Clickz reported that eBay-owned GSI Commerce and its 180 major clients that include household names like Bath & Body Works, Calvin Klein, and American Eagle Outfitters will soon be able to gain access to social buttons. eBay has around 100,000 clients who use the online auction site’s e-Commerce platform.

Business retail will soon be deeply immersed into Facebook’s ‘socialised’ universe. Despite the ongoing criticism regarding Facebook’s share scare, the optimism for further expansion remains upbeat. eBay customers can soon share their online shopping experiences with their friends once they click the ‘Want’ and ‘Own’ buttons. Well, Facebook seemed to have learned quite a few lessons from its failed Beacon project. This time, the social networking giant is giving its users the option to share what they like, want, or own to other Facebook users. Well, there’s no escaping Facebook unless you quite using Facebook or any of its related applications. Many internet users can be impulsive and most likely to immediately push those social buttons once they appear.

How the New Social Buttons Affect Marketing Strategy

According to social media marketing experts, once customers enter a retailer’s website via their Facebook account, the new buttons’ click data can be accessible to both the social networking site and the vendor. The data will then be utilised for positioning offers on a merchant’s site. This methodology of distributing such data is pretty similar to what retailers have already experienced with Facebook’s other social buttons. ‘Want’ and ‘Own’ are not the only ones that will soon appear on people’s Facebook pages. New social buttons such as ‘Reading’, ‘Watching’, and ‘Listening’ will soon be displayed. Once this happens, marketers can explore the full-blown potential of using Facebook for marketing purposes. There will be an unprecedented massive data sharing between Facebook and its media and retail partners on a social media scale. This innovation by Facebook allows merchants to effectively target marketing offers to their intended audience.

According to Clickz, Wanttt.com, a company who also developed similar ‘Want’ button for its 230 clients have seen a rather rosy prospect for Facebook’s retail partners to seize valuable marketing opportunities brought about by this change. Sharper Image, one of Wannttt.com’s clients, reported a five times higher conversion rate for ‘Wanters’ than the non-Wanters. This opens an enormous volume of opportunities for marketers. Social media marketing aims to build a campaign strategy based on a customer’s intent. There’s no better way of gauging the intent of a use than the ‘Want’ button. This method would probably have more accuracy in pinpointing what consumers ‘really’ want.

This innovation really reinvents the idea of social networking. Socialisation of eCommerce is truly quite a different approach to marketing. Would Facebook remain true to being a genuine social networking site or will it speed up its transformation of becoming a commercial hub?

There’s no black and white answer to that question. Much of what Facebook is doing is in grey. As Facebook evolves, two things can happen. Facebook could either socialise eCommerce or commercialise social networking.

The worst sales pitch ever

Anyway, the Microsoft chief made a strange sales pitch to a scrutinising audience during Web 2.0 Summit as reported by Search Engine Land. Well, if you were there, you would have probably suggested that he should have crafted his answer well to the question that was raised to him on stage. He was asked why should people start defecting to Bing instead of Google? His answer was perhaps the lousiest, if not the most stupid, ever heard.

Let’s try to dissect his answer. Many SEO experts would find his answer hardly enticing. He challenged the audience to try any searches on Bing like they do on Google. The Microsoft CEO explained that there’s no visibly huge difference in terms of search engine results 70% of the time. How about the other 30%? He further explained, 15% of the time Bing does the job better than Google. Google also comes up with better results 15% of the time than Bing does.

Sounds attractively awful. That is no way to sway users away from their customary usage of Google as the most preferred engine. Search Engine Land’s Danny Sullivan further stated that “…if Ballmer had said that maybe 20% of the time Bing would be better, that would have given it perhaps some advantage over Google. But saying your product is exactly the same as someone else’s isn’t a real incentive, much less a ringing endorsement”. No one couldn’t agree more. But the ‘no difference’ comparison is hardly marketable that will undermine users’ loyalty to Google. The Microsoft chief should have stressed on other aspects that his company seriously holds the advantage such as graphic user interface. But this doesn’t seem so important to him.

Is Bing a better alternative to Google? Ballmer bragged that Bing is starting to climb up fast stressing that Bing made quite a ‘nice rise’ signifying an increase in its usage from 7% to 15%. Well, that’s quite decent or fair enough. But Bing cannot take all the credit because much of the traffic it receives is supplied by Yahoo which it has an alliance with. This alliance, he hopes, would step up his effort to promote fair competition.

Microsoft used to bid about $45 billion to acquire Yahoo back in 2008. The negotiation failed and Yahoo rejected the offer. Now that Yahoo is in a shaky financial situation, it has to monetise fast on its recent content and media sharing partnerships with various entities. The alliance between the two tech giants is essential to steal a sizeable chunk of market share from Google’s plate. They should have focused on innovation back in the time when Google was just a minor player.

As of now, Ballmer or any Microsoft executives haven’t mentioned any particular plans in future about the possibility of launching a social networking site where Facebook reigns supreme. Google has already entered the realm of social networking with its Google+. So far, number of users has steadily streamed. It may take some time before it could effectively compete with Facebook. Social media marketing experts point out that there is huge likelihood of Microsoft to participate in the social networking competition.

As reported by Clickz, the number of hours spent by Americans on mobile web surfing using smartphones and tablets has significantly moved some web-based marketers to rethink their online marketing strategies. The reports further states that mobile surfing accounts for about 7% of all US digital traffic for the month of August according to some number crunching stats from ComScore.

