According to the DigiDay article called “Agencies Ditch Blogs,” social media will conquer blogs. “With the rise of social media, businesses are blogging less. That goes for agencies, too, which are increasingly turning their backs on their blogs in favor of platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and newer kids on the block like Instagram and Pinterest.” The article went on to quote Sam Weston (director of communications at digital marketing agency, Huge): “Nobody reads agency blogs, and there are so many out there it’s impossible for people to keep up anyway. We put ours on hiatus while we figure out what we want to do with it. We do use Facebook and Twitter. We’ve figured out what works for us there.”

There is a reason agency blogs are read, because they are producing great content that people want to read. There are blogs out there that get an astronomical amount of attention, so before we say blogging has lost to social media, think again. However, I won’t argue that there is tons of content that may not be worthy of reading at all and that’s fine, but blogging can benefit businesses in ways that Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn cannot.

If you are a frequent blogger you may ask yourself why are you even blogging? Well unlike social media, it is your own private space that no other person or business can have authority over. So the content you write or feedback that is posted is all in your control. Pretty powerful huh?

Another beneficial reason for blogging is its good for search engine optimization. This is the type of content search engines are looking for, which can be rewarded with improved rankings. Since blogs are and should be frequently updated, they tend to get crawled by search engines more quickly. Not only can it enhance your rankings but it can also build an online community. This can be good for business, add a personal touch to your company, and allow users to see you are human.

While all these may seem like great ideas to get back out there and produce fresh content, think of why you are really writing. Most people write because they want to be heard, have an opinion or have something to say, right? You want people to believe that you are truly invested in the industry or topic. People don’t want to read the same topics that can be found on every other blog similar to yours. So, what sets you a part from the rest? This will not only differentiate you from your competitors but create strong loyal readers as well.

Reevaluate why you came to the blogging world to begin with. It’s not about just getting fresh content out there or to create a following. It is much more than meets the eye. Connect with others who are just as passionate about your industry or topic, and hopefully that will trigger why you got into blogging in the first place. All the rest will fall into place, such as increased rankings, attract potential clients, and building a following. These things although may be done on social platforms, they lack in being able to build a web presence, and create visible links with other networks. So, don’t trash the blog just yet, it can be more useful than you think.

While there is no exact formula for this as of yet, successful brands on social media sites will engage their fans through content and conversation on their pages, as well as through the fun and interactive applications available on the social media platforms themselves.

Following are some steps, advice, as well as a guide on how to gain a stronger social media presence and build “social media links.” This information is also based off of what I have found to make the most sense in regards to what seems to be the purpose of what social media optimization and marketing is for in the first place.

1.  The person needs to spread his or her content onto social media sites.  These can be ways to get what you want to talk about out to a wider audience.  Now how can that affect search engine optimization (SEO)?  If you get hundreds of followers, one of them can write a blog post or give you a link that can eventually flow page rank or send more visitors to your site through the social media site itself (in other words, you initially met the person through the social media site and they added a link to your website.)

2.  You need to spread great content.  This means you have to have some reason why people would want to link to you, and then you need to tell people about it by following Step 1.

3.  You need to know and follow people who are of “quality,” and people who follow you need to be “quality” people.  You need to know who you are talking to by doing Step 2 correctly.

4.  Social media networks should be used to build conversation or a social presence with these “quality” people noted in Step 3.  Simply put, the ability to use non-personal communication (marketing) to build a relationship is a must for this step.  Like face-to-face conversation in your store, you can use social marketing or optimization in order to capture, engage, and turn these followers into profitable leads.  Social media balance equals a little bit of personal, a little bit of business.  People care about you being genuine online, social media users want to talk to real people, not robots.

a.  Users want to engage with stories not necessarily Ads because stories are more conversational and participatory.

b.  Content can be promoted from a social media site—on the social media site—directly from a page via a sponsored or promoted story.  This works especially well on Facebook.

Before a person goes out and spends money to get more “likes” and “follows” for his or her company, it’s important to have a plan for how you will retain and engage those fans.  No social media optimization (SMO) strategy can be successful unless there is the right amount of involvement from the company.  In other words, the company must be/should be active in their SMO campaign.

Some ideas to promote your brand on social media include offering:

1.  Discounts

2.  Coupons

3.  Offers

4.  Polls

5.  Pictures

6.  Questions

7.  Contests

8.  Newsletter Sign-up

9.  Something Free

Social media “link building” can be a part of a natural search campaign, but ultimately it is not replacing SEO link building anytime soon.  Social is important in sending out the right signals to the correct people in order to stimulate their engagement with your company, but it has not entirely replaced the role of trusted and quality links linking to your website that happens during the SEO process.

