Internet Marketing, Social Media, Business | StuckInTheFunnel

Fox News Calls Internet Marketing a Scam

I was writing a blog on landing page optimization and came across this page in my Tweet Deck stream:

Full article from Fox >>

 Needless to say, I stopped writing my other article.

 Growing up in the Y generation has given me a different perspective on news. In all honesty, I watch little to no news on television, primarily because I feel that I cannot trust the integrity of the information.

The advent of social media (and the internet) has changed the way people get their information. We no longer have to shift our focus to the television in the morning or evening to get our fill of daily happenings. As the web spawns more user generated content, I anticipate more attention being spent on various non-mainstream news channels.

Fox News’ crack on Search Engine Marketers is downright appalling and juvenile, especially considering they have their own SEO team. Their quote from the article says it all:

 ”Ever wonder why “nonsense” Web sites sometimes turn up in your search results on Google or Yahoo? That’s because search engine optimizing scammers work full-time to create thousands of other Web sites that link to the spam site. For example, the creator of spamlaw.com is hoping to dupe would-be visitors to spamlaws.com, a legitimate site that bills itself as an online security resource.”

More »

Twitter Tips for Businesses

A lot of companies are beginning to embrace the SMS dispatch service Twitter. Before jumping into the new phenomenon, it is wise to educate yourself on some best practices first.

Here are a few of my humble recommendations for using Twitter for a business account:

Don’t Automate.

Using software such as Hummingbird  may help you rack up followers quickly, but you run the risk of coming across as a spammer. Twitter has recently buckled down on removing accounts with suspicious activity as well.

Don’t just promote, engage.

Many businesses make the mistake of using Twitter to push out product offerings and nothing else. While this is expected in traditional media like television or radio, it makes your company seem like a promotion machine that is not concerned with their customers. Use Twitter to spark conversations with customers and listen to their problems.

Put some time into your company profile.

Setting up a company profile with a bio on Twitter does not take more than 5 minutes. If possible, create a custom background that reflects your company’s branding and displays your contact information. You should also display a list of other users on Twitter that work for your company.

Watch those @replies.

Whether you are using free software like Tweet Deck or have a reputation management firm watching your online identity, make sure you respond to all mentions of your brand. This will make your customers feel more connected and appreciated - which will ultimately improve your brand loyalty.

As Twitter evolves, it will be another aspect of your brand maintenance. Make sure you embrace it smartly from the beginning.

Save a Headache: Design With SEO in Mind

I have been called into many situations where a company wants to achieve that coveted first page Google ranking only to find that their website is poorly designed or outdated. On  top of that, I am told that they have no interest in changing their web presence except for their Meta tags. Ok, no problem, right? No. In fact, search engines do not place nearly as much emphasis on Meta tags as they used to.

If you find a web design firm that has appealing creative work, let them know that you would like your site built with SEO in mind, even if you do not plan on implementing an organic SEO campaign after its initial launch. It will save you money down the road when your budget permits an ongoing organic SEO campaign.

A few tips when building your new web presence:

Design is Important, but its Not Everything

A good design will convey your company as established and credible, but does that design convert visitors to qualified leads? A website is like any investment and should contribute to your bottom line. The days are over when a website was simply an informative credibility statement. Ensure that your messages provide visitors with takeaways that are conducive to producing leads. This can be in the form of an information packet download, presentation or registration for a webinar.

Content is King

Nowadays many sites are built on large scale CMS platforms like Joomla or Drupal. Smaller scale sites can be deployed with a common CMS like Wordpress. At the minimum, I would request that your website be built on the Wordpress platform. Search engines like continuous content updates (relevant content) and those platforms will provide update capabilities for you or your staff.

Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket

If you find a killer design firm without an SEO specialty, hire an SEO consultant and a copywriter. The SEO consultant can perform crucial tasks such as keyword research, competitive analysis and architecture design. The copywriter can write keyword rich/compelling content based on input from the SEO consultant. The web design firm can then tie all of the elements together.

