eMarketing Blog

How to Claim Your Facebook Places

2010-09-02T11:40:00.000-04:00

Interesting article by Tony Bradley at PC World

If your business is a brick and mortar location that customers visit in person, odds are good that it will end up in Facebook Places whether you put it there or not. Even if you don't choose to take advantage of Facebook Places to promote business, you should still claim ownership of your place to ensure the information is accurate.

With half a billion Facebook members, odds are good that at least a few of them are your customers. That means there is a likelihood that someone will "check-in" to Facebook Places at your place of business and your establishment will have a Facebook Places page whether you intend to use it or not.

You don't have to bother claiming your Place. But, if it's going to be there anyway, you may as well at least manage and maintain the basic details. By claiming the Facebook Place you are able to edit the address, business hours, profile picture, contact information, and other settings such as designating admins authorized to alter the Places page.

If your Facebook Place doesn't exist yet, you can use the smartphone Facebook app to check-in at your business to create it. Once your business has a Facebook Place, there is a link at the bottom that says "Is this your business?" Click that to begin the verification process.

Claiming your Place requires some supporting evidence--so random strangers should be prevented from claiming your Facebook Place. Aside from basic information like the name, URL, and address of the business, the Claim Place page also asks for the Federal EIN (Employee Identification Number), and requires that you upload a scan of official documents.

You can choose from articles of certificate of incorporation, certificate of formation, local business license, or Better Business Bureau accreditation. Once you submit the necessary information, the Place still does not automatically become yours. You receive a message stating "Thanks, your inquiry has been forwarded to the Facebook Team." You also receive an e-mail confirming the submission and notifying you to "Stand by as we should be back with you soon."

According to the Facebook Help Center, you can also advertise your Facebook Place on Facebook. The Help Center FAQ explains "To advertise your Place, click "I want to advertise something I have on Facebook" in the ad creation flow and choose your Place from the drop-down menu."

Facebook Places is new to the location-based check-in game. Some elements--like the ability to target marketing at Facebook users who have only checked in to your business--don't exist yet (although I am fairly sure they will be tacked on sooner rather than later). However, you can target specials and promotions at Facebook users who "Like" your Facebook Place page.

I recommend that businesses embrace the location-based check-in concept and use it as a powerful tool for marketing and to build repeat customers. But, even if you don't plan to advertise your Facebook Place page, or target promotional specials at Facebook fans that have checked-in to your business, if the Facebook Place for your business is going to be out there anyway, you better take ownership of it and at least make sure the information it reflects is accurate.

Showing More Results from One Site

2010-08-25T16:23:00.000-04:00

On August 20 Google launched a change to their ranking algorithm that makes it easier to find more results from a single site.

“For queries that indicate a strong user interest in a particular domain, like [exhibitions at amnh], we’ll now show more results from the relevant site:

Prior to today’s change, only two results from www.amnh.org would have appeared for this query. Now, we determine that the user is likely interested in the Museum of Natural History’s website, so seven results from the amnh.org domain appear. Since the user is looking for exhibitions at the museum, it’s far more likely that they’ll find what they’re looking for, faster. The last few results for this query are from other sites, preserving some diversity in the results.”

The Do's for Website Crawlability

2010-08-19T16:29:00.000-04:00

Compliments of Search Engine News

Crawlability is just a fancy way of describing how easy it is for search engine spiders to download your pages, easily access your content, and find the rest of your pages based on how you've linked your site together.

It's very common for sites to put up roadblocks that stop these spiders in their tracks, shutting them out of important areas of a site. Put up a spider speed bump and you might see your page drop like a rock, completely out of the top rankings.

You want spiders to eagerly gobble up your pages and return to dine often, vigorously crawling all the corners of your site to make sure your pages get indexed and, just as important, stay indexed and well-ranked in the engines.

Here's a checklist of the most important ways to make sure your site is crawlable. Let's keep those spiders fat and happy.

The Do's...

Use HTML for content. If you want search engines to index your content, design it in simple HTML text format. Creating content in Flash, AJAX, JavaScript, frames, or other formats will make it harder for search engines to index your content.

Use HTML for links. If you want search engines to follow your links, use the simple HTML format. Just as with your page content, you should avoid using links in Flash or JavaScript format. And, if you must use Flash or Javascript, then you should also employ the use of alternative links in simple HTML format that is rich in keyword anchor text.

