It will be interesting to see how Buzz takes on the other social networking sites. It appears to be blending Twitter, Facebook and FourSquare into one formidable challenger, but is it likely to be that “killer” of any or all of these? Ummm… doubtful. I think it offers a different way of sharing media but it’s unlikely to lure over Facebook or Twitter users. It’s likely to be attractive to a small percent of existing Gmail users who are not already using one of the other social media sites.

The biggest issue I predict with Buzz is that it’s not a stand-alone application. Meaning someone who’s never heard of Buzz will only be aware of it if they have and use Gmail and are connected to someone else who also has and uses a Gmail account. It’s kind of like an invitation to a party that you already have to be attending in the first place. Google could have made Buzz accounts accessible with existing Gmail accounts (and provided the Gmail integration), but it should have made Buzz its own site with allowances for other non-Gmail accounts to participate. Perhaps that’s phase two though, after testing it on a smaller scale. We’ll wait and see if it’s really a buzz or just a buzzard.

Well, if this is a problem of yours, then your life is about to get a little easier! I recommend HootSuite for those managing multiple twitter accounts. It’s what I, personally, use now for managing my own personal Twitter account as well as all of our Mannix Marketing Twitter accounts for Saratoga, Lake George, Albany, the Adirondacks, etc. (I switched from Tweetlater after just one day of using Hootsuite!)

HootSuite has been more than a timesaver; it has been a lifesaver for me! It’s a fun, cute design, and it makes things incredibly easy….

- Hootsuite Screenshot -

The above is called your 'Hootsuite Dashboard'

Simply set yourself up with one username in Hootsuite, and you can add in all your Twitter profiles, and then update them all right from one place – without having to sign in and out, etc. You simply click on the profile icon (upper right) that you want to update, and then type your status in the box at the top. It is SO easy!

You can even schedule tweets in advance. You just click Send Later instead of Send Now and then choose the exact date and time you would like to send.

Hootsuite also lets you shrink links down into a special format, which allows for link tracking (as well as more room in your tweet). It will keep track of how many people clicked on that link so you can test the effectiveness of different messages. It will also tell you where those clicks are coming from. So, for example, if you have your twitter feed feeding into your Facebook page, you can easily tell if you generated more clicks from your Tweet or your Facebook post. It’s really helpful.

What I really love is that it lets you pull in your friends feed for all the people you follow. This is what makes Hootsuite unlike many other platforms where you are just a one-sided broadcast for yourself and not connected to the rest of the Twitterverse. With Hootsuite, you stay connected!

You can even customize your columns to show exactly what you would like, where you would like it. So if you don’t care about having your pending messages there, but maybe you would rather have a private messages column, you can do that. Or if you would like to have your Sent Tweets column first and your Home Feed second, you can do that too. It’s completely customizable.

Best of all, Hootsuite is free to use! You can do all this and not pay a dime. It’s really great, and I recommend you give it a try!

Find more information about Social Media Do’s and Don’ts…

Not sure how to get started on Twitter? Give us a call! We’d be happy to help you out! Mannix Marketing 518-743-9424

But my challenge to you this year is to not only make resolutions for yourself, but make them for your business. After all, our business is our livelihood. We need to make sure that it is just as “healthy” and “happy” as it can be.

So, here are some ideas to start 2010 with gusto!

A. Get that website redesign that you’ve been thinking about! It’s time and it really does make a difference.

B. Try Social Media Marketing. That’s right … Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr. It cannot be denied that Social Media is a powerful tool in marketing your brand. Start slowly by creating one account. Get used to how it works and how you can use it for marketing purposes. Put it on your daily schedule for updating and work on building your fan base and followers. Once you are comfortable with the one account, you are ready to add another.

Make sure that you are maximizing your opportunities with social marketing. The conversation starts online, but the conversion happens in the real world.

C. Embrace one new “function” on your website. Try adding something new and creative to your website. After all, your website is your vehicle to promote your business. Explore videos. Add a Newsletter Sign up and try Email Marketing. Try blogging. Add related articles or expand your content by adding a new section altogether. Keep your website moving forward!