Birth of Mobile Internet Marketing

The mobile internet revolution ushers a new era of internet habits like the way people acquire, consume, and share digital media content. Understanding this dynamic change in people’s new fondness for mobile devices is important in studying market preferences for digital products by mobile users.

As the number of smartphone users skyrockets brought about by successful advertising campaigns, social media marketing experts will be looking for ways to monetise new set of business opportunities.

Just recently, Facebook has been pressed over its future plans of monetising its iPad application. So far, Facebook is keeping its mouth shut. There is no news about any offerings for ad placements on its iPad app. It will just be probably a matter of time before advertisers starts queuing up to get a share of Facebook traffic.

The results of ComScore study reveals that majority of web traffic originate from smartphones. Tablets, the new comers in the mobile industry are responsible for the rest of the traffic share. Among the tablet manufacturers, Apple secures a solid overwhelming lead over its competitors. The advantage is primarily due to the company’s decisiveness to market product first well ahead of others. The initial reception wasn’t warm but it soon picked up a steadily increasing number of buyers putting the Apple iPad’s at the solid top. The others just came a bit too late to seriously challenge Apple’s existing dominance.

The giant leap in mobile internet usage also receives a huge boost from the country’s continuous improvement in its broadband infrastructure nationwide. Mobile internet usage requires a wireless type of web connectivity. That makes WiFi very important as more and more Americans desire to stay connected on the web anywhere and everywhere. Internet transactions these days are pretty much they same like drinking warm cup of StarBucks coffee while on the go. Time is such a luxury such that you can’t spare some lazy hours poring over some online transactions at home or in the office. It’s unproductive. Mobile internet devices fill in the knack for time-saving internet devices.

Monetising on Mobile Internet Marketing

PPC experts are eyeing some potential profit making from the result of the study. It’s comforting for e-commerce sites to know that a quite a number of internet users are using their tablets to complete their financial transactions, search price and product info, and read product reviews. Many tablet owners are also using their devices to socialise in today’s popular social networking site whether to comment or share content with fellow users.

This mobile internet revolution is taking off to change the marketing environment. This is what every search marketing agency should bear in mind. Those who fail to adapt will certainly lag behind.

What is Wikileaks?

WikiLeaks has been in the forefront of many controversies since its inception in 2006 as an alternative news platform that delivers often classified information from various anonymous sources. Since then the organisation has published contents that caused a lot of troubling discomfort to authorities. The web media is the brainchild of Julian Assange, who also serves as its editor-in-chief. Mr. Assange is currently facing a sexual assault and is being tried in Sweden.

Who is Jacob Applebaum?

Applebaum has been an advocate of WikiLeaks internet activism as a way to pressure governments. Little was known of his involvement in Wikileaks until a Committee to Protect Journalist gave away his identity. He is currently under heavy watch by law enforcers.

The rise of the activist-brand of online journalism has raised multiple controversies involving the alleged government violations of constitutionally-guaranteed rights to free speech. It’s not only Wikileaks that have been under fire. Companies known to have aided Wikileaks in publishing significant classified cables that should have not been brought to public light will probably face government scrutiny in the future.

As per news from Search Engine Watch, it is not sure whether Google defies or complies with the said order. Sonic.net, on the other hand, finds it noble to stand up against government’s encroachment to individuals’ right to privacy. The kind of information that the government asks for are the IP addresses of the computers used by Mr. Applebaum as well as the IP logins of those whom he corresponded with through email and their contact details since November of 2009.

Is the US Government becoming like Big Brother?

Each person is guaranteed by constitution his rights to free speech but the government defends the legality of its actions by invoking the Electronics Communications Privacy Act of 1986 long before the birth of the internet, private emails and so on. Internet is originally viewed as an alternative platform that allows people to maximize their speech rights to the fullest without the fear of reprisal from authorities. What is going on, however, is that even in the absence of any legal justification, Federal agencies like the FBI, CIA, and Homeland Security can still pry on US citizens given its vast means of technological resources. The law, however, gives the government the ability to use the seized information as evidence against any person suspected of breaching the security laws of the United States. This reminds us of George Orwell’s famous movie ‘Big Brother (1984)’.

First Amendment Right vs. Media Responsibility

The First Amendment Right has been invoked by publishers as their sole protection that guarantees their freedom to publish contents that many politicians wouldn’t want to see published.

The question now is: where does the First Amendment right end and when does media responsibility begin? Wikileaks may have done a noble pursuit of promoting democracy but many organizations including human rights groups have called for Wikileaks to exercise caution. Dealing with often classified documents requires certain degree of restraint.

While the Age of Information Technology affords us with a lot of freedoms, it has also given us a frightening image of a digitized society under the watchful eyes of ‘Big Brother’. This idea of Big Brother also has its counterpart in the private sector. No wonder there is an enormous information ‘share scare’ among Facebook users these days. This scare, however, doesn’t seem to dampen the optimism shared by many social media marketing experts who believe that despite the ugly side of content and media sharing, Facebook and all other social networking sites will still continue to redefine the culture of internet usage.

This is interestingly strange for most search marketing agencies. Business Wire has been around for 50 years which is involved in distributing press releases. How can the company stake a claim to something generic and mostly use by SEO firms? The technical verbiage used in the SEO patent document appears to be riddled with obscurities.

