The Maine SEO Blog

Facebook News Feed Update – You may have noticed a few changes this morning when you signed into Facebook. There is a layout change for one, but the major change is the Facebook News Feed.    You’ll notice that you now have Top Stories, which are marked by a blue corner, and then your most recent stories just below.

So, what is a top story exactly?  Facebook is pulling stories into your news feed that they think you will find interesting or that have been posted since you last signed in.

The news feed updates got me thinking about what the affect on the Facebook EdgeRank score would be, if it would change, or if it even mattered anymore since you would just get most recent updates.  However, according to Facebook, “We determine whether something is a top story based on lots of factors, including your relationship to the person who posted the story, how many comments and likes it got, what type of story it is, etc. For example, a friend’s status update that might not normally be a top story may become a top story after many other friends comment on it.”  So, my guess is that the Facebook EdgeRank score is still VERY important when it comes to showing up in someone’s top news feed.

If Facebook is pointing out something to you in your News Feed that you don’t think is interesting, they have made it very simple to hide or “unmark a top story”.   Also, you will have more control over what you see in your news feed by creating Facebook Smart Lists. 

The Facebook Real Time Ticker:  The ticker will show real time friend activity as it happens to the right of your screen just above your chat list.   This feature allows you to hover over an item to see the full story and also gives you an option to click in and join the conversation or comment. 

Larger Images:  Facebook has made the images that show up in your news feed larger.  And, who doesn’t love that??!!

Subscribe Feeds: Facebook has added a subscribe feature to personal profiles.  What this means is that you can allow people to subscribe to your updates.  This is very much like a twitter follow.  Like within Twitter you can follow someone without them following you back.  Same thing when you follow or subscribe to a Facebook personal feed.  It’s important to note that you will only be sharing information with subscribers that you post as a public update.  This is probably one of the tweaks that Facebook has added that most closely resembles Google+.

View Shares:  Lastly, Facebook has updated Facebook Pages by adding a ‘View Shares’ link on all posts.  So, you can now see who has shared content from your page with others.

The battle rages on between Facebook and Google+.  Who is going to have the better platform?  Who is going to lose or gain users? Which platform will be more important from a business standpoint to have a profile on?  My guess is that there is room for both and the battle will continue, which is a good thing for the end user.  The more they try to one up each other the better product we have to use at the end of the day.

What are your thoughts on the new Facebook updates?

Joan Woodbrey Crocker
Enjoying the Battle

Find Me on Facebook
Find Me on Google+

While Facebook has had lists for quite some time, they haven’t always been easy to use for the basic Facebook user.  So, when Google+ launched Circles it was refreshing to see how easily you can segment your lists and update different friends with different things.  However, last week I was in New York City all week at the SMX East 2011 conference and so I missed the big unveiling of Facebook Smart Lists.  This is a game changer.

First of all, Facebook has one upped Google + in the fact that it will suggest people for your lists.  For example everyone will start out with a few different lists that Facebook has gathered.  Coworkers, People who went to the same school as you and who are in the same area as you for instance will automatically be added to a list.   Family is another smart list that Facebook will automatically add people to and make suggestions based on your profile for you to add to it. However lists like, Close Friends and Acquaintances will be left for you to add whom you would like to those categories.  Once you have added a few people it will then come up with suggestions for others.

Once your lists are created you can make status updates and determine what list/lists you would like that update to be shown to.  Also, someone who is put in the acquaintances list you will only get important updates like marriage updates and job changes etc., but you won’t have their posts showing up in your news feed on a daily basis.

One of the biggest draws to Google + was the ability to share what you want with who you want, and while Facebook has had this ability it was mostly used by power users as it was hard to get to, now that they have made it easier, I’m sure it will be used across the board.

One thing is for sure, the battle of who can one up who, will be provide us with a better user experience.

Joan Woodbrey Crocker
Fan of the Chronic One Upper

The following is a recap from a session at Search Marketing Expo (SMX) East. Follow the conference on Twitter. Follow the presenter – @mathewguiver

Google +still in infancy.

As the community grows the usage of +1 votes will increase.

Google+ is on a trajectory to surpass Twitter, LinkedIn and Myspace being second only to Facebook.

Google + and +1’s are intertwined.

Prediction 1: +1’s to Have More Impact on Average Position Than Quality Score

When you search for something and you are not logged into a Google account your search results will be different than when you are logged in.  For example if you search for Britney Spears products the results page shows the one he would choose as the 3rd result.  But, once logged in, since he has #1′d the result, it shows up number one.  This also works if a friend has #1′d the search result.

