Google recently rolled out some changes to how personalized search will work. Many people believe that if you log out from Google OR turn off web history and search that you will be given “clean” results. This isn’t the case. I’ve done quite a bit of research within ShareFile for terms that we have been targeting and found that when I search for them within the office that I rank high for each and when I search from home, I am ranked a bit lower.

I have had numerous people do the same searches for me out of state and found that they each have different results. I have conducted the searches logged in and logged out, and even on different computers. I have had others within our office conduct the same searches and found that their results in the office often mimic mine, but differ outside of the office. The results even differ depending on the browser used.

While this does create a major headache when trying to check rankings for key terms I feel that the bigger issue is that when searching for general terms, I do not necessarily want to see the same site over and over. For example, I search for “hockey gloves” and click on a site. I go to the site and buy them. Now, the next time I need hockey gear, I will most likely search for the website name or just go directly to the website. If I do search for “hockey gloves” (or another similar term) again after visiting that site, it would be because the site did not give me what I needed or gave me bad service and I was looking for an alternative. I’d rather see a clean list of sites and not ones that I might have clicked on in the past. In my opinion, search engines are for discovery and comparison shopping while bookmarking sites are for repeat visits.

Just because you are logged out, does not mean that Google does not know who you are and where you have been. The influence of others in the same office and network is also something to watch closely. I’m not sure I like the idea of a “hive mind” within my search results.

For some data on personalized search visit HuoMah Seo Blog.

Photo Via: Wheatfields

I do suspect that we will see Gowalla or Brightkite get bought by a big player. I really doubt the founders of Foursquare will sell after the Dodgeball debacle with Google.

Photo Credit: DeanJ

The video

SEO for Social Media – Panel from #SMBF “Social Media: Search Engine Marketing’s Best Friend” from Alter Imaging, Inc. on Vimeo.

Special Thanks to Charlotte Web Design firm Alter Imaging for capturing the video of my session.

A few thoughts about the event:

• I actually was a 6th grade teacher and had taken classes at NCCU in the same rooms where the event was held.
• I am TERRIBLE at putting a Twitter avatar to an actual face.
• While my session was about using social media to reduce paid search spend, most people had few questions about actual campaign management. I think it was due to many people in the room not being paid search managers.
• I realized that many of the people I interact with online are just as awesome offline. I think this is due to a few things. One, we have a great group of people in the area and two, that online interaction acts as a filter. I don’t follow or interact with anyone whom I “don’t Like.” If a person I start to follow or interact with doesn’t seem to be the type of person I want to associate with, I don’t keep interacting with them.
• I’d like to thank the guys who put on the event: Wayne Sutton, Jeff Cohen, Ryan Boyles, and Kipp Bodnar.
• Id like to thank my co-presenter Eric Miltisch of Auction Direct Used Car Sales
• I’d like to thanks everyone who attended my session and everyone that sent out Tweets summarizing my key points.
• I hate that I had to leave early, but we had a big meeting at ShareFile with a pretty big virtual data room client.
• I think Twitter ate all my Tweets that I sent out on Friday thanking everyone. I owe you guys. I know who you are. THANKS!

I’m looking to speak at more events in the area and if you’d like me to talk at your event, just let me know.

if you saw my session and would like to learn more about paid search, or marketing in general, feel free to reach out to me.

Photo Credit: @1918

Here is another example of an SEO company using the same method.

I don’t have an issue with an SEO company having one link to their own site. The company should take credit for the SEO work they are doing (as long as it is GOOD work). What I do have an issue with is the numerous companies that use clients sites to be backlink generators for their own company. The footers should simply have one link to their own website and just use the company name as the anchor text. If the SEO discloses the fact that they will be using the client in the examples above and gives the client the option to not have the links, then I also have no issue.

The amount of links on a website that point away from a site plays a huge role in search rankings. If a website is full of links at the bottom of the page that point to other sites, the site’s SEO strength helps those sites and dilutes the strength of the numerous internal pages. An SEO company that decides to use a client’s website to help their own business and not that of their client, just does not have the client’s interest before their own.

Take a look at this post by Derek Powazek if you want to read another person’s take on the subject of SEO companies and a follow-up by Danny Sullivan.

(Please note that I adjusted the example images above to exclude any SEO company names and other information.)