Make the most of Sitemaps. Employ both a regular HTML Sitemap and an XML Sitemap. Remember that these files need to be kept up to date so you are accurately listing the files you want indexed.

Use your robots.txt file or the meta no-index tag to prevent search engines from wasting time indexing unnecessary pages. There is typically a limit to how many pages each engine will index on your site, make certain you get the ones that are most important to your site in the index and block the ones that aren't important.

Fix your broken links. Use Xenu Link Sleuth to ensure your site has no broken internal links that search engines won't be able to crawl.

What it Takes to be a Successful “Tweetheart”

2010-08-12T12:25:00.002-04:00

Why should someone follow you on Twitter? Getting some traction on Twitter can be tricky, without a plan of action.

There are some things you can do to get more followers:

Provide Valuable Information

Providing valuable information is important. Don’t update your Twitter with what you’re eating or what you’re doing… Instead, provide updates about important information regarding your industry or business that you feel people will genuinely appreciate. Maybe it’s regarding some new medical procedures or new scholarship opportunities for college students; the choice is yours.

Give people a reason to follow you! You can promote on your company/personal website that by becoming a follower they will be the first to receive important information updates. People like to feel that they belong to something exclusive. Mention that only followers will be able to view these updates.

Provide Special Discounts or Offers

Providing special discounts or offers only available to followers will persuade people to connect. We all love deals. Mention on your website that only followers will receive weekly specials or coupons and you will start to see more followers. Even if they don’t plan on buying something now, they’ll know the resources will be there when the time comes.

Use Hashtags

Using hashtags in your Twitter updates can help get your tweets indexed in categories when someone does a search on http://search.twitter.com/.

This is Twitter’s definition of hashtag:

“Because Twitter provided no easy way to group tweets or add extra data, the Twitter community came up with their own way: hashtags. A hashtag is similar to other web tags- it helps add tweets to a category. Hashtags have the 'hash' or 'pound' symbol (#) preceding the tag, like so: #traffic, #followfriday, #hashtag. Hashtags can occur anywhere in the tweet: some people just add a # before a word they're using.”

For example, if you have a restaurant, adding #miamirestaurants after your tweet will allow your tweet to come up when someone does a search for this. This is a way to help promote your local restaurant if someone is visiting Miami and wants to find something to eat. They will be more likely to follow you once they see your tweet and browse around to see what you have to offer.

Google vs. Yahoo: Battle for Popularity

2010-08-05T13:19:00.000-04:00

Google sites remained the most visited in the US in June…but it looks like Yahoo is closing in.

Among the top five most popular web properties in the US, Google sites remained #1 with almost 179 million visitors in June. Yahoo edged ever closer with a mere 9 million lag, or 170 million visitors to its sites. Microsoft sites ranked third at 161 million visitors during the period. Facebook came in fourth at 141 million visitors, ahead of AOL sites at 107 million visitors. The most notable gains were those of Adobe properties, which went up 10 positions and ESPN, who won 12 spots as it benefited from traffic generated by the World Cup, comScore said.

Google to be Responsible for 90% of Search Queries Done in Japan

2010-07-29T12:32:00.001-04:00

Yahoo Japan and Google will be partnering up to provide algorithmic and paid search technologies across Yahoo’s properties. Google will become responsible for around 90% of the search queries done in Japan, according to comScore… compared to the current 30%.

Poor Bing! Here’s an excerpt from Clickz.com on the situation:

Currently, Japan is one of few global markets in which Google does not dominate the search space, attracting around 38 percent of queries in March compared to Yahoo's 51 percent, according to comScore. However, the relationship will now hand Google control of almost all Japanese searches, drastically increasing its market presence there overnight.

Microsoft's General Counsel Dave Heiner wrote in a blog post, "This agreement is even more anti-competitive than Google's deal with Yahoo in the United States and Canada that the Department of Justice found to be illegal.... It means there will be no search competition in Japan and that Google will end up controlling all personal search information for all Japanese consumers and businesses."

Though he doesn't cite sources of the data, Heiner notes in his post that Google currently accounts for around 51 percent of paid search advertising in Japan, and Yahoo Japan accounts for 47 percent. Combined, therefore, Google will account for over 98 percent of paid search advertising in the country following completion and implementation of the agreement.

Google Led the U.S. Core Search Market in June - No Surprise!

2010-07-21T14:28:00.001-04:00

comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, released May and June's search engine share percentages.

