eCommerce and

Over the last couple of months Google has been shaking up the social media world through their creation of Google+. Up until now, Google+ was and still is a closed social media network that you must be invited to in order to participate. It is not hard to get an invite, but you have to have one to create a profile. Once a part of the network you can start to “+1” things ranging from search and ad results to independent websites. All of which will get added to your +1 history and gives the owner and website a happiness boost since their site is being interacted with.

Recently though, Google announced that they are now allowing +1’s from people that you are connected to to influence your search results. While in theory this is a great new feature as you often trust the people that you are connected to on social media so their influence is welcomed. This ranking in itself is very easily manipulated and with the way social media connections are headed you could be receiving results shared by your second cousins wife’s mother in law who you randomly accepted but who’s opinion you may not trust. Also, enter the world of companies that sell hundreds of +1’s for a nominal fee (I won’t link to them but you can find them online if you are interested) and you have a metric that will soon be able to influence lots of searchers and create trust, that can easily be bought. While the same thing is true for companies that sell Facebook likes and Twitter followers, these metrics do not directly influence the search results you receive so their effect is more for social media clout then for results manipulation. I have personally seen a result jump from page 2 to page 1 in my results with just one friend sharing it. You can see an example of what it looks like below.

Google is smart and they will no doubt find a way to combat the selling of +1 clicks, but you have to wonder that since the selling of links to influence pagerank still such a widely used tactic you would think they would not want to release another metric that can so easily be influenced. Either way the implementation of +1’ed results into organic search is interesting and it will be exciting to see where it goes.

What are your thoughts on this, do you think it is a good idea? Let me know in the comments.

Last week Google released a new extension that can be installed on Google Chrome called the Google Related Extension. What this toolbar does is hide in the bottom of your browser, then pop up whenever you are on a site that it thinks related information would be helpful for.

If you are on a product and there is a video it pops up, if you are on another product and there are a lot of other retailers, it will show you the lowest price and it also shows reviews and map information for restaurants. All of this is designed to provide a better user experience for people browsing the Internet. I turned it on, and it has some cool features, however as a retailer I am not sure what I think about it.

First, as with anything Google related it has to have good adoption before it can be taken seriously. Whether it is Wave or Sidewiki, without adoption and users it can be gone tomorrow. What sets Google Related apart is that it can be built into the next version of the Google Chrome browser if Google thinks that it is relevant enough, and in that it will gain adoption from users of this browser. While the Chrome browser still has a smaller market share it continues to gain traction. If users do start to use this though it can change the way people browse sites, as all of the unrelated information is located in one place and they no longer have to search it out. They no longer have to leave to see a video or review, which can help the purchase decision, as they have it at the bottom of their browser.

Second, if people start to use Google Related then it can create a whole new game for online retailers, as well as other websites. While it is becoming increasingly more difficult to rank in organic Google search, this related extension can make it harder to capture traffic by giving visitors information that can potentially take them off your site. I am not saying that it’s not OK for customers to shop around and find the best deal, I do that myself, but the online funnel process hardly needs more distractions in this world of social media. Google related has the ability to send visits to competitors but also to send their visitors to you. This is a double edge sword that can lead competitors to fight over who has the cheapest prices by the cent, much like gas stations on the same street.  While this isn’t bad it can create a new ground to compete on if the users present themselves.

Lastly, there are many good things it can offer, for the SEO it can help you to see what Google thinks is related content to the page you are on, which can help with link building and other tasks. For the sales manager it can show you products or categories where your company is significantly losing the price war, allowing you to try to be more competitive on this front. Also, for the public relations manager it can show you reviews and what others are saying about your site. Lastly, for the customer it can provide them better information to make the purchase decisions.

All things considered, the related extension is a step in the right direction for the average computer user. For the retailer it has both good and bad implications, but before we let it change the way we market we have to see if people even use it.

What about you, what do you think about the Google Related Extension? Let us know in the comments.

