It’s true.

Most of the free wi-fi hot spots use unsecured and unencrypted data streams which basically means anyone that could be data sniffing has clear text access to what you are transferring from your laptop, iPad and in some cases even your cellphone.

While here in the Tri-Cities we don’t have a huge problem with this kind of malicious activity, but when you visit any number of the larger cities that are close to us you could be making your personal and business data available to these hackers or data sniffers.

The solution (since we all must use these connections occasionally)?

First off when using either Gmail or Facebook switch to an encrypted connection. Its easy to tell if you are using an encrypted connection because in your browser’s address bar the website address will begin with https:// instead of the usual http:// prefix.

For ultimate security though consider using a VPN (virtual private network) back to your office or home’s Internet connection. Lots of cell carriers offer these now too so if the expense of installing a VPN at your home or office is more than you want to invest in check with your cell provider to see if this is available to you.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

But not one to rest on their laurels Google is fighting back with their beta launch of Google Plus One, or G+1 as it is commonly referred to. Basically G+1 is the bastard clone to Facebook like Microsoft Windows is to the Apple OS. It’s clear to see that Google has done their homework and trying to capture the most used and favorite parts of the #1 social network Facebook.

In fact, the resemblance is so similar its almost as if the two are sharing programmers, hmmm…

Until recently participation in Google Plus One was by invitation only but now it seems that anyone with a Google account can setup a G+1 profile and start using the social network. Google still says the system is in beta a nd requests that businesses hold off on setting up accounts just yet. They plan to release a version of G+ strictly for business by the end of 2011 or first part of 2012.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. If you remember in recent years Google tried to thwart the Twitter phenomenon with their “Google Buzz” but it never gained ground and made no dent in the popularity of Twitter at all. I’m sure they are in for a real battle with Facebook who is constantly on the cutting edge of new features and trends in social networking.

If you don’t know anything about G+ and would like to know more here is an excellent guide I found to the basics of G+ account setup and use. Click here to download Google Plus Unleashed – no cost – no optin.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Mr. and Mrs. Zagat, who started their company in 1979, will be joining Google and said they expected to remain at the company for a period of years. The couple had previously looked to sell the business once before in 2008 but gave up after five months, citing the fragile economy.

Asked if Google would be changing the ratings and review process the former Zagat owners said, “the rating system works, people understand it, and it’s one of the things that’s attractive about Zagat” indicating that they do not foresee a change in the ratings system.

Zagat publishes a physical hard copy guide to the best of the best when it comes to eating at finer restaurants to around 20 major US cities. This acquisition will make Google’s first attempt at a directory of listings in published format.

One of the rumored reasons for Google’s interest in Zagat even though they have a relatively small online presence is the database of restaurant reviews itself. An insider at Google leaked that this information will greatly enhance restaurant reviews inside of Google Places and make it much easier for consumers that are seeking restaurant reviews.

While the Tri-Cities does not have a section in the Zagat reviews with the involvement of a major search engine like Google we could very well see one soon. It would be wise for anyone who owns a restaurant in Kingsport, Bristol or Johnson City that haven’t claimed their Google Places listing or have done little or no optimization to do so now. Listings already in placed and pre-optimized will certainly be the first to be included.

Currently in the Tri-Cities area the best bet for getting a directory guide of restaurant listings is a privately owned website E10out.com. The directory has around 200 local area restaurants in its database.

Article Resource:
Author & Editor – Rick Roberts admin/owner of TriCities-eBS. Article content source The Wall Street Journal Sept 9th 2011 issue. If you liked this article and would like to get instant notifications of new postings be sure and register to receive our newsletter. You can find the info about it in the sidebar to the right of this article.

_________________________

Not claimed your Google Places listing for your business yet? We can help you do that for free. Just visit the “Contact Us” link above and we will help you get started right away.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Mobile marketing encompasses many different types of marketing techniques and strategies that help businesses increase profits and ROI. The most popular forms of mobile marketing today are: mobile-friendly websites, SMS text message marketing, and QR (Quick Response) codes.

