Local SEO Services | “The Best and Worst Thing to Ever Happen to SEO”

Source     : Wired Com
By              : Ryan Connor
Category :  Local SEO Services, Best SEO Company

Local SEO Services

In the space between art and science lies a discipline that’s been completely disrupted over the past 5 to 10 years — marketing. Like an awkward adolescent finally coming of age, marketing has finally been given the validation and direction it needed for businesses to make smarter investments. This is because decisions and resources are now, more than ever, being based on analytics, data and attributed sales. In the world of SEO, this translates into referring keywords, keyword rankings and organic user behaviors. Up until recently, it seemed as if SEO had finally become a science, with mounds of data and standardized industry processes for reporting. Efforts to shape content around search engine marketing objectives were fruitful, and the data-loving SEO’ers became a staple in the modern marketing team. All was well.

Then, seemingly without reason, Google began to cut-off the life blood of search engine marketing and started encrypting searches and withholding search referral data. In fact, by the time you read this, Google will have effectively cut off 100% of the search referral data that was so critical to the status quo. Notwithstanding the remaining PPC referral data, this tectonic shift by Google sent a lot of marketers back to the drawing board. It was worst thing that’s ever happened to SEO. Now, if you’re like me, you’re probably wondering why Google seems to have shot itself in the foot. While it’s easy to assume that’s the case, there’s actually solid rationale behind their decision making. For one, Google’s effort in encrypting searches for all users was a way for them to show good faith to consumers in the wake of the NSA spying scandal.

Secondly, it placed Google’s own Adwords advertising platform in a good spot because advertisements within the platform still pass on referring keyword data. And lastly, and perhaps most importantly, they were politely reminding marketers what their philosophy on content and SEO has been since day one…

   “…make sure that you’ve got high-quality content, the sort of content that people really enjoy, that’s compelling, the sort of thing that they’ll love to read that you might see in a magazine or in a book, and that people would refer back to, or send friends to, those sorts of things…”

– Matt Cutts (Head of Google Webspam)

The recent changes and historical stance by Google’s team embody their efforts in trying to shift the focus away from the Wild West that is search engine optimization and back to the consumers and consumable content. While SEO is clearly still relevant, many efforts are for naught because businesses are caught up with rankings and pursue less-than-ethical tactics trying to achieve them. Thankfully, Google has started penalizing those that game the system, and reward those that make customers happy.

So why is this shift the best thing that’s ever happened to SEO?

For starters, it makes SEO more about the users and the content, and less about gaming the system. In the past few years, Google has really thrown down the gauntlet with updates like Penguin and Panda, essentially saying that if you game the system, you’re risking your entire business (because Google has removed and will continue to blacklist websites that game the system). It’s the long-overdue coup-de-grace for grey-hat and black-hat SEO trickery. For the good of Google’s users, great original content will continue to separate the ordinary from the extraordinary and the front page rankings from the long tail.

As an avid Googler myself, I wouldn’t want it any other way.

I for one, see the future of optimizing for Google search as much more intuitive and straightforward. Much like how you don’t need map making skills to use a GPS, you shouldn’t need SEO skills to drive traffic via search engines. After all, it’s Google’s job to create the content and it’s our job to make it. However, until the day search becomes all knowing (I’ll give it 5-10 years), we still have to focus on making sure the information is provided in the right way for search engines to crawl and rank it. So be sure to keep up with the targeted keywords, site optimization, mobile and responsive readiness, personalization, redirects and so on. As search comes of age, SEO best practices will grow in importance as competition rises and the landscape evolves. If anything, (not provided) shouldn’t slow down your SEO, it should open up a wider conversion on the need for a more holistic, customer-centric strategy. Anything short of that is now snake oil.

Source : wired.com/insights/2013/12/best-worst-thing-ever-happen-seo/

Local SEO Services Orlando | “What Online Communities Can Learn From Twitter’s ‘Block’ Blunder”

Source     : Wired
By              : Derek Powazek
Category : Local SEO Services Orlando, Best Orlando SEO Company

Local SEO Services Orlando

This week, Twitter changed its “block” feature so that people who were blocked by users could once again interact with the users who had blocked them. After intense backlash from users — including the lively #RestoreTheBlock hashtag — Twitter reverted the change, saying it “never want[ed] to introduce features at the cost of users feeling less safe.” What just happened, and what can other companies learn from this? This may have been one recent incident, but it’s not an isolated one — witness Twitter’s (and other social networks’) delay in implementing a report-abuse button, for example. These kinds of features aren’t just abstract; they have a concrete impact on individual users and the health of online communities overall.

First, the basics: In case you missed it, Twitter has a feature called “block.” If you block someone on Twitter, that user can no longer interact with you. But Twitter changed the feature from blocking to essentially muting someone, which meant that users wouldn’t see updates from the blocked person — yet they could still follow, favorite, retweet tweets, and so on. The change punished users, not harassers. That’s why the truth-in-humor analogies ranged from things like calling the police about an attack and being told “Well, what were you thinking, going out in public?” to bullying someone in a classroom and then having the teacher offer the bullied student earplugs (that was one of mine). In short: ridiculous.

In Forbes, Kashmir Hill said that Twitter “moved itself out of the role of controlling what users do on the site.” But when you run a community, you don’t get to just step down and leave your members to fight among themselves. When you start a community, you make a promise: We will take care of you. Abdicate that responsibility, and your community will eventually falter. Things worked out in the end, this time. But these are my takeaways for what companies need to consider and do differently in future — especially when changing features that affect user safety.

You Can’t Change the Rules in The Middle of the Game

Many Twitter members have spent years adding jerks, haters, and abusers to a carefully crafted block list. This ability created an agreement with Twitter: “I don’t want these people to interact with me again.” When Twitter changed that agreement without warning, it meant everyone in that blocked group could suddenly interact with you again. Worse, when those blocked people now interacted with you, Twitter would hide it from you. This meant that if someone was harassing you, your friends could see it … but you would not.

