I Do Web Marketing

This is a guest post by Richard Sandlar. Interested in writing a guest post for the IDWM blog? Contact me today.

In today’s job market, it’s now become critical to actively participate in online communities in order to network, share ideas and advertise your products. In addition, building your online communities is essential to get ahead and it will help you become more visible. Active social media presence has become crucial for any business professional who wants to be visible to others in their business community. Through such online communities, you can get your dream job because they greatly serve as a hunting ground for recruiters looking for qualified candidates. To become more visible in exclusive social networking sites, here are listed 7 online communities that you can join in order to help with your job search.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is today’s top professional online community that can proficiently list your resume, skills, help you apply for jobs, as well as network virtually and connect with key people in your field. Joining LinkedIn professional groups in your field will help you go the extra mile and brand yourself as an expert.

Facebook

Facebook is a social media site exclusively used for fun and chatting but it is a tool that plays a great role in your job search. It is advised for all professionals to create your own professional Facebook page in your job search so that you can reach out to companies you want to work for as your professional alias.

Twitter

Twitter is an online social networking service that builds a network of contacts, helps you to take part in discussions, and make you visible in a community of industry professionals. It is indeed a valuable way to engage with people, and send traffic to your blog by sharing your content. In addition, your twitter profile can come up high in Google searches as; Google prominently displays the results from social networking sites in its search pages. So, twitter updates can make you more visible in Google searches.

Tumblr

Tumblr is today’s best microblogging platform that comes out top in page views and attention on blog sites. So you can brand yourself as a professional expert by simply creating a Tumblr blog in an area of your interest. Share your blog content consistently, so that you will soon appear in Google social search results.

StumbleUpon

Stumbleupon is another excellent resource that recommends articles to its users based on their interests. You can stumble upon various informative articles related to job searching and career building. Moreover, StumbleUpon can also serve as an educational tool and can use as a bookmarking site that help you keep all your favorite sites stored in one place.

All in all, joining these online social networking sites is the best way to advertise your skills and help you with visibility in the job search so that recruiters can easily find you.

Author Byline:

Richard Sandlar is a webmaster, editor and writer of specialized online education based blog which offers comprehensive reviews of accredited online degrees, accredited online colleges and universities.

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Justin McGill is a web marketing professional and runs a successful Small Business SEO Firm. He is the founder and CEO of SEORCHERS (read: [surch-ers]) - a local web marketing firm specializing in organic search engine optimization (SEO) with a focus on converting visitors into clients. He is available for SEO Consulting and now you can connect with him on Google+!.

This is a guest post by Ron Davis a freelance blogger.

Having caught up with Twitter and facebook to get unique visitors in November, the social network Google plus is now a must for bloggers. A recent study from seomoz proves that Google plus is influencing search rankings and it will be the ranking factor of 2012.

So having a blog with Google plus friendly is most important to get high SEO advantage. To make your blog Google + friendly I suggest some interesting plugins to associate your WordPress blog with Google plus.

1. Google Plus Widget

It’s an easy to use plugin which allows you to add Google plus profile badge with photo and Google plus button in sidebar. It makes easier for user to add you in Google plus their Google plus circles.

2. Google+ Plus WordPress Widget

Display your latest status updates and activities from your Google plus account to your wordpress sidebar. It allows your readers to know what you are doing in Google plus.

3. Google Cards

A simple plugin that will add your Google plus profile widget in sidebar displaying photo and no of followers you have in Google plus. It uses caching to store your Google plus profile data to eliminate checking Google+ on every page load.

4. Wp Plus One – Advanced

It adds an advanced Google plus one button to your blog post which allows readers to plus one our article they read. This plugin has variety of options such as button position, visibility, count style, +1 redirect, +1 button JavaScript and you can also make your own custom G+ one button.

5. WP PlusOne this

Variant of Wp plus one, this plugin also familiar with many blogger. It’s just another plugin which adds Google plus one to every post and page.