With the patent, the company now can claim a sprawling intellectual property rights over something that’s considered not new and absolutely something that Business Wire did not invent.

What benefits can Business Wire gain from patenting a particular approach to SEO?

Well, at least the company got legal rights on a set of sequenced techniques and procedures. If the patent document is quite specific on the methodology, how this can it effectively respond to a search engine’s (especially Google) frequent change in algorithm updates? SEO dynamically evolves as it corresponds to technological changes. Quite strangely, Google has been silent on this announcement.

This can be a profitable investment when Business Wire will try to use this patent to sue someone in court over intellectual property infringement issues. We should be seeing some interesting court battles soon.

Is this practically enforceable or simply useless?

This might trigger a series of SEO-related wars of patent rights. This will become an interesting precedent for all other SEO services firms to follow. The patent is obscure on the idea that Business Wire has just discovered a ‘secret recipe’ to better position their press releases online. It is no KFC! The company cannot rightfully claim that they’re the brains behind the list of SEO techniques and tactics.

Interpreting the patented process can be fuzzy. We are yet to experience the full impact that this change will bring to the SEO world.

Or maybe not.

The patent can be practically useless. This would only make SEO professionals more creative in varying their methods so they won’t get caught in a legal mess. A slight modification outside the specifically described and sequential order of procedures may render the patent utterly unenforceable. But if the interpretation of the ‘patented process’ goes beyond what is being described in the document, the SEO world would have to brace itself for legal court battles.

Business Wire should bear in mind these two interesting facts about SEO:

• SEO belongs to everybody
• SEO does not belong to somebody

Most, if not all, of what is being claimed as patented approach is very elementary in the eyes of many SEO experts. Search engine optimisation professionals would surely be preoccupied with a lot of mischievous thoughts of how to outsmart this annoying legal impediment. Sad to say, this patent might only end up as a ‘toothless tiger’ as far as legal safeguards for intellectual property is concerned.

One other important thing: the US Patent and Trademark Office should be overhauled, re-examined, and scrutinised. There are a lot of grey areas in patenting an SEO strategy.

The newly-launched project would resemble that of ad pages you see in major dailies. The internet based ads will be in a better position to promote advertisements based on several factors like subject search and the location of the user.

The tech giant is carving its own share in advertising albeit in digital form. Gone are the glorious days of the print media which used to dominate the world of advertising. Since the advent of web-based marketing, there has been a dramatic upsurge of sales revenue generated from online retail. Google finds this opportunity irresistible. Likewise, retail businesses find it hard to ignore the growing importance of online visibility to boost their market share in the cyberspace economy. In this reciprocal relationship, the tech giant simply gives retailers the perfect alternative means to effectively promote their ads away from the print media.

Is this a sign of a great paradigm shift from print to paperless advertising?

The trend is probably going to that direction. But it’s completely irresponsible to reduce the importance of print media in today’s advertising. Newspapers and magazines are still a major force to reckon with. There is still a good number of people of reading dailies, magazines, and other print materials. That’s why Google is stepping up the competition to speed up the transition from paper to paperless of advertising. To boost the effect of brand recall, the company will also enhance the display of visual imagery like putting large pictures and embedding some videos.

SEJ further says that this strategic partnership with retailers will allow Google to reap a whopping 76% share of the overall search marketing profits in the United States alone this year. That number would likely go up to 78% the following year.

With Google’s position as the most widely-used search engine, retailers are projected to earn massive gains from this collaboration. Away from the traditional brick-and-mortar stores, the internet based circular ads will complement the retailers’ already existing offline ad campaign.

Why are retailers starting to defect to web-based advertising?

This sounds like doomsday for print media but these are some of the benefits of going digital and internet-based:

• Wider audience- Web-based advertising is global in scope while traditional media could only operate in certain geographical locations. As opposed to offline advertising, you can adjust your strategy to reach to a more specific type of audience based on certain factors.
• Cost-effective- Budgetary constraints is a main issue when placing any ad campaigns. It’s just so expensive when sustaining an ad campaign for a long time through traditional media. With online advertising, however, you’ll get maximum reach for a minimal cost.
• Quantifiable ad results- With the existence of sophisticated analytics tools, it’s easy to monitor the results of an ad campaign and measure the amount of conversion. This helps marketing team to evaluate their campaigns and modify their ad tactics accordingly.

Does this mean ‘sayonara’ to print advertising?

It’s the inevitable but we probably have to count many years before paper becomes irrelevant in advertising. But for now, print media will remain as indispensable means of reaching out to a large audience. As a matter of fact, Google is placing quite a huge ad campaign in many newspapers about its internet-based circulars.

Internet Explorer and Firefox are losing out to the new kid in town. The browser era currently dominated by Microsoft and Mozilla will soon come to pass. The Irish analytics agency StatCounter, according to Computerworld, does some number crunching about Chrome’s stunning ascension to the browser market this year. The firm’s prediction indicates that given the astonishing growth rate of Google Chrome, there is an immense likelihood that it will surpass Firefox by December. Since the start of this year, Chrome records an amazing 50% increase of its share in the browser industry. The browser war may probably end in a disappointing conclusion for Firefox then for Internet Explorer.

