Tag : Internet

  • Should You Follow Your Favorite Brands on Social Media Platforms?

    Posted Aug 1st, 2011 By in Social Media With | 3 Comments

    Social media marketing is a booming trend, so it’s no wonder that it’s easier than ever to find all of your favorite brands on popular websites like Twitter and Facebook. Businesses of all sizes are relying on social media to improve customer communication since social networking is much more efficient and cost effective than communicating via the telephone or e-mail.

    If you’re a customer that has a concern, question, or a comment, you can reach out to the majority of brands through social media in a matter of seconds. On top of that, since brands are relying on social media for marketing purposes, many top businesses are giving their customers rewards for following them on Twitter or liking them on Facebook.

    Here are a few top benefits you can receive from following your favorite brands in social media:

    1. You can be heard. Rather than sending an e-mail to a business or even participating in a survey, you can post your comment or tweet a response in just a few seconds. Since most businesses are new to the social media plunge, it’s likely that you’ll receive a response within a few hours or even a day to your question or concern.

    On top of that, since Twitter is a public website, a business won’t want other customers to see a public customer concern that hasn’t been dealt with. If you’re posting on a public social media website, a business is much more likely to respond to you than if you just send an e-mail.

    2. You can find out about special deals and contests. Brands are more excited than ever to use social media to promote specials, giveaways, and contests. Even mega brands like Verizon have leaned heavily on social media by using hashtags on Twitter to promote a series of giveaways to drum up sales from new customers.

    If you have a favorite brand, it literally pays to stay in the know and use social media to take advantage of discount offers you can’t find anywhere else.

    3. You can eliminate confusion. If you’re confused about a company’s new product or how to take advantage of a coupon, you can post a question on Facebook to receive a near immediate response. This is much more effective than visiting forums with answers from other Internet users.

    Why rely on another customer’s speculation or perspective when you can go to the horse’s mouth and get your answer directly from the brand through social media? Even better, you won’t have to worry about staying on hold with a company for minutes on end to get the help you need.

    4. You can become part of the bigger picture. Starbucks is one of the leading brands in social media, and they have taken the next step by introducing the forum My Starbucks Idea. The amazing thing about this forum is that customers are allowed to post their ideas and suggestions, and Starbucks actually listens.

    This is a brilliant strategy on behalf of Starbucks. Customers everywhere are impressed that they are being heard by a large corporation, and Starbucks is getting great ideas for free that they can use for product development.

    Guest Author:  Bethany Ramos is an expert in Internet marketing and social media marketing, and she also co-owns her own e-commerce website, The Coffee Bump.

     

  • 62 Ecommerce Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Tips & Ideas

    Posted May 16th, 2011 By in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) With | 4 Comments

    One of the reasons I like ecommerce SEO is that there is a tremendous amount of opportunities to increase the optimization quality of an online store. Unlike service businesses or online brochure websites which typically only have a few pages, a catalog of products creates a great opportunity to increase the amount of content and provide relevance for the search engines.

    Here at Best Rank, we spend a lot of time educating clients about optimization and how they can use it to gain a competitive advantage in their marketplace.  Having a specialty in ecommerce, my conversations are often about tips and advice on what online store owners can do to improve their rankings and increase traffic. There are plenty of resources for learning SEO online, but not a lot specific to ecommerce.

    For those interested in getting their hands dirty, I have created a list of 62 Ecommerce Search Engine Optimization Tips & Ideas. Of course there are tips here that apply to non-ecommerce sites as well, but ecommerce SEO does deserve its own list.

    The list is in no particular order. If you have some tips or feedback you want to add, please feel free to comment .

    1. Do a search in Google using site:www.yourdomain.com. This allows you to see what pages of your website are being indexed and how they look. The results should be keyword rich and have call to action for users to click.

    2. Do a site: search in Google for your competitors. While you are looking at your own indexing, look at your competition. Are their search engine results better optimized or better written? Don’t let them win.

    3. Use Google’s Keyword Tool to find keywords. If you have an Adwords account you are probably familiar with Google’s Keyword Tool. If not, you can use Google’s External Keyword Tool Be sure set the match type on [exact] so you are looking at the number of searches for that specific keyword.

