Social Media

You’ve probably heard the term “social media” thrown around before, but do you realize that it’s more than just a platform for college students to meet other college students?

Social media, Facebook and Twitter being the big two players, has skyrocketed in business use over the past few years. For starters, it gives your business the opportunity to both get to know your customer base better and conduct free research on what exactly your customer base is in the first place. That way, you can tailor your overall marketing strategy to the demographic you know you’re actually reaching.

Additionally, Facebook and Twitter can give you the opportunity to let your customers get to know you. They are “social” media sites, after all – use your social media profiles to let some of your personality shine through and shy away from the uber-businessy talk. Be real, and your customer base will respond.

They’ll also lend you a much broader platform of people to reach with both your business and your business’ website. The more people you reach, the more people will come to you to buy your products or services. It’s quite possibly one of the easiest and least expensive (actually, free) ways to market yourself and your business to more people than you ever thought would listen to you.

You can join groups on Facebook and meet other professionals or like-minded business people that are in a similar field and network to increase your contact base. You can share blog posts that you write and tweet them across the world for broader reach. You can drive traffic to your site by linking to your own page on Facebook, maybe featuring a giveaway or special sale or something of the sort.

The possibilities for social media are potentially endless, so if you are a small business and don’t yet have a Facebook or Twitter profile, it’s a good idea to get them as soon as possible.

YouTube

Similarly to Facebook, Twitter and other social media outlets, YouTube can be a wonderful platform to reach large audiences with unique and branded video content.

YouTube is now the second largest search engine in the world, second only to Google itself, so you can imagine how many people are using this powerful tool in a day. By having unique video content that’s relevant to your brand posted on YouTube, you’re exposing your company name to all of those people using this search engine.

You optimize your website for Google and other search engines, right? Well, you can’t forget about YouTube. You want to create content and post content that is informative and entertaining, and of course relevant to what you do. Use your expertise in your field to give how to demonstrations or informational lessons. Market your products with a clever commercial.

Whatever you do, try to pay attention to production value. Generally speaking, the higher the production value of a video, the more traction it will have in YouTube. That said, it’s relatively inexpensive to shoot high-quality video yourself, or hire a small company or even a freelance videography studio to shoot and produce something for you.

Once your videos are posted, you can optimize the video title and description and use it to drive viewers back to your website. If it’s good content, people will share it with others and you’ll reach an incredible base of new, potential customers, all with a new awareness for your business and your brand.

Speaking of your brand, make sure all of your videos are clearly marked with your company name and logo, either throughout the entire video (better for informational/how to/product videos) or at the beginning and end (perfect for more commercial videos).

Pinterest

Pinterest can be an awesome tool for small businesses, especially those with something creative or visual to sort of “show off.”

Although it could technically be coined under the “social media” term, Pinterest is used in such a different way than Facebook and Twitter that it does deserve its own heading. Pinterest is really the place to go when you have visual content to share, and its power can be shocking.

It’s the third largest social media network in the world now (behind, you guessed it, Facebook and Twitter), and if you post the right kind of content on Pinterest, it can get pinned and repinned across, again, a huge platform.

The other beauty of Pinterest is that you can link your content back to your website, so that way when anyone pins or repins your content, you’ll be getting all of those links back to your site. Plus, if you cross-promote other brands and businesses, they’ll be more likely to cross-promote you in return, so it’s easy to take advantage of the massive network that Pinterest boasts.

Jackie Ryan is a freelance writer who works with many small businesses. Her advice to any small business is to use every tool you can think of – have custom logo mats created for your entryway to your office, even! If it’s creative enough to work, then work it!

3 Online Tools Every Small Business Should Be Using
708 Media - Website Design and Marketing

Prospect Boosting

However, there are several things you can do to boost your guest blogging prospects.

• Approach professionally – your pitch should cover only three things:  your qualifications to write on the subject, your pitch idea  and your target demographic (bonus, if you read their blog, say so – if you’re sure of their target demographic, make sure the article is pitched at them).
• Don’t include: Personal information about your family (unless it’s relevant to the article), a rant as to why you should be accepted, it should be spell and grammar checked and addressed to the right person  – addressing it to ‘whom it may concern’ is probably a very bad idea.
• If your article is accepted and you don’t want to write it, or can’t for any reason – definitely hire a copywriting services provider.  Don’t back out of the post, especially if it’s on a high profile blog.  Places like Huffington Post and Copyblogger are the pinnacle of blogging for guest posts, so aim high and hire a good copywriter if you can’t do it yourself.
• Create a title that speaks to your readers and include it in your pitch.  Copywriting services often cover this for business owners.  If you’re not your company’s primary writer, it’s important to look at what has been used and what works for you and your company.
• Use an article pattern that works for the information you’re sharing – Many people find that a “problem – story – solution” layout works for sharing information in industries where the main service provided solves problems.  People talking about health might offer tips.  Your article should have a point – so ensure that you’re writing with the beginning, middle and end firmly in mind.  That should allow you to deliver the on the ‘promise’ of your title.
• Formatting is your friend – ensure that you not only know what formatting they like for the blog post and use it, but ensure that you know what you’re doing.  If they ask for the posts to be formatted, by all means provide them like that.  If not, don’t worry too much – just keep it as clean as you can.

