@BasilPuglisi

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

SEO Search Engine Optimization

Personal & Professional: Social Network at Home

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If you’re a business owner, sometimes we forget that in the world of branding and marketing that Social Media is still about being personal. The person you are when you leave work is just as important to your customers as the professional.

There are many ways to extend your network and show the person behind the professional. One example of this is to share your experiences, and while we have taken to the 140 character world of micro blogging let’s not forget that sometimes more is, well more.

In this case I have attached a review of a restaurant in East Hampton that my wife and I recently visited. I had walked in and found at the end of my business meeting that he had missed a few basic structural needs for the SEO of his website, after thirty minutes he was well on his way to correcting the problem and my wife and I had the opportunitiy to be his guest just a few nights later.

In this case I took the time to share our experience and post it to TripAdvisor, Google Places, Yelp and more, after all, I felt this relationship and experience was worth more than 140 Characters.

(also note the added value of the link “restaurant”, this provides a SEO reference or backlink for his website)

Rugosa offers a contemporary dining experience with a service that almost matches the exquisite tastes its kitchen provides.

Let me start off by saying I am completely biased, or am I? After all, is it not a personal touch that we all want from a night out?

Bill Mammes had my wife (Natalia) and I as his guests this past Friday (Jan 21, 2011), it was an experience that I did not expect. The atmosphere is both elegant and comfortable, a combination that is tricky at best to accomplish.

We used OpenTable.com to set our reservation; it was simple and user friendly. The Open Table platform uses a web version and offers mobile applications. When visiting www.RugosaResturant.com, you will find it integrates fairly nice with the restaurant website as well.

While Yvette (Spouse & co-owner) provided a warm smile and courteous introduction, she was quickly matched by the young server Jon, whose enthusiasm and professionalism instantly uplifted our end of the week winter mood.

Jon is a student of wine (or Oenologist) and while he seems to favor Italian reds, he bolsters a wonderful respect for the Long Island whites. His enthusiasm could easily overtake an unsuspecting guest.  My wife and I found him to be a wonderful part of our night out.

Chef Mammes not only didn’t disappoint, he surprised us at the start. While I started with the Autumn Salad, I found myself quickly stealing from my wife’s plate. Jon had recommended the Duck Cannelloni (Duck Confit, Trumpet Royale Mushrooms and Sautéed Spinach with Star Anise Jus) which in itself brought new meaning to “appetizer”. While I would like to tell you that the Autumn Salad was good as well, the truth is that it’s Butternut Squash, Apples and more was really just a backdrop to the Duck Cannelloni.

The main course was exquisite; I went with the 14oz Painted Hills Rib-Eye with Bulgur Wheat, Spinach in a Red Wine Sauce. My wife (Natalia) bested me once more with the Lightly Smoked Salmon, Cauliflower, Fingerling Potato and Cucumber Horseradish Sauce. As you might have guessed, I found myself once again with poor table manners reaching onto her plate.

As the evening continued on, we enjoyed live music (which was appropriate) and I surrendered to Jon’s wisdom, as by now he had earned our trust. Natalia went with the Petit Basque which is a Sheep Milk Cheese from Pyrenees Honey Glee, Red Wine Poached Prune with whole Wheat Raisin Bread, and while she enjoyed it, I finally found my treat that would leave an impression. I had the chance to finish my night with the Bruleed Lime Meringue, a fresh lemon curd with cream and mixed fresh berries on top.

Rugosa was a wonderful experience and while I’d like to say that I recommend it, I dare not be so bold, but hope you will find this review worthy of a visit so that you may follow with your own review. I can say this, we left so refreshed that while it was a late departure, we quickly made our way to the East Hampton Theaters for Black Swan, but that’s another great experience for another time.

NEVER FORGET THAT YOU HAVE A NAME AND LIFE BEHIND WHAT YOU DO! CONSUMERS KNOW THIS TOO!

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How to Protect Your Digital Brand Online

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One of the first things the small or large business manager needs to learn is how to protect your digital brand online. Your digital brand is comprised of everything that is online about you so it is important to know what is already there before going any further.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SRVIuNPCmo]

Damage Control

One of the easiest things to do is to go to a search engine such as Google and perform a search for your name. Googling yourself will give you a good place to start if you need to do some housekeeping on the web. You may be surprised at what you find and see the need to start performing some damage control.

