Are you credible? Do you have the knowledge and expertise on the topic for which you are trying to be influential? TSN Hockey analyst Bob McKenzie has an enormous influence on hockey fans through his Twitter account (with over 209,000 followers), blog and TV programs. Why? Because for the last 25 years, MacKenzie has lived and breathed hockey at every level in all corners of the earth. He is extremely credible on his topic of influence, hockey.

Trust

How much will you trust someone you’ve never met in person? Would you ever buy a product because someone online told you to? Gary Vaynerchuk is a great example of someone who has used a transparency and honesty to develop a strong level of trust among his followers. Vaynerchuk is well known for his video podcast “Wine Library TV” which featured weekly episodes in which he would sit behind a table and reviews wines. Vaynerchuk’s honest and laid back style during these episodes gained him a large following and turned him into one of the most influential wine reviewers in the world.

Relevance

Are you giving your audience what they are looking for? A lot of people fail to achieve a great deal of influence becuase they miss the target here – their audience is misaligned and their message is all over the map. I am a reader Avinash Kaushik‘s blog – he is influential on me. Why? Becuase he blogs about analytics. That’s it. That’s why I follow him, and that’s what I expect to read when he writes a new post. If one day he decided to blog about horse racing, I would be confused and I would leave. Relevance is huge.

Timing

Timing is key. Can you deliver your message to your audience in a timely fashion? Sometimes being timely can make or break your influence with a certain audience. I rarely use the same example twice in one blog post, but this is an exeption. I’m going to use Bob MacKenzie again for this one. He is always the first one to report anything hockey – a trade, suspension, a healthy scratch, what Daniel Alfredsson is having for lunch…okay maybe not that much, but his ability to report detailed hockey news in an extremely timely fashion is staggering – and one of the main reasons I follow him religiously on Twitter.

Alignment

Are you in the right place? Aligning your message with your target audience is one of the most overlooked aspects of building influence.  Should you be using Twitter? LinkedIn? Google +? Take Justin Bieber for example. He went from a simple teenager in a small Canadian town to one of the World’s most famous and influential pop stars by using YouTube. His target audience (probably 95% teenage girls) are heavy users of the video sharing site. He is the perfect example of gaining influence through strategic alignment.

Measuring your Influence

So how much influence do you actually have? Who do you influence? What topics are you influencial on? Well there are a few free tools out there that help you determine your online influence. The most well known is probably Klout. If you haven’t heard of Klout, here is how they describe themselves:

The Klout Score measures influence based on your ability to drive action. Every time you create content or engage you influence others. The Klout Score uses data from social networks in order to measure: True Reach (how many people you influence), Amplification (how much you influence them) and Network Impact (the influence of your network). 

So first of all, Klout will give you an overall score – mine is 54. Secondly, they provide you with a Klout Style – I am a specialist – meaning that I am “not necessarily a celebrity, but within my area of expertise my opinion is second to none. My content is likely focused around a specific topic or industry with a focused, highly-engaged audience.”

Klout then breaks down individual scores for the three aforementioned elements: True Reach, Amplification and Network Impact. They also provide a list of topics for which you are influential. Apparently, within my network, I am influential about Small Business, Media, Beer, Ottawa, Facebook and SmartPhones. I can then break it down even further. I can see which specific people I influence the most, and on which topics. Similarly, I can see who influences me the most, and on which topics. For example, my biggest influencer is Chris Brogan, and he influences me on Blogging, Social Media and Marketing.

Understanding your influence is key to Social Media success. Are you in the right place? Are you influencing who you want to be? Are you missing the mark? Tracking my Klout score has personally helped me fill in the gaps where I am missing out, and realign my Social Media strategy.

How will you become influential using Social Media?

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The Importance of Social Media Influence is a post from: SEO Ottawa | Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Agency | WebFuel

Not only does Facebook now have over 800 million users worldwide, but earlier this month half a billion people used Facebook in a single day. Now that’s a lot of traffic. Not only have sign ups and visits increased for Facebook, but so has engagement. Social Networking has become a ubiquitous tool used by millions of people around the world to stay connected. Now that all of these connections are in place, we are entering a new era of Social Apps and engagement.

A noticeably excited Zuckerberg takes the stage and begins to describe the new updates to Facebook.

Timeline

Zuckerberg begins by explaining that the Profile is the heart of Facebook and that people have a very strong ownership over it. All of the changes to Facebook over the years have been centered around the Profile and as it evolved, people shared more than just their basic information – who you are, where are you from, where did you go to school. Now people are sharing many more tidbits about their lives – photos, stories, experiences etc. The problem is that as more sharing occurred, those stories vanished at a faster rate. Up until now, you would have to go back and search for those updates. All of the most important moments that you have shared were buried away somewhere.

Introducing Timeline.

Timeline is the story of your life, and it had 3 main components. All your stories, all your apps, and a new way to express who you are. Zuckerberg claims that with Timeline, you can tell the whole story of your life on a single page in a very intuitive and visual manner. You now have the ability to jump to any moment in your life and see what was most important to you then. For example, you can quickly and easily go back to the summer of 2007 and see updates, photos, comments, links, etc. that tell the story of what you were up to in that period of time. Furthermore, you can also add content into the past. If you recently came across a photo from a wedding a few year back, you can scroll to that moment in time and add it to your personal Timeline.

With Timeline came a new type of content: Major Life Events. With this, you can add just that – major events in your life. Marriage, baby, graduation, new pet, bought a house, etc. Another new feature rolled out with Timeline is Map. This allows you to show on a map where you have been and when. For instance I can show that I have spend a lot of my life in Ottawa – but also that I made a lot of trips to Vermont to ski, went to Chicago and Boston last summer, spent 3 weeks in California when I was a teenager, lived in New Jersey as a kid and spent four years in school in Lennoxville.