Don’t be Shy – Share!

Once the blog goes live, remember to share far and wide – it’s important to replay the opportunity they’ve given you and let your own loyal fans cross over and read your article.  It’s also important to ensure that your article is read as much as possible, so share it and post on all of your social networks.

Whether you’re advertising copywriting services, or talking about your next book, guest blogging is an opportunity waiting to happen to your business and will give you the chance to share your knowledge with people that might not otherwise have seen your work.  Don’t waste it!

Copywriting services can be integral to the success of a guest post – ensure yours works for you and gives you the best return.

Photo by jerrysgold.com

Guest Blogging and Copywriting Services
708 Media - Website Design and Marketing

Facebook QR Code Roof FAIL

This QR code looks great, however, it does not scan properly with most QR code readers. All QR codes are required to have a 4 pixel white border known as the “quiet-zone” around the QR code. This helps the QR code reader to know where the QR code ends. Because of this, the QR code is difficult to be scanned by many QR code readers. For example, my QR code reader took rotating the phone and putting the two edges that touch the building into the corner of the QR code reader’s scannable area to be able to read this QR code.

So all in all, what can be learned from this is to always remember to put your 4 pixel white space when you paint a huge QR code on the roof of your building. 

The Facebook QR Code Roof Project

It all started with Mark Zuckerburg, CEO of Facebook, announcing a “Space Hackathon”. The idea was to reinvent a space at the Facebook Headquarters. One of Facebook’s employees, Mark Pike, had an idea of putting a QR code on the roof that could be used to RickRoll people with epic proportions. The idea gained a lot of ground and went into planing. Facebook created a short URL for this QR code to allow for a smaller, simpler QR code. Building materials were also looked at and ultimately it was decided to just paint the QR code onto the roof.

At Hackathon 29, Facebook was able to gather up a bunch of engineers, designers and other to go up on the roof and create this QR code. Once finished, they used a camera attached to a remote control helicopter to take a photo of their work.

Read the entire story over on Facebook’s blog for more details to the story.

What Do You Think About This?

Post a comment below and tell us your thoughts on this project. Does it scan using your QR code reader?

Facebook Creates Rooftop QR Code That Does Not Work
708 Media - Website Design and Marketing

With QR codes growing in popularity, you want your QR code to stand out. Custom QR code designs are the new trend and a great way to make your QR codes stand out from the rest. A custom QR code design allows you to express your brand, colors and style while still using the latest in mobile technology.

Create A Custom QR Code Design The Easy Way

The easiest way to get a custom QR code design is to have someone else make it for you. There are many companies that offer a service to design QR codes for your company, however, I have found the work done by QRlicious to be some of the best. They have a quick turn around, some being less than 24 hours.

One of the best features about QRlicious is the their pricing. They offer two custom QR code design packages. The lower end package is sorta of a generator where you pick from pre defined templates, change your colors and add your logo. These designer QR codes cost between $35 and $65. The higher end package is a full blown custom QR code design. Just submit what you are looking for, your logo and brand colors and the designers at QRlicious will design a QR code for your business. This service costs $99 per QR code designed.

If you are interested in having someone else design your QR code, visit QRlicious and get yours today. Use coupon code “QRLICIOUSLOVE” to save 15% on your order.

Advanced Users: Create A Custom QR Code Design Yourself

 30% Error Correction

The key to creating a custom QR code design is the error correction. To save space, most QR codes are created at 7% error correction. This means that up to 30% of the QR code’s codewords can be restored. This means that with parts of the code being hidden by an object, such as a logo, the code can still be read by looking at other blocks within the code. This often increases the size of the QR code, so it is  recommended to use a shortened URL for your QR code to keep the data to a minimum.

Normally I recommend to use goqr.me for the creation of a QR code, however, goqr.me only does 7% error correction. For a 30% error correction, use this QR code generator.

Colors and Contrast

Most QR codes you see today are in black and white. This is because you need to have a good strong contrast between the QR code and the background. Most QR code readers can now read colors as long as the contrast between that color and the background is strong enough. This means that putting a medium green QR code on a light green background may not work for most QR codes. You can use gradients and multiple colors in your code as long as they have enough contrast against the background.

Placement of Your Logo

The big question is where to put your logo inside the QR code. This is where a little bit of knowledge of how QR codes work and lots of trial and error takes place.

Do not block the position, alignment and timing squares (item 4 in the diagram). These are used to tell the scanner how to align and position the QR code. Also, avoid blocking the version information and format information. These are used to tell the QR code reader what type of QR code it is dealing with. Any of the area in the grey (item 3 in the diagram) is the data that you can block with a logo.

The smaller the logo the better. The less data that is blocked, the better chance your QR code will be read by QR code readers. Move around the logo and test scan it with multiple QR code readers with your mobile phone. Hold your phone at different angles and different distances to see what works and what doesn’t.

Rounded QR Code Blocks and Dots

QR codes do not have to be square! Using photoshop or Illustrator, you can round out the edges of your blocks to fit your design. As with the placement of the logo, you need to test, test and test some more. I will be posting a tutorial on how to do this with photoshop at a later time and will update this article with links to the tutorial.

Show Off Your Custom QR Code Designs!

I would love to see your custom QR code designs. Please post them in the comments below and let me know if you created them or if they were created by someone else.