Google Sites led the U.S. core search market in June with 62.6 percent of the searches conducted, followed by Yahoo! Sites (up 0.6 percentage points to 18.9 percent), and Microsoft Sites (up 0.6 percentage points to 12.7 percent). Both Yahoo! Sites and Microsoft Sites have experienced gains due in part to the continued utilization of contextual search approaches that tie content and related search results together. Ask Network captured 3.6 percent of the search market, followed by AOL LLC with 2.2 percent.

Americans conducted 16.4 billion searches in June, up 3 percent from May. Google Sites accounted for 10.3 billion searches (up 1 percent), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 3.1 billion (up 7 percent), Microsoft Sites with 2.1 billion (up 8 percent), Ask Network with 584 million (up 1 percent), and AOL LLC with 368 million (up 2 percent).

About comScore

comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.

Advanced Googling

2010-07-14T15:32:00.002-04:00

Although you probably won't use these advanced Google search terms often, they are good to keep in your back pocket for more intensive Googling. The site: query is probably the most commonly used advanced search term. Using the site: query is similar to having a regular keyword site search on your website. If you come across a website that doesn't have its own site search, you can always use the trusty site: query to find what you're looking for!

Phrase search ("")

By putting double quotes around a set of words, you are telling Google to consider the exact words in that exact order without any change. Google already uses the order and the fact that the words are together as a very strong signal and will stray from it only for a good reason, so quotes are usually unnecessary. By insisting on phrase search you might be missing good results accidentally. For example, a search for [ "Alexander Bell" ] (with quotes) will miss the pages that refer to Alexander G. Bell.

Search within a specific website (site:)

Google allows you to specify that your search results must come from a given website. For example, the query [ iraq site:nytimes.com ] will return pages about Iraq but only from nytimes.com. The simpler queries [ iraq nytimes.com ] or [ iraq New York Times ] will usually be just as good, though they might return results from other sites that mention the New York Times. You can also specify a whole class of sites, for example [ iraq site:.gov ] will return results only from a .gov domain and [ iraq site:.iq ] will return results only from Iraqi sites.

Terms you want to exclude (-)

Attaching a minus sign immediately before a word indicates that you do not want pages that contain this word to appear in your results. The minus sign should appear immediately before the word and should be preceded with a space. For example, in the query [ anti-virus software ], the minus sign is used as a hyphen and will not be interpreted as an exclusion symbol; whereas the query [ anti-virus -software ] will search for the words 'anti-virus' but exclude references to software. You can exclude as many words as you want by using the - sign in front of all of them, for example [ jaguar -cars -football -os ]. The - sign can be used to exclude more than just words. For example, place a hyphen before the 'site:' operator (without a space) to exclude a specific site from your search results.

Fill in the blanks (*)

The *, or wildcard, is a little-known feature that can be very powerful. If you include * within a query, it tells Google to try to treat the star as a placeholder for any unknown term(s) and then find the best matches. For example, the search [ Google * ] will give you results about many of Google's products (go to next page and next page -- we have many products). The query [ Obama voted * on the * bill ] will give you stories about different votes on different bills. Note that the * operator works only on whole words, not parts of words.

Search exactly as is (+)

Google employs synonyms automatically, so that it finds pages that mention, for example, childcare for the query [ child care ] (with a space), or California history for the query [ ca history ]. But sometimes Google helps out a little too much and gives you a synonym when you don't really want it. By attaching a + immediately before a word (remember, don't add a space after the +), you are telling Google to match that word precisely as you typed it. Putting double quotes around a single word will do the same thing.

The OR operator

Google's default behavior is to consider all the words in a search. If you want to specifically allow either one of several words, you can use the OR operator (note that you have to type 'OR' in ALL CAPS). For example, [ San Francisco Giants 2004 OR 2005 ] will give you results about either one of these years, whereas [ San Francisco Giants 2004 2005 ] (without the OR) will show pages that include both years on the same page. The symbol can be substituted for OR. (The AND operator, by the way, is the default, so it is not needed.)

Punctuation that is not ignored
Punctuation in popular terms that have particular meanings, like [ C++ ] or [ C# ] (both are names of programming languages), are not ignored.

The dollar sign ($) is used to indicate prices. [ nikon 400 ] and [ nikon $400 ] will give different results.

The hyphen - is sometimes used as a signal that the two words around it are very strongly connected. (Unless there is no space after the - and a space before it, in which case it is a negative sign.)

