If you were born in the early 60′s or 70′s, you would hardly think socializing through online media would ever be a possibility; in fact, I distinctly remember sitting at my old Commodore 64 learning how to program nifty graphical syntaxes while chatting with my friend next to me; time has evolved to the point where we can chat with people in Iceland as if we were right in their living rooms. Whereas many people see this as an opportunity for global connection, businesses find this as a way to harvest potential worldwide traffic and potential customers. In this passage, we look at the need to direct your online media traffic wisely to not only cultivate targeted customers, but to cultivate life-long business and interpersonal relationships built on trust.

Seeking social media traffic is more than simply busting out Tweets and updating Facebook profiles; in essence, humility is necessary on both the business and personal levels in order to truly understand the people you wish to attract. You have to treat each person as number one, listening to the needs, trends and wants of each individual person before you even attempt to show them anything you are promoting. Sure, you’ll want to definitely geotarget traffic that will have a specific interest in what you’re selling; if you treat each person as a ‘sales push’, however, expect to get nowhere. Finding a comfort zone that both your potential customers and your business can exist on is the imminent key when cultivating online media contacts, always addressing each friend or colleagues concerns as an individual instead of categorizing them as a whole is also necessary, too.

Directing your online media traffic wisely also entails finding the best resource available for your niche. This would entail understanding what business-minded people or groups exist that closely resemble your niche and making sure to join those specific circles; simply going out and making friends just ‘because’ will often times land you disinterested people who simply wish to talk about life’s general happenings. Find organizations – Linked In being a great starting point – and find groups that closely resemble your primary directives, joining conversations that can cultivate new angles and eventually new friends. If you choose to use Facebook, it would be best to begin your efforts on a local level and slowly expand outward instead of joining global groups that may not be suited towards your niche.

It’s no secret your goals are to promote a business or product and expand operations; everyone wants to be considered prosperous. Having a tactical yet conservative approach to directing online media traffic wisely can surely be a huge catalyst in sustaining your efforts while building friendships that will last a lifetime and help to push your efforts across the board. Emailing the world with your offers and pushing affiliate links through Tweets is not what people want to see – it is the person that takes the time to outreach that will end up reaping the benefits of well-planted friendship seeds.

Greg Henderson, a California-based businessman with over 11 years in SEO/SEM, provided this piece based on personal endeavors and education in search engine optimization with a concentration on content optimization for the social media future. His current projects include a background checks website Easy Background Checks as well as a marriage records website Genealinks.

Now that the New Year is upon us world wide, it is no secret that people are scrambling to find new ideas to incorporate into social media; since it appears that well over 95% of internet users today are socially engaged in one facet or another, it seems as if though the ‘social generation’ is in full effect. It is time for all businesses, big or small, to fully integrate their sites, commercial pushes, and savings into social media if they haven’t done so already. Aside from that fact, what will social media see in 2012 and how will your business be affected? We deeply researched the subject and came up with the following 4 conclusions that should get your mind wandering:

Social Media Will Make or Break

Whether your business has coupons, special introductory offers or even clearance items, your Facebook, Twitter and other social media outlets need to have full details with pictures, descriptions, and linkage; in other words, each social media presence should now look like ‘miniature’ versions of your current website. Living without social media will no longer be an option should you wish to increase conversions or, in alot of cases, make any sales at all. You should even consider having more than just Twitter and Facebook on your social media repertoire, such as Linked In, Stumble Upon and Squidoo.

Images Harvest Social Media Traffic

The newest player to the social media scene incorporates images as a means for not only generating a social media following, but giving you massive backlinks. Pinterest, the new image ‘pin’ board, is a social media heaven for photographers – and for smart SEOists to generate backlinks. If you have an image-rich website, you can easily pull off several hundred backlinks with Pinterest if you know what you’re doing. You can make friends, suggestions, and get people to suggest vising your site – all based off the images you have on your site. Images are ‘in’, so make sure to incorporate them wisely for social media traffic.

Social Media Will Be Indexed

Due to numerous requests to have Google index up-to-minute news and information, you will soon see permissible yet relevant wall posts, Tweets, and other social news become fully searchable through the Big 3. This would be an excellent opportunity to have yourself optimized through relevant wall posts and Tweets higher in the search engines as opposed to those that don’t care. Now is the perfect time for your business to evaluate the true direction it’s going and make your conversations count as it will gauge further search engine relevance when Google begins to process social media through their index bots.

SOPA Will Bond Social Media Tighter

Once Congress passes their beloved ‘Stop Online Piracy Act’, it will draw all social media fronts closer together in some fashion or another by either creating groups that enforce this law, or ‘sects’ that will oppose it and continue to share anyway. If you have a business that could indirectly – or directly – become a victim of SOPA, then you’ll want to evaluate your company’s stance in digital sharing and be prepared to sink or swim, depending on which group you attract yourself to.
It is an unfortuate happenstance, yet many people saw Government intervention coming for years. Socially engage your true feelings on this and watch your following grow in one direction or another.