How To Create A Custom QR Code Design
708 Media - Website Design and Marketing

How The Scam Works

This scam is similar to many other scams, however, this scam is disguised much better. Here are the steps of the scam:

• First, you receive a recruitment email from a secret shopper service, sometimes called SS-Network. The recruiter tells you that you have been selected for an assignment as a secret shopper in your area. You will get $200-$300 dollars and will receive a packet that will have the funds for shopping. All you need to do is send them your name, address, age, occupation and an alternative email address.
• After they receive your information, you will receive another email with your instructions and a USPS tracking number. In this you will be given instructions. The instructions are listed below.
• You then will receive by mail a money order for a large amount of money. This is normally several thousand dollars. The money order looks legit. Per instructions, you are to cash this at your bank, subtract your payment ($200-$300) and then proceed to Walmart and spend $20 on any item you want.
• Now you are to survey you experience at Walmart. This is where the scammer is trying to gain your trust. Their goal is to make this secret shopping scam seem real so that you don’t expect anything.
• Your next assignment is to either send the money to another secret shopper or secret shop Western Union. You are to send the remainder of your balance to the person listed in your instruction email. Once the money is sent, you are to take note of how the service was and send them back an email letting them know your survey results as well as the transaction number.
• A few days later, or even a week later, your bank rejects the money order since they realize it is a fake and the funds are removed from your account.

The Scam Emails:

SS-Network Scam Email:

Hello Candidate,

You have been selected for assignment as a Secretshopper in your area.
You will get $200 has been a Secretshopper and your employment packet
will include funds for the shopping. Full job description will be sent to you
prior in your assignment. You will have access to training materials after
you register. Money order/Payment check would be in a certain amount
which you would be required to Cash a your Bank, deduct your salary
and have the rest used for the evaluation.

Provide the following information if you interested and we can shortly
to the next step when this one complete:

* Your Name (first/last):
* Your Physical Address:
* City, State, & Zip Code:
* A g e:
* O c c u p a t i o n:
* Alternative E-mail:

We are waiting your good response, Thank you.

(Candidate from USA & Europe are allowed to apply for this offer)

Regards,
Laurie Ridgway
Head of Recruitment
SS-Network @2012

The Instruction Email

Hello,

Below is the tracking number from WWW.USPS.COM of your first survey as a Secret shopper or you can as well track it yourself today via WWW.USPS.COM to see the delivery summary yourself,it will be delivered to you today,be on a look out for the package today and look your mailbox daily.

Tracking number :XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

You don’t have to worry,the job given to you is 100% legitimate and you have nothing to loose or worry about in working with us,we have licensed to operate as a Secret shopper within the united states,so all you have to do is to follow the instructions carefully and get back to me as soon as possible,you are to cash the money orders at your bank,deduct $300 for your salary and shop with $20 at any wal mart store.

Below is the instructions to follow;

DETAILS:
1ST survey: You will be Evaluating any Wal Mart Store in your City,cash the money order or deposit the money orders at your Bank and then Go ahead with any Wal-mart Evaluation in your area.The money order you received covers all expenditures including evaluation, shopping , transport and your compensation ( salary=$300 but you get $300 Per survey and you get 2 or More surveys Weekly ) for these surveys. You are to purchase Goods of your Choice for your own Use not more than $20, at any Wal Mart Store close to you,below is the guidelines to follow at the store;

GUIDELINES
-Name and Address of the stores
-Procedure of attendance:
-How many attendances in the outlet:
-How many minutes it took for them to attend to you:

Email me back with the above guidelines as soon as you get the survey completed.

Also you will be using Western Union services to send the balance to another Secret shopper to carry out her own survey. As a secret shopper, you should go there and study how to send money and memorize all you see at the outlet.

The reason for the western union is because our Finance department has just established a new system that you might have never heard of and it is called Alert pay,and this service is been Privately owned and established under our management since 2004 with many competitors we have a very low rating and few customers and we want to develop and upgrade our service to the best and fullest. So we only need the report you provide so we can work on our service.This is why we want you to send the balance via western union transfer in minutes so that we can test the service if it is working properly.

Please try as much to be discrete while doing your work as a Secret shopper, just observe all you see and report back when you get back home. Your next survey would be giving to you immediately you complete your first survey.

Also to further finalize this survey, you have to get back to us with the below western union transfer information for the money you sent,you are to send the money in minutes :

As a secret shopper your job is to observe any thing useful going on in the outlet.Make sure you observe everything you see in there because you would be asked some other questions when you return.So then you would go ahead and make western union transfer to another Secret shopper for another survey.

TRANSFER THE REST OF THE FUNDS THROUGH WESTERN UNION TO THE BELOW INFORMATION ;

Name: CATHY MOORE
Address: 15 AVON STREET
CITY: MALATE
STATE: MANILA
COUNTRY: PHILIPPINES
ZIP CODE : 1250

Email me the below details as soon as you get it done;

1. Senders Name and Address
2. 10 Digit Money Transfer Control Number {M.T.C.N}
3. The amount transferred after deducting western union transfer charges.
Thanks And Best Regards,
Bill Gary,
Hiring Manager
Tel:REMOVED

Many Other Secret Shopper Scam Emails:

Hello,
Congratulations, We would like to let you know that you have been selected in your area. We do have all the required details needed and we are happy to congratulate you on your new employment. So I have documented a file for you and it’s in record.