Despite the frenzy brought about by Chrome’s accelerating hegemonic rise, Internet explorer remains at the solid top in the overall market share. But Microsoft doesn’t feel so secure considering the increasing rate of users’ defections to Chrome. The threat is even more looming for Firefox. To avert the inevitable, Firefox has been releasing updated versions almost every now and then. Looking at some mind boggling stats, the strategy employed by Mozilla doesn’t seem to effectively stem the wave of defection.

Why are internet users defecting to Chrome?

This three-year old web browser is finding ways to enhance the user’s browsing experience. All Google tools, including Chrome, are part of the entire Google system which seeks to maximize the benefits of using the internet. The brains behind this have taken into account the speed, stability, and security of browser usage. If you are not yet a Chrome user, then these are some of its enticing features:

• The task manager displays the sites that you frequently visit, download the most, and those that can potentially harm your PC.
• The browser downloads updates on a regular basis to shield you from any destructive malwares. It throws a warning sign whenever you surf sites that can wreak havoc on your computer.
• The browser allows you to open several tabs in a single browser page. Unlike other browsers, each tab is independent from the rest. When one crashes down for some reason, you can’t expect the same thing to happen on others.
• The simplicity adds up to Chrome’s functional design. Like its search engine counterpart, it doesn’t have stressful distractions.

So, will Google dominate the browser market like it did with search engines?

If the StatCounter statistics would remain consistent for the next few years or less, then domination is never far. It might only be just a matter of time. The tech giant is indisputably the most preferred means in online searching. It’s only logical to keep a strong grip on this advantage. For quite some time, Google had been continuously developing the means to house all its internet-based applications in one browser. The answer came to being three years ago.

On the other hand, Google may yet have to face another annoying hurdle off its path- the Capitol Hill. Just recently, Google was grilled over some anti-trust issues. The anti-monopoly atmosphere is brewing in the air. Microsoft faced that same rough sailing too some years ago.

Handling the technical side of winning the browser war is one thing. Dealing with fervent anti-trust crusaders in Washington is another.

Is it surprising to find YouTube emerging on top of the winning list? To many, it’s rather disappointing. Google is like any business-minded organization. From a practical standpoint, it’s just logical for Google to put YouTube on top of its visibility ranking. What comes as a shock though is the recent list of websites that have gone obscure. Search Engine Land names some of them: The Next Web, Technorati, and NBC’s The Today Show. This sounds like appetizing breakfast news for the anti-trust crusaders in Capitol Hill.

What does the result mean?

It helps us arrive at a painful realisation that we are clueless about the Panda update. Google’s algorithm is one hard nut to crack. Search evaluation algorithm is something Google wouldn’t generously share with everybody. As a matter of fact, the company changes it quite so often. Why? Because there would always be a bunch of tech savvy internet geeks out there who won’t stop at trying to decipher the codes. Many SEO watchdogs rely on some sort of calculations as well as trial and error testing to approximately measure a site’s visibility ranking.

What’s the point of being an SEO expert if you don’t have a clue?

Not every search engine optimisation consultant has an exact answer. They may have often conflicting opinions but they do share some thoughts in common regarding the update. Here are some of them:

Updates occur in a 30-day cycle

The Panda algorithm changes periodically according to a specific timeline set by Google. It’s quite hard to kick out some SEO techniques that you love doing just before Panda’s dreadful advent. Adjust your strategies according to this periodic schedule otherwise you’ll lose serious money and time.

Ranking evaluation shifts from pages to domains

This dramatic shift in Google’s evaluation strategy is part of its overall campaign to crack down on low quality content. Content farms, in particular, see their visibility ranking plummet since the update was launched six months ago. Imagine a website containing 100 articles wherein only 10% can be considered valuable while others are simply crap. The other 90% will bring your web ranking down.

User behavior contributes to SEO ranking

This doesn’t come as a surprise. Google is now taking into account the amount of interaction internet users spend on your site like page and media viewing.

Quality content is important

A lot of marketers erroneously think that ‘quantity has its own quality’. So instead of focusing on enhancing the content value of the articles they produce, ‘quantity becomes king’. As mentioned earlier, Google is becoming a tough crusader against poorly written content.

Repeat Visits from users influence ranking

The evaluation now takes into account the level of user experience. To quantify this, Google underscores the importance of the number of times users repeatedly visit a particular site.

CTR is still important

After a search query is made, SERPs then display a list of websites that correspond to the keyword/s being typed in. CTR (click through rate) is simply number of clicks on an ad divided by impressions (number of ad displays). With the new update, however, it’s becoming difficult to keep track of your CTR. To increase your SERP ranking, fill in good meta data and make it more relevant and results-specific.

Domain name is becoming less important

We cannot absolutely zero out the significance of having a good domain name. Panda now puts more emphasis on the substance of the site rather than the form. The new update effectively levels the playing field for veterans and start-ups alike.

So, is Panda the ultimate SEO killing machine?

Google is pretty clear when it expressed its intention to employ a hardline approach to sites exploiting the loopholes in its previous algorithms. Panda simply forces content publishers and internet marketers to relearn the basics: provide the readers more quality and relevant content!

The new Facebook-Yahoo alliance is just part of the bigger social media revolution that will redefine human interaction in cyberspace. The partnership led to a content sharing platform which gives the people the ability to see what articles their friends are reading via the ‘Facebar’ on Yahoo News page. Content sharing even goes further by allowing Facebook users to update their friends about their favorite TV shows, music, movies, and other forms of information.

So what does this integration mean for Yahoo?

