Is your SEO program headed for the penalty box on Google?

Recently a number of companies have been outed by the Press and others for conducting what is considered "Black Hat" SEO tactics.  The latest one Overstock.com.  Last week it was JC Penney... are you next?  While it looks sexy to get your listings to the top of search results the fact is you may be playing with fire. What is called Link SPAM just got outed by some of the largest players on the web.  Just talk to any of the executives in involved in situations and you will see that the program they signed up for was to get high rankings on search results... what they forgot to do was check to see what techniques these firms use.
You will want to read about the most recent disaster from a top company that thought they knew what they were doing... read this about Overstock.com
http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/110224-093044

There are literally thousands of companies trying to call our auto dealers and real estate agents every day trying to convince them to use their "Secret" techniques to gain top rankings for their businesses.

Be careful, very careful.... this is the momment when you need to say, "so tell me, how do you do this" and they say, "well we take the keywords... and then we create back links on other sites" At that point you want to get off the phone as fast as you can.  Clearly they are going to try and game the system... this is not the best, fastest or important way to get your message in front of a REAL BUYER.

It turns out that Google, the top search engine, owns YouTube.  You may already know this.  What you may not know is that you can expect a video clip to have a 50x advantage over a regular web page to get on the front page of Google.  And, you have a 40% higher probability of your search result being clicked on over an HTML (regular) page.  You can post as many YouTube videos as you like and have them all pointing to your web site creating tremendous SEO for your brand... Oh, and you can share those videos to Twitter, Google Buzz and Facebook thus magifying your SEO even furhter.

After all it is about Clicks not just search results isn't it?
Here is a fomer post about the stats on that.
http://torreyrussell.blogspot.com/2010/12/facebook-1-youtube-2-google-6-for.html

Reference: Danny Goodwin  |  Full story  |  Feb 24, 2011  http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/110224-093044

Using YouTube Channels to Drive Site Traffic [Video] | ClickZ

Rob Graham is starting a great new channel about YouTube and marketing

This week he has all the basics for promoting your videos... read more at

Using YouTube Channels to Drive Site Traffic [Video] | ClickZ

OK lets talk about search engines: Google catches Microsoft copying search results in BING?

This is really too funny for words...but sad at seeing the dishonesty of one of the largest players in the market.
That  Google catches Microsoft with pants down, copying search results

So what is going on here...

Apparently Google has noticed the when you use BING and do a search that the same results are returned as if you used Google... in fact so exact it would be statistically impossible to do that

We have always suggested that our clients just worry about Google search results as we believe, real buyers, smart buyers, those with money to spend, don't really use other search engines.  That is not to say they don't get traffic... it is just WHAT KIND OF TRAFFIC?

And when Google shows that 83% of auto shoppers are using its search engine it is hard to argue with those numbers Read more here: http://torreyrussell.blogspot.com/2010/04/google-says-83-of-vehicle-shoppers-use.html

Also, its about integration, with Google you can link Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and now Google Buzz to expand your presence on the we dramatically... can't do that with other engines.  

Read more from one of my favorite tech/gadget blogs GIZMAG

http://www.gizmag.com/bing-copying-google-search-results/17759/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=ce8f55f95c-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email

OK lets talk about search engines: Google catches Microsoft copying search results in BING?

This is really too funny for words...but sad at seeing the dishonesty of one of the largest players in the market.
That  Google catches Microsoft with pants down, copying search results

So what is going on here...

Apparently Google has noticed the when you use BING and do a search that the same results are returned as if you used Google... in fact so exact it would be statistically impossible to do that

We have always suggested that our clients just worry about Google search results as we believe, real buyers, smart buyers, those with money to spend, don't really use other search engines.  That is not to say they don't get traffic... it is just WHAT KIND OF TRAFFIC.

And when Google shows that 83% of auto shoppers are using its search engine it is hard to argue with those numbers Read more here: http://torreyrussell.blogspot.com/2010/04/google-says-83-of-vehicle-shoppers-use.html

Also, its about integration, with Google you can link Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and now Google Buzz to expand your presence on the we dramatically... can't do that with other engines.  

Read more from one of my favorite tech/gadget blogs GIZMAG

http://www.gizmag.com/bing-copying-google-search-results/17759/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=ce8f55f95c-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email

What is your buyer profile? Knowing what kind of real estate they own can tell you a lot

Taking a little time to understand who the current real estate buyer / renters are in your market and what they are doing can really tell you a lot about how to price your product or service.

