@BasilPuglisi

Content & Strategy, Powered by Factics & AI, Since 2009

SEO Search Engine Optimization

Google Analytics and Greasemonkey

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Google Analytics is a free service offered by Google that generates statistical information about the visitors to your site. It is aimed at marketers, small business and website owners. It is considered to be the most often used statistic tool, currently used by 57% of the 10,000 most popular websites.

Google Analytics tracks visitors to your site from search engines, display advertising, PCP networks, e mail marketing, and even links within PDF documents. Users can track landing page quality and conversions. By using the Analytics users can determine which ads are performing and which don’t.

Greasemonkey is a Mozilla Firefox extension that allows users to install scripts that make changes to the way a web page displays or behaves by using small bits of JavaScript. The changes made to the web pages are executed every time the page is opened, making them permanent for the user. Greasemonkey can be used for adding new functions to web pages, such as embedding price comparisons, or changes to the way the site appears. There are many scripts for various functions such as providing information within shopping sites, fixing bugs and combining data from multiple pages.

To help Google Analytics users with insights into their website’s traffic and marketing effectiveness, various Greasemonkey scripts are available for free and can be used to enhance Google Analytics. They have different functions; some are aimed to enhance cleaner profile switching, others for quick content search, exporting to Google Docs and more.

Here are some of the most interesting scripts:

  • Social Media Metrics – this plugin allows users to observe social media, and link statistics to your specific pages.
  • Twitter and Google Analytics campaign tracking variables. Adds Campaign Source,
  • Campaign Medium and Campaign Name to your links for easy tracking of the traffic they drive to your site.
  • Enhanced Google Analytics. This script allows users to get up-to-date information on new referring sites or those who have had a substantial boost in traffic.
  • Profile Switching. A cleaner way to switch between profiles.
  • Insights for Analytics. Helps perform Google Insight searches on keywords in the report. Select up to 5 keywords in Google Analytics and view traffic patterns for these keywords on Insight.

It is important to note that on March 17, 2011, in a conference in San Francisco, Google Analytics unveiled a new version in beta trials. In order to make it easier and faster to get information and to enhance the Google Analytics platform, it is rumored to have an updated look and feel. Many of the changes in the new version are the result of user feedback, Goggle Analytics people say, including multiple dashboards, new links for specific reports and new names for reports. It is available for a small group of users for testing. The launch date is yet known.

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Google’s New Algorithm

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Do you stay glued to financial news for the biggest trends, or failing ones, to keep your business thriving and productive? If so, you may want to take a seat for this one. Designed to improve search results, Google has initiated a new algorithm.

For those who have made a habit of providing the highest quality content, you are about to be rewarded. However, low ranking sites that regularly copy content or provide low quality information, should expect to take a bit of a beat down.

The new algorithm will target a few key issues about the way content is promoted by their search engine. Content that is rich in helpful informative information, charts and graphs,  properly key worded and updated regularly, will get high priority by the new implementation, while those with second hand content and low quality outlines will be bumped further down on the search results regardless of their current page rank or unique visitors. In fact, the new algorithm is likely to change the latter aspects for those fluffy sites altogether.

Google’s Goal

Google says their goal is to provide users with the most relevant answers to their search engine queries, and as fast as possible. They intend to achieve this while also reducing the search engine rankings of things like content farms and over advertised spam ad.  Considering the user ship of Google, it is fair to say that when we refer to us, we really do mean, the huge collective US, that will be greatly affected by these changes. This could literally make or break some online businesses.

Although an algorithm change such as this may likely turn the search engine world as we know it upside down, the service it should begin providing, with the changes having taken place immediately, should definitely be a positive one.

Positive for the effectiveness of the search engine users that is. For sites who may have raised their page rankings and traffic with less than notability informative content, they may have already noticed a significant loss of traffic due to their new rankings on this algorithm system.

Some Win, Some Lose

Google also acknowledges that any changes to their algorithms, including the most recent ones, can cause some websites to achieve much greater results in readers or consumers, it can also cause previous winners on this path to suddenly be set back greatly.

