Twitter Is Dying!! (No it’s Not)

twitter is dying says the atlantic

A recent article in The Atlantic proclaimed that Twitter is dying (Eulogy for Twitter), but The Atlantic is dead wrong and here’s why.

Twitter used to be a sort of surrogate newsroom/barroom where you could organize around ideas with people whose opinions you wanted to assess. Maybe you wouldn’t agree with everybody, but that was part of the fun. But at some point Twitter narratives started to look the same. The crowd became predictable, and not in a good way. Too much of Twitter was cruel and petty and fake. Everything we know from experience about social publishing platforms—about any publishing platforms—is that they change. And it can be hard to track the interplay between design changes and behavioral ones. In other words, did Twitter change Twitter, or did we?

twitter is dyingAuthors Adrienne LaFrance and Robinson Meyer claim, “Twitter is entering its twilight,” even though more people are using Twitter than ever.  And they offer no evidence to support their hypothesis. “A lot of this argument comes down to what we feel,” they write. “Communities can’t be fully measured by how many people are in them.  So as we suss out cultural changes, relying on first-hand experience is a first step.”

In other words, “Twitter is dying because we say it’s dying.”

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Great Content for SEO is Paramount

Bruce Clay on Content Marketing

Poor or low content is to be avoided — nothing new about that. But there are several news-worthy concepts revealed as uber-SEO Bruce Clay joins Search Engine Journal’s Murray Newlands on video, describing the increasing need for quality content within SEO. Bruce calls for “better content — great content for SEO.”  Great content is a fundamental component of SEO success.

In the interview, Clay describes great content for SEO issues, including:

– How SEOs can cope with Google’s penalties for poor-quality content and bad links.
– Content’s ability to deliver a “one-two punch,” leading to better and natural links and improved user experience. People inherrently link to great content, and having more organic links improves the quality of your website in Google algorithm terms, also.
– Great content for SEO also seeks to match your customers’ verbal lexicon. You should always use the terminology that your customers use and leverage the keywords that they likely utilize when Googling.

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Infographic: Mind your social media grammar and intended audience!

Grammar is more important in social media than we previously suspected! While it may be clear that such important in blogs, grammar (and punctuation) in particular can affect the engagement that your SM posts receive. Curiously though, some punctuation has the opposite effect on engagement on various platforms. 

As the infographic shows, it also matters whether your messages are intended for B2B or B2C.  Timing as well, is critical for your posting activity and can affect whether or not you are shared or unseen. 

The information contained in this infographic from Compendium is based on a typical assortment of businesses averaged, so you’ll need to figure out what works optimally for your channels.  There exist a number of free tools to assist you to determine best times to post and tweet your content and we suggest that you assess accordingly so that your content garners the visibility it deserves.

infographic social media

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Infographic: Key Statistics Every Marketeer Should Know

If you are an Internet marketing professional endeavoring to possess all the know-how required to get the maximum out of social media in your marketing efforts, chances are, you will learn something from this highly insightful new infographic from Austrailia-based The Website Marketing Group.

15 key statistics ALL Web marketers should know, for example …

Twitter is hands down the fastest-growing social network in the world, booking an amazing 40+ percent growth in active users between June 2012 and March 2013

Some 93 percent of marketers now use social media for business

Facebook has over 650 million daily users

Nearly 50 million photos are uploaded to Instagram every day

GRA - social stat inforgraphic_ed copy

 

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Key SoCal Local Internet Marketing Trends To Remember This Year

Local Internet Marketing geniuses plan ahead

The Internet marketing world that small businesses are now required to circumnavigate comes to be increasingly complex each passing year. But Edwin Dearborn, business marketing strategist at Dearborn Associates, anticipates that key developing trends in 2014 will serve to codify SMBs’ SoCal local Internet marketing efforts. “This year, I expect that complexities in local Internet marketing will increase, but as local Internet marketing automation systems and economies of scale develop this complexity will become more wieldy and streamlined for SMBs,”.

Local Internet marketing complexities growIn today’s Internet marketing world, small businesses must compete in an increasingly frenzied and complicated mode, with changes taking hold across online-commerce, appointment scheduling, SEO, Internet advertising, mobile-optimized websites, social media and customer relationship platforms.  Additionally SMBs must consider email marketing strategies and the importance of positive web reviews and other local “citations.” The need for multifaceted planning and the challenge therein becomes stunningly clear.