One of my favorite subjects to write on, as well as a constant addiction for me is Twitter. The service allows you to connect to people you normally would not have access to, while at the same time helping you to establish yourself as a market leader in different niches, and in turn building up your social media ego. However, there is a difference between those that use the service and those that make the service work for them, and in that difference you can really help yourself standout.

Twitter is essentially a service where thousands of voices are all trying to be heard, and in that confusion it becomes a screaming match were brands, people and celebrities are all trying to make their voice stand out to the masses. The average Twitter user’s stream has hundreds of companies and people that tweet every other minute and it becomes hard for one user to really stand out. Because of this I always advise people on the three tips below, thus helping establish a lasting presence on Twitter.

Know Your Audience
This is essential to engagement on Twitter. If someone followed you because you are funny and you start to tweet about scientific research then there is a good chance they will not follow you for much longer. At the same time if you share interesting business articles and then start posting pictures of your friends planking, you will lose followers as well. Twitter, more than most other services, really pigeon holes people into certain areas of expertise. When the average user follows someone new, they normally add them to a Twitter list. These lists help to organize their twitter lives and if a user goes against their lists by tweeting weird things or tweeting too often, the list can easily be modified. So make sure that as you are developing your presence you really get to know your audience and use them to feel out what they will interact with. Obviously this does not apply for most celebrity Twitter users as they often Tweet about whatever they like and people will still follow them. So the first step is to know your audience.

Be Ready to Connect
For brands and or people, Twitter is a platform that gives anyone with a keyboard the ability to contact whoever they feel like contacting. I can sit down right now and tweet President Obama, doesn’t mean he will respond or even read it, but I can tweet him. All this means is that if you are a brand then anyone who has or is going to buy one of your products has immediate public access to your brand. They can tweet how much they hate your service or they can tweet that they had the best experience ever buying from your company; but regardless of what they tweet they have a public forum for it. As a business you must respond to these questions and comments in a friendly and timely manner. Other customers are watching and a good response can mean the difference between a sale or an exit. If you are not ready to connect then you do not need to be on Twitter.

Make A Difference
In the millions of tweets that get sent every day, 90% are not making a difference. While they don't all have to be amazing, your tweet on your new hair color, the traffic on the way to work or what you are having for lunch can be interesting, but if this is all you are tweeting about you need another outlet. Create content, find interesting articles, and really work to develop yourself in a niche that you love. Even if that niche is as small as how to cook organic vegetables using only a stainless steel wok, if that is something you are good at and have expertise in it, you can become a leader in that niche and help others understand more about that process. In doing so you will add to the conversation and help to develop yourself on twitter to get your message heard.

These are a few of the tips that I use for interaction on Twitter. What about you? Do you have any tips that I left off?

After a couple weeks of waiting I was finally able to score an invite into Google+. The excitement mounted as I first logged in and started to see what all of the buzz was about. More than most recent products I have seen, especially from Google, this product was actually greeted with good reviews and excitement from most people that used it, so I was curious to see if I agreed. Read on for the rest of my review.

Circles
After the initial login and the upload of my profile picture I made my way over to the circles area to start customizing the people that I knew. It is simple to do, and has a cool user interface for dragging people I knew into circles and then inviting others I knew into the program. It also allows you to group people based on how well you know them, but does not show this to the person you have added. Meaning if you add someone who considers you their best friend to the acquaintances circle they will not be able to see that you do not think of them the same way. This is an interesting way to manage who sees what messages, who is invited to certain hang outs and who can see whether you are online. Differing slightly from Facebook’s established platform Circles is a cool, albeit not especially innovative, way to manage and add new friends. It will be interesting to see how Google builds on it.

Profiles
While there is nothing to crazy here yet, Google does allow you to customize your profile with all of the standard information such as name, workplace, photos, etc. They also allow users to see what you have +1’ed across the net as well. If you don’t know what +1 is it is Googles answer to the Facebook like button that shows up on all searches when you are logged in. I’m sure the profile section will have a lot more features as Google+ expands.

