One emerging trend in online marketing is mobile search. With more people buying  smartphones and using them to find businesses online, mobile search is poised to be a high growth marketing opportunity for many businesses all around the globe.

For one thing, mobile search is highly local. Your customers are searching for a restaurant, gas station, or other business while on the run – on their mobile phones. And if they find your business online using their cell phones, they can often contact your business with one click through one of these methods:

• Click to call
• Skype call
• E-mail
• SMS, or texting
• Website form
• Facebook message
• Twitter
• Google Maps directions
• Foursquare

And this is just to name a few.

Mobile search allows people to find your business while they are in their cars, and then use your contact information on the spur of the moment to visit your store or buy something online.

And now mobile apps are allowing shoppers to compare prices while shopping. If they are in a competitor’s store and you have a better price on the merchandise they are looking for, through a mobile app, that customer can contact you, get a price, and even purchase the product for in-store pickup or have it delivered.

There is no search quite like mobile search. It isn’t all local, but the part of mobile that is local is very powerful.

Imagine the possibilities with mobile search. If you don’t, your competition will.

Searching for a meaningful summer internship can be difficult for many college students who are actively looking to add helpful experience to their résumés. But what if you were one of the lucky students chosen to spend your summer working for the largest online search engine?

Google is offering the “Summer of Code 2013,” which is an internship for students who are willing to work on open-source projects. Unlike many interns who are working for experience without monetary compensation, Google has made their program a paid internship.

“The program works in a three-phase cycle, with organizations and mentors submitting proposals for their projects,” reported TheVerge.com. “…then students also applying to work on said projects, and finally the two groups get connected together for a summer of open source coding madness.”

This is not the first year that Google has offered the opportunity to willing students. The program was started in 2005, and this year the company will be accepting roughly 1,000 students for the internships.

What do you think about Google offering internships to students? Are you, or is anyone you know, planning to apply for the Summer of Code 2013?

SnapChat is becoming increasingly popular among teenagers since the photo messaging applications was developed by four Stanford students in 2011. The concept of SnapChat was developed around sending a picture or video to your friend/friends to capture a moment in time that you wish to share with them for that instant and up to 10 seconds, then  the image/video “disappears.”

After the initial popularity of “disappearing” photos, a trend started to arise giving SnapChat the nickname of the “Sexting” App. While the photo may disappear from the app in front of you, smartphones have the capability of capturing whatever is on the screen. Pictures started to appear that were less than appropriate and were meant to be immediate images that were never to be seen again.

While SnapChat seems like a teenager’s app of choice, it brings forward a concept that all business owners should consider; nothing on the internet disappears. Someone somewhere can dig it up, so how will you handle your brand online? Will you stand by and watch the image or message of a disgruntled customer “disappear” to only reappear at some point later on, or will you take action?

The best advice that we can give you is to stay in the forefront of your customer’s experiences. Respond immediately to any online reviews and show how you will help them to solve the issue or problem, then let your loyal followers help you with the rest!

Want to know more about what the founders had to say on SnapChat – watch this interview on The Colbert Report.

When it comes to marketing online, there are plenty of “gurus” and “experts” willing to tell you what metrics to pay attention to. Usually, you get the same old suggestions. They’re either all SEO related or social media related, but those aren’t the most important metrics. Important, maybe. Most important, not.

So what are the most important metrics that determine your online ROI?

Every business owner should pay close attention to two website metrics and listen to what they are saying: Conversion Rate and Visitor Engagement.

Conversion Rate

To measure your conversion rate you must first have a desired goal. Is it newsletter sign ups? Sales? Downloads?

Know what you want your visitor to do, then measure how many positive actions you get versus website visitors. You are looking for a ratio, something like 1 download for every 5 website visitors, expressed as 1:5. Another way of stating it is 20% of site visitors sign up for the company newsletter.

Your conversion rate says a lot about how effective you are in marketing yourself through your various channels.

Visitor Engagement

Visitor engagement is a little bit more challenging. There are several variables that should be taken into consideration when judging engagement:

• Bounce rate
• Average pages per visit
• Average time on site
• Social media shares and likes
• And eye tracking studies too

These statistics tell you how your visitors are interacting with your site, if at all. Do they leave your site after a few seconds or stick around and view more pages? Do they like your landing pages or share them with their friends on social media? These are important metrics for telling how successful you are in presenting your brand to your visitors.

