favorite online tools and services.

Gone are the days when your Skype, Twitter, instant messaging, social networking and classified s hunting had to take place at a scattered range of online destinations. Facebook applications bring all of this and more to the one-stop-shop of your profile page.

This is indeed a disruptive technology that at once turns the social networking and content aggregation spaces upside down and its impact is bound to be felt in the worlds of web widgets, startpages and ofcourse SNS destinations like the now waning MySpace.

Here is an openness we are not used to seeing in such billion-dollar web enterprises, where more often that not the walled garden approach seems to prevail. However, I have a feeling that we will be seeing a lot of imitators sooner rather than later.

The Basics – Social Networking

At base Facebook has a solid core of social networking features that make it not only easy to create your user profile, but also to interact with those other community members that you add as friends.

Layout and navigation are impressively clean and uncluttered, especially when compared to the horrible jumble that is MySpace. There are a number of ways to track down potential friends already on the network, whether via your email contacts list, workplace, schools and colleges or a generic search. When friendships are made – as simple as ‘adding’ another user from their profile – Facebook prompts you on how you know the person you have brought into your network.

The usual email and messaging features are all in evidence, as is photo-sharing and the ability to update both your ‘current status’ (what you’re doing, or how you’re feeling) right from the main page of your profile. Each profile also has a ‘wall’, a place that both the owner and visiting users can leave quickfire messages for one another.

Every time you update your status, add a new application to your profile or edit information this information is recorded and subsequently broadcast to your friends, who can easily keep track of your latest actions. While for some this will feel strangely intrusive at first, it can in fact be a valuable tool for finding out information and useful tips from those within your network.

Long featuring the ability to share blog posts, video, audio and links Facebook has everything that you would expect from a high-quality social networking application. But online social networking tools are a dime a dozen these days, and what really distinguishes Facebook from its nearest competitors is its disruptive ability to aggregate rich content from elsewhere on the web.

Rich Content Aggregation

It is the opening up of the Facebook Platform to the general public (or at least that part of it comprised of third-party application developers) that has really made waves. For while Facebook has always enjoyed phenomenal success as a social networking service, it is only now that it has become a truly disruptive technology with the ability to aggregate all of your most important web-based content in a single location.

Facebook as it stands today gives you a single sign-in service whereby you can:

Network with friends and colleagues using internal email, private messaging and public discussions
Make status and presence updates using both in-house tools and popular third-party service like Twitter, which can be fully controlled from the Facebook console
Bring in live chat, voice messaging and one-click Skype calls
Import and share videos and create photo albums and slide shows to easily share your media
Quickly grab content that you like the look of from other people’s profiles and add the same functionality to your own
Of course, this only touches the tip of the iceberg, but what is essential to note is that in opening its doors (and API to developers outside of its inner circle, Facebook has managed to expand its capabilities rapidly and effectively. The result has been a well-earned influx of even more users.

Why People Love Facebook

So what exactly is it that has the blogosphere dizzy with admiration for the Facebook Platform and the impact it is having?

Well, the recurring themes are the bold move towards being open to third-party developers, and as a consequence, the rich range of content aggregation options now available to those who spend a fair amount of time using the latest web applications in one shape or form.

What the developers think

Jason Berberich of Berbs.US writes:

”While Facebook doesn’t let users change the way pages look (one of its best features, in my opinion), it instead opens itself up to 3rd party developers with a really impressive API that’s got great documentation. Existing applications can now be integrated right into the platform so they look and feel like they’re part of the site, and entirely new apps and business ideas can (and will) be created to reach Facebook users.
I love how Zuckerberg is thinking long-term with Facebook. He could have easily sold the company and cashed out, or littered the site with tons of ads, but he didn’t. Instead, he’s building a platform that will make Facebook one of the most powerful (and money-making) sites for years to come. He’s doing everything right, as best I can tell. Pure genius.”