Sparks
Sparks is another cool feature that is implemented directly from your home screen. This feature is like Google Reader, but based on what Google thinks is important for the keywords you put in, not your RSS feeds. Since I am very into photography I have “photography’ “photography contests” and “hiking” as my current sparks. When I click any of these it shows me recent stories for those keywords from around Google's network. I like having this in my profile, however the results that I saw were not that great for any of the keywords I have, so I hope this expands as the service grows.

Hangouts
Hangouts is one of the Google+ features that I really find interesting. This feature allows the user to create a hangout (video chat) and allow different circles to be able to jump in that hangout. The hangout is a way for up to ten people with webcams to all join a group chat and talk with each other in one easy to use area, essentially making a social network a little more face to face. I have created a couple hangouts and I find that the feature works well with understanding who is talking, as well as moving that video to the front. However, I have not used this with a lot of people all at once yet, so I am not sure if it would work well with many different users.

There are also some features that I haven’t tried yet such as Huddle for group chatting, and photos for uploading your photos to Google+. Another downfall of the system currently is the fact that the iPhone app has yet to be approved, so Apple users are not able to make easy updates on the go. The true test of this network will not be the users it gets but the adoption of people actually using this product. If I create hangouts and none of my friends are online to join, it won’t be long before I am back on the other social networks. However, if Google can find a way to get people to actively use this service, then they may have a winner on their hands in Google+.

What do you think? Have you used it? Are you a fan? Let us know in the comments.

With the recent algorithm shifts and all of the new personalization options available to searchers, it is becoming more important to expand your traffic sources to websites other than simply search engines. Believe it or not there are many great social media websites out there that have the potential to send a lot of gret traffic to your website. Here are my nine favorite social media sites for traffic.

Twitter – For a business it is easy to create a Twitter account and grab some followers, but often hard to get customers to care about what you are tweeting. The average Twitter user has a huge list of people that they follow and a single tweet can often be lost in the stream. Establishing a good system of followers, as well as gathering some of the deal bots to follow you, can help you gain momentum and connect to people that care about what you are sending. Companies like Dell have used this as a customer service outlet as well, which is a great way to connect with the customer and get them to interact with you. Make sure that if you are getting these types of interactions you have the staff necessary to provide the customer with a good experience. If you can capitalize on it, the traffic possibilities from Twitter are virtually endless.

Facebook – The most popular site on the Internet is not just for the user, it also has a lot to offer brands as well. With the constant updates to their fan pages and the great free apps and analytics, it is easy to see why many brands flock to this site as their first social media outlet before anything else. Developing a following can be hard for small brands, but if you work hard to get your links out there and offer incentives, contests or promotions you can quickly develop a decent following who will gladly share your site with others if you give them the incentive. Facebook has the possibility to provide a good amount of traffic to your website, so make sure you capitalize on it by providing interesting information for the customer and not bombarding them to the point where they hide or unfriend your business. Also adding the Facebook like and share buttons to your site can help your customers share deals with their friends even if they are not connected to your Facebook fan page.

Quora – Quora is a great site with a lot of buzz right now. Taking the question and answer approach they have been able to get a lot of big movers and shakers behind the site and in turn created a lot of great content for the user. If you get on Quora and start providing really good answers to questions that have yet to be answered, you can easily develop some decent traffic back to your website while also establishing yourself as a leader in that niche. You can read the full review we did on Quora here.

LinkedIn – LinkedIn is on the tip of everyone's tongue right now with their recent IPO, but the site can help to develop your brand engagement and provide traffic, as well as employees if you spend the time to develop it. You can answer the questions in their question and answer section, encourage your employees to add themselves to your company and even advertise to potential employees and customers. LinkedIn also allows your company to provide a public face to potential employees as well as everyone else, allowing them to get a glimpse of what life at your company is like.

YouTube – The second most popular search engine can provide a lot of great traffic if you are decently creative and have the equipment to create and post a video (even most smart phones can post a YouTube video now). Businesses can even run promoted video campaigns that will bring their videos to the top of the SERPs and will add an overlay to the video when the user watches it that is a clickable link to your website. YouTube gets over 100 million views per day, and more then 50% of videos have been rated or commented on. That statistic alone should be enough to get your business to support YouTube. Those high interaction statistics are not found on many other sites on the internet.