Shopper’s Guide wants you to run a survey on two prominent companies in your area.

The 1st is a WalMart Store
The 2nd is a Western Union/MoneyGram Location

A Check/Money order of between ($800 – $2,850) will be mailed out to you to carry out the Evaluation.
The funds have been calculated to cover both aspects of this survey. You will be allocated $100 for the Walmart shopping section.

All you have to do is walk into any of its location buy, buy and buy till you exhaust the money provided for this section, but you have to be in the store for at least 30 minutes, watching and taking note of everything (Remember that everything you buy is totally yours).

The management of Walmart intends to change the store’s environment, color, gift items and shopping/carrier bags etc, we are also looking into putting a stop to poor services. For these reasons we have decided to give the customers the opportunity to decide.

NOTE: You are to keep the WalMart receipt of everything you buy to the report.

There has been reports about lapses in the services of their Management and some of their staff,the complaints were based on reports which their customers forwarded anonymously and Phone calls which were also made to the Head office.The Walmart locations were reported for Evaluation and Negligence for the following reasons:

(I) Poor services
(II) Rude behaviour to customers
(III) Excess charges
(IV) Late opening time and Closing before time.

YOUR SECOND EVALUATION ( Between $600 – $2550)

The 2nd assignment Western union/MoneyGram
As you know there are Western Union/MoneyGram Outlets offering Money transfer services.
A lot of customers have reported lapses in Money transfer services in some Outlets around the U.S. Our need to act is based on reports and complaints which some customers forwarded anonymously and phone calls that were made to our head office.

Agent’s locations were reported for evaluation for the following reasons;
Slow services
Unbalanced exchange rate
Poor services
Rudeness to customers
Excess charge

YOUR EVALUATION WILL BE :

To make a transfer of funds from the location to our agent with the remaining funds after you complete your first task.Funds would be picked up by our agent at the exact location which a customer reported his/her funds missing from.

You will have to record the time at which you got to the Western union/MoneyGram Outlet and how many minutes it took you to get the service.

You will also provide us with the Name of the cashier that attended to you along with the Address of the WalMart store.

You will be paid a commission of $100 for completing both tasks. Also you will be on a basic monthly salary of $1000.00 which you will be receiving every last day of the month end. Your reports should be drafted and sent to me via email immediately the assignment has been completed.

Please remember what we are really after are the lines of Questions stated below, these are guidelines that you will lookout for during your visits to the WalMart and Western Union/MoneyGram Outlet.

GUIDELINES:-
-How long it took you to get services.
-Ambiance/ Outlook of the Shop/ Outlet.
-Name and Smartness of the attendant.
-Customer service professionalism.
-Reaction of personal under pressure.
-Information that you think would be helpful.
-Your comments and impressions.
-Your personal opinion.

Note: Please, confirm that you did received this message so that the we can process funds that would be sent to you for the assignment.You Are not required to use your money upfront for any reason. We would be sending funds for the survey.

We want your total Co-operation, Support, Availability and Trust. Please confirm(Acknowledge) receipt of this email, by writing back before we proceed further.

Please make sure you reply to this email with the following information below :
First Name
Last Name
Street Address ( NO po box pls)
City
State
Zip Code
Cell Phone Number / Home Phone Number
Age
Current Occupation:
Alternate Email Address
Days / Hours Available

Email all your information to our email: mbryancy@yahoo.ie

Thanks for your anticipated co-operation in order to start work soon.

Regards,
Michael Bryan
Evaluation Coordinator

Welcome To Our Program – Secret Shopper!

We are accepting applications for qualified individuals to become Mystery/Secret Shoppers.

Job Description:
1. You will receive funding for the assignment.
2. You will receive the Instruction for your assignment via email on the location and details of the assignment.
3. You are to complete the assignment as fast and discreetly as possible.
4. You will be asked to visit a business location to conduct business be it a restaurant, shopping store etc.

PAYMENT TERMS:
You will receive a flat sum of $200 per assignment.
The company will furnish you with all expense needed for the assignment and any other expense incurred during the course of executing your assignment.

Interested Applicants are to forward Information below:

Personal Information:
Email Address:
Full Name (First, Middle, Last) :
Phone (Home & Cell) :
Full Address (No PO BOX):
City, State, Country :
Zip Code :
Gender & Age :
Occupation :

Thank you for participation.

Best Wishes and Regards.
Regional Instructor
Secret Shopper @2012

Hello,

You have been selected for assignment as a Detective Shopper in your area, and You will get $200 being a Detective Shopper.Your employment packet will include funds for the shopping. We want you to participate because it’s fun & rewarding.

You will have access to training materials.

Provide the following details if you interested:
F u l l N a m e:
Address (NOT P.O Box):
City, State, Zip:
Occupation:
A g e:
E m a i l:
Phone Number (Cell&Home):

As a Detective Shopper You work and shop together for pleasure, and You only work 2-3 hours twice in a week.

We wait your good response, Thank You!