Social networking is the way many people communicate these days and almost everyone has or has had a Facebook or MySpace account possibly beginning in their college days. If these sites do not project you or the brand that you represent in the way that you would like to be perceived, either clean up the site or take it down. Be aware that traces may remain on your friends’ pages.

Don’t Forget About the Good Old Days!

Go back through old history that you may have forgotten and delete comments and pictures that project you in a less than favorable light. You may still appear on your friends pages so if there is something particularly bad, contact your friend and ask them to remove it for you.

Training to Protect Your Digital Brand

When setting up social networking sites for your business, it is important that the people responsible for setting up these accounts realize their possible impact on the digital brand. Twitter can be one of the worst offenders as many business rush to have a brand presence on Twitter. An untrained employee can cause irreparable damage by tweeting unprofessional comments that may poorly reflect on the digital brand.

If you find untrue content on the web that is unflattering to your brand, you can ask the webmaster of the site to remove it. Many will do that just to avoid any possible legal consequences. Depending on your circumstances you may want to check the web for fake sites that are plagiarizing your content or products that can affect how people see your brand. The important thing is to stay informed so you can perform damage control.

Create a Positive Online Image

An online presence is a must for a brand to be successful in today’s competitive marketplace. A positive impact from your digital brand can be expected if you stay on top of the situation and take control. Make sure there are many positive images of your digital brand online which also helps bury any bad content that may exist.

Make sure that those who are trusted with the responsibility of maintaining these social networks are aware of the language, tone, and values that you want your digital brand to project. This is how to protect your digital brand online and make it work for you.

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Can you buy Reviews? The new marketing tools to beat the system?

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There are many sources for reviews on the web to help your product or service get the attention it deserves. It is also a great way to find out what the public thinks about you.  Some are well known like Amazon.com but there are many others that can be a valuable resource too. Some of the sources for reviews are targeted towards specific products but most are varied.

If you are an author of a self published book you might want to check out Kirkus Discoveries reviews. This can help your book get noticed by readers and includes a review of your book on their Facebook and Twitter accounts. If chosen your book review may be featured in a monthly newsletter that is read by journalists, school librarians, publishers, and booksellers. To have your book read and reviewed can be quite pricey, starting at $425, but the rewards can be great.

Another site that is recommended by many people is ReviewMe.com. They do not allow advertisers to require positive reviews but note that at the worst case most reviewers will only give constructive criticism even if they are not particularly pleased with the product.

SponsoredReviews.com is another well rated source for reviews. They have a great selection of blog writers and start their pricing at just five dollars per post. Smorty.com is another source that has strict requirements for their participating bloggers which should ensure that reviews draw in the right traffic to your product or service.

Many of the sources for reviews pay bloggers to write about your product and post it on their blog. There is also the opportunity for link backs through the information posted on the blogs. The more popular the blogs the more traffic you should receive from link backs.

There are many other sources for reviews that might be of interest; BuyBlogReviews.com, Linkworth.com, and ReviewParty .com are just a few of them. Reviews can add to your brand image so you want to connect with reviewers that will review you in a positive light.

There are many marketing tools on the web today and product and service reviews are one of the best. There is also a market for blog writers who don’t mind writing a review of products and services that they have tried and use. These sources for reviews will help you connect with people who want to tell people what they think about your company.

Beware:

Customers are not without intelligence, if you get caught with false reviews they will leave honest ones, especially with companies like yelp that have strict protocals to et your name be dragged through the mud.

Take A One Up! Lets look at how someone is using reviews in a positive light and pushing away the chance that you think its a fake review.

Petri Plumbing & Healting uses scanned copies of their review cards that have been hand written by their customers! It doesn’t stop there as they also have text copies of some of the reviews, likley for SEO purposes.

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New Year – Brand Marketing Educator

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What does this mean?

  • Brand – The name, image, idea or concept that is associated with something.
  • Marketing – Marketing is the processes for strategizing for the creation of campaigns that communicate, deliver, and/or exchanging offerings that have value for the general public, be it customers, clients, partners, or the society at large.
  • Educator – Someone who chooses to continually learn themselves, while teaching others what they have learned. An individual who seeks knowledge for the purpose of sharing or disseminating it to others.