Flickr – If your company has product photographs they can easily be uploaded to Flickr and provide some traffic. Obviously, as a photo community if your photographs aren’t well done or exciting then there is a small possibility of people really caring; however, if you are a decent photographer you can develop some cool pictures and in turn grab some traffic from frequent Flickr crawlers such as Google Images. Flickr is also a great place to showcase a new product that people may not have heard of before, as it can easily get the product picture in front of some eyes.

StumbleUpon – StumbleUpon is a great website for people who are bored and are looking for something new. Submitting your site there can help provide a lot of traffic, if the page is exciting. If you submit your homepage or your about us page don’t expect the traffic to flow in. However, if you have created a new infographic or have a funny or interesting blog post, submitting it to stumble upon can have some great traffic results. Creating a piece of link bait? Make sure StumbleUpon is the first place you promote it.

Amplify – Not as much for business as it is for your personal brand, Amplify is like Twitter without the message restrictions. You can follow people and post links and information for your followers to see and click on. It has the same type of feel that Twitter does but with the potential to share larger amounts of information. It has a good community and has the potential to bring some good traffic to your site in the future.

Google +1 – Though not officially release yet, Google’s foray into the social media realm again has the potential to mix things up. They are adding a plus one button to all of their results, paid and organic, as well as wherever the user wants to add it on their own site. In doing this they can gather more information on what users like and in turn use that to effect organic search results. The traffic possibilities of increasing your search results in Google simply from having a couple more +1’s is enough to get any marketer on the band wagon.

What about you, what social media sites do you see bringing the most traffic to your site? Make sure you leave them in the comments.

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With all the buzz that Twitter is continuing to gain, I thought it was the perfect time to talk about great ways to attract more Twitter followers. Twitter is becoming increasingly important from the online and social media marketing standpoint, every day companies are finding new ways to leverage it and are reaping the benifits. It is not simply enough to create a Twitter account, for the most benefits you need to have a good amount of active followers that will engage with you. Below are some of the top tips I use when building Twitter followers.

Follow People
Bar none, this is the fastest way to gain Twitter followers. Unless you are a huge company, gone are the days where a business can simply create an account and have thousands of followers without following anyone back.  Figure out who are some of the big players in your niche and follow them, at the same time follow some of their followers as well. Many of these people will see that you are interested in the same thing and more then likely follow you back.

Have a Profile Picture
A profile picture is a huge trust factor on Twitter. Bonus points if you profile picture is of a real person and not simply a logo. If you are a large company a logo will be fine, but if you are a small company you may want to consider putting the social media manager’s photo as the twitter icon, allowing you to connect easier with people as a real human being.

Retweet
Retweeting is a way to not only gain followers, but to keep them. This is not simple follow Friday retweeting, but actually taking interesting posts that your friends have tweeted and sending them out to your followers. Doing this engages with the person that got retweeted, and often makes them want to retweet you back in the future. Make sure not to just tweet everything that comes your way, but selective retweeting will help you gain and keep new followers.

Get Listed
When Twitter announced their lists feature it added a lot of new possibilities to how to easily get followed. If you are listed on a list that people follow often such as the Mashable lists, then whenever the list gets a follow you do as well. Hit up users with lists that are popular and see about getting included in those lists.

Have an Interesting Bio
If a user is searching for new people to follow and they find 100 social media managers all boasting their personal achievements, then see one who writes something that is catchy and makes them laugh, chances are they will follow that user. An interesting bio helps you stand out from pack and makes you much more interesting to the casual user who is unsure of who you are.

Link as Much as Possible
Whether it is your company website, the next time you do public speaking, or simply telling your friends, any opportunity to link or tell someone about your Twitter account should be taken. Doing this will get your account in front of as many new faces as possible, and will help you to gather followers that were already interested in your brand to begin with.