Berberich’s enthusiasm mirrors that of the hundreds of developers out there now presented with an opportunity to create killer apps for Facebook, or else port their existing web applications over to the service, extending their reach and, crucially, their market.

By presenting developers with well-put-together documentation and an open invitation to participate in the platform, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has won himself a considerable amount of kudos for taking this bold move and cracking open the industry, and perhaps rightly so.

What the tech industry insiders think

Michael Arrington of TechCrunch rolls with this idea and praises the shift towards an open, developer-friendly platform as the living antithesis of the walled-garden approach thought to be the biggest challenge facing waning competitor MySpace. Arrington notes that:

”The payoff is two way. Not only do developers get deep access to Facebook’s twenty million users, Facebook also becomes a rich platform for third party applications.
Facebook’s strategy is almost the polar opposite from MySpace. While MySpace frets over third party widgets, alternatively shutting them down or acquiring them, Facebook is now opening up its core functions to all outside developers.”

So while MySpace continues to block third-party tools and accessories to protect its own interests and advertising revenues, Facebook has succeeding in becoming the definitive social networking destination by giving users exactly what they want – the ability to choose from a vast range of alternatives rather than be locked into a single service.

Here is the ongoing trend that marks Web 2.0 as distinct to its top-down, one-way predecessor, and is very canny of the Facebook team to have come to this astute decision while others around them have been doing exactly the opposite.

What the users think

Of course it isn’t just the developers with a smile on their face, and at the very core of any social network is its user-base. To my mind, this shift to a daring, open approach to third-party developers has been key to expanding Facebook to the next level.

Robert Scoble places Facebook within the context of the slew of aggregation and micropublishing services currently enjoying enormous popularity, and notes of Facebook that:

”I totally grok why Facebook is quickly becoming the most important social network and presence updater on the Web. If you get added to my Facebook Friends list (it’s easy, just ask) you’ll see that it aggregates a whole bunch of things onto one page.
My Kyte videos are there. My Twitter tweets are there. My shared items, er link blog, from Google Reader is there. And a lot more. Plus you can visit any one of my nearly 500 friends and see all their stuff.”

So, in addition to being able to aggregate the range of services that you use across the web in a single location, another of the great things that Facebook has to offer is the ability to follow your friends statuses, and latest additions to their own profiles through an ongoing feed. This proves an excellent way to learn about the latest hot applications by seeing what’s being used by those within your social network.

Why People Hate Facebook

While there is a strong consensus in favor of the new Facebook developments, the service is not without those who either out-and-out dislike it, or at least have some questions and doubts to raise about its claims and the hype that it is generating. The range of reasons to dislike Facebook are as diverse as the reasons to like it are similar.

Information Overkill

One feature of the Facebook profile that has its detractors is the “mini-feed” that displays each of your actions, and those of your friends, in a public timeline not unlike that of Twitter. The difference is that with Twitter updates, you decide what will be shared, whereas with the Facebook news feed, your every action is monitored and broadcast.

The author of one blog, ComPromise, writes that:

”I think it’s creepy that acts that were once personal and not immediately open to the scrutiny of others are now blared on loudspeakers to everyone without distinction. Sure, none of this is information that didn’t already exist, but the difference is accessibility. It’s like the birthday feature: if your friends’ birthdays didn’t pop up on your home page, everyone would get a lot fewer birthday messages because fewer people would know.
Similarly, you can always check to see what groups your friend is in and, if you’re interested enough, notice new additions or removals. However, the information is then only accessible to a few, devoted people. Now, people who don’t even know you all that well will be informed about”

Similar comments have been made elsewhere as to the propensity of Facebook to somewhat stalk its users. On the bright side it should be noted that only those users you have added to your list of friends will be privy to information about which application you just installed, and so on, but for some this is invasive rather than useful.