As a Consulting Coach for the last decade I have taken what I have learned in Banking, Student Affairs, Public Policy, Politics, Small Business Development, Advertising and Marketing, Web Development, Social Media and more to help develop businesses, political campaigns and support non-profits. This decade long process that started as Puglisi Consulting has helped me define what role I have in society. I also believe it defines what I offer to those that I work with, work for, or have the pleasure of their company.

As a Brand Marketing Educator it will be my responsibility to continue to develop my understanding of how to reach people. In the end, a business, a political campaign, a charitable cause only finds success in its ability to get seen and be found. After all the best message, even the one that may save your business, organization, campaign or life has little value if it does not reach those who need or want it.

This blog is the collective work of so many, even in the last year as I started these articles, part or majority have come from volunteers and paid sources who helped research the topics. One person cannot claim to be a source of value alone, but can claim to be a facilitator of sources and knowledge.

I pledge to use this blog as an extension of what I know and more importantly learn during the next year. I ask for no pay, no donations and no for profit advertising on this blog. I do this in the hopes that those that visit it, will always find an unbiased opinion and suggestion for what I believe can help increase visibility, so that you can be successful.  

Why?

Because I am a SPARTAN! If those who can, choose not to, then they have lost the best of themselves or in some cases ourselves.

 Basil C. Puglisi – Brand Marketing Educator

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7h9dDEUG30c]

Google Aims to Save you Time

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Google Aims to Save you Time

The long tentacles of Google are everywhere these days – in a good way.

The company is thinking ahead and making life more comfortable, more connected, more immediate than ever before.

It is no longer just a search engine. Google Chrome is gaining in popularity among the web browsers. It had 10 million users at the end of 2008, 30 million at the end of 2009 and in mid-2010 already had 70 million active users. How is that for a growth spurt?

G-mail is popular, simple to use and basically works in a “cloud” – all your information is stored on servers, not on your home computer, accessible from anywhere at any time. It can store all your contacts, all your e mails; you don’t have to back up that information because it doesn’t matter if your computer crashes. The hardware became less important and the information is safe behind strong firewalls.

Google Docs  enables you to hare documents and collaborate with others on the same page, set appointments on Google calendar, and see what’s new with Google Reader and Google Reader Play.

Google Reader

Most of internet savvy people, and especially the young ones, have a few website they like to visit often to see what’s new. The sites can be blogs, professional sites, membership sites etc. Going to each website separately takes time, and then you might find that there was nothing of interest for you this day.

Google Reader comes to the rescue. A program which was launched in 2007, in now becoming very popular. Google reader is an aggregator of feeds and news from your favorite websites, all in one place. Once you go to the site and list your favorite websites, one click only will show you all the new stuff from all your favorite websites in one place, in a headline form.

If you are interested in the subject matter, another click will get you to the website for more in depth information. It saves time and effort and makes getting updates from the sites your anyway go to, much more concise.

Google Reader Play

Lately, Google introduced the Google Reader Play which presents the information in images with a big image at the top of the screen and the different items as thumb nails at the bottom. This is information aggregated from different web sources. You can click on the right and left arrows to scroll through the items or you can click on the thumbnail to enlarge them to the main screen.

The idea that the good stuff is mostly visual is behind this service. It adapts to your tastes as you click on the icons representing marked for later, like, and share. It is still in the experimental stage and can be accessed through Google Labs. This service doesn’t come to replace the Reader but to augment it. While the Reader gives you feeds from your chosen sites, Reader Play gives you information aggregated from sites all over the web.

This forwards thinking and development in many directions at once, is what make this company what it is today. A major player and developer. Where is Microsoft gone to? Google is overtaking them by leaps and bounds. Microsoft seems to be stuck in the browser and office arenas and coming up with new things that just complicate matters instead of making them simpler.

Happy Holidays!!! Social Media Do and Don’t

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So as we hit Christmas Eve, I like to take a minute and share a few Social Media etiquettes for the general year, but ring even more true for the Holidays.

1) Don’t sell anything!

At this point if you haven’t capitalized on your call to action you lost that chance by now. After all social media is about trust, consistency and professionalism, not selling.

2) Engage in genuine content.

