Pinterest has jumped from only 40,000 users in October 2010, to more than 3.2 million in October 2011! This is pretty surprising, considering you still need an invitation to join the network. You can request an invitation from Pinterest, or if you know anybody that is already active on the site, they can hook you up with one. Once you get your invitation, you can sign in through Facebook or Twitter. (Pinterest does not post status updates or tweets automatically, unless you ask them to). I think that the most striking thing about Pinterest’s popularity is the amount of time that people are spending on the site. The site is relatively addicting, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if most users spend upwards of an hour there, each time they visit.

How Do You Use It?

There are a few different ways to go about your pinning. You can visit Pinterest and just browse the general boards, which are split up into categories: Art, Fitness, Food & Drink, Humor, Apparel, Outdoors, Pets, Travel, etc. By selecting a category, you will be shown a page that is full of images pertaining to the category. Decorating a room in your house? Head to the Home Decor category and get some ideas! Need some new threads? Check out the Apparel category and catch up on the latest styles!

You can also pin images while you are surfing the web. When you sign up for Pinterest, they will ask you to install the ‘Pin It’ button on your bookmarks toolbar. This button allows you to pin almost any image you come across while you browse the Internet. So lets say you’re a bit of a foodie, and you like to search for recipes online. If you see one that you would like to try, or have tried and love, pin the image of the dish and spread the love! When you pin an image, a link appears on the Pin that will lead any viewer back to the source. This will lead anybody that is drooling over your image of those homemade potato-cheese pierogis straight to the recipe!

This brings me to the next way to use Pinterest. As an SEO tool! Every Pin on Pinterest has a link included with it, leading back to the source of the image. There is an exception to this, as users are able to upload images directly to Pinterest, without finding them on the web. Users do do this, but at least 95% of the images on Pinterest were either pinned or repinned from the web. So how does pinning images help your SEO rankings? Back links. If you have images on your website, I suggest you start pinning them. This offers extra off-site exposure for your website, as well as providing back links. Even if nobody follows the link, it’s still there, and it still counts.

Why Should You Use It?

The obvious reason to use Pinterest is: because it’s awesome! Most of the users on Pinterest are just there for the images (which is a perfectly good reason to use the site). You can search images through the categories, by viewing a users specific boards, or by doing a keyword search on the top left corner of the page. Feel free to just browse Pinterest, the pin boards are almost never-ending. NOTE: Don’t visit this site if you have something important to do, as you will likely spend hours browsing pages and pages of the web’s finest imagery.

Pinterest is also quite useful as far as SEO goes. Each Pin contains a few links, that will certainly help SEO rankings. ‘Pin It’ buttons can be positioned right next to an image on your site, which is what I see a few retailers doing. If you are browsing the Internet, and see something that you want, pin it up for everybody to see! This is a fun and useful way to share what you think about the products you have, or wish you had. This also promotes the product itself, and depending on the popularity of the subject, could be repinned or shared over and over again.

This is a what a Pin looks like. (I've added the green arrows)

As you can see, there are several links being created each time an image is pinned. The link in the top right of the Pin will always be there, this shows where the image originally came from. The image itself also acts as a link, directing you to the source of the image. The third link, in the description of the Pin, was put there by me. Any URL in the description of the Pin is automatically turned into a link. As the image shows, it doesn’t have to be a complete URL, it can be something like Zappos.com. That link does not direct the user to the specific product or image, but the Zappos homepage instead.

When multiple images are pinned from the same site, there is a box that appears to the left of your pin, which shows pins that are from the same URL. After you stumble upon an image that you like, you’ll notice other related images from the same site, which you will surely want to check out. See how this could become addicting?

So if you are sick of tearing recipes and fashion inspiration out of magazines only to be left with a pile of clippings, or if you want to boost the SEO rankings of your website, OR if you just want to check out some of the best looking imagery on the web, you really need to check out Pinterest.

If you’ve asked for an invitation to Pinterest, and haven’t gotten one yet, email me and I will send you one (my email address is at the top of this post). Happy pinning!