When click on it, while logged in, you will see a friend of yours that has recommended that page, Google has done research saying you are more likely to click on that page – lifting personalized results, could apply across the board and to sponsored results.

Prediction 2: The Value of a +1

If a +1 decreases your CPA, then it also increases your ROI.

When money talks, the big bosses listen.

Assign value to a +1 vote, because you get more click throughs when it is referred, which also has a higher conversion rate, more likely to take action.

Say one +1 vote increased CTR, and then it reduces your CPA, which gives you a higher return on Investment

Google +1 will be a great way to leverage paid search

Prediction 3: The End of The PPC Landing Page As We Know It

+1’s are shared between organic and sponsored listings…
start to see advertisers using pages that are designed for SEO and page search

Usually we create lots of pages, uncrawlable, because you don’t want to get knocked for dup pages, so that you can use landing pages for these PPC campaigns, instead, you can recommend within the ad, and then all related search results will always give you the page you shared, or had a +1 from a friend, in top results

So, now you are not paying again for a click, because the organic search will keep coming up,

Prediction 4: Bridging The Gap Between PPC and Social

Should see more overlap

Say you create an Ad for the term “Landing page Optimization”.  Then you create a landing page for the ad to send the person who clicks on the ad to.  It stops with that.  Instead, you should be creating Ads that send them to shareable content, like a blog post on “Landing Page Optimization” where they can +1 the blog post.  Now, that the post has a +1, it is going to show up as a top result on their SERP and potentially there friends SERP,  which leads to more clicks, traffic, possibly more +1′s and hopefully will also help it to start performing better in the organic results.

You will want to be driving traffic to Google plus profiles once businesses are on there.  Because then when anyone searches for that company their page is going to get that lift if you add them to a circle.

Prediction 5: Promoted +1’s
Google to monetize Google+ and +1’s

Google real time search used to incorporate promoted messages from twitter

Even confirmed splitting revenue with twitter

Google will do more outside the box, type ads for money, so Promoted +1s may make sense
Google+ to remain ad free?  Maybe companies offer incentive to +1 them

Prediction 6: Demographic Bidding for Sponsored Search Ads

In the future:
-  Race sex orientation
-  Religion
-  Interests
-  Income levels
-  Activity on profiles, who you block etc.

Prediction 7: Prediction Targeting

Google related, toolbar launched in august

Toolbar suggests sites to visit, based on social activity

Say you search something like a plane ticket, then the PPC that pops up, based on past behavior it might be a ticket sales item for a Britney spears concert in that place you are searching for on Google for tickets.

Be part of the future and stay ahead of the crowd.

Dear Florida SEO,

I just launched a new website two weeks ago and haven’t seen it show up in the search results yet. It’s been optimized for all of the keywords my customers are searching for. How long will it take to see the results (excuse the pun) from SEO?

- Frustrated in Fairbanks

Dear Frustrated, it’s possible that it will take a while for a brand new website to be found. In fact, there are some things you can do and check to make sure your website is as visible as possible to the search engines.

That said, I’ve seen search engine optimization start to work in as little as one week and as long as three months. To be safe, allow your website to take up to three months to show more visibility from SEO. For existing websites that have been optimized after (and even long after) launch, we’ve even seen dips in statistics (both rankings and traffic) for up to three months due to all the changes made, before there is an increase – and benefit – from SEO.

What takes Google so long to recognize my changes?

Think about it. You just made a major change to the Interwebs: you either just launched a new website or you drastically changed a lot on your current website. Google and the other search engines now have to take a moment to reevaluate the changes and re-rank you accordingly. Unfortunately, that takes time.

Tried and true methods will help get your site to the top of those search results in no time and faster than if you didn’t do them; here are just a few:

• Gain more incoming links
• Blog, blog, and blog some more
• Acquire directory listings
• Incorporate a sitemap
• Sign up for and install Google Webmaster Tools

Today I created my first ever YouTube ad so I had to share the process here.  It is incredibly simple to set up an ad, it’s very cheap, and hopefully very affective.  According to the video below, users are experiencing great success with YouTube Advertising.

And, so our experiment starts off.

Here are the steps for creating your first promotion on YouTube:

1. Sign into your YouTube account.

2. Go to www.ads.youtube.com

3. Add promotions to your account. *note: There will be an initial non refundable $5 charge when you set up your promotions account.  This is how they weed out those that are not serious about advertising.

4. Set up your billing.  All you have to do is enter your billing information and then establish a daily budget.  This budget will be used across all video promotions, however you can go in and change it whenever you wish.

