Twitter and Fox on the Fringe

Not sure what you should do with Twitter? Are you hearing that it’s the most important breakthrough since breathing but not sure how to take advantage of it? Well, you may need to stop listening to everyone and think a bit outside the box like Fox is doing to inject some new life into a [...]

We’re in Yur Internets, Lookin 4 Yur Tax Fraud

Yet another reason to be careful what you say online: the tax man cometh, and he’s totally reading your MySpace. According to the Wall Street Journal, state tax revenue agents have begun checking social media profiles and announcements to make sure their citizens are staying honest. The WSJ gives multiple examples from around the country: In [...]

Radically Transparent Now Available on Amazon’s Kindle!

The words “about time” come to mind, but better late than never: Radically Transparent is now available for the Kindle! It’s been 18 months since the original print edition was published and today Radically Transparent is still the most comprehensive guide to online reputation management out there! Actually, it’s the only one out there! If [...]

BIGLIST Search Marketing Blog Reviews 083109

This week I’ll try something a little different with our BIGLIST of online marketing blogs reviews and share a screen shot of the week’s best looking SEO blog to be added. That honor goes to Mikkel deMib Svendsen who’s been blogging for a very long time, except it’s been mostly in Danish! Recently, Mikkel decided to launch a [...]

Bing Cashback Goes Big

Admit it: when you first heard about Microsoft Live’s cashback promotion, you thought it was a kooky idea that wouldn’t last long. Announced in May 2008, the program offered to share revenue from Microsoft’s shopping partners with you, the buyer. At the time, we said it sounded like a last-ditch attempt to buy our loyalty. [...]

What Happens When Google Employees Are, in Fact, Evil?

Here’s something that Google might want to nip in the bud, before it becomes true via urban legend. Over at the Google Webmaster Help forum we get an unsubstantiated claim that an ex-Google employee has turned evil: Around May I discovered another competitors site recent appearance that looked very similar to mine, in fact even the sentences [...]

Why Hulu Could Kill LOST, Heroes, House, SNL & Family Guy

There’s just one problem with the chart below: If correct, cable companies are likely losing millions of subscribers that are instead getting their TV fix from online sources, such as Hulu. The problem? Online TV watching doesn’t generate anywhere near the revenue of cable programming. If we all switch to watching TV via Hula et al, what [...]

Wolfram|Alpha’s API Deal with Bing.com the First of Many?

I given Wolfram|Alpha a hard time, but I think the service might be on the brink of finding its calling in life. After the highly speculated–but widely accepted as accurate–deal with Bing, it now appears Wolfram|Alpha will open up an API and become the provider to a host of data mashups. At the moment, Alpha generates [...]

Twitter Conferences Are In

As part of the Internet marketing industry have you done the conference circuit? Have you been to SES, SMX (put cardinal direction here), Adtech, PubCon etc, etc? On a yearly basis how many of these trips can you justify or get away with? Well, with shrinking budgets everywhere now you have to add the new [...]

Cup of Joe: The Fact of The Matter Is, I am Pretty Drunk Right Now

Toby Jones is a serial entrepreneur that understands successful small business tactics that have given him a competitive edge more than once. This man has the pulse of the people under his finger at all times. To put it simply, he is one with his market. He understands small business tactics so well that he [...]

Boy, We Watch a Boat Load of Video

Of course everyone knows that Americans watch a lot of video. Why not, right? We spend a lot of time online and we like to make excuses to not exercise. It’s the perfect storm for YouTube and Hulu and the rest of the video distribution sites of the world. It is somewhat amazing though to [...]

Wireless Industry Target of FCC Probe

Imagine this. You are in the wireless industry and you are on the verge of actually fulfilling all of the prophecies about your industry being the future of the Internet and communications in general. The smart phone is now becoming more the norm and the introduction of the iPhone has moved the growth along at [...]

Google Docs Adds Translation

Google continues to work on its machine translation—both the quality of the translations and the number of their products using it. In the last year, they’ve added translation to the Google Toolbar and Google Reader, and now Google Docs joins the translating fold. To translate a document into one of the 42 offered languages, open it [...]

Local Listings Come to Google Street View

Google Maps uses has two features that have lived side by side for a while: local business listings and Street View. Although Google Maps would let you click through to Street View from a local business (or any address) listing, if you were searching for a business, the interface might make you jump back and [...]

Learn SEO, Social Media & Digital PR from TopRank

There are many ways for company marketers to advance their knowledge in the digital marketing and PR space. A big part of TopRank’s consulting services are to provide clients with education so they can better implement recommendations and promote the advantages of SEO, Social Media and Optimized PR in house. We’re also active participants towards [...]

Seriously, Do Teens Tweet?

Yesterday, we went in search of Twittering teens, after the NYT couldn’t find any. Time and again we’ve heard statistics tell us that teens don’t tweet—or do they? The Silicon Alley Insider took a look at comScore’s recent numbers and charted them. The chart says it “measures unique visitors relative to their presence on the Web [...]

Facebook Caves on Canadian Privacy Complaints

O Canada, the home and native land of extremely threatening privacy watchdogs. Hm? What’s that? Canadians aren’t scary, they’re actually friendly and accommodating? Well, yes, that’s been my experience, but that can’t be the case now. You see, Facebook usually kicks and screams like a two-year-old rather than change its policies. But when the world’s [...]

Google and Loch Ness ……. Perfect Together

We are winding down summer and it appears as if all of the newsmakers have gone on holiday or vacation or whatever you call it in your part of the world. So in order to keep you informed of the most important developments we have scoured the globe and found that Google Earth may unearthed [...]

Google to Offer Mortgage Quotes

Maybe this is the sign that we all needed to really feel that the momentum in the economy has shifted? According to a suit filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina Google may be entering the mortgage quoting business. While Google itself is not part of the suit, [...]

Google Certified Ad Networks Coming to AdSense

AdSense publishers listen-up! Google just knocked down the walled garden and you’ll soon see ads from other ad networks competing for your AdSense ad space. The video below explains the change and the email to all AdSense publishers is copied below that. Hi, We’re writing to let you know about an upcoming update in your AdSense account designed [...]

YouTube Partnership Program Expands

SEO Copywriting On The Road: Strange Scenes Inside The Wizard Academy

“Easy reading is damn hard writing,” opened chancellor Roy Williams at last week’s Wizard of Ads training seminar, ’12 Languages of The Mind.’ Never is this quote from Nigel Hawthorne (not Nathaniel Hawthorne, as it’s commonly credited to, per Williams) more apt than when you are a writer of any trade struggling to find that opening [...]