Regards,
Secret Shopper ®

 The Many Different Names and Titles:

Laurie Ridgway
Head of Recruitment

Michael Bryan
Evaluation Coordinator

Bill Gary
Hiring Manager

Angela Powell
Official Shopper

Peter Cullen
Secret Shopper®

David Kelly
The Mystery Shopper Team
Copyright©2012

Dr. Marine Anderson
Head Recruitment

G.A Spoon
HEAD OF RECRUITMENT
Mystery Shopper(R).

Jennifer Holmes
Head Of Recruitment

Anthony Fitzgerald

Communications & Human Resources Center, USA.
Brent Consult®
1211, Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036

Did You Receive One Of These Scams?

If you did, please post the email in the comments below if it is different than any of the ones shown above. Please remove any phone numbers or email addresses from the emails as I believe these numbers are fake and are actually phone numbers of actual people that are not involved in all of this.

SCAM: Secret Shopper, Mystery Shopper and Detective Shopper Scams
708 Media - Website Design and Marketing

Thanks everyone. One of this visitors to this site left a comment below stating they have found a website, hellofriends.com. This is part of the Hello Friend advertisements and is registered to Bright House Networks. Here are the whois search results:

   Registrant:
      Bright House Networks, LLC
      Bright House Networks LLC
      5000 Campuswood Drive
      E. Syracuse, NY 13057
      US
      Email: hostmaster@mybrighthouse.com

   Registrar Name....: CORPORATE DOMAINS, INC.
   Registrar Whois...: whois.corporatedomains.com
   Registrar Homepage: www.cscprotectsbrands.com 

   Domain Name: hellofriends.com

      Created on..............: Thu, Feb 21, 2002
      Expires on..............: Sun, Feb 21, 2016
      Record last updated on..: Fri, Feb 03, 2012

   Administrative,Technical Contact:
      Bright House Networks, LLC
      Bright House Networks LLC
      2201 Lucien Way
      Maitland, FL 32751
      US
      Phone: +1.4072155772
      Email: hostmaster@mybrighthouse.com

   DNS Servers:

   ns2.mybrighthouse.com
   ns1.mybrighthouse.com

Previous Update: My Research Says Hello Friend is Bright House Networks

The Hello Friend Ads are from Bright House Networks based off my research. After posting this article, my blog received a large number of visitors from search engines. Using our website analytics, I was able to break down the traffic by state and city. I found that most of my traffic was coming from a few specific areas and was not nationwide. Most of the traffic was from the Central Florida area. The other highest traffic were from Detriot, Michigan; Indianapolis, Indiana; Bakersfield, California and Atlanta, Georgia. If you compare the those locations to the areas that Bright House serves, you will see that those are almost all of their locations. The only outlier is the Hello Friend ads in Atlanta, Georgia. My guess is that Bright House may be moving into that territory in the near future.

Original Article

You have seen it on a billboard, you have heard them on the radio and you have seen them on TV. What are these “Hello Friend” advertisements all about? Well, I am the kind of friend that will try to tell you what these ads are, even if I do not actually know for sure. But I am the type of friend that will show you the different theories around the web on these, just because, well that is the kind of friend I am. Hello Friend.

The Hello Friend TV Ads

I have looked around YouTube and came across a two “Hello Friend” TV commercials. Here they are below:

In the Orlando area, I have found many of these ads to be on during local programming, such as the news. This would normally lead me to believe that this is not a national campaign but a local one. There have been a few reports of other locations seeing these same ads.

Hello Friend Billboards and Radio Commercials

Hello Friend Billboards

I first saw these ads on TV, however, just a few days later I started to notice billboards that said “Hello Friend” and even a billboard that stated “We would give you dibs on the last slice of pizza” written in white on a blue background with the yellow Hello Friend swoosh under it.

I will work on taking some photos of the known billboards this week and post them on this article.

Hello Friend Radio Commercials

These are similar to the TV advertisements. In these, they explain an awkward situation then state that they are the kind of friend that will help you or that will be there for you. The commercials end with that iconic male voice saying, “Hello Friend”.

The Theories of the Hello Friend Ad Campaign

There are may theories running wild on the web about these advertisements. My theory is that these advertisements are lead/teaser ads for a product or service that will be launched in the near future. With the Superbowl only a few weeks away, it is possible that these ads are leading the way for the announcement of this product or service. Superbowl ads are some of the most watch tv ads all year. This would be the best time to reveal what Hello Friend is all about.

The Bright House Networks Hello Friend Theory (Most Likely Confirmed)

This is an interesting theory that is by far the most popular one out there. Many have come to believe that these ads are for Bright House Networks or a Bright House Networks service based on the colors. One person even stated that he called Bright House Networks asking about the Hello Friend ads and the Brighthouse marketing department confirmed it. If the idea is to keep everyone talking, no marketing department would confirm or own up to these ads. You also have a few people that state on Yahoo Answers that they work for Bright House Networks and they state it is true. I mean, really, I believe everyone on the internet is who they say they are, don’t you?

The colors alone are not enough proof to go off for me. I have done my own research and based of the locations that these Hello Friend ads are being shown tell me that this is most likely true. See my update at the top of this page.

The Mormon Church Hello Friend Theory

A few theories were running around that it was the Mormon church stirring up some buzz. Again, no proof to this.

Amazon, Vonage, Florida Tourism even Aliens!