The growth curve and development of retail-focused mobile marketing is huge, particularly in generating  that retail sale in near-real time!  Push marketing and hyper-local ads with a social media support structure, along with emerging apps like Google Wallet make it easier than ever to search, shop and spend on the go. The benefit to consumers? Competition and price comparisons work in their favor in a big way, not to mention ease and convenience.  The benefit to retailers? Buying everything from a new phone to a gift card to a slice of pizza becomes simpler and more intuitive via your phone, providing opportunities to capture both impulse buyers and smart-search consumers.

It seems that social media has now entered the “public trading” stage, with:

• Google Plus giving Facebook a real run for the money this time around
• Social image sites like Pinterest capturing a big chunk of our online enthusiasm
• Linked In becoming the “Who’s Who” of professionals and companies, garnering information on people and corporate profiles that boggles the mind

Oh yeah…and who would have though that cool QR code would be considered old-fashioned or quaint quite so soon?

Data collection and analytics has become more sophisticated this year, with Google changing their interfaces and enhancing Analytics, Webmaster Tools and of course, Google Plus.  (Whether we like it or not, we’re dropping “data doo-doo” everywhere we go!)  Bing and Blekko also joined in with updates to their search algorithms and analytics.

As we move forward, experiential data gleaned from all of these programs and platforms will provide a trend pattern not previously available given the emergence of new information.  Make no mistake about it – your Search marketing plan for 2012 will require a comprehensive global approach to lasso the gigantic trifecta of search: organic,  social, and mobile.

Consumers use Twitter for many different reasons. Some tweet to their favorite celebrities, asking questions that may be answered by the celebrity, or anyone else that views the tweet (most tweets are public). Some tweet to their favorite sports radio show, hoping to get mentioned on the air, or get a retweet. Some don’t tweet at all, and just follow their favorite accounts looking for breaking news stories, or updates on Kim Kardashian’s latest marriage. Corporations use Twitter to announce new products and/or updates for old products. Marketers tweet about upcoming events, or promote new products and services to their followers. There are many ways to utilize Twitter, and everybody does it differently.

What is a Hashtag Chat?

People are also chatting on Twitter, using hashtag chats. These are discussions between two or more people on Twitter, in which followers connect through the use of hashtags. A hashtag is a group of characters that is preceded by a pound sign. Hashtags look like #this, and provide a great way for different people to organize related tweets in one feed. By including a certain hashtag somewhere within your tweet, it will be organized on a list with ALL other tweets that also contain the same hashtag.

So lets say you are interested in news and discussion pertaining to an NFL team, the New York Giants for instance. On Twitter, do a search for #NYG, and you will be given a constantly updating feed of every tweet containing that hashtag. All tweets containing that hashtag should have something to do with the Giants, whether it be breaking news, or some random person’s opinion on last week’s game. A hashtag chat is a way for people all over the world to connect with each other and discuss a specific topic in real-time.

NOTE: Hashtags cannot contain spaces or punctuation, so if you’re looking for tweets pertaining to Lake George, NY, search the hashtag #LakeGeorge or #LakeGeorgeNY. Hashtags are not case sensitive.

Why Should I Use Hashtag Chats?

Hashtag chats are a valuable way to learn information, from people that are interested in the same topics. You can choose a topic, maybe web design, or marketing in general, and participate in a chat with like-minded people. Participants in the chat may be people that are interested in learning, or interested in teaching and discussing the topic of choice, and could include industry experts and innovators. This encourages faster learning, you gain more information and get different viewpoints by having a discussion with experts than you would if you were on your own doing research.

Where else in the world can you just jump into a conversation among industry leaders and professionals? Because of their nature, hashtag chats are open to the public. You don’t need an invitation to be in on the discussion, just join it! You don’t even need to tweet, you can simply read a hashtag chat without ever tweeting a word. Depending on the topic, a hashtag chat could easily turn into a free webinar, with discussions, links and opinions from knowledgeable people that care about the subject of the chat. This is a great way to learn quality information, from quality sources (you can easily view the profile of people that are participating, and determine credibility). If you participate in a chat, people will see your tweets and might interact with them. This can develop connections and friendships over time, a great networking tool!

