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With over 600 million members or “friends,” Facebook is the most powerful of the online social networks. Online
retailers are discovering new ways to harness this power not only to increase their sales, but also to infl uence buyers through the virtual word-of-mouth that the Facebook Like button enables.

The way it works is simple. Individuals, companies, or groups create Fan pages on Facebook where they can post updates. Facebook members can become a fan by simply clicking the Like button located on the fan page. Fans then receive updates posted by the page creator.

Companies have begun to integrate this feature into their own web sites, allowing them more exposure through this social network.  is is an efficient way for retailers and manufacturers to let their customers and Facebook fans know about new releases of products, events, and special off ers and coupons.  e added benefit to retailers is that anyone connected to the person who Liked the item will also be exposed to the product when they see the Facebook News Feed of the fan of the brand.

Up until a few months ago, retailers only went as far as allowing members to become fans of a brand as a whole. Lately, however, a new trend has emerged. Merchants such as Levi’s and Amazon now use the Like feature at a product level. How does this work and what does it mean for you as an online retailer? Let’s look at Levis.com. In the screenshot example below, Levi’s has integrated Facebook’s Like feature into the product information for each listed item.  e jeans maker also shows how many people have Liked each pair of jeans to the right of the Like button. By displaying the number of members who Like a pair of jeans, Levi’s is betting that consumers will be more influenced to look at and buy those jeans.

During an internal usability study conducted in May of 2010 with online shoppers across various age groups who had Facebook accounts, it was discovered that the Like feature did influence members’ shopping experience. Observations showed that jeans with a higher number of Likes got more views from these online shoppers than jeans with fewer Likes, at least initially.  While ultimately select a pair of jeans based on their personal style, they also spent time investigating the products with more Likes to find out why they were more popular.

In order to use this feature, Facebook members must allow Levi’s to use some of their Facebook information, such as:
their friends’ birthdays, th e display of their friends’ Facebook profile pictures on the Levi’s web site if they Like a product, and  Information posted on their Facebook Wall when they select to Like and/or comment on something.

By having access to this account information, Levi’s can alert its online shoppers about friends’ birthdays as a means to promote gift purchases.  And in hopes of influencing a shopper’s buying decision, it can also show shoppers images of their friends who have Liked or commented  on certain products.  is  where the true power of marketing through social media shines.

And when viewing a friend’s Facebook page or status update in News Feed, members can see if a friend has Liked or commented on something through the Levi’s web site. At the top of the next page is an example screenshot of what
would typically appear on a fan’s Facebook Wall if he had Liked and commented on a Levi’s product.

Members seeing a product on their Facebook Profile pages when they commented on a Liked product, as well as seeing a product they simply Liked.  These same consumers also said that if they saw a pair of jeans that a Facebook friend Liked or commented on, they would be more inclined to click on that product, driving them back to the Levi’s site.

 Consumers who may have never considered visiting the Levi’s web site are now exposed to and driven to the site
via a single product they saw on a friend’s Facebook profi le page or within the Facebook News Feed. If only 0.25% of Facebook’s 600 million friends visited the Levi’s site, that would still amount to an additional 1.5 million visits.

So what’s the downside?  at depends on what a consumer is comfortable with people knowing about her. In the case of Levi’s, the one drawback we heard from testers was that they may not necessarily want to display the types of clothes they Liked for fear of criticism.  The main deterrents when it came to announcing their clothing styles were body type and size, color and style.

Enter Amazon.com.  In late July 2010, Amazon partnered with Facebook to create a personalized shopping experience for consumers based on their Facebook Likes and their friends’ Likes. Amazon accesses a customer’s Facebook account, with the customer’s permission, to gather information .

Once a customer has allowed Amazon to access this information, the retailer uses it to recommend products based on the customer’s Likes and her friends’ Likes. Aside from displaying the friends’ profile pictures for products they’ve liked, Amazon also shows friends with upcoming birthdays. Based on their Likes, Amazon provides gift suggestions for these friends.

This type of integration allows Amazon to gain key insights into how product sales relate to social recommendations—a metric which, up to this point, has not been easily measured. Based on this data retailers can build models to show how
fi nancially valuable it is to have members Like a product or brand and truly gauge the impact of social network marketing.

Overall, this marriage between social networks and online retailers has a bright future. As more people use Facebook to
keep up with friends, trends and gossip, Facebook’s potential as a commerce tool for online retailers will only continue
to grow. So consider how your retail site could benefi t from integrating Facebook’s Like feature and test the user experience before deploying it to make certain your customers understand and appreciate the feature. It could impact your site more than you think.

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There’s a new term Internet marketers need to become familiar with: ASO, or App Store Optimization. As apps have ushered in a new era of business on the Web, ASO will soon take its place alongside SEO as a key component of online success.