Photo credit: CodiceInternet

My stance: I still use it and will continue to use it. Why? I’m not saying.

Of course, people have asked me, “but Dan, now your competitors know what terms you are targeting.” My response has always been, “If they are looking at my meta tags in order to optimize their site they obviously lack the SEO skills to actually rank on those terms.”

Just keep making good content and having a well-structured website and you will rank. Hard work pays off. Trust me.

Google Japan vending machine image courtesy of Gyazickr.

A few thoughts from the trip:

- I HIGHLY recommend that you go to Disney during the middle of September. The park was “empty” and we only had a few short rainstorms. We added up all the rides we went on and it ended up being 28 on the 1st day and 27 on the 2nd. We got to the park at 9 and left around 4. The 1st day, we went on 8 rides in under 2 hours.

- My son and I went on Splash Mountain 3 times in a row (I had already gone on it once solo). He was a bit scared at first, but after the initial drop, we leaned over and asked to ride it again. It became my favorite ride at Disney.

- We ate lunch at the park for under $15 by ordering burgers from the kid’s menu. I also got in free on my birthday.

- Disney announced that they will be expanding Fantasyland by 2013. Read more HERE.

- We stayed outside of the park grounds for $89/night and took a shuttle to and from the park. Great hotel.

- The Keys were awesome as usual. The picture is me eradicating giant velociraptor size iguanas from the yard. My wife fed a HUGE 12 foot manatee that swam into our boat basin. We ate great fresh fish each night. I went tubing and kneeboarding and even dove on a sunken boat. My son caught his first fish and even spotted some lobsters hiding under rocks in the boat basin on his own.

-The picture of my son and I is almost an exact recreation of one I took with my mom in front of Disneyland in 1982.

It was great to get away for a week and recharge. I’m happy to be home, but this vacation was one of the best ever.

- eBook Readers: Yet another eBook reader has been announced and the price point is around $120 from what I have heard. I think it is great that there are a few more companies getting into the eBook reader business, but until we see the actual eBooks drop in price, I’m not buying. The cost of the eBook version of quite a few books is the same as the printed version. Something just doesn’t feel right paying the same for an eBook as a printed book.

- Smoking: I’m not sure why, but it seems like more people are smoking. At the pool, walking down the street, in cars with the windows rolled up. Is it the economy? More stress? “Oh man. (PUFF) Gotta find a job. (PUFF)” Or it could be that I live in North Carolina and tobacco is still a major cash crop.

- Car Repair: I hate cars. Hate them. Anytime I have a repair issue with my car, I get stressed. I never know what is wrong and taking it into the “shop” is always a terrible experience. The AC in my car died back in April and instead of getting it fixed right away, I waited and waited. I finally took it in and got an estimate of $1900. Needless to say, I didn’t get it fixed at that shop. I finally got it fixed last week. I did a bunch of searches and stumbled upon WASP auto in Durham. Sadly, the shop wasn’t run by the former members of the metal band, though I do think the main guy from Ratt owns a smoothie shop in Tyngsboro, Mass. They fixed my car for just $976. Of course, the temps have been in the 80’s compared to the upper 90’s I suffered through all summer.

-Crappy Movies: I watched Tropic Thunder last week and rated it one of the WORST movies I have ever seen. It was TERRIBLE. My top 5 worst list: 1. Tropic Thunder 2. Sid & Nancy 3. Step Brothers. 4. Desperately Seeking Susan. 5. Karate Kid II.

-RAWK!: I use to see at least a band a week, but as I have gotten older, I just can’t handle the 11PM starting times that are popular in the area. My top 5 bands: 1. SuperChunk. 2. Archers of Loaf. 3. Portastatic. 4. Get Up Kids 4. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists 5. Grover.

-Words: Since I’m on a list kick, my top 5 books: 1. The Stranger – Albert Camus. 2. American Psycho – Bret Easton Ellis. 3. Ham on Rye – Charles Bukowski. 4. Notes of a Dirty Old Man – Charles Bukowski. 5. Shampoo Planet – Douglas Copeland.

-Pictures: Photography is one of the many things I wish I was good at (or had time to do). Queen of the Pavement is a blog of a former Lulu co-worker. She drove across the country and took some awesome pictures. The trip was documented here.