The underscore symbol _ is not ignored when it connects two words, e.g. [ quick_sort ].)

Google Alerts Gives you Everything

2010-07-08T14:21:00.000-04:00

Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on search terms you select.

Let’s take a look at the old Google Alerts and the new Google Alerts:

OLD

NEW

In June, Google made a change to their alerts that eliminates the “Web” option and defaults it to “Everything.” Google claims that by using the Everything option in the alert filter you will "find the same results"... and goes on to say that by making this change you may get more results than before.

This is the letter Google sent out regarding this change:

Dear Google Alerts user,

We're contacting you because you have an alert of type Web. We've decided to retire Web alerts because (1) they are used by very few people and (2) an alert of type Everything will find the same results.

This week we'll be changing all alerts of type Web into alerts of type Everything. Your alert will continue to include results from all kinds of Web sites.

You may receive more results after this change. If you find that you are getting too many results, you can change the How often setting to once a day or once a week. You can also change your search query. You can do this on the alerts management page (www.google.com/alerts/manage), or by removing the alert using the link at the bottom of each alert email and creating it again with different settings.

We hope that you'll continue to find your alert useful.

More results may cause you to have to sift through non-relevant items and waste your time. However, Google says they changed their algorithm that they use to identify their alerts to provide you with more precise results.

Google Alerts is a great tool to monitor your online reputation. If you are active in social blogging or press release submissions, this tool will be very beneficial to tracking your efforts.

Twitter Places.... sounds a lot like Google Places!

2010-07-01T09:51:00.000-04:00

Twitter is coming out with a brand new feature called Twitter Places, which is going to become available to 65 countries. Now when you post tweets, your tweets will be saved according to your location. If someone tweets about studying in the school library, the location of the library will be tied into the tweet automatically.

Each location will end up having its own Twitter page so anyone can go to the location’s page and check out who else is tweeting from that location and what they are tweeting about. If someone tweets about how great the food is at Downtown Subs, you’ll know where to go for subs next time you are in Miami.

There may be concerns about security issues, but as it stands now, you have to manually set your location to show up and can do it on a case-by-case basis.

Use this Twitter 101 for Business Guide for tips on how to utilize Twitter's features for your business.

What about Google?

2010-06-24T09:42:00.001-04:00

Within the next several months, Google will be rolling out their music store aiming to take some market share from Apple’s iTunes Store.

Google’s music service will be tied to its search engine, and a subscription-based service will be available. Last year, as a first step, Google started linking to partner sites like iLike and Pandora through its search engine which allowed people to stream a song with a single click right on the search results page.

Currently if you search for a song in Google, the first result you will see is a link to play the full song either from iLike or Pandora.

Scott Morrison from the WSJ explained, "The first phase of Google's music service is expected to be a Web store where users can buy and download tracks, music industry insiders said. It will be tied directly to Google's search engine, so that people using Google.com to look for a particular group or song will be served a link to the company's music store…”

Google’s involvement in the music industry is welcomed by music labels that feel Apple is becoming too dominant. Apple accounted for 28% of all music purchased by U.S. consumers in the first quarter, according to NPD Group.

Speed Up Your Site, Decrease Operating Costs

2010-06-16T14:06:00.000-04:00

In May, Google announced that site speed is an important factor in search engine rankings.

We talked about this in one of our earlier posts, but after some more extensive research by Google, they released a great video that goes over the research they discovered along with tips on how to test and increase your site’s speed.

A fast site increases conversions and helps you have increased user satisfaction while a slow site causes not only dissatisfaction, but lasting effects!

Slow load time equates to user dissatisfaction. Since Google aims to give users the best search experience possible, they’ve included site speed in their factors for search rankings.

Be sure to watch the whole video below to get some insight into Google’s reasoning for including site speed in their ranking factors. Of course content and relevance are still the primary factors in where your site gets ranked.

Bing Social: Search Facebook and Twitter

2010-06-11T10:30:00.000-04:00

On Wednesday Bing’s Senior Vice President, Yusuf Mehdi, launched a new social search platform addition to their search engine, Bing.

Go to bing.com/social

You can search for any term and find Twitter updates and Facebook update results, as if you were doing a regular keyword search.

"In addition to Tweets, we also search through Facebook fan page updates and surface matching results. For example, a search for “NBA Finals” will return fan-page content from Facebook, including posts from a local TV station."