Despite being the search engine pioneer, Yahoo lost much of the competition to another search engine giant, Google. The company tries to resuscitate itself and rebrand in anyway possible. One of the creative ways to do that is to ride on the popularity of other cyber entities, hence, the Facebook-Yahoo partnership. If this formula of integration proves successful, Yahoo can acquire a chunk of Facebook’s success. Much of the content being shared among Facebook users is news so it’s pretty logical for Yahoo seize a good part of it.

The cash-strapped company has quite a rough sailing for quite some time now. Its executives are under intense pressure of delivering decent market gains in the face of fierce market competition. Social media marketing experts point out the content sharing platform it shares with Facebook should give Yahoo a good marketing advantage. When contents are being shared across a wide reach of audience, the company should be able monetize on high page views that will result to better advertising prospects.

What about privacy concerns?

This approach to socialisation of media and content sharing might drag Yahoo into Facebook’s own troubles regarding privacy concerns among its users. Will there be a sad repeat similar to the failed Beacon project? That possibility is not in sight yet. But it can never be that far unless Facebook finds a clever way to circumvent privacy-related issues that will surely resurface from time to time.

There seems to a warm enthusiasm about the whole team-up between Facebook and Yahoo. Let’s wait and see if this collaboration will successfully work out.

Now, with over 750 million users, Facebook seems to capitalise on its sheer size to extend the limits of social media. Netizens are pretty much used to hearing new set of changes that Facebook intends to roll out on short notice. So what’s the buzz about this so-called Facebook’s “Read, Watch, Listen” theme that people are anticipating about? TechCrunch, an online technology blog, seems to suggest that this will probably dominate the entire flow of Facebook’s F8 Developer Conference that is due to take place this week. This might prompt critics to raise same issues albeit with greater drive and intensity.

As the news goes, we’ll be seeing a few other wall buttons that are seen as offshoots of the “Like” concept. TechCrunch goes on to suggest that a “Want” button might soon appear. It’s pretty clear where Facebook is heading: towards greater aggregation of information then to a wider network of data sharing.

This no longer comes as a big surprise to everyone. Even before, Facebook has been making hints about its future plans of putting the entire social networking world under its own umbrella. As expected, Mark Zuckerberg and company will bring the social media to an unprecedented level of ‘socialisation’. All Things Digital reported an unnamed source saying, “Facebook has talked about socializing the Internet, but this is actually the biggest step to doing it.”

What do these changes mean to an average Facebook user?

Well, learning from the Beacon fiasco four years ago, there’s a tremendous potential that can be derived from this enormous data-sharing scheme. The launching of the new buttons will complement Facebook’s plan to integrate a media sharing platform into the user’s profile page. Similar to the now defunct Beacon project, users would get some updated scoops about what other people are into. The concept behind Beacon isn’t dead yet. It looks like Facebook is creatively rebranding the idea to make it more acceptable to Facebook-basing critics.

Will this further cement Facebook’s hold over the cyber space or will this trigger the start of its demise as a popular social media site?

Let’s try to explore both sides of the argument:

It will beef up Facebook’s position as the number one social networking site

Facebook has been the defining trend in the world of social networking. In order to be several steps ahead of its rivals, it has to be at the forefront of innovation to keep the users from getting bored. Being successful means getting there first. Apple did the same thing when it launched iPad. It was a strategic move by the company because it didn’t have any competition then. The initial reaction was a bit cold but the product caught on unleashing tablet wars today. Take for example Facebook’s news feed which allows people to get personal updates with each other; this functionality wasn’t present in other social networking sites until much later. Another important key point to Facebook’s success was the integration of third party developers to enhance the Facebook experience. Social communication has gone beyond chatting and posting comments, people are now able to share photos and videos and play social games.

It will mark the start of Facebook’s demise

On the gloomy side, this may spell the end of Facebook albeit gradually. This may happen if it ceases to function like a real social network and starts acting like an advertising platform. The site capitalizes on people’s experience in using the technology for socialising with everybody. When people’s profile page starts appearing like an entertainment webpage full of ad banners, it may alienate a huge segment of its loyal users who feel uncomfortable with the new changes. It may even divert Facebook’s attention from improving its usability and desirability to profitmaking. Social media marketing experts deemed that it was a huge mistake for MySpace to convert its entire social networking platform into an advertising hub. Another thorny issue that will resurface from time to time is privacy. By becoming a huge depository of shared information, there’s no way escaping Facebook unless you stay away from using it.

Which side do you think makes sense? For now, it’s hard to make solid predictions about something that hasn’t been applied yet. We haven’t seen how people’s reaction would be. The users’ verdict could either be acceptance or rejection. Flimsy imagination could sometimes lead to an overstatement or an understatement.

Pagination is a part of our everyday web experience. So what’s the big deal about Google policing the SEO with its new anti-pagination campaign much to the hate of many content publishers? This issue has been going on for quite some time now. This time, however, is different because Google is stepping in.

Why is pagination important?

Like in the offline world from thin notebooks to thick journals, people heavily make use of pages to manage information by breaking them up into easy-to-consume chunks of data. Imagine searching something on Google which gives you about a million results. You can’t expect the search engine giant to put them all in one page. If that’s the case, googling would be a visually unhelpful task where scrolling down for other results becomes an endless preoccupation. It may take you a while to get to the bottom.

What do the publishers have to say against Google’s anti-pagination drive?