Inevitably, websites are still winning and having your brand on social media sites should expand its authority, but how do you make your social media sites have “a lot of links” and what can be the “value” of a social link to a particular social media site anyway?   These are questions I still find unanswered, and I’m open to comments and ideas

No, it has nothing to do with the Flyers beating up on the Penguins in the playoffs, but instead your ranking on Google could have gotten pretty beat up!

Well if you did not, you should learn about it.

Google recently changed their algorithm again to keep website owners and SEO companies on their toes.  More than that, they want to make sure that SEO companies are using the best practices to get your website ranked in the search engines.  The Penguin update targeted web spamming as a way to decrease your rankings for violating Google’s website and SEO guidelines.

Google also wants to make sure that you have good and unique quality content on your website so that the end user (the person that finds you in a search) will get good results when they do a search.  The end user’s experience is still Google’s main priority because they want them to keep coming back to Google to see good search results.

A Few Things That They Cracked Down On Pretty Hard Were:

Keyword Stuffing:  Excessive repetition of a keyword on a page; hiding keywords with text the same color as the background to hide it from users; using “no script tags” to hide content; and more.

Cloaking:  This is when you try to manipulate the search engine spider with different content and information than what is actually in the browser.  It will be totally different content then what shows up in the actual search compared to what the spiders see. They do this to display a page that is user friendly, but have it come back for relevance in that they tricked Google to bring it back when it does not to deserve to through good SEO practices.

Duplicate Content:  If you have blogs or websites with the same content stolen from other websites, or anything with the same type of content, it is not good!  Google will penalize you for this.  Your intentions could have either have been on purpose, or by accident, but either way duplicate content can and will hurt you!

Proper Links:  Google wants to make sure that the links you are building are good links.  They should not link to web spammers; you should not have excessive reciprocal links, and you should not be buying or selling links.  They want the links you build to be relevant and good!

This was just a brief overview of some important factors in this update.  If your rankings suffered from this update, we can help.  Contact us today, we are the leader amongst not only  Philadelphia SEO companies, but one of the top SEO companies in the United States!

These days, plagiarism and copyright infringement committed on the Internet is a big issue.  Not only can you confront the offender who stole your content via a DMCA takedown notice, but the offending website could be penalized by Google, seriously damaging its search engine rankings.  A website can even go so far as being banned from the search results because of the duplicated content!

Wondering if your content has ever been stolen?  Google Copyscape.  Ultimately, Copyscape is your ideal online plagiarism detective and will help you find out if someone has stolen your content.

Worried that you may have committed Internet plagiarism or copyright infringement?

Well, knowing what copyright is will help you realize just how serious a crime it may be if you have committed copyright infringement.  According to Wikipedia.org’s definition of copyright, “Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time. Generally, it is ‘the right to copy,’ but also gives the copyright holder the right to be credited for the work, to determine who may adapt the work to other forms, who may perform the work, who may financially benefit from it, and other related rights.”  Wikipedia defines it perfectly and nearly flawlessly because it informs the reader that if he or she copies someone else’s work, he or she may end up having some serious legal issues.

To stay clear of encountering any copyright issues while you’re writing a blog or content for a website, you can follow these two tips:

1. NEVER just do the old copy and paste!

When it comes to blogging and content writing you should want to build your own reputation as an expert within your field.  How would you be able to educate yourself if you just copy and paste the information onto your website or blog?  Of course you should read the original blog or article, but you should also be digesting the information and be able to formulate your own opinions, thoughts, or experiences in response to the topic.  Also, copying and pasting another blog into your own blog will bring forth copyright issues.  If the original author sees your post they can file a DMCA takedown notice.  Imagine what receiving one of those would be like?  How would that affect your reputation as being a trusted source of information and expert within your field?  Inevitably, please just don’t be lazy, think about what you are doing (writing) before you do it.

2. Cite or link back to the work you used if you want to include it in your blog or article, especially if it is word for word.

Giving the original author some credit by providing a link back to his or her original article will often excuse you from committing copyright infringement.  However, citing another work also means that you should be offering your opinion or thoughts on what the original author had to say.  When it all comes down to it (again) you should not be taking the easy way out, in other words, just don’t be lazy!  No one wants to end up being the idiot when they were trying to be the expert!

I am going to talk about a crucial benefit to having and writing blogs on your website.  Did you ever hear anyone say, “Google loves fresh content?”  How do you feel about that?  Do you think that means you need to change the content on your website every month?  If so, you are 100% wrong.  The value of having a blog in your website is this:  It pumps fresh content into your website and it basically invites Google to come out and crawl as well as index your website more often. Combined with a good SEO strategy, this is an effective way to make Google find your website more relevant for keywords and key phrases.  Blogging also helps your overall web presence and brings more people to your website looking to do business with you.