Consumers are quickly realizing that apps are increasingly abundant, providing solutions to problems, and  conveniences never before seen. But as the number of apps increases at a rapid pace consumers need a little help finding what they need. That’s where ASO steps in. And, just like SEO, ASO takes up-front planning to achieve top
rankings in the app stores.

Plan before you build

It pays to do your research. Apps are neither easy nor cheap to build — so it is critical that just as much care is given to ensure its adoption and help turn that app into a solid business investment. What’s more, under-developed apps can incur the wrath of poor user reviews, all but dooming its future. It’s easy to dream up the next great app but far more
difficult to fulfill an actual consumer need. Study the market.

• What do the top 100 ranking apps in your category have in common?

• What features do the top apps overall have in common?

• What are consumers searching for (services or features) that could give your app an edge?

Try to identify what users are searching for and use those keywords when developing and promoting your app; starting with the title and description and possibly even using the developer name. Words like “easy,” “fun,” “fast,” and  “exciting” are highly searched and enticing to the consumer. Your mission is to build app that has mass appeal and easy-to-understand benefits.

Naming Description

The name of the app must feature a strong keyword. This will have a major impact on your app store ranking and, of course, helps consumers discover your app through search. Take care in researching keywords that are appropriate to the app and its functions before settling on a name.

When it comes to app descriptions, clearly outline the benefits but be strong and concise — enough to grab the consumer’s attention and convince them why they should install your app. Avoid using special characters in your title as this will have a negative effect on how the name appears in the app’s URL. Also, include “Free” or “Lite”, if appropriate. Another strategy is to build your app dependent on a popular platform such as Facebook, and use that name in your copy. If building on a third party platform, however, engineer a user notification when that third party has an outage so that your app does not get blamed and slapped with a low rating. Remember that every good piece of copywriting includes a strong call to action.

Pricing

Included in the research phase of app planning is pricing. App prices will vary but should stay in line with similar apps or functionalities. Price an app too high and it will quickly fall out of favor — meaning lost ratings and reviews and the possibility that cheaper alternatives dominate the app stores. Pricing too low can add a “cheap” feel to the app and also result in being overlooked.

More than 80 percent of the traffic in the Apple App Store is directed to free apps. So, one pricing strategy is to use the “freemium” model — that is, offering a free version of the app while outlining the benefits of the paid model both in descriptions and in the app itself. Review your options, such as inapp purchasing to monetize on engaged users. Half of the top-grossing App Store apps are now free with in-app purchasing, and this percentage has been increasing rapidly. Paid apps should stay under the $4.99 price point, as consumers still expect to pay very little even for high-quality apps.
Should you decide to charge for your app consider using price promotions. For example, offering a $4.99 app for $.99 for a limited time can create a sense of urgency on the part of consumers and garner media attention.

Create High Quality Images

Create quality images to showcase your app and its benefits and label the images with strong keywords. The app’s icon must also be of high quality, and make sure it “pops” off of the page.

Plan the Preview

Search for an app and you will quickly see app store page results. Many times, the iTunes Web Preview is listed higher
than your app’s home page as they are very search engine friendly. These preview pages are critical to building organic traffic and attracting links — these pages must be optimized.

Use keywords and be sure to maximize the use of copy before the “More…” button, seen on Apple App Store previews, for example. You are limited to three lines here; each made up of 120 characters before word-wrapping. The URL, page title, meta description, meta keywords and the H1 tag should all be loaded with the app name and keywords. Currently, the iTunes preview page use a “no follow” attribute for links to the app’s home page so there is no benefit to the developer. Again, do your research — it will pay off with more downloads and higher rankings in the App Store.

Pre-launch tactics

Before officially launching an app, it is important to build some buzz. • Launch a website for your app. • Promote the app on social sites, and start networking with app review sites and other online communities, like LinkedIn Groups.
• Leverage your social network by integrating Facebook Connect into your app and request user ratings.
• Create a video featuring the “value” the app offers the user. Consider creating a professional screencast in high definition to demonstrate the quality of your app. Post on YouTube and use the links in  press releases and requests to app  reviewers.
• Demo the app at mobile industry shows — you never know when someone from Apple is watching (or reading) and it
could land the elusive App Store featured app.

Launch Advertising

Most Web marketers are familiar with display ads and, therefore, attempt to buy mobile display ads first. The problem is that mobile display ads are not very effective at growing traffic. Most marketers of free apps report that it costs between $1.50 and $3.00 (or more) to acquire an installation using mobile display ads, and that mobile display ad campaigns do not scale very well. Since it now requires approximately 50,000 U.S. installs in a single day to place in the top 25 in the U.S. App Store free rankings, explore lower cost alternatives such as “cost per install” networks, which provide cost per
install campaigns below $1.00 and at the high volumes required to break into the top of the App Store rankings.
Apps that rank in the top of app stores and retain that position do not achieve that status by sheer luck. It takes  planning and careful execution to land in the Top 25. But the effort will be handsomely rewarded with higher revenue and user engagement.