How Do I Find a Hashtag Chat? 

You can start by simply clicking on a hashtag that you see in the tweets of people you follow. This will bring you to the feed of ALL tweets containing this hashtag. If you are looking for a specific topic to discuss, and don’t see any related tweets, do a search on Twitter for related keywords with a # in front of the word.

A better way to find quality hashtag chats is to take a look at this Twitter Chat Schedule. If you are logged into a Google account, you should be able to open this spreadsheet through Google Docs. The spreadsheet is set up with hashtags on the left, in alphabetical order. The topic of discussion and any information pertaining to the chat is located in the cell directly to the right of the hashtag. The next column over holds the Twitter handles of the organizers, or any popular guests making an appearance in the chat. The colorful cells make up the schedule.

Lets use the hashtag chat #AdChat (from the spreadsheet) for an example. The chat is described as a “Weekly chat from the perspective of ad agency pros & students, those wishing to become one of those two, and those who are just interested in getting some perspective on the agency world!” The chat is hosted by @aaziADee, @HeidyCaminero, @j_fuji, and @TheCoolestCool. This chat takes place on Thursdays, from 8-9pm EST.

See how easy that is? If you are interested in this chat, log on to Twitter on Thursday at 8pm and search #AdChat, and you’re in! Please be polite and respectful when joining hashtag chats uninvited (or always).

Now you should be all set to join your first hashtag chat! It’s fun, it’s informative, and you can really get a lot out of conversations with experts. I urge everyone on Twitter to try it, just search the schedule for a topic that interests you, and join the discussion!

Link building and quality content are both critical parts of any successful SEO program.

Strong link building takes time and effort; getting high quality sites to point their golden fingers at you (aka links) is part of the hard work that an internet marketing professional knows how to do effectively.  The same with content – exceptional content is the coin of the realm in search.
It would seem natural, then, that since these components comprise such a critical part of getting your business found online, that a paid service to complete them for you would be a no brainer.  Well, guess what. This can be a good example of “if it seems too good to be true, it probably is”.

Your online presence, visibility, relevance and reputation are based on not just what you do, but who you ‘hang out’ with. Search engines are robots, and they are linear thinkers. So, if your site is both linking to and linking from high quality, relevant sites in your industry, then you get a sort of Doris Day (or “White Hat” in SEO-speak) designation.  If suddenly you are spending time with the bad boys, hanging out with strangers in your neighborhood with less-than-stellar reputations (or “Black Hat” in SEO-speak), that can change your reputation.  The fact is, you are often known by the online company you keep, like it or not.

Be aware that link farming and content farming may sound quaint – organic in fact – but they aren’t.  They’re risky and can do far more harm than good.  So…do your cost benefit analysis and make an informed decision to practice smart online business development. From Albany to the Adirondacks and Upstate NY, successful SEO begins with hard work and White Hat search engine optimization strategies.

This is what Facebook looked like in early 2004, when it was an exclusive social network for Harvard students.

Yuck! I have to give props to the Zuckerberg for coming up with the idea (well, implementing it) but the original design and function of the site are far different from what over 750 million users see today. Imagine if Facebook responded every time a user complained about how difficult it is to get used to the new format, or the new news feed. This is what we would be stuck with, and I would have logged out a long time ago.

So, what are the newest changes to Facebook? The biggest change that you will notice is your news feed. The new news feed is organized a little differently, and no longer lets you toggle between “top stories” and “most recent”. Instead, your news feed will automatically be organized with Top Stories at the top, and Recent Stories feeding in below them.

Facebook describes Top Stories as:

“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.”

This is actually a pretty accurate explanation of EdgeRank, Facebook’s algorithm for determining what shows up where. If your Facebook page has a low EdgeRank, your status updates and any other uploaded content will not show up on all news feeds (more on this later). This change in the news feed was made to help organize the content you want to see, depending on how often you log on. If you log on to Facebook once a week, Top Stories from the past week will appear at the top of your news feed, making sure you don’t miss any interaction between your friends, family and favorite pages. If you frequent Facebook several times a day, you probably wont see much fall under Top Stories, because Facebook knows that you have already checked them out.

