Blogging- The “IT” Tool for SEO

December 3rd, 2009

-By Tricia M. Williams

Blogging  blasted onto the online scene faster than Skybus went out of business. While the blogosphere has taken over the world of journalism, many have found themselves blogging about just about anything and everything. Nowadays everyone is a blogger, blasting their thoughts and ideals to the world through the world wide web, reaching any subscriber who feels the need to be entertained. While most people use blogs as a recreational tool, they can also be utilized as a vital search engine optimization tool as well.

It’s a known fact that the more you blog, the bigger the web presence is that you build. By blogging you’re exposing yourself, your company, your service to a whole new client base, all by typing. Those in business and the Social Media world (like moi) can and should harness the power that a blog can bring to boosting business.

Go ahead and Google “Columbus Ohio Website Design”. We here at mywebWOW! are third (at least we were as I was writing this). Part of the reason we have such a high Google indexing is because we harnessed the power of the blog. By creating blogs, you are not only creating new pages to be indexed (which moves you right up the ranks in Google and other search engines), you increase visitors to your website (which ultimately leads to more sales) and also you create links which give your web page credibility (which again, helps your rankings in Google). If you don’t want to take my word for it, check out the study done by Hubspot. They found that

  • Companies that blog experience 55% more website traffic
  • Companies that blog have 97% more inbound links
  • Companies that blog have 434% more pages indexed

434%-the proof is in the pudding!

Blogging has become such an imperative took in not only giving your business credibility, but also in search engine optimization. Rarely is any website being created anymore without the space for a blog. Website design’s transformation to a search engine optimization friendly format is further proof of blogging and SEO importance.

I know, right now you’re feeling that “I want a blog! I HAVE to blog” urge. It’s ok, it’s totally natural. But, if you feel that you just can’t be creative or commit to writing on a regular basis (it’s crucial! But hard to do, believe me!), there are companies out there to help you with your content. By hiring a content writer you can be guaranteed that your blog will be chock full of the right keywords and links to get your website and blog recognized by the big search engines…and we all know, being on the front page of Google is just like having the Golden Ticket.

Hubspot study here: http://bit.ly/XDkQV

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Posted in Social Media Columbus Ohio Web Design | 12 Comments »

Social Media Marketing is a Full Time Job

November 17th, 2009

- By Tricia M. Williams

People ask me all the time what exactly Social Media Marketing is, and what it’s going to do for them. As soon as I explain the process of Social Media Marketing, from setting up the sites to keeping the content fresh and updated, the next question they ask is “Can’t I do that myself?”.

The answer is kind of. They can do that, but many find that the amount of time that goes into Social Media Marketing is more than they can spare. There is more to this form of advertising than simply posting a few messages and making a few friends. The fact of the matter is that Social Media Marketing is really a full time job. Linking to the right people is critical. Posting the right content is critical. Targeting the right market is critical. Keeping information up to date is the lifeline. It’s the same as website design and SEO marketing strategies- you need the right formula and keywords to get the most bang for your buck. All of that takes an incredible amount of research, just like traditional advertising avenues. Then once you navigate to the right kind of audience, keeping your content interesting and new is a completely different story. With about a million other things to do, who has time for all of that?

With Twitter being as fast paced as it is (and Facebook following in its footsteps), getting buried in the mass amount of tweets and updates is easier than keeping up on the pack. Information being posted on news feeds is voluminous in nature and growing exponentially as more users sign on to join the Social Media masses. Being able to take the time to constantly update your information is a daunting task and can easily consume hours out of the day when others simply have more things to do. Making sure that what you do post is the most valuable, getting to the right markets and getting linked to the right networks is even more time consuming- and you have to do that over and over again to make Social Media Marketing worth  the time and investment.

Posting on Facebook and Twitter is a great way to reach new markets and potential new business. Social Media Marketing has definitely burst onto the advertising world as the new “whiz kid”, and it really is. But for many, the time to do it right is time they don’t have, and that’s why we are here to help.