You may be wondering why everyone is hopping on the mobile marketing bandwagon…

This should help clear it up:

1. Consumers are using their mobile devices to access the Internet more than ever before – and it’s expected to grow at astonishing rates over the next few years. If your business is not using mobile methods to attract customers, you are simply missing out on business.

2. There are approximately 4 BILLION mobile subscribers across the world. This means that you can target pretty much anyone using mobile methods.

3. Most mobile device users keep their phones within arm’s reach over 90 percent of the time. So if you use SMS Text Message Marketing, most of your messages will be opened and read by your recipients. This leads to higher promotional redemption rates, which leads to more sales, which leads to more profits.

4. Americans today are spending an average of three hours per day on the Internet from their mobile devices. Your business should have the proper mobile presence if you want to get a piece of this action.

5. In 2009, approximately half a BILLION people went online using their mobile device. This number is expected to double within the next 5 years. It’s not too late to implement mobile marketing techniques in your business. This technology is still in its infancy and if you jump onboard now, your chance of success will be much greater.

6. By 2014, mobile Internet usage is expected to exceed desktop Internet usage. This means that reaching your audience via mobile methods will be even more crucial if you want to beat your competition.

7. According to Facebook official statistics from January 2011, more than 200 million users (out of over 600 million Facebook users) access Facebook using their mobile devices; also, mobile Facebook users are twice as active as non-mobile users. Facebook has over 600 million active users, so that means that 1/3 of them are using their mobile devices to access Facebook!

These facts indicate the serious impact that mobilizing your business will have on your sales, profits, and ROI over the coming months and years.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

In addition there will be a mobile app for all of the above platforms to make accessing the mobile business directory just a click away for consumers. The mobile apps will be made available during this year’s Kingsport Funfest celebration. Said Rick Roberts, owner and developer of TriGuide, “We’re excited to bring this new and emerging technology to the Tri-Cities TN and Southwest VA merchants and non-profit organizations.”

For more information about the launch of TriGuide.mobi click here to read the full press release.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

The new fanpage technology that allows businesses to use iFrame technology allows a lot more flexibility in the content and functions of the fanpage. However since an iFrame pulls data from a 3rd party website (usually the fanpage owner’s website) it brings a new security issue into the mix with facebook members who use the SSL (secured socket layer) for connecting to facebook. In some instances, especially in the work environment, a SSL connection is required.

The problem with current fanpages, both with the FBML and the iFrame designs, is that only about 1/3 to 1/2 of them are setup to facilitate a secure connection. Facebook developers announced this week that as of Oct 1st this year ALL fanpages MUST support SSL or they will be disabled. Adding SSL to a fanpage isn’t that hard but in reality is not something everyone can do on their own.

In most cases adding SSL to your fanpage and website is best left up to the owner’s web maintenance team. Reason being is you only get one shot at creating the certificates and if there is a mistake made they have to be regenerated at an additional cost.

While Facebook has made it clear on their stance with the use of SSL in all fanpages the best answer they could give on the demise of the old FBML code was “early 2012″. Personally I’m betting on Feb of 2012 which would make it an exact 1 year time frame for existing fanpages to make the transition.

In conclusion if your business has a Facebook presence which includes a fanpage you had better be checking into whether it will be ready for the hard switch to SSL come Oct. Also if it is still using the old FBML code you need to be planning with your web development team to make the switch over to iFrame code.

If you need any help with either of these give us a call and we’ll be glad to assist you in the transition.

Rick Roberts
TriCities-eBS Admin
(423) 276-8847

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Quoted from Website Magazine Blog – Read the original article here

Like Button Optimization tips

1. Allowing users to add comments will significantly increase the number of clicks on the Like button

2. Display Like buttons at both the top and bottom of your posted content

3. Clicks increase dramatically when Like buttons appear near videos, images, infographics and other visual content

4. Like buttons that display thumbnail images of friends will receive three to five times more clicks than versions that don’t