Main Page Image Courtesy of TNARIK
Post Image Courtesy of T_Buchtele

The Social Media Business Forum in Durham, NC should be a great event. There are some truly smart people in the area and it seems like most of them will be joining me at the event.

Friday, October 23, 2009
North Carolina Central University
School of Education, Durham, NC

My Bio:
More about the event:
Get Tickets:

A Bit of Information About ShareFile:

ShareFile enables freelancers, small and medium businesses to create custom-branded, password-protected areas where files can be exchanged easily, securely, and professionally. ShareFile is much easier and secure to use than an FTP site.

ShareFile allows users to transfer large files that are too large to send by email, as well as send files of any size securely. Many clients of ShareFile use the service as a collaboration space where project-related files can be posted.

Another feature is the Virtual Data Room. Virtual data rooms are an alternative to having to fly in a team of auditors, set them up in an office, and feed and house them. Auditing can be done online in a much cheaper and faster way without a need for any travel or additional IT. There are no limits on the number of users either and the administrative reporting functionality provides a full audit of all logins, uploads, and downloads. All of the data is encrypted and backed-up and is guaranteed secure.

Try out ShareFile free for 30 days and feel free to email me any questions you might have. To get a better idea of the service, view a file sharing demo.

The post talks about how Google uses historical data to predict the search volume of certain terms during a certain time period.

As we see that many of the search trends are predictable, we are introducing today a new forecasting feature in Insights for Search, along with a new version of the product. The forecasting feature is applied to queries which are identified as predictable (see, for instance, basketball or the trends in the Automotive category) and then shown as an extrapolation of the historical trends and search patterns.

The post is a follow up to an earlier post from back in April of this year, Predicting the Present with Google Trends. This post included the white paper of the same name that is a MUST READ for all search marketers.

The post from April has some interesting information in it as well.

Google queries in a category like “Automotive/Vehicle Shopping” during the first few weeks of March may help predict what actual March automotive sales will be like when the official data is released halfway through April.

Very interesting information and a great tool that I have been using since it has been launched.

Google Trends
Google Insights for Search

Photo Credit: Dullhunk

“Google is quite serious about scrutinizing our codebase regularly and rewriting the parts that don’t scale well to make them more robust, more elegant, or faster.”

One thing I did notice while digging into Caffeine, was that many of the results lacked dates when compared to the current Google results. I couldn’t find any real consistency though.

I feel that in my short time with Caffeine that I found better relevancy in the search results and less “SEO garbage”. I’m curious to see if the final push is what we were given a sample of, or a mix of the current and Caffeine. It is almost as if this update is less of a “real time” push, but more of a time to “clean out the garage” push.

Twitter search is great if I want to follow along with a conference or news that is happening right at that moment, but I’ll still stick with Google to do research. I might turn to Twitter search after I find a result that interests me in order to see if anyone has an opinion on the service.

Google is the phone book while Twitter search is the people in my neighborhood I ask for advice.

Play around with the new SERPs HERE and read the rest of Matt’s post HERE

Photo Credit: Biskuit

I have some thoughts on the issue:

• Why did the hacker go to Arrington? Why not create a website and publish them on his (or her) own. Did Arrington pay for the documents? Does the hacker have another motive? Maybe the hacker has another business and an “in” with TechCrunch would generate some needed buzz around the business and give him the ability to call on Arrington when needed.
• TechCrunch will make money by posting the documents. No matter what was said in the initial post and how they spin the story, TechCrunch is making money off of the documents. TechCrunch sells ad space on the site and also has Google AdSense running. Each page view that the documents receive, the more money TechCrunch makes.
• Of course the Twitter documents are going to contain some crazy ideas. At Lulu, we come up with ideas all the time that may or may not pan out. Sometime we go way off the board and start to seriously discuss an idea that may not make sense to somebody outside of the company (or even 99% of the people inside).
• The Twitter hacker broke into not only the company website, but the personal accounts of a number of employees. No matter how Arrington spins it, this is a crime and by publishing the documents, he is an accessory.

I’d love to know your thoughts in the comments.

My wife, son and I probably go to the bookstore every other week and always walk out with a pretty big pile of books. When I taught 6th grade, I made sure to read to my students daily. I think I made it through five books during the year I taught. It made me feel pretty sad when I found out that many of the students had never been read to before.

I’ve never been the type of person who reads multiple books at once, but for some reason, I have three books going right now. Here is what I’m reading (and a couple of others that I recently finished).