Social Apps

In order to help Timeline reach it’s full potential, Facebook has also introduced a whole new class of Social Apps. Now this is really cool. Zuckerberg explains that people love using apps to express themselves. With this new series of apps, you can easily share what you’re doing. In the past you could “Like” things. Well now there is a whole series of verbs you can use to share what you are doing with your friends on these Social Apps. For example there will be Social Apps to share what you are watching on Netflix, what you are listening to on Spotify and what you are cooking using Foodily. Zuckerberg believes that Facebook is no longer a Social Network, but rather a platform for story telling. The integration of Timeline and Social Apps will better allow users to share the story of their lives – and give them the power to be the curator.

Ticker

With the introduction of sharing via Social Apps comes some problems. People don’t want to overshare with their friends. They don’t want to annoy them by flooding their News Feed. This is where Ticker comes in. Ticker is a lightweight stream. It is a smaller, live rolling feed of lighter, maybe less important items that your friends are sharing and it will show up on the upper right hand side of your News Feed. The idea is that maybe an item in the Ticker will catch someone’s attention, but since it is constantly streaming, that information won’t overload or annoy your friends.

So what kind of Social Apps will their be? Zuckerberg defines 4 types of apps. The first two naturally appear on the more social end of the spectrum: Communication and Games. But now, Facebook hopes to introduce two more types of apps that are also social by nature: Media and Lifestyle. These apps will accomplish two things. First, it will help you fill out your timeline and secondly, it will help you discover new things through your friends. This will be accomplished in three ways:

1. Frictionless Experience – When using new Open Graph apps you will be able to add your activity to your Timeline without being prompted to do so every single time. This falls into your lightweight activity. The whole idea is that if you adding a Social App, you inherently want to be sharing that activity. That is why the middle step (the prompt to share) will be eliminated. For example, if you add the Spotify App to your Timeline, every time you listen to a song it will be shared on your Timeline automatically. And, of course, you have the ability to set your privacy settings. Frictionless Experience.
2. Real Time Serendipity – This is where the discovery comes in. If your friend is listening to a song, you can hover over that item on your Ticker and join in and listen to that same song with them. This will be added your Ticker so that your friends can see what you are listening to.
3. Finding Patterns – So let’s say you are interested in a particular friend’s music taste. You probably don’t want to spend the time searching through every song they have ever listened to – you want to see a summary of the songs, bands, albums, and genres of music they listen to. By looking at patterns in your friends activity, you can discover a lot of cool new things.

As you listen to a song with a friend, you can live chat with them about that item. It’s very intuitive, and very cool. This is a great way to learn new things about your friends – their likes and interests, and things you have in common. Zuckerberg believes that developers are not only using Open Graph to rethink music, but to rethink the whole music industry. They are beginning to move away from blocking you from listening to songs that you havent bought yet, and towards allowing you to discover so much more new music that you will eventually buy. And who better to give you a recommendation on a song or new band than a friend who you trust.

But it goes beyond music. Open Graph can even be used to discover other new content like TV shows, books, movies, recipes, etc.

Zuckerberg finishes by stating that “We exist at the intersection between technology and social issues. The next five years will be defined by apps and the depth of social engagement.”

It will be interesting to see these new features rolled out and the reaction from users. Will people get overwhelmed by these changes? Or will they take the time to learn how they can improve their overall social experience on Facebook?

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Facebook f8: Zuckerberg Announces Updates is a post from: SEO Ottawa | Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Agency | WebFuel

Impressive Growth

So now that Google+ has been around for a month, users have begun to wrap their head around the new tool. After just 16 days, Google+ had reached the 10 million member mark, much faster than both Twitter and Facebook had (780 days and 852 days respectively.) Today Google+ has surpassed the 20 million member mark, but growth is slowing down.

So how has Google+ been able to gain users at such an impressive rate? I believe the answer is two fold. First, Google is already an extremely well-established and trusted brand on the web. Millions of people worldwide already have Gmail accounts and use Google Search daily. Secondly, Facebook and Twitter have already broken the Social Media mold. Back in the mid 2000′s Social Media was much newer to society. Facebook and Twitter were forced to prove the usefulness of Social Media to the world. Because of their efforts and popularity, Google+ is finding it much easier to break into the market. Furthermore, many people used Facebook and Twitter to share the news about their newest competitor with others. In fact, Hitwise reported that within the first 2 weeks of Google+’s launch, there were almost 2 millions Tweets on the subject.

Who is using Google+?

According to Hitwise, in the early stages Google+ has been dominated by young adults with almost 40% of all visits coming from the 25-34 age bracket. Initially Google+ was primarily male, with over 85% of the visits in the first two weeks coming from men, but that number has since dropped to 57%. Where in the World are these users coming from? Not surprisingly, the United States boasts the most amount of Google+ users as far as countries go with 5.31 million. India comes in second with 2.85 million and the U.K. in third with 0.88 million with Canada (Yes, Canada) slightly behind at 0.87 million. This should not be a surprise as Canadians are among the most engaged and connected individuals in the World.

What Differentiates Google+?

So really, what makes Google+ different from other Social Networks such as Facebook and Twitter? While many people have questioned why Google has entered this extremely saturated and competitive market, Google feels as if they have developed a competitive advantage by learning from others’ mistakes.