So the swoosh reminds some of the Amazon smile logo. The colors remind some of the Vonage logo along with the words being the first thing you may say in a telephone call, “Hello, friend”. The inviting nature of the ads lead some to even believe that these Hello Friend ads are for Florida tourism.

No True Facts

We can all guess at what we think Hello Friend really means, but the truth is, only a few know and they will not be talking. The rest of us, well were left talking about this until it is revealed to us.

Where Is Hello Friend Being Advertised?

Part of this mystery is trying to find out where people have been spotting these Hello Friend advertisements. Although not scientific, I can tell you where traffic to this page is coming from. My assumption is that most that visit this page are seeing these Hello Friend ads and asking what they are. That is what brought you to this page, correct?

As of the 11:30 AM EST on January 29th, 74.65% of the visitors to this page are from Florida. That is followed by 5.53% from Michigan, 4.61% in Georgia and 3.23% in California. This data shows that most of the people that are seeing these ads are most likely in Florida.

Please let us know in the comments below where you are seeing the Hello Friend ads. There have been rumors that the Hello Friend ads are being shown in California as well.

Other Hello Friend Sources

Here are other places that are talking about the Hello Friend advertisements:

Hellofriend commercials?
so i always see these commercials that say nothing but a short video of something then it has the words “hellofriend”. what is the commercial of? i tried to look it up but nothing came up!

See Yahoo Question 

What the heck are all these “Hello Friend” ads FOR?I live in central Florida and lately there have been these short TV ad spots having some random person (a little girl hanging upside down on monkey bars, a guy making pizza) saying “hello friend”. Then the screen turns blue and there’s a logo that simply says “hellofriend” in white text with some kind of tiny swoosh mark under it.

I tried Googling and came up with pretty much zilch. I’d check Wikipedia, but, ha, SOPA/PIPA protest, so, that’s out (not to mention, the cached snippets that turned up in the Google search didn’t look promising anyway).

See Yahoo Question 

What is the commercial “Hello.Friend” about?
It doesn’t specify anywhere on the commercial what it’s about, and has an eerie whistleing at the end of the commercial. Anybody know? Coudn’t find anything online about it at all.

See Yahoo Question 

Why Would Someone Spend Money To Not Advertise A Product

This is a big question I have seen floating around. There is no doubt that this Hello Friend commercial, the Hello Friend billboards and the Hello Friend radio commercials are costing someone a fortune to run. Many are wondering why a company would send this type of money and not let you know what the ad is.

Well, the answer is simple. You took notice of this ad. I know you took notice because you have came to my website most likely through a search engine. You either saw a Hello Friend commercial on TV, heard a Hello Friend radio ad or you drove by a Hello Friend billboard on your way to work this morning. Think of all the advertising you have seen today. Will you be talking about it at work? Are you Googling those advertisements? Are you wanting to know more about those products? My guess is no.

The Hello Friend ad campaign is a great form of marketing. By flooding the market with ads that leave you guessing, many are paying closer attention, trying to figure out this product or service. Once Hello Friend does their big reveal, you will pay attention to that product or service.

Take a look at the iPhone 5. Do you notice Apple never reveals much information about product until it just about ready to go on sale? They do this to build the hype. Everyone wants to know what it is so they start searching the internet high and low. Hello Friend has done just that. This will be an ad campaign that you will be talking to your friends and co-workers about until a few weeks after the big Hello Friend reveal.

To the marketing team or ad agency that came up with this Hello Friend campaign, Congratulations. You built product awareness perfectly. I just hope your product or service is worth all the hype.

Help Us Figure This Out!

In the comments section below, share your theories of what you think these Hello Friend advertisements are all about.

Hello Friend TV Advertisements, Billboards and Radio Commercials
708 Media - Website Design and Marketing

As the 2012 political season approaches, many candidates are turning to technology to campaign this year. With 1 in 2 Americans having smartphones, using QR codes for political campaigns is picking up.

What Are QR Codes?

QR code is short for “Quick Response” code. A QR code is a unique looking barcode (pictured at the right) that can be scanned with a camera or mobile phone and translated into a website address, text, contact information, etc. QR code readers can be downloaded to most phones including Android, iPhone and Blackberries. What makes QR codes different than a normal barcode is the fact that a normal barcode can only hold up to 20 digits and a QR code can hold over 7,000 characters and digits.

How to Make A QR Code For Political Campaings

Create a Mobile Friendly Campaign Landing Page

When you scan a QR code, you have several options such as displaying a block of text, showing a vCard or sending users to a website. In most cases, you will choose to send them to a website. The first step in setting up your campaign QR code is to create a mobile friendly landing page for the code to take users to.

For your campaign landing page, you will want to provide all the details of your political campaign in a layout optimized for small mobile phone screens. Sending people to your full website is not recommended as it will be difficult for them to navigate and read your site. Be sure to include your social media like and follow buttons as well as signup sections for your email newsletter. The key is to create a connection to your site visitors.

Check out my article on creating a mobile friendly landing page for more details and some great tools.

Create the QR Code

Creating your QR code is quick, simple and free. Just visit http://goqr.me/ and select what you would like to create. For most, you will be using URL or vCard if your creating a QR code business card. When using a URL, you will need to specify the web address, which should be the page you created above. You can also link to a YouTube URL if you would like to have a video play on their mobile device.

