April 2011
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Fiscal Year 2012 Budget
Amplify’d from budget.house.govThe current path – which the President’s irresponsible budget commits us to – will result in a debt-fueled economic crisis, the shredding of the safety net, and a diminished future. Americans deserve better than empty promises from a government going broke. The budget advanced by the House Budget Committee ensures real security through real reform. The House Budget...
March 2011
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5 Examples of Ineffective Advert SWSX
Amplify’d from www.ignitesocialmedia.comExample #1: Paper ClutterExample #2: Girls In Spandex (or Worse)Example #3: Superfluous Tech Eye CandyExample #4: Incomplete InformationExample #5: Themed LoungesSee more at www.ignitesocialmedia.com See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/bupl3
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4 Real Reasons to Care @ Google Places
Amplify’d from smallbiztrends.comSpend any real time in the small business marketing world and you’ll quickly be inundated with new services, new tools, new updates, new features and new things everyone thinks you should be aware of. As a result, it’s not always easy to decide what truly demands your attention and what can be written off as background noise. For that reason it’s possible that when...
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The Free Google Ride is Over Lazy SEOs
Amplify’d from www.marketingpilgrim.comThen he drops somewhat of a bombshell for all those SEOs that have been relying on the keyword in the domain to do all the heavy-lifting:Now if you are still on the fence, let me just give you a bit of color. that we have looked at the rankings and the weights that we give to keyword domains, & some people have complained that we are giving a little too...
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Why Your Newsletter Incentive is Bad
Amplify’d from www.problogger.netMost bloggers know that one way to encourage people to sign up to their blog is to offer an incentive. Some kind of free report, or ebook or other gift that is a tempting reward for a visitor to transform into a newsletter subscriber.If you’re struggling to create your incentive, or your incentive doesn’t seem to be converting well, read this article. We’re going...
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Googled Disables Starred Search
Amplify’d from searchengineland.comNew: Google Disables Starring Results On Search ResultsGoogle has disabled the ability to star search results from within the Google search results page. As you may remember, Google replaced SearchWiki with starring results back in March 2010, about 16-months after Google launched SearchWiki. Now that Google has re-introduced a way to block sites in Google,...
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The New Age Of Article Marketing
Amplify’d from searchengineland.comBut once search analytics firm Systrix collected some data on “farmer”, a different picture emerged: while some sites had been slammed, article marketing stalwart EzineArticles lost 90% of its traffic, and Yahoo!’s Associated Content lost even more, the big names were largely unscathed. Demand’s eHow actually rose slightly, although some of their other properties...
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Facebook Marketing for Bands
Amplify’d from www.blueglass.comThe path of the musician has become easier in the modern age, with online resources allowing musicians to get their music to the masses quicker than ever before. While persistence, dedication, and actually having good music all play a major role, there’s an additional factor that’s even more critical: you have to approach marketing correctly.One of the major things...
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Nice Brands Don’t Finish Last
Amplify’d from www.marketingcharts.comWhile common wisdom says that “nice guys finish last,” this is not necessarily true in the branding arena, according to new analysis from trendwatching.com. In particular, trendwatching.com says “random acts of kindness,” rather than distributing free samples or providing specific rewards for actions such as posting a positive social network review, can pay...
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Social media in a time of need
Amplify’d from radar.oreilly.comHow the Red Cross and the Los Angeles Fire Department integrate social tools into crisis response.The Red Cross and the Los Angeles Fire Department have been at the forefront of adopting social media in crisis response. That’s not entirely by choice, given that news of disasters has consistently broken first on Twitter. The challenge is for the men and women...
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The Importance Of Differentiated Content
Amplify’d from searchengineland.comI puzzled over the title of this column for a bit. The initial title I wrote was “The Importance of Unique Content”, and I actually mean something different than that. Most of the time when we talk about unique content we mean not simply using copies of someone else’s text (whether it be plagiarized or licensed). What I am going to focus on today is the...
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HOW TO: Create Informative Favicons
Amplify’d from www.searchenginejournal.comI love tabs and have played with multiple addons to make the most of tabs in FireFox. One of my best discoveries ever was a handy little addon with a very basic but ingenius functionality: Faviconize Tab helps to manage a tab jam by adding an option to minimize each tab to its favicon (and thus keeps it always in front of your eyes).The addon turned out to...
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How To Successfully Use Twitter For Relationship...
Amplify’d from socialmouths.comSocial Glitz I’m not telling you anything new when I say that Web 2.0 and social media have changed the way we use the Internet. Neither am I telling you anything new when I say that that’s the reason why marketers and PR professionals are finding themselves in an increasingly difficult situation. We, as consumers, are no longer as easily identifiable as we used to...
