Jacob Brown Designs Blog

Social Media Boom vs Baby Boom during economical crisis

Jun 26

jbdseoexpertsSEO, twitter baby boom, economical crisis, SEO, social media boom, social media sites 2 Comments

Baby & Social Media Boom

A month ago today, my second son Connor was born. While speaking to our pediatrician, Dr. Forman of West Bloomfield Pediatrics…whose website I recently redesigned…BTW…he informed my wife and I that there is going to be a baby boom. Now his reason for this was that during these times of economical crisis…people have lost their jobs, and now they are at home with nothing to do…so they make babies.

There were two occasions in history that a baby boom occurred, the Post-World War II baby boom from 1946 to 1964 and the Echo baby boom (Millennial Generation) from 1980 to 1999. The Post-World War II baby boom occurred, obviously because of the returning soldiers to their families. The Echo baby booms, or Generation Y, were the children of the first baby booming generation, but this time around…it’ll be out of boredom.

Now….what does that have anything to do with Social Media? Well, I will show you.

There is a Social Media boom happening right now and will last a while. Everyone is talking about Twitter, Facebook….not so much MySpace anymore, but I won’t leave them out…they could be reading this…LOL

Thousands, if not millions of people are joining social networking sites daily. Why? Well #1, it’s fun…#2 people are realizing the advantages of doing business on these sites…but what I think is happening #3 is that people are home…either laid off or fired…and they are bored. Just like what’s going to happen with the baby boom…a social media boom will happen as well. A lot of people have nothing to do all day at home but Tweet and make babies.

While laid off at home, and supposed to be on the computer looking for another job…people are going to be joining these social media sites and getting caught up in all of the fun and excitement of interacting with others just like them. The smart ones will use these sites to for job hunting. A lot of social media sites offer great opportunities for both the job seekers and employers. Sites like TweetMyJobs.com funnel leads from recruiters and folks in HR out to job hunters. There’s also a new site called TwitterJobSearch.com that lets you search Tweets worldwide for mentions of jobs.

So…how can we as online marketers take advantage of this booming situation?

1. Many of people are beginning to venture into entrepreneurship and starting up small businesses….isn’t that who we target? Our social media presence and interaction will help gain their business.

2. More and more visitors will be on your blogs and websites, either looking for useful information or possibly your services…so be everywhere that you can so you don’t miss out on opportunities.

3. Make sure you are putting links to your website or blog in these social media sites. With these social media sites gaining more and more traffic…this in turn will boost your site with more and more relative inbound links.  So this way…we all win.

Twitter tricks and tips for SEO

Jun 17

jbdseoexpertsSEO, twitter SEO Tips, SEO Tricks, Twitter and SEO, Twitter Tips, Twitter Tricks 6 Comments

Just this a few days ago Scott Cowley from SEO.com mentioned a technique that I used in my most recent blog post, Will Bing.com change the face of search? The tactic that Scott referred to was how I targeted certain individuals who I knew would take interest in that particular post using a direct message with a link on Twitter.

There are several different Twitter techniques that can be successful…if used properly. I’ve compiled a few of them below for all to see.

Twitter Tip #1:

Be a good Twitter citizen. Don’t spam people with dumb links to things they probably don’t care about anyway.

Ok…now that we’ve gotten that one out of the way…now we can learn. LOL

Twitter Tip #2:

Connect with people on Twitter that share the same interests as you. A lot of times you may get requests from Twitter Spammers, or as some call them, Twammers…..BLOCK THEM….hopefully eventually they may disappear.

Twitter Tip #3:

Be courteous enough to retweet (or “RT”) other people’s blogs, websites, press releases. This will help your posts out in the long run as well and you will begin to see other tweets about your information as well.

Twitter Tip #4:

Add a retweet button to your blog. This will allow an easy avenue for those reading your blog posts to tweet your post easier than copying and pasting your url…which is always too long, so they end up having to shorten the url, which is just too much work.

Useful Plugins: Wordpress, Blogger

Twitter Tip #5:

Remember that Twitter is a Social Media site, where you are supposed to be meeting and networking with similar individuals…not just posting links without interaction. This is where your Twitterank drops…and people just stop liking you. The more you are liked…the more will follow.