6. Scriptrr Google Profile + widget

Plus scriptrr, is a online tool that will generate widget scripts to display Google plus profile in sidebar. Now they made it as a readymade plugin to make easier for you’re to add it in your blog.

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Author bio - This is a guest post by Ron Davis. He is a freelance blogger and a passionate social media marketer, who is currently working on the site – Gravity forms discount code.

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Justin McGill is a web marketing professional and runs a successful Small Business SEO Firm. He is the founder and CEO of SEORCHERS (read: [surch-ers]) - a local web marketing firm specializing in organic search engine optimization (SEO) with a focus on converting visitors into clients. He is available for SEO Consulting and now you can connect with him on Google+!.

This is a guest post by Steve Pronger, a Business Analyst for SEO Works.

Make your marketing dollars stretch further with these seven free small business online marketing strategies.

Small business online marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to promote a burgeoning company, build their brand image and boost sales. For a business that doesn’t have a bricks and mortar site, a website may be their main sales funnel and source of sales supplemented perhaps with telephone or email sales. So without further ado, here are five free ways you can improve your bottom line on a budget.

Search Engine Optimisation

When you run a Pay-Per-Click campaign, you are paying every time someone clicks through to your website but indexing your website on search engines is free. Hiring an SEO company should be seen as an asset to your business not a cost but if you feel you cannot afford to hire an online marketing consultant when you first launch your business, you can read marketing blogs, watch seminars and educate yourself on the SEO process.

Google Places Optimisation

Google Places is a free small business online marketing product ideal for companies that do not have a web presence. With the launch of Place Search late last year, Place Pages started to blend with organic listings in search results. Pages can be optimised by adding business details, hours of operation, a keyword-rich description, and so on. You can also add images and videos to your page, upload seasonal menus and sales brochures.

Social media networking

Social media marketing is another economical way to promote your business without a huge initial outlay. Creating accounts on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, is free and it’s an excellent source of pre-qualified leads for your website. The premise behind social networking is to value and give advice rather than openly promote your business. It’s best to get a dedicated person to monitor and update your accounts daily.

Off – page profile (link building and citations)

An essential component of Search Engine Optimisation is maintaining your off-page profile. When you have back links from quality and relevant websites to your site or you citations on quality and relevant websites, this is seen as a validation or ‘vote’ by Search Engines and can boost your ranking significantly. Put half an hour minimum aside per day to work on your citation or link building activities to reap the rewards of a higher ranking.

Online reputation marketing

Every small to medium business irrespective of what industry you are working in to be aware of what their clients and customers are saying about them in the virtual world. This is critical for companies in the tourism industry such as hotels, restaurants and bars. A small business should put together an ORM strategy together so there is a written company line and policy on how to respond to negative and positive reviews.

Website design

You may not be able to afford a new website design but you can make small changes to your website such as uploading high-quality images of your products and services. The saying that ‘an image says a thousand words’ applies well to small business online marketing. Look at elements such as your copywriting to see if it is current and relevant, test your call to actions and landing pages, add testimonials (see below) and so on.

Testimonials and reviews

People like to buy from businesses they think are credible and trustworthy and one of the ways you can earn trust is by adding testimonials and reviews to your website. It is best to have a dedicated landing page and add this to the navigation with a search-friendly URL. Testimonials are a very effective online marketing tool for small businesses – remember to get authorisation to use them on your site and campaigns.

A small to medium company may not have a lot of money to compete with the big boys and larger competitors in the offline world but the internet makes it a more level playing ground. By setting aside time and resources and thinking outside the box when it comes to small business online marketing campaigns, you can outrank, outperform and outwit your business rivals without making a huge dent in the advertising budget.

Steve Pronger is a Business Analyst for SEO Works, a leading Australian Search Engine Optimisation company.

Be sure and subscribe for the latest web marketing strategies and updates!