Oil by Upton Sinclair- The movie There Will Be Blood is based on the novel. I’m a big fan of this era in American history and find myself reading quite a number of novels and historical texts from this time period. The book is very different from the movie.

Pygmy by Chuck Palahniuk – I have liked pretty much everything written by Palahniuk except for Fight Club. Pygmy is an odd story and is written in broken English and it took me a few pages to get into a flow. Here is Palahniuk’s description of the novel from his website:

The lead character is a 13-year-old foreign exchange student sent to live with a suburban, white, middle-class family. Oh, and they’re Christians. The visit is for six months, and he’s one of a dozen similar kids, all shipped to America to live with typical families. The secret truth is that Pygmy is a terrorist, trained since infancy in martial arts, chemistry and radical hatred of the United States. He has six months to build a prize-winning project for the National Science Fair. If he succeeds, he and his project will go to Washington, D.C. for the finals competition — where the project will explode, killing millions.

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini -I was recently given this book while talking marketing with the CEO of a local Raleigh company. I’m only about 60 pages in, but I am already coming up with new marketing ideas. Some of the examples are a bit dated, Hare Krishna’s at airports and Amway, but the underlying message still translates to today.

The Taqwacores by Michael Muhammad Knight - I read this book in under 24 hours. I picked this book up at a local bookstore in Asheville and could have easily bought about seven other titles. The story is about a group of college-aged Muslim punks in Buffalo. I struggled a bit with some of the religious terms, but was sucked into the story pretty quick. Probably one of my favorite books of the past few years.

The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary – I am reading this childhood favorite to my son each night. He’s at the point where we can move past picture books and onto books like this. I love reading to him and have since the day he was born. He’s even able to read on his own.

Sin in the Second City by Karen Abbott – I recently finished this book about a pair of sisters who ran the most successful brothel in Chicago, the Everleigh Club, during the 1920’s and 30’s. A good mix of history and fiction.

What are you reading? Let me know in the comments.

Having worked at Lulu.com for almost 3 years, I find it shocking that so many bloggers have a great website and get tons of traffic, but then they think they need a book deal. I do not want to name names, but countless “ego bloggers” have written books and felt the need to sign deals with small imprints of publishers. They all talk about controlling their “content” and being in control of their websites and personal branding, but then feel the need to try for a book deal. These deals do not get the writers rich, nor much money.

If they used an open publishing company such as Lulu.com, they could have retained all the rights to their writing, set their own price, got distribution into stores and Amazon.com and, most importantly, made more money per sale. Why do they speak about controlling their personal content, yet go off and try to make money through a “traditional” publisher? Ego.

There is a stigma associated with self-publishing (or vanity publishing, or open publishing, or whatever you want to call it). Many people think that self-publishing means that you are not good enough to get a book deal so people give up control and money just to go through a traditional publisher.

Smart writers have gone with publishing their own books and made a significant amount of money. Because I work at Lulu.com, I see the numbers. I don’t make as much money as the top sellers do in just a year. If the ego bloggers put their egos aside, they could realize that they could make far more money using a site like Lulu.com than they could the way they are publishing now. Wil Wheaton is one of the most popular bloggers and he recently chose to publish through Lulu.com and has sold quite a few books and he has plans to continue.

Many people say that self-published books are not as good as those put out by a traditional publisher. Really? Take a walk into your local Barnes & Noble and be sure to take a look at the giant discount book section. This section is full of books that spent about 2 weeks on the regular shelves before being reduced 70% and placed in the discount section.

If you want control. If you want to make more money. Go with a company like Lulu.com and take control of your writing and actually make money. I did and made a pretty decent amount of money when I published my book.

Recently, a better approach to find and communicate with others who share your same interests has emerged: Twitter. This web-based mass-communication application enables you to have conversations with multiple people whether they share your interests or are simply interesting in their own right. Even if you do not want to openly communicate with strangers, you are not forced to aggressively engage people in conversation. Twitter enables you to follow people that interest you and just watch the conversations unfold between them and the people they connect with.

Twitter forces you to communicate in 140 characters or less, but you can also share links to longer blog posts, news items, or websites or anything else on the web. Barack Obama used Twitter to organize his supporters and keep people informed about what was happening in his bid for the president. Twitter enabled his supporters to organize and was a key element of the door-to-door canvassing.