However, take note also that if your rankings have dropped you may either be the false positive, or a unfortunate casualty of Google’s new algorithm, or you may need to sit back and take a longer look at your site and determine the best course of action to ensure that it provides helpful and informative content, not spun or copied content.

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Sneak Peak: Digital Brand Marketing 411: Educate, Embrace, Brand

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So, the internet is flooded with 101 courses, be it Social Media 101, SEO 101, Digital 101, SEM 101 and so on. The shocking part is that we are well beyond Freshman year, perhaps now it’s time for an advanced course.

This is a book in progress and the purpose of this post is to get feedback and support from fellow professionals who will have the chance to help shape its final publication.

Educate, Embrace, Brand

If training programs are a natural part of any induction to new employment, then should we not use this time to maximize the experience both professionally and personally?

Imagine a company that spends time introducing its new employees to Social Media during the training, helps them set up accounts, teaches them etiquette and the role that each different social media has both in personal and professional communication, even if it is at the most basic level.

That same company now embraces its new employees, like a press release, announcing their employment on the company’s Facebook page, twitter accounts, foursquare and more. At stage one, the companies’ own Social Media, has just gone viral with opportunity that has yet to be realized by corporations.

Educating and supporting an employee’s personal brand with the company would touch every contact that the employee has on a regular basis (i.e. profile pictures that resemble something like a baseball card with the team name, or in this case, the company name). The natural progression of Social Media would give the brand a reach and repetition beyond traditional marketing campaigns (This is not even considering the value for professional outreach to clients, service providers and more).

Features, Benefits & Pitfalls

“This section will be the core of the book”

Why?

The ability to control your brand has been lost for some time.  The introduction of reviews, facebook, twitter and more have shifted the spectrum. The current chain of command climate, has corporations and their brands operating as spectators or participants at best.

Your employees are already doing it! A claim like “When John/Joan made that racist, sexist, ageist, etc. etc. comment on facebook, it was not endorsed or supported by [insert company name]”. That’s a PR nightmare, because we all know s/he works for you and now your associated with the people you surround yourself with, or in this case employ.

Already employees are engaging or starting to engage in social media.  In most cases, the biggest threats come from those that will not let you into their social network.  Social Media demands a proactive approach or a great damage control team and understanding stockholders. The best way to understand what your employees are doing on social media is to be an active participant and take a stake in it.

The Coca-Cola Example:

In 2006, The Coca-Cola Company stated that 71,000 people worked for that company.  Imagine what that means in the way of networks if Coca-Cola Educated, Embraced and Branded their people!

If each employee averaged a modest 100 unique Facebook Friends, that’s a reach of 7,100,000 people that will directly see the company name, product or message at least once, if not on a repetitive basis. Take a minimal assumption that 10% of them may do something that others find worthy of sharing in their networks just once in a month and you just doubled your direct impact to a whopping 14 million direct touches with your brand, product or message.  That’s 14 Million a month based on just one touch. We are more than likely talking about a more realistic value of about 30 Million at least once and most of them more than once. How much would you spend to reach 30 Million people? Remembering you have to do it with someone they know and possibly trust or value.

The influence for the book:

Social Media has transformed the way we do business, “This is a massive socio-economic shift that is fundamentally changing the way consumers and companies communicate and interact with each other”, Erik Qualman (Socialnomics, 2010).

Is this True?

I believe that Erik Qualman is correct. However, what most are missing is that we are still stuck in the entry level courses or just fulfilling our general education requirements and the time to be undecided is at an end.

Companies continue to adjust to the trend that Social Media dictates on how consumers spend. Their reactive state has paralyzed them, and no one has taken a moment to stop, think and produce a proactive campaign or policy.

Social Media 101 was the introduction of Away Messages, Chat rooms and Buddy lists. Social Media in the 200’s was all about the personal networks we build.  Whereas, Social Media 300’s have been a consistent battle to generate ROI for business and balance the separation of personal and professional.

Social Media in the 400’s (Senior Year) will be the race towards the podium. The first to Educate, Embrace and Brand will be the Valedictorian. This senior year has some big potential leaders that are laying the ground work. However,  there’s not a single corporation in that list!