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Google Adds Twitter Integration to Push Location...
Amplify’d from thenextweb.comOver the past few months we’ve seen Google push location reviews pretty hard. Its Hotpot feature has been developing quickly and today the company has added something pretty significant – Twitter integration for place reviews in the Android Maps app.The ‘Post Review to Twitter’ feature is available in an update to Google Maps that launches today. Also included is a new...
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40 Dead Simple Ways to Get More Comments on Your...
Amplify’d from mackcollier.com40 Dead Simple Ways to Get More Comments on Your BlogWant more engagement and interaction on your blog? Yeah, most of us do, here’s 50 tips to get you started:Blog Design:1 – Put your picture on the front page and the About page of the blog2 - On the About page write who you are and why you are blogging. Both #1 and #2 make it easier for readers to connect with...
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What Twitter Behavioral Trends Mean For Businesses...
Amplify’d from www.blueglass.comTrend: The Social News ParadigmThe new culture of sharing and curating news has progressively increased the importance we give to what our social network is sharing. This includes the latest news, uncomfortable private details of our friends’ lives, or immediate product and service reviews.The latter of the three is of particular concern to business owners and...
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Facebook Brings Back Reverse Chronological “Most...
Amplify’d from www.insidefacebook.comFacebook has returned the “Most Recent” tab to Page walls, allowing users to view a reverse chronological stream of updates by the Page and its fans. The removal of this version of the wall was the most criticized change in the February 2011 Page redesign. Users can choose to switch between the Most Recent and the relevancy filtered “Top Posts” view, but admins...
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Why Did It Take So Long for Newspapers to Copy...
Amplify’d from gigaom.comWord leaked out today about a new service the New York Times is planning to launch soon called TimesLimited, which is expected to provide readers with special offers on travel and other lifestyle items via email. If you’re thinking this sounds more than a little like what companies like Groupon and LivingSocial do, you’d be right. It looks like a fairly straightforward...
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Home is Where The User Is (via @SEJournal)
Amplify’d from www.searchenginejournal.comOut with the old ways of designing a website where there is a traditional landing (home) page and more basic interior pages. We all know that search engines have been ranking individual pages rather than core domains for a long time now. So why are we still designing sites with static interior pages?Our interior pages, posts, archives, download pages,...
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Facebook: Comments Now Spam, Troll Unfriendly...
Amplify’d from www.blogherald.comFacebook has upgraded their commenting service in order to remain competitive against rivals like Disqus as well as IntenseDebate.While the improved anti-spam features should help bloggers combat spam, their new “social signal” feature may also help your readers from viewing comments from annoying trolls as well.By only allowing new comers comments to be visible to...
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SEO: Why 65 Percent of Top 20 E-Commerce Sites Are...
Amplify’d from www.clickz.comSales originate through traffic. Google is the number one source of traffic, accounting for up to 80 percent of total traffic on e-commerce sites (organic, paid, and shopping). Does Google like your site? And, most importantly, does Google like and deliver traffic to your product page, on which the “add to cart” button is located? We analyzed the top 20...
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When Loyalty Points Beat Price Differences
Amplify’d from www.neurosciencemarketing.comEvery merchant seems to have a loyalty program these days. It makes sense to reward customers for their patronage and encourage even greater frequency. But, it appears there’s one kind of loyalty reward that may be more effective. One study showed that “irrelevant information” (in this case, largely valueless loyalty points) changed consumer buying...
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What Makes a Good Infographic?
Amplify’d from www.blueglass.comIt can sometimes be difficult to explain what makes a piece of art “good”, but as a famous judge once said, “I know it when I see it.” To that end, allow me to shed some light on what makes a good infographic. It seems that with each passing year, infographics are getting more traction on sites like Digg, and more and more people are looking to master the craft of...
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A Link Building Blueprint: Utility Linking
Amplify’d from searchengineland.comAlmost every SEO I know spent the better part of last week discussing recent changes Google made to its ranking algorithm. This update hit some webmasters hard while others went unscathed, and results still seem to be settling out.Nothing I’m working on was impacted (knock wood) probably because I tend to use a wide variety of linking tactics over a broad...
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Why Reef Safe Sunscreen is not Safe for our Reefs...
Amplify’d from mvorganicsblog.comA recent article from the Cosmetics Design newsletter mentions that a sunscreen going by the name of Reef Safe, manufactured by Beach Buff, has gotten approval from Jean Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Futures Society. With a name like Reef Safe, not to mention its stamp of approval from an organization headed by a Cousteau, one would expect a somewhat pristine...
February 2011
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New Research: Search Marketing Vs. Social Media or...