Now, had Twitter added a new feature called “mute” that operated the same way the new block did, alongside the current block, no one would have complained. What Twitter tried to do is change block (a tool that severs ties) to mute (a filter). The fact that many third-party Twitter clients have built their own mute tools is proof that it’s needed. Twitter should still add it natively without taking away the existing block tool. But to change the way an existing community tool worked — especially one so central to the safety and sanity of users — is to court disaster. Twitter changed block from something users did to others, to something users did to themselves.

People Always Notice

What made things worse was how the change was communicated to users. Which is to say, it wasn’t. Implementing the change with no warning created the appearance of Twitter trying to sneak something past its users. I’m not saying that was their intent. But the way the change rolled out made it seem more incidental than important. In fairness, the company did talk to media, explaining that it was trying to prevent retaliation behaviors, and it did update information on its site. But updating an FAQ and talking to industry press is not the same as communicating with your members. When a website, platform, social network, company, or other forum makes a change to a core piece of community functionality, it has to tell its users about it directly. In advance. Ideally even soliciting — and listening to — their feedback. Of course you can’t run every change past the entire community, but Twitter is a communication platform; it’s not like they have no way to talk to their members. And whether they like to admit it or not, they’re managing a community. Communities aren’t just companies beholden to their board and stockholders — they have a responsibility to their users. (Which is also why Twitter’s reverting the feature is a positive sign.)

Never Make a Change That Punishes Victims

The most outrageous part of the recent block-unblock episode is that, despite Twitter’s claims to the contrary, they were basically fixing the problems of the people who got blocked — not of the people who were doing the blocking. Twitter, when faced with years of complaints from the blocked, capitulated to them by restoring access to the users who had blocked them. (While some argued the change better reflected how the block feature actually works, Twitter said it was because retaliation scenarios could spur greater abuse.) But I’ve managed or worked with many communities with tools like this, and you’d be amazed how common it is for people who misbehave and get punished to come crying to the admins. Once you scratch beneath the surface of their complaints, however, nine times out of ten they were the ones in the wrong: “Well, yeah, I did break the rules, but I still shouldn’t be punished!”

When making a core policy change like this, the company has to ask itself: Whose problems are we solving? And: What additional problems might that change create? Only then can a company avoid the mistake of an illogical and insensitive change.
Large Communities Need More Tools in Their Community Management Toolkit

Block is a necessary tool for communities to manage themselves, but it’s not the only tool a community of millions needs. As I’ve described it in the past, having only the block feature in a large community like Twitter is like “setting the dinner table with only chainsaws.” We need more humane, nuanced tools for people to manage their networks (and attention). Humans are weird and messy and therefore require a weird and messy set of tools. Here are just a few examples of more tools that companies should consider: Dismiss. People often block because there’s no other way to remove a tweet from view. If Twitter added this tool for any tweet (just like the one that exists for ads), there’d be less need to block right away.

Timeout. I’ve often wanted a tool that operates like block with a time limit: blocking another user for a day or a two and then unblocking. This would be a great way to short-circuit a hot argument without implementing a long-term block once people have cooled down. Spike. I also frequently use this technique, which I call a “spike”: blocking someone, forcing them to unfollow me, and then unblocking them again so there’s no trace. This is a workaround; I’d rather just have the ability to remove myself from someone else’s follow list without notification. It’s like leaving a party without saying goodbye.

Negative Feedback, Positive Reinforcement. Twitter should be monitoring accounts that get blocked a lot (or receive other negative feedback) for sudden jumps in activity. If a user gets carried away, goes off the deep end, or misses their meds, then Twitter could step in: “Hey, we’ve noticed you’re getting a lot of negative feedback today. Are you okay?” Sometimes just getting noticed is enough to calm someone down and defang vitriol. Block List and Redress. Twitter’s block is still incomplete. Where is the page that shows all the people I’m blocking? There isn’t one. How can a user send a polite appeal to a user to get unblocked? They can’t. Twitter should finish building the feature it already has before changing its core functionality altogether. I acknowledge that none of this is easy. But neither is creating a real-time, multi-platform messaging network that is used by millions, and Twitter has accomplished that despite the odds. They’re also not alone in facing such tradeoffs and challenges. So this is a teachable moment for those of us building, participating, and moderating online communities today — one that I hope the rest of the industry is paying attention to as well. As we live more of our lives online, we need to get this right.

Source : wired.com/opinion/2013/12/twitter-blocking-policy/

Local SEO Services Orlando | “How To Create a Fun – Functional Website User Experience”

Source     : Entrepreneur
By              : Stephanie Orma
Category : Local SEO Services Orlando, Best Orlando SEO Company

Local SEO Services Orlando

Launched in 2005 for just $5,000 as a city guide for sharing local finds, Refinery29 has become one of the web’s hottest fashion and lifestyle websites, with more than 5 million unique monthly visitors and revenue via advertising and e-commerce expected to hit $26 million this year. While growth has been lightning-fast, founders Philippe von Borries and Justin Stefano realized that their branding wasn’t keeping pace. “Media companies are no longer just content publishers in the traditional sense–they manufacture products, create technology platforms, videos and other assets that go far beyond the written word,” Stefano says. “We wanted to grow in all those different directions, but our old logo, website and branding just didn’t allow for that.”

Publishing 80 stories daily, the once-well-crafted blog had become cluttered, inconsistent and difficult to navigate. The founders were also unhappy with how their logo appeared in mobile form–important, as more than 40 percent of Refinery29’s traffic is from phones and tablets.

Working with global brand consultancy Wolff Olins, which has aided the reinvention of brands like USA Today, AOL and Target, the teams dove into a four-month “branding boot camp” to address Refinery29’s greatest concern: how to stay cool and relevant while it scales and seeks new audiences. “It’s the ultimate question and a challenge for most every brand out there,” says Marissa Vosper, lead strategist at Wolff Olins, “but especially for Refinery, as their whole business was founded on an indie culture of going against the grain of mass-appeal books like Vogue and Elle.” Wolff Olins led the visual manifestation of the brand into the distinct logo “R29,” which works on everything from web banners to apparel and merges a high-fashion aesthetic with the boldness of a news site. Then the Refinery29 design team jumped in to tackle the website, designing it with modular elements. “The homepage has five unique sections that can all be swapped out and switched around,” Stefano says, “so we can recommend content based on our readers’ preferences and easily integrate the next big social platform.” Once cramped and text-heavy, the site is now streamlined and playful, with large photos, more white space, better ad placement, an icon scrollbar and a way to track trends on social sites. To keep readers engaged, slideshows flow from one right into the next–eliminating the “Where do I go now?” decision–and articles are followed by an endless feed of related content.

