Latest Articles

Twitter announces its new Promoted Accounts

October 15, 2010 By Sue Spiker

Recently, Twitter announced the launch of its Promoted Accounts, a new advertising strategy that targets ads to users who might be more inclined to ‘follow’ specific brands.  In short, Twitter will suggest companies to ‘follow’ next to its “Who to Follow” suggestions, both of which will use the same algorithm to determine relevancy for the user.  So for a fee, companies and brands can insert ad links to garner more Twitter followers.

According to Twitter’s Official Blog:

“Promoted Accounts are suggested based on a user’s public list of whom they follow. When an advertiser promotes an account, Twitter’s algorithm looks at that account’s followers and determines other accounts that those users tend to follow. If a user follows some of those accounts, but not the advertiser’s account, then Twitter may recommend the advertiser’s Promoted Account to that user.”

Not everyone will see the new feature at first because Twitter is testing it with only a handful of companies to start.  But despite the smaller introduction, Twitter already has more than 30 customers, including Starbucks, Coca Cola, Bravo, Wall Street Journal and Virgin America to name a few.

And, Twitter executives say that the service has already exceeded expectations.  In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Chief Executive Officer Dick Costolo states “…that on average 5% of Twitter users who saw an ad on the service interacted with it.”  A rate far greater than for most online ad campaigns.

Twitter has also announced two more ad products on the way, Promoted Tweets and Promoted Trends, both scheduled to launch sometime in April.  What’s clear is that Twitter’s finally answering the question that’s hung in the air for a while – how it can make money.

Social Media Spam: The Dark Side of Networking

September 9, 2010 By Sue Spiker

It’s so easy to go overboard implementing the social media part of your link building strategy. Yes, actively participating is essential for growing web traffic, but too much of the wrong kind of participation can result in you being blocked by users and banned by search engines.  All for one simple reason.

No one likes a spammer. And no one wants to be a spammer, but in your zeal to expand your online presence, you can easily cross over to the Dark Side and not even know it.  You can, however, help yourself stay on the straight and narrow if you remember two key basics.

It’s still person-to-person. At the other of end blogs, posts, comments and tweets are living, breathing people.  And when you respond, you’re engaging in a dialogue with them just as if you were talking over coffee.  But if you respond solely to generate links, people will resent your blatant self-promotion, especially on their sites.  And it doesn’t take long before that “Block User” button starts looking really good.

You gain a more faithful following and well-respected online presence by posting on-topic, helpful responses that offer value.

Search engines have rules. And not paying attention to their clearly defined lists of specific activities such as link exchanges and cloaking can earn you a PageRank penalty, reduce your search engine ranking or get you banned altogether.  They also offer contact information so that people can report spam – yet another reason to engage people in a genuine, respectable manner.

So before your next post, tweet, comment or status update, ask yourself, “Does this add value to the conversation or is it just another advertisement?”  If the Twitter bird looks at you with judgment in its eyes, it may be time to rethink your social media strategies or shift some energy towards other aspects of your SEO efforts.

The Social Media Life – Making the Most of It

June 11, 2010 By Sue Spiker

Facebook and Twitter aren’t just for teenagers anymore – today’s social media sites now offer legitimate marketing tools as well.  And with leading sites attracting a significant number of visitors each day, social media has become a key player in today’s marketing plan.

But before you dive straight in, develop a targeted strategy just as you would for any other aspect of your business.  It’s easy to get carried away once you get started, so stick to your plan and make it work.

• Prioritize. Focus on sites that are most likely to help generate business leads.
• Choose the right avatar. It’s your social media logo, and a good picture is worth 1,000 words.
• Be active.  Interact with your users instead of just creating a static site.  People appreciate consistent responsiveness.

As cost efficiency and user-friendly formats drive their popularity forward, the number of social media sites is growing.  But not every site offers the same format or function.

• Content Posting – Share visual media such as videos and photos.  (YouTube and flickr)
• Networking – Connect with friends, family and colleagues.  (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn)
• Bookmarking – Store, organize, search, manage and share bookmarks of webpages.  (del.ici.ous, Ma.gnolia and Furl)
• Sharing – Recommend business-related or news worthy links.  (Digg, Diigo, Stumbleupon, Reddit and BizzBites)

With more and more people integrating social media into their daily lives, we have seen only the tip of the iceberg.  Coming up, we’ll be looking at some possible benefits of paid advertisement through one of the most popular social media sites.