5. Ask questions of users on your Fan pages, such as “Would you like …?” and “Would you prefer … ?”

6. Post fun and interactive content such as games, trivia questions and polls

7. Incorporate coupons and discounts on your Wall

8. Post time-sensitive content and relate to current events

9. Post videos

10. Include links to additional content

Like Button Success stories

1. In February 2011, Pretzel Crisps gained more than 3,500 fans and a 53-percent jump in growth within 24 hours of introducing an exclusive coupon for Facebook fans only

2. Outdoor sporting goods retailer Giantnerd.com experienced a 100-percent increase in revenue from Facebook within two weeks of adding the Like button

3. Children’s clothing retailer Tea Collection saw daily revenues increase 10 times after adding the Like button to its sale merchandise

4. Since letting users login to its site from Facebook, ShoeDazzle has learned that those Facebook-connected shoppers are 50-percent more likely to make repeat purchases every month than other shoppers

5. Since adding the Like button to every product on its retail site, American Eagle found that Facebook-referred visitors spend on average 57 percent more than other shoppers

6. Levi’s has seen its referral traffic from Facebook increase by 40 times since implementing the Like button in April 2010

7. After placing the Like button above and below its videos, video site Metacafe’s daily referral traffic from Facebook doubled, going from approximately 60,000 to approximately 120,000

8. LeWeb’s Facebook fan base grew by more than 100 percent after instituting a contest for tickets to its European Internet conference in which users had to Like LeWeb’s Facebook page to enter

9. Ticketmaster found that every time a user posts an event to Facebook it generates $5.30 of direct ticket sales

10. Online ticketing service Eventbrite revealed in October 2010 that each time someone shares a link to an event with their Facebook friends (today’s version of clicking the Like button), it results in $2.52 worth of ticket sales

So, how about you? Are you loving the Like button and Facebook’s other social plugins for commerce, or not so much – and why?

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

To read the full article here is a PDF convert of it:

Cold_Calling_vs_Social_Media_Marketing

Here is the actual case study results quoted in it if you are in a hurry:

What helped me conclude that cold calling does not work anymore and that I should serve notice of its termination were the results of a test I decided to run – the results are below.

As it so happened I had a new product to sell. In the test I spent an equal amount of time cold calling and using social media, 9-5.30pm Monday to Friday. I started with cold calling

Cold Calling Results
Outbound calls made 325
Meaningful conversations (pitches) and brand touches 80
Meetings made 4
Sales made (as a direct result of cold calling) 0

From a cold calling perspective I was not surprised with the figures; from experience these are the average conversion ratios. The data cost me 25p per name, phone charges were roughly £100, so all up £180 not including my time. If we took an industry standard salary for telesales of £20K plus, general overhead of office, rates, light, heat, computer etc you will have spent about £1,000 to make four meetings.

Social media
Inbound calls generated 8
Meetings as result of inbound calls 3
Sales as a result of inbound calls 2
Brand touches (from site statistics unique views of content) 422 visitors to my blog alone
Subscribers (RSS) to my content 27 stats from Feedburner)
People following me (Twitter) 12
New contacts 71 (on LinkedIn, Facebook, WeCanDo.BIZ, etc)
Listeners to my Podcast 83
Opportunities to sell found 21
Online conversations had 39
Warm call list (names generated expecting a call) 11

The cost of my social networking blitz to find new business opportunities, other than my time and internet connection are small, if anything at all. Most importantly I made two sales, covering any cost associated with the activity and generating a very healthy return. (I guess it would only be fair to include the cost of your time in this exercise as well – Ed.)

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

This is especially true when it comes to Search Engine Optimization. Sometimes, the information may have been valid in the past but is no longer valid and sometimes… it was never valid to begin with.

Here are ten SEO myths and their corresponding “truths” -

1.    It’s impossible to outrank a web page with a Google PageRank higher than your own.

While Google’s PageRank indicator may play a minor role in determining search engine placement, it’s not a critical factor.
If you conduct a few searches on Google you will find this to be true. It shouldn’t take more than a few minutes to find a page, with a lower Google PR, outranking a page with a higher one.

2.    Having an XML Sitemap will boost your rankings in the SERPs.

It is wise to create an XML Sitemap but don’t expect to see any rank improvements. The sitemap is useful to the search engines and will help them crawl your site more efficiently but it won’t help you “leap frog” your competitors.