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When we install a program and end up with one or more unexpected apps, this is sneakware. These are not malware, they don’t replicate like viruses or report sensitive data back to some remote hacker. Sneakware are apps pushed by vendors searching for a bigger audience. Sneakware do a lot of good for the vendor and do less for you.

Sneakware generally is not malicious in nature and usually is software that a number of users may choose to install. There’s no great secret to how sneakware gets onto your system. Consider the classic sneak play involved in a Nexus Radio installation. After executing the downloaded installation file, the user sees a buxom bass player, perfect for  distracting the attention and getting a quick hit of the Next button, which is already pre-selected. All the user has to do
is hit Enter another six times and the program is installed. Is anyone still paying attention by the sixth screen? Nexus Radio hopes not, because hitting Enter here will result in acceptance of the Ask.com license, installation of the Ask toolbar, and making Ask the browser’s default search provider.

Nobody downloads Nexus Radio looking for the Ask toolbar, but the unwary will end up with it anyway. Only  unchecking the two Ask option boxes will prevent the sneakware installation.

In most cases, sneakware is not malicious. One arguable exception is software that persuades someone to install it through devious or misleading means, even though that software ostensibly has no malicious impact. The classic example of this is the antivirus warning message that pops up during a Web browsing session, warning the viewer that his system is in danger and that a scan for threats is urgently needed. Most of us think of a “scan” as something that runs from a remote location and doesn’t install anything locally. In this case, that belief is wrong. Clicking anywhere in the message, perhaps even clicking the red X in the corner, launches a background download and installation of some sort
of antimalware software.

This fits the strict definition of sneakware because the antimalware application (a) installs through a sort of unwitting assent and (b) doesn’t cause damage, steal anything, or sacrifice system security. You didn’t want it, but it’s there anyway, and getting rid of it could be every bit as difficult as expunging a virus. Still, sneakware is not malware, and companies such as Symantec and Trend Micro are unlikely to ever treat it as such because users inevitably give some form of permission when installing it. Thus the burden of caution stays with users, whether they want it or not.

For better or worse, it’s common for people in the Internet age to assume that everything digital either is or should be free. Isn’t this the basis of freeware and things like Wikipedia? Free, however, is not usually the case. Inevitably, money has to enter into the equation in order to keep electricity flowing and food on people’s tables.

In the case of a small software vendor trying to carve out a name and market presence through freeware, it’s hard to  begrudge some application bundling as long as the sneakware is fairly marked and the uninstallation process is  straightforward. These  companies have to make money somehow, and it’s obviously not happening from retail purchases.

On the other hand, some might object to receiving the same (or worse) handling from a company such as AOL, which generated nearly $2.5 billion in 2010 revenue. AOL’s famously popular Winamp media player not only features  sponsored ads in the main UI of the free Standard version, but it also runs the user through sneakware pages for AOL Search, eMusic, and DriverHive, which users might assume was needed for Winamp since it is “recommended.”

 

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These days, most of us spend an incredible amount of time online using a Web browser. The Web browser, and the activities performed using them, is a favorite attack vector for cybercriminals. Here are some tips on how to browse securely and keep the bad guys away.

Recent version of browser

Although most popular Web browsers today have proven to be fairly secure, bear in mind that you should always use the latest version of the browser and make sure that it’s up-to-date and patched. Those security patches are there for a
reason, and older versions of browsers are far more vulnerable to attacks than updated ones.

Passwords

We use a lot of Web sites and services these days. Because keeping track of potentially dozens of passwords is a difficult task, many people use the same password (or some slight variant of the same password) for everything, which is a terrible
idea. Not every site is created equal in terms of security. For example, the authentication and encryption on your bank’s Web site may be stellar, but that forum for moped riders that you joined may not be.

If someone found or figured out your password on the moped forum and you used it for your other accounts, a hacker can figure out how to access your financial and personal data, not to mention your various email and social networking accounts, pretty quickly.

Further, make sure any and all passwords you use are strong—that is, make sure they’re hard for someone else to guess. A strong password will contain a mix of upper- and lower-case letters as well as numbers. Don’t use familiar names or the birthdays of family members, or anything that someone could easily find out about you.

You should have a different password for every account you have. Because it’s so tough to remember all those passwords, you should develop a code, such as including the first letter of the service somewhere in the password or something equally random that you can still remember, or use password management software.

Web site encryption

One letter can make a world of difference. You’ve no doubt noticed the “HTTP” before Web addresses, but a site with “HTTPS” before the address is one that employs some kind of encryption, such as SSL (Secure Sockets Layer). You’ll frequently see HTTPS on financial sites or online payment portals, for example. This prevents others from “eavesdropping” on your  browsing and helps keep your sensitive information shrouded from online view.

