Setting up profiles on social media sites and posting interesting things is just the first step. The key to truly getting the most out of your social media strategy is to have an actual conversation with your customers. Build a relationship with them by being responsive, engaging, and appreciative.

For example, if someone tweets your company on Twitter just to say they love your product, take this opportunity to thank them and learn more. Ask questions – find out how your product fits into their lives and what improvements they’d like to see. Get to know them and strengthen the personal connection they have with your brand. At the same time, get some free market research!

Or maybe you’re in the restaurant business and someone posted a negative review on Yelp. This is obviously not an ideal scenario, but it can be turned into a huge positive if given the proper attention. Post a genuine and empathetic reply expressing regret for disappointing them, then ask that they give you another chance to prove yourselves. Not only will the person who posted the review feel heard and appreciated, but potential new customers will see how much you care about their satisfaction. Don’t just respond to negative reviews, though! Make it a point to connect with everyone who takes the time to post a comment. Even the most loyal happy customers will feel more valued when you give them some of your attention.

Looking at social media from a customer service perspective can give your brand so much more value than just using it as a marketing tool. Organizations that are dedicated to participating in online discussions about their brand will build a devoted fanbase and gain an invaluable advantage over competitors.

Keywords meta tag At the top of web pages, there are typically a series of tags in the head of the document that store different types of information. Back in the day, one of the primary ways to get your website listed at the top of the search results was to use the keywords meta tag to specify a group of words and phrases you wanted the site to rank for. This is no longer the case today, in terms of Google’s algorithm. Years of abuse by spammers has lessened its value, which led Matt Cutts, a Google software engineer, to go on record in 2009 to say the keywords meta tag is now completely ignored by Google.

Description meta tag Unlike keywords, Google does still pay attention to the description meta tag. It sometimes uses the information there to display a site’s text snippet in their search results. But they have also said they don’t factor the description meta tag into their rankings. So it’s still a good idea to include a description – just don’t expect it to play a role in how high the site gets positioned in Google’s results.

Robots meta tag The robots meta tag supports a bunch of different values that search engines take into consideration when crawling the web and indexing pages on a site. For example, you can instruct Google’s system to not index a certain page. Or you can tell it not to follow any links on the page. But the robots meta tag is only necessary when you’re explicitly telling Google NOT to do something. Proactively telling it to index or follow a page won’t have any affect on ranking because it’s already the default behavior.

Submitting a sitemap Submitting an XML sitemap to Google is absolutely a good idea, especially if certain pages are buried deep within a site’s structure and hard to find. A sitemap also lets Google know when a page was last modified and how important each one is relative to the others. It’s important to note, however, that none of the information in a sitemap will affect the actual ranking of a site’s pages. It merely lets Google know the pages exist, which might help them get indexed. Where they are positioned in the index is another story.

Focusing only on PageRank PageRank is a proprietary system that was a big part of Google when it first came out. Since it came in a publicly available number, it was a measurable form of success that could be tracked and charted over time. The problem with this approach is that Google doesn’t rely on PageRank nearly as much anymore, if at all, when they determine their search results. They base their listings primarily on relevance, which is not a quantifiable value. Plus, a site’s public PageRank is almost always out of date and inaccurate because Google only updates it a few times a year. It’s a much better idea to focus on offering great content to your site’s visitors rather than chasing down metrics that don’t carry much weight.

Mass market adoption

Mobile internet usage is booming as more consumers get their hands on iPhones, iPads and Android devices. An infographic from earlier this year – shown below – illustrates a number of surprising facts. The biggest jawdropper? In less than three years, mobile internet usage is expected to surpass that of traditional computers. That means your customers will be more likely to visit your website on a phone or tablet than on a Mac or PC.

The future is now

Even today a sizable chunk of your audience is using a mobile device to find information about your organization. Right now one-half of all local searches are performed on mobile devices, with most of them leading to immediate action. Smaller businesses have a fantastic opportunity to make a splash by focusing in this area. And it’s not just people on the go; multiple studies have shown that a majority of current mobile internet browsing is done at home.

