Search Engine Optimization Help

One of the great treasures that comes along with the internet and having the ability to be constantly connected is also the ability to save and share great content. Websites such as Digg and Reddit have provided innovative ways to allow users to dictate what should be the top stories and let’s them share with friends and strangers alike. The only problem with having various websites for gathering interesting news is that it’s time consuming to constantly check each one… and if you don’t check them often you have a lot of stories, links and images to catch up on.

Search & Social just introduced ”Social Pop”- a new iPhone application available in the app store that integrates all these various social news platforms into one great little package.

When you open up the application, you have a preset amount of social news/sharing platforms and headlines. You can go into settings at any time to change what social news sites show up, along with how many headlines you want. You can choose between 1-5. The sites available are:

• Digg- The latest news headlines, videos and images.
• Reddit- What’s new online!
• Fark- It’s not news, it’s FARK.com.
• Mixx- Your blend of the web.
• Newsvine- An instant reflection of what the world is talking about at any given moment.
• Y! Buzz- What’s buzzing you?
• Technorati- Comprehensive and current index of who and what is most popular in the Blogosphere.
• Plime- Editable wiki community where users can add and edit  interesting links.
• Shoutwire- Internet news for the masses.
• Metacafe- Online video entertainment

Here’s an example of Reddit on the Social Pop application:

So when you’re out on your lunch break and want to read some interesting articles, you can simply access Social Pop on your iPhone and get schooled with information about sugar gliders, NLT life recovery bible, Dr. Howard Dean or Man Vs. Dog. You can also learn how to love monitor arms if you are so inclined. Feel like viewing the latest images or news? Go for it! I think I’ll stick to the sugar glider article… they’re cute and perform miraculous gliding feats from one end of their cage to the other!

If you want to download this application, simple go to your iPhone app store and search up “Social Pop”. You can also watch a video and download the application from the iTunes store through the Social Pop website.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Social Pop iPhone App: Social News and Sharing Simplified

Yesterday Google released Buzz, an integration of new social features for Gmail that connect users with each other. If you read my article I had mentioned something about finding it a little strange the name “Buzz” was used, seeing as Yahoo! Buzz has existed for quite some time now. Evidently I’m not the only one who has taken notice of this- Microsoft and Yahoo have both taken it into their own hands to speak out on how they feel towards Google at this point in time.

Microsoft came out with a pretty hasty statement, saying “Busy people don’t want another social network, what they want is the convenience of aggregation. We’ve done that. Hotmail customers have benefited from Microsoft working with Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and 75 other partners since 2008.”

Microsoft has been pretty chummy with Facebook lately, so I can understand why they may not think Google has the right to release “another social network” when the other search giants have already hopped on board with it. Windows Live has “Spaces”, listing tons (and I mean TONS) of applications for various social networks to share with other Live users. You can broadcast your web activities right on your own page. I just wonder how many of the activities people use. I counted well over 50, and I would use maybe 4 of those.

I can only wonder if Microsoft is slightly threatened by the capabilities Buzz has and the implications for its competitors.

Yahoo, on the other hand, took more of a direct hit from Buzz due to the fact that they are now sharing the same name. Yahoo! Buzz hasn’t had a ton of publicity lately and for a moment, I almost forgot it existed. It seems Google has followed suit with Yahoo! Updates, another feature Yahoo has to congregate your social networking and updates. They decided to send an email out just to “updates” their users on what Yahoo! Updates already has…in case they forgot or got blindsided by Google Buzz. What do they have in common?

Similarities Between Yahoo! Updates and Google Buzz

• The ability to have streaming updates to broadcast to contacts
• Updates appear in mail, so comments are never lost or gone unnoticed
• Connect with sites already used, such as Flickr, to share content
• Capability to share updates both publicly and privately

…they DO sound pretty similar to me.

All in all, I think Microsoft and Yahoo! have a right to be miffed- after all, Google joined the game a little late with introducing a complete package for social sharing and networking… but do you think Microsoft had the right to put out that public statement openly slamming Google? Thoughts?

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Microsoft and Yahoo Displeased With Google Buzz

Ladies and gentlemen- Google Buzz has now been announced! It looks like Google inadvertently answered my “social hub“ prayers today with everything that Buzz has to offer. First thing I noticed: does Buzz sound familiar? That’s right, Y! Buzz already exists. It seems like Google is going to be direct competition to good old Yahoo.

Unfortunately it hasn’t went through to everybody yet so I don’t have any screen shots or usage notes to give you. I can, however, offer you a quick cheat sheet with all the juicy details!

• Automatic integration of your email and chat contacts.
• You can decide whether you want your ideas to be private (secret diary style) or public.
• Comments will be sent right to your inbox so you can have instant access to them.
• You can now see thumbnails for photos or just browse full-screen images that are available from popular photo websites.
• You can import your stuff from Google Reader, Flickr, Picasa and Twitter so you won’t have to personalize everything again.
• Updates will be in real-time. You won’t have to worry about developing an automatic finger twitch from constant manual refreshing.
• In true 21st century style, Buzz will adapt to you, funneling in interesting content and denying the content that will be most likely unappealing to you.

If you’re curious  and want to see a quick preview:

Buzz will also be available for your phone and will allow you to tag your posts with your current location. When available to you, you can access it directly by visiting buzz.google.com from your mobile device.

Please check back soon for a follow up post about my first hand experience.

…Now, do I get bragging rights to say that I’m psychic? I DID just publish that post about their social hub…

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Introducing Google Buzz! GMail Social Sharing

If you can’t tell from my recent posts, I think Google is quite revolutionary. With the implementation of Gtalk with video chat capabilities, Google Wave with the ability to have real-time collaboration, Google Docs & Calendar making document and schedule sharing between colleagues or friends and simply the ability to social share in search results, Google truly has made their website somewhat of a single source for all things social. With the expected announcement of Google integrating streaming updates into Gmail, I thought I would throw together a list of how Google could utilize these individual services into one social hub.