Amplify’d from www.livingstonbuzz.comNew report from GroupM and comScore indicates that search engine marketing and social media combined has a huge impact on consumers’ purchasing decision online. It’s worth reading the entire report to understand how SEO and social are interdependent in driving conversion rates. GroupM and comScore looked at consumer behavior associated with purchase decisions...
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Facebook Increases Number of Visible Tab Apps on...
Amplify’d from www.insidefacebook.comFacebook has increased the number of tab applications that are visible above the fold in the navigation menu of Facebook Pages. It also now only allows Pages with more tabs installed than fit above the fold to reorder their tabs.The changes will allow Pages to expose users to more tabs for promotions, email signups, games, and other functions. However, it will...
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“Liking” a story now posts a thumbnail to your...
Amplify’d from thenextweb.com“Liking” a story now posts a thumbnail to your Facebook stream, just like the FB share button.We recently revamped our share button arrangement (you should see it to the right) and made a conscious decision to include the FB Share button instead of the FB Like button which can still be found at the bottom of our articles.Why? Well until today when a reader ‘liked’ (or...
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Google Adwords: Show ads that are most likely to...
Amplify’d from adwords.blogspot.comTo use the new setting, you’ll need to have Conversion Tracking in your account, as we use the data from that tool to determine which ad is the most likely to receive conversions. When we don’t have enough data to make a decision, we’ll show the ad that is the most likely to receive clicks. If you have Conversion Tracking, the Optimize for conversions option will...
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Designed To Fail: Why Many Tests Give You...
Amplify’d from searchengineland.comYou built out your new ad copy, tested out a bidding strategy, measured web and store sales to measure the online to offline effect; however, in the end you got the worst outcome possible – inconclusive results.A negative result would have been better; at least you would have known that your hypothesis was wrong or that your strategy was not effective. But an...
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Eliminate 21 Reputation-Crushing Writing Mistakes...
Amplify’d from www.problogger.netUnfortunately for you and your readers, writing mistakes are like speed bumps on the blog post open highway. They slow down the reader and remove her from your world—the created reality that you share through your text.Since you only have a few seconds to impress new readers, it’s critical to make all facets of your content flawless. If your writing confuses...
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The 3 Big Myths of B2B Content Marketing
Amplify’d from www.contentmarketinginstitute.comContent marketing is hot right now. According to the B2B Content Marketing: 2010 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends report, 51% of B2B marketers plan to increase their content marketing budgets within the next year. That’s because publishing compelling content can help you attract customers, increase your brand awareness, promote your thought leadership...
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Whenever you hit Facebook’s “Like” button you’re...
Amplify’d from thenextweb.comAlmost every popular website has a Facebook “Like” button. Millions of people press that button everyday, unaware of the full consequences that Facebook has recently implemented.A post on the Facebook developer’s blog highlighted the ability for site owners to directly post in user’s newsfeeds.This option for site owners, launched at last year’s Facebook f8 conference...
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Preparing for The Death of RSS
Amplify’d from www.wolf-howl.comWhile I personally am a big fan of RSS, I stand by my position that RSS is not being adopted by the mainstream population (see the big fat RSS lie) and is therefore a dying technology.There have been numerous articles about RSS being dead or not. Feel free to engage in the debate if you want. I’m looking at two things: 1. search volume for the term RSSand 2. where...
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Reading: Close to Half of US Mobile Subscribers...
Amplify’d from www.marketingcharts.comIn December 2010, nearly 47% of mobile subscribers in the US were mobile media users (browsed the mobile web, accessed applications, downloaded content or accessed the mobile Internet via SMS), up about 17% from the previous year, according to a new report from comScore. Data from “The 2010 Mobile Year in Review” indicates the growth in mobile media usage is...
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EXCELLENT ARTICLE: How Is Twitter Impacting...
Amplify’d from mackcollier.comYesterday’s post on Social Media Crisis Management was a bit of experiment to see how highly I could rank for the term “Social Media Crisis Management”. I also wanted to share my results with you, so you can hopefully learn a bit more about the importance of SEO (Search Engine Optimization).First, I picked a fairly specific term, in “Social Media Crisis Management”....
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Eye-Tracking & User-Testing Made Easy with YouEye
Amplify’d from www.readwriteweb.comUser testing with eye-tracking software can be an expensive undertaking. But a start-up on stage today at LAUNCH may offer a way to simplify that process - both in terms of cost, testers, and technology.YouEye uses a webcam to record users’ behavior on a website. Eye-tracking can point to the areas on your site where users are drawn and those that they...
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Has Facebook made your Website Obsolete?