"For non-fan pages, we only surface popular shared links from Facebook users in the aggregate form, and only from users who have set their status updates to be shared with “everyone.” No names or photos, or even the text in the update associated with the link are published – just the link in aggregate. For example, searching for “World Cup” will show what links Facebook users are sharing on the topic – with a caption that is extracted from the original article shown below the link. When we don’t have an interesting caption to show, we sometimes display how many users have shared that link."

Here is a screen shot below. Status updates are refreshed each moment a new update is made.

The impact social media has on corporate growth out-performs any other marketing strategy

2010-06-03T10:42:00.000-04:00

JAN 16, 1978: This was the day that social networking was born. All of today's social networks are descendants of CBBS (Computerized Bulletin Board System), created in two weeks by Ward Christensen and Randy Suess. It enabled members of the Chicago Area Computer Hobbyists Exchange to post and view notices on an electronic bulletin board, effectively becoming the world's first on-line community.

The wonderful world of social media… Bridge Ratings has confirmed that social media marketing has become a legitimate form of reaching consumers.

The impact social media has on corporate growth out-performs any other marketing strategy!

Based on a recent study and analysis of findings by Bridge Ratings, it is clear that the use and social aspect of media marketing is accelerating faster than previously forecast.

The study was conducted between January 15, 2010 and April 30, 2010. Data was accumulated through face-to-face interviews, telephone interviews, social media focus groups and web surveys. The sample consisted of 2,322 persons ages 6-54.

The analysis confirmed heavy consumption among the sample in the following social entities: Social Networks, News & Bookmarking, Blogs, Microblogging, Video Sharing, Photo Sharing, Message Boards, Wikis, Virtual Reality, Social Gaming, Podcasts, Real Simple Syndication (RSS).

Click to view larger.

The usage pattern is different for each demographic category and the pattern migrates based on consumption experience. Users of social media progress through a general path of social networking types or hierarchies.

For young girls ages 6-17, social networking is all about making new friends, staying in touch, companionship, and hobby sharing (using social networks like Club Penguin, Poptropica and Stardoll). However, over time, with social network experience these young girls graduate to more interactive sites like Twitter… then on to sites that cater to more specific interests, like microsites that cater to specific hobbies or lifestyle behaviors.

The concept of social network hierachy behavior is evident through each demographic life group and serves as a more effective strategy for reaching consumer targets with brand messages. If messaging is done properly (short in length, keyed on strategic products or services with targeted creative) and with precision, response rates can accelerate. Repetition plays a factor as well.

Field tests with this concept for radio worked startling well. For example, over a period of three months, a Bridge Ratings CHR client station followed the "hierarchy pattern" of marketing described above. The station used frequent messaging on these sites to promote contests, on-air features and client-based promotions. In every area that was marketed, response and/or participation grew no less than 25%. Listening occasions increased, time-spent listening grew and with a viral marketing component, custom VIP databases swelled within 30 days.

In every case Bridge Ratings tested, an increase in participation is noted. The study confirmed six areas that require special attention:

1. Target social sites to reach a specific consumer. Not all consumers use social networking sites in the same way.

2. Laser-focused product messaging keyed to the lifestyle of the target is critical .

3. Each consumer group and site will tolerate limited repetition of messaging.

4. Appreciate the hierarchy through which each group travels as their social networking skills and experience increase and improve.

5. Stagger hierarchy messaging to achieve the most effective response rates.

6. Flight social networking campaigns.

The study confirmed the power and impact potential of consistent and well-executed social network marketing.

It is clear that any company - in any area of business - that wishes to engage more consumers, should invest in a social marketing department that will execute, analyze and maintain campaigns designed around micro product appeal.

Everyone is doing it....ARE YOU?

2010-05-27T09:46:00.001-04:00

Social networking usage rose dramatically in 2009, thanks to Facebook. Facebook has over 400 million active users and people spend over 500 billion minutes per month on Facebook. Shocking? Not really. If you think about the exponential growth of the internet, social networking is just following the trend.

eMarketer estimates that 57.5% of internet users, or 127 million people, will use a social network at least once per month in 2010.

“There is no doubt anymore that social networks, reaching more than 50% of the total US Internet audience, are an essential part of the Internet experience,” said Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer senior analyst.

Social networking usage will continue to rise. By 2014, about two-thirds of all internet users, or 164.9 million people, will be regular users of social networking sites.