Google believes that most Social Networks have failed at making it easy to find friends, whereas Google+’s Circles feature is fun and addictive. Google says that by making Circles visual, personal and video game like, users will enjoy and even crave to find friends on Google+.

Secondly, while other sites have tried to integrate video chat, Google+ has perfected it with Hangouts. This feature was designed to be less formal than traditional one-on-one video chats with the goal of creating a more relaxed environment where friends can literally hang out with each from anywhere around the world. The Google+ team envisions people having virtual parties and playing games over Hangouts, instead of the traditional two-person conversation that so many people engage in.

Over the past few years we have all seen Twitter and Facebook battle with never ending privacy issues. However, Google+ claims that they have privacy settings are second to none. ”We want to appeal to the mainstream user who has a low tolerance for complexity,” Google+ designer Andy Hertzfeld says, “and at the same time we have to respect privacy as strongly as possible. So every feature has privacy implications that we thought out.”

Finally, Google+’s Instant Upload feature allows users to share content with their friends faster than ever before. True to its name, Instant Upload automatically uploads content such as photos literally instantly.

Moving Forward

With the introduction of the Google+ iPhone app last week, Google continues it’s pursuit of Social Media supremacy. The app, which is very clean and intuitive, soared to the top of Apple’s most downloaded list within 24 hours of it’s launch.

But what does all this mean for your business? While Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are used by millions of businesses worldwide, Google+ had asked that businesses refrain from creating profiles – for the time being. Google+ has begun disabling accounts created by businesses while they work on developing a platform that will allow businesses to use Google+ to interact with customers on the Social Network. Google+ product manager Christian Oestlien provided users with this update on business profiles last week.

So for now, businesses must play the waiting game. While this main seem like a pain, here at WebFuel we think it will be worth the wait. Expect for the business profiles to be designed not only aesthetically pleasing, but also with fully integrated analytics and highly sophisticated sharing options. And knowing Google, it will be fully integrated with Search. It promises to be worth the wait.

In the meantime, get yourself a personal profile on Google+. Play around with it – familiarize yourself with the interface, its functionality and features such as Circles, Hangouts and Instant Upload. The more comfortable you become with Google+ now, the easier it will to incorporate your business profile later this fall.

Are you on Google+? What are your initial thoughts? Does it really have what it takes to overtake Facebook and Twitter?

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Google+: Initial Reaction and Moving Forward is a post from: SEO Ottawa | Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Agency | WebFuel

Here at WebFuel we are extremely proud to be Canadian. We also love Social Media. So when a company like Ipsos releases a report that combines two of our passions, we get excited! It’s no secret that Canadians embrace the Internet and technology. For years we have been early adopters and heavy users of a variety of online technologies; including Social Media. According to recent report from Ipsos, Canadians are continuing to embrace Social Media at an increasing rate.

Social Media Use in Canada

Half of Canadians are on Social Networks – and 60% of all Canadians online are there as well. To put that in perspective, that’s over 17 million people across our great nation. While the number of Canadians on Social Networks has only grown by 4% since 2009, the frequency of Social Media use amongst Canadians is on the rise – big time. In 2010, 35% of online Canadians visited a Social Media site at least once a week – that number has now grown to 50%. Furthermore, in 2011 35% of online Canadians visited a Social Networking site everyday; a number that was only 19% a year ago. While 15% of Canadians stated that they use Social Media less than they did a year ago, 35% say that the time spent has increased.

There is a stereotype out there that Social Media is only for male teenagers and young adults. It’s no surprise that the 18-34 year old demographic is by far the heaviest users of Social Media in Canada, with 86% of that age range active on Social Networks. But older age ranges have significantly increased their Social Networking activity in recent years. Almost 2/3 of 35-54 year olds and over 40% of those over the age of 55 in Canada are now actively using Social Media. This isn’t to say that Social Media in Canada is getting “older”, but it is expanding its reach among the entire population.

And sorry guys, but the women take the cake on this one. 37% of online Canadian women say that they visit a Social Media site at least once a day, compared to only 24% of online Canadian men.

Who is the Canadian Social Media King?

There’s no surprise here – for years Facebook has dominated the Social Media game not only in Canada, but all over the world. With over 750 million users worldwide, Facebook continues to be king. In fact, 86% of all Canadians using Social Media are on Facebook. But they are not the only player in the game – we can’t forget about Twitter and LinkedIn, both of which have gained ground on the Social Networking giant. In 2009, less than 1% of Canadians used Twitter. Today that number has grown to almost 20%. Similarly, LinkedIn users in Canada have more than doubled to 14% from 6% in 2009.

And let’s not forget about the newest player in the game, Google+. Only a few weeks old, Google+ has made some serious noise by amassing over 10 million users worldwide. While it is still too early to tell the long term impact of Google+ on the Canadian Social Media landscape, it will definitely be interesting to watch unfold.

How often do you use Social Media? Which sites do you visit most frequently? We’d love to hear what you have to say!

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Canadian Social Media Statistics 2011 is a post from: SEO Ottawa | Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Agency | WebFuel

Okay, let me start off by stating that I am not a scientist. For that matter I am also not a Social Media rockstar,guru or ninja. The views expressed in this post are based on my research as well as my experience as a Blogger, Tweeter and Facebooker over the past 3 years.

So when is the optimal time to post? When will your content get the most exposure? As a Social Media Strategist, one of my goals is to share the most interesting, and relevant information with my audience. So by that logic, I want to share that information when my audience is present, engaged and responsive.

The Research

A recent study by Social Media Scientist Dan Zarella of HubSpot provided us with a slew of data about the “best” time and days to Tweet, Blog, Facebook, email, etc. Dan’s research took into account a variety of indicators of Social Media success including clicks, Retweets, shares, comments and Likes.  Here are some of the key takeaways of this study.