The Preview

This is a part of the conceptual work of my book that will be released in 2011. This post is to introduce the concept and ideas of the power behind Social Media that has yet to be realized by corporations. I specifically target corporations because small business owners all across America are already transitioning into this next stage.  Stating “separation” as the key to a business or professional image is proving everyday in small business to be false.

The Naysayers

Some will be quick to jump at the hesitation of individuals to cross the personal and professional barrier, as much as, the companies they work for. However, social media has already crossed those barriers. For those that wish to continue to try and separate the two on a continual basis, Mark Zuckerberg has already covered that for them. That is why education is the first step in this process. There is no one way to accomplish this goal.  Like fire, we can get burned, but without embracing fire we would be hard pressed to stay warm or protected. Companies, Businesses and Organizations are made of people and now more than ever its harder to hide who we, or they are, it’s just a matter of time.

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Google’s Social Search

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A few days ago Google changed the way the company is dealing with social media.

Since the launch of its Social Search in 2009, Google’s social media was kept a little hidden from the general public. You had to know about it and opt-in through Google Labs. Once you did, Google’s search results page would display the results to your query as it is vetted by machines (logarithms) and by people – what did your personal contacts on the social  search wrote about it. The results of people’s recommendations were displayed at the bottom of the page. All that would appear only to those who signed up for the service.

On Feb 17, 2011 Google unveiled its changes to the Social Search, publishing it in beta and turning it on for all who are signed in, in English (so far).

With this new integration, which includes Google images as well, Google is introducing a tie to social search outside its own circle, from Twitter, Flickr and Quara. It uses social profile connected to your profile on Google to deliver items such as photos or blogs and tweets that come from you friends.

The search results will not appear, as they did until now at the bottom of the page, but will be integrated in the search itself, blended throughout the page. This is done through a system that lets you know when a friend shared a specific link or search result in the subject of your query. It appears in the search result page under the site’s url.

In other words, now you can see what your friends have recommended, not only what the logarithms have found out, making the search more personal and specific.

The other change is in its appearance in the search results. Any comment done by your friends on Twitter for example will appear as an annotation saying that your friend “shared this”. The more recommendations, the higher this site will go in the ranking.

Users have control over what gets displayed in social searches. The user page gives the ability to connect their profiles publicly or privately, to their other Google accounts, Twitter etc.

One thing this update does not include is a connection to Facebook. Not at the moment anyway. While still in beta, the rollout will occur in the next few days.

What does it mean?

Even though this announcement went through pretty quietly, it might create a shock wave as far as SEO goes. Search Engine Optimizations means making your site as visible as possible. To be visible, your site should appear on the first page of Google. The ranking on the page is determined by rules Google has put in place years ago: the size of the site, the activity on the site, the backlinks and the keywords that relate to the specific query, among other things.

Now, with the new Google social search – what was written about the subject using social media will have an impact on the placement on the page. The more people wrote and commented about the subject, the higher on the page the article or site will go. Social media, especially those sites connected to Google social search, have become more important in the placement of the search results.

What’s more; the search results may appear differently to different people depending on their circle of friends! If many of your friends talked about a ski resort in Alaska – this resort will move up in your page, but not in mine. Those who didn’t sign up for the social search will get different search placements without the comments, since only the user of the service will be able to see those elements.

With this swipe, Social Media has become more important in Search Engine Optimization. That is, if this service will grow in popularity.

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What is a Creative Commons License?

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With so much business being conducted online these days, it has become imperative to have methods to protect and copyright our works in a manner just as remote as how it was posted. Regardless of whether your work is writing, photography, or even coding or programming, you will want a means to ensure that regardless of what happens with those items, you are given credit for producing them.

When you apply for a Creative Commons license you can keep the copyright to your work, while allowing others to copy or distribute you work, as long as they give you proper credit, on the conditions you get to specify. You may choose to offer your work freely with no desire for crediting, or you may determine exactly the manner in which you want to be credited regardless of its use.

There are some more reputable websites that can help you to create your licensing for your work.

CreativeCommons.org  is an example of a reputable licensing site. You are able to choose a license and once done they will provide you with an HTML tag that will list your work as copyright restricted. However, CreativeCommons is not a registrar and will not retain records of your selections.