Facebook explains:

“it’s not just the people you hear from that make your News Feed interesting. It also matters how much you visit Facebook. If you haven’t returned in a week, you may want to see a summary of top stories first. If you’ve already visited several times that day, you probably care more about recent news.”

So for those of you who only frequent Facebook once a week or so, you no longer have to worry about missing important stuff. If you frequent Facebook often, you will see Recent Stories first, since chances are good that you have already seen or interacted with the Top Stories.

EdgeRank

EdgeRank is a score that your Facebook page earns, which results from a complicated algorithm that Facebook is in no hurry to share. Most of the criteria centers around engagement. The more fans your page has the better, but there are several other factors. Do your fans interact with your content? Do they post photos, comment on your wall, like your comments? This is why you may have noticed that certain friends appear in your news feed more than others, even though both utilize Facebook the same way. If you interact with a friends content, view their photos, like their comments, and message back and forth with them, you will see many more updates from that friend than you would someone you rarely interact with. EdgeRank is Facebook’s way of deciding what they think is important to you.

While EdgeRank also used to have everything to do with the “top stories” tab at the top of the news feed, and is still very relevant, you are no longer able to simply switch it off. In the past you could choose whether you wanted to view “most recent” updates, or “top stories” by toggling the tab at the top of the news feed on and off. Now, if you haven’t seen your Facebook wall in several hours (Facebook knows, trust me) you will have no choice but to be exposed to Top Stories before you scroll down to the Recent Stories.

This is why many Facebook marketers are considering EdgeRank to be more important than ever. Content with high EdgeRank will now appear in the coveted Top Stories segment of the news feed, and will have more durability than ever before. What I mean by durability is, in the past if a post went unnoticed for more than a few hours, it is pretty likely that you would never see it with a constant stream of content feeding in on top of it. Now, if you maintain a high EdgeRank, your posts may become much more “sticky” and can appear in the Top Stories section for days – depending on who’s news feed it is.

More Changes

Some of the other changes that I have recently noticed seem to have come straight from competing social networks Google+ and Twitter. The “subscribe” button is much closer to “following” somebody on Twitter than it is to “friending” somebody on Facebook. The “improved friends lists” seem to be strikingly similar to Google+’s circles. While these are both important and useful updates, it looks as though Facebook is trying pretty hard to keep it’s crown as king of all social content on the web.

The “subscribe” button allows you to further customize what content is being fed to you. You will notice the button at the top right of a profile page. When you subscribe to a person, you can choose to get all updates, no updates, or some updates depending on the topic. If you want to maintain and social relationship with one of your “friends”, but don’t want to be updated on what they had for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and what they did in between, just “unsubscribe”. If a Facebook profile allows subscribers, you do not need to be “friends” with them to subscribe. This is very similar to the way Twitter works, where you either “follow” or “unfollow” friends, celebrities, industry experts & news sources depending on what you’re interested in.

The new and improved “friends lists” allow a Facebook user to sort their friends, and control who they are broadcasting content to. Friends lists have existed for years, but Facebook now offers you smart lists to save you the time of organizing all of your friends. The smart lists include: Work, School, Family, and City, which Facebook likely knows based on your profile information. You can also place certain friends on a restricted list, so that they will only see your Public Posts. By using lists, you can control where the content that you are reading comes from, as well as where your own content ends up.

This is remarkably similar to Circles, which Google+ describe as:

“Google+ Circles helps you organize everyone according to your real-life social connections–say, ‘family,’ ‘work friends,’ ‘music buddies,’ and ‘alumni’. Then, you can share relevant content with the right people, and follow content posted by people you find interesting. For example, you might post an announcement about your engagement and show it only to people in your friends and family circles, or maybe you see a post from the circle you created for your book club that there’s a recent article on your favorite author.”