D. Set marketing goals. With all these new marketing strategies, make sure you track your efforts. You’ll easily be able to see the difference your new strategies are making by analyzing your statistics. Continue doing whichever avenues have made a positive impact.

E. Get involved. Read related blogs and leave comments. Become fans of Facebook pages. Send Direct Messages on Twitter. In a word … participate. Your effort will be rewarded.

F. Cross your t’s and dot your i’s. Make sure your online profiles are fully complete. If you can add 10 pictures, add 10 pictures. Fill out all descriptions and added info sections. Don’t forget about the reviews! Make sure you have enough reviews by soliciting happy clients for them. It’s a good idea to go and check all accounts. You may have thought you would go back to finish one or more of them but forgot about it.

G. Manage your reputation. With the introduction to real time search, it is more important than ever to be aware of what is being said. Use Twitter Search to track any mention of your name, your keywords, your location and your competitors’ name. Use Google Alerts to have an email update sent directly to your inbox. Based on your choice of query or topic, Google will send an email of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.). This is very handy indeed.

Above all, have a happy and healthy New Year!

These results will be displayed similar to how “News” has been populating into the search results. The difference is that it looks to be longer and with scrolling capability for more current results. There’s also an added function for drilling down into the data by time or date range. Real-time results do not appear to be taking the spots of natural listings in the Top 10… if anything, the results are pushed a little bit further down on the page.

“Google isn’t the first to initiate real-time search, but it is likely to make it mainstream.”

The implications of this new addition are a little too early to see clearly, but I think it will eventually change how we use search and therefore how we strategize for SEO. Google isn’t the first to initiate real-time search, but it is likely to make it mainstream. People are going to be taking crash courses and learning very quickly just how important the “now” information can be. Likewise, businesses are going to quickly see that having “active” social media profiles are not just good ideas… but necessary components of their search strategy. Businesses will also become mindful of the language used and will need to include search phrases (as it pertains) within their social profiles. I’m sure there will be some gaming attempts of the real-time results, but Google’s pretty quick at catching on - they’ll likely start to blacklist profiles from inclusion… so be careful not to overdo it and be mindful of your audience – they’re not dumb.

When looking at social media, the conversion rates thus far have been pretty miniscule (and over-hyped) when compared against traditional search conversions, but I think these conversions will change too, and should shoot way up with the new integration.

“…Real-Time Search will… [lead to] …an increase in bookmarking and back linking…”

Kind of a random thought, but I think one of the side effects of this new Real-Time Search will be an increase in bookmarking and back linking to the included sites and pages. With a traditional search, you could generally find the same page again simply by replicating the search (the Lazyman’s bookmark). With real-time resources… that information could be long buried. Searchers will be more likely to record these important time/date sensitive information somewhere… So another important feature that’s now even more necessary – having bookmarking scripts included on all of your web pages.

It’s pretty exciting stuff happening, and I think SEO as a whole be very busy in 2010!

But the fact that thousands of sites can be linked to by the same main URL domain can lead to a trust issue. How do you know if the link will lead to a safe site that really matches the copy that surrounds it? Is it possible that the link is a spam link, and the enticing copy surrounding it is only there to trick you into clicking on it? Does the fact that you don’t know make you more or less likely to click on it?

Even though the majority of Short URLs you come across will indeed be safe and link to a good page, the truth is that it is tough to be 100% sure that what you are clicking on is safe, and will lead directly to where you want to go. And we all know that one bad click can sometimes ruin a good day. So, what are some tips to keep in mind when you come across Short URLs:

• If you trust the sender or poster (like someone you follow on Twitter), you should be okay. But be wary, as some accounts can get hacked and those hackers may spam people associated with those accounts.
• If you think the link may be spam, don’t click on it. If the marketing message entices you, you can probably find out what is being referenced by searching that website.
• Preview the linked page if possible (TinyURL offers this option – http://tinyurl.com/preview.php).

I believe that the need for a service like Short URLs will always be there, but the exact form the future versions of this service will take is yet to be determined. Do you have ideas of what it will look like? Do you have alternatives to Short URLs? Have you run into any huge problems? Let us know.