Posted in Social Media Columbus Ohio Web Design | 1 Comment »

How the ‘Balloon Boy’ Circled the Globe in Less Than 80 Minutes

October 20th, 2009

-By Tricia M. Williams

Last week most of us were (shamefully) glued to our media outlet of choice, following the renegade path of a tin foil-esque balloon that we thought had carried a 6 year old boy out of his yard. I know I was one of the masses glued to my computer, constantly checking my Twitter platform for updates on exactly what was happening. I found out about the ‘Balloon Boy’ from Facebook, and then quickly turned to my Twitter to get the details via the hashtag #boyinballoon. And there he was, in all his hoax-y glory, being tweeted about like a modern day celebrity on a debilitating binge that sends them straight to rehab. Most of us were afraid for his life, most of us were calling the story ‘a mockery of journalism’, but the truth of the matter is we (as in the whole world) were talking about it- a lot. The fact that I’m blogging about it right now probably has most of you rolling your eyes, but the ‘Balloon Boy’ saga became a pop culture sensation, mainly thanks to Twitter and the Internet. Google released the statistic that little Falcon Heene became the number one Google search in the hours in which the balloon was in flight, and millions like myself tweeted the unfolding events (that he was safe thank goodness) religiously all the way up to the breaking news that his father was in trouble for using him as a meal ticket.

Using tools like Trendistic, you can see exactly how tweeting spiked during the news coverage, and how the trend has continued. It even gives you little exerpts of people’s tweets so you can see for your own eyes what the world was discussing. And it just once again shows how Twitter and other social media outlets are becoming the hot spot for breaking news. As this trend continues we will see a whole shift in the way news is reported and you can basically kiss your newspapers goodbye, as sad as that may be. But the reality of the way the world is going is that nothing is sacred and nothing will remain a secret as long as networks like Twitter and Facebook are breaking news faster than the TV. It’s more convenient, it’s instant, and it’s the wave of the future. One that the ‘Balloon Boy’ rode for his whole 15 minutes of fame.

Posted in Social Media Columbus Ohio Web Design | 5 Comments »

Twitter Makes the World Go ‘Round….Faster.

October 13th, 2009

- By Tricia M. Williams

Every day we hear about more and more companies that are -for lack of a better term- biting the dust.  We read the stories, send out an empathetic well wish to the people who lost their jobs, and go on about our lives until tomorrow, when another story breaks and we do it all again. Just the other day (thanks to Twitter I might add) I read that Modern Bride, Elegant Bride and Gourmet magazines were soon to cease publishing, as well as the local newspaper from my hometown. The news of the demise of four printed publications, especially a news publication, left me pondering exactly why it is that print media seems to be so doomed nowadays.

We need news now more than ever with so much going on with the world that it seems crazy to think that papers are faltering. Every day I walk onto the campus of my college and pick up the student newspaper to find out about the shenanigans happening on campus. I like the smell of the paper, and the way it makes me feel smart and smug. The bad thing about the paper is it’s content- by the time I pick it up on the way to class, the news stories are a bit outdated. How can that be, when it’s a fresh issue? The answer is simple- social media. Social media is an instant news feed and has taken on the print media giants like meteor barreling toward Earth: It’s coming at you fast, it’s coming at you strong and it’s going to have a huge impact that changes everything. For example- two weeks ago I went to pick up a book at the book store and was greeted by a cop guarding the front door that was covered with crime scene tape. A little disturbed and miffed about not getting my book, I instantly turned to my Twitter Feed to see if any of my classmates had the inside scoop on the story. Within 10 minutes of leaving the scene of the crime I had found that it was robbed at gunpoint by two men wearing black and gray sweatshirts who escaped in a purple SUV. The conversation about the incident was voluminous, and soon it felt as if I had been there to witness the robbery myself. So the next day, when I picked up my paper, I simply skipped over the article because I already knew what was going on. When an earthquake happened in California last year, Twitter accounts posted news of the quake a full eight minutes before the news broke on TV. And when US Airways Flight 1549 crashed in the Hudson River, a Twitter-er was the first to report the mayhem.

The point of my story is that social media is so instant and so fast that print media is beginning to seem archaic. If news breaks on Twitter or Facebook, people are rarely going to wait for the newspaper that hits their stoop the next morning to find out the details. Social and online media sources are simply more accessible and more convenient then waiting around for news or for product information to be published. News feeds are quicker and sexier. And the proof is in the pudding- check out www.trendistic.com which tracks trends on Twitter.  Do a search for a pop culture event that happened recently and see the spike in Tweets just mentioning that person or event around the time the news worthy event happened.. We tried Patrick Swayze, Michael Jackson and Braylon Edwards and sure enough, the days that those men were in the news, the Twitter conversations mentioning them spiked. People are going to social media networks and to online newspaper sources to get instant information that newspapers and magazines just can not compete with, as hard as they try. And when you can’t keep up with your competition, you fold. So as more print media sources fold, we’ll keep reading about it on Twitter, and the viscious cycle will continue, just like the world turns every day. It’s just going to turn faster than we ever imagined.