To use Twitter simply sign up for an account and get a username. The process is easy and only takes a few minutes. You should also select a picture of yourself so people can attach a face to a username.

Now that you have created an account you need to start finding people to follow. One great method is to input your email account into the interface and Twitter will show you if people you already know are using the service. Use the Twitter search tool to find people who are talking about topics that you want to follow. If you sell Apple hardware, do a search for terms such as “MacBook”, “APPLE”, and other terms like these. This will enable you to find an audience that is relevant to your ecommerce goals.

To expand your list even more, try searching for other topics that might interest you. I enjoy videogames and am working on a book about the history of sports videogames, so I searched for a number of relevant terms and then followed other people who enjoy similar things. This has allowed me to join in on conversations with my target audience: sports videogame enthusiasts. As I have gotten to know these people through our Twitter conversations, I have been able to talk to them about ideas for my book, and even get some feedback on some of my chapters. I know that once I release my book, I will have a built-in audience that is not only interested in my work, but has also participated in its creation.

Once you start following people, you can begin to see their conversations and whom they are conversing with. Start following people you find your Twitter followers are talking with. One thing to keep in mind; whatever you post will be viewable by everyone unless you send a direct message to an individual user.

Be very cautious of just sending out sale offers for your website. Many companies that have tried this approach have failed and are shunned by Twitter users. Smart companies will actually engage Twitter users in conversations and learn what they want. This enables them to market themselves better and gain loyal customers. It is ok to send out occasional sales offers, but the real benefit is giving your company a personality and being able to find a highly relevant audience in which to engage.

Once the internet came into my home, I still continued to get a daily paper. I didn’t subscribe anymore, but would pick up a paper at the newspaper box closest to my house. Over time I stopped getting it daily and relied on the web to get my news. Eventually I came to rely more and more on sites such as CNN.com and ESPN.com to get my news even more than the actual cable television channels. I even recently stopped getting the Sunday paper.

Even though I am not getting a daily paper, or watching news on TV my news “consumption” has increased. The NewsGator iPhone app allows me to read a variety of news sources wherever and whenever I want. The application functions a custom newspaper for me. I have nearly 2,000 articles a day to read. Of course, I do not read them all, but who reads every article in a newspaper? The fact that I have loaded the app with sites that interest me actually allows me to read more daily news than a newspaper ever had.

Twitter gets me the breaking news faster than any other source. The recent election results and plane crash all were broken via my Twitter follows long before the major news sites. News delivery is changing, and it is for the better.

I do miss the Sunday paper, but the annoyance of a wet paper during even the slightest rain, missed deliveries, and the overabundance of ads and less and less good content made the decision to stop all together easy.

Are we all one-dimensional? I also write a hockey blog, love reading, videogames, graphic design, indie rock and travel and try to follow a number of different people who tweet about those topics. I don’t want to list all of my interests in my bio as I’m attempting to brand myself (yes, I know how THAT sounds).

So, before you block someone who might not seem to be interested in what you tweet about, give him or her a chance. Sure there are tons of spammers out there, but quite a few aren’t. Look at the most recent tweets of a person to see if they actually are looking to engage with you instead of just their bio.

Cost

The Kindle 2 costs $359. Each book costs $9.99. The last 6 books I bought at the bookstore cost me a total of around $95 (A few hardcovers and a few Buy 2 get 1 Free). To read those books on the Kindle 2 it would have cost me around the same amount. Add in that I’d have had to pay the $359 for the Kindle and we’d be looking at $455. In fact, the book Reality Check by Guy Kawasaki costs $18.65 for the hardcover and $16.47 for the Kindle version. For two dollars more, I have a version that I can let my wife read, give to a friend, take notes in the margins or even sell.

If the Kindle versions were much cheaper and I could see a point where I’d save money by buying the eBook versions of what I want to read, then I might make the switch. I just don’t see how I’d save money at all by buying a Kindle and eBooks.

Comfort

I own an iPhone. Before that I had a BlackBerry and before that I had a Handspring. I don’t talk on the phone very much, but I do use the devices to read. I currently use an RSS reader app on the iPhone to read quite a few websites and find that after about an hour my eyes get pretty tired. Sitting in from of a computer screen all day is hard enough, so relaxing with a smaller screen isn’t very appealing to me. A book is a bit easier on the eyes.