Not many people are going to read your blog on your website, and not many people are going to find your blog post out there on the web, but it will allow Google to cache your site and find you relevant for search when someone is looking for your type of product or service online.

So blog away!  It can’t hurt, only help!

-Dave DiPaolo

So, why now? Why write a blog now about what has so far been a topic-less blog? Other than the fact that Lora is now threatening me with physical harm and Dave Dipaolo is putting up a fuss “Why do I have to write them….yadda yadda yadda” I realize the importance of fresh content and staying abreast in one’s own industry.  Is it cliché to write a blog about blogging? Who cares! Let’s have some fun with it!

Blogging is an essential part of any good Internet Marketing strategy. There are technical reasons, along with several end user reasons for writing an industry related blog on your website. I am going to focus on the end user reasons; user experience is becoming kind of my thing.

For one thing, blogging shows the end user that you are a voice within your industry. This instills confidence because when a potential customer calls you for your product or service, you are up-to-date with what is going on in your field. Personally, for example, if I am looking up an electrician I don’t want someone who goes by the electrical codes of 1996!  Another point is that it is the prime opportunity to direct people into the meat and bones of your main website! While you are discussing a topic, you can easily set up links that drive people to content that you want them to read and react to.  I will give you an example here…Website Design… See!  Wasn’t that easy!?

The main point is to have fun. You have to enjoy discussing topics in your industry to write a successful blog article. If you show passion about your field, it will reflect in your writing. The more you can look like a hero on your website, the more you will look like a hero to your future clients.

‘Till next time…  Cheers!

Setting up a page is simple. Just provide an email address, your name, a biography, and any tags you would like to include (such as links to Social Media). Once you create your page you can customize it by editing your bio, including contact information, uploading a photo, changing font colors and sizes, and including any other information you would like to share about yourself.

In your bio you can share what your expertise is, describe past experiences, jobs, and other qualifications. You could describe what it is that moves you, what you do in your spare time, share a favorite quote – anything that communicates what it is that makes you interesting. You can always go back and edit the page at any time, update your information, choose a new background, etc. If you know HTML you can even enter your own code to make it even more personal.

To monitor your page, in the dashboard you can see how many views and clicks your page has had as well as how many links there are to your page. With this tool, you can see how many new visitors your site has had as well as the amount of time visitors spend on your site. This allows you to track the success of your site and gauge whether or not you need to up the efforts to encourage traffic.

To get more visitors, put a link in your email signature, share on other Social Media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin, YouTube, FourSquare, and Instagram. You can submit your page to search engines or buy adwords so people can find you easily.

In order to optimize SEO on your page, it is important to know that the two name fields are your Title tag. Try putting your name in the first one and a few keywords in the second, such as Social Media Expert. These will become your <h1> and your, <h2> tags, each important for SEO. The next step is to include keywords in your bio. The first 157 words of this section become your meta tag and will aid in improving your placement in the search results. It’s free and with a little bit of work can be very beneficial to your personal branding.

So, how are they similar?

Google+ ultimately allows businesses to create company pages and develop relationships with fans and followers just like Facebook does.

On Google+, a basic user can also add a company or brand to one of his or her circles (similar to liking a page on Facebook) and then he or she can interact with the content posted by that company.

How are they different?

One of the major differences between the two platforms is that Google+ gives a user the option to “+1” something.  In other words, a user can endorse a company’s content—similar to “liking” something on Facebook, but Google takes note of the content “+1’d” by the user.  In all, giving a company a “+1” may affect its search engine ranking results (those with more “+1’s” may just rank higher on Google!)

So, how can you optimize your business presence on Google+?

Just think about what you are doing for your Facebook business page, but if you are still scratching your head over the matter, here are some ideas to help your Google+ social media optimization strategy:

1. Post and share lots of pictures and photos—people love to look at photos and sift through albums, so the more they see, the more they will notice your business and what you have to offer (+ what you are all about!)
2. Encourage people to share your content by posting engaging and thought-provoking content, in other words, give those who have added you to their circles something to talk about!
3. Host a hangout or a video chat—this is one of the few things that distinguish Google+ from other social networks.  Google+ enables live video conference calls, so reach out to your fans and potential customers by showing how transparent you are!  Host a Q&A about something in regards to your business.
4. Promote your company’s Google+ page on your blog, website, Facebook, Twitter, or any other platform you can think of!

If you are looking to add Google+ to your social media optimization strategy, the easiest way to handle it would be as if it were another Facebook business page.  After all, Google+ and Facebook are pretty much the same thing—social networks that are there to help you engage with your fans and followers!