5. Create a new video promotion

6. Choose a video from your YouTube channel (They will list them all there for you so you can just check the box of the video you would like to use) or you can upload a new video.

7. You must agree to the terms.  The terms state that you have full permission to use the video and that you either own all rights to the material or have been given rights to use it.

8. Write your promotion.  Choose your title and your copy.  Note that there are character limits of 35 characters per line so you must be concise. Also, while create your promotion you will be given a few different screenshots from your video to choose from as the video promotions image.

9. Add your Keywords.  You can do this one of several ways, you can simply add in any keyword that you think is applicable to the video line by line, or you can have YouTube Suggest them for you.  You can also use the demographic tool.  All of these tools are to help get your video in front of people who are searching for this topic and would be interested in it.

10. Set up your CPV (Cost Per View).  You can pick anything you like, it just has to be under your daily budget.  For instance I decided on $0.20 a view and a $10/day budget.

11. Preview your ad.  At this point they will lay out everything in front of you so you can see how your ad is going to look, your targets for you audience and your budget.

12. If everything looks okay, then hit the “Okay, Run My Promotion!” button and your off to the races.

YouTube provides you with a dashboard that you can then track your progress to see how your ad is performing, you can then edit your ad from there.  All in all it couldn’t be more simple.

Looking to learn more about YouTube Advertising? Check out the YouTube Ads presentation at this year’s Social Media FTW.

Joan Woodbrey Crocker
YouTube Ad Enthusiast

If you haven’t heard, the East coast got hit with a very interesting series of weather events recently. Hurricanes in the south and earthquakes in Virginia, oh my!

But…what does that have to do with web marketing, you ask? As is turns out, natural disasters and web marketing have quite a bit in common.

They’re fascinating and exciting

People can’t stop talking about them. Like Irene, a photo or video can quickly go viral and is all anyone can talk about. (Remember the Old Spice guy?)

Even smaller marketing campaigns can really take off, just like a seemingly small tropical storm. There’s just something about a big storm or the right campaign angle that you can’t take your eyes off of it.

They can be destructive

We all know how destructive natural disasters can be. Just look at the hurricanes, earthquakes, and tsunamis from within the past five years.

Just like Mother Nature, marketing campaigns can also go awry. They can quickly and easily be taken the wrong way or cause a company to get a bad rep within moments. It’s for these reasons companies have taken measures like creating Twitter accounts, like ComcastCares.

They can miss you (or your audience) by mere inches

Originally, St. Augustine, Florida was supposed to be hit directly by Irene, but she ended up 200 miles off the coast at the last minute. Sometimes the same thing can happen with your marketing campaign. If it’s not put in front of the right audience at the right time, they may never see it.

Nicki Hicks
Metaphors ‘R’ Us

Photo credit: gsfc

I  recently read an article over at Mashable about Newt Gingrich’s Twitter followers being only 8% human, which got me thinking about how many spam bots/eggs/non humans I have following me.  So, I decided to look into it.  This is what I found.

1. There is no easy way of looking at this via Twitter as a whole and blocking all.
2. There are a couple applications that you can use to do this, but they cost money.
3. I don’t really have many bots following me.
4. It’s worth your time to block spammers.

The best way to fight spam on Twitter is by checking your followers daily and making sure they are human beings.  Another great way, and I do this all the time, which must be why I didn’t have many bots following me, is to immediately block and report spam when ever you get a spam message.

Tweepi.com is an application that is free if you want to jump on and start following people and unfollowing those that aren’t following you very easily. Be careful however how you use this power as you don’t want to be perceived as a spammer by Twitter and get your account suspended.  However, it is a good way to go in every once and a while and manage your account by cleaning out the clutter. Clutter being people who haven’t tweeted in over a year, people that aren’t following you, or people that you followed a while ago that maybe just aren’t tweeting information you find valuable or interesting.  You can eliminate spammers and eggs from followers, but you must get the paid version.

Manageflitter.com is another application, that again is great for cleaning up who you are following, but in order to clean up who’s following you, you must purchase the paid version.

So, why go to all the trouble and take the extra time to look into this and eliminate spammers from following you? Well for one thing it will show that you are vigilant with your account to those that follow you making you more trustworthy to follow.  Also, it helps to do your part to eliminate spammers from the Twittersphere.

Joan Woodbrey Crocker
‘Spam Fighter!’

Image: Deep Brain Diary

This is part four in a four part series on the The Marketer’s Guide To Twitter.