Yahoo Gettin’ Facebook-y (Really This Time)

Last January, Yahoo first unveiled its plans to bring social networking into their email inbox. Now, over eighteen months and one new CEO later, it looks like those plans are finally ready to roll out. In changes that bear an eerie resemblance to the most popular social network in the world, Yahoo is bringing your friends’ [...]

What Do the Big Names Read? Google Will Tell You

Ever wonder what exactly some of the biggest names in most anything read? Are they looking somewhere that we are not and that’s how they got big? While you may not have thought about it, now that you are thinking along those lines it might interesting to see just what these folks do keep up [...]

Warning: Evil Twitter Pop-up Could Hack Your Account

If you ever see a Twitter pop-up message that looks like the following: RUN! Close down your browser, turn off your computer, do not pass "Go", do not collect $200! Why such panic? Because, if you ever see a pop-up similar to that above, it may not be as innocuous as the one created by the guys [...]

AstroTurfing the App Store [UPDATED]

The last time I criticized AstroTurfing, I caught a surprising amount of flak. <sarcasm> I guess honesty and integrity are overrated these days anyway, so I’m updating my morals to get with the times—and to applaud Reverb Communications, a PR firm that’s also gotten with the times by having its interns positively rate clients’ apps [...]

The Hunt for Teens Who Tweet (or not)

While the subject is often debated, there is mounting evidence that the Internet community’s desire to pin the label of ‘early adopter’ for new technology advances on the youngest users may be misguided. Earlier this month we asked the question as to whether teens use Twitter and it looks like the answer is, for the [...]

Is Sentiment Analysis Reliable?

The New York Times takes a look at the developments in automated sentiment analysis. I was intrigued by one company’s analogy: “This is a canary in a coal mine for us,” said John Whelan, StubHub’s director of customer service. Which is about where I stand on automated sentiment analysis: it’s a blunt tool at best that’s still [...]

Social Media Gives Execs the Willies

The Center for Media Research has reported on a paper that reaches the conclusions that executives in many companies are worried about social media in some form or another. If it’s not how employees are wasting valuable company time as a result of their Twitter and / or Facebook fetishes (51%) it is about how [...]

Over 80% of Americans Use Social Media Monthly

A new report from Forrester Research, “The Broad Reach of Social Technologies,” takes a look at the growth of social over the last three years. And guess what? It’s growing! The demographic data follows the trend we see overall—younger people are more heavily involved, but over-35s and over-55s are becoming more and more active in social [...]

Yahoo of Arabia

Well, no one can accuse Yahoo of sitting back and waiting for the Microhoo deal to get underway. Instead the soon to be social media destination (or is it already, I can’t tell) is increasing its reach and social media footprint into the Arabic world with the purchase of Arabic social media site Maktoob. You’ve never [...]

Bing’s Not the Thing Worldwide (And Yahoo Even Worse)

Microsoft rebranded and relaunched its search decision engine yet again in June with Bing. Since then, their marking onslaught has paid off a bit, with ever-increasing paid clicks and traffic. But that news may be a little one-sided. TechCrunch reports on comScore’s global search numbers—and it’s not all roses for Bing. Their global numbers are actually [...]

Switzerland’s Concerned Google’s Street View Invades Privacy of Tax Evaders Citizens

While Google’s Street View is mostly well received, there are still plenty of groups and countries that claim it’s an invasion of privacy. You can add Switzerland to that list. Poor Switzerland. It’s bad enough that it can no longer promise US tax evaders customers complete anonymity, now there’s a chance the faces of those customers–and Swiss [...]

Yahoo’s Testing a New Search Interface…Bing’s Interface Actually

It’s not really a secret that Yahoo has given up on search. If handing the keys to the car over to Microsoft didn’t give it away, then the next step would be to run TV ads saying “We’ve! Given! Up! on Search!”–yeah, complete with those annoying exclamation marks, Yahoo! likes! to! use! So, Yahoo really isn’t [...]

Interview with Andy Beal: Reputation Management in 2009

You’ve probably noticed a trend in 2009: I’ve mostly kept a low profile when it comes to speaking and interviews. After blitzing the launch of my book Radically Transparent, I’ve taken a bit of a hiatus in 2009–mostly to give you all a break! But also to focus on Trackur. Anyway, I’m slowly ramping back-up [...]

5 Tools for Your Digital PR Toolbox

The transition from old to new technology creates both challenges and opportunities for communications professions.  The field of public relations is directly tied to the publishing industry which of course, is directly connected to business and consumer information discovery and consumption.  The migration from offline to online has left these industries in a state of [...]

AstroTurfing the App Store

The last time I criticized AstroTurfing, I caught a surprising amount of flak. <sarcasm> I guess honesty and integrity are overrated these days anyway, so I’m updating my morals to get with the times—and to applaud Reverb Communications, a PR firm that’s also gotten with the times by having its interns positively rate clients’ apps [...]

Yahoo Beats Google–Is It Enough?

Apparently someone clued the NYT in to the fact that Yahoo Finance is pretty popular. In fact, Yahoo Finance has been the #1 finance site for over a year and a half, while Google Finance languishes at #17 (”one slot above a site called FreePressRelease.com,” the NYT points out). The Times looks at all the various [...]

NYT iPhone App Gets New Intrusive Ads! Woo-hoo!

We all know the newspaper industry is taking it on the chin as of late. It probably will be for the foreseeable future as well. As a side note, in my local paper (Raleigh’s News & Observer) this weekend, one staff writer went so far as to write about an ailment he has and how [...]

NYT iPhone App Gets New Intrusive Ads! Woo hoo!

We all know the newspaper industry is taking it on the chin as of late. It probably will be for the foreseeable future as well. As a side note, in my local paper (Raleigh’s News & Observer) this weekend, one staff writer went so far as to write about an ailment he has and how [...]

Attention Engineers: Facebook is Hiring!

While we continue to slog our way through the economy (is it getting better, staying the same or worse?) there are a few companies that are defying the general downward trends. Apple’s iPhone has let them weather the storm quite nicely. Apparently, Facebook is doing quite fine as well. In fact, they appear to be [...]