For our clients, auto and real estate companies, we would suggest that they focus on the dynamics in their market and realize that these dynamics foster different buyer personalities.  Desperate, Reserved, Not-worried?  What is the profile you have mostly in your area.  They are all buyers but buy things in a different way.  What are your customer profiles?  Make up your own categories.... new baby, single working mom,  soccer mom... what are your categories of best customers?  Where to they congregate?

Understanding these profiles helps to build a sales and marketing process and should also lead you to an Internet strategy that keeps your boundaries in place.  If you were, for example, selling cars in Phoenix.... where there is a desperate mood... maybe Buy Here/ Pay Here strategies are better to promote.  Leasing with no down payment or use your trade in to make the down payment. If you are selling houses in Seattle... you might think about how well this market has held its price and talk about Preserving Value to the young, very successful computer employed people ready to move out of a rental or condo and into a house with a yard.

What is your strategy.
Use this chart and the tabs along the top and bottom to better understand what is going on in your world... picking the right strategy can make the difference between closing a deal this month and looking for work!

Rent Vs Buy Chart from Trulia
http://trulia.movity.com/rentvsbuy/

Nine steps to getting your website noticed - The rise to the Top of search engines

When considering your web site and or blog you have to go back to basics.  I like to revisit this at least 2 times per year and rethink and review what I am focusing on and why.

This my seem like an unusual source but I found it to be right on the money.  It is only one page and will take you all of 5 minutes.  I found (or had forgotten) several pearls and here they are

1. Are you submitting your site to to DMOZ.org
http://www.dmoz.org/help/submit.html

2. when was the last time you updated your site map?
http://www.xml-sitemaps.com

3. Are you photos tagged?  Use the ALT tag to identify what is on that page.

4. Make each page of your web site have a unique title.

5. Is someone on your staff working the forums for your industry and local market to place questions and ideas about what "the market" should be thinking about so that you become viewed as an expert?  Are the links coming back to the right landing page?

6. Have you run your site through Google's URL evaluator to see how your site is searched?

Read more here
http://www.costcoconnection.com/connection/201102/u1=issues?pg=28#pg28
Source: The Costco Connection Article by Andy Tilbrook

Local Search: Your Address is the New Link

This may seem trivial but can Google find your address on the home page of your web site?
Does it say the category (categories) you represent for a typical yellow page add along with your address, phone number and web page?  Is this in plain text that search engine spiders can understand?

Google has moved to a system where they are posting, like a yellow pages listing, all the businesses that are in a market area for specific categories.... are you there?

Are you listed in Google Places?
places.google.com

These are basic issues I see time and again but are critical to your business appearing on or at the top of search engines.  How about the cities you serve?

Read this great short article about how and why you should pay attention to this simple way to get your listings to the top of search engines
http://searchenginewatch.com/3641789 

Video SEO - Optimize your YouTube video so it will be found, viewed and shared

Learn how to optimize your video for YouTube. Otherwise, the odds that a critical mass of viewers will discover it are slim to nil.

The first step in this process is to think about the words users would type into the YouTube search box to find your video. Choosing relevant keywords can help you get your video content in front of interested users.

You can use the YouTube keyword tool to get new keyword ideas. It gives you a couple of options. You can enter a few descriptive words or phrases, or you can type in a YouTube video's ID or watch page URL. Results can be tailored to more than 40 languages and more than 230 countries.

In addition, the YouTube keyword tool lets you choose the demographic you wish to target. This includes male or female, ages 13 to 65+, applicable countries, and 24 interests from animals to travel.

Although you can use these keywords for advertizing if you want, you don't need to. The YouTube keyword tool can be used to optimize your video for YouTube search, too.

Remember, users are searching for video content, so they're less likely to look for something to buy on YouTube than they are on a search engine. Users search for topics related to what entertains them, so choose your keywords accordingly:

• Names (celebrities)
• Titles (movies, shows)
• Quotes
• Actions/verbs
• Objects in the video (cars, etc.)
• Emotions (funny, hilarious)

When choosing your keywords, think about the trends in online video overall, plus trends on YouTube (hot topics, political awareness, celebrity gossip, and popular videos).

From :

YouTube Keyword Tool and Video Optimization Techniques

Greg Jarboe | Jan 3, 2011

http://searchenginewatch.com/3641672

YouTube Clickable Links. Overlay Web Links on your YouTube Videos to create Calls To Action

Clicks vs Search now you can have both.

