Even if you only casually keep up with tech news, you’ve by now surely heard a thing or two about Siri, the personal assistant app that comes with the iPhone 4S. While by no means ideal, Siri speaks volumes about the future of the Internet search. By 2015 mobile traffic is projected to quadruple as more people exclusively use their smartphones to connect to the web, and thus web searches themselves will be more likely to be conducted via mobile device. Combined with the fact that personal assistant apps, such as Siri, are certain to become base features for all smartphones, the information we find today by conducting text-based searches via Google and other search engines will increasingly be found by consulting such technology instead.

Since just about every digital marketing agency bases their strategy on the science of the search engine and the habits of the humans who use them, it’s important for those in our field to pay attention to the evolution of the search itself. Consider the following four ways personal assistant apps are going to change the rules regarding online marketing:

SEO will start to lose its critical role: This is obvious, but it’s important for Internet marketers to accept it sooner rather than later. Once people start asking their personal assistant apps the questions and these technologies provide the answers, search engine activity will lower while a new search dynamic will be created, the science of which is yet to be determined.

PPC will be a thing of the past: This is almost already the case, but personal assistant apps are likely to eliminate any shred of profitability from most pay-per-click campaigns. The reason why? People won’t be doing as much clicking as they used to thanks to a reliance on voice-activated means of finding information online.

Ratings and reviews will matter more: Siri utilizes online ratings and reviews when it attempts to answer user questions regarding the closest Italian restaurant or place to get an oil change. Expect virtually all future personal assistant apps to utilize ratings and reviews in a similar fashion.

Every company will have to invest in Internet marketing: So far those with little to gain from e-commerce have mostly stayed away from Internet marketing; ratings, reviews, and general online listings have done the work for them. Now that these former-passive means of online marketing are going to take on a more centralized role, even strictly-local companies are going to have to suck it up and finally accept Internet marketing in order to be found by people using their personal assistant apps to find them.

The era of the personal assistant app search is still a few years off. But it’ll be here before you know it, so today’s Internet marketer would be wise to start planning for it now. In our industry there’s nothing worse than being late in the game.

What makes for an amazing mobile site and an amazing desktop site are two different things. In fact, you’ve probably never marveled at how wonderful a mobile site looked. Instead, you likely just felt satisfied that you were able to do whatever you wanted to do quickly and without much fuss.

That’s because on the mobile web, utility trumps style. Fancy visuals and a great motif may look terrific on your desktop, but on mobile, all they’re likely to do is slow things down. And on that small screen, you’re not going to see much anyway.

Nevertheless, as more and more of the population experiences the web via mobile, creating a mobile website is essential. Doing so, however, requires a different frame of mind, or maybe, as Dennis Mink suggests, a trip in a time machine. “It’s really like the early days of the Internet, like 1996, 1997,” says Mink, VP of marketing at Dudamobile, a company that creates mobile sites. “We all had our 14.4 baud modems, and things were as stripped down as possible.” Click Here For Entire Article

An incredible post by Pamela Vaughan at HubSpot. I just had to share it.

Participation in social media should be a staple for any business leveraging inbound marketing. Social media expands the reach of content, offers a valuable communication platform between businesses and their prospects/customers, and helps to nurture existing leads into a position where they’re more ready to buy.

One of the critical social media best practices we discuss often is regularly publishing content and updates to the social networks in which your business participates. But what exactly does an optimized and effective social media update look like, and what are its key characteristics? Surely it would vary from social network to social network, right?

Click Here for the Full Article

It is being said that Google+ will rival Facebook in more ways that one. I can say that I have seen more sign-ups to Google+ from my friends, clients and acquaintances faster than that of Facebook. Now whether that is the power of Google+ or a sign of the times that more people have accepted social media, I don’t know.

I do know that I am getting more and more requests from people asking questions about Google+. So I decided to write a short eBook on Google+ and how to set up your account.

I hope you like it.

CLICK HERE FOR EBOOK

My friends at HubSpot have put together a great eBook on using LinkedIn for your business.

Did you realize that there are approximately 135,000,000 people on LinkedIn now? The majority of which are professionals and are higher-than-average income earners, which means they typically have discretionary funds – Can potentially buy your products and services.

If you’re not using LinkedIn for your business, you are missing out!

Download this free eBook and learn how to get started.

Let me know if I can be of any help or if I can even come in to train your staff on the best practices for using LinkedIn for your business.

Download eBook

OK….so you already know you need to have a mobile website, or landing page, but where do you start?

Mobile users hold grudges and move on if they aren’t satisfied…and quickly! In fact, according to a March 2011 study done by Compuware, 61% are unlikely to return to your mobile site if they had trouble or if your site was too hard to use. 40% said they would visit a competitor’s site instead, and 19% said they would have a negative overall perception of your business if they had a bad mobile experience with your site.

If you build it right you can achieve greater success. Research shows that web retailers could increase consumer engagement by 85% with a mobile-specific website. 51% of consumers are more likely to purchase from retailers that have mobile-specific websites.