And maybe you have put off signing up for an account, or building a fan base, because you were ‘waiting to see what happens.’ Well, it just happened.

Both Google and Microsoft have recently come to agreements with Twitter, while Microsoft has signed a deal with Facebook as well (you know Google can’t be too far behind there). These agreements will allow the search engines to integrate updates on the social media sites right onto the SERPs.

You can read more about these deals here.

So what does this mean for you? If you have been at the forefront of social media, and have accounts on Twitter and Facebook with lots of fans and followers, then you are in a good position to gain more exposure (and hopefully traffic) from these deals.

If you have accounts but have not kept them up to date, or if you don’t have any accounts at all, there’s still time but you have some work ahead of you. These deals are about real-time search, so it’s not necessarily what you have done in the past that will count (although having more fans and followers will probably be a plus, so you’ll want to increase those numbers). You can position yourself for real-time search by:

• Opening or updating your account
• Building up more fans or followers
• Starting conversations on current topics
• Respond to comments and other posts on topics you are an expert in

So what type of situation are you in? Are you ready to take advantage of real-time search?

Online reviews can come from a host of sources – if you have a business and you aren’t checking for these reviews onine periodically, you should be!  The stats for online reviews are impressive: 86% of consumers read them before making purchasing decisions, making reputation management a must for businesses of all sizes. With the introduction of travel review sites such as TripAdvisor, regional dining reviews , potential customers and clients are savvy. Why risk going out for an expensive dinner, stay at a hotel or resort, or do some retail shopping without first seeing what others have to say? Not surprisingly, online reviews have become an integral part of any successful SEO and SMO campaign. 

Online reviews can boost your reputation and bring new customers to your business. But just like other promotional online environments, a review site can be viral, meaning (in the internet world) it can gain popularity and grow at an exponential rate, seemingly taking on a life of its own.  Don’t miss out on this opportunity for free exposure and word-of-mouth advertising, and do your best to ensure it’s all good!

How to Earn Positive Reviews

As in many other areas of sales, the best way is simply to ask for the business! Reputation management begins with developing a positive client base, so you can begin with your most trusted long-time customers or clients, people who know you and your business and have continued to patronize you. You can simply ask them to review you business and the quality of your services, providing them with a few possible locations where they can do so.  Tell them what you are trying to do and simply ask them to be honest in their assessment.  There are a host of locations where your customers can post their comments, including Yahoo Local, Insider Pages, City Search, and Ratingz.net.

A Word About Negative Reviews:

It happens. It may be out of the blue, or come from someone you’ve been expecting to hear from! Either way, negative reviews can be personally upsetting and damaging to your business. The best way to avoid these is, of course, to provide the very best in customer service that you can! If you have 30 or 75 or 150 great reviews and one bad one, most reasonable people will avoid giving it more credence than it may deserve. If there is a recurring theme in the complaints, then it’s probably something you need to look into and treat it as a learning experience. If it does happen to you, however, remember that most resasonable people understand that these things do happen, so don’t over-think it, and by all means avoid getting into a discussion or argument about it online!

Why is reputation management important?

Remember when you were a kid and you played that game where everyone sat in a circle and whispered something into the next person’s ear - by the time it went around the circle it was usually a totally different version. You can avoid that scenario by monitoring your reviews, maintaining positive communication and exemplary customer service, and making sure your business gets the positive attention it deserves.

The good news is that the online review environment is extensive, open to everyone, and FREE! Need help with your online reputation management? Call Mannix Marketing, Inc.!

Do you have an email newsletter that you send out weekly/monthly/bi-monthly? Why not connect it with your Facebook Page for your business and kill two birds with one stone? Don’t know how? It’s easy, trust me. Here are some instructions:

If you use Vertical Response as your email platform

If you use Constant Contact

If you use iContact

Providing an email sign up to your newsletter can be as easy as downloading the Static FBML application to your page and then following some simple instructions. Have questions, please contact us and we can help you get up and running.

Increase your reach by over 24% by creating this simple form and pasting it right into your Facebook Business Page profile. It will show up either as a tab when you download the app, or in the left hand corner of your Page profile.