Flickr.com also offers create commons licensing and the format to help you protect your work. Flickr and CreativeCommons both have things in common. Their licensing types mirror one another perfectly.

CreativeCommons offers the following licensing options.

  • Attribution: An attribution license will let others tweak, change, build on, remix, distribute or otherwise alter your work, they also have to credit you for the original creation in the manner you request.
  • Attribution NoDerivatives: This particular license allows for commercial and non-commercial use, as well as redistribution, however, it must remain unchanged and all credit must go to you.
  • Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike: Like Attribution, users can tweak, alter, build on and distribute, however, they must credit you and license their own product or creation under identical terms.
  • Attribution ShareAlike: An attribution sharealike license will allow others to alter, tweak and otherwise build upon your original work for commercial purposes. They must however, credit you and license their own agreement under the same terms.
  • Attribution NonCommercial: Others can tweak, alter, rebuild or build upon your work for non-commercial purposes. Any new works should acknowledge the original creator and also be non-commercial.
  • Attribution NonCommercial NoDerivatives: The most restrictive license, this one only allows others to download or otherwise save your works and even share them with others as long as you are properly credited. This license does not permit users to alter your original creation in any way.

If you are new to creative commons licensing it may be important to read up before making the decision on your license choices.

This is also likely to be one part of your copyright policy and protection practices, an example of how this is used as part of a policy or image see: Copyright Info

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Foursquare – Location Marketing and Check-in Technology

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Although the knowledge of location marketing may be old news to some, to those who are just tuning into the usage of Smartphones and as well as other advanced mobile digital equipment, it may be an entirely new concept to others.

I did an article about FourSquare a few months ago, but in review I thought it be useful to take a bigger step back and reevalute this so new visitors could see a better picture, or blog! (Original Blog Entry – Promotional Social Interactive – FourSquare)

Simple Concept?

It is indeed as simple as it sounds. Location marketing is marketing that is targeted to people based solely on their geographic location. With GPS available on Smartphones, this type of marketing is not only much more realistic, but much more lucrative. With the huge influx of Smartphones and other similar mobile devices, location sharing services seem to be drawing a large crowd.

Foursquare was quite possibly the first location marketing and sharing service to succeed. With Foursquare, Smartphone users can check in with nearby friends and family as well as take advantage of possible discounts from other Foursquare members in the area. With a unique rewards system that encourages users to take advantage of its features, it seems to have no trouble keeping many users rapt.

Who is Taking Advantage of Foursquare?

Although there are certainly specific demographics, usage can also vary depending on aspects of each locale. The statistical answer is that only around 4% of web users were utilizing the location-sharing services available to them, however, this still amounts to around 38.9 million people, certainly no small market. It is predicted that location-sharing services are expected to double between the years of 2010 and 2015.

Currently primary users are mostly younger men who use it to check in all around town to some of their favorite places, or with their favorite people. Over 70% of reporting male internet users between 18 and 34 say they have previously or currently use their location-sharing services capabilities. Females around the same ages report about a 64% usage of the same services.

Foursquare Highlights

The lady hunter. Wheretheladies.at uses Foursquare to do one simple thing, locate the ladies in the locale. Foursquare will actually retrieve public data from locations nearby and direct you towards the one with the highest density of ladies. Talking about tracking down the ladies! However, I think this is just technologically advanced enough to be considered unique and cool, and not stalky and worrisome.

  • National Foursquared?

The National Archives and Records Administration has been Foresquared. You can now check in at the George W. Bush library with Foursquare. You can now say you have step foot into the place where all former presidents have deposited some of the most important papers and archives associated with their terms. The claim is that by joining Foursquare with the National Archives, social medias can help to invite users to learn more about their nations history.

  • Check into Dinner

While McDonalds and Dominos have reported relatively good check in responses, there has been no real measure taken of just how good, and why it mattered. Even these corporate giants have no idea how many additional people, or extra sales the check in offer even generates.

  • The Best Check in Ever, The Big Game

The Superbowl has Foursquared itself too. On the recent Superbowl they created a special Foursquare badge that has fans checking in and being given a code that can be redeemed at NFL shops for up to 20% off of their merchandise.