About The Author

Greg Henderson, a California-based businessman with over 11 years in SEO/SEM, provided this piece based on personal endeavors and education in search engine optimization with a concentration on content optimization for the social media future. His current projects include a criminal records site Peoplesearchpro.com, and a business background check site SnoopStation.com.

With the launch of Google’s social networking site; Google+ critics have started to compare it with Facebook. Comparison between both these websites is usual, because Google plus has evolved a lot of excitement in its initial stage.

Now, many people are seeing Google plus as a big threat to Facebook, which can snatch the social networking crown from Facebook. On the opposite side, some people think that it’s not going to be easy for Google plus to beat Facebook. In this regard, we will try finding answers to some of the questions that would help us solve this myth:

Can Google+ attract the masses from Facebook?

Most of the Google+ critiques are of the opinion that it is practically a straight replica of Facebook. On the discovery side, it seems an impressive effort. But, it appears just a little too difficult for Google plus to attract users from Facebook, because they are relatively happy with the ongoing services. Many of the Facebook users have concerns regarding privacy. If Google plus manages to cover the missing pieces, then for sure, it can attract users from Facebook too.

Are the Google circles better than the Facebook groups? 

On Facebook, if you would like to be friends with anyone, you just need to send them a friend request and it’s up to them to accept or reject. People are quite used to it. On the other hand, in your Google+ account, anyone can add you into their circles without even taking permission from you. This is something very odd and annoying. That’s the area where Google+ needs to improve. And, if it does improve, it would definitely be a step ahead of Facebook.

Google+ Hangouts are better or Facebook group Video Chat?

Facebook’s video chat only lets you to have one-to-one calls, whereas, Google+ Hangouts allow you to have video chats with maximum 10 people at once. Although, Google plus has a plus point over here, but yet, it doesn’t mean that all users will leave Facebook and have their hands on with Google+ accounts for the sake of video conference calling only.

The vast majority of chat is one-to-one nowadays. Just think about how many times you make phone calls in a week. Now, think about how many times you have conference calls in one week. You have the answer with you.

Can Google+ plus really beat Facebook?

It seems difficult, but not impossible. In 2006, nobody actually thought of Facebook as knocking out MySpace. So, ruling out Google plus as being contender for the next big social networking blockbuster would be useless. However, Google+ really has to come up with solutions that some of other social networks have failed to offer.

Facebook has already received the flair for social networking, while Google+ is just striving for it. Since the beginning, Facebook has it roots in social networking. Google is already into many other things like search, advertising, music, mobile phones, and many others. Google plus could merely be another addition to that list. What do you think about it?

An article is written by Frederick Kingsmann who likes social media, android applications, remove malware programs, different software, pc antivirus and networking.

With the way our current social media is diluted with various websites that are geared towards making friends and meeting up with old ones, it is hard to say if Facebook will really end up being the champion in the end. Not since the Google explosion has the there been an Internet trend that is so widespread in its popularity. The comparison with the Google growth is in fact one that is made by many industry observers, and while there are a number of clear similarities, there are also some important differences that can easily be seen through this mess of internet growth.

It is expected that by early 2014, all the various social media sites will have more than 1 billion members. That number is predicted to grow until somthing new comes out with a leveling off on the number of new members expected by 2015. The combined revenue from these sites, which in 2011 reached almost $2.5 billion, is estimated to balloon to a whopping $10 billion by the end of 2012.

The overall membership numbers in social media sites varies greatly from area to area. The country of Asia accounts for the lion’s share of users, with 35% of the total users expected by the end of 2012. EMEA accounts for about 28% of all users, North America follows closely with 25% percent, and the Caribbean and Latin America trails behind with 12% of all users. With the inevitable crowding of the social media site industry, many observers feel that consolidation of the market is a sure thing. This has given rise to some predictions that the smaller individual social media sites will be swallowed up by the bigger players in the field. Some experts feel however that this is not necessarily the case. In particular, social media sites with a focus on special interests are expected to survive the trend towards consolidation.

All of this massive hype and wonder perhaps is what inspires the comparison to the Google boom, but in the midst of all the buzz, there is a certain degree of trepidation felt by many as well. While many investors are naturally excited about the potential of social media sites, the fact that these types of web sites have not been proven for the long term is causing some hesitation. The promise of riding on the wave of the next big Internet phenomenon is a tempting prospect, but it is tempered by the uncertainty of social media sites as a long term sustainable industry. The most cautious industry observers have even gone so far as to suggest that most social media sites would do well to hold off on an IPO for the time being and see what shares start off the bidding should Facebook or even Twitter go the IPO route.

Have no fear, future start-up dreamer: the future of social media is just as bright as ever and at this relatively early stage of the game, considering that many social media sites seem to be going up and offering interesting features, such as Pinterest. What companies and investors should do however is to adapt their approach to be prepared for the changes that will inevitably come in the future and even involve daily business within the mix of social media.

About The Author

Greg Henderson, a California-based businessman with over 11 years in SEO/SEM, provided this piece based on personal endeavors and education in search engine optimization with a concentration on content optimization for the social media future. His current projects include a Public Records site PublicRecordSources.com, and a background check site SnoopStation.com.