Refinery29 would not provide numbers but reports a marked increase in article and page views since the July relaunch. And more innovations are in the works. “The risks that media companies run is that they’re hot for a few minutes, have a couple good years, and then folks move on to the next thing,” Stefano says. “We’re focused on creating something that will remain meaningful for at least the next decade.”

Read more: entrepreneur.com/article/229463#ixzz2ld2EhAjA

Best Orlando SEO Company | “Google To Gmail Users: Don’t Expect Privacy”

Source    : Yahoo News
By             : Chris Smith
Category : Local SEO Services Orlando, Best Orlando SEO Company

Google to Gmail Users

Google indicates in a recent court filing that people who use Gmail shouldn’t reasonably expect their emails to stay private. People who send emails to someone with a Gmail account shouldn’t expect their messages to be private, Google suggests in a court filing. The revelation was made in a brief Google filed recently in federal court in response to a class-action lawsuit alleging the company violates federal and state wiretap laws by using a program to scan emails to determine what ads to serve based on the message’s content. According to Consumer Watchdog, Google argued in a motion to dismiss the case:

“Just as a sender of a letter to a business colleague cannot be surprised that the recipient’s assistant opens the letter, people who use web-based email today cannot be surprised if their emails are processed by the recipient’s [email provider] in the course of delivery. Indeed, ‘a person has no legitimate expectation of privacy in information he voluntarily turns over to third parties.'” Google declined to comment further on the matter.

“Google has finally admitted they don’t respect privacy,” said John M. Simpson, director of Consumer Watchdog’s Privacy Project. “People should take them at their word; if you care about your email correspondents’ privacy don’t use Gmail.” A hearing in the case is scheduled for Sept. 5 in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif. Concerns over online privacy and security have been heightened after information leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Eric Snowden revealed that major Internet companies have been providing Web user data to U.S. security agencies.

Source : news.msn.com/us/google-to-gmail-users-dont-expect-privacy

Orlando Local Search Engine Optimization | “iPad Mini 2 – Expert Reviews”

Source    : Josic
By             : Josic Media
Category  : Local SEO Search Orlando, Orlando Local Search Engine Optimization

Ipad Mini

You may or may not like Apple products, but you can’t but agree that despite all criticism and negative reviews (especially after Steve Jobs’s death) the iPads, the iPods, the iPhone and Mac computers are selling pretty well. When it comes to the iPad, perhaps the major question that comes out to the surface is: what OS is better – iOS or Android? I guess this is a kind of question you can answer on your own, while I will review the iPad Mini 2 below:

Design: First off, let’s say this – great design, great quality and great materials. As known, Apple products never use cheap plastic, and the iPad Mini isn’t an exception here. When you hold this tablet you are 100% confident you hold a solid gadget with aluminum body that does not look or feel cheap.

Size: As to the size of the tablet, it’s 8 inch. Well, this is less than bulky 10-inch tablets and more than small 7-inch Android devices. It is not too convenient to hold the iPad Mini 2 with one hand, but it’s still possible. It depends on the size of your hand, though. Anyway, the build quality is just superior and Apple never compromises on that.

Screen: The 8-inch screen is gorgeous. This is a Retina screen, so there shouldn’t be any questions about quality. If the original iPad Mini had somewhat poor screen that isn’t as sharp as it is supposed to be, the next generation of this tablet is so much better. 2,048 x 1,536 resolution speaks for itself. This equals to 324 ppi, which is a decent result for a tablet like this. Great screen and fantastic build quality are obvious advantages of the iPad Mini 2.

Performance: As for performance and specs of this tablet, it is not a secret that iOS does not require powerful hardware since it is using a native code that is executed much faster. So, it would not be fair to compare specs with rivals from Android market, although the iPad Mini 2 specs are pretty decent. A7 processor is just enough for this little guy, i.e. it virtually makes it fly. Coupled with 1GB or RAM it makes it a really fast device. Yes, this may be not as impressive as the recent Android monsters, but I can guarantee you this is more than enough. The interface is very responsive and you won’t find an app that will make the system lag. But again, it beats Nexus 7 in speed and performance! Just think about it for a second. The famous Snapdragon 400 loses.

Cameras: Cameras in the iPhones and iPads have always been incredibly efficient. You’ll be pleased with quality of shots and video. Maybe, this is not the biggest strengths for the iPad Mini 2, but the camera is definitely better than on any of Android rivals. Guys from Apple know how to pack a tablet with a quality camera and relevant software.

All in all this is a nice tablet, and definitely a huge leap from the original Mini that did have some significant drawbacks, like a poor screen. Mini 2 will definitely be able to compete in the market with more ‘feature-full’ Android devices. If you need quality and stability, that’s Apple! You can find more details about this device at Tabletoid.com.

Source : josic.com/ipad-mini-2-expert-reviews332

Best Orlando SEO Company | “Don’t Expect The Surface To Rescue The PC Industry”

Source    : Yahoo News
By             : Chris Smith
Category : Local SEO Services Orlando, Best Orlando SEO Company

Best Orlando SEO Company

Analysts aren’t impressed with Microsoft and its Surface tablets, and they expect the company to only sell less than 10 million units by the end of next June. Kash Rangan from Merrill Lynch downgraded Microsoft stock to Underperfom from Neutral, Barron’s reports, while Heather Bellini from Goldman Sachs maintained a Sell rating with a $28 price target for Microsoft stock. Microsoft is “fundamentally tied to the PC market, which is facing significant structural challenges due to the popularity of smartphones and tablets, where Microsoft has been a laggard,” Bellini said, adding that the “company’s long-term fate will be predicted on whether Microsoft can successfully drive adoption of its new mobility offerings while also trying to slow the rate of decline in PCs.”