Find ways to thank people, share info for free that has value to it, even if you hold back a little at least your getting in the spirit of giving and those on the other side might do them in return come the new year…hint, hint…

3) Be at peace with the (social) world.

This is a time for peace and relaxation, there is enough stress without you adding to it, expect the site visit to be short. Put away the sword, find things positive about what you agree with, reinforce similarities even with competitors… being the fair and honest (you) will mean everything to people when it comes time to spend money.

4) Stay engaged.

While now is not the time for long drawn out affairs, stay true to what others expect, if you check in everyday, hour, whatever, stick to this, consistency is almost as important as content.

5) Have fun.

This is what makes you different, just like someone smiling over the phone, you can tell when the person engaging you in social media is doing it because they are having fun, or because they are forcing it.

Happy Holidays!!!

Please be safe & responsible!

How to advertise your business with Google?

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Google is no doubt the biggest search engine in existence today, with 1.2 billion searches happening every day.

Advertising through such a company can give your business more exposure than any other advertising method. But there are so many ways to advertise with them. Which one will suit your business? The main objective of advertising online is to create exposure when people search an item they need.

Here are three methods of advertising your business using the search engine Google.

AdWords

The oldest and most known system is called AdWords and it is the main source of income for Google. How does it work?

This application lets users create their own ads using tools and keywords. The ad will appear on the Google search result page, on the right side and on top of the search results under the tag “Ads” in small letters.

The good thing about AdWords is that you, the advertiser, choose the keywords that will trigger appearance on related searches. You pay only when the ad is being clicked on and the visitor goes to your website.

The advertiser can set a limit to how much money he is willing to spend for his ad to appear and this, among other factors, determines the actual placing of the ad on the list. It is called PPC (pay per click) advertising, and the bidding starts at $0.05 for a single click. The minimum required budget per day to advertise with AdWords is only one dollar. You can select the daily budget and select specific area or the time to display your ad.

This program is very popular because it allows its users to control every aspect of the campaign. Each aspect can be fine-tuned to increase efficiency and improve result in terms of getting the right people to your site.

What sounds very simple, is nothing but. Searching the terms AdWords on Google will yield a plethora of sites ready to teach you how to work with the system and improve your return. Google evolves and adjusts all the time, coming up with new logarithms to stave off hackers and people who are trying to game the system. Running a successful AdWords advertising campaign can be complex, even when dealing with the system on its most basic and principal level.

Advertisers have made their knowledge of working with AdWords their main source of income, abandoning their initial goals, the more they got immersed in this world of PPC advertising and understood how different factors influence their click-through rate.

Banner Ads

Another system for advertising online is Banner ads. Banner ads use Flash, eye-catching graphics or animation and appear on specific web pages. When clicked the banners connects you to the advertised site.

Banners can be created by a person without vast knowledge in coding and HTML (the language used by programmers). There are websites that offer an  already designed banners for sale, Google AdWords published Editorial Guidelines that serve as guideline for writing online ad copy. The guidelines include everything from spelling and style to recommendations on length, keywords and content.

The better the ad relates to the website it’s placed on, the more likely it is to be effective and create a click-through.

There are some ways you can place your banner on a desired website; in one system, Banner ads are triggered by keywords supplied by the advertiser. Another way is to exchange banners with a site you would like your banner to appear on. There are banner exchange programs, which a little search on the web will unveil, and you can contact the search engine companies like Google, Yahoo etc and have them place your banner ads of different sites. With this system keywords trigger the appearance of the banner, and you, the advertiser has no control on where they appear.

Banner Ads are usually charged by Cost per Impression (CPI, or CPM). Often a price will be set based upon a cost per thousand impressions, or views, and depend on other factors.

 Banner ads can be harder to control, however, because any changes requires a new banner to be uploaded. Placement on some pages may be pricey at times.

Experts recommend Banners be only part of your online advertising campaign. Combining them with other methods like e-newsletters, search engine advertising and search engine optimization will yield the maximum effect.

Google Places

Google Places is a location based service that allows you to list your business on Google maps. Google allows business owners to manage their physical business location information. This information appears on the search result page when the location and kind of business is typed into the search bar. It is a free service which business owners have to “unlock”.