“Skank” Blogger Suing Google for $15M for Breach of Anonymity

I’m somewhat blown away by the hypocrisy of Rosemary Port–the blogger uncovered as the author of Skanks in NYC. What’s your reaction to this statement by Port: "…Without any warning, I was put on a silver platter for the press to attack me. I would think that [Google] would protect the rights of all its users." We’ll [...]

Why Sentiment Analysis is About as Reliable as a Canary in a Coal Mine

The New York Times takes a look at the developments in automated sentiment analysis. I was intrigued by one company’s analogy: “This is a canary in a coal mine for us,” said John Whelan, StubHub’s director of customer service. Which is about where I stand on automated sentiment analysis: it’s a blunt tool at best that’s still [...]

Cup of Joe: Personal Branding is for Self Serving Egotistical Maniacs

About a week ago I asked Andy if I could be Marketing Pilgrim’s version of Paul Carr. He said “You can do a weekly editorial as long as you keep it clean.” I thought, “keep it clean? Well, I can try!” So, I put away my dirty magazines, grabbed a cup of coffee to sober [...]

Facebook Gift Shop to Open to Developers, Sell Physical Goods

We’ve all seen Facebook’s virtual gift shop: for little to no money, you can send a friend a “gift”—an image to display on his/her profile. Though it often features deals and promotions with other brands, the gift shop app is owned and run by Facebook. But now the gift shop will be testing with developers [...]

Twitter: Bringing Down Hollywood Hype Machine?

Technology is speeding up our lives and our communications. And sometimes that’s a bad thing—you can’t float a check for a few days anymore, for example (allegedly, anyway. Who writes checks these days?). And now, Hollywood fears, you can’t overcome a crappy movie with a marketing blitz long enough to make it big at the [...]

Wolfram|Alpha’s Traffic Drops 82% Since Launch

Here’s what Wolfram|Alpha said about changes it’s made since its launch: Let me sum up what really matters:

Social Media Marketing Basics: Facebook & Blog Promotion

As companies grow their confidence and familiarity with the social web, there’s a bit of a mental hurlde they pass in accepting that it makes sense for their organization. It’s not unlike 10 years ago when companies finally started to “get” the need for a company web site.  And just like a web site, [...]

Twitter to Go Commercial with Commercial Accounts

Since Twitter is getting itself back in the industry news with trademark travesties, DDoS attacks and some sideways competitive compliments it makes sense that the conversation turn to the R word: revenue. No matter how much news Twitter generates the focus always returns to, and rightly so, how they plan to make money with the service. [...]

Twitter Works to Improve Location ID Service

According to a post on the Twitter blog there is some new activity around location capabilities of the service. At this point, the location information offered within the Twitter tool itself and the data that is supplied through an API, is spotty at best. Anytime you leave the data generation duties to the end user [...]

Microsoft & Yahoo Part of Coalition to Ruin Google’s Book Deal

First a quick history lesson. Google launches Google Print. The Authors Guild sues Google. Google reaches an agreement with the Authors Guild. The US Government takes a look, then takes another look. Got all that? OK, so now a "coalition" has been formed to make sure that the DoJ’s antitrust investigation gets all the "facts" that it [...]

Smaller Ads Work Better Online

In a study released today by advertising research firm Dynamic Logic, research shows that bigger isn’t always better in online advertising. In fact, page-framing ads, like leaderboards and skyscrapers, were less effective than “half banners” (234 x 60) and rectangles (180 x 150). However, the most important factor influencing ad effectiveness is the creative quality [...]

Dear Twitter, We Want to Be You. Love, Yahoo

Let’s face it—everyone wants to be popular, at least when it comes to business. And these days, you can’t deny Twitter is popular (or at least it sounds popular with all the media attention it’s getting—though that may be about to change). So you can’t really blame other companies for a little envy. Especially when that [...]

Twitter Twits’ “Tweet” Trademark Travesty

I love Twitter. I’ve also personally met co-founder Biz Stone, and he’s a great guy. That said, it does appear that they’ve strayed from their normal play book and are instead reading from the lesser-known Clue(less) Train Manifesto. If bad news comes in threes, let’s hope that the recent DDoS attack, directional blindness, and today’s trademark [...]

Google Does What’s “Pono”, Adds Hawaiian to Search Engine Languages

Sometimes I cheat on you. I’m sorry. You see, I don’t always live and breathe search, social, and reputation. I’m also passionate about Hawaii and, well, I cheat on you by moonlighting as the photographer for GoVisitHawaii.com. Well, today I get to blend my two favorite topics thanks to news that you can now get Google [...]

Video Ads in Your Printed Magazine

In a move that can be considered either brilliant or desperate at the same time, readers of Entertainment Weekly magazine (you know the one that has paper and that ink stuff ) will get an actual video ad in their magazine. This isn’t the Daily Prophet that Harry Potter and his ilk read but it [...]

Must …. Watch …. More …. YouTube …. Videos….

Are you a YouTube junkie? Apparently there are a lot of them out there. According to a Wall Street Journal Digits article and comScore there over 100 million YouTube users in the US that average watching 68 videos per month. Wow. I certainly keep that average down but I suppose watching just over 2 videos [...]

MySpace Likes iLike Enough to Buy It

It was announced today the MySpace will be acquiring iLike for an undisclosed amount. MySpace’s press release makes everyone out to be giddy about the acquisition which is what one might expect. According to cnet though there was some underlying suspicion that iLike was purchased on the cheap. No terms of the deal were disclosed, but [...]

Microsoft and Advance Internet Team Up

Microsoft is certainly determined to at least make life a little less sunny for their buddies in Mountain View (that’s Google). Of course, we are all familiar with the badda bing! impact of Microsoft’s re-entry into the search game. That was followed up by the successful unification of two of the search engine world’s biggest [...]

Twitter Execs Clueless?

Let’s say you own the most popular microblogging service on the Internet. Let’s say you want to grow that service and make it more valuable to your users (and maybe make money. You wouldn’t complain.). So you’re going to feature third party apps, but you want to feature the best ones. And naturally, to find the [...]

17 Ways to Stay Current with Search Marketing

Over the past few weeks TopRank has been conducting it’s own search of sorts, for a Senior Search Marketing Manager as well as a Search Marketing Strategist. One of the questions we ask is, “How do you stay current with tactics and strategies in the SEM space?”.  It’s a good question both for hiring agencies [...]

Ad Position Doesn’t Affect Conversion

Believe it or not, Google has come out with new data to indicate that ad position doesn’t affect conversation rates for a single ad. Google’s Chief Economist, Hal Varian, posted his team’s research at the Inside AdWords blog. While there are several caveats (such as the fact that they had to rely on average position, instead [...]