Having your content on YouTube gives you a 50x advantage of appearing on the front page of a Google search vs a traditional HTML web page according to Forrester Research.

Getting on the front page of Goolge (70+% of all searchers use Google) is great but it does you no good if people don't click on your link.

Recently data was released showing that people click most on searches or links presented in Facebook, YouTube is #2.... Google is number 6 (see report Why you need to be on Facebook).

So, once they click on your YouTube presentation... what is the "Call To Action" to get them to come to your web page?

Look at this link

http://autodealermls.com/images/clickablelink.gif

We are providing this new capability to all of our clients who want this great new feature.  We cannot post how it is done... would be teaching our competition about how this goes...can't do that.

There is a small charge to set this up, and a small monthly fee or it is free depending on what program you are on with us.

What do you get: 25 characters of text on 2 lines.  Clickable link on line 3 (Trackable Click Page.  A :Link that is presented can be different than the link that it goes to).

Learn more at 

http://autodealermls.com/trafficircle  

We are also rolling this out to our Real Estate Clients.

Happy New Year

Torrey

Facebook #1, YouTube #2… Google #6 for Clicks vs Search. Why a solid Social Strategy matters even more now.

Reaching the top of search results doesn't matter if people aren’t clicking on your links. (http://torreyrussell.blogspot.com/2010/12/why-you-need-to-be-on-facebook-and.html )

New data indicates not only are people clicking on Social Media site links more than on search engines but the reason consumers are doing this is because being more “connected” is why we are all here.

Social media is about engagement. If you aren’t ready to figure out how to engage using these new tools you are missing one of the most important ways to get consumers to open their wallets to your pitch, become an advocate and do your marketing for you.

Being connected is a primal drive coming from our earliest development of motivation according to Brene Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work. Being accepted by the group, being a thought leader, being heard are all a part of this motivation. While there are many different types of people, they all desire to be connected in their way.

Brene Brown asks, “How do we learn to embrace our vulnerabilities and imperfections so that we can engage in our lives from a place of authenticity and worthiness?” This, according to the author of “The power of vulnerability” is the core to a successful Social Media strategy. That being authentic or Vulnerable provides others a way to feel they can engage and connect more deeply and more often.

Tough stuff for an Auto Dealer or a Real Estate Broker. Without sounding like a session on Orpah, we as purveyors of goods and services need to reach into our own heart centered space and deliver an authentic and believable value for our customers to buy it. This is the reality of today’s market when the consumer has more choices than they know what to do with.

Let’s deconstruct this problem. You could easily separate consumers into functional groups to create a profile of that group and then address them in a way they will find appropriate and authentic. For example if you were to create several profiles around the way certain groups engage you might break it down as follows: Streakers, Strollers and Studiers. Each of these profiles engages in different ways. Core to the end result is to turn prospects from, “I don’t know you to I can’t live without you”. You also have to run a business, so it is important to quickly create a way to build commonality among groups so you can connect to a group quickly and authentically with the bottom line in mind.

But lets stand back a little bit and realize that the person who is at the other end of your Facebook account trying to engage you is willing to be vulnerable, trying to get an authentic answer to their search. After all they clicked on your search result… now you have to perform. You have to return the favor by being authentic and appreciative of this risk taking behavior by a prospective buyer or a customer looking for more ways to stay connected to something they already paid for.

I wanted to start this dialog for you within your own organization, what resources should you be putting toward Social Media and what value (Executive level commitment) do you plan to apply to win this game. How many [your brand here] dealers are within 20 miles of your auto dealership… how many Real Estate Agents are there in your MLS? Answer: Too many! Some are getting this right. How about your business?

Watch this great 20 minute video from Brene Brown at a recent TED.com conference on The power of vulnerability. (OK, shut your door, turn your cell phone off, close your email.... try and focus on why this concept will become the most important way for you to build your business in 2011)
http://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability.html


Develop your plan to answer the phone authentically, create a social persona that is accepted as the authority on the subject and figure out how to do this in such a way as to get a greater “share of wallet” from your current customers and to get them to bring you more business from their contacts. Solid social connections start by being vulnerable to failure and 100% transparently authentic when being engaged.

Social Media is about "Building a Collaborative Brand"

A Social Media plan is really all about recognizing this new movement and how to participate in an authentic way with your customer for life... not just one sale.

In an excellent article and general life's work Rachael Botsman is helping us to see the future.  She talks about Collaborative Consumption. READ:  BRAND 'WE'

Here is a quick video telling her story in pictures and music.