Amplify’d from www.livingstonbuzz.comIf you follow the idiom “fish where the fish are, it might be tempting to focus all your marketing eggs in the Facebook basket with over 600 million users and growing. But the question that naturally follows is: with pools of fish (read: customers) swimming in the Facebook virtual hot tub, why am I still wading in the kiddie pool (translation: has my website...
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Reading: Share With Friends What You Liked and...
Amplify’d from hotpot.blogspot.comSometimes, just knowing your friend rated a place four stars isn’t enough to make a decision about where to go. That’s one reason why reviews, along with ratings, can be so helpful.
But even beyond the star rating and written review, we wanted to make it really easy for you to share very specific information about all kinds of places. Why did your friend rate it...
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Green Your Content Marketing: Reuse Valuable...
Amplify’d from websuccessdiva.comContent creation and marketing are arguably the toughest tasks in marketing for a business to wrap their heads around. The smaller the business, the harder it is to consistently create valuable content. Not to mention finding the time for content marketing. I like to share a little process with my clients called the green approach to content marketing–based on...
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Page Destination Tab Ad Campaign Strategies
Amplify’d from www.insidefacebook.comAdvertisers have the option to create ads with a specific landing tab of a Page as the ad’s destination. Here we’ll provide strategies for how to maximize returns from destination tab ads that point to welcome tabs that are appropriate for all visitors, Facebook’s native tabs, tabs that drive specific types of conversion such as contact info collection or...
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Ten Reasons Why Your Content Strategy Fails
Amplify’d from www.conversationagent.com This is another post that is back by popular demand, with several changes and additions. In the last two years, content marketing has matured, and many more voices have joined the conversation.There are a content marketing institute, an Alltop category, and now a content strategy conference, Confab2011. Why is everyone all of a sudden talking and writing...
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Facebook Improves Search Results On Site
Amplify’d from www.allfacebook.comWhile Microsoft’s Bing and Google have just added social media to their search engines, Facebook appears to have upgraded its own search: the site now groups query results under category headings.
Previously, search results would show up in the drop-down menu without any organization, but now Facebook organizes them by category headings, as you can see in the...
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Repurposing Your Video Content Is as Easy as 1, 2,...
Amplify’d from www.mpdailyfix.comPeople are spending more time watching more videos online than ever, and multimedia, like video, tends to hold their attention longer.According to a Nielsen ratings report, “by June 2010, 136.2 million Americans had viewed 10.2 billion videos streams … The average U.S. Internet user spent 194.6 minutes watching online video during the month.” This constituted a 3%...
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Making Websites Mobile Friendly
Amplify’d from googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.comWe’ve noticed a rise in the number of questions from webmasters about how best to structure a website for mobile phones and how websites can best interact with Googlebot-Mobile. In this post we’ll explain the current situation and give you specific recommendations you can implement now.A good way to answer this question is to think about the...
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QR Codes For Marketing
Amplify’d from websuccessdiva.comWTH!? QR Codes? Are QR Codes really viable for marketing? Wait a minute, I’m not Gucci, Ford or some other big brand… Indeed, you may not be a big brand–I would argue, as I have done for several clients, QR Codes are not just for the big boys. A good understanding of your customer and how QR Codes can be used can help you make the decision to QR or not to...
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Why You Get Un-Liked, Un-Followed And...
Amplify’d from websuccessdiva.comSince its inception, social media–for most marketers–has been about amassing massive amounts of followers, fans, twitter connects and subscribers. We talk about influence and engagement as if every customer we have is a number, barcode or statistic. So focused on quantity and measurements we often miss the foundational element that makes social, well, social–the...
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Weekly Mashup: Facebook Edition
Amplify’d from websuccessdiva.comThis week’s mashup is a collection of must-read, hand picked resources from across the Internet focused on Facebook marketing–how to adjust after recent changes to Page design, how to market your business effectively, Facebook by the numbers and much more.How Much is a Tweet or a Like Worth to You?
ChompOn has released some interesting findings (pdf) related to...
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Facebook Adds New Relationship Status Types, but...
Amplify’d from www.insidefacebook.comFacebook is rolling out the option for users to set their relationship status to “In a civil union” and “In a domestic partnership”. These types will allow gay couples to more accurately describe their relationship. However, advertisers don’t have the option to target users based on these types, or any other types than “Single”, “In a relationship”, “Engaged”,...
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Why Most Facebook Marketing Doesn't Work
Amplify’d from www.readwriteweb.comFor almost four years, since the Facebook Platform was launched, I have been involved in delivering Facebook apps for top brands such as CBS, NBC, Lifetime, Universal Music, Visa and more. Here’s what we have learned doesn’t work, and more importantly, what does work.First, deep campaigns don’t work. Digital agencies love deep, expensive...