This year the complexity of SoCal local internet marketing will further increase, and Yodle CEO Court Cunningham at NetNewsCheck.com points to ten SoCal local Internet marketing trends that savvy SMBs should (dare we say must) stay increasingly aware of –

1. Booking and scheduling tools will continue to get consolidated into larger marketing automation platforms. Consumers increasingly expect to be able to book services online the way that they purchase goods online. While some companies like ZocDoc, Uber and OpenTable offer booking services in specific verticals, the migration to comprehensive online booking has just begun. We can expect to see more deals such as Demandforce and Full Slate, which aims to popularize booking services across dozens of service industries.

2. CRM systems will emerge with better social tools to help business owners leverage online presence across the Web, mobile, social and email. Companies including Constant Contact, Main Street Hub and Yodle are automating time consuming processes associated with social media management. As social sites like Facebook add reviews as a key feature, tasks such as responding to customer reviews or creating special offers for customers will become simpler and quicker though integrated CRM/marketing platforms. Companies like Rallyverse will also look to provide ways to generate relevant content for local business to engage their customers.

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Dance the Light Down!

 

We would like to close the year out wishing you a happy and awakened new year 2014 with one of the top trending video shakeups of 2013…  

Enjoy a HAPPY and Shaken New Year!

DAncing Down the Light!

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Google’s Hummingbird Adjustment, More Impactful Than You Know

Google’s Hummingbird adjustment represents the most impactful search algorithm shift since Caffeine in 2010.  While it will have less effect immediately on SEO than the Panda and Penguin updates the long-term effect is difficult to grok.

google's Amit Singhal on Google's Hummingbird AdjustmentAmit Singhal, of Google, said 90% of searches have been affected by this sea change. It was interesting to note, however, that very little was said within the industry about affected rankings prior to the announcement .

The details of the Google Hummingbird adjustment is provided below: what has changed and how it impacts SEO strategies.

In general , Google’s Hummingbird adjustment is closer to the algorithm acheiving ‘AI.’  Google’s intent is to to serve content based on what the querent seeks and not solely the keywords that are used.

Google's Hummingbird Adjustment approaches AI its that smart

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Infographic: B2B Content Marketing on the Rise

Business-to-business (B2B) content marketing use is on the increase, with 60% of B2B marketers planning to accelerate content marketing spend over the next year, according to the second annual B2B Content Marketing Study—North America report (PDF), produced by Content Marketing Institute and Brightcove.

Fully six in ten B2B marketers (60%) intend to increase their clients’ content marketing budget over the next 12 months (compared with 55% last year), and 72% percent are generating more content than they were 12 months ago, according to the report.

Other highlights of the study include:

– 90% of B2Bmarketers are using content marketing, compared with 82% last year.
– 39% of B2B marketers consider themselves effective at content marketing—up from 32% last year.
– B2B marketers have rated many tactics higher in effectiveness this year; in-person events and e-newsletters top the list of effective tactics.
– B2B marketers are using all social platforms more often, with LinkedIn use registering the biggest jump (from 51% to 71%).

B2B content marketing statistics for 2014

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New Infographic:
Mobile Site or Responsive Design?

Mobile Website or Responsive Design? ten questions to ask

Depending on on your design budget, how frequently you add fresh content and other updates, the value of your SEO, etc., which mobile website design function approach is right for you: native app development or responsive web design?

A new infographic from high-end web design agency Table XI considers the top ten considerations you must answer in order to make an optimum decision. Both a mobile app website and a responsive design will optimize your site to be more appropriate for smaller screens; both will provide simpler navigation and quicker load times. But, there are distinctions, and that is why you must answer ten questions …

Mobile Website or Responsive Design?

Mobile Website or Responsive Design

 

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ADMAX SEO Client Joins INC-5000

ADMAX SEO Client cloud computing INC 500

Three cheers and a big congratulations are in order for ADMAX SEO client Cloud9 Real Time – Cloud9 has just been recognized as one of America’s  fastest growing private technology companies by INC. in that magazine’s 32nd annual awards roster.

cloud computing INC 5000 winnerLaunched in 1982, the INC-500|5000 is a prestigious list of the nation’s most successful private companies and has become a hallmark of entrepreneurial prowess.