Bellini cut PC shipments down to 78.7 million units from a prior 79.8 million estimate for Microsoft’s Q2 FY14 ending in December – a 10% drop compared to the same period in the previous year. Similarly, the PC shipments estimate for Microsoft’s entire fiscal year 2014 ending in June next year was dropped to 303 million, a 7.6% drop compared to last year, and 1% worse than initial estimates. On the other hand, tablet sales for the same period will be on the rise, with Bellini saying that shipments may reach 245 million by the end of June, or a 20% growth compared to the previous year, and 2% better than initial estimates. Of those, Microsoft may only ship a combined 9.6 million Surface units, up from a prior estimate of 9.3 million. Comparatively, Samsung aims to ship 100 million tablets next year.

Bellini has also revisited her pricing and margin forecast for the Surface family of tablets after taking into account the new cost scheme for Windows 8 devices and she now expects Surface revenues for Q2 FY14 to total only $259 million from roughly 400,000 combined Surface tablet sales, down from a prior estimate of $268 million from roughly 350,000 shipped units. The Goldman Sachs analyst updated the gross margin estimates for the Surface as well, taking into account Microsoft’s Surface-related disclosures for the previous quarter. “Gross margins were negative 55% in the quarter vs. our assumption of 5%” said Bellini, who adjusted Microsoft’s projected Surface margins to -21% and -6% for fiscal years 2014 and 2015, respectively. Bellini maintained a total revenue estimate of $83.3 billion for FY14 for the company, while downgrading EPS estimates by a penny to $2.53. Meanwhile, Microsoft is aggressively marketing Windows tablets, but buyers so far have seemed interested in something entirely different.

Source : news.yahoo.com/don-t-expect-surface-rescue-pc-industry-204507855.html

Best Orlando SEO Company | “103 Compelling Social Media And Marketing Statistics For 2013 (and 2014)”

Source      : Business 2 Community
By               :  Tom Pick
Category :  Local SEO Services Orlando, Best Orlando SEO Company

Best Orlando SEO Company

As the use of social media in marketing has become ubiquitous, marketers have turned their attention to making the use of business social media more sophisticated and strategic. They are refining tactics, integrating social with other marketing channels, taking a hard look at new networks, and continuing to refine their measurements of success. How can marketers help their organizations move from “social media marketing” to “social business”? Which emerging platforms are essential (or even worth investigating)? What role does social play in a brand’s overall online visibility? How does social media use differ in B2B vs. B2C companies? Between large and small businesses? Which content marketing tactics and formats are gaining or losing favor? How do marketers separate hype from reality in mobile?

Find the answers to these questions and many, many more in this compilation of more than 100 compelling social media, content marketing and SEO stats, facts and observations.
General Social Media Marketing Facts and Statistics

1. 97% of all consumers search for local businesses online. (An amazing statistic, given that nearly 20% of the adult U.S. population still lacks internet access).

2. 20- to 30-year-olds (Gen Y), act like no other previous generations. 20-something business buyers are roughly twice as likely to seek information or advice from social media as the generation before them (31- to 40-year-olds) and almost four times more likely to than the baby boomers (51- to 60-year-olds).

3. 68% of Google+ users are male, while 80% of Pinterest users are women.

4. Looking at the importance of social media by business function, 80% of business executives said social is “important” or “somewhat important” in marketing and branding; 74% said the same for customer service; 70% for innovation and new product/service development; and 63% for employee recruiting. Less than half view social media as important for supplier/partner engagement.

5. Social media isn’t quite as ubiquitous as it sometimes seems. 7% of the American population has never heard of Facebook, and 41% say they haven’t heard of LinkedIn. And these people can vote. Which explains a lot.

6. 72% of adult internet users in the U.S. are now active on at least one social network, up from 67% in 2012 and just 8% in 2005.

7. As many companies have learned the hard way, unanswered complaints on social networks can go viral, causing real damage to a company’s brand. But the opposite is also true: 71% of consumers receiving a quick brand response on social media say they would likely recommend that brand to others.

8. 65% of respondents of global business executives say their organizations use social business tools to understand market shifts; 45% to improve visibility into operations; and 45% to identify internal talent.

9. There are, on average, 700 YouTube video links shared on Twitter every minute, and 500 years worth of YouTube videos watched on Facebook every day.
10. 60% of LinkedIn users have clicked on an ad on the site, and 43% of U.S. marketers have obtained at least one new customer through LinkedIn.

11. 70% of brands now have a presence on Google+, up from just 4% in the last quarter of 2012.

12. 69% of brands now have a presence on Pinterest, up from 10% in the fourth quarter of 2012.
General Marketing Facts and Statistics

13. Webinars, virtual events and other digital communications channels are driving trade shows and other live events to extinction, right? Wrong. Nearly three-quarters of brand marketers still view live trade shows and conferences as either “very valuable” or “essential to doing business.” Just 9% say their importance is diminishing.

14. 93% of online research starts with a search engine, and 68% of consumers check out companies on social networking sites before buying. Visibility is vital, so every brand needs a comprehensive strategy for optimizing their overall web presence.

15. To optimize not just online visibility but also trust with buyers, vendors need to focus on their industry presence. Just 9% of B2B decision makers consider vendor content trustworthy vs. 67% who trust research from professional associations, 50% from industry organizations, 44% from analyst reports, and 40% from independent product reviews.

16. The average CTR for banners is 0.01 percent. According to Get Elastic, 31 percent of consumers are worried that they will be tracked if they click them, and 55 percent fear a virus. And yet—there were 5.3 trillion display ads served up last year.

17. Big contradictions on big data: 71% of marketers say they plan to have Big Data solutions in place in the next two years. But 75% of marketers can’t calculate their ROI of their marketing spending and and 50% of them say that IT is not a strategic partner.