Landmark Ruling: Judge Orders Google to Hand Over Identity of Anonymous Blogger

As an online reputation management consultant, I often find myself on both sides of the fence. Sure, I help a lot of companies and individuals with their reputation needs, but I also study and comment on the effectiveness of the different methods and tactics open to a brand’s detractors. A new court ruling provides the perfect [...]

16 Ways to Stay Current with Search Engine Marketing

Over the past few weeks TopRank has been conducting it’s own search of sorts, for a Senior Search Marketing Manager as well as a Search Marketing Strategist. One of the questions we ask is, “How do you stay current with tactics and strategies in the SEM space?”.  It’s a good question both for hiring agencies [...]

Four Minutes of Video Awesomeness: Is Social Media a Fad?

If you’re going to produce a viral video packed with stunning facts, then the secret to its success is to use Fatboy Slim’s "Right Here, Right Now" as the theme song–I’ve lost track of the number of videos that use that track. Still, that doesn’t stop this video from being any less fascinating than the many [...]

Making the Case for Social Media: A Roadmap

Earlier this summer I gave a presentation in Minneapolis at a ClickZ OMS event on building a social media roadmap with tips on blog marketing and using Twitter. It’s all very introductory if you work in the social media space, but if not, serves as a useful introduction for those that need to make a [...]

Life Before Bing: Google Most Satisfying

In a survey conducted before Bing launched, Google was the most satisfying search engine, according to Search Engine Land. The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) E-Business report, conducted by the University of Michigan, is funded by Foresee Results. Out of a perfect 100, Google scored 86 on the satisfaction index, scored on several criteria about the [...]

Facebook Privacy: California, Canada Concerned

Facebook is gearing up to face off with the government again—this time over privacy concerns in two different venues: the California courts and a Canadian commission. In California, five users are suing Facebook for disclosing their information to third parties for commercial purposes, without the users’ permission. The plaintiffs are two children under the age of [...]

Musician Continues to Teach United Airlines a Reputation Management Lesson

It seems Dave Carroll is not done teaching United Airlines a lesson or two on the consequences of poor customer service. As a follow-up to his viral hit United Breaks Guitars, Carroll has released a new video: Really, the damage was done with the posting of the first video and United has learned enough from this [...]

If Google’s Free WiFi Is So Successful, Why Hasn’t It Spread Nationally?

Can you believe it’s been 3 years since Google first offered free WiFi to Mountain View, CA residents? I remember thinking, "It won’t be long before Google offers free WiFi all around the country!" I’m still waiting. Maybe I should move to Mountain View, because it appears the Google-sponsored free WiFi is a roaring success–with 19,000 users [...]

Google Knows What You’ll Search For–12 Months From Now

Google knows what you’re going to be searching for in 12 months from now! OK, maybe not all the things you’ll Google–it can’t predict the next celebrity scandal or social media phenom–but, for general search queries, it knows all about you. In a new white paper just released, Google reveals how its working to predict future [...]

Why Katy Perry Can Predict Search Share Better than Nielsen & comScore

Cause you’re hot then you’re cold You’re yes then you’re no You’re in and you’re out You’re up and you’re down I think perhaps Katy Perry should get out of the music business and get into the world of search engine metrics. I suggest this because she hits the nail on the head, when it comes [...]

MySpace to Acquire iLike?

TechCrunch reports that multiple credible sources have confirmed that MySpace, the first social network to garner the hype (then hatred) of the media mind, is fighting its way out of stagnation with a possible acquisition of music-social site iLike. TC lists the price tag as $20 million for the first acquisition since Owen Van Natta [...]

Twitter Putting the Kibosh on Pay for Followers Services?

Would you pay for more followers on Twitter? Apparently some people would—a few providers have found a way to monetize the popular microblogging site with selling more followers. uSocial is one such service. For a mere $87, you can get 1000 new Twitter followers. uSocial made headlines recently when they claimed that Michael Jackson’s family bought [...]

Thoughts on White Hat Black Hat Social Media

SES San Jose is done and I mean done for good. The recent conference finished up last Thursday (with post conference training on Friday) and next year, SES will return to its roots in San Francisco. I think this is a great move for many reasons, but more about that later. During SES  I presented a [...]

No, Google Didn’t Lose Searches to Yahoo. Check the Math…

If we all based trends on one month’s data, from a single research company, we would have been out of the longest recession in 80 years already. Instead, economists know that we need to see a trend that covers many months, with many data points pointing the same way. I’m not an economist, but even I [...]

Gmail Now Third Largest Email Service in US

Gmail is officially out of beta and it’s enjoying being all grown up, thank you very much. Maybe it just needed to have its training wheels taken off so it could really get moving but we all know that the beta label was just that; a label. Since its introduction over 6 years ago Gmail [...]

SES SJ: Day 1 in Images

Check out photos from Day 1 of SES San Jose 2009.             Subscribe to this Feed © Online Marketing Blog, 2009. | SES SJ: Day 1 in Images | No comment | http://www.toprankblog.com

Twitter Goes Down for 2nd Time in a Week

UPDATE: Twitter’s back online–just a 25 minute outage. Phew! No, it’s not just your internet connection, Twitter is down again (as of 3:00pm ET). Let’s hope it’s not another DDoS attack.

16 Rules For Social Media Optimization Revisited

Guidelines for marketing with social media aren’t all that new. In 2006 five members of the digital marketing community collaborated on 16 rules for “social media optimization”. Fast forward to nearly 2010 and social media has begun to take a more significant role in the marketing mix. The original “rules” were posted by: Rohit Bhargava [...]

Viral Video & Social Media Marketing Up

A survey from Association of National Advertisers (ANA), BtoB Magazine and ‘mktg’ indicates that marketers are turning to viral videos and social media marketing more and more, despite continued reservations. Two-thirds of marketers surveyed said they were using SMM, up from only 20% of marketers in the 2007 survey. The most popular social sites for [...]

26 Top Search Marketing Blogs By RSS Subscribers

Remember the Grinch? “Noise, noise, noise!”  Many marketers feel the same way about the plethora of search marketing blogs. We’ve been managing a list of over 500 search marketing blogs (BIGLIST) for the past 3+ years and know a little something about the category. SEO blog reviews are helpful, but some people want a qualifyer [...]