As their argument goes, readers can’t absorb everything in one go. Netizens tend to have very short attention span so it’s quite impractical to let them see everything on a single page. Without pagination, loading the data can take up a lot of processing time resulting to less productivity and inefficiency. This is especially true when you deal with sizeable data. Coupled with technical problems like bandwidth issues, transitioning to a pageless website can cause a lot of discomfort not just for ordinary users but for publishers as well. Most people would probably get lost in confusion after scrolling through an endless maze of data. If you want to recall something very important, it’s cumbersome to go back at a specific part later on.

Why is there a need for Google to enforce such change?

Google’s attempt to curb the undesirable pagination practices may not be that bad after all. A lot of websites these days earn a steady stream of revenues by posting advertisements for each page. For SEO purposes, pagination has instead become a means to display more ads in different pages. That is why Google is favouring sites with “view all” pages. This doesn’t mean that this will be the end of pagination. Google anticipates the resistance of many publishers accusing the search giant of throwing its weight on cyber space. This may not be entirely true as there must be an administration in the internet of things. Google suggests an alternative in situations where pagination is still deemed relevant. In the absence of “view all” page, the rel=”next” and re=”prev” tags can be used so it becomes easier for Google to gauge the relevance of each page when measured against the search inquiry made by an internet user.

So does Google threaten SEO Services with its anti-pagination crackdown?

Pagination has its merits. With its relevant usage, it might probably stick with us for a while. Many search engine optimisation consultants say it’s quite too early to kick pagination out of your SEO toolbox. To an end user, it’s a way to enhance the user interface experience. The case about the publishers’ unhappiness and the perceived discomfort that the crackdown brings may have been overblown by internet media sensation. Unless there’s a definite trend of a general heavy discomfort in the cyber space, let’s get used to the new policy.

But it is important to understand the community and how they work. You may well be surprised as to how receptive they can be.

How Not To Do It

PR and the related press release mill need to be a bit more critical about how they are managing the whole blogger-outreach process. Impersonal emails and other communication tactics that can otherwise really benefit a campaign, is being blindly used to push out as many press releases as possible without so much as a thought to humanizing the reach. Then there are the viral marketing agencies, publishers, and link-builders of different types.

Know Your Blogger

For mutually beneficial relationships that can be wonderful n the long run must be the objective. Just because bloggers write to populate their pages doesn’t mean a conglomerate with a healthy appetite for marketing and communication budget starts reaching out to bloggers for favors. There is no mutuality there.

So, do your research and come up with a decent plan to engage and retain bloggers than can offset your other non-beneficial relationships.

Lots To Do

Maintaining an email list is healthy. But shooting unsolicited emails, and even worse, impersonal emails, is not the way to go. Try identifying and short-listing the most powerful bloggers and reach out personal.

Don’t Trip

Step by step is also another factor to consider when reaching out to the blogger community. Establish healthy relationships from the start. Explain what you do, who your clients are, and what you expect to gain out of this relationship. Start a discussion where both parties understand how work will be measured and which expectations are, and which are not viable.

Simply stated, support those bloggers that you deem to be valuable to your brand / campaigns. The blogger community depends on maintaining their blogs and followings. All that costs money. Whether for equipment or for expansion to cover your brand events and campaigns.

A free drink voucher may seem alright, but you can sponsor little bits of their operating costs here and there.

With interactions marked by transparency and honesty, it is unfortunate that there still exists an element of old-style privacy and control. It wouldn’t really hurt if they try to incorporate a human touch to their interactions with customers. Which also means to be accountable for things that don’t go right.

Things have a way of getting out. And when they do, it’s going to be far from pleasant. Where word-of-mouth-marketing is given much importance, and where it has created great value for brands that have realized it’s potential, to try and sweep things under the carpet and consider that as a job well done is not what you would call a good brand strategy. Consider Dave Carol’s song titled “United Breaks Guitars” about the incident where United Airlines was responsible for breaking his guitar and refusing to make amends. That song got a whopping 9.2m hits on YouTube, causing a ripple effect that saw the airline’s share price drop 10%, and eventually the ended up becoming the bye-bye anthem for it’s CEO.

Even with a transparent campaign where all entrants of a competition are awarded with the first-prize winner taking the major share of the win caused an imbalance in sentiments. The case in point being that of LovingOutdoors.com, where every possible effort was made to be transparent and honest in approach. When running a recently concluded competition that attracted around 4,000 entries, an email was sent out to all entrants who won the second prize of £50 off a GPS. But that didn’t cut it for them. Most thought that they were being deceived with malpractice of some sorts. And even though that wasn’t the case, people started talking, which made the rounds in the web-sphere causing some to doubt the whole campaign. But instead of feeling sorry for themselves for the unfortunate turn of events, the folks at LovingOutdoors.com sent out a personal note explaining the situation and making an honest apology for the inconvenience, with an attached picture of the founder holding up a big sorry note.

And that worked. Manly because people expect that kind of human touch to the whole digital business conduct. People accepted it and realized the faults at hand.

Fact is, at core, the digital world is a part of us humans. And because we create and drive the communities, we need to realize that customer treatment must have a human face to it.