18. Another contradiction: while 86% of companies are comfortable marketing with social tools, only 41% use social tools for communicating with customers. (Forbes)
B2B Social Media Marketing Stats and Facts

19. Nearly half of B2B marketers planned to increase their overall marketing budgets this year despite continuing economic challenges. Two-thirds planned to increase digital marketing spending.

20. Another source found that almost half of B2B marketers (the same “almost half”?) anticipate an increased budget for 2014, while just 3% foresee spending reductions.

21. Just 38% of b2b marketers say they have a defined social media strategy.

22. Twitter is the most popular platform in b2b, with 85% of marketers saying they use this. LinkedIn is a close second at 82%.

23. Nearly three-quarters of b2b marketers say they can’t measure the ROI of social media at, or can measure it only some of the time. The primary measurement of social media success is increased website traffic.

24. Is social media displacing PR? In a recent survey of B2B PR professionals, 94% said they use social media to promote announcements vs. 71% who use press releases. 45% said they would use social media if they could use just one promotional vehicle vs. 24% who said they would issue a press release.

25. 60% of B2B marketers identify lead generation as their top online marketing challenge. And more than a third (36%) say they can’t accurately attribute online conversions to the correct marketing channels.

26. Which lead gen tactics work best? B2B marketers put email marketing at the top (with 51% saying this is a highly effective tactic) followed by SEO and content marketing (38% each), offline events like trade shows (31%) and paid search/online ads (29%). Just 11% say social media is highly effective for lead gen, and 1% identify mobile marketing.

27. In terms of difficulty of execution, nearly half (49%) of B2B marketers put social media marketing at the top, followed by content marketing (39%), SEO (26%) and mobile (25%).

28. Opportunity being squandered: B2B buyers under 35 years old (a growing group) are 131% more likely to make corporate purchases online than their older counterparts. 90% of B2B buyers age 18-35 now make company purchases online, compared with 45% of those age 45-60 and 29% of those age 60+. Yet nearly half have purchased from Amazon Supply in the past year because their current suppliers aren’t offering an online purchase channel.

29. Another opportunity being squandered: More than 90% of B2B marketers consider webinars/webcasts, e-books, white papers, and published articles to be either “very” or “somewhat” effective in achieving SEO and marketing objectives. Yet less half utilize webcasts and just 20% create e-books.

30. While B2B B2B buyers age 60+ conduct online research before purchasing less than 10% of the time, younger buyers (age 26-45) do research before purchasing 50% of the time or more. Another reason it’s vital to have a framework for maximizing a brand’s online visibility.

31. More than 80% of B2B decision makers say they visit vendor-independent communities or forums, vendor-sponsored communities or forums, and LinkedIn at least monthly for business purposes.

32. 32% of B2B decision makers use Pinterest at least monthly, but only 2% do so primarily for business reasons.

33. 87% of B2B companies view social media (other than blogs) as a highly successful element of their marketing mix. 83% say the same for articles on websites, 78% eNewsletters, and 77% blogs.

34. The top four metrics used to measure B2B social media success are web traffic (60%), sales lead quality (51%), social sharing (45%) and sales lead quantity (43%).

35. Almost 60% of all social media-referred traffic to B2B websites comes from just three networks: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

36. In 2012, less than a third of B2B marketers said their social media activities were either “fully integrated” or “very involved” with company-wide operations. Today that figure is close to half.

37. The top marketing tactics used by B2B marketers this year were social networks (84%), email marketing (72%), SEO (56%) and press releases (51%). The least popular tactics, each used by less a quarter of marketers, were online ads, seminars and ebooks.
Statistics About Social Media Use in the Enterprise

38. 77 of the Fortune Global 100 companies have at least one official corporate Twitter account.

39. 48% of the Fortune Global 100 are on Google+.

40. More than one-third of Fortune 500 companies have active Google+ accounts. However, 19% of the companies with Google+ corporate accounts have not yet activated them. Google+ remains the only major social platform with a significant number of open—but inactive—accounts.

41. 70% of the Fortune 500 companies have Facebook pages, including nine of the top 10 companies. (MediaPost)

42. The top five social networks used by B2B marketers to distribute content are LinkedIn (83%), Twitter (80%), Facebook (80%), YouTube (61%) and Google+ (39%). (Social Media Today)

43. Another study pegs the top three social networks in use buy Fortune 500 companies are Twitter (77%), Facebook (70%) and YouTube (69%).

44. The leaders of these companies lag in their own social media use, however. Of the 500 leaders of the biggest companies in the US, only 28 have a Twitter account, and only 19 of them actually use it.

45. 68% of Fortune 500 CEOs have no social media presence whatsoever. Among the rest, 26% are on LinkedIn, but less than 10% are on Facebook and just 1% – five CEOs – are on Google+.

46. And yet, 90% of global business executives say that social media is important today or will be within a year.

47. Maybe they just aren’t doing it right? When asked to rank their company’s social business maturity on a scale of 1 to 10, more than half of global business executives gave their company a score of 3 or below. Only 31% gave a rating of 4 to 6. Just 17% ranked their company at 7 or above.

48. By department, the largest users of social media in enterprises are marketing (with 78% using social media to a moderate to great extent), IT (64%), sales (63%), and customer service (62%). The functions using social media least are operations (46%), supply chain operations (36%), risk management (35%) and finance (28%).

49. More than 40% of enterprises measure the success of their externally facing social media initiatives based on social reach (e.g., number of fans/followers) or brand reputation enhancement. Just 14% measure it based on sales. 19% don’t measure it at all.

50. Among the Interbrands Top 100 brands (B2C), nearly all have a presence on Facebook and Twitter. 76% are also on Google+, 74% are on Pinterest, almost a third (31) are on Tumblr.

51. Why Tumblr? Because “posts tend to have a longer shelf life on Tumblr than Facebook and Twitter through ‘reblogs,’ or reposts of updates. Almost a third of reblogs (29%) took place more than 30 days after the initial post.”

52. Does that mean B2B marketers should jump on Tumblr to promote their thought leadership content as well? Not necessarily; MTV claimed the second-highest number of reblogs in a recent period. Sprite claimed the most reblogs over that timeframe, with more than 85,000 for a single post with an animated GIF of a game of spin the bottle.