Even more changes are coming to Facebook, and will continue to come. I am sitting here watching the f8 development conference as I write this post, and I am seeing that there are so many people on Facebook, and the connections are already all made. So Facebook will now start rolling out apps that enhance usability and your overall social experience. One of the newest, and coolest, updates in my opinion is the Timeline. Soon, Facebook will release the Timeline, that will let you go back and look at your entire story, since your first status update. The Timeline will let you scroll through the years, and check out photos, stories, places, etc.. Mark Zuckerberg just showed us that the Timeline even has a function that allows you to track your locations over the years, forming a world map showing all the places where you have checked in.

Facebook is going to continue rolling out updates and new social apps in the future. While the massively popular social media site is constantly asking it’s users to learn how to use new additions and updates, these updates are essential to the progression of social media itself. Even industry experts are learning this stuff as they go! There are no textbooks, or history lessons that people learn from. The entire industry changes every day! Facebook is not spending all of their time and money studying the competition and emulating their devices. They are innovators. They are engineering new ways for people to share, interact and socialize all over the globe.

So next time a new update is released for Facebook, take a minute to check it out and learn what it’s about before bashing the Zuckerberg on your Facebook wall. He (or another Facebook exec.) might hear what you are saying, but nothing is going to stop Facebook from progressively changing and discovering new ways for people to interact online. And lets face it, 750 million users are not going to just give up on the king of social media.

The first is the Facebook Question app on your Wall. This is the quickest and simplest way to ask the people that like your Page for feedback. Just type in a question, add possible responses (if you want to) and submit.

This is great for a little market research, or just to engage your fans.

The next tool is video. Almost everyone these days has a video camera, either standalone or as part of their phone. So why not film more and share it? For the most part people aren’t expecting high quality, professional video footage and editing all the time, especially in a social media space. So shoot a little video about your business, your products, your service. And then share it. If you get addicted to shooting video, you can even use the Facebook video App for a unique video tab, or use one of the many video apps (like YouTube) to build a more custom tab.

Another quick thing to do to improve the look of your Page is to have the best photos from your photo album be the five that show above your wall. To do this, just head to your Wall. If you are logged in and an admin of the Page, just move your cursor over the photos you don’t want there. An ‘x’ should appear. Click it. When you do, a confirmation box will appear letting you know that that particular photo will not show up on your Facebook Wall, but will still be visible elsewhere. Once you get a picture you like in a spot, move to the next photo in line. Continue until you have 5 photos you want to appear. This keeps the Page looking nice. If you don’t do this, you run the risk of some obscure photos showing there, or 5 very similar photos showing which is probably not what you want to do.

One tip I do on a regular basis is head to the Info tab on the business Pages I admin. Facebook regularly adds new fields, so I check in to make sure all the info I can possibly give people is populated. You’d be amazed at how many business Pages don’t have much filled out in the tab, not even the About Box which feeds the left nav, or even contact information.

Lastly, there are many Pages that do not share anything but a Status message. Now, Status messages are great, and definitely should be a part of your Facebook efforts. Put you need to remember how they show up on your fans News feed. They appear amongst pictures of their new baby nephews, amongst posts asking them to join a game and links to the funniest video of the week. If all you send is a little text update, it may be 1 in 10 or 1 in 20 posts that actual stands out and gets read. But if you include photos, videos or links in the posts it will look as appealing as all the others on a personal News feed. The quickest one of these is the link. If you read a blog everyday, or subscribe to a newsletter in your industry, there is plenty to share with a link. When you’re reading them, think to yourself if the information in the piece would be of interest to your customers. When you answer ‘yes,’ take that link and share it on your Wall. When you do, a title and blurb from that page are automatically added to the Post, along with an image from the page.

And you can easily edit the text and look for different images. All you then need to do is write a brief statement as to why your fans should click on the link. You’re done. You’ve now provided the people who like your Page with some great information and they will remember it came from you.

Which of these tools will you try first? Do they really make your life and Internet marketing campaigns easier? Let us know.

Give consumers some ownership in the experience by creating your own contests with User Generated Content. “UGC” as it is most commonly called, is simply a promotion that allows consumers to upload their own content (images or videos) to the Internet and use the content to enter the contest. Find your ultimate fan, best dancer, best product recipe or whatever you dream up and we guarantee your customers will have a blast coming up with stuff. Voting mechanisms and viral marketing channels allow users to take ownership in the experience to spread the reach of your contest.