• Photos
• Hours of operation
• Reviews

If these companies do decide to partner with Google, this can be very beneficial for them. This can unquestionably and without doubt add to brand visibility when the submitted information will be put on show on Google Maps, Google Earth, Google Web Search, and Google Maps for mobile and included in GOOG-411. The business entities that choose to partner with Google will be lucky to be provided with all these various information outlets to share their information. In addition to this information distribution via Google and Google products they will impel and direct traffic back to your site. So as to contribute positively and add value to this information, rich snippets identifying business information such as address, phone number, and website should be set up on your site.

The submission form needs to be provided with very exact and definite information on how the data collection is executed and to whom it is accessible to. To add to this, the form also inquires about how repeatedly and frequently the content is updated; in addition an overview of the content, which can be separated out by sections, has to be provided.

Using this collected data from around the web will permit for Google Places to tender much more costly and precious information. For example, in search those business owners or managers can be sorted out that assert only their businesses are able to list coupons and current deals. The adding of aggregated local content will without doubt bring about some changes to Google Places.

The thing that most companies should know is that they have the basics in place even if they don’t realize it. With newsworthy products and events and connections, companies will have to maximize audience reach. But this become a daunting task as very few can allow time and the resources.

But what if the whole PR/press thing is taken care of for them? What if the PR solution they need builds on their existing systems? Well, these companies can now take a breather and stop thinking about it altogether. The answer to their PR needs is a Virtual Press Office.

Virtual Press Offices are also known as online press centers. As the name may suggest, the purpose and the main concept of the Virtual Press Office is to provide companies and brands with a dedicated page or pages on their website, a place where relevant and fresh information about their organization or industry is placed, where they are then picked up for use by journalists.

Within these press centers lies abundant and useful company information including case studies, whitepapers, information sheets, product releases, and new and archived press releases, along with contact information of the company’s media department and points of contact and ready-to-use press and media kits.

For effectiveness, follow the best practices in Virtual Press Office development and management outlined below.

• Virtual Press Office 101: Keeping the whole affair as simple and as easy to use as possible, start with your company’s most relevant and important content, keeping in mind to limit clutter.
• Then frequently update content
• Build valued relationship with the press/media.
• Make a point of contact accessible at all times
• Use multimedia to encourage interest through knowledge sharing and feeds
• Compile a FAQ section for frequently asked enquiries and topics of continual relevance.
• Use RSS to make content easily accessible

Following these basic but effective best practices will not only add repute amongst the media but will establish your company’s reputation as industry authorities.

The convergence of search and social media have opened a whole new dynamic world of searches where the traditional online web search and advertising are combined to form an eco-system of real-time search and real-time bidding.

With the launch of Google real-time search, Twitter-inspired “real-time” search results now have their own Google webpage.

Although critics have slammed the idea as being nothing more than an enhanced reputation monitoring tool, and also for being very similar to Bing. However, the fact of the matter is that real-time search is still very much under development.

Social Media has enabled a dynamic partnership between traditional search, SEO and PPC. With real-time search platforms and homepages needing further work, it nevertheless converges search and social media models. Since, real-time search is having an impact on SEO, as fresh real-time content trumps relevance, especially those that are news-related searches, real-time search, thus, requires SEO to include fresh content as well as relevance.

Engagement efforts can be enhanced by the optimization of social media content, as direct and indirect links are increased by the distribution of content through social media platforms.

Real-time bidding (RTB) allows bidding on impressions based on key factors such as demographics and behavioral profiles. As it is targeted, it allows advertiser to target the right customers with the right message at the right cost and time.

But display can learn a lot from search. And it’s easy to see search influences on display. What is evident though is that there is enormous opportunity for centralized digital platform developments.

Conclusion

Real-time search and real-time bidding (RTB) through Demand Side Platforms are creating new digital marketing eco-systems.

Real-time bidding and demand side platforms (DSPs) allows seamless integration of search and display, and as evident from the Facebook integration into DSPs, social merges with search and display quite comfortably and efficiently. This allows the purchase of paid and performance display media via one platform, bidding per impression, and in real time.

Whether it’s many significant shifts in the market, or just considered as a convergence of social, search, and display, it is time for marketers to start looking into the possibilities of heading toward this convergence and accepting it, because as far as reputation and buzz go, they just can’t afford to wait.

Are B2B Customers Passionate?

Unlike most ‘normal’ consumers who would want to indulge in new hi-tech gadgets for an initial weekly kick, B2B consumers are serious spenders who are passionate about their job and are trying to keep their job!

When looking for B2B search marketers to work with, make sure they are experienced and know how to reach the right audience with the right message, suiting your needs.

Brand or Demand?

Although your regular marketing objectives may be crystal clear, it is important to make your B2B objectives clear too. You have to decide whether your major focus is going to be on brand or demand. When you have answered that question, you can then tailor your search marketing campaign accordingly.

The Sales Process

Usually, the sales process from the point of contact online can take months to get processed. You may have to settle the sale offline over the phone etc. Instead of going through a long and complicated sales process, make sure your process is super-easy and easy to track. It should facilitate quick and easy sales by using a clear process and solid technology.

Search in the Right Places

Keyword research tools can be great to search for B2B marketing partnerships. This process only comes in handy though if you know your product well and understand the target audience thoroughly.

To reach that level where you know your product well, involve your sales team and your managers. Don’t just focus on research spreadsheets, get as much know-how about the product you have at hand before you jump into looking for B2B search marketers.