WHAT'S MINE IS YOURS from rachel botsman on Vimeo.

Definitely watch this 16 Minute TED.com presentation she did recently where she makes the case for this new model.
http://www.ted.com/talks/rachel_botsman_the_case_for_collaborative_consumption.html

Here are 10 ways she says you can help your organization or company to build your collaborative brand

10 ways to start building a collaborative brand

1. Think of your users not as consumers. Embrace them as members – giving them all the traditional benefits of joining a “club”: status, identity and shared interests.
2. Interact honestly with your members versus shouting at them in one big monolithic voice.
3. Invest a lot of time greeting your first wave of core users and then, on an ongoing basis, introduce them to other members.
4. Empower the brand evangelists with simple, sticky tools and language that is easy to spread and share.
5. As your brand grows, recognize and reward evangelists for their role in your success.
6. Capitalize on the psychological social influence of “everyone’s doing it”, making your brand a popular movement worthy of joining.
7. Let go. You can’t pick and choose what gets spread or try to control the way advocates choose to advocate.
8. Criticism is helpful. In almost every critical blog post, tweet or angry complaint there’s something of value.
9. A chief marketing officer, CEO or founder is not a brand ruler but the best host and grand guardian entrusted by the community to “do the right thing”.
10. To build a collaborative, social brand, your culture must be collaborative and social, too.

For more go to her site atwww.collaborativeconsumption.com/ 

Why you need to be on Facebook and YouTube ( its about Clicks not Search)

http://searchenginewatch.com/3641604

Here is the 10 Top 10s for 2010: Search Year in Review By Eli Goodman  Searchenginewatch December 6, 2010

In the final analysis it is about potential customers that click on your presentation to see what you are offering not just getting a position high in a search engine.  I think the most surprising entrant this year was the way the Facebook has taken the lead in CLICKS... not necessarily search, but in CLICKS.  Being at the point of a search result is great but does nothing if no-one clicks on it.

See how YouTube still holds the number 2 spot - video is a very compelling format when it comes to getting people to click on your presentation... now how do they become a buyer is an entirely different kettle of fish!

  

Top 10 Most Popular Search Clicks

 Just one year ago, MySpace was No. 1 on this list. Some food for thought.

1.  Facebook
2.  YouTube
3.  Yahoo
4.  Yahoo Mail
5.  Craigslist
6.   Google
7.   Myspace
8.  Gmail
9.  Yahoo.com
10.  Hotmail

Most of the time we see top "searches" put out by the engines (see this year's lists for Bing, Yahoo, Ask, and AOL), but being that clicks are a better proxy for relevance (they were terms that got searchers to the destinations they were seeking), this will give you a slightly different version of lists to work through. All these lists are based on United States searchers and exclude Adult/XXX websites (just to keep it family oriented).

Note: Google #6 on the list... again, its about clicks not searches

Groupon reaches tipping point for Google

My Quote:
Groupon reaches tipping point for company that does no evil to purchase company that tricks it's customers... seems like a marriage made in heaven!
see wired article
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/11/ff_hackingretail/

Interesting that these two are seemingly a good fit.

What does it mean?

I think it is just a fade.. how many mani-pedis can a girl buy at a discount... rather how many times can her local shop offers such incredible deals before they just can't afford to do it.

Novelty is a fleeting thing

Our consumers may jump once but not a thousand times.
How long before people turn this off and call it spam? It is spam... well email offers are something you want and spam is something you no longer want.

What is the way for Auto Dealers and Real Estate Professionals to get in on this sort of thing. My advice is to work with your traditional media, to get them to help you create an incredible deal. Look at the Conversion Driver industry like our partner who offers where you give a $250 gift card to a consumer to take a test drive that costs you only $25.00. ( see http://techmediamarketing.com/digitalmarketing-conversion-drivers.php?page=digitalmarketing )

Even Groupon is groaning under its own success... now they ship out a catalog of offers ... not just one. How special is that? My Costco has been doing that for years?

What is next... targeting on smartphones, Re-targeting (see http://torreyrussell.blogspot.com/2010/08/remarketing-101-follow-your-future.html ) ads on the Internet - that is ads that follow the consumer around.

Keeping ahead of this curve... so Groupon is "trick people into getting out of the house and doing the things they always wanted to do." As Andrew Mason, Groupon’s 30-year-old founder and CEO, sees it in a recent Wired Article. (see link above) Really? How long will the consumer allow themselves to be "Tricked"? Or is the price so low this ONE TIME that they feel compelled to buy it... just like Costco as you walk by that new fangled gadget that is priced almost too low to believe. How many times will this work for a retailer?

