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.”

The power of social media lies in advertisers’ ability to target consumers and easily measure performance, according to Jed Williams, BIA/Kelsey’s analyst and Social Local Media service program director.

“The bottom line is if you can multi-target and you can target down at a really granular level, you have a better chance of knowing exactly who your message is reaching and how they’re engaging with it,” said Williams.

The US Local Media Annual Forecast report on social media advertising only considered social media display advertising and non-display advertising.  This included such avenues as Twitter’s Promoted Tweets and Promoted Trends.  It did not include other social media advertising media such as social commerce, social marketing, social gaming or virtual goods and rewards.

The BIA/Kelsey report also projected social media’s share of digital advertising budgets would more than double by 2015 to 21.9%. Over the next three to four years, digital advertising’s share of total advertising budgets is also expected to nearly double to 24.7%.

“We think [Facebook's percentage of display ad impressions] will reach a majority share by 2014-2015,” Williams said.

Facebook generated more than 33% of all US online display ad impressions in February 2011, according to comScore.

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.

Over the years, Google has grown to be an internet industry leader.  They are on the forefront of many of the online trends.  As such, their company has numerous programs and initiatives that they want to keep the public aware of.  Hence their large number of Twitter accounts.  Google tweets about everything from news and personalized homepages to information for German ad agencies and Google activities in Australia and New Zealand.  Here is just a small list of the current Google Twitter accounts.  Have fun checking them out…we hope you learn something….and so does Google.

To see all of Google’s Twitter accounts, simple search for Google on Twitter’s “Find People” page.

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.

Get an active Twitter account.

Yes it sounds basic, and you may already have one, but don’t just breeze past this section.  We have some interesting tips to help you maximize your usage.

For those of you just getting started, open your account at http://twitter.com/signup. Once you have the registration form complete, connect with as many people as you can. They make it easy by allowing you to search your email lists (see below for more information).  Customize your profile to show your main website and your, or your company’s, bio information. Don’t forget to set your location, update preferences and how you want to be notified of friends who have joined the Twitter revolution.

Draw attention with a customized background.

Get creative here. Simply click on “Settings” and then “Design” to choose a premade background or upload your own image.  If you have a flair for design and a little Photoshop experience you can create a background that speaks volumes about you and your company.  Check out some great custom layouts like:

http://twitter.com/JetBlue

http://twitter.com/BBCClick

http://twitter.com/MarthaStewart

Gather friends and follow interesting people and organizations

Finding friends on Twitter is easy. Three options are available.

1.   Search Twitter.  Use the “Find People” function to search for anyone from your next door neighbor to celebrities to companies.

2.  Search other networks.  Connect to anyone in your email contact list. Twitter can search through your hotmail.com, Gmail, Yahoo mail or AOL mail contact lists and if your friends use Twitter they can be added to your list.

3.  Manual invites.  Have friends, co-workers or clients who are not on Twitter? Manually input their email addresses and invite them to be your friend.

Connect your blog to Twitter

One of the best tools to connect Twitter and your blog was created by Alex King.  This plug-in will automatically create micro blogs from your WordPress blog posts. Just follow this link for all the information

http://alexking.org/projects/wordpress

to download this plug-in click here

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/share-this/share-this.2.3.zip

If you blog regularly, be sure to review the instructions and support information.

Monitor your Twitter Rank

Twitter offers the Twitter Grader (http://twitter.grader.com) to show you where you rank against other Twitter members.  Once you enter your user name, you will see where you rank among a possible 100 points. 

Twitter Grading is based on overall rank, number of followers, your following and updates.  The more active you are the higher you will rank.

Link your Twitter account to social bookmarking sites.

If you are in the Twitter game, be in it to win it.  Build up your social networking account by bookmarking your Twitter account to sites such as Digg.com, Propeller.com, Dropjack.com and others.

Take advantage of advanced search features on Twitter

To really maximize your connection with people in your target market, go to http://search.twitter.com/advanced to use the Advanced Search features Twitter offers.  In Advanced Search you can search by keywords or phrases, location, names and more.

Resist the urge to connect with everyone you see.  Be choosy and select only the best people who actually have good information to share and are likely to accept your friend request.

As you take these steps to maximize your Twitter impact, you will see your social status rise.  As with any adventure, the more you keep at it the better the results will be.