Small Business Social Media Statistics and Facts

53. 78% of small businesses attract new customers through social media.

54. This despite the fact that 80% of SMB websites don’t display links to the company’s social networks.

55. The top three challenges faced by SMB B2B marketers are lead quantity (69%), lead quality (60%), increasing brand awareness (56%) and reaching decision makers (52%). It seems like those figures haven’t budged much in 20 years.

56. The three tactics viewed as most effective for generating SMB B2B sales leads are company websites, email newsletters, and tradeshows. LinkedIn and Facebook were also cited as effective by more than half of marketers, coming in just ahead of direct mail.

57. At the other end of the scale, Pinterest, outdoor media and virtual events were cited as the lead effective tactics for SMB B2B lead generation.

58. SMB marketers identify the top three benefits of social media marketing as increased exposure (89%), increased website traffic (75%), and access to marketplace insights (69%). However, less than half said that it either reduced marketing expenses or increased sales.

59. Small business marketers are most likely to outsource TV/radio advertising (40%) and SEO (35%); they are least likely to outsource email newsletter and social media marketing management (less than 5% each).

60. However, those decisions are often budget-driven. Half or more of SMB marketers would prefer to outsource both TV/radio ads and SEO, and nearly 20% would outsource social media marketing if they could.
Content Marketing Facts and Stats

61. The content marketing challenges faced by enterprises and small businesses must be very different, right? Well…yes and no. Marketers in companies large and small rank are challenged by producing engaging content, producing enough content, producing a variety of content, and measuring content marketing effectiveness in broadly similar proportions. But surprisingly, they part ways on the challenge of lack of executive buy-in (38% of enterprise marketers vs. 25% of SMB marketers say they are challenged by this), lack of budget (48% enterprise, 38% SMB) and most dramatically, lack of integration across marketing channels (58% enterprise, 23% SMB).

62. 92% of marketers believe that content creation is either “very” or “somewhat” effective for SEO.

63. More than half of B2B and business-to-government (B2G) marketers focus on white papers and case studies as key components of their content marketing, compared to less than 10% of B2C marketers. However, those on the consumer side focus much more on customer reviews (44% vs. 27% for B2B).

64. Different types of content address different levels of the purchase funnel. At the top of the funnel, blog posts, news articles, press releases and social media content drive awareness. In the consideration stage, “category level” web page content, “long tail” blogs and news articles, newsletters, FAQs and white papers are most effective.

65. On average, 25% of marketing budgets are now spent on content development, delivery and promotion.

66. 87% of buyers say online content has a major or moderate impact on vendor preference and selection; but 43% say “blatantly self-promotional” content is a major turn off.

67. 54% of B2B marketers plan to increase spending on content marketing in 2014.

68. 77% of B2B marketers use a blog as part of their content marketing mix, and 70% use online video.
Business Blogging Statistics and Facts

69. Blogs convert readers into buyers. 42% of consumers look to blogs for information about potential purchases; 52% say blogs have impacted their purchase decisions; and 57% of marketers have acquired new customers with their blogs.

70. Despite that, just 34% of Fortune 500 enterprises maintain corporate blogs – up from 28% in 2012.

71. Within the Fortune 500, telecommunications (53%) and specialty retailers (48%) are most likely to have blogs.

72. 77% of B2B firms maintain blogs.

73. Or do they? Another source puts the share of B2B marketers using blogs at 39% in 2013, down from 48% in 2012. Hmm, confusing.
SEO and Search Marketing Stats and Facts

74. 50% of searchers on Bing click the first organic result. Only about 6% click the third result, 3% on the fourth result, and 1% on results near the bottom of page one.

75. However—a lower position isn’t always bad. If the searcher clicks the “back” button because the top result didn’t meet expectations, then he or she is 5-8 times more likely to click on a lower result than on the initial search. That is, the CTR for a result near the bottom of page one can be as high as 8% after a “back” button click.

76. 50% of marketers cite web pages as “very effective” for SEO. Really, only 50%?

77. Another study puts the figure above at 95%; that sounds more like it.

78. 50% of consumers say they are more like to click on a search result if the brand appears multiple times on the results page. This is why web presence optimization is vital!
79. Marketers produce a wide variety of content to support SEO, with web pages (79%), social media (74%) and blogs (68%) topping the list. The least-used tactics? Mobile apps (14%), digital magazines

80. Search AND social rule. Among marketers who rate their companies’ SEO strategies as “highly effective” in achieving marketing objectives, 38% have extensive integration between their social media and SEO tactics, and only5% have no such integration. Among those who call their SEO “not successful,” just 2% have extensive search and social integration, while 50% have no connection between these activities.

81. Again comparing “superior” to “inferior” SEO strategists, those in the superior group are 67% more likely to say that creating original content is their most effective SEO tactic, and three-and-a-half times more likely to cite changing search engine algorithms as a critical obstacle to achieving their objectives, while being far less likely (6% vs. 58%) to point to the lack of a clear and concise strategy as a main challenge. (Marketing Charts)

82. Organic or paid? No, both! Paid search supports organic SEO efforts: paid-search ads alongside organic listings in position two through five receive two out of every three clicks from the search engine results page (SERP). When organic results are well below the fold in positions six through 10, paid search is responsible for nine out of 10 clicks to the Web site.

83. Even when organic results fall in the first position, consumers still click on the paid-search ad. When a paid listing appears on a SERP with the top organic listing for the same keyword, the organic result gets 60% of the clicks on average and the paid link 40% of clicks.

84. Just 23% of marketers generate more than half of all leads through organic search. 22% of companies generate between a quarter and half of all leads via search, and 24% obtain less than one out of every 10 leads via SEO.
Mobile Marketing Statistics

85. 50% of clicks on mobile banner ads are accidental.

86. Still, mobile video is the fastest growth area in marketing.

87. And 35% of B2B marketers plan to increase their spending on mobile marketing this year.

88. Facebook will account for 13% of worldwide mobile ad revenue in 2013.
Facebook Statistics and Facts

89. 77% of B2C companies and 43% of B2B vendors have acquired customers from Facebook.