  • Foursquare My School

Syracuse University became the third school to gain its own badge that users were able to unlock by checking in. Harvard and Stanford Universities also have their own badges as well.

There is no doubt that this kind of marketing capability could mean endless possibilities, and an endless flow of people in your area looking for your own products or services. It seems like it is just a matter of technology in mobile devices becoming more common in worldwide users, that may be preventing Foursquare from turning into a widespread GPS type of service that only directs us to where we actually want to go.

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Best Practices for Creating New Content (Social Media Week 2011)

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It is said that 10% of the content available on the internet is original, and the other 90% is recycled from that 10%. With that highly likely statistic in mind, try to remember that although you may not be an expert on the topic you are given to create content for, it is quite possible to at least have the look of one.

  • Corner the Market on Your Personal Style

Have you had others tell you that they enjoy your writing style? Ask them why, and then build on it. Do readers like your straight-forward attitude? Do they prefer to read about vacation destinations as seen through your virtual, or even literal eyes? Readers have told you they like your attitude and the character that comes out in your text, hold that character to a standard, expect it to improve only for the better, and then see that it does.

  • Understand Copy Issues

Plagiarism is not only a moral no-no, it is also one that can get your content flagged, ignored and even penalized by search engines. For this reason, it is of utmost importance to understand that even if you always write ‘from knowledge’ or personal creation, it is still possible to duplicate content someone else has created. Be sure to use a copy protection program such as Copyscape or Dustball to check your work.

  • Understand Search Engine Optimization

No one says you have to push the letter, the keywords, or keyword phrases to the very edge of acceptable percentages, but if you are speaking on an item, topic or service, you may want to be sure you mention it at least a few times in a long article, a couple of times in a short one. Although managing the algorithms of search engines may be difficult for a novice user to understand, the simple understanding that to get attention, you must use the same words or phrases to describe something as someone would put into a search engine browser.

  • See the Whole Picture

What do you want this content to accomplish? See the whole picture before you begin to create the content. Work the best way for you to understand the start to finish. Create an outline or work erratically if need be, but be sure your finished product is what you envisioned it to be in the first place, and don’t accept any less. You are putting your name, your business and your websites professionalism on this content, be sure it meets the same standards other aspects of your business are expected to.

Don’t forget to join me at Social Media Camp: New York as part of Social Media Week 2011. I will be a co-presenter for “Content is King…” on Wed Feb 9 at 10:30AM at the Roger Smith Hotel in NYC.

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Basil C. Puglisi to present for SMC part of Social Media Week 2011.

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Feb 7, 2011 marks the beginning of Social Media Week 2011 in New York City, and as with every great week of events one organization sets itself apart from the rest.

Social Media Club is excited to be hosting Social Media Camp during Social Media Week NY 2011.

The event is open to people who work with small businesses, job seekers, and even those people in bigger businesses who do marketing and communications. We hope all of these people will come together to learn from each other.  Everyone who attends is a participant and hopefully a teacher too.

Basil Puglisi is joined by Amy Vernon of Blue Glass Interactive and Mardy Sitzer of Bumblebee Design & Marketing. The group will be facilitating the “Content is King…” session at 10:30am on Feb 9, 2011 at the Roger Smith Hotel.

The Session will examine how content is developed, executed and managed in the digital world of Social Media, as well as other digital medias. The session will look at how content is organized and tips for protecting your content while going viral. Expect this event to be fast passed and exciting as all three presenters have a rich history with Social Media including extensive blogging.

Basil C. Puglisi runs the blog Digital Media Marketing Educator which can be found at basilpuglisi.info or brandmarketingeducator.com. The blog looks at Digital Brand Management and how companies, organizations and individuals can maintain a proactive approach to brand through original content.

Brand Reputation Management: Digital & Social

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Unfortunately, very few businesses can cruise along without taking some fire from consumers, or even other companies who may be skeptical of their products or services. And just as often, it is quite possible for your company’s website and negative information about it can land on the same search page.

For this reason brand reputation management can be a vital part of keeping your company name associated with the positive aspects and reviews of your products or services. This helps to provide your potential customers with the positive results of your business.