Shopping Down, But Online Research Up

Econsultancy has the results of a survey by Channel Advisor (PDF) on online shopping in the US. The semi-annual survey shows that online shopping is down overall—but there is some good news for the Internet. Spending online shopping is down overall, with fewer people reporting monthly purchases of over $76 (down by 9% to 25%), and [...]

TopRank SES San Jose 2009 Wrap Up – Puzzle Solved

Search Engine Strategies San Jose 2009 turned out to be an energetic week of presentations, networking and positivity for the search marketing industry. The puzzle that is the ever-changing search marketing industry was brought closer to a solution through sessions on SEO, PPC, Social Media, Analytics and many other digital marketing tactics. To tap into that [...]

Facebook Emerging as Social Media of Choice for UK Younger Set

Everyone wants to figure out who has this social media thing figured out. One of the things that gets attention in a hyper covered area like social media is saying something contrary to what appears to be the conventional wisdom. In the UK, we have heard from 15 year ‘analysts’ and now we hear from [...]

Social Media Interview: Lee Aase of Mayo Clinic

Social Media Smarts: Interview with Lee Aase, Social Media Manager at Mayo Clinic By day, Lee Aase is manager of syndication and social media for Mayo Clinic and by night, he is chancellor of Social Media University, Global (SMUG). I first met Lee at a media relations conference in San Francisco a few years ago. [...]

Answers to Social Media Questions You Should Know

In the course of providing consulting services and conducting training programs for companies on social media marketing & PR or a combination of SEO and social media, there are some common questions that have come up. I thought it might be useful for readers if I documented a few of them here along with answers. “If [...]

SES SJ: How To Optimize For Search & Engage The Community

Most people start with Google when they search for information, but increasingly users look to niche-specific engines like YouTube search when seeking entertainment.  Search engine marketers, digital media producers and entrepreneurs must create unique, relevant content that stands out if they hope to gain popularity in the Internet community.  Optimizing for search while engaging the [...]

SES SJ: White Hat Vs. Black Hat Social Media

Black hat techniques have long been criticized in search marketing. Some claim that these black hat practices have quietly been practiced in social media for years.  Others claim that black hat and white hat are meaningless terms altogether. With the rise in popularity of social media among larger audiences, the idea of black hat practices [...]

SES SJ: Charlene Li Keynote – Preparing For The Future Of Search

Charlene Li is co-author of the business best-seller, Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies and gave the keynote on day 3 of SES San Jose.  She spoke on the intersection of search and social and discussed how to prepare for the future of search.  Read on for the highlights of her presentation: How [...]

Facebook Search Improves

One of the more difficult aspects of Facebook up until yesterday was the search capability on the site. Yesterday was a busy day at Facebook as the “FaceFeed” acquisition was put in motion .Under the radar of sorts was this announcement about improvements made in the search capabilities that helps heavy Facebook users considerably and, [...]

Twitter: It’s All Downhill from Here

If you’re a visual learner, I have great news: the technology equivalent of Hot or Not is available in graph form. Research firm Gartner Inc has published the 2009 Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, with a handy graphic detailing the hype cycle and 79 technology trends and topics on the curve. The “Hype Cycle” illustrates the [...]

BIGLIST Marketing Blog Reviews Summer Edition 073109

Here in Minnesota it’s been a roller coaster summer with hot smacking up against cold in the blink of an eye. The irony of that observation is that our BIGLIST of online marketing blogs has been cold for about 4 months, but just like a Minnesota summer, we’re going to smack that BIGLIST with some [...]

Unlocking the Puzzle: TopRank SES San Jose Blogging Schedule

Can’t make it to Search Engine Strategies (SES) San Jose 2009, yet want to stay on top of the largest and longest running conference dedicated to Search Marketing?  Never fear, Online Marketing Blog readers won’t miss a thing.  Jolina Pettice and Adam Singer from TopRank Online Marketing will be putting the pieces together for you [...]

SES SJ: Clay Shirky Keynote

Clay Shirky, Author of Here Comes Everybody, kicks off SES San Jose 2009 as today’s keynote speaker. He dives right in and shares a story about HSBC, which  launched a program to acquire new accounts from college students. In doing so,  some less-than-great details about the program like extra fees started to enraged those who had [...]

SES SJ: Igniting Viral Campaigns: Leveraging Consumer-Generated Content

Being somewhat of a fan of buzz marketing, day two starts with a panel I’ve personally been looking forward to.  Igniting Viral Campaigns:  Leveraging Consumer-Generated Content promises to unveil the “secret techniques” and technologies that enable companies to stand out and be talked about through a viral word of mouth buzz. Aaron Kahlow, Chairman & Founder, [...]

SES SJ: Beyond Googling: Where will Customers be Searching in 5 years?

Beyond Google. Where will customers be searching in 5 years? Dixon Jones of Receptional asks the audience: Who doubts life after Google? About half the audience raises their hand. According to Dixon, there will be life after Google and we are already there. He cites Facebook as an example of a site that is growing links more [...]

SES SJ: Google on Converting Visitors To Customers

Nitin Mangtani, Lead Product Manager at Google presented a sponsored session on converting your visitors to customers, specifically through the use of internal site searches. Businesses spend a tremendous amount of time, resources, and capital on website development and online marketing initiatives.  Getting people to a site is a challenge in itself, but another key aspect [...]

SES SJ: Duplicate Content & Multiple Site Issues

It was standing room only for the SES San Jose session regarding Duplicate Content & Multiple Site Issues. Shari Thurow of Omni Marketing started the session off by addressing why duplicate content is a concern. When there are duplicate content issues it lowers the number of pages available to rank. Less pages to rank can equal less [...]

SES SJ: SEO Through Blogs And Feeds

You’ve heard the stories from the tech echo chamber. Posts proclaiming blogging dead and RSS too slow have been circulating around the web for the last year or so.  And yet the blogosphere remains alive and kicking, despite the early adopter pontification. Not yet running a blog or syndicating your content through RSS feeds?  Your [...]

Google Gadgets Go Down Under

Google has given the good folks who use their Australian engine some social networking features that come with a gaggle of Google gadgets. Looks like the only way to get the social networking aspects of the gadgets is to be putting your shrimp on the barbie. Smart Company tells us The new gadgets include the “Updates” [...]