So, I’m going to share 5 best practices to keep in mind when building your mobile website.

KISS – that’s right…Keep It Super Simple! Think about it. When you’re on your mobile device you are most likely on-the-go. When you want some sort of information, you need it quick and you don’t want to have to hunt all over for it. Make sure that your navigation and layout is simple. Don’t try to include everything from your main website into your mobile site. People searching mobile are only looking for basic information.

Design for Thumbs…not Mice. Again, you’re not putting together a site that someone is going to spend a ton of time on. You want to make it as easy and simple for them to navigate as you can. If they can click-to-call you with their thumb or find a map to your location with their thumb, then you are on the right track.

Prioritize your Content – Give your mobile site user the most often needed information first. Maybe it’s just your telephone number. Maybe it’s your address. Whatever it is make sure that you come up with your own order of priorities for the information you are providing. You can use Google Analytics from your main website to see what is most often being searched on mobile devices and this should help you in sorting your content.

Use Uniquely Mobile Features – make sure that you’re not building your mobile presence in the same way you would for desktops. Use the functionality of what a mobile device provides to enhance your engagement with your customers. For example, mobile devices use GPS. Keep that in mind if you are offering content that could be relevant to specific geographical areas. Don’t waste your site user’s time by giving them content that’s not relevant to their location. Let’s say you have multiple locations for your business. Through location-based technology in mobile you can provide the most relevant location of your business to a user that is searching for your company. Another way to use mobile features is to provide content that would be relevant to what the user would actually be doing at the time they are searching for you on a mobile device.

Make it easy to convert – Because people are most likely out and on-the-go when they are accessing your mobile site, so their ability to get distracted and move on is high. So, if you are collecting information in a web form – make it short and sweet. Don’t require a lot of fields to be completed because it can be difficult and take too much time. Think of the bare minimum that you may need. Make it easy to call you! Maybe put a click-to-call button at the very top of your mobile site. Wherever you place it make sure it is very easy to see.

So now you have 5 best practices for putting together your mobile website. Just keep these in mind when building your site and your users will have a much better mobile experience and you will get a much higher conversion.

Mobile marketing is about to hit an all-time high in the US.  With the Christmas gift-giving season right upon us we are going to see smartphone sales skyrocket.  This will mean that just about everyone will have internet access from their mobile device or at least will have a mobile device that can access the internet.

When any platform reaches the masses, major things happen.  Are you Social, Local, and Mobile?  Is your business?  If you’re not, you better make it a high priority.

You’ve been hearing for a while now about the ways that businesses are utilizing social media to market products and services.  Google, as well as most other search engines, provide Local businesses when a search is done.  If your business is not optimized for these Local searches that needs to be moved up your to-do list immediately.  And if you’re not using mobile to market your business then you better begin figuring that out too because it’s here.  You can no longer put it off.

Get with a professional and get your self and your business in gear!  Get your mobile marketing shifting into high gear before the first of the year and you will help position your business for a great 2012.

For those of us who are old enough to remember, The Little Rascals, they can teach us a lot.  Although there were always rivalries, disagreements, laughter, crying….they were always friends.

If you work in marketing or if you are working to market your own business, there’s a lot of buzz about creating ‘Friends’ or ‘Fans’ for your business.  How important do you really think this is?  What ever happened to offering a terrific product that people actually want and then providing incredible customer service to back up the product?

Time changes everything you know.  But having loyal customers that will help you spread your message is still as important as ever.  Not just having fans, but Raving Fans for your business can mean a lot, but you’ve got to provide that product.

Would your Fans vote for you as the best at what you do?

Do you have a lot of friends for your business?  Are you working to create those friends by providing good, honest, service to your current customer base.  Take the time to reflect on how you’re running your business from the ‘Friends’ point-of-view.  Are you giving someone a reason to want to be your friend?  If not, how can you make a change?

If you need help asking yourself the questions, give me a call…I might be able to help.  In the meantime, enjoy this video about ‘Friends’.

Do you know? Have you heard the term before? Well this past weekend I had the honor of speaking at two sessions for Podcamp Cincinnati which was held at the Northern Kentucky University College of Informatics.

WOW! Trying saying that fast three times…

The new facility is incredible, to say the least. The entire building is Wi-Fi capable and each of the classrooms are setup with every technical feature you could ever want. They’ve even gone as far as painting the four walls of each classroom with idea paint so that they become dry-erase boards.

This was the first Social Media conference for the city of Cincinnati and they had a great turnout. Daniel Lewis and his team did a phenomenal job!

I’ve been to many Podcamps over the last several years and this event has to be one of the top. From meeting and networking with great marketers to learning some new tips and tricks for WordPress and even a great takeaway for Twitter, I can say that I am truly glad that I attended.

So if you’re wondering what a Podcamp is I can only say that it’s a social media UNconference. PodCamp isn’t just about podcasting! If you’re interested in blogging, social media, social networking, podcasting, video on the net, if you’re a podsafe musician (or want to be), or just someone curious about new media, then you will love it!