Here are some examples of contests:

1) Photo Sharing Contests – Lets consumers upload photos and write their captions to win!
2) Video Sharing Contests – Lets customers upload their video to show you everything they’ve got!
3) Essay Contests – Let them speak their mind.
4) Custom E-Greetings – Allows consumers to upload their picture to a cut out character, customize a card or create a funky beat. The combinations are endless.

Below is an example of a recent Facebook contest hosted by American Express:

“Would you like to win $20,000 to help grow your business? Well here is your opportunity!

American Express OPEN is teaming up with Facebook to host the Ultimate Big Break contest. Five small business owners will win the Ultimate Big Break: A trip to Facebook headquarters for a two-day, one-on-one business makeover and $20,000 to help grow their business with social media.

To enter, simply visit the American Express Open – Big break fan page and answer the following three short questions:

1) Tell us about your business. What makes you excited to come to work every day?
2) How do you envision Facebook impacting your business?
3) How could a Big Break help your business and your customers?

The deadline to enter is Monday, May 23. For official rules and insightful tips to help grow your small business visit facebook.com/OPEN.”

In result, this contest built great PR for American Express, created hundreds of thousands of new followers on Facebook, and a surge in traffic on its fan page which continues to provide marketing tips and information for small business owners through their forum. All in all, the desired goal of building brand awareness and growing their online presence was achieved!

To learn more how you can create a Facebook contest for your next social media marketing or SEO campaign, contact Mannix Marketing today, your local Upstate NY internet marketing experts.

1. I’m not tech savvy
2. It would take up too much time
3. My target market doesn’t use Facebook
4. I started a Page but didn’t see instant results

We like to help businesses get the most out of their marketing, so if we feel they are missing an opportunity we like to tell them. So we offer the following rebuttals to the above reasons:

1. I’m not tech savvy – You don’t have to be. If you think setting up a Facebook Page is too much for you, ask someone at your business, or contact an Internet Marketing professional. Once the Page is set up, keeping it active can take as little as a few clicks and a few sentences every day or even every other day (or you could even schedule out your posts so you don’t have to go in as often).
2. It would take up too much time – Not really. Entering a post doesn’t take more than a few minutes (if that), and if you are in tune with your business, industry and clients finding topics to post about shouldn’t be difficult at all.
3. My target market doesn’t use Facebook – With over 500 million users worldwide and over 140 million users in the U.S., this may be the case, but very unlikely. People young and old are using Facebook more and more each day.
4. I started a Page but didn’t see instant results – Although there are instances when you may see instant results to certain campaigns or advertisements you do through Facebook, that’s not where the major benefits usually come from. The bigger picture with Facebook is more as a long term part of your business’ marketing program. It builds trust and brand awareness, can be used for market and product research, allows for word of mouth marketing and a can yield a host of other great results that aren’t always connected to that day’s bottom line.

Facebook is as close to a must as there is when it comes to pieces to a marketing campaign for any business. It’s where the people are, and once you get things started with your Page it doesn’t have to be a huge investment for you.

Is your business on Facebook? How long have you been using it? If you don’t have a Facebook Page yet, do you plan on building one soon? Contact Mannix Marketing, Inc., your local Upstate NY social media marketing company to learn how you can use Facebook to create better experiences for your customers.

How can you find out what consumers want?

Social Media Sites

Social media is completely revolutionizing the way businesses interact with their customers. Stored information from Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and other networking sites can show us what brands people like. With this data, companies can now listen and respond to what it is people really want.

For example, Carnival Cruise Lines does a great job at listening to what people are saying. Their team monitors Twitter and Facebook for any mentions of their brand using the platform Tweetdeck. Social Media Manager from Carnival Cruise Lines Eric Schechter states, “We not only listen to the good, but also to the bad, correcting any customer service or providing service recovery if possible. We take into consideration what people write on our Facebook page and use these suggestions and comments to improve our cruise ships, guest experiences, etc. Social Media builds trust by being able to directly engage in conversation with the people who build and make our brand what it is.”