Think this is very fadish.

My advice is to focus on your own ability to be found locally, don't give away your inventory/listings to 3rd party sites that will use your inventory to steal your front page position on Google. (see: http://torreyrussell.blogspot.com/2010/08/3rd-party-sites-are-stealing-your-front.html )
Try Google's new BOOST service on their Places
(see http://www.google.com/support/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1040967 )

"With Google Boost, simply set up a monthly budget for your ad, and we’ll determine what search keywords trigger your ad based on the categories that you select. You’ll only pay for the clicks that your ad actually receives."

This of course melds with Groupon I guess so Googlepon will probably add permission based email marketing to PUSH deals to consumers... OK I get that now.
Still 6 billion is a lot for a 2 year old company.
That is since its inception (Groupon) 2 years ago, an increase of value of 20 million dollars per day - WOW.

Do you "LIKE" everything about Facebook?

You might have your facebook page, even a FAN page for your dealership... but did you know that by adding a "Like" button to every page on your web site can greatly increase your SEO of your site especially with BING? http://tinyurl.com/facebookbingsocial

Watch out if you change your Website - dont kill your SEO ranking

While it is true that we all grow tired of our web sites and think we need to change them. The search engines are very suspicious of a few things you might do and not realize how this impacts the way they rank you in search results.
Here is a great article on the subject by Eric Enge he posted on Search Engine Watch on Oct 19, 2010
5 Website Changes That Will Hurt Your SEO
Significant modifications to your website can impact your short-term SEO efforts. Here's how to properly handle changes to the domain, URL structure, content, Whois record, and theme....more

video thumbnails have a 41 percent higher CTR than plain text results

According to search engine optimization (SEO) firm, RankAbove, search results with video thumbnails have a 41 percent higher CTR than plain text results.

Introducing trafficircle - A new way to use Social Media to point customers to your brand and your brand to your web site.

(Authors note: While this is absolutely a plug for our new service, I hope you will find it helpful, using less jargon, than many of the articles I post on this site to describe the simple process of creating a Social Media Hub or what we are calling a "trafficircle") 

Many clients both auto dealers and real estate brokers give their inventory away to 3rd party sites to get their listings on as many web sites as they can. Fact is what they are really doing is giving away their inventory so another company (3rd party site) can steal the advertiser's rightful position on the front page of search engines. trafficircle provides a simple way to harness the power of social media to capture and point car and home shoppers looking for your brands and listings to your web site - instead of some 3rd party site.

Here is how it works: Currently, any one domain (your web site) has the ability to rank for only two URLs (seen in 2 ways by search engines) on any given search query. Engaging in our trafficircle tools to generate universal search optimization for your dealership (one of our techniques) greatly expands the number of locations your listings  can be found by on the web.

•  By every auto brand or property type you sell - both new and used vehicles or all kinds of real estate.

•  In cities you may be near and service but not physically located in.

•  Every listing points back to your web site... not some 3rd party site.

Part of our process is to take your inventory and create videos or what is called a virtual tour in the real estate industry from the still pictures uploaded to your site. We use a natural voice software engine to say the listing  information provided in the data feed. Then we take those videos and post them in such a away as to create an entire Social Media Circle, a trafficircle of listings, multiplying your presence of your auto dealership or the listings you have as an agent on the web 4 or 5 times the number of items you have in inventory.

Each of these new listing videos now has a link back to your website thus increasing the number of valid inbound links (cross links) to your website. Your rank on search engines for the type of brand of cars a dealer sells and the type of properties an agent has listed soars!
Multiply your presence on the web by hundreds of recognized locations with links to your web site for a fraction of what other systems cost you to implement.

trafficircle utilizes a number of techniques which are now standard ways in which search engines index web listings.

1. Universal Search.  Google now indexes all kinds of media types in addition to regular HTML web pages.  Video has a 50x advantage over HTML pages according to post by Forrester Research.
2. Instant Search.  Google recently announced their new instant search results feature which helps to identify a wide range of results which in the past were dominated by the large 3rd party companies and now give more local, smaller groups of listings a fighting chance to get on the front page.
3. Real Time Search.  Again, Google the leader in all search technology has recently introduced a way to bring in the results for searches for Social Media sites like Twitter and Facebook into their results.
4. New Social Media sites to grow the circle.  Recently Google introduced Google Buzz.  Google Buzz is their answer to Facebook and provides yet another way to build the growing Social Media Circle.
5. Focus on Google.  We focus on Google because they represent over 75% of all searches.  When a consumer sits down at a computer and they turn on their PC or MAC.  The starting point is at a search engine 80% of the time and 75% of that is at Google. 
6. Social Media cross tagging.  Creating a Social Media Circle is a lot of work to do by hand but thanks to innovative computer software you can set it and forget it.  Creating a Social Media Circle for your Agency or Dealership is a critical cornerstone to anything else you do on the web.