I took a look at the iPhone Kindle app and, while it is free, the books still cost the same. It will be interesting to see how rapid eBook readers gain traction and how much of a dent they will really put into the sale of paper books.

My friend Anthony Policastro has made his latest book Absense of Faith available as a free download to entice readers to purchase the print version. Other authors are making chapters of their work available as a free download and then selling the rest of the book. One suspense author even made the entire book free sans the last 2 pages where the killer was revealed.

Here is a a great list of Free eBook Sites.

- Free Online Novels: A STAGGERING collection of free novels. Thousands of links to every genre.
- Ebookee: A good site if you are looking for IT and technical eBooks. Some other genres represented as well.
- FreeBookSpot: A decent site with a 50/50 mix of technical and fiction eBooks.
- WOWIO: Numerous free downloads are available, but you can read any book online for free or download them for a small fee. Many major publishers are represented. Also offers a number of comics in eBook format.
- Online Free eBooks: A great collection of books and guides.
- Project Gutenberg: Thousands of books available in a wide range of formats. Plucker versions are available for the Palm OS.

If you know of any more sites offering free eBook downloads, please leave the links in the comments.

I’m a pretty big videogame player, and will often buy the new releases when they come out. I often trade in the games for store credit after a month or two and use that money to get a new game. The credit I had been getting from Gametop is usually pretty low and you have to pay the full price for the game you purchase. Even eBay has become full on untrustworthy people, so I have turned to Secondspin.com. This site will give you cash for each game, DVD or CD you sell. Once I get the check, I head over to Target, or another store that actually puts games on sale, and make my purchase.

Another great source is GameFly.com. This site works the same way as NetFlix. Choose a rental plan, get the games in the mail, play as long as you want and send them back. If you find yourself getting pretty bored with your games quickly, this service is ideal for you. Plans start around $15, a significantly less amount then the $59 price of a new game. They even sell used games at a huge discount. You could teven keep the same game for 2 months or more and spend less than if you paid full-price. (Click the banner to the right and use the code TENDAY at checkout for a FREE TRIAL)

Cut your cable down to the basic package and watch shows on most of the major network’s websites. Heck, NBC even has full episodes of the A-Team. Hulu, not to be confused with Lulu, has an amazing amount of shows and movies available as well.

ITunes offers season passes for all of your “must see” shows and the cost is often far less than a monthly cable bill.

What are some of your favorite ways to cut expenses?

Here are a few ideas on how a business can use Twitter effectively:

• Local Durham, NC wine bar Six Plates uses Twitter to announce wine and dinner specials. I have followed them since they started the account in 08 (they even hosted a small “Tweet up”) and seen the account grow from just a handful of followers to nearly 915. Think about how much revenue can be generated if just 1% of those followers see a Twitter message announcing a special for that night and decide to go in and grab a meal. That is 2 or 3 extra tables in a night and adds up to a decent portion of revenue in a month.

• Personally, I have grown tired of businesses sending me a bland direct message thanking me for following the Twitter feed. Give a customer a real thank you in the form of a coupon or discount. eCommerce sites can easily send a unique promo code instead of a bland message. A local business can send a message for a discount when the message is shown at the store or restaurant. Many Twitterers use the service on the go and showing the message right on the mobile device is easy. Non-mobile users can simply print the screen or use a “verbal” coupon to take advantage of the offer.

• Take customer service issues to email. If a customer has an issue, do not try to resolve it using 140 characters. Send a personal email address to the customer and have them fully explain their issue.

• I use the search functionality in Tweetie to monitor brand terms. This way, I can see what people are saying about my company and respond quickly (to both good and bad messages).

Twitter can be an effective tool to help a business of any size communicate with customers and generate revenue.

If you are using Twitter and you are having a hard time understanding what to post, here are a few tips that will help you get a better understanding of this communication/”micro-blogging” tool.

You Just ate a Muffin? Sorry, But I Don’t Really Care

I follow quite a few people who talk branding all day. They Twitter quite a bit of valuable information. I hate when I get a number of Tweets saying that they are getting a cup of coffee, eating a bagle or sitting on the bus on their way to work. A message saying RDU airport has a security line 2 hours long = GOOD. A Twitter saying you just washed you bought a tuna sandwich = BAD. I’m following you because you know branding, not because I want to know the minutia of your day.

