FranCamp is the first social media un-conference for the franchise industry. To be held in Atlanta, GA on May 4, FranCamp 2012 will offer CEOs, franchise development staff, and franchisees the opportunity to develop a clear roadmap for how to get started with social media and how to integrate all the pieces together to create a successful social media and online content strategy. Qiigo is pleased to a sponsor of FranCamp 2012.

Qiigo CEO, Rick Batchelor, will also be leading the roundtable table discussion “Why Can’t Search Engines Figure Out Our Site Without SEO?” Join Rick as he leads this discussion about the complex and constantly evolving relationship between search engines and your website’s ranking.

The FranCamp agenda includes a Tweetup on Thursday evening, May 3, at the Marriott Lobby Bar prior to the Friday un-conference. Friday’s events begin with a networking breakfast and continue with the following sessions:

• Welcome
• Social Media Gone Wrong and What To Do Next
• How to Monitor and Leverage Social Platforms
• Building The Perfect Social Media Campaign
• Building a Fan Community
• Working Roundtable Lunch
• Local Marketing Rules!
• The Power of Connecting
• Build Your Business..Build Your Brand…Build Your Legacy
• Evening Meet Up

Click here to register for FranCamp 2012 and join Rick for his roundtable discussion. Attendees earn 50 CFE Participation Credits.

Building a strong and thriving Google+ community is a great way to engage your customers, build brand awareness, and develop a loyal following among your shoppers, vendors, and clients. If you are just getting started or even if you already have a Google+ page, you can use these simple tips to ensure that you are growing your Google+ audience.

• Build A Compelling Page. Ensure your Google+ page is compelling. Chose a profile photo that clearly speaks to your store, business or location. Make it easily recognizable and dynamic. Add scrapbook pages that share information about your business, thoroughly complete the ‘About’ section, and don’t forget to add links to other locations across the web where you can be found.
• Messaging Matters. Think about the tone of the messages you plan to disseminate via your Google+ pages and keep your tone consistent across time. Your messages should be personal and authentic, you want people to engage with you and feel a connection to your business. Consider linking your personal Google+ page to the ‘About’ section of your company page. This will help people to get a feel for who is contributing and will help to establish that elusive connection with your business.



• Segment with Circles. Google+ Circles can help you to segment your messaging allowing you to tailor specific messages to customers, vendors, staff, VIPs, and more.
• Frequency Matters. Don’t set up your account and then bail on it. Create a schedule and stick to it. Frequency of posting matters and your customers expect to hear from you with new and interesting information on a regular basis. Some recommend a daily posting schedule. Most posting is completed between 10am and 1pm.
• Don’t Forget the Photos and Video. Photos and video are a great way to liven up your posting schedule. Having a sale? Post a coupon exclusive to your Google+ members. You can even edit your photos in Google+ so it’s easy to keep your posts vibrant and dynamic.
• Keep Them Engaged. Use the +mention feature. Ask questions. Seek feedback. Respond to comments. Be an active member of your own community and your Google+ community will stay engaged with you.



• Host a Hangout. Hangouts allow you to have face-to-face conversations with your fans and followers around the world. Host a hangout and enjoy the benefits of interacting with your Google+ community.
• Get Your Badge. Your Google+ Badge that is. Installing a Google+ Badge on your website allows people to +1 and add you to their circles directly from your site. It also connects +1’s from your homepage with +1’s on your Google+ page and ads, increasing the number of recommendations for your site.
• Spread the Word. Share your page with people you know by posting a link to your Google+ page on your email signature, blog, website, and other social destinations.
• Take A Little Credit. Tag your online materials with an author tag so people will know what content was created by you.

Use these tips and you will be well on your way to creating a dynamic Google+ page. For more information on Google+ pages and other social media endeavors, contact Qiigo today.

According to Pew Research, in 2008 just 26% of US adults said they used at least one social networking site. Just two years later that number has jumped to 47%.  Among online adults, the number has jumped from 34% using social media to 59%. 

Social media is not a child’s game either.  The average age of adults using social media is also climbing. In 2008, the average age was 33, as of November 2010 that number had climbed to 38 years of age.  Women also make up the majority of social networking users.

Interestingly, each of the four major social networking sites – Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter – has a unique audience profile.  Specific demographic facts relating to each network include:

• Facebook: 50% of users are 36+; 52% of users engage daily
• MySpace: Youngest overall profile among the four major platforms.
• LinkedIn: 63% male vs. 37% female; 56% of users are 36+; 65% have at least one university degree
• Twitter: 41% of users are 36+; 33% of users engage daily

While updating status falls third on the list, it is valuable to examine how frequently status updates occur. This chart provides an in depth look at Facebook status updates.

Additionally, Pew Research shows that Internet users tend to be more trusting than non-users with 46% of Internet users saying that “most people can be trusted” compared to 27% of non-users. 

Pew Research also shows that Facebook and LinkedIn users are the most likely to be politically engaged and likely to vote.  79% of LinkedIn users responded that they did or intended to vote and active Facebook users are 43% more likely to have said they would vote. Comparatively MySpace users are the least politically active.