Access

It’s important to remember where you’re accessing the Internet from. For example, if you’re browsing from your company’s network, chances are that the IT department has business-level encryption, malware detection, and firewalls in place to keep your communications secure and to keep the bad stuff out.

However, if you’re accessing the Internet on an unsecured public Wi-Fi hotspot, assume that anyone who’s interested can see what you’re doing on the network. Never, ever, conduct sensitive business over an unsecured network.

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For about the past three years, mobile marketing has been on the verge of breaking out and changing the way we interact with our target audiences.

That time has come. There are some strong signals that show 2011 should be the year that mobile finally “arrives” and makes a major impact on your marketing strategy. According to a recent Search Marketing Now Webinar on mobile trends:
• 49% of smartphone owners have purchased from their phones in the last 6 months.
• Mobile commerce is expected to reach $119 billion in sales by 2015.
• In 2009, 78% of marketers that experiment with mobile said their goals were met; 9% state that expectations were exceeded.

If you’re ready to go mobile with your business, one of the fastest ways to get started is through Google AdWords. And if you’re already running a PPC campaign using AdWords, the entry into mobile should be seamless.

You might be shocked to hear that you may already be targeting mobile devices in your AdWords account. When  creating an AdWords campaign, the default setting is to target all devices— this includes laptop and desktop computers, and all mobile devices.

Suggest segregating standard search campaigns from mobile campaigns. Their performance will differ greatly and the strategies employed to optimize both devices (computers and smartphones) will be unique to each. You can target specific types of mobile devices such as Android or the iPhone, as well as specific carriers such as AT&T, Sprint or Verizon. However, not  found a great amount of variation between AT&T users and Nextel users (except that the iPhone is on AT&T and now Verizon). When getting started, deciding which carrier to target is low on the list of priorities.

Once you’ve created your mobile-only campaign in AdWords, it’s time to start engaging with users on smartphones. There are a couple ways to set up mobile PPC ads:
• Send users to your mobile-optimized website. PPC ads can send mobile searchers to your mobile optimized website.
• Mobile users can call you directly from their Google search. Instead of sending users to your website, your PPC ad  displays a clickable phone number and users call you directly from their phone.

At the left are two examples of mobile PPC ads. One ad is focused on click-to-call — the only clickable element is the phone number. In the second image, the headline of the mobile ad is the clickable element, sending users to the website.

Choose the ad option that best suits your business objectives. If your website is not optimized for mobile devices, focus on generating calls. Also, if your lead close rate tends to be higher via phone, you may want to focus on click-to-call.

To set up the click-to-call option in Adwords, enter the ad extensions tab of your mobile targeted campaign and choose to create a new Phone Extension.

You also have the option to choose “call metrics.” Call metrics allows you to measure phone calls generated by PPC ads. Google assigns a custom Google Voice number for each campaign— calls to this number are rerouted to your business phone number. The metrics provided with call metrics include:
• Total Calls: The number of calls to the custom phone number that was displayed with your ad on computer and mobile
devices with full Internet browsers. For about the past three years, mobile marketing has been on the verge of breaking
out and changing the way we interact with our target audiences. mastering search.

• Received Calls: The number of calls to the custom phone number that were answered.

• Missed Calls: The number of calls to the custom phone number that were not answered.

• Average Call Duration: The average duration per call received; in hours, minutes and seconds.

• Total Call Duration: The sum of the duration of all received calls.

To see these statistics in your AdWords campaign, you must activate the call metrics feature. These metrics can help gauge user interaction with your PPC ads on mobile devices, but you will need internal tracking mechanisms to measure the ROI of these calls.I suggest assigning a unique phone number to your click-to-call ads to measure leads and sales.

For calls initiated with a call-click on a high-end mobile device, the standard click charges will apply. As you can see, mixing mobile advertising into your PPC campaign within AdWords isn’t a laborious process. However, pay close
attention in order to set up your campaigns properly. If you send users directly to your mobile-optimized website, you should be able to gauge ROI similarly to your other PPC efforts. However, in order to determine the success and ROI of phone calls generated by your PPC ads, you need to have some sort of tracking in place. Now is the time to take action
and get your mobile campaign running.

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Linkedin take a closer look,  if you have any dealings in the corporate world- whether you are a CEO, salesperson, HR manager or anything in between. Linkedin is a useful tool to make your business relationships more meaningful, and profitable. Before you dismiss the idea of using Linkedin because you know it as a “bland” social media site, realize that currently there 90 million Linkedin users worldwide. Unlike other social media sites like Facebook where many people use the site for entertainment, all Linkedin users are business minded. That means the connections you develop on LinkedIn are more likely to positively impact you or your company in some way.
Therefore, if you want better or more professional business relationships, LinkedIn is the place to be. Even if you
have a business profile on Facebook and Twitter, LinkedIn makes a perfect addition to your personal or business
branding efforts.