Zarella encourages people to Tweet frequently, but don’t smother. His research showed that Tweeting 1-4 times an hour will get you the best engagement with your audience – but make sure you don’t swamp them with dozens of Tweets an hour. Find your balance. Also, avoid Tweeting the exact same thing more than once. That is annoying. If you want to share your latest blog post more than once, feel free to do so. But don’t be lazy and Tweet the exact same thing. Change up the wording, the hashtags and order of your Tweets.

Zarella also explains that blog readership is highest in the morning, and declines slowly throughout the day and into the night. Blogs that are posted early in the morning tend to get more reads, comments and shared links. The more frequently you blog, the more traction you will get. At WebFuel, we blog at least once a week – we love to keep fresh content on our site – and this can positively affect your SEO rankings as well.

While Zarella’s research was very in depth, and provides some great insight, I believe that it is up to the individual to determine their own optimal timing strategy.

Timing is a Science, not exact Math.

Every audience is unique. It is impossible to say that everyone should blog, update and Tweet at exactly 11:34 AM on Tuesday and 3:06 PM on Fridays to get the most out of their audience. That is ridiculous. Perform your own research. Test out strategies. While a Pub and Grill might find that their audience is most engaged on a Friday night, the NFL’s audience is probably more engaged on a Sunday afternoon – just as I’ve found that WebFuel’s audience is mostly engaged on weekdays before noon.

When I worked for Bishop’s University I would rarely post on Facebook before noon. Why? Because my audience were University students. The only reason they would be up before noon is if they had (and went) to class. Therefore, most of them wouldn’t be able to check their News Feeds until afternoon.

Monitor your timing

Some people complain that they do not have the time to track this. Well, that is a lame excuse. But if you’re feeling lazy there are some great tools out there that help you understand when your most optimal time to Tweet is, such as Tweet When. This free tool analyzes your last 1000 Tweets to help you determine what time and day you have received the most Retweets. For example, I ran a Tweet When analysis on my Twitter @Jason_Faber. What did I learn? The majority of my Tweets get Retweeted at 9:00 AM, 6:30 PM and 9:00 PM on Wednesdays and Fridays.

Go ahead; test your Retweets on Tweet When.

So when it’s all said and done, yes timing does matter. But it is dependent on your content and your audience. Write your own hypothesis – and test it for a few weeks.  Examine your audience. Who are they? What time zone are they in? What kind of content do they like?  Develop your own customized Social Media timing, and put it to good use.

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The Science of Timing is a post from: SEO Ottawa | Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Agency | WebFuel

Furthermore, the Mobile Marketing Association predicts that 85% of phones sold in 2011 will be smart phones. Not only are we seeing a spike in smart phone and tablet sales, but also an astounding increase in the variety of ways that people are using them as well as how marketers are leveraging this trend. Now, when talking mobile I want to look at the trends within the trend. There are several elements to mobile that are making it a powerhouse in 2011. Here are my top mobile trends for 2011.

(Note: When I say mobile, I am referring to not just smart phones but also tablets, eReaders and other mobile media devices.)

Social

As always, Social is driving a lot of the success mobile technology is enjoying – most notably with Facebook and Twitter (surprise, surprise) Have you been noticing more and more updates on your Facebook or Twitter newsfeed are from mobile devices?

We are seeing a huge increase in the amount of people using Social Media from their mobile devices whether it be at work, on the bus, or even in the house. In fact, 25% of activity on Facebook is from a mobile device. As Facebook Deals and Places begin to take shape, expect that number to increase. That brings us into our next section where we see an overlap with Social – Location Based Services.

Location Based Services

There has been a lot of talk about Location Based Services over the past year.  Foursquare established themselves as the early top dog over SCVNGR and Gowalla. But once Facebook entered the game with Places they have since lost their number one spot. However, only 17% of the mobile population uses these services – 90% of which cite Facebook Places as their go to location based application. In a study conducted by digital agency Beyond the driving reason behind mobile users not checking in was privacy concerns. On the flip side, those early adopters who are checking in cited discounts and deals as their main motivator.

While this trend is still clearly a niche, as mobile sales continue to skyrocket location based services are positioned to make a lot of noise – in fact Fourqsuare experienced 3400% growth in 2010 alone. Not only that, but businesses are faced with an immense opportunity to capitalize on mobile checkins – most notably restaurants, cafés and bars.

QR Codes

QR codes, or Quick Response codes, are square matrix barcodes that are readable by specific barcode readers, and now mobile phones. QR codes may seem new, but they have been around for almost 20 years. Back in the mid-1990’s Toyota used QR codes to track their inventory.In the second half of 2010 we saw a 1200% increase in the amount of North American’s scanning QR codes.

Today, QR codes give marketers an excellent opportunity to provide their audience with more information that will hopefully lead to a conversion. Often times QR are found on print ads, posters, product packaging, billboards, business cards, etc. When scanned with a mobile device, QR codes often bring a user to a specific URL.

To help you understand more, here are three examples of real life QR codes that I have seen – two of which were great, and one that failed.

1. Last week I saw a movie poster that had a QR code in the bottom right corner. So I took out my iPhone and scanned the code. Just like that, my web browser opened and began playing the trailer for that movie on my phone. Incredible.
2. Another well-documented case of successful QR code use was by rapper Lupe Fiasco to promote his highly anticipated 3^rd album Lasers. Fiasco placed QR codes in music magazines, on his website and most notably projected a giant QR code on a wall in Union Square in downtown San Francisco.
   