Metrics are an important part of marketing online. If you measure the right data, then you can make the right decisions about it can be used to affect your bottom line.

For many small and mid-size business owners online, local search may not be that important. They may have a global audience with a product that has a broad appeal, or it may make more sense to market their product or service to a general, non-specified market. But for many others, local search is very important.

Let’s say you own a restaurant, or you are an auto mechanic or electrician. You live in Anytown, U.S.A. Local search, in your case, is a necessity.

The key to marketing is to put your message in front of the people most likely to do business with you. If you provide Gettysburg tour guides as a service, then you should make sure that your website appears in searches related to Gettysburg. You should also do everything you can to position your brand in front of tourists who are planning a trip to Gettysburg. With local search, that’s not only possible but it’s nearly a guarantee if you do it right.

Local search is about more than providing keywords for search engines to chew on. It also includes claiming your business listings on Google Places, Yelp, Yahoo and Bing Local. Beyond that even, you can obtain reviews of your product or service on sites like and many other sites where you can post content and link back to your site.

We call this creating Social Authority for your brand, and it’s key to local search.

Search and Social Strategist Caroline Melberg says, “for companies trying to reach a local target audience, local search is essential.  Creating Social Authority begins with unique content placed strategically around the web in spots likely to draw your potential customers and the search engines to your presence online. While not rocket science, it’s important to be strategic about it, or you risk missed opportunities and wasting your time.”

Contact our team of Search and Social Strategists to learn how you can put local search to work for your business today.

Social media marketing is no longer optional for business.

Last November, Huffington Post published 100 social media statistics that shouldn’t be ignored. Among these include

• 80 percent of social media users prefer to connect with brands through Facebook
• 77 percent of B2C companies and 43 percent of B2B companies acquired new customers from Facebook
• 32 percent of all Internet users use Twitter
• 69 percent of Twitter follows are suggested by friends
• 1 million new Twitter accounts are added every day
• 50 percent of Twitter users access the site using mobile devices
• Instagram has more than 80 million users
• Instagram had more than 724 percent increase in daily mobile visitors last year
• Over 80 percent of pins on Pinterest are repins
• Pinterest referrals spend 70 percent more money than visitors referred from non-social channels
• Pinterest pins with prices get 36 percent more likes than pins without
• More people prefer Pinterest to Facebook when associating with retailers or brands
• The Google+ button is used 5 billion times per day
• Websites using the +1 button receive 3.5 times the traffic from Google+ that sites without the button

In every study published regarding social media marketing, more and more people are using each of the social media sites than the last study. Brands big and small are learning how to use the social media tools at their disposal more effectively. Consumers are interacting with brands in a huge way through social media.

The only question you should be asking yourself regarding social media marketing is, ‘What is the best strategy for my business going forward?’

The answer to the When question is “NOW.”

It was bound to happen. Inevitable. And now, it has.

We’re talking about the convergence of search and social media. But there’s more to it than simply Google starting its own social networking website called Google Plus.

The marriage between search and social goes much deeper, although Google Plus is a fine start.

Here are 7 ways you’ll see more search in social and more social in search in the months and years ahead:

• Google+ – Google’s social network is also going to be the flagship search product for the Internet giant. Build your reputation here first, and then branch out from there.
• YouTube – YouTube is the second largest search engine online in the world. It’s also one of the top 5 social networks. That’s all we need to say.
• Bing/Facebook – Bing and Facebook have worked together for a couple of years now. You can use Bing to ask your Facebook friends for information on any topic, or see which of your Facebook friends has posted information about a certain topic. Conversely, you can use Facebook to search for information on many topics and see Bing results.
• Bing/Quora – Bing will also tell you who is active on Quora and whether they’ve discussed a particular topic that you searched for.
• Search Engine Results – On Google and on Bing you will often find Tumblr, Twitter, or even Facebook results, and you already know you can find YouTube videos through search.
• Conduit – Conduit allows anyone to create a toolbar. When you create a toolbar for your niche using Conduit, you can add a search box to the toolbar that is powered by Bing.
• Search Plus Your World – Google+ has already been mentioned, but a distinction must be made between Google+ as a social network and search tool and Search Plus Your World, which is a way for you to search the Internet by either choosing information available to you through your Google+ network or across the entire Web.