Initially, social network users were teens and young adults. However, 59.2% of adult internet users will visit social networking sites monthly in 2010.

“Teens and young adults are old news,” said Debra Williamson. “This year, 60% of Internet users ages 35 to 44 and one-half of those in the 45-to-54 age group will use social networks at least once a month. Women, especially moms, are still driving much of the growth.”

“The connections and interactions that social networking makes possible didn’t even exist a few short years ago,” said Ms. Williamson. “Status updating, commenting and sharing openly are all activities that will not go away.”

To see more Facebook statistics, click here.

Steeper Predictions for US Online Advertising Spending

2010-05-19T16:41:00.000-04:00

According to eMarketer, there will be a 10.8% growth in US internet ad spending this year.

eMarketing recently revised its forecast to predict a steeper increase of nearly 11% for US online advertising spending in 2010.

US spending on online advertisements will reach $25.1 billion, up from $22.7 billion. eMarketer’s previous prediction in December 2009 was for 5.5% growth. A stronger than expected search and banner market, along with the rush among advertisers for greater accountability in the still-soft economy, led to the revision.

“As Google makes gains, so does a large slice of online advertising,” said David Hallerman, eMarketer senior analyst. “When Google reported a 21% jump in net US ad revenues for Q1 2010—compared with a mere 5.3% gain in last year’s Q1—that was a key signal that the tide was turning.”

Search market will be up 15.7% year over year to almost $12.4 billion, while spending on banner ads will increase 8.2%. Video will again post the highest growth rate, rising 48.1% to $1.5 billion.

“Display ad revenues at Yahoo! reflect that trend,” noted Mr. Hallerman. “Even as the portal’s overall net US ad revenues were down 4.5% in Q1 2010, the display ad component on Yahoo!’s sites were up by 11.7%."

Google: Site Speed is Officially Important

2010-05-13T15:17:00.001-04:00

Earlier this month, Google officially announced that site speed is an important factor in search engine rankings. How fast your site loads can help determine where your site gets ranked.

If you have lots of widgets on your site pulling data from a bunch of other sources, causing your site to load slow, it could possibly hurt your search rankings in Google. Users do not want to sit and wait for your site to load…they’ll just hit the back button and go elsewhere. Immediately hitting the back button causes your “bounce rate” to increase (which you do not want), which can also negatively affect your rankings.

Google reported that when they “purposely slowed the search results by 100 to 400 milliseconds it impacted the number of searches per user by -.2% to -.6% and actually increased the longer they were exposed to the slower results.”

Even after Google changed their speeds back to normal, users continued to do .21% fewer searches for the next 5 weeks!

You can use your Webmaster Tools, under Labs and then Site Performance to see some tables and graphs with your site's performance.

You can also visit Google’s tools and downloads page to help make your site load faster.

Of course site speed isn’t the only factor that will affect your rankings….still, SEO is king.

Facebook Efforts Hint at Growing Ad Clout

2010-05-05T13:47:00.001-04:00

(Reuters) - Facebook’s move to export its social networking features across the Internet could bolster the company’s advertising business and pose an increasing threat to the Web’s reigning advertising giants.

Facebook, which has more than 400 million registered users, is the No. 1 website in the United States by page views, according to comScore. But it is a relatively small player in the online ad market, where Google Inc’s (GOOG.O) paid search business dominates, and a variety of Web portals and ad networks battle over billions of dollars in graphical display advertising.

With its new initiative to expand beyond the borders of Facebook.com, however, Facebook has created the framework for a new generation of highly targeted ads.

The so-called Open Graph project weaves Facebook’s popular social networking capabilities directly into third-party websites. A visitor to CNN.com, for instance, can click a button to “like” certain news articles, and see which of their Facebook friends have endorsed content on other websites.

“Having all this data and all this time from consumers almost can’t help but to position Facebook in a very strong way for online advertisers,” said Gartner analyst Augie Ray.

In the first week, 50,000 websites signed up to provide Facebook features on their sites, according to the company. The “like” button was served up to Web surfers visiting third-party sites more than 1 billion times in the first 24 hours.

All that social activity vastly expands Facebook’s trove of data about users — information that can improve marketers’ ability to reach consumers that share specific interests or traits.

“The field in which they (Facebook) can now play, it went from a 10-yard field to a full football field,” said Michael Lazerow, the CEO of Buddy Media, a firm that helps companies advertise on Facebook.