There is of course a premium service that allows business owner to update their information, add a picture that will appear on the front page, add reviews and special offers.  A tag appears on Google maps that shows the location of the business.

Users of the service will get a decal for their place of business that will allow users to scan it with a smartphones and go straight to reviews about the place. Google advertises it as being useful by the computer and in the physical world. 

This is one of the great ways to get targeted traffic to you website from the place you are located.

Social Media Trends for 2011

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2010 was a banner year for social media. It was the year in which Facebook overtook Google in site traffic. It was a year in which some surveys claim that 95% of companies are using LinkedIn to look for prospective employees.

The use of social media through mobile devices tripled. The tablet became popular and threatens to revolutionize laptops and school books.

What can we expect in the coming year? Here is what a few experts agree on:

–          Big companies will take a serious look at the social media, integrating it not only locally but globally.  Companies like Dell computers and Jet Blue are already doing it.

–          The mobile and tablet war creates social computing – the competition is heating up with new tablets and smart phones coming into the market. It will create more discussions on the web. Social media will be on the go even more than it is today – out of the house, out of the office on the move; in trains, planes and automobiles. There will be more competition, variety and affordability in devices.

–          Facebook location based services will probably overtake all the others. With the huge amount of users –over 500 million – and with tons of data and the programs behind it, they will become the biggest.

–          There will be a social media overload. The average user experiences Facebook, Twitter, G mail, chat, Skype, Tumblr etc. Many experts in social media have adopted systems to access all of them at once but average users might get a case of schizophrenia, with so many profiles on so many social networks. Integration will have to become more wide spread.

–          Social media will be integrated into other tools, making websites important again and more modern.

–          More and more companies will turn their social media connections into customer service, answering questions and complaints.

–          Social recruiting will get bigger. Even small companies will go to social media to find new and better applicants.

Using Social Bookmarking To Rise Your Small Business Through The Ranks

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We all know that there are quite a few different ways to promote your company using all of the amazing resources that we have available to us now with the internet. One of the best ways for you to get your company noticed is through social bookmarking which allows you to get your social blog or personal business website ranked. This ranking system lets you and your business partners get noticed quickly and build the popularity of your small business.

Digg & StumbleUpon

There are two very popular social bookmarking websites that have millions of users search for things that interest them each and every day. Digg is probably the most popular these days because it allows users to interact with each other and share tips on how to get their own blog or website looked at more often. StumbleUpon is another very popular website that does similar things to Digg, but also has some audio and video options to compliment the chat style that Digg has. These websites have really led some companies to turn the corner and head toward years of prosperity.

Be Aware of Spammers

Like is the case with many other social and open sourced websites, you will have to pay close attention to and watch out for spam web links. There are always going to be those people out there that want to infiltrate your website and even cause it to shut down. Whether it is competitive businesses or just a few hackers trying to get their kicks, you must to aware at all times as to what type of activity is going on on your website. It is not always the easiest thing to monitor, so you should also try looking into hiring yourself a WebMaster if at all possible.

Find Some Assistance

There are a few things that you should know in regards to getting your website and company noticed. These things are very simple and, in many cases, deal with common sense problem solutions. First, make sure to have some of your friends and family members help you out with raising the awareness amongst the community about your website. Maybe not everyone will be interested in what you have to sell, but at least they will know that your small business exists. Secondly, do a little bit of research as to how you can get your website affiliated with other more popular ones on the internet. This will drastically increase the chances of you getting yourself noticed.

Social bookmarking is making a huge difference in how people network their businesses around the world and will continue to assist in building these smaller companies into huge conglomerates. There will be more of these websites popping up all over the internet, so keep your eyes peeled for them to open up and jump on board.

Google bookmarks

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Google Bookmarks allows its users to bookmark their favorite pages and save them remotely so they can be accessed from any computer with a use of a password.

Why is this service important? You do not have to have your computer with you when you want to show something interesting you have bookmarked.

If your computer crashes, you have a place to go to and retrieve all the bookmarked pages you had.

Lists are private by default, but once you’ve created one you can share it with specific friends or even publish it. Google allows the users to post their bookmarks and share them with others.

Sharing lists can help you collaborate with your friends on common interests or activities.

With Bookmarks, you can also organize your content using labels and/or lists. Like labels, lists let you organize your bookmarks into categories for easier retrival.