These are just a few of the tips I recommend when gathering fans for a Twitter account. For my other blog for additional tips on making twitter work for your business.

What about you, do you have any other tips you recommend when working with Twitter? Leave them in the comments, and make sure to follow PlumberSurplus, OutdoorPros and GordianProject on Twitter!

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Over the last 6 months, Quora has gained a lot of ground in the crowded social media / question and answers space. With Yahoo Answers being one of the most well known question and answer sites, this was a space primed for growth. Quora is capitalizing on this by creating a product that is fun to use and informative, but is also tied into your other social media efforts. It is becoming a great place to get traffic if you use the service the way it is intended. Here are a couple tips for using Quora to gain traffic.

Find Relevant Questions
Here is a list of all of the open questions currently waiting for an answer.  They range from “what is a good waterproof hiking shoe” to “how many bloggers at Mashable are full time.” If you are an outdoor website then answering the hiking shoe question with a good response and a link to the best hiking shoe you recommend can be a great way to build your brand authority and get some traffic to that page. In turn, if you are Mashable you can jump on the question and provide insight about your company by connecting with fans asking questions (Ben Parr, Co-Editor of Mashable answers users questions all of the time).

Follow The Main Users in Your Niche
Since Quora is one of the “hot companies” right now, many of the big tech and Internet people have profiles and regularly answer user questions. This is a great way to get help with your start up or to connect with important people in your niche. Follow them, and if they ask questions that you are able to answer that is a great platform to connect. You can also gain valuable insight on business from people who have been there before. 

Put In The TimeJust like anything, gaining traffic from Quora won’t happen overnight. You need to put in the time to develop your profile, follow important users and answer many different questions, even ones that do not relate to your site. Doing all of these things will help you to develop your brand on Quora and will give you more respect and votes when you answer questions.

Lastly, make sure you put the time in to answer the question well. We all know how annoying it is to see someone simply answer a users question with a one word response and a link to your website. This will not help your business grow, as users may develop a negative reaction to your business instead of a positive one. Take the time to provide a detailed answer, and you will benefit from it.

Those are my tips, have any of you used Quora? What do you think? Leave your tips in the comments section.

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We have written on the topic of Twitter before, but as one of the most popular social media platforms, I felt a good Twitter for businesses guide was needed. Twitter is one of those sites where you can easily gain a thousand followers and yet see no interaction with any of your tweets and no visitors to your site. This can be quickly disheartening for businesses as they think more followers should equal more visits and integration on Twitter but that is not always the case. In contrast according to the Twitter statistics released last year, Twitter users tweet an average of 55 million tweets a day, meaning your companies tweets can easily get lost in the mix. This post is designed to help you better take advantage of the users you have.

Incentives Work

The below infographic shows the results of a study eMarketers did on “Why we Follow Companies on Twitter.”

Just simply looking at the results should help you to better understand individuals motivations for following your company, as well as spur ideas on how to better interact with them. For large businesses obviously getting updates is a big reason people follow, but for smaller to medium businesses I don’t feel like these are as relevant as tweets pertaining to receiving discounts, getting updates on sales, and samples and coupons. Therefore, if you are a smaller business you should at least consider that the reason someone decided to follow you may have a lot to do with them hoping you will tweet a discount. A discount that they can use to purchase something they want and / or retweet to their followers to provide a benefit to their Twitter stream. If your business is not doing this then you are missing out on potential engagement. 

But is it simply enough to tweet a coupon and watch the sales role in? If it was everyone would be doing it. You first have to engage with the followers to make sure that your tweets are not simply lost in the endless stream.

Giveaways

Giveaways are a direct line to a Twitter users heart. In today's society we all are striving to receive the biggest benefit with the least amount of work, and Twitter has provided this. A simple giveaway of a hot item can garner thousands of tweets, if a tweet is all it takes for an entry. Not only does this provide an instant boast to your Twitter account, but it provides an interaction between the company and the users. This interaction makes the users more interested in what your next tweets will be as there is a possibility there is something in it for them. Setting up a quarterly give away is a great way to gain new followers and retain the ones you have.