Jeremiah Owyang, an analyst at Altimeter Group, believes Facebook will not only collect more data, but expand its inventory of ad space by eventually serving ads to the websites offering Facebook’s social networking features.

“This is definitely the precursor to a larger advertising opportunity,” said Owyang, though he said it will take some time for Facebook to roll out the full panoply of ad features.

PRIVACY HURDLES

Facebook, which was started by Co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a Harvard dorm room in 2004, makes money primarily by selling ads on the Facebook.com site. Its investors include Accel Partners, Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) and Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing.

As a private company, Facebook does not disclose its financials, though industry estimates for its 2009 revenue range from $500 million to $650 million — still just a fraction of the nearly $24 billion at Google or the $6.5 billion at Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O).

Facebook has sharpened its ad focus and hired some of the people who had a hand in developing Google’s advertising network, including David Fischer, who joined Facebook as vice president of advertising and global operations this month.

“The more time that people spend away from Yahoo and Google, the more that ad dollars will flow away from Yahoo or Google,” said Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney, though he noted that Google’s paid search business remains the most effective advertising tool on the Internet.

But before Facebook can transform its advertising business, it may need to quell growing privacy concerns. Four U.S. senators this week took issue with Facebook’s automatic integration of user preferences with a trio of websites.

Privacy concerns have doomed previous attempts by the company to develop new forms of advertising, notably its 2007 Beacon project that published a person’s online purchases to their Facebook news feed.

“Facebook has had these grandiose visions before and not all of them come to fruition,” said RBC Capital Markets analyst Ross Sandler.

“When you talk about re-purposing or using consumer data, that kind of draws a red flag,” said Sandler. Facebook and advertisers, he said, will need to tread cautiously.

Facebook spokesman Larry Yu said the Open Graph efforts will not bring about any changes for advertisers. “Facebook’s ad policies remain unchanged. ‘Likes’ and interests from people’s profiles are aggregated and, as they have always been able to do, advertisers can target ads on Facebook with this anonymous information,” Yu said in an emailed statement.

Kevin Lee, the CEO of search engine marketing firm Didit, said social networking sites have historically proven to be challenging advertising environments, with consumers engrossed in interacting with their friends.

But with improved ad targeting and the potential for ads to appear on other websites, Facebook could play a much greater role in the ad industry, creating the initial demand for a product that eventually triggers a Web search, he said.

“I don’t think it’s going to displace it (search advertising), but it’s going to be a great adjunct,” Lee said about Facebook.

Local Features You Should Know On Google

2010-04-29T11:34:00.000-04:00

If you haven’t noticed, The Google Local Business Center is now called Google Places. This is where you submit and can edit your business listing…allowing potential customers to find your business when they search locally. You can upload photos, coupons, and company information.

Here are some pretty new features on Google Places:

Displaying service areas - Businesses that travel between cities can show their geographic areas they service.

Business photo shoots - Available in certain cities, businesses can request a free photo shoot from Google that will display photos of the interior that businesses can display on their business listing.

Advertising with tags - For $25/month businesses can select tags to highlight their listings. These are displayed as yellow markers (for coupons, photos, and other offered features) that allow businesses to promote certain aspects of their business.

QR codes - Google is providing custom QR codes for businesses that, when scanned using a smartphone, will take customers to the business’ place page.

More stats - Businesses can see stats they haven’t been able to see in the past -- like who is searching for them, how they are finding them, where they are coming from, and who has requested driving directions.

"One out of five searches on Google are related to location, and we want to make sure that businesses are able to be found and put their best foot forward," says Google Maps, Earth, and Local VP John Hanke.

Twitter's Valuation Chart

2010-04-21T15:35:00.000-04:00

Here is a neat chart that shows Twitter's valuation from its inception, compliments of twitip.com. Click on the image to open the original version. Some very interesting stuff!

Sending Emails -- without being marked as spam!

2010-04-14T14:59:00.001-04:00

Throughout our junk mail folder, we've noticed a lot of companies falling into the traps of email marketing...like using all caps and filling emails with tons of links. We've found legitimate emails worth reading being filtered into our junk folder!

For many of you that engage in email marketing, whether it’s for informational or promotional purposes, know that a lot of times your effort spent creating nice/professional looking emails is useless because they just get thrown into the recipients’ junk folder.

Here are some do’s and don’ts to email marketing from FirstMark that might come in handy in trying to increase the chances that your emails are successfully delivered to the recipients’ inbox.