Examples:

Get people to sign up via your Facebook Page for news, latest events, or hot deals THEN follow up with a short, but sweet, BLAST through the “Send an Update to Your Fans” feature. Whether you have 10 fans, 100 fans or a billion fans — say hello to them via this feature  fast and effectively.

Facebook is making communication easy, folks. Jump on the band wagon and promote your business through these easy to use tools.

Don’t miss out on the added 24% of traffic/customers/leads that you could get by broadcasting your email newsletter through social media.

With jobs running scarce, the economy shaky and even long standing media closing its doors, we are turning to the internet as our lifeline. With our desire to always stay connected, we post just about anything to our social media profiles – from what we had for breakfast, to whether or not we think it will rain for another 30 days straight. We ask our ‘followers’/’fans’/’voyeurs’ to take polls, quizzes and/or give us advice on what life throws at us. In the world of the internet, we may think it stays on our screens, but it doesn’t. Anything you post online is public and for all to see.

For those who may have just gasped after reading that, rest assured. Each social media networking site has privacy settings that you can alter based upon your preferences. My suggestion? If you don’t want your mom reading about your night out, why would you post it publicly on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter? Don’t post pictures or enable the ‘tag’ feature on photos…your employer does not want to see you pie eyed at some random bar on a Friday night.
Here are some do’s and don’ts when it comes to Social Media.

Social Media Don’ts:

• Don’t Be Pompous: Just because you are sitting in front of a computer screen doesn’t mean you are invincible. No one likes a ‘know it all’, so don’t act like one. If you are looking for a new job, follow those in your niche. Ask questions. Be available for meet ups. Be Proactive. Get your ego in check and act humble. It’s all about networking and building friendships.
• Don’t Slap it on Heavy: Let’s face it. The job market is tough and the hiring process is not easy. Stay true to yourself and don’t lie about your past work experiences because Google always remembers. Tout your winnings, but not too loudly as this might offend your followers or perhaps turn people away from contacting you. Believe it or not, a self promoting tweet may be the demise of your online persona.
• Don’t Blab About Anything and Everything: No one cares if you are drinking a Coke or “so tired you can’t keep your eyes open”. People care about unique, enticing content. Share your thoughts, your goals or talk about the latest project that you worked on. Update your statuses with ‘sticky’ content and it will drive people to look at your profile and even follow you.
• Don’t Just Set it and Forget it: Social media profiles take time to setup and even more time to maintain. If you setup a Facebook Page for your business, it’s wise to have someone on staff to update it regularly. If you setup a Twitter account for your client, it’s best if you maintain weekly status updates; checking for new friends, direct messages, shout outs or reviews. You never know when that ‘hot lead’ will come in…it’s best to be ready.

Social Media Do’s:

• Do Be Friendly, Cordial and Respective: People love feedback. Comment on statuses of those that you follow and respect. Virtually get to know your friends by checking out their social media profile. Where do they work? What is their passion? Comment, share posts, befriend. Karma, folks. It does come back to you.
• Do Participate: Just like with status updates, you can also post messages on links that people share. Or, take it upon yourself to share the content of your peers via a ‘Share This’ button. Blog about a new product. Make news viral. Share the ‘link love’ by giving others a direct link to your website. Link popularity is a huge component to getting found in the search engines. The more high quality links you have pointing to your website, the more credible and valuable your website appears to the end user and the search engines.
• Be Proactive About Leads: You may have a variety of social media accounts. Synch them up using Hootsuite, TweetLater or Ping.fm and update statuses quickly and efficiently with these tools. Make sure to check regularly for direct messages, shout outs or ‘thumbs up’ and give the love right back. Connect, Engage, Communicate and Befriend.
• Do Set Your Privacy Settings: Like I said, no one really wants to see you carrying on in pictures, especially not your employer. We have become too comfortable online and seem to post everything for all eyes to see. Be aware of what you or your friends are posting about you. Set your privacy settings so that you must approve everything first.

Online social networks, whether for personal or business use, are a wonderful thing. Just make sure you know how to use them appropriately to make them work for you!