Whether you use a company who provides the service, or create your own team to handle the job, certain services will need to be performed to create a brand management plan. Those services can include:

  • Writing articles, optimized for search engine crawlers for multiple sites being sure to incorporate high-ranking keywords
  • Crowding negative information and reviews off of the first page of search results for your niche keywords
  • Optimization of site code and content
  • Link building strategies
  • Press releases to powerful networking websites
  • Ongoing support in all of the above areas

So although blogs have their definite perks, the fact is, one disgruntled customer may have a lot of power if they too have a high page ranking and can get the views it takes to reach or surpass your own site.

So what if you do not have the funds to pay a service, or manage your own team to do so? There are a few helpful hints to lead you in the right direction, but overall, the reputation your brand carries is entirely up to you as a product or service provider. As a provider, it is also your duty to combat any negative feedback on your company.

You need to have well-written and newsworthy press releases to help stimulate traffic and manage SERP manipulation.

Build Hubpages and Squidoo lenses being sure to mention the title name and URL. These high ranking static links will help loads to push other content on your keyword down on the list.

Blogger too. The Blogger site may not need to be filled with incredible content, but be sure you use your name and title in the URL you choose.

Use social medias targeted to a more professional audience. LinkedIn and your Facebook account will help much more than a Myspace or Friendsters will.

Be sure to index all of them by using sidebar options on the Blogger account.

Build your own custom RSS feed for the phrases you want to protect.

Although this may be ideal for those who have the time, if you have an extreme amount of negative feedback on your site, it is highly suggested to retain the services of a reputable brand management company who can monitor regularly for incoming negative reviews.

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QWiki: Full Media Search Engine with Results You Actually Need

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Is it the sum of all human knowledge? Tidily gathered in one place and put in the hands of every individual on earth, the internet has brought us unparalleled research capabilities, unforeseen technologies, and untold fortunes. However, there is no doubt that there are issues with the current systems.

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/15444551]

That said, Jan 24, 2011 marked the day that the term “Google It” started to fade away! On Oct 1, 2010 I mentioned qwiki as one of the major future technologies of the future and now just 24hrs after they have gone live I add to my thoughts.

Notoriously, as expansive as it is, it has for the most part remained a one way street. We bash some letters into a search engine, and patiently await a relative return. Google, Yahoo, Bing, and others have had great purpose, but also been an incredible source of confusion for some users who may not be incredibly aware of its algorithms and nuances.

The Solution?

Facebook Co-Founder, Eduardo Saverin launched a new search engine known as Qwiki that provides what is referred to as a ‘rich media narrative’ format. In the spirit of Wikipedia, a user can add to the knowledge available on any topic. This engine provides a combination of photos, audio and video clips that relate to the queried topic.  Opened for public testing on Monday, January 24, 2011, the game has just begun.

Qwiki says their goal is to bring science fiction film to life by enabling computers to collect data on the behalf of their human counterparts. Not exactly mind reading, but not the passive system utilized so widely now. Qwiki wants to make the internet a two-way street.

So far, reviews say they are doing just that. Instead of providing one-shot information, it provides more help when even deciding on a better topic of interest.

Using Qwiki

This is a straight-forward interface. Users land on the home page, input their topic and Qwiki will load and begin to play automatically. No more robotic sounding readers. Qwiki’s voice-over has almost completely removed the non-human, monotone Robbie the Robot voice, and replaced it with a surprisingly pleasant female voice that includes highs and lows in the appropriate places.  If you never thought an artificial voice could sound soothing, Qwiki may change that for you.

Resources? I would have imagined loading all of this media would have caused a bit longer load time. On a 64bit dual core processor +6000, it took no longer to load the search bar than Google blank page, it took .03 seconds longer to load the rest.

After your initial search plays, Qwiki offers you more options below and the topics seem to be highly relevant after many searches.

What Now?

I don’t see how Qwiki can help but change the way that internet searches currently work. The results are entertaining and at some point someone needs to jump on a research group that can dig into the details about learning curves and get Qwiki right now to the users who may be able to better retain information because of it. It is hard not to focus when you have a calming voice reading the text as it scrolls below gripping slideshows and photo galleries.

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