    4. Don’t forget text on your homepage. Graphics are attractive and are great for users. Be sure that there is some html text on the homepage as well. If you have to put it near the footer, fine. Just make sure it is somewhere.

    5. Be sure your homepage title uses your 3 most important keywords. I prefer to limit any given page to focus on 3 keywords. Some people like 4 and some people 2. Your homepage optimization is really important to tell the engines what your site is going to focus on. (more…)

  • Are you ready for the Google Network?

    Posted Apr 22nd, 2011 By in Google With | 2 Comments

    Welcome To the Google Network

    Google TV exists; it is the interactive programming installed on certain models of Sony HDTV televisions and works with various LG products as well. With Google TV, you can search the web, check and send email, and play Internet content directly on your TV. That is seriously cool, and while Apple has it too, but theirs is a little less feature rich. Like much that Google has done in the past, it is a cool project, but it never really captures the public’s imagination; however, this may be about to change. Google is going to be working on some major upgrades to YouTube that could be the beginning of an actual Google Network.

    Your Interactive Past

    Does anyone remember the Time magazine cover story on our interactive future, way back when the Internet was young? Does anyone remember what WebTV was? WebTV was a set top box that connected your television to the Internet. In reality, it was a simple way to access email and some basic, sandboxed, browsing from your TV. While Microsoft bought the company and did nothing with it, a few are still out there, unbelievably, and one is now known as the MSN TV.

    The interactive vision has been around for as long as the Internet has been a part of the public perception, it just never took off. Convergence was the buzzword to describe the future where TV and Internet became the same thing. The person producing the content was the single problem that arose. Companies saw a future in which people would be able to access and share their precious franchises without revenue control, and froze solid. That copyright and infringement issue has kept the Internet on a leash ever since. (more…)

  • The Social Networking Monopoly

    Posted Apr 8th, 2011 By in Social Networking With | 6 Comments

    It is fair to say that most consumers consider Google and Facebook the Internet in its entirety.  While they may be aware of other sites, when they think about the Internet, what they are thinking about is one of the above corporate giants. Social networking has been around for a long time. One of the first online communities was “The Well,” which still exists and was created in 1985 as an extension of the “Whole Earth Catalog.” MySpace, Xanga, and many others were very popular until the Facebook juggernaut took over the entire Internet. So will there be only one search engine or a single social network in the end?

    The Faceless Book

    It was not too long ago that Facebook was, while successful, just one of a number of social networking sites that people used to keep track of friends, communicate, and post pictures and messages. Friendster, MySpace, Xanga, Classmates, and others all served different demographics and markets.

    Facebook on the other hand was originally a social network strictly built for Harvard students, and because exclusivity breeds desire, it led to Facebook expanding to include all Ivy League students. It later expanded again to include all college students of any school, and, finally, anyone with an Internet connection. This “forced scarcity” and tiered rollout created a huge demand and now we have the Facebook of today.

    Facebook now claims to have 500 million users, which, if true, constitutes 25 percent of all Internet users. The other social sites have faded fast and while some have survived, many are no longer in business. With the social networking side of things well in hand, and Google the largest gateway to the web, Romulus and Remus rule us all and we are experiencing the end of the Internet. Or is it? (more…)

  • 6 Fantastic Tips for Running an Efficient Business

    Posted Feb 17th, 2011 By in Business With | No Comments

    Working harder will not always take you to that next level in your business. It is important for the entrepreneur and small business manager to understand how to run an efficient business. Developing habits that make work smarter can increase productivity and profitability in all businesses.

    One of the most important steps to reaching that place of efficiency is organization. Despite the hopes of many people, there is no such thing as organized clutter. True organization makes it possible to streamline activities, reduce wasted time or energy, and discover wasted finances as well.

    Here are six simple steps for organizing your business:

    1. Clear out the clutter. We – as a society in general – have too much stuff. Each item that is in the office or business space right now takes up time, space and energy. The more stuff there is then the less of the others you will have to develop the success for your business. Anything that is not absolutely necessary for the functioning of the business needs to find a new home.

    2. Shred the papers. The old rule of thumb was seven years (some experts would even say ten). The internet has eased up many of those restrictions. You can order copies of bills and statements that can arrive within minutes or day days, all through the internet. Relieve the pressure on the filing by getting rid of all that paperwork that is no longer needed. (more…)

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