The key to making LinkedIn work for you and your company is to use the site regularly. That means posting something, either an update or a question/answer, every seven days at a minimum. Why? Because the more you use any social media site, the higher your “Google Juice” will be – in other words, Google’s algorithm will notice your regularity and you’ll
get a higher ranking with Google than you would otherwise. Additionally, the more you interact and post on LinkedIn, the more prominent you’ll become within your network – your name recognition will grow.

Fortunately, staying active in LinkedIn and a regular user is simple when you understand how LinkedIn can benefit you professionally. Use the following ideas and suggestions to make the most of your LinkedIn account.

It’s as easy to set up your profile in LinkedIn as it is in Facebook. Make sure your profile is well written and that it highlights what you currently do, what you have done, your strengths, your talents and your education. Remember that
people will access your profile for many different reasons (recruitment, background information, professional contacts, etc.), so be thorough and always make your profile public. Since your LinkedIn profile is essentially a mini resume, keep it updated, tasteful and accurate. Additionally, you have an opportunity to display recommendations for you. As a point of etiquette, when you ask someone to write a recommendation, you must reciprocate.

By posting status updates that contain valuable content, you show your network that you are a team player and that you care about other people’s success. Remember that status updates are not the place to advertise your company’s products or services, nor is it a conversation group. A better idea is to share a best practice, announce a seminar/event you’ve
been to or are going to, or give a quick tip. If you can’t think of anything to post, it’s perfectly acceptable to post a  meaningful or motivational quote. The key is to post something interesting and relevant to your network. And always remember that what you post stays on the Internet forever. So if you wouldn’t want your comment on the front page of the newspaper, don’t post it on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is a great place to get an inside glimpse of people. For example, you can look up potential clients or vendors on
LinkedIn and see what kind of books they read, where they went to school, what their main interests are (based on the groups they belong to) and so much more. Now you’ll have more to talk about when you meet the potential client, potential vendor, or potential networking friend. Think of LinkedIn as a gateway to have a professional relationship with someone much quicker. In fact, some estimates show that by using LinkedIn to research the people you plan to interact with, you can have a six-month head start on the relationship.

There’s an amazing amount of real-time information available on LinkedIn. By being a member of various groups that interest you, you can see what people are thinking on a certain topic by the questions they’re posting and the responses they’re getting. You can then use the information you discover in your own company. Whether you’re looking for new clients, new vendors, or even a new job, with LinkedIn you can search the companies you want to work with and see who in your network has connections there. You can then ask that person – your connection – for an introduction to a  decision maker who can help you. Even if you find that no one in your network has connections with a particular  company, perhaps someone in one of your groups works there. That’s why it’s important to belong to every group that interests you. Continually build your LinkedIn relationships and make those key connections before you actually need them.

Even though 82 percent of people use some kind of social media regularly, social media itself – including LinkedIn – is
much like the Wild West. It’s not tame yet, and best practices are still being formed. With that said, if you’ve spent much of your time on other social media sites and feel they aren’t working for building professional relationships, then it’s time to give LinkedIn a try.

The key to making LinkedIn work is to work it regularly. Commit to spending at least 30 minutes per day on it, posting your ideas in updates, asking and answering questions, participating in groups and reaching out to potential connections.

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Millions of shoppers are constantly telling Facebook about themselves, what interests them, where they live, what they buy and who their friends are. That is a lot of invaluable consumer information. Facebook has regularly been introducing innovations that enable retailers and other marketers to use that detailed information to precisely target the consumers they wish to reach.

Retail  businesses that in outdoor gear and apparel now point ads at consumers who mention mountain bikes and similar terms in their personal interests sections of their Facebook profiles, as well as those who prefer certain brands.

Facebook members willingness to share detailed information about themselves, information that Facebook , in its drive to monetize its huge traffic, is making available to marketers in many ways.

Because Facebook’s innovations have come so rapidly over the past year, retailers and consumer goods manufacturers are only beginning to test them. Thousands of retailers have experimented with selling directly on Facebook. That friend-to-friend exchange occurs when a consumer clicks that he Likes a retailer or a product— whether that click occurs on
Facebook or on the retailer’s site. That information shows up on the consumer’s news feed, in effect a Facebook member’s home page, which shows posts from his friends and his own updates. The average Facebook member has 130 friends,
which means many other consumers will see every Like and comment a Facebook user makes.

The power of Facebook isn’t just about what happens on Facebook.com. With the launch of Facebook’s Open Graph, designed to facilitate the sharing of information between Facebook and other web sites through publicly available links known as application programming interfaces, or APIs.

Open Graph includes a number of social plug-ins, which are single lines of code a retailer can add to its site to incorporate Facebook features  like its Like button. When a consumer clicks the Like button on a retail site, or interacts with any other Facebook plug-in, that information is recorded by the retailer and also on Facebook where his friends can see that action
mentioned in their news feeds. Clicking the Like button on a news article, blog or retail web site. Each of those interactions tells Facebook—and e-retailers that host those features—something about that consumer.