Where to Use QR Codes For Political Campaigns

There are many great ideas for using QR codes for political campaigns. I will go over a few simple ideas below.

QR Codes on Campaign Yard Signs and Other Signs

A great place to start printing your QR codes is on your campaign yard signs, bilboards and any other campaign signage. For best results, place the QR codes on signs that will either receive a lot of foot traffic or at a location where vehicles will be in a stopped postion. This is because you wouldn’t want your voters running off the road trying to drive and scan your sign. Use these codes to send them to your mobile friendly QR code landing page where you can explain your platform and pass along your message.

Be sure to have a proper sized QR code so that your intended audience will be able to read this. If your QR code is on a sign that will be seen for a distance, make sure it can be scanned at the distance.

QR Codes on Political Mailers and Flyers

Another great use of QR codes would be on your mailers and flyers. Use QR codes to take them to a website with more information on the subject of that particular document. Be sure to use a call to action to encourage the reader to scan the QR code. This can easily be done by using a statement such as, “scan to find out more about x subject”.

QR Codes on Political Television Advertisements

Placing QR codes on your political television ads can be tricky but effective if done right. What makes this tricky is the fact that televisions come in all shapes, sizes and resolutions. The key is to size your QR code so that it can be scanned from an average sized television. You will need to be sure to test this ahead of time to make sure it scans correctly. Be sure to use short web addresses for these QR codes in order to keep the size and complexity of the QR code low. Also, timing is a key factor. The QR code should be displayed through the entirety of the advertisement. This gives a viewer the time to pull out their phone and scan your code.

Use these QR codes to point viewers to facts stated in your political ad. This is a great way to provide more details to the viewers without spending extra cash on more airtime.

Ways to Use QR Codes in a Political Campaign
708 Media - Website Design and Marketing

Ask not what you can do for your SEO software, but what your SEO software can do for you.

Why? Money.

Proper SEO can be a huge financial advantage for any business, especially a small business. SEO tools can help you optimize your website and increase its performance much more efficiently than doing all the work yourself.

In Google’s Internet, an Internet where search results can be measured in dollar signs, your page rank is your status. A high page rank drives traffic, customers and monetization. If Google has assigned a low page rank, your traffic, profits, and company will suffer.

Making sure your internal SEO is as Google-friendly as possible is the first step to ranking higher.  If you make it difficult for Google to crawl your site or have other common problems like broken links or HTML syntax errors, then fixing these should be a first priority.

SEO software includes site analysis features to ensure that your site presents Google with the best, error free internal structure and keyword features that allow you to optimize your outreach campaigns while keeping an eye on your competitors.  You need SEO software that has the right features to do the job.

Some key features to look for are:

Keyword Targeting Assistance: Instead of doing all the tiresome keyword research on your own, SEO software can do extensive research with faster and more in-depth results.  These features include keyword density analysis, Return on Investment (ROI) prioritization, and keyword rank tracking.

Competition Analysis: Discovering competitors, especially new ones in your niche is an important feature.  Furthermore, the best software will help you analyze these competitors’ SEO strategies including the keywords they are targeting and their site architecture.

Bad Link Removal and HTML Validation: Dead links and HTML errors can hurt your page rank.  The proper software will allow you to find these throughout your site.  Once again, internal optimization is key and should be a priority for any website.

Website Auditing: To go a step further in internal SEO, a site audit will look through your site and propose suggestions to help you increase your rankings.  This is a great way to discover new opportunities to improve your site.

By finding software with these features, you will be able to ensure that your website is error free and as Google-friendly as possible.  You will also be able to target the right keywords to reach your intended audience and use your competitions’ strategy to help you position yourself advantageously.

Getting your website properly oriented to Google’s Internet is key to a successful online venture. Always look for the best SEO software that will scale with the size of your business and that includes the features you need most.  With proper basic SEO practices, you’ll be on your way to more traffic, customers, and monetization.

For other software to make your small business a little more manageable, be sure to check out more unbiased and data-driven comparisons of accounting software, project management software, and CRM software at FindTheBest.

The Best Features of SEO Software
708 Media - Website Design and Marketing

What can social media platforms bring to your SEO?

Platforms such as twitter offer you the perfect way to connect with other bloggers on a flexible basis. Not only can you follow professionals in your field via twitter and receive inspiration for your own site from their tweets, but you can also connect with colleagues with ease. Twitter functions as a great platform to assist the development of your content and if you want to use your followers as a sounding board for your ideas then this is a great way to interact with your colleagues. If you are producing quality content on your blog on a regular basis, then make sure to auto-tweet your articles to maximize their reach, the better the article, the more chance that it is shared by followers on Facebook or re-tweeted on twitter. This “hype” ensures more backlinks to the original source of the article – your website.

But the key to SEO success on twitter is reciprocity. You absolutely need to re-tweet articles from your followers and engage with their debates, questions or polls. Social SEO is a two-way street after all.

How can Social Media improve the quality of your backlinks?