Justin McGill is a web marketing professional and runs a successful Small Business SEO Firm. He is the founder and CEO of SEORCHERS (read: [surch-ers]) - a local web marketing firm specializing in organic search engine optimization (SEO) with a focus on converting visitors into clients. He is available for SEO Consulting and now you can connect with him on Google+!.

This is a guest blog post written by Noel Addison Agnote of NDIC.

Social media is a great channel of communication in this modern day. It is a great means of reaching out to people, exchange thoughts with whom you already share a relationship and continue to develop a harmonious relationship with people, which is anticipated to be mutually advantageous. Social media is all about strengthening relationships through communication.

The key to a successful social media is the social relationship with users, which is based on trust which eventually generate loyalty. If you want to be in touch with those you serve, boost your reputation, and grow your user base, social media is the best place for you.

Build Relationship Based on Trust with Your Target Market

Reaching your target audience and building a good relationship with them is essential for your business. Connecting with your existing customers and target clients could bring you higher profits, customers’ loyalty and the pleasure of owning a business that serves people. Reaching out to your target market takes effort, patience and time but in the end it is all worth it.

Keep in mind that social media is all about mingling with people and building relationships. And those relationships are built by trust (from consumer) and credibility (from you) which consequently promotes a strong sense of loyalty on both parties. Strengthening your connection with others will increase the loyalty of your customers or clients.

In today’s new course of business getting the trust of your target people is the key to your business’ success. Trust creates revenue. It is a primary block of establishing your brand.

Here are some tips on how to build a strong relationship and get their trust:

1. Be Truthful

Be honest with your customers. Tell them how you can serve them and the benefits that they can get from buying your products or subscribing to your services. At the same time, let them know your limitations and what you can’t do. Show your potential customers what made you different from other businesses who are offering the same line of products or services.

2. Engage your audience

Engage your audience by writing a quality content that will get their interest. Write in a friendly and clear tone suitable for your target readers. Share information that can be beneficial to your target customers, educate them and inform them that you understand their needs and situation. One way of getting their engagement is writing as if you are having a simple conversation with a good friend.

3. Know the motivation trigger of your target market

People are stimulated by different things. You have to determine what motivates your prospect to buy something. Some loves to be adored and that motivate them to buy products that keep them looks beautiful and adorable. Knowing what triggers your consumer to buy your product or service let you know how to communicate with them in manner that gets good results. It also allows you to create products or services that will answer their problems.

4. Connect with people as a human

People who are participating in social media are humans. Thus, you have to act just like what everyone does in the online community. Online people mingle only with people they can relate with. You can do this by interacting with them, updating your post, replying to others post and sharing others content when you find them useful. Let people know not only “who you are” or “what your business is all about” rather tell them “how can you help them with your service”.

Make people see you as a real person and not just an entity who want to make money out of their rockets. Reach out to your clients as if you are having a chat with a friend or neighbor. This is a great way of establishing a strong bond between you and your target audience.

Building Your Brand Based on Trust

Building a good relationship with people through social media not only increases your profit it also fortifies your brand make the public more aware of your existence as a business or company. Building strong brand awareness to the public can help you position your product or service in the marketplace. Right positioning in the marketplace places you first in line in the minds of consumers. Consequently, it is now easier for you to differentiate your product or service from those of your competitors.

Having a good brand creates a positive impression in the minds of the public that builds up your strong reputation in your industry. Having an established brand allows you to slowly cut the marketing expenses which will sooner add to your revenue.

Build relationship with people that creates trust and loyalty so people will not forget you and keep on coming back to you.

Noel Addison Agnote is a writing enthusiast and an online marketer. He is a part of NDIC, Santa Barbara’s premiere web design and web marketing firm. Visit NDIC to learn how to establish a good online presence for your business.

Be sure and subscribe for the latest web marketing strategies and updates!

Justin McGill is a web marketing professional and runs a successful Small Business SEO Firm. He is the founder and CEO of SEORCHERS (read: [surch-ers]) - a local web marketing firm specializing in organic search engine optimization (SEO) with a focus on converting visitors into clients. He is available for SEO Consulting and now you can connect with him on Google+!.