Grab One of a Million Free Copies of Victor Cheng’s “The Recession-Proof Business” Book

OK, you know the normal drill. A quick book review and you leave a comment for a chance to win one of three copies. Well, scrap that! We can do better! I spoke to Victor Cheng about giving away three copies of The Recession-Proof Business and he had a better idea. How about giving away 1 million [...]

Facebook Lite Gets Premature Introduction

Depending on who you listen to the Facebook Lite offering that was inadvertently sent to many Facebook users is everything from a direct frontal assault on Twitter to a speed enhancer. Since this product was not even supposed to be released as it was it may not really matter what it really is because it’s [...]

SES SJ: Turning The Social Web Into Real ROI

Day one of SES continues with the hot topic of turning the social web into real ROI.  Everyone knows the social web is essential to how we live our lives and stay connected, but many marketers aren’t finding returns on their ad spends. Tim Kendall, Director of Monetization for Facebook moderates this heated session with speakers [...]

Yahoo To See Talent Exodus?

Yesterday’s announcement that Doug Cutting was leaving Yahoo for start-up Cloudera was big news considering how important he was to establishing the Yahoo search business. It seems that the thrill is gone for him at the new and improved Yahoo. Cutting’s departure was covered yesterday by the New York Times and then expanded on a [...]

RockMelt: the Next Netscape? (And Do They Want to Be?)

Remember Netscape? Come on, you know you do. If you were online before 2000, you probably remember the erstwhile most-popular web browser, the predecessor of Internet Explorer, and ancestor of Firefox. The original Internet success story, Netscape went public before making a profit, then doubled its revenues every quarter in 1995. In the mid-90s, they [...]

Google Caffeine Test Suggests Too Much Emphasis on Real-Time Indexing

Google has gone ahead and done what search marketers could only have previously dreamed about: given us an advance preview of search engine update "Caffeine." Announced at the Webmaster Central Blog, Caffeine is "a secret project: a next-generation architecture for Google’s web search." Ooh, how exciting! While the official announcement warns not to expect any obvious [...]

Is Google a Habit or the Best Search Option?

I just got back from the SES San Jose show. Good show. It was interesting to see the search world’s “Murderer’s Row” (relax …. it’s a reference to the 1927 New York Yankees batting lineup and not something offensive …. relax) consisting of Google, bing and Yahoo all lined up in the front row of [...]

Google Reader Gets Updated; Now More Social

If you’ve ever been knee-deep into your Google Reader and wished you could tweet that awesome story about the dog that saved the family from a burning house, now you can. Thanks to a host of announced updates to Google Reader, you can now send any item to Twitter, Blogger, Facebook, Delicious, Digg, etc, etc. In [...]

SES SJ: News Search SEO

Online Marketing Blog readers are well aware: news search engines offer a great way to receive targeted traffic related to breaking topics or to help with a public relations launch. What are the latest ways businesses and media are using content to tap into the power of news search?  Mark Jackson, SEW Expert & President/CEO, [...]

Did Microsoft’s Bing Give Google Permission to Mess With Its Magic Formula?

We all know that Google is often caught testing tweaks to its search interface, but has it stepped up its efforts on the back of Bing’s apparent success? I ask because it appears that Google has been unusually active in tweaking the magic formula behind its success. The latest was spotted by Barry Schwartz and shows [...]

Microsoft / Yahoo Union Not Likely to Raise Real EC Concerns

In a change of pace regarding the EC (European Commission) and their view of competition the early returns are that the partnership between Yahoo and Microsoft will not be given a difficult time gaining approval. While the EC has been a stumbling block to other deals including both companies in the past (Yahoo’s previous [...]

It’s a Deal: Q&A from Microsoft Yahoo! Call

Amid all the speculation this week, it’s official that Microsoft and Yahoo! have made a deal:  ”Microsoft will now power Yahoo! search while Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers.” Microsoft-Yahoo Deal History on Dipity. The Search Marketing Industry news sites have covered this completely and a joint web [...]

Social Site Sued for Harvesting Emails

Social site Tagged.com is facing the second big lawsuit over its registration process in as many months. First NY AG Andrew Cuomo (always a popular figure with social networks!) threatened to bring a lawsuit against Tagged for stealing emails and spamming “millions of Americans,” and now two women from California are suing Tagged for stealing [...]

Content Sites Effective, Networks Not for Online Advertising

The Online Publishers Association and Dynamic Logic have come out with a new study on the effectiveness of online ads (PDF). While ad networks’ effectiveness is nil, ads on content sites—and especially video ads—were highly effective. With Dynamic Logic’s MarketNorms data (on 4882 campaigns and 7M+ survey responses), the OPA examines ad effectiveness by looking at [...]

Apps – solutely: Downloads to Triple for Smartphones by 2014

Break out the Friday Crystal Ball as we take a look into the future of the mobile world. We are traveling across time and space and we see smartphones, boatloads of smartphones (Carol Bartz rocks!), and the number of apps that are downloaded look like they have grown by three times the amount of today’s [...]

Online Video Too “Hot” to Handle

eMarketer recently came out with its latest analysis on online video advertising—and while the medium remains as popular as ever. However, although the two media are similar, it’s not expected to command similar ad dollars to television advertising for a while (2013, I think, might still be rather optimistic for spend-per-hour parity). The problem, however, doesn’t [...]

Learn Search And Social Marketing Strategies From SES SJ 2009 Coverage By TopRank

Search Engine Strategies San Jose 2009 turned out to be an energetic week of presentations, networking and positivity for the search marketing industry. Interested marketers flocked from around the country (and around the world) to get social, connect and learn.  It was clear from from attitude and attendance that the SEM industry is thriving. While the event [...]

SES SJ: Turn Web Analytics into a Money Making Machine

SES San Jose 2009 is off to a rockin’ start and this afternoon I’m sitting in a session about turning web analytics into money. Avinash Kaushik, from Google, shared this #1 rule with the audience: Don’t Stink! If you do, nothing else matters. To get started, figure out which pages Google has determined are your home pages (i.e. [...]

Learn Search And Social Marketing Strategies From SES SJ Coverage By TopRank

Search Engine Strategies San Jose 2009 turned out to be an energetic week of presentations, networking and positivity for the search marketing industry. Interested marketers flocked from around the country (and around the world) to get social, connect and learn.  It was clear from from attitude and attendance that the SEM industry is thriving. While the even [...]

What do Google AdWords & The Three Amigos Have in Common?

While Google’s Caffeine testing ground might contain few changes to the user interface, that’s not stopping the search engine from testing new layouts. As spotted by Erick Schonfeld, Google really wants you to pay attention to its AdWords ads. So much so, that if you’re viewing Google with a wide screen, the ads no longer remain [...]