With the merger, AdGrok employees will join Twitter’s revenue engineering team. Twitter plans to discontinue AdGrok’s Google AdWords management product on June 30.  Twitter has already announced plans to roll out Promoted Tweets in the 4Q 2011.  Promoted Tweets match up advertisers with Twitter account holders who have a larger follower base.

Ryan Sarver, Director of Platform for Twitter, has said that he believes Promoted Tweets will act as the equivalent of Google AdWords.  The acquisition of AdGrok positions Twitter well to target advertisements to consumers.  It definitely appears as if Twitter is laying the ground work to compete in the pay per click market.

Advertisers are currently investing heavily in social media and looking for verifiable analytics to measure their success. This acquisition is expected to give Google yet another tool to measure online advertising performance and should provide added insight for social media ROI.

A Google spokesperson had this to say regarding the PostRank acquisition, “We’re always looking for new ways to measure and analyze data, and as social analytics become increasingly important for online businesses, we’re excited to work with the PostRank team to make this data more actionable and accountable. They have developed an innovative approach to measuring Web engagement, and we think they can help us improve our products for users and advertisers.”

Becoming a successful social media strategist is top of mind to many marketing professionals. Building focused campaigns that achieve measurable results is essential in today’s dynamic and challenging business environment. To achieve social media success, today’s top strategists have many of the same characteristics and employ many of the same techniques. Here are just a few of the things you can do to become a top social media strategist.

• Be an Effective Manager.The time has come to stop selling the benefits of social media to your company, now is the time to transition into the role of manager. Treat social media as other marketing managers treat their programs. Become responsible for the creation of program timelines and strategies, resources and ROI models. Manage your social media campaigns and develop strategies for ongoing campaign development.
• Get Organized. As you transition into the role of social media manager, embrace the role and set up an infrastructure for your team to work within. Establish the system under which your team will disseminate information for social media campaigns. As the chief strategist, it will be your job to direct how your team interacts with other business units.
• Empower Your Team. Let’s be honest, you can’t do it all and any good manager knows this. So empower your team of social media professionals to help you succeed. Become the internal resource with the knowledge that helps others to thrive.
• Remain Proactive at all Times. While this may be your hardest task, it may also be the one most essential to your success. Falling into a reactive role will limit your ability to be creative and lead your organization. Take a proactive role and you will be leading your company into the future of social media communications.
• Engage Your Audience with Relevant Information. As you establish your internal structure and turn your focus to your customers, remember to always approach them with relevant information. Your customers must remain your primary focus and engaging them with the information they want and need is essential to social media success.

]]> http://qiigo.com/front-page/social-media-strategist/feed/ 0 http://qiigo.com/google/local-search-profile-optimization/ http://qiigo.com/google/local-search-profile-optimization/#comments Wed, 01 Dec 2010 23:31:06 +0000 ginny http://www.qiigo.com/wordpress/?p=727 The advent of Google Instant and the insatiable need for real time information has led to an increase in the appearance of locally focused websites appearing at the top of website ranking results.  Focusing internet marketing strategies on maximizing website ranking results is an essential first step in winning the local optimization battle. So where do you begin?

Initial steps toward local search optimization should include:

• Claiming your company’s listing on online sites. Essential sites to claim your listing on include: Yelp, Google Places, Yahoo Local and Bing Local.  Here are few to help:
  • Google Places
  • Yahoo Local
  • Bing Local
  • Best of the Web Local
  • Superpages
  • Citysearch
  • InsiderPages
  • Yelp
  • Local.com
  • Yellowpages
  • Hotfrog
• Embrace social media to promote your brand, interact and engage with your customers and promote your website.  Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are the obvious social media choices.
• Explore the use of location based marketing sites such as Foursquare and Gowalla.

All of these techniques work together to enhance the local search optimization of your site.  However of these three techniques, claiming your local listings on search engine sites can most quickly and significantly impact your ranking results.  When claiming and validating your local listing, you are taking control of the data that is seen online.  By taking control of your listing, you also prevent others from claiming your listing.

When claiming your listing, pay special attention to:

• Business Name. Be specific when identifying your business name.  Include the full name of your business.  However, if your company is just named “Qiigo”, consider adding a descriptor that includes keywords.  For example, enter “Qiigo Search Engine Marketing”.  Don’t be tempted to stuff your business name listing with keywords, but do add them when your business name is too vague to deliver adequate search results.
• Location/Address. The search engines place significant impact on your business address when ranking results.  Be as detailed as possible, including latitude and longitude information.  Don’t know your address’ latitude and longitude coordinates?  Find them here.
• Category. Choose the category that best describes your business.  If one category doesn’t exactly fit, test several over a period of time to determine which category garners the best results.
• Reviews & Ratings. It never hurts to ask!  So ask! Ask your current customers to go online and review your business.  Provide them with the link for easy access.  Good reviews and ratings not only help your ranking, but also drive new business.
• Citations. These are mentions on other sites about your business.  In Google Places, they can be found on the “What People Are Saying About” page.  This is another case of the more the merrier, so work on securing citations from many sources.