For me, however, I have found this to be a very useful addition as I have managed to find great new applications simply by following what others in my network of friends have discovered. It all comes down to how much you are willing to share, and unfortunately while you can delete particular items in your timeline, you can’t get rid of the feed itself from your profile, which some would prefer to do.

How Open Is Facebook?

Sam Sethi over at Vecosys doesn’t so much hate Facebook so much as question how open Facebook really is to the developers it has invited in. In an analysis of the Facebook terms and services, Sethi manages to pull out some clauses that suggest that the openness of the platform has severe limitations. He concludes:

”Will Facebook impose a ‘tollbooth’ or tax on successful widgets? Sure looks like they want to. Will they be building their own competitive versions? Sure looks like they want to. Can they cut you off from the platform at any time? Sure looks like they can. Can they change the ground on which you operate? Sure looks like they can. Do you have a hard and fast relationship with this platform, making it safe to build a 20 million user widget based company on? I don’t think so.
I would say that Facebook have looked at MySpace and learned a lesson : there are a lot of developers at the gates. They have built a platform that seems to open up their world in an exciting way. But they retain their fingers on the levers of power and they will exercise those levers as mercilessly as My Space when the time comes.”

And while the terms of service discussed in Sethi’s article do not provide any hard evidence of nefarious plans on the part of the Facebook team, they do at least suggest that those looking to establish a business entirely founded on success via the Facebook platform should proceed with caution.

Facebook as unoriginal

One of the (ten) criticisms leveled at Facebook by Anne Zelenka in her article for Web Worker Daily is that it just doesn’t do much of anything new. She writes that:

”It has messages that are email-like, a contact list, an events list, a Craigslist-style marketplace, Twitter-style updates, and blogging via its Notes application. I can see why they’d want to be a one-stop-shop for virtual interactions, but in each case, their implementation seems weak compared to my favored solution. I prefer a best-of-breed approach for my online communications tools.”
The danger according to this train-of-thought is that in trying to do all things within its own framework, Facebook may very well wind up doing none of them as effectively as the diverse range of tools and services already out there, with their tight focus on a particular task or goal.

There is something to be said for this criticism, although arguably Facebook doesn’t attempt to replace your existing tools and services so much as make it easy for your to aggregate them and access your information from a single location.

Must-Have Facebook Apps

The sheer amount of applications available for your Facebook profile can be daunting at first glance. Soon enough, though, you will have found a set of tools that suits your own needs. Whether you want to create photo slide-shows or post right to your Twitter account, there is an application to suit just about any need you’d care to consider.

To a large extent, then, the applications you choose to integrate into your personal Facebook will largely be a matter of taste. There are some tools, however, that really stand out in terms of their usefulness. I personally make use of:

SkypeMe – which displays your current Skype status with a prominent graphic, and allows your profile visitors to quickly
place a Skype call to your account with a single click
Twitter – As a service I use every single day it’s great that I can now send out ‘tweets’ directly from Facebook, display my current status right on my profile and even view my friends’ timeline without ever having to leave Facebook. If you haven’t checked out Twitter yet, you might want to take a look at my earlier beginners guide
Upcoming – Upcoming integrates the events you are currently watching or planning to attend, using the popular service of the same name. This is a great way to promote upcoming events of interest to a wider audience
Kyte TV - Kyte gives you a great way to incorporate a live media feed into you profile, letting you bring in video and an up-to-the-minute stream of images captured from your mobile phone via the Kyte.TV destination
Literally hundreds more that allow for monetization, media sharing, chat and messaging, video and alert setting
It’s worth mentioning that even when you first sign up for a Facebook account you will find a bundled, default set of very useful applications. My personal favorite from this selection is the Posted Irems tool, via which you can “.”

What all of this amounts to is an impressive host of aggregated content from every corner of your online life, gathered around core social networking functionality.

Conclusions

However you feel about Facebook there is no denying that it has managed to make a huge impact. This is in no small way down to opening up of the platform to external developers – in many ways an industry first.

