By Susan Smith, Senior Account Coordinator

It seems as though Google introduces a new product, innovation, or organizational change every week. This past month is no exception.

We mentioned the new “+1” button in a previous post (March 31st) and now we have some updates:

• Google is working on adding the button directly to websites so that users will not have to return to the search homepage.
• Although Google stated that the “+1” button will not affect the quality score of advertisers, Google is aiming to provide the most relevant results to searchers and thus “+1” listings will be used to help determine organic rankings.
• According to Julie Batten, a writer for ClickZ, Google intends to add “+1” reporting to AdWords accounts as well.

On the Twitter front, Google has begun including tweets in search results. However, Tad Chef from SEOptimise, found that simply tweeting about a topic or a link, even from a power account, was not enough for the tweet to display in Google results. After the tweet was retweeted by multiple other parties, it was finally indexed.  Although the exact reason and algorithm used for indexing are unknown, it is likely that Google does not consider a tweet relevant until it is recognized by multiple parties. In addition, Twitter has an average posting rate of 600 tweets per second—if Google indexed every tweet posted, Twitter would take over the results page.

Posted by: Susan Smith, Senior Account Coordinator

Many online marketing tactics that were considered extras in 2010 will be essential parts of successful 2011 interactive strategies.

Social media: Social media presence on sites like Facebook and Twitter has become an integral part of online marketing strategies. Consumers now look to these sites to get up-to-date information, find discounts and deals and interact with their favorite companies.

Mobile: The number of mobile phone users worldwide surpassed five billion in 2010. According to Gartner Research, smartphone sales increased 96% from Q3 2009 to Q3 2010, and they accounted for almost 20% of overall mobile phone sales in Q3 2010. Whether it’s through a mobile friendly website, mobile advertising or custom apps, a mobile strategy for your company is necessary if you don’t want to alienate those five billion users.

Reputation management: With real-time news and social media results appearing in the search engines, unsatisfied customers and company mishaps can have a huge impact on a company’s online reputation. Every company should have a plan in place that includes how to respond to unsatisfied customers, ways to bury negative news stories while promoting positive ones and how to adjust advertising plans and budgets when a crisis occurs.

Local marketing: As the popularity of local search increases, it is becoming necessary to incorporate local marketing strategies in order to achieve top organic visibility. It is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to drive people to your website, your contact information and your place of business.

Online advertising: ClickZ reported predictions that online advertising spend will increase 14% to over $70 billion in 2011. In addition, this amount represents more than 15% of total ad spend. If your company is not represented in the online space, you’re likely the only one. It’s important that you don’t forget social sites when it comes to online advertising since 1/3 of the total spend will be on social and video websites such as YouTube.

As technology advances and consumer behavior evolves, it is necessary to adopt new marketing tactics. Remember when you add new programs like those above, you need to have a solid strategy for execution and measurement in place to make sure that you’re effectively reaching your target audience and advancing your 2011 business goals.

Posted by: Susan Smith, Account Coordinator

The latest version of iTunes now comes with Ping, Apple’s foray into the social networking space. Ping, billed as “a social network for music,” allows users to follow both friends and musicians and includes a news feed, concert listings, custom song charts and more. Steve Jobs describes the network as a combination of Facebook and Twitter for music fans, and is optimistic about the launch of Ping due to the popularity of iTunes and its 160 million users.

Image Source: World of Apple.

Ping claims that it is not in direct competition with Facebook because of its focus on music, but the two are competing for users who spend their time online communicating with friends on social platforms. According to ITProPortal, Apple and Facebook were in talks for over 18 months, discussing how to integrate the two platforms, but an agreement could not be reached and Ping launched on its own. However, in early October it was reported that the companies may make a deal yet.

Posted by: Susan Smith, Marketing Coordinator

Now that Google and Bing are displaying Twitter tweets in organic search results alongside other social media, tweets should be optimized just as a website would be.  There are multiple ways to increase the relevancy of your tweets and have them indexed by the search engines:

• Get more followers, each follower is considered an incoming link
• Get relevant followers, keywords in their bios relate to your relevancy
• Get tagged in lists that relate to your industry
• Have your tweets retweeted
• Tweet relevant, keyword rich content utilizing active lingo and buzzwords
• Choose a username that is short, easy to remember, and relevant to your brand or industry
• Stick to one handle/username for consistent indexing
• Choose an account name that reflects and promotes your brand
• Utilize the 160 characters available for a bio to insert key words and phrases
• Place a call to action on your website to gain Twitter followers
• Embed your Twitter URL in the footer of your website
• Occasionally tweet a link to your website to drive traffic
• Place your most important keywords at the beginning of your tweet as that is what shows up in Google

As Twitter continues to gain popularity and people begin seeking out real time updates, optimizing tweets will become vital to keeping your company at the top of the search results.