If you want more about our services please go to http://offersnetwork.com and click on the appropriate link for Real Estate or Auto Dealers along the bottom.

Remarketing 101 - Follow your (future) customer around the Internet until they are ready to buy.

Remarketing is a process whereby you put a little code on your web site... buy a program with Google Ads or another ad network and then whenever that shopper is surfing the web your ad keeps reappearing.

What's more the Analytics are all built in.   Google has the easiest program
Here is an article showing a step by step approach to how to do this with a simple Google Adwords account
http://tinyurl.com/remarketing101

Here is another simple article giving you the simple story on this very powerful technique of being in front of the customer when they are ready to buy your type of product.
http://tinyurl.com/Remarketing102


First

Then



Thanks to 


Ron Jones  |  August 23, 2010 article in .clickz.com

Google Places - The best place for a business to start with social media

Go here... http://google.com/places Any questions?

Your local business, discovered on Google Be found. Communicate with customers. Get insights to make decisions.
	Make sure your business information is correct Post coupons & live updates Use a performance dashboard to see how you're doing	Add new business Upload a data file
New! Stand out from the competition with Google Tags Advertise for less than $1 a day. Try for 30 days FREE! Get more customers by promoting features that make your business unique Save time advertising with our easy tag builder, ready in minutes Control your budget with a $25/month flat fee

© 2010 Google - Google Home - Google Maps Home - Google Places Help - Privacy Policy

100 hours of video will be posted to YouTube by the time you read this!

The impact of Social Media is sometimes hard to accept.
Here is a video that you should watch created in association with the HULT International Business School giving you some of the numbers relating to just how important this new phenomenon is.
The data is drawn from http://www.socialnomics.com
Here is the Video link to

Social Media Revolution 2

3rd Party sites are stealing your front page position on google

Its true. when you allow your inventory or listings to be posted on third party sites like Oodle or VAST your are in effect giving them your most important asset... your inventory to get their site posted high on search engines.
Recently on DeaerRefresh (a great blog site for auto dealers) Brian Pasch wrote about this problem
Go here:
http://www.dealerrefresh.com/inventory-free-sites-brian-pasch/

Understand what is going on here.  When you take your inventory and post it to all those free sites what you are doing in effect is giving them your name, what you have listed for sale, and your location and letting them create THEIR OWN SEO.  This is instead of you spending time building your own site, investing in Social Media Marketing techniques that will raise YOUR WEB SITE'S SEO.

We understand that these FREE 3rd party sites are addictive but if you were to spend a little time tracking what these sites are really doing for you in terms of generating traffic to your site and then converting that traffic into sales you will quickly see that what they are really doing is stealing your customer who is searching in your market for your inventory - and selling it to the highest bidder.

This is true for auto dealers and real estate agents.  Everyone in both industries pushes to get their listings on as many sites as they can - the thinking is - more sites means more visibility.  Fact is, what is really happening is you are simply giving these sites the best way to push YOUR web site off the front page of the search engines.

Take back the keys to your own inventory and spend more time posting on sites like YouTube, Twitter,  Facebook... and now Google Buzz and direct that traffic back to your own site.  Get back on the front page of Google by fighting the urge to give your inventory (and your SEO) away

Social Media - More links the better the search results

When it comes to why we do social media - its all about links... "Links act like votes for a given piece of content, and as a result content with the best link profile usually does extremely well in the rankings for related terms.", according to Eric Enge in a Search Engine Watch post on Jul 13, 2010 he has labeled "The Death of Natural Linking". Eric identifies that when you use Social Media sites to create back links to your web site it greatly increases your SEO in a way that is not only great from an SEO perspective, it may in fact be the MOST effective way to do this.

Fact is, using automated Social Media Hub publishing tools such as our partners sites do; http://AutoDealerMLS.com, http://Youtubecarsandtrucks.com or http://Techmediamarketing.com which create automated process of taking auto or real estate listings and post them to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and now Google Buzz create a tremendous "white hat" [define] linking process that is hard to beat for creating a strong Internet Profile and visibility with search engines (get on first page).