 The e-retailer added the Like button to its product pages last August, three months after the site’s launch, and the page displays how many Facebook users have Liked the product. When a consumer clicks the button, that information is shared on Facebook.

But because clicks on the Like button are broadcast to the clicker’s Facebook friends, they did expose many new shoppers to the retailer along with an endorsement from someone they know. Most people have friends who have similar interests, so when they see that their friend likes a particular product it has a real impact.

Another plug-in, Facebook’s Comments Box, allows comments on an e-retail or other web site to appear both on the site and on the Facebook pages of the friends of the consumer who made the comment. A consumer has to be signed on to Facebook for their comments to be transmitted to Facebook. Since half of Facebook users visit the social network every
day, and an individual remains signed on unless she unclicks a box that keeps her signed on, millions of consumers are signed on to Facebook as they move around the web.  It’s great because when someone uses either the Like button or comments, they aren’t only endorsing the product.

Moreover, Facebook designed the feature so that a Facebook member sees her Facebook friends’ comments most prominently. That means that if a consumer named Colleen comments on a retailer’s web site, when Colleen’s friends
visit that site Colleen’s comment would appear higher than other shopper’s comments.

Marketers aren’t limited to inserting Facebook’s plug-ins into their site. For instance, Amazon.com Inc. last July began leveraging the information that consumers provide on Facebook into its own site to make shopping on Amazon even more personal.  The Amazon Facebook page also includes movie, book and music titles that are popular among the consumer’s friends, as well as suggestions based on his Facebook profile.   The Amazon Facebook page  illustrates the potential power of Facebook marketing.  There will also be many opportunities to market to consumers on Facebook itself, especially as the social network introduces a wider variety of advertising options.

Retailers can buy featured ads, which enable a retailer to place an ad on the right side of a consumer’s Facebook News Feed page, just under “Upcoming Events,” in the one advertising spot on that page. Merchants can also buy less expensive, self-service “Marketplace” ads that appear on one of four slots on the right side of profi le pages under “People You May Know.”

 ose Marketplace ads can be highly eff ective, says one consumer electronics accessories retailer who declined to be named. This retailer uses Facebook profi le data to show ads to a very targeted audience—the employees of a big rival. At a cost of only about $25 a month, the retailer is using those Marketplace ads to convince its competitor that its advertising budget is far larger than it actually is.

 us, when the retailer works with the social commerce technology company 8thBridge Inc. (formerly known as Alvenda) to host an Urban Decay sale on Facebook that is only open to consumers who follow HauteLook, the retailer can target women in a specific age range who Like specifi c cosmetic or beauty brands.  The retailer also targets consumers who Like its competitors, such as Gilt Groupe Inc.

That’s the idea behind Sponsored Stories. The off ering, which launched in January, is a targeted ad service that puts company logos alongside content from consumer comments that relate to the company.  The consumer’s friends then see that ad as they move around Facebook.

Consumers can click on the ads to visit advertisers’ Facebook pages. A consumer must have had a direct interaction with the brand through a Facebook channel, such as clicking that he Liked a post, in order for his information to be picked up as a Sponsored Story. A Facebook user that casually mentions a company or product in a post will not be mentioned in a Sponsored Story.

Using the ads to generate consumers Liking its brand has worked for 1-800-Flowers.com Inc., which runs both Marketplace and Sponsored Stories campaigns. During a three-week span in which it ran Marketplace ads and
Sponsored Stories that highlighted a consumer’s friend who Liked 1-800-Flowers, the retailer more the click-through rate of its normal Facebook ads. Facebook’s ability to leverage a consumer’s network of connections is one reason marketers like McDonald’s are turning to the social network to promote new products and—in the case of the fast food giant—even hire staff . Indeed, for online retailers, it’s hard to imagine another vehicle that will provide them with as much detailed information about so many shoppers.

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Link  development and link building are not the same. Link development is based on a strategy to build organic backlink growth. Developing links of the highest quality and the  best value to search engines.

Link Placement

-Links that are part of the content are more valuable than footer links or blog roll links.

-Links on the left side of a web page are indexed first and are also more influential than those on the right side.

Anchor Text

-Search engines can easily detect anchor text frequency. Constantly link building for one or two keywords and using those terms repeatedly in anchor text will be set as non organic link building by search engines.

No Follow/Do Follow Blog Comments

-Spammy blog comments should be avoided.

-If your vertical is heavily influenced by blogs, it is beneficial to engage with these blogs as enthusiastic user and consumer irrespective of whether the links that point to your site are do-follow or no-follow.

Link Development Techniques

Building Widgets

Building useful widgets is a powerful link development technique. Creating a widget is simple but getting mass adoption is tough. The widget should have a strong value proposition-  strong enough for hundreds and thousands of other owners to add to their web sites.