Find a Podcamp near you and attend!

You may have heard all the news about LinkedIn going public. Their stock reached its zenith of $122.70 before closing at $93.86, valuing the company at just under $8.9 billion.

All this for a professional social network with 100 million users that made profit of $15.4 million in 2010 on sales of $243 million from a blend of recruitment services, online advertising, and premium subscriptions.

While not normally one of the most visible sites, it is definitely one of the most powerful. With millions of people from all over the globe taking part in the conversation on LinkedIn, it is definitely a place I think a professional in any field should be involved.

What I hear when I speak to social media newbies about LinkedIn is that “I’m not B2B, I’m B2C. LinkedIn will never work for me.” Aside from that statement oddly rhyming, that statement can’t be more false. Whether you are B2B or B2C, you can make LinkedIn work for you. I’ve said this quite a bit, and lately people have been asking me to put my money where my mouth is, asking “Can you prove that there is ROI in LinkedIn?” The only answer I can give is to show what it is doing for me.

Not a week goes by that I don’t get leads, emails, job offerings or some form of contact via a potential business deal on LinkedIn.

While my business may be unique, I work with a wide array of clientele that get results on LinkedIn. Not only sales and referrals, but speaking engagements, sharing of content to a wide audience, visits to their websites, and much more. I’m not saying that the majority of your business will come from LinkedIn, but it is definitely a spot where you need to be.

My point here is not to convince you to use LinkedIn. It is targeted to those of you out there who are already registered with LinkedIn (for a week, a year, 5 years, whatever) and don’t have your profile completed and are just waiting for business to come pouring in. Generally those like this complain that they don’t see any results from LinkedIn. Here’s why: you’re not doing anything!

So, get going and see what you can do! Here are my 5 LinkedIn necessities when you are trying to market yourself using this incredible site:

1. Complete Your Profile: A name and title is not enough.

LinkedIn gives you ample opportunity to showcase yourself and your brand. Instead of leaving half of the profile blank (the percentage of which LinkedIn will show you on the right hand side of your profile), why not take the time and complete it properly. Want people to call you? Add a phone number. Want people to visit your website? Add your URL address.

Don’t skimp here…this is where people are going to find you credible or not credible. Oh, and one final thing. Have a professional profile picture…nothing crazy. Not that beach picture from last summer’s vacation and not that picture of you and your dog. This is a site of professionals – look the part! No picture = no credibility in my book. In fact, when I receive an invitation to connect with someone I will most often ignore the invite if they don’t have a photo.

2. Join Groups: Don’t just join – take part.

I know it seems like a tall order, but this is one of the areas where things happen on LinkedIn. Don’t just join groups within your industry, you want to find those groups where your target customers might be.

For example, if you are a Hotel General Sales Manager, then you may want to join groups where meeting planners are congregating. The idea is simple. The groups that are specific to your industry will help you gain news and knowledge in your field while the others will help you share your business and expertise with your target customers. I say join as many as LinkedIn allows (50) and start working them!

3. Ask Questions and Answer Questions: There is a wonderful function of LinkedIn that allows you to answer and post questions to your network as well as LinkedIn at large. This is a great way to get in front of prospective customers, and referral partners – so don’t be afraid to jump in there and share your expertise by answering a few questions now and again.

4. Reply to messages: Nothing drives a social media user up-the-wall more than sending messages that never are replied to.

I’m not saying the mass messages that start with those wonderful words “Dear Friends”, but rather those emails sent to you on LinkedIn. Not interested in what they have to say? Give them a polite “No thank you, but I appreciate your kind offer”, don’t say “Leave me alone” or ignore them completely. Remember this is networking. Would you act like that in a cocktail party? Nope. So use the platform to build relationships and it will come back to you many times over.

5. Complete Your Profile with Testimonials and Applications: Even the most engaging profile can use a helping hand now and again.

The first thing to do is to give some recommendations to a few of your connections in LinkedIn that you know or have worked with. You will very likely get recommendations in return. It is not rude to ask for recommendations either, but make sure it is someone that you know. These are a great way of proving credibility and the quality of your work.

On the application side of things, go onto your profile and scroll down until you see the Applications section and click “More Applications.” This will take you to a section that allows you to not only integrate your Twitter account and your WordPress blogs, but also share pdf files and PowerPoint presentations. These are also great ways of bringing your profile to life.

I could go on and on with the benefits of LinkedIn, but these are definitely the ones I think are most important. These steps will help you get the most out of LinkedIn in addition to helping you learn more about shaping your LinkedIn marketing strategy. It’s not easy at first and can be time consuming, but keep with it.

Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither is your social media following. It is an ongoing effort that will bring you what you’re after, if you are patient. Keep in mind, that the quality of your connections is just as important, if not more, than the quantity of connections.

If you are struggling making sense of LinkedIn (and Facebook, Twitter and the rest) I’d be glad to help! Shoot me an email or contact me through LinkedIn and just ask.