Keep it Simple

Most of the Twitter users I follow are people who write quite a bit of content each day for their blog or website. When they use most of these people use Twitter, they do a good job of letting their followers know when they post and what exactly what the link included is about. The text limit of 140 characters is pretty short, but it is long enough to give a quick summary. Using Twitter really tests your headline writing skills.

Follow Random People

Take a look at who your friends are following and pick a few that may be interesting. I try to pick 3 people to follow each day from a few of the people I follow. This has enabled me to learn about a number of things that I never would have otherwise. It is easy to stop following a person if you find they don’t have anything to say that is interesting or useful (or they just talk about what they eat all day.)

Tools that Are Cool

I rarely use the Twitter web interface. There are a number of great 3rd party apps that make using Twitter simple and actually increase your productivity. Twitteriffic is awesome and is also available on the iPhone so you can stay connected anywhere. Check out a small list of some of the best Twitter tools here. If you can communicate with direct messages or replies quickly you will be able to foster better relationships with your followers.

If you follow these simple tips, you’ll get the most out of Twitter.

Follow me HERE.

If a company wants to establish itself on Twitter, the marketers (or PR dept or social media marketers) need to be prepared to receive complaints and questions along with positive messages. A Twitter user will feel that if he sends a message to the brand’s Twitter account that it is the same thing as sending an email, filling out a contact form or calling a customer service number. If a message goes without a response it is the same as a consumer being ignored by one of those contact methods.

Tony may not have any control over shipping issues, but when I sent him a message with an issue I had, he directed me to the right department and told me to follow-up with him if I did not get a response. I have heard that JetBlue, Starbucks, WholeFoods and Comcast do a pretty decent job at responding to issues as well.

When I had an issue with another company who was using Twitter, my message went without a response, yet the company representative continued to send out messages during the hours around my message. While I do not expect the person manning the Twitter account for the company to solve my issue, I do expect a response because they represent the company. Even a canned response to a direct message or @ reply is better than no reply at all.

As Twitter usage grows, we will see more and more consumers turn to Twitter first before turning to a company website. Tweets spread fast through Twitter through messages being re-tweeted and damage can be done to a company’s brand quickly if issues are not remedied.

Here are five reasons why SEO needs to matter more for all small businesses looking to be more successful online.

1. It’s Free! One of the biggest benefits to SEO is that it is often toted as being a “free” form of advertising. Any small business manager realizes that the time and resources needed to implement SEO tactics costs money. However, the impact that SEO can have for an online small business is tremendous – and the results are long-term. SEO can give you long-term success that your business can enjoy for years to come.

2. Overall Improvement: Oftentimes, SEO will significantly improve a user’s experience on the website while simultaneously appealing to the search engine spiders. After all, the search engines reward those websites that have the most relevant content and the easiest way to search the website. SEO puts these “best practices” into place.
3. Increased Trust with Customers: If your website shows up first on the search engine results pages, your customers are immediately more likely to trust the website. A lack of trust is one of the biggest hurdles for ecommerce and lead generation websites. However, if search engines like Google and Yahoo! trust your website, your future customers will trust in it as well.

4. Long-Term Success: SEO can take weeks to take hold. However, once the SEO tactics are fully in place and recognized by the search engines, your placement at the top of the search engine results pages will ensure higher traffic and sales for months.

5. Simplicity: Unlike a number of other online advertising efforts, SEO can be easier to implement. Through methods such as copywriting, link building and more, any small business can work to implement the SEO steps that will ensure future success.

I have found that I can take advantage of a hot topic by checking the top 15 or so in the morning and seeing if any of the terms make sense for any products I am pushing. For example, A few weeks ago I found that the term “Susan B. Anthony” was Volcanic. I did a search through my product list and found that I had a number of books about Susan B. Anthony available. I quickly created a campaign and was able to push a number of sales through a term that I wouldn’t normally have in my account (my specific industry is a bit different and does not really fit into the mold of having the long, long list of long-tail keywords).

I take a look at the campaign after a few hours and decide to kill it or keep it going. This is 180 degrees from my usual campaign management. I like to run for a week before I tweak, but in this case, I make a quick decision.

There are a few other great search trend tools that I use and will be writing about in the next few weeks.