Customer Service

Unlike any other service, Twitter gives us the possibility for interaction that is normally outside of your reach. I could tweet President Obama my thoughts on foreign policy right now, there is a 99.9% chance he wont read it, but there is more of a possibility of me getting through to him on Twitter then there is by calling up the White House. This level of interaction is something that is both good and bad for the modern business. Where before the customer had to follow your preferred methods of contact, they can now simply craft a 140 character message and send it to you instantly. While this is scary for many business owners it is an exciting new way to interact with the customer and keep them visiting your site. If you prove to be a good source on Twitter and prove that you respond to your customers in a timely manner you can easily establish engagement and show other potential customers that you care and will answer their questions however you can.

These are just a few of the tips I use on Twitter to help promote a business. What are some others you have seen?  Make sure to leave them in the comments.

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Last night Tim, Zach and I had the opportunity to brave the crazy Southern California rain and make the trek down to San Diego for the SEOmoz Meetup.  The event was hosted by SEOmoz and Engine Ready at The Beer Company, which provided a great atmosphere for mingling and enjoying their food and drinks. SEOmoz even picked up the first two drinks which was a huge plus. The nights presentation went as follows:

Jamie Smith, Chairman and CEO, EngineReady
Topic: Beyond Google Analytics: Tools for Reporting Automation

Rand Fishkin, CEO & Founder, SEOmoz
Topic: Top 10 Things SEOs Have Learned in 2010

Jamie Smith started the night off and had some interesting data and information, before Rand came and gave a great presentation on the 10 SEO lessons learned from 2010 (Check out his presentation slides).

Some of the interesting topics he addressed were
-    Google’s new ranking metrics via social media, including the difference between tweets and links
-    The importance of mentions, even without links
-    Google’s shift to local being strong with Marissa Mayer moving and the attempted aqusition of Groupon
-    LDA
-    Link spam still working
-    Video, images and social all providing opportunity in the future

Rand Presenting

He stayed around afterwords and talked to anyone that had a question. This was really cool as there was a line of at least 10 people at all times for an hour after his presentation waiting to pick his brain on the ways SEO could effect their sites. 

Zach, Tim, Rand, Josh

All in all this was a great night, I wish these events happened more in Southern California. Big thanks to all of the folks at SEOmoz, which makes great SEO Software, for putting on this event and making it free to come and join. I’m already looking forward to next year!

Was anyone else there? What did you think of the event?

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Almost as soon as it was out, there was complaints about Google Buzz and how it affected privacy. These complaints led to a lawsuit, which ended in a settlement, and Google giving $8.5 million dollars to an independent fund which will support better privacy on the web. However, for the Buzz user, this settlement doesn't mean a whole lot. There is no ability to receive compensation as a result of the privacy infringements, but you can rest assured that there is a company somewhere that is $8.5 million dollars richer and hope that it will affect privacy in the future.

See the original email from Google below and weigh in in the comments.

"Google rarely contacts Gmail users via email, but we are making an exception to let you know that we've reached a settlement in a lawsuit regarding Google Buzz (http://buzz.google.com), a service we launched within Gmail in February of this year.

Shortly after its launch, we heard from a number of people who were concerned about privacy. In addition, we were sued by a group of Buzz users and recently reached a settlement in this case.

The settlement acknowledges that we quickly changed the service to address users' concerns. In addition, Google has committed $8.5 million to an independent fund, most of which will support organizations promoting privacy education and policy on the web. We will also do more to educate people about privacy controls specific to Buzz. The more people know about privacy online, the better their online experience will be.

Just to be clear, this is not a settlement in which people who use Gmail can file to receive compensation. Everyone in the U.S. who uses Gmail is included in the settlement, unless you personally decide to opt out before December 6, 2010. The Court will consider final approval of the agreement on January 31, 2011. This email is a summary of the settlement, and more detailed information and instructions approved by the court, including instructions about how to opt out, object, or comment, are available at http://www.BuzzClassAction.com"

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