Will Bing.com change the face of search?

Jun 09

jbdseoexpertsSEO basic search engine optimization, Bing.com, Google.com, local search, long tail keyword phrases, search engines, SEO, webmaster program 5 Comments

Ok SEO world…we have to talk about this…. Bing.com

I have to be honest…I like it, and I think I like it a lot. Sorry Google, I’m not jumping ship yet, but I am starting to click my Bing bookmark a bit more often. It looks good, it has new search features, but most of all…my websites index awesome on it. LOL

I am a die hard Googler, yet I have to admit that there is just something about this Bing.com. All of the blogs and posts that I’ve read so far have been pretty consistent with noting that Google will be hard to beat…and I do agree, but Bing is getting a lot of online publicity and searches are going to at least try it out.

I’ve noticed that Bing.com has implemented a webmaster program for us SEOs such as Google already has. We like this kind of thing. It gives us a sense of controlling our search engine destiny, in a way.

So what does Bing.com have to do in order to compete with Google? I guess it depends on the online searchers using these search engines. It will take quite a few million people to change there searching habits and make that switch from one giant to the newer up-and-coming one…Bing.com

Bing.com is supposed to help online searchers deal with information overload and narrow the search results for the users. This is also supposed to help searchers make better more informed decisions focusing initially on four key vertical areas: making a purchase decision, planning a trip, researching a health condition or finding a local business.

With local search becoming a bigger part of SEO along with “long tail keyword phrases“, Bing might have something here…. if it works the way it is purposed to.

I’m anxious to see where this thing goes.

SEO Mysterious

Jun 04

jbdseoexpertsSEO basic search engine optimization, Internet Marketing Firm, science, SEO, SEO firm, SEO Specialist, SEO Strategies 7 Comments

Guest Profile:

David Scoville, 23, is an SEO specialist at SEO.com. His emphasis includes conversion and on-page optimization. He is currently completing a degree in Advertising from Brigham Young University.

SEO Mysterious

I’ve sat in plenty of meetings where internet marketers rally back and forth, discussing ideas to increase search rankings. Sometimes there’s a little conflict about certain methods. One guy may think his SEO method is more effective than another. Working with such experts in the SE industry, how can there be disagreements about how a search engine works? We know that search engines are machines who think with black and white logic. However, to the average person, search engines are very mysterious.

Simply put, we don’t know the algorithm and Google is not going to tell us. That’s why search engines like Google are mysterious. Google has provided documentation about basic search engine optimization, but most of is based in common sense—none of it gives anything away about their algorithm. That leads internet marketers to guess.

Scientists use “guess and check” or the scientific method to discover new theories. SEO is a science—a man-made science. We utilize the scientific method to discover theories about how search engines work.

First, we state a hypothesis. For instance: “Google bases its rankings on bounce rate.” Then we run a series of experiments to test our hypothesis, making sure to have a proper control. Ilia from ExposedSEO.com ran an experiment about bounce rate and came up with some enlightening results. Greg Shuey from SEO.com just conducted an experiment about long tail search terms with the words “how to” and how their search rankings are affected by a company’s FAQ page. His new knowledge is stellar.

The search engine scientist (the SEO) who discovers a new theory, cries ‘Eureka’ and then takes steps to apply his/her new-found knowledge. Yes, with search engine wisdom comes great marketing power, indeed.

The wonderful (or annoying, whatever your take) thing about SEO science is that theories can change. A good internet marketing theory today may be a bad one tomorrow. Websites with stuffed keywords used to rank well in the 90s. However, as we know from further experimentation and experience, that theory no longer stands.

If search engine optimization is such a mystery, how do you know if an SEO firm is really going to be affective? Here are a few questions to ask your prospective firm.

Are they forward thinkers? Are they at the top of their industry? Do they think outside of the box? Do they consider themselves researchers, always seeking the latest theories?

How is their track record? Have they actually increased the search rankings of their clients’ websites? Have they done so recently?

I’ve met some incredible SEO experts who’ve had tremendous success. Consistent among these experts is their willingness to stay immersed in the latest SEO techniques, theories, and news. They seek to understand how search engines work and how their algorithms change.