TWITTERIFFIC: Another MAC only tool, but one of the best. In my opinion, Twitter took off due to having an open API. Tons of companies began making 3rd party apps and enabled Twitter to get the traction it needed. Twitteriffic was one of the first 3rd party Twitter tools I began to use and while I have tried a number of others, I always come back. It features a clean interface, numerous options and has a free version. A great iPhone app is also available.

GMAIL: One of the best reasons to use Gmail is the ability to add multiple email accounts within one email address. I will create multiple free Gmail accounts and just add them to forward to my master account. This is ideal for signing up multiple accounts for certain websites that only allow one per email address.

SPORTACULAR:  This iPhone app is excellent for any sports fan. It offers live updates of all the major sports. The customization allows me to add my favorite teams right to the main screen. This excellent free application that makes any company wanting to release a paid one face a difficult challenge.

WEBSITE GRADER: Looking to do a quick analysis of a site? Hubspot.com’s website grader give you a quick analysis of a site. The analysis is far from in-depth, but the information provides a pretty decent idea of the marketing effectiveness of a website. I use it to know where to start when doing an in-depth SEO analysis.

BASECAMP: Basecamp, part of the 37Signals family of products, allows for awesome project management and collaboration. The open API even allows for integration with some great tools such as FreshBooks, AgileAgenda and BlinkSale. The free package is ideal to get a good idea if the product will work for you.

These are just a few of the tools I use almost everyday. Please list some of your favorites in the comments.

A good experience can have a huge impact for a business. I recently purchased a new laptop bag for my Apple MacBook from Booq and the order was supposedly delivered by Fed-Ex, but was no where to be found. My wife made a call to Booq on a Sunday, got a voicemail, left her info and also sent an email. The next day she called and the customer service rep already stated that he got the message and was sending another bag to us overnight. We got the bag the next day. Of course, the original order showed up two days later. We got an email with a Fed-Ex label attached and directions to the closest drop-box.

The article QUICKLY shot up to the #3 spot on Google for the term Cash4Gold. Not long after the SEO team at Cash4Gold.com sent Rob an email asking him to take down the article.

Is there a financial arrangement we can come to that will offset your Adsense income and make it worth your while to take down or at least “de-optimize” it for that phrase?

The Consumerist.com also picked up the article and also posted a story of their own about the perceived fraud of Cash4Gold.com. The Consumerist article actually is the #2 result for the term Cash4Gold.

Cash4Gold.com even spent a signifigant chunk of money on a SuperBowl commerical featuring MC Hammer and Ed McMahon.

Will the two negative posts cause that money to be wasted?

Are we seeing bloggers take the place of the Better Business Bureau?

If a company was a fraud in the past, how would you know until you interacted with them?

There are plenty of other companies that get negative press and have tons of blog posts written concerning their services without having those articles show up in the top 5 results of a high traffic branded search term. Usually you only see negative results show up on branded terms that include scam, fraud, etc.

Are bloggers exposing a company that is taking advantage of desperate people in a tough economy or are they being unfair to a company that is simply giving people a service that is easy to use and is upfront with fees and prices?

As i clicked on the app, I remembered that I could do a voice search and figured I’d give it a shot. It asked to use my current location and all I had to do was speak the name of the restaurant and I was given localized the search results. It found the closest location to me and I just touched the phone number in the listing and the phone dialed. The process was so easy. Of course, after we ordered I kept playing with the app to see exactly how well it worked. The success rate was pretty high. I even did some non-localized searches and got the right results. The app is ideal for trying to get a phone number, but I still like searching within the iPhone map app to do searches for local stores or locations that I am driving to.

The Google Voice Mobile App for the iPhone Features:

Voice Search. Speak your queries without even pushing a single button.

Search with My Location. Search for business, weather, and movie information without specifying where you are.

Local search suggestions on a map. See nearby business suggestions on Google Maps — just tap the “near me” suggestions.

Instant access to search. Start a Google search with just one click.

Google Suggest. Get relevant search suggestions as you type, saving you keystrokes.

URL suggestions. Get to popular web sites quickly by tapping site web address suggestions.

Contact search. Quickly find contacts in your address book.

Search history. Get instant access to your previous searches.

Easy access to other Google products. Launch other Google products like Maps, Gmail and News from the Apps tab.

Here is the Google Voice Mobile App for the iPhone official page