Posted in Social Media Columbus Ohio Web Design | 12 Comments »

The Six Digitally Remastered Degrees of Separation

September 17th, 2009

-By Tricia M. Williams

I am a social butterfly by nature, and am completely awed by the concept of “the six degrees of separation”- it utterly enthralls me. I love its power and magnitude, greater than we used to be able to imagine.  The notion of the six degrees is that you are connected to every other person in the world by six people, which is completely amazing and deserves the utmost respect.  But personally, I think that best part about the six degrees is that you can know someone, who knows someone, who knows Brad Pitt.

I got my first real taste of the “six degrees” when I was 13 years old. I had spent the night at my friend’s house and was walking home the next day and as usual, I took the slightly longer way so I could go past my crush’s (let’s call him Brad) home. Brad was every 13 year old girls dream. He was tall, blond, had the bluest eyes and played a mean game of kickball. In the summer and on occasional weekends Brad would go to Hollywood and do some acting. He had done it his whole life and was making a good living for a kid not even in high school. Now it was well known rumor that Brad was great friends with Andrew Keegan. Oh, Andrew Keegan- the tanned, dark haired hottie from “Baywatch”! His pictures were everywhere in my school, which made Brad a celebrity in his own right. So as I walked past his home, I peered into his living room window as I had a million times hoping for a quick glance (that would lead to ‘going out’, which would lead to marriage, naturally), and there standing right in front of me, was the most glorious proof of the rumor: Andrew Keegan, shirtless and drinking a juice box. I nearly died, frozen in the street watching this real life celebrity stare back at me. After a few humiliating seconds I ran home and proceeded to call every single one of my friends (and my enemies because why wouldn’t I rub it in their faces) about my run-in with fate.

So what does all of this have to do with social media you may be wondering? It’s simple: I know Brad, who knows Andrew Keegan (for real!) who knows countless other Hollywood celebrities. It’s the six degrees, hard at work and in my favor. Now Andrew Keegan has fallen off the radar, but still he knows people, which means I am only that much closer to Mr. Pitt. Social media works in the exact same way. By connecting to a person on Facebook for example, you open yourself up to their friends, and their friends friends and so on. Social media connects you to millions of people without even trying in a short period of time. In fact, as far as advertising goes, social media allows you to target audiences and spread your brand, idea, product or service faster than any other advertising medium EVER. By connecting to friends on Facebook alone will allow you to reach an audience of up to 50 MILLION potential customers in two short little years. If that’s not a big bag full of goodies, then I don’t know what is.

It’s amazing when you think of the power and scope of social media. In a webinar I sat in this morning, one of the presenters had over 100,000 followers on Twitter. That means his message, be it a quote or a deal, goes out to over 100,00 people at the click of a mouse. It’s incredible to think that such a vast audience is out there and waiting. And they are definitely waiting and signing up by the droves. Facebook gets over 600,000 new users a DAY. In a single day. And they’re out there waiting to be friended by companies just like yours and mine who want to offer them the best deals out there. And when they get those deals, they tell their friends who want the same deal, and friend you. And their friends friend you. It’s one beautiful, complicated and wide circle.

So really social media networking turns us all into the 13 year old me, instantly connecting ourselves to the world in a flash by knowing someone who knows someone who knows someone else. But the greatest part about the modern day six degrees of separation is that we can see this mystical concept with our own eyes. It’s right there on paper- tangible proof that we are in fact connected to the entire world by six people and that world is ready to be exposed to your business and what you have to offer. Harnessing the power of social media and putting that power into the hands of the experts can only help your business grow. Developing a smart and proactive Social Media marketing strategy is a key investment to the growth and development of your business. There’s a great deal more to it than just adding friends and doing a few updates on your wall. Targeting the right market is imperative, coupled with the utilization of keywords and traditional marketing strategies is the underlying foundation to a successful campaign.

There’s no end in sight to the social media boom and no reason to believe that social media will become a faded memory of pop culture. Every network you join, every tweet you make is a step deeper into the exponentially growing social media world. It’s all there, collaborated on your computer screen and neatly displayed, waiting to grow and expand even further. The six degrees of separation has entered the technological revolution and is spreading like wildfire across the globe, affecting your potential clients. But the greatest thing about the digitization of the six degrees is that along with building your social media empire, you can now also take quizzes about what kind of beer you should be.

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Posted in Social Media Columbus Ohio Web Design | 3 Comments »

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