3.    Including “meta keywords” will improve your SEO.

Most search engines disregard the “meta keyword” information altogether. While it can’t hurt to include a handful of relevant terms, it’s not time well spent.

4.    It’s imperative to update your homepage frequently.

If changing your homepage content is good for your visitors and business model, then have at it. Otherwise, just leave it as is.
That’s not to say that your entire site should be stagnant but that there’s no evidence to conclude the necessity to update your homepage’s content on a regular basis.

5.    Trading links with other webmasters is just as good as building quality “one way” links.

Trading links (aka Reciprocal linking) was something that worked a long time ago but it is no longer effective for improving one’s rankings.

The only time that the trading of links makes any sense, is when both webmasters may benefit from the traffic that may come from the partner’s site.

6.    SEO is a “set and forget” activity.

Most webmasters (and business owners) wished this were true but it’s simply not the case. Effective Search Engine Optimization is an ongoing activity and if you’re not going forward, you’ll find your rankings slip over time.

This is especially true as it pertains to link building. The search engines monitor your inbound links and if they find they find they are dwindling over time, they assume your page is losing its relevance.

7.    Using Heading Tags is crucial to your SEO.

The use of Heading Tags (i.e. H1, H2, etc.) is useful to define your site’s content but don’t expect them to make marked improvements in your rankings.

8.    Hiding a bunch of links on your pages is a good idea.

Google, and the other search engines, are incredibly smart and can spot the occurrence of “spammy links” quite easily.

Whether you’re using a teeny-tiny font size to display them, coloring them the same as your page background or using CSS to move them so far off the page they can’t be seen by visitors… the search engines know!

This practice is foolish and trust me on this — no good will come from it!

9.    There is an optimum keyword density for your on-page content.

This may have been true in the past but it’s no longer relevant. It’s wise to ensure that your targeted keyword phrases appear somewhere on your page but don’t bother calculating the density percentages.

It’s much better to write content that will be found valuable by the humans reading your content than to concentrate writing for the robots.

10.    Paying a firm to “register” your site with “hundreds of search engines” is a wise investment.

This type of offer may sound appealing, but it will do little, if anything, to improve your search engine rankings or generate meaningful website traffic.

As knowledge is power, this information will help you waste less time and money on outdated SEO tactics or those that never worked in the first place.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

While there are a number of tactics that fall into the off page optimization category, the most important is the building of quality backlinks. A backlink occurs whenever an image, a piece of text, or your full website url is linked “back” to your site from some other.

The best links are those that are “one-way,” meaning that a site links to you but you do not link back to them. It can be beneficial to “trade links” (called reciprocal linking) with another webmaster for the purpose of gaining website traffic but it’s not a strategy that will improve your search engine rankings or SEO.

As each page of your website should be optimized for 1-3 keyword phrases, it’s best to build “anchor text links” (aka text links, hypertext links, hyper links, contextual links) that include the keyword phrases you are targeting. The more links you build, the better your ranking will be for the terms contained in the links.

Here’s a perfect example of this in real life:

If you search Google.com for the term, “click here,” you will find a page that gives access to the free Adobe Reader (a page off of Adobe.com) ranked in the first position.

This is an interesting/valuable observation as their page is not optimized for this keyword phrase at all. You won’t find it in their Page Title, their Meta Page Description, or anywhere on the actual page itself.

Then how is this page ranked in the top spot for this term?

It’s happening for one reason, and one reason only… a huge amount of backlinks have been built by webmasters from around the world, that link to this page. Want to guess what keyword phrase they’ve used when creating their links? That’s right… they’re linking the term, “Click Here,” to the specific page that is ranking in the first position!

As I write this, Yahoo reports that 2,878,898 links are pointing to this page.

This shouldn’t be taken to mean that you should abandon your on page optimization efforts, but it does reveal the power of anchor text backlinks. The more links you build to your pages that include your targeted keyword phrases, the more likely your pages are to rank well for the terms… it’s just that simple.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites