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Basic SEO for Facebook Fan Pages
Many have tried, and failed, to write a good post about how to SEO a Facebook fan page. For example, optimizing the filename of your profile picture is one popular piece of advice that doesn't really matter, considering Facebook just renames the file something like 198135_10150109366....jpg. Another popular tip: you should link to your main website from your Facebook page. Yes, you should for visitors. But this doesn't optimize your fan page because Facebook just nofollows, redirects, and clusters your URL in a mess of code anyway. So let's take a different approach to Facebook SEO today. I want you to imagine that your Facebook fan page is your website - or another website for your brand at least. While it may not ever rank first for a keyword, you still want it to be optimized. If you want to keyword optimize your Facebook fan page, these are the areas...
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Social PR Going SoLoMo: 3 Ways to Optimize
Fish where the fish are. Taking your social PR message to the market works best when you take the message to the mobile market. Today's up and coming market represents the collision of social, local, and mobile media. The numbers translate why mobile marketing was named by many SES Conference speakers as a key component of the future of search. Mobile Soars, PC Crashes Have you looked at the mobile stats on your Google Analytics lately? Android, iPad, and iPhone visits are creeping up the online totem poll...in a three screen kind of way. As experts crown mobile as king, PCs become so yesterday as iPads, iPhones and other mobile devices become the "go to" technology for everyone from business executives to students. Recent numbers reported in a USA Today Money article illustrate a massive shift to handheld devices and for the first time ever, the smartphone market is outpacing...
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Why You Shouldn't Abandon Facebook and Twitter for Google+
There's little doubt that Facebook, Twitter and Google+ form the 'Big Three' of the social media world. While Facebook and Twitter have been around for a while, Google+ is a recent phenomenon that's growing at a scorching pace. While I strongly believe that all of these social networks operate mutually exclusively, there's been no shortage of social media experts and critics who've drawn Google+ vs. Facebook and Google+ vs. Twitter comparisons. Ever since Google+ launched, several public personalities and celebrities have openly announced their intention to abandon Facebook and Twitter in favor of Google+. Several polls (such as this one) indicate that a substantial proportion of users will abandon Facebook for Google+. Similarly, there's no shortage of Google+ admirers who all of a sudden feel that they don't need Twitter any longer. As a social media veteran, I strongly believe it's foolish to abandon Facebook and Twitter in for...
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Social Media Mastery: Wisdom from the Leaders of Coca-Cola
As social media marketers, we're naturally in pursuit of identifying "who is doing it right." We follow the feeds and influencers that help inspire our creativity, guide our approach, and validate our recommendations. We whore out our email addresses in exchange for white papers, register for webinars we can't find time to attend, and maintain an insatiable appetite for research and ROI-proving case studies. In all of this, it's sometimes easy to overlook the lessons learned (and shared) from a single company - even one that's been in business for 125 years. But one thing I've learned about social media is that universal principles apply. Coca-Cola may have far more budget and resources than you - but at least some of the wisdom gained from their leaders and experience can also be ours. Coca-Cola's View on Media As Wendy Clark, SVP of Integrated Marketing and Communication for Coca-Cola will...
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What The Facebook-Skype Deal Means For Your Business
The whole world waited in anticipation for Facebook's "something awesome" event on Wednesday. During the event, Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that Facebook now has more than 750 million active users, there by making it the world's leading social network, and that by some distance. Google+ is a new kid on the block and it remains to be seen whether it can challenge Facebook's might. None the less, the good thing is that Facebook isn't sitting on its current laurels and instead, it's focusing on bringing in more innovative changes to keep its pole position in tact. To that effect, Facebook on Wednesday announced a deal with Skype which would allow users to video chat on Facebook. While most users see it as a new feature that removes the need to login to both apps, it has broader implications for business users. In this post, I walk through the new world of...
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How SEO and Social Media Add Up to Online Marketing Success
Social search, as defined by Wikipedia (everyone's most trusted online source), is "a type of web search method that determines the relevance of search results by considering the interactions or contributions of users." Some marketers have claimed that social search is doing away with traditional search methods and that SEO is dead in the water because of it.But social media and social search are not the magic bullet to online marketing needs. They are just one more piece in the growing arsenal of Internet marketing tools available to SEO professionals. SEO and social media should not exist in separate silos, vying for online dominance. In fact, SEO and social media marketing can be intertwined to create more online brand presence for companies than they could ever do alone.Here are 3 examples of how social media and SEO work together:1. Social promotion of content generates natural linksAccording to Twitter, around 25%...
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Social Spam Hackers to Kill Social Media
Black Hat spammers and malicious cyber criminals have figured out that members of social networking websites are easy marks. The cunning cyber crooks exploit our collective insecurities. We all want to be liked by our social networking friends. So, chances are, quite a few users would automatically click on a legit-looking email notification of new messages or alluring invites. When they do, they are directed to dangerous malware sites that infect their computers and expose them to identity theft. The computer security firm Symantec released a report this week sounding the alarm on the disturbing spike in spam, malware and phishing attacks waged against social network members during the past three-months. And with so many users connecting to social networking sites from work, businesses are at risk as well. Facebook is Favorite Target of Cyber Crooks Symantec found that Facebook members are favorite targets of social network spammers. With more...
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What Google+ Means For Your Business
With all due respect to Google, its social media efforts till date have been nothing to write about. Google Wave was a disaster and Google Buzz made a limited impact. In contrast, Facebook has gone from strength to strength and emerged as the world's leading social network that's fast approaching the 600 million member mark. It's been a bitter pill for the world's leading online search giant to swallow and I expected Google to hit back strongly. Earlier this last week, Google unveiled its latest social media offering - Google+ to the world and since then social media and technology experts have been busy churning out one opinion after the other. Comparisons to Facebook are inevitable and many experts have been quick to claim that Google+ will dethrone Facebook as the numero uno social media phenomenon. I was amongst the quick adopters of Facebook and I've been a Google fan...
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Complete Guide to Facebook Fan Pages
Facebook fan pages are a great way to promote a business, and an important part of any social media marketing plan. Creating a basic page isn't that complicated, but creating a page that fans will like, share, and engage with is a bit trickier. Below, we'll cover how to set up your fan page, finding great apps to use, creating custom content, and more, followed by a roundup of some great fan pages created by some leading companies. Who Needs a Fan Page? I don't think it's going too far to say that virtually every business out there should have a Facebook fan page. Everyone from multi-national conglomerates to local businesses with almost no online presence can benefit from a Facebook fan page. And businesses with a large online presence already can definitely benefit from the added exposure and contact point with customers and fans. Others who should consider a...
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How to Lose Friends and Influence No One
Too many businesses seem to forget customer service and best practice as soon as they venture online. They behave as though any sales behaviour is allowed via the internet. In fact, with so many people relying on the web for shopping, socialising and research, these companies risk alienating huge numbers of people and damaging their corporate reputations. So what kind of bad behaviour is most common and is your organisation guilty? Twitter One of the newer social platforms to be used for online marketing, Twitter is already host to some abysmal practice. Many businesses forget that it's designed to be a social tool and they market at users relentlessly. Of course, an additional danger with Twitter is that people can share their frustrations with their followers very easily, so mis-using this platform can be particularly bad for your reputation. For example, some major brands have been slammed for using popular...
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