As a consequence Facebook has managed to go from being a well-put-together online social networking tool to becoming a socially powered content aggregation hub. By allowing you to bring together the vast majority of your favorite tools and services from around the web, and aggregate them in a single easy-to-navigate destination, Facebook has achieved something totally new.

Here you can now combine the networking features of SNS websites, the photo and video sharing capabilities of sites from Flickr to YouTube, the presence broadcasting features of tools like Twitter and Jaiku, but more importantly than any of this – the ability to pool all of your most-used online resources in a single, accessible space.

Whether you are looking to create yourself a simple way to exchange ideas with like-minds, colleagues or friends, or a great way of promoting yourself or your other online content, Facebook is well worth checking out. I would go as far to say that if you only sign up for one social network on the web, Facebook should definitely be high on your list.

2010 Social Media Change In 10 Ways

This time last year, I wrote about the 10 ways social media will change 2009, and while all predictions have materialized or are on their way, it has only become clear in recent months how significant of a change we’ve seen this year. 2009 will go down as the year in which the shroud of uncertainty was lifted off of social media and mainstream adoption began at the speed of light. Barack Obama’s campaign proved that social media can mobilize millions into action, and Iran’s election protests demonstrated its importance to the freedom of speech.

Today, it is impossible to separate social media from the online world. Facebook reached 350 million users last month — 70% of whom are outside the US — and it accounts for 25% of the Web’s traffic, according to Pew nearly one in five people on the web use Twitter or some other service to check status messages, and 94% of enterprises plan to maintain or increase their investment in enterprise social media tools. The social media conversation is no longer considered a Web 2.0 fad — it is taking place in homes, small businesses and corporate boardrooms, and extending its reach into the nonprofit, education and health sectors. From feeling excitement, novelty, bewilderment, and overwhelmed, a growing number of people now speak of social media as simply another channel or tactic.

So what will social Web bring next? What will “being connected” mean? What will the next experience be for the 2 two billion people who are connected to the Internet? Here are 10 ways what we’ve called social media will evolve in 2010.

Social Media Will Become a Single, Cohesive Experience Embedded In Our Activities and Technologies

By this time next year, social media will no longer be “social media” — it will be an integrated, unquestionable component of your online and offline experience. Last year we spoke of cross-platform integration across media sites. Open APIs and OpenID made that possible, and even LinkedIn announced last month that it too will finally open its APIs. 2010 will be about integration and a single, cohesive experience across platforms as well as across products and devices — Web, mobile, TV, and video — will become near-inseparable experiences.

Users will access content from any device or platform, co-create and mashup their photos, videos and text with traditional content while interacting with each other. Publishers will create new kinds of content for the connected world, and the last years’ lull in good entertainment will finally be lifted. This trend will cut across all of our activities — from playing games to shopping to emailing and texting — nothing will be lost; everything we do will be gathered and streamed together, allowing people to view their world of activities as if it were projected in front of them, open to change, review and input at any point in time from any device or online tool.

Social Media Innovation Will No Longer Be Limited By Technology

With Web technology maturing and the near-elimination of previous barriers such as closed platforms and discrete logins, companies will now look to innovate the way they use existing technology, rather than focus on technology enhancements themselves. We will see a move to leverage existing assets — content and capabilities — in new ways, turning information to wisdom and insight to action. Whereas once user research required focus groups and usability tests, companies will utilize the Web’s capabilities to achieve the same. Naturally occurring conversations will be utilized in product innovation and design, and companies will create incentives for people’s attention and engagement while repurposing and analyzing content and engagement in new ways that will deliver valuable input.

Mobile Will Take Center Stage

Worldwide, the iPhone alone accounts for about 33% of mobile web traffic and IDC predicts the number of mobile web users will hit one billion by 2010. As the technological barriers come down, people will increasingly use their phones on-the-go to access social networks, search, read content and find location-based information. Our phones will be used as a central hub and beacon — enabling a slew of new capabilities and experiences.