Keyword Ownership

For larger B2B companies, there will always be a point where there can be an overlap in keywords due to numerous search marketing campaigns the company may be running simultaneously. Make sure you establish a matrix of strategic primary keyword placement before you even start your search marketing process. This way you can optimize your objectives, budgets and performance to maximize the overall search opportunity that can be brought to your campaign and the organization.

Visit our site network for the latest Internet Marketing News, Affiliate Marketing News, PPC News & Tips, SEO News & Tips, and Social Media News.

Have Realistic Expectations

You may have been promised a top Google ranking in 3 days but it is important to understand that SEO does not work like that. Organic SEO is a time-consuming process and depending on your industry, getting a high search ranking will always take some time regardless of the key terms your SEO team chooses. Communicate with your SEO team, making sure they are reputable, and trust their time and success judgement.

Set Goals

Having realistic expectations is important but you still need to motivate your SEO team to achieve certain targets that you have set. As SEO is still a new and budding industry, finding the right optimization team that works for you and does not keep your race to goals clouded is very important. Do some research and ask around in online SEO forums to get hold of the right team. Your main goal eventually is to achieve targets and not run a dormant SEO campaign.

Have Funds for a Long-term Campaign

Make sure your company is committed to the long-haul in an optimization campaign. As optimization and the show of successful results requires enormous effort and patience, do not commit and then back out. Have a steady flow of resources to support your SEO team and campaign over a long time.

Involve All Your Staff

The best thing you can do to boost the effort is to involve your whole company in the campaign. For example, you can use your email marketing team to learn which subjects are getting the most clicks from your SEO team. Similarly, your PR team can target successful keywords in their press releases. The whole workforce body you have can tweet about your company and share links that highlight your marketing campaign. The combined effort can bring sure success.

Get Yourself Involved

If your name is well known in your field and related working circles, use it! Tweet or blog about your company and support your SEO team. A well-known, trusted name can bring more meaning to inbound links that you make to your site to increase optimization. Even if you’re not well known, blogging and linking related to your company can still help.

Visit our site network for the latest Internet Marketing News, Affiliate Marketing News, PPC News & Tips, SEO News & Tips, and Social Media News.

Make Life Easy for Customers

The key to increased sales conversions lies in looking at your site and determining whether your buying process is perfectly streamlined or not. Your site must be user friendly, navigation should be easy without being cluttered with links; your site should not stand in the way of sales in any way. If it does, consult your designer right away and make appropriate changes.

Give Freebies

Regardless of whether your business is B2C or B2B, free giveaways will always make more potential customers and convert them into actual customers. Coupons and gifts can work well if you’re dealing in B2C and free giveaways like e-books or free reports can click with B2B clients. You get serious help from freebies since if a customer decides to sign up for a free gift, he is showing interest in your product and you can convert them into actual active participants in your sales.

Make Communication Easy

Many businesses have been seen to have their contact information hidden away in the footer on their site. Although this preventive measure to reduce spam mail might work, giving out contact details prominently on your site is of paramount importance. Potential customers should be able to communicate with you at ease as it makes them trust you more. If possible, arrange for a live helper as it is more trustworthy when the customers are dealing with an actual person. If not, a prominently placed online contact form and email address can go a long way.

Make Call to Action Clear

Although the road that makes buying and calls to action subtle can be taken by many, you have to realize that customers usually don’t spend a lot of time browsing through a website. Instead of subtly asking potential customers to action, having a “Buy Now” button can work way better. If customers cannot find the action they are looking for i.e. making a purchase, you lose them instantly.

Visit our site network for the latest Internet Marketing News, Affiliate Marketing News, PPC News & Tips, SEO News & Tips, and Social Media News.

Changing your business name on Facebook Pages

If you ever decide to change your business’ name, you can easily do so everywhere on the Internet – simply go to all your profiles and submit a name change request. Everywhere except Facebook, that is. Once you have selected a username for your Facebook page, it can’t be changed. You could delete your existing page and create a new one, but that would mean losing thousands of fans you have gathered over the years.

Estimating local keywords

Perhaps a tool that allowed marketers to find which keywords are most searched for together with their industry and their location. For example, if marketers could simply go to a keyword search tool, enter “Gainesville Barber” and get a report aggregating this query with similar queries across the nation to show popular variations of the combination of city and query, it would make their job much easier and allow them to avoid lengthy paid search marketing campaigns which slowly achieve the same result.

Finding local deals on Twitter

There are many businesses that offer special deals, promotions and coupons through their Twitter account for local customers. Wouldn’t it be great if this could be integrated with Google Maps or simply a local deal list for specific areas? Users could easily find deals going on around them and businesses would gain more traffic too. This could possibly be enhanced by allowing users to sort the deals by product or service type.

Simplifying Google Maps Analytics

Possibly a tool for quickly integrating web analytics into Google Maps without having to go through several steps to achieve the same result.

Marketing tool for CraigsList

The chronological nature of CraigsList means ads for local businesses can get pushed to the bottom of the page quickly. A tool for allowing marketers to schedule new posts automatically and take advantage of search trends (similar to Trending Topics on Twitter) would make marketing on the site much more beneficial for local businesses.

Finding fake addresses

A tool that would highlight fake business addresses in listings on Google Maps and tag them with a confused emoticon would make life much easier for both customers and marketers.

Visit our site network for the latest Internet Marketing News, Affiliate Marketing News, PPC News & Tips, SEO News & Tips, and Social Media News.