Cloud9 Real Time President/CEO, Robert J. Chandler commented, “It’s a great honor to be recognized by Inc. Magazine, one of the few publications that is dedicated exclusively to privately held companies that are producing innovative ideas.”

admax client top-100 INC 500 IT companies for 2013Cloud9 made the Top-60 in IT Service nationally, Top-100 private companies in California and number 9 among San Diego County companies. A complete list of all companies awarded can be found at www.inc.com/inc5000/list.

“Cloud9’s growth has been tremendous over the past 4 years and we are looking forward to an even stronger 2014!,” added Mr. Chandler.

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How Graphic Design Enhances Visitor Engagement & Conversion

Ricky Rocha Loures

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About Ricky Rocha loures –

Senior digital designer for ADMAX, Ricky is a Brazilian presently residing in South Florida where he received his Bachelors of Science in Digital Arts & Design at Full Sail University. Currently pursuing his masters degree, he is “inspired to be inspiring.” Ricky has received accolades for his agency and independent design work from several notable clients. Review more of Ricky’s portfolio here.

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For a company branding and logo, and its website presentation, to work synergistically, both must have the potential for invoking increased confidence and interaction from the very first moments of the initial visit. This in turn produces measurably increased sales for e-commerce sites, and increased inquiry-lead flow for B2B sites.

good graphic design makes your website convert better“So you refined your keywords, optimized your bids, and written AdWords text ads that pull in tons of targeted clicks. But after looking at your Google Analytics reports you realize that your landing page has a bounce rate of 91 percent.  This means that 91 percent of the users coming to your site are quickly glancing around and leaving deciding this site isn’t for them.”  – Google Adwords

Veteran pro-designer Bill Haig explains

Like most perception at an early stage, this is a visual thing. We make judgments based on first impressions of surface traits, from a person’s looks to his or her dress. The same holds true with the company logo and home page design. It is all about trusting the company behind the website from a few visual cues at first glance.  This is called “surface credibility”.

Here is how it works.

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Creative SEO Tip: Newsjacking

Adam Stetzer at Search Engine Journal wrote about another concept that dovetails nicely with “seo-content”: Newsjacking is a newer idea in SEO, but a natural extension of content marketing. While it sounds like a negative term, it is not.

Newsjacking is a technique in which marketers ride existing demand associated with breaking news for exposure. In other words, smart marketers know there is extremely high demand for breaking news stories and use this to their advantage by contributing to the overall discussion.

newsjacking-graphWhat is newsjacking?

 – Paying attention to breaking news

 – Understanding the keywords being searched for in a particular news cycle

 – Producing high-quality, well-researched content that serves a specific demand for information

 – Syndicating content very quickly to be found when other news organizations search for sources.

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Content Marketing the “new” SEO?

seo content marketing and newsjacking are the new black

Jen Ribble at ExactTarget’s blog described her recent revelations from the Toronto ClickZ Internet Marketing conference: On one side were the old-school folks who’ve been doing SEO since the dawn of the internet. They often joked nostalgically about missing days when you could easily “trick” the search engines, and their talks seemed highly focused on metrics and metadata and techniques like link building and keyword placement.

the biggest biggest content marketing challenges

On the flip side were those who seem to take a new approach to SEO. They talked a lot more about content and engagement than keywords and search rankings. Not that they dismissed these important concepts, they simply suggested that the real secret of SEO is great content.


Ribble found herself thinking… “wait a minute, that sounds a lot like content marketing!”

So, does this mean that content marketing is the new SEO?

Not exactly.

Content marketing isn’t new – Content has been the lifeblood of marketing for decades–I’m talking about whitepapers, case studies, webinars, podcasts, video, blogs, etc. There’s no “marketing” without that stuff, right? We’ve just come up with the term “content marketing” to distinguish between inbound efforts (creating reasons for customers to come to you) and outbound efforts (the traditional selling process). So content marketing isn’t some new toy that replaces SEO–it’s always been part of the mix.