   Look at the hype and buzz it created. Have you ever seen crowds of people run to go look at your ads?
3. If you decide to leverage QR codes, develop a strategy first. Make sure you are not wasting your time, effort and money on creating ads with QR codes that do not work. When I was in Toronto a few weeks ago, I couldn’t help but notice that at least 25% of the ads in the Subway car on the TTC had QR codes. “Cool” I thought, “these marketers are really jumping on this QR codes trend.” So I got out of my seat, and scanned a code – this particular one was for a local University. Guess what – it didn’t work. Why? Because I was on the Subway – underground. I had no Internet connection. I went on to scan the rest, none of which worked, for obvious reasons. This is a typical case of jumping on a marketing trend without stopping to think about it first.

While it is believed QR codes will greatly increase in popularity in 2011, they are still very much of a niche in North America. The main driving forces behind the use of QR codes will be educating the consumer on what they are and how to scan them, increased mobile device sales and greater QR code exposure by marketers.

Mobile Display Advertising

We have already seen Mobile Display Ads make huge moves in 2010, and it is expected to continue through 2011. Forrester estimates that mobile display ads will exceed $1 billion in 2011. As more companies begin to market to consumers using mobile display ads, they will also need to optimize their websites for mobile as well. As of January 2011, Google was the king of mobile display ads with an ad revenue market share of over 90%. Furthermore, spending on mobile display ads by marketers is expected to rise by 5-10% in 2011. Mobile display ads, as with traditional display ads, will continue to succeed based on their efficient pricing model, personal targeting, and measurable ROI.

Mobile Payments

While some businesses have already begun adopting mobile payments, this technology is still very much in the early stages. Most notably, Starbucks released the Starbucks Card Mobile App available on the iPhone, Android and Blackeberry in the United States. The App acts as a mobile gift card allowing you to pay for your coffee by scanning a barcode on your phone.

Many industry experts believe that this trend will continue and within a few years, ATM and credit cards may be obsolete for those early adopters. Again, this trend has the potential to be hindered by those concerned with privacy issues, as noted in the video.

Applications

Applications are huge – there’s no denying that. They are the focal selling point for the iPhone – just watch any one of their TV commercials – they all talk about the Apps and the App Store. In 2011, it is expected that App sales will continue to rise, however Apps per smart phone user will decline. Why? Now that smartphones are becoming more affordable, it is expected that more less-tech savvy individuals will be purchasing smartphones – and those people will be less inclined to download apps. However it is expected that application downloads will exceed 17 billion downloads in 2011 resulting in sales of over $15 billion worldwide – a 117% increase from 2010.

As these mobile trends continue to gain traction with users, Mobile will inevitably grow. 2011 is the year of Mobile. Do you own a smart phone, tablet or eReader? Have you used any of these tools on your device? We’d love to hear about you experiences!

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2011: The Year of Mobile is a post from: SEO Ottawa | Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Agency | WebFuel

Search

• Google makes 200-300 changes every year – and they kill off 2/3 of their initiatives.
• Google’s efficiency with Search saves us about 350 million hours per year.
• BING stands for “Bing Is Not Google”
• There are more searches made on Twitter each month than Yahoo! And Bing combined
• Google Instant isn’t changing the way people Search, but the way they read the results. With Instant, searchers rarely look past the top 5 results.
• Google Instant decreased time to click by 50%
• SEO is not just about rankings, it’s about conversions
• 3 key success factors for Search: Relevance, Speed and Usefulness
• The average search query on Google today is 4.3 words
• Over 50% of queries are over 3 words in length – and 2/3 of them yield no exact match
• Local Search queries are up 54% year over year.
• YouTube is the 2^nd most popular Search Engine on the planet
• When optimizing videos, follow similar SEO practices – links always matter!
• Multi-lingual SEO is a whole other ball game. Adidas faced many challenges with international campaigns which included SEO for 19 languages and the use of slang terms
• With multi-lingual SEO, you can’t just translate keywords. You need to consider different dialects of languages in different regions
• Your homepage is not a consumer’s first impression of your brand online. It’s what they see on a Search Engine Results Page.
• Go after those who are actively searching for you, stop searching for them.
• Are you optimizing your landing page? Bring users to where they want to be. Stop sending them on a wild goose chase.
• Always add negative keywords into your PPC campaigns.

Social Media

• There are over 1 billion Social Media users worldwide spending 2 billion minutes a month
• 25% of activity on Facebook is from a mobile device
• Facebook is becoming a bigger enemy to Google than Microsoft is.
• Three often overlooked YouTube Ranking factors: 1) Increase of views over time 2) Quantity of inbound links 3) Inclusion of video in playlists
• When it comes to Social Media don’t ask What – ask Why? “What” is a tactic, “Why” is a strategy.
• Foursquare experienced 3400% growth in 2010
• When creating a Facebook Deal consider the “What if’s”. What if 500 people claim a 50% off deal? Can you support your deals?
• The 4 pillars of Location Based Strategy: Context, Location, Social Interaction and Platforms

Mobile

• 101 million smartphones were sold in Q4 of 2010 compared to only 94 million PC’s
• 2011 will be the year of mobile – expect for it to really take off
• A major difficulty faced with mobile advertising is the discrepancy between a user’s location vs. their destination.
• Is your website optimized for mobile? If not, do it.
• All 5 of Google’s strategic initiatives for 2011 revolve around mobile
• 544.6 million text messages were sent in Q2 of 2010

Online Reviews

• 62% of consumers read reviews online before making a purchase
• 62% of people trust online ratings and reviews of people they don’t know
• 18% of people who were contacted by a company after they had left a negative review ended up buying more from that company in the future
• 33% of those mentioned above removed their negative review, and 34% went on to write a positive review about their experience.
• A bad review online shouldn’t be seen as a threat. It is a great opportunity to address the problem, satisfy that customer, and show others that you care.