We’ve talked about a few terms so far, as you recall retweets and hashtags were discussed in the last post, but here is a more in depth look at different twitter terminology.

Here is a list of the ones that are most important for you to understand as you will use them quite often.  For a full list of terms, check out the Twitter Glossary.

The At Sign | @

The @ sign is used in front of people’s profile names or (handles) when you want to create a link that will alert them that you are talking to them.  It’s a way to start a conversation with another Twitter user and also a way to tag others in current conversation.  For example: If I was going to say something on Twitter that I either wanted Nicki Hicks (fellow SEO here at flyte) to either see or simply respond to, I would tweet something like the following.

Ex. @nickihicks did you see what happened on the Bachelorette last night? This quickly show up in Nicki’s Twitter Mentions – which tells you when someone has put an @ in front of your name to have a conversation with you.

Direct Message

Although not used as much, Direct Messages can be useful if you notice that someone is on Twitter and you want to ask them a private question or send them a private message.  So, anytime you want to talk on Twitter and only have the person you are having the conversation with see it, this is what you would use.  Note: You still have a limited amount of characters, so I very rarely use this function as I find email more friendly, but it can work for a quick response or question.

A Direct Mention is also referred to as a DM and when you send a message to someone that is a DM you have the option to simply put D in front of your tweet or go to their twitter profile and click “Direct Message.”

Follow

To follow someone on Twitter means to subscribe to their Tweets or updates on the site. That same person does not need to allow you to follow them or follow you back.  This simply means that you will see what they tweet in your twitter feed.

Follower

A follower is another Twitter user who has followed you. So, same as above just vice versa.  Many times it’s good to look at who’s following you and determine if you are attracting the right audience.  It’s a good way to judge your tweet quality and also see if you want to follow them back.

Twitter Handle or Handle

A Twitter Handle is simply your username.  You can pick whatever you want as long as it’s still available.  Many times names are hard to get if they are popular like John Smith etc, so you can play around by using a middle initial or putting the work THE in front of your name.  Be as creative as you want just make sure the your twitter handle is either your personal brand or a reflection of what you will be tweeting. Your handle will also become your Twitter URL, like so: http://twitter.com/joanwoodbrey

The Number Symbol or Hashtag

The # symbol is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. This makes it easy for people who are talking about a similar topic to see each others tweets.  For example if you attend a conference and people are tweeting thoughts during the event, you can use the hashtag and others who are using the same hashtag will know your tweet is about the conference and respond.  You can also search for the hashtag on twitter and see the whole feed of everyone who is chatting about it, not just those you are following.  We talked a little about hashtags in the third edition of this series.

Lists

Lists are a great way to group people you follow by the type of tweets they have, relationship to you, geo location and more.  On your Twitter home page you will see your lists off to the right and you can also use the list drop down.  While using Tweetdeck you can literally separate the groups out into columns and watch them as a separate Twitter feed from the lump of all you follow.

Mention

A mention is when you put the @ sign in front of another person’s Twitter handle signaling to them that you are communicating directly to them.  And, of course vice versa.  It’s an easy way to see when someone is responding to you and it works like a public instant message of sorts.

Reply

Same exact thing as a mention, it’s just called a reply when you are replying back to someone who mentioned you.  When you hit reply it will put the @sign in front of the users name for you to reply to them.

Retweet | Retweeting| Retweeted

A retweet is a way to share information someone else tweeted that you found valuable.  You can achieve this simply copying the message and putting an RT in front of it.  Or just hit the retweet button. Getting retweeted is a great compliment.  It means that people found what you tweeted to be useful enough to share with their followers.  It also helps you gain followers as you get in front of a group you didn’t know before.  When you retweet someone it’s your way of helping promote someone else.  Note: Keep in mind that most people like to make a comment about the tweet when they retweet it, or answer the questions posed, or agree etc.  It’s important to keep your tweet short and sweet to allow people to do this, otherwise you may not get as many retweets, because they can’t put their spin on it.

URL Shortener

If you use TweetDeck bit.ly is already set up within it to shorten URL’s for you.  But, if you are using the Twitter platform URL shorteners are very important as they allow you to have more space for your tweet while still incorporating your link.  Also, URL shorteners usually provides the ability to track how many clicks and shares that URL has obtained which gives you a good read on the type of content you are getting responses to.

So hopefully this 4 part series has made it a little easier for the Twitter beginner to get started. If you have any questions share them with us in the comments section.  Below are the links to each series part.