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Google Glass Segment on SNL!

google glass woman

The latest in ‘augmented reality‘ – Google Glass is a new wearable computer with an optical head-mounted display that is being developed by Google in the Project Glass research and development project, with the mission of producing a mass-market ubiquitous computer.  

Google Glass displays information in a smartphone-like hands-free format, that can interact with the Internet via natural language voice commands.

While the frames do not currently have lenses fitted to them, Google is considering partnerships with sunglass retailers such as Ray-Ban or Warby Parker, and may also open retail stores to allow customers to try on the device.

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Domain Clustering Change: Fewer Results From Same Domain

google domain clustering changes

Google’s search and SEO guru gatekeeper, Matt Cutts, posted a recent video about new shifts coming to Google’s algorithm affecting the diversity of the search outcomes being displayed.

Cuts shared that Google is“soon” to make a shift that will make it less likely to see multiple results from the same domain name, if you already have been shown that domain name in previous results three or four times before.  Cutts explained that once you’ve seen a cluster of about four results from a specific domain name, the subsequent pages are going to be less likely to show you results from that domain name.

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Google Analytics – Now in Real Time

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Google Analytics real-time feature was initially released in September 2011, and though other analytics providers were already offering real-time data for years, none did it as well or as inexpensively (that is, for free) as Google. As of late, Google has been paying more attention to real time tools, leading to some updates to real-time reports back in March, and some new widgets for real-time reporting on April 16.

Source: Adrienne Erin / Site Pro News

real time google analytics

Why Should Anyone Care About Real-Time Analytics?

In years gone by, traffic was slow to come by and booms and busts were longer in duration. Because of the proliferation of social media the idea of “trending topics” makes everything relevant for shorter periods of time, as one trend gives way to the next. Since trends can spread like wildfire for a short period of time and then be instantaneously doused by the next big thing, it’s important to know about exciting increases in traffic and engagement as soon as they happen.

google analytics real time toolsKnowing about dramatic traffic increases as they are in the process of occurring allows you to better capitalize on them – perhaps by highlighting a piece of content to the main page of your site, or offering a limited time discount to your new visitors.

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Protect Your CMS Website Now!

wordpress security

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There is a highly distributed global ‘botnet‘ attack on all WordPress websites at every known web hosting provider, occuring at this time. These attacks attempt to hack admin accounts and inject malicious scripts to the site coding.*

botnet attacks on wordpress CMS

*Source – WebsiteDevelopment.us

As of today these attacks are happening at a global level. WordPress installations across the globe are being targeted. Because the attacks are highly distributed, most of the IP’s used are spoofed, it is very difficult to block all malicious data, but not impossible. This is why many servers from every hosting providers have gone down in recent days including big names such as Godaddy and Hostgator.

drupal attacked by botnetsIf you manage or own a website on a content management system (CMS) you know that invalid login attempts are an everyday occurrence. We see literally dozens of invalid login attempts from dozens of different IP numbers in the course of any given day. This is considered normal. However hosting providers worldwide are reporting they are seeing a systematic, well organized attack. The attacks on content management systems are well above average and often times at catastrophic levels.

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Infographic: Business Owners Working More with Less Time

Manta small business marketing

Last year’s summer Manta survey of 1,200 small businesses shows that 60% will work even more this year with 50% highly considering not taking summer holidays. The ECSB (Enterprise Council on Small Business) has stated that a third of small business owners, this being largely comprised of self-employed individuals, operate for 50 hours each week. It has also been found that about 70% of the same individuals have decided not to hire new personnel for their businesses, which means even more work for them in the future. This is a sharp rise from the 57% last year.

manta small business healthAs for the small number of SMBs that will manage to go for holidays during the summer, it will not be all about basking in the summer sun! They also plan to work while on holidays through their mobile devices. 70% of these individuals will frequently be going through their mail and other business-related tasks.

“As a small business owner, I don’t have the luxury to ever really shut off from my business,” said Terry Benton, owner of Louisiana-based Terry’s Fabric Cottage. “While it can sometimes be a double-edged sword, my mobile device allows me to stay connected so I can enjoy time away from the office. Innovative mobile apps help me stay connected and ensure other partners and prospects can find my company anytime, anywhere as well.”

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