Infographics

Infographics is a good way to develop topically relevant links to your website. The sole purpose of the infographic should
be to create viral-worthy content and gain user adoption. Of course, to succeed, the infographic must be useful and/or
entertaining.

Tracking and Reporting

Tracking your link development process is very important. Tracking SEO campaigns will help you understand which strategies are working and which are not. You can then double your efforts the winning strategies for even greater link development.

Link Tracking Tools

Open Site explorer  is a robust tool (if you use the API) that gives insight into your site’s link graph, anchor text distribution and trustrank.

-Link Graph: You can plot your very own link graph by tracking changes on Open Site Explorer’s “external followed links”. By plotting the number of links that point to your site each week you can keep a close watch on your link graph.

-Anchor Text Distribution: This metric helps with competitive sizing. You can compare the amount of keyword-specific anchor texts that are pointing to your competitor versus your own site. Although anchor text volume is not the only ranking factor, it helps benchmark yourself against the competition.

Google Webmaster

The Google Webmaster Tool has come a long way since it started — it now offers day-by-day updates on your site’s health,
internal and external links, keyword ranking, visits and click-through data. This is extremely powerful data for all SEOs.
Some of the most useful features are:
• Monitor internal links
• Monitor external links
• Evaluate site performance
• Project traffic/revenue based on search query analysis
• Track duplicate Title/Meta Tags
• Track crawl errors
• Submit sitemap

Out the features above, my personal favorite is the Search Query Analysis. This tool can be used to predict the effect of increasing a keyword’s rank, on traffic and even revenue.

Like this:

Youtube can make your business shine, even though you may have a small budget. Youtube and other video sharing sites can help you maximize your ROI.

When a video advertisement is naturally passed by users through the internet, viral videos are created. Videos anchored to a highly visible site are clearly branded and are meant to be seen as commercials or information sources. Viral videos are instant encounters between consumers and your brand or product. Brand-focused videos are meant to be seen as messages from brand to consumers.

Viral videos

These videos are passed on through the internet by sharing.

Viral videos show something new or not seen before. The person or people in the video must do something so unexpected that the viewer wil be caught off guard and feel compelled to pass the video along.

The video can imitate the type of videos that go viral. Look at several different viral videos  and see if you can imitate the types of things shown.

A good viral video lies between real and unbelievable.The more gullible will be shocked and will pass it on. But even the more discerning will pass it along because they think other people have been fooled by it, and want to correct them.

The video should also look authentically homemade. Sure, there are many high-budget, visually rich ads that get passed around as viral videos. A good viral video will use its low budget as an asset. The lack of visual richness will also blur the boundary between real and unreal.

Have a place where users can easily connect. The video back to other parts of your marketing plan is crucial. Keeping viral videos on a single site is important. Connection to the home site should be easily accessible.

Most viral videos fail.

Brand-focused videos

Make them very engaging. Keep your videos short, dense and if possible funny.

Make sure video has important content.  If comedy does not suit your product or service, informative how-to videos can be very effective.

Make it Interactive. Maybe engaging with customers’ concerns in the video form could be a good idea.

Work across platforms. Try to answer their questions from multiple platforms like Facebook, Twitter,Reddit, Youtube and more. By encouraging viewers to use different platforms, you encourage consumers to get more rapidly involved with your brand or company.

Make it Professional. As these videos are seen as messages from your company, make sure they look and sound good.

Other Important things

Have your pages setup on Facebook and Twitter , create a website and blog as well.

Set up accounts and channels with all the major video sharing sites. Example: Youtube, Vimeo, Google, Metacafe and Dailymotion.

Customize your channel. Keep the look and feel as professional as possible. Use black text on white. Keep background jpg as simple and uncluttered as possible. Youtube offers details on how to create fully customizable players.

Connect all of your sites together. Provide links to your Facebook and Twitter pages through your Youtube channel and vice versa. Facebook has an app that lets you embed videos on your page, can also use static FBML app to create more customized environments with HTML.

Upload your videos. You can use Youtube uploader, but if you are using many site, Tubemogul offers a service that allows you to quickly and easily post your videos to all the major video sharing sites and provides good analytics to check the performance.

Make sure to embed the video. If you want your video to float freely through the internet. If you want people to be forced to your channel, disable embedding. Make sure that viewers can easily share your videos.

Promote your videos.  Tweet about them, blog about them, let your Facebook friends know about them.

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For all the efforts retailers put into merchandising and marketing—including e-commerce sites alive with video, zoom and Facebook Like buttons designed to engage shoppers, and new strategies for connecting with their mobile and social
whereabouts—e-retailers still need to deliver the goods.

And as online retailing gets only more competitive with increasingly interactive web sites and new  cross channel
shopping options, some retailers are turning to delivery services as another way to raise their level of customer service and the number of shopping options they off er customers. For some merchants, that means offering premium service options such as “white-glove” delivery treatment, where delivery personnel will bring items like computers, home appliances and furniture into a customer’s home, set them up, and discard any packaging as well as the replaced items the customer no longer wants.