The Yellow Brick Road for Google’s Social Hub:

1. Pushing the limits with iGoogle-

There isn’t much that is needed to be said about this. Everybody loves watching funny YouTube videos or seeing a cute picture stream of a new puppy that their best friend adopted. Being able to pick out keywords of videos or images you want to see would also be fantastic and useful. Another example of how content can be personalized on your homepage.

3. Integrating GTalk and video with a web-based application so users can pop out chat (think along the lines of Aim Express…but better! Clearly Google is superior to AOL)-

I use GTalk a lot, but sometimes I’m not always on my computer or even on one that HAS a program with GTalk capabilities. I realize that you can pop out your chat box already, but having a pop-out web-based application that has every feature separate from Gmail or iGoogle would make GTalk easier to access and use to keep in touch.

4. Integrating Yelp-

Yelp is a website that lets you view reviews and recommendations on restaurants, shopping, nightlife and various other fun stuff in your city. Yelp also comes in handy for when you’re visiting a new place and have no idea what’s good or what you should avoid like the plague. Perhaps my iGoogle Social Hub idea could have a small box available that can display a new recommendation or review on places near you every few days.

5. Integrating Google Wave into the link bar with social sharing buttons for wave friends or the public timeline-

I think this is the bread and butter of my Google social hub idea. Google Wave can be used everywhere on the social hub. The share buttons mentioned above can be put around the YouTube and Flickr features, as well as with Yelp. The ability to instantly wave favorite places, videos or pictures can be extremely useful. If you want someone to meet you for dinner at a great restaurant in town, recommended by Yelp, simple wave them the information and they can view it themselves.

6. Google Voice easily accessible-

Even though Google Voice is currently available by invite only, when it becomes available to everybody it would be great to have this integrated into a sidebar so you can keep up with your phone messages along with your email and waves.

7. Integrating a drop-down menu with search features-

I don’t know if most people who don’t use the internet often even realize this, but Google has a plethora of search options available when you look to the left of the search page. You can display results from images, videos or books as well as choose your timeline. You can also choose to show fewer or more shopping sites (which just proves there’s too many out there that leak onto the search page without us wanting them anyway) as well as a “social search”, which narrows results down to your social circle. I think iGoogle should have these in a drop down menu underneath the search bar so people can actually realize that it’s there.

8. Updating the Google smartphone application-

The final step, of course, is to redesign the smartphone application. Having one cohesive application with all these options available (especially the ability to use wave sharing buttons….or wave at all since it’s not really available in an application) would make the redesign all the more valuable.

All in all, I think Google has the assets available to make one heck of a social hub. Having everything available in one place is very appealing and would attract more users… not to mention give their current users a nice treat for being loyal.

PS: I wanted to do a mock-up of the “iGoogle Social Hub” but I’ve decided to not put my viewers through the torture of my unskilled scribbles Sorry!

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

8 Ways Google Can Become a Social Hub Overnight

Google is know for being highly innovative and keeping on top of the technology train. Android brought the opening of the Google online store. Gmail has an on-going experiment that goes by the name of “Gmail Labs”, which you can find hiding in it’s parent, “Google Labs“. You can try out various things for size, such as “mail goggles”  (to prevent you from sending those haphazard emails in the wee hours of the morning) and the capability to have Flickr previews right in your mail. One area that Gmail was lacking in a little was in the social department.

Within Gmail, you had the ability to set your status updates in your chat box, but you couldn’t have a visible stream of what you were doing. For some people this is fine- not everyone wants every part of their day hanging out in the open on the internet, nor do other people necessarily care about what you ate for breakfast or if you noticed a weird odor in your car on the way to work.

A little birdy out there has said that Google is working on employing streaming status updates; you’ll no longer be stuck with one lonely status update that vanishes every time you change it. So what does this mean? First, we’ll start with a basic fact: a large amount of internet users have Gmail as their main email service. This isn’t some obsolete company making a push towards something Twitter, Facebook and Yahoo! Mail have implemented. Second, many companies and websites already use Twitter as a place to throw status updates to engage the consumer and showcase special offers and contests. For companies that may be using Gmail, this could be a great opportunity and a new venue to build their brand. Recently Google implemented streaming real-time updates in their search engine. Items that are being posted on Twitter are being integrated in real-time and showing up in search results

As we all know, Twitter has been allowing those glorious 140 character updates for a few years now. How will allowing status updates on Gmail affect Twitter? With Gmail possibly integrating this closely with YouTube as well as Picasa (Google’s image sharing website), they may possibly be able to become more popular than Twitter in regards to real-time updates.

I feel as if Google has been planning this for a while. I found it odd that they rolled out real-time search result capabilities without being able to play ball. If they allow these status updates to be public, they can be siphoned down into their real-time search results, along side Twitter updates. In my opinion, it’s about time Google stepped up their game. Being the giant that they are, if they finally combine social networking (tastefully) into all the features they already have, the possibilities are endless.

Google tried to compete with the likes of Facebook and Myspace when it released Orkut. Social networking sites that survive are few and far between; I have a feeling Google will do better by improving what they already have.

This new feature may be rolling out as early as next week, however, Google isn’t releasing much information on it. The Official Gmail Blog is a great place to hear about new updates. Keep checking; Google’s social network take-over has begun!

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Google Going Social…Again? Gmail to Add Streaming Updates

You’ve lost your account…it’s gone. You can’t log in. All your activity has been erased. You didn’t get an email, not even a warning. You’ve emailed the site a number of times, and nobody will tell you why you’re now a blacklisted member of your favorite social media network.