This is a guest post from Sachin of Web Profits. If you are interested in providing a guest post, please contact me.

There is little wonder why social media applications like Twitter are becoming legitimate communication tools that can be used to engage with various stakeholders including members and industry associations.

They have a lot of benefits that are almost immediate. Twitter, for instance, is like a giant water cooler where companies can find out what the breaking news is, what Government Departments/Ministers/Officials are up to, and what like-minded or competing associations are currently doing.

In addition to this, Twitter offers benefits in exposure to new markets, branding and reputation, collaboration and networking, key stakeholder monitoring, information gathering and if used appropriately it can increase traffic to your website.  It can also contribute to a greater awareness of your company, while providing the opportunity to build networks amongst your clients and other brand advocates.

First things first, you need to set-up a Twitter account. This is incredibly easy and you can just follow the prompts on the Twitter website. Once you have done this, it’s time to post your first tweet. Tweets must be 140 characters or less.  A lot of people often wonder how they can get their message across when they are restricted to such a small amount of characters, but think of each tweet as a dot on a piece of paper. Any single tweet, just like any single dot, can be insignificant and meaningless. But if, over time, you end up with a lot of tweets, it’s like having a lot of dots drawn on a piece of paper – eventually there are enough dots for your followers to connect them together. And if you connect the dots, you get a picture of the company, and that’s a reflection of your brand.

The best tweets are those that:

• Cause their followers to smile (i.e. something funny)
• Inspire their followers (i.e. inspirational quote)
• Enrich their follower’s perspectives (i.e. new announcements, breaking news or interesting articles, photos, videos).

So, we want to create tweets that add value in some way.

The main reason Twitter accounts fail to gain traction (i.e. attract and keep followers) is because they become too ‘me-focused’ and become irrelevant to those that follow them. Remember, your followers come from all walks of life – they can be industry associations, current employees, potential employees, current clients, potential clients, partnering organisations, suppliers, competitors, shareholders, and interested members of the public. So it is important to maintain a balance between tweets containing general company news and greater industry/government news.

Maintaining your social media presence via Twitter requires a little time and dedication each day. You need someone who is committed to this task. If you need help doing this contact a marketing agency near you just jump on Google and search for ‘marketing agency Sydney’ or ‘marketing Sydney’.

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Justin McGill is a web marketing professional and runs a successful Small Business SEO Firm. He is the founder and CEO of SEORCHERS (read: [surch-ers]) - a local web marketing firm specializing in organic search engine optimization (SEO) with a focus on converting visitors into clients. He is available for SEO Consulting and now you can connect with him on Google+!.

Managing your Twitter followers can be a headache, but with Tweepi, you can perform both simple and complex management tasks with the click of a button. Tweepi’s distinguishing factor is that it allows you to view stats about your followers in spreadsheet format, enabling you to sort and search on any number of criteria: the promotional geekiness.

Basic Overview
As self-described geeks, Tweepi offers four “geeky” tools to help you keep your Twitter account up to date.

• Flush—This tool lets you find the people you follow who haven’t followed you back. Think of it as a geeky way to pay back the people who have insulted you by not reciprocating your follow. While this might be a fun tool for personal interactions, businesses may not gain much from it.
• Reciprocate—The best way to make sure you don’t get Flushed, Reciprocate enables you to find and follow the people who have followed you but who are not yet on your follow list. Again, this may not be all that useful for businesses.
• Cleanup—This is where the tools starts getting fun for businesses. Cleanup allows you to view all of your contacts in list format along with a broad range of stats for each one. Sort based on number of tweets, date of last tweet, link-to-tweet ratio, or any number of other stats and cleanup your list based on hard data.
• Follow—Finally, the Follow tool enables you to type in a user and view all of his followers along with activity stats. It’s a great way to beef up your lists, but unfortunately doesn’t allow you to flip the equation in order to see who a particular user is following.