With these areas completed, you will be well on your way to improving your local search rankings.  The more complete you can get your profile the better.  It is also recommended that you claim your website and submit it to primary local providers listed above.  The time and effort you put into these tasks is bound to pay off in improved ranking results.

Building the number of inbound links and increasing link popularity is one of the most important ways to get top search engine rankings.  Most businesses serious about their SEO strategies are already using conventional routes such as press releases, directory and article submissions to garner links.  Adding social media sites to this mix will deliver highly valued inbound links and boost placement on search engines.

Here are some basic points to consider as you integrate social media into your SEO strategy.

• It helps to integrate your social networking profiles.  Use an RSS feed to share a post on your corporate blog with your Facebook profile, your Twitter page, your LinkedIn account and any other number of social networking sites.  One simple step can generate multiple relevant inbound links for your site.
• Inbound links are only valued by search engines if they come from websites that are considered of high quality and relevant.  Social sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, meet these criteria.  Website Magazine recently did an informal study to see how Google valued sites such as Twitter and Facebook.  When searching on a publication name, such as Chicago Tribune, they found that the company website came up first, as expected.  What was unexpected was that the Twitter site came up in the first five results as well.  These results were consistent among multiple publications tested, showing that Google is clearing valuing the links posted on social networking sites.
• Just adding any old link to your site is not enough.  You must establish a brand and visibility for your business.  This is why social media sites can be so valuable.  When you post a link to a social media site, your followers or fans have the ability to determine if the link is valuable to them and worth passing on.  By posting relevant quality links, you are creating a following among bloggers, customers and other people who view your social media pages.  As you gain credibility and they pass along your links, you are gaining strength in search engine results.

Social media has quickly become entrenched in our society.  It only makes sense to use it to promote your business and speak to your customers.  Using social media sites to create high-quality inbound links improves visibility with search engines and gets your business top rankings.  You just can’t beat that!

Twitter is a social and fun method of keeping up with your friends, family, celebrities and organizations of all kinds.  A micro-blog, Twitter allows users to post 140 character messages to their site.  You can also respond to other Twitter member’s postings with messages of the same length.  Each message posted is known as a “tweet.” 

As you view and respond to other’s postings, you can opt to follow the blogs of other Twitter members.  Becoming a “follower” of another’s blog allows you to see their postings on your site.  This allows you to keep up to date with all that they are doing, thinking and seeing.  You can access Twitter from their website (www.twitter.com), via desktop applications or your cell phone.  So keeping your followers up to date on your activities is really easy.

Part of the “life streaming” movement, Twitter’s goal is to allow you to let other’s get a glimpse into your life via your thoughts and actions.  It is a good way to stay in contact while learning about the intimate details of other’s life. 

Try it out.  Log on and start tweeting with your friends.  See if you like it…some do, some don’t. But you won’t know until you send out and receive your own tweets.

The big 3 in social networking sites are LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.  These sites are designed for people to connect and share information.  From personal to business, these sites bring people of all backgrounds together.  Social networking sites provide an excellent way for you to deliver your message to current and potential customers.  They are easy to use and keep you top of mind. 

LinkedIn is a popular business networking tool.  Used by many to keep in touch with current and former co-workers, LinkedIn has developed into a tool that both individuals and companies use when looking for jobs or to fill positions.  LinkedIn recently developed a beta site that allows members to not only have pages detailing their professional expertise, but also their business’ profile.  Members of LinkedIn make “connections” with friends and colleagues. They are then able to see the connections of their connections.  When you use LinkedIn to connect with clients and friends, your business information will spread throughout the network giving you greater exposure.  Visit LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com.

Facebook is a great starting point for social marketing.  On Facebook, you can have a personal and/or business page.  People connect with each other and become “Friends” when they have a personal page on Facebook.   Businesses connect with members and gather “Fans”.   Getting your business started with a fan page is relatively easy.  Fill in as much information as you can including name, address, store hours, logos and/or photos.  Spread the word to friends, employees and clients to have them join your fan page.  Visit Facebook at www.facebook.com.

Twitter is the rising star in the social networking world.  The unique twist with Twitter is that all posts must be no longer than 140 characters.  Not words, characters.  Short concise postings go out to your “followers”.   This provides a great way to spread the news about a new product or sale.  But be wary of overloading your followers with too many sales pitches.  Don’t forget to focus on customer service points.  Bring value to the table with your “tweets”.  Visit Twitter at www.twitter.com.

No matter which of these social networking sites you use, and we see value in using all of them, you need to be committed to the process.  Spending at least a few minutes every day on these sites is a must.  Adding posts, responding to questions, promoting sales are all great ways to communicate with your customer base through social networking sites.  The best part of using social networking sites is that you can start small and expand your efforts as you get more comfortable with them.  The key is to just get started.

* Study conducted by Prodo.