Read his entire post and be sure to click on his links at
http://searchenginewatch.com/3640951

Smartphones - Social Networking Ranks as Fastest-Growing Mobile Content Category

Here is more evidence of Smartphone use for shopping skyrocketing which really goes 180 degrees from what most people understand. Until you own a Smartphone... and then you get it.

in April, comScore (Social Networking Ranks as Fastest-Growing Mobile Content Category) reported that mobile searches had skyrocketed by 90%. This time, Compete's first-quarter 2010 study finds that consumers rely more and more on their smartphone devices to search for retailers and other such local businesses. According the research firm, one out of three smartphone users have been led to a local business after finding in through local mobile search. Local business discovery rate is quite high, with almost one third of Android and iPhone users finding new places thanks to local mobile search.

http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/100707-090847

Another report just released by PEW Internet:
“Six in ten Americans go online wirelessly using a laptop or cell phone”

When you look at the profile study released in this study last week it shows a 52% increase this year over last year for number of people who now access the internet on their cell phones… for people 30-49 (prime buying years) it was 43% (see below) of all cell phone users..

This is absolutely just the beginning of this trend…. You almost cannot buy a phone today that doesn’t access the web…

Here is the study:
Mobile Access 2010 | Pew Research Center

The surprising truth about what motivates us

We often try to bring to light great resources for entreprenuers and managers to find current thinking and innovative approaches to how to build and run their empires. The RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) is one of these organizations that is constantly putting out great ideas and has been a cradle of enlightenment thinking and a force for social progress for over 250 years.

Here is an RSA presentation on one of the best talks about how motivation works by radical sociologist David Harve. The talk is called, "The surprising truth about what motivates us" and is available in a quick to watch YouTube video (link ). His talk really describes the principals of how, when building your social media hub ( define ), you have to pay attention to the core issues of how people are motivated. In fact, the most surprising thing is that people it turns out are often negatively motivated by money. So just throwing coupons and other discounts at your customer to buy can actually cause them not to shop at your location. How can this be? Watch it here for a few minutes and see his very creative way (cool stop animation) to teach us all about motivation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc

To learn more about the RSA, visit: http://www.thersa.org/

Social Media Hubs feed into the Universal Search scheme to increase SEO

Universal search [define] is providing many opportunities for search engine marketers to strategically gain competitive positioning and drive highly-targeted traffic to their content, says Crispin Sheridan in a recent Clickz article.


Specifically,  
1. Currently, any one domain has the ability to rank for only two URLs on any given search query. Engaging in universal search optimization grants you the potential to greatly expand upon that limit.  


For example taking your inventory of automobiles or property listings and creating videos of them and the posting them to YouTube, Twitter and Facebook provides individual indexable valid assets posted on the web thus you now have hundreds of search-results out there on the web instead of just one website.


2. Each of these assets (cars, houses... whatever) can link back to your web site for increasing valid inbound links (cross links).


Read more about how you should use Social Media to build your hub of links which, due to the design of Universal Search, you can increase your SEO in an automated way... (yes of course see auto dealers: http://autodealermls.com and Real Estate Brokers look at http://techmediamarketing.com )


Hey, we have been doing this for more than 3 years now.  Its nice to see it in print.  So lets talk about your smartphone marketing program...


Here is that link

Universal Search: Are Your Marketing Efforts Evolving With the Times?

By Crispin Sheridan, ClickZ, Jun 30, 2010

http://www.clickz.com/3640802

Google now offers Keyword Tool to all for free

Google has taken its keyword tool and externalized it for your use
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Also another great tool to explore keywords usage by region is Google Insights for Search tool

http://www.google.com/insights/search/#

Social Media Networks (SMO) are becoming the new Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Everyday people are taking to social networks to discover new content in and around their social graph. According to a recent Nielsen study, [ref: 18 percent of all searches start on Social Media sites not search engines ) social media sites such as Wikipedia, blogs, and social networks account for 18% of where searches begin, outperforming sites that are dedicated to publishing information specifically to help individuals find deeper analysis and details. This is a trend that’s only now gaining momentum; as Nielsen observes, “Social Media is becoming a core product research channel.”