This is a common tale… all too common, in fact. Some social sites are better than others, but the truth is: most administrators don’t have the time to explain why they deleted your account. You’d be lucky if they even know the reason in the first place. Most likely it’s not a single act, but a number of user submitted complaints that puts your account beyond some threshold they’ve set as a matter of policy. Reach this threshold, and you’re gone…no research to determine the validity of the complaints, no explanation, and a snowball’s chance in hell of getting your account back.

Ok, so while it’s not completely impossible to get a banned account back, certain social sites just don’t bother. And depending on what you did to get banned, you might be wasting your time. In either case, it’s much less frustrating to just play it safe so you don’t get blacklisted in the first place. So here are 9 things that will get you banned that you should try to avoid:

1. Break the terms of service – Let’s start with the obvious. If you don’t want to get banned, the first thing you need to do is read the terms of service. Read it for serious. Done? Ok, now read it again. My point is: make sure you really understand what they’re trying to prevent.

    

   Legally, most terms of service allow social sites to remove your account for any reason, and they (usually) directly say as much. But they’ll also go into some specific items that they’re actively looking for. Break any of these, and you’ll find yourself starting from scratch. I’ll cover many of the more common items below, but if you want to know what your favorite social network is specifically looking for, I highly recommend starting here.

2. Spam – Another obvious one, but somehow people don’t quite get it. Attempting to automate submissions, Votes, Reddits, comments, Diggs, etc. will almost always end up in a banning. If there’s one thing people hate more than human generated spam, it’s computer generated spam. That goes double –no triple for social sites.
3. Self Promotion – I’m not talking about submitting or linking to content you’ve created. I’m talking about going on to other social conversations or threads and trying to cross promote or garner attention to your submission when it isn’t relevant. Link dropping is SOMETIMES ok (read the terms) if it’s directly related to the conversation, but rarely tolerated when it’s not. And it’s DEFINITELY something that can get you banned.
4. Submitting Link Bait or Promotional content – Link bait is a (double) 4-letter-word in the social media world. People hate it, and if you’re caught being a marketer, or worse yet: an SEO, there’s nothing that can inspire someone to report you as a spammer quicker. Just be sure you are careful what you submit and if you’re doing it for the links and/or promotion, take great care to be sure the content is worthy of the votes.
5. Un-natural voting/promotion – A common story (you might have heard) is the “clever” marketing agency with 200 employees all voting for a submission from the same office at the same time. If you think large sites like Digg and Reddit don’t have filters to identify geo-locations of your IP (and other un-natural indicators), you’d be wrong. In fact, if you’re involved in any schemes like this, you’re making it too easy for them. Nothing can get 200 accounts simultaneously banned easier than this scenario.
6. Submit/link to inappropriate/offensive content – Nudity and explicit violence are rarely tolerated, and whenever you feel compelled to use the acronym “NSFW”, think twice before you submit it or link to it. More than likely, someone will find it offensive and report you as such. If an admin gets enough reports like this, the next time you sign in, it’ll be under another user name.

   Note: Some sites like Reddit and Stumble Upon do allow adult content, but there are specific sections for it. Make sure to use these sections and/or mark it as adult content if what you are sharing is too racy or NSFW.

7. Trolling – It usually takes a lot for comments to get you banned. Down votes aren’t generally enough, but they’ll certainly make you look like a troll to the rest of the community. While joining in on the social conversation (in comment boards and threads) can be a great way to network, try not to be offensive, abrasive, and definitely don’t get involved in a “flame” war. It’s too easy for someone who didn’t like what you said to simply report you as offensive. Even if it isn’t true, trust me, you’d rather just not go there. Also, remember: just because you think you’re being funny doesn’t mean others will. “Offensive” (in terms of comments) is a matter of interpretation.

8. Consistently submitting or linking to low quality content – While you probably won’t get banned for having too many down votes, some members of your social network believe it’s their job to take the “bury” button one step further and report you as a spammer. A single report probably won’t get you banned, but if you get enough of them, you’ll cross that threshold and it’s over.

   If you’re submitting content from commercial sites make sure that A. the content is worthy, and B. you’re submitting high quality content from elsewhere on a regular basis to dilute any of such reports that may happen.

9. Be too good at Digg or Reddit – Don’t worry, most sites won’t get banned for being a power user…that’s an unfortunate myth. What happens, however, is when you’ve become noticed as being “too good” you’ll get away with a LOT less. In effect, all the above points become more important to avoid. Make one slip and the bury brigade will be all over you.

   Another problem with being a power user is: you might be able to use the power of your network to promote “less than worthy” content to the front page. When this happens, not only will the submission get buried, but it’ll usually cause an influx of those nasty spam reports. If you’re finding yourself on a list like this one, it’s time to tread carefully. You may also want to have a back-up account…just in case.

If you’ve been banned and you were looking for a way to get your account back, my advice is this: email the site administrator and beg for forgiveness. You can use this email as a template:

Dear [Social Website] Admin,

I’m having trouble logging into my account. It looks as though it may have been removed???

I’m not sure what happened, but if I have done something wrong I truly apologize. I have read the terms of service and am very careful to follow them to the T.

I don’t know if there is anything I can do to get my account back, but I’d love to at the very least know what I did so I can be sure to avoid that activity in the future.

Please let me know if there’s anything I can do!

Thanks in advance,

[BannedUser]

If you’re lucky: they may tell you what you did, send you to the terms of service page again so you can re-accept it, and you’ll get your account back. Just know, this is pretty rare, and if you’re lucky enough to get an account turned back on, it probably won’t be a recurring event.

Have a story about being banned? Tell it in the comments; I’d love to hear it!

Todd Heim is CEO, co-founder, and SEO manager of Essential Internet Marketing, LLC, an SEM and Social Media Marketing company based in Albany, NY.  You can find Todd on twitter at: http://twitter.com/ToddHeim/

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

How to Get Banned on Social Media Networks

Facebook has come out with a new page redesign which in my opinion, more and more simulated the web browsing experience moreso than just the social mapping experience. The only problem is, with Facebook constantly referring its users to Facebook fanpages and other controlled content within the walls of Facebook, the overall findability quotient resembles something more of a late 90’s AOL than a 2010 social media world changer.