Cool Functions

While there are a host of Twitter management tools out there, Tweepi does have a few functions that set it apart. First and most obvious is the stats feature. Tweepi allows you to organize your follower lists the geeky way, based on activity stats and hard data. Another feature we like is the Safelist button. Safelist allows you to place a lock on a particular follower so you don’t accidentally follow or unfollow (we’ve all experienced the headaches that can cause). Finally, we love the customizability of stats. Hide or reveal columns and followers at will so that only the information you’re currently evaluating appears on screen.

Versions
Get started with Tweepi using their free package. If you like what you see, you can upgrade to silver or platinum packages which offer greater options and more features for a monthly fee.

Be sure and subscribe for the latest web marketing strategies and updates!

Justin McGill is a web marketing professional and runs a successful Small Business SEO Firm. He is the founder and CEO of SEORCHERS (read: [surch-ers]) - a local web marketing firm specializing in organic search engine optimization (SEO) with a focus on converting visitors into clients. He is available for SEO Consulting and now you can connect with him on Google+!.

Apps like Foursquare, Gowalla, and now even Facebook’s check-in functionality have become all the rage these days. They represent a growing segment of the marketing industry that allows businesses to deliver advertising messages directly to their customers’ mobile phones based on their location. While check-in apps like these may be trendy, they don’t represent the whole picture when it comes to location based marketing. Whether you’re ready to dive into Foursquare or not, location based marketing can help your business in a variety of ways.

What is Location Based Marketing?

Location based marketing seeks to reach customers where they are by putting advertising messages that relate to their current location in front of them. It’s not a new concept. Phone books have been offering location specific ads for years. But with the new technological aspect, the process has become more personal, more effective, and more desirable. With the advent of mobile marketing, companies can use location information gleaned from a mobile phone to provide instantaneous marketing messages when people come within the vicinity of their stores.

What Can Location Based Marketing Do for Me?

The applications of location based marketing present new marketing vistas for the savvy company. Interactive point-of-sale texts that provide information about a product the customer is considering, location-specific coupons that entice customers into a store, incentives for checking in multiple times with an app like Foursquare, and mobile ads that appear when a customer is within a certain radius of the store can all help drive traffic and increase overall sales in your brick-and-mortar store. The key is to respect consumer privacy by using opt-in measures that allow them to choose which ads they want to see.

What is the Future of Location Based Marketing?

The future looks bright for applications like Foursquare. The company already has plans in the works for improved user experience, increased capabilities, and proactive recommendations. Spending in the location based marketing field is expected to surge to $4 billion by the year 2015 as companies like Google and Facebook jump on the band wagon with location specific features.

Location based marketing seeks to build a bridge between traditional and digital marketing. With millions of users relying on their mobile phones for internet access and product research, companies would be wise to take advantage of the opportunities available to incorporate location based marketing into their overall marketing strategy.

Be sure and subscribe for the latest web marketing strategies and updates!

Justin McGill is a web marketing professional and runs a successful Small Business SEO Firm. He is the founder and CEO of SEORCHERS (read: [surch-ers]) - a local web marketing firm specializing in organic search engine optimization (SEO) with a focus on converting visitors into clients. He is available for SEO Consulting and now you can connect with him on Google+!.

For quite some time now, search engine optimization gurus have postulated that Facebook and Twitter popularity directly affects search engine rankings, and now an announcement from both Google and Bing confirms those suspicions. Just what factors figure into the specific algorithms for each of the popular search engines remains under wraps, but the news holds significance both for search engine optimization and for web marketing. With concrete evidence to support the long-held theory that Facebook likes and Twitter followings will boost search engine rankings, marketers can now place a little more confidence in the fact that their social media efforts will produce tangible ROI sooner rather than later.

The announcement sparked a flurry of additional speculation regarding exactly how the popular social media sites play into search engine rankings and while much of that speculation remains unsubstantiated, both Google and Bing did confirm the following points.

●      User credibility carries weight in the algorithm.