Part 1: What to Tweet: Part 1 of 4 The Marketer’s Guide to Twitter
Part 2:  The Art of The Twitter Follow: Part 2 of 4 the Marketer’s Guide to Twitter
Part 3: Managing Your Twitter Account: Part 3 of 4 The Marketer’s Guide to Twitter

Joan Woodbrey Crocker
Twitter Fan

Google Plus Instant Upload is a little Big Brother but very cool.  Okay, so I have to admit I was a little freaked out by this at first…

Google Plus’s instant upload is really simple.  All you have to do is download the Google Plus app onto your Android phone.  The default setting for the app is has Instant Upload enabled. So, that’s all the set up that is required.  Then all you do is snap pictures on your phone as your normally would and they automatically get uploaded to your Google + account.  So, the next time you sign into the account you will have the option of whether you want to share the picture with your circles or not.  Watch my demo below…

If you are worried about privacy or you don’t want to use Instant Upload it’s really easy to disable.  Just follow the steps below.

1. Go to the Google+ App on your phone
2. Press Menu
3. Go to Settings
4. Scroll down to Instant Upload
5. Uncheck the box so that it no longer has a green check mark

You can also open up your Instant Upload settings from here to check on upload statuses, upload existing photos, decide whether you just want photos uploaded instantly or video too, turn off instant upload while roaming etc.

Joan Woodbrey Crocker
Maine SEO

Whether you are celebrating it’s arrival or wishing it away because you don’t want to keep track of yet another social network, Google Plus is here.  We will soon find out whether it is here to stay or a quick fad, but my guess is that this is the real deal.  If you haven’t had the chance to join yet make sure to go check it out.  And, If you are like me and you are thinking HOLY COW there is so much to learn and read.. Here are a few resources I found helpful gathered all in one place.

What is Google Plus and How Do I Use It:

How to Get Started With Google Plus: This is a great guide to getting started on Google + it gives great info and screenshots, but it’s a little less overwhelming than the Google Plus Collaborative Doc (below).

Google Plus a Collaborative Document: This is literally a guide to using Google Plus.  The Table of Contents lays out the document so that you can jump around and learn about the areas that you need help with.  This is probably the most in depth and useful guide I have come across.

The Google Plus Cheat Sheet: Exactly what it sounds like, a cheat sheet or glossary of terms on how to use Google Plus and what things mean…So, in case you don’t have the time (or patience) to go through the doc above.

10 Awesome Video Tips for Getting More out of Google + Don’t like to read? Check out these quick video tips!

How to: Get Your Own Google+ Vanity URL: Since Google Plus doesn’t offer vanity URL’s as of now for fear of spammers figuring out millions of Google+ users email account information, gplus.to has created a small app that makes it easy to create your own Vanity URL to make it easy to share your Google Plus Profile with your friends.

How to Get Google+ On My Phone:

Get Google+ On Your iPhone! And iOS App was released today making it possible for iPhone users to get Google Plus on their iPhones.  It’s been available since the beginning on Android phones and all you need to do is go to the Droid Market, to download your Google+ app for Free.

How To Use Google Plus for Business/Marketing:

10 Things CMOs Need to Know About Google+ Chris Brogan compares Google+ to the launch of Facebook and the leap people made from Myspace to Facebook.  Giving reasons such as Google is the King of Search so they will probably have their social network affect search, they are starting up business pages, it’s connections with gmail and other Google tools you already use and it’s fast growth in it’s first two weeks of it’s launch he thinks it’s the next BIG thing!

3 Ways to Use Google Plus in Your Content Marketing Efforts A lot of great tips here on Google Plus for content marketing as well as  a great list of related articles about Google Plus, such as “Can Google+ Rival Facebook and Twitter? Some Initial Thoughts” and “Top 6 Articles On Google Plus to help you Get the Most Out of Your Experience.”

Google + Now Part of Google Analytics: You can now track your social interaction as well on your Google Analytics by adding a bit of code to your sites.  Currently this tracks Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus.  There isn’t a code yet to track LinkedIn interactions.

More On Google +:

5 Ways Journalists are Using Google Plus
5 Chrome Extensions that Improve Google+
What Your Business Needs To Know About Google+
How does the Google +1 Button Affect Search

The more I research, explore, play and use Google + the more I like it.  It’s incredibly connected, dynamic and the uses are endless. For example…

It recognizes when I take a picture with my Android, and then without me uploading or doing anything it is already in my photos on Google Plus asking me if I want to share it.

My new Tag line: Google Plus… It’s So Smart, It’s Spooky!

Joan Woodbrey Crocker
Maine SEO