Expect an Intense Battle As People and Companies Look To Own Their Own Content

2009 marked the year of open Web, and divergence of content, making content available anywhere, anytime, by anyone and to everyone; it was the year content exploded across the web, platforms and devices. The issue Google solved so magically — content find-ability — will become all but moot in the coming years. Instead, content relevance and quality will become the key focus. In 2010 we will start to see convergence as companies take measures to own their own content, its location and its cost. Last month, Rupert Murdoch announced he may opt News Corp out of Google, instructing it to de-index its publications from the search engine and giving exclusive rights to Bing for a fee. This means that content publishers will be able to determine where they make their content available and at what cost.

With the growth of user generated content and the dwindling relevance of search results, people will gradually shift their trust from large aggregators like Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, and move to searching and finding content at specific locations and, eventually, creating and integrating their own content hub into the rest of their personal digital experience. “People don’t realize that everything they do — on Facebook, Ning, Google and with their credit cards — is being collected, tracked, analyzed, owned and monetized by these companies who provide (so-called) free services. It’s not a healthy model.” Says John Faber, COO of af83, a Drupal development house and co-founder of the upcoming DrupalCon.

Enterprises Will Shape the Next Generation of What We’ve Called “Social Media”

It was easy to forget that enterprises and large institutions are the originators of some of social media’s pillars: listservs, forums, intranets and collaboration tools. As social media became a public domain, enterprises have been cautious participants, predominantly in the product space, with few visionary leaders like Zappos, IBM and Dell. But cautionary they are no more. With a reported average of 25% increase in funds allocation toward social media activities, in 2010 we will see a surge in adoption of social media across product, services and solutions companies.

Having the need and the funds, enterprises will determine the next generation of social experiences. They will push enhancements that meet their needs, specifically around monitoring, automation, alignment with the sales cycle and integration with existing systems, expanding social “media” to encompass the ecosystem of social computing across solutions, and making them actionable for the company. Jive, blueKiwi, Remindo and Sharepoint support companies internally. Most recently, Salesforce.com released Chatter, designed to turn the corporation, and CRM, social. With its APIs opening later this year, “Chatter can become a new layer over its Force platform, already being used by 68,000 customers, enabling companies and developers to leverage the Salesforce infrastructure in a secure environment,” said Bruce Francis, VP corporate strategy Salesforce.com.

The Influence Of Social Media Optimization On Search Marketing

Search marketing has always relied upon exposure in the search engines to drive targeted traffíc. For years, gaining that exposure was based solely upon the development of your site and generating links pointing to your site. Both are still important today. However, social media optimization has shifted the landscape of search marketing.

Google once maintained several disparate search platforms for blogs, videos, news, and similar types of “social” content. Each functioned as a separate search engine with its own set of organic listings.

A few years ago, Google blended the listings from each platform into a system called Universal Search. Bing and Yahoo have since incorporated similar systems. Universal Search is now used as the primary index. That means blogs, videos, and news have been incorporated into the natural listings, pushing many sites off the first page. This is one of the reasons social media optimization has become a critical piece of search.

Another factor that has influenced search marketing is the increased ranking authority given to Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and similar sites. These too, have quickly gained control of a significant amount of search territory.

Social media optimization preserves your current natural listings while helping you to gain even more search exposure. By using blogs, videos, and social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, you can capture a greater number of organic positions.

Your Social Media Optimization Campaign: Rules of Engagement

There are several rules of engagement for launching and executing a social media optimisation campaign. If you ignore them, your SMO efforts will be far less effective than otherwise.

First, you should do everything possible to encourage your audience to link to your site. Integrating a blog is valuable because your content can be updated over time, attracting loyal readers. Encourage readers to bookmark, tag and “Tweet” your blog posts by installing a button plug-in.