That being said, what really garnished my attention this morning with the new Facebook design was not necessarily the browser aspect of its UI, but moreso the centering of the Facebook Search Box.

What makes the realignment of Facebook Search more and more intriguing to me is that expanded search assists Facebook with multiple goals :

• Facebook is a search partner of Microsoft Bing, so the more Facebook searches equals more Bing searches, a revenue generator for both Facebook and Microsoft, which owns equity in Facebook. So even if Facebook does send people off of their platform, they at least do so via Bing.
• Facebook will have more search data on its users, to add to its lifestyle and behavioral data for ad targeting
• Facebook users will search more often for their friends, making connections and tagging connections, assisting Facebook with further knowing more about its members, and incentivizing its members to give Facebook more personal data
• Facebook searches on product or service oriented keyterms default on the relevant Facebook pages and events for those terms, further connecting users with fanpages and companies and making its interface more valuable for marketers
• In the same way that Google has spread worldwide with its simple cross cultural search box, Facebook and its investors, which include Microsoft and its other big investor, Digital Sky Technologies of Russia which runs the incredibly popular Russian social networks of vKontakte (Facebook Russia) & Odnoklassniki (Classmates).

More Facebook Redesign Coverage

• Mashable : Facebook’s Major Redesign Emphasizes Search and So Much More
• Huffington Post : New Facebook Redesign 2010: PICTURES Of The New Layout

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Facebook Learns from Google : Centers Search Box on Redesign

Most of us have accounts at dozens of social networking sites and are active at minimum 3 of them. Therefore aggregating this activity is such a good idea: you want to keep your friends updated on all news and stories you share.

There are quite a few tools that unite several social networks for you and today I am sharing a new-comer:

Flavors.me is a sleek tool for aggregating your social medial life. The tool is in private beta but you can go ahead and request the invite (or try using the one I am sharing at the end of the post).

After the instant sign-up, you will need to follow these steps:

1. Add your basic info:

• Provide your full name;
• Describe yourself and what you do (basic HTML is supported):

2. Add social media services:

This is where you will need to authenticate your social media accounts to connect them all in one place. Services supported:

Currently supported services:

• Flickr;
• Tumblr;
• Twitter;
• Vimeo;
• Last.fm;
• Facebook;
• Blogger;
• LinkedIn;
• Any RSS
• A few more:

3. Customize the page look and feel

Just go to your page at flavors.me/yourusername and click through:

• Available layouts;
• Backgrounds (upload any background image there);
• Available fonts;
• Available color palettes (each of them can be further edited)

In the end you get a totally branded personal page updating on your social media activity. Here’s what I got in the end (also some of my friends report that the page is not mobile-/iPhone-friendly and also looks not very nice in Google Chrome, but the tool is in beta so let’s bear with them )

Note: the service is still in beta; if you need an invite code, MUO has some.

The tool was reviewed under SEJ policy.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Aggregate Your Social Media Life with FlavorsMe

A few weeks ago I watched the movie called “Julie & Julia“. If you haven’t seen it yet, you definitely should because it is all about blogging (well, not all but blogging has played a huge role in the main character’s life).

Basically, the movie is about an ordinary woman who is so bored with her work that she starts blogging about how she is learning cooking. Her blogging style and schedule is ideal: she blogs daily, one or two recipe a day, and each post contains her personal, quite emotional coloring.

The woman doesn’t know a thing about blogosphere, promotion or traffic. In fact, until people have started commenting, she never had a clue if there is actually anyone out there reading her blog. She has never tried to promote her blog but she quickly becomes famous.

The movie perfectly illustrates the exciting era we are happy enough to live in. An epoch where any ordinary person who is known by only a few people ( friends, relatives and co-workers) and who lives an ordinary life of an office clerk and wife/husband; this absolutely ordinary person can be heard by millions.

The main thing is to have a passion and share it with the world.

The movie is based on the true story; here’s the picture of that real blogger who then got popular enough to be featured in the movie:

I have another real-life example. A couple of weeks ago I got to know Gretchen Rubin, a woman behind the Happiness Project. The story of the woman is inspiring:

Raised in Kansas City, I live in New York City with my husband and two young daughters… I’m left-handed, hopeless at sports, tone-deaf, a constant hair-twister, and afraid to drive. I talk to my parents and my sister all the time, and I live around the corner from my in-laws…

A few years ago, I had an epiphany on the cross-town bus. I asked myself, “What do I want from life, anyway?” and I thought, “I want to be happy”—but I never spent any time thinking about happiness. “I should do a happiness project!” I realized. And so I have.

So she figures out how to set up a TypePad account, decides to blog six days a week religiously, and she starts using Facebook and Twitter.

And now she is a best selling writer and one of the most popular people in the Internet.

I had a chance to have a quick interview with Gretchen which I am sharing below. I hope the stories will inspire you!

Please start with the short introduction about yourself.

I am the author of THE HAPPINESS PROJECT, an account of the year I spent test-driving the wisdom of the ages, the current scientific studies, and the lessons from pop culture about how to be happier (Harper). On my blog, The Happiness Project, I write about my daily adventure and insights into happiness.

My blog launched in March 2006, and when my book hit the shelves in December 2009, it immediately shot to the top of the bestseller lists, with a debut at #2 on the New York Times list. It was spotlighted on the Today show, Time, People, Entertainment Weekly, Psychology Today, the Christian Science Monitor, and others, as well as countless blogs.

As a companion to my book and blog, I also started the Happiness Project Toolbox, a site that provides eight tools to help readers begin and track their own happiness projects.

How long did it take you to become a powerful social media user?

A few years. It started slowly.

How do you use social media to promote yourself?