Quotes

• “How do you demand innovation, creativity and radical rethinking if you can’t imagine it?” – Avinash Kaushik
• “My three year old son will look at a keyboard the a same way I look at a rotary phone” – Mitch Joel
• “Plugging your computer into a phone line to get Internet ten years ago was so barbaric. Look how far we’ve come.” – Mitch Joel
• “Your brand isn’t what you say it is, it’s what Google says it is.” – Chris Anderson
• “Never do anything in marketing that doesn’t add economic value to your company.” – Mitch Joel
• “Incorporate your digital marketing efforts into your marketing mix. Think “with” not “instead of”.”
• “Just because someone is on Facebook all day it doesn’t make them a Social Media Marketing expert. I turn the lights on when I walk into a room, am I an electrician? No. “ – Mitch Joel
• “Display will grow into a $200 billion market” – Eric Schmidt
• “Search is the connection between intent and content.” – Bill Barnes

That’s all folks! Two days of intense sessions with lots of great insights and takeaways. Have you considered these strategies when it comes to marketing your business online?

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Search Marketing Expo Toronto Recap is a post from: SEO Ottawa | Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Agency | WebFuel

You’ve decided that Social Media is right for your business. You’ve determined your goals, developed a strategy and implemented it. You’ve created interesting, creative, and engaging content that gets shared through your Social Media profiles. Stop – you’ve already missed a step. Optimizing. Think of your Social Media Strategy as a party. You’ve decided that the best location for this party is at your friend’s house (Facebook). At your party you are going to have decorations (Photos), a DJ (Videos), an open bar (Events) and snacks (Blog Posts). Everything looks, sounds, and tastes delicious. But oh no…nobody has shown up to your party. No one has had the opportunity to enjoy all of these amazing things that you are offering. Why? Because you forgot one key element – the invitations – you forgot to optimize your Social Media.

You’ve essentially wasted a lot of time, effort and money planning and executing this unbelievable party that no one will get to enjoy because you failed to let them know that it existed and where to find it. How stupid do you feel standing there alone at your own party? See my point? It’s the same way with Social Media. It doesn’t matter how amazing your Facebook Page is, or how beautiful your Flickr photos are, if no one can find you, or even knows that you exist, you will be standing alone feeling stupid.

In order to leverage Social Media and SEO together, you must develop a roadmap with clearly defined goals. Begin by determining who you are going to invite to your “party”. Who is your audience? What do they like? What do they search for? What Social Media platforms are they present on? Deciding who you are going to “invite” is essential in beginning the whole process of integrating Social Media with SEO. There are many tools (free and paid) out there that can help you track, analyze, measure and understand your audience.

Next, determine the location of your party. Is it going to be a backyard BBQ, or a dinner and dance in a ballroom? In other words, are you going to be on Facebook? LinkedIn? Twitter? Flickr? You don’t need to limit yourself to just one. It all depends on your business, and your individual goals. There is no one-size-fits-all Social Media solution. Once you have determined which “venue(s)” is right for your business, you can begin to create your content.

“Produce great stuff, and your customers will come to you. Produce great stuff, and your customers will share your story for you. More than ever before: Content is king! Content rules!” – C.C. Chapman, Author of ‘Content Rules’

Chapman is 100% right – Content Rules, and Content is King. We live in an amazing time where we all have the ability to create content, and share it with millions of people with ease. Old-school marketers would advertise their business by interrupting people with full page newspaper ads, TV commercials and telemarketing phone calls during dinner. Today’s marketing world is all about permission marketing. The customer is coming to you and saying “Hey, I like you, I give you permission to talk to me.” So stop interrupting them! Talk to them, engage them, entertain them. This is where content really does rule.

It’s almost party time – but where are your decorations? Your DJ? Your caterer? Your bar? You’re missing the content of your party, the things that really make it worthwhile for people to attend. Write an awesome blog post, post some photos, create a video, record a webinar. But don’t stop there. Entice your audience to share them with their network…and their network’s network. You’d be surprised by the ripple effect it can have. Increased social interactions within your network, and their network will improve your brand’s visibility in a search result. Remember, all of those inbound links provide you with excellent Link Juice.

“Content + Links = Search Engine Success” – Lee Odden, CEO TopRank

Now for the invitations. If anyone is going to attend your party they need to know it exists – where it is and when. Build your networks, establish trust and engage in conversations. Reach out to them. Invite them to your party and to try the food. Listen to the music. Look at the decorations. Make it memorable and valuable enough for them to tell their friends about how awesome my party is! Getting it? And it stretches far beyond your current community. What about all those people not in your network that you want at the party? Let’s say Peter and his friends are searching for a BBQ party in Ottawa playing Classic Rock music and serving mini burgers; will they find your party? You better hope they do.

Developing an online strategy that focuses on your audience’s wants and needs that is keyword optimized and easily shareable will make your party a hit. Track how your content is being shared. Who is consuming it? Who is passing it along? During this process however, don’t lose track of your ultimate goal. If you have a great party, but XYZ isn’t being accomplished, then you need to rethink your strategy. Always keep your goals in the front of your mind, and measure success continually throughout.