The Bottom Line

Ask the right questions of your web design firm up front and you will save yourself a great deal of headache down the road. Don’t be afraid to let the web design firm now that you may have additional consultants providing input on your site architecture. They should embrace it, especially if they are trying to provide you with the best solution to your problem.

Internet Marketing Surges as Click Fraud Declines

Research conducted by Click Forensics, a web traffic quality expert, showed reduction in click fraud during the second quarter of 2009.

For the past two years, the average percentage of fraudulent clicks of an advertisers total was around 15%.  The number dropped to about 13.9%  at the beginning of the first quarter.  At the end it had dropped to 12.7%.

Click forensics claims that improved blocking efforts and monitoring have been responsible for the the drop in fraudulent clicks.

However, the fight is till not over as stated by Tom Cuthber, president of traffic monitoring:

“Ad networks should pay close attention to such threats [as publisher collusion fraud] in the coming months,”

If the Internet Marketing industry continues to see improved figures like this, it will only be that much easier to sell the benefits of advertising online. Will the percentage of fraudulent clicks ever be as low as say 3%? Only time will.

Internet Marketing Day Parting Trends Move Torwards Early Morning

If you are a Pay Per Click manager or Search Engine Marketer, you may have heard that the best time of day to use up more of your ad spend is during lunch hours, as many people browse the internet at that time.

However, according to a recent post by the  NY Times, internet and social media junkies can no longer hold off till lunch time before checking the web for news, friend requests and more:

“This is morning in America in the Internet age. After six to eight hours of network deprivation — also known as sleep — people are increasingly waking up and lunging for cellphones and laptops, sometimes even before swinging their legs to the floor and tending to more biologically urgent activities”

This goes to show what an important role the Internet plays in the daily lives of people around the world. What does this mean for Internet Marketers? - Start displaying those ads early!

Company Sold Michael Jackson Twitter Followers

The guys over at Mashable got an interesting news tip today. 

Apparently the company uSocial:

1. Sold Twitter followers which is a clear violation of Twitter’s terms of service.
2. Claims to have sold a whopping 25,000 followers to Michael Jackson.
3. Sold votes on Digg.com despite a cease and desist order that was issued to them.

Mashable was shocked to receive such a press release since it is obviously some risky PR. However, I have seen been seeing more and more of these risky press releases lately and they seem to…work. Think of KFC’s new “Unthink KFC” campaign that promotes their new grilled chicken. It obviously attacks their brand, but works at capturing consumer interest.

How Google Calculates Twitter Page Ranks

As many already know, Google began indexing Tweets and Twitter profiles not to long ago. Since then a lot of Search Engine Optimization experts have been trying to find the secret behind Google’s ranking algorithm for Twitter content. While observing my Hoot Suite panel today, I was steered torwards an interesting video released by Matt Cutt, a Google Engineer.

Despite speculation, it turns out that Google does not actually apply any special ranking factors when indexing Twitter content. The rules that apply to any web page also apply to Tweets and Twitter profiles. The number and quality of inbound links to specific Tweets or Profiles dictate how well they rank against others.

Google does not provide additional weight to profiles with  a large number of followers due to the ease of gaining followers and the questionable tactics used by marketers on the site.

Bottom line: optimize your Twitter profile and Tweeted content for Google the same way you would any other web page.

Microsoft Sells Razorfish for Over $500 Million

Today, the Wall Street Journal announced that Microsoft would be selling the internet marketing and interactive ad agency they purchased back in 2007: Razorfish.  The agency is being sold for a whopping $500-$600 million and has had some big name clients such as Kraft, Best Buy and AT&T.

Publicis Groupe SA, a french Internet Marketing and Advertising firm will take Razorfish by the horns going forward. Bidding for the company was a fierce batte. It has been rumored that Dentsu, Japan’s largest ad agency bid higher than Publicis, but was still denied the acquisition which has caused some speculation.

This move by Microsoft comes shortly after their agreement made last month with Yahoo to use Bing as the search engine to drive www.yahoo.com and use Microsoft’s ad center for self serving ads. Razorfish never used Microsoft’s technology in this matter, so unloading them after the new Yahoo deals makes sense in my opinion.