In just a few short weeks, we’ll all be huddled around our televisions, surrounded by mounds of food, family and friends watching football… unless you’re one of the growing number of people in the United States who doesn’t own a television. Instead, you might be watching the big game live online.

This second part of our Facebook Success Summit Series addresses the challenge of creating a thriving Facebook community and consistently engaging fans. We gathered strategies   from sessions by social media consultants Andrea Vahl and Amy Porterfield, and Intel social media strategist Ekaterina Walter.

In the past year, businesses have become more active on Facebook than ever before. However, it is vital for businesses to realize that Facebook is most effective when the conversation is flowing both to and from fans. After setting the goals of your social strategy, several steps can be followed to optimize your Facebook page and foster conversation flow. The following categories outline a few of the recommended methods to increasing and engaging your fan base:

Professional social network LinkedIn is rapidly increasing in importance within the social marketing realm, particularly for B2B firms. New features have been released in the last several months, including Company Status Updates similar to those available through Facebook and Twitter, allowing for greater brand growth within the educated and professional LinkedIn audience.

We recently attended a webinar presented by LinkedIn and HubSpot about implementing Company Pages on the networking site.

As owner of 65% of the U.S. search market, Google has the ability to change the search engine marketing space with each update it makes; on average, the engine implements 500 potentially game-changing modifications to its search algorithm per year. However, the search giant’s tendency to not disclose the details of its updates and, thus, the potential for bias and violation of antitrust law, has resulted in an investigation into its search technology by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

In an effort to increase its transparency, Google published details of 10 of its most recent updates on its corporate blog. Still, Google Engineer Matt Cutts reminds readers that the brief snippets are merely a glimpse into the hundreds of updates that modify the Google search environment. The changes revealed in the post were specifically chosen because it is unlikely that marketers or website owners will use the details to “game” the system and use black hat techniques to gain higher search rankings.

Some of these most recent updates, however, deserve more attention than a brief snapshot behind the scenes of Google development processes. For example, Google’s October decision to encrypt all searches made by logged in Google users has been estimated to have an average impact on 10% of search traffic. This update comes on top of a recent addition to the 2010 Caffeine indexing system that is estimated to impact 35% of search by prioritizing more recent content. These two instances are a strong example of the power Google wields to create change in the organic search space. Take into consideration that Google will be placing increasing importance on the content of website and landing pages as opposed to the header or menu text, and search engine marketers could be looking at a future rife with significant strategy overhauls.

By Shawna Strickland, Account Coordinator

Conversion-driven marketing agency 90octane hosted a four-week competition of raucous mustache growth to raise money for the winner’s charity of choice.

As a passion for fun and philanthropy drive the company culture at marketing agency 90octane, it was only a matter of course that the 2011 Mustache Challenge would be the most memorable to date. For the fifth annual facial hair competition, the mustache growers’ campaign efforts were exceptionally creative. Agency clients, partners and 90octane team members alike donned their ‘staches in an effort to win the coveted Challenge prize: $500 to the charity of the best mustache wearer’s choice.

Contestants in this year’s Challenge used a range of online and offline marketing tactics to campaign, from catchy fliers and emails to custom-made websites and side-splitting campaign videos. It was a cutthroat race, but in the end there could only be one.

Sean “Don Austere” Voorhies, this year’s winner, is no stranger to Mustache Challenge fame; he has won twice before with the aid of hirsute characters “Dusty McCoy” and “Alberto.” Voorhies’ winnings have been bestowed up his chosen charity, the Elias Fund, for the third time. Read the Fund’s response to Voorhies’ triumph here.

Though he prevailed, “Don Austere” was given a run for his money by all challengers, most notably those who received honorable mentions:

• the Globus family of brands took home “Most Creative Campaign” on behalf of Dan “Dandy Dan” English and “Coldest Upper Lip” for Jeff Russell’s valiant effort;
• “Classiest Mustache” went to 90octane interactive team member Josh Van Engen; and
• both 90octane partners were recognized — Sam “The Face” Eidson for “Creepiest Mustache” and
  Jim “J Geezy” Grinney for “Funniest Alter Ego.”

90octane extends its sincerest thanks to all competitors and campaign teams of the 2011 Mustache Challenge for their whole-hearted dedication to and support of the agency’s philanthropic efforts. Please stay tuned for next year’s mustache adventure.