90. 81% of B2B decision makers say they visit Facebook at least monthly–but only 2% do so primarily for business purposes, as opposed to 42% who do so primarily for personal purposes.

91. 20% of all internet page views come from Facebook.

92. 95% of all social media-referred traffic to B2C websites is generated from just five social networks: Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and YouTube. 74% comes from Facebook alone.

93. On Facebook, brevity matters. Keeping your posts below 250 characters can get you 60% more engagement than you might otherwise see. You can get up to 66% more engagement if you cut it down to less than 80 characters.

Twitter Statistics and Facts

94. 34% of marketers say they have generated leads from Twitter.

95. To maximize click-throughs from your tweets, keep them to 100 characters or less and tweet in the afternoon .

96. Twitter accounts for 32% of social media-generated traffic to B2B websites, but 82% of social media leads. Hmm, that doesn’t jive with other research on B2B social media.

97. 18% of U.S. adult internet users are now on Twitter, double the percentage from 2010.

98. Using Twitter for social media? Great idea, but you’d better be listening. 81% of Twitter users expect a same-day response to questions and complaints aimed at brands.

99. There are 400 million tweets sent each day.

100. 50% of technology companies have acquired a customer through Twitter.

101. While posting the same headline and link, over and over, is obnoxious, strategically repeating a tweet several hours apart–when different groups of your followers are likely online–can substantially increase click-throughs, without being annoying.

102. For tweets with links, 120-130 characters is the ideal range to maximize retweets.

103. Use hashtags—but sparingly. Tweets with one or two hashtags get 21% higher engagement on average, but those with three or more actually get 17% less engagement.

SOURCE : business2community.com/social-media/103-compelling-social-media-marketing-statistics-2013-2014-0679246

Best Orlando SEO Company | “Need a laugh? Let This Website Come Up With Your Next Facebook Status”

Source      : Last Time
By               : James A. Martin
Category  : Local SEO Services Orlando, Best Orlando SEO Company

Best Orlando SEO Company

If you need some comic relief, check out “What Would I Say?” a new website that generates Facebook posts based on your past status updates. The website goes through your past posts to get an idea about the things you talk about and how you write. Click “Generate Status” to create new posts, and you’ll likely come across a number of hilarious results. There’s also a good chance the website-generated posts might not make any sense.

Here are a few of the results I got:
“Losing happens, but these are still the Harlem Shake”
“Alas, I would have gone missing. #Apple”
“Use protection when you sell your soul to the HTC First, aka”
“Keep calm and kick BAM!”

At best, the statuses seem like something you would write, but at worst, they seem like they’d be something you write after a long night out. The hilarious website was created at hackathon this weekend by Princeton students. The site took just 36 hours to make, and now, it is quickly making the rounds on Twitter and on news websites.

To use the app, simply head to what-would-i-say.com and hit the Facebook login button in the top right corner to give the website permission to access your past Facebook posts. For those worried about the site storing your information, “What Would I Say?” assures users that users’ Facebook status data are stored in their own Web browsers. The students told The Times they were inspired by “the bots” users chat with on messaging services like AOL Instant Messenger. Those bots were automated accounts that were programmed to respond to messages sent by real users. Often, the results were hilarious.

We “realized that Facebook posts would be a great resource for training these bots because they’re so personal and funny,” the students told The Times in an email.  Play around with the app and see what it comes up with based on your past posts. If you see a status you actually want to share, simply hit “Post to Facebook.”

Source : latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-facebook-what-would-i-say-20131114,0,6271819.story#axzz2kgwprQbO

Local SEO Services Orlando | “Will Google Docs kill off Microsoft Office?”

Source      : CNN Money
By               : Adrian Covert – CNN Money Tech
Category  : Local SEO Services Orlando, Best Orlando SEO Company

Google Docs offers similar features to Microsoft Office

For years, Microsoft has stockpiled a large amount of cash from sales of its Office productivity software suite. Yet over the past year, something peculiar happened. Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) has made it easier for consumers to access Office via the cloud and online downloads, regardless of what computer you’re using. In the past week, Office even enabled real-time, collaborative document editing for its free offering, Office Web Apps.

Why the big push into making these offline money makers into cheaper cloud services? Blame Google – When Google Docs first launched in 2006, it was mostly a curiosity. Cloud-based services were not yet a way of life, and support with Microsoft’s Office formats was minimal. But Google Docs has been improved upon bit by bit over the past few years and is now an extremely useful and increasingly popular collection of software.

Google Docs is no longer a curiosity. It’s a legitimate threat to Microsoft-

Google’s productivity tools may lack some of Office’s advanced features, but are easier and simpler to use than anything Microsoft offers — especially when it comes to the cloud-centric features. Microsoft is still a huge player in this business of course. It claims that Office is installed on more than 1 billion machines. In 2012, Gartner estimated that Office had a 90% market share in the enterprise market. If you focus on the cloud, however, the story changes. The next decade looks like Google’s to lose. Gartner estimates that in 10 years, there will be 1.2 billion people using productivity suite services … but more than half of them will be using a cloud-based productivity suite of some sort. Gartner’s research also shows Google quickly gobbling up market share in that space. It could be as high as 50%. Google recently disclosed that there are 120 million accounts using Google Drive (which houses the Docs services), and 5 million businesses and institutions using the Google Apps platform (the latter is not a free service). As of September, Microsoft has sold 2 million Office 365 Home Premium subscriptions, which allows the suite to be installed on 5 different devices concurrently. Separately, it says that 60% of Fortune 500 business have purchased enterprise versions of Office 365. It also claims to have 50 million users for its Office Web Apps.  But Google’s suite is quickly becoming the standard for tech startups, small businesses and newer large companies. Demographics are on Google’s side as well. Those who have grown up with the Internet don’t really think twice about using something that is free, saves your work in a centrally accessible location, and makes it easy to share and collaborate with others.