I post six days a week to my blog, and I cross-post a good deal of that material to other sites. For 2009, I cross-posted to Slate, I post twice a week to Huffington Post, post often to PsychologyToday.com and Yahoo! Shine, and also write original content for RealSimple.com. I’m active on Twitter and aim to tweet at least four times a day. I’m active on Facebook – I have my personal account, of course, also a Happiness Project Group and Fan Page.

Which social media network is the most effective?

They support each other.

Which social media network takes most of your time?

Writing original blog posts.

Which social media network do you enjoy most of all?

I like all of them – they each have a special strength, something that the other don’t.

What would be your advice to a newbie entrepreneur who considers using social networking to get more exposure?

Social media is an incredible tool, but it takes time to build. Start now! One of my happiness project commandments is “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” and that definitely applies here.

You can get paralyzed by worrying about your design, your bio, etc. Do your best, ask for good advice, do your research and then START. You need time to see results, so the longer you are at it, the better off you’ll be. I started my blog in March 2006 to help support a book that just published in December 2009. Having that long lead time was invaluable.

What do you think accounts for you social networking success?

I write about happiness, a topic that resonates widely and that fascinates many readers. People care about the issue, they have things to say, and people are also interested to hear other people’s experience. So it’s very engaging. Also, on a more mundane level, it lends itself to weekly “tips” lists which really work well online! There’s lots of fascinating science, great art, and pop culture to draw upon.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

You Can Achieve Everything with Social Media: Here’s the Proof

Ever since my last year’s post on the differences between the Facebook fan page and Facebook group (which needs an update by the way), people are contacting me with various questions related to the topic.

One of the most frequent questions is about the most effective ways to promote a Facebook fan page.

So here you go: the most effective, not really difficult to implement and quite obvious ways to promote your fan page:

Round 1: Create fresh content for people to want to join:

• Aggregate your blog feed. Simply RSS allows to automatically update your fan page wall with your blog RSS. You may also want to import your blog feed to your fan page notes (for that go: “Edit page“, find “Notes” under “Application” and click “Edit“, then “Edit import settings” and at last provide your feed URL).

• Try Static FBML is another app to keep in mind: it adds advanced functionality to your Page using the Facebook Static FBML application. This application will add a box to your Page in which you can render HTML or FBML (Facebook Markup Language) for enhanced Page customization.
• Add a personal note: Add your personal photos, personal welcome-videos are also great (create a short video welcoming your fans and describing what they can do on your page);
• Provide a place for interaction/self promotion: Start a thread on your Discussion Board that allows your fans to promote their sites or inviting to share Twitter IDs and to follow each other.

Round 2: Invite your friends to join

There’s no way to invite all your friends in bulk but you can spend a few minutes to select (all) your friends and send an invitation to them;

Now, once you are done, go ahead and ask your best friends to invite people as well

Round 3: Try social ads

The best thing about Facebook advertising (well actually there are two: one is that you can pay as little as $1 per day to test it and the second one…) is that it can be very well-targeted (still, it won’t work for all niches and campaign types but sometimes it works quite well). The Facebook ad campaign can be targeted to:

• Location;
• Age group;
• Sex;
• Education;
• Keywords;
• Work place;
• Relationship status;
• Language;
• Connections (fan page, event or group) – this means you can for example target fans of your competitor;
• Friends’ connections:

Round 4: Promote on Twitter

If you (or your friends) have solid following on Twitter, promote your Facebook fan page their.

Besides, you can link your page to your Twitter account by simply clicking this link:

There you can select to share status updates, links, photos, notes, and events with your followers on Twitter, directly from your Facebook Page thus promoting it to your Twitter followers:

Round 5: Leverage your email contacts

Doing business and networking on the Internet, you are likely to have a huge number of contacts in your email address book, so why not take advantage of that:

• Include your page URL in your email signature for business correspondence;
• Include your page URL in your email signature for Customer support, customer status updates and other automated messages;
• Leverage Gtalk status: let your facebook fan page URL display whenever your IM contact hovers over your profile name:

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

How to Promote Your Facebook Fan Page & Get Lots of Fans

In what could be a preview of an impending battle between Facebook and Google in the coming days, Facebook has beaten Google as the most visited website on both Christmas Even and Christmas Day, says a tweet from Hitwise’s Twitter account. It was the first time that Facebook become the number one site during Christmas Day. Last year it was Google as the most visited site with Facebook closely following behind.

But come to think of it, it is not surprising for Facebook to be visited more both during Christmas Eve and Christmas Day since majority of people are spending their online time during those days probably greeting their Facebook contacts, sending Christmas wishes and greetings to their loved ones, friends and family who are not with them on those days. Facebook after all is more of a communication tool than Google.

What made the event surprising was due to the fact that Facebook has been lagging behind both Google and Yahoo! Mail all through out the year in terms of site visits.  It only goes to show that email is a thing of the past during these days, as Facebook and perhaps other social sites like Twitter are the more preferred ways of communicating online especially during special occasions.

Most importantly it is also quite surprising that online users still visited Facebook despite the slew of privacy issues that came out during the year.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Facebook Beats Google : Most Visited Site on Christmas

Have you ever noticed how many bloggers and social media marketers just tell people that they should go out try social media? How you shouldn’t worry about learning social it? That you’ll learn it on the fly and everything will be fine.

Well, I’m not one of those. It’s absolutely in your best interest to learn the basics of social media before risking your time and money.

Jumping into social media without at least learning the basics could be a major disaster. It probably won’t ruin your company. It probably won’t ruin you. But it will be a waste of time.

Why do I say that? Well an understanding of social media theory and fundamentals makes your strategy better. How, you ask? Well…

1. It Helps You Create a Starting and End Point

Taking the time to learn social media fundamentals gives you a starting point. It helps you decide where you are and hopefully where you should go.