New Google Display Ads Provide “Off the Rack” Banners With a Bespoke Look

This is almost the Google announcement that never was, but Google has finally announced an update to its Display Ad Builder. The new do-it-yourself ads are designed to ensure they looks less like, well, do-it-yourself ads. The new line of "Elegant" ads include… …ready-made buttons and backgrounds that give each ad a cohesive look and feel. More [...]

Video Explains How You Can Opt Out of Google Entirely!

Are you worried about all of the data Google is collecting on you? Do you wish you could opt-out of Google entirely? My friend, your day has come. Watch this video for details of Google’s new opt out feature. Google Opt Out Feature Lets Users Protect Privacy By Moving To Remote Village So, will you be opting out? [...]

Will You Like Twitter’s Plans to Make Retweeting an Official Feature?

If you’re a new Twitter user, you’ve probably stumbled over the correct etiquette for "retweeting" someone else’s tweet. Do you use "RT: @andybeal…." or "Retweeting @andybeal….."? And what about those precious characters lost when you retweet? We only get 140 to start with! Well, Twitter has watched the practice of retweeting closely and thinks it has [...]

Facebook to Ban All Commercial Activity on Personal Profiles?

If Facebook follows through on its announcement, it may soon ban all commercial activity in personal profiles. Buried among many proposed changes to the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities (SRR) you’ll find the following suggested addition: You will not use your personal profile for your own commercial gain (such as selling your status update to an advertiser). While [...]

Google Doodle Celebrates Hans Christian Andersen!!!

Woohoo! Today’s Google logo celebrates one of my favorite authors of all time: Hans Christian Andersen! The danish author is best known for his children’s stories including Thumbelina, The Little Match Girl, and, my favorite, The Ugly Duckling. Born April 2, 1805, Anderson….. …excuse me a minute. Someone’s IMing while I’m trying to crank this post out. ……. ……. ……well, [...]

Bing Bing Bing! Bing on a Roll?

Efficient Frontier is taking yet another look at Bing’s usage stats—and yet again, they’re up. As of the first week in August, Bing’s click share has grown 45 percentage points since the beginning of June. Bing has been working to target travel and shopping as a “decision engine.” Efficient Frontier reports that this seems to be [...]

Google’s Matt Cutts on Nofollow: It’s OK to “Stick With What You’ve Got”

We tend to stay away from covering SEO advice, but Google’s recent change in recommendations for the use of “nofollow” have everyone buzzing…still! So, when SEOmoz posted this brief video interview with Google’s Matt Cutts, we thought you’d like to see it: SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday – Matt Cutts on NoFollow from Scott Willoughby on Vimeo. Interestingly, Matt appears [...]

Time to Say Bye-Bye to Google Knol?

It’s been a little over a year since Google launched Google Knol. Now it appears the service may not make it to its 2nd birthday. As spotted by TechCrunch, traffic to the site peaked in February and has been on a downward slide since then. It’s not the first time that we’ve seen questions asked about the [...]

SES SJ: Creating a Web Analytics Culture

What does Van Halen have to do with Search Marketing? Let’s find out with John Marshall of Market Motive. Marshall starts out by illustrating Van Halen’s very unique pre-show requests. Specifically, Van Halen was very clear that in their dressing room, there should be M & M’s, but no brown M & M’s. The business lesson of the brown [...]

Retweeting in Real Life [Cartoon]

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Why Blogging Is Like Running for Small Business Owners

I am not a runner. But, I run.

Every time I run I am reminded that I am not a runner. It hurts. I kind of hate it. But, still, I run.

I run because like most people I am constantly on the go. I wear many hats. I work here at HubSpot. I am a spouse. I am a new mom. I am a sister, a daughter and a granddaughter. I am an aunt and a niece.

For me, running seems to be the most efficient way for me to stay in somewhat fair condition. In about 45 minutes, I sweat out toxins and stress, I give my heart a good workout and I burn (at least some of) the excess summertime beer, margherita and ice-cream calories.

As a busy person, I know that doing my best to stay in shape is important. I feel better at the beginning of the day, I am more alert and I make better decisions. 

I also know that the more I run, the more I get better at it. When I slack, it stays really, really hard. When I am consistent and committed, it gets easier, though never easy. The bottom line is, I run because it works.

My relationship with running is not unlike a lot of small business owners' relationships with marketing. They are not Marketers. They are business owners. They wear many hats, too. They are CEOs, CFOs, sales people, customer service reps, account managers -- and probably daughters, granddaughters, nieces and aunts. They are not marketers. But, like I need to exercise, they need to market.

It is important for any business of any size to build, grow and nurture a strong funnel of leads to keep the business healthy. In my experience as an Inbound Marketing Consultant, I would argue that as a small business owner, blogging is your running.

Blogging is probably the most efficient and most effective way to drive traffic to your website. An hour or two per week and you are creating a marketing annuity. Like running guarantees to burn calories, blogging absolutely guarantees more, free, search-based traffic.

If you are smart about your posts, you can assure that this new traffic is well targeted and qualified for lead generation. It just works. And, like running, if you are committed and consistent, it will get easier.

So, small business owners, though you may not be marketers, you do need to maintain a healthy business.  I say blog.  It just works.

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A Lesson From La La Land: Create a Content Portfolio

If you're a small business owner or a marketing professional, chances are you don't pay too much attention to Hollywood.

It's La La Land -- a bubble disconnected from the business of selling fencing in Littleton, MA, or Real Estate in Chapel Hill, NC, right?

Not so fast.

There is a least one big lesson marketers and small business owners can learn from Hollywood: If you want to make a blockbuster, plan on making lots of bombs in the process.

Here's what I mean: Hollywood movie execs have no idea which movies are going to be blockbusters. So the smart ones don't try to pick. Instead, they create a portfolio of films. Most of the films in their portfolio end up bombing, but that's ok because it only takes one blockbuster to pay off their investment in the rest.

Consider the distribution of Warner Bros' revenue last year (see the graph below); their four biggest movies accounted for more than half of the ticket sales.

 

As a marketer or small business owner, you should think of content the way Warner Bros thinks of its movies -- as pieces of a portfolio.

Instead of trying to pick one or two winning blog articles every month, write one or two dozen shorter articles. This will give you a better chance of publishing a blockbuster.