By integrating SEO techniques into your Social Media efforts, and vice versa, you will begin to see increased search traffic and interactions with your audience. While Search Engines such as Google have begun integrating social functions into their search results, Social sites such as Facebook have started improving their internal Search functionalities. The two roads are no longer parallel, they are beginning to intersect. Have you optimized your Social Media?

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The Intersection of Social Media Marketing and SEO is a post from: SEO Ottawa | Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Agency | WebFuel

This time I am joined by WebFuel’s Search Strategist, Helen Faber. We’re both quite excited for the amazing lineup of speakers which included analytics expert Avinash Kaushik, online marketing pioneer Gary Vaynerchuk, venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki, brand strategist Jeffrey Hayzlett and Columbia University Business professor Dr. Sheena Iyengar. Over 1200 eager marketers file into the magnificent Metro Toronto Convention Centre, creating a great atmosphere. You can feel the anticipation for the day’s first speaker – Avinash Kaushik.

Avinash Kaushik

To begin with, I love Avinash. He is the only man alive that can make such a boring topic (Analytics) something entertaining, interesting and even funny. His energy and enthusiasm on stage was very well received by the morning crowd. Just as he did in Montreal, Kaushik shouts and rants on stage about “Garbage” and “Puke”! He points out the mistakes that many make, while giving you realistic solutions and advice. Avinash explains that the reason that most websites “suck” is do to the HPPO’s (pronounced “Hippos”). That stands for Highest Paid Person’s Opinon. He elaborates by stating that at most large companies, the highest paid person makes decisions about things that they know nothing about – websites – and 95% of the time it is ugly, and awful. One of the most well-received acronyms in Avinash’s arsenal was HITS: How Idiots Track Success. But, the quote that hit home hardest for me was that “you can’t improve something by 1000%. But you can improve 1000 things by 1%.” Brilliant.

Gary Vaynerchuk

Next up was Gary Veynerchuk. A true entrepreneur, Vaynerchuk is enthusiatic, outgoing and…well…quite vulgar! But amidst the swearing and rants was a great, inspirational message. Gary became well known for Wine Library TV, a video blog that he created to help sell wine for his family’s business. Vaynerchuk truly understands the consumer and the social web. He expressed his hatred for companies that don’t talk to, or even about, their customers. They are the lifeblood of your business. in order to get your customers to love you, you must love them first. Building loyalty should be first and foremost, because a loyal customer is there for life. He left the crowd with an outstanding stat followed by a piece of advice. First off, the stat: There is more original content being created every 48 hours today than there was from the beginning of man kind until 2003. Wow. And finally, his advice was simple. If someone starts to gloat about how many followers they have on Twitter, punch them in the face. Thanks Gary. Needless to say, I will absolutely be reading Gary’s newest book, The Thank You Economy.

Jeffrey Hayzlett

Last up before lunch was Jeffrey Hayzlett, former Kodak CMO. Hayzlett is well known for being a crucial player in Kodak’s legendary branding turnaround in the early 2000′s. As he takes the stage, it is quite evident that Hayzlett is a natural leader and marketer. “A brand is not a logo or a picture. A brand is simply a promise to deliver” he explains. “Kodak doesn’t make a camera or film equipment. They make emotional technology.” He goes on to discuss Social Media and the common desire to create something viral. “Viral is flukey” he claims. “Yes, it may happen, but please don’t waste your time and effort trying to create it. If it happens, it happens. Spend your time building relationships. They are much more valuable.” He is enthusiastic and spontaneous. He likes to take and idea and run with it. Hayzlett’s motto throughout his speech was “Don’t be afraid to make a mistake. No one is going to die.” He explained by telling a story about a marketing campaign that Kodak had launched that encouraged consumers to text a number via their mobile phones to receive coupons. All of the ads were run in movie theatres before the show. Well, the downfall of the campaign is quite evident. What do you do with your phone when you walk into a movie theatre? Turn it off, right? “Well,” Hayzlett says “It was a mistake. My mistake. But don’t worry, no one is going to die. Let’s move on.” It’s this outlook and attitude that makes Hayzlett an amazing marketer. No one is perfect. People make mistakes. It’s how they react and learn from those mistakes that makes a difference.

Dr. Sheena Iyengar

After a much needed lunch, we returned to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre to Dr. Sheena Iyengar, expert on consumer behaviour and the psychology of choice. Iyengar was definitely a change of pace. While the other presenters were jumping around from one side of the stage to the next, yelling and screaming passionately, she spoke softly while standing behind her podium for the full hour. But then again, while the others are radical, outgoing marketers, she is a University Professor. Her topic was also quite different. While the others put quite a heavy focus on the online space, Dr. Iyengar discussed the psychological side behind marketing. She examined the art of choice, and how humans make decisions when faced with a variety of different options. The conclusions drawn from her study were quite interesting. She stated that when people are given more choice, often times they take longer to make a decision, they make a worse decision and are ultimately less satisfied with their choice. They second guess themselves and think “Did I make the wrong decision?” She went on the explain that humans are born with the desire to choose, but without the innate skills to actually make a decision. In closing she provided the crowd with an interesting example. She told us that if you give someone the choice between going to an ice cream shop that only offered vanilla, chocolate and strawberry, or a shop that offered over 60 flavours, most people would choose the latter. But, interestingly enough even though they chose the shop with 60 flavours, most people would continue to buy either chocolate, vanilla or strawberry.