"...the social web is your new distribution channel as well as your portfolio for intellectual assets. Whether you’re in the business of creating, marketing, selling, or distributing media, the social Web is an incredible medium that can create a brand, establish visibility, and build demand, all without active promotion. It’s about letting your expertise or work market itself through the practice of a socialized form of inbound marketing that helps make content discoverable when people search."  Says Brian Solis (see link at bottom)


It is all about trust..."who you gonna call?"



Read the entire blog by Brian Soilis here
http://www.briansolis.com/2010/02/social-media-optimization-smo-is-the-new-seo-part-1/

How great leaders inspire action - getting people to join your social media hub

If you haven't looked in on the TED videos you are really missing the leading edge of so many subjects.

The TED conferences discuss technology and management at its best.

One of the reasons I am posting this link is that I believe that to have GREAT followers you need inspiration to inspire them. To have a large number of followers you need to have a killer "inspirational" proposition.  Using a simple model of "Why, How and What" Simon Sinek offers his observations of this model and how it works.  To inspire is to start with what you believe not what you do.  By this I mean, solve this problem - what we/it does is uninspiring. People buy not what you do but why you do it.  Why are you passionate about something.  That is what you use as your platform for discussion.  Not What you do.

This quick 8 minute video helps to explain that process. So as with all things in this Blog, this helps to discuss the ways you get people to join your social media hub.
Listen and watch:  Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action.
Click Here

Interestingly enough, this same model is exactly what drives the video below... How to Start a Movement.

Another great video on the TED sight is How to Start a Movement by Derek Sivers.

Click Here

Both of these videos explore the process of getting people motivated to do something like follow you and drink your cool-aid.  These are core concepts for creating a Social Media Hub with dedicated followers. 

Enjoy

10 things you should do in an email to your prospects

 What are the the 10 things you should put in an emal

1.  Put URLs in the subject line!
2. Use YouTube for e-mail promos.
3. Test auto-updates of content for older e-mails.
4. Make your e-mails 3D (QR codes, digital catalogs).
5. Make "exclusive e-mail" offers a priority.
6. Format with images that are the same size as those on your site and HTML.
7. Ask for feedback and respond to it.
8. Use control groups to determine full impact of e-mails.
9. Use an offer in order confirmation e-mail.
10. Send a full early engagement stream instead of a single welcome e-mail.

FYI - do not put flash in your email, a large number (like 50%) are read on mobile devices and they do not use flash - yet!

There you have it! Now you can print this out and use it as a checklist for success.

Reference  What Not To Do in E-Mail

83% of the US population watched a video online in April 2010

178 Million U.S. Internet Users Watched Online Video During April

3Share

comScore Video Metrix today announced that 178 million American Internet users watched online video during April 2010. In other words, 83.5 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed online video that month.

Why is that important.  Because there are a lot of Real Estate Agents and Auto Dealers (Offers Network's customers) who think only 17-year-olds are using Social Media sites like YouTube.  Consumers are now using Video more than ever before.  YouTube, which is owned by Google, is the #2 search engine [ref: http://techcrunch.com/2008/12/18/comscore-youtube-now-25-percent-of-all-google-searches ] when you break out the numbers from their parent firm. 

"450 million people worldwide view more 60 billion videos each month on YouTube.com. If YouTube were a nation, it would be the 3rd most populous country in the world -- behind the People's Republic of China and India, but ahead of the United States and Indonesia." (1)

Video is also a compelling way for people to view information on smartphones, our Social Media Hub building services that start with a YouTube posting of a video display of a car or house for Auto Dealers: UTUBEautos.com and AutoDEALERMLS.com and our Real Estate services through Techmediamarketing.com show that on average we are seeing 10+% of our total viewers coming threw a mobile device... wait till Tablets become the norm around the house and office (iPads).

Location Based Services [REF: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Location-based_service ] are an integral part of this Social Media trend and are the hottest thing coming now on Smartphones.  Augmented Realty systems like LAYAR or TAGWHAT are now creating significant numbers of users that can no longer be ignored.  What is your Mobile strategy?

How are you positioned to build your Social Media Hub?  Video is a core component of this strategy.  Creating free postings on Youtube, Twitter and Faceboook for hundreds of your assets (cars, property listings) linking to your web site - a web of backlinks [ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backlinks ].  Create a cloud of listings that the consumer can find and then click to you not some 3rd party marketplace site.   

YouTube, Twitter, Facebook... they are free.  Now there is Google Buzz.  Get involved with programs offering Augmented Reality services on smartphones.    

These are simple tactics... even if you do them by hand... Start today!

(1) Reference Links used to create this posting: http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/100601-155022