Rule of thumb: don’t repeat words, and be succinct!

Try to replace the words on the left with the words on the right...

TRY TO AVOID...	ALTERNATIVES
Do not use all caps	Keep everything in lowercase if possible.
Do not use !, $, or 100%	Keep punctuation to a minimum.
affordable	Reasonably priced, reasonable, within your means, inexpensive
Bargain or best prices	Good deal, good buy
click here	learn how, visit here
congratulations	Well done
debt	Owe, arrears, bills, deficit, due, liability
financing	Banking, expenditure, expenses, funding
free! for free?, for free!	No-cost or no-fee
guaranteed	Proven, certain, attested, affirmed, confirmed, insured
insurance	Coverage, assurance, warranty, safeguard
investment	Expenditure, expense, asset, grant
just released	New-improved
loan	Loan-plan, lending
low interest	Low risk
new car	New automobile
opportunity	Prospect opening, break, chance, occasion
paying too much	Over expenditure
permanent low interest	Definite low interest, preset
pre-approved	Pre-accepted, authorized, confirmed, credited
refinancing	Funding, outlay
special invitation	Proposal
unbelievable	Astounding, amazing, wonderful, awesome

Embed a Bing Map with Twitter Update Feeds

2010-04-07T16:06:00.010-04:00

Bing recently launched a new feature that allows website owners to embed a Bing map on their site that displays Tweets from the selected area.

To put one of these on your site:

Select the map location either fixed (centered on a specific point) or anywhere (moves the map as the Tweets come in).
Specify the dimensions of your map (height and width).
Add search filters. These will be carried into the embed form if you’ve specified them to filter only tweets that meet your search criteria.
Copy/paste HTML into your web page.

You can see an example of how this works here.

SEO Tips by Google’s Own Matt Cutts

2010-04-01T10:11:00.008-04:00

For those of you who don’t know who Matt Cutts is -- he works at Google in Search Engine Optimization issues and spam control.

He recently gave a very informative interview on some good webmaster practices. Here are some of the things he mentioned:

The more relevant links you have, the better your Google PageRank, and the more pages you’ll get indexed. If you have a good PageRank for most of your site, chances are, Google will be more likely to index those pages.
Make sure you don’t have duplicate content on your site. Google doesn’t like duplicate content so it will automatically discard pages that contain duplicate content…which can waste your site’s potential ranking opportunities. It’s also important not to link your site to other sites containing duplicate content, as this can have an effect on your PageRank.
If most of your site’s links are coming from an affiliate page, it won’t help your PageRank.
If you sell products, make sure your product pages contain lots of text. Product pages with little or no text will not help your search rankings.
Don’t use JavaScript links because Google cannot execute all JavaScript. Some of your links may not be counted if you use them.

A Few Tips for Creating Rich Website Content

2010-03-25T16:51:00.001-04:00

Make sure your site’s content is targeted and tailored to your audience, and not yourself. Try not to use self-focused verbiage like “us, we, or our” and use more verbiage directed at your audience like “you and your.” Using more words like “you and your” makes your audience feel more connected with your company.

Make sure your site’s content is created for your visitors and not search engines. If your site’s text is full of keywords that don’t make much sense when read by a human, visitors will not care to read what you have to say. We all know that the content we create on sites is what the search engines scan when ranking your site. However, you can still create human-friendly content with the addition of a few keywords placed here and there.

If you have an e-commerce website and sell hundreds of products, make sure your product descriptions are very detailed. This adds more text to your site as a whole, which are picked up by search engines when they are scanning your site.

Every page of your site is potentially an entry and exit point for visitors. Make sure each page of your site contains unique content that will engage the reader.

Social Networking on the Rise

2010-03-17T15:06:00.000-04:00

Hitwise recently released the news that Facebook has surpassed Google to become the most visited website in the US for the week of March 7 thru March 13.

It looks like Facebook is heading for the top in terms of visits.

According to Heather Dougherty of Hitwise, "The market share of visits to Facebook.com increased 185% last week as compared to the same week in 2009, while visits to Google.com increased 9% during the same time frame."

"Together Facebook.com and Google.com accounted for 14% of all US Internet visits last week."

As businesses and marketers see Facebook as the number one social networking site, more people may flock to Facebook... as everyone likes to be part of something that is considered popular. This flock of users may very well keep Facebook in the #1 spot in terms of weekly visits.