Get involved in social

If there’s one thing to take away from this research, it’s the large role social networking should play in an effective online marketing strategy. Over one-third of Facebook’s users are mobile, in addition to more than one-half of Twitter’s user base. YouTube video views are skyrocketing on phones and tablets, too. It’s incredibly important for businesses to be involved in social media to remain relevant as consumers purchase millions of new mobile devices and spend even more time using these services.

What is Google +1?

To give a brief overview of what Google’s +1 is, it’s essentially a way for web surfers to publicly say “I think this is worth checking out.” If a user +1′s your site, they’re endorsing it for their friends, family, and other contacts to see. Google says it’s like giving something your virtual stamp of approval, which seems fitting.

How does +1 work?

In order to use Google +1, a user has to have a free Google profile and be logged into their account. When they search for something on Google and find content they like, they can just click the +1 button next to the search result. Now, when one of that user’s contacts searches for something similar, there will be an annotation under that site saying “John Smith +1′d this”. Naturally, seeing that a friend liked a website would make you more likely to click on it too.

How can +1 help my website?

Google has only just begun rolling out +1 to the masses, so it’s still in the growing stages. But as time goes on, there’s a great opportunity to increase the social buzz around your site. The first step is to add Google’s +1 button to every important page on your website. It should be placed in an easy-to-find location, as long as it doesn’t get in the way of the page’s actual content. This makes it easy for Google’s users to browse your site and +1 it at their convenience.

If your site has seen some +1 action and received a decent number of endorsements, Google will take notice. It tells Google your site is reputable with quality content that its users will find both relevant and useful. As a result, it will be more likely to place you higher in its search engine rankings. Higher rankings means more exposure, which brings more clicks, which brings more leads. Needless to say, there’s quite a snowball effect that can take place.

There’s much more to Google +1, but these are the basics that will help you determine how to best integrate it into your site’s online marketing strategy. Time will tell just how effective it is for users and site owners in the long run, but getting onboard early could be very beneficial in such a competitive marketplace.

Especially in a world dominated by the web, companies must vie for visitors’ increasingly short attention spans with catchy hooks and brief descriptions. Most importantly, the short amount of time you have to make your pitch needs to count. Explain the benefits of your products or services, not just the features. You have to make a potential customer desire what you’re offering, and the best way to do that is to make it all about them. Tell them what they will get out of the deal, and then go one step further by explaining why they should care.

In other words, what are the benefits of the benefits offered by your features?

A great example is Apple’s web page for FaceTime video chats on the iPad. The page consists of a few prominent headlines, along with short blurbs that describe why FaceTime is something you should desperately want. Apple shares some technical information – like the fact that it works over WiFi and there are two cameras – but that’s it as far as features go. The screen size and resolution isn’t mentioned, nor is the number of megapixels the cameras have. Those are irrelevant to getting you to want to buy the product.

Instead, Apple tells you what the benefits of FaceTime are. You get to see, not just hear, your long-distance family and friends from wherever you are. Okay, that sounds great but why should you really care? Because you’ll never miss a birthday, anniversary, or holiday gathering ever again. You’ll get to see your little niece or nephew blow out the candles on the cake. You’ll get to laugh at your childhood dog’s new trick long after you’ve moved away from home. You’ll get to watch your grandchildren open their gifts on Christmas morning. It will almost be as if you’re really there taking part in the events.

That’s a much more powerful and effective way to sell your products or services than just throwing some bullet points on your company’s website, isn’t it?

It’s not the tool but how you use it.

1. Paid posts (that includes videos). If someone gave you money to post something, you need to disclose it.
2. Free services/product. If a company or its PR representative sent you something for the purpose of using it and then sharing it on your blog/YouTube, etc. you need to disclose it.
3. Affiliate links. If you use affiliate marketing (ie LinkShare, Commission Junction, or are partnered with one of the many companies that do their own affiliate marketing), you need to disclose it.

1. Free samples anyone can receive. If you bought a shampoo that had a sample size goodie taped to it and you want to review that free sample, you do not need to disclose anything.
2. Things you bought yourself. Likewise, if you want to review the shampoo itself.  Since you bought it, you do not have to disclose anything.
3. Gifts. If you bought the shampoo for your sister who wants to review it on her YouTube channel, she does not have to disclose anything.