In other words, the more authoritative a source is, the more weight its re-tweets and links carry. People who are recognized experts in their fields will affect the ranking of links they post or tweet more significantly than other users will.

●      The quality of the author can be determined by the algorithm.

This point gains significance when viewed in light of the previous point. Both Google and Bing denied knowing the identity of individuals, but Bing did confirm that public figures and companies could be identified as authoritative sources.

●      The number of people who re-tweet a particular source will influence ranking.

Referred to by Bing as “social authority,” popularity on both Facebook and Twitter can increase the importance of the links and tweets shared by individuals. In other words, the more people who share a particular link or post, the more important it becomes in the eyes of the algorithm.

While neither search engine revealed additional factors that play into the determination of which Facebook and Twitter posts receive greater weight in the ranking process, many acknowledged SEO experts have speculated about various possibilities. Some of these include source diversity, clicks and re-tweets, authority of friends and followers, and surrounding content. Just as a website is more than the sum of the keywords it includes, Facebook and Twitter are more than the sum of friend and follower quantity or even quality. In addition, search engines will now be able to more easily detect spammy Twitter and Facebook accounts just as they can detect keyword-stuffed web pages. Popularity on Facebook or Twitter typically indicates substantive content, allowing the best pages to be acknowledged for their quality by the number of followers they gain.

Be sure and subscribe for the latest web marketing strategies and updates!

Justin McGill is a web marketing professional and runs a successful Small Business SEO Firm. He is the founder and CEO of SEORCHERS (read: [surch-ers]) - a local web marketing firm specializing in organic search engine optimization (SEO) with a focus on converting visitors into clients. He is available for SEO Consulting and now you can connect with him on Google+!.

Facebook recently announced their newest addition, Facebook Places. Facebook Places is an application that allows users to tag their location or “check in” and create a trail of their locations throughout the day. This application will show users what their friends are doing and where they are. Facebook Places can be accessed from a cell phone and, as always, comments can be made on these location posts.

This new application will certainly be a hit with many Facebook users, but will also greatly benefit businesses. After claiming their locations, businesses can use Facebook Places as another form of word of mouth advertising. When Facebook users tag themselves at a particular business and even comment positively or negatively on that business, the opinions of other potential customers will be influenced. Businesses can even offer special deals to Facebook Places users as they do with users who become a fan of their company page. Companies that incorporate the Places application into their marketing plans will find themselves reaching their potential customers even better than before.

As always, some Facebook users are concerned about the effect that this new application will have on their privacy. However, this application requires users to tag themselves or “check in” at a particular location in order for the information to be revealed on Facebook. Users who do not want their information shared should check their privacy settings, but they can also choose not to participate in this new application.

But what effect will Facebook Places have on other location based sites like Foursquare? The Facebook network is much larger than the networks of location based services such as Foursquare, Yelp.com, Gowalla.com, and Whrrl.com, so some might think that these companies will be greatly threatened by the addition of Facebook Places. However, Facebook Places appears to be doing the opposite. Shortly after the announcement about Places, Foursquare experienced a huge peak in signups. Instead of crushing the smaller location based sites, Places appears to be attracting attention and getting people interested in location based applications of all sorts.

As Facebook continues to expand into other areas, smaller sites will have to keep on their toes in order to keep themselves unique and original, but they should not fear being squashed by the Facebook giant. The key for sites like Gowalla and Foursquare will be to differentiate themselves from Facebook Places. They will need to offer their users a different incentive for using their site in order to keep business thriving.

Will Facebook Places be something you utilize? Why or why not?

Be sure and subscribe for the latest web marketing strategies and updates!

Justin McGill is a web marketing professional and runs a successful Small Business SEO Firm. He is the founder and CEO of SEORCHERS (read: [surch-ers]) - a local web marketing firm specializing in organic search engine optimization (SEO) with a focus on converting visitors into clients. He is available for SEO Consulting and now you can connect with him on Google+!.

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