Second, link liberally as a resource for your visitors. Social media optimization is dependent on assisting others achieve what they’re trying to do. Once you engage your audience, help them find the resources they need by linking to them. Eventually, your site will become regarded as a resource hub, which will help you attract inbound links. That’s a vital component of SEO.

Third, you must be able to identify your market. Social media optimization relies upon the connections you establish with niche communities. You need to properly target them in order to engage them and generate content. This is true whether you’re engaging them through YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, or your blog.

Fourth, integrate tracking tools to measure and monitor the success of your social media optimization campaign. Track mentions of your site and company. Watch your site’s progress in the natural listings for your main keywords. Generate linking reports showing inbound links pointing to your domain and specific pages. Tracking your metrics is crucial in order to determine whether your SMO campaign is effective.

SEO Social Media Optimization Explained

Each of the elements of a social media optimization campaign that we have described thus far dovetail seamlessly with SEO. The ongoing content creation, tagging and bookmarking, attracting inbound links by being a resource for your audience – these are essential for pushing your website higher in the search engines’ listings. SEO social media optimization leverages a new set of tools to accomplish the same goal as SEO: more exposure for your site on Google, Yahoo, and Bing. The challenge is knowing how to use those tools effectively.

The days of launching a basic SEO campaign within a competitive space and watching your site rise in the search engines’ results are long gone. SEO has become far more complex than it was a few short years ago. This is why many companies have made the decision to hire an SEO consultant. Social media optimization has transformed SEO from a relatively straightforward strategy into a complicated science. Having an experienced hand at the wheel helps to navigate the uncertain terrain.

If you want to boost your exposure in the search engines’ listings, consider social media optimization a priority.

A feature Twitter test with businesses

For some time now, businesses of all sizes have been using Twitter to deepen their engagement with customers. The simple features that Twitter has offered to all users has worked for business users as well. As Twitter becomes more integral to businesses, they will need more business specific features from Twitter – both on the web and API. We have been working on some of these features and are ready to start a limited beta test of one that’s further along in development.

The feature we are beta testing is called ‘Contributors’ – it enables users to engage in more authentic conversations with businesses by allowing those organizations to manage multiple contributors to their account. The feature appends the contributor’s username to the tweet byline, making the business to consumer communication more personal; e.g. if @Twitter invites @Biz to tweet on its behalf, then a tweet from @Twitter would include @Biz in the byline so that users know more about the real people behind organizations.

Its functionality will be fully supported by the API and will enhance the many Twitter business apps, such as CoTweet and HootSuite.

It’s Not Ready For Prime Time

This feature is one of several in development; some of them will be visible to regular users and some of them will not. Our goal at this time is to get basic feedback from business users and ecosystem partners. The beta will be released to a limited subset of folks for some time so that we can get an idea of how the features work from a system perspective. After we kick the tires a bit, we’ll do a full launch to all business users and ecosystem partners. Stay tuned!

source: twitter blog

Creating High Quality Landing Pages For Adwords

Google Adwords can drive you crazy with its “secret formula” for favorable ad placement and impressions. “Do I have the right keywords?” “Maybe my ads aren’t eye catching.” Just when you think you’ve got the formula figured out, Google changes the rules. Here is a tip that will work no matter what…deliver what your ad promises. More than anything, Google wants you to help them create a positive experience for their users. Create a quality landing page that does that and you and Google Adwords will become very good friends.

 

Creating High Quality Landing Pages For Adwords

Too many Google Adwords marketers spend their time on keywords and ads, and leave the landing page out of the equation. Doing so can leave marketers scratching their heads when their cost per click remains high and conversions remain low. Despite all of the complicated theories about how to succeed with Google Adwords, it comes to this one fact: Google rewards or punishes its advertisers based on how well they solve the problem that Google’s searcher has. If your ad says “Learn Guitar In 2 Days” then the content on your landing page better have them playing like Eddie Van Halen within 48 hours. Anything short of that will, sooner or later, result in a Google “slap” where your impressions from Google Adwords are severely reduced or cut off altogether.