Office is slowly losing its status as the software of choice. It’s becoming something that people just use when they need specialized formatting … or when they’re dealing with someone who only uses Office. Still, even that is changing. Google’s 2012 acquisition of Quickoffice was made to help to bridge the format divide between the two services. And it’s even possible to use Google Docs without an Internet connection. According to a Google spokesperson, the goal isn’t to match the Office suite feature for feature. While Google still wants to appeal to the vast majority of traditional Office users, the company is more keen on getting to the point where file format is no longer an issue. Google can afford to give away software for free. Can Microsoft? Google makes money off its productivity suite by selling web ads. But there is a bigger goal as well. The company is offering services like Google Docs in order to keep users close to its other, more lucrative offerings such as Gmail, Search, Chrome and Maps. But Office remains a cash cow for Microsoft. Office sales are about a third of the company’s total annual revenue. It is not in a position to simply make Office free. With Office 365, Microsoft is charging $100 a year, which guarantees perpetual updates, and has produced modest, but encouraging rewards to the tune of $1.5 billion a quarter. But it’s awfully difficult to beat free. And Microsoft doesn’t just face competition from Google. Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) recently launched its own cloud-based version of its iWork suite. It’s giving the mobile iOS version away for free. Related: Microsoft Office 2013 has nice upgrades, but save your cash

For now, Office is still the overwhelming leader. Still, the tides are shifting. Microsoft probably knows it can’t simply rely on its existing install base sticking around just because Office is the standard. In fact, Microsoft should know that from experience. Microsoft’s web browser market share eroded when Firefox, and later Chrome, took center stage. On the enterprise side, its Windows Mobile platform has joined BlackBerry (BBRY) as a victim of Corporate America’s embracing of iOS and Google’s Android. This war is far from over, but Microsoft has its work cut out for it. This battle is going to be fought and won in the cloud. And Google, with its years of experience offering consumer services in the cloud, has the home field advantage.

SOurce : money.cnn.com/2013/11/13/technology/enterprise/microsoft-office-google-docs/

Orlando Local Search Engine Optimization | “Search Engine Marketing vs. Social Media”

Source      : business2community.com
By               : Motoko Hunt
Category  : Local SEO Search Orlando, Orlando Local Search Engine Optimization

Orlando Local Search Engine Optimization

I see that many Asian companies are shifting or thinking of shifting their digital marketing focus from search to social. Seems everyone likes a new shining object. We saw this trend in U.S. a couple of years ago. Is this a smart move? Most importantly, can social media replace search? Those companies that shifted their digital marketing focus from search to social a few years back are now actually bringing search back as the core tactic of their digital marketing. One of the reasons is that they didn’t see the performance they were hoping to get out of the social media campaigns.Forrester Research reported last year that less than 1 percent of online transactions among U.S. customers could be traced back to a social media post. According to Monetate’s study, online searches were the greatest contributor to e-commerce visits and sales, representing 31.43 percent of sales traffic. Email had 2.82 percent, and social media accounted for only 1.55 percent of all e-commerce traffic.

Econsultancy’s Social Data from last year showed:

About 50 percent of companies are using social data to gauge sentiment in order to have more targeted and relevant communication, to improve customer service, to address specific complaints, and to inform product and services development. Only 6 percent of participating companies said that social signals had a major impact on their search and social media strategies.“It’s not that social media failed those businesses, but they failed to understand the social in social media.” Scott Stratten of Unmarketing said that give-away campaigns (such as “Win an iPad”) only convert people who want a prize to follow brands’ twitter accounts or like their Facebook pages. They are not real fans of the brand or products, and won’t engage. Another trend in Asia is to put Paid Ads (PPC) as the main focus of the search engine marketing, and not putting much effort into SEO (search engine optimization). Is it because SEO is getting too hard? If you have a healthy and well optimized website, you should be getting at least half of your website traffic from organic search results. According to new research from GroupM U.K. and Nielsen based on 1.4 billion searches done in U.K., 94 percent of Google and Bing search users clicked on organic results compared to only 6 percent clicked on Paid ads. Do you really want to let go of that much potential traffic, and miss out on the business opportunities by only focusing on PPC? The fact is that SEO, paid ads, and social have different roles in the digital marketing ecosystem, and you shouldn’t be choosing one over another but try to make them collaborate. Consider the following 6 steps to deploy and manage your Search and Social projects that bring you closer to the business goals.

1. Understand your audience behaviors in search vs. social media

First, you need to understand how people behave both on social media and search engines. Review data such as when they use each and what they do or look for in search vs. social media. Even the search functions, social media search isn’t replacing search engines. You’ll be surprised at the similarities and differences if you compare the queries people use on search and social media. Look at your own data, and understand your audience.

2. Set your search goals and social media goals

Once you have a good grasp of your audience behaviors on search and social media, think about the roles of search and social media and align them to your digital marketing projects, and what you can and should achieve from search projects and from social media projects.

3. Leverage the social impacts on SEO

Especially with Google, we now see more impact from social media on the organic search results, i.e., social sharing, reviews, authorship, etc. Your digital marketing strategy should leverage the social activities and social assets to improve the organic search performance.

4. Integrate search and social

As long as you think of search and social media as separate projects and place them in silos, you won’t see the maximum impact for your business. Create a cross-functional process between the search and social so that you can integrate the search learning into social media, and the social media learning into search. The search keywords, social conversations, and the target audience behaviors are some of the key information that you should be sharing between the two.

5. Set the best practice, then enforce it to make sure everyone follows it

Next, you want to put all the findings, goals, and process into a best practice guide for your digital marketing team. Provide the training so that everyone understands it, and enforce the guide among all concerned parties.

6. Establish the communication channels among SEO, Paid and Social

After you get to step 5, and everyone goes back to each team or department, it’s likely that no one would have time to check in with each other to share the information even if it’s in the best practice guide. Mandate to review each other’s reports, and have monthly or quarterly meetings to share the learning and the challenges.

Source : clickz.com/clickz/column/2304624/search-engine-marketing-vs-social-media-all-i-want-is-everything-so-should-you