The new platform for Facebook advertising is known as “Facebook Premium” and it offers a number of new ways to reach users through advertisements. Any advertisement bought through Facebook Premium can now be placed on both mobile and desktop and will be displayed in new places on Facebook pages. On January 11^th Facebook began to share advertisements on desktop News Feeds, and on February 29^th the News Feed advertisements began to appear on mobile devices as well.  Then, beginning in April, ads became available on the logout screen through both mobile and desktops. These logout ads are able to target all Facebook users rather than just fans of the brand. With over half of its users on mobile devices, the mobile advertisements are highly valuable to Facebook. Another change brought about in April was that all brands and businesses were changed to the Timeline format. These new “pages” are where you control your business, and through this format, all activity such as status updates or posts can be made into an advertisement and shown on both desktop and mobile News Feeds. Companies also have the option of using Facebook Offers, which allow businesses to share discounts and promotions with its fans that will appear as a News Feed post.

The strategy behind the new method of advertising on Facebook is based on the goal of making ads equal to content. The goal is to make the ads more organic and less obtrusive to viewers. Through Facebook Premium, ads are now shared as stories, meaning Facebook activity is communication rather than being a traditional advertisement. The company pays for their stories to be featured to people who have liked their page. Users can also see featured stories from companies their friends have liked and if someone likes a page, checks into a location, or the company shares a post it will show up on their friend’s page as a sponsored story, increasing your reach and visibility. Through this new method, ads can be seen by 75% of fans per month and about 50% of fans per week whereas a typical post only reached 16% of fans.

There are a number of formats that will be used for these new advertisements, and each has its own purpose and features. The first type is a Premium Like Ad. This type of ad shows a user how many of their friends have liked a page and if none of their friends have, it shows the number of fans who like the page. This type of advertisement encourages users to take action because of the trust that is built though seeing a friend’s name associated with the ad, it makes them seem more like an update or organic content, rather than a paid advertisement. The second type of ad is a Premium Poll Ad. This ad asks the user a question and provides 2 or 3 options for a response. Once a user votes, they can see the results from other voters including how their friends voted. If they have liked the brand this ad may show up in their news Feed. The next type is called a Premium Event Ad. Through this ad, a company can invite users to events, and if the user responds they can then invite their friends and include a personal message. The act of them RSVP’ing to an event will show up on the News Feeds of their friends, which again encourages further action from a wider audience. Another typed of ad is the Premium Sampling Ad. This is a simple advertisement that provides a call to action. The user simply provides shipping information and will then receive a free sample, offering an easy way for a brand to encourage action from its audience. The last type of ad is a Premium Video Comment Ad. This advertisement allows companies to share videos that viewers can then like or comment on. Users can share the video and their comments or likes may appear in the News Feed of their friends.

Targeting features are now being tested with a small number of advertisers, allowing them to specify objectives, such as obtaining likes or clicks, as well as specifying both precise and general interests along with age, gender, and location in order to try to reach the target audience. News Feed ads have a 5-10x higher click through rate than standard ads, so with the additional ability to target as much or as little as needed, the new Facebook advertising options could be highly beneficial to companies.

Facebook says these forms of advertisement will help to double engagement and create twice as much value for brands. All paid ads are labeled as “Sponsored” but are designed to appear to look like all other content. The goal of these advertisements is to increase the number of people interacting with the company. It works for companies because it creates trust, and ads feel more like a suggestion from a friend rather than a paid advertisement. In the end, the new forms of advertising available on Facebook will help to effectively reach target audiences and increase visibility among users.

First thing to look at is if whether or not people are commenting on your blogs. If your posts are “hearing crickets” than its time to figure out why there is no traffic. Evaluate your content. Is it being too broad? Too narrow? These are things to consider fixing in order to address your target audience properly. A simple addition at the end of your blog could do the trick, asking questions may encourage readers to interact. Also, don’t be afraid to promote your blog on every web channel that you have, leaving your followers and readers no choice but to notice your new posts.

A crucial part in becoming more interactive with your viewers is to entice conversation. If you are constantly self promoting, people will be inclined to tune you out. If readers are not engaging on their own try sharing their content in good faith or mentioning them in a post.

Lastly, are you wondering why no one is visiting your site? Check your bounce rate, if it is extremely high this could mean you have some tweaking to do. You may rank well, but if people don’t stay on your page then you may not have what they are looking for. So, make sure your content is relevant and being optimized for search engines, there is no doubt this will increase your visibility in search inquiries. Another helpful tip would be to research your top competitors sites to see what they are doing.

Before investing time and effort into increasing your communication and interaction with potential customers, figure out where your target audience is residing. What websites do they visit, social or otherwise, and distribute your content there. By identifying these key places, you will be able to increase your exposure, target the correct audience, and engage with your readers. And remember; spend as much time monitoring activity as you do sharing the content!