If you don’t learn what the marketing technique is, how will you know what it’s capable of? How can you create goals and work towards them?

Taking the time to explore social media and soak up as much information as possible gives you a better understanding of what social media can do and how to create a plan.

2. Knowledge Leads to Fewer Mistakes

On social media, a misstep can spread just as fast as a good campaign and consumers can be less than forgiving. Learning how to interact and promote a business shouldn’t endanger the brand.

Start with baby steps. Minimize the likelihood of something to go wrong. Learn as much as you can about web culture and online customer service.

Online consumers expect something much different than offline customers. You should know how to deliver it.

3. Experience Comes With Time – Who Has the Time?

Remember the common phrase, “don’t reinvent the wheel?” – Well don’t do it.

Marketers have been testing and exploring social media theories and sharing them online. Why would you want to go through that powerful information and have to learn it on your own?

You can test and explore and research your content, but we know that more often than not list posts go viral. There’s no need for you to take the time to test and explore that.

Take advantage of other’s experiences to bolster your marketing. Don’t try to recreate or “re-find” what others have already shown works. Save your time for actual marketing.

4. Learning Keeps You From Getting Frustrated

Think back to your childhood. If you’re anything like me, than math class was a horror. I’d sit there trying to do a problem and just not knowing how. After a few minutes of trying, I’d get frustrated and give up. It wasn’t until someone taught me what to do and explained to me why it is that way that I began to enjoy math.

Social media is the same way. There are fundamentals and there are strategies that you should know and understand. Don’t allow frustration lead to you giving up. We know social media is a powerful marketing tool. Don’t let it go.

5. How Are You Investing In Something You Know Little About?

It all comes down to money. How are you supposed to decide how much to invest in social media if you don’t know what it can do?

Learn what you’ll need to invest, both time and money, before throwing resources at it. Have a plan and create a budget. This will help increase the likelihood of success.

Information is key. To have a positive social media strategy you need to know as much as possible. That means both in regards to social media knowledge as well as strategies and fundamentals.

How are others in your industry doing? Why did their campaigns work? How can you recreate their success without copying them verbatim? Is social media for you?

If you don’t understand these fundamentals or have this information you’re marketing with a disadvantage.

I’d love to know what you think. How are you learning social media? Where do you go for research and strategies? Are you learning from example or creating your own ideas?

Check out Samir Balwani’s new social media guide at Training Social, a resource for anyone interested in learning social media marketing.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

5 Reasons to Learn Social Media

Yahoo is about to do what others have been wanting to do for so long now - integrate Facebook in their online service. Just announced is Yahoo’s soon to be implementation of Facebook Connect. This practically means that once implemented you can now share Yahoo’s various content including ratings, photos, article comment and more to your Facebook streams or updates.

Likewise, you can now seamlessly see your Facebook friends’ activities on your Yahoo account. The integration would also mean that you will now have an option on where to update your status message – that is either on any of the supported Yahoo properties or on Facebook instead.

Although Yahoo has somewhat integrated Facebook before, it was only on the individual Yahoo account portal. This time, it will be a full integration across all Yahoo sites.

Obviously, Yahoo is the one taking advantage of  Facebook’s popularity and massive userbase in this deal.  Since Bing is already ahead of  them with its Twitter integration, it is but logical for Yahoo to turn to Twitter’s closest rival – Facebook in the hopes of increasing user engagement on Yahoo’s content sites.

Yahoo is set to roll out Facebook Connect in the early part of 2010.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Yahoo to Connect with Facebook in 2010

“To all the girls I’ve loved before
Who travelled in and out my door
I’m glad they came along
I dedicate this song…” Willie Nelson / Julio Iglesias

Having gone to search conferences for 4 years now, I feel that I’m pretty well-dialed into the peculiar networking / social dynamic that surrounds each well-attended show.  Before each conference, lots of chatter occurs about how everyone’s going to meetup, party, hangout, etc.  Yet, once everyone gets to the conference site, entropy takes over and some of the encounters and adventures are as wildly improbable as Tom Cruise’s journey in Eyes Wide Shut.  However, the end result is strong personal relationships for those that partake (leading to positive business ROI for all involved).

So, I’d like to acknowledge many of the folks that I’ve met and grown close to at conferences over the years:

Who initially called me out in a blog post (before meeting me) and ultimately became one of my best friends in the industry (@webconnoisseur).

Who I randomly set next to at a Pubcon lunch table and ultimately became one of my best friends in the industry (@audette)

Who I sought out at conferences because he’s the smartest guy in our industry (@johnandrews)

Who is my conference shadow (@markknowles)

Who I finally hung out with in Vegas even though we’re both Northwesterners (@portentint)

Same time, next year (@shendison, @ayb, @charronegro)

Like ships passing in the night (@skitzzo, @monicawright…friends who when I met them, immediately detoured elsewhere…no, I didn’t take it personally :.)  )

Who I missed at one conference but ultimately connected with (@joannalord, @alisond, @lookadoo)

Who I keep missing (@dr_pete @brianprovost)

Who I’ve met with multiple times and gotten to know better each time (@danperry, @chirporactic, @kristy, @timdineen)

Who for some reason don’t make it to Pubcon (@mattmcgee, @davidmihm)

Who I’d like to see show up at a conference & hang out (@cw360, @seodojo, @cyandle)

There are plenty of people who I keep seeing over and over at shows that I’ve never connected with.  Some of these folks I recognize and some of them I actually follow pretty closely in the blogosphere or on Twitter.  However, the same weird conference dynamic that brought me closer to the folks that I’ve mentioned above has seemed to have kept me from meeting others that I’d like to / should meet up with.  Fortunately, there’s always the next conference on the calendar and I’m sure wherever that might be, entropy will reign again and the same peculiar conference social dynamic will work its magic.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Search Conference Assignations

We have seen a few social as well as real-time search engines previously, and this whole week is all about a new-comer: Leapfish.