This may sound strange, but if you procure a guest author spot on a prestigious online magazine within your field, then with social media you can actually improve the quality of any backlinks that you have placed within your article or within your author profile. Articles placed on high ranking blogs will be indexed faster, and backlinks that receive a high level of traffic will also bring you more link juice than backlinks that are not actively clicked on. So how can you increase traffic to your guest articles easily? Well through social media of course! By pushing through social media any high-quality guest articles you acquire, then the growth in traffic (and increased number of clicks on your backlinks) will maximise the link juice that you receive from these backlinks. The Google Panda update now actively searches for links that are clicked many times, because it takes this increased traffic as a sign of confidence and quality in your website, thus increasing your SERP results.

Using social media to find guest blogging opportunities

With twitter, there are many ways in which you can gain knowledge about your chosen field and follow the most authoritative blogs. However, with tweet-deck you can easily set-up some specific twitter channels in order to find blogs that you would like to procure a guest author spot on. You can find interesting content and negotiate with the blogger in question if they would be open to receiving some more unique and fresh content from you. Some blogs will actively seek out guest authors in order to diversify their content, so you should make a note to follow any channels with the hash tags #guest author or #guest blogs.

The effect of Google Plus

Up until last year tweets were integrated into Google search results thus enhancing the SEO worth of using twitter. However, with the break between Google and twitter back in August, Google +1 now plays an increasing role in the determination of your SERP results. If you integrate a Google +1 button onto your blog articles then this allows readers to share your content, thus ensuring that your pages rank higher in search results. This is because Google is actively ranking webpages higher if they have a large number of Google +1’s and will also artificially show these pages to a web-user in their search result if the contacts and fellow Google + users of this web-user have “plussed” this page.

This is a just a collection of tips and tricks that should help you best utilize your existing and future social media efforts for SEO. If you’re focused on creating top-notch content for readers and visitors to your page, then learn to make the best of your content and boost your SERP results with an effective social media push.

Author: I’m Robert from twago, Europe’s largest online platform for freelancers working on projects in the fields of SEO, programming, web design, graphic design and copywriting. I’m a long-boarding enthusiast from Berlin who believes in spreading the word about the benefits that social media interaction and authoritative content can bring to your SEO.

Image: Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How to boost your SEO efforts with Social Media
708 Media - Website Design and Marketing

The concept: Start focusing on blogs

The first step to developing a combined successful writing/SEO strategy is to choose a specific keyword that your website or services revolve around and start researching for bloggers who are writing on this topic. From a simple Google search, to doing a search on twitter or Google Plus and following the advice of colleagues in your field, there are many ways to find blogs with which you can start collaborating. The main point is that Google loves blogs due to their sociability, unique content and personal touch. The better the blog is, the higher the likelihood that many people have linked to it based on the strength of its content thus its value as a place to grant you a backlink increases. Focusing on blogs is also great because you do not have to generate hundreds of backlinks before you start seeing some results, typically you can start seeing a rise in your SERP results after a few dozen links from quality blogs. Plus with every article you write, you’re giving yourself a PR boost by marketing your services and skills through the sharing of your expertise.

The crucial point: Being open and collaborative

You may think that targeting blogs for links is A, simple and B, stuffing links into an article. What many people don’t realise is that your primary motivation for being in contact with other bloggers is to provide interesting, thought-provoking and unique content to the readers of other blogs through entertaining and well-written guest articles. Any SEO benefit that you can get should be an after-thought. Nevertheless, there are a couple of do’s and don’ts that you should always keep in mind:

Do’s;

• Do your research – look at the topics on the site and make sure to pitch an article that you know is likely to be well-received by the readers of the blog.
• Collaborate with the blogger on the exact topic and be open to any feedback and changes that they suggest
• Write original, fresh and punchy content.
• Explore any opportunities for the blogger in question to feature on your blog as a guest writer. Remember that guest writing is a partnership and it always pays to return the favour!
• Be social, follow the blogger in question via other social media channels such as Facebook and twitter in order to keep up to date with their output.
• Engage and stay connected: make sure you maintain the relationship, come back and put comments on other articles, share the bloggers articles.

Don’ts;

• Don’t write an advertising piece that waxes lyrical about how great your service/product is.
• Do not stuff your article with tens of links to your website. If you write a quality piece then most bloggers would be happy to allow you a link or two back to your website.
• Don’t write a boring 4 page essay; keep your article precise and easy to digest.

Guest articles: The human side of SEO

The best thing about a White-Hat SEO strategy such as writing guest articles is that it gives you the perfect opportunity to share your experience and knowledge with others. It can give you a real buzz to know that your articles are giving advice to other freelancers or professionals in your field, and you never know, maybe your musings will lead them down a new path they might never have thought of before. It’s pretty hard to beat that kind of feeling. Plus, through blogging collaborations you actually interact with real people, this beats sitting in a cramped office all day leaving hundreds of anonymous blog comments!

It’s always important to keep in mind that Google is placing a stronger emphasis on content and has been cracking down on spurious linking practices for years. So please avoid websites that offer hundreds and thousands of links like the plague. Inject some pride into your SEO and start sharing your thoughts and talents through guest articles, by building up a reputation for yourself and acquiring some genuine backlinks along the way based on the quality of your content. Plus, you’ll enjoy yourself much more knowing your SERP results will rise based on above-the-board, social methods!

Author: Robert from twago, a musician, writer and long-boarding enthusiast from Berlin who specialises in spreading the word about the human side of SEO.

Image: vegadsl / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Boost Your SEO Through Blogging
708 Media - Website Design and Marketing