You should also take the portfolio approach to different media types. Blogging is important, but don't make it your only focus -- try video, webinars, slidedecks and software applications. The more diversity you have in your content portfolio, the better your chances of producing content that generates traffic, leads and sales.

So, what's in your portfolio? 

Photo: andy castro 

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Why Free Content Makes Sense for Marketers

During our most recent webinar, one participant asked, does every offer you have on your website have to be "free"? The answer is no, but there are a lot of benefits to giving things away to your prospects. Here are a few:

Lower the friction to lead conversion.

The first rule of lead conversion is to make sure the value of your offer is worth giving up whatever you're asking for (email address, phone number) from your prospect. By giving away something for free, you ask for less (i.e. no money), increase the net value, and thus increase lead conversion.

Build your brand's reputation.

This topic also came up recently at Podcamp Boston in regards to charging for attending the event itself. In the early days of Podcamp, admission to the event was free -- it was a brand new event and the organizers had no idea if anyone would show up at all. By offering the event for free, they lowered the barrier to attend, and once people were there, they confirmed how great the event was and helped build the reputation of the event as a whole. Today, the organizers charge a low admission cost for a variety of reasons, but had they not offered free admission in the past, it would have been much harder to build up the event.

Establish yourself as a trusted thought leader.

Even after you build up your company's reputation, it's a great idea to continue to give away content for free. This helps display your thought leadership and become a trusted resource for your prospects. That way, when those prospects do need your products and services, they are more likely to come to you first to solve their needs.

Help spread your content.

David Meerman Scott frequently speaks about the benefit of offering your content for free being that your content will get in front of many more people. This points back to lowering the friction during the lead conversion process. By making your content completely free and open (no lead capture form even), more people are likely to download and also share your content with others. And the more people who see your content, the more people who know about your business and come to you to solve their needs.

All this said, the most important thing to do is to test, test, and test some more. Try a free offer, try an offer that's completely open, try different landing pages and calls to action, all to see what delivers the best results for your business.

What do you think? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Photo by iboy_daniel

Webinar: How to Sell Social Media to Your Boss

Social media guru Chris Brogan explains how to demonstrate the value of social media marketing. Download the free webinar to learn how to get your company started with social media.

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HubSpot TV - One Year Anniversary Special

 

Episode #52 - August 7th, 2009
(Episode Length: 22 minutes, 51 seconds)

Intro

• How to interact on Twitter: @mvolpe, @karenrubin, @dharmesh, @bhalligan with #hstv1year in your tweet.
• Subscribe in iTunes: http://itunes.hubspot.tv/
• Anniversary Show Sponsors: social media and inbound marketing-savy companies! Thank you to @Harpoon_Brewery, @b_good_, @myersandchang and @RunMyErrand

A Walk Down HubSpot TV

• Most memorable shows
  • Christmas
  • Halloween
  • McHammer

• HubSpot TV Stats
  • This is actually the 53rd episode
  • It is our 9th location
  • Our show has been watched over 70,000 times
  • We average about 80 viewers live online each week and 30 live in person
  • More than 90% of the viewers are through the archived episodes
  • 75% of our archive views are from iTunes
  • 44 reviews, 41 5 star ratings on iTunes
  • Our itunes subscribers are equally split between Mac and PC
  • Most popular countries are US, UK then India
  • We have had 2 views from Mongolia

Interview with HubSpot Co-founders, Brian and Dharmesh

• Brian: Many CEOs would not be willing to allow people in their company to just publish a TV show once a week. Are you ok with it and why?
• Dharmesh: More companies are starting to blog and get into social media, where do you see content creation going/changing?
• Brian: What are the benefits of doing a show like HubSpot TV?
• Dharmesh: You have built website grader, twitter grader, blog grader; if you were to create a podcast grader what are some of the ways in which you think you would grade their effectiveness?

Upcoming Events in Boston this Weekend

Podcamp

• http://www.podcampboston.org
• What equipment is best for a video podcast?
• How can you use video podcasting for B2B marketing?

Marketing Sherpa: San Francisco is September 23rd and 24th

• HubSpot TV is the video sponsor!

Conclusion

• Debut performance of the new HubSpot band, The Leads!

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Tweet Globally, Get Found Locally

 

With around 21 million unique visitors to Twitter each month, Twitter is quickly gaining traction with small businesses. However, some local businesses are wondering if such a global audience is worth engaging with. 

Last week, Deb Ward, a local business owner and Inbound Marketing Certified Professional, posted a thread to the inboundmarketing.com forum asking how she could localize her business' tweets to a certain geographic location.  While it is not necessary to limit your tweeting so that only certain people in your area can see them, you CAN make your business's location highly visible on Twitter, thus attracting more people to your brand and generating a network in your area.

Here are a few ways to do this: 

1. Include Your Location in Your Bio

Utilize the 160-character bio each Twitter account has to describe your business and what town you hail from. Your business's profile will then show up in Twitter's search results for that area which will help you get found more easily.  You can also register your business on Twellow,  the yellow pages for Twitter, to make it easier for consumers to find you.  

2. Follow People in Your Area and Your Industry

Start following people from your area. Twitter best practices suggest that you start following people to increase the likelihood that they will follow you back. Twitter users can search for keywords on Tweet Scan to reach new audiences and to learn what these consumers want to know about in your industry. You can also search for the location of Twitter users with HubSpot's Twitter Grader tool.  

3. Tweet About Your Location

Make sure a good portion of your Tweets include geographically specific information -- maybe town names, local landmarks or sports teams. If you figure out what people in your area are talking about on Twitter, then add to that conversation in a constructive manner, you'll generate a lot of local followers. 

4. Get Visible

Lastly, geotweet. This application from Schmap produces a link to map with an icon pointing to your business and also allows users to rate the business on a 5 star scale.  Encourage fans of your business on Facebook or other social media sites to tweet the map and rate your business to create buzz.  

Finally, above all else, don't be spammy!  Just because you are following people does not mean you can message them every five minutes to go to your restaurant, bookstore, or hardware shop. Remember to keep your tweets interesting and relevant to your target audiences to get people to continue to follow you.  Tweet about promotional offerings or upcoming events that you are hosting and/or that pertain to your industry.  If you create content on a blog, tweet about it to drive visitors to your site.   Combine your geo-targeted efforts with thought leadership in your industry to get your target audience engaged while remaining relevant to the rest of the Twittersphere as well.      

Twitter for Business Kit

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