In fact , there’s so much buzz around it that I found it necessary to review the tool here and discuss it with our SEJ community.

Leapfish is a new social and real-time search engine. In their own words:

There is more content, more variety and more services that are all very valuable to us. LeapFish searches the traditional, multimedia and social web and providers results from all over the Internet from major authorities in their respective spaces. Here are some of the database and parts of the web we search; Google, Yahoo, Bing, YouTube, Twitter, Image Authorities, Blog Authorities, Wikipedia, Yelp, Digg, CyberHomes, Yahoo Answers, Amazon and many others from a growing list of providers.

First, let’s see how it works for a newcomer:

Social, Real-Time and Multimedia Search

1. Go ahead and search something; you will be first taken to “Web results” containing:

• Google news results;
• Google / Yahoo / Bing general search results;
• Youtube results;
• Twitter search results;
• Blog search results;
• Image search results (via Google or Flickr);
• Relevant Digg submissions;
• wikiHow results;
• Yahoo Answers search results;
• Related products (from Amazon or eBay);
• Relevant web documents (ia Scribd).

Now you can click through the tabs to see more of each search type:

Real-Time Search: Digg results, Twitter search, Twitter trending topics, Youtube videos and Flickr images.

Video Search: videos relevant to the provided search terms as well “related” videos and video channels (on the related topics).

Hover over any video result and watch it play in full…

Image Search: Related images and videos;

Hover over any image result and watch the full image load on your screen without having to leave the page.

News: More news search results (with most recent Twitter and blog updates);

Blogs: More blog search results (with most recent Twitter updates);

Shopping: More results aggregated from Amazon and eBay.

More search goodies:

• While-you-type search suggestions;
• Related searches:

Quick search tip: if you plan to use Leapfish on a regular basis, consider adding their search plugin:

Now, let’s dig deeper to see which other features the site has to offer.

Customized Homepage

Not only the site allows to change background color to adjust it to your eyes, you will also be able to add / remove widgets from your personal home page.

To access the feature you will need to join the site or login via Facebook. After logging in, click “Add Widgets” (which hides behind “Customize Homepage” link in the top right corner).

The widgets to add / remove are available in various categories such as:

• Social (Facebook, Twitter);
• Traditional news (CNN, Wired);
• Entertainment (celebrity news);
• Blogs (Mashable, TechCrunch);
• Sports (Yahoo sports);
• Travel (Smarter Travel);
• Videos (Hulu, Youtube);
• Comedy (theOnion);
• Business and Economy (Financial news, stock market summery);
• Tools (weather, dictionary and thesaurus, Linkedin Search, Wikipedia);
• Sopping (Daily Deal);
• Misc (WikiHow, Yelp, Nasa).

You can also re-arrange the widgets to enhance your web experience.

“Liking”

LeapFish offers users to “Like” search results that they find. ‘Liking‘ inserts chosen results into the “User Recommended Results” that then appear in LeapFish Search results for that particular search term.

You can find this function as a “Like” button that appears as you hover over links and results.

“Social Sharing”

Leapfish has a really advanced social sharing feature which appears once you hover any search result. Click it an you’ll be able to share the link via Twitter, Facebook, Mixx, Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Delicious, etc:

Social Profiles

Leapfish allows to create a detailed personal profile aggregating most important streams of your web life:

• Compose a short about yourself part and interests;
• Provide your Twitter username to show you most recent Tweets;
• Add your sites;
• Provide your Youtube username to show your most recent videos;
• Provide your Flickr username to show your most recent images;
• Provide your blog RSS feed to show your most recent posts:

Make a Wish

And there’s one more thing to say about Leapfish: their non-profit project that grants the wishes of children with life threatening medical conditions “to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy” (more info at www.makewish.org).

Please go ahead and support the cause by tweeting now:

Just tweeted 2 grant a child’s wish, #leapfish donates to #makeawish foundation for each tweet RT pls http://bit.ly/3KgyQX

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Leapfish: Enhanced Social Media and Real-Time Search Experience

Just when you think that everything that could be done to ramp up a search engine’s search capabilities has already been done, they come up with another idea.  Let’s face it, in some cases the innovations are dumb and do nothing more for the company than get them another press release and a few hundred posts about it on SEO blogs such as this one that track their every move.  In other instances we’re left thinking, “Wow, that’s brilliant.”  Falling into the latter category is the integration of social networking content into search engine results. 

Social networking has evolved from a place to reconnect with old friends, exchange messages, and share pictures, to something much more interesting and dynamic to the search engines.  It’s become a place to share information in real-time.  You don’t have to wait for CNN to report that there’s been an earthquake half-way around the world – someone on the ground has likely already posted about it on Twitter or Facebook.  You’ll get the scoop from a live person who’s actually there, reporting what they see with their very eyes.  For news hounds like myself, both Facebook and Twitter are valuable sources of information.  How else do you think my little website sometimes beats major news outlets to the punch?

Because information is what search engines are all about, it’s only logical that they want to include that information in their search results.  It’s stuff people like me want to find, and going to one source for it instead of searching all those sites separately makes life a whole lot easier.
 
Without further ado, here are my 4 reasons why including social networking results in search engines is a smart move:

1. It’s what people want, even if they don’t know they want it.  I want to be able to find everything available on a search query, including real-time information.  It may not always be reliable, but I’m able to sort through the crap to find what I’m looking for, just like you would with any other kind of search.
2. From the competitive business standpoint, everything you have to offer that your competitor doesn’t gives you a leg up.It’s one more feature that might possibly get you more users.  If it doesn’t get you more users, you can at least brag that you have more services. And if your competitor offers it, you damn well better offer it too.  
3. If it’s out there, it should be findable.  Any information posted online that is publicly accessible should be included in search engines. If you’re posting stuff you don’t want people to find online, then really you should just cancel your ISP, pack up your computer, and go completely off the grid.  Otherwise, it’s fair game if you haven’t taken any measures to protect it and make it private.
4. Because journalists hate it when when websites get stories before they do. I’m all for the little guys beating the big guys.  They’ve hoarded information for years.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

4 Reasons Why Including Social Networking Results is Smart

Recently, @MichDe wrote a post entitled “New Media Concepts, The Digg Bury Brigade and How to Fight it.”

