2012 is rapidly coming to a close and most organized businesses will be well into the final stages of their strategic planning and budgeting  for 2013.

I wonder how many will have the foresight to grasp (and align themselves with) the major shifts and expanding trends that we can expect for 2013.

Frederic Gonzalo  has written a good overview of the what he sees as the major trends for next year. Although the trends are slanted towards in  tourism & hospitality industry this is a great post as it opens up ideas for discussion and gives you a check list to consider that you may not have thought of.

I have listed the 13 points below, however you will want to visit the main article on business2community.com to get the full heads up and broader view.
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A new ‘small business social media’ survey from email marketing software firm VerticalResponse was published recently.

 

It found that 43% of small businesses (100 employees or less) spend at least six hours a week on social media, with seven percent spending over 21 hours a week on Facebook, Twitter, and such.

The survey doesn’t say a whole lot on how small businesses spend these six, eight, 12 hours a week, but  it did find that two-thirds of small businesses are spending more time on social media than they did a year ago.

This could lead you to conclude that they are either realizing or actually seeing the benefits of their social media marketing efforts.

So what Do Small Businesses Do on Social Media?

To answer that question I’m going to point you in the direction of a great infographic that illustrates the surveys findings (see below) in conjunction with a really well put together article in technorati.com written by Allison Reilly
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If your business, like so many others, is still suffering the after-shocks of the Google mass de-indexation, you might be curious to know how Google caught you out.

 

After all, if you are in a hurry to get your search rankings back on target you might be tempted to try to game the system again and make up some of the ground you have lost.

Today I read a very through and well put together article written by Christoph C. Cemper titled How Google Finds Unnatural Links to Your Website.

The article showcases a detailed infographic by the same name and adds a in depth narrative that explains the visual commentary.

The essence of Cemper’s article is to highlight just how easy it is for Google to expose a link selling network, and sites associated with it in minutes. He also prescribes a solution if your site has been snagged in the Penguin net and you need to purge yourself of bad co-citations and spammy backlink networks.

Take a look at the infographic below.

 

How to clean up your site

Part of the clean up prescription is an invitation to try out Cemper’s Link Detox product. Weather you want to take a look at it or not, it seems to me that utilising a links diagnostic tool might be both prudent and very useful.

So, on a personal note, Milagro will be taking advantage of (and testing) their special offer back link check up – after all for $1 it’s a steal. We will keep you posted regarding the results and the software performance so remember check back to find out how we got along.

You can read the complete article in SearchEngineJournal.com  We would love to hear your opinion. Do leave a comment below and remember to share and +1 ~ thanks

 

 

 

 

 

Do You Know The Best Reputation Management Search Tricks To Protect Your Brand?

 

I don’t know about you but I love learning all the amazing tools that Google gives me to promote and manage both my own and my client’s businesses.

When it comes to search Google dominate the web, and therefore understanding how to use the Google machine to keep track of a brand’s reputation makes total sense to me.

Ann Smarty founder of My Blog Guest has written a great post titled Little Known Brand Monitoring Search Tricks  and explains why in today’s internet savvy world

“gone are the days when “Googling” yourself was enough to monitor your online reputation. Things have gotten more complex….”

Smarty shows you what you need to know and do to have a successful social media marketing strategy.

This is a really informative article and in my opinion an essential overview for SEO and social media executives.

Read about it here and let me know what you think (and remember to +1 and share ~ thanks)