 

Here are some key elements of a good Google Adwords landing page:

1. Deliver on the promise of your ad – As I said before, this is the biggest key to success. If you solve the searcher’s problem/issue, you win. If your searcher clicks off of your page and begins another search, Google tracks it and penalizes you. Deliver on your promise and Google rewards you with lower cost per click and more impressions.
2. Make your page original – Unlike in the past, mass produced “replicated sites” no longer work. Google values giving their searchers unique and high quality information. Mass produced site, with their duplicate content, was watering down Google’s search results so they put an end to their use by penalizing advertisers that used them. Your landing page is your chance to “wow” your visitor. Make it count by making your landing page unique, novel and personal. Google will reward you for ending a search on your landing page by lowering your cost per click and increasing your number of impressions.
3. One page does not fit all – Your visitors decide in just a few seconds whether to stay on your site or click off. Be sure the top of your page matches the ad they clicked on. This is where, as good marketer, you can really excel. Maximize your conversions across all ads by creating a landing page for each ad. This mainly involves customizing the top portion of the page. The rest of the page can remain the same for all pages.
4. Get to the point – How long should your landing page be? Exactly as long as it takes to convey your message effectively. No more, no less. Grammar counts! Leave the misspellings and bad punctuation for the amateurs.
5. Have a goal in mind for your visitors – Are you trying to make a sale or get a lead? Have a goal in mind before creating your page and write your copy to lead them to that conclusion. Focus on one goal per page.
6. Increase conversions with a bonus – Everyone responds to “Free.” Adding a bonus to sweeten the deal will increase conversions. Information products work great and they don’t cost you anything.
7. Credibility counts – You are an experienced, successful business person. Your page should convey that. Graphics should augment your page copy, not compete with it. Leaving white space on your page is a good thing. Also, audio or video that launches when your visitor accesses the page is a big no-no. Your page should be welcoming without looking like a Vegas billboard.
8. Be trustworthy – Trust is a huge issue online. Anything you can do to be transparent is a plus. For example, are you a member of the Better Business Bureau? Put your member logo on your page! Same for site security certifications. Also, let your visitors know a little bit about you. Nothing really personal but you want your readers to feel like you are a real person.

This can seem like a lot to remember until you understand that all of these tips boil down to being a real and genuine person online. With billions of pages of content to wade through, people crave quality and trustworthy professionals to do business with. When you think about it, Google Adwords has set the bar very low for online marketers. Be a professional and deliver on your promise, the same as in any other kind of business. Just these two simple things will give you a huge advantage over the competition.

Link Building For Bing

It’s easy for businesses to get caught up in Google’s expectations for their sites, when trying to market through search. That’s certainly a wise thing to do, considering Google dominates the search market by a huge margin. Still, there are other search engines that people are using, and it is also wise to make sure your site is performing to the best of its ability in those too.

I’m obviously talking about Yahoo and Bing, but Yahoo’s share is declining, while Bing’s is gaining. Furthermore, if the deal between Microsoft and Yahoo goes through, Bing search will be talking over Yahoo anyway.

We don’t hear as much about what Bing wants out of a site for rankings, but Rick DeJarnette of Bing Webmaster Center has shared some dos and don’ts of link-building for Bing. Not surprisingly, a lot of his advice for honoring Bing’s policy, does not differ too much from advice that Google would give you. It is, however, still always nice to see how they feel, just to clear up any possible confusion.

Link Building For Bing

Like Google, Bing places great emphasis on quality links to determine its rankings. “Just don’t make the mistake of believing it will result in instant gratification. Successful link building efforts require a long-term commitment, not an overnight or turnkey solution,” says DeJarnette. “You need to continually invest in link building efforts with creativity and time.”