Guy Kawasaki
Last, but certainly not least, Guy Kawasaki took the stage to round out the day. He begins by winning over the crowd by praising hockey, Steam Whistle beer and…Justin Bieber. How Canadian, eh? Kawasaki’s message was all about how to be enchanting. A former Apple employee and author of over 10 best selling books, Kawasaki brought a wealth of knowledge and experience to the stage. He stressed that trust is key – and that it is a two way street. Earn it, and maintain it. In order to enchant your employees you must give them MAP – Mastery, Autonomy and Purpose. With that they can, and will, succeed. He expressed the need to build relationships, engage, help others and, most of all, to enchant them. Kawasaki advises the crowd to not delay bad news. If something bad happens, tell people right away – don’t let it be a surprise. And always tell them with a solution in mind. Avoiding the inevitable will only make things worse. After a few more comments about how much Guy loves Canada, we move into the final Q&A session of the day. One audience member asks Kawasaki “Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg are all undeniably amazing and successful entrepreneurs. Do you think that they are enchanting?” Guy laughs, takes a sip of water and responds “I hate that question. I’ll say this. You don’t need to be enchanting to be successful.”

The crowd erupts in laughter and applause. Kawasaki gives us one last wave, and the event’s host Ron Tite wraps up The Art of Marketing Toronto – a day filled with excitement, enthusiasm, passion, lessons, ideas and strategies. If you ever get the chance to hear any of these presenters speak, I highly suggest it.

The next big conference that I will be attending will be Search Marketing Expo in Toronto April 28-29th. Will I see you there?

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The Art of Marketing Toronto is a post from: SEO Ottawa | Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Agency | WebFuel

1. Number of Followers

Many people are obsessed with their number of followers. So much so that they will promise to follow you back if you follow them. This kind of desperate plea is frowned upon by many on Twitter. Yes, it is important to have followers. It is going to be pretty hard to gain trust and credibility on Twitter if you follow 800 people and only have 29 followers. But you don’t need thousands of them. Twitter is more about quality than quantity.

The same goes for who you follow. It is not necessary to follow everybody you come across. Manage who you follow on a weekly basis to avoid getting swamped by Tweets. I will often give people a one week window on Twitter to prove to me that they are worth following. If, by the end of the week their Tweets are irrelevant to me (they may be good, just not relevant) or if they have succeeded in completely annoying me, I will unfollow them. This is quite common on Twitter and helps clear a lot of the clutter.

2. Create Lists

Twitter Lists are used to organize other users into groups. The purpose of lists is to allow you to only read the Tweets of certain people. For example, some of my lists include Hockey, Family, Politicians, News, etc. If I was interested in only Politics on a certain day, I could choose that list and I would only be able to read Tweets from Stephen Harper, Jim Watson, Justin Trudeau, etc. By selecting this list, I have chosen to ignore the other Tweets that may have been distracting me. To learn more about how to create, edit or delete lists, as well as some other features, check out the Twitter Help Center.

3. Use Search

Twitter Search is a great tool for finding people and interesting Tweets. Try it now. Type in a topic of interest to you in the Search box. For example, I typed in “Egypt”. Now I can refine my search by Tweet, Tweet with links, Tweets near you or People.

If I choose “Tweet” I will get a stream of all of the Tweets than contain the word “Egypt”. Since Egypt is in the news quite a bit right now, there are hundreds of Tweets in this stream. But you may notice that some of the Tweets are labeled “Top Tweet”. This means that those Tweets were Retweeted the most of all Tweets containing the word “Egypt”. If I chose “Tweet with links” I will get a stream with Tweets that contain both the word “Egypt” and a link. I usually choose this option when I want to find Tweets containing my keyword accompanied by an article, blog post, photo or video. “Tweets near you” will show you a stream of Tweets written by people in or near your geographical location. Finally, by selecting “People” in a Twitter Search the results will show you Twitter users with your keyword in their Twitter handle, which in this case may (or may not be) irrelevant.

To avoid repeating this task every time you want to see searches on a certain keyword, you can save searches. Many people save search terms for items that they want to keep an eye on, making it quick and easy for them to check back on them. For example, many business owners or entrepreneurs will save searches containing their business name, product keywords, competitors, industry terms, etc.

4. Get Engaged

Participating in a conversation with others on Twitter can make your Twitter experience much more valuable. Many people who are overwhelmed with Twitter are those who are passive listeners – they just sit there for hours a day just reading every single Tweet. Yes, it is important to listen on Twitter, but by engaging with others in conversation you will make the most out of your time by learning, networking and gaining credibility.

5. Notifications

This is one of the best ways to not get bogged down with Twitter, especially on those really busy days. By setting up appropriate notifications, you can receive alerts of your phone, or by email, when some one follows you, sends you a direct message, mentions you in a Tweet with @ or when a specific user Tweets. For example, I get a notification on my iPhone every time someone mentions me in their Tweet with @jason_faber. That way, I can stay up to date with any conversation I am having on Twitter without having to spend 8 hours a day scanning my Twitter feed.

6. Twitter Tools

If you are trying to manage more than one Twitter account, I highly recommend using an external tool or dashboard for Twitter such as Hootsuite, TweetDeck, or TwitJump (just to name a few!). These tools allow you manage more than one Social Media account at once, including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. as well as providing you with link shorteners, analytics and post scheduling. I would recommend this to a more experience Twitter user who has the responsibility of managing more than one account. Below is an example of TweetDeck’s interface.

Tweet Deck Interface

Try using these 6 tips to help you get the most out of Twitter, without getting overwhelmed. Do you have any other tips to better manage your time on Twitter? Let us know, we’d love to hear from you!

Follow us on Twitter!

@jason_faber

@helenfaber

@WebFuel_Canada

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6 Tips to Avoid Twitter Overload is a post from: SEO Ottawa | Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Agency | WebFuel