I took a personal interest in this post because I have also recently found myself as the target of a Digg “Bury Brigade.”

As you can see from the screen shot below, when you go to bury an item, you have a few choices. The options are Duplicate Story, Spam, Wrong Topic, Inaccurate, and “OK, This Is Lame.” This means you can simply bury a story if you just don’t “Digg It,” and you can even bury a story without giving a reason.

As Mich explains in his article, Digg has the bury function for a legitimate reason, which is to help combat spam. Unfortunately, he also explained in his post that the biggest problem with the bury function is it has become a weapon for many users. Many users will bury a story simply because they do not like another user. Instead of judging a story based on its merits, they will choose to bury it out of spite. When a group of Diggers acts in unison to bury a story out of spite, this is the “Bury Brigade” in action. Unfortunately, this is happening more frequently, and there is plenty of great content that does not see the light of day because a select few malicious users attacked it with buries.

When publishers take the time to create great content and active users use their time to share this great content, only to have it buried out of spite by a group of Diggers acting in cahoots, it’s unfair to all of Digg’s users, the content publishers and Digg itself. In other words EVERYONE loses!

Now that you know what the “Bury Brigade” is, I’d like to offer three solid ways Digg and @KevinRose can stop the “Bury Brigade” dead in its tracks:

1) Allow it to be publicly seen who is burying a story. If I submit a story, make it visible to see how many buries it has and who has buried the story. This will serve a couple of purposes. If someone was going to bury a story based solely on spite, they will probably think twice before doing it because this will make sure they are publicly willing to stand behind their decision. Also, if they are maliciously burying the same user over and over, this will also be easy for all to see. Other social platforms such as Sphinn and Proppeller have already implemented this system.

2) Digg should monitor group burying practices. In other words, if you have the same group of users routinely burying submissions, then it’s easy to see that they are burying for their own agenda. This should not only be tracked by Digg, but I also think group burying should be a bannable offense. Digg is very active at banning users for a variety of reasons, so I say make this one of the top bannable offenses and we will see how many users want to risk their account in exchange for malicious burying practices.

3) Have a “Digg to Bury” ratio and a maximum number of buries allowed per day. I think a twenty to one ratio is good. This means that you have to Digg at least twenty stories to have the right to bury one. The maximum number of buries allowed per day should be ten. There is no need for any normal user to bury more stories than this, and if they are doing so, then they aren’t making a positive contribution to the platform. While people should be able to vote against a story if they don’t like it or if it’s clearly spam, this limit will help keep any abuse in check. Since Digg imposed a limit on the number of stories users can Digg per day, it seems logical that they would also put a burying limit in place. If someone is aggressively burying stories then the behavior is clearly more abusive than helpful.

If you like the ideas presented in this post, please help us spread the message by tweeting the following:

RT @KevinRose 3 Ways Digg Can Stop the “Bury Brigade” Dead in Its Tracks! http://bit.ly/2lFI8U

Also, please be sure to cast your vote in the poll below:

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3 Ways Digg Can Stop the “Bury Brigade” Dead in Its Tracks!

Earlier last week, and with much anticipation (from me anyway), Facebook launched their new ad manager. I was lucky enough to get access to the beta, but I have to admit that I’m very disappointed with the new interface. Which is way worse than being angry, right?

According to Facebook, the new ad manager includes “in-line editing capabilities, improved navigation and search abilities”. I’ll admit that the in-line editing capabilities are a big step up from the previous interface, but adding a search box and the ability to edit multiple ads simultaneously just isn’t quite what I had in mind from this juggernaut.

I would love to see Facebook step it up and really take advantage of their potential, but at a minimum, the new interface leaves me wishing for more. For example:

• How about a simple “view status” filter? The interface is still messy and it would be nice to clean it up by being able to view active ads only.
• How about custom or trended stats without having to run a report? Or at least a “last month” and “month to date” option?
• How about an option to view CPC and cost in the campaign performance graph?
• I’m still waiting for conversion tracking.

I really don’t want to be a hater, as I wrote about Facebook’s ad manager being weak sauce back in May. But let’s be serious, the new ad manager is lamer than Facebook Lite and the changes made are so minimal that it’s not even worth having a beta.

This flimsy launch is just the latest in a string of issues that I feel will contribute to the inevitable downward spiral so typical in the world of social media. Last month, the NY Times came out with a thought provoking article surrounding Facebook’s shelf life. Apparently there are a small but growing number of users jumping ship for a variety of reasons but namely, privacy concerns. The article examines how the novelty has worn off now that everyone has “been found”, and that users are increasingly concerned about privacy, (which they are regularly reminded about by ads that are getting eerily more and more personal). Like the recent Gmail one that dynamically inserted my first name in the headline and plastered it to the sidebar of my FB profile page.

MySpace followed the same trend:  got creepy and spammy and users started to feel violated. And so they moved on to Facebook, a space that – at the time – was much more private.

And so between the lame new ad manager, growing privacy concerns and historical trends the way I see it, Facebook is heading towards a much less engaged audience within the next year. Unless they hurry up and bring it, Zuckerberg will be forced to reactively deal with the repercussions.

Rachel Andersen works for the Portland based SEM agency Anvil Media, Inc. She has expertise in all aspects of search engine marketing and specializes in SEO for large sites. Andersen has been responsible for the development and execution of dozens of search and social marketing campaigns over her time spent with Anvil.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Are You There Facebook? It’s Me, Rachel