What Not To Do

DeJarnette shared a list of things that you should avoid in your link building efforts, if it is a good Bing ranking that you are after. Here is what Bing says will get your site reviewed more closely by staff:

1. The number of inbound links suddenly increases by orders of magnitude in a short period of time

2. Many inbound links coming from irrelevant blog comments and/or from unrelated sites

3. Using hidden links in your pages

4. Receiving inbound links from paid link farms, link exchanges, or known “bad neighborhoods” on the Web

5. Linking out to known web spam sites

“When probable manipulation is detected, a spam rank factor is applied to a site, depending upon the type and severity of the infraction,” says DeJarnette. “If the spam rating is high, a site can be penalized with a lowered rank. If the violations are egregious, a site can be temporarily or even permanently purged from the index.”

What To Do

DeJarnette also shared some tips for getting more quality links. Following are Bing’s tips for effective link building (paraphrased):

1. Develop your site as a business brand and brand it consistently

2. Find relevant industry experts, product reviewers, bloggers, and media folk, and make sure they’re aware of your site/content

3. Publish concise, informative press releases online

4. Publish expert articles to online article directories

5. Participate in relevant conversations on blogs/forums, referring back to your site’s content when applicable

6. Use social networks to connect to industry influencers (make sure you have links to your site in your profiles)

7. Create an email newsletter with notifications of new content

8. Launch a blog/forum on your site

9. Participate in relevant industry associations and especially in their online forums

10. Strive to become a trusted expert voice for your industry, while promoting your site

Most of the stuff DeJarnette shared is nothing any savvy search marketer is not already aware of. That said, there are clearly plenty of online (and offline for that matter) businesses out there that don’t have savvy search marketers on the payroll. It can be quite helpful when a search engine itself lays out what to do and what not to do to help webmasters get better rankings.

Source WebProNews

The Importance Of Long Tail Key Phrases

The long tail of search demand has been around since the dawn of web search and, since that time, search marketers have been attempting to tap into the powerful stream that high quantities of unique content can provide. I recently came across some great data from Hitwise (about 1 year old, but still highly relevant) showing off just how substantive the long tail can be. Bill Tancer’s post – Sizing Up the Long Tail – gives some stats:

…the head and body together only account for 3.25% of all search traffic! In fact, the top terms don’t account for much traffic:

• Top 100 terms: 5.7% of the all search traffic
• Top 500 terms: 8.9% of the all search traffic
• Top 1,000 terms: 10.6% of the all search traffic
• Top 10,000 terms: 18.5% of the all search traffic

This means if you had a monopoly over the top 1,000 search terms across all search engines (which is impossible), you’d still be missing out on 89.4% of all search traffic. There’s so much traffic in the tail it is hard to even comprehend. To illustrate, if search were represented by a tiny lizard with a one-inch head, the tail of that lizard would stretch for 221 miles.

Illustrating the Long Tail

Top 10,000 Search Terms by Percentage of All Search Traffic

The truth is my research is still greatly understating the true size of the tail because:
• The Hitwise sample contains 10 million U.S. Internet users and a complete data set would uncover much larger portions of the long tail.
• The data set I used filtered out adult searches.
• I only looked at 3-months worth of data (which were some of the slower months for search engines).

To help put this in perspective, I made a few spiffy charts that can help to illustrate these points:

Long Tail Search Traffic Distribution

In this first chart, you can see a representation of Hitwise’s data from the four chunks Bill broke down.

The Search Demand Curve

In this next representation, I’m showing the classic “long tail” style curve, but color-coded to help show the various areas of keyword demand. Note that you could conceptually say that the 9,000 of the top 10,000 terms should technically fit into the chunky middle. Bill classified them thusly in his post, but I tend to think that at those demand levels, we’re still talking about “head” of the curve figures.

The Search Demand

For both of these graphics, there’s a large, high-res version available by clicking the chart. You can find lots, lots more on our Free Charts page.

Source: SEOMoz