Delivery services like that can increase customer satisfaction, as can off ering free or low-cost shipping. But it all comes at a price for e-retailers. Delivery costs typically account for about 8% of revenue, says Tim Sailor, principal of Navigo Consulting, a fi rm that advises retailers on shipping and delivery services.  at means web retailers must work hard to get the best delivery deals, so they can off er the most appealing deals to consumers.

Dealing with Rate Hikes

To keep costs to a minimum and maintain overall competitive pricing for consumers, retailers often work with multiple delivery companies to provide the best mix of delivery windows and shipping rates. By coordinating deliveries between the U.S. Postal Service and national as well as regional carriers, for example, retailers can get the best mix of shipping zone rates and delivery times, experts say. In addition, merchants can work with outsourced fulfillment companies to use networks of warehouses located nearest their largest concentrations of customers, providing for the lowest delivery costs, Sailor says.

 The cost of delivery services, meanwhile, keeps rising. Th e U.S. Postal Service raised its rates by an overall average of 1.74% effective April 17, though the average increase is limited to the Consumer Price Index as required by the federal Postal Law of 2006.  e rate hikes do not affect parcels shipped via expedited Express Mail or Priority services.

Th e rate hikes, coming about two years since the last increases, range from a rise of 0.5% for single-piece fi rstclass
letters and cards to 3.8% for fi rst-class parcels and 11.3% for standard mail parcels.

For standard ground Parcel Post, for example, the cost of shipping to zone one or two would rise to $5.10 for a 1-pound package and to $7.23 for a 5-pound package. Zones are based on the distance from the shipper to the fi nal destination.

Zone 2 rate increases from the Postal Service generally have the largest impact on shippers, shipping experts say, because they increase costs for shipments that combine the shipping services of the Postal Service and either FedEx Corp. or UPS, each of which also announced annual average rate increases this year of about 4.9%.

As they deal with the rising costs of shipping, meanwhile, online retailers are offering a wider number of options in how customers can receive products.

Delivering Options

Newegg Inc., a web-only retailer of computer gear and consumer electronics that has grown to $2.5 billion in sales since launching in 2001, recently introduced a new delivery option that lets some customers get their orders faster without paying for expedited home delivery.  The service lets customers in southern California pick up products ordered online in as little as four hours from an online purchase at a warehouse in Industry, Calif.

Customers can wait for as long as seven days after purchase to pick up the products between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. Pacific time, Monday through Friday.

Th e service is free, but does not apply to products purchased from the Newegg Marketplace, where other retailers sell to Newegg.com visitors, the retailer says.

“With the debut of will call at our California facility, we are giving both our business-to-business customers, many of whom are fulfilling mission-critical business needs, as well as all our valued Newegg.com customers, a way to get even more control over their online shopping experience, saving both money and time in the process,” says Bernard Luthi, Newegg’s vice president of marketing.

Food for Thought

Big retail chains are also checking into new ways of delivering goods, including perishable items, to customers. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, is testing home delivery of online orders of groceries, including fresh produce, meat, seafood, frozen goods, alcoholic beverages, household supplies, over-the-counter pharmacy items, and health and beauty products—all picked, packed and shipped from a Wal-Mart store, the company says.

Wal-Mart is testing its Walmart To Go grocery home delivery service through stores in San Jose, Calif., a spokesman says, declining to say what other markets Wal-Mart may also test for home delivery. The retailer is charging a base delivery fee of $5, though the fee can go up depending on the day or time of delivery.

Wal-Mart is not completely new to home delivery of groceries. In addition to Walmart To Go, it offers national delivery of a limited number of non-perishable packaged goods, such as breakfast cereals, snacks and candy, that shoppers can order online to have shipped from warehouses or drop shippers. And Wal-Mart’s Asda supermarket chain in the U.K. provides home delivery of online grocery orders.

Other chains are going in the opposite direction, but still seeking more ways to get online orders to customers. Publix Super Markets Inc., a southeastern U.S. grocery chain, experimented with home delivery of online orders a few years ago, using its own trucks to deliver orders picked and packed from a central fulfillment center, but customers did not take to the service, a spokeswoman says.

But in an effort to try something similar, Publix recently began testing in-store pickup of online orders at two stores in Atlanta and one in Tampa, Fla.“We’re getting great feedback from customers,” the spokeswoman says. “At least 80% return again to use the service.”

A study released earlier this year by Retail Systems Research LLC, for example, found that successful retailers,
or those with annual same-store sales increases above the industry average of 3%, were more likely than other retailers
to off er some form of in-store pickup of products ordered either online, from a mobile device or through a contact center “Most retail winners—64% in our survey—try to enable some form of store-level pick, pack and pay process
for non-store orders,” the study says.