Look for search and social media to grow more intertwined as time goes by.

We’re just getting started!

If you are marketing your local business online, how do you reach customers that will do business with you? Below we’ll share 5 ways you can reach more local customers using online strategies, and it’s so easy that anyone can do it.

1. E-mail marketing – E-mail marketing is still one of the most effective ways to market a business online. Even a local business. Build a website and get people to opt in to your e-mail list. Make your content worth reading and shareable. Build your list. That’s where the money is.
2. Social media – Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn. Pick the social media sites that will work for you and develop relationships with people in your local area.
3. Mobile marketing – People are in their cars and on their phones. So why not reach them where they are? Make your website searchable and viewable on any device and people will find you, navigate to you, and do business with you.
4. Your local blog – Make your blog a valuable local resource. When people see you give to the community, they will be encouraged to build a powerful relationship with you.
5. Local search engine optimization – People search for all kinds of things online, and a lot of what people search for is local. Submit your website to Google Places and Bing Local. Once you’re in the search engines, local search gets a lot easier.

Your business can be marketing online to local clientele. Use these 5 online tactics to find the right people to do business with, and start getting them to your website today.

What’s it take to run a social media campaign? Do you know? Are you aware that you can’t just “wing it” or throw together a campaign overnight and hope it works?

There is a lot that goes into a social media campaign. You have to plan it. And if you plan it well, you stand the chance of drawing in new traffic to your website and engaging with customers off site before they ever decide to buy. That’s what you are hoping for anyway. And because social media has now become a major part of the way a lot of businesses are attracting new customers, developing those relationships off site is the way to go.

But what does it take to run a successful social media campaign?

We’ve identified some key areas of a successful business social media campaign. Pay attention to these elements and you should do fine in social media.

• Your Profile - Your social media profile will be looked at by a lot of different people. Try to identify all the types of people who will read your profile and put something in your profile to appeal to each type of person.
• Your Website Link - Some sites allow only one. Others give you multiple chances to drive new traffic somewhere. Identify the best sites to promote for each social media profile.
• Your Branding – Make sure the design of your social media campaign is consistent with your company branding and message. Make sure visitors to your social media sites recognize the connection to your business and don’t develop your social media presence in a silo.
• Content – It is best if you write your content up front. Instead of signing on each day and posting spur-of-the-moment type posts, pre-write your posts and schedule them at the best times. Always stay ahead of the game with your content.
• Friends/Fans – Target the right people with every message. On some services you can send a message only to certain groups. On others you have to send a message to everyone. Think about what your fans and friends want. Don’t annoy them.
• Time – Time is very important. You don’t have to spend a lot of time on social media to be effective, but you do have to plan your time. Make it count.

Before you start your next social media campaign, think about each of these elements and how you strategically plan to incorporate them.

The use of filler words, such as “um,” “hmm,” and “ya know” can significantly impact communications within your business. Whether you are cold-calling, having a casual coffee with a prospective client, or presenting to a large group, filler words can undermine your credibility.

Ironically, some people will use certain words and phrases to display their knowledge on a subject, but this can backfire by giving the perception that the speaker is ill-prepared and stalling for time. A perfect example of this would be “basically” or “what I’m trying to say is.” Yes, these conversational habits have evolved over time, but with determination and awareness you can be in control of your speaking style in a very short time!

Slow and steady wins the race. Here are a few tips and techniques to rid your vocabulary of these unnecessary words:

• Evaluate how you are inserting filler words
• Assess why you are inserting filler words
• Rehearse content
• Slow breathing down in your speech. Take a breath.

EARS is a simple acronym to help you understand why you are tempted to use filler words, and how you can create better communication skills for personal and business use.

Be patient with your progress, but don’t give up. You will soon see positive results – both from your point of view as well as the response from your listeners.