He continues to explain how the consumers “voice” actually builds the brand. “Now, with consumer generated content, customers turn into your brand ambassadors. By simply uploading pictures, videos, or commenting about your product or service, they are essentially building free PR for you! What’s better then free advertising?!”

(Above is an example of Carnival Cruise Lines promoting conversation with customers through Facebook.)

Another example of successfully understanding the needs of your consumers is a Facebook campaign by Target. Target launched a back-to-school Facebook page targeting college students living in dorms. The page included interactive games, photo and video posting opportunities as well as a discussion board. They offered a fun quiz application and colorful graphics which captured the interest of college students. In result, the page attracted a surge of new traffic and allowed Target to connect users to not only their brand but to receive insight on their products and customer service, both positive and negative. Marketers could then use this information to make changes to their current strategy and learn what exactly to continue doing and what to change out or improve on.

On the flip side, with the emergence of social media many consumers have also used this as an outlook to post negative comments and to vent or rant about products or services. Companies need to understand that this is not necessarily a bad thing. It gives the company an opportunity to fix the problem and a chance to learn what they can improve on in the future. If you are a business, check out this interesting article on how you can respond to negative social media reviews and turn it around to a positive. 

One example of a company responding to negative feedback positively is Gap. After 20 years with the same logo, in 2010 the company decided to revamp it with a new one. This resulted in a frenzy amongst customers all over social media networking sites. Followers of the business posted negative comments about the new logo.  So what was Gap left to do? Nothing but the obvious. They were able to take this feedback as constructive criticism and give people what they wanted – the original Gap logo back. In result, the negativity turned positive as it created buzz for the brand, increased sales that year, gave people a voice in the company and gave them back what they wanted.  

In conclusion, internet marketers are using social media to help them better understand customers. Whether it’s listening to suggestions for new products or turning a negative review into a positive buzz, businesses are taking advantage of this new medium.  A few years ago companies would have killed to have these channels  of communication with their consumers.

 Social media can be an extremely powerful channel if you have the right internet marketing company that knows how to use it correctly.  If you’re looking to understand what your customers want on a whole new level, let an internet marketing professional help.  Contact Mannix Marketing, Inc., your local Upstate NY internet marketing company to learn how you can use social media to create better experiences for your customers.

Google is the Goliath of search. It has muscled and finessed and “algorithmed” it’s way to the top.  It enjoys an unfettered view from the very pinnacle of internet search.  It’s the authority. The “hammer”.  The engine that everyone looks up to, trusts to do the hard work, and expects the real results from. 

Alas, Google hasn’t been much of a social climber.  Facebook has outstripped Google for some time now as the most  visited domain. Its cleanest foray into the social world was its marriage to YouTube. But emerging as a relevant social media  presence? Not so much.

We trust Google for our search needs.  Yet as hard as they’ve worked to get there, it seems their lackluster showing in the upstart world of social media is starting to eat at them.  It appears as though Google is – dare we say – workin’ it.  Jockeying  for position.  Shouldering  their way through the crowd.  Behaving sort of like they’re the class  valedictorian, but now they want to be voted “Most Popular”.  Or maybe they’re just playing – they don’t care about social at all and just want to mine the search field.  Suddenly is seems the Google weird factor is back on the table.

To access +1 you first need a Google Profile, much like a Facebook profile only not yet as cool, which anyone who has your email can access.  What we don’t yet know is how the +1 button will affect how consumer data is captured, shared or funneled.  Since Google has a long way to go to get to the warm and fuzzy social comfort-level Facebook provides, how valuable will this data really be? Only time will tell!  The +1’s will start appearing in the next few months, just like the local search results did earlier this year. They seem to be putting their toe into the water with this one, using Google-speak phrases like,  “…a way to make search results more relevant.”  Hm.

What does Google +1 mean for search engine optimization?  That remains to be seen…there is no doubt that it will affect the specificity of search and how visitors gauge value. But what visitors? If you want to give this a go straight away, you can check out Google’s experimental search option.   You can also get the +1 facts from Google  .  For now, don’t plan on putting your “Like” button out to pasture!