Using Facebook to stay in touch with friends and family has become such a natural online activity for millions of people across the planet. It is so addictive ! Status updates, like buttons, photo galleries and communities. It is so easy to see why ! So when a new Social media platform arrives you start asking the question “Why try and reinvent the wheel?”, “If its not broke why fix it” and so on …

Google is the king of search the practice of searching for products, services or interests online but Facebook is pulling in the other direction you don’t search for information the information finds you via a ever updating newsfeed. Facebooks recent dominance and increases in traffic have meant Google has had to stand up and take notice.

This is in my opinion the natural course of evolution for the internet. Speed and delivery is increasing but more so the means in which information is changing. So Google is quite rightly changing with the times. Yesterday we discussed the change in Algorithm across the net . The great guys at SEO Moz including Rand Fishkin dedicated their popular series of “Whiteboard Fridays” to the Google Freshness update. The Google Freshness update looks at the age and freshness of the release of an article or webpage which in turn will determine its relevance and ranking on Google.

I had just joined Google Plus a few months back and decided to start adding people to my circle. I notice a few celebrities Hugh Jackman for instance, I had always liked his portrayal of wolverine so I added him and then spotted British Chairman of the Virgin Group Richard Branson so I quickly added him to my circle hoping I could gain some interesting insights.

Since the release of Google plus I have spoken to several people including clients recommending they join. It is not known the overall percentage factor of how the Google plus button effects rankings but it does effect rankings. Now going back to Facebook a few days later I search for Facebook on Google which I tend to do instead of going direct to the destination url.

I found the following -

Yes thats right Google plus effecting rankings and Richard Branson is at the top of the list above Hugh Jackman. I then asked why is Richard Branson above Hugh Jackman in the rankings (I know not many people have asked this before right).

see below Richard is in more circles than Hugh.

It is well worth taking 15 minutes to sign up and get to know the platform so you can keep ahead of the game like Richard.

photo credit: The Daring Librarian

5 Reasons Why Google+ is a Social Media Marketing Phenomenon

There’s been a lot of web chatter since the launch of Google+, ironically much of it on its two biggest rivals, Facebook and Twitter. Experts have argued over whether its arrival heralds the conquering of mighty Facebook and the slow demise of Twitter, or whether it’s just another of Google’s flash-in-the-pan forays into social media, a bit like the damp squib that was Google Buzz.

For the time being at least, there doesn’t seem to be any real threat to Facebook or Twitter from Google’s social offering. However leaving aside the debates over which is better, there are several key reasons why Google+ is at the very least a great addition to your social media marketing strategy.

1. Fantastic Filters – Like Twitter’s Lists and Facebook’s Friend Lists, Google+ has its own way of organising the people you interact with. Circles are so simple and intuitive that it becomes a cinch to broadcast information to exactly the right group of people.
2. Group Messaging – BlackBerry users have had plenty of experience with group messaging services like BBM, but Google+ has its own offering called ‘Huddles’, which allow users of their Android app (as well as a forthcoming iOS version) to chat and share media with their Circles, whilst on the move. This offers a very targeted option for releasing special offers or announcing new products.
3. Hangouts – A big hit with users since the service launched in beta testing, Hangouts provide an opportunity to video chat with up to 10 people at a time.  They appear in news streams giving friends the option to join or leave at any time, allowing face-to-face chat and YouTube video sharing. A simple video presentation is a very real possibility with this feature, allowing for question and answer sessions afterwards.
4. Integration – As you would expect from Google, their social media platform is highly integrated with the rest of the vast array of Google products. The option to ‘+1’ all sorts of things across the web, and the ever-present Google+ notification bar makes the whole thing feel like a very inclusive system, yet doesn’t intrude on your browsing experience.
5. Looks – It has to be said that Google+ looks pretty amazing. It has a clean and simple user interface, with clever little graphic touches like the deleted circles that roll away off the screen. The reason the whole world started its love affair with Google was because of its minimalist, unobtrusive homepage, which has carried through into the beautiful design of Google+. It looks and feels powerful and professional, which makes it an attractive environment to promote business, and is something which Facebook will perhaps never be able to compete with.

photo credit: Asthma Helper

In the last 18 months there has been a huge surge in both the popularity and reach of social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter and now Google+. So how do businesses go about marketing a commercial website when everyone is spending all their time on social sites? Some businesses have taken themselves lock, stock and barrel over to Facebook in order to ride this social media wave.

But while social media channels are a perfect source of web traffic because they allow a high level of targeted marketing, a good business website is still an essential part of online marketing. A customer that finds you on Twitter, Facebook and suchlike will invariably expect to find a smart-looking website showcasing your products and services in all their pixelated glory.

SEO is NOT dead, inbound links are still crucial, and on-page SEO can’t be overlooked just because you signed up to every social channel available! Abandoning your website for a social platform may seem savvy in the present social media surge, but remember that ‘your’ Facebook real estate is still owned by someone else.

The key to a successful online marketing campaign is to treat your website as your core online presence, and use social media to promote, sell and communicate with customers. It’s your website and you own it – don’t be afraid to shout it from the heady heights of Twitter Towers and Castle Facebook.